Simplified

Years ago, there was a great disaster called the Necro-Terrorist Incident. The one they refer to as the necro-terrorist was none other than a megalomaniac necromancer looking to spread his influence around one world, all while looking to subjugate another. And as one who deals in necromancy, he takes the deceased and uses them in a myriad of cruel and unequine manners. Much of his cruelty have been noted in records stretching to as far back as almost five hundred years before his final expiration date.

To this day, all the affairs of his personal doings are often locked away behind strict security clearances, many of which require a level four access to even touch, much less opening the files and reading them. Some files are set to a tiered schedule of declassification, predicated on the intersectionality they have to that of the then royal family and members of the guard. But the accounts of lesser victims are so widely discussed that they simply enshrine it in the museum in the Corrotto District. And to this day, the one responsible has yet to even be named in any of the documents. Even the court documents have redacted the name of the accused party, mainly on the account that court records are for public viewing.

But with all of that said, why is it so damn hard to find any information about this Jasper guy?

There's nothing in the Canterlot records, nothing in the library about the humans other than their achievements, trades, technological influences, and their existence. Records outside of the six humans who saved their world and ours, they're virtually nonexistent. This Jasper guy clearly stated he was here in the city, and yet there's no record of him even showing up, much less existing. But then again, that's all on the surface level. Maybe it's time I look a little deeper.

Leaving the castle checkpoint, I guide the others to a fairly dark and inconspicuous alley, namely filled with a bunch of junk and crates storing goods for the nearby businesses. The others follow close behind me, showing confusion over our sudden turn to the narrow void between the local businesses and the towering parapets of the castle's keep.

After all of the dead ends we endured up till now, patience is starting to wear thin on some. "You'd think that whatever information there is about this would be stashed away in the castle. So why are we here in some dark alleyway?" Silverstream questions.

"Can't say I'm too familiar with what's over here specifically that needs our attention." Gallus, who's a member of the guard, has seemingly been left unaware of what I'm to show them.

"That's because it looks like there's nothing here, doesn't mean that there's nothing here." I inform the griffon, checking both ways to see if we're being followed.

"Wait, no way. Is this some sort of secret passageway into the castle?" He asks, becoming slightly less skeptical.

"Few know of it. Twilight told me about it way back when." I answer quietly before placing my claw against the tall battlement. I whisper a silent chant. "I am the mare who arranges the blocks."

Suddenly, the firm and unmoving structure gave way to a swirling blue portal that appeared to sink into the infinite nothingness. I bow my head and gesture the others to enter. "Okay, that's new." Gallus praises as his significant other darts past him to enter the portal.

"Ooh this is gonna be so exciting!" She says just before disappearing to the other side. The others follow after her, while I check one last time to see if there's anyone else following. After confirming, I slide through and join the others in the dark hallway.

As I take the first step forward, blue flames erupt beside us in an enchanted torch. I go on to warn the others of this going to be a recurring thing. "It's a bit eerie, the halls light up by themselves as you pass. Don't mind it too much." I say as I look ahead to the portal leading to the next room.

"Okay. This is creepy." Smolder comments.

Ocellus doesn't seem to mind the atmosphere much, a stark contrast to the others. "Dark cavernous halls, sparse lighting elements, almost feels like home before we all swapped up our identity."

We walk through the portal on the opposing end of the hall, being brought to a tall room with an abundance of bookshelves. The torches nearby show the same color of flame, but they appear to also give a more natural light than that of the hall we just left from.

"So where are we?" Gallus asks, looking around the room.

I start to look around as I answer his question. "An underground basement of the castle. The royal family used to meet here to discuss legal plans, counteroffensives, and host clandestine love affairs."

Silverstream laid herself across the desk at the center of the room, appearing to tease her boyfriend more than anything else. "So basically, somepony at some point must've fucked on this table?"

While the griffon's eyes widened at her proposal, I roll my eyes and keep searching the shelves for the information I want. "I don't know. Frankly, I don't care."

Gallus gives the desk a few shoves to check it's stability. Despite it's dusty appearance, it shows more resiliency than the griffon shows discipline around his girlfriend. "Seems pretty solid to me."

"Oh yeah, they got nasty in here." Smolder jokes.

While the group is still on the part where I mentioned royal love affairs, I continue to scour the shelves for the information based on what we can find on the humans. But out of a hunch, I begin to think about some of the circumstances the one named Jasper spoke of. And since it had something to do with the former captain, I figure it would come up in some of his records. So I change my search for anything having any record of what might have happened to him instead. "Um... no, no, no... that one."

I pull out a heavy book cross-referencing any and all of the previous captain's doings. I place the heavy tome on the table where the others gather, going straight for the table of contents. "What... is that?" Ocellus asks, amazed by the sound of the book's impact, and equally disgusted by all the dust it kicked up.

"Account of victims from the necro-terrorist incident, apparently. It carries the records of every creature that has been terrorized, mutilated, or directly affected by the incident seven years ago. I figured it would have some information about the former captain."

"That's a thick ass book." The changeling points out.

"There's a lot of victims. And since necromancy was the play, there's a lot of nasty stuff in here too." I say as I skim the page for the topic of my inquiry. "Let's see... Okay, 'Humans' on page 14. Guess they really wanted to get that part out of the way." I mutter, relieved that I don't have to go tabbing for page numbers. The preamble to the section covers five key names. "Hmm... Brewer, Haines, Santaña, Stoudemire, Wembley."

"That human ghost said the last captain killed him. Maybe we can start from there?" Ocellus suggests.

"Way ahead of you." I say as I flip to the figure of our topic, only to find a bunch of black bars impeding much of the text on the page. "Huh... his whole section's been blacked out." I flip through a few more pages, his subtopic being the thickest and most detailed of the bunch. All to no avail. "Damn, ain't shit readable but his name."

"Here, let me do something real quick." The changeling pulls out her phone and turns on her flashlight. She places the light against the back of the page in hopes of seeing something through them. But they appear just as opaque as they did before. "Nope, ink's too dark." She sighs in disappointment.

