EVERFREE: The Bitter Boogie of a Mare From Skaia

Lyra returned from her trip and saw CD running the store. She noted that CD was toying around with some weird, kinda shiny object in her hooves. She looked up from the counter and gave Lyra a gentle wave.
"That was quick. Welcome back." Dandy greeted.
"Hello, random, civilian." Lyra said through a stiff voice. She sidled up to CD and held a hoof up to her face for secrecy, even though nopony was in the store. "Psst. CD! It's me, Lyra!"
"Lyra, I think we're the only folks in Equestria who aren't fooled by the 'putting on suits and glasses makes you someone else entirely' thing."
"Oh. Okay."

She was silent for a bit.
"Do you... wanna beeee... frrriiieeends?" She said it as if befriending CD was taboo.
"Oh, well, yeah. That'd be great!" Dandy gave a warm smile. "Did Twilight order you to befriend us in the name of.. hm. C-Side, what are they based on again here?"

Her voice went flat as an exhausted C-Side answered. "Harmony. Magic is an essential aspect of Equestrian life, and the greater bonds one has, the stronger their magic can be for the world."
"Thank you, Sweetheart." She gave herself a little cheek rub to display affection to her alter. Lyra looked a little weirded out in response.

"You didn't know, but she did?"
"Our memory is.. selective. We can share information but it's not always communal in here. Anyways, like we said, was it Twilight who asked you to befriend us?”
“Yyyyeah. Yeah! Twilight. Princess of Friendship, that’s her!” Lyra nodded heavily, almost cartoonishly.

Dandy nodded in turn and said, “Well, I’m the kind of lady who likes to groove. You know any fun places that we could party hearty?"
"Dandy, no!!" C-Side yelped out of nowhere.

Lyra's eyes dilated and she ducked down. A pink blur burst into the shop and stopped millimeters from CD’s face.
"DID SOMEPONY SAY PARTY?"
Dandy was stunned for a moment, blinking, before she recovered and gave a goofy grin.
"Depends! Will you have booze?"

They did have booze. Dandy was ecstatic, and C-Side wasn’t far behind. She at least had the sense of mind to raise the moon a little early, just in case she'd be too tipsy to remember later. However, in the back of their mind, they were souping up a plan. They didn’t know how, but they had to get to Appleloosa, and they knew that some trains ran all the way over there. C-Side considered the plan of action, replaying possible scenarios over and over again in her chunk of the mind.

A straight shot flight would be obvious. Even without their outfit, they didn’t have wings, which would stick out and draw attention. Asking Twilight for help could make things worse, she was already looking exhausted from having to be the impromptu monarch due to CD’s interloping. It was obvious that Bon Bon was skeptical, but Lyra might be able to sway her if CD used the right words. Otherwise, this would probably have to be done alone. And so, C-Side began to prep for the worst case scenario.

This left Dandy free to partake in the festivities, and get absolutely inebriated. Some of the ponies grew friendlier to the new gal in town, but most kept a respectable distance away. They didn’t want to risk having their blood seen, or whatever the rumors were saying.

Pinkie Pie was obviously her usual chatty self, but Dandy found herself enjoying the conversation with the ponies that Pinkie pushed her up to before randomly bouncing off.

"Earth? I haven't heard of a town called 'Earth'." Octavia said, somewhat indignantly.
"Oh, no, it's a planet, hehehe! We're from another world!" Dandy cheered, making sure not to spill her drink even though she was already tipsy and still high. Vinyl was skeptical but interested.

"Alright," Octavia began, "Tell me about something from your world that ponies don't have!" She pointed a dramatically challenging hoof towards CD, who gave a thoughtful hum in response, and kicked the ground gently in contemplation.
"Well.. there's guns, computers, the Internet, television shows, cars and highways, smart phones-"
"Smart.. phones? A phone can't be smart, it's inanimate." Octavia retorted.
Her glasses flashed. Of course! This society didn't have smart phones - a wouldn't for a long while.

Dandy, in her drunken state, decided it was a good idea to mess with the butterfly effect, and pulled their phone from their inventory.
Dandy rambled at length about everything it was capable of - playing videos and music, making calls (though obviously it had no service), games, access to the internet (again no service), and most importantly, a means of communication through chat clients and text messages.

