More Than A Dream

by nanashi_jones

Rating: teen
Tags: Main 6, Princess Luna, Comedy, Other, Adventure, Princess Celestia, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Zecora, Human
Length: 62582

What's a person to do when she may be a pony? What's a person to do when the pony is Twilight Sparkle? What's a person to do when Equestria is doomed and only she, and five strangers, can stand in the way? What's a person to do?

"Twi, you gotta get me out of here. These human guys think I’m nuts! Nopony here has even heard of Equestria! Not to mention a pegasus or unicorn outside a book! I tried finding the other girls, but I couldn’t before I got locked up. We gotta find ‘em Twi. If we’re here, it can’t be good news back home.”

Aurora Amaryllis dreamed of ponies and Equestria her whole life. She'd long thought them just flights of fancy and products of a creative youth. Then, she met Rainbow Dash. Then, her hair started changing color. Then, she started meeting other strangers, all who claimed to know her and were her closest friends.

Aurora keeps saying it's all a dream, but soon it becomes all too real. Real enough that Equestria is in danger from a foe that threatens all of the lands. Real enough that she and these new strangers are the only ones who can stop it. Real enough that Aurora must meet a destiny not even meant for her.

Will Aurora help the Elements of Harmony, save Equestria from an unstoppable menace, and live to tell the tale? Or is it all just a dream?

Thanks to Yamino for use of the cover image.

Published 2013-03-27 18:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-05-27 00:59:22 UTC

Chapter 1

Part 1: Earth, As We Know It

Aurora Amaryllis dreamed. She dreamed of a far-off kingdom, ruled by a kindly Princess. She dreamed of adventure far and wide, with the closest of friends. She dreamed of magic. She dreamed... Of ponies.

She woke to an alarm, a book left open on her chest, and the knowledge the alarm was her iPhone. The iPhone dinged quietly, which was Aurora’s way to ask if she would use ten minutes of laying in bed or get to her day and have ten minutes to spare later. The iPhone would ding again for a mid-morning check and a third time just before she silenced it for classes. After that, she’d go by her memory with only a post lunch schedule check and a late afternoon schedule check.

She opted to rise at the alarm. Placing the book next to the picture of her with her grandmother, on the bedside desk, she walked to the bathroom.

She brushed her teeth (two minutes- not one-forty, not one-fifty-five, but two) and stared into the mirror. Dark eyes, not-too-bad eyebrows, and sleep-rumpled, dark chocolate-black hair with an odd little light streak off to the side- a genetic quirk from her dad’s side. Everything in place alright, yet... The alien feeling came and she frowned around her toothbrush. The feeling usually came after the dreams. Like phantom limb syndrome except without an actual missing limb to account for, so it continued to frustrate her.

Much like the dreams.

It wasn’t the first time she dreamed of the kingdom. Or the Princess. Or the ponies. So frequent were the nightly visitors that she started seeing a campus counselor for stress. Most determined psychology students saw a counselor anyway, but Aurora at least had the pretense of being a double major (physics with a focus on quantum mechanical theory and psychology with a focus on group dynamics). Such a heavy, and diverse, workload allayed the notion that she was part of the herd.

Her counselor suggested that the dreams, which were very fanciful and loving, were possibly her brain sorting through her stress. They had gotten more persistent when she’d entered her dual doctorates, and she’d be lying to herself if she didn’t admit that she sometimes got overwhelmed.

As she continued her therapy sessions on top of her academic life, she realized the dreams went back even further than the start of her dual studies. She had been very young when they came to her in the form of stories she concocted and acted out with her dolls. But like most childhood things they went away.

Until recently.

She’d only been working at her doctorate for a month when they became a staple of her sleep cycle. But even before then, little bits of them had come unbidden.

“I think that connections are important,” Aurora had told her sponsor as she wrung her hands nervously in her lap.

It had felt odd, verbalizing it for the first time. She mostly kept to herself and her family, so she’d never really talked about why she’d picked both physics and psychology. Thanks to her studiousness, her family had accepted her desires would lead to a doctorate degree. With such an intelligent daughter, drive made sense, so why ask about her intentions?

“I want to... I want to see those connections in action. In people and in the universe. Get a better understanding.”

Perhaps if she’d spoken more about her desires with her parents, she wouldn’t have felt so awkward proposing her thesis topic to her freaking sponsor!

“I think those connections are just... Magical.”

The word had just popped out unbidden. Though her sponsor hadn’t said anything, she’d spent an hour downplaying it and assuring her superior she wasn’t some dreamy-eyed undergrad with delusions of sparkles in her notebook. Still, it had been the truest word she’d used in the whole interview.

Following that night, her dreams changed. They went from occasional, forgotten visitors to permanent residents. They troubled her with their clarity and how they hung with her in a way her own memories didn’t. Well, they mostly stuck with her.

For instance, there had been the one the previous night about a colorful birthday party and a herd. The party had been thrown with cake. Or was it pie? Why did that matter?

Then there was the spa with... Jewels? Gemma? She never could seem to remember names in these dreams, but the faces, they were always familiar. They stayed: colorful pony faces smiling at her.

If it wasn’t all so friendly and comforting, she would be downright spooked.

She shook her head and spit toothpaste. The dreams were silly things. They weren’t important. Really, they were distractions.

When she reached for her hair brush, the not-quite phantom limb feeling came again, more precise. Now she felt as if she wasn’t getting something right. As if she missed a step in an equation while just picking up a brush. She did her usual level best to ignore it. Aurora didn’t listen to her gut, she listened to reason, fact-checking, and her developed sense of logic.

Showered, fed for breakfast and ahead of schedule, Aurora pulled on a purple sweater vest to guard against the slight autumn chill. She’d always liked purple and violet. Her first sari, a gift from her nani, grandmother, had been a jeweled violet.

Fall had brought red and gold leaves, which were already losing their grip. As Aurora crossed campus, she noted the falling leaves and how they inexplicably made her want to go running.
~
“Hey Amaryllis.”

“Hi Mary.”

“Come to see how a real internship works?”

Aurora sighed. Mary Steenem was a bit competitive about her studies, but it was always in good fun. At least, that’s what the other girl always said to Aurora.

“Professor Langstrom gives me enough work,” Aurora said with an only slightly strained smile. “Is this a bad time?”

“Nah. You’ll just have to wait near the patients while I wrap up some stuff. They’re not a big deal. It’s the mild wing.”

“There’s a mild wing?”

“Functional disorders, delusions that just need monitoring. Nothing technically wrong with thinking you’re living in 1818, but if you’re problematic about it, your family can’t have you wandering around, yanno?”

Mary gestured for Aurora to follow her in, then had her stand near a mesh gate where some orderlies and a security guard nodded at her. Mary buzzed through the gate and en route to another door near the back of the room, passed people who were milling, muttering or just plain staring off into space.

Aurora looked through the gate at the assembled occupants. The patients weren’t all in institutional scrubs, so that told her a little of their condition and the facility’s policies. Yet, too many were and that depressed Aurora a bit. She thought that people did better in clothes they picked. Unless they picked the scrubs, then that was fine too.

As Aurora’s eyes wandered the room, her gaze caught on a blast of rainbow color hair amidst the eggshell blue walls and white formica floor. The hair belonged to a girl, looking out a window with, yep, a head full of bright color. It wasn’t like she had dyed it multiple shades, either. She looked like she had a literal rainbow flowing through her hair. Aurora stared at it.

Something deep, resonant, familiar twinged inside her chest.

The girl who had been staring out the window blinked, feeling the weight of Aurora’s gaze. She turned, noted Aurora and resumed looking out the window. After another blink, her eyes got wide and she turned slower, locking onto Aurora.

Aurora watched as she broke the stare, then rose, stretched, and strolled toward her, hands in pockets. The effect was that of failed nonchalance and her stride was too purposeful to believe she was just wandering the area. As she came closer, Aurora took a more inspecting look: vaguely Hispanic, possibly chicana, with a lithe, muscular frame and the kind of walk Aurora attached to fighter pilots.

Wait. Where had she got that?

“Hey,” the girl said, snapping Aurora into a conversation.

“Hi,” Aurora replied.

“New here?”

Aurora laughed a little. “Just visiting.”

One of the guards in the high visibility booth gave Aurora and the girl a hard look, but Aurora smiled at him and he settled.

“So I see,” the girl replied. She looked Aurora up and down, not a checking out per se, but... Aurora couldn’t tell. Perhaps, like Aurora, the other girl was just trying to place her? “What’s your name?”

“Aurora,” Aurora said. “Yours?”

The girl pushed air at her bangs, fluttering them away. “If I wanna get out of here, I gotta say Iris Speede.”

“That’s not your name?”

“Nope.”

“Can I ask what it is then?”

“Iris Speede” looked back and forth. She crooked a finger closer.

Aurora leaned in, prepared for Cleopatra or possibly a visitor from another planet.

“Rainbow Dash.”

She wasn’t prepared for that.

A jolt shook out from Aurora’s stomach and she straightened quickly. She felt like someone familiar had just called her name.

“Yes! I knew it!” Iris, nee Rainbow said, pumping her fist. She hung on the grate between them. “Twilight? Is that you?”

Aurora blinked, her gaze over the other girl’s shoulder. Still slightly unnerved and unhearing, it took her a moment to refocus.

Finally, she stuttered out, “I- I’m sorry, what?”

The guard started moving and Aurora caught it out of the corner of her eye. She turned, giving him a placating gesture. The girl with the rainbow hair flashed an easy, confident smile and shifted to lean against the grating into a more casual posture. Aurora could see her knuckles white in excitement though.

“Twilight. Sparkle. Sound familiar?”

A deeper jolt this time. Like she’d just heard a bell in her heart. She put a hand to her head and tears popped unbidden to her eyes. She tried to blink them away as her forehead itched suddenly. “I don’t- I-”

“Oh man, that’s gotta be you. Especially with that egghead look.”

Aurora looked even more confused. The girl made an apologetic smile.

“Sorry. But, look, Twi, you gotta get me out of here. These human guys think I’m nuts! Nopony here has even heard of Equestria! Not to mention a pegasus or unicorn outside a book! I tried finding the other girls, but I couldn’t before I got locked up. We gotta find ‘em Twi. If we’re here, it can’t be good news back home.”

The rainbow-haired girl had pressed into the grate as close as she could and Aurora realized that they were both breathing hard. With a shudder, she banished the fluttering that had sprung up deep in her belly. Or tried to. She put on a more composed face at least.

“Whoa, whoa,” she said, getting her counseling tones out. “I’m sorry, but, I’ve never met you.”

“Ughh...” The rainbow haired girl slumped and banged her head against the cage. Eyes coming back up to Aurora, the student flinched in surprise. The girl’s eyes were a rich maroon.

“Your eyes...” Aurora said.

The girl, Rainbow, blinked and smiled, rising again. “Like ‘em? Look... Familiar?” She blinked more emphatically, showing her eyes off.

“Hey!” The pair turned and a large man, heavyset and wearing orderly scrubs stood close enough to do something about Iris if needed, but far enough to give Iris the chance to do something herself. “Stop bothering her, Speede.” It wasn’t a request.

“I’m not bothering-”

The man stepped forward. “Go about your business or it’s back to your room.”

The girl looked at Aurora imploringly. Aurora just stared. She’d been knocked around too many times in too short a span. She couldn’t find her mouth. Her stomach was doing flip flops and she couldn’t get it under control. Part of her wanted to run. Another part wanted to reach through the grate and pull the other girl close enough to squeeze more information from her. She was locked.

“C’mon Twilight. You know something weird is going on here.”

A thick hand wrapped around the rainbow-haired girl’s upper arm. “You’re done. You can go peacefully or not.”

For a tense moment, Aurora thought she was about to see her first outburst from an institutionalized patient. The girl’s jaw set, her hips twitched and every part of her looked like she was ready for a fight. Then, with a roll of her shoulders, she was free of the orderly and turning away.

“All right, all right,” she muttered. “I’m goin’.”

The orderly kept his eye on her as she slunk away, hands jammed into her sweatpants pockets. Briefly, she turned her head and said, “Last time I was locked up, least I got to read that book you picked. What was it again?”

“Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone!” Aurora chirped automatically.

She brought a hand to her mouth. Where had that come from?

Rainbow Dash grinned, even when the large orderly moved her along.

“See ya ‘round, Aurora Sparkle.”
~
The rest of the day was a blur. Aurora vaguely remembered helping Mary, who took her silence as typical Aurora aloofness. Dinner, classes, they all felt like background noise. Except Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash and her rainbow hair.

Or was it Iris Speede?

Laying in bed back in her tiny dorm apartment, she stared at the ceiling. She couldn’t shake the feeling of clarity that had come when the rainbow haired girl had spoken.

“Equestria.”

“Nopony.”

“Twilight Sparkle.”

Even just thinking the name sent a shudder through her. Like she had suddenly caught a fragile, but powerful gem.

Then, as she thought on the name, she remembered Equestria. Or at least, she remembered the ponies.

When she was very young, Aurora remembered, she had thought she was different. Like something was off about her that made socializing hard. She kept it to herself, she read, and her closest friends were her parents and her nani. Back then, she only occasionally dreamed of ponies living somewhere and she’d tell her Mom about the land and its inhabitants.

Was it Equestria though? She definitely remembered ponies and talking with her mom, but...Time’s fog sprang up and she couldn’t grasp it. She remembered skinning her knee on the playground. She barely remembered Elementary School. She remembered the two girls she managed to make sort-of friends with- Alisa and Jennifer- But why couldn’t she fully recall those stories?

Pushing herself up and off the bed, she checked the clock and saw it was only 8:30 in the evening. She clicked on a light and picked up her cell phone. Hitting auto-dial, she waited. “Hey Mom. … Yeah, I know. Um, look, this may sound weird...”
~
Two days later, Aurora was going through a box of crayon drawings and awkward, youthful handwriting.

Equestria.

As she looked through it, clarity returned. How she lost a year or two completely to this... Imaginary place, this story. How she told her Mom she was learning magic under Princess Ce-les-tee-ya- she had sounded that out perfectly. How her pony big brother was going to be in the Equestrian guard. How her foal-sitter was the best in the world. Then, there was nothing.

“You just kind of stopped, dear,” Aurora’s mother said when Aurora called two days ago. Mrs. Pavra D’Angelo had then sighed. “Honestly, I worried it was because you heard your Dad and me fighting.”

That was when Aurora really remembered.

One day, Aurora had come home early from a visit with her grandmother and arrived to her parents shouting. Fleeing to the safety of her room and drawings, she started shaping a purple unicorn, drawing out a mane with a pink stripe and a mark on her rump- cutie something? -and as she drew, she realized how real it all felt. How her stories and dreams and make-believe land all felt realer than her own real life.

Aurora’s parents didn’t fight like that. They didn’t threaten to break up so loudly. They loved each other unconditionally. They were a team, not yelling adults. They didn’t keep talking about... Ending “it.”

But they were. They had been going at it so loud, they’d missed Aurora entirely, venting all manner of scary futures. Aurora had realized, at her precocious age, all those odd glances and strained faces between them weren’t headaches or little disagreements. Her parents were going to break up. They were getting... Divorced.

As tears sprang to her eyes, her hand gripped the purple crayon like it was a lifeline, and something in her treacherously whispered, “It’s okay. It’ll be okay. Those aren’t your parents.”

Aurora always felt she was so clever because she was sensible. She was practical. So, even though she was eleven, she knew, she knew that was crazy person thinking. Regular little girls pretended they were magical princesses, or in this case magical ponies, from another world. They didn’t believe it in their hearts. That’s how you got bullied. Locked up. Or worse- yelled at by your parents.

So she decided right then to stop. No more ponies. No more Equestria. She put the drawings away, picked up a book and knocked on her parents’ door. Aurora’s sudden arrival silenced the argument instantly. It wouldn’t silence it permanently though. Aurora knew this. If she was going to deal with what was to come next, if she was going to handle the divorce sensibly, she had to grow up.

She did. She showed an interest in the sciences and proved quite the physics and chemistry student in school. She excelled in the real world, its rules, its ways.

Still, a bit of fantasy and escapism was good for the soul and she didn’t completely give up her fancy. It just never gained that youthful traction again. She regarded anything from a book or media as no more than entertainment and relaxation. Maybe she’d spring for a leather-bound copy of Lord of the Rings or an anime series, but that was it. All just for entertainment and enjoyment. Nothing as serious as real life.

She’d gone to college on a scholarship. Her parents were beaming when she shared the letter detailing her full ride. Even her step parents praised her thoroughly with her stepdad going so far as to convince Aurora’s mom to let Aurora have a little celebratory champagne.

She forgot about ponies. She even forgot that she woke forgetting dreams about them.

Then, she started her doctorate. Then, she met Rainbow Dash. Then, she heard the word Equestria for the first time since she was eleven.

Aurora looked at the pictures she’d drawn. It was impossible. It was impossible in every way for some random girl in an institution to know about these stories, these ideas, these dreams. She’d just met her only a few days ago, so how could she have known about something Aurora had barely remembered herself?

While Aurora could feel confusion welling up all around her, she latched on to the nugget of certainty she held: she needed answers. And she knew just the girl to talk to.

Mouth set in a firm line, she picked up her phone.
~
“I can’t emphasize enough how much of a favor this is,” Dr. Westbrook said.

“I know and I really appreciate it,” Aurora said, looking crisp in a deep blue-purple suit with white blouse. Her hair was up in a bun, but her bangs hung down, her off-brown streak looked different somehow. For some reason, it looked too bright, too noticeable. It almost looked punk and Aurora couldn’t have a genetic quirk stealing her serious picture of assured competence. Styling it as best she could, she mentally tried to project Determined Doctorate Candidate.

“Maybe I can do some good?” she said, putting an air of authority to her voice.

Dr. Westbrook laughed as he guided Aurora down a hallway and to an empty room.

“Couldn’t hurt. Miss Speede has been quite the delusional case. She doesn’t break down or become incomplete when we ask how she’s here as a person when she insists she’s a pegasus. She admits to ignorance, which only reinforces the delusion. And I have to admit... It’s not a bad one.”

Aurora cocked an eyebrow at the hospital’s director.

“Ponies that live in peace with a benevolent, immortal pair of diarchs to guide them? When you get to where I am and hear your thousandth alien abductee or paranoid monster-chased patient... People like this are so refreshing you almost want to make a case that they’re living in the better world.”

He stopped before a seemingly random door, opened it, and gestured inside. Aurora entered to a bare place without even a two-way mirror for observation. The table was wooden and old, and the chairs were nice enough, but the clinical atmosphere couldn’t be banished. Not even by the high window, which let in cheerful sunlight.

Aurora took a seat and Dr. Westbrook took the other one across from her. He ran a hand over a smooth, shaved head. She wondered how he’d look with even a fine fuzz and decided he probably kept it shaved for the same reason she styled her potential punk lock out of the way: to project authority. She probably had an ally in this man who no doubt saw the same carefulness in her own appearance.

“Still, she’s agitated,” he said, unaware of Aurora’s assessments. “Apparently, after she dyed her hair, she tried to look for her ‘pony friends’ and her roommates and parents became concerned. She abandoned her classes, her athletics and wandered around the city calling their names.” He shook his head, removing his glasses to give them a quick polish.

“Then she ended up here? For calling out names?”

“No. She ended up here for trying to sneak into a military base and steal a jet to ‘get a better view.’”

Typical Rainbow, Aurora thought. She clamped down on that thought, holding it for later.

Dr. Westbrook leaned against his chair. “Look, Miss Amaryllis. You’ll get some time. I’ll have Millar outside in case it gets hairy. And it probably will. You’re the first person she talked to and got excited about. She actually spoke during group therapy last week. So, I’m willing to go with Dr. Langstrom’s favor. But only so far.”

Aurora nodded, the picture of the understanding student.

Dr. Westbrook unclipped a radio from his belt and raised it to his lips. “Okay, bring her down.”

They waited in amicable silence as Aurora brought out a pad and notebook. When the door opened, she rose with Dr. Westbrook.

The rainbow-haired girl came in, wary. When she saw Aurora, her eyebrows went up.

“Okay, Iris,” Dr. Westbrook said in a soothing voice. “I believe you know Aurora here?”

“Yep,” ‘Iris’ said. She raised her chin in greeting. Aurora waved back with a smile.

“We’re trying something new. If this works, maybe it can happen more often.”

‘Iris’ nodded, watching Dr. Westbrook’s shoulder.

“Okay,” he said. Turning to Aurora, he nodded. “I’ll leave you two to it.”

The door clicked behind him and the two girls were left alone.

“So...” Rainbow said, shifting from foot to foot.

“Air Force base, huh?”

Rainbow Dash laughed softly. “Yeah, well... I wanted to find you guys.”

“Let’s talk about that,” Aurora said, sitting. She pulled her briefcase onto the table and looked at Rainbow. “Let’s talk about... Equestria.” She flipped a piece of white paper onto the table. On it was a crude drawing of a castle with mountains in the distance and little colorful ponies in front.

Rainbow smiled.

At first, Aurora didn’t take notes, as she wanted to engender trust. Just absorb the patient, see if they’re being honest. She couldn’t help it though. Everything Rainbow said was True somehow. True in a way she hadn’t felt since she looked through her first microscope.

“And you beat us. Without even trying! Man, did I feel lame. Applejack was cool about the after-race though.”

“Applejack,” Aurora said, flitting up through her notes. “She’s the- The farm pony, right?”

Rainbow sighed and dropped her head to the table. “C’mon Twilight, this isn’t hard. Just- You know, just remember already!”

Aurora shook her head as she flipped through her notes. She was on her third page. “It’s all very compelling and I’m most fascinated that we would be so synchronized-”

Rainbow slammed her hand on the table, making Aurora start.

She rubbed it, looking grouchy. “Sorry, but if you kept going you’d be in full egghead mode and we don’t have time for that.”

“We don’t?”

“Twilight, you’re the smart one. I went to bed on a cloud and woke up under a feather comforter on a dorm-room mattress and didn’t remember who I was for a month! A month! That can’t be good. That’s like... Discord’s gone wrong again. Or- or Crystal Empire stuff! Big time magic. Maybe even as big as Celestia.” She snapped her fingers. “Oh man, that’s right. This could all be a Changeling Queen thing couldn’t it?”

As Rainbow looked at her expectantly, casual and certain, Aurora realized that she was running on faith. Not answers. Not real Truth. The microscope of her youth verified and clarified. What this Rainbow girl offered was... What was it really? Validation? Justification for her eleven year old self? And what justification was that?

No. No. Something this girl said hit her in the gut and Aurora didn’t listen to her gut. She had lost her objectivity on this. She hadn’t lost the cold, absolute clinical objectivity some in her community advocated. She had lost the subtle distance that let her see where her desires ended and the patient’s began that let her empathize while still being able to help. Just because it was good for Aurora to hear these stories again, to make her feel like she wasn’t as lonely...

She blinked. This was turning out to be more than she could take. “No. I’m sorry, but... No.”

“Twilight?” Rainbow said.

Aurora started flipping her notepad back into order and gathering the pictures. “This was just... Just the stress. I am very sorry Miss Speede. I think I did more damage than-”

“Don’t call me that!” the rainbow-haired girl snapped.

Aurora froze. The rainbow-haired girl took a few deep breaths and reached out, taking Aurora’s hand. “I don’t care if you look like this. I don’t care if you think you’re crazy and I’m crazy, but don’t call me by somepony else’s name. You know who I am, Twilight. I’m your friend. All the way through, no matter what.”

Aurora looked down at the hand that held her. She looked into the other girl’s eyes. And she Remembered.

Loyalty. If it was in her power, Rainbow Dash never left another pony behind. When Nightmare Moon tried to get her to leave the other ponies at the bridge, she laughed at the act. When Discord tried to corrupt her, the worst he could do was shift her loyalties- sending her home to Cloudsdale to “save” everypony else. She stood by her friends when Gilda tried to drag her away. She searched harder than anypony in the group when Applejack had disappeared after that storm. Rainbow Dash was loyal to a fault.

Aurora blinked. She felt dizzy and put her free hand on the table. Where had all that come from? She was insightful and creative sure, but... She turned, looking at Rainbow and saw her maroon eyes, shining with hope and familiarity.

“Rainbow?” Aurora whispered.

The human pegasus grinned broadly. “Hey Twi. Welcome back.”

“It’s... It’s a lot,” Aurora said, sitting down. Her hand was still in Rainbow’s, who had moved to sit on the table near Aurora. Or was it Twilight now? She felt a chasm open up that she hadn’t gazed into since she was a child.

“Yeah. I only got my blue first. Took me another day or two to get my full mane back.”

“Huh?”

Rainbow sighed and with no regard for Aurora’s personal space, reached behind her head and undid the simple bun. Aurora’s hair cascaded down and Rainbow grabbed a bit and brought it around for Aurora to see better.

It was a dark pink sitting next to an almost imperceptible dark indigo as it faded into Aurora’s natural black locks. Aurora blinked rapidly.

“I don’t know much, but I do know as soon as I remembered who I was, I stopped looking totally like this Iris girl.” She released the the hair. “Didn’t get my wings back though,” she added with a derisive snort.

Aurora reached a hand up to her forehead and thought she felt something. She was supposed to have something on her forehead...

“I had a horn,” Aurora whispered.

“Yeah, so I bet Applejack and Pinkie Pie are gonna be the hardest to convince. Earth ponies have a lot in common with these human things.”

Aurora just stared. Rainbow started to move, but felt her hand snag. The grip that held her was iron tight. Looking back to Aurora, she saw the girl’s face was stricken, but determined.

“Don’t. Don’t let go of me,” Aurora said quietly, hotly. “That’ll bring in the doubt and I can’t have that right now.”

“Okay,” Rainbow said, moving back to be near Twilight.

Brow furrowed, Twilight sank into thought. Rainbow noticed, like she had her own new human form, that Twilight didn’t look bad. Dark hair, brown skin (not as dark as Dr. Westbrook’s though), and angular, elegant features. If Twilight was going to look like a human, this seemed like a human she could be. She wasn’t as cool looking as Rainbow’s human, but Twilight was more for thinking anyway.

After a quiet minute, Twilight’s eyebrows rose and Rainbow smiled. She knew when the egghead had an idea.
~
Aurora Amaryllis left the institute shortly after.

Iris Speede went to the public space. She stared out her window. She was quiet, save for a song she hummed under her breath. It wasn’t from Equestria, it was from here on Earth, but she liked it all the same.

“We are the champions,” Rainbow Dash whispered in melodic tones. “My friends... And we’ll keep on fighting, till the end.”
~
One week after she’d spoken with “Iris Speede,” Aurora Amaryllis appeared in Dr. Westbrook’s office with a casefile and a bright expression. She wasn’t wearing her best this time, merely in gray slacks and matching jacket over a pale violet blouse. She didn’t need to be wearing her best clothes because her best efforts were in Westbrook’s hands.

“I’d much prefer she stay here, where she can be monitored,” Dr. Westbrook said, looking over the file.

“Look, her mandatory evaluation was up two weeks ago,” Aurora said, pointing to the line in the file. “You reported she was healthy but couldn’t sign off on her as she was ‘agitated.’ She seemed fine with me.”

Dr. Westbrook frowned. Aurora could tell he didn’t like this. The knit between his brows said he didn’t like this a lot. But, Iris had opened up since Aurora’s last visit. Aurora had called in a favor with Mary and found out Iris interacted more and was definitely more outgoing now.

She understood his hesitation. Under normal circumstances, she’d share them. These weren’t normal circumstances though. His concerns weren’t going to matter.

“I can’t sign off on this Miss Amaryllis,” Dr. Westbrook said with finality.

“Actually, you don’t have to,” Aurora said, maybe just a little too brightly.

He looked up, his eyes sharp.

“You just have to sign off on my monthly reports of her condition. I have my master’s and my counselor’s license. I can handle someone of Miss Speede’s condition. I cannot make medication or lifestyle calls, but I can be overseen by a doctor familiar with her condition. I can do that with my department’s head, Dr. Prenderghast, who spent last week on this case and said he could pick up where the hospital left off... Or I can do it through you.” Aurora settled in her chair and shared a friendly smile. “Frankly, I’d prefer it be you.”

Dr. Elias Westbrook looked over his glasses at Aurora. Friendly smile holding, Aurora ignored the flare of ego that told her she had just outmaneuvered not only an adult, but a doctor. She could see the gears turning in his head and they were gears that turned to Aurora’s favor.

Dr. Westbrook could be thinking: Iris should have an opportunity outside these walls.

Or if he was just being pragmatic: One less mouth to feed was one less worry on his plate.

Eventually, he leaned back, taking off his glasses to clean them. Resetting them, he said, “If I may be frank, Miss Amaryllis?”

“It’s your house, sir.”

“You are a very frightening woman and I mean that as a compliment.”

“I’m just being thorough, Dr. Westbrook.”
~
Outside the institute, Rainbow Dash leaped into the air, punching a fist triumphantly.

“Whoo!” she crowed out. When she landed, she spun on a heel and embraced Aurora firmly. “Twi. You’re a genius! I thought I was gonna be in there forever!”

“I was just thorough,” Aurora said with a blush.

“Whatever. What’s our next move?” Rainbow said, releasing the other girl, who wobbled a bit. Aurora wasn’t used to such... Exuberant displays of physical contact.

“We get in the car, go home, and think about our next move,” Aurora said, approaching her dark blue Kia hatchback.

“Oh. Uh, yeah, that works. Gonna be long?”

“We’re still going to look for your friends. Don’t worry.”

Rainbow cocked her head, then a smile. “They’re your friends too, Twilight. You’ll see.”

Aurora made noncommittal noises as she opened the doors and got into the driver’s seat. She still was sorting out how much she was sold on all this.

After their meeting, a lot of the certainty she’d had while holding Rainbow’s hand had faded to trepidation and worry. Was she doing the right thing? Then she’d look at the pink hair in the mirror. She tried dying it back that night, but she couldn’t get it to bleach right and at best only lightened the shade of pink and purple.

Such evidence suggested Rainbow’s story was true and she and Aurora shared something. It also suggested Aurora didn’t know the first thing about dying her hair properly and was stressed out. Still, she went through with the plan because, well, because Rainbow Dash, or Iris Speede, or whoever she thought she was, just needed some guidance, at most.

She definitely didn’t need institutionalization. Aurora was very certain of that much.

Rainbow certainly looked healthier now that she was out from behind the facility’s walls. The institute hadn’t been oppressive, per se, but someone like Rainbow Dash needed to be outside. She needed to have her freedoms to feel like she was healthy. She certainly looked better in the jeans and sky-blue t-shirt covered by a brown leather jacket that looked like it had seen better days. Her sprawl of rainbow hair glistened in the sun, though still a little damp from a brief shower.

As Aurora started the car, while she was dubious of some of her reasons, she couldn’t argue with the results. Just getting Rainbow out of the institute was a good move.

Idling at the intersection that cut through the small college town near the institute, Aurora spoke up, breaking the amicable silence. “While we’ll work out a plan back at my dorm, I was wondering- do you have any more information on the other people- er, ponies?”

Rainbow arched an eyebrow. “Well... What did you wanna know?”

“You couldn’t have been serious about flying to find them, right?”

“You know a better way to cover ground and see a bunch of people than from the air?”

“But you said they were ponies. If I’m anything to go by, you probably wouldn’t even recognize them.”

“I recognized you.”

Aurora went silent, her momentum fizzling. “Ah, hrm.”

“Anywho, I got you now so it shouldn’t be a big deal now.”

“What?”

Rainbow reached down and reclined the seat back. Folding her arms behind her head, she shot Aurora a confident smirk. “C’mon Twilight, you’re like... The center or something. You found us all before. I’m sure you’ll do it again. Just gotta... Speed it up. Somehow.”

Aurora’s brow knit in consternation. She was getting a little tired of Rainbow’s presumptiveness. Glancing over at the girl, she said, “Look, finding people is a tricky business. Especially when you don’t have a name, description or anything but vocation and general attitude to go on. While I may be like Twilight in many ways, we can’t guarantee this will be the same for the others.” She took her eyes off the road to stare down Rainbow. “This will be a lot of work, Rainbow. I don’t want you to think we’re just going to run into all your friends again.”

“Pedestrian,” Rainbow said casually.

Aurora looked up and slammed on the brakes just as an Amazon of a woman passed through the crosswalk. She hopped back and scowled at Aurora and Rainbow.

As Aurora gazed at her, the strange sense of familiarity she’d gotten off of Rainbow slammed into her full force again.

The girl was easily over six feet. And from the way she held herself to the look of her arms rippling beneath rolled up sleeves, every bit of it was muscle.

Her face was more characteristic than attractive with a stubborn jaw and a nose that had been broken a few times. Her eyes snapped with fire and her long, dusky brown hair was kept under a brown stetson, which she angled up to better glare at the girls. Dressed in a brown/orange-plaid work shirt and jeans, Aurora wouldn’t have been surprised to see cowboy boots beneath those jeans.

“Y’all should watch where you’re goin’!” she hollered in a thick Southern accent. Slamming the car with a callused hand, Aurora worried she may have dented the hood.

Aurora mouthed her apology and the girl walked on, confident in her stride.

“Follow that cowpoke,” Rainbow said with a wicked grin.

“Sorry?” Aurora said.

“The girl who just hit your car. Follow her.”

“Why?”

Rainbow turned to Aurora, her excited grin still in place. “‘Cause I think you almost ran over Applejack.”

Chapter 2

It took half a minute to find a parking space near the sidewalk. While Aurora dithered with getting money in the meter, Rainbow was already waving her arm wildly and shouting out.

“Hey! AJ!”

The tall cowgirl turned and as her eyes locked on the rainbow-haired girl running at her, her expression softened in curiosity, then scowled slightly in recognition.

“Oh, it’s you.”

Rainbow brightened as she jogged up. As a human, Applejack sure was tall. She had to be a whole two hooves higher than Rainbow. Rainbow hoped she’d forget about that when they got back to Equestria where she was just a few hairs taller than the pegasus.

“Hi! Wow. That worked? Your name is Applejack?”

The slight scowl gave way to a brow knit in slight confusion. “My... Last name’s Apple. What’s this about? Who are you?”

Rainbow snorted at the last name, but rebounded. “Well I’m Rainbow Dash and this-” Turning, she saw Twilight jogging up slowly. Rainbow sighed. Even as this person, Twilight was always the egghead and moved at a sensible speed. “She’s Twilight Sparkle.”

“Aurora,” Twilight said. Rainbow scowled at the girl.

AJ passed her gaze over the two. They weren’t trying to run her over now and were being downright friendly, so she decided to just ignore the hippy-dippy names and the near-hit. Besides, she had a cousin named Braeburn. That was always a kick at reunions. Though, if she was being real honest with herself, the two girls looked kinda familiar.

“Pleasure. I’m Ashley. AJ, if ya like. Have we met? You look mighty familiar, though I think I’d remember hair like that.”

“Well, I’m pretty unforgettable,” Rainbow said, preening. “But, do you have a minute?”

AJ pulled her phone from her pocket, checked the clock, and bobbed her head. “Well... I gotta be back at the farm...” She looked at the earnest expression on Rainbow’s face and sighed. “Ah what the hell. So long as you’re not selling bibles or Amway, I can talk.”

Settling in a wide stance, she folded her arms and relaxed in the center of the sidewalk. The light pedestrian traffic flowed about the trio.

“Okay, well first off have you-” Twilight or “Aurora” or whoever she called herself put a hand over Rainbow’s mouth.

“If you’d let me?”

Rainbow rolled her eyes and nodded.

The darker-skinned girl smiled and nodded. She looked up at AJ and AJ waited patiently. The Aurora/Twilight girl seemed the smarter of these two. Definitely more well-mannered.

“So, as she said, her name is Rainbow Dash and I’m Twi-Aurora Amaryllis. We’re trying to track down some people. Rainbow thinks you look like one of the people we’re trying to find.”

“Really?”

Aurora nodded. “Yes. So just a few quick questions, if possible?”

AJ shrugged. This was getting pretty interesting- she’d bite.

“First, what are your thoughts on ponies?”

AJ scratched the back of her neck. “Um. Good for kid rides? Had one when I was younger. She was sweet. Called her...” AJ frowned, her brow pulling together. What had she called that thing? She’d thought the world of that pony.

“Applejack?” Rainbow prompted.

AJ blinked. She was right. How about that.

“Yeah. Wow. I haven’t thought about her in years.” She laughed, shaking her head, then froze. “Wait. No, that’s not true. I been dreamin’ about her lately. She’s wearin’ my hat in the dream and she bucks apples off... Trees?”

AJ blinked rapidly this time. Something was bothering her. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but it was real important.

As AJ tried to get her brain up to speed, she saw the Aurora girl shoot a glance at Rainbow, a furrowed expression of skepticism and disbelief on her face. The Rainbow girl just looked smug. AJ blinked at her and realized she wanted to slap the look off. Only in play, mind. Rainbow just needed to be taken down a peg from time to time not... Where had that come from?

“Uh...” AJ put a hand to her head. Her cheeks flushed and she felt dizzy, like when she’d been in the field too long on one of the hot summer days without paying attention to her water.

Aurora placed a guiding hand on her arm and walked AJ to a wall she could lean against and catch her breath. Sliding to sit on the sidewalk, AJ tried to get her breathing under control. Sweat dotted her brow and upper lip.

“Are you okay?” Aurora said. Her voice was suddenly real familiar. Where had AJ...?

“Oh, forget her. She’s just gonna wimp out like always.”

“Now you wait just a gol-darn minute here Rainbow Dash!” AJ snapped. “My brain may be cooking like grease on a griddle, but that don’t mean I can’t whup your tail right here!”

AJ blinked. Once. And she Remembered.

Aurora stared in amazement as AJ’s hair faded from a dusky brunette to a light, sandy blond and the dusting of freckles across her nose became impressively prominent.

Rainbow cocked a smile. “Y’know Twilight, I think I should take over the egghead work. I’m really showing you up here.”
~
In a nearby coffee shop, Applejack accepted the warm cider Twilight had purchased for her. The familiarity of the flavor calmed her down considerably.

“Yeah, you’re gonna be twitchy for a while,” Rainbow said, sipping on a soda. “I thought my head was gonna fly off after I got my colors back.”

“Feels like I just got dragged into the Everfree forest for a close up with every scary-lookin’ critter at once,” Applejack muttered, wiping her brow.

“Doing okay otherwise?” Twilight asked.

Applejack nodded. “Could wish for better company,” she said with a smirk at Rainbow, who smirked back. “But I couldn’t ask for better friends. Thanks for nearly runnin’ me over y’all. Can’t believe I forgot everything.”

“We all did. Twilight’s still kinda clueless.”

“Aurora,” Twilight said.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “See?”

Applejack shook her head and furrowed her brow at Twilight. “Look, sugarcube, I know you’re all about your book smarts and all, but sometimes you gotta trust what you can see with your own two eyes.”

“What did I see?” Twilight retorted stiffly. “Your hat could have hidden most of your hair’s color in its shade.”

“How do you account for my cutie mark poppin’ up outta nowhere?”

“You could have gotten that tattoo ages ago.” After an awkward moment, Twilight added, “And you two didn’t have to show those off in the bathroom. I’d take your word for it.”

Applejack looked at Rainbow Dash, the pair sharing the same thought: Typical Twilight.

“Well, at least Rainbow’s on her game.” She slugged from the cider again and sighed. Even though she was on two legs and looked quite different, she was feeling a bit more like herself. “Woo. Makes my head spin though. I can remember the Ponyville farm and bucking, but I remember this farm and picking too. Why d’you think that is?”

Rainbow shrugged, making bubbles in her soda. “That’s Twilight’s-”

“Aurora.”

“Department,” she continued, ignoring the girl’s pinched expression. “All I know is we gotta get back to Equestria as soon as possible.”

“How d’you know that?” Applejack asked, hunkering forward.

Rainbow shrugged. “Gut feeling.”

“So this whole rush you’re on is just a gut feeling?” Twilight said dryly.

“Well, Rainbow works fast,” Applejack butted in before Rainbow could add gas to Twilight’s fire. “Wouldn’t surprise me none though. You’re here, Rainbow’s here, I’m here. Willing to bet the other girls are too. Things get bad and it tends to hit us all at the same time. Besides...” Smiling easily, she leaned back. “Think I got us a line on Fluttershy.”

“You do? That fast?” Rainbow said. “Who?”

Twilight just raised a curious eyebrow.

“The Apple farm I work for has an animal team for our critters. And one of the docs has a girl who’s paying her way through vet school. Real shy one who gets on better with our critters than we do. Sound familiar?” Applejack said with a knowing grin.

