Making a Difference

"Finally, we can have some peace at home." The girl said, sprawled out on the couch. "I mean, all those adventures across space and time were fun and all, but nothing really beats a good ol' fashioned stay at home, right Jaden?" She asked the other girl, sitting next to her. They looked pretty similar to each other except for the hair color and style, eye color, clothing color, and… okay, they weren't that similar. They both had one thing in common though: they needed a shower. Bad.

Jaden went to the bathroom first. The other girl, whose name was Mary, took advantage of smelling and looking like crap and went to take out the trash. When she came back, she turned on the TV and looked at the bracelet Jaden left behind. It looked simple enough, except for the red light, which quickly grew to reveal a holographic image of another girl. "So, ready to try out the wonder that is a video game from another dimension?" She asked.

Mary nodded. "Let 'er rip, Blaze." She said eagerly.

The AI nodded and activated wirelessly a device Mary found out was called an Xbox 360. It said she was connected to the internet for online gaming. Of course, this meant she was going to play with people from another dimension. Not to mention, she felt like a troll.

She SMELLED like a troll.

Mary looked at her game selection. She decided on a recently released game, Halo 4. Sounds like a fun game. She started it up and put on the mic. She went right to the online play stuff and started up a game. Her gamertag was OtherDimension314. Rather fitting. What wasn't fitting was the group she was teamed up with: D3rpyH00v3z, RainboomPower63, and MLPWNY. She vaguely knew what these meant. They were probably bronies. Oh, how she hated that damn show, that damn theme song. She could watch the show on the interdimentional cable program, but the thought of all that drove her up a wall. Mary just couldn't understand why so many guys liked it. She blamed their government. She found it strange that they had so many things from another world that was so similar, but had so many different things. Oh well, back to trolling.

It was sad. "Why do you guys have to be such NOOBS!?" Mary screamed into the mic. The score was 16 – 50. Mary got 12. "Get your fat brony ass out of your television and into the real stuff that matters!"

MLPWNY replied. This was the only other girl. She got the other four. "Sooooorrrry. Some of us happen to like ponies." She said.

Despite the fact that they are pony lovers, she sent them friend requests. They accepted right away. She didn't know why she did, but something compelled her to.

"Alright, now I have 4 friends." D3rpyH00v3s said, meaning it was just the three of them in a circle of friendship. "Friendship really is magic!" He added, which made Mary almost gag.

Mary signed off after saying bye to the bronies. "Whew, that was close. I have to admit though; they were pretty fun for a bunch of noobs." She said. Mary then noticed that Jaden was coming down the stairs. "Hey, what took ya so long?" She asked.

Jaden shrugged. "No reason. You play a game yet?" She asked.

Mary nodded. "Halo 4. Met and befriended a bunch of bronies. Noobs, the lot of them." She said. "So, you wanna go to the park? I got a throwing disc." She offered, holding up said disc. "Say, do you know what a female brony is called?" She asked, out of curiosity.

Jaden thought for a bit. "I believe they are called pegasisters." She said.

Mary shivered. "So it was two bronies and a pegasister I befriended then. I must say, the useless knowledge you have is sometimes terrifying." She said.

Jaden shrugged. "You were thinking about becoming one?" She asked, grinning.

Mary nearly blew a fuse. "HELL NO!" She screamed.

Jaden backed away slightly. "Okay, okay… so, throwing disc game?" She asked, changing the subject before Mary decided to get violent.

"Oh, right." The anger left her. "Let's go to the park." She said.

Jaden nodded and left the house. Mary thought she saw something follow them out of the corner of her eye all the way to the park. She always trusted her instincts, and something told her trouble was coming. The park was completely empty, and a slight fog hung over them. Mary guessed that paranoia could set in at any time. They each stood at opposite ends of a field. Mary gripped the disc with her right hand and threw it as hard as she could. The disc sailed right over Jaden's head and into the trees. Jaden chased after it yelling something she couldn't make out.

