With newfound power, Big Mac threw open their wings, sending the winged muffins flying in all directions. It was time to battle, and they were full of the might needed to do it. Big Mac had no hesitation to spare in coming to the defense of Ponyville and the greater Equestria beyond it. They would not allow the Tantabus to leave the dream.

The battle was magnificent, and everypony lent a hoof. On some level, how could they not? They were a dream, and if a pony couldn't give it their all in the safety of a dream, where could they?

But all battles ended ultimately. One had to wake up from dreams, eventually. It was simply the nature of things. What Big Mac didn't expect was to open her eyes and see what she saw. Before her, Big Mac, the original Big Mac. He slumbered peacefully and quietly on a bed, chest raising and falling in the still symphony of the night.

But there she was, Princess Big Mac, watching him with enormous eyes. Somehow, she had woken up and was still dormant. The figure before her was clearly her, still asleep, but so too was the form she was in. She was an alicorn, a princess! She could feel the power in her wings and in her horn, waiting to be called upon, to smite evil and bring justice where there had been none.

But it wasn't just a dream. It wasn't just a passing fancy. "Nope..." She was an alicorn. She was likewise a female. A quick peek confirmed this uncontroversial fact. She was... "A princess." It was a harsh whisper, stepping back away from her sleeping body. "Ah'm a princess!" It was hard to miss the hints, if one could even call them that. She was still a large pony, wide and strong, but also just as clearly female in every way.

Breathing hard, she looked to an apple she, he? He had left it for her to find. The disconnect between the two was confusing, but she looked at her male form, anyway. They were both her, but separate? She felt... like that. She was that sleeping pony, but she was also her unique thing.

She wanted the apple, and it came to her. Her horn grabbed it with its magic and pulled it over as if she was born with it. Perhaps she had been? She couldn't prove it or not, but the apple tasted just as sweet and crunchy as she had imagined it. Was eating in dreams possible? Was she even asleep? The sleeping Big Mac was still snoring quietly, lost to the world.

"Has to be." There was no other reason that made sense to her. She was dreaming of being an alicorn princess with a great big crown and a jeweled necklace. She just had to be.

She took a slow breath and climbed up onto the bed. There was solely one solution that came to mind.

She went right back to sleep.

He woke to a start, the bright sun of the morning shining through his window. The dreams of the night before, easily forgotten.

He was a stallion, as he always had been. There was work to do, and he was set on getting it done. "Ayup."

Getting a lot of work done made Big Mac pleased with himself. He got to eat a good meal made by Granny Smith and with fatigue, but a good kind, he went to his room. A pity there was already a pony on his bed. Big Mac swallowed back his startled sound instead of alerting the entire house. There, slumbering, was his female counterpart.

How had he not seen her? Did she sneak in? That seemed unlikely... He had rushed out the morning in his hurry to get to work and forget the oddness that had visited him the evening before. He had just missed his visitor. "Nope." He reached out and poked at her gently, which turned quickly to more firm nudges and shoves.

But she would not awaken. She barely made little noises of discomfort at the attempts and was still asleep. Big Mac had a big problem on his hooves and had did not know to even approach it. He looked over the pony who was him, if he had been born a she, with wings, and a horn.

She was wearing a crown on her head with a big apple on it, and a jeweled work collar much like his own, though he had fewer adornments. Big Mac reached out to feel along one of her wings. It was soft and long and didn't belong on a Big Mac. Was she a Big Mac? What else was she? He was in her head.

He was without words or ideas, but he was tired from a long day. With a soft grumble, Big Mac crawled up next to his doppelgänger and flopped out.

The princess awakened with widely spread wings and a scramble to her hooves. "Ah can't stay here." Talking felt safer when doing it as a female. She was not Big Mac, not entirely, and the promises he made didn't entirely apply to her.

She hurried to a window and nuzzled it open as gently as she could. With a glance back at the sleeping form of her male half, she launched out of it and took flight. That she could fly at all was a miracle all on its own, but the less she thought about it, the easier it seemed to be.

With folding wings, she landed at the only light she had seen in the sleepy village. It was a singular house that held a single pony, maybe two? She inclined her head at it with consideration before knocking gently. "anypony at home?"

The music inside paused its rhythmic thumps. Hoof steps were coming closer and a magic aura wrapped around the door, casting it wide open to reveal a unicorn with her head bopping to the music as if it had never paused.

She had found Vinyl Scratch doing her curious work. "Hello."

"Hey." Vinyl looked the female Big Mac over with her guarded eyes, making following their motions quite hard in the gloomy lightning of the evening. "Need anything?"

"Ayup..." Big Mac pointed to herself. "Ah'm a princess."

