Collision Code

by SSJRandomMaster

Rating: teen
Tags: Human, Romance, Adventure
Length: 189471

Four Skype friends wind up in Equestria after a horrific Skype argument. Is it really so bad, guys?

Based on an RP between me and three other friends, Collision Code is a story about four males who are long Skype friends, linked through common hobbies. When two have one of their usual arguments, a strange event occurs, sending all four to Equestria: three of them immediately, and the fourth later on. Due to the means by which they arrived at Equestria-technological as opposed to magical, their situation does appear bad for them on the surface.

On top of being stuck in Equestria, they look the part of natives: one unicorn, one pegasus, one earth pony, and one dragon, with an appropriately aged body for their "human age". They must either find a way home or adapt. But, is their situation really as bad as it seems? Not if Twilight and friends have anything to say about it!

*Reposted from Fanfiction.net*

*Between Season 2 and Season 3*

*Cover image is because none of us in the RP group know how to draw*

*Might be reworked in the near future, might not be*

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-06-23 06:42:46 UTC

Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own My Little Pony. Nope, not even a figure to call my own. Both parts of this statement will never happen. Hasbro owns the show, and I'm sure several of you reading this probably own at least one.

Disclaimer: Any similarities to other fanfictions on this site, or any other, is purely coincidental. If not, author notes will be done.

Warning: This fanfiction is a Human-In-Equestria self-insert fanfiction. To be precise, four humans are sucked in.

Warning: This fanfiction may just contain OOCness in some of the characters, and "slightly off" speaking patterns in some characters. I'm 30 percent sure on the first one.

Warning: This does contain OC X Mane 6 from all four self-inserts, to varying degrees. This does NOT reflect the self-inserts' real-world counterparts' interests... Oh who am I kidding, you'll make the connection anyway. (Mind you, not all Mane 6 members are affected, but it's better to type it that way...)

So now that disclaimers and warnings have been said, on with the show.

Four males, ranging in age from fifteen to twenty, were chatting on a computer program known as Skype. They are all connected through common hobbies: spriting, the act of editing or creating small pictures typically used in sprite animations; animating, the act of using sprites to create cartoons of varying length, usually violent in nature; and writing, which is self-explanatory; what they write being fanfiction, of course.

There is a common trait that all four share to varying degrees as well, and the reason why this story is being told here, of all places: they were bronies. That's right; fans of the new My Little Pony cartoon. All of them had their reasons, but in the end, they were all connected through this as well. Despite this, they'd only watched around ten episodes at most. They had their reasons for not watching more of the show, but it all boiled down to laziness or lack of Internet connection. One or the other.

Of course, since this is in this section, you might already know where this story is going. Well, here's a twist: three of the four humans don't have horrible lives. Rather, they lead at least decent lives. They aren't bullied all the time for whatever reason, be it their body mass, bronyism, or whatever other personality quirks they may hold. When all four of the lives of the humans involved in the incident were summed up and averaged out, that mean would be considered to be slightly below average to average on the scale.

However, I, the narrator of this tale, digress. I have bored you with this setup long enough. It is time for us to begin the tale of these four boys, and how Equestria could well change their lives anyway.

Bwo-wee.

The sound of the Skype chat going off snapped Corey out of his trance. He glanced to his right, and looking down away from his calendar, he looked to his laptop, black in color except for the screen. He'd had this laptop for a year now, and it was still going good. He'd gotten it as a joint graduation-eighteenth birthday gift, even though he didn't graduate until June 6 of that year and his birthday was April Fools' Day.

It was currently March 4, 2012, late at night, slightly past midnight, and the start of his Spring Break. Of the four people in the Skype room he was talking to, he was the only one currently on it. All week, he'd be able to stay up late and sleep in. Despite this, he wanted to try and keep himself disciplined. After all, once this time off was over, he'd have to go back for another 8 weeks straight before summer. And he wasn't sure if he wanted to take summer courses just yet.

Despite his rather misleading appearance: long, messy brown hair; hazel-colored eyes; a corpulent physique; wearing pajamas when not going places; he was actually intelligent, able to score a 4.0 GPA and the Dean's List last semester. However, the trade-off: he was socially awkward and, thanks to high school in general, as well as the politics of his home country, the United States, had become cynical. Other than getting gifts he wanted for Christmas or his birthdays, he rarely smiled. He only had two close friends in real-life, both of whom were aware of his brony status. One male, one female.

However, he couldn't say his life was terrible. He just knew the quality of life was going to take a downturn if things kept the way they were, and his cynicism and naivete weren't helping him anyway. With all of this considered, he needed some time to decompress and just be himself. And not study worth a crap.

"Hm. Saskes is getting off for the night, huh?" he asked, an Xbox 360 controller in his hands as he read the writing.

"Kaxle: and im going to bed," a comment which was just added at about 12:15 AM. Kaxle, or Saskes was a friend whose real-life name was John. He was one or two years older than Corey was, and a fellow college student. He'd been able to score Dean's List repeatedly throughout his semesters, but Corey knew nothing else of his real life.

Bwo-wee. Bwo-wee.

Two more messages came in. One of them was from a user named VaniX, or, as Corey preferred to refer to him as: TK, short for Toonking911. His real name was Ivan. It was about 9:15 PM where he was living, due to time zones. Unlike John, Corey knew a little bit about Ivan's real life. He had siblings, and strict parents. Ivan was fifteen years old, and unlike Corey, wasn't a hard worker, which irritated the latter slightly when it came to school. However, recent circumstances had come up in Ivan's real life that were hindering him when it came to the many projects they shared. He still pressed on, seemingly not wanting to give up despite his motivation getting shot up.

The other was from a user named LeXon, or, as Corey would remember him, Gohan2535. He was the first of the three he'd met, way back when his sprite series was just text. With his help, it made the full jump from text to animation; mostly because Corey's cousin was completely unable to keep up with Corey's lack of other things to occupy his free time. His real name was Noel, but he apparently detested his name, once saying he preferred the name Leo or Leon in one of these chats. Corey didn't know much of Noel's life other than what he was told.

"VaniX: cya" and "LeXon: cya" were pretty much the contents of the messages. Afterward, Kaxle's status was set to Offline, indicating he'd gotten off for the night. With a shrug, Corey turned back to his game, an entry from one of his favorite franchises: Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. It was a game set in 1974 dealing with the aftermath of events that took place in Metal Gear Solid 3 and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops while setting up events in the other games in the series.

The Skype sounds occasionally went off in rapid fire. Every now and again, Corey would type a response to a few statements. After taking a brief step out of the room to get some Kool-Aid, bypassing all implications brought on by such an activity, he began to wonder aloud to himself.

"...I wonder if leaving those two alone was the brightest move..." he mumbled, sipping down some Tropical Punch.

Boo-beep.

The "file sent" sound came from Skype. Ivan looked upon this file with little more than a listless glare. He was not looking forward to going to school tommorrow morning. His Spring Break was not for another month. LeXon had just sent him a picture file entitled "Makuta MLP".

As part of one of Corey's recent fanfictions, Makuta had been altered to the art style of the cartoon, having a lighter pastel-colored outline around him. At least, when he was planned to be a part of the project. Makuta was a Namek, based off of Nail from Dragonball Z, and having the same clothing as the base.

Ivan himself had the same hair as Corey, long, brown, messy. His eyes were blue. Since he still had some time left before he would have to get to bed, he was still wearing a blue hoodie and blue jeans. He also still had his shoes on. His face hardly regarded any emotion as he clicked the "Save As" button on Skype. He was thin, easily the most athletic out of the four Skype friends, able to nearly scale a gutter...

and suffering a hell of a gash on his hand in the process. His hand was bandaged up from that incident.

The download progressed...ten percent, twenty percent...thirty...forty...fifty...before stopping at sixty. Ivan's face barely pulled into a grimace. His internet had another one of its seizures. During this seizure, he decided to read a random file that Corey had sent him once. After a few minutes, his internet came back on. He typed what had happened into Skype and re-started the download.

Boo-beep, bleep.

This time, the file download was successful, the blue bar having made its full progress from left to right without major incident. The "Save As" and "Cancel" buttons were replaced with a single "Open File" button. As soon as he clicked it, he saw a gruesome image. Let's just say it involved Cupcakes, the quintessential MLP creepypasta, Pinkie Pie, a knife, and Makuta. It was a truly disgusting picture, and Ivan's face contorted into a suppressed expression of shock.

"Oh my fucking--" he yelled, a little bit louder than he intended to. And by a "little bit", I really mean "a lot".

"What was that?!" a voice from downstairs called up after him. Ivan shook his head momentarily, blinked once, then responded.

"Uh, nothing Mom," Ivan spoke up, gritting his teeth. He was visibly angry, even though Noel couldn't see the anger in his face. But he could make him see the anger in his typing.

"LeXon: Before you say anything...it's SSJ's fault.." was the latest message he typed. Ivan knew Corey wouldn't do anything so...depraved. The worst Corey had done was read creepypasta and link it. In that way, it was his fault, but in all other accounts, no.

"VaniX: Fuck you Gohan, just...fuck you."

Corey blinked, turning back from his game once more to Skype. He saw Gohan's message. He tried to click the "Save As" button, to see what Ivan had seen, but to Corey's chagrin, Noel had cancelled the download before he could start it. His brow furrowed in annoyance as the two began to argue.

Bwo-wee. Bwo-wee. Bwo-wee. Bwo-wee. Bwo-wee. Bwo-wee. Bwo-wee. Bwo-wee.

The noises from Skype were irritating Corey, but he didn't know how to stop them from fighting. But he knew deep down that if this kept up, Noel would take another painfully long leave of absence, stalling any projects he was involved in. Two with Corey, one or two spriting-related projects with John...and that would not fall on his hands because he didn't try to stop the argument. He paused Peace Walker for a few moments, turning to his laptop.

His fingers worked the keyboard at a speed of nearly one hundred words per minute. As soon as his message was done, he pressed enter on his keyboard.

"CyreoX: Alright, what happened?" Corey too, had "Nobodied" his name in the style of Kingdom Hearts as his Skype name for the time being, since everyone else was doing it.

"VaniX: Gohan here made a picture of Pinkie Pie...heavily Cupcakes-inspired...You know what, just see for yourself..."

Right now, Corey was really feeling like a tool for linking Gohan to that creepypasta. Even when he himself developed an obsession for a Pokemon creepypasta, known as "Lost Silver". The protagonist from the second generation games was picked apart bit-by-bit by the creatures from the game; specifically, the species that had always unnerved him. But this isn't about Pokemon, is it?

"LeXon: I don't know what you're talking about."

At this point, Ivan and Noel went right back to fighting again. Corey didn't know how to stop them, so he shrugged and went back to his game. He had tried to stop their feuding. But from the looks of the file, he could only discern that, based on Ivan's testimony, Noel had made an image where Pinkie was mauling Makuta, in the style of Cupcakes. Just as he finished the level, he discovered that his old friend had told VaniX to "SHUT THE FUCK UP" all on seperate lines, and then said a chilling line.

"LeXon: You know what? Maybe you're worth hacking!"

Corey knew that Noel had some hacking capabilities. He'd heard a few stories, and now, it appeared that Ivan was about to be a real victim. Noel had immediately gone silent, no doubt doing something related to his latest threat. Or was it a promise?

"I tried to diffuse the situation..." he mumbled to himself. "They can't be in the same room with each other...they might actually come to blows..."

"VaniX: What are you gonna do? Leave for a couple months? I would hardly call that a punishment." Ivan typed into Skype, but no response from Noel. No doubt the latter was typing furiously...or really fixing to take another long leave of absence. Minutes passed. Corey had to say something, so he finally shut off his game, having done what he felt was a suitable amount of gameplay, and returning his attention to Skype fully.

"CyreoX: I think you really have scared him off for another month or so...he's AFK'ing hardcore." Corey typed into Skype.

"VaniX: At this point, I don't give a shit." Was Ivan's response. Corey palmed his face, when suddenly, he heard a sound.

Boo-beep.

The file was named "FUMFBAMF!!!" Corey didn't care about the acronym enough, but he had to say something. He began to type a message, informing him that Noel had used the wrong Skype room, when suddenly, he noticed something that scared him. Though he wasn't using his wireless mouse or the mousepad on his laptop, the pointer was moving to the "Save As" button on its own...

"Does he really think--" Ivan started, but didn't finish his sentence, for, just like with Corey's case, his pointer moved on its own to download the file, and somehow, clicked the "Save As" button automatically. What really surprised him, though, was the fact that the normally blue download bar was instead a crimson color. The percentage count climbed to forty percent.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Ivan mumbled. Cracks started to appear immediately around the bar, as though they were normally there. But his computer itself seemed to be working normally. The percent count then went to seventy, and Ivan grit his teeth. "Sure, now my internet isn't having a seizure..."

The crack seemed to be spreading as the download progessed. When the count passed seventy-five, the screen seemed to be developing ripples, and by ninety percent, it was wobbling violently...

"What kind of file is this?!" Ivan grunted to himself.

Corey's internet, being better than that of Ivan's, had already passed ninety percent. The red loading bar, the spreading cracks, the ripples and wobbles all worried him. However, the count had stopped at ninety-nine percent. The screen was wobbling, and the cracks nearly occupied all the screen. However, to the boy's surprise, his computer worked absolutely normally, despite the obvious fact that the file Noel had sent was malicious in nature. It hacked Skype to the point that all recipients' mouses would automatically download it, but what else the file did was a mystery.

Corey wondered if Ivan had finished the download, when suddenly, the download finished, the sound effect playing twice over. The wobbling stopped, but the cracks spread to all the screen. Corey tried the mouse and keyboard, and both responded normally.

"N-nothing...!?" Corey grunted in surprise. "...What kind of hack is this..."

Suddenly, the screen once again resumed wobbling, but only for a few seconds, for the screen seemed to shatter inward, forming a vortex visual effect. But Corey's surprise didn't end there: the vortex began to suck him in. His hair and clothes billowed against the suction, and finally he was lifted straight off his bed, going into the vortex! Corey screamed in response.

The pain he felt was insurmountable as he passed into it. He felt his body shrink in size overall, his skeleton and spine re-arranging themselves. His head began to throb. His nerves became overloaded with agony, and he blacked out...

"Shit!!"

Ivan had entered the exact same portal at the exact same time, and underwent similar symptoms. Though his head didn't hurt, his whole body felt like it was morphing right before his eyes...if they weren't shut from the sheer pain he was experiencing. Like Corey, he too blacked out after some time in the strange vortex.

"D-damn it...Gohan...!" he said, right as he lost consciousness.

Little did either of them know, Noel, or "Gohan", had also been pulled in as well. He had created the same file, and the file had somehow run itself as soon as Corey and Ivan's download's finished. Pain had shot through his body, and his shoulderblades seemed to fill with the most pain out of his body. And just like his friends, he too, had blacked out.

That code wasn't a hack code at all...or at least, not one for hacking computers exclusively. It was more of a collision code, one that causes worlds to collide...

None of the boys know what lies ahead for them...

Act 1 Chapter 1

Act I: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 1: Migraines, Back Pains, and Tiredness

As Corey floated back into consciousness, he was dully aware that his head still hurt like no other. Also, even though his vision was highly unfocused, he was seeing a brightly colored blur. It was green. It actually sort of felt like he was lying down face first in the grass. He commanded his legs to stand, but something felt weird. His arms also weren't responding the best either to his commands. In fact, his entire body felt alien to him. He tried to pull himself up on his feet, but something wasn't right. His face felt as though it were stuck to the ground.

"What the h--" He whispered, but abruptly halted midsentence. He would not pursue this train of thought. His vision began to focus, and while discovering that he was in fact staring in the ground, the ground seemed brighter than normal. Trying to push himself up again, this time bringing his arms into full view. Only...his arms seemed a lot greener than usual. No...not arms. They weren't arms at all...they looked more like...pony forelegs?! Just as this dawned on him, he heard something hitting the ground behind him, as though falling from a standing position.

"Agh! The light!!" A familiar voice broke him out of his thoughts, but Corey realized that he still needed to get unstuck from this ground. He struggled against the ground, trying desperately to pull whatever it was that had him stuck out of the ground.

"Urgh...!" He tried once, with a sharp grunt, but still nothing. He pulled again, another sharp grunt.

"It's like the Sun!!" called out a second familiar voice. Corey tried again. This time, he put all of his body weight, a considerable amount, and began pulling as hard as his body could muster.

"Come on...get out of the ground...!" Corey groaned loudly, more to himself than anything. He continued to tug and pull.

"Was that...SSJ...?!" said the second familiar voice in clear shock.

"...SSJ...is that...!?" the first familiar voice said. There was a pause. "T...K...?!" This time, the first voice sounded both pissed and shocked.

"...You...! Oh...God no..." The second familiar voice groaned back. "What...did...you...do...?!"

"Gohan...? Toonking...? Is that...?" Corey asked, giving the next pull one hundred and ten percent of his effort. At last, whatever was stuck came loose, and the shock of pulling it out caused the boy to hobble backwards on his legs. Though, Corey wasn't stupid--by this point, he knew what had happened to him, at least. His legs weren't meant for this anymore, since they were now his hind legs. His body couldn't take the strain, forcing him to fall backwards on his back.

As he lay there, on his back, the boy took a good look at himself to process exactly what he looked like. Unsurprisingly, his body had the physical texture of a marshmallow, as far as his added body fat was concerned. He had bright green fur, and looking past his hind legs, Corey could only guess that his mane color was the same as his tail's, a dark green color. And much like the rest of the characters that were this way, he was not wearing a single article of clothing on his body. Forcing himself to get a good look at what got him stuck before, he saw a sharp, green object poking out of his forehead. A horn. No wonder his head hurt.

"...I'm a..." Corey started, but then he looked back towards the voices. He looked to his left, and saw a silver-furred pony, with white hair and red eyes. Also, while this pony didn't have clothing, he had wings. The wings looked...different from the other pegasi Corey had seen in the show that he now knew he was an unwilling part of. They seemed to have "spikier" feathers. Also, the face of this pony seemed to be...rounded. Like the female characters.

"Oh fff--" This pony had Noel's voice, a distinctive Latino twist to it, and definitely male in nature. Like Corey's swear, Noel's was also cut off midsentence. "--I think my coding may have been off."

"You two are...?" the second voice came. Corey knew who this was, and turned to see a smaller, reddish-brown pony with blue eyes. His mane and tail were a darker variant of his fur color. Also, unlike either of the other two humans-turned-ponies, he was actually wearing an article of clothing-a blue hoodie, which had probably been retained by Ivan during the jump. Also, his ears were down as opposed to pointing up like Noel's. Oddly enough, his hooves were actually a pale tan color, visible. He seemed to look down at himself. "Oh God...I'm a...!"

"...P-ponies...we're ponies..." Noel said. The three let this realization sink in for a few moments, during which Corey's frustration with the current situation finally shone through, his expression sinking into its natural scowl. He'd even ruined one of his school photos with it because he thought he was smiling.

"Jiminy Christmas, Christmas! What the h...h--!!! ...HECK...did you just do?!" Corey yelled, struggling to roll on his belly so he could try to stand back up. The body fat he retained was not making it any easier for him. After about fifteen seconds, the former human, now a unicorn, was back on his stomach, struggling to stand on his four feet.

"..." Noel gave a gesture of thought, then a lightbulb went off in his head. And above it, for approximately two seconds, before it vanished into thin air. Corey immediately identified this as a part of cartoon physics, but was going to wait and see where his friend went with his thought. "Hold on, let me try something..." He cocked his left foreleg back, and quite unexpectedly let Ivan have a bitchslap. Or, in this particular case, it'd be called a "bitchhoof". Ivan, being the smaller pony, fell to the ground as a result of this. "Nope, didn't work."

"Christmas!!" Corey scolded, using the English translation of Noel's name as an insult.

"My name isn't Christmas!" Noel yelled back. Corey, realizing the kind of crap that got the three where they are now, decided to take a few deep breaths, to try and calm himself down. It wasn't working, however. He was maybe an hour from going to bed before this happened, and he did not appreciate the wake-up call, since the only reason he was so wide awake now was shock-fueled adrenaline.

"Okay, Noel," Ivan said, clearly pissed from the uncalled-for attack, "What the f...FFF---! Buck! Did you do to get us here?"

"...For the love of God...call me Leo or Leon..." Noel requested. Corey would have pointed out that he wasn't necessarily in such a position to make requests, but decided it wouldn't be prudent. All three of them were clearly aggravated by the situation already...

Alright then, douche, I'll call you 'Leo', now why the Hell am I a unicorn? Why the Hell are you a pegasus, and why the Hell were we sent here? Corey thought to himself.

"...Seems the V-chip is in full effect here..." the lime-colored unicorn noted aloud. "None of us are able to swear. Maybe us being able to say 'God' is a glitch in the system."

"...Hold on..." Ivan said. He looked from Noel--Leo, to Corey, then back. Then his eyes crossed, as he tried to look at his forehead. Then, he looked back, to where his shoulderblades would be if he were human, and frowned. "Great. That's just AWESOME." His voice was dripping with sarcasm. "I got the short end of the stick here. Corey, you can cast magic--"

"Not yet, I can't...I'm  not going to attempt to right now, either." Corey cut in, but Ivan continued on his rant.

"--and NOEL, you can fly..."

"I said, call me Leo, da--darn it!" Noel, now officially re-named Leo, swore back.

"We're g-getting sidetracked." Corey was quickly realizing what was happening. He was meeting the two of them for the first time in person now, and...well, his social awkwardness was kicking in, now that he didn't necessarily have a monitor to hide behind. "N--" He halted, corrected himself mid-sentence. "Leo...what the heck were you doing?"

While Leo paused to think for real this time, the unicorn cast a glance up to the sky. No rainbow spying on them, or approaching. Good, wouldn't want any...well, any pony from the show eavesdropping.

"Wait a minute..." Leo's expression immediately became intertwined with exhilaration and terror. "We're ponies now, aren't we?! You know where I sent us?"

"How DID you send us--" Ivan attempted to interrupt.

"I'd better not run into--"

"Leo." Corey was trying his damned hardest not to impale his friend, who from his perspective was acting like a real dick right now, on his newly grown horn, and instead gritted his teeth in anger, the top of his head starting to itch somewhat, as it sometimes did when he got stressed. His legs wobbled somewhat as he took unsteady steps forward. "Stop obsessing over the dang creepypasta and get on with your explanation as to how you sent us to Equestria."

"Irony...." said the former human-turned Earth pony, but that was soon put aside in favor of Leo finally getting on with the explanation.

"Right, well, anyway..." Leo said. "You know how I can hack things, right?"

The two nodded.

"Well, this has nothing to do with that." Leo continued, looking from pony to pony. "Shocking, yes, I know, but I got the code from a random e-mail. I didn't recognize the address, but...I looked at the source code. I was feeling creative that day, so I tested it on an anime universe with a friend, and it worked. We then closed the circuit by using one of the computers there, and found our way back, safe and sound."

Corey's stomach turned somewhat. If someone else out there had a code like that, it could mean censorship on a whole new level. He immediately imagined the code falling into a certain anti-video game activist's hands, and stepped back.

"Bullsh--" Ivan started. Apparently he'd forgotten he couldn't swear while in Equestria. Not because Princess Celestia or her sister would get offended, but because it was physically impossible to say them. "BullSSSSSSHHH--you know what, bullhonkey, Noel, bullhonkey."

Unsurprisingly, Leo bitchhoofed Ivan to the ground a few moments after saying that. Corey tried to put his hoof to his face, but quickly realized him going on three legs at this moment would not be the best way to prevent his horn from getting caught in other things.

"Anyway," Leo continued, as though uninterrupted. "As I discovered, this code can not only send us into any universe, but any continuity of that universe. So...we could have even wound up in a fanfiction universe by complete accident, or even the future of the main continuity, past episodes not even released yet...OR, we could have ended up in the past, before the 'Mane 6' were even born...or, even the Cupca--"

Corey couldn't restrain himself. He rushed up to Leo, forgetting in his rush that he wasn't quite used to his new body quite yet. Normally, Corey wouldn't have given two shits about the mention of creepypasta, but the conditions he was under now were in no way normal. He was agitated that he was in this world, in the body he was currently in, and on top of it, the only thing keeping him suitably awake was adrenaline anyway. So, when Corey attempted to power-walk up to Leo, realizing where he was going with that tangent and intending to throttle him for it, he lost his balance, and stumbled past his friends, embedding his horn in a tree, somehow in at least a decent standing position.

"Dang it all!" Corey grumbled, struggling against the tree. "Stuck again...!"

"Corey, what the heck--wait...What the--?" Leo asked, as though seeing something that he'd missed.

"I know I have a weight issue, you two don't have to make it a talking point!" the green unicorn grunted, trying his hardest to pull out of the tree again.

"Corey," Ivan said, apparently having seen the same thing Leo just did. "It's not that...there's no not-awkward way to say this...but...you have a blender...on your..." He hesitated. "....Your cutie mark...it's a blender!"

"What?!" Corey said, struggling even harder. It was then, he felt something clamp down on his tail, and pull hard, somehow dislodging him from the tree. "...Leo...?!" He turned, to see his friend appear to be spitting out several hairs.

"No homo..." was Leo's response. He appeared to be laughing on the inside at the blender that was now etched onto the green unicorn's rear end on both sides.

"...Well, I can't cook..." the former human thought aloud, looking upon the blender. "...Could it have something to do with my imagination? My 'blender-brain'?"

"How is that going to help us here?" Ivan asked. "...What is mine...?" He turned his head to look. "...A tree...? What the he--ck does that have to do with me? I'm not a nature lover..."

"Could have to do with your skill at Parkour..." Leo started. "You know, other than getting your hand f--" He halted, crossing his eyes for a moment in irritation that he couldn't swear anymore. "messed up."

Ivan scowled, "You know, if the faculty wasn't coming in, I would have had it!"

"Excuses, excuses..."

"Shut up and look at your back end already."

Corey sighed, irritated with the previous exchange. Were they going to drive each other--and by extension, him--up the wall until they got home, or until something turned up? He asked himself this question as Leo finally decided to see what his mark was.

"...A yin-yang symbol?" Leo questioned. "Martial arts...?" He grinned. "Ivan..."

"What?" Ivan asked.

"Hold still for a sec..." A few moments later, Leo struck Ivan between the eyes lightly, causing Ivan to cross his eyes. "I CAN still hit pressure points after all..."

The green unicorn knew what the silver pegasus had just done. He had struck one of Ivan's pressure points, not to kill, but to cause some slight irritation all the same. It was some martial arts that he had picked up from one of his friends-Dim Mak, or "Death Touch". It revolved around striking pressure points to deliver various detrimental effects to the target. Why he was trying that on Ivan, Corey didn't have the foggiest idea. But Leo's repeated attacks on Ivan were really starting to get old. Well, they already were old, and had since reached ancient status.

"Ok, seriously, buck off, Noel!" Ivan yelled again. "I'm leaving now..."

"Where?" Corey asked. "We've got to stick together...we don't know the--"

"Ah, forget about him!" Leo shouted back, in an obvious mocking tone. "If he gets himself killed, that's his problem...he is, after all, about as useful as Yamcha..."

This got the two of them bickering yet again. This time, in person. Well, not literally "in person" because they were ponies now, but you get what I mean. Corey scowled, and resisted every urge in his body to bury his face in his hooves, lest he get stuck in the ground again. His legs were still wobbling under his feet, given that he wasn't used to walking or standing on four.

As for Leo's comment, it has a lot to do with an anime that all three of them enjoy to varying degrees: Dragonball Z. The joke being that the character, Yamcha, is about as useful as electricity during a power outage, and such applied to the power-less Ivan, who was an earth pony and didn't have any real powers other than possibly retaining his Parkour in his pony body.

The green unicorn turned his attention away from his friends, utterly disgusted by the antics, stumbling a little on his feet.

Jesus--wait, I can swear in my mind? ...Anyway, just perfect...They're going to argue until they kill each other! I'll be stuck here forever if Leo gets himself severely hurt, and Ivan still has a life to go back to! So do I...though not much of one given my "Internet nerd" status... Corey mentally spoke, his eyes closed in thought. I mean, sure, some students do want a vacation...but this is like a *super-vacation*... He opened his eyes, and spotted something familiar in the distance. A village, brightly-colored buildings, and he could make out a couple of unidentifiable flying objects, though he assumed those were pegasus ponies conducting the clouds. Ponyville!

"Say what you want, it's not my fault we're stuck here, it's yours, Ivan!" Leo shouted, breaking Corey's trance.

"You silver-furred...Richard-head!" Ivan swore creatively, as "Dick" is somehow short for "Richard" in the English language. "If you'd have kept your anger at bay--"

"This time I'm gonna--"

"Guys!" Corey cut in, breaking the silence before things got messy. "I see a village over there...could be Ponyville. I say we go there now before you guys drive me up the wall and down it again."

"I don't see the point with Noel making fun of me every 35 SECONDS..." Ivan gritted his teeth.

"I think you both better cool it. No--Leo," Corey started, still not quite used to the name change, Ivan's anger not helping any. "Is there any chance of us getting home?"

"...There's a very good chance we may never get home, Corey." Leo said. "I mean, there's no computers. Like I said, I need to input the code from the 'receiving' universe; that is, here, in order to 'close the circuit'. Otherwise, we'd just be sucked right back in the instant we went within about three feet of our computers..."

"I'm going to begin shunning you for the rest of the time here..." Ivan spoke up, clearly beyond agitated at this announcement.

"So we'd better get to Ponyville then. There has to be something here for us to do in the meantime...we'll figure out more when we get there." Corey said, picking up a wobble as he began to walk. Leo started grunting, so Corey turned to see the silver pegasus attempting to utilize his new wings.

He was failing miserably though. A few flaps later, Leo fell flat on his ass.

"Ow...I guess I'd better practice hovering on the way..." He observed, walking past Corey, without even so much as apologizing for his earlier behavior. The green unicorn merely shrugged and turned to Ivan, who began lowering his head, but he didn't seem to be moving much.

"You coming, Ivan?" Corey asked.

Ivan was tired and in shock...and very pissed-off at what was happening. First, he was sucked in his computer, turned into a pony, and woke up in Equestria. Not a world he minded being in, but at the same time, he vastly preferred being bipedal. Plus, he was the only one of the three to not have any specific power. Except Parkour, but that really could only get him so far. To add injury to insult, Leo kept hitting him whenever possible, even testing out martial arts on him.

It's not like I have a serious problem with him...but Noel is being a serious asshole. He gets us stuck here, keeps hitting me, and doesn't apologize for any of it, even blames me for getting us here! This is going to be a real stretch of time. Ivan thought. But as long as one of us keeps his cool, I think we'll make it through this...oh God...

Ivan yawned, having felt it coming during his mental monologue. The adrenaline in his veins must have already fizzled out on him. Blaming Noel for this due to the uncalled-for pressure point strike, Ivan looked briefly to Corey, who had waited.

"Yeah...coming..."

And so, the three former humans, now a green unicorn, a silver pegasus, and a brown Earth pony with a hoodie, began to make their way to Ponyville. Along the way, Leo would attempt a little more flight, each time getting slightly better at hovering than the last. Ivan would seem to stop moving for a few seconds, but quickly start following along again. Corey was walking along at a relatively slow pace, to avoid getting his horn caught in things.

The heroes followed the path, through thick and thin woods. They started to pass a few ponies, indicating they were getting close.

And thus their descent into the chaotic and yet serene world of Equestria began...

Just so you know, I'm uploading the prologue and the first two chapters. That way, we actually meet canon ponies. I'd feel guilty otherwise.

Act 1 Chapter 2

Act I: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 2: An Agreement, Tested

The walk to Ponyville should have been grueling to Corey, given that he was not by any means known for exercise. Hell, when he was a kid, walking while trick-or-treating was exhausting to him, and back then he was actually thin. His stamina had always been nothing less than absolute crap. But now that he was a pony...still hobbling along, mind you, he noticed there was a marked difference in stamina, as far as trotting was concerned. After about twenty minutes of following the path since they started moving, they noticed a few ponies here and there. They were getting close to Ponyville.

"We're almost there..." Corey noted, looking up briefly from the walk to address his friends.

"Ungh...ugh..." Leo grunted, having practiced hovering with his wings during the trip to Ponyville. He was actually able to do it, though he was still showing some strain in using his wings to perform the task. "...Okay...I think I've got hovering down..."

"...Good for you..." came Ivan's listless response. The green unicorn was alarmed by his friend's change in tiredness, but passed it off as adrenaline fading. Now that he thought about it, Corey realized the adrenaline was starting to fade out in his bloodstream. He would probably need a nap before long, but Corey wasn't sure if Ivan was going to fall asleep standing up before a plan of action could be reached. But first thing was first, Corey needed to secure an agreement. There was something that needed to be addressed, something relating to where they were now.

"N--Leo, Ivan, listen carefully." The former human looked up. Ivan sleepily looked up to him, his eyes clearly bagged.

"Yeah, what is it?" asked the brown earth pony as he appeared to nod off. Leo said nothing, merely looking to Corey.

"Come over here...don't want any..." Corey halted himself midsentence, brow furrowing. He didn't exactly like the puns in Equestria, given that no one back on Earth said "anyhuman" or "everyhuman", but if the trio was going to remain somewhat incognito for the moment, he was going to have to suck it up and deal with the Equestrian grammar. "...pony...to listen in..."

Ivan staggered just a little as he trotted up to Corey, apparently already used to his body as far as walking on four legs was concerned, in spite of his tiredness. Leo tried to hover at a slow pace to Corey, but when he fell flat on his ass again, drawing the attention of a few nameless background ponies, the silver pegasus quickly walked up.

"So what is it, then?" Leo asked.

"I don't think it'd be a good idea for us to let any of these ponies know they're..." his voice dropped to an even lower whisper. "...Ivan, you awake?"

"...Go on, I'm awake." Ivan reassured, though right afterward, he yawned.

"Good." Leo answered.

"Leo, not now..." Corey whispered in an agitated manner. "...we can't let them know they aren't real. It may seem like a good idea to be truthful...but...I think that if they find out..." Ivan yawned again, even worse than last time. "Stay with me! ...that...in our eyes, they're...fictional, we might get cast into a world without meaning or rules."

"You mean subspace, right?" Ivan cut in.

"Yes, that." Corey responded. He didn't want to run the risk of ending up there, not when he had a life to go back to. Floating around in a white void was not his idea of eternal vacation. "You two get what I mean, right?"

Both Ivan and Leo nodded.

"So what are we gonna do about our real problem, then? You know, the part where we're stuck in a non-high-tech world, but we need high-tech to get back?" Leo asked.

"We'll discuss this more in the city limits..." Corey responded. "Let's get the rest of the way in there, before my body decides to return to its normal stamina levels...let me tell you, that's a horrible level of stamina to have..."

Corey and Leo began to walk towards the city limits. They got about fifty feet, when both realized that Ivan's hoofsteps weren't being heard behind them.

"Ivan?" Corey asked.

"Yamch--I mean, Ivan?" Leo asked. A moment later, they heard a loud thud, like something falling over facefirst. Just as Corey began to turn his head, he heard the same sound. He fully circled his head around, and immediately wanted to rub his eyes.

Right there, in front of a dozing Ivan, was a light pink-furred Earth pony with a dark pink mane and tail, that poofed out as though inflated like a balloon. She was in the exact same pose as he was, rump raised in the air, chin on ground, forelegs straight as a ruler, trailing behind the pony. Corey was incredibly curious as to how this would play out, and thus circled around to a side view.

"Corey! No...! She'll--!" Leo whispered in fear.

"Leo...what did we just talk about..." Corey responded, and with that, the silver pegasus reluctantly followed Corey's lead. Confirming this pony's identity once and for all were the cyan eyes, but also the cutie mark: the party balloons, one cyan, two yellow.

Pinkie Pie, not only the quintessential logic-defying pony, based on what Corey had seen, but the most cartoonish out of all the leads as well. She also was insanely hyperactive on top of it all, making her abilities to break logic magnified tenfold. So once he considered exactly what had happened in the two seconds it took for him and Leo to circle around, he wasn't surprised at this. Pinkie's smile was normal, not showing teeth, but clearly happy.

"...It would be Ivan that would be first..." And Pinkie was also the character in Cupcakes that maimed and killed another one of the lead characters, which is why Leo was having a sudden, massive burst of paranoia right about now.

"...Leo, I swear to God..." Corey groaned through clenched teeth, his natural scowl in full force as he hung his head in an agitated manner.

"Wakey-wakey..." Pinkie said to Ivan, strangely not noticing either the new unicorn or new pegasus in town straight away. Apparently she thought Ivan's pose was awesome even though he was clearly falling over dead tired. "Day's still young, the hills are alive, and you're new here..."

How in the hell did she not notice us...? Corey thought. ...Corey, Pinkie Pie. You'd be better off wondering why cows go "Moo".

Ivan seemed to oblige to Pinkie's command, his eyes fluttering open. As soon as he caught sight of Pinkie, he gave a surprised look, the bags under his eyes seeming to vanish. At the same time, Pinkie's smile widened, showing her perfectly white teeth.

"...'Sup." Evidently, Ivan could only think of one thing to say in this situation, the look of surprise fading away into a smile, though not nearly as wide as Pinkie's. One of the brown pony's eyes trailed over in Corey's direction, and then he nodded over to them. Pinkie looked from him to his friends, and immediately began counting...in her own special way.

"One..." she slid one of her hooves out in front of her, "Two..." the other foreleg came up, pointing straight in Corey's direction. "Three?!" Her tail circled around and pointed directly at Leo, who gasped and tried to duck for cover behind the fat green unicorn. Meanwhile, Pinkie gave a sudden, sharp inhale with an impossibly high jump to boot, her "new pony" gasp from the very first episode, and darted off, leaving behind a Pinkie Pie-shaped dust cloud in her wake.

"W-well, at least I'll be the last to die..." said the silver former human. Ivan and Corey both ignored his creepypasta bellyaching, the latter of whom became very nervous, the feeling working its way into his scowl.

"Oh...oh man...unavoidable social contact imminent..." Corey, being the socially awkward one of the trio of former humans, knew exactly what Pinkie had just dashed off to do. Preparations for a "Welcome to Ponyville" party. While he knew there likely wouldn't be a way around meeting the ponies anyway, he also knew that he detested social gatherings. Too much noise. "Let's move into the city limits and...find out what we want to do..."

Leo and Ivan didn't object to this, the former still scared to death by the encounter with Pinkie and the latter at least somewhat awake for the moment. Then again, being personally greeted by a fictional character would wake just about anybody up, regardless of whether or not you liked them. Corey himself was experiencing a slight level of euphoria at realizing exactly what happened himself, but knew there were more important matters to deal with. So as soon as they reached a suitable intersection, Corey immediately turned to the pegasus and earth pony that accompanied him.

"Alright, we're in the city...so, what do we do now that we're here, that relates to our ultimate problem of being here and our need to get back home?" The green unicorn gave the problem statement in the form of a question, wondering if his friends had any ideas before he would pitch his own. He spoke in a hushed voice, making sure no background ponies could overhear them. "Either of you got any ideas?"

"...I vote we go find a bed..." Ivan cut in. Corey suddenly felt the pull of gravity on his horn increase tenfold as he hung his head in an emotional state only describable as "what-are-you-thinking". "I need a nap more than anything else."

"But you just woke up after exposure to..." Corey's voice dropped lower. "...Pinkie Pie..."

"Well, is she here right now?" Right as Ivan made this observation, the bags returned below his eyes and he looked as though he were about to nod off at any moment. "Her energy just wore off..."

"You don't say..." Corey scowled, "No...Leo, how about you?"

"You first..." Leo said. "I don't think my idea's that good..."

"...Okay..." He wasn't quite ready to reveal his own idea, but the green unicorn decided to put his inhibitions aside. "...Well, I think we should find the library...find Twilight...she might know something on how to get us back."

"Twilight" referred to another character from the show, a purple unicorn who specialized in the use of magic. She did almost nothing but study and occasionally question Pinkie Pie's logic, so Corey had a feeling she might know something about it.

"That's a total shot in the dark, Corey," Leo cut in, basically shitting all over his fellow former human's idea. "For one thing, we can't just expect her to believe us. Have you looked at us? We look like we belong here..." There was a certain air of euphoria detectable in the silver pegasus's words, but Corey willfully ignored it, pissed at how his idea was shot down in flames.

Ivan, despite his sleepy haze, was able to tune in to the conversation. Perhaps Pinkie's energy hadn't completely left him yet. Usually he'd have passed out due to how tired he was by now, but there was something about the current situation that was forcing him to stay somewhat awake. He tried to avoid nodding off during the conversation.

"Well, alright then, Leo, you got a better idea? Since you seem to think you do..." Corey cut in, his scowl returning.

"Let me try this again..." Leo responded. A moment later, Ivan felt the stinging caress of Leo's hooves on his face again. Ivan stumbled, but stopped himself from falling over, but barely. "Nope, nothing."

"Leo...!" Corey's voice was wavering with unspoken anger, but he tried to whisper his statement. "Keep this...this...manure up, and the instant I learn magic, I'm gonna telekinetically throw you into the ground until I start to feel physical pain..."

Apparently, this got the silver former human to stop screwing around, his eyes widening. Corey's anger was a rare sight, at least as far as Skype conversations went. So Leo obliged to Corey's threat, and immediately went on suggesting his course of action.

"Well, um, in that case..." the silver former human began. "How about we get to know...the locals? The...ponilians...?!" He was smiling and laughing. Ivan knew this idea was ridiculous, and probably even indicative of a desire to stay.

"The word you're looking for is 'Equestrians'--gah...!--and we'd be doing that anyway given Pinkie saw us..." The green former human interjected, seeming to itch at his mane every time he gave a small grunt. "...Ugh...! Looks like my idea's...the best we've got...but even that's...really bad...God my head itches like no other...!"

As Corey seemed to be fighting with the itch in his mane, Ivan began to think.

If Corey wants to stay too, which he might given he doesn't have anything really big going on in his life right now...lucky prick's on Spring Break...then I'm being more rational than Corey... Ivan considered his feelings on the matter of Equestria vs Earth. I wouldn't mind staying, sure, but I know we have to get back home eventually...just us being here could bring about disaster even if we manage to keep the whole "fiction" thing secret.

The former human slowly realized this was the most thinking he'd done while tired. But then again, these weren't normal conditions. He and two friends...well, one friend and one guy who says he's a friend but keeps abusing him, were now ponies in a world dominated by them and mystical creatures. All because of the latter friend's anger at him for insulting him over a disgusting picture, and mind you, he still hadn't apologized one bit for anything he'd done, instead suggesting a course of action that would, as Corey pointed out, happen anyway.

Ivan knew he wasn't in the most normal of moods either: he was tired and in shock.

He was pissed.

Corey was slowly coming to terms with the fact he may never leave the pony world, due to the way they were stuck in Equestria until high-tech came along, if it even could in his unicorn lifetime. None of the trio had a solid plan on what to do next. Leo sounded like he wanted to stay a while, which by all accounts they would be anyway, and Ivan wasn't in the best thinking conditions right now. His plan was the best, but it was more or less like comparing a Papillion's pile of poop to a Husky's pile of poop. And he can say that because unlike some people, comparing dog breeds' poop was almost a tradition in his household by this point.

Of course, the realization of this was causing him stress. Much like most normal people, stress affected his body negatively, and the same held true for his pony body. When he was afflicted with sufficient stress, his scalp began to itch like no other. Without fingers, he had no choice but to rub one of his hooves on his head to attempt to relieve the itch. But that wasn't working. In a fit of desperation, and forgetting his body wasn't built with two arms and two legs, but four legs now, he threw up his other foreleg to his scalp and tried to scratch his mane with all his might.

"Corey...!" Ivan sleepily warned. He apparently realized it was futile, though, and moved to his right. For about five seconds, it seemed Corey's ingenious plan was working. But then Murphy's Law caught up to him. His hind legs started to wobble under his weight, and Corey started stumbling about. He tried to regain control by slamming his forelegs on the ground, but this only made it worse, his momentum carrying him forward.

"What in tarnation--" a familiar southern accent said, but Corey had closed his eyes, already knowing where this was going. His trajectory continued. Corey's head lowered, and a few moments later, his momentum stopped again, Corey feeling his new horn once again impale the ground. He opened his eyes, and sure enough, all he could see was ground. A few moments passed, during which Corey rolled his vision up to see four orange legs, and could see a blond tail tied off at the end past the stomach. Thankfully, the green unicorn didn't see or smell blood, so at least he hadn't sliced Applejack's chest open in his freefall.

...What the Hell did I ever do to deserve this... Corey thought to himself, stunned into an embarrassed freeze frame. If he'd done this with Pinkie, Pinkie would have been in his face instead. He would have been in a stunned silence, and she may have even said something hilarious in relation to his natural scowl, but no...

He had to nearly slice Applejack open by total accident. As he slowly came to terms with the fact karma was going in the wrong human-pony's ass to punish him, he heard Leo, the rightful victim of karma, snorting in suppressed laughter.

Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, you douche...

Applejack had seen quite a few strange things in her recent past, but there was just something off about the green unicorn that had dang near skewered her stumbling about like that. Well, even though he looked roughly her age, give or take a couple years, he didn't have any control whatsoever over his back legs when standing on them. Almost everypony she knew had at least some degree of ability to stand on their rear legs. Maybe it was the fact he was a little more heavy set...and not in a muscular sense either, from the look of him.

The farmer pony hadn't quite expected this from a newcomer. Ponyville had its share of new colts and mares, all of whom had parties thrown for them. She had--somehow--managed to catch Pinkie Pie when she was rushing by. The party pony had just enough time to tell her what they looked like before she darted off for the planning aspect.

A snort of laughter brought her out of her thought. She looked over to a silver pegasus with a strangely feminine face, though from the vocal sounds, she assumed he was male. Next to him was a brown earth pony that looked really, really tired. First thing was first, though. She decided to put aside the fact the green unicorn before her was incredibly clumsy for the time being and welcome him, and his friends, to Ponyville--formally, of course.

"You need help there, part--"

"FINE!" the green unicorn shouted, apparently only now realizing what had happened himself and was now struggling against the ground, trying to pop his horn out. He apparently heard his friend...or travelling companion, Applejack didn't really know which, snickering behind his back, and appeared to mouth to himself in anger. "...I can...help myself up..." Now he was talking in a normal voice. The orange pony took a few steps back, watching the green unicorn struggle against the ground, trying to get himself unstuck. At this distance, she could see his teeth were clenched...and his face was bright red. She couldn't tell if he was embarrassed that his horn was stuck in the ground or because he had yelled like he just did, or some combination of the two. He struggled, and fell flat on his stomach after a few seconds.

"Are ya sure ya don't need help?" asked Applejack again.

"No, no, I'm fine..." The green unicorn responded. This time, he managed to jerk somewhat, indicating his horn was starting to come out. "Stay back..." This was a warning tone, but it was barely discernible now that he sounded as though he'd calmed down (the color of his face telling a different story entirely). Exactly two seconds later, he'd managed to dislodge himself, leaving a small welt in the ground where he'd gotten his horn stuck.

Now that he was facing her directly--no, scratch that, facing her as directly as he appeared he could stand to, she could see he had a pronounced scowl on his face. The blush diminished the scowl somewhat, but he still looked...angry about something, but Applejack couldn't put her hoof on it straight away. Dismissing his facial cues and his facing the ground rather than her as his embarrassment at the current situation, Applejack continued, also noticing his eyes appeared to be bagged.

"Well, now that you've gotten yourself out of that pickle, what's your name?" she asked, still trying to be friendly. The pony she was addressing looked up at her, seemingly thinking. Why would he need to think about his name--

"C..." He stuttered, seeming frustrated that he was doing so. "...Corey."

Well, I've never heard a name like that before...Applejack thought to himself. Is that why he was hesitating...or...?

Well fuck, I just blew our cover... Corey thought to himself, watching Applejack's reaction carefully to his name. Back on Earth, the name Corey is gender-neutral, and common. 'Ivan' and 'Leo' aren't exactly Equestrian normal either...

"Can't say I've ever heard a name like that before, partner..." Applejack finally responded.

Really? Corey thought to himself. He had finally returned to his normal facial temperature, an indicator to him that he wasn't tomato...or apple...red any more. He was still unable to make complete eye contact, his face still turned towards the ground.

"...but pleased to meet ya all the same..."

"I see...well, uh," Great. He was stuttering again. Any longer and Leo or Ivan would think he was developing a crush on the farmer pony. "...and you are...?"

"My name's Applejack," responded the orange earth pony with a hat. "What brings you here to Ponyville?"

Shit! Need an alibi, quick! Uh, think, Corey... Corey's imagination went straight to one place: recreation. Well, Equestria definitely doesn't have Wi-fi or technology, so Internet and video games are out. Same with cartoons. Sightseeing...? Not my thing. Looks like it's books. Or writing.

"Well, I don't know what my friends are here for, but..." Corey couldn't believe what he was attempting to do: lie to the Element of Honesty; but he would have to try anyway, "I guess I'm here to see if there's any good books here that I can pick up."

Applejack seemed strangely convinced with this answer. Was she just not in a "lie-detecting" mood? Or did she, in some strange twist of fate, believe what the former human just told her? Corey couldn't really figure this out, but decided not to test his luck.

"I get it, I think," said Applejack at last. She did appear to have thought about it for the moment. "You know, I have a friend who was a lot like you at one point...'cept the scowling and clumsiness."

...Did I just get compared to Twilight?! Corey thought to himself. Is it because green is the inverted color of purple?! ...Corey, calm down, act fast so Leo doesn't capitalize.

"I see." The former human tried to keep his voice as level and as neutral as possible. "My friends over there can introduce themselves."

Applejack nodded, somewhat disturbed by Corey's behavior. In some senses, he did remind her of Twilight Sparkle when she first met her, but his asocial behaviors were way worse. He was a little on the cold side and seemed to be scowling most of the time. Maybe he was still embarrassed on the inside about his clumsy misstep? And there was just something about his whole reason for coming to Ponyville that rubbed her the wrong way, but he sounded convincing enough.

"I...see..." She tried not to show how many questions she'd had in her heart. While he, nor his friends, struck her as bad in any way, they still seemed...out-of-place. If that whole mess a couple months back was anything to go on, Twilight would be the first to see right through whatever act they were putting on, if they were in fact bad ponies. With this in mind, the farmer pony dropped the subject, walking past Corey, who she could have sworn she heard sigh in relief, to the brown earth pony and silver pegasus. "So...what are your names?"

She could have sworn she saw the silver pegasus flinch before responding: "My name is Leo." It almost sounded like he was throwing that name out there because he detested what his name really was, but she'd never heard a nickname like this before. And, judging from his voice, he was definitely male now that she heard him speaking.

"And you?" She turned to the brown earth pony, which, now that she was close to him, she could see his eyes were bagged. To summarize, if Rarity saw Corey's condition, she might flip out because of his messy mane and bagged eyes, but if she saw this pony's, she'd really flip out over the bagged eyes alone! He must have been very tired.

"Ivan..." said the brown earth pony, his name once again a name that she'd never heard before. Seeing him in his condition bothered Applejack to no end. If these three were here because of Corey's need to read, assuming he was here to do that, it was a little insensitive of him to drag him along...

"...My stars, partner, you look tuckered out!" Applejack exclaimed.

"...I do need a bed..." Ivan responded. To this, Applejack began considering something. It wouldn't exactly be normal, and indeed she should wait a little bit before asking him this question since these three struck her as odd, but this pony seriously looked like he was about to fall over sleeping. With a sigh, the orange farmer pony relented to her sense of pity.

"C'mon, let's get you back to my farm. You can nap there if you want."

Corey and Leo were both shocked by Applejack's statement. She just met Ivan, and even though it sounded crazy, she was offering him a bed to use...maybe. Corey wanted the three of them to stick together, at least for the moment, so he turned to see what Ivan's statement was. Leo, on the other hand, didn't appear to care one way or the other what Ivan decided to do.

Ivan, on the other hand, had only one thing on his mind right now. The opportunity presented itself, and he certainly wasn't in the mood to explain matters given how tired he was. So, he gave in to sleep.

"You sure you want to let me..." He yawned, unable to stifle it.

"Getting to a bed will be a lot better than passin' out in the street, sugarcube!" Applejack now seemed to be insisting on it. None of the former humans could quite understand why. Their names all must have sounded strange to her, same with Corey's alibi, since the green unicorn in question was firmly convinced she must have seen something in that as odd.

"...If you insist..." responded Ivan. Applejack seemed to be pleased that he'd seen it her way.

"Then follow me...try not to fall asleep along the way." said Applejack, beginning to walk away, passing Corey once more. "...You sorta look tired there too, you gonna be alright?"

"I'm a long way off from passing out. Ivan needs the nap more than me." Corey responded, still trying to keep his voice as neutral as possible. "Besides, I'm genuinely curious what Ponyville literature has to offer..."

Applejack seemed to be better satisified by this answer and said, "See ya around," trotting off, with Ivan sleepily ambling off after her. Corey trotted up to Leo after this was over.

"Well, it's just you and me now, like back on Hamachi," Corey whispered. "Way back when we first met. Before I started--"

To avoid product placement in this fanfiction, Leo cut off his friend: "C'mon, we'd better go, Mr. Reader..."

"Hey, I'm genuinely curious about what literature in this world is like. Maybe I'll find a Pony and the Beast or something..."

"Isn't that the whole thing with Rarity and Spike?" Leo asked, making sure to be as quiet as possible so nobody...or rather, nopony, overheard them.

"Maybe a 'real life' one..."

Realizing their banter was getting them nowhere, Leo and Corey continued on their trek, having decided to follow Corey's plan.

Find Twilight Sparkle, and try to explain the situation to her.

So, there we have Applejack and Pinkie Pie introduced. I wanted to get them out of the way before I actually submitted it. I am still in doubt if the Mane 6 are in-character for the entire first Act. When we were RPing this out, we were trying to, but for this version, codenamed "Plat", I had to make in-characterness and plot-based refineries myself, correcting the mistakes we made while RPing this out.

Act 1 Chapter 3

Act I: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 3: Of Rainbows and Strawboxes

For Corey, landing in Equestria was becoming more and more painful with each passing second. Within the first ten minutes of being in Ponyville, he got sighted by Pinkie which would lead to terrible amounts of social activity. Then he almost sliced up Applejack by complete accident with his horn before getting it stuck in the ground right in front of her. The former human had little confidence around women, and having coordination failures like that didn't exactly help a whole lot either. At least he didn't completely clam up, otherwise he'd have given Leo and Ivan the wrong impression.

It had been a few minutes now since Ivan left with Applejack to go get some sleep. The orange pony was not hearing a word of protest from him. He did look really tired, now that Corey though about it.

"How could Ivan have lost so much adrenaline...I'm still awake and I feel like I can go on for maybe another hour with the adrenaline I have now..." Corey wondered aloud, forgetting Leo was in his company.

"Yeah...that was me..." Leo admitted. "I might have stopped his adrenaline from being produced when I tapped his pressure point. I guess pony bodies don't have the exact same pressure points as humans, or at least they don't have the exact same effects..."

"You might wanna look into that if you want your martial arts to be of any use here." the green unicorn responded. "While I'm on the subject, why would you have tested it out on Ivan...or any friend, for that matter?"

"Define 'friend'..." the silver pegasus responded. Corey immediately looked around in a fit of self-consciousness. If any single pony had heard that, especially one of the remaining members of the Mane 6 that they hadn't met yet, Leo might have chosen the most incorrect word combination ever spoken in Equestria. The second most incorrect word combination would be essentially saying that Discord, the villain from Season 2, was in fact in the right to do as he pleased. Because that would get you lynched, Corey felt deep down in his heart.

"I don't need to define something like that. Even if you don't consider him a friend, at least consider him a traveling companion until we find our way out of this sh--mess." Corey spoke. Not being able to swear, now that such an ability was unavailable to him, was actually sort of nice. Maybe he'd finally learn to clean up his language, and when he got back to Earth, his father wouldn't be able to scold him for his language because his time here would have cleaned it up.

Until he remembered the internet back on Earth was a very vulgar place, and thus decided to drop the subject entirely.

"Yeah, yeah," Leo apparently got annoyed by Corey's carping on the matter. "Wish we'd asked Applejack for directions to the library..."

"I really should have," the former human admitted, looking around before his voice once more dropped to a whisper. "Ponyville's a lot bigger in person."

Corey continued to walk, facing the ground. If only he'd been there to mediate Ivan and Leo's argument, maybe this whole mess would not have happened. He turned to his old friend to confide in him his guilt, but he noticed something. Leo's ears were pricked up, as though receptive of some sound.

"...Do you hear that?" Leo asked. Corey, being unable to hear this sound, despite his new pony hearing, began to doubt it.

"What's it sound like?" Corey asked, forgetting immediately what he was about to say.

"A high pitched sound...almost like a whistle." Leo replied. Almost as soon as the silver former human finished his statement, Corey could just barely make it out.

"...What...could that be..." the green former human asked. The sound grew closer, louder, until it faded into a whoosh.

This...seems familiar, somehow... Corey thought to himself, looking in the direction he could hear the whoosh. ...Oh crap...! Incoming rainbow!!

The green unicorn and fat former human wasn't dim by any means. He knew full well there was only one character capable of leaving a rainbow in her wake. And said character was currently heading straight at them; a cyan speck being trailed by a rainbow, and closing in fast.

"M-MOOOOOOOOVE!!" screamed the distant speck. Corey was not by any means one to argue with a rainbow-colored pegasus, so he began stumbling, shuffling out of the way. As his vision filled with smoke, the former human once more lost his balance, and once more found himself looking at the road beneath his hooves, his horn once more impaling the ground. Just as this happened, he heard a loud sound, sounding like things tumbling over each other.

I think I just got a double dose of fanfictions I'd written with the help of these friends of mine... Corey thought, immediately willing himself to get his horn unstuck from the road so he could look. The green former human was by no means a dummy; he knew exactly what had just happened. Seeing that she was about to wipe out and cream whoever was in her way, a certain member of the Mane 6 shouted a heads-up. Leo must have gotten nailed pretty hard. Eager to see karma at work, Corey applied the principle he learned with his incident with Applejack, putting his whole body behind getting his horn unstuck.

This worked fast enough for Corey to sufficiently whirl around and see what happened. The dust from the impact went a few good yards down from where the sound initially came from, so the green unicorn followed the fading dust...and was met with a sight that he didn't expect to see. His eye half-closed for a few seconds as his mental train derailed as he processed the scene before him.

Is his face that color because she landed on him like that, or is he enjoying himself?

Leo was sideways on the ground, his wings at his sides, retracted, his red eyes wide open...and the reddest face to match his eyes. He was staring straight up at a cyan-colored pegasus, female, with a rainbow-colored mane and tail, and a cutie mark resembling a cloud with a rainbow bolt coming out of it.

This was Rainbow Dash, another member of the Mane 6, and probably the most insensitive out of them all. Despite this, she was still fundamentally good at heart, bearing the Element of Loyalty. Corey couldn't see her facial expression, but relative to Leo, she was belly-first on his side, and one of her forelegs had wound up around Leo.

In other words, if Ivan were here, he'd probably have made a sexual comment regarding what just happened, and the final positioning of the pegasi. Corey shuffled his way around, but the two pegasi began to twitch. He halted, seeing Leo look as though he didn't know what to say. The two met eyes, and it looked as though the silver pegasus was about to lose control. Corey couldn't help but notice that Leo's wings appeared to be twitching, quivering. Deciding to push aside Leo's predicament for the moment, and really curious to see if the rumors about Rainbow Dash were true (as far as some Internet sites and fanfictions went, anyway), the green unicorn immediately launched a single question, aiming to get the pegasus to turn to him.

"Excuse me," Corey said, his inner sarcasm preventing his typical stutter and vocal cues from showing (or perhaps it was the fact that he technically knew her), "but is this just how you greet new ponies here?"

Okay, THAT sounded way too natural, Corey thought to himself, watching Dash's reaction. The cyan pegasus turned her head to look at him, and while it was harder to see than Leo's, her cheeks were notably tinted a light pink. Well, that shoots the "Rainbow Dash is a Lesbian" theory out the window...I'm okay with this. Wait, Leo has a feminine snout...focus, damnit! Focus!

"No, I was just practicing a few new tricks..." responded the mare.

Should have seen that one coming. She does have ambitions for joining the Wonderbolts one day, after all. The former human thought. Noticing the blush pronounced on the silver pegasus's cheeks, despite the fur there, Corey decided to call upon his inner douche, noticing Leo's face was continuing to redden rather than become normally hued. His wings were still notably quivering, and increasing in power and intensity. Breaking his filter, and hoping his statement wouldn't be, the former human lurched forward slightly.

"N--" Corey started, almost saying Leo's real name. However, he decided what he was about to say was enough, and corrected himself, "Leo, enjoying yourself over there?"

Leo and Corey met eyes. Then the silver pegasus looked back up to Dash, his blush intensifying. Then something really, really weird started to happen. Leo's wings began to quiver, vibrating incredibly quick. Then, they shot out, pushing Dash off of the silver pegasus, though the cyan pegasus quickly recovered from this. Leo seemed incredibly embarrassed, and Corey knew both of them, at least, understood what happened. But the green unicorn was understandably perplexed.

Okay, two things are going through my mind...one, is Leo already developing a crush on Rainbow Dash; two...did he just fricking pop a WINGBONER?! Corey thought, his mind drawing a total blank at this as he fought back the urge to laugh. ...My God, we're fucked. It's only going to be so long before I start stuttering and unable to speak fluently now that I've had my sarcasm...! And Ivan's...more focused on sleep.

Quickly, the fat former human knew he had to think of something, and fast. If Leo and Corey were to find their way to the library, they'd have to ask Rainbow for directions...

If she would trust them enough to give them said directions...

For Rainbow Dash, things had quieted down since the last great event Ponyville and Equestria went through. She was able to balance reading (not that these two had to know that right away) and aerial athleticism. She still had ambitions of joining the Wonderbolts one day, and was working on moves. Unfortunately, in a rare instance these days, she had lost control of her flight, and had to make a crash landing. It was a little embarrassing, even when nopony was around to see it, but it was not nearly enough to make her abandon her dream.

She felt shocked at the silver pegasus's sudden..."outburst". She was a little embarrassed that it had happened, but this embarrassment was slightly magnified when she realized something else about the pony she had collided with.

"D-D-darn it...Corey..." the pony in question mumbled, clearly male in tone. His wings, which were now relaxing and returning to his sides...looked different than hers. They appeared to have spiked-out feathers. He seemed clearly embarrassed by what happened.

"You're...a colt?" She asked, unable to refrain from asking. It struck her as somewhat amusing.

"Eh?" asked the silver pegasus. His eyes widened. Apparently, for some reason, he only just realized he'd had a feminine snout. At least, that's what it appeared to be. "Oh, uh, y-yeah, I am..."

A small snort issued from Dash's nose. She didn't want to laugh. Probably one of the few times Rainbow had ever shown new ponies she didn't know sympathy for their predicament. Besides, his wings popped out, in the way that wings of pegasi normally would when confronted with situations similar to that. For some reason, a tiny, almost mute voice in the back of her head told her to not give the silver pegasus a hard time about his physical appearance.

"Who--" The other colt, the fat green unicorn...Corey, the silver pegasus said, interrupting with a stutter. "--Who are you?"

Which was fine, given she had somepony else on standby ripe for messing with. She wasn't going to give him too much heat, unless he turned out to be a genuine jerk.

"Well," Rainbow responded. "I'm the one-and-only Rainbow Dash, the official fastest flier in Equestria!"

The green unicorn looked up at her, and it was at this moment, she noticed he looked like he was scowling since the day he was born. Quite a contrast from most--no, everypony she knew. The still-unknown pony who she tackled, on the other hand, was two giggles away from bursting out laughing. The flying rainbow continued trying to be as nice as she could stand to be.

"And you are...?" Rainbow wanted to be sure. "Corey" was a strange name, one that she'd never really heard before.

"C-Corey..." He stuttered. All that confidence and poise he'd had while having fun at his friend's expense suddenly withered away, leaving him with a slight stuttering problem.

"That's an odd name," Rainbow said bluntly, turning to the colt she tackled, still looking as though he hadn't exactly enjoyed his friend's intrusion. At least, she was assuming they were; they were talking to each other from what she could see before she realized she was about to wipe out. Something about this fat unicorn's personality reminded her of something she'd seen before in another pony, cranked to eleven.

Pushing these thoughts out of her mind, she turned to the silver pegasus, who by now had managed to calm down and get back on his hooves.

"And what's your name?" she asked. Something about the way she was asking rubbed her the wrong way, but she remembered she was trying to not be as much of a pain to these two right away.

"L...Leo..." answered the silver pegasus, seeming to pull himself out of a daydream. "My name is Leo..."

"Still not as odd as 'Corey'..."

Noel, or Leo, as he preferred to be called, was overwhelmed by the emotions and sensations that had coursed through his body. For the first time in a long time, he had developed a crush on someone. Well, in this case "somepony" was more appropriate. And of course, as luck would have it, he would, as per a human male, pop a boner upon realizing said crush was on top of him. Only difference is, he could have probably hid that sort of boner a lot better than the wingboner he'd just endured.

Damn, Corey can be a real ass sometimes... he thought to himself, remembering that Corey got in not one, but two free shots regarding his condition, the second of which caused him to lose control over his wings, so if Rainbow Dash were to tease Corey on the matter of his weight, he wouldn't feel sympathetic too much. He couldn't rightly feel zero sympathy, given he apparently had a feminine snout rather than a masculine, sharp snout, and sooner or later, Dash would stop pulling her punches.

"Got a little caught up in my practice, Leo," said the cyan pegasus, hovering now as though it weren't any trouble. "That won't happen again, so don't get your hopes up!"

...Fuck you, Corey, fuck you... And just like that, Leo felt his heart sink just a little, blaming Corey for that.

"...Gotta give Corey a little credit, though," cut in the flying rainbow. "For being a big guy, he sure moves quick..."

Leo nodded, giggling just a little at the first time. It was the first genuine laugh he'd had in a while. He hadn't felt so...happy...in a long time.

"S-Sue me..." Corey growled, hanging his head. Leo couldn't control himself. An urge passed straight through him. He wanted to join in on the fat jokes, given that Corey had successfully humiliated him saying what he said.

"Don't think you'd fit in a small claims court..." The silver former human piped in, causing Corey to glare up at him, clear anger in his eyes. Leo didn't exactly care about this.

"L-Leo?!" Corey yelled, completely caught off-guard by this sudden statement. Dash started giggling, and Leo continued laughing...until he remembered something.

I can't fucking fly!!! the former human remembered, trying to mask his fear at this. I could ask her, but she'd question for sure why I can't...and I don't think it'd be best for her to know I'm human quite yet. I am a quick learner, it could work out...but I don't want to take the chance with Corey around. He's probably itching for some payback... I know how to ask this, I think...

As the conversation with Rainbow Dash went on, Corey was firmly convinced that at least his first day in Ponyville would be pure hell. He'd be around ponies he only knew through watching a few adventures of theirs at a party thrown by Pinkie Pie, which he wasn't sure he could quite handle yet. He'd made an absolute ass out of himself and almost sliced open Applejack. Now, five minutes after that one, Rainbow Dash was ripping on his weight, and now Leo was joining in out of his very obvious boner for the cyan pegasus! Well, "wingboner", but still.

Just keep it up, you bastard...one day, while we're here, karma's going to bite you so hard... Corey hung his head.

"Hey, Dash..." Leo cut in, interrupting Corey's thoughts. Instantly, the thought process of Corey took a nosedive.

Is he seriously going to ask her out on a date now? the former human thought to himself, his eyes widening.

"Yeah?" asked Dash, turning to Leo.

"...I seem to be having an off day...I'm having an awfully hard time flying straight. Since you seem to be well controlled in your flight, even on your off-days...could you...tutor me?" asked the silver pegasus.

Good thing the living lie detector Applejack isn't here. She'd smell that lie for sure. Corey thought to himself. A hefty silence hung between the two, and the green unicorn suddenly felt like a third wheel, again. Just like all those Skype conversations his cousin let him into, while said cousin was talking to his girlfriend.

"Consider yourself lucky, Leo, that I don't have anything else planned today," answered Rainbow. "I guess I can. Though I don't know how anypony could have that bad of a day..."

Corey realized something in this instance, something dire and related to the grand problem. Actually, he realized three things total.

That reminds me, I do need to learn how to utilize my magic, if it's possible at all. Wonder if Twilight'd teach me if I'm able to explain the situation. Speaking of Twilight, would I get compared to her again if I mentioned I was trying to find the library? ...Oh crap, I'd better ask where it is before they leave! With this in mind, Corey hesitantly approached the pegasi, completely expecting more fat jokes.

"E-excuse me," His stutter came out, "Dash, right?"

"One at a time, I can't tutor him and help you lose a few pounds..." Dash responded, again referencing Corey's weight to her amusement and Leo's as well. With a small sigh, having seen this coming, Corey continued anyway.

"Anyway, I came to town looking to read up on what Ponyville has to offer," Corey stuck to his story.

"Y-yeah!" Leo cut in, apparently to solidify Corey's alibi. Or maybe he just wanted Corey out of range. "H-he was looking for the library..."

"Then what were you looking for?" Dash asked.

"A new place to fly around, I guess," Leo responded. "Unfortunately..." He hesitated, then continued. "I haven't been sleeping too good lately."

"So you're looking for the library, huh?" asked the cyan pegasus, turning back to Corey, an impish smile on her face. He saw her face twitch just a little. "And you like reading...hm...I know a friend that might just love meeting you..."

It was now Corey's turn to face twitch just a little, realizing exactly what Rainbow Dash was referring to. That was a little bit beyond "comparison". She was flat-out implying she and him would make...really special friends. That wasn't in Corey's itinerary at all, at least, not that he could see it happening.

"...Sounds interesting," said Corey, trying to act as though he had no idea what he just walked into. "Doesn't answer my question though."

"Oh, right..." the cyan pegasus said, indicating with her hoof which way to go, a few degrees behind herself and Leo. "If you go that way, you'll find my friend, Twilight Sparkle. Her home IS the library."

"I see." responded Corey. Immediately, he began to think to himself of all the times he'd had group projects back in school. If he was around people he trusted, things went smoothly. But the only things he'd worked on with others up until now were just that, projects, some for school, others for his hobby of spriting. Neither were nearly as dire as a potentially deadly romp through the mystical pony world of Equestria. The grade was pass or fail, live or die. The fact that Leo and Ivan were out of his hair-well, his fur, served to relax him somewhat.

It's not that he wanted the three of them to split up as they did; he certainly needed their help to explain the situation, but then again, with Leo and Ivan's animosity towards each other, they wouldn't be of much help once Leo started slapping. Corey was used to being independent when dealing with matters of relative importance to him. Hell, his last college semester, he had to do two entire Calculus group projects pretty much on his own. However, it wasn't entirely his groupmates' faults on that one.

Bottom line, with Leo about to undergo flight training under Rainbow Dash's wing, no pun intended, and Ivan about to crash over at Sweet Apple Acres, the weight of the monumental test of telling the former humans' story to the local bookworm now rested entirely on his back. With this on mind, Corey kept his face and mental state as level as possible. He began trotting in the direction Rainbow Dash indicated with her hoof. But the fat jokes left him a little pissed-off, so he had to get in one last shot.

"Have fun..." said the green unicorn listlessly, immediately increasing his trotting speed, a bit of a stumble in his step which he fought to control. The last thing he needed at the moment was Rainbow Dash laughing at his fat ass getting his horn caught in the ground again. Thanking his lucky stars the cyan tease factory hadn't caught that, Corey smiled, only slightly. "I'll be seeing you guys later, I'm guessing."

"'Kay!" Dash announced. "Won't be too hard to find ya!"

Leo and Dash both laughed at this. Corey snarled.

Is this going to be the entire first day, with every main...or mane...character, ripping on my weight? Leo...you son of a bitch... he thought to himself, his mane obscuring his eyes from general viewing as he hung his head. Just as he turned the corner, he heard one last tidbit:

"So, Leo, you ready to start?" This was Dash, obviously turning to Leo with her statement.

"Yeah, any time you are..." Any semblance of "douche" seemed to have vanished entirely from his words. Corey halted dead in his tracks, and looked back.

"Good. If I go too fast, don't bother telling me!"

The green former human smiled, baring his teeth at Leo's predicament.

Karma, you have not failed me after all!

Realizing he needed to get a move on, Corey immediately pulled himself together, trying to compose himself, his face resuming somewhat of a scowl as he continued to trot in the direction of the library. As he walked, he began to wonder what was happening on Ivan's end...

The walk to Sweet Apple Acres had been longer than expected. Ivan had quickly found out how much bigger Ponyville seemed when you had to walk through it yourself. There were no legitimate "timeskip" scene transitions to expedite the process, otherwise he'd have already been passed out asleep in whatever bed Applejack offered him. Inside Equestria, time apparently passed the same way it did back on Earth.

Not that Ivan cared enough about any of this enough to be able to remember thinking about it. Any of the above thoughts passed through his mind like water. It went straight in one ear and out the other ear. His tired state was affecting him. He'd spent the last five minutes of the walk shoulder-to-shoulder with Applejack, since he was stumbling worse than Corey, and had once again completely slumped over and fell face-first to the ground, sleeping on the spot.

The former human still felt like he was imposing on the earth pony and her family for the beds, even though it was Applejack who made the offer out of clear sympathy. The "imposing" feeling turned into a small amount of guilt. It was enough to motivate him to speak.

"...You said you worked on a farm...?" Ivan slurred, now at the point of being so tired that he could barely form words. The occasional five-second power naps weren't helping any. He wasn't aware of it, but his voice was faint.

"I'm--rry, what'd you say, I---?" Applejack asked, though Ivan wasn't getting good reception through his tired ears. Realizing he was due to pass out from tiredness at any moment, the former human repeated what he said, to which Applejack confirmed, with even less volume and clarity than before.

"Well...in return...for the place to..." he stifled the biggest yawn he'd yawned since being a pony, "sleep...I want...to help out a little...if you have anything for me to do..."

Applejack seemed to be perplexed at this offer. While he couldn't hear her, he could at least read her lips.

"That's mighty nice of ya, partner," she mouthed, Ivan's ears pretty much on mute. "you sure?"

"Yeah..." He almost nodded off on the spot again, but an orange hoof caught him around the front to keep him standing on all fours. If that made any sense.

"D-n't y-u quit on me, Iva-! We're almost the--!" Applejack's words were literally going in one ear and out the other.

The next few minutes were a blur. His ears were nearly on mute, and his vision was darkening and blurring as he fought to stay awake for just a little longer. From what he could gather, the other Apple family members were a little perplexed at Applejack's request. However, when they apparently saw the condition he was in (even with his vision blurred, due to the bright, vibrant colors of the cast, he was able to tell when they were looking at him), they didn't see any reason why not.

Ivan felt his body give out, as he once again slumped over with his rump in the air. Applejack stopped in front of him, smiling. He couldn't make out what she was telling him anymore, but from the smile he could somewhat see, it seemed that his napping at the farm was "okayed". Apparently the ponies were very sympathetic to sleepy newcomers, even ones with odd names by Equestria's standards.

Come on, body, just a little longer... the former human urged himself, trying to get back on his four feet. He was almost to a bed, and he'd be damned if he didn't make it to one. He was helped up the stairs, to a second floor guest bedroom. He wasn't surprised at this. Given the massive size of the extended Apple family, there had to have been plenty of room for a single pony to nap.

As soon as his blurred vision saw the bed, he mumbled a "thanks", immensely grateful for the bed. If his mumbled statement wasn't enough, the way he felt himself rush to the bed, not even bothering to get under the covers, obviously would have. The instant he laid out in the bed in a comfortable position for his new pony body (which surprisingly still felt human), Ivan was out like a light.

Hope Corey and Leo are having better luck staying awake... was the last thing Ivan thought before sleep overwhelmed his senses.

Corey continued to follow the road he'd set out on, really wishing that he could get what he needed to get done. As he trotted along, he began to think.

Okay, explaining things to Twilight in a way she'd understand, without potentially getting us sent to subspace due to the fourth wall collapsing, is going to be hard. The green unicorn thought to himself, his eyes half-closing, his scowl still plainly visible on his snout. I mean, there's the whole fact that this universe is not by any stretch technologically advanced outside of cartoon convienience...things like ovens, refridgerators, those exist, but not computers, as far as I know.

His predicament just seemed to get worse the more he thought about it. Equestria wasn't nearly as technologically advanced as Earth, and he couldn't explain things he typically took for granted very well. Hell, even on Earth, explaining how YouTube works to his parents and grandparents was a challenge in and of itself, and they lived through the technological revolution. So explaining it to cartoon ponies was going to be a real challenge.

Well, I can't call them "cartoon ponies", given that to them, their pain is real, their stories are real. If something should happen to the three of us here, it'll be as though it were actually happening. Which it is. The former human continued his introspection, not really paying any attention to the world around him, his eyes firmly facing down. Anyway, got a little off-topic there. Twilight isn't stupid, but she will need the explanation if it isn't in a book. This is going to be hard without Pinkie to automatically find books for her. He found that sort of funny - a studious pony wasn't able to find a book, but a hyperactive party pony was pretty much able to snap on it.

As Corey trotted right along, he caught sight of his reflection out of the corner of his eye in a window. Not really paying any attention to what was inside of it, the former human took a good, long look at himself. He was definitely a green male unicorn, with his weight issue still very much intact. And his mane...well, he was never known for combing his hair when he rolled out of bed, and since he was on Spring Break, his mane, while clean, was in need of being brushed.

But it's not like I have thumbs to hold a comb right now! Corey thought to himself. Oh well. Time to move on. His mental train continued forward, as did his momentum, when suddenly, his thought pattern wafted back to something else from the series. Or rather, somepony else. Huh, if Rarity saw me right now, she would have a stroke...I checked my reflection in a window...

Halting his thoughts, Corey did a double take, and gulped. Looking deep into the second window of the building he just passed, he saw something. A pony model was being worked over, objects wreathed in a blue glow. Looking a little closer, he saw a white pony, with a finely curled purple tail and mane. To say this styling was anything less than extravagant would be an insult to the styling. The green unicorn on the outside immediately went into shock at seeing how close he came to being seen.

...Good job, Corey, almost got yourself seen by a fashionista when you don't have time for it... Corey thought to himself, turning away and taking a few deep breaths to calm himself. ...Wow, I'm really this nervous? It's not like I could possibly meet one of the members of the Mane 6 in a worse manner than Leo just did.

Corey opened his eyes, and took a quick glance in the direction of the boutique's window again. He saw a pair of royal blue eyes glancing in his direction, and his breath hitched. She looked away for a moment, going back to her work, but Corey knew he was seen. He acted as nonchalant about keeping an eye on the fashionista at work as possible, taking slow steps, knowing that if she started moving in on him before he could get to the library, there would be trouble.

It was an average day of work for Rarity until now. She had seen some bad mane days, even experienced a few herself, but she had never seen a case as bad as the one on the heavy-set green male unicorn outside her window. She tried to put it out of her mind, but now that she could clearly see him outside the window, seeming to be nervous about something, with his mane looking as though he'd just rolled out of bed....

It was bugging her to no end. Part of her wanted to go out and give him a tongue-lashing. That part became stronger when she realized he appeared to have a semi-permanent scowl etched on his face.

"Goodness...!" Rarity almost lost herself to this part, but soon, she realized she had to keep up an image. He couldn't be that unaware, but seeing him like this was bugging her to no end. She'd have to do something about at least the mane. She didn't know if what she was going to do was only going to worsen the scowl or make it at least somewhat better. The fashionista unicorn hesitated. There was just something about the pony outside, that nervousness blended with the scowl, the...asocial vibe she got from him...Something about him just seemed to be familiar. Only, it seemed to be much, much worse than whatever she was remembering.

I have a duty...going out in public with bedmane that horrid is a crime. The scowl is just insulting...he will develop frown lines...I must do something about his mane! I almost want to go out and scream at him for that alone, but... I must keep my wits about me. Rarity thought. She began trotting towards the door, trying to be as calm about the glaring imperfections about the colt's expression...

Though, he is at least a lovely shade of green...

Corey's sense of innate danger and scrutiny was going haywire. He looked back once more, and what he saw made his blood freeze for just a moment: she was on the move, towards the door. She appeared to be trying to keep herself composed. She had seen him trotting along in his condition. The former human immediately began to go into overdrive. Time and sound seemed to slow to a halt around him.

Gotta think fast, gotta think fast...! thought the green former human as he looked around for any means of concealment, knowing full well he couldn't gallop away without falling all over himself in the first ten seconds. Maybe even less. God, I'm this nervous! I need to get out of here before she tells me my scowl will mess up my face! Or something like that! Ugh! Stop thinking about what Rarity'll say and do something! You're just as bad as Spike in that department! Only without the huge crush!

He looked to the road ahead, and immediately dismissed any corners as a means of concealment. He wouldn't be able to run that far in his lack of physical condition. He looked to his flank, and saw the snowy unicorn drawing ever closer. Adrenaline now coursed through him. Corey could have sworn his blood was now purely made of the hormone now. His eyes were wide open.

Looking to his left, he saw trash cans. He could probably haul his fat ass in them, but he then dismissed this idea, as this action might be noticed by Rarity if he failed to be athletic enough to do so, and would undoubtedly incur more of her wrath with a trashy attempt to escape her brand of fashion justice.

Then he saw it: something that was still very much a long shot, but it could still work if he played his cards right and attempted to use cartoon physics. It was a cart with a bale of hay on the back of it. He wasn't sure where it was going, and in fact could take him in an entirely different direction if he wasn't careful, but Corey felt like he had a shot.

Clearly, he was playing too much Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker in the hours preceding his being sucked into Equestria. The green unicorn knew this, but he really didn't want to get worked over by Rarity right now. He had more important things to do.

Oh damn it, *I** just compared myself to Twilight!* Corey was forcefully reminded of the series premiere episode. Once he was done with his action, he knew that in the end, both he and Twilight would have at least attempted to escape from Rarity due to matters they deemed important taking precedence. Need to get into that haystack now!

Feeling lucky, and with the moment of truth drawing near, Corey cast a quick glance back, as time and sound began to resume. Rarity had her head hung, and turned away from him. She was clearly trying to compose herself again. Apparently, his bedhead was really pissing her off. Taking full advantage, Corey began trotting towards the haybale, at an increased speed with each single step he took.

He heard the "ding" sound, like you would hear if a business door were opened. Corey immediately took off at full speed, the adrenaline helping him in retaining control over his legs, and leapt mightily into the haystack, making sure to pull all extremities inside. Using his horn, he pushed the hay aside, to see a frazzled mare looking for him. As he did this, he realized something else.

Am I a pony, a human, or some weird combination of the two that just looks like a pony? His positioning inside the strawbox resembled a human's squatting position. He pulled his head back when Rarity appeared to look directly in his direction. Corey breathed a sigh in relief. Then, to his dismay, the whole "Twilight-Corey" comparison thing popped back in his mind again, particularly when he felt the cart beneath the hay start to move, in the direction he was heading.

Great. Now we both escaped from Rarity, and may well be technically trying to convince other ponies of a myth. Twilight had Night Mare Moon, which had physical proof to it. And I have to convince her I'm actually a human, somehow, despite the fact the only real physical proof I have is my total lack of magic. The question is, can I keep my confidence up long enough around her to admit it?

He felt the cart round the corner, and then pushed the hay aside again to look for the library, or at least a landmark he could recognize from the show as something close to the library.

Though, he knew a large tree would be hard to miss.

Rarity was disappointed in herself for allowing the colt with the messy mane to get away. For a big guy, he sure moved quick when he had a mind to. In fact, he almost seemed to vanish. But she knew he existed. Wherever he went off to, he must have been in a hurry. Her mind whisked her back to her first meeting with her friend, Twilight Sparkle. She had allowed her to fix her mane and tail, which had been poofed out dramatically. Then, Rarity remembered, Twilight had vanished on her when she was fitting her for dresses.

Something in her head clicked. This new pony with the messy mane, seemed to share some of Twilight's earlier qualities when she was first getting used to the concept of having friends. Only, those qualities seemed to be worse than usual. At least Twilight smiled and tried to be somewhat friendly, even if it was a little forced. This pony scowled, and seemed to be dodging ponies whenever possible.

"I wonder what has him so...unhappy." Rarity wondered to herself, as she began getting back to work. She began to hum, though the whole incident from just now began to bug her just a little bit.

I wonder if that pony and Twilight would be great friends. This pony probably just needs a little time to adjust to life here in Ponyville. He did seem nervous...maybe boutiques scare him... Rarity thought to herself. Whatever the matter is with him, I do get the nagging feeling I'm going to be seeing him again in town.

The snowy unicorn decided to push the bedmane incident to the back of her mind for the moment, and focused on her work. As with every other article of clothing she'd made, she would make sure it was as flawless as possible before moving on to the next item on her list.

And that is Chapter 3 reposted on this site. The original cut of this chapter had 20% more fat jokes. But because of those in this project telling me she was being "too mean", I cut them out.

Act 1 Chapter 4

Act I: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 4: Color Inversions

No matter how hard he tried, he was starting to fly lopsided. Every time he tried to go a little faster than hovering slowly, his center of gravity would shift and before long, he would not be able to use his wings properly. Hovering was really all he could do. It wasn't his fault humans weren't naturally born with wings.

Leo was glad Corey wasn't around to see this, though he was sure his longtime friend had somehow made a fool of himself in his absence. For some reason, Rainbow Dash wasn't trying to rush things here. Maybe she was taking pity on him after seeing how pitiful he was at flying compared to...well, pretty much any other pegasus their age. At least, he was going on Corey's assumption he drew that the main cast were at the very least mid to late teens, around their ages.

"I thought you were going fast..." Leo mumbled.

"What?" Dash turned. "You want me to go fast?"

"Oh, oh no, it's just what you said before we started." Leo said. As he thought about this, he realized he was, slowly but surely getting the hang of being able to move while flying. He wasn't sure if he'd completely master his wings before the day was out, or at all, but the silver pegasus was willing to try.

"Well, you look like you could use the help," The cyan pegasus snorted with suppressed laughter. "Unless you're afraid I'll see you crash!?"

"N-no, it's not that!" Internally, the former human knew he was lying to himself and her. It totally is...

"Are you sure?" Dash asked again. The two carried on for a little bit like this, until Leo, pride bent, finally tried to fly straight at a speed higher than one mile an hour forward...

And wound up not only flying lopsided, but reaching terminal velocity fast. He almost hit the ground, but just then, he felt a pair of hooves clamp around his tail and pull him into a proper hovering position. Rainbow was now fixing him with a mischievious, puzzled look. No doubt she was still questioning how anypony her age could be so bad at flying.

"I don't got a whole lot else goin' on today, but jeez, this is beyond 'bad fly day'..." Dash remarked, laughing just a little again. She quickly calmed herself down. "Slow really isn't my thing. Hope you can pick up a little faster than average."

I feel like I'm getting better at this, but she's rushing things just a little bit... Leo was about to voice an abridged, filtered version of what he just thought, when a soft feminine voice interrupted their conversation.

"H-hello..." it said, the voice familiar to the former human. "R-rainbow..."

Leo turned to the source of the voice, slightly below and behind Rainbow Dash. Another pegasus, and the fourth member of the Mane 6 he'd met since coming here. If the shy nature of her voice was anything to go on, this was Fluttershy. She matched the physical description as Leo remembered from the show: light yellow body, pink, heart-shaped mane, tail matching the color and shape to a degree, and light green eyes.

"Oh, hi, Fluttershy," responded the cyan pegasus.

"W-who's y-your friend?" The meek pony struggled to open her wings out of shyness, at least, Leo assumed it was.

"This is...Leo," said Dash, indicating to him. "I'm giving him pointers on how to fly...he needs them."

Again Rainbow reminded him of his plight. To calm himself, Leo reminded himself that he wasn't the only one that needed to adjust to his new powers. Well, when you have wings, technically "flight" isn't a power in itself, but it counted since Corey would have to get a grip on his magic.

"H-hello, L-leo..." said Fluttershy. Her voice faded into a small whisper. "...n..."

"What was that?" asked the former human, trying once again to be polite. As he considered this, he found it somewhat funny. Back on Earth, he hardly ever showed this side, at least to Corey, and especially never to Ivan. But in Equestria, when the only ponies he knew for sure were the royal princesses and the Mane 6 (along with Spike) and a few others, his polite side came out within the first hour of arriving in Ponyville. His mind flashed again to his old friend, and began to wonder if his time here would change him as well. Putting this aside, he leaned in.

He wasn't sure how to explain it, but he was feeling excited right now. The proximity wasn't helping the shy mare any, though. Instead of her voice growing louder, it squeaked and her words were unnoticeable again.

"No need to be shy," Leo said with a sigh, even though he knew deep down telling her that this early on wouldn't have much effect, if any.

"Nice to meet you..." she finally finished, just strong enough for him to hear. The silver pegasus was perplexed at this, and thought to himself. "I-I'm...F-Fluttershy..."

"Well, Fluttershy, nice to meet you," Leo bowed somewhat, though doing so midair was somewhat difficult without going lopsided. He fought to maintain control. While feeling somewhat proud of himself for managing such a feat, internally, Leo could only think of one thing:

This is about to get more complicated, isn't it?

Fluttershy found it somewhat odd that this new pony needed tips on how to fly. From the looks of him, he looked around her age, give or take a year. The meek pegasus found his name somewhat odd too. She had noticed Rainbow Dash with him as she saved him from falling, so obviously, he was having some sort of bad day.

"Erm, if it's not too much trouble," Still in a polite tone, and turning to her (though not without almost flipping over sideways), Leo continued, "could you help me with my...well, flight training?"

For some reason, something compelled the yellow pegasus to remain there for the moment and help him. He seemed like he was having a lot of trouble from what she'd seen.

"O-okay," she stuttered out, recalling why she had come into town in the first place, "b-but I can't help too long...I have animals to t-take care of, and Angel wouldn't be pleased if I kept him waiting." It was true, her pet bunny usually got upset if he was delayed, but a little assertiveness training took care of some of the problems she'd usually have with him.

"I understand...so can we start? I don't want to waste anypony's time..." Leo answered, bowing down again in mid-air. This time, however, he lost control, flipping over upside down. "WHOA!"

Rainbow couldn't properly hold in her laughter at this, and burst out laughing. Fluttershy couldn't exactly help herself either, but she tried to keep herself composed, so as to avoid hurting Leo's feelings as much as possible. Leo eventually pulled out of this lopsided flight pattern, seeming to be thinking of something else.

"Okay Leo, follow the birdie..." Dash said, immediately flying off. To Fluttershy's surprise, she didn't go tearing off, but it was still a little too fast for a training pace.

"W-wait up, R-rainbow!" Fluttershy stuttered. Her shyness was returning, but she didn't mind it. It was just in her nature. She flew off after her friend, and found herself looking back in Leo's direction, to see he was managing to follow them, but he was struggling along.

Leo continued to struggle to follow the flight of the pegasi. His wings flapped painfully, his shoulders hurting. Suddenly, and to his horror, he realized he could no longer feel his wings. In this moment, Leo realized what Corey must have felt when he couldn't walk. A little ways out of Ponyville, Leo lost control of his flight, and crashed into a tree.

The pain shot through his wings as he realized one of them was stuck in a tree. Once again, Leo was terribly pissed and embarrassed about what happened, and could almost picture the fat former human or Ivan laying into him about karma. Rainbow once again couldn't restrain herself from laughing a little bit, but she soon pulled herself together, and with the help of Fluttershy, began helping him free from the wooden prison.

They each took a forehoof of his, and lifted him slowly out of his position. As this happened, Leo began to think to himself.

Can't say I didn't see this coming, but damn that hurt! Just my luck... Leo thought to himself. But at least this event isn't a total waste. I am learning...

As the two-tutor flight training reconvened, Leo's thoughts flashed to Corey again.

He should have made it to the library right about now...

Corey peered out of the hay he had lodged himself into in an escape from Rarity. Aside from thinking about how else the locals could compare him to Twilight, he actually had given it some thought as to how he would attempt telling her the former humans' problem. It wasn't easy to think with the occasional bump rocking the hay he was hiding in, in addition to the fact he was about to fall asleep in the hay bale due to the softness, but he managed to find a method.

"Alright," he mumbled softly to himself, so that way the pony carrying the hay wouldn't hear him. He sighted the tree-library to the left of the cart, a little ways behind him, so he began to creep out of the hay on his belly to the best he could. Again, the extra body fat was not making the task any easier on him. "Better get out now."

Little did Corey realize that as he made his valiant escape from the strawbox, above him, on one of the library's balconies, a light purple-furred pony with a dark purple mane and tail each containing a stripe of blue-violet and pink down the left side was conducting her usual hobby.

Twilight Sparkle had resumed her days of studying friendship and recreational reading. The purple unicorn had decided to take a break from pursuing magical knowledge for the time being, and had since laid down on the balcony to read. She saw a pony carrying a cart with a haystack attached to it, passing by the front of the library, which was her right side. Something made the lavender pony focus her purple eyes on the hay bale, particularly when she swore she saw it move.

It was difficult for her to push it aside when she saw something green poking out of it. She focused her eyes on it, and what she saw next made her rub her eyes in disbelief with one of her forelegs: a rather heavy-set green unicorn colt pushed his way out of the hay bale, his four feet leaving the cart and causing him to land on the ground hard. The carrier pony didn't seem to notice the...weight...leaving the cart.

Was he...hiding in that...? Twilight thought to herself, looking down from the balcony, telekinetically reaching for a bookmark with a spell. She couldn't possibly ignore the fact a colt about her age had just done that. So, with this in mind, Twilight closed the book after sliding the bookmark into place, and made her way downstairs. As she neared the door, she saw a young purple and green dragon glancing out the window. It didn't take the purple unicorn too long to figure out what he was staring at.

"Spike, did you see him too?" she asked her assistant. Spike, upon being addressed, immediately whirled around. From the look on his face, she knew he had been giggling about the stowaway.

"I've been hungry before, but he took it to a whole other level..." the baby dragon continued, putting both his arms up to his mouth to try and hide the fact he was laughing. He stood on two legs as opposed to...well, every other character introduced thus far, and he walked over to Twilight.

"I'm sure he..." Twilight couldn't believe she was saying it, but something about the pony outside just rubbed her the wrong way. However, she had to remain friendly. Despite the fact he hid in a hay bale, he didn't seem to be evil in nature, just...something about him confused her to no end. "I'm sure he has a reason for it other than hunger."

Corey was winded from the bad landing, but thanked his lucky stars that none of the ponies seemed to have heard his faulty dismount. This included the carrier pony, who the former human now realized didn't even seem to notice the extra weight.

As a human, I weighed a lot...I assume being a pony doesn't change that even though I might weigh less overall. The green unicorn thought to himself, dusting himself off, which proved to be a challenge in itself given the fact he still had four legs and wasn't in the best of control. He managed to get some of the straw off his mane before dusting a piece or two off his snout. Corey began to think about how exactly he was going to ask for help from the librarian.

Okay, let's see. How do I explain this without creating a fatal rupture in the fourth wall? Corey stood in the road, thinking to himself with his eyes closed. Obviously, we'd have to get introduced first, so I can at least build some level of trust. But after that would come the real test of my fortitude and my ability to describe a problem which I'm sure nopony has ever had: humans in Equestria. Fanon doesn't count in this case. I'd have heard of something amiss by now other than Ivan, Leo and myself. None of the ponies I've met so far seemed to be out of character either, so we're probably somewhere in the canon universe after the first couple of episodes. So, I could go for broke and just tell her the problem, but there is a strong possibility she might not believe me...

The green unicorn was caught up in his introspection, so much so that he couldn't hear steps approaching him.

Damn it, how can I tell her without sounding like an asshole?

"So, were you hungry there, Big Green?" asked a childish voice. Instantly, due to the quote, Corey was reminded of DBZ Abridged, a series on YouTube he watched which parodied his favorite show of all time. At least, until he realized that a certain dragon was referring to him. He flinched, but dared not open his eyes.

...On second thought, maybe I should have let myself get caught by Rarity...can't explain the haystack now.

"Spike!" a familiar feminine voice scolded. Instantly, Corey's stomach sank, and he could feel himself sweating cold bullets.

Wait, ponies sweat? Corey thought to himself.

"Uh..." Corey stuttered, forcing himself to open his eyes. "...no..."

"...I'm a little curious to know myself though..." Twilight began, seeming friendly enough about the subject. "Why were you in the hay?"

Fuck me running...gotta think of something fast without letting them know I know Rarity even though I've never met her! Corey thought, really feeling like a dumbass for thinking that imitating Snake as seen in Peace Walker was a good idea in a pony world.

"I--" The former human knew he was floundering about like no other now. He suddenly became very self-conscious about his appearance, but he couldn't allow it to affect him, not now, when Leo and Ivan were depending on him to do what he had to do...so he resorted to another skill he had, next to writing crazy blends of series, and mathematics: punwork. "--I had a really stupid idea, but I said...'what the hay' and went for it."

A rimshot, very audible, suddenly rang through his ears.

...Pinkie?!

Twilight couldn't believe her eyes or ears. This colt, who was the same type of pony and around the same age she was, acted entirely on impulse as though he were a foal. And he was trying to tell puns? Even he must have known that wasn't the best possible thing to say. And yet, the purple pony could tell he was trying to keep a straight face during the delivery. She could gather if he knew he was about to say something stupid. He telegraphed what he was about to unleash after the word "idea".

"Lame!" Spike cut in, breaking the awkward silence. Twilight felt inclined to agree, but she saw the colt flinch with this word again, and he began to think, seemingly mouthing words to himself through gritted teeth. She also noticed something else: after he flinched, he seemed to be scowling, but she couldn't plainly tell why he was.

"Spike..." Twilight really didn't know which side to be on right now. There was something about this new pony that reminded her of somepony she knew, but she couldn't figure out who it was straight away. "Could you...tell me the real reason why?"

She watched the new pony flinch even harder than when her assistant laid into him about his terrible pun. He seemed to be feeling pretty stupid about his apparent split-second decision, and she began to wonder if there was more to him than what she was saying.

In her study of friendship, she had learned that you only get one chance at a first impression, in most cases.

And this new colt wasn't off to a great start to her, but something about him just didn't sit right with her. It almost felt as if he didn't belong. She waited patiently for his answer.

"I-I really have to get going now," Fluttershy had somewhat adjusted to his presence by this point of his flight training, which Leo was somewhat relieved to hear. Seeing her slowly smile at him closed the case on that, and caused him to slowly smile himself. It was probably the first sincere smile he'd had in a while.

"Thank you for your help," responded the silver pegasus. Fluttershy mumbled a polite "You're welcome" before flying back on her errands. Leo felt just a little guilty for keeping her.

It was now Dash and Leo hovering in the air. Rainbow looked in the direction of a large tree, a library, and when she looked back to him, the former human realized with some level of amusement that she was smiling impishly again.

"We should head over to Twilight's place..." she said. "See how your...'big' friend is doing there."

Leo wasn't stupid, he caught the subtle comparison that the cyan pegasus made before Corey left on his own to head in the direction of the library. Maybe she wanted to see if they were discussing friendly matters. Leo remembered that in another story Corey wrote, this pegasus was a tease factory on matters such as that, and he was starting to wonder if Dash was in fact going to do the same.

"Yeah, I kinda want to see myself," Leo nodded, this time, not even coming close to flipping lopsided. The past minutes of flight training had really paid off. He wasn't sure if the fact he had two females in his proximity or if he was just that tired of being made fun of for his flightless style--he didn't know which one was the cause of his fast learning, but he could hover just a little faster. He still wasn't quite able to fly except for short bursts quite yet, but it'd have to do.

"Keep up!" the cyan pegasus commanded, immediately flying off at a decent speed. A speed that Leo couldn't hope to match at his current level of experience.

Shiiiiiit!! Leo thought to himself, immediately taking off as fast as he could stand to go. He knew he couldn't keep up and try to at least shield Corey from whatever Dash had in mind if he kept this pace, so he began pushing himself, even as the rainbow became distant. He flapped his wings hard, pushing himself to his limit...

Corey knew he had to explain himself to Twilight, without telling puns this time, but he just wasn't able to find the words to express himself. He was aware he was facing the ground and scowling, but he couldn't think of anything to say for himself. More importantly, with what he was realizing more and more before he actually met the purple pony before him, it was in his best interest to say something soon, before one of her close friends interrupted and made things unbearably awkward. For him, anyway.

"W-well, you see, the r-r-reason for my being in the hay...it was a st-stupid i-idea, but--" Corey stuttered all over his words. He wasn't sure why his mouth decided to completely fail him now, but he found himself unable to speak. The former human's nerves were jittering with unspoken amounts of electric impulses. Or whatever the impulses consisted of in a unicorn body. Point is, he was painfully aware he was nervous, and he felt his face heat up past the outside temperature.

G-god damn, I'm blushing here...! he thought. Good thing no one's around to see this other than Spike--

"So how's it goin'?" an all too familiar voice cut in. Corey's blood froze in place as he realized which character that voice belonged to.

"Rainbow? What are you doing here?" Twilight asked, turning from him along with Spike to regard the new arrival. The green unicorn's sense of danger began to kick in, and he looked up, and grimaced when he realized Dash had a tease-tastic grin on her face. Things were just not looking up for him.

Oh no...oh no, this probably will not end well if she's the one telling her I came for reading... Corey thought to himself, his embarrassed scowl refusing to fade from his features. This situation could not be made of more horse shit if it tried! Which is saying a lot when I think about it! Clearly, he was so afraid that Rainbow was intending to damage his pride with statements that he was disregarding what Twilight and Rainbow had gone through along with their friends.

"Oh, you know, just wanted to see if Corey found his way alright..." Dash looked straight at him now, and he almost passed out when she started giggling again. "Hey, why are you covered in hay? Couldn't keep your appetite at bay? Hey, that rhymed."

"Rainbow...!" Twilight scolded, though she seemed to be restraining herself. After all, she knew she tended to be somewhat insensitive to other ponies, especially when first meeting them. Meanwhile, Spike couldn't refrain from snickering. The green unicorn felt his body tremble.

Oh God...oh God...I really could use a distraction... As he thought this, a noise came from behind him. His ears, which had wilted before due to his conversation, immediately pricked straight up as they picked up a distant noise. It sounded like someone was yelling in terror. Corey turned his head, to see a silver flying object doing super-fast aerial tricks...without much control.

"What the--?" Twilight asked, apparently hearing the sound. "...Is that a pegasus...?"

"Oh, there he is! Thought he couldn't keep up!" said Rainbow. Instantly, Corey knew what that silver object was: Leo, finally being the full victim of karma. This realization caused Corey to smirk with his head hung for a few seconds. However, he quickly realized in order to lord this incident over his old friend's head should he ever start referencing Cupcakes or hitting Ivan upside the head, he would need to play his cards right while the silver former human was in range. With this in mind, the green former human once more ducked out of the way of Leo's flight path, out of reflex. He was now hurtling straight towards the library.

"He's going to crash!" Corey yelled, making sure to at least appear to care, even though Leo recently has been pissing him off. It wasn't too hard when he considered that Leo was the only one that knew the code to get the former humans home. Only a few moments later, a purple glowing mass appeared in front of the library's wall, and Leo collided with the rubbery mass face-first. The mass acted as a trampoline, allowing Leo to bounce harmlessly off the surface and impact the ground, landing flat on his back. He seemed stunned from what just happened.

"Nice save there, Twilight!" Dash cheered. The former human didn't really see anything wrong with how she said it.

"Rainbow, how exactly do you know him?" Twilight asked, turning to Rainbow, discarding the compliment.

"Well, he wanted some pointers on flight, and I had nothing better to do." Dash answered, looking to Twilight. "He's Corey's friend, Leo."

Leo lay flat on the ground, completely dazed from what had just happened. One minute, he was doing all sorts of aerial tricks without even meaning to, barrel rolls, side rolls, back flips, and even a loop-de-loop in mid air, before finally falling diagonally down, clearing Corey by a mile even without the green unicorn ducking down. Then he crashed into something purple and glowy just before the library side, and landed flat on his back. The fall from there didn't hurt, but he was still stunned.

He heard Dash's statement, and acted as though he were recovering from some head trauma. His pride had already taken enough damage today, and he needed to do some acting.

"Now, Corey, why were you in the haystack?" Twilight asked, sounding as though she were resuming her questioning. Leo subtly turned to Corey, to see that there were yellow pieces of straw attached to his fur. It wasn't hard to see given the bright colors of the world, but it still took a little squinting to see it.

She looks serious...what did Corey do? Leo thought. Realizing he needed to get back on his feet, and have a little acting too, Leo quickly made his move. With some groaning, he worked his way back to his feet. Dash appeared to have heard him, and hovered her way over to him.

"You still need a little practice, but good try..." She sounded really amused by the crash, "Good try!"

"W-" Leo tried to put as much effort into his voice to sound convincing. "-Who...who are you?"

Dash fixed him with a puzzled look.

"...You must have a short-term memory." Dash didn't sound convinced. Leo, by this point, had worked out what that purple glowing mass he hit was, and maybe that was not convincing the cyan pegasus. "I'm Rainbow Dash, the fastest flier in Equestria!"

"D-doesn't ring a bell," The former human continued to try and sell his amnesiac act.

"Leo, are you that fragile?" The cyan pegasus asked again, fixing him with an even more puzzled look. "You gonna be alright?"

"...Leo...that name sounds familiar..." said Leo, trying to act as though he were starting to come to his senses, realizing if he kept this up, he might only make things worse for himself. With a shake of his head, he came out of his state. "Huh? What...happened?"

"You wiped out big time..." Dash confirmed with a small giggle. "Welcome back."

Though she was trying her hardest to put it aside, Twilight now had a nagging feeling in the back of her head that Corey and Leo were strange in their own ways. From what she could gather, Leo could barely fly straight at a high speed, and Corey...she still didn't know why he did what he did. She had to hear his reasoning, and she had to hear it now. There was no way that a pony her age should be so bad at flying. Something was up...and yet, something told her that these new ponies weren't bad at all. But they certainly were strange cases.

"Corey?" she asked, just to be sure. "Is that your name?"

The green unicorn nodded, seeming to be a little calmer thanks to that intervention. He seemed to require his space to think.

"That name's...something I haven't heard before..." Twilight continued, making note of it. "Anyway, Corey, why were you in the hay?"

"Well, you see...the story is, I was walking around town, following Dash's direction to get here, when I decided to see how I looked." Corey answered at last. "Unfortunately, I picked the wrong window to check my reflection in. As I passed, a sense of danger went through me, and I turned my head somewhat, to see a white unicorn with a finely curled purple mane and tail. It looked as though she spent hours styling it this morning."

Twilight cocked her head to the side, not really believing what she was hearing at first. Did he have a run-in with Rarity? A second look at the pony confirmed that he didn't-his mane was a mess, like he just rolled out of bed. And, since his eyes were slightly bagged and he appeared to be scowling naturally, even now that he was able to talk about the incident, he seemed like a prime target for Rarity to work her fashion magic on.

"I...think he's talking about Rarity," Spike cut in. He sounded slightly offended.

"So..." Twilight continued. "You saw her look at you, and that had you worried?"

"She didn't look like she knew what she was gonna do to me, and I wasn't really in the mood to find out."

I feel like I've been here before... Twilight thought to herself. "I see...keep going..."

"So, I did the first thing that came to my mind, and jumped into the nearest haystack I could find." Corey continued. "It was a really stupid decision, and I'm surprised it worked at all."

For Twilight, gears were beginning to turn. The feeling that she and this pony had a trait in common-or at least, one she had was now once again observed in him, was returning, and growing stronger as she began to process the event.

"But...what was your 'important thing'?" asked the purple pony.

"I...had to get to the library as soon as I could."

