> The Last Crusade
>  by CyborgSamurai
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> MMPD
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Last Crusade



by CyborgSamurai



Chapter 1: 


MMPD



Home.

Boy, is that a loaded word. Just saying it out loud immediately puts a picture in your head, doesn’t it? Sights, smells, items, memories, friends, families, events, thoughts, hopes, dreams, desires... a million things all neatly tied up and presented in a succinct little package. Abuela would no doubt comment on how American that whole idea seems. I don’t see how America has anything to do with it, but you learn to keep your opinions to yourself after a few smacks upside the head.

I’ve always thought that home meant something a little different to everybody. I can certainly see why most people associate it with a location, but for me, the importance of ‘home’ has always been in the people that care about you.

Which is why I can say that, despite all that’s happened, I've never lost my home.

Ah, but where are my manners? Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Magellan Guillermo Raimundo. Yes, that’s my actual name, both my grandfathers demanded that my parents’ first son be named after them, and they flipped a coin to see who got my first and middle names. No, you did not kill my father; you needn’t prepare to die. Yes, I’m Spanish and I speak the language fluently. No, I won’t teach you any curse words. Yes, the accent is real, my grandparents are first generation immigrants and they babysat my sister and I when we were kids. No, I don’t know any good Spanish recipes because I’m a terrible cook. I’ve literally managed to set juice on fire, as my mother will tell you if she’s known you for longer than five minutes. Yes, I’m aware that I’ve been described as a ‘pretty boy.’ No, I’m not interested in a relationship right now. I’m sorry to dash your dreams of living la vida loca on the rocks.

Have we gotten that out of our systems?

Good.

Call me Mage.

Pretty cool, huh? My parents gave me the nickname to save me from grief in school, and the attempt was successful for the most part. Sure, I still had to endure the usual snickering and occasional jibes that came with the first day when the teacher belted out my full name, but a simple correction and confirmation were enough to set the record straight. Things became even cooler when I learned that a ‘Mage’ was a spellcaster class in a ton of video games, so needless to say, I took to them like white on rice. 

It was actually this eclectic interest that led me to meeting the three best friends I’ve ever had, although video games weren’t what first drew us together. The initial novelty was that we all shared a birthday, and this coincidence led to us always holding our birthday parties together. Our friendship took off after that, and even though this tradition had become an inconvenience for me in recent years, I still felt the need to honor it.

And it was a good thing I did, too, for it was on that day, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of our births, that our world changed forever.

Nostalgia hit me like a tidal wave as I drove back into my hometown for the first time in months. It was May 1st, 2020, and winter this year had been late in making way for spring. The snow had only just finally melted, there was still a chill in the air, and the trees hadn’t gotten the memo that they were supposed to be sprouting leaves. I didn’t mind living in the north for the most part, but it was years like this that made me secretly wish I lived somewhere warmer.

The town itself looked the exact same as always, which is to say, sleepy, outdated, and in sore need of a paint job. I’ve nothing against my home, as I believe hating the place you grew up in is akin to hating a part of yourself, but there isn’t much opportunity here if you aren’t a farmer. Seeing as I’m not exactly the farming type, I left for college immediately after high school.

I passed by my familiar haunts without a second glance and continued out of town into the country. My family lived in town, but was currently away on a trip. A smattering of phone calls throughout the day assured me I was remembered on my special day, though, so I was only a little saddened at not seeing any of them.

I turned off onto a familiar dirt road, made my way past acres of dormant farmland and swampy forest and pulled into the driveway of a brown split-level house with three parked cars outside. Sure enough, I was the last one there. Then again, I had the farthest to drive. I’d gotten a job in the city at a local IT firm once I’d gotten my degree, and while it wasn’t what I'd call glamorous, it paid the bills and allowed me to live on my own. I’d always had a streak of independence along with a fierce desire to prove myself, which caused me to push myself harder than my peers. Certain individuals have commented that this tendency has made me a ‘high-strung neurotic perfectionist,’ but the aforementioned individuals didn’t have degrees, apartments, or a steady career.

I stepped out of my car and let the sharp, unpolluted air of the country force its way down my lungs with only the barest of breaths. I'd always be a city boy at heart, but there are just some things you can’t beat about the country. I stood there and just breathed for a few seconds before going to the back seat and pulled out three separate wrapped parcels. Taking care to balance them, I went to the door and let myself in without knocking.

“Get out! We’re armed and drunk!”

I didn’t even bat an eyelash. I hummed to myself as I took off my shoes and hung up my coat on the wall. The house was warm. It smelled like cigarette smoke and pizza, and the sounds of a video game could be heard from up the stairs. 

A solid, blonde-haired man wearing a stained wife beater and ripped jeans appeared. He was holding a open beer in one hand, a pistol of some kind in the other, and a lit cigarette in his mouth. He made a show of staggering and trying to cock the weapon before pointing it at me.

“Now look ‘ere, I dun care wut’cher shellin’, you can take that mochaccino face of yoursh and hop it back over the border!”

I calmly walked up the stairs. “Dylan, you did this last year. I’m pretty sure that’s even the same shirt.”

Dylan. The jokester and daredevil of the group. He’s one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet, but his impulsiveness and cheesy sense of humor is best taken in small doses. His short fuse and stubborn streak leave something to be desired, too, but there’s something to be said about being friends with a guy who’s not afraid to get his hands dirty.

A smirk crept up on Dylan’s face. He lowered the fake gun and took a swig of his beer before stepping back to let me in. “This is a new shirt, thank you very much. Do you have any idea how hard it is to make these stains permanent?”

“You’re a regular Michelangelo,” I deadpanned. I saw that there was a small pile of presents sitting on the kitchen table. I went over and added mine before coming back to give him a hug.

“Oy, Dylan!” A new voice yelled from the living room. “Get your ass back here so I can finish kicking it!”

The speaker was a lanky, black-haired man in a set of worn work clothes. He was sitting on the couch while holding a video game controller in his hands, and none too happy that the word ‘PAUSE’ was flashing in the middle of the TV screen.

Dylan took a lazy drag from his cigarette. “Cool your jets, Mike. I’ll finish spanking you when I’m good and ready.”

Mike. Probably the most laid back guy you’ll ever meet. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been close to freaking out about something only to have him pull me aside and calm me down. Too bad that all goes out the window when you tap into his competitive side. Dylan has always had a knack for doing this, and if I had a nickel for the amount of petty squabbles those two have had, I could pay off my student loans.

Mike gestured to the TV. “You used Mage as an excuse to pause RIGHT when I was about to get a ring out on you! Now you’re gonna know what’s coming and block it!”

Dylan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, because I knew you were gonna start a combo on me when he walked in through the door. Excuse me for wanting to say hi to the guy we haven’t seen for a whole year!”

I frowned. “What? It hasn’t been a year. You guys saw me at Christmas.”

“That was the Christmas before last, Mage.”

A brown-haired man in a blue shirt and jeans walked out of the kitchen holding two steaming pizzas. He set them down on the coffee table before looking up at me. “We haven’t seen you since our last birthday party. Hi, by the way.”

I laughed sheepishly as I realized he was right. “Hi, Phil.”

Phil, Mike’s cousin. He’s one of those guys that everyone likes, but no one’s really sure why. He moved to the area back in middle school. He was actually a bully at first, but that was only because he’d been picked on at his other school and was trying to save face. He’s really quiet and has a tendency to obsess on things, but that sometimes leads him to spot things that others have missed... such as a house in good shape that goes in foreclosure, and the bank puts it on the market at a fraction of the price.

Phil smiled at me, then looked to Dylan and Mike, who'd just resumed their game. “Now that Mage’s here, you guys wanna do presents now, or wait until after food?”

The only response was the furious clicking of buttons and analog sticks. Mike’s brow was furrowed in concentration while Dylan was gritting his teeth. Suddenly, there was a loud death wail, followed by an announcer declaring, “K.O!”

Dylan fist pumped with a victorious cheer. “Aw, yeah! Tie breaker goes to me!” He stood up and began doing his traditional celebratory booty dance. 

“That wasn’t fair!” Mike protested loudly. “Mage interfered! I demand a rematch!”

“Hey, now.” I folded my arms. “Don’t go blaming this on me. It’s not my fault you suck.”

Mike gave me the stink eye. I stuck out my tongue in response. Dylan began raising the roof. We did this for all of three seconds before we burst out laughing. Hey, just because we were turning twenty-five didn’t mean we had to act like it. It was always like this, though, just bullshitting and giving each other harmless flak. There was something comforting about knowing that even though I hadn’t seen these guys for a while, I could just pick up right where I'd left off.

Phil waved his arms at us. “Hello? Serious question, guys! Food, or presents?”

Mike put down his controller and warily eyed the steaming pizza. “I don’t feel like burning my mouth. I say presents.”

“Agreed,” I said.

“Yeah, presents,” Dylan said.

“Excellent,” Dylan said in a deep voice as he rubbed his hands together. “Let the annual MMPD meeting for world domina—I mean, the super happy funtime birthday party extravaganza commence!”

MMPD. It was what we called ourselves. Not sure why, when, or even which one of us came up with it, but there it was. All of our parents and the majority of our graduating class knew of our little group name, and we’d made things like t-shirts and ID cards that had the abbreviation proudly emblazoned on them. Part of me felt a little bad at being a part of what essentially amounted to a clique, but never bad enough to do anything about it.

We all went over to the kitchen table to exchange gifts. You might think that we’d just go at it in a royal free-for-all, but we had an actual method to this. Every year we went through the letters of MMPD to decide who got to open presents first, and since Mike had gone first last year, I got to go first now.

“Go for it, Mage.” Phil handed me a small box wrapped in blue paper.

I tore apart the paper and gasped as I beheld my bounty. It was a box of small bottles the size of five hour energy drinks. I checked the side of the box to make sure it was what I thought it was.

Flatline® Dietary Supplement: Über Tryhard!

Flatline® Über Tryhard™ is the pinnacle of Biochemistry technology specifically designed to make you burn fat in SECONDS! Guaranteed to keep you awake for days on end! Now in three delicious flavors!

WARNING: Contains caffeine comparable to five cups of the leading premium coffee. Do not exceed one bottle of Flatline® Über Tryhard™ within twenty four hours. Symptoms of caffeine overdose include excess energy, restlessness, nervousness, increased heartbeat, anxiety, sweating, and dizziness. Do not take if you are pregnant, nursing, under twelve years of age, are taking medication, have a medical condition, or are allergic to shellfish.

The others were all laughing now as I slowly looked up at Phil in awe. “I didn’t even know they still sold this!”

Phil was wearing a smug grin. “They don’t. I got it off Ebay.”

“Think of it as a memento,” Dylan said with a wink. “Though I doubt any of us could forget that weekend even if we tried.”

What he was referring to was—never mind. I couldn't do it justice if I tried. All you need to know is that we were each grounded for three months, no charges were filed, and we made the front page of the local paper.

I facepalmed. “If I’d known my dad had that much duct tape—”

“STOP,” said a chorus of three voices.

“You try to apologize every time it gets brought up.” Phil produced a paper bag and shoved the wrapping paper into it. “We were stupid teenagers, and stupid teenagers don’t read the warning labels on things. Now, when you use things in the way they’re supposed to be used, suddenly everything works out fine! I actually bought a second case of this stuff for when I get scheduled for a night shift. They work wonders.”

I looked over at him. I knew Phil’s work schedule was sporadic, but this was the first I’d heard of him having to pull all-nighters. “Do you have to do that often?”

Phil nodded. “I have to do one tonight, actually. I’ll be heading to work a little after midnight.”

I grimaced. That had to be murder on his sleep schedule. No wonder he wanted the good stuff.

“My turn!” Dylan handed me a long, narrow box about four feet long. I blinked several times as I stared at the package, then felt my heart skip a beat. 

“You didn’t.” I got goosebumps as I felt its weight.

Dylan put his elbows on the table and rested his chin in his hands. 

“Open that sucker up.”

It was with shaky hands that I complied. I carefully lifted the lid, and... okay, I admit it, I squealed like a little girl. A beautiful Spanish rapier rested within the box. The curved, complex hilt was pure white and swept around twice to form the hand-guard. The blade was an inch wide, a little over three feet long, and ended in a sharp, pointed tip. A golden metal scabbard rested beside the rapier that was engraved with, ‘MMPD Para Vida.’  

“Madre de Dios...” I reached in and took out the sword. The grip fit my hand perfectly, and was wrapped in black embossed leather. The balance was perfect, and the edge glinted dangerously as it caught the light. I took a few steps back from the table and inspected the blade. 

“Careful, Mage,” Dylan said quickly. “That’s the real deal. You could seriously mess someone up with that thing.”

I knew that the instant I saw it, but I appreciated him telling me all the same. I’d taken fencing lessons all throughout school, and the guys knew I’d always wished I could get a real rapier some day.

“I can’t believe it!” I set the weapon back in its box and did a happy little dance. “My own rapier! My own rapier! My own rapier!”

“Yes, Mage, your own rapier. You can finally stop dropping not-so-subtle hints about it.” Dylan’s words didn’t match the smile on his face.

I stopped dancing as a huge surge of gratitude welled up inside me. I advanced on Dylan, and his eyes widened as he realized what I intended. He tried to get away, but I was too quick. I grabbed his head and kissed him on both cheeks.

Mwah! “Thank you!” Mwah! “Thank you!”

“Ack!” Dylan freed himself and pushed me away. The others roared with laughter while he wiped his face furiously. “Bad Mage! We’ve talked about this!”

I hummed a merry tune and went back to my seat. Hey, I didn’t know that wasn’t an American custom until I went to grade school. Some things just kinda stick with you.

“If you two are done making out,” Phil said with a snort, “there’s one more present to open.”

I looked to Mike, who was holding a medium-sized box that looked heavier than the others. He nodded at the rapier before giving me the present. “This isn’t quite as grandiose as Dylan’s, but I know you’ll still like it.”

Still high on euphoria, I ripped through the paper to see what Mike had got me. Dylan and Phil both groaned as the gift was unveiled, but I let out a happy little exclamation: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, the Complete Box Collection on Blu-Ray.

I clapped my hands. “Awesome! Is this all the seasons?”

“Think so.” Mike reached over and looked at the back of the box. “There were five, right?”

“Yep,” I said. “Though I still can’t believe how they ended it.”

Did I mention I’m a brony? Yeah, I probably should’ve brought that up sooner. I got into the show in middle school, and the combination of animation, character development, plot, and over the top antics kept me hooked until the show finally ended. Speaking of the ending, boy did that come out of left field! Five seasons of friendship and happiness and love and they end it with Discord betraying everyone and making all the ponies disappear with some kind of curse? What the hell were the writers thinking?! Sure, every story has to have an ending, but to have it go out on such a dark note? It sparked a lot of controversy with the fandom, but the writers were adamant that that was how the show was gonna go out, so there wasn’t much that could be done. Everything leading up to the ending was good, though, so I wasn’t about to throw out the entire franchise just because of one episode.

And yes, I’d tried to get the guys into MLP several times, but alas, my attempts were met with... less than desirable results.

“What I can’t believe is how long you were into that show.” Phil glared at the box like it was made of something vile. “It’s bad enough you tried to get us to watch it. Just think of what would’ve happened if the rest of the school had found out!”

“Better not let your family see that, either,” Dylan said with a laugh. “They’ll think you’re a pedo.”

I sighed at the unfortunate truth. “At least I live alone now. I don’t have to worry about storing all my swag in Shmangie’s room anymore.”

“How’s she doing these days, by the way?” Mike asked. 

I smiled. “She got promoted at her job. She’s in charge of hiring employees for four states, now!”

Dylan whistled. “Go, Angie.”

Angelina Juanita Raimundo, my darling older sister. Shmangie to me, Angie to everyone else. We were being silly one day when we were young and started putting the ‘shm’ sound on everything we were saying. Suddenly, our names were hysterical. She and I had always been close, and one of the biggest things we’d always shared was MLP. We used to get up early together to watch the latest episodes, and we’d have endless debates on everything from best episode to best pony. Shmangie reminded me of Rarity in a lot of ways, which coincidentally was also her favorite pony. She'd even tried to get into the fashion industry at one point, but gave up after she found out how expensive the schooling would be.

“I really wish you guys had given it a shot.” I put the box set on the floor with the other gifts. “You really would’ve enjoyed it! We could’ve even gone to some of the conventions!”

There was a collective shudder from around the table. Dylan swept the wrapping paper together and crumpled it up into a ball. "I think I speak for the three of us when I say it’ll be a cold day in hell before we voluntarily have anything to do with your cartoon horses.”

A sly smirk crept up on my face. “So you’re saying I’d have to blackmail you? That can be arranged. I still have the video of the time you got drunk, put on one of your mom’s dresses, and did the macarena out in the middle of the street.”

Dylan went as white as the hilt of my new rapier. Mike and Phil failed to hold back their laughter as the memories of that particular night came back to them.

“You told me you got rid of that tape!” he hissed.

I was going to tease him more, but he did just get me a freaking sword, so I figured I'd be nice. 

“Relax,” I said.  “I’m just messing with you. I cracked the thing in half and burned it, which I got in trouble for, by the way, because the smell of burnt plastic tends to linger!”

Dylan visibly relaxed. Sure, he liked to do crazy stunts, but he also had a reputation to uphold as a tough guy. We gave him grief about it at times, but we’d never intentionally do anything to make him look bad.

“Welp, Mage’s done,” Phil’s eyes lit up.  “That means it’s my turn!”

“Yep,” I tossed him my gift. “Go nuts.”

The rest of the gift exchange lasted about twenty minutes. The others seemed to enjoy the respective computer parts I’d gotten them, but that was to be expected considering I’d flat out asked them what they wanted. I’ve never been a fan of trying to guess what other people want for presents, as there’s always a chance that you got something they didn’t like, or worse, got the right thing but it’s the wrong brand or something. It’s safer to ask the person exactly what they want, then go out and get it. Does it take out some of the fun? Yeah, but it’s an acceptable sacrifice in my book.

We went back to the living room to eat the pizza and play video games, aka our fallback when we didn’t have anything else to do. Yeah, it might seem boring, but back in school, if we weren’t talking about what new releases were coming out, it was trying to get unstuck in a current game. Video games weren’t all we did, of course. We all had our side interests, like me with ponies, but those weren’t things that we enjoyed as a group. We did the things that all kids do, like go to movies, camping and skiing retreats, an occasional trip to an amusement park, yadda, yadda, yadda. But if it was a regular Friday night with nothing else going on, we’d load up junk food and caffeine, rent a few video games, and play them all throughout the night. 

Things were pretty much the same now, except we had alcohol now instead of caffeine.

I plopped down on the couch to watch Phil and Dylan play a cooperative game. I finished off my slice of pizza and made to reach for another, but some smartass had moved the pan over to the far end of the coffee table. I looked over at Mike, who was sitting next to me looking at the TV with a curious blank stare.

“Hey, Mike,” I said. “Pass me the pizza.”

Mike didn’t reply. He just sat there with an unfocused look in his eyes.

I cocked my head. Was he out of it or something? Maybe he just didn’t hear me.

“Mike, I want more pizza. Slide the pan back over here, please.”

Still no reply. His mouth was hanging slightly open, his breathing was slow and shallow. Dylan stopped playing the game and looked back at us.

Okay, now I was getting annoyed. I poked his shoulder and spoke in his ear. “Helloooo! Earth to Mike! Anybody home?”

Mike jumped. "Wha?" He leaned away from me and shook his head clear. "Oh, sorry, Sweetie. Guess I’m more tired than I thought.”

I raised an eyebrow. Sweetie? Sure, we were close, but we weren’t that close! Damn, he really was tired if he was making Freudian slips like that.

“Did you just call him Sweetie?” Dylan looked between us with his lips slightly parted. “Is there something you two would like to tell us?”

Now, most people don’t know this, but I have a hidden flair for dramatics. I was in the drama club for the majority of high school, and while I normally keep that side of my life on the down low, there are times when an opportunity is simply too good to pass up.

“Yes, Dylan! I admit it!" I put an arm around Mike and put my hand to my forehead. "Mike and I are secret lovers! Oh, you’ve no idea how hard it’s been hiding our love away from the world, sneaking around to each other’s homes in the dead of night, whispering sweet, passionate nothings in each other’s ears when no one is looking! No longer! Today, with you and Phil as witnesses, I hereby announce our love to the heavens! May all who disapprove of our union be cast down onto the rocks! Come, Michael my dear, let us retreat to the bedroom and do wild, depraved things to one another!”

Dylan gave me a slow golf clap. Phil glanced at us out of the corner of his eye, then went back to the game. Mike, to his credit, didn’t shy away or say a thing throughout my entire speech. As soon as it was done, though, he took a slice of pizza and smushed it in my face.

“Sometimes I wonder about you.” He removed my arm and moved to the other side of the couch.

I let the pizza hang on my face for a few seconds before taking it off and licking my lips. “Hey, you asked for it.”

“I said I was tired,” Mike defended. “Was a long day at work today, and I have to get up early again tomorrow.”

A large part of me wanted to scream at him that he wouldn’t have to work so hard for crappy pay if he’d gone to college with me, but I wisely decided to keep quiet. It was no secret that I disapproved of all three of the guys’ life choices, but I wasn’t about to ruin the party by getting into a shouting match with them about it... again.

“I’m pretty tired, too,” Dylan said with a yawn. “I spaced out for like five minutes in the grocery store today and pissed off a bunch of customers. Lucky my manager was on break or I woulda got chewed out.”

“Dylan!” Phil said. “We’re in the middle of a game!”

“Ugh.” Dylan pulled out a new cigarette and lit it up. “You guys are so impatient.”

Phil and Dylan finished their game, then Mike pulled out a classic four player one that we all enjoyed. The hours flew by in a happy blur of playing and joking, and I found myself drinking more and more as the night went on. I normally don’t indulge, but it was my birthday and I had nowhere else to be. Dylan joined me in the binge, but Mike and Phil abstained due to having to work the next day. The night whittled away, and I found myself content to just sit on the couch and enjoy the company of my friends in an alcoholic haze.

“Seven was the best game of the series hands down,” Mike said flatly. “Great plot, great characters, amazing gameplay, and the graphics were ahead of its time! There is no discussion on this; your argument is invalid.”

“Ohhhh, please.” I found it impressive that the slur in Dylan’s voice now was identical to the fake one he’d had when I arrived. I’m not sure what it said about him that he was able to mimic it so well. “Sheven had good graphics?! The charactersh had freakin’ blocks for hands! I could make better modelsh if my own hands were blocks!”

“I’ll take blocky models over piss-poor gameplay any day,” Mike retorted. “You can stand on your soapbox and defend Nine all you want, but I’ll never understand what you see in it.”

Dylan finished his current beer and let out an impressive belch. “The pure aweshomeness that is Nine is beyond the capabilities of your shimple little mind to undershtand.”

“You’re both idiots,” Phil said. “Six is the best one of them all.”

“Shut up, Phil,” Mike and Dylan both said at once. They looked at each other and laughed.

“Mage, be the tie-breaker here.” Mike said to me. “Which game of the series is the best?”

It was times like this that I really missed. Sure, I’d made new friends in college and at work, but I’d never made the same kind of bond that I shared with these guys. Maybe it was because we’d known each other for so long, or it was the perfect mix of our personalities that made everything fit, but for whatever reason, something about the combination of the four of us just felt right. I always felt a strange kind of contentment when we were together, and it fervently made me wish that we hadn’t drifted apart so much after high school. Wasn’t like I could force them to come with me to college, though. They wanted to stay, I wanted to go, so that was the way things had to be.

“Mage?”

Why’d they have to stay? What was so appealing about this place that made them not want to leave? Okay, Mike had an excuse, seeing as his entire family were farmers and he wanted to help them out, but Phil and Dylan? I’d seen people that were dumber than both of them manage to scrape through with degrees! Was it the money? Sure, it was expensive, but the whole point of going to college is to get a job that pays well! Were they so short-sighted that they weren’t able to see that?!

“Ohhh, check out his eyelids, they’re totally drooping.”

“Heh, he alwaysh was a shleepy drunk.”

“Mike, lay him down on the couch. I don’t want him faceplanting on the coffee table.”

Was it me? Did I make a mistake in leaving? Was I supposed to stay in the area and work in retail for the rest of my life? I didn’t want that! I wanted to make something of myself! I wanted to go out! Broaden my horizons... and meet new people! I wanted... to share my talents... with the world!

I wanted... 

I wanted...


***


“Where are we going, Scootaloo?!” I yelled over the wind.

“I don’t know!” Scootaloo pumped her little wings even harder as she pulled the wagon filled with me and our fellow Cutie Mark Crusaders on her scooter. “Away!”

“You think we can outrun him?” I chanced a look back at the schoolhouse, and felt a chill as I didn’t see a single one of my schoolmates running out of it.

“Sure as hay gonna try!” Scootaloo replied through gritted teeth.

“Wait!” Apple Bloom said. “You’re goin’ the wrong way! We need to find Applejack and the others! Take us to Sweet Apple Acres!”

Scootaloo started to veer west, but I quickly spoke up. “NO! Rarity is closer! We should go to the Boutique first!”

“Make up your minds!” Scootaloo straightened out and continued the original direction we were going.

“What was that thing back there?!” Babs said.

“Discord.” I spat out the word like a curse. “My sister and the others beat him a while back with the Elements, but then they let him go or something because he promised he’d be nice!”

Babs shivered. “Sure didn’t seem nice to me.” 

“Don’t worry!” Apple Bloom patted her cousin’s shoulder. “My sis and the others already beat him once, they can do it again! All we gotta do is—”

A polka-dotted brick wall appeared in the middle of the road.

“AAAHHH!” Scootaloo swerved to avoid hitting the obstruction. She veered left and we went down an alleyway.

“Where is he?!” I looked all around.

“Dunno, but I don’t wanna find out!” Scootaloo blasted out of the alleyway and into another empty street. Carousel Boutique was now in sight, only a hundred yards away. If we could just get a little farther...

A patchwork monstrosity magically appeared in front of us with a crack like thunder. His long, serpentine body had the head of a pony, the body of a snake, and the tail of dragon. His claws, hooves, wings and antlers were of various other animals, and his yellow, mismatched eyes glowed with malevolence. He looked down at us with a mad, victorious grin, and spoke in a menacing voice that chilled me to the bone.

“And just where do you think you’re going?” Discord lazily snapped his fingers. The wagon and scooter turned into popcorn, and we all yelped as we were dumped unceremoniously onto the ground.

“Hmph, kids these days!” Discord haughtily raised his chin. “Here I go to the trouble of making a surprise appearance at your school, and you four have the gall to run out on me? For shame!”

“SCATTER!” I screamed. It wasn’t what I wanted to do, but it’s not like we stood a chance. Our only hope was to try and make him go after us one at a time. Maybe then one of us could get to the Element Bearers...

Apple Bloom ran to the left. Scootaloo went to the right. Babs ran down the street away from Discord, which meant I had no other choice. I took a deep breath and ran right at him, hoping against hope that I could run right between his legs.

“Aww, how cute. Futile, but cute.” Discord snapped his fingers again.

My vision went completely dark. I skidded to a halt and rubbed my eyes, but I couldn’t so much as see my hoof in front of my face. Cold dread crept up on me as I backpedaled away from where Discord had been.

“W-What did you do?!” I squeaked. I looked all around, but there was nothing but endless black. My breath quickened as my hackles rose.

There was a terrified scream to my left. I whirled around in a flash, but there was nopony there. Still, I’d heard the voice enough times to recognize its owner.

“APPLE BLOOM!” I began running blindly in that direction. She sounded close. She couldn’t be more than a dozen feet away from me. I flailed wildly in front of me to try and find her—

The scream was cut sickeningly short. My stomach fell out, and I strained my ears to see if I could hear anything more. I all heard was the sound of my own ragged gasps.

Another scream sounded to my right. It was farther away, but not far enough that I couldn’t tell who it was.

“SCOOTALOO!” I tried to get to her. I had no idea what I could do, or even what was happening, but I couldn’t just sit by and let my best friends get attacked. If there was anything within my power to try and keep my friends from harm, I would do it.

Scootaloo’s scream was cut off as well. An emptiness suddenly struck me, and even though I couldn’t see what’d happened, I knew that she was gone. My throat tightened as my heart hammered in my chest, and I made no effort to stem the tears that streamed down my cheeks.

A third scream sounded, this time directly behind me. My composure shattered into a million pieces. I started running straight ahead as fast as I could. Terror now had me in its iron grip, and my survival instincts were completely directing my actions.

Rarity’s home was straight ahead. 

Rarity’s home was safety. 

Get to Rarity, and everything would be all right.

Babs’ scream ended much like Apple Bloom’s and Scootaloo’s. I didn’t stop running. It was all I could do to keep from screaming myself. I heard nothing but the sounds of my own body. I felt nothing but the ground beneath my hooves. I saw—

My vision abruptly returned. I hadn’t moved so much as an inch during the whole time I was under the spell. Still looming over me like the reaper was Discord. Carousel Boutique was still a hundred yards away, but it may as well have been a hundred miles. Despair took me, and I hung my head and fell to my haunches.

“Not even going to try to fight, eh? Pfft, you're no fun.” Discord lifted me up in his magic and forced me to look into his horrifying eyes. “Tell me, did you enjoy hearing your friends being picked off one by one? That was a little darker than my usual modus operandi, but I've always been one for trying new things.”

Rage flared up inside me. I wished I knew how to shoot one of those cool magical rays I saw Twilight use once. I wished I could command the Sun to shoot down a pillar of light and fry him where he stood. I wished I could grab one of his limbs and fling him around Ponyville like a rag doll. I used all the strength I had to try and break his magical grip. 

I managed to wiggle my hooves.

Discord laughed. “So you do have some fight left! Not bad, not bad at all. Then again, I’d be surprised if the sister of Generosity didn’t have some resistance to my magic. Unfortunately, that resistance is why you have to go. I can’t have you swearing vengeance on me and trying to form a rebellion when you’re older.”

I didn’t know what he was talking about, but I didn’t care. My friends were gone. I’d failed to warn my sister. I was powerless to even save myself. I’d no idea what Discord was going to do me, but if the sadistic look in his eyes was any indication, it wasn’t going to be pleasant.

Discord flashed me a cruel grin. “If it's any consolation, it isn't anything personal. I’m simply doing this to cover my bases—oh, and to hurt your sister. Can’t forget that.”

Rarity. I wasn’t even going to get a chance to say goodbye. When was the last time I’d said I loved her? The last conversation we’d had was about me starting magic lessons. I could only hope that she knew how much I—

The door to Carousel Boutique opened. Rarity stepped out with a confused look on her face. She looked around, then glanced down the street. She froze as she saw Discord, and then her eyes drifted down to me. She saw the desperation in my eyes, and her confusion morphed into horror. She raced towards us as fast as she could.

Discord placed me in his lion’s paw. He then raised his eagle’s claw, which was glowing with purple light. 

“I can't wait to see the look on Fluttershy's face when I tell her I didn't even spare you four," he said. “By the way, you might want to brace yourself. If the screams of everyone else I’ve done this to are any indication, it hurts. A lot.”

Discord had his back turned. Rarity was halfway to us. Murder filled her eyes as a swath of razor-sharp diamonds appeared in her magic.

Discord tapped my nose with his eagle’s claw, and white hot agony lanced through my head. I let out a raw shriek of pain as the magic spread throughout my entire body. My limbs tried to seize up, but Discord’s magic kept me still. I felt myself shrinking, compacting, contorting, transforming. My mind turned to mush as the spell took hold.

Discord cackled and recited a chant in a powerful voice.


        For Five Score! Divided by Four!


        Your memories removed, your body confused!



        For your insolence you must pay,


        Cast off to a land far far away!



        To scatter the six, just the start of my tricks!


        Your mind shall be weak, your outlooks all bleak!



        Forget everything and live like a fool,


        You’ve lost, ponies! None can stop—


Rarity fired her salvo. It shot forth like a swarm of locusts and bludgeoned Discord with bone-breaking force. The diamonds then looped the diamonds around and enveloped us both in a magical cyclone of wrath. Discord dropped me to defend himself, and the last thing I heard was Rarity screaming my name as everything went dark.



***


I woke up with a mouth drier than a desert and a head full of pain. I immediately flinched and shut my eyes to block out the evil day-star's light that shone in through the windows. I covered my face with a pillow and took a moment to get my bearings.

Phil’s house. Birthday party. Presents. Video games. Drinking. Oh Celestia, drinking. Current issue: Light sensitivity, dehydration, headache the size of New Jersey. Shivering. Cold sweat. Tears? Diagnosis: Nightmare, followed by severe hangover. Recommended course of action: Ingest of copious amounts of water to alleviate symptoms. Proceed to bathroom for bodily maintenance.

I groaned and gingerly opened my eyes. The room wasn’t spinning, that was a good sign. I took a chance and slowly got to my feet. No signs of nausea, good! I might actually be able to do this. 

I wiped the tears away and looked around the living room. A glance at the clock told me it was almost ten, which meant Mike was at work and Phil should be getting home soon. I didn’t know where Dylan was; probably passed out in Phil’s spare bedroom. I made a note to ask him what happened last night later.

I entered the bathroom and spent the next ten minutes drinking water and addressing bodily functions. My headache gradually began to lessen, and I took a moment to think about the dream I’d had. 

Damn, that was surreal. Normally you don’t get any feedback from your senses in dreams, but in this one I’d felt everything, including all the bodily reactions to fear. Was this one of those night terrors I’d heard about? I thought only little kids got those! Should I tell someone about this?

I considered it for a moment, but decided that a single dream wasn’t enough cause for worry. If it became a recurring thing I might need to take some action, but it was probably just a bunch of random thoughts and memories that formed together in one big terrifying conglomeration. I’d get over it, and soon I wouldn’t even remember it's happened at all.

I took a look at myself in the mirror and cringed. I definitely needed a shower. I grabbed a spare towel from Phil’s linen closet and started to strip off my clothes.

Now, I say ‘started,’ because I never actually finished. I got my pants and boxers off, and when I glanced at my reflection in the mirror again, I saw something that made me stop in my tracks.

Sweetie Belle's cutie mark—a silver bell with a pink heart behind it—was stamped upon my thigh.
> Tattoos and Tempers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 2:


 Tattoos and Tempers




I stood there for a minute just staring at the cutie mark. It was vividly colored, the artwork exact down to the very last detail. No blurred colors or lines, no reddened skin, and it wasn’t tender at all when I poked it. The pink heart was stylized like the G3 one, with the silver bell hanging on a curled metal wire. I checked my other thigh, and sure enough the exact same mark was there, too.

My first reaction was shock, of course. You always think it’s funny when you see people getting drunk and waking up with tattoos in movies, but to actually have it happen to you? Not so much. I didn’t appreciate that the guys had let me go and get a tattoo when I was blasted, and to make matters worse, my inebriated mind had decided that the cutie mark of Sweetie Belle was a good choice? What the hell, brain, what the hell.

I took a washcloth and scrubbed at the mark. I didn’t really expect it to work, but I wanted to be thorough in what I tried. I’d have felt pretty stupid if I started panicking and it turned out it was just a slap-on tattoo you could get at the fair or something. Scrubbing at it didn’t work, though, so I put the washcloth away and just stared at it some more, as if I could just will the things to disappear. 

Nope, still there.

Crap.

I wanted answers on how this happened. I wanted to know why the guys didn’t stop me. I wanted some freaking aspirin for this stupid hangover. Most of all, though, I wanted that shower. I'd every intention of reaming out my friends, but I wasn’t going to do it while smelling like a hobo. Yes, clean up first, angry rant second.

Priorities are important.



***



I stepped out of the bathroom a half hour later with my towel slung over my shoulder. The shower had rejuvenated me, and the warm water had calmed my temper and cleared my mind. A semblance of rational thought had returned, and I realized that seeing as these tattoos didn’t hurt at all and there was no sign of irritation around them, they couldn’t have been done with a needle. They had to be some kind of special prank tattoos, which was exactly the kind of stupid crap Dylan invested in. All I had to do was get him to tell me how to remove the things and everything would be fine.

I found Dylan sprawled out on the twin bed in Phil’s spare bedroom. The pillow was wet from the copious amount of drool seeping out of his mouth. He hadn’t even bothered to pull the blankets over himself. I poked him in the small of the back and cleared my throat. 

“Hey, Dylan. Wake up.”

Dylan mumbled something unintelligible. He covered his head and curled up into the fetal position.

A smile tugged at my lips. It seemed that I wasn’t the only one who drank too much last night. I normally might’ve let him sleep, but I wasn’t in a gracious mood.

“Dylan!” I swatted him with my towel. “Get up! The prank’s over!”

“Keep your voice dowwwwwn.” Dylan’s voice was feeble and scratchy. He cracked open a bloodshot eye and stared blearily at me. “What are you on about?”

I lowered my voice to an icy whisper. “The little surprises you left me on my thighs last night, funny boy. Tell me how to get them off.”

“I wouldn’t touch your thighs if you paid me,” Dylan said as he gingerly sat up. “Well, mayyyyybe I would, but I warn you, I’m not a cheap date.”

“Cut the act!” I pulled down the side of my pants to show him the cutie mark. “I know you did this!”

Dylan’s eyes went wide. “Holy... is that a tattoo?!” He leaned in closer to get a better look. “When’d you—ugh, really? A pink heart and a bell? That’s like, the girliest thing you could possibly get.”

A sliver of doubt wormed its way into my mind. Being friends with a person for a long time means that you pick up on the things they mean, and not just the things they say. I watched him carefully as he squinted at the cutie mark, then looked up at me in bewilderment.

“When'd you get this?”

I didn’t reply at first. Instead I sat down on the bed and looked Dylan in the eye. 

“Be straight with me. What happened last night?”

Of course, Dylan could read me the same way. and the subtle tremor in my voice and tensed posture may as well have been flashing neon signs to him.

Dylan scratched his head. “I don’t really remember much. You fell asleep a little before midnight from drinking too much. Mike laid you down on the couch, and we played games until Phil had to go to work. Mike turned in after that, and I think I watched a movie or something before I came in here and crashed.”

I sucked on my teeth. That certainly sounded normal, but it didn’t account for a pair of tattoos suddenly appearing on my body. There had to be something more.

Dylan shifted uncomfortably on the bed. “Um, not to interrupt your impending freak out or anything, but can you gimme a sec? I really gotta pee.”

I sighed and dismissed him with a wave of my hand. He got up and bolted out of the room in a flash. I closed my eyes and massaged my temples as I heard the bathroom door slam. My headache had migrated to rest just behind my eyes, and I was starting to feel nauseous. I had to focus right now, though, so I did my best to ignore it. The last time I saw my lower body was when I’d taken a shower the previous day. During that time I’d gone to work, come straight here, and hung out with the guys all night. The only unaccounted for time period was when I was sleeping on the couch, which meant that I’d had to have gotten the tattoos then. If Dylan didn’t have anything to do with it, then it had to have been either Phil or Mike, and—

“AAAHHH!”

I opened my eyes. That had definitely come from Dylan. What, did he drop the toilet seat on his junk or something? I was about to get up and go check on him when I heard the bathroom door open. He walked back into the room, and before I could say anything, he turned and pulled down the side of his jeans. 

On his thigh was Scootaloo’s cutie mark: a pink and orange butterfly. Wait, scratch that, a hornet. No, wait, butterfly! Hornet! Butterfly! Hornet! Argh! It was hard to tell because it was so stylized! The fandom had had endless debates on what Scootaloo’s cutie mark was, and there were arguments for and against both parties. The G3 Scootaloo had a butterfly cutie mark, that much was certain, but the G4 version had curled antennae, a stinger, and gave off the impression of speed. Whoever did this tattoo must’ve been a diehard fan, though, because even I couldn’t tell what it was supposed to be.

“I’ve got the same thing on the other thigh.” Dylan gave me a level stare. “Neither of them were there yesterday.”

I clucked my tongue. “T’would appear we’ve been bamboozled.”

“By who, though?” Dylan leaned up against the wall. “Mike went to bed before me, and Phil had already gone to work. There’s no one else that could’ve done it.”

“Maybe it was some kind of delayed thing?” I knew I was grasping at straws, but I didn’t know what else to think. “You know more about practical joke stuff than I do. Is there a kind of ink that doesn’t show up for a few hours?”

Dylan chewed on his lip. “Yeah, but you still need to apply it directly to the skin. I’m pretty sure we would’ve felt someone putting something on me throughout the day yesterday.”

“Which means it had to have happened when we were both asleep,” I said. “And Phil was already gone at work, so...”

“So it had to have been Mike,” Dylan finished for me. “He pretended to go to bed, waited until I came in here, then inked us both. Damn, I’m actually kinda impressed.”

I tapped my right thigh.“What impresses me more is that he managed to get his hands on Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo tattoos. Not sure why he’d waste something MLP-related on you, but maybe they were on sale or something.”

“Wait, this is a pony thing?!” Dylan groaned. “Ugh, I’m not impressed anymore.”

I snickered. Truth be told, now that the initial shock had worn off my biggest gripe was that Mike hadn’t run this by me before doing it. I would’ve had some fun with them if he’d just given them to me. Now I’d have to go and buy my own. Maybe I could ask him what website he got them from.

Dylan reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette. “Alright, now that we’ve established the culprit, we need to decide how we wanna get back at him.”

I smirked evilly. “We could—”

Our diabolical plans were interrupted by the loud slam of the front door, followed by the angry roar of a fearsome beast.

“DYLAN! I’M GONNA KICK YOUR ASS!”

I felt my stomach tighten. I looked over at Dylan, who didn’t seem perturbed in the slightest. He lit his cigarette, took a long drag, then walked out the door. I followed suit, hoping that I could diffuse whatever the issue was.

Phil stomped up the stairs and turned to see us standing in the hallway. He zoned in on Dylan and put his hands on his hips. “What made you think giving me a tattoo in permanent marker was a good idea, huh?! Do you have any idea how hard it is to get off? I was trying all night and I couldn’t even make the colors bleed!”

Dylan stiffened. I gasped through clenched teeth. We both exchanged a glance before I spoke up.

“Uh, Phil, where exactly is this tattoo?”

Phil turned to his side and pulled down his pants. There on his thigh was Babs Seed’s cutie mark: a bisected apple with three seeds, two brown, one white. The skin around the marks was red and irritated, but that made sense if he’d been trying to wash them off.

“This is probably the most random thing you’ve ever done,” Phil said to Dylan. “I don’t even want to know why you thought it was a good idea to break into my house, but I—”

Phil’s tirade was ended prematurely by Dylan and I both showing him the colorful additions to our own bodies. His posture slackened and his mouth went agape.

“Buh?”

I couldn’t help but laugh a little, though it was partially due to relief that there wasn’t about to be an argument. The less shouting that happened right now, the faster my headache would go away.

“We think it was Mike,” Dylan said. “Well, it had to have been him, seeing as we both got ours when we were sleeping. When’d you notice yours?”

“Around three.” Phil went to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of apple juice. “I figured you’d snuck in here while I was sleeping yesterday afternoon and put it on me then. Guess that theory’s out the window.”

“Not necessarily,” I said. 

Dylan shot me a questioning look, but I held up a hand. “It’s possible Mike did exactly that. What time did he get here yesterday?”

Phil downed his glass and wiped his mouth. “Not long after I woke up, actually. I didn’t even hear his car pull in.”

“Does he have a key?” I asked.

Phil hesitated, then slowly lowered his head into a facepalm. 

“Yeah, he does.”

“There ya go.” I stroked a non-existent goatee. “Our little mystery has been solved.”

Phil rubbed the back of his head and smiled apologetically at Dylan. “My bad.”

“You can apologize by giving me some of that juice.” Dylan licked his lips. “I’m freaking parched.”

I took assessment of the situation while Phil got Dylan another glass. This was quite the scheme Mike had pulled, and it certainly had caught us all off-guard. I couldn’t really blame Phil for assuming that Dylan had done it, seeing as that’d been my first thought, too. It was going to take something big to top this, but between the three of us, I figured we could come up with something good.

I looked over at Phil. “Dylan and I were just about to start coming up with ideas on how we can get back at him. Anything come to mind?”

Phil shook his head. “He’s just gonna try and top it if we retaliate. All I wanna know is how to get these things off and be done with it.”

“Aww, that’s no fun!” Dylan finished off his glass and jutted out his lower lip. “Mike went through all the trouble of buying these tattoos, then sneaking around and carefully putting them on us! We owe it to him to get him back!”

I raised an eyebrow. “That would be what we call ‘twisted logic.’”

“No, it’s Dylan logic!” He stopped to think about that a second, then shrugged and put out his cigarette. “So yeah, basically the same thing.”

There was a jingling of keys as Phil swept his off of the counter. “Mike never answers his phone while he’s at work. I wanna know how to get these off before I go to bed, so I’m gonna go to Spades now.”

Spades was the local casino where Mike worked part-time as a valet. The rest of his time was dedicated to working for his family doing things like woodcutting, gardening, planting, harvesting, feeding animals... basically whatever they needed him to do. His hope was that he’d be able to scrape enough money together to get a farm of his own someday, but good land wasn’t cheap, and his family couldn’t afford to give him any. I’d warned him he was gonna be in for a hard time if he followed this path, but he’d insisted it was what he wanted to do.

“I guess I’ll come with you.” I looked over at Dylan. “Coming?”

Dylan mulled it over. He poured himself one more glass of juice, downed it, then slammed the glass down on the table with a grunt. “Exposure to lots of colors and noise with a hangover, yes! Hard mode, engage!”

I cringed. “Urgh, This is gonna suck.”

“I think he’s working hotel side today.” Phil said as he opened the door. “There isn’t much noise there.”

We made our way outside and over to Phil’s car. There was a brief dispute over who got shotgun, but a game of rock-paper-scissors left me sitting in the backseat. As we went on our way, I noticed both Dylan and Phil had let their hair grow out. It was halfway down their necks, which may not seem like much, but it was the longest I’d ever seen them have it. Phil’s hair was combed straight like usual, but Dylan’s was a disheveled mess. Their hair also seemed fuller somehow, maybe shinier? Nah. It had to just be a trick of the light.

The monotony of traveling caused my thoughts to wander back to the dream I’d had. I was surprised I still remembered most of it. Usually I only remembered vague flashes from my dreams, but this one I still could recall down to the letter. It certainly wasn’t anything like the show, well, maybe a little like the series finale, but I wouldn’t consider that a good thing. Discord had said something about the siblings of the Element Bearers being a possible threat to him, which made sense in a way. It was never explained what made each Bearer so perfect for their respective Elements, but I’d always thought it was a combination of genetics, culture, location, and upbringing. If that was true, then the siblings of the Bearers probably had some kind of connection, magic, or hidden power they could tap into. It probably wasn’t enough to wield the Elements, but it might be enough to cause problems for Discord.

“What are you humming back there, Mage?”

Phil’s voice snapped me out of my musings. I turned away from the window and saw his eyes focused on me in the rear view. “Huh? Oh, just random notes. You know how much I like the sound of my own voice.”

Phil snorted. “Remind me why you dropped out of choir again?”

I laughed bitterly. “Same reason Dylan dropped out of track, I imagine. The teacher was a jerk.”

“Objection!” Dylan raised his left hand in the air. “He and I were both jerks. He told me I didn’t have the stamina to do the four hundred meter dash, and I told him to go perform coitus with himself.”

The statement caused something to click in my mind. “So that’s why you had to scrape gum off the school bleachers every day after school for a week! I always wondered about that.”

“You shouldn’t have quit, Mage,” Phil said before I could get off topic. “You’ve always had a good singing voice. I remember you really enjoyed it in middle school.”

I felt a pang of guilt. There was a story there that I’d never told the guys about. I still didn’t want to tell them, but I knew Phil wasn’t gonna let it go. I let out a heavy sigh and tried to keep my voice neutral.

“I did, but I don’t appreciate being passed over for solos because my parents aren’t on the school board.”

When a guy whose voice sounds like a dying cat is given a solo not once, not twice, but three consecutive times, you know something fishy’s going on. My complaints fell on deaf ears, though, as did everyone else’s. I suppose I could’ve gone higher and told the district or something, but then I would’ve been the guy who raised a huge fuss that started an investigation or something.

“Say what?!” Dylan turned around to look at me. “You never told us about that!” 

I looked down at my hands. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. I didn’t know how deep the corruption ran, and it was hard juggling drama performances, choir concerts and fencing lessons. I wanted to have an open period so I could have a study hall, so I decided it was best to just wash my hands of the whole thing and move on. 

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Phil asked.

Because it was a really sore spot for me. Yes, I loved singing, yes, I was good at it, and yes, there was a time when I’d seriously thought about making it into a career, but the whole experience had seriously jaded my outlook for the future. If favoritism and bribery were already happening at the high school level, what was waiting for me higher up? It was better to recognize the problem and get out early before I either found myself stuck, or wound up just as dirty as the rest of them.

“I don't want to talk about it,” I said in a faint voice.

I expected Phil and Dylan to needle me or give me some kind of guilt trip following that, but strangely, it never came. The awkward silence caught me by surprise, and I looked up to see that both of them had honored my wish. Dylan had turned back around, and Phil had switched on the radio. I almost said something more, but pride kept my tongue at bay. I was forced to sleep in the bed I’d made, so I put my head against the window and fell into a light doze.



***



I’ve never liked casinos. They’re loud, they’re expensive, the cigarette smoke hangs in the air like a cancerous fog, and most of all, the games are completely and utterly boring. I can see why a lot of people are into them, but when you play video games that have you slaying eldritch monsters with mystical godlike powers on a regular basis, making a bunch of shapes line up together doesn’t do much for you. 

The casino was a massive complex. On top of having several game floors, it also housed a convention center, an arcade, a bowling alley, several restaurants, and other attractions just waiting to suck in the hapless tourist. One might think that finding Mike would be difficult in such a huge place, but we’d all been here several times before, and even if we hadn’t, all we’d need to do was flag down an employee, point to Phil and say, "family."

We pulled into the parking lot and went around to the hotel side. Dylan remarked that it’d be funny if we got Mike to park the car for us, and while I agreed, Phil pointed out that wasn’t what we were here for. We skimped out on the shenanigans and just went straight to the valet desk. We asked for Mike, who came walking out a minute later with a look of pleasant surprise.

Huh, Mike was letting his hair grow out, too. That... was weird.

“Hey, guys!” He smiled at us. “Here to do some gambling? I...”

His voice died when he saw our folded arms and unamused stares. Phil wasted no time in cutting to the chase.

“Very funny. Now tell us how to get them off.”

Mike cocked his head. “Get what off?”

“Don’t play dumb,” Phil snapped. “We know it was you.”

“You’ve really gotta learn how to cover your tracks,” Dylan said.

Mike’s lips parted and he squinted one of his eyes. “What are you guys talking about?”

I brushed my hair out of my face. “You were the only one in the house last night after Dylan and I went to bed. You're the only one who has a key to Phil’s place. There’s no one else it could’ve been, so just admit it already.”

Mike frowned. “If you’re going to accuse me of something, you need to tell me what it is so I can explain myself. Coming in here and getting in my face about whatever you think I did isn’t going to solve anything.”

Remember when I said Mike’s the most laid back guy you’ll ever meet? This is what I meant. Seeing him hold to that re-voiced the thought that pulling a prank like this was completely unlike him, and a new suspicion wormed its way into my mind. I needed somewhere to confirm it, though, so I started looking around for a private place. I found that there was a men’s room to our left.

“We’ll do better than tell you,” I said. “Follow me.”

I walked inside the bathroom. I was currently empty, which I was quite grateful for. I waited until the guys came in, then turned to my side and revealed my cutie mark.

“Did you do this?” I asked Mike calmly.

Mike blinked several times. He stared at it for a few seconds, then smacked his lips and gave a simple, decisive response.

“Nope.”

I gave Dylan a meaningful look. He got the hint and dropped trou.

“What about this?” I said.

Mike exhaled out his nose and rubbed his upper lip. “Nuh-uh.”

I gestured to Phil, who followed suit.

“And this?” 

Mike let out a low whistle. “All three of you? Damn, when’d you—wait, ‘tell us how to get them off?’ Oh, no, no, no. I didn’t have anything to do with this! What makes you think I did?”

“Hold on to that,” I said before Phil or Dylan could cut in. “I’ve one more question. Did you take a shower this morning?”

Mike bit his lip. “I didn’t, actually. I overslept and just barely made it to work on time as it was.”

I took a deep breath and made a vague circling gesture at my groin. “When was the last time you checked this area of yourself?”

Mike raised his eyes to the ceiling. “Yesterday, I think? Definitely when I took a shower at home, so probably around twenty four hours.”

I pointed to one of the stalls. “Indulge us, please.”

Mike looked between the three of us. Dylan was intrigued, Phil was wary, and I was wearing a poker face. Mike’s a pretty cooperative guy, so it almost certainly meant he was trying to hide something if he refused my request. If he obliged, then it probably meant he was just as confused as we were.

Mike went into the stall and closed the door behind him. There was the sound of a zipper being pulled down, the shuffling of clothes, and then, a sharp gasp. The stall door opened, and Mike stood there in his boxers while turned to the side. On his thigh was what I’d already suspected: Apple Bloom’s cutie mark, a pink apple blossom with six petals and bright yellow stigma.

I facepalmed. “Que carajo...”

“Wait, Mike’s got one, too?” Dylan laughed. “Oh, man! This keeps getting better and better!”

“You’ve no idea.” Phil was facing the bathroom mirror.  “Look.”

I turned, and abruptly found that my friends weren’t the only ones in need of a haircut. My normally short, straight brown hair had grown into a soft, thick mullet with wavy curls. I ran a hand through it, and felt a sudden urge to twirl a lock of it through my fingers.

“Whoa!” Dylan dashed to the mirror. “Who slipped us the hair growth formula?”

“There’s no such thing,” I said. Though I wasn’t so sure anymore.

Phil tugged at his hair as if it were a wig. “Well, how else did our hair get like this? It’s not like hair suddenly gets this long overnight by itself!”

Dylan suddenly stopped looking in the mirror and slowly turned to me. “Mage, are Phil and Mike’s tattoos from ponies, too?”

I nodded. “Babs Seed and Apple Bloom. We’re all sporting the marks of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.”

“Wait, what?” Phil rounded on me. “You know what these things are?!”

I absentmindedly kept twirling my fingers through my hair. It was oddly soothing for some reason. “What they are? Yes. How we got them? Not a clue.”

“Oh, really?” Dylan crossed his arms. “I find that hard to believe. You were the first one to notice these things, after all.”

“When would I have time to do this?” I sat down on the bathroom counter, which I immediately regretted as a puddle of water seeped into my pants. “I fell asleep last night before all of you!”

Phil narrowed his eyes. “Do you have any way to confirm that?”

I felt my temper rise, but I kept it in check. Phil was only like this when he’d been awake for too long, or hadn’t eaten in over twelve hours. I knew this because we went to one of those lock-ins where you don’t eat the whole time, and he was an absolute nightmare by the end of it. My guess was that he was suffering from the effects of having his sleep schedule flip-flopped so often.

I got off the counter and looked Phil dead in the eye. “No, I don’t, but what I do have is my word. I swear to you that I did not have anything to do with these pranks in any way, shape, or form. It’s true that I know that these marks are from My Little Pony, but that’s all I know.”

Phil’s eyes softened. He looked away and rubbed the bridge of his nose. I now saw there were dark bags under his eyes. How long had he been living like this? It couldn’t have been healthy, but graveyard shifts do tend to have higher pay, and he did have a house payment to worry about...

Dylan smirked. “Do you also give us your word as a Spaniard?”

I tried to hide my grin. “It depends. How many Spaniards have you known?”

“Eh, not very many.” Dylan winked at me. “Though there was this one guy who was looking for someone with six—”

“Focus, children.” Mike went to the sink and washed his hands. “I believe you, Mage, but you have to admit this is pretty weird. The four of us get the tattoos of characters from a show that only you watch on the same day you come to visit us? Who else could’ve done it?”

I threw up my arms. “Communists, aliens, Atlanteans, Mormons, tattoo gnomes, democrats, the Chicago Bulls, Lauren Faust, penguins, Batman... all I can guess is that it was probably the same person who messed with our hair. I’m a Business Analyst, Mike, not a detective.”

“You gotta watch out for those tattoo gnomes, man,” Dylan said with utmost seriousness. “They have teeth like knives and will swarm you like piranha. They can fully ink a man in nine point-three seconds, and the only thing that keeps them away is a dreamcatcher strung with year-old shoelaces coated in whale snot.”

Mike ignored him and dried off his hands. “I have to get back to work. I’ll head back over to Phil’s after I get off to help you guys figure this out. When are you leaving, Mage?”

“Sunday night.” It was currently late Saturday morning, so we had a day and a half to figure this out. I figured I might as well stay at Phil’s house if we were gonna convene there anyway... assuming he still let me, that is.

I turned to Phil and folded hands behind my back. “Is it okay if I’m at your house until then?” 

A surprised look flashed across his face. “Why would you even ask that?”

Because we’d just had a disagreement, and so I felt it proper to observe formalities as a gesture of humility. It looked like Phil had misinterpreted my intentions, though.

“I’ll stick around, too,” Dylan said. “We can catch up while Phil catches some z’s.”

I nodded and blew a lock of hair out of my eyes. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

Phil yawned and gestured to the exit. “Let’s go.”




> Secrets and Semantics
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 3: 


Secrets and Semantics




The trip back to Phil’s was uneventful. We exchanged information on what we’d been doing for the past week, but nothing stuck out. My daily activities made for boring conversation, Phil’s weren’t much better, and Dylan took up the rest of the time telling us how a guy in the meat department had cut off the tip of his finger. Entertaining, to be sure, but it didn’t help us much.

We got out of the car and traipsed into Phil’s house single file. I slumped down on the living room couch, Dylan went into the bathroom to go hunt for some aspirin, and Phil gave us permission to raid the fridge before retreating to his room for some much needed rest. 

I looked up at the ceiling and felt my shoulder-length hair brush against the back of my neck. I held out a strand and judged it to be around six inches long. I’d never heard of anything that accelerated hair growth. I didn't even think it was scientifically possible! Shouldn’t something like that have been a major scientific breakthrough that made national news? We were talking about a cure for a baldness, here! And how did our unknown prankster get a hold of it? Was he or she using it on random people that they found on the streets, and... also putting My Little Pony tattoos on them... okay, that was just dumb.

I sank deeper into the couch and looked around the living room. A dark gray recliner and loveseat sat next to the couch on opposite sides. A worn coffee table with countless cup rings on it was in the center of the room. The plain, white walls were filled with framed posters and pictures, each of them boasting some kind of significance in Phil’s life. No less than six of the pictures were of us. The springy carpet was a dull brown, and a large flat screen TV and Blu-Ray player were fastened to the wall. The room had a faint smell of cigarettes and was pleasantly warm, a welcoming contrast to the chilly outside.

I let out my breath in a long, contented sigh. I found myself filled with a sense of ease that I never got back at my apartment in the city. Just another reason why I wished so badly that the guys had come with me to college. I doubted I’d ever fully get over it. My leaving had meant we were now missing out each other’s lives, and we were now slowly drifting apart. We’d probably wind up seeing each other less and less as time went on, until finally we wouldn’t see each other at all.

I felt my eyes grow warm, but I wasn’t sure why. Was it because I mourned the impending death of our friendship? Was it because I realized just how lonely I was? Or was it because I knew something in my life was inherently wrong, but I had no idea what it was?

Dylan came back to find me staring blankly off into space. He started to say something, but then stopped when he heard me let out a quiet sniffle. He immediately came over and sat down beside me.

“Hey.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “You all right?”

I closed my eyes and looked away. “I just... wish I knew what was going on.”

"Dork." Dylan reached up and lightly flicked my ear. "Don't dodge the question. Tell me what’s wrong.”

I pursed my lips. “It’s nothing.”

Dylan lowered his chin. “Shall I go through Phil’s music collection and put on some emo music for you? Maybe later we can go shopping for spiked jewelry, dye our hair black and write depressing poetry at a hipster cafe! That sound like fun?”

I grit my teeth and turned my back to him. “Does everything have to be a joke with you?”

“Does everything have to be a soap opera with you?” Dylan returned. He leaned in and spoke in a clear, concise tone. “I don’t know what’s with this ‘lone wolf’ act you’re pulling all of a sudden, but seriously? Knock it the hell off. This isn’t the big city where you always have to look out for number one. We're the oldest friends you have, we actually give a shit about you, and you pushing us away is like saying the last fifteen years of friendship accounted for jack.”

I ignored the heavy weight in my gut and stood my ground. “Did it ever occur to you I might have a reason for not wanting to talk about certain things with you or the others?”

“Oh, this oughta be good.” Dylan put his arms behind the couch. “Tell me, Mage, what monumental, earth-breaking reason might you have for not confiding in me, the godfather of your future kids?”

He may as well have slapped me. We all wanted to have children someday, and we couldn’t do the usual MMPD name thing because we'd agreed that Phil and Mike’s kids would be better suited if they stayed within their family. Dylan wasn’t the most serious at times, but he was great with kids, and I knew he'd pick up the slack if anything happened to me.

“That’s... not fair,” I managed.

“What isn’t fair is that you're withdrawing into your shell and not letting us help you,” Dylan said. ”Keeping secrets is something we’ve never done, and there's no reason why we should start now. Why don't you trust us?”

I hung my head and twiddled my thumbs. “My concerns are just me being stupid. I don’t want you or the guys thinking I have doubts about things that I know really aren’t going to happen.”

A lopsided smirk crept up on Dylan’s lips. “We're all stupid sometimes, my friend. It'd be a very different world if we were all perfect all the time. I'm not going to let this rest, so you may as well save yourself the trouble and just start talking.”

I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. I shook my head and tried again, but it was like there was a hand around my throat. I tried one more time, but it was no use. I couldn’t talk with the Dylan about my fears of our friendship falling apart. He’d dismiss it as pointless, or worse, point the finger at me for being the one who left. I needed something to throw him off, and fortunately, I knew just the thing.

“I'm worried that these marks and our hair having some kind of connection with the show.” My eyes were drawn up to his long, completely mussed-up hair. I’d have thought he’d try and do something about it while he was in the bathroom, but apparently he was content to leave it as it was. “I mean, now that I think about it, the four of us do have a lot in common with the Cutie Mark Crusaders.”

Dylan blew his bangs out of his face. “Cartoons are cartoons, Mage. It’s nothing to get upset about.”

“You wouldn’t say that if you’d seen the show,” I insisted. “Take you, for example. Scootaloo is a pegasus who has trouble learning how to fly due to having stunted wings, and you had troubles walking when you were young because you were born with deformed hips.”

Dylan rolled his eyes. “Nowhere near the same. My issue stemmed from a birth defect that the orphanage couldn’t afford to fix. It would’ve been corrected right away if things had been… different.”

You’d never know it unless he told you, but Dylan lived in an orphanage until he was four. His birth parents died in a car accident, and he didn't have any other family members that could take him in. Fortunately, his adopted father was an orthopedist, and had fixed Dylan up before school started.

“That’s another thing,” I said. “Scootaloo was adopted, and she had this scooter she always rode around on, kinda like the one you used to have. She was always doing all these stunts and tricks—”

“I’m not the only orphan in the world, nor am I the only one that’s expressed an interest in the superior means of transportation that is the scooter.” Dylan waggled his eyebrows. “And I still have mine, thank you very much.”

“There’s more, though.” I got up and started thinking up as many things as I could keep him distracted. “You’re both brash with a devil-may-care attitude, you both have looked up to a local athlete that eventually went pro, you both have an image that you’re overly concerned with, you’re both stubborn and prone to argument, especially with a certain other individual, you both—”

“Look.” Dylan held out a hand to stop me. “You can draw as many similarities between me and this Scootaloo pony all you want, but that doesn’t change that she’s a cartoon character in a show made for little girls, and I’m a real person. I can’t believe I’m the one being the voice of reason here, but there’s nothing going on here that can’t be rationally explained!”

Of course I knew that, but I was having fun with this. Besides, I’d suddenly gotten an idea that would throw him off completely. It’d also kill some time.

“I wish I could show you what I’m talking about. Maybe then you’d—wait!” I went over to my pile of presents by the table and pulled out the box set of MLP that Mike had given me. I went back over and happily brandished it in front of Dylan. “I can!”

He gave me a flat look. “No.”

I pushed the box a little closer. “Pleeeeease?”

Dylan crossed his arms. “Nuh-uh.”

“Come onnnnnnn,” I said in a sing-song voice.

“I’m not watching ponies!”

I put on my best puppy dog eyes, jutted out my lower lip, and said my most pathetic voice, “I thought you wanted to help me feel better.”

A low blow, I know, but it was the only way this was gonna happen. I'd been trying for years to get the guys to watch the show. 

Dylan winced under the onslaught of begging. Finally, he groaned and swatted me away with a resigned look. “All right, all right, but only one! Not like there’s anything else better to do right now, anyways.”

With a victorious fist pump, I quickly opened up the box set and spread out the discs on the coffee table. Dylan got up and went to go pick out some snacks while I debated with myself on what episode to start with. It obviously needed to be a CMC episode, but which one? I briefly considered Sisterhood Social, but then thought it best to start with the first one instead. 

I put the Season One disc in, pulled up Call of the Cutie and waited for Dylan to come back from the kitchen. I heard various rustlings of plastic bags, followed by several beeps from the microwave. A few minutes later he returned with a couple of sodas and a plate stacked high with nachos.

“Okay.” He sat down and promptly stuffed his mouth with cheesy goodness. “Let’sh get thish over with.”

“It’s not that bad, I promise!” I pressed play.

My Little Pony, My Little Pony,
ah, ah, ah, ah!
My Little Pony!
I used to wonder what friendship could be!

Dylan stopped mid-chew. He closed his eyes and slowly lowered his head into a facepalm.

“I hate you so much, Mage.”



***



Despite his negative reaction to the opening theme, Dylan became oddly quiet when the episode began in earnest. We watched the entire thing, and when the disc automatically went on to the next one, neither he nor I made any effort to stop it. We watched that one too, and the next one, and the next one, and before we knew it we’d watched all the way to the end of the first season. I’d seen all the episodes before, of course, but I found myself sucked in just as much as Dylan, maybe even more so. I figured it was because I hadn’t actually seen anything from Season One in a few years, and it was now all coming back to me.

I came back to my senses as the final credits rolled. The nachos and sodas were long gone, and neither of us had moved or looked at each other in hours.

“That... wasn’t what I was expected,” Dylan said from beside me.

My heart soared. I knew he’d like if he just gave it a chance! Maybe now that I’d convinced him the others might come around, too!

I looked over at him. “I’m gl—AAAAHHH!”

He jerked his head. “W—HOLY SHIT!”

We both jumped up and scrambled away from each other. Dylan’s hair had now grown down to his shoulder blades. More alarming than that, though, the tips had turned a deep, vivid fuchsia. After taking in this change, I met his eyes and almost yelled again, for they'd changed as well to bright purple. A look of utter shock was etched on his face as he stared at me open-mouthed.

“Hair,” he whispered.

“Eyes,” I breathed.

The words clicked in our minds at the same time, and we ran to the bathroom together. I turned on the light to behold my reflection.

Curls. Curls everywhere. My hair had been straight my entire life, and now I had flowing, wavy locks that ran all the way down my back. The last two inches of hair had changed color like Dylan’s had, except mine was pink on my left side and purple on my right. I stared dumbly for a few seconds, then reluctantly met my own eyes and gasped.

“Impossible...”

But apparently it wasn’t. My eyes, once hazel, had now shifted completely over to green. Not just any green, though, sea green. Pale and entrancing, they glowed with a soft, inner light that I found bizarrely alluring. I pulled down one of my eyelids and gingerly felt around for a pair of contacts, but there was nothing there.

“How?” Dylan was examining his own changes next to me. “We weren’t like this when we sat down! It was just you and me alone in the living room! No one came in or out the entire time! HOW?!”

The panic in Dylan’s voice gave rise to my own. Tattoos could be explained as a prank, hair changes could be rationalized as some kind of product, but eyes? Nothing outside of contacts could change that! Not only that, but from what little I remembered from my genetics class, the human eye could only generate certain colors due to only having a certain amount of possible dyes encoded in our genome. Sea green was possible, but purple was definitely not! Whatever had happened to Dylan’s eyes defied what I understood about human DNA, and that shook me down to the very core.

“I don’t think this was a prank,” I murmured. My mind spun as I tried to come up with some sort of explanation, but before I could, Dylan grabbed me by the shirt and slammed me against the wall.

“Hey!” I grabbed his arms and tried to pull him away by reflex.

“Who’s Discord?” Dylan hissed.

I froze. I looked into his changed eyes, wild with anger and fear.  

“W-What?” I said.

“I had a nightmare about him last night!” Dylan’s grip tightened on my shirt. “WHO IS HE?!”

My mouth went dry. It was several seconds before I could find my voice, and when I did, it was nothing more than a squeak.

 “Y-you had that nightmare, too?”

A spasm flickered across Dylan’s face. He was silent for a long time, but then he spoke in a voice that was tight and controlled.

“I was Scootaloo. The other Crusaders and I were running away from him after he tried to attack us in the schoolhouse. We got to the middle of Ponyville, then he cut us off and appeared in front of us. We tried to separate, but he cast a spell on me that trapped me up in the air. He then came up from behind, wrapped himself around me, chanted some weird poem and touched my forehead with a glowing claw. I screamed until I couldn’t scream anymore, then everything went dark.”

I couldn’t believe it. What were the odds that we’d both had the same nightmare on the same night? Not only that, but it sounded like his had been from Scootaloo’s perspective! I was completely speechless, but thankfully, my shell-shocked expression gave voice to my thoughts.

Dylan’s anger vanished. “No, that’s not possible.” His grip went slack and he backed into the hallway. “There’s no way you could’ve had the same dream!”

I swallowed hard and tried to regain my composure. “M-mine was from Sweetie Belle’s perspective. It w-was the same as yours, except that D-Discord blinded me and made me listen as he picked off the other Crusaders one by one. He taunted me before doing the same magic t-thing you described. Rarity saw it and tried to save me, but she didn’t get there in time.”

Dylan clutched his head and moaned. “Godammit! What’s happening to us?” He sank to the floor and hugged his knees. “I’d never even heard of Scootaloo before this! This doesn’t make any sense!” 

My annoyance over Dylan manhandling me dissipated upon seeing her in such a lost state. She always put up a strong front, and it was only when she was truly freaked did she lose it like this.

“There has to be an explanation,” I said as I walked over and sat across from him. “Come on, this can’t all be just a coincidence.”

Dylan rested his head between his knees. “I’m beginning to think you were right about this having a connection with the show. Scootaloo and I really do have a lot of things in common, and there are a lot of parallels between you and Sweetie Belle. Mike and Apple Bloom, too! Watching the three of them together reminded me of the kinds of things we used to do together.”

I bit the inside of my cheek. I’d never considered there might be similarities between myself Sweetie. I’d only brought that up to get Dylan off my case! Out of curiosity, I decided to see if I could think of the things Dylan was referring to, and to my surprise, I came up with more than a few.

“How do you change a person’s eye and hair color without them feeling it, anyway?” Dylan stood up and held out a hand to me. “You’d have to use some kind of eye drops or something, and I’ve never used anything like that in my life!”

I took his hand. “It’d be easy for Discord to do. I’ve no idea how his magic works, but this definitely would be his style.”

Dylan frowned upon hearing Discord’s name. “Let’s just say that this really is related to the show somehow. Who is he? I didn’t see him in any of the episodes we watched.”

“He's spirit of chaos and disharmony.” I closed my eyes and delved into my knowledge of MLP lore. “Long ago, he ruled over Equestria and tormented all the ponies with his madness and mischief. Then Celestia and Luna rose up against him and and used the Elements of Harmony to turn him into stone. He remained that way for thousands of years, but his seal weakened and he broke free to wreak havoc again. The Mane Six were able to defeat him before he could do any permanent damage, but Celestia then decided that his powers could be useful if he could be convinced to use them for good. He was freed and then seemingly reformed by Fluttershy, but then in the series finale, he left Celestia to die, attacked the Mane Six and banished them somehow, then took the Equestrian throne for himself. That’s how the series ended.”

“What?!” Dylan did a double-take. “Twilight and the others lose? The series ends with the bad guy winning?“

I put my hands in my pockets. “There was so much nerdrage. Most people don’t even accept it as canon. There were a few fan projects going to make a proper ending last I heard, although I don’t know if they were ever finished.”

“Damn right they need to make a proper ending!” Dylan reached out and smoothed out the wrinkles in my shirt. “Were the writers on acid when they wrote the script or something?”

I waved him away and leaned back against the wall. “I’ve no idea why the writers did what they did. The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. It was kinda why I stopped paying attention to the fandom.”

Dylan’s eyes were hollow as he stared into the bathroom. “The Cutie Mark Crusaders... Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and—there was a fourth, right? Babs, or something?”

I nodded. “Apple Bloom’s cousin. She got introduced to the show in Season Three, then made cameos until her family moved to Ponyville in the beginning of Season Five.”

“And Mike and Phil, cousins as well, have their respective cutie marks.” Dylan ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t like this, Mage. There are too many similarities for this to be a coincidence.”

I scratched my chin. I admitted I didn’t like it either, but I wasn’t about to abandon rational thought and go off into the realm of insanity just yet. 

“Maybe this is some kind of publicity stunt?” I offered. “Like for one of those shows where they do things to people just to gauge their reactions?”

Dylan pressed his lips into a flat line. “A My Little Pony-related publicity stunt involving a group of guys who live in the middle of nowhere, three of which aren't even fans of the show?” 

I couldn’t help but snicker. I started trying to think of something else, but I knew I was grasping at straws as it was. I decided to roll with the pony theory until something else presented itself. We’d need more data to support it, though, and fortunately, I knew just where to get it. 

“We need to talk to Apple Bloom and Babs,” I said. “Two people having the same dream on the same night is plausible. Exceedingly rare, but still plausible. Four people, on the other hand...”

“Yeah, good idea.” Dylan rolled his shoulders. “Can we wait until Babs wakes up, though? She needs the sleep.”

I looked over at the door to Phil’s room and let out my breath in a sigh. "I really wish he didn’t have to do this. It can’t be good for him.”

Dylan grunted in agreement. “It shouldn’t be for much longer. He’s been trying to get on the day shift for a while now.”

We went back out to the living room to watch some more episodes of MLP. I was originally going to show Dylan the episodes with Discord, but he flat out refused. We started with Lesson Zero instead, and we were about halfway through it when we heard the dull rumbling of a car coming into the driveway. We looked out the window and saw Mike walking up to the house, who was wearing a drawn hoodie with a laptop bag slung over his shoulder. 