That's when CD saw the old chat logs between herself and her long dead friends. Idiot, idiot, bad idea, how could you, C-Side screamed internally at herself.
Dandy could hold onto their liquor or their emotional state, not both. She sat on the floor and began to swipe through the photos, picture after picture of her and her dearest companions through the void. There were even photos she found of Earth.
Vinyl and Octavia looked over CD's shoulder. "You mind if we look?"
"No," C-Side admitted, "Go ahead, we're just doing some impromptu grieving."
Vinyl slowly pushed her sunglasses down to get a good look at the pictures of aliens before her.

There were two types she saw. One was definitely CD - she could tell by the hairstyle. But otherwise, she was completely different. A taller, paler, bipedal creature with weird hooves and grins bearing slight canines.
The other was even weirder - bipedal as well, but they looked more like a changeling! They had candy colored horns, gray skin, and even sharper teeth and eyes.
Curiously, they all seemed to be friends.

As CD swiped away, Vinyl saw pictures of landscapes from this alleged planet of Earth, all of which looked eerily like Equestria - but the architecture was different. There were large carriages with no means to pull them, there were images of massive stone roads full of those carriages, images of CD in various locales.. and a concert! A massive crowd cheering and dancing to music from another world! Her eyes dilated and her jaw dropped slightly..
Then she heard CD give a weak sob.

Octavia felt awkward, and gently tugged Vinyl, indicating she wanted to move away from the mare.
Vinyl gestured to her wrist to ask for a little more time. Octavia sighed, but let her. Vinyl tapped CD's shoulder gently.
"Mm?" CD grunted.
Vinyl magically conjured the image of a calendar, indicating an empty spot later on in the week. She tapped it with an arcane pen, before using that pen to draw a vinyl record spinning with two ponies listening through headphones connected to the record. She pointed a hoof at herself, then CD, and smiled.

It took a while for CD to process what was going on. But when she did, she smiled and wiped the tears from her eyes.
"Sure, sure. We'd love to.. Sorry for crying. It's been a rough year. We'll see you later, I guess!"
Vinyl grinned, excited to hear music from another world, and trotted away.

Later, after recovering thanks to Pinkie's infectious smile, CD found herself enjoying conversation with a mare named Ditzy Doo, who seemed appreciative of the fact that Dandy didn't call her by the nickname "Derpy", as per C-Side's advice. They shared a mutual frustration in the post office, of all things. Even in other universes and Paradox Space, mail was mail. And mail was a very hard job to do for some folk.

"We only lasted -hic- three months back where we came from, during the holidays."
"You started during the holidays?" Ditzy giggled, a little tipsy herself. "No wonder you struggled!"
"Hoo! Yeah, we did! Every Sunday was only packages, and we were out there from ten am till seven pm! That job actually, actually, hehe, made us really really. Unhappy. You're. You're a cool cucumber for managing to stick to a job like that for so long!"
"I bet - did you at least get your breaks?"
"Not in the slightest, sister - hehe - we were supposed to have some union rep to make sure we were treated nicely and keep our butt safe from getting fired, but we never met em.. and we were just.. so bad. At. At the job... no surprise we got fired at all."
"Oh.. well, I do just fine in Ponyville! If you're looking for a job, I might be able to find you something!"
"Oh, well- man, we'd appreciate that, but we got fired, we can't go back. That was some kinda law, saying if you got fired from the post office you couldn't apply again."
Ditzy tilted her head in confusion. "Aren't you from another world? That's what I've heard from everypony else."
CD blinked, and looked at her cup of Spiked Punch. "Eesh, hehe, I think. Think we gotta lay off the sauce tonight. Think we've had enough." Dandy muttered.

They kept drinking.
As the mind grew muddier, C-Side found it harder to plan. Eventually, all that was left of whatever convoluted scheme was Appleloosa, Appleloosa, Appleloosa-

"NEXT STOP! APPLELOOSA!"
C-Side jolted awake and immediately regretted it. The hangover was something fierce, and she shut her eyes tight from the pain of daylight.
She held a hoof to her forehead and wrenched one eye open, checking to see what the hell was going on.
Yup. That was Appleloosa alright. Cactuses, sand, vaguely Western vibes. It was just like how the show depicted it. She surveyed the carriage she was in and found that she had somehow managed to board a midnight train.
She checked her inventory.
Weapon, Check.
Precious knick-knacks. Check.
Smart phone. Check.
Pocket Alchemiter. Check.
Computer. Check.
God tier outfit. Check.

Nothing of value was lost, so she didn't trade in anything to get a ticket. How did she get here?
And where the hell was she going to find aspirin?