Twilight's heart almost jumped straight out of her chest, and not in a good way. That was the exact way she'd met Rarity a long while back, only she'd allowed Rarity to work on her just a little bit since she didn't want to be rude. But this colt just seemed to have a worse one-track mind, and seemed to be somewhat asocial. Was he here to warn her of something that was about to happen in Equestria? Masking her concerns, the unicorn smiled.

"And...why were you in such a hurry?"

"I'm interested in what Ponyville literature has to offer." Corey responded with a sigh. Twilight masked a sigh of relief, and a somewhat annoyed sigh came out of her mouth instead. Something about this pony just didn't add up. But she knew that he liked reading, at least.

She then noticed Corey was looking over in Leo's direction, who by this point was seemingly arguing with Rainbow about his flight failures. Dash appeared to be telling Leo that the only time she failed at flight that spectacularly was when she was a filly. The green unicorn's scowl was somewhat on again. However, it wasn't nearly as bad as it was when he was apparently embarrassed about his split-second decision.

Twilight knew it might be a little bit of a mistake, but she was curious. Even if this pony was an oddball in just about every sense of the word, same with his friend, she wanted to know what else this pony was like. And she wanted to see if his current attitude mirrored her attitude before meeting her friends. It was an overwhelming curiosity, one that suppressed some of her better judgment. A sense of duty suppressed whatever was left.

The purple pony never quite saw herself as a teacher, but this colt appeared to need an intervention...

"I'm sorry to have wasted your time," Leo finally said after he and Dash finished their argument. Apparently, he'd realized that was getting them nowhere. Corey really wanted the pegasi out of his mane so he didn't have to worry about throwing out any other wrong impressions. The way Twilight looked for a split second when he mentioned he ditched Rarity so he could get to the library seemed to indicate that she knew his efforts at not getting made over were eerily similar to Twilight escaping.

The difference between us? She didn't do something as stupid as to dive into hay to hide, thought the former human to himself as he watched the spectacle. Admittedly, he was somewhat enjoying Leo getting grilled by Dash about the flight failures he'd obviously suffered today, though he knew Dash wasn't stupid. Even though the cyan pegasus was an athletic tomboy, she had to have suspected there was something seriously wrong with Leo.

"Ah, don't worry about it!" said Rainbow in response, moving one of her forehooves with a casual wave. "I don't need too much time in my day to do what I need to do!"

To Corey's surprise, she wasn't talking about what she wanted to do. Rather, she went off on an abridged account of all the things she could do in little time. Some of them were aerial acrobatic moves, and other moves she'd performed during the episodes. She talked about clearing the clouds from the first episode in "ten seconds flat", but then she went off on events Corey only heard of through internet fanfiction and the My Little Pony wiki: the Fall Weather Friends episode's events; winning a competition with her Sonic Rainboom...

Corey's mind began to drift as he daydreamed. He knew he didn't have a whole lot of time. One way or another, they were going to be found out. The magicless fat green unicorn...the near-flightless silver androgynous pegasus...and the sleepy brown earth pony. Something about all of them was bound to tip them off sooner or later, and Corey really wanted to avoid a panic. Telling Twilight and possibly Spike was the top priority. From there, it was all up to how Twilight acted with the information.

But then Corey remembered he, Ivan, and Noel were in a Skype room for four.

Will John be pulled in too?

The sound of a female clearing her throat resounded in Corey's ears. He turned to see Twilight, who appeared to be watching him, with Spike following close by.

"Excuse me, but...you looked like you were thinking hard about something." Twilight said. "I hate to pry, but...what were you thinking about?"

"Oh, it's...nothing. Just reflecting on current issues facing me, that's all." The former human responded, with a nod.

"I see," Twilight responded with a small smile. She didn't seem entirely convinced of him. Even though the cords connected in her head much like they had for him, that they did share some uncanny personality traits, she seemed somewhat off-put. Was she starting to see past the pony outside already? If so, Corey knew this worked to his advantage somewhat. If not, he had no idea what she was thinking about. "Well, if you're here to do reading, then come on in. We'll see what we can find..."

"Right, so..." Corey responded, turning to Leo and Dash. "I guess I'll be seeing you guys around..."

And so, the purple and green baby dragon, the purple unicorn, and the green unicorn began to make their way into the library. Dash, of course, had to get in one last parting shot.

"Have fun!" she said with a smile, mirroring Corey's farewell statement when he left her and Leo.

Really should have seen that one coming... thought Corey as his self-assuredness deflated slightly. Things were still probably going to be hard.

Rainbow Dash watched as the unicorns and baby dragon made their way inside the library. Leo, by now, was hovering alongside her, having finally recovered from the shock of his fall, or at least, that's what it looked like.

These two new ponies...who do they think they're foolin'? They don't seem bad, but...there's something off about them. Leo can't fly...and Corey just seems weird in his own way. I mean, they're doing things only foals do! Rainbow thought to herself. Rainbow began to leave, but something else hit her. Her face filled with an evil smile. She turned to Leo, who seemed surprised she wasn't leaving straight away. Then again, I'm curious...if Leo's attempts at flying are laughable, will Corey be the same way with performing magic?

"Hey, Leo...wanna spy on Corey and Twilight in there?" Dash asked. There seemed to be something about this pony's personality. One moment, he's apparently being a total pain in Corey's neck, judging from the way they seemed to be talking before she crashed into Leo. Then the next, he's seemingly polite, when dealing with Fluttershy and herself. And then he seemed to be having some sort of amnesia attack, though that struck her as an attempt to preserve pride. Twilight's spell appeared to cushion the impact enough.

Then there was the green load that accompanied Leo, Corey. There was something else off about him too besides his method of getting to the library, which she only assumed was because he rode around in a hay bale. He was snarky one moment, then the next, he'd be speaking in a dull, monotone voice, or else he'd be stuttering.

Maybe he and Twilight would make good friends...really, good friends... she thought to herself, recalling the look on the green colt's face before she landed. The poor pony looked as though he were backed helplessly into a corner. The rainbow-maned pony smiled wider, and rubbed her hooves together in anticipation. So many possibilities, so little time! I have to see how Corey handles himself!

Leo turned to her, and he soon smiled. Something of interest to Rainbow: his smile seemed to be mirroring hers.

"I don't have a lot else to do...sure." responded the silver colt, soon hovering level with her.

"Follow me..." The cyan mare responded. She began to lead Leo to a spot she figured would lead to some easy eavesdropping...

Act 1 Chapter 5

Act I: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 5: Mishaps and Shenanigans

And add the Ponyville Library to my list of "Things That Are Bigger In Person When In Equestria"... Corey thought to himself, gazing at the house/library that Twilight and Spike lived in. It seemed like it had some renovations since the last episode he'd watched as well. For one thing, there appeared to be two beds in the upstairs room where Twilight slept, or at least, that's what he assumed. He wasn't entirely sure what everything was right now. But all the same, the floor he was on seemed to be where Twilight did most of her studies. And there were shelves on all the walls. Probably the most habitable library Corey had ever stayed in for a long time was the library at college, but even then, he went there to get as much solitude as he could manage while he juggled his homework and hobbies.

Well, he wouldn't have to worry about either of those, given Equestria didn't have computers let alone Wi-Fi, as far as he could tell. If he learned to write with his horn, then maybe he could resume writing, but that wouldn't get him very far, he knew. As for his reading, most of it was done online. And instead of regular books, he read internet fanfiction most of the time. Not all of it was palatable, though. Most of the time, he had psuedo-masochism on his mind and just wanted to read fanfics he couldn't stand in the first place.

That is not to say he didn't enjoy real books, but all the books here might wind up reading like pony fanfic variations of things he enjoyed on Earth. He wasn't quite sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, and that scared him.

"Now, Corey, could you wait here? I'll be with you in a moment..." Twilight said, looking to him.

"I see." Corey responded. Something inside of him gave way, and his vocal cords took off. "Gotta hand it to you though..."

Wait, why did I just...?

"Oh?" The purple unicorn turned to face him. Instantly, Corey knew he'd have to say something, so he thought quickly.

"I usually have to go out to get reading done..." It wasn't a total lie, both here in Equestria and on Earth--on Earth, more books were found in a library, though as mentioned, he didn't read them; here in Equestria, his backstory was that he was here to see what Ponyville had in terms of literature, and he was genuinely curious to see what pony literature was like anyway. "You live in a mountain of books...don't have to look far."

"You're not gonna find books in bales of hay..." said Spike, giving the understatement of the year. Pushing this statement aside, Corey remembered something: they never actually introduced themselves.

"I don't think you ever told me your names..." Corey said, trying to keep his voice steady. Twilight and Spike turned to him,

"Oh! Sorry about that!" Twilight apologized, having already almost gone back upstairs. "I guess I must have forgotten with all the...excitement..." As she continued, Spike snickered, knowing what the unicorn was ambiguously referring to. Corey was instantly reminded he probably still had hay in places on his body. "...that just happened. I mean, it's not every day a colt decides to relive his foal days by hiding in a hay bale, or a pegasus loses control of his or her flight and has to do a crash landing..."

"But when it does happen, does it happen twice?" The green unicorn immediately felt the urge to slam his hoof over his mouth at what he just asked.

"What was that?" Twilight asked.

"Oh, n-nothing...so what are your names?" Corey played off his slip. He wouldn't let it slip that Rainbow Dash had crashed into Leo earlier, at least not yet. He would save that leverage for later, if Leo continued to piss him off.

"Well, Corey..." She said his name awkwardly. Apparently she was still getting used to the strangeness of his name. "I'm Twilight Sparkle. He's Spike, my assistant..." Corey noticed she omitted some things that she might have mentioned. He vaguely recalled her saying she had some connections to the Princess in the first episode, but that could have been just his memory being selective.

"And the number one assistant!" Spike added, pulling a triumphant pose, and seemed to be smugly looking past Corey.

Isn't he the only one? Corey thought to himself. The green pony stood confused for a few moments, though willed himself not to show it.

"I don't usually stay up that late, Spike, you know that..." Twilight assured. "Now, if you'll excuse us..."

The purple pony trailed off, vanishing from Corey's sight as she left for a place upstairs. The green unicorn, formerly a human, snorted just a little.

This library has balconies, doesn't it? No wonder she saw me! he thought to himself. Back to business. I'd better at least attempt to simulate interest in the books while I think of how I can tell Twilight of how this goes. Hell, she saw Leo fail, but she seemed dismissive of that fact...

"This is only going to get harder..." Corey mumbled to himself. Before he began looking for the nearest shelf, he turned his head to look at what Spike was looking at, behind him and slightly up.

A small, light brown owl was on a perch. It appeared to be dozing off.

...So that owl is canon after all. Wondering what point of the timeline he and his friends ended up in, Corey made his way over to the nearest bookshelf, and began feigning interest, thinking about the best way to approach the whole "I'm not a pony" thing. He knew it was going to take patience and a way with words, both of which things he lacked.

Twilight emerged from the interior of the library back onto the balcony where she'd seen Corey's little hay bale escape. She still felt something was off about him specifically. Leo seemed flightless, but what were the odds that Corey couldn't do magic? The unicorn thought to herself as she looked out to the sun. Only not directly at it...the last time that happened...

"They both seem..." Twilight thought aloud.

"Weird? Yeah, I agree, something's up with them," said Spike, hearing Twilight's loud thoughts.

"Spike!" Twilight tried to compose herself. "We can't say for sure if things are as bad as they seem. It looks like the both of them haven't slept all night last night. Corey can't have been that anxious to come to the library, could he?"

"I don't know," answered the baby dragon, leaning somewhat on the wooden railing. "You get pretty anxious on things sometimes, too..."

"I had reason to be that anxious," retorted Twilight. "There's something weird going on...but I'm sure it's...nothing threatening. At least, not from them. Corey could barely speak--"

"And his face became apple red too."

"Yes, I remember, Spike," The purple pony said. "Anyway, I'm sure it'll come out with just a little time. We've just got to watch them carefully..."

She pushed aside the fact Corey had similar experiences on his first day in Ponyville for the time being. She knew there was something bigger going on. Things just weren't adding up, but at the same time, she knew there wasn't any real threat to Corey and Leo. They both seemed...harmless enough.

"If you say so," Spike said, looking back into the library.

Leo hovered outside the window, becoming slowly aware his wing muscles were getting sore. Since he never had wings to get sore until now, he knew he should have expected as much. Dash was looking at Corey intently, who seemed to be in deep thought. They had both chuckled just a little bit when Corey had his slip of the tongue. But the former human, now a pegasus, knew something was up. Neither of them were acting quite normal. Leo knew Twilight saw him wipe out in the fashion he did; and she might have gathered that he and Corey were friends as well. And Corey just seemed to be...rambling a little more than normal.

"So, is he any good at magic?" Rainbow asked, snapping him out of his thoughts in an instant. Leo looked over, unsure of how to answer for a moment. The answer came to him soon enough.

"He...never does any kind of 'flashy' magic," Leo responded, really unsure of his answer was going to stick. Corey looked as though he weren't even trying to use magic in the first place. He seemed to have found a rather interesting title. Actually, now that he thought about it, he wasn't even sure what the green unicorn inside was up to.

...Is Corey...falling for--? The former human's thoughts were once again interrupted.

"Twilight's coming, get away from this window!" Dash warned, immediately grabbing Leo by the hoof and yanking him away from it. The cyan pegasus continued flight until they reached another window. The former human could now hear buzzing below him. He looked down to see a beehive hanging off one of the tree's branches.

Now in a safer spot to avoid being spotted, the ponies continued their eavesdropping activity, putting one perked-up ear to the side of the building.

"Do you need help down there?" Twilight asked. Leo peered into the window to see she had a book open, and was levitating it with her magic, her horn and the affected object glowing a magenta color.

Corey leaned his head on the shelf, turning it so he wouldn't impale anything-at least, that was what Leo was assuming. He appeared to be thinking. Leo wanted to get inside to help Corey out, and Dash appeared to want to get inside so that she could see what was going on better. If Leo knew her character well enough...

"That..." the green unicorn below said, some hesitation in his voice. "Um...just give me a moment, going to think carefully about which book I want..." He was speaking in a monotone voice.

"Oh, I see," Twilight sounded...discomforted. "Just let me know if you need anything..."

"Hmm..." Dash sounded like she was thinking. The way she made the sound suggested she had some ammo for later teasing on the matter, but Leo wasn't really sure what was going through the cyan pegasus's head at that moment.

Corey, you might need a little help... The silver pegasus gritted his teeth, watching Corey waste more time. Then he remembered that Rainbow was around. Noel wasn't sure why, but he didn't want the pegasus finding out about the humanhood of the newcomers just yet. The former human heard his friend's forelegs awkwardly set down on something with a thud. Leo craned his head around, to see into the window. He could see Corey awkwardly on his back legs, standing as upright as he could, looking at a book. His eyes seemed interested in the cover. ...What is he trying to do? Gain Twilight's trust?

At this moment, Leo felt a rush of cool air. Dash's wings were flapping slightly faster. Was she about to take off.

"Leo, this is getting a little boring," Dash whispered. "Not what I was expecting, but I guess things like this take time! I still have some stuff I wanna get done at the moment, so I'll catch you later!"

Before the former human could stop her or say his own farewell, Rainbow once more took off at top speed, no doubt about to continue her day as though she hadn't been interrupted by the newcoming ponies, and took off at a very fast pace. The force of the takeoff threw Leo completely off-balance, and he fell. On the way down, he hit something, feeling it leave the tree, and just a few seconds later, the former human's ears were filled with the sounds of buzzing.

D-damn it to hell...

Corey looked back to Twilight, still with his forelegs on the shelves. He still hadn't thought of how to phrase his sentences, but he was convinced that he'd be able to think of something to say. With a small sigh, trying to keep composed, even though internally, he was on edge, the former human spoke up.

"Yeah, Twilight, I do need...a little help getting this book down..." Corey said.

"O...Okay then..." Twilight responded. She sounded like she was seriously questioning things. As he turned to face her, he noticed she was very perplexed. He had a hard time reading emotions, but the expressive nature of the faces in Equestria made things a little easier for him. "...Uh, why?"

"I prefer doing things by hoof when possible, and..."

"You can't keep your balance on your back legs long enough?" asked Spike, "You know, because of your--"

"Spike..." Twilight sighed. "And...?"

"Well, I don't think I should pick a book up in my mouth, do you?" Corey responded again, trying to keep himself in control. It was a little easier given he was able to focus on the task at hand, but he knew his filter could break down at any moment. "Saliva isn't very good for paper..."

"...Point taken..." The purple pony didn't seem utterly convinced by his answer.

Why aren't you calling me out on that? You look skeptical enough... thought the former human as Twilight approached. Spike too, seemed very skeptical of the green unicorn's answer. But neither of them seemed to be saying anything, and Corey was wondering why. Did they already see through him? Before he could properly ask, a loud scream, male in nature, was heard from just outside.

"What the--?" Corey asked, his ears perking up from the sound.

All eyes in the library immediately looked to the nearest window, and saw a silver pegasus trying desperately to outfly what appeared to be a horde of bees. Corey flinched as soon as he realized the bees were there.

D-damn...! Bees... Corey thought.

"...Must have crashed his way into one of the beehives this time..." Spike said, now giggling somewhat at Leo's predicament, and obviously remembering Leo's earlier crash landing. Corey hesitated just a little bit before following, his fear of bees--and for that matter, anything else with a stinger, keeping him back.

"L-Leo's in trouble...again..." For some reason, Corey had a feeling Leo had been out there the whole time, and was spying on them. Dash probably put him up to it. It was merely a hunch, but with the way his luck was going...

"Something wrong, big guy?" Spike asked.

"I...I have an issue with bees..." Corey responded.

Leo flew about frantically, trying to escape the bees that were hounding him. He had destroyed their home, and they were about to extract their revenge. His already sore wings were crying out in protest of his actions. Finally, deciding it was time to fight back, he landed in front of the door, shut his eyes, and then tried to get into a martial arts pose, hoping that he wouldn't have a severe fail. He got on his back legs, very shakily due to the fact his body just wasn't meant for that anymore, and attempted to get his head into the game.

The bees formed a huge cloud of anger, and the swarm now darted straight at him. Just as Leo prepared to fight off the swarm, he heard the door open.

"Get inside!" Twilight barked at him. Leo didn't object, but he felt as though it was slightly odd that Twilight didn't question his martial arts pose straight away.

"O-okay!" The silver pegasus yelled, immediately getting back on all fours and running the short distance into the house. Twilight immediately slammed the door, and behind him, Leo could hear all the little insect bodies colliding with the wood painfully. After a few seconds, the sounds of the impacts stopped, and the buzzing outside the door became less and less volume.

"I think they're gone..." Corey whispered. Leo turned to see the other former human fixing him with an angry look.

...Damn it, Dash...you left me here to face his wrath... Leo thought to himself. I like your styl--wait...damn it all...

The former human wasn't quite sure how to feel about it, but he could feel his feelings for the speedy rainbow getting stronger. Which didn't bode well when he considered the only leverage he really had over his green companion was the decision to jump into a haystack. He wasn't exactly sure where Corey was going with Twilight either, but at the rate Corey was going, well...it just didn't bode well for him.

"Uh, Twilight? I'll get back on the book in a moment," Corey asked, once more in a monotone, near-emotionless voice. "I need to talk to Leo here for a moment."

"Um...okay, sure," Twilight responded. She looked a little...concerned. Leo knew why: she must have noticed something was off about the two of them by now, given how Corey handled the whole "not having magic" thing, as well as his flight crash earlier. "Just let me know when you're done..."

"You're not gonna--" Spike started, before Twilight used a spell Leo had seen before to zip his lips shut and keep him quiet. "MMPH!"

The purple pony immediately ushered Spike out of the room, leaving the two former humans alone. Corey walked up to Leo, and immediately his mind began to fill with irrational fears that Corey was going to mutilate him on his horn, and make it look like an accident.

"Leo, what the heck were you doing out there?" the green unicorn asked in a hushed voice, scowling. "I guess it doesn't matter much, though. The bees...well, they sort of did the job for me. For a while now, karma's been hammering me instead of you."

"I regret nothing," the silver pegasus responded, causing Corey to hang his head and give an exasperated, struggling gasp. "What exactly are you doing?"

"I don't think it's gonna be too easy to explain things to her. I feel like she might have a whiff or two about the two of us being...strange by the norms of here." Leo noticed Corey was being ambiguous. Probably for the best. "So, you're probably wondering about how this came to happen?" He motioned to himself, and Leo remembered in this instant that Corey was still covered in straw.

"What happened to you after we split up?" asked the silver former human, really curious to know why Corey had done as he did. Nevertheless, Leo was relieved that Corey wasn't about to redecorate and repaint the library with the color red.

"Well, I walked along the path Dash sent me on...then, I decided to look at my reflection in a window. Not my brightest move. I passed that window, went to the second one up, and realized what I'd been looking in. I looked in that window, and saw...'Rarity', I think Twilight called her, inside of the building." Once again, Corey was at least putting up a front of being clueless, Leo could tell, "I spent too long being shocked, and...she noticed me."

"Oh...oh God..." Leo giggled, realizing exactly what Corey did. He panicked and jumped into the strawbox.

"I knew if she caught me, it'd eat up quite a bit of time, so I made the decision to leap into the hay bale. Not my brightest move..." The lime-colored former human responded, sighing in response. "Oh well, what's done is done. Shouldn't have played all that Peace Walker. So how did things go on your end?"

Leo anticipated this question, and opted to answer honestly.

"Well, a little after you left, Dash started teaching me to fly, which really surprised me. She wasn't...going fast. Though she seemed to enjoy whenever I messed up..." Leo felt just a little embarrassed recalling that, "Then, I met a pony named Fluttershy, who also helped me." Taking Corey's cues, in case Twilight was somehow listening in, Leo acted as though he didn't know the ponies.

"...I see." Corey seemed to be processing things. "Hmm...anything happen between you and this Fluttershy, specifically?"

"N-not really..." The silver pegasus felt himself blush just a little, and cleared his throat.

"Well, your face turned red a little there. It shows very well against your silver coat." Leo cursed cartoon mechanics as Corey continued: "So, I'm having trouble thinking of ways to explain things to Twilight. Got any suggestions?"

"You can tell her I got a..." Leo whispered, "wing-raising experience."

"Depends, do you want that secret coming out?" Corey retorted angrily. "I'm not having the best of times. I feel like she'd scoff in my face about it..."

"You're just being paranoid," The silver pegasus dismissed his friend's sentiments. "But in all seriousness, at least try to explain our situation. I'll be back whenever."

"Wait, then where are you going?"

"Gonna go practice my flight some more," responded Leo. "No offense to you, but I don't want to be the only failure of our team. You know, aside from Ivan. Still a little edgy from my flight crash..." The silver pegasus walked towards the door, and carefully opened it. Seeing no bees except for the ones stunned from their tackling the door, he nodded somewhat. "Good luck, Cor. I'm off."

Far before Corey could stop him, Leo left his sight, using his wings to fly at an even pace away. The former human stared, wide-eyed, at the spot his friend just occupied. The green unicorn's scowl was full-on. He was beyond pissed at what Leo had left him to do. He just voiced his concerns, and Leo dismissed them, instead opting to continue his flight training solo.

He just fucking ditched me... Corey thought to himself. Damn it...! Ugh! It's entirely in my hands or hooves now! I've got to tell Twilight exactly what the problem is, and I have to be as stubborn and impatient as possible! At the same time, I have to be descriptive!

The green unicorn hung his head and sighed.

Obvious boner is obvious, Noel. And I can not wait for the opportunity to reveal your crush on Rainbow Dash should you continue your bullshit.

Twilight looked out a nearby window to see a silver pegasus flying away in a hobbled fashion. That was Leo flying away, indicating that Corey was once again alone in the main part of the library, probably waiting for help. The Element of Magic didn't quite understand what they were talking about, or what those two were up to, but something was telling her that while it wasn't anything bad, it wasn't anything particularly good either. It just seemed like today was going to be an unusual day.

"I still don't like it, Twilight!" Spike interjected, breaking Twilight's thoughts. "They're the strangest ponies we've seen, and something's...just 'off' about both of them in general. I don't know how else to describe it, but something's up!"

"I know what you're thinking Spike, but something just tells me those two weren't scheming." Twilight said, closing the book she'd continued in while waiting for Corey and Leo to finish their "talk". "I just get the feeling something will come out before long."

"You don't...like...this new colt, do you?" the baby dragon asked after some silence.

"N-no!" Twilight responded, somewhat defensively, which surprised herself. Quickly shaking this off, she continued. "Today has been a very strange day, but something tells me that it's probably only going to get stranger..."

"I'm just saying, you're not bombarding him with questions like you would if it were any other pony doing it." responded her assistant. "But if you want to act like nothing's wrong, I don't guess I can argue with it."

"Don't worry about it, Spike," Twilight assured, heading back for the downstairs area. "Today's only going to get stranger. Whatever's going on should come out before long."

Alright...it's all me now. Ivan's probably napping, and Leo's obsessed with learning how to fly. I have to find my voice, and not in any way back down! I've got to tell Twilight exactly what my problem is! She and Spike seem to know something's up! But...they're not saying anything... Corey was confused about this, but decided not to press it. My friends are counting on me to not mess this up! I can't flounder this time!

"Now, uh, Corey, which book did you say you wanted?" Twilight asked, startling Corey. Immediately, the former human realized he still was probably pretty far up the creek without a paddle, and would have to swim with everything he'd had just to pull the canoe ashore.

Mother...! the green unicorn thought to himself, his face faulting for a moment as he realized he had no idea how he was going to start his explanation. Immediately, he cursed Leo for leaving him. As for Ivan, he realized that case could not have been helped for one reason or another.

"Oh, uh..." Corey relocated the book he'd found interesting, trying to keep his focus on the new task at hand. "That one..."

The book selected was entitled Scarlet Sleuth and the Sugar Caper, which, to Corey, seemed to echo some sort of mystery vibe. It wasn't murder mystery, but given where he was, the former human knew it'd have been foolish to expect such a thing to exist in Equestria. But it seemed interesting enough to warrant a read. Twilight appeared surprised at his book choice.

"That book, from somepony who jumps into hay on a moment's notice?" the baby dragon in the room asked. He sounded genuinely surprised. Corey was a little confused as well.

From the title, you wouldn't guess that it'd be cerebral in any way, but I guess I'll see if I get hooked, the former human thought. Even if I tell Twilight our problem, it seems like we'll be here a while. She may have her talent grounded in magic firmly, but I doubt she has alchemy somewhere in all that.

"So, Corey," Twilight said, her horn enveloping in a magenta glow once again, and the glow then appeared around the selected book. "...Is there a...more practical reason why you don't use magic on books?"

Corey inhaled, deciding to get it over with. The sooner he broke the ice on the matter of his being a human at heart, the sooner he could get a solution figured out. He tried to find a way to form his question, knowing that if he were to have any credibility, he'd have to look the unicorn dead in the eye and give a detailed description of his problem. He forced himself to look up at Twilight, straight into her lavender eyes...

And his resolve melted.

I-I can't...I don't know how to word things... The former human thought uneasily. I...I don't know...I need more time...

Corey swallowed. He sweated somewhat as he realized he was failing. But right now, he couldn't find a way to phrase his problem effectively. But he tried.

"W-well...you see..." he stuttered out, trying to get his words out. "The r-reason...is..." He tried not to break eye contact, but the look that Twilight gave him, while trying to be reassuring, wasn't exactly helping. He didn't want her to think of him as an idiot, and he certainly didn't want to let down his friends in any way. While telling her (almost) all the truth about he and his friends' humanhood would be the best option, only leaving out the fact that he already knew all the characters, he knew he wouldn't be able to phrase it. "...N-no reason...I...I...don't have any reason for it."

Twilight was...disappointed. Things were still getting stranger, just as she predicted. Corey seemed ready to crack, but he seemed...confused. She couldn't place what was going on in his head, and from the look in his eyes, she deduced it'd probably be unfriendly to pry, even though every ounce of common sense in her was crying at her to do so. Deciding to pursue this later, Twilight lowered the book, and the green colt before her awkwardly took the book in his forehooves, shakily receiving it on his hind legs.

"T-thank you," he whispered. He sounded incredibly uneasy.

What were they talking about before? Twilight asked herself, watching Corey place the book on the ground and push it gently around with his hooves until he got to a corner. ...Hmm...she might not believe me, but...I think I'd better inform the Princess about these two...They're not bad news, but...from the look Corey has, I'd say he has a big problem, more so than the strangeness of these new ponies lets on.

"Spike, let's leave him to himself for now..." said the studious unicorn at last, heading back to her room. Spike followed her. As soon as they reached their sleeping area, it was her assistant who broke the silence.

"There's something up with him, isn't there?" Spike asked, "Are you sure you don't--"

"Spike, it's way too early for something like that..." Twilight responded. "I barely know him...besides, he seems to have...some sort of problem. What it is...I have no idea, but it looks like he's having a hard time trying to think of how to say it."

"Even more of a problem than deciding riding in a haystack was a good idea?" snickered the small dragon again.

"From the look he gave me..." the unicorn whispered, "Something a lot bigger than that. It could involve Leo in some way...and there's something else off about him too...I can't place it, but...it feels...different, somehow."

"Different, how?"

"...He and Leo...I don't know...they just seem...'off'." The purple pony sighed. Things had just become even more complicated, and she felt the onset of a headache coming on trying to connect the dots in a logical way. She was fooling herself to think there was a logical explanation for those two. They weren't bad, so it wasn't worth being overly interrogative of them. "Take a note, Spike...I need to tell the princess of this development..."

"Fire away," Spike said, taking out a piece of parchment and a quill. Twilight cleared her throat and began:

Dear Princess Celestia:

A lot can happen in a short amount of time, but right now, I'm completely unsure what to do. I have met two strange ponies recently. One of them is a green unicorn colt who either really hates using magic, or hasn't even learned the basic telekinetic spell yet. The other one I've met is a silver pegasus colt who seems to have a lot of trouble flying--

"Spike, try not to laugh while writing..." Twilight interrupted herself, noting her assistant's body was quaking with laughter.

"Sorry, Twi," answered the dragon. "Continue..."

--and is probably only just now learning for the first time. Neither of these would be so alarming, if these two weren't about my age. In addition, their names seem very odd: the unicorn is named "Cory" and the pegasus is named "Leo". I don't think these two ponies are bad news on their own, but at the same time, I really don't know what to do about them. Cory seems like he's trying to say what the problem is, but he can't find the words to do so. Regardless, I do believe something strange is about to unfold.

"Again, we have a flightless pegasus pony and an awkward unicorn. Something weird is going on!"

"Spike, I'm almost done..."

I am seeking your guidance on what to do here. Should I treat them as friends, and keep an eye on them for when the truth comes out? Because from the way things look, I believe things will only get stranger.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle

"Alright, Spike--"

"Way ahead of ya," retorted the assistant, expelling a burst of green flames from his mouth, which engulfed the scroll and carried it off into the distance.

With this report done, Twilight resumed her studies while Spike did some of his chores.

As the minutes passed since he started reading, Corey became slowly aware what character "Scarlet Sleuth" was a pony version of.

So Scarlet Sleuth is this world's Sherlock Holmes... the former human thought to himself. Huh. Makes "Corey" seem even stranger when you think about it.

But even with the fact he had something to occupy his mind while he thought of how he failed to tell Twilight his situation, the green unicorn felt like a complete and utter failure. He had failed his friends to at least get some insight on what to do. Even if his plan of action was very unlikely, it was still the best they had. Leo left him alone to do things, and he couldn't follow through.

Why did I clam up back there? I took one look into those purple eyes, and instantly, I had even more trouble phrasing my problem... Corey thought. The look she gave me...does she have a gut feeling something's wrong? She's not a dummy by any means. Pushing these thoughts aside, Corey went back to the book. Despite the fact that Scarlet Sleuth was hunting down a sugar stealer, the book was amazingly detailed, and actually was slightly challenging to read. Now he knew why Spike and Twilight were so surprised.

Ten minutes into his reading session, Corey's eyelids grew heavy. He realized he could sleep on how to tell Twilight his problem.

...Maybe a nap will help me think better...as soon as I get up, and if Leo or Ivan haven't already, I'm gonna try again...just as soon as I get my rest. The former human took careful note of the page he was on. When he next had the opportunity, he'd get to reading it. It was surprisingly well-written, despite the goofy nature of the mystery. Page number...thirty-two. Huh...even when I'm...sleepy, I still...read really fast...

Shoving the book shut after a couple of tries with his left forehoof, Corey rested his chin on the ground, and within a few moments, sleep overwhelmed him.

Twilight continued her studies, really wondering when Spike was going to cough up her teacher's reply. It seemed like it was taking forever. Feeling slightly anxious, Twilight began to voice her concerns.

"Spike?" she looked over to her assistant, who seemed to be taking inventory in the shelves down and to her right. "Do you think she's gonna dismiss my concerns?"

"Well, Twilight, you are her most faithful student," Spike replied, parroting exactly how Princess Celestia signed her reply letters, "The only time she seemed to brush you off was way back when we first moved to Ponyville, and even then, she seemed to know that moving here would bring her sister back to normal..."

"That's true, but this time, I already have my friends..." Twilight said again, her anxiousness only partially averted, "These ponies are new, and, for all I know, could just be somewhat quirky. I mean, I don't think those two are evil, but...there's something off about them. I can't put my hoof on it, but something just doesn't feel right."

"You mean like back during your older brother's wedding?"

"Not like that, I knew the fake when I saw it. While I don't know Corey well at all, I do know he's not...evil. He's just..."

"A more shut-in version of your old self?" asked Spike again.

"...I don't know if he and Leo are friends. They certainly seem that way. It could be just because they're colts, but...their friendship is different. Again, I can't describe it well. I really don't know. Maybe if I spend a little more time around Corey, I'll be able to pinpoint some things, and work from there..."

A loud snore erupted throughout the house. Twilight looked over to Spike, having looked out the window.

"I didn't fall asleep..." said Spike, "Why don't you ask Big Green over there..."

Twilight made her way out of her bedroom, and looked to where she had left Corey. The colt was now laying flat-out on his...ahem, sizable stomach, the book she had gotten for him closed and pushed off to the side. He was clearly asleep. The studious pony trotted up to him, Spike following her again. She looked to the pony's face, and at this point, recalled that his eyes did seem bagged the whole time he had been talking to him. He had been tired.

He was sleepy... noted the purple unicorn. Something about today must have exhausted him...maybe he's not here to look up information on a myth that comes true...but he must have had a bad problem if he was forgoing sleep for this long...I'll let him rest for now...

"Spike..." Twilight began. "...would you mind loaning him your bed for a few hours? I don't think he'll be out long."

"T-Twilight!" Spike whined. The purple pony could understand. It was something that he had gotten recently. He had managed to plead his case to Twilight as to why he should get a regular bed rather than the basket he usually slept in. Therefore, Twilight's bedroom now had two beds: one for Spike, and one for Twilight herself. The basket, which Spike had slept in since he became Twilight's assistant, was given to Peewee, Spike's pet baby phoenix, to use as its bed for when it started getting a little bigger. "Why can't you let him use your bed?"

"...Yours is softer than mine...besides, I'm still doing some studying while we wait for the Princess's reply. If it makes you feel any better, should the need arise, I'll get one for him, but right now, I'm not sure what to do. Besides, he's a guest here, and...I guess I want to show him a little hospitability."

"So...do you like him, or not?" Spike asked, pouting.

"C'mon, Spike, quit it," Twilight denied again. There was no way she could have feelings for him. Though she did feel some empathy for him -- wording some problems is important, and if somepony can't find those words, then the message loses all meaning. Or, the meaning gets misconstrued. "He needs a little time to adjust...I promise I'll make this up to you later."

"...Fine...but I still don't like this." Her assistant finally relented. "While I can't see Corey doing anything funny..."

"Something isn't right, Spike, but from the looks of things, Corey is just caught in the middle of everything and has to find a way to explain it...When we met eyes before he went to read, I could see the struggle going on in his head..."

"And?"

"...It looked like, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't word his problem right."

And with that, Twilight carefully levitated Corey. It took a bit more effort than she expected, but she was able to lift him without disturbing him. Carrying him into her room, she laid him on Spike's bed, not bothering to tuck him in. The green unicorn grunted just a little bit, before nestling into the soft surface and resuming his nap.

"I hope you're right about these new colts, Twilight," Spike said again as Twilight made her way back to her bed to continue studying.

"I think we'll be fine..." Twilight responded to her assistant's concerns. "I'll find a way to make this up to you after whatever truth there is to this comes out..."

Act 1 Chapter 6

Act I: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 6: A Severe Waking Dream

Three hours had passed since Corey fell asleep in the middle of his reading. Twilight now looked at her podium, staring at the letter her mentor had sent in reply to her concerns.

To My Most Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle:

While these are some strange developments indeed, I must urge you to not worry about them too much. However, I must also urge you to keep a watch over them. A wise pony once said "Truth is stranger than fiction"...and you've lived through quite a few strange occurrences. If the truth comes out about these strange colts, please send me an update.

Sincerely,

Princess Celestia

"I thought she'd say something like this..." Twilight smiled slightly. Things were still very complicated, but she had been unsure of what she should have done. Corey seemed...volatile, when dealing with his problem. The more she thought about the standoff, the more she dissected exactly how his look could have been. He was frustrated with himself, that much was certain. The problem, whatever it was he was dealing with, was a bad one, and also a strange one. From that look, she was able to determine he was trying to say it.

The question to her was: how would it come out when the time came? Twilight was once again stuck in a spot where the only thing she could do was expect the unexpected and hope for the best to come out of it. With a sigh, she resumed her studies. The letter had more or less haunted her, though. She had somewhat expected her mentor to discard her concerns, but that probably was the anxiousness talking.

She glanced over to the green colt, who was still snoring on Spike's bed. The dragon in question had left to do some errands about two hours ago when Sweetie Belle, Rarity's little sister, came to fetch him, saying her older sister had something she needed him to do. Spike, being the dragon that was always bad about hiding his feelings, agreed to it.

"I wonder what's going on in his head right now..." The purple unicorn observed his ears twitch somewhat as he slept. Another snore issued from the colt's snout, causing Twilight to flinch from the sound. "...He does snore pretty loud, though..."

With this observation in mind, and trying to ease herself for the strangeness that she knew was coming, the studious purple unicorn decided to get back to her reading.

Ivan looked at the way things had been going for him and his fellow former humans. It was true. They were going to be stuck in Equestria for easily the rest of their lives. The prospect of this made him resent Leo at the time he first realized this. Yet, in this dream, he was feeling...bliss. It wasn't enough to change his stance on staying in Equestria, but the prospect of doing so didn't seem so intolerable in this dream.

The brown earth pony looked immediately to his right. While he couldn't tell due to the color of her fur, Pinkie Pie seemed to be in the position to blush, and she giggled somewhat at his gaze. Ivan smiled. And as he did, he suddenly felt like something jerked him straight on to two feet. The human stumbled, and realized that while he seemed to be viewing his dream out-of-body, as a human rather than a pony, he couldn't interact, only watch the events unfold.

Ivan watched his dream self say something to Pinkie. Pinkie seemed to understand what he was getting at, but said something that countered his point. Apparently, whatever inhibition Dream Ivan felt towards the obvious proposition was released, as the brown earth pony went into a ki--

"...What the...?" Ivan watched his pony self catch Pinkie by the mouth. He wasn't sure how to feel about that, which surprised him just a little. "...Is this...the future...? Or...just a really weird dream..."

Ivan couldn't will himself awake. He was curious beyond his limits to see where this would go. Something in his head made him turn to see Noel, or as he preferred to be called, Leo, hovering perfectly alongside Rainbow Dash. It was then it occurred to Ivan that this was some sort of party, but what this was celebrating was lost on him. Once again, he couldn't hear what the two were saying to each other, but they seemed to be enjoying each other's company in a "more-than-friends" way. The fact that the ponies in the dream were on mute bothered Ivan, because he really wanted to know what they were saying.

Again, an unseen stimulus made him turn again, to see Twilight and Corey talking. The latter was bandaged around his middle, but...he was smiling. It wasn't the scowl that he'd last seen Corey wearing. In addition, from what he'd seen with Applejack and Pinkie, Corey seemed to be socially introverted, but...he didn't seem to be having his usual troubles. Once again, what they were discussing seemed to be muted. But he could tell that, much like Dream Ivan and Pinkie Pie, as well as Rainbow Dash and Leo, those two were in love as well. The scene before him, full of party life, blurred and twisted on itself.

"If this dream is true..." Ivan cut himself off. He saw a dragon he didn't recognize carrying a hurt Applejack on his back. Apparently, the farmer pony had injured herself from whatever had injured Corey. At least, that's what Ivan was assuming. He could once again detect those romantic feelings in this scene.

The dragon in question wasn't Spike, Ivan knew. For one thing, he seemed bulkier compared to him, and appeared to be in the dragon equivalent to late teens or early adulthood. His scales were black and blue, and he had fully-grown wings. Once again, the conversation was muted.

"...Who is that dragon...It feels like I should know already..." Ivan noted aloud, unable to shake the familiarity of this new character. The human had no time to consider the situation, though, for once again, the scene blurred and twisted in on itself, this time fading out to total darkness. "Now what?"

The void he was in lightened to white, like some sort of limbo. It was just him now. Or at least, that's what he assumed. Suddenly, the sky above him darkened to a gray-blue, and something became visible in the shadows. It was a black orb of what looked like pure energy. Out of this arm came long tenacles. A single, black and yellow eye appeared in the jet black octopus above his head, and settled upon him. Ivan was unsettled by this.

"What the Hell is that...?" This worried him more than the fact that his fellow former humans and himself may well wind up dating ponies. Something about this dark energy octopus seemed very familiar to him, but he wasn't sure what it was...

Ivan awoke with a start, reeling from the sensations the dream had given him. For a moment, he was sure that he passed out reading some pony fanfiction Corey had sent him. Then he looked down at himself, and saw nothing but a blue hoodie which sort of looked like a vest now that it was tailor-made for his pony form. Reddish-brown fur and a darker color tail were all he saw.

"...And here I was hoping being trapped in Equestria with Corey and Leo was just a dream..." the brown earth pony recalled quietly to himself, as his brain began to wake. While it had been no more than a three hour nap, his body and mind felt almost fully refreshed. Memories of the trio's landing in Equestria came back to him. He began to recall small details as he rolled from the bed. "Right...we met Pinkie...apparently she thought me falling over half-dead from exhaustion was awesome...a party's going to follow sooner or later..."

His mind once again flashed an event he might not have remembered straight away. Corey was trying to scratch his mane, forgetting he wasn't quadrupedal. He almost cut up Applejack on his troublesome appendage, as Ivan forced himself to remember he was the only one of the three to not have super special powers. Noel...or as he preferred to be called, Leo, was a pegasus who, last he remembered, could barely hover without falling on his ass. And Corey had become a heavy-set unicorn.

"...That's right...I followed her here..." He remembered that he had accepted Applejack's offer of bedding. Ivan began to leave the room to hunt down the orange earth pony, or one of her family members, to thank them for their hospitality. After all, he didn't know what Corey and Leo had decided to do without him, but he'd hoped that they'd have tried something.

Just as Ivan reached the door and discovered he no longer had the necessary thumbs to open it, another memory came rushing back to him. He was nodding off in mid-step, and had to be supported by Applejack most of the time while he was walking.

"...You said you worked on a farm...?"

"I'm sorry, what'd you say, Ivan?" Even though he didn't hear her statement fully, his now awake brain filled in the blanks.

"Well...in return...for the place to..." he recalled stifling the biggest yawn he'd yawned since being a pony, "sleep...I want...to help out a little...if you have anything for me to do..."

Applejack seemed to be perplexed at this offer. At the time, he couldn't hear her, but his brain had filled in the blanks again.

"That's mighty nice of ya, partner, you sure?"

"Yeah..."

Ivan recalled what he'd done while enroute to Sweet Apple Acres for his nap. He'd felt like he was imposing, and in a gesture of gratefulness, had asked if he could assist Applejack if there was any work to do. As he remembered this important detail, the doorknob to the room turned, and the door opened to reveal an orange farmer pony wearing a Stetson hat. The former human quickly backed away from the door as it swung open.

"Ivan?" Applejack asked. "You're awake already?"

"I'm a light sleeper," responded Ivan. "I'm used to sleeping very little." It was true. Even during the school year, he'd been getting no more than three or four hours a sleep.

"You still wantin' to help out in the harvest? We started without ya," asked Applejack.

"Is there still any work left to do?" the reddish-brown earth pony responded.

"'Course there is!" the orange mare responded. "There's only three of us workin' down in the orchards, but it's mainly me and my older brother down at the trees."

"...Big..." Ivan remembered who she was talking about: a colt, one of the few in a major enough role to get more than one scene's worth of screen time. His name was Big Mcintosh, and he was a large red earth pony with the same color mane, tail, and eyes as his sister. Then Ivan recalled something; he never met Big. Instantly, his mind took off, trying to cover his ass. "...I mean, any--" He halted, trying to keep his dialect in check for the moment, "--pony who works on a farm for a living must be big..."

"Ivan, Corey ain't a farm boy, and he's...'big'..." The orange earth pony responded. Ivan realized by facial cues that his cover statement had still offended the Element of Honesty, and immediately moved to once again correct himself.

"I...I meant 'muscular' when I said 'big', not..." Ivan realized if he kept this up, things would be sliding downhill without control. "...C-can we just get down to the orchards?"

"Guess you still ain't completely awake, but if you're willin' to help..." Applejack said, now smiling somewhat, "...C'mon, then."

The orange farmer pony then began to lead the former human. Strangely, she still wasn't questioning anything he'd said. Surely she smelled something was a little fishy with what he was saying? Maybe she was still trying to be somewhat friendly? What exactly was going on in that mare's head?

Those colts are a strange bunch alright, Applejack thought to herself, watching Ivan follow her, his gaze down towards the ground. Bypassing implications brought on by that previous statement, the orange pony continued to think about what had happened today. I can't rightly put my hoof on it, but there's something...weird goin' on today.

The question wouldn't go away from her mind, but the orange pony willed it away. She had apples to finish bucking today, after all. And since there was a helping hoof down on the orchards, it would make the job just a little easier.

She preferred to be independent, there was no denying that, and indeed, she was a little hesitant, but he seemed particularly insistent on paying her back somehow for the place to nap...while on the verge of collapsing under his own weight.

...Probably be best to wait and see how these new ponies turn out. I don't think they're evil...but all the same, they are a strange bunch...

"Holy--!"

This gasp came from a heavy-set green unicorn colt. He pushed himself onto his rear end somehow, which felt awkward on his pony body still. It didn't hurt, but...given he was meant to be quadrupedal, it struck him as odd that he was still able to take a human posture. Corey's face was dripping with just a little sweat, and his eyes, while no longer appearing bagged, were still wide open. Clearly, he'd just been pulled out of an intense dream or nightmare. The former human quickly surveyed the room, making sure he was all alone. When he saw no sign of Twilight or Spike nearby, he began to quietly murmur to himself.

"Twilight...and...me...?" The green unicorn thought aloud, still in silence. "...Together...in that way...?" He felt his face heat up as he considered that, which frightened Corey somewhat. "No, Corey...you've got to remember..." He hesitated. It was almost as if his mind was telling him that the line of thinking he was about to use was technically null. "...y-you're...a human at heart...not a unicorn colt..."

That may be true...but then, why did I clam up when I looked in her eyes? He couldn't quite answer his own question. I-it was...because I was afraid of what she would think...? ...Damn it, Corey, focus! Figure this out later! Forget thinking about it...

His mind once again returned to his dream. He remembered seeing a teenage or early adult dragon, Corey didn't know which, black and blue in color, with budding wings on his back.

...That's right...! Our Skype room was for four! Saskes...Kaxle...John...I think his name is in real life...could be pulled in.. The green unicorn thought to himself. And if he does...time's still passing back on Earth! Screw trying to find a way with words on how to say it...! I've gotta tell her with no regard. I have to be blunt!

Corey attempted to rise onto his hooves, but then he realized something.

"...How the heck did I get in this bed...?" He looked ahead of him, and saw a bed with a blanket resembling the night sky on it. "...Is this a guest bed...?"

Realizing he was wasting time wondering what was going on, Corey dismounted the bed, stumbling just a little as he got back onto the ground in a pony standing position.

I've gotta be quick about this! The former human began walking to the door of the room, when suddenly, he heard a door slam open downstairs...

"Twilight!!"

The noise and voice startled Twilight, causing her to look up from the book she was reading on the lower floor of the library. It wasn't Spike that had come in, as she was expecting, but rather, her friend Pinkie Pie, who, aside from just having squealed, looked extremely excited about something. And Twilight, having met Corey and Leo, knew precisely what was about to follow.

"Shh..." said Twilight, trying to quiet down her friend. However, Pinkie didn't appear to be listening.

"Can I have your help with something?!" Pinkie squealed, hopping about like a rabbit would.

"Calm down Pinkie, somepony's sleeping upstairs," the purple pony answered. Instantly, Pinkie froze mid-skip, and slammed both her forehooves on her mouth, crashing back to the floor on her rump, causing Twilight to wince from the noise. She cast a glance back to her bedroom where she'd left Corey, and found that the door was still closed. "...At least, I think he still is..."

"Twilight!" Pinkie was now whispering excitedly, and her voice was actually still pretty loud for a whisper. "There are new ponies in town, and--"

Suddenly, the pink earth pony's body began to twitch. Twilight still didn't fully believe this phenomenon was possible in anypony, but Pinkie had proven time and again that these twitches were accurate to the future. Her Pinkie Sense was going off. Her ear flopped, her eye fluttered, and her knee twitched. Immediately, Pinkie shoved both her forehooves in her mouth, and quieted down. Exactly two seconds later, the sound of a door opening was heard.

Wait, doesn't that usually mean you're gonna get hit by the door? Twilight thought to herself. ...Well, those twitches do usually mean "watch out for opening doors"... Putting this aside, Twilight turned back to the door to her bedroom. This time, it was ajar, and Corey was standing in the doorway, seemingly wide awake.

"...There's one of them!" Pinkie immediately went back to her outside voice at seeing Corey. She then dropped her voice to a whisper. "He's one of the three new ponies here!"

Twilight wasn't sure if Pinkie already knew about this particular event with her Pinkie Sense or not, but decided to keep her convictions about Corey to herself.

"Wait, three?" Twilight asked. "I've only met two..."

"The other one was a real sleepyhead," Pinkie confirmed, smiling still. "Fell asleep in the middle of the square..."

"Hmm..." That was all Twilight could muster. Who was this third pony, and where was he all this time? Maybe Corey knew.

"Just make sure he doesn't go too close to the Sugarcube Corner for a while! I want this party to be as good as it can get for these three!" Pinkie whispered again, and just like that, the party pony was off, bolting out the door. Unfortunately, a certain dragon was just about to enter it.

"OW!" Spike yelped as the door made contact with his face, Pinkie having inadvertently slammed it into him in her rush.

"Whoops, sorry Spike!" Pinkie squealed, her high-pitched voice loud and clear. The baby dragon recovered from the unexpected hit, and walked his way inside.

"So, Spike, what did Rarity need you for?" asked Twilight as her assistant shut the door.

"Actually, it turns out she stumbled across Leo," Spike responded. "She wanted me to help her out with his mane. I actually had to correct her to make sure he didn't wind up making a dress for hm!" This time, he was snickering. He then looked up, and apparently saw Corey awake. "Sleep well, Big Green?"

"...Yeah," answered Corey. He didn't seem bothered by the joke name given to him due to his weight, so Twilight didn't really bother scolding Spike, even though it was a pretty insensitive name to give him. "Er, I need to go outside for some air. I need to think things through..."

"Corey, was there anypony else with you?" Twilight asked, her curiosity overwhelming her. The green unicorn colt looked to her.

"Ivan," he responded, "...Let's see...he went back to an orange mare's farm of sorts, because she offered a bed. Actually, she insisted..."

"...Why?" Twilight asked. For some reason, that didn't sound like something Applejack would do for somepony so new. Even though she was invited to the Apple family reunion on her first day in Ponyville, she wasn't invited to stay.

"Because he looked really tired. He was falling over on the spot." Corey recalled. This checked out with Pinkie's story of the third pony, so Twilight didn't see any problems. Once again, acting as though very little was wrong with the way Corey was for the time being, she smiled in a friendly manner to him.

"Alright, just...uh, come back in when you've thought of what you needed to." Twilight responded. The oddball unicorn seemed to thank her for this with a nod and a reserved smile, and began to quietly trot to the door.

Elsewhere, shuffling her feet quickly, was Pinkie Pie. She was running past several ponies of varying sizes and shapes as she made her way back to plan the party for the three new ponies. Suddenly, a wave of energy passed through her. She looked towards her rump, to see her tail was twitching. However, this wasn't like the usual "falling object" tail twitch. It was jerking violently in all directions possible, and it was generally a doozy of a sense.

"What could be falling?!" she squealed excitedly, applying the brakes. "It's gonna fall close to Twilight's place in a few!"

With this in mind, Pinkie immediately turned around, and began galloping in her own special way back to the Ponyville Library...

Back on Earth, John awoke from his night's sleep. He, like Corey, was a bit heavy, but unlike him, he had short black hair. He also was of Hispanic ancestry, much like Noel. He glanced to his bedside clock.

5 o'clock...Damn, I wake up too early... he thought to himself as he rose from his bed and got dressed. A black T-shirt and a pair of blue jeans. He was preparing for the day, but school was still a long way off. So, after getting himself a bowl of cereal, John made his way over to his laptop, and turned it on. After it fully booted up, Skype started as well. To his surprise, VaniX, LeXon, and CyreoX were all still online.

"Did they stay up all night?" John wondered to himself as he began to scroll up the chat log. Skype still hadn't fully connected, but he was getting there. "It looks like they all stopped talking past 2 o'clock...Toonking and Gohan went at it again...I'm not surprised."

Boo-beep. Boo-beep.

Two "file transfer" sound effects played, one after the other. While one of the copies was cancelled, a file entitled "Makuta MLP", it seemed to be the one that started all this. John turned from his screen for a moment.

"Wonder what Gohan made..." John looked back to the screen, and found something really off was happening. "Why is that loading bar red--what the hell?!"

Now John was staring at a similar screen that Noel, Corey, and Ivan had stared into. Cracks filled the screen and the entire screen seemed to wobble. Once again, when the download finished, John momentarily made sure his laptop was still working. Of course, he would soon wish for a blue screen of death...particularly when the screen seemed to shatter inward. As the suction began to overwhelm him, a single thought ran through the human's head.

Oh dear God this can't end well!

Leo flew through the air, seemingly much more proficient with his wings. At any rate, he could now fly faster than he could walk without severely messing up. Ever since his run-in with Rarity, who at first mistook him for a mare, he'd been practicing. He hadn't seen Spike leave, since he didn't hang around.

After leaving Corey with Twilight so that he could tell the unicorn the common problem that the former humans shared, he was once again chased by the bees that he'd unintentionally pissed off. He tried to fly away, but once again lost control and crashed into a pole. The bees prepared to sting, but unexpectedly, a blue blast of telekinetic magic scared them off for the second and last time. Rarity was the one who saved him.

She said she needed his mane for something, at the time not knowing if he was male or female, since he wasn't really able to get a word in. Had Sweetie Belle not brought Spike along when she did, he may well have been fitted for a dress! She experimented with his mane a little more after having his gender confirmed by Spike, and now his mane appeared to be straighter, and a little more refined.

While his time under Rarity was a little painful because she wasn't sure of his gender (feminine snout really not helping matters for him), he expected it to be far worse.

"Though now that Corey's been seen, and Pinkie's told her about the three of us..." Leo snickered. "...Speaking of Corey, I wonder if he's managed to tell Twilight our problem...she may not have a solution, but maybe she'll know something."

Leo began to turn towards the library, which wasn't hard, his sense of direction pinpointing the large tree house in the distance. As he neared, he realized he could hear the terrified screams of something. Now within a few feet of the library, the former human turned silver pegasus realized that Twilight, Spike, and Corey were looking up towards that something, and with a quick glance down from and behind him, realized Pinkie was there too. Cringing, Leo finally looked up, and saw a black and blue object falling from the sky.

"What the--" Leo cut himself off, immediately increasing his altitude as fast as he could. He knew one thing was for sure: he was going to catch this unidentifiable falling object. However, as he came closer, he realized what it was: a black and blue dragon, with what appeared to be small budding wings on its back. It was significantly older than Spike, probably late teens at youngest. Leo attempted to make the catch, and immediately regretted it.

John couldn't believe what was happening as he had been sucked into his computer monitor to face falling from a great height. Even up above, the landscape seemed...familiar, somehow. He had hit terminal velocity, and felt like he might have met his end, shutting his eyes and bracing for impact. Suddenly, something grabbed onto him, and for the moment, he felt his rate of descent slowing down.

"What the--!" a silvery object grunted to him. "W-what have you been eating, big guy?!"

Normally, John would have said something back in retaliation, but this was not normal. The silver object strained against the pressure, and soon, the two of them were both falling again. John once again shut his eyes.

Leo's wings momentarily stalled under the weight of this dragon. As he tried to recover so that they'd be able to save themselves from a falling death, the wheels began to turn in his head.

Random dragon falling from the sky...ha! No way this happened by chance! This dragon...must be saskes...Kaxle...John...I think his name was, in real life?

Leo once again forced his wings to open. The new appendages were starting to get sore again, and the pain intensified along with the friction. However, the rate of descent of himself and the dragon he was attempting to catch was starting to slow down.

This is gonna be close!

Corey was absolutely speechless as to what had happened in the short time he was outside. First, Pinkie Pie came roaring back, coming to a dead stop at the door. She knocked at the door, and told Twilight that she may have a new visitor, and that something called a "Pinkie Sense" told her so. Corey had read about it, but at the time, he didn't think much of it. Then, his pony hearing could pick up the very faint yells of someone asking for help.

At this point, Spike came outside with binoculars, and looked straight up. They all had taken a turn looking through them, Corey leaning over and Twilight letting him look by levitating them to him. The former human wasn't sure if the studious pony was being nice or not. Then Spike continued to look while Twilight racked her brains on a spell that would save the pony--at least, that's what Corey assumed she was doing. It was confirmed the falling object was a dragon in late teens or early adulthood, budding wings on the black and blue body.

The assistant then confirmed he saw Leo trying to make a rescue, and he then continued to follow their descent. Upon hearing Leo's name, Corey froze.

He'll know I messed up...! Too late to do...anything about it now...and if this new dragon's the same guy from my dream, then it's John...and he doesn't know a damn thing about what's happening!

"I've got it!" Twilight called out, startling Corey. Her horn soon became coated in a magenta glow once more as she began to cast a spell. A pulsing ball of magic was soon shot toward Leo and the falling dragon. Immediately, the former human's mind went to Harry Potter, more specifically, the scene in which the titular character started falling. Looking up at a small magenta flash, he realized it was a similar spell. Granted, Leo and the dragon--who Corey was almost positive was John by this point--weren't two wizards that just fell from their broomsticks, but they were still falling.

Now, their fall, which might have left them with a few broken bones at least, was being lessened in intensity to the point it'd be like rolling out of bed in the morning. It might hurt a little, but it wouldn't be as harmful.

"W-whoa..." Corey stuttered, unable to stop himself.

John opened his eyes, feeling the rate of descent decrease. He was going to live. At least, that's what he thought when he first opened his eyes. The colorful landscape really rung a few bells in the human's head. He then decided to look at himself first. Instead of still being a human, he found himself as a dragon of some sort, his body black with a blue underbelly. He had scales instead of skin. Looking to his right, he saw an unfamiliar sight: a silver, feminine-snouted pegasus. Yet, John recalled his voice as male...and he sounded familiar.

"G-Gohan...?!" John stuttered out.

"Call me 'Leo'..." responded the silver pegasus.

John's thoughts were soon broken once again by a gasp. He looked, to see that he was now eye-level with a very familiar party pony. The former human, now a dragon, was stunned into silence.

Pinkie Pie...?! Oh God, did we wind up in--

"Another new guy?! This makes four!" Pinkie squealed, immediately leaving once again in a burst of dust. Just like in the pilot episode which John watched. Of the four former humans, he had watched the least, second only to Corey.

Four?! TK is here too?! As he drew closer, he could see two familiar characters, Twilight Sparkle and her baby dragon assistant, Spike. The latter looked unamused, and in fact looked about ready to say something. The former, on the other hand, was looking at a green unicorn with a rather confused look on her face.

"G-Leo..." John began, his emotional state describable only as a state of complete shock. He wasn't sure how to feel. "...who's the green guy...?"

"SSJ..." Leo responded as the two neared the ground. "...Though you can call him 'Corey' now..."

John agreed to this. If his Skype friends were here in Equestria with him, he may as well get the first name basis out of the way as soon as he can. As shocked as John was, a feeling was slowly starting to worm its way up in his heart.

"...You put a file on Skype...called 'FUMFBAMF'..." John mumbled, as he and Leo finally touched down on the ground with a small thud. It wasn't the pain John expected to feel, but it was still a little shocking.

"Y-yeah...I meant to hack Ivan..." Leo sounded hesitant to admit it. "You read our fight, didn't you?"

John felt just a little anger work its way through his system. "Yes...so what was that file exactly..." A little louder than he intended to, he continued, "I got up...got breakfast...turned on my laptop...then next thing I know--"

Leo immediately reached out and put his hoof over John's mouth, but it was too late. Spike heard John's statement, as did Twilight.

"I'll explain later." Leo said. "For now, just remain quiet." John obliged, not really liking the current situation. He noticed Spike was giving him just a little bit of a dirty look. Twilight was looking from the new arrival to Corey. It seemed strange to her.

And when he looked at Corey...not only was he scowling, but he appeared to be facing the ground. He couldn't tell why.

"Well! That was close..." Leo started.

Leo was relieved by the fact that Twilight had stopped the fall from being fatal in any way. Quite frankly, with John's added weight, the former human wasn't sure if he could have prevented them from being harmed by the fall even with all his effort, at his current skill at flying. He began to trot up to Twilight, Spike, and Corey, and John was following him, albeit a little reluctantly.

"...Twilight...what's a laptop...?" Spike asked, apparently finally having had enough of Twilight acting as though nothing was wrong. "...This is the third strange guy we've seen all day..."

"I don't know...but I heard him mention it..." Twilight responded.

Twilight was now more confused than before. The studious unicorn was right: things were getting stranger, but what really baffled her was the mention of a "laptop" by the new dragon. She'd never even read about one of those!

What in Equestria is going on here?! she asked. What was Corey trying to tell me?

It was then, she realized she could hear heavy, erratic breathing right next to her. She turned to see Corey trembling, hyperventilating. He was clearly anxious, clearly frustrated with himself. The others around her realized he was showing strange symptoms, but it was Leo who was the first to act.

And he did so with a very mean maneuver. Twilight was even less sure of what to think of these new ponies, but they definitely couldn't have been proper ponies, not after what she saw.

Leo reached out, and cracked Corey square across the face with a hoof: "Get a hold of yourself!"

It seemed like he did it more out of trained reaction than to be mean, but it was still mean. He was trying to say something, and rather than calm down, Corey hyperventilated even worse. It was almost as if he was getting ready to explode. She realized his normal scowl was now far worse. It had morphed into a snarl.

Corey was now the angriest he'd been since arriving in Equestria. He'd felt like a fuck-up for not getting the information out to Twilight sooner, but he had a good reason: he felt like he wouldn't be believed, even with the nagging feeling in the back of his head that she may have already suspected something was up with him. Ivan and Noel had fought damn near incessantly during the first ten minutes of their landing. Then Leo was being a dick because he only thought about ways to impress Rainbow Dash, and even left him to try and explain things on his own, which he failed to do. Then, just to add insult to injury, he smacked him much the way he did Ivan.

This was a task unlike anything he'd ever endured, and he'd hope to never endure it again. If he was to reveal the humanhood of himself, Leo, and the new dragon, John, he may as well do it now, before things got even worse.

"...T-Twilight..." Corey snarled, now openly mad. "...I want to say something...right now...things aren't normal..." When the purple pony nodded, his emotions bubbled to the surface. "...And...can I say something else...?"

"...What...what is it?" Twilight sounded concerned with his anger. She could hear it in his voice. Corey inhaled, took a deep breath, seeming to calm himself down. Then, calling upon his inner child, with all the might in his body, he cried out a single line that would force the burden onto Leo's shoulders.

Karma's a bitch, isn't it, Noel?!

"This whole mess is Leo's fault!!!"

Twilight was stunned, once more, by what happened. Things definitely weren't normal, as Corey pointed out, but why was this mess Leo's fault? Why was it that the new guy just dropped out of the sky? Pre-adult dragons generally don't fall...and his wing development seemed to be stunted. Leo seemed to be mad at Corey for saying that, but something within the studious unicorn told her that things were finally starting to come together. She wasn't quite prepared for what would follow this, but she knew she had to take charge of the situation.

"...Spike..." Twilight said, trying to keep herself composed. She was curious, and just a little angry at what was going on. "...be ready to take a note..."

"G-got it!" Spike was clearly confused by Corey's revelation, and a quick check on the adult dragon revealed that he hadn't expected that from the green unicorn.

"You three, come inside...now." The purple pony was ready. "I want to know...what's really going on here..."

Not a single living being involved in the conversation had any objections to this. With this, the five quickly walked inside, and Twilight lead the way to her room. She got out a scroll of her own, and a quill. She needed to scribble down whatever the problem was. Corey remained off to the side, seemingly relieved of what was happening.

"...It's very obvious that...all four of you..." She remembered the conversation she'd had with Pinkie shortly before she left the first time. "...I'm assuming, aren't...normal by any means of the word. Your interactions with one another, and with the others here...things aren't adding up at all. Your skillsets don't match up with your ages..."

"...I don't even know magic..." the green unicorn admitted, confirming a nagging suspicion Twilight had in the back of her mind. Putting this aside for the moment in favor of the bigger picture, the purple pony continued, scribbling down this in addition to John's sudden appearance and Leo's lack of flight prowess.

Leo was utterly at a loss at what Corey had done. He had apparently napped here--he'd noticed his eyes weren't bagged like they were earlier, and not told Twilight of the problem they shared. John had arrived as well, and things were just not going his way at the moment.

"I guess I'll explain, since someone couldn't do it earlier..." Leo growled, recalling how Corey had just outed him as the culprit of the mess the former humans were now in.

"If this is as strange as I think it's going to get..." Twilight cut in, sounding as though she really didn't like how he was blaming Corey for messing up. "...then I think his reluctance to do so would be justified. I've had a feeling all day things were going to get strange. Your flight failing was only the tip of the iceberg..."

"...Well, this certainly would make things easier..." Leo once again glared towards Corey, who this time reacted.

"F--FF---" Corey stuttered, before, frustrated, he just yelled out: "I'm not psychic, Leo!"

"I never told him. I had a feeling whatever his problem was would slip out sooner or later. I just wasn't expecting this..." Twilight confirmed. Again, she seemed to be defending him. He decided not to pry at the moment, realizing there was much bigger fish to fry.

"...Well...' Leo said. "I think you know...we're not from around here. In fact...we're not even from this...universe."

"...Wha--?" Twilight asked, completely confused. She scribbled this down using the quill. Meanwhile, Spike seemed confused as well, but apparently, even he thought it best to preserve the silence. "...You're not even...from this universe...? Then...what are you...?"

Leo inhaled. Either way, it was going to be a tough fight to explain things to her. This wasn't going to be as easy as he would have hoped, but he'd hoped that at least Equestrian reference guides had something on what he was about to unleash.

"Corey's lack of magic...this dragon, John, falling from the sky...my recent flight crashes..." Leo said. "We weren't born this way..."

With one last inhale, Leo thought one thing: Here goes nothing...

"We...are...humans..."

Act 1 Chapter 7

Act I: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 7: The Human Element

Twilight Sparkle was at a complete loss for words. What Leo said felt like it made sense, and at the same time, it really didn't. In all her studies, the word "humans" had never really crossed her mind, except for maybe in fiction. If these three...no, four, new "citizens" were really humans...then their seeming lack of prowess with what was expected of them made sense. In fact, their behavior earlier made some sense to her as well. Even with this information, the purple mare had to make sure.

"Y-you said, humans, right?" She tried to keep her voice level, though the shock of the information was cushioned somewhat by an expectation of things to get strange. She scribbled down her notes for what she should dictate later when all was said and done as she continued, "But...why do you look like...you belong here, in Equestria? Nothing's adding up...first of all, what are humans...?"

Almost immediately, Twilight turned to what usually provided her answers in the past, books. The only problem is, she didn't know where to start. Three by three, books were lifted from the shelves by her telekinetic magic as she searched for answers. Just like all the other times she'd been baffled, much to her chagrin, what she was looking for didn't appear to be on any of the covers. Spike and the alleged "humans", whatever they were, could only look on in silence as she gutted shelves of books.

At least, that's what she thought.

"Uh, Twilight...?" a monotone voice said. The purple pony immediately turned to see Corey, with a book horrifically enclosed in his hooves, hunched over, standing on his back legs, just like earlier when he'd received the book. "...Is this the kind of book you're looking for?"

"'The Pony's Guide To Beings From Alternate Realities, G through K'..." Twilight read the title of the book after liberating it from Corey's forehooves, the green colt seeming relieved by the fact he didn't have to hold it anymore. "Where did you find this book?"

"...Back wall, on a shelf close to a bed..." responded Corey, still sounding uncomfortable talking. "Whoever organized this library must have predicted something like this was going to happen..."

"...Uh, yeah..." Twilight was not by any means capable of predicting the future, and in fact, once again, despite her organization, some other pony...well, not so much a pony, but someone else had found the book she was searching for before she could, despite her organizational skills. "Okay...let's see...'Genies'...'Goblins'...'Homo sapi--'"

"Stop!" John, Leo, and Corey all yelled at varying volumes.

"Uh, the entry says 'homo sapiens'..."

"T-that's...the scientific name," This was Corey again, sounding a little embarrassed at his outburst. "...'Humans' is just simpler to say."

"Oh," Twilight said. Leo had an unreadable look on his face. He seemed to have forgotten that name until now. Discarding this for the moment, the studious mare decided to read the entry. "Homo sapiens, commonly referred to as 'humans', are bipedal lifeforms thought to be descended from primates, along with gorillas, monkeys, and chimpanzees. Commonly, humans are not known to possess wings," She recalled Leo's recent failure, and the fact that he still didn't seem capable of handling things by himself; then again, a single pegasus pony couldn't have hoped to catch a dragon John's age on his own, "or magic," Now she remembered Corey and how he didn't use magic to get the book he wanted to read down. It wasn't because he didn't like to use it, but because he didn't know how to use it. "I see...and I assume there are no dragons in your world either?"

"Only in myth..." Leo responded. "If you want to know other scientific differences, I think that can wait until later. You at least know the truth now."

"It's all comin' together now..." Spike said, interrupting. "No wonder you couldn't fly...so then, I don't guess you're his," A claw extended to Corey, "assistant, right?"

It still felt like there was some weight on Corey's shoulders. Even though he had thrust the burden of explaining on to Leo, he had to do what Leo didn't, and actually back up his friend should Twilight get confused or not buy the explanation. So far, though, she seemed to understand things were making sense. Then Spike had to intervene. For a moment, the former human took an instant to gape at John.

You've got to be *fucking** kidding me...* thought the green unicorn as he realized exactly what Spike said.

"Oh, no, we don't even live close to each other, let alone in the same house," John intervened. "I think Leo can explain everything. I only just got here..."

"...Then how do you know each other?" Twilight asked, taking that new information in. Leo took an instant to glare at John, then back at Corey, before continuing. "And, if you're humans, then why do you look like you do, and how did you get here in the first place?"

"Well," the silver former human started, "you see, where we lack in magic or flight, or the ability to walk on four legs," Corey now noted that Leo was looking directly at him when he said that, "humans have developed advanced technology. You see, we each have computers..."

It took Leo a good handful of minutes to explain exactly what he meant by "technology". He explained, in some detail, what computers and laptops were. To Corey, it was sort of like trying to explain what they were to an old person. The only difference, Twilight and Spike at least seemed to understand some of the jargon. Maybe it was an age thing after all with technology...

"...and so, we got here, in part because I got my codes mixed up with a code I received through an e-mail, which, remember, is basically mail sent through the Internet," The silver pegasus continued, "It must have been mistakenly sent to me one day. Anyway, the file caused a portal to open...to your world. That's how we got here."

"As--" Corey started. All heads turned to him at once, causing him to flinch somewhat. "--as for how we turned out looking like we belong here in--uh...you said, 'Equestria', right, Twilight?" He had to keep up the act for as long as he could, act like he didn't know anything about the world other than what he was "supposed" to know.

"Yes," responded Twilight. "Go on..."

"Well, even I don't know...I'm guessing that the code that Leo used makes alterations to the body of those going through the portals." Corey replied. "When I came to, my body still was a little sore...and my head felt like I had just tanked several punches successively."

"My shoulderblades..." Leo motioned to his back, where his wings were, "were the most sore parts of my body when I woke up."

"...Strange, I didn't black out, but now that you mention it..." John cut in, suddenly looking as though he were in a little pain. "...Do dragons have...more endurance?"

"I once substituted as a pin cushion," Spike then cut in, "Something that ponies wouldn't do, and I don't think a human would really do that, either..."

"Depends on who you're asking..." Corey grumbled, his cynicism starting to leak out. If he had a nickel every time he'd heard of some jackass hurting himself just because he wanted to, or if he was doing something incredibly stupid...

Twilight's head was starting to hurt. The four new guys in Equestria were strange cases, and now that she knew the truth, and had a general picture of what their world was like...it was a lot to take in in a short time. No wonder Corey was so hesitant to tell her what his problem was!

Even as she considered that last thought, she began to wonder something.

...Why exactly am I being so protective of him? If this were any other pony, this conversation would have already been had by now... thought the unicorn as she looked to the green unicorn...who she now knew to be a human before all of this started. She recalled exactly how she met him, and nodded somewhat. ...He does remind me of my old self before I started making friends...that's right...

"When we realized we were stuck..." Corey cut in. "The three of us, I mean, counting Ivan, we needed to find a way back. We soon realized that we weren't in a technologically advanced society, or at least a society that didn't have computers. So we decided to look for the nearest city, the nearest library...but I ran into you...I realized you might have lived here, no offense...and decided to ask you for help instead..."

Something about his story seemed slightly off, but it fit nonetheless, so Twilight didn't feel like raising questions about it.

"But you couldn't do it, right?!" Leo yelled. Once again, a small stab of anger hit Twilight-she felt sympathy for Corey's condition, if only because of the circumstances being eerily similar as to why he'd come to the library and tried to avoid as many other ponies as possible trying to solve what he perceived to be a much bigger problem.

"And where were you all this time?" John cut in with a question. "For that matter, how long have you been here?"

Leo twitched at this question.

"I was..." he began, "Learning to fly...we've been here about four hours..."

Twilight looked back to Corey. He seemed once again ready to blurt out something, his snarl from minutes earlier returning. When he snarled, it looked...frightening. It wasn't anything compared to how Fluttershy could give something a death glare and make it submit to her will, but it was just unsettling all the same. There was something else about these 'humans' that wasn't covered in the book. When Corey voiced his doubts about how humans wouldn't substitute as pin cushions, he sounded...a little mad about it. She could hear negativity in his words. Twilight began to wonder if the way his world was affected him significantly.

"...We might not get back home, either." Corey said. "Even if there's some sort of magic that could send us back home, we'd just wind up back here when we got too close to our laptops, our computers. The only way for us to get back home...would be to close the circuit with a computer on this end."

Twilight was almost taken aback by this information. So Leo hadn't just sent the wrong "file", he'd also sent one that left the humans stranded here, in new bodies, and with only each other as support. And, as Leo seemed to love demonstrating, from what she'd seen of him, he wasn't the most supportive friend a guy could ask for. He seemed to keep blasting Corey on his failure whenever possible, and even hit him across the face.

"...So, what will you do...?" Twilight asked. "I can try to help you find your way back, but...it might take a long time..."

John gave an irritated growl, and Leo sighed. Corey did too.

"Well, I was learning how to fly..." Leo said. "Might be a long shot, though, given that you just said humans aren't known for magical talent..."

"What?" Twilight began. She looked to Leo, then back to Corey.

"I...I'm curious." Corey stuttered. "If I'm going to be here a while, I may as well pick up what I can. I've been curious to see what it's like to use magic..."

"Wait, so humans can use magic?" the purple pony questioned, turning directly to the green colt, who, unsurprisingly, flinched again and even took a nervous step backwards. Clearly, he didn't appear to have chosen his words carefully.

"W-well, they can, but it's not...'real', like you used earlier on John and Leo to slow their fall. That...'spell?'" He questioned what it was called. Twilight nodded, encouraging him to continue, "That spell reminded me of a fictional series I'd read back home, and that's what hit home for me...it was 'real magic'..."

"And...me saving Leo the first time, didn't?" Twilight asked. She wasn't offended, but this pony seemed...a little slow.

"I was...worried about the problem I couldn't word right--?" Corey's last word broke, and he went wide-eyed at what happened. Confused by his sudden gawk, she turned...

And saw a fire erupting at John's feet.

Corey was really unsure of how things in Equestria would go now that Twilight knew the truth. Indeed, she may spread the word to all her friends, and he wasn't quite sure if he could handle that. And it seemed that he was about to learn how to cast real magic, provided that the "former human" status didn't inhibit his unicorn abilities any.

Then again, when he considered what had happened with John just now, it didn't seem likely that was going to be an issue. Apparently, the human-turned-dragon found Corey's lack of vocabulary prowess to be irritating, or something like that, and sighed. The sigh, in turn, caused him to breathe flames-involuntarily, it appeared, and wind up catching the floor at John's feet on fire. Quickly, Twilight sprang into action, her horn glowing a magenta color. Meanwhile, Spike burst out laughing at John's expense.

"You know Spike, you've had a couple of accidents like this in the past..." interjected Twilight, silencing her assistant's snickers. A stream of what Corey assumed was water quickly doused the magical fire. "And...uh...your name?"

"I'm Jonathan, but everyone just calls me John," responded the dragon. "That was an accident, I didn't even think that was going to happen..."

"Estupido..." Leo interjected, using a language other than English, surprising all present.

"No digas eso," responded John.

"What...?" Twilight asked, apparently understanding they were communicating. Spike didn't appear to know what was going on either. Corey was just about to intervene and tell them that they were communicating in Spanish, but Leo quickly intervened.

"But yeah, that's what I was about to say. Since Rainbow had taught me some of how to fly, it's only fair that you teach Corey how to use his magic..." Leo said.

"You mean...I tutor him...?" She responded, taking a quick look at him. "I...I don't know if I can tutor him, but I suppose I can. I've only learned from books though..."

Up until that point, Corey had only said things when addressed or if he felt something he was about to say was important or pertinent to what was going on. Mostly the former than either of the latter things, though. But at this point, the filter unexpectedly broke off.

"...I've...never been that good of a tutor either..." he said, loud enough for the others to hear. Instantly, as all eyes once again focused on him, Corey could only think of one thing.

Strange, I only say things like that when... he cut himself off before he started thinking about the dream he'd had, more specifically, the part featuring himself and Twilight Sparkle...

Twilight couldn't believe her ears. Even with the truth now known about what he really was, Corey was still finding ways to surprise her. Maybe that one was just pure coincidence? He seemed to regret saying things aloud, but from the look on his face, the purple unicorn knew that he knew that couldn't take it back now.

"What do you mean?" asked the purple pony.

"Well, I mean...in school, people would always turn to me for help, and I really couldn't help them because...I'm terrible at explaining things--"

Twilight could barely contain herself. The fact that parallel worlds also could have schools fascinated her. Maybe there were other intelligent life forms out there.

"You have school in your world too?" Twilight asked, unable to control herself. Spike, Leo, and John could only look on in silence as the two talked, all three unable to believe what they were seeing. Spike and Leo were trying to control their laughter, while John was trying his hardest to avoid sighing in irritation at Corey's constant vocal blunders.

"Y-yes..." That cynical tone returned momentarily to his voice. "T-tragically," he appeared to be hesitating to talk now, but the words were forcing their way out of his mouth. It was almost as if he was just talking to talk now. "Most other humans my age, before g-graduating...h-high school...don't seem to value the education process..."

And I just crossed the line...damn it, why am I rambling now!? I can't shut up!

Corey thought this to himself as he saw the shocked, surprised expression on Twilight's face. Past her, he could see Leo trying to control his laughter, John applying his palm to his face, and Spike...appeared concerned, given Twilight's reaction. He was no longer appearing to enjoy the spectacle. He probably understood the pony better than any of the others in the room. Well, it probably wasn't that hard to do so anyway.

"That's...terrible!" Twilight squealed, incredibly distraught. "Why would they not want to learn?"

Ordinarily, Corey would have clammed up at the sight of an emotional living being, and not said anymore, especially if he were the one responsible for the emotional outburst, but something inside him stimulated him to continue. It was either a cynical drive or a drive motivated to cheer Twilight out of this, but once again, the former human was moved into an abnormal action.

"Well, I can't say for sure, but..." Corey soon went off on another tirade, this time, emoting hilariously with his forehooves, occasionally getting on his back legs to prove a point. It looked almost like he was flailing about like a fish out of water. "I do remember them whining and complaining about all the homework they get, and then subsequently not doing it, thus creating an endless cycle of failure that inevitably drags the scholarly down! I may not have liked going, but I realized the importance of it! That counts for something, right?!"

The green unicorn lowered his head, panting, from the exertion. It was at this moment, Corey realized he revealed he didn't like school to the worst possible member of the Mane Six to reveal it to, and awaited a second eruption.

"Uh...well...yes, that...does count for something..." Twilight responded, clearly confused by his outburst. "Though I don't know why you didn't like going, I guess it doesn't matter. At least you did what you had to do."

This answer shocked Corey to his core. Why was Twilight being this way? He'd have fully expected her to lecture him for days about why it was cool to like school. Leo and John seemed confused too.

"Twilight, didn't Princess Celestia ask you for an update on these two?" Spike reminded. Immediately, Twilight raised one of her hooves to her mouth, and gasped.

"Oh! That's right...Spike, take a note..." And so, with the former humans, minus Ivan, present, the studious pony began to write her so-called update, as Corey realized something else.

Wait, Princess Celestia already knows about us?

"Dear Princess Celestia,

The truth has come out about the strange ponies that I wrote to you about earlier. There are actually two others with them, another pony, and a dragon that looks to be starting early adulthood. These two are named 'Ivan' and 'John'. In addition to the ones called 'Leo' and 'Cory'--

"

"Uh, it's spelled with an 'E'..." Corey interjected.

"Huh?" Spike asked.

"My name is spelled 'C'-'O'-'R'-'E'-'Y'. Not the first time this has happened, though..."

And so, after the letter was restarted, Twilight continued:

"

these four are actually flightless, magicless beings known as humans. Their society developed a means to cross dimensional barriers without the use of magic, but advanced technology. Something happened to them during the transit that caused them to look the way to do. I haven't met 'Ivan' personally, but my friends Pinkie Pie and Applejack have. It would explain Corey not being able to use magic, and Leo being bad at flying. Once again, they don't seem to be bad, though their society is doubtfully like ours. If anything else happens, I'll be sure to let you know.

Sincerely,

Twilight Sparkle"

Spike then breathed onto the scroll, sending the letter to Princess Celestia once more. Twilight wasn't exactly sure what would happen from there. Would she believe her now that the truth proved to be stranger than what was expected? Or would she ridicule her and tell her to pull her nose out of the books every now and again? Once again, the studious mare was anxious.

"...What just happened?" Corey asked, breaking the short silence. Twilight looked up to him and sighed.

"Well, you see, Spike has a special fire in him that lets him send letters to Princess Celestia, as well as receive them from her." the purple unicorn explained, smiling somewhat.

"...So...is he some kind of walking mailbox, or...?" This offended Spike, who now turned a purely acidic glare onto Corey.

"Hey! I take offense to tha--" His protest never finished, for with a belch of green fire, he coughed up more correspondence. Another scroll, this time from the Princess. Twilight swallowed, and she wasn't aware of it, but she was grinding her teeth, hoping that her mentor would believe what she just wrote.

"Spike...go on and read it..." she whispered, trying to keep herself calm. Spike nodded, understanding her anxiousness, and took a deep breath.

"To my most faithful student Twilight Sparkle--" the baby dragon started.

"No wonder you got a reply so fast..." John mumbled, apparently unable to control himself.

"--This is truly a remarkable event indeed. It would seem that they are telling the truth, but I wish to meet them myself." Thankfully, Spike didn't let John's intervention bother him. Twilight felt her anxiousness melt away, but then it returned when her mentor mentioned she wanted to meet the supposed humans herself. "I will be coming down to Ponyville to meet them at this time tomorrow. If they are indeed from another world, there might be other cues that would be different, and certainly more obvious, given 'humans' aren't known for their magic or flight and shouldn't be able to disguise malicious intent as easily."

"Um..." Corey started. "What exactly is she--?"

"It's a long story..." answered Twilight, turning to him, trying to hide her anxiousness for the time being, given that the meeting was tommorrow, and not immediate. It would give her time to at least get the humans adjusted...or at least partway. "Let's just say your disguises would be poor if you tried to pose as ponies..."

"Technically we are..." mumbled the green former human in response. Twilight discarded his sarcastic statement for the moment, realizing there was a couple of things that needed to be addressed before the night would come.

"So this 'Princess Celestia'..." John cut in, "Does she rule over the land on her own, or...?"

"No," answered Twilight. She was at least willing to explain this part. They probably didn't have the same rules back where they came from, after all. "She does a little more than that, but she also co-rules with her sister, Princess Luna. Princess Celestia is in charge of raising and lowering the sun as well," John, Corey and Leo gave a small gasp at this, confirming Twilight's suspicions on what their world may be like. "and Princess Luna is in charge of the moon. You'll probably meet them both before long," Once again, a small chill of anxiousness ran down the unicorn's spine. Luna was a good friend of hers, and Celestia was of course, her mentor. She internally debated on telling them about her sister-in-law, Princess Candance, but decided that right now, it wouldn't be needed to mentioned.

The quintet once again sat in silence, until Twilight remembered there was a very important matter to be addressed.

"If you all need a place to stay for the moment...it might be a little trouble..." Twilight spoke up. She was soon interrupted, however.

"So what, am I sharing the bed with all three of them?" Spike cut in, still a little sore about the fat green unicorn that had napped there. "Not happening..."

"Spike, not now," said Twilight, as the three former humans grimaced and looked away. "But this does raise a point...when the time comes, I'm afraid even with a spare bed, I don't have enough for all of us to sleep..."

"...I'll be good," Leo responded after some silence. He looked like he was considering options. "Really, I could sleep on the floor. Though I'm probably going to wind up staying up the whole night..."

"I..." John started, "I've always had trouble with sleeping without some sort of white noise in the background. Maybe if there's a breeze outside, I can sleep out on one of the balconies..."

Twilight sighed in relief. At least that meant that there likely wouldn't be a bedding issue so much as a pillow issue. Then again, she had plenty of spares commonly used for when her friends had a pillow fight.

She looked to Corey. He seemed oddly relieved of everything that was going on. For a moment, she wondered about him. How bad was he, in terms of being awkward around other poni--well, not ponies, but how awkward could he get around his peers? He seemed to have two different gears when it came to talking: rambling about things, or being mostly quiet and only speaking when called on. Even if he was a human inside, she still knew he needed tutoring in more than just magic. But at the same time, maybe he could answer some questions she had about his world later, when he adjusted. Coming to a world of ponies may have contributed somewhat to his social impairment.

Corey sighed with some relief. Things seemed to be looking up for him for once since coming to Equestria. Though, questions were bugging him as he considered everything that had recently happened.

I wonder if Ivan's still asleep over at Applejack's farm...? he thought, once again taking off into a daydream-like state of thought. For that matter, Twilight is acting...a little strange. She isn't bombarding me with questions, or hell, even insults and lectures. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but for some reason, she isn't doing half the things I'd have expected her to do in most cases. She didn't interrogate me, she didn't seem too bothered by the fact I mentioned I didn't like school before college...is this because she sees parts of her old self in my current self?

"...Corey, you still in there?" John asked, snapping Corey out of his thoughts at once.

"Oh, uh, yeah," responded the green unicorn. Like hell he was going to tell him what he dreamt about. It was probably just his blender acting up again, stimulated by actually being in Equestria as opposed to watching the adventures from the outside. "It's nothing really, just...thinking is all."

"Well, Corey," Leo began in a level tone. "I've had time to fly around this town," He seemed to willfully ignore Spike snickering again, no doubt the young dragon envisioning him crashing around like a pinball. Or the Equestrian equivalent of one, anyway. "Want me to show you guys around?"

Corey didn't detect anything wrong with Leo's intentions at first. He did notice his mane was a little less messy since he last saw him, now that the crisis was all over for the time being. However, given Leo had been able to fly like he was, Corey dismissed it. Besides, the silver pegasus didn't appear to be mischievious in nature with his question.

"I suppose so, given the most I've seen of this town was from the inside of a box of hay..." responded Corey. "I guess if we're going to be here for a while, a long while," A pang of nervousness hit Corey as he realized his college graduation would be put off by at least a semester due to this, if time was still passing with John now in the world of ponies, but that was visible with no more than a slight facial twitch. "we'd better get to know the geography."

"I could show you around," Twilight offered.

"No, I think I know this town well enough," said Leo, graciously turning down the purple pony's offer. "I'll be alright to show them."

"Well," John said, "I guess we'll be seeing you around..."

Corey merely nodded in response, offering up his own quiet "see ya" in response. His introversion was returning, now that the crisis, the problem, had been momentarily abated. But there was a nagging feeling in the back of his head about meeting royalty, one that refused to go away.

I wonder...what the hell happened here since the last episode I saw. A lot, evidently. This feels like the canon Equestria, but...Noel said we could be anywhere in the timeline. Could we have ended up past even Discord? ...I wonder now...if he's the spirit of Chaos, and our Earth is certainly less serene compared to what I've seen of Equestria, even with the mythical animals it contains...could the Princesses possibly be able to tell where we're from with a casual look into the eyes?

The trio of former humans began to make their way back into downtown Ponyville, at Leo's direction. Corey wasn't sure why, but for some reason, the path his old friend was taking him on felt awfully familiar...

Ivan knew he'd regret asking to help Applejack out with the harvest, but the farmer pony knew exactly what she was doing when she bucked the apples out of the trees. The former human, on the other hand, was still getting used to his pony body, which had a marked difference in strength compared to his human body. Not that he knew how to throw that strength around any.

For example, when Applejack gave the trunks of trees a hard back kick, a cascade of apples would fall perfectly into the baskets the earth pony had on her back. By contrast, when Ivan attempted the same manuever, only a few handfuls of apples would fall from the trees above. And not all of them would fall into the baskets. Some would completely miss the baskets, and some would bounce off his head.

Worse of all, the pace at which the work was being done, Ivan felt all that hard-earned rest going to waste the longer the minutes dragged on. Thankfully, from the looks of the trees the Apple family had lined up according to Applejack, it didn't seem like there was a whole lot left for him to endure. Why was he choosing to endure?

He offered to help, and damned if he was going to be an ass and complain about how hard the work was now.

"C'mon, Ivan!" Applejack called after him, noticing he had been slowing down, "Still got more left to harvest, partner!"

"C-coming!" Ivan quickly snapped to attention, trotting after her, new, empty baskets on his back. As the harvest continued, with the earth pony still ineffectively harvesting apples, the brown earth pony began to wonder what his friends were up to, and if they were having the same feelings of foreboding he was having at the moment.

It's not the ponies that have me worried...it's that dang octopus...why does it seem so familiar...and ominous...

Leo continued flying at a comfortable rate, becoming slowly aware that once again, he really shouldn't be using his wings so much at his current level of mastery over his pegasus body. Yet, after the crap he'd endured with explaining the "human element" in Ponyville to Twilight since Corey was unable to do it despite the former unicorn's secret suspicions, he willed himself to ignore the pain. He knew exactly what he was about to do, and John...well, he'd be collateral damage.

He'd run into Rarity, who by this point was informed by Pinkie Pie that there were three new arrivals in Ponyville. She recognized him good enough, and after the near-mishap with a gender mistake (damned feminine snout), Rarity styled his mane into a more masculine cut despite its length. And, since she knew what Corey looked like, she told him to lead him back to her, since she was doing some other clothing styles anyway, and she had one that would be perfect for somepony like him.

His curiosity at this was further magnified when he realized he may well rat out John too. Mischieviousness rose in him, the likes of which he'd experienced quite a few times already since coming to Equestria, but this time, he wouldn't get caught until it was too late. And Rainbow Dash wouldn't knock him into a beehive when she got bored with the stakeout.

"Leo, where are we going?" Corey asked, seeming to grow impatient with the walk. They'd been walking from the library for a good ten minutes, and indeed, to throw off his old friend's suspicions, he had taken a roundabout way of getting to Rarity's shop. Along the way, ponies turned in a mixture of confusion and fear at John's appearance. A rare sight indeed: a pre-adult dragon walking the streets of Ponyville, and said dragon not being a douche for one reason or another. The gossip eventually died down, however, when they saw the other ponies nearby, which Leo was grateful for, though he could have heard a few screaming when they saw the dragon at first, but those eventually died away.

At last, though, Leo realized that he was getting too close to Rarity's shop. Corey was bound to notice where he was soon enough, and that would tip him off. So, rather than taking the front door, Leo lead them down an alleyway behind the Carousel Boutique. It was a large back entrance which he'd seen during the past few hours' flight training.

"Oh, you'll find out where we're going soon enough," Leo answered, smiling evilly to himself.

Seriously, where is this going? We've been walking in random directions. It's true, he knows his way somewhat around this city, but... Corey thought, his irritation at the situation rising. As weird as it sounded, he'd have rather stayed in the library with Twilight. He wasn't sure what she was doing, but if he had to guess, he'd say she was researching humans as a species. Even though he detested explaining things, in this case, he'd make an exception, since history was something he could always explain things about. But, he then decided to make an exception to this exception. After all, he was now a magical talking pony, and by God, he was going to at least try to blend in just a little more.

And more importantly, he wanted the comparisons between Twilight Sparkle's older self and his current self to stop. In some ways, he could identify with her character, but in others, he'd like to think he didn't have those qualities. Of course, so far, his time here proved that, but the cases where the two were comparable were still far too many for his liking, given that her friends, and maybe even his own, would point them out whenever possible.

"Alright, Corey," Leo said. "Do you know where you are?"

"An alleyway," John answered, cutting in. "I don't know, Leo, where did you take us?"

The pegasus's red eyes met Corey's brown. In this moment, Corey could see a glint in them that wasn't there before.

"That's your problem," retorted the silver former human, immediately knocking on the door and flying off. Instantly, Corey sensed danger.

"What did you just--?" Corey started, he and John turning to where Leo went. Just then, he heard the door open. However, the former human continued to look up towards the spot where his friend occupied, until...

"Ah-ha!" called out a certain pony, causing Corey to freeze in place. He dared not turn. "Now tell me, what was the meaning of disappearing on me like that? Your mane is a mess, and--is that hay stuck in your fur?!"

Corey snarled, baring his teeth, though his eyes were wide open, his pupils shrunken to a third of their normal size.

"John, want to hear a funny tale?" Corey growled, trying to keep his voice level despite the fact he knew Noel had just ratted him out to the one-mare fashion police of Equestria. Of course, as with any other time Corey attempted to be emotionally neutral, occasionally, his voice would alter subtly or greatly.

"Did you just switch accents?" John asked, dropping in volume as he leaned in to whisper. "You sort of sounded like TFS Frieza just now..."

"I did?" This time, Corey returned to his normal, deep voice.

"...Are you...?" Rarity questioned, sounding somewhere between frightened and interested. "...A teenaged dragon? What are you doing here in Ponyville?!" Her fright won out between her interest, and she sounded ready to scream louder.

This question was undoubtedly directed at John. Quickly, Corey moved for damage control; the first time he'd had to directly address a pony about his former human turned dragon friend.

"It's alright," Corey turned to face the snow white unicorn directly, as did John. "He's not here to do harm. He's with us," he referred to Leo, himself, and Ivan, who he was pretty sure hadn't met Rarity yet. Quickly spinning something of a credible backstory, the green unicorn continued, "We found him when we were young, and he just sort of stuck to us."

Before the former human turned dragon could object to this backstory, Rarity interrupted.

"I see, but you still have quite the bedmane issue," Corey could tell Rarity was trying to keep herself composed this time around. "Please, do come in, I can not allow you to trot around looking like you just rolled out of bed. You too, 'John', was it?"

"Y-yes, ma'am..." John stuttered, apparently wishing he wasn't getting dragged into this. "...And you are...?"

"Rarity," answered the pony, appearing to study John, "Since seeing an adolescent dragon, I've wondered exactly how I could suit them up, but the ones I encountered before were brutes." There was just a trace of remembrance in her words. "Not the model citizen like Spikey-wikey is..."

Spikey...wikey...? What the fu- Corey was once again unable to think properly, his mind getting sidetracked by this. Exactly where are we? I know there was a Season 2 episode where Spike came within three words of revealing his feelings to her, but I never watched it...

Realizing he was stalling the cascade of pain he felt was about to befall him and John, Corey sighed. He wasn't one for getting a makeover, but now that his problem was taken care of for the time being, he didn't have an excuse to turn down Rarity's insistence. Besides, he'd figured he'd made quite enough horrible first impressions on the main cast.

"John..." Corey began, his voice monotone and as devoid of emotion as he could manage. He decided to abandon revealing Leo's meeting with Rainbow Dash for the time being, feeling like doing so in front of Rarity would just make things worse, given she and Dash were good friends. "Come on. Let's go."

John winced, not expecting Corey to submit so easily, from the looks of his wincing. The dragon began to walk in, and Corey followed. Rarity gave them a small smile.

"Well, I'm glad to see that you see it my way, darling," Corey felt himself blush just a little. Even though there wasn't any emotional attachment whatsoever between them, he'd never quite had a female call him that before. At least, not that he could remember. "I can tell you're just a little uneasy..."

As Corey crossed the threshold with John, the latter turned to him.

"She's seen you before? When?" John asked, clearly just as uneasy as he was. Neither of them really had a specific liking for Rarity. In fact, Ivan didn't either, now that he remembered. While Corey didn't know Noel's opinion, generally, they viewed Rarity as just a little too whiny for them to handle.

That wasn't the exact term they used to describe the makeover artist of Ponyville, but nevertheless, neither Corey nor John were particularly eager to become Rarity's test subject.

"...Well, it's a funny story. See the hay on me...?" Corey asked, remaining quiet. "...I made a daring getaway. Doesn't quite work when your friend rats you out though. As for that tale I was about to tell? After this."

As the door to the back closed behind them, they turned to see Rarity, whose horn was now glowing a blue color.

"Now..." A pair of what appeared to be reading glasses floated down onto her snout as she appeared to be contemplating exactly what to do about them. "Let's begin."

Corey swallowed, and John sort of rocked back and forth in place, awaiting what was to come. The two took an instant to look at each other, and deduced they were thinking along the same lines.

This is going to be brutal...right?

And I feel I must mention this: two of the characters are capable of speaking Spanish. Not really sure if it's allowed by site standards, but it is part of some of the story. And less so in the RP.

Act 1 Chapter 8

Act I: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 8: Strangeness Abound

Twilight looked out the window. Princess Celestia's sun was starting to set now, tinting the skies slightly orange. It was going to be evening soon, and then night. The purple unicorn was by no means prepared for such unexpected company, and while her instinct was telling her that these new denizens of Equestria were telling the truth about their predicament, she'd hoped that there'd be enough evidence to convince her friends and mentor when the time came.

Ever since Corey, Leo and John left, she'd been trying to find books more closely related to human culture, having kept the guide Corey found earlier. So far, she'd only found one other book, So You Know An Interdimensional Bipedal Creature, which possessed some important anatomical details, and touched upon what their evolutionary line was like. Once again, it said that, with very few exceptions, humans were not known for magic, and were not born with wings.

Of course, that didn't explain why human males had horns--

"You gonna tell the others about this?" Spike asked, snapping Twilight out of her trance. She turned to her baby dragon assistant, a thoughtful look on her face. It would eventually come to that, the studious mare knew, but she also realized how Corey must have felt. To everypony else, they would certainly be strange cases, especially Corey and John at that point, the former having absolutely no training in magic despite being around her age, maybe slightly older; the latter being an early adult dragon paling around with ponies. They would be strange cases indeed, but they looked like they belonged here in Equestria, and really, the only thing lending any weight at all to the human theory would be the lack of magic and flight of the newcomers.

"I...I want to see what Princess Celestia thinks first. My instinct is telling me that Corey and the rest are telling the truth, but I also understand how Corey must have felt trying to phrase his problem." Twilight responded. "I don't think humans jumping dimensions and winding up completely changed is a common thing, even with the advanced technology they told us about."

"I'm still wondering exactly how Leo managed to mix up these 'codes' that way." said the baby dragon. "Even on your worst days, you don't get mixed up that bad."

"Perhaps our cultures aren't...too different," Twilight observed. "Leaving out the advanced technology part, at any rate."

"Well, Corey seems a lot like you before you met the others," Spike reaffirmed again, "Only...a little worse..."

She didn't like her assistant's tone at the end, but she also realized in some weird way, Spike was right. The only other pony she'd been protective of in some way socially was Princess Luna, and even then, she wasn't extradimensional, just socially impaired. But even she didn't scowl as though she did it her whole life, in spite of the past.

"I'm sure there's a reason why he's the way he is...but whatever the reason is, it's not in either of these books. I'd better keep looking..." Twilight finally said after some silence. "Or, maybe he could tell me himself, but...he doesn't seem like the kind of po--" Twilight halted. "Well, you know what I mean, he doesn't seem like the talking type."

But even as she said that, ending the conversation so that she could continue looking up information on the human species, something within her was telling her otherwise. It was a faint voice, but it was loud enough in her mind for her to hear.

Somehow...I feel like there's something underneath the scowl...I'm not sure what exactly...but I'm sure there's something inside of that shell...

Rainbow Dash had continued her aerial acrobatics with her errands for the day done. She'd also read a couple more chapters of the latest Daring Do novel published. Yet, her mind kept faintly tracking back to the colt she'd knocked over and wound up on top of. She wasn't sure why, but that landing felt incredibly awkward. In fact, she was sure she had been blushing at the time. She passed it off as the awkwardness of the position at the time, but her mind kept returning to that moment whenever it wasn't occupied.

Can't be crushing on him, can I? she asked herself as she executed a few more high-speed aerial flips, becoming no more than a moving rainbow against the sunlit skies. ...I barely know him! He's a strange colt, same with his friend! ...Gotta admit though, he does pick up quick...

Realizing that last thought sounded like praise, Rainbow was just about to continue her aerial acrobatic practice when, from the corner of her deep rose-colored eyes, she caught a glimpse of a silver pegasus, feminine snout, that weird black-and-white cutie mark, and some spiky wings.

It was Leo. Despite how she willed herself to try and put him out of her mind for the time being, given she knew very little about him, her drive to continue her training inexplicably halted in her mind. Well, actually, it faltered, and she found herself hovering towards him.

...I want to sort this...feeling out later. As she neared him, she could see some mischievous spark in his red eyes. What's he been up to since I last saw him?

"Oh, hi there Leo, finally work out all the kinks in your flight?" she asked, not really bothering to be sensitive about the matter.

"Looks like it," responded the silver colt. "...You know, when you took off earlier...you sort of knocked me into a bee hive..."

Instantly, a stake went straight through the cyan pegasus's heart, but only for a fleeting moment. However, it was this instant of weakness that forced her to speak.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize..." Rainbow immediately stopped herself, and began to think to herself.

Weird. First I learn I actually enjoy reading, now I'm being a little too sweet to somepony I barely know...who am I, Fluttershy? What next, maybe I enjoy collecting gems? The cyan pegasus realized she was taking just a little too long to finish her sentence, and this silence was too awkward for her to handle.

"Anyway, you look like you just pulled, or might just pull, the biggest prank you could stand to do," The speedy flier continued, abandoning her previous tangent for the moment. "Care to let me in on it, or is it payback for the whole knocking you into the beehive thing..." She smirked, expanding her forehooves as she hovered in front of Leo, who backed up a little to give her some room. "Because if it is, I'm warning you right now, you won't win a prank war with me!"

"Uh, actually, I managed to payback Corey for a couple of things today..." Leo responded, making her really wonder how she'd managed that. She did remember those...comments...Corey had made after her crash-landing, right before he started stumbling all over his words. It seemed like he could only speak correctly while being sarcastic.

"How'd you do it? Bait him with food?" Dash asked, abandoning restraint on her words for now. Leo chuckled in response, and hearing him chuckle made her snicker just a little too.

"Well, he baited himself..." Leo responded. "You see, while on his way to the library..."

Rainbow Dash found it hard to believe that Corey somehow eluded Rarity. From what she remembered, he had a near-permanent scowl, that only seemed to worsen with the fat jokes thrown his way, bagged eyes, and a very messy mane, one that wasn't properly combed by any means. But when she heard he jumped into a strawbox to avoid capture, she couldn't properly contain herself. It was easily the most hilarious fat joke that could be made, and the funniest part was that he apparently didn't eat any of the hay there. Picturing the round green colt with pieces of hay still attached to his fur amused her to no end.

"So...then how does that tie-in to your prank?" Dash asked, realizing that she and him had been laughing for a little bit too long. She felt the tiniest scrap of warmth well up inside her as she realized it, but once again, she suppressed the feelings for the moment.

"I lead him and another friend of ours who...recently arrived, John..."

She had to cut off Leo.

"So that's why I heard screaming...is he a...dragon?"

"Pre-adult, but don't worry, he's harmless. Works a lot with us." Leo paused for a moment, adding "mainly Corey" after a few moments.

Seriously, it's almost like Corey and Twilight were made for each other! recounted the mare as she snickered to herself remembering all the other comparisons that she'd made to herself. She found herself smiling just a little too much in Leo's company. She also knew that "John" was yet another strange name to add to the pile.

Sure, Leo could barely fly, but he seemed to have control over his flight for now. Part of her couldn't believe what the other parts of her wanted to do, but a tiny voice in her heart told her to allow him inside, bit by bit. She decided to wait until he finished telling his story.

"I lead Corey and John to the back entrance of Rarity's shop," said Leo, smiling at the thought of his own prank. "I knocked on the door, then bailed out as fast as I could. I can only imagine the look on Corey's face."

Even as he said this, he had his doubts. Though Rarity had initially struck her as a bitch, certainly too "princessy" compared to Rainbow Dash, she was still kind. Corey probably wasn't enduring the kind of torture he'd expected, but he knew John and Corey might be steamed when they next saw him. Rainbow laughed, and in turn, he laughed as well. It carried on like this again, until Dash spoke up with a small smile.

"Leo...could you meet me at the entrance to Ponyville tonight?" Dash asked. Leo's heart skipped a couple of beats, but thankfully, the rainbow-themed mare was able to shoot down his hopes. "No, it's not what you think it is."

Cursing his inability to keep his emotions in check, Leo nodded and managed a small "Yeah, sure."

"See ya then!" With that, the tomboyish pegasus once again flew off, leaving the former human alone with his thoughts.

"That was...kinda vague...and a little cruel." Leo scoffed. How dare she get his hopes up like that? Oh well, guess it didn't matter. The fact she'd asked him gave him a silver of hope, though, but he knew he'd have to wait and see how it turned out.

And hope that Rainbow Dash wasn't just pranking him.

"Wonder if Rarity's done with Corey and John yet," he snickered, immediately flying off back towards the Carousel Boutique. "She's got to have finished with them by now."

John and Corey were both quite surprised at how quickly a person's perception of another could change in such a short amount of time. While Corey didn't harbor especially negative feelings towards the snowy unicorn whose company he forced himself to be in after Leo unsurprisingly ditched him again, John had his own personal feelings about the mare. However, Rarity proved herself to have a soft side underneath the very obvious "princess" personality.