“Gimme two minutes with her,” Rainbow said, cracking her knuckles. “If she isn’t our Fluttershy, I don’t know who else she could be.”
~
Two hours later, following a phone call and a bumpy back-roads ride, Aurora was looking on as a pink-haired girl hugged Rainbow Dash closely, sobbing like she’d found her long-lost sister.

“Warms your heart, don’t it?” Applejack said quietly.

“Were they always so close?” Aurora asked.

Applejack looked at Aurora with one eye and turned back to the scene before them. “Reckon it’s more of a first face thing. If I’d been standing in front, I’d be givin’ that filly as much TLC as Rainbow there.”

“Hm,” Aurora said.

“Still not sold after watching a girl’s hair turn bright pink?”

“I don’t know what I saw. I mean, it lends weight to Rainbow’s point and definitely suggests a connection between us all. But...”

“You’re still not hauling the whole wagon, huh?”

Aurora looked up at Applejack. “I don’t know how you made the jump.”

Applejack shrugged. “Well, Rainbow and me go by our gut more than anythin’ else. Fluttershy... Well maybe she just didn’t want to hurt anypony’s feelings. Someone tells Fluttershy she’s their long lost friend, we saw her give it a thought and maybe that’s all she needed. But you? You were slow to warm up to us in the first place, sugarcube. Not surprising you’d be more nervous than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.”

Aurora watched as the pink-haired girl who now responded to Fluttershy, wiped her nose on her sleeve then laughed softly with Rainbow. They all knew each other, that much was clear. After an afternoon of this, Aurora had gone from one confused patient to three certain people. Three certain people who all knew one another and insisted they knew her.

She agreed they were familiar, comfortable even, but that couldn’t be enough. She had to be certain. From head to hoof- er, toe. She needed to be certain she wasn’t just losing her mind and being dragged into a group delusion that just sounded more welcoming than the lonely life she’d had before.

That was actually something she’d never really considered till she met Rainbow. Rainbow who acted like she knew Aurora. Rainbow who was so comfortable that she’d hold a hand or touch her hair. The whole affair had awoken Aurora to the fact that outside a handful of childhood acquaintances and professional peers, she really did keep mostly to herself. It hadn’t been a problem before, but was it now coming to a head? Was some repressed youthful loneliness threatening to bust out? Had all it taken was the promise of simple friendship to cast her rational mind in doubt?

The implications lead nowhere she liked. Aurora shivered.

Applejack noticed. Coughing, the larger girl said, “Uh, just so you know, Twi...” She rested a hand that covered practically all of Aurora’s shoulder. Her voice then became honest, familiar. “We think you’re worth waiting for.”

“Applejack? Twilight?”

The two girls turned and Aurora regarded Fluttershy. She was clad in a light yellow sweater that seemed so voluminous, it threatened to eat the pink-haired girl up. Aurora almost didn’t notice the ankle-length, cream skirt and Keds shoes the sweater was so bright.

On top of the obscuring clothing, Fluttershy’s body language was incredibly withdrawn and reserved. Yet, the hesitations gave her a very noticeable grace. Aurora would be very surprised if this shy girl hadn’t taken ballet from a family friend and grown up with many imaginary ones. Maybe some of them were from Equestria.

“Hey, Fluttershy,” Applejack said, freeing her hand from Twilight.

Fluttershy leaned against Applejack, hugging her tightly, but without the tears she shed with Rainbow Dash. She came up to just under Applejack’s nose, which still put her as taller than Rainbow or Aurora. Rainbow strolled up and Aurora could see the spot on her shoulder where Fluttershy had cried on. It was a surprisingly large stain of tears.

“It’s so good to see you. Even if you’re not yourself. Or I’m not myself.” The girl’s eyebrows, which Aurora noticed were also pink, came together and she raised a delicate hand in thought. Aurora wondered how someone so frail-looking could handle veterinarian work. “Gosh. This is kind of confusing.”

“Tell me about it,” Rainbow groaned. “And the only pony who could tell us anything still thinks we’re nuts. Right, Twi?”

“Confused,” Aurora countered. “Not ‘nuts’ Rainbow. Though I’m feeling confused myself.”

Fluttershy approached Aurora and stood at a respectful, but close distance. “You really don’t remember Equestria? Your library?”

Aurora’s expression fell into apologetic empathy. “Sorry, no.”

“That must be hard on you. Poor thing.” Fluttershy reached out and pulled Aurora close. Aurora went stiff at the hug, but as Fluttershy rubbed her back, she eased and tentatively raised her hands to reciprocate. “We’ll get it figured out. I’m sure this must be very scary for you too.”

“You have no idea,” Aurora muttered.

“Oh, but I do,” she said, breaking the hug to look into Aurora’s face earnestly. Aurora couldn’t help but smile at how willing the slight girl was to sympathize. “It’s so much nicer to know that in addition to my animal friends, I have my closest pony friends now too.”

“You didn’t have friends before?”

“Well... I had people I knew back when I...” Fluttershy’s expression went vacant as memory rushed through her.

“Uh... Fluttershy?” Aurora waved her hand in front of the girl’s face.

“Oh! OH!” She pushed back from Aurora entirely and started hopping excitedly from foot to foot. “I- I- I think I know what happened to Rarity!”

The girls all stared at Fluttershy, jaws agape.

“Alright. I’m callin’ it,” Applejack said breaking the silence. “This all just got downright creepy.”
~
“You okay back there, uh, AJ?” Aurora said.

“I’ll manage,” the larger girl replied, her knees practically in her face.

True, Aurora drove a four-door, but she rarely made use of all the seats and had to throw books and spare research materials into the trunk to make room. Hers was the only vehicle that would fit everypony- everybody. She meant everybody.

After Fluttershy’s revelation about Rarity, the group opted to pile into one car. With Rarity being all the way downtown, it would just cut down on possibly losing anyone. Fluttershy rode a bike, and Applejack’s pick-up was only good for hauling a lot of people on backroads. Rainbow didn’t drive, so she was right out. Aurora was left with the only car that could support multiple people on a trip into the city.

“You know, you’re a very good driver, Twilight. I normally don’t like being in cars, but it’s very soothing with you,” Fluttershy said. Out of the corner of her eye, Aurora could see Fluttershy rested like she was at high tea with a seatbelt.

“Till you distract her,” Rainbow said from the back.

“Not happening this time,” Aurora retorted. “We’re on the highway and I have impeccable highway driving skills.”

Rainbow snorted. “Even if you don’t know it, you’re our Twilight.”

Again, Aurora’s expression cooled at Rainbow’s presumptions.

“Look, can you call me Aurora? Aurora. My name? I mean, I’m all for... AJ and Rainbow and, and Fluttershy here, but my name is Aurora.”

The car became silent.

“Um. Doesn’t, um, Aurora mean Twilight?” Fluttershy said, a little quieter than before.

“What?” Aurora practically twisted out of her seat to lock eyes on the girl.

“Oh, it was just, um, yesterday, I was, you see, reading a baby name book, because we had a calf and she was about to birth twins and I wanted to pick out good names and I liked Aurora because it meant Dawn and pre-dawn and- And Ithoughtthatwasprettyandthat’sall.”

Stunned, Aurora turned her attention back to driving. Well, she turned most of her attention back to driving.

“No way. No freaking way...” she muttered.

“Pre-dawn. Y’know... Twilight,” Rainbow said from behind Fluttershy, smugness oozing from her every word.

Aurora’s jaw clenched and she jerked the wheel. The car veered hard into traffic and the passengers were tossed about in the process. Fluttershy pinned herself in the corner of her seat, eyes wide in perfect terror. AJ grabbed at the handle above her door as Rainbow loosed a “Whoooooooa!”

Crossing three lanes of traffic and earning one blared horn, Aurora slowed and skidded to a halt on the shoulder. In the car, Rainbow had slid around until she was on her back, Applejack had managed to brace herself with her long legs and Fluttershy had locked into an impressive rictus of limbs, ensuring she was going nowhere. Aurora was shaking, hands white knuckled on the wheel.

The girls’ breathing was the only noise. Except for Fluttershy, who seemed to be sufficing on some inner reservoir.

“Twilight?” Applejack ventured.

“My NAME is Aurora. Hetal. Amaryllis! And I would appreciate it if everypony in this car had the decency to refer to me as such!”

Silence descended in the car again, save for Aurora’s heated breathing.

“You said ‘everypony,’” Rainbow pointed out.

“Rrrrrrr!” Aurora roared and kicked the door open.

After attempting to rise while still buckled in, she gasped, then undid the belt. The wind and roar of the cars was near deafening outside, and she went around the back of the car to stumble through the grass. She ignored the ruin she was making of her good shoes, as well as the scrub that tore at her third best pair of pants. That didn’t matter. What did was getting away from the craz- Confused. Confused people.

“Smooth one, Rainbow,” Applejack growled. She unbuckled her belt and waited for a semi to pass before she exited the car and went around its side to follow the driver.

She found Twilight (she’d call her Aurora out loud if she wanted, but this was Twilight, alright) sitting in grass looking at a copse of trees, ignoring the world.

“Hey Sugarcube.”

“Go. Away,” Aurora said flatly.

Applejack looked around, rubbing the back of her neck. “Um, sorry. Can’t. Your car and all.” Settling her hands in her pockets, she tried a half-smile. “Mind if I sit instead?”

Aurora sighed and scowled away from the cowgirl.

“Thanks.”

The two sat in the dirt, Twilight radiating spite and Applejack picking at the grass. She found a long shoot and yanked it free to chew on. Glancing back, she saw that Rainbow had succeeded in talking Fluttershy out of the car and away from the freeway. They stood a good ways back though, obviously waiting on Applejack and Twilight.

Applejack sighed. She couldn’t think of anything that didn’t sound like a repeat of what she told Twilight earlier. To her dismay, Twilight started sniffling, then gave way to crying.

Oh lands. She was really out of her element now.

Just as she tentatively reached out to rub Twilight on the back, Fluttershy just... Appeared and had already encircled the other girl in her slender, fluffy-sweater-covered arms.

Applejack smiled. Fluttershy could be scared from the tip of her mane to the bottom of her hooves and she’d still rush in if she heard a friend in need. Applejack eased back, rose, and gave the pair some space.

“There, there,” Fluttershy whispered. “Let it all out. I know. I know. This is all very scary, isn’t it?”

Aurora hiccuped and nodded, her face buried in the soft, sweater field of Fluttershy’s chest.

“And you look like you’ve never done anything like this before, have you?”

Aurora shook her head against Fluttershy.

“And Rainbow Dash and Applejack aren’t being sensitive to that at all, are they?”

Aurora nodded firmly, rocking the slighter girl back.

“Then how about this- I can’t speak for them, but I’ll call you Aurora, okay? But can you be patient with me? I mean, you’re very much like my friend Twilight. She’s thoughtful and smart and always willing to help a friend, so I’m going to sometimes mix you up, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think you’re you.”

Aurora became quiet, then sniffed. She looked up and Fluttershy smiled benevolently down at her. Though Aurora hardly thought she warranted it with her snot-streamed face and red, puffy eyes.

In a rough, wet voice, she said, “She’s always willing to help a friend? Really?”

Fluttershy nodded sagely. “Oh yes. Twilight Sparkle is very kind. She just has a big mind to go with her big heart and they sometimes get mixed around.”

Aurora leaned against Fluttershy with a soft laugh and soaked in her assuring presence. “I feel really mixed up right now.”

She sniffed, rubbing away some of the phlegm.

“I feel like I’m lost. I haven’t thought about any of this stuff since I was a kid and now... Now I have three people saying they’re ponies and my friends.” She shook her head, then looked to Fluttershy pleadingly. “It goes against everything I understand, everything I knew, everything... Just- Everything!”

She breathed and closed her eyes.

After licking her lips, she said, “Yet, I believe you. I believe all of you. There is no doubt in my mind to what you’re saying. And I have no proof either.” She sighed, her head drooping again. “I just can’t reconcile the two thought processes yet.”

Fluttershy put a finger beneath Aurora’s chin and raised her up so she was grinning comfortingly into the other girl’s eyes.

“Then we’ll just have to take this one step at a time, okay?” the soft-spoken girl said. “And we’ll be here to help if you need us.”

Aurora sighed, not a dismissive noise this time, but a relaxation- a release of her tension. If nothing else, these three people were willing. And this one in particular was so... Kind. Yes. She was quite kind. Aurora told her so.

Fluttershy blushed, helping Aurora to her feet. “Oh, I just like to help where I can. Even if you’re not Twilight, you’re still a friend,” she replied.

“Thank you,” Aurora said and hugged Fluttershy firmly.

“You are most welcome,” Fluttershy responded.
~
Back at the car, Rainbow Dash got a very firm lecture from Fluttershy. Aurora watched in amazement as the brash and outspoken girl was cowed. More amazing was how stern Fluttershy now became. Her eyes, especially, looked like they were drilling through Rainbow’s thick attitude to drive a point home. Handling fiercer animals didn’t seem to be as far fetched, anymore, as Aurora saw the steel beneath all of Fluttershy’s silk.

Applejack simply nodded, accepting the new order of things and Fluttershy beamed once everyone was on the same page.

Aurora got back in the driver’s seat and took everyone to the Carousel Boutique. As she sought out a parking space that wouldn’t charge too much and wouldn’t have them hiking from ten blocks away, Fluttershy explained further how she was certain this was where Rarity was.

“I’d been going to college on a scholarship from my tribe-”

“Your what?” Rainbow asked.

“Oh, I’m Hopi on my mother’s side,” Fluttershy responded.

“Aren’t they in Arizona? Come on!” Aurora said to the car that stole the spot she had signaled.

“Yeah,” Fluttershy said, pulling into herself a bit. “Mom’s not real popular with grandma because she moved so far away.”

“You were going to college...?” Applejack prompted.

“Oh! Yes. And while there, I was friends with a fashion major and she asked if I could model for her from time to time.”

“Sounds like Rarity to me,” Rainbow said. “Hang on Tw-Aurora.” Rainbow got out of the car and jogged over as a car left a spot. Before any other vehicle could claim it, Rainbow spread her legs and propped her hands on her hips, scowling at the world. She beckoned Aurora to the claimed space.

“Could be any fashion gal y’ask me,” Applejack said as Rainbow gave a very rude gesture to a guy in a sleek, black car who honked his horn at the girls.

“Maybe. That’s possible,” Fluttershy answered. “But... Well. After a shoot, she’d take me to the spa in addition to paying for my time. We do it every now and then and I sometimes do local work for her. She says her brand will be going national any day now.”

Before Applejack could say any more, Rainbow thumped on the roof of the car and pointed. Sticking her head out the window, Applejack followed the girl’s direction to the Carousel Boutique and let out a whistle. “I take it back. That’s gotta be Rarity. Or she’s got a close twin sister we never knew about.”

The Carousel Boutique was nestled in the high end quarter of downtown, across from a cafe and next to a stationary store. Large, open windows with mannequins draped in gorgeous dresses that had hints of sequins and jewelry at their hems proclaimed the craftsmanship from down the street and the red and white coloring of the overhead sign and the outer walls made for a festive feel. As Aurora gazed up at it, she felt like she’d been here before, though the only reason she had ever gone downtown was to visit the city library.

“Wow. Even as a human, you are pretty as a picture Fluttershy,” Applejack said admiring a life-sized photo of Fluttershy that had been arranged in amphitheater around one dress. In it, Fluttershy turned demurely to show off the dress’ exquisite low-cut back and the accent embroidery at the hips.

Fluttershy blushed. “Oh. Oh, wow. I haven’t... I didn’t know she’d put that up already.”

“And it still doesn’t do you a lick of justice if you ask me,” came a cultured and refined voice.

The girls all turned to see a young lady with coiffed, jet black hair and a cream skirt-suit, white heels, red purse and large sunglasses with red frames. She removed the frames, revealing her glowing skin and Asian features. She looked radiant and poised. She wasn’t like the natural, quiet grace that Fluttershy possessed, but a powerful presence brought by character. She swept her gaze across all of the girls but mostly she focused on Fluttershy.

“Nova, darling, I love what you’ve done with your hair. I’d never have thought pink was your color, but now that I see it I can’t think of any better suited to you.”

Fluttershy blushed again and dithered.

“Oh come now. Hugs. It’s been so long after all.” The possible Rarity came in to embrace and soothe Fluttershy’s nerves with some well-placed strokes of the hair. Smiling, she leaned back to engage Fluttershy face-to-face. “All better?”

Fluttershy nodded.

“Good. Now, why don’t you introduce me to your friends and we can go inside? This suit is good, but with autumn being so chilly it’s not near enough and I’ve been holding back my new coat until the right date.”

The girls followed in obediently, though Applejack snorted as she brought up the rear. Inside was just as well furnished and inviting as the exterior. The walls were deep indigo, hung with mirrors and sitting was plentifully available. A girl, who may not have had the owner’s poise but made up for it in professionalism, sat at a small desk.

“Good afternoon Miss Yuzuki,” said the young girl, who Aurora was certain couldn’t be more than sixteen.

Miss Yuzuki sighed good-naturedly. “Terry, we are in fashion, darling. And these are friends. Keiko is fine.”

“Of course Miss Yuzuki,” the girl responded.

Keiko smirked at her and said, “Well, fetch some water. It’s the slow part of the day and I don’t have an appointment for another hour. I’d like to catch up and see who Nova’s brought to my doorstep.”

As Terry left, Keiko motioned all the girls to sit on one of the violet, plush sofas near one side of the store. “Lovely girl, an absolute gem, but if she stood any harder on formality she’d break it.”

Such assurances of levity seemed at odds with the woman who sat like a proper lady with her ankles tucked together and her skirt smooth. Leaning back to take stock of the assembled, Keiko smiled to Fluttershy.

“So. What brings you to my doorstep? Normally I have to track you down.”

Tucking a strand of long, pink hair behind an ear, Fluttershy still managed to hide half her face. “It’s... It’s a little, uh, strange.”

Keiko Yuzuki gave a dazzling smile and rested a friendly hand on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “My dear, I am fashion. I am the cutting edge of strange.”

As Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack identified themselves and explained their story, Keiko listened politely, though her face lost its pleasant understanding by degrees as each girl spoke.

“And you’re... Her therapist?” she said to Aurora, while pointing to Rainbow Dash.

Glancing at Rainbow, Aurora said, “It’d be more accurate to call me her caretaker.”

“Mmm,” Keiko said as Rainbow scowled at Aurora.

“I know this sounds...” Aurora looked at her friends and back to Keiko lamely. “You know, I don’t know how it sounds any more. I’m losing my objectivity. But, did any of what they said mean anything to you?”

Before Keiko could speak, Terry returned, bottles of water on a simple tray. Everyone accepted them with thanks and pleasantries. Keiko took hers last and smiled at her assistant.

“Thank you Terry,” Keiko said warmly. “Now, take a long lunch on me.”

Terry blanched. “You really shouldn’t do that Miss Yuzuki. We’re still-”

“Tut,” Keiko replied with a wink. “We’re fine enough. Go. Enjoy. And put up the ‘Closed’ sign on your way out.”

Terry held and looked at the assembled girls. Keiko’s face remained impassive and pleasant, but some subtle exchange happened between the women and Terry demurred, moving away. Within a few minutes the main light by the door was shut off and the assembled group had privacy. Keiko opened the first bottle.

“Well, I can safely say I had fantasies of ponies, like many girls my age,” Keiko said, her tone more informal than before. Aurora got the sense she’d just taken her hair out of a bun, psychologically speaking. “But I can’t say I thought of anything called... What did you say?”

“Equestria!” Rainbow said in exasperation.

Keiko gave a cool look to the rainbow-haired girl. She warmed it with a smile, but not a sincere one.

“Sorry,” she said. “Not familiar.”

“You’re lyin’,” Applejack said.

Keiko whipped her head around. “I beg your pardon?!”

The farmgirl leaned back, arms crossed, eyes sharp. “I’ve always been good at catchin’ a lie, Ra-ma’am. And I can tell you’re holding back on us.”

“Well I never!” Turning her diamond hard gaze away from Applejack, she cooled her ire and said hotly to Fluttershy, “Nova, I hope you don’t think it too forward of me, but your new friends are quite pushy.”

“Could you- Could you call me Fluttershy? If that’s not too much trouble?” Fluttershy asked, already cringing.

Keiko blinked. “Why?”

“It’s my name. Like I said.”

Keiko blinked again and her head dropped. “I think I must ask that you all leave, please.” Her voice was just above a whisper.

“What?” Rainbow shot.

“Leave! Please!” When her face came up, a burning needle of fury gleamed in her eyes.

“Let’s go, guys,” Aurora said before Applejack or Rainbow could rile the woman further. Filing them out the door, she saw Fluttershy try to put a hand on Keiko’s, who stole it away. Fluttershy flinched as if she’d been slugged.

Quietly, the frail girl rose and Aurora could see the tears in her eyes. “Fluttershy...” Aurora said, but the soft girl shook her head firmly and was out the door before Aurora could say anything else.

Aurora stood holding the door and watched Fluttershy lean into Rainbow with fresh tears, except these weren’t from joy. The tough, Rainbow-haired girl soothed her friend the best she could. Applejack added her hands to the effort and patted Fluttershy’s shoulder and back reassuringly. She glanced up at Aurora.

Licking her lips, Aurora closed the door.

“Miss Yuzuki?”

“Jewele,” the woman replied, staring at a dress.

Aurora was already walking and stopped, confusion on her face. “What?”

“My last name is actually Jewele.” Keiko rose and went to examine a mannequin wearing a stunning blue shift.

Aurora came up nearby so that the woman could see her, but wouldn’t feel threatened by her proximity.

“Try and sell yourself on that name though. Keiko Jewele. Sounds made up, doesn’t it? So pick a new last name, sure. It’s just for show. Just business.” Keiko folded her arms and turned.

Tired eyes looked back at Aurora. Tired eyes, which were set in a face that had been brought to life by willpower and determination. Keiko’s poise and beauty were still apparent, but she had somehow changed their direction with her sudden, naked honesty. “Names are a bit of a sore spot for me. Between ponies and Nova- Fluttershy....” Keiko sighed. “It was a bit much.”

Aurora nodded. “It is a bit much, I know.” She bit her lip, then plunged ahead. “And the worst part is it sounded familiar, right?”

Keiko’s mouth hardened to a firm line and she went perfectly still. Before Aurora could become tense herself, Keiko sagged and nodded, eyes closed.

“I get it,” Aurora said. “You’re in the middle of your life and then these girls show up and talk about this magical land and its all populated by... Ponies of all things. It sounds nice. If it was just a story or something we all saw in our childhood, it’d probably be a breath of fresh air.” Aurora rubbed her arm. “But they’re telling you you’re a part of it and that the stories are real and every part of you is saying, no, no, that’s wrong. That can’t be right. I’m me. I’ve worked hard to be me. I’ve done everything right. Except...”

“That’s not the truth,” Keiko said.

“Yeah,” Aurora said. “I can’t speak for you Miss Jewele, and while I haven’t gone all in...” Aurora looked at the few strands of pink hair that hung in her periphery. “I’m willing to listen. A part of me says it’s true, or at least, true enough. The rest of me just... Needs some more questions answered.”

Keiko went past Aurora and sat on one of the couches, leaning forward. Brow knit she exhaled. “Thank you for your candor...”

“Aurora,” Aurora laughed slightly.

“Aurora,” Keiko replied. “But I don’t know anything of Equestria or what these girls are speaking about. Yes, they all are familiar and I won’t lie that the names are...” She shook her head. “I’ve dreamt of fashion my entire life. Even when I was a little girl, I imagined going to grand balls in resplendent dresses.”

Aurora sat down across from Keiko, smiling. “Who didn’t?”

“You didn’t make yours I take it?”

“No, a friend made it for me in my dreams.”

“There you go then.”

“Of course, the girls all said that dream was real. The Grand Galloping Gala they called it.”

Keiko raised up slightly, intrigue and something else sparking in her eyes.

“And that Rarity, that’s who they said you were, made the dresses. Her own designs, and we were apparently a hit at a local fashion show.”

Keiko’s face slowly softened, her eyes becoming distant.

“They got a bit delayed when her sister-”

“Sweetie Belle,” Keiko said, dreamily.

“Yeah, that’s her name. Apparently she’s good friends with- Wait, what?”

“I was an only child,” Keiko went on, her voice lost. “I dreamed of having a little sister to play with. To dress up. To be... like apple pie...”

Aurora winced at a light that flashed behind Keiko. Then, she watched in open-mouthed amazement as a wave of royal purple cascaded through the other girl’s hair, curling at the edges expertly. Keiko’s eyes lit, turning from a mere forceful blue to a shining sapphire. As the eyes lit up, so did a smile.

“I remember!” Rarity said. “By Celestia’s mane, I Remember!”

Leaving Aurora on the sofa, gaping like a fish, Rarity ran to the door, yanking it open. Outside, Fluttershy was nestled in the crook of Rainbow Dash’s arm, while Applejack leaned on a parking meter.

Rarity spread her arms. “Girls!”

“Rarity?” they said in unison.

“Well it certainly isn’t Sapphire Shores!”

A ripple of laughter and Aurora turned to see four friends, huddle together in newfound discovery.

Chapter 3

“I feel absolutely wretched for the way I treated you,” Rarity said, serving tea.

“Oh, it’s all right, no harm done,” Fluttershy cooed, glad to see Rarity as her old self.

“Especially you, Fluttershy. As a lady, even in duress, my behavior was deplorable.”

“Aw, you were just feelin’ the sweat. We all went through it before we remembered who we were,” Applejack noted, glancing into the teacup with suspicion.

“I didn’t,” Rainbow said, draining her drink in one gulp.

Applejack and Rarity shared a look while Fluttershy hid behind her a sip of her tea.

Rarity beamed, pleased to be in mutual company. Out of the side of her eye, she saw the last of their group was still off to the side. “Is Miss Amaryllis, all right?”

Rainbow Dash turned over her shoulder to where Twilight Sparkle was still quiet and focused, sitting on a couch that faced away from the other girls. She’d been sitting that way since the minor light show that marked Rarity’s transformation to her usual chromatic self.

“Yo! Aurora! You good?”

Aurora blinked in response.

Rainbow turned around. “Yeah, she’ll be fine. She’s probably coming up with a reason your mane’s all purple now.”

“I will miss the black though,” Rarity noted, flipping her curls. “Such a good look for this body- very chic. Still! I know my colors and my royal purples are best on me.”

Aurora rose, and all the temporary humans looked up at her. She turned mechanically and stared beyond them.

“I have decided...” Aurora said in clipped tones. “I am unwell and possibly a sleeper agent in a nefarious scheme. I will take my leave of you now.”

She bowed like a wind-up doll. She only made two steps toward the door before Applejack and Rainbow Dash bodily seized her.

“Let go! Let go, let go, let go!!” Aurora screeched.

“Oh dear,” Rarity said as the three wrestled. “I do wish I had access to my horn. I could have been able to reproduce Twilight’s memory spell.”

Fluttershy cringed as Applejack managed to get Aurora on the floor and straddled her stomach. The contest was over quickly thanks to the larger girl’s superior muscle and heft.

“Now just calm down Sugarcube,” Applejack said, snatching a flailing arm.

“I will not calm down!” Aurora hissed. “And I’m not a sugarcube! Or a pony! Or a- a- Twilicious Snarkle!”

“Twilight Sparkle,” Rainbow corrected.

“Don’t say the name!” Aurora said and Rarity was convinced on the spot that this girl had to be Twilight. The sharp twitch at her eye, the way her hair was splaying out- Rarity had caught Twilight at her worst before, and this was definitely a fair human representation.

Still jerking about beneath Applejack, Aurora spat between clenched teeth: “Saying the name makes my heart sing and my heart shouldn’t be singing!”

The girls all shared a look.

Rarity cocked her hip and sighed, arms folding in thought. “If only Pinkie Pie were here...”

“What makes you-unf- say that? Sit still!” Applejack ordered. Rainbow slid atop Aurora’s legs to lock her down further.

“Well, last time Twilight was this worked up, I remember that Pinkie had a... Well a way with it.”

“Yeah, she’s real good with crazy stuff,” Rainbow said, hands on Aurora’s ankles.

“Stop saying crazy! You’re confused! I’m just confused!” Aurora insisted.

“Says the girl flailing around like nuts!” Rainbow shot back.

Aurora blinked. With a shudder, her rational thinking centers got back on board and she realized what she was doing. Stilling, she let her limbs go slack. Applejack smiled down at her.

“No more flailin’?”

Aurora shook her head, looking thoroughly admonished. Applejack rose off of her, but Rainbow remained in place.

“Rainbow...” Applejack said with a glare.

“You gonna run?” Rainbow said, eyes narrowed at Aurora.

“No, I’m not going to run, Rainbow Dash.”

Smile popping into place, Rainbow rose up. “Cool.” As Aurora started getting to her feet, Rainbow offered a hand. Aurora smiled and took the help.

Rainbow returned the smile and said, “Just so you know, the way you were wound up, you’d probably crash your car and that’d be way worse.”

Aurora blinked, processing further. Sighing, she shook her head in further admonishment of herself.

“Thank you. Both of you. I’m...” She looked at Rarity and shuddered.

“You’re a friend, Sugarcube,” Applejack said, slapping a powerful hand onto Aurora’s shoulder. Aurora winced under the affection. “We know it ain’t easy for ya, so we’re watchin’ your back where we can.”

Rarity and Fluttershy smiled from their seats, having stayed out of the physical altercation altogether. Rarity rose after setting her tea down and attended to Aurora’s hair. Using a brush she’d grabbed off a table, she worked through the frayed ends.

Rainbow tracked Rarity’s activity and her face lit as inspiration struck her.

“Hey, Rarity, do you know where Pinkie Pie is?” Rainbow asked, head cocked casually.

Rarity shook her head sadly. “I’m sorry, I don’t. Aurora, could you sit dear? Thank you. Why would I?”

“Aw, horseapples,” Rainbow muttered.

“We’ve been, ah, catching a handful of breaks,” Aurora said, smoothing her blouse. “The way things were going, it makes sense Rainbow would think you would lead us to the next place.”

Rarity finished putting Aurora back in order and smiled, satisfied. Returning to her seat next to Fluttershy, she sipped more tea.

“Sorry girls. Pinkie Pie and I only crossed paths so often in Ponyville. I can’t imagine how we’d meet as people.” Tapping the cup, she pointed her chin at Rainbow. “I’d think you were the best lead to her, Rainbow Dash. I mean, given all your shared... Jocularity.”

“Our what?”

“Your pranks,” Fluttershy said around a biscuit.

Rainbow frowned and perched on the back of one of the sofas. As she stroked her chin in thought, Terry returned.

“Hi Miss Yuzuki I-” She dropped her keys. “What’d you do to your hair?”

Everyone froze for a split second, eyes darting between each other, then Rarity launched in as if Terry had just wandered into conversation, nothing more.

“Like it?” Rarity said, turning her head for better appreciation. “It’s a bit dramatic, I know, but I really think it’s me.”

“Uh...” Applejack and Aurora caught the slight pink that hit the girl’s cheeks before she turned, coughing. “Sorry,” Terry squeaked. “It... Wow, it really is you, Miss Yuzuki.”

“Rarity, darling.”

“Pardon?”

“Talking with my friends here has given way to a brainstorm, my dear. First off, from now on, refer to me as... Rarity.” The girls all shared a raised eyebrow at the inflection on their friend’s name. “Next,” Rarity continued. “I want you to reschedule all of today and see about tomorrow’s appointments. There is work to be done and I shall require privacy.”

Terry grabbed her iPad and started quickly jotting notes. Aurora’s face wrinkled slightly at Rarity’s pronunciation of privacy as prihv-ah-see.

“Next, I know you that isn’t what is most comfortable for you, darling. Those shoes were clearly bought with only an interview in mind and that blouse- Tsk. We are in fashion, dear, not a temp agency. So starting next week, come in casual. If we need to spruce you up at all, we can do it on the spot.”

Terry blushed slightly as she took the last notes dutifully.

After a long moment, she looked up to see Rarity smiling grandly. “Well dear...? Might want to get to it.”

“Of course, Miss... Rarity.” Terry seemed to light up under the name almost as much as Rarity had. Diving behind her desk, she started making calls.

Rarity bent to fetch her purse and motioned the rest of the girls to the door. “When you’re done, you can lock up can’t you?”

“Yes ma’am!” Terry called from the phone.

“And you will put in that you did a full day’s work, mmm?”

“But Miss Yu-”

Rarity held up a finger with a good-humored warning smirk.

“Of course Miss Rarity,” Terry blushed, going to her work.

Rarity waved one last time and sighed after she clicked the door shut.

“Can you do that?” Fluttershy asked. “The last time we, I mean, Nova and Keiko went out, Keiko talked about how, uh, tight things were.”

“I am the boss, and as such, I may shower affection on my staff of one, if I choose,” Rarity said with a wink. “Besides, a lot has changed since the last we spa’d, my dear Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy blinked, curious and polite.

Rarity smiled in response, leading the girls to the relative privacy of a cafe a few blocks away. “Oh yes, my dear, it came through.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened and her smile lit like something from a benevolent nature goddess. She squealed, tightly embracing Rarity, who laughed.

“I think I missed something,” Rainbow muttered, watching the pair giggle and hop about.

“Mmm. Heh-heh,” Rarity said, smoothing her suit. “My apologies. You see, I’ve been working local event circuits lately. Fashion shows, art galleries, rubbing elbows at my best.”

“Fancy stuff,” Applejack said out the side of her mouth, earning a nod from Rainbow.

“Eventually, my endeavours paid off.” She opened the door to the cafe and the girls entered a dark, wooden, European-style cafe complete with bar and bakery. Rarity waved to the young man behind the bar, who responded with a smile and pointed with his chin to the alcove by the dessert display case. Herding her friends through, Rarity took a seat in an solid, old chair that was better on the back than it was the rump. “And at a recent fashion show, I made a connection. I made THE connection.”

Rarity lapsed into content silence as her friends joined her around the table. Her smile reminded Aurora of a satisfied cat.

“Okay, what was the connection?” Rainbow asked. She had spun her chair around and rested her chin on the seat back.

“Pierce Ladonne asked for my help with his spring line.”

Fluttershy was the only one who smiled extra wide while the other girls passed glances between each other. Rarity smiled good-naturedly and rolled her eyes.

“He is very respected and well-known in my line of work. His blessing is a door opener for any up-and-coming fashionista worth their hemlines. He even gave me a generous down payment to ensure I had operating capital.”

“How much?” Applejack said, her business ear twitching.

Rarity demurred and whispered in Applejack’s ear. The girl’s eyes widened and she swallowed.

“Boy howdy. Yep. That’s a good start. Congratulations, Rarity.”

“Thank you, Applejack. I don’t know what you’ve been up to this past month, but your praise as a businesspony means the world to me.”

Applejack blushed at the compliment and rubbed the back of her neck as a waitress came up. The girls ordered drinks at Rarity’s urging. “We must celebrate after all. My good fortune aside, we’re nearly all together and that deserves a toast.”

Save Aurora, the girls nodded. A quiet fell as everypony thought about how to locate the lost Pinkie Pie.

Feeling the intrusive odd girl out, Aurora excused herself to look at the display case filled with cakes, pies and other delectable delights. Rarity had been a positive addition to the group. She was similarly gentle and traditionally feminine like Fluttershy, but her steely attitude appealed to the confrontational Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Outside of the group dynamic, her warmth was undeniable and when she looked you in the eye, she gave you her full attention.

Aurora nodded at a triple-chocolate mousse cake. “She’s certainly a lady...” she said softly.

“As long as you don’t take her on in a pillow fight, then it’s all bets off.”

Aurora looked up at the voice behind the counter and came face-to-face with a round-faced, coffee and cream skinned, bubbly-eyed girl. She looked about Aurora’s age with several pink streaks in her otherwise straight brown-black hair. Aurora noticed a pierced eyebrow along with pink, jangling bracelets that seemed at odds with the formal black blouse and slacks. Chin resting on folded hands atop the display, she quirked a smile.

“Heya Twilight,” Pinkie said in her usual chirp. “Didn’t think I’d be seeing you for another month!”

Aurora stared. The girl’s eyes were a blue she’d only seen in cartoons and in crystal clear skies full of possibility. And though her smile was just a smirk, it seemed to dominate her face. Aurora immediately knew her name was... Pinkie?

“My name is Aurora,” Aurora said almost automatically.

Pinkie’s smile faded and cool eyebrows raised in response. “Ooooh,” Pinkie said. “You’re still all native. Gotcha.” She winked merrily. Turning to a young black girl with her hair done in twin afro puffs, Pinkie said, “Hey Shantelle? I’m gonna take my fifteen, ‘kay? I got some friends here.”

Shantelle looked up from the espresso she was making and squinted at Aurora who provided a confused smile.

“Sure thing, girl,” Shantelle drawled. “We’re slow.”

Pinkie bounced a nod and exited the side of the display, lifting a wooden partition up and coming around to hook an arm around Aurora’s. “C’mon, let’s catch up.”

When Pinkie stopped at the table, the girls initially gave her only partial attention as they thought their drinks had arrived. Then, she spoke. Rainbow Dash fell from her chair, Rarity’s jaw dropped, and Fluttershy’s eyes somehow managed to get even bigger. Applejack merely froze as she processed who stood in front of them.

Then, they all moved at once.

There was hugging and laughing, and even some crying. Fluttershy was first and loosed a sobby, messy torrent while Rarity followed second, dashing a handkerchief at her eyes to wipe away noble tears. Applejack and Rainbow were more subdued in their reactions, but Aurora could see both their eyes were glassy with joy.

“Glad to have you back, Pinkster,” Applejack said, wrapping the girl up in powerful arms.

“But I never went anywhere,” Pinkie grunted in reply.

Once released, she turned to look at Rainbow, who had stepped back after the initial group hug and was scuffing her foot.

“You didn’t miss me, did ya Dashie?” Pinkie said brightly.

“Nope,” Rainbow said to the ground.

“Not even a little, cuz you’re too cool for that, right?”

“Yep.”

Pinkie went over and raised Rainbow’s head up. Tears shone brightly in her deep maroon eyes.

“I missed you too Dashie,” Pinkie said softly.

“Aw, now I’m- Come here!” Rainbow embraced Pinkie, lifting her clear of the ground. Twisting her friend side to side in her embrace, she tried to force the hug deeper. Pinkie laughed at the energy, patting Rainbow’s back.

Aurora watched the display and felt like an interloper. Looking to Applejack, she asked, “Are they...?”

“They’re close,” Applejack replied, hooking her thumbs in her belt. “Like Rarity said, they do pranks and spend a lot of time together. Pinkie’s special to all of us, but I think she’s a bit more special to Rainbow.”

“Rainbow seems to have a special place for all of us.”

“We all have a special place for each other,” Rarity said, coming up on Aurora’s right. “Rainbow Dash and Pinkie are just more demonstrative about it.”

“Quit that!” Rainbow said, laughing, as Pinkie chewed on her hair.

“But Dashie, you’re so delicious!”
~
At Rarity’s sizable apartment, Twilight asked to use the bathroom. She swayed slightly as she wobbled in the direction Rarity pointed.

Once Twilight was occupied and out of sight, Rarity turned to the other girls, who were getting comfortable. “She insists on ‘Aurora?’” she said, sliding out of her jacket to reveal a low cut, sleeveless, silk top.

“Ever since Rainbow pushed her buttons about it,” Applejack said. Rarity waved at her boots and the cowgirl took them off the coffee table.

“Hey! Normally you’re the one that’s big on honesty,” Rainbow said from the stairs to the upper loft. “Why aren’t you pushing her?”

“Because we ain’t all like you Rainbow, and a push could push her away if we ain’t careful!”

“Um, maybe we should keep it quieter?” Fluttershy mumbled, wringing her hands.

Rarity patted her hands. “Of course dear.” She shot a look at the brasher pair, who took immediate interest in their respective ceiling and banister.

“Weeeeeell, do we want her to remember it? ‘Cause you guys are really early.” Pinkie had punched out after everyone had finished dinner. Changed out of her work uniform she now wore jeans, a pink shirt, and a jacket made up of more decorative patches than material.

While the other girls had gathered around the coffee table, she wandered between the paintings on the wall, looking them over and making faces.

“What do you mean... ‘Early?’” Rainbow said.

“Early. We weren’t supposed to meet up for, like, another month. I was real surprised to see everypony. Well, that isn’t true, I was excited because my head’s been real itchy and oh yeah! I finally get to do this!”

As Aurora came back in the room, Pinkie Pie reached up to her short, straight hair and tugged the wig off, revealing a tight pink afro. After a beat, it poofed free, much too big to fit under a wig that small.

“Aaaaaah,” Pinkie said, slumping where she stood, tongue out. “I needed that.”

“How did-” Aurora said, finger pointing in astonishment.