“He looks pissed,” Dylan observed.

I snorted. “I wonder why.”

“Guys?” Mike called as he walked in the door. “I've got a problem!”

Dylan and I poked our heads over the living room railing to reveal our changes.

“Join the club,” Dylan said.

Mike looked up and cringed. “Aw man, you guys too?” 

He removed his hood. His super-long hair had turned deep scarlet at the tips, and his eyes were bright orange, like a pair of pumpkins still on the vine. I probably should’ve been surprised by the changes, but half of me was expecting them.

I motioned for him to come inside. “Come and get settled. There’s something we need to ask you.”

“Huh? Oh, um.. okay.” Mike took off his shoes and coat. “When did your eyes change? I only saw mine when I got home a little while ago. I’m lucky I was in the back room most of today, otherwise I would've had problems.”

“About twenty minutes ago,” I said. “Or at least, that’s when we noticed it. Made us both nearly crap our pants. Never mind that for the moment, though, did you have... any... weird...”

I trailed off as Mike walked up the stairs. When he got to the top, he glanced warily between Dylan and I for a moment before cocking his head.

“What?”

“Uh, Apple Bloom?” Dylan said slowly. “Why’re you standing on your tiptoes?”

Mike blinked. He looked down at his feet, and sure enough, his heels were totally lifted off the floor. He looked like he was about to prance around like a ballerina.

“I... don't... know,” he admitted. “It feels like my heels are—hey, you guys are doing it, too!”

I looked down and saw that he was right. I hadn't noticed it, but at some point my feet had decided that this was a comfortable position to be in. I tried to lower myself down to my heels, but it felt like something was being pinched in my ankles.

“Well, that's just dandy!” Dylan threw himself into the recliner and pulled off one of his socks. “What's next, are we going to hear voices and start speaking in long-forgotten languages? Is the return of Cthulhu imminent?”

I made a derisive noise. “More like we’ll start walking on all fours and eating hay for dinner.”

Mike looked over at me with raised eyebrows. “Wait, hay?”

Dylan was absorbed in examining his foot, so I cleared my throat and gestured for Mike down on the couch. 

“I know this is going to sound weird, but...” I couldn’t believe how ridiculous this was. I started to feel the hand start to close around my throat again, but I muscled through it. “Did you have any weird dreams last night? Like, really vivid ones? Possibly about a creature named Discord?” 

Mike went white as a sheet. His mouth twisted into a grimace and he quickly lowered his eyes. 

“How'd you know?” he murmured.

My stomach plummeted, but morbid curiosity kept my questions coming. “Can you tell us about it? We’ve an idea about what’s going on, but we need more info to confirm it.”

“Sweetie and I had a dream about Discord, too,” Dylan cut in. “The same dream, actually, just from different perspectives. We’re checking to see if it's the same as yours.”

Mike fidgeted. He didn’t say anything for almost a full minute, and I almost thought he wasn’t going to talk. Finally, he clicked his teeth and spoke in a soft, quavering voice.

“I was a little girl pony, the one you said I have the tattoo thing of. She and her friends were in a wagon running away, but… he got in front of us somehow. We tried to split up, but the ground turned into molasses and I started to sink. I thought I was gonna drown, but then he appeared again and poked me in the forehead. My world turned into pain, and I heard him chanting something before I went under. Then I woke up.”

I felt cold. The implications of this were staggering, and the world spun around me as I tried to wrap my head around it. The three of us had had the same dream on the same night, and now we were taking on the physical traits of the ponies we’d been?! This couldn’t be happening! I had to be hallucinating! I reached down and pinched myself as hard as I could, but all I got was a sharp pain and a red mark on my skin.

Dylan let out a soft whistle. “Well, that’s a thing.”

Mike’s lips parted. “You’re telling me you guys had the same dream, too? Lemme guess, from the other girl ponies’ perspectives?”

“¡Por el amor de Dios!”  I got off the couch and stamped my feet. “What is causing all this? I’m the only one who’s ever followed MLP, and none of you guys even knew who the Cutie Mark Crusaders were before I told you!”

“Breathe, amiga.” Mike pulled out his laptop and began setting it up on the coffee table. “We can figure this out, we just need to use our heads. I’m gonna check the Internet right now to see if this is happening to anyone else. Why don’t you watch some TV or something in the meantime?”

I clenched my fists. I felt a familiar tension building in my arms and legs, the pent-up energy screaming at me to screw being calm and start throwing things across the room. In my younger days I would give in to these urges, making a mighty scene and projecting my powerful voice for all to hear. However, age and experience had tempered my wisdom.  A temper tantrum was cathartic, yes, but I’d still have cutie marks, long hair and oddly colored eyes afterwards.

That didn’t change that I was now hyper from all the adrenaline, though. I needed to do something to wear it off, and it was then I realized that I hadn’t had a proper meal today. As if on cue, my stomach made its presence known with a hunger pang.

“I’m gonna go make some food,” I said. I got up and headed towards the kitchen. “Let me know if you find anything.”

Dylan and Mike both cast me a wary glance, but let me go without comment. I heard the sound of the TV flip on as I tiptoed into the small, homey kitchen and opened the fridge. Inside was a gallon of milk, an assortment of juices, a jar of pickles, lunch meats, eggs, condiments, a few covered plates of leftovers, and a six-pack of beer. Nothing looked appetizing, so I opened the crisper next.

Bingo. A bag of lettuce, celery, tomatoes, baby carrots, shredded cheese, and best of all, a pair of ruby red apples. I snatched one of them, immediately began to munch on it, then pulled out the other apple along with the rest of the bounty. I spread the ingredients out on the counter, grabbed a cutting board and knife and set to work making a salad.

My mind wandered as I worked. The rational part of me still wasn’t willing to accept that this was being caused by an extra-dimensional being that could control the fabric of time and space. Perhaps we’d been exposed to some kind of radiation? Maybe the government was storing toxic waste in a top-secret facility nearby, and somehow it'd leaked out and we were experiencing the side effects! We should probably go to the hospital if that was the case, but what would the doctors say when they saw our symptoms? They’d probably run a bunch of lab tests and keep us quarantined, and then we’d all have to take off work, and our families would panic and come running, and everything would turn into a huge mess!

The noise of the TV faded out as I lost myself in my thoughts. I really didn’t want to get anyone else involved in this. Not doctors, not the government, and especially not our families. I hated causing mine undue stress, and I knew they worried about me enough as it was. Besides, I felt fine, aside from a faint feeling of weakness that always accompanied my hangovers and my heart rate being up from the shock. My feeling had always been to only go to hospitals for emergencies, and while everything that was happening to us was certainly strange and frightening, it wasn’t life-threatening. Ugh, I didn't even want to think about what the bill would be. Even with insurance it—

“WAUGH!”

Dylan’s yell almost made me cut my finger off. I abandoned my food and ran out to the living room to see what was wrong.

“No, no, no, no, no!” Dylan had covered his head with his arms while pacing back and forth like a caged animal. “I don’t believe this. This can’t be real! THIS CAN'T BE REAL!”

I was about to ask what was the matter, but then I saw Mike. He was holding a mirror in front of his face, curiously examining the pair of pale yellow equine ears poking out of his head. 

“Looks pretty real to me,” he said calmly. 

A shiver wracked my entire body. Goosebumps formed on my skin, and I reached up to feel my ears with a shaky hand.

I felt nothing but skin and bone. I rubbed both sides of my skull, but it was quite evident that my human ears were gone. I reached up farther to the top of my head, and sure enough, nestled in my hair were a pair of brand-new pony ears. Thin and flexible, they twitched as I pulled back my hair and gently poked and prodded them. My hearing seemed to be improved now, to the point that I could hear Dylan’s quick, shallow breaths and the low hum of the furnace downstairs. I found I could move them to an extent, and I spent the next thirty seconds swiveling and flopping them around. 

Mike saw what I was doing and burst out laughing. He held out the mirror to me. “Want a look there, Sweetie?”

I almost said no, but I knew I was going to see them eventually. I reluctantly took the mirror and examined my new anatomy. 

“Hoo boy...”

As I feared, my nascent ears were covered in white hair. It thinned out right where it met my head, then joined the rest of my normal hair, which I noticed had continued changing color. The pink and purple was now up to my neck area. 

Speaking of my neck, my hairline had spread down the back of it. I now had hair growing out of my skin all the way down to my shoulder blades. 

I almost laughed at the absurdity of it all. This wasn’t human. It defied all reason and understanding, and it certainly threw my plans of going to the hospital out the window. The answer had been in front of me the whole time, but I hadn’t even wanted to consider it for fear of being labeled as a loon. Yet now it seemed I had no choice. I had to give voice to what I knew was happening, no matter how crazy it seemed.

“Girls?” I said. “I think we’re turning into—”

There had been a lot of screams today. All of them would make anyone in the vicinity come running, but their causes had been reflected in their pitch and tone, which had merely been surprise. The sound we heard from Phil’s room was completely different. It was a shriek of raw agony and mortal peril. 

The three of us didn’t even hesitate. We dashed to Phil’s room and threw open the door.

The messy room was dark and quiet, save for the sounds of heavy breathing and gasping sobs. I snapped on the light and saw Phil sitting bolt upright in his bed with tears streaming down his face. His pony ears were brown, his long, disheveled hair was filled with red streaks, and his deep green eyes reminded me of my own. A trio of freckles adorned each of his cheeks, and he made a choked noise of relief as he saw the three of us.

“You got away,” he croaked with unfocused eyes. “Thank Celestia, you all got away. I thought for sure Discord—”

Phil stopped himself as he regained his senses. He looked around his room, then turned back to us and took in our changes. We all stood in silence for almost a full minute while we stared at each other in utter disbelief.

It was Dylan who spoke first.

“I sure hope hay tastes better as a pony.”





> Unpleasant Truths
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 4:


Unpleasant Truths




“We need to get help,” I said.

The four of us were now in the living room after confirming that Phil had had the same nightmare as us. He was understandably shaken up from it, and he'd wrapped himself in a blanket as he sat shivering on the couch. Mike was slowly massaging his back to calm him down.

“From who?” Dylan asked. There was a click as he pulled out the recliner footrest. “I don’t have any ponies on my friend lists, last I checked. You holding out on us, Mage?”

“Not from other ponies, idiot.” I adjusted myself in the loveseat. “I mean from the authorities or something! This is bigger than us. We’re not going to be able to handle it on our own!”

“Says who?” Mike used his free hand to pull the Internet back up on his computer. “We don’t even fully know what’s going on! Besides, a shared dream and a bunch of similarities to a group of cartoon characters isn’t going to mean anything to doctors or cops. All they’re going to look at are the changes to our bodies.”

“How much farther do you think the changes are gonna go?” Phil pulled his blanket closer to himself. “I’m already not going to be able to go to work like this. Heck, at this rate we’re not gonna be able to even go out in public!”

He brought up a good point. I looked down at my bare feet and poked one of my heels. It didn’t hurt, but the muscles below my ankle felt dull for some reason. It was too soon to say for sure, but between the lack of feeling and the standing on tiptoes, I’d a pretty good idea of what was happening down there.

“We’re probably going all the way,” I said with reluctance. “Think about it. Our ears, eyes and hair have already gone pony, and it looks like our feet are next. I hate to admit it, but I see no reason why the rest of our bodies won’t follow suit.”

Mike sighed. “Figures. I was planning on asking out this cute girl that started working front desk last week. Doubt she’s interested in dating cross-species.”

Dylan waggled his eyebrows. “I dunno, chicks dig hor—waaaaaaait a second!” He sat upright and gripped the sides of the recliner. “We think we’re turning into the Cutie Mark Crusaders, right?”

I flattened my ears. Which, by the way, was a very weird sensation. “Glad to see you’ve been paying attention.”

Dylan narrowed his eyes. “Well apparently you haven’t, because last I checked, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were girls.”

I don’t know why that took so long to register with me. Maybe it was because I’d known the Crusaders’ genders for years, so I merely took his announcement as statement of fact. Maybe it was because I was flustered by all of this and I was having trouble making connections. Or maybe it was because my mind had already accepted it on a subconscious level. Regardless of the reason, though, it was several seconds before the weight of what he’d said hit me, but when it did, I crossed my legs with a cringe.

“Eso no es bueno,” I mumbled.

“Yeah,” Dylan agreed, “and here’s another thing for you to feel stupid about: I just realized we’ve been calling each other by our pony names every so often since we watched the show. Heck, we’ve even been occasionally using feminine pronouns!”

My earlier dizziness returned as I looked back at the past hour and realized she—no, he was  right! Damn it, the physical changes were bad enough, but our minds were being affected, too?! To what extent? Would we have to coexist inside the same body? Was my personality going to get overridden by hers? Were we going to fuse together somehow so that the end result was a little bit of me, and a little bit of her? 

“You guys can’t be serious!” Phil began wringing a portion of his mane in his hands. “You’re saying that not only are going to have to turn in our man cards, we’re also being brainwashed?!”

Dylan shrugged. "I don’t think anything is going to happen to ‘us,’ if you catch my meaning. Remember Discord’s poem? He said the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ memories would be removed. I figure he completely blanked their minds, then transported their bodies to merge with similar humans that were just turning twenty-five. In other words, us.”

I was on the verge of fearing for my life. I had hopes and goals and dreams of my own, and I’d worked my ass off to get my career off the ground. I was financially stable, reasonably happy, and my overall future looked bright. I was going to lose all of that. I was going to be paraded around like a freak in a side-show carnival. Everything I knew and loved would be taken away from me. I'd—

I shook my head. Falling into a downward spiral would get me nowhere. I was a logical, mature adult, I wasn't going to devolve into a blubbering mass. I would keep it together, if not for myself, then for the others. I was the one who knew the most about this, and the others were looking to me for strength. I never saw myself as the leader of our group, but right now it was my turn in the Captain's chair. I refused to leave it wet for the next person.

“Why twenty-five, though?” Phil asked. “That seems like a pretty random number.”

Dylan looked up at the ceiling. “Even just from a dream, I can tell that nothing about Discord makes any kind of sense. Mage called him the spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, which is probably the only two things he’s consistent about. He very well could’ve chose twenty-five just because he liked the sound of it. I don’t think it’s worth trying to figure out Discord’s motivations when we’ve got more pressing things to worry about... like how we’re all going to have to take our leaks sitting down pretty soon.”

“I don’t think ponies actually use toilets,” Mike said. He then looked thoughtful and turned to me. “Do they?”

I held up my hands. “Don’t look at me. The only thing I know about is stuff from the show. I’ve no idea how close that is to anything.”

“Our changes have been spot-on so far,” Phil said. He rotated Mike’s laptop, which currently displayed a picture of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “You may as well tell us everything you know. I don’t know about the rest of you, but it’ll make me feel better if I've at least an idea of what to expect.”

“You’ll get more answers from that than me.” I pointed at the MLP box set on the coffee table. “I actually wouldn’t mind a refresher course, myself.”

Phil frowned. “No thanks. I’d rather you just told us the important parts.”

“It's kind of addictive, anyway,” Dylan said as he tapped the side of his head. “Or did you not notice how we both got sucked in?”

Phil gave him a questioning look. “When’d you see it?”

Dylan fished around in his pocket for his cigarettes. “Swee—Mage finally whittled me down while you were sleeping. I don’t recommend watching it unless you want hours to fly by like minutes.” 

I pursed my lips. I’d no problem with nerding out on them, but the problem was that I had no idea how much of the show was true. Were Ponyville and Canterlot real places? Did Equestria really have cartoon physics? Were Celestia and Luna really thousands of years old? Did Derpy really love muffins? 

“I suppose I can fill you in, but I don’t want you guys taking everything I say as Word of God.” I picked at a stray cushion thread. “I understand that you guys are flying blind, but my view of things isn’t much clearer, so just keep that in mind.”

There was an assortment of nods in response, so I gathered my thoughts and began telling them everything that I knew about the show. I started with a brief history of Equestria, which included the unification of the three tribes, Discord, and Luna’s fall and ultimate purification. I was then about to go into detail about the Mane Six, but then Dylan pointed out that a general description of the races would be more beneficial. I covered the differences between alicorns, earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi instead, which ironically wound up taking longer than the history part, as the guys kept interrupting me with questions. It also didn’t help that I kept getting distracted by their hair, which was continuing to change as I talked. Their new colors kept creeping closer and closer to their heads, until finally their hair was fully colored and was completely like a pony’s mane. I forced myself not to think about what mine looked like and finished with a description of the show’s plot and the Elements of Harmony.

“Originally, the show took place from Twilight’s perspective as she settled in Ponyville and learned lessons about how to be a good friend to others.” I closed my mouth and licked my teeth. “That focus later shifted to all the Bearers learning those same lessons, and then again to just generic adventures with morals attached to them. The lessons that each Bearer learned helped keep them in sync with their respective Elements, which, as was shown when they fought Discord, was necessary for the relics to be wielded to their fullest extent.”

“So the title of the show is literal,” Mike said.

I looked over at him. “What do you mean?”

Mike rested his elbows on his knees. “It sounds like friendship is an actual source of energy that's used as a weapon in this universe. The most powerful weapon, even. Certainly more powerful than anything humans have made, unless you know of some technology that can seal goddesses and spirits away for thousands of years.”

“Humans aren’t fans of long-term imprisonment,” Dylan said with a grim smirk. “We tend to prefer more permanent solutions.”

“How is a Bearer chosen?” Phil cut in. “Are they pre-destined for it, or can anyone become one?” 

I didn’t respond at first. I wanted to say it was destiny because there’d been insinuations that such a thing existed in the show, but if that was the case, how did Celestia and Luna become disconnected from the Elements after the Nightmare Moon incident? Was it their destiny to leave Equestria without its greatest defense for one thousand years? It was never mentioned what kinds of dangers Celestia faced in the millennium she ruled alone, but if the frequency of the series’ problems was any indication, she’d probably wished she’d had the Elements on more than one occasion.

I looked out the window to find that the sun had already gone down. “That’s never been fully explained, but it’s implied that a Bearer can become disconnected from their Element if they fall too far away from what it represents. When that happens, the Element will bond to someone new who’s compatible with it.”

Dylan rolled his shoulders. “That’d explain why Celestia hid ‘em in the Everfree. I’ll bet she didn’t want the power falling into the wrong hooves—er, hands.”

Mike put his feet up on the coffee table. “What if a Bearer dies or becomes disabled somehow? Does their Element still stay bonded to them?” 

I laughed incredulously. “We’re talking about a cartoon for little girls! Not even the villains—er, scratch that, there was one that bit the dust, but none of the heroes ever even got seriously hurt in the show. I’d guess that the answer is yes, but I don’t know for sure.”

“So if I’m hearing you right,” Phil said slowly, “it’s possible for anyone to become a Bearer, so long as they’re in range of an unbonded Element and they’re compatible with it?”

“That would make sense.” I closed my eyes and remembered what Discord had said to Sweetie.  “Also, I think immediate family members somehow resonate with a Bearer’s Element. Though I don’t know whether it’s because of DNA, having similar personalities, or some kind of ‘magical spillover.’”

Dylan suddenly let out a yelp. Mike and Phil did as well a fraction of a second later. I was about to ask what was wrong when I felt something stab my tailbone. We all leapt up in surprise, and I reached back to see if whatever had jabbed me had drawn blood. 

I stiffened. I didn’t feel anything wet, but I did feel something else I hadn’t expected yet. 

“Hey Babs,” I said. “Got a pair of scissors?”

Phil pulled out his new red, two-toned tail and glowered at me. “Don’t call me that.”

I chuckled weakly and pulled out my own. It was much like my mane, which was to say, pink, purple, and incredibly curly. I tried to see if I could move it, and found that it had about as much range of motion as my shoulders. 

Mike watched Phil go into the kitchen. “You know, I doubt we’re the only ones this is happening to.”

Dylan raised an eyebrow. “How do you figure?”

Phil came back with a pair of scissors and handed them to Mike, who cut a hole in the back of his jeans and threaded his tail through it. “Discord’s poem also said something about ‘scattering the six.’ I assume he meant the Mane Six, which means he did the same thing to them as us. They might be in the human world somewhere.” 

I thought about the implications of that as Mike handed me the scissors. It was comforting to think that we might not be alone, but we may as well be without knowing where any of our fellow soon-to-be ponies were. Trying to find them would be next to impossible without some kind of lead, and if we weren’t careful about it, we could attract the wrong kind of attention.

“We should look on the Internet.” I pointed at the laptop. “Try doing a Google search for the things that have happened to us and see if anything comes up. Maybe someone’s made a Facebook post or something.”

Mike took care to move his tail out of the way before sitting back down and pulling the coffee table closer. Meanwhile, Phil pulled out his phone.

“What’cha doing?” Dylan asked him.

“Calling my family,” Phil replied. “I’m curious to know if any of them have been affected by this. You guys should probably do the same.”

“I don’t know if asking outright is a good idea,” I said.

“Then be subtle about it.” Phil walked down the stairs and went down into the basement. “Hey, Mom? Yeah, I just woke up a little bit ago... the party went fine, we all had a good time. Listen, there’s something I wanna ask you...”

I exhaled out my nose as I watched Dylan pull out his phone as well and go into the kitchen. It was true we needed help, but I worried that our families might be more of a detriment than an asset. They weren’t going to know what to do anymore than us, for one, and getting too many people involved would do nothing but bog things down. There was also the issue of having to explain what we were turning into, and I really didn’t feel like fielding questions like that over and over.

I hung my head and happened to glance at my feet again. The changes down there had continued, and now my middle toe was significantly larger with a thicker toenail. I also noticed that I had even less feeling below my ankle, and thought idly about how difficult operating a brake and gas pedal was going to be pretty soon. I realized with a start that we’d most likely be stuck wherever we were in twenty-four hours unless there was another person with us who could run errands and the like. 

Suddenly getting family involved didn’t seem like such a bad idea. It wouldn’t hurt to at least touch base with them and drop a few vague questions, but I wasn’t gonna go any farther than that just yet. There was a reason why I’d never told my parents about MLP, and as far as I was concerned, the less they knew, the better. Shmangie would be much more open and understanding, but she’d be too busy to be of much help. I sighed and went into the spare bedroom for some privacy.

I got a hold of my parents without issue. They were currently out of state visiting my aunt and uncle, but  it became clear after ten minutes of chatting that the most problematic thing in their lives was that they’d had arroz con pollo for three nights in a row. I tried calling Shmangie after that, but it just went straight to her voicemail. That didn’t surprise me, as she spent almost all of her free time either running errands or sleeping. I would’ve been more surprised if I had gotten ahold of her, to be honest.

I put my phone away and went back out to the living room. I found the others all gathered around Mike’s laptop, and my heart skipped a beat as I heard the words ‘Cutie Mark.’ I got closer and craned my head to see what they were looking at.

“Dammit, it was just there just a second ago!” Mike refreshed the page he was on, but all he got was a 404 error. “I found a Twitter post about someone getting a Cutie Mark, but now the entire page is gone!”

“Looks like the entire account’s been deleted.” Phil examined the page and curled his lip. “Whoever owned it must not have wanted to broadcast what was happening to them.”

 Dylan crossed his arms. “Understandable, but now they’re just as alone as us. Did you find anything else?”

Mike shook his head. “That was the only relevant search result. Everything else was just old forum discussion topics or fanfiction.”

I groaned. “So much for that idea.”

“Don’t scratch it off just yet.” Mike yawned. “Just because there isn’t any information now doesn’t mean there isn’t going to be. If this really is happening to other people, then sooner or later one of them will appear in public. Every media source around the world will freaking explode when that happens.”

Dylan mimicked Mike’s yawn. “And then what? We find a way to contact them or something?”

“Depends.” Mike got to his feet and stretched. “We might be able to if they’re close by, otherwise we’ll just have to wait and see how they’re treated. How’d the phone calls go, by the way?”

Phil snorted. “I spent thirty seconds telling to my mom what’s going on, and the next ten minutes convincing her that I wasn’t on acid.”

“Nice!” Dylan raised his hand for a high five. “Mine thought I was on shrooms!”

“I didn’t even bother trying to tell mine,” I said. “No one’s going to believe us about this unless they see us in person, anyway.”

“And I’d rather we held off on that,” Phil said. He resignedly smacked Dylan’s hand, then looked over at the three of us with an amused expression. “You guys look tired. Do you want to crash now? I can keep looking online if you want.”

I considered it, then realized I really was. I let out a yawn of my own and felt the subtle pull of the spare bed calling to me. “Yeah, I think that sounds like a good idea.”

“Dibs on the spare room!” Dylan called.

“Oh, hell no!” Mike tried to beat him there, but Dylan got there first and shut the door in his face.

“Scootaloo!” Mike banged on the door. “I mean Dylan! Argh, freaking hell, whoever you are, let me in so I can shove that new tail of yours where the sun don’t shine!”

“My tail is super-ultra-extreme-awesomaaaaaazing!”  I heard the sound of springs squeaking, and could only assume Dylan was jumping on the bed. “You only wish yours was as good as mine!”

“I don’t have to wish when it already is!” Mike took a step back from the door and prepared to charge.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” I stepped in front of him. “Let’s not go breaking down any doors! You can just sleep in Phil’s room!”

Mike blinked several times. He looked at me for a few seconds, then finally shook his head and rubbed his eyes. “Yeah, I suppose I can. What about you, though?”

I gently pushed him away from the door. “I’ll take the futon in the basement. That thing is crazy comfortable, anyways.”

“Don’t know why I got so ornery all of a sudden,” Mike muttered. “Probably something to do with all this. If I weren’t so tired I’d be terrified over whatever's gonna happen overnight...”

I thought about trying to say something comforting to him, but what could I say? I was just as scared as him. I'd been a fan of the show for years, but that didn't mean I actually wanted to be a pony! I suppose I could try acting like I was okay with all this for their sakes, but that ran the risk of them suspecting I had something to do with this again. I didn't want to re-open that can of worms.

I bade Mike and Dylan good night, then went back out the living room. Phil had turned on the TV and was watching a late-night talk show while he surfed the Net. 

“I assume you’re going to be up for a while,” I said.

Phil took a slow, deep breath. “I wouldn’t be able to sleep now if I tried. Not only is all this going to cost us our jobs, I just realized it’s going to cost me the house. I had my whole life planned out, and now I’m going to have to throw it all down the drain because I’m turning into a stupid cartoon horse? What was it all for? Why is this happening to us? Why did Discord decide that we have to be the ones who have to play host to his stupid little curse?!”

I didn’t know what to say to him, either. He'd realized, same as me, that everything we'd worked for all our lives was rapidly slipping away. Phil was a quiet, reserved guy who fought against change tooth and nail, and he absolutely hated being in the spotlight. Heck, the most outgoing thing he’d ever done was drive a float in the yearly summer parade! He wasn't adjusting to this already, and it was going to get a lot worse before it go better. I didn’t want to give him any shallow or trite consolations, but I wasn’t coming up with anything else, so I just looked away and nervously shuffled my feet.

Phil scoffed at my silence. He turned his attention back to the computer and said nothing more. I stood there for a little while longer in case he had anything more to say, but the dismissal was clear. 

Not knowing what else to do, I patted his shoulder in a half-hearted gesture and went downstairs to crash.



***



The call of nature woke me in the middle of the night. I had a moment of disorientation as I remembered where I was, but I quickly remembered and got up off the futon. The darkness in the basement was almost absolute, but I fixed that by turning on a nearby lamp.

The basement was very bare compared to the upstairs. The only furniture was the futon, an end table, and an old entertainment center in the corner. The cold, concrete floor was only partially covered with dusty, mismatched rugs, and the walls were unadorned. A musty smell and a heavy sense of emptiness filled the air.

I freed my tail from the blankets and shambled over to the basement bathroom in a fog of drowsiness. I tried to recall if I’d had any more pertinent dreams, but I doubted watching a pair of anthropomorphic slot machines duel each other with kitchen knives had much meaning. However, the the music that was playing  in the background was eerily familiar. I wracked my brain for what it was, but it was like grasping at vapors. 

I entered the tiny bathroom and regarded my shadowy silhouette with trepidation. A glance at a glowing digital clock told me that I’d slept for five hours, which meant that some other part of our bodies had now gone pony based on the changes thus far. Giddy anticipation eventually overwhelmed my nervousness, and I clumsily fumbled for the light for a few seconds before finding it and turning it on.  

The first thing I noticed was the giant pimple in the center of my forehead. It was twice the size of a quarter, protruding a full inch away from my head. I wrinkled my nose and poked at the whitened tip, but when I felt its smooth, hardened texture, I recognized the ‘pimple’ for what it was.

“So much for wearing hats,” I whispered. I delicately ran my fingers over my proto-horn. It looked like it had just broken the skin, but there wasn’t any pain, redness, or inflammation that I could see or feel. The tip was surprisingly sensitive, strangely enough, but I wasn’t sure if that was because it was still coming in or if it would be that way all the time. I fervently hoped it wouldn’t be the latter.

Idly, I searched within myself to see if I’d attained some instinctual understanding of how to use magic, but all I managed to do was go cross-eyed. The effort made me giggle, but my mirth was abruptly cut short when I heard my own voice.

“No way,” I said. It was higher, clearer, smoother, and carried a melodious note of power that sent a shiver down my spine. More than that, though, it was undeniably feminine. I was suddenly struck with an image of an opera singer standing alone on a stage as she filled the theater with mellifluous song.

My soft, bright eyes became filled with uncertainty. I took a closer look at myself, and found that my visage had undergone other subtle changes. My face was more angular, almost like a teardrop, and my neck had become more slender. My shoulders had become narrower, and my curly mane now flowed down my back in waves. I was never the most masculine of guys, but now my appearance was androgynous at best. It was with a looming sense of dread that I remembered why I was awake in the first place, and while a large part of me didn’t want to look, the logical side of my mind pointed out how difficult it'd be to never look at my pubic region again. 

In a quick, fluid motion, I ripped off my boxers, inspected my loins...

...and let out a long, resigned sigh. 

The good news was that it was a complete swap. There wasn’t any male ‘equipment’ left over, leaving me stuck in some kind of weird gender limbo. The bad news was, well… I was a girl now. Even knowing it was going to happen didn’t soften the blow, as it was one thing to talk about something like this, but quite another to see it yourself. Everything about my life was now going to change, from the pronouns I used to the chemicals my body produced to the way society perceived me. Hell, I could even get pregnant now! Now there’s something I never thought I’d have to worry about! 

I sat down on the toilet and rested my elbows on my knees. Was I going to be okay with this? I mean, okay, it wasn’t like I could do anything about it if I wasn’t, but I still had to choose whether I accepted it or not. Surprisingly, the predominant feeling I felt wasn’t depression, but rather of curiosity. I’d almost exclusively been raised by women my entire life, and a part of me had always wished I could relate or participate in the things that they did and shared. Now it seemed I was going to get chance, and I wasn't sure how I felt about living on the other side of the proverbial fence.

I doubted that the guys, er…  girls, rather, were going to take this as stoically, though. Dylan would get over it pretty quick. Mike would come around after she got used to it, but Phil? She was already pretty upset about possibly losing her house. How hard was this going to hit her?

My ears twitched as I heard the soft sounds of the TV upstairs. As quietly as I could, I got redressed and crept upstairs to see if Phil was awake. I found her sitting on the living room couch, covered in a wool blanket and staring out the window with puffy, unfocused eyes. Her face had undergone the same changes as mine, and fresh tears ran now down her face as she hiccuped and hung her head.

I cleared my throat. “Phil.”

Phil jumped at the alien voice. She whirled and saw me at the top of the stairs, but her expression was still tense. Her lips parted, and she stole a glance southward before meeting my eyes. 

I nodded. “Yeah.”

My confirmation was apparently the last straw. Phil’s posture slumped and she completely dissolved into tears. 

“I s-saw it h-happen,” she said in a thick, silvery soprano. “It c-changed right before m-my eyes... W-what are we g-going to… I can’t…  I c-can’t do this, M-Mage... “

I closed the distance in a flash and hugged her as hard as I could. She buried her head in my shoulder and continued to sob. I tried to say something, anything at all to make her feel better, but I’ve never exactly been the comforting type. I wanted her to understand that our future wasn’t as bleak as she thought. I wanted to tell her that we’d all be there for her in any way we could. I wished I could give her a grandiose, heartfelt speech about how we at least had each other while going through this. Unfortunately, I didn’t think of any of those things. All I did was gently rock her back and forth while she cried.

I’m not sure what it was that did it. Maybe it was my newly-formed horn. Maybe it was because the transformation had reached a specific point. Perhaps it was the duress that set it off, but regardless of the catalyst, a small green spark formed on the tip of my horn and hit Phil square in the forehead. 

“AHH!”

Phil let out a strangled yell, and my brain was abruptly speared with a lance of pain. I pulled away and clutched my head, but the feeling only worsened. I was dimly aware of Phil falling to the ground when my vision went white and I was inundated with a flood of information.

A small, sleepy village nestled in the shadow of a great mountain. A lush, verdant valley that held everything I knew and loved. An immense, dark forest that held secrets, wonders, and nightmares. 

“The Bowling Dolls! That's it!” 
“It’s not chaos, you dodo!” 
“Why does everypony always think I'm gonna sing?“

My three best friends, all eager, happy and determined to find their places in life. A schoolhouse where we learned, played and watched out for each other. Countless adventures we had together, each one holding their own lessons and strengthening our camaraderie. 

“Eat your brussel sprouts, young lady!”
“C’mere, kiddo, let your old stallion show you how it’s done!”
“You see? We are apple pie!“

A mother, father and sister that loved me more than life itself. A home filled with nostalgia and comfort. A bedroom filled with belongings, foreign, yet familiar.

“You think we can outrun him?”
“Where is he?”
“SCATTER!”

A wolf in sheep’s clothing. An unanticipated attack. The wrath of a sibling, too little, too late.

“SWEETIE! COME BACK! DAMN YOU, DISCORD! GIVE ME BACK MY SISTER!”

More and more memories filled my mind, each of them from the perspective of one I never thought was real. Hopes. dreams, and desires inserted themselves in my psyche, adding to, but not overwriting the ones already there. A terrible truth revealed itself, and all I could do was scream out my rage for all to hear.

“Sweetie!” Mom called from downstairs.

“Sweetie!” Cheerilee said to me in class.

“Sweetie!” Apple Bloom yelled from across the playground.

“Sweetie!” Twilight called from the library loft.

“SWEETIE!” Rarity screamed as I fell from Discord’s grasp.

My head swam. My thoughts were a mess. My memories ended and began in an order that made no sense. I was Sweetie. I was Mage. I was Sweetie. I was Mage. One life ended, another began, and it was only due to Rarity’s efforts that was I able to see and claim both.

I knew now what had happened. I knew who I was. Yet what to do with this information was less clear. I opened my eyes and found myself laying on the floor next to the couch. I slowly sat up with a groan. 

I wasn’t alone. Somepony else had just come to a short ways away. I looked over and saw a familiar face blinking at me like an owl in the light of dawn. 

“Sweetie?” Babs said uncertainly.

I grinned. “Si, señorita.”


> A Return to Form
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 5:


A Return to Form




“What the hay did you just do?!” Babs said as she woozily got to her feet.

“Uh, magic?” I offered. It felt like someone had broken down a wall inside my mind with a sledgehammer. My horn was throbbing in time with my heartbeat. A headache was brewing that I could already tell was going to put my earlier one to shame. 

Babs grabbed the side of the couch to steady herself. “I remember now... I remember everything! Whatever you just did brought all my old memories back!”

I closed my eyes and massaged my temples. My pony memories lay beyond a muddled blur that I could only assume were my first few years as a human. I remembered everything that took place in Ponyville for six years, which put my earliest memories around when I was two. Amusingly, that also put my chronological age at thirty-three. 

“Un hombre,” I muttered.

Babs looked quizzically over at me. “What?”

I opened my eyes wide and yelled in a voice filled with venom. “¡Ese hijo de puta me convirtió en un hombre! Lo voy a matar!”

Babs blinked several times. “English, please! Or Equestrian, that works too—hey! I’m bilingual now!”

I ignored her and continued my rant. “He took everything from us! He ripped us from our families, dumped us here to rot, made us think we were completely different creatures, and top it all off he thinks it's funny to... thinks it's funny to... RAGGH! By all that's holy, he’d better pray I don’t find a way back to Equestria, because if I do, I’m going to shove my rapier up his—”

“—no, you won’t,” Babs interrupted. She heavily sat down on the couch. “You wouldn’t even be able to get close to him. He’d probably just turn your sword into a trout or something and put the curse back on you. Face it, Ma—er... Sweetie? Wow, I’m not actually sure what to call you now. Or myself, for that matter! Which names do you think we should use from now on?”

I did a double take at the abrupt change of topic, but considering we’d just been hit with an information overload, I let it pass. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, we didn’t stand a chance at revenge. We were just a bunch of foals that ran around and did silly things, and then a bunch of humans that lived normal lives. Discord was an age-old spirit with untold powers at his disposal. What could we possibly do to him?

I snorted and looked away. “We were ponies first. But if you think about it, that time only accounts for a fourth of our total lives now, so I'd say it’s a personal call. I’ll respond to either of my names, so call me whatever you want.”

I’d no intention of angsting over some kind of identity crisis. I didn’t want to hold Babs’ hoof through one, either. I didn’t feel any kind of separation between where one life ended and the other began, so I didn’t have an issue with thinking that both my personas were one and the same. I was slightly amused when I realized I’d been wrong about turning into Sweetie Belle, though. Kinda hard to turn into something I was to begin with.

Babs pursed her lips and looked down at the floor. “I suppose humanity’s got a bigger claim to us now, doesn’t it? It’s weird, though. Both ‘Babs’ and ‘Phil’ feel familiar to me, almost interchangeable. You’d think they’d feel like separate identities, but they don’t at all! I doubt it’s going to cause any confusion if we switch names now and then, so... I guess I feel the same way as you?”

I ran a hand through my mane. I was at a loss of what to do or even what to think. There was so much to talk about. Things were happening before I’d had a chance to process them. I looked down at my feet, for example, and saw that they’d almost finished reverting back into hooves. We probably had about a day or so before we fully turned back to our pony selves, and then we’d be stuck as aliens on foreign world with no knowledge of how to get home. Which, by the way, was currently being ruled over by a usurper who’d banished us here in the first place.

Godammit.

“Speaking of the others.” I slowly got to my feet. “We should wake them. See if we can get their memories back, too.”

Babs looked up at my stubby horn. “Do you know how you broke the curse?”

“Nope!” I said without missing a beat. “But I didn’t know what I was doing the first time, either! I’m just gonna do the same thing and hope it works!”

Babs chuckled. “I suppose that’s pretty much the approach we take for everything.” She stood up and cracked her neck. “This oughta be entertaining, at the very least.”

“Oh ye of little faith,” I teased. “When has toying with powerful forces we don’t understand ever come back to bite us in the flank?”

A part of me was surprised to find using pony mannerisms felt normal after so long, but I was willing to take it in stride. Trying to overthink things right now was just going to lead to more stress and worsening my headache, and those were the last things I wanted right now. 

Babs gave me a level look. “Two words: duct tape.”

I snickered as we went to her room. “You know, now that I think about it, that was about on par with our cutie mark escapades.”

Babs hummed in thought. “I dunno. We never got the cops called on us in Equestria.”

“The law enforcement in Equestria was ridiculously lax,” I pointed out. “I can think of three separate incidents off the top off my head that would’ve landed us in juvy had they happened on Earth.”

Babs laughed and opened the door. “Different worlds have different ways of handling things, I suppose.”

Loud, nasal snores greeted us as we walked inside the pitch-black bedroom. I turned on the light and saw Mike laying spread-eagle on the bed with her shirt draped over her eyes like a sleeping mask. Her scarlet tail poked out of the covers on the side of the bed, and her mane was a hilariously tangled mess. 

Babs poked my shoulder and whispered in my ear. “Try not to wake her if you can help it. Crankiness from lack of sleep runs in the family.”

I nodded and crept to the edge of the bed. My pony memories gave me an elementary understanding of how magic worked, but that wasn’t what I was banking on to break the curse. I remembered that unicorns built up the energy for a spell in their bodies before releasing it, and that process triggered a specific set of internal sensations, on top of requiring a considerable amount of concentration. I hadn’t felt a thing when I’d broken the curse for Babs and I, and I hadn’t been concentrating, either. My thinking was that Discord had been interrupted when he was putting the curse on me, and I suspected that had something to do with what was going on now. 

Mike was sprawled out right in the center of Babs’ queen-size bed. Gingerly, I put my weight on the mattress and stealthily leaned over her sleeping form. She snored on obliviously as I slowly lowered my horn to her forehead. 

A bright green spark formed and jolted her with a sound like static electricity.

“HUZBAGH!” 

Mike yelled and tried to sit up. I say ‘tried’ because I was still leaning over her, and she wound up headbutting me in the nose. I reared back in pain while she clutched her head, convulsing and garbling out nonsense.

“Apple Bloom!” Babs ran to her cousin. She yanked the sheets away and held her still so she wouldn’t fall off the bed. Meanwhile, I was on the floor cradling my nose and cursing in Spanish.

Mike ceased her thrashing a few seconds later. Her orange eyes fluttered open, her pupils shrinking as they adjusted to the light. She blinked several times, and when she saw Babs leaning over her, she licked her lips and spoke in a high-pitched southern twang.

“Cousin?”

Babs smiled gleefully. “Do you remember?”

Apple Bloom nodded slowly. “Yeah, I reckon I do... ah, jeez, I still got the accent and everythin’.”

Babs giggled and hugged her. “It fits you! Too bad I lost mine from living in Ponyville for that year.”

Apple Bloom returned the embrace and looked out the door. “How are we rememberin’ everything all of a sudden? Where are the others?”

“Don’t mind me,” I called from the floor. “I’m not in any considerable pain or anything.”

Babs looked over at me and rolled her eyes. “You should’ve known that was going to happen from how we both reacted before! Use your head next time.”

I scoffed. “I wasn’t even sure it was going to work at all. Excuse me for not planning out every single minute detail.” 

“Well, now you know.” Babs smirked. “And as they say, knowing is—”

“Finish that and I’ll gore you.” 

“Uh, hello?” Apple Bloom waved her hands. “Can somepony fill me in?”

“In a bit.” Satisfied that nothing was broken, I let go of my throbbing nose and headed for the door. “I’m going to do Scoots, then we can sit down and talk about this together.”

“Uh, Sweetie?” Apple Bloom called. “You might have some trouble with that. She locked the door, remember?”

I hadn’t remembered, actually. “Oh for the love of...” I threw up my hands. “I’m not waiting until morning for her to come waltzing out at her leisure! Do you have a key, Babs?”

Babs made a derisive noise. “It's a bedroom door. What, you think this is an apartment complex or something?”

I crossed my arms. I wasn’t going to let Scootaloo’s impulsiveness get in the way. I looked down at my hooves, and noted how solid they felt... like a pair of steel-toed hiking boots.

“Well, in that case.” I went out into the hallway and stood in front of the spare room. I tried the handle one more time just to make sure, then I turned around and got down on all fours. Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, the position was rather comfortable. I took a second to line myself up, then took a deep breath and bucked the door as hard as I could.

CRUNCH

The door was ripped off its hinges and sailed into the room. It crashed against the far wall with a BANG, and was immediately followed by Dylan yelling out in alarm. I straightened back up and casually walked into the dark room.

“Rise and shine, fellow Crusader!” I sang as I flicked on the light. “We’ve got a big day of adventure ahead of us!”

“Mage, what the hell?” Dylan shouted in a scratchy, feminine alto. She shielded her eyes with a blanket. “Get out! I’m not wearing any—WAAAAH! MY THING! IT’S GONE!"

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Weren’t you the one who brought that to our attention in the first place? What, did you think you were going to be exempt or something?”

Dylan whimpered and looked up at me with hurt, watery eyes. Her lower lip quivered as she fumbled for her words. “I-I…”

I immediately regretted making light of the situation. I didn’t think she’d have an issue with it, but it seemed she’d just been putting up a front to save face. This might have been a problem, but fortunately, I had a way to make her to get over it.

I softened both my voice and my eyes. “Hey, hey. I’m sorry. It’ll be all right.” I sat down on the bed and opened my arms. 

Still under the blanket, Dylan sniffled and hung her head. She scooched over to accept my embrace, and when she did, I grabbed her by the shoulders and held her steady. 

“What are—ARRGH!”

The green spark formed and hit Dylan’s forehead. She recoiled, and I quickly got up and away so as to not get hit by any flailing limbs.

“Overkill, much?”

I turned and saw Babs and Apple Bloom were at the door. Apple Bloom had tied her mane back in a ponytail and was examining the doorframe. Babs was staring me down with her hands on her hips. 

“You coulda just knocked and said you wanted to talk to her about something.” Babs clucked her tongue at the two obvious dents in the fallen door. “Or gone outside and thrown a rock, or jiggled the door handle loose, or—”

“Meh, that would've required thinking.” I lifted one of my hooves and wiggled it at her. “Plus I wanted to try these babies out. They really pack a wallop!”

“No kidding.” Apple Bloom motioned to the splintered chunks littering the doorway. “You took out half the frame with the door.”

I examined the damage with no small amount of apathy, as in all likelihood, we wouldn’t be staying here for much longer. I suspected Babs was thinking along the same lines, as she didn’t even look all that upset about the damage.

“Celestia’s sacred flank, Sweetie!”

The three of us turned and saw Scootaloo slowly sitting up while holding her head. She spoke again in a voice filled with barely-restrained anger. “A little warning would be nice the next time you want to split my head open with a rail spike!”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “I figured it was best to just get it over with. Was either that or listen to you freak out over losing your schlong.”

Scootaloo gave me the finger in response.

“You do remember though, right?” Babs interrupted. “Your past life and everything?”

A lopsided smirk crept on her face. She took a deep breath, then hopped up on top of the bed. “Assuming said past life starred me as the second-coolest pegasus this side of the Everfree? Hell yeah!” She crossed her arms like she was hugging herself. “It’s time to get crunk, Crusadaz! Gangstaloo is in the hizzaaaaaay!”

The three of us groaned in unison. 

“The world is not ready for this,” I muttered.

“I thought she was obnoxious before,” Apple Bloom said.

“Think it’s possible to put the curse back on her somehow?” Babs asked.

Scootaloo made a dismissive noise and hopped off the bed. “Ya’ll just be sippin’ on hatorade! You know you can’t be denyin’ my swagger!”

“Hey, Gangstaloo.” I picked up her jeans and threw them at her. “Put on your clothes before I bust a cap in your ass.”

Scootaloo caught the pair of jeans and stared at them for a few seconds with a blank look on her face. She looked up at me and cocked her head. 

“Why?”

“Why?” I repeated. “What you mean, ‘why?’ We can see your, well… everything!”

“Eh, she’s got a point, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said from behind me. “We’re not gonna be able to wear clothes as ponies, and we’re changin’ back real fast here. Might be good for us to get back into the swing o’things.”

“No, we—” I corrected myself and started over. “I agree we’re not going to be able to wear clothes once we turn back, but we haven’t yet, all right? We’re gonna have to go out in public at least one more time, so we may as well keep our clothes on until then. Once we get wherever we decide to go, I promise we can all run around in the nude all we want.”

Scootaloo waggled her eyebrows. “I’ll hold you to that.”

“Ugh, pegasi.” I rolled my eyes and walked out the door. “Come join us when you’re decent.”

“So you’re thinkin’ we should leave here, eh?” Apple Bloom said as I walked past her. “Where do you think we should go?”

I laughed bitterly and went back out to the living room. “Equestria, preferably. Since that’s not gonna happen, though, I figured we’d all go to one of our human families for now. That is, unless any of you have better ideas.”

Apple Bloom clicked her teeth and sat down at the kitchen table. “Can’t say that I do. Though even if we could, I’m not sure that goin’ back to Equestria’s a good idea right now.”

“Discord would just curse us again,” Babs agreed as she sat down beside Apple Bloom. “Assuming he wouldn’t outright kill us.”

Hearing them echo my earlier thoughts was comforting in that they recognized the same problem I did, but it didn’t do much for coming up with a solution. I knew it was far too early to think about getting back home, but I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about the long-term. We couldn’t just stay hidden with our human families for the rest of our lives, and even if we could, we’d all go crazy from the confinement. I wanted to make sure that the decision we made now didn’t close any doors, so I at least felt it prudent to have a few goals set in place.

“You’re assuming we’d be going back alone.” I leaned against the back of the couch and looked up at the ceiling. “I’m pretty sure that if we find a way back, it’ll be because we’ve found somepony who’s amazing at magic, not because we managed to engineer something ourselves.”

“I’ll bet Twilight could figure it out,” Babs said. “In a few days, knowing her.”

Apple Bloom perked up. “Yeah! And if we find her, she could help us find the others! We could reunite with our sisters, Sweetie! Maybe even our whole families!”

My eyes went wide as I gripped the couch. 

See my pony mother and father again? 

Reunite... with Rarity? 

"I, uh…” My mind blanked as I fumbled for words. It didn’t seem that long since I’d seen them due to only just getting back my memories of them ten minutes ago, but the reality was that it’d been twenty-five years since I’d last saw them! What would I say to them? How would they feel about me living all this time as a boy? Would they accept me unconditionally? Would they reject me because I’d changed from who I once was? 

Would they even recognize me at all?

“And how exactly do we find Twilight?” said a voice from the hallway. “Or did you overlook that tiny little detail?”

My train of thought was blissfully derailed by Scootaloo, who was now fully clothed in her wife beater and jeans. Her fuschia mane and tail were messy and spiky as always, and an unlit cigarette was hanging from her mouth.

Apple Bloom’s ears drooped, but she shook her head and stuck out her chin. “There’s gotta be a way! We can keep lookin’ on the Net—”

“I’ve been looking since you all went to bed.” Babs got up and brought the laptop to the kitchen table. She bent the screen for us, and I saw she had multiple tabs open with search results and several news media sites. “There hasn’t been anything about people turning into ponies yet.”

There was a silence as we all chewed on our thoughts. I knew we couldn’t be the only ponies Discord banished here! He would’ve at least gotten my sister and the other Element Bearers, and possibly others, too. It was only a matter of time until somepony else showed up, but would any of them have their pony memories? 

“I should probably mention this now before I forget,” I said.

The others turned to me, and I nervously cleared my throat. “When Discord put the curse on me, he was, um… interrupted by Rarity, and I think that’s why I was able to break free. It’s probably why I was able to free all of you, too.”

Babs whistled. “Sheesh, talk about lucky.”

“I’ll say.” Scootaloo said. She grinned and pretended to put on a pair of sunglasses. “You might even say it was a... lucky break.”

Apple Bloom threw a coaster at her.

“It might also mean that the other banished ponies have no way of regaining their own memories,” I said with emphasis. “They might not realize who they really are! We could be the only ones that can help them!”

“We can’t do squat if we don't know where they are.” Babs leaned back in her chair. “We may have the ‘cure,’ but that doesn't help us if we don’t know who to use it on.”

I grit my teeth. It was holding the winning numbers to the lottery without knowing where to turn them in. and only having twenty-four hours to do so. I wanted to help my family! I wanted to help my friends! I wanted to get back at that bastard DIscord for doing all of this! 

“Then we make them come to us,” I growled.

Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow. “Whaddya mean?”

“I mean screw waiting for somepony to show up somewhere!” I pointed at the computer. “If we wanna find our family and friends, we gotta let ‘em know where we are!”

Babs’ lips parted. “You don’t mean...”

“Whoa there, nelly!” Apple Bloom said. “That’s not a good path to be goin’ down!”

“Speak for yourself!” Scootaloo cackled. “I like where this going!”

“We gotta do it!” I began to pace back and forth. “The Internet is anonymous and too large, but if we if show up somewhere live on TV, like during a live news broadcast, no one would be able to deny it! We could even get a message out to our family and friends! It’d go on national TV for sure—” 

“HAVE YOU GONE INSANE?!” Babs got up and blocked my path. “You want us to go out and tell the entire world that we’re aliens from another dimension? There’d be mass hysteria! We’d be swarmed by angry mobs! We’d be taken by the government to be probed and dissected in a lab somewhere!”

I felt strangely calm as I met Babs’ clear, green eyes. “You forget, we’re also celebrities. Do you see anyone from Hollywood getting treated like that?”

"Get your head on straight!” Babs grabbed me by the shoulders. “We won’t be able to get away once we’ve shown ourselves! We’ll be tracked down. They’ll figure out who we are. They’ll take our family and friends in and tear their lives apart! Don’t you understand? Everything we’ve ever known and loved would be investigated, scrutinized, and thrown into the public eye! Do you want that for your folks? For Angie?”

I looked down at one of her hands. It was still human, but the hairs on her arms we lengthening and starting to turn brown. I looked down at my own and saw that the same was happening to me, save for with white hairs. As our humanity ebbed away from us, I couldn’t help but feel less of a connection with my Earth family. I still cared about them, yes, but I wasn’t even sure if they’d accept me as I was now. It was obvious that Babs' fear was making her conjure up the worst case scenarios, but I refused to believe that the society I’d been a part of for a quarter of a century would suddenly reveal some kind of xenophobic dark side.

I gently removed her hands and took them in mine. “I don’t think it’ll nearly be as bad as all that. If we plan our appearance and prepare a statement, we can make a good impression and up our chances of being treated fairly by the authorities. They might even help us find the others!”

Babs shook her head. “They’ll want to study us and learn more about us. They’ll ask us questions about our society and anatomy that we won’t be able to answer. I tried to say the same thing when we first broke free of the curse: face it, Sweetie, we’re in over our heads here.”

My stomach twisted as I went back and forth between her convictions and mine. A large part of me agreed with Babs. It would be easy to just sit back and wait for somepony else to come in and save the day. But what if there was nopony else? What if we were the only ones that could help everyone we knew and loved? What if us sitting back meant that we’d never get home, and Discord would rule Equestria unchallenged for eternity? Was I willing to take that chance?

“You know, contrary to popular belief, not all humans are bastards,” Scootaloo piped up.

Babs blinked. She stepped away from me and turned to her. “We’re trying to be serious here, Scoots. This isn’t the time for witty quips.”

“Ahaha, Scoots…” She smiled softly and took a long drag of her cigarette. “Now there’s a nickname I haven’t heard in forever. I only ever let you girls call me that, you know.”

Babs swished her tail. “Don’t change the subject.”

“Well excuuuuuse me for reminiscing,” Scootaloo blew a puff of smoke in her face. “I wasn’t trying to be funny. I really am with Sweetie on this. There’s a good chance this'll be treated it as a first contact scenario if we spin it right, and combined with our fame from the show, we’re practically guaranteed to be given the royal treatment. Hay, we can even say we’re ambassadors or something, and if our pony bodies haven’t aged at all, we’ll get major sympathy points. After all, who’s gonna mistreat a bunch of kids?”

Babs frowned. “There are so many things wrong with that plan, I don’t even know where to start. You can’t actually believe something like that would actually work!”

I wasn’t surprised that Scootaloo was siding with me. I figured she’d want to act rather than hide, and if she had her way, we'd probably all be out in the middle of the street trying to start a conga line. I wanted to go public, but I wanted to do it in a controlled way. 

Babs, of course, was vehemently against me. I understood her misgivings, but she was blowing things out of proportion. Perhaps I was doing the same thing in the opposite way, but at least I wasn’t completely shutting down other possibilities like she was. There would be details that would need to be ironed out, and yeah, it wouldn’t be the sunshine and rainbows deal that Scootaloo was pitching, but I felt things would work out in the end.

Which left Apple Bloom. She’d been strangely quiet for a while now, and there was an analytical look on her face I knew she only got when she was contemplating something. She’d side with Babs if push came to shove, but we’d all agreed long ago that neither her nor Babs would consciously let their family bias influence group decisions. Apple Bloom was usually the last to give her input on things, which made her the deciding vote more often than not.

I watched Apple Bloom’s eyes shift between me and her cousin. Babs and Scootaloo were going back and forth on something, but I wasn’t listening. If Apple Bloom took my side, it was three on one. If she went with Babs, we had to keep debating or come up with another idea. I felt myself sweating as her gaze met mine, and after a few tentative seconds, she winked.

“Let’s do it,” Apple Bloom said.

“—willingly hoof myself over to a scientist to—” Babs stopped in mid-sentence. “Wait, what?”

“I said let’s do it.” Apple Bloom calmly stood up and stretched her back. “Ain’t no sense hidin’ away for years and livin’ out our lives without any hope.”

“I never said we should!” Babs’ voice rose. “I just think—”

“Applejack and the others are out there somewhere,” Apple Bloom said pointedly. “They’re out there alone, confused, and have no idea who they really are. We’re the only ones who can help ‘em.”

“We can’t do anything for them if we’re in a government facility somewhere!” Babs protested. “How will they get to us if we—”

“Even if the world was as grimdark as you think it is, our captors would still help us if we told ‘em there are others like us.”  Apple Bloom grimaced and stuck out her tongue. “Granted, they’d just do it so they’d have more ponies to experiment on, but at least then we’d all be together.”

I almost pointed out the obvious hole in that reasoning, but as Apple Bloom was arguing in my favor here, I thought it best to keep quiet. It seemed Scootaloo thought the same, although if her silent laughter was any indication, she was having a harder time of it.

“What about our human families?” Babs pointed to a framed picture on the wall. On it was a picture of two dozen people standing in front of a newly-erected barn. “They’ll be dragged into this, too! We can’t just—”

“Sugarcube, look at yourself.” Apple Bloom guided Babs to a mirror that was hanging the wall opposite the stairs. Her mane was as red as an apple ready to fall, and slightly paler red streaks zigzagged all the way down her back. Her eyes were the color of summer grass, and her furry brown ears were slightly drooped from a combination of stress and anxiety. A trio of freckles adorned each of her cheeks, and her angular jaw was clenched tight with concentration.

“Even if we all kept identification on us, the humans are gonna have a hard time believin’ we’ve been living among ‘em for twenty-five years," Apple Bloom said. "The only way they’d know anything about our human families is if we told 'em.”

Babs said nothing for a while as she inspected herself. We were all having trouble coming to terms with encountering a stranger in the mirror, and it was stressful not knowing what part of our bodies was going to change next. Granted, it got easier as time went on due to the list getting shorter, but that still didn’t change that this was going to get worse before it got better. 

“Damn,” Babs murmured with a short laugh. “Half pony, half human… heh, I bet neither of my mothers would know who I was right now. I guess you got a point, Bloom, but I still don’t think just up and shoving ourselves in front of a camera is the right thing to do. You sure you wanna back Sweetie up on this?”

Apple Bloom turned to me and gave me a searching look, which I returned without comment. She and I stared at each other for a few seconds, then she stepped in between the three of us and addressed us all in turn.

“We all know we were never the ones who saved the day back in Equestria. We never were here, either, and I don’t think we’re gonna be now. We don’t got the power or courage or brains to go up against Discord, but that don’t mean we still can’t do something to help the ones that do. We got the potential to do somethin’ that’ll stick it to that dung-sucking varmint, and I’ll be darned if I’m gonna hide away like some snot-nosed yearling. We can’t afford to wait! We gotta find everypony as soon as we can, and I think Sweetie’s idea is just the way to do that. Do I like it? Not on your life. Is it gonna be hard? You bet your bottom bit. But do I think it’s the right thing to do? Yes ma’am, and that’s why I’m gonna do it, plain and simple.”

There was an awkward pause as we were all left momentarily speechless. There wasn’t much I could add onto that, and apparently Scootaloo felt the same. It was clear that Babs was in the minority with her misgivings, and as she beheld the resoluteness in Apple Bloom’s face, she knew that she’d lost. I looked out the kitchen window and saw that the sky was turning a dull pink, and when I looked back, Babs’ posture sagged and she let out a long, breathy sigh.

“All right. We’ll go with Sweetie’s idea.”

I withheld the urge to cheer. I hadn’t actually thought the others would go along with me! It seemed things were going to move faster than I thought, and now we were going to take center stage for once! Rarity and the others would see us for sure on TV, and then we’d be able… to…

And that’s when the gravity of what I’d suggested hit me full force.

We were going to go on TV.

“This is gonna be so cool!” Scootaloo rubbed her hands together. “We’re not gonna get the exposure that we need from the local TV station, though. We’ll need to go south to the city for sure.”

We were going to make global headlines; attract the attention of seven billion people.

“Good thinkin’, Scoots.” Apple Bloom shut down her laptop and began packing it up. “It’s a two hour drive to get down there, and I reckon we’re not gonna be able to drive for much longer. We’ll need to leave by mid-morning at the latest.”

Our message would be forever remembered in human history as the first encounter with a sentient alien race.

“I suppose we’re not gonna be coming back here.” Babs cast a despondent look around her home. “Let’s figure out a plan and a place to stay, then pack some things and get on the road.”

We were going to see our pony families again. I was going to see Rarity again.

“Speaking of a place to stay.” Apple Bloom turned to me. “You said Angie still lives down in the city, right? Think we can stay with her?”

Shmangie…

“Shit! Catch her!” someone yelled. “She’s gonna—”

The floor rushed up to greet me as I fainted.


> Sisters Old and New
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 6:


Sisters Old and New




“Psst! Wake up, Shmage!”

A pair of hands gently shook my sleeping form. I blearily opened my eyes, and saw a pudgy red-haired girl a few years older than me standing at my bedside. Her purple and white pajamas hung awkwardly on her teenage frame as she happily danced in place with a blanket around her shoulders.

“Come on, get up!” Shmangie smiled to reveal a mouth full of braces. “It’s Saturday!”

The words cut through my grogginess like a razor. My eyes flew open with a surge of adrenaline, and I jumped out of bed with a whoop. Shmangie and I ran out the door together, giggling all the while.

“It’s finally here, it’s finally here!” I sang as we bounded down the hall. “The new season of My Little Pony! It’s gonna be great! Twilight and Pinkie and Applejack and Rainbow and Fluttershy and… and…  shoot! Who’d I miss?”

“Rarity, tonto!” Shmangie tousled my hair. “How could you forget her? She’s only the best pony in the entire show!”

“Is not!” I said with mock indignation. “She’s second best! Twilight is the awesomest, smartest, coolest pony of all!”

“You’re in denial, kiddo.” Shmangie twirled the blanket around her like a cape. “The fabulosity of Rarity cannot be denied! One day you’ll admit the truth, and on that day, I’ll get to style your hair in any way I want!”

“Never!” I put a hand to my heart and raised my chin. “I shall stay true to the way! ¡Inteligente Púrpura ahora y para siempre!”

Shmangie laughed. She hugged me and ran her hand down my face like she was petting it. “Never change, Shmage, never change.”

We got to the living room and began the age old tradition of hunting for the remote. I searched under the couch and loveseat, but found nothing but dust bunnies. I got up and started digging through the cushions to see if it’d fallen in between the cracks when I heard Shmangie from behind me.

“The item of power has been found!” She pulled out the remote from inside the recliner and sang out a familiar, four-note tune as she held it up above her head. She turned on the TV and flipped through the cable channels to get to the Hub.

“I’m gonna get some cereal!” I dashed away to the kitchen.

“Hurry!” Shmangie called after me.

I went through the kitchen door and saw the good cereal on top of the refrigerator. As quickly as I could, I scrambled up onto the counter and snatched the sugary bounty. I didn’t bother with any milk, as Mom wouldn’t let us take liquids out into the living room.

“It’s starting!” Shmangie yelled. “¡Apúrate!”

“Coming!” I grabbed a pair of bowls and jumped down to the floor. I ran out of the kitchen and turned the corner.

The world blurred. I found myself in a circular workroom with mauve-colored walls and flowing fuchsia curtains. Featureless mannequines were carefully displayed in a row, each of them fitted with unique dresses of peerless quality. Cabinets and shelves stuffed full with fabrics and sewing materials lined the walls, and the setting sun shone in from from a bay window.

“Sweetie,” a familiar voice said from my right. “Bring the amethysts over here, would you?”

Rarity stood hunched over a workbench running a piece of cloth through a sewing machine. Not a single kind of makeup adorned her naturally fair face, but her mane and tail were in their usual elaborate coifs. A pair of sewing needles were in her mouth as she hummed to herself and adjusted her red-rimmed sewing glasses.

“You just want them on the table?” I said, paying no attention to that I was now in my pony body.

“Mmhmm,”  Rarity replied without looking up.

I trotted over to her and set down the bag I was carrying a short ways away. It became enshrouded in a blue glow, and a cloud of tiny gems floated out in her magic. Rarity interrupted her song to mutter a few complex syllables, and the amethysts dissolved into a fine dust. The dust then spread itself over the cloth and embedded itself within to give the fabric a beautiful, sparkling sheen.

“It looks so pretty!” I said eagerly. “What else can I do to help?”

“Nothing,” Rarity said. She turned off the sewing machine and placed the unfinished dress on a mannequine. “We’re done for today.” She stifled a yawn and took off her glasses. “I’m thinking it’s a take-out night. What do you say?”

My eyes lit up. “Ooh, ooh, ooh! Can we have pizza?” I started hopping circles around her. “Please, pretty please?”

Rarity chuckled at my sudden burst of energy. “I was thinking something a little more refined, but... you know what? You deserve a reward for being such a marvelous help all day. I wouldn’t have gotten ahead of this deadline without you, so pizza it is.”

“YAY!” I clapped my hooves. “Can I pick what we put on it? I want a large deep dish spinach and mushroom pizza with extra cheese and alfredo sauce!”

Rarity stared at me with unfocused eyes. She shook her head and snickered. “I think I gained two pounds from just imagining that. I suppose if we’re going to forego all restraint, we may as well get those heavenly cinnamon breadsticks Pinkie had at her last party.”

My mouth watered at the potential feast. “This is gonna be so great!” I zipped forward and enthusiastically nuzzled her side. “You’re the best sister ever!”

Rarity laughed and nuzzled me back. “I try, dear, I try.”

We walked out of the Inspiration Room together. Rarity went to the kitchen to place our order, and I went to the living room and settled down on the couch. My stomach growled in eager anticipation as I nervously shifted back and forth. I wished I could have some kind of snack while we were waiting! It was going to be at least a half-hour before the food got here! Maybe I could get some—

“That’s the new villain!” Shmangie said through a mouthful of cereal. “Ooh, he looks so freaky! How many animals do you think he’s made of?”

I blinked. Shmangie was suddenly sitting next to me and munching on a bowl of dry cereal. Her face was scrunched into a grimace as she stared at the TV across the room.

“Wait, they’re going into the hedge maze?” Shmangie rolled her eyes. “Ugh, now there’s a trap if I ever saw one. Why isn’t Celestia helping them? And where the heck is Luna?!”

“Uh… ” I began, but I stopped when I saw myself. I was nude, with my body caught halfway between human and pony. A bowl of my own was in my lap, and it was enshrouded in a field of emerald magic. I watched with fascination as several small cinnamon squares floated up and into my mouth.

“Sweetie!” 

Rarity appeared in the doorway wearing an exasperated frown.“Don’t go eating now when we’ve got dinner on the way! Say goodbye to Shmangie, and come help me set the table.”

“NO!”

Shmangie leapt off the couch and stood between me and Rarity with her arms outstretched. “You’re not Shmage’s sister anymore, I am! You don’t get to tell him what to do! He’s not even sure he wants to see you at all! Your part in his life is done, and all seeing you will do is bring him pain! Go back to Equestria where you came from and forget you ever had a sister at all!”

I was utterly dumbfounded. Why would Shmangie say something so horrible to Rarity? That’s not how family treated each other! I tried to say as much, but found that my mouth was glued shut. I tried to move, but I was paralyzed by some unknown force. All I could do was sit on the couch and look on helplessly with rising dread.

Rarity stood agape for a few seconds, but then her mouth twisted into a snarl. She stepped into the living room, and as she did, everything began to twist and blur. The room now flickered between the human and pony world like a TV channel picking up two stations at once.

“Sweetie doesn’t belong in world of barbaric, warmongering apes,” Rarity said in a quiet, dangerous voice. “She was never meant to be here in the first place! She was a pony first, she was my sister first, and there’s nothing you, or anypony else can do to change that!”

“You expect me to just give up the brother I’ve had for twenty-five years?!” Shmangie’s body shifted, and she now an adult. She was tall and slender, with long, flowing red hair that was stylishly curled at the tips. She wore a fashionable business suit that accentuated her features, and a diamond-shaped sapphire necklace glittered around her neck. Her face was flawless, save for her hazel eyes, which burned with indignant rage. 

“I was there for him whenever he was hurt!“ she snarled. ”I kept him safe and watched him grow! We experienced things together that you’ll never know, and you expect me to just throw all that away?”

“Yes,” Rarity said. She stopped a few feet away, and craned her neck to fearlessly meet the gaze of the irate alien towering over her. “I am the Element of Generosity, but if there’s one thing I’ll never give up, it’s my family. I don’t care what you did, or what moments you shared with her. I’ve already lost Sweetie once. I’m not going to lose her again.” 

I tried to squirm. I tried to scream. I couldn’t even blink or twitch. I was nothing more than a vegetable as I watched my two sisters fight. They now stared at each other in silence, neither of them willing to back down so much as an inch.

“We both know there’s only one way to solve this,” Shmangie finally said.

“Indeed,” Rarity replied icily.

As one, they both turned to me. 

“You must choose,” Shmangie said.

“You must choose,” Rarity echoed.

The living room was now gone. The couch I was sitting on melted away.The world was a blurry mess of color that swirled around us like a vortex. I still couldn’t move, but now I’d regained control of my mouth.

“Stop it!” I yelled. “Idiots, both of you! You can’t expect me to make a decision like that! There has to be another way!”

“There isn’t.” Shmangie’s eyes were cold and hard; a corrupted version of the determination and drive I knew and admired. “You are a being of two worlds, hermano, but you cannot live two lives.”

“You are displaced.” Rarity’s horn flashed, and the Element of Generosity appeared around her neck. “Out of balance with the natural order. You must decide one path or the other so that harmony may be restored.”

“Screw harmony!” I struggled as hard as I could, but it was to no avail. “I’ll find the other ponies! I’ll study magic and science and technology all my life! I’ll get the government to help me! I’ll get Twilight—no, the princesses! They have to—”

“Fruitless,” Shmangie said.

“Pointless,” Rarity said.

I felt something wrap around my neck. I was brutally yanked forward to be only inches away from both of my sisters. Their faces were now stretched and malformed with wicked, sharp teeth.

“Choose,” they said in unison. “NOW.”

“I CAN’T!” My face was now a mess of mucus and tears. My eyes were puffy and red, and my breaths came in shallow hiccups. The thing around my neck was cutting off my air, but I managed to get out a single, defiant scream.

“I LOVE YOU BOTH TOO MUCH!”

Rarity and Shmangie hesitated. They both looked at me curiously without speaking, but then, they both broke out into chilling laughter. 

“Pathetic.”

The vortex of colors pulsed, and my sisters blended into a familiar, monstrous entity. Discord towered over me with a wicked grin on his mismatched face as his eagle's claw glowed with the power of the curse.

“Did you think you’d be able to free yourself without me noticing?” Bolts of violet lightning shot out from the chaotic storm at his words, and his tail doubled its grip around my throat. “You’re nothing but a puppet to me, and I don’t like puppets who cut their own strings."

Discord snapped his fingers, and a multicolored roulette wheel appeared next to us. "Consider this a warning. Free anyone else, and I’ll make you watch as I send both your sisters to separate dimensions. Heck, I'll even let you pick which ones by taking a spin on the Wheel of Banishment!"

Among others, the wheel had a picture of a volcano, a man screaming on a pier, an accordion, a set of interlocking gears, and a bear trap. I tried to see more, but then Discord then leaned forward to press his face against mine. My vision clouded from both lack of air and mind-numbing fear, and the last thing I saw were his mad, red eyes that blazed like stars.

“Don't get in my way, gnat. Equestria is mine, now and forevermore.”



***



“DISCORD!”

I awoke with a gasp and a shout. I shot bolt upright and flailed around in a fit of confused panic, screaming all the while. 

“YOU BASTARD! IF YOU HURT EITHER OF THEM I SWEAR I’LL—”

My voice died in my throat as I realized I was alone in Babs’ room. The lights were off, the door was closed, and I was sitting on the bed with the blankets strewn about. All was silent save for the sound of my own heavy breathing.

“Damn it all...” I covered my face with my hands and sobbed. “Damn it, damn it, damn it all! What am I supposed to do now? WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?!”

Discord had us trapped. He knew we’d broken the curse. He knew we had a tool to help our friends and family, but he’d make us pay if we tried to use it. They’d all treat us like complete strangers, and there wasn’t a thing we could do about it.

“I don’t w-want to be weak anymore.” I balled my hands into fists. “I’m t-tired of not being able to help… of feeling helpless… I want t-to be able to do s-something!”

My frustration and despair pooled together into a cold, hard ball of rage. It swelled in size, filling me with the desire to inflict as much pain and suffering as possible. I didn’t care if it wasn’t right. I wasn’t interested in becoming some kind of righteous hero. I wanted revenge, plain and simple, and I’d do anything to get it.

“I want to be strong…” I lowered my hands. A strange warmth burned behind my eyes. My vision turned green, and I raised my head and screamed as loud as I could.

“I WANT TO BE STRONG!”

There was a fwoosh, followed by a high-pitched whine. A sudden pressure built up in my head, then shot out with such force that I was thrown onto my back. I yelled in surprise as I was pushed deep into the mattress, and a painful tingling circulated through my body that made my limbs seize up. The force discharged itself with a crackling, sizzling sound, and the smell of ozone filled the air.

The sensation ceased. My body went limp, my vision returned, and I rubbed my eyes as I slowly sat up with a groan. 

“What in the—oh, jeez...”

I trailed off as I beheld a scene of destruction. Well, okay, destruction was too strong a word, but I’d definitely made a mess. The pictures on the wall had been knocked askew, all the items on Babs’ dresser had been blown off, and the garbage can had been knocked over and spilled refuse everywhere. Dirty clothes were also scattered, though I wasn’t sure whether that was because I’d knocked over the hamper or they’d been like that to begin with. Most disturbing of all, though, a single charred, black line ran from the middle of the ceiling all the way down the wall behind me and onto the headboard. 

“So that’s what a Flare feels like,” I muttered. A part of me was grateful I wasn’t as powerful as Twilight, as I doubted I’d know what to do if I turned somepony into a cactus. Then again, if I had that kind of magic I’d probably be able to solve a lot of my problems. I reached up and gingerly felt my horn. It was hot and sensitive to the touch, but was rapidly cooling down. I noted that it also felt longer than before, but I didn’t have a guess as to its actual length. 