Bon Bon groaned and stumbled down the stairs. She had let herself go too hard in the paint and found herself waking up in agony. She sauntered into the kitchen and kicked on the stove, waiting for the kettle to boil so she could quickly whip up some coffee. She sat back on a chair and relaxed. The melody of morning danced through the kitchen window, providing a soft alleviation from the din of last night’s party and the current throbbing of her headache. The kettle began to boil, and she took it off the burner, pouring the hot water into a coffee press, where she threw in some coffee grounds and her favorite secret ingredient, a spoonful of hot chocolate powder. She stirred it, and let it sit for a while.

In the meantime, she stared out the window and considered the past few days, mainly about CD and the mysteries that surrounded her. She wasn’t sure what would make for a worse situation - whether CD was lying or not.

On the one hoof, if she was lying, that would mean that she was a lot less there in the head than she let on, and this pony had already displayed strange abilities that could prove dangerous if not kept in check. She already knew too much when it came to classified information somehow, and she definitely wouldn’t let her memories be erased without a fight.

On the other, if she was saying nothing but truth, that would mean a lot more. The arrival of another entity as powerful as Discord or Tirek would throw the world into a spin, and Bon Bon and Lyra would be right there in the middle of it.

She glanced at the clock and saw that the coffee had steeped long enough. She pushed down on the press and poured herself a cup, leaving enough room for a bit of cream and a lot of sugar. She returned to the window and had a sip, which gave her a warmth that spread throughout her body, soothing her.

After a minute, she recollected her thoughts, occasionally sipping at her drink. She considered what a human exactly was.
She remembered hearing about a classified mirror that led to another world full of these mysterious creatures, kept in the possession of Princess Celestia herself. But the information was on a need-to-know basis, and Bon Bon did not have the clearance to know. But it only made her question what exactly Celestia would need a mirror like that for, and why Celestia would know what a human was when no such thing existed in this world before.

She shook her head, and decided that was beyond her pay grade. Bon Bon figured that whatever came, as long as it wasn’t super ridiculous, she could handle it. CD would fix the moon, and that would be the end of it. Simple as that. Nothing about Skaia, or humans, things would just go back to the average day-to-day life. As average as things got in Ponyville, anyways.

Her stomach growled, demanding something other than just coffee to digest. She moved from the window and had a quick glance through her fridge’s contents, only to close it and look at the guest bedroom door. If CD truly was an alien, she’d know a few new recipes, wouldn’t she? She trotted up and knocked on the door gently, trying not to spill her coffee.

"Hey. CD. I'm making breakfast. Want anything?"
No response. Bon Bon didn't like that. She opened the door, and saw the room's walls covered in taped on paper, writings scrawled all over. Drunken ramblings about the moon and it's relation with CD's Skaian powers, and something regarding 'Four Darks Hearts', one of which was found in Appleloosa to the south. Everywhere, in every corner they could get away with it, was a rather ominous conversation between C-Side and Dandy that kept repeating all over the papers.
“i don’t wanna lose this world”
“I don’t want to lose you.”

"Dammit." Bon Bon growled. She turned around and saw one last note on the opposite side of the door.

"@ Bon bon, Lyra,
going 2 Appleloosa
Skaia is here. danger! evil statues across the land
you wouldn't have believed us. have to fix it ourselves. pleas don't tell twilight. or celestia
borrowed some money from rarity to pay 4 train. will repay somehow later. sorry.
-CD"

Bon Bon slowly took the final sip of her coffee, then flopped to the floor and let out a small scream into the floorboards.

“Why- yes, now that you mention it! I did see a grotesque statue flying southward from Twilight’s castle! How did you know?” Rarity said in light shock.
The two special agents had suited up and were asking around, and managed to find a trail that led to Rarity so far. Everything seemed to check out.
"Classified information, Miss Rarity. Technically, you shouldn't know, but there's a lot that you shouldn't know. Just be mindful about what subjects regarding CD you talk about, for your safety. We still don't fully know what she's planning."

"I.. may have an inkling of an idea."

The door to the Carousel Boutique opened, and Rarity hummed her way inside. It was a few minutes since the party had ended.
"Thanks for letting us borrow some paper we- I- we promise to pay you back, I know it's already so late for y'all but we've gotta lotta irons in the fire and I really appreciate it. promise we'll make it up to ya." C-Side blabbered, stumbling into the boutique’s studio behind Rarity. She watched as Rarity dug out a moderate stack of paper from a desk and gave it to her.