“That’s just Pinkie,” Applejack said with a dismissive wave. She paused, hand still in the air as a thought hit her.

“Hey. Have y’all been able to do anything pony style since you woke up?”

The girls responded unanimously with headshakes.

Applejack frowned at Pinkie Pie, wheels turning. “But Pinkie’s still herself....”

Pinkie cocked her head, confused. “Well, duh. Who else would I be? You? No offense AJ, but orange isn’t my color.”

“No, no. Pinkie- don’t know if you noticed, but the rest of us aren’t... All us. I mean, we kinda look like us, but- Ponyfeathers this doesn’t make sense.”

“Yupperoonie!” Pinkie said, bouncing in her pink Converses.

“I’m actually okay about not being able to fly. It’s no trouble,” Fluttershy said.

Aurora walked over to Pinkie as the girls talked. Without preamble, she took the hand holding the wig and raised it up for examination. It was a wig all right.

“Are you a professional magician?” Aurora asked.

The chipper girl grinned. “Nope. That’s Trixie. I’m a professional Pinkie!”

Aurora didn’t frown, but her mouth creased in concentration as she tried to work out this girl, who kept grinning at her with a too-wide smile. As she thought, she realized her brain was already frazzled by a full day of nonsense and an appletini to boot. She deflated, letting air escape and released Pinkie. She then went and sat next to Rainbow, on the stairs.

Leaning her head on the other girl’s shoulder, she said, “I drank too much. World’s weird. Gonna nap now.”

“You had one drink,” Rainbow pointed out.

“Doesn’t matter. She makes even less sense than everypony here.”

Rainbow’s eyes lit, but a pair of hard looks from Rarity and Applejack halted her from saying anything about Aurora’s verbal slip. Coughing, Rainbow looked at Pinkie.

“Pinkie Pie, what’d you mean by ‘another month?’”

“Sorry, Dashie, can’t tell. I Pinkie Promised!”

Rainbow rubbed her face. “Who did you Pinkie Promise to?”

“Twilight, but she’s not here right now.”

Rainbow gave Pinkie a look and pointed at Aurora, who had opened her eyes slightly to smile at the girl with the light pink afro.

Pinkie shook her head. “Dashie, that isn’t Twilight. That’s Aurora.”

“Thank you!” Aurora said.

“But she has to be! She got me out! She remembered Equestria!”

Pinkie shrugged. “I remember Happy Days, but that doesn’t mean I’m Fonzie.”

There was a brief silence as everypony digested that, then Applejack spoke.

“Equestria has to be in danger, ‘cause that just made sense.”

The other girls, save Aurora who was looking at Pinkie like she was her new best friend, stared at Applejack.

Applejack scowled back at them. “We got cable. I doze off to Nick at Nite sometimes.” She lifted her hat to run a hand through her hair. Jamming the back in place she added, “Look, just ‘cause this girl is a lot like Twi don’t make her Twi. I’d say I’m not me, except I know better.” Her freckles seemed lighter as she sighed. “Least, I think I do.”

Pinkie’s eyes got really large at that point. “Oh nonononononono. Don’t fade AJ!” She moved clear across the room in a beat and handed the girl an apple. “Here, eat this and think about your farm.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow at Pinkie, but obliged her and as she bit into the fruit, color returned to her cheeks.

Pinkie sighed, slumping against the coffee table.

“What just happened?” Rarity said.

Pinkie looked at her shoes and closed her eyes. After a minute, they opened and she stood up, going over to Aurora.

The other girl watched her approach with a clearer expression. Apparently, some of the liquor had cleared from her system.

“Hey Aurora, you mind playin’ a game with me? It’s a word game.” Though Pinkie sounded like herself, her voice came out measured and steadier. Had Aurora been watching the rest of the group, she’d have seen them become still and attentive. Had Aurora been a bit more sober, she’d have noticed Pinkie was serious.

“Uh, okay,” Aurora said, confused but willing, since Pinkie was treating her as herself.

“I’m gonna say something and you’ll say the first thing that comes back, kay?”

“Oh. Like a word association? Sure, but I don’t see how that’s a game.”

“You will in a minute. Don’t worry about just associating one word. Say all you want. Staaaaaaarting now.” Pinkie grinned. “Stitch.”

“In time.”

“Saves.”

“Nine.”

Pinkie grinned. “Ooo, you’re good at this, I can tell.”

Aurora smiled back and said, “Accomplished.”

Chuckling, Pinkie went on.

“Flash card.”

“Make more.”

“Library.”

“Books.”

“Elements.”

“Harmony.”

“Baby brother.”

“Spike.”

“Big brother.”

“Best Friends Forev-”

Aurora’s voice caught and her whole body twitched. Rainbow wrapped her hands around the girl’s shoulders to keep her from sliding down the stairs as she shuddered again.

“Letter,” Pinkie said.

“I think you did something to her,” Rainbow said. “Knock it off.”

“Shh, Dashie. Aurora, we’re still playing. Letter?”

“To the princess,” the girl choked out, blinking quick.

“Applejack.”

“Honesty.”

“Fluttershy.”

“Kind... ness.”

“Pinkie Pie.”

“Laughter!”

“Rarity!”

“Generosity!”

“Rainbow Dash!”

“Loyalty!”

Aurora’s body spasmed wildly. Her eyes were scrunched tight and Rainbow did everything in her power to keep the poor girl from bruising herself on the stairs. Pinkie had herself pinned just over Aurora to keep talking directly to her.

Pinkie’s voice dropped to a level the others could just barely hear, and she whispered, “Magic.”

“Friendship!” Aurora bellowed.

Her eyes snapped open, her whole body stiffened and light poured from her- blinding, powerful, and filled with color. The other girls were forced to shade their eyes.

When the shining light faded, Twilight Sparkle, hair a cascade of deep violet accented by a stripe of dark purple and pink, blinked up at the girl in front of her.

“Hey Pinkie,” she croaked.

“Heya Twilight,” Pinkie said softly.

“Bad?”

Pinkie nodded. “Super bad.”

“My wings!”

The other girls, still in shock from the light, rubbed at their eyes and squinted. As Rainbow Dash eased Twilight off her, a pair of sky blue wings that sprouted from her back spread wide.

“Oh. Oh, hello there,” Fluttershy said with a small grin to the pair of canary yellow wings ruffling from her own back. She ran a loving hand over one and in a softer voice said, “Welcome back.”

“Just fine without ‘em, huh?” Applejack said with a knowing eyebrow.

Fluttershy blushed and one wing came out and around to shade her face, hiding her mild embarrassment.

“This is a pleasant turn of events,” Rarity replied eyeing a teacup that hovered at eye level, encased in shimmering blue magic.

Twilight looked at Pinkie and sighed. “I think it just got worse.”
~
Rainbow and Applejack moved Twilight Sparkle, who was now answering to her name without flinching, to the couch. Rarity then fed her tea and biscuits while Fluttershy looked her over.

“It’s true what they say- you really don’t appreciate something till it’s gone,” Rarity said, floating a new teapot over.

“Thanks,” Rainbow said, sarcastically.

Rarity arched a perfect eyebrow. “Then again, perhaps I’ve appreciated you just enough Rainbow Dash.”

That earned a snicker from the group.

“You seem okay,” Fluttershy said, sitting back.

“I am okay,” Twilight said, swallowing. “It was just the awakening spell I tied to this body. It burned a lot of calories. I’ll be fine once I have some food in me.”

Fluttershy squinted slightly at Twilight over that. “If you say so. But I’m watching you, little lady.”

Twilight smiled, placing her hand over the other girl’s. “And I appreciate that. Thank you, Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy fluffed her wings happily and she eased back, satisfied.

Rainbow Dash had taken to the air where she reclined in a float. Her glee at being airborne again was obvious.

“So what’s the next move? Open a portal to Ponyville? Save the day, per the usual?”

“None of the above,” Twilight said, her face going grim. “I can’t use my magic.”

That froze the group.

Fluttershy was the first to move, putting a comforting hand on Twilight’s shoulder. Twilight nodded her thanks, adding a smile and taking a few deep breaths to calm herself.

“That’s your special talent,” Applejack breathed. She looked at her feet where, even this far from the ground, she could feel the soil so full of potential so many feet deep. Even as Ashley, she remembered feeling close to the growth of the earth. To lose a connection to something so dear... She couldn’t imagine it.

“I know,” Twilight said. “I... I think Aurora’s blocking me.”

Eyebrows went up around the group.

“How can she do that?” Rainbow asked.

“We’re time-sharing these bodies, Rainbow. When we’re awake, the other girls are... Kind of asleep. Just as we slept in them.” Putting her cup on the table, Twilight rubbed tiredly at her face. “I can only guess at this point without proper reference material. This spell was pretty new to me.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Can you back up a bit Twi?” Rainbow said. “Last any of us remember, we went to bed in Ponyville with only tomorrow to look forward to.”

Twilight glanced over at Pinkie, who smiled encouragement. Twilight relaxed and thought, trying to organize herself. Her eyes blinked in a silent eureka and she reached her free hand to Rarity.

“Rarity, if I could?” she asked.

Rarity gave her dominant hand, and Twilight smiled her appreciation. Rarity could feel it as Twilight reached for power and diverted to Rarity rather than her taking on her usual, much vaster reservoirs. They’d done this before when working a spell- Rarity wasn’t surprised that Twilight knew the paths into Rarity’s magic, just as she was aware of the paths into Twilight’s.

“We don’t know his name,” Twilight said, a purple ball tinged with blue began taking shape above the coffee table. “We don’t know where he came from or what his original purpose is.”

Concentration apparent on her face, she squinted and the purple ball stretched out and started taking form. A head grew out as did four long legs. Color changed next as Twilight built the magical visual to share with the girls.

“All we do know is he is the biggest threat to Equestria since Nightmare Moon, since King Sombra... Since even Discord.”

The shape finished resolving as the last details were added, and everypony leaned closer to see a stallion in a suit jacket.

He wasn’t overly tall. Perhaps he was maybe an inch over Applejack’s pony height, but he looked taller thanks to his slim frame. The suit jacket was dark blue with a white shirt and black tie. His coat could have been white, but there was enough color in it to give the impression that he wasn’t albino, merely pale-coated. His mane and tail were dark, maybe black or deep brown and both were slicked straight back and down. The style of his mane accented a longer than usual face that had a simple smile.

Fluttershy openly cowered from that smile while everypony else cringed. It wasn’t a nice smile, like Pinkie’s, or even one like Fluttershy managed on nervous occasion. It was like a razor, cut from one side of his face to the other. And though his teeth were the regular little white squares, they somehow seemed just as sharp.

“He doesn’t have a cutie mark,” Rarity said.

“We call him the Smiling Pony,” Twilight said. “He eats Harmony.”

Chapter 4

“Whoa whoa whoa- what? He eats Harmony?” Rainbow Dash said.

“That is correct, Rainbow Dash,” said Princess Celestia.

Princess Celestia called the Elements of Harmony, the Night Princess Luna, the Crystal Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor together in a stateroom in the Castle of the Sun, to attend a matter of grave importance.

“Um, Princess. Ma’am?” Applejack said. “I’m sure this’ll make sense to all the unicorns, but could you speak plain for the rest of us?”

“Actually, I’m a bit confused myself,” Twilight Sparkle said. “I’ve never heard of anything that... Eats Harmony?”

“Indeed, my faithful student. Neither had we.” Celestia inclined her head to Luna, who raised her horn and summoned an image of the pony in question.

Fluttershy eeped and dove under the table when the image resolved a sharp-looking pony with an unkind smile.

“He first appeared in our blessed night’s dreamscape,” Luna said, her voice even and cool. “At first we thought him no more than a new bogeymare, conjured by some pony’s campfire story or macabre fancy. Then one night, he appeared under our shining moon.”

The image shifted and the pony was seen walking through a real forest, looking around as if amused.

“We thought him an oddity to be sure, but we did not pursue and left the creature to wander. This was at our folly.”

The image darkened and changed to show a small village of ponies. At first, it looked as if they all lay sleeping, napping the day away, then the image zoomed in and showed the hollow, empty looks that marked their faces. As if that weren’t distressing enough, everypony shown was emaciated and frail. They looked like they hadn’t eaten in days, hadn’t moved in longer. It was as though they’d just given up and lay down to let death take them.

Fluttershy gasped, audibly.

“Savanneigh was the first hit,” Celestia said. “As soon as we stopped receiving correspondence, we sent in aid, but we’d already lost a tenth of the population to the lethargy the Smiling Pony leaves in his wake.”

“I got kin there,” Applejack whispered, her eyes blinking wide.

“The victims are drained,” Luna spoke next. “Gone is the Harmony of joy and love in their hearts. So similar to King Sombra’s hold on the Crystal Ponies a thousand years past, that we sought council in Princess Cadance.”

Princess Cadance nodded, her furled pink, white, and purple mane bobbing gracefully.

“Once I settled matters in the empire, I came to see if I could help, but... Even my strongest love spells do little to awaken comfort or cheer in these ponies. It’s... It’s as if they’ve forgotten what love and living are,” she said. Her wings fluttered nervously at the implications of her statement. “It’s like they have to start from scratch.”

The Elements at the table shifted nervously.

“Soooo, uh, yeah. This smiling pony’s a tough guy, right?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Why can’t ya just kick his flank and call it a day?”

“Nopony can get close enough to attack him in any way,” Celestia replied.

“He’s absorbed a full barrage of unicorn magic and just walks through any heavy weather the pegasi send at him,” Shining Armor said stepping forward. “We thought about sending a battalion of earth ponies, but...” He shook his head. “As soon as you get near enough, you start to lose focus, a... A dread overcomes you.” He swallowed. “If I hadn’t been thinking of Cadence...” He shuddered and Cadence wrapped a comforting wing around him.

Nodding his thanks, he extended his magic to Luna’s suspended image of Savanneigh and it twisted to show dull, brown grass hoof prints and trees in a wilted path. “He affects the world around him too. Not as quick as ponies and other living creatures, but... He marks them. And we can’t lay a hoof on him.”

Silence lay thick in the room as everypony stared up at the image Shining Armor shared.

“How do you know it’s Harmony?” Twilight asked.

“Harmony is the foundation upon which Equestria is formed,” Celestia said. “It is in the soil, the trees, the very air we breathe- all life working in unity with itself to bring about another day. After the Smiling Pony has come, only desolation and the absence of that energy is left in his wake.”

“So... He’s like a sharp dressed grim reaper?” Rarity asked, giving a critical eye to the scene before her.

“No!” Celestia said, wings flaring. Seeing the startled looks, she composed herself. “No, Rarity. Death is a natural part of the life cycle. Though painful, everything has its time and that time ends. What this Smiling Pony brings is not death, but oblivion. Complete and total.”

“So what do we do?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Again Princess Celestia and Luna shared a look, this one longer and more thoughtful. Luna nodded and dispelled the magic image above the table. Celestia looked amongst her gathered few- brave and strong and willing to help. The regal bearing she projected reassured her subjects even in this dire time.

“For now, we must run.” the princess said.

“What?”

“No way!”

“How could you suggest such-”

“Isn’t there-!”

Celestia raised a hoof and the room fell silent. “Not all of us, my little ponies. After studying the path of the Smiling Pony, we believe we have located his target.”

Shining Armor stiffened. “What? When did this happen?”

“Recently, Shining Armor,” Celestia replied. “Luna and I believe, and we have some support for the idea, that the Smiling Pony comes for you six.” She gestured with her wing at the assembled ponies of Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Applejack.

Twilight was nodding already. “Of course. If he eats Harmony, who better than the wielders of the Elements?”

“But couldn’t we just orbital friendship beam him?” Pinkie Pie asked, hoof in the air. “That worked for Discord! Ooo! Ooo! And Princess Luna when she was all cranky!”

Celestia’s face closed off in worry.

“We don’t believe that would be best,” Celestia said. “The elements are powerful, but...”

“During one of the attacks after Savanneigh, we unleashed one of our strongest spells,” Luna said. “He was unmarked and when we attempted to pour the royal power into it...” Luna had to take a breath. “I felt as though I was being bled dry. Only luck helped me to break the connection.”

The room fell silent.

“Where can we go?” Twilight whispered.

“That is where things get complicated,” Celestia said. Raising her head, she said in her most authoritative voice. “You may enter.”

The doors parted and a twisted, black hoof with a hole clean through it stepped into the light. The Changeling Queen, Queen Chrysalis entered the chamber.

After a stunned silence, three horns lit in preparation for an attack and Rainbow Dash took high to the air to prepare a dive bomb.

“Easy, eeeeasy, my little ponies,” Celestia said. “Chrysalis comes to us today not as an enemy, but a humbled friend.”

“Very humble, Celestia,” Chrysalis said, trotting in, her cobweb mane fluttering slightly. She turned her gaze on the assembled group and smirked. Inclining her head at Shining Armor, she said, “Hello, Shining. You look healthy.”

He growled, which was nothing compared to the noise Cadance made.

“Please, Chrysalis. Perhaps before we share our plans, you could share your experiences with this enemy. Then, perhaps the assembled may judge your sincerity differently?”

Keeping her distance from the royal couple, Chrysalis nodded. Her horn blazed a sickly green and a new image, tinted with a haze of the same color appeared over the table. The Smiling Pony was walking through what appeared to be the Changeling’s Center Hive and changelings were disappearing in his wake.

“We changelings are creatures made of purest magic. What fuels us is love. Which has something of Harmony, as it were,” Chrysalis said. “This... Abomination devours us as readily as a foal does a blade of grass.”

The image sifted and the Smiling Pony sat in the middle of the hive, its denizens leaving a wide berth around him. Occasionally, a changeling would misstep and get too close and where they broke the circle that part of its body would disappear in a scorch of green fire, as if chomped off by some unseen beast.

“Having built up my own strength and reserves over millennia, only I could approach this... Abomination.” Again the image changed, and the assembled watched as Chrysalis breached the perimeter. She seemingly began to sizzle at the edges as she approached the Smiling Pony, who smiled all the wider in her presence.

“He no more answered to me than I to an ant,” Chrysalis said. “But I could feel him. He ate me. And in eating me, he opened himself to me and I knew him, his purpose and his direction.”

The image faded.

“He had stopped in my kingdom as an appetizer. ‘Junk food.’ His true goal is the Elements. Of this I am certain.”

“And how can we trust you on that?” Princess Cadance said. She made no effort to hide the venom in her voice. “You can imagine how we might find it hard to trust your word?”

Chrysalis smiled ruefully. “Just look, your Highness. I know you can see love. Look to my kingdom for love and see its absence.”

Cadence arched an eyebrow and closed her eyes. This lasted for a quiet moment until she gasped, eyes popping open and she shuddered. Shining nuzzled her close.

“He’s in the middle of the Changeling Kingdom,” she whispered. “I can feel the void he’s carving. It’s like he’s... He’s gorging himself.”

“Indeed,” Chrysalis said with a high eyebrow. Turning to Celestia, she said, “Now that my word is no longer in doubt... Have you spoken of the spell we discussed?”

Celestia inclined her head at the visiting queen. Looking to the gathered Elements, she said, “What we are proposing is dangerous. In order to preserve Harmony in our and other kingdoms, we are willing to risk it.”

“What would you have us do, Princess?” Twilight asked, stepping forward boldly.

“It is old magic, my faithful student. Ancient, powerful, and dangerous. You will go to another land, a land without magic. Do not fear though. Think of it like the Everfree Forest. From its dominant species all the way to how the land grows, the place thrives without magical assistance and this makes it an opportune place to hide from the magic of the Smiling Pony. And you will do so without your bodies.”
~
The image faded. The assembled human girls were sitting in dull shock at the news they’d received.

After some minutes of silence, Rarity spoke first. “We’re not changed. We’re not even in our own bodies.” She looked at Twilight. “Where are we?”

“In Canterlot,” Twilight said. “Chrysalis made stasis cocoons for our bodies and we’re being kept beneath the castle, safe. Spike volunteered to watch over us with a minor guard of six of Celestia’s finest.” She smiled, warmth blossoming at the memory. “Celestia, Luna, and I worked together to enact the spell and transport our essences to this place, Earth. To these bodies.”

Twilight rubbed her forehead, wiping sweat away.

“Celestia hopes that with us beyond Equestria, the Smiling Pony will leave, or weaken, or at the very least reveal something that will let the kingdoms overcome him so that Harmony is safe in our lands again. She figured two months would be enough time, but it looks like the sleeping part of the spell wasn’t strong enough to overcome Rainbow Dash’s loyalty.”

Twilight smirked at her friend, who blushed.

“I just... I felt like something was missing,” Rainbow said, chagrined. “Can’t help it that I’m more awesome than some moldy oldy spell you and the princesses did.”

Twilight chuckled.

“So, uh... What are we exactly? And why don’t we remember all of this?” Applejack asked.

“There really isn’t a name. It’s a kind of symbiosis,” Twilight responded. “We timeshare these bodies until the spell ends and we return to Equestria. Pinkie was left awake to keep an eye out in case something weird happened.”

“Pinkie?” Rarity said, head tilted in inquiry. Turning to her excited friend, she smiled. “No offense.”

“None taken!” Pinkie replied, dangling upside down from the rafters. She’d gotten bored.

“Pinkie’s Pinkieness made her a bit immune to the magic we were doing. Kind of like how Nightmare Moon couldn’t get at her with the trees in the Everfree and glamours don’t usually affect her. She’s just... Well, she’s just too Pinkie.”

The girls nodded sagely. They’d all long ago accepted that Pinkie Pie marched to the beat of her own drum. Sometimes that drum beat took precedence over reality.

“As for your memories...” Twilight shrugged. “We’re not exactly in our right minds. I can’t imagine a brain takes holding two separate lives well. Something was bound to give.”

“Hope I haven’t forgot how to buck...” Applejack murmured.

“But the spell should have just kept us in these girls’ lives for two months. Why does it feel longer?” Twilight mused.

“Oh, you musta forgot. Celestia said you might experience floating perspective due to quantum entanglement of personal influence,” Pinkie said, flipping over to land on the floor.

Everypony went silent in confusion.

“I dunno.” the pink-afro’d girl said with a shrug. “That’s what she said. Then Twilight was all ‘Oh, yes. That makes perfect sense. A retroactive feeling that may cause memories to appear as early as childhood since we’re not using linear time, but emotional singularities as a guide.’ Then Celestia was like, ‘You are truly my amazing student, Twilight Sparkle.” Then I was like, ‘D’awww.’ Then Rainbow Dash asked, ‘What just happened?’ Then I said, ‘I dunno, but it sure sounded smart.’”

Silence descended again until Twilight snapped her fingers. “That’s right! The princess did mention we might end up settling into these people to establish a stronger connection during our high occupancy period!”

“I’m still lost,” Rainbow Dash said.

“I think what Twilight is trying to say,” Rarity offered. “Is that the spell may have put us here a month ago, but in order to make sure it worked, these... Girls had to be made ready for us, subconsciously. So we would feel more at home.”

“That’s unsettlin’,” Applejack said. “Don’t like to think I’m stealin’ some girl’s whole life just because I had to get the hay out of Dodge for a bit.”

“Doesn’t matter!” Rainbow Dash proclaimed, clearly fed up with discussion. “What does is we’re together, Twilight can bum off Rarity’s magic, so we gotta get home!”

“Rainbow, did you hear any of what just happened?” Applejack shot at the floating girl. “Equestria’s under attack by somethin’ that could eat up the Elements like you chug cider! What’d you think you could do?”

“Something other than run away!” Rainbow yelled.

The girls lapsed into silence.

“Is- Is everypony in Equestria all right?” Fluttershy asked quietly.

“I don’t know,” Twilight said. “When we did this... Savanneigh and the Changeling Kingdom were the only places hit, but...” She shook her head. “The princesses were intent on us escaping.”

“Dumb plan,” Rainbow muttered.

“Rainbow!” Rarity shot.

“Well it is! And how come I went along with it? Any plan that involves running away is a bad plan in my book.”

Applejack rubbed her chin. “Y’know, it does seem a mite peculiar we’d go along with this. I mean... C’mon. I’m a lotta things, but I ain’t yella.”

“Um. He scared me,” Fluttershy said.

“He scared us all,” Twilight responded, rubbing her eyes.

“No,” Fluttershy said with a headshake. “He scared me, Twilight. I know- I know I’m not the bravest pony most of the time, but that’s just... That’s who I am. Not like Rainbow Dash. So... So I know when I’m afraid. And he scares me, but not like how I’m usually scared. He scares me like I’m supposed to be scared only I was scared, but it was like something got in front of that scare.” She frowned sadly and cast a pleading gaze to Twilight. “Oh dear, I’m not doing this very well.”

Twilight blinked. Slowly.

Fear before being...

“Wait,” Twilight said. “Rarity, if I may.”

“All right darling, but if you’re going to keep using me like this, I’ll ask for dinner first,” she replied with a wink.

Twilight took Rarity’s hand with a sarcastic smirk and conjured the Smiling Pony again.

Again the form displayed and again she felt it deep in her gut. That fear, that raw need to get away, that what you saw was not only scary but wrong. Yet, now that she was paying attention to that fear she saw that it wasn’t hers.

Twilight Sparkle was not the bravest pony, but she knew how her fears worked. She got spooked in doubt, or frustration or even panic, but not in thought. Somehow though, the mere image, the mere thought of the Smiling Pony was hitting her fear like she was a scared foal under the sheets.

“Something’s wrong...” Twilight said. “And I intend to find out what.”
~
“I don’t wanna,” Rainbow said, standing at the door to the outside. “I’ll just stay with Rarity till we figure out how to get home.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Rainbow. Part of this symbiosis means working with the lives we lived up until now. While you can hang up everything, the other girls have jobs to maintain. I know I have other studying for Aurora I should be doing at least.”

“More stalling,” Rainbow groaned. Turning in the small space, she slapped her hands on Twilight’s shoulders. “Look, you said that Smiling Pony or whoever might make a sidekick impression-”

“Psychic Imprint,” Twilight corrected.

“Whatever,” Rainbow said, with a dismissive wave. “All we need is to go back. I mean, what are you going to learn here? This place doesn’t have any magic.”

“But it does have mythology and one thing I’ve noticed, being Aurora, is that while humanity may have a greater variety of attitudes toward magic, there are some useful parallels that I can track down. I might possibly be able to use some against the Smiling Pony. But.” She spun Rainbow around. “I need you-” She grunted pushing. “To go out in the world so I can get my laptop and run a decent search!”

Rainbow pinioned herself in the doorframe. “No! Way! I don’t want to cover my wings outside! I lost them for a month! You have no idea what that’s like!”

“I don’t have my magic, Rainbow,” Twilight said levelly. “I have to borrow energy off of Rarity to cast even the simplest spell.”

“Well, maybe you’re just not trying hard enough!”

Twilight stopped pushing.

“Not. Trying...?”

“Uh oh,” Pinkie said. She and the other girls had backed up as Twilight and Rainbow spoke. Just as Applejack was about to step forward and press the stubborn pegasus out herself, Pinkie’s hand caught her on the arm. Glancing at her friend, she nodded at Pinkie’s headshake and stayed put.

“You don’t think I haven’t tried reaching for my magic?” Twilight said in tones far colder than anypony had heard before. “You think I haven’t tried to find some way to access it while I’m in here? Magic is everything to me Rainbow! But unlike you I have accepted that I’m not going to get it for now!”

She shoved Rainbow roughly and the girl popped into the street, taking the roll expertly. Standing up, she flared her wings, the sun glinting off them.

“I’m not gonna hide who I am!

“I’m the best flyer in Equestria. I won Best Flyer Competition. I did the Sonic Rainboom.” Her back straightened. “I helped take on Nightmare Moon, Discord, and the freakin’ toughest ponies around. I’m gonna be a Wonderbolt.

“I’m Rainbow Freaking Dash and you’re just gonna have to deal with it!”

Twilight gave Rainbow a tired, raised eyebrow and threw her hands up in defeat.

“Fine. I don’t care. BE Rainbow Dash in a world that probably can’t support you. See if I care when your wings disappear because you’ve burned up all your internal magic.”

“What?”

“Ponies run on the magic in the world, Rainbow. Do you see any around here?”

Rainbow looked around as if she could spot the “magic” sitting on a bench nearby. Magic wasn’t, but a very confused looking mother of two was. Rainbow gave a salute to the woman and turned back to Twilight.

“I feel fine, Twilight. Maybe you’re just stressed out.”
~
“It doesn’t make sense!” Twilight said, as she drove back to the farm to drop off Fluttershy and Applejack. Rarity and Pinkie said they would meet the girls back at Twilight’s dorm after they’d settled their jobs for the next few days.

“Being awesome doesn’t have to make sense,” Rainbow said from the back. “I kick impossible to the curb all the time, Twilight. You should really just accept it.”

“Well, I can’t!” Twilight snapped.

Fluttershy cringed and Twilight gave her an apologetic look.

Taking a few, calming breaths, she spoke in a more controlled tone.

“Pinkie I can accept. She’s... Pinkie. But this? You? This flaunts every magical law I thought existed in this world. Which, there are zero. Because magic doesn’t exist in this world. Any magic that exists came from us bringing it here. There is no external pony magic, no human magic, no magic of any kind!”

Realizing that last got away from her, she focused on driving.

“I mean, everypony should have gone back to a human baseline after the magic I released ran out. You shouldn’t have been able to keep... Going. It doesn’t make sense given our current environment,” Twilight hissed.

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out Twi. You always do,” Applejack said, clapping a friendly hand on her shoulder.

The knot of hot anger in her gut loosened, and Twilight gave Applejack a little smile. “Thanks, AJ.”

“Shame we’re on official adventurin’ business,” Applejack said stretching a little in the back seat. “Wouldn’t mind buckin’ and helpin’ Ashley’s family a bit. They could use a little good, old-fashioned, Apple family pony sense.”

Rainbow and Fluttershy giggled. Twilight at least smile a little.

“They’re farmers and good folk, but nothin’ beats how close you feel to the land.”

Opting to let her “back burner brain” work on the conundrum at hand, as she was clearly not gaining any ground, only stress, Twilight turned her attention to Applejack.

“You know, I’ve read about Earth Pony life in books and magical studies, but I’ve never thought to ask. What’s that like, AJ?” she said.

“It’s like... Knowin’. Knowin’ through and through. ‘Cept nopony told you nothin’. Soon as I saw Rainbow spread her wings outside, I thought- Hay, if she can keep being Rainbow just by bein’ stubborn, why can’t I? So, I stood on the sidewalk and I could tell the ground was still beneath my feet, just like it’s supposed to be.”

“I just wanted to make sure I could still talk to my critter friends,” Fluttershy said. “I’ve made so many new ones here. The wings... Well, it’s nice to have them back. I may not use them like Rainbow Dash, but they do help me feel like myself.”

Twilight sighed as she moved into a cruising lane. Every part of her rational mind spoke of how impossible all this was. When she and Celestia had chosen this world, they had been sure to pick one totally devoid of the magical energies of Harmony that were present in Equestria. With only the thinnest string of magic linking these bodies to their originals, they should have slept without wondering.

Yes, waking up was an outlier, but they accounted for that. Hence, the presence of Pinkie. But this? She was witness to near full manifestations of their pony selves in human bodies. The coloration may have been a bit extreme, but that was still within norms- people dyed their hair funny colors here after all. However, the appearance of pegasi wings and unicorn magic and an earth pony’s sense of the World was completely and utterly impossible!

It took every fiber of her being not to lock herself in a lab to run tests. Sure, she wouldn’t have her usual equipment. She could still memorize some readings and return with them to Equestria once the Smiling Pony menace had been dealt with.

The Smiling Pony. Twilight smiled grimly at the thought of him. Ultimately, you had to know where to look and what question to ask. So subtle was his insidious fear, so quiet was that dread she wasn’t surprised that Celestia had been affected just as the rest of ponykind. So of course she would give way to this hiding out plan. It made sense, too. The fear he inspired undermined a pony on all sides, but most powerfully, it ate away from the inside.

A strong unicorn could push past fear and still cast, a pegasi could brave through it and manipulate the weather, and an earth pony could handle near anything, but to have that fear at the root of yourself? It poisoned and weakened a pony all the way through. It was a stroke of complete luck Fluttershy had mentioned her reactions, helping Twilight figure out what horrid seeds the Smiling Pony had planted.

Now that she knew about them, she was ready to rip those seeds from the ground of every pony in Equestria. Whether she had her magic or not.
~
The first thing Twilight Sparkle did when she got back to her apartment was make a list of what she needed to do.

The second thing she did was scold Rainbow Dash for floating around the apartment with the curtains open.

The third thing she did was check off the anticipated scolding of Rainbow Dash.

The fourth thing she did was get to work on freeing Aurora up for the next few days.

Be it from Twilight’s influence or her own natural tendencies, Aurora had been a studious, hard-working student all the way. She had enough brownie points stored away to ask for a few days free and hand off her work to fellow TAs. While coordinating that, she simultaneously flipped through mythology and mathematics entries on Wikipedia in search of... Well, she wasn’t entirely sure because she was multi-tasking while multi-tasking, now wasn’t she?

Rainbow didn’t comment on how Twilight’s hair seemed to get more like her frazzled, stressed mane as she worked.

The next morning found Twilight deep in Aurora’s laptop in the corner of her living room, so it was Rainbow who let Fluttershy and Applejack in. Both carried bags that allowed for a few days travel. Having taken the time to acclimate herself, Rainbow made drinks for the other girls.

“She been like this since she got back?” Applejack asked over some tea. It was loaded with liberal amounts of honey.

Rainbow nodded. “She’s in the Zone.”

The girls watched as one while Twilight lifted two notecards for inspection, typed something on the laptop, and shifted her attention to a book she’d pulled from her own collection.

“How bad is it?” Applejack asked.

Rainbow arched an eyebrow and turned more directly to Twilight. “Hey, Twi? I’m going outside for a quick fly around and after that I’m gonna teleport to Equestria and steal Celestia’s crown to make your brother my coltfriend!”

“Mmm,” Twilight said, glancing from a card to a book to her laptop. “Sounds good.”

Rainbow returned her gaze to the other ponies.

“Wow. I haven’t seen her this deep in a while,” Fluttershy commented.

“Yeah, so we’re probably on our own. I got her old laptop if you wanna watch movies.”

By the time Pinkie Pie and Rarity had arrived, Twilight had four more books opened, had amassed a small mountain of notecards and her eyes looked dangerously bloodshot as she hunched near the screen.

Pinkie waved a hand in front of Twilight’s face and the girl didn’t so much as blink.

“Uh oh,” Pinkie said. Looking over at Rainbow, who had paused Lord of the Rings, Pinkie asked, “She in the Zone?”

“Yep.”

“Twelve books or Parasprites?”

“Parasprites.”

“Gotcha.”

Pinkie went into the kitchen and got to work.

“Well girls, how are things?” Rarity asked.

“We’re watching movies,” Fluttershy offered. “Rainbow Dash wanted something with action, but those made me too nervous. So we’ve compromised.”

Rainbow shrugged. “It’s long, but it’s better than all the documentaries, indie flicks, and anime Aurora had on her Netflix.”

Rarity arched a well-groomed eyebrow.

“You... Don’t wanna know,” Rainbow waved away.

Shrugging, Rarity squeezed onto the couch next to Fluttershy with a smile. Pinkie emerged from the kitchen with a fan and a cup of tea. Like a well trained explosives expert, she eased her way toward Twilight, wafting the fumes of the tea at her.

Once the mug was practically right under Twilight’s nose, she blinked. Slowly, then again with more clarity.

“Uhhhhnn,” Twilight said.

“Yeaaah. Tea. It’s suuuuper yummy,” Pinkie crooned.

Twilight turned her body stiffly to Pinkie, who had tucked the fan behind her back. Pinkie offered the tea, which Twilight took greedily and sipped, closing her eyes.

Life ignited in her limbs as the heat poured through.

“Mmmm,” Twilight said.

“Mm-hmm,” Pinkie agreed.

When Twilight opened them again, Pinkie could see her friend was out of the Zone and thinking again.

“Heya Twilight! Find anything?”

“Mmm,” Twilight replied, moving the mug from her lips. “Yes. Thank you, Pinkie.”

Straightening, Twilight felt her spine pop and crack and her head felt fuzzy. She looked over at the girls crowded on her couch. As the color returned to her cheeks, she noticed the old laptop on the coffee table.

“Oh. Sorry. Was I-?”

“Yes,” everypony said in unison.

Twilight blushed and stood up, further stretching herself out. She touched her toes a bit. No need to damage Aurora any further with an intense study session.

Sipping at the tea, she thanked Pinkie and stood near the coffee table. Rainbow once again paused the movie and Twilight nodded her head in thanks.

“Alright everypony. It took some doing, but I think I can get us home!”
~
“I thought you said there wasn’t any magic here?” Rainbow said, lounging on the hood of Twilight’s car, watching her, Pinkie, and Applejack work.

“There isn’t,” Twilight said. “Not like we use anyway. So, I had to find substitutes.”

Rainbow glanced around the clearing they had arrived at after going north for an hour. The place was quiet save for a little birdsong, which came from three jays that had settled across Fluttershy’s shoulders. Sturdy trees hid them from view and Rainbow was more than a little confused as to why they were out here.

“Trees are the substitute?”

“Actually, I’m using mathematics and psychological resonance, but trees are a part of it.”

“Math?” Rainbow said.

“Creepy math!” Applejack called out.

“It is not!” Twilight protested. She rose in the middle of scribbling something long and convoluted that used no numbers Rainbow had ever seen. “It’s merely a cross application of higher-”

She stopped at Applejack’s cool, knowing smirk.

“Fine. Creepy math,” Twilight grumbled, returning to her work.

Rainbow floated to lay on the roof of the car, while Rarity lounged with her jacket off on the hood of her car. Fluttershy chatted with the jays who were chirping and singing as they all perched on the Rarity’s trunk.

“This is boring,” Rainbow proclaimed.

“It’s advanced theory, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity said. “Just because something is dazzling at the end, does not mean it was dazzling all the way through. I have particular designs that involved more hours in sweats and frazzled mane than I care to admit.” She sighed. “As well as too much diet soda.”

“Still boring,” Rainbow declared.

“Maybe you could try flying around?” Fluttershy suggested, tickling the breast of a jay perched on her finger. “We’re not near anyone. I don’t think Twilight would object.”

“Hey, Twi!” Rainbow called.

Twilight looked up, getting tired of feeling like Rainbow’s personal entertainment manager. Didn’t she appreciate that she was no longer in a psych ward?

“Yes?” Twilight asked frostily.

“Is it cool if I fly?”

Blinking, Twilight processed that and looked around. “Oh. Sure. It’s isolated.”

“Sweet!”

Once Rainbow was in the air, Twilight welcomed the blessed silence and returned to her task.

Applejack finished first, since she was only doing stone placement. The other ponies noticed a circle with little circles coming off it. Leaning against the car, Applejack tilted her hat over her eyes, but Rarity remained fascinated by the intricacies of Twilight’s work. Not in the academic way that Twilight was going about it, but in the aesthetic sense. She was reminded of certain natural patterns she had recreated for a clothing line inspired by plant growth on a cellular level. Terry had mentioned it looked like something in mathematical theory too, but Celestia help her if Rarity could remember.

Even more interesting was how Twilight frequently consulted with Pinkie Pie as she progressed in her work.

Rarity arched an eyebrow. “I do say, Applejack, what is it that has Twilight sharing so much with Pinkie?”

Applejack raised her hat from the little nap she was taking and squinted at the pair. Shrugging, she said, “Don’t rightly know. Twi just had me set up some rocks based on how I best worked with the dirt. She’s been talkin’ all manner of weird with Pinkie.”

Rarity tapped on her chin. What was Twilight trying to do to get them home?
~
Once finished, Twilight grinned. It was really something. A smooth blend of this world’s high-end theoretical mathematics and her understanding of unicorn magic. Glancing at Pinkie, she looked back to the design and assured herself that it would work. One way or another.

“Okay, does everypony know their positions?”

The girls all nodded, save Rarity, who was examining the circle of spellwork.

“Twilight, darling, I don’t mean to sound like I doubt your skills, but...”

“But what?” Twilight asked.

“This looks fairly advanced.”

“It has to be. There’s no magic here and in order to get us home, I need to make up all the foci externally. Well, except one part.”

“Yes dear, and I’m fine with that, but.” Rarity sighed and cocked her head at Twilight. “Perhaps we should just wait out our time until the spell ends naturally? You told me yourself, breaking certain spells is often more difficult than simply letting them run their course. And this was a spell cast by you and the Princesses.”

Twilight nodded all through Rarity’s worries.

“I get that Rarity, I really do, but we’re already bending the spell and there’s a good chance we’re exhausting it by living rather than sleeping in these girls’ bodies. We can’t keep it up, or at least I’m not sure if we can. Better to cut our losses and take on the Smiling Pony with what we know now, and hope that’s enough.”