"Well either way, we can just narrow things down." I state, trying to look back at some of the other subtopics. "So I know one off the rip. Brewer is the name of the human female, I remember that much. Santaña is her husband now." I look to the next available name. "Stoudemire is the darker skin one, he's over in another world now." By default, I already go by the name I also know fairly well. "All the Haines' are brothers, Alex, Stanton, and Nondis, the latter's report being completely redacted."

"And he's the one we needed to look at the most." Ocellus grumbles. "Bummer."

"But that leaves one more we haven't gotten to. This one named Wembley." I start flipping over to the section with that name.

"Who's Wembley?" Smolder asks. "What kind of name is that?"

"No clue." I answer as I come across the first line of the section. A revelation hits me right there as the name reads out in the first sentence. "Ah, okay! So the guy's name is Jasper Wembley."

"JACKPOT!" The changeling shouts excitedly.

Another revelation also hits me as the name resonates even louder in my mind. "You know what, it's odd to think about that name because when I hear 'Jasper', I think of the little kid belonging to Melanie and Rickey." The others look at me with confusion as to who I was referring to. "Oh yeah, you guys know them by their equine names. Cherry Balm, Strapping Lad, and their son Jasper. They're two of the heroes from seven years ago, and also the residential human family in Ponyville."

"Oh." Smolder nods slowly. "Wait, why didn't we start with them?"

I want to give an answer, but find myself being stupefied over my own short-sightedness. "...Yeah, you have a point. Why didn't we start there?"

"We're here now, so let's get back to the present." Gallus interjects. "So what's this guy's deal?"

I start to read on the mentioned human's report, seeing a lot of shady details that could be better explained other than the way they have it depicted in the book. "Apparently abducted from the human world... surprise there. Says here that he was forced into a battle-to-the-death in an underground arena... located in the Corrotto District. He caused serious bodily injury to the captain at the time, dislocating a shoulder, breaking an arm... Holy fuck, stabbing the captain's hand too? This guy was fucking hardcore!"

"Wow, he did some serious work to do that to the last captain." Gallus says as he hovers over the page to read more. "Like seriously, we thought the last captain was damn near immortal. He could punch a brick and the brick would howl in pain, if it didn't shatter from the first blow."

"It also says it's the first time a conflict of two humans have ever been witnessed in Equestria." I read aloud. "The final cause of death seems to be attributed to blood loss. All caused by the rupture of the aorta chamber by means of a knife plunged deep in the chest."

"Wow. Return to sender." Gallus says with quiet amazement. "I knew that guy was immortal."

I go on reading. "Motive was noted to be self-defense. Well that's obvious. State of retrieval... eugh."

"What?" Silverstream asks.

"Heavily embalmed in a refrigerated formaldehyde solution specialized to maintain the consistency and functionality of blood. The part after that is blacked out." I move the book away, admitting that we wouldn't get any further. "There would be a whole record of those who were labeled as 'retrieved', but this one is oddly redacted."

Ocellus tries her hoof on the page again, using the same method. This time she points out a slight difference. "They used a weaker ink to start with on this one. The ink gets considerably thicker from there. It just says deca─"

"For an instance of retrieval? In records like that, usually the only word that starts off like that in a retrieval report is something like... Eugh." Gallus concludes, holding his neck. "Yeah... that's bad. I wonder why he was done like that."

"This whole situation is really something else. Like why would the former captain have this guy hidden? What did they do to this Jasper guy that they keep it hidden?"

"That's information you don't need to know."

The unfamiliar voice stirs all of us to a startle. All of us turn around to see a Zebracorn approaching from the darkness of a nearby corner. She looks back to us with a stern glare.

"Sorry, hun." Yet another voice rings out. Suddenly Ms. Royal appears before us with a saddened expression on her face. "I know you guys are pretty curious about what's going on. Solemn told us about you guys and what you saw. She said we should at least keep tabs."

"Captain Solemn!?" I ask in shock. "But she was out of it, like she was halfway gone from one world to the next!"

"Post-traumatic episodes are like that." Ms. Royal explains. "You probably don't even know, but she saw the one you call Jasper. If anything, she's the one who wrote that report."

Gallus approaches the pair of mares with his own set of questions. "I know you guys don't like talking about it, but why was this guy done like that!? Why is he only looking for revenge against the former captain? Was he really... done over like that?"

The zebracorn's eyes wander as she answers the griffon. "Some things are better left unanswered, some accounts are better left to rest."

"But─" I begin before a hoof is placed on my arm. I look behind me to see none other than Twilight staring me down.

"Sorry. But I'm gonna have to ask you all to leave now."

We were escorted from the basement quietly, Twilight led the way the entire time. As we made our way back to the throne room, I could feel this strange aura coming from her like she was going to do something I wouldn't agree to. Considering that she caught us in the middle of doing some unwarranted research, I can assume that my freedoms for tomorrow are going to be severely limited.

But when we arrived, it was just Solemn and Humbreeze giving them the rundown of what happened. It took a short while to go into the details of what the young colts were doing and who gave them the information to go by. But all of that isn't even the thing that pisses Twilight off the most.

You can pretty much guess what part makes her blow a gasket.

"A way to supercharge your advancement in magic!?" It was the brochure. Not even the crime itself, just the ad on the brochure. "Learn more through these revelations that will have you cast the highest levels of spells in no time. Be the talk of your peers by showing them your new powers. Get your revelation today and see the increase of your magic in seven days or less!?" Right there, that's the part. "This is exploitation! Magic isn't learned in seven days, it takes a lifetime of cultivation of both the mind and body! It takes hard work, practice, discipline, and not to mention proper instruction to be able to perform a spell at it's most fundamental level! Even levitation, that takes years of mental development and control. There's literally no shortcuts!"

"I think we know of at least two cases of that being subverted." Solemn mentions.

"Oh please! We know why they were gifted magic in that manner, so that's a moot point. It doesn't just happen for us unicorns!"

