These documents present the adventures of Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, in a different human world than the one she found through the mirror.
Please note: there are some spoilers in the comments.
These documents present the adventures of Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, in a different human world than the one she found through the mirror.
Strangely amnesiac, Twilight finds herself on a dirty hillside on the outskirts of a human city. She must discover the truth of this strange world, and decide what she brings to it.
Rated Teen/Sex for references to various mammals having sex organs and/or desires. Rated Dark for safety; it's darker than the show, but not than plenty of young adult fiction. Other tags intentionally omitted, but if even mentions of shipping annoy you, maybe give this a pass.
Additional tags: -Unreliable Narration -Leftist Politics -Earth History
The following documents constitute a transcript of the journal attributed to Twilight Sparkle. I do hereby swear and testify that this transcript is complete and accurate to the contents of the original document, as provided by Officer Diaz. The original remains in the hands of my team for further analysis, and safekeeping.
The original document consists of loose notepaper bound in a 1" lavender three-ring binder. Each page appears handwritten, though the contents indicate this may not be the case. A similarly hand(?)-drawn symbol appears on the front, that in my judgment is intended to be a rendering of the symbol on Twilight Sparkle's flanks.
The dates on the entries are original; the titles that follow them are not, and were assigned by I or my team in the course of studying the document. I have included them, as my team may refer to them in testimony.
Dr. [Name Redacted] [Team and Job Titles Redacted] July 22
I've never been one to keep a journal just for me, but these are hardly normal circumstances. Friendship reports, and then the journal I kept with my friends, gave me a chance to organize my thoughts, not just present them to other ponies, and Celestia, they could use it now. I'm not sure how much organization I'll get out of this, but I think it'll make me feel better to write it down. I can show it to my friends when I see them again, or make it another letter to Celestia. I can hope, anyway.
When I woke up today, it was still dark out. I later found out it was technically morning - 3:36am, to be precise - but I had no idea at the time. All I knew was it was dark, I was lying on a lightly grassy slope, and there was a strange sound coming from the top of the slope, and a brief flash of light, which is likely what woke me. I realized later the sound was cars on a highway and the lights their headlights, but I was still confused since I'd just woken up. I've only ever encountered cars in the world through the mirror, and I didn't spend enough time there to recognize them easily.
I'm still confused, honestly. I don't have any idea how I came to be here - not just this city, but this world. There's a hole in my memory, I think, and it terrifies me. What's the last thing I remember? I think it's Tirek, and my new castle, and my new title, but it doesn't feel like yesterday. I don't remember going to sleep some night and then waking up. I don't remember going to sleep last night at all. It's all nebulous, like a memory from months or years ago, but with nothing in between then and now. Or maybe like getting black-out drunk? I wouldn't know about that one. But I do know I've never had anything like this happen to me before. Of course, I've also never been to another world and stayed myself before.
I remember our new table with the stone chairs, one for each of us, our new mission to spread the magic of friendship throughout Equestria and beyond, but it feels old, rushed. Like it happened a long time ago, or like it was something somepony else told me about, or described in a book. But I know I was there, I remember the battle all too well, the heat of Tirek's magic on me, my fury at his crimes. My poor library. [The original page and ink here are smudged with tears -Ed.]
Was this one of our missions? This would certainly count as "beyond Equestria". I wonder if I meant to come here, if whatever magic brought me so far from home had some side effect on my short-term memory. But I wouldn't have come on a friendship mission alone, so if that's true, where are the others? This is the fifty-seventh time I've wondered this today, by my count, but writing it down does feel different. For now I can't answer it, so I'll move on.
As I was saying, it was still dark. The headlights washed over my head, and woke me, but I was still groggy, and once it passed, I could make out little of my surroundings. It was a strange kind of darkness, not like Ponyville's nights. There was ambient light, both from streetlights and from a sort of general background light that obscured the night sky. The moon and stars were invisible. I suppose it was a cloudy night. Unlike night in Equestria, I could see quite some distance away. Near me, though I could make out little; the steep slope was covered with small trees and shrubs that cast deep shadows, so I couldn't see the ground, or the bottom of the hill, clearly. I lit my horn to get a better view. It was harder than I remember. All my magic is, here; not sure why yet. But that's such a simple one, I got it to work, even if it felt harder than it did even in my school days.
The first thing I noticed about the hillside was all the trash. Celestia, these people are slobs! Or maybe there's no good system of waste disposal here? (*Note to self: inquire with Rachel tomorrow.) I know what I've written sounds like I'm upset, and I'll be the first to admit I don't deal well with confusion, but this is so exciting, too! So much to learn about this place! [Notes to self are marked with hand-drawn stars in the original text. -Ed.]
Anyway, the trash. I've seen a few cases of littering around Ponyville, of course, everypony makes mistakes from time to time, or just gets careless, but this hillside was covered with it, and a lot of it made of materials I'd only ever seen through the mirror, like plastic. Either this world makes a lot more trash, or nobody's cleaned up in days, maybe even weeks! I shudder to think.
This pen is also plastic; it is an interesting substance. Since I'm not a human this time and can use magic, if poorly, I'd love to take this one apart to see exactly what it is, but I'm not sure I could put it back together, and I've only got the one. (*Note to self: ask Rachel for more pens.)
Ok Twilight, stay on track here. You're supposed to be organizing your thoughts, not going off on some tangent every other paragraph. Stick with what happened. Besides, this is the exciting part, where I meet a new friend! At least I think she's a friend.
Anyway, I was pretty unsteady on my hooves when I got up. I don't know how I was sleeping on such a steep hill in the first place, or for how long, but I almost tumbled all the way down when I started moving, about six lengths. [Our belief is a length is a body length - about four feet if Twilight is typical - Ed.] At the bottom the hill flattened out into a sort of clearing, next to a small pond. The overall area was urban, though; I could glimpse small buildings and more streetlights through the trees, and saw some quite large ones nearby, lit up and as tall as in Manehattan. Though humans are taller than ponies, so I'm not sure if those buildings have more floors, or the floors are just bigger. (*Note to self, investigate sizes of buildings here vs. Manehattan.)
Anyway, I found myself in a clearing, in a little glade in a city. I assume it was a park or something, but like the slope above, I was surrounded by trash here as well. Not only the paper and plastic containers, but other, larger artifacts, including several wire-frame carts of some kind, which I didn't see on my trip through the mirror. In the middle of the clearing, I saw the remains of a fire, though it was completely dark and cold.
I had no idea where I was - still don't, really. Rachel is an officer of the "Cambridge Police Department" but at the time I didn't even know the city's name. Certainly I was nowhere I recognized. It looked like the human world from the mirror, but not anywhere near where I'd been last time. (Now I think it isn't even the same world - how many are there? And how strange that the mirror world seemed so much more similar to my own.) I had no idea where to go or what to do.
What I didn't realize was that my light attracted some attention. A car arrived at the top of the hill, with flashing blue lights on the top. I hadn't seen a police car in the mirror world either, which is pretty strange given all the havoc we got up to on our last night. But then, a lot about that world didn't make a lot of sense. Anyway, a mare woman got out of the car. She was wearing what I now know was a police officer's uniform, though I'd never seen one before. She was clearly a human, but not quite like the ones I'd seen in the mirror world. The humans there were colorful, like ponies. I've only met Rachel so far here, and seen a few others as we passed, but they're all very muted in coloration, and she says that's how they all are here, unless they dye their hair or skin.
When she got out of the car, she called out. Her words would have sounded upset but her tone wasn't really, it was like the Princess telling me off for something minor, or Cherliee scolding somepony in her class for a minor error.
"Come on, I told you guys not to make such big fires, I could get written up if I overlook one like this," she said.
Of course, she was following the light, so she saw me right after she said that, and got a nasty shock. She dropped down a little and pulled out her gun, and asked "what the hell" I was, though not really in a tone like she was expecting an answer. I had no idea what a gun was at that point, so it didn't intimidate me like it was supposed to, but I knew enough from my time through the mirror to tell she was nervous, so I didn't make any threatening moves, and just introduced myself.
We worked it all out, eventually. Her name is Rachel Diaz and she's what she calls a "beat cop" which I guess is like a guard pony. Her title is "officer" but it doesn't actually seem to be an officer rank. I actually asked her if her name was Rainbow Dash at first. In my defense, her voice sounds spookily similar, and last time I was in a world with humans, all my friends had human versions there, so it seemed like a reasonable guess. The whole thing is strange overall, honestly - the more I've talked to her, the more I've realized she's a very loyal friend, just like Rainbow, and she's in peak physical shape, which is very important to her. She's got rainbow-colored socks for when she's off duty, and her t-shirts have lightning bolts all over them. Her friends even call her RD, for short! I have no idea what to make of it, but it's almost like there's some spectrum of similarity to Equestria, and this world is a little further away than the one through the mirror. Or maybe there's something about the Elements of Harmony that make them manifest everywhere? I need to investigate further, though I have no idea how.
Anyway, after we figured out that neither of us was going to attack the other, RD took me back to her place, for safety. There aren't ponies here, so she's worried I'd scare humans if they saw me. Well, they do have ponies, but not our kind of ponies, they're domestic animals, not sapient creatures. And they're bigger, and all earth toned, like the humans.
I'm at her place now, in any case. I've been here all day, while she's been at work, but she should be back soon. She showed me the refrigerator and this paper and pen, and suggested I write things down.
Human food is mostly strange. They're omnivores, and seem convinced that everything should be coated in strange sauces, or come pre-packaged assembled elsewhere. I don't recognize most of the ingredients in those things, so I'm not sure what's safe for me to eat, but I found some apples and carrots. They're nowhere near as good as Sweet Apple Acres stuff, or Golden Harvest's carrots, but without earth pony magic I'm not surprised, and you can never go too far wrong with an apple in any case.
I don't know how much writing helped, to be honest. RD seems very nice, but I knew that. And I'm still not sure what to make of myself. Nothing's been jogged loose here, I still can't remember how I got here or why. And more concerning, my memories still seem distant. What have I forgotten?
I just heard the door open. I guess RD's back. More later.
The following is an excerpt from the August 27th testimony of Officer Rachel Diaz in the case "Officer Diaz and Twilight Sparkle vs. the Commonwealth of Massachusetts", later known in the media and when cited for precedent as "Twilight Sparkle". It is presented as a supplement to the ongoing journal entries.
Defense Attorney Alanna Rare: Officer Diaz, you first met your co-defendant on or around 4:30 am on the morning of June 14th, is that correct? [Here the attorney indicated the pony defendant in the courtroom.] Officer Rachel Diaz: That's correct. AR: Does your recollection of your first meeting essentially agree with the journal entry the prosecution just read for the court? RD: It does. AR: What is the meaning of your first statement, about the size of the fire? RD: I met Twilight, the defendant, in that little wooded area right near Fresh Pond. The local homeless often squat there during the summer, and I thought her light was a fire. None of us in the department really have the heart to kick them out, they've got nowhere to go, but if the fire gets too big, it's dangerous - people on the highway see it and they panic. AR: According to the journal, you took the defendant home with you to protect her, because you were worried the public would be afraid of her. Is that a true statement of your state of mind at the time? RD: It is. AR: Is that still your belief? RD: It is. That we're having this trial at all isn't changing my mind. AR: As a police officer, you're sworn to protect the public interest and their safety. Did it occur to you that this might require you to tell your superiors about the defendant's presence? RD: I believe my job requires me to enforce the law, and that the public includes everyone, even Twilight. AR: And to your knowledge, the defendant has not broken any laws? RD: Not unless I missed the anti-magical-unicorn statute. AR: Well, be that as it may. The journal entry ended when you returned from your shift on the 14th. What did you do after that? RD: We talked for most of the morning about her memories of her home, why she'd thought I might be called Rainbow Dash, things like that. And about what things are like here. AR: Is that all you did? RD: We also watched TV, and ate ice cream. AR: At any time during that first day, did you doubt that the defendant was an intelligent, sapient creature? RD: Not once she'd opened her mouth. AR: Would you say your decision to keep her existence a secret was motivated by your desire to protect her as such? RD: Absolutely. AR: Thank you, officer Diaz. No further questions.
I left off writing when RD got home. She brought some ice cream, and we talked for a long time about the differences between our worlds. Thankfully, ice cream isn't any different here.
I don't know what to think about this place. When I went through the mirror to that other human world, it wasn't just that the people were colorful like ponies, or had the same names. More than that, even though I couldn't use magic, and there were no native Elements of Harmony, it felt like harmony was present anyway. Sure, Sunset Shimmer messed with it, but bring it back felt easy, and the world as a whole seemed friendly too.
Here, though, well. RD says she likes it well enough, but the more she tells me, the more it makes me sad. It turns out she thought my light was from a fire, set by people who sleep and live in that garbage-strewn clearing. People without homes. I just don't understand how they allow that. It's great of her to help them out, as much as she can, but she's just one person. In Equestria the Princess herself would never allow it. Apparently their leaders recently have been helping out struggling humans less and less. I know I'm new here, and maybe I don't understand, but RD couldn't explain it in a way that made any sense to me, and I had to drop it, before she got angry. But then, as I suspected, she seems very loyal, and she does work for her government. I'll have to ask her if there's some way I can do more research on my own.
Anyway, we talked about other things, too, like her life. Apparently the country we're in is called the United States of America, and like Equestria, it was settled by refugees from far away. Unlike Equestria, though, people continue to come here even now looking for a better life, but many end up nearly as poorly off as the ones who live in that clearing. I'll have to research what things are like in the places they're leaving, though I'm confident that will just make me even sadder. I think I'm beginning to see how badly this world needs the magic of friendship.
RD's parents also came here, but they did well enough for themselves. They're not nobility or anything, though RD says there aren't really nobles here, just rich people, and that anyone can become rich. I don't know what that means, either in economic or practical terms, but she seemed convinced. Maybe there's a different kind of magic here, that lets them create more resources? In any case, her parents own their own business, a small restaurant, and RD thinks the country and city have done well by them. She became a police officer because of that. It seems a lot like what Shining Armor said about his early work with the Guard: sometimes you get to do great things, sometimes you have to do hard ones, but mostly you do a lot of paperwork and telling people off for breaking minor laws. Though here that also comes with a fine, and apparently usually involves putting your car where it doesn't belong, or going too fast in it. I can see why so many humans have cars; hands seem like a useful thing to have if you don't have a horn, but they move so slowly on their two legs.
Anyway we talked about that for a long time, but I could tell something was on her mind. I didn't want to be rude, though, so I asked her if she wanted to hear about my life. It turned out that was just like asking anyway, because she said:
"Yeah, about that. I think we could just watch it on TV."
I briefly ran into television through the mirror, along with all the other strange technological things humans use to make up for lack of magic, but I have no real idea how it works. (*Note to self: research the mechanics of television when you find a library.) It turns out it's like a film, but you can choose what you watch and when. RD thought I looked similar to a character from a show for kids, a cartoon that her little sister watched. So she did some research of her own, and she'd picked up a little stuffed doll on her way home. I have it on the desk as I write this, and looking at it still feels strange, even given these last few days. It doesn't look exactly like me, of course, but it's clearly supposed to be, right down to the wings and the cutie mark, though for some reason it only has the cutie mark on one flank.
Anyway, after I got over freaking out a bit about that one, she told me there's a whole series about these ponies - about us. I'm not sure whose little ponies we're supposed to be, Celestia's I guess, though she's not the narrator, so the title doesn't make much sense. But apparently it's a holdover from previous shows about colorful ponies, though no one's quite sure if they're supposed to be in some kind of continuity or not. It's all very confusing.
Of course, not as confusing as watching my life rendered in simple-colored cartoons. The likeness is still uncanny, even aside from the frankly creepy faithfulness to the overall shape of our lives. Sure, not everything is totally accurate, but no one could claim it's a coincidence. RD was amused that Rainbow Dash had her initials, especially since she has a friend that goes by AJ. The show apparently didn't want to go into their romance, probably because it's for kids, and I didn't tell her. I didn't tell her I suspected there might be deeper links, either, and she seemed content to find it an amusing coincidence. Apparently going by initials is relatively common here.
The show seems to end right around where my memories do, though RD says more seasons are coming. I hope I figure out what's going on before then.
Watching kept me up all night, and I've got nothing left to do until RD gets home. She's got a few books here, but they're all police manuals or fiction, and I'm too tired to wade into them now. She mentioned something called the Internet that sounded like some sort of research tool, maybe I'll ask her about it tonight. For now, though, I think I should just go to sleep, so I'm alert when she gets home. Until next time, journal.
The more I encounter ponies people here, the more I wonder at the little similarities. The mirror world was like a parody of Equestria (or vice versa?) but even though Earth* is very different, there are these little echoes, things that make me feel like we're not completely disconnected from my home.
*It occurred to me to ask what I should call this place last night and they told me "Earth" was the name of the planet, which seems as good as anything. Why it's the same as a synonym for soil, let alone the one we used for a type of pony, is unclear to me. Of course, I'm also not sure if we're really speaking the same language, or if whatever spell brought me here is translating. So many things to research! [In the original this footnote was at the bottom of a page, interrupting a paragraph; for readability I have positioned it as its own -Ed.]