“Quick question,” Applejack said.

“Ugh! Yes?” Twilight’s left eye twitched.

“What happens to all these folk?” she said gesturing to herself. “I mean, seems a bit much to take ‘em to Equestria.”

“They’re not going,” Twilight said, making one last note in her notebook. She walked over to her car and popped the hatch, tossing it inside. “This spell is merely meant to negate the effects of the previous spell and return us home. The girls will just wake up here and feel like they had a waking dream. Inconvenient, but it gets us out of here and back to our bodies.”

“Awesome!” Rainbow said. “Goodbye human wings, hello pegasus wings!”

Twilight smirked. “I know the sentiment. Now if everypony is done? No more questions?”

“Ooo! Oooo!” Pinkie hopped up and down, her hand in the air.

“Yes. Pinkie?”

“Can I throw us a We’re Back In Our Bodies party when we get back?”

Twilight facepalmed. “Sure. But let’s handle the threat to Equestria and all known ponykind first.”

“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie said, giving a thumbs up.

“Does anypony else have anything to say?”

The girls all shook their heads.

“Then let’s do this.”

Taking her place at her circle, Twilight directed the others to their circles, which joined to the larger one in a fine display of what Applejack had called “creepy math.”

“Rainbow Dash- are you certain you can do this?” Twilight asked. “You’re our main power source, after all.”

Rainbow rolled her shoulder. “Gonna be a little different, yeah, but nothing I can’t handle.”

“Okay, ponies, we all know our roles.” Twilight took a deep breath and began to center herself. “Dash- go!”

Rainbow leaped into the air, going as high and far as she could stand. Her lungs burned and her wings, which seemed like they shouldn’t have handled the task of this new, weirder body, lurched, but Rainbow had been there before. She had trained those wings and even with all the changes, they’d get her there.

Down on the ground, Twilight and the other girls closed their eyes, focusing. Dash had to do this too, but they had to build up enough so she’d only have to do it once she released the Sonic Rainboom.

Twilight had been very clear on what they were to focus on: home in Ponyville. Their experiences there, how they lived, who they knew- everything. All of these would act as a magnifier for the spell she’d scratched into the dirt. So long as the girls focused, it would resonate.

Which was easier said than done for Twilight. For every memory she was able to pull up of Equestria, its near-twin appeared in Aurora’s life on Earth. Sweat on her brow, she hoped the other girls were doing better. Peeking, she saw they at least showed more serene expressions.

From Rarity around to Applejack, they all looked relaxed, as if remembering a good day in the sun. Twilight wiped sweat from her brow and looked up.

Rainbow Dash had re-angled and was coming in fast. Twilight could hear the wind bending in her wake.

Twilight let it go and closed her eyes. Her focus was fine. She remembered where she was going.

Squatting down, she pressed her palm into the etched design in the ground that connected the world to the ponies and the ponies to it. She didn’t have any of her own magic to power this, but she had her will and soon with Rainbow Dash’s Rainboom, she’d have the spark needed to jump-start the spell.

“Celestia,” Twilight whispered. “Let this work.”

Rainbow felt the wall of sound and air bend into a perfect cone in front of her.

“Come oooonnn,” she growled. Her friends were counting on her and they were coming up fast.

“Come oonnnn....”

Physics fought back. She was a little girl pushing boldly at a mountain, thinking it would budge. She was insignificant. She didn’t matter. She was not just trying the improbable, she was doing the impossible. Reality had many rules here and while Rainbow Dash had bent a few, she would not break- She broke through.

The chromatic explosion scorched across the air, a ripple of light and color expanding in an outward ring. Rainbow slammed into her spot in the dirt, her eyes lighting up as if from a source within. Her cutie mark seemed to hover ethereally in front of her.

With her as the starting point, the light spread outward across the circle, meeting each pony in turn, their cutie marks floating up to meet them, their eyes glowing with energy and power. The light finally gathered around Twilight, who rose to blaze like the nimbus of a star.

It was nothing like when she focused through her horn or the Element of Magic tiara. She was holding this all in her mind. For a brief moment of panic, she thought she’d lose it, but she clamped down. She was Twilight Sparkle, the personal protégé of Princess Celestia, one of the strongest magical talents in the world. If anyone could ride this spell and see it through, it was her.

She opened her eyes and another blast of chromatic color washed over the clearing, lighting up the circle at the girls’ feet. Twilight then spoke one word- so quiet and personal, but so powerful that the ground itself shook.

“Home.”

There was a flash of light that could be seen from space and a nearby farmer thought he’d been hit by an earthquake and then, quiet.

Chapter 5

Part 2: Equestria, A Land of Adventure

Twilight Sparkle woke standing in a field. That should have been her first clue that the spell didn’t work as she’d intended, but at that precise moment, she didn’t care. From where she was she recognized the break between the Everfree Forest and Ponyville, seeing the town just down the road. It looked idyllic, untouched. It looked perfect. It looked like home.

“Unnngh...”

The other ponies! Of course!

Turning, Twilight was prepared to greet the rest of her friends. She was not prepared to see Aurora Amaryllis, pushing shakily up from the ground on unsteady hands.

Further groans alerted her that not only Aurora was along, but so were the other human girls.

“Oh no,” Twilight whispered. “Oh no, no, no, no, no...”

Rainbow Dash then stepped out of the shade from a tree and panic leapt firmly into Twilight’s throat. She could see almost through her friend.

Though Rainbow Dash looked the same as she always did, multicolor mane, cyan fur and wings, she was completely translucent. Twilight could see through Rainbow to Iris Speede, who rose behind her friend.

Twilight thought the pegasus was looking at Twilight probably in much the same way Twilight was looking at her. Rainbow glanced down at her body on some primal need to assure her it was just Twilight who was see-through and her eyes widened. Twilight didn’t need to check. She knew if she looked down, she’d see her hooves, her mane casting over her withers and the whole of it would be equally as insubstantial.

“Twi?” Rainbow Dash said. Twilight could see fear welling up in Rainbow’s brave eyes.

“Yeah,” Twilight said, as she saw more humans and translucent pony friends come into view. “Something went wrong.”
~
The time it took to herd everypony and person into the Everfree’s sight-blocking copse was agonizing. The whole time, Twilight was saying she understood and could see, but they needed to get out of sight as humans were not exactly common in Equestria. As she sought to calm her friends, not to mention some very confused humans, she spent equally as much time trying to calm herself.

She hadn’t realized it when she was admiring Ponyville, but she couldn’t feel anything beneath her hooves other than a vague firmness. And when she walked, she noticed palms and grass passed right through her. She wasn’t really there. She did not want to think about that.

“Okay everypony,” she tried.

“What did you do to me?” Aurora said.

Twilight looked at the girl who had essentially been the caretaker of her soul for the last month or so. She had also been a subject of body takeover for the last two days. Twilight would need to be diplomatic about this.

“I accidentally brought you and the others along in an attempt-”

“I know that!” Aurora shrieked. “You were in my head! I was there!”

Silence.

Twilight looked down, unable to face her. “I’m sorry,” she said softly, guilt and regret blooming in her chest.

“No kidding you’re sorry! You stole my life you magical little-”

“Hey!”

Aurora turned and Iris was standing imposingly behind her. Aurora was stunned for a moment. She’d met Iris with rainbow hair- it hadn’t occurred to her that she might have normal, rich, chocolate-brown layers.

“You leave her alone!” The girl bore down on Aurora with sparks in her eyes. “These guys have been in a tough spot and they came to us for help and you’re being a HUGE jerk about it!”

Recovered, Aurora’s anger launched her right back at Iris. “They didn’t ask permission! They just took our bodies!”

“So what?!” Iris growled.

“Whoa, whoooooa!” Ashley suddenly appeared between the girls and pressed them away from each other.

Though fueled by enough adrenaline, neither the slight, runner-built Iris nor the slim, academic Aurora could resist Ashley’s height and powerful farm muscle.

“I’m thinkin’ everybody’s real riled up so we all need to take five and listen to, ah, Twilight here and see what she has to say.”

The group could practically see Aurora’s hackles rise again.

“Without screamin’,” Ashley said, giving her a steady look.

Aurora stared back. Fumed. And released. She stalked over to the edge of the clearing and slammed down to scowl at the dirt, away from everyone else. Hot tension thrummed outward from her.

Ashley sighed and walked over to where Applejack stood. Even in her not-all-there state, the farmpony wore her trusty stetson.

“You handled that mighty well, ma’am,” she said to Ashley.

Ashley smiled down crookedly at the pony. “Well. Y’know.”

Applejack winked up at the girl. “Yup.” She offered her hoof and after an amused moment, Ashley bent down to bump her fist against it.

Twilight expected Applejack and Ashley to stop short in deference to the fact that everypony was aware of how insubstantial they were. She gawped as both girls made contact without issue.

Blinking, she filed that away.

All eyes on her, she stepped into the clearing between pony and human. She noticed that every girl had sat down next to the pony and human they’d been sharing. She filed that away too.

Clearing her throat, though she suspected she didn’t really have one at the moment, she mentally “took the podium.”

“Okay everypony... And *ahem* person. As you can see, my spell didn’t work quite as intended. I’m sorry that we’ve inconvenienced you further. With any luck, we’ll get this sorted out quickly and you back to your home. For now, I’ll have to ask that you stay here in the Everfree forest and-”

“What are we doing for food?”

Ashley and Iris shot a dangerous look at Aurora, who scowled back.

“It’s a legitimate question,” Aurora said, biting out every word.

Twilight tapped a hoof to her chin in thought. She could feel her hoof hitting her chin softly, so there was that.

“Hmm. Maybe we can take you to Zecora. She knows these woods better than any-”

“Thanks," Aurora said, bitterly. "I know who she is.”

Twilight also could apparently feel the heat of embarrassment rise to her cheeks. Everypony was supposed to resonate with their human in a significant way. That had been one of the key foci of the spell. She could see it with Applejack and Rainbow Dash, easily, but how did she ever resonate with such a grumpy girl?

“How about everyone else?”

The human girls all nodded. Apparently, they knew as much as her pony friends. Okay. Good to know.

“Alright. Then, first we’ll get you to her hut and after that we’ll go and take care of getting you home. Sound good?”

General noises of assent floated up.

“Then let’s head out.”
~
As the group walked, Twilight noticed that Aurora kept well back from her, as well as the rest of the group. She could feel her anger and frustration rolling off in waves.

Twilight sighed. She hated to admit it, but she was jealous of everypony else. As she trudged, everyone else hiked and struck up soft conversations with one another- human, pony and all in between. From where Twilight observed, the entirety of her friends circle was getting along with their human counterparts like they were long-lost friends save for her and Aurora.

Rarity excused herself from chatting with Keiko and Nova and trotted up next to Twilight.

“I know that look dear,” she said, a smile in her whispering voice. “Why not tell me what’s on your mind?”

Twilight felt some of her envy lessen. Well, she may not be able to connect with Aurora, but she appreciated the friends she already had.

“I’m trying to figure out what went wrong with the spell,” Twilight said. “We should have woken up in those crystal cocoons and that was the end of it.”

Rarity nodded. “Hm, well, I can’t say anything to the spell, dear. It was as beyond me as Applejack’s farm work. Are you certain you did everything right?”

“As right as I could with what I had,” Twilight affirmed. “I was in completely uncharted areas. I was mixing that world’s most advanced methods of looking at reality with my understanding of unicorn-based magic.”

“Maybe you were just plain wrong,” Aurora grumbled from the back.

Twilight twitched and turned. Before she could glare, she realized Aurora hadn’t spoken above the low voice Twilight was sharing with Rarity. How had...

“Rarity?” Twilight said. “Can you ask Keiko if she can hear you?”

Rarity was puzzled. “She’s right there.”

“Humor me? And whisper it. As quietly as you can.”

Giving Twilight a curious eyebrow, Rarity’s lips moved and Twilight watched as Keiko perked up as if someone had tapped her shoulder.

Aloud to the group, the fashionista from the human world cocked her head. “I can hear you,” she said.

That stopped everyone.

Twilight quickly discovered that all the girls were able to hear their respective ponies regardless of how quiet they were.

“What. Did. You. Do to us?” Aurora growled, stalking forward to loom over Twilight.

“If I knew that, I’d have fixed it by now,” Twilight said, clamping as hard as she could on her temper. She was just about done with this girl’s attitude.

“Aw, ease up,” Diane said, resting a hand Aurora’s shoulder. “Twilight’s done a lot for us. I mean, we are on an alien world talking to another sentient life form. Total Star Trek. How cool is that?”

“I know, right!” Pinkie said, hopping next to her human. “I was thinking the same thing!”

“High hoof!” Diane offered.

Pinkie bounced up to slap Diane’s palm with a forehoof.

“Oh, we so need to party when we get a chance,” Diane said.

“So yes,” Pinkie said with a grin.

Aurora blinked at them. “She- They stole our lives! Uprooted us in the middle of living! How can- How are you so blasé about all this?!”

“You’re kidding right?” Iris volunteered from where she leaned against a tree. “I got to fly. Without, like, a plane or any of it. Who gets to say they did that?”

“I spoke with animals,” Nova commented softly, a half-smile on her face.

“I used magic to make things float. And could focus on details like never before,” Keiko noted. “To say nothing of the ideas that were just bubbling away when Rarity woke.”

“I figure a good bit of what I knew naturally about farmin’ came from this here pony. And when she was awake, gosh, it was like I could feel the whole world just beneath my boots. That’s a pretty amazing thing,” Ashley added.

“I ate, like, ten cakes a day and didn’t gain a pound. Not one!” Diane chimed in.

Aurora stared around, her jaw slack.

“We may not have asked for their presence in our lives,” Keiko said, leaning down to wrap an affectionate arm around Rarity. “But we can’t deny the impact they’ve had on us. Even if I woke back in that field thinking this was all a dream, I like to think I’d be better for such a dream.”

Rarity blushed. “Oh, well put. Thank you, Keiko. Most kind of you. All of you.”

Aurora didn’t hear the alabaster pony. She instead was looking to each of the assembled. To Iris, to Rainbow Dash. To Ashley, to Applejack. To Keiko, to Rarity. To Nova, to Fluttershy. To Diane, to Pinkie Pie. All returned her gaze simply, calmly. They weren’t worried, they weren’t angry. If anything, they looked concerned. They looked concerned for Aurora.

Her gaze dropped, falling on Twilight. Having walked close, she smiled timidly up at Aurora. The righteous anger that had propped Aurora up fizzled away and her hands dropped with her head.

She turned from the group and walked a few steps. She stopped, looked as if she were about to say something, then shook her head and kept walking into a dense patch of wilderness.

Iris huffed and started toward her, determination settling on her brow. Ashley put a hand out but Applejack beat her to it, biting down on Iris’s jeans. Iris turned to the pair.

“Let her go, Sugarcube,” Applejack said.

“She just needs to cool off,” Ashley affirmed.

Iris looked after her, frowning. She glanced up at Rainbow Dash, who fluttered nearby. The pair shared a meaningful look and Rainbow tilted forward in a bolt of colorful contrail.

“Hey!” Applejack called out.

Iris smirked at the pair, then stumbled several feet as if someone had grabbed her roughly and tried to yank her into Aurora’s path.

“Whoooooooa!” Rainbow came flying back into the clearing and slammed bodily into her human counterpart. The matched pony and human went down in a tangle of hooves and limbs.

“Oh my,” Fluttershy said, hooves to her mouth. She and Nova raced over to Rainbow and Iris.

“What... Just happened?” Rarity said.

Twilight was squinting, but before she could speak she skidded across the ground.

“What the-”

She just as suddenly skidded again as if being dragged by an invisible leash.

“What’s-”

The yanking got serious as she soon disappeared into the foliage, unable to grab onto the ground firmly, and found herself unwillingly following in Aurora’s wake.

Everyone looked to one another.

Diane and Pinkie spoke in the same excited voice at the exact same time. “When can we do that?!”
~
Once she got her hooves under her, Twilight trotted to catch up with Aurora, who was blindly pushing her way through the groves.

“That’s not the right way!” Twilight called.

“I know! I don’t want to know, but I do! Hopefully some manticore will try and eat me so I can wake up from this insanity!”

Twilight huffed. She recognized this mood. It was the I’m-tired-of-the-world one. She’d always suspected it was as trying on the outside as the in, she just wished she could have gotten affirmation another way.

“That’s not how this works!” Twilight called back to Aurora, who continued stomping forward.

“You’re a ghost pony, what do you know?”

“That you’re two steps from Poison Joke!”

Aurora froze. Looking down, a patch of blue flowers innocently threatened her very being. Memory that she shouldn’t have came unbidden and she felt anxious and worried for herself while trying to calm down all of her friends. Correction: all of Twilight’s friends.

Twilight caught up with her, but gave the Joke a respectful distance. While she was mostly certain that she wasn’t really as present in Equestria as she wished, she didn’t want to test her insubstantiality against the Poison Joke. Once was more than enough, thanks.

“Thanks,” said Aurora grudgingly. She turned and aimed for a new direction. “Why’re you following me anyway? Can’t take a hint?”

“Can’t get free,” Twilight said, trotting to match Aurora’s stomping walk. “There seems to be a limited distance we can get from one another before I start getting drawn back to you. I think the other girls understood this instinctually, but you and I-”

“Uuuugh, will you please shut up? Like right now?” Aurora said, halting mid stride. “Because you sound so... So...” She glared back at Twilight, her expression clouding, then ripped her gaze away. "Rrrrr!"

Twilight plopped on her rump and glared up at the girl.

“Look, I’m using magic and theories completely out of my expertise here. If you have an idea, I’d love to hear it!”

Aurora scowled. “I’m a psychology student.”

“Double-majoring in physics,” Twilight retorted with a smirk.

“Aaaaaaaaaaargh!” Aurora yelled at the purple pony. “Stop- Stop doing that!” She slumped then, folding down to sit in the dirt. “Just- just stop...” She buried her face in her arms, not crying, but definitely trying to shut everything out.

Across from one another, the pair lapsed into silence. The only sound was the gentle rustling of the brush and the occasional Everfree creature from far away.

“I’m sorry,” Twilight said, her voice back under control. “I never meant for all this to happen.”

After a too-long pause, Aurora spoke.

“I know. I know... Everything you thought. And did. It’s like, I don’t even notice till I nearly step in Poison Joke and then I can remember feeling my horn go floppy and wow- how do I even know what that’s supposed to feel like?”

Aurora lifted her head up to not merely look at Twilight, but to see her. See her rich, violet mane with its two stripes, her big, worried, amethyst eyes, her cutie mark. Some distant, echo-y part of her felt like she was looking in a mirror.

“You freak me out in so many ways,” Aurora said.

Twilight let a chuckle free. “Being human was pretty freaky for me, even though I wasn’t...” She waved her hoof generally.

“Yeah, but you were at least there. You actually were in my life. My body. I've never been here, never been you. I have all these memories- These sense recollections of a completely different person!" She winced. "Pony! How am I supposed to cope with that? I didn’t get in your head and bleed my life into you, you got into my head and bled your life into me!”

Aurora shook her head, amazed and perplexed all at once.

"I'm... I'm supposed to be myself. My thoughts, my accomplishments, it's all at least mine. Then you show up and it's like, who am I? Am I her? How much of me is her? How much of me is me?"

She slumped against her knees.

“Don’t you get how... How messed up that is?”

Another quiet descended. Finally, Twilight nodded, saying, “Yes, yes, I do. I was in your head too. So, I think it’s safe to say we have both been through a unique set of circumstances.”

Aurora snorted and shook her head again. Suddenly she worried that she was starting to mimic nonverbal equine cues. That she was further losing herself.

Trying to deflect the sudden panic spike, she grumbled, “No. Really?”

Twilight giggled in response.

“Yeah. Heh heh. Okay.”

Straightening her posture, Twilight tried to project her confidence, or at the very least, her sincerity.

“Aurora, I wish I could take it all back, but I can’t. And right now, I can’t go far without you. Literally. I can promise you this though. Once this is all over, I’m out of your life and you can get on with yours.”

Aurora looked at Twilight, but before she could say anything, something in the distance caught her eye. Twilight followed her gaze and saw that Aurora was looking through a hole in the Everfree. It showed a bit of Ponyville.

“Can you... Remove you from me?”

Twilight let her gaze drop. “I don’t know. I learned the spell so quickly. All these mutations and outlier manifestations of it are really confusing me. Honestly, we have a lot to sort out if my friends and I are...” She waved a hoof at her not-all-there self.

Aurora nodded.

“Okay,” she said, breathing out.

They sat in quiet for a minute or two, just looking at Ponyville. A crooked smile blossomed and Aurora cocked her head at Twilight.

“You know... It just hit me,” she said. “I’m living the dream. Magical land. Epic quest. If only Gandalf was here...”

Twilight chortled. “Well, I’m no Gandalf, but I cast a mean teleportation spell.”

Crashing branches and disrupted forest came from behind them. Twilight and Aurora turned to see Applejack hauling back on an arms-pinwheeling Iris who hovered precariously over the patch of Poison Joke. Ashley appeared and brought the girl all the way back to standing.

“Yeesh,” Ashley said. “You’d think a grounded Rainbow would be less a problem.”

“Just means more awesome to go around,” Rainbow said soaring into view. She then lit on Twilight and Aurora, flying over to them. “Hey! What’re you guys doing out here?”

Twilight and Aurora shared a glance.

“Working out a truce,” Twilight said.
~
“Why are we still going to Zecora’s?” Rainbow asked once the group had regathered. “We can’t drop the humans off. We’re pretty much on a leash to these guys. No offense.”

Iris smirked. “You kidding? I’m hoping this means you can get going fast enough and drag me into the air.”

Rainbow’s eyes ignited with the possibilities, a small smile growing on her face.

“We’ve been gone a month,” Twilight said, preventing further discussion on theoretical stunts. “We don’t know what’s happened and since I don’t have Spike here, I can’t get a message to the Princesses. The girls are less likely to make a commotion with just one zebra in the middle of Everfree rather than parading all through Ponyville.”

“Makes sense to me,” Diane said. Several feet behind her, Pinkie Pie floated a foot off the ground in a lawn chair, sipping soda and relaxing as she was dragged steadily along.

“She isn’t heavy, is she?” Nova asked her, watching the pair.

“She ain’t heavy, she’s my sister,” Diane replied blithely.

Pinkie quickly appeared on Diane’s shoulder, grinning. The two nuzzled one another in appreciation.

Nova looked at them, then down at Fluttershy, who was hovering along the ground. The pegasus seemed to respond to an unheard question and looked up at Nova. After a quiet flap, she floated up to rest on Nova’s shoulder. The girl and pony both blinked in surprise, sharing little smiles at the comfort of the positions.

“We’re trendsetters,” Pinkie said, sliding on stylish sunglasses.

“How chic,” Diane replied, wearing her own movie star shades.

“Two Rainbows and two Pinkies,” Twilight muttered with a smile.

“And they just feed off each other,” Aurora said, watching Diane bop Pinkie over her head like a loose balloon, the pink pony giggling the whole time. The girls nearby them shared in the laugh.

“Well, the spell was supposed to find like minds that would nurture our pony spirits,” Twilight said, trying for a positive approach.

Aurora turned her gaze forward. “I’m doing a real great job of that,” she muttered sarcastically.

Before Twilight could offer at least an intellectual protest, the brush parted and a lone zebra appeared. She wore gold neck bands and earrings with a side saddle bag, but no cloak. Zecora only wore that when going into town.

“Familiar voices I heard and so I came, but you are not the little ponies that I know by name,” the little zebra said in her melodic, rhyming timbre.

“Oh, Zecora, it’s so good to see you!” Twilight exclaimed, trotting around Aurora to approach her friend and sometimes teacher. “We’ve been through a lot and I was... Hoping...”

Zecora didn’t turn, didn’t blink, didn’t even bat an eye when Twilight stepped in front of her.

“Zecora?” Twilight said, her voice tightening. She waved a hoof in front of Zecora, who merely turned to look at the gathered humans clearly.

“She can’t see me...” Twilight whispered.

Having watched the whole thing, Aurora stepped forward at the distress she saw on Twilight's face. As Zecora's gaze settled on her approach, she knew she couldn't back out now, instead getting bizarre déjà vu as she made contact with a talking little zebra she’d technically never met before.

“Uh. Hi,” Aurora said. “My name’s Aurora.” Turning, she indicated the other humans. “And that’s Keiko, Nova, Diane, Iris and Ashley. Sorry if we’ve confused you. This is all kind of confusing to us too.”

She rubbed her hands on her slacks, nervously trying to find the best words.

“Your friends are actually right in front of you, but you can’t see them.”

Zecora approached Aurora and beckoned her. The girl got down on one knee, letting the shamaness turn her head left, then right.

“Twilight Sparkle say your voice and eyes- when you say they are before me, do you mean a guise?”

As Aurora fought back her sudden piqued ire at more comparisons to Twilight, the purple unicorn went over to Zecora’s side and tried to place a hoof on her back, only to have it fall through. The purple pony looked on the verge of tears. Without turning, Aurora could feel the tension behind her, and hear soft noises of panic from the other ponies.

“No. No guise,” Aurora said, focusing on the conversation.

“A spell perhaps to fool even the wise?”

“Not that either. We’re, uh...” She looked at the other girls, who were smiling reassuringly.
Iris was the first to speak up. “It’s okay, ‘Ro. We got your back.” The rest nodded in agreement, looking at Aurora with implicit trust. Aurora blushed at the feeling of support- they were probably just continuing the dynamic Twilight established back home. Still, people had her back. Even though they weren’t hers, it was a good feeling.

Emboldened, Aurora turned back to Zecora and said, “We’re humans. The ponies you knew hid their... Spirits? I guess that’s best. They hid their spirits in our bodies in another world, but... Something happened. So they tried to get back, but we came along too. Though they aren’t in us any more. They’re all around you actually- trying to get your attention.”

She nodded at Twilight.

“Twilight’s right there. She looks like she’s about to cry because she can’t talk to you.”

Zecora looked at Twilight, or more accurately, the space Twilight was standing in. After a few tense breaths from the unicorn, Zecora nodded.

“Perhaps it is best that we return to my hut. There you can better explain to me what is what.”
~
Back at Zecora’s hut, Aurora went through more déjà vu. Though, it was less pronounced as the place was pretty crowded and much smaller than her memories from Twilight recalled.

“Why not just have your rump out in the Everfree?” Pinkie asked the other ponies, her head poking out of a wall. “Not like anything can happen to us.”

“Perhaps,” Rarity said as she tried to find a space where she wouldn’t be in or through something. “But, not all of us are comfortable being half in a fireplace, Pinkie.”

“Suit yourself,” Rainbow said, hovering with one wing flapping through a mask. “Being a ghost is kind of cool.”

As the ponies talked, Zecora had each human girl kneel in front of her so that she could examine them. She put a dab of something white on their foreheads and cheeks and lit a candle to watch the smoke change colors as she wafted it about them.

Aurora had to admit, she was a bit fascinated. While Zecora was as stereotypical a shaman as you could get, what with the tribal masks and a hut filled with strange plants, she approached their problems more scientifically and thoughtfully than she expected. Aurora had Twilight’s memories of Zecora, but she regarded them, like everything else she remembered from the unicorn, with heavy skepticism and personal review.

In her mind’s eye, she had awaited witch-doctor-y faith healing, but Zecora was clearly using conventional methodology to analyze and weigh data, then determine what was going on with the girls. Her tools were the only thing unconventional.

Aurora found her overall disbelief diminishing as a result. If Twilight was right in her respect of Zecora, who was Aurora to call into question the rest of what the two academics shared from their time together?

Twilight leaned against Aurora the whole time Aurora watched. She shook occasionally. After Aurora had been examined, she placed an arm around the pony and that seemed to relax her. The thanks in Twilight’s eyes was palpable.

Aurora looked away from it. “I just don’t need you freaking out,” she said, sotto voce.

“I appreciate it all the same,” Twilight replied.

Zecora made tea for everyone after she was done.

Keiko, who was sitting on Aurora’s other side, was noticeably giddy.

Aurora openly regarded Keiko, who’d taken off her jacket and reclined as if she were on holiday, sipping tea with an old friend. Keiko noticed the attention and winked at Aurora.

“You may be having troubles,” she said, leaning in to whisper. “But I am having a blast. I just wish I’d brought the right outfit for all this...” She shuddered. “Nature.”

“I know what you mean, darling,” Rarity said. “Mucking about in the Everfree can be quite invigorating if done correctly, but only-”

“When properly prepared,” Keiko and Rarity said in unison.

The pair beamed at one another.

Aurora just stared. How did they do that?

“If I may have everyone’s attention please, I promise my answers, they will not tease.”

The hubbub died down and pony and human alike turned their eyes on Zecora, who sipped slowly from her tea.

“Powerful, dangerous magic has been cast these days and the effects were not meant to stay those ways. From what I have learned speaking with Aurora here, makes your conditions of pony and friend equally clear. Thanks to all the magic, Spirit Bonds have taken form, and until you free the pony bodies cocooned, this will be the norm.”

“The spell wasn’t meant to stay those ways?” Twilight asked. “What do you mean?”

Aurora passed the questions along, and Zecora sipped her tea again, clearly in no rush.

“The spell used here is one familiar to my tribe, but typically we do this with a magical kind of... ‘Spirit Bribe.’ This bribe makes safe a spirit outside its home, to allow the mind to expand and the soul to roam. By bringing in the magic of her horn, Twilight has given it the flavor of a unicorn. Since unicorn magic uses so much energy, when conditions changed, the spell did as well to keep synergy.”

The group sat, bewildered a bit by Zecora’s rhyming ways and what she was implying.

Twilight was the first to speak, with a soft, realizing, “Oh.”

“You got all that?” Applejack asked.

“When we came back, the magic was still going for the spell. We must have... Bounced off the cocoons the Changeling Queen made- they were supposed to protect our bodies from everything, after all. Looks like that included ourselves. Since we didn’t get back to our bodies, the spell was still active and kept us tethered to the other girls.”

“But how did y’all end up outside us?” Ashley asked.

“Because of the spell back on Earth,” Aurora said.

Everyone turned to look at her. She twitched at the sudden attention. If that kept up, she was going to have to get used to the... Appreciation the other girls offered her. It contrasted greatly with how her life had been.

She was reminded of the attention her grandmother offered: warm, genuine. She thought she’d never get that again. Yet, here she was, being paid the courtesy of awareness and waiting silence.

Clearing her throat, she went on.

“Like Rarity said, Twilight was trying to cut a spell with another spell, which is... Tricky if I’m still remembering unicorn magic right.” Twilight nodded, so Aurora went on. “That was a lot of energy and part of it incorporated a failsafe to return the girls to us if it didn’t work out, right?”

Twilight nodded again. “I’m not as proficient in spirit magic as Zecora or the Princess. I stuck to the idea that we needed bodies of some sort.”

“Okay,” Aurora said. “So I’m guessing when you ponies bounced off your bodies, the failsafe kicked in and sent you back to us, but because of all that energy...”

“We had already come too!” Keiko squealed as if shouting “Eureka!”

When everyone turned to her, she smirked with an upward tilt of her chin. “Genius applies to more than just fashion.”

“Here here,” Rarity chimed.

“So it was all these back and forths, messin’ up the spell big time,” Applejack said.

“Pretty much,” Aurora said. “Lots of energy, too many variables and a limited number of ways for the spell to disperse. I’m no Twilight Sparkle, but I can tell we got mega lucky.”

“Perhaps this was luck, perhaps it was not,” Zecora said. “A Spirit Bond like this should not be what was wrought.”

“Y’know,” Iris said from her lean against the hut’s walls. “It’d help if you didn’t talk all rhymey and riddley.”

Smirking, Aurora said, “You never had a professor who expected you to play at their level, did you, Iris?”

She shrugged. “If anyone’s busting on me, it’s coach.” She blinked, looking off into the distance as perspective came rushing in. “Man. Hope I can still go back to my scholarship.”

“We’ll get the Princess to write you a Get Out of Crazy note,” Diana chirped.

The girls laughed. Save Aurora who scowled. “Can we not use the ‘c-word?’ I feel like we’re in glass houses enough as is.”

“You really need to lighten up,” Diana said from across the hut. “Here, catch Pinkie!”

Suddenly, Aurora was bowled over by an airborne, fast-moving pink pony.

From the ground, Aurora regarded the smiling pony with cool detachment.

“You lightened up, yet?” Pinkie asked.

“I have a ghost pony on my chest. If anything, I’m heavier.”

Pinkie giggled. “You’re funny like Twilight, you know that?”

Aurora rolled her eyes.

“As entertaining as seeing just half these talks could be,” Zecora said. “Is it true you can feel the weight of silly Pinkie?”

“Yep,” Aurora, groaned, easing the pony off. “The ponies can only seem to interact with us. Everything else is passing through them.”

Twilight looked at her in surprise.

Aurora rolled her eyes as she sat back up. “I am studying two doctorates. I do notice things and think sometimes.”

Zecora’s brows raised and her lips pursed in amazement. “The other Spirit Bonds you do feel? This is more than can be real!”

“Like I said,” Aurora commented. “We used a lot of energy. Rainbow Dash did a Sonic Rainboom for magic fuel.”

Zecora turned to Iris, who gestured to an invisible, smug-looking Rainbow Dash. “Team effort,” Iris said.

“Hey!” Rainbow said, good-naturedly. “I did all the work.”

“With my body,” Iris replied, grinning.

“Girls...” Applejack said.

The pair turned to the farm pony while Zecora seemed to contemplate Iris’s description.

“Stay focused,” Applejack said. “Now. No offense to all the magic talk- I’m sure this spirit bond-o stuff is interestin’, but we still got that Smiling Pony to deal with.”

“That’s right! In all the excitement, I completely forgot,” Twilight said. Turning to Aurora, she added, “Can you ask Zecora about him?”

Aurora passed on Twilight’s question and Zecora grew somber.

“Ah yes,” Zecora said. “Too well the Dream Eater’s news to me is known, shall I tell you about him or would you like to be shown?”

“Shown,” voted Rainbow, Pinkie, Iris and Diane in unison.
~
The path was a straight line that came up to the Everfree and stopped. It looked like somepony had been making a road and given up when they’d gotten a good peek at what the forest had to offer. The path’s new direction, curved along the Everfree’s edge, only furthered this idea.

As the girls examined the path closer though, they noticed it wasn’t ground trampled in use or spread dirt. It was dead earth. Grass was browned and frail and broken. What rock showed beneath was scarred and brittle and dry. Tree trunks and branches were hewn from the ground up.

It looked as if Death itself had walked to the forest, then changed directions.

“Celestia’s mane...” Rarity murmured.

“You said it,” Diane said in equally hushed tones.

“So he came one day,” Zecora said. “Moving along in his destructive way, but at the Everfree’s edge did he hold and his manner no longer was so bold. Then around did the Dream Eater spin, never to darken this forest again.”

“That’s... Weird,” Twilight said.

“Don’t make much sense given everything else the varmit’s done,” Ashley added.

“It seems the ponies in Canterlot would agree as I saw them in the same place not far from we.”

“Pardon?” Keiko said.

“They wore shields on their chests and official business in their eyes and seeing Dream Eater’s distaste, acted like they found a prize. Some cities he spared, yet others he tore through, had I not seen him pause at Everfree, I’d be concerned too. So they spoke more, never seeing my face about how they could get ponies to live in this place.”

“Ponies in Everfree?” Nova said. “That’s- I know I- I mean, Fluttershy lives nearby, and Zecora can handle the forest, but having more ponies move all the way in? That’s... That’s a bad idea.”

“Not if you bulldoze it,” Aurora said.

The girls all turned to her. They kept doing that. Maybe they weren’t just following Twilight’s lead?

“The Smiling Pony eats Harmony, right? I don’t think this place is exactly buzzing with the stuff.” She slapped a mosquito from her neck. “Or if it is, maybe it’s not the way he likes it. Remember how the Changeling Queen said he treated her people like junk food? What if Everfree or places like it are food too, but just too tough to swallow?”

Twilight nodded, catching up with Aurora’s logic. “If that’s true, then he might need ponies or another set of creatures to inhabit it and...” Her eyes widened. “No.”

“What?” Iris said. “Can someone or somepony help me out here, because I’m not getting it.”

“He’s going to destroy the Everfree,” Nova said, her voice quiet.

Ashley nodded. “He’s farming. Got some soil here but can’t do anything with it. Get some fellers in who can, and they’re extra interested in makin’ this crop good. Once it’s come up...”

A chill settled among every person and pony in the treeline.

“It’s just one forest, right?” Aurora said, sarcastically. She sighed, shook her head. “This guy really has got everypony spooked.”

Iris and Rainbow shared a look. “You guys are kidding me right?” Iris said. “We’re fighting deforestation?”

“Against the Dream Eater is where you stand,” Zecora said. “Should you not treat him right, then he will eat more than your land.”

“You keep calling him ‘Dream Eater,’” Nova said. “Why?”

“Once, long ago, a smiling pony came to the land of my birth. The tribes fled as he bled all the life from the earth. He took many trees, he took plains of gold, he took zebra sick, healthy, young and old. He ate our love, he ate our tomorrow, he ate all we knew leaving us only with sorrow. So deep this sorrow grew that nightmares were all my zebras knew. Dream Eater we called him with fear, until a protector did appear.”

“Who was that?” Iris asked.

“A wise shaman, from a tribe far away said to have fire in his eyes and a new juju in his sway. Only he did stand in the monster’s path, disappearing the Dream Eater and his wrath.”

“What did the shaman do?” Ashley asked.

After a long pause, Zecora spoke. “Lost that knowledge is, nopony knows what took place. When my zebra kin went to find the shaman, he was gone without a trace.”

“Well that’s helpful,” Rainbow said.

“Sure it is!” Twilight chimed in. “It means he can be beat.” Her voice darkened. “We just have to find out how.”

“You get on that Twi,” Rainbow said. “Meanwhile, I’d like to get back to my body.”

“We all would,” Rarity said.

“I could do this for a while longer,” Pinkie replied, popping out of Diane’s dark afro.

Aurora had a thoughtful hand to her chin. Ashley noticed and sauntered over to squat next to the girl.

“Whatcha thinkin’ ‘Ro?” Ashley asked, picking up the nickname Iris had started.

Aurora glanced up at Ashley, who, even squatted down with her, had a head’s height advantage.

“Do you remember anything from Applejack’s memory about anypony acting like this?”

“Well, I remember ‘em panickin’ pretty easy, but nothin’ like this.”

“Exactly. Same for me and Twilight. The others are probably the same way too.” Aurora started rubbing a grass stem between her fingers, unaware that everyone had quieted for her. “I don’t think the Smiling Pony just gets you afraid, I think he affects basic critical faculty reasoning. The only way to catch it is if...”

“You have an outsider’s perspective,” Twilight said, quietly.

Aurora blinked and turned to share a knowing smile with her.

“So what?” Ashley asked.

“So we have to not only get the girls back to their bodies, but probably have to go through a veritable minefield of freshly paranoid ponies. We may even have to speak directly to the Princesses and convince them that they’re being affected on a subconscious level and being directed to their own destruction.” Her smile turned brittle. “No pressure.”

Ashley however was beaming.

“So. You’re in?”

Aurora looked at the scorched earth path and thought, It’s just a little thing. Just the first pebble in a possibly giant avalanche. And we’re probably the only ones standing in the way of those first pebbles...

Ashley’s face started pinching in worry as Aurora kept silent and poker-faced. Then, Aurora let the grass shoot fall and patted her hands on her thighs, rising.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m in,” Aurora said. She followed Ashley’s rise and added, “I’m still kind of pissed, but I’m not heartless.”

Ashley clapped her on the shoulder.

“If we’re to get our bodies back,” Rarity said. “We still have to get to Canterlot and the Princess’s cavern.”

“Yeah, and it’s probably locked down tighter than Fort Knox,” Aurora said. “Some unknown humans strolling up aren’t going to get the red carpet to the Princess, especially with everypony all twitchy. I mean, Twilight, do you know any way in?”

She shook her head.

“I’m only aware of official routes to and through the kingdom,” Twilight said.

“Well... We could always take the sneaky ninja route!” Pinkie said.

Everyone turned to her.

“What? Am I the only pony who knows about the sneaky ninja route?”

Chapter 6

“Rarity?”

“Yes, Keiko?”

“Can I just note how much I envy you right now?”

“You can. My heart goes out to you, darling, this is harrowing enough for me and I’m not all here. It must be positively dreadful for you.”

“It’s just a little muck,” Ashley muttered.

“It’s just a little Rarity,” Applejack whispered back.

“You’re sure about this way, Pinkie?” Aurora said.

“Sure as sugar! How’s everypony doing?”