While all of us are sweating nervously for the fact that we might be in trouble, Silverstream points out the obvious. "Your majesty, you're an alicorn."

"I was a unicorn first!" She snarls back as she crumples up the brochure. "If there's one thing I can't stand about magic scams is the crap they spew to young, impressionable minds. The slew of misinformation about magic has been on the rise for years now! And I won't have anymore of this dangerous propaganda poisoning the minds of magic-using citizens everywhere! Find whoever is printing that junk out and have them in chains, especially the makers of this one! This false junk will incentivize young and impressionable foals to delve into the grey area between magic and necromancy! Put an end to this now!"

Both the sergeant and the captain bowed in acknowledging her request. "Your majesty, your word is law."

While the two guards dismiss themselves, the high princess finally brings her undivided attention to us. "Now as for you five, you were given strict instructions to not delve on this matter any further. Why did you find it appropriate to disobey those simple instructions?"

"We weren't investigating the incident, we were just looking for more information about the guy we saw." I try to reason with her. "I'm not trying to look for trouble."

"Spike, even I'm restricted to how much I can look into things! We both share equal clearances! What makes you think that any of this was just fine?"

"It wasn't about the incident, it's just about the guy!" I argue once more.

"That guy is a victim of that whole situation from years ago." Ms. Kalimba responds. "Believe me when I say that even the princess has not seen the visual details of what occurred. And I will not permit her to see it. The idea that you tried to investigate redacted material is nothing short of troublesome."

The situation is already looking bleak. Even when we were at the ruins, Sergeant Humbreeze told us not to look any further into it. Gallus even warned us against it. All the signs were there, and we ignored them. The only thing I can do is take responsibility. "Alright. We're sorry. We didn't know this guy would be on the record for that. We just wanted to find out who he was since he said he was murdered. Obviously that's not the case, but we thought there was some weight to his claim. We didn't know it was this deep."

"Yeah, it's pretty deep, hun." Ms. Royal rebuts as she walks past me. "A lot that happened can't be explained beyond the confines of the museum. The only reason why Twilight's clearance isn't as high is because Celestia felt it was better to reclassify some details to a higher tier. If you don't know, then you won't know. If you know, then you'll know but don't talk about it. She even left it up to one figure to declassify everything. And that creature is the only one with the remaining executive privilege, by Celestia's royal decree, to break the seal."

"But Twilight's the princess now." Ocellus counters. "If she and Spike are the powers that be, then she can reclassify it to her clearance, or even raise her own clearance, right?"

The purple alicorn shakes her head. "It's not that easy. After a transfer of power has been completed, all confidential matters that have been left under seal of a previous administration are to be left in a 'half-life' cycle. That means I can't forcibly break the seals to those documents for another forty-five years. And even then, that won't be my call to make."

Smolder groans and confronts the princess. "Is this situation really so bad that we have to have this whole blow-up about─"

"Without. Question." Ms. Kalimba answers with a slightly thicker accent. The zebracorn lowers her head, clenching her eyes in thought. "The image I remember, it's still... too much." She starts to storm off as she carries her heavy thoughts. "Spare your minds of our nightmares."

After the zebracorn leaves the room, Twilight issues out another set of orders. "Blue Royal, I know you're often busy, but can you you keep an eye on Spike while he's here for the rest of the weekend? He is to not leave the castle grounds until further notice."

"WHAT!?" I shout before flying over to confront her. "Hold on! Tomorrow is my day off!"

"You can spend your day off here, where you'll be kept out of trouble." She says as she starts to walk past me.

I try to keep up with her. "But─"

"This conversation's over, Spike." She declares as her horn begins to glow bright with magic.

I call out to her. "Twilight─" But she disappears in a flash of her magic, leaving me in the room with my friends and the one who's supposed to keep tabs on me. I grind my teeth and shout out to the room loudly. "GrrrrrRRRR─FUCK YOU!"

Ms. Royal mumbles quietly to herself. "To be the younger sibling, been there before."

Ocellus sees how upset the untimely restriction makes me, she measures how heavy I'm breathing over it. "So... rain check on us then?"

I'm too mad to not complain, much less call her out for everything. "My one day off and I'm stuck in the place I don't want to be! But you can dip and go wherever the hell you want while leaving me all the fucking work like usual!? It's cool when you do it, it's a problem when I do it!? Fucking BULLSHIT!" My anger is profound enough that my nostrils begin to smoke.

Smolder looks over to the changeling. "Heavy showers and thunder. Guess we're gonna postpone."

Gallus tries to cheer me up. "Hey, it won't be so bad. Besides, she just said you can't leave the grounds. She didn't say anything about you not having company over." He turns over to both Smolder and Ocellus, giving them a thumbs up. "Just keep your fun to a moderate decibel level and we should be good."

Ms. Royal snickers a moment as she gives a glance back at the doors, speaking in a low voice. "Actually... I think I know a way to satisfy all parties here."

"Hold on, you just got through helping the princess chew us out. Aren't you supposed to be on her side?" Silverstream asks the mare.

"On that topic, yes." She says in a lowered voice. "But the rule is that you don't leave the castle grounds. And last I checked, she'll be inspecting the logs of every checkpoint to the grounds. That'll make it even more difficult for you to leave. However... there is one way you and your friends can disobey that order, all while your cell phone signal is still registered on castle grounds."

"You're a troublesome influence, you know that?" Comments the dragoness.

"Yes, but I like having fun and taking my mind off of bad memories. Wanna know how I do that?"

"Spatial distortion spell?" I guess at the answer.

She shakes her head. "Not even close."

While I'm still a bit miffed over Twilight trying to keep me holed up in the castle for the weekend, Ms. Royal seems to have vastly different plans. I guess she's a little upset that I don't get to wander about the Corrotto District, so I guess she's trying to make up for that somehow.

The manner in which her compensation comes is something I would've never seen coming.

