They didn't return to Watcher's realm, instead trailing directly along the thin trail of corrupted intentions through the many words. Speaking was useless, not that Lulu and Twibright didn't try fruitlessly. Their bodies were pulled along behind Watcher, stretched as they raced through worlds too fast for their eyes to see. If her companions saw anything, they weren't saying, not that they could hear any attempts being made.

They landed on pavement, a car's horns blaring loudly as it swerved to miss them. They were at an intersection of several lanes of vehicles traveling at high speeds in both direction. The world around them was a chaotic, messy city that rose into the sky with countless buildings and countless people.

Twibright squeaked with horror. "We need to not be here!"

Lulu huddled in closer to Twibright, her colors dulled. She was a skunk, but an almost distressingly realistic skunk lady. "Where have you brought us, Watcher? What is this place?"

Watcher straightened slowly, wearing a business outfit, sharp and high quality. She was still a she and she snapped her fingers. "We can't remain here. Come." Traffic was backing up around them, providing a chance for them all to scurry off the street and let things progress. "This is a human world." She turned her hands back and forth in her vision. "And so am I. I see you two are not. Twibright, you remain resistant to the calls of the worlds. Lulu, you adapt, if subtly."

Twibright stood on four hooves, still a pony despite it all. "I can't be human. Not again. It's awful."

Lulu blinked, then looked around. "Again? This has happened before?"

Watcher nodded with some amusement. "It was the second world I brought her to."

Twibright laughed tensely. "About that. Before I even met Watcher, I visited a human world before. It was, never mind, we're getting distracted." She turned in place, taking in the bustling city. "Looks busy, but operating. What's out of place?"

Watcher considered the surroundings. "The trail leads in two different directions. One into the future, and one into the past. This is a cross section of the two. We need to move quickly."

Lulu poked Watcher in the side. "You don't get to casually say 'past or future, one of those.' That's not helpful!" She jumped with surprise, looking behind herself to find a small boy tugging at her tail. "That isn't yours."

He grinned at her. "I know! It's so long!" He ran off a moment later.

Lulu growled after him, but Watcher placed a hand on her shoulder. "We are different, and people will notice."

"I am standard." Watcher waved over herself. "You two are less—"

"Pony!" A young man came jogging up towards Twibright. "I don't recognize which you're supposed to be, but you're cute is what you are." He looked up at Watcher and Lulu. "She yours?"

Watcher nodded slowly. "Yes, she is." She glanced at Lulu. "They both are."

He grinned, pointing between Lulu and Twibright. "Is there an event going on? Or are you all on the way to somewhere? This is pretty dang cool. If you two want to be in some photos, I can—"

Watcher stepped up into the young man's face, one eye twitching with frustration, voice a low growl. "We have already decided on the event we're attending."

"Hey hey, it's cool." The man held up both hands. "I'll get out of your way." But not before directing his phone at the two for some quick photos of the thing. "Too damn cool. They're going to be so damn jealous."

Watcher rubbed at her eyes. "Let us move along quickly before we're forced to deal with this nonsense any longer."

Twibright looked herself over. "Why is he acting like he's seen a pony before? In a good light, from the way he was acting." She followed after Watcher down the sidewalk. "I'm not complaining, but I am confused."

Watcher frowned. "I imagine he has seen other ponies before. He seemed to treat you like a character rather than a person." She glanced back at Lulu. "If anyone questions us, let me handle it." An idea made her perk with a smile. "You two are people in costumes. Do not speak, just point and emote. Pretend you can't say anything." She looked between them. "That should be enough to protect us."

Twibright cleared her throat quietly. "I'm sure we could speak on our own just fine, but that does seem like a safer plan."

Lulu gave Watcher a doubting look, but kept her lips sealed, at least until something else pulled at her tail. She whirled to find a small girl had found her that time. "Don't do that!"

Watcher slapped a hand over Lulu's mouth. "No. You cannot speak."

Twibright waved at the girl with a little smile. "W-what is your name, young lady?"

"No talking," hissed out Watcher as both were doing just that.

The young lady didn't seem to mind at all. "Hello! I'm Sammy." She pointed at Twibright. "What's your name, magic horsie?"

Watcher slapped her face. "Go. Come along now."

Lulu took hold of Sammy's hand. "Come on, let's go back to your mother. Which one of all these humans are yours?"

A woman emerged from the crowd. "Sammy, stop bothering the nice people." She smiled nervously at the three. "Sorry. She sees a cute thing and takes off running. I hope she wasn't a bother."

Lulu shook her head firmly. "Not at all. I'm sure she'll grow up to be just as kind and caring as her mother." She waved to Sammy as they slipped away into the crowd.