“Oh...” Aurora muttered, looking down at her ruined pants and shoes, which were squelching along in sewer water. “We’re doing.”

After Pinkie had mentioned an alternative way into the kingdom, the girls had all returned to Zecora’s hut where they were given provisions and a good meal. Zecora wished them all luck and that she would stay behind to slow anypony who even looked at the Everfree funny.

The trip had gone smoothly for the most part with Rainbow Dash staying as high as her invisible tether to Iris allowed, scanning for anypony they’d run into. Oddly enough, they met nary a soul on the road. Aurora had suspicions and she imagined Twilight did as well, but since her friendly little unicorn wasn’t talking, she kept the worries to herself. No need to panic everyone further.

About a mile outside Canterlot, Pinkie led them down into a cave whose narrow back gave way to a twisting labyrinth that joined into Canterlot’s major sewer system. While Twilight and Rarity were still not entirely there, the light they cast from their horns illuminated well enough so everyone could see in the dark tunnels.

“Pinkie,” Twilight asked as Aurora scraped something wretched from the cuff of her pants. “How did you find this place anyway?”

“Epic hide n’ seek with the Princess. You have to be reaaaaally good to play with her. And I’m the champ!”

Before anyone could follow that train of thought, Aurora’s foot collided with something firm and unyielding, shimmering up in a purple-pink light.

“Uh oh...” Twilight and Aurora said at the same time.

“Whaddya mean ‘uh oh?’” Applejack said, her vision obscured by backs and semi-transparent ponies.

As the group drew up against a gently curving, sheer wall of shining, magical energy, Ashley lifted Applejack over everyone’s heads.

“Oh,” Applejack said. She tilted her hat up. “Yep, that’s an uh oh.”

“Shining Armor?” Aurora asked, sizing up the shield and running her hand across it.

“Shining Armor,” Twilight confirmed.

Twilight’s horn came alive with a new light as she cast it about the energy wall and Aurora quietly tapped along the surface as if listening for something.

The rest of the girls rested while Twilight and Aurora inspected the obstacle. Nova handed out the veggie wraps she’d made with Zecora then approached Aurora with a smile. Aurora glanced back, noticing Nova and her offered goods. Smiling tiredly, she accepted the food and looked back at the glittering wall.

“So it’s one of Shining Armor’s shields?” Nova asked.

Aurora nodded, mouth full of veggie wrap. Tasted a bit bland, but she doubted she’d find curry in this setting.

Swallowing, she said, “And better made than when the Changelings were around.”

“How can you tell?”

Aurora blinked. “Um.” Her brow furrowed.

“A little of that’s me,” Twilight said as she peered close, waving her horn over the expanse of sparkling energy. “You’re getting feedback from my horn.”

“My life,” Aurora breathed. She bit into the wrap, deciding to give herself something else to focus on.

After a few more passes, Twilight made a growling noise.

“What?” Aurora said.

“I can’t- I can’t disrupt it,” Twilight spat. “This is the same weave that Shining always uses- I’ve been getting around it my whole life, but it. Won’t. Work!” She thrust her horn, tip bright, at the shield to no effect.

“Maybe it’s because you’re not really there,” Applejack said.

Twilight turned a questioning eyebrow on Applejack, her expression revealing more frustration than curiosity.

Applejack rose to that expression and walked over to the wall. Frowning, she bent her head down and trotted through the shield. Her whole body wavered like she was a heat mirage as she passed, but everyone stared as she stopped on the other side. She took a breath and returned. Aurora watched the same distortion as before intently.

“Whoo. Like runnin’ through a thicket of zap apple trees, but ain’t a problem.”

“Except for us,” Aurora said. “We’re not ghosts here, AJ- I mean, Applejack.”

Applejack gave Aurora a brief, knowing look and nodded. “Just means we gotta work on gettin’ y’all in rather than every one of us.”

Twilight was rubbing her chin thoughtfully.

“That’ll make things easier... Aurora, if you could come here please?”

Aurora knelt into the squelchy muck, both her and Twilight wincing in the process.

“Sorry,” Twilight said.

Aurora waved her hand with a sigh. “Just add it to my bill. You have an idea?”

“Maybe,” Twilight said, licking her lips. “But it’s going to be a bit of a long shot.”

“We seem to be specializing in those. I’m up for it,” Aurora replied.

“Okay.”

Twilight took a deep breath, closing her eyes. After a moment, she released and opened her eyes to look squarely into Aurora’s own. The effect was slightly disorienting- again, Aurora had that near-instinctual feeling of looking into a mirror that didn’t quite sync.

“Aurora, I want you to close your eyes.”

She did so, grateful to leave the mirror-feeling behind.

“I want you to look for where you felt me before. When I was looking over the shield with my horn. Look for that feedback you got.”

Aurora took a breath and tried to find the feeling again; that twinge and knowledge that had just... Been there. After a minute, she couldn’t find it.

Head shaking, she told Twilight as much.

“Okay,” Twilight said.

Aurora felt heat then. Something small, like a candle flame nearby.

“How about now?”

“Yeah... Yeah, I can- There.”

She had it then, the little path that ran between her and Twilight. To her surprise, she thought it felt like a river, like invisible water flowing between them. Specifically from her... Heart? No, it was just a little... There. Was that her heart chakra? Was she sharing a chakra with a pony? That didn’t make any sense! That was imposs-

The path wavered, her sense of flowing water getting thin.

Mentally backing away from her uncertainty, she focused on the path being, existing.

And it did.

Aurora suddenly felt like she was ten and sitting in meditation with her grandmother.

“Breath in and out, child. In and out. This will help you discipline your mind,” her elegant grandmother had said.

“I’m already dis’plined, Nani.”

“You are curious, child. This will focus that.”

Her grandmother assumed a lotus pose that seemed to defy the bent posture she’d held ever since Aurora had first met her. She’d heard her Mom tell Dad once that Nani used to be a dancer and a martial artist, which made her super cool to Aurora. She didn’t know girls could be both.

“See what you want. No doubts now. Doubt will be for later. Now, you must decide on what you want. It will help you walk the path in life.”

“I wanna learn more,” young Aurora had said.

“Good child. A grand start. Focus on that and only that. Now, clear your mind, save for that thought, and hold it tight...”

So Aurora had and the focus paid off in her studies. Now she needed to bring that same focus to another side of learning- doing. That meant letting go of questions and concerns for the time being. Stop worrying about how none of this made sense. Stop wishing she could just go back to her life. Accept that right now was right now and deal with it later.

She had people and ponies counting on her and they didn’t have time. The longer they stayed down there, the better their chances of being caught. She needed to focus on just this. Walk now, figure out how she was walking later.

Taking a deep, calming breath, she let go of her concerns. She was on a Path. She hoped her feet didn’t sink between the stones.

“Feels like you have a handle on it,” Twilight said.

“Yeah. Can we move it along? This is... Weird.”

She realized she could feel Twilight nodding. Okay, this was epic weird.

“So. I want you to think of a ball. A clear one. Focus on it.”

Aurora did so. Picturing a clear ball in her head, it was done. She held it in her mind’s eye.

“Good. Now, imagine an opening in the ball.”

Again, it was easy. Done.

“Good. Now, I’m going to fill that ball. Don’t stop focusing. Okay? Keep focusing on that ball.”

Aurora nodded and soon she felt Twilight’s horn on her forehead. Then, she felt the river between them widen. The ball she imagined started to shimmer, filling with a purple light.

“Oh... Wow,” Aurora said.

“Keep focusing,” Twilight said.

“What’s goi-mmph!” Rainbow and Iris were muffled immediately by the other girls before they could break whatever tenuous thing that Aurora and Twilight had built.

Aurora “watched” as the ball filled all the way to the top. She didn’t just see purple light glittering in there. She could feel something in it. Something alive in a way she’d never encountered. Like... A living wish. Or a dream.

“Whoo. That’s tricky,” Twilight said. “Okay, Aurora. Now, I want you to close the ball...”

Done.

“Good. Now pick the ball up. You can do it with your own hands if you want. Just feel like you’re taking the ball.”

Aurora’s hand moved slowly and she wrapped it around the make believe ball and-

“Whoa!” Aurora yelped. “I can- I can really-”

“Focus!” Twilight shrieked. “Focusfocusfocusfocus!”

Aurora brought her mind back to bear and held the ball tightly in mind and hand.

Twilight breathed out. “Okay. Let’s... Don’t do that again.”

Aurora nodded. “Can I open my eyes?”

“Not yet,” Twilight said. “You might- You’re not ready for that. Now, I want you to turn until you can feel the shield again.”

Done. Wow. She could see it too. She told Twilight.

“Good. That means your mind is adapting to recognizing magical constructs. That’s very good. Now, Aurora, here’s the tricky part. You’re going to throw that ball at the shield and when you do, you’re going to feel it hit and feel the wall push against you. But you have to be firm. You can’t let the wall push you back, Aurora.”

The girl smirked. “I’m nothing if not stubborn.”

She felt Twilight smile, delighted. “Good to know. Okay, everyone. Get ready to run. I don’t know how long this is going to hold.”

The girls rose, wiping grime from themselves. Once they were ready, they nodded.

“Alright. Aurora, you’ll need to get ready too.”

Aurora nodded, and rose slowly, still focusing on the ball, which was deceptively simple.

She could feel the weight of the living... Whatever she held, like a wad of electricity in her mind. She could also feel the eight-million things she would rather be thinking about trying to crowd in (itch on her arm, water around her feet, what was she even doing here, etc.). Aurora was very glad her grandmother had done those meditation exercises so young. What she did was hard, but without those little rituals of mental discipline, she knew it would have been that much harder.

She resolved to send Nani a gift on the next holiday. Something really nice.

“I’m ready,” Aurora said.

“Okay... Throw the ball!” Twilight commanded.

Aurora did so and felt the strike rattle up her arm with a weird jolt and she still felt the ball as it pushed into the wall and-

Suddenly there was a new weight, an impossibly massive and heavy weight, and it was all in her head all at once. Her eyes snapped open and she grunted and had to redouble her focus. She realized she was muttering mantras she hadn’t used since she was ten.

Whether the mantras helped or her discipline held or she was just plain stubborn enough, her will locked in and she shoved back as if her brain had grown arms and could slam something away. More specifically, a magical something.

The shimmering shield waned as purple light danced across it and then a hole opened. Not really large, but certainly big enough for an average sized human being to squat down and scoot through.

The girls stared in wonder.

“Go!” Aurora yelled, leaning against the wall. “This isn’t easy! Go!”

Iris and Rainbow were the first through followed almost immediately by Pinkie and Diane. Rarity and Keiko ducked through with a thankful smile to the girl as Applejack and Ashley ensured Fluttershy and Nova made it through.

“Hard part,” Twilight said.

Aurora nodded. Her focus shifted and this... Spell didn’t like it if she moved around too much. She shuffled to just in front of the hole and realized, she could feel her concentration slipping.

Yelling in brash defiance she gave one last, mental push, followed by a physical one. She went through the hole as it snapped shut behind her.

Rolling in muck, Aurora came up against Ashley and Applejack who cushioned her with their shared bulk.

“Whoa, pardner,” Applejack said.

“That... Was awesome,” Iris said, her voice rising in excitement.

“Indeed. First rate spellcraft,” Rarity added.

“Good job, Aurora,” Twilight commented, shuddering as she passed through the shield. “That wasn’t an easy spell and you did it right on your first try.”

Aurora broke into a bit of a mad grin. “Ha! Ha ha! Yeah!” She punched the air in triumph and was suddenly washed by a bone-deep fatigue and a headache that went from her eyes to her toes. “Oh. Ow. Ow, ow, ow.”

She shuddered, curling up slightly regardless of the sewage she lay in, her hands over her head.

“Yeah. You haven’t built up your muscle yet. It’ll-”

Twilight was cut off as something caught her attention. A little nimbus of light appeared at the tip of her horn, shining a tiny pink.

“What?” the unicorn whispered hotly.

“What is it Twi?” Applejack said.

“There’s an alarm. A silent, magical alarm! Shining never- No. Nevermind. We have to go. Now!”

“But Aurora can barely stand!” Rainbow pointed out.

“Then we’ll just have to help!” Ashley said, hoisting the girl across one shoulder.

Iris slid under Aurora’s other side and Applejack got under her feet.

“This... Stinks...” Aurora gasped, feeling like a cork in the water. The pain and fatigue were mixing into some new thing in her that made her dizzy and giddy all at once.

“Gonna stink worse if we don’t get movin’. Let’s go everypony!” Ashley said and the group took off.

Aurora jostled limply between Ashley and Iris, feeling stupid and useless. She also felt strangely detached. Like all of this was happening to somepony else. Or was it somebody else? She thought she should be mad at herself and-

Oh, she was mad at herself. Wait. No. That wasn’t her. What was that?

As she listened through ringing ears, the girls shouted directions and a noise like clanking metal soon became apparent. She also heard a smaller voice. It was near that inside river, wasn’t it?

She went closer and yep! There it was.

How could I have been so stupid?! Of course Shining would change his shield spell! And now I’ve hurt Aurora further. She’ll never trust me now...

“Hey...” Aurora mumbled. Celestia, she felt like horseapples. Why not try thinking at the noise? That seemed to be what was happening anyway.

Hey, Aurora thought at the river. She giggled. She was thinking at a river.

What? Twilight skidded in the muck.

“Twilight!” Fluttershy shrieked.

“Coming! Coming!”

Who...? Aurora is that you?

Oh wow. I wasn’t imagining it. Isn’t that neat? Look, don’t feel bad. You didn’t- You thinged. That’s all. It’s okay.

Twilight cringed. The spell had been way more complicated than a first time user could handle. But she’d had no choice. Now Aurora was in one of the worst magically induced near-exhaustion states Twilight had ever seen. The girl needed rest, not more running. And certainly not any kind of telepathic communication!

It’s not okay, Twilight thought at Aurora. I should have found another way around the shield instead of running you through the wringer. I’m so, so sorry Aurora. Just... Just relax, okay?

Nah, it’s cool, Aurora thought. You’ve been messing up my life so much I’m like, eh, whatever. What’s more?

Twilight cringed.

No, wait that’s not- No. Okay, don’t- Arrgh, don’t tell anyone, but... I was holding back your magic back home.

I knew it! Twilight’s eyes widened and Aurora felt the accusatory glare on the back of her neck.

Yeah, yeah. We could do... Little things inside. I couldn’t understand why the rest of ‘em were like- hey, ponies can do whatever. It’s your body and... And it needs more respect than that. I felt like you were... Stealing me.

They turned left at Pinkie’s direction and the clanking suddenly started coming from another direction. Rainbow was shouting something, but Twilight and Aurora could barely hear it.

But, you weren’t. You totally respected my body. You tried really hard to let me stay in charge- No, let me finish. And you only happened when Pinkie did her magical hypnotist bit. So. Yeah. Sorry I’ve been a jerk.

It’s alright, Twilight said. I should have figured whoever took care of me would be a bit... Stubborn.

A silent chuckle passed between the pair.

Aurora was quiet and the sound muted further about her. It was almost time for bed, but she wanted to say something.

I’m really jealous of you, you know, she thought to Twilight. Like, your life is just... Really interesting and well supported and warm. You get to read obscure tomes and talk to a Princess who’s old as dirt and that’s- Wow. That all is- I’m super jealous.

You’re jealous of me? Twilight squawked back completely forgetting her intent to ignore the girl’s mental communications. I should be jealous of you! Your family is such an impressive part of your life, you have the respect of multiple professors, not to mention more peace than I see in an afternoon. I barely get a chance to read and you were under a tree last week with a really fun novel. And your technology! I’d give my left hoof for the Internet!

Heh, Aurora thought. Grass is always greener, ain’t it?

Yeah... Twilight thought, then whipped around, more keenly aware of her surroundings once again. She could see the white of the official Canterlot guard and definitely make out their expressions.

I’m sorry, Aurora, but could we pick this up later? We’re kind of being chased right now.

Aurora’s head bobbed in what Twilight figured was a nod.

“Halt!” came a reply from closer than Twilight liked.

“Run faster!” Rainbow yelled.

Gimme a hug.

What? Twilight blurted, her concentration splintering.

C’mon. Hug time. Let’s go. We’re totally bonding here.

This is a really bad time, Aurora.

Aurora wriggled in Ashley and Iris’s grip and though the girls tried to compensate, she fell, toppling over Applejack and nearly into Twilight.

“Aurora! What are you doing?! You have to get up!” Twilight yelled.

Aurora rose. And looked Twilight in the eye. She was soaked to the bone in sewage and looked like she’d scraped herself in her fall. Ashley and Iris were already trying to grab her again, but Aurora swung her arms like a ragdoll, forcing the pair back.

“Now isn’t the time, Sugarcube,” Applejack whispered trying to get a grip on her pants.

You know, you’re good, Aurora thought at Twilight. You’re good for me.

She reached out and Twilight didn’t just hear Aurora’s thoughts any more, she felt them. She felt the gratitude, the warmth this girl offered.

Blinking, Twilight moved closer and she could also feel the confusion rolling beneath Aurora’s mind- how lost she felt in this strange world and this strange experience, and how her doubts cropped up as she worried about everything. At the top, she worried if she was nothing more than Twilight the Human, followed immediately by concern about making sound decisions. Hidden deep beneath all that was the bone-deep phobia that she was just locked in a padded room, drooling in a straitjacket. Twilight could tell she definitely found Aurora’s fear.

She also found Aurora’s will.

She was a storm inside, but it was less a storm that engulfed her and more a storm that fueled her. Though she doubted her identity, she would prove that she was more than some pony’s echo. Though she didn’t understand all this, she would figure it out. Though she doubted her very sanity, she would get back home and live her life on her terms.

Twilight dove deeper into these feelings and found understanding.

Part of living life on her terms meant accepting Twilight. The pony was another academic who Aurora just had a lot in common with and had shared an experience that defied all known logic. She recognized that Twilight hurt her, but that had never been her intent. She recognized that Twilight was trying to help too. Most of all, Aurora recognized that Twilight was earnestly trying to be her friend.

After a lifetime where she felt like the only companionship she had were with her parents and her nani, Aurora knew she could use a friend and was trying to welcome Twilight with all the feeble energy she had to offer as she lay in the muck of Canterlot’s sewer.

Twilight Sparkle, personal protégé of Princess Celestia and bearer of the Element of Magic of the Elements of Harmony, learned all this in the blink of an eye and was overwhelmed.

Risking the nearing ponies splashing through the sewage, Twilight leaned forward for a quick embrace. The affection between Aurora and her blossomed open- a flower happily greeting a rising sun and its warmth. Moving on instinct, she wrapped her forelegs around the girl’s neck eagerly, drinking in the warmth.

You’re good for me too, Twilight thought.

The guards were close enough that Twilight could make out the sound of their individual armor. Oddly, that didn’t matter. What mattered was this girl. This girl who needed Twilight, and who Twilight needed too.

Fluttershy’s ear was the first to twitch to the low hum that was now climbing from the pair holding each other tightly. Before she could tell anypony else though, there was a flash of light and the other girls blinked rapidly, briefly dazzled.

“What the hay-”

“Where’s Twilight?” Iris said, turning around.

“Freeze right where you- Uh...” said the lead pegasus. He stopped.

He could just barely hover in the low ceilings of the sewer and had thought he’d caught up with the fleeing suspects. He came up short as he saw six... Things just milling in the scum and water. One was rising, getting to what must have been its legs. Light was too poor for a proper description, but these suspects had gotten through Captain Armor’s shield so they had to be handled.

“Right!” the guard said, recovering from his surprise. “Stay right where you...” He trailed off again as he locked on the creature in front, whose eyes were glowing a soft white.

“Sorry for the inconvenience, sir,” it said in a feminine voice that sounded... Doubled somehow. Like it echoed within itself. “We’re just passing through.”

The guard once again shook off the shock and directed his men to flank the group.

“Girls, get in close,” the thing said and after a confused pause, all the shapes gathered to one another.

“What’s...”

“I’ll explain in a minute,” the glowing-eyed thing said. “Just... Hang on. This isn’t going to be easy.”

Before the guards could lower their weapons, before the lead could even direct his unicorn to stop any spells in progress, the thing with the glowing eyes tilted its head back and the group was engulfed in a bright sphere of white.

The guards all turned as light flashed outward leaving trails of purple spots in their eyes. When their vision cleared, they found nothing. Just the sewer, trickling water and grime.

“Sir?” one of the wingponies said, her confusion apparent in the sudden dark.

“Let Shining know. We’ve got unknowns in the area and they’re magic capable.”
~
Darkness.

Aurora knew only a black, dreamless sleep until she felt herself coming to the surface of awareness, surrounded by pillows. And the smell of books. And the drool out of the corner of her mouth.

Eyes creaking open, she breathed steadily, looking around. The walls were high and blue and she could see shelf upon shelf of books out of her periphery. She wiped the spittle and thought that this all looked familiar somehow.

“She’s awake!” came a soft, yet excited voice. Nova. Or maybe Fluttershy?

Attempting to rise, Aurora immediately felt brief, sharp protests all through her body, but they quickly quieted to a dull ache once she was sitting up. She saw an improvised strip of cloth as a bandage on her arm where she remembered scraping it in her fall.

“Easy there,” Nova said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “You’ve been through a lot.”

“I just need to catch my breath,” Aurora grunted with a small smile, laying a reassuring hand on top of Nova’s. “Where are we?”

“My personal library,” said Twilight as she cantered around the corner. “It’s a shame I can’t touch any of the books. I’ve seen at least twenty I could take back to Ponyville for further use and research.”

She trotted close to Aurora and put a hoof on her knee. Aurora noticed that she had been placed in what looked like a cot or giant cushion that was loaded with pillows and a thick blanket. Then, she remembered why it had seemed so familiar. Twilight used to pass out here after particularly intense evening study sessions.

Turning her gaze to Twilight, Aurora asked, “What... What happened?”

Twilight looked down, removing the comforting gesture. Aurora waited this time. She was learning that yelling at her fellow academic did nothing for Twilight’s mood and just made her more stubborn. For the first time since this all began, rather than suspect part of her lost identity, Aurora admitted to sharing some common ground with her friendly, little unicorn.

“I think we merged,” Twilight said.

“Merged,” Aurora responded, flat.

“It looked like that from the outside,” Keiko noted as Twilight nodded. She was at a nearby table, a teacup close by and a book of Equestrian history with plenty of pictorial references available. “There was a flash of light and Twilight had disappeared, but you sounded... Doubled. Like you and Twilight were speaking over one another.”

Aurora tried to remember what happened and she recalled being worn out and talking to Twilight in her head then bringing Twilight in closer and... Blank. Maybe some emotion, but mostly blank.

Shaking her head, she said, “But that didn’t happen last time. I mean, you were in my body back on Earth for a month and actually using it for, like, two days.”

Twilight nodded. “I was, but one of us was dormant at either time. This time, we were both active. From what I’ve been told, we brought everyone here in a massive teleportation spell. I never would have been able to move this many this far on my own, even with my body. We did something back there that not only gave you direct access to my magic and how to use it, but we were... It was like we were exponential. Twilight times Aurora was just me squared in some way, really boosting my magical ability.” She shrugged. “The best I can think is... We merged.”

Aurora blinked as this sank in. “Wow,” she said softly.

“Yeah.” Twilight shrugged. “It’s only a theory though. Spirit magic is turning out trickier than I thought.”

Aurora settled under her blankets in thought.

Raising her head and an eyebrow, she asked, “Is this going to get any weirder?”

“If I said, ‘no’ would you believe me?”

Aurora nodded in understanding, a wry smile on her face.

“Okay. We can... Merge. Okay. That’s-” Aurora then caught on to how drafty she felt. Glancing down, she noted her bare chest and body. Pulling the blanket up to ensure her modesty, she said, “Um, where are my clothes?”

“We did a wash,” Keiko said.

“After all that nastiness in the sewer, I couldn’t just let our friends and saviors go about all filthy. What kind of image would we have presented?” Rarity added.

“That’s nice,” Aurora said. “Where are my clothes?”

“They’re fine, we’re taking care of them,” Rarity said soothingly.

Aurora pinched the bridge of her nose and sought patience in this time of ponies and people trying to assure her rather than answer her question.

“Where. Are. My clothes?” she said as kindly as she could manage.

“Drying,” Iris replied from a far bookshelf. “We’ve got ‘em hangin’ on a window that faces a brick wall and a good breeze. Rainbow’s keeping lookout.”

“How long was I out?”

The girls all shared looks, working their mouths in non-responsive uncertainties.

Aurora slumped, rubbing at her face. “That long, huh?”

“Just the rest of the day,” Nova said. “We needed to rest too.”

“It was like a sleepover only with funky mud and clothes washing and making sure you could still breathe!” Pinkie chimed in.

“Oooookay,” Aurora said. “Shouldn’t we be- I dunno- worried that we’re in the freaking castle?!”

“Not really,” Twilight said. “This place is pretty much mine. Celestia keeps it clean, but nopony else uses it.”

“Oh. Oh, yeah,” Aurora said, remembering the set up. Recalling two lives at once was trickier than she’d thought

“Can I have my clothes, please?” Aurora asked.

“On it!” Iris said, disappearing around the shelf.

“What’s next?” Aurora asked.

“We should get to one of the princesses,” Twilight said. “They’d be able to let us into the caverns so we can get back into our proper bodies and take the Smiling Pony head on.”

“Sounds good to me,” Ashley said. “One question though- actually, it’s the same one we’ve been workin’ on- how do we get to the princess? I took a peek through the curtains and it looks like a military base out there.”

“What?!” Twilight shrieked.

Applejack’s ears went flat in embarrassment. “Sorry sugarcube. After we got here, you and Aurora were both kinda out of it. Guess in all the excitement, we forgot to tell ya.”

Going over to the window, Twilight attempted to pull the curtain, failed, made a face and stuck her head through the wall. Below, she could see guards in their golden armor marching the city in squares, armored pegasi flying in formation above and around and regular, civilian ponies moving nervously about- It wasn’t a military compound, it was practically martial law!

Pulling her head back inside, Twilight shuddered.

“That doesn’t make any sense...” she muttered.

Aurora sighed. She didn’t like what she had to say, but sometimes, you had to bring the patient there if they just weren’t seeing what was in front of them.

“I’m sorry, Twilight, but you’re still not getting it,” Aurora said as kindly as she could. “This guy is in all of their heads.” She bit her lip. “And... I think he’s in yours too.”

Twilight’s gaze flattened. “What.”

“I could... “ Aurora shook her head at how silly she was about to sound, but pushed on. “Besides feeling the disharmony in you back in the sewer, I could tell just by your reactions that you have it in for him. You’re afraid, but you’re on one of the other sides of fear: anger.”

“Angry? I’m not angry!”

“Um, actually, Twilight...” Pinkie said, getting close to her friend. “You kinda sorta scared me a bit back at the kinda sorta Everfree when you kinda sorta said you’d kinda sorta find a way to kinda sorta get the Smiling Pony.” Pinkie smiled weakly. “Kinda sorta.”

It was like Twilight had been slugged across the face. Temper piqued, she was about to mount a counter argument when she caught her other friends nodding quietly.

“And since getting back, you’re getting worse,” Aurora said. “They have the military out, they’re on high alert- that’s to be expected with what’s going on. This is something you should acknowledge,Twilight.”

“If someone’s lookin’ funny at my kin, I know we circle the wagons,” Ashley said. “Only natural.”

“Not for us!” Twilight said. “Don’t you see- this is completely against our culture! We’re not like...”

Her protestations died before she said something she’d really regret. To their credit, the humans present didn’t openly take offense, but their resigned gazes spoke volumes of their shared understanding.

“No. No, you’re not,” Iris said solemnly, coming back with a bundle under one arm. “You guys’ve had Princesses and Elements of Harmony and all kinds of stuff watching out for you.”

“I know this is bad,” Aurora said. “But it’s not as bad as you think. Everypony is just coping with a new danger.”

“We’ve coped with danger before...” Twilight said, hedging.

“Different kinds,” Aurora said with a shake of her head. “Ones you could handle with the tools you have. Now you have the Smiling Pony and he’s taken those away, so you’re falling back on harder, more basic tools. But it’s okay.”

“How’s that?” Applejack said.

“You have us,” Iris said, handing the clothes to Aurora.

“He came looking to mess with some ponies,” Diane said with a wicked grin. “Don’t think he’s prepared for our monkey shines.”

“But we couldn’t ask-” Fluttershy started, before she was quieted by Nova placing a comforting hand on her back.

“You don’t have to. You shared your lives with us. This is a good place. It’s worth keeping that way,” Nova replied.

Fluttershy blushed.

“Don’t know about y’all,” Ashley drawled. “But I’m down for more than just gettin’ these girls back in their bodies and tellin’ the Princesses what’s what. Think I wanna have a word with this Smilin’ Fella.”

“Me too,” Iris said, stepping forward.

Keiko smiled a not-too-kind smile from her table and nodded.

“Pinkie and I gotta get our crunk on,” Diane said, dropping down and wrapping an arm around her. “No way I’m backing out now.”

The ponies then looked at Aurora, who was sorting through her clothes. Becoming aware that eyes were on her, she glanced up. Her face melted into a sardonic smirk.

“Oh, don’t look at me like that. I’m in, I’m in...” she said, returning to dress.

“Wow,” Twilight said.

“Yeah,” Pinkie said, wiping her eyes with a hankie.

“Cool,” Rainbow said.

“Shucks,” Applejack muttered.

“I have never been so touched...” Rarity murmured.

Fluttershy ducked her head again, blush deepening.

Everyone could feel it. Something special was blossoming. Support, caring and the knowledge that they were there for one another, mixed into something potent and powerful. And it was something that could take on any enemy and stop any force. They could do this. They could do this and succeed.

“Where are my pants?!” Aurora yelled, breaking the reverie.
~
As the girls snuck through the East Wing, Aurora scratched her leg. Again.

“Sorry again,” Keiko murmured. “If we’d had access to-”

“Don’t worry,” Aurora cut her off. “If Scarlett O’Hara can wear drapes as a dress, I can wear them as pants.”

Though everyone else’s clothes had dried without issue, apparently a swift wind had come along when Rainbow Dash was distracted and taken Aurora’s pants far and away. Aurora was certain they were wrapped around a flagpole somewhere; seriously confusing a pair of local ponies. Oh well, at least her purse was still back in her car.

Upon discovering the dilemma, Rarity and Keiko had lept into action saying that Aurora couldn’t go saving the day in her underwear. Pulling from the purple curtains in Twilight’s library, Keiko was able to use Rarity’s magic to construct a pair of pants. In fact, she used Rarity’s magic with better results than Aurora had.

While everyone looked on as Rarity and Keiko worked in perfect tandem, Keiko assured Aurora she was only keeping up with so much magical activity because levitation was apparently much less complicated and mentally taxing than the spell Aurora had performed.

Aurora grumbled something about marathoning before learning to walk and left to flip through a tome on amniomorphic spell variation. Halfway into flipping, she gave way to actually reading. Twilight soon joined her, looking over her shoulder. By the time Rarity and Keiko were done, both academics were equally engrossed and required excessive prodding to break out of the trance.

Once in makeshift trousers, complete with clever-looking, tassel belt, Aurora had led the group quietly through the palace. Thanks to a childhood of wandering, Twilight knew the castle pretty much in and out. With the bonus of having invisible ponies who could look around corners and not worry about being spotted, the girls were making good progress.

What’re we going to tell the Princess? Aurora thought at Twilight. As she’d waited on her pants, she’d gotten the hang of keeping her thoughts to herself and how to direct them like speaking.

Still... Working on that part of the plan, Twilight replied as she stuck her head through a wall to look for pursuers.

“How’re you doing that mind thing?” Iris asked Aurora, noticing the girl’s gaze at Twilight.

“Best I can figure, I think at her,” Aurora replied.

“At her?” Iris said.

Aurora shrugged. “I assure you, Iris, if I understood it better, I’d explain it better.”

“Oh...” Iris said. Looking over at Rainbow, Iris squinted and Rainbow froze in the air, an ear twitching as if someone had yelled. Glancing around, she zeroed on her human and broke into a huge smile. Iris shared it.

Giving Aurora a thumbs up, Iris said, “Got it.”

Aurora rolled her eyes. “Of course you do.”

I think I’m going to call Spirit Bonds, “Just Because,” Aurora thought. It works just because you want it to.

I think it’s more complicated than that, Twilight responded. I mean, there are clearly limits at play. Maybe after all this is done you and I could write down our experiences and see about broadening the study and understanding of the field.

Interdimensional co-authored thesis, Aurora commented. That’d blow a doctorate board out of the water.

Twilight chuckled and beckoned the group along.

Before the team could move too far though, Applejack whistled.

“We got company! Scatter!” she hollered.

The girls broke apart, Diane hopping in a flowerpot, Nova dipping behind curtains.
Keiko flung her hand out as Rarity’s horn glowed, and a soft blue light wrapped around the handles of a side door, opening them quietly. More blue light eased the door closed once Keiko was inside.

“I love unicorn magic,” Keiko whispered to Rarity with a grin.

Aurora was starting to panic. Ashley and Iris had found some place and she was still dithering as Twilight pulled her head out of a room.

“This is clear!” the unicorn said.

Aurora quickly grabbed the handle and slid in just as the tromp of guard armor went by. She held her breath listening to its jostle and clank. Twilight stayed outside to ensure all was clear before Aurora could come out.

After what seemed like too long for a prolonged heart attack to kick in, Twilight stuck her head in the room.

“Okay, Aurora,” she said. “You’re- oops.”

“I’m oops? What-” Aurora turned to see what had caught Twilight’s attention and facepalmed.

Just in the doorway to a royal bathroom stood a pony. Resplendent with a vanilla, pink and purple mane, rosy coat and wings, she bore a gold varnished tiara, necklace and royal shoes as mark of her office. Princess Cadance stared wide-eyed at the sudden appearance of what must have looked to her, like quite a strange creature.

“Clear room, eh?” Aurora grumbled.

Chapter 7

To her credit, Princess Cadance was stunned for only a moment. Stepping forward, she gathered her magic to her in a low, threatening thrum. Her horn shone with soft, coiled light, ready to release.

“What- Who are you? What are you doing here?” she commanded, her voice brooking no contradictions.

“I’m ah...” Aurora started, raising her hands and trying to look as not-a-threat as possible. To Twilight she thought, Come up with an idea to talk to a princess yet?

Twilight Sparkle had jumped to get in front of the princess and started waving her hooves wildly, but Cadance was just as blind to the transparent pony as ever.

Unconcerned about staying quiet, Twilight said aloud, “I was kind of hoping their superior-”

So that’s a no.

Twilight growled, passing through Cadance in an attempt to get her attention. “Not. Really,” she conceded.

“You’re one of the creatures that got through Shining’s shield, aren’t you?” Cadance said. “What are you doing here?”

Aurora sighed. She had no idea if this would pan out, but it was worth a shot.

She took a step toward the Princess and...

“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!”

Cadance’s jaw dropped as the creature before her recited the little song and dance she’d done with Twilight when she was a filly. It looked odd on her frame as she was doing most of the hopping on her hind legs, but she never lost rhythm and executed it as reflexively as Cadance or Twilight would have.

Suddenly, Cadance saw something familiar in the girl. Not in her features, but in her bearing, in her eyes and she realized belatedly that she sensed a... Familiarity in her heart.

“Twilight?” Cadance said, lowering her magic. Slightly.

“Not... Exactly,” Aurora said, trying to ignore how ridiculous she felt after the little dance. “Remember how she and the other girls were hiding out on another world?”

Cadance nodded.

“Well... That hasn’t been working out. For anybody.”

Cadance regarded Aurora and walked closer. The magic in her horn shifted, going a warmer shade of blue as it moved to the tip. Cadance paused just before the strange creature, and Aurora nodded her consent. Smiling, Cadance then lay her horn’s tip on Aurora’s chest.

The human felt a tremor in the river between her and Twilight. As if someone had skipped a rock across the surface.

Cadance leaned back, her eyes wide.

“I see...” she murmured. “Are you the only one?”

Aurora shook her head. Looking to Twilight, she said, “Check with the other girls. See if they can get to this room. Shave and a hair cut...”

“Two bits,” Twilight said with a wink of understanding. She trotted off toward the door, stopping briefly to look back at Cadance.

Aurora felt something tighten in her chest and a longing in her gut that wasn’t there before. Looked like she and Twilight shared more than just spoken thoughts.

Another heartbeat later, Twilight ran through the door in pursuit of the rest of their group.

Cadance watched the whole exchange with quiet curiosity.

“Were you just... Speaking... With Twilight?”

Aurora nodded, running a hand through her hair and looked back to the Princess of Love.

“It’s a bit complicated, but the short version is that they tried to come back early, didn’t make it into their bodies and brought us. Them not really being all here seems to be part of it.”

Cadance’s eyes sharpened. “Chrysalis... That manipu-”

“Be-fore you start getting too worked up, Princess, ma’am,” Aurora interjected. “Those cocoons were supposed to keep everything out.”

“But not their hearts!” Cadance protested.

“Not till the spell was over, right?” Aurora pressed on.

She hated coming in on Chrysalis’s behalf, especially since she shared Cadance’s suspicions and Twilight’s memories of the Changeling Queen only heightened them. Yet, giving in to those snap emotions weren’t going to help anypony. Anybody. Anyone. Cool heads were needed, especially now. If Chrysalis turned out to be a problem after a little investigation... Then, Aurora would drop the devil’s advocacy and pick up her own pitchfork.

Cadance’s eyes went back and forth as she sorted through her memory to weigh exactly how the cocoons that protected the girls would do as Aurora said. Though she was regally withdrawn in her considerations, Aurora could easily tell Cadance wanted to jump to the Changeling Queen’s neck with a sharpened spell. The heat faded though and whatever reasons she came to held her anger in check.

“Maybe,” Cadance offered sullenly.

Twilight came back into the room. “They’re right behind me.”

Aurora nodded and returned her gaze to Cadance, who was watching her with caution.

“Twilight said they’d be joining us soon,” Aurora offered.

“This- This is a lot to take in,” Cadance said. “I know I just checked your heart, but I’m still...”

Aurora winced. This was bad. Cadance was as sweet as they came and a strong unicorn magic user, yet here she was, already doubting her own love-based spell. The other royals could be in better shape, but Aurora wouldn’t know till she spoke with them.

Undermined critical faculty reasoning became a background noise in her mind as she puzzled out how to assure the frazzled nobility.

“Your wedding was nearly ruined by Chrysalis,” Aurora said. “Which is why you’re extra paranoid around her. You’re married to Shining Armor, who you’ve known since you foalsitted Twilight. Twilight once inadvertently covered for you because you and Shining were-”

Cadance forestalled further potential embarrassment with a raised hoof and a blush. She laughed, bringing more color to her face.

“You definitely shared a mind with Twilight,” she said, chagrined.

A soft series of knocks came from the door. Aurora went over to answer with her own as Twilight stuck her head through the door.

Twilight nodded and Aurora cracked it open without showing herself. Nova and Keiko were first in followed by Ashley then Iris and Diane. The ponies came through various points along the wall.

“I will never look at architecture the same way again,” Rarity said, shuddering.

Cadance was looking around at the gathered humans and a faint smile came unbidden to her lips.

“They really found matches,” she breathed in wonder.

“You should’ve seen us with the hair,” Iris said with a wink.

Shaking off her reverie, Cadance chuckled, assuming a diplomatic bearing. “I can’t call you by my friends’ names. Would you tell me yours please?”

The girls introduced themselves one by one, shaking hand in hoof with Cadance.

Iris put an elbow in Ashley’s rib. The other girl looked at her out the side of her eye and Iris grinned, whispering, “Met royalty. Not bad, eh?”

Ashley kept a stern gaze for a moment, but it didn’t hold. She chuckled, rolling her eyes at Iris’s commentary.

“Do you think you can get us into the cavern where they’re keeping your friends’ bodies?” Aurora asked.

Cadance tapped a hoof in thought. Aurora could see Twilight had plopped nearby her childhood friend. If Zecora was threatening tears, being this close to Cadance without touching her was looking to have Twilight fry at the ends.

Aurora came up next to the two and Cadance glanced up.

“Don’t mind me. Twilight’s not looking too good.”

Taking a knee next to the unicorn, she gave her a sad smile and hugged her. Twilight reciprocated, which caught Cadance’s eye again.

“She’s really there,” Cadance whispered, seeing how Aurora deftly held empty air and saw the empty air press back against her clothes leaving a sort-of, pony shaped impression.

“They all are, princess,” Iris said.

Cadance looked through the group and could see little dents in their clothing where the girls were clearly leaning. Or perched in the case of Iris and Nova.