Despite the fact Corey had ditched her, she was surprisingly calm. Whether she understood his social introversion or not remained to be seen, even after the makeovers they got. But it wasn't as extreme as they thought it was going to be. It had been an hour and a half since Leo ditched them, and quite frankly, neither of them were mad at what happened. At least, not as mad as it would have been had the pain they expected befell them.

John now sported a rather spiffy tuxedo, black in color, yet his claws on his hands and feet were still uncovered. It seemed sort of fitting given that there didn't seem to be a way to make appropriate dress shoes for dragons, at least, from what either of the former humans could gather.

As for Corey, he was currently upstairs in another fitting room with the fashionista mare. John didn't particularly like the way she said she had "something special" in store for him, and from the horribly disturbed look on the green unicorn's face, neither did he. The former human tried to suppress his laughter, trying his hardest not to turn it into a dirty joke.

He was failing miserably though.

Corey's eye twitched as he regarded how he looked now. A mixture of wanting to appear happy so as not to upset Rarity, slight humiliation as he considered what he basically looked like now with the getup he had on, and a little confusion all welled up inside him.

First, Rarity had fixed his mane and graciously brushed whatever traces she could see of the hay from his fur. He had tried his damned hardest to keep a straight face when she insisted on brushing the area around his hindquarters, trying to keep his outrage and embarassment in check. After all, he'd brought it on himself. He was also immensely grateful the only one around to see it was John, and thankfully, the dragon didn't see the need to blackmail him with the emasculating moment of a OCD fashionista brushing the hay out of his rump and tail as though her life depended on it. There was hardly any emotional attachment there, but Corey hadn't been borderline violated in that way before. The way he covered for the reddened cheeks that he sported by the end of that segment?

"I've never had that great an eye for detail."

The last thing he'd wanted was for her to think he was hitting on her with any statement he'd made, because he knew he wasn't the prince she was looking for by any means, at least physically. Probably not emotionally, either. As he cursed his word choice, he could hear John resisting the urge to laugh. Thankfully, she didn't see it that way, offering a small smile and referring to him by his name instead of the pet name she gave just about everyone striding through that door (save for Spike and a few others). Leo had apparently informed her of his name.

Second, she'd measured John. Apparently Corey's hay-coated fur and horrid bedmane were far more important than getting a pre-adult dragon fitted for the tuxedo John now sported. John seemed oddly perplexed when there wasn't a price tag for such a suit, as did Corey. At least until they both happened to remember that she was the Element of Generosity, in spite of her occasional bursts of princess tendencies. As she did this, Corey looked in the mirror. His mane was now much more like his human hairstyle, just refined to where it better suited his unicorn body. The...bangs, Corey called them in his mind, curled around his horn somewhat. What could he say? He was glad she didn't overdo it.

Corey was a little worried when she said she had "something special" in mind for him, but he was relieved to see it involved a suit. First, the headband came, a dark blue color, which was wrapped around his head, compensating for the horn by wrapping it in such a way the bandanna bent up around it. He didn't mind that...but he did somewhat mind the stuff that followed.

In addition to the headband, he now sported what he could only describe as a gray jacket with a blue-gray vest, which was appropriately fitted for him. It took Corey quite a while to figure out who he was supposed to be representing, but when he did, it slammed into him like a ton of bricks, and though he willed himself to not put a confused expression on his face, the slightest traces of emotion began to work its way into his facial cues.

...Why the Hell am I--how am I, how does she-- His thoughts mashed together, and for a moment, the former human swore he heard his brain fart audibly, but the thoughts soon returned twice as powerful. Does Equestria have a Metal Gear Solid pony parody I'm not aware of? Play it cool...

Putting forth a little confusion on his face, which wasn't hard at all given the question surging through his mind, Corey urged himself to speak and not stutter.

"I like this outfit, but..." he started, "what exactly am I looking at?"

Rarity didn't seem offended by this question, which Corey was grateful for. Sometimes he could pick his words carefully after all.

"Well," Rarity mused, apparently remembering exactly where she snatched the inspiration for this from. "if you must know, I will inform you. Though I try to avoid discussing stories with Twilight, she did mention a story she'd read where a pony had to pull disappearing acts similar to the one you did earlier..."

"And my hasty actions earlier reminded you of it?" Corey asked, trying to make light conversation for the moment, trying his hardest to fight back the laughter. Fate was seriously taunting him now.

If Twilight has read a Crash Ponycoot thingy, I don't care who sees me do it, I don't care if I'm human by then, I am going to hug her close just for that. Realizing he missed what Rarity said while thinking that, Corey nodded in agreement.

"Fascinating," he responded to whatever he was saying. Thankfully, he'd timed his words perfectly, which improved Corey's spirits slightly, forcing him to crack a smile, however barely noticeable it was. She seemed to be studying him as though she heard him right, which scared the hell out of Corey as he rethought the timing of his words.

...Did I just agree to a da--?

"It appears I was right about you," she murmured, trotting away. "You and Twilight are indeed somewhat similiar...or I should say were..."

Corey fought the urge to roll his eyes and sigh. He'd been getting those comparisons for long enough, and they were starting to wear on his nerves. He needed to do something to stop them, but he couldn't precisely help it. The former human inhaled, but Rarity merely smiled.

"Please, I insist, do not worry about it. Much like with your friend, your suit is free of charge..." She smiled friendly, seemingly shaken out of her thoughts. Corey was just about to express his gratitude, when suddenly, the door opening downstairs could be heard. Disregarding this, the green unicorn merely nodded.

"Thanks," He wanted to elaborate, since this was a very generous gift, even though he never quite asked to cosplay Solid Snake in pony form, he'd supposed he'd get used to it soon enough. He didn't get the chance, though, for a screech sounded downstairs. Rarity's ears pricked up for a moment, then wilted considerably when she appeared to realize who it was.

"Oh dear..." Rarity frowned, immediately looking regretful. She began to trot at a fast pace downstairs, and Corey followed, barely hearing her follow this statement up with, "The poor dear can't handle herself around dragons..."

Who? Was Corey's only question.

This was something Fluttershy had not expected to see, but it was right in front of her, paralyzing her on the spot. When she walked into Rarity's shop to stop by and say "hi", she had not expected a pre-adult dragon, black and blue in color, to look over to her in confusion. It had taken her a few seconds to process exactly what she saw, and when she did, she uttered the most powerful screech her body could muster.

It was a conditioned response, and that condition was her overwhelming fear of dragons. The one time she scared one into tears was a fluke, she later considered, and that realization had caused that fear to return. She had quite forcefully reminded Rainbow Dash of her fears when the others went to the dragons' nest, an action which she later apologized for when they got back. Yet here was one now, and for some reason Fluttershy couldn't imagine, he was wearing a tuxedo. He seemed oddly confused, but unwilling to make any sudden movements. Likewise, she was rooted to the spot, making sudden movements next to impossible.

The staredown had been going on for what felt like days, though in reality only half a minute had passed when Rarity came down, followed by another colt she only barely knew through Pinkie Pie's invitation, dressed out in a suit the meek mare hadn't a clue as to what he was supposed to be, nor with the dragon in the room didn't care too much.

"Fluttershy," Rarity called out, immediately rushing up to her, but her eyes were firmly locked on the dragon, her phobia completely dominating her vision. "He's--with the colt over there," she indicated the green colt, who was studying her reaction intensely, as though trying to determine exactly what was wrong. The semi-scowl on his face indicated some concern, but it was still off-putting.

"B-b-but..." The yellow pegasus wanted to speak, but the dragon in the room was too much to ignore. "h-h-he's....not like...S-Spike..."

"...Oh, John?" came a familiar male voice, "Yeah, him, and the three of us, we go way back."

A name she hadn't heard before. Didn't really help the fact she generally feared dragons that weren't Spike's age or lower. Fluttershy slowly turned, to see Leo hovering, his red eyes showing clear concern. The instant she saw him, something in her began to unfreeze. Her joints and muscles began to loosen. It was almost like the sight of him made the fear recede, even if only minimally.

"We've known him since we were younger. Kinda stuck with us. Provides a lot of the muscle," he appeared to be looking directly at John now, but the dragon gave no indication of anything to the contrary. The meek pegasus dismissed it. "Helps a lot, really."

"I-I..." The yellow pony continued, now staring at the floor, still finding it very hard to move from the fear that refused to go away. "I-I-I d-don't know...but..." Her mouth was moving ahead of her fear now, and she couldn't figure out why. She felt her cheeks redden as she looked up to Leo, her conflicting feelings on the matter becoming clear. "...I...I...think...if...if he's..."

"I'm not that bad," this came from the dragon across the room, and he clearly looked discomforted by her fear, as his stride appeared hesitant. "I don't harm ponies because I feel like it. I don't know what happened that caused your fear, but whatever it is--"

The dragon was edging a little too close for the pegasus's taste, and she found herself unconsciously shuffling backward. She bumped into something, and turned her head to see a somewhat red-faced Leo looking to her...

Corey raised an eyebrow, seeing Leo's blush. Certainly he couldn't have been developing feelings for her too? As he considered this question, he watched the fallout from John's meeting with Fluttershy, feeling even more emasculated than he did when Rarity insistently brushed his rear end and tail. Only difference is, there, he was red-faced and clearly discomforted with a female brushing his rump as though her life depended on it. Here, he was more or less humiliated by the realization his fear of bees and all other insects with stingers was incredibly petty compared to the much meeker Fluttershy's fear of dragons.

Then again, when the former human considered that dragons were just myth in his world, he felt somewhat relieved at this. Deciding against speaking up about this fact, Corey decided to try and be sociable too. Given John was trying his hardest to pacify Fluttershy's fear of him specifically, so should Corey. He approached Rarity, given she was closer and he knew less about her than he did John and Leo.

If he was going to be stuck in Equestria, he may as well pick up what he could, friendship or magic-wise, even if he could only take the former back with him to Earth.

"...Is..." The words sounded awkward coming out of his mouth. "Is she going to be okay?"

From the glare he received, Corey instinctively took a few steps back. Rarity was staring daggers, as though he'd somehow magically added hay back to his fur when she wasn't looking. Then her gaze softened.

"I'm terribly sorry about that," she apologized. "It's just that..." She looked to Fluttershy, who seemed to be very slowly adjusting to John being a safe six feet from her form. Leo seemed to be giving her some level of encouragement, probably more than he realized he was. "...she's...fragile compared to the rest of us. We're all very careful to try and avoid upsetting her. Even Rainbow Dash treats her decently..."

Corey nodded, at least somewhat understanding of this.

"Though she is becoming more independent, when it comes to matters like this, she still can barely handle herself, unless pushed..."

The green unicorn's nose wrinkled at this, but he decided not to comment. However, before he could go ahead and introduce himself formally to the meek pegasus who still looked frightened at John's appearance, Rarity stopped him with a hoof in front of him.

"If I may ask," she continued, fixing him with a puzzled look. He'd been getting a lot of those lately. "what had you in such a hurry?"

"...Well, I guess--" Corey halted, exactly wondering if he should tell the complete truth, or just say he was going to the library. He settled for the latter, at least for the moment. He would leave that detail to Twilight, unless extreme circumstances dictated the truth came out. "--I was in a hurry to get some reading done."

Rarity almost invaded his personal space once again, this time almost pressing her face to his. The proximity at which she was at didn't seem to bother her, but it sure as hell bothered him. Like with being called "darling" or "dear", and having his rump brushed, he'd never quite had a female this close to his face. She took a breath, then spoke clearly, in a quiet voice so as not to disturb the conversation.

"You and Twilight are almost made for each other," she emphasized, striking a small chord within Corey, but he repressed it with the greatest of efforts. He would not be caught blushing at this instant in time, not now. "Except for the prioritizing aspect, of course...when she went to the library...well, I assume you met her, right?"

Corey could barely find the strength to whisper "Yes", but he managed to do so. All he wanted to do was get out of there. Thankfully, she was out of his face by this point, so at least it wouldn't be as awkward for his face to light up like a Christmas tree.

"She'll tell you that story, I'm sure, if you want to hear it and she trusts you enough." Rarity responded to Corey's statement. Really tired of being the lightning rod for the comparisons and awkward moments, the former human sucked in his breath.

"Well, I'm just going to go and introduce myself now...and I guess I'll just..." He couldn't believe he was about to say it. "Show this off. You did work very hard on this," The boy tried to suppress any indication that he saw something wrong with cosplaying Solid Snake in a quadrupedal body, and was on the verge of failure, so he broke what little eye contact he was trying to make. "And hard work...well, it needs to be shown off somehow."

Too bad this world doesn't have YouTube...

Rarity didn't seem to be too disconcerted about his sudden need to stare at the floor, and instead guided him out the door, where he saw Leo and Fluttershy saying their goodbyes, and John looking a little happy.

"Did she finally accept you'd be sticking around a little?" he asked, looking slightly to the much taller dragon.

"Sort of," responded John.

As Corey watched Leo and Fluttershy speak, a small pang of anger welled up inside him. It couldn't be called jealousy, so much as it was concern and maybe slight outrage.

What do they call colts that date more than one mare? he thought. If he keeps this up, he could very easily break Fluttershy's heart, and Rarity just got done glaring at me for something that must have been insensitive of me...And as for Rainbow Dash...I don't even want to know if she has feelings for him, but if she does, I certainly do not want to find out what a broken-hearted tomboy looks like.

The walk back to Ponyville wasn't nearly as painful as Ivan expected it to be. Applejack's older brother had pulled the majority of the harvested apples, Applejack carrying a fair share herself. Ivan expected the weight of the apples he was expected to carry to feel a little heavier, but his new body was a good deal stronger than his human body, making the effort needed to carry his load of apples a lot easier.

As soon as he'd figured out how to lift the buckets onto his back, anyway. He was allowed to go about the town, see if he could meet up with his friends, since they'd been in town for an hour, and the apple sales, while still pretty decent, were slow given the size of the harvest. Clearly, Ivan helped a little too much, even with all the fruit that bounced off his head.

It had been about two hours since he'd arrived, and while he'd been given the ability to walk around for forty minutes, the Apple family seemed to understand he had no idea what was where in Ponyville.

Which explained why Ivan was being lead around by a pony half his size, and probably around two-thirds his age at most.

"This here would be the town hall," the much smaller pony, who Ivan was introduced to as Apple Bloom, explained, indicating with a hoof the building. Her fur was a very light, sort of grayish yellow, and her mane and tail were a color somewhere between red and pink, the former of which was held in place (or something, probably "adorned" would be the better term) with a light red bow. Ivan wasn't entirely enthusiastic about having a pony smaller than him and younger than him lead him around like he was a--oh wait, he was a horse, essentially.

Apple Bloom, on the other hand, seemed particularly enthusastic about giving the new pony in town a complete tour. It wasn't until he'd considered the fact that she didn't have a cutie mark that he got it.

She was trying her hardest to earn one. She did, however, demonstrate some knowledge of where everything was, but Ivan was convinced that this was an "everypony" skill (he couldn't use the term "everyman", could he). At the same time, he didn't precisely have the heart to bluntly inform the foal this wasn't going to do the trick.

"And this here's where I go t' school!" the foal called out enthusiastically, then turned to Ivan with her somewhat strange eyes. While her eyes normally looked a red-orange color, sometimes, if the light hit her just right, her eyes would appear to have a gradient between apple red and sunset orange inside them. "Hey, are you listenin'?"

"Of course I am," Ivan looked up to regard Apple Bloom's statement. This amazing tour went on for another ten minutes, until, down one road, he could see Leo hovering in the air, laughing at Corey, who now appeared to be decked out in some sort of black ops suit, and a headband to boot. With them, was a black and blue dragon, who, he realized with moderate difficulty, was the one he'd seen in his dream alongside Applejack. For some reason, he was wearing a suit. "Oh, uh, Apple Bloom, I think I've found my friends..."

"Huh? Oh, them?" asked the young pony, immediately peeking towards them. "That big green colt must have run right into Rarity," she observed. "Oh, that reminds me! I've gotta go--" She halted. "--places. If you see my sis, tell her I'm hangin' out with my friends!" Her southern accent was just as strong as the pony in question. "See ya!"

Before Ivan could stop her, the foal was bounding off in some direction. Deciding he'd probably find out later what that was all about, Ivan began trotting up to his friends.

"Though I've gotta ask," the dragon said, turning to Corey. "Do you...have a thing...for her?"

Though he couldn't see Corey's facial expression, Ivan imagined some sort of demonic look of anger on his face.

"No, John, I happen to just be bad around most women!" He was clearly trying to control his mouth, lest he be overheard by main ponies, or hell, Rarity, given that he was standing directly in front of her shop.

"Then why did you feel the need to ramble on?" Leo asked, now with an incredibly tease-tastic look on his face, the likes of which caused Ivan to cringe out of anger. "You know, earlier, with Twilight, when you started gesturing and all that?"

Feeling the need to step in before Corey completely flipped his lid (judging by the way he was trembling, Ivan didn't have all evening to watch the spectacle), the former human quickly took a few steps forward, enough such that the dragon noticed him.

"Who's that?" he asked, extending a claw to him. Corey, grateful for the distraction, immediately whirled around.

"Ivan!" he responded, a little too loudly. He flinched, and repeated himself, a little quieter, "I mean, that's Ivan there."

The three of them went up to him, rather than waiting for him to make his way over to them. Probably for the best, because as Ivan remembered, Corey's mane was just as messy as his was before. As such, he could only guess, based on where he was before, why he and the dragon were suited up and why his mane...and his tail, too, looked so much more refined. In fact, he'd also noticed Leo's mane was also brushed into place as well.

"Are you..." Ivan looked to the black dragon, thinking for a moment. "Saskes...?"

"Well, John, but yeah," answered the dragon with a nod. "...We sort of just got out of Rarity's shop. Despite her...personality faults, she's actually sort of nice."

"...Then why does Corey look like he's cosplaying--" The name of the character was lost on Ivan, but Corey was very quick to remind him.

"Solid Snake...or his pony counterpart," responded the green unicorn. "Funny story about this, really...I actually ran past here on the way to the library..."

"So you actually went to tell her our problem," Ivan decided to skip the story about why Corey looked like a black ops pony for the moment. "How'd that go?" The former human noticed he was, for the moment, all business. Perhaps the fact he was a pony now made him somewhat serious?

"Well...she believed our story," Leo said, looking discomforted.

"Partly because you crashed and partly because I didn't use any magic whatsoever..." added the green unicorn, his eyes closed as he seemed to mumble this loudly to the ground. "She got in touch with Princess Celestia...and we're supposed to meet her tomorrow. Approximately three hours ago, tomorrow."

Ivan nodded with this information.

"I'm guessing she wants to make sure we're at least not lying about being humans--well, formerly humans, anyway." John whispered. "Don't know why Corey wants this information to remain secret, though..."

The brown pony immediately recalled a fact from his dream, something he'd overlooked. The other main characters seemed to know exactly what was going on with the new ponies and dragon in town, and didn't seem bothered by it. Hell, he'd have expected Corey and Twilight to be bothered by the fact their relationship wouldn't have happened any other way other than this extreme circumstance, so much so they wouldn't attempt it...and yet they seemed perfectly content with the arrangement they were obviously in. Was his dream telling the future accurately?

Ivan decided to stop thinking about things, and roll with whatever was given to him. If he did wind up with Pinkie as his dream indicated, he didn't care. So long as she knew the truth about him, and what would have to be done when the time came to go home. The same went for Leo, Corey and John and the position they were in.

"I just don't want to explain things. If Twilight had that many questions, imagine how many the others would have. I'm leaving that detail up to Twilight for now. Unless extreme circumstances mandate us to come clean, of course," Corey responded to John's concerns. Ivan was just about to voice his agreement, when a voice called out to him.

"Ah, there you are!" Applejack called out. She then apparently noticed Corey and Leo, and called out to them, "You two are here too? Uh--" Ivan turned to her, and she looked concerned and at the same time, confused. "...why is there a dragon that size in Ponyville?"

"Oh, uh," Corey cut in, trying to speak clearly this time, as though he hadn't almost sliced her up earlier. "He's with us, Applejack, he was just a little...delayed... in getting here."

John didn't object to this explanation. Applejack smiled in response, as though relieved.

"That's good t' hear," she said. "Would explain the suit he's wearing...and your name is," She was now looking up, making it impossible for any of the former humans to mistake who she was talking to.

"John," responded the dragon.

Applejack was stunned. That made four strange names, and one of them belonged to a dragon, now. There was something strange about all four of these newcomers, yet the orange pony dismissed them just as quickly as her concerns came up. Sure, John was a big dragon, certainly far older than Spike from the looks of him, but if he wanted to cause destruction, he'd surely have done it while in the company of Rarity.

The orange farmer pony knew her friend too well; judging from Corey's mane, it seemed that she got a hold of him as well. Not to mention that costume he now wore.

"What exactly are you supposed to be?" Applejack asked, indicating with a hoof what she was pointing at: Corey's incredibly goofy-looking jacket and vest combination. "Rarity must've really had a spark of inspiration..."

"...Yeah..." Corey grumbled, just a little embarrassed at the fact he was dressed that way. "Funny story about how I ended up like th--"

Leo immediately shoved his hoof up against Corey's mouth, shutting him up. However, unfortunately for him, it seemed, John spoke next.

"Well, we were about to explore Ponyville, Leo having seen everything from above, when he decided to take us into Rarity's shop, as you probably already know," the dragon, taking a few tenative steps forward. Applejack was only mildly worried, if only for the fact he was a dragon away from its nest, but then she reminded herself Ponyville would have been in flames by now if he wanted to. "...Think you can show us around?"

He seemed to instantly regret this question, and from the look of his face, he was wondering why he'd even asked. Applejack, however, couldn't really turn down the opportunity. These four, despite whatever faults and social difficulties they would encounter while here in the city, were not bad in nature. However, all four of them, Ivan, Corey, Leo and now John, were all incredibly strange cases.

"Well, Apple Bloom was supposed to be showin' Ivan 'round these parts. That reminds me," Her sisterly concerns became visible as she turned to the pony that had helped her in the harvest in his goofily effective way. "Where'd she go?"

"Said she was going to hang out with her friends." Ivan responded. Applejack immediately remembered about her little sister's friends. The three of them were just about inseparable, now that she thought about it. By this point, though, it was obvious what the three of them were trying to do.

"Anyway," The apple farmer quickly got back on the matter at hand, "You four said you wanted to see your way around? Harvest went good, so I've got some time to spare."

"That'd be...nice, yes." John hesitantly answered. The other three with him offered no objections either, though Leo seemed slightly anxious about something.

"Follow me," said the farmer pony.

A couple more hours went by in Equestria as Applejack showed them around town. They visited the town hall, the library, the education place, just as they all knew in one way or another. The frightened looks were diminished now that John wore the tuxedo. Either that, or they noticed Corey's cosplaying and thought it was hysterical, but didn't want to laugh for fear that he'd hear them and get mad.

The entire tour was relatively uneventful, though Corey almost stumbled over himself and barely managed to avoid getting his horn stuck in another surface, much to the amusement of most of the others. And Leo's disappointment. The sun began to go down, indicating it would be night soon. The Earth boys knew one thing, and one thing alone: Ivan didn't have anywhere to sleep.

It was a good thing Applejack was leading them to her home, then, since it would be a perfect time to ask.

One thing had lead to another. As they approached her home so that Applejack could make sure her sister made her way there alright, Corey's stomach growled in utter starvation from the lack of nutrition he'd gotten since coming to Equestria. John's soon followed, the last thing he'd eaten being a few bites of cereal. The farmer pony decided to be hospitable, and offered them a couple of slices of apple pie. Now, the four former humans were waiting outside.

"I must admit, I'll eat anything right now," Corey admitted as he looked towards the farmhouse. There were still ponies awake inside, so he didn't feel bad about having developed severe hunger pangs. "Never really eaten pie before, though."

"I'm not a pie person either, but...well, I'll eat it." John responded. He then turned to Ivan. "Hey, you gonna stay here?"

"Huh?" Ivan snapped out of a somewhat sleepy trance, looking to John with an unreadable look on his face. "Oh, well, if she'll let me..."

"Twilight's out of room at her place," Leo said. "Probably won't be too much of a problem, though. John will be sleeping outside because he needs background noise," John nodded to this, "and I'm probably not gonna sleep."

"Good thing Twilight has a third bed. Might have gotten really awkward." said the green unicorn from out of nowhere. "Well, anyway, I think we'd better ask her soon. Don't know what you'll do if she can't let you stay."

The four sat or hovered in silence outside for a while longer, until Leo looked a little panicky.

"Uh, guys, I just remembered something," he recalled, immediately hovering off into the distance. "Catch you guys tomorrow!"

"Wait, Leo!!" called Corey, as he watched the silver pegasus fly away.

"Now why's that colt in such a hurry?" asked a young pony's voice. The three remaining turned to see Apple Bloom, alive and well, standing alongside her sister, who looked equally concerned.

"Who knows?" Ivan asked. "I've never been able to read his motives on much of anything."

"Ivan," Applejack interjected, now looking directly at him. "You look plum tired, again..."

"Yeah, well, it's late," answered the brown earth pony, to which the orange mare quickly fixed him with a certain look.

"C'mon Ivan, you can be honest...the work you did at the harvest is why you're tired, ain't it?" asked the orange earth pony, still using the skeptical look. From Corey's perspective, Ivan looked like he just realized he'd backed himself into a corner, so he decided to move in.

"Uh, well, actually," Corey attempted to cut in, trying to find a way to phrase the group's latest problem. "You see, the four of us are going to be in town for a little longer. John, Leo..." He trailed off, suddenly unsure of what Leo was up to, "and me, are going to be down in the library," He suppressed the urge to pause and let Applejack take that morsel of information. "but...there's really no more room..."

"Way ahead of ya," Applejack interjected, "At least tonight, he can sleep here," she answered with a small smile, and Ivan was somewhat shocked. Corey was too. He always thought farm owners were a little stricter with visitors.

"...Though," John interjected. "I have to say something...there's...something over at the library Ivan's gotta be there for tomorrow afternoon."

Now Applejack turned her green eyes onto the dragon. Corey felt once again caught between a rock and a hard place. To be more precise, he was caught between a stone, a boulder, and a hard place. She scanned him carefully, then sighed.

"Well, anyway, I guess you'd better come in." There was no mistaking the scrutiny in her voice. Corey tried his hardest to suppress his instinct to swallow in a cartoony matter and give away everything, and managed to keep the urge in-check.

"T-thanks..." Corey stuttered. The other two gave out similar sympathies. Applejack and her little sister lead the trio of former humans to a table. A red earth pony, even taller than Corey, was staring out the window. He had an orange-colored mane and tail. The colt's very presence sort of shook the green unicorn to his core, just because he didn't give any sort of indication that he was angry or disturbed by the intrusion of the dragon and unicorn to eat.

There was a restrained silence in the room as Corey and John took a few tentative bites of the apple pie prepared for them. Corey somehow managed to use a fork despite his lack of fingers, which baffled the former human to no end, and he examined his free hoof to see if there were microscopic cartoon fingers there when he figured none of the canon ponies were looking.

Other than that, the meal proceeded with some talk about why the former humans were there. Corey once again was forced to explain he was looking to do some reading, the semi-truth being easier to tell the more he said it. Besides, now he was curious to know how the Scarlet Sleuth managed to finish his first case.

After the meal, Corey and John thanked the awake Apple Family for their hospitality, and so did Ivan, though Corey internally suspected that one was because he didn't want to be shown up by them (even though he wasn't leaving). Whatever the case, it didn't truly matter to the green unicorn. All he cared about now was getting back to the library such that he could sleep.

The boy valued schedules and itineraries, but he knew that right now, he couldn't expect to fall into a comfort zone anytime soon. The situations were not normal by any means, and he'd be lucky if things were ever normal, from what he'd seen of the show. Of course, Corey didn't voice his concerns to John. He knew deep down whatever came up they'd all have to deal with, since they'd more or less befriended the Mane 6.

As the minutes passed, John and Corey drew closer to the library. Some lights were off, others were lit up by candlelight. There were very few ponies up late.

Act 1 Chapter 9

Act I: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 9: A Nightly Cascade

The walk back to the library took fifteen minutes under the night sky, in pretty much dead silence, since neither Corey nor John really had anything to talk about, nor did they have anything extra to say that would help their situation any. The shock of being in Equestria was starting to wear off, but it still hung over them like an omen. It wasn't too hard to find their destination, for a window lit by candlelight was pretty hard to find. The window itself was on the upper floor, where Corey recognized Twilight would be studying. As they made their approach, Corey realized something important.

He hadn't the foggiest idea how to get a sneaking suit off without thumbs or telekinetic magic. And with that realization came another: why the Hell did the ponies feel the need to get dressed anyway? Just as he seriously began to wonder how he would get himself out of the black ops suit, a third thought came into his mind.

Cartoon logic, Corey. Pinkie Pie isn't the only example of this... He recalled exactly what had happened as he ate the apple pie offered to him. He was clearly holding a fork on his fingerless hoof as though it were no big deal. None of the Apple family members seemed surprised at this, either, which startled him even more as he realized it. Then again, I can't count on that to work now...

Finally, the two former humans were at the door. The green unicorn turned to the dragon, raising an eyebrow.

"...I get the feeling someone's sleeping in there..."

From the other side of the door, an audible snore was heard. No doubt in either of the former humans' minds who that was. Yet, bound to politeness, Corey was the one that knocked upon the door with a hoof, almost losing his balance in the process. John pushed down with a fair amount of weight on his back to steady him.

"Careful, there," John reminded.

"I know, I know," responded Corey, an edge of embarrassment in his voice. From the other side of the door, a faint voice could be heard calling out, no doubt Twilight. Spike continued to snore, completely undisturbed by this. A few moments later, what could only be described as hooting could be heard from the other side of the door. The door was very slowly pulled open, revealing the same brown owl from earlier had managed to open it. It appeared to be a little winded from the effort.

"Thank you, Owlowiscious," came Twilight's voice, somewhat quiet, from the upstairs room. The owl gave another hoot in response, She appeared in the upstairs room where Corey guessed she would be, and her eyebrows moved. "...Uh...I guess you two ran into Rarity?"

"Yeah," John confirmed, since Corey was too busy feeling humiliated by the unintentional cosplaying to respond. The former human in question could no longer see facial expressions, as he was staring at the floor, now completely regretting his hay dive. "I'm guessin' she had some inspiration when doing Corey's suit there."

Twilight gave a small "hmm" of thought, then sighed.

"Well, uh, I guess you should figure out how you'll sleep outside..." said the purple pony. "It's getting late, you know..."

Neither Corey nor John felt as though they could sleep; the former having woken up from a short nap and the latter having gotten up in the morning, but they also knew they'd need to adjust to the massive time change they'd endured. So, with this in mind, the two made their way up to the second floor, John making a right for the nearest balcony. Corey trotted into the room, noticing a third bed with a plain red sheet on it. Or was that a blanket? Either way, the boy couldn't tell.

Now, how the Hell am I gonna get into this thing? the former human looked incredibly confused. Really should have asked Ivan how he managed to sleep in that bed... Before he could climb in and try to get comfortable, however, the purple mare in the room with him raised an objection.

"...You can't be serious about sleeping in that, can you?" Twilight asked, breaking Corey's thoughts entirely, and reminding him of his problem.

"I-I don't have a choice..." said Corey in response, turning to her to see her looking at him with a somewhat understanding look.

"Right, I read that you have smaller hooves on the ends of your limbs...normally, anyway." Twilight responded, confirming his suspicion that she was reading up on humans. "...And you don't have magic either..."

"...those 'smaller hooves' are called 'fingers' and 'toes', depending on which limb you're talking about..." Corey mumbled, completely focused on the first part of Twilight's statement. The purple mare wasn't paying attention, studying his situation with a thoughtful look on her face. Finally, she seemed to come to a decision. With a sigh, she asked a question.

"...Do you...want help in getting that off?"

...WHAT? asked Corey inside, taking a few seconds to process exactly what she said. Even though he knew she'd already seen him naked, technically, the thought of being helped out of his clothing was successful in tinting his cheeks a scarlet color. The heat in his face was worse than any of the awkward moments at the boutique earlier, simply because he felt he was out of options. Twilight seemed to notice the pigmentation of this face.

"What's the matter?" she asked, sounding somewhat concerned.

"It's...something I've never had to deal with before..." His voice came out higher in pitch and quieter than intended, a result of his complete and utter embarrassment at his situation. "...But...without fingers, or...magical abilities...I don't think I'll be able to take this off on my own..."

The only thing that could be heard was the owl... Owlowiscious, or however she said it, hooting somewhat, and Spike snoring. A few moments later, the gentle sound of magic being used was heard. Corey flinched as he felt invisible hands feel around the vest, and found a zipper on the back. The cloth fell down.

As the process continued, the color of Corey's face deepened. He didn't know whether to keep scowling or shiver in discomfort at the fact he was once again being emasculated by a situation he had no control over. All he could do was try his hardest to prevent himself from squeaking in utter embarrassment and thank God and Equestria's equivalents that Leo, John and Ivan weren't around to see this. Bonus points that Spike was asleep at that point in time as well. The jacket fell to his front hooves. There was a slight tugging at the headband knot.

The former human didn't object to having that removed from his person as well, however the overwhelming embarrassment at the fact a female had to help him out of his clothes, never mind the innuendo such a situation would normally carry, kept him silent. He was positively sure that he now shared the same fur color as Big and the same mane color as Apple Bloom now, because the heat from his blush now spread to his entire body, or at least that's how he felt. The room was painfully silent, save for the snores of Spike.

Twilight continued to look upon Corey. She'd seen quite a few nervous ponies, but he was trembling on the spot, and his face had taken on a disturbingly red pigment. He continued to wince as though he were being hit. Confused, the purple mare could only watch as Corey slowly began to move into the spare bed.

"...Uh...Corey?" Twilight asked, feeling the silence too awkward. "Are you...gonna be okay?"

"Yes!" he squeaked, complete and clear embarrassment in his words. The green colt--no, former human, took a deep, shuddering breath, probably willing himself to not be embarrassed.

"I've already seen you like this before..." said the studious mare, studying his reaction very carefully.

"I know," His voice had returned to a somewhat normal pitch, though it still wavered as though embarrassed nonetheless. "...but in human culture...well, we typically do wear clothes. ...Here it doesn't matter, fur covers everything up, but--"

"Okay, okay," Twilight cut in, now understanding the extent of Corey's problem. Of course, just like with earlier, his mouth continued to run on.

"...it's honestly never happened to me before..." He said this almost casually, as though he were discussing the weather. He blinked, then she did.

...Wait...did he just... Watching Corey's face twist into utter embarrassment now at the revelation he just threw out there, the purple pony fixed him with a look of skepticism again.

"...I...what?" Twilight couldn't even wrap her head around the latest rambling from the male across from her. "...Did you...? Uh..."

"F-forget I...said that..." he responded, immediately climbing into the spare bed. He fumbled about with the blankets as though he'd never been in a bed before either, but Twilight suspected this was more because of the fact he wasn't used to having four legs and no "fingers" or "toes", as he called them. However, he barely managed to orient himself into a proper sleeping position. "...G-good night, Twilight..."

Twilight watched as the pudgy pony lay down. He was still shivering out of the embarrassment he caused himself. A small thought, a whisper in the back of her mind, erupted forth.

...He's never had a female undress him before...? Remembering that Corey said that clothes generally kept humans decent, her face slightly reddened somewhat as she considered what her kind gesture meant back in his world. Immediately, her mind tried to get her back on her studies. F-focus...! Her concentration lapsed again, as the little voice in her head once again sounded. ...Does this mean he hasn't had a mare--well, whatever humans call their marefriends, before?

Her brows furrowed and her ears pulled back as she warded off this wave of thoughts. Believing Corey to be too embarrassed by his recent rambling, Twilight decided to leave him alone for the moment, and ask him about his world in the morning. From his recent statement, it seemed she still had a lot to learn about human culture.

Opening another book she'd found contained some reference to humans, Twilight continued her studies...

Alone, and with no one around, John had no issues getting out of the tuxedo that Rarity had put on him earlier. He now had the suit carefully folded up, and had set it on the side of the doorway to the balcony, on the inside. There was a lot on the former human's mind, but he knew that the only two--well, three, if the owl counted despite its lack of vocabulary--others who knew the situation didn't quite understand.

Even if he had been turned into a pony of some sorts, he didn't precisely want to be there anyway. He was around half a year from finishing college, being the oldest of the four former humans. But now that he was a social pariah of sorts, a near-adult dragon, no doubt he was going to be under intense scrutiny for quite a while.

What was that file that Ivan received that caused all this? Corey didn't seem to know, and he was there for that part. John sat down on the balcony, trying to think things over.

Exactly how will this all play out? he wondered to himself. We can't well keep the "human" side of us hidden forever. Compared to all the ponies here, some of us haven't had the greatest of lives, and it might show just from how we act alone.

He sat in absolute silence, only the chirping of crickets occasionally echoing in his ears. John knew that he and his fellow former humans would be here in Equestria for a while, but he didn't know how they felt entirely about this situation. For all he knew, they could just as easily want to stay here. On top of that, they'd be here a while anyway. Certainly enough time to change his mind before then.

John laid out on the balcony. There was such a huge time change between Earth and Equestria he doubted he'd adjust in one night, but he'd figured if he bored himself enough, he might just manage to fall back into the warm embrace of sleep. He gazed up to the sky, the stars and the moon shining brightly. As he looked, he noticed that the stars were more visible in Ponyville than they were in the city he lived in.

Hoping to bore himself to the point he'd start snoozing, the dragon decided to start counting the amount of stars he could see in the sky. For a few minutes, John was able to summon the energy to count and point at the same time, but soon his arm fell numb to sleep. At last count, he'd counted three hundred and thirty seven stars in the sky, and then he finally blacked out, able to doze off into what he'd hoped would be a good enough rest.

Rainbow Dash hovered at the town entrance, not really winded from the excursion at all. Though she tried not to show it, anypony who knew better would realize she was waiting for something. The cyan pegasus wasn't one to wait long, however, and from the way she was shifting from side to side, one would assume her short patience was about to wear out.

"Ha! Didn't think he'd show!" The athletic pony observed, scoffing somewhat. She turned around in mid-air, only to be face-to-face with a silver pegasus with red eyes. Immediately, the mare's outlook changed entirely. "...Huh, what took you?" When he failed to respond, Rainbow's eyes trailed down, and noticed two things were off about the current situation. For one, Leo's cheeks were once again the same color as his eyes. Number two, when she turned towards him, she didn't realize their snouts were touching almost perfectly with one another.

It took Rainbow all of four seconds to fully process this. Her eyebrows angled as she pulled away, already feeling heat peck at her cheeks. There was an incredibly awkward silence between them. Finally, Leo cleared his throat, and spoke up.

"I..." he started, very quietly at first. His voice gathered volume and strength quickly, however. "...I thought you said this wasn't a date, Dash."

The cyan mare took an instant to fix Leo with a confused look, but then she giggled dismissively, waving off the incident with a forehoof.

"Hey, maybe it is," Rainbow answered. Whether or not this meeting was romantic in any way didn't matter, she realized as she recalled exactly how long she had been willing to wait for him. Granted, it wasn't nearly as long as the average mare would have waited to meet up, but for her, she'd waited quite a long time. "But don't get any funny ideas, Leo!" Her voice and gaze softened a mere fraction after this, "But...I've gotta admit...I'm kinda curious about you now."

As the time passed since she last saw him, Rainbow Dash found it ever so slightly harder to push the silver pegasus out of her mind. That probably fed her patience with him to that point. She had wanted to get to know him better, especially after he'd pranked both his friends to that extreme. Indeed, while she was performing more athletic stunts, she'd wound up giggling a little from the memory of what Leo had done to Corey and John. Granted, she hadn't seen what Rarity had done to them for herself, but something about that prank just forced her to smile.

"Really?" Leo clearly was having some trouble putting a mask on his excitement. His wings almost became stuck in that..."paralyzed" position again, but he managed to correct himself. Before Dash could cut in again, he continued, "So what do you want to do?"

The cyan mare responded by taking a short time to think.

"Hmm...how are your wings?" She questioned.

"Got a lot more control over them now," he responded, "Probably not gonna be able to go as fast as you."

"I'd have been surprised if you could," Rainbow remarked, smirking again. "It's not like I wanted to go fast anyway. So...do you wanna fly with me?"

The cyan mare watched the silver colt before her nod, probably a little too enthusiastically, so once again she moved to remind him.

"Don't get any ideas, now!"

The two pegasi flew above Ponyville. To Leo's great surprise, Rainbow Dash wasn't going nearly as fast as she was earlier when she was "training" him. She also seemed to have adopted a somewhat gentler personality. That wasn't to say she wasn't boasting of how fast she could be, or how she was born awesome, but she wasn't doing so as much Leo expected. Rather, she seemed to be asking him questions about his friends.

He gave obligatory answers. He'd met his friends when he was young, and since then, they've formed a somewhat unbreakable bond. He even said that in a way, Corey tied them all together - if not for him, he and the other two wouldn't have met. And as he made that statement, not only did he realize this held true due to his friend's spriting hobby, which all four of the former humans shared, but this was another somewhat valid comparison point to Twilight.

In response, Rainbow surprisingly strayed somewhat from talking about herself and added her friends into the mix. She did a recap of the events from the pilot episodes from her perspective, how she met Twilight, how Night Mare Moon appeared, and how the six of them saved the day. Leo knew all this already, but for some reason, hearing the words coming out of her mouth seemed to make the recap worth hearing again, enough that he could convincingly say it was a shock to him.

However, Leo knew he couldn't go back to the library, even if Corey and John were already asleep. He didn't know about their sleep habits well enough to assume they wouldn't hear him coming in. He knew they'd be asking about where he was, and he was not feeling up to facing them right now.

"Hey...Dash, uh...I was wondering..." Leo began, trying his hardest to not leave a gap in his wording. "I don't have a place to stay right now...can I...stay at yours tonight? Twilight offered, but I don't want to be any trouble on her..."

The dark pink eyes of the pegasus in question narrowed, questioning him. She studied him intently, and for a moment, the former human feared the worst would come. He could already picture his green unicorn friend telling him to stop thinking with his wings when Rainbow spoke up again.

"You'll probably be trouble for both of them, if that prank you pulled on Corey earlier is any indication..." Rainbow said. "I mean, not that they'll be safe from me either if I get half a chance, but hey, let's not get off-topic! You can stay with me if you really want to! Just, no funny business!"

Leo couldn't help but notice there was traces of surprise in her tone. He had a good feeling he knew why she was so surprised.

...She's being nicer than normal... thought the former human to himself as he followed Rainbow Dash in flight. Could she...?

He looked to where he remembered the library to begin, then in a random direction he assumed Sweet Apple Acres was located.

Good luck guys...

Ivan wasn't exactly the sleepiest pony in Equestria right now. Despite the fact that most of his first day was spent napping, he actually was a light sleeper, and heavily nocturnal. It was how he behaved not only during the summer, but during the school year as well. He knew he'd probably be required to be up early as per being a farmhand, but he couldn't bring himself to sleep just yet.

He was dwelling on a few things. Firstly, the fact that he could be stuck in Equestria for a while crossed his mind. That in itself didn't strike the former human as anything strange, but his dream was the major cause of his dwelling on this fact and one other. From the looks of the injuries Applejack and Corey had suffered in that dream, assuming his dream was a premonition of things to come, things were going to get serious while they were here.

"What's gonna happen while we're here?" asked Ivan to himself, laying back on the bed he'd earlier been loaned. To his knowledge, the Apple family had already nodded off. "...If that dream is anything to go on, things are going to get really weird when it comes to relationships...and I'm actually okay with that."

Ivan spoke a combination of words he'd never thought he'd say. It didn't affect him too much other than his eyes widening from the affirmation that yes, he did not care if he or his friends wound up dating a pony, but he did care that it probably wouldn't end well when the time came to split. The brown earth pony continued to absently stare at the ceiling, not really knowing how the former humans would get home.

But hey, he wasn't going to get bent out of shape over it right now. If he had to stay a while in Equestria while things got sorted out, then that's what he'd have to do. The former human finally allowed himself to relax, and within the space of several minutes, he succumbed to the embrace of slumber.

It took about ten minutes of flight for the two pegasi to reach the mare's home. Rainbow Dash landed casually on the cloud front porch, and noticed with slight amusement that Leo was hesitating to land on the cloud. However, he finally seemed to catch on to the fact he could walk on clouds, and relented.

"...Wow, it's sort of like a castle..." Leo noted aloud, looking around. Rainbow couldn't help but to giggle at his observation.

"Well, are you gonna stay outside all night and stare?" Dash asked, leaning up against the open door. "It's getting real late."

Leo wordlessly walked up to the doors. Inside, the place was furnished with surprisingly real-looking furniture. Which was funny-a house made out of clouds, would have clouds inside it. At least, that's what Leo thought. When he considered exactly where he was, he immediately shut his brain up.

Leo closed his eyes in thought, trying to phrase exactly how he should say his thanks for it, but suddenly, he realized he had a problem. His tiredness was beginning to affect him, and it was hitting him like a train. Unlike Corey and Ivan, Leo didn't catch a nap during the first day because he didn't feel tired at all. He tried desperately to keep up with the rainbow-maned pony's words as she looked around her bedroom.

"Huh, well I don't plan to share the bed with you," Dash laughed. Though he was sleepy, and he was sure insomnia-induced dementia was already getting to him at this point, he could have sworn he heard her whisper "yet" as she hovered past him.

Rainbow Dash frowned as she realized the situation she had gotten herself into. She looked back to the silver colt she'd let into her home. He seemed to be standing up on his hooves in the cloud home, and must have been thinking pretty hard judging by the look on his face. Either that, or he heard her. She didn't know why she just said what she'd said, and blushed somewhat from the implications.

Shaking this off, the cyan mare quickly wondered what to do about Leo's bedding arrangements. It wouldn't be that hard to construct something comfortable out of clouds.

"Really, you don't have to..." Leo said, not sounding tired in the least. "I could sleep on the floor."

A sharp stab of emotion hit Rainbow Dash as though she just defied logic and flew into herself at top momentum.

"N-no," she said, with an unusual amount of softness in her voice. Forcing more of "herself" into her vocal cues, she continued, "No, Leo, I can do this!"

Again! I just turned into Fluttershy! Rainbow Dash bit back a small frustrated growl, really thanking her lucky stars none of her friends were around to see her...softness around this new pony. That would have been a complete disaster in her mind. She was a tough pony at heart, Fluttershy's complete opposite in most respects. Yet even she knew to watch out for the meek pegasus's heart. But around Leo, she'd noticed she'd been acting a little off.

As she gathered herself, her ears stiffened, responding to the light snores of somepony. Bewildered, she turned, to see a silver pegasus flat on his stomach, out like a light. Rainbow cocked her head to one side, confused at how quickly he fell asleep.

"Whoa, was he out of it," she remarked aloud. She looked to the sleeping colt in front of her.

And looked...

and looked...

And realized she was looking just a little too long. Dash quickly coughed into one of her forehooves, blushing in a mixture of embarrassment and frustration. She looked to the sleeping colt.

Just what is it about you that makes me get this way? She was now glaring into the sleeping face of Leo, as if trying to determine what she was seeing in him was worth softening up. The pegasus grit her teeth, tormented with her emotions. She took a few breaths to calm herself, incredibly glad that nopony else was around to see her like this. That would have been awkward.

Once again, she looked to the silver pegasus, then to her bed. She looked back to the pegasus, then the bed. Another emotional wave washed over her at this point, and Dash's gaze softened. With a heavy sigh, she allowed herself to relent to the emotion.

"You owe me big time for this..." she whispered, a very soft smile on her face, and the beginnings of a blush starting to form on her cheeks. "Leo."

Corey was trying his hardest to go to sleep in the guest bed, but nothing was working. He rolled on his side, he went onto his back; hell, he'd even tried sleeping in a traditional pony position. His eyelids felt slightly heavy, but his mind was wide awake. All he wanted to do was sleep, but something in him wasn't letting him. He opened his eyes, surveying the room. The candlelight lit the room still, but he couldn't really fault Twilight for keeping him up.

The purple mare in question was off to his left, where he'd last observed her, quietly reading a book while lying down. The former human then saw that there was two stacks of books, neatly stacked off to either side. The pile on her right was taller than the one on the left, which had one last book. He couldn't see the bookworm's expression from his angle. However, he assumed she was still trying to study his species, or at least his former species.

Corey's face bunched up in thought as he considered the options. Sure, he could start talking to her, but he honestly feared what the truth would bring about. Would she fear him and his fellow former humans? On the other hand, he didn't have a lot else to do. He didn't know how John was managing sleep, Spike was out like a light, Leo was off somewhere else, and Ivan was at Sweet Apple Acres. He needed to do something until he finally fell asleep, and he couldn't lie idly by now.

"Twilight?" He asked, just a little groggily. The mare didn't respond, probably not hearing him straight away. He repeated himself again, forcing more energy and volume into his voice. "Twilight, you still up?"

"Oh, Corey!" she responded, turning to him with a somewhat startled expression on her face. She studied him intently for a few moments, and the green colt honestly feared as though the pony before him was going to bring up that awkward exchange, but her expression relaxed into a sympathetic one. "You can't sleep?"

"Not really..." Corey grumbled in response. "Believe me, I've been trying..." He trailed off, already recalling the emasculating experience of having his clothing removed. "...I feel like I should ask...are you having any luck with finding what you're looking for?" Twilight looked to him, and thought for a few moments. She soon nodded, and invited him over with a gentle nod. Corey successfully managed to get out of the bed again, and made his way next to her, Twilight moving the books on her left in front of her to allow him to lie down next to her. He was only slightly affected by this.

"The information is scattered through several books, and some of it is just repeating itself. I gathered up all the reference guides I could about parallel worlds..." Once again, she appeared to be trying to recall. And indeed she did. Page numbers were specified, dietary habits and other unconfirmed materials were put into Corey's direction. The omnivorous diet of humans, and other facts, had to be confirmed by Corey himself. The former human in question was grateful that the fact humans ate meat didn't disturb Twilight.

"...So, you've been reading up on humans since earlier, huh?" Corey asked. He hadn't even realized, but he had become somewhat relaxed during the course of the conversation. His scowl wasn't as prominent as it was before, and when Twilight fixed her gaze on him after his question, she seemed to notice. Though she didn't voice it, her eyes, purple and expressive, told the story, even to someone as poor an emotion reader as he was.

"I've learned a lot, but..." Twilight responded. Her eyes flickered for a moment, and she looked away, as though she were trying to decide on how she wanted to say her statement. Before Corey could take advantage of the silence, she turned back to him, somewhat startling him. "...I want to know...what do you know about your world?"

Corey's ears peeled back in distaste as he grimaced at her question. There were so many ways his vision of Earth could be told, and all of them he could see ending in a rambling disaster on his part. Hell, he'd given his insight on his peers and to a certain extent the education system.

"I mean, if you don't want to..." Twilight trailed off, and almost immediately Corey's mouth took off ahead of him again.

"No, no...I'll talk. I need something to do since I can't sleep."

The amount of elation he could see in Twilight's face was enough to make him flinch a second time. She frowned somewhat.

"You did seem pretty...upset...about your peers at school..." She said, her eyes flickering again. In this moment, Corey felt his heart rate increase, but he quickly dismissed this. "...What exactly do you mean?"

"I sort of want to amend what I said earlier..." the former human responded, and it was true. He hadn't been too clear on how schools worked in his world. He thought for a moment for what he was about to say. "It's true. I did hate school. But, listen closely. I don't know if it works the same here, but in my world...students are divided by grade level, and to some extent, age."

Twilight gave a nod and a smile. Once again, his heart started pumping erratically, but he forced himself to not think about it, immediately going on without waiting for the purple pony next to him to give any indication of understanding.

"Let's see...from kindergarten to sixth grade--"

"Yes, the school system in your world sounds similar to ours," Twilight confirmed.

"I see," Corey nodded awkwardly, before continuing. "Anyway, from kindergarten, to sixth grade, that part is 'elementary school'. Basic math, reading, writing, that sort of thing. Average age is five to twelve."

"...Five to twelve...?" Twilight trailed off.

"Oh, well, I don't know if you all age the same way or keep track of it the same way, but...we determine age by years. I'm eighteen now. Pretty much in the prime of my life now." Corey casually stated. Twilight nodded, and smiled.

"I'm probably around the same age, then," said Twilight. The former human suppressed a growl, wondering how the hell Equestria measured the age of its ponies. The explanation of school's workings went on without further interruption, and then Corey explained he didn't like that part of school.

"However, some students like me aren't satisfied with just a high school diploma," Corey continued. It was probably the longest he'd ever spoken, and the boy was momentarily surprised at how long he'd gone. Then again, the topic was given to him. "So they continue their education. This part of the educational system I actually like. It's college."

He took a few more minutes explaining exactly what that was, and how far he'd been going. She didn't seem to mind the fact his major was in the field of technology that got him into this mess.

"So you know these 'codes', too?" Twilight asked, looking momentarily confused.

"I could get into a long-winded explanation, but there's different programming languages all around, and I really don't want to go into that." Corey responded. "But yeah, my major gripes stem mainly from other students, even now."

"Why?" Twilight asked. "I used to feel the same way...I used to think other ponies would just be a waste of time and effort, and buried myself to my eyeballs in books...but after my teacher, Princess Celestia..."

Corey listened with some attentiveness to her story of how that particular endeavor actually made her learn that friendship was something that shouldn't be avoided, but embraced. It took a great deal of effort, but he was able to prevent his inner smartass from coming out with a "I know" straight away, but that was soon negated as he found himself legitimately enthralled within Twilight's recap. He wasn't sure what it was about her account of the events that made it so captivating, but nevertheless, the former human found himself surprisingly attentive on her story.

"I have to say, that's quite a story...but in the human world, well..." he scowled again as he struggled to find a way to put what he was about to say in friendlier terms. "...I can't say I've ever been in this situation, but smart people...the more intelligent members of society, could be used by their peers for their own gain. In other words, the 'get the nerd to work on your work while you sit and do nothing' routine."

Twilight blinked once, then twice. She inhaled to speak, but Corey gently cut her off, unconsciously moving one of his hooves to brush against hers. He didn't even notice the gesture, instead continuing to speak.

"I do think of myself as intelligent," He didn't try to be boastful when he said that. "I've been told so quite a few times..."

Twilight's brow furrowed. This time, he allowed her to speak.

"...What..." She appeared to hesitate. "...What is the square root of three hundred and fifteen?"

Now Corey's brow furrowed. He knew he should have seen that one coming. He took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to turn an imperfect root into a radical.

Let's see...divisible by 4...? No. Divisible by 9...? Yes. Divide that by nine...three sixty divide by nine is forty, three fifteen is forty-five less than three sixty, so I think that makes three fifteen divide by nine a thirty-five... Extract the perfect square, leaving us with three times the square root of 35.

"Three, times the square root of 35." Corey finally responded. "You may have been expecting a decimal, but I was taught this way about those sorts of irrational values."

Twilight inhaled, then she exhaled abruptly.

"I...was...sort of expecting a decimal value, but I do know about radicals. I've got to say, though, your math is right." The purple pony nodded.

"Don't turn this into a quiz session now." Corey warned. "But...even in college, I...sit in seclusion, pursuing my own hobbies. I don't have any interests that interest other people. At least, that's how I feel."

Twilight was a little stunned by Corey's behavior. She knew there was something bubbling underneath the scowl, but she hadn't expected the cascade of information she'd just received. Indeed, Corey seemed to be more intelligent than he let on, and a little bitter as well. However, a look reflected in his brown eyes suggested uncertainty. The last time she'd seen that sort of look was when he was trying to tell her that he was in fact a human. But it wasn't the same "hopeless" look he'd given at that time.

"What is it, Corey?" Twilight asked, wondering what was eating at him now. He looked directly to her, and sighed. It was at this moment, Twilight looked to her front, and realized the colt-human on her right was still absently touching her hoof. A small blush quaked its way to her cheeks, but it soon suppressed itself when Corey spoke again.

"I guess I should explain a little." Corey said. "...I probably shouldn't mention this, but...I think you'd better know about this. John, Ivan, Leo...they know about this too."

"Know about what?" The purple mare struggled to keep her voice down.

"It's about me..." the boy continued. "Again, while I don't think such a...condition, exists here...I...was sort of born asocial. That's the only way I can put it."

The lavender pony could only blink again as she racked her brains for any way somepony could be born asocial. When none came, she looked to him again, and noticed that he was sliding his hoof away from her, having finally noticed that he never moved it.

"A-anyway," he was now stuttering, and Twilight could see his face was once again tinted red. "I was...diagnosed with a social impairment at age ten...called Asperger's Syndrome. It basically makes me smarter, but cuts down on my social skills. It was painfully visible then, but it probably isn't as visible now."

Twilight considered what he just said. Somehow, his explanation fit, and indeed, had he not told her, she wouldn't have known about this "Asperger's".

"Oh," She felt herself get a little saddened by the new information. "I see..."

"Don't..." he started. "Don't worry about me. I'm still capable of being a good friend, but...well, it's not that I don't particularly see the point, it's just...I tend to dwell on the past, and the actions of others around me."

"I don't doubt that," Twilight immediately cut in. "Just about anyp--" She halted, again reminding herself that the pony next to her was once a human, "anyone, can be a good friend to someone...but..."

"I'm passive in my friendmaking approach. Both in person and over the internet. Actually, I should say mostly passive. Very rarely do I speak. I think you know why. Another trait from that syndrome I just mentioned. I tend to go off on tangents about random topics..."

The purple pony's brows furrowed again, but only for a moment. She became more thoughtful in her posture and gesturing as she considered all that he'd been through on his first day in Equestria.

Corey watched Twilight for any sign of movement, feeling slightly guilty he'd mentioned his Asperger's to the pony. Really, what was he thinking? She seemed to be buying his explanation. His family had always scolded him for using it as a crutch of sorts, but he really wasn't trying to this time. Twilight and him weren't exactly alike, but she definitely pursued her own interests before the intervention of her mentor and the princess of the sun.

As Twilight continued to think about the information he'd just given her, for a few fleeting moments, he found himself oddly transfixed, staring at the pony as she mulled over whatever she was. A thought, a mere whisper against the confines of his mind, made itself known.

...She looks...adorable. Like, really adorable, right now. The rest of his mind considered that thought, and a small shiver coursed through him. Damn it, there I go again! Far before he could stop that whisper from continuing, it continued to send subliminal thoughts through the rest of him. She's been so understanding of you...and for all intents she really should have lost her patience with you from the word "go". Corey did appreciate the level of understanding she'd given him, but even so, that didn't change the fact thinking about it was making his heart pound.

Thankfully, the former human caught himself staring in time. He blinked a few times, and awaited Twilight's response.

"I understand...is that why...?" She wondered. This seemed to be more of a reflection than an actual question, but Corey still felt obliged to hear it. "Is that why you're the way you are?"

"Part of it. I can't guarantee I'd be the same way I am now if my family hadn't been so...supportive of me when they knew what was wrong with me. They could have either infinitely coddled me, or flat-out shunned me. Thankfully, they did neither, and for that, I have to thank them..." He closed his eyes, feeling a little saddened. He hung his head, willing himself to not break down. Something hot and wet trailed down his right eye.

At this point, he felt something brush against his right forehoof. Startled, he looked, to see a purple hoof snugly against his own foreleg. He followed the leg to a head.

"Take it easy..." There was no mistaking the concerned smile on her face.

"There's no sense..." Corey forced himself to stop wavering. "There's no sense in me worrying about some of that now. Point is, thanks to them, I'm not entirely socially hopeless, I just..." A warm feeling shot through him, filling his entire body, and suddenly, he felt the corners of his mouth tug upward. "...I just have a bad case of...sticking my foot...or...hoof, I guess, if you prefer that naming convention, into my mouth whenever I speak."

The former human looked to Twilight, who had already been looking back at him for some time. The pony appeared to be giggling somewhat, laughing into her other forehoof. However, she got control of it, and now looked at him, still smiling somewhat. For a moment, she appeared puzzled.

"Are you...smiling...?" she asked, looking at him.

"Am I?" Corey seemed bewildered. He had felt his mouth tug upward, but he didn't feel the mouth muscles after that. He'd thought they'd sagged at least somewhat downward. Their eyes met once again. This time, however, the boy found himself utterly at a loss for words. He was unable to speak. He could hear the pulsing of his heart and brain inside of his ears, and he was completely aware he was starting to stare.

Twilight was both unnerved and intrigued by what she was paying witness to. Her mind wanted her to say something, but no words were coming to her mind. She was aware he was looking almost blankly at her without so much as saying a word, but all she could do was look back at him. Neither broke the stare for what seemed like a really awkward hour. But it was really only about half a minute at most; during which Corey's cheeks began reddening again.

"...you have pretty eyes..." he said quietly, and from the way he blinked immediately after he said it, she knew he slipped again, but she had heard every word. Heat fought its way to her cheeks, and she reared back, her ears folding down in embarrassment. She didn't need to be told how red her face must have been at this moment. "...Uh..." She looked again at him, and realized now his face was even redder, his eyes were closed, and his ears were peeled back just about as far as they would go.

"Um...thanks...?" Twilight said, not having expected this. Now, she was aware that her heart was beating a lot more furiously than it should have been. The purple pony was by no means unaware of this. She'd read about these sorts of symptoms somewhere before, and the self-diagnosis wasn't hard to make it all.

Both of them realized something at this instant. Almost immediately, both of them began thinking to themselves about what had just happened. Though neither of them had any relationships of that nature before, both of them had enough real-world experience when watching their peers in the same boat; or in Corey's case, actually having harbored quite a few strong crushes in his day.

I...I can't be falling for her... thought Corey. ...But...she's so...adorable, and intelligent, too. And...well, she's shown some level of patience with me. ...and those comparisons aren't helping either...

Am I...falling in--? With him? Twilight pondered, trying to get back to her studies, but finding it a little hard to concentrate with Corey simply being next to her. He does seem smart, and yes, he's...somewhat like I was, only...worse. A new thought occurred to her, again, a mere whisper in the back of her head. ...and he's somewhat cute when he's flustered...

The two lay down in what seemed like pure silence, the air around them awkward and incredibly hard to breathe in. Finally, the green unicorn, the former human in the room, having had his fill of awkward moments, absent-mindedly setting his head down and closing his eyes. Twilight was just on her last book, and he couldn't help but notice she looked somewhat tired.

But that was the last thought he had, for soon, his conscious mind left him, and he drifted off to sleep.

After sitting in complete silence following the awkward exchange, Twilight finally finished her studies with the books she'd picked out. Her eyelids felt somewhat heavy, and she was going to finally get to bed. She turned to her left and noticed with the faintest of smiles that Corey was still there. The smile faded to a neutral expression when she realized he'd fallen asleep next to her. She watched him sleep for a moment, confused with her behaviors and thoughts about him.

She remembered the conversation they'd had about his world. He was a loner, but that was only because he probably didn't know any better, and his world probably wasn't as much like Equestria as the school system he described indicated. He made his world sound like a decent place to be, but compared to Equestria, it sounded a little darker, certainly more dismal than life here.

He didn't have a whole lot of friends if not for the Internet, though he didn't seem to mind it much. Yet, he also seemed to know things would be different here for him. It was at this moment, Twilight came to a decision.

I'll figure these feelings out later. She raised her neck and tenderly nuzzled him, meaning it to be a friendly gesture. Probably a little "too friendly", she realized as he stirred somewhat beneath her head before once again settling down. ...He needs somepony to guide him, that much I can see. A friend that is around him enough to help him to adjust, at least until he can get back...

She realized how soft the...excess weight...made him, and her eyelids got heavier. Her wakefulness was starting to leave her, faster than she expected. As she drifted off to sleep, only slightly disturbed by the fact she didn't make it to bed, her thought process finished.

I'll try to be that friend to him...

Couple of things here. One, most of the stuff in this chapter was added to try and flesh out two of the relationships. Two, the Season 3 spoiler "The Failure Song" had been released, and well, that's where the square root bit came from.

Act 1 Chapter 10

Act I: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 10: The Second Day Begins

The morning dawned on the second day of the former humans' tenure in Equestria. Luna's moon was replaced with Celestia's sun, and the nocturnal creatures went back to their habitats. Some ponies and animals got up at the crack of dawn to go about their business. As the time passed, others got up relatively early compared to their friends and family members.

"...even now that I'm a dragon, I still get up early..." he noted, realizing he'd rolled over on his side--no, scratch that, that somehow, during the night, he'd curled up on himself like a regular dragon would. Grumbling incoherently to himself, the former human got out of the fetal position he was in. After finally managing to get back to his feet, the dragon closed his eyes and let out a long yawn, stretching as he did so.

A geyser of fire, bright as day, issued from his mouth, easily visible to most of the town. As soon as his brain finished waking up, he realized there was only one way his mouth and throat could have felt that sort of warmth as he yawned.

"...Hope no one saw that..." he mumbled.

At the Carousel Boutique, Rarity was up and about, having just finished her very extensive mane and tail work. It was somewhat regular during mornings, and this morning she woke to discover the curls were out of place. Once this was done, she was getting ready for something she'd had planned. It was a short outing with Spike so that they could harvest more jewels. The fashionista's supply was running a little low, she'd noticed, so, to keep up with supply, she'd needed to gather more jewels.

She was somewhat aware the reason Twilight's assistant was willing to work his scales to their limit was because he had a crush on her. The whole incident during his birthday left her aware of how deep his feelings reached. Rarity herself wasn't entirely sure if she could ever fully reciprocate his feelings, not necessarily because of the species difference, but because of the age difference. However, he was still happy to help her, and it wasn't like she wasn't rewarding him for his efforts.

As she finished her preparations and prepared to make a stop by the Ponyville Library to pick up Spike for the jewel run, she heard somewhat of a commotion outside the door.

"I saw it! At the library!" a panicked mare's voice sounded from just outside the front doors. "I swear it was roaring! Fire was coming out of its mouth and everything!"

The snowy unicorn turned to the front of the store. Her eyebrow lowered in thought, then raised in realization. She had a good idea of what the ponies were probably talking about. The pre-adult dragon, John, who was with Corey earlier. Rarity thought things over, as the ponies outside continued to dispute over the "roar" that she'd heard about.

It's possible that John was only waking up...if he were out to do something awful, surely he might have last night... thought the white unicorn as she gazed upon herself in the mirror. What to do, what to do...?

The answer came to her when she considered the durability the smaller dragon had demonstrated, and to a certain extent, the strength. It was a little selfish of her to consider inviting John along, but she couldn't see many other ways for the larger dragon to gain the trust of the ponies in town. Perhaps if they saw him helping her out with something, they'd be able to see his model qualities.

That was the unicorn's plan, though inside she wasn't fully convinced John was precisely good yet. However, she pushed aside any thoughts that the black and blue dragon was a bad egg, and with a generous resolve in her, she would have to add a second dragon to the list of those in their travelling party.

"Alright, John, let's see exactly how much of a model citizen you really are!"

With this particularly dramatic line, Rarity strode off, heading in the direction of the library. Any time doubt surfaced in her mind, she thought about how patient he was with being fitted despite the fact he looked like he was ready to bolt at any moment. Eventually, she had been able to convince herself the pudgy green colt was telling the truth about his much larger dragon friend, and had nothing to stop her.

As her senses returned to her body, Twilight became aware that she didn't quite make it to her bed. The memory of the previous day returned to her, and it was with this she chanced to take a good look where her head rested. Something pudgy, furry, and green...

For a moment, she was absolutely astounded to find herself nuzzling him. The slightest bit of heat tugged at her cheeks as the purple pony tried her hardest to move away from him while not waking him.

...Was he really that soft? She asked herself, trying to push the incident out of her mind for the moment. However, she couldn't deny that the preceding night had gotten interesting, if only for the fact that the green unicorn colt/former human before her had found it in him to talk about his homeworld, and himself to a degree. Now, standing firmly on her four feet, she gazed down upon him, a mixture of concern and anxiousness most of her emotional makeup right now. Concern for him, anxiousness for the meeting to come later.

Right, now I remember why I was... Corey shifted in his sleep, but didn't seem the least bit disturbed by her movement, continuing to sleep soundly. She nodded to herself once, the blush fading from her cheeks. Deciding to leave Corey sleeping for now, she walked over to her mirror, and began brushing her mane as she usually would.

Another memory returned, and she looked over to see Spike still snoozing away. Of course, he would still be asleep. Then again, once she reminded him what today was, all that drowsiness would be, invariably, replaced with urgency. Even before she officially made her friends, she could plainly see Spike's feelings for Rarity since the very first day they met her. The blank stare, hearts in his eyes...even though she wasn't well-versed socially at the time, she could at least discern Spike's behavior was indicative of a crush, having read a few books similar to that in her studies.

"Spike, wake up!" she said, turning to him with her head, finishing up her morning routine. The dragon rolled over, curling up into a tighter ball, pulling the blankets covering him tighter like a foal that wanted to sleep in. Given his age, that wasn't too surprising to Twilight. The purple pony also observed Spike was less likely to want to get up ever since he'd received the bed.

"C'mon...just five more minutes..." said the small dragon groggily.

"Wasn't today the day you were supposed to go gem-hunting with Rarity?" Twilight questioned, looking directly at her assistant's sleeping form. Spike's body immediately stiffened as he sat straight up. He turned to Twilight, his green eyes flaring in concern.

"Was it?" He appeared to be counting the days on his claws, and as he arrived to what today was, Wednesday, he immediately launched straight up into the air, his blankets inelegantly launching off the bed as he did so, a surprised exclamation issuing from his mouth as he did. "Oh man! I'd better get ready!"

Twilight sighed with a smile.

"Some things just won't change, will they?" she asked herself, replacing the blanket on the bed with the basic spell she'd learned so long ago - moving things with her magic definitely was easier, and for a moment she wondered what it was like having to move things by hand in the human world. Realizing she was wasting time, the unicorn decided to plan out what she'd do today other than have the humans introduced to her mentor.

She then recalled Corey's wanting to try and learn magic, even though he seemed to be aware there was a chance he wouldn't be able to use it whatsoever, since he technically wasn't a unicorn, but a human inside. Leo's flight and John's dragon breath sort of came with the package, but with Corey's expected ability as a unicorn, that came from inside, rather than outside or by virtue of being the creature in question.

Spike ran about, trying to get his morning routine done, just as predictably as his crush allowed. The baby dragon, however, wasn't paying any attention to where he was shuffling in his rush to get other things worked out.

Twilight was busy making a list of things she needed to get done before the meeting, not paying any attention to where Spike was running...

"Eeeeyouch!!"

Corey really wished he hadn't fallen asleep on the floor last night. Not only was he slightly sore from the act of sleeping on the floor in the first place, but something rudely awakened him by stepping down on his tail, which, aside from the action hurting like hell, also made him jump very high in the air headfirst. He hit his head on the ceiling, then found himself not falling from the ceiling as expected. Confused, he looked to where he hit, and realized with irritation that not only was he rudely awakened, but this time he had gotten his horn caught in the ceiling of Twilight's room.

"Son of a---" he grumbled, not audible to Spike or Twilight, and also unable to finish his swear. He exhaled roughly, and called down. "Uh, a little help?"

Both of the others in the room looked up to find him, and it was then he realized how tall Twilight's room was. Vertigo rapidly set in, and to alleviate it, Corey stared up into the ceiling, trying his hardest to ignore Spike's snickers. Though he couldn't see what was going on, observing the ceiling of the room, he could hear voices.

"Spike!" This was Twilight, scolding her baby dragon assistant. "You have to be a little more careful!"

Corey's brow furrowed, though no one below could see it. What had Spike so worried that he wouldn't pay any attention to where he was stepping?

His answer came soon enough, with a knock at the door. Spike immediately gasped, and spoke up.

"I'll get it!" He sounded incredibly eager to answer the door. Corey continued to dangle off the ceiling by his horn. Below him, he heard Twilight sigh. The next thing he knew, he heard a sound, sort of like a low-pitched flute note. Then, he felt as though two large hands were closed around him: one of the hands was up on the top of his head, the fingers splayed over the horn and pushing down, the other supporting him by his rear end. Looking down to where he knew Twilight was, he saw that he was enveloped in a magenta glow, as was her horn. She was gently lowering him down to the ground using what he assumed to be a telekinetic spell.

"Sorry about that, Corey," said Twilight on Spike's behalf, seeing as how he wasn't in the room. "It's just that..." She trailed off. Corey looked to her, trying to pour as much intrigue into his expression as he could without seeming too desperate to find out why she was being so hesitant. He wasn't a total idiot. He knew full well why Spike could have been in such a hurry.

"Hmm..." Corey responded, back on his four feet now. He really didn't want to ask flat-out, since as far as Twilight knew, Corey didn't know about Spike's crush...yet. The two stood wordlessly for a few more moments.

"It's just that he's..." He could still hear her hesitating, as though she didn't quite know how to word it. "He gets really excited when he gets to help Rarity out with gem hunting." He looked up to her, trying his hardest to appear puzzled now. "D-don't look at me, I don't know why!"

Corey softened his gaze, a feat he suddenly felt was a little too easy all of a sudden recalling last night.

"I think I understand..." he nodded. Just then, Corey's ear stiffened, as he heard the conversation downstairs, Twilight's words no longer distracting him from eavesdropping.

"...though I do appreciate the help you lend me on these searches, Spike," Rarity's voice entered his ears. "I believe that we must allow someone else to join us..." The snowy unicorn trailed off, but for what reason, Corey was unable to discern. The fact he'd gotten a rude awakening was finally starting to get to him. "Ah, John, there you are..."

There was a palpable silence, and Corey didn't want to break it. In fact, he was sure that if anyone made a sudden movement, it might have caused the library to cave in on itself just from the sheer tension.

"Eh, yeah, what?" John asked, sounding slightly uncomfortable. "If this is about the tux--"

"Oh, no, not that, darling," Though Corey couldn't see the three currently, his mind's eye was painting a picture for him: Rarity at the door, looking to John with a smile on her face, nice and normal, John looking somewhat discomforted and not knowing what the hell he just walked into, and Spike giving the much bigger dragon the evil eye. "You see, I use precious gems in my fashion work, but I've been running low, so I decided to take this day to go jewel hunting. It's usually only Spike and myself, but I believe today can be an exception, so would you like to accompany us?"

Corey took an instant to look towards Twilight.

"...Am I the only one visualizing...?" he asked. "...Spike looking at John with an evil look in his--"

"No!" Twilight said back quickly, her ears wilted, as though she'd failed at doing something important. "But how'd you...?"

"If this whole 'crush' thing's supposed to be a big secret, he sure doesn't know how to hide it." Corey responded. "I mean, he stepped on my tail as he rushed around..."

With that, Corey made his way for the doorway, wanting to find out how the rest of this conversation played out.

The former human known as John was at an impass. Like Corey, he was pre-aware of Spike's crush on Rarity, and even if he weren't, the glare the smaller dragon was shooting him whenever he got the chance would have tipped him off in the first five seconds. However, he also didn't want to appear mean either. He didn't want to hurt her feelings by saying "no", so he didn't. Abiding by his nicer nature, the larger dragon spoke up.

"Okay, sure," he said, trying his hardest to act like Spike's glare didn't heat up more, "I'll go. Don't have a lot to do..."

Rarity gave a small nod of approval: "Very well then, if you'll join us?"

It was then, that from the corner of his eye, he saw Corey, still very much a unicorn. However, he noticed that he was no longer wearing the Solid Snake's cosplayer's uniform. Remembering that he was technically sleeping in the same room as Twilight, and the behavior Corey displayed around her earlier, he shivered somewhat. He had to know.

"Hold on a sec," said John, raising a hand. "I've gotta talk to Corey for a moment, first..." He looked back to Corey again, and noticed the boy flinch somewhat as soon as they were looking at each other again.

"Please don't take too long," Rarity said, only a hint of impatience in her tone.

"Actually," said Twilight, walking out of her room and making her way over to Rarity, "I want to talk to you Rarity, before you go..."

As John caught sight of Twilight, he couldn't help but notice she looked a little on-edge about something, like she had yesterday when she was awaiting Princess Celestia's reply. Deciding not to pry for the moment, and figuring it had to do with the former humans in Equestria anyway, John made his way over to Corey. Corey followed him, and John walked past him, shutting the door so that they wouldn't be overheard.

"...So," John said after some silence between them, "I see you got the costume off..."

Corey flinched, and looked away. Almost immediately, his cheeks lit up like a Christmas tree...if said tree were decorated exclusively in crimson lights.

"...I wouldn't say I got the costume off, but...yeah, it's off..." John's eye twitched as he realized what that could have meant. Judging from the color of Corey's face, and fully capable of deductive reasoning (while at the same time believing his friend to be as well), there was only one character that could have possibly taken off his clothing. "It wasn't the fact that she saw me naked--oh God...why...?"

John sighed. Corey's way with words wasn't helping him. He could tell, though, by the look in his eye that he was relieved he was telling this to him and not to Leo or Ivan.

"...It wasn't that she saw me...naked, it's the fact she had to unclothe me..." Corey said, finally finishing. "And then after that, I couldn't sleep."

The dragon's eye twitched, and he stared at Corey in utter disbelief. "So then, what'd you do after that?"

"Well, I decided to talk to Twilight, to see what I could do."

"...How'd it go?" John was trying his hardest to be casual, not even bothering to point out that such a thing could be dangerous.

"Better than you think...but towards the end of the conversation...things started getting...strange..."

"'Strange'?" John winced, really not liking the way Corey worded that.

"Not that way, you--"

"I know, I know..."

"...You know..." The green unicorn continued, as though he were relaying a story. "...You know what...I think that's all you really need to know,"

"...Hey, I'm not gonna judge you for it," John said, and this was true. Technically, they weren't humans. The only thing that set them apart from the natives of Equestria was the fact their lives weren't all sunshine and rainbows, and that typically they were on the Internet most of the day, at least now, anyway. "It's...just a little..."

"I-I don't...like her in that way," John chose not to ignore the fact Corey hesitated a little in saying that; a hint of uncertainty in his tone may have been present as well. Thankfully, to cut this awkward scene short, Rarity's voice could be heard squealing downstairs.

"You mean to tell me their group is going to meet Princess Celestia today?!"

"...She told her about the meeting...?" Corey asked. "...Well, I guess that makes sense, at least. Anyway, John," He continued, as though not worried about that first part, "Please, don't tell Ivan and Leo what I just told you. Ivan's a wildcard; I honestly don't know what he'll do...but Leo...if he hangs out with Rainbow Dash half as much as I think he does...that mare's gonna find out, and I'll never hear the end of it..."

John nodded with a small smile.

"Your secret's safe with me," he assured. "Now...I've gotta go gem hunting."

Twilight was unsure if what she told Rarity was right. She didn't tell her the whole truth about why Princess Celestia was coming to meet the four new guys in town; that they were human males, not colts and a dragon, swapped into their universe thanks to an accident. Yet, Twilight wanted to be sure that the Princess could discern if they were telling the truth or not about their situation. She had trusted her instincts, and most of the time, they worked. Unless she allowed herself to become completely paranoid...like when she thought she needed a weekly friendship report...or the time she met her future self...

"Thanks again, Rarity," she said, forcing herself to smile. "You should already have Corey's measurements with that...costume, you gave him."

"After how he vanished from me that time, I felt inspired to give it to him. It just fit together so wonderfully...other than his...frame, of course," Rarity said, trying to be nice about Corey's body weight.

"Alright, I'm all done here," John said, stepping out of the house. Twilight turned to see Spike still giving him the evil eye, and frowned.

C'mon, Spike, you heard the reason why she's bringing him along, don't be so sour about it... she thought to herself. She thought it was nice of Rarity to do that favor for John. After all, the ponies in town were probably still a little frightened at the pre-adult dragon in their midst.

Rarity looked up to John, and put a pleasant smile on her face, nodding.

"So, shall we depart?" she asked. When John and Spike nodded, the latter still trying to shoot a dirty look to the former, while the former put on a neutral look on his face. Twilight could tell he was probably caught between a rock and a hard place. The trio left, probably heading back to Rarity's first, then to wherever the gem search would take them. With this in mind, Twilight turned around, and headed back into the library, to find Corey moving about in the main part of the library. He seemed a little anxious about something, but Twilight didn't feel like prying.

"Anything wrong?" she asked, looking to him. He briefly looked to her, and shook his head "no".

"I'm just...thinking things over." he responded. His brows furrowed for a moment, and he turned back to her. "So, other than the upcoming meeting with royalty, what else do you have planned for the day?"

Twilight flinched. Like she needed to be reminded of that fact. She was already trying to make sure the meeting at least went smoothly, and so far, she'd already gotten one of the items checked off the list: "tell Rarity to get suits ready". While she knew her mentor didn't enjoy formalities, as evidenced by the Gala so long ago, Twilight did, however, want them to look their best - meeting the princess this early on in Equestria was an honor in itself.

"Well," she started, thinking it over. "I guess I can try to tutor you how to use magic..." Smiling to him, she began to think about reference guides on the subject. It would have to be something basic, so that Corey could use basic spells. Of course, there was none more basic than the levitation spell, the one that allowed unicorns to move objects with their magic as opposed to their bodies. A unicorn could still function without it, but it'd be a little tougher for them.

Besides, from the look on Corey's face when he realized he was caught in the ceiling, she had a hunch in her mind that he was really getting tired of being used as a dart. Briefly, she wondered how many other times he'd gotten his horn caught in things.

"Guess it can't hurt..." As he made his response, she once again noticed that the faintest of smiles briefly graced his face. "We can try."

She smiled to him again, and nodded.

"I'm going to find a couple of reference guides on magic use. They should be here somewhere..."

Awareness returned to his body, and the feeling of softness underneath his body momentarily confused him. Leo swore he fell asleep on the cloud floor, which surprisingly felt firm against his body. The dream sequence he'd gone through was also surprisingly pleasant, and at the same time, incredibly weird. It involved himself, Rainbow Dash, and interesting, non-sexual behavior. That said, Dash acting that way was alien, and there was no way she'd act like that in the space of a few days.

Just as the former human finished telling himself this, he awoke to realize he wasn't on the floor, like he'd slept. His eyes shot open completely in realization, and he sat bolt upright. The blankets with Rainbow Dash's cutie mark on it...the sheets...it all looked familiar. Since Dash couldn't directly harness magic, not being a unicorn, the silver pegasus knew there was only one way that he could have woken up in a bed.

"...Did she...?" A million things went through his mind at once. Of that value, about half were dirty thoughts that might have surfaced back on Earth, while the other half couldn't quite fathom how he'd ended up in Rainbow Dash's bed straight away. His mind went straight back to the dream. Dash seemed...slightly off, in the dream. Not like her usual self.

His introspection was cut short, however, when the sound of a door being opened rang out. He turned back to the door, opening his eyes. Rainbow Dash stood in the doorway, looking somewhat tired. When she saw that he was up, she grinned somewhat.

"Mornin'," she said, coming into the room, still wearing that smile on her face. Her gaze was...softer, than Leo usually saw in her. He didn't know what was going on in her head, but she seemed to be trying to find a way to say what she wanted to say. "I let you have the bed, this time." Her gaze hardened, but Leo could somewhat tell there was a small trace of softness around her emotional state, "Don't count on it happening every time you wanna crash here!"

"Don't plan on it..." Leo couldn't fight back the memory of the dream. As he made his way out of the bed, he recalled precisely what Rainbow's mannerisms were in it. She was her cocky, arrogant self on the surface, in just about every way Fluttershy's opposite...and yet, when she turned to him, while said sentiments were still there...

...She's being...really nice, to me... He observed. I don't know if she actually uses her bed regularly, though... Leo remembered that she seemed to nap wherever she pleased. As he stopped to fix the bed, he realized his wings still ached dully, like he just performed a full workout with them, which for all intents, using them would have done so.

Between the two pegasi, there was awkwardness. Rainbow Dash wasn't entirely sure if what she did was the right thing to do, given she barely knew Leo, and Leo himself wasn't sure if Rainbow was feeling like herself. Once Leo finished making her bed, he tried to leave, but to his surprise, he was stopped by the cyan mare. She seemed surprised and frustrated with herself, as well, that she wanted him to remain where he was.

"Actually," Rainbow continued, smiling to herself. "I did see something interesting while flyin' about getting a head start on the weather..."

"Really?" asked Leo, wanting to know about this. For some reason, his imagination went straight to Corey and Twilight, as he thought about the former's floundering about and rambling in her company. It would be Corey's luck to be spotted in an awkward moment with Twilight, Leo realized as he considered all the crap that happened to his friend since coming here. "And that would be...?"

Rainbow mischievously smiled, a good indication that whatever she saw had to have been particularly juicy in nature for her to have mischief on her mind.

"C'mon, I'll show you myself!" she said, and her wings spread. She tore off at top speed for a half second, then she stopped and giggled to herself. The cyan mare floated back to the silvery colt and said, "Right, I want you to actually see what I'm about to show you..."

Leo took off, a little bit of soreness in his wings returning. However, from personal experience, he'd hoped that the principle that working muscles to the limit produces better stamina than normal would work with his wings as well. He returned Rainbow's smile, though the fact she was being nicer than normal to him was starting to really get to him.

"Well, lead the way," responded Leo, and so the two pegasi were off again. Dash began to lead the two straight into town, and Leo wondered exactly what she was up to...

"Wake up, Ivan!!"

Ivan, startled, immediately launched off the bed, mentally saying a steady stream of curses as he landed hard on his side with a thud. The still sleepy former human looked over to see Applejack, fixing him with a stern expression, yet underneath the sternness he could see the faintest glimmer of laughter in the green eyes of the pony.

"I'm not a heavy sleeper, Applejack, you know that," Ivan grumbled, pissed at the rude awakening, as he struggled back to four feet.

"There's work to be done today, an' we need some extra hooves!" Applejack explained, "Though it ain't gonna be harvestin' more apples. We done overharvested yesterday, so there won't be much more harvestin' to be done for a while."

Ivan's eye twitched somewhat. So if it wasn't gonna be an apple harvest, what the hell else could a pony farm have? He didn't see any episodes specifically dealing with what else the farm could have, so any work done today would be a complete surprise to him. If it involved doing work that required him to have hands, however, he wasn't quite sure how to deal with that.

Though he did remember Corey holding a fork on his hoof...

"Well, I guess if I'm gonna be sleeping here, I don't have a choice," Ivan responded, looking up, his face fading back into its usual listless, emotionless bit. He was never really one to show much in the way of emotion, unless he was happy or angry, and sometimes if surprised, but the third option happened rarely. Well, in the human world anyway. "So what do you want me to do?"

"Nice to see your rarin' to go so quick," Applejack said. "Well, before that, how 'bout some breakfast first?"

Ivan was just about to respond "no", when he felt his entire stomach tremble. Now that he thought about it, he really didn't eat a whole lot yesterday, and boy was his body alerting him of its displeasure. The brown pony didn't eat the apples he was harvesting, since he knew he'd probably get caught doing it and didn't much feel like getting chastised on the first day. The same went for the second day.

"...I...didn't eat all day yesterday," remarked the former human as though he'd forgotten this fact.

"Glad to see you're bein' honest with yourself, now let's go, partner!"

And with that exchange done, Ivan followed Applejack, completely unsure where this day would go. After all, he did have a meeting to get to at some point today, and he wasn't entirely sure how that would play out.

Equestria wasn't precisely known for having humans in it, after all, let alone ones trapped in alien bodies to said species.

At the Sugarcube Corner, a certain pink earth pony was once again up and bouncing off the walls. Pinkie Pie was still planning the party, which surprised even her when she thought about it. Usually she'd have the welcome parties for the newcomers in town ready before the night arrived. They'd arrived pretty early in the day, so she'd had all day to plan things.

In fact, she did have some of the plans ready to go even after their dragon friend had fallen out of the sky. But there was something about these newcomers that necesitated Pinkie to give it more than her best. She wasn't going for an A-plus. Or an A-double plus. She was going to give this party just a little more pizazz than normal to compensate for the notable differences of the newcomers. From what she'd seen of the dragon, there wasn't a whole lot wrong with him, except for falling out of the sky.

The silver pegasus colt seemed honestly frightened of her, but for what reason Pinkie couldn't tell. She wasn't a harmful pony by any stretch of the imagination, discounting the fact she could only predict when bad things were going to happen to somepony. But she wasn't the direct cause of the harm!

The green unicorn colt seemed to have trouble smiling. His mouth was almost always twisted into a scowl, at least, when he wasn't expressing shock in his features. She was going to put a smile on that pudgy green colt's face with this party.

Finally, there was the sleepy reddish-brown earth pony. If this welcome party was going to be enjoyable, she'd have to make sure to keep him awake with the party events. If Applejack could keep the earth pony away from town for a bit, Rainbow Dash could keep the silver pegasus in her sight, and Twilight could keep the pudgy colt's attention, and somepony could keep the dragon occupied, at least until the evening, this party would remain as secret as possible from them.

Pinkie stretched her limbs, getting onto her hind legs to stretch the whole of her body.

"Let's make this the best party! Turn that frown up-side down, wake the sleepy, cure the frights and...make sure a dragon has more friends!" Pinkie halted abruptly on the last one, and added "If he wants them..."

And with this, the party planner of Ponyville went back to work...

Act 1 Chapter 11

Act I: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 11: The New Bodies Are (Not) Ready

It had been about two hours since John and Spike left with Rarity, and Corey was really starting to wonder if they would ever get to practical matters when it came to magic use. After all, just reading about it wouldn't exactly do any good if he couldn't do it, period. Yet, Twilight insisted on making sure he knew what kind of forces he'd be tampering with, a concern which he had to admit was necessary.

Being a Dragonball Z fan since he was about three years of age, Corey immediately equated the magic unicorns use to be similar in function to how Ki works in that series. They both had to be drawn from within in order to be used. The only difference was, as far as he knew, magic generally wasn't used for outright offensive purposes. Somehow, the former human was incredibly thankful to realize this. At the same time, he was a little disappointed once he took the whole picture: he would be able to use a force similar to that energy, yet wouldn't be able to shoot the Kamehameha like he'd dreamed of doing since he went through his obsessive phase. At least that meant that no unicorn against him could potentially use it like that.

"Are you done reading about it, yet?" Twilight asked, trotting up to him. He looked back to her, really wanting to call upon his inner smartass.

"I've..." He hesitated, almost immediately softening the tone of his voice. So much for that idea. "I've read the relevant sections about three times by now. Gotta tell you, the magic here sounds...well, simple to use."

"It sounds easy--" Twilight said, her voice somewhat stern, but her expression warm in nature.

"All the unicorns I've come into contact with...so basically you and Rarity...make it look easy." Corey cut in, "But I'm willing to say it wasn't always like that."

"I used to struggle with turning pages, but...well, I was just learning back then." Twilight responded with a smile. Her expression immediately hardened somewhat, and her voice became more like an instructor as she continued. "What is 'magic'?"

Corey's eye gave a few involuntary twitches as he realized exactly what the purple pony was doing.

What the hell, a pop quiz?! he thought to himself, trying to mask his anger and answer her question. If there was ever a time his short-term memory was needed to be reliable, this would be it.

"Magic is," he paused, trying to answer at least somewhat using what he'd read in the book. "A force that exists within every pony," he intentionally paused between the words, since Twilight knew the truth, "though only pegasi and unicorns have any ability to harness it. Pegasus ponies can walk on clouds and move them, among other things, a passive form of magic. Unicorns, on the other hand, can actively harness their magic to perform various spells." He looked to Twilight, whose look softened again, and she nodded and smiled. Her horn became wrapped in a magenta glow. A piece of parchment and a quill also floated into view. The quill scratched against the paper in a single fluid motion.

"Alright, next question," Twilight continued. Corey scowled in irritation. Was this going to be the case with everything he'd learn under her tutoring? He totally understood she was trying to teach the way she probably learned, but the two were definitely different types of learners. He managed B-pluses and A-minuses on most of his programming quizzes, yet he performed incredibly well in practical manners, so long as he knew what he was doing before he started the project. Usually, he did. "How do unicorns primarily use magic?"

As if he really needed to try to answer that. She was using magic in plain sight of him, probably unintentional on her part, but nevertheless he bit back the urge to be a smartass, even though the fact he was being quizzed on something that he likely wouldn't be able to use in Equestria and most definitely wouldn't be able to use once back on Earth was biting at his thin patience.

"Well, let's see..." Corey began, "Through focusing the magic to their horn, by drawing it out from within," He fought back the urge to compare it to Dragonball Z's Ki concept as he continued, "After that, they concentrate on what they want the harnessed force to do, a spell--like the levitation thing you're doing right now."

Another scribble, and a nod from Twilight.

"Last question, which spell is used by all unicorns that know how to use magic?" Twilight asked.

"...Well...I'd have to say the levitation spell. Or telekinetic spell. Whatever it's called." Corey responded, trying to remember if it had a given name in the book he'd read. "Because you ponies really don't have fingers to hold things with..." His eye twitched, recalling that he'd somehow lifted a fork without the necessary appendages anyway.

Twilight scribbled down a couple of notes, and put aside the writing utensils.

"Well, you were right the first time, it is called a 'levitation spell'," Twilight said, still smiling. "Alright, now...what to use so that you can practice it for real?" The purple pony immediately trotted off, leaving Corey somewhat wondering what would come next as he manually pushed the books aside. From one of them, he managed to gather that if he let his attention wander in the beginning stages of learning magic, things would get very ugly, very quick.

If I equate it to Ki...I should be able to bring it out... thought Corey. As far as basic functionality goes, they're similar, but that's about where it ends.

"Alright, here..." The purple pony returned, levitating a small basket. A closer look revealed that the basket was full of apples. When she set it down, the former human could barely help himself.

"I thought the student gave the apples to the teacher..." he remarked, and for a moment Twilight looked at him. He couldn't tell if she was laughing or not, but he assumed that she wasn't, given she just looked. "Yeah, that one was too easy..." He then considered what the alternate meaning to his joke was, and immediately shut that thought out of his mind with half the fibers of his being.

When Twilight gave a soft giggle, however, Corey felt his stomach twist in on itself for a moment. He wasn't entirely sure if she was doing it out of pity or if it was good enough to make her laugh like that, but the fact she laughed anyway, even if only slightly, was enough to have the green unicorn feeling slightly nervous.

"Well, the reason why I have these apples," Twilight continued, her voice steady as she could manage, "is so that you can practice using the levitation spell on them." Almost immediately, Corey pictured several things going wrong with that, but nodded anyway. Twilight's horn once again glowed the magenta color, as did one of the apples. The affected object was then set down in front of Corey.

"So...I just have to try and lift this up?" the former human asked. Twilight nodded, and with that, Corey began to focus on the given objective. He shut his eyes, trying to focus on his target.

In his mind's eye, he began to paint a picture. The magic inside him was a green glowing blob; green being his favorite color, of course. For a few extended seconds, nothing happened. Suddenly, he felt as though a weight were pushing down on him, crushing him as he began to harness the magic he'd found. It hurt to try and mentally shape it to the form he wanted, and his head began to throb in pain.

Twilight watched Corey for any signs that he was getting it. At first, he looked a little goofy, standing still with his eyes closed and his jaw clenched shut. He almost looked like he was having trouble going to the bathroom. The sweat that appeared all over his body really didn't help the image any either. However, his face contorted, as if he were in pain, and within a few moments, the studious mare realized why.

"I-is...is this...?" the green unicorn grumbled, though it seemed to be more to himself than anything. "...normal?" He gave a small grunt afterward, obviously out of pain. Twilight was just about to tell him to quit, when she heard a noise, similar to a spark. Confused, she looked around, and then her eyes settled on Corey's horn, which was faintly glowing, but the faint glow was erratically going on and off. She heard a noise similar to bumping next, which made her look to the apple. Like Corey's horn, it had an erratic glow around it. It was jittering around, as though spinning around like a top.

Is he...already moving it? thought Twilight as she watched the apple carefully. Her eyebrow raised slightly. She squinted her eyes, and almost immediately, she noticed something was wrong. Wait, is it getting bigger? Oh no...

She looked up to Corey, who was physically shaking. Clearly, he just wasn't mentally or physically prepared to handle magic yet. He was clearly in pain from the force he was trying to control. Twilight hesitated for a moment.

"Corey, stop!"

Too late. By the time Corey quit exerting himself, the apple at their feet had ballooned out to four times its normal size, and appeared to be twitching. The former human before her collapsed onto his chest, both of his forehooves on his face, breathing heavily. Twilight sympathetically looked upon him. Then she remembered a red detail, which was now twitching even worse now.

The purple mare flinched and turned her head away. There was a loud liquid sound as the engorged apple burst, and a slightly warmed fluid landed on Twilight's side. When she opened her eyes, she realized with a degree of horror that most of her room was covered in applesauce. Her eye twitched as she realized both herself and Corey were covered in it. She had it splattered on her right side, while his hooves, mane, and some of his shoulders were covered in the applesauce.

When she considered exactly how she became Princess Celestia's star pupil, however, she dismissed it. After all, she did make a baby Spike grow to the height of a fully grown dragon, and turn her parents into potted plants because she lost control of her magic. While Corey didn't quite use the same amount, he still overdid it.

"What...happened...?" Corey groaned, clearly still in pain. He struggled back to his feet, and opened one eye painfully.

"I think you overdid it," Twilight couldn't allow herself to get angry with him for splattering apple guts all over the place. He clearly didn't mean to do it, given that just improperly using magic left him this winded.

"Did...did it ever hurt you to cast any spells?" He was still breathing heavily. "My head feels like it did when I first got here...and when I was trying to cast it, it felt like I was becoming pushed down on by a gigantic weight. Like something was just sitting down on me and not bothering to get up. And I also got a headache, which still hurts now."

Twilight put her hoof up to her chin in thoughtfulness. She nodded once, then spoke again.

"That's normal, but I can't say I had that kind of trouble before with spells," said the purple unicorn in response. "Then again, it could be because underneath the abilities of a unicorn you now possess, you still have the human's lack of magic control in you, and it may actually be amplifying the symptoms of overuse."

"Like, like I just found it today and it was way too much for me to handle?"

"Something like that," Twilight nodded. "Never mind having never used it before, you never even had it to use until now. It obviously overwhelmed you." The male before her seemed to be calculating all this new information, and merely nodded in response.

"I think...I...I want to try again as soon as I'm over this headache..." Corey said, trying to get back to his feet, stumbling a little as he struggled.

"Easy there," The purple pony reached out to steady him. "We need to get everything cleaned up first..." She looked at him. "Including ourselves."

The former human before her took an instant to gaze at her through his brown eyes, then he averted his vision immediately, but not before Twilight caught a slight reddening of his cheeks. She felt a giggle work its way up from her belly, but with every force possible she held herself back from doing so.

The whisper from last night returned. Twilight's stomach fluttered just a little bit at its words, which were notably louder than the night before.

He's just so cute when he's flustered...

It had been about an hour since they'd arrived at the site where Rarity was doing her gem search, a small mountain range, just a little ways out of Ponyville. The first hour since leaving the library was spent getting ready, bags and carts being put together. Of course, Rarity wasn't the one pulling it, and Spike was deemed too small to actually pull the cart as of yet. So it was the former human that had to pull the supplies -- and Spike, on the cart. It was a role reversal he hoped wouldn't be a terribly common thing. On the upside, less ponies were giving him frightened looks as he made his way out of town.

Now, Rarity was marking spots where she found gems using her spell. The two dragons would move things aside and/or dig on the spot indicated. Spike seemed more than willing to use his tail as a tool for digging, while John had to use his physical strength, occasionally using his claws or tail to dig. Spike had recently stopped giving John death glares whenever possible, but the older dragon had a pretty good feeling that the younger one was bottling his resentment for the moment.

Leaving that aside, the former human was surprised that his dragon body was a great deal stronger and had more endurance than his human body. He was able to move aside relatively small boulders without even coming close to breaking a sweat, and having to pull the cart back to Ponyville didn't seem as bad, even as the jewels began to pile up and the bags began to fill.

"So..." John began, pushing aside another boulder with his shoulder, "how long exactly have you known each other?"

"What's it to you?" Though barely detectable now, there was a hint of acidity in Spike's voice.

"Hey, just trying to make conversation here," John responded, "You do know the truth about me and the others..."

"Oh, quite a while," responded Spike, the acidity seeming to have vanished from his voice again. "I usually do these things alone." There was that trace of jealousy again on the last word.

"Hey, I'm older than you physically, probably not the best thing to keep in town...but I don't really have a say in the matter. My friends actually...'belong' in town, if we're talking about appearance..." The older dragon continued. Spike was once again giving him a death glare, and was just about to say something when a bloodcurdling scream sounded through the mountain. The two dragons took an instant to gape at each other. It was the younger one who spoke up.

"Rarity's in trouble!" His voice took on a superheroic tone abruptly. For a single moment, John pictured an "S" appearing on Spike's chest in the style of Superman, but he quickly shrugged this off, realizing that the young dragon's sentiment was still valid. So the two dragons immediately dropped whatever they were doing and ran towards the direction of the scream.

The first thing John saw was an impressive high rise, maybe seventy or eighty feet tall. On his left, Spike was sprinting, his legs merely a blur as he ran towards the scream direction. Ahead, he could spot the snow white unicorn looking up blankly towards the top of the high rise. Spike was the first to reach Rarity.

"What--what is it?" He was breathing hard. Rarity continued to stare, and John could just make out the beginnings of a drool trail to form. However, the fashionista immediately noticed she was salivating, and quickly got control of herself, indicating with a hoof where she was looking.

"Th-there!" She breathed, completely unable to contain herself. John looked to where the hoof was pointing, and could see the top of a diamond from where he was standing. Spike apparently saw it too. Judging by Rarity's reaction, it was a jewel she wanted really bad.

"...It's pretty high up," Spike observed. "I'll go and get it for you--"

John immediately noticed his voice changed from eager to that bitter jealousy once again. As soon as he realized it, he looked to Rarity, who was now looking at him.

"The jewel is far too large for you to carry, Spike," said Rarity, looking to John. "After this, we should be able to go back to town..." She was clearly thinking of the things she could do with the jewel. "If you will, John, then I shall pull the cart myself."

Now this shocked John. The only time he'd known her to pull carts was in a researched episode for some pony-based crossover roleplays with Corey. And that seemed to be because she really didn't have a lot of choice. For a pony who wanted John to pull the cart, she sure didn't mind doing it now. She'd practically insisted.

And he was beginning to understand why she was doing what she had done. The frightened looks he'd received the day before were numerous, even after he'd been suited up. Yet, when they saw him pull Rarity's cart, the stares diminished from "frightened" to "disbelieving".

She was certainly being nice to him, but he knew she didn't have any real romantic feelings for him. At the very least, he didn't get the vibe, which he was thankful for.

"Okay, I'll do it..." John responded, trying his hardest to ignore Spike's death stare. He looked up the rock wall. It was going to take some climbing for him to get up there. He looked to his back, to see his wings were still very much budding, not even close to developed yet.

If only I had flight right now... John thought to himself as he began climbing the wall, using the claws on his hands and feet (or were they all really just legs now?) to get a very good grip on the wall as he began his direct ascent towards the gem.

Safely behind a large cloud, Leo chanced to peek over the fluffy white object and look down below at his fellow former human as he climbed the mountain. Rainbow was right next to him, mimicking his quick peek. It was strange, really. He'd expected Dash to have taken off by now, and yet the cyan pegasus actually stayed for the past two hours in his company. They'd spent this whole time more or less shadowing Rarity and her dragon..."servants", for lack of a better term, and ducking behind the clouds whenever they appeared to look in their direction.

Twice, whenever it seemed that John was about to look their way and catch them, Dash would quite roughly tackle Leo out of the way, and push him behind the shelter of a nearby cloud. The first time, he'd assumed it was because she didn't want to be seen. However, when she did it a second time, during the actual gem hunt, the former human began to wonder if the mare was doing it on purpose. The main reason: the second time it happened, she held him with one foreleg, and she did it awfully close. Of course she played it off like she usually did during those awkward moments, and did so masterfully, but Leo was getting a sneaking suspicion that was just Rainbow Dash subtly hitting on him.

The two continued to watch for several seconds, during which he finally reached the top of the mountain and seemed to be sizing up the diamond. It had to be about as big as John himself! No wonder Rarity sent him after it, much to Spike's displeasure. Leo felt something poke at his side, a hoof, so he turned to see Rainbow Dash, now wearing a somewhat bored look on her face, looking back at him. There was an awkward stareoff. Finally, the cyan mare next to him smiled.

"What do you say...we have some fun?" asked the pegasus. Almost immediately, Leo's mind took a dive into the gutter.

"...Uh..." He tried his hardest to shut out the thoughts, really wishing Rainbow would have worded that statement better.

"No, I don't mean like that," responded the cyan pegasus. A mixture of relief and confusion welled up in Leo's heart. John had managed to secure the diamond, and seemed somewhat unsure of how he should proceed downward. Finally, he seemed to figure out a way. He kept the diamond carefully balanced between his chest and the rock wall, and very slowly began working his way down, using his tail to keep himself balanced.

What's with the innuendo? I thought this was a kid's show...

"Then what do you mean?" Leo asked, immediately wondering what Dash meant in mind. Dash continued to watch John as he continued to climb down, a very slow pace compared to the speed of his ascent. As soon as his head vanished over the rocky cliffside, the cyan pegasus beckoned him with a jerk of her head. The two pegasi covertly made their way to the cliff that John just climbed down from.

"Let's give him a little scare..." Dash finally replied, tapping her hooves on the surface of the rock. At this point, Leo realized exactly how strong dragons could be. A close look at the cliffside revealed that the effort it took for John to get some handholds had left some very notable cracks in the cliff, and thus loosened some small rocks. Rainbow was merely expediting the process. A small shower of pebbles began to rain down to where John was standing.

"I don't know about this..." voiced the former human, to which Dash fixed him with a playful look.

"C'mon, he's a dragon," she justified, resuming the ground pounding. "He can take it..."

Leo wasn't utterly convinced of this. Sure, John had a dragon body, but he also had a human's heart and common sense.

John continued his descent, trying his hardest not to bobble the large diamond out of his grasp. He wasn't entirely sure if jewels in this world were more fragile than any of the jewels back home. However, the former human knew that he didn't want to test that theory, and thus alternated carrying arms during his descent. Something small and hard bounced off his head, causing him to stop and look around in confusion.

"...I guess I must be wearing down the rocks...I am climbing back down the way I came up..." John didn't think too much of it, and kept descending. Another three feet down, two more pebbles began bouncing off his head, causing him to stop again. John glanced down, grateful that he wasn't afraid of heights. He judged he was only about halfway down now, and didn't want to chance jumping down. Besides, the pebbles didn't hurt. However, they were irritating him all the same.

He noticed that the irritation he felt was somewhat larger than he would normally feel. Shrugging this off, John continued climbing down, when a rain of pebbles began raining down on his head. The pellets of rock began bouncing off his head, and he grunted in irritation as he tried to descend. His irritation was growing at an expedient rate. John was becoming aware he was gripping the rock a little too hard, and the hold he'd created with his claws suddenly became a small crater in the rock wall, as it crumbled to dust and debris.

How strong is this body?! the former human thought to himself as he bobbled the diamond slightly before digging back in. Glaring back up to the place where he'd started his descent, he could have sworn he heard something. Deciding to figure that out as soon as he had the diamond safely on solid ground, John began to descend just a little faster. The pebbles stopped raining down, excluding the small debris from where he'd crushed the rock in.

"You're almost there now," Rarity's voice sounded off as he neared the ground. He took a quick look back, and judged he couldn't have been twenty feet away from solid footing. John began to climb back down faster, not even bothering to comment that Spike wasn't giving any encouragement. In fact, he could almost hear him faintly snickering to himself about the pebbles. However, he couldn't have been the one causing the pebbles to fall.