Watcher groaned as she led the way. "Are you two not listening to me, or are my instructions unclear? Stop talking. Humans in outfits can't talk without sounding muffled at best, which you do not. Speaking clearly ruins the illusion and raises more questions."

Lulu nodded. "Oh, I understand. I just don't agree. I think this world is fine with us talking."

Twibright nodded. "We'll see. If Watcher says things go wrong, they probably will go wrong." She rubbed behind her head with a hoof. "Oh! How about this." Her horn glowed briefly. "Better?" Her voice sounded distant, as if she actually were buried within some costume. "No more confusion, just somepony in a costume here."

Lulu slapped herself in the face with one palm. "That was easy! But are you going to share that, my magic little pony? Not all of us are wizards." She patted her sides. "Merchant, not wizard."

Watcher shook their head firmly. "No. Neither of you should be speaking at this time. I will handle the talking." They turned to glare. "This is not your place to speak. This place is mine, and you will follow what I tell you to do here."

Despite that, Twibright repeated her spell for Lulu, burying her voice as if coming from within her instead of directly out of her mouth. "Any sign of what's wrong with this world? It looks functional."

Watcher sighed at Lulu, but she didn't press the matter again. "We are not here to look for something broken. We are here to prevent it."

Lulu considered that. "Then we'll have to talk with the humans around here."

"Easier." Watcher grabbed a newspaper off a rack, leaving a few dollars behind as she did so. "We read. Come." She led the way with the newspaper in hand towards a bench. "Let's see what the news is, in the past, and now. Discontinuities should become clear, and points of inflection."

Twibright nodded slowly. "That's more my field, so let me help."

Lulu folded her arms. "Me too." She stepped closer. "So, what do we need to do?" She sank down onto the bench with Twibright tucked between herself and Watcher. "I can read." She sounded quite proud of that fact.

That got Twibright's ears up. "Is literacy not an assumed ability, where you came from, I mean? Literacy rates in Ponytopia were pretty close to 100%, I'm happy to say. Even among the griffons and dragons. Education for all was a priority of our Queen Sunnylot."

Watcher was busy looking at the paper, so Lulu spoke up for them. "My world wasn't too bad, but that varied a lot going from place to place." She was looking at the outside of the newspaper as Watcher read the interior. "The richer you were, the more likely you were to read and write. Math was like that too. The average commoner just knew how to count well enough to get by."

Twibright considered that. "I'm sorry if I came across as rude. The literacy of your world doesn't say much about any one person. I'm sure you're a great thinker, regardless."

Lulu grumbled something under her breath. "I was a merchant, I remind. We tended to need to read, and write, and do math, or we wouldn't do very well." She reached over, ruffling Twibright's mane. "You're lucky you're as adorable as you are. Also, I sound so strange right now." She cleared her throat, which sounded like someone inside of her doing that. "Your spell works, but it's so odd."

Watcher slapped the newspaper down. "Done."

Lulu blinked. "Just like that? It took you no time at all?"

Watcher shook her head in annoyance. "I can remember where it was, and where it should be, and end up. They are discussing a way to defeat local hunger issues, which they have done many times. The actions required are both simple and vast, more complex than most of any of them can even perceive. They are discussing things that are only sometimes solved. The noises make it sound like this time will be different."

She tapped the paper. "—and that is the problem."

Twibright flinched with surprise. "Isn't that a good thing? Helping people sounds great to me."

Watcher shook her head, then pointed up. "The pattern is clear. This sudden deviation is not. This is not this world's story to tell."

Lulu raised a furry brow. "It's still a good thing, isn't it? I thought this corruption made things worse. We're good guys, putting a stop to bad things happening, right?"

Watcher sighed quietly. "It is not so simple."

Twibright nodded. "I think I understand." She gave Lulu an uneasy smile. "Every world wants to do its own thing. It's like how we solve problems in Ponytopia." She clapped her hooves with that distant thought. "If we fixed them in some strange new way, that would be odd, for us, even if it still got fixed. This world, um, is doing it oddly?"

Watcher shook her head again. "Not exactly, but close enough." She waved over herself. "This world is supposed to have its miseries. It is not a tale of that. That would go more easily to Lulu's—"

"Hey!" She glared at Watcher, tail thrashing.

"But it has its miseries and accomplishments. I can feel when it should change, and this isn't it. It should not fix this problem right now, and that is bad. We must act."

Twibright shook her head slowly, clear confusion on her face. "We must act to make people suffer? I don't want to do that."

Watcher considered that a moment. "Perhaps not. But we must act to maintain the nature of this world." They grabbed up the newspaper. "I know where to go." She turned the paper to direct to a spot. "They are having a meeting. This is where they will either succeed or fail. Failure would place the world where it should be. Success would not."

Author's Note

I'm back. Redid the cover. Is it better?

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