"Nonsense, darling! I don't quite know what you'll need paper for, but I'm not going to let a late night need go famished! Besides, what with my studio being my home, I can simply go to bed when you go home- Ah.. will you be able to go home in your stupor? ...Do you have a..?" She gasped with dramatic scandal. "Do you not have a home? Are you using the paper to keep warm on the cold stone streets of Ponyville?! Oh, gracious, darling, no! I simply can't have that!"

"Oh, no no no no no, no no no," CD mumbled over and over, "Bonbon and, Lyra are letting us crash at their place for now until we fix, the moon."
"Oh thank Celestia, that's a relief. Well, should you ever find yourself in such a terrible situation, just know that my boutique is able to house you until you are situated once more - with a delightfully proper home!"

“Yeah.. yeah, a home would be nice.” CD sat as she held the papers to her chest.
“Are you alright, darling?” Rarity asked, approaching CD with tact. She looked Rarity in the eye, little tears welling up.
“I just.. we .. we just want to live a normal life again. I don’t want anything to do with Skaia, or godhood, or making a new universe anymore.”
Rarity strained to find an answer.
“It’s all just.. gone. I can’t go back home, in both the literal and metaphorical sense. That universe- it doesn’t exist anymore. Home stopped being real for us - I was hoping - here might be a good start, but I messed it up - I ruined it - I should stop. I should go. You’ve got more important things to do.” C-Side’s breath was starting to quicken.
“Nonsense, dear! Come with me, I'll make you some tea to help clear your head."
Dandy perked awake at that. "Tea.. Oh that sounds lovely, thank you..!"

"Afterwards, we chatted for about an hour, and I informed her of the train that departs for Appleloosa very early in the morning."
“Why did she need paper from you?”
“Well, after she left, she said something about ‘needing to collect her thoughts'. That's all I know, Miss Heartstrings."

Dandy drifted through the astral plane. She was used to it. Some days, she just didn't feel like waking up at the same time as C-Side. She beat her wings against the starry landscape and soared, letting the essence of the night brush her scales. She kept almost hitting doors that were just floating around aimlessly, like they were supposed to be in order but weren't, though all of them seemed to be locked. She eventually stumbled across one that was open, and wandered in.

Twilight was literally suffocating under paperwork. Scrolls and forms covered every angle of Twilight's vision, and she couldn't escape at all.
"Twilight! Save us!" shouted voices of her friends and beloved fellow princesses through the paper tsunami.
"I can't! I'm so sorry! I can't!" she waited in despair.

Dandy observed the scene through the surfboard she was sitting on, bobbing up and down on the waves. She took another sip of her dreamt up drink, and tossed it into the ocean. She paddled up to where Twilight was struggling to keep her head above the waves, and held out her claw. She grabbed a hold of the princess, and pulled her up onto the surfboard, gently cradling Twilight against her chest, holding her with a grace that implied she had done this hold many times before.

"There ya go, easy now, Princess. Let's get you ashore."
"But- but my friends! Celestia! Luna! Cadence! They're-"
"Twilight, you silly girl, you're in a dream!" It took Twilight a few minutes to recognize who was speaking to her. While she processed what was going on, Dandy continued to row the surfboard with her free claw, towards an island in the sea of paper. Once they reached the shore and climbed off, Dandy stuffed the surfboard in the sand and turned around with a flourish to face the princess, sassily placing her hands on her generous hips and wagging her rather large tail.

"With all due respect Princess, I think your nightmares could be a touch less on the nose. Not even C-Side has dreams this obvious!"
"...Dandy Curacao...?"
"The one and only!"
"Why are you a dragon?"
"Because I am a dragon."
"But.. in the physical world, your body is a pony!"
"Yes, and?"

Twilight sat on that for a moment. She got a good look at Dandy's figure. Instead of Spike's teardrop shape, Dandy was taller, right in between the height of Luna and Celestia, with a figure curved inward like an hourglass. She had purple scales, with a wide cyan highlight that ran down along her neck, chest, belly, and the underside of her tail. She had a set of S-Shaped horns moving up and away from the top of her head, and her eyes were the same red that CD had on her right eye in the real world.
Most confusingly, she was wearing a vermillion tropical shirt with floral patterns.