A loud crack suddenly sounded, and John chanced to look up. What he saw momentarily dulled his reflexes. A rock, probably about twice the size of his hand, was coming straight at him. By the time he realized he should move, the rock caught him in the chest, knocking the wind out of him for a few seconds. His arm and legs came free from the rock they were entangled in, and all that was left was his tail. He dug in it in as far as he could, and slid his way down the rock the rest of the way, holding the large jewel in both of his arms. His back hit the rock, and all he felt was the impact, but only some of the expected pain from said impact. The same could be said for his headfirst landing when the sliding ceased.

Rarity and Spike both ran up to him, the former looking concerned, and the latter looking only barely amused. The latter did know the truth, and probably was at least somewhat concerned for John's safety underneath the jealousy on the surface. Either that, or he was trying to murder him.

"...Someone was throwing rocks at me..." John mumbled, as he realized what was happening. The irritation cut through his chest like a hot iron, and he was aware his chest was filling with fire. He grit his teeth. He would have been angered like this no matter what, but he suddenly felt like he was about to explode in rage. "T-take the...diamond...!"

He held out the diamond, which Rarity began to inspect, taking it with some effort into a telekinetic hold. Spike, on the other hand, didn't appear to be moving. John threw his fist into the wall, and gave a sharp grunt of both shock and pain as the appendage sheared through the rock. It took a while, but he wrenched it out.

Before he could collect himself, a stream of fire issued into the air as he roared aloud.

"If throwing rocks down at me is your idea of a joke, it's not funny! Show yourself!"

John's voice, angered beyond all reason, echoed throughout the mountain range. Frightened birds flew away, chirping. And yet, Rainbow was almost beside herself, laughing it up. Leo felt the urge to join her, but internally, he knew he was screwed because of the cyan pegasus's idea of a joke.

"...I think we'd better...get out of here..." said Leo, trying to avoid John's wrath. "We've really made him mad..."

"Aw, c'mon, what are you worried about?" Dash asked, immediately pushing herself back on her four feet and then hovering a little. With that, the cyan mare bravely flew over the rock rise. Leo swallowed hard.

"...dang it..." He mumbled, following her. They came down, and were met with glares from John and Rarity, and a slight look from Spike. It was a surprise to Leo that Spike would have any concern for John after the unintentional cockblocking he'd given the younger dragon, but he didn't voice his concerns.

"L-Leo?!" John stuttered, his look of anger momentarily fading into confusion, then returning with twice the rage. He was trying to calm himself down, and small, erratic bursts of black smoke were coming out as he struggled to maintain control. Leo could tell one of two things was going on: either the former human before him wasn't used to feeling this angry, or the new body wasn't the most agreeable when it came to his rage.

"Calm down, John," Spike had apparently noticed this anger, and apparently didn't know what to make of it. Leo wondered if the younger dragon was thinking about what he would be like when he was older, if John's anger was making him act this harshly. John exhaled slowly, nothing more than gentle white smoke by this point.

"I'll be fine. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to have a word with Leo," John said, with as much calmness as he possibly could. The blue-and-black dragon walked forth, passing Leo. Just as Leo turned to regard the direction that John was going, he felt a dragon's hand clamp down around his tail, and start pulling. The silver pegasus's face contorted in absolute pain as John began physically pulling him along, while Spike, confused, amused, and concerned, could only look on.

"Rainbow Dash, just what were you thinking?!" Rarity scolded as Leo began leaving earshot. "You could have caused the diamond to fracture--" John growled at this, and mumbled incoherently to himself.

"Oh, can't you take a joke?!" Rainbow called out. "I was only joking..."

By this point, Leo and John were safely out of sight and earshot, on the right of the rock cliff. John threw Leo with some force, but thankfully for the latter, he was able to somewhat recover from this by flapping his wings hard enough to offer some resistance against the force. The former human, now a dragon, was giving him a death glare.

"Is this your idea of a joke, Leo?" asked John, sounding as though he were resisting every effort to just beat the stuffing out of him.

"I wasn't...throwing any of the rocks..." Leo was still feeling a little bit of pain from the somewhat justified tail grab.

"Well then, you should have done something to stop her! I could have gotten hurt there!" John snarled, and more flame shot out of his mouth. The silver colt found himself feeling somewhat cornered now, and gulped.

"...You probably wouldn't have gotten hurt. Remember, Spike said dragons are more durable than ponies, and definitely more than humans. He admitted to being used as a pincushion."

"Not a landing pad!" John was desperately trying to prevent himself from completely becoming consumed in rage. He breathed out. "Listen, Leo, I'm gonna stay up here and blow off some steam. Tell Rarity and Spike I should be able to find my way back to town. You go do whatever, just don't hurt someone else!"

"Will do," Leo said, "No buscarás..." he added in Spanish.

"Verás!" growled John in response, disappearing around the corner, adding "Enjoy the rainbow" as he did so. The dull sound of rocks being punched could be heard around the corner, and Noel, immensely grateful that he hadn't just gotten the crap kicked out of him by a pissed-off dragon/human, made his way back around the corner, the base of his tail still hurting like hell.

"Where did John go?" asked Spike upon seeing him.

"He'll find his way back to town on his own," parroted Leo, resisting the urge to add "though I don't think he'll find his way back". "He wants the two of you to go on ahead...where'd the diamond...?"

"It's already on the cart," answered Rarity, with just a touch of disappointment in her features. "Really, you two should be more careful..." She now appeared to be studying the two pegasi, and when Leo cast a quick glance to Dash, he could tell she had a similar impression of Rarity's gaze. "Hmmm...but I wonder if that's...oh, never mind. I'll be seeing you two later. Let's go home, Spike."

Spike seemed a little too jubliant that John wasn't going to be accompanying the two on the walk back, to which Dash and Leo both shared a small giggle. The small dragon didn't seem to notice, and so Rarity pulled the cart with the rather large diamond in it, with Spike riding on her back. Dash flew in front of him a short time after they were out of earshot.

"Did you see it?" she asked, obviously amused. Leo decided to play dumb, having a pretty good feeling what Rainbow Dash was talking about.

"See John's fury? Yeah..." Leo responded, pretty much deciding to be just a little bit of a smartass in his dealings.

"No, not him, I mean Spike..."

The silver colt couldn't resist cracking somewhat of a smile as he giggled it off.

"Yeah, I noticed...if he's trying to hide a crush, he isn't very good at it..." The former human then cleared his throat with a cough, and asked Dash: "So now what?"

The cyan mare put her hoof up to her chin in consideration, obviously giving it some thought.

Rainbow Dash didn't have a whole lot else planned today. She wasn't sure if she wanted to do another spying game with Leo just yet, and he didn't seem like as much of a prankster as she thought he was. On the other hand, maybe he was honestly afraid his friend would get really mad, and boy was he mad when he saw who was responsible. Whatever the case, the athletic pony decided to push aside that matter for now. The silver colt before her was certainly an interesting one, to say the least.

A small part of her wanted to spend all day with him, but that part swelled to a dangerous level when Rainbow considered that the male before her hadn't yet seen her in action. It was this few seconds' consideration that lead to her question.

"Do you wanna help me..." she hesitated. Internally, she nodded. After all, if given the opportunity, she'd show off to her friends, but also anypony that would give her a watch. "...practice my stunts?"

Leo seemed a little confused. His red eyes sparkled, however, so obviously he was considering it.

"Sounds good to me. Not like I've got anything planned."

The two pegasi quickly departed the site with the massive diamond, leaving behind more crunching sounds. Dash had a pretty good feeling about what that noise was. Leo looked sort of worried.

"I really hope he isn't going to burn down half the forest..." the silver pegasus cringed, looking back to the source of the noise. "Not that that's happened before..."

"Sure, I believe you," said the cyan mare playfully, giving Leo a small nudge. The silver colt in question muttered something incoherently as he almost lost balance in mid-air. "C'mon, you can't still be having trouble flying, can you?"

"Maybe...?" Leo said in response. Dash internally shrugged, and smirked. These newcomers were certainly strange, but there was no way they could be bad. They'd be bad at doing it.

Thankfully, the applesauce removal process wasn't as painfully awkward as Corey thought it was going to be. Even though Twilight still had to be the one to wipe it off, he wasn't nearly as embarrassed as the night before. Probably because he was grateful to have the sauce off his front side. After Twilight proceeded to clean herself off, they then set to work mopping up Twilight's room. While Twilight levitated a washcloth to clean off the soiled areas, Corey awkwardly pushed one along the floor and the wall using his forehooves. It was really awkward and a little painful for him to do it in this way because he had to be consistently bent over with his rear end high in the air while pushing it along the floor, but he had to swallow his pain and deal with it.

It was his mess, after all, and an overwhelming responsibility dictated he help out any way he could. As he shuffled along, becoming dully aware his back was starting to cramp, he felt the need to say something. But he couldn't think of what to say.

"You know," Twilight said, breaking the silence, cleaning off another one of the bookshelves, "I'm actually surprised that you were able to use magic at all, aren't you?"

"Well, misuse it, but yeah," Corey responded, resisting the urge to grunt at the pain he was really starting to get in his body now. "I am."

"Come on," Now the purple pony was looking right at him as she continued to speak, "You can't expect to get it right the first time! I had to learn how to control it too...that's...sort of why I became Princess Celestia's student."

Now that one was new. Well, maybe not "new" when he considered that he'd only watched five episodes, but he didn't know the origin stories.

"Oh..." Corey responded, trying to clean things up. "Well, uh..." And he ran out of things to say, so he threw something together, using his curiosity to his advantage. "How'd that one go?"

Twilight halted for a moment, and the former human honestly wondered if he'd taken it too far. The mare turned to him with a somewhat hesitant smile.

"It's sort of a long story..."

As the clean-up efforts continued, Twilight described how her lack of magic control ironically lead her to her current position under the princess. She summarized the preceding tests and tasks she'd done, learning the levitation spell which Corey had just attempted. As she continued the story, Corey decided to break from the floor cleanup, seeing as how he was almost done with it now. In fact, the cleanup was nearly done, save for maybe a few odd spots here and there. The soiled bedding was in the wash (Corey didn't understand how the Hell Equestria had appliances and not computers) and would probably take another hour to get done.

He sat attentively, actually able to act surprised at her story without having to bite back his inner sarcasm from coming out. He had only read about it on the wiki, and even then, it was only a minor glance. And once again, her recap of the events that lead to that, as well as her ultimate fate in that, was more interesting coming from her than from the Internet. Probably even more so than if he had watched the show, because right now, he was not watching it. He was living it.

"So that's the whole story," Twilight finished. "Actually, that's also how I got my cutie mark too..."

Corey immediately took advantage, seeing as how he'd forgotten to ask. Then again, she'd probably pass it off as him being unable to phrase his question effectively, or something like that.

"...Is that what the blender...?" Corey began, the awkward feeling at having to look towards his rear end aiding his camouflage somewhat. "That's what it's called?"

"Yes. It represents a pony's special talent," Twilight responded. "Humans don't have those, do they?"

"Well, no. Some humans do have their bodies marked on, but it isn't on our rear ends, for one thing..." Realizing where he was probably going to go with this, the green unicorn fumbled about for words. "Well, not entirely true either, some do get tattoos there, but the process is very painful. I assume the actual appearance of a cutie mark is painless?"

The purple pony nodded, fixing him with quite a puzzled look. For a split second, Corey marveled at how she kept her magic focused on the task she'd set out to do, as even while she was looking at him, the washcloth absently continued cleaning the walls.

"Yeah, well, tattoos, in most cases, do hold special meaning to humans, but...well, I don't have one on my human body, so..." Then the former human mulled things over, since he knew she was going to ask what his "talent" was.

Twilight was once again at a loss. He'd just explained a little bit more of human cultures. Indeed, the concept of tattoos intrigued her, and from the sounds of it, Corey knew a little bit of what he was talking about. But what did his cutie mark mean? She had to ask. The cleanup was nearly done save for the bedding, so the purple mare didn't see the harm in asking.

"So, then...does your special talent have to do with cooking?" asked Twilight.

"Believe me, I'm no Iron Chef," The instant he responded with those last two words, he appeared to go wall-eyed like a certain mail carrier pegasus, and hung his head and sighed. "Never mind. I don't blend foods. I blend ideas. I'm actually a little bit of a writer more than a reader, but that's not to say I don't like reading."

"A...writer, huh?" Twilight asked. She knew he liked reading, but at the same time, she was curious. "What do you write about?"

"Well..." He fumbled again, as though hesitating. "I take stories I read about, the continuities." He stood on up his four legs. "I take those universes the books take place in, cross them over, and see what comes of it, most of the time. Either that or poetry, but mainly the first thing."

Twilight's eye twitched. That mindless blending was his special talent? If so, he had to be pretty good at it. Even though she was a little taken aback at the fact he wasn't as much of a reader as he indicated, she disregarded it. Chances were, he was really nervous and probably didn't think he'd be writing anytime soon.

"Sounds...interesting. A little," Oh, who was she kidding? "Okay, a lot, on the weird side...I mean, I know you probably know what you're doing when you do it..."

"It's a delicate art," said Corey in response. "I don't expect others to follow me. If they do, good for them."

Twilight sighed somewhat. "I guess I can live with that." Corey seemed a little relieved to hear this answer.

The cleanup went on for another few minutes. During this, Twilight decided to walk to the other side of the room. Her hooves trotted one-by-one. Corey and her were walking toward each other. Suddenly, one of her back hooves lost traction and she momentarily lost balance, stumbling forward for a few steps. She bumped into Corey, who vibrated a little bit from the impact, at least, that's what she assumed. She reached out with one of her forelegs to steady herself on him, inadvertently pulling him closer in the process. Twilight realized, as she looked down, that one of Corey's forelegs wasn't on the ground, rather, it was mimicking her foreleg movement.

It took a few moments for them to realize what had happened in that instant, and though Twilight willed herself to release Corey, she couldn't exactly command her leg to stand on the ground again. They remained entangled in this embrace for a few seconds longer, then awkwardly pulled away.

"I-I...uh, saw you slip there...my fault. I-I was..." Corey's face was a bright boiling red. "I found your story interesting, so I stopped wiping the floor."

She looked into his eyes, though her own embarrassment at the situation was preventing her from doing so for a few moments. The thoughts from last night resurfaced, as well as the fact she'd fallen asleep while nuzzling him. Then, she recalled what she wanted to be to him. A friend, one that could guide him appropriately. With a mental nod, she turned to Corey.

"D-don't worry about it." The blush on her cheeks refused to go away for the moment. "So, um, I think we still have cleaning to do. Uh...thanks for helping me regain my footing..."

Again, Twilight became aware her heart rate was a little faster than normal, and her face was a little warm, but she suppressed it.

I know I can't focus on these...feelings right now. I've got some other things to do...

Corey wasn't sure how to feel. He'd just accidentally hugged a pony, in good nature, of course. And, though he was terribly embarrassed to have been so close to her in that manner, he realized his heart was pumping a little faster once again, just as it had last night. The former human also felt somewhat responsible for her loss of footing that lead to it, but she didn't seem to mind.

Letting out a small sigh, and trying to keep himself calm, the green unicorn nodded.

"Y-you're welcome," he said in an embarrassed voice, taking his rag and resuming the cleaning process. It was a lot more awkward in the room as the spots of exploded apple became less and less prevalent, until they were nothing more than a memory of a terribly botched "first spell" experience.

The past three hours had been somewhat painful and interesting for Ivan. For one thing, he discovered that the ponies actually had eggs to farm for too. He also discovered that ponies could only hold things in their hooves when it was convenient. Case in point: him able to perfectly hold an egg on his fingerless hoof when by all accounts he should have fumbled it to the ground. The pain came from the fact that aside from gathering the eggs, he'd had to work himself running all over the farm. Already, he desired a nap. He also wanted something to eat, too, considering that his internal clock was telling him it was time for lunch.

Thankfully, the work had ended not too long ago, allowing the able-bodied farmers and their unwilling farmhand to break for that meal. Unsurprisingly, the Apples were having something apple-based for their lunch, which hadn't quite worn down Ivan's nerves quite yet. However, if he kept up this fruit-based diet, he'd very quickly get sick of it. Then again, the Apples proved that there was more than one way to fix an apple-based meal.

Today's lunch, surprisingly, was roasted apples. Ivan hadn't even heard of that use until today, but he had to say, it was something he could see himself eating for quite a while. It was a good thing he was in his human body, too, for the taste of the roasted apples hinted that honey was what they were roasted in. After this meal, he sort of sat around, waiting for the other workers to finish their lunch. Of course, his mind was on everything but the farm work.

For one thing, he knew, deep down, he was going to get to meet royalty, and he wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing. Obviously, they'd have to have talked to the sun princess sooner or later, but he didn't expect it to be so soon. Then again, said monarch probably isn't like the stereotypical princess, and not just because she could probably incinerate a criminal offender on the spot if she so chose, but because of what he'd seen of her mannerisms.

His dream, which didn't haunt him last night, was still bugging him. What was that dark octopus in his dream, and why did it seem so familiar? Less importantly, how were he and his friends "clicking" with ponies enough to warrant dating them. Ivan was still assuming his dream was accurate to the future, given he never dreamt like that very often. Maybe it was the fact he felt like he was in some sort of fanfiction...

Ivan didn't really ask for a second day of farm work, though he knew he'd have to help until something else could be worked out. Though when he applied himself to something, good results usually followed, he was about as energetic as a sloth most days, and yard work back home drained him. So this farm work was easily twice as demanding as that. But he really didn't want to make the transition from pony to ass quite yet, so he kept his tongue in check and his mind focused on the work. The gathering of eggs wasn't that demanding, but milking a cow in a non-technological world as a pony was an entirely different story. He was lucky Apple Bloom was nearby to calm the cow down when he did something wrong.

His introspection was cut short, however, when he heard a pony trotting up behind him. He turned to see Applejack, who was smiling to him.

"Y'know, I reckon you should take it easy today. Don't want ya warn out if you're needed over at the library for whatever reason," Applejack said. Ivan sighed. John really had to be vague on that important issue, didn't he?

"Actually," Ivan turned completely to face the orange earth pony, "this might be hard to believe, but..." He suddenly realized how hard it would be to describe the situation without completely tipping Applejack off about his true heritage. "...well, that thing at the library John mentioned last night. It's...actually a meeting with Princess Celestia." When Applejack furiously scanned him, quite obviously trying to determine if what he was saying was in any way false, Ivan quipped: "I'm just as surprised as you are."

That wasn't a lie.

The orange mare's face remained suspended in the "lie detector crunch" for a few more moments, then the farmer sighed, clearly wondering exactly what was going on. Strangely, she wasn't questioning him. Surely Equestrians couldn't be that tolerant of strange shit happening. The orange farmer seemed to be mumbling to herself an obvious exclamation, but she quickly fixed her gaze back on him, the look she was giving him soft in nature.

"My stars, Ivan, you definitely shouldn't work yourself to the bone today! Don't want ya fallin' asleep on Princess Celestia!" There was an edge to the pony's words that Ivan couldn't quite pick up on, but he assumed she was internally questioning things. "You'd best get back to town, relax a while..."

Ivan really didn't want to look like a gigantic asshole right now, so he nodded and respectfully trotted off with a small "thank you".

Applejack was now completely lost. Everything Ivan just said, she could tell he wasn't lying about, but it felt like there was something more. Part of her wanted to demand to know what was going on, and demand it now. The other part feared that the "something more", should it exist, would have likely just made things unspeakably complicated. Her suspiscions about the new ponies and dragon in town with strange names were magnified. Why would they need to meet the Princess so soon? Surely if they were other students of Princess Celestia, they'd have met them by now.

She continued to stare in Ivan's direction as he receded from view. Again, the question that had been nagging her since yesterday returned.

"What's goin' on here?" she wondered aloud to herself. "Things just ain't addin' up 'bout them. They ain't lyin' 'bout things, but there's somethin' more underneath. My gut's tellin' me that while they ain't bad, I can't let them out of sight either..."

With a sigh, the farmer pony resigned to the fact that whatever was going on was going to get stranger eventually, and when it did, things would make a lot more sense then. Applejack went back to the farm, where Big Mac was waiting, a neutral expression on his face.

"Where's he off to?" he asked. Applejack stopped, and looked to her brother.

"...The truth's somethin' strange, I'll say that much..."

The cleanup had been completed. Except for the bedding, of course, but other than that, everything in Twilight's room looked completely clean. It was really impressive how fast Corey could adapt to an awkward cleaning situation when an awkward moment took place. After Twilight fell into him, in an attempt to push the incident aside, he found himself pushing the rag along a lot faster, and even dragged it wherever else he could reach.

However, after another thirty minutes, every last spot of applesauce had been mopped up, and to prevent such a messy situation from happening again, both of the unicorns took the practice outside. The basket of apples was off to the side, and a second apple was now in front of Corey. It was a yellow color as opposed to red. It set down on the library's "lawn", and he stared at it.

"Are you sure you want to try again?" Twilight asked, snapping him out of his staredown with the fruit. "I mean, you were winded when you overdid it earlier..."

Corey scowled somewhat, still just a little ashamed of that little failure. He breathed in, then out, trying to steady himself.

"I want to try again. I feel like I need to learn if I want to be any help," responded the former human, closing his eyes in concentration, and trying his hardest to shut out the moment from earlier. He once again saw the glowing green energy in his mind's eye, and rather than reach for it greedily, he decided to try and harness just a little bit.

The wave of magic energy hit him like a train, but this time, he was prepared for the oncoming pressure, and struggled to keep himself from caving in under the pressure. He managed to seperate a chunk of the green glow from the rest of it, and tried to shape it in the form of a hand. He had felt the cradle of the levitation spell, and it felt more like a hand than anything else. It could have easily been something different, but given that he was interpreting magic as a functional equivalent of Ki from Dragonball Z, he really didn't see the harm.

He opened his eyes halfway so he could see his target, and mentally reached out with the so called "magic hand".

Twilight watched, silently amazed, as Corey's horn sparked to life again. The green glow from before was a little brighter than before, and actually covered the apple this time. She kept a careful eye on the apple, keeping a barrier spell at the ready just in case he put too much in it again. The green unicorn's pudgy body vibrated, and the purple mare quickly cast a look to the apple. It was vibrating, but with some amazement she discovered that it wasn't swelling like before. It too, was vibrating along, and slowly, but surely, lifting into the air, still teetering like it was on the edge of a nasty fall. The purple pony walked along to the other side of Corey, still keeping one eye on the apple.

Corey closed his eyes again, seeing that he appeared to have it working. His breathing was haggard now, and from the way his face twitched, she assumed he was probably experiencing the headaches again. With another cautious glance, she turned back to the apple. It was trembling as well, wreathed in the green glow. However, small imprints, also glowing green, began to appear on the apple.

The former human to her side exhaled abruptly, and the next thing Twilight knew, the perfectly whole yellow apple was no more than a dry rind, appearing to have been crushed underfoot or something. Another look to the human revealed that once again, he was breathing heavily, lightly sweating, and pressing both his forehooves to his forehead.

"I lost control again...!" he grunted, opening his eyes to see the rind. One of his eyes twitched. "Of course, my luck dictates that it doesn't explode this time, but implode!"

Twilight couldn't contain a soft giggle at this reaction.

"Your luck," she began, helping him back to his four feet once again, "has..." She hesitated. It was true, he was lucky enough to have made that much progress in his magic control in that short time. Perhaps too lucky. But she also didn't know what he was doing differently, since on the surface he appeared to have done the exact same thing as before. "Only a little to do with it. You still managed to make it float for a few seconds..."

"I tried...visualizing shaping the magic into a hand and then trying to grasp the apple in it," he said. "When I lost control, the hand gripped with too much power and crunched it."

Twilight wasn't too surprised by his mental image, given he was used to having hands and not magic. He looked a little fatigued from the exertion this time, just as he had before. She touched her hoof to his shoulder and smiled at him. As soon as he turned to look at her, his head still angled to the ground, she began to speak.

"For someone that shouldn't have a grip on magic to begin with, you're doing great!"

Corey shut his eyes, flinched, blushed, and looked away. A small giggle at his reaction occurred, and Twilight began to realize she was able to help herself less and less. Before she could scold herself for trying to sort out these feelings now, a low rumble sounded off, and it was coming from right next to her.

She didn't have to be a smart pony to figure out why he was making that noise. As if contagious, her own stomach rumbled in response. It was about lunchtime now. Twilight considered her options now. After some consideration, she came to a decision.

It's almost like she's trying to see me flustered...and it's working! thought Corey in response. He was mostly confused that he was actually developing an attachment this soon to Twilight, let alone an attachment that was pretty much in a territory he was so often acquainted with: a crush. While he tried to convince himself that the purple pony on his right was trying to be nice, he failed to notice she was thinking about something.

"Corey," she began, cutting into his introspection, "how about we go get something from town? My treat..."

At this, the former human's thought process diverged. It wasn't that he wasn't hungry, because the feeling of hunger hurt like a bitch as a pony. Rather, it was because he knew ponies were going to get the wrong idea. And he was thinking of a certain pair of pegasi would undoubtedly see them before that awkward bit was over. Clearly, he wasn't the only one that never really dated before. However, while a little slow socially, Corey wasn't completely dim.

Yet, he couldn't turn her down either. He knew he'd have to get used to pony food as well. He couldn't live off apples, bread, and confections forever. His other reason for hesitating: they'd only known each other a full day at most.

"Sounds good to me," Corey said with a shrug. However, he forgot that he wasn't bipedal. As soon as he was aware of this, he comically fell backwards on his back. "Agh!"

The embarrassment he felt at this fact was even worse than when he'd gotten his horn stuck in front of Applejack. He rolled casually to his feet, laughing it off.

"I guess I have to remember I'm not built for my usual brand of body language anymore..."

Ivan didn't get lost when he made his way to the library. The walk there wasn't even that long either, now that he thought about it. The upside of being an earth pony: he didn't have to worry about using his special powers. Aside from maybe an occasional stumble, he could act completely normal without having any suspicion drawn to him, so he could find out some things about the town.

One: it was certainly a lot bigger than he realized. Two: the ponies within were in some respects like humans; social creatures, and indeed, he'd caught a couple of them sitting down as though they were human rather than pony. Three: apparently the fan-named background ponies were "offically" named so. Granted, he'd only met the alleged homosexual mares Lyra and Bon-Bon, but still, it stuck with him.

However, Ivan realized he was wasting time, and he was also really starting to wonder what Corey was up to over at the library. A gigantic tree was really hard to miss, and indeed, once he buckled down and actually managed to walk to the place in question (once he refreshed his memory on the tour of the town, of course), it only took him about five minutes to find his way.

As he began making his way to the library, he could have sworn he heard a pony hopping along. There were only two ponies that could have been doing that, one of which because he couldn't fly well. Instinctively, he turned his head to see Pinkie Pie, bounding along toward the library. She turned, apparently sensing him looking, and immediately halted in mid-air.

"Oh!" She gasped, apparently having been along the way to the library. "Hi there! I really should have asked your name, but you looked really tired and I had things I had to do!"

Like Ivan didn't know what those things were. She was the party planner, and probably throwing a surprise party for them.

Actually, now that he thought about it, he found it odd that the party hadn't happened yet. Surely she'd have had it done by now.

"I'm Ivan," answered the former human, "And you're...?"

"I'm Pinkie Pie, the party planner of Ponyville!" She resumed skipping along, this time keeping pace with him. "So why are you here? Did you come to see the library too?"

"No, I'm just here because my friends are," That wasn't a lie on Ivan's part. He was here because of his friends, and they were here with him. His normally calm and neutral countenance began to crack the longer he and Pinkie began to talk--well, the pink earth pony merely chattered on about her own friends, and he nodded. Her energy was really rubbing off on him now. However, as they reached the door, the pink party pony gave a gasp and dashed for it.

"There's a note!" She squealed, clearly excited, yet Ivan could just pick up on a hint of disappointment. As she retrieved the note from the door, the brown earth pony caught sight of something. It was a golden apple, looking as though it'd been squeezed dry in human hands.

What happened here? Though the former human was shocked, he didn't show it. It was just an apple rind, after all, and could have easily been crushed by any single pony. Deciding to find out the cause of Pinkie's curiosity, the former human made his way over to the pony, whose cyan eyes betrayed the slightest hint of shock. He looked down, and realized with mild amusement she was holding the note in her mouth for him to read.

"'Eed ith!" she happily slurred between her closed lips. Ivan stifled a small laugh at her hyperactivity, and began reading.

Spike, John:

Corey and I have gone out to lunch. We'll be back in a little bit.

--Twilight

Ivan read the note, and read it again. When he read it a second time, the implications of the phrase "out to lunch" caught him completely by surprise. His eyes widened. He and Pinkie looked at each other, completely unsure of what to say.

But they were both thinking approximately the same thing.

Wow, Corey, nice priorities, thought Ivan sarcastically, Getting your date on, are you?

"I didn't think Twilight would date somepony so new in town!" the party pony squealed excitedly, having somehow reattached the note during the moment in which Ivan had his eyes closed in thought. "Did you expect your friend to date somepony he's barely met?"

The brown earth pony could barely contain his comments this time.

"Keh, Corey on a date? This I gotta see..."

"Okay, let's go!"

"Wait, wha--?" Ivan was at a loss. Didn't she know he was only kidding?

"C'mon!" she squealed again, taking his forehoof in her puffy tail and skipping along, dragging Ivan along with him, erasing any doubt that Pinkie was only kidding about going to find them. Instantly, a single thought ran through the brown earth pony's mind.

Hyperactive to a fault, he thought, trying his hardest to wipe the goofy smile off his face even as he was being dragged along. He wasn't completely sure why he was smiling, but shrugged it off. All he knew was that, while he still felt a little down on his luck about being stuck in this world, Pinkie's cheerful spirit was slowly dousing that. Good God is Corey gonna kill me when we cut in...

Yeah, two chapters today, mostly because this one's huge in length and I wanted to get it out there since formatting it would be a pain to do early on in the morning. Any glitches with this, you let me know.

Act 1 Chapter 12

Act I: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 12: And Tack That One On The "Awkward Score"

Right now, the dragon that was once a human, John, was really regretting having to vent his rage right now. Yet, he didn't feel right blaming himself entirely for that situation. If Leo had kept the spectrum under control, he wouldn't have gotten so pissed. Briefly, he wondered if they had been spying on him the whole time. Both his arms and one of his legs ached from the exertion, and the inside of his chest felt more like a volcano.

But the important part was that his rage was satiated. His handiwork left John with a pretty good impression of how powerful his new body really was. If he'd turned that anger onto Leo as his basic instincts told him to...the former human preferred to not even think about it. He continued to walk. He was out of the forest, but afterward, he became dully aware he had no idea where the hell he was going.

He'd been aimlessly wandering for the past five minutes, trying his hardest to get his bearings, but for the life of him, John couldn't remember which way it was back to Ponyville. He wasn't sure where he was. The black and blue pre-adult dragon was about to sit down and take a break while he recollected himself.

"Great. I let myself get sidetracked and I get lost." John sighed, letting out a small burst of flame in his annoyance. At this point, though he could just barely pick it up, he heard a noise. At first, he played it off. But he was soon able to identify the noise as it neared him.

"Okay, be good birds now," said a familiar, soft, feminine voice. The former human identified the owner of the voice, and nodded to himself.

"Maybe she'll tell me how I can get back to the library," John said to himself, though already his mind filled with doubt, given her reaction to him earlier. Praying she didn't hear him raging out, he made his way towards the familiar voice.

It was a normal day for Fluttershy. The meek yellow pegasus had gotten up at the time she usually did, and went about her day of feeding the animals. It was just around noon now, and it was time to feed the birds. She wasn't too far from her cottage, which was just outside Ponyville. Hardly a threatening distance from said city, but the pony had lived in nature since she was able to, secluded from most of the citizens of the town.

Some of the birds had recently laid eggs, and with a smile Fluttershy mentally recorded the potential new life. It was quiet, serene, and peaceful. The nature-loving equine continued her rounds, when she heard a strikingly familiar voice call out to her.

"Hey, Fluttershy!"

The pegasus squeaked out of fear, an instant reaction. She knew that voice...yesterday, the Carousel Boutique, the pre-adult black and blue dragon. It belonged to John! What was he doing way out here? Her emotional state gave way to irrational fear, and she cried out as such.

"S-stay away, please!" she stuttered, diving into a nearby bush.

"What?" John asked, though she couldn't see him. Her phobia forced her to disregard the fact he'd not attacked yet, and in fact had been paling around with Leo and his pony friends. Even now, she couldn't exactly discern why John hadn't left on his own, but she didn't care. At the end of the day, he was a pre-adult dragon, and she was terrified of the bigger dragons in the world. "I'm not that bad..."

"D-don't come any closer!" She forced strength into her voice, but her body was mostly paralyzed now, her fear taking over her every nerve, rationality giving way to irrationality. Her breathing became erratic, and she couldn't think.

"Come on, I'm just trying to find my way back to town!" The dragon outside the bushes continued, and to her horror, he was ignoring her request. Yet, at the same time, part of the pegasus's phobia began to erode. When she'd met John, she was just as frightened, rooted to the spot. Leo had managed to cheer her up at the time. It was those thoughts that forced her to peek her head out. She was still incredibly tense, but tried to be strong.

"Y-you're...l-lost?" Fluttershy winced when the dragon turned to her, but she tried to remind herself that if he were a bad dragon, he probably would have done something malicious by now.

"Yes, I'm lost...I was up here with Spike and Rarity doing a gem hunt," answered John, appearing to try and keep himself composed. "Then Leo and Rainbow Dash appeared, and...rocks started falling. Things got really bad. I had to stay behind for a bit while I cooled off."

Fluttershy knew all about dragon's rage. It was probably the scariest thing about them, since that was easily their most unpredictable quality. They could snore smoke, breathe fire, and were larger than everything. But that rage...hearing that he had to stay behind while he cooled off motivated her further. Her phobia was still present, but it was alleviated. She forced herself to be stronger as she now came halfway out of the bushes.

The yellow pegasus was still ready to immediately pull back at the first sign that John was not the nicest dragon she'd ever encountered. Well, nicest older dragon that she'd ever encountered, anyway.

All the same, hearing Leo and Rainbow were together just didn't sit right with her. She bit back the small pang of jealousy that seized her, since she did not know for sure what was going on within her yet.

"You were...with Rarity again?" Fluttershy asked, trying her hardest to remain strong. She firmly tried to convince herself John wasn't like the other dragons she feared, that he was a decent citizen as opposed to the hooligans she'd heard about when her friends got back from dragon territory.

"Yes...she insisted I come along to help in the search. I didn't understand why she was working me so hard, but...I think I get it now. She wanted to demonstrate my civility to the ponies in town, at least, that's what I think."

That sounded a little like Rarity. It still struck her as odd that she would, and thus the meek pegasus made a mental note to ask her friend about it later, just to make sure John's hunch and story checked out. For now, though, Fluttershy finally decided to stop being scared of John for now. He obviously would have snapped by now...

Rarity was a little on the high-maintenance side, after all. Spike didn't mind her requests, but she didn't know how well John held up against it. He seemed to be tolerant enough. Perhaps he could be trusted. If her friends were willing to believe that he wasn't any harm, then she should do him the same justice.

To John's great relief, the meek pegasus finally made her way out of the bushes entirely. She still looked somewhat scared of him, but he was relieved to see she didn't need backup in the form of a friend or Leo to be able to talk to him. She seemed to be forcing herself to adjust to his presence, though. As much as he was grateful to her for trying, he couldn't have her being continuously afraid of her because of his appearance, something he couldn't really control.

"S-so," she was still evidently nervous. "You said you wanted to get back to...to the city?"

"Yes," John sighed, making sure that there was no heat in his chest. The last thing he wanted to do was to unintentionally torch the pegasus and the area immediately around her out of a mild annoyance. "I'm kinda lost..."

Fluttershy began to stutter out the directions, slowly but surely gathering strength as he continued. To John's mild irritation, he wasn't able to find his way out, and it seemed so simple. He kept this under wraps to the best of his ability as he nodded, trying to remember the directions. Once he was convinced he had a decent handle on his embarrassment at having somehow missed a direct path through the trees back to Ponyville, John nodded.

"Thanks for the help," responded the former human. "I wouldn't worry too much about me, Fluttershy."

"It's just..." Fluttershy began, trailing off and mumbling something that John couldn't quite pick up.

"I'm sorry, what?" asked John, looking to her.

"...you're a dragon, a lot older than Spike, and I've heard some pretty bad things about dragons your age."

"The cover may look bad, but...well," The blue and black dragon struggled to find a way to convey his message. "Inside, I'm not that bad. I've hung out with Leo, Corey and Ivan for quite a while, and I haven't looked back on it."

Most of his statement was true, but underneath it were falsehoods. Corey's awkward wording, mainly over Skype's IM service since they barely group called, left him looking like an absolute idiot at times. Leo trolled the entire group on a daily basis (but not about their brony status), and Ivan and him seemed to always be arguing about things. All three of them though, he can't say he didn't regret e-friending them.

He reached out his hand, as though to perform a handshake of sorts. Fluttershy flinched and pulled back at the sight of his claws, and John sighed again, turning his head as white smoke came from his mouth.

"You know, you don't have to. Just trying to be nice is all. I'm not that bad." He repeated his statement, and, on shaky footing, Fluttershy raised her hoof to "shake" John's hand. She was robotically doing it, but she appeared to be making an effort, and given the intense fear the meek pegasus apparently had of dragons, that was really the best he could ask for. With this over, the two said their goodbyes, and John quickly left. It was a simple matter to find the pathway through the trees with Fluttershy's guidance, and sure enough, he could see Ponyville off to the right, just as she said. John began walking down this path, heading back to town. His stomach faintly rumbled, and the dragon suddenly found himself a little worried.

He knew Spike ate gems, as per an episode he'd watched, but he felt very nervous about what else dragons could eat.

So the plan didn't go quite as smoothly as she planned it to. But then again, how was Rarity to know that Rainbow and one of the other new colts would start pranking together? Well, if raining rubble down on a dragon's head was their idea of a joke. The glances and questions from the other ponies in town seemed to confirm that taking John with her worked to some extent.

The quiet murmurs around her, however, gave credit for taming the beast to her, when it was John's friends that obviously did it. Her reason behind taking him was to prove he was at least somewhat tamed. Obviously, though, having been pelted with pebbles and rocks had set off his temper, and he had to stay behind to cool down. The snowy unicorn was definitely a little frightened by the level of rage he had displayed.

She did still have a new surplus of gems and other precious stones, and resolved to thank John herself next time she saw him. Of course, Spike needed a reward too, since he'd done a good job even with the fact he didn't take too kindly to the extra claws lending a hand. It would probably be a little too much to ask that he shared the reward with John, but she needed a way to ensure he'd receive something for his efforts.

The snowy unicorn produced two bags, and looked to the cart full of gems, and of course, the gigantic diamond that John had managed to lift and carry down without much incident, though the way it bobbled about did make her nervous. She resolved to carry a massive bag with her just in case she encountered any other large jewels during her gem hunts.

As she filled the bags with a fair amount of jewels for the effort done, she suddenly heard Spike's voice, crying out in disbelief.

"No way!" He sounded incredibly amused, almost on the verge of laughing. Confused, Rarity set the bags aside carefully, having used her own magic to lift them, and trotted out to the main area, where the baby dragon stared out the window.

"Spike, exactly what is it you're looking at?" asked Rarity, taking a few more steps forward. Spike turned to her, some of his laughter fading away, but it was still there.

"Take a look, Rarity," he responded, a little bit of politeness in his tone. He'd gotten used to her, surely, but there was no denying his crush was still there, especially given his reaction to having John along. Rarity obliged, taking a position on Spike's right.

Her mind couldn't exactly process what she was seeing straight away. It was the green colt from last night, and this morning. He and John had stayed over at the library, that much Rarity knew; why else would they both have been there so early? Next to him, was her friend, Twilight Sparkle. For a moment, she wasn't able to put things together, as though she just couldn't see it happening.

It's not that she didn't think Twilight could attract somepony, but she also didn't know how well she stacked up in that situation.

When it did, it came full-force at her.

"Those two...on the town...?" Rarity asked. "Are they...already in a courtship?"

"I'm wondering what happened between them while we were out!" Spike seemed to enjoy the so-called spectacle. He looked like he was going to say more, but he didn't. Rarity wasn't about to pry. After all, Twilight did need her later.

Though the fact the green colt, Corey, and Twilight, at least appeared to be a couple, Rarity wasn't going to let herself jump to that conclusion just yet. She didn't think Twilight would move that fast on her own. And judging from Corey's occasional shyness during his time at the boutique last night, it seemed like he wouldn't have been the kind of male to jump that far either.

Now that she thought of it, Rainbow and Leo seemed a little close too. The white unicorn began to wonder about John and the other guy Pinkie mentioned, when from the corner of her eye, she saw something really odd.

"Huh?" Spike apparently saw it too. For a moment, nothing happened, then both unicorn and baby dragon did a double take and took a few steps back instinctively.

There, running along the streets in a random pattern, was Pinkie Pie. Behind her, she was dragging the new earth pony in town, who surprisingly didn't look mad that he was being dragged along. In fact, he was actually smiling, but it was almost impossible to tell if it was just his natural expression or if it was a genuine half-smile. One of his eyes was half-closed, indicating a lift of annoyance all the same, though.

Spike finally realized what happened, and completely lost his composure, bursting out laughing. He was still a kid at heart, after all.

What is going on here? thought Rarity to herself. She definitely would have to ask her friends about all this later. First, she'd seen Rainbow Dash with Leo, though Rainbow would definitely straight-up deny if she had feelings for the silver colt. Second, Twilight was with Corey. She wasn't entirely sure if either of them exactly knew what was going on. Third, she saw Pinkie dragging along the new reddish-brown earth pony. She didn't know his name yet, but it would come out eventually. It almost made her wonder about John, but she remembered that he wore an annoyed expression the whole time.

Shrugging this off for the moment, Rarity went back to the jewels, and finished making the gift bags for the two dragons that'd helped her out. She decided to try and catch Twilight on the way back, and give the extra one to her to give to John. She nodded to herself once.

It wasn't that she had trust issues with Spike, but at the same time, she didn't know if the dragon would be so willing to share the gift with someone he probably viewed as a romantic rival, even with the fact he knew why John was brought along. While she was aware the dragon did have a crush on her, she wasn't sure of its depth anymore. The white unicorn had other things to do though.

"I know that Twilight needs me to prepare the four newcomers for their meeting with Princess Celestia, but I still have some work that needs to be done before then." Rarity noted aloud, as she sealed the bags full of small gems. There was an equal amount of gems in each bag. She began to wonder what she should really do. Rarity didn't want to slight Spike. Besides, the young dragon did seem concerned by the prank. Even the younger dragon had his limits.

It had been a good ten minutes of walking through Ponyville, and Corey really wasn't liking the looks some of the ponies in town were giving them. They seemed more amazed than anything, but it was still really awkward for him. Never mind the fact he usually was only out of the house for school, but he was never with someone else, and somepony else was no exception. Let alone for something that could so easily be misconstrued as a date.

He wasn't thinking of it as a date, and he knew Twilight didn't either (he doubted somewhat she even knew what one could be). That wasn't to say that the others around them didn't have those thoughts. The purple pony, who was slightly ahead of him, had lead the way. After the minutes of walking were over, they finally arrived at a somewhat familiar venue. It looked sort of like where Twilight had tried to get lunch during the third episode, the first one not part of the pilot episode.

"Well, Corey, this is the Ponyville Cafe," said Twilight. From the look on her face, she either hadn't noticed the looks of the other ponies, or didn't think much of it. "I don't really know anywhere else we can go right now."

Corey resisted the urge to dry-swallow. He really didn't like the idea of having to eat pony food, but since he was going to be here a while, he might as well get used to it. It didn't help that a couple of heads turned to see them together, and then quickly look away as if they didn't look at all.

"I understand," answered Corey with a nod. "I've been to a few restaurants in that other place I was at before, but...I don't usually visit cafes. New experience for me."

Twilight took a few moments to think about why Corey didn't directly refer to Earth, and then she nodded.

"I get it," she said, nodding. "Well, you don't have to worry about waiting to be seated here." She raised a hoof over to an empty table. "Over there's a good spot."

Corey looked up, realizing that the cafe had no roof whatsoever, just as it did in the show. That really didn't bode well for him, so he would hope that a certain pegasi duo wouldn't drop in. Hoping he'd find some kind of pony food that was at least palatable, the former human followed the purple mare over to the chairs. After watching Twilight ease into a chair, sitting like a pony, Corey decided to try his way into it.

"Careful," warned the purple pony, in a quiet voice. The green colt fumbled about for quite a bit, trying his hardest to settle into a  pony sitting position while in a chair. He grunted as he tried to keep his balance, and finally tumbled over the arm to the chair, somehow, landing on his side.

"Dang it!" he growled, insanely embarrassed. He wished he wasn't so used to crossing his legs Indian-style. Twilight winced somewhat, and a couple of the other ponies in the diner turned to look to see the cause of the...quake.

"Are you alright?" Twilight asked, leaning slightly towards him.

"I'm good," managed Corey in a quiet voice as he struggled into the chair. This time, he minded his posture, and managed to sit in the chair. "Ugh..."

"Could have happened to anypony," Twilight replied, smiling somewhat to him. Her face changed somewhat, and her voice lowered. "You're probably wondering what's on the menu..."

"I know what's not on it," answered Corey, also in a quiet voice. "Meat. But from the feel of it, all my teeth are flat now, so maybe I might have a taste for the food here. Why not? I mean...something else unexpected happened today with magic, so...I'm going to take a chance..."

The purple mare backed away somewhat, a little taken aback by the carnivorous comment, but her smile didn't exactly fade from it either.

"At least you're trying to adapt..."

"Why not? The way things look, I'm going to be here for quite a while."

With that conversation over, Corey's thoughts immediately went to how exactly his relationship with Twilight was going. It was going smoothly, even with the fact he'd had quite a few awkward moments with her.

What's going on? Even given the fact I may harbor a crush on the mare, I am *not** usually this vocal. Then again, I do sometimes ramble on without realizing it.*

The mare went on to get with the menu description. Corey nodded. Not all of it sounded particularly appetizing, but he was hoping that he had at least some pony taste buds, so that he wouldn't need to try as hard to adapt to the cuisine of the primarily equine world. However, as Twilight went on to say there were hay salads in the world, not only did the former human get curious, but he also realized something else.

They actually *eat** hay?!* The green colt thought to himself, his expression pulling into discomfort when he considered the hay bale he leapt into. Twilight noticed his grimace, and reached out to him somewhat, perfectly on balance in her seat.

"What's the matter?"

"N-nothing," Corey stuttered. "Just...thinking about how I got to the library yesterday..."

A waiter pony appeared, obviously a colt. He even had somewhat of a vest on, representing his position. It wasn't fancy by any stretch of the imagination, but it was enough to get the message across. It was a simple red vest with the pony equivalent of a breast pocket. He had a sharp face like most colts, and was white in color with a gray, slicked-back mane. His talent must have been something related to his job. It looked like a speech bubble, half-faded.

Corey swallowed. If ever this was a time for him not to quietly mumble his order, this would be it.

"What can I get you today?" asked the nameless pony, looking to both ponies. Twilight apparently noticed the former human's slight discomfort, and went first, ordering a Daisy Sandwich in a very clear voice.

"And you?" asked the waiter.

"H-hay salad, please," mumbled Corey, and instantly he flinched. He inhaled, trying his hardest to ask again, when the waiter cut him off.

"So it's a daisy sandwich for the mare and a hay salad for the quiet gentlecolt, okay then," The waiter asked, moving on after scribbling the information down, once again with a little bit of logic breaking in that he was writing the information down on a notepad balancing a pencil in his mouth. Corey blinked, disbelieving what just happened.

"Was he able to hear me just now?" Corey asked, a little bit of volume returning to his voice.

"Yeah," Twilight responded. "That pony has really sensitive ears. Even though I could barely hear you, I wasn't really worried about it."

"Huh. Humans don't usually have that kind of hearing." The green colt quipped. "I'm terrible at enunciating. I don't really go out a whole lot."

"You know, that sounds really familiar..." Twilight said, sounding concerned. Corey sighed somewhat, feeling his mouth tug upward again.

"I had a feeling you'd say that..."

Ever since getting back from the mountain, Rainbow Dash had put on somewhat of an exhibition of her tricks for Leo over an empty meadow not too far from Ponyville. She wasn't entirely sure what was motivating her to spend so much of her time with him, but she decided to roll with it. Could she honestly call him a friend after the first day with him? Rainbow did not doubt she could. Could she admit she was more interesting than "just a friend"? Pfft! The cyan mare didn't think so.

"You watchin', Leo? This one, I don't have a name for yet, but I'll give it time..."

The stunt she was about to perform involved a large amount of loops, flips, and even a barrel roll through the rainbow trail. With a stunt with as many different directions, perhaps a name featuring the word "Dizzy" would suffice, since if she wasn't dizzy, those watching her would be.

Leo merely nodded, his red eyes focused on her. He had been applauding her on some of her more impressive stunts, and for some reason, she got this fleeting, fluttering sensation in her stomach when she realized it. He was no Wonderbolt, so his admiration of her stunts shouldn't have mattered so much.

The cyan mare took off, a rainbow once again trailing her body. Just as she intended, she left a solid enough trail to barrel roll through once she was done. One flip, two flip, add a backflip to keep it a certain quality cooler...angle the body to do loops. Her eye went to Leo, and with some degree she appreciated the complete awe on his face. Probably a little more than she usually would.

About four loops later, Dash gritted her teeth, and prepared to break the loop. Keeping her momentum, she angled up, breaking out of that last loop, and flew at top speed upside down through the loops she created. The new rainbow trail formed a spiral through the trails created by the loops and flips. Dash emerged from flight, dizzied and a little wobbly.

However, she heard a noise that sounded like applause. Though she couldn't well see straight because she was so dizzy, the silver colt was definitely clopping...his forehooves together. Quickly, Rainbow shook off her dazed state.

"That looked spectacular..." Leo stated.

"As amazing as always," answered Dash, and for the longest time the two looked upon one another. Actually, it was only about five seconds, for a very loud rumble came in Leo's direction. He groaned and leaned forward. "Hey, don't break wind over here!"

"I'm really hungry right now..." Leo said. "I haven't anything to eat in quite a while..."

"Oh, well--" Rainbow was immediately cut off by the rumbling of her own stomach. "...huh. I guess we can try and find something..."

And with this, the two pegasi, lead by the cyan mare, immediately began to head back to Rainbow's home.

Leo evaluated everything that was going on so far. He did have a crush on Rainbow Dash. But, there was also something about Fluttershy that drew his eye to her. The former human wasn't exactly the poster child for social interaction either, but he wasn't as bad as Corey when it came to interacting, period.

He wasn't sure exactly what to make of his situation right now, but what he did know was that he may be caught in a situation that wasn't exactly the best to be in, but it wasn't the worst. Geometry was Noel's strong suit, but not this time. This time, he feared, it would be something different.

Caught up in his introspection, Leo didn't notice when Rainbow came to a dead stop, hovering at a somewhat high distance over Ponyville, and bumped into her. Dash turned to him, apparently not caring her personal space was violated. When he looked to her, intent on apologizing for doing so, she looked upon him, a mix of shock and mischievousness in her features.

"Leo...?" she asked, a small giggle in her voice. "I think we can eat here," there was a sly wink added to her words now. "C'mon!"

Leo looked down as Dash began leading him, and it was only then, as the vertical distance between himself and the ground decreased, did he see what Rainbow was referring to. They were flying directly over the Ponyville Cafe, as seen in the third episode of the first season. The place had no roof, making rain shielding impossible. There was a low hanging cloud a safe altitude above the diner, and it was here Rainbow stopped.

"The diner's a little further down," Leo said.

"I know that!" Dash was now almost beside herself, completely mischievious now, giggling to herself. "Look..."

She brushed aside a part of the cloud in a mix of magic and cartoon physics, forming a small peephole within the cloud. Both of the pegasi looked through it. When Leo looked through it, he saw a sight he never thought he'd see.

Corey and Twilight sitting in a table, doing something that rhymes with 'baiting' and started with a 'd'. At least, that's what it looked like. The two seemed to be eating something, Twilight obviously a sandwich, but he couldn't see what Corey was from his angle. From the looks of things, though, Corey seemed to be doing okay with eating whatever it was.

"Are they...dating?" asked Leo to himself. He caught Dash's gaze and mischievous smile again, and returned with a hesitant grin.

"Why don't we go find out?"

Oh boy... Leo thought to himself. On one hand, he was curious. On the other, he didn't quite know what a pissed-off Corey was capable of now that he had magic potentially at his disposal. And on one hind leg, he did have a little bit of "tease" in him. On the other, he had no idea how far Rainbow would take it.

However, the feeling in his heart for the cyan mare was too great.

"Y-yeah, sure. Could kill time..."

Corey was somewhat surprised. Even though it was pony food, he was still enjoying the food all the same. He assumed it was a small change in taste buds. He'd seen hay all the time at home, and he'd never guessed it had a sugary sweet sort of taste to it. However, it could have just as easily been the default seasoning used. The former human was relieved. He had hesitated on the first few bites, but now he couldn't help himself.

Until he noticed Twilight giving him somewhat of a disturbed look. With a piece of hay halfway out of his mouth, he looked up.

"What?" he asked, trying to keep his mouth at least somewhat closed, since it was still full of food.

"You..." she began, seeming to try and find a nice way to say what she was going to say. "You could use a little work on your table manners..."

He was aware he probably didn't eat in the most polite way possible. Indeed, if he liked the flavor of something, he'd start scarfing it down, and no one, human or pony would want to see that. However, he merely lowered his head, so that she wouldn't have to see as much. Though he could feel his cheeks heating up again out of embarrassment.

How the hell was he to know to polish his table manners in case of Equestria?

He continued eating, still surprised at how quickly he was learning to somewhat enjoy pony cuisine. Twilight was eating too, but comparatively, she was eating a lot more politely, taking smaller bites and chewing with her mouth closed. This went on for another minute, when a familiar female voice greeted them, the sound of which caused Corey to swallow the lump of food harder than intended, and for a split-second he swore he almost choked.

"Hi, Twilight," Corey turned somewhat to see Rainbow Dash and Leo, both looking somewhat amused. It didn't take more than two seconds for the former human to realize why they looked the way they did.

"Oh, hello Rainbow," Twilight responded, not sounding caught off-guard at all. She apparently didn't notice the nervous look on Corey's face. "Corey and me were just--"

"On a date?" asked the cyan mare, almost giggling to herself.

If Corey had a mouthful of food or drink, this would have lead to one of two things: either a spit take or him choking on what it was. Unfortunately, he was trying to be slick and act like he wasn't worried at all after the initial shock wore off. So, as he swallowed, he nearly choked on the piece of hay.

His ear twitched as he registered a foreign giggle. He turned to see Noel laughing it up, but he tried to stop as soon as he noticed the pudgy green unicorn giving him a death stare. Twilight, meanwhile, blushed somewhat from the memory of the awkward hug they'd shared unintentionally.

"W-what?" the purple mare sputtered, caught completely off-guard. "N-no, i-it's not like that..."

Corey was relieved that she thought of this as just an outing with a friend. Even though part of him did want someone close to him in that way, namely a female, he wasn't sure if actually dating Twilight was the brightest move. He did like her, yes, but he didn't think he could admit it, and besides, he wasn't entirely sure if she was blushing out of embarrassment, or that and...

Pushing the thoughts out from his mind, Corey turned his attention back to his salad, which thankfully didn't have a lot left. He wanted to finish his food quick. So he dug back in, fully ready to accept more jokes about his weight.

Too bad Rainbow wasn't going down that alley this time.

"Looks like one to me..."

He tried to be discrete in looking in the cyan pegasus's direction, and realized that, for maybe all of a moment, there was the faintest shade of pink on her face. Turning his attention back to his food, the former human began to quietly eat, trying to observe some level of table manners.

Whatever you do, Corey, feed yourself. Do not feed the troll...

Twilight felt terribly embarrassed. How could she not have realized what this event looked like? It was a colt and a mare in a public setting together, talking about things. She'd even pointed out his table manners were subpar. She wasn't entirely sure if that last one was part of a typical relationship, but in the event Corey and her were to fully develop those feelings, it wouldn't be typical anyway.

She tried to remind herself that maybe having Corey as something more than a friend wouldn't be the greatest idea ever. Across from her, the former human in question appeared to be calmly eating. Lifting the sandwich to her mouth, she took a bite, chewed, swallowed, then spoke again.

"Honestly, Rainbow, I don't know what you're talking about..."

It was at this point, she fully realized Leo was with Rainbow. Corey seemed to have noticed this too, and was mumbling darkly to himself while looking towards his plate, even while he ate. Her rainbow-maned friend, on the other hand, didn't buy her alibi, instead opting to keep up her verbal attack.

"So," she grinned, "did you two kiss yet?"

There was the sound of a deep, shocked snort. Twilight looked up, despite her blush, to see Corey trying his hardest to maintain his composure, though he looked like he was about to choke. She wasn't sure why, but a small part of her really hoped it was just embarrassment and not that he thought kissing her was a horrible thing to do.

"O-okay, Dash," Leo cut in, apparently having finally noticed the situation was getting a little out of hand. "I-I think that's enough..."

"Oh c'mon, Leo," said Rainbow in response, looking to him. "You know they want to..."

This time, all either of the unicorns could do was utter a soft grunt at this. A little curious, Twilight angled her head to look at Corey, and realized that he too, had finally lost his composure completely, his face starting to turn red.

"Corey," the silver colt cut in again, this time with the same tease-tastic smile on his face. "are you blushing there?"

Corey's ears peeled back, his face became redder, and his face became twisted in embarrassed fury. His upper lip curled from a scowl into a snarl. It was just like when John fell out of the sky. For a moment, Twilight feared what would happen. Especially now that he actually was able to harness magic to some degree.

There was the sound of hooves shuffling along, and the faint sound of something being dragged behind them, registered in Twilight's mind. She turned towards the entrance to see Pinkie Pie...and another new colt in town, reddish-brown with a blue hoodie, being dragged along behind her. Strangely, even though he looked like he'd been dragged along quite a while, he didn't seem bothered by it.

"Hi-i-i-i-i everypony!" the pink party pony squealed, drawing all eyes to her. The new colt in town stood up, and with Rainbow and Leo properly distracted, Twilight immediately reached across to Corey, who looked just as shocked as everyone else to see the two new ponies loudly announce their arrival, and drew his attention by tapping the table in front of her using the levitation spell and Corey's fork.

"That earth pony over there," Corey nodded at Twilight's statement, looking relieved at the attention shift. "Is that colt your friend Ivan?"

"Yeah, that's him..." he responded. "Strange. He looks like the pink mare...uh..."

"Pinkie Pie," Twilight cut in.

"Pinkie," Corey parroted, "dragged him all the way here." He grimaced, as though realizing something. "Oh jeez, do all of your friends think that this is a...?"

The purple mare recalled she'd left a note on the library door if John and Spike got back before they did. She realized that Pinkie must have read that note, likely ran into Ivan, and decided for whatever reason to bring him along. Immediately, Twilight wondered if anyone else she knew saw them trotting along together.

And yet, something within Twilight told her that maybe it could be thought of as one. That thought turned into a statement.

"Maybe...maybe it is." Twilight responded. "We are getting to know each other, after all."

Rainbow's ear twitched. The purple unicorn swallowed, realizing she might have heard them.

Ivan watched the scene before him, feeling quite sore from being dragged around Ponyville in quite an unorthodox way. Both of the color invert unicorns were red-faced, despite the fur covering their cheeks. Clearly, if they'd gotten there a moment later, Corey would have exploded out of embarassed anger, a prospect which both fascinated and terrified Ivan.

The former human had never seen his friend angry, yet, as anime taught him, when a character's emotions rage beyond their control, they tend to use their talents on the object causing the emotional outburst. Yet, he had no idea if Corey could actually use magic or if his horn was just for decoration.

"Iiivaaan...." Pinkie whispered, in a comically loud hiss that, by some force or another, wasn't overheard by the other ponies too. "This isn't right..."

"Which part? The part where you dragged me here, or--" Ivan responded, attempting to once again use sarcasm, forgetting the circumstances that got him here.

"No, silly," responded the pink party pony, "I mean they're totally crashing their date!" This was still in a whisper that could probably be heard all the way back on Earth.

"Oh yeah. That." Ivan responded. His mind brought him back to when they first "met" Pinkie. It was the first day, Leo was being a Grade-A douche, Corey was trying to hold the trio together, and he was barely able to stay on his hooves. Immediately, he realized Leo had a fear of death, and recalled the name of the pasta that caused the fear.

It had something to do with Rainbow Dash, confections, and an insane party pony. However, after spending time in her company, the only dangerous thing about Pinkie was her hyperactive nature. It was decidedly more dangerous to let her lead someone anywhere than spend a day baking cupcakes with her. Even then, he deduced she was more excited about the prospect of Twilight actually going on a date with a new colt than actually trying to hurt him.

What could he say? She was infectious. However, he couldn't yet ask about confectionaries, since as far as the pink earth pony was concerned, she didn't know that he knew what her job was. Thankfully, Pinkie was always one to act whenever the moment called for it.

"Hi, Rainbow!" Pinkie called out, seemingly oblivious to the scene before her, though judging from the whisper the pink earth pony just exchanged with him, Ivan knew better than to assume it. "I was wondering, would you like to help me out with a new cupcake recipe later?"

"Sure, Pinkie," Dash put on an annoyed face, acting hurt that she'd just got cut off, while Leo seemed to be thinking about things.

Leo honestly couldn't believe Pinkie just asked that. Memories of the "Cupcakes" creepypasta flooded his memory. Almost immediately, he wanted to scream out the word "No" and fly away, and carry Rainbow Dash away with him. However, he knew that this wouldn't work. After all, he knew Corey was learning magic, but at what rate he did not know, nor did he want to find out by being chucked back by telekinesis. All the same, he needed to get away and vent.

He realized his fear may well be misplaced. After all, a quick feel around the inside of his mouth confirmed that he had flat teeth. To enjoy any meat at all, Noel knew you had to have pointed teeth to properly slice up the meat. All the same, the silver colt realized enough was enough.

Leo now had clear leverage over Corey. He'd learned about how Rainbow teased other ponies. If there was a suitable time for it, and he didn't feel like restraining himself, he was going to let him have it for sure.

"Hey, Dash, why don't we...leave these two alone?" he asked, trying to keep himself calm even though he momentarily almost lost his mind. Internally, Noel resolved to do some meditation before the upcoming meeting with the Princess. He couldn't have himself flipping his lid over things, and he needed to calm his mind.

"Aw, okay Leo, let's give these two their alone time..." responded the cyan pegasus, taking off in a hover again. She dropped to a whisper. "Or should I say, these four..."

The silver former human immediately found himself somewhat interested in the prospect she was implying.

Ivan and Pinkie? The incredibly calm guy and the obnoxiously hyper mare? Man, I've gotta see that. Though...I'd have almost figured he'd have gone with Applejack...that'd have been an opposites case too, maybe...

As the two pegasi once again took off, their stomachs rumbled again, causing Leo to almost flip over in mid-air again when he raised his forehooves to his stomach to soothe the pain. Dash had her hooves up to her stomach too, and she grimaced.

"Could have let us go get something to eat, you know..." Rainbow grumbled, annoyed. "C'mon, let's head back to my place. I can probably throw something together." She seemed discomforted that she was making the offer.

"You really don't have t--" Leo began, noticing her discomfort.

"No, no, Leo, you're--!" She cut herself off, and here Rainbow blushed somewhat, but she quickly shook it off. "A friend. If there's one thing I'm not gonna let my friends do, it's starve to death." She roughly took his hoof in both of hers. "Come on!"

Shaking off the small blush that coated his cheeks, Leo nodded.

"If you insist."

Ivan sighed in relief. The scare tactic didn't exactly work like he'd hoped it would, but the important part was that Corey wasn't angered. He seemed to adjust to Ivan and Pinkie being there. Did he understand that they'd somehow saved the two from further teasing? Or that maybe Leo was saved from Corey's fury? Ivan never took Corey for a woman beater, after all.

Either way, Leo and Dash had departed together again. He really wondered what was going on between those two. It was at least somewhat obvious what was going on between the former human and the studious unicorn, even if they themselves didn't get it.

"I've gotta talk to Twilight about something soon..." said Pinkie. "I guess I can leave it alone a little longer."

If she was upset, she did a good job playing it off. Ivan couldn't help but to smile again. The sheer energy of the pony at his side was certainly something to be admired. It was enough to chase away some of the clouds that had lingered in his mind. Even if he was going to be stuck in this world for a long time, Pinkie sure made that depression go away, even if she wasn't aware that she was.

"Ivan?" Pinkie asked. "I've gotta go do stuff now, see you around!" She bounded off, leaving Ivan alone in the diner.

The former human decided to leave Corey and Twilight alone for now, since it looked like they were just about done here anyway, and would wait outside the cafe for them. He trotted outside, and shuffled along in place, waiting. Just then, Pinkie came bounding back.

"Here, I want you to try this," said the pink party pony, producing a cupcake from out of seemingly nowhere and handing...or "hoofing" it, to Ivan. Again, he was internally perplexed by the event, but did not show it on his face. Ivan shrugged, and bit into the baked good.

An explosion of spicy and sweet occurred in his mouth, the combination very odd to the former human. However, he didn't want to be mean, so he ate the remainder of the cupcake, finding it to be very good despite the combination of flavor.

"Huh, very good," said Ivan after swallowing the food. "Uh, what's in it?"

"Oh, well, I like hot sauce on my cupcakes, so I decided 'why not bake it into the good', because sometimes it's better to combine both worlds, and well, I was going to use these for something someday, so why not start giving free samples to some ponies around town and see how they like it? You were the last pony I saw, so I decided to start with you!" Pinkie responded, going only about a mile a minute about the story behind her latest invention. "Well, I've got some other things to do now, so this time see you later!"

And once again, the pink pony was off, a lively spring in her skip as she hopped away. At this moment, Ivan registered that he hadn't quite stopped smiling. He very rarely showed emotion other than mild annoyance, anger, or joy. If he were surprised, no one would know right away unless they knew him personally. His composure wasn't so easy for someone to break. Even though he knew the character from the show, it was an entirely different to know them as though they were real. The fact Pinkie was so easily able to break through his defenses intrigued Ivan to no end.

"She really is contagious," he remarked, his face fading back into its listless, emotionless visage.

As he continued to wait for Corey and Twilight to finish their lunch, he began to wonder what exactly would be the tipping point for his dream. If it were accurate to the future, what events would push the couples therein together. He and Pinkie were somewhat opposites. He rarely showed emotion and was calm as a cucumber most of the time, excluding when angered or happy. Pinkie, on the other hand, bounded off the walls with enough leftover energy to light up a small village for years.

In the back of his head, a small voice, one that he could barely hear, spoke out to him.

She's actually sort of...cute.

His brain then caught up with that voice, and though externally, Ivan didn't show his thought processes, internally, he knew exactly what to think about that.

And here we go...

Not too much time later, Corey and Twilight finally emerged, both looking somewhat embarrassed at what had just happened. They both looked as though they should have thought this one through more, but at the same time, didn't completely regret what they'd done either. Deciding not to ask why they were out at the cafe, Ivan opted to ask a simpler question. He was curious about Corey's skill at magic, since he'd had the feeling the pudgy unicorn was attempting it.

"So...Corey, are you learning magic?" Ivan asked in a quiet voice. "And if you are, how's that working out for you?"

Corey's eye twitched, and he offered the faintest of smiles.

"Well, at least I can use it..."

Act 1 Chapter 13

Act I: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 13: Royal Revelation

It wasn't long before the earth pony and the two unicorns were back to the library. Unsurprisingly, Spike was back before them, waiting inside. However, what surprised them was the fact he was holding on to two bags at the time. Twilight knew, however, what those bags contained. They contained a few jewels that Rarity either had no use for, or felt that they'd be better kept in Spike's hands. However, the fact he was entrusted with two somewhat bothered the purple mare.

"Hi, Spike," greeted Twilight upon seeing him. "Where's John?"

"About that, Twilight..." began Spike. He turned to Corey, raising a claw to him. In this moment, Twilight noticed a certain spark in his eye. She realized that the younger dragon either read the note or saw them together. "Hey, you might want to listen up too, and...uh...?"

"Ivan, the guy you didn't meet." responded Ivan, looking up briefly to acknowledge the dragon. "Yeah, I'm with Corey, John, and Noel."

"You mean 'Leo', right?" Twilight asked, turning to the now sneering Earth pony. "What, is that a nickname he doesn't like?"

"No, it's his real name that he doesn't like..." responded Corey, who seemed a little disturbed at Ivan's words. "I would go into further details, but I'm a little concerned. Where's John? The ponies in town didn't appear to like him even though he was 'supervised'..."

"Right, so we were up on a rocky place about an hour away from Ponyville. We were diggin' for jewels, then Rarity screams." Spike started. "It turned out she saw a really large diamond on top of a high rise, and sent John after it," Now there was a very acidic jealousy in his words, but that soon changed as he spoke his next words. "That went smoothly, though he had to carry it by hand. However, Rainbow and Leo showed up and decided to rain pebbles down on him. Then one of them threw a rock down on him."

Corey sighed forcefully. Twilight turned to him, and he had a look on his face suggesting that he knew he was going to ask a stupid question.

"Just making sure: you didn't leave him up there, did you?" he asked, slouching down somewhat.

"He wanted to be left behind. Having rocks dropped on him really made him mad. Said he could find his way back on his own, according to Leo." Spike said, shrugging. "So I don't know exactly where he is."

Twilight grew somewhat concerned, if only for the fact that dragons tend to become angry a lot faster than average. And when their rage overflows, they tend to rampage. Such a thing wouldn't be very good for John's public image. Obviously, the former human must have realized this, and stayed behind to cool off.

"Does John have anger issues?" Twilight asked. "Dragon's rage isn't exactly the best thing..."

"Not that I know of," Ivan cut in. Twilight turned to Corey, who merely shook his head "no".

"So I guess John's on his way back, then," responded Spike. He looked to one of the bags. "One of these is supposed to be for him." Again, the jealousy returned to his words.

"I've been m-meaning to ask about that," the green unicorn stuttered. "What's in those?"

"Well, what did we go up the mountain to get?" Spike questioned.

"Gems?" Corey asked. "But...why?"

Twilight felt the need to cut in at this point.

"Well, some dragons collect gems," she said. "Hoarding them. Others, like Spike here, eat them."

"Like candy, huh?" Ivan cut in this time.

"Even tastes like it!" Spike professed.

"I see..." The pudgy pony trailed off. The library remained dead quiet for a while. Just as Corey inhaled as though he were about to say something, a knock at the door was heard.

"Oh, that must be John now," Twilight smiled, and nodded. At least some things were going right before the meeting. The purple mare knew that Corey still probably wanted to work on his magic some more before the meeting, but she wondered briefly if he would accomplish too much before the meeting and decrease the former humans' credibility. From what she could gather, Leo was apparently learning how to fly from Rainbow, and her friend didn't seem to be aware that the silver colt wasn't really a pony.

"I'll get it," Spike said, walking towards the door with one of the bags in his possession. "I'll go ahead and give him the bag Rarity wanted him to have. After what his own friend and Rainbow basically did to him, I don't want to make him mad again. He's probably hungry anyway."

The younger dragon made his way toward the door, and Twilight registered that the door had opened up. The purple pony briefly hoped that Spike still wasn't holding a grudge about John being there with him and Rarity. She took a deep breath, recalling that Leo was still probably with Rainbow, and would have to be retrieved before the hour of the meeting came. Her stress was beginning to return.

"Um," Corey began. "Twilight?"

"Huh?" Twilight shook out of her thoughts, "Oh, right, Corey, what is it?"

"I think I'm going to try and get a little more used to magic now," Corey said.

"Can I watch?" asked Ivan, looking around.

"Sure, why not?" Corey responded, Twilight noting he was doing so through gritted teeth.

Is he nervous?

It had been relatively simple to find his way back to Ponyville, John believed. With Fluttershy's path, he was actually able to take a shortcut and avoid the front entrance to the town, instead entering on a more direct route to the library. The frightened looks from the ponies in town had mostly diminished. There were a few still obviously unsure if having an adult dragon in town was the brightest move a pony could allow, but for the most part, all of them seemed more willing to accept he'd be in town for a while.

It certainly would save the former human some trouble. Even though Leo and Rainbow had nearly caused him a headfirst dive into the ground, he was considering thanking Rarity for trying. He'd been able to work out the reasoning behind her taking him along, despite Spike's (obvious) protests.

The door opened, revealing a smaller dragon-Spike, with a bag in his free hand.

"Finally back, huh?" he asked, looking up to him. John sighed, expelling smoke from his mouth, being sure to turn his head.

"Yeah, I'm back," John responded. "Got lost for a little bit, though, but I made it." The former human decided to inquire about the object in Spike's hand. "What's with the bag?"

"Oh, this?" responded the younger dragon, looking to it. "Rarity gave both of us bags of gems. Guess you'd better get used to food here. And speaking of--" He hesitated, as though thinking of what to say next, notably with a hint of mischieviousness, when a feminine voice interrupted.

"Spike!" Twilight scolded. John wasn't able to place it at first, but he detected a lift of embarrassment in her tone. Spike merely snickered, and handed the bag of gems to John, who merely stared at it as though not really knowing what to expect a gem to taste like.

"Here, I'll go get something else you might want to look at. Has to do with Corey..." Spike left John's eyesight for the moment, only for him to be replaced by a passing Twilight, Corey, and Ivan. John reached out, clapping down on Ivan's back.

"You know, just because you have hands doesn't mean you get to rub it in," Ivan quipped. Dodging the former human's statement entirely, John continued on.

"How'd you get out of farm work?" John asked. He didn't think farmhands would be so willing to let their unwilling extra hands--or hooves, walk off the job early.

"I mentioned the meeting to Applejack. Went in more detail than you did though." Ivan responded. "Probably wasn't the brightest move, but she didn't see any lies in what I was saying. Not that I could tell anyway."

John remained at the door for a while longer until Spike came back, with a second bag of gems in his hand, no doubt his own bag of gems. In his other hand was a paper.

"This was on the door," Spike said. "Have fun with that..."

The former human's eyebrow twitched. He read the note which Pinkie and Ivan had earlier read in the day, and his entire left eye started to twitch.

"Definitely gonna ask him about this later," John noted to himself. He turned his attention back to the bag. "What's Spike think I am? I admit it is a little on the weird side, but--"

Cutting himself off, John opened the bag. He'd never seen so many precious stones in one place, of so many different colors. To think he was going to eat one sort of left him a little depressed. When he felt his stomach rumble, however, he decided to give it a try. He didn't expect gems to have a taste, but he knew from a researched episode that dragons did eat them.

Well, by "dragons", he really knew "Spike" ate gems.

He grabbed a small red gem from the bag, and popped it into his mouth. For a few moments, he'd wondered if he was going to be able to chew it, but his teeth were hard enough to easily rip into the gem's surface. As the gem went from precious stone to mush, a taste of fresh, sweet cherries suddenly erupted in his mouth. In his mind, John immediately knew what to say, and with every force possible he held himself from screaming it out.

Holy mercy! It's like a party in my mouth!

When he thought about it, Corey was somewhat relieved to see John made his way back. At the same time, a feeling of dread crept up inside him as he recalled exactly what he was going to be doing over the next few hours before Princess Celestia would meet the former humans. While Leo wasn't around, Ivan and John were, not to mention Spike. They'd be around to watch him fail.

The former human was suffering from a moderate case of performance anxiety. Just like when he had to deliver speeches for his public speaking class. However, he knew that in order to at least have a chance of functioning as a unicorn in Equestria, he couldn't break from the norms by much. So he was stuck learning.

He took a deep breath, and steadied himself. This was going to be a long three hours or so...

"Alright, Twilight, attempt number three..." Corey said. Once again, Twilight obliged to set an apple down in front of him with her own brand of magic. Now, it was Corey's turn, and he shut his eyes, trying to focus.

On his third try, the pressure was still very overbearing, but it was slightly easier to handle than the last. It might have been noticeably easier, however, if it were just him and Twilight. The others around him weren't exactly helping, but they weren't doing anything to hinder him either. His horn glowed a slightly stronger, more consistent green as he focused his magic into it. Once more, he imagined the energy taking the form of a hand. This time, he tried to shrink the size of the hand, making it softer in grip.

The apple bobbed in place, once again slowly lifting into the air by magic. Though Ivan didn't really show his surprise, he was surprised to see Corey had made so much progress in such a short amount of time. He'd probably only started learning today, and already he was lifting things. He surveyed the expressions of the others. Spike looked somewhere between astonished and amused. Looking back at Corey's face, Ivan understood why.

Corey, you know we're not in a Dragonball Z pony parody, right? You can stop looking like you can't crap anytime now... thought the former human to himself. If he could have applied his palm to his face in that moment, he would have. Instead, Ivan decided to look at the others. John looked physically surprised, and wasn't amused like Spike. He stopped, however, noticing Twilight's expression. While she'd seen his so-called "focusing" face in all likelihood, the purple mare had a positive emotion Ivan couldn't quite read straight away. She was staring at him intently.

Corey opened his eyes, finally, relaxing his body. The apple stuttered around in the air, perfectly level with Corey's eyes. However, the instant the former human in question caught Twilight's gaze, his concentration lapsed, and the apple caved in on itself. It was here, Ivan realized Corey's cheeks were not green, but a reddish color. A quick look at Twilight confirmed that her face was reddened as well.

Ivan sighed somewhat. It almost seemed too easy for him to make the reference, but he would have to anyway. Besides, it was either that or make a "marefriend" joke, and after what Leo and Rainbow Dash got through doing to the two unicorns, as well as Spike's reaction to the event (barely stifled giggling), Corey didn't really need that right now.

"I-I'm sorry," Twilight seemed taken aback by her reaction. "It's just--you're--I'm..."

Ivan stopped in his tracks, subtly looking over to Twilight. It wasn't hard for him to mask the mild amusement he felt at the two floundering about. No wonder they might wind up together. They were at least somewhat similar personality-wise. Corey just tended to be more cynical about everything. Not that Ivan could blame him, really. Compared to Equestria, Earth, while not having dangerous monsters, had dangerous personalities on it. Not to say that Equestria didn't have such personalities within its walls; but those were few and far between.

"I-It's alright. I really need to learn to--" Corey cut himself off, and Ivan looked to him. He was still flushed, and his eye was subtly twitching. "To control myself, that's all."

Ivan breathed out. How many times today would he have to do Leo's job. He wasn't the one with wings, yet he was playing the role of wingman. Admittedly, he was doing it unintentionally, but still, it bothered him.

Ivan put on his best trollface (read: blank slate), and tapped Corey's side with his hoof. The crimson-faced unicorn turned to him, and Ivan immediately leaned in to whisper.

"You know, if you watched more Fairy Tail, magic control wouldn't be an issue..."

That got Corey going. Almost immediately, he forgot all about the fact he lost control because a purple pony was looking at him weirdly. His blush vanished, his ears peeled back and he snarled. His teeth bared, but he merely exhaled.

"Fairy Tail" referred to an anime Ivan recommended Corey watch. He wasn't sure if he watched more than the first two episodes, but the fact remained that he wasn't watching it. How could he not? It had awesome fights within it. As for how it possibly related to Corey's situation: the force the characters used was called "magic".

"Dang it, Ivan..." he mumbled. This short distraction had apparently bought Twilight enough time to recover. Meanwhile, Spike and John seemed to be talking about something. John looked sort of like an older brother scolding his younger sibling, while Spike looked like someone would when receiving a scolding. More or less, anyway. Corey turned back to Twilight. "I think I'll try again..."

Those two...Man, will they be heartbroken at the end of all this. Ivan thought somewhat sympathetically as he trotted back to his spot. So would Pinkie...

Ivan subtly realized his thought process went back to the happy pink pony, and sighed somewhat. This was going to be one long adventure.

Over the next few hours, several developments took place. Corey's magic control slowly began to get better, even with friends watching. Eventually, he was trusted enough to move his apple levitating inside. He slowly became more accustomed to the pressure and the pain that accompanied using his magic. Twilight voiced her confidence that perhaps Corey could move small objects with slight difficulty now, amazing everyone.

Ivan merely watched Corey's progress, wondering if Equestria had manga. They obviously didn't have anime, or at least, they didn't appear to have a means to watch it. Eventually, he found a regular book, and began reading. He didn't have a lot else to do.

John snacked on his gems, finding each color had a distinct and unique flavor. It wasn't a lunch he was expecting to have, but he was in a world full of magical talking ponies, so he excused himself. Also, after quite a bit of struggling, he was able to settle things with Spike about the whole issue with the gem hunt. It took a bit.

Leo, meanwhile, spent those hours primarily with Rainbow Dash, watching her perform various tricks. They did stop at Fluttershy's eventually, who was happy to eat lunch with them. Nothing truly eventful happened on that front.

Words were exchanged. Magic was learned. A cyan pegasus got to show off more of her athleticism to a colt that she felt she was growing an attachment to.

Meanwhile, as the hour of the former humans' meeting with the sun monarch of the land drew near, a purple mare grew more and more nervous. Her demeanor gradually became less and less relaxed as the time for the meeting drew near.

To her relief, Rarity arrived on time, and, while John was "safe" from the fashionista given he kept his tux in a safe place, Corey and Ivan were not so lucky, however. Even so, Corey's measurements had already been taken earlier. It wouldn't be as much as an issue for him.

With no Leo in sight, it seemed that Twilight was only worsening in nature...

Well, I guess that could have gone worse... Corey thought, looking into another mirror after another "Rarity fashion montage". This time, however, instead of wearing a cosplayer's outfit, he was wearing a white-gray tuxedo, tailor-made for a quadrupedal creature as opposed to the bipedal John, who once more sported the black tuxedo from yesterday. At the green unicorn's neck was a red cloth which Corey assumed was supposed to be the equine equivalent of a tie.

Also, the mane he'd messed up during the applesauce incident had once again been combed back into perfection by the OCD white unicorn. He looked like he was just about ready for some kind of interview. For all intents, the meeting with the sun princess was an interview. But still, Corey felt horrifically out of place in formal attire.

It was Ivan's turn now to be in the hooves of Rarity, and from the looks of things, the first thing she was doing was combing his mane to a more acceptable look. Unlike Corey's, and a little bit less like Leo's, Ivan's mane was long and unkempt, especially after a day of farm work.

"I maintain Applejack needs to brush her mane once in a while," Rarity commented as she worked on Ivan's hair. "It is a good thing you were able to get off easy."

"Yeah, it sure is," Ivan responded, keeping his head still and his voice devoid of emotion. Corey wasn't sure what the brown earth pony was thinking of, but decided not to focus on it. Briefly, he wondered if the group would call on him again to be the spokesperson for the group. He left Rarity's makeshift workstation (which had been set up in Twilight's room for the time being), and went out to the main area, where the others were.

A knock on the door was heard.

"That's gotta be Leo!" Twilight sounded anxious. "Spike--"

"I'm on it," responded the baby dragon. Certainly, he knew something about the pony that Corey did not. Now that he thought about it, Twilight's mane looked a little disheveled, and her eyes had stress marks underneath them. She was obviously trying and failing to keep it together. The sound of a door opening echoed in the library.

"Hey, I'm here--" Leo started, cut off by the very anxious purple mare, who closed the distance between them in about five seconds.

"Good, you're here! Do you know how much time is left before the meeting?" Twilight interrogated, looking every bit as nervous as Corey felt about the meeting. For a moment, he wondered exactly what the sun princess was like. From what he knew, Princess Celestia wasn't a spoiled brat; in fact, she was actually benevolent. She was a little on the vague side, though, if the Nightmare Moon fiasco he'd watched was anything to go on.

"Uh--" Leo started, apparently not expecting the high-strung mare.

"She'll be here within the hour!" Twilight sounded panicky. She was breathing erratically. "Go wait your turn over where Rarity is!"

"O-okay," The silver colt clearly wasn't sure what else to say. He'd probably never seen the pony quite so stressed, but knew when not to aggravate her further. He trotted silently over to Rarity, who by now had finished working on Ivan's mane, and was taking the measurements from Ivan's hoodie, which had been temporarily set aside for the job, so that she could get to work on the former human's suit as soon as she could.

Internally, Corey began to wonder about something.

Are the suits really necessary? I mean, Twilight's not wearing anything formal. Like Hell I'm asking about it now, though. One wrong statement and she'll invent a doghouse for me to sleep in for a month!

Yet, even as he considered this, the former human didn't feel right standing around and watching Twilight stress out. Normally, he'd have let things play out, but he knew Twilight awfully well even considering he'd watched a few episodes of the show. After the past night and some of the events today, he just couldn't be idle anymore. With a moderate sigh, he started moving over to the stressed-out pony.

"Hey, what are you doing?" John asked, having been standing next to him. Corey turned back to his fellow former human and friend, and sighed again, shaking his head.

"I wish I had a clue, John," he responded, walking again toward the purple mare, "I really wish I had a clue."

Twilight didn't know which way was left or right. She was so nervous she couldn't think straight. There was only barely enough time to get them outfitted correctly. Come to think of it, why was she bothering with it? She had to remind herself that technically the new males in town were from another world and should, by all rights, look their best. They were going to meet royalty, after all.

Leo was almost too late for Rarity to actually get him done in time. She had been just about to finish with Ivan's mane when he came knocking. John and Corey were easy to get done, since both were already here and the latter was already measured. The silver pegasus that once was a human, thankfully, didn't look like he'd need that much work to look presentable.

Not that Twilight wasn't freaking out over the detail anyway. Among her other stressors: one, her teacher wouldn't believe the former humans' tales; two, the fact she got butterflies in her stomach on increasing occasion around one of the former humans. The latter of those two stressors was more of an afterthought, but she was honestly worried about what her family, friends, and mentor would have to say about those moments around Corey.

Oh, who was she kidding? The fact he was making significant progress, given what he was deep down left her impressed. He really was a lot more intelligent than he cared to show. He probably wasn't even aware how much he'd "wowed" her, even after he caught her looking. On top of that, she wasn't even sure if she could allow herself to become that close to him. After all, were they not of different worlds?

"Twilight," Speak of Discord, there Corey was at her side now! "are you...alright?"

So he'd noticed she wasn't herself, and he'd known her for all of a day.

"Alright?" she asked, turning to him, unknowingly with a somewhat demented smile on her face. Corey flinched as she continued, not even noticing his discomfort in her stressed haze. "Why, Leo only came by at almost the last possible second, Ivan's around half done, and I'm not even sure if she will fully believe your story to begin with!" Twilight realized she was about to go on and ramble, and only barely managed to cut herself off before she rattled off what else was wrong. "Of course I'm feeling alright!"

"You..." He hesitated. He looked positively unsure if interacting any more was a bright move. "You really don't look it." There was a very awkward air between them, and the desire to raise her voice towards the former human did not go unnoticed. As soon as she inhaled, the boy did what he did best, and blurted out what he was thinking. Unlike previous times, however, he did not mess up and say the wrong thing or a really awkward thing. This time, his slip lead to something completely different. "For what it's worth, I'm nervous too!"

"I--" Twilight began, completely caught off-guard again by this abrupt confession. "What?" Her expression softened somewhat.

"I mean, it's not every day you get to meet a royal figure that is fully capable of moving the sun all on her own," Corey started, studying her face carefully, but seemed unsure still if what he was doing was working. Twilight could tell all he was doing was taking his slip and running with it. "Not only that, I'm actually wondering who believes us, too. But the fact she's called this meeting in the first place sort of lends weight to the fact that she trusts your word on the subject, right?"

Twilight blinked. Slowly, some form of logic was breaking through the thick walls of insecurity that had built themselves around her psyche. Usually, nothing short of painful realization, either via a spell that got too far out of control or a visit to her past self, would do this. Did Corey have any idea what he was able to do? Probably, for he seemed to adjust for the fact she appeared to be relaxing.

"Please," Corey started, his voice getting gentler and quieter without realizing it. "Don't stress yourself out over it so much. I can't say for sure; you obviously know her better than I, but I think she has some level of trust in what you sent earlier. If she didn't--well, wouldn't she have sent you a message similar to the one when you first told her about Nightmare Moon?"

Twilight had almost forgotten she'd told him that tale. Of course - even though her message did lead to the "purification" of Princess Luna, it still was a rather rude reply to get. She began to level out. Was he the first pony to legitimately address her concerns the first time around? Not a chance on any account. Yet, even though he clearly felt like he was only going to make things worse, he still tried. Her mind raced. Some more layers of insecurity began melting away. And her insecurities about the meeting were not the only uncertainties being erased. She wasn't aware of it, but the two had begun trotting toward each other, to the point they were now face-to-face.

"Y-yes, I suppose so," the purple pony stuttered, becoming aware of this fact. What was she doing, getting sidetracked like this? She couldn't let herself get this way, not now.

She wasn't able to ignore it so easily as she had before, but with every force in her body she tried to keep her mind in the right place, even as she realized her heart was drifting elsewhere. It wasn't working.

The sound of a throat clearing broke the two from their thoughts. Twilight looked up, but John wasn't the one that did it. He was elsewhere. The two unicorns turned back to each other, then to around where Rarity was. Leo was now in the fashionista's workstation. Ivan stood outside the door, still with a lack of emotion on his face. The purple mare wasn't immediately sure what the former human was thinking.

"I hope I'm not interrupting something," Ivan said. "But Leo's in there now. Rarity said it shouldn't take too long. Not as much work as I was. She also told me to tell you not to worry, but I guess Corey beat her to the punch."

Twilight was relieved to hear these news, and at the same, embarrassed and frustrated with herself. She'd never experienced something quite like what she was feeling before. Each time Corey did something that left an impression on her, her defenses were getting weaker and weaker. Underneath the sour look he often sported, she understood, was something bitter. But something sweet festered deep within, and something was bringing it out.

The studious mare wasn't stupid. She knew full well what-or rather, who, was bringing the sweet side out to play.

"Y-yeah, I guess I did," Corey stuttered. He sounded genuinely embarrassed to have been caught in that situation, just like back in the cafe. "T-the meeting s-shouldn't be that much longer, huh?"

"Y-yes, that's right, um," The purple pony was honestly flustered by the sudden turn of events. "Once Leo gets done..."

Using her magic, she reached for the checklist. Telling Rarity was done. Getting the humans together was the next step, which had been completed. They were nearly fitted, and as soon as Leo was out she'd mark that off. That only left a review of etiquette left once Leo was done. She'd have to get it done fast. It was a detail that she felt was necessary.

Even with these feelings slowly clouding her mind, she remained resolute on making sure the meeting went smoothly, and that her mentor would believe the former humans' story. Everything seemed to check out about them at the time, but now they seemed more "normal" by Equestria's standards. Yet...Corey said it himself.

If Princess Celestia had a reason to disbelieve Twilight, she would have sent a reply saying so. With this in mind, the purple mare set her mind back on-task.

"Do you understand all of that?"

This was Twilight's question after running down a laundry list of advice in dealing with Princess Celestia. She was calmer than earlier, but she was obviously still stressing over the event. None of the former humans knew what else to say other than an affirmative. There wasn't much else to do. Rarity had retired to the boutique once again, and Spike voiced his disappointments that he couldn't follow. After all, he was a good witness to meeting three of the former humans, one of which dropped from the skies.

The baby dragon was told to stay in a position where he could see the sun princess approaching. The seconds ticked by without much further incident. Then, Spike could see something approaching from the direction of Canterlot.

At first, it was distant. He broke out the binoculars from when John was falling the previous day, and began looking through them at the object. Through the lens, he could see a golden chariot, much like the one from so long ago when he and Twilight went to Ponyville. Only this time, the passenger was Princess Celestia herself!

The young dragon went on alert.

"Here she comes now, Twilight!" Spike called down. Immediately, Twilight's expression twisted into alertness as well.

"Outside! Hurry!" There was that insanity in Twilight's features again, but only for a moment, as she ushered the four former humans outside.

Ponies in town gazed to the sky as the chariot drew closer. Most of them did not think much of it. They had known for quite a while that the town's librarian was also the sun princess's student. To them, this was just a visit from teacher to student. Only a few in town--namely Twilight's friends, had a general idea of why Princess Celestia was really coming to town. Rarity had the closest idea, but even then, Twilight managed to leave out the "human" detail.

Ponies closer to the library showed their respect, bowing down to the chariot. As the chariot drew closer, the former humans were able to make out not only the flamboyantly armored pegasus ponies pulling the cart, but the royal figure they were carting.

She was tall, more so than any other pony in the town, including Big Macintosh. She was a cloud white color, with a magnificently colored mane and tail - pink, blue, green and purple. The mane was probably the one thing that stood out most of all, for, even as the chariot slowed to a halt in front of the Ponyville Library, the mane continued to billow, as though a flag in the wind. Her cutie mark, appropriately enough, was a representation of the sun. Of particular note was the fact she had both wings and a horn.

Corey, being a fanfiction reader, knew this as an alicorn. Leo, however, being an expert on mythology, knew said term was really used to refer to a unicorn's horn. Twilight and the other ponies referred to her species as a "pegasus unicorn".

If the flowing mane and possession of both wings and a horn wasn't regal enough, the fact she had on a golden crown, what could have been considered golden cuffs for ponies, and a golden necklace around her neck sure was. If any of the former humans were openly disrespectful, they probably would have still been compelled to bow down in begrudging respect.

Thankfully, all four of them knew that there was only one chance to make a good first impression. As the princess dismounted from the chariot, the six assembled at the library began to systematically bow. Twilight did so more out of habit than anything; Spike as well. John bowed as though he were human, which wasn't hard considering the only things seperating him from being human were scales and budding wings.

Ivan and Leo mimicked Twilight's posture, neither having a lot of difficulty. Corey looked around, having sort of zoned out at feeling the regal aura of the sun princess for the first time, and realized what he was doing. With a startled grunt, he quickly tried to mimic the postures of the other ponies around him. Unfortunately, as with most of his first impressions over the past few days, it went rather poorly. When he bowed, he bowed over way too far, shifting his balance too far forward too quick.

Thus, Corey's attempt to be respectful was met with further proof his new pony body was accident prone.

"Rise, my little ponies," commanded the sun princess. While the other former humans and natural-born denizens had little trouble obliging to this command, the pudgy green unicorn tried to rise up, only to realize his horn was stuck in the ground again, his rump high in the air and his forehooves scrabbling for traction.

"Corey..." Twilight started.

"Stuck again..." Corey responded, sounding more annoyed than anything. In response to this, John sighed, producing gray smoke. He splayed his fingers around the pony's forehead, and pushed back. The former human's new appendage quickly became unstuck, allowing Corey to stumble backwards off-balance.

Leo and Ivan, mostly Leo, snorted in suppressed laughter, as did Spike. Twilight, on the other hand, hung her head for a split second. She realized, however, that it probably couldn't be helped. With this in mind, the studious mare quickly went about business.

"Greetings, Princess Celestia," Twilight looked calmer than before. There was only slight nervousness in her demeanor now, compared to earlier. "These are the four beings from a different world I mentioned earlier in my letter."

"Well, at first glance, they certainly don't look the part," The sun princess stated (the obvious). The humans were caught just a little off-guard by how easygoing she seemed to be about all this. "But you did mention that they took the appearance of beings from this world."

"With all due respect," Leo cut in, "Can we move this meeting...inside? Right now, we are not sure we want our situation being publicly known just yet."

Both Corey and Ivan were stunned at Noel's capacity to be...polite. Corey decidedly less so, since he'd seen him earlier with Rainbow Dash.

The Princess didn't seem too disturbed by the question. One of her eyebrows raised, but her benevolent demeanor did not diminish. Her light purple eyes scanned the newcomers. Externally, they appeared to be normal ponies. However, she had to know for sure.

"Very well," answered the white alicorn. "I may have taken this meeting inside in any case. We do have a lot to discuss."

And with that, the group of ponies and dragons moved inside. The ponies outside went back about their business, thinking it odd that the three new colts and their friend, the pre-adult dragon, would be meeting the ruler of the land. Well, the co-ruler, anyway.

"Now then," Princess Celestia continued, looking down upon the former humans, still seeming to scan them for information. She still had a benevolent air about her, but it seemed a little lessened compared to outside. "I trust Twilight has already informed you of who I am, but I am Princess Celestia, one of the rulers of Equestria alongside my sister, Princess Luna."

Each of the former humans merely nodded.

"Please, introduce yourselves?" The princess looked to the four of them again.

"Ivan," This came from the brown earth pony, whose face betrayed barely any emotion whatsoever.

"Leo," This was the silver pegasus colt, who notably had a curved snout, like a female.

"John," The dragon spoke up. He was the closest one to the height of the princess, but still short in comparison. This left the green unicorn, who stared at the floor.

"C-Corey," He stuttered, looking up, as though he got caught doing something wrong.

All of their names were just as Twilight described them, all very abnormal by Equestria's standards. Things were pointing in the direction, but to be sure, Princess Celestia had to make sure that the humans' story didn't change much.

"So, if you wouldn't mind telling the story of how you four came to this world again, I would like to hear it?" Almost immediately, the eyes of the dragon and ponies all fell upon Leo, who shrunk just a little bit from the sudden glares.

"Leo screwed up!" This was John giving a false cough, no smoke billowing from his mouth.

"Big time!" Ivan falsely coughed.

"Remember what got us here," This was Corey, surprisingly not coughing.

"So, it was night time where we were, and all four of us were up late..."

The re-telling of the story began. Once again, Leo explained how high-tech the human world was, and all the important events that took place since the humans' arrival in Equestria.

Corey was subtly relieved to see that Leo didn't go into any embarrassing details. More importantly, he was relieved to see that Twilight wasn't as stressed, and that Princess Celestia was actually believing their story. Or at least, she appeared to be. She didn't interrupt as though Leo had contradicted himself. Once more, the story finished, and the room remained silent for a few long seconds.

"I see..." The sun princess said, taking all the information in. "So you wound up here through technological means rather than magical means, hm?"

"That's right," Leo responded. "No magic in our world."

"Your world sounds wonderful, though I wonder exactly what it's like to live without magic," Princess Celestia remarked, "I can't imagine it'd be altogether different, though it would be quite an adjustment."

If you only knew, thought the green unicorn, and he guessed his friends were probably thinking the same thing.

"Though, I must ask, you say there was only four of you, right?" the Princess asked. "And you, John, I understand, did not enter this world until later?"

"Yes, that's right," John responded. Tension filled the room. The benevolent air was still there, though now the princess appeared troubled by this information.

"Well, when Twilight informed me you four were of another world, I looked into any disturbances that might have been caused by your entry." The white alicorn continued. "And I found something odd. There was a second portal opened at the time Corey, Leo, and Ivan entered! Like the rest, it closed soon afterward, but it remains that there was another portal opened."

Everything stopped. Corey became numbed. What happened in the portal? He surveyed the room. John, Leo and Ivan were also stumped. Princess Celestia had the same somewhat concerned look on her face, and Twilight and Spike seemed just as concerned, if not more, by this information.

What happened in that vortex? thought the green unicorn. I didn't see Ivan or Leo in there. I just remember my body--mainly my head, hurt like hell...damn, I can't remember anything other than that!

"Does this mean..." Corey mumbled. "That another world was affected? Leo--"

"No," Leo continued. "Surely we would have seen fallout from something like that by now. I don't know what caused that other portal to open."

The library became dead quiet. This was normal on most days, excluding Twilight's slumber parties and the occasional conversation. However, this stillness was not normal. It was chilling, and no one, pony, former human, or dragon, had any real explanation.

Yeah, I'm convinced I messed up somewhere on the sun princess's character in this chapter. So yeah, call me "CliffMaster".

Act 1 Chapter 14

Act I: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 14: A Well-Wishing of Sorts?

No one, former human, pony, or dragon had any idea what to say in light of the recent revelations. A second portal opened around the same time the first opened? What, or who, else could have been pulled in with Corey, Leo and Ivan? It wasn't John - he didn't come in for three hours. It certainly couldn't have been any one of their Skype contacts, either. It was a Skype room specifically for the four of them. Leo confirmed that it wouldn't have sucked anyone else in.

So, the question remained: how many others were in Equestria, and how did they get there?

"It feels like a long shot," John finally began. "Has there been any other 'strange' ponies or other creatures sighted by anyone else here?"

"Not that I have been informed of," Princess Celestia responded. "However, it is strange that whoever came through the portal, assuming it is someone of your world, did not try to find any of you."

"Maybe--maybe," Twilight started, sounding as she was trying to piece something together. "whoever came out of the portal isn't sociable?"

"Whoever it is, we didn't see him," Corey cut in, "We were unconscious for an unknown amount of time. We could have been out from anywhere between a few moments to a few hours. Leo, Ivan, I didn't see either of you...did you see anyone that shouldn't have been there?"

"Nope, nothing," Ivan responded. "My entire body hurt, probably just like yours did."

"Nothing," Leo replied, "Same here. I had my eyes shut trying to block out the pain."

"So you really don't know who was pulled in, hm?" Princess Celestia seemed very patient and understanding with this information. "Whoever was pulled in will likely turn up soon though."

The room became quiet again.

"So, what happens now?" Spike asked, breaking the silence. "I mean, from what we know about their world, they'll need a 'computer' or whatever to find their way back without just winding up back here."

The former humans said nothing to this, and all hung their heads, but of particular note was Leo. He seemed truly ashamed of what his mistake had wrought. None of the natural-born Equestrians had anything to say for a few moments, but thankfully, it didn't take long for the sun princess to speak up.

"I suggest you don't trouble yourself too much with finding a way back," Princess Celestia suggested, her benevolent air fully returning. "Something will turn up sooner or later."

All four of the former humans thought slightly different about this suggestion. Corey had known it would have likely come to this; the problem, as Leo just said, was technological rather than magical. Leo himself still felt guilty, but was otherwise relieved to hear this. Ivan would have shrugged, probably also knowing Leo's mistake was rather critical, but he remembered he was quadrupedal. John suddenly looked a little uncomfortable, if only because he didn't quite know what fully grown dragons did in the show.

However, it seemed like the only one of the four that knew what to say to that was the one that thought of himself as the least vocal.

"There's not a lot of choice in that regard, is there?" Corey finally asked, this question obviously a rhetorical question. "Until we can find a way back, if we can find a way back, I guess we have to make do."

Ivan and John both offered a nod, not really seeing anything truly wrong with what Corey had just said, but Leo said nothing. He appeared to be deep in thought, and no one could see his face.

"Hey, Leo, what is it?" Twilight asked, concerned.

"Oh, no, it's nothing," Leo responded, looking back up. There wasn't the slightest trace of emotion in his voice or his face. It was like he just hung his head for the sake of hanging it. "Just thinking about things. We'll just need to make do for now."

"Don't worry," said Twilight. "As soon as things get sorted out, I'll start searching for a way to get you four home."

"Guess I'd better help," cut in Corey with a sigh. He didn't seem to be discomforted with speaking up about it. Either he wasn't thinking about what he was saying, or he didn't care how it sounded straight away. "I'm probably going to have trouble adjusting to the time in this world for a bit anyway, and besides, if you're still letting me stay here after all that's--" He halted, realizing where that was going. "--after this, it'd probably be more efficient."

"Of course you can stay--" Twilight sounded a little more excited than she intended to. No one in the room seemed to notice straight away, however. "I mean, you probably would feel more comfortable here..."

There wasn't much in the way of noise for a few seconds, before the sun princess lightly chuckled to herself. Ears pricked up where applicable, but it was Corey who spoke up.

"Uh, if you don't mind my asking, what is it?" he asked, trying to act as though nothing was wrong.

"Oh," Princess Celestia composed herself for a moment. She appeared to have "leveled out" to her former benevolent aura, now that the meeting was starting to draw to a close and she'd addressed almost everything. "It's nothing. I'm just glad to see that Twilight's found somepony--excuse me, someone, that she can study with..."

At first, no one in the room quite understood what the sun princess was getting at, and the entire library relaxed. Then Twilight realized what her mentor meant, and her cheeks turned slightly red.

"P-Princess, it--" she started, unable to finish and staring at the floor. With that statement, Corey immediately felt his own cheeks heat up, that all-too familar feeling returning.

D-did I just...get trolled there?! he thought to himself as he fought away the blush that coated his face. The other former humans said nothing. Leo and Spike appeared to be fighting off a small burst of laughter, while Ivan and John were comparatively more composed about this matter. The latter of the two decided to raise a question to shift the focus back onto more serious matters.

"So, what should we do, then, Princess?" John asked.

"From what I've heard today, I'd say the four of you are in good hooves...or hands, if you prefer," the princess responded. "I suppose the best thing for the four of you to do is to be patient. And it couldn't hurt to see what you could learn while you're here."

None of the four former humans had to be rocket scientists to figure out what the sun princess could possibly be alluding to.

"That will be all. I must take my leave now." Princess Celestia finished.

"Don't worry, Princess Celestia," said Twilight, having shaken off the comment made by her mentor earlier. "I'll help them adjust."

The student and mentor exchanged a quick hug. Farewells were exchanged between the monarch of the land and the former humans. With no further words, the sun princess boarded her carriage, and went back in the direction of Canterlot, leaving the former humans to ponder exactly where to go from there.

Twilight watched as her teacher's carriage grew distant, until it became a speck against the sky. She smiled. Her worries, at least about the meeting, were completely gone. Of course, there was the issue that this new portal brought in unexpected guests that were hopelessly lost. However, the purple mare wasn't too afraid for the moment. After all, Corey, Leo and Ivan did not notice anything when they regained consciousness. If someone else came out of that portal, it was very likely they were independent souls.

With this in mind, the unicorn turned to the former humans, who stood, also staring off into the distance.

"So," she started. "If you don't mind my asking, what did you think of Equestria's co-ruler of the sun?" It was a curiosity she had within. Twilight did want to know what they thought of Princess Celestia, since, even as her faithful student, the purple unicorn herself didn't know what to expect from her sometimes.

"For what she is," Corey responded. He cut himself off, his eyes widening. Twilight didn't immediately get why he had this reaction to his own words, but didn't get to ask, for he spoke again. "I mean, for what kind of job she's got to do every day, she's...a lot more easygoing than I expected, even when delivering the news about that other portal."

"Yeah, easygoing," said Leo. He somewhat tried to control himself. "And..." He cleared his throat. "Observant..."

The purple pony felt her cheeks heat up again, and was instantly reminded that even her teacher made note of the parallels between Corey and herself. It made ignoring those feelings even harder than before. Yet, Twilight knew three things about her situation. One, she never felt like this about anypony; two, she wouldn't know where to start (but that made two of them; Corey pretty much told her that); three, the former human in question, along with his friends, would eventually have to go home. However, the meeting only further hardened the potential that the former humans might never get back to their home universe, barring if Equestria finally started using technology like in the human world.

"Dang it, Leo..." Corey trailed off, clearly embarrassed. For a moment, Twilight had considered the former human's own feelings on the matter. Briefly, she wondered if he felt the same way. More than likely, he did, she thought to herself, despite the fact he probably felt similar walls separated them.

"Pretty much what Corey and Leo said. Not really what you'd expect a princess to be, but it obviously works for her," This was John, looking as though he were about to drag Leo off by his tail. Twilight wasn't about to ask why Ivan and John were trying to deflect the focus away. She probably had a good feeling why.

"Ditto," responded Ivan. "Not really a whole lot to say that they didn't already. Though I get the feeling that, her being the princess of the sun aside, I wouldn't want to see her bad side. People that easygoing...you probably don't want to tick off."

"Moving on," the silver pegasus cut in, "is it possible that we could keep this 'human' thing secret, at least for a few more days?"

Twilight felt herself grow just a little suspicious, but soon suppressed it. Certainly, if they were up to no good, by now she'd have been tipped off. Besides, with Rainbow and possibly others seeing something between herself and Corey, she didn't exactly feel up to telling them about the newcomers' humanhood, at least not yet.

"Alright, I'll keep this secret," the purple pony agreed, masking her internal doubts. The other humans gave no objections to this statement, though Twilight could have sworn she saw Corey slightly smirking while rolling his eyes.