One of them is RD's friend. Her name is Alanna Rare and she's a public defender. The legal system here isn't exactly like Equestria's. For example, lawyers are mostly employed by the people who need them, rather than employed and paid by the crown. Or the state in this case. The exceptions are prosecutors, who advocate for the state against accused criminals, and public defenders, who defend accused criminals if they can't afford private lawyers. For some reason, though, pay for being either is extremely low, apparently especially in this city. The lawyers who do it are often very well-motivated and smart, but they rarely have much experience, because they can't really afford to build a life on their income. So accused criminals that can afford a veteran private lawyer are highly advantaged. (This doesn't seem very just to me. I've added it to my "messed up things about Earth" list.) [This list was not submitted to us, if it is written as opposed to mental or electronic -Ed.]
Anyway, Alanna is on her way to being an exception. She's still young, but is apparently a very good lawyer, and trained at one of the country's best schools. Her family is rich (I'm still not sure quite how this is different from nobility in Equestria), so she takes cases she thinks are good for free, often including criminal ones. Quite generous of her, I'd say. And Alanna Rare? Seriously, what's going on here? She has the warm voice, the accent. She even has a beautiful sapphire necklace, cut in a four-pointed shape. It looks like Rarity's cutie mark. I was worrying a little that with Rachel it was just wishful thinking; I miss my friends so much, and last time I was with humans, I found they had close parallels in that world. That kind of hope can twist your perceptions. But this is too much to be an optimistic illusion. The mirror worlds are so close they're clearly some kind of parallels or alternate Equestrias, but this is different. Is it an alternate that just diverged further back? But if so, how could similar ponies characters arise in such different worlds? Or is it something to do with the elements of harmony?
Unfortunately, Alanna wasn't here just to meet me. Today a report was filed with the Cambridge police of a possible theft of a "detailed replica" of the character Twilight Sparkle, with a description matching, well, me, quite precisely. The date and time of loss or theft on the report was June 14, around midnight. I don't know what to make of this. Apparently there are some people who really like that TV show, so maybe someone has a full-sized, well-made doll, that happened to go missing right before I woke up on that hill? I'm skeptical, especially because the physical description was very precise, including my weight, which is certainly high for a doll. Was I captured? Did I escape? But then, why wouldn't I remember? And why would my captor think anyone would be fooled into thinking I was a doll? I asked RD just to make sure, and even here, dolls don't talk and move around.
RD brought in Alanna because she wasn't sure if she needed to tell her chief about me now that she'd seen the report. I don't know what I'd do if she felt she had to - I trust RD, but humans are the only sapient species in this world. Would I be protected by their laws? If not, what would they do with me?
Luckily Alanna thinks we can wait at least a few days. It isn't likely anyone will notice I'm here, and in any case, she agrees it's unlikely anyone would mistake me for a doll. She stuck around and we chatted about her history and mine; she has a real talent for making things feel normal, even though I know they aren't. She's going to do some research (there's a mare woman after my heart!) and be back in a few days with a suggestion for what to do.
I hope it's soon. RD's great, but she's not comfortable around me the way Alanna is. Not that I can blame her. Not only must I look even stranger to her than she does to me - after all, I was a human for a few days - she's taking a huge risk by not turning me in immediately. Even though Alanna thinks it's legally defensible and morally right, no one thinks it's safest for her career or her relationship with her boss. I told her she shouldn't make that sacrifice for me, but of course she wouldn't have any of it.
I'm going to finish up this entry now, though. Before bed RD told me about the Internet I'd been asking about and showed me how to "log in" to her computer. Learning the keyboard is going to be slow going, I think; I'll have to do it with my horn, since my hooves are way too big, and I'm not used to using telekinesis like that. Rarity would pick it up much faster, I'm sure, she's used to that kind of fine work. But I'm excited to give it a try, and am going to go do that now. I should have lots of interesting new data for my next entry!
I've been known to get lost in books. Ok, fine, for most of my life it'd be more accurate to say I was lost outside of them. But a book ends, and then you have to go back to get another. You can't help but leave and deal with the world. The Internet though, that's something else. It felt like by the time I got to the end of an article I'd have three others I wanted to go back and click. Then a few hours in I figured out what that middle button on the "mouse" did, and the "tabs" just kept multiplying! I don't even understand the scope of the thing, yet, I think. I'm not sure I can.
But right, this journal is supposed to help me sort out thoughts, so: numbers. RD showed me two things: Wikipedia, and Google. The first claims to contain nearly 5 million articles in English alone, which is apparently the language we're speaking. Based on my experiences with it, I'd believe it. It's a number too big for anypony to really understand, I think. I have no idea if humans have a better head for numbers, but I know my old library in Ponyville only had in the tens of thousands of volumes. Sure, they had more words in them, but big numbers are tricky that way - a hundred times as many articles, with the ones I read well over a written page: there are likely more pages of information on Wikipedia than there were in my entire library, and all you need to read it is this tiny box. (I know the information doesn't exactly live there, but I still don't know exactly how the whole thing works - there's just so much to go through, and it's only been a day!)
So then I assumed that must be it, that must be the Internet, or at least the bulk of it. RD said Google was a way to search "the rest of the Internet", so as an experiment I typed in the name of that television program about Equestria. In thirty seconds, it found 97 million links I could click.
I don't know how long alicorn princesses actually live, but I'm pretty sure it isn't long enough for 97 million links about ponies.
Of course, what I actually discovered from the Internet just made me feel all the more confused about Earth and these humans. I found so many beautiful, amazing things, but then it seemed like most every time, by the end of the story, it had somehow gone wrong. The brilliant artist died young and destitute, or in one inexplicable case cut off his own ear. The new breakthrough was immediately turned around to kill, or was intended to in the first place. "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."
I don't think even Celestia could annihilate a city in one terrible instant, and yet the beauty of the equation, the thought, time and space, matter and energy each as one - by the time I reached that, I was wondering so many things I couldn't keep track of all of them. I wondered if physics works so beautifully in Equestria, and if it does, if I can ever tell another soul, knowing what it means. I cried after Tirek destroyed my library, once it all was done; each of those two bombs ended more lives than I'd had books. The war itself, more than the number of ponies in Equestria.
[Here there is a substantial gap, filled with crossed out starts of paragraphs. -Ed.]
Numbers. I don't even know how to think about a world where that can happen. And that world war was the second one! Somehow having gone through it once wasn't enough! And this is just one thing, one incomprehensibly vast tragedy in a history that seems composed of them.
I've met only a few humans, but I don't understand how Rachel or Alanna could be part of something like that. Is it just that their Discords and Sombras and Tireks are humans too, that they're far more varied and strange than ponies ever were? Or are they no better at numbers than I am, and just somehow get used to it? Maybe I would be used to it too, if I grew up here. Maybe I'd stop thinking about a hundred million lives, and just see a number on a page, like the bits in Celestia's budget.
Admittedly, that's a lot of bits. Does anypony ever really think about the cost of the Grand Galloping Gala in terms of what else those bits could be? How many extra rooms it could add to the Ponyville Schoolhouse, or how many apple trees it could plant? I've never heard of ponies having a war like that, but maybe we could get used to thinking of lives like we think of bits. Maybe if we needed to fight a world war, we'd have to, or go mad.
Or maybe we'd go mad anyway, and the humans just already have.
Mostly, though, I wondered if I was powerless to stop it. I'm the Princess of Friendship, and it seems like Earth could stand to know more about being friends. Maybe starting small is enough. Or maybe I can get my magic back, and won't have to. Tomorrow I'm going to make a new list.
But I have to admit, I'm just a pony, for all I'm a princess, and after seeing all that, I needed a break. I decided I'd take a look over that Google search, see what humans were saying about me and my friends. I needed to sign up for an "email address" to get on to a few of the sites I found, so I made one through Google.
Well. It's good that so many like the message that friendship is magical, I guess. But I'm not really going to give them credit for "figuring out" about Applejack and Rainbow, since they seem willing to believe that everypony is dating everypony else, and want to read about it in graphic, and often anatomically impossible, detail. I can't really blame them for not knowing how forelegs can and can't bend, I guess, especially given the liberties the show takes with equine anatomy, but some of that stuff is just ridiculous. Who wants a hoof anywhere at all sensitive, for example? Those things are rock hard and have sharp edges. After some additional research I gather it's quite pleasant for humans to touch each other with their fingers, but you can't just substitute like that between species, that's just lazy!
Okay Twilight, breathe.
More numbers: I found an article that said I'm the most popular single "fictional" subject of adult drawings on the Internet, with numbers of works dedicated to my mare bits that, once again, are too large for me to really understand. (Err, I mean the numbers, not my privates. Get your mind out of the gutter, Imaginary Rainbow Dash.) I don't have any idea how to feel about that. It's flattering, I suppose, though it's deeply strange to know that far more hairless apes I've never meet seem interested in me than do ponies I have. Maybe it speaks to how much this world needs friendship, if my personality and message can make them so attracted to me, despite our very different bodies. I'd like to think it's that, anyway. I know some ponies marry griffins, and Spike's crush on rarity is adorable, but these people haven't even met me.
If I ever meet any human stallions men, I'm going to be acutely aware of the position of my tail. It's a pity Alanna isn't a tailor like Rarity. It always seemed strange to me that humans were embarrassed without clothes, but now I'd love something with extensive coverage. Maybe a beekeeping suit.
Yeah, that break didn't work out so well. Now I'm off to sleep, and like the human prince in the renowned play I just read, I fear what dreams may come.
After everything I'd read, I couldn't sleep at all. It's in the early hours now, and I'm writing by hornlight, lying on the couch, so I don't disturb RD. Well, any more than I already have.
She was on an evening shift today, and didn't get home until after midnight. I pretended to be asleep, both so she wouldn't feel bad about going right to bed, and because I still didn't really know what to say about what I'd read.
Eventually I got up to use the bathroom, and ran into her on the way. (I need to remember to tell the girls about earth bathrooms, they'll get a hay of a laugh.) She was dressed for bed, which I'd never seen before, wearing a small shirt and some kind of lower garment I didn't really recognize, but that left the side of her flank uncovered. (*Note to self: look up the correct terms for parts of the human body, and those weird clothes they wear under other clothes.)
I guess I'd never really thought about whether humans had cutie marks before. I was only a human for a few days, after all, and since I didn't have anywhere to live outside the school, I never really got a chance to take a close look at the parts of me my clothing covered. Even I wasn't going to check myself out in a gym shower. I think since all the human versions of my friends were so similar, I sort of assumed they had them too. Now I'm wondering if they did in that world, and just don't here?
RD certainly doesn't, and she said other humans don't either. Not so strange, I guess, since nonponies don't on Equestria either. But I think maybe it explains some things, at least a little. It must be so strange, having no guidance in your life like that, no innate feeling that you fit into some larger plan. I told her that, but she just looked at me like I was crazy, and said it sounded like we weren't really "free" in the way she, and most of this country, value.
I guess I don't understand quite what that means. I asked her if she didn't feel that police work was her special talent, that it was something she needed to do. She said no! She felt like she could leave it, and likely will someday. Also, she said a lot of humans never really find anything like a special talent at all - they just do a job they can find, so they can earn the money to live, and try to find some joy in the time they aren't working, or in what their job lets them buy. Or in their friends.
I can understand the last one at least, but still, the whole thing feels so sad to me. I'd be lost without my cutie mark. I remember how messed up everypony else was when I accidentally switched them, and they didn't even lose them, they just had the wrong ones! Or how listless they were when Tirek took them, ugh. I know RD thinks it's somehow better not to have one, to have to find your destiny yourself, but we find ours; we just know for sure when we have.
Her way doesn't sound free to me, it just sounds depressing. I wonder if those great monsters from her history felt the same way, if some destiny would have saved them. Would Adolf Hitler have gotten a panzer as a cutie mark, or a paintbrush? Or something else entirely?
Anyway, she was too tired to talk about it, and seemed upset at what I thought, so she went right back to bed. I guess I should try to do that, too. Maybe we'll hear back from Alanna tomorrow with some longer-term plan.
I feel a lot of things. Exhausted, excited, nervous. I wonder if Pinkie would manage to make a portmanteau of those. Nervexhited? That barely even works if it isn't written. I guess there's no substitute for Pinkie Pie. Come to think, probably for the best.
After the conversation with RD about cutie marks, and after I wrote that last entry, I finally managed to sleep for a little while. RD had today off, and she slept in a bit too, but I don't think either of us got a full night before the doorbell woke us up. It's strange the little things that carry over - her doorbell sounds enough like an Equestrian one that I almost went down and answered it out of habit, which might have been a disaster. As it turned out, though, it was just Alanna, back with her thoughts.
We talked things over for a long time. She really is a wonderful listener. I guess it comes with her job. She made a couple of very good points, among them that if I'm not going to just figure out how to get home immediately, I won't want to live in RD's apartment forever. I think I'd realized that on some level, and RD certainly had, but the whole thing has been so strange, and there's so much to learn, I think I went back to my old ways, of hiding in whatever research I could do. The whole "totally alien to human experience" thing was also a handy excuse.
But of course Alanna's right. I don't think I want to just stay here and work day and night on getting back to Equestria. For one thing, I don't really know where to begin. Unless I've forgotten it in whatever lost time I have, I don't even know the first thing about a spell to go between worlds unaided, and obviously researching it here would be impossible, since they don't have unicorns, or even any creatures that can do magic at all. I could try to figure it out myself, but between the complete lack of reference materials, and my strangely weakened magic, it would likely take years, maybe centuries. The difference between that and just not trying isn't significant in practical terms.
Then there's the other thing: I'm not sure I want to leave yet, or should. Nothing seems to be jogging my memory of why I came here, but I can't imagine I came to another world by accident. And especially this one, which increasingly seems in need of me. Until I find or remember some evidence otherwise, I'm going to work on the assumption that I came here to do some good, and will try my best to do it.
I didn't tell them that, exactly. They're great humans, and I think we're on our way to being friends, but it's clear I don't understand them well yet. RD was so prickly last night talking about her freedom, I'm worried they might not see things the way I do, or might think my help isn't well-intentioned. Or that I'm trying to control them. And I'm not sure yet how I feel about so much here, anyway. I need more time, to feel them out, and to get my own thoughts in order. So I told Alanna that I didn't know how to get back, and thought it might take a long time to figure out, and left it at that. That's true, of course, and important. I'll tell them both the whole story someday, when I'm sure I can tell it right.
Alanna said that since that was the case, she thought someday I was going to have to reveal myself to humans, and probably sooner rather than later. RD would never say anything, but I was already a little worried that I was imposing on her. Besides, I'm pretty sure even the Princess of Friendship can't make friends with people she's hiding from. So we agreed on that.
The next part of her plan surprised me, though: she wanted to take me out to meet another new friend almost immediately! I had to admit there was no reason to wait, much though I wanted to stall a bit before going out in public. But she thought it'd be better to hide me at least on the way over there, and see what this friend had to say before going right out on the street, so she wanted to wait until dark. After that, she said, she'd arranged a meeting with me at a local bar. I was skeptical that I could go to a bar and meet just one person, but she assured me the person I was going to meet was the owner, and the bar would be closed.
I had a few hours to kill between the two, though, and RD was still at work, so I caught up on some of my research. I went back to my earlier entries and found all the things I'd meant to research and looked them up online. I also took a pen apart with my magic; RD told me they are common and cheap and it would be no problem if I destroyed one. It was a bit of a problem for me, though. I still have no idea why my magic is so weak! Maybe humans can't do it because it's just weaker in this world? I hope not, I'd love to get my full power back. Anyway, I eventually managed to break it down, and answered a few other questions I had as well, with more mundane research using the Internet. I've added appendices at the back of this journal describing my findings, and will add more as events warrant. I've gotten better at typing, but it's still easier for me to write by horn, and I don't quite trust the computer to remember everything yet, though I recognize this is irrational. (*Note to self: research how they work - perhaps that will force me to internalize their reliability.)
By the time I'd finished my notes on human garments and anatomy, it was nearly time to go.
They have so many kinds of clothing! Probably because they apparently view nudity as a huge taboo; even seeing RD wearing as little as I did last night is apparently usually reserved for family, lovers, or very close friends. Perhaps her discomfort at this contributed to our tense conversation. I'll have to apologize. Fortunately no one seems to mind much that I don't wear any, but maybe I should look in to getting some? Though I'd need some money, I suppose. Ugh, I was lucky last time I ended up at a public high school, looking like a native - being an adult (and a pony in a human world) is much harder.
Alanna brought her car around the back of RD's apartment building and came up to get us, then RD made sure no one was in the stairwell, and we got out without being seen. Alanna's car has some fascinating windows, they're somehow tinted so it's easy to see out, if a bit darker, but more or less impossible to see in. Sure, that's an easy spell for most teenage unicorns with any talent to speak of, but like everything here it's completely nonmagical, at least in the sense I understand. Though it seems like some of these technological tricks might as well be.