“Aw, don’t worry, Twilight!” Pinkie said, hopping from Diane to the morose unicorn. “Soon as we get our bodies back, you can give Cadance the biggest, bestest hug ever!”

Twilight shared a look with Pinkie that went longer than Aurora liked, but she took a deep breath and nodded.

“They’re right. I can do this,” Twilight said.

Aurora smiled and rubbed Twilight’s trunk reassuringly. Nice thing about shared memories: she knew which physical gestures Twilight appreciated most.

Cadance nodded at the sight, looking brighter than she had since the group had come into her room.

“Everypony, stay put for a few minutes. I’m going to see if I can’t free Princess Celestia from her cabinet.” Cadance nodded at Aurora and exited the salon.

“Why’s Princess Celestia stuck in a cabinet?” Pinkie asked.

“Getting jam?” Diane offered.

“Ooo! Ooo! Or popcorn!” Pinkie replied.

“Cabinet meeting,” Twilight said with an eyeroll. “She’s in a cabinet meeting, you two.”

“Why’s she meeting just us?” Diane asked. “In a cabinet of all places?”

“Yeah! Wouldn’t she want to meet all of us outside a cabinet?” Pinkie added. “I mean, I know she’s royalty, but a cabinet doesn’t sound big enough for everypony.”

A groan rippled through the group.
~
Cadance returned shortly with Princess Celestia in tow.

Aurora couldn’t help it. When Celestia entered, she rose and went to her.

Aurora remembered being in Celestia’s presence, but that came from Twilight. She second-hand remembered the warmth and delight. She second-hand remembered the love and safety. She second-hand remembered how much respect she had for this pony and even now, with Aurora still going back and forth on her feelings about Twilight’s memories, she had to admit: no memory, second-hand or not, compared to the reality of Princess Celestia.

She was like... Easy perfection. In pony form. Fur white as a full spectrum, light shining from her every hair and just being in front of the princess made Aurora feel like she was relaxed out in a field on a bright, sun-dappled day.

Fortunately, she managed to get ahold of herself just before alarming the royal pony and halted her approach at a respectful enough distance.

Coughing, as if she’d just spoken out of turn, she bowed at the waist. “A-hem. Your majesty,” she said.

The rest of the humans had gone one better, getting on one knee out of automatic reverence. Not that it was hard to go with this feeling.

“Hello to you too... Twilight?” the voice was like light music. Some intangible quality that memory couldn’t retain and you had to be present to experience.

“Sort of ma’am,” Aurora said, straightening. “Twilight’s shepard. I’m Aurora Amaryllis.”

Celestia’s gaze rippled over the group of humans and her horn briefly shone with sun golden magic. She grinned and Aurora realized, the regal mare had been holding herself tighter than usual, only relaxing at what she saw with the spell.

“And you’ve brought my little ponies back to me, I see.”

Aurora straightened at that.

“You can see them?”

“No, but I sense them and I would be remiss if I could not see a bit of my star pupil’s life in your eyes just now.”

Aurora’s hand touched just below her cheek. She should have felt angered at the lack of her own identity, but the way Celestia said it- her eyes felt like an honor to bear the task of Twilight’s life.

While Aurora was grasping with reverie, Twilight had trotted forward to stand as close to Celestia as she could without touching her. Celestia seemed to notice something and bent down, her wings opening to encircle the little unicorn.

“I may not see or hear you, my dear Twilight, but I know you are here,” Celestia said. She ruffled her wings slightly, bringing them around the translucent pony in a display of comfort.

Tears came immediately to Twilight’s eyes, spilling down her cheeks.

“Princess...” she whispered.

“I promised myself... I wouldn’t cry...” Pinkie wibbled, fighting back eyes that filled with water.

Diane sniffed loudly and offered Pinkie a handkerchief. The pink pony took it and dabbed at her eyes.

Cadance stared at the floating hankie.

“This is going to take some getting used to,” the younger princess said.

Celestia glanced just quickly out of the corner of her eye at Cadance and Aurora caught the look. She didn’t see suspicion in the diarch’s eye, but she did see concern. Did the Princess share her thoughts on the Smiling Pony’s presence? Was she aware? Or was she merely in mother-to-all-her-subjects mode and concerned for Cadance’s mental well-being?

Celestia rose from encircling Twilight and gazed upon the assembled humans. Turning to Cadance, she said, “Cadance, I need you to go ahead and alert the guards that I am coming with unexpected guests. If they ask for verification, just respond ‘lollipops are better than tea.’”

Cadance blinked at the odd phrase, but nodded, bowing to her senior princess before leaving.

“Now, Aurora Amaryllis,” Celestia said, once the door had shut. “You look as though you have something you want to say.”

“Yes, majesty,” Aurora replied. She took a moment to consider what to say. She would have to proceed carefully. Word it right.

“You gone axe-crazy?” Iris asked.

Or, let Iris talk. Very diplomatic option.

Ashley wrapped a hand over Iris’s mouth and smiled boldly. “Sorry. We don’t let her out often.”

Celestia’s expression wasn’t quite puzzled, but Aurora could tell she was parsing the blunt way Iris put the subject.

“You see, Highness,” Aurora said quickly, rushing to present to the most important committee of her life. “Something we’ve noticed, since sharing our minds and bodies with these ponies...” She gestured to the assembled, unseen mares. “Is how much has changed in the nature of the ponies of your land. They seem more aggressive and scared. Prepared to go to more dire lengths than they used to.”

Celestia nodded, her face attentive. Aurora pushed on.

“And after speaking with Cadance, I’m certain that this affects princess and pony alike. We’re concerned that you’ve... Been touched by the Smiling Pony in a subtle way, possibly hurting you before even seeing him.”

Celestia nodded again a sad smile growing on her face.

“Aurora Amaryllis, though you are not my student, you should know that you have all of the same insight and cleverness which I applaud. You are correct. The Smiling Pony is more than just a threat to the land and bodies of Equestria. He is a threat to its very soul.”

“You know...?” Twilight and Aurora asked in a unison, hushed whisper.

“I do. I first suspected the Smiling Pony was doing more than draining my ponies’ wills when my sister Luna took such an aggressive approach to him. Though my sister is more practical and hooves-on than I am, she is the soul of discretion. And as I spoke to more of my subjects, it became clear that the Smiling Pony’s mere presence was taking us back to darker days and harsher times indeed.”

Celestia sighed and for a flicker, Aurora saw all her age on display. Millenia just appeared and faded in a flash. Aurora felt a little young and immature for thinking she knew more than this royal pony and tried to quash the sudden irrationality as best she could.

“What this has done to Canterlot and all Equestria is hard, but necessary for now. I approved of the stricter martial elements -within reason- to ease my subjects’ minds and let them know that we act upon this evil.”

Her gaze fell upon the girls then, and a small smile appeared on her beautiful face.

“Which is why I arranged for you six to disappear. It let the Smiling Pony clear from your minds and find love and friendship anew in a land untainted by his presence or any other. And in returning, you’ve brought unexpected reinforcements. The bonds I see here are just as strong as the ones formed by my own little ponies and I can’t think of better resources than to prevent the Smiling Pony from going any further.”

The gathered smiled at the princess, pleased by her words. Aurora’s eyes widened slightly in appreciation.

Aurora had wondered earlier, back when she regarded this whole thing as an absolute mess, about Princess Celestia. She wondered most how somepony so powerful, so clever, and so wise as Celestia could just assume such an arbitrary, weak title of princess. Now, as she absorbed the alicorns’ words, she had the answer.

The pony who stood before her had worked out how a threat was affecting her subjects, picked the most likely group to defend her realm, sent them away so they’d be clear-headed when they met with said threat, somehow banked on back-up coming (“unexpected” Aurora’s butt, the student knew that look, that was a Teacher Knew All Along look) and now she spoke sweet words to ready the next phase of this massive gambit.

Maybe she truly was humble enough to hold the title of princess, but Aurora bet this clever, wise creature before her knew- knew from muzzle to tail that if she called herself a Queen, nopony would ever go near her again. Especially with what Aurora saw now.

“Okay,” Aurora heard Diane not-quite-whisper. “I’m impressed. She always like this?”

Pinkie nodded. “She’s really good at chess. Sometimes she even gets a stalemate from me.”

“So?” Applejack asked, confused at the pair’s discussion.

“Pinkie’s the record holding chess champion in all Equestria, “ Twilight offered. “I only stalemated her once and that was when she was playing four separate games at the time. Celestia has her visit because she wants to make sure she’s still sharp.”

Human and pony all finally caught the drift of what was being said and stared at the pink pony. She had lost interest in the conversation and taken to hanging from Diane’s arm, giggling.

“Talking about chess?” Celestia asked Aurora, stepping close to her.

“Um. Yeah,” Aurora said, trying not to let her personal respect of the princess freak her out.

“Pinkie Pie is more than just a wonderful party thrower,” the princess whispered sotto voce. “Twilight has the strongest raw magical potential and a great mind as well, but I haven’t seen a mind as sharp as Pinkie’s for four hundred years.”

Aurora glanced at the princess, then Pinkie.

Just when I think I have a handle on things, life yanks the rug out from under me.

You said it, Twilight replied.
~
“Won’t the guards be suspicious that we’re under a glamour?” Aurora asked, looking through the slight sparkling wall of light between her and the rest of reality.

“They would be suspicious if I didn’t,” Celestia said with a slight laugh. “The area is guarded primarily by changelings after all.”

“What do we look like?” Keiko asked. “Our friends?”

“No,” Celestia said. “Just... Some old faces.”

Aurora wondered how old the faces were.

They came upon an archway that was gilded in gold and silver, guarded by a pair of intimidating looking white stallions in gold-washed armor; one a unicorn, one an earth pony.

“Corporal,” Celestia said. “I believe I was announced?”

“Yes your majesty,” the earth pony said, moving just his mouth and barely at that. Aurora was impressed; she didn’t think that was physically possible.

“May I pass?”

“No, your majesty.”

“May I have this dance?”

The corporal paused and Aurora thought he wasn’t going to reply.

Eventually, he spoke, strained. “Only if I can see your fine flank first. Your majesty.”

Pinkie, Rainbow, Diane and Iris burst out laughing. The rest of the group managed snorts or demure coughs.

Aurora and Twilight goggled. Aurora’s personal estimation of the princess went up a few points.

“Well have a look,” Celestia said and to everyone’s gathered surprise she cantered in a circle, like she was a giddy, young mare flirting with the corporal at a club.

Twilight had shut down as far as Aurora could tell. The human student felt her own estimation of the princess slamming into Twilight’s ingrained respect and she ended up sputtering giggles.

The corporal was doing a commendable job of not blushing, though the blood was clearly trying to get its way to his embarrassed face.

“Thank you, highness,” he said. A bit more stiff than Aurora imagined he was before.

“Thank you for adhering to protocol, corporal,” Celestia said with a nod.

He nodded, almost imperceptibly, and Aurora felt something shift in the air in the middle of the arches.

Celestia nodded another thanks and the group followed in, the back still chuckling.

“Oh man, Princess!” Rainbow Dash said. “Tell her I thought that was awesome!”

“You kidding- I’m going to dream about how awesome that was,” Iris agreed. “Me and Rainbow Dash think you’re awesome, Princess!”

Celestia smiled back over her shoulder.

Aurora felt the shimmering light sparkle away and they were soon walking down a spiralling staircase lit by regular torches.

“Any of this lookin’ familiar?” Ashley asked in general.

“Nope, not a thing,” Applejack replied.

Pinkie Pie made a face. “I can sooooorta remember it, but more like a story that happened to somepony else.”

“I don’t remember it being so... Ominous,” Twilight replied, her hoofsteps moving softly despite the fact that she made no noise.

“That is the Smiling Pony,” Celestia said. “He infects things that already make a pony nervous first. Dark rooms are darker, strangers are more strange...”

“Friends of perfect trust could become enemies,” Aurora added, looking around and getting more déjà vu than real memory.

The princess nodded, her hair flowing freely in some unseen wind.

“You grasp our situation quickly, Aurora Amaryllis,” Celestia commented.

“Just Aurora,” Aurora said. “Uh, ma’am.” She surveyed the swirling staircase, noting the end coming soon. “And it’s not complicated. In stories, some characters often make things more psychologically intimidating for their foes just by inspiring dread.”

“What?” Iris said.

Aurora thought for a metaphor for the athletic Iris. “It’d be like an opposing team showing up with bones in their mouths and snarling at you. The opponent wants you to think that you’re not just up against a tough foe, but make themselves bigger in your mind, so you’re jumpy.”

“Oh.”

Pinkie and Diane giggled at the notion of a team of runners growling with fake bones in their mouths and making a scene.

At the bottom of the stairs, a door had been corroded over with what appeared to everyone as a clear, green crystal edged in gray-green goo.

“Lovely,” Rarity commented dryly.

“Queen Chrysalis was invited to make herself at home. Whatever security measures she thought necessary, we allowed,” Celestia said. Eyeing the encrusted archway blocking their path, she added, “Within reason.”

Her horn soon was encased in a shining gold light and a crack appeared in the crystal. Like a pair of glassy doors, the bisected sheets flexed inward. Celestia entered, her posture taller and more imposingly royal.

“Remain calm,” she said sotto voce.

“Yeah, that’s top of my list,” Aurora muttered as they entered the dull light of what appeared to be a fully established changeling hive.

The floor was polished white Canterlot marble done in tiles, but the walls and ceiling were solid with a lesser version of the green crystal that acted as the door. Soft olive light reflected from somewhere, casting an eerie, low-mossy glow down the hallway, which was more spooky than helpful. Changelings moved across the cells, buzzing in glistening, dark, chitin hides with multi-faceted eyes unblinkingly focused upon the gathered group as they passed by.

Aurora thought she heard wind moving through the tunnel, but when she checked over her shoulder, she found Fluttershy and Nova holding onto each other for dear life, shaking and breathing intensely. Rarity and Keiko were nearby, whispering encouraging words, but they were only managing to keep the pair at mildly hyperventilating.

Iris walked up alongside Aurora, who’d been out in front near Celestia.

“You thinkin’ what I’m thinkin?” Iris said, her voice low.

Aurora glanced at her.

“Bug hunt,” Iris said, flashing teeth.

“Game over, man,” Aurora muttered through a wry grin.

Iris chuckled.

After what felt like too long, the ponies and people came upon a massive antechamber where, housed upon the far wall, were the ponies’ bodies. They hovered, suspended in the clear cocoons, eyes closed, looking quite relaxed. They also wore the Elements of Harmony, which were glowing softly and when everyone entered, glowed a bit brighter.

Relief and comfort trickled into Aurora’s mind. She looked at Twilight, who shrugged.

“Wasn’t me. I always feel like that near my tiara.”

Celestia looked around the room and cast a wary gaze to the top crystal, which Aurora thought was just a larger version of what they’d seen dotting the walls all the way in.

“Chrysalis, I would have words, if it pleases you,” Celestia said.

“It does not... But we will speak,” buzzed the Changeling Queen’s voice.

The crystal above then unwrapped itself and the Changeling Queen, Chrysalis, floated to the ground. Just as Twilight’s memory recalled, she was of a height with Celestia, looking every inch the regal, enlarged Changeling to the regal, enlarged pony. Different this time, was how worn the queen appeared.

Aurora was no expert on changelings and Twilight’s memories weren’t much better, but she could spot tells of personal neglect. Even on a creature as alien to her as Queen Chrysalis, they showed like warning signs on a new patient.

The sunkenness around her eyes made them look more hollow. Her mane was tattered further with her wings looking rheumy and sagging. Chitinous skin did not shine, but reflected dully. And she was wary. Aurora remembered Chrysalis as proud and standing at all times. She still stood meeting Celestia’s gaze, but her back arched like she was slightly hunched. Like she suspected violence close at hand.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of you and...” Chrysalis’s eyes narrowed at the girls, who were affecting various levels of composure with Nova shaking at the scared end and Ashley keeping her arms folded intimidatingly over her chest. She took no notice of the ponies though. “Your enigmatic company?”

“We’ve come to have you disenchant the cocoons,” Celestia said, gesturing to the encased ponies on the wall. “These girls are the shepherds of the Elements’ souls and have carried them back to us.”

“Oh. How... Interesting,” Chrysalis said, skirting around the princess and the range of her hooves and wings. “You’re a month early you know.”

“I do,” Celestia responded, following Chrysalis with her body, keeping her in direct line of sight. “Circumstances forced these girls here and I believe now is the time to engage with the Shining Pony.”

“Engage, engage,” Chrysalis muttered, still moving until she was between the group and the Elements on the wall. “You mean do battle, eliminate, wipe out.”

“The Elements of Harmony do not work that way, Chrysalis,” Celesia responded. She moved so she was just as between Chrysalis and the girls behind her as Chrysalis was between the girls and... The girls.

“So you say,” Chrysalis said.

Aurora was watching her, trying to establish a baseline, which was hard as Chrysalis appeared to be quite under duress. Be it by their presence or something else on her mind. Still, the queen was obviously twitchy, her eyes flicking about and... Was that a pattern?

Twilight, do you sense any active magic? This could be anything, so look wide, Aurora asked.

Twilight glanced at Aurora, then closed her eyes and a little purple-white light glistened at the tip of her horn.

Well, I don’t... Wait! There’s something. I don’t know... It’s not magic, but some other energy in the air. Invisible and...

“Chrysalis, why’re you calling your hive?” Aurora asked.

Chrysalis froze in her fidget and locked eyes with the human girl.

Aurora felt her blood chill.

She had suspected the queen wasn’t right, but now she had a good look at her eyes. They were distant and hard and panicked. They were gone. Some gear had slipped in the changeling queen’s head and she was now operating on a murderous bent. Just Aurora’s luck that this particular murderous bent was aimed at herself.

“You must carry Twilight,” Chrysalis buzzed. “She was sharp-eyed as well.”

Celestia stepped forward. “Answer her question, Chrysalis.”

“You are a month ahead of schedule. You are scared.” Chrysalis started to fidget and weave back and forth. “The Elements are not ready. I am not scared. I am strong. I will keep the Elements until they are at their strongest and then... Then... I will send them off and they will destroy that miserable pony!”

The last came out hot and with no small amount of spittle. Chrysalis’s eyes were wide and she panted eagerly.

Pinkie stretched her neck over to Applejack and whispered, “Don’t let on you know this, but I think Chrysalis is loco in the coco.”

“Y’think?” Applejack said.

“Spike!” Twilight exclaimed.

Everyone turned, save for Celestia and Chrysalis, who were too busy sizing one another up. Twilight ran over to stand in front of a cocoon where the baby dragon hovered. Not unlike herself. Though unlike Twilight’s body, his did not look even the least bit well-preserved.

“He was... Going to watch over us...” Twilight whispered.

Pain tore through Aurora, hot and powerful and consuming. Twilight’s pain. Unlike Twilight though, Aurora wasn’t lost in sudden anguish and confusion. Having the necessary distance, she flipped her switch to anger.

Snap emotions just made a good argument for a pitchfork.

“What have you done to Spike?” she yelled at the changeling queen.

Chrysalis broke from her panting stare down with Celestia to blink at the girl. Her eyes flicked to Spike and then to Aurora.

“He would speak with the princess. Tell of my plans. He was a snooping snoop. He had to be... Detained.”

Celestia stomped her hoof and the ground shook.

“Chrysalis! This is in clear violation of our treaty!”

“What treaty?” the queen spat. “What point is a treaty if we are all dead?!”

Chrysalis fired.

A sickly green beam of magic tore from her horn, which the shining princess met head on. Shimmering light scattered the attack and Aurora watched in awe as a protective, gold shield spread about the group.

Chrysalis’s eyes swam with rage.

“Destroy you! Kill you! Traitors! Usurpers!”

She loosed another volley and was joined by more of her hive, who cast smaller bursts of magic along with her.

“She is definitely loco in the coco,” Diane gulped.

“Y’think?” Ashley said.

The princess stood resolute against the barrage, her eyes flicking around.

“Aurora, can you use Twilight’s magic right now?”

Aurora shook her head. “Not reliably and not from within a shield you’ve cast, Highness.”

Celestia chuckled. “Even under fire... Amazing.”

“Let us out, Princess,” Iris said. “We’ll kick their tails!”

“Hay yeah we will!” Rainbow Dash confirmed.

Aurora noticed both Iris and Rainbow’s eyes were flashing; literally flashing with flecks of light.

“I don’t think that would be wise,” Celestia responded as more changelings arrived to rain down torrents of hot green magic upon her guard.

“What about you, Princess?” Aurora said. “Can’t you face her?”

“Readily, but... It would be complicated.” Celestia blushed.

Aurora blinked. “You don’t have a middle gear?!” she shouted.

“In over a thousand years of rule, it hasn’t really come up,” the princess said, chagrined.

“What’re you talkin’ about, sugarcube?” Ashley asked.

“The princess raises the sun- Chrysalis isn’t even an issue. Collateral damage is.”

“I don’t get it,” Iris replied.

“Imagine the amount of magical power it would take to move a celestial body,” Twilight said, stepping amongst the group and assuming a hasty lecture mode. “Imagine how much raw force the princess would have to command to get this task done. Now imagine that magical force at play in a confined place like this.”

They all stared at Celestia who was starting to sweat under the strain of maintaining the shield under the attack for so long.

“My word...” Keiko murmured.

“That’s why Chrysalis beat you last time? You didn’t want to risk everypony else?” Iris asked.

“The love she had from Shining Armor was powerful. Powerful enough to overwhelm me before I could access my full power and get us from the castle. If I were to call upon my full station here and now in this enclosed space...”

The silence spoke wonders. Aurora’s imagination treated her to a tableau of charred husks and blown masonry.

“Great. Biggest hitter doesn’t have a second form,” Iris muttered.

“We’ve handled the changelings before,” Rarity said. “We can do so again!”

“Because that worked out so well for us last time,” Applejack retorted.

“We need an edge here. And fast,” Aurora said noticing the princess’s strain.

She looked at Twilight.

“What happened when we merged?”

“Um...”

“I was out of it, c’mon Twi,” Aurora prompted.

“You were trying to hug me...”

“Yeah...”

“And I could feel you and the forgiveness you offered. I wanted to forgive you too, for hurting you so much.” Twilight blushed.

Aurora nodded. “And...?”

“And that’s it. Then everything gets all screwy and I woke up next to you in the library.”

“Unf!”

Aurora and Twilight looked up to see Rainbow leaping at Iris and bumping off.

“I don’t think that’s how that works...” Aurora said.

“Gotta try something,” Rainbow said.

“Our friends are in danger,” Iris replied.

“We gotta help!” they said in unison.

And then Rainbow leaped and fell into Iris.

Light exploded as if from a prism and when the spots cleared from Aurora’s eyes she could see Iris with Rainbow Dash’s hair, eyes and... Wings. Blue, powerful wings stretching out.

“Alright! Now we’re talkin’!” Rainbow Speede said, flexing her fists, voice echoing within itself.

“How...?” Rarity prompted.

“Aw, it’s easy!” Pinkie said. “Just gotta match your minds. Like this!”

She squared off with Diane, who hunched to meet Pinkie’s gaze. Then, they spun to face everyone and whipped their arms and forearms up. Swinging their limbs along, they moved in a slow shuffle, muttering under their breaths.

“Fuuuuuuu...”

“Tell me they’re not...” Aurora said.

“Siooooon...”

“They are,” Keiko confirmed.

“Ha!”

There was a burst of pink light and then Diane’s afro had gone from its rich, springy black to pink and puffy with renewed vigour. Her newly blue eyes twinkled like shining stars.

“Oooo! It worked it worked!” Pinkie Di said in a bouncy squeal.

Aurora and Keiko glanced at one another.

“Toonami when I was studying, you?” Aurora said.

“Cousin on my mother’s side would watch it religiously when he visited.” Keiko shrugged.

“Think I got this,” Ashley said, looking over to Applejack, who nodded.

The human cowgirl got on one knee and offered her hand. Applejack did the same with her hoof and again light and again where there had been a pony and a human, a human with ponied traits stood tall.

AshleyJack cracked her neck.

“I’m ready when y’all are.”

Nova and Fluttershy hugged while Rarity and Keiko kissed each other on the cheek, looked one another in the eye and said firmly, “It. Is. On!”

After those explosions of light cleared and NovaShy and Rarity Jewele were prepared, Twilight and Aurora were looking at each other.

Aurora blushed. “I don’t... That is-”

Twilight shook her head. “You’re my friend. Of course I’ll help.”

Aurora smiled, as did Twilight, who stood next to the girl and a splash of purple light engulfed both of them.

This time, Aurora Sparkle’s head felt clearer. This time, she’d joined with purpose. This time, she was going to help her friends.

“Princess,” Aurora Sparkle said. “Lower the shield when you’re ready.”

Chapter 8

Twilight Sparkle knew about battle magic. Her brother was captain of the guard, after all. She had a top-notch shield spell, a magical grasp that could carry tonnage if pushed, and she could fire concentrated magic bursts so quickly that another pony just had to aim her while she casted to loose a barrage on par with a unicorn squad. Which is to say nothing of the spells she’d learned in her life that could be turned to martial applications. Fire spells, transformation spells, even her teleportation had battle use. Twilight Sparkle was a unicorn with options in a fight.

Unfortunately, Twilight Sparkle was also a Jack of All Trades thanks to her special talent. She could do pretty much any spell put in front of her, but trying to remember all of them? Forget it. Her special talent was magic, not memory, and as bright as she was, she could only remember so much.

Aurora Amaryllis wasn’t as shackled, nor as concerned about variety.

Aurora may have backed off of the ponies she thought she dreamed in her youth, but she still liked genre fiction. Despite her brutally rational personality, she really enjoyed a good fantasy story. It didn’t take much tweaking from her end to modify Twilight’s magic into some pop culture spellcraft of her own.

“Forzare!” Aurora Sparkle yelled, sending out a wave of purple energy that bowled over a gang of changelings.

“You’re such a geek!” Rainbow Speede laughed, plowing through changeling swarms with subsonic force.

“You got the reference!” Aurora Sparkle yelled back, making a shield to push another squadron of changelings to the wall.

As soon as Celestia had dropped the shield, the girls had acted. Aurora Sparkle released a wave of raw magic to stun the surrounding changelings and AshleyJack slammed her fist into the floor, shaking anypony else standing off their hooves. From there it had become a mess of merged pony/humans kicking and punching through the hordes of changeling drones with Celestia and Chrysalis horn-locked above them all.

“Your kingdom’s love has made me perfect!” screeched Chrysalis. “You have no power over me!”

“Don’t do this, Chrysalis,” Celestia said, blinking away the green arcs of energy that sparked from her foe’s jagged horn. “You play right into the Smiling Pony’s hooves.”

“He plays into mine!” Chrysalis shot back. “You have been removed from Harmony too long, Celestia! Down here? I and my hive communed with it. It speaks to us! It tells me its secrets! It has let me see the Light and I know that Light will burn the Smiling Pony away forever!”

Celestia didn’t have to be Sherclop Homes to see that Chrysalis had gone beyond paranoid with caution to bloodthirsty with conviction. It was the most dangerous combination she’d met in her long life.

As Chrysalis seethed, Celestia ran her options behind an exceptional pokerface, not liking what she pulled up. She couldn’t teleport the queen now- she was still too powerful. There was the possibility of bodily dragging her, but that would be... Complicated. And messy. So that was a last resort. The girls were still in play though. They were proving themselves amazing, from what Celestia could see out the corner of her eye, but they were also just six. Six pony-powered humans performing admirably, but six against a swarm that was growing exponentially.

Still. Celestia did not get to where she had by giving up. This held especially true to her people and their allies. She ultimately chose to keep Chrysalis occupied, her madness focused. And she hoped that something good came. Soon.

Aurora Sparkle sent out another blast. She checked the battlefield.

Rarity Jewele was doing impressive things with magical manipulation and conjured string as she tied up wave upon wave of changeling drones, AshleyJack was slamming whole squads up and over each other while Rainbow Speede was diving amongst them like an air cone piledriver, scattering their numbers. Pinkie Di and NovaShy had rounded up the dazed or knocked out changelings and put them in what could only be called an ever-growing “Party Corral.”

Aurora had wondered how Pinkie could have multiplied under Diane and the results were no less impressive than anything she could have imagined: a party to end all parties where one had difficulty keeping track of where Pinkie Di actually was at any given moment. Most amazing of all was that she was throwing this massive celebration for the enemy, bringing droves into a streamer filled, disco-light, music-thumping excitement. Pleasure Island wished it had looked so tempting.

“C’mon! Follow NovaShy! She’s such a great dancer doncha think?!” Pinkie Di hollered to her dazed, semi-captive audience.

Indeed, NovaShy appeared to be the central attraction of the celebration, though Pinkie Di had merely sprung up around her actions. After merging, NovaShy had glided quietly and surely through the throngs, parting them by some unseen will, to a corner where she began to sing and dance.

Smiling, moving and spreading music outwards, she was like some benevolent pied piper, causing changelings to halt in their attacks and wander her way. She didn’t command, she didn’t direct, she just asked and the changelings stopped fighting to go and bask in the comfort and goodwill NovaShy offered.

Aurora Sparkle found she had to actually look away herself, lest she be pulled in. If only she could offer such serenity by force of personality alone.

Everypony noted and busy, she ducked out of the main action. Moving along the wall, she found what she had been focusing on since the start: Spike in his cocoon.

“Hey Spike,” Aurora Sparkle whispered, running a hand along the green material. “Let’s get you out of here, okay?”

She reeled back her fist and slammed it into the wall, with painful results.

“Ow! Booger! Ow ow ow!”

Aurora Sparkle hopped briefly around, shaking her hand. Sticking her knuckles into her mouth she decided maybe her physical strength and fortitude hadn’t been affected by the merge. No matter, just need to use the better tool at hand.

She raised her hand and loosed a bright flash of pure, purple energy. When the violet smoke cleared, Spike was still slumbering, untouched, the cocoon undamaged.

Frowning, Aurora Sparkle cast a shield over herself. She needed to think and she didn’t want to be interrupted. As she tapped along the edges of the crystal, she realized she felt something approaching fatigue at the back of her mind. She had been moving a lot of magical energy and in a short amount of time. She also suspected the merge was physically taxing for Aurora’s body. Even with her skills enhanced, she had limits. She’d have to work quick.

Moving her fingers along the edges of the cocoon, she cast out with her magical senses and sought its cracks, weak points, the places where the sweater dangled its loose threads. As her tiredness moved from theory to reality, creeping closer to overwhelm her, she realized the other girls would be feeling the same soon. They needed to get out of that hive and soon. She wasn’t leaving without Spike though.

Just as exhaustion started manifesting as sweat with no small amount of panting, she found the gap she needed. A fracture within the cocoon that was required to make the varying layers. Not large, but it would do.

“Gotcha!”

Whoa, that was woozifying.

Shaking her head to clear it, Aurora Sparkle brought her mind to bear on the crack she’d found in the cocoon’s construction. She was quietly impressed too. Chrysalis must have done this herself.

Then, she heard a noise behind her and turned from her work. Her worst fears were met: Iris was against a wall, with a semi-transparent Rainbow Dash gasping as she leaned heavily against her leg. The pair were staring down a group of changelings. They looked beyond exhausted. They didn’t stand a chance.

Just to the side of that, Aurora Sparkle could see Celestia groaning under the effort of handling Chrysalis in all her crazed intensity. A quick glance confirmed the others were flagging too and while she could estimate who would hold out longest, she knew their time was short.

Pressing her mind against the cocoon again, she started magically chipping at it and little green chunks came off.

“C’mon... Come on!” she pleaded, her forehead pouring sweat, her knees sagging, her body slumping.

She realized in empty horror that she wouldn’t be able to run out of here. Much less carry Spike.

Shaking her head again, she reasserted her will. It didn’t matter, she had to finish.

Behind her, she heard as Rarity and Keiko separated, as Nova and Fluttershy gave way. Applejack and Ashley came next. Pinkie Pie and Diane held out longest, using an impressive conga line to great hypnotic effect, but then they broke and collapsed.

“Your subjects fall while mine grow in number, princess,” Chrysalis hissed, baring her fangs at Celestia. “What would you do now?”

“Hold to hope,” Celestia said with quiet determination.

“What hope do you have?!” Chrysalis shrieked in triumph.

“In my student and her friends!” the Sun Princess of all Equestria bellowed.

Maybe it was that shouted faith, maybe it was her doubled determination to free Spike, maybe it was just blind luck. Either way, Aurora Sparkle felt the cocoon give and break. A rain of green glass-like bits burst over her, turning into ichor and muck on contact with her clothes and skin. Spike groaned and tipped forward.

As Spike fell from the shattered cage, exhaustion took Aurora Sparkle. With one last gasp of effort, she simultaneously caught Spike and released the spell she’d been holding since the fight started.

It was a last ditch effort. Just in case. Only to be used if there were no other options. For Aurora and Twilight were nothing if not prepared.

The spell released, and her shield, which was paper-thin at this point, shattered. A wave of purple light, chased by deep indigo fading to white cascaded out into the room.

After Chrysalis attacked Canterlot, Twilight had requested several books on changeling anatomy as well as corresponding with Celestia and Luna about various pacification and restraining spells. In her studies, she found a particular spell that she had tweaked and adjusted appropriately. She’d never had a changeling to actually test it on, but as the purple/blue/white light rippled through everyone and everything in the hive, Aurora Sparkle had to smile.

The swarm was going to sleep.

The spell was a mishmash of efforts from the princesses and the favored student. While researching, Twilight found that changelings actually had an odd similarity to bees, such that when surrounded by smoke, they became docile, lethargic and sometimes went straight to sleep. Bouncing this idea off the princesses as well as the spectrum spell she’d found, they worked together to build a low-end, mental suggestion.

The suggestion was simple. Something that would ping right off any changeling’s hive hind mind: you are surrounded by smoke.

Ponies and any other creatures wouldn’t be affected as the suggestion existed only on the same wavelength as the changeling’s hive mind. A pony’s own brain structure would dismiss it before the suggestion even reached conscious thought. The spell was more complex than it was strong, and Twilight was completely uncertain it would work, so she’d held onto it for what Aurora had called, “an 11-th hour bid.”

Yet, it got the job done as Aurora could see and- Aurora...? Oh.

She was sitting now with her legs splayed out. Propped against the wall, Aurora Amaryllis looked down slightly to see Twilight, with her near-transparent head laying on Aurora’s leg. The pony smiled up at the human before her gaze went over to Spike, who rested on Aurora’s stomach, a protective arm about him.

“Spell worked,” Aurora said, thickly.

“Yeah... I see,” Twilight replied.

“Let’s not do this merge thing anymore. I feel like a bag of butts.”

Twilight nodded just enough to confirm her agreement.

Chrysalis was stronger than her subjects, but the spell managed to fuddle her. Blearily she swept her jagged horn back and forth as she floated down, her wings flapping uncertainly.

“Stay back!” she grumbled, her legs wobbly.

“Sleep, Chrysalis,” Celestia said decorously as smoke conjured from her horn. “And dream of large stallions.”

Chrysalis growled at the dark smoke wafting about her, then she teetered, snorted and collapsed, falling into a deep, dream-filled sleep. Where Luna waited.
~
“Any luck my sister?” Celestia asked the following morning.

“None,” Luna said, entering through the large doors. “She is caught in a particularly self-destructive nightmare.”

Celestia arched a perfect brow, curious.

Luna huffed, affecting offense.

“Entirely of her own making, sister, I assure you.”

Celestia held her brow for a minute longer, then a wry smile blossomed. Luna shared it.

“So, what’s that mean for us?” Iris asked.

The girls were gathered in one of Celestia’s guest chambers, eating an impressive meal. Aurora had been conscious enough to witness everything. Once Chrysalis was subdued, guards were summoned to detain the drones, contain the Changeling Queen and dismantle as much of the hive structure as deemed safe. Nothing could be done for the cocoons around the Elements’ bodies: there was too much changeling magic and power still in them. In a way, they were still quite safe.

The humans had been ministered to by confused medical staff and then carried by surprised guards into a spare guest room used by visiting dignitaries and their delegations. Discretion was expected of the staff, but to ensure there was no confusion, Celestia swore everyone to secrecy. In the sprawling, white, marbled room with a commanding view of Canterlot, the girls were all supplied with soft pink and purple pillows and warm sheets with the opportunity to recuperate.

They were also supplied with no shortage of suspicious looks from castle staff cleared to see them.

“That means we have spirit companions till the month is up,” Aurora said, poking at her salad.

Merging apparently burned calories big time if a nap didn’t happen immediately after. She had inhaled five bowls thick with dressing, a forgotten number of pastries and quite a few glasses of water. Aurora was content to idly move a tomato about the greens at this point.

When it was apparent she’d quieted the room, she looked up and with an apologetic tone added, “I figured it was obvious.”

“Not to sound, well, callous,” Keiko said, raising her finger. “But we can’t wait a month. We’ll surely be missed.”

“We’re probably already missed,” Aurora said, leaning against her fist.

“You’re pretty calm about this ‘Ro,” Ashley noted through an apple fritter. Whether it was from sharing with Applejack or her own preferences, the cowgirl had favored the apple flavored dishes to almost the exclusion of everything else.

“Too tired,” Aurora said with a crooked smile. “I’ll throw my usual tantrum later.”

The girls chuckled.

The ponies sat beside their matches, most of them gazing in pure envy with a dose of confusion at the food.

“It’s weird. I’m not hungry, but I could eat that whole spread,” Applejack breathed.

“With all due respect, sister,” Luna interjected. “I do not believe we can hold out another month.”

That got everyone’s attention.

Celestia nodded. “You are aware of the dangers as well?”

“Ever since you pointed them out to me.” Luna’s voice then shifted, taking a more pronounced tone with hints of the Royal Canterlot Voice. “We have scoured our dreamscape and attended to our creatures of the Night. His poison struck there first and he threatens our rule at every turn. Our forces are strong, but it will be but days before he breaks through- he has simply accumulated too much strength.”

“And how fare you, dear sister?”

“I manage,” Luna said, her voice tired, but her back staying straight and proud. Celestia saw through this bluster, noting all too clearly the burden her sister endured.

Celestia nodded again and turned to the assembled girls.

“Save your breath,” Aurora said, as Celestia opened her mouth. “We’re taking him on.”

Everyone turned to Aurora, varying shades of shock to her declaration to aghast that she would presume to speak before the princess. The spirit ponies were especially boggled when Celestia actually smirked and snorted, as if amused.

“We are?” Nova asked, gulping audibly.

Aurora nodded, steepling her hands.

“He’s coming through dreams, spreading through minds, poisoning the land and its people- just like Zecora said,” Aurora continued. “He’s not going to stop until somepony, or someone, stands in his way.”

Sighing, Aurora leaned back. “Besides. We’re in this deep, I figured we’d see it through.” She looked off, a frown etching across her face. “Now we get to take the fight to him.”

Everyone absorbed that notion as they realized they had all been thinking the same thing. Luna’s information meant they could no longer wait and plan. The Elements of Harmony and their humans were their strongest option, even as out of sorts as they were. They had nothing else.

“Zecora said a shaman stood in his way,” Rarity said quietly, hopefully.

“Well, we’re no shamans,” Rainbow Dash said, puffing up her chest. “But we’re best friends with a three-oh record of defending Equestria. I think we got a shot.”

Chuckles rippled across the table and Aurora noticed when quietly confident grins started blossoming on everyone’s faces.

Luna smiled especially broader. “Rainbow Dash speaks well. And all of you, your bravery speaks for your character.”

Everyone blinked.

“You can see them?!” came the unanimous shout from the humans as the ponies exclaimed, “You can see us?!”

“I walk among dreams and the unseen all the time,” Luna responded, as if confirming she knew about the moon. “The Elements are indistinct, but I perceive them.”

Celestia was almost taken aback before she squinted her eyes and knocked a hoof on her crown.

“Oh, I am getting old. I completely forgot you would sense them clearer than I do, sister.”

Luna smirked.

“It is fine sister. You know that I am partial to my own council. It would not behoove me for you to know all my secrets, yes?”

Celestia settled her withers and a twinkle came to her eye. “Secrets? Of course, sister. Like the charming stallion you had a crush on back in-”

“Sister!” Luna shrieked, wings flaring.

Pinkie and Diane cracked up.

“You guys need your own TV show,” Diane said, tittering.
~
With Luna added to the circle that could understand the spirit ponies, the girls were washed, given a day’s rest and equipped for their journey to the Smiling Pony’s last location. Before they left, though, Aurora and Twilight asked to attend to something personal.

Spike slumbered in a private room in the medical wing of the castle. He was administered by one nurse at all times on top of a team of professional vets trained in dragon anatomy. While the girls were in cocoons that nurtured and held them stable, Spike had been tossed in the equivalent of changeling cold storage, which hadn’t done him any favors.