We walk into a room with a seemingly uninteresting mirror, the outer casing made of some cheap black plastic. But attached to it is the same apparatus that seems to function like the mirror over to Ponyville City, an access to a parallel universe where all the equine friends I'm used to seeing are very much humans themselves. The only drawback is that I would be turned into a dog upon entry. So as Ms. Royal steps through that unassuming mirror, I'm expecting myself to come upon similar circumstances. I take a deep breath, mentally prep myself to assume the role of a canine again, and took that step forward.

The mirror's surface warps around me as I approach, the light around me starts to change from a more ambient setting to that of a much brighter source. Everything about my surroundings change. What was once a large room with marble floors, large pearlescent pillars, and a cavernous ceiling, is replaced by a room that could pass as a large hotel room. I look down at myself, seeing nothing but my usual dragon body. The others follow behind, entering as they are.

Ms. Royal stretches her hooves and look back to us. "Okay, we're here."

Ocellus takes note of the fact that the bed's mattress is essentially at eye level. But that's not the only thing that sits that high to her. The nightstand, the vanity dresser counter, all of those things make her feel smaller than what she actually is. She issues her complaint emphatically. "Why is everything taller than it needs to be!?"

Being a few inches taller than the changeling, Ms. Royal also notices the unusually tall furnishings before coming to an epiphany. "Oh yeah! Excuse me for a moment."

She closes her eyes, illuminates her horn, and her body glows with a sapphire blue light. She levitates herself to the air and disappears in a brilliant flash of light. Within that instant of transformation, the blue unicorn mare is replaced by a much taller figure, she even clears me by a few inches. She now appears as a human woman with blue hair, wearing a black and white dress. She gives herself a twirl and winks at us. "Alright! Now I look the part."

The rest of us are baffled to near shock, watching as the transformed mare walks towards us with that bubbly personality of hers. "Wait. You're a human now?" Gallus questions.

"Of course, you gotta be a human in the human world." She further emphasizes her point with her hand movements.

While I was aware of what the sudden changeover meant, the others were caught unaware. So it made their discovery all the more exciting to them. "WAIT, WE'RE IN THE HUMAN WORLD NOW!?" Ocellus screams hysterically.

"Uh, I thought we weren't supposed to leave castle grounds." Gallus also adds. "I didn't think we'd be leaving our world, much less the castle."

"Yeah, leaving the castle grounds through the usual means would be an issue. But she didn't say anything about leaving the world while on castle grounds. It's a legal gray area that can't truly be infringed because of trade." She replies with a smirk.

"And if you're not reported by a checkpoint, then it can be assumed that you've never left the grounds." Gallus concludes with a moment to awe at the mare's legal workaround. "I can tell you got in trouble a lot when you were younger."

She bashfully rolls her eyes at the griffon. "Not in a mood to talk about all of that! Let's get some transformations going!" Ms. Royal turns her head to me, her hand already starting to glow with magic. "Starting with you."

While I'm relieved to stay my true self, I have a shaking feeling that I'm going to be turned back into a dog at a moment's notice. "Oh no."

She giggles as the spell takes hold of me. "You're going to be a total piece of candy, I can already tell."

My body is engulfed by a flash of light, everything about me feels vastly different. Suddenly the room I'm in feels cooler. My line of vision seems to be slightly altered, raised even. I look back down to my four claws, now seeing five fingers in their place. The scales of my body are turned to flesh. I feel against my arms and note how comparatively smooth they are. I look to a mirror, seeing a figure with green hair slowly approaching me. I get closer, as does the figure. I pull my cheek down to see the figure doing the same motion.

It's me... I'm actually a human right now!

Smolder sees what I've turned into and scowls with objectivity. "Uh... human standards are weird."

"Mine aren't!" Ms. Royal says as she posts herself by my shoulder. I stand at least two to three inches above her, a resounding eight inch difference from my usual dragon height. "And mine say that you are... prime snack material."

Smolder doesn't find the sight of the mare posturing up beside me ideal. She breaks between us both, already well below our heights. "Okay, me next. Let's get this over with before you get too distracted." She points to Ms. Royal, trying to get her to focus.

Meanwhile, the billionaire heiress seems to be amused by the dragoness' territorial tendencies. "Aw, poor little dragon girl wants to see where she stacks up with her dragon boy toy. Well I'm not mean enough to deny you that opportunity. So consider your wish granted."

Yet another bright flash of light illuminates the room. And much like how I've come out of my transformation, Smolder performs the same actions. She shivers a bit while holding her arms. She notices the extra digit on her hands and plugs them into her pants. She notices the beam of light filtering through the window close to blinding her and squints. Her hair is curly and holding a mix of violet and indigo strands.

She raises to the tips of her toes, but notices that she's not going any higher. She turns around and feels the shirt against her back. "Where are my wings?"

"You don't have them in this form, none of you do. I don't have my horn in this form either." Ms. Blue explains straightaway.

"Then how do you do the magic thing?" The transformed dragon inquires.

"Well a certain human gave me lessons on how to translate my magic across forms." She quickly summarizes before looking to Ocellus. "Should I go ahead and do you up next?"

The changeling scoffs proudly as she sits in a chair by a wooden work desk. "No thanks, I got it."

Her transformation isn't nearly as bright and bombastic. She opts for her usual mode of changing forms. Turquoise flames consume her body and flash upwards quickly to reveal a young woman with pink hair and a small frame. She wears a light blue crop top and a short white skirt. She smiles as thought she figures herself to be the prettiest girl in the room.

"Now that's adorable."

"What?" She asks Smolder, as the former dragon picks her up to get her to stand. It's immediately made known that while she may try to be the prettiest in the room, she's also the shortest by a country mile. Her height tops off at around 4'10", maybe getting an extra inch on shoes. Smolder and I start to snicker at her short stature. "Oh you better not be talking about my height."

Ms. Royal doesn't laugh, but only points out another painful fact. "Well... You are small by female human standards."

"I'm small because it helps me sustain my form longer!" She erupts in her own defense. "Geez, I swear I could make myself six-feet tall if I want to, but I won't last for too long. It's a logistics problem!"

I walk up to her, seeing how her head can't even seem to clear my shoulders. "You are so tiny, I can still pick you up like a kid."