"You... you're not a pony?" She walked alongside Dandy on the shore as the waves of paper kissed the sand, before receding into the tide.
"I'm as wyrmy as it gets. Ever since I gained consciousness, I've always envisioned myself as such."
"...Huh. Where's C-Side?"
"Oh, she's awake right now.. somewhere in Appleloosa, I think. Can't really check up on her unless I wake up."
"What are you doing in Appleloosa?"
"Don't worry about it, honey. I mean that literally - Judging by the nightmare you just endured, I think it's safe to say you've got a lot going on already. You wanna talk about it?"
Twilight sighed softly. "Yeah. I think I'd appreciate that right now." Dandy turned and led Twilight into a somewhat small beach hut.
The interior, however, was bigger, warmer, cozier, and much more impressive. The floor faded from sand to warm wooden floors, stained a soft gray color. The walls were blue, surrounded by all sorts of comforting furniture for any creature to relax in. There was a bar on the far side of the room, stocked with a few shelves worth of alcohol.

“Welcome to the headspace! This is where I take ourselves whenever we need to shut out the world for a time and breathe. Make yourself at home, Princess!”
Twilight didn’t need further encouragement. She flopped onto a massive beanbag and found herself sinking in deeply, much to her delight. She then sat upright and came to a realization.
"...Oh! Of course, you're using Luna's magic to traverse the land of dreams!"
"Surprised you didn't figure that out earlier." Dandy poured herself a drink - pre-mixed margaritas for lazy dreams. She sat on a couch not far from where Twilight was laying down.
"Wait! Doesn't that mean that nightmares have been running around without Luna's supervision?"
"Mm, yeah, probably."
"What're you doing here?! You need to go and help everypony else!"
"Well, it’s probably daylight out now, and it's only been two and a half seconds since I got here in real-world time. We'll be okay to chat." She smiled, and then considered Twilight’s concerned face. She set aside her drink, and leaned forwards, looking Twilight straight in the eye. “I’ll make sure that C-Side and I look after the dream realm at night. Promise. Now what’s on your mind?” With that, she leaned back onto the couch and crossed her legs, resting one arm on the back of the couch, the other on her leg.

Twilight’s frown didn’t fully disappear. “Well.. it’s just.. right now, everypony in Equestria is coming to me for everything! It’s like they don’t realize there are other ponies they can talk to about civil matters in their local area! I don’t live in Manehattan, but for some reason, at least 10 ponies have come to me about little squabbles like property lines and city ordinances in one day!! I’m great at planning, sure, but it’s getting ridiculous!” Her wings flared up in annoyance. “I’m just.. really tired. And I ran out of the coffee you gave me. That stuff was probably the only reason I was still awake by the end of the day.”

“Hm.. they’re very petty matters, right?” Dandy thoughtfully tapped her fingers on her scales.
“Yes! I don’t understand why! It’s all stuff that I feel like would be better settled by local authorities! ‘Boohoo, my neighbor’s a meanie and won’t let me build a workshop on her property even though she doesn’t use it!’ It’s driving me CRAZY!” She slumped into the beanbag in defeat, tears welling up. “And the worst part is, I’ve been so busy I haven’t been able to see my friends... Even going a few days without them is making me feel so... empty.”

“This is a bit of a jump for a conclusion, so take it with a grain of salt, but.. is it possible they’re coming to you right now because they think they can get away with such ridiculousness?”
“Huh?”
“You’re relatively new for a Princess, no?”
“Yeah.”
“So what could be happening is that people are trying to exploit both your ‘inexperience’, and your station at the same time. They could take advantage of your ruling and say, ‘the Princess royally decreed that I can be as big of an asshole as I like!’”
Twilight was lost in contemplation for a moment, sinking further into the beanbag.
“I hadn’t thought about it like that.”

“I have a question.” Twilight said.
“Shoot.”
“How are you doing this? You’re doing what Luna does to an eerily similar extent - to the point where you can control dreams without even trying. It feels like you’re mastering Luna’s magic at an amazing pace.”
“Well, that’s just a happy accident. I’m a habitual lucid dreamer; did it all the time to bring C-Side back from her own frequent nightmares back in our own world.”
“What would she have nightmares about..?”

Before the conversation could continue, a shrill klaxon rang through the dream. Twilight jolted upright, and gasped.
“My alarm! I’m gonna be late for my meeting with Cadance! I forgot! Dandy, could you-?”

Snap.
Dandy, now alone in the astral realm, recovered her drink and leaned back into the sofa. She took a drink, and was lost in thought for a while.
“I wonder if Luna could use an apprentice.”