We didn't drive for too long, just ten minutes or so, though it is amazingly hard to judge speed in a car. You'd think it'd be easier than it is in a carriage since it has so many windows, but somehow I found it just as hard. I asked Alanna and she said we drove about two miles to the bar. She told me the car could go much faster, but doing so wasn't safe on city streets. It isn't as fast as pegasus flight, of course, but beats ponies and even the train by quite a bit.
The bar itself was similarly deserted so late on a weeknight. Apparently it's a favorite of the local police and other legally inclined people, and is near a major law school, which is how RD and Alanna know the bartender. Her name is Rosie Baker, and to my increasing confusion but decreasing surprise her voice sounds a lot like Pinkie Pie. I'd thought all humans were pale, but her skin is a very rich dark brown, about as dark as her hair, it is very striking! She didn't have any balloons about her person when I met her, but there were three tied to a signpost on the street outside, two blue and one yellow, just like Pinkie's cutie mark. That's a mystery I won't be able to just look up on Wikipedia.
Rosie's bar has a lot of charm to it. It isn't fancy or anything, but it's clean and well maintained, and has nice, functional fixtures. I'd say it suits her. She has an easy smile, but is otherwise very different from Pinkie. She's about a grimmer kind of humor. Not mean spirited, or at anyone's expense except occasionally her own, but Pinkie seems to be made of laughter, like once she found it she couldn't help but be what she is. I think Rosie makes a choice every day to laugh because otherwise she'd have to cry. After my reading yesterday, I can't really blame her, and her bar's a haven for people who deal with the worst of it. I think she helps them make that choice, too.
Alanna, RD, and I spent a few hours there, telling her the whole story. Then they went off for a bit to give us some alone time. She asked how I was holding up, and there was no grin there at all, she just put a hand on my foreleg and looked so serious. I broke a little bit, looking at her dark eyes, and told her everything I found looking online, and how much it scared me. I was terrified she'd look at me like an alien. Like RD had when we'd talked about cutie marks and destiny.
She just leaned over the bar and hugged me though, and stroked my mane. I've never really known any creature with hands, while I've been myself. I learned to understand how useful they are in my few days through the mirror - particularly compared to hooves and wings, if not magic - but I don't think I ever appreciated them before. There was so much expression in such a simple gesture. I think my mom herself would have had trouble making me feel as comforted. I remember exactly what she whispered in my ear:
"Oh you poor dear, we all think that. I don't know why it happens any more than you do. That's why I do this. I feel like it's all I can do."
It sounds depressing, writing it down. And I suppose it is, really, but it made me feel better, just knowing I wasn't the only one who felt that way. That really opened the floodgates, and I told her about my princess title, and my duties. And how I wondered if I was here for some reason, whether they needed me.
She said she thought they needed me, but didn't know if they'd want me. We both cried for a while, still hugging. I felt a lot better after. I don't know if she did, but we both calmed down. She had a beer, I had a water. She told me she'd do what she could. I told her about my worries about imposing on RD, finding some acceptance, and making some kind of way here.
She told me I should come work for her.
I'm incredibly nervous about it, but it does seem like a good idea. I start tomorrow, waiting tables. Rosie trained me tonight, and it is pretty easy. Even here my magic is more than strong enough to carry trays, and it isn't like memorizing orders is difficult, compared to some of the spells I've learned in a hurry. Of course, that's not what's keeping me up writing such a long entry, even though I got back late. How will the humans react? This is a big risk on Rosie's part, not just mine.
I told her that, and she smiled a little half-smile. She said that sure, I might get her bar burned down, but if I didn't, I'd get it on TV for free. I'd already realized that kind of quip is pretty standard for her, but I couldn't really argue. And not just because she was being nice to me; it wasn't a bad point, either.
Still, this feels like the night before a final exam, and I've never been great at nights like that. At least the bar doesn't open until the evening, so I'll be able to sleep in. And Rachel and Alanna were both excited for me, and said they'd be there at open to act normal. I'm glad that even here I've got some friends to stand by me.
Of course, they can't stand by me if I'm too tired to stand, so I'm going to wrap this up and go lie in bed. Maybe in a few hours I'll be able to to fall asleep.
I'm writing this from the storage room above Rosie's bar, so I guess that means it hasn't been burned down yet. I'm glad I'll be the first to know if it is.
I'm here because Rosie told me she had a surprise for me when I arrived for my shift (early, of course). She'd remembered my worries about imposing on Rachel, and so set me up a little nest here. She seemed to think I'd think it poor accommodation, and I suppose it's no full-fledged apartment, but there's a shower and bathroom, and the throw pillow and sleeping bag feel perfectly nice and soft to me. I can even go online on the bar's tablet. And most importantly, it's a space of my own. Besides, she pointed out that I won't be able to rent an apartment without any money or legal standing, but that also means I don't have to live somewhere that's zoned residential, so might as well take advantage.
So I'm living here, at least for now. I thanked RD for her hospitality and she said she'd enjoyed the company, but would be glad to have he couch back. She'd never have said it if I didn't have an alternative, I'm quite confident, but it made me happier for Rosie's thoughtfulness.
On the shift itself, where do I start? I guess at the beginning. I got there early, as I said, and after Rosie showed me my room, she went over my duties again quickly. I knew them all already, of course, but being reminded of that, and that they were so straightforward on the surface, helped calm me down some. I always find myself so much happier in motion than waiting and fretting.
Another thing that helped was the crowd of mostly familiar faces outside the door. Rachel and Alanna were waiting, so they could be sure to be the first in the bar, and they'd brought two others with them. They both had hair colors I hadn't seen before on humans: one a very light yellow, and the other a fiery orange. I asked Rosie if they'd dyed them that color, since RD said normally it was all earth tones. She told me that she wasn't sure, because they're apparently both colors that can occur naturally, but are also popular dye choices. Interesting in either case, though she also warned me not to ask them immediately, as it is often considered rude.
Anyway, they came in as soon as we opened, and of course were all very polite. The two I hadn't met are Annie-Jane Lee (orange hair, goes by AJ, shockingly) and Fiona Smith (yellow hair, easy smile, surprisingly talkative). They both know RD and Alanna through work, but don't work together closely. AJ is an Officer of the Court, which I looked up just now and is, like RD's title, not actually an officer rank. Fiona is a doctor, but many of her patients are law enforcement, including RD and AJ. Apparently the group as a whole mostly got to be friends here at the bar. I didn't get much time to interact with them, but they both seemed nice, and...strangely similar to and different from the ponies they remind me of.
That didn't really surprise me, which says a lot about my recent life.
Similar to my pony friends or not, their group made for an easy start to the day. I don't think I can thank them enough. For the first fifteen minutes or half an hour, they were the only customers, so I could get used to the heft of the tray and the scope of a table's order without having to worry about whether they were staring at me.
Of course, just as I thought to be grateful to them for that, I realized I hadn't managed to get any clothes, and remembered my online admirers, and my stress levels went way back up.
Today, though, that wasn't my problem. I guess there aren't a lot of fans of the show that hang out near the law school, or they were too nervous to come in. Instead, it was mostly just, well, awkward, at least at first. For the first group of customers, I practically had to shout at them to make them pay attention to me. The second couple walked out rather than let me seat them. The third went past me mid-sentence and walked up to the bar, where they tried to get Rosie to serve them. She was very polite, but told them that I was their server. They did deal with me then, but talked about me as if I weren't there. I think they thought I was some kind of machine, or puppet, or something.
Through the whole late afternoon, everyone thought my magic was a trick, no matter what I told them. I was renowned for magic in a world full of it - it seems horribly unfair to have it denied in one where no one else has any! But I guess after all I was afraid of being an outsider, I should be happy to have one less way to not fit in.
Right around five, the first local news crew showed up. Rosie told me later that there are a lot of cars on the street on weekday afternoons here - it's called rush hour - and the news vans likely got caught up in that. Anyway, she went out as soon as they showed up and told the crews they couldn't come in to the bar to talk to me, since I was working, but that if they wanted to wait, I might be willing to talk after my shift. They didn't seem very happy with this, and the person with the microphone got up in her face, but she just repeated herself, and told them that if they blocked the door she'd have to call the police.
They stayed around outside though. I took the occasional glance, but tried to focus on the job. At first it seemed like they just milled about on the street talking to the camera and people who came out, but later on they went and filmed me a bit through the front window; maybe it took a while for the light to be right.
By that time there was a throng of them, with all sorts of markings on their cameras. It reminded me of the dignitaries at the Equestria Games with all their banners and heraldry. They grudgingly kept a path to the door. I was worried they'd drive away business, and maybe some people were turned away, but the tables were always full, so it seemed that they brought in as many as they drove off.
I kind of lost track of time, trying to focus on doing the job despite the amount of attention I was getting. All the royal functions helped, but I'll admit only so much. My unfamiliarity with humans, cameras, and being the center of attention in a less positive way, all made me less feel off-balance the whole time. Still, I was trained by the best, and I think I did a good job. Almost none of the customers treated me like I was, well, normal. I get that I'm not, here, but we still tried our best. It would have been nice.
To be fair, a few did, and it was.
After what felt like far longer than the eight hours, Rosie finally closed down the kitchen and told me I was done. She also reminded me that the reporters wanted to talk to me. I thought about just going to bed for longer than I'd like to admit, but it was more a fantasy than a serious consideration. I don't really want to settle down here as a humble bar worker, after all. I'll admit I never really wanted to be the Princess of Friendship, or a public figure, but I am. And I've never stopped just because it's hard before.
So I went out and talked to the reporters. It was an intensely awkward experience. Much like the diners, they didn't seem to know quite what to make of me, and many were rude or seemed to think I was tricking them somehow. I know I should be more understanding, since humans have never met other creatures they can talk to before, but some of them talked to me as if I were a child! Worse were the ones who seemed to be humoring me, though, as if I and they knew I was some kind of hoax, but we were having fun pretending.
In any case, I wrangled them into an impromptu press conference, kind of like the ones I've had a few times with the other Princesses. Nothing fancy, since it was just standing around on the street outside the bar, but I at least got them in a circle, and set it up so all the cameras could see me well enough.
The questions started out pretty simple: my name, my title, where I'm from, why I'm here, and so forth. They quickly went off the rails, though. An older man asked me if I were scouting for an invasion. That seems to me the most pointless question ever - even if I were, I'd say no, after all. I almost told him I didn't think we'd be able to do nearly as good a job of killing humans as they were doing themselves, but I remembered my diplomacy lessons and refrained.
Then a younger woman asked if I knew about the TV show, and the floodgates opened on that topic. Everything to if I knew how the show and my life seemed to match up so well, to if I was crated by the company that makes it as an advertising gimmick. I did the best I could, but then someone asked if I knew about the fan community and I said I did, but that I was done answering questions about the show, on the grounds that I'd only just found out it existed.
They eventually seemed to lose track and just repeated questions from earlier, perhaps hoping I would slip up and admit I was an animate publicity flier that was also planning to kill all humans. When I told Rosie about that one, she said that maybe they thought the interview had changed my mind, a point I hadn't considered. In any case, I finally put my hoof down. I repeated that I was who I said I was, I wasn't interested in doing anything except making friends and making my way in the world, that I would be working at the bar for the foreseeable future, and that I was going to bed. Rosie had finished closing up shop and was waiting in the doorway by then, and firmly told off the first few reporters that tried to follow me in. It looked like they might press the issue, but RD and some of her fellow police officers were hanging around. She gave me a smile and wave and glared at the reporters and they backed down.
Rosie and I went upstairs and she gave me a quick hug and told me I did a great job on the shift. I told her all about the interview and she said she'd seen much of it on live TV, and thought I did well. I didn't know live TV was something that could happen, and was sorry to have missed it, but she said they'd likely be airing excerpts for a while, and that we could tell a lot by what they chose to put in.
So we sat down and watched one of the local news channels. It wasn't too bad; they only kept in the most outrageous questions, of course, but didn't seem interested in trying to make me look bad or otherwise twist my replies. After the interview they did have on two experts, both scientists, one of whom insisted I was due full "human" rights, the other of whom wanted me brought in and dissected to figure out how I work. I nearly panicked at the latter, but Rosie claimed human news tended to do this - find the two most extreme positions they could and get both on to achieve some kind of "balance". It seemed like they were so opposed there was no hope they'd ever have a useful conversation, but Rosie claimed that was pretty standard too. I think my eye twitched a bit at that. I thought I'd gotten over that, but there's just too much here that doesn't make any sense at all.
Anyway, after that we called it a night, and I think it's time for me to do just that. Humans still don't make any sense to me, but at least they don't all seem to want to cut me open and study my organs. (That's high up on the list of sentences I never wanted to write, yuck.)
"Well," Rosie told me just a minute ago, "I knew hiring a genuine princess would make this place classier, but I guess I had no idea how much." It was a good quip, because all day today we had important locals coming in to eat. And to try to talk to me.
It started in the morning, when the news crews were either back or still around. I thought they were just camping out to see if I'd be working again, and couldn't imagine how bored they must be, but it turned out they were there because the mayor of Boston was waiting to come in when we opened. (We're technically still in Cambridge, but apparently Boston is the name of the city proper, with the skyscrapers I could see from RD's apartment window; Cambridge started out as a different town and technically still is, but they've conurbated, kind of like Manehattan and the various cities that aren't on the island.)
Anyway, he was waiting at the door with a small entourage, and greeted me very nicely. I glanced over at Rosie since I didn't want to neglect my duties, but she nodded to me, so I chatted with him a bit. He was very polite, and didn't seem to be interested in killing and cutting me up, but he also didn't really say anything of substance. Like some of my experiences with Mayor Mare, I got the feeling he was waiting to decide, or perhaps waiting for public opinion to form before following it. That's never been my kind of leadership, but at least it's something I've seen in Equestria, too. He did ask me, he said in confidence, if everything I'd told the reporters was true. I don't know what he expected, but of course I said it was. He looked a bit disappointed but again, I have no idea what he was expecting. I hope he liked the food, if not the company.
It was like that for the rest of the day. Mixed in with a hefty crowd of curious but otherwise not notable people were a large number of local celebrities, none of whom I could really keep straight. There are just so many different kinds of rank and position here! It's like Canterlot with all the nobles, but worse, because apparently they're all importantly different, not just ancient titles that don't indicate any duties to speak of. I think the Governor of Massachusetts was my record for the day, but I don't really understand the hierarchy well enough to be sure.
None of them said anything that seemed meaningful. None threatened or tried to use me, but nor did any offer to protect or help me. Being a princess has improved my tolerance for empty pleasantries, but I'd still had enough of that long before it was over.
Only the most die-hard of Rosie's regulars made it in, though that did include RD and her crew, who I was thankful to be able to talk to for a bit. She promised to come back after her shift to say hi and catch up. I'm actually writing this entry while I wait, because she's on duty until after midnight. I was so happy to have all of them come to the bar for support, but we couldn't talk much with how busy the day was, so I'm looking forward to seeing her in private.
It wasn't all VIPs all day, though. The show's fans started showing up, too, and it was at least less bad than I expected. Some were great, mostly the children who came with their parents. They were so excited to meet me! A few asked me awkward questions, like whether they could be pony princesses when they grew up. But they didn't seem to mind when I said they'd have to be human presidents or something instead, and mostly they just wanted to touch my mane, or hug me, and tell me they love my show, and be adorable.
There were plenty of adult fans too, thankfully mostly nice, though amusingly often more shy than the young ones. But still. I was relieved that they were mostly so nice and seemingly normal. I admit I still worry about all that stuff I saw online. Especially since in further research I discovered just how dangerous and uncomfortable it can be to be even a normal human woman here, how much men can think they deserve your attention. It sounds hard enough when you've grown up with it, I don't even know what I'd do, with my magic still so weak. (That situation certainly makes my ever-growing mental list, sigh.)
For whatever reason though, it did work out. One man brought me flowers, which I have to admit made me feel a bit uncomfortable, but I don't know exactly what that means here and apparently it is ambiguous even within human culture, and he was polite and didn't seem to expect anything. And now looking back on it, they were better than the human leaders, by far, because at least I knew they supported me, even if I wasn't sure how.
I suppose I've had my fantasies about fictional characters, or even ponies around town. If Rainbow Dash or I had something like the Internet, what might we have written or drawn about Daring Do, before we knew she was a real pony? I think Rainbow didn't behave as well when we met Daring as these humans did on meeting me. I let my anxieties get away with me again, I think, unfairly. Maybe all those images and stories wouldn't exist at all, if people had known I was real.
In any case, new friends are always welcome. Especially unexpected ones. That's about it for today, though. Maybe I'll look again at some of that fan stuff, or get started on my research list. Having the Internet right in the house reminds me of my old library, being able to do research so easily.