She pushes me away in a pouting fit. "If you're not throwing me on a bed like it's a sexually charged wrestling match, I don't want it."

We all share a laugh at her reaction, but turn our attention back to the transformations of Gallus and Silverstream, namely the former. "Alrighty then, that leaves the both of you non-bipedal adapted creatures. Just to warn you off the bat, you're going to struggle in the first hour or so."

As her hand glows, Gallus pops his neck and psychs himself up. "Yeah, I'm not exactly used to not having wings to help with that counterbalance either. I'm gonna be in for some work, aren't I?"

The woman smiles kindly, offering some emotional and mental support for the griffon. "Trust me, you'll get used to it."

Yet another flash of light beams throughout the room, yet another figure is transformed. Gallus comes out of the spell appearing taller than the rest of us. I'm surprised to see that he clears six feet easily. The spikey blue hair goes well with his blue eyes. His demeanor is nervous as he sits on the ground. "So... what's the verdict?" He questions.

Ms. Royal nods. "Straight up cute. But I can't say too much because I know your girlfriend might have something to say about it, and I do wanna be respectful of that." That comment makes Smolder blurt out a loud 'Ha!' in protest. The transformed unicorn pays the dragoness no mind as she focuses her magic one last time, this time to the hippogriff. "So let's get you ready to go, hun. I know you're vying to give that new form of his a test ride."

Silverstream nods as she looks down to her transformed beloved. "Yeah, I'm kinda curious now."

Ms. Royal offers one additional bit of incentive. "Spoiler alert, human endurance can be five times as long as that of a pony. Or twice if you really know where and how to break him down."

The hippogriff's eyes widen. "FIVE TIMES AS LONG!? Griffon males last about as long as they do on average! You're telling me I'm gonna get five times that!? SIGN ME UP RIGHT NOW!"

"That's my girl!" Ms. Royal cheers, using her spell on the final creature that has yet to be transformed.

Much like Gallus, she clears everyone else height-wise. But she's still shorter than Gallus by at least two inches. But something about her appearance is different than the rest of us. She appears pale in comparison.

The pale skin doesn't seem to match her irrational exuberance. "Ooh, so how do I look!?"

Ms. Royal appears stunned, as though Silverstream just hit the lottery and the machine's still ringing with her prize. "I didn't expect you to be this pale on the skin, some idiots would complain that you probably don't go out in the sun that often, but I guess that's a reflection of your species with being in the water for so long. Either way you look really fucking pretty! You have like this... enchanting elven look about you, at least what humans would consider it." She looks down to Gallus and gives him a stern warning. "You keep an eye out for her, she's gonna be on a lot of human males' hit list. And they don't mind competing."

"So now what?" Smolder asks as Gallus tries to stand up, only to fall on his face.

Silverstream tries to reach out to him to help, but her lower body is vastly different from either of her forms. She also has no wings to help her counterbalance standing on two legs, so she too falls over her boyfriend. Gallus groans out in pain the next point of his agenda. "I think the first order of business is getting us to walk straight."

While it's easy for Ocellus, Smolder, and I to bear with the transformation, Ms. Royal acknowledges their hardship while also having a plan to deal with it. "Well I think I know just the place to do it. But let me get some preliminaries out of the way first." She says as she pulls out her phone. She taps away at her screen before putting the device to her face, waiting for the dial tone to connect.

"What preliminaries do you have set aside?" I ask her before she points a finger out to put me on hold.

A voice pops up on the other end of the call. "Hello?"

Ms. Royal immediately puts the phone on speaker while conducting her call. "Hey Melanie, how's the day going!?"

"It's going alright! Is everything okay on your end? I know you usually stay pretty busy keeping up with the flow of goods going from portal to portal. You're not getting stressed? No one on your corporate staff getting on your nerves."

"Nope!" She answers with a bright smile.

"No episodes creeping up on you?"

She gives me a slight glance but goes back to the conversation. "Well, you know... just one... but we'll get on that later. I'm over at your place now."

"Really!? You're in Ponyville?"

"No, I'm actually at your place in Austin." She corrects her friend on the other end.

"Oh! Okay."

"Yup, I brought Spike and a few of his friends along."

"Did you transform them?"

"Yeah, but Gallus and Silverstream are the only two who are struggling to walk right now. I thought that I could take them over to the Haines' place so they can have a little more, you know, free range of motion." She suggests as she flags us to help move Gallus and Silverstream along.

"That sounds like a great idea! I still remember when we did that with you seven years ago! We know you needed the time to get away from it all and take your mind off of a few things, and you turned out to fit in just fine! Just do me a favor when you drive, try not to get pulled over on the way there. Watch for traffic, you know it's a mess over that way, especially with the 5-7 o'clock crowd."

As we arrive to what seems to be the kitchen, we're amazed by how spacious the home really is. Ms. Royal goes to a drawer situated next to a door, looking around for something. "Girl, it's Texas. The road is always busy."

"And you already know it! The keys to the Escalade are─"

"Yeah I know, top drawer of the cabinet close to the garage." She says, pulling out the keys and jingling them over the receiver. "I'll try not to scratch it."

"You're almost a human yourself at this point. I'm starting to think that I trained you a little too well."

She opens the door and introduce us to a dimly lit room. Inside of it appears to be a large black vehicle with mirrors on either side of it. As I'm holding Gallus, he motions me to get closer to the large vehicle. "Well I'm thankful you taught me how to drive other than some of these other guys out here." Ms. Royal continues her conversation with the native human.

"Alright, friend. Do what you need to do. Be safe, call me when you get there. You know the code to the gate already, I'll call ahead to mama Haines and let her know company's coming over. You know she's gonna try to bake you some of her famous red velvet cake."

She hits a button, causing the vehicle to light up as we hear a clunk on all the doors. "Yup, can't wait to get my ass over there to get some! Love you to bits, girl!"

"Love you too! Smooches!"