"Yep," agreed Vinyl. It was hard to argue with the facts in front of her. "Need anything... your liege?"

Big Mac blushed at the title assigned to her. "Ain't here to boss ponies around. More lost as anythin' else. Can ah... help?"

"Good to hear." Vinyl leaned forward, her head bobbing to the music only she could hear through her big headphones. "So are you a cool princess, like Luna?"

"Yeah!" Like Luna! Even partially dream powered, sort of... "Ready to make thin's right."

"Make things right..." Vinyl looked left and right slowly. "This town's asleep." She pointed up towards the mountain. "Canterlot. You want to be there. They got things going at all times. You'll like it there. Or Baltimare... Or Manehattan. Any of the big cities is better than Ponyville, where the only pony awake right now is me." She inclined her head faintly. "If you want to stop by one of my shows, that'd be cool."

"Right, yes." She had a target! "Thank you!" She put out a hoof and easily wrapped it around a cooperative neck. Soon the two were hugging gently, but it ended quickly. Vinyl had things to get to, and so did Big Mac. She crouched down and hurled herself into the sky in search of adventure.

Vinyl watched the receding form of Big Mac. "Totally crazy." With a shaking head, she closed the door.

As promised, Canterlot was a lot busier. Perhaps more surprising was how quickly she had reached it. It was a long distance to go, but it passed in the blink of an eye.

Big Mac perked an ear at a yelp and descended to see a mugger approaching a quivering stallion.

"Give up your bits." He slapped a heavy rock-filled bag against a hoof. "Or I'll beat it out of you."

"Please, don't!"

It was all that Big Mac needed to see. She jumped down between the two from her vantage point on the roofs.

"Somepony else wants to give their savings?" The mugger turned on her with a scowl.

"Nuh-uh." She wheeled around away from him. "Ain't letting ya."

"Yer facin' the wrong way." The mugger laughed as he came closer with the sap raised high. "Lemme help."

His approach stopped with two hooves against his chest, sending the grizzled pony flying away with a rough cry.

The pony that was being mugged fled with a yelp right down the alleyway.

The attacker pulled himself out of the mess of trash. "Big mistake! Usin' earth pony tricks on me like that'll solve everythin'!"

But she had more than powerful hooves, apple forged as they were. Her horn glowed its off-green as she brought in abandoned coils to ensnare the stallion. "Ya stay right there!"

"Hold it right there!" guards were just showing up in a crowd of four of them. Three of them were approaching Big Mac, peering at her suspiciously.

"He's ready to be taken away." She didn't stay to chat with them, instead launching away on powerful wings.

It was a fine night to meet ponies and stop crime! She did plenty of both. "Call me Orchard Blossom."

At least one pony had just asked and wasn't in the middle of running away from other dangers. "Nice to meet you, Miss Blossom."

But the day was approaching and she knew that Big Mac, the male version, had to get up and get to work. "This was fun an' all, but..." She found an out of the way little corner to curl up comfortably in and sleep came for her quickly.

"Sister." Celestia looked up over the rim of her newspaper. "Something is going on during your time."

"My time." Luna snorted with indignation. "I am monitoring ponies diligently. Nightmares are being controlled, and it... isn't that." She didn't specify what 'that' was. "It can't be my fault!"

"I didn't say it was your fault." Celestia turned the paper with her magic, offering it towards Luna. "Have a look."

Luna's eyes swept left and right. "I... see... Unknown princess shows up in Canterlot." She raised a hoof to her chin. "They harmed little, but we can't allow that sort of thing."

"It cannot." Celestia slapped the paper down. "They went by the name of 'Orchard Blossom'. Does that ring any bells?"

Luna's eyes widened. It brought a few things to mind. "It can't be... I will check, to be sure." She drained the rest of her coffee in a few great slurps. "I'll get back to you when I know for sure."

"I trust you will." She leaned forward, and they shared nuzzles gently. "I'm not blaming this on you, sister."

"I know you aren't." Luna drew back, chomping her breakfast pancake, prepared by her sister whether or not she was in the mood for it. "But this is important. Consider me on the task!"

Celestia sipped from her tea with a great deal less hastiness to her actions. "Finish your breakfast first and you can chase this down afterwards."

She held Luna from retreating by the simple request for civility that Luna obeyed. "Very well, sister mine. I will eat your pancakes and only then set off to discover the source of this cryptic mare."

"I should know of any new princesses." Celestia raised a brow at Luna. "Barring another born one, which this is clearly not. Who else do you think could have... Do you think they walked themselves through the astral? To take those ultimate steps is quite upsetting, to describe it in the kindest of lights. Having a pony there to escort them is practically a requirement."

Luna tapped at the table impatiently. "This is for me to discover!"

Author's Note

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