I lifted the covers to see if any other part of my body had changed. Nothing immediate was apparent, although I did notice that I was naked.

“Scootaloo!” I pounded the bed and looked around for my clothes. I didn’t see them anywhere. Babs’ clothes were all around, though, and she was the same size as me, so I figured she wouldn’t mind if grabbed some of hers. I chose a baggy white hoodie and a pair of jeans with a coffee stain at the knee. My hooves were fully formed now, so I didn’t need to bother with socks or shoes. I idly wondered how much longer I was going to have hands as I used a pocket knife I found on the dresser to cut a hole for my tail.

I pulled on the jeans with practiced ease... only to have them slide off my waist and onto the floor.

“What the?” I stared at the jeans for a moment before picking them up. I examined the tag on the back, and found they were the same size I always wore. I held them up to my waist again. Not only were an inch and a half too big, but they were also a few inches long at the leg! 

I scratched my head. What was going on? These pants should fit me! The only reason they wouldn’t was if… I was..

Oh, for Luna’s sake.

I facepalmed with an audible smack. This was something I hadn’t been sure about, but I’d sincerely hoped it wouldn’t be the case. Reverting back into a filly had its perks, the big one being an extended lifespan, but I’d had enough adventures going through puberty once. I didn’t want to repeat the experience! Ponies probably didn’t get acne, but there was undoubtedly something else just as bad I’d have to suffer through, and there was little chance I’d do so with dignity.

“Oh, to be young again,” I muttered ironically as I went over to Babs’ closet and hunted for a belt. I wasn’t going to parade around in the buff until I had most of my coat back. End of story, this was not up for debate. I found a nice green belt that matched my eyes. I pulled it out, then put on the jeans again and cinched them up.

Much better. I did a quick walk around the room to make sure the belt held. At least I knew now why the girls had taken off my clothes. Come to think of it, though, where were they? I was screaming pretty loud when I woke up there, and my Flare had to have been anything but quiet! I’d have thought they’d have come running at that, but I didn’t hear any sounds coming from anywhere in the house.

I wasn’t sure whether to be curious or fearful as I went out into the living room, but either way, the mystery was short lived. I looked out the window, and saw all three of them milling around my car. Apple Bloom was bent over the engine and pouring oil in through a funnel. Babs was stuffing a duffle bag into the trunk, and Scootaloo had just walked around from behind the shed with a bag in her hand. All three of them were clothed, even Scootaloo, though she wasn’t wearing a shirt. The reason why became quickly apparent, as she stopped and vigorously scratched her shoulder blades. Babs noticed her scratching and slapped her hand away, which earned her a one-finger salute in return.

I sighed and watched them for a few minutes. It looked like they’d gotten a lot done while I was out, and a glance at the living room clock told me it was a little after ten. I felt bad that I hadn’t been able to help them, but it looked like they had things under control. 

My mind turned back to Discord’s threat, and with a jolt, I realized that his knowledge of our freedom completely changed our plans! We couldn’t try and send a message on TV when he was watching us! He’d track Rarity and the others down, and, and…

Wait.

Why did Discord resort to threatening my family in the first place? Wouldn’t it have been easier to just put the curse back on me? I mean, I saw his hand—paw, whatever, glowing just like it was before, it didn’t make sense why he’d try to frighten me into cooperating unless—

“Hey, Sleeping Beauty!”

I jumped. Scootaloo was making her way up the stairs while scratching her back. “Welcome back to the land of the living! Guess this means I don’t get to kiss you awake. Too bad.”

“Scoots,” I said. “We’ve got a problem.”

She raised an eyebrow. “A new problem? Or are you referring to the splendiferous clusterfuck we’re currently trying to claw our way out of?”

I stared levelly at her. “Discord knows we broke the curse.”

Scootaloo stopped at the top of the stairs. Her face fell, and her ears drooped. “So the former, then.”

I took her hand and pulled her over to the kitchen table. “He appeared to me a dream, and told me that if we tried to free anyone else—”

“Hold on.” Scootaloo put her other hand on my shoulder. “You’re gonna have to explain in the car. We’re getting smaller by the minute, and we’re not gonna be able to drive to the city if we hold out much longer. We gotta get to Angie’s now.”

I bit my lip. I wasn’t sure if going to Angie’s was the right thing to do anymore. On the one hand, Discord seemed pretty insistent that going against him would result in severe consequences. On the other, his actions in the dream didn’t make any sense. Could he just not reapply the curse in a dream? Did he not have access to the human world? Why would he make his knowledge of our actions known instead of just hunting us down and taking us out?

Something more was going on. I wasn’t sure what it was, but if my suspicions were right, it meant that Discord was putting on an act. A rather successful act, mind you, but an act nonetheless. It seemed that our next moves would have to be planned carefully, but there was no way in Tartarus that I was going to flat-out stop. That bastard had threatened my family, and for that, I was going to make him pay.

I let go of Scootaloo’s hand. “All right. Is everything ready to go?”

“Mostly,” she said. “We packed up everything while you were out, but we haven’t been able to get ahold of Angie. I know she’s really busy these days, but we’re on a timeline here. We’d figured we head down there anyway and weather the freakout, so I came in here to get you so we could go... and also so I could scratch my freaking back in peace!”

I clicked my teeth. I really wished Shmangie was better about returning calls, but she’d always been that way. She didn’t even call our parents back half the time! Scootaloo was right, though, we didn’t have time to putz around. We were just gonna have to show up and hope she didn’t throw too many things at us.

I walked around to see Scootaloo’s back. None to my surprise, it was covered in soft, orange feathers that were lined up in angular, overlapping rows. I brushed a few back, and saw that the quills were protruding directly out of her skin.

“Gaaaah, gentle, gentle, gentle!” Scootaloo said in a desperate voice. “They don’t have any magic in them yet, so they’re just normal feathers! I already broke one of them taking off my shirt, and it hurt like hell to pull out!”

“Sorry!” I said quickly. Her actual wings hadn’t started forming yet, so right now it just looked like she had a feathery blanket wrapped around her back. I left the nascent appendages alone and gathered my presents from beside the living room table. I tied the rapier to my belt, then gestured to the door.

“Shall we?”

Scootaloo smiled and raised her fist in the air. “For great justice!”



***



The car ride to the city took a little over two hours. I told the others about Discord’s threat in that time, and they came to the same conclusion that it didn’t make sense. There was the possibility that it was nothing more than a dream and we shouldn’t pay attention to it, but we were all pretty open to the possibility of dream communication at the moment. Discord obviously hadn’t spared me out of the goodness of his heart, but as to what his true motives were? We didn’t have a clue.

“I’m bettin’ he ain’t watching us all the time,” Apple Bloom said. She was the one driving the car, as she was the tallest of us when we were fillies. “He may be powerful, but he ain’t omnipotent. He prolly got somethin’ tied into his magic that lets him know when somepony messes with it.”

“He knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you’re awake…” Scootaloo was sitting beside me in the backseat heartily munching away from the bag that I’d seen her carrying earlier. It turned out that it was filled with leaves. I was surprised at first, but then I’d felt my teeth and realized I’d lost my incisors. I’d joined her in the snacking after that.

“So as long as we don’t free anypony else, we can stay under the radar?” Babs stared out the window through the drawn hood of her hoodie. “Are we just gonna not tell ponies we can get them their memories back?”

“Unless you see an alternative,” I said. I was concentrating on a small pebble resting in my palm. My vision zoomed on it, and I felt all its contours inside my mind. I felt the warm feeling behind my eyes again, and my horn glowed with emerald light. With a small hum, the pebble became enveloped in my telekinetic aura and hovered up a few inches in the air.

“Nice, Sweetie!” Scootaloo poked the floating pebble. “You’ll be slinging fireballs and lightning bolts in no time!”

I snorted and let the pebble fall. “It’s not much of a feat to do something all unicorns can to do by the time they’re ten. If anything, I’m a few decades behind the curve.”

“Hey, so am I!” Scootaloo pointed to her back. “Thirty-three years old and I’m still a dodo! We can go to remedial classes together! I hear this week they’re learning how to count to potato.”

“Better study for that one,” Babs said while barely keeping a straight face. “I hear it’s on the final.”

“I see an alternative, Sweetie.” Apple Bloom cut in. “We could let ponies know what the risks are, and ask ‘em if they’re still willing to go through with it. Course, that’s dependant if whether or not you’re willing to take the risk. From the way you’re talkin’, I’m not sure if you are.”

I didn’t reply. It was true that this whole memory thing was riding on me, and I was the one who’d pay if we drew Discord’s ire. I loved both Rarity and Shmangie more than words could express, and I didn’t think it was fair to make this kind of decision without talking to both of them. 

I wish I’d told the others as such, but fortunately, I didn’t need to. Without me even saying, they all understood how I felt.

“This is the exit, Bloom.” I motioned to the upcoming turn off the highway and pulled out my phone. “I’ll keep trying to get ahold of Shmangie.”

“Got it,” she said.



***



Shmangie had done well for herself in the years since she’d struck out on her own. Choosing to forego college, she went straight into the workforce and began working at a fitness center while living with a group of friends. She’d learned a great deal about the inner workings of a business as she made her way up the chain, and by the time she would’ve graduated with a bachelors, she was in charge of her own club and was being looked at for a district. Recently, she’d been allocated into human resources, and was now in charge of hiring for clubs in four states. Her above-average income, lack of a student loan payment and social network allowed her to nab a townhouse in the suburbs for cheap, and it was this townhouse that we currently found ourselves in front of.

“Doesn’t look like she’s home,” Babs said. “Should we wait?”

“Ergh, I don’t know!” I re-dialed her number for what was probably the hundredth time. It wasn’t even ringing anymore, just going straight to voicemail. I’d already left four messages. “She’s bad about answering her phone, but never this bad!”

Apple Bloom squinted at the dark windows of the two-story home. “Think somethin’ happened to her?”

“Better not have,” Scootaloo growled. “Else we might have to buck some faces.”

My sister had always been a responsible sort, so it wasn’t much surprise that she’d been roped into keeping an eye on the four of us several times over the years. Fortunately, Shmangie was awesome, so it wasn’t an issue. The others were very fond of her as a result, and as Scootaloo was currently demonstrating, more than a little protective.

“Let’s not call in an orbital strike just yet,” Apple Bloom said dryly. “You know where she works, right, Mage?”

I nodded. “About fifteen minutes from here.”

Apple Bloom shifted the car back into drive. “Tell me where I’m goin’.”

“And what are we gonna do when we get there?” Babs gave us all a pointed look. “We’re not exactly presentable. We don’t even look much like our human selves anymore.”

“We’re not that far-gone yet,” Scootaloo said. “Well, you three aren’t, at least. My wings are starting to come in. If I put on a shirt it’ll look like I’ve got a tumor.”

I couldn’t help but notice that I couldn’t see as far out the window anymore. I’d already readjusted my belt twice, and it was already starting to get loose again. Apple Bloom was having to raise her chin higher and higher to see over the steering wheel, and at the rate we were shrinking I guessed we had about an hour before we ran out of time. I supposed we could try having one of us steer while another worked the pedals, but that seemed like a monumentally stupid idea.

“I’ll go in,” I said. “You girls stay out here and keep the car going.”

“You’re not gonna be able to hide your horn,” Babs said with a tap to her forehead.

I looked at myself in the rearview mirror. My cheeks had become fuller, my eyes were wider, and my chin looked almost pointed. I looked like a girl in her pre-teens, and combined with my furry ears, cute little horn, and locks of mane spilling around my neck, I was reasonably sure I was downright adorable.

“Don’t worry,” I said with a mischievous grin. “It won’t be a problem.”

“What’re you gonna say?” Apple Bloom asked.

“What do you think?” I pulled out the pocket knife again and started cutting my pants so I wouldn’t trip. “I’m gonna ask for Shmangie.”

Scootaloo pulled out a second knife and helped me with the other pant leg. “Isn’t she a big-wig now or something? I doubt they’re gonna let you just see her without a reason.”

I laughed. “Oh, I'll give them a reason.”



***



“Hello, Ms. Raimundo?” a woman in her early twenties said over the phone. “Yes… yes, I know you’re going over the membership figures with Tony… yes, I know you’re technically on your lunch break, but a little girl showed up at the front desk and you’re the only one here who speaks Spanish...”

“¿Dónde está Mamá!”  I wailed with very convincing tears. “¿Dónde está Papá! No quiero estar más aquí! Da miedo y huele raro y me quiero ir a casa!”

“Hey, hey it’s okay.” An older guy said in a soothing voice. He was crouched next to me and was trying to give me a candy bar. “We’ll find your parents, don’t worry.”

I ignored him and continued to bawl. 

The man ran a hand through his wispy hair. “Frick, it’s been twenty years since I took Spanish… um... ¿Cómo te…yannas? Yalos? Yaras?”

It was evil. It was wrong. It was glorious in every definition of the word. No one even questioned why I was wearing a pony ‘costume.’ I was a panicked minor without a guardian, and the law said they had to take care of me whether they liked it or not. They’d taken me to a daycare room filled with toys and small plastic playground slides, and the woman was over by the door talking with my sister. I wasn’t sure how she’d gotten a hold of her. Maybe Shmangie had a work phone she hadn’t told me about? Regardless, I could hear the exchange thanks to my heightened hearing.

“No, no English at all.” The woman spared a quick glance at me. “She just walked in from the parking lot and started crying… dressed up like a unicorn of all things, I think she’s supposed to be in a play or something… no, I haven’t called the police yet, I made an announcement over the PA and was waiting to see if anyone came up to claim her… alright…. yes… she’s in the kids’ room right now with Dan and I… okay, yes, we’ll try to calm her down... two minutes? Thanks.”

I withheld my sigh of relief. My biggest worry was that someone other employee here that spoke Spanish, but I’d lucked out. I kept up the waterworks for a little while longer, then gradually dialed it back until I was quiet. The man whose name was apparently Dan was still trying to ask me questions in abysmal Spanish, but I turned away and sat down with my knees hugged against my chest.

The smell of cinnamon perfume tickled my nose as the door opened with a beep. Shmangie walked in wearing a stark white, knee-high skirt with matching jacket and high heels. The same diamond-shaped sapphire necklace from my dream caught my attention as she spoke a few words with the woman at the door, then dismissed her and made a beeline for me.

A flicker of recognition crossed Shmangie’s eyes as she closed the distance. My heart skipped a beat, but then I heard her mutter the reason why under her breath. 

“Dios, that’s a good Sweetie costume.”

I fiddled with my hands and tried not to look at her. No matter, I hadn’t really expected her to know it was me anyways. That was why I had a Plan B.

The click, click, click of Shmangie's hurried steps made Dan look up. He patted my shoulder and stood to address her.

“Hey, sorry to drag you away. I got her to stop crying, but now she won’t say anything at all. Maybe she’ll—”

As soon as Shmangie was close enough, I sprung up and zipped behind her in a flash. I whimpered and buried my face in the small of her back.

“Miedo hombre,” I said.

There was a dead silence. Shmangie stiffened from my sudden movement, but then my words registered with her. She looped an arm around me and pushed me completely behind her.

“Dan,” Shmangie said slowly, “what did you say to her?”

“Nothing!” Dan held up his hands. “Well, I did try to ask her some questions in Spanish, but I don’t remember much so I might’ve accidentally—”

“Out. NOW.”

I shivered as I remembered all the times that commanding, authoritative tone had been directed at me. I couldn’t see Dan’s face, but I could guess what his expression looked like. He didn’t argue further, he walked past us and left without comment. 

It was only when the door had shut did Shmangie squeeze my shoulder and kneel down to be eye level with me.

“What’s your name, sweetie?” she asked in Spanish.

I smiled warmly at her. “Your favorite season is fall.”

Shmangie blinked. “What?”

I took a deep breath and spoke as quickly and clearly as I could. “You had plastic surgery on your nose from when you fell off a swing and landed face-first your sophomore year. You love to draw, especially black and white portraits. You once spent an entire month sleeping on your back with your arms crossed because you thought you were a vampire. Your favorite chip flavor is sour cream and onion. You used to throw a blanket in the dryer right before we were leaving for school because your first car didn’t have heat. You’re a huge Batman fan and you secretly have a crush on the Joker. You don’t like taco seasoning, so Mom always had to fry your portion of the meat separate.”

Shmangie’s jaw was slack. She was reeling from the torrent of memories and random facts I’d spewed at her. There was new recognition in her eyes now, but it was tainted with fear and disbelief.

“How do you...”

I kept going. “You once got grounded for a week for throwing a party while Mom and Dad were gone. To this day, you think I told on you despite my repeated insistences that I didn’t. You held my hand the entire time I had to get stitches in my eyebrow. Your favorite color is blue. We used to have a dog that would hide behind the toilet whenever there was a thunderstorm. You once ruined an entire load of laundry because you accidentally poured in bleach instead of detergent. You hate coming home because Mom always nags you about getting a boyfriend. You absolutely love My Little Pony, you’re goddamn TERRIBLE about answering your phone, and most importantly of all, you’re one of the people I love most in this world.”

The fear in her face faded away. Her hand on my shoulder tightened. The disbelief morphed into incredulousness, and she whispered one word that carried all the weight of the world.

“Shmage?”

A new tear escaped my eyes, this one as real as they come. 

“Shmangie.” I ran my hand down her face like I was petting it. “I need your help.”


> The Abandoned Destiny
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 7:


The Abandoned Destiny




“Of course my phone charger stops working the weekend everything goes to hell.” Shmangie rubbed the bridge of her nose. “My BFF gets stranded in the middle of the city, my senior salesperson up and quits on me out of the blue, and now my brother and his friends discover that they’re actually the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Just… rage. So much rage.”

Shmangie’s house was a spacious, two-story home with wooden floors and cream-colored walls. The furniture was mostly leather, and almost everything looked either new or barely used. Various black and white-portraits hung on the walls that Shmangie had made herself, with two of them being of me and another a group portrait of the girls and I. A sense of emptiness lingered in the air along with the smell of fresh paint, and Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, Babs, and I now sat together on a cushy couch while watching Shmangie, who was pacing back and forth as I finished recounting everything that’d happened in the last thirty-six hours.

“It could’ve been worse,” Scootaloo said. We’d all continued shrinking, and were now around three feet tall. Our clothes, save for mine, lay in a pile in front of the couch, and Scoots now bent down to pull a cigarette out of her jeans. “We could’ve discovered that we’ve each been injected with the cells of a dead alien that landed on Earth millions of years ago, and is now slowly taking over our minds in an effort to revive itself.”

Shmangie looked over at Scootaloo with a measured stare. In a fluid motion, she walked over and snatched the cigarette away. 

“Ponies don’t smoke,” she said.

Scootaloo’s eyes widened. “HEY! I—”

Shmangie crushed the cigarette in her hand. She held out the other, and repeated herself with terrifying, utter finality.

“Ponies. Don’t. Smoke.”

Scootaloo gulped. She hunched down and nodded while handing over the pack.  “T-That’s right. They d-don’t.”

I snickered. I’d mentioned before that Shmangie babysat all of us all the time when we were younger. What I didn’t mention was the unspoken authority that still lingered, even now.

Shmangie tossed the cigarettes into a wastepaper bin. She closed her eyes, collected her thoughts, then took a deep breath and addressed us all in a calm, patient voice. 

“You did the right thing in coming to me for help. God only knows the temptation must’ve been strong to give in to panic and hide away somewhere, so thank you for not doing that. I want you all to know that regardless of what you look like, or who you once were, you’re still the same mischievous munchkins I used to play video games with. I’ll make sure your families know that come hell or high water.”

There was a collective sigh of relief. It was one thing to assure yourself that what you’re doing is right, but having somepony you looked up to agree with you is quite another. 

“Second.” Shmangie met my eyes. “You’re not going on TV. I get that you want to find the other ponies, but you’ll do more harm than good by hijacking a live broadcast. Everyone would see you, kiddo, everyone. Both good and bad, ponies and non-ponies, you’ll be the talk of the entire world.”

I held back the urge to shudder and straightened up. “That’s kinda the point. Going on TV is the bargaining chip we’ll need when we start talking with the government.”

Shmangie shook her head. “You don’t need to go that far yet. Make a website on the Internet. Post on forums or Tumblr or Reddit or Facebook. Make a movie and post it on Youtube! You’ll be able to maintain your anonymity that way, and—”

“—we’ll only attract creepers, doubters, flamers, and trolls.” I idly swung my legs back and forth. “We need something concrete. Something nopony can doubt! The anonymity of the Internet is only going to work against us in that regard. We gotta do something extreme.”

“We don’t like it either, Angie,” Apple Bloom said. She gestured to herself and the others. “But we don’t see any other way. We were hopin’ we could stay in your house while we figure the best way to go about it. Try to minimize the collateral, if ya get me.”

Shmangie stopped in her tracks. She slowly turned to Apple Bloom, and stared at her for several seconds with an unreadable expression.

Apple Bloom shifted uncomfortably. “Uh, what?”

“You…” Shmangie twitched. “Have... the accent.”

Apple Bloom blushed and put a hand behind her head. “Heh, yeah. I got it back when Sweet—IEEEEE!”

Shmangie pounced on Apple Bloom and began hugging the ever-living daylights out of her.

“THAT'S SO FREAKING CUUUUUUUTE!" she squealed.

The three of us burst out laughing. In all honesty, I was surprised Shmangie had lasted as long as she had. My guess was that the crisis portion of all this had suppressed her inner pegasister, and so she’d shifted into ‘manager mode.’ The scales could only be imbalanced for so long, though, even if Shmangie dealt with insane, stressful situations for a living. Heck, this wasn’t even the worst she’d seen, if some of the stories she’d told me were to be believed.

“I can’t believe this is happening!” Shmangie sang as she spun in circles with Apple Bloom. “I can’t believe ponies are real! I can’t believe Equestria is real! I mean it sucks that Discord banished you, but I can’t get over that I babysat the Cutie Mark Crusaders! Fluttershy has got nothing on me! My own bro—sister, sorry, is Sweetie Belle! Oh my God, that means I’m—”

Shmangie gasped. She dropped Apple Bloom on the ground, who swayed back and forth while her eyes did loop-de-loops. Shmangie looked over at me with a devious grin.

I gulped.

Shmangie walked over to me. Scootaloo and Babs paled and scrambled out of the way. I found myself alone in my sister’s shadow as she stood in front of me with her hands on her hips.

“Say it,” she commanded.

I had a moment of confusion, but then my stomach dropped out. I tried not to show it and put on my best innocent look. 

“Say what?”

Shmangie didn’t buy it for a second. “Nuh-uh. Finally, we can put this argument to rest! Admit the truth at long last!”

I considered maintaining the argument just for the sake of arguing. Unfortunately, I didn’t see a way out this time. She had me pegged, we both knew it, and I couldn’t have denied it for much longer, anyways. 

With great reluctance, I swallowed my pride, hung my head, and muttered out my defeat.

“Rarity is best pony.”

“YES!” Shmangie crowed and cackled like a maniac. “Victory is mine! Your hair... er, mane, is mine to do with as I will!”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said, trying not to smile myself. “Enjoy your moment in the sun. I’ll turn the tables soon enough.”

My plan was foolproof. First, I’d let her live out every brony and little girl’s dream. Then, once she’d raised my adorable factor to astronomical levels, I’d unleash all my cuteness and put her in a diabetic coma. Oh yes, my pride wouldn’t stay wounded for long. All I had to do was bide my time, and sweet vengeance would be mine. I wasn’t looking forward to spending quality time with my sister, nor did I want to engage in girl talk or see how I looked in various braids.

Nope. Not at all.

“Sorry to cut your sibling rivalry short,” Babs said as she helped Apple Bloom to her feet. “But we should get back on topic.”

“Nah, don’t bail Sweetie out,” Scootaloo said with a wry smirk. “I wanna see her get glomped next.”

“Note to self,” Apple Bloom muttered raspily. “Keep mouth shut around bronies and pegasisters.”

Shmangie winced. “Sorry, Mikey. I couldn’t resist.”

“It’s all right,” Apple Bloom said. She then turned to me. “I’m startin’ to think we need a different plan, Sweetie.”

“What?” I said. “Why?”

Apple Bloom motioned to Shmangie. “What she just did is piddles compared to what a mob of fans’ll do. Even if we do turn ourselves in to the feds or whatever right after goin’ on TV, are they gonna be able to protect us?”

I rolled my eyes. “Unless they have anti-riot gear and weaponry for some other reason. That won’t happen if we plan things, though.”

“But what about other ponies?” Apple Bloom sat down on the floor. “We could start a worldwide hunt if we just up’n say the others could be anywhere and we’re tryin’ to find ‘em. Should we really be blowin’ the lid off all this so soon?”

I squared my shoulders. “The whole point of this is so we can choose how ponies get introduced to the world. We can start things on the right foot by taking the initiative, and then we can direct that hunt to find somepony before it’s too late! It’s easy to just want to hide away like Shmangie said. What if a pony is alone, does just that, then they wind up getting hurt or sick?”

“You can’t only think of the good things and then act like you know what’s right,” Babs cut in. “Hiding might very well be the best thing for some ponies to do! Did you ever stop to think that other governments may not be excited to hear that they have aliens dwelling within their own borders?”

I flattened my ears. Why was Babs always such a downer? I understood she was still opposed to my idea, but jumping to the worst possible outcomes all the time created nothing but indecision and paranoia. I understood she was scared. We all were, but I wasn’t going to let my fear control me, and I didn’t want hers to control her.

“I don’t hear you coming up with any better ideas,” I snapped. “All I hear you doing is listing off all the reasons for why mine will only make things worse!”

“Because it will!” Babs folded her arms. “We’ve barely come up with any ideas at all on what to do, and you wanna gamble our futures on something we can’t go back on without considering the repercussions!”

“Tell me, then!” I mockingly waved a hand at her. “What should we do, Babs? How can we find our friends and family when the majority of them are trying to hide?”

“Duh! We do what Angie’s saying!” Babs leaned on the coffee table. “How about we try some less extreme things first instead of banking everything on a crazy gambit? We don’t have anything to lose by posting on the Internet!”

“Neither does anypony else,” Scootaloo drawled. “Which is why you can find everything from legitimate info to brain bleach. Our claims are gonna be tame in comparison to half the shit that comes up in a Google search. Not only that, but there’s also the sheer size of the ‘teh Interwebz.’  A couple hundred forum posts and a few Youtube vids is just gonna be lost in the chaos.”

“Uh, girls?” Shmangie said. 

“It’s still safer than what you two want to do.” Babs pointed an accusing finger at me and Scootaloo. “Our actions could decide whether a friend, neighbor, a family member lives or dies! Think about that for a second!”

I felt my frustrations rise. “You think I haven’t?! Here’s a brutal truth for you: anypony unfortunate enough to be in a country that terrorizes its own civilians never stood much of a chance to begin with. Heck, they may have already died years ago! The longer we go without finding the others, the greater chance there is somepony will never get home!”

Did I want it to be true? Of course not. Was it realistic? Very much so. The world was huge, and it was delusional to think that every single pony had been deposited in a first-world country. It was horrible, but we needed to accept the likelihood that at least one pony was already buried here. I wanted to find as many as soon as we could so that number stayed low.

Babs glared at me, but Apple Bloom stepped in to continue. “That’s exactly why we can’t just rush into this, sugarcube. We need to try some smaller things first, test the waters and see how people react. We won’t be able to try anything else after we go on TV, so we might as well try some smaller things before we jump to the big finale.”

“We. Have. No. Time!” I viciously pointed to a clock on the wall. “What neither of you seem to get is that putting a message out on the Internet is like casting a few lines into the ocean and expecting to catch a few specific fish! Maybe if you’d come to college with me like I literally begged you to, you’d understand that!”

“Girls!“ Shmangie said again.

“Oh, heeeeeeere we go!” Babs rolled her eyes and raised her hands in the air. “I was wondering when you were gonna bring this up. Every single damn time you come home, all you do is harp on us for not coming with you on your useless descent into eternal debt!”

“I do not!” I said hotly. “And don’t call it useless! It would’ve let me do more with my life than all of you combined before all this happened!”

“Excuse us for not needing a pricey piece of paper to know what to do with our lives!”  Scootaloo’s normal cocky grin turned into a hard scowl. “Don’t turn this into one of your pathetic, cardboard speeches on the benefits of college. You didn’t listen when we told you we wouldn’t make it through. You just wanted us to come with so you wouldn’t be lonely!”

“Because I was!” I snarled and bared my teeth. “Every day I walked alone to class, every meal I ate alone, every freaking time I saw other groups of friends talking, laughing, enjoying themselves, all I could think about was the three of you, and how you weren’t there with me! I missed you! I wanted you all to succeed alongside me! Realizing that you’d be doing nothing but farming and retail jobs for the rest of your lives hurt me! A LOT!”

“When are you gonna open up those damn ears of yours and start listenin’ to the things we tell ya?” Apple Bloom’s voice wasn’t raised, but her irritation was still evident. “Neither people nor ponies got the same definition when it comes to happiness. Money ain’t somethin’ the three of us hold in high regard, and we don’t gotta go nowhere or learn new things to do things we wanna do. We woulda been miserable, Sweetie, and you’da been miserable too watchin’ us fail and drop out.”

“You wouldn’t have failed!” I insisted. “The three of you are smart, whether you want to admit it or not! You just didn’t want to go because you were afraid of taking a risk, just like now!”

“And you never listened because you’re too selfish, just like now!” Babs retorted.

“¡NIÑOS!”

My hair stood on end. I reluctantly turned and saw Shmangie wearing a very familiar frown. She looked down on the four of us through icy slits, and we all immediately fell silent and became very interested in the floor.

“I’m beginning to wonder if changing back into fillies is affecting your maturity.” Shmangie clucked her tongue. “Then again, the four of you never saw eye-to-eye on this in the first place, so maybe you just like opening up old wounds. Shmage, going to college isn’t the end-all, be-all path. I never saw much point in it, either, and I think you’ll agree I’m getting by just fine.”

I tried to hide my wince as my pride took another big blow. I felt a not-so-subtle nudge in the small of my back as Scootaloo poked me with her elbow.

“But.” Shmangie focused on the others. “You all know, or at least should know, that Shmage loves you like family. Families want each other to be happy, and he’s—she’s seen and experienced things you haven’t. How many times do you think she saw or did something in college, and thought at least one of you would’ve enjoyed it?”

Shmangie’s eyes softened, and she knelt down to be at eye-level with us. “You can’t afford to be at each other’s throats. You’ve been through a lot already, but you’ve got a lot more ahead of you before things finally settle down. It’s going to be hard enough as it is. Don’t make it any worse than it has to be.”

I pursed my lips. Leave it to Shmangie to hammer a point home without losing sight of the big picture. A part of me was irked that she’d remained neutral, but that would’ve made her a hypocrite. Deep down, I knew all the things that she and Apple Bloom were saying were true, but I was overriding their opinions with mine. They thought they knew what they wanted out of life because they hadn’t been exposed to very much. They were content with what they had going in our hometown because it was all they knew. I was basically saying I knew better than them, and if they’d just give me a chance to prove it to them, they’d see that I was right.

Too bad they were just as stubborn as me in that regard. Or who knows? Maybe that was a good thing.

“I think you could use some time apart,” Shmangie said after no rebuttal or reply came from any of us. “Shmage, come with me. The rest of you can make yourselves at home.”

Scootaloo perked up. “Does that include the fridge?”

Shmangie’s lips twitched. “Stay away from my wine, Little Miss Minor.”

“Deal!” Scootaloo zipped away in an orange blur. “I’m so hungry I could e—EEEAAAAAHH!”

It was then we discovered that running on smooth, polished surfaces like wooden floors doesn’t work well with hooves. Scootaloo slipped flat onto her face, and her momentum carried her all the way out to the far wall where she landed with a CRASH!

Shmangie facepalmed. “Es décimo grado todo de nuevo…”

“Ponis y todos los,” I agreed.

“I’m okay!” Scootaloo said.

“Come on, Babs.” Apple Bloom went over to our pile of clothes and pulled her tent-like shirt back on. “Let’s go get the rest of the stuff outta the car before we’re back on all fours.”

“Was wondering why my back was starting to hurt,” Babs muttered as she followed.

I glanced down at my own legs and noticed that my coat had started to spread up from my hooves. It was thick, incredibly soft, and pure white like I remembered. I also noticed that my hips had taken on an equine shape, and a dull, seeping pain was in the small of my back.

Shmangie noticed my grimace. “Want me to carry you?”

I looked at her with deadpan. “You just want an excuse to hold me.”

Shmangie giggled. “Maaaaaaayyyybe.”

I sighed and held out my arms. I figured I may as well let her get it out of her system in controlled doses rather than have her go into fangirl-mode again. Besides, I wasn't entirely opposed. It’d been a hard couple of days.

Shmangie came over and picked me up with ease. She hesitated, then bounced me up and down a few times with a confused look on her face.

“Wow,” she said. “You’re a lot lighter than Mikey!”

“Hey!” Apple Bloom shouted.

Shmangie held back a laugh and balanced me on her hip. “I didn’t mean it like that! Are earth ponies supposed to be heavier than unicorns?”

I nodded. “Their magic makes their bodies denser. That, and Apple Bloom’s always had more muscle from doing chores at Sweet Apple Acres every day.”

Apple Bloom’s eyes went huge. “You sayin’ I mighta got my Geomancy back?!”

Babs’ mouth formed into an ‘o’, and she did a happy little dance in place. “Ooh, ooh! I could have, too!”

“Geomancy?” Angie asked.

“Official name for earth pony magic,” I whispered. “Applebucking, crop growing, horticulture, rock farming, and a few other things. Unicorn magic is called Arcana, and pegasus magic is Tempulari.”

“Really?” Shmangie whispered back. “Why wasn’t that ever in the show?” 

I shrugged. “I’m not even sure how the show came to be in the first place.”

“We need to do a test!” Apple Bloom said in an excited voice. “Quick, Angie! Do you have any trees in your backyard?”

Shmangie blinked. “A few, yes, but they’re not apple trees—”

“Don’t matter!” Apple Bloom was already gone, skidding and narrowly avoiding crashing into walls as she made her way to the back porch. Babs followed close behind.

“Wait!” I called after them. “Somepony might see you!”

“It’s fine,” Shmangie said. “It’s the middle of the day and the backyard is completely fenced in. Besides, they’ll just be mistaken for a couple of kids in costumes like you were at the club. I still can’t believe you pulled the language card, by the way.”

I chuckled. “Hey, sometimes you gotta play the hand you’re dealt.”

Shmangie took me down the hallway and into her room. It was decorated like the rest of the house, but there were several things I immediately recognized as mementos or things with sentimental value. A faded poster from one of the Batman animated movies. A worn bookshelf filled with various books and graphic novels. A desk covered with various pencils and drawing paper, and my personal favorite, a medium-sized Rarity plushie I’d gotten her for Christmas one year.

Shmangie set me down on the queen-sized bed and shut the door. She took off her sapphire necklace and outer jacket, then sat down at the desk chair and gave me a concerned look.

“How you holding up?”

I made a tired noise and fell back on the bed. “My mind’s a pile of blegh, my body’s changing by the minute, and I’m so overwhelmed by everything I’ve lost that I can’t decide if I wanna scream, cry, or break something.”

“You don’t look that bad,” Shmangie said. “Well, considering what you could look like, anyway. It just looks like your human parts have been traded for pony ones. Imagine what it’d be like if your entire body was all slowly shifting at once.”

I tried very hard not to imagine that. Honestly, I did. I failed miserably, but let it be known that an effort was made. I now knew what was going to be haunting my nightmares when Discord wasn’t hijacking them.

“Thanks for that,” I groaned as I felt my stomach turn. “I needed something to distract me from thinking about my past life.”

“Sorry,” Shmangie said. “How much do you remember? Did everything from the show actually happen?”

“Mostly.” I compared my memories to what I recalled of the show. “They got a few things wrong here, exaggerated a few others there, but it was dead-on for the most part.”

“What did they get wrong?” Shmangie crossed her legs. “Give me an example.”

“Nothing huge.” I sucked on my teeth. “The battle with the buffalo at Appleoosa wasn’t actually fought with pies, the Flim-Flams were cousins, not brothers, and everypony knew that Twilight and Shining Armor were related long before he got married to Cadance.”

Shmangie motioned to the plushie. “What about you and Rarity? What was the age difference? How often did you visit her?”

I stared at the ceiling with unfocused eyes. “She was twenty, I was eight. I was an unexpected addition to the family, but they loved me just the same. Mom and Dad had to work late a lot, but it wasn’t an issue until Rarity moved out. I started visiting her about once a week then, although sometimes it was more than that.”

“What was she like?” Shmangie held the doll up to her eyes. “Around you, I mean. Obviously I’ve an idea of who she was around her friends, but the way we act with family is different.”

I closed my eyes, and hundreds more memories washed around me like I was a rock in a stream. The times Rarity was angry. The times she was sad. Her successes. Her failures. Her flaws. Her strengths. Her quirks. Her ideals. Her feelings towards our parents. The sacrifices she made to be an entrepreneur. Her tendency to always give more than she received. Her somewhat misguided ideals about true love. Her selfless soul. Her fake accent. Her loving smile. I saw everything, not just the mask she put on when she was in front of the world. I was the stage hand who knew what went on behind the curtain, and while I had the complete picture, there were certain unspoken rules that came with it.

I sat up and met Shmangie’s eyes. I chewed on my lip for a few seconds, then asked a question of my own.

“If Rarity were to ask me the same question about you, how would you want me to answer it?”

Shmangie opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She looked at the plushie in her hands and turned it over several times without saying anything. Finally, she adjusted her hair and put it back on the shelf. 

“I suppose that wasn’t a fair question. I’m sorry, kiddo, I didn’t mean to divide your loyalties or anything. You know I’ve always related to her the most, so I was just curious if—”

I held up a hand. “I know. I don’t blame you for it, but it’ll be better if you make those judgments for yourself when you meet her. You’re technically family now too, after all.”

Shmangie laughed nervously. “Always wished I’d had an older sister.”

I gave her a sly look. “Technically, I’m your older sister. You just got two in the same day.”

Shmangie squinted at me. “Past life, shmast life. I have older sibling powers over you and you know it.”

I laughed. I almost felt relieved to see another person being nervous to meet Rarity, but I reminded myself that Shmangie didn’t feel nervous for the same reasons. She’d be meeting an idol, I’d be meeting a long-lost family member who’d put herself in harm’s way to save me. Not only that, there was a good chance I’d then have to choose between the two of them, and I still didn’t think I could do that. I supposed I could take the selfish way out and just not restore Rarity’s memories. I’d still have mine, but it wouldn’t be so bad if I knew she wasn’t suffering like I was. Although, if either she or Shmangie ever found out I’d made that kind of decision without them, I’d have nine levels of Tartarus to pay.

Double big sister rage… I’d rather take on Discord than face that.

“There’s a problem, though.” I tapped my horn. “You remember me telling you all about the curse and how we broke it, right? As of right now, Rarity is nothing more than a human turning into a pony. Discord’s already warned me not to free anypony else, and if I go against him...”

Shmangie exhaled out her nose. Several emotions flashed across her face in the span of a few seconds before finally settling on a contemplative frown. She reached over for her sketchpad, and began drawing symbols on one side.

“Do you think the Mane Six can beat him without their pony memories?” Shmangie asked.

I lifted a pillow with my magic. “No idea. It’d depend on the kind of personalities they have now. The Elements of Harmony might not even accept them anymore—assuming that the Elements are even still around, that is.”

“Mmm, I’ll bet Discord’s done something to them by now.” Shmangie twirled her pencil in her fingers. “Celestia and Luna are probably in the same boat, so they’re out. I doubt there’s much of a resistance in Equestria, either... hate to say it, Shmage, but there isn’t much point in restoring anyone’s memory until Discord’s gone. Even if you do somehow find the other banished ponies and find a way back to Equestria, all you’d be doing is painting a big target over our heads—Rarity’s, too. Now, if said pony had knowledge or experience that’d be a help in the fight or in getting you and the other ponies back to Equestria, that might be worth the risk. Although admittedly, that’s a pretty short list.”

I moved the pillow up and down in my telekinesis. Shmangie’s points were all valid, but they weren’t easy to hear. I thought I had something that could be helpful, but it was too specific and risky to use haphazardly. The risk part wouldn’t bother me so much if it was just me that Discord had threatened, but he’d gone for my family instead, and that made me think twice. I just wanted to help, to be useful and make a difference for a change! Was that so much to ask? But no, when I tried to take some initiative, all I got were ponies like Babs who just shot me down all the time.
 
“We’re not going to find anyone on the Internet, you know.” I floated the pillow over to her. “All that’s going to happen is that the clock is going to tick away. Even if a real pony miraculously does notice and contact us, what then? How do we meet up with them? Where? Who pays for the transportation? What kind of transportation do we use? And all through this, we’re trying to keep a low profile and hope we don’t run into anypony malicious? It’s just not realistic!”

“None of this is very realistic to begin with.” Shmangie poked the floating pillow for emphasis. “Your chances suck, no matter how you look at it. I don’t get why you’re being so gung-ho about going on TV in the first place when it’s clear the others don’t want to.”

“They don’t know what they want,” I spat. “All they ever want to do is play it safe and not take any risks! They’d rather miss out on a world of opportunities, just like I did when I—”

I stopped dead. My heart skipped a beat and my jaw went slack. I hadn’t even realized it until now, but the longer I thought about it, the more things clicked into place. 

“No…”

Shmangie stopped drawing and looked up. “What’s wrong?”

I didn’t want to see it. I didn’t want to admit it. I wanted to divert my train of thought, but it was locked into place and barrelling away at full steam. My breathing became shallow as I glanced down at my thigh.

Shmangie came over to me. “Shmage! What is it?!”

The color had drained from my face. I felt dizzy and ill. I hadn’t known at the time! I thought I was doing the right thing! All I saw down that path was a road of failure and heartache! I didn’t think my passion would be enough, and so I’d taken the safe path instead of fighting for my dreams! What had I done? What did it say about me? All this time I’d—

“Magellan Guillermo Raimundo!”

That did it. I snapped out of my panic and saw that Shmangie was sitting next to me. She wore a stern look that barely veiled the concern in her eyes.

“Tell me,” she said.

My throat and chest felt tight. I gritted my teeth and tried to stop what was coming, but it was like trying to plug a dam with silly putty. The tears came, and when they did, I gave up more than one fight. I stood up on the bed, shucked my clothes off, and revealed my mistake to Shmangie.

“That’s not a computer,” I said, motioning to my cutie mark.

It took her a second to understand, but when she did, she gasped and took my hand in hers.

“Oh, kiddo,” she said with a gentle squeeze.

“I didn’t know!” I said in a shrill voice. “I just didn’t think I’d make it as a singer! There was too much favoritism and I didn’t want to be a starving artist!”

“The human world is different from Equestria,” Shmangie said. “You don’t know that your destiny there would be the same as here. The magic of cutie marks might not even carry over!”

“Why wouldn’t it?” I gestured to the fallen pillow. “Every other kind of magic has! All this time I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t know what it was. How was I supposed to know destiny is real?!”

“Listen to me.” Shmangie tugged on my hand. “That you went to college and got a job in something else proves that cutie marks aren’t the final say! Just because you have a singing cutie mark doesn’t mean you can’t do anything else!”

“No, it just means I won’t ever be happy doing anything else!” I fell to my knees. “The others knew that on some level, they must have! That’s why they never left home! Apple Bloom was saving up to buy her own farm. Babs was watching the real estate market! Scootaloo was coaching little league! All of them were doing what they were originally going to do in their spare time, I’m the only one who completely split away from my calling and made myself miserable because I’m a spineless coward!”

“You’re not a coward!” Shmangie said in a raised voice. “You didn’t even make a mistake! You made a choice, plain and simple, and it doesn’t even count because you were never meant to be human in the first place!”

“Who’s to say it wouldn’t have happened in Equestria?” I demanded. “Who’s to say I won’t do something like this again?! I abandoned my destiny, Shmangie! I abandoned my friends! I rejected the core things that make me who I am! I—”

SMACK!

I recoiled as a stinging pain struck my cheek. I put a hand to my face as I looked at Shmangie in shock.

“What am I to you?” Shmangie hissed. Her hazel eyes were aflame with reproach.

I stammered for a few seconds before managing to reply in a hurt voice.

“Y-you’re my sister…”

“I’m your family,” Shmangie snapped. “Is family not important to you?”

I was taken aback. “O-of course it is! It’s everything to me!”

“Then why isn’t it one of those ‘core things'?”

I didn’t have a reply to that. It was a slip of the tongue in a time of duress, but that slip was the equivalent of what Shmangie had just done to me. The apology was clear on my face, though, so she didn’t harp on it any more than that.

“Get this through your head, right now.” Shmangie’s tone was one that brooked no argument. “It’s pointless to endlessly dwell on mistakes and what-ifs. Your decision to play it safe and not take a risk with singing was based off of what you knew at the time and the outcomes you were able to identify. You thought you were doing the right thing, just like everyone else, and that’s nothing to beat yourself up over. You wouldn’t be the person you are now if you hadn’t done what you did, which is what we all forget when we look back on the past with regrets.”

I closed my eyes and sniffled. I was hearing what she was saying, but it was hard to take in. I’d been feeling subconsciously guilty about giving up singing for almost ten years, and I’d taken several risks as an effort to try and make up for it. It was probably even why going on TV felt like the right thing to do.

“Life is all about making decisions,” Shmangie continued. “There are good ones and bad ones, but the most important thing is that you make them, period. It’s hard to do, and it can be even harder to live with them, but the trick is knowing when it’s time to take a risk, and time to play it safe. That kind of knowledge only comes with experience, and even then the best of us mess things up. But the more information you have, the better chance you’ll be all right.”

I looked up at her through watery eyes. “I don’t want to be wrong again. I was too scared to do what I knew was what right once, and I’ve been paying for it. I don’t want others to have to suffer, too.”

“The reverse could just as easily happen.” Shmangie looked away. “And believe me, that feeling is just as unpleasant. You do have time right now, Shmage. The four of you are safe here with me, so there’s no sense in barging into this without exploring other options. With your help, we stand a better chance at finding the other ponies online, and if we keep our eyes and ears open, we can decide what the next best move is.”

And just like that, my resolve was broken. I still wasn’t enthusiastic about the Internet thing, but I was at least willing to give it a shot. I knew how to make websites, I could program in three languages, and I was certainly no stranger to forum surfing. I knew where the best places were to make posts were, and my minor in communications wouldn’t hurt for doing some efficient advertising. It’d be work, yeah, but I was confident I could do it after I got some practice with telekinetically using a mouse and keyboard.

Speaking of which, I looked at my hands and noticed that the fingernail on my middle finger was getting long, just like my middle toes had. My coat was now past my knees, and as I rubbed my face, I could tell my jaw was starting to stretch out. I was about eighty-percent pony at this point, and I figured the transformation would be complete by tonight at the latest.

“I’m not going to wait forever,” I said. “I’m not giving up on the TV idea, either. I’ll help out with the Internet thing, but I’m also gonna be continuing my plans on the side. I just won’t act on them.”

Shmangie nodded. “I think the others will agree to that. Never hurts to have a plan B.” She handed me a tissue. “Sorry about hitting you.”

I took it and scooted over so I could lean into her. “I’m sorry for implying you didn’t mean anything to me.”

Shmangie put an arm around me and kissed my brow. “Hooray for bonding.”

“Yaaaay."

CRUNCH

Shmangie and I jumped. The sound had come from behind us, or more accurately, from beyond the window and the backyard. We exchanged glances for a fraction of a second, then both turned and looked out the window.

Apple Bloom and Babs were standing beside a forty-foot tall White Pine with a trunk four feet in diameter. They were on all fours with their backs to the tree, and a veritable hail of pine needles and cones was falling around them. Shmangie and I watched with horrified curiosity as they squee’d and bucked the tree again at the same time.

CRUNCH

The entire tree shook, and the fall of needles and cones doubled. They now began laughing and dancing around each other like kids on Christmas morning.

“Oy!”

Shmangie and I turned just in time to see the door open. Scootaloo stood in the hallway with a tub of ice cream in one hand and a spoon in the other. Her eyes were sparkling with joy as she shoveled another helping into her mouth.

“Lookie, lookie, lookie!” Scootaloo said. She turned and showed us her back, which was adorned with a pair of very real, fully grown-in wings. She gave them a flap, and I felt a gust of air blow through my mane and tail.

“I jusht got feeling in ‘em!” she said around the spoon. “Angie, do you have any free weightsh? I wanna shtart shtrength training!”

Shmangie groaned and rubbed her temples. “What have I gotten myself into?”

I giggled and nuzzled her side. “Nothing you can’t handle.”
> The Sign
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 8:


The Sign




The girls and I finished turning back into ponies that night. There wasn’t much excitement or panic surrounding it; the worst thing that happened was a brief stint of awkwardness as we learned how to walk on all fours again. Shmangie did my mane up like Rarity’s, and the others all got googly-eyed when they saw it. They started fighting over who would get to go next, and we spent the rest of the evening taking turns trying out various styles. Shmangie also had a gift for Apple Bloom: a big red bow similar to the one she always wore. She was elated, of course, and I don’t think I’ve seen her without it since.

We began the cyberhunt the next day. I was the only one who could still use a computer at first, but Shmangie went out and got a few things so the others could help. We got these velcro straps that go around your wrists for holding things, and I had a dictation program on my computer in my old apartment. I downloaded it onto Shmangie’s and Apple Bloom’s computers, and we all began surfing the Net with ease. 

I made the website that said who we were and what’d happened. We took a few pictures of ourselves for proof, but left any info about our humanity out. We used fake names for every registration process we ran into, and I even used a few tricks to prevent our IP address from being traced. Meanwhile, Babs watched the news sites, Apple Bloom kept an eye on social media, and Scootaloo sifted through seedier sites like 4chan.

There were some loose ends from our human lives to tie up before we could fully commit ourselves to the search. The first was quitting our jobs. We were gonna just call and quit over the phone, but then we remembered our voices had changed. We sent out emails instead with the cover story that we’d found employment at Shmangie’s company. She even added us to her employee roster for legitimacy when we told her about it. It was just too bad she couldn’t actually pay us.

The next was making something up to tell our families so they wouldn’t think we’d gone missing. We bounced around a few ideas, but finally settled on that we’d gone on a roadtrip across the U.S. It wasn’t that far-fetched of an idea, as we’d talked about it a lot our senior year. Obviously it never came to pass, but the point was that it was known constant amongst our families. They weren’t exactly happy when we told them, and it certainly wasn’t a permanent solution, but it at least bought us some time, and it kept them from calling the police. 

There were other logistics issues as well: cancelling credit cards, shutting off utilities, withdrawing money out of our savings accounts, those sorts of things. I gotta tell you, you don’t realize all the ties you have to society until you have to go through and cut them off one by one. It was really depressing, and even though Shmangie was there for all of us, it still really stung. The one bright side of it was that it motivated us to put our best efforts into the cybersearch, as finding everypony would put us one step closer to getting back home.

The website went up on May 6th. We kept an eye on world events, monitored the email account we’d created, and settled down to wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Annnnnnnnnnd wait.

And then just for the heck of it? Yep, we waited some more.

There are times in your life when you don’t want to be right. We all have those moments where we say something pessimistic just because we don’t want to go along with something, but that doesn’t mean we want the endeavor to actually fail. True, I didn’t have high hopes about finding ponies online, but I didn’t want all our efforts to be for nothing, either. I figured it’d take a while, but ponies would eventually trickle in, we’d slowly establish a network, and once we’d found a decent number of them, we could make plans for meeting up and such.

We didn’t find anypony.

Not a single freaking one.

It wasn’t that our website didn’t get any traffic. Quite the contrary, we averaged a couple thousand hits a day. The problem was that, as I feared, no one took us seriously. Most of the emails we got were blatantly trolling, fishing for information, or just thought we were doing some kind of live-action roleplay. A few were amusing, like the animation studio guy who complimented our CGI and told us to apply at his company. Others were downright creepy, like the two people who invited us to lolicon groups. We didn’t respond to anything, and as the weeks dragged by, our motivation and productivity slowed to a crawl.

To make matters worse was the onset of cabin fever. This wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been, as Shmangie’s house was large enough that we could get away from each other for periods of time. We were even able to go out to the backyard at night so long as we took necessary precautions. Even with that, though, our antsiness built steadily, and our tempers began to fray. We found ourselves snapping at each other for no reason, arguing over meaningless things and trivial offenses. Shmangie did her best to keep us behaving, but there was only so much she could do, and she was stressed too from having to watch us all the time.

It was clear something had to give. I knew we had to do something more, but if the girls’ first response was any indication, I’d have to have a fully thought-out, executable plan to present before they’d listen. 

Fortunately, I’d been working on one as soon as I’d finished the website. 

It was more something I’d done to kill time than anything else. The others all had their little jobs, but I didn’t really have anything, and I knew I was gonna start bouncing off the walls if I didn’t keep myself occupied somehow. So I sequestered myself away in the basement with my laptop, and began fleshing out a backup plan in case the cybersearch fell flat. I quickly fell into a routine of planning, practicing magic, and checking a usual list of websites, only coming upstairs to address biological needs and check-in with the others. I think they knew what I was doing, but seeing as they didn’t ask me any questions, I didn’t tell them any lies.

I found my thoughts wandering as the days passed. I asked myself a lot of existential questions, mostly about whether or not I wanted to take another pass at my initial destiny. I was a filly again, after all, so I could be anything I damn well wanted to be. Part of me still argued that I’d made the right decision in not pursuing a singing career. Heck, even with the life experience I had now, it was still going to be a tough road, and I might have an easier time of it if I just tried to build a life off the skills I’d already developed. 

The other part of me, though, was quick to point out that I’d been miserable with my human life. I’d justified it by saying that things would turn around if I held out a little longer, but no matter how many hurdles I cleared, corners I turned, or achievements I earned, there wasn’t any happiness to be found. The victories felt hollow, the rewards were meaningless and empty, and even despite knowing that it was the wrong thing to do, I still kept stubbornly trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. It seemed pretty stupid to continue down what was obviously a destructive path, so even if I didn’t try to be a singer, I didn’t think I’d be trying to do the same thing over again.

I suppose these things were pretty moot to think about at the time. After all, any and all life choices were dependant on a considerable amount of other factors, the least of which not being that we managed to return to Equestria. I couldn’t very well resume my old life here, and even if I could, I didn’t think I would. The ideas and goals I’d had as a human were dead and gone, and the only thing that meant anything to me now were the Crusaders and my family—both my families.

Speaking of family, it was Shmangie that alerted me that things were moving again. It was May 20th, a full two weeks after we’d brought up the website, and I was down in the basement as usual going through my magical training exercises. I could lift about twenty pounds at that point, and was starting to experiment with holding multiple things at once. I knew I didn’t have Twilight’s raw power, or Rarity’s dexterity for that matter, but telekinesis was a useful skill, so I wanted to develop it as much as I could. 

I was holding two ten-pound bags of sidewalk salt. I was completely focused on the magical task, the strenuous mental effort consuming all my focus and making me oblivious to the world. The two bags were floating a few feet off the ground, doing slow circles around me as I hummed in C Major. I was calm. I was in the zone. I could feel every contour of the items in my magical grip—

“SHMAGE!”

My concentration broke. The two bags fell to the wooden floor and skidded a few feet away in opposite directions. 

“GET UP HERE, QUICK!”

I blinked several times. It took me second to process Shmangie’s yell, but when I did, I scrambled upstairs as fast as my little legs would allow.

I found her and the Crusaders staring wide-eyed at the living room TV. They were watching the evening news, and the volume was turned up really loud. The newscaster was droning on about some kind of military disturbance, but that wasn’t surprising as of late. There’d been a terrorist bombing in Seattle the same weekend we’d turned back into ponies, and then some kind of mishap in the airspace between the United States and Canada. We’d looked into both occurrences, of course, but the details were sketchy. Considering both matters concerned national security, we figured the government was withholding information until they could fully investigate, much like they did with the World Trade Center attacks. As such, there wasn’t enough to suggest ponies were involved, and even if they were, the trail would be long cold before we could get to it.

No, it wasn’t the newscaster’s words that got my attention...

...it was the familiar prismatic shockwave spreading out over a city that earned that honor.

I sat down abruptly. “That’s…”

Okay, now I was listening to the newscaster. 

“—no injuries or property damage seemed to have come from the disturbance itself, but the resulting panic has caused the majority of citizens to flee the city, leaving homes, shops, and businesses at the mercy of those who’ve chosen to brave the phenomenon’s negative effects. Martial law is currently in effect, and all roadways in and out of Des Moines are completely jammed. Many have been forced to vacate the area on foot with only the clothes on their backs. The government has yet to release any official statement, but based on the projectile’s geographical location, astrophysicists speculate that it’s unlikely that this was an attack by a hostile nation. Rather, this is an astronomical phenomenon that was previously unknown to—”

“IT’S A SONIC RAINBOOM!” Scootaloo screamed. Her wings buzzed as she hovered a few inches in the air. “Rainbow Dash is alive! She’s alive she’s alive she’s alive!”

I stood there in shock. There’s nopony else it could’ve been. How many other creatures were there that could make an explosion that shattered the visible light spectrum? Rainbow Dash was alive and well, and not only had she revealed herself to the world, she was in the United States! Within travelling distance of us, even!

Babs snorted. “Of course it’s Rainbow. Only she’d go and do something flashy and intimidating over a major city when the country’s on high alert.”

“Hey, lay off!” Scootaloo said hotly. She turned to her with her hooves on her hips. I noted that she seemed to be getting better at maneuvering in the air. Too bad she couldn’t stay aloft for very long. “This is the first break we’ve gotten! This isn’t a shady email or random forum thread, it’s a feathering Sonic Rainboom! This is exactly what we’ve been waiting for!”

I was tempted to side with Scootaloo, but Babs did have a point. This was great news, but the timing was terrible. The government was probably scrambling trying to figure out how a high-speed projectile got into the middle of the United States airspace undetected, as well as why it detonated prematurely. They’d be swarming the area trying to find answers, and they’d probably do almost anything to get them. It was going to be more difficult than ever to make a move now.

“It’s so pretty,” Shmangie murmured. Her eyes hadn’t left the screen, which was still showing the Rainboom. “It’s different from the show, though. It’s like the Northern Lights, but brighter, and in a big circle.”

I smiled. “Wait till you see one in person. Your skin goes all tingly when the magic passes through you, and it makes you want to laugh and sing and dance. It also makes everything smell like fresh spring rain.”

I knew a thing or two about Rainbooms. Not because I’d researched them, but because Scootaloo had done a report about them for school back in Equestria, and she went full-on Twilight with it. She made diagrams, wrote out no less than ten pages, cited sources from various books, and even got Rainbow herself to come in and give a firsthoof account. Not like it was hard to convince the Queen of Modesty to talk about herself, but still. Scootaloo proceeded to spout everything she’d learned for weeks afterwards, which, while extremely annoying, had also made the information stick in my memory.

Sonic Rainbooms are a form of extremely advanced Tempulari. In order to perform one, a pegasus needs to gather together a massive amount of aether, which is naturally occurring, ambient magic found in the atmosphere. They then need to compress the aether into a space smaller than a pea, and detonate it all at once at the speed of sound. 

The hardest part is managing the aether. Gathering it is easy, since the pegasus needs to be moving through the atmosphere, and the speed, while difficult, isn’t impossible for an athlete to attain. Compressing it down, though, is the reason why Rainbooms are so rare. Rainbow described it as, ‘trying to squeeze a house-sized snowpile down to a thimble using only your hooves while rocketing down to the ground at Mach One,’ so that gives you a pretty good idea.

Sonic Rainbooms have two main effects. The first and most obvious is the enormous rainbow explosion, which is harmless save for the residual kinetic force. In fact, not only does the shockwave affect fauna in the way I described to Shmangie, since aether is a form of restorative magic, it can also heal corrupted or sickly flora. The second effect is that the caster’s innate magical and physical abilities become supercharged for a short time. Their bodies are essentially overloaded with aether, allowing them to perform unbelievable feats of strength and speed until the excess magic ‘bleeds out.’ This is how Rainbow was able to save Rarity and the Wonderbolts at the Best Young Flyer’s Competition, and why Rainbow’s mane temporarily morphs into her namesake whenever she does one.

Like I said, full-on Twilight.

Shmangie turned to me with yearning in her eyes. “Urge to be Rainboomed… rising...”

I snickered. “One thing at a time.”

Apple Bloom fiddled with her new bow. “You reckon Rainbow’s the one who caused all that fuss over the Canadian borders, too? I hate to say it, but it sounds like something she would do.”

“Which just leads to more questions,” Babs said. “Why’s she flying around and taking so many risks? Is she alone or with others? Is she trying to find other ponies? Are any of them in trouble? How’s she avoiding capture or detection?”

“She’s not avoiding detection,” I pointed out. “The military is well aware something's hopping between the U.S and Canada. They just don’t know that ‘thing’ is a small, flying cartoon horse.”

“Or maybe they are, and they’re making sure their equipment isn’t on the fritz or something.” Babs blew her mane out of her face and looked over at Scootaloo. “Not to discredit Rainbow’s flying skills or anything. I’d just like to think that the people who can call in a nuclear strike aren’t a bunch of clueless mooks.”

Scootaloo landed and rested her chin on her hoof. “Haven’t you been watching the news for the last two weeks? You should have a pretty good idea of how smart our government is by now.”

A smile tugged at Babs’ lips. “Hence why I said ‘like to think.’”

“So what do we do, then?” Apple Bloom began pulling the wrapper off a granola bar. “Do we wait to see if more ponies show up in Des Moines? Or do we just pack up and head down there ourselves?”

Scootaloo replied before I could. “We should totally go!” her eyes were fervent and bright. “Iowa’s not far away at all. We can get there in a day, and then we can start looking for Rainbow! She might know where the others are! She might know a way to get home!”

Shmangie cleared her throat. “Speaking as the one who’d actually be driving you there, the newscaster just said that the roads are completely jammed. I’m not gonna be able to get you girls within a hundred miles of Des Moines, and even if I could, I doubt you’re gonna find any ponies in the city.”

“I'll also bet that the place is probably swarming with military and government officials.” I hopped up on the couch beside Shmangie. “They’re gonna be looking for suspicious characters, and we don’t exactly blend into a crowd.”

“We can’t just pass this up!” Scootaloo got off the couch and pointed at the TV. “This is a sign! A sign that Rainbow doesn’t want us to hide anymore! She wants us all to meet up there! The Internet’s been a bust, and we’re doing nothing but wasting our time! We're never gonna get home just by sitting around and hoping they’re gonna come to us!”

I kept my expression carefully neutral. That was one down, but I knew Scootaloo would be the easiest to convert. The challenge lay in convincing the others.

“We all know what Rainbow means to ya, Scoots.” Apple Bloom gestured to herself and Babs, then to Shmangie and me. “But just packin’ up and going to Des Moines isn’t a smart idea. We need more answers first before we go sniffin’ around.”

Scootaloo rounded on her. “First off, you don’t know whether we’ll find anything or not. And second, how much longer do you think our families are going to buy the roadtrip excuse? How much longer did you plan on imposing on Angie’s hospitality? What makes you think that doing what we’ve been doing so far is going to produce anything other than a stinking crapload of nothing? Tell me, Apple Bloom! Tell me why we shouldn’t go after the only lead we’ve found in an entire fortnight!”

Apple Bloom remained as calm as ever. She took a bite of her granola bar, contemplated her response for a few seconds, then looked up at Scootaloo.

“A fortnight ain’t that long, sugar—”

“Oh, don’t give me that!” Scootaloo snapped. She shot a withering glare at all of us. “What happened to you guys? When did you become so worried about the consequences that it prevented you from taking action? We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders! We’re MMPD! You know what we do? We go on adventures! We act on ideas! We aren’t afraid to make mistakes! We cause mischief and mayhem, and we look adorable while doing it!”

We all gave her a bemused look.

Scootaloo swished her tail. “Okay, that last one was more of a Crusader thing, but you know what I mean!  Am I the only one who remembers this? Am I the only one who still has their spirit intact? Why are all of you so scared all of a sudden?”

I decided to let this play out rather than give my two cents. It was no secret that I wanted to act, as I’d been pretty dead-set on doing so until Shmangie talked me out of it. My guess was that Scootaloo’s accusations were aimed more at Apple Bloom and Babs. so there wasn't anything for me to add. 

Speaking of Shmangie, I noticed she was keeping quiet, too. That’s what she normally did when we had discussions like this, though. She really only stepped in if things started to get out of hoof or was asked a question.

“It ain’t got nothin’ to do with fear,” Apple Bloom said. She crumpled up the granola wrapper and threw it in the trash. “It’s about being sensible. This ain’t like the shenanigans we used to pull back home or in Ponyville. The stakes here are high, and we can’t afford to go bitin’ off more than we can chew.”

“Exactly,” Babs said. “We don’t even know why Rainbow chose to do the Rainboom in Des Moines in the first place! Was it because she wants ponies to meet there? Is she trying to make a distraction? Did she just do it on a whim, and she just happened to be in Iowa at the time?”

“Argh!” Scootaloo threw up her hooves. “I’m sick of this! I’m sick of you two spouting out pathetic excuses all the time! No matter what we try to do, from get-togethers to delegating tasks to making plans, one of you always turns a molehill into Mount-feathering-Everest! You wanna know what I think? You don’t wanna go out and do anything because you’re just a couple of feathering cowards! So much for the vaunted honor of the Apple family!”

I sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. Babs flinched and stared at Scootaloo in shock for a split second, then looked away with hurt eyes and pursed lips. Apple Bloom simply froze. She didn’t look at Scootaloo, she didn’t show any sign of anger, she simply became a statue. 

“Dylan!” Shmangie yelled. “What the hell!”

Scootaloo ears drooped slightly at the rebuke, but she shook her head and avoided Shmangie’s gaze. “No. This has been long overdue. It’s about time I spoke my damn mind.”

“Long overdue, my ass!” Shmangie gritted her teeth. “I’ve had it up to here with your attitude! Just because you’ve got nicotine withdrawal doesn’t give you the right to—”

“Take it back.” 

The room went silent. We all turned to Apple Bloom, who was now staring daggers at Scootaloo. Her neck was corded, her posture was tense, and she spoke in a low, dangerous voice that made my hair stand on end.

“That was one of the lowest, meanest things you coulda said, and you know it.” Apple Bloom slowly got out of the chair to stand only a few feet away from Scootaloo. “You’re one of my oldest friends, and I love ya like a sister. You’ve slept in my home, eaten at my dinner table, and stuck with me through thick and thin. I’ll forgive ya if you apologize right now, but if you don’t, so help me Celestia, you and me are gonna trade a whole lot more than words.”

This was a perfect example of what I hated about the Apple family. You know how Applejack always prided herself on being honest and dependable in the show? You remember how mad she got whenever somepony questioned her on it, or even worse, when said pony was right to do so, and Applejack knew it? Those feelings stemmed from a lot of things, but the biggest one was a desire to defend the Apple family’s honor. All Apples have a fierce sense of devotion and obligation to family, and they believe that their name and reputation is something to cherish and uphold. You can insult them all you like and they won’t have a care, but they’ll buck you into next week if you smack talk their family name. Babs wasn't as prone to this due to not being the fighting type, although she could be intimidating when she wanted to be.

Apple Bloom, on the other hoof...

There was a pregnant pause. Shmangie made to get up and separate them, but I stopped her with a shake of my head. We had a moment of wordless sibling communication, but I won out. She reluctantly sat back down and let events unfold.

Scootaloo didn’t back down from Apple Bloom’s challenge. “Sure, I’ll apologize. All you gotta do is prove me wrong.”

“I ain’t gotta prove nothin’ to you.” Apple Bloom’s back hooves twitched. “You know me better than anypony in the world, present company excluded. I ain’t no coward, and I sure as hay haven’t lost my spirit!”

“Then why?!” Scootaloo yelled. “The Apple Bloom I remember didn’t sit back and hope that her cutie mark would suddenly appear! My best friend Mike didn’t hesitate when he had to start saving up to buy his own farm! You’ve never been one to hem and haw like this; just because the stakes are higher shouldn’t change that!”

Apple Bloom growled. “There’s a big difference between trying to get a cutie mark, and runnin’ headlong into a mob of hostile aliens! We’d be puttin’ our lives at stake, Scoots! I don’t know about you, but I’m in no hurry to get locked up and experimented on in some cold, sterile facility!”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “You really think the government is going to ruin any and all chance of establishing peaceful contact with an alien race by holding us against our will and cutting us open? We’re running more risk of that by doing what we’re doing on the Internet!”

“They might if they find us snoopin’ around Des Moines and then take us in secret,” Apple Bloom said. “Humans are afraid of what they don’t understand, and they might think we’re dangerous and open fire before we even get a chance to open our mouths! We’re just a buncha kids! We can’t defend ourselves against fully armed soldiers!” 

“So we take precautions and don’t let them find us!” Scootaloo then pointed at me. “Or, better yet, we go with Sweetie’s old idea and reveal ourselves in such a big way that the government can’t cover it up! That way, they’d have to treat us right!”

It was beautiful. I couldn’t have planned it better myself. Apple Bloom didn’t look over at me, but I saw the flicker of doubt in her eyes. It seemed she really was worried about getting held against her will, but in my opinion, even if that did happen, it wouldn’t be much different than our current situation. It might be better, actually: a facility would be bigger, we wouldn’t have the constant fear of discovery looming over our heads, and we wouldn’t have to worry about the future as much. 

It might seem disturbing that I was looking at incarceration as a possible upgrade to our current situation, but it gives you an idea of how what things were like at the time.

“Look.” Scootaloo ran a hoof down the side of her face. “I get how much this sucks, and I really wish we had some better options, but we don’t. Rainbow always used to say, ‘You can’t stand on the edge of a cliff forever.’ We can’t stay here, and going back up north is a step backward in my eyes. It’s fine that we’ve been trying some safer options up to this point, but Rainbow risked herself to send us this sign. You and Babs are letting yourselves become paralyzed with what-if and doomsday scenarios, and I’m not gonna stand for it. We need to mare up, stop making excuses, and just take the feathering plunge already.”

Apple Bloom clicked her teeth. The anger was still plain on her face, but she was also shifting back and forth on her hooves. It was clear that Scootaloo’s words had hit home, but now they were going toe-to-toe with the legendary earth pony stubbornness. It’s not easy to get called out on something, as I can readily testify to, and the hardest lies to see through are often the ones we tell ourselves. We really were on the edge of a cliff here, and were scared, plain and simple. It would’ve been easy, so very, very easy to just run away somewhere and hide for the rest of our days, but that wasn’t a future any of us wanted.

I looked over at Babs to gauge her reaction. Her eyes were watery, and she was stroking her own tail while watching TV. It may seem odd that somepony so sensitive would like to argue so much, but the truth is I wouldn’t have it any other way. To put it simply, Babs argues because she cares. She cares about her friends. She cares about her family. She cares about anything and anypony that she perceives to have a connection with. She’s always tried to be responsible, shrewd, logical, the one you can always count on to help you out in a pinch, no matter what. She’ll never admit it, but she’s an extremely considerate individual, and she absolutely hates it when others get hurt. The downside, though, is that she expects others to treat her the same way, and whenever she thinks an injustice is committed against her, she gets upset about it. She’s better about it than she used to be, but some scars run too deep to be fully healed.

“We’re not gonna be able to find Rainbow on our own,” Apple Bloom finally said. “Des Moines is too big, she’s too fast, and there’ll be too many people around for us to not be seen. We’re gonna need help.”

Scootaloo nodded stiffly. “I know.”

“There’s really only one way to get that help.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

Apple Bloom turned to Babs. “You with us on this?”

Babs flattened her ears. “Not without an apology.”

Scootaloo looked between both glowering Apples, then groaned. “Oh, for Celestia’s—fine. I’m sorry I dissed your family. I’m also sorry that you thought for even a second I was actually serious. I’ll be sure to insult something else next time that won’t make you both so plothurt.”

“Dylan...” Shmangie warned.

Scootaloo shrugged. “Unless you’ve got a cigarette, that’s the best you’re getting.”

It wasn’t as halfhearted as you might think. Scootaloo was never good at saying sorry to begin with, and she’d never been one to regret the things she said. It was too bad we didn’t think to get her some nicotine patches, though. They probably would’ve helped improve her mood.

Regardless, both Apple Bloom and Babs seemed mollified. Apple Bloom sat back down, and Babs looked over and addressed Shmangie in a resigned tone.

“Guess we don’t have any alternatives. Will you help?”

Shmangie frowned. “Let’s hear what she’s come up with, first.”

I was confused at who they were talking about at first, but then, to my utmost joy, I suddenly found myself the target of four curious looks.

“All right, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said. “We all know you been cookin’ up something these past few weeks. Spill it. What’s the plan?”




> Finding the Trail
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 9:


Finding the Trail




I haven’t said what my former job entailed, have I? I was a Business Analyst at an information technology firm called Orbital Satellite Communications Incorporated. OSC Inc. owned and managed several geosynchronous communications satellites used to provide TV broadcasting, cable program distribution, business data network capacity, regional mobile communications, and other things of that nature. I was responsible for interacting with existing and prospective clients to figure out what they wanted, and make sure it was actually possible. I’d then convey that information to the computer programmers, and go back and forth throughout the project lifecycle to make sure everyone was on the same page.

In a nutshell, I was a glorified liaison.

The job itself wasn’t hard. I’d always had an amiable personality, and I had enough technical and business savvy to understand the problems and concerns of both parties. As long as I stayed on top of things, all I had to do was make phone calls, attend meetings, answer emails, and walk around cubicles to make sure no one had a problem they weren’t telling me about. 

The problem was that neither side really thought I was fully acting in their best interests, so they didn’t have anything to do with me outside of the workplace. This resulted in an incredibly lonely and frustrating existence, and while I committed myself more and more to my work to try and compensate for it, it hadn’t panned out. My co-workers politely declined my invitations or made half-hearted excuses, the client was… well, the client, and my superiors did little to assuage my own concerns when I brought them to light.

In short, I didn’t have much love for OSC Inc.

Fortunately, company loyalty wasn’t a requisite for using their satellites.

It was dark when I beheld my former workplace. The gray six-story building was empty, save for the first and second floors which were left open for a twenty-four hour customer service team. My old office was on the fifth floor, so we’d have to get past them unnoticed in order to do what I needed to do.