She fakes a kiss onto the receiver as the other party does the same before hanging up. She pulls on the handle of the door and hops into the vehicle. "Alright, kiddos! Let's load up!"

"Wait, are we all really about to get in this thing?" Gallus asks as the others try to help Silverstream do the same thing.

"Yup." She says as she reaches up to what appears to be some unusual mirror situated at the center of the front window.

While she's making her adjustments, she waits for all of us to load up into the vehicle. Ocellus takes the front seat, Smolder sits behind her. Silverstream situates herself right behind Ms. Royal. Both Gallus and I sit in the far back. While our legs aren't offered too much space, we're still amazed over how many of us it fits, and that's with one more seat between me and Gallus to fill. "This thing's a tank!" The transformed griffon comments.

"Not as tanky as you think it is." She replies as she presses a button on the console by the steering wheel. The vehicle issues three arpeggiated chimes just before we hear a roar from the engine. All the ladies up front are amazed over all the lights and screens popping up on the dashboard. She hits a button just above her head and a large door starts to open behind us.

A map pulls up on the screen on the dashboard, Ocellus eagerly presses at where it says destination. "Wow, this thing has an onboard navigation system like a ship! So... where are we going?"

The transformed unicorn begins to sing. "♪We're going on a trip in our favorite piece of shit, doing 25, on I-35. Come aboard, get ready to be floored, never mind the wait on the Texas Interstate.♫"

"Traffic's that bad?" She asks.

"Oh yeah." She answers as she pulls down a buckle from over her left shoulder. "Seat belts, everyone!"

As soon as we leave the driveway, Ms. Royal pulls up a playlist of her favorite songs to drive around to. As we quickly discover, her personal tastes are vastly different from the bumping and throbbing bass of the club she owns. Instead, it's much more mellow and calming. The first song that pops up is one called 'The Other Side'. But as for us, our eyes are glued to the windows, taking in the passing world around us.

In a way, the song makes sense to us as to why she chose it.

The world is a teeming mess of suburbs and passing life. Vehicles of all sorts of builds, ages, and sizes pass us by, that or we pass them. The stores are many, offering many opportunities to purchase anything you may desire. It's incredible. It's so different from the relative hamlet of Ponyville, and we haven't even reached the main attraction yet.

As one could predict, the traffic picks up as we get closer to the junctions leading us to the main road. A blue shield marks our key point of access. It takes a while to get on, but when we finally get on, we really get to moving. There are occasional slowdowns, but I don't think we were ever as slow as what Ms. Royal playfully advertised.

The road widens, passing signs continue to signal where we want to go or stop. One name continues to remain prominent, 'Austin'. There are giant intersections with bridges towering high above the road. The cars split off and almost fly to their preassigned destinations. Other are guided into us and merged to our flow. The confusion it causes makes our heads spin, just being within the mayhem is almost astounding. It's just so much to absorb, there are signs everywhere telling you where you want to go, what you want to do, what you want to eat or buy, where to sleep, who to call for car accidents, hospitals, schools, churches, it's all here!

As we continue southward, we catch glimpses of towering buildings in the distance, massive multiplexes that shoot upward, stadiums that spread far and wide, all of these things that could never be seen so consistently in Equestria, it's all here. It's almost like going through the streets of Manehattan again. I'm taller than a lot of ponies, I gained inches in the transformation, and yet I feel so small in this moment. More and more, the glimpses offer more sights of the massive city that almost seems to garner little sleep. Before we know it, it's hitting us in the middle of the face, building after building, tower after tower, large dwellings of power and finance all culminating to the lively urban footprint. Glass reaching the sky at heights unfathomable for even the urbanite dwellers of Manehattan. At least until we reach the bridge crossing the river is where it all stops. And then we finally see it.

We finally see Austin.

We would see it for a short while before having to make our next exit. Then we travel alongside the river for a bit until we reach one of the other roadways, taking what Ms. Royal calls a service road. Then we make a few turns into the area, and finally reaching a gated neighborhood. She puts in a code, the iron gate opens, and we continue our ride a little further. Our ride is a lot slower now, but it's coming to an end. And before we know it, it comes to an end in the 'driveway' of a monstrous estate.

Our jaws are drawn to the ground as the car comes to a complete stop. Ms. Royal jingles the keys as she opens the door. "Alright, here we are! Everybody out!"

Ocellus just stares at the height of the home with her jaw agape. Silverstream is helped along by Smolder while I help Gallus. The changeling sees the massive home and how far it stretches from side to side. The grounds around are plentiful and green for a mere home. The transformed changeling makes a comment of it. "This isn't a house, it's a castle."

"Eh, more like something over at the Canterlot Backend." Ms. Royal replies.

"You're kidding. The captain's parents live here?" Gallus questions, shaking his head in disbelief.

Ms. Royal explains further. "Well it's more like a family estate... that actually feels and operates like a family estate. It's quite homey compared to my last house on the back end of the mountain."

"You lived on the back end? Why'd you stop living there." He inquires her further.

She shakes her head. "It's complicated, pretty long story."

The front door opens to reveal an older lady coming from within. She walks up with a warm and welcoming demeanor to embrace the mare. "And there she is! My little Blue Royal!"

"Mama Haines!" She squeals out before warmly embracing the older woman. "Ooh, it's so good to see you up and at it still!"

"Honey, I'm not that old. I might be looking at sixty in a few, but I'm still good to go." She replies. "I bet you're hungry after being out and about for so long."

"I heard there will be cake." She's not even hiding it.

"I swear you ponies are so bad for that. If it wasn't for my daughter-in-law, I wouldn't have even prepared one. Is my cake really that good?"

"The best!" Ms. Royal proclaims openly and loudly.

"Well I'm glad I took the time to make more than one." She says with a smile, then turning to us. "Oh, and I haven't forgotten about our new guests!"

"Hello, Mrs. Haines." I greet her with a wave.

"Why do you sound like Spike? Is that you!?" She says as she gets a little closer. I suppose over time she's gotten fairly perceptive of who is who whenever they transform. I could even say she has a natural talent for it, almost cutie mark worthy. "Oh! It is!"