Aurora remembered the doctors explaining that had Chrysalis done this to a pony, they would not have survived. Only the fact that Spike was a dragon had kept him alive.

“Hibernation?” Aurora asked from the stool at the edge of the bed.

“Close,” Twilight said from her position near the head, where Spike rested. “Since it’s something dragons do from time to time, he’s better than he could be, but...” Her jaw tightened.

Now that the excitement was over, Aurora could see just how tired Spike looked, how dull his scales were. Her heart tightened. She remembered him pretty clearly, for all that they were Twilight’s memories. That didn’t make the shared experience less real, nor did it ease the ache she felt when she looked at him laying there. He looked so limp, so weak.

“I don’t have a younger sibling,” Aurora said. “Or an older one.”

“I know,” Twilight said.

“Do you mind if I... If I think of him as family? Like you do?”

Twilight smiled. “I’d be honored,” she told the girl.

Aurora shared the smile and rose from her cramped position. Part of the outfitting meant Keiko had worked physically with the palace seamstresses and mentally with Rarity to make new “adventure outfits” for the girls. Aurora was in an off-white shirt and rich, purple pants covered by a deep-violet robe. After the beating her regular clothes had taken, plus all the cocoon goo, which had turned out to be mildly corrosive to fibers (including the improvised pants), it was nice to be fully dressed again.

She wished she just didn’t feel like she had gotten dressed to visit a dying family member. It was a too familiar feeling.

On the other side of the bed, she leaned down and ran a hand over Spike’s head. Memories of hoof rubs came back, but faded as she learned what he felt like under her own touch. Spike was smooth and a bit slick, though now he was... Splintery? She bet that was just his health. If he was healed, he’d feel much smoother, like velvet.

Twilight looked at him and Aurora felt the slight envy through their connection as she stroked the dragon comfortingly.

“‘Ro?” came Ashley’s voice.

The pony and human turned and saw the collection of their friends.

Iris was in bare legs with a short, sky-blue tunic covered by a silver chest plate with matching gauntlets for her arms. Ashley was in heavy, brown pants with a similar vest over her plaid orange shirt and a pair of gloves and rope tucked into her belt. Diane sported her jean jacket over ridiculous pink harem pants and a rose-colored, gypsy top. Nova wore a canary-yellow sundress covered by a grass-green, three-quarters, hooded robe. Keiko was in what looked like mother-of-pearl riding pants and a matching short-sleeved, fitted bustier trimmed in royal purple with little jewel accent bands on her upper arms.

They looked like something out of one of Aurora’s Dungeons and Dragons campaigns.

“Hey guys,” Aurora said, her voice mixed with relief and emotional fatigue.

“We figured you were here,” Applejack said, coming through the door. “We were wondering...”

“We’re his family,” Twilight said. “Of course you’re all welcome.”

Ponies and humans alike came through the doors, surrounding his bed. One by one, the humans touched Spike’s hand, his head, whispered private things in his ear and stood back to let the next friend pass. The ponies seemed to be speaking through the girls at this time and while Aurora could feel the pang of jealousy in Twilight, the others appeared content to offer proxy comfort.

“Time to head out,” Iris said once everyone had said their peace.

They nodded and trotted or strode out.

“Can I...?” Twilight asked.

“Of course, dear,” Rarity said. At the door, she and Keiko paused to look back at their Spikey-wikey, glanced at one another in silent conversation, then disappeared around the corner.

Though Aurora could sense the purple unicorn wanted privacy, she compromised the best she could by sitting at her stool to prevent the spiritual tether from pulling Twilight away from her baby brother. After a minute of silence, Aurora didn’t need their spiritual connection to see the want in Twilight’s eyes. She wanted to touch Spike, tell him it was all okay.

“You know...” Aurora said.

“Don’t. It’s draining and this isn’t that important.”

Silence.

“I think it is,” Aurora said.

She reached her arm out and wrapped it around Twilight. The now-familiar sensation of spirit magic began working instantly, drawing Twilight into Aurora and when Aurora Sparkle opened her eyes, she knew she was distinctly more Twilight-like and working to keep it that way. At least for now.

She ran a hand lovingly over Spike and tears sprung to her eyes.

“Oh Spike...” she choked in her echoey voice. “I’m so sorry...”

Spike groaned, making Aurora Sparkle flinch.

“Twilight...?” he said, his eyes flickering open. Barely.

Embarrassment rushed to her face and Aurora could feel that she and Twilight were about to break because the pony didn’t want her dear brother to see her this way. Yet, Aurora held tight to the bond and quietly prevented Twilight from escaping into her ghostly visage. Spike didn’t care what she looked like- she was Twilight. No matter what.

Reassured, Twilight Sparkle smiled with Aurora’s face.

“Yeah...” she said soothingly, her voice alone.

“Transformation spell get out of hand?” he said with a fanged smirk.

“Something like that,” Twilight replied.

He blinked, sudden stress creeping into his bearing and he sat up with a hiss.

“Twilight! Chrysalis! She’s going to- Urrggh...”

“Easy there, Spike,” Twilight said, soothingly, and pushed him back into his sheets. “You’ve had it rough. We know all about Chrysalis and we’re working on it.”

“Good... Good,” Spike said, looking more tired.

“You rest,” Twilight said. “We’re taking care of things. I’ll tell you about it soon. You won’t be left out.”

“Y’better,” he mumbled. “You know how *yawn* good I am in a fight.”

“Sweet dreams, my brave little dragon.”

As Spike slipped back to sleep, Twilight slipped out from Aurora. Aurora noted how she didn’t feel even remotely tuckered out this time. More weird spirit stuff.

“Thank you,” Twilight said in a hushed voice.

“It’s what friends do,” Aurora replied.
~
“And that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana shaped,” Diane said nasally.

“This new learning amazes me, Sir Bedevere. Explain again how sheep's bladders may be employed to prevent earthquakes,” Aurora replied in her plummiest accent.

Iris cracked up. “You guys are such geeks.”

“Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a comedy classic!” Pinkie Pie said.

“You’ve seen it?” Rainbow asked.

“Pretty much,” Pinkie replied with a bouncy grin.

“At least they’re not blastin’ on those trumpets anymore,” Ashley said quietly to Keiko, who nodded emphatically.

The girls had set out of Canterlot with a writ of Celestia’s approval to help clear the way, as well as arming Twilight with the same glamour spell the Princess had cloaked the humans in before. All Twilight had to do was hoof it to Aurora for casting and the group would be covered.

It hadn’t taken long before Pinkie and Diane pulled out trumpets and started playing the travelling music from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This inspired Aurora to start quoting the film and Diane to respond appropriately. Iris had been softly chiding them the whole while. It certainly kept things lively for the long walk they had ahead.

“You know, you keep saying that,” Aurora said. “But you keep getting the references.”

“Yeah... But that’s because I...”

“I mean, you got my call of a Dresden Files spell back in that fight,” Aurora wheedled with a mischievous smirk. “Is someone in the nerd closet?”

“I am not!” Iris said hotly, her cheeks burning.

“What’s nerdy about Dresden Files anyway?” Rainbow countered. “Harry kicks major flank!”

“Not... Helping, Rainbow,” Iris grumbled into her hand.

“O-ho!” Diane said, throwing her arms around Iris. “It seems our little Iris is totally into the geeky stuff.”

“Just- Just the cool parts,” Iris said under her blush. “I’m not like... An egghead or anything.”

“Nothing eggheaded about butt-kickin’,” Rainbow soothed from above. “Remember Daring Do?”

“Yeah...” Iris mumbled, rubbing her hands on her bare legs. “Those’re fun...”

Aurora shook her head, laughing.

As they continued their on-foot journey, the conversation turned to shared interests and activities with most of the girls finding common ground somewhere. Be it from Ashley admitting to being a big fan of Firefly or Keiko’s obsession with the dashing leading men of the BBC or even quiet Nova’s interest in magical girl anime. They all shared bits of themselves and Aurora realized she didn’t feel nearly as alone amongst these girls as she had a day ago.

The group stopped to rest in a glen not too long after the topic wound down. The humans ate a late lunch while Applejack and Rainbow Dash kept lookout.

Iris noticed Nova hadn’t eaten much.

“Nervous?” she asked sitting down next to the quiet girl in yellow and green.

Nova inhaled deeply then released, nodding her head.

“Yeah. This...” Iris looked over at Rainbow, who scouted back and forth at the edge of her spiritual tether. “This is way over our heads, you know?”

“I do.”

“So, um. I gotta ask. How’re you keeping up? I mean, if you’re anything like Fluttershy... No offense.”

Fluttershy shrugged from her spot in Nova’s lap. “I am something of a scaredy pony.” She sighed. “That doesn’t mean I don’t care and can’t... Mare up when I need to.”

Iris chuckled.

“I like that.”

Nova smiled and stroked Fluttershy’s mane.

“I’m with friends,” the human girl said. “And I want to protect this place. I may not be brave like you or Rainbow Dash are... But I don’t want to see any more ponies or people hurt.” She shook her head. “It’s part of why I’m studying to be a vet. Even though I’m far from my home tribe, my mother raised me with the same values. We can’t just help ourselves, we have to be willing to help every creature- we’re all in this together.”

Iris smiled at Nova, who’d started looking off in her introspection. She caught herself and blushed, coming back in.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to get so...” She shrugged sheepishly.

“Nah, that was...” Iris smiled. “That was cool.”

Turning away from Nova, Iris surveyed the assembled girls. Aurora and Keiko were laughing, Ashley was laying back in the grass, head rested on folded arms, Pinkie, Diane and Twilight were in heated discussion about something, and Rarity had joined Applejack and Rainbow at watch.

Iris hadn’t known them long, but thanks to the shortcut the ponies provided by sharing so much, she’d gotten close to these other girls and was glad for the relief of friendship available. Relief had been in short supply when she had thought she really was crazy.

Iris had fully backed Rainbow Dash when she took over her body, letting the pony gain access to as much of herself as Iris could provide. She’d believed in her cause, but after getting locked up and having the doctors talk to her day after day... Iris had considered she had gone around the bend and she was just the last shred of something approaching a real, rational girl now locked behind this Rainbow pony forever.

Iris was relieved beyond words that what happened actually was some epic, Lord of the Rings adventure with brain magic in the mix. Having people to share in that experience only helped in calming her nerves.

Yet, there were some things that still nagged at her.

“Can I... Can I be honest with you girls?” Iris said, resting her arms on her knees.

“Of course,” Nova said.

“Sure,” Fluttershy added.

Iris measured her breaths, taking her time. Nova and Fluttershy waited with patient expressions. If Iris was as much like Rainbow as Nova and Fluttershy were like one another, then she’d take her time before speaking about her emotions.

“I’m scared,” Iris said after an almost too-long pause. “Like, woo scared. Rainbow is too. We’re- We’re way out of our depths here. We don’t mind pitching in, helping out, getting- ha! Getting physical. But...” Iris sighed. “This is so big. A whole planet hinges on us. And this Smiling Pony guy?” She shivered. “I don’t know how everyone else is doing it.”

Nova and Fluttershy were quiet a moment, sharing in council. Then, Nova rested her hand on Iris’s shoulder.

“We take it one step at a time. Together,” Nova said.

Iris nodded.

“Cool. Sounds... That sounds like a good idea.”

She wrapped her hand around Nova’s.

“Mind if- Mind if during the big deal, I use some of your bravery? I kind of need it,” Iris admitted.

“I don’t know how much I’ll have at that point,” Nova laughed softly. “But I’ll be there for you, Iris.”

“So will I,” Fluttershy said.

“Me too,” Aurora chimed in.

Iris glanced over and saw everyone was looking at her. She blushed, pressing her face into a hand.

“You guys hear all of that?”

“We heard enough,” Keiko said.

“Nothin’ wrong with bein’ scared,” Applejack said. “Especially now. We got plenty of time to think how bad it’s gonna get.”

“But don’t let the scaredies get ya!” Pinkie said, hopping over. “That’s when you do silly things like hide in the basement from zombies for a week.”

Everyone stared at her.

“It was a bad week!” Diane said, crossing her arms and standing by her pony.

“What I think Pinkie means,” Twilight said. “Is that you don’t have to let the fear get to you. You’re not alone. Not right now.”

Iris blushed again, looking down.

Head hidden by her arms, she said, “You guys are gonna hug me now, aren’t ya?”

“Yyyyyyep!” Pinkie crowed, launching first.

Soon, all the girls and ponies were held together in a firm group hug. Deep inside, Iris heard Rainbow whisper in her mind.

They’re the best, aren’t they?

Yeah, Iris replied. Best friends any pony or person could ask for.

Chapter 9

They only had to walk for one more day before they met their first checkpoint. Twilight’s casting of the Princess’s glamour worked, as did the official writ, and they passed the guard ponies without incident. The land was a different matter.

Where once was sprawling hills of lush green and bursting life, now the terrain became rougher, as though a farm had a bad year. The green was bitten and dull, the trees hung slack, the water looked like it needed to be boiled at least once and most worrying of all was the lack of anything actually moving around.

Earlier in their journey, it had been quiet, but they had bumped into one wary traveler on the road and seen and heard other animals going about their critter lives. Though more inclined to hide, save from Fluttershy and Nova, life was active as they buzzed flowers, chewed on bark, prowled through verdant grass and cheeped, hooted and growled from all variety of shrub.

Past that first checkpoint, there was none. No ponies, no critters, no nothing. Only the most stubborn of bugs were present and the girls watched in muted fascination as the small creatures quietly burrowed deep in the earth. Save for the wind, the drained land was quiet, hollow.

“No jokes or songs against fear?” Iris asked Diane.

Diane and Pinkie had matched stride with Iris and Rainbow, quietly looking around. Pinkie looked particularly flat, her gaze mostly ahead, her mouth a firm line.

“Nothing funny here,” Diane said.

“Plenty of scary to go around,” Nova muttered.

They were coming upon the next checkpoint and Aurora cast the spell absentmindedly to cover themselves.

“It’s not that bad,” Aurora said. “Haven’t any of you been to a place that was just... Struggling...”

She blinked. The previous checkpoint had been heavily fortified to be sure, but still had a gate- a way of passage. This checkpoint was only a checkpoint in name and a barricade in reality. Stationed by sentries of a much harsher cut than the first, standing at attention in a way that looked almost painful, they patrolled a solid, makeshift wall of bags and brick and hastily grabbed earth.

Ahead was a wasteland.

The sky was gray, tinged with brown. The grass was sparse to the point of nonexistence. Dead, flayed earth showed in domination as hollowed, black and aching trees littered the landscape. Then, there was the feeling. The sensation that they weren’t walking into a wild forest, or even the waiting maws of absolute danger. That would have been comforting by comparison.

It was dread. Dread that they stepped beyond the care of anything good. Dread that swam up through their guts and informed a new reality. Dread that crossing this hazy border meant they wouldn’t come back.

“Sorry ma’am, nopony crosses here,” an official, and in-charge looking stallion said.

Aurora levitated the Princess’s royal decree like she was a unicorn, keeping her hands at her side and swivelling her head. The stallion, a unicorn himself, took it in his magic.

“Official business,” she said, crisp.

The sentry looked at the orders, then Aurora and her group. He cast his horn on the parchment and then them. Aurora could feel the tingle of his magic at work.

“Why the glamour?”

“Enemies are everywhere,” Aurora said firmly.

“And friends?” the stallion said.

“Everywhere else,” Aurora replied with a grin.

The stallion nodded, floating the orders back.

“Free to pass!” he bellowed in a magically amplified voice. Turning to the girls, he paused, then added, “Celestia help you all.”

They nodded their thanks and the barricade was lifted by six sturdy earth ponies with magical assistance from four unicorns.

Not one of the guards looked at the girls.

The girls didn’t look at them.

Once they’d crossed into the dead fields, the gut-sapping dread amplified. Nova and Fluttershy nearly collapsed in its presence. Ashley and Applejack had to catch them in support.

The barricade came down. The girls steeled themselves and marched on.

When they had gotten at least one-hundred paces from the barricade, “Sa-lute!” roared out of command from behind, making the group turn.

All along the barricade, pegasi, unicorns and earth ponies in dulled gold armor snapped a salute of crisp perfection and perfect deference to the civilians. Their gazes were straight ahead.

“Celestia go with you!” came the roar from the commanding officer.

“Celestia go with you!” echoed the entire line.

The girls smiled back and waved. They resumed their journey.

“That was pretty cool,” Iris said.

“Not to mention impressive,” Rarity said.

“Like a pony in armor, Rarity?” Twilight said, trying for humor.

“When they are honorable and kind like that in a cruel and harsh place like this?” Rarity said, casting a look back. “It’s the most beautiful gem in the world.”

As they walked, Aurora thought about two things: a school trip through Nevada with its empty spaces and hot, oppressive heat, and her Uncle Tavri’s trip to the Sahara. Tavri had shown her pictures and described the place as vast and sandy and empty, but that it fit with nature there which was harsher and more unforgiving. So too did she think of that space in Nevada- harsh, unforgiving, almost devoid of life, but appropriate for what the land was doing there.

While “harsh” aptly described what she trekked through, it didn’t look like a harshness made by natural forces. The earth wasn’t just cracked, and brittle and showing everywhere, it looked completely barren. Trees were drained husks and tilted on roots that looked like string. The air was painfully dry and carried a dust-filled wind. Aurora felt no colder, but she rubbed her arms all the same.

Nova softly cried. Fluttershy and Rarity tried consoling her, but fear was in their eyes and it wasn’t leaving.

Nopony wanted to be here. Nor did any human.

“I’d rather be going up against Nightmare Moon again,” muttered Twilight.

“A-men,” Diane said.

“At least Discord made chocolate rain,” Pinkie grumbled. “This is just... Blegh.”

“Hay, Sombra had traps and stuff, this is... I don’t even know what this is,” Rainbow said. Even translucent, her colors seemed duller in the gray, brown air rather than the stand out blast they should have been. All the ponies seemed grayer.

Psychological byproduct of environmental conditioning, Aurora thought.

I do that too, Twilight thought at her.

Hey! No peeking!

You were “talking” pretty loud.

Sighing, Aurora thought, Fair enough.

After a few quiet steps she thought to Twilight, What do you think?

It keeps with what we know, Twilight replied. He affects everything and drains it, little by little. I’m still figuring out how we can stop him.

Aurora smiled a little. Not talking about destroying him anymore, huh?

Twilight walked in silence for a few beats.

Chrysalis was... Pretty educational. I don’t want to get consumed like that. I’m still angry, but... I can’t use it. It won’t help here.

“What will?” Aurora said aloud.

Twilight looked up at her, holding Aurora’s gaze before breaking away.

“I wish I knew,” the unicorn said.

“What are we going to do when we see the Smiling Pony anyway?” Iris asked.

“See how close we get and go from there,” Aurora said.

“That’s it? That’s the big plan?”

“Well, fighting him didn’t work, blasting him with magic didn’t work, and nopony’s gotten close enough to talk to him. So let’s give talking over a distance a shot,” Twilight said firmly.

“We’re gonna talk the bad guy to defeat,” Iris grumbled loudly. “Sure.”

“Y’think you can just buck him silly?” Applejack said.

“Better than talking!” Rainbow shot.

“Girls! Girls!” Rarity said, interposing between the pair. “This helps no one. Let us continue and focus on getting there.”

Rainbow and Applejack shot sore looks, followed by sighing and nodding.

The group trekked on.
~
The sun was near to setting when they came to the empty town. It could have been Ponyville’s twin.

More accurately, it could be a twin that had fallen on hard times. Creaking shutters were left open on windows that were warped or shattered. Holes of all sizes broke up multiple roofs and walls. Doors hung as if they’d been smashed in. Plants wilted, looking like wrung out bits of old fabric. Dust shot through alleyways on a dead wind. The brown and gray atmosphere lay over everything.

The girls looked ahead, grim and determined.

Diane whistled. It was a familiar tune.

“Wah wah wah...” Pinkie added with a gallows smile.

Diane smirked. She whistled again.

“Wah wah waaaaah...” Pinkie continued.

Diane was joined by Iris and Ashley.

“Wah wah wah wah, waaah waaaaah...” Pinkie concluded.

“Shoulda worn my spurs,” Ashley said with a grin.

“I see him,” Aurora said.

They all could.

The reality was underwhelming.

He lounged, next to a black, bent tree in what could have once been a lively park. He was in that same dark blue suit jacket, but his tie was red now. Mane still too slick, tail perfectly off to the side, blank flank casually at an angle. He looked like he was having a relaxing nap, sitting at the base of the gnarled tree.

Nova and Fluttershy’s knees started knocking audibly.

“What do you think?” Twilight whispered.

“Give ‘im the Ray Stanz speech,” Iris whispered back.

Aurora turned around to give Iris a Not Now look.

“You want to talk? It’s a good speech. Just remember, you’re a god.”

Aurora sighed and stepped forward. She could feel the edge of the Smiling Pony’s strongest influence. Even though she stood just beyond it, her stomach dropped out. Licking her lips, she felt Twilight step up next to her and hold steady.

Her stomach settled. She smiled gratefully at Twilight, then cleared her throat audibly.

Without opening his eyes, the pony turned his lazy head toward them. Aurora wavered, but held fast.

“Smiling Pony?” she said.

He nodded.

“Uh. Good- Good afternoon.” She sighed. Now it was all she could think of. “As a duly-designated representative of the city of Canterlot and the lands of Equestria, I order you to cease any and all supernatural activity and return forthwith to your place of origin, or to the nearest convenient parallel dimension.”

“Oh man! She did it!” Iris said, grabbing Ashley’s arm.

Ashley shushed the other girl.

The Smiling Pony didn’t say anything. He rose, easily, patiently, as if he had all the time in the world. He opened his eyes. Black eyes. Empty eyes. He started walking toward them.

“Shield,” Aurora said.

Twilight’s horn blasted to light and white-purple magic sparked from Aurora’s hands to form the perfect purple dome. The falling pit in her stomach settled again, but she felt the sweat on her brow.

“Any ideas?” Aurora said.

“I still wanna buck him,” Iris said. “Hit him. Whatever.”

“And how’re you doing Iris?” Ashley asked. “‘Cause I feel like I’m gonna throw up stuff I ate when I was a sprat.”

“I’m-” Iris wiped at the sweat on her forehead. “I’m good. Rainbow?”

“I’m fine. Hey! I’m fine!”

“I am too!” Twilight exclaimed. “Girls?”

“I’m not fine,” Fluttershy said. “Nova’s very scared.”

The girls all looked inward and realized that while they were doing okay, their human companions were already showing the effects of the Smiling Pony.

“Merge?” Applejack asked.

“No!” Aurora said. “We’re not in good shape. We don’t want to wear ourselves out even further. That’s last option. Only if we can’t figure anything out.”

“I can’t,” Rainbow said. “I vote buck or merge.”

The Smiling Pony strolled forward the entire time, leisurely and guileless. His smile seemed to grow bigger as he got closer. He could have been whistling a jaunty tune if not for the razor blades that jangled in Aurora’s mind.

Her knee dropped to the dirt and she started panting.

Keiko put a hand on her shoulder and Aurora felt the magic she had in Twilight grow. Rarity was sharing.

The jangling razor blades receded, but the Smiling Pony kept moving toward them.

“Someone do something,” Keiko said. “We can’t just wait for him to walk up to us!”

“Leeeeerooooooy Jenkiiiiiiiins!” Rainbow Dash howled flying out of the shield.

“Rainbow! No!” Twilight shouted.

Rainbow rocketed at the Smiling Pony with one hoof out, her face set in a determined line. Even though she’d pass through him, she would get enough speed going and have Iris fly out to slam him across his smug face while Rainbow pulled her back to safety. The plan was foalproof.

“Eat this!” Rainbow said as she came up on the Smiling Pony.

And made contact.

The Smiling Pony flipped back and hit the dirt, skipping like a stone till he crashed into and through a house.

Iris spasmed under the shield, grabbing the arm that matched the forearm Rainbow had hit the Smiling Pony with.

“Ah! Aaaah!” Iris hissed.

“How did...” Keiko whispered.

“He’s a spirit creature!” said Twilight and Aurora as Pinkie and Diane exclaimed, “He’s a dream thingie!”

Applejack and Rarity shared a look and Twilight brightened. Pinkie reached behind her to pull out a bright blue canon on pink wheels and Fluttershy’s knees stopped knocking.

“Oh,” Rarity grinned. “It. Is. On.”

In a blink, Aurora dropped the shield and the ponies exploded at a full run as the Smiling Pony stepped out through the house. Twilight struck first, loosing the most powerful bolt of raw magic she could conjure. The Smiling Pony barrelled across the courtyard, scraping a dead furrow in the earth, right into Applejack’s waiting hooves.

Ashley had ran behind the apple bucking pony, putting as much slack on their tether as possible so Applejack could meet the Smiling Pony with both barrels of Bucky Mcgillicuddy and Kicks Mcgee. The Smiling Pony went sailing into the air.

Where Rarity caught him with her magic and flung him to the Earth. Hard.

Pinkie loosed the party cannon on Full Carnivale Mode, blanketing the area in spiritual confetti, punch, balloons and streamers.

An enormous cloud of the gray dust hung in the air. Panting, the girls all glanced at one another, fierce smiles on their faces.

“We get ‘im?” Applejack asked.

Ashley had walked up next to her, squinting into all the kicked up dirt. The other girls were behind her, trying to peer through the debris to spy the enemy. Ashley rubbed at her legs, feeling a deep-rooted tingling she didn’t like.

A pile of confetti rose and shook. An indistinct figure stepped forth, parting the smoke. Ashley squinted and couldn’t believe her eyes.

“No way...” Rainbow groaned.

The Smiling Pony was completely pristine. He wasn’t even rumpled. He didn’t even have so much as a hair out of place. And he smiled. He was grinning daggers. And he aimed them right at Ashley and Applejack.

The cowgirls spasmed wildly as if struck and started blinking fast, their faces breaking out in a cold sweat.

“What the-” Applejack said.

“How-” Ashley murmured and fell, hitting her knees.

“No!” Aurora yelled.

Aurora was up and running before she could react and then the Smiling Pony smiled wider and everything went white.
~
Aurora blinked. She was laying in bed. Not her bed, but a bed. In a place with white curtains and a white, tiled ceiling. Reaching up, her arm felt heavy, awkward, as if it saw little use.

Frowning, she pushed the curtain aside and saw sterile blue walls adjoining a window. The window revealed a lovely spring day. Wait, spring?

“Alright, Miss Amaryllis time for- Oh my.”

Aurora turned slowly and a nurse in soft green scrubs was holding a tray of food. She was in her mid-thirties and looked every inch a professional. She also looked a bit shocked.

“Ex- excuse me,” Aurora said, her voice awkward and wavery- as much disused as her arm. She focused. “Where am I?”

The nurse brought in doctors after that. Doctors who asked repetitive questions. Doctors who tested her reflexes. Doctors who seemed far too keen on what she’d been doing in a field seven months ago.

“Seven months?!” Aurora screeched. As she’d spoken, answering more questions, her voice had warmed up to the task. The pitcher of water they’d brought helped too.

“Yes Miss Amaryllis,” Doctor Olson said. He was a raky, pale Caucasian man whose glasses kept catching the light, obscuring his eyes. “You went into a field with five other girls and when you were found two days later, all of you were in one form of catatonia or another. You were muttering about ponies or somesuch.”

Aurora was struck dumb, slumping into the pillows and raised bed.

“You’re the first to recover actually.”

“Recover...?” she said, thickly.

He nodded and one of the nurses pulled a curtain to reveal Iris Speede, eyes wide open, mouth moving, but no sound coming out. Her face was pinched, as if in pain.

“You recognize her?” Doctor Olson asked.

“Iris?” Aurora whispered.

“She kept muttering under her breath,” the Doctor said. “Strange things about... Equestria? Twilight?”

“Sparkle. Twilight Sparkle,” Aurora said. She didn’t even realize how cold she’d felt until that small warmth blossomed in her heart. Her breathing picked up and her cheeks flushed in response.

Doctor Olson frowned. “That can’t be good. This girl was delusional, didn’t you know?”

“She wasn’t-” Aurora started, but caught the dominating look in Doctor Olson’s eyes and coughed. “I was her caretaker. I was familiar with her condition.”

Doctor Olson nodded.

“Did she give you anything? Drug you?”

“What? No! I had... I had an Appletini a whole day before and felt fine. She never...”

“Hmmm...” Doctor Olson said.

“Please, where are the rest of them? Ashley, Keiko, Diane, Nova? Are they here?”

“They’re around you. We thought keeping you together might spark a stimulus.”

Energized by a rush of adrenaline, Aurora rose suddenly and grabbed at the curtain next to her bed, tearing it free. Diane looked up from her prone position, her face in a rictus grin, her nappy hair looking thoroughly unkempt. A soft, unsettling giggle came from her mouth.

“No...” Aurora said. “Di...”

Doctor Olson stood just behind her.

“They’re all about like that. Some form of catatonia. We have them on-”

“I want to talk to my parents,” Aurora said, using the bed to prop herself on unsteady legs.

Doctor Olson was quiet.

“I’ve been committed. I’m not a minor, but my family still has power of attorney in these instances. I know, I helped draw up the document. Where are my parents?”

“I’m... I’m terribly sorry, Miss Amaryllis. They’re dead.”

The fleeting warmth in Aurora’s heart vanished as ice came to freeze it.

“What?” she whispered sheets twisting in her hands.

“They set up your care, yes, but after a trip where they all came to visit there was... An unfortunate accident,” Doctor Olson said in a soft, apologetic voice. It was the same tone Aurora had heard many psychiatrist or professional use for breaking bad news.

“What?”

“Your mother lasted longest, but she bled out. Their funeral was a month ago.”

Aurora became aware of a noise in her head. She couldn’t make it out.

“No...” she whispered. Her family. Her closest... It was Nani all over again. Only worse...

“We’d meant to wait, ease you back-”

“You’re lying,” Aurora growled, turning on weak legs, her eyes full of tears. “You’re... Lying!”

Doctor Olson sighed, looking down, saddened. He placed a comforting hand on Aurora’s shoulder.

“I’m so sorry,” he said.

And that did it. That bare honesty. That reality. Suddenly her friends were gone, she was insane, her parents were dead. It all crushed in on her.

Aurora realized what the noise in her head was. She was screaming.

She gasped, tears bursting through her eyes.

“Easy,” Doctor Olson said. “Eeeeeasy.”

He maneuvered Aurora so she felt her bed, her patient-cared-for, hospital bed beneath her and eased her back. Tears flowed, even though all Aurora could do was gulp air.

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice genuinely sad. “I’ll... I’ll give you a moment.”

He left. The nurse who had stood nearby exited the room as well.

The tears continued to flow, like someone had a tube behind her eyes, pumping out water at a rate she didn’t think possible. Then, after a minute of just silently crying, Aurora let the screaming out of her head and into her throat.

She wailed. Pain-filled and terrible, she wailed. Like she’d been gutted through her very soul. Like someone had carved a hole in her.

She turned, seeing Iris, and rose from her bed. She was still making that noise, that noise she didn’t think she could make, but she went on, screaming out her pain. Looking for someone to hold onto. She wrapped a hand firmly around Iris.

“C’mon...” Aurora keened. “C’mon... Wake up! Wake up Iris! Wake up please! I need... I need someone... Please...”

Iris remained still. Her face pinched, soft words coming from her mouth.

Aurora let her go. She fell to the ground, sobbing. She saw the three other pulled curtains. She didn’t dare look behind them. She couldn’t see Keiko like this. Ashley like this. Nova...

Fresh pain tore through her and she screamed more. She screamed until her throat was raw. She screamed until all she knew was that noise in her head and in her ears. She screamed.
~
The nurse came twenty minutes later to move her back to her bed. Aurora had nodded numbly. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered.

Once she’d screamed till she almost started throwing up, dripping spit and drool on the floor, she lay against Iris’s bed. Hollow. Empty.

Her parents: dead.

Her friends: catatonic.

Her: regarded as mentally deluded. Possibly drugged. Permanently broken.

The last was the worst to face. She broke down. She went along with it. With Equestria, with ponies, with the whole dream. She bought it and though she’d thought she was carving a circle in an apple orchard, what had she really been doing? Mixing some cocktail? Drinking Kool-Aid?

She’d never get her degree back on track. Who would take her? Who would listen to Aurora Amaryllis, the Broken Girl?

Her thoughts circled without progressing. They remained as such till the sun was easing out of its apex, heading for sunset. She caught the light change because it hit on something metal on a nearby table. A razor.

The razor blade was cheap, a man’s. One of those blue travel ones that are more necessity than quality tool.

She stared at that blade.

She remembered being here before. When Nani died.

Her grandmother had died two years ago. She’d beat breast cancer in her sixties to have it catch up and somehow attack her kidneys at 86. She’d lasted a month. Aurora had visited her every day.

When Nani died, Aurora remembered how she’d felt. She felt hollow, pained, gutted. Just like now. Like that time that boy had walked out on her or when her Elementary school friends never got back in touch, only magnified and multiplied to unbearable levels.

Her mother had shared the pain with her. Even her stepdad bore some grief, which let her ride it out and work again. Re-piece herself together again.

They weren’t here now. Not even her less-than-stellar biological father. Or her odd, but warm-hearted stepmother. They were all gone. Every. One.

That blade shone in the dying light of the day.

Aurora pushed herself up. She swung her feet to the floor. Her legs wobbled, but that was to be expected. She’d not used them for a few months.

Using the beds as support, she leaned her way over to the little Bic blade and picked it up. Such a small thing. The blades were clean though. Sharp.

She was a psychology student. She knew what the gallows humor was: “Remember, down the block, not across the street.”

“I remember,” Aurora said.

She’d... She’d need a shower or bath. Something with warm water to flow. Right?

Could she just do it here?

She stared at the blade, the pain in her chest swelling, her muster rising.

Aurora! No!

She blinked. Who had...?

Aurora! Stay with me!

Again.

She looked around. The voice had been nearby. Where had-?

“Miss Amaryllis!”

She turned the other way. Doctor Olson stood with two other nurses. They were big. They looked unpleasant. They also looked... Something. Aurora’s forehead itched.

Doctor Olson started walking closer to her. Talking in soothing tones.

“Where did you get that, huh?” he asked.

Aurora looked dumbly down at the blade. Something wasn’t right.

Aurora! You’re not alone!

Wasn’t...

“What color are your eyes, Doctor?” Aurora said, a sudden, quiet power in her hushed voice.

“Don’t worry about that, Miss Amaryllis. Why don’t you just put the blade down and...”

“I don’t think I can, Doctor,” Aurora said, casually, still looking at the blade in her hand. “Because I’ve been here all day and I’ve never seen them. Your eyes, I mean. It’s important. It’s part of my delusion.”

“They’re gray,” Doctor Olson said. He was closer now.

“Now, you’re lying,” Aurora said, authority in her voice.

“Does it really matter, Miss Amaryllis?” he said.

Aurora took a few steps back. She could feel the heat of the sun on her back as it eased down outside the window. She’d always liked laying in the sun. She liked stargazing too. What she liked most though were the sunrises and sunsets. When the twain met, that was breathtaking to see. That was when she believed in magic.

“It really does, because if I’m right, and I usually am, then it will mean the world to me.”

Doctor Olson saw where Aurora had positioned herself. Aurora reached behind her and found the latch to the window.

“Miss Amaryllis, careful there. Are you certain you know what you’re doing?”

Aurora bumped the window open with her elbow and she felt warm spring air gust in to wrap around her. She smiled.

“I’m very certain,” Aurora said.

Her smile grew wistful. She threw the blade back into the room, hearing it clatter on the floor.

“Tell me, Olson, are you familiar with Kierkegaard?” Aurora asked, sitting to perch on the window’s ledge.

“Somewhat...” Doctor Olson said, trying to get within grabbing range now that Aurora had no weapon.

“One of his big ideas was ‘the leap of faith.’ I’m not terribly fond of it. The idea that you get to a conclusion just so you have a place to operate from. What if your conclusions are wrong, you know?” Aurora relaxed against the side of the large window, letting the sun set. “You have to start all over.

“That’s probably why it became so big in religion. You take that leap of faith, accept the ‘unexplainable’ as it were. But I’ve learned this applies to more than religion, Doctor Olson. It applies to trust.

“There comes a point, where you have to trust another. Even if all your instincts and experience say it’s a bad idea. Trust gets you hurt. Caring gets you hurt. Better not to trust- life is full of enough dangers without having to trust people, right?”

Aurora glanced down, chuckling. The sun was falling behind the trees, she could tell.

“But we can’t do that. Most of us, anyway. We’re social. We’re better when we interact, when we trust, when we take that leap of faith and trust someone... Or somepony will be there when we need them.”

Doctor Olson had frozen just out of grabbing range. The large nurses flanked behind him, looking more like linebackers than hospital assistants.

“That’s very good,” Doctor Olson said. “Now, how about you trust me, and lean away from that window?”

Aurora cocked her head and the sun sank and that shine, that always glasses obscuring shine gave way to show Doctor Olson’s eyes. They were black eyes. Pits of coal where pupils should have been.

Aurora smirked. Doctor Olson swore. She pushed back, falling out the window.

Into Twilight Sparkle’s waiting forelegs.
~
Aurora woke, gasping.

“Holy- What?”

She was in a spirit shield. She could tell just by the quality. While this wouldn’t hold off anything solid it apparently held off a very pissed off looking Smiling Pony.

“Aurora! You’re awake!” Twilight said jubilantly, hugging her tight.

“Yeah! Yeah, I’m good! What’s-”

“When he got close, all of you fell. We rounded you up the best we could, but... I don’t know. His influence... Something’s wrong with Rainbow’s foreleg and AJ’s back legs.”

Aurora rolled over on the ground and saw what Twilight meant. The limbs that had struck the Smiling Pony were even more indistinct than the rest of the girls. And it looked like that was spreading further into the bodies.

Mouth going into a firm line, Aurora stood up. Her friends at her feet.

“Are you with me?” Aurora said.

“Of course! What did he do?”

“He messed up,” Aurora replied. “Drop the shield.”

“What?!”

“Drop it.”

Twilight looked up at Aurora like she really had just got out of institutionalized care. Aurora smiled back at her.

“Trust me?”

Twilight cocked her head. She took a breath, then nodded.

“Then we’re going to have to do this hooves on,” Aurora said. “Girls!”

The ponies raised up from their care of their respective humans.

“Tell them they aren’t alone,” Aurora said, voice ringing with authority. “Shout in that line. Shout in their ear if you have to. Be there for them.”

The girls all nodded.

“Okay, Twilight, let’s do it.”

Twilight’s horn shone again and the shield dropped. Aurora felt the grit, the urge to fall, the sudden pain blossom up in her gut and she put a hand on Twilight’s withers and the feeling all but vanished.

The Smiling Pony trotted forward, his mouth a line cut from one side to the other. As he got closer though, he seemed... Off.

Aurora closed her eyes, steadying her breathing.

Think about what you want. Think about what you need to see. See it for what it really is.

She opened her eyes and the Smiling Pony was gone.

The Smiling Man stood in his place.

Dark blue suit, shoes that shone like a polished knife, blood red tie on a clinically white shirt and a smiling face with black pits where the irises should have been.

“Gotcha,” Aurora said.

Twilight blinked. “What- How is...”

“He gets in your dreams because he’s made of them,” Aurora said. “He underlines your loss, your pain, your loneliness. He makes you think you’re all alone.”

The Smiling Creature stood there. Unmoving. Aurora could tell rage was spilling out around those smiling features.

“He was wrong.” Aurora smiled, a good smile. “I’m never alone. Whether I like it or not.” She turned her grin at Twilight, whose eyes widened in understanding.

“The loss of love, the emptiness...”

“Sucked them dry. I don’t know how it worked for everypony else, but for me,” Aurora said. “He hit hard and fast. If you hadn’t been there for me, Twilight...” Tears shone at the corner of Aurora’s eyes. “I’d be a goner.”

“You’re my friend,” Twilight said, leaning against her. “I’m always there for you. Always.”

“Me too,” growled Iris. She rose on shaky legs. “I never leave a friend in the lurch.”

“Me neither,” Ashley added, standing slowly.

“Me three,” Diane replied, using Pinkie as support.

“I stand by the best,” Keiko said, brushing dirt from her pants as Rarity lifted her up.

Nova just smiled, holding onto Fluttershy, who rose up on determined wingflaps so her friend could stand.

Aurora grinned back at these girls. At loyal Iris. At straightforward Ashley. At silly Diane. At giving Keiko. At kind Nova. These girls, who reflected the best in the ponies and the ponies who reflected the best in them. They were her friends. Just as she and Twilight were friends.

Aurora turned, standing at the front.