A printed copy of the following comment, posted to popular online fan blog [redacted], was included as Exhibit 12 in evidence in Twilight Sparkle vs. the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Dear [site admin handle redacted],
#1 - Seriously, there's so much wrong with this picture I don't know where to start. Why did the artist decide I needed hands and breasts? (Ok, I know why, but Celestia, why!) My research indicates human spines can't bend that way, and I know pony ones can't, so how in the world did I get in that pose? That looks really painful. I guess I'm good enough at shapeshifting magic now that I could do that, but I have no idea why I would want to. And I'm sort of scared that the artist does. Also, I wish they hadn't drawn me dressed like that, because I now know far more about human intimate apparel than I ever wanted to.
And ok, I can see why someone might think I want to hook up with Rainbow Dash, or Applejack, or even Fluttershy or Pinkie or Cherilee or Mac, they're all good ponies and my friends. But why is my tongue doing that to Trixie's muzzle? I know you've seen the show, she was a jerk both times I met her! I mean, I know she's a pony with plenty of good features and I didn't see her at her best, but why would I want to make out with her? Come on now.
Finally, why did you decide to post this anyway? I thought this was supposed to be an all-ages site, and I know if I'd seen that as a filly I'd have had all sorts of awkward questions. Even more than I do now, I mean.
Regards,
Twilight Sparkle
Exhibits 13-97 are the printed copies of comments, written by the same user, on the rest of the images in the post.
June 20, Entry 2 - "Dread"
I hope Rachel gets here soon. I don't even know what to do.
Oh, she's knocking now. Thank Celestia.
The following is a print copy of a private message sent by user Shades to user RealPrincessofFriendship on site [redacted], June 20, 11:37pm EST.
I know what you are, and you belong with me. I know you know it. Come back, or I'll make you. Meet me on the roof 24 hours from midnight. Don't miss it. I won't just let you get away.
I'm so glad RD came, even if it wasn't the pleasant visit we'd expected. That message from "Shades" shook me so much. I don't know who he is, or what he knows, or thinks he knows about me. I'm still terrified, though, even though she did her best to calm me down. I guess maybe I should start at the beginning though. Not much point in a thought-organizing tool where all the thoughts are out of order.
I left off right after I saw the message, when RD knocked. I just collapsed on her and started crying as soon as she came in. I couldn't even tell her what was in the message, it had me so shaken. It's just been too much these last few days, and doing table service with all those fans and local leader, my stress was already high. I had to bring the tablet over and show her the message on that.
I was so concerned he did know something, some secret about me. The gap in my memory...I still don't know what it could mean. And is "Shades" the same person that reported me "stolen"? RD didn't think these worries were unreasonable.
I admit, I wasn't trying to hide my identity. Obviously not while working the bar; that was the point, of course. But I wasn't trying to hide it on the Internet either. I spent some time on the same site where he messaged me, last night, commenting on some of the dumber posts. RD told me most humans stay anonymous online and that might have been unwise. I had no idea, though, and it's done. Besides, it was a great stress reliever, until I got that message.
So the conclusion was: I was open enough about myself, online and off, that we couldn't be sure if this was related or not. Also that the message was really creepy. Okay, that's more editorializing than a useful conclusion. But even though we were up for hours thinking about it, we couldn't come up with much more.
That's a bit unfair. We talked about it for about half an hour before we realized we weren't getting anywhere. We decided that RD would try to trace the message through work, but still couldn't decide if I should meet him as requested, or not. So we gave it up as a bad job and spent a few hours watching movies to try to calm down.
It obviously only sort of worked, but the movies were interesting, anyway. We were limited by what Rosie had purchased on her video service, and it was a mixed bag. First we watched something called Doctor Strangelove which RD had only heard a little about, but knew it was a classic comedy. I'll just say it was Rosie's kind of humor, less mine.
RD apologized, which seemed unnecessary to me, though I guess the movie hadn't improved my mood. Then she suggested Love, Actually, which she also hadn't seen, but had heard enough about to be confident I'd like. She was right on that one, though it made me a bit sad, too. Not just because some of the stories were sad, but because it still irks me that between the Internet and that human Flash Sentry, only bipeds seem to have any romantic interest in me. But it was a cute movie, even if RD had to pause it and explain a lot of the cultural jokes, and somehow by the end I felt better even about that.
We were both tired, so all that was left was to decide whether to meet "Shades" on the roof tomorrow. Finally we decided I probably should, if just because staying away forever would involve going into hiding, which I don't want to do. RD agreed to come along to make sure he (or she, I guess, though RD is convinced from the tone of the message that it's a man) doesn't try anything. She's apparently also got some kind of special equipment built in to some of her gear, and is planning to record the conversation.
I'm not sure I'll have time to write another entry before the meeting; I can see the sky getting light out the window, so saying "it's late" is no longer really accurate. And I have a shift beforehand, and don't want to let Rosie down. Well, that, and it's just as well to keep my mind off it. I'd probably just stress myself out if I had nothing to do all day but dread midnight.
Going to get some sleep now, then. Hopefully the next entry starts on a happy note.
The last thing in evidence is a sealed sandwich bag containing a thumb drive and a note.
Your honors, our lab believes this to be an authentic digital video recording of the meeting between Twilight Sparkle, Officer Diaz, and Mr. Lasombra. It was taken by Officer Diaz and so appears from her point of view.
One of the judges plugs the thumb drive into her laptop, and a moment later the large screen set into the meeting room's wall lights up. The footage is slightly low resolution but still easy to make out, and shows the rooftop of the Legal Spirits bar. It looks pretty much like any rooftop in Cambridge: flat, with the occasional chimney or vent. At the far end of the roof a tall, thin man stands. His black hair is shoulder length and slightly shaggy, contrasting with his well-trimmed goatee. He wears a stylish black suit, with black undershirt and tie.
The rest of the judges focus intently on the screen.
"Are you 'Shades'?" Twilight Sparkle says. The judges all recognize her voice, but the camera shifts halfway through her sentence, catching her in frame. To most of the judges, seeing her still brings forth a brief look of confusion.
"I'm David Lasombra," he replies, "and I go by 'Shades' online, yes. But come now, surely you remember your creator?"
"My creator? What are you talking about?"
Lasombra laughs, and walks closer across the roof.
"Hey buddy, that's close enough," Diaz's voice sounds loudest, since she's wearing the microphone.
Lasombra stops moving, but not smiling.
"It hardly matters, officer, if I commanded her, she'd come to me. Really though, Twilight, you don't remember me at all? I suppose the first thing I'll have to do when I get you home is fix your memory. I have no idea what went wrong with it."
"What are you talking about? Why would I go with you? I don't know you at all."
Lasombra sighs. "You are my toy, Twilight. I constructed you. All your memory of what happened on the show, of Equestria, it's all fiction. The show is all there is. You are a machine, and I made you, and programmed you, because I wanted Twilight Sparkle in my life. And you will be again. Come along, we'll fix you all up. Sorry she bothered you, officer."
The camera rotates and Twilight fills the view. Her eyes are wide, her mouth half open.
"Wait, what?" Officer Diaz says, "That doesn't make any sense. I sat with her on the couch, she's warm, her chest moves. She eats! Only vegetarian stuff but I mean, she's a pony, that makes sense. And I had to show her how to use a human toilet!"
"No," Twilight says softly, "no, no, no..."
"Oh yes," Lasombra says, "I made her very convincing, didn't I? I wanted to be able to do everything with her. She's by far my finest work. Years and years ahead of anything outside a lab. I started working on her during season one. I had to make changes of course, like adding the wings, even if they're purely decorative. But you know, machinery runs hot, and requires fuel. I just made her run hot in the right places, and use the right fuels, and air-cool in the correct way, to seem convincing."
"No, no, no..."
"But what about her magic? I saw her wait tables with telekinesis. Are you saying you somehow invented that, and use it to make a pervert-bot of a pony?"
"You must be mistaken," the camera shifts to a frowning Lasombra, "her horn does contain an electromagnet that can draw specially prepared objects to it, but not more than that. Are you sure it wasn't a trick?"
The camera shifts back to Twilight, now looking up with a small smile. Several pebbles from the rooftop rise around her. The judges gasp, followed shortly by the recorded Lasombra.
"But, that shouldn't possible...it must be her." The camera moves back to Lasombra. "It'd be too much, to have some fictional character appear on a hilltop right near my lab, just as my robot version disappears? No. I made her clever. It must be some kind of trick she's learned. Besides, I have proof. There's a test!"
The pebbles drop to the roof with a clatter.
"Go on," Twilight says, voice low.
"But you're not touching her," Diaz adds, "tell me what to do instead." Twilight nods.
"Put your hand on her side, about six inches left of her cutie mark, level with the center of it. You'll feel a small button. That should be enough, but press it if you like. It won't shut her down or anything, but it'll open the control panel."
The camera focuses on Twilight again, and now she's looking directly at it, her expression unreadable.
"Do you want me to?" Diaz asks. Twilight nods.
The camera moves closer to Twilight, until even with the less-than-HD resolution the judges can make out individual hairs on her coat. A hand moves into frame, gently moving over her side, then stops.
"Twilight," Diaz says slowly, "there is something here. Should...should I try?"
Twilight's eyes widen, and she looks away, but she whispers, "yes."
A moment later, a section of her coat flips open, revealing a tangled mess of wires above a circuit board with several lit LEDs.
The camera turns to look at Twilight's face, just as she turns back to look herself. Her eyes fly open as wide as possible, her jaw goes slack.
"What...no..." she sinks to her knees, "no, I can't, I'm not..."
"Twilight Sparkle, you are mine," Lasombra says firmly, "and I order you to come with me home, so we can fix this."
"No..." she whispers, then louder, "no, I won't."
The camera moves again to Lasombra. He's frowning.
"Did you not understand? I order you to come with me."
"I said no!" Twilight yells.
The camera jerks to the side and two arms come into view as Officer Diaz shields her eyes from the sudden storm of pebbles flying away from Twilight.
"Mr. Lasombra," she says, though her voice shakes, "I don't think the law has anything to say about robots that can make their own choices, but my friend here says she's not going with you."
The camera turns back, and Officer Diaz's hand presses the panel in Twilight's side shut, then gently pats her back. The focus moves back to Lasombra.
"Now take that no for an answer and go home yourself. She's not yours anymore."
He snarls and turns to go.
"The law doesn't say anything, of course," he says as he goes, "and I can prove I made her, that she's mine. I'll see you in court, Officer Diaz, and then I'll bring you home, Twilight."
The screen goes black.
"So," says the judge with the laptop, her voice warm, but firm, "we've heard all the arguments, and seen the evidence, such as it is. There is, not surprisingly, very little precedent involved in judging this case on this level, but I hope you all understand why I thought it was necessary. I know how I'd like to rule, and I think, like Brown, it would send a strong message if it were unanimous."
She looks at each of the other judges in the room.
"Sorry to interrupt you, Karl, but I've just had word from Maria outside the John Adams Courthouse that after several days reviewing the evidence and deliberating, the Supreme Judicial Court has just released their ruling on the Twilight Sparkle case. Maria, our court reporter, has read the opinion and is at the courthouse to tell us about it and the reaction of the crowd there. Maria?"
"I'm here, John. There's a lot of excitement here outside the courthouse at this historic ruling, which is only just now making its way among the crowd that was here waiting for it."
"I bet there's a lot of energy there, Maria. Now, for our viewers that might not have caught the beginning of the story, remind them what's at stake here."
"Well John, I'm sure everyone remembers a few months ago when Twilight Sparkle, the character from the children's show, seemed to have emerged from our televisions and was waiting tables at a local bar. Well as you know, it turned out she was actually of all things a robot, made by one David Lasombra, a local engineer for Google. But she claimed to have forgotten this, and to all appearances is intelligent and aware enough to want to live on her own. Obviously this is totally new legal ground, John, and Mr. Lasombra filed suit to regain possession of her. Now, this case isn't the one he brought, because the Supreme Judicial Court, in an unprecedented move, decided that before they could rule the case on its merits, they had to decide Twilight Sparkle's legal status. The question they've just decided, then, is whether she counts as a person, or as a thing. If she's a person, then she's entitled to the protection of the state constitution, so Mr. Lasombra's case would be thrown out - you can't own a person in Massachusetts."
"Fascinating, Maria. And they've now decided the issue?"
"Yes, John, that's correct, court reporters have just handed out the text of their ruling, and the crowd here is reading it over, that noise you can hear in the background is the reaction as they're mostly figuring it out now."
"And you've figured it out, right Maria? Tell our viewers what they decided."
"That's right, John. They've ruled that Twilight Sparkle is in fact a person, making her the first non-human person recognized by any government, as far as I know."
"What about that Roman emperor who made his horse a senator?"
'I'll have to get back to you about that one, John. The other interesting thing here is that while several of the judges have written supporting opinions, the ruling of the court was unanimous."
"So what does this mean in practical terms, Maria?"
"Well, it means Mr. Lasombra's case is effectively dead, most of all. Federal law doesn't really have any statutes that apply here, and this is the highest court in the state, so appeal seems unlikely, and Lasombra should have no legal recourse. Of course, there are still questions to be answered on the federal level, for example citizenship issues and so forth. This is a major victory for Ms. Sparkle and her supporters, but this is still very much new legal ground, and if federal courts don't agree that she should be considered a person, there could still be a lot of difficulty for her."
"Well, thanks Maria, now--"
"Sorry John, but it looks like Ms. Sparkle and her friends are coming out now. There's a lot of excitement in this crowd. I'm going to go try to get a look. Wait, some of the excitement isn't towards the courthouse doors, there's...there's a man up on one of the statues in the common, and it looks like he's armed. Yes, as you probably heard, he's fired several...several shots at the group coming out. The crowd is thick but I've seen several purple flashes from the entryway, I can't tell what's happening up there. The crowd has broken out in chaos, but I'm trying to get a view of the entryway. Wait, I can see it now, I can't see anyone, but there's blood in several places on the stairs..."
Darkness, then voices. Her head is swimming, her stomach churning. Why was he so sadistic as to make her feel even that? As she thinks of Lasombra, it feels even worse.
She can't seem to open her eyes, but she hears her friends' voices, dimly, can barely process them.
"Is this blood? Who else got hit?"
"I'm fine, anyone else? Where'd this blood come from?"
"Is it hers?"
"How could it be?"
She drifts off again, and remembers things. Some things. Bits and pieces, loose images.
A pony bursts through a train door. It's grey and has no cutie mark. It opens its mouth, wider than she can by far, and reveals rows of teeth like a shark's.
She's pulling her balloon. All around her is a silver light, not like Equestria's sunlight (or Earth's), but there's a cloudless blue sky above her, and she's flying towards a green shore above an ocean of rainbow-colored light.
There's ice, a whole room made of it, and in the center, a giant clear block, but at its heart is only darkness. She feels fear, and desperation, then suddenly she is overwhelmed with love. There's an inexplicable odor of apples.
Her flank hurts. So does her horn. So do her wings - another unfair thing, she can't even use them! She can't remember ever feeling pain like this.
She's wearing a white dress, walking through the streets of Canterlot, smiling and waving, of course. There's a pony next to her, walking very close, flank to flank. She can feel the body heat. She's not looking there, though, because more ponies than she's ever seen line the street, cheering for them. There are cannons on the tops of all the towers, but they're Pinkie's kind, every one, and the air is filled with confetti and streamers and balloons and the sound and smell of gunpowder.
She sees Applejack smiling at her. She's wearing a necklace on a silvery chain, with a charm Twilight can't make out dangling against her chest.
She sees Celestia wrapped in a tendril of darkness, her wings pinned, dragged into a chasm. Celestia's hooves drag deep furrows in the earth on the edge. She hears a voice cry out, rough and raw, then realizes it's her own.
There's some kind of cloth wrapped tightly around her barrel. She feels a hand on her hoof. The strange texture of a human's nearly hairless skin, the many soft points of contact of the digits, is unmistakable. She's lying on what feel like simple sheets, and feels the slightly thin and rough cloth of another draped over her back. They're not unpleasant, but nothing like Rarity's silks, or even her own bedsheets in the library, or her castle. The one she remembers as hers, in any case. Her head hurts, though due to injury or at the tangled mess of her own memories, she isn't sure.
She feels like she could open her eyes, and shifts. She hears a scratchy voice, and her head swims, thinking of Rainbow Dash, and then of Rachel, before remembering the hand, and settling on the latter.
"Hey there, tough girl."
Twilight coughs and opens her eyes. They feel out of practice at it. She's in a homey-looking room, wood-framed walls with faded wallpaper. Sunlight streams in through the windows, darkened and tinted green by leaves. The air is heavy and moist, but not quite unpleasantly so, and smells of summer and growth. It reminds her of Applejack's room at Sweet Apple Acres. There's a saline drip next to the bed, though she isn't currently hooked into it.
She's in quite a bit of pain, particularly on her flank where the tight cloth - a bandage, of course, she's waking up now - sits.
"Hey yourself," she says, "glad you're okay. The others?"
