//------------------------------//
// With a Little Help from my Friends 
// Story: Rebirth of Magic: In the Mists 
// by JimmyHook19 
//------------------------------//

I looked in amazement, my mouth agape. Sunny and Izzy were here? And not only that, Sunny knew both who I was and my name?

This is perfect! Truly there is good in the universe!

No, seriously, this was fantastic news. Not only did I know where and when I was, I also knew that I had friends! Well, I'd known from the start that I was at some point well before Make your Mark, but if I recalled correctly Sunny and Izzy arrived the night of the Royal Celebration! Or maybe not, as Queen Haven had said something about it being in a week or words to that effect. Still, it was a close enough benchmark for what I needed to know.

It was in that moment I noticed that Izzy had resumed speaking. "You took the words out of my mouth," she said. "It's great to have another unicorn here! You have no idea how lonely it can be to be the solo unicorn in the group."

That left me feeling a bit down. I knew Izzy was probably pretty lonely, so we should probably clean things up a bit and start on a clean slate. "So, uh, what's it like without magic?"

"It could be worse," Izzy admitted, hopping on a nearby chair. "It's a good thing I learned how to use my hooves to do things, or else I'd be as lethargic as the other unicorns back in Bridlewood. You know what I mean, right?"

"Well, no actually," I answered. I might as well come clean about where I was from. It would save us so much trouble in the long run. "I'm not from Bridlewood. I've never even been there!" I chuckled nervously, hoping it would ease the tension a bit.

Izzy frowned. "Oh." Then her face brightened. "Then you must be from one of the other unicorn settlements! I've always wanted to see the towers of Vanhoover, or the fields of Whinnyeapolis! Can you tell me about them?"

"I'm not from either of those places," I answered again. I couldn't say to them just yet that I was a former human. If I claimed I was from another world that had two legged things wandering about and that some of them watched this world as a TV show, they would think I was completely crazy.

Then again, I wasn't the most subtle of ponies in the room, either. My social awkwardness was probably setting off a lot of alarm bells. "But I can tell you about something else."

This raised Sunny's eyes. "Namely?"

I stepped closer. "Magic."

"Bing bong!" Izzy said suddenly, whilst still in her chair. "Just checking. After all, you never know who's listening."

I assumed Izzy was just being... well, Izzy, and continued with my message. "There seems to be this thing relating to the crystals and doing another thing related to them. I didn't really understand what any of it meant when it was explained to me, but I think it's important to the world or something like that."

"Let me guess; Opaline told you this?" Sunny asked suddenly.

I blinked in surprise. "You know Opaline?" Truth be told, I had begun to have my suspicions about Sunny. Her knowing my name without having any prior experience of me at this point was a bit of a giveaway, but guessing Opaline was giving me information? There was no logical way she could have known that unless she was, like me, a human! Or former human, I guess.

And if she was a former human, perhaps Izzy was one too? Was everypony in Equestria a former human?

This is all getting too ridiculous for words!

To try and ease the tension a bit, Sunny spoke up. "Fancy watching a movie? I suspect we'll be in this cell a while, and I noticed there's a selection of Blu-Ray disks over there."

"I took a look through them before you came here," I replied. "If there's anything that takes your fancy, go ahead. I didn't find anything that particularly grabbed me.

Izzy turned on the chair whilst myself and Sunny looked back through the disks. Watching Sunny's reactions to the films was interesting. Watching her face switch from initial interest to excitement to disgust to annoyance in rapid succession was quite something to behold.

"Earth ponies blowing things up... Earth ponies building machines and blowing things up... unicorns frying brains... unicorns reading minds to figure out how to fry brains... earth ponies and unicorns allying to blow things up and fry brains... wow. Talk about offensive."

I shrugged. "They're playing into stereotypes."

"Yikes," Sunny said. "They sure don't like the other species here."

"It seems that the propaganda is baked into every aspect of their society," I replied. "Like this one about a unicorn flooding the world in mayonnaise!"

"Bing bong!" Izzy said quickly.

We both wheeled around at that in surprise. "I thought you weren't affected by those," Sunny said.

"Just checking," Izzy said. "What surprises me more is that Misty didn't react. Are you from another part of unicorn territory?"

"You could say that," I answered. I was pretty certain we'd already had this bit of the conversation, but then again maybe I was wrong.

Just then, my ears pricked up as a figure came trotting down the corridor. "Guys, get down," I said. "I think a security guard is coming. Pretend we're doing nothing particularly interesting and they'll probably go away."

But it wasn't a security guard who stopped at the gates. It was Zipp! That was a surprise. I had no reason to think she'd come down here.

Zipp looked at us, holding a book and looking very concerned. "You three, we need to talk," she said. We then talked for a bit about magic related stuff, and the confirmation that the other three were transformed humans meant I finally felt confident enough to come out about being one too. Well, that was a weight off my chest, even if the situation continued to get even more ridiculous. What are the odds four former humans happen to end up in the same space at the same time? I thought that sort of thing only happened in fanfiction.

Unfortunately, Pipp chose that moment to enter. I dropped out of the conversation and hid for a bit whilst Pipp, Zipp, Sunny, and Izzy all discussed the facts of flying (or rather the lack thereof). Thankfully, she eventually went away. I had no clue if Pipp was a former human, but based on our limited interactions I suspected she wasn't. I mean, surely if she knew the outcome of the story she wouldn't be this hostile towards us, right?

Zipp speaking again convinced me to move forward to the bars again. "Right," she said. "I've got some stuff I want to check with you guys, but we can't really do it in here with you behind bars."

"Got any other ideas?" Sunny asked. "I'd rather not be stuck behind some walls and bars."

"Nopony would," Izzy added.

"Of course," Zipp replied. "That's why I'm going to apply some leverage."

After she had left, something rather surprising happened. There was a loud rumbling sound, and I felt a blast of pain in my stomach- probably heartburn. I dropped back and tried to avoid being awkward, but that was rather difficult. Sometimes it sucks being a bit of a klutz. "Sorry. I haven't eaten in a really long time. I'm actually really hungry!" This was true. The last meal I'd eaten was when I'd been on my way here, and that was probably more than 24 hours ago.

Izzy's face shifted to one of concern, as if to say 'you poor thing', although she didn't actually say those words. Suddenly, a microwave appeared in front of her and she looked at me. "Well?" she asked. "What would you like to eat?"

Suddenly, different food items began appearing on the floor. I had no idea where she had gotten all of them from. In fact, both them and the microwave seemed to have appeared from thin air. My eyes went wide at the level of choice on offer. "I don't know where to start!"

Izzy grinned. "Fancy something, Sunny? I'll gladly put on something for the three of us."

Sunny looked at the options. "Izzy, how did you get three frozen hayburgers here? And why do you have three?"

"On the off chance that I needed to cook quickly for three ponies," Izzy answered. "And as there are three of us here, that's perfect! Would you like burger sauce or mustard on those?"

After a few minutes of preparation, the three of us shared our first ever meal together. Firstly, the food tasted far better than I imagined it would- I'd always thought hay would taste pretty boring, but this seemed to be spiced. The sauces were brilliant, though I suspect a lot of it ended up going in my mane.

Not that it mattered. It wasn't as if this was a formal dinner, right?