"Ivan?" John asked. "I need to talk to you about something."

"Yeah, what is it?" Ivan answered, looking over to the large dragon.

"Come with me," John motioned with his head. Leo sighed, probably wondering what they were to talk about.

"I'll come along too," said Leo, already trotting over to them. The other two turned to him. "Want to give them some space."

John applied one of his hands to his face, while Ivan slowly shook his head.

"Are you going to hold that over his head the whole time we're here, Noel?" the brown earth pony asked. "C'mon, get out of here before you make that ancient."

The silver pegasus said nothing and trotted off after the other two.

Twilight found herself asking the same question, and briefly wondered exactly what Leo..or Noel, had been up to with Rainbow. Now that she was really thinking about things that had happened since the newcomers got to Equestria, she couldn't help but wonder why Leo and Rainbow Dash were spending so much time together.

"Spike," Twilight said, before leaning over and whispering into his ear. She knew full well how her request would sound, but she had good reasons. "could you leave us alone for a moment?"

Spike almost fell over and started snickering, but with a measurable amount of effort--Twilight could tell--he held his laughter in.

"Sure, what for?" the baby dragon asked. Now he had a teasing tone in his voice. The purple mare cast a quick look to the green unicorn who hadn't moved much since his friends left the library, and saw that he too was getting just a little annoyed at the constant references.

"Well," Twilight began. "I guess it's a human thing more than anything--" She cut herself off, watching Corey close his eyes, starting to concentrate.

Outside the library, the three former humans known as Ivan, John and Leo stopped in the fields. All three were still wearing their tuxedos. Ivan himself didn't have any real complains about the tux. It was the first time he had ever worn formal clothing, and he felt he could stand to wear it a little longer.

"Alright, what is it, John?" asked Ivan.

"Well, I've been meaning to ask for a bit now, but I never really got the chance," replied John. Ivan felt the need to justify his behavior.

"Hey, the books here are actually more interesting than you think they are," responded the youngest of the former humans. "Can't say it beats manga, though."

"I guess not," the oldest of the former humans responded. Leo merely nodded to this. "Anyway," John continued, "I was wondering, how has doing that farm work been?"

Ivan considered how hard he'd been worked on the farm the past day and a half he'd worked there. The farm's owners had certainly been doing their share of work since their childhoods, or foalhoods or whatever, and didn't feel winded by it. They were all hard workers. The former human himself wasn't particularly known for working hard, but he did bring it on himself.

"I'm surprised I didn't get as tired as I usually do when I work that hard," Ivan finally realized aloud. "Back home, an afternoon of yard work would burn me out."

"Maybe your pony body has more stamina. Certainly would explain why Corey's been able to do so much," Leo responded. "No offense to him..."

"Oh sure, you say that now..." Ivan replied. "When you're probably going to be ripping on him based on this Twilight thing..."

"About that, Ivan..." John said. "Not so sure it's just a 'thing'..."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Well," The dragon paused. "Oh, never mind. Corey'd have my head if I told you any of that. More to the point, Leo, what about you and Dash?"

Leo recoiled slightly from this question, making Ivan wonder exactly what he'd missed when he left the group to sleep at the farm. It seemed like the silver pegasus had been omitting parts of the story, but the former human decided not to pry.

"No importa," The former human went on in Spanish.

"Por qué?" This was John responding. "No controlarla temprano!"

"Te voy a matar..." Leo responded listlessly.

"Hey, I can't understand a thing you're saying," Ivan responded, and this was true. "Repeat all that in English?"

"Esto no ha terminado," said the dragon, "Anyway," he now turned his attention back to Ivan. "I was gonna ask if you wouldn't mind me taking your place at the farm."

Like Ivan was going to ask someone else. Whether he liked it or not, he was going to have to do some work. After all, he did impose by napping there. Besides, he didn't want to cause others hardship because of something he did or was. His laziness would not outweigh this personal responsiblity, no matter what.

"Wouldn't want to cause you trouble," responded the brown earth pony.

"I'm a dragon. After what happened today, I'm pretty sure I can take it." John said.

"So wait, you pulled me aside for this?" asked Ivan, raising an eyebrow. "And since when did you become the 'wingman'?"

Leo snickered to himself, while the older dragon shrugged.

"That's what I wanna know," John responded. "Anyway, I guess you're right. Now, let's get back inside so we can get these tuxedos off."

Ivan suddenly realized something that he knew Corey probably realized the night before.

How the hell do these ponies wear clothes anyway? Unicorns, winged unicorns, I get, but pegasi and earth ponies...seriously, how the hell does that work?

Corey sighed. Somehow or another, he had done it without charring the tuxedo or causing it to combust. His brow was somewhat traced with sweat, and indeed, his head was a little sore, but his magic control was definitely making significant improvements. If he kept up, soon he'd be doing the levitation spell with minimal trouble and wouldn't need to close his eyes while doing it. The tuxedo he was wearing was now on the floor in front of him. He caught Twilight's eyes studying him intently again. Spike nudged her, though whether he intended it to be a playful nudge or a "wake-up" nudge didn't exactly register with the former human straight away.

"Huh?" Twilight asked. "Oh!" She gasped, apparently having caught herself looking again.

"You really would be a great teacher," Spike quipped, snickering to himself as he walked over to one of the bookcases. Twilight merely gave a sigh, the blushing from earlier only slight compared to when the Princess made her comment.

"Anyway," the purple pony continued as though Spike hadn't said anything, "I thought...well, removing clothing like that wasn't a decent thing in human culture."

Corey immediately recoiled from this, really wishing he'd thought that one through.

"Well, I'm not exactly human anymore, am I?" asked Corey.

"I know, but..." she halted, lowering her voice. "Yesterday night, when you were wearing that uniform, you were really embarrassed at that..."

The green colt sighed. Was she going to start giving him crap too?

"Yeah, not my brightest move. I'm actually wondering, though, and this is probably going to come out wrong, but," He tried to find a way to say it. "Why do you all wear clothes? Most of you that I've met usually...don't."

"Well," Twilight didn't seem too offended by his question, "We wear clothes mainly for formal occasions, weddings, ceremonies, things like that. Or if it's Nightmare Night."

"'Nightmare Night'?" That was a new one on Corey. He might have read about it somewhere before. "Sounds...kinda like Halloween back on Earth. Do you dress up in costumes and get candy on that day?"

"More or less," Twilight said. The discussion might have continued, if not for a sudden noise outside.

"Oof!" This was a masculine grunt.

"Oh! Hi, Ivan!" And an all-too familiar squeal. "And you two are here too? What's with the fancy clothes? Was there a wedding I didn't know about?"

"Whoa, slow down there, Pinkie," Ivan's voice rang out, with only a faint embarrassment in it. "And uh...could you...get up off me please?"

"Oh, right!" Twilight blurted out. "In all the commotion, I nearly forgot about--!" She cut herself off. "Never mind, Pinkie's probably been looking to talk to me all day about something."

"What about?" Corey asked, trying to play the "clueless" card. "Can't be physics..."

Without pausing to answer, Twilight began to hurry out the door, and Spike soon followed, though he was still at least somewhat amused over previous events. Corey breathed an exhale and thought to himself.

Good thing they're not planning a Christmas party...if I know Rainbow Dash like I think I do...mistletoe would be an integral part of her pranks... thought Corey.

First John, then Rainbow, then Leo, then Ivan and Pinkie...and now Princess Celestia. My God, it's like fate itself is trying to push us together...

Terrified, Corey turned from the door, hearing somewhat of an argument taking place outside.

I don't know....I probably shouldn't let it, even with the fact I might be here forever. But...can I help myself? She's...adorable, intelligent, and...and a little on the high-strung side. And she's been nice to me... thought the green unicorn to himself. From that talk I had earlier, should I really just let this go?

He never quite finished that train of thought, for the front door slammed open. The three other former humans walked inside, looking back towards Twilight, Spike, and Pinkie, who were looking in.

"Um," Twilight started, "Pinkie needs me to check up on something. I'll be back soon!"

All four of the former humans weren't dim. Even John knew what was going to come next. However, they all once again pretended to be clueless as to what was going on, and let the ponies and dragon go wherever they were going. With that over, it was John who spoke up next.

"So, I guess your magic control's getting better?" John asked. Corey was immensely grateful he didn't directly ask whether or not he got the tuxedo off. But it took him a few seconds to understand John's question all the same.

"Yeah, it is," Corey said. "So...who else wants to get their suits off before the next event starts?"

The looks he received from the other three indicated his paramount misstatement. With an exasperated sigh, and possibly against his better judgment, the green unicorn added.

"Please, you heard the Princess..."

Minutes later, the four former humans were on the streets of Ponyville, en route to the so-called "Sugarcube Corner". While they knew full well what was going on, they bought the purple duo's story that there was a small cake there they wanted to get from the shop. Something about Pinkie's treat, too. Yet, something would have seemed off even if the foursome hadn't watched a single episode of the show. The streets were mostly empty, save for maybe a couple of necessary ponies.

John, Leo, and Corey had decided to ditch their tuxedos. Surprisingly, Leo managed to get his off without tearing the fabric. It wasn't a lot of trouble, but it took him a good five minutes to get the main part of the suit over his head. From there, the sleeves just slid down to the floor. John didn't have any trouble since he retained thumbs even as a dragon. Ivan, on the other hand, didn't even bother trying.

He was still wearing the suit.

"Honestly, Ivan," Corey said, trotting along, still looking downward. "It's like you want to get your head mounted on Rarity's wall..."

"Hey, it's the first time I've ever worn formal clothes," Ivan responded, looking to Corey. It was one of the few times he had shown any emotion, but the boy remembered it to be the same look when the younger former human referenced Fairy Tail. "And I have to say, I don't care, I'm keepin' this on."

"Suit yourself," The unicorn colt responded with a sigh. The sense of dread from before was returning now that he knew he was about to enter a party. From the looks of it, most of the town would be there, and he honestly didn't do a whole lot of mingling with anyone. Now, however, he probably wouldn't have a choice.

"Well, I knew Ivan was gonna be the first," Leo said. "Look, he's even dressed for his funeral!"

"Oh for the love of G--" Corey cut himself off. Could he really fully adapt to the dialect, and keep that part of the cover up? After all, she was the closest thing to one in the series. "C-Celestia," his voice lowered dramatically, and the other three snickered to varying degrees, if only for the fact they knew what he was aiming for in saying that. "Leo, cut it out with the references!"

It was a real struggle to keep his voice lowered, since his patience was starting to reach its limits with the near-constant Cupcakes references. Then again, Corey considered it was karma for the preceding summer when he wouldn't stop referencing a Pokemon-related creepypasta. Still, his references were harmless. If Pinkie caught wind of fanfiction back on Earth, a shitstorm would brew incredibly fast.

"You know, Noel," Ivan cut in.

"Leo!" the silver pegasus angrily retorted.

"Pinkie did let me try a new cupcake she'd made..."

"Don't encourage him, Ivan!" It took all of Corey's restraint to not scream this information to his friends. His patience was close to being exhausted, on top of all the stuff that had been happening to him since arriving in Equestria.

He was the lightning rod for awkward moments, and he had a pretty strong suspicion he had a very close bond with Twilight-perhaps a dangerously close one at that. He was the only one that had to be undressed by a mare. That, combined with the general situation and the fact most of Twilight's friends probably saw something between them, had brought Corey dangerously close to exploding in fury.

"So, anyway," John cut in, apparently sensing this and wishing to prevent the outburst, "we all pretty much know we're going into our...welcome party, right?" This last statement was said while looking around, making sure no ponies were in earshot.

All four former humans agreed. Corey's dread refused to leave. He wasn't one for public venues. A high school pep rally would exhaust him if he didn't deal with it properly. All the same, he knew there was no use in avoiding the party. If he didn't find it, it would find him.

"Yeah, that's right," responded the former human as the foursome continued their trek. Finally, they found the building, which looked like a gingerbread house with two cupcakes atop it. Needless to say, it literally looked sweet. "Alright, we're here..."

God, this building is making me hungry! thought the former human, agitated by this fact.

"Well, here we go," John observed, folding his arms or arm-like appendages. They looked like arms enough to the former human, though, so as far as Corey was concerned, they were scaly arms tipped with claws. At least he could hold things without breaking logic. "Hope no one melts down over this..."

"So, you guys ready to become cupcak--" Leo began. Corey whirled his head around, and glared with more intensity than he probably intended to. Then he realized that Ivan and probably John were also looking at him in a similar way, for he did see Ivan showing some level of exasperation on his features. "I mean, ready to party?"

Clearly, even Noel had his limits when it came to trying other people's patience. With this exchange over, Corey felt it was time to brief the others in his travelling party, when suddenly, Ivan was shoved at his side. John stumbled just a little to move out of the way.

Leo had just pushed Ivan in front, with a crooked smile on his face.

"Ivan first!"

"I swear to God, Leo..." It was really hard for Corey to keep the silver pegasus's name preference in mind with his constant need to be a dick to the others. Realizing the four were wasting time, Corey dropped his voice as low as he could get it so his friends could hear. "We...we all know what's on the other side of this door...so no matter what, be surprised..."

He reached out with telekinesis, the part with shaping the magic energy coming naturally to him. He turned the door's handle, and applied gentle force to it, using quite a bit of effort to prevent crunching the handle in his magical grip. He pushed it open, and the other three filed in. The green unicorn then followed in himself, and shut the door.

The instant the door closed, the lights within the corner came on, and ponies of all shapes, sizes, and colors all appeared, and all screamed out a single word.

"SURPRISE!!"

Confetti seemed to rain down from above. The large "foyer" area behind the front door, Corey realized, was one gigantic party scene. From the looks of the crowd, quite a bit assembled. He'd figured John's appearance would have thinned out the crowd more, but it appeared that wasn't the case.

As for Corey, he was glad he'd let the handle go and applied gentle force to the door. If he'd been in the midst of performing a spell, he might have burst the handle clean off from the honest shock he'd felt. He held the shock on his face for as long as he could stand to. He only hoped that his friends mirrored the same surprise that he held.

Noel was just a little amused at the preceding outbursts from Corey. It looked like smarts and to a certain extent social awkwardness wasn't the only thing he had in common with Twilight. All the same, Leo still needed to break his so-called phobia. The party scene wasn't exactly helping. The sweet scent of baked goods filled the air, and the former human had a low tolerance for sweet scents. The fact he was at a party didn't exactly help either. However, he also knew there wasn't any use in avoiding it.

For now, Leo decided to stay as under the radar as he could, and try to avoid the one that planned all thi--

"Hiii!!" This was Pinkie, somehow coming up behind him. In this case, Leo jumped up from the shock and landed perfectly in John's arms.

"C'mon, she's not that scary," Ivan responded.

"Were you surprised? Even I was surprised, too!" The party pony went on about a mile a minute. Leo tried to shut out the thoughts of the creepypasta as he got down off of John. There wasn't any time for it. "C'mon, let's try out the cupcakes!"

Oh God not the cupcakes! thought the former human to himself. It seemed like he wasn't able to avoid the constant references to the fanfiction. Apparently, his friends were ignoring his warnings too, given they were actively following the party pony. Leo sighed, and followed them to a table.

He was going to deal with this one way or another. Pinkie continued the trend of lifting things on fingerless hooves as she somehow passed the cupcakes to each of the ponies. Leo found himself and Ivan replicating a similar feat as they received the cupcakes, while Corey concentrated for a moment, and lifted the cupcake off of Pinkie's hoof. Some of the confection slightly caved in, and as soon as Corey noticed this, he loosened his grip slightly, Leo assumed.

The cupcake had a little too much frosting for Leo's liking, so, while no one was looking, he quickly grabbed a napkin and scraped a good deal of it off before quickly putting it into his mouth, which his friends had already tried. Corey, Ivan and John weren't experiencing any symptoms of discomfort. A quick check on Pinkie confirmed she had produced a bottle of hot sauce and was putting the condiment on the confection she now held.

As Pinkie indulged into her spicy sweet dessert item, Leo ate the cupcake he'd eaten.

"Hey Leo," This was John, whispering. "Do you think she put hot sauce in these?"

"Not that I can taste, no," Leo responded, still using his low voice. "A lot sweeter than the ones back home."

It was true. The cupcake tasted as though it had around thirty-three percent more sugar than they usually had back on Earth, and this was after he'd taken off some of the frosting. He wondered vaguely how much sugar would have been on it had he not taken the icing off the cake.

Afterward, the foursome that swapped world split up. Corey remained at the table, while Ivan and John decided to socialize, more so with John than Ivan. The dragon was actually greeting some ponies and talking with them here and there, and Ivan mostly seemed to be interacting when called upon.

"Hey Leo!" Rainbow Dash greeted, snapping Leo from his thoughts. There was something different about her, but Leo did not know what to say.

"Oh, hello Dash," responded the former human as he turned to her. Again, his heart remembered the crush, but he did not flounder about as Corey did. It wasn't nearly as obvious, at least, that's what Leo hoped as the conversation took off.

Rainbow Dash found herself convinced of something. After Leo departed to attend a meeting with, of all ponies, the sun princess herself, she had some time to think. Things certainly had gotten strange since Leo and his friends showed up in town yesterday, but it didn't seem evil. At least, from what she could tell. The newcomers certainly weren't banished or worse, they were still alive and didn't look scared, so obviously they were able to pass the Princess's test.

More to the point, she spent the last few hours leading up to the party thinking about the silver pegasus colt with the rounded snout. She'd found herself thinking a little too much about him lately, but it was starting to get worse and worse with preceding incidents.

She had a good feeling that John didn't have any feelings towards Rarity, at least, not that she could tell. The earth pony, Ivan, on the other hand...well, she couldn't really tell either of them. Pinkie had way too much energy. It would have been hard to tell if she brought him along out of a budding crush or just because she was Pinkie Pie. As for Ivan, she couldn't tell how he felt about much of anything, even now, though she could have sworn he saw him start to smile again when Pinkie personally greeted them.

If any of the newcomers were obvious, it would have been the colt that stuck out like a sore hoof. And had a weight problem to boot. He couldn't mask his emotional scape as much as he probably thought. Twilight too seemed obvious enough. They probably didn't completely realize how they were meant for each other, in Rainbow's eyes anyway.

And man, oh man, were they ripe targets. Two bookworms in love, and a library to themselves. What could have possibly been better.

With all this considered, Rainbow found herself letting more and more thoughts about Leo come readily into her psyche. The thoughts came and went, but they weren't as distracting as she thought they would be. It didn't seem fathomable to her that she'd find herself crushing on a pony like him, and indeed, she'd spent the last day or so denying it, even when it was right in front of her.

But could she admit to having these feelings that she'd never felt before? Not yet. She just couldn't bring herself full circle. For now, Rainbow resolved, she'd play it cool and see what came of things first.

"So how was the meeting with Princess Celestia?" she asked, in a low whisper to prevent prying ears. Some of the ponies had been talking about the event, but still, she had a friend that was basically close friends with the royal family, so the cyan mare figured she could at least respect that.

"Pretty standard, not a whole lot to expect. Twilight was fussing over the details though," Leo responded. Dash stifled a giggle that worked its way up in her throat.

"I warned you how she can get sometimes!" Rainbow playfully hoofed Leo in the side.

"S-speaking of Twilight," the silver colt suddenly looked discomforted, and indeed he didn't look like he wanted to say what he wanted to.

"Oh no, go on, Leo," The rainbow-maned pony encouraged with a mischievious grin, "I promise I won't tell what you're about to say."

"Well, during the meeting, Corey decided to say something, said he'd help Twilight study, and..."

"Oh my gosh! Really? No way! She said that?!"

Ivan's ear twitched as he registered the fact that Rainbow was laughing openly at something Leo obviously said to her. Given the somewhat guilty look on the male's face, it probably had something to do with Princess Celestia's statement. If Ivan were prone to showing emotion, he'd have given a disapproving frown, but instead, he just sighed.

Man, Corey's going to hurt him one day. He looked like he was considering it outside... Ivan thought to himself, though his face did not betray this whatsoever. His face had went back to its emotionless husk. Whenever a pony would try and start conversation with him, he would socialize. However, he didn't start any conversations on his own.

He was still doing better than Corey, who remained at the punch table and merely answered some of the background ponies in short, incomplete sentences. He seemed slightly agitated, but he could tell he was trying to be happy at least. And when he did a double take on Leo's position, Leo seemed to be perfectly content with his arrangement. John seemed to be the one that could be social, though.

"Iiiivan," Pinkie immediately brought him out of his trance, this time by seemingly appearing out of nowhere, directly on his left. "Why are you still wearing that? This isn't some high-class party, it's just a simple welcome party! Well, not simple! This one I took special care in planning, every little detail."

Ivan looked around at this statement, trying to take in details he might have overlooked. There were streamers, balloons, and confetti, all brightly colored. The cupcake that he was given was sweet, not like the recipe Pinkie was trying. There were smaller details, strewn throughout the room, which slowly tipped off the former human one by one.

She really put in a little bit of effort into this...

"I had to make it extra-special for you four," Pinkie continued. "Your unicorn friend doesn't seem to smile, the silver colt seems scared of something I'm not sure of, you seem to be a real sleepyhead and John's...a much bigger dragon than Spike! He's almost full-grown, and usually they turn out to be real mean, but from what I can see he's not too bad..."

The sheer energy of the pony forced Ivan to smile, slowly but surely.

"I thought you were asking about why I was wearing this?"

"Oh! Why are you wearing it? Trying to impress somepony?" Her voice dropped to a whisper, and for a few good seconds Ivan wasn't entirely sure what to make of the following statement. "Or me?"

Did she just...? wondered the former human to himself. If she did, she sure isn't shy when it comes to this stuff.

"You know, seeing you in that suit makes me feel like dancing..." Pinkie continued, causing Ivan to jump on the inside. He didn't show any of his shock externally, but this statement did catch the brown earth pony off-guard. "What do you say? Wanna dance?"

"I..." Ivan started, completely unsure of what to say. "I don't know if I can dance..."

"C'mon," the pink mare continued, "It's easy! Here, I'll show you how!"

The incredibly bubbly pony proceeded to bob along to the music, as one would expect of her. However, she began adjusting to the rhythm of the music in the background, and soon she was moving around in the body.

Huh, she can dance in a very humanlike way...

John looked all around the party scene. Ivan seemed to be fighting back the urge to smile as Pinkie danced, Leo and Dash were having a pretty good time together, even though Dash seemed to be the one having most of the fun, and Corey still hung out at the punch table.

No, wait, he wasn't alone. A double take revealed that while he'd been socializing, Twilight and Spike had arrived. The purple mare in question appeared to be trying to coax the green colt away from the comfort zone he'd allotted himself, and actually socialize at least a little bit. Corey seemed a little hesitant, and Twilight seemed to be understanding of him.

God I feel like a spare tire, thought John to himself. With a small sigh, the former human turned dragon  nodded to himself. Oh well. Guess if Applejack's here, should see if she'd let me help out around the farm. Wonder how that'll go.

Deciding to get this taken care of right now, John stood up from the chair he'd sat down on, his height allowing him to peer beyond the crowd of ponies. Sure enough, he spotted her, the hat giving her away. He began to walk towards the crowd. By this point, the ponies were only mildly shocked that a dragon was in their midst, and seemed to be adjusting to this, so they didn't find it too frightening that there was a near-adult dragon walking within the Sugarcube Corner.

It wasn't that hard for Applejack to notice him. She'd seen him coming a ways off, but it was he who spoke first.

"Hey, Applejack, can I talk to you for a sec?" he asked, trying to sound as friendly as possible.

"Sure partner, what is it?" the orange farmer pony responded. She still seemed just a little wary, but John couldn't blame her. He still looked like a dragon and no one aside from the sun princess, Twilight and Spike knew the truth behind the scales. Or the fur, in the case of the other former humans.

"I'm wondering, how's Ivan been on the farm?" John asked again, wanting to hear the orange pony's opinion first. "I only assume you had him work."

"Up 'til lunch, then he told me 'bout the meeting with, of all ponies, Princess Celestia herself! I didn't want to believe it, but then I saw the carriage not too long ago." The orange farmer pony said. "I'm not sure what to make of it."

"Well, you see, I'm kinda concerned that he's not gonna make it through many more days without falling asleep on the job," John continued. "So I was wondering, can I take his place?"

"Wha--?" Applejack's face twisted into somewhere between confusion and concern. "You work on the farm?"

"Yes, that's what I'm asking. Don't know how long Ivan's gonna hold out..."

Applejack was at a loss for words. One thing, she had a dragon that was a good deal bigger than she was asking to work voluntarily on the farm, something that didn't normally happen straight away with newcomers. Another thing, he seemed genuinely concerned for his friends' well-being. On top of everything else, her questions about the four newcomers increased. What exactly was going on here? She'd managed to convince herself that something would come out so far, but so far, nothing was going on.

"If you want to, we could always use extra muscle," Applejack finally responded. "Don't know if I can let Ivan go so easy, though. He does better than I'd have expected of him."

"He also tires out way too easily," the dragon responded. "If you work him too hard, he gets really tired really quick. I'm a dragon; I think I can take it."

The orange farmer pony found herself getting relaxed, even as they began arguing back and forth about the brown earth pony. It wasn't as though the farmer mare had any attachment to Ivan; there wasn't much in the way there for him, but John did raise a good point. He seemed to tucker out awfully easy, but he would trudge on in spite of this. She wasn't entirely sure why she was arguing with him over the issue, certainly this dragon could take farm work if he could take digging for gems, but she wasn't sure if Corey needed him more in the same way that Twilight needed Spike.

She was just about to raise this issue when the music changed. This in itself wasn't important; however, Applejack felt something bump into her side, and turned to see Pinkie dancing around. The music had apparently gotten her into quite the mood for moving, and she continued to bounce off others, first John, who really didn't have much of a reaction other than to stand there and wonder what happened. Then she spun around a little underneath the silver pegasus, Leo, who flinched somewhat. She continued to bounce off other ponies, who started to dance along.

"Is she always like this?" asked John, probably to himself more than anything.

"Yeah, that's Pinkie Pie for ya," responded Applejack. This was perfectly normal for the pink earth pony in some cases. She was still unpredictable though. "If she feels the need to do somethin', not a lot's gonna stop her."

A thought nagged at the orange earth pony, however, but she quickly shut it out, trying to focus on having fun.

It was true. Even at parties thrown for himself, Corey never felt truly comfortable in them. He just avoided social contact, even at large gatherings like this. Hell, he'd had his chops busted at a college orientation over his introversion, though like Twilight told him, his condition wasn't easily identifiable even now.

Yet, when Twilight talked to him, he changed, even if only subtly. It was true, he still wasn't completely comfortable talking around others quite yet, and she seemed so patient and understanding with him that he couldn't help but attempt being social. Slowly but surely, she'd lead him away from the punch table. They conversed about his sociability, something which wouldn't put off Corey completely in the past, but it was also something he wasn't sure if he could talk about.

"I'm sort of curious, though," Twilight said in a low voice so others couldn't listen in. "Is there another reason, beside what you told me about, that you're being so shy about things? It is your party, well, yours and Leo's, Ivan's and John's, but still, you're one of the guests of honor."

"Well," Corey began, his mouth once again taking off ahead of him. "Honestly..." He realized what he was about to say, and he hesitated. Twilight gave him a sort of pleading look. She really wanted to know, and he wondered how he could say no. He found that he couldn't, and relented. "I'm afraid...I'm afraid of rejection too."

"Corey," she cut in, leaning in a little closer to him, "From what I've seen from you, there's no need for you to be that afraid. You're not as bad as you think you are. Yes, you tend to say the wrong things most of the time, but sometimes you say some..." This time she hesitated. "Sweet, I guess would be the word for it, things. Yes, sometimes you can be goofy, but I think it's something that worked for you."

Twilight was right. It had in the past. Granted, he wasn't sure if he'd made acquaintances by screaming out internet memes from memory, but it had worked for him. He was content with being able to make people laugh, sometimes at the expense of himself. Even now he'd attack himself based on weight and anything else undesirable about himself: his lack of social life, his hobbies, just about anything society would look down on. In his mind, he was encouraging "creative" insults that didn't involve any of his negatives.

"Yes, it has before," admitted the former human after some silence. "But I don't know if what I did back home would work here."

"Don't be scared of the unknown," the purple mare continued, smiling gently to him. He could detect a flicker of emotion in her eyes, but what it was remained unclear to him.

"I wish I could," Corey thought aloud. There wasn't any use in denying it. There was something there between himself and the purple pony before him, but he doubted he could ever bring himself to tell her how he felt. He was afraid of the unknown factors in that.

Caught up in the conversation, Corey didn't notice something straight away. Twilight's eyes widened, and she said to him.

"Watch out!" she warned. Corey whirled around, and saw a pink pony dancing around with random movements. The music had changed; the green unicorn knew that. Was this Pinkie's "song"? Whatever the case, if he got pushed, he didn't want to know what would happen, so, by pure instinct, he dodged, tensing the muscles in his rear end and standing up straight.

"Not this time," the former human whispered. He remained suspended in that position for two seconds, then realized, as Pinkie went out of sight and around to the other side, that he once again forgot his new quadrupedal stature, and started to lose balance. Twilight got up on her hind legs, a little shakily, trying to help him back down. Corey shut his eyes, and the next, he heard something collide. Then something, probably Twilight collided into him.

What happened next, he doubted he could ever forget. His senses momentarily left him as he registered he was falling over backwards with a girl--well, mare--on top of him. Just like Leo on the first day with Rainbow Dash, and just like Ivan a little while earlier with Pinkie Pie. Only this was an accident that probably was even less avoidable than either of those incidents.

Corey's eyes remained closed as he assessed his senses as they came back to him. He was in fact on his back, his forehooves pinned to his chest and his hind legs stretched out flat on the floor. There was a warm body atop him, and pinning him to the ground with its slight weight. Just as he registered this was Twilight, the sound of hooves thudding on the floor occurred, probably Pinkie.

"Oh, gosh, I'm sorry Twilight, I was just--" Pinkie began. She then halted, something very uncharacteristic. Here, Corey realized he felt a wet pressure on his mouth. It wasn't until the party pony gasped loudly, just as she had done on day one, and the chatter around the room ground to a halt, that the green unicorn's eyes shot open, just as Twilight's did now.

Her purple eyes were widened in shock, and his were as well. Truth be told, Corey had absolutely no idea how to feel right now. His brain had gone numb, and none of the muscles in his body would respond straight away. Twilight's snout and his were pushed up against each other as a result of the fall. That alone was embarrassing enough, but the fact he realized their lips had somehow become interconnected as a result on the fall...

He could do nothing but lie there, trying desperately to finish processing what happened and hoping Twilight was a faster processor than he was under such conditions, because from what he could feel, she couldn't move either.

--

It was something no one, unicorn, pegasus, earth pony, dragon, or former human could have possibly foreseen. There, somewhat away from the punch bowl but not quite at the main "dance floor", was the town's librarian atop a heavy-set green unicorn, locking lips. They both began to redden in the face, and neither of them could move.

No one knew what to say right away, but "oohs" and "awes" started to come from the crowd, most of the former and a deliberate sprinkling of the latter.

Of all the living creatures in the room, the ones who knew the least about what to do were the ones at the epicenter of the incident.

Corey and Twilight Sparkle had been spending the last couple of days trying to avoid awkward moments, only to walk into them. Recently, they'd been getting into more and more of them, if caused only by the word of others. Now, as realization dawned on them, they realized Pinkie's dance had inadvertently caused a milestone for both of them.

For the green unicorn colt that was once a human and the purple unicorn mare that was naturally born a pony; for each of them, it was their first kiss.

Act 1 Chapter 15

Act I: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 15: Some Color Mixes Make Red

The two unicorns remained interconnected for the longest time, remaining in that awkward position for a full minute in real time. Both of them, however ,had above-average intelligence when compared to most of their peers. So, that full minute was more than enough time for them to completely freak themselves out over what just happened. Cheeks burned worse than any injury, and even if the skin was covered by fur, the reddened cheeks could light up one-half of a rave party. Hearts beat faster and faster.

I...I just...kissed...a pony...

My gosh...I...I don't know how to feel!

I-I--like it?!

He's...not from this world, but...

Is...is this what's it's supposed to feel like?

I've never felt this way about anypony--anyone before...

I-I c-can't believe it, but...it's...it's true. Despite--

Despite all the barriers that seperate us...

Something did exist between us after all...

Just like Princess Celestia said...

I...I have to tell her how I feel...

I-I don't know...I don't know! Where do I begin!?

"Ah-hah!!" This was Rainbow Dash's voice, perfectly capping off the awkwardest of awkward moments Twilight had ever experienced. Embarrassment raked at her every nerve, but bubbling up even further than that was fear. She didn't know what she was getting into. Leaving aside the fact Corey was an extradimensional being below the pudgy pony body, she'd never gotten into a relationship before. She'd never truly felt like this towards anypony, or anyone for that matter. Friendship, her brother, her family, close and extended...all of it, she'd never felt these feelings.

The purple mare understood only one thing about what she was feeling right now: it was known as "love". But she wasn't sure what to do from here. She landed on top of him and given him a smooch, both completely accidental, but both more than likely unavoidable. Should she just come out and tell him her thoughts? What should she do?!

She tried her hardest to keep her head together as she finally broke away from Corey, who gasped just a little for air. At first, she felt downcast, until she realized his cheeks were reddened considerably. She didn't realize it, but her face was redder still. Twilight finally managed to stand straight up and back off a few steps. The green colt lay on his side, trying to hide his face. Apparently, he realized this was absolutely fruitless, for he soon rolled back onto his belly. Twilight watched him, a raging battle taking place within her head.

Compared to the preparations for the meeting, it wasn't as bad, but it was really bad. She was dully aware the anxiety was quickly building, but for the life of her Twilight Sparkle couldn't stop herself from fretting over this. Her jaw shuddered, as she tried to say something, anything, but the dance room remained awkwardly silent. Even Rainbow was quieted, but the purple pony could have done with a comment from the peanut gallery.

Twilight couldn't take it anymore. Too many prying eyes, too much embarrassment, and no idea what to do about any part of the situation...she didn't know much.

All she knew was that she liked the fact they'd kissed. But that wasn't enough. She lowered her head, turned tail, and bolted.

She needed to gather herself, away from the eyes, forgetting about everything else.

John watched the scene before him, stunned and concerned at what he was seeing. The fact it happened at all didn't bother him, but the fact it happened in front of everybody--well, everypony and his grandmother was bad enough. The former human turned dragon thought it couldn't have gotten worse, but he was wrong. For whatever reason, Twilight ran out. Not feeling up to figuring out why, John instead opted to pay attention to Corey's reactions to the event.

He seemed intensely confused. From the look on his face, he could tell he wanted to follow, but he probably couldn't move with hundreds of eyes on him. He also seemed hurt, but he didn't say so much as a word, staring towards where Twilight left with a pronounced look of confused sadness etched on his face.

Jeez, how many times do I have to play wingman? thought John to himself. Need to create a distraction, but what? He looked to his hand, remembering that he was holding a cupcake. Could this work?

John stared hard at the cupcake, trying to figure out what he should do.

Let's make this the best acting of my life...

She had to be honest with herself. Applejack just couldn't process what she was looking at straight away. It seemed way too soon for any of that. Sure, when she'd first met the clumsy green unicorn, she had seen similarities between him and Twilight, but was it possible that those similarities could lead to something a lot more than friendship so soon?

For that matter, she had a somewhat decent idea of why Twilight fled. It wasn't embarrassment, at least, it wasn't the main cause. She knew her unicorn friend didn't have a grasp on something if she didn't read about it first. Or maybe she felt confused about what happened and it really got to her. Whatever the case, the farmer pony had no idea what to say or do now that what happened to the unicorns happened.

A sound, similar to that of someone coughing, suddenly came from right beside her. John collapsed to his knees, his arms to his throat, choking. The sound of the dragon collapsing snapped everyone back to attention, and all heads turned to John.

"What in tarnation--" Applejack started, before paying closer attention to his movements. It was slightly harder to see if what he was doing was true, but the orange farmer pony was really good at seeing through some lies, at the expense of not being able to do it herself. John's eyes still seemed focused on Corey, and though his hand appeared to be flailing about, she noticed, for maybe a split second that the claws on one of his hands was pointing towards the door nearby, where Twilight had fled.

While most of the other ponies seemed fooled by this, Rainbow Dash included, Applejack processed this, and tried to keep a serious look of concern on her face while the large dragon before her pretended to be taken down. The cyan pegasus on the other hand, immediately reared back and kicked the dragon hard in the stomach.

To the others, it seemed like John had forcefully ejected the cupcake he'd been choking on when the athletic pony delivered the back kick, and was now out of breath from the experience, though Applejack knew from personal experience that her friend's kicks could anger a fully grown dragon, so one about John's size would probably crumple to the ground out of breath.

"Phew! That was close!" Rainbow announced, and the other ponies sighed. Then, remembering what had happened, all eyes went back to where Corey had been standing moments before. Applejack noticed, but wasn't surprised to see that the pudgy pony had vanished. The other ponies looked around, to see if he could be hiding. When they decided he too must have split out of embarrassment, the others began talking. The cyan mare on the other hand, chuckled lightly to herself before floating about.

John remained crouched down in the same position, holding his stomach and coughing. Applejack waited a little before leaning in slightly closer.

"You okay there, John?" Her southern accent was just as strong as ever.

"Yeah, I'll be alright," the dragon wheezed, though at least part of it was exaggerated. "I'll live."

Applejack lowered the volume of her voice, and slyly smiled, reaching out to him with a hoof.

"Hey, can't say I'd have done the same thing, but I'm thinkin' you're a nice dragon if you're willin' to go that far for a friend," the orange earth pony said, lowering her hoof. This much was true. She began to, very vaguely, wonder how far he'd be willing to go when it came to romance, but shut those thoughts out. Internally blaming Rarity for that intrusive thought, the farmer mare continued, "Though, I've gotta say, didn't expect it to happen so soon between them."

"Huh? Oh," John tried to get back on his feet, but stumbled a little, "-ugh, not my brightest move on the cupcake thing, but I've been helping Corey out with that a lot. Gets really awkward sometimes. And...'so soon'?"

Applejack felt that she should explain, and so she began conversing with the dragon normally. Surprisingly, the orange farmer pony observed that the bigger dragon made an effort to remain on eye level. He seemed to be interested in what she was talking about.

Hope Corey doesn't mess that up... Ivan thought to himself, trying to focus. The fact that there was humanity underneath the fur didn't bother the former human nearly as much as it probably should have, simply because, leaving aside the fact that he and his friends were naturally humans, underneath the fur were humanlike personalities with exaggerations thrown on.

Pinkie, who remained oddly transfixed when both of the unicorns stood out, finally came to life. She didn't seem too bothered by the fact one of her friends and one of the guests of honor just bolted out of what could have easily been embarrassment. She gave a small squeal.

"They kiiiissed," the pink earth pony observed. "It was a happy accident!"

Depends on who you're asking... thought Ivan, shaking his head slightly, though once again the slightest smile betrayed his features for a few seconds. The former human began to wonder what Corey planned to do now. For that matter, he was honestly starting to wonder what was going through both of the victims' heads.

"Ivan," Pinkie immediately snapped him out of thoughts in her usual way. "What's wrong? Are you worried about them? I wouldn't worry! That's never happened to Twilight, and besides, I think they'll be just fine together!"

The brown earth pony could have sworn he'd heard a distant sneeze.

"Well, as far as that event goes," The former human spoke up. "I don't think something like that's ever happened to Corey either. Probably a new experience for him too, but I can't say for sure." Again, he heard a distant sneeze slightly closer than the first one.

That wasn't a lie. Ivan had no idea what happened on the other side of the monitor, but judging from Corey's behaviors since coming to Equestria, either the former human had overstated some of his faults via Skype or he was changing just by being here. Hell, now that he thought about it, Twilight seemed to be trying to coax him out of his shell.

"I hope they kiss and make up..." Pinkie remarked. There was notable concern in her voice, but the fact that she still said this with a bright and cheery look on her face broke Ivan. He struggled to hold on to his emotionless mask, but found himself chuckling very lightly. To this, he caught the pink earth pony giggling. However, the hyperactive mare quickly moved on to other manners. "I've gotta get things ready for what's next!"

"Huh? What's next?" asked Ivan, insanely curious...and a little afraid. After all, when she tried to show him how it was possible to dance like a human, she wound up causing the accidental kiss.

Pinkie did not regard Ivan with an answer, hopping off, behaving as though nothing weird just happened between her friend and his. Subconsciously, the former human's mind began to wander back to his friend's predicament.

Wonder if they're gonna return here after all that...

It hadn't been entirely out of Rarity's expectation, but it seemed awfully soon. Had Twilight backed off sooner, she probably wouldn't have thought too much of it other than a simple accident, but the fact she and Corey held still during the kiss told the white unicorn all she needed to know. There was something there between them after all. Briefly, she wondered exactly what had went on between them in the past day.

While she wasn't known for reading, Rarity did enjoy romantic novels. The relationship blossoming between the two was sort of like something straight out of one of them. While she couldn't say the same for her friend and Leo, it seemed obvious enough, given how much time they'd spent together.

As for Pinkie and Ivan, Rarity did not know what was going through their heads at all. One of them was too much of a free spirit and not even Twilight could try to figure her out at the end of the day. Ivan, on the other hand, barely showed emotion, but she could have sworn the two were laughing together.

All points considered, the fashionista honestly felt left out. Yes, she was aware Spike had feelings for her, but she still wasn't sure of their depth, and whether or not said relationship would even be acceptable in anypony's eyes. It really wasn't a species thing, so much as an age thing.

"Something wrong, Rarity?"

Spike's question jerked the white unicorn from her thoughts. Masking the emotion that had probably washed into her features, Rarity turned to Spike.

"Oh, no, nothing's wrong, Spike."

Fluttershy had watched the whole event, and while she knew she wasn't the only one that thought about how early it was for Twilight to reach that stage, she also thought that despite the obvious awkwardness between them, she'd found the event somewhat adorable. She'd quietly thought about most of the events that had happened the past couple of days.

Corey, Ivan, John, and Leo were all strange in their own ways, but whatever was wrong seemed to have at least been partly adjusted by now. And when she thought about Leo, she realized with a frown that he and Rainbow Dash had spent an awful lot of time together already.

If she did indeed harbor real feelings for the silver colt, how could she possibly compete with Rainbow Dash, never mind the fact they'd been friends since they were both foals? To the meek yellow pegasus, it seemed almost impossible for her to get his attention at this point.

And yet, she felt something was there all the same. She couldn't exactly place why she felt this way, but something told her that there was hope for her in that avenue yet.

She quietly, politely interacted with her closest friends, as the news of the accidental kiss died down. Between both natural born ponies and former humans, a single question remained.

Would anything actually come of this accidental kiss?

Thanks John, you saved my ass again...even if I can't find her now, it's better than being stared at and possibly ridiculed in there! thought Corey. I can't believe that it turned out that way, though.

The pudgy green unicorn continued to trot quickly through the more or less barren streets, searching for the purple pony that had fallen onto him. Again, his mind traced back to that incident. No matter how he sliced it, something felt awfully right about it. That was the tipping point, that one accident. No, who was he kidding? There were several points before then that he'd considered the prospect.

First, it was a brief stab of thought, but it had undoubtedly happened last night as they conversed. He'd adjusted to talking to her. Then, it was during their practice, when he'd made remarkable progress on his magic control. He'd suspected he wouldn't even be able to harness it, let alone get as far as he had in the single day he'd been learning. He didn't know what it was about, but the chips fell into place perfectly on that one.

Except for the part where she'd slipped on applesauce and he'd wound up hugging her. Much like with the kiss just now, they remained in that position for a few seconds too many. That too, was another catalyst. Then there was that incident at the diner, which may well have been his first date, but it wasn't intended as such.

Then of course, the sun princess had to give her two cents... Corey recalled. Even after knowing the truth, could he say that Princess Celestia gave her blessing? The former human would have loved to think nothing of it, but the fact she'd said what she said hung over Corey's head. He tried to push the feelings, the crush aside, even with the overwhelmingly clear picture he might be caught in Equestria forever.

But when their lips met, all of the comparisons, all of the moments they'd shared, and all of the statements made by other ponies and dragons came rushing back to him. It was clear. The barriers between dimensions didn't matter anymore to him. Surprisingly, neither did the underlying barrier.

For all purposes, he was a pony now. A pudgy green unicorn with a strange name and a human background.

Corey continued his search with this in mind, not so much as saying a word, though he was already starting to breathe somewhat sporadically. In a few moments of intense emotion, he considered calling out to Twilight, but he stopped himself with every fiber of his being. He didn't want ponies overhearing them if it could be helped.

His search brought him to a wood bridge, not too far from when he'd first entered Ponyville with Leo and Ivan. There, overlooking the brook and staring off towards the setting sun, was the purple unicorn.

Alright, I've found her! The excitement the former human felt was palpable. He was almost certain that anyone with a high magical sensitivity could sense it. Until he reminded himself he wasn't even using a spell, and that he wasn't in a Dragonball Z world. Then Corey realized something else important.

Oh God, oh God, what do I say? How do I know this is going to go well? I couldn't do this back on earth in my human body, approach a female about my interest! Even after I'd talked to her and became a friend of hers. Granted, Twilight and me became fast friends, but...but I don't know if I can do that...

Twilight continued to stare in the direction of Princess Celestia's sun, unaware of everything around her. She continued to look upon the sunset, the sky a vivid mix of blue and orange now. It was going to be night within the hour. Yet none of that mattered to the purple pony. She was trying to sort everything out. She still appeared visibly anxious, but now without the eyes on her like they had been back at the party, the haze within her mind had at least somewhat cleared.

I feel really bad for leaving him back there, but I-I just couldn't deal with it... The mare thought to herself. To think I'd have developed feelings like these so soon...I can't believe it...and yet, we're the same...

Again, her mind flashed through the moments they'd shared. When she'd first met him, she didn't think that much of him. It was only after John fell from the sky that the mystery underneath the husk began to unravel. That same night, they'd gotten into a conversation. She didn't know if he'd ever speak up to that extent again, but he was going to be in Equestria for a while, and as Twilight learned, Corey was apparently full of surprises, some of which even he didn't know he had.

Now that she'd fallen on top of him, and met her lips to his, she couldn't stop thinking about that moment. Every time she'd tried to put the feelings aside, when given a proper stimulus, they'd just come back stronger than before. When her teacher made the comment she did, she could barely put off the feelings any longer. And now, that moment at the party rang fresh in her mind.

Twilight would have been lying to herself if she said that she hated it. Fact it, she wasn't even indifferent to it. Every time she thought about it, it made her stomach fill with butterflies and her heart pound. Her mind was filled with insecurities, though she didn't show it.

I wonder, was I any good? Twilight wasn't sure of anything about that kiss. A single thought broke through, but after leaving him like that, once again a wave of anxiety washed over her, rooting her to the spot. I...I don't know if I can talk to him after doing what I did...

She remained there, looking sadly towards the sun, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. She didn't believe there was anypony around, so slowly, the water cascaded forth.

The anxiety was eating at her in a way it hadn't before. It wasn't making her insane, or at least, not in the usual way. Rooted to the spot, Twilight could only let the thoughts echo throughout her mind.

D-Did I lose a friend, too? Did I miss an opportunity? I know he's from another world, but did I just cost myself...

Corey continued to torment himself with indecision. No matter how he sliced it, he was overthinking the situation, but he swore to himself up and down that he had a good reason. And yet, he knew he couldn't let things go unsaid anymore. At the same time, old memories from the past kept him from walking up to her, even as she seemed to hang her head.

What do I do...what do I do?! the former human thought to himself. Twilight--I don't know...I don't know what to say to her about this...and I don't even know if she feels the same way for sure!

As he continued to fret about the situation he'd more or less been shoved into--no wait, Twilight was the one who was shoved--his mind catapulted back about four hours prior, when he'd talked with John about the situation...

It had been a little before Rarity arrived. Corey was practicing using his telekinesis on other objects. He could only lift them for so long before he had to set them down. Maintaining control wasn't coming too easily to him, but the former human wasn't complaining. He'd considered it a miracle he could do it at all.

"Corey?" This was John, roughly twice his height. "Can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Huh?" Corey responded, brought out of his concentration by his friend's question. "Oh yeah, sure," He set down the book he'd been floating carefully, the same one he'd picked up yesterday when trying to maintain some level of cover. "What's up?"

The dragon quickly looked around. Twilight and Spike had gone off somewhere else--Corey later learned it was to see if Rarity was ready to come and prepare the former humans for their meeting. Ivan, on the other hand, was hoofing his way through a random book, since he was bored, and he didn't seem to be listening in anyway, but John closed the door to Twilight's room anyway.

"I've got a serious question for you," John began, shifting hesitantly. "Do you have a thing for Twilight?"

Corey visibly recoiled. Aside from Leo and Dash, this was the first direct, non-teasing question he'd received on the matter. At that time, he was pretty sure there might have been something there.

"M-maybe, what's it to you?" Corey responded, a little on the snappy side, heat tugging at his cheeks. John raised his hands defensively.

"Hey, I'm just asking, and besides, I did read that note that you left for us," John obviously referred to himself and Spike at this point. "Sounded an awful lot like she took you out on a date..."

"Twilight didn't know what was what..." This was the pudgy unicorn retorting snappily. Of course, when emotionally disturbed, Corey tended to ramble, "besides, she later did say it could have been one..."

"Thought so?" The dragon continued. "Hey, why are you getting so defensive?"

"Defensive? Defensive?" Corey couldn't quite keep a lid on himself now. A flurry of what he now recognized as denials looking back on his statements, began streaming from his vocal cords. "I'm only a human at heart and there's a dimensional wall that would usually separate us! How can I possibly have anything for someone from another world...it just won't work!"

"Yeah, but from what I'm getting, you have the body of a unicorn now, and it could take us forever to get back home," John sounded a little pissed at that last bit. "Listen, if you do have a thing for her, I'm not going to judge you. Like I just said, you're technically not human anymore, so it doesn't bother me as much as you might think. Besides, I think Leo's got a thing for Rainbow Dash anyway..."

Corey remained absolutely silent. John walked up, and crouched down so that they were eye level, causing the younger of the two to trot a couple steps back.

"Is there a point to this?" Corey asked. He'd always buried himself under anger and sarcasm when he knew he was losing a debate, and he was dangerously close to losing.

"I can't make up your mind for you, Corey. This is something that you'll have to figure out for yourself," John said. "But I can see something between you two. If I were you, I wouldn't waste it. You and I probably make the same mistakes in our lives. We wait too long, and then we lose that chance to at least get somewhere with a girl. Your concerns are valid, but you really might be overthinking things on this one. We might be here for the rest of our lives, we might not be. All I can say is, whatever barriers that exist between you and Twilight normally don't anymore. Besides, if we were still humans, I wouldn't have said what I just said!"

"Huh?" Corey asked.

"I'd have been trying to talk you out of it." John replied. "You can tell the prospect of it doesn't bother me now. You technically aren't human right now, and neither am I. I'm just saying, why not take the shot?"

Silence hung between them. John left him alone to ponder these thoughts, but he didn't have long, for a stressed out Twilight returned with Spike and Rarity, and the preparations for the meeting began...

John was right about this back then! Corey thought. His mind went back to his Earth life. He'd had so many crushes that never matured into real relationships. His most recent one, he felt he was friend-zoned because he waited way too long to say anything about his feelings for his close female friend. However, he didn't mind that so much. She was still a good friend. And that other one...if only he'd opened his mouth sometime during junior year, maybe he'd have had the ability to at least try a relationship with another female in his peer group during his senior year.

Instead, he'd wound up with heartbreak and disappointment, respectively and chronologically. The barriers that existed in Corey's mind had weakened considerably after the talk with John, but like the human turned dragon said, it was something he had to do on his own.

Well, Pinkie's active dancing certainly helped push the barriers away, too, but in the end, it was Corey that had to take the initiative. He glanced toward the bridge. Twilight was, from what he could see, visibly trembling now, still facing the sun, likely not noticing him. The barriers shattered.

He wasn't human right now. Underneath, he had the history of being a human, but right now, he was Corey, the oddly-named chubby unicorn. While he couldn't say whether or not what would follow this moment, this conversation, was going to go well for him, he couldn't stand there anymore.

He'd be in Equestria for quite a while anyway, so he didn't see the harm in trying. If she rejected him, then she rejected him, and Twilight would have proven herself to be rational in that.

A voice within his head told him it was going to be alright, however. If she wasn't into him, she might have torn herself away from him sooner. With his constitution just as high as it was going to be about this, the former human urged one of his forelegs to step forward, as quietly as he could set his hoof down. He slowly, quietly began to make his way over to Twilight, not wanting her to see him just yet.

He was aware he was stalling and delaying the inevitable, but he knew he needed to choose his words carefully. As he drew closer, however, he realized he could hear the faintest of sniffles. Twilight wasn't just trembling. No, at the proximity of a mere ten yards, he realized this wasn't the case at all. She was doing something that drove a point home more than anything else.

She was crying. Was she frustrated? Was she sad? It didn't matter to Corey. It was too much for him to bear. He found his eyes were welling up with sympathetic tears within five seconds. With a snarl, he willed himself to remain dry, and, after a quick check to make sure no one was watching, if only so they didn't spoil the moment, the former human took a deep breath.

For a few tender seconds, all of Corey's inhibitions dropped. He quickly closed the distance between them. Twilight didn't look in the direction. She was obviously very upset; her eyes closed and dripping tears.

"T-" He stuttered, trying to pronounce her name. Thankfully, he got it on his second try. "Twilight!"

Twilight's ears, which had been folded down, immediately snapped straight up upon hearing her name being called. Her eyes shot open. She obviously hadn't been crying long, but the fact she had at all spoke something to Corey, but he started overthinking the situation again.

Was she sad or frustrated? The thought repeated in his head, but he tried to stop himself from thinking about anything else. The purple eyes of the pony fell on him. She blinked, mouthing a statement which he couldn't quite make out. At first, her expression brightened, then, she looked, ashamed of herself, back toward the bridge.

"I-I'm s-sorry," she stammered, her face reddening. "I didn't know w-what to do there. I-It'd never happened to me before...I-I..."

I think this is a good sign...

"Twilight, it's okay." Corey responded. The purple mare immediately looked up to him, very confused. "For my part, it'd never happened to me before either. One of us might have run out after that anyway." It wasn't a total exaggeration. Either way, both of them might have wound up here anyway. All the nerve that had burst forth suddenly began receding, and the familiar shades of crimson once more coated his cheeks. "I-it was...m-my first k-kiss..."

"I-it was mine too..." Twilight looked back toward the ground. The former human wasn't quite prepared for what would come next, however. "C-Corey, be honest with me," She looked to him, looking anxious again. "Am I a bad kisser?"

"H-how should I know?!" Corey asked, immediately allowing his mouth to take off ahead of his brain. "But...f-for what it's worth," he was embarrassed at his outburst. "When...that happened, it felt...really good."

He looked back at the woodwork of the bridge, not able to see Twilight's facial expression. He wasn't immediately sure why he wasn't getting to the point, but it soon hit him.

It was still an alien thing, telling a female how he felt for her. Hoping the moments they'd had before this would give him leverage over that old fear, he awaited Twilight's response, trying to get back to eye level.

Twilight found herself utterly at a loss. It was true, neither of them would know what precisely constituted a "good" kiss, and a very, very small part of her believed the answer wouldn't come from just reading about it. But she considered how she felt at the time. She'd remained in that position for a good minute before finally breaking away. The purple mare soon realized, thinking back to that moment, that it didn't matter.

For one thing, it was by accident and neither were really prepared for it. The second thing, and perhaps more importantly, she enjoyed that kiss.

A dam burst in the unicorn's heart. The feelings she'd tried to suppress for the past day came rushing forth all at once. And this time, there wasn't any stopping them. It was clear to her what these feelings were now. If she didn't love him, she clearly had quite a bit of a crush on him.

"I-it felt g-good to me, too..."

The air between them was awkward, but after what happened at the party, nothing could possibly top it. Well, except for one thing. Twilight knew something was going to be said before long.

It was obvious to just about everyone that had seen them together for more than a couple of minutes. There was something between them, something more than just a shared hobby and somewhat shared intellect. The two stood at the bridge, looking toward the sunset.

"Twilight?" Corey asked. He sounded nervous, so she turned to him. He was fidgeting awkwardly, and his face was tinted red, his ears folded down. "I-I-I...I've got something to s-s-s-say..."

"W-what is it?" Twilight asked.

Both of them knew that this was it. This was the pinnacle of what the previous 24 hours had brought them. The moments they'd shared, whether intentional or not, and indeed a large number of them were against their will, all rushed back to them, as Corey attempted to shatter the final ice barrier that seperated them.

He stumbled and stuttered throughout his sentences as he tried to say what he felt he needed to.

"T-T-Twilight, l-listen..." He was trying his hardest to ignore the pain his nervousness had caused to well up in him, and tried to meet eyes with Twilight. Brown eyes wavered away from purple as the owner of the former color tried to keep calm. "A-after a-all that's happened since l-l-last n-n-n-night, I-I-I think...I think--that is...I..." He vocally faded out, and began breathing heavily. He was incredibly nervous.

Twilight, seeing how nervous he was, immediately put one of her forelegs to his shoulder, trying to calm him down. She breathed in and out. The purple mare tried to mask her own nervousness. She knew what was coming, but she wanted to hear it for herself.

"C-calm down," she whispered. "You can't speak up like that. Take it easy...breathe..."

Corey took a few deep breaths, his entire body quaking in anxiety. Twilight kept her foreleg to his shoulder the whole time, until he stopped trembling. However, he was still visibly nervous even after this.

"What is it, Corey?" asked Twilight, trying to keep her gaze on him. It was a lot harder than she thought. She knew exactly where he was going, and for the life of her, she didn't know if something like that could be helped.

Both of them weren't stupid by any means. With this confession, a relationship could come of it. It was up to them from there. Even though the chances seemed nonexistent right now, they both knew there might come a day when their worlds would once again have to part, possibly forever. Neither one of them knew exactly what they would do.

"W-well, after everything that's happened, I-I think...I-I h-have a..." The green unicorn blushed terribly, still trying to maintain eye contact. Twilight looked to him, smiling gently with a blush of her own. "A-a-a-a c-crush...o-on you, d-despite the b-barriers b-between us."

There was a long silence, one during which, if a pink earth pony were around, a pin would most certainly be heard dropping. Twilight didn't falter, but she thought carefully about what he said. It was true that there would be barriers that would normally seperate them. It seemed that his being a human underneath the pony body was part of it; at least, Twilight could gather that much that dating a talking pony wasn't normal for humans like Corey. Nothing like that was in the books. But leaving that aside, space and time separated them. Now they were together....

At once, Twilight made her decision with a sigh.

"I-I don't know how you did it," Twilight said. "But...a-after all that's happened between us...I've started to feel the same way about you. But...what do we do? I mean, we both haven't really had any...romantic relationships, and we're new to everything...I-I don't know if..."

Corey shook his head and chuckled slightly.

"Twilight, I think...that that would be the fun of it," the former human responded. "Look, I don't know how slow we can take it after that kissing incident, but...I think that...at least for now, we should try to take things slow...see where things go. If we're happy that way, then we're happy that way."

"But...what about your life back in your world?" Twilight asked. "I-I don't want to keep you from your obligations back home, or anything..." She appeared saddened to say this. "Are you sure it won't be a problem? What if we take things too far? I don't..."

Corey stared hard towards Twilight. With a small sigh, he drew her close into a hug, using one foreleg to pull her close. Twilight gasped, but didn't try to pull away.

"W-what are you...?" asked the purple unicorn, blushing somewhat.

"T-Twilight, you aren't the only one of us overthinking this," replied Corey. "I had the exact same worries myself. But...a friend told me this recently. If we wait too long, we lose a chance. I don't know if this will sound right, but I don't care. I-I feel like I can give something like this a chance."

The purple pony felt a little confused to say the least. Was he being irrational? Certainly so, but from what she knew about love, and what she'd read about in quite a few novels, it could bring about quite a few irrational behaviors. Maybe Twilight didn't understand him completely, and there were other things she didn't understand yet.

Her forehoof quaked, and soon, the foreleg in question mimicked Corey's pose. It was a hug, clearly done on purpose. In both of the unicorns, there wasn't many barriers left. As slow as they could stand to take it, they would perhaps act upon these feelings they'd developed for each other, and work from there. When they finally pulled out of the hug, Twilight noticed something on Corey's face.

There was a genuine smile on his face. He was clearly happy despite what the actions of his friends had wrought, and the situation he was in. There was some frustration in his features, but it seemed more passive, like he didn't know how to completely make that emotion disappear. However, it was good enough for the lavender unicorn, at least for now.

The two stood at the bridge, staring off into the sunset. Twilight tilted her head towards Corey, and Corey mimicked the gesture. For a few long moments, they remained in this position.

"Hmm," the mare said. "I think we'd better go back..."

"Huh?" This was the colt who was once a human. "Are you sure? It could get a little rough..."

"C'mon, it is your party," Twilight insisted, still smiling. "Besides, I think there's at least one of my friends and one of yours that are probably wrestling with similar circumstances..."

With a sigh, Corey relented.

"Fine, but...let me tell you how Leo and Dash met up. I think it's a little more embarrassing than what just happened to us..." The green unicorn began. "Tell me, when pegasi meet someone...or somepony, I guess, they really like, what happens to their wings?"

Ivan really didn't want to be a part of this next event. It wasn't that he had a particularly low tolerance for spicy food, but he knew he had a limit. Pinkie's event in mind far exceeded said limit. Of course, that said, Leo and John did have an unfair advantage.

They both had Hispanic heritage.

There was a large table, with one hundred bottles of red hot sauce on it. It was divided up among the five contestants. Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Leo, John, and a nameless background pony had participated in the contest.

The rules were clear, and Pinkie explained them clearly. The ponies would drink from the twenty bottles in front of them, and if they couldn't take much more, they'd simply drink from the ice water containers nearby. They were manned by other nameless background ponies.

Ivan recalled something that Pinkie had said to him when he declined the offer.

You'll be cheering me on? Won't you?

"We'll just have to wait and see," thought Ivan aloud to himself. She certainly was energetic. No matter how he sliced it, she was making the fact he was a human stuck in a pony's body in a pony's world seem less unbearable. "Maybe I will."

Ivan never was one to show emotion, and the same certainly held true here. Deep down, however, two things were going through his mind, as the hot sauce drinking contest commenced.

Wonder if Corey and Twilight made up after that incident. More importantly, how will the others take the news? Will Pinkie be alright? I can't really picture her sad or mad...

With a sigh, Ivan decided he wouldn't trouble himself over it right now, and turned toward the contest. The nameless background pony began to drink from the first bottle, as did the others. However, his gray fur and black, straight mane soon began turning orange and red respectively. Just as he finished the first bottle, his mane and tail completely burst into flames, and his body glowed orange and yellow.

Game over, you're out... thought the former human turned earth pony to himself as he was doused with the ice water before he was allowed to take a drink. The drinking continued, and Ivan felt strangely contented.

He may have been considering trying to develop a close friendship with Pinkie, much in the same vein as the one Corey obviously shared with Twilight. He was a pony, but not really. He was in a world mostly alien to him.

And Ivan really didn't care about any of that. He was just going to do his damn best to make due with what was given to him.

Didn't mean he'd forgiven Noel for sending them here in the first place. Not by a long shot. If time was passing on Earth's end, he'd have a fuckload of make-up work to do upon his return.

Act 1 is nearly reposted now. Yeah, I'm aware Twilight might not have been entirely IC during this chapter.

Act 1 Chapter 16

Act I: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 16: Set Your Clock to Party Time

Rather than taking the short way back to the party site, Corey and Twilight opted to take a slightly longer route back to the Sugarcube Corner, the site of the former humans' welcoming party. The two knew things would probably be severely awkward given why they left, never mind what just happened between them being more complex than the average human or pony relationship.

They weren't entirely sure if giving it a go was a good idea even now, but right now, that was exactly what they were doing, even if they weren't quite aware of it.

"...and that's how Leo met Rainbow Dash," Corey concluded, recapping Leo's first embarrassing moment. There were probably others, but unlike two of his more recent ones, they weren't nearly as public. "So yeah, she crash-landed on him trying to practice."

"Yeah, her ambitions haven't changed over the years," Twilight said. "The Wonderbolts are a team of talented pegasus ponies that perform aerial manuevers at high speeds. For Rainbow, that is her life's dream. Funny thing is, even if Leo does have a crush on Rainbow, I don't know if she's quite the 'falling in love' type."

"When you say it that way..." Corey responded. "For some reason, I get the feeling there's more to it than that. They've been spending most of their time together, at least, from what I've seen. And besides, if that diner incident," he referenced through gritted teeth, "is anything to go on, they're somewhat the same."

Twilight mostly understood the reason he'd gritted his teeth referencing the first date, but she had to be sure.

"When you gritted your teeth, it was because they started teasing us, right?"

"Of course it was. That aside, and the part where I fell off the chair nonwithstanding," Corey responded, "it was pretty good. Though now I wonder, even though we did sort of walk right into that one, should we consider it a date, or...?"

"Hmm..." The purple mare thought for a moment. "Maybe, like I said earlier. I didn't think of it as one, but maybe it could be one. We were together in public sharing our personal lives. Even though you had to do it so that the other diners didn't catch a whiff of what you really are, and all..."

"Fair enough," The green colt said. He didn't really feel like asking if pegasi of both genders had wingboners, so he held his tongue and hoped she'd forgotten about his opening question. Thankfully, he got his answer. Twilight seemed nervous again.

"Well, here we are," she announced, "Ready to go in?"

Corey swallowed. This was perhaps the most gutsy thing he'd done in the past hour. What was happening to him? Usually he wasn't this bold. The former human pushed those thoughts aside for now, and sighed.

"Alright, well, maybe we should go in," Corey replied, feeling incredibly uneasy. Twilight noticed his emotion, but allowed him to trot forward just a couple of steps. Then, he stopped, and Twilight couldn't see his facial expression.

"Hey, why'd you stop?" Twilight asked, looking to him.

"Oh c'mon, John, Leo, that's just not fair..."

"Huh?"

Both of the unicorns saw it through the window. There were two sets of abandoned hot sauce bottles, one containing nineteen and the other containing ten. At the remaining three, Pinkie, her mane and tail usually resembling cotton candy now resembling pink liquid fire, and a relatively unchanged Leo and John sat, chugging the condiment as though it were water at a desert oasis.

"Let's wait for the crowd to get distracted, then we'll slip in and...go from there, I guess," Corey said. "Don't think that'll work, though. At the same time, don't want to interrupt this contest."

Twilight sighed. There were some things she'd never quite get about humans, but it was a fair enough thing to do. She stood next to him, watching the event unfold.

It was certainly an interesting turnout, and an outcome nopony expected. Ivan himself, however, wasn't too surprised, given he knew Leo and John longer.

After the nameless pony dropped out on bottle one, the hot sauce contest continued without further delay. He wondered, briefly, if ponies could have the same complications humans had when drinking copious amounts of spicy condiments. So far, the only thing he'd observed was spontaneous combustion.

As the ponies neared bottle ten, however, to the surprise of all, with reddish smoke coming out of her ears and mouth, and tears coming from her eyes, Rainbow Dash had to drop out of the contest. Even Ivan didn't see it coming. He really thought she'd had a little more fight in her.

Heh, Leo must be distracting her...thought Ivan to himself as he watched this event. Now, it was Pinkie, Leo and John remaining, pounding down hot condiments, and Pinkie's mane and tail looking more and more like liquid flame the more she downed. As a matter of fact, as she neared bottle seventeen, she was visibly slowing down, as the hairs on her body began to turn redder and redder. Leo and John, on the other hand, didn't show any signs of slowing down, downing their seventeenth bottle as Pinkie started hers.

Certainly, they do have an unfair advantage... the former human thought to himself, not even trying to be racist in his judgment, yet he knew back on Earth that would be the exact outcome of his thought. While the ponies in the room wouldn't know what he was referring to, or at least he didn't think so, his transformed fellows would, and thus he kept it to himself.

The sauce continued to pour down. As the contest neared its end, Ivan felt compelled to chant along with the crowd.

"Go! Go! Go!"

As the chanting continued, the former human noticed something. Pinkie had lost just a bit of momentum as she continued to drink the hot sauce. Leo and John were opening up their nineteenth bottles, only looking moderately worse than they did when they started, with no visible signs of slowing down. Pinkie had only just finished her eighteenth, and her usually pink coloration had darkened to a full body red. Her eyes, which were just as bright as ever in spite of the rest of her now resembling napalm flames on a pony body, met with Ivan's. She blinked once, and only once.

The contest continued, but Pinkie suddenly seemed to catch her second wind. Her nineteenth bottle was downed in a speed comparable to when she first started. John and Leo opened the twentieth, and both seemed surprised at her catching up to them. Just as the mouth of the bottles met their lips, Pinkie opened it, and using the same force that still baffled Ivan, lifted the bottle to her lips...

"Doesn't Pinkie look a bit...red, to you?" asked Corey, looking to the rapidly concluding contest. He knew he was stalling, but it was true. He could see the pink earth pony, now with tears of pain trickling down her cheeks, begin drinking from the hot sauce bottle, her normally pink fur now glowing a mixture of red and orange, and her mane and tail now looking more like an uncontrolled torrent of red flame.

"She's never taken this much hot sauce before," Twilight noted aloud. "But Leo and John aren't really slowing down, are they?" She squinted. "They're not! They must really have a handle on spicy foods!"

"Hey, I can take a fair share of spice myself!" This was the green unicorn, now sounding slightly hurt. He then stopped and thought about what just happened. Almost immediately, he realized he'd had the stereotypical "jealous reaction".

"What?" Twilight asked, turning to him.

"N-nothing..." responded the former human, now feeling slightly embarrassed and looking the part too. Twilight gave a small giggle in response to this, probably believing she had a good idea of what motivated his outburst, but there wasn't any time for the lavender mare to make her move, for a tumultuous cheer came from within. The green unicorn immediately inhaled, trying to get a grip on his composure, "Oh look, the contest's done. Guess we'd better get inside..."

The handle of the door they were near became coated in a green glow, but Twilight immediately stopped him.

"Maybe I should do it..." she observed. Corey immediately stopped, the green glow receding. But then a short thought occurred to him.

He wasn't sure if it was quite within Equestria's standards, given that the show never had a male that wasn't either the butt of slapstick jokes or otherwise didn't have a lot of speaking parts from what he'd seen, but back on Earth, it was usually the male in the relationship that did all the door opening. Corey had figured at that precise moment it'd have been damn rude of him not to do so.

"N-no, Twilight, you see..." he started, trying to find a way to say it, and quick, for the cheers were receding. "It's just...back on Earth, in..." Corey had to remind himself that after that moment on the bridge, they were the closest to dating they'd been since the crush began. "...In boy-girl relationships...usually, it's the male that does all the door opening, out of respect, courtesy..." He desperately hoped that he didn't offend Twilight with that remark.

Strangely enough, if she wanted more info, I'd bet Rarity would know all about common courtesy... thought Corey to himself. You know, I probably wouldn't have even needed to have watched the show prior to this to get that feeling...

"T-that, and I'm used to holding doors for others anyway," said Corey, when Twilight didn't respond for a few seconds. It wasn't a lie. Back on Earth, he did at least that much for others around campus.

"Oh, okay then," Twilight didn't seem offended, causing Corey to give a sigh of relief. "Hey, they're still cheering in there..."

Both of them momentarily leaned up against the door, Twilight remaining on her four legs while Corey, once again forgetting his quadrupedal stature, leaned up against the door right next to her, his ear also against the door. Strangely, he remained quite comfortably in this position.

"Sounds like there was a tie, and the crowd wants it broken," the green unicorn judged based on the chant. It was here, he was once again made aware of his four-legged posture, and stumbled just a little on his hind legs as he tried to maintain balance. Eventually, he was able to find it, and taking advantage of the fact he knew the crowd was chanting, he opened the door using magic once more. "After you..."

Twilight didn't seem to want to object to this statement, probably because she wasn't well-versed in the art of relationships anyway, less so than Corey himself, but only because the male had somewhat dreamed of having someone close to him. He'd just never thought it'd have been a pony in his life.

The two passed inside without much in the way of words from anyone, more than likely because no one seemed to notice straight away that the two unicorns had returned. Their eyes and focus were entirely on the contest stage, where a load of hot sauce bottles, most of which were empty, were strewn about haphazardly.

Corey spotted Ivan towards the left. Pinkie Pie seemed to have cooled off just a little, and had resumed looking happy. He couldn't tell if she was in pain anymore, but he wasn't about to ask. Hell no, he wasn't about to ask; he wanted to remain out of sight for a while. From Twilight's conduct, he assumed she felt the same way about the situation. He'd hoped he wasn't asking too much.

There was no denying the crowd wanted a tiebreaker. Even without the knowledge that the former humans already had to varying levels about the place they were in (and indeed they found it a little too easy to hide), they'd have been able to figure it out. Both John and Leo did not show any sign of tiring out, though internally they could feel their internal organs somewhat burning. Pinkie Pie was a good sport, being behind them by a mere one ounce when the end of the contest was called, and congratulated them on beating her in her own way.

That is, speaking a mile a minute how surprised she was that she was defeated, and that there was a tie, and about three other things that couldn't have been made out. Even more strangely, as she rambled on, her physical detriments to drinking all that hot sauce seemed to just erode away. Her tummy was still burning a little as she watched the winners of the contest look to the crowd, then to each other.

The others could only look on. John rested one of his scaly arms on the table, taking a position opposite of Leo. As he moved, however, he spotted Corey and Twilight. He tried to hide his surprise at this, though internally, he had wondered why they'd come back, but was at least relieved to see they hadn't been embarrassed clear out of the building. On another note, he was somewhat shocked to see they had returned together.

"So, how about an arm wrestle to break the tie?" asked John, continuing to look at Leo. The red eyes formed an icy glare, but the former human turned dragon didn't back down. He was damn curious about who was to win this, and thus resorted to something that he knew he probably shouldn't have said. "C'mon, you don't want to give up when Rainbow Dash is cheering you on, now, do you?" This was a whisper, only audible to Leo.

The silver pegasus colt snarled, and his red eyes scanned the corner. He didn't want to be here. He didn't even want to be in the contest, but he agreed just so the others would be happy. Plus, the smell of the sweets, and the slight burning in his gut wasn't exactly the greatest thing to Noel. He looked, and looked, and then his vision zeroed in on his targets.

"Oh, snap, HEY EVERYPONY--"

John had guessed precisely what Leo was up to, given that he did see the red eyes shifting around. Out of ideas as to how to play the role of wingman for Corey now, the dragon did the first thing that came to his mind, and threw himself at the silver pegasus, probably with just a little too much force. The crowd fell silent, and some ponies gasped.

Ivan, meanwhile, resisted the urge to facehoof, taking a small guess and looking around behind him. Sure enough, there they were, the assumed targets of Leo's statement. Why else would John have tackled him? He himself didn't particularly know why he played the wingman.

Noel, on the other hand, felt the pain in his systems overload. The burning in his stomach now extended to his entire body, and at this point, his wings reminded him of their overuse during the past two days. He was aching all over.

"Alright, alright," he coughed quietly, "I won't...now, get up...you're smothering me..."

John pulled himself off of Leo, and Leo himself slowly got to his feet. Neither one, however, knew what to do about the eyes of the crowd that were on them. The crowd had gone deathly silent, and nopony seemed to know what to say.

Rainbow Dash began looking around as well. It wasn't out of the whole situation that had unfolded onstage, but rather, just what Leo was about to say. Obviously, John probably wouldn't have just tackled Leo for no good reason. He just didn't seem like the kind of dragon to just tackle somepony to the ground for no reason to her. All the same, it did anger her, and she sought out the reason.

And she spotted it, and with a tease-inspired resolve she called out, loud enough for everyone in the room to hear it.

"Hey, Twilight!"

Tens of heads turned back around, and sure enough, if anyone would spoil the quiet re-entry into the party, it would have been Rainbow Dash. Of course, even if the quiet re-entry had gone off without a hitch, Twilight knew it probably would have come to this anyway. It was just like at the diner, only this time, everypony was paying attention, and there didn't seem to be any way around it.

Corey himself flinched and shrunk just a little, probably wondering why they came back right now after what had happened. The purple mare honestly couldn't answer that question now, but it was too late to regret the action.

"Oh, h-hello, Rainbow," she answered hesitantly, really wishing she hadn't been thrust into the spotlight under the given circumstances.

John watched the scene unfold, with Leo still right next to him. He was coughing faintly, probably from the fact that he'd just had a nearly full-grown dragon tackle him.

"What now, genius?" asked Leo under his breath.

"I...I don't know," the dragon answered, really wishing he knew. All day, more or less, it'd have been him playing wingman for Corey, always the one bailing him out of really awkward situations, while Ivan generally handled less awkward situations, but both of those times seemed to be just him being in the right place. This time, however, he was running a blank, and couldn't see any way out of this one, short of committing arson, but that was the last thing John wanted to commit. It was then, John noticed something strange about Corey's face.

It wasn't as red as it should have been. He seemed oddly composed given the situation, and he seemed to be looking squarely at something in the Sugarcube corner.

What's with that look? the former human thought to himself.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash continued to banter right next to him, but Corey, for the moment, and probably against his better judgment, wasn't concerned with that right now. He was more concerned with finding a way out of his current awkward moment, which seemed to present itself in a somewhat convienient package.

Do I really wish to go with cliches? More importantly, can I do this? he thought to himself, seeing a ticket to cause a more pressing situation, but it would involve discretely using his magic to move objects, something which he knew wouldn't be able to be done so easily, but given how he was the lightning rod for awkward moments, he'd had more than enough of having that role.

His brown eyes, unlike Twilight's, focused on the snack table. While at first this seemed like an obvious fat reference to any normal-thinking being of sentience, what Corey had in mind was something that required one hundred-fold more rational thought. He spied an unattended slice of pie on the table, and from the looks of it, no one had yet claimed it. It was the odd piece out. Nopony seemed to be paying attention.

The corner was deathly still, save for the mares next to him. Twilight seemed to be beating around the bush, probably still trying to deny the even more obvious mutual feelings. Rainbow wasn't having any of it. Corey remained at Twilight's side, wordlessly staring towards the pie. No one seemed to notice his face wasn't reddened.

A hoof crashed down on his shoulder. He absently allowed himself to look. Apparently, the cyan pegasus had had enough of bantering with Twilight, and was moving in for the kill. The hoof touching him was the same color as Rainbow's, and sure enough, with that mischevious look on her face, she was pushing him and Twilight closer together, so that they were pushed up against each other, shoulder-to-shoulder. Since he was just a little bigger than she was, her horn came up to about his eye level.

"So, did you two make it official yet?"

Fuck it, I'm goin' for it. thought Corey to himself. Willing himself to keep focused, he began reaching out, long-distance, toward the pie, trying to keep his magic as discrete as he possibly could.

Obviously, since horns glow when magic is being used; his being a rather vibrant green, it would be obvious he was trying to use some sort of spell, but what, nopony knew.

Everypony and everyone that was once human, or otherwise, was born a baby dragon, kept their eyes focused on the three ponies. One of them looked embarrassed, but now the purple mare looked a little confused. Most of the ponies didn't know what she knew about the green colt. They thought he was attempting an entirely different spell, their gazes focused on him and the other two.

Ivan, Leo, and John, however, caught it, but did not say a word, for fear it would break the tension too soon. Ivan didn't want to say anything, and John also thought it best to preserve the silence. Leo, on the other hand, had no idea what to think. Pain was still coursing through his systems, and he thought it best if he could just sneak out while everyone was distracted with this.

"Hey, hey, what're you doin'?" asked Rainbow, breaking the rather tense silence. "Trying to make yourself invisible?"

Corey remained oddly focused given his situation. His cheeks weren't tinted a notable shade of red. That wasn't to say they weren't tinted at all given he wasn't used to being at the center of attention, but his pride took precedence, allowing him to remain somewhat focused on his task.

Twilight did not say a word, but it was obvious she was wondering what he was trying to do. Unlike Rainbow and basically everypony else in the room, she knew Corey's magic control was still a little iffy at best. But Rainbow wasn't glowing green, so he obviously wasn't trying to use it on her.

Excepting the former humans, no one really noticed the anomaly at the snack table. There was an unattended slice of pie, that didn't appear to have been claimed by anypony anyway, now glowing vividly with a green glow. It was floating haphazardly at about face level with Rainbow Dash now. Twilight finally noticed this.

He can't be...can he? she thought to herself. Corey remained focused for a few seconds longer, then, something happened.

It wasn't a smile per se, but he wasn't scowling vacantly either. It was more a proud, self-assured smirk, another look no one had seen out of him. He spoke clearly: two words.

"Heads up."

There was a whoosh sound, which no one recognized straight away. It took Twilight precisely half a second to realize what Corey had done. He was pulling the pie towards him with quite some force. Dash gave a confused look in Corey's direction, then looked ahead. By the time she realized what had happened, it was too late. The confection splattered all over her face, changing the entire situation in an instant.

It wasn't an awkward moment anymore. While it was obvious it was Corey's retaliation for Dash putting him and Twilight at center stage (again), the entire scope changed. The ponies in the party certainly hadn't forgotten the kiss scene from roughly twenty minutes prior, but they had forgotten the current moment. Some ponies gasped, including Ivan and John, but Leo remained oddly still, given his crush on the cyan mare.

None of the former humans quite expected Corey's sudden boldness, or at least, not to this level. They hadn't expected their friend to do what he'd just done. Other ponies that weren't in on the humans' secret that didn't gasp either laughed or remained awkwardly silent.

"Corey!" Twilight whispered, trying to hide the fact he'd stunned her yet again with his performance, which wasn't too hard considering that was her friend he just pied in the face, but it was still a bit of a task given it shifted the attention off them a little bit. "Wasn't that a little much?"

"Maybe, but I'm really getting sick of being the epicenter for awkward moments, aren't you?"

"W-why, why you..." Dash recovered from the shock of being hit in the face with a confection. "Is that how you wanna play?!" Her look changed from dull shock and disbelief to outrage. Without bothering to make a quick trip over to the snack table, she merely scraped off the confection on her face and quickly rolled what she got into a ball. "Alright, then, let's play!"

Rainbow raised her hoof, cocked it back and released. While Corey was free to dodge, he felt it better to take the hit. Besides, the blue pegasus still had enough ammo left over for another cream ball anyway, and it would be better if she paid the pie to the face back now.

The green colt took the food hard in the face. At first, it seemed like that would be the end of that, but something within Twilight stirred. Even though, to her, it felt like a whole five seconds had passed, it took her less than one to cast aside the fact Corey had more or less asked for it. She took the food off of Corey's face with her magic, with every intent of returning fire.

Fluttershy sensed that things were about to get out of hand, and while Corey's attack on Dash was unexpected even given that the two never really interacted, she certainly didn't want to see her friends start fighting. A rare feat occurred as she noticed Twilight beginning her plan. She moved away from her "silence" zone within the party, and flew over near the feuding ponies, intending to head things off.

She never got a chance to get a word in, though. By the time she closed the distance between her former position and the chaos waiting to happen, she was in an indirect path to getting food in the face. Rainbow Dash evaded without realizing the yellow pegasus was behind her, and the meek pony wound up catching the pie in the face.

There was a tense silence. It seemed like no one in the room knew what to do to ease it, given what had just occurred. Finally, somepony did.

"Food fight!!!"

The Sugarcube Corner erupted in utter pandemonium. Sweets flew all about. Ponies attacked other ponies, others darted for cover, and there were a select few trying to break up the whole mess. Yet, for the most part, it was a shower of sweets flying back and forth.

John tried to avoid being hit, but due to his relative size, it was impossible. Three sweets to the side of the head, and he quit trying to be passive. Taking a more active approach, the former human turned dragon quickly grabbed two cupcakes, one in each hand, and chucked them randomly, nailing two nameless background ponies right between the eyes.

Ivan dove for cover, trying his hardest to remain relatively unscathed. The former human's efforts seemed to be paying off. The athleticism that he had in his human body was at least somewhat retained in his quadrupedal stature, but it wasn't as refined given he'd only been an earth pony for two days. He rolled behind table legs, and through a force that he could only barely identify as cartoon logic, he pulled a "Matrix" out of his ass, and proceeded to hit a pony that had been throwing things his way.

Pinkie actively participated in the fight. She'd been saving something for a while now. The party pony quickly vanished from the party scene, returning with a rather small-looking catapult, which she rested on the table. Ivan managed to make his way over to her location, and by some miracle, he'd managed to stay relatively clean, save maybe a couple of flecks of icing on his side.

"What's that?" he asked, his curiosity mounting as he ducked another pastry, barely avoiding the remnants of the slice of pie.

"I've been saving it for a party like this!" the pink earth pony answered, loading it with several small cakes that had been left on the snack table. She then flicked a switch with her hoof, and the pastries launched into the air, raining sweets down on helpless victims. Ivan was stunned.

"So...you keep this lying around?" Ivan questioned, for the first time actually showing more than slight shock in his features. He realized who he was asking, but still, this was new, even by Equestria's standards.

"Yeah, I mean, this is the first food fight I've ever had at a party I've thrown, and I wanted to be prepared for it, so I made this if it ever broke out, because I wanted to have a home advantage? Wouldn't it be nice to have a home advantage, I mean, other than the fact I live here and..."

Pinkie continued to ramble, and the former human found himself oddly mesmorized by the pink pony's sugar-style monologue, at least until something brought both of them crashing down to reality: a cupcake to the side of the head for each one of them.

Applejack, being the kind of mare to like roughhousing, was very quickly sucked into the bakery brawl. Rarity, conversely, was doing everything in her power to not get nailed. She was, surprisingly, managing to keep herself clean, even with Pinkie's pastry catapult in place.

Rainbow Dash kept above, making herself harder to hit in theory. At least, until she took the wrong turn and wound up comically taking about half a pound of pastry to the back from Pinkie's catapult. With a flap of her wings, icing and pastry guts went everywhere.

Corey and Twilight remained together, trying to take cover behind a chair. Twilight glared at Corey, but it was clear that she was having a hard time staying angry. For a moment, she'd wondered why. But the look on his face. Even though it was partially obscured with the icing by now, she could tell that he was feeling happy. No matter how utterly dumb his idea was, she couldn't be mad at him - that seemingly permanent scowl that had been on his face when he wasn't emotionally roused wasn't on his face at all even though he was half-coated in sweets. There was a fat joke in there, the purple mare knew, but to make it wouldn't make any sense given the situation.

"You should have known this would have gotten her fired up," she scolded.

"I said it before, I couldn't think of anything else, and besides, it worked," Corey responded, nodding. Inside, though, he was somewhat troubled by the changes he was undergoing.

The human me wouldn't have done half of the things I've done here...I've become undeniably bolder since coming here. Am I just acting like the typical Internet douchebag who acts under condition of anonymity and just cutting loose, or am I honestly changing for the better? The green colt thought to himself, trying to make sense of what was going on. While he was distracted with his thoughts, however, Twilight was hit with something and dropped down, now with cake guts splattered on one side of her head. Normally, it should have been funny, but Corey didn't feel the urge to laugh.

No. He felt pissed.

With this in mind, keeping in mind the theme of recycling that had been done at the very start of the food fight, Corey quickly scooped some cake guts off of Twilight's face (the word "scraped" not even close to applicable, given he was gentle as he could manage with a hoof and in his anger), and flung the guts in a crescent arc, not even bothering to think about what logic would have to apply to such a situation.

As for Leo, as soon as the pandemonium started occurring, he began slowly sneaking his way out, keeping against the wall and dodging however he could once the food really started flying. By some miracle, the silver pegasus had managed to sneak out without being seen by anypony or any other member of the other species in the room. He was in quite a bit of pain, what with John tackling him and the copious amounts of hot sauce he'd just ingested. Not to mention, he'd overworked his wings quite a bit over the past couple of days.

Well, somepony did in fact see Leo make his way out. She wasn't the kind to get mad so easily, and indeed, she'd already forgiven Twilight and Dash for both indirectly causing her to get nailed with the cake. However, when she'd managed to clean her face off with a napkin she quickly retrieved when she realized what had happened, the mare had realized a food fight had broken out.

She'd tried to stop it from doing so, but it seemed like her getting hit in the face with a bit of pie was enough to set it off. Long story short, she managed to spot Leo leaving in the pandemonium, and, with the same tactic that Leo employed, she too, gave the party scene the slip...

Noel felt completely drained. His whole body was sore, and his stomach burned quite a bit from the twenty bottles of spicy condiments he'd just pounded down. Plus, he'd just spent a fair amount of time in an environment he didn't particularly like. His sense of smell was especially sensitive to sweets, so he wasn't in the mood to do much of anything at the party. Hell, the silver colt had to try just to have fun.

The former human located a cloud, a decent height above Ponyville, but not too far up where he couldn't be seen from ground level. The gray pony lay down on the cloud, trying his hardest to just get some rest. His body was aching, and he was finally feeling drained for the day. Being in that atmosphere for that long did a number on his stamina.

His senses, which were trained through his martial arts back on Earth, however, were retained. Because of this, his hearing was a little bit better than average. He could still hear the sounds of the shouts and jeers coming from the ongoing food fight within the Corner. His ears twitched as he registered the sound of a door opening. It sounded like it was coming in the direction of the Sugarcube Corner. The door softly shut behind whoever exited.

Who the hell followed me? thought the silver pegasus to himself, as he willed himself to crawl over to the edge of the cloud so he could look. Below him, he could make out the figure of a yellow pegasus pony with a pink mane and tail.

Fluttershy had managed to see his exit and had followed him out. She now appeared to be searching for something, looking to her left, then to her right. She then looked up, and managed to spot him. Though he couldn't make out specific facial features, he assumed, from the way her wings opened, that he was the "something" she was looking for.

Noel laid back down on the cloud, trying to be disinterested in the fact she was probably looking for him. The former human tried to quietly assess the condition his pegasus body was in, keeping his eyes closed and his voice low in volume as he began to note his status aloud.

"She's looking for me, isn't she?" he wondered aloud, feeling the pain in his head start returning. "...did John give me a concussion?"

He laid down in silence for a few moments longer, until the familiar, soft voice of the yellow pegasus broke his thoughts.

"L-Leo?" she questioned. She sounded close; very close. The former human quickly found himself snapping to attention. He wasn't able to ignore her like he thought he would. Probably because he wasn't on the internet. Though he tried not to be in real life due to the people that surrounded him, he was a little more sensitive than he let on, and certainly a lot more sensitive than Corey, Ivan, or John would give him credit for.

"Yes, Fluttershy?" he asked, rolling over on one side to face her. She flinched, obviously not expecting to receive his attention. He didn't pick up on it right away, but he could have sworn he saw her light green eyes sparkle briefly before she asked her next question.

"W-what are you doing out here?" It was a soft, sweet voice, one that very few people couldn't pick up on. "It-it's your party in there."

He couldn't tell if that was her trying to be assertive or not, but she did have a point. Leo had to admit that much.

"I could ask you the same thing...your friend is catering the party..." said Leo, not using the same tone as he would if he were talking to any of his fellow former humans. He was using a noticeably gentler tone than normal.

"Well, I-I didn't want to be hit by any more food..." responded the meek pony. She seemed to be concealing something. Noel knew the more pressing reason she'd come out. He wondered if she would admit it, but for the longest time, it remained awkwardly silent. Leo's ears twitched as he heard the sounds of the food fight dimming.

"I think the fight's starting to simmer down..." said the silver pegasus in response. His whole body felt sore, so he didn't know what he was going to do. "I know what you mean, though. Didn't want to get involved."

As he said this, he felt his insides stir a little. He didn't think it was possible to puke on-camera in Equestria, but his soreness and his sensitivity to sweets wasn't helping any. Thankfully, he didn't even come close to retching. For a couple of minutes, the two really didn't say nothing, but both knew there were things left to be said.

"Um," Leo said flatly, trying to get some time alone. He was feeling a little conflicted at the moment, and didn't need people--or ponies, clogging up the gears of his mind right now. "You can go on in, Fluttershy. I'll be along in a bit."

This was a lie, and briefly, Noel wondered if Fluttershy caught on to it.

"O-okay," He couldn't tell, due to the volume of her voice, if she was legitimately hurt or if this was her normal response. "I'll, um, see you later."

With that, the meek pegasus turned tail and floated back down to the Sugarcube Corner. Leo couldn't hear anything much from the corner, except for what sounded like cleanup. He looked up. The sky was now completely darkened, with nothing but the stars and the moon lighting it up. He looked towards the stars, and allowed his mind to wander.

No matter how I put it, it would have taken a lot more back on Earth for me to feel this way. And to top it all off, I...I have feelings for both of them. This is the first time I've felt like this, and I don't know what to do...Who...if I can choose, should I cherish it with? Hell, I think that Corey and me are on the same page with this...no. No we're not. He doesn't have a second girl...well, mare, to consider. And I don't know what's going on between Ivan and Pinkie. Hard to tell with both of them. Ivan is barely emotional in person and Pinkie...ugh...

A headache seized Leo. He was overworked, there was no denying that. Hopefully Fluttershy at least understood the hidden fatigue. He relaxed, keeping his balance perfectly on his cloud.

In Noel's mind, he knew one thing. He needed some sleep. His red eyes began to close, but suddenly, his ears twitched, registering rapid movement. It was strange. It didn't sound like it was coming from the corner, but the library.

Leo didn't pursue the motion, thinking little of it. He was deathly tired, after all.

When he sliced his action up into how stupid and reckless it was, Corey felt utterly stupid. It was bad enough he'd nailed Rainbow Dash in the face with a pie out of pure desperation, but the resulting food fight, everyone cut loose. Except Rarity. That fact later blew up in his face.

--

"Just what were you thinking, doing that?!" Rarity scolded, sounding precisely like a mother to a child, and for all Corey knew she could have been the oldest of the six main ponies. "You should have guessed that Rainbow Dash would have reacted that way! Not to mention Ivan's got icing in places on the suit...oh, it's a fashion nightmare!"

"Um..." Corey meekly started, trying to give any excuse in the hopes that the white unicorn wouldn't rip his throat out in a fit of fashionista rage. He quickly realized he still had a lot to learn about being social, pony or no pony, and buttoned his lip. A fact resonated within him. Somehow, this was just as embarrassing as the accidental kiss, and for the life of him Corey fumbled for why Rarity didn't at least try to understand.

"There is absolutely no excuse for such outlandish, ruffian behavior!" It was here, when Rarity turned away, that he saw the particular reason why she was so pissed: there was a cupcake splatter, probably no bigger than a peanut, in the section of the mane right around where her neck met the rest of her body. In her usual style, she had blown it completely out of proportion, not that Corey knew that offhand. "Now then, we're going to have to clean this place up..." She levitated a napkin, and for a moment he could have sworn she saw some weird gleam in her blue eyes as she raised it to his eye level. "Starting with you..."

And so, for the next thirty seconds, Corey had the most unpleasant facial wiping he'd ever experienced. For a moment, he was honestly afraid Rarity might have scrubbed the fur clean off his face. While he wouldn't have minded if he were human, the same didn't apply here since it was natural for unicorns to have fur on their faces. His face burned with friction as the mare finally finished her handiwork.

"Wow...it looks like I'd had clown makeup on," he stupidly remarked, earning a sigh from Twilight.

"I'm sure she'll understand eventually," said Twilight (earning a sarcastic "Doubt it" from Spike), breaking Corey from his thoughts. "Now, we've gotta clean this place up. The Cakes won't be too happy if they discover this mess."

That was a foreign name to Corey, or at least, one that he didn't remember offhand. "Um, 'the Cakes'?" He whispered.

"They own this place. Pinkie also lives upstairs," she whispered in response. "She works here to pay the rent."

For the life of him, the former human just couldn't comprehend how that free spirit could hold down a steady job. Hell, he knew really free spirits back home that couldn't hold their appetite at bay, never mind a steady job. Then again, Equestria probably didn't have non-perscription drugs available. At least, certainly not Earth-illegal ones.

"Though I really have to say, doing that wasn't the smartest move you could have made," the purple mare re-stated. "Rainbow doesn't take too kindly to slapstick comedy."

He wasn't sure if Twilight just did a fourth-wall break or not, so he didn't bother to ask that question, even as it forced its way to the tip of his tongue. He suppressed it with the greatest of efforts.

"I gathered. 'It's only funny 'til it happens to you' is commonplace where I come from too." responded Corey.

The ponies at the party, Pinkie included, were now involved in a massive cleanup procedure. Icing, cake guts, and assorted pastries meant for consumption were now splattered everywhere. Rarity practically insisted on the course, and no one really wanted to argue. After the ponies within cleaned each other off, they set about doing the cleanup procedure.

And of course, Pinkie went from group to group, zipping around in a blur of pink or even just randomly appearing in places to inform them how fun the party was for her.

Clearly, a food fight was the highlight of Equestrian parties. At least, that was the vibe Corey got.

John was certainly confused by the behavior of the locals. This was in part due to the fact parties on Earth, especially the messier ones, just didn't wind up with this, a majority of the partygoers staying behind for the cleanup effort. Usually, everyone just partied hard and left things messy. While the former human was a nice guy at heart, he was guilty of this. But with everyone, even Ivan and Corey, pitching in...

Where'd Leo go...? asked John to himself, only just now noticing his fellow former human's absence. With a snort, he returned to cleaning the higher-up areas that the ponies normally couldn't reach. Seems like something he'd do...I, on the other hand, will just clean this mess up.

The clean-up procedure went on, the volume of bodies making the progress slightly easier. It might have taken a team of five about an hour to fully clean up the mess, but with the partygoers pitching in, the cleanup time was reduced to about a third of what it would have been. At least by John's calculations, anyway.

The cleanup was nearing an end, and the extra tables had to be put away. John was commissioned to do  it, and so he did. Ponies said their goodbyes, and went their own ways. The welcome party for the four newcomers reached its conclusion, and soon, everypony was going their separate ways.

Ivan, for some reason, had stayed behind, saying he'd send for his hoodie later. Strangely, Applejack didn't seem too terribly off-put by this. Pinkie also seemed happy to have company, but given what Corey just found out, he wasn't entirely sure if her landlords would allow this. Just because his sister had let him stay in her apartment when things were getting sour one winter in his house for that week...

He pushed aside the incident, trying his hardest to not immediately appear pensive after such a fun time. Sure, he'd had Rarity psychotically and nearly rip his face off when he'd started a food fight, but he still felt like he came out a winner on that one.

"Where'd Leo get off to," asked John, though this seemed to be more to himself than anything.

"I don't think I'd worry too much about him," said Corey. "He doesn't know this place like...Twilight here, for example, does." He was still trying to be vague about the former humans' identities. The purple mare in question nodded as though agreeing, though she seemed slightly saddened by the fact Leo ditched the party.

"Still wondering why Ivan stayed behind, though," wondered the dragon to himself. "For the life of me, I can't figure out Pinkie and Ivan, either one."

"You're not the only one having trouble," responded Twilight. This told Corey a lot.

Leaving aside the fact Leo had given the partygoers the slip, the others left to their residences, Rarity and Fluttershy going their own ways while Applejack and her older brother made their way back to Sweet Apple Acres. The night air was cool and crisp, a decent temperature to be in. Rainbow left to, Corey assumed, her home, though a small part of him suspected she may have been trying to find Leo.

"Well, they do say 'opposites attract'," Spike yawned, riding atop Twilight's back. "I mean, I can't tell what Ivan's feeling most of the time by his face, and Pinkie's got enough energy to...to..." He trailed off, with another yawn. Clearly, he was still relatively young.

"Light a lighthouse, or something. Or power a computer nerd's collection," Corey piped in, trying to finish Spike's sentence with a human twist. He closed his eyes, trying to sort out thoughts. "I guess it was fun in the long run. Though I really can't say for sure, given where we're from, I don't really go party a lot."

"Yeah, it was fun, compared to parties back on Earth. A lot of awkward moments--" John began.

"Really awkward moments," Spike said in such a way that Corey, along with Twilight, hung their heads in embarrassments.

"But nothing that we can't live with..." John trailed off. Corey looked up, confused as to why his friend trailed off in the way he did. Spike then gave a sharp gasp, apparently seeing what was going on. Twilight gave a sharp inhale.

"Oh no!" she yelled, taking off into a gallop that sent Spike spiraling right off her back. At first, it seemed like a slapstick moment waiting to happen, where the purple dragon would fall straight to the ground after spiraling for a good three seconds suspended in mid-air, but John managed to catch the dragon and set him down. However, it seemed that whatever the others saw was enough to wake the younger dragon up.

By the time John had snatched Spike out of the air, however, Corey had seen it. It wasn't hard for him to piece together what he was seeing.

The library did appear to be intact, minus the door. To say it was wide open was an understatement. The whole thing was ripped straight off the hinges, and off to the side on the inside. Twilight was inside the main area, no doubt surveying the damage. Somehow, Corey understood where he needed to be. With an exasperated sigh, he turned to an angry-looking John and very concerned looking Spike. It seemed at least one of them understood what might have caused this.

"I know this is going to sound very comparable, but if there was a time to care about that, it isn't now," Corey said, turning to them. He forced urgency into his tone. Damned if he'd ever been in a situation like this before! "I'll stay here and try to help Twilight survey the damage. You should go get the others, if they're not already asleep..."

"Forget 'if they're not already asleep'!" John exploded, expelling dark smoke from his mouth, no doubt out of mirth. "I'll wake them up myself if I find them sleeping first!" He seemed to be aware he was not quite normal right now.

"Is that what I'm gonna be like when I'm older?" Spike asked, no doubt a moment meant to be humorous if this was being externally observed. But to Corey and John, the threat was real.

"Not the time, Spike, let's get going!" The blue and black dragon put special emphasis on the last two words of his statement, and appeared to be reaching out as though making to drag the smaller dragon if he had to.

"Uh, right!" Spike said, and started to move. "You know, Twilight's gonna want to write the princess about this!"

Is she even awake at this-- Corey cut himself off. If there was ever a time for his mind to wander, it wouldn't be now. He watched the two dragons leave, feeling a small twinge of guilt well up in him. After all, it would have had to been those that came out of the second portal that did this. He didn't know for sure on that, though, but he had a nagging feeling.

He galloped back towards the library, where a very distraught Twilight awaited.

"Who could have done this?" she asked herself.

"I've got a pretty good feeling..." Corey responded, causing the purple mare to turn.

"Corey..." She seemed slightly relieved to see him behind her, but then she looked confused. "Where's John and Spike?"

"I...sort of sent them after the others. At the very least, Ivan and Leo should know about this." answered the former human. "Don't know if it'd be quite prudent to tell them that 'human' secret, though, at least not tonight."

Twilight gave a skeptical look. "Are you sure?"

"Not really, but it'd probably look bad if this was the cause of the fifth guy, or other group or whatever." answered Corey. "Anyway," he surveyed the damage for himself, "looks like whoever it was, came here for a specific kind of book. The reference guide's section been gutted."

"I noticed!" Twilight snarkily responded, sounding mad, and as though she didn't need reminded. Corey flinched out of reflex, and sighed somewhat. He really needed to quit stating the obvious. She sighed in response. "I'm sorry, it's just..."

"I know. I'd be pretty mad if someone broke in to my home and stole stuff from me too." responded the former human, with a small bit of resolve working its way into his features. "So then, let's find out what was taken..."

Act 1 Chapter 17

Act I: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 17: That Ominous Feeling

It was such a stark contrast that no one could have predicted. One moment, everything was bright and happy, and the next, it was chilling and ominous. To the former humans, it seemed like something that might have happened back on Earth, but here, in Equestria? It seemed very odd to them. They, along with Twilight and Spike, had a good idea of who the culprit was already. Against their better judgment, they decided to withhold the humanity of the newcomers for now.

John and Spike split up, managing to alert Ivan and Pinkie Pie straight away, since they were still up and about at the Sugarcube Corner. Apparently, Ivan staying wasn't too big of a deal, but there wasn't any time to figure out exactly what went down. Spike, being smaller and a lot less angry-looking than John, went to find Fluttershy, who was, thankfully, still on the route to her home.

She seemed incredibly deep in thought, but for what, Spike couldn't tell straight away, but upon hearing the news that the library had been broken into, she snapped straight into focus in her usual way, before heading to the library. Applejack was relatively easy to catch as well, given she was still up. John handled that one.

The news spread between Twilight's friends like sparks of a wildfire. Some other ponies did catch wind of the incident. There were quite a few frightened looks, wondering precisely what was going on with the strange occurences today. They didn't think too much of the sun princess's visit, but on top of this, some of the more intuitive, or less sane, ponies began thinking about conspiracy theories.

Eventually, the news reached Rainbow Dash, in part because Fluttershy was able to visit her home. At first, Rainbow seemed annoyed with the intrusion, but all it took was the news of the break-in to get the loyalty kicking in. She flew off toward the library, taking the form of a rainbow as she flew.

Rarity also found out, in part because Spike was able to reach her next. She found the situation to be a dreadful one, and put the project she was designing on hold, seeing that her friend was in a serious crisis.

Indeed, all of Twilight's friends were heading straight for her home, and saw the broken in door, and the two unicorns, who had not too long ago fallen on and for each other, trying to make sense of the mess. John remained outside, keeping watch. It was true, he didn't know his body like Spike did, but he knew enough that he believed he could be of some use remaining outside.

Besides, he knew he was probably enraged enough, with the recent incident, to spew flame unintentionally, and he did not want to run the risk of being inside when he did.

What came in with us?! he wondered to himself, clearly angered beyond what he would usually feel. Given the situation, that was saying a lot. He took a deep breath, and feeling the heat inside his chest, he exhaled sharply, letting out a stream of fire into the air in his anger. This has got to be the nicest possible place you could end up, and we *fucked** it up!*

He remained outside, staring passively into the distance.

I don't think Leo did this...but even so, where the hell is he?!

"Leo...Leo...Leo...?! ...LEO!!"

The voice of Rainbow Dash, practically screaming at him, woke Leo from his slumber. He lifted his head, still laying down on the cloud, and immediately realized his entire body was still very sore. He was still overworked and tired.

"I'm up!" Leo said back, more annoyed than anything. He realized that Rainbow looked concerned. "How long ago did the party end?" His tone was slightly softened, but the pain in his body didn't diminish. It seemed to be in his wings, more than anything. Since he'd never had wings to overuse, Noel was feeling the muscles being sore.

"Not too long ago, actually, but that's not what I'm telling you about!" Dash shouted back. "You have to come to the library, quick! Somepony's broken into it!" She then, just as fast as she'd woken up Leo, flew away, a stream of color following her.

"Joder...!" Leo grunted, rising to his hooves. He'd crumpled back to the soft surface of the cloud out of pain, but only once. Soon, against his better judgment, Leo was flying in the direction of the library, hoping Rainbow was joking about this break-in...

That was a couple of minutes ago, Leo recalled as he saw the library get closer and closer. Despite the soreness of his entire body reminscient of a hard workout, he was able to make good time on Rainbow's request. As he drew closer, he could make out figures. Most of them were inside, with the exception of one, a large figure just outside the door. Upon a closer inspection, Noel realized that it was John, standing guard.

The large dragon took notice, and, though it was hard to make out due to the distance at that moment, he physically tensed up, as though preparing to attack. Apparently, he worked out it was Leo quick enough, for his stance relaxed. The rest of the distance seperating Leo and the crime scene vanished. His wings were the sorest part of his body, he knew. The muscles were twitching, vibrating from the overuse.

He landed, closing his eyes, trying to shut out the pain from his system. That was a task in itself, but he heard another object, probably John, moving toward him, so he opened one eye, turning to his direction.

It was then he saw precisely what kind of break-in he was dealing with. The door appeared to have been ripped off its hinges, but it seemed that Applejack and Rainbow were teaming up to put it back in place. To say that the break-in was violent was an understatement. Well, that wasn't entirely true, by Earth standards, anyway.