"They're fine. We still don't know who tried to take you down, but he was definitely going for you. Lasombra was right behind us out of the courtroom, so it wasn't him. But since it happened in Boston proper, my department and I aren't involved. Well, they talked to me as a witness, but you know what I mean."
"Thank Celestia," Twilight nods. Her voice is cracked from disuse, and she feels like she hasn't had a drink ever, in her entire life, so she reconsiders her followup, "...water?"
Rachel chuckles and hands her a glass. She takes it up in her magic and takes a long drink. It feels easy, natural, in a way it hasn't since - she corrects her train of thought - ever. She nearly drops the glass in surprise. Then some of the memory-images from her long sleep return to her, and she does drop it. It spins as it falls, and the rest of the water describes an elegant arc across her chest and RD's blouse. She catches it just before the human does, and just before it hits the hard wood floor.
"I...what's happening to me," Twilight gasps. Rachel frowns at her.
"Well, what happened to you is we dug three bullets out of you," she says, "but the only thing that seems to be happening to you now is getting wet."
"Rachel, I remember things. Things I shouldn't. Things that weren't on the show. And my magic's working better."
"Funny," Rachel says, "we'd noticed something strange too. Like, the reason you've got a bandage on.'
"Well, you said I was shot, was I leaking oil or something?"
"No, you were bleeding."
Twilight purses her lips.
"That doesn't make any sense, I can't imagine even Lasombra would have given me fake blood."
"It's real blood," Rachel says, "but we think you did that, not Lasombra. Before you got us out of there with that crazy magic stuff, you got hit pretty bad. We showed up at the bar, but you were out cold. Fiona did what she could but you were leaking something that looked like antifreeze and of course she's a doctor, not an engineer. We got you in my car, we were getting ready to take you to MIT. Alanna wanted to call Lasombra, and the rest of us might have let her, none of us had any idea what to do. Then when we were driving, you stopped leaking whatever it was and started bleeding on us. We popped open that panel and it was...nothing like it was before, it was weird and gross. There were wires and lights still, but half of it had turned to muscle and bone and stuff.
"None of us knew what to make of it, but it was changing even as we watched, so we slammed the panel shut and Fiona started putting on bandages, and we brought you here. This is AJ's parents' farm, out in the Western part of the state, a few hundred miles from the city. Their neighbor keeps horses, so we thought their doctor might be able to help. He wasn't here when we got you out, so it took a few days before he could examine you. Fiona did what she could and by a few days in she couldn't even find the button for the panel anymore. When the horse doctor got back and took a look, he said you were basically a tiny horse. Well, you've got a handful of extra organs, a horn, and wings, obviously, plus your weirdly shaped head and huge brain, but you know. Not a machine, anyway."
"Wait, what? You're saying I'm a pony again? How long have I been out?"
"A few weeks. It's early August now. You still remember what happened though, right? I mean, you did't like, turn into pony-you and forget everything that happened when you were robot-you?"
"No, I remember it all. Otherwise I'd be asking who you were. But I don't understand. My magic got better and I turned myself into a creature with it? So am I still fake, I just made myself a better fake? Are all these other memories I'm getting just...me kidding myself? I just want to know if I'm really me or not! I was getting used to being a fake..."
Rachel puts a hand on her hoof.
"Really?"
"Not really," Twilight looks down and frowns, "It's the strangest feeling, remembering all these things, being myself, but knowing it isn't real. Well, suspecting, now, I guess. But knowing that I was made to think that as some kind of plaything..." she shudders and goes silent for a minute, then looks up at Rachel and speaks very softly again.
"Did you know I was uh, anatomically accurate? Robot me, that is. I checked after I found out."
"I will kill him." Rachel says, flat.
"He was clearly really into accuracy," Twilight says, still barely above a whisper, "so I hope it was just that. But...it's not like I remember, and in the show, it's all just blank. I mean, it's a kids cartoon. I wonder if I'll ever remember one way or another."
"Do you want to?"
"Yes," Twilight doesn't hesitate. "Maybe I'd regret it if I did but...it's a thing to know."
"Yeah, you do seem to be all about that," Rachel smiles a little. "So you're remembering stuff about Equestria, and your life there? Stuff that wasn't in the show?"
"Yeah! It's really exciting." Twilight thinks a bit more, and a particular memory stands out.
"Hey, Applejack and Rainbow Dash totally weren't dating! He put that in because he ships them! He's the worst! How could he do that to AJ?" She feels angrier than she'd have expected.
"To AJ? What about to Rainbow? Or, you know, to you? You seem madder about this than about...anything else." Rachel raises her eyebrow.
"Well, at least Rainbow's actually into mares, I don't think Applejack is. And all the memories he gave me were equally fake," Twilight replies, "but I don't really know, she just came to mind first. I guess maybe I am remembering something...real?" She feels a sudden warmth at the thought that maybe her friends aren't all just fictional characters on a cartoon show, after all.
"Look," RD says, shifting awkwardly, "you were nice enough not to say it, but we all watched the whole series while you were out. Including the movie where you went through that mirror into a weird human world. There was something going on here the whole time. I mean, first there's your magic - Lasombra said it was all electromagnetic but you were lifting plastic trays, and those rocks on the roof, let alone however you protected the rest of us from those bullets and got us out-"
"It was a pretty simple shield spell, and a group teleport, nothing revolutionary."
"I get that's true for princesses in magic pony land, but here on Earth those are not things anyone or anything can do. Alanna and Fiona did a lot of research into the physics of it and there isn't any. What Lasombra was talking about was a parlor trick - you should have been able to pull specific small metal stuff directly towards you, very quickly, and get it stuck to your horn. That's it. Anything beyond that? Lasombra's a really smart creep, but that's magic.
"But okay, to you it's normal. But that's not really what I was saying. I was talking about the movie. We were sitting there watching it, the five of us. And you must have seen it. Our names, our choices in life, our personalities...it's like how you met all your friends in that human world once you arrived. Just a little less like your world. Hell, Lasombra's a domineering asshole and his name sounds a lot like that jerk king of the crystal empire - also a domineering asshole. You're way smarter than I am, probably smarter than any of us. You must've seen it."
Twilight looks down at her hooves.
"Of course I did," she whispers, "but at first I thought it was wishful thinking. Then I didn't want to freak you out. And then it turned out I'd been programmed, so I just sort of assumed I'd been made to think about people like that."
"Well," Rachel pulls her chin up and looks her in the eyes, "we all see it too. And somehow you're not a machine anymore. I'd have to be a moron to think there was nothing strange going on. None of us think you're a fake anymore. I don't think you should either. You're real Princess Twilight Sparkle to us."
Twilight smiles. "Thanks, Rachel."
"You're the one who broke all the laws of physics to get here," RD rolls her eyes, "no need to thank me. But now you're here, what's your plan?"
"I...I have no idea," Twilight sighs. Her wings flare out involuntarily, and on feeling it, her eyes widen and she smiles.
"My muscles are weak from all this rest," she says, "but I guess I really am back, wings and all. I think the first thing I want to do is fly."
Twilight realizes the farm isn't much like Sweet Apple Acres as soon as she walks out the door.
It's no orchard. Instead the fields closest to the house are tall with corn. Loose dirt drifts among the brown, dusty flowers, thick like moisture haze in the heavy summer air. The farm's nestled among rolling mountains, more like oversized hills than the steep, snow-clad peaks around Canterlot, and covered in trees even to the tops. From her research she knows that here this means they are ancient, smoothed and shrunk by time, born in the morning of this world. She hasn't seen this many trees total since coming to Earth, let alone in one place, and wasn't sure the humans in their staggering numbers had left room for them. She finds them unspeakably beautiful.
She walks off the porch to the baked earth drive in front of the farmhouse. It's still early in the day but already the August heat is driving the air above it, creating shimmering lines, and making her hooves and legs shiver with the heat. And now that same rising air fills her grateful wings and she ascends with barely any effort, riding the powerful summer updraft.
She has no idea how long she's had her wings, how many memories are missing. As an alicorn, she isn't even sure how long she will live, or how she'll show her age. This has been weighing on her lately, with all the images lurking in the dark corners of her mind. However long, though, it still feels like mere months ago when the wings felt alien to her, and she feared she'd never grow comfortable with them. Now she finds her heart aching with how much she's missed flight.
She starts out low, watching the neat rows of corn flash by beneath her. She heads north towards the woods at the edge of the mountains, and the cornfield gives way to rows of a shorter plants she can't identify from her height, then to a pasture filled with cows. She calls out a greeting, but the animals only look up at her, mute, and she remembers that here they cannot speak. Then she remembers that humans eat them, and shudders a bit. To her left horses graze at the neighboring farm Rachel mentioned, but they make her even more uncomfortable, and she flies on.
At the edge of the cow pasture she crosses a clear, swift-running brook, and has to flap hard to keep her altitude in the cooler air above it. The effort makes her wound hurt, but it's a dull ache, not the sharp, tearing pain that would indicate new damage, so she goes in among the trees.
They're widely spaced, and the ground cover short, so even among the trunks flying is easy. She feels like she's soaring in an emerald-roofed palace supported by wooden columns. Cottonwood down drifts in the air like snow, or stars. Here in the shade it's cooler, and she has to flap more often, but the break from the sun brings relief to her dark coat, and she welcomes it.
There's a clearing ahead, and she breaks tree cover through the gap in the canopy, riding a thermal off the mountain to ascend high into the lightly clouded sky. She frowns at the lapse on the part of the local weather team, then remembers Earth doesn't even have them. Then she sees the land below her, and loses the thought.
The forest is vast, if broken by roads and small towns, and the wooded hills stretch as far as she can see in all directions. It's a landscape like a crumpled sheet, the hillsides and tops coated in dark green forests, while the valleys hold shining rivers, dark highways, rectangular fields, and, in the case of the larger ones, towns.
It reminds her of home, and she feels the ache of loss anew. She also feels winded, and turns to descend back to the farmhouse.
By the time she lands, she realizes she's overdone it. Her wings ache after long disuse, and her whole body feels heavy. She trots slowly to the house and sees Rachel still on the porch, looking worried.
"Good flight?" the human says, with casualness Twilight recognizes is forced.
"Very," the princess replies, "I missed it more than I realized. But I didn't realize how weak I was either. I think I'll go back to bed."
"Sounds good. I dunno if I'll be here when you wake up, though," Rachel says, "I need to get back to the city, I have work tonight. We've been taking shifts. If you're out for more than an hour or two, Fiona will be here."
"Oh," Twilight yawns, "I didn't realize. Sorry I wore myself out too much to chat more."
"Hey, no worries, you didn't know. Besides, I come out when I can, I'll see you again soon."
"Or I'll come back," Twilight says, "I hope Rosie still wants me to work for her."
Rachel laughs. "Are you kidding? She said business had never been better, you're like the best free advertising she can get."
"Well, that's good then. See you soon, Rachel. Thanks for being here."
Rachel presses her arms gently around Twilight's neck. Those wonderfully expressive hands lightly grip her mane, that warm, strangely lumpy chest presses tight against her. Rachel says nothing, and Twilight feels safe and comforted, despite the odd anatomy involved. Soon she's out again.
It is, in fact, Fiona who sits by her bed when Twilight wakes. Late-afternoon sun slants in through the window and makes her golden hair shine. For a moment it reminds the pony of Celestia in its splendor, and she keenly misses her mentor's guidance. Then the human turns fully to look at her, and smiles a gentle smile, and she's all strange again. They've barely talked before: Twilight met her in the bar, then quickly was sequestered awaiting trial, where only RD, Alanna, and AJ had much reason to see her. But what she knows, she likes. Fiona is a woman of science, and seems both curious and knowledgeable about not just medicine, but all the natural sciences. Twilight looks forward to talking to her, and is flattered she's come to help, despite their short contact.
"Thanks for coming to see me," she opens.
"Of course," Fiona replies, her voice soft, slightly musical, "you may be far out of my area of medical expertise, but I couldn't just do nothing."
"Well, we've barely talked, so I wouldn't have blamed you, but I'm glad you didn't."
"I enjoyed the talking we did get to," Fiona says, and smiles, "and it seems we don't have much to do here. It'll be several hours still before dinner. We could talk more now."
"I'd like that," Twilight smiles back, "but it's beautiful out here, and I didn't get to do much exploring when I went out flying. Shall we go for a walk while we do?"
"I'd love to, if you're feeling up to it. Rachel said you overdid it earlier and tired yourself out."
"Well, I haven't used my wings much in...a long time, so I think that was a lot of it. Besides, anywhere we can walk, I can always glide or teleport back. It isn't like I'll just collapse in the woods."
Fiona grimaces a little. "Right, you have some options my other patients don't, I suppose. I assumed running roughshod over the laws of physics like that would be exhausting, though."
"Not really. Or not physically anyway. For a lot of unicorns it'd be draining to use that kind of magic, but I've always had a talent for it, and alicorns have reserves on a totally different level. A trip of a few miles isn't any more draining for me than walking across a room."
Fiona lets out a low whistle.
"I don't think we really knew what we were getting ourselves into with you," she says, but her smile is back, and she chuckles a little. "Well then, Princess, let's go for a walk. Anywhere in particular you'd like to go?"
"I flew north last time, and saw a brook running along the edge of the woods, right on the slope of that little mountain. I think I'd like to go take a closer look at it. Then if we're feeling up to it, we can start walking up the mountain, and see how high we can get. Have you ever seen this area from above before? It was beautiful from the sky, and I bet it would look similar from the mountaintop."
Fiona just nods, and they walk out the door into the late afternoon. The sun is low above the hills now, but still looks several hours from setting. The air is even heavier than before, and Twilight feels the sticky humidity on her coat. She knows she'll be sweaty soon, but can't bring herself to mind, almost welcomes the unfamiliar feeling. Canterlot, as high up as it is, is never this hot and humid, and Ponyville's expertly maintained weather never achieves this level of slight unpleasantness. It feels novel, to deal with weather so untamed.
"A penny for your thoughts," Fiona says as they pass in between the first rows of corn, along the narrow trail. The plants are taller than Twilight, nearly as tall as her companion.
"Hm? Why would I want a penny?"
Fiona laughs. "It's an expression, from many years ago, when pennies were worth more. It just means 'what are you thinking'. I admit I'm not a master of pony faces, but you looked thoughtful, and were quiet."
"Oh, I'm not even really sure," Twilight blushes a bit, "just thinking how untamed everything is around here. The weather, all the forests on the mountains. I read there are billions and billions of humans on Earth. I didn't think anywhere would be wild."
"I'm not sure anywhere is," Fiona replies, shaking her head, "certainly not here. You're right we can't do anything with the weather except screw it up, but none of the rest of this stuff is what you'd call natural. We didn't really bother to control it, so I guess in that sense it's wild, but there's almost no old-growth forest left around here. A few spots, scattered in protected land, but nothing you can see from here. This was all clear cut for timber within the last century. We just don't need as much wood as we used to, so we've let it grow back, but it's all pretty new."
"Huh. I couldn't tell. So is anywhere really untouched?"
"I don't know. Not much of anywhere, I think. We have some national parks that are pretty large and where development and logging and so forth aren't allowed, that might be as close as it gets. And of course some other countries have some wilder areas, but most of them don't regulate them like that, to make sure they stay that way, so they're either going fast, or no one really knows because they're not watched. And I don't even know how much I'd count a wild area that's only wild because we've fenced it off, you know? If it's big enough, it might be ecologically identical, but sometimes I think it'd be good for us to have a place that isn't ours, and parks aren't that. They're wild because we let them be, not because they're something we can't control."
"Like the Everfree," Twilight murmurs.
"Mmm? Oh, yeah, that spooky forest. Is it really so far outside even your control? From the show, it seemed like you have your world even more on lockdown than we have ours. Like you said, you have a department to manage the weather."
"It's...different," Twilight thinks for a bit, "with us it's all really local, and it's all personal. We control everything in Ponyville, but there aren't very many ponies, all told, and even fewer that don't live in the big cities. In all of Equestria there are maybe fifteen million, and the vast majority live in a few urban centers. Outside those, we don't control much at all. And in the Everfree we just can't. I still think Celestia knows why, since her old castle is there, but I certainly don't. Or don't remember if I do," she sighs here.
"Still having memory issues, then? We were hoping when you changed you'd gotten over them."
"Not really, I'm afraid. Or at least, I'm having different ones now. I remember some things much more clearly, like what happened in my early life, or when I was at school in Canterlot. And I've got a few months of real memory after Tirek now. I convinced Applejack to write a book, a history of the Apple family! But somehow after that it all gets fuzzy. I have some images, and impressions, but no shape of events." She sighs. "I don't even know how long a period is missing. I don't know that I'd visibly age. It could have been years."
"Wait, you're ageless too? Damn."
"Not exactly, Celestia claims I'm still mortal. But I'll live a long time, and I don't know if I'll get old or just eventually...stop. Another thing I've never gotten a straight answer from her on, at least that I remember."
There's a pause as they both think. They're walking among the tomato vines now, and see the pastures along both sides of the trail ahead.