“Is that the place?” Shmangie asked as she slowed down the car.

I nodded and pointed out the passenger’s side window to a different building that was completely vacant. “Park over here. We’ll go around the back.”

OSC Inc. was in an office park with tended lawns, manicured gardens, and carefully groomed pine trees that served as markers between the property lines. It was actually rather pretty, but I wasn’t really interested in aesthetics. The important thing was that it would provide lots of hiding places in case someone drove by.

Scootaloo laughed from the back seat. “Nah, let’s just go in through the front! I’m sure they won’t mind.”

“That’s gotta be the most boring-lookin’ building I’ve ever seen.” Apple Bloom’s breath fogged the window as she reared up to get a better look. “And all this hyper-maintained fake landscaping, to boot? Ugh, no wonder you didn’t like it here.”

“Are you sure we don’t need anything else to do this besides putting rags around our hooves?” Babs asked. “I thought you’d have grabbed more out of your old apartment.”

I giggled and patted the feather-light satchel at my side. “I suppose we could’ve had Shmangie make some black latex catsuits for us, if you really wanted.”

“I totally would have, too,” she said without any note of jest.

Babs smiled despite herself. “You know what I mean. Shouldn’t we need more tools to break into a building? Like bolt cutters and lockpicks and fancy gadgets and stuff?”

I shrugged. “OSC has security, but it’s not exactly the paragon of defense. We’re not breaking into Fort Knox, here.”

“Not that that’s a bad thing,” Apple Bloom amended.

I undid my seat belt as the car came to a stop. “Not a bad thing at all.”

The five of us got out and made our way through a copse of trees beside a pond. I took a deep breath of the air, the heady scent of pine needles triggering memories of the times I sat in this area on my lunch breaks. I did a lot of self-reflection here, trying to figure out what I was doing wrong and thinking up new ways to fill the odd void in my life. I never came up with anything, but I always found myself coming back to this same spot for some reason.

The reason why suddenly hit me with an abrupt shock. I stopped and fell flat on my haunches.

The others noticed and stopped. Shmangie came over to me. “Something wrong?”

I blinked several times and looked around with wide eyes. Sure enough, it was as I suspected. 

“Home,” I whispered.

Shmangie cocked her head. “What about it?”

I burst out laughing. “This place! It looks like home!”

“Uh…” Shmangie looked around. “Not even close, kiddo. We never had a pond, and we don’t have these kind of trees where we live.”

“No, no!” I said with a snicker. “Not our home. I mean my home back in Equestria! This spot is almost exactly like it, save for the buildings! No wonder I kept coming back here!”

“Wow, you’re right!” Apple Bloom turned around once, seeing the place in a new light. “It’s practically a dead ringer!”

“Ooh, ooh! That tree!” Scootaloo pointed to a maple twenty feet away. “Do you remember? We got so many things stuck up in it! One day we got a ladder and found like, fifty things we’d thought we’d lost!”

Babs was looking over at the pond with a wistful smile. “We used to go swimming off the dock on warm days.”

“Oh, yeah!” I got up and trotted over to her. “And that one time my dad took us out on his boat, and we pretended we were pirates!”

“The water wheel was on the far end over there!”

“We used to catch frogs over here!”

“The hedge bush Sweetie’s dad never trimmed!”

“Mom was always yelling at him to just cut it down.”

“Remember when we went skating in the winter?”

“I liked the snowball fights!”

“Or how about when we played in the leaf piles!”

“Or when we went digging for buried treasure!”

“Or when…”

It went on like that for few minutes. We were all talking at once, completely lost in nostalgia and comparing memory after memory. It wasn’t something any of us really meant to do; that spot just... brought it all back for us.

Shmangie loudly cleared her throat. “Can we save the trip down memory lane for later? Possibly when we’re not in the middle of an office park at midnight?”

Our banter slowly died away. We all exchanged sheepish looks, and I put a hoof behind my head and looked up at Shmangie. 

“Sorry. It’s just that, well… this place…”

I trailed off when I saw Shmangie’s face. She wasn’t mad at all, her eyes were kind, and she wore a sad, knowing smile.

“You’ll get it back,” she said softly.

I know she meant well, but she may as well have stabbed me in the chest. My home was gone, probably destroyed or twisted into some horrid monstrosity, and the memories I had would never be anything but. Discord hadn’t cared that he’d uprooted our lives and shattered everything we’d known and loved, he’d just done it because there was a chance we’d get in the way. Can you believe it? Us, a quartet of eight year-old fillies, get in the way of the immortal Spirit of Chaos! How? What did he think we could we possibly do? What was so special about us?

I hated it. I hated the unfairness of it all. I hated that we hadn’t even had a chance to say goodbye. But most of all, though, I hated him. I hated every fiber in Discord’s foul, malformed body. I wanted him to suffer. I wanted to make him scream. I wanted to do exactly what he did to us: take everything away from him, make him feel powerless, fall to despair, and then at his lowest moment, crush him like an insect.

I squeezed my eyes shut and grit my teeth. The pangs of loss were mixing with the soul-blackening rage, and it was ripping at my insides like a windigo trying to claw its way out. Revenge. Sweet, beautiful, righteous revenge. I didn’t know how. I didn’t know when, but by everything I knew and loved, I swore right then and there that I’d avenge my lost life, and help reclaim Equestria in the name of vengeance. The ways of friendship and harmony had failed, after all. Perhaps it was time to try something new.

Strangely enough, the sudden burst of anger sharpened my focus rather than dulled it. I had a different goal at the moment, and I knew how to accomplish it. Take it slow. Take it steady. Make my moves in the shadows, and concentrate on one thing at a time. As long as I did that, I’d have my retribution before I knew it.

I opened my eyes and spoke to Shmangie in a perfectly calm voice. “You’re right. I will.”

Shmangie looked at me curiously. It was sometimes a detriment that we knew each other so well, but she didn’t give voice to whatever was on her mind. She straightened back up, and we continued on our way.

We approached the back of OSC Inc. from the cover of the trees. There was little of note in the immediate surroundings, save for a large square of pavement with a picnic table that served as an outside smoking area. A three foot-tall plastic cylindrical ashtray stood beside a set of double doors that led into the building that had a small electronic lock on them. The lock was set by a small scanner on the right-hand side, and was easily noticed thanks to its bright red light.

The ground at the edge of the trees became uneven and gravelly, but still our movement was silent thanks to the cloth around our hooves. I knew we’d make a lot of noise on the metal stairs and pavement of the building if we didn’t take precautions, and we couldn’t afford to go slow.
 
“How close do you need to be?” Babs whispered to me.

I sucked on my teeth and judged the distance. It looked to be about fifty feet, which was quite a bit farther than what I’d practiced. I was in a mood, though, so I decided to try it.

“I should be able to do it from here.” I reached into my satchel and pulled out a small plastic keyfob. “Just let me know if anyone’s coming.”

The keyfob was the key to get in and out of the building. Every employee of OSC had one, and while I wasn’t sure if mine would still work or not, it was worth a shot.

I felt the familiar warmth seep in behind my eyes as the keyfob became enveloped in an emerald glow. It hovered just a few inches off the ground, and steadily made its way towards the door.

Scootaloo snickered. “Cutie Mark Crusader Infiltrators.”

“Hush!” Babs said.

It was at thirty-five feet that I started to feel the strain. The keyfob only weighed a few ounces, but the distance made it harder and harder to hold in my magical grip.

“Coast is still clear,” Apple Bloom whispered.

The keyfob was almost to the door. Just a few more feet. I grunted and lifted it up to the red light of the electronic lock.

Beep… beep beep beep.

The light stayed red. 

“Hayseed,” Apple Bloom said. “Looks like you were right, Sweetie.”

“Not surprising,” I said through clenched teeth. “HR’s really anal about the termination policy.”

Shmangie leaned against a tree. “Plan B, then?”

I hovered the keyfob back over and laid down on the grass to recover. “Yeah. It shouldn’t be long.”

Not long at all, as it turned out. I happened to know that there were several chain smokers on the customer service team, and they frequently went to the back of the building to have a cigarette. True to my predictions, about fifteen minutes later a pair of middle-aged obese men stepped outside the door. They immediately pulled out cigarettes and began chatting with each other.

Scootaloo whimpered. 

I put a hoof on her shoulder. “Stay strong.”

“Don’t give in!” Babs whispered.

“Resist the tobacco’s siren song!” Shmangie said. 

Scootaloo flattened her ears. “I hate you all.”

“Aww, but we love you!” Apple Bloom said as she hugged her.

Scootaloo didn’t return the embrace, but neither did she push Apple Bloom away. “So. Very. Much.”

The two men talked for about ten minutes while they fueled their addictions. Once they were done, they put out their cigarettes and headed back inside. One of them swiped the lock with a keyfob, and the light turned green. They walked in and headed down the hall.

I focused on the swiftly closing door. My vision zoomed in, and I stretched my magical awareness out as far as I could. I was still a few feet short, so I pushed harder. I felt a painful sensation behind my eyes, like overstretching a stiff muscle. Nevertheless, I now felt the door, so I tried to hold it open with my telekinesis.

Holy crap, it was heavy. I may as well have been trying to lift Shmangie. I let out a gasp as my aura flickered and died.

“Sweetie...” Scootaloo said.

I ignored her. The door was almost closed, I had to think of something quick. The sides of the building were decorated with rock gardens. I grabbed a stone the size of my hoof and wedged it in the door.

“Got it! Go!” I started to move forward myself, but I stumbled and fell to my knees. Apple Bloom, Babs, and Scootaloo ran ahead, but Shmangie bent down and picked me up before I could protest. She quickly crossed the distance and entered the building. Apple Bloom kicked the rock away, and the door closed with a click.

We were now in a sterile break room set with uncomfortable-looking wooden tables and chairs. The walls were bare save for a bulletin board set with company announcements and policies, and the glaring fluorescent lights above made us blink like owls.

“Where are the stairs?” Babs asked.

I wordlessly pointed to a door immediately to our right.

Shmangie opened the door, and we all slipped inside. An empty, dim stairwell with bland white stairs spiraling upward met our eyes.

I wiggled in Shmangie’s arms. “Put me down. I can walk.”

She hesitated for a second, but then slowly obliged. I leaned against her leg and rubbed my temples, but stopped when I noticed the others looking strangely at me.

“What?”

“You got a nosebleed,” Apple Bloom said.

I touched my muzzle, and felt a warm wetness. I pulled my hoof away to find it stained a bright crimson.

“Oh,” I said simply. 

“Yeah, you’re not climbing five flights right now.” Shmangie swooped down and picked me back up. “You can’t use a computer very well when you’re passed out.”

I sighed in defeat and wrapped my hooves around her neck. “Fine. We’ll need to stop at the bathroom once we get up there so I can clean this up, though.”

“Will that be a problem?” Babs asked.

I shook my head. “We just need to be quiet until we get up past the second floor.”

“Let’s go, then,” Scootaloo said. She started up the stairs. The others followed close behind.

“Idiota,” Shmangie whispered as she took up the rear. “You shouldn’t have pushed yourself so hard.” 

I sighed and stemmed the nosebleed with my satchel. “I didn’t think the door would be so heavy.”

Shmangie petted my mane. “Are you going to be okay?”

“Yeah.” I watched the stairs fall away from us as we ascended. “It’s not an indication of a stroke or anything. I just need to not do anything big like that for a while.”

I felt Shmangie’s posture shift at the words ‘a while.’ 

“You’re not going to make a habit out of risking yourself like that, are you?”

I groaned. “We got in, didn’t we?”

“Don’t you dare brush me off,” Shmangie hissed. “I’m not—” 

She stopped as we reached the second floor. Apple Bloom, Babs, and Scootaloo simply trotted on past, as they were too short to be seen through the door’s window. Shmangie, however, had to duck down and stealthily slip past. As she did, I heard the ringing of phones and snippets of unintelligible conversation.

She continued once we’d gone up another flight. “I’m not just going to sit back and let you throw yourself into harm’s way because you feel like you have something to prove. I know you’re hurting far more than you’re letting on, and while I’m glad you’re not getting depressed about all this, bottling up your anger until it explodes isn’t much better. You’re not alone in this, despite how you may feel, and the others need you as much as you need them. You did good in coming up with this plan, but you didn’t need to keep it a secret from us. I want you to promise me that you’ll stop trying to do everything yourself from now on, okay?”

I pursed my lips. I didn’t know if I could make that promise. I’d been flying solo since high school, and it’s not like relying on others was some kind of switch that I could flip on and off. I’d felt betrayed when the others didn’t come to college with me, and as a result I’d told myself that the only person that I could totally rely on was myself. Friends were a luxury that I couldn’t afford, and I needed to focus on the things that mattered if I didn’t want to be flipping burgers for the rest of my life. In a way it’d worked, as I’d graduated in the top five percent of my class, but I’d become bitter and mistrustful towards others, as well. I knew it was wrong. I knew that I’d changed for the worse, but even if my reclusive habits were hurting me, it was hard to argue with the results.

“I’ll try,” I finally said.

“Trying only means something if you put forth an actual effort.” Shmangie gave me a gentle squeeze. “Will you? For me?”

I exhaled out my nose. I really hated it when she played that card. It wasn’t fair in some ways, but I could do the same thing to her if I wanted, so I suppose it evened out.

“All right.” I nuzzled her cheek. “For you.”

We reached the fifth floor and exited the stairwell. It was dark, so the girls couldn’t see what the place looked like, but I can tell you they weren’t missing much. Ugly beige carpet, gray cubicle maze, white stucco ceilings, nondescript windows, and bare white walls save for a clock or two. I didn’t want to turn on the lights in case someone outside took notice, so Shmangie put me down and I took the lead.

One stop at the ladies’ room later, we were standing in front of my old office. It was at the far end of the building, and it was about the size of a cubicle. It used to have a nameplate, but they’d already taken it down. I was only slightly disappointed by this. Honest.

“Still can’t believe you had your own office,” Shmangie muttered as she opened the door. “I didn’t even get one until two years ago, you know. Ugh! You even had a window!”

Not at all to my surprise, my office belongings had been placed into a box beside the door. The only thing that was left was the desk, the chair, the whiteboard, and the computer.

Scootaloo fluttered up onto my desk. “If it makes you feel any better, I never had an office.”

“You were a front-end manager at a grocery store,” Apple Bloom said.

“And a damn good one, too!” Scootaloo beamed. “I had all the produce codes memorized, I knew where everything was in the store, I could bag the shit out anything you wanted, and best of all, I got a discount on cigarettes!”

“The American dream,” Babs said dryly. “Such a shame you had to trade it all in for the ability to fly.”

“Eh, more like ‘prolonged jumping’ right now.“ Scootaloo hovered in midair a few seconds, then fell back down. “I need more power, cap’n! MORE, I say!”

Shmangie chuckled. “Your wings will need to grow in for that. You look like a hummingbird right now.”

“Better than a chicken!” Scootaloo said. She swiveled her neck and began to preen herself. “This is probably the weirdest thing I’ve ever said, but man, I can’t wait for puberty.”

“You’ve said weirder things.” I went over and inspected the computer. It looked like they hadn’t disconnected it or anything, so we were still in good shape there. I turned it on and waited for it to boot up.

“Do you have everything you need?” Babs asked.

I smiled and took off my satchel. “Yep. It’s all in here.”

There were a couple hurdles to get over before I could access the satellites. The first was that I needed a viable username and password, as mine had undoubtedly been removed from the system. Fortunately, I’d had a mishap a few months back where some joker had hacked my mother’s email, and decided to send malware to her entire address list. My computer had been completely ravaged by it, so the admin gave me his username and password so I could still do my work while they redid my access privileges.

A worn scrap of paper floated out of the satchel at my command. I glanced at it once to make sure I had it right.

Please enter your username and password.

Username: Klam1014

Password: Th1s1sy0urb00terang

Access Granted. Loading your preferences and settings...

You know, I never did ask him what that password meant.

The next problem was that the satellites were being monitored by the people downstairs. If I were to just jump right in and start fiddling around, not only would they know something was up, they’d also know what computer it was being done at. Then they’d come up to where we were, and well… you get the picture.

I had a way around this as well, but it requires a bit of explaining. When I was in college, I had a classmate that might be described as a hacker. He called himself ‘an opportunistic troll,’ but that’s beside the point. He was a perfectly nice guy once you got to know him, and we got along fine for the most part, but we barely ever saw each other because he spent almost all of his time writing code.

He had one glaring problem, though, and it was one that he clearly and thoroughly despised: He didn’t have a car. He’d had to choose between getting one for a graduation present or building a new computer, and he’d gone with the latter. It drove him absolutely nuts that he couldn’t even do simple things like run to the store for milk, and he was miserable for it. So, in an act of kindness, I let him use mine whenever he needed. There were some caveats, of course, but seeing as he wasn’t the type to go out and party or anything, I didn’t see the harm.

There are no words to express how grateful he was. We didn’t have any problems with this arrangement, and in the four years I knew him, he did little things here and there to show his appreciation. One of those things was to show me how to prevent IP addresses from being tracked, which I’d done when I’d made the website. Another thing was to give me an old program he’d made called Casper, which for all intents and purposes, was a virus.

Casper allowed a user to make changes on a network without anyone else seeing them. My classmate explained that it worked by taking a snapshot of the database, and then displaying that snapshot as the current state. It was only believable so long as no one else tried to make changes, and that wasn’t what he was trying to do, so he decided to give it to me. I didn’t think I’d ever have a use for such a thing, but it was the thought that counted, so I’d held onto it.

Turns out I did have a use for it. The service reps downstairs were only supposed to investigate problems if they were called in by the end-users, and if Casper was only going to show them the system’s default state, no one would think anything was wrong.

I disabled the computer’s firewall and antivirus software, then pulled Casper out of my satchel and plugged it into the USB port. I typed in the network’s settings, linked it to the satellite system, and allowed myself an evil smile.

“Su red es ahora mi perra.” I pressed Enter.

It took a few minutes for Casper to do its job. The OSC satellites serviced about a hundred thousand users all over the world, so there was a lot of data coming in and out. It eventually did work, though, and a simple pop-up screen notified me that I now full access to the satellite system without fear of being discovered.

I rubbed my hooves together. “We’re in.” 

“Damn,” Scootaloo said with raised eyebrows.

Apple Bloom whistled. “Go, Sweetie.”

Babs facehooved and shook her head. “Remind me, exactly. Why on Earth did you want to go on TV when you had access to a global satellite network?!”

I laughed. “Would you believe I didn’t think of it at first? And even if I did, these satellites are contracted by the National Weather Service to transfer electronic data and track major weather patterns. You can track heat sources, sure, but cities just light up like Christmas trees. I’d been working on a program the last two weeks to see if I could get rid of the excess.”

“But you were never trying to track heat in the first place,” Shmangie said with a knowing smirk. “You were trying to track something else. Something that no one else on Earth would recognize.”

I took a deep breath. “Not like you can really blame them. I’m probably the only one who can tell the difference between electromagnetic fields and magic.”

It was something I’d started thinking about after I’d had my Flare. I didn’t know the specifics, but I did know that there was some kind of energy transfer going on whenever I cast a spell. The clues were all there: the damage I’d done to the ceiling, the spark I’d made whenever I’d broken the curse, the warm feeling I always got behind my eyes. I remembered Miss Cheerilee talking once about ‘magical fields,’ but she’d only mentioned it in passing and hadn’t gone into detail. I suspected it was something we were going to learn when we started learning the respective magics of our races, but that never happened.

So I didn’t know anything about magical fields. I did, however, know about electromagnetic fields, which are formed when a current of electricity is run through a conductive material. They had a lot in common with what I’d observed about magic: they could be switched on and off at will, they generated heat, and most interestingly of all, they could create feedback loops. That last one led me to a theory, and while I’d no way of knowing for sure, I suspected this was how I was able to break the curse. 

When Rarity had interrupted Discord twenty-five years ago, she’d inadvertently created in me the equivalent of a frayed wire. It stayed ‘unplugged’ for the twenty-five years while my magic was gone, but when it started to come back, that ‘frayed wire’ began to spark. Thus, whenever I introduced my magical field to someone else’s through physical contact, I created a feedback loop, and caused the curse to overload.

Again, it was just a theory. It made sense to me, but this was Discord we were talking about. Motherfucker laughed in the face of sense.

Anyway, based off the evidence I’d gathered, I came to the conclusion that any kind of magical disturbance picked up by a human tracking device would be mistaken for an electromagnetic field. I didn’t think Rainbow had known this—scratch that, I knew she hadn’t, but her brashness had paid off this time. My original plan had been to see if I could hack into the satellite network remotely and find other ponies by searching for unusual heat signatures generated by ‘electromagnetic fields.’ Since Rainbow had gone and left her calling card, though, I didn’t really need to look.

I pulled up the satellite logs from earlier that day. I zoomed in over Des Moines, then moved the slider to the time of the Rainboom. I watched as a single, missile-like projectile appeared out of nowhere due to a sudden rise in temperature. 

“There she is.” I pointed at the screen.

“I’ll be danged,” Apple Bloom said.

“Go, Rainbow, go!” Scootaloo cheered.

Amusingly, Rainbow’s blip went through almost the entire color spectrum as she gathered more and more magic. Her movement became choppier and choppier as she picked up speed, which was due to the satellite’s transponder being unable to keep up with her. Then, when she was right above the middle of the city, the entire screen exploded with colorful light. I gasped and closed my eyes on instinct, and when I opened them again, there was no more sign of Rainbow other than a residual heat trail. 

“Dios…” Shmangie breathed.

“Whoa, wait!” Babs said. “Go back! We lost her!”

I grinned. “I was hoping we would.”

Babs looked at me. “What do you mean?”

I leaned back in my chair. “If it were easy to see where she’d went, then anyone else who can see this would’ve found her already. It’s going to be tricky, but since we know what to look for, we have a better chance of seeing where she went.”

“And what exactly are we lookin’ for?” Apple Bloom asked.

I rewound to right after the Rainboom, then set it to play as slow as it could go. 

“Help me look for a streak of white leaving the city.”

The explosion played out again at an agonizingly slow rate. I kept my eyes open for our quarry, but I didn’t see her on the first pass. The colors were all blending in together, and due to the darkness of the room, it was hard not to squint. 

Fortunately, there was someone in the room who literally had eagle eyes… on her mother’s side.

“Pause it!” Scootaloo said.

I obliged. She made me rewind a few tenths of a second, then she leaned in and pointed at the bottom of the screen. 

“There. Just outside the city limits.”

Even though it was expected, I still couldn’t believe Scootaloo had found it so fast. I rubbed my eyes and let them focus. Yep, there it was. A bright white streak almost indistinguishable from the rest of the light on the screen. It was only visible for an instant, then it was gone again.

“That’s... amazing, Dylan.” Shmangie shook her head in dismay. “I can’t believe you saw that.” 

I laughed. “I don’t think she’s done yet.”

Scootaloo rubbed her chin and dipped into her extensive knowledge of all things Rainbow Dash. “She must’ve dipped down to avoid being seen. She was trying to escape, so she wouldn’t have wanted to lose any of her speed, and she wouldn’t have made any changes to her trajectory since she wasn’t being chased.”

I bit my lip. “Meaning?”

Scootaloo met my eyes. “Meaning she went straight until she decided to slow down. We’ll catch another glimpse of her if we follow her vector.”

I turned back to the computer. “Show me the way, Scoots.” 

It took ten minutes of fiddling, zooming, fast-forwarding, rewinding, and reconfiguring, but we managed to find Rainbow again. She’d ascended again over the Mississippi River, two hundred miles away from Des Moines. She’d gotten there in just under two minutes. I did some rough math, and realized with a chill that she had to have been flying at least six thousand miles per hour to do that. Almost Mach Eight. 

There was really only one word I could think of to describe such a feat.

“Awesome.” I shivered with goosebumps.

“She’s turning around.” Scootaloo leaned in closer to the screen. “And the dot isn’t as bright now, so she’s starting to kill her speed. She wouldn’t do that if she was going to be flying somewhere far away. She’s definitely in that area somewhere.”

“That’s still a big area,” Babs pointed out. “We could search for months and still not find her with only that to go on. We need to find her at least one more time.”

Scootaloo clicked her teeth. “She’d have exhausted most of the excess aether by that point, and I doubt she’d have flown up high enough again for the satellite to spot her.”

“Let’s just look,” Apple Bloom said. “Ain’t no harm in checkin’, right?”

Scootaloo ran a hoof through her mane. “Yeah… all right.”

I made the satellite focus on a fifty mile radius around where we’d seen Rainbow over the Mississippi, then let it play again. Scootaloo took control over the mouse, and we all huddled around the monitor. Over the next twenty minutes, we consecutively cycled through thirty second blocks of time, but it seemed Rainbow had completely disappeared. A part of me was glad it was proving so difficult because it was that much more unlikely that anyone else had found her, but it was still incredibly frustrating.

I was just about to give up when Scootaloo pounded the mouse with a shout.

“GOT HER!”

We all jumped and hissed out a cumulative, “SHH!”

Scootaloo hunched down and bowed her head. “Sorry. I did, though!”

I glanced at the screen. “Where?”

Scootaloo pointed again, this time at an almost imperceptible ghost of a blip at the very edge of the screen. It was tiny. It was faint. It could’ve been mistaken for some kind of interference, which was what I’d thought it was at first. No one would’ve seen it unless they were intentionally looking in this exact area like we were, and even then, they still wouldn’t have thought anything of it.

“You’re kidding,” Babs whispered.

“I’ll bet she was tired and flew up to grab a cloud.” Scootaloo folded her arms with a smug grin. “That’s the only reason I can think of to why she’d reveal herself again.”

I wrote down the blip’s latitude and longitude, then alt-tabbed and ran it against Google Maps.

An address popped up.

“It’s a farm,” I said with incredulity. “She’s on some kind of farm, a dozen miles away from a small town in the middle of nowhere. That’s gotta be where she is.”

Apple Bloom suddenly seized both me and Scootaloo in a fierce hug.

“Ya’ll are the best, you know that?!” she said.

Babs joined in the hug as well. “I can’t believe it! I can’t believe we found her!”

“Can’t… breathe…” My ribs creaked as all the air was crushed out of my lungs.

Shmangie watched us with an amused smile. “You might wanna let go before they pass out.”’

Apple Bloom and Babs still held on for a few seconds, but then obeyed. Scootaloo and I were left massaging our chests and taking deep breaths, then wordlessly agreed that earth pony strength was no joke. If that was the kind of power they had with their front legs, I didn’t even wanna think about what they could do with their back ones.

Shmangie pulled out a pen and piece of paper and wrote down the farm’s address. “Do you think anyone else might’ve seen this, Shmage?”

I sucked on my teeth. “Satellite transponders can only transmit information so fast, and cameras are limited by frames per second. Rainbow was moving so fast that she was gone before anything could get a second reading of her, and since she’s so small, she’s likely to be mistaken for some kind of electrical disturbance. They might even think she’s a lightning bolt.”

“So you think this is a safe bet,” Shmangie said. “We’re not going to be walking into a trap, or anything.”

I took a few screenshots of the satellite info, put them on Casper’s flash drive, then started to delete everything I’d done off the computer. “Without knowledge of Rainbow’s flying habits and the similarities between magic and electromagnetic fields, AND the aid superhuman vision? The chances of anyone finding what we just did are worse than winning the lottery. Take that how you will.”

“I’ll take it!” Scootaloo said with a raise of her hoof.

“Seconded.” Apple Bloom raised her hoof as well.

“Thirded.” Babs followed suit.

I giggled and shut the computer down. “Good enough for you, sister?”

Shmangie looked out the window for a few seconds, then rolled her eyes and let out a resigned sigh. “All right, all right. So much for my PTO.”

“Marvelous.” I turned off the computer and slipped into my best imitation of Rarity’s accent. “Pack up your things and prepare for a change of scenery, darlings. Our Dashing hero awaits.”


> Family is Forever
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 10:


Family is Forever







“You sure we should just be walking up the driveway like this?” Babs asked.

The drive to Iowa had gone without incident. We’d left early the next morning in a van that Shmangie had borrowed from her best friend, and we’d taken as many back roads as we could in an effort to stay away from Des Moines. We’d done pretty well, but even still we’d gotten caught in stop-and-go traffic three times. It was now late afternoon, and Apple Bloom, Babs, Scootaloo, Shmangie, and I were cautiously making our way up a winding dirt driveway that disappeared into a line of spruce trees.

“Why not?” I said with a shrug. “We gotta coax Rainbow out somehow. She’ll probably just hide if Shmangie goes up and starts snooping around by herself.”

“Not that I’m dressed for snooping in the first place,” Shmangie said. She was wearing makeup, a violet button-down shirt over a white blouse, along with blue bootcut jeans and fashion boots. She was wearing her sapphire necklace and matching earrings, too, but she hardly ever took those off.

I rolled my eyes. “You knew we were going to a farm, not a night on the town. You should’ve worn some older clothes.”

Shmangie made a derisive noise. “We're about to meet Rainbow Dash. You honestly thought I wouldn’t want to look my best?”

“You never dressed up for us,” Scootaloo pointed out with a sly grin. “What, are we not good enough for you?”

Shmangie raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think I need to dress up for someone I help clean off every time they use the restroom.”

Scootaloo went bright red. She tried to stammer out a response, but there really wasn’t one to give. It was embarrassing to admit, but Shmangie had been a godsend in helping us maintain our hygiene and health. She’d brushed our coats and manes, helped us shower and address biological functions, made sure we ate right, had vaccinated us against several equine diseases, and had even sprayed us with a special perfume so we didn’t smell like horse. It was because of her that we were healthy, properly groomed, and looking the best we possibly could, and while she did it all without complaint, it was something she wasn’t about to let us forget. 

We neared a bend on the driveway. “We're meeting an amnesiac Rainbow Dash, Shmangie. She's probably nothing like who she used to be. We might as well be meeting a stranger.”

Scootaloo sighed. “Would you quit it with the melodrama? Seriously, you've been nothing but gloom and doom ever since we left. Rainbow's gonna be different, yeah, but if she can do a Sonic Rainboom, then the old her is still in there.”

“I just don't want you getting your hopes up,” I said. “Rainbow may know she’s your surrogate sister because of the show, but she’s not gonna have any memories of the time you spent together."

Scootaloo looked down at the ground. “No. I refuse to believe that we can’t have the same bond we used to have, regardless of what I do. Memories or not, my personality was pretty much the same as a human, so I have to think that Rainbow’s is, too.”

Apple Bloom patted Scootaloo’s shoulder. “I’m sure she’ll come around. All ya gotta do is give her some time. I doubt the Element of Loyalty’s gonna up and abandon somepony that sees her as a sister.”

Babs hopped over a puddle. “Speaking of which, do you think Rainbow might know anything about them? The Elements, I mean.”

A silence formed as we all considered the question. I personally doubted it, but I wasn’t exactly learned in the ways of mystical arcane relics. It might be possible that Rainbow still had some kind of connection to the Element of Loyalty, but even if she did, it wouldn’t do much good while we were still on Earth.

“It can’t hurt to ask her,” I said. “If she does, maybe she can use it to—”

I’ll never forget what happened next. First there was a faint rumbling in the ground. Then there was the sound of rapid hoofbeats. The five of us had just enough time to exchange a confused glance before not one, but TWO pony mares came galloping around the driveway bend.

The first was expected: Cyan coat magenta eyes, a prismatic mane and tail, and a lightning bolt cutie mark—the one and only Rainbow Dash. The second was an orange earth pony with emerald eyes, a mane and tail like straw, and a Stetson atop her head. It was unmistakable who she was, but my brain didn’t process her name until I heard Apple Bloom’s breathless whisper.

“Jackie…”

Applejack and Rainbow hadn’t seen us yet, and were still running full-bore down the driveway. They suddenly realized we were right in front of them, and their expressions turned to panic as they tried to skid to a halt.  

“WAUGH!”

Scootaloo leapt into the air on instinct. Babs and Apple Bloom dove into the ditch. I’m ashamed to say that I froze, but Shmangie kept her head and shoved me out of the way. I fell into a bush and immediately got myself tangled in a mess of branches.

Shmangie held up her hands. “Whoa there, ponies!”

I almost laughed. Of all the things she could’ve said, that was probably the worst. Regardless, though, it seemed to work. Rainbow and Applejack skidded to a halt a few yards in front of her, and I fought to free myself from the bush as Scootaloo fluttered down beside Babs and Apple Bloom, who’d just gotten to their hooves on the other side of the driveway.

Nopony moved. We all simply stared at each other, neither side fully sure of what to say or do. Rainbow and Applejack were wide-eyed and incredulous, standing stock still as they beheld each of us in turn. They didn’t seem to have any injuries, and looked to be in good health. The blank looks on their faces was evidence that Discord’s curse was still affecting them, though, but that was to be expected.

Shmangie was now alone in the center of the driveway face-to-face with two members of the Mane Six. She visibly flinched with barely contained glee, but her expression hardened as she shifted into ‘manager mode.’ She cleared her throat and politely nodded to Rainbow and Applejack.

“My name is Angie Raimundo, and I—”

Shmangie was cut off by a pair of orange and yellow missiles glomping Rainbow and Applejack from the side. They all went tumbling away in a jumble of manes, tails. 

I groaned. It seemed that all my warnings had fallen on deaf ears.

Rainbow and Applejack were now lying spread-eagled on their backs, blinking in shock as Scootaloo and Apple Bloom hugged them with muted sobs. They didn’t try to pry them off, but neither did they seem really sure what to do. Babs was still on the side of the road, presumably to give Apple Bloom a moment with her sister.

“Uh... hey there, Scootaloo.” Rainbow awkwardly patted her head. “Good to, um… see you?”

Scootaloo didn’t reply. She just pressed her face harder into Rainbow’s coat.

“Yeah,” Applejack said. There was no accent in her voice. “Hey there, uh… Apple Bloom. Been a while, hasn’t it?”

Apple Bloom hiccuped and looked up at her with red, watery eyes. “Y-You… r-remember me?”

Applejack pursed her lips into a thin line. She stared at Apple Bloom for a long time, searching her sister’s face in the hopes of finding something. I almost thought she was going to say yes, but then, she closed her eyes and slowly shook her head.

“I’m sorry.”

Apple Bloom sagged. She sniffled again, but then, something in her seemed to snap. Her eyes became wild, and she gritted her teeth with a fierce snarl. She got off of her sister, raised her head, then screamed in a language I hadn’t heard in twenty-five years.

“SWEETIE!”

My hair stood on end. Equestrian is a very distinct, highly tonal dialect that requires the full range of a pony’s vocal chords. I poked my head out of the bush and responded in kind. “What?”

Apple Bloom looked over at me with unbalanced eyes. She pointed at Applejack. “Restore her memories! NOW!”

I shook my head. “You know I can’t!”

“I DON’T CARE!” Apple Bloom stormed over and snatched my hoof. She yanked me out of the bush and started dragging me over to Applejack.

“Hey!” I tried to get free, but Apple Bloom was pulling me with all her strength. We made our way over to Applejack, who had gotten to her hooves and was looking curiously at us.

“Did I miss something? Why are they neighing?”

“Apple Bloom, stop!” Babs ran over and tried to pull her off me. “We can’t do this! Not right now!”

“The hell are you three doing?!” Shmangie said with alarm. “Let go of Mage!”

Rainbow looked up and snorted. “‘Mage’? Really?”

Scootaloo looked over at us, gasped, then leaned forward and began whispering in Rainbow’s ear.

“SHE’S RIGHT THERE!” Apple Bloom roared as she kicked at Babs. “SHE’S RIGHT BUCKING THERE! I’M NOT LETTING ANYTHING ELSE STAND IN THE WAY!”

Apple Bloom is a better fighter than Babs, but she wasn’t in a state of mind to do anything other than flail wildly. Babs took a couple of hits, but she still managed to pin Apple Bloom to the ground. The loss of forward momentum made me stumble backwards and I did a backwards somersault. I smacked my horn on a rock, and the sudden stab of pain made tears spring to my eyes. I lay on my stomach while cradling my head in my hooves.

Rainbow had now sat up and was gawking at me with her jaw hung slack. Scootaloo was reared on her back hooves so she could still reach Rainbow’s ear, avidly whispering away.

Applejack took a step towards me. “Are you all—”

“STAY BACK!” I got up and zipped behind Shmangie. “DON’T COME NEAR ME!”

“Get a grip, idiot!” Babs now had Apple Bloom in a chokehold. “Don’t make me knock you out!”

Apple Bloom was struggling like her life depended on it, but her cousin’s grip was too strong. Her efforts became progressively weaker and weaker as she went longer and longer without air.

“BREAK IT UP!” Shmangie went over and separated them, which in turn left me completely exposed. Scootaloo was now watching Apple Bloom and Babs out of the corner of her eye, but hadn’t stopped whatever message she was whispering to Rainbow. Applejack also hadn’t moved thanks to my outburst.

It was the most chaotic, awkward debacle I’d ever been a part of. All I could do was nurse my horn and fervently hope that Applejack and Rainbow didn’t think we were insane. Part of me wanted to be furious with Apple Bloom for what she’d just tried to do. Another part was willing to let it slide. Either way, though, I hoped that I wouldn’t act the same way if we ever found—

The ground rumbled again. My ears pricked up as I heard the sound of more hoofbeats. I looked up in surprise. Rainbow heard it as well. She stopped Scootaloo and turned around.

“Slow up!" she called. "We’re right around the corner!”

The hoofbeats slowed. A four-legged shadow approached at a trot. My heartbeat quickened. Was this real? There were more ponies here?! Who else had… they…

The world melted away. Time itself came to a screeching halt. The only thing that moved or existed was her. A pristine white coat, full and shining in the late afternoon sun. A violet mane and tail were styled in familiar, curled coiffures. Neatly trimmed fetlocks and makeup that beautifully accentuated her features. She carried herself with graceful poise, and when I saw those deep, sapphire eyes, my composure, my plans, my everything…  all of it was simply swept away.

Shmangie had now separated Babs and Apple Bloom and was standing in between them. “First off, don’t ever ignore me like that again! Second, MICHAEL DENNIS ZIMMERMAN, I swear to everything holy, if you just tried what I think you tried—”

And then she noticed who’d just showed up.

“Oh."

Rarity cocked her head. “Am I interrupting something?”

Apple Bloom and Babs turned. Everyone did, in fact. Rarity was currently the center of attention, but she didn’t seem to mind. I couldn’t believe it. The pony who I loved unconditionally and would do anything for. The one who’d had made time for me despite leading a busy life. The one who’d tried to save me and had gotten punished for it. 

And she didn’t even know who I was.

Shmangie blinked several times, but quickly recovered. She brushed herself off, and tried to pick up where she’d left off.

“I a-apologize for that. As I was saying, my name’s Angie, and I’m Sweetie Belle’s h-human sister. She came to me for help when she and the others started changing back into p-ponies, and I’ve been taking care of them ever since. We came because we saw the S-Sonic Rainboom on TV.”

My mind was blanking. I could see the hollowness in Rarity’s eyes, the lack of recognition that was usually reserved for complete strangers. Oh, Celestia, it hurt. I wanted to hug her. I wanted to hear her laugh. I wanted to spend the weekends with her and help her make dresses again. I wanted her to tell me everything was going to be all right.

Rainbow shook her head clear, then looked back and Shmangie and regarded her with newfound interest. “Oh, yeah? Nice! I knew that’d make ponies come running. Did you see how they were trying to explain it on CNN this morning? Freaking priceless!”

Applejack shot Rainbow an unamused look. “Tens of thousands of people, Dash. All of 'em with scared silly with no idea when they’re going to be able to go back home.”

Rainbow flattened her ears. “Don’t mind Jack. She’s still having issues accepting that she’s a member of an infinitely cooler race—er, no offense.”

Shmangie giggled. “None taken.”

Never before had I felt so close to something, yet so far away. Rarity didn’t move towards me, nor did she say anything or give any sign of recognition. She kept her attention on me, yes but her mind couldn’t penetrate through the fog.

Applejack ignored the jibe. “How’d you guys find us so fast? Did Princess Luna give you dream instructions?”

Shmangie did a double take. “Princess Lu—how many ponies are here on this farm? We thought it was just Rainbow!”

“Call me Dash,” Rainbow cut in. “And we don’t actually know where Luna is. She just popped up in my dream and was like, ‘You should do a Rainboom to inspire ponies around the world!’ And I was like, ‘Why don’t you go talk to the government or something?’ And she was like, ‘Screw that, they’re a bunch of douchebags! I need you to do something so amazing it’ll make everyone crap their pants! Now gimme your address so I can tell ponies where to go!’”

I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to cry, but the tears wouldn’t come. I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t even summon a whisper. I wanted to be mad at her, but all the anger kept turning inward. I couldn’t go to her, but I couldn’t go anywhere without everypony noticing. I was putting both her and Shmangie in danger by staying here, but it wasn’t like I could just leave. Even if I could, the others would spout off some nonsense about how we belonged together. But what was I supposed to do, then? Keeping away from one pony was conceivable, but multiple?

“I’m sure that’s a direct quote,” Applejack said dryly. “To answer your question, Miss Angie, there are eight ponies here in total: Me, Dash, Rarity, Big Mac, Fluttershy, Shining Armor, Twilight Sparkle, and Pinkie Pie. We’re in the middle of preparing for more, but you five are the first ones to show up—oh. Hey, Apple Bloom. You all right?”

Apple Bloom had walked back over to Applejack in silence. She was now resting her head against her sister's side, eyes closed as silent tears fell down her cheeks.

Babs ignored Apple Bloom and turned to Rainbow. “Wait, did I hear that right? All the Mane Six are here?”

“You bet!” Rainbow said with a smirk. “I—hold on.” Rainbow crouched down, swept the still-whispering Scootaloo up onto her back, and resumed talking over the audible squee. “I busted my ass to get everyone here! It got a little hairy for a while, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.”

“You nearly started a war on three separate occasions, darling.” Rarity finally broke eye contact with me to address Rainbow with a small frown. “I don’t think that qualifies as ‘little’. And who is the one hanging in the back? Is that Sweetie Belle? Why's she so far away from all of us?”

Suddenly I knew what a deer in the headlights felt like. I gulped and tried to think of something as everyone turned to me.

“I-I...”

“She’s sick!” Rainbow said loudly. “Yeah, um… she’s got a cold. Scootaloo was just telling me that they’ve all had a pretty bad bug this past week. Sweetie’s still getting over it, so she doesn’t wanna spread the germs.”

Shmangie looked oddly at Rainbow. “She’s not—”

Scootaloo silenced her with a rapid motion across her throat.

Rarity scrutinized me. “She doesn’t look sick to me.”

I felt all eyes on me again. Obviously Scootaloo had said something to Rainbow, but she couldn’t have told her much in such a short span of time. Ultimately I just decided to roll with it and let things turn out as they would.

“ACHOO!” I faked a sneeze and vigorously rubbed my nose. I let my posture slump and began speaking in a nasally voice. “Yeah, sorry about that. Still not feeling well.”

Rarity narrowed her eyes and swished her tail. “I’ll admit I don’t remember how we treated each other in our past lives, young lady, but do you really intend resume our relationship with a lie?”

Ouch. It seemed that Rarity’s intuition was something she hadn’t lost. I stammered and tried to force out a nervous laugh, but it came out more like a grunt. I looked to Shmangie for support, but she looked pretty annoyed, herself.

“Diga la verdad,” she muttered tersely.

“Hold on, Rare—” Rainbow said.

“Butt out,” Rarity said icily. “You don’t see me trying to intervene with your sister, or whoever that little one on your back is, so I’ll thank you not to do so with mine. If someone’s going to claim they’re my family, I’ll not allow them to keep secrets from me.”

“Yeah!” The bush I’d fallen into earlier said. “Sisters are supposed to be super-close so they can confide in each other and stuff! Not stall for time and whisper to each other in other languages!”

We all turned. I knew that voice, but I was still trying to process that I’d actually heard it with my own ears. I slowly inched closer to Shmangie.

Applejack groaned. “Would you get out of there, Pinkie? You’re gonna scare them.”

“Pfft! No, I won’t!” A pink earth pony mare with a poofy mane and tail hopped out of the bush. Pinkie playfully winked at me before sidling over to Applejack. “These four know waaaaay too much about me to be scared by a little thing like this!”

Babs snickered. “This is true."

"One does not question the ways of Pinkie Pie," Scootaloo agreed.

Applejack scratched her head. “Meaning what, exactly?”

Pinkie smiled at me and gestured with a hoof. “Go ahead.”

I bit my lip. Would it be better to keep silent? It certainly would be safer, not to mention easier. But then they might not understand why I had to stay away from them. I didn’t know how long we were going to be on Earth, but if the Mane Six really were all here, then maybe things were moving faster than I thought. Maybe if I gave Twilight her memories back, she’d be able to find a way back to Equestria and we could challenge Discord! Maybe there was hope after all!

Or maybe she wouldn’t know anything, and then I’d have blown our cover for nothing.

Rainbow gave me an apologetic look. “Sorry. I tried.”

I sighed. “No, they’re right. I shouldn’t hide this, even if I think it’s the right thing to do. You all deserve to know how the four of us got our memories back, and what it can mean for all of you.”

Rarity’s lips parted. “You have...”

“No way,” Applejack breathed.

I closed my eyes and looked away. “It happened when Discord put the curse on me…”

I told them everything. I told them about our shared dream of our last moments as ponies on our twenty-fifth birthdays. I told them how I’d regained my memories when I’d gotten my magic back and then discovered that I could do the same for other ponies by being in close contact with them. I told them my theories on how this was possible and how those theories had led to us to the farm through the use of weather satellites. I also told them how unlikely it was that anypony else could do the same, and our hopes that they knew of a way back home.

“So that’s the gist of it,” I finished. “I can break the curse and restore your old memories, but I can’t do it without putting Rarity and Angie in danger. I didn’t think it’d be much of an issue with just Rain—er, Dash here, but if there are as many as you say with even more on the way, then I don’t think I can stay here.”

There was a silence. Rainbow was looking down at the ground, her expression thoughtful as she sucked on her teeth. Pinkie was idly dragging one of her hooves in a circle. Applejack was lying on the ground, her arm around Apple Bloom as she gently stroked her mane. I didn’t know what Rarity was doing. I’d looked away when I'd seen her reaction to my fate, and it’d been hard enough recounting everything without seeing how she'd react to it.

“Okay, first thing,” Rainbow said. “Nopony, and I mean NOPONY, under any circumstance, is to breathe a word of this to Twilight. Understand?”

Applejack frowned. “Why not?”

Rainbow spun her hoof beside her head. “I haven't had a chance to tell you about this, but Shining called us when he’d gotten stranded in Canada from learning how to teleport. Twilight overheard, and she flat-out demanded that he tell her how to do it!”

“And then she immediately did herself!” Pinkie laughed. “Didn’t even think about the rest of us; she was just like, ‘Oooh, shiny new magic thing! MUST TRY!’ Then poof! She was stranded just like Shiny.”

Rainbow nodded. “She won’t give Sweetie the chance to explain. If she decides she wants her memories back, then none of us can really stop her. Well, maybe I could if got the jump on her, but I’d rather not take the chance.”

“I don’t think that’s fair,” Shmangie said. “I mean, granted, you girls know her better than I do, but Twilight can’t be so obsessed that she’d—”

“She focused so hard on learning telekinesis that she turned an apple into a bomb,” Pinkie said. “It destroyed her apartment and shattered the windows of all the buildings around the block. And she caused an explosion in Seattle that was mistaken for a terrorist attack. And she nuked a shed so hard that it looked like a mushroom cloud! Oh, and she keeps trying super hard to try and remember anything and everything she can about magic! And—”

“Okay, okay.” Shmangie rubbed her temples. “Telling the uber-powerful, knowledge-obsessed, teleporting alicorn that she can’t have something that she desperately wants is a bad idea. But what, then? Mage shouldn’t have to be a pariah because of this.”

“Of course she shouldn’t.” Rainbow rubbed her chin and turned to me. “Is it any physical contact that sets it off, or just with your horn?”

“Just my horn,” I said. “I grabbed Scootaloo before I restored her memories. Nothing happened until I touched her forehead.”

Rainbow shrugged. “Then just put something over it. Preferably something that won't stand out.”

I clucked my tongue. Would that really work? I wasn’t sure about the conductivity of magic, so there was a chance that it might not make a difference. Back in Equestria there were these enchanted metal sheaths called suppressors that completely cut off a unicorn’s magic, but that wasn’t something we could get here. Besides, that wasn’t really what we wanted. We were just trying to prevent my magical field from getting into contact with anypony else’s, not stop me from using magic altogether.

“I’m not sure we brought anything like that with us.” I started trying to think of something that might fit over my horn. I considered the sheath for my rapier, but that would look completely absurd. One of Shmangie’s socks was an option, but that wouldn’t look much better. It’d pretty much need to be something custom-made, but I wasn’t exactly much of a—

“I can make you something,” Rarity said in a quiet voice. “I have some sewing tools in my room. All I’d need to do is take your measurements.”

I’m not sure why that offer hit me so hard. Maybe it was the way she’d said it. Maybe it was the memories that were triggered. Or maybe it was because I interpreted the gesture as that she wasn’t mad at me. Regardless of what it was, I barely resisted the urge not to just run to her right then and there.

“I-I’d like that,” I said.

“Cool.” Rainbow stretched her wings and turned to Applejack. “So here’s what we’ll do: We’ll go up to the farm together, then get everypony outside and do introductions. While we’re doing that, Rarity and Sweetie Belle will sneak around the farmhouse, go in through the backdoor, and get Sweetie’s horn cozy-thingy made.”

“How are we going to explain their absence?” Applejack asked.

Rainbow hummed in thought. “We’ll just say they need a moment alone together. Nopony will question that.”

“Especially with how adorably huggy the others are being!” Pinkie said.

Scootaloo rested her head on Rainbow’s shoulder. “Don’t care. Nuzzling best pony.”

Rainbow chuckled. “I like this kid already.”

Shmangie shot me a questioning glance. I nodded my consent, and she drummed her fingers together. She then adjusted her purse and addressed me along with the other Crusaders. 

“You four will have to play dumb from here on out. Until further notice, you still think you’re humans-turned-ponies, and you’re not happy with being turned into colorful cartoon female horses. You’re hoping there’s a way you can be turned back, and you’re very surprised to discover that you all have family members here. Also, no doing that neighing thing. They’ll think you’re nuts.”

“What neighing—” I huffed and raised my chin. “That was Equestrian! It sounds nothing like the noises Earth horses make!”

“Sounded like neighing to me,” Applejack muttered.

“Me too,” Rainbow said.

“Me three!” Pinkie said.

“Me as well, I’m afraid.” Rarity said.

I opened and closed my mouth a few times, then made a disgusted noise and facehooved. “Fucking Discord…”

“Language, young lady!” Rarity said sharply.

I gave her a flat look. “I’m thirty-three.”

“Certainly don’t look it,” Applejack said. She got to her hooves and looked back towards the direction of the farm. “This certainly changes things. May not need to hunker down for as long as I’d thought. We'll have to sit down and talk about when’s a good time for Sweetie to lift the curse.”

Rainbow furrowed her brow. “You actually want to? I thought you’d, well… you know.”

Applejack looked down at Apple Bloom, who was still avoiding eye contact and standing wordlessly at her side. She looked back up at Rainbow. “Later.”

“Yeah! Now’s not the time for broody monologues! It’s super-happy reunion time!” Pinkie began hopping down the road in her familiar bouncy stride. “Follow me, follow me, I know the way! But abandon all hope, ye newcomers, for here there be PONIES!”

Babs smirked. “I’d think that’d be a reason to have hope.”

“Oh, it is!” Pinkie said over her shoulder. “I just wanted to say that!”

Applejack and Apple Bloom followed after Pinkie. Rainbow, Scootaloo, and Babs followed suit. Shmangie hung back, looking between Rarity and I for a few seconds as she twisted a lock of her hair in her fingers.

A small smile crept up on my face. “Ella no muerde, ya sabes.”

“¡Cállate!” Shmangie snapped. “¡Sólo dame un segundo!”

“Pardon?” Rarity said. 

I coughed to hide my laughter. “Sorry. We tend to revert to Spanish when teasing each other. Isn’t that right, hermanita?”

“No hagas que te pegue.”

“You know Spanish, too?” Rarity shook her head in disbelief. “How many languages can you speak?”

“Just the three,” I said casually. “Not like Equestrian’s very useful, though. You know, considering there are only three others on Earth who speak it.”

Rarity’s eyes became distant. “I imagine that must be rather... frustrating.”

Shmangie stopped playing with her hair. She took one hesitant step forward, then gained more confidence and approached Rarity with a nervous smile. She extended her hand and spoke in a shaky voice. 

“It’s a pleasure to m-meet you. I know you don’t remember who Shmage is r-right now, but I want you to know that I’ve always done my b-best to keep her safe. I don’t expect you to see me as family or a-anything, but I hope we can at least be f-friends.”

Rarity took Shmangie’s hand, but didn’t reply right away. She looked her up and down, taking in the strange human that claimed to have such a strong bond with her. Her eyes fell on the sapphire necklace, and she looked up with an amused smile.

“Please don’t tell me ‘Shmage’ is Sweetie’s human name.”

I burst out laughing.

Shmangie blushed. “His—her name is Magellan, but we shortened it to Mage, and then we started calling each other ‘Shmangie’ and ‘Shmage’ when we were kids and it sorta stuck...”

“Ah, a nickname.” Rarity’s eyes twinkled. “I take it you two are close, then.”

Shmangie bowed her head. “Something like that.”

“Good.” Rarity patted Shmangie’s hand. “I expect nothing less from a sister.”

Shmangie’s eyes widened. She started to say something else, but Rarity cut her off. 

“You should go. It’s going to defeat the purpose if you fall too far behind.”

Shmangie lightly ground her teeth. It was very clear she’d rather stay, but she conceded the point. Shmangie stepped away, nodded once to both of us, then met my eyes and mouthed two words.

“Good luck.”

I watched her go with reluctance. I wasn’t really sure I needed luck, per se, but I supposed the turn of phrase was apt enough. It did sort of feel like I was walking into a minefield here, and it’d take nothing short of a miracle to get me through in one piece.

“She seems nice,” Rarity said once Shmangie was out of earshot. “I think we’ll get along just fine.”

I sighed in relief. “I really hope so. You two have a lot in common.”

“Had a lot in common, you mean.” Rarity sat on her haunches. “Okay, before we go any further, we need to get this out of the way. I know you remember who I used to be, but you have to accept that that's not who I am anymore. I spent twenty-five years as the spoiled only child of an emotionally distant mother and a misogynistic father. I was rich, I was neglected, I was a boy, and I hated every second of all of it. Every second of every day, I feared that that anger would seep into the rest of my life.”

“And yet you just confided that to me without even knowing what name I go by.” I blew a lock of my mane out of my eyes. “You know, it’s funny. I spent the whole ride down here nagging Scoots on how Rainbow wasn’t going to be the same, and yet they took to each other right away. Applejack and Apple Bloom did too, more so, even. Something’s breaking through, isn’t it? Something faint, something weak, but still enough to identify who we are.”

Rarity looked at me with searching eyes. There was a hunger to them, a desperate kind of yearning that practically begged me to release the dam sealing her life away. I didn’t move. She didn’t come any closer. We stood a mere ten yards apart, yet there was so much more separating us.

A long, awkward minute passed, then Rarity leaned back and raised her head to the sky. 

“I was close with one of my grandmothers before she died. I’d always go to her when I was young, complaining about my parents and how I wished they’d treat me like a human being instead of a possession. She comforted me in a lot of ways, but there’s one thing she told me that I’ll never forget.”

I leaned forward. “What was it?”

Rarity spoke in a clear, strong voice. “Seasons change, years pass, friends come and go, fortunes trade hands, and empires rise and fall. But no matter what life deals you, family is forever. You’ll never be able to deny those who are your kin, for the bonds of blood transcend all things. Run all you like, make up whatever lies you wish, act in any way you desire, but there will always be a part of you that knows the truth.”

She turned and started walking down the driveway. “That part is a tiny little voice that dwells in the deepest part of our hearts. It speaks to us in nothing more than a whisper, but it doesn't use words. Instead, it conveys feelings of right and wrong to identify family members.”

I followed at a distance. “And you got that feeling when you saw me?”

Rarity nodded. “Like a puzzle piece falling into place.”

I dwelled on that for a moment. I didn’t doubt her, but I was curious whether or not I’d felt the same way for her in the past. I did remember always having feelings of fondness for Rarity whenever I'd watched the show, but I'd always watched the show with Shmangie, so I’d figured that that’s where the feelings were originating from.

“Which name do you prefer, by the way?” Rarity said over her shoulder. “I’m not exactly keen on ‘Mage’, but I can understand if that’s more comfortable for you.”

I smiled. “I’m really only okay with people who knew me as a human calling me that. For everyone else, I prefer they call me Sweetie.”

“Do you think there’s a difference between the two?” Rarity asked.

I blinked. “Difference? What do you mean?”

Rarity sidestepped a pothole as we went around the corner. “We—the other ponies here, that is, noticed there were mental changes when we reverted back into ponies.Some of us here are worried that we’re going to completely lose our human personas as time goes on.”

The farm came into view. It was an impressively sized homestead comprised of a two-story wooden house, a weathered barn, several sheds, and a fenced off area that led off into a pasture. We were surrounded by forest on all sides with open fields that stretched off for acres and acres. 

“I don’t think that I’ve lost any crucial part of who I used to be,” I said. “I still remember how I acted, all the things I learned and experienced, and the way I felt about my family and friends. Getting my old memories back just took the qualities and traits I had as a pony and added them with the ones I gained as a human, so if anything, the end result is something that’s both a little bit of Sweetie, and a little bit of Mage.”

Rarity led us off the driveway onto a grassy path that gently angled through the trees towards the farmhouse. “And are you happy with that?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked. “Getting my cutie mark back actually led to an epiphany that I’m still reeling from.”

“Which was?”

I winced. “Er… um, long story. I’ll tell you about it later.”

Rarity flicked one of her ears. “Not trying to keep more secrets from me, I hope.”

“I’m not!” I said hurriedly. “Honest, I’m not. I’ll tell you about it, it’s just that I’d rather not linger on a sour note right now.”

Yes, that was the truth. And on a side note, we did wind up talking about it a few days later. She told me all the same things about how I shouldn’t beat myself up, and I found it just as hard to accept the second time around. At least I avoided another panic attack.

Rarity took care to keep her mane and tail free of the brambles that were on both sides of the path. “I guess I’m still trying to accept that there’s this whole other personality inside of me I know next to nothing about. I know it can’t be all bad seeing as it someone I used to be, but still, I’m afraid I might be different.”

I walked on unhindered thanks to being one-third of Rarity’s size. “I don’t think you need to worry about that. Shmangie knew who I was straight away when I came to her for help, and I looked like a ten-year-old girl at the time.”

“I’m not talking about what I look like,” Rarity said. “I’m talking about—”

She suddenly signalled me to stop. I obeyed, but couldn’t see the reason why. We were surrounded by tall bushes and trees. I strained my ears to see if I could hear anything, and I managed to catch snippets of Rainbow’s raspy voice.

“—aloo, Apple Bloom, and Babs… not fillies, same age as us… found us with satellites, how awesome is that… knew what to look for, said something about electro-somethings… her? Sweetie’s human sister. Been taking care of them… with Rarity, wanted some time… no idea, Twi. Ask her about it… huh? No, I don’t mind. It’s not like she’s heavy…”

Rarity raised her hoof to her lips. I nodded, and we stealthily slunk away. Rainbow’s voice continued to carry on the wind, but I tuned it out and focused on moving quietly. 

There was something strange about Rarity’s questions. I understood her trepidation and uncertainty well enough, but there was something else that was setting off a red flag for me. A hesitance in her voice, a stiffness to her posture, the way she always seemed to be looking at something far away. It could've been dismissed as nerves considering the circumstances, but I kept thinking there was something more to it.

We exited the path and left the forest behind. We were now in the backyard of the farmhouse. I could see a small porch set up with a swing, a grill, and an intricate metal wind chime that played off a series of light cascading notes. The backdoor was fitted with a push bar that was set exactly at a pony’s height. Amusingly, the doorknob was completely removed.

Rarity kept her voice low as we crossed the yard. “What I meant was that I’m worried about my heart… my soul, my identity, whatever you want to call it. What if someone likes me because of who I am right now? What if restoring my memories changes me so much that it drives them away? What if I suddenly remember that I have feelings for someone else, and then I’m torn between choosing who I want to hurt? Is that a chance I really want to take? Is that a decision I want to make for the sake of someone else?”

And just like that, it was all perfectly clear.

“You’re with someone,” I said.

Rarity hung her head. “Shining Armor.”

Yeah, that was a pretty big shock. Of all the ponies she could’ve hooked up with, she had to pick one that was already married? And not just to anypony, ohhhhh no, but to an alicorn, a ruler of a sovereign nation, and the literal Princess of Love! I mean, let’s be perfectly honest here—Rarity is like, a nine out of ten. 

Cadance is a fifty out of ten.

I noticed that Rarity was waiting for a reply. I tried to think of something, but nothing particularly insightful came to mind. I finally just said what I was thinking.

“Well… shit.”

Rarity frowned. “We really need to work on your language.”

I snorted. “Shall I reserve my cursing to other languages so as to not offend your sensitive ears?”

“Don’t get sassy with me.”

I somehow managed to keep a straight face despite that. The manner and tone was so perfect—so much so that I started to question whether the curse was starting to weaken on its own.

We went inside the farmhouse and went upstairs. It wasn’t much to speak of, although it did have a certain ‘lived-in’ feel that put me at ease. The wooden floors were lined with worn rugs that sank under my hooves. Photos and pictures covered the walls, almost all of them showing two well-built young men standing with various friends in various locations. There was some evidence of wear and tear—some peeling paint here, a creaky floorboard there, but all in all it seemed like a nice place.

Rarity led me to a room at the end of the upstairs hall. “In here.”

I didn’t know what to expect, but a part of me was freaking out. Even if Rarity was different, even if she hadn’t been in this house for very long, this was still her room. What would be the same? What would be different? Would I recognize anything?

The first thing that hit me was the smell of freshly cut grass. I was confused at first, but then realized it was some kind of perfume. A queen-sized bed stood in the middle that was fitted with a dark brown comforter and white sheets. The walls were bare, save for a pair of metal hanging lights that looked like they were from the 60’s. A vase with fresh flowers was on a nightstand, and a pair of scuffed dressers stood on opposite walls. Rarity was at the far dresser holding up a large black bag in her magic, pulling out sewing tools one by one as she softly hummed to herself. 

I stood at the entrance and watched her for a few seconds, letting it all sink in while taking slow, deep breaths.

That is, until she stopped and looked up at me.

“Well, don’t just stand there like a dullard with your mouth hanging open,” Rarity said. “Come in! Sit on the bed. I promise I’ll stay away from you.”

My legs moved of my own accord. I was lost in nostalgia, and my body was moving on auto-pilot. I clambered up onto the bed and sat down in the middle.

“Aha!” Rarity pulled out a measuring tape from the bag. “For a second I was worried I’d forgot it. Now, I need you to sit still for me while I measure your horn. It shouldn’t take long.”

I was in a trance. I stared at Rarity with wide, unfocused eyes as a roll of tailor’s tape floated towards me in a sapphire hue. She might have thought it creepy had she been paying more attention to me, but it seemed that magic was still a little difficult for her, and so she had to keep her concentration on what she was doing.

I gulped as I felt her tingling telekinesis brush against my horn. This was a moment of truth, to see if contact with other magical fields at a distance would set off the theoretical feedback loop.

Nothing happened.

As Rarity moved the tape away, I realized I’d been holding my breath. I exhaled as quietly as I could, then cast my mind about for something more we could talk about.

“How long have you known him?” I asked.

“Hmm?” Rarity examined the tape and wrote down a few numbers on a piece of paper. “Oh, Shining. For a few years, believe it or not. We worked at the same graphic design firm in Vancouver, but never really talked much beyond a few polite words here and there. I knew he—she, rather, fancied me, and I certainly reciprocated, but neither of us ever had the courage to speak up. That all changed when we started turning into ponies, though, and we started to get close to each other then.”

I tried to hide my envy at the ease she manipulated multiple objects at once. “How close, exactly? I mean, if it’s just a physical attraction, then that’ll pass with time. I’m sure Shining’s quite a catch, but he’s not the only fish in the sea.”

Rarity began rummaging through a new bag, this one filled to the brim with various bolts of fabric. “It’s more than that. He’s smart. He’s kind. He’s considerate of my feelings and treats me right. I can talk to him for hours about the most mundane, trivial things and still not get bored. He’s been there for me when I’ve needed him, and I’ve done my best to so in turn. This is the first relationship I've had with all of that. I don't want to give it up."

“Nopony’s saying you have to,” I said. “As morbid as it is to say, we don’t even know if Cadance is still alive. And even if she is, she may have fallen in love with and gotten married to somepony else! You can’t make assumptions without knowing what’s been happening in her life, and even with that, there are still Shining’s opinions to consider.”

Rarity tossed a few bolts on the bed, then set the bag down and looked around the room. “He and I have talked about it a few times. He says that he’s happy with me, and doesn’t want to let the obligations or feelings of a past life affect things now. I believe him, but he tends to be stubborn when it comes to duty and vows. That’s what I think where I think the problem will lie.”

“Do you think he feels anything towards Cadance?”

Rarity rubbed her temples. “Not right now, no, but if you restore his memories…”

“Then he suddenly might, and those feelings may be stronger than the ones he has for you.” I clicked my teeth. “That’s certainly a pickle.”

“Quite.” Rarity walked over to one of the light fixtures on the wall. It was a dull white hollow cylinder with a single bulb set inside it. She studied it from several angles, then stepped back and lowered her horn.

“Cover your ears, dear.”

There was a ripping, tearing CRUNCH. Rarity grunted and strained, and the light fixture was completely torn free of the wall. It hovered over to land neatly on the dresser, only slightly worse for the wear.

“Phew!” she wiped the sweat off her brow. “That’s the most strenuous thing I’ve done with magic. Not too bad, though, all things considered.”

I lowered my hooves from my ears. “Nice job, Chevy Chase. You just tore out a chunk of the drywall and exposed the insulation.”

“Well, we’re on a timeline, aren’t we?” Rarity shrugged and began dismantling the light fixture. “I could’ve taken it off with a screwdriver, but I don’t know where one is. Sometimes the straightest path is through the mud.”

I was about to give a retort, but then a certain memory of a destroyed door surfaced in my mind. I decided to abstain from hypocrisy and started thinking about Rarity’s situation as I watched her work.

“I’m caught between a rock and a hard place,” she muttered to herself. “I know you want me to have my memories back, and I really do want to be your sister, but I’m worried that it might change how I feel about Shining, and if he gets his memories back, then it might change how he feels about me! I don’t know what to do!”

I closed my eyes and grit my teeth. This wasn’t fair. Not to her, not to me, and not to anypony else involved. Rarity had followed her heart without knowing any better, and that wasn’t something she should be punished for. I hated seeing her so lost and frustrated. I hated that me coming here had threatened to cause a rift in her love life. The cold, hard rage was building again, and I felt it forming in my stomach like a black ball.

“You shouldn’t have to choose,” I said. “There has to be a way that we can work this out. We’re all mature, responsible adults. There’s no reason why a compromise can’t be made.”

“Things aren’t so easy when it comes to love.” Rarity began using her magic to mold the light fixture into a smaller shape. It was made of a very light, flimsy metal, so it wasn’t as impressive as it sounds. “If Cadance wants him, she’ll fight tooth and nail to get him back. I suppose I have a legitimate claim to him as well, but it’ll really come down to how Shining feels. I’ll need to talk to him and see what he wants to do. And it’ll also depend on if Cadance shows up here in the coming days.”

“This is so stupid!” I punched the bed and stood up. “Why do you have to go through all this uncertainty and grief over something that you didn’t even know about? This isn’t your fault! This isn’t Shining’s fault! This isn’t Cadance’s fault! You know whose fault it is? DISCORD’S! That slimy, rotten, malformed, mismatched piece of trash! He caused all this! He’s the one making us all suffer! He’s the one who took everything from us and dumped us here to rot!”

Rarity looked up at me with dark eyes. “Believe me, if I could somehow make him pay for all the things he’s done, I’d take it in a heartbeat. I’d be slow, I’d be methodical, and I’d make sure that he felt every single second of it. I wouldn’t be alone, either. I know the others are just as eager for revenge as me.”
 
“I HATE HIM!” I started magically throwing pillows against the wall. “I HATE HIM, I HATE HIM, I HATE HIM! I JUST WANT TO GO HOME! I JUST WANT THINGS TO GO BACK TO NORMAL! I JUST WANT MY FAMILY BACK! WHY DID ALL OF THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN TO US?!”

“Sweetie Belle!”

I froze in mid-cast. The pillow fell to the ground. The tone in which Rarity had said my name was loud, stern, and carried with it force of a thousand lectures and guilt trips. I reluctantly turned, and found her chin lowered as her eyes burned into mine.

“There will be a time and place for you to let out your anger.” The modified light fixture hovered beside her as a bolt of white cloth wrapped around it. “But it’s not now. We'll get our chance to set things right, and when we do, we'll make sure that all debts are paid in full. It’ll take time, it’ll take cunning, and it’ll most definitely take a great deal of patience, but if we keep a cool head and take the small victories when we can, we’ll get to the finish line.”

My breath came in short, ragged gasps. The anger was bleeding away, but I didn’t want it to. I wanted to be mad. I wanted to freak out and break things. I wanted to grab onto this adrenaline rush and never let it go, because I knew what would follow immediately after if I did.

“I don't want to hurt you,” I said through clenched teeth. “I don’t want to you to wind up heartbroken because you got caught in a love triangle. I don’t want you to have to choose between me and the stallion you want. I just… I just want you to be happy, that’s all.“

Rarity looked down at the ground. “We don’t always get the things we want. I don’t want to hurt you, either, but I can’t make any promises until I know how Shining feels about his old memories. Someone's going to end up getting burned If we’re not careful about this, and that’s not something any of us want.”

I sat down on my haunches.and sighed. ”No, it's not.”

A silence developed as Rarity finished her work. I zoned out and only half-paid attention due to swimming in an olympic-sized pool of angst. I kept going over the same thoughts over and over, trying to figure out the best way I could resolve this situation. I came up with nothing. I knew Rarity was right that we needed more info before we could really move on this, but I couldn’t help but gnaw on it like a dog on an old bone.

“Finished!” 

I looked up, and what I saw made me gasp. What was once an old, shoddy light fixture was now a perfect replica of my horn. It was exact in almost every way, from the color to the fluted patterns to the stubby tip. It was hollow, of course, and it slowly floated towards me as I looked on in awe.

“Hold still,” Rarity said.

The metal sheath slipped onto my horn. I felt a strange twinge of panic as it touched my skin, but it passed as quickly as it had come.

“There.” She stepped back and admired her work. “Does it fit okay?”

I reached up and touched the sheath. It felt cold to the touch, but a little bit of magic would warm it up. I grinned at Rarity. “Like a glove.”

Rarity snickered. “I made it so that it’s a snug fit, so that means it doesn't have any room to grow. Come to me whenever it starts feeling uncomfortable and I'll readjust it.”

I suddenly felt cold. I stopped fiddling with the sheath and began rubbing my arms. There was really only one thing left to do, but the repercussions of it were enough to turn all my anger and frustration into dread. I sincerely wanted to be right about this, and I didn’t have any reason to think I was wrong, but on the other hoof, I was playing with forces I understood very little about.

“So…” Rarity trailed off.

I nodded. “So.”

She shifted back and forth. “Do you… want to test it?”

I took a slow, deep breath. “May as well.”

Rarity nodded. “Come here, then.”

I got up and went to the end of the bed. Rarity came over and met me there. I was shaking like a leaf in a windstorm as we stood only a few feet apart. Rarity wasn’t much better, although she was at least able to keep a straight face. I tried to find words to say, but the lump in my throat effectively killed my voice. Instead I looked I looked into her eyes, those beautiful, sapphire eyes, and dared to hope as I reached out and touched her quivering shoulder with a hoof.

Nothing.

Rarity looked down. “Does that mean—”

“Hold on,” I said quickly. “There’s still one more test.”

I scooted a little closer, now only inches away from her. I heard her breath quicken, but she kept still nonetheless. I kept a close watch for any feelings of magic being set off, but I didn’t feel anything. I finally threw caution to the wind, and lowered my sheathed horn to gently poke her in the chest.

Absolute, glorious nothing.

I did it a few more times to be sure, but it seemed that the sheath worked. I looked up and saw Rarity happily smiling at me.

“See? Small victories.”

And finally I could hold it in no more. My eyes burned, my chest went tight, and I latched onto her and hugged her as hard as I could. The tears came fast and free, and I made no effort to stop them. 

“I m-missed you,” I whispered. “So m-much…”

We sat there together reunited at last. Rarity hugged me back, rocking me back and forth as I cried.

“It’s okay, Sweetie," she said. "Everything’s going to be all right.”

> Ignorance Isn't Bliss
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 11:


Ignorance Isn’t Bliss




Swish! Swish! Swish!

I stood alone with my rapier inside a small forest grove a few days later. The noonday sun filtered down through the tall trees, creating elongated shadows that shifted back and forth with the wind. My mane was tied back in a ponytail, my coat was matted with sweat, and my breathing was labored as I rent the air with my new blade.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

I’d had to modify my form and techniques to accommodate being on four legs. Most of it had transitioned easily enough, the hardest part was maintaining my telekinetic hold on the sword while maintaining my hoofwork. There was also the weirdness of feeling the weapon in its entirety, but the increased level of control had led me to thinking up a few new moves.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

I imagined I was surrounded on all sides by shadowy, chimaeric monstrosities. They were as varied as they were horrendous, but they all had one thing in common—their foul, mismatched eyes leered at me with cruelty and malice. They stepped into the grove and closed in on me, preparing to curse me and banish me to another dimension. I brought up my weapon in a mocking salute.

“RAAAAAGH!” I dashed forward and swung with all my might. My rapier whistled as I became a frenzied blur of wrath and steel, jabbing, dodging, slashing, ducking and weaving all around the grove. I brought my blade high and decapitated one, then spun about and cut the legs off another before either of them could react. I deflected a swipe of one’s claws, then rolled underneath and impaled him from below. 