“I am surrounded by the best people in the world. Not to mention the best ponies.” She reached her arm out to Twilight, the signal clear. Light bloomed where Twilight’s hoof touched Aurora’s hand.

Behind her, the girls did the same, the spirit bonds growing in strength, their presence doubling, the air crackling with something new and powerful.

“We stand against you and all you stand for. You will not take our love, you will not take our harmony...”

The merge completed.

“You will not take... Our! Friendship!”

Light exploded above Aurora as a tiara with a purple star settled in her now Twilight colored hair.

“Was that the best you’ve got?” Aurora and Twilight told the Smiling Creature.

It stepped forward, opening its maw wide.

Aurora and Twilight closed their eyes and opened their hearts to Harmony.
~
Aurora woke to birdsong.

No sudden gasping this time. No pain or confusion. She felt light-hearted. At ease. She enjoyed it.

“Easy there,” came a familiar voice.

She opened her eyes, blinking. Oh. She was standing. Okay.

She looked around and found Twilight, pressing her barrel into Aurora’s leg to keep her balanced. That wasn’t the big deal though. Twilight was also standing in the grass. Which bent away from her because she was solid.

“Twilight!” Aurora exclaimed. “You’re-!”

“Yep!” Twilight Sparkle said, her grin threatening to split her face.

“Aaaaaah!” Aurora said.

“Aaaaaah!” Twilight agreed.

Aurora bent down and picked her up, spinning around and laughing. She pulled Twilight into a deep, powerful hug, which Twilight reciprocated. Little tears danced out from the girls as they rejoiced. Then, Aurora remembered what she’d been doing.

Skidding to a halt with Twilight still in her embrace, she said, “Wait, the Smiling... Whatever...”

“He’s over the hills buh-bye!” Pinkie said hopping through the lush green grass. It was everywhere.

Life sprung up all around Aurora. Where once there was barren cracked earth, she found healthy, green grass, where once was silence she heard animals moving and acting, where once she saw broken houses... Well, she still saw broken houses, but they no longer looked as beyond repair as they once had.

Shaking her head, Aurora tried to recall what had happened between the barren earth and this lush sprawl of life.

She remembered glancing... Something huge. And vast. And wonderful.

She smiled. Harmony. It really was a big thing. Especially when you’re acting as a channel for untold amounts of it to pour forth into a world starving for its presence.

The experience of using Harmony was a blur. Aurora could vaguely remember how at ease she’d felt, how at peace. She certainly remembered all the girls in her head. Like everyone had linked hands and was sharing a new spirit bond at high speed. Little glimpses in her soul.

Then there were the bits of the Smiling Creature. It had... Yes! It had opened its human/pony/whatever mouth wide and the girls had loosed Harmony’s energies right in.

At first, the Smiling Creature drank deeply, finally getting what it wanted, but then it had started squirming, twitching, like it had thought it could eat the full buffet and was starting to find the reality more daunting. Then it bucked, twitched harder and the light of Harmony started shining out of the creature and spilling to the ground. Rainbows mixed into the Earth, swam in the sky, beat with a single heart that Aurora realized she could remember clearly.

The Smiling Creature had gasped.

Then there had been a wrenching... Unsound.

Harmony exploded, bursting forth from the Smiling Creature to pour out into the lands and beyond. Washing the devastation and destruction away in a simple, warm gesture. It was a release, it was a need, it was a weight that Aurora had shared equally with the girls and all the rainbow light had touched.

Speaking of weight... Aurora realized she still felt some. Reaching up, she found she was still wearing a tiara. She looked back to Twilight, who was wearing her tiara and Aurora frowned.

“Uh, what’s...”

“Hey ‘Ro, check it out!” Iris said, running over to the spot where Aurora was removing her jewelry. “We’re full-fledged Elements of Harmony now!”

Iris wore what looked like a necklace not too dissimilar to Rainbow Dash’s, but rather than a lightning bolt from a cloud, it was a lightning bolt with wings. As the other humans came up with necklaces adorning them, theirs too were variations on the theme with their shared ponies, save for Keiko’s.

“The more jewels in the world, the better,” she’d said with a wink to Rarity.

Aurora examined her own jewelry and found rather than a star-shaped gem, it was a simple, round, violet jewel.

“My special talent is a circle?” Aurora said, her eyebrow arched in quizzical good humor.

“Sounds good to me. We’re completely out of my expertise,” Twilight laughed.

“If I had to guess...” came a melodic, regal voice. “I’d say it was a clear-seeing cutie mark. You do have a knack for seeing things others missed.”

“Princess!” the girls said, turning.

“Hello my little ponies,” Celestia said.

The girls rushed at their Sun Princess and bowed, save for Twilight, who barreled through to wrap her forehooves about her mentor. Celestia bent low to hold her prized pupil. Tears of joy trickled out of Twilight and though nothing fell from Celestia’s eyes, she held that hug as long as her student dared.

Sniffing, Twilight released the embrace and stepped back to compose herself. Once settled, she bowed, which Celestia returned in kind.

“Princess,” Aurora said, stepping to the side of the group of ponies. She bent at the waist in respect. The other humans did the same.

“My!” Celestia said with a laugh, casting her gaze about the little town. “You girls have been busy!”

She laughed again, which just brought everyone in with her.

Chapter 10

Twisting and turning in front of the mirror, Aurora sighed. She couldn’t do this.

She wore a sari of rich, deep purple and accented by a much lighter violet choli top. The whole outfit was trimmed in shining gold fabric with looping designs, making her look rich and impressive. The sari was folded “professional-style,” like Nani had taught her. Keiko had come in with Rarity and a spare Canterlot stylist to put up Aurora’s dark hair and apply careful makeup that accented her eyes. Amethyst jewels sparkled from her ears and golden bracelets winked along her wrist. The simplest thing she had on were the sandals, which were still made of expensive-looking material.

“I bet I’m wearing the cost of my entire college education,” Aurora said.

“I’d see that bet,” Twilight said, trotting in from the bathroom in a similar outfit.

Since returning from their victory over the Smiling Pony, three days had passed wherein the girls were hailed as heroes of the land alongside their pony friends. There’d been a parade and an impromptu We’re Still Alive party thrown by Pinkie Pie, but tonight was going to be the official celebration where everyone would be honored. Pinkie and Diane were deep in talks to make it “the crunkest thing that ever was.”

No longer sharing a body and tethered by spirit magic, the humans still found themselves staying close to their former spirit-bonded ponies out of habit. They were all put up in royal suites with their companions, who acted as guides and semi-official diplomats. Aurora had opted for Twilight’s personal library and quarters with an appropriately sized bed brought in.

“I mean, I thought I had a nice one at home, but this...” Aurora shook her head. “Why are we doing it like this again?”

Twilight went up next to Aurora, checking her matching sari and jewelry, which had the same color in slightly different tones to complement her mane and coat.

“In honor of your cultures and traditions.”

“My tradition is usually a suit, something professional. I like to look, y’know, put together. This is... Way outside that,” Aurora sighed.

“I know, but let Rarity and Keiko have their moment.”

Aurora sighed again, wondering if she really deserved this. It looked too much. She was an “okay” academic, not a gorgeous desi actress.

“Did Diane manage to convince them that parachute pants were part of a sacred family observance?” Aurora said, turning to see how much of her back showed through the draped fabric.

“No,” Twilight giggled. “But you remember what happened with the dashiki.”

Aurora nodded. Technically, she was second generation Indian and mostly just thought of herself as Californian with some impressive, deeper roots. Diane, as she’d found while talking to the girl, was as American as they came.

Keiko and Rarity had apparently not gotten to that conversation.

When Keiko had presented the African garb, which did look very nice, Diane had nearly peed herself laughing. Pinkie had to be the one to explain half of Diane’s family came up through Haiti waaaaaaay back while the other half was just from “all over” the Midwest.

Rarity and Keiko had shared a look then announced they’d come up with something.

“Well. My grandmother would like it. Though she’d have worn a t-shirt instead of a choli,” Aurora commented.

“From what I remember, she was a pretty amazing woman.”

“A real trailblazer for her times. And she had a great sense of humor.” Aurora sighed, her heart aching, but not profoundly. It was the longing for good company long past. “I miss her.”

“She left a good legacy in you,” Twilight said, pressing her hoof in comfort against Aurora’s leg.

Aurora bent down and hugged the unicorn.

“Thanks.” She cocked her head. “You’re too kind, you know that?”

Twilight smiled a laugh. “You took care of my spirit for a month, fought off a dream monster intent on destroying my world and inadvertently got me back to my body at the end. A compliment is the least I could do.”

“Hey girls are- Whooooa,” Iris whistled. “Lookin’ good, ‘Ro.”

“Thanks, Iris,” Aurora said, turning and taking in the other girl’s ensemble. “You too.”

“Eh. I wear armor well. What can I say?”

While Diane had briefly confused the fashionista’s plans, Iris had straight up blocked any ideas about her “heritage.”

“My parents are from Washington and I got an abuelita in Arizona. That’s it. That’s my heritage. I wanna wear what Rainbow’s wearing.”

Rainbow wore a gold-washed trunk plate accented by a sky blue drape and gold bracers and sandals. Iris matched in a top that was a golden breastplate that went just above her midriff. What looked like a toga beneath was cast to one side over a deep blue knee-length skirt slit high on the thigh. The gold of her bracers and sandals shone in the light of the library’s windows.

Aurora thought Iris wore armor very well, indeed.

Her pegasus double flew in, beckoning with impatient hooves.

“Hey guys! Yeah, we all look awesome. Now will ya hurry it up? There’s a party happening!” she rocketed back through the open door.

Aurora and Twilight shared a look. Aurora hiked up her skirt so her legs could move freely as Iris reached out a hand to guide her along. Pony and humans moved at a brisk trot through the winding corridors of Canterlot, then down a flight of stairs to the Grand Gardens where music from a formal quartet already drifted out from massive speakers.

The gathering wasn’t unlike Cadance and Shining’s wedding reception: outside and attended by ponies of every stripe imaginable. From upper crust Canterlot elite all the way to residents of Ponyville who knew some of the heroes. Included among those stripes were Zecora, who was at the table of honor with the all the girls, and Spike, who had made a full recovery.

Once she and Iris separated with a wave, Aurora went to the zebra as Twilight trotted to where Celestia presided.

“Zecora, I’m so glad you’re here!”

The shamaness smiled, nodding. She wore a pony-style caftan of rich gold and deep brown with little green designs along the hem. It looked impressive when coupled with her gold jewelry.

“What else was I to say in response to such a joyous day?”

During the week, Aurora and the girls had spoken with Celestia about how Zecora had gotten them through some of their difficulties, as well as foiling the Smiling Pony’s attempts at further decimating Equestria. Celestia had pushed through new laws the next day protecting lands such as the Everfree forest so that if any officials got influenced by a paranoia-inducing dream monster again, they’d have to go through considerably more red tape to act.

For her efforts, it had been nothing for Celestia to extend a full, royal invitation to the shamaness.

“Well, I’m glad you made it. Save me a dance?”

Zecora nodded, sipping from her glass with an ebullient smile. Aurora worked down the row, noting the seats with everyone’s names on cards to mark designated sitting. She spied Spike next to her and Twilight’s chairs and he clutched a sapphire bigger than he was. He also sported a red bowtie Rarity made for him long ago. It dazzled with jewels.

“Hey Aurora!” he called. “Swell party huh?”

Spike was looking much better than last she’d seen him, scales shining and eyes bright. This may have been due to the expert care of the Canterlot physicians, but Aurora put her money on the giant sapphire that Keiko and Rarity had dug up just for him before they’d left the castle on their quest.

“It sure is,” Aurora responded. “I still can’t believe she pulled that jewel up so quick.”

Spike shrugged. “A gentleman never asks and a lady never tells,” he replied loftily.

“Well, Mr. Gentleman, save me a dance for later.”

“Sure thing!”

The other girls were milling and mixing. Ashley towered easily over everypony and person in a dark orange dress with light green accents that went particularly well with her boots and hat. She let loose a loud laugh as she and Applejack spoke with some earthy-looking business ponies.

Keiko wasn’t too far away from the cowgirls in a summer kimono with a lovely depiction of flowers along the hem as she chatted up a stylish stallion with large sunglasses. Rarity matched in a similar outfit, trotting back from the drink table to refresh her human and herself.

Toward the back and away from the crowds, closer to the animals of the gardens, were Fluttershy and Nova. They matched in green dresses accented by yellow block designs up their length and bright blue beads in their hair. As birds perched in their mane and hair, Nova spoke with an elderly looking buffalo chieftan, who smiled at what she said.

Pinkie and Diane were behind the DJ’s booth where Pinkie was spinning along with an electric-blue maned unicorn as Diane flipped through records. Both girls were in poofy, rainbow colored skirts and short, dark blue jackets over simple white blouses.

Aurora smiled wide. Her friends. All gathered and having the time of their lives.

“Good evening everypony!” Celestia said some twenty minutes later, her voice carrying easily over the crowded courtyard. “It is my distinct pleasure to bring attention and acclaim to a most unlikely group of heroes. They were not of this land, but they embraced our Equestrian values and exemplified them to save us in one of our darkest hours. I am honored tonight to welcome Earth’s bearers of the Elements of Harmony!”

A spotlight shone over to the girls, who all sat in their designated seats next to their respective ponies. They all waved in the wake of the applause.

Celestia went on to cite the combined work of everypony. She paid kudos to Princess Cadance for getting her to the girls in the castle. She acknowledged Zecora for aiding them along their way, as well as preserving the Everfree forest. She even spoke warmly of Spike’s bravery in the face of Queen Chrysalis. Zecora and Spike were presented with medals, signifying their achievements in going above and beyond the call of their kingdom.

A spotlight marked every pony, and dragon, in turn. The light caught spectacularly on the medals Zecora and Spike received.

The Elements of Harmony of Equestria were then called to receive their acclaims for their continued efforts in protecting the land. More medals were placed on waiting necks. Rainbow muttered about “running out of places to put these things” and was shushed by Applejack as the girls received a thunderous applause before returning to their seats.

Celestia then turned to the night sky, and after a reverent moment, what at first appeared to be a twinkling star resolved as Luna came into view. Floating down, a large case drifted in her magical wake. She settled next to Celestia and a chair appeared, allowing both sisters to project their presence at once.

“Within this case are the Elements the people of Earth earned, proving you carry the power of Harmony within your hearts,” Celestia proclaimed. “They are tied to you, as you are to them. May they guide you well in your days to come.”

Ashley took the case easily from Celestia’s magic. During the rehearsal in the throne room, the other girls had taken one look at the weighty box and voted the Amazon of the group as handler.

“Now, we would honor you as the heroes that you are. Please, rise and come forth.”

They’d rehearsed this too, though it didn’t compare to the attention they felt now.

“Ashley Jane Apple!”

Ashley smirked at her full name being said so loudly and decorously and stepped forward, removing her hat to let the medal drop about her neck. Replacing her Stetson, she nodded and moved to the Princesses’ side.

“Nova Valeria Eve!”

Nova rose unsteadily, taking a deep breath. Fluttershy flashed her a supportive smile and the girl grinned back, moving on surer feet to the dais, where she was honored.

“Diane Rosario Smith!”

Diane winked at everypony and strode up, waving a little to the crowd as she hopped up the steps. Her body language shifted to formality at the twinkle of amusement in Celestia’s eyes, letting the medal drape easily.

“Keiko Sally Jewele!”

Keiko blushed at her middle name, but rose like the lady she was and glided demurely to the stage.

“Iris Belle Speede!”

Iris clapped a hand on Aurora’s shoulder, then marched up to receive her acclaim.

Once all the girls were standing around the princesses, Celestia smiled a little broader.

“And last... Aurora Hetal Amaryllis!”

Aurora steeled herself and rose, smiling at all the ponies, but grinning the widest at Twilight. Twilight whistled loudly, cheering from her seat.

Aurora bowed in front of the Princess of Sun and Day and felt the medal settle on her shoulders.

“You’ve come quite far,” Princess Celestia whispered just for Aurora to hear. “Sitara would be very proud.”

Aurora’s head jerked up.

Sitara had been her grandmother- Nani’s given name. How could Celestia possibly have known that? Aurora tried searching the Sun Princess’s features, but she was only met with a beaming, enigmatic smile.

Their gaze held as Aurora processed, then breathed a laugh. Sure. Almighty, magical pony princess just knows. Roll with it. Blushing, she turned to present herself to the assembly.

“Mares, gentlecolts and ponies of all walks,” Celestia echoed. “I give to you, the heroes of Equestria!”

The applause was like a physical force that rocked them back. Trumpets erupted at either side and a complement of royal pegasi streaked through the air. Rainbow Dash twisted in her seat, rocketing into the sky and on the way down released a gorgeous Sonic Rainboom.

When the noise had moved from absolutely deafening to only an overwhelming roar, Diane leaped into the air.

“LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!” she hollered.
~
The festivities ran so late that Celestia had to beg a break lest she not have enough energy to do her royal duty to raise the sun. This wasn’t as big a problem for Luna, who had finally loosened to the point that she and Ashley were leaning together swapping stories about... Well, Aurora couldn’t hear, but they were really talking it up.

“Yo,” Iris said, plopping down next to Aurora, a glass of Canterlot wine in her hand.

Aurora had a similar glass, which she had nursed carefully, but managed to get a serious buzz off of anyway. Ponies liked their drink hard, apparently.

“Hey,” Aurora said, not so drunk and tired that she couldn’t hold a conversation.

Iris didn’t speak further though, instead just keeping company and watching ponies who were intent on enjoying themselves to the last drop. The music had eased into a softer edge with happily inebriated couples and friends dancing slowly on the floor nearby.

Diane was swishing a blushing Nova back and forth while laughing softly. Rarity swayed at another corner, sleepy-eyed, but still aware with Spike asleep on her back, his claws hooked firmly in her mane. By the drinks table, Keiko spoke merrily to the unicorn DJ, who had perched her red shades atop her head to better converse. Pinkie was managing the music, her tongue out in fierce concentration. Zecora and Twilight leaned into one another by the buffet table, murmuring inaudibly. Applejack had passed out on a garden bench, her hat pulled over her face as she dozed. Fluttershy was curled up at Applejack’s hind legs, a rabbit sleeping in her mane.

“We’re still going home, right?” Iris asked.

“I am. I have a doctorate to get back to,” Aurora responded, placing her glass next to her foot. “This has been... Beyond amazing though.”

Iris nodded. They people and pony watched in silence again.

“Why couldn’t we...” Iris said quietly. “Y’know? Stay?”

Aurora looked at her friend. Clearly the girl had given this some thought.

Aurora sighed, smiling.

“Sure,” she said. “Stay and be heralded as heroes for the rest of our days. Welcomed at every point. Seeing talking ponies and magic and all kinds of impossible things every day... We wouldn’t even have to work- just be allowed our leisures. Why would we want to go back?”

“That’s my point,” Iris said, looking at Aurora.

Aurora met her gaze and let her smile fade a bit, though her expression remained earnest.

“Because this isn’t home,” Aurora said. “It’s Disney World. It’s England. It’s someplace you go, not someplace you stay.”

“It could be,” Iris said. “I mean, we’re pretty well known. We could...”

Aurora placed her hand high up on Iris’s back, where the toga exposed bare neck and shoulder. She rubbed at the area comfortingly. The other girl shook a bit, emotion mixing with her spirits.

“I’m going to miss them too,” Aurora said.

“No you’re not,” Iris grunted, as a few tears beat out her resolve. “You don’t even like them.”

Aurora gave Iris her best Professor Knows look. Iris turned to it, shrugged, sighed.

“Yeah, okay. Sorry. That’s...” Iris sighed again and sniffed, rubbing at her nose. “I’d just be living off one good win for the rest of my life. And that’s not how I roll.”

She huffed at a lock of her hair. “Besides, I’d have to go full vegan here! No more burgers? Forget that!”

Iris nodded. “Yeah. We should go,” she affirmed.

Aurora pulled the other girl close, embracing her. “I’m going to miss them too,” she whispered.

Iris swallowed, hiding in the shoulder of Aurora’s outfit.

“I don’t cry,” Iris mumbled.

“I know,” Aurora said.

Iris didn’t cry for another two minutes before she coughed, wiping at her eyes and straightened, sniffing.

Aurora passed a napkin without looking at the girl and gave her a minute to compose herself. Once Iris had dotted at the worst, she looked at the gathered ponies she knew. She chuckled.

“You know, this all started ‘cause you believed me.” She watched Rainbow Dash flutter down to dance on top of the speakers to Pinkie’s amusement. “Everyone else thought I was cra- confused. And I kind of was. So... Why did you believe me?”

Aurora picked up her drink and spun the little glass between her hands. She idly wondered why hoofed creatures would make glasses this way, but she figured it was some strange universal thing: a lot of wine glasses were stemmed. Not for hands, but because that’s how you knew it was a wine glass. Chicken and egg logic and she was distracting herself.

“Besides Twilight banging around in my soul, you mean?” Aurora asked, her lidded gaze watching the same scenes as Iris.

“Well, duh. You were, like, the most against the whole thing, but you still kept going. How is that?”

Aurora was silent again.

When she spoke, her voice took on a distant quality. “Because... Because of the way you looked at me. Because of how you held my hand.” Aurora demonstrated by slowly wrapping hers around Iris’s. “Nobody had held my hand like that since Nani, my grandma. You were so firm and sure.

“It was in your gaze too. You weren’t being certain I was a part of your delusions, you were certain I was your friend and you treated me like one.”

Aurora shrugged.

“That’s rare for me. So, I took a little trust. Enough for me to leap out. And you guys caught me.”

“Buckin’ ay,” Iris said with a nod. Then frowned. “Am I going to keep doing that? I thought we didn’t have pony brains in us any more.”

Aurora laughed and polished off her drink.

“Probably. We’ll just have to all stay in touch when we get back. You know. So we can find out.”

Iris smiled.

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

“You know what’s a better plan?” Aurora asked, rising. She gave her glass to a passing waiter. “Dancing. C’mon.”

“Jeez, I’ve seen you dancing with everyone tonight! What’s up with that?” Iris laughed, taking Aurora’s hand.

“I like to dance! It’s fun!” Aurora said, leading her onto the dance floor.

Iris learned that night that while Aurora had much in common with her pony, she was a much better dancer than Twilight Sparkle. Aurora told her that was because Twilight didn’t have her Nani, who had been both a dancer and a martial artist and that made her the coolest.
~
Another day passed in relaxation before Aurora, Ashley, Nova, Keiko, Diane and Iris were called to the Major Spellcasting Chamber.

Dressed back in the washed and cleaned clothes they’d arrived in (luckily, Aurora’s clothes had all been retrieved and restored), they were relieved when they saw the heavy, purple-cast doors. It had felt like they’d walked the entirety of the castle to get there.

When the doors parted, seemingly on automatic, the room impressed as much as everything else they’d seen in this magical world.

They could tell it would be large from the size of the doors, but their jaws still dropped as they took in the sheer height and artistry of the room. The ceiling was accented by gothic ramparts far away and the shape looked hewn from solid stone. Not a tile nor a crack could be found, making the whole space seem preternaturally perfect. Even the windows gazing out to the Equestrian mountain range appeared to have grown up with the room, as much a part of it as the circle in the floor.

Surrounding the circle and running up the walls were white, chalk equations that looked a bit familiar to the humans.

“Wow,” Applejack said. “This what you been workin’ on Twi?”

“Well,” the Princess’s protege responded. “Aurora and Diane helped.”

“I thought... Pinkie was consulting last time,” Rarity said.

“Nah,” Pinkie said. “My girl, Di Job, had this down. It was only a little advanced calculus!”

“Thanks for the love, Pinkenstein,” Diane said.

“Any time, Di Town Billie Brown!”

That earned a groupwide chuckle at their goofy friends.

“Why’re we doing it like this?” Iris asked, once the giggles had past. “Why not just have Rainbow whip up another Sonic Rainboom?”

“Because that was a different spell,” Twilight said. “It needed different components and had different parameters. This is just going to be a heavy-duty teleportation spell.”

“Oooh, so we’re technically getting a royal escort?” Keiko said with a flashed grin at Celestia, Luna and Cadance.

“Pretty much,” Cadance replied. “It should be easy. We’re just lending our power to Twilight.”

“And your expertise,” Twilight chimed in. “This was a group effort.”

“The effort was all yours, my faithful student,” Celestia said. “You and your friends. We merely acted as sounding boards.”

“Indeed, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said. “Your spellcraft grows in leaps and bounds.”

Aurora saw something behind Luna’s bearing as she addressed Twilight. It reminded her of when one of the professors she’d TA for would spot a student who was doing really well with the material and mentally cut them from the class for closer inspection. She could only guess what plans were cooking behind Luna’s royal visage.

“So, is everything set?” Aurora asked, trying to keep from being nosy.

The royals nodded.

“Then I guess...” Aurora looked down at Twilight, who had walked up next to her. “Goodbye?”

Twilight nodded. After a thoughtful moment, her face clouded in worry.

“Aurora, back in Everfree, you asked if...”

Aurora shook her head, catching Twilight’s meaning and appreciating her diplomacy.

“Forget it,” Aurora said. She knelt down to look into Twilight’s eyes, no longer seizing at the familiarity and instead relishing in it. “How could I ever give up an experience like this? How could I ever give up you?”

Twilight’s large eyes filled with tears and she hopped up to hug the fellow student.

“I’ll find a way to visit,” Twilight said. “Consider it a promise.”

“How about you work on a way for us to visit you? That’d probably go over better.”

“Probably,” Twilgiht laughed. “But only if you work from your end. You’re bringing back a little of Equestria after all. That can change things.”

Aurora glanced at the case slung casually over Ashley’s shoulder.

“I dunno. Think I can handle magic?”

“I know you can.”

A sniff came from the corner and Aurora and Twilight turned to see Pinkie and Diane swapping a handkerchief back and forth.

“Don’t mind us,” Diane said.

“We have super bad allergies. That’s all! Swear!” Pinkie said.

The girls laughed again, longing.

“Keep kickin’ flank,” Rainbow said, bumping her hoof against Iris’s knuckles.

“Right back atcha. Gotta keep the awesome quotient up, yanno?”

“I hope you won’t mind if I modify some of your older designs for my purposes,” Keiko said, as she knelt in front of her fellow fashionista.

“So long as you put that fabulous spin of yours on them. I saw that notion from my fall stock- Inspired,” Rarity replied, eyes twinkling.

Ashley examined a piece of paper with careful notes jotted on it.

“These look pretty solid, I’ll be sure to start on ‘em when I get back. You gonna use that lasso trick I taught ya?”

“You betcher boots I will,” Applejack replied crisply with a smile. “And just so ya know, you don’t have to name ‘em all. Just take some time. Get to know your orchard one-on-one.”

“I’m sorry I never got to meet your animal friends,” Nova said, holding Fluttershy’s hooves.

“It’s okay,” Fluttershy responded. “Maybe if Twilight works something out we can save that for next time.”

“I’d really like that. I’ll be sure to say hi to Eugene for you.”

“He was such a nice squirrel,” Fluttershy agreed.

Pinkie looked up at Diane, who’d composed herself after Aurora and Twilight’s sweet moment. Beckoning the little pony up, she gave her a near-rib-cage crushing hug.

“Whaddya think?” Diane said.

“Celestia willing, we’ll meet again,” Pinkie said, sighing into Diane’s afro. “This was more than a dream after all, so maybe it’ll be more than a dream again! The search for more ponies!”

“Oh, you’re good,” Diane complemented.

“Years of practice, sister,” Pinkie said with a wink.

“Alright everypony! And, heh, every person,” Twilight called out. “It’s time.”

Everyone gave their last hugs and well wishes and gathered in the carved circle.

“I thought you didn’t need the circle this time,” Iris said to Twilight.

“She doesn’t,” Aurora replied. “We do. So we know where to stand.”

“Oh.”

Celestia looked to Luna, who nodded and flew over the group to match her sister. Cadance took her place across from Twilight. The remaining ponies moved back so they stood around Twilight, but not so they interfered.

Twilight’s horn came to life first and was soon joined by Cadance, followed by Luna, and lastly, Celestia. Purple-white light sparked up from the line in the ground.

“Goodbye! We’ll never be able to thank you enough!” Twilight said.

“Safe travels, friends,” Luna called.

“Take care!” Cadance tossed in.

“Be well,” Celestia added with a nod.

The ponies shouted their farewells and the girls called theirs back as Aurora and Twilight’s eyes locked one last time. A sparkle twinkled in both and they smiled as a globe of purple/pink/blue/white light engulfed the girls and they vanished.
~
Aurora saw only black.

“Um. I kind of don’t want to open my eyes,” she said.

“Me neither,” Ashley agreed.

“Wait, you guys have your eyes closed?” Iris asked, chuckling.

“But, Iris, you asked me to hold your hand while you closed-”

“Thanks, Di! I know!”

“Good. Wanted to make sure you didn’t have teleportation amnesia.”

“My eyes are closed as well,” Keiko said.

“Me too,” Nova commented.

Aurora sighed.

“Okay, we’re all standing, so that’s a good sign and I can hear wind through trees so that’s good too. I say we open our eyes on three.”

Her hand quested out and she found Ashley’s firm grip on one side and Keiko’s supportive hand on the other.

“One... Two... Three.”

Eyes opening all around, the girls smiled and laughed. Diane jumped excitedly and Iris leaned against Ashley with a whoosh of air.

They were back almost exactly in the center of the old circle that had sent them to Equestria.

Aurora was smiling along with the others until her scan of the same copse of trees that they’d left revealed one, important detail.

“Where are our cars?”

Twenty minutes and two miles later, the girls were walking along the country road approaching the nearest gas station.

“I’m not mad, Diane,” Aurora said for the fifth time. “Just... Angry at myself. I should have checked with Twilight that you weren’t able to account for the time dilation.”

“I could, it just would have been waaaaay harder and we might’ve gotten all pukey when we landed and I’d just ate and really, accounting for all those varying weak forces is a lot to keep in your mind at once and-”

“Thanks Di! We’re good!” Iris said, hiking along.

She looked over at Ashley. “Want some help with that thing?”

“Thanks,” Ashley said, sweating under her load. While their Elements weren’t that heavy, the sturdy case provided also had some magical seals. Hauling it to a car is one thing. The six mile hike was quite another.

Lowering the box down, Ashley waited for Iris to take the other handle. Iris lifted, and with the weight divided, Ashley’s arm relaxed a bit.

“Much better,” Ashley said. “Thanks again.”

“No prob,” Iris grunted.

“At least our calves will look fabulous,” Keiko commented. “I mean, who’d have thought we’d be doing all this walking?”

“It’s tradition,” Aurora said.

“Hm?” Keiko asked.

“We just went on an epic quest. Those tend to happen on foot.”

“Like Lord of the Rings?” Nova asked.

“Yeah!” Iris said. “Only, they had that pony for like, ten seconds. We had ours for a few days, but... I guess they didn’t count.”

The girls laughed as the gas station came into view. Inside, they borrowed the store phone and called to home, to work, to family and found out just how much they’d changed while they’d been gone.
~
Aurora bumped the door shut with her hip. Inside the living room, Iris was sprawled on the couch, slamming at the controls on her console.

“Hey ‘Ro,” Iris said without looking away.

Aurora could see a pantsless leg covered by a sock dangling off one side of the plush green couch she and Iris had bought to commemorate their moving in together. Sighing, Aurora put her satchel down and walked into the kitchen rather than come around and find Iris in just a t-shirt and socks. Again.

Aurora was more easygoing than she used to be, but Iris was very... Comfortable with her body in a way her roommate wasn’t. Aurora hadn’t said anything about it. She didn’t really mind it. She thought it more a charming quirk than anything else. At least, that’s what she told herself in the name of compromise.

“Hey Iris,” she responded.

In the kitchen, she poked around, seeing what was in the fridge for a snack before she settled down to further work on her thesis.

The girls had moved in together three months after what had happened with the ponies and Equestria. It would have been two, but they practically lost a month explaining where they’d been to police, institutional care, their parents, the whole nine yards. Not that they expected anyone to believe them.

So, they stuck to the absolute basic facts. They’d met each other thanks to a mutual acquaintance and then were called upon by said mutual acquaintance to assist with a matter which had taken them away for the better part of two weeks.

No, they had no idea what their cars were doing in the middle of nowhere. Yes, they took private transport. No, they don’t remember what because it was private. Yes, they tried to contact friends and family, but were so caught up in what was going on, they couldn’t get to anyone.

Lots of questions, and very few answers. And many times, with the same spread hands and earnest smile the girls each said, “I’d tell you more, but you probably wouldn’t believe me.”

Eventually, everyone gave up. Six girls had lost a few days and come back. Nobody was dead. Nobody was richer. They might as well have gone to Vegas; it made about as much difference. The police stopped calling, professors assigned make-up work, and Iris was even given a clean bill of mental health as she’d clearly just been under a lot of stress.

During the explanations, Aurora found out that she and Iris went to the same college. Working with her parents, Aurora got some off-campus housing. Then, working with Iris’s sponsor and her own scholarship program, Aurora was able to secure funds for a simple apartment a few blocks from campus for a not-unreasonable price. All the girls often met there as it was more central than Keiko’s apartment or Ashley’s farmhouse. Not that they didn’t visit those places as well.

Unsurprising to all save Aurora, who was cherishing each phone call, shared text, Facebook message and contact, the girls all remained steady friends, regularly spending time with one another. They had movie nights, a soon-to-be monthly sleepover where they got in serious “girl time” and Aurora even managed to convince everyone to give Dungeons and Dragons a try. Though they’d never seen each other before, thanks to those ponies, they felt like now they had friends for life.

Such connections weren’t the only souvenirs from their adventures.

Aurora and Iris kept an eye on the Elements by having the case masquerade as a steamer-trunk coffee table. Keiko, now known in the fashion circuit as “Rarity Jewele” had debuted a few modified dresses the girls remembered from their pony lives. Ashley had started yielding a fifty percent increase in produce since enacting Applejack’s recommendations. Nova gained a reputation for handling the fiercest of animals with the gentlest touch. Diane started her own online party planning business, touting her specialty of kids’ events.

Beyond such changes, life went on.

“Nova called,” Iris said. “She and Di are good for the Changeling game on Friday.”

“Oooo, good!” Aurora grinned. “I love when Diane runs. She has such a well-developed understanding of the world and its mechanics!”

“Uh huh,” Iris responded. “So, while you’re doing that, AJ’s gonna help me with some sprints. Throw in some obstacle courses, you know?”

“Sounds good to me.”

Iris had come back from Equestria an even more determined athlete, but now she appeared to have quietly acquired other aspirations. Aurora hadn’t missed the Air Force brochures laying on the counter or next to the mail. She never said anything though. She knew how Iris was.

“How’s the game going?” Aurora said, instead.

“I will conquer this level or...” Her jet exploded on screen. Iris sighed. “Die trying.”

“Good luck. And I know that pantsless helps but if you could...?”

“Hm? Oh. Yeah, I’ll go put some boxers on.”

Aurora smiled. “Thanks.”

Studies, paperwork, dinner all came and went. Aurora read in a chair as Iris played a new game. Late night came and Aurora placed her bookmark.

“I’m done,” Aurora said.

“Kay,” Iris replied. “You wanna do something together later on?”

“I can run time trials for you, if you’d like,” Aurora said.

“Ooooor, we could go to the library and you can show me some more cool books,” Iris said with a grin.

Aurora smiled at her friend. “I’d like that.”

“Figured you would. ‘Night ‘Ro.”

“Goodnight, Iris.”

In her bedroom, Aurora placed the book on her bedside table and undressed. Once she’d changed into her PJs, she went to brush her teeth. No phantom limb anymore. Especially since she now knew it was phantom magic horn.

In bed, she confirmed her alarm was set then fumbled around for her phone.

“Where is it?” she mumbled.

Drumming her fingers on her bedside table, she thought hard on it. She thought she left it on her bed after she took it out of her purse...

She felt a bump against her drumming fingers and looked over to see the phone was right there.

Oh. She must have... Not noticed it in the low light. Of course.

As she picked it up and dialed in her back-up alarm, she recalled how she hadn’t seen it on her bedside table.

She stared at her phone.

“Definitely the low light,” she said.

Once the phone was in easy reach, she lay down with a yawn.

Her mind must have been playing tricks on her. That was all. She rolled over and waved her hand near the lamp’s on/off switch. Unseen, a small spark of purple just beyond her fingers wrapped the switch and turned the lamp off.

Just my mind playing tricks... she thought, groggily.

Aurora drifted off to sleep, unaware that inside the steamer trunk in the living room, the amethyst jewel atop her tiara sparkled.

Epilogue

After the humans teleported, there had been a soft moment where everypony stood in appreciation of who had just left. Then, Twilight nodded to her princesses. With a brief bow, she and her friends took their leave, speaking softly amongst them about how much they would miss their human companions and extolling their virtues.

Once they’d left, Cadance requested leave to relieve her husband, who’d been too overwhelmed with official duties and paperwork to actually enjoy the recent festivities. Celestia and Luna gave their permission and returned to their own charges.

Later that evening, after Luna had raised the moon and Celestia was getting close to her royal bedtime, the sisters of Day and Night sat out on the Royal Balcony, sipping tea and enjoying Luna’s stars. She was especially proud of the arrangement tonight.

“Do you think it wise, my sister?” Luna asked.

As talk had been nothing inconsequential for some time, Celestia divined fairly quick what Luna’s focus was.

“What harm could come in spreading Harmony to a new land, dear Luna?”

“Well put.” She sipped her tea, contemplative. “If only they hadn’t come from such a magicless world, we might more easily create a bridge to allow them and their kind further access to our own.”

Celestia added more golden honey to her tea, stirring it in.

“I do not think the world they come from is magicless, my dear sister. It is merely a land without our magic. Humans have their own, all the same, and now we’ve just sent a little of ours to let it mix. A diplomatic offering, if you will. If it doesn’t work out, I’m sure it will find its own way back,” she said, licking the spoon.

“You speak as if you know this world well...” Luna said, eyebrows raising in suspicion. “I thought the outer realms were of my vigil.”

“Now sister,” Celestia said with a flourish of the utensil. “You know I sometimes keep my own council. It wouldn’t do for you to know all my secrets.”

Luna snorted, a crooked smile on her face.

“Now. Come Lulu. It has been too long and though we have celebrated, we haven’t relaxed.”

Luna’s eyes narrowed in delighted mischief.

“You’re going down, Tia. I’ve been practicing.”

Celestia met Luna’s expression with a challenging, sisterly grin.

“Until you can guard your cumulus better, Lulu,” Celestia said in mock haughtiness. “I will always be the superior Battleclouds player.”

“Oh we’ll see about that!” Luna challenged, finishing off her tea in a quick gulp. She trotted quickly inside, going directly for the Royal Gaming Suite.

Celestia laughed softly and raised the last of her tea to her lips as she gazed to the heavens. She marked a star, one she had marked some time ago and grinned.

“You were right, Sitara, as usual. Perhaps it is time Equestria came out of the shadows.”

She drained her cup.

“Besides,” she went on, treating the star as attentive. “There is more than one way to cast a spell. While your world is spoken for, I think I’ll try a different route for another. It’s very similar, and I stumbled on it entirely by accident.”

Rising, she worked the kinks out of her legs. She was getting old. Yet, she had work to do. So much going on.

“But we’ll just have to see, won’t we?”

Celestia smiled into the night as if listening to an answer before going inside. She answered delightedly to Luna’s beckoning calls of challenge and gameplay to commence, picking up her pace to go and unwind with her sister before bed.

Back in the night sky, the star Celestia had given to Aurora’s grandmother, Sitara Persaud, many years ago twinkled in response- merry, alive and bright.

Author's Note

Welcome to The End. Of this story at least. While Aurora and her friends could certainly have more tales to tell, I think I'll leave them be and let them recuperate. It's been a busy few days after all.

As is customary, thanks are in order. First and foremost, I thank my stalwart editor and partner, Jess, who sees me through my own cleverness and inability to grasp when a scene should be cut. This endeavor would not have shone even a tenth as much without her input and practiced eye. I love you so much, dear. Now we can both have that drink.

Next, my thanks to the fine folks of Fimfiction who keep the site running and give me and my ilk realty to create upon. This is the most topnotch writing corner of the internet I have ever found, folks. I love every tool I have had at my disposal and a few I didn't even know I needed. Thank you.

And last, you. Yes, you: the readers, the commentators, the fans. Thanks to those of you who got on in the beginning, those of you who wandered in during the middle and even you just in after all this is said and done. Thank you. I wouldn't have the hits and the support and the fun I had without you (nor the spot in the "Needs More Love" Group, which is a thank you note unto itself).

I hope this ending finds you well, or at least well entertained. Until my next long tale, pleasant dreams.

~Nanashi