"I know they can't speak, but are you sure they're not intelligent?" Twilight asks, tipping her muzzle towards the cows.
"I don't know how we could be," Fiona says, "I'm certainly not. I don't even really know what it means. They're clearly intelligent enough to know how to live their lives, find food, form habits. All mammals can solve certain kinds of puzzles, recognize people, and so forth. Do you mean self-aware? I don't have a way to measure that objectively, but a lot of scientists think they are, now. Can you tell for sure?"
Twilight frowns. "In Equestria, almost everything can talk, including pretty much all our large mammals. Fluttershy can even talk to the small ones, though only because it's her special talent. I guess maybe it'd be possible to make a spell for it, but there's never really been any need. But if your scientists think they're aware, why do you eat them? It seems awful to me."
"I don't," Fiona says, "and increasingly many humans don't either. For a long time we needed meat in our diets to survive. We're naturally omnivores, after all, unlike you. But now, living in a rich country, I don't need to. We can figure out what foods to mix to get complete proteins and so forth. Some people even do it without eggs or dairy, though personally I don't mind that so much. However intelligent they might or might not be, cows and chickens couldn't really survive without us at this point. But a lot of human actions are like that, I'm afraid. We started doing something because we didn't know any better, or because it was the only way to survive, but now that we do know the price, we can't seem to shake the habits."
"I guess that makes sense," Twilight says, "I wonder if we have things like that, too. We can be set in our ways, I know, like when everypony was afraid of Zecora. Still, it seems very sad."
"It seems sad to me, too," Fiona sighs, "and I'm afraid it will get sadder. We've had our share of distrust of people who are different, too, even though we've only got humans. And one big problem with there being more of us is that when we do damage, we just do more of it. You're lucky, you don't seem to pay the same kind of price for your power."
"What do you mean?" Twilight asks.
They're almost to the stream now. They can hear it burbling over rocks not far ahead, accompanied by sporadic moos from the pasture.
"You have actual magic. Free energy, or at least so it seems to me. Does it damage anything when you use it? Deplete some limited stores?"
"No. Or I don't think so, anyway. We've never detected any harm from channeling it, and if it's possible to run it out, we've got nowhere near enough ponies to do it, or powerful enough ones. And when Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and I all get together, that's a lot of power. But you have your own equivalent, right? Your lights, and computers, and cars, all of them must require a lot of power to run as often and as casually as you do."
"Power, but not magic," Fiona says and slumps her shoulders, "energy. And that's what I mean: to get it, we have to pay a terrible price. Most of it comes from burning coal and oil we have to dig out of the ground, and using complicated machines to turn it into electricity, or move the wheels of the car, or whatever else we want to do. Removing it from the ground destroys huge amounts of land, and burning it releases carbon and other greenhouse gasses into the air. It's changing our climate, and not in the careful way you ponies do that. Most scientists think within a few centuries or less, weather everywhere will be totally different. Most of the coasts will be underwater. Including Cambridge and Boston, if we don't build sea walls or otherwise protect it."
"You're destroying your own world? And you know it? Celestia, why don't you stop?"
"What would you do, if it turned out your magic was doing the same thing? What do you think other ponies would do?"
"Well, I..." Twilight stops, "I want to think I'd stop but you're right, I don't really know. I mean, our magic is a part of us, we'd die without it, but I assume you mean just the active stuff, like what I do with my horn, or changing the weather. And I see what you mean. It's addictive, isn't it? I'm not sure we'd know how to get along without it."
"Right," Fiona said, "only for us it's even worse. We couldn't really support our population without it. Millions of people would die, probably billions, if we couldn't ship food around. Most people in this country need to travel to their jobs by car. And of course that's just the start. You've had a thousand years of being ruled by, well, what look to us like gods. We've had wars, and power struggles. If we just stopped using this stuff, and other countries didn't, a lot of people are afraid we'd be taken over, enslaved. And of course, a lot of rich and powerful people made their money on oil and coal and that sort of thing, and now they use their power to make sure they can keep doing so. And finding alternatives would cost a great deal. It's a mess."
"It always comes down to that with you humans, doesn't it? Money."
"Well, the point of money is that you can put a price on almost everything. So if you say it costs a lot of money, it really means a lot of time, a lot of resources, effort, and so forth. I think it'd be worth it, but it's such a huge step, that it's hard to build enough of a consensus. And of course, some of the people who benefit from the status quo say it's all lies, and they have the resources to say it loudly. People are figuring it out, but we've known for several decades, and now the message from them is 'it's too late'."
They've reached the stream now. It's a simple brook, like countless others even just in rural New England. But It's still beautiful, despite all the ugliness in the world. The crystal clear, silvery water cascades over rocks green with growth, and sings as it does, gurgling and tinkling down the sloped bed. The air above it is refreshingly cool, the sandy banks inviting. They walk down and Twilight falls to her knees, pressing her belly to the cool beach.
"How do you live with it?" she asks, finally.
"Well," Fiona says slowly, "I do what I can, when I can. I don't eat meat. I use better energy sources as much as possible. I vote right, though I'm increasingly unsure how much that matters. It's all I feel like I can do, and it's better than giving up."
"Do you think I should? Do what I can?"
Fiona looks over at her, head tilted.
"What do you mean? Why wouldn't you?"
"I'm a princess of Equestria again, with all my magic. As you say, I don't pay the price for power you do, and I have rather a lot of it. If I studied it, I could probably fix your atmosphere, lock some of that carbon in blocks, or just make it...go somewhere else. Maybe the moon. I'm not a weather master, and if I could talk to Rainbow Dash it'd be faster, but I could probably figure it out in a year or two. And I am basically a combat master by now, sadly, and the Princess of Friendship to boot. I'm not sure I could defeat an entire earth army on my own, but I'm not sure I couldn't, and I don't think I'd have to be alone. I could be Earth's Celestia, if I wanted to."
Fiona looks over at her, eyes wide.
"You would be a queen," she murmurs, "not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn, tempestuous as the sea, and stronger than the foundations of the earth. All would love you, and despair."
Twilight looks down at her hooves, half-buried in sand. "That's a beautiful way to put it, and probably accurate. That's why I asked."
"You didn't recognize it? It's from the Lord of the Rings, one of my favorite books. I should prescribe it as part of your recovery, that'd keep you in bed and resting." She grins for a minute. Then they both sigh, and turn to gaze at the water dancing across the rocks, shimmering in the sun.
"I guess that's always the ultimate price of power, in any world," Fiona murmurs.
"Mm?"
"You have to live with how you use it, and how you don't."
"I might have to live with it a long time."
"I think I'd still rather do that than the alternative, but I'm not sure that's wise of me."
"I'm not either," Twilight says. "I feel like I should do something, though, even if it isn't taking over the entire world."
"Let's think about it," Fiona says, "and in the mean time, maybe do start looking into atmosphere spells. I'm afraid it might be too late for anything but actual magic to fix that one."
They sit for a while on the beach, in silence, looking at the water play across the rocks.
The long summer light leaves the brook mottled in gold and green. It's hypnotic, but reminds Twilight how late in the afternoon it is. Reluctantly she looks away towards the low peak above her.
"I'd like to watch the sunset from the top, I think," she turns to Fiona, "ready to move on?"
The human nods. "How are we going to cross the river, though?"
Twilight laughs. "Would you rather fly, or teleport?"
"Well, I'm sure you know your own strength, so no offense, but I think I'd be afraid of hurting you if I tried to ride on you. You're not very big."
Twilight's smile doesn't fade. "You're right, I do, but suit yourself."
She gets to her hooves, still feeling fresh, and shakes her legs mostly free of the fine sand. Fiona walks over and places a hand lightly on her back. Twilight looks back at her and smiles, then they're on the other bank. Fiona lets out a heavy breath.
"Something wrong?" Twilight frowns. She knows teleportation is instantaneous, not even noticeable.
"I'm not used to traveling without feeling it," Fiona says, "it's disorienting, I feel like I must have somehow forgotten how I got here."
"Oh. Interesting. Sorry."
Fiona blushes. "Oh! No, I'm sorry. I forgot you really have forgotten how you got here."
Twilight sighs a bit, but smiles. "It's okay. I didn't mean that. I really do find it interesting! It's something I knew unicorns could do long before I experienced it myself, so I never felt that way about it." Fiona nods, and her smile returns.
Twilight begins walking up the wooded hill. As she'd seen from the air, the ground is mostly open, the occasional thorny bush or patch of overgrowth easily avoided. They pass the walk in easy conversation. Twilight asks the names of local plants and birds, many of which she hasn't ever seen before, and Fiona knows most of them.
"Did you study this area?" Twilight asks. "You seem to know it very well."
"I went to school out here, actually, at the college in town. That's where I met AJ."
"College?"
They spend a pleasant half hour or so comparing the Equestrian and American educational systems. Then they crest a ridge and abruptly the mountain ends, and the next valley is spread out before them. It contains the town Twilight saw from the air and, she now knows, Fiona and AJ's old college. The sun has begun to fall behind the hills now, and both ladies fall silent. The lengthening shadows are most of the way down the surrounding mountains, and in the shadows the green trees turn a regal purple. Fiona laughs.
"What's so funny?" Twilight asks, bemused.
"These are sometimes called the Purple Mountains, because they look like this at sunset. It just struck me that they look kind of like you. I had years of purple twilights before I met you, but never made the connection until now."
"Huh," Twilight smiles.
Below they can see the long shadows creeping down the western hillsides, swallowing up the farmland at their bases. Two rivers meet in the center of the town, one coming in from the east, the other apparently fed by the one they just crossed. In the sunset glow they stretch across the still-green valley like liquid gold. Neither the mare nor the woman speak, and neither can hold her jaw quite closed. Twilight goes to her haunches, and Fiona squats. After a moment she sits fully and leans up against Twilight, who puts her wing around her companionably.
Below the night looks like it's flooding the valley, and Twilight is reminded of the rising oceans. Still, it's beautiful. As the sweep of night falls over the town, they can see it light up as the street and home lights pop on. Finally the shadow hits the eastern edge of the valley, the mountains there smoldering above it. Then at last the sun sinks, leaving only the hues of sunset, and they too are purple.
"Wow," Twilight says, "I suppose you lose something when somepony raises the sun herself. Celestia can never really take her time like that. I've never seen anything like it."
"Where does your name come from then?"
"Well, we do have sunrises and sunsets, they're just very short. But my mom's name is Twilight Velvet and my dad's is Night Light, so mine is mostly a sort of jokey combination."
"Interesting. That's kind of like how we name racehorses here on Earth."
"I hope some day we figure out why there are all these similarities."
"Me too." Fiona goes quiet for a bit. "Twilight?"
"Yes?"
"I think dinner will be soon."
Twilight snorts. "That's all?"
"No," Fiona looks down for a moment, "do you think we can fly back?"
Twilight grins.
"Of course we can. Come on, put your arms around my neck, and lie on my back. It's okay, you won't hurt me. Rainbow Dash carried several of us once, and she doesn't even have earth pony strength like I do."
Fiona does so, hesitantly.
"Got a good grip?"
The human nods, and then they're in the air. Twilight feels Fiona draw in a tight breath, gets ready for a scream, stays low in case her passenger asks her to land.
"Faster," says Fiona, breathlessly.
Above them, the stars start to come out.
Twilight barely feels Fiona breathing while they fly, and the human's knees and hands stay locked to her barrel and mane, but when she looks back, she sees a smile on the doctor's face. It's fully dark now, and the evening sky here is even more spectacular than the one Twilight remembers. She's read about the cosmology of this world - universe, really - and the depth of stars displayed in the cloudless sky, far from the lights of the city, takes her breath away. Even in August, the evening air so high above the ground is cool and pleasant, and her wings and coat feel like they're drinking it in. Behind her Fiona, furless and clad only in shorts and a tee-shirt, shivers a little.
Twilight is swift, though, even if she's a bit rusty, and soon the lights of the farmhouse are large and clear below them, and the delicious scent of vegetables stewing in a pan of sizzling butter wafts to their eager noses. She feels the previously breathless Fiona take it in deeply, chest pressing against Twilight's neck. Not long later, her hooves meet the packed-earth drive with a quadruple-thud.
"You can get off now," she tells Fiona after a moment, "unless you want to ride me in to dinner."
"R-right," Fiona blushes, then reddens further as she stumbles trying to dismount from Twilight's low frame. The alicorn catches her in her magic before she can fall, but forces herself to look away to hide her little smile. After the moment of awkwardness, the pair walk up towards the screen door, from which the delectable smell and inviting glow spill into the night.
"Thanks for taking me flying," Fiona says.
"I'm glad you enjoyed it. And thanks for coming with me on the walk. I've got a lot to think about."
"I do too."
Their moment ends when the door opens and Annie-Jane rushes out.
"Twilight! I'm so glad you're up and about!" She takes Twilight up in an enthusiastic hug. "How much better're you feeling?"
"A lot, thanks," Twilight smiles, "I got tired out after I flew for a bit earlier today, but after I took a nap, I felt like a whole new pony. Again. We hiked up that mountain over there and I feel pretty good!"
"Hey, that's great! Ready for dinner?"
"Very. I feel like I haven't eaten in weeks."
"To be fair, you haven't," Fiona says, "you've been on a nutrient drip for most of the month."
"Oh yeah, good point," Twilight's stomach rumbles in agreement. Both humans break out laughing.
"That was so loud!" AJ says, "I thought that was creative license in the show."
"Yes, well," Twilight looks away, "it smells amazing. This is your parents' place, right? Did they cook?"
"Nah, they're on vacation, we're housesitting for them while we take care of you. They're getting back in a few days. I made it all myself. Even kept it strictly plants and dairy out of respect for you ladies. I deserve a medal for that one, I almost cried after looking at the cuts of beef in their freezer."
"Well, I appreciate it," Twilight gulps.
"Aw, sorry, I was just kidding with you, I forget you're not used to other people eating it like Fiona here is. She doesn't mind the joking. Forgive me?"
"Sure, I know it's your way," Twilight says, and bumps her hoof against AJ's offered fist.
"That one is a liberty from the show, but it's surprisingly satisfying. I think it'll catch on back home." The trio makes its way into the house, and Twilight sees the homey dining room table set with several pots of vegetables and a quiche. Two of the place settings have chairs drawn up, while the third doesn't.
"I didn't know if you wanted a chair," AJ says, "or if you'd rather just eat standing. I know dogs your size can sit in chairs, but I didn't know if you cared for them."
"I know how to sit in a chair, but I'm happy to stand, thanks. Mostly I'm just eager to eat."
"I hear that!" AJ grins. "Around here guests start, so serve yourself whatever you like."
Twilight helps herself to some broccoli, some sweet potatoes, and a generous serving of the quiche. The pale human faces glow slightly with the light of her magic manipulating the implements and pots.
"I guess I'll get used to that sometime," AJ laughs, "but it still seems pretty amazing right now. How many things can you move around at once like that?"
"Oh, I'm not sure, really. In terms of power, basically as many as I want to, but if I'm doing different things with them, probably just three or four at once before I start to risk doing the wrong thing with the wrong item and crashing them into each other or something. If it's just doing the same thing with everything, though, like raising a bunch of rocks the same distance into the air, probably more or less as many as I can see. Raising gravel is an exercise we did at school. My record was 10,227 small rocks."
"Is that all?"
"It was all they could fit in the sandbox in the exam room."
AJ and Fiona both laugh.
"You know," Fiona said, "when you talked earlier about everything you could do with your magic, I kind of thought you were exaggerating. I hope you'll forgive me."
"I get that a lot," Twilight says, "even from ponies. Before I became the Princess of Friendship, I got my cutie mark in Magic, and being Celestia's prized student isn't really about moral quality. She teaches it and appreciates it but, well, my predecessor was Sunset Shimmer. It's always been about magic aptitude first and foremost."
"The show barely covered your schooling," Fiona says, "what was it like, being singled out like that?"
"Honestly, Celestia was so busy, I mostly did the same things other students at the School for Gifted Unicorns did. There's a reason I was hoping to spend time with her at the Gala. I met with her for about an hour most weeks, unless she had some other pressing business, but other than that I attended classes like everypony else, more or less. I did take more advanced ones, and by the time I moved to Ponyville my schedule was almost entirely independent study. It was certainly nothing like the high school in that other human world! Is that what school here is usually like?"
"Well," AJ says, "that one is sort of a parody of it, but it's pretty close, 'least if you go to public school. Did you live with your parents while you were at Celestia's school?"
"I did for a while, since they live in Canterlot. Once I got to be legally an adult I moved in to the dorms. Some of the students lived in them the whole time, of course, if their families weren't from the city. I could have done that, but I didn't want to leave them and Shining behind before I was old enough to be independent. Did you?"
"I went to a public high school, so it didn't have dorms, everyone lived with their parents. Our public schools all serve one or two towns that are near them, though, so there's not really any need."
"Huh," Twilight says, "what about schools for really talented students? Do you really have enough people that you can have them everywhere?"