My body moved with fluid grace as I continued my dance. Another leapt down from the trees, his open maw large enough to swallow me whole. I swiveled about to stare down his gullet, then fired my rapier like an ornate arrow. It disappeared down his throat and pierced through his innards with a sickening squelch, then burst out his body in a sticky mess of black. The disemboweled corpse landed next to me without a sound, and I recalled my weapon to face my last remaining foe. He was the biggest of them all, and we met eyes for a moment before he fired a blast of magic meant to turn my mind to mush. 

I leapt out of the way and lowered my horn, which hummed loudly inside its metal sheath. My rapier began to spin, first slowly, then faster and faster until it resembled a helicopter’s blade. When I deemed it fast enough I flung the deadly whirlwind at my foe, watching with grim satisfaction as his eyes filled with panic. His screams were music to my ears as his wispy body was shredded to bite-sized bits and the tatters were scattered to the wind. 

And then I was alone. The silence pressed in on me for a few seconds, the only sound being the dull pounding of my heartbeat in my ears. I focused on my breathing and stared at my rapier, which had gotten caught over in a thick bramble of bushes. My little pretend battle had helped some, but the hollow weight in my chest was still there, a constant reminder of what I’d lost and might never get back.

I cursed. What good was any kind of skill with a pointed piece of metal? I had motivation, I had purpose, but without any power or resources, it all accounted for little more than dust in the wind. Was I doomed to live on Earth for the rest of my life? Would I never get the chance to set things right? Would I sit back and curse my helplessness, watching as a group of strangers masqueraded as my friends and loved ones? 

“Is there really any point at all?” I asked aloud.

“Of course there is,” a strange voice replied.

I jumped. I summoned my rapier to me and whirled around in a flash. My body raced with adrenaline as I searched for the speaker.

“Who’s there?!”

A yellow pegasus with a pink mane and tail stepped out from behind a bush. Her soft, teal eyes were blank, but still held an inner strength I knew all too well.

“It gets frustrating just sitting around and doing nothing, doesn’t it?” she said. “It makes you edgy and angry, and then you have to go off somewhere to blow off some steam.”

“A—Fluttershy!” I lowered my rapier. “Sorry! I didn’t know you were out here.”

Fluttershy giggled. “Dash calls me ‘Yellow Quiet’ for a reason.”

I’d seen Fluttershy a few times since arriving on the farm, but hadn’t made any effort to speak with her. I knew she didn’t have any idea how close we once were, and I’d no desire to break the news. She probably didn’t know the first thing about singing anymore, let alone how to go about teaching others.

I drug a hoof on the ground. “I, uh… thought your place was closer to the field.”

A squirrel hopped onto Fluttershy’s shoulder from a nearby tree. “It is, but I like going on walks,” she said. “It helps clear my mind, get my bearings, and sometimes my animal friends show me where to find useful things.”

I watched the squirrel, which was now chittering and pointing at a mossy log. “Like what?”

Fluttershy walked over to the log and picked a few mushrooms off of it. “Edible things, mostly. Although sometimes... I like to think that they’re helping me find pieces of my old self, as well.”

I laughed nervously. “Y-yeah, that’d be a nice thing to get back, wouldn’t it?”

“Hmm.” Fluttershy met my eyes and winked. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” 

I felt a chill. “You…”

Fluttershy smiled. “Rarity did a good job on your horn. I can’t even tell that there’s something over it.”

“Who told you?” I blurted.

“I overheard Dash and Jack by accident,” Fluttershy said. “My cat climbed up into the barn’s hayloft and I was trying to get her down, then they came in and started talking about what you can do.” 

I groaned and rubbed my temples. I knew this wasn’t going to be kept a secret for very long, but I didn’t think it’d get leaked after only a day!

“Do they know that you heard?” I asked. 

Fluttershy shook her head. “I stayed quiet until they were gone. You don’t need to worry, though. Your secret is safe with me.”

I threw up my hooves. “Of course it’s safe with you! You’re A—Fluttershy! The problem is that if you overheard, there’s a chance that others might have, too! The whole point of keeping this a secret was to prevent Twilight from hearing about this! That’s not going to happen with those two blabbing it wherever they like!”

Fluttershy flinched at my outburst, but quickly recovered and scratched her chin. “I can talk to them to make sure that they be more careful from now on. I know Twilight would’ve confronted you if she’d heard somehow, so I don’t think she’s found out yet.”

I hung my head. “I really hate all of this. The secrecy, the hiding, all the difficult choices I’ve forced on all of you. I never meant to be the cause of so many problems.”

Fluttershy came over and sat down beside me. “Don’t blame yourself. You’re just trying to give us back what we’ve lost.”

“But I can’t!” I said with a stomp of my hoof. “I can’t help you! I can’t help Rarity! I can’t help any of the other ponies here! I’m nothing but a useless, scared little filly!”

“You’re not—”

“I am!” I said. “I can’t do what I think is right! I don’t know what we should do! I want to be able to understand the situation and figure things out, but there’s too much at stake here to just take a blind chance! I have to be patient and act when the time is right, but it’s so hard to do, and in the meantime I’m driving myself nuts trying to guess how things are going to go!”

Fluttershy was giving me an odd look. “Rarity was right. You really do sound like Twilight.”

“I know!” I crossed my hooves and pouted. “She has to know that we never had very many options to begin with, and our pickings are getting slimmer and slimmer as time goes on! She has to know that we can’t wait around on this farm forever! We’re going to run out of supplies, space, morale, ideas, or all of the above. Something has to give, and SOON, or we’re gonna find ourselves in a situation we DON’T want to be in!”

“Breathe.” Fluttershy began rubbing my back. “In through the nose, out through the mouth. Nice and slow.”

I almost shook her off. I probably would have if it’d been anyone else. The flame fueling my conniptions was a weak thing, and I wanted to stoke it so I could keep going with my swordplay. It’s pretty much impossible to escape from Kindness Incarnate, though, esepcially when she’s concerned for your well-being. I realized with a silent curse that I’d gotten caught in her 'trap,' so I reluctantly gave in and allowed the toxic emotions to ebb away.

“You strike me as someone who doesn’t adapt well to change, Sweetie Belle,” Fluttershy said after a time. “I imagine the last few weeks have been very hard on you because of that. I know that you’ve had your friends and family to help you, but still, I get the sense that you feel very lost.”

"Hmph." I slumped down on the grass. “I imagine every single pony that’s shown up in the last few days feels the same way.”

“I don’t get the same feeling from any of the others that I get from you.” Fluttershy brushed a twig away and laid down beside me. “The others are all confused and frustrated, yes, but they’re also happy and excited that they’re with other ponies. With you, I get the impression that it’s the opposite.”

“It’s no big deal,” I said unconvincingly. “I'm just an introvert. Never did like crowds.”

“We both know there’s more to it than that.” Fluttershy gestured to my rapier. “You wouldn’t be screaming and working yourself into a frenzy if you just needed some alone time.”

I felt my cheeks burn. “T-that’s, well...”

“It’s okay to be angry,” Fluttershy said gently. “We’ve been betrayed. We’ve been hurt. We’ve been exiled and ridiculed, and everything we’ve known has been called into question. But holding onto that anger is only going to poison you in the long run. We can all help you deal with it, but we can't do anything if you won't let us."

I didn’t look up at her. I couldn’t. I knew what lay in those kind, concerned eyes, and it wasn’t something I had the strength or desire to resist. There was a time where I wouldn’t have even hesitated, but as much as she looked the same, talked the same, even smelled the same, this was not my Auntie Fluttershy. This was a stranger wearing her skin, and she didn’t deserve to have my issues dumped on her.

I undid my ponytail and let my mane fall back into its usual position. “You don’t have any idea who I am. I may as well be someone off the street to you. Heck, I don’t know who you are anymore, either.”

Fluttershy bowed her head. “It’s true I don’t remember, and I’ll admit I’m not sure if that’s something I want or not, but maybe you can tell me. Am I really so different from who I used to be?”

I snorted. “Hardly. You’ve barely changed at all.“

Fluttershy put a wing around me. “And is this the kind of thing Old Fluttershy would do if she saw you were feeling down?”

I giggled. “Only sooner.”

Fluttershy laughed as well. “I wasn’t sure if you’d object. I know you’re older than you look, after all.”

I shook my head. “I’m never too old for a wing hug from you.” 

Fluttershy smiled, then stared off into the forest with unfocused eyes. “Maybe it’s an instinctual thing, or maybe it’s something left over from who I used to be, but when I look at you, a sad little filly with the weight of the world on her shoulders, I want to do what I can to make you feel better. I’m sorry I can’t be who you want, but maybe with time, I can be the next best thing.”

It was the same issue I had with everypony else. I kept thinking they were the same, that they had their memories back and I could talk about anything with them, but then they’d give me that damn blank look and I’d feel like an utter fool. It wasn’t their fault by any means and I knew it would get better with time, but I was having trouble keeping my patience. And the more ponies I let back into my life at once, the harder it was going to be for me.

But considering what I stood to gain with Fluttershy...

I closed my eyes and leaned against her. “I’m okay with that.”


***


The farm was a zoo. 

From ponies I knew to ones I’d never seen before, the entire homestead was a cacophony of clamor thanks to crowds composed of my colorful cursed kindred. I’d talked to several in the past few days, and from what I could tell the government was trying to contain the news that ponies were real and here on Earth. About half I’d talked to said they’d almost been captured by the police, and Babs, who’d been with me at the time, had wasted no time in saying, “I told you so.”

So it looked like we’d dodged a bullet there. I now didn’t want to have anything to do with the government if I could help it, and everyone I spoke to seemed to share that sentiment. However, I couldn’t help but worry that these escaped ponies were now going to attract unwanted attention to us. Most insisted that they’d found ways of making sure they weren’t followed, but it still lurked in the back of my mind.

I now sat beside Rarity in the barn helping to sew pillows and blankets. This was a considerable challenge for me as I’d never been good at sewing in either life, and it was only exacerbated by having to manipulate the needle with magic. Rarity was a natural at it, unsurprisingly, but I was having issues. Meanwhile, Shmangie was standing in the middle of the barn directing the setup of more cots. Housing and sleeping arrangements had become a complete mess after the first day, so she’d stepped up to try and restore some semblance of order. 

“Just set them in straight lines like—no, not like that!” Shmangie went over to one of her helpers, a gray pegasus with mismatched eyes. “Just straight up and down, ten by ten. Remember we’re trying to get the most out of what space we have.”

Derpy scowled at the crooked cot. “I thought it was straight!” 

Shmangie chuckled. “Not quite.”

I tried not to laugh myself as I watched from afar. “Some things never change.”

“Beggars can’t be choosers, dear,” Rarity replied from beside me. She and I were sitting on a blanket in the corner. Beside us was a large pile of dozens of finished pillows and blankets. Despite how many we had, though, we were still in short supply.

A mauve pegasus wearing a pair of bulging saddlebags walked into the barn. She immediately made a beeline for us.

“Hey,” the newcomer said. “This is all I could find. Where do you want ‘em?”

“Hmm?” Rarity looked up. “Ah, Cloud Kicker. Just set the bolts over there, thank you. And could you possibly help Derpy with the cots before you go?”

“Sure thing,” Cloud Kicker said. She pulled several bolts of fabric out of her bags, then went over to assist Shmangie and Derpy.

I frowned at the meager pile. “That’s nowhere near enough.”

“I know,” Rarity said as she resumed her work. “Angie’s making another trip to the store later. I’ll ask her to pick up some more cloth while she's there.”

I raised an eyebrow. “That’s the third trip today. Are we really running out of things that fast?”

“It’s mostly little things that keeping popping up here and there.” Rarity finished her pillow and immediately started on another. “We thought we were prepared, but we didn’t expect to have so many ponies so fast.”

I sighed and looked out the door at all the ponies milling about the homestead. “To be fair, I don’t think any of us predicted Discord would be so… thorough.”

“It’s quite a shock,” Rarity agreed grimly. “It makes me wonder if there are any ponies left at all in Equestria.”

I considered that. Could that have been Discord’s plan all along? Did he just pretend that he was only banishing select individuals, and had actually removed every single pony from Equestria? It certainly seemed like overkill, but who said that he wanted any subjects in the first place? Maybe he just wanted the land.

“I’m… not sure,” I said slowly, “but Discord strikes me as the type who likes to rub it in, you know? Someone that would want at least a few others around just for the sake of gloating over them. He wouldn’t be able to do that if he got rid of everypony.”

Rarity tapped her chin. “But then what’s he doing to the ones he didn’t banish?”

I shuddered. “I don’t want to know.”

“Don’t want to know about what?”

We both looked up to see that Shmangie coming over with a folding chair. She sat down beside us and pulled out a sewing kit of her own.

“The reasons for our unanticipated turnout,” I said. “It stinks, but we’ve got enough problems as it is without adding more to them.”

“Tell me about it,” Shmangie said. “If it’s not one thing, it’s—” 

She stopped as she saw the tiny pile of bolts. 

“Please don’t tell me that’s all the cloth that’s left,” she said.

“Unfortunately,” Rarity said.

Shmangie exhaled out her nose. “How are you doing for other sewing materials?”

Rarity thought for a moment. “I’m good on needles, but I’m running low on thread.” 

Shmangie nodded. “Put it on the list, then. Hopefully the stores around here won’t think it’s too odd that one person keeps buying so many random things in bulk.”

“How exactly are you paying for all this?” I asked.

Shmangie didn’t look at me. “How do you think?” 

I stiffened. “You’re not using—”

“—I’m not going to sit by and do nothing while these ponies live in destitution.” Shmangie threaded a needle and set to work. “If you want to stay here, then this place is going to need a lot more work. A lot.”

Shmangie and I had been staying at a hotel until things at the farm got sorted out. It’d mostly been her idea, although I hadn’t really argued. It was great to be with Rarity and all the other ponies, but the simple truth was that there just wasn’t enough of well… anything to go around. We’d extended the invitation to Babs and Scootaloo, but both of them had wanted to stay with their families.

As for Apple Bloom, well… I’ll get to her in a little bit.

“At least tell me that you’ve asked around to see if anyone else can chip in,” I said.

Shmangie sat up straighter in her chair. “Most everyone I’ve talked to is scraping the bottom of the barrel as it is. More than a few of them spent everything they had just to get here.” 

Rarity winced.

Shmangie saw and immediately gave her an apologetic look. “I didn’t mean that in a bad way! I probably would’ve done the same thing in your situation.”

Rarity stared at her pillow with dim eyes. “I know I shouldn't feel bad about it, but I just... find it ironic that the Element of Generosity has nothing left to give, that’s all.”

“How can you say that?” My voice cracked with alarm. “Just because you can’t buy things doesn’t mean that you haven’t been generous in other ways. Look at what you’ve done! Look at what you’ve been doing! You’ve been donating your talents to make all kinds of useful things ever since we got here!”

Rarity resumed sewing. “Too bad my talents that are dependent on having materials, which we keep running out of.”

I gritted my teeth. “That’s not—”

“Drop it, Shmage.” Shmangie’s voice was calm and firm. “Don’t rub salt in an open wound.”

Normally I would’ve obeyed, but this time I was having none of it. I looked over to make sure Cloud Kicker and Derpy were distracted, then lowered my voice to a terse whisper. 

“No. This isn’t the way to help. Exhausting your savings to buy a few more days worth of supplies isn’t going to solve the simple truth. We all know that this farm can’t sustain this many ponies for any extended period of time.”

Shmangie stopped sewing. Her eyes flickered to Rarity, who didn’t seem perturbed by what I’d said. She then turned and spoke in a sharp tone. 

“I haven’t gotten to where I am in life by being fiscally irresponsible, so I’ll thank you to let me handle my own finances. And I sure hope you didn’t just come to that conclusion. You’d have to be blind not to see the problems with staying here.”

That rebuke stung, but I tried not to show it. “It’s been hard getting my head around everything,” I said. “I didn’t want to pass judgment until I saw everything this place had to offer.”

“There isn’t much to see, dear,” Rarity said. “Everyone knows that we’re overcrowded and short on supplies. Most are staying because they either don’t have anywhere else to go, or are hoping we have some sort of plan.”

I facehooved. “We should probably come up with one, then.”

“I think Dash already has,” Shmangie said. 

Rarity and I turned to her. “Oh?”

Shmangie pushed her hair out of her face. “I was talking to Twilight earlier about ideas to raise money when Dash burst in through the door and started yammering about figuring something out. I didn’t know what she was talking about, but Twilight apparently did. It was clear they wanted to talk in private, so I came out here to work.”

I leaned forward. “Did you hear anything before you left?”

Shmangie rolled her eyes. “Please. I’m not about to eavesdrop when I feel enough like an outsider as it is.”

“Whyever would you feel like an outsider?” Rarity motioned to the neatly set up rows of cots. “You’re practically a godsend!”

“It probably has something to do with these.” Shmangie held up her hand and wiggled her fingers. “Some of these ponies have had close shaves in the last weeks, and their horror stories have started to make the others... skittish of humans.” 

I groaned. “That was bad, and you should feel bad.”

Shmangie snickered. “What? It’s accurate.”

“Everyone is... nervous around strangers at first,” I said. “They’ll come around once they get to know you. They’ll come around even faster once they realize you’re related to me!”

“And me, by proxy,” Rarity added.

Shmangie lowered her eyes. She fiddled with her needle and thread for a little while, her hands twisting back and forth in a strange pattern. Finally, she spoke in a quiet, bitter voice. “But that’s not really true, now is it?”

I blinked. “Huh?”

Shmangie let out a heavy sigh. “I’m not biologically related to you anymore, Shmage. Twilight told me she’d run tests on her DNA when all this started, and she found that it's completely changed. It’s obviously the same for everyone else, so in terms of genetics, you and I have no more in common than dogs do with cats.”

Rarity’s needle fell to the ground as she gasped. 

My reaction was different. Yeah, I was surprised, but not for the reasons you’d think. If I’d had better sense, I would’ve kept my mouth shut and told her why that didn’t matter to me. She might’ve gone on about why she was worried about it, but my insistence would make her see that it really didn’t. Rarity would’ve backed me up, and the bond between the three of us would’ve been strengthened because of it.

Too bad I’m not known for having good common sense.

“Dammit,” I said. “I was hoping neither of you would figure that out.”

Both my sisters turned to me with wide eyes.

“WHAT?!”

Yeah, I knew. Or suspected, rather. It’d first crossed my mind when my eyes had changed color, but the longer things had gone on, the more obvious it’d become. I’d been confused for a while on how I felt about it, but Rarity had reminded me on the driveway that our families aren’t only dictated by biology. My heart told me loud and clear who Shmangie was to me, and it also said I was an idiot for questioning that at all.

“Why would you keep such a thing from her?” Rarity demanded.

I shrugged. “Because it doesn’t change anything.”

“That’s—” Shmangie hesitated, but then scowled and shook her head. “No, that doesn’t excuse it. I still had a right to know!”

“Why?” I asked. “So you could freak out over nothing? So you’d question something that should never be questioned?”

Shmangie swatted me with her pillow. “Because it involved our family! Because it involved me! Because we’ve never kept secrets from each other in our entire lives! How would you like it if I kept something this big from you?”

I felt my temper rise. “Look, there wasn’t any point in making you worry about something I wasn’t even sure about in the first place! And besides, I know you’d have a good reason for keeping anything from me! Where's my benefit of the doubt, huh?”

“You just said your reason was that you didn’t think it changed anything.” Rarity narrowed her eyes. “Perhaps you meant well, but you had no right to keep her ignorant. If you adopted a child, would you use the same rationale to not tell them about their birth parents?”

Shmangie ran her hand down her face. “Seriously, Shmage! What is it with you and keeping secrets lately? Every time I turn around you’re either trying to do something yourself, or not telling me everything! What happened to your promise that you were going to work on trusting others?”

“You think I’m not trying?!” I said. “It’s hard! I don’t like being the bearer of bad news! I thought I was doing you a favor!”

“So you just kept it to yourself and let it eat at you like a parasite.” Shmangie crossed her arms. “What a wonderful alternative.”

“You can’t always assume you know how others are going to react to the things you tell them,” Rarity said. “All you’re going to do is drive yourself batty trying to think of what-if scenarios.”

Remember how I’d said that I’d rather face Discord than face double big sister rage? Yeah. I suppose you could argue that it wasn’t fair for them to be ganging up on me like this, but such things are inevitable in groups of three.

“But what if I want to protect someone?” I poked Shmangie’s shin for emphasis. “What if I know that revealing the truth is only going to cause problems? What if I—”

“Okay, just stop.” Shmangie put away her sewing kit and got up. “I’m not gonna to sit here and listen to your half-hearted excuses. I’m going to go help Jack take inventory. Come find me when you’ve pulled your head out of your ass.”

“I wasn’t trying to be a jerk!” I said as she picked up the chair. “I just didn’t want to hurt you!”

Shmangie shot me an icy glare as she left. “Good job on that one.”

I let out a frustrated growl. I didn’t want things to end like that, but I didn’t know what to say. I’d thought I was doing the right thing, that this was something better left unmentioned. Was a lie of omission really so bad if it made everyone happy?

“You’ve got some thinking to do,” Rarity said as she got to her hooves. “I think I’ll leave you to it.”

“Wait, you’re going, too?!” I looked at the unsewn bolts of cloth. “But what about the pillows?”

Rarity glanced at the tiny pile. “You can handle the rest. Perhaps you should consider it an act of penance, hmm?”

My ears drooped. “You’re angry too, aren’t you.”

“Oh no, I’m not angry...” Rarity walked away. “I’m disappointed.”

Ergh, leave it to Rarity to twist the knife. Again, I didn’t think I should let her have the last word on this, but I was too worked up to say anything meaningful. I watched her go in silence, and then suddenly realized with a jolt that I was more alone than I’d been in weeks. 

The familiar pangs of loneliness began to set in. I almost started crying, but then I growled and punched the pillow I was working on. I threw myself into the sewing to try and escape my feelings, and after a little while, my senses gradually tuned out the outside world.

A few hours went by without incident. Cloud Kicker and Derpy finished setting up the new cots, put what pillows and blankets I’d finished beside them, then left to do other things. I didn’t even realize they’d gone. About half a dozen other ponies came in and out while I worked, but nopony paid me any mind. The barn was where everyone slept, after all, so nopony lingered for long in the daytime unless they wanted to take a nap. 

My mood went through the usual motions of denial, anger, depression, and finally just a bland melancholy that was like a trance. I imagined scenario after scenario of how I could’ve handled things better, but all that did was make me realize that I really was in the wrong. There was an argument to be made for extenuating circumstances, maybe, but considering how close Shmangie and I were, it didn’t really fly. The bottom line was that I’d withheld important information from her, for unacceptable reasons, and that was a big no-no.

I suddenly wished I could talk to the Crusaders. They were all around on the farm somewhere, but we’d kinda had enough of each other after being stuck together for two weeks. We were still friends, of course, we just needed some space for a while. Scootaloo was probably with Dash somewhere, I last saw Babs helping Mac with something, and Apple Bloom...

Ugh, Apple Bloom. Yes, I was still mad at her. How could I not be? She’d tried to do something terrible. It obviously wasn’t premeditated, but the whole thing still made my stomach tie itself in knots. We all have ways of dealing with extreme situations, but never in a million years would I have expected that Apple Bloom's was to flat-out break. We’d been avoiding each other for the past few days, but a confrontation was inevitable, and we both knew it. After all, one does not simply throw away a twenty-five-year-old friendship.

I was actually trying to figure out what the heck I was gonna say to her when I was interrupted by one of the most unlikely individuals imaginable.

“Oy!” a strange voice said from the door. “Are any of these cots open?”

I looked up. Standing there was a dull yellow pegasus with a monochrome mane and tail. She was clothed in a military uniform that covered her down to her fetlocks, complete with holes for her wings and Australian flags sewn over her cutie marks. A heavy-looking duffle bag covered in rips and tears rested on her back.

My jaw dropped. “Daring… Do?”

“Eh, once upon a time.” Daring yawned and spoke again in a smooth, relaxed alto. “Lieutenant Mark Sheffield of the Royal Australian Navy, at your service.”

I struggled to find my voice. “I didn’t think you were…”

“What, real?” Daring smirked. “Come on. Didn’t you see Daring Don’t?”

The realization struck me like a hammerblow. “No way. That actually happened?!”

Daring chuckled. “Either that or I keep having dreams about giant golden rings for some other reason.”

My heart was racing. I’d absolutely loved the Daring Do series back in Equestria! I’d spent hours pretending I was going on awesome adventures with her! To have her here, in the flesh and looking like she’d just tangled with Ahuizotl himself?!

“Hello?” Daring said loudly. “Earth to Sweetie Belle! Anyone home?”

Oh, dear Celestia, she knew my name. I was going to keel over at this rate. “U-um, sorry! What’d you say?”

Daring shook her head. “It’s so easy to find bronies now. Makes me wish it was this easy when I was a human. I asked you what the deal with the cots was before you went all googly-eyed.”

The brony comment almost made me laugh. I’d never actually cared much for Daring Do in the show, actually, but I wasn’t about to explain that. I instead motioned to the one of the cots nearest to me and tried to keep my voice from cracking. “A-any of the cots on the ends here are u-up for grabs. Feel free to p-pick one.”

“Gotcha.” Daring limped over to the to the one I’d indicated. She tossed her bag down beside it and laid down with a pained grunt.

I pursed my lips. “Are... you okay?”

“I’ve seen better days.” Daring gingerly rubbed her left shoulder. She eyed the stack of pillows next to me. “I will love you forever if I can have another one of those.”

I blinked. “One of—oh! Yeah, sure.” Technically it was supposed to be only one per cot, but I was willing to make an exception for Daring-freaking-Do. I floated one over to her cot. “What happened? Did you get into a fight or something? Was it the government?”

Daring didn’t reply. Her eyes were still on the extra pillow I’d given her. 

I wrinkled my brow. “Uh, Daring?”

“You... just did magic.” Her eyebrows were raised as she looked up at me.

“Uh, yeah?” I tapped my horn. “Unicorns are known to do that. What, have you... not...”

Annnnnnd there it was again. This time was about as cringe-worthy as it got, though—Daring Do, legendary hero and discoverer of countless magical artifacts reduced to being amazed by telekinesis. It took a considerable chunk of willpower not to rip the sheath off my horn and memory-zap the crap out of her.

Daring cocked her head. “Have I not what?”

My excitement bled away. My eyes turned distant and I turned my attention back to the pillow I’d been sewing. “Never mind. You probably just didn’t see anypony outside doing it. I’d recommend getting used to it.”

Daring laughed. “‘Anypony’? Wow, you’ve gone full-on native, haven’t you?”

I bit my lip, hard. “I... suppose I have. What about you, though, Miss Royal Australian Navy? Where were you when all this started?”

Daring picked up the pillow and used it to prop up her left-hind leg. “Stationed on the HMAS Brisbane in the middle of the bloody Indian Ocean, that’s where. Had quite the time getting my feathery arse out.”

I paled. “You... were on a military ship?”

Daring met my eyes with a dark look. “Worst. Deployment. Ever.”

I ran over to her. “Tell me what happened! How’d you hide? How’d you get away? Did the government detain you? Why are they withholding news about ponies? Are they—”

“Wow, keep it down, mate!” Daring covered her ears. “Yeesh. Look, I’m sorry, but I don’t have it in me to tell this story a second time. You wanna hear about how I went AWOL? Go talk to Dash. I’ve gotta sleep off this jet lag.”

I almost didn’t listen to her. Something told me this was important, and Daring just might have the answers that I needed. However, a closer inspection of her revealed how ragged she really was. Her coat was matted, her mane and tail were a mess, her feathers were in sore need of a preening, she smelled terrible, and her uniform was stained and torn. I also caught a glimpse of some bandages on her left hind leg and collarbone.

“You’ve really had it rough, haven’t you.” I stepped back and floated over a blanket, which I covered her with. “All right, I’ll go talk to Dash. Do you know where she is?”

Daring rested her head on the pillow and closed her eyes. “Said something about getting ready to go somewhere.”

“Huh? Going somewhere?” I repeated. “Why? There’s nowhere to go.”

Daring’s only reply was a gentle snore.

I spent a few more seconds just staring at her, partially out of awe, and partially out of pity. Out of all the ponies that’d come the last few days, she was in by far the worst shape. I seriously doubted the story behind her injuries was a pretty tale, and her appearance alone was going to send rumors flying. We could have a serious case of xenophobia on our hooves if too many others showed up battered or bruised or worse, but what could we really do about it? And now that I thought about it, what were we going to do about medical care and supplies? All it’d take is one sick pony in these cramped quarters, and we could suddenly have a serious epidemic. That sure sounded like fun.

I left Daring and went outside to find Dash. I asked around over the next ten minutes, but nopony had seen her recently enough that I was able to track her down. I couldn’t find Rarity or Twilight, either. Jack was with Shmangie, Pinkie was practically impossible to find as it was, Mac and Shining were nowhere to be found, and I had a sneaking suspicion that Fluttershy was mysteriously absent, as well. 

Something was afoot. I didn’t appreciate being kept in the dark, and while the irony of that wasn’t lost on me, it didn’t make me feel any better. The ‘big ponies’ were off doing something important, and I wanted to help. At first I was worried that this was their way of getting back at me for repeatedly keeping secrets of my own, but then I reminded myself that the world in fact didn’t revolve around me. Not like I knew what I'd be able to do, anyways. I’d done a good job with the satellites, true, but that was both incredibly lucky and a one-time thing. I was pretty much out of tricks, so the only real thing I could do was wait until they came back.

So that's exactly what I did. I sighed and watched the sun slowly descend towards the horizon, hoping that they didn’t take too long.




> Mending Bridges
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 12:


Mending Bridges




Dash and the others all returned about an hour later. I was surprised to see them back so soon, but it turned out they’d just been all having dinner together. I should’ve realized that their motivations were harmless and chastised myself for letting my assumptions get away from me again. I’d had enough sense not to do anything rash, but it just hammered home the point that I really did have some trust issues.

Shmangie came and found me later so we could go back to the hotel. An awkward silence hung over us for the first few miles of the drive, but the tension was bearing down on me and I just couldn’t take it anymore. It all came pouring out of me like a flood—how terrible I felt for violating her trust, how stupid it was to withhold information from her, how she had every right to be angry with me, everything. I admitted I had a problem that I didn’t know how to fix, and when I tried to apologize for screwing up so badly… well… 

I know I’ve been pretty thorough in my retelling of events. I’ve shared some very personal things in how I’ve dealt with changing back into a pony, and I’d like to think I’ve learned my lesson in regards to keeping secrets. My goal in all this has been to show you why I did the things I did, and while I did make some mistakes, I  did try my hardest to learn from them. Sometimes I succeeded, sometimes I failed, but for better or worse, everything I’ve done has shaped me into who I am today.

But personal matters involving others are a different matter. Shmangie has asked me that I not share the details of what happened for the rest of that evening, as it was a very emotional time for both of us and she doesn’t want me to give a recount of us arguing in such vulnerable states. We aired some dirty laundry, settled some things and ultimately wound up ending it on a good note, but that’s all I’ll say. Sometimes you just gotta sit down and hash things out. It’s rarely an enjoyable experience, but you wind up feeling better afterwards.



***



I woke up the next morning feeling like a huge weight had been lifted off my chest. It was liberating to finally have everything out in the open now, and I was in such a good mood that I sang along with the radio all the way back to the farm. Shmangie seemed more relaxed as well and occasionally hummed along when it was a song she knew. 

Unfortunately, our good mood was cut short by an obnoxious country song that reminded us of another problem we needed to be address.

“Ah, crap,” I said. “I forgot about Bloom.”

Shmangie sighed and turned down the volume. “What are we gonna do with her?”

I ran a hoof down my face. “Forgive her, obviously, but not right away. I want something from her first.”

Shmangie nodded. “And not just an apology, either. She could’ve seriously screwed us all over. She wasn’t thinking straight, mind you, but still. Big no-no.”

I leaned back in my seat and looked out the window. I could only see the tops of trees and telephone poles from my angle, but it wasn’t like there was much to see anyways. “I don’t think we should confront her at the same time. That’s just gonna make her feel like we’re ganging up on her. It’ll be easier if we do it separately.”

Shmangie paused for a moment as she passed a slow-moving Buick. “I’ll let you go first, then. I’m still a little sore about it, anyways.”

I hung my head. “I am too, but I don’t want to let this fester any more than it has. The last thing I wanna do is have another screaming match.”

Shmangie shifted in her seat and rubbed her throat. “I think this is the first time we’ve fought since the duct tape incident.”

I bit my lip. “That one was deserved, though. I never should’ve gone up on the water tower.”

Shmangie chuckled. “Definitely not.”

We approached the farm. It still looked inconspicuous from the road, the tall trees hiding the property and everything therein. We went down the driveway and rounded the bend, and soon dozens of wandering ponies came into view. They all stopped to see who’d just arrived, but then quickly resumed their business.

Shmangie parked the van in the usual place in the field west of the barn. I hopped out and took stock of the place to see if anything had changed, but everything was pretty much the same. There were more ponies around than before, but I’d stopped paying attention who was arriving by then. Most newcomers weren’t all that interested in me anyways, although I did get a lot of stares from afar. Today was no different in regards of weird looks, but I forced myself to ignore them and focused on taking stock of the general state of things.

“Gonna go talk to Mikey now?” Shmangie asked as she got out of the van.

I played with a tuft of grass. “Like I said, it’s better to get it out of the way.”

“Suit yourself.” Shmangie pointed over to the homestead. “Jack told me that Mikey’s been working down in the basement for the past few days. You’ll probably find her down there.”

I snorted. “That explains why I haven’t seen her. What about you, though? What are you gonna do today?”

Shmangie stretched her arms. “There’s always something to do around here. I’ll just go ask somepony how I can help.”

I snickered. “Yes... I’m sure there’s somepony around who’ll be happy for an extra hoof.” 

Shmangie shrugged. “Hey, when in Rome.”

“What? Rome?” I looked around with a mock frown. “We’re not even in Europe, woman! Get your geography straight.”

“That’s—“ Shmangie began. She sighed and rolled her eyes. “You’re a dork.”

We shared a light laugh. It was a strange feeling between us, like a wound freshly cleaned and now just beginning to heal. We held each other’s gaze for a while, neither of us sure of what to do or say. I didn’t want to fall through the ice again after just managing to scramble out, and I didn’t know if there was more to say between us.

Shmangie kneeled down so she was eye-level with me. She motioned for me to come closer. I gulped and moved so that I was sitting in front of her. My sister’s face was unreadable, like a mask of stone. She put a hand on my shoulder and brushed my mane away so that she could see my eyes.

“Are we good?” she asked.

I took a long, shaky breath. A lump started to form in my throat, but I managed to keep it under control.

“Yeah,” I whispered.

Shmangie gently ran her hand down my face. “I love you, Shmage.”

I smiled and hugged her tight. “I love you, too.”

We probably should’ve finished things before coming to the farm. We probably drew even more stares by being so sentimental out it in the open. It didn’t matter to either of us. We needed a band-aid before we could move on, and this was the form it came in.

Shmangie let me go and set me back on the ground. She quickly wiped her eyes and looked away, suddenly very interested in something off on the horizon. She cleared her throat loudly and gave me some parting words before walking away.

“You have people that care about you, Shmage. They’ll help you if you just open up. Pushing them away is only going to hurt you in the long run, and if you keep acting like you want to do everything yourself, then that's exactly what you'll get.”



***



The smell of damp earth was heavy in my nostrils as I walked down into the homestead’s basement. The temperature dropped rapidly as I descended the rickety wooden stairs, the cobwebs lining the unfinished ceiling that bringing back countless memories of playing in other, similar places. One such place had been Apple Bloom’s human house, and with that realization, I suddenly understood why she’d been spending time down here.

Well... that and the whole ‘crippling shame from almost screwing us all over’ thing.

The basement was not what I’d expected. It was enormous, for one, more than twice the square footage of the house and stretching out under the backyard. Barrels, boxes and bags of food were all lined up neatly on tall, wide shelves, turning it into a veritable maze. I felt like I was in a grocery store more than anything else, and I had no idea where Apple Bloom was in such an organized mess. I didn’t want to yell out and scare her half to death, so I stood still for a moment and strained my ears. 

I caught a scraping sound to my right, like a heavy box being moved. I quietly followed the noise, stopping every so often to reaffirm that I was going the right way. I then heard the loud crash of a box falling over, followed by a familiar voice muttering out a curse. I stood on my tippy-hooves to look through the bottom shelf on my right and made out a flash of yellow past a few bags of corn.

I paused for a moment to collect my thoughts. There was still some anger there deep down, like a slow, simmering kettle ready to boil over if I turned up the heat. I wouldn’t let that happen. I was not going to guilt trip her. I was not going to yell. We had the bodies of fillies, but the minds of adults. I could overcome the desire to flip out—

“BOOGA BOOGA BOOGA!”

I swear I jumped ten feet in the air. I yelled out in alarm and fell flat on my stomach, only to have the sound of choking laughter behind me. I scrambled to my hooves and whirled around to find Pinkie, barely able to stand from laughing so hard.

“Y-you almost hit the ceiling!” she managed in between gasps. “I should call you Grasshopper!”

“Damn it, Pinkie!” I hissed through clenched teeth “Not now! I’m about to—”

“Hello?” Apple Bloom said. She set her box down and started walking over to us. “Pinkie? Is that you?”

Too late. I growled and tried to push Pinkie towards the stairs. “¡Váyase, molestia! ¡Ahora!”

Pinkie was oblivious to my attempts at dismissing her. “Spanish is such a pretty language.”

“Voy a patearte—”

Apple Bloom rounded the corner. Her expression was confused at first, but then she froze upon seeing me.

“Oh.”

I wanted to scream. I slowly turned around to see Apple Bloom staring wide-eyed at me, still as a statue. I laughed awkwardly and put a hoof behind my head.

“Uh... hi.”

Apple Bloom’s ears drooped. She turned and made her way back over to where she’d been.

“Wait!” I ran after her. “We need to talk!”

Apple Bloom didn’t reply, much to my chagrin. I rounded the corner and saw her tail disappear into an aisle a short ways away. It was tempting to just leave her be and let her sulk, but I’d already made up my mind about this.

“That’s weird,” Pinkie said from behind me. “She doesn’t seem very excited to see you. I wonder why that is?”

“Don’t play dumb!” I snapped at her. “You were there. You know what happened!”

“Sure do!” Pinkie chirped. “But I also know she keeps saying how bad she feels about it every time I come down here. I thought she’d jump at the chance to apologize!”

It surprised me that Apple Bloom had been confiding in somepony else, but then I remembered that Pinkie may or may not have been distantly related to her. I supposed Apple Bloom considered that enough of a bond to open up, but then again, considering that this was Pinkie we were talking about, Apple Bloom may have just talked with her because she knew she wouldn’t be judged. It wasn’t my immediate concern either way, though, so I ignored the distraction bait and I trotted after her.

I found Apple Bloom trying to put a box twice her size up onto the second shelf. She was having a hard time of it for obvious reasons, but if the dozens of other boxes neatly stacked all the way down the aisle were any indication, it wasn’t an impossible task.

“Been at this for a while, I see,” I remarked dryly.

Apple Bloom’s only reply was a grunt. She didn’t meet my eyes as she heaved the box up onto the shelf with the others. She then walked down the aisle towards a pile of flour bags.

“You know, you being down here kinda reminds me of the summer you set the clubhouse on fire from one of your potion experiments.” I followed after her at a distance, but made sure I didn’t lose her. “You felt so bad that you avoided all of us for five days, and when we finally tracked you down, we found that you’d picked all the rock out of the east and south fields... by yourself.”

Apple Bloom started lifting up the flour bags and placing them on her back. She got up to four before she turned around and slowly made her way back to where she’d been, ignoring me all the while.

“Oh, or the time you almost hit that deer when we were all in the car,” I continued nonchalantly. “We would’ve hit it if I hadn’t reached over and swerved the wheel for you. We didn’t see you at school for a week after that, and we didn’t know what’d happened to you until your mom called us and said you were in the hospital from heat exhaustion.”

Apple Bloom stopped and started carefully placing the flour bags up on the shelf next to the boxes. Her jaw was clenched as she focused on her work.

“I get why you try to avoid us after you screw up.” I sat down and watched her struggle to lift the bags by herself. “I get why you throw yourself into manual labor, too. But just running from the problem and punishing yourself isn’t the way to solve things. You’re not doing anything but stewing in your own guilt.”

“I almost got Angie killed,” Apple Bloom finally said through gritted teeth. “I almost gave all of us away to Discord. I reckon that warrants some punishment.”

“Maybe,” I agreed. “But should you be the one to decide what that punishment is?”

Apple Bloom laughed bitterly. “So you wanna decide, then? Is that it?”

I hesitated. Was that what I wanted? If anything, my first instinct was to just go on like nothing had even happened. A part of me wanted to still be mad at her, but now that I was actually in front of her, I was having a hard time of it.

“No,” I said finally. “If anything, I want a neutral party to do that. Somepony we both can trust.”

Apple Bloom yawned and rubbed her left shoulder. “And who might that be?” 

“Court is now in session!”

Both of us turned. Sitting on top of the pile of flour bags wearing an old black shirt was Pinkie, looking down at us with a look of utmost seriousness. She’d dunked her mane in the flour to make it white and was holding a carpenter’s hammer in her right hoof.

“Apple Bloom, your fate is now in the hooves the honorable Judge Pinkamena!” She brought the hammer down with a thwap. “You may both be seated!”

We both gulped. 

“Dios mio,” I whispered.

“Celestia save us all,” Apple Bloom muttered.

I’m not really sure why I went along with it. Maybe because it was Pinkie. Maybe because it was a quick solution. Or maybe because on some level, we both knew that this was good we were gonna get. Granted, we could’ve gotten someone more level-headed, but Pinkie had been there, so she was as good of a mediator as any.

Apple Bloom and I sat down in the middle of the aisle. Pinkie scrutinized both of us before clearing her throat and speaking in an authoritative tone.

“Apple Bloom, you are accused of going loco in the coco and trying to force Sweetie Belle to restore Applejack’s memories! How do you plead?”

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. “Guilty.”

Pinkie nodded, causing a cloud of flour to fall from her mane. “A plea of insanity is not out of the question, then! Do you remember your actions?”

“I remember my actions just fine,” Apple Bloom said tiredly. “I saw Applejack on the driveway when I wasn’t expectin’ to see her for months yet, if ever at all. I’d been an only child for twenty-five years, and I can’t tell ya how many times there’ve been when I wished I coulda had a sibling to look up to for advice or what not. All the memories of everythin’ Applejack’s ever done for me hit me all like a punch to the gut when I saw her, and I suddenly felt like I wasn’t so alone anymore. I wanted her to tell me she was gonna fix everything and save the day like she always did, but when I realized she wasn’t gonna do any of that… I took matters into my own hooves.”

“Let the record show that the defendant has made a confession,” Pinkie declared. “How does the plaintiff respond?”

I looked away. “What do you want me to say? I understand why she did it, but that doesn’t change that she put us all in danger. She needs to be held accountable for that.”

“So accountify me,” Apple Bloom cut in. “I’ve been avoidin’ ya’ll ‘cause I feel like dirt, but I was also lettin’ ya cool off a bit. How can I make it up to you?”

I shrugged. “Outside of apologizing and not acting like a recluse? No idea. I’m not good at deciding punishments.”

“So ya don’t even know what you want, and here ya are makin’ demands of me.” Apple Bloom made a derisive noise. “That sure makes a lotta sense.”

“Hey, just because I don’t care what you do doesn’t mean I want you to just walk away scott-free,” I said. “I need to know you’re not gonna try anything like this again. You’ve gotta give me something that’ll guarantee that.”

“And what exactly might that be?” Apple Bloom said with flattened ears. “My word apparently ain’t gonna be enough for ya. You want me to shave my mane and make a voodoo doll out of it? Maybe I can sign a contract for ya in my own blood!”

“Sure, why not,” I said icily. “Maybe then I can keep you from marehandling me.”

“Order!” Pinkie struck the bag several times again with her hammer. “Order in the court! There will be no forbidden magics or blood contracts signed under my jurisdiction! Madam LeFlour, strike their last statements from the minutes!”

I noticed that there was a flour bag sitting upright a short ways away from the rest of the pile. An untouched notepad and pen was leaning against it.

“Now then,” Pinkie said to Apple Bloom. “It’s clear that Grasshopper is still very jumpy about whether or not you’ll try to commit a repeat offense. She needs assurance that you’ll have your head on straight from now on. Do you agree?”

Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow. “Grasshopper?”

I groaned. “Don’t ask.”

“Answer the question, defendant,” Pinkie said.

Apple Bloom hung her head and sighed. “Sure. S’pose I can’t rightly blame her for that.”

“Then I have just the thing!” Pinkie said brightly. “Apple Bloom, you must make an Über-Pinkie Promise to never-never-ever to do this again. Fair?”

Apple Bloom frowned. “Uber Pinkie Promise?”

“Not ‘Uber’, ‘Über.’” Pinkie enunciated the word the exact same way. “With an umlaut.”

Apple Bloom blinked several times, but shook her head and went with it. “As long as it’s good enough for Sweetie.”

Pinkie turned to me. “Well?” 

I sucked on my teeth. That was about as ironclad as I could ask for. Pinkie may or may not have fully understood what it meant, but I knew Apple Bloom did, and that was what really counted.

“That’ll work,” I said with a small grin.

“Great!” Pinkie reached behind her and pulled out a small piece of paper. On it was the word ‘ÜBER’ written in reverse in pink ink. She came over to us and stuck the piece of paper onto Apple Bloom’s hoof.

“All you gotta do is press the paper onto your eyelid at the end of the rhyme,” Pinkie said with a giggle. “Then everypony will know you’ve made an Über-Promise! Well, until the ink washes off, anyway.”

Apple Bloom examined the piece of paper. “Easy enough.” She raised her hoof. “Cross my—”

“Ah, ah, ah!” Pinkie waved her hooves. “I’ve gotta say it with you!”

“Oh, right,” Apple Bloom said. “Whenever you’re ready, then.”

Pinkie cleared her throat, and the two of them spoke at once. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!”

Apple Bloom performed the motions, finishing with shutting her right eye and gently sticking the piece of paper to her eyelid. She held it there for a short while before peeling it off.

“How bad does it look?” Apple Bloom asked.

I snickered. The pink letters stuck out plain as day on her pale yellow coat. “I think you might’ve just found a new look.”

“Har, har.” Apple Blood stuck out her tongue. “Maybe I’ll tattoo the other eye so they match.”

I smirked. “You totally should.” 

“No problem!” Pinkie produced a second piece of paper. “I brought a spare just in case!”

And without waiting for permission, she slapped the second piece of paper over Apple Bloom’s other eye.

“Gah!” Apple Bloom fell back in surprise.

“Pinkie!” I said in alarm. “What the hay!”

“What?” Pinkie said. “You said you wanted them to match!”

“Ugh!” I shoved her aside and went to Apple Bloom. “Are you all right?” 

Apple Bloom peeled the paper off, and sure enough, both sides matched. “She just pressed it on. It don’t hurt none.”

I cast Pinkie a wary glance. “I think we can take it from here, uh... Judge Pinkie. Can you give us a few minutes alone? Maybe you could go see if either of my sisters need help.”

“Okie-dokie-lokie!” Pinkie took off the old shirt and started hopping away, leaving a trail of flour behind her. “ Court’s adjourned! Play nice, you two!” 

I waited until I heard the sound of her hoofsteps climbing the stairs before slumping down and rubbing my temples. “Never a dull moment with that one.”

“I’m actually glad she was here,” Apple Bloom said as she got to her hooves. “She’s been comin’ down to be with me every so often these past few days.”

“She mentioned that,” I said. “I’m surprised you were able to put up with it.”

A slow smile crept up on Apple Bloom’s face. “Trust me, she can be a good listener when the mood strikes her right.”

I ran a hoof through my mane before looking around at the shelves. “I didn’t mean to snap at you like that.”

Apple Bloom waved her hoof. “Not like it was unjustified. I messed up pretty bad on the driveway.”

I clicked my tongue. “You did, but a lot of ponies would’ve done the same thing in your situation.”

Apple Bloom’s eyes were hollow as they met mine. “You didn’t.”

“Discord threatened me, remember?” I reminded her. “If our roles were reversed, I very well may have tried carrying you over to Rarity in my magic.”

“No, I don’t think you would’ve.” Apple Bloom took a step forward. “You’ve got a stronger will than I do, Sweetie. Stronger heart and stronger mind, too. You’ve even got more ambition than I do, and when you decide you’re gonna do somethin’, you find a way to make it happen.”

I turned away. “You know that’s not true. I’ve screwed up more times than either of us are willing to admit.”

“Depends on what you call a screw up,” Apple Bloom said. “You were doing everything right by human standards, and you’ve always been a good friend to all of us..”

“I ignored what all of you have been trying to tell me since junior year and went down a path that I knew in my heart was wrong.” I looked up at the ceiling, letting my eyes unfocus as I stared at one of the light fixtures. “That doesn’t sound ‘right’ or ‘good’ to me.”

Apple Bloom put her hoof on my shoulder. “You gotta stop bein’ so hard on yourself. You did the best you could with what you knew at the time; no more, no less. Nopony’s gonna look down on you for that.”

I closed my eyes. “You’re not the first pony to say that, yet I still have trouble taking it to heart. Why?”

“Because you’re the same as everypony else,” Apple Bloom said. “Don’t matter what kinda front you put up when you always got a backstage view of yourself.”

I chuckled despite myself. “The high school director always used to say that.”

“Said it a lot in Sociology class, too,” Apple Bloom said. “She reminded me a lot of Miss Cheerilee, now that I think about it.”

I turned back around. “So what, then? Being too strict with my expectations turns me into a neurotic mess, but being too lax will prevent me from ever accomplishing anything. Where do I draw the line?”

“In the middle, ya silly filly.” Apple Bloom gave me a playful nudge. “‘All things in moderation,’ just like Granny always used to say. You have a habit of takin’ things to the extreme, so try takin’ things down a peg or two… or maybe twenty, in your case.”

I laughed in earnest at that. I knew that what she was saying was the truth, and like all problems, it wasn’t easy to admit or face. I’d do my best to tackle it, but time would only tell how well I put it into practice. 

“Speaking of being the same as everypony else,”  I said with a pointed look. “You don’t need to go into hiding every single time you make a mistake.”

“I don’t!” Apple Bloom defended. “I’m usually real good about ownin’ up to things. It’s only when it involves you gals that I wind up doin’ this.”

“Oh, really?” I smirked and poked her in the chest. “Do we really mean that much to you?”

Apple Bloom’s reply was as quick as it was surprising.

“Ya really do.”

My voice faltered. I suddenly felt myself go red, but quickly looked away so as to hide it. “Well, that’s um… uh, well… s-so uh, I’ve got n-nothing to do today! D’you think I could, uh... help you with… whatever it is you’re doing down here?”

Apple Bloom chuckled. “Sure. You’ll have to take it easy, though, or you’ll wind up wearin’ yourself out within a half hour.”

“Hey, I’ve got my magic!” I gestured to my horn. “I should be able to lift most of the things around here.”

“Yeah, so long as you don’t give yourself a nosebleed.”

“Oh, hush.”



***



The next few days were a blur. Ponies kept coming in droves thanks to Dash’s Rainboom, and we kept scrambling like mad to accommodate all of them. I had no idea how they all kept managing to find the farm. I probably could’ve asked one of them, but I didn’t have a lot of downtime what with everything that went into maintaining all the upkeep. I spent most of my time going back and forth between Apple Bloom, Shmangie and Rarity making sure they had everything they needed to do their various tasks, which was pretty similar to what I used to do at OSC, now that I think about it.  It doesn’t really surprise me that I wound up slipping into that role, though. I’m pretty good at making sure the wheels are greased.

I saw little of Babs or Scootaloo in that time. I did catch glimpses of them from time to time, but they were always in the middle of something so I didn’t want to bother them. Babs was usually with either Jack or Mac hard at work at some kind of physical labor. Scootaloo was almost always with Dash. I wasn’t particularly surprised by this, but I did worry that she was overdoing things. Dash didn’t seem to mind, though. Or at least if she did, she was pretty good at hiding it. It’s not like she couldn’t get rid of her, at any rate. If she really wanted to be alone, all she had to do was fly away. 

I didn’t know what the future was going to bring. I hadn’t heard anything more about Dash’s supposed plan to deal with the situation, and my attentions were more focused on dealing with my own personal problems, anyways. I was still fully aware that our situation wasn’t sustainable, but it sounded like there were other, more capable individuals working on a solution. My job was basically just to wait and keep things from falling apart in the meantime, and I’d be called for if I was needed.

And I probably would’ve been content to do just that... had I not found out what out what said individuals were going to do.

It was the first time Babs, Apple Bloom and I had had a chance to sit down and catch up. We couldn’t find Scootaloo, so we assumed she was off doing something with Dash. 

We were all sitting on the back porch relaxing when Scootaloo suddenly came storming around the side of the house with a bitter scowl and tears in her eyes. Babs, who had just been saying something, stopped mid-sentence. 

“Uh-oh.” She pointed at Scootaloo.

Apple Bloom and I turned. I immediately felt my stomach drop. “That’s not good. Hey! Scoots!”

Scootaloo froze. She wiped her eyes in a flash and tried to seem nonchalant as she came over, but did a poor job of it.

“What’s wrong?” Apple Bloom asked.

Scootaloo didn’t look at any of us. “They’re leaving.”

We all exchanged a glance, waiting for her to continue. When she didn’t, Babs asked the question on all our minds.

“Who is?”

“Dash and the others!” Scootaloo burst out. ”They think they’ve found a portal to Equestria and are going to go check it out!”

We all stared at her like she’d grown a second head. I’m not what was going through the other’s heads at that time, but the sheer shock of that declaration was too much for my mind to process. I just went with the first thing that came to mind.

“Okaaaaay,” I said slowly, “What are they going to do about Discord?”

Scootaloo grit her teeth. “I don’t know. All I know is that they’re going off to put themselves in danger while the rest of us wait by the wayside! They think that we’re nothing but dead weight!”

“Well... we kinda are,” Babs pointed out. “Think about it. What good are we gonna be in a fight?”

“And they might be noticed if more ponies go with ‘em,” Apple Bloom said. “They might be trying for the element of surprise.”

Scootaloo rounded on both of them. “Are you really okay with Jack and Mac going off to face Discord now when you only just got them back?!”

Apple Bloom and Babs didn’t have a reply to that. Their expressions shifted from curiosity to ones of worry.

“And you,” Scootaloo said to me. “You think Discord’s gonna leave Angie be after Rarity stood up to him? You think he won’t come after you and her next? You think he won’t come after all of us?!”

My insides turned into lead. This was their solution? A high-risk gamble against a mad god for our homeland? Winner take all? Were we really in so bad a situation that this was the best option available to us?

“They’re making their move tonight,” Scootaloo said to all three of us. “They’re going to risk their lives to give us back what we’ve lost, and they’re going to try and do it right under our noses. You’re telling me you’re okay with that? With them going through to Equestria alone and facechecking whatever’s on the other side? With hoping everything turns out all right? With sitting back and doing nothing?!”

I knew she was playing to our fears. I knew what she was proposing was a terrible idea in just about every conceivable way. I knew that doing this would likely go against the wishes of our families, and in all likelihood, we wouldn’t be able to make a difference.

And yet that didn’t stop my reply.

“Hay, no.”                        

> All or Nothing
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 13:


All or Nothing




I asked around and learned that Shmangie was in the stables tending to the feral horses. This wasn’t surprising, as she’d taken an interest in helping out with them over the last week. Not a lot of ponies were keen on having anything to do with them for some reason, though, so it wasn’t shocking when I was told she was the only one in there.

My miniscule hooves barely made any sound on the dirt floor as I trotted between the pens. Apparently I was loud enough, though, because suddenly two dozen full-grown horses turned to stare at me from both sides. Their big dull eyes fixed on my every move, their wide nostrils flared as they took in my scent, making strange nickering sounds at me that made my ears twitch.

There was something strange about that place, something that put me ill at ease. Maybe it was the smell, maybe it was the horses themselves, but I didn’t like it, whatever it was. I doubled my pace and made a beeline for Shmangie, who was at the far end tending to a dark brown mare with a braided mane.

“Hey, kiddo!” She was using a large horse brush to get the snarls out of the mare’s coat. “Haven’t seen you in here before. Sara, this is Shmage. Shmage, this is Sara.”

I craned my head up to look at the feral mare. She was freaking enormous—I doubted I even came up to her knees. She leaned her head over the stall door to sniff me, her soft exhales making my hair stand on end. 

“Charmed,” I said with a shudder. “Hey, I’ve got news. Got a minute?”

“Sure.” Shmangie set down the brush and turned to me. “What’s up?”

“Er…” I shifted back and forth on my hooves. “Can we go somewhere else, please? This place gives me the creeps.”

Shmangie looked at me with a thoughtful frown. “You too, huh? You know, it seems like none of the ponies like being in this building. Not even Jack spends much time in here if she can help it.”

“And I might be more curious about that if she wasn’t leaving tonight with Dash, Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Rarity to go inspect a possible portal to Equestria,” I said with no small amount of deadpan. “But seeing as she is, I think that takes precedence.”

Shmangie blinked several times. Her face assumed a myriad of expressions, her mouth opening and closing as she processed that news. Finally, she turned and started heading for the backdoor. 

“C’mon. We’ll be alone out in the pasture.”



***



We went out to the middle of the grassy field behind the stables. It was a beautiful evening—the air was warm, the sky was clear, and a soft, cool breeze teased at my curly mane. In the coming months it would become disgustingly hot and humid, but for now, it was just right. The particular field we were in was fenced off, so while there were lots of ponies wandering around the edges, we were well out of earshot. 

Shmangie led me over to a patch of heather. She then stopped and sat down cross-legged in front of me, her expression shrewd and attentive.

“Okay. Tell me everything.”

I shrugged. “There’s not much to tell. Dash let it slip to Scoots about an hour ago. Apparently the portal’s in the middle of a city north of here. At first Dash was saying that they’re just going to go check it out, but then she let said something about ‘clearing the way.’ Not a lot of ways that can be interpreted.”

Shmangie clucked her tongue. “And none of which I approve of.”

“Preaching to the choir,” I said dryly. “What do you think we should do?”

Shmangie didn’t answer right away. She snapped off a stalk of heather and ran it through her fingers, chewing on her lip all the while. “Stop them, obviously, but the only way to do that is to threaten to tell the police about this place. And seeing as that would probably result in our arrest as well...”

I made a derisive noise. “Yeah, would rather avoid that if we can help it.”

“I suppose we could try talking to them,” Shmangie said halfheartedly. “But we’d need to propose some kind of alternative, and I haven’t thought of anything in the entire time we’ve been here. I’d like something that accomplishes what they’re trying to do, just you know... without the mortal peril, but I’ve got nothing.”

I drug a hoof on the ground. “I think we can all agree that we’re up against a wall, here.” 

Shmangie sighed and tossed the heather stalk away. “I don’t know, Shmage. There’s no telling what Discord’s been up to in the last twenty-five years. I’d like to think Dash and the others wouldn’t do something like this if they didn’t think they had a chance, but... I really, really, REALLY don’t think this is smart.”

Her response was pretty much what I’d expected.  She sounded as lost as I’d initially felt, and while her attitude wasn’t ideal for what I was about to propose, there wasn’t any time to try and steer the conversation. So with a deep breath, I steeled myself and took a gamble.

“What if they don’t go on their own?” I said. “Discord won last time because of divide and conquer tactics, after all. We might only be able to win if we all stand up to him together.”

Shmangie instantly realized what I was getting at. She crossed her arms and gave me a flat look. 

“No.”

“I mean, it’s either that or sitting around here waiting for the food to run out,” I continued. “Do you want to sew pillows, spend your life savings and brush the manes of farm horses while Rarity and the others are risking their lives?”

“I’m not letting you put yourself in harm’s way,” Shmangie said with narrowed eyes. “You’re not going after them. Period.”

I felt my ire rise, but kept it in check. “I’m already in harm’s way, in case you forgot. So are you. And another thing, I love Rarity as much as I love you, and I wouldn’t hesitate if you were the one going off instead of her.”

“You honestly think she’d be any more willing to let you go if our roles were reversed?” Shmangie scoffed. “Please. You have the body of a child and no actual fighting experience. You’re the very definition of cannon fodder.”

“Who said I was going to fight?” I said. “I can help organize things and figure out a plan of attack. I can give advice and help in other ways than being on the front line. I know things about Equestria they don’t, remember? My expertise could be useful.”

“You could just as easily be captured and taken as a hostage,” Shmangie said. “You could become a liability in just as many ways you think you can help. Use whatever rationale or justifications you want, but the simple truth is that going after them is suicide!”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s not sui—”

“THIS ISN’T A FUCKING GAME!” Shmangie suddenly yelled in Spanish. Her teeth bared in a livid snarl as she spoke with lightning speed. “You could be killed, maimed, tortured, disfigured, traumatized or God knows what other atrocity that NO ONE wants to have happen to their own sibling! You expect me to me to be okay with you chasing after those idiots just because you want to play hero?! Not on your fucking life!” 

I weathered her rant without batting an eyelash. I coughed to clear a tickle in my throat, then gave my reply in a calm, collected voice. “I never said I was going alone.”

 Shmangie slammed her hand on the ground. “Did your friends make any difference before? Did they?! Discord will just pick them off again one by one! He’ll make you watch while he’s doing it! He’ll hurt you in ways you can’t even imagine, and by the time he’s done with you, you'll literally be begging him for death!”

“Not if he’s fending off the attacks of several hundred irate ponies at the same time.”

“You need—” Shmangie stopped dead, her rant knocked off its tracks. “What.”

“The issue here is that you’re thinking too small, dear sister,” I said with a smirk on my lips. “When I said we need to stand up to him together, I meant TOGETHER-together. To Tartarus with ambushes, drawn-out campaigns or trying to take him on one group at a time. Let’s blitzkrieg the bastard.”

Shmangie pursed her lips, her eyes darting back and forth as she mulled that over. It became clear that I’d thrown her off, so I continued with my momentum.

“I couldn’t care less about being a hero, Shman'. That’s not my part to play in all this, and I doubt I'd be happy with it if it was. The only reason I’m doing this is because I want my life back. I don’t know why Rarity and the others are trying to do this alone, but I’m worried that they’re making the same mistake as I've been. I believe that we have a chance to beat this sadistic snake, but a group of six mares, four fillies, and a fitness club manager isn’t gonna cut it.”

“But an army might,” Shmangie muttered faintly.

I nodded grimly. “But an army might, yeah. I don’t want to do this any more than you, but this ball’s already rolling and we’re caught in its path. Letting Discord make the first move cost us the last time, and I want to learn from our mistakes. There’s a chance we could get hurt, yes, and I’ll admit that I’m scared, but as long as we’re together...”

Shmangie was silent. She looked down at her hands, which were covered in dark brown work gloves. She took them off one at a time to examined her clean, uncalloused hands, her red nail polish glinting brightly in the setting sun. She flexed her fingers slowly into fists, then relaxed them. She repeated the motion a few times without so much as a word, her face hidden by her rust-red bangs. 

I put a hoof on her knee. “What do you say?”

Shmangie went still. She took a long, slow breath, then adjusted her hair and allowed me to see her face. She was grinning with a steely glint in her eyes.

“This is crazy, but… okay. Let’s muster some troops.”



***



The girls weren’t idle while I was off convincing Shmangie. We met up with them by the van a few minutes later, and I was surprised to discover that they were all looking very pleased with themselves while bouncing back and forth.

“Good news?” I asked.

Scootaloo stopped and turned to me. “You won’t believe this. We totally hit the jackpot!”

"Oh?" I said. "In what way?"

“We found out where the portal is!” Apple Bloom burst out. “It’s where the Equestria Girls movie took place. It’s an hour-and-a-half north of here in a small town on the state border. They’re planning to leave at midnight.”

My heart leapt. “No way! How’d you find out so fast?”

Scootaloo snickered. “It was easy. Babs distracted Twilight while Bloom and I went on her laptop and checked her search history.”

Apple Bloom laughed as well. “Celestia almighty, that mare really needs to change her privacy settings.”

“Distracted her with what?” Shmangie said incredulously. “Twilight’s had her eyes glued to that thing all week! Rarity even told me that she’s tried to bring it to the dinner table!”

Babs turned to me with a guilty grin. “I, uh... hope you won’t be mad, but... I kinda heard from Mac that Twilight has a lot of trouble waking up in the morning, and she doesn’t give anypony so much as the time of day until she’s had at least two cups of coffee. Seeing as that’s not ideal, I offered her something a little more… efficient.”

She reached into her saddlebags and pulled out the torn casing from a familiar box. I could see that the word ‘Flatline’ was still visible on the hastily-ripped plastic.

I paled. “You didn’t.”

Babs’ smirk became downright evil. “I did.”

My jaw fell. “You... you fools! What have you done?!”

"Oh, that ain’t even the worst of it.” Apple Bloom waggled her eyebrows. “We scratched off all the warnin’ labels just to make sure she’d bite.”

Shmangie gasped. “No...”

Scootaloo deviously rubbed her hooves together. “Pandora now has the box. Reunion is now nigh! Discord is nothing but a fly before the monster we’ve created—no, a flea! He will fall before our superior chaos!”

Apple Bloom cackled like a madmare. “The nuclear strike has been launched, but it has yet to be detected!”

“Victory will be ours!” Babs chimed in. She reared up on her hooves and threw back her head in manaical laughter. “Caffeine for the caffeine god! Vengeance for the vengeance throne!”

The three of them high-fived each other and yelled out as one.

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADER GOD-KILLERS! YAY!”

They fell over each other laughing almost to the point of tears. Their faces were flushed as they gasped for breath, playfully wrestling each other all the while. I was about to comment on their crazy behavior, but before I could, Apple Bloom suddenly sat up with a loud yelp and looked to the other two.

“Ohmygosh! But what monster do we create to stop Twilight from destroying us all?”

Babs’ eyes went wide. “You're right! I forgot that absolute power corrupts absolutely! She might even be able to take Discord’s power for her own and become a super-ultra-mega evil Librarian Princess!”

“Uh, girls?” I said.

Legitimate horror crept into Scootaloo’s eyes. “No book will be safe….”

Apple Bloom stared off into the distance. “Books’ll only be the beginning, I’m afraid. Soon she’ll start categorizin' the whole world, and there won’t be anythin’ on Earth or Equestria that'll be able to stop her! We’ll all be placed in gel-filled tubes with hexadecimal numbers on our flanks! We’ll be mind-controlled to think we live in a checklist-filled dreamworld, forced to study nanochemistry and advanced quantum physics for eternity!”

“Not the hard sciences!” Babs wailed. 

“I hate hexadecimal!” Scootaloo said.

“Oh God, not again,” Shmangie groaned as the realization hit her. “Please tell me you three didn’t—”

“We gotta stop her before it’s too late!” Apple Bloom shouted with unbalanced eyes. “We can’t let her organize and monitor all life as we know it! We’ll need to take drastic measures, but if we’re quick, we can minimize the damage!”

“Drastic measures!” Babs sprung to her hooves. “Yes! Anything to save the world!”

Scootaloo gave Apple Bloom a knowing look. “You’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, aren’t you?”

Apple Bloom nodded. “There’s no other way.”

She then turned to me and spoke words that chilled my very soul. 

“Sweetie… get the duct tape.”

“NOOOOO!”

My scream was probably heard half a county away. My horn hummed loudly, and they were pinned against the barn wall before they could even blink.

“Hey!” Scootaloo wriggled and squirmed. “Not cool!”

“SHMAN’!” I grunted from the strain. “GRAB ‘EM!”

“Sweetie and Angie are corrupted!” Apple Bloom declared, the mirth clear in her voice. “They’ve both been replaced by cyborgs! Twilight’s takeover has begun!”

Babs was unable to say anything because she was too busy laughing her plot off.

Shmangie sighed. “Overreacting a bit there, kiddo.” She calmly walked over to Apple Bloom and Babs and picked them up in each arm. They made no effort to fight her as they continued to laugh.

I let go of Babs and Apple Bloom and focused my efforts on containing Scootaloo, I marched up to her and poked her in the ribs.

“How much did you drink?”

Scootaloo stuck out her tongue. “Sorry, I don’t speak binary.”

My horn’s hum grew louder. “I’ll do it, Scoots.”

She blew a raspberry at me. “My will is like iron! Do your worst, Sweetie-Bot!”

That was the last straw. While still keeping her pinned, I focused my magic just above her navel, then changed the pressure of my magic so that it began to vibrate. 

“Hidden Art: Telekinetic Tickle Jutsu!”

Scootaloo shrieked. She tried with all her might to free herself from my merciless assault, but it was no use. Her squeals of laughter became louder and more high-pitched as I continued my attack.

“N-no, please!” she managed between breaths. “Not the t-tummy! Anything but the tummy! Ahahahahahaha!”

“Stay strong, Scoots!” Apple Bloom called from under Shmangie’s arm. “Don’t give in!” 

“Quiet, you.” Shmangie shot Apple Bloom a withering look. “You’re on thin ice as it is.”

Apple Bloom’s ears drooped. “Yes, ma’am.”

“How much?” I asked again, paying no attention to Scootaloo’s pleas.

“W-we shared one!” she choked. “Just o-one! We wanted to s-see how we’d r-react now! Please s-staahahahaha!”

I finally let her go. She fell to the ground in a twitching heap, still giggling and clutching her ribs. I shook my head sadly as I looked down at her. 

“I thought we all learned our lesson last time. That stuff should be illegal for human minors, let alone eight-year-old fillies! We probably don’t even have a tolerance to caffeine anymore, you dodo! You may as well have taken a hit of meth!”

“Meth probably would’ve been safer," Shmangie said.

“Seriously!” I agreed as I threw up my hooves. “Did any of you even think? Why would you think drinking that stuff right now would be a good idea?”

“Oh, lighten up, Sweetie,” Babs said. “I used to drink it all the time to get through my night shifts, remember? We’re just messing around.”

“Yeah...” Scootaloo wheezed. “No duct tape… promise...”

My right eyelid twitched. “I swear to Luna I will tickle you to death if there is.”

Scootaloo’s goofy grin didn’t waver. "There are worse ways... to go.”

The urge to continue anyway was strong. This had probably been her idea in the first place, as she was always did get a kick out of pushing my buttons. I wasn’t actually mad, though. Heck, I'd have probably tracked Twilight down myself and joined in on the sugar rush if we had more time. It's a shame that the whole ‘preparing to fight Discord’ thing had to take precedence. 

I pursed my lips into a thin line. “Okay, whatever. So you’re all hyped up on Flatline. Great. Just stay away from adhesives and all other polyethylene products for the foreseeable future and we'll be fine. In other news, Shmangie’s agreed to help us, so all we’re all set to begin Operation Zerg Rush.”

Scootaloo and the others cheered. Shmangie snorted at the plan name, but declined to comment. She set Babs and Apple Bloom down on the ground and sat down beside the van.

“Okay, first thing," I said. "We’re gonna need to be careful about how we break this to everypony, They’re not all gonna wanna come with us, and if we try to force them, nopony will come at all. Oh, and make sure not to villainize Dash and the others . Regardless of why they're ACTUALLY sneaking off, we have to paint them in a positive light.”

Scootaloo folded her hooves and looked away. “So don’t say that they’re ditching us, even though they totally are. Got it.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You’re really bad at pretending to be bitter, you know that?"

“Excuse me?!” Scootaloo whirled on me. “Who the hay says I’m pretending?!”

I barely managed not to laugh. “That would be your friend of two-and-a-half decades. Nice to meet you!”

“We all can read you like a book, Scoots,” Babs said. “You acted this way every time your dad went to the Middle East to treat terrorist casualties, remember?”

“And when your mom travelled cross-country in bad weather for her job,” Apple Bloom added.

“You don't have to put up an act around us, kiddo,” Shmangie said gently. “You're not the only one who's worried. It’s not like it’s a sign of weakness or anything.”

Scootaloo’s retort died on her lips. She gave all of us the stink eye for a few seconds, but then, she let out a low growl and looked away.

“Stupid lifelong friends. Curse you and your... knowing me so well, or something.”

I laughed and gave her a playful nudge. “Bitterness doesn’t suit you, Gangstaloo. You’re much better at the whole lovable goofball thing, so do us all a favor and just play to your strengths.”

“Yeah!” Babs said. “Fo’ shizzle!”

"Oh my God." Shmangie facepalmed. “Never say that again, please.”

Scootaloo smiled despite herself. “I just... I’m so damn frustrated with feeling helpless all the time. Dash was trying to play this all off as no big deal when it obviously is, and she deserves a flank-kicking for trying to do this alone.”

“Trust me, she’s not the only one,” Babs grumbled. “They all deserve a beating for this.”

There was a murmur of agreement at that. Personally, it killed me that we couldn’t just stop them right out instead of reacting to their actions. I swear, part of me wanted to go find them and chain them to a wall or something.

“I think we’re gonna have to shelve that idea, tempting as it is," I said. I leaned back on my haunches and sighed. “The only thing we can do now is react to their actions, and seeing as they’re leaving in only a few hours, we need to react fast.”

“Heh. Fast, eh?” Scootaloo’s eyes suddenly glinted bright with interest. “You now have my attention.”

All eyes were now on me. “What’s the plan, then?” Babs asked.

I cleared my throat. “Shmangie’s gonna go pack up our things at the hotel and get gas for the van. While she’s doing that, the rest of us'll let everypony know what’s going on. We’ll cover more ground if we split up, so Babs and Scoots, you go together. Apple Bloom, you're with me.”

“Er...” Apple Bloom’s eyes darted between Shmangie and me. “Sweetie, can I go with Angie, instead?”

I wrinkled my brow. Had to admit I wasn't expecting that. I looked to Shmangie, who was giving Apple Bloom a curious look. She fidgeted a bit and rubbed her arms, but then managed to eke out a forced smile.

“Sure, Mikey. That’d be... nice.”

It’s amazing how fast a conversation can turn awkward, isn't it?. I mean, yeah, we were about to do pretty crazy stuff, but there wasn’t any reason for trepidation just yet. However, this was an abrupt reminder of the rift still present in our group, and they hadn't had a chance to work things out yet, so...

“I suppose that works,” I said with a shrug. “It’ll probably be better that we spread the word slowly until Dash and the others are gone, anyways.”

Apple Bloom bowed her head. “Thanks.”

My reply was a nod, but the expression on my face spoke volumes. After that, there wasn’t anything else for me to tell her and Shmangie, so they said their goodbyes and piled into the van.