Then she saw it again, and it was right in her line of sight this time. It was a shadow of some kind. A black shapeless form moving from the corner of her eye to the middle of the field. It stopped and looked directly at her, its blood red eyes staring right into her soul. It paralyzed her with fear, and without warning, went right for her.

Mary couldn't move. Time seemed to slow. Her life started flashing before her eyes. Then the shadow did something it would immediately regret.

It blinked.

Eye contact broken, Mary grinned and clapped. The sound echoed across the park. A shield formed around Mary and the shadow impacted it.

I guess its backstory time. You see, Mary once acquired the same bracelet mentioned sitting on the table. The bracelet was made by InventItAll Inc. It had magical properties that could be activated with the push of a button. Jaden never really mastered using it, and would press random buttons, with hilarious results. Somehow, Mary's bracelet had bonded with her, giving her these abilities with only a clap and a right thought. Right now, she had one thing on her mind.

Get this damn piece of shit out of my sight!

The shield expanded, causing the shadow to fly back. It exploded, sending lots of tiny – but no less dangerous – shadows all around her. She clapped again, and in a bright flash of light, they were gone. All but one, which hid in the shadows of the trees. Looking around, not wanting to come across her again, it spotted another target. Striking quickly, it did not waste any time draining this unfortunate human. After it was done with its meal, it fled into the shadows.

Mary got worried. Jaden was in there for far too long. She ran into the trees, only to meet an unconscious Jaden. "Oh no, she must have hit her head on something." Mary guessed. She shook her lightly. "Wake up."

Jaden opened her eyes and shot straight up. "Wha-where?" She asked, and when she noticed Mary, her eyes narrowed and she scowled. "Oh, it's you. What do you want?" She asked.

Mary flinched at the poison in her voice. "I wanted to see if you were alright. That's what friends are for." She said, smiling.

Jaden laughed. "Friends? You believe in that bullcrap? Lies for the weak. Beacons for the deluded. That's what friendship is. You will only get hurt by your friends. That is, after all, human nature. We step on others to get ahead. I think it's time that I stepped on you. Goodbye." She said in a voice so icy, it sent chills straight to Mary's heart.

As Jaden walked away, Mary fell to her knees and started to cry. "H-how could she say that? We've been best friends forever!" As she continued to sit there and cry, a small boom was heard overhead.

Ditzy struggled to regain control as she was thrust through the light onto an unknown land. She had no idea what was going on. All she knew was that she was racing Rainbow Dash, and then they started tumbling out of the sky. One eye looked to her left. It seemed Rainbow Dash was unconscious. The other eye looked down. They were falling towards a small patch of trees. She continued to try and flap her wings, and felt herself losing speed, but not enough. As they fell, she closed her eyes and let out a scream. "MUFFINS!"

Derpy opened her eyes. She had an epiphany. She liked being called Derpy better than Ditzy. It was a dream come true that there was no trace of self-shame in her. Then it took her a few more seconds to realize something else. She wasn't dead from that fall. She was a little sore, but it seemed that she landed on some soft moss. Derpy looked around with her two individual eyes, using both to see everything much faster. She noticed a particularly pointy looking rock a few feet from her. Thank Celestia I hadn't landed on that. She thought. Rainbow Dash was hanging from a branch, still out like a light. The branch collapsed, probably already weakened from something, and Rainbow fell onto the rock, directly striking her wing. Derpy heard a snap and Rainbow awoke, screaming in pain. She quickly tried to play it cool, but Derpy and her both knew the rock broke it. She also had a nasty bruise on her right foreleg. "You need some help?" Derpy asked, trying to be nice.

Rainbow Dash backed away quickly, wincing from the pain in her leg and wing. "NO! Um, I mean, no, thank you Derpy. I have it under control." She said quickly.

Derpy narrowed her eyes. "Are you sure?" She asked her. Rainbow looked nervous and in pain, but she nodded. "Well then, if you're so sure, then what now?" She asked. Rainbow looked around and hung her head, giving up the bluff. "Yeah, I thought so. We're so lost, aren't we?" Rainbow nodded. "Okay, now that we understand each other a little better, how about we have a muffin?" She asked Rainbow, pulling out two muffins out of thin air. She gave one to Rainbow and they both devoured the muffins hungrily. "Good muffin." Derpy said with a sigh.