"No, those are private," Fiona says, "they work more like yours. I went to a boarding school just outside Boston, but my parents live in Pennsylvania, which is a few hundred miles south along the coast. Though as I said earlier we mostly don't specialize until college anyway. I went to private school because my parents wanted me to be able to have a chance at the best colleges."
The dinner conversation continues like this. To Twilight, the many levels of American education seem needlessly complicated, and did when Fiona first mentioned them, but she supposes that with the sheer numbers involved, there may be no alternative to all of the different types of schools.
The meal is pleasant, and the women good conversationalists, and soon AJ brings out a delicious-looking pecan pie and serves up a slice to each of them.
"So Twilight," she says, "I've got to work tomorrow, so I'm heading back to the city after dinner. You want to come, or do you need some more R&R out here first?"
"Well," Twilight says, "it is really peaceful out here, and I really enjoyed our walk, Fiona, but I think I should be getting back. I know RD said the Boston police are looking into that shooting, but they don't have my magic. I want to look into it myself. And it's much easier for me to do research there, and Rosie was so nice to me, that if I was helping her business I want to get back to that too. I think I will come with you, if you don't mind."
"Of course not, I'd love some company on the road. We can tell stories of our wild school days!"
"Well, I think that'll mostly be my listening, then."
She's right, of course. Twilight was perhaps the least wild student in history, with her peak being pulling an all-nighter to study for an exam or two. AJ, though, seems to have no end of stories of her misadventures, mostly involving America's strong control of sex, drugs, and alcohol among the youth, and her and her friends' attempts to circumvent these controls. Coming from a society with a vast and undocumented list of potions and brews of all sorts, Twilight doesn't really understand why these laws exist, but she appreciates AJ's inventiveness in trying to avoid them. And she certainly learns a lot about human society and deviousness from their many schemes and near misses. Before she knows it, the moonlit countryside has mostly passed behind them, and the lights of the city are visible in the distance as they come down from the foothills to the coast.
"AJ," she says, "if you don't agree with all these laws, how did you end up working where you do?"
"Well," she says, "I'm good at it, and it's a good job. But I don't think laws are bad, they're important. I just wish some of our laws were better. It wouldn't get us anywhere if we only enforced the ones we agreed with, though. I vote to change the laws I don't like, I give to campaigns for it. I think we're getting there on a lot of them, and they'll be changed soon."
"That makes sense," Twilight says. The lights loom large before them, and before she knows it, AJ's pulling up to the bar. She's surprised at how happy she is to see it, and how much she hopes her little storeroom nest is still waiting for her.
Her room is indeed still set up. After an enthusiastic hug and joyful greeting, Rosie takes her up. Everything's exactly as she left it, including the piles of printed legal notes she was obsessively consulting before her trial. She quickly takes these up in her magic and dumps them in the recycling. Only one thing has changed: small plush dolls of her five pony friends now sit on the floor next to her sleeping bag.
"I thought you might be missing them," Rosie says, "and it was the best I could do." Twilight nuzzles up against her.
"Thanks, they're great. How are things here?"
"I'm afraid I'm dead tired. It's been a long day, and none of my current staff are as good as you. Any chance I'm getting you back?"
"Of course," Twilight says, "I have to earn my luxurious room somehow." Rosie laughs. "And I hear I'm your secret weapon."
"Well, not so secret anymore. I've got some ideas. But we can talk about that in the morning. Now that you're back I can sleep easy, if you don't mind. I was just on my way to bed when you got here." Twilight nods.
"I'm heading out too," AJ says, "I've got an early morning tomorrow. Thanks for listening to my stories all night." Twilight smiles and shakes her head. "I'll see you soon."
She hugs both women, then they take their leave, and she fetches the tablet. After weeks in bed, and napping away the afternoon, she hardly feels tired. Mostly she feels energized, and eager to try to track down their attacker from earlier. She opens with her usual strategy: make a checklist. After she sets it down, item one is clear: talk to RD.
Recently she's discovered the wonders of the police scanner, available via the web. She pulls it up, hoping to hear her friend's distinctive voice reporting a location. She's in luck, and before long, Rachel reports patrolling in Cambridgeport, not far from the bar. With a flash of magenta, she's on the roof, then takes to the city air, heading towards the river. Before long, she sees a patrol car below her, and swoops low enough to make out the number. Eleven - it's Rachel's. She's stopped at the side of the road, but her lights aren't on and there's no one in the area; probably waiting for orders or setting a speed trap. Twilight descends and alights next to the car and peers in the driver's side window. RD is looking away from her, so she raps lightly on the window with her hoof.
Rachel spins, surprised, her hand moving to her side, then relaxes when she sees Twilight. She lowers the window.
"Hey there," she says, "I didn't know you were coming back tonight."
"AJ didn't want to call since you were on duty,' Twilight replies, "but I've done enough sleeping lately, and she and Rosie have early mornings. Got some time to talk?"
"I'm not really supposed to let civilians in the car," she says, "have you broken any laws lately?"
"Well I'm not really a civilian," Twilight says, "the Princesses are joint commanders of the Guard. And I'd say my presence in this neighborhood is clearly suspicious in any case."
"A foreign soldier with mysterious powers out after 10pm on a weeknight? Yeah, I'm gonna have to take you into custody, you're clearly up to no good."
Rachel opens the passenger door. Twilight teleports in and closes it.
"Show-off," RD mutters. "So what's up? How was the farm?"
"Beautiful. Fiona and I had a lovely walk up the mountain. I'm glad I got to talk to her a bit more, she seems very nice. And very well-read. I picked up a good suggestion for my reading list."
Rachel laughs. "Yeah, you two are both hopeless nerds. Shocking that you hit it off. So you came and found me for contrast?"
Twilight smiles back. "That too. But I'm also hoping you'll help me look into the attack."
"Hey now, I told you, that's not our department, it's the Boston police looking into it."
"Sure, but what's wrong with me looking into it too? They don't have all my skills."
"Gee," Rachel rolls her eyes, "I can't imagine why it might be a bad idea to look for the people who tried to shoot you."
"I have all my magic back now, and I'll be alert. I can handle it."
"I know you were a big damn hero in Equestria, but that's not how we do things here. I could get in big trouble."
"That's fair, I wouldn't want you to lose your job for me. I'll look into it myself." Twilight opens the door with her magic.
"Hold on," Rachel puts her hand on Twilight's barrel, "I didn't say no. If you're going to do it, I'm not going to let you do it alone. But it's risky, is all." Twilight closes the door again.
"I'm used to risk, Rachel. I know you only saw it in cartoon form, but Discord and Nightmare Moon were terrifying. I'm not saying human weapons aren't, the amount of power you people can throw around with hidden weapons is shocking, but I've faced danger before. Besides, I'm going to start working at Rosie's again. If I don't look for them, it won't stop them looking for me."
"You're right," Rachel says, "I don't like it much, but you're right. I'm in. What's the plan?"
Twilight smiles. "Well, first--"
She's cut off by the radio. She can't really make out what the dispatcher's saying between the poor reception and the police codes, but RD curses and presses the talk button.
"Ten-four, en route now," she says, turns on the squad car's lights, and starts driving.
"Stay in or get out, but someone just pressed the panic button at the Harvard Square 7-11, which usually means armed robbery in progress. I'm not sure we can get there in time to catch them in the act, but I'm gonna try."
"Harvard Square?" Twilight frowns, "Rosie's bar is right there, I know that 7-11. I can take us, if you don't mind leaving the car behind."
Rachel thinks hard for a minute, then brakes hard, takes the key out, and puts on her portable radio.
"I'm taking a shortcut on foot," she says to the dispatcher, ignoring the confused reply. "Ok Twilight, let's see what you've got."
Twilight puts a hoof on her leg, and they vanish in a burst of light.
"Whoa," Rachel finds herself still sitting, but now unsupported in midair. She almost falls, but catches herself with her hands. "Next time, let me stand up first."
"Oh," Twilight giggles, "right, sorry."
They're less than a hundred feet from the convenience store now, though at this angle they can't see in through the window, so don't know if they're in time. RD radios in that she's arrived, once again not bothering with the questions. Twilight sets off towards the store at a brisk pace.
"Twilight," Rachel whispers, "we need to be careful, they're likely armed."
"There might be civilians in there! How many can you do at once?"
"Three or four."
"What if there are more targets than that?"
"Then I'll put the shields around the guns."
Rachel shakes her head, but Twilight isn't stopping, and there's no more time to argue. They turn the corner and now have line of sight in the window. A masked human (Twilight is pretty sure a male) is holding a handgun to the employee, who's dumping cash out of the register into a bank deposit envelope. Twilight lets RD get a bit ahead of her, and she hears the human murmuring something into her radio. Then she looks back at Twilight, who nods encouragingly. Rachel pushes in the door, Twilight right behind her.
"Stop right there," Rachel says, flashing her badge, gun in her other hand "you're under arrest."
The attacker turns to look at her.
"Yeah, right. What the fuck is this? I'm gonna take this money, and then I'm leaving, and I'm taking this guy with me. In ten minutes I'll send him back safe. Otherwise, he won't be safe at all. You understand me, pig?"
Twilight moves in to the doorway beside her, horn glowing brightly.
"Your backup is that fucking purple unicorn robot? I know I'm small time, but come on."
"Laugh it up," Rachel growls, walking towards him, "but I wouldn't try to do anything with that gun but drop it, if I were you."
"Hey, what the-" the clerk starts, but is cut off by the robber.
"Fuck you." He quickly turns the gun to Rachel and pulls the trigger.
It's one of the strangest and grossest things Twilight has ever seen, and she winces. The invisible shield surrounding his gun and the hand holding it stops the bullet dead as soon as it leaves the barrel, as she intended. But she hasn't figured on the differences between a physical projectile and a blast of unicorn magic. Fragments of the shattered bullet ricochet inside the shield, carrying all the lethal force of the shot into the robber's hand. He lets out a piercing scream, and the invisible bubble becomes a lurid crimson, the inside painted with blood.
"Oh, buck," Twilight says, and drops the shield. The robber's hand is shredded and covered in blood, and falls limp to his side. She doesn't want to look at it, but can't look away. The gun hits the floor with a thud.
"We need a paramedic here," Rachel says into her radio, "the perp's weapon misfired, I have him in custody." It isn't quite true, but he's staring at his hand, shaking like a leaf. She moves over to him and reads him his rights. The counter attendant is staring at Twilight. He also looks like he can barely stay on his feet.
"I didn't mean to do that," she says.
"Thanks anyway," he replies, and sits down heavily behind the counter.
Twilight and Rachel trudge up the stairs to her room, exhausted. The sky is already beginning to grow lighter with the dawn.
The police asked Twilight a lot of questions, but in the end, as Rachel had expected, it seems like she won't be in any trouble. They're highly sympathetic to the rescue of one of their own, and there's nothing on the books about uses of unicorn magic in self-defense.
Still, Twilight feels awful, and exhausted by the whole affair.
"Thanks for believing in me," she says, for at least the third time, "and sorry I messed the shield up."
"Hey come on," Rachel says, "I know you've got my back. And I've got yours. And I get you didn't mean to do that, but he chose to shoot that gun at me. He was trying to do a hell of a lot more than cut up my hand. You saved me, and he got off easy. If I'd had a human partner with me, they'd have shot to kill, no questions. So chin up there. You did good."
"Thanks," Twilight nuzzles her side. "I've seen plenty of fighting, you know, but it's really rare that unicorns cast to kill. It's far more effort, for one thing, and, well...magic is about making what you want true in the world. Ponies that want other ponies to die tend to pay a price for it."
"So do humans," Rachel says, "I've talked to some veterans. And some older cops, too."
"Well, I think we'll be paying a price soon, if we don't go to bed." Twilight wants, on some level, to talk to Rachel about where she might be in ten yeas, the price she might pay. But it can wait, she thinks, until they're not so beat.
"Yeah, you're right." Rachel holds out a closed fist, and Twilight obligingly bumps it. "You did good there, Princess. I think you're right. We can find those guys who went after you. I'll look into it first thing after I get up."
"Look into it in the police files? That sounds like it might get you in trouble."
Rachel shrugs. "Worth it. Like I said, I've got your back." Twilight nuzzles her again. "Besides," Rachel continues, stroking Twilight's mane gently, "even I've got enough of a six-year-old left that I can't say no to a damn purple pony. Goodnight."
She turns down the stairs, and Twilight giggles. She opens the door and walks into her room.
"Good evening, girls," she says to the plush figures beside the desk, then crawls into the bedroll. Just before she passes out, she feels something land to her side. Curious, she opens her eyes wearily. The Rainbow Dash plush has somehow fallen off the desk and is lying beside her.
With a shrug, she wraps it up in her forelegs, and promptly falls asleep.
When she wakes, it's gloriously warm and cozy. Her forelegs are still wrapped around the plush, but it feels hot and soft and larger than she remembers. One of its wings is tickling her nose, and she swears she feels the feathers.
Then she feels her cuddle buddy's steady breathing, and her eyes snap open. Rainbow Dash is still wrapped in her forelegs - but she's not plush at all.
Twilight scrambles to her hooves. She's shocked for a moment, but then can't help but grin.
"Ohmigosh, Rainbow!" She bounces like Pinkie Pie, then collapses on her friend. Rainbow stirs and turns to look at her.
"Geez, Twi, can't a girl nap in peace?" She looks around, and her look of annoyance fades. "Wait, where in Tartarus are we?"
"Not Tartarus or Equestria," Twilight says, "oh I'm so glad you're here, I've missed you girls so much!"
Rainbow Dash wriggles out from under her and sits up, looking at her strangely.
"What are you talking about? I just saw you, uh, well...it wasn't long ago, I'm sure!"
"I guess you don't remember how you got here either?"
"Nggg, I guess not," Rainbow says, face scrunched up. "That's freaky, Twi. I remember Tirek and your awesome castle and a bit after that but then it just sorta all gets fuzzy. What the hay?"
"I don't know, but I've been here for months," she looks at her sidelong, "you're not a robot, right?"
"What?"
"I just need to make sure," Twilight says, "let me check your side for a minute."
"I always knew you were into me," Dash smirks. Twilight rolls her eyes and presses her magic on Rainbow's barrel, where the switch used to be on her own. Despite checking most of her midsection, she doesn't find anything.
"That tickles. Also it's weird," Dash complains.
"Sorry. I guess I should explain," Twilight says, and does so. It takes some time.
"And right before I went to bed, your doll fell off the dresser, then I woke up and you were there. Wait a minute," she looks around for the plush, but it's nowhere to be found.
"Ugh," Rainbow says, "you got to start out as a robot and I had to start out as a lame doll? That's rough."
"Look on the bright side," Twilight says, "at least you're way cooler compared to what used to be here."
"Yeah, good point!" Dash perks up. "So, just so we're clear: we're in a strange world full of weird flesh creatures, they're bucking the whole place up, and one of them tried to kill you."
"Well, most of them are very friendly! And they made some stuff that's really wonderful too!"
"Oh come on," Dash says, "what in the world could be worth all the stuff you told me they screwed up? Also, they tried to kill you."
"I'm not happy about that. But I guess I didn't tell you about television and refrigeration! Or the Internet! I guess the Internet's only mostly good, but it's so easy to get information!"
"Great," Rainbow rolls her eyes, "they made a better library. Only you could possibly consider that a fair trade."
"You don't understand! There's so much information there, about everything! They have millions of articles just about us!"
"They have articles...about us? How do they know about us? I'd never even heard of a human before you told us about that mirror world."
"Uh...there's a television program about us here. It's like movies, except there are more of them, and they're shorter."
"Wait, they're about us? And there are millions of articles about them? That's--"
"I know," Twilight shakes her head, "it freaked me out too."
"Are you kidding? There are millions of articles about me? That's awesome! Show me!"
Twilight sighs and levitates the tablet over. She opens Google and types in Rainbow's name.
"Whoa," Dash says, looking on, "that's some serious magic even for you. How come you never made one of these in Ponyville?"
"Because it isn't magic, it's some kind of machine. Humans can't use magic at all. Remember how I said getting all the energy for it was messing up their air?"
"Oh yeah, should we stop using it?"
"We aren't using anywhere near enough to make a difference, it's fine. I'm going to try to make a spell to fix it anyway, I bet you can help. Anyway, look!"
The tablet's a bit slow, and the results have just now come up: a list of links relating to the pegasus.
"What am I looking at?" Dash asks. "I see my name a lot."
"Each of those underlined sentences is an article, if you press on it, it'll take you to the full thing. Look," Twilight presses her nose on one of the links, and a picture of a vinyl Rainbow Dash figurine appears.
"They've got toys of me? Awesome! Though it doesn't look much like me. Bring the list back, I want to check this out!"
Soon Rainbow Dash has the hang of using the tablet, despite the slight awkwardness of having to use her nose to interact with the screen. She clicks every link, and Twilight rolls her eyes as she basks in the new-found fame.
"Oh, hey, related searches. 'Rainbow Dash r34', what does that mean?"