I watched them drive away in silence, the exhaust fumes dispersing into the empty air. I hoped they would be alright, but it was out of my hooves. I forced myself to push it out of my mind and turned back to Scootaloo and Babs.

“I’ll leave it to you on how to do this. Just remember that Dash and the others’ll probably try to stop you if they hear about what you're doing, so keep a low profile until they’re gone.”

“Sure thing, boss,” Scootaloo said. “It’s a little bit past eight right now, so we’ve got plenty of time.”

“What about you, Sweetie?” Babs asked curiously. "What's your strategy gonna be?"

I rolled my shoulders and got to my hooves. “It’ll depend on who I’m talking to, but I’m thinking the main allure’s gonna be revenge. I doubt it'll be hard to sell that.”



***



It was really hard to sell that.

“Are you insane?!” the stallion in front of me said. “We’ll all be killed!”

I suppressed the urge to rub my temples. I looked around to see if his outburst had drawn attention, but the ponies around us seemed more interested in getting ready for bed.

“Listen to me,” I said in a terse voice. “I know we have a chance to beat Discord if we all work together. Aren’t you upset about the last twenty-five years of your life being a giant lie?”

The stallion grit his teeth. “Of course I am, but... there’s nothing I can do about it, alright? I’m just a normal guy—I wasn’t anyone important from the show, or anyone important as a human, for that matter!”

“That doesn’t mean you can’t make a difference,” I said. “You have a chance to be a part of something great here! You’re telling me you wanna just sit back and pass it up?”

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you!” the stallion snarled. “Even if Twilight Sparkle and the others needed help to deal with this, they certainly wouldn’t want it from someone like me! I know they’ll save the day just like they always do; all we have to do is let them.”

“They’re not even the same ponies anymore!” I pleaded. “Have you spoken to them? Their memories are gone just like everyone else’s! They’re going to need—”

The stallion held up a hoof. “Look, I get that you’re trying to do everything you can to help.  Really, I do, but I’m not the one you should be asking. I’m sure there are some others around here who’d be willing to go with you, though—maybe you should try and find some of them, instead.”

I made no effort to stop him as I watched him walk away. I almost wanted to call after him to say that that's exactly what I’d been doing for the last few hours, but I didn’t see a point. It’s not like that would’ve freed his mind from the fear and insignificance gripping it. 

I idly kicked at a rock as the last few stragglers file into the barn for bed. I wished that that stallion’s mindset was abnormal, but it wasn’t. Ponies were scared, plain and simple, and there wasn’t much an eight-year-old filly with a penchant for mischief could do to convince them otherwise. I wasn’t about to give up yet, mind you, but I—

“Not having much luck, I see.”

I turned around in surprise. There right in front of me was a quartet of white knees. I took a step back and looked up, and found that they belonged to an enormous stallion with a three-toned cobalt mane and tail. He had an analytic demeanor about him that was almost stern, but his kind eyes told me that he was an approachable sort.

“Haven’t had much of a chance to talk with you.” The stallion smiled at me. “Rarity’s told me a lot about you. You know who I am, right?”

I felt my legs grow weak. If course I knew who this was—this was Shining Armor, the  stallion my sister was willing to fight tooth and hoof for. And Holy Mother of Celestia, no-freaking-wonder! His build was athletic and muscular, his jaw was rugged and strong, his horn was long and sleek and his gorgeous eyes could probably stop traffic. I seriously doubted Rarity even realized what a catch she’d landed here. How could she, after all? She was making judgments based off human ideals of beauty. Shining Armor was handsome when viewed in those terms, sure, but Equestrian standards put him into the mythical realm of damn. 

A flush crept into my cheeks. “H-hi, Shining Armor. Sh-she’s told me a lot about you, too.”

Shining Armor chuckled. “Just Shining is fine. And nothing too incriminating, I hope. Don't want you to think less of me just yet.”

I shuffled back and forth. “Um… h-how much of that did you hear?”

“Enough to know what you're doing—or what you’re planning on doing, rather.” He gestured to the house. “I was hoping I could have a moment. Do you mind?”

Ah, horseapples. There I'd spent all that time telling the others we needed to keep this quiet, and of all ponies I wound up blabbing it in front of the blasted Prince—er, former Prince. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Shining seemed to catch on to my mental berating. “Oh! I'm not trying to stop you or anything. Quite the opposite, in fact.”

That got my attention. “Opposite?” I repeated. “What do you...”

Again, he motioned to the house. “Come on. Ponies are sleeping out here.”

Confused, I followed him inside. He led us into the living room, which I saw had been meticulously cleaned by somepony since the last time I was there. Maybe it was him? He didn’t strike me as the housekeeping type, but this was Twilight Sparkle’s brother we were talking about. Maybe anal retentiveness ran in the family.

There was third pony in the living room, as well. Big Macintosh was sitting in an old lazy boy watching the national news, which was currently droning on about some Senator crying wolf about the prospect of war. I swear, it was all they’d been talking about for a week, and I could recognize thinly-veiled political lobbying when I saw it, Judging from the bored look on Mac’s face, so could he.
 
Mac noticed us come in. His eyes flickered to Shining for an instant before nodding at me.

“Sweetie.”

I felt my blush return. “H-hey, Mac.”

Mac and I had something of a complicated history. I’d had a crush on him before Discord attacked, but it wouldn't have worked out so I’d just admired him from afar. The infatuation left me all shy and klutzy whenever I was around him, though, and it made our exchanges exceedingly awkward for me. He was oblivious to it of course, as most guys tend to be about such things, so I just pretended nothing was wrong and avoided the stupid sexy bastard as much as I could.

I seriously wanted to throw something. There I was, alone with the two most gorgeous stallions I’d ever seen in my life, and I was trapped in the body of a pre-pubescent filly. I decided right then and there that the universe enjoyed watching me suffer.

Shining helped me up on the couch before sitting down in a recliner beside Mac’s. He turned down the TV with his magic before turning his attention back to me.

“So,” he began. “I’m guessing Scootaloo told you about the portal.”

I exhaled out my nose. “Yeah. She came to us right after Dash told her about it. Did they all leave already?”

Shining nodded. “About twenty minutes ago. They’re taking a boat up the Mississippi to get there. Should arrive by dawn.”

I perked up. That was quite a while, so maybe there was still a chance we could convince more ponies. “What about you two?" I asked. "Why’d you stay behind?”

Mac yawned. “Someone’s gotta hold down the fort. May as well be us.”

I frowned. “You don’t want in on the action? I thought you’d both be raring at the chance to fight Discord.”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about," Shining said. "See, I was there when Dash told Scootaloo about this, and to be perfectly honest, her choice of words was terrible. She drew the wrong conclusion and stormed off before either of us could stop her, and then we both got sidetracked and couldn’t do damage control. No one’s going to face Discord by themselves, and no one thinks that anybody is dead weight.”

My world froze.  “You mean… that’s not…  it was just…” 

“This is their fault, not yours,” Mac cut in. “Scootaloo’s reaction was understandable, and you didn't know any better. I’da been pissed too if Dash told me that she and the others were ‘sneaking off.’”

Shining nodded. “This is our screw-up. Don’t feel bad about it.”

Don’t feel bad? HA! I wanted to curl up in a ball and die. I couldn’t do that on command, though, so I whimpered and hid my head under a pillow, instead.

“Hey, what'd I just say?” The pillow became enveloped in magenta light as Shining gently pulled it off me. “Besides, it was a badly kept secret from the beginning. Fluttershy mentioned it to a few ponies, too, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole farm knows by now. “

“We were only trying to be quiet about this because we didn’t want anyone to raise everyone’s hopes until we knew if the portal was real, anyway.” Mac said as he idly cracked his neck. “No sense in all of us trekking up there for what might be a wild goose chase.”

I had to admit that made sense. That just made me feel even worse, though—once again I’d dismissed the logical and rational solution for favor of a ludicrous one. I was starting to notice a disturbing trend, one that was all too common when I was younger, and I was beginning to suspect that my body’s regression had affected my judgement. I couldn’t trust myself to make logical conclusions anymore if that was the case, and while that might’ve been cause for alarm in most cases, I realized I could also use it as an excuse for acting like an idiot.

Heh. Maybe there were some benefits to immaturity, after all.

“So the whole farm knows that Rarity and the others are going off inspecting a possible portal to Equestria, and yet none of them seem to care about it?” I scratched my head. “What’s the deal with that? Everyone I asked to go after them was either indifferent or scared shitless.”

“Well, the fear is certainly understandable,” Shining said. “Most people don’t exactly get excited about the prospect of war. As for the apathy, I’d say that’s because we haven’t confirmed whether the portal’s real yet or not. Most are probably thinking that it sounds too good to be true, so they don’t want to get their hopes up.”

“You gotta admit it sounds far fetched,” Mac said with a small smile. “An interdimensional portal that’s gone unnoticed all this time in the middle of a human city, only one hundred miles away? What are the odds of that?”

I mulled that over for a bit. “I hadn’t thought of it that way, but now that you mention it, the odds are so astronomical that I doubt they’re odds at all.”

Shining cocked his head. “What do you mean?”

I watched a fly buzz around the ceiling as I recalled a conversation I'd had with an Astrophysics major. “One interpretation of both multiverse and string theory is based on the idea that all matter inevitably returns back to its point of origin. If something were to leave one universe and cross into another, it would leave Universe A with less mass and Universe B with more, thus creating an imbalance in time and space. It’s thought that the imbalance would inevitably have to correct itself, but since we don’t know how, the theory’s never been further explored. Based on that much, though, it’s plausible to say that all these ‘coincidences’ could just be the result of our old universe and this one trying to resolve the imbalance of mass.”

Shining and Mac stared at me with blank eyes. I didn’t notice at first because I was busy remembering all the other stuff the guy had said, but when I saw their expressions, my blush came back with such force that I thought my cheeks would burst into flame. 

“Th-that’s just a theory though. I’m p-probably way, way off.”

Mac burst out laughing. “Oh man, Shining. You already have one brainiac for a sister; what’s it gonna be like having two?”

“I’m not a brain—” I did a double take. “Wait, WHAT?!”

Shining punched Mac in the shoulder and shot him a dirty look. “Dammit, Mac! We weren’t gonna tell her yet!”

My eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. “You’re marrying Rarity? You’re really, really marrying her?!”

Shining put a hoof behind his head. “We were going to tell you together when all this had blown over. We obviously don’t have any way to make it official right now, but eventually, we will. You’ll be in the wedding, of course—er, if you want to be, that is.”

I squee'd. “ARE YOU CRAZY?! OF COURSE I DO!” I leapt off the couch and glomped Shining in a pink and purple blur. “I’m gonna have a brother-in-law! This is great! Thisisgreatthisisgreatthisisgreatgreatgreat!”

The only downside of this was that I wouldn’t ogle him anymore. However, on the flipside, my nieces and nephews were almost guaranteed to be both super-intelligent and adorable. That was an acceptable trade-off in my book!

“Glad you… approve,” he wheezed. He steadied the recliner so we wouldn’t tip over. “We were worried... you wouldn’t.”

I giggled and hugged him harder. “Why wouldn’t I? Rarity loves you! You DO love her back, right?”

“Of course I do,” he said immediately. “I have for a long time, actually, and nothing’s ever going to change that.”

“Especially now that you and Cadance have straightened things out,” Mac added. “Although one of you will need to file for divorce, now. Unless Equestrian law is different, or something.”

I gasped. “Princess Cadance is here? Oooh, how’d that go?”

“Shh.” Shining put a hoof to his lips. “It went fine. She’s not in great shape at the moment, but she should be okay with some rest. She’s upstairs sleeping at the moment.”

My mood sobered a little at that. Yet another pony that’d gotten hurt somehow? How many was that now? How long until somepony got hurt in a way that couldn’t be healed? The longer we were here, the greater risk we took, and it was only a matter of time until our luck ran out.

I let go of Shining and returned to the couch. “I was worried her turning up would lead to problems with you three, but it sounds like you worked it out. It’s too bad she’s hurt, though. She’d be a big help with the portal if it really is the one from Equestria Girls.”

Shining and Mac exchanged a glance. Mac almost imperceptibly jerked his head at me, and Shining lowered his eyes. He was quiet for a few seconds, but then, he clicked his teeth and looked up at me.

“Sweetie... Mac and I want you and the Crusaders to go after Dash now.”

“Huh? You do?” I looked between them. “Why?”

Shining gestured to the ceiling. “Cadance is cursed just like the rest of us, but she’s still linked to the Crystal Heart, whose power is far, far older than Discord's. It occasionally shows her visions of various events—past, present, and future—and while she doesn’t have any control over it, the future events almost always come to pass. Er, according to her, anyway.”

I suddenly felt a chill. “She had a vision of me, didn’t she.”

“Just a few minutes ago,” Mac confirmed. “Creepiest damn thing I’ve ever seen, too. Damn near pissed myself when her eyes went white like that.”

Shining chewed on his lip. “She saw you standing in front of a giant stone statue inside a large abandoned building. Dash and the others were there, your friends included, and as they all looked on, you pressed your hoof against the base and caused a bright flash.”

I waited for him to continue, but he didn’t. I made a small circular motion with my hoof. “Okaaaaaaaaay. And?”

Shining shook his head. “That’s all she saw. She passed out right after telling us about it.”

I withheld a groan. Of course things would play out like this. What kind of mystical, ancient artifact would the Crystal Heart be if it didn’t deliver vague, cryptic hints delivered by physically fragile messengers? What was next, a time-lost prophecy would be uncovered that declared me as the Chosen One?

Shining seemed to confuse my exasperation for uncertainty. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want—”

“Oh, I’m doing it,” I said as I hopped off the couch. “I was planning on going anyway, remember? Heck, my human sister’s already got all our stuff packed. I can leave in five minutes.”

“This is gonna be dangerous,” Shining warned. “There’s no telling what’ll happen once we open that portal. Discord could be waiting right on the other side of it for all we know.”

“And he’s not gonna hold back just because you’re a filly.” Mac’s face was as grim as his voice. “You won’t have anything or anyone to hide behind.”

It was hard not to let Mac’s concern for me affect what was I was going to say next. Sure, I could’ve played it up and milked some sympathy points out of him to cash in later, but I felt that now was a time to be serious. 

“I knew what I was getting into when Scoots first told me about this," I said. "Actually, no, that’s a lie. I knew what I was getting into when Discord came to me in a dream and threatened to hurt Angie. I’ve been waiting for this to happen for weeks now, and I’m well aware of what I both stand to lose and gain. I didn’t want to hide when I first started turning back into a pony, and I sure as hay don’t want to hide now. I’m going to go after Rarity and the others, I'm going to face that monster and get back everything that I’ve lost, or so help me Celestia, I’m going to die trying.”

I’m usually not much for bravado, but I can pull it off when need be. I worried I might’ve overdone it at first, but then I saw the acceptance in Shining and Mac's eyes. It seemed that I’d guessed right that they’d both appreciate a display of courage...

...even if it really was just that.

It was Shining who spoke first. “We’ll wait to hear word, then; from either Dash, or you, I suppose. In the meantime, I’ll see what I can do about getting more ponies to come with us. I might have more luck than you. For some reason I seem to have a knack for motivating ponies.”

Mac laughed and gave Shining a mock salute. “Gee, I wonder why.”

I laughed as well. “Yeah, mystery of the century, there.”

It took Shining a second to catch what we meant. “Wow, I… wow, I feel dumb now. You know, that actually makes a lot of sense? I can’t believe I didn’t see that.”

“Hey, at least your special talent is useful right now.” I looked back at my own cutie mark. “I doubt I’m gonna be able to sing Discord to death.”

“Hey, you never know.” Shining winked at me. “Maybe you can learn how to scream like a banshee.”

“Or make his head explode with sound waves!” Mac clapped his hooves together. “That’s actually possible, you know. You just need to figure out how to do it with magic.”

I snickered. “Won’t know unless I try, I suppose.” I headed for the door. “Thanks, you guys. I won’t let you down.”

“Good luck, Sweetie!” Mac said.

“Be careful, Future-Little-Sister-in-Law!” Shining called.

I smiled. “We’ll need to think of a good abbreviation for that.”


> Opening the Way
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 14:


Opening the Way



The school was in an abysmal state. 

Wait, I take that back. Calling it abysmal would’ve been giving it a compliment. Instead, let’s say it was in a decrepit, derelict, deteriorating, dilapidated, deformed state.

Yeah, that’s about right.

You might think I’m exaggerating, but I’m not. The windows and doors were boarded up or broken, the walls were crumbling and cracked, the fields were overgrown and desolate, and the rest of the grounds were in no better shape. Fallen leaves and branches littered the patchy grass with small piles of garbage in the corners, all in various stages of decay. The building’s paint was either peeling or faded, with only a few horseshoe emblems here and there hanging on by rusty, eroded nails.

I think it’s safe to say that Canterlot High had seen better days.

We pulled into the pothole-riddled parking lot and just sat there in stunned silence, staring. It was actually kind of impressive in a way. I mean, the place had been long abandoned, but instead of a few decades of decomposition, it looked like a few millennia. This wasn’t just your normal, run-of-the-mill abandoned building we were dealing with, here. This was a ruin—a shattered husk of a structure, a long-forgotten relic better suited for a post-apocalyptic setting rather than the modern day. 

It was Shmangie who said what was on everyone’s mind.

“Wow. What a shithole.”

 Scootaloo burst out laughing. “You’re telling me! I’ve seen demolition sites in better shape!”

“Why the hay hasn’t this place been torn down?!” Apple Bloom reared to look out the window. “This is a residential area! There are kids runnin’ around here! Any buildin’ inspector would have a heart attack if they saw this!”

“Please tell me we don’t have to go in there,” Babs whimpered. “I’m calling it now—it’s gonna collapse right on our heads.”

I said nothing as I opened the van door. I doubted the school’s interior was worth exploring, but I didn’t want to make any decisions until I got a closer look. We’d come this far, after all. I wanted to at least look around a bit.

A chill wind greeted me as I hopped to the ground. The stars twinkled in the night sky, the full moon was almost at its zenith, and the thick grass glistened with silvery dew. I sniffed the air and caught the scent of water, which I knew was from the Mississippi. It was hard to say where Rarity and the others would be coming in, but I guessed they’d just pull right up due to the riverbanks not being very steep in this area.

“Whoa...” Apple Bloom said.

Something in her voice gave me pause. I turned around and saw her shuddering with gritted teeth. 

“Celestia’s bones,” she said. “You gals feel that?”

I frowned. “Feel?”

And then it hit me. It started as an itch in my horn, then swept through my body as an involuntary spasm. 

“Ah!” I yelped and looked wildly around. “Holy horseapples! What is that?!”

Babs and Scootaloo felt it as well. Babs reacted more or less like me and Apple Bloom, but Scootaloo was different. Her eyes became wide and dilated, her wings twitching as her lips parted in an open-mouthed gape.

“What are you all—” Shmangie froze in her tracks, then squirmed like she’d touched something unpleasant. “Ooooooh.”

I realized with a start it was the air. It was thicker, somehow—no, that wasn’t it. Charged, maybe? It was almost like we were in a cloud, with the moisture collecting on our coats and making our skin prickle. It felt familiar somehow, tantalizingly so, but I couldn’t put my hoof on it for the life of me.

Fortunately, Scootaloo had a better memory for such things.

“Aether,” she said.

We all looked to her in surprise.

“Huh?” I said.

Scootaloo smiled and fluttered to the ground. “That’s what we’re feeling—it’s aether. It’s leaking in from Equestria around here somewhere. Looks like there really is a portal, after all.”

It was almost embarrassing that I hadn’t recognized it. It’d been something I’d lived with my entire Equestrian life, after all. I closed my eyes and reached out with my telekinesis, and sure enough, I felt the ambient magic flex and twist around me like a rubber band. 

“Dios,” I whispered.

“Mmhmm,” Scootaloo said. She kicked at a chunk of asphalt. “Pretty obvious why the school is so messed up, now. Equestria’s magic is clashing with Earth’s and knocking everything out of whack. I can’t imagine what the weather’s like here if this is how bad the school is.”

Babs gulped. “Um, should we really be around here if the aether’s making the school fall apart?”

Scootaloo laughed. “We’re fine. A few hours of exposure to distorted aether isn’t gonna hurt us. A few years, on the other hoof...”

I chuckled and nudged her in the side. “Look at you, using big words and sounding all smart. I’m so proud of you!”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “This is Tempulari 101, Little Miss ‘I Went To College.’ Every pegasus is taught this before they can even learn how to read.”

“Sure looks like there ain’t a whole lotta control ‘round here, though.” Apple Bloom squinted at the ruined building. “Heck, I’m surprised the place is still standin’.”

Scootaloo followed her gaze. “It won’t be for much longer at this rate. The building’s been exposed to large amounts of aether shifting back and forth for what, twenty-something years? Non-living things just can’t handle a lot of magic changing like this. Living creatures can, though. They just store the extra aether for later or use it right away for a quick boost.”

“Think that applies to humans, too?” Shmangie asked.

Scootaloo shrugged. “Probably. Humans can’t use magic, though, so I dunno they do with the excess.”

Shmangie snorted. “With my luck it’ll all go to my thighs.”

“Ah!” Babs’ ears perked up. She swiveled in the direction of the waterfront. “You all hear that?”

We all fell quiet and listened. At first I heard nothing, but then ever so faintly, the telltale clip-clop of approaching hoofsteps could be heard coming from the direction of the river… followed by a familiar set of voices.

“It’s them, it’s them!” Scootaloo’s wings buzzed with excitement. “Let’s go!”

“Wait!” I grabbed on to her tail before she could run off. “They told us to stay behind, remember?”

“Yeah, and we didn’t listen!” Scootaloo pulled against my magical hold. “Come on, it’ll be fine. We’ll just give them a dose of adoracute and they’ll let us tag along!”

“I’m so glad I’m immune to that,” Shmangie muttered under her breath.

“I dunno,” Apple Bloom said from behind me. “Might be safer to hang back for now. See what they’re plannin’ before we just barge in, ya know?”

Babs tilted her head towards the river. “They're almost here. We need to decide quick.”

Scootaloo looked between the four of us, but realized she was in the minority. She sighed and stopped fighting to free herself.

“What’s this ‘look before you leap’ crap all of a sudden? Ugh, fine, we’ll spy on them for a little while, but not for forever! Dash is gonna get a piece of my mind whether she likes it or not!”

“Yes, yes,” I said dismissively. I let her go and looked around for a place for us to hide. There wasn’t much cover to be had, but there were several overgrown bushes shrouded safely in darkness.

“Over here!” I headed over for the nearest one. It was a yew, thick and scratchy with deep green needles. I wiggled my way inside and found that there was plenty of room for the four of us.

“Shman’!” I called from the bush. “Stay in the van!”

I heard her laugh in reply. “Sure thing. Not a fan of shrub diving, anyways.”

Scootaloo and the others joined me in the bush. Shmangie got back in the van and turned off the lights. Just in time, too, because just a few seconds later, Dash, Pinkie, Twilight, Jack, Fluttershy, and Rarity came into view. Each of them had slightly damp manes and saddlebags. Dash had a smartphone attached to one of her forelegs. We watched them approach and head for the front of the school.

“Uh, Twilight?” Dash abruptly said as they walked past us. “This place creeps me the hell out.”

We had to stifle our snickers. Rainbow Dash, ladies and gentlemen: Master of Tact. 

Rarity nodded. “I must admit I’m getting an unpleasant vibe. I think it’s something in the air.”

“Well, the portal is open now,” Twilight said from beside them. “This is when the town experiences the most disturbances. I think everyone who lives here can feel that, only they don’t know what it is.”

“And neither do you,” I said in a bitter whisper. “What an embarrassment; the Element of Magic can’t even—”

Apple Bloom smacked me. “Shh!”

Speaking of Twilight, that was the first time I’d actually seen her since being on Earth. I’d avoided her before so I wouldn’t let slip about my memories, but I’d also had another reason. I’d identified with Twilight in a ton of ways when I was human, from being passionate about learning to having an introverted personality to being socially awkward. I had a very specific image in my head of who she was and what she was supposed to be like, and even after recovering the truth, that image hadn’t changed much. I feared that that image wouldn’t match up to who she was now, and if that turned out to be true…

We all watched in silence as Dash and the others walked past us and up to the front gate of the school, idly chatting all the while. Once there, though, they seemed to realize something was wrong.

“So, um... Twilight,” Fluttershy said slowly. “Is this the front of the school?”

Twilight looked around and said something I couldn’t hear. “...statue should be right out in front of the main gate on our left. It has a white base and is made of marble, I think.”

Pinkie was the one who noticed it. “Mmmm, Coach?” She waved a hoof at the front gate. “We have a problem, then. We have no statue.”

A chill ran down my spine. “Uh-oh…”

“Wait, what?!” Dash said. She walked up to the front gate proper. “It’s supposed to be here!” 

Twilight sank back onto her haunches. “It’s… gone?”

Pinkie scoffed. “Oh, come on! Who steals a statue!? Honestly, now.”

They all stared for a few seconds. Then, Twilight galloped to the shallow impression in the ground, her voice rising with panic. 

“No… no! It’s supposed to be here! The disturbances, the town, the portal, everything! The statue has to be here! It can’t be missing! It... it just has to be here! It’s our only way back!”

“Sweetie,” Babs whispered in my ear. “You said Cadance’s vision showed the statue inside a building, right?”

I nodded. That was a good point. They’d probably want to know—

“It’s been moved inside the field house due to repeated attempts at vandalism,” Jack said calmly.

—or maybe they’d figure it out on their own.

Twilight froze mid-panic attack. “Wait, what? How do you know?”

“I’m guessing that’s what it says on the plaque that she’s reading.” Rarity gestured to a bronze plaque at the base of where the statue once stood.

Jack nodded. “Yep. Says here it was moved in 1993. I’m guessing that’s the field house over there.” 

She pointed at a large, blocky building across the road with the school’s name across the top.

“Phew.” Twilight wiped the sweat off her brow. “Well, hehe, that was an unnecessary scare. Though I suppose it’s good to hear they had to move it due to vandalism. That fits in with the theory that people are drawn to this location.”

“Well, duh,” Scootaloo grumbled. “It’s only natural that people would be interested in something that makes them feel funny. You don’t drink alcohol for the taste, after all.”

“Would you all be quiet?!” Apple Bloom hissed.

“I suppose we should be thankful it’s been moved,” Dash said. She grimaced and looked around. “This place is exposed as all hell.”

Twilight giggled. “Yeah, you’re right. I’d rather not toy with the fabric of reality while in clear view of an entire residential area.”

Dash started trotting towards the building. “Great. Let’s get—”

Apple Bloom sneezed. The noise caught me off guard and made me lose my balance, causing me to tumble out of the bush with a loud rustle.

Dash stopped and turned her head at the noise.

“Shit!” I dove behind the bush and out of sight before she could see me. My heart thundered in my chest as I lay stock still, cursing my white coat all the while.

“Dash?” I heard Jack say. “Let’s get what?” 

An eternity passed. I held my breath the whole time, not daring peer around the corner.

Finally...

“It’s nothing,” Dash said. “Just thought I saw something. Let’s get moving.”

I let out a sigh of relief. I took several deep, calming breaths, trying to dilute the adrenaline rush. Looking back on it, I suppose it wouldn’t have been a big deal if she’d found me, but still, I didn’t want to reveal ourselves just yet.

“They’re gone,” Babs said. She stepped out of the bush and helped me up. “You all right?”

“Yeah,” I said. I turned and gave Apple Bloom a dirty look. “Gesundheit.”

Apple Bloom blushed. “Sorry.”

Scootaloo started heading for the field house. “Let’s follow them.”

“Right.” I went over to the van to get Shmangie, but as I approached, I saw that she was on the phone. She met my eyes and shook her head.

I felt a touch of annoyance, but let it go. I left her to it and followed after the others.



***



The field house was basically an oversized pole shed with a concrete floor. There weren’t any lights on in the place, but Dash and the others were still clearly visible in the center of the room thanks to the glow from Rarity and Twilight’s horns. They’d found the statue—a large, tacky thing depicting a horse rearing up on its hind legs.

“Psst!” Apple Bloom whispered as I stepped inside. “Sweetie!”

I looked to my left and saw that she and the others were crouched underneath a cart of old sports equipment. I crept over and squeezed in beside them.

“I miss anything?” I asked.

Scootaloo shook her head. “They’re trying to figure out how to activate it.”

Just then, Twilight’s horn glowed brighter. She reared up and started smacking the statue with her hooves.

“Come on, open!” we heard her say. “Open, you stupid thing! Unblock yourself, I know you can do it! Work with me, statue! Come on!”

Dash and Jack started to move toward Twilight, but stepped back again when she started firing spells off at random.

“OPEN UP!” she screamed. “I KNOW YOU’RE HERE, PORTAL! JUST OPEN UP!”

Dash and the others dove for cover. I didn’t blame them one bit. Heck, one of the spells ricocheted and came dangerously close to hitting us all the way back by the entrance.

Scootaloo cringed. “Maybe we should—”

BOOM

A sound like cannonfire echoed off the walls, and the room abruptly became filled cyan light. We all covered our ears and shut our eyes, and it was several seconds before the light and noise faded. 

I opened my eyes, blinking several times to get the dots out of my vision. Once I could see again, though, I questioned whether or not my sight was working right. 

“What the...”

Standing in front of the statue was a hologram—well, technically it was a spell called Conditional Image, but just think of it a hologram for simplicity’s sake. That wasn’t the surprising bit, though; it was who the hologram portrayed that made me pause.

“Sunset Shimmer?” I said.

“Who?” Babs said. 

I realized she and the others had no idea who she was. I gave them a rundown as quick as I could. “Villain from Equestria Girls, stole Element of Magic, fled to Earth, turned into a demon thing, got hit by rainbow of doom, did a heel-face turn, happy ending.”

“Got it,” Babs said.

Unfortunately, we were too far away to hear what Sunset was saying. We could see that she was clearly in a hurry and very much on edge, but that was it. Her message lasted for a minute or more, then suddenly, she blinked out and left us all in darkness.

“That was interesting,” Apple Bloom said as Twilight and Rarity turned their horns back on. “What’cha think that was all about?”

“Dunno,” I admitted. “Could’ve been anything, really. It’s hard to even say where or when she made that message.”

“Could any of you hear what she was saying?” Babs asked.

We all shook our heads.

“Maybe…” Babs paused a moment. “Maybe we should get closer, then? I mean, we can’t even hear Jack and the others from back here. We can’t help if we don’t know what’s going on.”

She had a point. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo murmured their approval, as well, so I started looking around for a closer place that we could sneak to.

And that was when Dash turned around and bellowed at the top of her lungs. 

“SWEETIE BELLE! SCOOTALOO!”

Stupid, stupid, stupid white coat.

“The hay?!” Apple Bloom hissed. “How’d she know?”

Babs groaned. “She must’ve seen Sweetie when she fell out of the bush. So much for being Cutie Mark Crusader Stalkers.”

I smiled despite myself. “That would’ve been a lousy cutie mark, anyways.”

“Come on, the jig’s up.” Scootaloo crawled out from under the cart. “May as well go to them.”

We all followed suit and walked as a group towards Dash.



***



“Were we really that obvious?” Apple Bloom asked once we we’d gotten in range.

Dash rolled her eyes. “Please. Even if I hadn’t seen Sweetie fall out of that shrub, I half-assumed you all would’ve been here anyway. I mean, the CMC not following us and getting into trouble? Come on, now.”

Had us dead to rights, there. My eyes flickered briefly to Rarity, whose expression was unreadable. I laughed nervously before turning my attention back to Dash.

“So, you’re not mad?”

Dash waved a hoof. “A little, but forget about it. You might be our only key to getting back.”

So this was what Cadance had seen in her vision. I was about to tell them what Shining had told me, but before I could… Dash decided to be a bitch.

“You told me before that you somehow have your memories from your old life in Equestria, right? You don’t by chance remember any mirrors in Ponyville, do you?”

“She has WHAT?!” Twilight screeched. 

Oh, if looks could kill. I swear, I was so mad that I would’ve hit Dash with a spell if I’d known any. She was the one who’d said not to tell Twilight about our memories, and then she goes and casually mentions it right in front of her? Element of Loyalty, my ass!

Twilight ran over to me with wild eyes. “How? When? Why didn’t anyone tell me?!”

Jack nervously wet her lips. “Look, Twilight, it’s complicated. Can we not get into this right now? The portal timer’s counting down.”

I have no idea what Twilight’s expression was. Probably some variation of shocked, but I can’t be sure. I was too busy trying to make Dash spontaneously combust.

“Right, right.” Twilight shook her head. “Sorry, I just... wow, that means... okay, right! Focus on one thing at a time, got it! Sweetie Belle, we need your help to open the portal. Can you clearly... remember... any mirrors?”

The strain in her voice was almost painful. I hated doing this to her, but the truth wasn’t something I could easily explain. I finally stopped giving Dash the stink-eye and instead focused on Rarity.

“There were lots in them in Carousel Boutique… er, if it hasn’t been destroyed, anyways. The big vanity in the basement is probably the best bet. It was on the wall in the very back next to some old dresses and mannequines.”

Rarity and the others exchanged a glance, something unspoken passing between them. Their silence stretched on and on, until at last, Apple Bloom spoke up and added to my declaration.

“The rest of us all have our memories, too, ya know. If Carousel Boutique don’t work, then I remember one or two at Sweet Apple Acres. I’m sure Babs ‘n Scoots know a few, too.”

Scootaloo and Babs nodded.

All eyes fell on Twilight, who just yawned and flicked one of her wings. “Hey, don’t ask me. You all heard the same message from Sunset. You know just as much as I do.”

Celestia help me, I wanted to throw something. They’d just got done saying that this wasn’t the time for hemming and hawing, and now they were dragging their hooves on a decision!

“Just tell me what to do,” I said in an exasperated voice.

“Oh, um… right.” Twilight gestured to the statue. “The mirror on the other side is broken, so the portal isn’t connected to anything. We need someone to focus on a mirror in Equestria, then touch your horn to the statue. The portal should do the rest.”

Well, I sure as hell wasn’t gonna stand there all night. I started heading for the statue as soon as Twilight finished talking.

“I’m gonna try it.”

Nopony made a move to stop me. Hypocrisy at its finest, I swear. I walked past all of them without comment, only stopping briefly to brush my tail across Rarity’s leg.

Hey, I wasn't mad at her. 

The statue looked even tackier up close. The base was of marble, smooth and unblemished, which surprised me due to it being the source of the aether distortion. Maybe there was some kind of spell cast on it to keep it from decaying? I had no idea. All I knew was that my horn was itching like hell and I wanted to get this over with. I looked up at the sculpture of the rearing stallion and curled my lip.

“Always hated that movie.”

I focused on the image of the vanity and closed my eyes, then reached out and touched the statue. Almost instantly, the itching in my horn intensified. I bit my lip and pressed harder, only vaguely aware of Scootaloo and the others cheering me on. I could feel something tugging at my mind, something small and dense, like a black hole pulling me towards its event horizon. That imagery was unsettling, but I let it guide me nonetheless.

My magic activated of its own accord. I didn’t question it. I still felt like I was being pulled, so I leaned forward and touched my horn to the statue. The magic in the air increased in response, making it feel like the air was filled with static. The aether distortion became visible as waves of energy began to pour off the statue.

“Almost… got… it!”

And now we interrupt this story to bring you Sweetie Belle’s Fun Fact of the Day! Did you know that re-opening an interdimensional rift creates a repulsive force powerful enough to knock back a thirty-five pound object over two dozen yards?

Yeah, neither did I. 

BA-WUMPH

I got punted like a damn football. I was sailing through the air past the entire group before I could even register I’d been hit. I flew halfway back to the building’s entrance and skidded to a halt on the concrete floor, blinking in surprise and staring up at the ceiling.

“SWEETIE!” 

Rarity and the Crusaders all rushed to me, speaking at once and voicing their concerns. My vision dimmed as I coughed and raised a smoking hoof in the air.

“Portal’s open.”

And then I passed out.



***



I wasn’t out for very long. When I awoke, I found I’d been placed under a blanket and moved over to the side. I realized the blanket was yellow and made of feathers. I looked up and saw Fluttershy, her wing draped over me with an expression of concern.

“You scared us pretty badly, there,” she said. “We were afraid that the worst had happened.”

“Ugh.” I winced as I tried to move. I was sore all over, and it hurt when I took a deep breath. “Did anyone get the number of that wormhole?”

Fluttershy didn’t laugh. She didn’t move her wing, either. “You’re lucky you didn’t break a rib. I want you to rest for a while so you can recover.”

I was about to argue, but then her eyes hardened and drilled me with an intensity that shook me down to the core. Her stare was so sudden that it caught me off guard, and my retort died away as I quailed. I nodded meekly and resigned myself to being nurtured.

And that was when I noticed that someone was yelling.

“You want to talk about frights?! How about the one you gave us when we heard you were going off on your own? Did you not think we would worry? Did you even care? Or are you going to sit there and try to tell me that your feelings are more important than ours?”

The voice was Shmangie’s. I looked over and saw her standing a ways away by Rarity and Twilight, her face utterly livid as she loomed over them with her hands on her hips.

“That wasn’t it at all!” Rarity protested. Her back was turned to me, so I couldn’t see her expression. “We just didn’t want to put any of you in harm’s way!”

“So we’re supposed to obediently sit by while the six of you play in traffic because you’re the Elements of Harmony.” Shmangie made a derisive noise. “You know, that argument might have some weight if you actually had the damn necklaces, but in case you hadn’t noticed, you don’t.”

I felt my stomach drop. “Aww, poop. I was afraid this would happen.”

“It’s not as bad as you think,” Fluttershy said gently. “There’s a lot going on, and they all just have different ideas on what’s best for you.”

I leaned against Fluttershy and closed my eyes. “But I don’t want them to fight.”

Fluttershy looked at the arguing trio and sighed. “Neither do I.”

“Now, hold on!” Twilight said. “The Elements can’t be the only way to defeat Discord! There have to be other ways! I might even know some of them if Sweetie Belle—!”

Shmangie rounded on her. “I’m only going to explain this to you once, so listen, and listen good. Discord sensed when Mage broke the curse on him—herself and the others. If she does it for anyone else, Discord will instantly know who’s been freed and where they are. We’ll be throwing up a chaos-colored beacon and painting a bullseye on our foreheads if we break the curse on anyone, so are you willing to stake all our fates on a dice roll?”

Twilight paled. “He… he can sense it? Oh… oh my gosh, that’s… oh jeez, I’m sorry, I didn’t know…”

Shmangie held up a hand. “No, you didn't. And it’s our fault for not telling you in the first place, so I'm not going to hold it against you. But now that you do know, you should understand why that's not an option.”

“Discord’s also threatened to banish me and Angie to different dimensions if Sweetie frees anyone else,” Rarity said in a quiet voice. “It’s frustrating, but I’m afraid Sweetie can't help us.”

Twilight wilted. She looked between both of them, then jerked her head away and slammed her eyes shut. “This… this isn’t fair! The key to everything, to beating Discord! It’s all right there, and you're telling me we can't use it?”

I decided to make myself known. “Welcome to my world," I said in a loud voice.

All three of them turned. 

“Sweetie!” Rarity rushed over. “Are you all right? How do you feel?”

I grunted. “Like Applejack bucked me in the chest.”

I heard a loud laugh from behind me.

Shmangie kneeled down and grabbed my chin so I couldn’t look away. “Five. Minutes. I leave you alone for five fucking minutes, and this is what you do?!”

I smiled weakly. “It worked, didn’t it?”

Shmangie narrowed her eyes. 

Suddenly it felt like I was staring at a predator. “Er, I-I mean, I'm sorry! Yes, very, very, very sorry. I-I’m a total idiot; I shouldn’t have done something so reckless.”

“Damn right,” Shmangie said sharply. “If you weren't hurt already, I'd slap you so hard that your entire face would go numb!"

I gulped.

"Please, don't be so hard on her," Fluttershy said. "It was our fault for asking her to do it in the first place."

"But it was her decision to go along with it," Shmangie replied without looking at Fluttershy. "She's just as much to blame as all of you."

This wasn't looking good. I was half-afraid that she was going to insist on going back to the farm. I'll grant that she had a reason to be angry, but her overprotectiveness was starting to get on my nerves. What'd happened was something none of us could predict, and compared to what potentially lay ahead in the future, this was downright tame.

Fortunately, it seemed that Shmangie realized that as well. 

"Although... it's not like things would've changed if I was here." She let go of my chin and sighed with a soft curse under her breath.
"I just wish I'd been in here instead of taking that stupid call. I hate it when I miss out on important things."

I hung my head. "I'm sorry, sis."

Shmangie exhaled out her nose and looked away. "Are you gonna be doing any more stupid things tonight?"

I looked over at Rarity, who was fussing with my mane and had just brought over a pillow. Fluttershy, who was in full Mama Bear Mode, and even Twilight, who’d found an ice pack from somewhere and was putting it on my chest.

I gulped as I lay surrounded by the doting mares. “I-I don’t think so, no.”

“Good.” Shmangie stood back up. “You are going to lay there and do nothing until morning. Mikey and the others are getting our things out of the van. Once they’re done, we’re all going to get some sleep, and I expect you to do the same. Okay?”

I nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

Shmangie’s eyes flickered at the address. She opened her mouth to say more, but shut it just as quick. She turned and left the field house without saying another word.

My emotions were mixed as I watched her go. I wanted her to stay, but I also knew how she felt. It was probably best to let her be.

“Quite the sister you have,” Twilight remarked dryly. “It’s been a while since anyone’s reamed me out.”

I couldn’t help but grin. “Dealing with arguments is her job. She’s a director of human resources.”

Twilight barked out a short laugh. “It shows.”

“We really weren’t trying to abandon you, you know,” Rarity said with a soft nuzzle. “We just didn’t know what to expect here.”

I suddenly felt very tired. Tired of the miscommunication, tired of the incorrect assumptions, tired of the snap decisions that kept putting everypony on edge. We were all assuming the worst because we wanted to prepare for it, and our paranoia was making us think that everyone was a Disney villain.

I reached out and put my hoof on top of hers. “Just… don’t leave me in the dark anymore, okay? I want to know what’s going on.”

Rarity nodded. “Fair enough.”

Fluttershy shifted beside me. “Um, you should probably know then that Dash went through the portal while you were out.”

I did a double-take at that. “She already went through? Really?”

“We needed someone to test it,” Twilight explained. “She’s been gone for about ten minutes now.”

I wasn’t sure what to think about that. On the one hoof, it was pretty risky to just charge through without thought or preparation, but on the other, well… what alternative was there?

“Well, has anyone contacted Shining and Mac yet?” I asked. “It’s going to take them a while to get here.”

“Not yet,” Rarity said. “We will once Dash gets back, though.”

As if on cue, the statue started to hum. Waves of magic radiated off the base again, and in a bright flash, a naked human female stumbled out of the portal and fell flat on her face.

Silence. The woman didn’t move. Neither did we. My eyes swept over the stranger as I tried to identify who she was, but I’d never seen her before.

However, there was really only person it could be, so I decided to take a shot in the dark. 

“Um... Dash?” 

“Urgh.” The woman came to and slowly sat up. She had long auburn hair, bright blue eyes, a lean athletic build and a generous chest. She shook her hair out of her eyes and looked around woozily.

“Remind me to give this portal a bad review on Google Maps,” she said in a familiar scratchy voice. “It’s like getting punched in the gut every time you use it.”

I laughed. Getting punched in the gut, eh? Bitch, please.

Twilight walked over to Dash, her eyes as wide as dinner plates. “Holy crap, you’re…”

Dash raised an eyebrow. “What’s the problem? I’m back. What, did you expect me to not return or something?”

Rarity trotted over to her as well. “Dash, darling, you’re um... human."

Dash stared at both of them, then looked down at her hands. The realization hit her like a tidal wave as she let out a yelp. “Oh... fuck! Wow, I really should have seen this coming.”

To be perfectly honest, we all should have. We knew that the portal turned ponies into humans upon coming to Earth, after all. Why would that suddenly change?

Twilight raised her eyebrows. “Huh. It looks like the portal just makes your body fit your destination.”

“No shit, egghead!” Dash shivered and rubbed her forearms. “Argh! This really sucks! I’m freezing here!”

I stayed quiet next to Fluttershy as Dash got used to her new body. I could’ve told her that Shmangie had some spare clothes that she could wear, but seeing as she’d been an ass earlier, I wasn’t exactly in a helpful mood. Rarity eventually took pity on her, though, and gave her a blanket to cover up.

“We've all seen you naked as a pony these past few weeks, you know,” Rarity said. “I hardly see the need to cover yourself now just because you're human.”

“This is different!” Dash struggled to tie the blanket around her so that it covered her chest. “It just feels creepy to be carrying around these... things... out in the open.”

“Oh, come on! We're all girls here,” Pinkie said. She’d been rooting around in the sports equipment over in the far corner. “Maybe you're just insecure in their size? Ooooh, I bet my set would be bigger than yours if I go through the portal and come back out!”

Dash blushed. “Pinkie!”

I snickered. “Well, technically, if the fanon was correct then hers would be bigger, followed by Applejack, then Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy meeped.

I giggled and patted her shoulder. “Hey, don’t be ashamed. You’re practically worshipped as a sex goddess.”

Fluttershy facehooved. “Not helping, Sweetie.”

Dash buried her face in her hands. “And neither is this discussion.”

Jack groaned. “Yeah, so I’m just gonna say right now that if it means I end up as a blonde with a big rack, I’m never going to come back through that portal.”

Rarity smirked slightly. “That’s quite understandable. Breasts up on the chest? Ugh, so tacky. I don’t know whose idea it was to put them there on humans.” She waved a hoof at Dash. “I mean, just look at how silly those look on her!”

Dash groaned again. “Can we just hurry up and get this suicide mission over with?” 

Twilight smirked. “It’s going to take a while for the backup to arrive. Better get comfy with that body of yours, woman.”

Dash covered herself up completely with the blanket and curled into a ball on the floor. “Urgh, Discord, just kill me now, please.”

I figured I might as well follow Shmangie’s orders and catch some Z’s, as well. We needed to plan, yeah, but it wasn’t gonna do us any good if we were sleep deprived, and we had some time until Shining and the others arrived.

The others all got comfortable, and I snuggled closer to Fluttershy. I let myself drift off, trying my hardest to keep my mind at peace.

For when we woke up... we would be going to war.


> Into the Breach
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 15:


Into the Breach



It was still dark out when I woke. I couldn’t say for sure how long I’d slept, but it was at least long enough to have a dream or two. Fortunately, no mad gods appeared to issue me any death threats. Just random, nonsensical gibberish that evaporated like smoke in the wind. Fluttershy was still dozing with her face hidden beneath her pink bangs. Not wanting to wake her, I eased myself out from under her wing and crawled away. 

I was successful in not waking Fluttershy, but my movement attracted the attention of somepony who was already awake.

“Hey.”

It was Twilight. She was sitting alone by the portal, her body eerily illuminated by the magenta glow of her horn. Her expression was pensive as her shrewd eyes drilled into mine.

“Feeling any better?”

I rubbed my ribs. They didn’t hurt as much, but weren’t quite back to normal yet. I nodded and scooched over to her.

“Have you slept at all?” I asked.

Twilight snorted and leaned against the side of the statue. “We’re about to travel into another world to fight an immortal being who might very well maim, torture, or kill us. I’m surprised anyone can sleep at all.”

I didn’t have a reply to that. I’d slept because opening the portal had taken a lot out of me, but I didn’t have a clue why everyone else had been able to fall asleep so easily. Maybe everypony was trying focus on the present instead of looking to the future?.

I looked around at the sleeping ponies, idly taking a headcount for no particular reason. I noticed that we were missing somepony.

“Where’s Miss Bouncy Boobs?” I said.

Twilight barely managed to suppress her snort. “Bathroom. She’ll be back in a bit.”

“Hmph.” I sat down next to Twilight, adding my own horn’s glow to hers. “I take it she’s been awake with you.”

Twilight nodded. “We’ve been trying to figure out a plan of attack, but...” She winced and looked away. “I don’t know, Sweetie. There’s so much that we don’t know, and we’re going have to react to things as they happen. In all honesty, I’m not sure that we can do this.”

It was a strange thing. Before me was the fabled Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Ponyville, Element of Magic, Savior of Equestria. One of my idols, mentors, and friends. A peerless master of Arcana, trained for years by Princess Celestia herself. A beacon of hope for ponies everywhere, and most importantly, the one everyone was counting on to save the day...

...and she looked as lost as an orphaned foal.

“This is so hard,” she said in a quiet, wavering voice. “I know who everyone wants me to be, but I’m some not kind of white knight. I want to help, but I’ve been flying by the seat of my pants since all this started! How can I play the game when I don’t even know the rules?”

I’d been dreading this. I’d known it was going to happen, but that didn’t make it any easier. After all, how do you deal with realizing your hero can’t be who you want them to be?

I sighed and looked up at the dark ceiling, letting my eyes unfocus as I searched for the right words. “Dash and Pinkie told me about how desperate you’ve been to figure out anything you can about magic. I really wish I could help you, believe me, I do, but I just... can't.”

Twilight took a deep breath, exhaling loudly out her nose. “I went to school for years to learn about how the world works because I just want to understand. I can do multivariable calculus equations in my head, isolate and analyze DNA sequences, psychoanalyze both children and adults and work with string theory like it’s basic math. I’ve written papers and documents in multiple fields that have been published, and I was even about to start my dissertation for my PhD.”

Twilight’s voice fell into a tense, bitter growl. “And none of that. Means. A damn. Thing. Years upon years upon years of work, all of it for nothing. I went and compared our DNA to the NCBI Database to see if I could find a match, and got nothing but question marks. I tried to understand why our personalities were being subtly altered, and nothing made any sense. I’ve even been seeing if I can figure out how this dimensional portal works, but the only thing I can tell is that it’s magic! The entire world’s changed on me, Sweetie, and people expect me to have all the answers just because I have wings and a horn?! Ha!”

The sad thing was that I did, too. I didn’t blame her one bit for being so frustrated about all this, and as I listened to her, I realized I needed to give her something, anything, to show that I understood where she was coming from.

“I’m sorry, Twilight.” I looked down into her sharp eyes, filled with the blankness I loathed so much. “I’m sorry that all this happened. I’m sorry that you’re getting dumped on, and I’m sorry that I can’t give you what you want. If I could, I’d convince everypony that they shouldn’t just rely on you for everything, but even if you really are just as lost as them… you’re still giving them hope.”

Twilight’s expression softened. She shifted back and forth, her wings twitching slightly as she struggled with her own thoughts. Her voice was tense when she spoke again, but now it was tempered with restraint. 

“I’m a blind woman trying to lead a group of invalids through a mountain range. I need something, anything, to help me out here, and I could do so much more if you gave me back my memories. It’s the very definition of aggravation that Discord’s put a noose around your neck.”

My eyes darkened. “Aggravating for both of us, you mean. I thought I might be able to make a difference for once, but instead I got shut down instantly. Now I get to walk around with the knowledge that I have the answer to everypony’s problems, but can’t do jack squat. Oh, and I also get to watch all of you wrestle with these issues and feel like it’s my fault. Super-happy-funtime, there.”

Twilight pursed her lips. “I’m actually not sure if that’s better or worse than my lot in all this.”

“You can shoot super-powered laser beams and teleport to almost any location at will,” I said flatly. “You’ve got the better deal.”

Twilight smirked. “I do enjoy the lasers.”

I heard the sound of a door opening behind me, followed by the light slapping sound of bare feet on concrete. I didn’t feel like talking to Dash right then, so I decided to cut our conversation short and get some more sleep.

“Are you mad at me?” I asked.

Twilight shook her head. “This isn’t your fault. If anything, I feel bad that you were dragged into all this.”

I smiled weakly. “Thanks. If it’s any consolation, I wish you didn’t have to deal with all this, either.”

I bade her good night and crept back over to Fluttershy. As I left, though, I heard her mutter something just loudly enough so I could hear.

“That makes two of us.”



***



“I just got a call from Mac,” Jack announced a few hours later. “He said he and Shining just got into the city. They should be here in a minute or so. Oh, and he said they’ve got a few other ponies from the farm with them.”

It was just a little bit after dawn. The additional rest I’d gotten had alleviated the rest of my soreness, and I felt fit for whatever the day was going to bring. Apple Bloom and Babs were with me at the moment, and we’d taken to rummaging through the piles of abandoned sports equipment for anything useful. Scootaloo and Shmangie were still outside in the van to keep a lookout for anyone, or anypony, that happened to come by. 

“Great, finally,” Dash said. She was still wearing the blanket Rarity had given her like a toga, and looked none too happy about it. “I just want to get this over with.”

I made a derisive noise as I opened up an old cardboard box. “‘Get this over with,’ she says. Is she talking about the war, or getting back to being a pony?”

“Prolly both,” Apple Bloom said without looking up. We were talking quietly, so there was no danger of being overheard. “She’s an athlete, after all. Gotta be unnervin’ to have a set a big ol’ set of knockers like that.”

Babs giggled and took the cardboard box from me. “What bra size do you think she is?”

I turned back to look at Dash, mentally comparing her bust to the contours of her slender body. “Hard to tell because of the blanket, but I’d say at least a double-d.”

Babs followed my gaze, licking her lips for a few seconds, then grunted and looked away. “If only we were still guys...”

I ignored that and tuned back into the main conversation, where Fluttershy was in the middle of saying something. “—can’t help but wonder if we should just take the easy way out, you know? We all go through portal, then just come back to Earth right away. We don’t have to fight Discord if the portal can turn us all back into humans like it already did to Rainbow. None of us would be ponies, but we could all go back to our normal lives here on Earth without having to fight. Isn’t that a safer plan?”

I almost laughed. That would definitely be the Fluttershy option. Except that in exchange for that safety, we’d have to live the rest our lives knowing that we were aliens forced into alien bodies and exiled to an alien dimension, and our home would be lost forever.

That seemed like a pretty shitty deal to me.

Bzzzzt. Bzzzzt. Bzzzzt.

Something started vibrating against my leg. I’d taken a page out of Dash’s book and strapped my phone on so Shmangie could get a hold of me if needed. I magically pulled it out and used a stylus to answer it.

“Hey,” I said. “Is somepony here?”

“Shining and Mac,” Shmangie replied. “They’re heading over to the field house now, but they’re not alone. A lot of other ponies came with them.”

I hesitated at the tone in her voice. “Jack had said something about that. How many did they bring?”

“I can’t believe this!” I heard Scootaloo say in the background. “Ponies are coming in from everywhere! There’s gotta be hundreds! Where the hay are they all coming from?!” 

I almost dropped the phone. I tried to speak normally, but my voice cracked halfway through. “Did… did you just say ‘hundreds’?!”

Shmangie’s voice held no note of jest. “Look out the window.”

I stared at my phone in shock. This couldn’t be real. There was no way that this could be happening. Babs and Apple Bloom, who’d both heard my side of the conversation, had stopped and were looking at me in disbelief.

“Hundreds?” Apple Bloom said weakly.

“No way,” Babs said. “Not after how badly we struck out last night! There wasn’t a single pony Scoots and I talked to that was even remotely interested in coming!”

There was a knock on the building’s main door. Dash went over to answer it. Outside were Shining and Mac, shuffling nervously back and forth as they stood exposed in the early light. Their eyes went wide as they took in Dash’s new form.

“...Dash?” Mac said.

“Yeppers.” She waved them inside. “Good to know you still recognize me.”

She led them over to the main group and started getting them up to speed on what’d happened last night. While they were doing that, I navigated through a small obstacle course of carts, garbage cans, chairs and broken desks to get over to a nearby window. I climbed up onto a shelf and looked out into the street.

Ponies. Ponies everywhere. Pegasi and unicorns and earth ponies, all of various shapes, sizes, ages, and colors. I’d never seen so many in one place in my entire life. Most of them were getting out of cars, but others were coming in from the river, and few even looked like they’d walked. I recognized a good number of them from the farm, but there were others I’d never seen before. They all looked nervous as they milled about and around the field house, but there was a grim determination in their eyes that spoke volumes about why they were here.

“I don’t believe it,” I breathed.

I watched as Shmangie got out of the van and started talking with one of the humans who’d driven one of the cars. Meanwhile, Scootaloo got out as well and started heading for the field house. She was making for the front door, but then she saw me in the window and made a motion for me to open it up for her.

I did as she asked. The window slid open with only a minor effort, and Scootaloo fluttered up and through. She landed beside me and immediately started talking excitedly.

“They just keep coming in from all over the place! This is so great! It’s an entire herd of colorful cartoon commandos! We can really do this, Sweetie! We can take back our home!”

“You really think we can?” Apple Bloom asked. She and Babs were looking up at us from the foot of the shelf. “Are there really that many out there?”

“Hell yeah!” Scootaloo said with a cocky grin. “We got this in the bag, girls!”

It was hard not to get excited. We’d expected barely any ponies to show up at all, and instead we’d wound up with an army! It was more than any of us could ever have asked for, and with that kind of ponypower at our disposal, we could definitely accomplish a lot more.

But despite the sudden optimism, I couldn’t silence the tiny voice that still questioned whether or not it would matter.

“Come on,” I motioned over to the main group. “We should pay attention to what they’re saying.”

We got back in earshot of Dash and the others, who seemed to all be at a pausing point in their conversation. At first I thought it was a natural one, but the eerie silence dragged on and on. All of them were so lost in thought and none of them even noticed our arrival. I was about to ask what was wrong before Fluttershy abruptly spoke up.

“Dash, what was it like?”

Dash scratched her head. “What, the feeling of going through the portal? It's not fun, I gotta tell you—”

“No, not that.” Fluttershy looked down. “I meant what was it like on the other side. What was it like being back in Equestria?”

Everyone in the room looked at Dash, who smiled softly. “Well, all I saw was the inside of a dusty basement, but... it felt good to be back there, I guess. It was strange—for those few seconds, it felt really welcoming. You know, to finally be a pony in the place where I belong.”

Pinkie chuckled. “Well then, what are we waiting for?! Let’s get this shindig started!”

Twilight tapped away at her phone with a magically-held stylus. “Pinkie’s right. We’ve delayed this long enough. I just set a five minute timer, so when it rings, we’ll move through the portal. Everyone make your final preparations.”

So this was it. This was the point of no return. In five minutes we’d go through that portal, and there’d be no going back. Arguably one could say that we’d reached the point of no return with the gathering of the ponies on the farm, but I didn’t really see it that way. It would’ve been difficult at that point, but if we really wanted, we could’ve all dispersed back into the world again.

My thoughts were disturbed by Scootaloo brushing past me. She trotted up to Dash and tapped her on the leg. 

“You mean it, then?” she said. “You’re letting all of us go through with you? You actually want our help?”

“That’s the plan,” Dash said. She double-checked the supplies she had in a bag at her side. “We don’t really know what to expect over there, so having you girls around might be helpful.”

“Er… that’s not what I meant.” Scootaloo gestured to us. “I already knew we were going, but what about all the ponies outside?”

Dash cocked her head. “There are ponies outside?”

Mac coughed. “Oops.”

Shining laughed nervously. “Knew we forgot to mention something.”

Scootaloo led Dash over to the window. Her jaw dropped as she saw the crowd waiting to move through the portal.

“Holy...”

Scootaloo rubbed the back of her neck. “I’m not sure what happened. We told a lot of ponies on the farm, but none of them wanted to come. They must’ve all changed their minds.”

“I helped with that,” Shining said. “I… guess you could say I have a way with words. I spread the word after you left, and then told some others online, as well. I think we wound up with almost a thousand, total.”

Dash stared out the window in stunned silence. Not like I really blamed her. Not in any of our wildest dreams did any of us expect this.

Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow at her brother. “Shouldn’t this have been the first you told everypony once ya got in here?”

Mac shrugged. “Sorry. I got distracted.”

Shining smirked and snuck a peek at Dash’s chest. “Yeah… we both did.” 

“Scootaloo,” Dash said in a dazed voice. “Go out there and tell them that the Mane Six are about to enter the portal. Anyone that wants to come with is welcome to do so.”

Scootaloo saluted. “Aye aye, captain!” She turned and started running towards the door.

“Hey!” I ran after her “Wait for us!”



***



“Listen up, everypony!” Scootaloo said loudly from atop the field house door. “Yoohoo! Up here! Yes, the adorable orange dodo! We’re gonna be going through the portal to Equestria in five minutes! Get your things together and form a line starting here!”

There was a flurry of activity as the gathered ponies did as Scootaloo asked. Babs, Apple Bloom and I helped out as well, although there wasn’t much that needed to be done. I did run into a unicorn who didn’t speak any English, but fortunately, she did know some Spanish, so I was able to help her out. 

And as luck would have it, another foreigner decided to approach me right after I'd finished helping the first one.

“Hey again.”

My skin prickled. I turned and saw Daring Do emerging from the crowd, cleaned, groomed, and bandage-free. She was wearing her traditional green safari vest and pith helmet in lieu of military garb, along with a set of simple saddlebags resting at her sides.

“Didn’t see you around the farm after that first day,” she said with a look of mock-affront. “Were you trying to avoid me?”

My mouth went dry. The faces of ponies had kind of blurred into each other since I was so busy, and I sometimes got so absorbed in work that I didn’t hear people calling me.

I frantically waved my hooves back and forth. “No-no-no-no-no! I’d never do that! I was just preoccupied helping my sisters organize supplies and sew things! I’m so sorry if you—”

Daring burst out laughing. “Relax, I’m just playing! I was sleeping in the barn almost the entire time, anyways. You wouldn’t have seen much of me unless—wait… sisters? As in plural? I thought you only had—”

“Shmage!” Shmangie jogged over from the van. She was wearing a heavy-looking backpack along with something long and shiny that was hanging at her waist. “There you are! Come on, I’ve got your things, we need to...”

Then she saw the pith helmet.

“Buh...”

Daring grinned. “Heya.”

Warning sirens started going off in my head. I mentally slapped myself, telling myself to get a grip. Now was not the time for hero worship or fanfillying! I’d just finished giving myself crap for doing that with Twilight! I wasn’t going to do it here!

I cleared my throat. “Uh, Daring? This is my human sister, Angie Raimundo. Shman’, this is—well, obviously you know who this is, but her human name’s Lieutenant Mark Sheffield. She’s in the Australian Navy! Cool, huh?”

Daring waved a dismissive hoof. “Eh, don’t worry so much about that. Just call me Daring.”

Shmangie blinked several times. To her credit, it didn’t take very long for her to adjust to the shock. Her brain rebooted after a few seconds, and she smiled and waved in return. 

“Nice to meet you. I wasn’t aware you knew my sister, but then again, stranger things have happened.” Shmangie turned to me. “I’m sorry, kiddo, but we really do need to get moving. You’re going to have to walk and talk.”

“Right.” I smiled at Daring. “Wanna come with us? We’re at the front of the line.”

Daring smirked as well. “First you give me an extra pillow, and now you’re inviting me to the head of the action? Girl, you spoil me.”

My reply was a hollow laugh. “Don’t thank me just yet.”

The three of us walked together up to the doors of the field house, occasionally slowing to answer a question or helping to direct a pony to the back. I checked my phone to see how much time we had. We were down to two minutes.

“Soooo, why’re you carrying a sword?” Daring asked, pointing to the object at Shmangie’s side.

“Oh! Right.” She unbelted the sheathed rapier and handed it down to me. “I assume you’ll want this.”

“Yeah.” I took it in my magic, inspecting it briefly before cinching it around my barrel. It was too long for me to carry at my side, but I was able to carry it on my back so long as I didn’t stop suddenly.

I blushed as I felt Daring’s gaze on me. “I look silly, don’t I.”

“That depends,” she said evenly. “Is that thing real?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know how to use it?”

“I was in the State Championship Fencing Finals for five consecutive years.”

“And she was offered an NCAA scholarship,” Shmangie added, then in a more emphatic voice, “which she should have taken.”

I rolled my eyes. “Not now, please.”

Daring gave a low whistle. “In that case, I don’t think it matters what you look like.”

I chuckled. “Speaking of looks, though, how about you? Why the change?”

Daring smoothed out a wrinkle in her vest. “You saw what shape I was in when I got to the farm. I didn’t see a point in fixing a bloody, shredded uniform, so I talked to your other sister and she suggested this since it was ‘iconic.’”

I nodded my approval. “You certainly look the part.”

“Yeah! Looking good, Daring!”

We’d just gotten to the door. I looked up at Scootaloo, who was still perched on top of the field house door. 

“Huh?” I said. “Did you two meet already?”

She gave me an odd look. “Uh, yeah? I met just about everypony on the farm when I was with Dash! We were the ones who said to go to Rarity for new clothes!”

Daring winked. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

“I met her, too,” Babs said, coming up from behind us. “Er, sort of. Jack and I changed her bandages a few times while she was sleeping. Does that count?”

Daring’s eyes lit up. “Ahh, so you’re the one who was doing it. I kept wondering about that. Thanks, mate. I owe ya.”

Babs smiled. “Are you feeling better?”

Daring rolled her left shoulder. “More or less. Some wounds never fully heal, but the physical ones usually do.”

I didn’t have time to ponder that cryptic statement as just then, Apple Bloom showed up and revealed that—

“HOLY HORSEAPPLES! IT’S DARING DO!”

—she didn’t have a clue about Daring since she’d been working in the basement.



***



The six of us stood in front of the line with Dash and the others inside the field house. Twilight was standing on a box beside the statue, looking out at all of us with what I assumed was her attempt at a game face. Unfortunately, it just looked like she had gas. She was finishing giving instructions on how ponies were going to go in through the portal when her phone timer went off.

“All right, everyone!” she said, shifting back and forth on the box. “So, um... according to most books and movies I’ve seen, at this time I should give you all a rousing speech to inspire you for the big battle.”

The room went deathly quiet. No pony or human moved; all sets of eyes were now on her. Twilight took a moment to compose herself, then raised a hoof and spoke in a flat monotone.

“Make sure you’re brave. Historically, that’s the trait most beneficial at a time like this.”

She lowered her hoof. Silence. Five seconds. Ten seconds. Twenty. We all waited for her to continue, but she didn’t. Somepony coughed in the distance. Daring rubbed her shoulder. I idly tapped my hoof on the ground.

“Was… was that it?” Pinkie whispered.

No. I refused to believe that that was it. Twilight was just probably trying to do a dramatic pause or something. She’d continue any second now.

Twilight hopped down off the box. She put her saddlebags on, then ushered us over to the portal.

“First group is up. Single file, please.”

Dearest sweet Mother of Celestia, that was it.

Let it be known that Twilight Sparkle brought much shame upon her family that day.

Shining seemed to think much the same. He lowered his head in a facehoof and let out a long, slow sigh. Dash, who was next to him, leaned down and whispered something to him. I didn’t hear what it was, but his reply was an enthusiastic nod.

“Well, I guess this is it,” Apple Bloom said with a gulp. “We’re finally goin’ home.”

Scootaloo nudged her. “Scared?” 

Apple Bloom scoffed. “Of course I ain’t! What’s there to be even scared of?”

“Discord,” Babs replied simply.

“The unknown,” Rarity said over her shoulder.

“Various unspeakable horrors,” Shmangie muttered.

Apple Bloom bit her lip and looked away. “A-aside from all that.”

Daring patted her on the shoulder. “Hey, don’t worry! He doesn’t even know we’re coming. We’ll knock him flat on his arse before he knows what happened.”

I kept my comments to myself. Sure, we had the element of surprise, but how effective was that going to be against an immortal demigod? It was seeming more and more like we were going to need a miracle to pull this off.

Pinkie went first. The base of the portal rippled like the surface of a pond as she went through, then smoothed out and appeared to be nothing more than dull rock again. Jack and Mac followed shortly after her. 

“Hey, uh… Shmage?” Shmangie said.

I looked up at her. “Yeah?”

She was staring confusedly at Dash. “Who’s the girl in the blanket?”

My stomach plummeted. I’d forgotten to tell her what happened to Dash. Now she had no idea what was coming. Well, it was a little late now, but a little bit of a warning was better than none at all.

“It’s Dash,” I said. “She turned back into a human when she came back through the portal. We think it’s because the portal converts your body to fit the location or something.”

Scootaloo was the one who first caught on. Her eyes went wide, then she suddenly got a devious look. Subtly, she maneuvered herself so that she was just behind Shmangie.

Shining and Dash went through. It was now our turn. The portal stood open and waiting, and I said a silent prayer to the powers that be. Rarity and I stepped forward together.

Meanwhile, poor Shmangie hadn’t yet connected the dots.

 “So... if it turns ponies into humans when they come to Earth... does that mean when humans go to Equestria—”

“ONE OF US!” Scootaloo yelled.

And she shoved Shmangie into the portal.

Or at least, she tried to. What really happened was that Shmangie awkwardly stumbled and got tangled up in me and Rarity, causing us all to tumble in together.

“WAUGH!” I suddenly felt myself spinning around at an insane speed, all the while being pulled down into a some kind of vortex. Terror, vertigo, and nausea all gripped me, and my consciousness faded and fled to parts unknown.



***



Going through the portal was not pleasant. If I had to describe it simply, it was a cross between going through a trash compactor and run through a washing machine. It wasn’t an experience I was eager to repeat anytime soon. I awoke in a foreign, yet familiar place, and did and internal check with a groan. Amazingly, I seemed to be okay. I wasn’t going to have an appetite for a while, but I could live with that. 

At least I knew where I was. With a sneeze, I gingerly opened my eyes and lit my horn to see what time and neglect had done to Rarity’s basement.

Surprisingly, not much. The racks of old dresses were still sitting against the walls, a few rolled up rugs were in the corner, the washer and dryer were over by the boiler, and the icebox was still by the stairs. The only real indicator that the place was abandoned was the thick layer of dust that covered everything. Everypony that’d already come through the portal was sitting together at the base of the stairs, save for Shining, who was already over by Rarity’s side.

“Never again,” she muttered. “Never, never, never again…”

“You all right?” Shining tried to help her up. “It’s nasty, I know.”

Rarity waved him away. “A moment, please.”
 
“Urrrgh,” another voice said to my right. “Mi cabeza… te juro que voy a matarlos ellos...”

Okay, I’ll admit it, I was excited for this. I hadn’t meant for it to happen so awkwardly, but it wasn’t like I could change that. I decided to not worry about it, and instead looked over to see what Shmangie had become. 

A unicorn. A pure white unicorn, the same exact shade that Rarity and I had inherited from our father. Her mane and tail were a deep rust-red, with naturally curled ends that were like a mix of my wavy bangs and Rarity’s coiffure. Shmangie’s almond-shaped eyes were hazel, and her slender frame and long, fluted horn marked her as a unicorn of northern descent, just like us. Her backpack had been transformed into a pair of heavy saddlebags, each one with a clasp in the shape of her cutie mark.

And yes, she had a cutie mark—a winged golden staff with a pair of white serpents coiled around it. I recognized what that symbol was, but it took me a second to understand what it meant for her. When it hit me, though, the chill I felt was stronger than a winter gale.

Shining did a double-take. “Wow.”

Rarity gasped. “Oh, my...”

I was speechless. All I could do was stare at her. She was beautiful. She was perfect. I didn’t need anything or anyone to tell me who she was or what the portal had done, for my heart was singing it out loud and clear. 

A lump formed in my throat as I took a step towards her. “Shman…”

“Ahh.” She shielded her eyes. “Easy on the light, kiddo, I’m not—”

I’ll give her credit that she didn’t scream. She was surprised, of course; who wouldn’t be? But no, she didn’t scream… she just stared. First at her arm, which was what had made her pause in the first place, then at her hoof. She turned her head to look back at her barrel, and finally her tail and cutie mark. She reached up and felt her muzzle, slowly opening and closing her new mouth.

“I’m... a pony...”

I sprang forward and glomped her as hard as I could.

“Gracias a dios...” My choked sobs echoed softly in the dusty room. “Gracias, gracias, gracias a dios…”

Rarity and Shining smiled as they watched from afar.

“So much for all that genetic business,” Rarity said. 

“I’ll say,” Shining agreed.

Shmangie, still dazed and in shock, dimly returned my hug without really knowing why. We may have been in a broken world, there may have been untold perils before us, but in that moment, none of that mattered. Our bodies once more reflected what was in our hearts, and that was a greater gift than anything I could’ve asked for.

Unfortunately, the touching moment was fleeting.

“We need to get going here, guys!” Twilight called from the other side of the room. “We need to clear this room before the next group of ponies comes through!”

As tactless as that was, she had a point. I reluctantly broke our embrace with a sheepish look and moved away from the portal. Shining, realizing Shmangie was going to have some issues, gently picked her up and moved her out of the way.

“You both stay here and direct the ponies that are coming in,” he said, tilting his head at the portal. “Think you can do that?”

I nodded and wiped the tears from my eyes. “S-sure thing, bro.”

Rarity floated over one of the rugs and unrolled it for Shmangie. “Here. Practice walking on this so you don’t scuff up your knees. We’ll come get you two if we need, okay?”

I quickly went over and gave her a hug. “Stay safe.”

They went back to the main group, who then shared a group hug of their own before they went up the old stairs single file. The door at the top was rusted shut, but Twilight pulled it off its hinges with an ear-splitting crunch and tossed it aside. Light spilled in from above, and the eight of them went up into the Carousel Boutique’s ground floor, leaving me and Shmangie alone in the dark.

Not for very long, though.

WUMM

The vanity mirror rippled. A second later, Apple Bloom and Babs fell through, groaning and clutching their heads.

“I’ll never ride the Tilt-a-Whirl again,” Apple Bloom said.

“Somepony stop the room, please,” Babs said in a cracked voice. “I’d like to get off.”

WUMM

Scootaloo and Daring came stumbling out next. They also fell over onto their sides with their eyes spinning in their sockets.

“Not cool,” Scootaloo said to the ceiling. “So, so, so unbelievably not cool...”

“Agreed,” Daring gasped. “Hrk…”

Giggling, I picked up the girls one at a time and laid them down beside Shmangie. I couldn’t pick up Daring, but a few good magical pokes were enough to get her up and out of the way.

“Dylan,” Shmangie said in a dangerously calm voice. “I’m trying very hard not to murder you right now.”

Scootaloo, who was laying spread-eagle on the rug, looked up woozily at her with a goofy grin. 

“Hehe. You look like Sweetie and Rarity now. I think I'll call you Swearity.”

We both smacked her.