But by what Equestria's standards were, or at least what he knew they were, this was a bad break-in. He forgot about the soreness in his body for a moment, and trotted straight up to the library. The cyan mare, who was helping Applejack stand the door off to the side for the moment, looked up, noticing him. There was no trace whatsoever of playfulness in her features. She was clearly angered about what had happened.

"Finally decided to show up, huh?" asked Dash, setting the door off to the side, and trotting up to Leo. "Gotta ask, do you know who did this?"

"No, I don't." Leo flatly said. He then recalled something he'd heard. "But while I was on that cloud, I heard fast movement down below. It sounded like it was coming from here..."

Dash's ears pricked up, and she fixated Leo with a piercing glare. Applejack didn't seem to be paying attention to the ongoing conversation, Twilight and Corey were both at the shelves, trying to make sense of the mess in the reference guides section. That section, compared to some of the other shelves, which Rarity, Pinkie, Spike, and Fluttershy were tending to, was basically gutted while the others just looked as though they had a few books pulled from them. Ivan was gazing around, his eyes appearing glazed over, looking for loose books that the other four had somehow overlooked.

"Then why didn't you do anything about it?!"

"I didn't really have a reason to believe anything bad was happening...I--" at this point, he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, Corey slowly shaking his head, while appearing to be taking control of the bookshelves. "I just didn't think to do it. I was exhausted."

Rainbow softened her gaze slightly, and for a moment, she didn't appear to realize she was gazing. The orange mare, noticing the gaze, shifted, and trotted next to the cyan mare, and whispered something into her ear. The ear of Rainbow flicked, and she quickly shook her head. The look in her eyes did read very clearly, though.

She was a little more concerned than she probably would have been, even under the circumstances. Suddenly, a terrifying roar sounded outside, followed by the unmistakable sound of flames being coughed up. Leo winced, more out of the sudden noise than anything else. Everypony else came to a dead stop, and Fluttershy became scared stiff; thankfully, she wasn't in the air at the time of John's roar.

Ivan cast a sidelong glance out the window closest to him, and sighed.

"John's really mad now..."

From the corner of his eye, Leo noticed something was off about the farmer pony. She was shifting, as though deciding what to do, and her face somewhat showed it.

"What's with you?" asked Rainbow, at first showing concern. This quickly morphed into a slightly playful look. "Don't tell me you're--"

"Don't give me that, Rainbow," Applejack cut off the cyan pegasus before she could say it, "Just that somepony's gotta talk to him, and I guess it's gotta be me..."

John breathed deeply, trying desperately to calm himself down, but no matter how he tried to, his subconscious kept reminding him of the fact that whoever did this break-in was likely the same person or people that came in through the portal that appeared before he was sucked in, but just after Ivan, Corey and Leo arrived. He was justifiably mad over the incident, but he knew he shouldn't have been taking it this hard. It had to have been the new body's complications; he'd never fully remembered a time in which he'd been this mad. Then again, he'd never literally had fire in his belly either.

"John, calm down," A familiar, feminine Southern accent addressed him, in a surprisingly level tone given what he was capable of when angered. "Ya might just cause more damage than what's been done."

He turned, knowing who was addressing him, and wasn't at all surprised to see Applejack standing there. When he noticed the look in her eyes however, he had to do a double take, which momentarily distracted him from his anger. But it quickly returned. Far as he knew, he still couldn't say exactly why he was so pissed. And it wasn't like he could lie to her either. So what was he going to do? This was the question he asked himself repeatedly. Finally, he saw a way out. It was a long shot, but given all the other crap that had happened today, what with Corey's surprisingly uphill learning curve and the romance thing, he was willing to try anything.

"I...I just don't like it...some--" he halted, unable to believe he was about to go through with saying it, "--pony, or something else, whatever, just broke in while our backs were turned. I don't know what happened between Corey and Twilight during their brief absence from the party, but I'd imagine they were happy...then this happened."

He noticed Applejack studying him with a look, one that he just couldn't read. John considered that the mare was scrutinizing him. No doubt she had to have been suspicious of the four newcomers anyway. Their names were strange by Equestria's standards, and a lot of strange things had been happening recently from the perspective of those not in on the former humans' secret. The dragon willed himself not to elaborate further, as he'd definitely give himself away, or give the wrong impression if he did.

"I don't like it either, sugarcube, but try to calm down," she said after sighing. She either didn't quite sniff a lie, or she thought something was wrong, but didn't want to pursue it right now since it wouldn't make sense for whatever reason. "Might jus' wind up scorchin' the whole town if you don't." Applejack sounded oddly calm given the situation.

John tried to breathe in and out, trying to get a grip. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, Applejack was right. If he didn't get his anger under control, it might take complete control. Much as he didn't want to be here, he still had absolutely no reason to light all of Ponyville on fire in a fit of anger over this incident.

Applejack knew one thing about these newcomers: they weren't bad at all. Somehow, she just knew they weren't bad, but she couldn't shake the feeling that all the strange happenings, minus the romance that was sprouting up like weeds, were tied to them. Never mind their names; the orange mare couldn't remember a time such a violent burgulary had taken place in Ponyville, or even Equestria. No, even Applejack knew that was a lie. Ponynapping and crashing weddings was still worse than what just happened, but on the scale of "strange things" that she and her friends endured, this would have to be up there, somewhere.

Realizing that Twilight was the one that made lists, not necessarily the farmer pony, Applejack had to continue the conversation. She didn't know why she felt like she had to; John's attention wasn't quite on the break-in right now, and he didn't seem to be quite as angry.

It also bugged her that this alone would get him angry. She just knew that while he was telling some kind of truth, there was something underneath it. Ordinarily, she might have pursued it, but the orange mare just didn't have a reason to think that the four of them were in on it. Leo was the only one that could reasonably be considered a suspect other than Corey, and he didn't appear to be in the condition to run ten yards let alone steal books. That condition may have applied to both of them, though, but for entirely differing reasons.

"You're right," John said, finally breaking the silence. "It's just, I didn't expect this."

"Nopony does..." Applejack responded, seeing that her remaining calm in the face of anger had worked on this particular dragon. It was stating the obvious, but there wasn't much else to say. "It wasn't your fault, John. Sure of it."

She wasn't precisely sure why, but for some reason, his anger seemed to come more from within than he was letting on. She wasn't going to pry into why he was blaming himself for this-there wasn't a lot of time for it, and besides, it probably wouldn't do any good.

There was a silence between them, even as the cleanup efforts finally subsided inside.

"Hey, Applejack?" John asked.

"Yeah?"

Applejack had only noticed that John had crouched down, so that he was eye-level with her.

"Thanks."

No matter how Ivan sliced it, something like this would have come up sooner or later. If the episodes of the show he watched was anything to go on, inevitably, some crap would have happened, and due to their befriending of the Mane 6, they would have been sucked into it. He just didn't expect it on day 2. Now he had to assist in another clean up effort, using his hooves to scoop books up and shelving them back whenever he found a few off-center.

He continued this action for a few more groups of books, eventually working his way over to where the others were--

"Oh, this isn't right at all..."

This was a familiar, very high-pitched voice, coming from behind him. Ivan turned his head to look, and saw Pinkie undoing the shelves that he'd fixed.

"Hey," he said, not really sounding angered or anything. He wasn't even as annoyed as he should have been. "Pinkie," she stopped, a book hanging out of her mouth by its spine. "...what are you doing?"

The pink mare shelved the book after putting it back on the shelf, in a different place than where the former human had had it not two moments prior.

"Well, Twilight likes things organized the way they were before, so we've gotta put them back in place the way they were, because if they aren't chances are she can't find them, or maybe she can find them since she always seems to have trouble finding that book she's looking for, and--"

Ivan didn't exactly consider himself to be a rude fellow, but he also didn't consider himself a gentleman either. He had to cut Pinkie off before she issued a run on sentence so large it wouldn't fit on a comic book page, never mind inside a single panel.

"I get that, Pinkie, but..." Ivan began. "How do you...know where the books--" A sensation hit him full-on, like someone had just pressed a cold can of soda to the nape of his neck. "--go?!"

It was a strange feeling, and one that rocked him to his core. It was freezing, without a doubt, but it wasn't anything that he couldn't handle. His pony body shivered in response to the stimulus, but he quickly got control of it. A few more moments passed, and the sensation was gone. The former human blinked. Whatever just happened certainly wasn't normal. He turned, to make sure Rainbow Dash wasn't floating there holding an ice cube.

He saw empty air directly behind him. Rainbow was over with Leo and Fluttershy. The silver colt was staggering somewhat, and his wings, while closed at his sides, were twitching. He looked as though he was trying to hide the pain, while the mares expressed concern in their own ways. Rarity was fronting the reshelved books, Twilight and Corey were still trying to stack up the overturned reference guides with assistance from nopony at the moment; given that gathering them up was nearly done, it wasn't a surprise. From what he could tell, Applejack and John were still outside and the door was still not in the best of states. That left one question: what was that cold sensation?

"Huh...well, that was weird," Ivan observed.

"What was it, Ivan?" This was Pinkie, probably oblivious to the sensation he'd just experienced.

"Oh, nothing," responded the reddish-brown earth pony. He didn't really feel like explained why he'd just tranced out. "Just could have sworn some..." He hesitated, but the hesitation wasn't that noticable. "...pony was putting ice on the nape of my neck."

Pinkie said something, but since she had a mouthful of book spine, it was hard to make out what she was trying to say.

"Uh, what?"

The pink earth pony set the book down on the shelves.

"That is weird! I'd feel weirded out too if it felt like somepony put ice on me and I didn't see anypony behind me!" This was Pinkie again spouting off on a tangent. Ivan started considering his options. Sure, they technically were living together after that particular agreement--now he had to help out around the Corner instead of the farm--but he was sure he could handle the pressure, but they'd been dating for a grand total of zero hours.

Then again, when he considered where he was, he wasn't too surprised that a friend was allowed to stay. But, after what had happened just now, Ivan knew it wouldn't have been prudent to straight-up ask Pinkie about how she felt. Besides, he was going to take it slow anyhow, and a soap-opera styled confession scene just wouldn't do.

His ear twitched as he registered that Leo was talking.

"Is there any way I can help?"

Had these words come from anyone but him, Ivan wouldn't have been too surprised. He knew John helped out enough; of course Twilight's friends would help her; even Corey could be a help when he felt like it. But Leo offering assistance, even in his obvious pain?

He didn't know Corey for sure, but what he did know was that when they first arrived, the green colt looked pissed-off all the time. In the light of recent events, however, he was noticably quicker to smile. Well, obviously not now since he was pissed again, but there was a change in his personality.

"Has Leo changed too?" Ivan wondered aloud.

"The party worked..." Pinkie said, now randomly right next to Ivan. "You're a lot more awake, Corey was happy to be places (though in a cute way), and John now has friends here in Ponyville! It looks like even Leo changed a little!"

"...Oh, yeah, like you were telling me," the brown earth pony said.

Corey continued to look in Leo's direction. The guy looked sore. His wings were twitching, but it looked more like the muscle twitches that occurred when they were overused. He also appeared to have a hard time moving about. However, he continued moving toward Twilight's direction. When Corey looked again, he realized she now held, in a telekinetic hold, the records for the books of the library.

Spike was over at the shelves, shelving the books while appearing to be fighting off sleep. The others appeared to be out in the main area, helping. Corey sighed. He had to help too, at least a little more than just being Twilight's emotional support during this time.

Then again, when he considered the male roles in the universe, from what he could gather, it wouldn't surprise him if that was all he managed. Yes, he learned magic quick, but now that shit was physically hitting the fan, it did appear it was crisis time in Equestria.

Leaving that aside, Corey never thought he'd hear Leo willingly offer help. Usually, it'd take quite a bit of prodding, and spamming the message "*pokes with stick*" into Skype as a means of getting his attention. Usually, he remained invisible. John and Ivan had similar results when trying to get his help. But here Noel was now, in obvious pain, offering his help to sort out the mess.

First me, now Noel...who's next to change? Will Ivan stop being sleepy? Will John-- Almost immediately, the green unicorn colt realized he was wasting time worrying about it. This world was going to change him, now that he was experiencing it first hand, something that no one back home could have predicted, and something that Corey was convinced nopony here would predict either.

"Whoever did this was looking for a specific reference guide," Corey said. "Given that the section that received the most attention was the reference guides...it's almost together, now." He summarized the damage. "We just need to find out what was taken..."

Leo took a gesture of thought.

"Reference guides, huh...?" Leo began to think, then he staggered a little on his remaining three legs. "And I guess Twilight has the records there..." He crossed his eyes while looking straight at Corey. Then, he looked towards his twitching wings. He turned completely, and Corey could only guess he was looking towards where John was. "Twilight, I think I have a good idea of what was taken...may I see the records?"

Corey wasn't even going into the part where Leo was being polite for a change. Then again, he'd seen this behavior before from him, earlier with Rainbow, and with Fluttershy when he got stuck in the cosplayer's uniform by Rarity.

"Um..." Twilight started, hesitating just a little, probably out of her expected job at the library than anything. Corey had to say something, so he spoke the first thing that came to his mind.

"I think Leo might be on to something," Corey responded to the purple mare's unspoken concerns. "But that 'something', I can't say for sure, but remember," He dropped his voice to a whisper. "If the one who is behind this is who we think it is..."

"You mean...the other humans--"

"Or human..."

"Leo?" Twilight asked, clearly phasing her question to Leo. "What exactly are you trying to say?"

Leo staggered over to the unicorn couple, his teeth gritting from the soreness of his body. Once he was within close enough range, he began talking again.

"When I first got here, I have to admit I wasn't as focused as Corey was on our 'problem'. I wanted to learn about my wings. And Corey started learning magic today, right?" By "talking", I really mean "whispering", as that was what the silver colt asked.

"That's right--oh!" Twilight responded, keeping her voice low. "I see...you think that the other human or group...want to know the workings of their new bodies...that should save some time."

Leo nodded, as did Corey, more out of response than anything. He fully understood Leo's logic, given that he was from the same side of the fourth wall as he was, but he had to make sure Twilight knew what he was getting at.

"...so can I look at those records?" Leo asked.

"You've been a good help," Twilight said, looking up from the rapidly turning pages, which were glowing as she cast her telekinetic spell on them. "Now...I suggest you get some rest. You look like you could need it."

The silver colt with a feminine snout quickly bowed his head in a sort of nod, and left the sight of Corey not too long afterward.

"Spike, you still awake?" Twilight asked.

"Y-yes!" The baby dragon wasn't completely awake, judging by the sound of his voice, but he sounded like he was trying to force himself awake.

"Listen carefully, we're looking for specific reference guides..."

The purple mare began to give her assistant directions. Spike followed the directions, and when Twilight asked if a certain guide wasn't in its usual place or in the remaining stacks of books, Spike answered.

Through this process, the missing books were at last discovered...

As Twilight and Corey sorted out the mess with the reference guides with Leo's direction, the others began to talk amongst themselves, seconds blending into minutes, and minutes going into an hour. Everyone was winding down, but willed themselves to stay awake. Three of the ponies in the room were still dead-set on a certain task, however, and that task was door repair.

"Alright, John, could you move the door a couple of degrees to the left?" This was Rarity giving a set of oddly specific directions on door repair. The hinges had been replaced with a little help from Applejack and John, the latter of whom mostly held the parts in place. Now, John was tasked with helping set the door back in its place.

"Like this?" John asked, adjusting the door as instructed. The door bucked in his hands. "Right, your left, my right..." He adjusted the door again.

"Okay, it should be back in place, now, Applejack--"

"I'm on it, Rarity," The orange farmer pony, defying real-life ponies' posture by standing on her hind legs, was doing Rarity's assigned task. She was putting the pivot back into the hinge, first on the upper hinge, then again with the lower hinge. "All done!"

"Let me test the door, Applejack, just so we know it's just as good as new," said John, standing on the side opposite the outdoors. He pushed and pulled the door normally. The hinges silently moved about as he opened and shut the door a few times, just to be sure.

"I believe that takes care of it," Rarity observed, shutting the book that she'd been using as a guide for the door repair. She didn't follow it to the letter; making her own personal changes to the procedure as she went. Which is why the hinges had a purple tint to them...

"Not quite," John responded from the other side of the door. "Just a second..."

The door opened once more, but then John slammed the door loudly, shaking the library. John then roughly opened the door. Through it all, the door stayed perfectly attached to the hinges. Didn't mean that those within the library weren't startled by this.

"What are you doing?!" the white unicorn squealed.

"Making sure the door can hold up if somepony walks out angry or whatever..." John responded. "Or tries another break-in. Hinges seem strong. Then again, we don't know how the door was dislocated in the first place."

"I'd reckon magic," Applejack interjected. "Then again, the hinges were ripped apart, so it could have been anythin'."

"Brute force would be the next best guess," This was John, re-entering the library and making sure the door was shut behind him. "Why I started slamming the door to make sure it could hold up."

"That's all well and good, partner, but..." At this point, the three all took turns looking in Fluttershy's general direction, who claimed to be alright, yet one could see her wings still twitching over the slight fear. Apparently she still needed just a little more convincing that John wasn't going to do anything to her or her friends.

"I do what I do out of concern more than anything," the large dragon defended. By this point, the white unicorn and the orange earth pony had both abandoned the conversation, though if one listened close enough, they could have heard the fashionista mare whisper "Honestly!" in response.

Meanwhile, over at the reorganized shelves, Ivan and Pinkie were talking. As it turned out, Ivan was expected to help however he could. The brown earth pony didn't seem like he'd had much in the way of culinary skills, though since he'd be likely to work at the bakery in Pinkie's place whenever she was up to some physics-destroying bit, the pink mare was bound to teach him how before long, in her own way.

That is, until the subject of childcare came into play. It came as somewhat of a surprise to hear that Pinkie's landlords had kids that the pink earth pony was expected to care for. While Ivan didn't particularly know what caring for toddlers would be like, he did babysit his younger siblings on occasion. While he didn't have much experience in caring for those younger than five, he still had more experience handling childcare than handling baked goods.

Pinkie assured him it was easy work, and seemed eager to teach him. Ivan finally realized that he needed out of his tuxedo, and back into his original hoodie, so he went into the library's bathroom to change (after a little direction from Pinkie and after the pink earth pony also found his original article of clothing).

Leo, meanwhile, had taken a reference guide for himself after informing the pair of his need. He was off to the side, reading it. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were talking, with no evidence of rivalry between them. Mostly because the latter pegasus never really communicated it. She had considered it, but the words failed to come to her. She just didn't want to sound condescending of Rainbow.

Eventually, though, a loud snore came from the reference guides section. All heads turned to the section. Two unicorns returned, the ones that made sense of the mess. They seemed to be talking between each other.

"Spike does go to bed around this time, huh..." This was the male, sounding a little distracted with the fact.

"Yes, but remember what was taken. Leo's hunch was right," This was the female, voice also low in volume. A few heads turned in Leo's direction. He merely shrugged in response and went back to reading, still in obvious pain. She then said something that none of the others could pick up.

"So what was taken?" This was the cyan pegasus, sounding slightly angered now that she was reminded why she had come. "When I find whoever did this--"

"Whoever took the books was probably waiting for the library to be empty. He or she is long gone by now." John said.

"I..." Leo spoke up. "I might have heard him running away, but I didn't know what it was until I saw the library."

The room remained silent. Given Leo's condition, it certainly made sense. Somepony might have spoken up to argue about it, if not for Twilight's interjection.

"Whoever did it wasn't very good with magic, but there's two books missing on magic usage, not just one." The purple unicorn announced. "One was a guide about basic usage, so the one responsible had to have been a unicorn."

"That's fine and all," Ivan cut in, finally looking up, having been looking down in the silence. "But you said two books were missing. What's the other one?"

Both of the unicorns physically hesitated, and a couple of observant denizens in the room noticed there was a very slight look of guilt on the green colt's face, but before anypony could point it out, Twilight spoke up again.

"It doesn't make any sense..." The purple mare began. "The second one was a far more dangerous guide, one that I have to admit I didn't even expect to have here in the Ponyville library...It was a guide on elemental magic."

The room fell silent. Not even Pinkie knew what to say right away, and she was usually the one to break silences. All ponies and the single awake dragon considered what could possibly be at work, though only the unicorns, Leo, Ivan and John had an idea of the truth at work.

"And he's long gone with that?!" Rainbow Dash finally spoke up. "That sounds like something that definitely shouldn't be lying around in a library!"

"I don't know why there was one here..." Twilight answered. "It could have been a leftover of the days before Princess Celestia, but the fact remains that it was taken."

"Whoever it is would have to be somepony very dangerous," John interjected. "That goes without saying."

There was something unspoken between the former humans. Whatever the case, they'd likely be sucked into whatever was to come, even if the one behind it wasn't the suspected fifth person or second group. They were just going to have to be ready, and considering that they were males, be especially careful of anything that might come up.

"All things considered..." the large black and blue dragon continued, "I think it'd be best to get some sleep."

Heads turned towards him. Even his fellow former humans gave him a look that suggested that they thought he'd gone mad.

"Sleep?" Rainbow asked. "A friend just got robbed, and you want to sleep?!" It appeared that she wanted to charge, and given that she was able to make him fall like a house of cards with a simple kick, John knew he needed to reply quick. Thankfully, he wasn't Corey.

"It's not that," the larger dragon continued. "But we're almost coming down from the sugar high from the party, and aside from me, it looks like everyone else is a little tired. I can stay up and keep watch in case whoever did this comes back for seconds."

Rainbow looked toward Leo. Then she looked to Corey. Then Ivan. Back to Leo briefly, which John did notice, but didn't point out. Her dark red-violet eyes focused on John.

"Rainbow, there's no reason to go suspectin' them. Corey and Leo were the only ones that left; Leo probably couldn't make an escape goin' by how he looks," This was Applejack cutting in. "And Corey left for..." There was a small giggle. "clear reasons..."

"Fine, I'll drop it for now," Rainbow said, still giving John a dirty look.

"What do I have to do to make sure that you know I'm on your side? Swallow lightning?" John asked. "Get back to me on that one..."

A couple of ponies winced, if only for the painful electrocution that would result from that.

"But you can't swallow lightning!" Pinkie interjected. "I mean, it's fast, it's bright, and it doesn't do whatever it strikes any good!"

"...That's the point, Pinkie..." Ivan commented.

It was something Twilight wasn't entirely prepared for, but given the situation, no one in the library was quite ready to leave for the night. They weren't going to abandon their friends. It was going to be a tight squeeze, fitting nine ponies and two dragons into the same place, but thankfully, everyone was able to find their place. Over time, everyone slowly began to fall asleep in place. John remained outside, back propped against the trunk of the tree that was the library, keeping watch.

Eventually, the only ones awake aside from John were Corey and Twilight. The others remained asleep in a variety of positions. Funnily enough, by some force, Fluttershy and Rainbow had wound up both sleeping close to Leo. Rarity wound up in Spike's bed, an action which no human doubted Spike would appreciate (given how things went in their world). Spike remained asleep where he'd fallen asleep, in the reference guides section. Pinkie Pie and Ivan fell asleep on top of each other.

Applejack remained asleep curled up close to the door, just below a window looking out toward the front yard.

Corey gave a small yawn. This had been quite a day, one that he'd hoped he wouldn't have to experience. It was true, he wasn't the one paying the rent here, Twilight was, but he felt like someone had just robbed his home, and it wasn't a very good feeling. On top of that, there was the stress of telling the purple mare how he'd felt, but that excursion was worth it. Plus, he'd started a food fight, something he wouldn't have even considered back on Earth. Then again, most of the stuff he'd done since coming to Equestria was all about risk.

He was by no means a daredevil. He'd hoped that things would at least settle down for a little while longer after their welcoming party, but after Princess Celestia had informed them of that other portal, he'd had his doubts. With the break-in occuring on top of this, it seemed unlikely that things were going to settle down for a time.

Granted, things settling down in Ponyville was a rare occurence from Corey's perspective, and given his relationship to Twilight, it didn't seem likely that things were going to be easy for him in the long run either. But that was the way the pieces fell into place.

"It's not your fault, Corey," Twilight said, quietly so as not to disturb any of the sleeping. "I don't think any single one of us could have saw this coming." After saying this, she yawned.

"I can't help but feel guilty," Corey admitted, turning to her. "I mean, assuming this is who we think it is...that other guy..." He kept his voice really low, basically having his mouth really close to her ear, speaking about his guilt as he whispered. "He came in with us..."

"I understand..." The purple mare rubbed her eyes with her hoof. "Oh!" She snapped to attention. "I've gotta write the princess about this..."

Corey snapped to attention as well, forgetting about his tiredness for the moment.

"Are you sure? I don't think Spike's able to be your mailbox right now..." he nodded in the direction where Spike was, and looked all around the room. "I think we're the only ones up aside from John..."

"I can write it now, at least, and send it to her tommorrow morning..." answered the purple mare, and soon, the two were off to Twilight's room. Rarity was rolling over, appearing to be attempting to get comfortable in the young dragon's bed. She, however, didn't stir to the sounds of hoofsteps approaching.

The purple mare quietly opened a desk drawer, and found a piece of paper...or parchment, whichever it was. Corey left her to do her report while he spied the bed he didn't use from last night. There was something off about it. It was well-made, but that wasn't what concerned him.

What concerned him was the clothing that was on it. It was the Solid Snake outfit from yesterday. Had Rarity been snooping around between the door being fixed and when she went to bed? Whatever the case, it was there. He walked toward it, feeling an odd feeling in his heart.

From what he knew of the Metal Gear Solid series, and he knew quite a lot about it, Solid Snake fit the definition of "black ops badass" quite well. That sort of title did not, by any means, suit Corey. He was known more for programming, math, and fanfiction back in his home world. A relatively quieter and less tumultous life.

He cracked puns and bad jokes relatively easily, and on some occasions he would amuse his friends and family members. That just wasn't the character Rarity had dressed him up as, and even if Equestria fully changed him, he doubted that colorful ponies could churn out black ops badasses except in fiction.

However, one of the articles of clothing on the pile caught his eye, that being the headband. He didn't know why, but he always preferred headbands. For some reason, it just screamed "cool". It added cool points to just about anyone that wore them. Certainly asthetically pleasing, if anything.

It was then, Corey made his decision. He gently lifted the folded vest and jacket pieces, and set them off to the side on the floor, using his telekinetic magic, of course. After taking a few moments to recover, he turned his attention to the strap of cloth, and focused hard, lifting the strap as though he were about to knot a rope.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Something terrible happened during the welcome party for the humans! While we were there, an intruder broke into the library and stole two books pertaining to magic use. The first one was a basic book, the second relating to elemental spells. I'm not exactly sure how such a book wound up in the Ponyville library, but the book has been taken! I have a very bad feeling about this. While I'm convinced that Ivan, Corey, John, and Leo are okay, I'm worried about the beings you mentioned that came out of the other portal. They seem to think that whoever it was was behind this. None of them seem to know who it is, either.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

Twilight smiled to herself, having taken down the information herself using her magic to write the letter as opposed to having Spike write it down instead. With her latest report on the new beings in Equestria complete, she turned back to Corey, and noticed that he had changed his appearance. She did recall that the costume had been on Corey's bed. The purple mare was somewhat surprised to see that Corey had put it back on.

Or at least, part of it.

"What...are you doing with the headband?" asked Twilight. Corey turned to her, an unreadable look on his face.

"...Twilight, question." his response came. "Do I...look cool?"

The purple mare's jaw almost hit the floor at the question. She had to remind herself that Corey could sometimes be unbelievable in this way. He did pop a hay pun when he was supposed to be telling her of his problem, after all. Plus, she didn't want to hurt his feelings. It was a side of her that probably would have come out under other circumstances, but given she had feelings for him, it just didn't feel right to be herself, at least, not entirely herself.

She scanned his appearance. Yes, the headband did make him look different, but not in the way he wanted.

"Cool...not really. However...you look cute..."

"...What?"

As it turned out, Corey hadn't tied the headband properly. It had been knotted at the back of his head, yes, but he had formed two loops, like bunny ears, poking out from either side of his head, rather than the straight lines that the bandanna had borne when Rarity had tied it.

"...You don't have the loop right, Corey," she said. "You...sort of tied it...you have bunny ears right now."

Corey was struck silent, and Twilight smiled when he changed color again.

"If you want help looking 'cool', do you think you can wait until tommorrow morning?" Twilight asked, giggling slightly.

"Yeah..." Corey said, sounding dejected as he removed the headband.

"Though, what were you going for, anyway?" the purple mare asked as she trotted over to her body.

"...Well, most 'cool' characters wear headbands..." he responded. "In fiction I've read, and all...I guess I wanted to emulate them."

"Oh?" Twilight asked. "And...may I ask, why?"

"Given the situation, I'm going to need to apply myself harder than I've ever done before. I feel responsible, and I want to be able to help you out." He seemed to want to elaborate more, but the instant he inhaled, he appeared to have thought better of what he was saying. "Being the colt...boy...whatever, who's close to you and all..."

"Do you think I need protection?" the lavender pony asked, making sure to sound insulted.

"N-no!" the green pony stuttered. "I-I'd have to be stupid to believe that! I-It's just...something I want to do...to be able to help you if you need it."

"Okay, okay," She'd gotten about the reaction she was looking for, and she liked his answer enough. "Go to sleep, Corey..."

She could hear the rustle of him climbing into the bed next to hers. She lay back, staring up at the ceiling.

It had been a strange couple of days. What had she learned from all this? She learned that beings from other universes could be adorable sometimes. She learned that they could make good friends.

And she learned that they could be similar to ponies from her own universe. She looked over to Corey once again, who was shifting around, trying to get comfortable. A smile formed on her face.

I think I have a pretty good idea of how I want to feel about him...I guess I can give it a chance. Besides...he is pretty sweet when he tries to be, and cute even when he isn't trying...

Despite this, she turned back away from him, her smile fading.

Still, I wonder who came in through that other portal. If our hunch is right, then whoever came in through there is no friend. Either that, or a horrific troublemaker...

Twilight shifted around in her bed, trying to get comfortable. Surprisingly, it wasn't as easy as last night. Eventually, though, the pony found her spot, and drifted off to sleep.

Act 2 Chapter 1

Act II: Fateful Collisions

Chapter 1: A Venomous Reminder

Four days have passed since the library break-in. Though wary, the eleven afflicted by the crime remained somewhat normal in their conduct. Ivan took up working at the Sugarcube Corner as opposed to Sweet Apple Acres. Pinkie was just as accustomed to her job as Applejack was, but she seemed to be more helpful...in her own way, of course. The Cakes didn't seem to mind the extra presence in their workplace. John took Ivan's place at the farm, and unlike the former human turned earth pony, the former human turned dragon did not mind getting up at the crack of dawn to assist on the farm.

Leo, meanwhile, remained with Rainbow, since she was still willing to at least be around him while he finished working out the kinks with his flying technique. Corey, meanwhile, tried to come to terms with his magic control. He actually made significant strides in that area of development, but still had to take a rest when performing advanced telekinetic feats.

Indeed, for the group, the break-in hung over them like a cloud. Yet, despite this, the former humans' secret has still been kept, possibly against their better judgment. On the surface, life continued as normally as it could in Equestria.

Day six of the former humans' tenure in Equestria begins now.

Four days had passed since he officially started working at the Sugarcube Corner. Ivan really wasn't sure if he was going to be able to keep up with the baking that was demanded of him. It wasn't as bad as he thought it was going to be, though. He did have Pinkie tutoring him on how things went together. It seemed simple enough. However, the former human dreaded the day he'd be left alone with the Cakes' toddlers.

He also apparently dreaded daylight, since he was still in the habit of sleeping in. Each and every morning, the brown earth pony would remain out like a lamp. And each and every morning, his roommate, in every way his opposite, would have to wake him up.

The brown earth pony rolled over in his bed. He then felt something bumping up against his snout, and half-opened his eyes to see what it was. His dark blue eyes suddenly got a faceful of pink fur, and cyan-colored eyes.

"Goooooood morning Iiiivan!!!" squealed Pinkie. If she hadn't done something similar to this each morning, Ivan would have been more startled. As annoying as wake-up calls were to Ivan, compared to the one that he got from Applejack, these were at least a little more acceptable. Though she waited for him to bump snouts, he still wasn't entirely sure if this is how Pinkie would greet her roommates normally or if she was being subtle about hitting on him.

"Oh, hi Pinkie," Ivan rolled over, trying to keep his tone light. "Are you waking me up early to tell me I don't gotta do much today?"

"Oh, don't be silly," Now, the pink earth pony bounded over his bed, and faced him directly again. "I'd wanna sleep in if it were an easy day!"

"And I always want to sleep in," The brown colt immediately rolled over such that he was on his belly, and dangling partway off the side of his bed. Sure, he was going to get up, especially now that Pinkie was literally sharing her excess energy with him, but why not make her work just a little for it? She clearly didn't seem to mind it.

"But why?" Now she was on the side of the bed, and when he looked toward her again, he couldn't help but notice that her smile did not fade too much with this revelation. "When the sun is out, everything looks pretty and everypony's out and about and--"

"Pinkie, I get it..." Ivan responded. Something about Pinkie almost always caused his normally neutral countenance to break down and a smile would form. There were exceptions, but had it been anyone else that had given him this wake-up call, the brown earth pony would have been a lot less responsive. "Alright, I'm up..."

The former human hadn't quite gotten around to asking Pinkie out, if only because he was unsure that she was actually flirting with him. He might have had an easier time if it were any of her friends, but when it came to romantic intent, Pinkie was one tough pony to read. He was honestly confused, but did not let it bother him.

He knew, though, that he liked her. She made being in Equestria and, hell, even working, enjoyable.

Meanwhile, in the library, in Twilight's room, two unicorns were sitting at opposite ends of a small table. It was Corey, the former human, on one end, and Twilight Sparkle on the other side. Upon this table was a board, with chess pieces in varying positions on it. A game was well in progress, and the black pieces were clearly overtaking the white pieces. A quick look at their faces would confirm who was winning and who was losing.

Corey was grimacing very clearly as he surveyed the board. Chess just wasn't his thing. It was his father's thing, but the patience for the game wasn't hereditary. Yet, playing the game had helped him somewhat adapt to the levitation spell. He was at least able to levitate relatively small objects with little trouble. If he kept using the games to practice, he knew that he'd be able to use the spell good.

Twilight, on the other hand, appeared very confident due to the way the board looked. She just about had his king in check, and when that happened, it would all be over. She had suggested they play it once, and somehow, this had become part of their routine. Probably because it was helping Corey along a bit in getting control of his levitaition.

Brown eyes surveyed the board, trying to find a move that wouldn't mess him up too bad. He only had a knight (which looked suspiciously human in this world), a bishop, a rook, and a pawn left in addition to his king. He could only make one move, and it would probably be his last given how all their games usually ended up. Well, except the first one, but that was because Twilight, he now fully understood, was going easy on him so he could get a feel for the rules.

A green glow wreathed a bishop, and he moved it into place, taking out one of Twilight's encroaching knights. The purple mare smiled somewhat, but Corey couldn't tell what kind of smile it was, and it worried him.

What worried him more, however, was the fact that whoever broke into the library hadn't been caught yet. A sub-worry of his: the fact that life was just being as normal as it could be in Equestria.

"It almost feels strange to be playing chess like this when we just had a break-in half a week ago," Corey spoke up as he wiped some of the sweat that had gotten on his brow. He was still wondering why ponies sweat, and if they even sweated back on Earth to begin with.

"I know, but there isn't a lot we can really do about it now," Twilight said, almost dismissing Corey's concerns as she turned her attention to the board. "Whoever did it is long gone, and besides, whether or not it's from your world or not, something is bound to turn up sooner or later."

Both took a moment to reflect on the sun princess's response, as well as the aftermath. She hadn't taken too kindly to the news of the break-in, but at the same time, didn't dismiss the prospect that it could have been whoever came out of that other portal. There was an investigational squad looking in on the incident, but so far, there wasn't a lot of progress made on the case. Whoever broke in did a good job of disappearing.

They took a little time to gaze at one another, before returning to their game. Living together hadn't diminished anything of what they felt for each other, but at the same time, the business end of the most recent incident had brought out their workaholic sides. They were both more willing to shut out romantic distractions.

This time, it was a pair of purple eyes that surveyed the board. One of Twilight's rooks quickly moved into place, taking out the offending bishop that had just taken out her knight, causing Corey to slump forward.

"Don't feel bad," said the purple mare. "You're getting better at this..."

"I know..." The green colt said aloud. "But I'm a very impatient pony...or person, whatever, at heart..."

Once again, it was Corey's turn to look upon the board and decide if there was a move he could realistically make with any of his pieces that would allow him to delay his inevitable loss just a little while longer.

Noel, or Leo, as everyone except Ivan called him, reflected on the past few days. He honestly couldn't say that things were going too bad. He'd gotten more control over his wings, and as the days passed, he could have sworn Rainbow Dash and himself were getting closer. She had seemed to be trying to distance herself from him at first, but eventually she began to relent.

Yet, Leo couldn't call that a full victory. Right now, he hated geometry, a subject he always loved. Why? Because he slowly began to realize he was part of a triangle, him being the point at the top, Rainbow Dash being the point on the lower right...

And Fluttershy, the pony he was trotting with right now, on the lower left, parallel to her friend.

"I hope you understand," Leo said to her, turning to the meek pegasus. "I can't sit back and do nothing. It's not in my nature."

The two were walking toward the Everfree Forest. The former human didn't quite know what to expect, but he saw a way he could practice his martial arts, hopefully without arousing the wrong kind of attention. He was going to remove himself from the rest of the population for a few minutes, and see if he could find a way to train his new body to be able to actually use his martial arts as he could in his human body.

It wasn't precisely the best option to do, but seeing as how his cutie mark had basically given that away when Rainbow asked about the symbol to Twilight, he had to get himself back into shape quick. If he remembered screenshots from the show correctly, the cyan pegasus also knew quite a bit herself. And if he knew her like he thought he did after five days in her company, give or take a few hours, she'd be bugging him to spar non-stop.

"O-okay...if you insist," the yellow pegasus stuttered in response to Leo's statement. The two were now pretty much at the entrance. The silver colt made a move to exit, but Fluttershy had something else to say. "W-wait..."

"Yes?" Leo asked, turning around to her.

"I-if anything happens, you come straight out," she responded. Her voice was soft, yet the former human could pick up a hint of sternness in her words. Her voice became somewhat clearer, "You hear me?"

"Don't worry abou--" Noel cut himself off when he caught the look in the mare's eyes. Her brows were furrowed, and it was a hard, serious look, something that Fluttershy rarely sported. With a sigh, the former human relented. "Okay..."

With that, Leo ventured into the Everfree Forest alone. As he walked down the path, he turned. He could see Fluttershy waiting at the entrance, seeming to fight with herself on whether or not to go in with him, as she merely watched him. The silver pegasus turned away, feeling completely confused, as he hovered away.

God I hate my feelings right now...

John was walking along the path to the library, the state of affairs at Sweet Apple Acres handled for the moment. He wasn't needed for the harvest; the Apples seemed to think that there would be rain in the next two days, a fact which seemed lost on John. He did know that pegasi could manipulate clouds, as he'd seen them pushing them around, on a couple of the days he was here, Rainbow Dash was lending a hoof.

He was mainly needed for more demanding tasks in the meantime: pulling out dead trees on the orchard being the job he was mostly known for. Ordinarily, it was Big Mac and Applejack that did maintenance of that sort on the farm, and for their part, they didn't really need John's strength to help. However, he did help them get that day's work done for the moment. He'd probably be back during the afternoon to see if he could help any further, but he needed some air.

Because the air at Sweet Apple Acres, John felt, was starting to become rather sweet. And not because of the apples growing there. Something else was blossoming down on the farm, and John wasn't entirely sure what to make of it.

I'm gonna blame Applejack on that one, but then again, had she not tried to talk me down, I really don't know what would have happened there... thought the former human turned dragon to himself. That, and over the past four days, we've been getting to know one another. Certainly a lot slower than Twilight and Corey did at any rate...

The image of Twilight on top of Corey in that accidental kiss amused John more than it did discomfort him. He continued his walk, greeting ponies, who by now seemed to have adjusted a bit more to his presence in Ponyville as he went. Finally, he caught sight of the tree which had the library in it, and walked up to it. He raised his fist to the door, and knocked three times.

"Who is it?" This was Twilight on the other end.

"It's John, mind if I come in?" the dragon asked.

"Spike--"

"Already on it," this was the younger dragon answering Twilight's command before she could even finish it. The door swung open, allowing free access. John passed inside, and looked around.

"Uh..." began the black and blue dragon.

"Upstairs, playing chess," said Spike. "Same as every other morning. Why are you here so early?"

"There really wasn't a whole lot of work for me today," John answered. "Other than pulling out dead trees that really had no business being on the orchards."

The former human was somewhat aware of the unicorn couple's new pasttime. For his part, he'd wished he could play one of them, if only to see if he'd gotten rusty. He was a member of the chess club, after all, and knew the rules better than Corey did. He followed Spike's directions, following the path to Twilight's room. As soon as John entered, Corey put his head on the desk, slumping over, looking utterly dejected.

"Checkmate," said Twilight, looking over the board. She carefully reached through the pieces with her forehoof, and took one of Corey's. "Hey, don't get down on yourself, you did better than last time..."

"I lost so many pieces though..." he responded. "I barely even touched yours. I only had the two left..."

John looked carefully at the board as soon as the two finished having their moment. Sure enough, Corey only had his King and a rook left. The two didn't even seem to notice his introspection, both wrapped up in their own thoughts.

"Ah, there it is..." said John. He picked up the rook and slid it to the opposite end of the board. "I can't speak for sure, but I think you might have had Twilight in check here, Corey."

Both of their attention spans returned immediately to the board. Out of curiosity, Twilight returned the board to what it would have been had Twilight not gotten her last turn. Two sets of eyes analyzed the board.

"John's right," Twilight said, pausing to make sure. She flopped down in her chair in a surprisingly humanlike way. "He's right!" She sounded more dumbfounded than anything. Corey stared stupidly at the board, then looked over to John.

"...You play chess?" Corey asked after some silence.

"Member of the chess club," John responded.

"I see," said the green unicorn, facing towards the board, wondering how he could have missed that. Twilight, meanwhile, turned to John, and posed a question.

"Would you like to play me sometime?"

This was followed by the sound of a green unicorn slumping over dejectedly again. Ordinarily, John would have covered for Corey, but seeing as how he had given some signs that Twilight and him were close enough that he didn't need a wingman, the former human turned dragon decided to forgo that.

"Whoa, slow down Corey, she said 'play', not 'date'..."

Twilight turned to the slumped-over Corey, who flinched and appeared to blush into the table from the moment. She giggled somewhat at his reaction, before turning back to John.

"Anyway, to answer your question, Twilight, maybe some other time." The black-and-blue dragon continued, acting as though the previous exchange didn't occur. "Corey, how's your magic control been going along..."

"Doing fine, thanks to chess..." Corey didn't look up, instead opting to mumble his statements into the table on which the board rested. Evidently, it took him a while to recover from embarassing moments that he didn't quite see coming up. "Moving the pieces helped that avenue along a bit..."

"I see...so you haven't learned any new spells, then?"

"Wouldn't know where to begin, really, though I guess I'm gonna need them, if things are gonna get as bad as we think they are..." Corey started looking up. "Twilight? Any recommendations?"

"Well..." Twilight started. Just then, the ponies' ears pricked up, as the sound of knocking once more echoed throughout the treehouse. It was a lot softer than that of John.

"I'll get it," Spike called up from downstairs. The sound of a door opening resonated within the treehouse. "Fluttershy?" At first, his question was nonchalant, but apparently he saw something that currently, neither the older dragon nor the unicorns could see. "What's wrong?" This time, he sounded concerned.

Corey and Twilight both got up, the latter whispering something to herself, but John couldn't quite make it out. All three moved into the main area, to see a distressed Fluttershy looking up toward them. She took brief notice of John, but did not flinch too much. She, like the denizens, had gotten somewhat used to the fact a larger dragon was in the vicinity, but she still had a few more hurdles than most of them.

"Fluttershy? Why are you here? What happened?" asked Twilight, moving down to her location. The two former humans remained somewhat distant, but started moving after her at a slower pace.

"I-it's Leo...he went into the Everfree Forest..."

"And you let him go alone?"

"Y-yes, but I-I s-should have went with h-him...he went deep into the forest and disappeared from sight...I-I wanted to follow him," Fluttershy began to shake. John felt he knew what was about to come streaming from the yellow mare's eyes, and he had a strong feeling it wasn't out of joy. "b-but I-I got s-scared...oh, he's been in there a long time...and he hasn't come out. I'm worried about him..."

Wait a sec... thought John. If Leo went into Everfree Forest alone...and from what I've seen of the show...oh crap...!

A subtle look in Corey's direction revealed they were thinking along the same lines. Thankfully, so was Twilight. Spike decided to stay behind and hold the fort until they got back; he figured he could do something in case the inrtuder returned.

So, with that in mind, the unicorns, pegasus, and older dragon began rushing in the direction of the Everfree Forest...

It had been about fifteen minutes since Leo managed to get deep enough into the Everfree Forest to avoid Fluttershy's eyes. He couldn't exactly train knowing someone was watching. However, he regretted this action. He wasn't exactly lost; all he had to do was retrace his steps. The former human couldn't find a suitable area to practice. The trees were very thick around the area he was in now, and it didn't look like there was going to be a clearing.

With a sigh, Noel shrugged.

"Guess I'd better head back," he thought to himself, starting to walk back toward the entrance. Just then, there was a terrifying, blood-curdling roar, one that momentarily froze Leo's blood. A loud thud snapped him out of his freeze-frame. He turned, and saw a creature that he'd saw in the pilot episode.

It was a massive, orangish-yellow lion creature with a red mane. However, setting this apart from the lion was the tail, which was dark red in color like the undersides of its wings.

Just my fucking luck... thought Leo. He knew full well where he'd wandered now. He must have gotten too close to manticore territory. And this one didn't appear to have a thorn in its paw. He didn't want to have a fight with it, but given how suddenly it had appeared, he did not appear to have much of a choice.

He decided to use a trick he'd somewhat perfected over the past few days. He flapped his wings, which by now had been endurance trained quite a bit, until the front part of his body lifted. Like this, he could stay bipedal as long as his wings could hold out. Noel knew quite a few styles of martial arts back in the human world, and he knew that he did come here to try and replicate them somehow without his human body.

He meant to use an inmobile target, however. Not one that was probably looking for lunch.

The wild beast before him lunged, its massive body proving difficult for Noel to avoid, but he somehow managed to pull it off, stumbling a little on his hind legs as he moved.

"Oh to heck with it!" Leo grumbled, pushing his body in the air, still maintaining his pose as the manticore charged again. With a battle cry, he twisted his body, kicking the manticore across the face. All this really managed to accomplish: one, Leo was able to get some breathing room once more; two, the manticore just became more pissed off. It scratched the ground, appearing to want to charge.

Calm down, Leo...calm down... Noel thought to himself, now starting to believe his old name was nothing more than a memory. He'd gotten so used to being referred to by that name that, save for Ivan's occasional greeting, he was believing he was "Leo". The force of a body pushing against his snapped him out of the thought process quick, and Leo was being pushed back.

"I've got to get out of here...!" grunted the silver pegasus colt as he saw that the duo was nearing a few obstacles. "Should have listened!" He struggled to get free, but somehow managed to wrestle his way out of the death charge, leaving the beast to crash into the trees, causing loose branches to fall and the nature constructs to jitter as the massive monster crashed into them.

Leo panted, keeping an eye on the manticore's movements. It got up, and uttered another ferocious roar.

"Darn it!"

The silver pegasus turned and tried to fly away, taking Fluttershy's advice to heart. The pegasus checked over his shoulder, hoping to not be leading the manticore into town. When he turned back, the same lion-like beast jumped down in front of him. Leo applied the brakes, dumbfounded.

I should have expected this...!

Just then, a scorpion tail lashed out, catching Leo just above the left eye, the pony closing his eye out of reaction. The pony kicked the manticore back, panting heavily. He'd taken a hit. To his surprise, a red liquid began to drip into his line of vision.

Blood...?

Just then, his vision began to blur, and his breath suddenly became harder to maintain.

No way...do these things have venom too?!

Fluttershy couldn't lie to herself. She felt absolutely terrible for not accompanying Leo into the forest. But she was too scared of what was within the trees. With a large dragon and two unicorns now backing her up, however, she was easily able to manuever through the forest with minimal freezing.

"He could be anywhere in here...!" Corey grunted, his voice betraying a slight fear. He almost looked as though he wanted to say more, but cut himself off. John said nothing, only occasionally breathing out gray smoke as he ran.

"We've got to find him, before something else does..." Twilight piped in, only raising the meek pegasus's guilt more. The four continued to gallop/run through the forest, until a loud roar sounded nearby, causing the four to stop.

"What was that?!" John yelled, the smoke coming out of his mouth now a darker gray. He was clearly getting angered now.

"T-that was...!" Fluttershy stuttered, knowing full well what that roar was. A quick look in Twilight's direction confirmed that she already knew as well.

"A manticore...oh no!" Twilight screamed, realizing the danger Leo was in. "Leo...!"

Realizing the state Leo could be in right now froze Fluttershy's blood thoroughly. It was a disturbing thought to her. Manticores could sometimes be nice, but most of the time, they weren't the friendliest creatures to come across, especially if you wandered into their territory by accident. The sounds of steps became distant.

"Fluttershy?" Twilight asked. "Are you coming?"

"Y-yes!" And with that, the yellow pegasus was off again, this time taking flight and flying after her friends, forgoing her galloping. The four followed the direction of the roar, and found themselves staring at a scene nopony should have to see their friend be put through.

Leo was pinned to the ground, trying to dodge claws to the face that probably would put him in bad shape. What really underlined his condition, however, was what color his face was. It was a paler silver, and with a stab of anger, Fluttershy realized that he had been hit by the scorpion's tail.

John gave a terrifying roar, but Fluttershy wasn't paying attention. Her anger was kindling. It had only rose to this point a few times in her life. The pegasus did not consider herself an angry pony, but when an event or person managed to anger her, she couldn't stand by and watch it anymore. She merely hovered, staring at the silver colt.

John charged, knocking back the manticore as it tried to smack Leo again and catching it by the chest. It staggered back. Now John had its full attention.

"Corey, Twilight, Fluttershy, get Leo out of here!" he roared back to them, the smoke a complete black fog as it spewed from his mouth in his obvious anger. Fluttershy followed the two unicorns as they approached Leo. Twilight was the one to lift Leo away with a levitation spell, and set him down near the other three. Corey seemed to be shocked that Leo was injured.

"Leo, can you hear me?" Twilight asked. "What happened?"

"It got me with its tail..." Leo weakly answered.

Something stirred further within Fluttershy. Her face set into an expression of anger, and almost immediately, she knew what she had to do...

John held his ground as the Manticore charged him again. Unsurprisingly, the dragon was being pushed back by the manticore, but he wasn't making it easy. The body of a dragon came with strength and endurance beyond that of a pony; John made sure to use it to his advantage. Of course, he also knew that if he stayed this close to the beast, he'd probably wind up in the same condition as Leo. He took a deep breath, and almost immediately, he felt his stomach fill with heat. He blasted a fire stream into the manticore, singeing its fur and mane, causing it to back off and, after it recovered from the attack, launched itself to John.

The dragon was on the verge of lunging forth himself, when a yellow body suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Stop!!!"

John abandoned his fighting posture, looking up toward Fluttershy. He could not see her facial expression from the angle he was at, but he looked back at the manticore. What he saw nearly made him step back out of fear alone: the manticore looked as though it was about to wet itself.

"You want to hurt my...friend?!" She hesitated only briefly during that statement, making all present wonder about Fluttershy's real feelings for Leo. "You'd better not! You've done enough!" She was clearly angry, and John could only guess she was glaring at the manticore. The beast sit down, looking both frightened and angered. "Now, don't you dare go near Leo again, do you hear me?!"

The former human turned dragon could not believe for an instant what the hell he was looking at. Even if he'd watched all the show, he knew he still probably wouldn't comprehend what had just unfolded. Fluttershy was so quiet and shy it was hard to imagine her becoming angered, let alone to this point. What made the moment even more chilling was that the manticore looked like it was about to bolt.

And it did, causing John to hold his breath.

What...the...hell...was...that?! thought the dragon to himself, remaining frozen. Fluttershy watched the manticore scamper off like it'd been spooked, and by all rights, the beast had obviously been. The pegasus landed on the ground, and after a few seconds, turned back to John, with only a slight trace of rage on her face.

"John, are you alright?" she asked, returning to her soft voice.

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine," John responded. He hadn't fought the manticore long enough to actually incur any serious injuries. "We'd better check up on Leo, though." There was one thing the former human did know: Fluttershy could be incredibly scary sometimes.

"Oh!" Fluttershy said, galloping over to Corey and Twilight. John remained rooted to the spot, while he processed precisely what he just saw.

How the hell is she afraid of anything?

Finally, though, John realized what he was doing, and jogged over to the ponies, realizing there was something far more important than Fluttershy being afraid of him, yet being able to scare away a beast by screaming at it.

Leo was obviously in danger, far more danger than John would have expected out of Equestria, even given the fact he had some knowledge of what was in this forest.

Twilight stood over Leo, feeling completely stunned. The silver colt that was once a human had taken on a manticore, and had obviously lost. However, his breathing was somewhat strained. She had to be sure.

"Leo, what did it do to you?" the purple mare asked, looking down upon the injured former human. Leo turned his head toward her.

"It hit me with its tail," he repeated, his voice sounding somewhat weaker. As soon as she heard it a second time, Twilight realized exactly what happened.

"Twilight?" Corey asked, apparently noticing the look of concern etched into her face. "What's wrong?"

"The manticore's tail...you saw it, right?" she asked, trying her hardest to keep herself calm despite the overall look of the situation.

"It looked like a scorpion's--!" Almost immediately, the green colt understood the situation exactly as well as she did. She could tell just by the look on his face. "Darn it...! Is there anything we can do?"

"What's the damage?" asked John, who by now had reached the site of conversation. "You guys don't look too good about it..."

"He was poisoned, John," Corey announced bluntly. "The...manticore, you said, Twilight?" Twilight nodded when he turned to her. "The manticore's tail was a scorpion's tail! It contains, what I assume, a very potent poison. Leo got a faceful of it..."

"We don't have a lot of time," Twilight cut in, feeling down on herself. "But I don't think we can reach the library and find an antidote for manticore venom before..."

The four fell silent. For a moment, no one really knew where to go from here. Just then, a soft, gentle, feminine voice broke the silence.

"Z-Zecora..." whispered Fluttershy.

"Huh?" Corey asked, turning to Fluttershy. "What'd you say?"

"Twilight," Fluttershy spoke up, somewhat dodging Corey's direct question. "do you think Zecora could help?"

Twilight looked from Leo to Fluttershy, blinking. Zecora...the zebra who helped them through poison joke even after all that Ponyville had put her through, the zebra who had correctly identified the parasprites as a source of trouble, and the zebra who had taught her a very important lesson, one she later applied to Corey and his friends: don't judge a book by its cover.

The situation did appear hopeless, but given that Zecora lived not too far from here, it actually seemed like there was a way Leo could make it out.

"That's right!" Twilight called out, somewhat startling Fluttershy. "She might know a way to cure Leo's poison! John, do you think you could--"

"On it!" said John, already lifting the still-conscious Leo over his shoulder. "Fluttershy, Twilight, do you know for sure how to get to wherever she is from here?"

"It isn't far!" answered the purple mare. "Don't worry, Leo stands a good chance with Zecora!"

"Who is 'Zecora'?" asked Corey as the quintet took off. Twilight turned to him with a small smile.

"You'll find out," she began, "but trust me when I say this: Zecora knows more than I do about remedies for situations like this."

"I trust you completely, Twilight," Corey whispered. "You know more about this world than I do..."

The purple unicorn merely smiled to her green...special friend as she lead the way to Zecora's hut. The five wove through trees, startled birds, and, by some form of luck, had managed to reach the abode of the mystical denizen.

"Is this where she lives?" John asked.

"Yes..." Twilight responded. "Leo's going to be in good hooves, believe me..."

Twilight cast a look over to Fluttershy, who appeared unbelievably relieved at this. It seemed likely that Leo was going to be just fine...

Leo's in some kind of pickle now! Nice going, dude! Well, this ends the posting of already posted chapters. From here on, it's entirely new chapters. I think everyone's IC...and to those that are concerned, this story is going to turn out long.

Act 2 Chapter 2

Act II: Fateful Collisions

Chapter 2: Visions of Tommorrow

Corey wasn't completely sure what to think right now. He did trust Twilight's judgment well enough, but this "Zecora" was an unknown. What was she like, if she was trusted enough to have a cure for manticore venom? And why did she live so far removed from the other ponies?

It seemed he was about to get answers, for the group approached the door, Twilight taking the incentive to knock. The rate at which her hoof crashed against the wood would indicate the severity of the situation, the former human assumed, as he watched her at work.

"Zecora, it's Twilight! Something terrible has happened!" the purple mare said, her foreleg tapping the door just as fast as she could manage. Eventually, though, her foreleg rested upon the ground. A few moments passed, and the door swung open.

The figure Corey was looking at, he'd had to assume was Zecora. He could only see part of her body, and already he had an idea of what she looked like. Judging from the stripes he could see on her mane, which more resembled a mohawk than anything else, and on her face, this character looked like a zebra. Her muzzle was squared like his, and she did not have eyelashes on her blue eyes. Also, she had large golden earrings, ones through which a foal could probably run her hoof through if she was ill-spirited enough.

"Welcome back, Twilight," the zebra said, in a distinct African accent. "what is it that has you at fright?"

"My friend, Leo," Twilight motioned over her shoulder to the silver colt. Corey looked as well, and saw  that Leo was fighting just to stay awake. "was here in the forest not too long ago, and got poisoned by a manticore. Can you help?"

"A serious matter, is it not?" Zecora continued, opening the door completely, confirming that she was in fact a zebra, and that she had a "tribal" appearance, with more golden rings decorating her body, her legs and neck. "But here, I have just the relief you sought. Please come in, this will only take a spell. Your friend is in no danger of becoming too unwell."

Despite the obvious seriousness of the situation, Corey could only think about one thing.

Okay...I feel like I'm in some sort of Dr. Seuss story... thought the green colt to himself as the others filed in. He followed, only when John passed him. Does everything she says rhyme?

As the others walked in, Corey couldn't help but notice that Zecora didn't even seem close to bothered by the fact there was an adult dragon in town. Either she realized he was good, or maybe she already knew. Either way, Corey wasn't sure.

Zecora went to work, taking herbs Corey was sure he wouldn't know existed even if he'd watched all the episodes that were out, and bringing them to boil. To his surprise, it appeared Twilight was taking mental notes as the zebra listed off the ingredients she was putting into the cauldron. He could only guess she was doing this in case somepony else she knew did something so rash again.

He was pretty sure, however, that even Rainbow Dash wouldn't try to do what Leo just did alone. As soon as Twilight finished watching Zecora at work, she trotted over to Corey, who had laid down somewhere relatively in-sight while everything happened around him.

"Question." Corey interjected.

"Yes, what is it, Corey?" Twilight asked, lying down across from him.

"Well, how exactly do you know her?" the former human asked. This zebra was somewhat new to him, so he didn't need to act surprised. "Fluttershy and you both pretty much knew she was going to be able to cure Leo, but I'm a little on the curious side."

"It's a long story," Twilight cast a glance to the cauldron, then to Leo. John and Fluttershy were over by him, the latter definitely closer than the former.

"Need to pass the time while she mixes the cure," The green colt was not taking no for an answer, at least not this time. "Think you can shorten it?"

"Well..." The purple mare hesitated. With a smile, she nodded. "Okay, I think I can tell you, and if I don't finish here, I'll finish on the way back."

At that moment, Twilight began telling her story. One day, she went into the town with Spike, but the streets were deserted. It turned out that everypony was hiding from Zecora, because they had believed she was an evil sorceress at the time. When Apple Bloom, Applejack's little sister, tried to approach the zebra, this lead to a short chase. As luck would have it, it turned out that everyone except for Spike and Apple Bloom had gotten into a funny little flower called "poison joke", but the zebra was just too cryptic in her warning.

The next morning, Twilight and her friends woke up, all afflicted with various symptoms. Naturally, everypony, excepting Twilight and Apple Bloom were affected by the poison joke, but they didn't find this out until after they had honestly believed Zecora was out to eat the little foal.

"Wait, you believed them?" Corey asked. That came as a shock to him, to hear she had fallen into the curse craze.

"Yeah," Twilight looked away, blushing slightly in embarassment from the memory. "I kinda got sucked in the moment, and all."

"I wouldn't worry about it," the green former human looked over, to see that Zecora appeared to be nearly done. "John, Fluttershy, how's Leo?"

"Still breathing and trying to stay awake," John said, impatience only hinted in his tone.

Fluttershy looked down on Leo, nodding to confirm John's statement. Over the past few days, she certainly had grown accustomed to the adult dragon, mostly because he hadn't gotten mad over the past  four days. And he'd certainly proved himself a friend more than a scary creature. It was still somewhat unsettling to her, but it was a mere afterthought, especially with Leo hurt.

"Why didn't you listen to me...?" she whispered, her voice barely audible. She couldn't name what she was feeling right now. She felt concern, that much was certain, but underneath was a simmering frustration if anything. But taking it out on Leo wasn't right. The yellow pegasus knew that the silver colt before her should have learned his lesson from this. "I told you to get out if it got too dangerous, not fight the creatures..."

"I...I don't even know if I can answer that," Leo hoarsely whispered, more to himself than anything.

"Fret not, Fluttershy, your friend will soon be well," Zecora said, looking into her cauldron. "Why he did what he did, I can not tell." At the zebra's request, Twilight gathered a sample of the potion, probably about a tablespoon. "The potion is potent, it is not like cider, due to the situation being so dire."

"Leo, take this," Twilight said, with Corey trotting up to her side. "This will cure the venom."

"John..." Corey began. "You might want to hold his mouth shut, if Zecora means what I think she means..."

John gave a nod, and moved into a position where he could do what he was asked to. Fluttershy could only watch as the transparent, green liquid was poured into Leo's mouth. From the way he grimaced, she could only guess that Leo was a few stones away from losing his lunch. John clamped one hand down on his snout, forcing him to swallow the liquid. The silver colt's cheeks temporarily turned dark green, but thankfully, there wasn't any lunch being lost. For a moment, nothing happened.

Then, Leo's expression slowly relaxed. The pain he must have been in seemed to abate. His breathing evened out.

"H-he's getting better..." noted Fluttershy, much to the relief of all present. Twilight, Corey and John turned to Zecora.

"The venom will be no more, I have done my best," Zecora said. "But now your friend..."

The sound of soft snores sounded within the hut. All heads turned to the silver colt, and saw that he had fallen asleep.

"Must rest..."

Pinkie Pie probably couldn't have asked for a better helper in the kitchen. He learned fairly quick despite being so sleepy all the time. For somepony who didn't seem comfortable with helping her with baking, he was doing a pretty good job of doing it. The party pony knew one other thing. She sure liked having him around.

However, today, something was slightly off with the reddish-brown colt. He wasn't as lively as he was. Granted, it wasn't saying much, but what she did know was that he didn't usually fall asleep on the job.

"Iivaan," the pink earth pony whispered, putting a hoof on his shoulder. "c'mon, it's not night yet!"

The brown body didn't even utter a grunt of annoyance. He just remained there, a lump on the counter, appearing to be sleeping.

"Ivan?" Pinkie asked, now turning to him full-body, the gleam in her cyan eyes fading as she looked upon him. His body was still warm, and it felt like there was life in him, but for some reason, she just couldn't wake him up. "Ivan!"

Ivan looked down below him, feeling somewhat out-of-place for some reason. He wasn't on the ground, and a quick look at himself revealed that he didn't have wings. In fact, for some reason, he was human again, but transparent! What really puzzled him, though, was the fact that there seemed to be something going on in a forest nearby. Was this the Everfree Forest? Maybe, for the ponies and large dragon he saw were looking about warily.

He willed himself to get a closer look, and as though carried by the wind, the former human floated closer. However, even though they all appeared to be talking amongst themselves, Ivan couldn't hear what it was. Was this another dream? No, he'd only closed his eyes for a few seconds wondering what the others were up to as he rest his head on the counter.

Corey, Twilight, John, and Fluttershy all looked relieved, the former humans looking a little more so than John. The silver pegasus on John's back, on the other hand, Ivan realized, was sound asleep. And a look at the pegasus's face revealed that his left eye had been bandaged up...

"Leo?!" Ivan snorted, bolting upright.

"Ivan?!" Pinkie squealed, apparently surprised, falling backwards on her rump.

"Pinkie?!" The brown earth pony then turned to his mare who happened to be a friend with this question.

"Ivan!" The cyan eyes of the pony brightened instantly upon realizing Ivan was awake. "Silly Ivan, this isn't a place for a nap..."

"A nap...?" Ivan questioned. Something wasn't right here. The dream, for some reason, felt awfully real, more like a vision than anything. He felt faint while in the dream, not like he was about to pass out, but like he was really light, lighter than air itself. His face did not betray the inner storm of confusion he felt, much, anyway. "Odd, all I did was rest my head on the counter and wonder what Corey, Leo, and John were up to...and then I closed my eyes for a few, just wondering...and then I saw them with Twilight. And Leo looked like he was hurt."

"That's so strange! But I don't think it happened! Maybe your imagination is playing tricks on you! It does that to me sometimes, like when I walk downstairs in the middle of the night to grab a snack and I see a scary shadow, but then I realize it's just me!" Pinkie monologued in her usual style, getting back to her feet and bobbing around as she did so. "Sometimes Gummy gets me too!"

Ivan knew Gummy well, it was Pinkie's pet crocodile, which was named because it didn't have its teeth...yet. Then again, it was just a baby reptile, so it probably wasn't going to get them anytime soon. Pinkie went to the trouble of introducing them on Ivan's first morning as a tenant/employee at Sugarcube Corner.

"Uh-huh," Ivan said, the corner of his mouth uplifting. "I guess we'd better get back to baking, though. Don't want the Cakes upset at us..."

"Oh, don't worry! We work together good! We should be slower, but we're not!"

And so with this observation from the random-as-all-hell mare, the two got back to work, though there was a nagging feeling lurking in the back of Ivan's head.

What the hell happened to me? Pinkie seemed genuinely worried about me back there before she realized I was awake...

Eventually, the group that ventured into the Everfree returned to the safety of Ponyville. Leo's breathing was still stable as he rode on the larger dragon's back, with Corey and Twilight leading the way back to the library. Fluttershy trotted along behind John, studying the injured silver colt intently. There wasn't a lot that could be said between them. Corey, John and Twilight knew full well that Leo was pretty much the glimmer of hope the four former humans had of getting home, while Fluttershy found herself enamored with the silver colt.

It was a feeling she'd sorted out for herself. No matter how she said it, she felt as though her fears and anxieties dissolved at least a little bit when she was around him. Yet, she knew full well that he'd spent a lot of time with Rainbow, her closest friend. The meek pegasus didn't want to hurt her, which is why she had hesitated on coming clean with herself about him.

Seeing Leo in the state he was in made her feel worse. She could have at least accompanied him into the forest, but then again, if she had, it probably wouldn't have gone any differently. The yellow pony became lost in her thoughts, wondering what she could have done to prevent Leo from becoming poisoned like he had.

John looked straight ahead, breathing out very transparent clouds of white smoke as he walked. He didn't even seem to be aware of it, but Leo's little stunt had irritated him. Corey and Twilight, on the other hand, were discussing what kind of magic Corey should learn next.

"If I can suggest something," John cut in, for the first time saying much of anything since the departure from Zecora's hut, "maybe you should teach him something that he can use in battle."

"John?" Twilight asked. "What do you mean?"

"Look, it's obvious that whoever was behind the break-in isn't any good," John replied. "I doubt he'd come quietly if we were to confront him, and given what he took..."

"Yeah, John, I was about to ask..." Corey cut in. "Levitation alone isn't going to do me much good. And I'm not known for being particularly athletic, so I'd probably perform bad in physical battle."

"Don't doubt yourself," the purple mare responded, turning from the adult dragon to Corey. "You're stronger than you think you are."

"Maybe, but up until recently, I guess I've never really bothered to show it, never had an occasion to." the green unicorn colt responded. "I'm not combatant. I may get angry and say a lot of things I might not mean, yes, but I pack all the power of a stack of papers."

"Listen up," John said. "This incident with Leo made me realize something. We're not going to do well if we don't get stronger. I don't want any of my friends getting hurt if things should turn bad."

"Nor do I," Twilight responded. "And," she turned back to Corey. "I certainly don't want any of you to get hurt while you're here either."

Corey nodded.

"So, what's next?" he asked, looking toward Twilight as she thought for a moment.

"Alright, I think I'll start you off with something defensive. I learned it not too long ago, and it can be adjusted in size when needed." she replied. "A barrier spell first..."

At this point, Corey distinctly wondered where he and his friends had wound up. Was it the canon continuity, and if so, how far along were they? This was definitely past anything he'd ever read about on the wiki.

As the fivesome finally reached the library, Fluttershy bowed her head, and said she really needed to get back to tending to the animals, apologizing again to Corey and John for letting Leo wander off on his own. With that, the yellow pegasus quietly trotted off. Leo was laid down on one of the beds with the door left slightly ajar. John remained indoors with Corey and Twilight, as the former began to learn the new spell assigned to him. Spike, seeing that they were back, decided to watch the spell learning experience.

The others with Noel were unaware of what he was dreaming about. Though his condition was stable, and the venom was being neutralized, the potion had quite a kick to it. The silver body of the pegasus twitched, almost like a dog having some sort of dream.

Noel was absolutely sure he was toast when he heard Twilight mention he'd been poisoned. And he felt the part. He was absolutely sure he wasn't going to make it, even with the knowledge of Zecora. He could have asked about her, but thankfully, Fluttershy had been able to remember that zebra. He'd watched that particular episode, and had been on the verge of groaning out what he knew might have a chance of stopping the venom.

Yet, even though he could feel the toxin leaving his body, he was confused. Was this dream he was having just a side-effect of the antidote he'd been given? He was walking along, in pony form, in a sea of black from all angles.

Why has your heart become the way it has

Is it because of your own past?

The silver pegasus's ears pricked up. He wasn't alone here. Even more unnerving was that he knew full well whose voice that was. It was Zecora herself, almost as if she were putting her voice on loudspeaker into Leo's dream.

"What's going on?" asked the former human to himself as he surveyed the area.

Fret not, young Leo, a second chance is now yours

But your future lies through one of these doors

You may find this odd, but you I must implore

To consider all these before you take on another manticore

Make sure to choose which path you take based on your heart's call

And maybe, you will find not just your own peace, but the ability to once more walk tall

"What paths...?" Noel wondered aloud as he surveyed the blackness. Suddenly, his ears pricked up. Zecora's voice was not calling out to him in its rhymes as it had, but he could hear something sounding off. He looked down, and he suddenly realized he was now standing on a single gray platform, from which gray pathways were extended in three directions: forward and to his left; forward and to his right; and straight ahead.

The sounds changed into a various mix of sounds. On his left, he could make out forest sounds: birds chirping and singing, and a gurgling brook to name two that jumped out at him. He looked, and saw a brightly sunlit forest, with not a single cloud in the sky. On his right, he could also hear birds chirping, but that was all. He looked there next, and saw what appeared to be nothing but blue sky, with clouds, and a rainbow extending across the top of the scene.

Straight ahead of him, when he focused on it, he could just make out faint clicking noises. He took a good long look at the central pathway. It was darkened, almost like somebody's room late at night. He couldn't see much of anything aside from a singular shadow, possibly human given its shape. He couldn't tell for sure though. And when he really focused upon that path, he could just make out the familiar Skype sound effects.

"I guess I'd better...do what the voice says..."

With that, Leo chose to go down the two more colorful paths first, starting with the one on his left. He stepped off, and followed the gray path into the scene. As he drew closer, he noticed his body becoming transparent, similar to a ghost. However, he soon realized why. He was an external gazer upon this scene.

As he fully entered the so-called first path, he realized where this scene was supposed to be: close to Fluttershy's house, not too far removed from Ponyville. He looked around, and could see Corey, John, and Ivan, still very much their Equestrian forms, along with Twilight and Pinkie. John seemed really down on himself for some reason, yet the scene felt happy somehow despite this. He looked around some more, and discovered himself with Fluttershy close by.

"Tell me again, Leo," John cut in. "Why are we still here?"

"Hey, Corey did his best," the silver pegasus retorted. Leo wasn't sure if he could put his finger--well, hoof, on it, but somehow, he could just tell his vision counterpart was lying. "but what he managed to generate just didn't work well enough for the code to work."

Ivan gave a small sigh. He was really hard to read sometimes. Thankfully, Pinkie brushed up against him, and the two had a small nuzzle, which shocked the real Leo, but didn't even seem to phase the vision Leo. Corey, on the other hand, slightly hung his head, but Twilight, noticing his discomfort, slid her head under his, prompting their own nuzzle scene, which did not surprise Leo as he watched them.

"S-so," Fluttershy began, looking to Leo expectantly. "D-does this mean y-you'll be here, for a while longer?" Her eyes sparkled, the intent behind her question clear. As was the context. Somehow, Leo knew that this vision Fluttershy knew the real truth of what he was.

The dream Leo said nothing to her, but nodded in her direction, looking just as happy as Fluttershy soon appeared when he did this.

"So, what do we do now, then?" asked John, looking to Corey expectantly.

"Hey, I don't have all the answers," he responded, Twilight removing her head from underneath his snout and kissing him quickly on the cheek. "but don't you have a farmer's daughter to help out?"

The unicorns and earth ponies giggled a little at his comment, and when John winced and his cheeks reddened somewhat, Fluttershy and the dream Leo joined in too. Then, Leo watched as the scene before him faded in a blurry smudge of color. Soon, he was transported back to where he'd started, back at the place where he'd wound up in this dream mind of his. He turned back to the path he'd entered, only to find it had disappeared.

"What was that?" Noel wondered aloud, noting silently that he once more appeared to be opaque. "The future...? Ivan and Pinkie...? John...and Applejack...?" He then noted his future self was with Fluttershy in this vision. He did share qualities with her, but they hadn't really spent too much time together over the past four days. He'd visited, but...he was busy with other matters.

With this considered, Leo turned to his right, walking down the path leading to the sky scene. Just like with the path involving Fluttershy, his own body became transparent, much like a ghost as he walked into the scene.

This time, every single member of the main cast was there, all six of the Elements of Harmony and the former humans still in their altered bodies. However, Leo noticed that they were collectively standing on a cloud. He recalled this from a fan-made music video he saw of the Sonic Rainboom episode: they were probably standing in Cloudsdale, but from what he recalled, only pegasus ponies could really stand on clouds. However, he then remembered, from what other few clips he'd seen, that the non-pegasi were easily walking too, so it was likely Twilight was there.

It was almost the exact same scene. John appeared to be the most disappointed of the former humans, with Corey a close second, but given how the last scene went, it wasn't hard for Leo to figure out where this scene was going.

"So, what you're saying is that we can't go back?" John asked.

"No," Dream Leo answered, "at least, not yet. Corey did what he could, but the model was too old for me to work the code on..." Somehow, Leo could tell his vision self was lying here, too. Corey hung his head, though by now Leo suspected it was more out of disappointment that he couldn't do what he could than actually wanting to leave, more so when Twilight nuzzled at him and he quite openly smiled.

The former human looked around the vision. Rarity seemed to be staring at the scene before her with a sense of jealousy reflected in her eyes. Fluttershy, on the other hand, slowly started to frown at the scene before her. However, the entire scene overall was jovial, upbeat.

And, in its own way, romantic. Like in the previous vision, Corey and Twilight were together, talking about something, but Leo couldn't hear it. Ivan and Pinkie seemed to be discussing something; mostly Pinkie, Ivan appeared to be nodding off. To his shock, John and Applejack were nowhere to be seen. However, Leo soon discovered the reason. John was already off flying, the orange pony on his back, as they headed for what the silver pegasus assumed to be Sweet Apple Acres.

Then, when he turned his head, he could see his vision self, flying with Rainbow Dash. Well, at least until the pony in question pulled ahead, turned around, and tackled him to the clouds below, pinning him. She said something, but Leo couldn't tell what, and found his dream self blushing terribly right before she kissed him full-on the mouth.

Right as their snouts made contact in that manner, the scene once again smudged and twisted on itself. The former human found himself now staring at the lone path he hadn't yet followed yet, thinking about the two scenes he saw.

"So with both of these...staying here in Equestria..." Leo said. "I don't know...I would think the others would be..." He halted, remembering that Ivan didn't seem to care about the fact he was staying in the world of ponies. Corey's look of disappointment was more about duty than location, based on the fact he openly smiled when Twilight gave him the affectionate gestures she had. He honestly couldn't tell with John, but he seemed to be in the same boat as the rest of the former humans.

This was all based on what Leo had observed. So then, this third path had to be...

"The human world..." Leo trotted up the path, the same ghosting effect happening as it had before. He was now in his room, which was darkened save for the light of the monitor. The familiar sounds of Skype beigng used entered his ears. He couldn't see what the others were typing, but his vision self, which was human in this final path, spoke.

"We're home now..." There was a hint of sadness in his tone. The dream Leo looked to a small object he was holding. It was a picture. Allowing himself to get close, Leo could see himself, in pony form, smiling, but he couldn't see who it was with before the scene cut away, leaving him in darkness, with his vision self fading into an echo. "But our hearts might not be..."

The void around him was once again a lifeless black, with only the echo of his own words to keep him company.

"The saying goes, 'Home is where the heart is'...but can any of us stay here?"

Thankfully, he got an answer, from the same voice that spoke in rhymes before he went down each path.

You have a hard choice lying ahead of you

Your new body you test and use

Make your decision, look inside your heart

It is there, you will find the start...

With that, the silver colt found the void around him changing color from the complete darkness that he was walking in to a far brighter white space. The vision around him faded, and he could now hear a sound, similar to a flute note.

"Corey, you're doing great!" A feminine voice, no doubt Twilight, entered Leo's ears.

"Ungh..." This was Corey's less-than-sure sounding reply, so he could guess that he was probably the one practicing magic. The silver pegasus's eyes opened, to find his left eye was blinded with something white. It was probably covered with a bandage, Leo realized as his memory returned of where he'd been hit.

He took a few deep breaths as his vision stabilized. He realized that he was back at the library. Leo had to pause and reflect exactly how close he came to death. He didn't have long though.

"Let's see how sturdy this is..." John cut in. "Hi-yah!"

This was followed by the sound of glass shattering, and the sounds of hooves clattering, probably Corey stumbling backward. The colt in question groaned, not at all expecting the sudden hit.

"Well, at least he's got the spell down..." Twilight said, an even tone in her voice. She didn't sound disappointed in Corey's performance. From what Leo could gather, he probably didn't have enough juice in it.

"Ow..." Corey moaned, sounding as though he was shuffling around in place trying to fight off the pain. There wasn't a lot of words to be said. "And the migraines return..."

There wasn't much in the way of words for a few moments. With a sigh, Leo relented. He was going to pretend to stay asleep for a while longer, but he had to see things for himself. He rolled on his belly, and made his way out of the bed, his joints still a little sore and his legs not quite steady as he got up. He slowly trotted his way toward the main area of the library, to see a slumped-over Corey, a concerned Twilight, John crouching down next to Corey as though about to say something to him, while Spike watched the spectacle, not noticing the now conscious Leo.

John whispered something into Corey's ear he couldn't pick up. Whatever he said, though, obviously pissed off the fat former human. His face turned bright red and he stood back up, probably forgetting whatever pain he was in from the first attempt. His horn became engulfed in a green glow again as he took on a look of concentration. At first, a green dome, no thicker than a sheet of paper, appeared around him. However, as he put more into it, the layers multplied and increased the thickness.

The use of this spell surprised Leo. From what he remembered, he didn't see a shield spell like this in the episodes he'd watched. He supposed it shouldn't have been surprising, but it was.

Twilight could barely contain her shock at the sudden progress. John, meanwhile, went to work on dispelling the former human turned unicorn's barrier with a series of punches. The dragon kept punching away, never bothering to take a break. Though this barrier held up far better than the last one, Corey's control suddenly rapidly began to wane, allowing John to break the barrier with one final flurry of strikes.

Corey stumbled again upon the barrier being broke, and this time fell flat on his belly, coughing while nursing his forehead and horn with one hoof. His entire body trembled with each cough, which, for some strange reason, produced green flecks, which could have been anything, but Leo assumed it was probably excess magic energy. For a few moments, the former human could do nothing but wheeze into the floor, the shards of the barrier he'd form dissipating around him.

"Corey?" Twilight moved over to Corey at a rapid pace, over at the fallen unicorn's side in a hurry. "Are you alright?" The former human in question said nothing right away, trying to get back on his hooves in a manner that made Leo's attempt at getting on his feet seem completely successful by comparison. Corey managed to get on his feet, but his head still probably hurt. He might have also had trouble keeping his balance or even seeing, given he hobbled about trying to walk. The purple pony, probably in a moment of weakness, pulled him close into a pony hug.

"T-T-Twilig--" The green pony was far too tired to even pronounce her name completely. Or in pain, given his breath came to him in shuddering, short breaths.

"Please," It was a plea, probably motivated by a concern she likely would have had even if she weren't attracted to him, but magnified by that product all the same. "Corey, don't strain yourself..." When Corey failed to respond, the hold she had on him tightened. "Please!"

Though both his eyes were only half opened, Leo could see the pupil shrinking within them as he considered what Twilight was doing. Finally, he moved his foreleg around her.

"A-alright..." he rasped, probably in a considerable amount of pain from his second attempt. "I-I'll take a break..." His cheeks were the brightest red. Leo would have watched the spectacle just a little more, but John, in turning away to allow them to have their moment, noticed the now-conscious pegasus.

"Huh? Leo...?" John asked. "You're awake!"

Twilight snapped to attention, her cheeks turning from purple to pink for a few moments as she released Corey, who stumbled for a little bit after being made to stand on his four feet again. He tried to take deep breaths as he leaned against the nearest sturdy surface, massaging the area around his horn to try and soothe the pain.

"Y-yeah..." Now Leo was the one talking in a raspy voice. Passing this off as a side effect of being forced to drink that rather nasty antivenom, he turned to Twilight and John, who were both studying him intently. John seemed to be trying to keep himself under control, as ashy white smoke was coming out of his nostrils each time he respirated.

"Are you alright now?" Twilight asked, her tone level and controlled. "Not in pain?"

Leo quickly examined himself. Any ache that he had while the venom was in his veins was non-existent. He didn't feel out of breath, either. Whatever Zecora had done had definitely cured the poisoning.

"Yes," the former human responded. "I feel perfectly fine now."

"Now, would you mind telling me why you tried taking on a manticore alone? You had all of us worried!" Twilight raised her voice to Leo, who flinched only slightly. He did expect this from her at least. "What were you trying to prove?"

"I don't know..."

Maybe it was the way it rolled off his tongue. Maybe it was the fact that he almost died. Whatever the case, John quickly took control of the conversation, his draconic rage showing as the smoke turned from ashy white to a dark gray.

"You don't know, huh?!" the dragon was probably trying his hardest to prevent himself from breathing fire by now, the smoke darkening as he continued to yell. "Don't mess with us, Leo...if we hadn't saved you when we did, you'd have died, and we'd have been stuck here!"

As if Noel honestly needed reminding he was the only one who knew the code. As if he didn't already realize it...

"Oh, so I'm just a liability, huh?!" Leo lost control of his anger as well, catching Twilight and John off-guard. He could feel two other stares in his direction, but the former human was far beyond the limit of caring. His mind raced. "You three, Corey, Ivan, and you, you'd be sunk without me, right?! Maybe that's what I was out to prove..."

As he continued, he recalled why he was happy here to begin with. Sure, there was dangers, as today's manticore incident proved, yet, for some reason, he was already considering staying in Equestria even before the vision. Back on Earth, he never felt right. He never felt like he fit in.

No. Truth be told, because of the way his life back in his home universe was, Noel was actually a little on the suicidal side. However, he never once attempted to hurt himself by his own hands. He let the environment take care of that. He would get himself hurt by the area around him. Perhaps some of the old feelings had returned, but it didn't matter. Noel knew he had to get out of there.

"No, I didn't mean it like that..." John responded, the smoke a lighter color than before as he talked.

"Forget it, John. Was probably the adrenaline rush that occurred when the darn thing jumped down in front of me, anyway..." Leo started making his way for the door, speed-trotting as he did so. As he passed Corey, who met eyes with him, the silver pegasus was only one thing to say. "And...good show earlier. You probably didn't need John's help..." The green unicorn looked away, staggering just a little.

"Leo, wait!" he heard Twilight call out, but he wasn't listening. He was already out the door, and swung it shut behind him. Not even bothering to take the bandage off his eye, the silver pegasus spread his wings. He didn't know where he was going, but he knew it was better than remaining in the library, being judged for what he'd done.

Even if, by all rights, he'd had it coming...

And there's the breaks. Now, what will Leo choose? And how potent was that antivenom?

For that matter, what happened to Ivan there? And how will Corey progress in magic control now?

For the uninformed, if you've ever played a Super Smash Bros. game and shattered someone else's shield, that thing they do when they stand up after that? Basically, that's sort of what I was going for with Corey.

Act 2 Chapter 3

Act II: Fateful Collisions

Chapter 3: Something Sweet, Something Spectrum

The four still within the library stared at the door, as though expecting Leo to come back to the door any moment. Not a soul spoke, all four equally confused and moderately irritated by that sudden display of emotion from the silver former human. It was probably the last thing they'd expected to happen upon his waking up.

"What's he mean, liability..." Spike said.

"He believes we're only keeping him alive..." Corey strained in response, still nursing his sore forehead with a hoof as he leaned on a nearby bookshelf for support, "So we can get home. Basically, implying we're that shallow. In any case, it's been made clear to us that without technology, we're more or less stuck here." He seemed to have shrugged off Leo's comment as well as the awkwardness that had preceded the former human's comment.

With an irritated sigh, evidenced by the smoke that was still emnating from his mouth, John descended into the main lobby.

"I need to go blow off some steam..." he observed.

"Instead of blowing steam?" cut in the much smaller dragon. The sound of the silence that ensued was deafening. For a few moments, the purple dragon honestly wondered if what he said was done so way too soon, but the tension eased when John gave a chuckle.

"Pretty much."

And so, with that, John departed from the library as well, leaving Twilight, Corey and Spike alone to sort things out. After a few more seconds of silence, the purple pony quickly sent her assistant after an ice pack for Corey's obvious migraine.

"Do you know anything about why Leo just..." Twilight hesitated, wondering if she should even ask. "Do you know why he just went off like that?"

"Honestly, I can't say for sure..." Corey said, still rubbing away at his forehead, starting to believe he'd rub some of his headfur off before Spike got back with that ice pack. "But if I had to guess, I'd say it's the way his life goes. A lot different from mine. I should mention that I only know him through that 'Internet' thing I told you about though, so what he says could easily be wrong, but it's all I have."

"I want to hear it," the purple mare continued. "I kinda want to understand your world more, even if you four don't completely understand it yourselves..."

"Well, don't judge my world based solely on my testimony, but...if you want me to, I guess I can share some of Leo's...personal accounts, but could you not tell him you know?" the green colt responded. "Really don't want him on my case...not that he isn't already whenever he and Dash are within the same vicinity as us...but I think he might beat me up..."

And so, as soon as the pack of ice was affixed to the former human's pounding head, he began rattling off what exactly may have contributed to Leo's rather sudden change in attitude. Somehow, this conversation began to change course after Leo's story...

Noel found himself flying in the direction of the Everfree Forest. For a few moments, he honestly wondered why he wanted to head right back there, immediately after his brush with death. That is, until that rather vivid vision came rushing back to him. He remembered hearing Zecora's voice giving him advice, in her rhyme scheme to boot. He wanted to know if the zebra really did that on purpose, or if the potion that he'd drank to neutralize the venom just made him have a painfully vivid dream.

Whatever the case, the former human found himself suddenly seeing in blurs. He hovered mid-flight, rubbing at his uncovered eye with his foreleg in an attempt to keep himself from passing out. He couldn't place it right away, but within a few seconds, Leo realized precisely what was going on.

That antivenom was pretty damn strong. There was no way he'd even make it to Fluttershy's, let alone Zecora's, in his current condition. He began to jostle in the air a little as he fought to stay upright. The silver pegasus colt eventually realized that any attempt he made to fight off sleep in his condition was absolutely pointless. Noel searched the area, and found his salvation: an untouched cloud. It was currently unoccupied, and he hadn't seen Rainbow today, probably a first since his arrival.

"I think...I'll just..." he mumbled to himself, finally landing on the cloud. "...try to sleep it off, here..."

He soon curled up on the rather roomy cloud, obscuring his eye injury with the silvery hairs of his tail. Though he rather quickly fell back asleep, there was a single thought that troubled him. He'd had those visions, and while he was sure things wouldn't play out exactly as they did in the dream, they served as a powerful reminder.

The former human had a big decision to make, and he knew he'd be better off making it now than waiting until later. He couldn't yet consider the ambitions and conditions of his fellow morphed humanoids quite yet. First, Leo knew he had to sort out his own thoughts. He was at the tip of a triangular pyramid, each face containing a different fate. The base, he did not know what it contained yet, but he could only assume it would take the form of what was to come.

One, he could return to his Earth life; as painful as it could be for him, it was still his home dimension. Besides, he was pretty sure the others wanted home, and it would have been beyond selfish of him to force them to remain in Equestria with him if they didn't want to.

Two, he could stay with Fluttershy; the shy pegasus, who he did admit he had some attachment to. But he hadn't spent any real alone time with her, and the most recent time, he was about to put himself in a precarious situation.

Three, he could stay with Rainbow Dash; a speedster, who, as he thought about it, had changed her persona over the past few days. She seemed to be...occupied, with something within her as they did their usual activities.

Leo wasn't quite sure which path to choose quite yet. Wait, no, somehow, he knew option one was just not for him anymore. Since he'd come to Equestria, he knew he'd fancy staying more than going home. But now he had pretty much been forced to look at the road ahead of him, the silvery former human knew he had some decisions to make.

As the time passed, Ivan and Pinkie served about twenty, thirty, maybe thirty-five ponies over the course of the three hours since that morning. Maybe it was the fact they balanced each other out. Maybe it was the fact they didn't have a lot else to do in the moment. Whatever the case, it was somewhat of a busy day.

The fact that hyperactivity was balanced with laziness in the kitchen did not go unnoticed by patrons either. Though Ivan didn't care enough to tune in to the specifics, he'd heard enough. Given it was lunch break, he didn't see the harm in asking, leaving aside the fact Pinkie still didn't know the whole truth behind his arrival.

"Say, Pinkie, you wanna go do something during lunch?" Ivan asked. His countenances was only slightly shaken by the fact he'd asked, but after Corey's little "accident" during the welcome party, there was no way the pink pony could have made things more awkward.

"I was wondering when you would ask! I mean, I've been looking your way for a while and you just don't seem to notice!" Immediately, the former human was proven wrong, as Pinkie immediately came right out and said it. Ivan internally added "subtlety" to the list of things Pinkie couldn't quite pull off.

"I don't know, always waiting to bump snouts with me in the morning is pretty obvious," Ivan cast a small, subconscious glance to make sure nopony was listening in. "Though I also want to see the others." He couldn't believe it, but the tiniest twinge of concern for Noel's condition had emerged in his subconscious; not to mention, he wanted answers on what he'd just experienced in his dream. Maybe he'd find something at the library on it. He had a feeling Twilight would know about it.

"Ooh! Here, I know a place we can go for our lunch break! Wait right here!" Pinkie immediately bounded off before Ivan can object. However, just as soon as she left, Ivan's mental train derailed. Now he couldn't help but wonder if the pink earth pony was saving something for when she found somepony that wanted to date her. Either that, or she just recently found it.

Whatever the case, Ivan knew one thing. Whatever she was about to show him had to be something both beyond random and yet suitably interesting.

There was no denying it in her mind any more. Rainbow found herself unable to completely stop thinking about Leo at this point. The time they'd spent together over the past few days had just made those feelings stronger. It was quite odd to her, really. Within the first day, she found herself succumbing to a far softer side than she thought herself capable of. She'd been steadily trying to fight it off.

But today was different.

"Leo...where'd you go?" she whispered to herself.

Why am I even doing this? I didn't think I'd be like this...! thought the cyan mare to herself as she flew about, checking places for the silver colt that she had so easily bonded with over the past few days. Not now, not ever...

A rainbow blur soon left Ponyville's airspace, heading for the outskirts. At this moment, her eyes began to drift. Though at first, she didn't notice it, there was a rather dark lump on a light cloud not too far outside of Ponyville. She halted, eyeing the lump on the cumulus for a moment. It was silvery, pony-shaped, and, upon a closer inspection, had Leo's weird cutie mark.

She'd remembered when she'd found out what that symbol meant. It was something Twilight referred to as a "yag-ying"...no, "yin-yang" or something like that. From what the unicorns in the library could tell her, it had something to do with martial arts. It goes without saying that once she'd discovered that fact, Dash became utterly estatic.

She was, as far as she knew, the only one out of her circle of friends that practiced any sort of martial arts. She'd even tried to pass her knowledge on to Apple Bloom when she first started pining for her cutie mark, something which ended very badly for the poor foal. That, and the other activities that she'd put the smaller foal through...at least Applejack's sister found a friend in Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, foals with a similar lack...

The sky blue mare hovered just off the cloud where Leo was napping, watching him sleep for just a few moments. She reached out for the silver colt, and began shaking him in a manner that was so unlike her it terrified her deep down. Rather that roughly jostle and jerk around the colt's body as she usually would, she began gently shaking his sleepy form.

"Rise and shine, Leo--" She realized even her tone was gentle. Even if she was succumbing to the feelings she'd never felt for anypony before, there was no reason she'd need to become a second Fluttershy just to be with him. Besides which, it almost seemed to make Leo uncomfortable when she was being that gentle. "I-I mean, c'mon Leo, get up!"

The pony before her gave a groan, which sounded faintly like "Dash", but the rainbow-maned pegasus couldn't really tell for sure. The pony before her uncurled...

and revealed a bandage over his left eye. Instantly, Rainbow wanted to gasp, and so she did, letting her previous concerns about being too soft fly away from her in the process.

"Oh my gosh! What happened?" She reached out with one hoof, and softly moved the appendage over the bandaged area. "What happened to you, Leo?! Tell me!"

"M-manticore..." Leo mumbled. The cyan pegasus blinked. No, he really didn't...did he?

"W-what...?"

"I got into a fight with a manticore...and lost..." He was speaking very quietly. At this point, twin emotions, anger and fear, swept through her. All Rainbow could think to do straight off was to find the manticore that dared to sting her friend, and deal her own brand of justice. Yet...yet she didn't even feel like demanding to know its location. No...no, she just couldn't find it in her.

"It-it stabbed you?" The words sounded so uncharacteristically gentle that the fastest flier found herself at a loss for words with herself. She was almost acting...unconsciously. Was this the force that drove those Changelings out at the botched wedding at work?

"The others....they took me to...to a zebra...I think..."

"Zecora?!" Relief washed over her faster than she could have ever guessed it would have. "Man, now I really feel bad about the whole 'evil enchantress' thing...but you're alright now, right?"

"Except for the...antivenom she gave me..."

"Did it...taste bad?"

"The worst thing I've ever had in my life...and I think it's a pretty potent antidote too...I can't really go anywhere like this..." Leo tried to stand, but from the look in his good eye, Rainbow gathered he wasn't able to get anywhere. Though when she'd first starting aspiring for the Wonderbolts, the cyan mare never truly gave a thought to slowing down any, and even as she gained her friends, she still wasn't explicitly urged to slow down.

But seeing the silver colt in this condition, one that he probably brought on himself nonetheless, was bringing out yet another part of that sensitive side out to play. And this time, there was nothing Rainbow Dash could do to stop it.

Noel was at the point where he was convinced that Rainbow returned his feelings. No matter how he looked at it, the fact she didn't immediately rush off to try and fight the manticore just didn't seem like the normal Rainbow Dash. Even on the first day, he'd noticed subtle differences in her character. It was just like that dream he'd had on the first night.

In that dream, she was being almost eerily nice. That was when he'd found out she'd let him borrow her bed for the night. And now, she seemed to be looking at him in a soft way, softer than when she heard his condition on the night of the library break-in.

"I get it..."

Just then, Rainbow flew off, but only for a few moments. In a flash, she had another cloud, pushing it right into his and forming them together. The combined cloud darkened, but only briefly, before resuming its white hue.

"I-I could..." She was trying to regain some of her former self, trying her hardest to pull herself just a little further away. Whatever she did though, obviously didn't work. "Aw, forget about it!"

Leo straightened out his neck, wondering what the hell Dash meant. He soon got his answer, though, when Rainbow lunged forward unexpectedly, with an unmistakable intent.

Their lips interconnected. For just a fleeting moment, the former human wondered if his new body secretly had unicorn magic tied into it. As soon as that moment subsided, Noel knew what his decision was.

In the end, he knew he couldn't stand Earth.

While he'd be lying to say he didn't feel anything for Fluttershy, it was quite clear to him that it'd take almost forever for them to get anywhere, no offense to her. Besides, given his other personality that enjoyed cracking tasteless jokes about his friends, it might not have worked out.

But when he'd considered how quickly Rainbow Dash had warmed up to him, as well as how they seemed to click as they spent that much time together, his choice seemed clear. With this in mind, he returned the mare's kiss. It lasted for a few seconds more, before they pulled apart.

"It's gotta be obvious, Leo," Dash said, putting a foreleg around him and pulling him close. "I guess I like you...a lot..."

A lot more than you probably should... the silver colt thought, nevertheless happy with his decision. "Yeah, I guess you already knew how I felt all this time..." he whispered. He began to nod off again.

"Right, I guess I could use a nap too..." Rainbow said. Faster than he could ever remember doing so in his life, even if the day had gone smoothly, Leo went back to sleep, almost the instant he closed his eyes. Just once, he'd sleep without much in the way of cares. Besides, this cloud was technically not a bed.

"...and that's how we re-sealed Discord," Twilight finished, having recounted some more tales from her world. Corey nodded, only vaguely aware of most of those events from reading the wiki. "That's when I discovered how important friendship really can be...well, if the other lessons I learned before didn't make it clear enough!"

"Sounds like you've seen your fair share of..." Corey immediately hesitated, knowing full well where that sentence was going. "...chaos..."

If tumbleweeds were ever needed to emphasize awkwardness indoors, that moment right there would have been perfect, the former human thought, immediately staring at the floor.

"I can't believe you just said that..." He could picture Twilight putting her face into her hoof to that statement. "but that's the kind of colt you are..."

"Colt...?" Corey looked up.

"I've never seen you as a human..." Twilight noted aloud.

"For some reason I came out green, and I don't know why." The former human responded, and it was true. "My eyes are actually green, but even then, it's only noticable when I shine light right into them."

"So..." The purple mare hesitated, but eventually managed to state, "If I had to guess, I would assume your eye and man--hair colors switched during the swap. How's your headache, by the way? It should be better by now..."

The green colt's eyes trailed upward. Sure enough, the throbbing in his head had finally abated. With a sigh, he allowed Twilight to lift the ice pack off his head.

"Well, I guess that means break time's over..." Corey said. "Time to get back on perfecting the barrier so I don't get a migraine every time I cast it."

"Honestly, I think that might be because it's stressed to the point it breaks, since you're not just casting a temporary shield, but you're sustaining it with your magic as well." Twilight said. "I'll test your shield strength, but before we get back...don't you have any stories from your world...no, your life, that you want to tell me?"

"Honestly, after all the stories you've shared with me, I can't possibly compete with the life of a unicorn, let alone one as amazing as you are..." The green unicorn replied, to which the purple unicorn blushed only slightly.

"Coming from you, I guess it shouldn't mean so much, but...oh! That's...not what I meant to say..."

"Don't worry, I think I understand what you're saying..."

The two stood there awkwardly for a few moments longer, neither knowing what to say. Thankfully, there was still at least one dragon around to keep them on-task.

"Hey, get a room!" shouted Spike in mock disgust, sporting a "gag me" sort of gesture on his face. Surprisingly, he seemed to be ready to go somewhere.

"...And where are you going?" asked the former human in the room, resisting the urge to blush with every fiber of his being.

"Oh yeah, Rarity asked you to come help her gather gems again...are you sure you're not eating her stash just so you can spend time with her?" Twilight asked.

"What do you think I am?! I don't hoard things, at least not anymore!" Spike looked honestly offended, at least, as far as Corey knew. Not that the situation wasn't something entirely out of his scope. And the whole "hoarding" thing...what was he going on about?

"Right, my mistake. Sorry, Spike."

And with that, the baby dragon left the unicorns alone to continue the green one's learning process.

"Alright, let's go, then." Corey said, focusing magic into his horn. Once more, visions of Dragonball Z flooded his conscious mind as he concentrated. A green layer of magic appeared, followed by another. "Alright, ready anytime..."

Bzzt!

The noise came from just outside his barrier. Chancing to open his eyes, he looked to see what Twilight was doing to check up on his progress. Her horn was glowing that magenta color it did when she was casting a spell. He maintained his barrier, eyeing her carefully. Just then, he noticed three short spurts of magenta light streak towards his direction.

The former human's concentration almost broke, sort of like his restraint, when he saw this. Having watched Star Wars and played quite a few video games involving them, he knew precisely what blasted forth from the purple mare's horn.

Lasers...?! When did this happen?!

On the light show went for about another forty seconds, during which Corey's hooves buckled against the floor, multiple fissures in his magical shield.

"Twilight, I'm almost running dry! I'm really not in the mood for another migraine...twice is enough..." The green colt warned.

"Okay, thanks for the heads-up!" One last laser shot forth from the unicorn's horn, but this wasn't enough damage to shatter the former human's magical barrier. The barrier itself faded away, and with a certain calm, Corey trotted up to Twilight. "You're doing good, Corey, really..."

"I believe you, sure," Corey was struggling to hold himself back, his innards tingling with a certain excitement he hadn't known before. "But, Twilight, can I ask you one thing?"

"Uh, yeah, go ahead..."

With a strained exhale, Corey seized Twilight, and pulled her up onto her back legs, he himself going up as well.

"H-hey...!"

"When were you going to tell me you could shoot *magic lasers?!" The inner child in Corey was coming out with full force. Ever since he was a child, he'd always dreamed of shooting energy beams. At first, he didn't think he'd be able to, since that wasn't in the book he'd been given to study from, but after witnessing Twilight's laser light show, the excitement he'd felt at harnessing a force he was already comparing to *Dragonball Z's Ki concept returned with force.

"S-soon...?" Twilight asked, caught completely off-guard by this.

Wasn't a lot of ground to cover in this chapter. Got a little distracted with an experimental piece I'm working on on the side. Not sure if I'll post it or not. That, and animation too.

Act 2 Chapter 4

Act II: Fateful Collisions

Chapter 4: A Storm of DBZ References

Following Corey's little outburst regarding the "laser", Twilight found that she couldn't really say "no" to the former human's desire to learn more spells. Were the roles reversed, she'd have probably done the same thing, though probably just a little less enthusiastic than he was. The two had left the library once again, attempting to find an isolated spot not too far from Ponyville to practice the spell. Thankfully, it wasn't too hard to find a good spot.

Much like before, Twilight had opted to use an apple-based target, if only because she had so many on hoof, and didn't want to have the green colt collapsing of a migraine far from home by using rocks instead. Besides which, the apples they were using for this particular test were actually sour apples, ones that Twilight and Spike never quite got around to eating before they ran out.

Twilight set up a few apples to use for her demonstration as she illustrated precisely how the spell worked. She also did it far slower, so that her so-called "student" could see how she learned it. Given that this was one of a few spells that she learned hooves-on rather than by book learning...

"I don't know what this spell is called by our naming conventions...but I know it can't be 'laser spell'." Twilight said, her horn taking on a magenta hue.

"Few things that cool are ever named simple," Corey said, his brown eyes unusually sparkling with utter anticipation. They'd sparkled like that before when he realized he was getting the hang of his magic, and again when he was doing the barrier, but he literally looked like an overgrown foal about to eat his weight in candy. "From my experience, things like that are named stuff like 'Kame'--uh..." He immediately halted, the look in his face dissolving into an embarrassed grimace. "Wow, I'm getting used to this world..."

"Uh...right..." Twilight said, wondering why the heck the colt halted in the first place. He looked somewhat passionate until then... "Anyway, what I prefer to call this is a 'repulsion' spell of sorts. Since, well, it is meant for self-defense." The purple mare quickly switched into a more professional sort of mode. "Anyway, you focus your magic into your horn, just like any other spell. If you do it right, it should come out in the form of a projectile. I must say that you should be careful. If you put too much into it, it might do a bit more harm than good..."

"I understand..." Corey said, nodding.

Twilight scrunched her face up in concentration. It wasn't nearly as dramatic or overblown as the former human's look was. The magenta glow around her horn began opaque, and a spark, much like before, blasted forth from it, nailing the apple dead-center. The impact knocked the apple straight over, the laser having left a hole straight through it.

"Is...is that normal...?"

The purple mare now turned to Corey, who was eyeing the hit apple warily, as though he expected it to grow tentacles and strangle him where he stood.

"No, the apple doesn't have any real magic to it whatsoever," Twilight confirmed. "I wouldn't shoot you with one though, not even if you wanted me to...it would still hurt a lot."

The green colt's eyes seemed to relax back into a state of calmness. With a small sigh, he completely eased. He seemed to be mouthing to himself something, but due to the fact he was facing the ground and trying to obscure his snout with his hoof, Twilight couldn't tell what.

"Alright, I guess I'd better get started, then." Corey took Twilight's place at the firing range, in a sense. The teacher quickly set up her student's targets. Once more, the former human turned unicorn quickly bunched up his face in a look of "concentration" that almost suggested that he was having trouble using the restroom.

The unicorn's horn took on the vibrant green glow it took whenever he did a spell. The glow gradually changed from transparent to opaque as he focused, but unlike with Twilight's horn, his glow fluctuated between transparent to opaque frantically. As she watched him struggle with concentration, she couldn't help but remember that one time Pinkie used her as a gatling gun.

It was perhaps the most painful experience she'd ever had in her life, and as she drifted away for a brief  moment, it occured to her that she never asked the hyperactive party pony how she did that. Then again, with all the chaos in the moment, she hadn't really given it that much thought...

She focused her gaze on Corey, just in time to see a spark, barely more than maybe a centimeter wide, go forth from the unicorn colt's horn. However, it was only for a split second. It curled up about five centimeters from his horn, and faded into emptiness.

"Just a spark..." He sounded very disappointed in this. "Alright, attempt number two..." He looked over to Twilight, who smiled and nodded. Then, a statement she didn't expect to hear; a statement that she probably could have done without hearing for just a while longer. "John...?!"

She also regretted leaving that note, but it was in her nature to do so, and she probably couldn't have changed it if she tried. She turned, to see John, with an unusually distant look on his face. His eyes barely regarded Corey.

"Hey, looks like I've found you two..." His voice was easygoing, indicating he at least managed to calm down after leaving the library. "What are you doing out here, anyway? Has Corey really perfected the barrier yet?"

"Well, not exactly, but while you were gone, I was using this spell to test it," Twilight responded, recalling exactly how excited Corey had been to see that spell in use after his barrier fell away. "He got really excited, and I couldn't say 'no' to him learning the spell straight away..."

John nodded, "I see. Guess he's really eager to learn it, whatever it is..."

"What's up with you, John?" asked Corey, looking over to his fellow former human. "You look a little...distant, for some reason."

"Oh, nothing, Corey, go on and practice your new spell...I'll be watching." John assured, walking over to a nearby tree and sitting with his back against the bark. Twilight looked over to John, a little concerned.