"Yeah, I gotta get used to this body." I bashfully explain to her.

"Aw." She pinches my cheek and hugs me all the same. "Well I'll say you're working it pretty well, I think you'll be fine. It's so good to see you again. How's your sister?"

She's referring to Twilight. "She's fine."

Ms. Royal steps in and also introduces the others. "Mrs. Haines, you know Spike already, but I want to introduce you to the others. This is Gallus, he's a griffon. Silverstream is a hippogriff. Smolder is a dragon. And Ocellus is a changeling."

"Oh my, we have quite a collection today." She says as she greets each and every one of the others with a handshake.

While initially nervous, Ocellus warms herself to shake hands with the older woman. "Nice to meet you, ma'am."

She notices how Gallus keeps leaning on me and immediately gives him attention. "Oh dear, it seems they're not quite comfortable walking yet."

"Yeah, it's pretty much why we're here. We figured we could use the room for branching out, that or getting them back to being themselves without too much hassle." Ms. Royal states.

"Do they fly?" The older woman asks.

"Yes ma'am they do."

She looks around the sky, trying to come up with a compromise if they ever want to ever transform back for their own forms for comfort. "So let's do this. I know that the skyline is pretty overwhelming if you've passed it on on the way in, but if you want to see it after the sun finally goes down, I would recommend that you try to wait until after ten tonight to hit the sky, stay a bit low as to not get involved with the usual air traffic, and try not to bring too much attention to yourselves in a manner like using magic, fire breathing, landing on someone's house, things like that. Otherwise, feel free to feel at home." It seems she's a lot looser with her restrictions than I figured she would be.

Smolder looks to her back and makes a note of something previously brought up. "There's air traffic? I thought you humans couldn't fly."

"We can't, but there are vehicles that can. And some we do ride on, like helicopters and such." Mrs. Haines clarifies. "Just steer clear of those and you're good to go."

"But for now, let's get you two used to walking!" Ms. Royal chimes in. "We'll save you all flying about for a reward of your progress."

Gallus smiles as he remembers the huge city we just passed recently. "Now I really can't wait to get started."

It took an hour or so, but both Gallus and Silverstream can now run perfectly as humans would. The other interactions leave much to be desired, but they'll catch on much faster than a pony would, and that's on the account that they already had claws with opposable digits to begin with. It's just working with the extra finger that's pretty confusing for all of us. But I find that if we pretend that the tiny one doesn't exist, it becomes pretty standard.

After that, she finally brought us the cake she made and broke out the family photo album. We're now in the living room of the home, which is pretty damn boisterous by most traditional standards. There's a stairwell leading to the second floor of the home, a chandelier hanging from the high ceiling, comfy seats, a grand piano, and enough room to hold a party of many. Gallus even jokes that coming in here makes him feel like he should check in with security for his next post. To be honest, I don't blame him or Ocellus calling this place a castle. It feels like one, a much more homelier one but one I'd like to spend a few nights in.

Silverstream is much more interested in the photo album than anything else. Mrs. Haines obliges to show what she has on all of the family. And the way it was sorted was all by age, starting from the humble beginnings of her marriage. The pictures show her and Mr. Haines sharing a slice of cake, feeding a bite to one another. And it sprouts out from there. There's photos of the first born Alex, his first day at home, his first steps, his first family vacation, first visit with the grandparents, all of it. Then came the pictures of the next sibling, the captain himself.

"Aww, he's so small!" The hippogriff notes loudly. "And look at that smile!"

Everything on him seems to be a lot more subdued, probably because of all the attention a first born would normally have, the later kids don't get as much. But if that smile he had was any indication of his outlook on life, you'd swear nothing could go wrong. "Huh, didn't know the captain ever had a smile that big." Gallus notes.

"Oh he had that smile ever since he was young. The last time I've seen him with that same smile was what, the wedding?" Mrs. Haines points out.

The photos continue from there on to the point where he was on a farm, taking care of a large equine that vastly dwarfed him. But the smile started to wear a little after that point in time. But it was still there, he was still a bit optimistic. Even as he goes through his adolescent phase, he begins to look a little awkward but he's still smiling. "Huh, even he looks so unassuming." Ocellus mumbles to herself.

The smile is holding, but it's obvious that some things might have happened to lessen it's strength. All in all, he's still trying his best. Photos of him being next to his younger brother, Stanton, he's even smaller than him. "This was him graduating from high school." Mrs. Haines illustrates.

Smolder's attention is brought to the fact that he stands between both Alex and Stanton, being shorter than the two. "Oh, he's not as tall as I thought he would be."

"Probably an even six." I comment.

"Five-ten, but he never liked to admit it. The extra two inches came after his freshman year." Mrs. Haines adds as she flips the page.

Another thing pops out about the captain's appearance that the others didn't get to experience. If they were there the day he first showed up in Equestria, they would note how chubby he was at the time. Even staying in Equestria for those first few months managed to get him to drop considerable weight because of his diet changes and the lack of vehicular travel. In short, he had to walk everywhere. "Wow, he didn't really stay too fit." Gallus tilts his head at the photos, especially one ones where he and a few of his friends were in dresses.

"No, he was just a normal college frat boy back then." She briefly explains. "That's when he first ran into Rickey and Cliff. Those two ended up being better friends than most of that fraternity would ever try to be. They even helped us when we thought Nondis had gone and disappeared in the gulf. We figured he didn't make it, but those two and Melanie kept us hopeful for as long as they could. Meanwhile, he's off in another world."

As soon as she flips the page, I see a familiar picture. It's of him getting past boot camp, and more specifically a picture of him and Twilight getting in a big smooch right in front of the graduating recruits. "Wooo-ho-o-oah! What is this!?" Silverstream screams with excitement.

"Oh, that's him graduating basic training. That was back when he and Princess Twilight were seeing each other. He had a pretty bright smile then."