***



WUMM

Holy crap, did that sound get old fast. Ponies started coming fast and furious through the portal in groups of two and three, and over the next half-hour our time became filled with ushering the dazed newcomers away from the portal to keep it clear. We did have a few traffic jams here and there, but we were mostly successful.

However, there was an unexpected issue. Ponies recovered from the ordeal easily enough, but the humans who came through had no idea how to use their new Equestrian bodies. 

“Okay, try again,” I said to the nine transformed humans standing shakily in front of me. “Remember to take it slow. Just alternate your steps in a diagonal pattern… try to keep your neck nice and straight—”

WUMM

“Gah!” Two of them immediately tripped. Four others managed to get a few steps before falling. The remaining three successfully got to the end of the rug before stopping and trying to turn around, but then they got tangled up and fell.

“You’re all still thinking about it too much,” Shmangie said from beside me. She trotted over without issue and helped them up one at a time. “You don’t think about walking normally, do you? Just do what comes naturally.”

She’d managed to master walking in a matter of minutes. I have no idea how. She said she'd just relaxed and let her body do what it wanted to do, but that didn’t seem to be working for the other humans. Maybe some of my natural instincts got transferred to her when we went through the portal together? I don't know.

“It’s these damn eyes!” one of the fallen humans whined. He awkwardly flailed on the ground as he tried to get back up by himself. ”I can’t get used to them being so far apart! It’s like looking around in widescreen!”

WUMM

I laughed. “Don’t worry, you get used to it.”

“At least we’re lucky enough to have a nurse helping us out,” one of the mares said, glancing at Shmangie’s cutie mark.

Okay, I take that back. Now I was laughing.

Shmangie blushed. “N-no, no, I’m not a nurse... that’s not what the, um...” she turned to me. “What’s it called, again?”

“Caduceus.”

“That’s not what the caduceus is supposed to mean.” Shmangie gave her a weak smile. “Americans confused it with another symbol long ago, but no one ever bothered to change it.”

“At least you know what yours means.” Scootaloo glanced back at her own cutie mark with a small scowl. “Took me days to figure out what mine meant, even after I got it.”

“That’s because you didn’t try!” Apple Bloom accused her. “You just went prancing around showin’ it off to everypony you came across!”

WUMM

“Well, excuse me for wanting to celebrate!” Scootaloo stuck out her tongue. “It’s not like I was the last one of us to get theirs, or anything!”

“Heh, it would be nice to know how I first got mine,” Daring said whimsically. “I’m curious what it was I first found.”

Babs turned to her. “Is that what your talent is? Finding things?”

Daring nodded as she helped up a staggering unicorn. “I have to have seen the thing in question at some point, and it’s better if it belongs to me, but otherwise I can find just about anything I want.”

It was hard not to be jealous of that. I mean, if you had a choice between being good at singing or finding anything you wanted to, what would you choose?

WUMM

I cursed and covered my ears. “Please tell me everypony’s almost through.”

“We’re prolly gettin’ close,” Apple Bloom said. She turned to me raised an eyebrow. “You’re lookin’ a little green. Need a break?” 

I nodded and started for the stairs. “Don't mind if I do.”

“Oooh! Oooh! Let us know what it’s like up there!” Scootaloo called.

“Don’t leave the house!” Shmangie said.

I flashed her an innocent smile. “Who, me?”

“Don’t ‘who, me,’” she said sharply. Her large, hazel eyes bored into mine as she stamped her hoof with every word. “Stay. In. The. Boutique.”

I frowned and flattened my ears. “I know, I know, calm down. I just need some fresh air. Now, if you’ll excuse me...” I hurried up the stairs before the portal could go off again.



***



What waited for me upstairs was a nightmare. The basement had been more or less untouched, but the rest of the building had been sacked. Tables, mannequines, mirrors and furniture lay smashed everywhere, layering the faded carpet in crunchy debris. Ominous gashes covered the walls, as if they were made by a beast with claws longer than my entire body. The ceiling was covered with hundreds of spidery cracks, all of the windows were shattered to pieces, and the air was thick and odorous.

Ponies milled about everywhere as they worked to shore up the building’s defenses. They boarded up windows, stacked furniture against doors, and made space for everyone to move around.

I had to be careful not to get underhoof as I maneuvered through the crowds. I kinda wanted to see my old room, so I made my way over to the second floor stairs with that intent...

...only to find that the stairs had collapsed.

“Hayseed.” I kicked at the rubble and sat down on the awning. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but a part of me had hoped that I could’ve gotten up there. I was possible that the second floor was still intact and the stairway had just gotten blocked, but I wasn’t holding my breath. 

As I stared forlornly at the damage, I noticed that the stairway window hadn’t been boarded up yet. I hadn’t seen what it was like outside yet, and while I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty, I was still curious. Nopony seemed to be paying attention to me, so carefully, I clambered up the stairway wreckage and peeked out the window to see what had become of my hometown.

The first thing I noticed was the sky. It was a random, shifting mess of chaotic color, ever-moving with no rhyme or reason. It was like the atmosphere was having an acid dream. The next thing I noticed were the surrounding buildings, which were either rusted, destroyed, or just flat-out gone. Wait, scratch that, I found them; they were floating upside-down in the air. Graffiti was everywhere, most of it in Equestrian, but you don't need to know what any of it said. Needless to say, it wasn’t nice. The ground was covered with polka-dots, zigzags, checker patterns and nonsense shapes. Chasms and sinkholes were everywhere, and in the center of town was Golden Oaks Library, shattered into tiny pieces and then reformed in the shape of a phallus.

Oh, and did I mention the bones? Yeah, there were a lot of those. Piles of 'em were everywhere. I wasn’t sure what species they all were, as they’d been scattered pell-mell all across the landscape. Some of them were clearly pony based off their skulls, but I wasn’t sure about the rest.

I vomited then. I managed to do it out the window, but yeah, my stomach decided that that was enough. I’d been expecting bad. Terrible, even, but I hadn’t been expecting that. I was wrong when I said that the interior of Carousel Boutique was a nightmare; the true nightmare lay in the twisted abattoir beyond, the perverse monument to depravity and insanity. I realized then how far out of our league we truly were, and how wrong we were to ever have set hoof in this accursed place.

Despair was about to take me, but then, I was startled by a loud, familiar voice.

“EVERYONE! LISTEN UP!”

Shining’s voice cracked through the entire building like a whip. Instantly, everypony stopped what they were doing, their ears all swiveling as one.

“As many of you know, I am Shining Armor, brother of Princess Twilight and former Captain of the Royal Guard. Ponies… I welcome you to Equestria.”

Curious, I slid down the rubble and made my way through the crowd. I stepped between legs and squeezed between gaps as only a minor can, following the sound of Shining’s voice.

“I know some of you have looked outside and are beginning to doubt why we’re here. You’re asking yourselves why we’ve we come to this wasteland, why we’re risking our lives or even fighting at all. But the answer to all those questions is clear as day to me—because this is our home!”

Shining was standing in the main showroom on a display stage addressing the crowd, his stern face holding the attention of all in the room. I stood in the back and watched as he demonstrated exactly how he’d gotten so many ponies from the farm to follow him. 

“We all knew what would be waiting for us here, and on behalf of all ponies in our kingdom, I thank you for your courage. I know most of you are not fighters, and I know we lack any real experience fighting the sort of things that lay before us. We are students, secretaries, office workers, gamers, and just brothers and sisters. None of us have been trained to deal with the threat we will face here, but we will face it!”

He started pacing the stage. “I know many of you are scared right now, but you shouldn’t be! Look around you, look at the hundreds, nay, the thousands of ponies who were brave enough to come here and face the peril! You are among them! You are just as strong as they are! Think of what we can do together!”

There were a few cheers. I could hear murmurs of approval from the ponies around me. Shining felt the shift and became more animated, raising his voice so it carried over the applause. 

“My fellow ponies, today you stand among thousands of the bravest individuals any of us have ever seen! Think of our combined strength! Think of our combined rage! The fury that we have been waiting to unleash on this day, twenty-five years in the making!” 

I’m not sure what it says about me that it was the mention of vengeance that pulled me out of my funk. I mean, all the stuff Shining had said before that was cool and all but it was only when he started talking about getting payback did he really grab me. Not just me, either. More of the audience started cheering and pounding the floor in applause then, too.

“My fellow ponies, if you think you’re scared of the enemy, imagine how scared they must be of us!” Shining said. “Imagine the sheer terror gripping their black hearts as they realize we’ve arrived! Imagine the horror they must feel as they realize that before them is an army of the bravest, strangest, most furious individuals this world has ever seen! An army that has been waiting twenty five years for revenge! An army here to take back what is rightfully theirs! My fellow ponies, we are that army! Imagine the terror in our enemies when they realize today is the day they will have to face us!”

I think it was the bones that did it. More than anything else, that was what really made it all real for me. I thought it’d just been close calls before, but that was before I’d come here and seen the casualties. Ponies had died. Discord was a murderer. He had committed atrocities that rivaled some of humanity’s worst, and he needed to be stopped.

“Today is the day we reclaim all that we lost!” Shining yelled over the din. “Today we take back that which was stolen from us, that which we lost over five score divided by four years ago! We’ll get revenge on that traitor, that coward who backstabbed our entire kingdom! I don’t know what Discord will throw at us, but I do know that we will not run away any longer! We will hold this ground!” 

I almost got swept up in the moment. The crowd was whooping and hollering now, and the energy in the air was almost palpable. I managed to resist the temptation, but I couldn’t help but feel a swell of pride at the stallion that would soon be my kin.

“This land! Right here!” Shining stomped a hoof on the dusty floor. “This land, right in the ruins of our beloved town! Not only does this land connect back to our friends back on Earth, but this land is the most important land in Equestria! You know why? Because this is land that Discord no longer controls! WE HAVE TAKEN IT FROM HIM! And from this spot, we will take back everything else he has stolen from us!”

He was right, of course. We had a forward operating base now. From here we could launch our assaults, and as long as we held the portal, we could retreat and use guerilla tactics to weaken his forces. Maybe we could mobilize a larger assault and lure Discord out in the open. The options were aplenty; all we had to do was choose one.

Ponies were now screaming out battle cries. Shining bared his teeth and growled, his own rage manifesting in his booming voice. “He won’t take a single inch of this land back from us! He has taken enough! Your old friends, your family, your past TWENTY FIVE YEARS!” 

The crowd howled in anger, and Shining began stomping the floor. “Ponies! If today in battle you or your friends start to feel fear... if you want to just run away and let Discord’s forces take this land from you... you must think back to everything Discord has already taken from you! Think what he has taken from all of us! Are you willing to let Discord take even more!?”

“NO!”

Even I joined in that shout. Discord had already taken two lives from me. I wasn’t going to let him take anymore.

Shining was now screaming at the top of his lungs. “WE WILL NOT GIVE HIM A SINGLE INCH! NO MORE WILL HE JUST TAKE WHAT HE WANTS! NO MORE WILL HE TAKE WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY OURS! HIS TYRANNY ENDS TODAY!” Shining slammed his hoof down as hard as he could, cracking the stage with a resounding crunch. “TODAY WILL BE A DAY REMEMBERED BY ALL PONYKIND AS THE THE DAY WE STRUCK BACK! TODAY WILL BE THE DAY WE GET REVENGE FOR EVERYTHING WE LOST. FOR OUR FRIENDS. FOR OUR FAMILIES. FOR THOSE TWENTY FIVE YEARS. FOR EQUESTRIA!”

The crowd responded with a deafening chant. 

“FOR EQUESTRIA! FOR EQUESTRIA! FOR EQUESTRIA!”

I decided I’d heard enough. Shining’s speech had been effective in keeping my fear at bay. It was time to take some action. It wasn’t going to be easy or pretty, but as long as we worked together, I believed we stood a chance.

I went over everything I knew about our enemy while I headed back to the basement. Discord was the embodiment of chaos and disharmony. His power exceeded that of even Celestia and Luna, and he could do anything from generate powerful curses to create dimensional rifts. He was a lying, greedy, insane megalomaniac who played with this victims before disposing of them, and he apparently had no qualms about taking lives.

However, Discord was known as a traitor, any alliances or partnerships he’d made would be shaky, at best. Followers would be either mind-controlled, enslaved, blackmailed, convenient, or insane. If we cut the right strings, we could easily turn the tables and turn his army against him. It was just a matter of finding out what and where those strings were, and we could diminish his forces, if not cripple them.

But that still left the issue about what to do about Discord himself. It was doubtful we could take him on with anything we currently had at our disposal. There was always the option of going on a memory-restoring spree, but that couldn't be done yet. There had to be something we could do now, something that wouldn't attract attention and give us away.

I thought about how Discord had been defeated in the show. Both times he’d been zapped by the Elements of Harmony, first wielded by Celestia and Luna, then again by the Mane Six. The Elements seemed to be the only thing that worked on him; everything else had either been ineffective or just bounced right off him. I had no idea why the Elements worked when nothing else did, but then again, I didn’t know much about the Elements’ origins to begin with.

I reached the basement stairs. There was currently a steady stream of ponies coming up from the portal, so I waited for a chance to go down and continued my thoughts. Discord had to be aware that the Elements were a threat. He’d undoubtedly done something with them: Either hid them, destroyed them, or maybe even sabotaged them. Or maybe he hadn’t found them at all and had been searching for them all this time. What happens to the Elements if their Bearers disappear? Do they go dormant? Do they return somewhere? Do they function as normal? 

So many questions, not nearly enough answers.

But perhaps I was getting ahead of myself. If we could just find the Elements, just see if they still existed, then a lot of those questions might answer themselves. For instance, we didn’t know if the Mane Six could still use the Elements, but maybe we could find somepony else that could. A quick test would be all that was needed for that. It’d kinda be like the Sword in the Stone, only with pretty jewelry that fired rainbow lasers.

So the big issue then was being able to locate the Elements. If Discord had them, they’d probably be locked away somewhere. If they went into some kind of stasis when the Mane Six went to Earth, then Celestia only knew where they’d gone. I sincerely hoped that wasn’t the case.

This was starting to look like a dead end. We needed some sort of lead if we were going to find the Elements, some idea of where to look. The Mane Six almost certainly wouldn’t know anything, heck, they didn’t even seem that interested in the Elements to begin with. I understood why they felt that way, but still, I didn’t agree with the gung-ho approach they seemed to be going for. 

No, I was adamant we needed the Elements. They were the only thing that’d ever hurt Discord, and we were going to lose without them. But where were they? We needed to put our energies into finding anything and everything that might hint us in to their whereabouts. It certainly would be nice if we could use some kind of finding spell to locate the damn things, but we didn’t have—

I suddenly felt like an utter idiot.

There was finally a pause in the ponies coming up from the basement. I scampered down the rickety steps as fast as my little legs could carry me, only pausing a moment to let my eyes adjust to the darkness. Shmangie and the girls saw me come down and swarmed me with questions.

“Feeling any better?” 

“What’s it like up there?” 

“Did you hear Shining shouting all that cool stuff?”

“Were you able to see outside at all?" 

I ignored all of them and turned instead to Daring, who hadn’t come over because she was still helping the incoming ponies. I caught her attention with a brief wave and flash of my horn.

“Need something?”

I took a deep breath. “You said you can find anything so long as you’ve seen it before, right?”

Daring hesitated. “Uh, pretty much, yeah. There are some limits to it, but that’s pretty much the jist.”

“Does it have to be the actual thing, or can it just be a picture?”

“Pictures work, so long as they’re accurate.” Daring covered her mouth to stifle a sneeze. “Why? What’s up?”

I glanced back at Shmangie and the girls. I didn’t know how they were gonna take to this, but for some reason, I felt in my heart it was the right thing to do. 

I floated over my rapier and strapped it on, cinching the belt so that it was snug around my waist. I turned back to Daring and spoke in a clear voice.

"I want to find the Elements of Harmony.”










> Harmony's Gambit
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 16:


Harmony’s Gambit



A Few Hours Later-

“Just get a picture of what you’re trying to move in your head,” I said. “Concentrate on it, then imagine it moving in the direction you want it to go.” 

“I know, I know,” Shmangie said tersely. Her eyes were drilled into a small pebble in front of her. “It’s right there! I can feel it!”

“Go on, then,” I said with a small smirk. “Make physics your bitch.”

“C’mon, Angie!” Apple Bloom said beside me. “You got this!”

Shmangie’s gaze remained fixed, locked in place and immune to the world. Her eyes became half-lidded as she took a deep breath. At first, there was nothing. But then...

 Whumm!

Her horn sparked to life, her magic a swirling mix of brown and green. The pebble became enshrouded in her aura and lifted an inch off the ground.

I smiled. “Go, sis.”

The pebble stayed in place for a few more seconds, Shmangie’s aura remaining weak, yet steady. But eventually, her horn fizzled and the pebble dropped.

“Oof!” she gasped, falling to the ground. “Man, that’s hard!” 

“You did great, though!” I said as I went over and helped her up. “You’re catching on to everything really fast.”

“Yeah! You’ll be liftin’ normal-sized things in no time!” Apple Bloom said.

Shmangie wiped the sweat off her brow. “I kinda have to, considering ‘no time’ is exactly what we have.” 

The three of us were in a weed-ridden patch of dirt that used to be Carousel Boutique’s backyard. Around us was a flurry of activity—a team of earth ponies were digging a makeshift trench around the building with impressive speed. Above us, flocks of pegasi flew back and forth from the town with whatever they could salvage. Inside, the unicorns were with Twilight getting whatever pointers they could on spells. I’d been there, as well, but Twilight pretty much had it covered, so I decided to give Shmangie some private instruction.

I sighed and looked out towards the Everfree Forest, looming on the edge of town. “I hate this waiting. Wish we at least knew what Discord was gonna throw at us.”

Apple Bloom laughed. “Dunno if that’d help. He’s got more crazy magic than all of us ponies put together. Prolly more scary monsters and stuff, too.”

I gave her a sidelong glance. “Thank you, Little Miss Sunshine.”

 “I’m just bein’ realistic!”

I rolled my eyes. “We’re magical colorful cartoon ponies standing in a post-apocalyptic hellscape. Realism is dead and buried.”

“Hmm.” Apple Bloom rubbed her chin. “Touche.” 

Shmangie came up beside me and followed my gaze. “Do you think Discord'll try to stop us?”

I shrugged. “Hard to say. It’ll depend on how deep in the Elements are.”

“Let’s hope they’re not far, then,” Shmangie said dryly. “I don’t feel comfortable going in there without some clear direction… or a clear goal, for that matter. Daring didn’t sound all that confident when she said she got a bead on them.”

“We’ll figure out more once they get back from their little scouting mission.” I turned and headed back towards the Boutique. “This is Discord’s turf, so we’re probably gonna have to fight by his rules. We can’t really fight the Lord of Chaos with a well-thought out, logical plan. ”

“So we’re flyin’ by the seat of our pants?” Apple Bloom asked.

I snickered and wiggled my rear. “I know not of these ‘pants’ you speak of.”

“Wait, where are you going?” Shmangie called after me. “You gonna go help Twilight again?”

“Nah, she’s got things,” I said. I looked back at the two of them. “I’m gonna go see what Rarity’s up to. You guys stay here and wait for Daring and the others.”

“Fine, fine.” Shmangie turned back to her pebble. “Don’t be gone long, though. They should be back soon.”

I left the two of them behind and made my way back inside the Boutique. I first looked for Rarity in the kitchen, as that’s where I’d seen her last, but all I found was a sea of unfamiliar faces. Ponies of all colors, shapes and sizes were busy reinforcing windows, clearing out debris, checking the cupboards for salvageable supplies, or making their way through the cramped, cluttered space. It was easier for me to maneuver around thanks to my small size, but it still took a little while to get through.

I climbed on top of the kitchen table and asked if anypony had seen Rarity recently. The response was a chorus of no’s.

“Maybe Twilight knows where she is,” I muttered, squeezing my way out of the kitchen.  I made my way down the cracked and dusty hallway to the showroom where I’d last seen her, ducking around adults and saying ‘excuse me’ every two seconds. It was strange seeing so many ponies in a place that was once my home, and a part of me was starting to get a little claustrophobic from being pushed and shoved all the time.

My skin prickled as I entered the showroom. It was filled with dozens of practicing unicorns, all attempting to use magic in some way, shape, or form. I could almost taste the energy in the air as a dull WHUM filled my ears. 

I recalled that Twilight had been standing on a platform in the corner directing everypony’s efforts, but she wasn’t there now. I crawled up on a pile of debris to see if I could spot a pair of purple wings amongst the crowd, but no such luck.

I waved at a nearby stallion. “Hey, is Princess Twilight here?”

“Huh?” The stallion did a double-take at me. “Oh, hey! You’re Sweetie Belle!”

I nodded. “I know Twilight was here not too long ago. Know where she went?”

The stallion shook his head. “Sorry. Rainbow Dash stopped by and asked for her help with something about a half hour ago. Haven’t seen either of ‘em since.”

I chewed on my lip. That wasn’t that strange, as there were lots of things that Dash might need Twilight’s help for, but for some reason, I couldn’t help but get a weird feeling…

“Maybe you should go ask Shining Armor,” the stallion suggested. “He might know where they went. I think he’s up on the roof.”

Well, it was a place to start, I supposed. “Thanks,” I said, turning and walking back into the hallway. 

It took a few minutes of navigating back through the crowded hallways to get back outside, but I managed it without causing too much of a stir. I did get the occasional curious glance and whisper, but otherwise, ponies didn’t pay me much heed. Once outside, I flagged down a passing pegasus and convinced her to give me a ride up to the roof.

“Try not to look up at the sky for too long,” she warned me as we took off. “You’ll get vertigo.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Looking up gives you vertigo?”

The pegasus grunted acknowledgement. “Not quite sure why. We think it has something to do with the clouds.”

We navigated through the crowded airspace and flew up to the top platform of the Boutique. I now saw that Shining was in the center of a flurry of activity, as he and a smattering of ponies pored over a large map of the surrounding area.

My arrival-by-pegasus didn’t go unnoticed. Upon seeing me, one of the ponies nudged Shining and pointed.

“Oh!” Shining said in a higher than normal voice. “H-hey there, Sweetie Belle! Good to see you! What brings you up here?”

I trotted over to him. “I’m looking for Rarity. Or Twilight. Or Dash. Any one of them, I suppose. I’ve asked around, but no one’s seen them. I thought they might be up here?”

Shining’s mouth twitched. “The girls? Uh… Haven’t seen them! Nope! Haven’t been up here! They’re probably all helping out with things down below.”

Something about him was off. His smile was strained, his tail was twitching like he was trying to swat a fly, and his eyes were avoiding mine. 

I gave him a flat look. “Oh, really?”

Shining held up his hooves. “Really! I haven’t seen them in over an hour!”

“Hmm.” I studied him closely. “What were they doing when you last saw them?”

Shining gulped. “N-nothing life threatening! Yep! Definitely nothing life threatening at all. Just helping out with the preparations. Nothing that involves sneaking off to fight Discord!”

Oh, godammit. 

“Shining,” I said, trying to keep my voice even. “Please tell me that—

And then all hell broke loose.

It began with a deafening chorus of shrieks, like jagged chips of rusty metal running across a marble floor. I instantly jammed my hooves in my ears, and everyone around me reacted much the same. Almost all the flying pegasi fell out of the air. Wincing, I looked all around to try and find the source of the noise, finally finding it in the sky above.

What I saw were nightmares. Horrifying abominations usually reserved for stories and myths. They were faceless, snakelike entities that looked like a mix between a fly and a squid. They were a stark, pallid white, were each several times the size of a pony, and were covered in barbs and tentacles.

Oh, and there were hundreds of them.

My hair stood on end. “No…”

“WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!” Shining bellowed. He dashed to the building’s edge and began issuing orders. “ALL PONIES, PREPARE TO FIGHT! THE ENEMIES ARE APPROACHING FROM THE AIR!”

Chaos erupted. Most ponies were still reeling from the initial shriek, but once they saw what was coming, they abandoned what they were doing and scrambled for cover and weapons. The majority of our force was centered around Carousel Boutique, but we’d managed to shore up a few of the surrounding buildings, too. Everyone was heading for either these or the Boutique as the swarm approached.

I backed away from Shining, who understandably now had bigger things to worry about. With utmost care, I went to the building’s edge and shimmied my way down, landing nimbly on the ground. I ran for where I’d left Shmangie and Apple Bloom as fast as my little legs could carry me.

It was bedlam. Ponies were clambering everywhere trying to find shelter, or form a defensive line. I only barely managed to get stepped on as I ducked and dodged through the insanity. A random stallion bumped into me from behind and sent tumbling to the ground, and just barely managed to avoid the stampede of hooves rumbling like an earthquake all around me.

Somehow I managed to retrace my steps. Upon rounding the corner to the backyard, I thanked what small bit of luck I still had. Daring, Babs, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Shmangie were all there. 

“Sweetie!” Scootaloo said, running up to me. “We saw them! They’re—”

“MOVE!” I bolted past her and leapt over the unfinished trench, making a beeline for the Everfree Forest. “DARING!”

“Got it!” She spread her wings and took flight, quickly catching up to me and flying just ahead. “Follow me!”

“H-hey!” Apple Bloom called as she stood there, eyes wide. “Wait up!”

“You heard the girl!” Shmangie sprang into a nimble gallop. “Move your fuzzy rump!”

A chill wind blew past us as Daring led us all through the gutted remains of Ponyville. It was treacherous going, as Discord hadn’t had safety in mind when he’d had his way with the place. The streets were riddled with sinkholes that ranged from a few feet deep, to I-don’t-even-wanna know. Some of them were filled with various liquids, others were just a yawning abyss. Buildings everywhere were toppled, defamed, or defiled. The bowling alley was encased in a cube of jello. Sugarcube Corner was upside down and spinning like a top. Our schoolhouse had been replaced with a giant, fanged rubber ducky that squawked at us as we passed. The road  to Sweet Apple Acres was lined with rusted metal gears that spun like buzzsaws. 

I’m sure there were other anomalies, but I was more concerned with outrunning the gibbering hellspawn closing in on the town. I glanced back once to see that she and the others were a few dozen yards behind, but after that my gaze was locked on Daring.

A second bloodcurdling shriek reminded me of why I was sprinting in the first place. I grit my teeth and kept up my breakneck pace.

“They’re almost in town!” Babs said behind me. “We’re not gonna make it!”

“Save your breath!” Scootaloo snapped. “Keep moving!”

“I should’ve packed a damn gun!” Shmangie said as she ran through the rubble. Her movements were still clumsy, but adrenaline allowed her to keep up.

I chanced a glance up at the approaching airborne horde. The main force of it was headed for Carousel Boutique, but a few outliers had separated and looked like they were going to circle the town. 

We’d avoided their ire so far. Our path forward was clear. All separated us from the Everfree was an open, barren field.

“Just… a little… farther!” I panted.

Unfortunately, that was when our luck ran out. Just in front of me, a multi-limbed aberration the size of a car fell out of the sky like a meteor. My blood ran cold as it reared up and brandished its scythe-like claws.

I froze in place. “Ah…”

“RAAAAGH!” Daring charged the thing from behind. She kicked it several times and zipped around it, trying to find a weak spot. “RUN, IDIOT! I’VE GOT BRIGHT EYES!”

 The beast lost interest in me and turned to her, rearing and taking wide swipes at her. Daring nimbly dodged and continued to take potshots, hitting the thing with everything she had, but she wasn’t doing much.

“No...” I drew my sword and took careful aim. “Not because of me… Not because of me!”

Daring narrowly dodged a wicked slash and delivered a swift kick to the thing’s snout. “Damn, you’re ugly! What nasty-ass mother shat you out?!”

The creature sized Daring up. It took a few steps back, then barrelled straight into her with blinding speed. It reared back and raised its claws to for the kill—

THUNK

—only to go limp as my rapier became lodged in its skull.

“YAAAAAH!” And then Babs, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo caught up. They charged in from the side, and as one, they turned and bucked the thing away before it could fall on Daring. Then, in an impressively fluid motion, they dragged her up and continued across the field. 

Shmangie brought up the rear, screaming at me as she whizzed past. 

“COME ON!”
 
I chanced a look back. Two more of the monsters were approaching us from either side, their inhuman wails filling the air. 

“Crap, crap, crap!” I yanked my sword free and ran after the others. Together, we all made a mad dash for the Everfree, the two beasts closing on us. 

We were halfway there when I heard one of them make a noise—a flute-like warbling trill, almost like a pipe organ. I turned just in time to see that one of them was inhaling deeply with its mouth wide, wide open. 

My eyes shrunk to pinpricks. “You gotta be kidding me!”

With a sound like a firehose, the monster fired a jet of a sickly-green liquid. I dove out of the way just in time as the projectile passed through where I’d been, continuing to travel and impacting against a withered tree on the forest’s edge. It dissolved into mush in seconds. 

My left flank erupted in pain as I felt a single droplet drip onto my flank, and the stench of burned flesh filled the air.

That’s pretty much when I snapped.

“YOU SON OF A BITCH!” I screamed.

I skidded to a halt, whirled around, then ran straight at the bastard who’d just hit me. My rapier answered my summons, the blade slick with dark purple ichor. The burning pain dulled as my rage surged forth, and I leapt headlong at my foes, my anger combining with my magic and swordskill.

Shmangie saw my charge. “SHMAGE! NO!”

The two monstrosities rushed forward, eager to take their foolish prey. 

Such anger in one so young...

The world slowed to a crawl. My steps became long strides that seemed to take an eternity. I was aware, but it was like I was moving through water. My heartbeat was like a gong in my ears. My toxic feelings were raging, and all I wanted to do was scream.

You are consumed by hate and doubt, the voices whispered around me. We have all suffered injustices at the Mad One’s hand, but the darkness you harbor will not bring about the retribution you desire. If you wish to help your friends and right these wrongs, you must let these emotions go...

The words reverberated within my very soul. It was exactly what I’d told myself over and over, but I didn’t want to listen. I’d locked that harsh truth away in a corner of my mind, telling myself over and over that I was doing the right thing. 

But I wasn’t. I was poisoning myself with these feelings of self-doubt and mistrust, and I realized with a start that it was holding me back.

“I don’t know how!” I cried out, tears forming in my eyes. “I’m sorry! I DON’T KNOW HOW!”

But you do wish to change?

“YES!” I squeaked. “I know I’ve messed up! I never meant to shut anyone out! I just wanted everypony to be happy! That’s all!”

That will do for now, the voices said after a small pause. Your heart is tarnished, but the desire for redemption is true. Accept this power now, and do what you must in the name of harmony...

My anger was suddenly soothed by a wave of calm. The world resumed with a loud snap, and I was charging again at the tentacle monsters. I opened my mouth again in a defiant scream—but what came out was not a yell, but a song. It was a song of wrath and fury. It was a song of pain and loss. It was a song I knew not the words to, yet I sang them all the same. 

Keeping in the rhythm, I ducked beneath the beast’s gnashing teeth and began my assault, ducking, twirling, diving, springing, tumbling, slashing. My horn shone like a beacon as I chanted, all the while keeping the measure of my attacks and dodges. Blood and gore fell like rain around me, but it was not mine.

I spun and whirled about, jumped and evaded, parried and riposted. As I did, I could feel all the pent up feelings—the anguish, the frustration, the helplessness—all of it melting away into a deep sense of calm. A storm of steel raged around me, but I was its eye, the focus point, the serene center.

And then just as quickly as it came, the feeling left me. I came to my senses at the edge of the plain, bloodsoaked and battered, standing before my dumbfounded sister and friends.

“Uh…” Shmangie took a hesitant step forward. “Kiddo?”

Well done… the voices spoke, fading away. Come to us, now. We are waiting...

A wave of dizziness hit me. I fell back on my haunches, lost in a sudden daze. 

“Whoa…”

“That... was… AWESOME!” Scootaloo cheered. She dashed up and hugged me. “Holy horseapples, that was so sweet!”

“The hell, mate?!” Daring said, her hooves on her hips. “Woulda been nice if you’d told us you could do that sooner!”

“Do… what now?” I managed. I tried to shake off the fogginess, but no such luck. 

“We need to keep moving,” Babs said tersely. “Crazy magic kung-fu or not, we can’t stay here!!”

“She’s right!” Apple Bloom said. “Come on! We gotta get into the forest!”

I was only dimly aware of someone picking me up and placing me on somepony’s back. I felt the sensation of air rushing past me, but my mind was trapped in molasses. The otherworldly screeches and the sounds of battle gradually faded from my ears, and as fast as phantoms, our little group fled from Ponyville and into the forest beyond.


***



The Everfree had never exactly been hospitable. Even before Discord’s betrayal, it was home to poisonous plants, aggressive carnivores, treacherous chasms, labyrinthine paths... and those were just the lesser threats. We were always told to avoid the place like it was the plague, and as a result, only the uninformed, the brave, the stupid, or the suicidal entered it.

Or, on rare occasion, the combination of all four.

“Ugh,” Babs muttered, gagging. “I think I’m gonna be sick.” 

“Keep your eyes to the ground,” Apple Bloom advised. “Less colors down there.”

She snorted in reply. “Only just.”

It was about ten minutes later that my head fully cleared. I came to to find that I was riding on Shmangie’s back, my face buried in her rust-red mane. Gingerly, I cleared my throat and and tapped her shoulder.

“Uh, I’m okay now,” I said. ”I can walk.”

“Hmph. If you say so.” She stopped to let me clamber off, then whirled around and gave me the dreaded Big Sister Stare of Doom. “Mind telling me what the hell that was all about?”

My ears drooped. I remembered that I’d heard voices…or… something. It was really fuzzy, and the trying to hold onto the memory was like grasping at cotton fluff.

 “I’m not sure,” I admitted. “One of the monsters hit me with whatever they shot out of their mouth, and… I got mad. I think I heard people saying things to me? Something about how I wasn’t beyond redemption, or something. The rest is a blur.”

“Yeah, well that blur was you turning into a bladed tornado!” Scootaloo said, nudging me. “Seriously, you were spinning all over the place and doing mad-crazy moves! Sweetie get angry! Sweetie get glowy eyes and sing creepy doom song! Sweetie drinks the blood of her enemies! Sweetie SMASH!”

I cocked my head. “Uh… what was that about glowy eyes?”

“Be serious, Dylan!” Shmangie said. “Whatever all that was could be dangerous!”

Scootaloo laughed. “No shit it was dangerous! Dangerous in all the right ways! Sweetie’s packing some serious firepower!”

“Did a right number on those varmints,” Apple Bloom agreed. 

Shmangie narrowed her eyes. “I meant dangerous for her. I mean, for God’s sake, she just said she heard voices! This could be serious!”

“Probably, but I doubt it’s in the way you're thinking,” Daring said, blowing her mane out of her face. “Think about it. We get an actual bead on the Elements, we start making our way towards them, we run into some trouble, and suddenly mystical freaky shit starts happening? It’s not exactly hard to figure out what’s going on.”

You know, I think what the weirdest about that was how casually Daring had said it. She was completely nonchalant about it, as if we were simply discussing the weather.

Apple Bloom gave her a sidelong look. “You say that like this kinda thing’s happened to ya before.”

Daring stretched her wings. “Sort of. I have dreams about my old life all the time. This stuff’s pretty standard when it comes to doomsday relics, to be honest.”

Scootaloo sat on her haunches. “So you think we should just leave it be? What if Sweetie really is going full-on nutso?”

“Hey!”

Daring sighed. “You lot really aren’t very observant, are you? Come on, now. I’m a bloomin’ pegasus and I could feel the magic in the air back there. You’re telling me the rest of you didn’t feel anything?”

Shmangie pursed her lips. She rubbed her horn gingerly, her expression pensive. “Don’t look at me. I know next to nothing about magic, and even less about what kind of things are normal for unicorns to feel.”

Daring looked to the others. “Okay, how about you all?” 

Apple Bloom tapped her chin. “I didn’t pay it no mind because we were runnin’, but now that you mention it…”

“...Yeah,” Babs said, nodding. “I felt it, too.”

“Made my wings go all tingly,” Scootaloo added.

“Bingo. That was it.” Daring adjusted her wings at her sides. “And trust me, if that’d been dark magic, you’d have been able to tell. You feel how twisted and wrong everything around us feels right now, don’t you? That’s dark magic at work. Whatever went on with Sweetie was like, the exact opposite.”

I wasn’t sure what to think. I mean, it was true that out of all of us, Daring had the most experience with this kind of thing, but that didn’t guarantee that she was right. As for me, I didn’t think that whatever had happened back there was bad. It certainly didn’t seem to have any negative side effects… well, aside from some slight fatigue, anyway. 

Shmangie finally spoke. “Shmage, I just gotta know; has anything like that ever happened to you before?”

I shook my head. “I’ve had moments when I’ve felt things like that, but never that intense. It was kinda like when I get in the zone.”

Shmangie frowned. “In the zone?” .

I looked up at the forest canopy as I struggled to find the right words. “Like, I’ve been alone a few times and I’ve been focusing on something, then I’ve felt a really strong surge of emotion, like anger or frustration or… peace, a few times. It’s always given me a kind of clarity that made me focus better. Never made me do anything crazy, though. Has anything like that ever happened to the rest of you?”

“Not me,” Babs said. She looked to the rest of the group. “You girls?”

They all shook their heads.

I shuffled back and forth. Shmangie was still eyeing me with scrutiny, but the frown on her face wasn’t an angry one. The others’ expressions weren’t mad, either. Just… confused.

 “I… really don’t know what to tell any of you,” I managed. “I’m… sorry?”

Scootaloo laughed. “You don’t need to apologize, girl! You saved our flanks!”

“And you might wind up saving them again,” Daring darkly, motioning to our surroundings. “We are literally not yet out of the woods.”

Shmangie sighed. “Okay, normally I’d grill you on this, but we don’t really have time right now, do we? We gotta get moving before more of those things decide to come after us. Daring?”

“Right. One sec.” She stopped and closed her eyes a moment, then stuck out her hoof a straight ahead and to her right. “That way. About three kilometers.”

“All right, then.” Shmangie took a deep, calming breath. “Lead the way.”


***


It was slow going through the wood. The air was thick and stifling, with spiked vines that hung overhead from foul-smelling trees. The underbrush was overgrown and wild, yet also was rotted and decaying. Snatches of the technicolor sky above could be seen through breaks in the trees, and there was a dull buzzing sound that pressed in on all our ears.

The wound on my leg stung something fierce. It wasn’t a large wound, or even a deep one, really, but just aggravating enough to let me know every time I brushed against something. Fortunately, Shmangie had brought some bandages with her, and the white wrap blended in nicely with my coat.

"Think it’s worth going in the air to get a better view?” Shmangie asked Daring after twenty minutes.

“I’d rather not,” Daring replied. She sidestepped a thorn bush and continued on. “Last thing we want is to draw attention to ourselves.”

“So, um…” Apple Bloom began, shuffling her hooves. “I dunno if this is the best time, but we’ve never talked actually talked about what we’re gonna do once we get the Elements. Any ideas?”

We all exchanged hesitant looks.

“Pfft! Isn’t it obvious? We use them on Discord!” Scootaloo reared and punched the air. “Give him the old rainbow zap! Pchooo!”

Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow. “Who’s gonna use ‘em, genius?”

Scootaloo faltered. “Uhhh… oh yeah… heh, heh...”

“We’re gonna have a hard time finding Dash and the others,” Babs pointed out. “They might’ve split up for all we know.”

I frowned. “I really doubt that.”

She shrugged. “I’m just saying.”

“‘Just saying.’” I repeated, glancing back at Apple Bloom. “Must be a family motto.”

“I can find them all easily enough,” Daring cut in. “The issue’s just gonna be how far away they are. Well, that, and the time it’ll take to get to them.”

“We’re gonna have to avoid Ponyville, too,” Shmangie said. She stopped to help me climb up a slippery hillside. “This isn’t gonna be easy.”

“We can do it,” I insisted. I took her hoof and made it to the top, panting. “We... have to. The others don’t stand a chance against without the Elements.”

“So what’s your idea, then?” Apple Bloom asked me. “How are we gonna do it?”

I chewed on my lip. “I suppose that—”

There was a sudden rustling sound to our right. 

“Shh!” We all whirled on the sound and backed up, limbs tensed and ready to flee. The rustling continued, getting neither closer nor farther away. None of us said a word, a we exchanged nervous glances as we stood still for near a full minute..

Babs took a tentative step forward. “I think—” 

And then the voices returned.

It comes!

A long thorny vine erupted from the undergrowth. It snapped at the air like a whip, moving around with blinding speed. Before we could react, it wrapped around Babs’ leg and yanked her into the brush, her loud screams gradually growing dimmer as she was swiftly dragged off.

“NO!” Apple Bloom dashed after her. “BABS! HANG ON!”

“Dammit!” Daring turned and followed suit. “Come on!”

I drew my sword and charged into the foliage. We ran headlong through the cursed forest, dodging around exposed roots and jagged rocks. Babs’ panicked yells told us well enough where she was being taken, but we were just barely able to keep pace.

“The hell was that thing?!” Shmangie yelled.

“Don’t know!” I skirted a patch of poison joke and lept over a creek bed. “But I doubt it’s—WHOA!”

A second spiked vine erupted from our left. It took a swipe at my legs, but I hopped away and brought my rapier down in a whistling arc. I thought I would easily lop the thing in two, but instead, all I managed to do was but a notch in it.

“Jeez!” I ducked as the vine attacked again. “These things are tough!”

“WAHH!” 

I whirled around. A third vine had crept up behind us and was trying to ensnare Shmangie. She was dancing out of its grasp, but only just. Two more vines had also appeared on our right and were accosting Scootaloo and Daring. Apple Bloom was the only one who wasn’t being attacked, as she’d run ahead after Babs.

“No… you… don’t!” Shmangie eyes blazed with equal parts fear and fury, dodging for her life. She bucked the evil fauna away and ran for higher ground. “Shmage! Little help here!”

“Kinda busy!” I called back. We were all narrowly avoided the vines, dodging and ducking for our lives. They slowly crept around us and began pressing forward from all sides.

 You will not defeat them on your own, the voices said all around me. Allow us to aid you...

A chorus of bells rang in my mind. I felt the soothing sensation wash over me again, and my vision became tinged with white. “Daring,” I said, my calm voice carrying over the sounds of battle. “Take Scootaloo. Get in the air.”

“What?!” she barked. She dodged circles around of trio of snaking vines that were trying to tie her up. “Hell, no! I’m not just gonna leave you!”

I whirled on her in a flash, my voice echoing with sudden power. “Do it.”

Daring’s expression did a complete one-eighty. She looked at me, and her wings flared as she sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. With a scowl and a vicious curse, she snatched Scootaloo up in her hooves, then flew up above the trees in a blur.

“Wait, what?!” Scootaloo yelped as they ascended. “No! Lemme go! LEMME GO!”

I turned back to the dark, devilish tendrils, slithering around my sister and me like serpents. Their spikes glinted in the dim forest light, inching in on us. Shmangie was trying to fight, to dodge and find an opening, but they’d already grabbed one of her legs. Bright red blood wept from a wound on calf where the cursed thing had cut her.

“Enough,” I growled. “This has gone… far… ENOUGH!”

And then it happened again. I opened my mouth to let out a yell, but instead, what flowed out of me was a song. I felt it the power this time, like a wellspring that surged up from within me. An astounding sense of clarity overtook me as the world turned black and white…

...save for a few select spots on the thorny vines surrounding us. 

There… The spots glinted like bright stars on a winter night. Where they are weak...

I didn’t hesitate. With measured steps, I moved between the slow, cumbersome attacks and deftly struck, slicing through the vines like a hot knife through butter. I quickly got to Shmangie and freed her with three strokes, then, boldly, I moved past her and pressed my advantage. Attacking with measured blows, I sliced the plants to ribbons while singing my strange song, moving like a whirling dervish. 

“Shmage…” I heard Shmangie whisper behind me.

I managed to clear a path for us. I began moving quickly towards the place where I’d heard Babs being taken. The vines became thicker and more numerous as I did, viciously striking at me, trying to block my path. None of them lasted long. They fell like wheat before a scythe, and before long, I was running at full tilt, my rapier whirling around me with elegant fury. 

I found myself at in a decrepit clearing beside a deep canyon a few minutes later. The vines were whipping out from the jagged depths, more aggressive and ruthless than ever. I fended off their strikes and looked for a way down, finally spotting a set of crumbling stairs by the remains of a rotting bridge. I made for it in a flash, never ceasing my song or swift slashes. 

You are close… the voices urged. Hurry...

I felt another surge of power as I approached the stairs. I didn’t know where it came from, but I didn’t question the serendipity. I felt stronger, faster, filled to the brim with electric power. Newly refreshed, I dashed down the stairs in a blur, maintaining my martial cadence as I danced about. The vines were getting thicker now, some of them bigger around than tree trunks. It was like I was in the eye of an evil tornado. They were everywhere around me, trying to swat me like I was an annoying fly. 

I dipped and dodged about, nimbly climbing, sometimes running atop the vines, but never, ever stopping. I didn’t know where my energy was coming from, but at that moment it didn’t seem to matter. I got to the bottom of the chasm and saw that the foul plants were coming out of a nearby cave a few hundred yards away. 

“Sweetie!”

I looked up. Hovering in the air above was Daring with Scootaloo on her back, staying just out of reach of the tendrils.

“The Elements are in there!” she yelled, pointing at the cave. “GO!”

I nodded and made a beeline for it. The vines got more frantic in their efforts to stop me as I did, but I kept moving. I spun over one and charged forward, my rapier and I singing together as we cut through air and vine.

The inside of the cave was dark, dank, and foul. Dead and rotted vegetation hung from the walls, and I could see that the bones of countless creatures were strewn all over the floor like a macabre carpet. A sickly-green glow permeated the place, and every bone in my body told me that something was inherently wrong. 

There... the voices said. Beneath the tree...

The sight was as amazing as it was terrifying, and it almost took my breath away when I saw it. In the center of the cavern was a tree, tall and ancient, with five wizened branches like a giant, gnarled star. Ambient magic radiated out from it like a miniature sun, but there was a sickly taint to the magic that made me feel ill.

It was easy to see what was causing the taint. The tree was covered from trunk to crown in vines, and they were constricting the poor thing so tightly that bright blue sap bled from from its ancient bark.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. Beneath the tree was a crudely dug pit, and lurking within it was a nightmare. It was like a Venus Flytrap, but with teeth-like tendrils and and three dark, fleshy maws that dripped a clear, sticky sap. It was also giving off a thick, cloying gas that smelled sickly sweet, and it was making screeching sounds that made my blood run cold.

I found Babs and Apple Bloom a few hundred meters into the cave, tightly bound and desperately struggling to get free. Their eyes were wild as they met mine.

“SWEETIE!” Babs yelled. “GET OUT OF HERE!”

I ran for Babs first. But as I did, two whip-like tendrils attacked me from behind. They cut shallow lines across my back, and I let out a yelp. I whirled around, sliced them to thirds, then ran towards Babs as fast as I could. She was wrapped from head to hoof in a thick, spiky vine, and was fighting for her life as she was dragged towards one of the plant’s hungry mouths.

I took careful aim and slashed. The vine was thick and strong, and it took a few hacks to lop it off. Sickly yellow sap bled from its wound that gave off a smell like rotten eggs. I had to avoid being ensnared myself as I freed her, but my song gave me the clarity to do it.

“N-no…” Babs whispered, her voice shaky and faint. Her face was scratched and muddy, and one of the spikes was stabbed into her right shoulder. “Run...”

I ignored her and continued my efforts to get her out. As soon as I did, I bucked the vines away, tossed Babs over my back, then ran over to Apple Bloom.

The creature in the pit hissed as we moved. It withdrew its wounded limbs, seemingly surprised that its prey had put up such a fight. But its shock didn’t last long. Within seconds, more had erupted from the shadowy pit, intent on catching us. I spun around to fend them off.

“Ya damn idiot!” Apple Bloom yelled at me. “Kill the thing in the pit! Stop wastin’ time on me!”

“Oh, shut up,” Babs snapped. She squirmed off my back and limped over to her. She reared and brought her earth pony hooves down on a thin portion of the vine, crushing it flat with a CRUNCH. The whole of the tendril instantly shuddered, convulsed… and the portion past where she’d struck fell limp.

“Wah!” Apple Bloom fell to the ground. Babs began pulling her free, and she managed to wiggle out just as I finished off the vines.

Babs and Apple Bloom both got up and put their backs to mine, warily eyeing the flailing, writhing mass around us..

“Now what?” Apple Bloom muttered tersely.

“Retreat?” Babs suggested.

“Hay with that!” Apple Bloom picked up two pieces of the vine that’d held her. She forced her hooves through them with a disgusting squelch, and just like that, her forehooves were now fitted with up to the joint with makeshift spiked armor. “I’m gonna whoop some ass!” 

Realizing a good idea when I saw one, I used my magic to fit her back legs in a similar fashion. I also did the same with Babs.

“Hey, wait!” Babs jumped in surprise. “Sweetie! Hold on a second!”

But there weren’t any seconds to be had. The vines attacked again from all sides, and we had no choice but to hold them off.

“YAAAAHH!” Suddenly, a yellow and orange blur swooped in like a bullet. Daring and Scootaloo began attacking from the air, making fly-by passes and bucking the larger vines. Half a dozen of the vines broke away from us to concentrate on this new threat, but still many more remained.

You must finish this… the unknown voices spoke again. It is time… you must all awaken...

Another surge of power suffused me. I felt more alive than I ever had before, and the world slowed down even further. I became a storm of righteous fury, swinging my rapier harder, faster, and stronger than ever before. My song filled the cave as swaths of vines fell before me.

Apple Bloom and Babs’ eyes glinted. Their movements became more fluid, their dodges not as clumsy. Apple Bloom’s hooves were enshrouded in a soft, orange glow, while Babs’ were enveloped in green. They weaved in and out of the vines with ease, bashing, smashing, and bucking with a power I never knew they had. The ground shook with their strikes, their expressions hard as they calculated every move. 

Daring’s wings were radiating bright red. She was now flying even faster and tighter in the cavern space, tying the attacking vines in knots as they tried in vain to catch her. She pumped her wings with such force that the wind began to pick up, which she used to her advantage by scattering her attackers all about.

But what was noticeable was Scootaloo. Her tiny wings were enveloped in blue magic, which lengthened out two shadowy, blade-like pinions. She had leapt off Daring’s back and had taken to the air, the phantom appendages effortlessly granting her full flight. She zipped about like a falcon, the magic slicing through anything and everything with ease. Vines fell around like rain, and between her and Daring, they cleared the air in seconds. Once done, the two of them flitted to and fro, daring anything to invade their territory.

It seemed like we had the creature on the ropes. As one, the five us slowly pressed in towards the pit beneath the strangled tree, not saying a word to each other. Our expressions were all blank as we got to the edge.

The creature in the pit bellowed. Most of its spiky limbs had been hacked off, but its main portion was still intact. It had no eyes to speak of, but its three mouths gibbered and drooled as it made meaningless noise at us.

"Foul creature," Apple Bloom said, her voice oddly flat.

"Your end is nigh," Babs said in the same tone.

"Torment us no longer," Scootaloo said.

"Release us and begone," said Daring.

I raised my blade. "Or share your master's fate."

The creature made a warbling sound. The gas from its pores thickened, but it had no effect on us. It sulked and nursed its severed stumps, and for a moment it seemed like the thing might do what we’d asked... but then, it lunged at us, its toothy maws open wide.

We all began to glow with colorful energy.

"So be it," we said as one.

Scootaloo and Daring hit it from the air with energy blasts of red and blue. Babs and Apple Bloom struck from below with waves of orange and green. I hit it dead-on, running it straight through with a burst of brilliant white. The creature screamed a mighty scream, and the air was filled with a terrible, acrid smell. We kept it up for a few seconds, and before our very eyes, the thing disintegrated into flecks of ash.

But it wasn’t over yet.

“What’s alllllllll this…” a sinister voice hissed.

ABOVE!

We were enveloped in a dark, sticky substance before any of us could react. My concentration was shattered, and I found myself thrown backward and sailing through the air. The feeling of power left me, and I regained my senses to become extremely panicked and confused.

“What’s going onnnnnn?!” I wailed.

The five of us slammed into the far cave wall and became stuck there. We all kicked and struggled to get free, but not very effectively. I felt even more drained than I had before, like I’d just run a marathon without sleeping for three days prior. My vision flickered in and out as I struggled to maintain consciousness.

“What in tarnation?” I heard Apple Bloom say. “The bloomin’ hay was that all about? Did ya’ll just hear some voices in your head and feel all tingly?”

“Nooooooooo,” Scootaloo snarked. “I’ve always been able to summon bladed wings of light! I just secretly liked all the chicken jokes.”

“Will you two focus?!” Babs said. “We’re kinda stuck here!”

“The hell is this stuff?” Daring said. I could feel the vibrations of her wiggling to my right. “Ugh! How am I gonna fly with this crap in my feathers?”

“That is the leeeeeast of your problems…”

I shivered. The evil voice was cruel, alien, and dripping with malice. I looked up, and in the darkness away from the cavern’s glow, the very ceiling shifted. 

“No,” I whispered.

An enormous, jet black spider descended lazily down the wall. It was the size of a house, perhaps even larger, though I couldn’t clearly tell. Its horrid body was segmented into two parts, the bottom half being significantly larger than the top. The bottom half was a putrid, bloated abdomen, slick with oil and oozing with a dark, foul webbing. The top half hosted its terrifying head, where five dark, lifeless eyes regarded us with detachment. Its eight legs were covered in long, jutting hairs, and as the thing approached us, the cavern became filled with a horrible stench.

“Ponies in my lairrrrrr…” the spider said in a clicking voice, its mandibles waving back and forth. “Was it you who maaaaaade that delicious energy? I could uuuuuse a good meal... ”

My vision was fading in and out. I was trying not to pass out, although I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay awake. I lolled my head from side to side, my eyes suddenly focusing on the tree in the center of the cavern.

“No… we can’t…” I said

“And then there’s THIS asshole!” Daring shouted, spitting at the spider. “Y’know, just once, just bloody once I’d like to get an artifact without running smack-long into the guardian!”

The spider made an odd huffing sound, almost like laughter. “And rrrrrrrun smack-long you have. But no simple ‘guarrrrrrrdian’ am I—I am Ungol, Devourer of Kingdoms, Terrrrrrror of the Southern Deepwoods. All things in this world are miiiiiiine to feast on…”

Panicked adrenaline was restoring my senses. I could now see that the others were all ensnared to my right, Daring being the one closest to me. They were all trying their hardest to loosen the webbing, but to no avail.

“Ungol-shmnongol, loser!” Scootaloo jeered. “You don’t scare me! I’ve swatted bigger pests than you with a newspaper!”

“Yeah!” Apple Bloom said. “We whooped your plant-thing, and we’ll whoop you, too! Right, Babs?”

Babs merely whimpered.

Ungol hesitated. She glanced back at the pit below the tree, then narrowed her predatory eyes. “You slayed the Plunnnnndervine... Discord will not be pleeeeeeeased to hear that. Perhaps I should keeeeeeeep you alive so that he can deal with you…”

Daring rolled her eyes. “Shoulda figured something as ugly as you would be working for him. He’s gonna betray you the first chance he gets, he know.”

Ungol made the huffing sound again. “Work for that overgrown chimeraaaaaa? Surely you jessssst. We merely have an arrangemennnnnt—I watch over this tree for him, and in return, I feeeeed off it to my heart’s content.” She then gestured to her grotesque bulk. “As you can seeeeee, I have been quite busyyyyyyy...”

The webbing was starting to harden, constricting my chest and making it hard to breathe. The others’ sudden gasps told me that the same thing was happening to them. Dimly, I wondered what had happened to the voices that been in our heads, but they didn’t seem to be of much help at the moment.

“Let us go!” I panted. I tried to pull free my rapier, but it was as stuck as I was. “You don’t... know what... you’re doing!”

Ungol turned her attention to me. “Let such tasty morrrrrrrsels go?” She reached up with a clawed leg and caressed my face, her rough hairs feeling like sandpaper. “Such fresh meat, and all that succulent magic insiiiiiiiide you as well? No, no, no. I think you will be quiiiiiite tasty…”

I fought the urge to scream. Ungol was so big that she could swallow me whole if she wanted, but a terrible feeling told me that wasn’t what she intended. She climbed up onto the wall and beared down on me, her glistening fangs filling my vision.

“SWEETIE!” the others screamed.

“Urrrrgghh!” I poured everything I had into getting free, but it was no use. I closed my eyes and waited for the end.

“Mmmmm...” Ungol’s foul breath smelled like rotting meat. “Scream forrrrrr me, won’t you? It makes your blood all the sweeterrrrrr...”

"DEVOURER."

Ungol hesitated. The booming voice had come from the entrance of the cavern, so loud that it reverberated off the walls. 

“Whooooo dares?!” The evil spider hissed. She whipped her head towards the speaker.

There at the entrance stood Shmangie. She was irate, seething, and more importantly, cloaked in violet light. Her mane and tail blew about in waves of magic emanating from her body, and her glittering eyes were narrowed in a murderous stare.

"RELEASE THEM."

Ungol let out a hungry screech. “Such powwwer!” She clambered off the wall and moved towards Shmangie. “Such delicious, succulent power! I shall diiiiiine on you first!”

The aura around Shmangie glowed brighter. The waves of magic picked up and swirled around her, the very ground cracking from the sudden flux. She grit her teeth and stood her ground, all the while furiously glaring at the unholy beast. Her horn became enveloped in a hazel aura that hurt to look at as a high-pitched humming sound filled the air.

“I wonderrrrr how you will tasssste, hmmm?” Ungol said, moving back and forth on her eight, disjointed legs. “I cannn’t wait to—

"BECOME DUST."

Shmangie unloaded a violet beam of energy that illuminated the entire desecrated cavern with a sound like cannonfire. I cried out in surprise and closed my eyes, but the afterimage was still burned onto my retinas. Ungol was hit dead-on, her entire bulk engulfed with a sickening sizzle.

Ungol let out a long, pain-filled shriek. I thought I heard her yell something over the roar of magic, but couldn’t fully make it out. The walls of the cavern rumbled and shook as a refreshing gale of air rushed through the confined space, and the sheer power of the attack sent shivers down my spine. All of a sudden, I felt my bonds loosening, breaking off and flecking away, and within seconds I slid free and landed roughly on my rump. 

“Oof!”

Seconds later, I heard four soft thumps to my right, one after the other. 

“Ouch!” Apple Bloom said. “Geez, that hurt! What the hay is happening now?!”

“Apparently Angie is a really quick magic study!” Scootaloo yelled over the noise. “Either that or she’s got Saiyan blood in her!”

“I’m okay with either!” Babs shouted. 

“No shit!” Daring said with a laugh. “Roast that spider!”

I felt Shmangie’s magic swirling around me, soothing my aches and rejuvenating me. Somehow I knew that I wasn’t in any danger, but that did nothing to quell my shock.

“Shmangie,” I whispered.

Ungol’s shrieks eventually died away, as did the blinding violet light. I dared open my eyes and looked all around, hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst. I looked to where Shmangie had been, and my jaw fell to the floor.

“Whoa…”

Ungol was gone. Not a trace of the putrid spider remained; not a claw, not a web, not even a soot stain on the floor. Even her foul odor was gone. What’s more, all the bones and dead plants littering the ground had disappeared, and the place was left looking oddly clean. Beams of light now filtered in through cracks in the ceiling, and amethyst crystals embedded in the walls refracted the light into tiny specks.

But what was most surprising was the tree. It had been completely freed from the Plundervine, and its wounds had been healed without so much as a scratch. Odd, twinkling lights now hung from its branches like ivy, and at the tips of those branches were five jewels, each a different color, sparkling brilliantly and beautifully in the dim light.

My breath caught in my chest. “Are those…”

“Sun and stars,” Babs murmured.

“WOO-HOO!” Scootaloo cheered, leaping to her hooves. “We did it! WE DID IT! We found ‘em!”

"Welcome, mortals."

We all froze. The voice—or voices, I should say, had come from behind us. We all turned around, and there was Shmangie, still with the glowing aura and bright, glittering eyes. Her cutie mark was pulsating with all the colors of the rainbow, and she slowly walked towards us with a serene smile.

“Don’t be afraid,” she said, her voice echoing powerfully in a chorus of six. “This one sensed our presence and asked that we explain ourselves. We mean you no harm.”

Everything suddenly clicked into place. I took a hesitant step forward. “You’re…”

“We are the Elements of Harmony,” Shmangie said, nodding. “Embodiments of peace and protectors of Equestria. We were the ones who guided you here and granted you strength. We’ve been anticipating your arrival for some time.”

I bit my lip. “Is Shmangie…”

In an instant, the power left her voice. She kneeled down and ran a gentle hoof down my face. 

“I’m here, kiddo,” she said, nuzzling me. “I just have some guests at the moment. I think we should probably listen to what they have to say.”

I looked up into her eyes, searching for some evidence of pain or deceit. I clicked my teeth a few times, but reluctantly, I decided to go with it. I nodded and took a step back to stand by the others.

“Nice to meet ya… er, Elements,” Apple Bloom said. “Didn’t know you could talk, but I suppose stranger things have happened. Thanks for the help with that overgrown weed back there.”

“And the spider,” Babs added with a shudder.

“It is we that should be thanking you,” the Elements said, standing back up. “We’ve not had compatible vessels to bond with since the Mad One’s betrayal. ‘Tis not been easy all this time, resisting the combined efforts of the Strangler and the Devourer.”

“Heh. I can imagine—wait.” Daring cocked her head. “What do you mean, ‘bond’?”

Shmangie went over to the Tree of Harmony, gesturing for us to follow. “Our purpose is to empower those who wish to spread harmony through the land. However, we may only channel ourselves through those who are strong in the virtues we embody.” She reached the base of the tree and hung her head. “Without proper Bearers, we are essentially helpless.”

Babs chewed on her lip. “So you’re saying that you haven’t been able to find anypony to use you all this time? For twenty-five whole years?”

“The Strangler and Devourer have been inhibiting us,” the Elements explained. “It was all we could do to defend ourselves from their combined assaults. We could only sense as far as the borders of the Everfree, and in that time, no pure creature has come near. You all are the first ones to arrive.” 

I swallowed hard. “So you’re saying that we...” I trailed off, gesturing to all of us.

“You all are the new Bearers, yes.” Shmangie’s cutie mark shone even brighter. She touched the tree, which pulsed with a prismatic shimmer. Its branches began to wave and bend, and one by one, the jewels on the ends of the branches began to hum. They all rose up into the air of their own accord, floating down to hover around Shmangie’s head like an otherworldly halo.

“Your predecessors...” the Elements’ voice became tinged with regret. “They were cut off us when the Mad One banished them. We can sense them now in Equestria, but we can tell that they have become changed. They are no longer in tune with us. It would take time to undo what has been done—but that is time we do not currently have.”

I looked down at the ground. This was a lot to take in, but at the same time, it kinda made sense. Rarity and the others were all still good ponies, but something about them was… different.

Shmangie calmly looked at each of us in turn. “We also have looked into your minds. You have become changed as well, but not to the extent as the others. You are still pure. You can still wield our power...”

Shmangie’s eyes became wide and soulful. “...that is, if you are willing. A warning: there will be great danger in this path, and it is not for the faint of heart. If you accept us, you will shoulder the burden of restoring harmony to this land. Will you take up the charge and help bring the Mad One to justice?”

It was a strange feeling. All this time I’d thought that if I was offered this chance, I’d accept it without a second thought. My thoughts had been consumed by the desire for this opportunity to the point of obsession. But now that it was right here in front of me, with all of it laid on the line and all the risks brought to light, I found my resolve wavering.

I looked to the others. They were all mulling over the Elements words, their gazes wandering as they nervously shifted back and forth. I knew that they were going over the same decisions as me, but none of them seemed any closer to replying. Our silence dragged on for half a minute, but the Elements waited there, patiently, never moving an inch.

“I’ll do it.” 

We all turned to Babs. She flinched slightly at the sudden attention, but kept her eyes on Shmangie and the tree.

“All this time, we’ve sat on the sidelines and had others fight for us,” she said. “Hay, our friends and family our fighting for their lives right now. To back out now would not only be an insult to them, but to all the other ponies that have helped us along the way. I came to Equestria because I wanted to help in any way I could, and I knew what the risks were when I stepped through that mirror. If this is the way that I can do something, then I’ll accept it no matter what.”

Shmangie smiled. The tree’s branches waved back and forth, and the cavern became ever-so-more brighter.

“Yeah! What’re we waiting on?” Scootaloo said, her wings buzzing. “We’ve come this far! Let’s finish the fight!”

Apple Bloom nodded. “I’m in.”

Daring cracked her neck and smirked. “Ditto.”

They all turned to me, but I didn’t reply. Instead, I cleared my throat looked to my sibling,

“How about you?”

The light left Shmangie’s eyes again. She giggled softly. “I think it’s pretty clear that I’ve already said yes. The only one left to decide is you.”

Well, that was pretty much the nail in the coffin. I wasn’t really sure why I was hesitating, but they were all willing to do this, I couldn’t very well let them do it by themselves. I think my reluctance was because I didn’t want to pressure them into this decision, and I felt that if I jumped at it, they’d feel obligated… to…

Oh, irony. How I’ve missed your agonizing sting.

“Okay,” I said. I widened my stance and stood up straight. “I’ll do my best.”

“That is all we ask,” the Elements said. Shmangie then closed her eyes, and the five gems orbiting her came to a halt. Each of them hummed in a different pitch, making my skin prickle. Then, after a moment, the green gem hovered away from Shmangie’s head, moving slowly and gracefully towards Babs.

“Babs Seed,” the Elements began. “You are considerate and thoughtful. Your intentions are sometimes misunderstood, but you deeply care about your friends. You always do everything you can to help others, and your plans are designed to keep others from harm. For this, you are worthy of the Element of Kindness."

Before all of our eyes, the jewel began to change shape. It shifted into half of a sphere, narrowing slightly to form the indents of seeds. The top part pushed out to form a stem, a seconds later, it was in the shape of a bisected apple; a perfect copy of her cutie mark. A golden collar formed around the jewel, slowly descending to loop around Babs’ neck.

“Thank you,” she murmured in a thick voice.

The Elements then turned to the next of our group. “Scootaloo. You are mischievous and clever. You use your wit to bring joy to others, and while your personality is somewhat… colorful, your heart remains free of malice. You go out of your way to shield others from loneliness and pain, even when you are hurting yourself. Such character traits are quite rare, but they are what make you so special, for they make you perfect for the Element of Laughter.”

The blue gem moved towards Scootaloo. As it did, it morphed into the shape of an insect in flight with large, angular wings. The Element revolved once around her, leaving a sparkling, glittering trail before fastening itself around her neck.

“Laughter, eh?” She fiddled with the shining jewel. “Not gonna lie, was kinda hoping for Loyalty. But when you put it all that way… yeah, I think you’re right. This is a better fit.”

Shmangie continued on. “Apple Bloom. You are steadfast and honorable. You tend to think with your heart, but that often times leads you to see what others do not. Deceit rolls off of you like a wave, and you value truth and sincerity above all things. The Element of Honesty is yours.”
 
The orange gem hovered over to Apple Bloom, and as it did, its facets transformed into the wide petals of a blossom. It hovered before her for a few seconds, then formed into a necklace and rested on her neck for all the world to see.

“Hoo-wee!” Apple Bloom said with a happy squee. “Wait till Applejack sees this!”

“Daring Do,” the Elements said, turning to the newest member of our group. “You are persistent and devoted. You are also sometimes reckless and short-tempered, but never in a selfish manner. You have seen great evil in your travels, but in those times, you sought to protect those around you in any way you could. Your indomitable spirit can always be counted on in times of need, and for that, I give you the Element of Loyalty.”

The red gem went to her. Its inner parts changed into a perfect circle, and its cardinal points elongated and narrowed into fine points. Now turned into a compass rose, the Element spun rapidly before her eyes before coming to rest and fastening itself around her neck.

“Niiiiice,” Daring said, admiring the Element in the dim light. “I could get used to this!”

Shmangie then stared past us with unfocused eyes. “And now, Angelina. You are selfless and giving. You harbor a strong desire to succeed, but you would sacrifice anything you had to in order to help the ones you love. Your charitable nature has kept your spirit free of greed. Your stubbornness is your greatest fault, but when channelled properly, it is also your greatest strength. Take the Element of Generosity with our blessing, and know that the selflessness you’ve shown us here will not be forgotten.”

As she was talking, the violet gem descended from her head. The golden necklace formed swiftly, reforming into the shape of the Caduceus. The winged rod was finished by the time she was done speaking, more ornate and intricate than anything I’d ever seen.

Tears fell from Shmangie’s shining eyes. She said nothing in reply, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if there’d been some kind of mental exchange. I might’ve questioned it under different circumstances, but I was currently shocked over the realization of what Element was left.

“No,” I said flatly. “You can’t be serious.”

The Elements regarded me. “Why would we not be?”

“Because I’ve been a terrible friend!” I burst out. “I lied to my family! I’ve been a recluse! I’ve acted like an angsty teenager and cared only about myself! There’s no way I’m worthy of the Element of Magic!”

“You haven’t been a terrible friend, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said, coming up beside me. “Yeah, you’ve screwed up a few times, maybe kept some things to yourself, but it’s not like you were doin’ it to hurt anypony.”

Babs smiled. “You always came back for our birthday bash, didn’t you? And you spent time with us on your holidays and breaks. If anything, we were the ones who were terrible friends for never coming to visit you.”

“And that ‘caring only about yourself’ line’s a load of horseapples,” Scootaloo said. She patted me on the back. “If that were true, you wouldn’t have stayed with us when this whole thing started. Oh, and the recluse thing? Don’t forget that Twilight started out as a loner, too.”

Daring spoke up. “You don’t seem like a bad sort, Sweetie. Maybe a bit melodramatic, a little on the high-strung side, but nothing to sweat over. I think you just expect too much from yourself, that’s all.”

“And you know that I’ve always believed in you,” Shmangie said with a playful wink. “Or at least, you should know. It kinda comes with the whole ‘unconditional love’ thing.”

I was incredulous. Was I really hearing all of this? Did they really think that I was up for this kind of responsibility? I tried thinking of something to say in response, but everything just sounded like an excuse. 

“This is all so overwhelming,” I finally muttered.

“As it should be,” the Elements said. Shmangie’s horn touched the tree, and the star symbol in the center peeled back to reveal the final jewel. “The Element of Magic is the cornerstone, the force that binds the other five together. Its Bearer carries within them the soul of the group. They need not be the leader—anyone may claim that title—but without Magic… without Friendship…”

The Elements caught my gaze and held it there.

“...without you, Sweetie Belle, the others would not be united.”

My throat felt dry. It was hard to believe, but as I looked back through my memories, I realized that yeah, I kinda was the one who’d brought everyone together. I mean, sure, there would’ve been smaller connections, like Babs and Apple Bloom being together, but would all of us be together right now had things been different?

“Do you all agree with that?” I asked everyone.

They all exchanged looks, but after a few seconds, it seemed that they all did.

“It’s hard to explain,” Scootaloo said, scratching the back of her neck. “It’s like you fill in all the gaps.”

“You make stuff happen,” Babs said simply. “The rest of us never seem to have the drive.”

“Never felt right to do things when you’re not around,” Apple Bloom said with a shrug.

I exhaled out my nose. It was still was a little hard to believe, but I was kinda getting a unanimous response here. I couldn’t really see what they all apparently, but there wasn’t really a reason for me to be stubborn about it. 

“I’m honored,” I said, bowing my head. “Really, I am.”

“Do not doubt yourself, Sweetie Belle.” The Element of Magic flew gently over to me, shimmering in the cavern’s light. “You are intelligent, resourceful, and motivated. Your love for your friends and family is evident in everything you do, and while you wrestle greatly with pride, for each mistake made, a new lesson is learned. Accept the Element of Magic now, and remember that the friendships you share with these five are the greatest strength you’ll ever have.”

Before my eyes, the pink jewel became a stylized heart set behind a bell. It didn’t form into a crown, thankfully, but rather a gold necklace like the other five had. It smoothly clasped itself around my neck, and as it did I was surprised to discover that the metal felt comfortable and warm.

A grin spread on my face. “Because friendship is magic, right?”

Everyone rolled their eyes and laughed.

“That it is, kiddo,” Shmangie said. “That it is.”

It was done. We had accomplished the impossible. We’d actually found and restored the Elements of Harmony. I’d hoped against hope that we might be able to somehow pull it off, but this was beyond even my wildest expectations. We had some actual power now, and we could use it to help out Rarity and the others! I could hardly wait!

“I reckon Discord’s gonna be mighty surprised about this,” Apple Bloom said, chuckling. 

“No kidding!” Scootaloo said. “We gotta find Dash and the others now! We can help them!”

“It’s not gonna be easy getting to them,” Babs reminded us. She glanced down at her shiny new Element. “Keep in mind we gotta go back the way we came.”

“And it took a fair bit of time to get here,” Daring said, looking out at the cavern entrance. “Let’s hope we’re not too late.”

“We may be able to assist with that.” 

We all turned around.

“Oh?” I said.

“Now that you are all bonded with us, we can take to you the castle of the Mad One.” The Elements’ voice grew grave. “We sense that your friends need help. We fear their fight goes ill.”

Ooooh, boy. That didn’t sound good.

“Seems like that’s our cue, girls,” Daring said. She adjusted her necklace and flared her wings. “It’s go time.”

Apple Bloom rolled her shoulders and bucked the air. “I know I’m ready.”

Scootaloo pawed at the ground. “Aw, yeah! Get your game faces on!”

Babs steadied herself and let out a long sigh. “Let’s do this.”

“I’m ready, too,” Shmangie said. “Just say the word.”

This was it. The confrontation I’d been waiting for. Finally, my chance to bring Discord to justice. For all the pain, all the suffering, all the hardship he’d made everypony endure. For breaking apart families and friends and scattering them in foreign lands. For all the atrocities he’d committed in Equestria, and for the imbalance he’d made in the natural order.

“Are you ready?” the Elements asked me.

I nodded. I braced myself and readied my rapier.

“Discord, here we come.”














> The Last Crusade
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 17:


The Last Crusade



FLASH!

When my vision cleared, we were no longer in the cavern. We were now on a grassy plain, away from the forest in front of a large, derelict structure. The wind was blowing in strong gusts, and chillingly, the swirling clouds above had turned blood red. Large booms of thunder were occasionally heard, only to be followed by ominous forks of lightning.