"Okay...then..." Deciding it wasn't appropriate to pry lest she accidentally set the dragon's rage off, the studious mare quickly looked over to her student and special friend. "Corey, go on and try again..."

John had been jogging along, trying to keep all traces of anger off his face lest he accidentally scare a pony. Leo's excursion and subsequent outburst had left the former human all but confused and angry. On top of that, he didn't quite know what he could do, and just needed to let out the frustrations one of the first ways he knew how to back on earth, when his body didn't advance into a five-alarm rage every single time he was confronted with a fitting stimulus. Physical activity was something he'd taken up whenever he got angry back on Earth. He'd hoped that it would be enough.

He'd aimlessly jogged around for the better part of a half-hour just trying to release the steam that had built up in his chest from the anger he felt at Leo almost getting himself killed. He pressed his back up against a nearby tree, and sat down.

Darn it Leo, he thought, closing his eyes and trying to banish his anger while he rested for a bit. That isn't what I meant at all by that. You have to know that you're our only chance of getting home all the same.

The black and blue dragon remained underneath the shade of the tree, until he heard falling hooves approaching him. He turned, and was surprised to see Applejack was watching him curiously. It wasn't unlike the look she had given him a few days ago when he couldn't stop breathing fire following the library break-in. It was a bit on the softer side, given he probably wasn't visibly angry, but the farmer mare obviously knew a little bit about John, having worked with him the past few days.

"Oh, hey Applejack," John said to her. "What brings you here?"

"I caught the sight of a dragon with a dark cloud over him and thought he needed somepony to talk to," responded the farmer mare. "So what's eatin' ya?"

The former human hesitated before answer. "Oh no, I'm fine, really."

The orange mare obviously sniffed that lie and gave nothing more than an "uh-huh" in response.

"Besides, don't you have something to do on the farm?"

"Big Mac can handle the work for now. What's eatin' ya?" Applejack was not having John remain silent about his trouble. Here, John knew he wasn't going to get out of this, not this time. With a sigh, he relented.

"Okay, you win..." John recounted the tale of how Leo went into the Everfree Forest alone and fought against a manticore. Applejack promptly relayed how her friends went up against one once, but John had to say how it was different before she got too far ahead of herself. When she heard that Leo had actually been poisoned, her look changed to a far more serious one, but she obviously knew he was being honest about it.

"...I felt like I couldn't do anything, but thankfully, Twilight and Fluttershy knew this zebra...Zecora, I think her name was, and managed to cure him. After he woke up, I didn't choose my words carefully enough, and he flew off in anger or something. He misunderstood what I meant." John kept the humans' true species ambiguous throughout his explanation, hoping that Applejack wouldn't pry further.

The sounds of hooves echoed precisely four times in John's ears. He only knew that because looking back on the incident enabled him to count the number of steps it took for the mare to walk up to him.

"I see what's eatin' you." she said simply. "Ya just want your friends to be safe."

"Not like I'm much help," the dragon set his hands down on the ground at the base of the tree. "Every time something bad happens, I lose control of my anger..."

"Everypony has their flaws," Applejack cut in. "So what if you get a little steamed when something bad happens?"

John felt a warmth suddenly against his hand. He looked to the appendage, and saw an orange hoof hooked underneath it, pulling it up to the mare's eye level.

"Ya know what it proves to me?" asked the orange mare. "It tells me you have a kind heart, sugarcube."

The dragon's head immediately snapped to look directly to Applejack. For a few moments, neither one spoke, only allowing their faces to grow redder--

John was abruptly called out of his deep thoughts by the sound of something being fired. He looked up, just in time to see a green laser shot puncture straight through an apple. Or rather, the side of the apple. The dragon blinked, obviously not believing what he saw.

"What was that...?" John asked, now completely brought out of his thinking on the incident that had risen on his walk. "Was that a laser?"

"Huh?" Twilight turned to him. "What's wrong with it?"

"Oh, no, nothing, I just didn't expect that..." the dragon responded.

"Neither did Corey..." the purple mare responded, turning back to him. "Oh, he's trying again..."

Corey closed his eyes, randomly turning toward the next apple.

"Wait!" Twilight advised.

"Huh?" The green unicorn turned to the one addressing him.

"Please, try it with your eyes open this time..." She motioned to the fallen apple. As the shooter looked upon it, he realized what she was saying. It was a wonder he'd managed to hit it at all, John realized, seeing the narrow trench down one side of the apple.

"Right..." said Corey sheepishly, crossing his eyes in concentration as he looked upon the apple. This time, with his eyes open, the former human had a good look at his target. His horn glowed, and the glow rapidly advanced from translucent to opaque. A green spark-unmistakably a laser, shot forth from it, nailing the apple straight-on.

"Death Beam!" John suddenly yelled at the top of his lungs, standing straight up. What happened next could only be described as an awkward pause. Corey stopped, turning to John with an unreadable look on his face, while Twilight looked honestly confused as she did the same. For the first time, it wasn't one or both of the unicorns blushing when in his company. Rather, it was John himself, utterly embarrassed at his outburst. "Right...well...uh, keep at it."

"Uh, okay..." Twilight said, still very confused.

"We'll just...do that..." Corey sounded as though he was trying not to laugh as he focused back on the task at hand. He mouthed something to himself, but John couldn't see what. The dragon sat back down, feeling completely foolish for losing control of his mouth in that manner.

Subconsciously, he was glad Applejack didn't follow him.

No matter how she sliced it, seeing what she saw hurt Fluttershy deeply. It wasn't like they had been in any real relationship, but still, it hurt worse than any other pain she'd felt before.

It had happened a little after she finished feeding some of the forest's inhabitants, and of course Angel. The rabbit's attitude had improved quite a bit as the time had passed since Twilight's arrival. There wasn't really a whole lot else to that event. That went as though any other day. However, when she attempted to take a break, she'd noticed a rather large, white cloud. From the angle she had first saw it at, she couldn't see if anypony was on top of it, so she decided to flutter upwards to see if Leo had been atop it.

But who she saw on the cloud with him, huddled up near him just as it had been back at the library, was Rainbow Dash. The meek pegasus couldn't process what she had seen at first. But when she finally did, it came roaring at her like a rabid manticore. The yellow pony had spent the better part of her time since then grieving over the heart that had been broken.

There was really nothing she could do, though. Even after she'd learned to be assertive, it still wasn't her dominating nature, especially after what she'd done to her friends while making it her dominant nature. If only she'd made her move...

But there wasn't any time for regrets now. Even if she didn't have love, or a chance at it now, she certainly still had friendship to lean on. She looked up towards the sunny skies above, and whispered to herself.

"Leo...I hope you find happiness..."

Noel immediately jerked awake. It was almost like he'd been slapped in the face by something with thorns. He looked around, only seeing Rainbow curled up against his side, appearing to be napping. For a moment, he'd wondered what had happened that had caused such a thing. It wasn't as though they were exactly incognito here; everypony with wings would certainly be able to float up and see them in the middle of a nap.

Wait...the triangle I've been in... For some reason, a bad feeling arose in the silver colt's stomach. He turned over, trying to figure out what it was that had woke him up. Something finally hit him. Oh no...

Yet, there was nothing he could do in his present state without alarming Dash. He did not really want to know what would happen if they'd realized they were in a triangle or not, but from the looks of things, it didn't seem he'd have to worry much. With this, Leo immediately want back to sleep.

It was perhaps the most scenic spot Ivan had ever seen. Well, in Equestria, anyway. Back on Earth he'd been dragged on a slew of camping trips, but he really didn't do much in the way of hiking. The spot Pinkie had chosen was a small clearing not too far from Ponyville, which overlooked some of the city. This was a very scenic spot.

"Alright, Ivan, we're here!" Pinkie said as she set the basket which she had been carrying down in her mouth. "It's so pretty up here! I can see a lot of Ponyville up here, and I like that, but some sights need to be shared!"

Ivan merely nodded, but did not smile, at least, not in a way that was noticable. In no time at all, the hyperactive party pony had spread out a dark pink and white checkerboard blanket on which the lunch would be had. The lunch itself consisted of, to the former human's surprise, sandwiches. Well, and baked goods for desert. Two cupcakes, one pink...the other brown. If Ivan didn't know better, he'd almost say that were it somepony else up here with him, the not-pink cupcake would match the fur color of whoever it was up here.

The lunch itself was relatively uneventful. Pinkie began rambling on about things, and Ivan found himself either resisting the urge to smile or spittake depending on what the earth pony said. Somehow, he'd managed to get her focused on she met her friends. He'd managed to get a few words in about how he "met" his. Together since young, found John later, he stuck with the group. It was a story he had been told to tell by his friends until the whole "we're human" secret came out. Ivan really didn't see the point in doing that; it was bound to come out sooner or later, and he'd rather have gotten it out of the way as soon as he got the chance, but in the end, he wasn't the one calling the shots among the former humans' group.

"Oh! That's really interesting, but my friends met under a different situation!" Then, Pinkie began rattling off precisely how she met the others, aside from Twilight. It seemed like even before the purple mare came into town, the Mane Six had already formed friendships with each other. Well, except for the part where they didn't really interact much outside of a day here, a day there.

Then she got to the part where she'd met Twilight, and went into way too much detail on some aspects of that day, in her usual style. All Ivan could do by that point was chew, nod, and appear to smile, though he was obviously listening. For some reason, listening to Pinkie's account of the events was interesting, even though he knew how it happened firsthand. Then again, Ivan considered the pink party pony probably had that gift anyway.

"I just can't figure out how Princess Luna got so big!" Pinkie said. "I mean, she was so small compared to Princess Celestia, but about a year later she's a lot taller than all of us and scaring everypony on Nightmare Night!"

Ivan bit his tongue to prevent the question that was just on the tip of his tongue. One thing, Pinkie didn't know the truth about him; two, it did sound awfully familiar, the Nightmare Night thing, anyway. If he didn't know better, he'd say she was referring to Halloween.

"I see..." Ivan managed. "Well, that sounded about right. The part with Nightmare Night, anyway. Leo's been known to do quite a few pranks of his own on that day...all of which at my expense, but hey, eventually karma's gonna get him..."

Saying that reminded the brown earth pony he still needed to see if he could find out what happened earlier that day. If anything happened. More importantly, he needed to know what was up with that dream he had. Usually Pinkie'd be able to shake him out of any nap he'd been taking. But she looked genuinely worried, almost like he wasn't waking up...

"Maybe, if you're still here in town when Nightmare Night comes up, you can get him back!" Pinkie said. "I sometimes pull pranks with Rainbow Dash! Oh, but her and Leo are awfully close...Okay! I know what we'll do!"

"I thought you planned parties...not pranks..."

"With the right planning, a prank can be like a party!"

Ivan couldn't hold himself. After the few seconds it took for him to fully understand what the earth pony said, he started chuckling, which gave way to open laughter in about ten seconds. Pinkie joined in, and it took them both about a full minute to recover. Clearly, this pony earned her element.

The two eventually managed to finish their lunch break. Just as effectively as she'd spread it out, the pink party pony quickly stowed away the picnic blanket in the bag she'd been carrying it in. The two earth ponies then began making their way back to town, taking a different route than the one that took them to this spot.

The two walked in relative silence, with Pinkie talking about things in a slightly more reserved manner than usual. She was still going a mile a minute about some things, but Ivan was able to keep up with what she was saying just a little better. As they neared the town, suddenly, Ivan's ear twitched in response to a noise he'd heard. It sounded like something was zapping.

"Pinkie, did you hear that?" he asked.

"No--" Then both of her ears immediately perked up. "Now I do!" She then turned to him. "Wanna go see?"

Ivan shrugged. Whatever this noise was, investigating it would likely beat working.

"Sure, let's go..."

John continued to watch as Corey rapidly got the hang of the laser spell. The green unicorn accurately aimed and fired successive green bolts of magical energy into each of his targets. He was hitting them in an accurate manner, but the former human turned dragon just didn't feel right with the way his friend was controlling the magic.

Yes, he was making strides, but if he wasn't levitating objects, it was taking him an awfully long time to get started. As Corey sighted another apple, John decided to count how long it took for Corey to fire the attack.

1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10-- His thoughts were broken by the actual firing of the laser spell, which at least made its mark. "Hold on, Corey, time out for a second here." The dragon stood up to his full height for the first time since arriving at the so-called "training grounds".

"What is it, John?" Corey asked, turning to him with a noticable amount of sweat on his face.

"He's doing well," Twilight said, a small smile on her face at the "pupil's" progress.

"I know he is, but...his firing is...slow." John responded. "I just timed it. Ten seconds. Right now, in target practice, that's not so bad, but if we were to get attacked by the guy that broke into the library..."

"And what makes you so sure he'll attack us, again?" asked the purple mare.

"Probably because he busted down the door, and like you said, he took a dangerous guide with him. I wouldn't put it past him." The black-and-blue dragon responded, sighing a little. "Anyway, ten seconds is an abyssmal start-up time. A lot can happen in ten seconds. While stationary targets are good for accuracy, something more...challenging, needs to be done here."

"What do you have in mind..." The green unicorn asked.

John paused somewhat, considering what he was about to do. Even though dragons did seem to be more durable than the equines his former humans were transformed into, he wondered if his scales would hold up to this idea. However, his concern for his friends outweighed his concern for himself. With a sharp exhale, he extended a thumb, and pointed it at himself.

"I'll be your moving target!"

My upload "schedule's" been deteroriating, and there's no excuse for it given the length of the last two chapters. I'm still debating on posting an experimental sort of fic I have on the side, simply because it's even more cliche than this, though it isn't a HiE fic. It's also not a crossover.

Act 2 Chapter 5

Act II: Fateful Collisions

Chapter 5: Something Is In Bloom

Corey was absolutely stunned by John's offering. No sane man, whether or not he suddenly grew thick scales in all of ten seconds as he became a dragon, would throw themselves in front of a laser, much less one that hadn't yet reached full development yet because its user's control over the spell was still iffy. Then again, the former human turned unicorn had a nasty habit of doubting himself at critical times. However, most of those times were academic-related. Hardly anything like a friend offering themselves for target practice.

"John...you're kidding me...right?" the green colt asked weakly, not really in the mood for jokes of that nature. The black and blue dragon said nothing, the look in his eyes unchanged from when he'd made his statement. "...oh, no...no, I can't do that."

"Corey's right!" Twilight cut in, snapping Corey fully into focus. "That spell he's working on isn't meant to be used on friends!" She turned to him awkwardly, before turning back to John, "He still doesn't have the control over it to hold back the force he puts into it; he could really hurt you!"

Corey remembered how Twilight had used them on his shield. She did seem to be putting in a considerable amount of effort trying to cast the spell. Yet, when using them on the apples, she didn't appear to be trying any more than if she was levitating a few items at the same time. At this point, the former human nodded in agreement. He thought better of asking if this was true; afraid that if he did, John would not stop badgering him to attack him.

"I'm a dragon, I can take it," John was stubbornly refusing to give it up.

"That, I'm not sure of." Twilight snapped, "I've actually went up to a few before; and while you're more around the size of the ones that Spike tried to be friends with, I'm not so sure if your scales are fully developed yet. I mean, most dragons your size had their wings fully grown..."

The former human turned dragon snorted. Somehow or other, Corey had completely forgotten that John had budding wings.

"Besides which," Corey cut in. "I'm not mad at you. If there's anyone I'd be mad at, it's Leo, but I'm not to the point of attacking him. In fact, it'd take a lot to get me mad enough to attack a friend, given the situation and all." This wasn't entirely true. Back on Earth, he was a powder keg, but recently (probably because he had Twilight now; desperate as it sounded to admit it) he'd felt a little calmer, less emotionally unstable. He honestly felt like it might have been harder for him to get mad.

"That's true..." John said. The aggressive look on his face faded. "I don't think I can get you mad enough either..."

There was silence as the dragon paced about the general area. Corey didn't like the fact he didn't just give up outright from what he'd said to him, but he was hoping and praying that John got the message and wouldn't offer himself up as a target anymore. The last thing he wanted to do was seriously injure him or worse because he didn't control his attack well enough. By the time John finished his pacing, he was a good distance away from Corey, his back turned.

For a few moments, no one said anything. Finally, John turned to him.

"I'm sorry for this, Corey..."

And then, without much more in the way of warning, he charged straight at him, with every intent to harm him readable in his eyes. Twilight gasped when the dragon swung a fist, and only by pure reflex alone did the former human move his head in time.

"John, what the heck?"

John didn't answer, already trying to strike again. Adrenaline began pumping in the pony veins that Corey now possessed, but he couldn't bring himself to use magic of any sorts straight away. He avoided another punch by the hairs of his mane, and with every impulse he willed himself not to get overly emotional.

"I don't want to--" His voice came out at a high, hysterical pitch as he fought to get in control of his emotions and remain unharmed. Another fist came at him, and Corey gritted his teeth and tried to erect a barrier. He barely had time for a shield just big enough to catch the fist, but the shield easily shattered; thankfully, Corey was able to release it just before it was destroyed.

"John, stop! He doesn't want to do it anyway!" Twilight called out, sounding both angered and concerned.

John didn't heed Twilight's concerns, continuing his attack. The green unicorn continued to back away, repeatedly forming shields with just enough power to ward off the attacks. It was amazing how fast the human mind could adapt to casting spells it could not have done before the transition to a new body, but Corey, paying no attention to where he was going, eventually backed himself against a tree. His head was starting to pound from the sudden magic overuse. He just wasn't used to the strenuous exercise that John was putting him through, physically and mentally. Mostly mentally; in the back of his head somewhere the former human dully noted that his pony body possessed a lot more stamina than his human body; but even so, he was breathing hard.

The former human turned dragon charged full-force again. Corey closed his eyes, and snarled, hating himself for what he was about to do.

"Stop it, John!" he heard Twilight say, but whatever she attempted would be too late for Corey's action.

Damn it all!! the green colt grunted to himself as he focused on the laser spell. He felt the magic attack leave his horn, and a few moments later, he heard John snarl in utter agony as the counter made contact, followed by a heavy body hitting the ground. Corey did not dare open his eyes, afraid he'd see dragon's blood, and the blood of a friend...

Ivan had followed Pinkie's lead to the origin of the sound. Abruptly, the sound had stopped, but Pinkie said she already knew where they were by now, and for his part, Ivan did believe her. It wasn't like they had a job to worry about-the pink party pony always seemed to have spare time from the episodes he'd seen, and he'd hoped the same applied even on this side of the fourth wall.

It wasn't until they had heard shouting, however, that their curiosity turned to concern. This was then followed by a close-by groan about a minute later. The two earth ponies had galloped full speed, both abandoning any sense of oblivion - Ivan's laziness and Pinkie's hyperactivity - for the moment. When they finally arrived at the clearing, they noticed a doubled-over John trying to catch his breath, an angry-looking Twilight, and next to her, a Corey that looked so ashamed of what he'd just done that he appeared on the verge of crying.

The downed dragon gave a few more coughs, before finally starting to get up. While his back was turned to the unicorns, who hadn't even noticed the arrival of the earth ponies, the latter group could see, quite plainly, a large, red mark straight in the center of John's stomach.

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" the dragon said, getting back to his feet with only a little bit of stumbling involved. Ivan didn't want to say anything, and to his surprise, Pinkie didn't either, though she looked honestly disturbed.

"Are you crazy?!" Twilight asked, putting a hoof around the still-trembling pudgy unicorn while he tried desperately to calm himself down. She was still glaring at John the whole time, and Ivan couldn't tell if she was more concerned or more pissed-off about whatever John did to warrant the bruise on his chest. "You could have really hurt Corey doing that, not to mention he could have hurt you a lot worse!"

The colt in question immediately adopted a bewildered look, and in so doing, realized John was alright. What happened was utterly lost on Ivan, but for some reason, he didn't want to interrupt the moment. Pinkie looked like she was somewhere between "aww"ing and questioning aloud what exactly John did, but she was still trying to preserve the silence, or trying to figure out what to say.

"I did what I had to do," John said, now turning to them. Apparently, he hadn't noticed the two earth ponies eavesdropping. Ivan would have felt insulted, but seeing as how the scene was resolving itself, he didn't care to make himself known. He felt a nudge at his side and saw Pinkie.

"What's John doing?" Any visage of concern was gone from the cyan eyes. Ivan could almost pick up on confusion, but this was Pinkie he was talking to. "He's upset Twilight, not that it takes a whole lot to do that on some days, but--oh! Why'd I say that? Please don't tell her I said that, it might get her upset!"

Ivan flipped one of his forehooves dismissively as he sat down, a gesture that, thankfully, held the same meaning as a human flipping his hand in a similar manner. Pinkie smiled wider before returning her attention to the scene before them.

"You had to be a moving target?" Twilight asked, still not sounding satisified with John's behavior. "Really? No one asked you to!"

"Leo almost got himself killed by a wild beast, and if I can help out Corey's spell reflex by getting hurt, then that's what I'll do! I'm not going to let anything happen!" The dragon yelled, sounding eerily sure of himself on that last part. It wasn't until Pinkie brought his attention to the other detail that he got it.

"Ivan, Leo went up against something and almost got killed!" Pinkie squealed, somehow going unnoticed by the others.

"What?!" Ivan yelled back at a higher volume than he intended.

"Huh...?" Corey asked, in a surprisingly raspy tone, even given that he'd probably been trying not to cry about the fact he'd been provoked into some kind of attack, given what the others were talking about.

"Ivan...and Pinkie...?" This was the former human turned dragon seeing them for the first time. "What are you doing here?"

"Well..." Ivan started, not really wanting to know an awkward moment, but to Pinkie, "awkward" wasn't even a concept in her memory, evidently, considering she launched into an entirely unneeded explanation of what exactly they were doing.

"We were up on the hill enjoying some lunch when we heard some weird noises," Then the pink earth pony proceeded to imitate the sounds of lasers firing, "So we went to check them out, and then we heard screaming, then groaning, and then we came here to see John lying down holding his stomach while Twilight looked angry and Corey looked like he was about ready to cry!"

There was nothing to be said. Ivan sort of hoped they'd blow past the awkwardness the first sentence would cause (him). The brown earth pony took a deep breath.

"Anyway, what were you three doing up here?" Ivan asked.

"I was trying to practice magic," This was Corey, having completely recovered during Pinkie's rambling. "John comes along, looks distant for a while. Don't know what's going on in his head...especially when he asks me to shoot him with a laser..."

"I already told you why I did that..." John said, and for some reason, he wasn't looking at anyone there. His eyes once again had a distant look to them, as though he'd remembered something.

"And that's why he was doubled over like you saw," Twilight finished.

"And what happened to Leo?" Ivan continued.

"...He tried fighting a manticore...and lost." The green colt interrupted after some silence. "Got badly poisoned. Were it not for Zecora--"

"Zecora?" Ivan asked, honestly confused. Who was that character? He didn't remember...whoever it was, from the episodes he'd seen.

"Zecora?!" Pinkie exclaimed, as though she knew. "You mean that evil sorceress who really wasn't an evil sorceress who helped us with our poison joke when we needed it? Oh, that was a bad time! I couldn't talk, I couldn't sing..."

Poison joke...the hell are we, time-wise? the former human thought to himself. I haven't even heard of Zecora or this "poison joke"...The episodes I watched were out of order, though.

"Right, well..." Twilight said. "Anyway, Fluttershy mentioned Zecora, and I remembered she knew how to cure afflictions like that. So if anypony knew how to take care of manticore venom, it'd have been her. We managed to reach her in time. Leo flew off afterward."

"...That, doesn't surprise me. He's almost always flying off, doing his own thing." Ivan responded. "At least, from what Corey told me since coming here." The former human honestly did not see the point in withholding their secret from the other ponies, but since their unofficial leader didn't want to reveal the truth, Ivan wasn't one to argue. If he had his way, the ponies would have known everything, even the potentially damaging fact they'd already known (most of) who they were, but he could certainly understand the green unicorn's concerns.

An entire universe undergoing a massive existential crisis would have been bad. And the only reason he knew that term was because it was used in a manga he read.

The others fell silent. John rubbed at the mark Corey's spell had left.

"Well, I'm gonna be feeling that for a while..." he remarked. "I guess I'll just head on back to the farm now."

Ivan blinked. If the former human were a different sort of person, and had still caught Corey's look, he wouldn't have made the comment he made at the time. But this was like filling a room with gasoline vapor and expecting an arsonist not to throw a lit match into the room: the arsonist was going to do it anyway.

"You know, you seem really eager to work on the farm, John. Any reason why?"

John bristled slightly from the comment, halting his stride immediately. He gazed over his shoulder, but did not say a word about what was going through his head.

"You did seem really distant when you walked up..." Twilight noted aloud. Meanwhile, Corey was quietly considering what was going on.

"I was just thinking..." said John. "That's all. Now if you'll excuse me..."

The dragon immediately began walking briskly away, wincing every few steps, probably due to the mark on his chest. He wasn't fast enough to be running, but it was clear from the way he marched along that he was trying to beat it out of there. He eventually disappeared in the foilage, heading back for town.

"Hmm...I wonder now..." thought Corey aloud.

Ivan inhaled to speak, recalling the other reason he wanted to speak with the unicorns, but apparently Corey's statement was what it took for Pinkie to do her dramatic little gasp.

"Ooooooooh!" she squealed, cutting into Ivan's mental processes almost entirely. "Does John have a crush on Applejack?"

The pink earth pony's non-sequitur question would have caused the average person or pony to face fault and either cringe or start laughing gently. In Ivan's case, he almost started doing the latter. Almost.

"In the same vein that...!" Twilight started, before her eyes widened and she turned to Ivan. Pinkie shook her head and raised her hoof to her mouth, indicating for the purple unicorn to quiet down. Corey flinched a little, and that was when Ivan fully understood what Twilight was about to say.

Holy crap, that's another technical point of comparison between Twilight and Corey... the brown earth pony thought to himself, and in that moment, Ivan completely forgot what he was asking about. Of course, while Spike was an all-around assistant, John provided assistance to Corey in that he was his wingman for the first couple of days here, back when it was pretty obvious the two were in love with each other and in utter ignorance or denial of the fact.

"He's twice her size!" Pinkie blurted out, and with that, Ivan's mind took a nosedive into the gutter, and he almost started chuckling again. From the look on Corey's face, he was apparently trying to resist spouting off a dirty joke as well. "He'd be able to give her all sorts of rides!" The two former humans both started to hold their breath now, since both of them were already swimming in the gutter now, Ivan just about to hit the drain. "And Apple...oh, I don't know if she feels the same way." Mercifully, the pink pony stopped with the double meaning statements. The green unicorn appeared to be composing himself, desperately trying to prevent himself from saying the jokes that were on his mind. When he finally regained some composure, he spoke.

"Well, I guess I'd better take a break from magic training," His voice was a bit higher in pitch than normal, indicating he was still trying to keep from laughing his ass off at the unintentional guttermindedness on the part of Pinkie-at least, Ivan assumed it was unintentional. "Think we can, Twilight?"

"Y-yeah," she stuttered, sounding uncomfortable, and seeming to be reminding herself of the whole thing with John. "I never thought I'd say this, but after what just happened with John, I think a break would do us some good..."

With that, the two unicorns said their goodbyes, and started leaving for the library. Pinkie gave a gasp.

"Ivan, we've gotta get back to Sugarcube Corner!" The mare observed, immediately starting to drag Ivan by his forehoof using her tail. "Let's go!"

The former human once again stumbled aimlessly after Pinkie. Only now, Ivan realized what just happened.

Damn it, I didn't get the chance to... Ivan then realized, what with the chaos of the moment he'd just sat through, he couldn't have really gotten a word in if he'd tried. If he'd tried to while Pinkie was spouting those innuendos, he might have spouted off a dirty joke, and that would have made things awkward given where he was now. The former human secretly hoped that whatever happened to him while he was working wasn't going to happen again.

First, he'd had that cold sensation on the second day after the break-in.

Then, he'd supposedly been unresponsive while having that dream; and also found out that it had actually happened while he was with Pinkie. It was without a doubt the strangest thing Ivan had ever experienced, pony or not.

He made a mental note to try and ask Twilight or Corey about it later. It was too strange to be normal for an earth pony.

For now, he resigned himself to work alongside Pinkie-a fate which he admitted wasn't that bad.

It had been roughly an hour since their return from the area in which Corey practiced his magic. The two were now back in the library, taking a break from the former human's magical training. Twilight could not have felt prouder; she didn't see herself as that good of a tutor, yet he was picking up quickly, especially considering her student was formerly a creature that literally was unable to do magic. His opening struggles left something to be desired, but he was picking up quickly.

Of course, that didn't change the facts about what John had done. The purple mare was still a little incensed about how far he'd tried to push Corey, and she intended to give him a thorough talking-to next time she saw him. Not only did he more or less put him at his breaking point, he'd basically asked him to shoot at a friend.

While she could see his concerns, that was definitely the wrong way to go about them. The longer the mare dwelled on what had happened during the study session, the more stress entered her.

"Twilight?" Corey asked, sounding almost scared to say it as he looked up from the Scarlet Sleuth book he'd been reading. "What's wrong? I didn't see you like this since the Princess came to visit..."

"John only offered himself up as a living target!" The lavender unicorn responded snappily, turning to the green colt. To this day, the unicorn remained unaware that her mane became physically dishelveled the more stress entered her. "One of you could have been seriously hurt! John's lucky to have escaped that with a bruise! Reflex magic isn't exactly controllable! Even I sometimes have trouble with it!" She'd become provoked and unhinged again, and hadn't even noticed Corey's features relaxing as he set aside the book and began trotting up to her. "If any of you don't make it home alive, I'm going to feel guilty! And I...I..." All the stress melted right out of her as she felt the familiar feeling of being hugged. "uuhhhh..." She blinked, trying to restore her train of thought.

It failed miserably though.

"Twilight, I can tell you right now you wouldn't be the only one feeling guilty if the worst came to it," Corey said, his voice a whisper. "Even though I've made friends with all of you, and developed a relationship with you specifically, I still dwell on what happened right before we got here."

"You mean...Leo and Ivan...arguing...?" The mare could honestly say she was blushing right now, but it took her mind off John's stunt. "What do you mean by that?"

"I was the third wheel to their arguments, Twilight." Corey continued, releasing her. "But how was I to know that Leo would fling us to another world instead of hacking?"

"T-there was no way you could have..."

"Yet it doesn't change how guilty I feel. I could have stepped between them, could have tried harder to stop their argument. Instead I was off drinking some juice and didn't even fully know what was going on. Next thing I know, Leo puts up that file and I wake up a pony." Corey summarized with a sigh. "I did try, but I didn't do so hard enough."

Twilight blinked. Was he really shifting all the weight of what happened on himself in secret? That was what it sounded like to her. Even with this new information in light, it still couldn't have been all his fault.

"But...on the other hand, maybe, even with all the crazy stuff you get up to..." The green unicorn continued. "Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that I didn't. After all, I wouldn't have been able to meet you."

Again heat rose to Twilight's cheeks. She really was at a loss for words now. She looked up into the blushing face of Corey, who happened to have a rather goofy smile on his face, one that, even if she weren't already smiling awkwardly, she would have upon seeing it.

"I-I'm glad I got to meet you, too...but..." she started. Already her mind returned to his predicament. "I just wish the circumstances weren't so...dire for you."

The smile only faded from his features a little.

"Yeah, I know." He shifted uncomfortably.

Twilight found herself unable to avert her gaze.

"Corey," she finally said, as soon as she found her breath, "do you want to go...for a walk?" When his brow creased and his expression changed to one on skepticism, the studious pony quickly found herself backtracking. "Oh, oh, no, I didn't mean it like that, I just..." Twilight just about found herself unable to believe what she was saying, but somehow, the words just felt so right to say. "I just want to take some time away from the books for a while, spend some time with you away from the library...that doesn't involve trying to figure out how you can cast spells."

"You mean...like a date?" asked Corey.

The purple mare couldn't help but smile wider.

"I guess so..."

It had been a good two hours since Leo had woken up from his nap alongside Rainbow Dash. After they'd done some stretching, the cyan mare had taken the consideration to ask her new coltfriend if he'd wanted to spar. Since the silver colt no longer felt like he was going to pass out at any given moment, he did agree.

No matter how he tried to slice it, the former human was surprised to see that Rainbow Dash actually had a room in her house for the purpose of sparring with another. Well, actually, it was her own little dojo that did seem at least somewhat used. It did not take that long for the mare to find her own martial arts gi-complete with black belt, Leo silently noted, and find a spare she'd had on hoof for the occasion.

Since Leo still had one eye obscured by a bandage, he was having a hard time keeping up with the eager-to-spar pegasus, but even so, you didn't need to tell him that she was pulling her punches. Or whatever pony punches are called. She was showing an unnatural amount of sensitivity to his condition, a fact which both intrigued and quite honestly startled the former human. Both stood opposite each other after the warm-ups, both standing on their hind legs with their wings flapping slowly to keep themselves standing.

"Uh, Dash...?" he asked tenatively, seeing as how her sparring partner was starting to find her flow.

"What is it, Leo?" she questioned in response.

"Don't hold back just because of my eye..."

To this statement, Rainbow became physically flustered, and if one cared enough to look, her cheeks would have been pinkened slightly by the sentence Leo just uttered.

"I-I wasn't...!" Quickly, her demeanor changed, back into her rougher self in a moment. "F-fine, but you asked me first!"

See, this is the Rainbow Dash I know... Noel thought. With this, the second round began, and true to her word, the blue mare quickly took the offensive. Dash extended a couple of hoofs, but Noel barely weaved out of the way of those. Unsurprisingly, the athletic mare extended her back leg into a very human-like kick, though Leo knew this mechanic worked since she had wings to support her bipedal posture, having done it himself in practice. Still, it did strike him in the chest unexpectedly and, because pegasi are still not naturally bipedal, it did throw off Leo's balance.

Normally, the silver colt was averse to hitting girls, but given the circumstances, it was an excusable exception to make. After all, he did want to make her happy, and if it meant actually hitting her back, then that was what he would do. With this in mind, he stopped himself from falling, both by flapping his wings a little harder to create some level of air resistance, and extending a foreleg in a manner that he would be able to recover on his side, he extended his back leg, throwing a blind kick in Rainbow's direction. His leg shuddered, so he obviously hit.

Noel turned, seeing Rainbow stumbling backwards off-balance, holding a place close to her stomach, hunching over, her wings closed. She looked stunned for a few moments, then grinned.

"Guess you really didn't need me to hold back after all!" Her wings reopened, and she went back on her back legs, completely willing to continue.

She came at him with a renewed vigor, completely convinced that Leo didn't need her to hold back now. Encouraged by this, Noel once again began giving his all, which was still quite an effort to do in part because he still wasn't quite used to his body completely. Plus, his vision was still partly obscured by his bandage. The former human couldn't tell if it was because it was his body's special talent or if it was because he was learning Rainbow's fight patterns as they sparred, but he was doing surprisingly well given those two handicaps.

Hoof-punches were exchanged, either blocked with the pony equivalent of a forearm or dodged; mostly the latter since, as Leo found out when he tried the manuever, it wasn't very comfortable blocking in that matter in a pony body, but it certainly helped nonetheless. Yet Noel couldn't help but wonder how martial arts even existed in Equestria. Even disregarding the fact it may have been a joke in that episode he saw in which Apple Bloom failed epically at martial arts, it just seemed sort of out there.

The two unleashed kicks, which, as they collided, caused them to both go off balance. In the mad effort to regain balance, they both fell forward, colliding heads as they did so. Leo was dazed by the contact, as was Rainbow. Both quickly shook it off, and smiled at one another. They proceeded to go right back to sparring afterward, with the mare attempting a double back-kick, a move easily doable due to the fact she was a pony, but Leo dodged out of the way.

There was an awkward moment that resulted when the silver colt realized that Dash took an unnecessarily long time to get back into position, but it apparently wasn't mutual-just as it dawned on him that the cyan mare believed mooning him was flirting with him, Rainbow was back in his face. More hoof-punches were traded, but during this exchange, the cyan mare aimed a high punch in Leo's blind spot, and smacked him across the face since he didn't notice it in time.

The silver colt felt his back feet leave the ground as he was sent to the cloudy floor he could walk on naturally, being a pegasus pony and all. Rainbow gasped somewhat, seeing that her attack had done just a little too much.

"L-Leo!" she stuttered out, suddenly returning to the uncomfortably soft tone. "Oh gosh, are you alright?"

"Fine..." Leo said, rising to his four feet. He raised a hoof to the side of his face where the manticore had stung him earlier. Strangely, all he could think of was Corey with his horn helplessly stuck in the ground directly in front of Applejack, way back on their first day here. "Just gonna remove the bandage."

Before Rainbow could say anything, using whatever force allowed him to do so, the former human gripped the patch over his eye, and tore it off his face, inadvertently ripping out a part of his pelt just above his eye. The cyan mare stopped, gawking a little.

"Leo..." she gasped. "Don't ever take on a manticore without me again..."

"Wha...?"

Within moments, the rainbow-maned pony was, on four legs, facing him, running one of her hooves along the wound. Leo had to close his still-functional eye as she ran her hoof down from top to bottom.

"It scarred you..." she whispered.

There was a small silence as both of the pegasi reflected on precisely how the male was lucky to be alive. With a small smile, the female was the one to break the silence.

"I feel bad about all the evil sorceress stuff now," she observed. "You have no idea..."

A small smile betrayed Noel's features. It was true, he did watch quite a few episodes more than his fellow former humans, but as he'd observed in the times they'd spoken about Rainbow Dash's past from the episodes, it was strangely enthralling to hear it from her mouth specifically.

"Why don't we take a small break and talk it out?"

It had been quite a day of collecting gems. Very productive, if Rarity could say so herself. It was quite a good haul, and as always, Spike had been happy to help her out, digging and breaking open rocks whenever possible. She was aware that part of the reason he'd always agreed to this was his crush on her, but she just wasn't sure if she could ever return his feelings. For one thing, he'd age a lot slower than she did, and another, his lifespan was a lot longer than hers was as well.

Yet, in light of the recent influx of males; the unicorn, the pegasus, the earth pony, and the dragon that had arrived six days ago, Rarity couldn't help but re-examine the relationship dynamic between herself and Spike. This went double, since all of the above; even the dragon, had either expressed interest in or was more or less dating one of her friends.

The most obvious ones that came to her mind were the unicorn, Corey, and the pegasus, Leo. Though the former's was definitely obvious, the latter case came out a day or two later. Twilight was able to coax the green unicorn out of his shell; even now she'd been able to take him out of his comfort zone in some of the friendly get-togethers they'd had after the break-in. In turn, on a particularly rare occasion, Corey had shown an uncanny ability to talk down Twilight during one particular occasion where she was clearly stressing out over the break-in. They were, in a sense, perfect for each other in Rarity's eyes.

Then, there was the issue of Rainbow and Leo, both of whom seemed to enjoy pranking some other ponies...and a dragon that clearly couldn't handle being pranked. It was obvious, but not in the same sweet sense that the first relationship was. However, in its own sense, it was just as fitting. Rainbow Dash was a tomboy and the silver colt she'd become awfully close to...she mistook him for a mare when she'd first met him.

The third she'd noticed, but not nearly as obvious, was Ivan and Pinkie. There was a simple balance there; the brown colt almost always looked as though he were going to fall over asleep while the pink mare acted as though she didn't ever need to sleep. The only real problem with Rarity's relationship detector there was the simple fact that she wasn't sure if Pinkie was acting that differently. However, she was confident that fact would show up soon enough.

And of course, there was the dragon, John. The fact he'd worked at the farm for that long would have been simple enough, but the fact that Applejack volunteered to talk him down, the fact they seemed to get along as they'd talked, seemed to point in the romance direction for Rarity. Even if neither one would admit it.

All in all, the white unicorn could honestly say she was just a little jealous, and she did honestly feel left out of it all. Yet, this did not cause her spirit to plummet as far down as one might think. After all, there was a silver lining for her to consider: while she wasn't a part of the budding romance, she could possibly play a role.

Somehow, the unicorn's travels brought her down a path. This in itself was nothing special; Rarity knew enough about Ponyville and the surrounding areas by this point in her time living here that she knew quite a few areas she could check for gems. Some of them were less savory than others - certain canines came to mind, but in the end, she had enough to keep her business afloat...and feed Spike a few on the side as well.

"...wow, what a view..."

At the sound of the masculine voice, the unicorn's ear twitched. That sounded like one of the new colts in town. Normally, the white unicorn would have tried to keep her nose out of her friends' business, but, for the sake of her curiosity, she had to know what was going on.

"Spike, could you be a dear and keep an eye on the gems while I go investigate something? It's not that far off." She indicated where she was about to go with a motion of her head and hoof.

"Of course, milady," responded Spike, "We're not that far off from one of Twilight's spots, anyway."

The baby dragon may have been Twilight's number one assistant, but it was clear he aimed to please whoever he happened to be working for. There was something to be admired in that work ethic, Rarity knew, but right now she had to make sure of something. If she knew where she was going, they'd be going to a place Twilight occasionally brought up when she said she was going stargazing; the spot that Spike was referring to. Most of the time, the studious mare went up there alone at night to observe the stars.

And an all-too familiar female voice confirming the male's views gave Rarity a strong indication that whoever was with the first voice was Twilight herself.

"Yes, it is," she said. "I come up here on some clear nights to get a nice look at the constellations."

"I know a little about constellations," Now that she was closer, she could make out the distinctive voice of one of the new colts; Corey. The white unicorn found herself unable to withhold a smile. So that was why they were up here? "Stars that form shapes, more or less."

"That's oversimplifying it quite a bit," said Twilight snappily in response. "Some constellations form shapes, but others form complex pictures in the sky, and sometimes, they even tell a story."

"So then...why did we walk up here if it isn't the night?"

There was a small silence between them, during which Rarity found her way to a good place where she could witness it uninterrupted. It was almost like watching a romantic play to her; only it was actually happening, and she'd have to withhold her tears, because from the sounds of things, this one could be sugary-sweet.

Plus, she'd wondered precisely how they'd acted when they were more or less alone; though ever since that break-in they did seem...romantically distant, to say the least.

"I wanted a place where I could tell you something where we wouldn't be disturbed..." The purple mare finally responded. "When I first met you, I have to admit, you didn't exactly leave a good impression...the first thing out of your mouth after I saw you crawling out of hay was a bad, bad joke..."

Rarity felt her brow crease. She'd often tried to avoid doing that unless she was explicitly trying to charm males, but even then, it wasn't a hard crease. Was that how Corey had managed to escape her?

"Y-yeah..." The amount of embarrassment she could hear in his voice sounded slightly off, but it fit.

"But even then, I'd felt drawn to you, if only because you reminded me of me," Twilight continued. "I didn't imagine I'd be...as drawn to you as I am now, but you know why that is..."

Corey gave a small nod in response.

"Yet we couldn't really stop ourselves, could we? It's just that, with that break-in, I just don't feel like I get any time for things like this."

"I feel the exact same way," the green unicorn responded at last. "I really do...I mean..."

Twilight shushed him in a rather rude, yet unique way. Her horn became alight in a magenta glow and a few seconds later, Corey's mouth zipped shut. Rarity felt a wave of shock pass through her, considering some of the rather dirty usages of the spell she'd read about in fiction, but mercifully, Twilight was only doing it to quiet him down.

"Please don't go on about your guilt on the matter," the lavender mare said, turning to him directly so she could look him directly in the eye. From what she could see of the colt's expression, he was both terrified and yet interested by what was going on. "No matter what you might believe, the whole situation is not your fault."

Despite the fact what she was witnessing was so sweet Rarity almost felt like she'd eaten a Pinkie Pie cupcake, there was an underlying concern the fancy pony could feel herself considering.

What is the poor dear blaming himself for? He had nothing to do with the break-in...

Corey tried to respond, but he'd apparently forgotten his mouth was still zipped shut, garbling out an incoherent mumble in response.

"I'm far from the proud type," Twilight continued. "Yet whenever I see you succeed at a spell I'm teachng you, I feel that pride, and it mixes with what I feel for you..." Her horn suddenly took on a magenta hue. The sound of a mouth being unzipped resonated clearly. Before the green colt could offer a reply, however. If Rarity hadn't been paying full attention, she wouldn't have caught what Twilight said next. After inhaling and holding her breath for a good three seconds out of nervousness, she squealed "Iloveyou" so fast it apparently made Corey's head spin. His first reaction was to completely freeze, clearly hearing her and not believing it.

Before Corey could even respond, she caught his mouth with her own, causing him to back away with a clear reddening on his cheeks, and a wide, bewildered look in his brown eyes. Rarity bit back the urge to be envious of her friend's accomplishment, but it wasn't as hard as it might have been.

Besides...she was the Element of Generosity, and if their respective work ethic, as Rarity understood, was to get in the way of what was clearly right in front of them, then she would have to, out of the goodness of her heart, make sure they knew exactly what it was they were dealing with between them.

A plan was already in motion as she turned and quickly trotted away, leaving the two lovestruck unicorns to their rather deep kiss...

John had returned to the library after a brief bit at Sweet Apple Acres. Somehow, things had gotten quite a bit awkward between him and Applejack. For one thing, she seemed to be always running into him in that rather large orchard when he assisted in knocking down the apples. And each time she did, memories of their earlier conversation about Leo's reaction would come rushing back to him, and he'd have to turn his head away so she didn't see him blush.

It just had to be him that charmed the farmer's (grand)daughter, just had to be him. While the former human knew that the ponies generally didn't hold grudges, they also had moments where they had terrifyingly human personalities. John didn't quite know if the same set of rules applied here, but he didn't quite know if he was willing to find out. It wasn't because he was quite sure earth ponies were directly capable of bringing down a dragon his size, but more because he was afraid of what he'd do to them if they managed to piss him off through the skirmish.

The minutes passed idly by, until the door burst open, John looked up from a book he'd been reading, trying to keep his mind off the distractions of a certain Stetson-wearing mare, to see Corey and Twilight, both with such sickeningly sweet smiles on their faces that the former human's first instinct was to wonder to himself if he suddenly developed diabetes just by looking at them. They both stopped on John, but their eyes told John something big happened between them. He set the book aside.

"Why...are you two so...?!" He broke off, his mind taking an irrepairable nosedive into the gutter.

Did he...did he get laid?! Is that even possible here?!

Noting the look of John's shock on his face, as well as what he'd experienced back up on Twilight's stargazing hill, caused Corey's own mind to take a dive into the gutter for the second noteworthy time that day.

Does he think I just...got laid? he thought, turning to Twilight, while trying desperately to keep his inner thoughts from his face, despite the blush that coated their faces now. I know I didn't even come close...

After Twilight had taken him totally by surprise following her confession, he felt one of his final aversions dissolve. She obviously, without a doubt, returned his feelings despite the wall that seperated them normally. He knew that if he was going to Hell later on for what he was doing with the purple pony, then that would be his fate. He was too far in love now to back out of it.

He returned her kiss, which surprisingly lasted quite a while. He lost track of what was happening, only that respiration had effectively stopped and both had to part for air before they completely suffocated each other. That was what it felt like to him, anyway.

John rose from his seat, and walked between the two. He nudged Corey using the back of his head, gaining his attention. After the former human turned dragon confirmed that he got the green unicorn's attention, he mouthed a few words.

"Way to go..."

And with that, the dragon ambled off, no doubt attempting to give the two even more time alone...

Act 2 Chapter 6

Act II: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 6: Plans of a Hopeless Romantic

John sighed, running his hands over his scaly face while contemplating what he'd just witnessed. Like he'd promised himself, he wasn't going to judge Corey for whatever he'd accomplished while he and Twilight were out. Still, the situation struck him as so odd that he felt his laughter far outweighing his natural instinct to cringe just a little at the thought. He kept one clawed paw pressed to his face as he tried his hardest not to laugh at what he'd just witnessed.

"What happened after I left...?" he whispered to himself, trying his hardest to maintain his composure. This was almost as bad as that ghastly look Corey'd pulled before Rarity put him the Solid Snake cosplay, only it would have been a look of unsurpassed bliss instead of abject terror.

Through motion, he eventually cleared his mind, but just a few moments later, Rarity and Spike walked up to him, the latter sporting a bag of gems.

"Oh, you're out and about!" Rarity noted, sounding...blissful, for some reason John couldn't figure out. "Excellent...Spike, could you be a dear and find some of the others?"

"Of course, Miss Rarity," said Spike in response, moving past John in the direction of the library.

"And you," the white mare said. "Could you come to my Boutique a little later? And help Spike find the others too?"

"Uh, sure, what for..." John responded, not getting it at all.

"Just do not tell Twilight or Corey about this for any reason..." the white unicorn said. "I saw something happen between them that..." Abruptly, she sniffled, and instantly the entire atmosphere became awkward between them. "...I almost can not speak of it...it was the most beautiful moment I'd ever seen between a couple."

John slowly began to understand what had happened between the two unicorns wherever they had gone.

"I get it. I'll get...well, any-" He almost forgot he wasn't talking to Twilight or Spike. "-pony that'll help."

"Thank you," said Rarity. "Now, I must go prepare my shop for this meeting. Please do not keep me waiting."

And with that, the white unicorn turned tail and began walking back to her shop. John stood there, rubbing at the scales on his head.

What's with her all of a sudden? She acted like she was watching some kind of chick flick. I can only assume she caught Twilight and Corey making out... John thought to himself. But that's just me. The sun ain't setting yet, but it'll probably be setting by the time we gather everyone.

With a short sigh, the black and blue dragon decided to go to Sweet Apple Acres first, seeing as how he didn't know where Fluttershy lived offhand.

Oh, who was he kidding? There was another reason he wanted to go there first...

The adult dragon didn't take too long to get to Sweet Apple Acres. Somewhat surprisingly, Applejack was still in the orchards by herself, probably because of the small amount of work she missed out on from earlier. He had managed to get past her family members, mostly because he did help work there from time to time, handling heavy lifting that even Big couldn't handle on his own.

It didn't take him long to make his way into the apple grove. It also didn't take him a long time to find the farmer mare he was searching for either. The sound of a tree being hit, followed by apples cracking loose, soon resonated within his ears, and it was a simple matter to find her from there. As soon as the baskets on her back-no, saddlebags, John reminded himself-filled with fruit, she looked up, and noticed him standing there.

For a few seconds, neither one could speak, probably due to the fact they'd had that moment a few hours prior. Eventually, the dragon cleared his throat.

"Hey, Applejack," It was the only thing he could think to say in greeting right off, but he had to remember he had a job to do.

"Oh, howdy, John," said Applejack, equally awkward, a fact that, as John realized it, indicated that she too had been having trouble forgetting it. "what brings you back to the farm?"

"Well, something happened between Corey and Twilight, and Rarity saw the whole thing-"

"Ain't that just like that mare to get her nose into that kinda business!" Applejack exclaimed in mostly amazement. There was another emotion in there that the former human couldn't quite place. "Sorry, didn't mean to cut in..."

"Well, she saw it, and now she wants us all to come to her house for...something related to it." John finished. "Don't worry about it, I'd thought the same thing."

"What's she want us to do, talk about it?" the farmer mare continued. "That mare's been readin' far too much love stories..."

"So, are you going to come along?" John asked after some silence, quietly considering the distinct possibility given Rarity's personality. Applejack sighed.

"Sure, I guess, wanna see what she's gotta say about it?" The orange mare said.

"Alright, I guess I'd better get Fluttershy next, considering I know where she's at and all..." The dragon began to mentally recount how to get to her cottage from Sweet Apple Acres, when Applejack took a few steps first.

"Wait, you're gonna go to her place first?" asked Applejack. "I'd better go with ya."

John decided to act sly, just for a little bit.

"Any reason why?"

"Because Fluttershy might still be afraid of ya..."

If there was a moment John ever felt shot down, this would have been one of them. With that exchange over, the dragon and the mare left together for Fluttershy's house.

It didn't take them that long to reach the general area of the meek pegasus's cottage. The walk they took there was done in moderate silence. What didn't help the silence: some of the looks of the local ponies. However, they still managed to find something to talk about: speculating on why Rarity would call them together over the moment she'd witnessed.

"I know for a fact there's somethin' between them two," said Applejack. "She probably saw a really mushy moment between them and got teary..."

"That's exactly what happened when I talked to her about it. I didn't have tissues on hand..." John responded. "Anyway, as for Corey and Twilight, pretty much all their moments I've seen have been mushy. Either that, or Corey gets really jealous. You know how they play chess?"

"Didn't really think they did, but it's no surprise to me now that you mention it."

"Well, I happen to play it too, and I noticed a move that they didn't. Twilight asks me to play her sometime, and Corey just slumps over looking even more defeated." John summarized the incident in question. For a moment, neither one spoke, though Applejack did kick off her next statement with a light chuckle.

"Twi's either a lucky mare or Corey's got some jealousy issues," the orange mare observed. "Hard to tell, though he's gotta know you wouldn't do him wrong..."

"Would I now?" John asked, definitely sarcastic. Applejack turned to him, obviously picking up on the sarcasm, yet not appearing to care he'd said it like that intentionally.

"John..." she said in a playful, warning tone.

"Relax, I'm kidding..." The look in the green eyes of the mare suggested she'd already known. Any evidence of the earlier awkwardness was gone from her by this point. John would have said more, but the pair had managed to reach Fluttershy's cottage.

"So why does she live so far from town?" John asked.

"She cares for the animals in the forest." Applejack replied. "You might think it's unfittin' for such a meek pony, but she openly cares for even the most vicious of creatures. She did once tame a manticore by removing a thorn from its paw..."

The dragon nodded, really starting to wonder how such a pony could be so scared of her own shadow. Or dragons as a whole, for that matter. Realizing he was once more getting distracted by his thoughts, the dragon raised his hand to the door, and knocked as lightly as he could. The mare he was with nudged his side, signaling him to get back a little. The former human obliged, knowing full well the meek mare within might still harbor some fear of him in her body.

Eventually, the door opened, revealing Fluttershy...whose eyes did look a little red, almost as if...

Almost as if she had been crying... John felt a small pang of anger course through his body again, and unconsciously he clenched one of his fists. What could have hurt this mare so badly she'd cry? Well, there were probably a lot of things that could do that, but something about her aura just seemed a little off. Did you have anything to do with this, Leo...?

"Fluttershy, you okay?" asked the orange earth pony.

"N-no...I'm fine, really."

John subconsciously looked over to Applejack. Her green eyes sent him a clear message: she was lying, but it was best not to push her into telling. The black and blue dragon gave a small nod.

"Well, Rarity wants us all to go over to her shop. Seems like she's got something in mind for Corey and Twilight, and she wants all of us to come if possible," John said. To his moderate surprise, Fluttershy only flinched a little bit when he started speaking. "Do you want to come?"

The meek mare looked as though she were considering.

"You don't gotta if you don't wanna," said Applejack, cutting in after some silence. John didn't argue that point. If Fluttershy wanted to remain alone, that was her decision.

"N-no...I'll-I'll come along," the yellow pegasus said, still with a somber tone in her voice. Applejack looked troubled as John turned to her.

"Listen, could you take her and go on ahead...I'll go try to track down Leo and Dash next," John whispered, trying to make sure Fluttershy couldn't hear her. "I get a feeling that that's what she's upset about..."

"How could you say that?!" Applejack whispered back.

"I'll explain later..." John said. "Promise."

"Okay," The orange earth pony responded, confused. "Rainbow's house is a sky home, made of clouds. Can't really miss it."

With this exchange over, Applejack gently told Fluttershy to follow her to the Carousel Boutique while John continued on, ready to round up the two lovestruck pegasi...

Spike couldn't lie to himself this time. Rarity's reaction to seeing Corey and Twilight express their love wasn't exactly unexpected, but why did she want to push them even closer together? In his eyes, they were close enough already! He'd lived with them for the past four days now, and while their moments did leave the baby dragon with a case of the giggles at first, after that time had passed, it was getting just a little old. In fact, thinking about what the white unicorn saw did make him a little sick to the stomach.

The purple dragon didn't quite know it yet, but there was a picture of him in the dictionary next to the word "hypocrite".

Eventually, Spike arrived at the Sugarcube Corner, and knocked on the door. No less than two seconds passed after he finished this action did Pinkie answer, her energy still just as high as it ever was.

"Hi Spiike!" she greeted with a large, pearly white smile. Then again, if she didn't greet anyone she knew like that, there was something wrong. "Why did you come here?" Without warning, she produced a cupcake from behind her back (i,e. from nowhere). "Would you like a cupcake? Ivan really likes these kinds."

Blinking back whatever remark might have been formed in his mind, the baby dragon continued with a wave of his hand, knowing Rarity's business far outweighed the business of any other pony.

"Maybe some other time, Pinkie, Rarity wants you and Ivan to help plan some kinda surprise for Corey and Twilight," Spike responded, avoiding the question entirely. "If you're-"

"Oooh!" The pink party pony immediately hopped around excitedly. "I know all about surprises! I love planning them!"

"What's going on, Pinkie?" The earth pony mare immediately stopped mid-jump: a feat Twilight would question if she were present, Spike knew. She turned to Ivan, who was walking down. "Oh, Spike. Why are you here?"

"Rarity wants us to come to her shop," Pinkie said, landing with a plop sound on her rump, facing Ivan directly. "She wants us to help plan a super surprise for Corey and Twilight!"

Ivan blinked, "O...kay...?"

"C'mon, it'll be fun!" Before Ivan could form a coherent way to say that his 'okay' wasn't out of agreeing with the plans, or otherwise voice his complaints on why Rarity watched them in the first place; Spike didn't really know what the poor former human intended to say before Pinkie physically lifted him onto her back and began skipping along to the Carousel Boutique. Suddenly, the pink pony began skipping in reverse.

"Pinkie-" the brown earth pony said, his verbal tone hard to read.

"I forgot to put the sign up," she said, quickly putting the "Closed" sign on the door of the Sugarcube Corner before skipping off again. "Alright, now we can go!"

Spike stood silently, blinking. While he was sure John was helping round up the others, save for Corey and Twilight, he didn't know whether he could take the time out to laugh or not at Ivan's predicament. It sure was humorous, though, certainly a welcome change from the 'so-sweet-I-might-hurl' moments between the unicorns he shared a library with.

Trying his hardest to keep himself from falling over backwards laughing his scales off, the baby dragon walked along, a bad case of the giggles already starting to afflict him as he made way for Rarity's shop...

Rainbow Dash had never been so elated to meet somepony before. Well, okay, she was lying to herself if she said that, but meeting Leo was definitely a close second to realizing her friends and her had more than just being the Elements of Harmony in common, but that was well after she'd met them. However, the fact she'd found a sparring partner who was also a fellow pegasus was not lost on her.

After their most recent sparring session, they had opted to bathe; seperately, of course, but it had been funny to see Leo's reaction when she teased the option of bathing together. Truthfully, that wasn't such an issue, except for the whole gender thing. After the post-workout bath, the two laid down on the ground somewhere to relax for a while.

The cyan mare turned to the silver colt on her right.

"You're pretty good, you know, the whole martial arts thing," Dash said. "But c'mon, you're not gonna beat me anytime soon..."

"Really?" Leo asked. "I was holding my own, even with the one eye, after you got serious..."

"Yeah, well..." Without warning, the rainbow-maned pony immediately launched herself at her silvery coltfriend, tackling him hard to the ground and sending him rolling. Unsurprisingly, Rainbow found herself with her hooves pinning down his chest, holding him down. "Can still pin you down with the right moves."

"C'mon, that's not fair, I was off-guard!" Leo responded, completely prone underneath the pegasus's grip. He tried to struggle, but all he did was squirm around. "The first time was just luck, too, you know..."

"Yeah, and if you're lucky, this might happen a lot more..." With that, the mare quickly bumped her snout against Leo's. "Or, maybe you'll pin me down, but c'mon, you can't get me that easily."

She didn't know what she enjoyed more about Leo's reaction to her advances: the fact that his face turned a shade of pink, or in some cases, red; or the fact that he almost shut up completely whenever she made one. Secluded in a small forested region not too far from her home, the two pegasi curled up in a manner that was all too human (not that Rainbow knew what Leo was hiding), and Rainbow allowed her eyes to close, a smile creeping its way on her features.

All was well for what only seemed like a few moments until they heard what sounded like a throat clearing. The cyan mare's eyes shot open, and both pegasi turned to see John, his fist steadily lowering from his mouth as he processed the scene before him.

"Well, I guess we're even for you throwing me off the cliff..." John said, mild amusement in his tone. Rainbow immediately peeled herself from Leo.

"So what do you want?!" she yelled, both embarrassed and angered at the intrusion. John raised his hands defensively.

"Easy. Rarity wants to see all of us, except Corey and Twilight, at her shop." John said.

"Why would she exclude those two?" asked Leo, turning to her right.

"Beats me, but whatever she saw must have made her shed tears of joy..."

Rainbow felt her face pull into both disgust and intrigue at the same time. On one hoof, she didn't want Rarity nosing around in her relationship with Leo, or anypony else for that matter, since she wasn't sure if she wanted her softer side exposed to all her friends. On the other, she knew that Rarity had a thing for romantic moments, the kind of stuff that would have made the cyan mare start gagging even just a week ago.

"Well...I have a good idea of what she saw..." Leo said. "But what's she want us for?"

"I think I can think of a couple of reasons why..." Rainbow Dash said, turning to Leo with a sly smirk on her face. "And I'm thinkin' she wants to discuss something about those two..."

"So, are you two interested in coming, or not?" John asked again. "Fluttershy and Applejack are coming along, and I think Spike's convinced Pinkie and Ivan to come too by now."

The cyan mare felt herself weighing her options. It seemed odd for Rarity to have called everypony except those two. In addition, she and Fluttershy were the only ones without somepony new and special to them. Rainbow could have sworn that this was Rarity about to vent her jealousy at how all her friends except for Fluttershy had found somepony special for them. Then again, Ivan and Pinkie was still a hard case to figure out. Nopony really knew how Pinkie would act in a relationship.

"What do you think, Dash?" asked Leo, turning to her.

Ultimately, though, when it came to it, maybe she'd just find out more about how their relationship functioned. Twilight was just as new to it as she was, and though Rainbow would never admit it, she had no real idea where to begin outside of spending endless amounts of time with Leo. It was a long shot, but maybe she could find something there all the same.

That, and it was too good an opportunity to pass up getting new teasing material for those two lovestruck unicorns. Dash turned to Leo, and nodded with the same smirk she'd gotten right before she would tease them.

"Let's go see what Rarity wants us to do..."

Rarity didn't expect the turnout to be so massive for her little plan; she'd never imagined that Applejack or Rainbow Dash would be so interested in what she had in mind, though she was immensely grateful that they had shown up. Everypony with the exception of the two lovestruck unicorns had turned up. This actually worked perfectly.

First, Applejack and Fluttershy arrived. Rarity had brewed some tea upon seeing the latter's reddened eyes. When she'd asked what could have upset the meek mare, Applejack merely answered that John knew better than she did.

Not too long after that, Pinkie and Ivan arrived, and the white unicorn found herself torn between stifling a giggle, masking her jealousy, and scolding Pinkie for treating a colt as she did all at the same time. The poor brown pony looked utterly...actually, she wasn't sure what he was thinking. He only uttered a confirmation he was there, and went back to looking toward the ground, sitting firmly. Not too long after Pinkie began interrogating her about what the surprise was, Spike arrived, bordering on insane laughter.

Last but not least, lead by John, Rainbow Dash and Leo arrived. With all of the ponies, and the draconic duo in attendance, Rarity gave a sigh, remembering the reason why she'd invited the lot over.

"As you all are aware," the white unicorn began. "Twilight and Corey have a love between them that was obvious from the first day the four of you first arrived here." She motioned to the other colts that were in the latter's party, one of which sported an exaggerated "gag me" look alongside Rainbow Dash and Spike, though the baby dragon was obviously trying to restrain himself.

"That much is obvious," said Applejack. "Ya didn't call us all here just to tell us that, did you?"

"Of course not, Applejack," The classy mare reassured. "But it's quite unfortunate that they are so similar. Neither one has really made time to allow the love between them to bloom like it should, too buried in their work ethic to realize what's in front of them."

More exaggerated looks of nausea from the same three suspects. The white unicorn didn't falter; after all, that behavior was to be expected out of the pegasi, though she was a bit surprised that Spike would be joining in, considering...

"So, you're saying...that this 'surprise' you're talking about..." Ivan said, looking up. Rarity couldn't withhold a smile-somepony was starting to get why she'd done what she had.

"Please, darling," The snowy mare interjected. "Be patient. I will explain everything about why I called you all here..."

It had been about an hour since John left for another walk, leaving Corey and Twilight alone in the library again. For some reason, Spike hadn't yet come back yet from Rarity's gem-hunting romp. Not that the former human was complaining; he did prefer the solitude, especially since he had such understanding company with him. Of course, the green unicorn suddenly found himself itching to learn another spell to add to his repitore, even though he hadn't yet fully mastered the barrier spell or the laser spell.

He didn't care what the ponies called that spell, it was a laser spell, and he needed to remind himself to hug Twilight extra-hard for letting him learn it. He looked up from the novel he was in the middle of re-reading, to see the purple mare once again poring over a book, a scroll at her side, and an ink bottle and quill nearby as well. She looked at a certain page, nodded, and began scribbling, using her magic, of course.

I'd almost forgotten how cute she looks when she's concentrating... thought the green colt to himself as he shut the book and began trotting over to her. Twilight, hearing his hoofsteps, immediately gasped, and shut her own book, storing the writing materials under her bed.

"Oh, Corey, I thought you'd be reading for another few minutes!" she exclaimed sheepishly, turning to him with the lightest blush on her face. "What is it?"

"Well," Corey decided to wonder what it was she was reading later, lest he wonder what was so important about that book that she'd hide it and the notes she was taking from him. He probably had a good guess given what had been going on between them, but he wasn't about to pry. "I'd been thinking, and I think I want to expand on what I know of spells for far."

The look on Twilight's face was an unreadable mix to him, but she looked happy enough, so whatever other emotions that might have been there didn't immediately matter to Corey.

"What do you have in mind?" The flushed cheeks and any evidence of embarassment were gone. She had once again become all business.

"Well, if things come to it, where there's no way I can make it out of something, or even just for convienience's sake," Corey said, having an idea of which spell he'd wanted to learn next. Even though he only had five episodes' knowledge, and had been blind-sided by the laser spell, he did know one other one he felt he needed to have. "I need to make a fast getaway. Know anything like that?"

"I know a couple that increase speed, but I guess you're looking more into 'instantaneous', right?" Twilight asked. "Oh...teleportation..." She nervously tilted her head at him, "Don't know if you're ready for that one...I mean, because even I have had trouble with that spell. You have to be calm when using it, otherwise you end up in places that aren't where you want to go..."

Corey blinked. This spell was definitely more of Ivan's thing, but seeing as how he himself was the unicorn of the former humans, he'd have to try his best to remain calm while using it.

"I mean, if we're talking about the actual difficulty to learn, it's easy, but it's the most complex simple spell a unicorn can know," The purple mare said. "Just because of all the complications that can arise from using it."

The former human gave a small nod of understanding.

"I know, but I'd rather know it and not need it, than need it and not know it," he replied. "So, do you think you can teach me how?"

Twilight gave a sigh, and a half-hearted smile.

"I suppose so...but you need to be careful with it. If you lose focus or put too much into it, the spell becomes unpredictable and will take you anywhere except the place you actually want to go." she said, clear concern in her eyes as she got off her bed. "In essence, it's a very simple spell..."

The explanation for how the spell was used didn't take as long as Corey thought it would. The pony he'd identified as a girlfriend-or marefriend, whichever she preferred-certainly knew him enough by now being vague wasn't going to work. Not that she ever was to begin with, but if she had been, she would have adjusted by now.

The former human listened attentively to her explanation, but the gist of it was that he had to focus magic into his horn while willing himself to be at another place. The amount of magic he'd had to use to transport himself there depended on how many others he was taking with him and how far it was from where he was before he used the spell.

"If you're sure you're ready to give it a try, be careful," Twilight finished, taking a few steps back. Her vision glazed over, then her eyes brightened for a moment. "Oh!" She sounded as though she'd forgotten to do something and immediately invaded Corey's personal space (not that he minded, but he was confused at what she was doing). "Um..." Approximately two seconds later, the green former human realized there was a moist pressure on his cheek, but it only lasted about half-a-second, since Twilight gave him a quick peck. "Good luck!"

By this point, Corey had a strong feeling that the mare next to him was looking at guides on how to keep a colt at your side. If his hunch was right, it was both a little sad and yet adorable at the same time, so God help him, he couldn't have given her crap for it.

"O-okay," the green unicorn stuttered. Even now, he was still a little unused to the fact he had a significant other. Call it lack of self-confidence, but he just never imagined himself being an adequate companion, even though he wanted to be one. "Here we go..."

His plan: to teleport a short distance: from Twilight's room to the door, outside Twilight's room. Magic began to surge into his horn as he visualized his goal. A few moments later, the former human felt his body change to pure energy, and warp away to his destination...

Twilight recalled that Corey wanted to go a short distance, and went to check the area outside her door after a few seconds. However, to her surprise, the green colt was not there. She blinked once, and looked around the main area of the library. He wasn't there either.

"Oh no..."

Act 2 Chapter 7

Act II: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 7: The Heart's Desire: Complex and Unyielding

Corey didn't know if he was going to throw up or pass out. He not only felt excessively light-headed as a result of the teleport spell, but his head was pounding again. From prior experience, the former human could only guess one thing: he'd used too much magic in attempting the spell. In addition, because of the light-headedness he was feeling, he could only assume he had in fact warped somewhere.

Did I put too much into it, or...?

"What the Tartarus...?!" This was a feminine voice, startled and in shock.

"Sister, language," A familiar, different voice began.

Oh, is that what Hell is...wait, was that--

"Hold it right there!" Corey forced himself to open his eyes at the last voice to see a...sword, it definitely was a sword, pointed directly between his eyes. His breath caught in his throat, and though his first instinct was to take a step back, he'd already worked out enough details to take a good guess where he was. Sure enough, as he checked around him (which was difficult due to all the knights pointing their weapons at him), he was in the middle of a very royal hall. He'd recognized this from the intro to the show...

Already he knew where he'd ended up. He saw a red carpet on the floor, leading up to a small set of steps. There, he saw a relatively neutral Princess Celestia, and a confused and somewhat angry black alicorn next to her.

No, he knew that character from the wiki. She had fur that was actually a dark shade of blue, with a cutie mark of the night sky. Her mane was much like Princess Celestia's, flowing in an unseen wind; however, it was a strikingly beautiful color. Well, "color" wasn't the right term. It looked more like the night sky with a transparent dark blue background. It was Princess Luna, all grown up.

Princess Celestia leaned closer, as though studying him intently. Evidently, she had seen the complete and utter fear and confusion in his features, or whatever, because her features relaxed.

"Oh, Corey," She was now smiling warmly, and Corey almost sighed in relief were it not for several weapons being pointed at him. "Getting control over your magic, are you? I don't think you should have tried the teleport spell this early on." She looked up to her guards, and sternness returned to her voice. "Stand down. He is not an enemy."

The guards relaxed, slowly lowering their weapons. Only after they began to fall back into line on opposite sides of the hallway did Corey finally stop holding his breath. He couldn't quite help exhaling so fast, but only a few guards noticably twitched at the gasp.

"'Corey'?" Luna asked. "Wait, sister, is this colt one of those visitors you told me about?"

Corey remained absolutely silent as the Princess of the Night rose from her throne and resisted the urge to move in any other way than to bow down out of respect. Of course, he slipped and fell flat on his face since he forgot he was on four legs due to the fact he just dodged death by guards not more than thirty seconds later. Even so, he remained flat on the ground, out of nervousness more than anything, though he swore he could hear a voice snort, trying to surpress his laughter.

Princess Luna, upon seeing this, snorted a little, trying her hardest to not laugh.

"Thou mayest rise now," she said, using, to Corey's slight surprise, old English in communication. "It is just as our sister said, clumsy, yet good-natured."

Our--sister? Corey brushed aside the fact that he'd just more or less been royally insulted since it wouldn't lead to anything good.  Who else could she have been referring to? "Our"?

"She tends to slip back into the old style of talking," Celestia intervened, probably seeing the confused look on Corey's face.

"Actually," Now Luna was speaking...regularly, as though she hadn't just communicated in old English. "In all honesty, I wanted to see if he could understand it."

The round former human bit back the urge to exhale roughly. He didn't quite know what Luna was like, though from that enlightening sentence and the solar princess's lack of surprise at her sister's statement, he'd probably guess she was around the same level of benevolence. Then again, when he considered Princess Celestia only laughed off writing a reply with invisible ink out of a prank, as well as her other actions when confronted with things that would get humans in an equivalent situation executed or imprisoned for life...it really didn't seem that far-fetched her younger sister would have similar traits.

Still, he was talking to royalty, and he really, really did not want to be rude. He sat perfectly still, practically holding his breath, not knowing what exactly to do next. It was just as awkward as seeing a new face, made worse by the fact that one false move could get him killed. He just couldn't think of anything to sa--

"Um," he stumbled all over his words, completely unsure of what to say from there. For all he knew, Twilight had been asking her mentor for relationship advice and then the two sisters would share the letters and have a small giggle. The image would not stop replaying in his mind now that he was confronted with the two. "I...don't know how I got here, but I guess I put way too much into it."

"Please, don't worry," said the solar princess, rising from her throne now so that she could look at him more closely. "Magic backfires more often than not when you're starting out. I'm pretty sure my faithful student has told you about that."

Princess Celestia then turned to her sister, reminding her that it was just about time to raise the moon. The guards continued to stand like statues, and indeed it almost seemed like they were after backing off.

"I...don't know if I want to take the chance of teleporting back. I fear what'll happen if I try it again..." Corey continued. It was true. After the massive failure he'd had trying the spell, he was just not keen on trying again so soon. Plus, his head still felt like it was being impaled by pins and needles.

"Just try it again. Think of something that always calms you whenever you're in trouble. Whatever it is that does that is a lot closer than you think." The princess continued, sounding eerily like she was talking to a student. Which, given what he essentially was to Twilight, didn't take the former human for nearly as much of a spin as it probably should have.

"B-before I go, I have to ask this," Corey said, breathing out a sigh and preparing to try the princess's advice. "Has anything about that break-in turned up? Or anything on that other guy that got pulled in with us?"

The guards remained still, even with this question. The princess's visible brow furrowed.

"Unfortunately...no, nothing has turned up on either of those fronts." The solar mover said, the benevolence in her aura still very much there.

"Okay, I guess I'd better try your advice..." The former human shut his eyes, and concentrated on the library.

Think of something that calms me down...closer than I think it is...

"Actually, Corey, before you return, I have one other thing to tell you..."

The former human opened his eyes slowly. Princess Celestia was wearing a look alien to her. It wasn't anger, though. He'd never seen the character from the show look so...deep in thought. But the look was only temporary; she soon adopted a half-hearted smile before saying what she said next.

"When the time comes, you'll have a very hard choice to make..."

Corey breathed out a sigh. He'd known this, and the solar princess's reminder wasn't really needed.

"I trust you already know this, of course, but the choice will probably be more difficult than you could imagine..."

The former human felt his eyes close again. Images of Twilight Sparkle soon flooded his mind's eye. It was funny; though the solar princess's statement could have caused those images to force him to start crying out of sheer emotional confusion, instead, the images offered him comfort. He didn't know why straight away, until memories of the times they'd had together over the past days came flooding back to him.

She'd been understanding of me, even before the secret came out...like everyone else, she'd noticed the similiarities between us. Twilight was there for me when my fellow humans weren't...even if we have to come apart at the end of it...we're both going to walk away alright...right?

Twilight's insides were burning with anxiety. Corey had literally vanished to Celestia-knows-where, and she was worrying herself beyond sick about him. He'd used the teleporting spell, and apparently misused it, and now he could have been anywhere.

The sound of what we humans refer to as an "electrical pop" sounded right behind her, followed by a slight coughing fit. The purple mare whipped her head back, and upon seeing the origin of the sound effects, she turned around. A slightly dazed-looking, yet perfectly whole and healthy Corey stood there. The anxiety vanished, replaced with complete concern.

"Corey!" She trotted quickly up to him and threw one foreleg around his neck. The dazed green colt took a few moments to gather his bearings, but soon returned the gesture eagerly. "Are you alright? Where'd you go?"

"Well, I warped dead center in this hall...the Princesses were both there, along with all these royal-looking guards." The answer was so non-chalant Twilight almost fainted.

"You mean you teleported...to the royal hall..." She staggered backwards, looking Corey dead in the eye. "Were the princesses upset?"

"At first," the former human said, now with a notable level of concern in his voice, "but after confirming I wasn't an enemy, they became friendly again."

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. "After that mess with the Changelings, I'd almost say you were lucky."

Now, the former human adopted a look that suggested that Twilight had suddenly sprouted a pair of wings.

"You said...'Changelings', right?" The concern that was in his voice was unmistakable. "I'm probably not thinking of the right Changelings..."

"It's...a long story," Twilight responded. "You mean you guys have those terrible monsters back home, too?"

"Well, no, just in fiction..." Corey continued. "In the fiction I read, a 'Changeling' refers to a planet destroyer."

"Oh," The studious mare wondered exactly what kind of fiction he had read to have that kind of Changeling in it. "Well, the Changelings I know--"

The door downstairs burst open.

"Corey! Twilight!" It was John's voice, sounding angry and tired. "We need your help with something!"

Twilight looked to Corey, who looked just as confused as she felt...

Rarity could not have asked for a better setting. She'd selected a different clearing not too far off from where she'd seen Corey and Twilight in their romantic moment. Leo and Dash had just finished clearing the clouds, leaving the darkening sky completely exposed. Soon, Luna's moon would rise, bringing about the night, and Rarity wanted the tapestry the lunar princess provided each night to be completely exposed.

Pinkie and Applejack had both made some treats, the former of whom had also brought a basket and blanket. Ivan had helped Pinkie out with that. Fluttershy had been commissioned to get some birds to sing; that too, went very well. John had gone to get the unicorn couple, and would be back any moment. Spike, meanwhile, was keeping watch, using a telescope Pinkie had somehow had the foresight to bring with her.

As for Rarity herself, she was organizing the whole event. Everything was just about ready. Spike, from the "vantage point" not too far off from this clearing, spotted something through the telescope.

"They're runnin' up towards us!" Spike called out. "John must have gone overboard with his attention getter!"

"I think that would be the only way you could get their attention..." Ivan said dryly. Nopony offered a response.

"Okay, everypony, get in position!" The white unicorn called out.

Corey didn't know what to do anymore. He'd just gotten back from a bad teleportation, and then John had told him and Twilight there was another close scrape with a manticore not too far in the Everfree Forest. No one had been poisoned, like when Leo had attempted to take one on earlier and failed, but the unicorns were apparently needed to move it back into the forest. John seemed convincing enough, so the unicorn couple had decided to follow. Though the green unicorn had a feeling Twilight would be doing most of the lifting, he knew it'd probably be good practice.

"Almost there," John called out, having lead them straight into the Everfree Forest.

"Corey, I'm worried about John," Twilight whispered. The dragon was out of earshot. "I think his new body might be going to his head..."

"How so?" The green unicorn asked.

"Well, you saw what he'd done to try and get your spell speed up..." The purple mare sounded slightly angered about this. "And, I get the feeling he landed most of the attacks on the manticore. He just seems to take unnecessary risks..."

"I can't say for sure, but I'd have to agree with you on that," Corey replied. He had no idea how far John would be willing to go if he were still human, but he can't have imagined him trying to get him to blast him were they still human. Then again, he might have still been a mage, and those that were dragons might have still had their draconic features.

Eventually, John slowed to a halt, panting only a bit from the excursion.

"Alright, you two should go on beyond this thicket. The manticore's right over there..." he said. "I'll stay out here to make sure no other monsters try to help it while you two move it."

"Um...okay, be careful.." said Twilight in response, concern evident in her tone. John flipped his hand dismissively.

"Hey, don't worry about me..."

"I swear those scales--!" The purple mare cut herself off before she could say much more, "Never mind..."

Corey didn't see the point in saying anything about either of their sentiments, not really one for confrontations. Twilight took off into the thick brush, and he followed, only slightly winded from the effort to gallop from the library to here. Only now was his current body's stamina being pushed, but compared to Twilight, she didn't even seem winded by the effort. Quickly, the mare disappeared from Corey's sight, but that didn't last.

"What the..." She sounded confused. "Where's...the manticore...?"

The former human burst through the brush, stopping to catch his breath, just a few inches behind and to the left of Twilight. When he got a bit of wind back into him, he looked up to see the cause of the studious pony's confusion.

There was a blanket spread out, a very plain design. There was a basket at the exact center of the mat, with two plates, a slice of apple pie on each. Around the blankets, candles were lit, giving the scene somewhat of a...romantic glow. If the approaching night didn't already do that. In addition, birds were starting to sing a soft tune, which could have been anything, but Corey assumed it was supposed to be romantic.

"What...?" he whispered, more out of breath from this than the galloping.

John planned this, didn't he? The green colt looked about, half-expecting Ivan or Leo to pop out of nowhere with a camera to snap him and Twilight in the middle of a scene. Speaking of the lavender equine, she was looking at him with an unreadable look on her face.

"Corey...?" She sounded...flustered, to say the least. Corey sheepishly curled one of his forelegs behind his head, adjusting the headband he often sported.

"D-don't look at me," he stuttered, "I wasn't lying when I said I'd teleported to the royal castle by accident, and I was basically never out of your sight all day..."

Twilight blinked. She seemed ready to shout something hurtful, and Corey didn't know who it'd be directed at.

"L-listen...if this was a setup," he said quietly, "which I honestly think it might be, let's just enjoy it. I mean, John told us to go here..."

The gaze of the mare softened. "B-but, I..."

"I know it's awkward. I didn't expect this either...but..." The former human closed his eyes slowly, before opening them, allowing himself to smile. "Let's enjoy this, shall we?"

Twilight fumbled for an approriate expression, but eventually she settled into a slightly bashful smile.

"Okay...we'll play along..."

John reached the vantage point nearby, where the others were, more or less, watching as the unicorns slowly trotted towards the picnic blanket, smiling bashfully to one another (though Corey's smile looked awkward, but that was more or less because John hadn't really seen the former human in question smile a whole lot). The others had varying reactions, from amusement to digust to "aww"...

Then there was Rarity. You could have probably told John she was watching a chick flick and he'd have believed you if he didn't know what was going on. She was watching the scene intently, waiting for something to happen. The dragon felt an urge to facepalm coming on, but given that none of the others had done so yet, it just wouldn't be right for him to do it.

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure this counts as stalking... the dragon thought. I'd expect her to be one of those romantic types, but...I didn't expect this...

John found himself wondering if the whole setup was worth it. He wasn't really all into romantic scenes, and watching Corey and Twilight at the picnic table now wasn't exactly anything new. They seemed to be skittishly doddering about; proving they had never been on this kind of a picnic before. There was probably some discomfort between them about it, still, but they did seem to want to try it out.

Rarity started to flinch just a little when the green colt did his usual pig-out session, eating in easily the most impolite manner of the four former humans. At least, until Twilight told him he was doing it again, causing him to blush and calm down just a little.

"John," This was a male voice, coming from a silver pegasus with a female snout. Noel, or Leo, whichever he preferred. "I'm not really all into this."

"I know what you mean," John responded. For once...

"So, I'll see if they left the library open in the rush...anything, really, to get out of here..." said the only other former human capable of speaking Spanish. Leo's wings opened, and soon he was off.

"Hey, wait...!" Dash said, apparently forgetting she was in front of her friends. From the corner of his eye, John saw Fluttershy flinch just a little at this display, and sighed at that. "I-I mean...yeah, I'm not into this stuff either. Let me know how far they get..."

"R-Rainbow!" The white unicorn was shaken out of her trance by the cyan mare's surprisingly dirty comment. Well, surprisingly dirty to John, anyway. She shook her head in light disgust. "Neither of them are in it for...that..."

John scratched the scales on one side of his face, debating on whether or not to leave. He did want to see exactly how this would pan out, but unlike Rarity, he really wasn't into this at all. The dragon looked around the room again. Only Pinkie and Fluttershy seemed to have any interest in this event. From what John could tell, Ivan was sleeping, or quietly meditating (more than likely the former). Spike was trying not to look, with a facial expression that expressed both visual exhaustion with the scene and childish disgust. And Applejack...just looked disinterested in what was going on.

"Psst..." The dragon said. "Psst...!!" The orange mare's ear twitched. "Applejack, over here!" His voice was quiet, so as not to disturb too many of those still there. Thankfully, the farmer managed to turn to him.

"John? You into--" She began, already on the verge of asking him a potentially stupid question.

"No, just noticed that you weren't as enthusiastic as I was..." John spoke up just a little louder.

"The one thing keepin' me from leavin' this to itself..." Applejack seemed discomforted. "I do want Twi to be happy, but I can't put up with too much of this mushy stuff."

John blinked. Wasn't that just a little hypocrit--

"So...why are you still hanging around then?" he asked, wanting to learn more.

"I don't know. Just got a feeling in my gut that this is the calm before the storm..." she responded.

As the time passed and the last rays of sun began to fade into night, the former human turned dragon began to wonder if Applejack was just being paranoid. Yet, he could plainly see her cause for concern.

Twenty minutes had passed, but to Twilight, it had felt a lot longer had passed. The moon was starting to come out, and she'd noticed, with a definite measure of surprise, that the sky was clearer than normal given where they were. Even though they weren't deep in the forest, the Everfree Forest was still known to have cloudy skies most of the time. The weather didn't need pegasi to control the clouds like it did almost everywhere else.

The mare herself might have been just a little miffed about how John had gotten their attention, but the more she thought about the present, the more she'd realized that the pros far outweighed the cons. The two had since finished the food, though not without more of Corey's rather unpolished table manners shining through, and were now staring up at the night sky. Strangely, it seemed to be altering only a little in front of them, but Twilight did not concern herself with that.

The former human on her left was gazing up at the night sky with a suppressed look of wonder on his features. Well, as suppressed as he could ever make it, anyway. She looked upon him, once again smiling.

"No wonder..." he started, probably fumbling for the right words to say. It was something that occasionally happened, she'd learned from the very few stories about himself he'd shared. He'd say something, meaning well most of the time, but the meaning got twisted because he just didn't say it the right way. Or forgot a comma while typing a message to his friends. "No wonder you go stargazing out here. You can see just about any stars...I don't know if it's the lack of light pollution that I'd have back home or the fact it's here...but the night sky is staggeringly beautiful."

"It always is. Astronomy is something else I like, besides reading." Twilight responded.

"I actually did some work back in middle school. Whenever I got the chance, I actually picked astronomy-related articles..." Corey continued. "And I once had a globe with all of the constellations on it...Don't know where it is now, though."

The purple mare began to blink, almost astounded were it not for the fact that comparisons had been drawn between them since day one of the humans' arrival. Still, yet another subject that the two shared...if you had told Twilight she'd met a color inverted and much less fit version of herself from a different pony universe where the genders were reversed, she would have believed you were it not for the overwhelming evidence that Corey had told the truth about his humanhood.

"We really are..." she whispered. Never in her life would she thought she'd have met somepony like Corey. In layman's terms, he was technically an alien trapped in a pony body, had somewhat of an aptitude for magic (though it seemed to be more draining on him than it would normally be), and had issues with others. The difference between them was that Corey seemed to have come out more cynical and antisocial than she did. Mostly because she'd had no choice. "We really are alike, aren't we?"

"Not entirely, but..." Corey hesitated. From the moonlight reflecting off his face, Twilight could see his face beginning to flush with a color other than green. "Yeah. The others hit their mark when they made their comparisons."

The two sat in silence, scootching close to each other until their shoulders rubbed together. The height difference was noticable once more, her head just overtaking his snout when they sat side-by-side like this.

"Corey," Twilight felt something. It was in that book she read, this feeling, but it wasn't exactly new to her. She'd known what it was from the start, but the book did shed some light on her feelings, and how she should act about them. "I feel like we can make it work."

"Huh?" he asked, turning his head to her.

"You might be here for another week, another month, another year..." She said this quietly. "It's such a wild value I thought it would be a bad idea to take the chance, but...I feel happy when I'm around you."

Corey's face faulted in that way it often did whenever he was flustered, but was trying not to show it, something else that had developed in him over the past six days in Equestria. Perhaps she'd tried a little too hard to see him that way...

"I feel that way too..." Corey responded. "And like I said way back on day two, a friend told me if we wait too long, we lose a chance...so..." He paused, his eyes telling her that he was searching for the right words. His face flushed for some reason, and Twilight couldn't figure it out. "...Ah, I've never been good with words in situations like this!"

That was the last thing he said before moving in for her mouth with his own.

Ivan snapped to attention by the coos of three mares, having dozed off some time after the date began. Strangely, he had managed to not fall flat on his face while napping, and his ankles, all four of them, felt a bit numb. Pinkie, who had stood right next to him, had been watching the end results of the event intently, but not nearly as intently as Rarity, who had Spike tending to her with a few tissues. Fluttershy didn't appear to need them, but he couldn't tell from the bad angles. John and Applejack seemed neutral to the event. Spike, meanwhile, was pointedly not looking, but for what reason he couldn't see straight away, until he noticed exactly how red the faces of the unicorns were. Well, the fact he could see it from the vantage point was impressive enough.

"Well..." John said. "I guess Corey doesn't need help anymore..."

It was fitting that he would make that observation. He was, in a way, his wingman. Applejack gave a small chuckle, as though understanding something that the others did not. No one seemed to care, except for Ivan, but right as he was about to make a remark on the matter, something stopped him. And it wasn't the idea that Rarity would try to bring them together.

Just like the night of the break-in, a cold sensation suddenly rushed through him. Unlike before, where it felt like someone had just pressed an ice pack to the nape of his neck, the coldness spread to his whole body, giving him a full-body chill and causing him to visibly shiver. Once again, the sensation passed away just as quickly as it had appeared. Pinkie, however, seemed to notice the former human's discomfort.

"Ivan, what's wrong?" Pinkie asked. Ordinarily, Ivan would have dismissed it as nothing, but after that vision earlier today when he apparently tranced out and became unresponsive, as well as what happened before the last time he'd felt that cold chill, he didn't quite feel like doing that.

"I...I don't know..." Ivan responded, blinking it off with the slightest traces of worry in his features. He couldn't hide it this time. Either his new pony body came with some radical complications, or--

A ground-shaking explosion made everybody at the vantage point jump.

"What the--!" John grunted, more startled than angry, though that soon changed as the shaking subsided. Corey soon echoed the statement, loud enough for Ivan to hear.

"What was that, Twilight?" His voice was clear, and all ears were now tuned into their conversation once more. The purple mare responded, before she gasped, and indicated with a hoof.

"That's not an ordinary fire...!" she said. "That's an elemental...sp-spell!" Her excitement momentarily hindered her ability to speak without stuttering.

"Looks like we've found our thief, everypony!" Applejack said, all business. "Who's up for showin' whoever it is what happens when they steal from our friends!"

As the two unicorns left the view of the vantage point, there was a murmur of agreement among the group. Ivan knew he didn't have a real chance, not being a fighter in any sense of the word, but it'd just look bad if he didn't come along, and besides, he wanted to know who it was that took the books.

Still, what just happened right before the fire spell went off troubled Ivan. Deep in his subconscious, a thought echoed within his mind.

What's happening to me?

Corey quickly galloped alongside Twilight. Though he'd just felt like he was on cloud nine, the event that had just occurred decisively knocked the former human spiraling off said cloud. He knew he was going to be counted on for whatever occurred. In his mind, he didn't know if it was the fact he'd watched Dragonball Z all his life or common sense that was telling him there would be a fight, and the green unicorn was more scared than anything. Yet, he said he'd try to protect Twilight when things like this came up while he was here, and he wasn't going to turn back on his word now.

He'd never really fought in his life. It just wasn't in his nature. The fact he was about to get into one with an unknown character was causing him to tremble somewhat in fear.

"Twilight," he began, trying to take his mind away from his fear, though his voice definitely came out at a higher pitch than intended. "are you sure those spells just used were elemental."

"Unmistakable. I would say the spells used were basic. I never got a chance to read the book, but I did ask Princess Celestia what to watch out for." Twilight said. Any evidence that there was a romantic moment not half a minute ago was not in her demeanor. She was once again all business. "Hey, are you okay?"

"No, I'm fine, really," His voice wavered so hopelessly he knew she saw right through him.

"Corey..." she started to whisper. "You're scared, aren't you?" Her facial expression softened. "It's okay. I don't blame you. You've never been in the kind of situations I have."

Corey remained silent, and tried his hardest not to look away or slow down, utterly ashamed.

"Listen..." Twilight said. "There's nothing to be ashamed of. Just don't push yourself too hard..."

With a sigh, the green unicorn could only bring himself to nod. They closed the distance to the site, and saw a figure mostly hidden in the shadows. It was pony-shaped, but that was all that Corey could see.

"Hold it right there!" A familiar, feminine, southern-accented voice called out to the figure. Confused, yet relieved, Corey turned to see Applejack, and most of the others already there. While those that were naturally ponies or a dragon looked at least somewhat ready to throw down, Ivan and John (mostly Ivan) looked just as unsure as he did about this. John mostly looked pissed.

"Hmm...I guess practicing tonight was a mistake. But no matter, I've already taken the knowledge I need from the books..." The figure moved about, taking one slow step forward. The voice was masculine, and just hearing it gave Corey a chill down his spine from how evil it sounded. The figure had white fur, judging from the hoof that came forth from the shadows.

"There, Leo!" A different, feminine voice, rapidly closing the distance, echoed over the trees.

"I see...!" This was Noel's voice coming in loud and clear.

For some reason, the former human couldn't bring himself to wonder why most of them were so close by, ready to assist, but his relief at not having to take this creep on alone was magnified when Rainbow Dash and Leo floated down close by. Leo, like himself, looked unsure, but was trying not to show it. Rainbow, however, looked mad.

"So you're the one that stole from my friend, huh?" The tone in the cyan mare's voice was dangerous. She seemed ready to charge, and for the life of him, Corey wondered why she wasn't ready to attack.

"That's correct." The figure took another slow step forward, and two shapes at his sides opened.

"Wings...!" Fluttershy commented, sounding just as frightened as Corey felt.

The figure continued to walk forward. His mane and tail were spiked back, black in color. His eyes were yellow, but as the group fully took in his appearance, there was a collective gasp.

"A horn, too?!" Pinkie asked, the excitement still evident in her voice, though underneath it, Corey could barely make out the serious nature of her tone.

"An alicorn...?" Corey felt a chill run up his spine just looking at the figure before him. For the life of him, however, the green unicorn couldn't figure out why. He knew full well what was causing it, but his mind was working full-tilt, trying to figure things out.

I-I don't remember a character like this from the show...nor did I read about one like this in fanfics... the former human said to himself. If he's the thief, and the fifth of us pulled in...why do I feel like I should know him? I don't know anyone from the Skype chat, let alone real life, with spiky black hair like this...!

Act 2 Chapter 8

Act II: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 8: The Thief, Revealed

Twilight looked on her left. The former human that she shared so many romantic moments with was visibly sweating, though his facial expression displayed a frustrated confusion underneath the fear she'd so plainly seen on his face when they were running to this mysterious alicorn.

Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Cadance all don't have a son as far as I know, and I'm sure the sisters would have told me about their son's acting up. I'd even think banishment would have been on the table...so he can't be royal... The purple mare thought, watching as the white alicorn looked from pony, to pony, to dragon. Is this...?

"Who do you think you are, stealin' from a friend like that!" Dash reared back, ready to charge, but Leo seized her tail in his mouth before she could. Still, she'd dragged him a few feet in the air before he managed to pull back hard enough to stop her.

The evil alicorn sneered, revealing, to Twilight's surprise, a set of fangs. Either he was actually a vampire like she'd read about in the fiction she had read, or his teeth were just messed up like that.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I think I'd better introduce myself...my name is Zer."

There was a strangled gasp of air right next to her about two whole seconds after he finished his sentence. Twilight turned again to Corey, this time seeing the look of utter defeat he'd sported. Yet, at the same time, whatever problem he'd had in his head clicked.

Zer...? She asked herself. That's not even an Earth name...yet Corey seems to know something about him. Surveying the other former humans, she saw that Leo and John only looked confused at the name. However, in a rare case of not having a poker face on, Ivan also looked like he'd seen a ghost. His blue eyes were widened considerably, but unlike Corey, he wasn't completely hypnotized into a state of paralysis.

"Corey, what's up?" John asked. Corey didn't respond, continuing to stare, paralyzed with what Twilight initially assumed was fear. However, as she turned back to him once again, his posture actually had a slump that indicated...guilt? "Hey, are you listening?!"

"No...not this...!" the green colt hissed, tears already gathering at the corners of his eyes. But why? It was eleven-on-one, and six of the eleven had proven themselves capable already. They couldn't have lost already!

Before Twilight could realize it, both Corey, and to her astonishment, herself, were wreathed in a black glow. The air rushed past her when she was thrown. Corey hit a tree hard, going down to the ground. Not too far from him, she too hit a tree, and felt the pain from the impact in her side, shuddering as she slid to the ground.

The nine that weren't thrown immediately flew into action. Leo released Rainbow Dash, allowing her to charge in close, but her speedy attack was repelled by some sort of force field; Twilight guessed it was more of an instant shield that repelled the attacker if applied with the correct timing. Applejack tried to sweep his feet out from under him so that she could disable him, but the rope she was using blackened and burst into flames via a simple fire spell, used defensively.

Twilight didn't know if she should have been more surprised that John tried to attack Zer head-on. He tried the same approach as Dash, throwing a hard punch, but Zer couldn't stop the draconic attack completely, the shield shattering into black shards and fading. The mare got to her feet, intent on helping them, but first, she had to find out why Corey was acting so defeated...

Though Leo, Dash, and most of the others did in fact leap into battle with Zer, Ivan knew he probably wouldn't be able to do anything of value. He had no idea what his pony body was even capable of. Even if they were in a humanized Equestria, Ivan felt he'd still be the Aquaman of the group. When Fluttershy and Leo began to fall back to check on the thrown unicorns, the brown earth pony decided there wasn't anything else to do.

Besides, he had to talk to Corey about the thief. It didn't make any sense how he should have been here. None of them knew him...as a person, anyway. Technically, he wasn't even re--

"Corey!" Twilight called out, at his side before the others got to them. She was at his side, worried sick about his condition. While physically, he probably didn't get hurt too bad by the slam, emotionally, he looked completely broken. Tears were leaking from his eyes, probably somewhat from the pain, but it didn't register with the rest of his face. It was a glassy, saddened look of guilt. It wasn't that Ivan couldn't blame him for reacting this way, but man, oh man, he'd never thought he'd see Corey like this. "What's wrong? Please, answer me!"

"I-I..." Ivan was at an utter loss for words. How would they explain this turn of events? "I've never seen him like this...!"

"Ivan," Leo said, getting his attention. "do you know what's causing this?"

"Not the time, Noel," Ivan responded, once again using the hated name of the silver pegasus.

Fluttershy looked up from examining the two unicorns, clearly confused by the name. "N-Noel...?"

"Fluttershy, please," Twilight responded with urgency in her tone, "Focus...!"

"Do either of you know what's up with him?" Leo asked.

"I-I don't know!" Twilight said. "He heard Zer's name, and then he seemed to just lose the will to fight!"

"I've never heard of him," Leo asserted. "I don't know anything. The way his mane is styled, those eyes...and that chill I get when I look at him!"

Nothing compared to the chill I felt right before he showed up, I bet... Ivan thought to himself, looking back to the fight, just in time to see Rainbow Dash get repelled by what appeared to be a black shockwave spell of sorts. Zer was now airborne, out of John's reach.

"D-darn it...!" The silver pegasus grunted, showing an unnatural amount of concern (given it was Noel, anyway) once more. "You stay here with Corey and try to find out what's going on! I'm going in!"

With that, Leo immediately flapped back in the direction of the fight. Ivan turned back to Corey, who seemed to be making an effort to gather himself.

Corey, come on, pull yourself together...!

Leo rushed back into battle. Though he wanted to help Rainbow Dash, he didn't know why he was doing this, other than because it would likely look bad on him if he didn't fight back alongside those that could. The only other time he'd ever fought seriously in his life warranted a suspension from school, and that was because he'd stood up to a bully of his own volition.

But this was different. He never saw the point in being the hero. Too overrated for his tastes. Yet, here he was, fighting alongside heroines, his online Skype friends, and Ivan and Spike. The silver pegasus knew he had to try something to get Zer out of here, but what? The pegasus flapped his wings, trying to adapt a martial arts pose for something he wasn't quite sure if he could use in his new body.

Yeah, he did try it on Ivan, but that was before he got used to his new body and it wasn't an actual fight. Even so, the former human felt confident that he could do something of worth against this new threat.

"Well, come on, then," said Zer, leaving himself open.

If I can just use Dim Mak...! Leo thought, rushing in. He tried to precision strike, but not only were his efforts in vain since he had a hoof, no digits to actually focus his efforts on, but even if he could, Zer was evading most of his hits, while seeming to parry others using his magic. Eventually, though, the silver pegasus saw his opening. His frustration with being unable to hit his target up until that point show through, and he extended a left hook into the alicorn's chest.

An unexpected event occurred. While the punch itself was perfect, the instant his hoof made contact with the white alicorn's body, something unexpected happened. A sudden rush of energy surged from Leo's center out through his hoof. It took the form of...an air current?

Zer gave a surprised grunt as the current smashed into him. He backed away, gritting his teeth at the attack while raising a hoof to the afflicted spot.

"What did you just do...?" he growled. "You don't have a horn at all..."

Leo couldn't answer Zer straight away, transfixed at what had just happened. He tried to go for Dim Mak, and had been completely intent on harming his target however he could. As soon as he'd managed to clear a way for a strike, he took the way into his opponent's defenses...and apparently expelled what felt like energy. But, Zer had a point. He wasn't a unic--

Zer grabbed hold of Leo by telekinesis, and try as he might to fight it, he couldn't overcome the darkness that surrounded him. The former human found himself chucked back, hurtling out of control. He felt his wings collapse, probably out of instinct or because he had been grasped by powerful magic. Either way, the silver pegasus colt found himself going into a nasty fall...

until he felt something, a pair of hooves, grasp him underneath his forelegs and pull him up. Leo opened his eyes, and blinked.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?!" The pony who saved him was none other than Rainbow Dash. "Don't let him beat you like that!"

Noel blinked, and his wings opened again. As soon as he recovered from the shock of almost dying, he moved back into position.

"Right..." he mumbled. "Sorry to worry you..."

Zer began rushing for them again, but something halted his trajectory. With a snarl, he looked down, and saw the cause for his inability to charge the two pegasi. A second lasso had managed to snare him by one of his hind legs, and Applejack had the rope tightly in her mouth.

"Gotcha this time," she slurred through her clenched teeth, giving the lasso a mighty yank. Try as he might to resist the pull the orange mare had, the evil alicorn was starting to be pulled down towards the ground, ultimately being slammed down by the force. Applejack worked quickly, galloping over to his prone body, and actually managing to hogtie him.

"Good one, Applejack!" Dash cheered, somersaulting in midair in a gesture of triumph. The others began to cheer this show of rope manipulation, and the others seemed oddly complacent. Even Leo seemed to believe that this would do it.

However, as the others began to draw closer, John suddenly gave a shout.

"Wait!" the larger dragon called out. "He doesn't look defeated to me..."

Leo looked back to the prone form of Zer. Abruptly, the latter's horn exploded in a black magical glow once more. Two black shots of energy went up towards the pegasi, but there was plenty of time to dodge. The alicorn's wings re-opened, and within moments, the offensive pony was back on his feet, though awkwardly. He flew upwards, ascending in height. His horn began to glow once again, and after pulling off a rather tricky somersaulting shot, once more freed himself from worrying about the lasso, freeing his four legs.

"You...!" Rainbow's tone grew dangerous, and she rushed the alicorn, aiming to once again try punching the fangs out of his mouth. However, Zer merely raised his head, sneering at the cyan mare's charge. His horn once more became covered in a black glow. A split-second later, he was coated in a black shield of pure energy, repelling Dash's attack and sending her flying backwards.

"D-Dash!" Leo growled. In another moment of wanting to help her, he mimiced her attempt. Zer looked up, and once more grabbed Leo. Rainbow was rushing in again, and Leo felt himself being telekinetically jerked around against his will.

"This oughta clip your wings...!" The pegasus female's tone was threatening. "Let him go!"

Zer sneered wickedly.

"If you insist..." Leo felt his body move, and he already knew where this was going. With every bit of breath in his body, he attempted to warn Dash of the inevitable.

"Wait a sec--!" he cried out, just before his head slammed into her ribs. His head pounded in pain from the sudden impact. Rainbow had just enough time to clamp one of her forelegs around him before both of them simultaneously were sent flying.

Corey felt his guilt gradually fade away. His vision, which had been blurred by the continually leaking tears, was finally starting to clear up. His common sense began to gradually return. Well, the sounds of Twilight pleading with him to come back to his senses, as well as the ongoing sounds of battle certainly helped jolt him back to reality.

No matter what, he couldn't change what had happened. And he certainly couldn't change the truth of the situation. As these realities dawned on him, he blinked. It took a few tries, but eventually, the former human was able to bring himself to speak.

"Twilight..." he whispered, as she was the first thing he saw upon his waking up. "Ivan...Fluttershy..." He turned his head to regard two others that had briefly joined their side. "Spike...Pinkie...?"

"Corey!" Twilight squealed. Though it was hard to pick up due to the fact he barely felt conscious, she was definitely relieved to see him. Yet, he could detect frustration in her features. "What's going on? Do you know who this is?"

Corey felt his renewed vigor deflate just as soon as it had come up. That particular fact, not even Twilight knew.

"In a manner of speaking..." he responded. "Twilight, we're in danger if we stay here...I know this much, I don't think we can stand up to him like this."

"Good conclusion, Captain Pessimist..." Spike cut in, definitely sarcastic. "C'mon! You should know who you're with! I hear you and Twilight talking! We haven't lost yet!"

"Spike...!" Twilight didn't seem to know if she should scold him.

"I think we'd better take Corey's advice," said Ivan. "This pony is bad news."

"Ivan, do you know...?" The purple mare continued her questions, turning to Ivan briefly.

"I can't say I've met him in person, ever, but I do know who it is." the brown earth pony responded. "We need to get to a safe spot, soon."

"What's going on?" Pinkie cut in, excited. "I didn't see this coming at all! But you got chills, Ivan, and then this happened! Do you have 'Pinkie Sense' too?"

"...What?" Ivan immediately changed to confused, but afterward, he became irritated, though only a little. "N-no, I don't know what that cold chill was, but it's not the first time I felt it."

The former human blinked, but willed himself not to be distracted. He tried to force himself onto his feet.

"We have to get out of here as soon as we can," grunted the green colt as he forced himself back on his feet, not paying any mind to Fluttershy's concerns. His mental ears were shut off to anything but the single, powerful need to get out of the area. "Once this is over...everything needs to be explained."

"You mean...?" Twilight asked.

"Everything."

Twilight watched the former human indecisively. It was true, he was very emotional at this point, given it took him this long to get out of his lag, but why was he wanting to run? Was this "Zer" really that terrible? And why did Ivan and Corey seem to know him, yet Leo and John did not seem to? The human universe was not known for its magic, so why was this Zer so...efficient?

Realizing she was wasting time by pondering these mysteries in the here and now, rather than when she could at least be sure they were safe in the here and now, given Corey and Ivan's anxiety over the matter, she gave a reluctant sigh.

"Okay..." she relented. "But once the others are safe, I want answers..."

"I'll see if I can help..." said Corey. "This mess is my burden too."

Twilight whipped around, completely unsure of what Corey meant by that, but his next statement would mystify the others even more.

"He just shouldn't be here...in the flesh..."