Rainbow nodded in agreement. "Yeah, so where are we?" She asked, adding in another wince of pain.

Derpy was about to answer when a groan was heard. They quickly scanned the area, trying to find the source, when Derpy felt the soft moss move. Derpy never looked down, and when she did, she found out she was standing on something. Something alive. Derpy quickly jumped off of it and stood next to Rainbow Dash.

The creature groaned again. "Ow, my head." It said.

Derpy gasped. "It can talk!" She said.

The creature turned its head toward them. "Huh?" It noticed the two Pegasi and jumped up. That's when they truly got a look at how big it was. It was about five and a half feet tall, and bipedal. It had no tail, and a brown mane. It looked like it was wearing clothes, though due to the dirt on them, they were thankful Rarity wasn't around. It also had no fur. Derpy noticed it looked just as afraid of them as they were of it. It spoke again. "How the – who the – what the?! Am I really looking at a couple of Pegasi?" It, or she, or whatever said in disbelief.

Derpy took a step forward. "H-hi. I'm D-ditzy, but y-you can call me Derpy." She said, scared at what this creature might do. She smiled up at her.

She eventually returned the smile. "Hi, my name is Mary." She said. "We don't usually get visitors like you around here. What brings you to my dimension?" She asked, still looking a little nervous.

Derpy gasped. "We're in a different dimension? How could this be? We were just having a harmless race when all of a sudden we fall from the sky-wait, could this be because of that race? Did we unknowingly open a portal to another dimension?" She asked no one in particular. She then shrugged it off. "Nah…"

Rainbow Dash finally got the courage to speak up. "Hi, I'm Rainbow Dash. It's, uh, nice to meet you." She said, wincing once again.

Mary took notice of the broken wing. "Oh, your wing is broken. Here, let me help." She offered, taking a step closer.

Rainbow tried to play it cool again, but looked even more nervous to Mary. "No, it's fine. Just a scratch." She said nonchalantly.

Mary raised an eyebrow. "No, you're not." She said, and then clapped once. The two were confused by this until she put her hands closer to Rainbow's injured wing. A glow surrounded it for a second, and when it stopped, the wing looked good as new.

Rainbow looked at it in awe. The wing flexed a few times, then she grinned and shot into the air. She remained there for a few seconds then came back down. "Awesome! How did you do that?" She asked, all traces of fear gone.

Mary smiled. "Magic." She answered simply.

Rainbow looked at her, confused. "You can do magic?" She asked.

Mary shrugged. "Kinda. I can do a lot of things." She said, and looked at the two. "You must be good friends."

Rainbow avoided eye contact. "Kinda. I wouldn't say good friends, more like good acquaintances." She said. "What about you?"

Mary stood there silently, obviously thinking. Then, she dropped to her knees and started crying.

Derpy went up to her and put a hoof on her leg. "It's okay; we'll be your friends." She said soothingly. It reminded Rainbow of Fluttershy, and she wondered how her friends back home were doing.

Mary's crying softened a bit. "You will?" She asked. Derpy nodded. "Oh thank you!" She said happily, and embraced them both in a hug. After a while, she let them go. "I don't really know what happened. We were playing with a throwing disc when she went into these trees after it. When I found her, she seemed so different, like she didn't care anymore. I was crushed. Emotionally at first, then physically when you landed on me." She explained.

Derpy chuckled nervously. "Sorry about that." She apologized.

Mary looked at her. "Your eyes…" She thought out loud. "I like it."

Derpy smiled. "You do?" She asked.

Mary nodded. "Yep, it makes you look a thousand times cuter. Plus, being able to see two things at once must help with situational awareness." She said.

Derpy nodded. "It comes in handy." She said coyly.

Mary smiled. "Well, you two want to sit in the trees all day, or do you want to see where I live?" She asked.

Rainbow flew up to eye level. "Is it cool?" She asked in a challenging tone.

Mary grinned. Challenge accepted. "I think you'll like it."