I took a few steps forward, squinting at the building. “I know this place…”

It was enticingly familiar, like so many things I’d seen so far. It was desecrated, and reeked of dark magic like almost everything else, but there were still hints of things here and there that I recognized. I shivered in the wind and wracked my brain, trying to recall where I’d seen it before.

Apple Bloom recognized it first.

“Canterlot Castle…”

Indeed it was, or at least, what was left of it. Discord had defiled the thing like everything else, and now the once-proud structure was a mockery of what it once was. The walls had been replaced with moldy swiss cheese. Grotesque eyeballs were sprouting out of the entire western half, blinking and leering at everything they saw. The portcullis gate was spinning around like a revolving door. The moat was filled with bubbling tar. The statues had been replaced with pillars of salt that spewed multicolored liquid out their tops like geysers. On, and on, and on. The more I looked at the place, the more I wanted to be sick, and I could tell the others felt the same way.

Babs fell back on her haunches. “By the Sun…”

“Can say that again.” Scootaloo wrinkled her nose and looked around, grimacing at the sight of a shredded corpse by the entrance. “Dash and the others are inside, I take it?”

“They are,” the Elements said. Shmangie pressed her lips into a thin line. “Though we dare not take you further. The Mad One has your friends trapped in a dreamworld, and we believe that he intends to try and use them as hostages.”

“Oh, for crying out loud.” Daring threw up her hooves. “I freaking hate these kinds of situations! So what do we do, then?”

Shmangie turned to her. “We have observed that the Mad One enjoys gloating over his victims when it seems victory his is assured. If you can lure him into a false sense of security, we believe he will lower his guard. That will be the time to strike.”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “In other words, you want us to make the sadistic chaos monster think that we’re helpless, then blast him with the Rainbow Hadoken when his back’s turned. I think I’ll put that under, ‘Plans That’ll Definitely Get Us Killed’.”

“Yeah, that’s not a good idea,” I said. “Discord likes to play with his food, but if we try something like that, he’s gonna know that something’s up.”

The Elements were about to reply, but then, they suddenly fell silent. Shmangie stood as still as a statue, her eyes unfocused and blank. Her lips moved silently in some kind of exchange, but none of us could tell what was she was saying. She was like that for almost a minute, until finally, she nodded and stepped over to me.

“Your sister says that you’re an experienced actress. Is this true?”

I felt my stomach drop. “Uhhhh…”

“She kinda is, yeah,” Babs spoke up. “She once fooled a whole group of people into thinking that she was a distraught nine-year-old girl who’d lost her parents.”

“Hey, that was an extenuating circumstance!” I said, taking a step back. “We were halfway changed back into our pony bodies!”

“What about all your involvement in the school drama program?” Apple Bloom added. “Three leads and a bunch of supportin’ roles, or somethin’ like that? That ain’t nothin’ to sniff at.”

My ears pinned back against my head. “The high school drama program, Apple Bloom. Not exactly the pinnacle of achievements, there.”

“Oh, don’t act like you don’t wanna do this.” Scootaloo smirked. “I bet secretly, you’ve been hoping this whole time that we’re gonna have some kind of big, grandiose showdown with him, haven’t you?”

“Well, okay, you’ve—argh! that’s not the point!” I shot dirty looks at my friends. “You can’t compare any of that to this! Discord’s a super-powerful spirit of mischief and chaos! He’ll see right through anything I try!”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that, Sweetie,” Daring said, a knowing glint in her eye. “Bad guys love to monologue. If you give them the opportunity, they’ll jump on it like a fat kid on a candy bar.”

“And Discord’s certainly got a massive ego,” Apple Bloom said darkly. “Just take a look around. There ain’t a place around he hasn’t remade in his image.”

I felt my ears redden. “I… you… that... oh, come on! You can’t be serious! We’re talking about a guy who likes to pick his enemies off one by one! He’s gotta be paranoid as all get out! You really wanna risk everything on something flashy, and over the top?”

Babs came over and sat down beside me. “There wouldn’t be anything flashy about it, though. Or at least, there doesn’t have to be. You just have to keep him distracted so we can get a clear shot at him.”

“You don’t even have to do it for very long,” Apple Bloom said. “We just need to set a trap, and out of all of us, you’re the only one that he’s seemingly had any interest in.”

I fidgeted. “I get that, but aren’t I needed to help, um…” I made quotation marks with my hooves. “‘charge’ said shot? I can’t very well do both at the same time.”

Shmangie’s eyes glittered. “Even when not unified, we can still channel a portion of our power through our respective Bearers, as we demonstrated in the Everfree. We will be able restrain the Mad One without your aid… albeit briefly.”

I raised an eyebrow. “How briefly?”

“No more than a few seconds.”

I groaned and hung my head.

“I know you can do this, kiddo,” Shmangie said, her voice going normal. “This is right up your alley. You really can put on a convincing show when you have to, and… well, I hate to say it, but right now, you kinda have to.”

I didn’t reply to that. I fiddled with the Element of Magic around my neck, which suddenly seemed to be very uncomfortable.

Babs patted my back. “Nopony’s expecting you to be enthusiastic. We know it’s dangerous, but it’s better than just charging in there, Elements blazing. That won’t get us anywhere.”

“Oh, it’ll get us somewhere.” Scootaloo ran a hoof across her throat. “Just nowhere pleasant.”

Daring snickered. “Hey, you never know. The afterlife may not be so bad.”

“We have very few other options, Sweetie Belle,” the Elements said. Their hawk-like gaze bored into mine. “Your feelings are understandable, but we believe that this is our best chance to succeed. Are you up to the task?”

It felt like my heart was trying to leap out of my throat. A black, churning pit was roiling in my gut, and it was getting hard to think straight. I was flattered that they all had confidence in me, but they essentially wanted to use me as bait. I wasn’t even sure that I had what it took to fool him out in the first place! I mean, I was smart, sure, but I wasn’t going to pretend that I matched up to an immortal chaos spirit.

I reached up and rubbed the metal sheath around my horn. It’d been feeling kinda tight the last few days, and I’d been meaning to talk to Rarity about getting it adjusted. Fat chance of that happening now. At this point I may as well just take the damn thing—

Oh.

Ohhhhhhhh...

Ohhh-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho...

“Sweetie?” Babs said. “How about it? Do you think you can do it?”

An odd smirk crept up on my face. A low, sly chuckle escaped me, one that made Babs flinch beside me.

“Uh-oh.” She slowly backed away. 

“Oh, boy. I know that look,” Scootaloo said, grinning herself.

“Ho, nelly.” Apple Bloom rubbed her temples and sighed. “Here we go again...”

Shmangie’s expression was unchanged at first, but then, a moment later, her expression twisted into a grimace..

“We do not understand,” I heard the Elements murmur softly. “What is this ‘duct tape’ that you speak of?”

Daring was the only one who was clueless. “Hey!” She walked up to me and waved a hoof in front of my face. “ Talk to us, girl! What’s with the moodswing?”

I turned to her, my eyes wide and devious. It was still there, of course—the blankness in her eyes that frustrated me so.

Perfect.

I chuckled again and rubbed my hooves together. “Prepare... for shenanigans.”



***



Ten Minutes Later-

“AUGH!”

The spark immediately leapt off my horn and hit Daring square in the forehead. She gnashed her teeth and fell to the ground, and I backpedaled away to avoid getting hit. I winced as I watched her shudder and spasm, suddenly very thankful that I only had to experience that once.

I turned to Shmangie. “You’re sure you can hide the others?”

“Have faith,” the Elements said calmly. Shmangie turned and looked up at the castle. “Hmph. It seems you were not mistaken. He is on his way.”

“All right!” I shooed away the others. “Go, then! Wait for my signal!”

“Gotcha! Break a leg!” Scootaloo said.

“Stay safe,” said Babs.

Apple Bloom nodded. “See ya in a bit.”

The light suddenly left Shmangie’s eyes. Before I could react, she stepped forward and gave me a fierce hug, squeezing me tight against her shoulder. She kissed my cheek and whispered two words in a tight voice.

“Don’t die.”

She unclasped my Element, and with another FLASH, all five of them were gone. 

I let out a long, slow sigh. I was now alone on the far edge of the castle moat, staring up at the malformed parapets with the wind whistling in my ears. I adjusted my mane and gripped my rapier tightly, scanning the building for any sign of my foe.

The place was like a graveyard. The windows were all dark or shattered, without so much as a flicker of light within. Idly, I wondered if Discord usually spent a lot of time here, or if he’d chosen this as the place of the final battle for other reasons. The longer I thought about that, though, the less I cared. In the end it was just another plaything to him, another trophy that he kept simply to flaunt over all of us.

There was a lot of sound coming from behind me, though. Not that I needed to see what it was, mind you. Discord liked to keep all his toys in one place, apparently, because not a mile away were the ravaged outskirts of Ponyville, currently under siege by an amalgamation of horrors. 

Oddly enough, the ponies there were doing a pretty good job of holding them off… though I suspected this less thanks to them, and more to the dragons dominating the skies. 

Yes, I said dragons. Reptilian, bat-winged, fire breathing, ferocious dragons. They were of all shapes and sizes, ranging from smaller than a pony to nearly the size of the town. I had no idea where they’d come from, or why they were on our side, but I wasn’t about to second-guess a miracle. They were kicking flank and taking names, to be certain, but Discord’s forces still outnumbered them. It was only a matter of time before they were overwhelmed, unless somepony cut off the head of the snake.

“My, my, my,” a low, silky voice said. “Isn’t this a surprise.”

Speak of the devil...

A shadow separated itself from the polka-dotted castle wall. Lazily, the silhouette swam through the air and made its way over to me, staying pure black and indistinct despite it being the middle of the day. The air seemed to drop in temperature, and a chill ran up my spine as the dark thing rose above me and circled like a vulture, examining me with red, mismatched eyes.

“I seem to recall telling you what would happen if you freed anyone else.” The voice made a tsk-tsk sound. “Apparently, somepony isn’t very good at following instructions.”

The spike of adrenaline almost overwhelmed me. I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to scream, cry, run, or charge headlong with sword and song. Every fiber in my body was telling me to do something other than just casually stand there, but that’s exactly what I did. 

I kept my voice even and continued to stare straight ahead. “I had to get your attention, somehow.”

The shadow’s reply was a laugh. “You did that to just get my attention? Aren’t you the ballsy one.”

There was a whip-like CRACK, and then he was in front of me, looming over my filly body with a mad grin. Discord was as terrifying I remembered him, with ugly, mismatched parts and wickedly sharp teeth. There was an aura of foul power about him as well that made my horn feel tingly and strange, and every inch of him oozed malevolence and spite.

“Actually, I take that back,” Discord said with a wicked grin. “You don’t have balls anymore.”

I clenched my jaw so hard it hurt. Fantasies of turning him into a pincushion ran through my mind, but I pushed them aside. I continued to stare calmly at him, my expression stone-faced and stoic.

Discord waited a few seconds to see if he’d gotten a rise out of me, but when it was clear he hadn’t, he threw up his claws and shrugged. “Meh. I never could get the whole ‘inspire fear and dread’ thing down. Maybe I need to make myself bigger, or give myself spikes? What do you think?”

I rolled my eyes. “Still trying new things, I see.”

“Well, hello to you too, Magellan,” Discord said haughtily. He reached down and ruffled my mane, much to my chagrin. “Not in the mood to play, are we? That’s a shame. Your sister and friends certainly were. They were all full of piss and vinegar, trying to rain fire and brimstone down on me.”

My heart skipped a beat. “Are they still alive?”

“For the moment,” Discord said with a haughty sniff. “Though I must tell you, I’m positively hurt! Hurt, I say! That they’d attack me after I gave you all such a nice soiree in the human world?! I gave you all the chance to experience life through new eyes, and this is how you repay me? For shame!”

My limbs were shaking. Though whether it was from fear, or rage, I couldn’t tell. “Is that really how you see it?” I asked.

“Pfft. Of course not.” Discord examined his claws with a bored look. “I wanted to make you all suffer, my silly little pony. Would’ve defeated the purpose if any of you had enjoyed it.”

Okay, it was definitely rage. It felt like something was trying to claw its way out of my chest, and the fringes of my vision were going blurry. Briefly, I wondered how many shots I could get in before he took me down. There was a certain romanticism in going down swinging—

Focus, Sweetie.

“It was all just an act from the start, wasn’t it?” I said, looking up at him. “You never really were reformed at all. You were just biding your time.”

Discord burst out laughing. “Oh, and it was so easy, too! You seriously thought that spending a few days with Little Miss Wallflower would suddenly make me see things in a new light? I can’t believe you all fell for it!!”

I narrowed my eyes. “And let me guess—the whole thing with Tirek was an act, too.”

A shower of confetti exploded all around me. “Ding, ding, ding!”

He snapped his fingers, and his eyes lit up like light bulbs. Suddenly, I was sitting on a movie theater chair in front of a big screen, and a video began to play on it, playing from his eyes like a projector.

“Tirek was a patsy,” Discord said. “An absolutely clueless, perfect patsy. He played his part better than I even hoped he would, let me tell you. I loosened the bonds on his cell, allowed him to escape from Tartarus, and lo and behold, he immediately starts going gung ho with stealing magic! Never mind the idea of fleeing somewhere safe to regroup and plan, oh no. He absolutely had to get his revenge right then and there!”

I sat up straight in my seat. “Wait, YOU were the one who released—”

My mouth abruptly turned into a zipper and zipped shut.

“Ah, ah, ah.” Discord waggled a claw at me. “No talking while the movie’s playing. Honestly, Sweetie Belle, you’ve such terrible manners! Whatever would your sisters think?”

I seethed and seethed. I tried tugging at the zipper, but it was stuck. I growled and began pulling harder, trying my hardest to get it free.

“As I was saying, Tirek was an idiot,” Discord continued. “Most centaurs are, truth be told. I let him get out thinking he might be a good distraction sometime down the line, but apparently, patience isn’t one of his strong suits. I was trying figuring out how to make the best of the situation when out of the blue, Celestia herself puts me in charge of recapturing him! I couldn’t have planned that better if I tried!”

The movie screen was now showing scenes of Discord performing nefarious acts. He bribed Cerberus with a bone laced with sleeping powder, then snuck in into the depths and fiddled with Tirek’s cage when nopony was watching. He then flew out, silent as a ghost, steepling his fingers and grinning devilishly all the while.

“Oh, and that wasn’t even the best part!” Discord said, roaring with laughter. “As soon as I find the old goat, he tries the old, ‘let’s be partners in crime, I swear I won’t betray you’ trick! It was so pitiful that I was tempted to throw him back in Tartarus just out of spite! But no, that wouldn’t do, no, no, no, no. You see, I was curious about Tirek’s ability to steal magic, which I hadn’t known much about, and it’s not exactly polite to just go up and ask about such things. So, I thought that maybe if I watched him work, I might learn by example.”

Finally, I managed to free the zipper. I tore the stupid thing open, and it vanished with a pop!

“Seems like that one backfired on you,” I snarked, crossing my hooves. “Seeing as he then went and stole your magic, too.”

“Hmm, he did, didn’t he?” Discord said coyly. “I wonder why I’d fall for something as obvious as that?”

He snapped his fingers again, and an instant later, my theater chair had turned into a school desk, and the big screen was now a chalkboard. Discord was now wearing an ugly tweed jacket and burgundy pants, intently staring at me through a pair of thick spectacles.

“Think.” He conjured a ruler out of midair and tapped it against the chalkboard. “If you recall, Tirek took everypony’s magic for his own and stored it inside himself. Now, even with your limited knowledge of magic, do you think he stored each creature’s power separately—”

Discord leaned in close and gave me a mad, toothy smile. “—or do you think that it all might’ve gotten… mixed together?”

All the blood drained from my face. My eyes went wide as the realization hit me, hard and fast like a hammer.

“You didn’t.”

Discord grin reached to his eyebrows. “I did.”

“Impossible,” I said, suddenly feeling sick. “There’s no way that somepony wouldn’t have noticed!”

“There are ways to camouflage magical signatures, my dear,” Discord said smugly. “And I know several.”

I felt violated. Dirtied. All this time I’d thought I’d had a grip on what was going on, but I hadn’t had a clue. I closed my eyes and took deep breaths, trying not to let the revulsion show on my face.

“That’s how you were able to cast such a powerful spell so quickly without being detected,” I said. “Your chaos was already inside us from when Tirek stole everypony’s magic. You just had to activate it on with some kind of trigger.”

Discord took a sweeping bow. “Brilliant, wasn’t it?”

“That’d also explain how you messed with our destinies,“ I muttered, raising a hoof to my chin. “I’ve talked to a fair amount of ponies the last few weeks, and no matter what any of them tried, or did with their lives, they always felt miserable and incomplete. Even if they followed their special talents and gave it their all, there was always something that got in their way. That something was your chaos, interfering in subtle ways and steering us all towards disaster.”

Discord began to clap, his teacher clothes dissolving into smoke. “Well done, my dear! I do believe you’ve got it! You really are something of a Sparklebutt Lite, aren’t you?”

I glared at him. “Whenever I tried to pursue singing, I found my pathway blocked. In high school, it was my social life or extracurricular activities, but in college, it was my academic studies.”

“Oh, so you’re an egghead because of me?” Discord made a dismissive noise. “Well, I assure you, that wasn’t my intent. Probably had something to do with your sister’s interference when I tried to activate your curse. She put up quite a fight you know, by the way, both then and now. Wouldn’t have thought someone like her knew such powerful magic, but hey, live and learn.”

I held up my rapier, critically examining its hilt and engraving. “You’ve done terrible things, Discord. You made us all forget our lives. You tore apart families and stole our country. You’ve killed, stole, pillaged, and worst of all, you’ve just admitted to all of it being premeditated. Wars have been fought over less.”

“And again you reveal your ignorance.” Discord shaded his eyes and looked past me towards Ponyville. “I don’t know if you’ve looked behind you recently, but there actually is a war—HRK!”

I stabbed him. I stabbed him again, and again, and again. My rapier was a vengeful frenzy as I impaled every part of his body with relentless force. I poured everything into my strikes, determined to run him through for every life he’d disrupted. 

Memories of the past twenty-five years fueled my assault—the frustration of being denied a life of music, the strange friction between me and my friends, the pointless brooding, the endless, lonely hours of questioning why, the stress of this whole ordeal, anything and everything. It all combined together to push my righteous advance, and while I knew my power wasn’t much by myself, I prayed that it would be enough.

Discord’s body fell to the ground a bloody mess, but I didn’t stop. For good measure, I decapitated him, lopped off his stupid horns, gouged out his foul eyes, picked up his head and stuck it on one of the castle spikes, then chopped his patchwork body into its respective segments. I then scattered the segments across the field, throwing one in the moat, another across the field, and a third up on the castle wall, and the fourth—

“Well. That was gruesome.”

I spun around. Sitting there on a polka-dotted couch was Discord, unharmed, sipping at a soda and munching popcorn. He was wearing a pair of 3D movie glasses, and looked thoroughly amused as he watched me eviscerate his clone.

“Seems like somepony’s got some anger issues.” He slid the glasses down his nose and frowned. “You might want to keep that little temper of yours under control, missy, or we’ll have to change this story’s content rating.”

Panting, I wiped off the bloodsplatter and spat at his feet. “Rat bastard… you deserved that… and you know it.”

“I suppooooose I have been a bit of a stinker.” He tossed another kernel into his mouth. “But still, that’s no reason to go all Jack the Ripper on me. I swear, it’s always the quiet ones with the vicious streaks.”

I glowered at him, but then, I felt my skin prickle. There was a sudden chime in my head, followed by a subtle change in the air. I glanced out the corner of my eye, and I caught a prismatic glint.

“Tell me why you really came here, Sweetie Belle,” Discord said. “I know it wasn’t just so you could scold me. The ponies in town aren’t surrendering, and you’re certainly not dumb enough to think that a sword would do anything. I think it’s time that you fess up—”

There was a crackling sound, like frost forming. There noticeable shift in his posture, from relaxed to suddenly tense. His manic eyes suddenly went wide, and before he could do anything, he became frozen in place. 

“You’re right,” I said with a wide, shit-eating grin. “I didn’t come here for any of those reasons, Discord. All of that was just for me.”

The shimmering air flickered, and to my left, the illusion hiding the others lifted up like a veil. The Element of Magic appeared around my neck in a white flash, and I felt the wellspring of power again, building up inside me like a raw conduit of electricity. I felt the others this time, as well, like five colorful stars burning in the cold, dark night.

I felt my Element reaching out to theirs, connecting them, joining them, forming a glittering web of harmonious light. I could feel them all now. Scootaloo’s power was bright and happy, Babs’ was soft and comforting, Apple Bloom’s was strong and steady, Daring’s was hot and pulsing, and Angie’s was cool and sharp. Alone, we weren’t much, but together, we could accomplish so much more. We could move mountains. We could cross oceans and soar the skies. We could right all wrongs and restore balance to all things.

We could save our stolen world.

A beautiful song began to play in my mind and heart. I felt myself rising up into the air, and the others followed suit beside me. I reached out and touched their hooves, and a prismatic aura of light formed around our bodies. The earth rumbled, the castle walls shook, and the very air around us crackled and sparked as our power grew exponentially.

It was so amazing right then, being alongside my friends in that moment, working together to right a grievous wrong. We were the avatars of harmony, and its power shone brightly in our hearts. We were the dispensers of justice and retribution. We had suffered, fought, fled, bled, but it was all worth it, because it all led to this. 

The Elements reached their apex. The feeling was indescribable in that moment, joined together with the others, wielding such amazing power. My vision became tinged with white again, and I looked down without pity at the treacherous, tyrannical trickster.

“This... is for Equestria.”

A rainbow of light erupted from the six of us with a colossal VWUM. With terrifying speed, it flew forth and nailed the ensnared Discord, who couldn’t even cry out in alarm. The force shattered the ground, and created a mighty shockwave that went out for hundreds of yards, as well as throwing up a huge dust cloud that obscured our vision. The sound of the explosion was deafening, causing several of the castle windows to shatter. The outer walls began to crack and crumble as well, and the entire building shook ominously.

We nuked him for about half a minute before we backed off. We all gently floated to the ground together, the Elements’ power waning and returning us to normal. 

“Whoa…” I staggered as a wave of fatigue suddenly struck me, like I’d just done a full day’s worth of manual labor. I heard murmurs of surprise and stumbling hooves beside me, as well.

Babs coughed and squinted into the smoking crater. “Did we do it?”

I covered my mouth and stifled a sneeze. “Not sure. We might need to—”

“APPLE BLOOM?! Is that you?”

I swear, that voice scared me so bad I nearly crapped myself. All six of us whirled around in a flash, and there a short ways away stood Applejack, looking at us all with wide, incredulous eyes.

But she wasn’t alone, either. There beside her was Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Rarity, Dash, Big Mac, and Shining Armor. They all had various scratches and bruises, but none of them seemed worse for the wear.

My jaw dropped. “No way…”

“APPLEJACK!” Apple Bloom galloped over and locked her in a bear hug. Babs was close behind, and together they actually knocked the wind out of the poor mare and made her fall over.

“OOF!”

Dash stepped forward. “How did you guys... and where did you guys find...?”

Error. Error. Does not compute. SweetieBelle.exe has encountered a critical error. A system restart is now required. Press any key to continue.

“Ah… hey there, Dash!” Daring said, noticing my freeze up. She trotted past me and went over to her. “Glad to see you’re all right! It was a group effort, you know. Sorry for using it without you. I know it’s yours... er, the Element, I mean.”

Meanwhile, Rarity ran past them and rushed over to Shmangie and me. “How on earth… are you both alright?”

“Buh?” I blinked several times, still somewhat dazed. 

“She’s fine,” Shmangie said. She put a hoof on my shoulder. “We all are. How about all of you?”

Rarity opened her mouth to reply, but then, she noticed the glittering Element around Shmangie’s neck.

“Oh, my...” She held it up to examine the engravings in the light. “Heavens above... it’s beautiful, darling...”

Dash looked Daring over, then glanced at the still-smoldering crater. “Hey, no worries about the Element! I’m honestly glad that you used it! I kinda had my hooves tied with other things.”

“Oh, we used them all right!” Scootaloo said. She ran up to Dash and gave her a hug. “Blasted him straight to hell! You should have seen us!”

“Ah?! Oh! Heya, squirt.” Dash returned the hug half-heartedly, her attention never leaving the smoke cloud. “We, erm... actually did see you all from the… uh, throne room... hey, um… sorry but, can you hold on a sec? I’ll be right back.” 

She abruptly stepped away from Scootaloo and Daring to go back over to Shining and Twilight, who were also still staring into the thick smoke. In her wake, Scootaloo and Daring cocked their heads in unison.

“Eh?” Daring said.

“That was weird,” Scootaloo said.

Shmangie drug a hoof along the ground, not meeting Rarity’s eyes. “I, uh… hope you don’t mind. We didn’t have a lot of options.”

“Mind?” Rarity echoed, her tone quizzical. “Whatever do you mean?”

Shmangie did a double-take. “Wat.”

“Well, it’s not like I ever had a true claim to it,” Rarity said with a dismissive air. “From what I understand, we just found the Elements of Harmony in an old castle, right? Not much of a title to ownership, there. It’s not like I’ve any reason to complain.”

I looked between the two of them, unsure what to think. Rarity’s words seemed earnest, but her eyes told another story. I glanced over at Shmangie, and could tell she was thinking the same thing.

“Rarity…” Shmangie began.

“And Sweetie! Look at you!” Rarity abruptly said, turning to me. “Is that the Element of Magic you’re wearing?”

I let out a nervous laugh. “Funny story about that...”

“Uh-uh,” Shmangie said. “Don’t hide this and pretend like it doesn’t mean anything to you. Talk to me.”

Each of them took a seat on either side of me and began talking. Meanwhile, my attention was drawn over at Dash and Twilight, who were still staring into the smoky crater. They were talking with Shining, who still seemed to be on edge.

“...wish we could… all that smog,” I heard Shining say. He was speaking too softly for me to hear all of the conversation. “...no way… him off. You… any spells… smoke, do you?”

Twilight tapped her chin and looked up at the sky. “Remember… spell… you laughed… learning?”

A moment later, her horn lit up and a breeze began to pick up. The smoke slowly began to dissipate, clearing enough for us to see. One of us began to clap their approval.

Pinkie tilted her head. “Wait, who’s clapping?”

I looked around. It didn’t seem to be anyone I could see, and we were all… sitting… down…

“Oh... fuck,” Dash said.

“My, my, my. You ponies are full of surprises today,” Discord said, his voice floating out from the crater. 

Everyone stopped dead. A moment later, the smoke cleared enough to show him standing there, unharmed, giving us the slowest of golf claps.

My breath caught in my chest. “No!” I ran forward. “That’s impossible! You got a direct hit!”

“That I did, my dear,” Discord said lazily. He casually inspected the nails on his claw. “Stung something fierce, too. Rather pathetic, really—you must’ve gotten a defective set of Elements. Can you still take them back and get a refund? Maybe store credit?”

Twilight rubbed her chin. “The Elements probably got weakened after decades of being abandoned. But still, they should have at least hurt him.”

I grit my teeth. “No! We beat you! It should be over!”

Discord’s mocking laughter filled the air. “Sorry to disappoint, but you failed again! You always do, and you always will. You can’t win.”

Attack him, the Elements whispered in my mind. Attack him now...

I grit my teeth and shut my eyes. Fat lot of good that’ll do! You saw what happened when I tried, earlier! Is it true, Elements? Are you too weak from those monsters to finish the job? Are we screwed?

We have evened the odds, the Elements’ waning voice said. The rest is up to you. We must rest now... Strike true, Sweetie Belle…

Wait, what?! No! Hold on!

Strike true…

And then I was alone.

So close, and yet so far. We were at the finish line, and then, like always, we tripped over our own hooves.

“No…”

 My seething anger resurged. It boiled up inside me, than overflowed and erupted like a mighty volcano. 

“No!”

My vision went red. My rapier appeared beside me in an emerald flash.

“NO! JUST DIE ALREADY!” I swung my sword at him with all my might.

Discord rolled his eyes. He held out his eagle’s claw to block the sword... 

...except his magic didn’t work. My rapier kept going and sliced right through the claw, severing off two of his talons in the process.

His eyes went wide. He spat out an expletive I didn’t recognize. “What in the... ARGH! That actually hurt!”

Everypony was speechless. We all stared dumbstruck at Discord, who was clutching his bloodied arm. Dash immediately turned to Twilight, clearly expecting an explanation, but it was Shining who figured it out first.

“He’s mortal…”

Discord’s head snapped up. “W-what? No! I'm always immortal! I’m a god!” He looked down at his bleeding hand, but nothing happened. It wasn’t regenerating or healing itself.

Twilight gave a low whistle, “Looks like the Elements weren’t entirely useless, after all. Ready to surrender now, Discord?”

He glared at her with venom. “You little shits are NOTHING! I still have more power in one limb than any of you could even dream of!”

“Why don’t we test that, then?!” Shining cried out. “BATTLE FORMATION!” 

At this, Rarity and the others fanned out to attack. The rest of us took the hint and spread out, as well.

Discord sneered. “As if I’m stupid enough to fight all of you at once. Take those damn Elements and rot in the space between worlds! Begone!”
 
He made to snap his fingers, but before he did, a multicolored orb of light suddenly hovered out of Shmangie’s body. It floated above her for a few seconds, spinning faster and faster like a kaleidoscope before splitting into six parts. Each one of the parts went sailing towards one of us and disappeared into our necklaces, and a prismatic glow surrounded Discord’s body.

There was a whip-like CRACK. It felt like something yanked me backwards by the scruff of my neck, and I went sailing backwards through the air, the grassy plain gradually greying out and fading into nothingness.


***


All was dark. I was blind, clueless, without any knowledge of what was going on around me. I couldn’t hear anything, either, but after a few seconds, I began to make out a dull series of muted bangs and thuds, as if from underwater. 

Slowly, my vision cleared, and my hooves touched down on something solid. I looked around to get a sense of where I was.

What I saw didn’t make a whole lot of sense. I was in a blue, hazy void filled with stars and wispy clouds that lazily drifted past me. It stretched on and on in every direction without end, and there was no ground or sky to speak of.

“What in tarnation?!” I heard a familiar voice say behind me. “The hay just happened?”
 
Now, I say ‘familiar’ because the voice wasn’t quite the same. It was Apple Bloom’s, for sure, but... different. It was lower, clearer, and more mature sounding than I recalled. I turned around to look at her, and when I did, my eyes almost bugged out of my head.

“BUH?!”

Apple Bloom was a filly no longer. She was a full-grown mare in her prime, with a strong, muscular frame and long, crimson locks that were tied up in a sleek braid. Her tail was done up in the same fashion, and she was rubbing the back of her head with a slight wince on her face.

“Dang Discord musta hit us with some kinda spell,” she muttered to herself. “We gotta get back before—AHH!” 

Apple Bloom jumped about a foot in the air when she noticed me.

“Stars and garters!” she exclaimed. “Look at all’o ya!”

“All of us, cousin,” a motherly voice said behind me. “You might wanna take a look at yourself.”

I got goosebumps. Slowly, I turned around and beheld Babs, who had undergone a similar transformation. She was similar to Apple Bloom in size and muscle tone, though her back legs weren’t as well defined. Her two-toned mane was arranged in a complex zigzag pattern, and her once-prominent freckles were now faded. Standing beside her was Scootaloo, an adult as well, with a slim and wiry body, short mane and tail, and broad, angular wings.

Finally, it was with trepidation that I looked down at myself. I was an adult, too, thin and lithe, with a naturally curly mane and a sharp, slender horn. I was the tallest of the four of us, my coat was a soft, greyish-white, my tail was done up in a simple coiffure, and my magic was fully developed. 

I stumbled on my longer limbs. “What is this…”

Scootaloo snickered. “I don’t know, but I like it!”

“Where are we?!” I said. Even my voice sounded alien—it’d shifted from an adolescent chirp to a silvery soprano. “What’s happened to us? Why are we like this?!”

“Shmage!” 

My ears twitched. I looked to my left, and there, two figures came running out of a passing cloud. Shmangie and Daring ran up, smiling as they came close, taking in our new appearances with approval.

“Good, you’re awake.” Shmangie looked me over and ran a hoof through my wavy curls. “Dios, you’ve got such a good mane... we’re gonna have fun with that later… and Dylan, your wings! Oh gosh, I’ll bet you can fly now!”

I warily eyed Shmangie and Daring. They both looked relatively the same, though there was something about Daring that caught my eye. She looked more confident, more relaxed, and there was an air of wisdom about her that hadn’t been there before.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“We don’t have a lot of time.” Shmangie gestured to the void around us. “The Elements told me a bit about this place—it’s basically where the spirits of mortals and immortals are on an even playing field. Recognize it at all?”

I chewed on my lip. It did seem familiar somehow, but I had no idea why. I’d think I’d remember if I’d ever been to mystical space land! Unless maybe it was somewhere from the show? That was a possibility. There were lots of crazy places that Twilight—

I flinched and tensed up, stiff as a board.

“Seems like she does,” Daring observed. “Though I wouldn’t get too excited. I doubt any of us are gonna be sprouting wings or horns anytime soon.”

I fell back on my haunches. “I… I don’t understand. Why are we here? And what do you mean, ‘even playing field’?”

“The Elements made it so that Discord’s spirit got taken along with us when he sent us here,” Shmangie said quickly. “Dash and the others are fighting his physical form in the physical world as we speak, but we need to keep his spirit here. If it escapes, he’ll be able to restore his immortality.”

I tried to digest that, but I was still a little dazed. I just looked at her with scrunched eyebrows, my mouth twisted into a grimace. Behind me, the other’s reactions were much the same.

“Uh, you might wanna break that down a bit more there, Angie,” Daring said, noting our confused looks. “Maybe start with explaining how you know all that in the first place.”

“Or how about why we’re all adults!” Apple Bloom said crossing her hooves. “How about you clue us in on that!”

“I’ll explain later,” Shmangie said, her voice still rushed. “Right now, we have to hurry the hell up, because like I said, Dash and the others are fighting Discord in the physical world as we speak! They’re not gonna hold out for forever!”

“She’s right,” Daring said grimly. “We’ve already wasted enough time waiting for you all to wake up. We gotta haul ass.” 

I grit my teeth. I was at a loss for words, but I could definitely read the mood of the situation. “Okay! Okay!” I unsteadily stood back up and gave my head a shake. “But you better explain things later!” 

“I will!” Shmangie said. She tugged me forward and gestured for the others to follow. “Let’s go!”

“Where?” Babs called. “Where are we going?”

“To where Discord is!” Shmangie replied. “Daring can track him down like she did with the Elements!”

“But how do you know—”

“LOOK!” Shmangie yelled over her shoulder. “The Elements told me some things before they split off, all right?! They injected a crapload of random info into my brain, and I’m still trying to make sense of all of it! Thanks to that, my head hurts like hell, my legs feel like jelly, and I’m still hearing random musical notes for some rewason! I’m not in the mood to play twenty questions with you! Just shut up and FOLLOW US!”

“Eep.” Babs fell silent. With a bowed head, she fell into step beside Apple Bloom and awkwardly ran in her new body, trying not to trip.

Scootaloo chuckled. “Somepony got yellllllllled aaaat.” She spread her wings and took to the air.

“I hope it’s not far,” Apple Bloom muttered. “This place gives me the creeps.”

“It’s not,” Daring said as she flew on our left side. “He’s hiding just a little ways away from us, but he’s been ignoring us. I think he’s more concerned with trying to get out of here.”

“Are you able to tell what he’s doing?” I said. I was getting the hang of running now, and I was impressed at how fast I was able to go.

“I wish,” Daring said with a snort. “All I can tell is where he is. I do know he’s not moving, though.”

“We got a plan of attack?” Scootaloo asked. “Or we just winging it?”

“I think Angie does,” Daring said. “She hasn’t told me what it is yet, though.”

“It’s not complicated!” Shmangie narrowed her eyes and lowered her head. “Shmage said it best back at the farm! To hell with ambushes, drawn-out fights, or trying to take him on one at a time! Let’s blitzkreig the bastard!”

Oh, for crying out loud. Me and my big mouth.

“Oh, HELL yes!” Scootaloo crowed. She let out a loud whoop and flipped in the air. “Finally! We’re gonna take it to him!”

Babs groaned. “We’re gonna die.”

We ran for a few minutes in silence, the odd humming filling our ears. The clouds were ice-cold as we ran through them, making me shiver and wince. I had no idea where we were, or how far we’d gone, or even what we were running on. There was no way to tell where we were going, or where we’d come from, as everything looked the same in this strange place. Twinkling lights shone brightly above and below us, messing with our depth perception and making it hard not to stumble. 

The Element of Magic bounced awkwardly around my neck. I had no idea whether it was usable now, or whether it was just a piece of jewelry. I did see that something had happened with them right before Discord zapped us, but as to what that was, I didn’t know. I concentrated and tried to see if I could feel anything, but no dice.

I looked around at the others. Scootaloo as flying along gleefully, an energetic air about her. Apple Bloom was stone-faced and all business. Babs’ expression was pensive, but she kept pace with the rest of us. Daring was tense, her eyes darting around for any sign of danger. Shmangie’s face I couldn’t see, but if I had to take a guess, I’d say that she was just as nervous as I was, information from the Elements or no.

“He’s close!” Daring suddenly barked. “Get ready!”

“Get ready?” Babs said with wide eyes. “How?! We don’t even know—”

Suddenly, dark, spiked chains erupted from below us with a loud grating sound. They were large and numerous, with each link being larger around than one of my legs. The spikes on them were curved and barbed like fish hooks, and they whipped around us viciously, intent on snagging our flesh.

“WAUGH!” We all dived out of the way. Half of us to the left, half to the right. The chains rose high into the air, then split off and pursued both our groups with terrifying speed. Scootaloo and Babs were beside me, and we abruptly found ourselves running for our lives as the murderous links pursued us.

“Oh, dear me!” Discord’s mocking voice said from all around us. “It seems you’re all in quite the pickle! I’d love to play with you more, but I’m afraid I’m a little busy at the moment. Do me a favor and just DIE, will you?”

I no longer had my rapier. It hadn’t been brought to this place along with me. I tried to use some magic, but even though I was stronger, I didn’t know any spells. One of the chains cut us off and dove down on Scootaloo, intent on rending her flesh.

“RAAAGH!” I did the only thing I knew. I magically grabbed the chain and yanked it away with all my might. The thing kept coming, but I managed to deflect it enough to allow her to dodge. She tried to go higher to try and divert some of them away, but there were too many swarming all around us. She was forced to land, and all our escapes became cut off as we became surrounded on all sides.

“Plundervine version 2.0,” Scootaloo muttered. “Any ideas?”

My mind was a blank. I tried to think of a way out, but nothing came to mind. We were trapped.

“Uhh…”

The chains rushed towards us...

BANG! 

Shmangie appeared beside us in a hazel burst. She grabbed all three of us before we could react...

BANG!

...and we were suddenly far away from the chains. The starry void pulsed softly at us, featureless and serene.

“What…” I said.

But were weren’t safe yet. Sensing us, the deadly chains disentangled themselves and gave chase, intent on catching their prey.

“Going to be difficult, eh?” Discord clucked his tongue. “Naughty, naughty! No matter, though! I always did enjoy a good chase.”

“Shmage!” Shmangie took by the shoulders and looked me in the eye. “This place isn’t like the real world! There are practically no limits here! Think of it like being in a lucid dream!”

The chains flew closer, closer, and closer. A few of them had sprouted wolf-like mouths and let out bone-chilling howls. The air was becoming frigidly cold, and I could now see my breath.

“Wait, what?!” Scootaloo did a double-take. “You’re saying we can do anything we want?!”

Shmangie stepped past us towards our oncoming attackers. Calmly, she raised a her hoof—

SHTIIIIING!

—and a hazel forcefield erected around us. The chains struck it viciously, but as they did, they immediately dissolved into rose petals. The air exploded into a flurry of crimson, and just as quickly as the chains had come, they were now gone, with us standing in the heart of a flowery blizzard. 

Shmangie turned back around and grinned. “Try it.”

Wasting no time, Scootaloo squared her stance and focused. At first, there was nothing, but then…

It began at her hooves. Joints of interlocking indigo armor pieces began creeping up her limbs like a second skin, covering her in the blink of an eye. A helmet resembling a falcon skull completed the ensemble, and attached to her left forehoof appeared what could only be described as a mix between a minigun and a jackhammer.

“Not bad!” she said. Admiring the getup. “Not bad at all!”

The chains were reforming around us. Links of them were snapping together, reforming and reorienting themselves. Scootaloo took aim at them with her weapon and fired, and with a shrill pricking sound, a salvo of glowing projectiles shot forth and homed in on Discord’s chains. Each one of them detonated with a strangely muffled explosion, and once they were hit, they did not reform.

“No way!” Babs exclaimed, gawking at her. “I wanna try!” 

“Be my guest!” Scootaloo said, laughing. “Might wanna hurry, though! I doubt we have much time!” 

The air around Babs pulsed. “Oh, I won’t need long.”

Her body began to shift. It went from solid to transparent, than flickered back and forth between states like a living flame. A series of multicolored orbs appeared around her like tiny flowers, darting back and forth to guard her from every angle. Her eyes glowed with sudden light, and I had an immediate impulse to look away. I could still sense the power in her gaze, though, woeful and terrible to any who dared threaten her.

Scootaloo whistled. “Fancy.”

“Fancy, indeed!” Discord taunted, his voice sadistic with glee. “You look so menacing, my dear! I’m practically abuzz with fear!”

The air began to darken. It started as a minor thing, at first, but it slowly built up until it filled our vision. I realized that the very air was now alive with clouds of insects, innumerous and deadly beyond measure. Centipedes, scarabs, mosquitoes, cockroaches, ants, beetles, flies, and countless others crawled around us from all sides, and the swarms pressed in on us with hungry intent.

Babs crouched and snarled out two powerful words.

“BE STILL.”

The insects stopped—every single one of them. It happened in the blink of an eye without a sound, where there had once been legions of creatures, there were now grains of sand. They all fell to the ground like rain, and sheer the amount of them made the area around us now resemble a waterside beach.

But it wasn’t over yet. Before we could react, Discord attacked again. A swirling group of clouds gathered above us, and with an ominous sizzling, thousands of gallons of boiling lava poured down on us in deadly, steaming sheets. 

“NOPE!” Apple Bloom said.

She dashed up from behind us. Floating at her side was an enormous shield, gold in color and shining with a polished, mirror-like surface. She held it up in the air, and the entire oncoming mass became sucked towards it, becoming absorbed with an eerie hum. In mere seconds the lava was gone without so much as a trace, and only then did Apple Bloom lower the shield and scan the horizon.

“Ya’ll ain’t gettin’ roasted on my watch!” She let go of the shield to let it hover beside her, silently maintaining its vigil. “Not if I can help it!”

I bit my lip, assessing the close scrapes we’d just had. “Discord’s really not playing around, is he? He’s really trying to—”

“—kill you, yes,” Discord said acidly. “And here I thought you were the smart one? Pathetic. Well, no matter, if you really are that dull-witted, then maybe I should enlighten you, and pull back the veil.”

Terrifying visions suddenly assailed our minds. Glimpses of alien worlds from beyond the pale wracked our psyches, filled with god-like creatures beyond our meager understanding. The fabric of reality threatened to tear asunder, revealing landscapes filled with ravenous maws and endless nightmares. There were things there that shouldn’t exist, horrors, that defied the very laws of the universe, and we were laid helpless before them, naked and helpless as newborn babes, as the things that lurked in the shadows turned towards us—

Light. Blessed, purifying light. There was a sound like glass mending itself, and the walls of existence resealed themselves. My vision cleared, and I saw Daring standing in front of us, holding a multi-faceted gem humming with power high above her head.

“HA!” She let out a whoop. “Suck it, Caballeron! Suck it hard! Hot damn, I love it when I’m right!”

We all stared blankly at her. 

“Daring…?” I said uncertainly.

She looked back at us and winked. “And here everypony told me that the Voidwarden’s Eye is just a myth! My flying, feathery arse it is! This’ll get me into the history books, for sure!”

“The Voidwarden’s…” Discord spluttered, momentarily lost for words. “How do you even… that gem was lost along with the Couatl Empire! Nopony’s supposed to know about it!”

Daring spat on the ground. “Now who’s the dull-witted one, huh?! And you better believe I know exactly what I can do with it! Try that shit again, asshole! See who the Ancient Ones take notice of! Go on… I dare you.”

I shook my head clear. I had no idea what I’d just seen, but I immediately decided that I was perfectly content in my ignorance. I suppressed a shudder and edged closer to the gem, trying to scrub the images from my mind.

“Enough of this crap,” I muttered. “So I just need to think of stuff, eh? Fine by me.” My horn shone brilliantly, and my hair stood on end. I felt something running through me, scanning, searching, trying to sense for something. I could tell that it spread out into the ether for as far as I could see, and then I both felt and heard something click.

“Gotcha,” I murmured.

There was a loud tearing sound, and unceremoniously, the air to our right was sliced open by an unseen force. Someone inside the tear let out a yell of surprise, and by the scruff of their neck, An ethereal Discord was dragged out of the hole and thrown roughly to the ground. He looked up at the six of us in surprise, licking his lips nervously.

“Uh… hi.”

“GET HIM!” I shouted, charging at him.

But Discord was too quick. He glared at us all with venom, then scrambled to his feet and sped away.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Shmangie said.

BANG! She teleported after him in a hazel flash. She appeared right above him, and shot out a wave of force that barreled down onto him, slamming him to the ground again.

“OOMPH!” Discord fell flat, the wind knocked out of him. Snarling and gasping, he whirled on her and shot a chaotic, violet blast at her.

BANG! Shmangie teleported again, this time re-appearing right in front of him, her glowing horn just inches from his face.

“Burn,” she whispered.

VRRRMMMM! She blasted him point-blank with an energy beam the size of a barn. He went sailing through the ether, careening off for yards upon yards, finally landing over by Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, who immediately levelled their weapons at him.

“Oh, hey there,” Apple Bloom said, her shield glowing cherry-red. “Ya dropped this.” 

FSSSSSSS! A torrent of lava erupted from her shield in a mighty fireball. Discord narrowly dodged by jumping over it and into the air, but he flew right into a smirking Scootaloo.

“GET SOME!” The whizzing sound of magical bullets filled the air. She emptied clip after clip, the deadly projectiles hitting him several times as he tried to get away. He finally managed, but it cost him dearly. Now wounded, his progress was slower as he tossed a few potshots and made Scootaloo and Apple Bloom scatter.

“Persistent little...” Discord snapped his fingers and conjured a blinding flash of light to try and cover his escape. It worked fairly well, as he managed to get some distance away from all of us. He zipped away as fast as his magic would carry him, speeding through the empty space and gaining distance on us as he plotted his next move.

“Not much longer,” he muttered. “Almost through… just need a little more—”

And then he ran smack into Babs.

She floated up out of the ground, casual and unrushed, as if she’d been waiting for him for hours. She had changed herself more—she was larger, with longer legs and an imposing aura of power. She had a timeless look about her, as well, and the multicolored orbs from before now danced in her mane like stars. 

Discord nearly jumped out of his skin. He tried to go around her, but with ghostly enchanted eyes, she caught him in her gaze and held him still.

“Do you feel remorse, Discord?” Her ethereal voice sounded both loud and soft at the same time, echoing all throughout the plane. “Do you even realize all the terrible things you’ve done? Thousands of lives disrupted, shattered, and lost. A land desecrated and despoiled. An entire way of life, thrown into chaos. For what? A desperate grab at power? Some ill-nurtured need for revenge? You could have had friends. You could have been happy. Instead you threw it all away—all for ashes and ruin.”

Discord couldn’t move. He couldn’t turn away, couldn’t cast a spell, he couldn’t even blink. All he could do was stare into Babs’ empty eyes, lost in their depths as the poignant words hit home.

“You gloated about it,” Babs continued, her voice sad and morose. “We all heard you. You considered your atrocities an accomplishment. Sweetie and the others may be mad at you, but me? All I feel is pity… pity that someone could be alone for so long, and feel the need to lash out at others.”

The rest of us managed to catch up, and when we did, we beheld quite the sight. Babs was a giant ghostly goddess… thing, and she was looking down at a thoroughly-cowed Discord like a disappointed mother.

“It’s over,” she said softly. “You’ve lost. Dash and the others will defeat your physical form, and when they do, they’ll make you answer for your crimes. You’ve burned all your bridges. You have no more allies. The only thing you can do now is accept your fate, and allow balance to be restored—”

Discord roared. With a titanic effort, he wrenched his gaze free and swiped at Babs’ incorporeal form. His claw passed through, naturally, but it was enough to disrupt whatever she was doing. 

He leapt away, lightning crackling from his fingertips as he charged up a spell. Murder and madness raged in his eyes, promising doom and destruction to all. 

“I am Chaos,” he hissed. “I am Disharmony, I am Entropy, I am Anarchy incarnate. So long as there is order in this world, I shall be there to oppose it. So long as the laws of reality exist, I shall defy them. You think you’re trying to restore balance, but in truth, you and your precious Elements are disturbing it more than I ever have. You dream of a world of where everything is pathetically peaceful and predictable, easily controlled, conformed to how you think things should be! I dream of a world of war and disarray, broken into endless fragments of every combination possible! Only one of us can have their way at a time, and Harmony has been in control for TOO LONG! I will tilt the scales in my favor by any means necessary, and I’m not about to let YOU, a group of insignificant mortals, get in my way!”

He rose up into the air, laughing insanely. He curled up into a ball, and with his magic at a fever pitch, he made to detonate his spell.

“NOW, DIE!”

There was a sound like rushing wind...

SPLORTCH

...and then a long, emerald blade burst through his chest.

Discord blinked. He looked dumbly down at the sword, his lips parting slowly.

“Oh…”

HIs spell powered down and petered out. He staggered in the air, clutching at the sword, trying to get it free.

“N-no,” he fell to the ground, bleeding and gasping. “I c-can’t… I w-won’t...”

“Give it up, Discord.”

He looked up to see me walking towards him. I wore no fancy armor, nor did I look any different from before. My expression was calm as I approached him, grim-faced and stern.

“Don’t act like you care about balance,” I said. “All you know is death, destruction, and sorrow. Chaos doesn’t have to be a bad thing, but if you had your way, this world would spiral into oblivion. Your madness has twisted what was once pure, and it’s time that it came to an end.”

Discord’s mouth twisted. “You…” He fell to his knees, his eyes blazing. “You… little worm…”

With a fierce motion, I wrenched the sword out of his chest and left him to fall to the ground. The bloody blade floated beside me now, aimed right at his throat.

“How does it feel?” I asked, watching as Shmangie and the others surrounded him. “Being powerless and weak; unable to do anything as everything you value gets stripped away from you, little by little.”

Metal, glowing shackles appeared around his limbs. A hazel cage became erected around him, which then glowed with a prismatic hue.

“You brought this upon yourself,” I said, my eyes cold and hard. “We offered you harmony, and you turned your back. We gave you friendship, and you betrayed us.”

“You made us all suffer, and you enjoyed every minute of it,” Daring said flatly. “No more. It ends here, and we’ll see to it that Equestria is restored to its rightful state of harmony.”

The air was filled with Discord’s enraged screams. He tried everything he could to try and break free, but nothing he did worked. He thrashed and banged against the walls of his cell, but they held strong. He cursed us and yelled out endless threats, louder and louder until it made our ears hurt.

Shmangie flattened her ears. “Okay, that’s enough of that.” Her horn glowed, and his cage became soundproof. All was suddenly as silent as before, and we were left with blessed peace.

“Uh…” Scootaloo coughed, clearing her throat. “Did… did we really do it? Is it over?”

“Over for us,” Shmangie said, nodding. “We played our part. It’s up to Dash and the others, now.”

“Finally.” I slumped to my knees, exhausted and spent. “Please be safe, everypony. Please, please, please be safe…”

“You think they’ll do it?” Daring asked, her eyes still on the enchanted cage. “You think they’ll actually have a chance?“

Shmangie didn’t answer. She was staring far off into the ether, lost in her own thoughts.

“I believe in them,” Babs spoke up. She was now back to her normal self. “They’ve been up against all kinds of things before. They’ll do whatever they need to win.”

“Yeah,” Apple Bloom agreed. “They got this. We just gotta hold tight for now.”

“Think we’ll stay like this once we get back?” Scootaloo flexed her wings with a giddy grin. “I’d really, really like it if we did.”

I laughed. “Doubt it.” I conjured up a mirror and admired my adult self. “Our luck’s not that good.”

“Speaking of which, how do we get out of here?” Babs looked all around, inspecting the plane. “I don’t exactly see an exit.”

“The Elements will be able to bring us out in a bit,” Shmangie said, coming out of her reverie. “They just need to recover right now.”

I looked over at my friends. They all looked as tired as I was, and none of them seemed to mind the idea of doing nothing for now. I was right there with them, of course, and more than anything, I was just relieved that none of us had been hurt.

Groaning, I got to my hooves and went over to Shmangie. I sat down beside her and rested my head on her shoulder, closing my eyes with a sigh.

“Welp, we didn’t die,” I said.

Shmangie laughed. She put a hoof around me and rested her chin atop my head.

“That we didn’t, kiddo. That we didn’t.”

“We’re gonna have to explain all this at some point,” I told her. “There are so many people we’ve left out of the loop—Mom and Dad not the least of them. They’re gonna blow a gasket when they hear about this.”

“Probably,” Shmangie said. She closed her eyes as well and hugged me tight. “A lot of things have changed, and that trend’s probably gonna continue. We’re gonna have a rough time.”

“Hey, don’t act like you’re all alone,” Babs said. She sat down on the other side of me. “You’ve got us, remember?”

“Cutie Mark Crusaders for life!” Scootaloo said. She flew over and joined the group. “Shenanigans are our specialty! We can handle anything!”

“Er, mostly anything,” Apple Bloom chimed in beside Shmangie. “We don’t do well with energy drinks.”

“I’ll help, too,” Daring said. She smiled broadly as she looked on at the five of us. “Seriously, in any way I can. You girls have been great to me, so it’s only fair I return the favor.”

We all looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to say or do something else. She didn’t move. She just stood there nervously, her wings twitching at her sides.

“Yo!” Scootaloo finally said. “This is group hug time! Get over your fuzzy butt over here!”

Daring was taken aback. She was reluctant, at first, but then she eventually acquiesced. She awkwardly joined the hug, and together we stayed there in an embrace, watching the wispy clouds drift by.

“Yeah,” I said. “We really can do it, can’t we? So long as we’re together.”

Shmangie smiled. “We’ll try, at the very least.”



***


A Few Hours Later-

“Discord,” Shining Armor said. “By the order of Equestria, you’ve been sentenced with treason against the highest order, as well as crimes against humanity and ponykind. You’ve been found guilty, and will now be sentenced in an appropriate manner. Do you have any last words?”

Discord groaned. His crumpled body was lying atop a flat stone in the center of a clearing outside Ponyville. Shining, Dash, Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie, Applejack, Mac, and Fluttershy all stood guard around him, watching his every move. They’d kicked the ever-loving crap out of him, and I was surprised that he was still alive at all. I was present, as well, a filly once more, standing in the crowd beside Shmangie and the others as the trial played out. 

“So it’s decided, then?” Dash said, wincing. She was in really bad shape at the moment; apparently she’d suffered the brunt of Discord’s wrath in the battle, and had only just barely gotten out alive. “We’re going to sentence him for that many years?”
 
Shining waved a hoof at the crowd around us. Thousands of ponies and other creatures were present, all watching in tense silence. “If you combine all the years of everyone’s lives that he ruined, it’s the right amount.”

Dash bit her lip, but finally nodded her ascent. The other seven did the same, and Twilight stepped forward and cleared her throat.

“Let’s administer our justice, then,” she said in a loud voice. “Discord, by our verdict, the only fair punishment is to make you suffer through the exact same curse you put on us.”

I raised my eyebrows. They could actually do that? They’d really had figured out the curse well enough? I looked over at my friends, and found they had similar reactions. Apparently this was news to them, too.

Twilight exchanged some words with the others in the circle, then finally, as one, they all turned to Discord with their heads held high. Twilight lifted her hoof, and in the dead silence, she began the somber incantation.

“For Five Score… to the power of four,” she said.

“Your powers removed, your mind marooned,” Pinkie said.

“Your treason and crimes we cannot forgive,” Rarity said.

“Be sentenced to a life of a worthless captive,” Shining said.

“A million lives lived as a common workhorse,” Mac said.

“You’ll serve mankind endlessly, without remorse,” Applejack said.

“Reflect on your sins and heinous actions,” Fluttershy said.

“While enduring dull work for generations,” Dash said.

All eight of them bowed their heads, and the ground quivered began to quiver and shake. Discord’s ragged body lifted into the air, and the air shimmered and split as the magic danced around him. There was a final flash of blinding light, and in the blink of an eye, his body disintegrated into the void.

All was quiet for a moment, and then…

The crowd erupted into cheers. All around us, thousands of ponies were celebrating, crying, screaming in joy. I let out a loud whoop and raised my hoof in victory, giving my friends hoof bumps and hugs. I danced in place and looked up at the sky, which was losing its technicolor hue and was slowly returning to normal.

“I can’t believe it,” I said, my voice lost in the din. “We’ve won.”

I watched Rarity and the others hug each other, their attitudes more subdued, but the joy still clear on their faces. They were careful with Dash, especially, and after they broke their embrace, Twilight immediately took her and teleported them away in a lavender flash.

Shmangie and I went over to Rarity and Shining, who were leaning against each other and catching their breath.

“It’s kinda hard to believe,” I said to them. “How do you feel? Now that he’s gone, I mean.”

Rarity smiled at me. “At the moment, darling? Tired. I could use a good nap.”

“Same.” Shining nuzzled her and let out a sigh. “We can’t rest for long, though. We’ve got an entire country to rebuild.”

“Can we help?” Apple Bloom asked abruptly. She gestured to me and the others. “We all want to. We’ll do anythin’ and everything we can, really! Whatever you guys need, we’ll be happy to do.”

“Yeah!” Babs said. “We wanna do our part!”

“Just say the word,” Daring said.

“Oh, you’ll all certainly be helping,” Shining said, eyeing me and my exposed horn. “Especially you, Sweetie. This’ll be your time to shine.”

I blinked. “Eh?”

“You’ve got quite a task ahead of you, dear,” Rarity said with a playful wink. “You finally get to remove the curse from everypony and restore their memories! Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

I paled. I looked around at the thousands of ponies surrounding us, all of them still with the blank, clouded look in their eyes. I fell back on my haunches as the realization came crashing down on me like a ton of bricks.

“Dios mio,” I muttered.

Scootaloo almost fell over from laughing so hard. “Hope you like zapping ponies in the forehead, girl, ‘cause that shit’s gonna take days!”

I facehooved and hung my head. “Think we can bring Discord back for round two? I wanna beat him up some more.”

Everypony laughed. Shmangie and Rarity both hugged me, and together we all stood in the center of the clearing, looking up at the evening sky.

“You can do it,” Shmangie said to me. “If anypony can, it’s you.”

“I know,” I said, nuzzling her side. “I’ll do my best.”

The moon was just rising, and the stars were gradually beginning to reveal themselves. Behind us, somepony was setting off grand, multicolored fireworks that exploded brilliantly in the night sky.

I smiled softly. “Let’s rebuild our home.”










> Epilogue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Epilogue


Two and a half years later-

It was a beautiful fall day in Ponyville. It was cool and crisp outside, with a weak sun shining in the cloudless, cerulean sky. Multitudes of birds were chirping in the air, and the sharp, fresh smell of falling leaves was drifting in from the nearby Everfree. Ponies were moving all about the town by themselves or in groups, talking, working, laughing, going about their various tasks and errands, without nary a care in the world.

I was sitting on a pillow out on the back porch of the house I shared with the girls, a steaming mug of hot cider in my hooves. My attention was on the thin, wispy curls rising from the drink that caressed my face with gentle warmth.

“And that’s pretty much what happened,” I said without looking up. “I spent the next few weeks breaking the curse on everypony that’d been affected, as well as helping out with the cleanup wherever I could. Angie stayed and helped until the portal was closing, but then she went back to Earth to explain what’d happened. You both pretty much know what happened on that side.”

Sitting across from me on a shared pillow were a pair of older unicorns, one male, one female. The stallion had a white coat, green eyes, and a two-toned mane of brown and gray. His expression was stoic as his piercing eyes drilled into me. The mare had a white coat as well, though her eyes were indigo, and her mane was a faded shade of mauve. 

Their eye shape, muzzles, and cheekbones all greatly resembled mine, and their expressions were shrewd as they sat in tense silence, digesting everything I’d just said.

When neither of them said anything, I took a sip of cider and continued talking. “We’ve just been rebuilding since then. Everything was damaged in some way, shape, or form, so it’s not like there’s been any shortage of work to do. And that’s not even mentioning all the destruction to--”

“You should’ve come back,” the mare cut in. 

Her voice was soft, but it made my skin prickle and drew all my attention. I exhaled out my nose and sighed, finally looking up at her. “I couldn’t, Madre. There was no time.”

My human mother crossed her hooves and looked away, her lips pressed into a thin line. “You were gone for two and a half years, Magellan! Two and a half years! You could have at least even for just a day, just so we could say goodbye!”

I winced. “I know, I’m sorry--”

“We taught you better than to act like that! The last thing we hear from you is a message on your birthday, and then out of the blue, you and your friends just go and vanish off into thin air?!" Mother made a derisive snort.  "We didn’t deserve that kind of treatment, and you know it!” 

“Rose…” my human father said out the corner of his mouth.

Mother closed her eyes and grit her teeth. “We could’ve helped you. We could’ve helped you work through all of this. Instead you kept us all in the dark, not knowing that what you were going through!”

I shifted uncomfortably on my pillow. “We were scared! We didn’t know what to do!”

“You should’ve turned to your family!” Mother snapped. “You should’ve turned to US!”

“I didn’t think you’d understand!” I protested. “Shmangie knew all about ponies! I felt that she was the best possible choice! What would you guys have done that she didn’t?”

Mother glowered, but didn’t reply. Instead, she turned to Father, who took the hint and spoke up.

“You’re missing the point, Hijo.” He wet his lips and leaned forward, speaking clearly and succinctly. “You purposely kept your Mother and I out of the loop on all of this. Angie came back weeks after this all started with an outrageous story! We didn’t believe it until she showed us that jeweled necklace! And then she tells us that we’re not going to see you again for two and a half years?! You had us all worried sick!”

I felt a hole forming in my gut. I’d known that this was coming for months, but that didn’t make it any easier. “Things just happened so fast,” I said weakly.

Mother’s withering glare bore into me like a drill. “You spent weeks at Angie’s house. Weeks! You had plenty of time.”

I don’t know why I was protesting. Maybe it’s an inherent thing that all children do with their parents. I rankled at the idea of being scolded, and so I tried to defend myself automatically without even thinking.

Fortunately, I was smart enough to recognize that. 

I hung my head with drooped ears. “You’re… you’re right. You’re both right. I kept you both ignorant on purpose. I shouldn’t have done that.”

Mother looked down at me and raised her chin. “You didn’t think we’d understand.”

“No, ma’am.”

“And you let your fear control your actions.”

“Very much so,” I mumbled.

“You made us both worry unnecessarily, put your sister in danger, and made things MUCH harder than they needed to be,” Father said.

I squeezed my eyes shut. “I… don’t know what to say.”

Silence. Utter and complete silence. The two of them didn’t say a word, and they seemed perfectly content to let me stew in my own guilt. All I heard was the gentle rising and falling their breathing, and the soft, tinkling sounds of the wind blowing through the neighbor’s windchime. 

“Tell me this, Honey,” Mother said quietly. “If something like this were to have happened to us, that your father and I woke up one day and we found bodies changing before our eyes, would you expect us to tell you and Angie about it?”

I bit my lip. “I... don’t know.”

“Yeah, well… join the club,” Father said. His eyes were off in the distance, watching the passersby. “We don’t, either.”

I looked up at him.

“We honestly don’t know how we’d to react to something like that,” Father continued, his expression neutral. “So we don’t know how to feel about your actions. Our anger now is more a natural reaction than anything else, that you were in such trouble, and you didn’t turn to us. You didn’t even give us the chance to help you, Mage. That’s what stings the most.”

Ouch. Leave it to your parents to rub salt in a wound.

“Angie’s already told us about everything that happened,” Mother said in a gentler tone. “And we’ve had time to process it. We’re not going to run you through the wringer too much. All things considered, you did a lot of things pretty well. I just wish that you would’ve trusted us.”

My posture sagged. “I didn’t mean for that to happen. It just kinda… did.”

“And apparently, you and your friends helped saved the day,” Father said, his eyebrows waggling. “Put your fencing skills to use, and got to play hero with some fancy magical doodads? Not bad, Bud.”

My spirits rose a little bit. “Yeah?”

“What exactly have you been doing?” my human mother asked. She looked around at the reconstructed Ponyville.  “There’s no way you could have helped out with the construction as a little girl. Obviously it’s been enough for you and your friends to be given your own house.”

“Something similar to what I was doing at my old job,” I replied, leaning back a bit. “Managing others, making sure the construction teams have been collaborating and working with each other, resolving issues, that kind of thing.”

“Hmm.” Mother was squinting, as if she was trying to make sure it was all real. “It’s all still very hard to believe. I never would’ve thought… not even in my wildest dreams…”

I watched her for a moment in silence. Her expression was strange, almost whimsical as she took in the quiet serenity of the town. I couldn’t tell for the life of me what was on her mind, but if I had to take a guess, it didn’t seem like she disapproved.

Father cleared his throat. “So, uh… let’s change gears a bit, here. I assume your sister’s told you that she’s moving here?”

I nodded. “I’ve already spoken with a few ponies. She’ll be staying with me while her place is being built.”

Father fiddled with his hooves. “Well… I know that it’s on kinda short notice, but… you think you can house us, too?”

I raised an eyebrow, letting those words sink into my mind. “Meaning what, exactly?”

“We’ve given it some thought.” He motioned to himself and Mother. “And, well… to be perfectly honest, there’s not a whole lot left for us on Earth if the two of you aren’t there. Your grandparents are gone, your aunt and uncle have their own lives, and most of the people we used to keep touch with have moved away.”

“And I’m not going to only see my children every two and a half years,” Mother said flatly. She looked down at her pony body with a touch of uncertainty, but then, she set her jaw and hardened her eyes. “If the two of you are going to be here, then… there’s nothing for it. We will be, too.”

I sat up straight on my pillow. “Are you guys saying you want to emigrate to Equestria? For real?”

Father’s expression suddenly turned serious. “This isn’t going to be easy on us, Mage. We’ve already gotten our affairs in order, but that doesn’t mean that we’re thrilled about what all this is going to mean. We’re going to need help getting settled, and we were hoping you could give us a leg up.”

I was momentarily at a loss for words. I stared blankly at the two of them, my mouth moving without any sound.

“I can tell that this is a very special place to you,” Mother said. “You look happier than I’ve seen you in years. I imagine that you’ve probably struggled with what to do about this, and while we have, too, Angie wound up being the deciding factor. In the end, we’ve decided that we’d rather be here with the two of you than by ourselves back on Earth.”

“Even if that means we’re all colorful cartoon talking unicorns,” Father added, chuckling.

My throat was going tight. My vision was going watery. My breathing was becoming hitched, and I was completely and utterly speechless. This was a dream come true. I was going to get the best of both worlds. I wouldn’t need to worry about not seeing them so rarely, and with a few simple messages, I could get them situated and set for life.

Sniffling, I got up and went over to the both of them and hugged them, not caring as tears of joy fell from my face.

“I love you,” I murmured softly to both of them. “I love you, I love you, I love you…”

Mother and Father smiled and hugged me back. They were still slightly clumsily with their unfamiliar limbs, but they did well enough with what they had.

Mother leaned down and kissed my cheek. “We know, Sweetie. We know.”


 

***




“Your family tell you about their little ‘announcement’?” Scootaloo asked me later that day.

I yawned and leisurely stretched my legs. I’d been going through a growth spurt the last month or so, and my balance was all out of whack. “How’d you know about that?”

The two of us were walking down Ponyville’s main street on a grocery errand. The town was even more filled with ponies than normal, and it was quite interesting to see all the new faces. It was pretty obvious to see which ones were new arrivals through the portal, as their movements were jerky and their actions were unsure.

Scootaloo beamed from above me. Her wings had grown about a bit in the last few years, and she could now fly for a few minutes at a time. “Because my parents are coming over with them! I already talked to Dash, and we’re gonna build them a place by the hospital, since Dad hates commuting!”

I widened my eyes. “Really? For real?!”

“I know, right?!” Scootaloo squee’d and raised a happy hoof in the air. “It feels like a dream!”

“Did you cry?” I asked her smirking. “I’ll bet you did. You cried, didn’t you.”

Scootaloo blushed and looked away. “S-shut up! So what if I did?! I wasn’t expecting that!”

“Hey, it’s nothing to be ashamed of,” I said casually. “I bawled like a little girl.”

Scootaloo gave me a flat look. “You are a little girl.”

“We both are,” I corrected her with a playful nudge. “That means we’re excused. May as well enjoy it while we can.”

“Ergghhghgh.” Scootaloo ran a hoof down her face. “Stupid female body and its… emotions. Bleh. I hate all this mushy stuff.”

I giggled. “Any news about Apple Bloom and Babs’ family? I haven’t heard anything.”

Scootaloo’s face fell. “Mom told me that they... they’re not coming. At all. Not even to visit.”

I stopped dead. “Seriously?!” I closed my eyes and stamped the ground. “Oh, for Luna’s sake!”

“That’s why Apple Bloom and Babs left early this morning.” Scootaloo landed beside me and folded her wings. “They wanna try talking to them one last time.”

I scoffed and turned my gaze to across the road. “I figured that they’d be stubborn, but this is just freaking pathetic!”

“Hey, you never know,” Scootaloo said with a weak shrug. “They might come around? Maybe see the light?”

“Hmph.” I rolled my eyes and kicked at a pile of dirt. “Well... at least they still have one family that cares about them.”

Scootaloo grunted acknowledgement. “And the better one of the two, if you ask me.”

“Mmm.”

“Shmage! Dylan!” 

We both turned. Trotting up to us from the direction of the house was Shmangie, a pair of saddlebags bouncing at her sides. Her coat was immaculately groomed, she was wearing makeup and eyeliner, and her mane and tail were fancily curled.

“Hey, hey!” I said, brightening up a bit. “Don’t you look fancy. What’s the occasion?”

Shmangie slowed as she approached us. “I just got a letter. Twilight and I are running up to Canterlot.”

“Canterlot?” I repeated. “All the way up there? What for?”

“Princess Celestia and Luna want to see me,” she said. “They want me to get them up to speed with everything that’s gone on in the human world.”

I frowned. “You already did that with Twilight. Can’t she just relay the information to them?”

Shmangie shrugged. “They want firsthand information, I guess. And hey, it’s not like I mind. I really want to see the place!”

I clicked my teeth. I supposed that Canterlot wasn’t too badly damaged anymore, but still, I wasn’t sure what she was expecting. They were still very much working on repairs up there.

“Hmm. Wonder if they’ve finished with the new castle yet?” Scootaloo wondered aloud.

I snorted. “That won’t be for a while, yet. A few years at least, last I heard.”

Shmangie was undeterred. “Well, either way, it’ll still be fun! I can’t wait to see it!”

“You’ll have to tell us all about it when you get back, then,” I said. “Neither of us have been up there in a while. I wouldn’t mind an update.”

 “I can do that,” Shmangie said. She suddenly shivered and danced in place. “Ooooh, this is so exciting! I get to meet the Princesses! Eeeeee!”

I snickered. “I think you’ll like them. Princess Celestia’s really funny, and Princess Luna’s really smart. You’ll enjoy talking to them.”

Shmangie composed herself, then took a deep breath and let it out. “I certainly hope so. Well, I gotta go! I’m meeting Twilight at her castle so she can teleport us! I’ll see you tonight!”

“Bye!” we chorused. We watched her run down the street with a spring in her step.

“It’s almost like she never left,” Scootaloo said watching her leave. “She’s really taken to being a pony, hasn’t she?”

“Almost frighteningly so,” I replied. “Not that I’m complaining, mind you.”

Scootaloo laughed. “Same here. I’m glad that she’s back.”

I paused as a passing thought struck me. “Do you ever miss any of it? Your life back on Earth, I mean. How about being a human? Any of it?”

Scootaloo didn’t respond to that right away. I watched her as she contemplated the question, her wings flicking slightly, eyes moving from side to side. The two of us stood by the side of the road unnoticed, the wind rustling softly with the sound of falling leaves.

“Some of it, I suppose,” Scootaloo said at last. “Certain pieces of technology, a few friends here and there, opposable thumbs… but nothing that I’d be willing to trade for what we’ve gained. This is who we are, Sweetie, this is who we were always meant to be. I don’t wanna ever lose it again.”

I supposed that was fair. I don’t know why I suddenly felt the need to ask that, but it was at least good to get somepony else’s input on it. I hadn’t actually expected Scootaloo to take the question seriously, but I was suddenly glad that she did.

“How about you?” she asked.

I looked up at the sky. “I think I’m the same. It’s different here, yeah, and not all those differences are preferable to what we had on Earth, but when it’s all said and done, this does feel like a better fit. I was a bit lonely before without Mom and Dad here, but if they’re gonna be here now… well, I don’t see any real reason to go back.”

Scootaloo smirked. “Aw, yeah. We be all straight up done with dem humans, dawg! Ponies fo’ life! Straight thuggin’ it up!”

I facehooved with a loud groan. “Even when you’re orange, you’re still white.”

“Ha! You know it.” Scootaloo jumped back into the air. “We gotta have somepony representin’ all the homeslices! Now let’s bounce it to the club! Shizzle!”

My horn flared green. “You’re asking for a zapping, featherhead.”

“...I’ll be good.”

Things were slowly returning to normal. I’d been anxious about my parents coming to visit, but things had seemingly worked out. Families were being reunited, places were being rebuilt, the land was healing, and relations with the humans were going smoothly. It’d been rocky at first, and there’d been days that my friends or life in general had made wanted to pull my mane out, but ultimately, everything had worked out for the best.

And I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world.

“Yo! Sweetie!” Scootaloo yelled back at me. “You coming, or what? We gotta get groceries!”

“Yeah!” I ran after her, trying my best not to trip. “Let’s go!”

I smiled as the two of us walked together down the street.

It really was a beautiful day.



The End