Inside her cottage, Fluttershy stood up tall, surrounded by animal friends. Rabbits, squirrels, racoons, birds, snakes and even Harry the bear all stood at attention, like soldiers standing before a drill sergeant. Fluttershy for her part, matched that archetype as best she could.

“Alright friends, I need your help. There’s a lost and scared creature that needs our help!” she held up a rough sketch of the human she was searching for. “This creature, a human according to Twilight, ran into the forest earlier today. The poor thing injured itself trying to run away, and is now lost, hurt and scared while roaming the Everfree forest!” the animals muttered and chirped to each other.

“I need your help locating them, but keep your distance! Especially you Harry! You might scare them!” Harry let out what appeared to be the bear version of an exasperated sigh before nodding.

“If you find the human, make sure somecreature is able to keep eyes on them, and then come get me, and I’ll take it from there!” All of the critters chirped their affirmation, excluding Angel bunny who just rolled his eyes and scampered off to do who knows what.

“Thanks again everycreature! Now move out!”

Dear Sunset Shimmer,

I hope everything is going well on your side of the mirror. Normally I’d ask how you and the girls are doing, but unfortunately I’m have an urgent matter that I needed to ask you about. To make a long story short, me and my friends were in the castle library (where I keep the mirror portal) when we found a human in the library! A human, still in human form, which should be impossible, since our two worlds are simply variants of each other and anyone who would step through the portal on your end would find themselves changed into a native creature of Equis. But for some reason, this didn’t happen. Do you know if the portal is working correctly on your end? Or if anyone from your school or city has gone missing?

Another thing before I forget. This human was…different. Their eyes were smaller, their proportions were a little off as well. But the main distinction was how they behaved. They had the look of…trauma written all over them. They were covered in scars, and had a violent reaction to my friends and I. They even bit me! I’ve never encountered a creature that acted so…feral. This was unlike anything I saw while I was at Canterlot High.

Any information you can provide would be really helpful! I hope to hear from you soon.

-Princess Twilight Sparkle

Twilight closed the cover of the enchanted journal that allowed her to send direct messages to Sunset Shimmer in the human world. She then turned and made her way to the mirror and looked at her reflection.

‘That human had to have come from another dimension, and they had to have crossed using this mirror.’ Twilight approached the artifact and began examining it.

‘There’s still so much we don’t know about how it works. I’ve only ever traveled to the one alternate world, but theoretically there must be more. If the theory of multiverses and diverging timelines is true, then the number of worlds we could travel to must be…it would HAVE to be infinite! I could step into another world just like this one where the only difference is what I decided to have for breakfast this morning. Or I could step through to one where the laws of physics are the complete opposite of what they are here!’

Twilight ran a hoof along the mirrors surface.

‘But I have no idea how to alter the mirrors destination. I know that it can only to travel to Canterlot High every thirty moons. It hasn’t been that long yet, so the human couldn’t have crossed from their right? Is there another version of the mirror that allows the user more refined control?’ Twilight took a step back. ‘I should really start researching this thing. Maybe Celestia would have some advice as well.’ Twilight shook her head to clear her thoughts and then turned to make her way out of the library. ‘That can wait though. Right now finding the human is much more important.’

Rainbow Dash and Applejack trotted along the dirt trail that safely took them from the outskirts of town to Zecora’s hut. Rainbow was currently relaying her own idea of how to catch the rogue human to her friend.

“-and then, once it falls into the syrup pit, you tie it up with your rope!”

“And get my good rope all sticky? Absolutely not! Besides, how are we supposed to get our hooves on that much maple syrup?”

“Pinkie Pie, duh!”

“Well either way, the answers a flat out nope!”

“Aww, come on AJ!”

“Ah said nope!” The two stopped in front of the door to Zecora’s hut. Applejack raised her hoof and knocked. The door opened a few moments later, revealing the zebra shaman.

“Ah, Rainbow and Applejack, what brings you here? I haven’t seen you in what feels like a year.”

“Well howdy Zecora, we were wondering if-“

“If you’d seen this big furless monkey thing!” interrupted Rainbow Dash, who received an irritated look from Applejack. Zecora’s eyes widened ever so slightly. She hesitated before replying.

“A ‘monkey thing’ you say? What an odd description. Elaborate if you may.”

“Well, it was about uh… a little over double our height,” answered Applejack.

“It was wearing clothes and walking on two legs,” interjected Rainbow.

“Yep, and it was uh, probably limping real bad,” finished Applejack. Zecora’s eyes visibly narrowed.

“It was injured you say? And just what would cause it to end up this way?”

“Well it, um…kinda jumped out of one of Twilights windows,” replied Rainbow Dash awkwardly. Zecora’s eyes widened once more.

“And why would it do that? I assume it had no wings like a bird or bat?”

“No, it uh…just kinda jumped in a panic,” admitted Rainbow Dash.

“It’s kinda a long story,” added Applejack. Zecora analyzed the two mares before she spoke again.

“I may have seen the thing of which you speak. But it was quite scared, paranoid and weak. Before I give you any more information, come inside and give me your explanation.” Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked at each other before nodding to Zecora, who stepped aside to let the two in.

Through their combined efforts they explained to Zecora everything that had happened, and what Twilight had explained to them post-chase. Zecora took a few moments to absorb everything she had been told.

“It sounds to me, like everyone involved acted rashly. I did meet this human in the Everfree, though they were quite suspicious of me. They were injured by Timber Wolves, and had bad injuries that I tried to treat. I left them for some time, and when I returned they were on their feet. The human was quite hesitant to give me their trust. I tried to get them to stay, but they insisted that leave they must.”

“Timber wolves? Yeah, Twilight was worried about something like that. This varmint doesn’t seem at all prepared to handle half of what the Everfree has to throw at them,” stated Applejack.

“Yeah, we gotta find em before they get seriously hurt…-er,” said Rainbow Dash.

“I agree that this qualifies as a potential emergency. But hunting down this unwilling creature seems like a bad idea to me,” Zecora responded.

“Well, if you have a better idea, we’re all ears,” replied Applejack. Zecora took some time to gather her thoughts.

“Trust cannot be earned rapidly. Show the human you mean no harm gradually. Do not pursue, let them come to you.”

“But the forest is like super dangerous! You already said you had to fend off some Timber Wolves!” exclaimed Dash.

“This is true, but I would not act rashly if I were you. They are scared but not feral. I would not cage them like an animal.” Rainbow and Applejack exchanged looks.

“We gotta at least talk to the feller. Try to talks some sense into em’,” responded Applejack.

“I understand, I do. I wish great luck to all of you.”

“So, did you see which way they went?” asked Rainbow. Zecora nodded.

“They headed away from my home,” she explained while pointing out a hoof. “Past the tree line, I have no idea which way they chose to roam.

“Alright, thank ya Zecora! We’ll take it from here!” said Applejack gratefully. Zecora nodded, and the two turned to leave. Zecora saw them out, and then closed the door.

“This situation does not sit well with me. But only time will see.” She then returned to her work of potion brewing, hoping for the best. She decided to put her faith in those six ponies. If there was one thing the group was good at, it was making friends and helping those in need.

She’ll just have to wait and see.

Author's Note

Thanks for supporting the story! I'm glad you all like it!

If you want to support my work, here's my donation links: Buymeacoffee or KO-FI