"Not here..." Pinkie started, the excitement oddly absent from her demeanor. The smile was off her face, replaced with confusion and concern. Yet her mane and tail still remained...inflated.

"I-in the...flesh...?" Fluttershy stuttered.

"What do you mean by that?!" Spike questioned, any evidence of sarcasm gone from his demeanor, replaced instantly by a flash of concern.

"We'll explain later," said Ivan. "You two better do your thing..."

Twilight had never cast such a large-scale teleportation before, but she would need to try, for the sake of her friends' safety. She began to shuffle forward.

"Everypony," she began. "We need to get closer if this is going to work..."

Corey flinched, but breathed out a shuddering sigh. "Alright then..."

The others still more or less involved in the fight with Zer began mounting an offensive all at once while the group outside of the fight began to make their way into a more suitable range for the teleportation spell to work. Rarity, in an unprecedented show of roughness, actually began her own offensive, breaking off a rather large branch from the torched trees nearby using her telekinesis.

"Have at you!" she cried, attempting to club him the now airborne alicorn out of the air. Each attempt was skillfully evaded, so Rarity resorted to just chucking the object as a spear of sorts. The object came up at such an angle that the flapping left wing was clipped, causing the alicorn some pain and forcing him to once again become grounded. The expression on the alicorn's face was utterly demonic.

"You...!" He halted, before his horn began to glow with an ironically gentle black color once more. The black energy soon took the form of water, which sprayed at Rarity in the style of a fire hydrant. The stream came at such high pressure and speed that the white unicorn was utterly helpless to the whim of the alicorn's spell.

"Agh! My mane! You brute!" she scolded, devolving into hysteria, "To think I once chided Corey for his misuse of confections!"

"That was an idiotic method of attack," Zer observed nonchalantly, "but I suppose it worked." Too busy gloating over his "defeat" of Rarity, the antagonistic pony was quickly back-kicked in the face by Applejack, and lifted off his hooves. He landed on his side, but he wasn't down for long. He rose to his hooves, just in time to block one of John's dragon punches and sending him spiraling away. He recovered, but from the fire that was literally pouring from his nostrils each time he took a breath, it was clear his rage was really starting to get kindled.

"He's so strong...!" observed Applejack.

"Magically, maybe, but physically..." John said...

"When you have ability like this, physical fighting comes second!" Zer announced. "Though I must admit, I was off-guard." His horn glowed black, and he glared straight at Applejack. "Needless to say, it won't happen again!"

The orange farmer mare began to move, but she found her hooves couldn't leave the ground. She clearly wasn't scared; she knew herself better than that. She looked down, and immediately saw the ground immediately around her had been turned into a shallow pit of...quicksand?!

"A-Applejack!" Fluttershy stuttered from the sidelines. Zer's horn began to glow again, but this time, it more closely resembled flames.

"D-darn it...!" Corey stuttered, his horn sparking to life, weakly. His focus was in utter shambles, and for the life of him, he couldn't shake the clouds. Twilight, on the other hand, began to gather her own magic energy, her horn's magenta glow looking much more consistent and refined compared to the former human's magical attempt. Both were trying to cast the same spell, but neither one was completely sure such a teleportation could be pulled off.

"Now then, why don't I demonstrate exactly what you are all up against?!" Zer yelled. "Now that I have these skills for this body, I no longer need to seclude myself, biding my time! My plans shall come to fruition!"

"'This...body...?'" Applejack questioned aloud, seemingly distracted with the notion he'd use that terminology. Zer's horn began to turn orange as he began to cast another fire spell.

"No one will stand in my way!" the alicorn declared, aiming his malevolent surge directly at Applejack herself. For a moment, no one could move, oddly transfixed with the moment. Well, none that is, except one...

The fireball attack exploded, and Applejack winced and did her best to turn away from the heat. Something had intercepted the hit and taken it for her, but what? She looked as soon as the blaze began to subside, and saw the large frame of a very familiar dragon.

"J-John...?!" the orange farmer pony stuttered.

"Fireproof," His voice sounded...off. At first, the mare couldn't name the cause of it, but it soon became apparent when John hunched over, and, for a split second, breathed out fire, before breathing it back into himself. His chest and stomach began expanding to a terrible size as he continued to hold back the flames that Applejack already knew were building up. Despite his rather tough demeanor, she was beginning to see the fatigue that was burning inside him.

Corey's focus was now entirely on the spectacle. Twilight continued to build up her magical energy, though both her eyes were on what was about to occur.

"John can't hold it in that much longer...!" she thought aloud. "The pressure's getting too high!"

All the while, a certain hopeless sort of frustration began to well up in the weakest former human's heart. He wanted to help, but he didn't know what he could do. What could he really do? His senses were all mixed up and Applejack almost got fried alive by Zer's attack! Guilt was overwhelming him. He began to try to focus again, shutting his eyes and trying to gather his own magic, however limited it was in its use, his horn taking on a more consistent green glow.

Zer, all the while, began to charge his own magical attack. Once again, though, he opted to use a fire spell. This time, however, the unicorn was concentrating the magical energy into the very tip of his horn.

"Move it, dragon!" he yelled, firing a large flamethrower in John's direction. John countered with the very fire that had built up in his body, and the two flames met in the middle.

All his life, ever since seeing the concept in Dragonball Z, John had cracked jokes about the power clashes in the show known as beam struggles, in which two fighters fired off beams and tried to force enough Ki into them to overpower the opposition. It always looked cool from a third person perspective. But now, being a participant in one, John could see why they were so stressful.

No, stressful wasn't the right word. Terrifying was far more appropriate. He didn't care about himself; the last attack did prove he could withstand magical fire, after all, but rather, Applejack, who was still directly behind him due to the spell that had put a pit of quicksand at her feet to halt her from moving. In her state, she couldn't even move away from her precarious position much less attempt to defend herself, so she was stuck behind him. He did not dare look behind him to see if any of her friends were helping, and he couldn't hear her over the sound of roaring flames.

The flames continued to collide in the middle, but the pressure in Zer's flame began to overcome the pressure in John's. The flamethrowers began to head back in his direction. He could vaguely hear Rainbow Dash moving to try and pull Applejack out of the quicksand pit, but that only fueled his terror more, because now there was another he had to worry about.

D-damn it...no... he thought to himself. He shut his eyes, feeling the heat of the combined flames come back at him. Even if I tank this, it might still go past me and hurt them! More pressure began filling up his chest, and instinctively he brought himself out of his squatting position slightly, maintaining his flamethrower beam. Zer's attack continued to draw closer. All my life, I swore to myself if I ever got power like this, I'd use it to help people! Now that I have it, I can't...?!

He opened his eyes, seeing the other end of the struggle almost to him. He dared not look behind him, but something in him made the black and blue dragon do it anyway. He could see Dash struggling to pull her friend from the quicksand. Though it looked like she might have gotten her out given enough time, the problem with that was simple: there wasn't enough time for him to hold the attack at bay long enough!

Something within the former human snapped. It wasn't just the dragon side of him that was angry anymore. It was the human side. Both sides' rage manifested themselves within the pressure in his stomach, which felt like it was going to burst from the anger and fire it held.

No!!!

The flamethrower he had been sustaining for so long surged with excess flames, and the attack struggle turned away and began making haste for the opposite direction. John couldn't see much else beside the fact his attack had turned from a continuous stream into a constant ball of flame as the struggle turned against Zer. No one could quite see what happened other than some steam coming off the ball, which shrunk in size. The ball appeared to contact Zer and explode into a flaming inferno.

Utterly exhausted, the dragon crumpled to his knee, putting out one of his taloned hands to try and sustain himself. Apparently, the last attack must have used up all the fire he'd had in his belly for the moment, given while his rage hadn't completely subsided, there wasn't even a stream of smoke coming out of him to indicate it. He continued to breathe hard from the effort.

Sustained energy beams... he was far too tired to consider it anything else, they really are a pain to maintain...

"Applejack...?" he questioned, turning around to where he'd last seen her. He didn't immediately see her in the sand pit, and thus panicked, but that soon subsided when he saw what was going on behind him. Rainbow was setting down the freed mare, both looking relieved at the fact that the crisis seemed to be over. John gave a sigh of relief...but when he caught the surprised looks of the others, he turned back.

The smoke cleared, revealing the lowering black shield of an incredibly burnt and angry looking Zer. While he was obviously not in a very critical condition, he was clearly wounded from the flames that had hurt him.

"To think...you could do this...to me...!" His horn began glowing black once more, much more erratically, and just for a moment, John swore he saw the enemy's eyes glow green and red. "Here!"

John weakly looked up, too drained from the effort to sustain that flamethrower he'd just breathed. He could just see a bright glimmer above his head. A moment later, it hit him what the evil alicorn was doing, quite literally. He was struck by lightning, and pain overloaded his every sense. The actual attack was only sustained for a full second, but to the dragon, it felt like a lot longer. While he was fireproof, he was not lightningproof, evidenced by the fact he felt that far more than the heat of the blaze.

As the dragon let out an agonized scream from the attack and fell backward, slipping into unconsciousness, a single, dominating thought overcame the rest of his senses.

Is this...how I...die...?

Corey heard a masculine scream following a rather loud attack, and hesitantly opened his eyes. When he did, he saw a sight he'd hoped he never had to see. Yet here it was before him: a friend, felled by an enemy attack. His body still glimmered with white lightning as it hit the ground. The screams deafened him, all worried about the fallen John.

"No..." the former human croaked. The glow around his horn faded, and he shut his eyes to avoid letting anymore tears fall.

Is he dead...? Did Zer...?! The unicorn looked up, his eyes notably a different color, and glowing green. He's going to kill them all...! Damn it...damn it...!

Something within him gave way, and though his consciousness was more or less fading, a single thought overpowered his logic.

Damn it, please...I need the power to get all of us out of here...come on...!

There was a snort, a sniffle, right next to her. Confused, Twilight turned...

and saw a very angry-looking Corey. She gasped when she saw what was happening to him. His horn was glowing vividly, more so than it should have given his level of control, and his eyes were twin pools of bright light. His teeth were bared, and tears were freely streaming from his eyes. He was sweating profusely, more so than when Zer first announced his name. He was mouthing something to himself, but the purple mare couldn't figure out what. She was oddly transfixed.

Abruptly, something in her head clicked.

He can't handle that much on his own...! Twilight immediately moved in front of him. She wasn't quite sure if what she was about to do would mitigate the negative effects of his using that much magic. But she had to try something. Just about anywhere in Equestria would be better than here...

The unicorn began to focus just a little. Her magic control was far greater than that of the former human. She knew he'd likely destroy himself mentally if he actually used that much at once with his current level of control, considering that up until now, he wasn't even able to focus right.

Let me help you... Her horn briefly touched his, and she felt the excess magic energy he was using up go into her. She'd seen this work not too long ago, at her brother's wedding. Her brother and his wife, Princess Cadance, had done a similar thing, though both were consciously aware. Corey didn't even seem aware of what was happening, given he didn't flinch when she got in his face. Either his resolve was so strong any traces of awkwardness were gone, or he was so angry that their faces being that close didn't register with him.

She felt magic surge within her, and began directing the excess energy into a mass teleport spell. She began calculating where to go with the injured and otherwise. The racing magic Corey was (unintentionally) lending her was not making directing the group any easier...

As quickly as the group had arrived to take care of Zer, something happened. As Rainbow attempted to fly for Zer, aiming to hit him for what he'd done, her body was engulfed in a white light and vanished. John, who had been knocked unconscious, was also whisked away, immediately followed by Applejack. Leo, who had started to follow Rainbow again, was taken as well. Rarity, who was trying to dry her hair back to the way it was before Zer sprayed her down, warped out in the same white flash.

One-by-one, those on the sidelines were taken out of the battle. Lastly, it was the two unicorns that had made the spell possible, warping away in a bright flash of white light.

The evil alicorn looked upon the fleeing heroes, and grit his teeth. He coughed awkwardly.

"Darn it...they must have taken more out of me than I thought..."

The instant awareness returned to Corey's body, he realized all he could discern was colored shapes, probably other ponies. His ears were ringing like no other, and his head pounded.

Agh, God...it feels like I just took a twelve-pound bowling ball straight to the head...! he thought. He wasn't even aware of what had just happened. He tried to talk, but it hurt to even do that. His entire body felt sore. How much magic...did I use...?

In an attempt to get his bearings, the former human struggled to his feet, but fell flat on his stomach, coughing. The floor he was on felt hard, like solid marble, but he was already too sore to feel the pain from the relatively small impact.

"Corey..." The voice was faint, yet somehow recognizable. He couldn't quite tell if it was worried or angry, or even who it was. He forced himself to look. At first, he could only see a reddish-brown shape, but as he finally gained some focus, he could make out just enough details to see it was Ivan. "I'm guessing you know there's no point in keeping it secret anymore..."

"Yeah..." Corey whispered. "Is John...?"

"No, he's still alive, but he's definitely been in better shape," Ivan replied.

"What happened to me? I just remember feeling angry and desperate...then...nothing..." The green unicorn's attention shifted to when he lost awareness.

"You were channeling more magic energy than you could handle. If Twilight hadn't done whatever it was she did with her own magic...she said you might have destroyed yourself with the excess." The earth pony summarized. "Still...Zer..."

The guilt returned to Corey as memories of the battle came rushing back to him. He'd done only marginally more than the others at his side. Plus, when he considered what the alicorn was to him, it only made him feel worse.

"Yeah...they need to know..." The green unicorn said, trying to stand again. He wobbled dangerously on  his four legs as he attempted. "They all need to know the truth..."

"The others are waiting." Ivan said. "Since I know who Zer is too, it'd only be fair for me to help you out here."

"Where are we...?" the green unicorn asked.

"Canterlot Castle," responded Ivan. "I don't know if Princess Celestia ever sleeps, but we seem to have caught her while she was awake when you and Twilight warped us in..."

"Other than John, did everyone else escape serious injury?" Corey asked.

"Why don't you come see for yourself?" asked the former human turned earth pony. "Let's get this over with..."

"Alright..." The green unicorn said, shakily following his friend's lead.

Act 2 Chapter 9

Act II: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 9: The Truth Comes Out

Corey wasn't sure what to do any more. First, Leo sent the whole Skype group to Equestria, where dangers were far more prevalent than they were back home. Second, pretty much every former human wound up paired up with a member of the Mane 6, in relationships ranging from low-key, like Ivan's, to painfully awkward, like his own. Then there was the break-in. Now, this whole mess with Zer...The truth had to come out.

He and Ivan entered a large room. It appeared to be some sort of private chamber, complete with a window that lead to a balcony. The window was open. The room was large enough to house the mares, colts, and dragons that occupied it. And, to his added anxiety, both of the princesses were there, studying the scene before them with very serious looks on their faces, not at all the affable expressions they'd worn when he'd accidentally teleported himself in not too long ago.

The others seemed fine, for the most part. Leo and Dash looked a little bruised, and Rarity was still trying to style her mane back to its normal luster with a little help from Spike. The others seemed to be crowded around John, who was more or less fully covered in bandages. The former human turned dragon appeared to be at least conscious.

"Oh, thank God..." Corey whispered to himself, seeing that, aside from John, none of the others involved in the fight were seriously hurt. The guilt was momentarily lifted from his shoulders, but he knew he had a monumental task ahead of him, particularly when Twilight noticed him and Ivan entering the room.

"Corey!" she gasped, immediately trotting up to him as fast as possible. The Princesses turned their heads to regard the new arrival, and their expressions momentarily softened, but he could feel the underlying suspiscions. "You're awake!"

"Yeah..." He responded, not sure what emotion to put forth. "Still a little sore, though..."

She looked at him with a stern look, and the former human felt his tongue hit the back of his throat. Her face soon softened again, but Corey continued to hold his breath, more nervous than ever.

"Please, don't ever use that much magic at once again until you can better control it!" Twilight scolded, though she was clearly more worried than angry with him. "If I hadn't..."

"I'm sorry...I'm sorry...I made you worry..." The green unicorn fidgeted, becoming tormented with his emotions again. They usually flew out of control whenever he was stressed, and right now, his stress was at its peak. "I know..." His voice was coming out at a lot higher pitch than he was intending, almost like a whimper. He didn't know what else to do-this entire situation was completely alien to him.

"Corey..." Twilight said, apparently at a loss for his behavior once again. "It's alright..."

"If you want, we could tell them the truth another time..." Ivan cut in. Corey shook his head.

"No. I said it before. They need to know everything now..." He gazed past Twilight, over to the Princesses.

"I only told them what just happened. After what you said about Zer, though, they decided to stay to make sure things didn't get out of control." Twilight cut in. "'Not in the flesh'...what does that mean?"

With a heavy sigh, disheartened at what he would have to do, Corey stepped forward.

"You'll find out, Twilight, but the truth is going to be even harder to believe than the first truth..." The green unicorn responded, trying to keep his voice and demeanor calm. His mind was racing, and he could already feel his heart pounding as he stepped forward, not even sure where to go. "I talk to the Princesses, right...?"

"Yes," The purple mare answered, seemingly surprised that he would ask such a question.

"Just had to make sure before I made a mistake..." Corey responded, his hooves feeling made of lead the more he stepped forward. Even with Ivan backing him up on this one, it was all Corey could do to take deep breaths and count the tiles.

Once they find out about who Zer is....what will happen to me...and the others...?

As soon as he saw hooves of white and dark blue, he looked up. He took a deep breath.

"W-we're...ready..." the former human stuttered, his nerves at complete overload.

Rainbow Dash knew one thing, that last battle was strange. First, Corey and Ivan both look like they were ready to jump out of their fur at any given moment. Then, when the green unicorn and Twilight both got chucked, everypony sprang into action in their own ways. Yet, all of them couldn't stop him. The cyan mare gave a quiet snarl as she thought about what Zer had done.

Next time I meet that pony, I swear I'm gonna--!

"My little ponies," Princess Celestia broke in, cutting off the pegasus's internal thoughts on the matter. Her voice was stern, but given the matter at hand, it wasn't so surprising. "There is something important that Corey and Ivan have to tell you..."

Only now did Rainbow fully notice that Corey looked completely nervous. In fact, he looked green...well, even greener than normal. He looked like he was going to be physically ill, but what was it about Zer that made him and Ivan act the way they did?

All of a sudden, the mare's doubts about the four newcomers began to surface again. But why? They'd just proven they weren't against them, so why...?

"Alright..." The green colt spoke up, at first, barely above a whisper, but he seemed to find only a small amount of confidence in himself, enough so that he could speak up. He seemed to be staring out into space behind the group, but before Rainbow could ask why he was spacing out, Corey continued to speak. "Something's got to be said right now. If any of what just happened is to make any level of sense, it's time for some truth."

Rainbow Dash felt like she'd just been kicked square in the solar plexus. What was this pony hiding and why did he look so...guilty?

"Truth?" Applejack asked. "Is this about that 'fifth' Twi was just talkin' about when she reported to the Princesses?"

Corey hesitated to speak, and Pinkie piped in with her own two cents.

"Are there four others out there as bad as that guy?" Now Rainbow noticed that both Corey and Ivan looked nervous about that statement. Corey ran a hoof over his face, appearing to fight to maintain what little composure he had.

"Girls, please let him explain!" Twilight seemed eager to hear this too. The room fell quiet, and Twilight gave Corey a nod. The pony in question breathed out, and started to speak, though some of his vigor was gone.

"What I have to say isn't easy for me to say right now given the situation, but..." The green unicorn stopped looking towards the back of the room and took a deep breath. "We may look the part, Leo, John, Ivan, and me, we may look the part, but we're not from here. We're not even from this universe. Normally, we'd be...humans..."

Again, Rainbow felt the wind was knocked out of her. She didn't quite hear what her friends had to say, though Applejack turned to John, who could barely even nod given his condition. Pinkie seemed to be looking at Ivan, while Rainbow mentally recalled something she had almost forgotten.

So...when they first got here...! She wasn't sure whether to express the anger she felt at being lied to all this time or to remain silent. It was such an unbelievable story that Dash didn't even want to believe it. Yet, the behaviors of Leo and Corey in particular on the first day now really stuck out in her memory. Corey didn't use magic...because he couldn't...? And Leo couldn't fly because...he really couldn't...?!

"D-did you see that coming?" Pinkie seemed to be copying Corey's tactic of staring off into space with that remark. She'd done this before, but Rainbow had no idea why she did. Speaking of the chubby pony--no, former human, he looked at Pinkie like she'd just sprouted a pair of wings for a few seconds. He shook his head to clear whatever clouds had passed into his vision.

"So then...how did you get here?" Rarity asked. Ivan took over while Corey took some time to recover. Rainbow just now noticed he still looked guilty, like a foal that had gotten caught with his hoof in the cookie jar, only even sadder.

"Why don't you ask..." Ivan responded, hesitating for a second. "Leo, over there? He's the one that sent us the code, after all."

Leo snapped to attention, apparently in a trance-like state up until this point. Rainbow didn't get why, her mind too preoccupied with the truth of the four newcomers. Of course, the fact that Leo was the reason why they'd come here was just another object on the fire.

"I got my codes mixed up..." said Leo. "Got us all sent here..."

"'Codes'?" Applejack asked. Everypony except for Twilight and the Princesses seemed confused by this. Rainbow was honestly confused as to why they weren't. Did they already know? And if so, why didn't Twilight tell her? It would have saved her just a little bit of wondering about Leo in the long run-would have explained some of his and his friends' strange behaviors!

"I-I'd better explain, Ivan," Corey was once again barely audible, but he seemed to be struggling to find the words he needed. The cyan mare felt like she wanted to say something, but she couldn't, transfixed by the flood of truth. "You see...in the human world, we have devices known as computers."

Rainbow Dash's first instinct was to tune out the human's technobabble on the subject. Though she'd never seen a "computer" in her lifetime, the fact Corey was able to at least sound the way he did when talking about them definitely did make him comparable to Twilight. All she really got out of most of what he said was that he'd never seen his fellow humans until this happened; due to the invention of a computer, it was possible to communicate with one another.

"So, that's how the four of us are here..." Corey finished.

"It does go a way toward explainin' some things," said Applejack, "but then, what about Zer?"

"Is he human as well?" Rarity asked.

"No..." The green unicorn's guilt suddenly returned full force. "No, he's not...if you thought us being humans was hard to believe...this will make that seem completely believable by comparison. I can't even believe how he escaped my head..."

What...? Rainbow was almost sure she didn't hear him correctly, but given the looks of everyone save for Ivan, it was a surprise indeed.

"I...I do a lot of writing back home. It's one of my favorite hobbies..." The former human was once again staring at the wall, trying to focus on some spot. He was clearly talking to all of them, given the volume of his voice. "Zer...shouldn't even be here. He's...he's...he's a character I made up for one of my stories. I wrote it two years ago."

The entire room fell silent, save for the gasps.

"That's why we went into shock," Ivan continued, Corey suddenly appearing to find the floor very interesting. "Neither of us could believe that he was actually here. As for how I know about Zer...I read the story in question."

"So that's...that's how you knew him?!" Twilight screamed in shock. To say Corey flinched was an understatement. He was flat on his rump from how she'd said it. Rainbow's mind suddenly raced. No one was contradicting him, and Applejack didn't seem to be calling him out on either of their behaviors either. Which meant...he was being truthful about it.

Noel could not believe what he'd just heard. He knew of Corey's writing, and was vaguely aware of some of his projects from two years ago considering they also had some influence on other projects. But Zer was from one of them? The former human could see why his friend would go into shock like that. The silver pegasus surveyed the room. The Princesses appeared to be quietly taking what just happened into consideration, and John seemed equally confused (not that Leo could see most of his face from the angle he was at). The mares all had varying looks of surprise etched onto their faces, but none of them seemed to doubt what Corey was saying.

"That's correct..." Corey said. "I'm sorry...I'm sorry for everything. From the very beginning, I wasn't sure if we could be believed. But after what just happened, everything needed to come out."

The pegasus colt felt his ear twitch. Just a moment later, he could see Rainbow with clear anger in her features. Far before anyone could notice or stop her from doing so, she made a beeline for where Corey was, hovering in his face.

"So, you brought that thing here?!" If it were possible to experience a sort of vicarious deja vu, the former human was definitely having a moment like that now. Leo remembered how Rainbow Dash had acted upon seeing Twilight's knowledge of Nightmare Moon, how she'd accused her of being a spy. It was the exact same thing, only the character was male and had far less of a backbone to show. Corey flinched, his ears folding completely down in a manner similar to Ivan. The earth pony in question, meanwhile, looked over to Rainbow Dash, annoyance clear in his features.

"I-I--" It was hard to watch him flounder about in the face of the angered cyan mare. No one seemed to know what to do about her anger, though.

"You endangered my friends!" She shifted the blame onto him, and Corey visibly shrunk, almost like a turtle retracting into its shell.

"Rainbow, wha--" Twilight was confused. Dash turned her fury onto Twilight for a split second, before shaking her head slightly. But the mare was far from done. Now, she turned to Leo next, but the look was just as harsh as the one she'd given Corey. She was in his face.

"And you...you're the reason that it's here in the first place!" Now the blame was also on him for it. Noel couldn't say anything, paralyzed as though he were suffering a near-death experience. "You gave it the way here! I..." She appeared to be conflicted with her inner emotions for a moment. "I trusted you!!"

"Rainbow, that's enough!" Twilight said sternly. The cyan mare's red-violet eyes trembled for just a few seconds, before she huffed and flew out the window.

To say that Corey felt like utter shit was a huge understatement. He felt like he had eaten some poison fruit and needed to throw it up, but his body wouldn't allow him to do so. He was utterly at war with trying to keep his emotions under wraps, at least until the others' questions were over, and losing. Rainbow Dash pretty much putting the blame on him for the whole mess didn't make things any easier, even when he considered it shouldn't have been surprising. When she'd yelled at Leo, it took all the words right out of the former human's mouth, leaving him utterly speechless.

The room fell completely silent. Not even the Princesses knew what to say, and the former human feared the worst from them. He feared all those fanfics of Princess Celestia being some tyrant were completely true, even though said fear was irrational to have, and he knew it was an irrational fear.

But nothing could have prepared Corey for the storm to come. After staring at the receding trail Dash left behind for what seemed like forever, Noel turned to the unicorn, his red eyes betraying fury. His wings shot open, and he rushed him.

"This is all your fault!!" he screamed, rushing straight at him.

"W-wha..." Corey was at a loss. He shrunk further, falling down on his stomach, utterly consumed with his emotions. Now Leo was blaming him too?!

"It's not his fault this happened, Noel, and you know it," Ivan said, stepping in front of him. "Back off."

Corey couldn't see anything. He could feel the water already starting to leak from his eyes from the stress the event was causing him, as well as the guilt of the whole event weighing down on him. In the face of this event, he was starting to emotionally regress, and he couldn't stop himself. He heard the sound of somepony flying off, but Corey didn't care who anymore.

Damn it...damn it...damn it...everything's falling apart...!

No...no...no!

I won't have it!!!

Twilight's mind was whirling faster than it had when the humans had first actually announced they were humans. So not only were the four former humans from another world, Corey's hobby had spiraled wildly out of control and spawned the fifth visitor. It was out of left field, even given all that had happened since the former humans' arrival. Yet, it did go a long way in explaining things, and why Leo and John didn't have the same reaction to Zer as Ivan and Corey did.

The earth pony cast a disgusted look after the pegasus.

"He's the one who lost his temper and mixed up his codes that badly..." It was a rare sight, Ivan showing any sign of emotion aside from the occasional happy-go-lucky surges he'd display, usually when he was about to let loose a joke or some other things. But he was clearly disgusted. "How was he to know--"

"I won't have it..." The voice sounded like a mumble more than anything. Corey, who had been almost in the fetal position, got back to his feet, and Twilight was disturbed by the expression on his face. His eyes were bloodshot, though one could see the tears still freely leaking from them. "I can't let him run loose!"

"Corey, what are you--" Ivan started, but Corey wasn't hearing, already running past him.

"Zer is my responsibility! I can't...I can't let him roam!"

There was a collective gasp as the others realized what he was about to do. Twilight's eyes closed, rapidly extending her telekinetic hold to him. Her horn glowed its usual magenta color, and within moments, the escaping former human's movement was halted completely. She opened her eyes to see him still moving relentlessly against her hold. She didn't know what to do right away. Right now, he was acting like the sort of foal that was likely drowning himself unnecessarily in guilt. Or had been drowned unnecessarily in guilt. Either way, the mare could only stare at the former human as he continued to struggle.

"Corey...don't be stupid..." John weakly groaned, trying to force himself up to a sitting position.

"Let me go...!" He was trying to keep his emotions veiled, but much like when he'd tried masking his fear right before Zer showed up, it was failing miserably. In the past six days, if Corey was trying to hide his emotions, he'd never gotten it completely down. It was that trait that tipped her off to the greater problem in the first place. "I can't just let it be like this...!"

Twilight felt something boil within her. She didn't know if it was frustration or care, but she felt she had to say something.

"Corey, please, listen--"

"T-Twilight," Whatever fragile shield he'd had up around his already disturbed emotional state began to shudder along with his speech pattern as he turned to her, still enveloped in her levitation spell. Twilight was starting to feel the strain. "It is my fault." Twilight looked up. "I created that thing!"

The purple unicorn sighed to herself. So he really was bathing in his own guilt ever since Zer announced his name. She began to levitate him down, but just as he was about to turn away from her and take off again, she reached out and pulled him in close. He shivered so violently that Twilight felt shivers rake through her own body just from contact, but she continued to hug him.

"Only Leo and Rainbow are really blaming you for it..." She blinked, realizing she may have spoken too soon. She turned to the princesses, wondering what they had to say about all these recent revelations. All eyes immediately turned to the princesses.

"Twilight is right," the sun princess said sternly. She felt the former human tremble at this, "But I can say this; Zer's release is a catastrophe not even you could have saw coming when you'd created him all those years ago. Leo, or...Noel..."

"He prefers Leo," Corey almost robotically said, almost out of left field. Were it not for the fact that his voice still subtly wavered as though he were about to break down, Twilight would have released him then and there in confusion.

"Leo could not have possibly seen this coming either," Princess Celestia continued. However, it was her sister who took over.

"As my sister said, none of you humans could have possibly seen this coming, any of this, let alone..." Princess Luna paused, as though trying to find the right words. "a character you created for your own story run amok in a different world with you, let alone an evil one."

"You can rest assured," The white alicorn's mouth curled up just enough that whoever looked upon it would know it was a smile. "That neither of us harbor ill-will toward you, or your friends, for this accident."

Corey shook violently again, and was either trying to argue why he should have been punished, or offer his thanks for the condolences. Whatever he was saying was too garbled and quiet for Twilight to make out, even given the fact he was pretty much at the nape of her neck when he was. She could feel he had taken comfort somewhat in the statements.

"Can't say I believe this is happenin'," This was Applejack, finally able to speak. "You were all strange when you first came in...but if you'd really meant us harm, you'd have already done so by now!" She threw a not-too-subtle glance to John.

"That is correct," Rarity said, having finally at least restored her mane and tail back to their normal curls. "Were it not for the way you'd acted these past days, as well as in that skirmish just now, I would have reacted almost the same way as Rainbow did following that reveleation of yours."

"Sometimes, things just get out of your control!" Pinkie squealed. "There's nothin' wrong with that! Not everything that gets out of control is hopeless, though! We know that better than most ponies in Equestria!"

"I-I'm...sure of it," Fluttershy stuttered. "If you'd meant us any harm, you wouldn't have gone through the trouble of actually fighting off that alicorn with us. And...and I'm p-positive Rainbow will eventually see it the same way w-we do..."

"See, Corey?" Twilight finally said. "We're not blaming you for what happened. Can I say I wish Zer had never been created? Yes. But what you write is part of who you are, and how could you have known any of this would have happened?"

Corey couldn't say anything in response straight away. He was shaking, and since he was resting his head on the nape of her neck, Twilight could just feel his jaw starting to quiver.

"I-I...I never imagined..." he choked out. Twilight could feel something warm soaking her where his head was resting, and given how he was trembling, it wouldn't be too long before he was overcome by emotion.

"What did you say to me after the break-in?" she asked. "You wanted 'to be able to help me if I needed it'..."

Corey didn't say anything, but his head tilted.

"Corey, I can tell you this now," Twilight continued. "Now that everything's sorted out, we're all going to stand by you, human, pony..." She looked at Spike, who seemed almost insulted, and corrected herself, "or dragon!" She dropped into a whisper. "And I'm going to help you if you need it, just like you said you would for me..."

Corey's entire body quivered. He couldn't hold himself back upon hearing that. He was trying his hardest to not sob, but when his tears started to pour, he started making weird grunting noises, as though he didn't like the idea of just breaking down on the spot in front of everypony. Yet he couldn't help himself, and Twilight felt her fur start to get soaked with his tears. She looked past him, to see some of the others looking toward the scene, while John seemed to be trying to look away awkwardly, and Spike, unsurprisingly, once more pulling a face on the matter.

"I guess that's settled..." John mumbled, still pointedly not looking toward Corey and Twilight. Either he was starting to get sick of seeing them like this, or it was the fact that his friend was trying his hardest to not cry and failing, producing sounds similiar to that of an animal. Not that Applejack could really blame either of the former humans for their reactions, of course. She'd never written anything, but if she'd created a character, then got transported to another world and--who was she kidding, the bottom line of it all was, she'd probably be plenty sorry too.

Not to the same extent that the green colt was, but it would still be humbling. Now that her mind was off everything, the orange mare tried to retrace what had happened during the fight itself. Zer was apparently very powerful, evidenced by the fact he'd learned all those spells in four days. They seemed basic enough, but used in combination like that...it was a wonder all of them managed to make it out mostly unharmed. Applejack didn't know why, but she'd had a nagging suspisicion that there was a lot more to Zer than just being a character, now that he was in the flesh and all.

"Ivan?" Applejack asked. The brown earth pony looked up.

"Yeah?" he asked, any evidence that he'd been angry over Leo's outburst gone.

"I'm no reader, that's Twilight's thing, but I know enough about stories to know that there's more to this than that." The farmer pony continued. "Since Corey's still...letting it all out over there..." She motioned to the still quaking colt, who by now had finally returned Twilight's hug after what seemed like a huge mental lag on his part. "and you've read that story, I've gotta know something..."

"Zer isn't even human like us," Ivan said, referring to his friends, "He's formless. The best way I can describe it is an energy being made of pure negative energy. Corey wrote him to be a buildup of all the negative energy of defeated villains."

Applejack blinked. That certainly sounded somewhat...convoluted, to say the least. But it did go somewhat of a way in explaining what he'd said during the fight.

"Well, see, Ivan," Applejack continued, "while ya'll were tryin' to snap Corey out of his shock, Zer said somethin'...interesting..."

Applejack could only feel her anger with Zer growing following the attack on Corey and Twilight. Ivan, Spike, and Fluttershy went immediately to assist them; Leo soon following. It was like he was some kind of monster, walling even a teenaged dragon's attacks with little trouble. And if it wasn't bad enough, when he was in the air, the alicorn was practically untouchable save for the very rare hit Rainbow managed to get in. From the start, the orange mare wanted to capture him, and thus began preparing another lasso.

"I wish my wings were full-grown!" John snarled, letting out torrents of smoke from his mouth out of his anger at not being able to fly up there himself. Applejack had almost forgotten the fact he'd had budding wings, but sure enough, his wings were just as stubby now as they were when he'd first arrived.

While Zer continued to be airborne, defending himself using magical bursts, he began to address the gathered ponies and dragons.

"You should be honored," the evil pony sneered, dodging yet another one of Rainbow Dash's charges via teleportation. "As soon as I get the stones, this world, and all others, shall finally be cleansed!"

"What are you talking about?!" Rainbow shouted in response, though Zer never answered with anything more than an ire-raising chuckle. The cyan mare charged once again, and the white alicorn of evil responded with a shockwave-causing spell, sending the tomboyish pony flying back once again.

This in turn, brought Leo back to the site of battle, and the fight continued exactly as the others remembered it.

"He said somethin' about 'stones', and 'cleansing', but I ain't got a clue as to what he was yammering on about," Applejack continued. "But now that I know what he was, what he said might make more sense."

Ivan blinked, his eyes widening. Were those "created" too...?

"If he's referring to what I think he's going to, we might have some hope, but if he knows they're here...!" The former human grunted, showing genuine emotion.

"Ivan, I've never seen you this excited!" Pinkie popped in, causing Ivan to jump only a little when she'd literally almost materialized right next to his side. "What about?"

"You'll see soon enough..." responded the brown earth pony, turning back to the unicorns, the male of whom had finally seemed to be pulling himself together. "Corey!"

"W-what...?" His tone indicated some embarrassment at having completely lost control of his emotions.

"Applejack just said Zer mentioned 'stones'!"

Corey blinked several times, turning completely around. It took him a few seconds to realize what the once-imaginary villain was referring to. As soon as he did, hope returned to his eyes...and then it soon left.

"And just like that...this whole mess got even more complicated..." Corey observed, drawing a forehoof over his face in an excessively tired manner.

Act 2 Chapter 10

Act II: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 10: The Stones...?

"You somehow released an evil character you created..." Twilight started, clearly confused. "How could this get any more complicated?"

Corey looked to Twilight, still somewhat ashamed he'd allowed himself to break down like that in front of her and everyone else. He supposed he could come clean about the "stones" as well, given they too were his creation, coming from the same story as Zer himself.

"Well, you see..." the former human began. "There's a little more to the story with Zer than what...what was previously stated. You see, earlier drafts of the same story weren't original enough by my standards. They'd borrowed a concept that I didn't make, so I opted to make my own concept in the final draft."

The room seemed to become more silent again, and once again the former human found himself having difficulty breathing.

"So, what Zer meant by 'stones'..." The purple unicorn said in response. "He was referring to something else you made from the same story he's from?"

"He's referring to a concept I made called the 'Dimensional Stones'." Corey continued. "There are five total, four of which represent an element: Earth, Water, Fire or Wind. In essence, their backstory is that each of the stones control time and space."

The others collectively winced, but they soon returned to normal.

"Is that to say he believes those things are here in Equestria?" Rarity asked.

"Exactly, but I don't know if they also came out or if it's because it's part of his character." The former human responded.

"A-and the fifth, stone...?" Fluttershy cut in, bringing Corey's attention back to the problem at hand.

"Right..." he responded. "The fifth one could be considered dangerous. Due to its non-elemental nature, I just called it the 'white stone'. However...its power makes it the most powerful of the stones...It's able to travel between dimensions, as well as summon things from other universes to you."

There was another collective wince, and once again, the former human felt guilty.

"So..." Twilight started, "So he was referring to those." She noticed the way he acted again, and immediately moved forward again. "Corey, we don't even know if those are even here, and if they are...we just have to find them..."

Corey sighed. He supposed it was payback for him trying to keep her spirits up when she was stressing out over the sun princess's visit on the second day. Now that he was the one stressing out--

He pushed a forehoof into his face again.

C'mon, keep it together. I'm sure this announcement hasn't changed anything...

"That's right, but...after Zer's gotten out, anything's possible." The former human summarized his thoughts on the manner. "I still don't understand how it happened to begin with."

"Perhaps..." Twilight appeared to go deep into thought, and began mumbling to herself about different theories as they popped up. Finally, she seemed to settle on the one that seemed the most logical. "Perhaps the wormhole created by that code had such energy that when you changed bodies, it allowed your imagination to literally run wild. Somehow, a villain you'd created was given a physical form and was launched in with you."

"That..." Corey started. "...that sounds..."

"It's only a theory," Twilght's face fell slightly.

"No, I mean, it sounds like it makes sense. I mean, this whole thing's far-fetched to begin with, never mind this whole bit with Zer. Like I said, anything's possible." The green unicorn responded again. Now the purple unicorn's face bunched up in a way that Corey found adorable again, yet he had a good feeling where she was going with that.

"You're going to be up all night, aren't you?" The human-turned-pony asked of his...girlfriend, marefriend, whichever she preferred.

"...Maybe..." Twilight responded. "If anything about this is going to make sense..."

Corey sighed. "Well, I guess I'd better stay up with you too..."

The sun princess couldn't quite withhold a giggle, and as soon as Corey heard it, whatever tension he'd had about the whole situation eased; for the most part. At the very least, he didn't feel like he was about to be royally judged on the grounds of unintentionally bringing dangerous things into the dimension.

"You two really have gotten close over the past few days," she remarked.

"Sister," Luna's voice suggested concern, "shouldn't we be worrying about whether or not the human's brain has spawned those magical objects, too?"

"I'm sure that something will turn up, but you are right, sister." Celestia said. "We should start watching out for those. But first, I believe that our unexpected audience must return home."

Though he couldn't lie about the fact that he was relieved he wasn't about to be prosecuted on the grounds of bringing something dangerous into Equestria (possibly twice over), Corey felt the need to question it anyway.

"Are--" The question was already out, so he reluctantly finished it. "Are you sure we can be so calm about all this?"

Princess Celestia fixed him with a stern look, and Corey instinctively tensed up and held his breath. His lungs began to burn already, and he was trying his hardest to not pass out.

Nice going, jackass!

As soon as the stern look broke, the white alicorn's mouth began to move again: "Don't worry about it so much... You're starting to sound like my student..."

Corey blew out an exhale so fast he became lightheaded.

Trolled again...

The others, save for Twilight, laughed openly at this. The laughter did quite a bit for Corey's tension, though. It confirmed that, perhaps it was at least somewhat of a good idea to take it easy. He'd already had it confirmed that he had no reason to feel guilty, nor did he need to beat himself up over it any further.

"Oh, ow, ow...ow..." John groaned, stopping his laughter. "I still hurt all over..."

"I should be able to fix that..." said the white alicorn, shifting back into her fully benevolent mode, not showing any signs of being the same pony that had essentially teased him twice. It was refreshing, sure, to see she could still be somewhat patient even at a time like this, but it really made him wonder what her limits were. Her horn lit up a golden color, and soon, John's more or less inert body was lifted in the same glow. "This won't take too long..."

Immediately after she made this observation, the body of the dragon began to sparkle slightly. Corey bit back the urge to reference a certain book series pertaining to vampires, since, knowing his tendency to stick his hoof in his mouth, he'd only upset Twilight if he did so. The black and blue dragon's bandages almost seemed to melt away, along with that nasty bruise that he'd incurred earlier on. A few moments later, the dragon was back on his two feet, wobbling a little as he was released from the grip of the alicorn.

John seemed to feel great about it, proceeding to crack a few joints that made any of his bone cracks sound tame by comparison. The others collectively winced, and even Applejack rubbed at her neck out of sympathy.

"Please, John, refrain from doing that again," Rarity scolded.

"W-what about R-rainbow...? And Leo?" Fluttershy asked, bringing the group's attention to an unaddressed problem.

"I...wouldn't worry about them too much," said Applejack. "Sure, Rainbow sometimes gets really judgmental an' all, but she'll come around."

The former humans all didn't look convinced. Twilight and Fluttershy also seemed worried.

"But Leo's not gonna be so easy to find!" Pinkie finally spoke up again. It had seemed so odd to have her mostly quiet for so long, but hearing her pipe in was almost a relief, even if she had a chronic case of sugar rush. "I mean, he fought a manticore and lost! He could be doing anything right now!"

The room fell silent, and Corey felt his heart sink a little.

Even if Dash isn't that reckless... the green unicorn thought. Damn it, Noel, don't kill yourself over this!

Rainbow Dash didn't know what to do. Finding out Leo and company were humans was a shock, but that alone didn't shake her up as much as it should have. The bigger shock, and what had her so shaken, was the fact that Corey had created the very monster that had put everyone in danger, and the fact Leo gave it the path to send here.

She knew she was tougher than this, but it didn't matter. The barrier that she'd worked so hard to put around her more tender emotions had fractured under the pressure of the moment. The mare had trusted them, especially Leo, and look what had happened!

She should have guessed...she should have guessed...

Tears stung her eyes as she finally made it home. She threw the door open, not caring if the cloud in question was knocked clear off its hinges or not, and made her way to the bedroom. She needed a place to vent her emotions, and fast. But looking at her bed only served to remind her of how much she'd trusted him.

I let him sleep here! The anger stung, but all it did was fuel her mirth more. Rainbow collapsed onto her stomach. What did it matter if the others managed to track her down or not? Her barriers finally gave way, and she uttered a choked sob in a feeble attempt to hold some part of her composure intact. She didn't know or care about the effects of pegasus tears and clouds, so she let the response to the events come.

"Why...?" She asked herself over and over again. Nothing about this was adding up at all. But before she could chase those thoughts and try to make sense of the situation, there was an all-too familiar male voice breaking into her thoughts.

"D-Dash...?" This was, as luck would have it, Leo. He sounded disturbed, almost as if he'd been through some emotional trauma.

Not that Rainbow could pick up on whether or not it was genuine. Not even caring if she was still leaking, she immediately leapt onto her feet, and followed her basest instinct in the situation.

"What do you want?!" Her voice wavered, but her anger was just as clear as it had been back in the royal castle. "Haven't you already done enough?!"

Leo flinched, but didn't back off.

"Dash, please, listen..." His voice sounded calm.

"Do you think you can fool me again?" It was driving her insane, just listening to him. "You can't! You already did once!" She stepped forward, ready to throw him out like a bad piece of trash, but something in her was preventing her from doing it. It was just like when Twilight had first showed up, only the situation was worse; namely, Nightmare Moon was about eternal night; this "Zer" seemed to be out for destruction.

"D-Dash..." Rainbow glared up at him, preparing to lay into him for trying to appeal to false pity, when she saw something in his red eyes she didn't notice the first time she'd looked at him. They weren't gleaming like normal. In fact, they were bloodshot, almost as if he'd been...

"Leo...?" She asked, not quite believing it herself. The loyalty she'd had to her pony friends was still driving her judgment, but slowly, logic was beginning to break through that barrier. "W-were you...?"

The silver colt looked away, seeming to try and gather himself. Rainbow took a few steps forward, clearly not believing it. Yet, when the shoulders of the pony before her began to quake along with the rest of his body, the cyan mare knew she'd messed up, big time.

In that terrible moment, Noel had sincerely believed he'd lost everything that made Equestria preferable to Earth. After almost attacking the terrified-looking Corey, he'd flown about, trying desperately to lose the steam that had built up inside of him. He'd only found the path that the two, along with Ivan, had landed on. They'd realized they were ponies in Equestria. He unconsciously found himself retracing the steps the trio had taken to get to Ponyville. By chance, he'd flown by the library on his roundabout path, and remembered when he'd "saved" John from falling.

All of the memories of those events, however, did little to massage his true concern. It was the cyan mare who seemed ready to take him down for real. Not like the spar they'd had earlier; no, she was aiming to finish him off now, either emotionally or physically. More than likely, what would come next would be an accusation of crying crocodile tears and a forceful eviction.

Leo could not handle that. He knew he would not have been able to. His wings flapped, and he started making a break for it. Perhaps he'd hunt down that manticore again, and get himself stung. Without the others around, he would not survive it. But that was what he was going for in the first place.

He had just reached the very edge of the cloud platform that was the main part of Rainbow Dash's cloud castle home, and was just about to leap off and go do something extremely harmful to himself, when a strong set of teeth clamped down around his tail.

"Leo, stop!" This was Dash, holding him back. She dug her hooves firmly into the cloud.

"What?" Leo's reply came out with a lot more force than he'd expected. "Everyone hates me now, there's no need for me to stick around! I'm sure Corey's going to find his own way home!" Even as he said this, he'd had his doubts, given how utterly emotionally frail the fat former human seemed to be under pressure.

"I--" The look in the pegasus mare's eyes faltered, as though hesitant to say it. Noel found himself compelled to stay and listen. "I--I messed up."

Leo blinked, unsure if he heard her correctly.

"What?" the silver pegasus asked, continuing to unintentionally lubricate his eyeballs as he gaped.

"You heard me..." Rainbow lifted off, clearly unamused at the fact she'd had to admit she was wrong about the recent revelation. "I had no idea...I should have thought more about what was going on...ever since I first met you guys, I knew something was off, but I didn't think it'd be like this..."

"How could you have expected something like this to turn up?" Leo asked. "That was the exact same question we were asking ourselves when we first arrived."

"I know...it makes sense," Dash said. "But why didn't you say anything sooner about the human thing? Or Zer? It would have saved us some worrying!"

"We didn't know who it was until now, the 'fifth guy'," Leo continued, starting to relax only a little bit. "And...well, I...I wanted to, but Corey told us to keep quiet. Twilight and the Princesses knew, but I guess they didn't want panic."

"You listened to him?" Clearly, Rainbow didn't exactly trust Corey after that last revelation, or at least, that was the vibe the silver colt got from her.

"Hey, he's not--he didn't know this would happen..." Leo said. "You should have saw how sorry he looked before you flew into anger..."

Rainbow blinked, as though trying to recall various details about the way the green unicorn handled breaking the news to them. A light passed over her red-violet eyes, and the shape of her frown changed.

"Oh..." she said. Now she definitely looked sorry. An entirely different Rainbow Dash than the one that had launched those hurtful accusations at himself and Corey showed. "I-I didn't know...I'm sorry. I...I didn't mean it that way. It's just...my friends were in danger...and I...I...I..." She went back to the stuttering, almost awkward mare. Leo waited patiently.

"I hate stuttering!" She dashed forward, connecting her lips to his before he could react. A foreleg grabbed him, followed by another, pulling the two pegasi into a bipedal hovering position. It was here, the former human's mind screamed a very simple truth to him.

Kiss her back, stupid!

He followed her lead, recovering from the sudden shock of her apparently realizing that it wasn't exactly the former humans' fault that Zer got loose and wrecked stuff. It lasted twenty seconds, but it sure felt a lot longer. When they finally broke apart, Rainbow cracked a smirk, still holding him closer than he thought she would.

"How's that for an apology?" she asked. Leo smiled.

"Makes it hard to turn down," he responded. "I'm sorry, too, for what it's worth."

"Ah, don't worry about it..." Dash said, finally releasing her hold on him. "What can I say? I jumped to conclusions again...here, let's go inside."

"I hope the others aren't worried about us..." Leo responded, looking back towards the ground.

"Well, I don't know," The cyan mare said. "You were the one that tried fighting a manticore and lost..."

As if he needed to be reminded about the scar under the afflicted eye. The silver colt snorted, blushing as he followed the mare into her home. One thing was clear: She really did represent the Element of Loyalty very well.

"And, Leo?"

"Yeah, Dash?"

"...We're still not sleeping in the same bed!"

One thing lead to another. The others had managed to return to Ponyville via a much more controlled mass-teleportation spell, and each of them went their own seperate ways. Ivan and Pinkie left for the Sugarcube Corner. Spike, Twilight, and Corey returned to the library, but it seemed the mare had no intention of sleeping that night. Knowing her, everyone pretty much figured she'd be trying to investigate why things happened the way they did. Fluttershy and Rarity went back to their respective homes.

"Guess studyin' all night ain't your thing, huh?"

And John resolved to walk Applejack home.

"Yeah," the former human turned dragon observed. "Plus, him spending alone time with Twilight now would probably only do him good."

"What makes you say that?" Applejack asked.

"I haven't really known him personally enough to know for sure," John responded, "But a female touch is probably the best way there is to calm the nerves..." Given what the orange earth pony had been able to do for him when he was raging, it certainly made sense. The farmer could only nod in response, before her face pinched in concern.

"Aren't ya'll worried about Leo, too?" she questioned, turning to face him directly as they continued on the path.

"Everyone has their own ways of dealing with stress," responded the former human turned dragon calmly, keeping pace as he turned to the moon. "I may not know what he does to cope with it, but I just hope he doesn't do anything reckless." The memory of the manticore incident came rushing back to him, but John did not break his stride in the least.

"Well, then how do you deal with it?" the orange farmer mare said.

"Me? Heh," John responded, cracking a smile as he briefly turned to her, "I'm not stressed, really."

The pony's trot slowed in pace ever so slightly, "But...how can you not be stressed out, even a little, over what just happened to you?"

The memory of being struck by lightning filled his mind's eye now. He stood in front of the recently recovered Applejack and Rainbow Dash, and had taken a direct attack. By all accounts, he should have been--

"Yeah, that hurt...a lot," John responded in a serious tone. He smiled again and looked back to Applejack, whose pace seemed to have slowed a little more. "But now I can say I survived being struck by lightning!"

The reaction he got was not at all what he was looking for. Applejack's hoofsteps came to a dead halt. John walked about five steps more before realizing this fact, and turned to her. Her head was lowered, hiding her eyes.

"How can you even joke about that?!" She stomped her forehoof on the ground, looking up to him now with clear anger in her eyes. "If Corey and Twi hadn't--you could...you could have--" She quickly appeared to lose steam, her head lowering back to the ground. Though it was hard to tell, her body quaked, and a moment later, a silvery shine made its way to the dirt below. It was obvious to John she was crying now, and he frowned.

He immediately felt horrible about being the cause for her emotional disturbance, and immediately went to correct it. He closed the distance between them, kneeling so he could be on her eye level.

"Applejack, I'm sorry," It was barely a whisper. "Nearly getting killed is no laughing matter, but it's my way of showing I'm just fine." Humor had always assisted his own stress relief in the past. And so far, it seemed to be working. The orange mare didn't look at him, but it was obvious she was less upset.

"But how--how can you treat it like nothin', sugarcube?" Applejack asked. John reached out, slowly, with one clawed hand, and cupped her chin in his hands. The fur was soft. For a moment, he'd considered scratching her back, but decided against it. He lifted her head up as gently as he could until she was looking directly into his eyes.

"Because I got to protect you..." He flashed a much more tame smile compared to the one he'd shown just a few moments ago trying to make light of his near-death experience to drive his point home. Applejack's eyes widened, and they seemed to glisten with fresh emotion. She blinked, and smiled to him.

"Yeah, well, don't count on me needin' it all the time," she said. John dropped his hand so that she could move her head freely. "I can take care of myself."

"I wouldn't imagine you'd always be in need..." John said, finally standing up. The two continued onward without many more words between them until they got to Applejack's home.

"So, what are you going to do now?" asked the mare to the dragon.

"I'll probably get back to the library later. I guess I'll take a walk for a bit first," John responded.

"See ya tomorrow then," Applejack said, quietly shutting the door behind her. The dragon sighed his own "see ya" in response.

He turned around, and began walking. He wasn't taking a random path; the former human knew exactly where he was going. It was the same path that he, Rarity, and Spike had taken to the area where John had recovered the gigantic diamond. After getting there, there was something off about the former human turned dragon's tone.

"Alright, this place should be good enough..." John said. His breathing, which had been slow and even during his walk with Applejack, began to quicken, and he visibly started to sweat. Though he'd been able to play off the fact he'd almost died so well, he was unable to hide it any longer.

His body may have been extra-durable and draconic, but inside, his heart and mind were still human. The dragon went down on all fours, his heart racing as he hyperventilated. He tried to calm the storm inside. No smoke came out of his mouth yet, for he did not feel rage, only pure stress from the near-death experience. Eventually, his breathing evened out enough so he could stand.

"I need to let this out...now..."

The dragon proceeded to go to town on nearby rocks, just as he had after Rainbow Dash and Leo had pissed him off following that funny little "prank" that involved dropping pebbles on his head. It was the day he'd almost died, but he secretly vowed to never be that close to death again. He had classes to finish up once he got back home, after all.

The walk back to Sugarcube Corner was done in a surprising amount of silence. Pinkie hadn't said much on the trip home, which was strange to Ivan. Usually, she was incredibly talkative. Even though he did prefer the silence, his concern far outweighed the fact the silence was more suitable following all those revelations. He turned to the pink pony on his left, and began to speak.

"Pinkie, you're not speaking a whole lot," Ivan responded. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, Ivan, don't you worry your little--" She halted, realizing where she was going. "Don't you worry your, um, uh..." Inexplicably, the chatty mare was at a loss for words.

"You can use the word 'tall' in this case, Pinkie," Ivan said. Now that he thought about it, how did he wind up being the smallest of the former humans turned ponies? He was only in his mid-teens, and he was tall for his age, standing at almost six feet. He still had time to grow, too, so what was the deal?

"Don't you worry your tall human head, Ivan, I'm not mad about it..." There was a different emotion entirely in those cyan eyes. "I'm just, thinking, is all...I feel like I should have seen this coming! I think my Pinkie Sense might have been 'off' that day!"

There that term was again. She hadn't explained it at all, but the others seemed to be concerned when she had mentioned it.

"I have to ask...what is 'Pinkie Sense'?"

This question got the mare back into full-on bubbly mode again. She began running down a laundry list of all her known twitches, spasms, and jerks, and had been able to remember what each combination meant. There was one for opening doors, one for falling objects, one for just about any kind of common catastrophe a pony or person could imagine.

The talk about her condition had reminded Ivan that in all the commotion, he hadn't quite figured out what his own sense was. By the time she had finished her list, however, the two ponies were already at Sugarcube Corner, and were quietly making their way to Pinkie's room. Only after they entered did Ivan finally get a chance to get a word in.

"But if you know I'm human," Ivan didn't really like having to say it now, "you have to know what might happen after all this is over..."

"I do know," the natural-born pony said, almost too simply for her. She had a serious look on her face despite the rather sappy smile that had almost always occupied it. "I know you're all gonna have to go back to where you came from and probably never come back...but..."

Ivan took a step forward.

"But with you around, it makes everything super-de-duperly fun!" Pinkie continued, going off on one of her usual ramblings. "I had fun earlier when we had lunch! I've always found it fun to make you smile, sort of like when Rainbow Dash takes on a challenge that's a lot bigger than she is!"

The former human turned brown earth pony could not hold himself from smiling at all this information. If she was going to be so accepting of the prospect, why should he be a downer about it?

"I have a lot of fun, too, Pinkie." Ivan responded. "I guess we'd better go to bed, though. Otherwise we'll wake up the others here!"

"That's no fun..." The party pony continued, looking over behind her. "If we're quiet, I can show you what I do for a midnight snack!" Her cyan eyes glistened. Ivan knew with the amount of sugar in her usual preparations that he'd have trouble sleeping, but it was hard to say "no" to those eyes.

"Why not, Pinkie?" Ivan responded, "Why not?"

And once more, the former human was dragged around by one of his forehooves, a feat which should have been impossible. But then again, Pinkie was always the one running on toonforce...

Act 2 Chapter 11

Act II: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 11: A Shining Example

Ivan couldn't remember a time where he'd slept so well after eating a lot of sugar. Well, then again, Pinkie always seemed adept at sleeping it off. However, as they'd woken up early in the morning, something felt different. For one thing, he was actually fully awake before Pinkie decided to give him the usual wake-up call. In fact, he was already almost out of bed. The mare seemed...disappointed, yet happy at the same time.

"Uh, Pinkie, mind if I work at the counter for a while this morning?" Ivan asked. "Not that I don't like baking...just feel like being up front for a little bit today."

"'Kay, Ivan!" Pinkie chirped, leaving him to his devices, "I get next shift, though!"

Ivan looked after her, blinking for a few moments. With an internal shrug, he quickly resumed standing behind the counter, waiting for a customer to come in. It was still early in the morning, so business was a little slow. It was relatively normal, despite the cataclysm that had occurred just the night before. The brown earth pony was on the verge of dozing off into a relative state of boredom when there was a bit of a ruckus just outside. It sounded like something had just landed.

Ivan snapped awake, and noticed the few ponies lingering in the corner stopping to stare. Ivan followed their gazes to the front door, and wound up looking at a colt that seemed...somehow familiar. Yet, he did not recognize the character whatsoever.

The pony's fur coat was white, his mane and tail slicked downwards with multiple tones of blue in it, and judging from his horn he was a unicorn. However, that wasn't the weirdest thing. Were it not for the purple armor with golden trimming, Ivan wouldn't have seen the reason for so many heads to turn. The pony caught sight of him, his blue eyes showing all business...for a few moments, as though he'd just studied him. Eventually, the look in his eyes shifted, and he began to speak, with no evidence of hostility.

"Good morning," he greeted, just as though he weren't decked out in fancy-looking guard armor. "Mind if I buy some donuts for the road?"

"Shiny?!" Pinkie asked, suddenly bounding up to the counter next to Ivan. Were Ivan not used to this, it might have startled him, but he was startled all the same by the fact Pinkie seemed to know this pony.

"It's Shining, Pinkie," said the colt, "Just here for some donuts."

Shining? Ivan asked himself, Who is he? I don't remember this character at all from the show, nor do I remember him from any random discussion on Skype...but there's something about him that tells me I should know him somehow.

The former human remained silent as the purchase was completed.

"I'm heading down to the library now," announced Shining as he left the shop with a sack of donuts floating in a purple glow. As he exited the store, Ivan turned to Pinkie, who had only one thing to say.

"It's almost my turn, Ivaaan..."

"How..." Ivan started, a little unsure of how to proceed with his statement. "How do you know him?"

"Oh, that's easy, silly," Pinkie responded. "You see, this one day, me and the others were in the park, having a picnic, and..."

Corey could say he'd had fun staying up half the night with Twilight as she hoofed her way through the remaining reference guides that weren't stolen. However, he didn't know if he would have been lying or not about it, considering that the purple mare was diligently working on the project as though it were a high-level assignment. He found it strangely adorable how she got so worked up over exactly how Zer wound up getting out of his head during the dimensional jump.

Overall, though, if there was one thing that he could say about the little study session, it was that it was exhausting. He knew it was fun, but the human was never known for his study habits. As a matter of fact, he'd had a habit of attempting to coast over his schoolwork whenever possible, but for him, it did work out. However, he could at least bear the boredom that a study session like that caused for two reasons: one, Twilight; two, his resolve to stop Zer.

That was why he was struggling to awake so early in the morning. He had a job to carry out, and when he had something important to do, one of two things would happen. He would either manage to get up an hour before he set his alarm, or he would wake up automatically at a certain time in the morning regardless of how late he stayed up.

It didn't help that as he tried to convince himself that Twilight would forgive him if he happened to doze off again, given that she at least appeared to be sleeping, there was a knock at the door. Three quick taps. When neither one of them budged, the knocking repeated.

"Spike, could you go get that?" Twilight yawned, shifting about in place, knocking over a book that had been opened in front of her. "All night studying, and still no explanation as to how something you imagined became real..."

"I know," Corey responded, rubbing feverishly at his dry eyes with a forehoof to try and keep himself awake. "It could-couldn't be helped...I-I didn't even think something like that was..." A yawn interrupted his statement, and he couldn't finish it for several moments.

"There has to be an explanation," Twilight leapt to her feet, with just a little stumble. "You became a unicorn during the jump, and--" She stopped, apparently spotting somepony. Her eyes stared past him, and Corey forced himself to look.

There was a colt standing behind him, holding a small sack, and seeming happy to be there.

"Twily!" greeted the pony, and instantly Corey felt a small pang of jealous rage...and wanton discomfort. There was something about this situation that just felt...oddly familiar.

"B.B.B.F.F.!" Twilight called out, immediately moving past Corey and moving to greet the new unicorn in the home. The two shared a quick embrace. The green unicorn softly grunted to himself as he got to his hooves, slipping just a little as he got up.

"Up all night studying again?" asked the pony, "You haven't changed since I last heard from you."

"Well..." Twilight started, looking back towards Corey, "I had a little help this time..."

The former human felt unbearably awkward as the white unicorn--in armor, mind you, looked up to him, and seemed to be studying him intently. He felt like he was being judged, and he felt like he needed to move or say something. However, he wasn't completely sure if doing anything other than looking back into the pony's eyes was allowed. He'd never been in this situation before, and he wasn't sure how to react other than look like a deer caught in the headlights.

Eventually, the tension broke when the pony started to laugh. Like every other time there had been tension in the room.

"S-Shining!" Twilight stuttered.

"Sorry, Twily," Shining responded. "I couldn't resist."

Neither could the Princess... thought Corey to himself, sighing in relief.

"So, Corey, this is Shining Armor, my B.B.B.F.F." There Twilight was again, using that acronym that Corey couldn't decipher for the life of him.

"...And that means..." he responded, the repeated use of the letters "B" and "F" not helping his hyperactive imagination. And jealousy. Lots of that too.

"'Big Brother Best Friend Forever'?" Twilight asked. "Why does everypony have that reaction?"

Because if I had a brother, I wouldn't-- Corey interrupted himself, Brother?! Is thatwho I was staring down just now?! Her brother?!

Corey was far too worried about the fact he might have been seen as an enemy to consider anything else straight away.

"Hey, don't worry," Shining cut in. "I'm not gonna bite you..."

Corey took one look towards the colt, and the look in his eyes went from warm to cold.

"Unless you should happen to hurt my sister..." he said. "Then we're gonna have problems!"

If Corey wasn't awake before, he was now.

"Shining!" Twilight scolded again.

"Sorry, I really couldn't help myself..."

The morning was just like any other that Leo had experienced since first coming to Equestria and having Dash let him stay with her. After the chaos of last night, the former human hadn't expected her to be so forgiving, especially with all the revelations. She eventually did express forgiveness, but in her own way.

Now they were up to their usual routine: eat breakfast and fly around town. Though the former human did not really want to do that, Dash seemed to be pretty insistent on it.

"I wanna see exactly what you did when we were all fightin' Zer," was her given reason, though Leo had a sneaking suspicion she also wanted a flying buddy. Whatever the case, the silver pegasus just couldn't turn her down as easily as he might have were the situation not so...surreal.

Now, the two pegasi were flying above Ponyville, in a very nondescript pattern. Rainbow seemed to be slowing down so that he could keep up, even if she wasn't really fond of being slow. Leo could tell from the strain in her eyes that it was a drag for her to go slow.

"It's not much farther now," she assured, looking back to him. "You know, Leo, sometimes I wish you could fly faster..."

"Hey, I wish I could too," Leo responded, "But nopony could fly near as fast as you..."

Dash turned back ahead, but the former human definitely caught her smile as she looked ahead. "Maybe, but still, beats goin' slow." After a few more seconds passed, she added. "Then again, I guess...whatever you did back there against...Zer, was awesome."

"Awesome enough to make up for my slow flight speed?"

"Hey, don't get your hopes up!" She yelled back, but Leo could have sworn he heard a "Maybe it does" under the mare's breath. The silver colt couldn't quite hold himself from smiling at this.

She tries to act like we didn't kiss last night, he thought to himself.

The two flew at their steady pace for another minute or two before Rainbow Dash touched down. The place they wound up in was a rocky mountainside not too far from Ponyville itself. In fact, it seemed pretty spacious, like a training ground straight from Dragonball or something like that. Leo himself found it hard to believe such a place could exist in a world of ponies, but he had to remind himself stranger things had happened...

As far as Equestria was concerned, anyway.

"Well, Leo, here we are!" she said. "I usually come here alone when I want to practice my stunts, away from everypony else. Only Fluttershy knows about this place, too!" She hovered in the air. "So what do you think? Think you can show me what you did against that...thing, now?"

"I guess, just as soon as I remember how I did it, Dash," Leo responded, looking around the area to find a good surface on which he could practice the attack. "I kinda did it off of instinct there."

Dash crossed her forehooves, adopting an impatient look. "Oh boy, waiting."

"Hey, you can't say you haven't done things off of instinct too!" Leo replied, looking over to the cyan mare with mock agitation in his features.

"Well, now I can perform a sonic rainboom with little trouble at all!" The mare huffed defensively, advancing toward Leo. Yet, despite this reaction, the human could tell at least part of her was acting this way because she wanted to. However, her ego was still playing somewhat of a role in her reaction. "What about that...air pressure...thing, huh?"

"I...just did it last night..." Leo responded. "But here, I'll see if I can do it again, just for you..."

As Leo closed his eyes in silent meditation, the former human had to marvel at just how much he'd changed over the course of the past week. When he'd first come here, he was doing his own thing. Granted, even then, he'd been with Rainbow Dash. However, as the days passed, he felt like he was opening up more and more to not just the mare, but the group as a collective whole. He would have never dreamed this would have happened back on Earth.

It was truly a change to behold, something that he just couldn't overlook as pure coincidence.

"Hey, hurry it up, would ya?!" Dash called out to him, sounding a little less impatient. "I want to see you get this down in no time flat! The others are probably worried about us, y'know!"

Not with a personality like that being at the helm of his change...

John never got back to Ponyville. He'd completely exhausted himself through relieving his stress the night before. Several rocks had been pounded into rubble, and the nearby mountain had a large crack at the base. Well, large compared to the average pony, anyway. The mountain wasn't going to crumble any time soon, even with the damage John had managed to do.

He woke up, and after releasing another flaming yawn, began to make his way back to Ponyville. He hadn't dreamt of anything, which the former human was grateful for. The last thing he wanted was to be plagued with nightmares of his almost dying.

Of course, after all that had happened the night prior, the set-up date, the fight with Zer, and of course his skipping town the last night, he had gotten himself hungry. However, by some luck, some of the rocks he'd pounded to dust contained gems, which he was now eating as he slowly lumbered back to civilization.

"Every single color has a different flavor," John recalled as he munched on what many back home would consider valuable. "Good thing I found these. I was so hungry I could eat--"

The words broke off in his mouth and he immediately regretted even saying that to himself out loud. He stopped dead in his tracks.

"Note to self: be more careful about what I say out loud," said the former human to himself. All the time back on Earth, he would often joke about "eating a horse", the turn of phrase humans often used to describe hunger. Here, however, "It might really offend somepony...and I'm a dragon too...so..."

Shaking that off, John continued to walk back to town.

I wonder how Corey and Leo are handling the fallout too well... The dragon thought to himself. Corey was about two seconds away from being spat at by Rainbow Dash, and Leo...

He tried to banish any thought about the silver pegasus repeating his manticore stunt. Not to mention he didn't quite know what Corey did overnight, but he at least had someone to fall back on after that unexpected event.

The sound of movement filled John's ears, and instinctively, he growled and tensed up. He turned toward the movement, prepared for anything to come out at him. Eventually, though, a flock of three birds flew out from the nearby bushes. After seeing the cause for his concern, he sighed in relief.

"And here I was getting worried..." he laughed it off, proceeding slowly back to Ponyville. "Even so...I wonder what happened while I was out?"

Corey had gone out onto one of the library balconies as per Twilight's request. Initially, he had eaten breakfast alongside the siblings and Spike, but for some reason, the purple mare had insisted he give the two some room to talk about things. After some pondering on the matter, he decided to let it go and walked out on the balcony to overlook Ponyville.

As he was alone, he had plenty of time to think to himself on quite a few things. Most prevalent along his thoughts was his own relationship with his older sister back home. She'd helped him through some pretty hard times in his life, probably the hardest time he'd ever had to deal with. His family had been close to dissolving right in front of him over a critical issue.

Yet, by some miracle, the family had stayed together and had remained together to the present day. If his sister hadn't been around to help him through that difficult time, he might not have been the same Corey. He might have been so bitter and so angry that no one would have put up with him, not even those that were usually lenient whenever his emotions spiraled slightly away from his control.

Twilight's relationship with her older brother had gotten him thinking about his family. He wasn't going to lie, he was homesick. Yet, the mare made being caught in another world tolerable. If he'd had the opportunity to make it so that Leo hadn't gotten them stuck here...Corey honestly wasn't sure if he'd take it.

However, his mind shifted to something else again, and he looked out over Ponyville, guilt and anger once more welling up inside him. He'd unleashed a beast upon this world, one that wouldn't hesitate to take a life if he knew that there was a threat to his plans out there. Zer was out there, likely plotting to do something. And, if the Dimensional Stones were indeed out there, then the world he was in was likely to be under siege before long.

He couldn't well have that. The green unicorn colt quietly snarled to himself as he recalled how much use he was during the fight, as well as Rainbow's harsh words to him on the matter. Even if she hadn't been thinking clearly out of anger, it still affected him. The only thing that he'd done was teleport away, and even then, Twilight had to intervene because he could not control that spell.

"Next time, I will be more useful," thought the boy aloud to himself. "I'm not going to stand by again and let bad things happen to those that are important to me."

The sound of the door opening behind him didn't startle him too much. The voice, however, since he had just met him today, did.

"Corey?"

Corey felt a chill go up his spine, if only because Shining Armor was still very unfamiliar. However, he knew he was addressed, so he turned to the white colt, who still had his royal armor on.

As it turned out, Twilight's brother was actually the captain of the Royal Guards. In other words, he might have already been aware of him due to his teleportation mishap the day before. The former human suddenly found himself imagining one of the lower-rank guards reporting to him about a chubby green unicorn who sucked at magic yet seemed to know the princess.

Of course, he found it both insulting and refreshing to know that as the head of the Royal Guards, Shining would have likely laughed the incident off as a blunder. Especially now that he knew the truth--

"Yeah?" Corey finally asked, realizing he was getting too caught up in his introspection over recent events. "What is it, Shining?" The pause between his first statement and the second statement, for some reason, felt disrespectful.

"Well, Twiley and me were in there, talking about things that happened recently," Shining finally said, almost all light-heartedness absent from his speech. "Anypony who blames the four of you for this 'Zer' getting out is just looking to blame somepony, I can say that right now."

The green unicorn resisted the urge to sigh in relief. For some reason, he was dreading where this was going, but why? The captain of the Royal Guards didn't blame him, the princesses didn't blame him, nopony save for an angry Rainbow Dash blamed him, so why was he suddenly so nervous?

"I...kinda gathered that," responded Corey again.

"Well..." Shining took a deep breath. "Okay, here's basically what she asked me to do: she asked me to train you..."

Corey blinked. "And...you accepted?"

"I told her she'd never forgive me if you got yourself hurt..." Shining said, slightly uneasily. "By your expression, you're guessing what you're in for..."

The green unicorn sighed, "Well, back home, every country has a military force too, and they go through some intense stuff. I guess it's the same here, too?"

"Well, I'm not going to give you the same training I received..." the white unicorn said. "She asked me to teach you any offensive spells I could..."

"Oh..." Corey responded. "So then...when does it start?"

Act 2 Chapter 12

Act II: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 12: Private Practice

Corey wasn't entirely convinced he could pull this off. Of course, that was his thoughts on magic in general, but he learned all his other spells like one of the unicorns of Equestria. But now he was going to learn spells from somepony who was probably just as attuned to certain kinds of magic as Twilight. Shining Armor was her brother, after all.

The two were now on the outskirts of town, not quite the Everfree Forest but not quite Ponyville either. Corey was totally awake and alert now, and was idly shifting about in place, trying his hardest to hold still while waiting for Shining to do something.

"Okay, so," Shining started, causing Corey to flinch out of reflex, "...Twilight said she taught you a few spells, right?"

"Y-yeah..." Corey stuttered. "Levitation, laser, and shield. That's all I know so far..."

Shining rubbed at his chin. He obviously hadn't trained someone quite like Corey before. He remained silent, obviously trying to think. He lowered his hoof after a few moments.

"So, how's your aim?"

If this were his own world and he wasn't talking to his girlfriend's elder brother, he might have delved straight into toilet humor without hesitation. However, since neither condition was met, Corey opted to be honest.

"Oh, I can hit my targets...long as I see them..." Corey said, "Of course...it still takes me a bit to control my magic so I can actually fire it..." Since he wasn't talking to Twilight, Corey became overly self-conscious, "That, and the only moving target I hit was because he was still right in front of me.."

" 'He'...?"

"Let's just say John takes 'helping his friends' too far..." Corey spat.

"Anyway, what you're talking about, it's common," Shining refocused, "I had just as much trouble at first, you know. You just need to get a feel for it..." He looked around on the ground, looking around. His horn lit up a purplish color, and several small rocks began to levitate around, eventually forming a circle on the right. Corey turned towards the revolving rocks.

"What are you waiting for?" Shining asked. "Go on, try to hit one..."

Corey took a deep breath. At least the test itself seemed simple enough. However, executing the task in front of him would be a different matter; this much he knew. He focused magic into his horn, knowing he needed to keep his eye on the target.

...Let's see... Corey thought to himself, looking to the targets. Video games, don't fail me now...

He let loose the blast, soaring towards one of the moving pebbles. The green magic surge soared towards the rocks, but it slid between the two pebbles.

"...Missed..."

"You came close, though..." Shining said, "You sure you haven't done this before?"

If Corey were more in his element, he might have thought Shining was saying video games were training tools. However, since he wasn't there, he passed over it. "Positive..."

"Just try again. The tricky part: focusing enough on the spell to make sure it does what you want. Following the movements is the easy part once you know what to do..."

Do you know how long I've been a unicorn, Shining?! "Okay."

Magic surged forth into Corey's horn again, and he began to try to divide his focus between maintaining the magic surge and keeping an eye on his targets. For the former human, it was a simple task complicated by his lack of experience with unicorn magic. For the captain, Corey assumed, it was a simple training exercise and nothing more.

Twilight Sparkle had taken the time while her brother and coltfriend were out for the latter's practice to get caught up on her studies. She had something coming up in a few months, and she knew she needed to learn every spell she could before it came along.

"Here!" Spike grunted, setting down an inordinate amount of books next to her. "You sure you need all these books, Twilight?"

"Of course, Spike!" Twilight said, "I need to take this time to catch up on my studies while I still can!"

"...I don't think taking a few days off your studies would hurt..."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Spike slammed his claws over it. Twilight turned to Spike, her studious nature now in full effect.

"I still have a test to worry about! Even though things are different and we have unexpected guests..." Twilight began, "I...I've been falling behind!"

Images of the worst naturally flooded her mind. Even though Princess Celestia had made it perfectly clear she wasn't going to send Twilight back to Magic Kindergarten even if she hypnotized an entire town trying to avoid that fate, she still couldn't help but fretting. Twilight was never one to settle for anything lower than an A. Even an A-minus would force Twilight to drop everything and panic just a little bit.

She couldn't take a poor grade as the princess's tutor.

"Besides...I-I'm sure they'll understand..." Twilight said, opening up a book. "I need to learn some new spells for the test, and I think I know which one to start with..."

John had made his way back to Ponyville ever since that morning. He was taking his time getting back to the town, just in case the aftershocks of his near death experience lingered. After all, it was the experience that had him leaving the town late at night to blow off all the steam from that experience. After foraging for diamonds in the mountain range he'd wound up in, he began his long walk. With a toss into the air and a catch in the mouth, he devoured the breakfast. Once again, he had to wonder how diamonds had their own unique flavors. It seemed to vary by color...

Alright, I know I've been here before, he thought to himself, looking around. But I can't tell. All the trees here more or less look the same to me. They don't have apples so I didn't wander into the orchards...

The dragon's ears picked up on the sounds of a gurgling brook not too far off. John realized that he needed to get something to drink, so he followed the sounds well enough until he reached it. The former human never had a reason to drink from a flowing river since...well, he never went camping and had no reason due to the fact both humans and ponies had indoor plumbing. However, now that he was in a foreign body, he was well past not seeing the harm. Dragons struck him as feral creatures anyway.

After taking a long refreshing drink from the surprisingly clean brook, John found himself hearing the sounds of movement nearby, and he immediately tensed up. His tension relaxed a little, however, when he saw who it was.

It was Fluttershy, eyes closed, humming quietly to herself, walking along the brook. Only now did John realize exactly where he was. Somehow, by pure dumb luck, the former human had wound up here again. And Fluttershy was deathly scared of dragons, John knew, especially ones any bigger than Spike.

...Not this again... he thought to himself. John tried to move quietly away from the scene, not wanting to disturb Fluttershy again. He knew full well she'd freak out again and hide from him. He could understand phobias well enough, but the fact he was the trigger made him feel even worse. He tried to watch his footing, hoping to quietly elude Fluttershy's area before she saw him again.

However, luck never worked out the way John wanted it to. No matter how careful he was to move away, the talons on his foot scratched very audibly on a nearby tree root. John froze and turned, hoping Fluttershy did not hear him. However, she had stopped dead in her tracks, ceased humming, and now turned straight toward the source of the noise. The instant the two met eyes, John fully expected the mare to run away.

However, Fluttershy only seemed to step back a few steps in fear, not at all like the last time they'd met.

"Oh, it's just you..." John could still detect the fear in her voice. She was trying to keep herself rooted to the spot this time, however.

"Um...hello," John blinked, rooting himself to the spot, afraid if he made even the slightest movement, he'd scare the pegasus half to death. "I'm sorry if I scared you."

"It's okay...it's..." Fluttershy trailed off, apparently not sure if she should continue her statement. John wasn't about to try and get her to finish her statement, glad enough to just have her talking to him without needing to hide behind the nearest shrub. John didn't even bother to get closer, afraid if he did, she would once again hide from him and lose all the progress made here.

"Are you...still afraid of me?" John asked, feeling like he needed confirmation on this.

"A-a little," Fluttershy admitted. "B-but...after what happened last night, after what you did to protect my friends, I know you're...you're not like the other dragons..."

John finally smiled. Fluttershy was trusting the human inside rather than the dragon outside. It made his near death experience worth it. Of course, he didn't want to convey this to anyone. He could see just about any of the others lecturing him about it.

"Thanks, that made my day," John responded with a nod. Fluttershy smiled very slightly--he could barely tell from the distance he was at. "Well, I'd better catch up with my friends...I'll see you around."

John finally waved goodbye. Now that he knew where he was, it was a simple matter of getting back to Ponyville. Briefly, he wondered if any of the others even noticed he was gone...

"Alright! Aim, fire!"

Corey took the cue almost immediately, the rocks spinning even faster now. However, by this time, he'd been able to adjust to the training regiments. His reaction time had been helped by video games. The closest thing he could relate to "shoot the spinning rocks" would be trying to beat games on their highest difficulty as fast as possible. He had to aim fast, shoot faster, and most of all, stay alert. Using his magic like this was tiring mentally and physically since he still wasn't used to undergoing strenuous activity, but he wasn't about to give in now, not if it would help him be a bit more useful the next time Zer showed up.

Green laser blasts surged forth from his horn, connecting with rocks two times out of three. By the time the test ended, the ring of rocks had reduced to several rocks orbiting a point. Corey looked at his handiwork, trying not to give in to his urge to breathe heavily.

"You're really getting good at this!" Shining cheered, dropping the remaining pebbles. "You alright?"

"Of course..." Corey tried to keep himself from giving away the fact he was running a bit low on stamina. "What's next?"

Shining blinked, before chuckling lightly to himself, "She did say the two of you were similar..."

Corey brushed aside the comment, trying to focus on whatever the royal guardspony had up his sleeve. Or whatever ponies said instead of "sleeve".

"Alright then..." Shining said. "Let's see...Alright, I think I can teach you a spell."

A new spell? Azure thought to himself. From...the captain of the Royal Guard?

"Don't worry, it isn't overly complicated," The white unicorn continued. "Here, watch this..."

The unicorn turned to the nearest tree. He looked up and down, "What do you think? Think there's any animals in this one?"

Corey looked at the tree Shining was looking at. He couldn't see any animals using it for a home. It was a dying tree. Some of the bark was peeling off. The only wildlife the former human could see inhabiting that tree consisted of small insects, ranging from termites to bees.

"Don't think that'll be an issue," Corey said. "The tree's half-dead..."

"Okay, good," Shining took a few steps back, still facing the tree. "Don't want to upset Fluttershy while I'm in town...I hear she can get a little vicious when her friends are threatened..."

Corey remembered very well how Fluttershy managed to save Leo from being killed by the manticore. She hadn't so much as lifted a hoof. She'd simply yelled at it like it was some kind of child and gave it the evil eye. And it worked.

"Now watch..."

Shining's horn lit up, just like any other spell. Corey watched, wondering what Shining was going to do to that tree. As he continued to observe, he noticed something about the glow on Shining's horn. It looked less like a glow. In fact, as Corey began to focus on that detail, it looked less and less like a magical glow and more like--

A high-pressure stream of water, like that shot out of a firehose, ripped forth from the horn, and hit the dead tree, sending wood flying everywhere from the sheer force of the water hitting the soft surface. A few seconds passed, and Shining ceased the spell, the water stopping just as quickly as it started.

"...That was a basic water spell..." Shining finally said. "I haven't exactly found a use for it other than putting out fires, but I'm sure somepony's found a use for it somewhere else..."

Corey looked to the disturbed tree again, "I...see. So that's what you're going to...to teach me?"

"That's right..." Shining responded with a nod, "So, let's start small, with the very, very basics of the water spell. Once you know those, you should be able to figure out to do what I just did."

Magic is used similarly to Ki, Corey resolved, In that it can be shaped to the user's will and whatnot...Well, especially considering I'm a unicorn...

"Alright," Corey closed his eyes, and began generally focusing magic to his horn, preparing to do as instructed.

"It's really not too hard. Rather than forcing the magic out, let it flow out like a river," Shining advised. "One step at a time..."

Corey continued to keep his eyes closed, trying to do as he advised. He relaxed, trying to picture a running faucet. The tip of his horn was where the water would come out, and the valve was a little hard to work with. The magic began to flow forward...

Truthfully, Shining didn't expect Corey to get anywhere on his first try. He watched the green glow around the horn flicker and slow, just like it usually did during an application of the water spell. However, the flickering was sporadic, and the glow speed wasn't stable: one moment it was normal, the next, it was faster than normal, and the moment after that, it was slower.

"Flow, not force," he commented again.

Corey didn't even seem to be listening, his focus entirely on controlling the magic in front of him. However, Shining could see now a glaring problem with his pupil's current status.

Is he already tired from all that before? he asked himself, seeing the beads of sweat on either side of the green blob's horn and on his face. I guess it makes sense. He hasn't been a unicorn long...

Shining's brow creased. When training with a group, he usually adopted a much harsher way of training, similar to how he was trained. However, in one-on-one situations, he could try to tailor-make the situation to his pupil's liking. He hadn't been nearly as harsh with Corey as he was with some others on his team.

He wanted to test Corey's limits. An idea crossed into his psyche, and he sighed. It was definitely something he should try, given what was going on between Twilight and him. It only slightly bothered him that Corey wasn't a pony by nature, but Shining figured he'd get over it quick if Corey was a decent colt...guy...thing by heart. So far, he was living up to that standard.

He walked over to the still-focusing colt, whose condition hadn't changed too much. He was still pretty confident the former human wouldn't be able to manage a heavy pressure yet, so he walked up to Corey.

"Corey..." He stated, "I'm pretty sure you can do better than that..." When that alone failed to get a response, Shining finished his statement, "...boy, oh boy, Twiley'd be disappointed if she found out you couldn't get this one down--"

A spray of water hit him dead in-between the eyes. It wasn't high-pressure, but it definitely was more than he expected, and he had to take a step back out of reflex.

Well that worked... Shining thought, shaking his head to clear away the droplets, A little too well...

Corey's eyes remained closed, but it was clear the remark had gotten to him. "I know I'm not guard material, but--!"

"Easy there," Shining said, "I was just messing around..."

Corey remained silent, completely unaware he'd somehow pulled off the spell. He sighed and shook his head, no doubt trying to clear the hot air that had invaded his mind. He opened his eyes.

"...Did I do it?"

"I was standing in your face..." Shining noted aloud. "But I guess I shouldn't be in your line of fire when it comes to my little sister..."

"Uh..." Corey's face reddened slightly.

"But," Shining quickly shifted back into "trainer" mode, "If you think you can take it, try doing the spell one more time! This time, try not to hit me with it!"

Corey stumbled about in place, caught off-guard by the sudden change. "O-okay!"

He closed his eyes, and began to focus his magic into his horn once again. The white unicorn colt watched him intently, waiting to see if he'd repeat the same results he'd shown with the spell.

It wasn't that Leo didn't think he could do it. It was just not helping that Rainbow would pop in after every stunt to see if he'd made any progress on doing his trick on cue. Leo was doing his best to remember what exactly had happened when he attacked Zer that time so he could replicate his feat on cue.

I know I had thought about Dim Mak... retraced Leo mentally. That means I have to focus energy into a point. But I'm no unicorn, I shouldn't be able to do as Corey does...

He glanced to his forehoof, then to his target. But still...instead of focusing on Zer's pressure points...due to all the Dragonball Z I've watched, was I subconsciously thinking about--

"Leo!"

The former human snapped his head up again. Sure enough, there was Rainbow Dash, once again checking on his progress.

"You got it yet?"

"...I think I'm close..." Leo responded. He prepared to strike his target: a large boulder. He would either accidentally push it off the edge, or...

Focus the energy to the end of the hoof...not into the target...

Leo continued forth, this new idea in mind...

Act 2 Chapter 13

Act II: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 13: A Rude Surprise

"Alright, try to spray the tree like I did!" Shining called out.

Corey couldn't feel part of his forehead by this point. He'd definitely used more magic than his human mind could process. He was still trying not to show his fatigue, but he was pretty sure Twilight's older brother had caught on midway through his second attempt. After they took twenty minutes to let Corey's head relax from the magic training, Shining was once again drilling him on both the laser spell and the newly-learned water spell.

The green unicorn concentrated as hard as he could on the water spell. At first, he managed to picture something akin to a low-pressure water gun, and have that be the basis for his learning of the spell. However, as he continued to work on it, he was able to increase the pressure bit by bit. Corey planted his hooves, facing the tree, his horn lighting up bright green.

The glow changed to the same flowing effect Shining's horn had when he used the spell; within a few moments, Corey was spraying the tree. It didn't make nearly as much of an impression as Shining's water spell, but it definitely left a mark on the decayed tree.

"You're getting better!" Shining said.

Corey's left eye half closed. His head was already hurting again, and he was seriously hoping for a break to come up again.

"Now..." The captain continued, "Let's see if you can hit a moving target!"

The former human breathed out a tired sigh, and prepared again.

"Already got another magic headache?" Shining asked, obviously seeing the expression of pain on Corey's face. It wasn't that hard to miss given Corey's lack of tolerance.

"Ye--" Corey began.

"Well it's like physical exercise, the more you do, the easier it becomes..." Shining trailed off, and Corey could have sworn he heard the unicorn say "to a certain degree" as he did.

Well...I guess he does have a point... the former human thought, sighing again, But jeez is it hard to focus on magic when you have a headache...

Corey breathed out, and tried to block out his growing headache as the next task began, trying to keep in mind it would get easier the more he did it.

Minutes turned into hours as Twilight continued her studies in the absence of her brother and coltfriend. She'd managed to learn about several spells she felt would be on the test, including one about altering the gravity on herself so she could fall a long way without hurting herself, or float above the ground temporarily. There were some other spells she picked up on and would need to put into practice as soon as possible. The test was a short five months away and she needed all the time she could.

As morning gave way to afternoon, however, the unicorn's study time was interrupted. There was a knock at the door, and Twilight, in study mode, did what came naturally to her.

"Spike, could you get the door?" she asked, not even bothering to remove her eyes from her book. Right now, her eyes were firmly locked on the entry. The instant the door opened, however...

"Twiley, we're back!" The voice of her older brother greeted her. The fact she still hardly got to see him these days won out over her studiousness after a few seconds, and after inserting a piece of parchment into the book, went down to greet the duo.

I think it can wait a little...

She was greeted by the sight of her brother, and a rather tired-looking Corey. Upon catching sight of her, Corey looked up, one eye half-closed in fatigue. He tried to smile--Twilight was pretty sure he was, and said, "Hey, Twilight..."

The unicorn mare could only show concern, "Is he alright?"

"Just has a really bad magic headache," Shining assessed. "He doesn't have a lot of tolerance built up, but he seemed to want to keep going even when he started to feel one coming on."

Twilight looked from her brother, and back to Corey, who looked away sheepishly upon her looking at him a second time after that announcement.

"Anyway...I thought it was time to take a break and thought you'd want to come along..." said Shining in response.

"I've...I've got to go see Rarity about something, anyway. Maybe we can go there too?" Twilight questioned quickly, trying to hide her sudden...pride, was it--at Corey's determination. It really was sort of like looking in a mirror sometimes when she looked at him.

After Shining left, the day at Sugarcube Corner settled back into a somewhat normal pattern. Pinkie and Ivan took turns at the register and in the back. Pinkie had noticed that Ivan was slowly beginning to doze off again, and took it upon herself to try and snap him to attentiveness in any way that she could. Randomly singing, popping out of anywhere she could that Ivan wouldn't expect her to--at one point even popping out of the register herself much to the surprise of the patrons...anything she could do to keep him awake.

However, this time would be different.

"Ivaan! It's my turn in the back!" Pinkie chirped, skipping into the kitchen as casually as ever. However, when Ivan failed to respond, she instantly thought to herself how he must have fallen asleep. "Sleepy pony...or human...I still don't know what to say! Gotta figure it out!"

Pinkie was not so caught up in her monologue to zip to Ivan's side. Sure enough, he was asleep, passed out right next to one of the ovens, just like when she first met him, hind end raised high in the air, forelegs dragging the ground, chin on the floor. She mimicked the pose.

"Ivan, you gotta get up, it's your turn..."

Ivan didn't so much as stir. Pinkie had a sudden feeling of deja vu.

"Ivan?"

Once again, Ivan found himself in a dreamlike state. Something inside his pony body had felt...off, and he felt like he had to fall asleep as soon as possible. Sure enough, he was now back in his human body, floating above the pony world. Or rather, Ponyville.

"This again?" Ivan wondered aloud to himself, remembering his first experience with this. "Last time..."

The last time he had passed out and wound up like this, Leo had nearly gotten himself killed. Ivan wasn't one to assume the worst out of something, so he gradually floated along. Life in Ponyville seemed to be pretty normal, the sun was out, the skies were mostly clear, and the ponies in the town seemed to be enjoying the day. Yet, even though everything was warm, Ivan couldn't ignore the fact he felt like he needed a winter coat. Even though it was clear immediately around him, he felt like he was being immersed in snow and crushed ice from the shoulders down.

He couldn't figure out why, but he knew that feeling all too well.

Ivan floated around, unseen by ponies. Soon enough, however, he caught sight of that pony from before, Twilight's brother, with Twilight herself and Corey. Corey looked slightly tired, and Twilight seemed to be concerned for him. The two were heading in the direction of Rarity's shop, but for what reason, Ivan couldn't figure out. And with every step the two took, Ivan felt the icy feeling increase.

"What is this...?" Ivan thought to himself, incredibly intriguied. If this was indeed true, the human had to wonder what this was? Was it simple precognition, or something more? Or was it just an extremely vivid dream?

The sounds of a snarl echoing through Ivan's senses caused the human's spirit to jump.

Corey was just beginning to get over the pounding headache that had plagued him for what felt like days. The former human felt relieved to see the training was over for the moment, but he knew the worst of the captain's training was likely still to come. The siblings talked while Corey lumbered along slightly behind the two, speaking only when addressed so he could concentrate on making his headache pain go away. For the most part, though, Corey floated in and out while they discussed what happened since Shining's wedding.

Apparently, Shining had gotten married to Twilight's foalsitter, who just so happened to be Princess Celestia's niece and the princess of love. And, during that, Cadence, as she was called, was replaced with the queen of the Changelings. Not the ones from Dragonball Z, as Corey quickly found out (thankfully, via eavesdropping and not asking a stupid question), but a race of shape-shifting insectoids. They had intended to feed off the love that was in Canterlot, and had nearly succeeded before Cadence managed to break Chrysalis's influence over Shining and assisted him in sending all the Changelings flying into the distance.

It was unclear of their fate, but they had been blown far, far from Ponyville, so they weren't liable to attac--

"Hm?!" Shining asked, upon hearing a loud thud in the distance. He stopped dead in his tracks, and though Corey couldn't see his expression, he could tell the captain had been alerted by something.

"What's happened?" Corey asked, almost afraid to ask. The last thing he wanted was to be irrepairably drained of emotion.

"I don't know..." Shining said, "But I definitely just heard something..."

Corey's ear twitched as he picked up on this, and he began looking around, in every direction. Just as he heard some ponies scream in terror, another, more important scream came from Twilight herself.

"Corey, behind you!"

Corey turned, just in time to see a grayish-brown fist rushing right for him. He gasped sharply, and a few moments later, found himself several feet away, staring at what had just assaulted him from a different angle. Somewhere deep down, Corey knew he had spontaneously teleported in response to the danger, but he couldn't praise himself for it.

Gorilla-shaped dogmen...what else could Corey say about them; that's what they looked like. And they were all wearing the same silvery armor. Some were going bare-handed, others carried lances. It took a while, but considering he had watched Season 1 out of order to see a certain episode in terms of research, he realized what these creatures actually were.

"The Diamond Dogs?!" Twilight exclaimed in surprise, just a split-second after Corey started thinking it.

"Who?" Shining asked, saving Corey the trouble.

"We've run into them before," Twilight said, "But...I thought Rarity whined the greed out of them last time?! What are they doing in Ponyville?"

Corey's brow furrowed as his thoughts took over.

Could this have anything to do with--

He didn't have too long to ponder why the Diamond Dogs were here, however. The sounds of armor clanking around him, along with a "Get 'em, boys!" echoing above the streets, alerted Corey to what was about to happen, and Shining immediately prepared for a fight.

"Here they come!" Shining called out, his horn lighting up purple as he yanked one of the dogs' lances out of their hands and clubbed them over the head with the handle...

"Ivan! Wakie, wakie!"

Ivan immediately snapped back to his senses. He didn't like what he saw. If that was a real vision he just experienced, he knew that Twilight, Shining and Corey were probably in great danger. Even if it wasn't...it beat waiting on ponies.

"Pinkie...we've got a problem..." Ivan began, not quite sure how to phrase his vision. Somehow, though...

"Did you have a vision about our friends who were being attacked by weird doggie-gorillas who looked really mean and had armor on and you're worried if it's true or not?" Pinkie asked, in the most random and oddly specific way she could. Ivan blinked in utter disbelief. First the Pinkie sense, now this?

"Uh...yeah..." Ivan responded, utterly at a loss to describe what had just happened.

Random ponies stuck around and managed to help, but for the most part it was Corey, Twilight, and Shining against the inordinate amount of Diamond Dogs that were scattered throughout Ponyville. The unicorns together tried to push through. Corey levitated small stones and threw them at his opponent's, but he couldn't for the life of him hit them in any other place than the armor. Thankfully, though, his new physiology provided for him a decent amount of physical strength.

He managed to duck low entirely by reflex as one of his adversaries swung, and kicked him in the chest hard enough to make it stagger backward off balance and fall down. Definitely more than he expected out of himself in terms of strength. Concentrating hard, he managed to make the downed dog float, and with a strained effort, threw him into another's side hard enough to make both stagger off-balance.

Corey panted, the lack of rest he'd had already starting to get to him again. As far as he could tell, magic control was basically another muscle he had to build up over time, but it wouldn't build up if he kept using it.

"Corey, watch it!" Twilight cried out, currently tangled up with two Diamond Dogs.

Corey looked, just in time to nearly catch a hit from a club. Reflexively, he managed to get part of a shield up in time, but the attack easily smashed through his feeble defense and he still was sent off his hooves. To add to it, the sensation of the shield being so suddenly shattered left him dizzy, as though he had taken the full force of the hit anyway.

Meanwhile, Twilight managed to warp out of in-between the Diamond Dogs, leaving them to classically crash into one another. Shining busied himself with fending off the mob, all the training he'd had showing through very strongly. For him, a mob of gorilla-canines was no trouble at all. Twilight was fareing only slightly worse, but Corey had struggled his way through the crowd.

"Corey, are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Corey said, trying to act like this was the case, "Just...never been in this kind of situation before..."

"I wouldn't expect you to!" Twilight responded to his sentiments. "Just...keep doing what you've been doing...but don't try too hard..."

"I could kinda use a little help..." Shining cut in, "At this rate, we'll never get to Rarity's home."

He was casual about it, as though mob battles happened every day, and this was just a minor hindrance.

"Rarity..." Twilight's mind clicked into place. "They must be trying to get revenge, or something! They tried to have her work for them before, but....well, she managed to whine her way out of it."

"What's to say it won't work again?" Corey questioned, readying a water spell, envisioning pressure building up in a rubber hose.

"Maybe the fact they're attacking here in Ponyville?!" Twilight replied, causing Corey to flinch and lose control of the water spell, reducing the spraying hose to a dripping faucet. "They've got to be after Rarity's gem-finding spell! She did take all their gems last time!"

The trio of unicorns continued to budge through the large mob, avoiding some attacks just by running past the dogs and others by physically attacking. However, while Shining and Twilight were well-adjusted, Corey was still trying to keep up. He was already tired from the training earlier, and the fighting that was going on now wasn't helping any.

"We're almost there!" Twilight called out. "Hopefully they haven't gotten Rarity ye--"

A loud scream, terrified, pierced the unicorns' ears.

"That didn't sound good..." Shining said, gritting his teeth. Sure enough, two Diamond Dogs burst forth from a front window of the Carousel Boutique, one carrying Rarity...

And the other carrying a much smaller pony, a mere foal; white in color with a purple and pink curled mane.

"Let my sister go, you ruffians!" Rarity huffed, struggling against the grip of her adversaries.

"Still as whiny as ever..." commented the guard dog holding her, gritting his teeth as the hooves clipped his teeth. "Stop struggling!"

"Rarity! Hold on!" Twilight called out, "We're gonna help you out!"

"Come get her, if you can..." taunted the dogs holding the siblings, running off with them. The three unicorns began to charge, but several of the remaining armored canines immediately dropped in front of them. Shining casually knocked two aside with partial shields, knocking them back as though the shields were really boxing gloves, continuing the chase. Twilight tried to follow, but one of the remaining dogs began to move.

"Don't think so..."

Corey saw the assailant coming. Pure reflex caused him to grunt sharply and rush forward, managing to run full-speed into the side of the guard dog, causing him to stumble. However, his focus only shifted to the dazed Corey, and he picked up the former human by the head and casually tossed him aside. Corey bounced once, coming to rest against a storefront, writhing around in pain.

"Corey!" Twilight immediately began to rush to Corey's side, immediately after knocking away one of her remaining assailants.

"Hold it right there, little pony," he said, winding up an arm in a cocky manner.

"O-out of my way!" Twilight cried out, her horn glowing as she prepared to fight back. The Diamond Dog, however, wasn't going to move; and certainly not allowing her to finish the spell in time. The brute brought his paw down, but Twilight managed to move out of the way only to be tackled by another Diamond Dog while her guard was down. The Diamond Dog remained pinning her to the ground.

"Get off!" Twilight grunted, trying to shake off the Diamond Dog. It wasn't exactly going to work out, however. The Diamond Dog had at least five times her body weight and she wasn't exactly known for lifting large amounts of weight.

"Hold her down," commanded another Diamond Dog, dragging his club along behind him. "You know, you all had a lot of fight in you...And still do." The dog raised the club in one hand preparing to bring it down. "Let's fix that!"

"No!"

Twilight heard the voice, and the next thing she saw was a large green object leaping right at the Diamond Dog. His jaw clamped down on the dog's bicep, and the Dog grunted in pain. Corey threw his forelegs on the remainder of the wide arm, trying to keep his grip, even as his body and mind both screamed in protest. Corey wasn't sure if he could draw blood with his flat teeth, but he was nothing if not determined to keep them off.

"You little...!" The Diamond Dog shook his arm violently, but Corey was not going to let go. The boy continued to hold on for dear life. "Get off!!" Corey's jaw clamped down a little tighter as the armored canine flailed in pain. "...How's this then!"

The dog switched his aim, and Corey felt something crash down on his shoulder. Pain resonated within him. He was sure that nothing fractured or broke, but all the attack did was convince Corey to tighten his jaw. This time he was pretty sure he drew blood, and he didn't like the taste. The dog, meanwhile, didn't like the feel.

"Get...off!" This time, the dog switched hands, and bashed Corey square on the head, missing his horn by centimeters. This time, the hit was critical enough--Corey's consciousness lapsed for a brief instant, and his grip slackened horrifically. The dog quickly switched the club-holding hand again, and grabbed the pony that was on his arm and threw him to the ground in front of him. Though Corey was able to remain conscious, he wasn't in a position to do much of anything anymore.

"Corey!" Twilight screamed, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. She quit struggling, too stunned to continue.

"You were one annoying little bug, you know..." The Diamond Dog lightly put his foot on top of Corey's body, just enough to keep him from moving. Corey struggled, but realized he couldn't get out from underneath his opponent's foot. His horn glowed, but in his condition he didn't have time to react to what came next. "Why don't I show you what I do to bugs?"

The Diamond Dog guard raised his club, two hands holding on to the weapon, preparing to bring it down.

"No!" Twilight spoke up, "Please...don't hurt him!"

The Diamond Dogs around all stopped what they were doing, and the one holding the club stopped inches from the tip of Corey's horn. He turned toward Twilight.

"And what are you going to do about it?"

Twilight paused, "It's me you want, right...Please...Don't hurt him anymore...and I'll come with you quietly..."

"T-Twilight..." Corey groaned from the ground. "D-don't..."

Twilight ignored his statements, and the Diamond Dog lightened the press of his foot. Corey could move freely, but he was too stunned to move.

"Aw, isn't that cute, the mare saving her coltfriend's sorry hide..." The Diamond Dog derided the former human, which causing a laughing fit among the dogs around them. Corey did nothing, gritting his teeth, his entire body crying in pain, his mind crying in frustration. Once again, he was useless when Twilight and her friends needed him. Shining was occupied elsewhere; when he came back, he was going to be displeased for sure...

"Alright, you got yourself a deal..." The Diamond Dog removed his foot from Corey's side. "Take her in..."

The Diamond Dog that was holding Twilight down now lifted her casually off the ground. She did not resist. "Alright, we're done here, boys, let's head back to the mines..."

As the pack began to disperse, the Diamond Dog turned to the downed Corey, who was overall stunned at what had happened. He wasn't even moving, in total shock. He chuckled again. As soon as Twilight left his vision, he looked down.

"And if I were you, little pony, I wouldn't be getting any ideas..."

The dog's foot lifted, kicking the idle Corey off the ground and off to the side. He didn't even care that he might have just gotten a rib broken.

The former human's heart was far more damaged.

Shining Armor couldn't believe it. With all his training, he should have been able to track the huge, gorilla-like canines through the Everfree Forest and beyond. But a couple of dogs bought time. It wasn't until he heard Rarity's cries of terror that he guessed something was wrong. When he finally reached the source of the sounds, there were at least eight holes dug in the clearing, and it was impossible to determine which one was actually the route of escape.

He did, however, have an idea of where they were heading off to with their "prize". If his sister or her other friends could remember the path they took to the Diamond Mines, it'd be a simple matter to launch an offensive there and get Rarity and the foal back. With this in mind, he hurried back to Ponyville, barely winded from all the effort he'd used since the fight started.

"Twilight! Corey!" he called out, looking for them amid the aftermath of the fight. Windows were broken, some ponies were lightly injured from the brutality of the sudden attack, and there was an odd dog or two lying unconscious. If they had a new HQ, they'd be a viable source of information.

When he got back to where he left his sister and her coltfriend, however, he found only one. Corey lay on the side of the road, on his side, practically in the fetal position, his face hidden by his tail. He had some blood dripping down from the side of his head, and he had a mark on the right side of his ribs that looked more like a pawprint...

"Corey!" he rushed up to the injured pony. Corey only shivered in response, not even responding. "What happened?! Where's Twilight?"

The question forced Corey's face deeper into the green hairs of his tail. He mumbled something incoherent; Shining couldn't even hear what he said.

"Corey, what happened?" Shining used his magic to uncover Corey's hidden face...

And discovered the face of unparalleled sadness.

"Corey!"

Shining's head snapped over to his left. All of Twilight's friends and Corey's friends were arriving, all at once.

"Darn it!" Ivan snapped, for the first time showing any emotion other than neutrality or surprise, "We're too late..."

Shining looked back to Corey, who made no effort to conceal his face, but also no effort to stand. It was pretty obvious now what had happened to Twilight...

Notice: Cancelled

I am sorry to say, I have to cancel this story. I've simply forgotten what was going to happen, and even if I remembered, this version of the story just had too many problems to count. However, that said, I am in the process of totally reworking the lore. I'll leave this old version up, so that people can read it and the other one back to back.

I'm going to be working on the reboot to this at my own pace, so please be patient. And, once again, I am sorry that I couldn't finish this tale. However, the reboot should be far  better paced and written than this version. So, until then, stay tuned for Re: Collision Code, or read my other two stories on the site.