As the pictures go along, they're also mixed in with a number of headlines of significant accomplishments. There's the headline where he's first announced as captain of the royal guard. Then there's some noting his rescue operation at the Everfree Castle Ruins, where he saved a number of citizens from a changeling abduction ring. There's some with the parade celebrating his victory. There's another with him and his five friends stopping a large changeling invasion of Ponyville by themselves, that event especially has Ocellus looking away. Then there's the photo of him being in dire straights with an arimaspi looming over him, that being followed up by a photo of him covered in blood holding several bags of gold. The picture of him after his assassination attempt, holding his thumb up while he's in a wheelchair. A picture of him standing next to his brothers with their weapons in tow.

It's a lot to go on and on about, and the main one who's really fawning over this stuff is Gallus. "I still can't believe the story of a history the captain had. Like he did all of this and we didn't even get to see him in action. It's pretty disappointing." Ocellus on the other hand is not as imaginative over the circumstances, especially since a lot of his accomplishments came at the cost of what all her mother had accomplished.

The page flips, and now the image becomes more of what I'm used to seeing in recent years. It's the picture of him after the cleanup operation of the Necro-terrorist Incident. It was after that point where he stopped trying to put on a brave face. It was almost like looking at Shining Armor after one of his deployments. A broken expression, cold eyes, thousand yard stare for days, and scars for years to come. "Wow, his smile is... gone." Smolder points out with a somber tone.

"Oh yeah, he was rehabbing at that point." Mrs. Haines replies as Ms. Royal looks off, not able to bear seeing the human at his most vulnerable. "Poor baby, that awful psychopath did a number on him. I can't believe he went through all of that pain just to be able to marry someone he loved. He's a tough one." There's not much of him, no headlines after that aside from him helping remove a millennium old marriage edict from the law books. Everything from there appears quiet, intimate, and humble. The smile tries to come back, but too much has happened for it to be anywhere near what it once was in his youth. But it's return could only be attributed to the figure often seen with him in the photos.

And at last, with the turn of a page, are the images of him and his wife, Celestia. "And there's the wedding." I mumble, seeing a number of photos, some even moving with a number of enchantments. They recreate all the moment Mr. and Mrs. Haines had in their union and then some, there's even the moment where they both used all they had to set the sun, the first dance, the party of the reception, the reunion of the six human element bearers, him standing behind his niece, the picture of him with Solemn Oath, Humbreeze, and a freshly-recruited Gallus, a few gag pictures involving him, Twilight, and Celestia, one where Flurry Heart gets carried away and tries to abduct him for her aunt, the parting parade, and the last picture of the couple departing in an airship to Silver Shoals.

Gallus continues to wax on about his disappointment. "I'm still pretty bummed I didn't get to see him in action. I always thought with the whole Union of Evil ganging up on Equestria five years ago, he would've came to the forefront of it all and showed some of his stuff."

"Yeah, but I think Celestia did good in keeping him out of trouble since then. He didn't need to do anything else so grandiose as saving the world." Mrs. Haines comments, letting her personal bias for her son show.

"Still would've been cool to see." Says the transformed griffon.

Silverstream sighs as she pinches the pages, going between the moment where he shared kisses between the two royal figures. "Poor Princess Twilight. Can you imagine having to marry off the guy you dated first?"

"Eh, those two were bad for each other." I sigh heavily. The others in the room aside from Mrs. Haines and Ms. Royal stare at me like I've said something off color. "No, really. It was a really toxic cycle that seemed to only end after she broke off from him publicly. She had intentions to get back with him in private, but never conveyed that properly. Instead, they just argued and fought a lot over a bunch of shit, then followed that up with some flings with each other here and there. Then Celestia pops the idea of him and her being an item, and suddenly Twilight's locked in her bedroom for twelve hours. But seriously, her love life fell apart on that day while his actual life went south after she broke up with him while he was in the hospital recovering from an assassination attempt."

The others look at me completely slack-jawed. Smolder slowly gives her response. "...That's a lot to process."

Ocellus then snaps at me loudly over the information I just spilled. "YOU FUCKING HAD TEA, AND YOU HELD OUT!? FOR SEVEN YEARS!?!?" I try to give a response, but she stuffs her palm over my mouth and points her finger against the tip of my nose. "Oh no, Mr. The-Dragon, we'll talk later." ...Either I'm gonna have to tell her in greater detail all of what happened, or I'm going to have to have the endurance of bedrock itself. No matter the requirement, it's going to be a long night.

"Meanwhile, I'll have another cup of that one, please." Silverstream requests with a raised hand.

The older woman groans in despair over the conversation taking this specific turn. "Oh goodness gracious, can we not discuss my son's amorous affairs? I don't need to reimagine the polygon of relationships that boy had throughout that one year."

"Ha! It was a decagon!" Ms. Royal laughs out loud. "Yeah... can't say it didn't have it's fun moments though.

"Like please, can we not?" The mother requests emphatically.

"Yes, ma'am. We'll swap it up." Replies the devious billionaire. "So, would it be possible to have a game night since we have so many creatures here?"

Mrs. Haines immediately draws a breath of relief. "With all of us? I don't see why not. Harold's not gonna complain too much about having company in this relatively empty castle we have as a home." Guess I'm not the only one who'll call it that.

"Great, guess that makes an even eight if Mr. Haines is looking to join us!" Ms. Blue applauds.

"Eight?" The older woman hesitates. "Actually, I was thinking we could have one as like a referee and ten others. Harold went out to get the other three who'll be joining us tonight."

Ms. Royal quirks a brow. "There's supposed to be eleven? Who's the other three?"

"That'll be us."

All of us turn around quickly to source the voice coming from above. We look to the bannister of the second level seeing two alicorns and two men standing up there. They're posted against the railing as though they're watching us, or have been for a while. Both the alicorns are easily identifiable, they're the former princesses of Equestria Celestia and Luna. The two men are none other than father and son. Mr. Haines being an older man with a smirk...

"Honey! You made it here already?"

And the former captain himself, Nondis P. Haines, who's voice boomed throughout the room.

"Yeah, ma. It's almost as if this ain't my home world to begin with."