"Err," Twilight says, "you don't want to know."
"Yeah, right," Rainbow rolls her eyes, "you didn't even think to tell me I was famous here, what do you know about what I want to look at?" She presses the related search, then the first link to pop up.
"Don't blame me," Twilight says as the tablet loads.
"Wha...what?" Dash looks at the images and pauses. Twilight tenses, then Dash breaks out laughing.
"They...they drew porn of me? This is hilarious! And totally not what I look like, but come on, why wouldn't you show me this? This stuff is amazing!"
"You don't mind that humans drew all this stuff? You look half-human in that one! And in that one you're mating with one!"
"Eh," Rainbow says, pressing her head against the bedroll to clear up the tears of laughter, "not like I haven't thought about the Wonderbolts like that. And Spike told me about those Daring Do stories you wrote before we knew she was a real pony."
"He'd better hope I never make it back to Equestria," Twilight murmurs.
"So yeah, they're just fans," Dash shrugs.
"I freaked out when I found out there was stuff like that of me," Twilight admits.
"Wait, you too?"
"There're actually more of me," Twilight blushes.
"Okay, now I know humans are crazy," Dash shakes her head, "that's just wrong. I'm going to have to fix that."
"How do you plan to do that?"
"I dunno, I'll figure it out. But uh, Twi, you're the big planner here...what are we going to do about the important stuff? I can't exactly work a bar like you; I'm awesome, but carrying trays isn't what these wings are for."
"Yeah," Twilight frowns, "well, I can earn enough to pay for food for both of us. It'll be a bit cozy sharing the bedroll, but I think we can make it work. And I'm so glad to see you, Rainbow. I felt so alone here."
"Well," Dash snickers, "you won't feel alone when you're sleeping with the second-hottest mare on the planet."
"Now I'm forgetting why I missed you."
They both fall, laughing, onto the bedroll. Dash collects herself first.
"You've gotta introduce me to Rachel, too," she says. "We're gonna find that human who shot you, and then he'll have to deal with the Rainbow Dash."
"I think we can do that too, yeah. And I want to talk to you about weather magic, see if we can do something about all this carbon. But Rosie should be here soon to get ready to open the bar. I'll ask her if you can stay. I'm sure she won't mind, but she'll probably want to meet you. And I'll have to work until around 11. Think you'll be able to keep yourself amused here until then? I'd rather show you around myself, this place takes some getting used to."
"Yeah, sure," Rainbow nods, "I've got millions of hilarious images to look through."
Rosie lets herself in the back door not long after Twilight comes down the stairs. The princess is sitting at a table, gazing out the front window. A small crowed is staring back in at her, looking excited. She goes Princess Kindergarten: smiles and waves. She hears Rosie chuckle behind her, turns, rises, and rushes over to hug her friend.
"Welcome back to the job," Rosie says, "I'm still surprised you decided to come back so soon."
"Well," Twilight replies, "I apparently spent weeks relaxing, I want to look for that shooter before the trail gets too cold. Besides, I heard I was critical to your business."
"I wouldn't say critical," Rosie says, grinning and rising from the hug, "but even though you were only here a few days, I still have a handful of customers every day wondering if this is really 'the pony bar'. That's why I have this," she points to a picture on the wall. Twilight moves to look, and sees it's a newspaper photo of her, waiting a table.
"I bet you'll do even better now that I'm back," she says.
"About that," Rosie says, "are you planning to keep working here for a while now?"
"Well, my life isn't the most predictable anymore. It's amazing how that happens when you get your nose out of books and into vast magical powers. But I plan to. I know it helps you out, and I need money and a place to stay anyway. Might as well get them this way."
"Great! That means I have a question for you. Come look at this," Rosie moves into the kitchen, and Twilight follows. There's a large wooden panel leaning against the wall.
"I've been thinking about updating the bar's branding a bit anyway," Rosie continues, "but I felt like I should ask you before going in this direction. I don't mind if you don't want me to."
Twilight can now see that the panel's a new sign, like the one currently hanging outside the store. Rather than Legal Spirits and the wig-and-gavel logo the current sign sports, though, this one features a stylized picture of Twilight herself rearing up, wings flared, and the title The Prancing Pony.
"I don't prance much," Twilight giggles, "but that's fine anyway. As soon as I got my wings Rarity commissioned a 'royal endorsement' plaque for her boutique, and half the businesses in Ponyville must have them by now."
"Well, the name's a Lord of the Rings tribute," Rosie says, "I figured once you're naming your bar after its magical unicorn, you might as well double down on nerd appeal."
"I really should read that book," Twilight mutters.
"Or see the movie, that's what I did."
Twilight shoots her a look normally reserved for changelings and those who write in library books.
"My bad," Rosie laughs, "I should have known better than to tell you that. Please don't banish me to the moon."
"I should," Twilight spoils the grumble with a smile. "When are you planning to change over?"
"I'm ready anytime," Rosie shrugs, "it'll take some time to change the name of the company on the books, but that hardly matters. I can hang the sign tomorrow. I probably will, if the work crew is available. It'd be good timing, let people start talking about how you're back, then show up and see the new sign."
"Why do you need a work crew?"
Rosie snorts. "Not like I can carry it up there myself."
"Didn't Rachel tell you," Twilight flares her wings, "that I got my full power back? I can put it up whenever you like."
"She did, but I'm still not really sure what that means."
"Well," Twilight grins, "it means you just need to tell me when you want the sign up."
"...okay. Well, let's still go with tomorrow. I like the idea of that timing. Anyway, you still remember how to do the job? We're opening in an hour."
"Yeah," Twilight says, "but there's something I need to ask you first. Can I share the storeroom with somepony else?"
Rosie blinks twice. "What, did you meet a nice stallion out at the farm?"
"Eeew! No! Rainbow Dash showed up there last night."
"Wait, actual Rainbow Dash? Just showed up?"
"That was my reaction. She doesn't remember any more than I do, unfortunately, but we checked her all over, she seems to be totally herself, no wires or anything."
"Well, I don't mind if she stays, but...do you think all of them will show up?"
"I sure hope so," Twilight sighs.
"I can see why you'd want to see your friends, but it seems like even with just two of you, that storeroom will get pretty cozy."
"I know," Twilight shakes her head, "but it's fine with two, and I guess we'll figure out what to do with others if it comes to that. I'm still glad to have her back."
Rosie pats her head. "I know. We're all glad we met you, but new friends are no substitute for old."
Twilight nods.
"But come on, the rest of the staff will be here soon, let's get ready to open. If you're willing, I'd love to meet Rainbow Dash after that."
The shift goes well. Now that Twilight has her full earth pony strength back, and all her alicorn magic, she barely feels the physical effort of the work. The attention still makes her a bit uncomfortable, but it's similar enough to what she garnered in Equestria to be uncomfortable in a weirdly familiar way. It seems to help that all the customers think she's still a robot; it seems that, like ponies, humans prefer interacting with things they understand, even if they're strange. So since none of them out and out ask if she's really a machine, she doesn't bother to volunteer it.
Finally, long after even the summer sun has vanished, only the desperate, the disappointed, and the near-unconscious remain, and Rosie sends them all packing and turns out the lights. It's been a good day.
"You weren't kidding about being stronger," Rosie says to Twilight as she counts out, "you did the work of two out there. Good thing, since with all the extra business we'd have been in trouble if you didn't. I hope it paid off in tips."
"It did," Twilight blushes, "I still think that's such a weird way to do it, but I can't complain about the result. Apparently part of the authentic pony experience is giving me a lot of money."
Rosie laughs. "Well, I've never heard of anyone getting really rich on tips, but I'm glad they're being generous. You do great work, but I don't want to be unfair to my other employees by giving you raises too quickly. I mean, 'sorry, I know you've been here for two years, but Twilight's a superhero' doesn't really seem like a fair criticism of someone's work. Even if it's true."
"I don't mind," Twilight says, "you're already saving me a lot of money by letting me stay in the storeroom. And the tips do seem to be making up for it. Anyway, ready to go meet Rainbow?"
"Sure."
Twilight pushes the door open, and immediately feels all the blood rush to her face. Next to her, Rosie guffaws. Rainbow Dash is lying on the bedroll, eyes open wide and watery, wearing a seductive pout.
"Rainbow, what the hay!" Twilight's eye twitches.
"I thought you said the Internet made up all that stuff about you two dating," Rosie barely manages to choke it out through tears of laughter.
"Oh, hey Twi'," Rainbow looks up, shameless. "Check it out, I have so many fans now!"
"Rainbow," Twilight says, voice low, "what do you mean? Why were you posing like that?"
"It's called a 'selfie'!" Rainbow crows, "I signed up for this 'Facebook' site, and I've been posting them for the last few hours. Look!"
Rainbow awkwardly turns the tablet around with her hooves, revealing the app on the screen. The feed is full of pictures of Rainbow Dash, in various poses, mostly trying to look badass. They each have tens of thousands of likes. New like, follow, and comment notifications scroll up the side of the screen as they watch.
"It's kind of hypnotic," Twilight says.
"I was thinking sexy," Rainbow said.
"I was talking about all the notifications."
"So was I."
"What in Celestia's name is wrong with you, Rainbow?"
Rosie takes a few moments to recover, during which Rainbow manages to drag Twilight into the frame for a photo.
"You should get one of these accounts so I can tag you," she says. "I bet you'd get almost as many likes as me."
"Remember what I told you last night? I think I might get more."
"That's just because cartoon Rainbow Dash can't live up to the real thing. Now you've got to sign up so I can prove it!"
"Maybe later," Twilight sighs. "Right now, I think Rosie wants to meet you."
"Oh yeah, is she ok?"
"I'll...I'll be fine," the human gasps. "Nice to meet you Rainbow Dash, I'm Rosie Baker."
They talk and laugh for a few hours, before Rosie finally heads out for bed.
"Remember, Twilight," she says, "tomorrow's one of your days off. Maybe you should show Rainbow around?"
"I think I will," Twilight says. "I'm going to check in with Rachel later in the evening, but now that I have some money, I want to do some shopping. And I barely got a chance to look around on my own before. I'm really looking forward to being able to go around town as a legal person!"
"I bet," Rosie smiles. "Did you memorize my cell phone number? I know you don't have one yourself, but if you need me, you can ask a business or the police."
"Yes, I have," Twilight says.
"Good. It was nice to meet you, Rainbow Dash." Dash nods at Rosie and smiles.
"Awright Twi," Rainbow calls from the bathroom, towel still covering her newly-showered mane, "You ready to check out all the awesome things here? I want to see if I can afford a tablet like this!"
"Rainbow," Twilight frowns, "how can you afford anything? You don't even have a job."
"Well," Rainbow's face falls and her ears flatten, "I sorta was hoping you'd loan me a bit. You know, I'm sure their weather team will need someone as great as I am. I just need to find the office."
"They don't have weather teams."
"Horsefeathers."
"It's ok," Twilight smiles, "I'll still share. But I don't really know how expensive anything is. I have nine hundred and eighty-three dollars and forty-seven cents from the shifts I've done so far. We'll just have to see how far it goes. My priority is to try to get us phones though, and some kind of saddlebags."
"I can't really argue with that," Rainbow says. "It'd be lame to have cool stuff and nowhere to carry it. And those phones do sound really useful."
The two mares hurry down the stairs, out the bar's employee exit, and through the alleyway on to the street proper. As soon as they emerge, all the nearby pedestrians stop for a moment.
"What's with them?" Rainbow whispers to Twilight. A moment later, they start walking again, not meeting the ponies' eyes.
"Ignore it," Twilight whispers back, "remember, they've never seen an intelligent creature that isn't a human before. We're lucky they aren't all hiding inside like everypony used to do with Zecora, or worse."
Rainbow shakes her head. "Well why don't we fly, then? This is gonna be weird."
"I remember how many times you've run into the library," Twilight says, "and a lot of those wires carry a whole lot of electricity. I know ponies can take that sort of thing, but I'd rather not risk it. And at least now they're not hostile. I don't want to trust their good will if we take out half the city's energy by getting tangled up in the power lines."
"You worry too much," Rainbow keeps trotting, despite her words.
"You might be right, but let's take it a bit slow, okay? I know you want to fly, but let's start with some practice from the roof after shopping, so we'll be above the power lines."
Rainbow rolls her eyes, but doesn't argue, and they walk on. Soon they see Harvard Square ahead of them. Though the university borders it, the main draw of of the Square these days are the many shops, as well as the subway station; it's become something like an outdoor mall, complete with the crowds of shoppers.
"Wow," Rainbow says, "that's a whole lot of people. Are there even that many ponies in all of Ponyville?"
"Probably more than this," Twilight says, "but not a lot more. There are a lot more humans than ponies."
"No kidding."
Despite their heads being level with the average human's chest, the brightly-colored ponies have no trouble navigating the crowd. Indeed, the groups of humans part for them wherever they go, whispering and staring, even as they keep about their business.
"Not a very friendly lot, are they?" Rainbow whispers.
"Annie-Jane warned me about this," Twilight says, "humans take the idea of being strangers really seriously, at least around here. They mostly think it's rude to accost someone on the street. I don't think it means they're upset at us."
"Should we introduce ourselves?"
"Every few steps? I think we'd best just leave it be. If they're rude to us in when we have business with them, then we'll worry."
At least they move quickly through the skittish crowd, and soon they walk into the futuristic-looking interior of the Verizon store. Again all the humans stop and stare as they enter. Rainbow ignores it and eagerly goes to look at the tablet display. A few moments later Twilight follows, and the humans return to their own conversations, except for a nervous-looking young man in a store employee shirt, who walks over next to the two mares.
"Hello, uh..." he pauses, seemingly considering which collective noun to use before giving it up as a bad job and just forging on, "can I help you with anything?"
"Oh," Twilight says, "yes, please! We are hoping to get phones, and maybe other things." Her eyes dart over the prices. "Though it looks like just phones will be about all we can afford."
"Well," the employee says, "the phones are a lot cheaper if you get them as part of a new contract. You, uh, you're the one I heard about on the news, right? So this would be your first phone?"
"That's right," Twilight says.
"Are you sure you can, uh, use them? The buttons aren't really made for...those," he gestures to her hooves.
"I'll be fine," Twilight says, and uses her magic to play with the display tablet a bit.
"I'll probably get one of these," Rainbow says, picking up a stylus in her mouth.
"You can keep that one," the saleshuman looks at the drool-coated stylus before continuing. "Anyway, you pay for the phone, but you also have to pay for using it. You can pay as you go, but then you have to buy the whole phone, or you can agree to get a monthly plan through us..."
Rainbow's eyes glaze over as the young man explains the intricacies of telephone contracts to Twilight, who of course understands perfectly what he's saying, though her eye twitches a bit at the complexity of it all.
"This seems way too complicated," she says, "but we're planning to have the phones for the foreseeable future, so I suppose we'll have contracts."
She browses the many options (including side-tracks to figure out things like what texting even means) and finally settles on a family plan. Unfortunately, as she begins filling out the contract, a problem arises.
"What's a social security number?"
The employee sighs, and starts another explanation.
"Well that was a waste," Twilight says as she walks over next to Rainbow, now playing with one of the display tablets in boredom. "Because the federal government hasn't decided our status yet, we don't have some identification number we need to get a phone contract."
"Wait, so we can't get any of this stuff at all?"
"No," Twilight sighs, "we just have to pay a lot more for the phones, so we can't get anything else."
"Wow, that's lame," Rainbow says, "I bet if I got photos of us hanging out in the city, I'd get the likes up to six digits. Bigger numbers are always more awesome. What a waste."
"Yeah, I agree," Twilight says, looking downcast. "Well, come look at what kind of phone--"
She's cut off as another human, an older woman, walks close. Her name tag identifies her as a manager.
"Excuse me," she says, "did you say you got thousands of likes? Do you mean on Facebook?"
"Yeah! All you humans love my pictures," Rainbow says, thrusting out her chest and standing proudly tall.
"What's your name?" The manager pulls out her phone as she asks.
"Rainbow Dash! Fastest pegasus in the world! Well, also in worlds where there are other pegasi."
The human looks at her phone for a few minutes, moving her fingers on the screen, then she looks up and smiles.
"I think we can make a deal, Ms. Dash...."
Twenty minutes and several photos (carefully location tagged) later, Twilight finds herself carrying a large bag out of the store, filled with more or less everything Dash asked for.
"See," the pegasus smirks, "I told you having fans was awesome."
The rest of the excursion meets with mixed success.
"Argh," Twilight laments on the way back to the bar, "this world seems like it just wants to spite me sometimes!"
Her attempt to get a bank account had failed, due once more to the lack of official US citizenship and accompanying social security number. Similarly, none of the clothing stores she'd stopped at had anything that could possibly fit on a pony, and she'd been perplexed to find that personal tailoring became a luxury good sometime during the Industrial Revolution. So both ponies remain naked, though only Twilight seems to mind.
They do sport saddlebags, though. Twilight finally found them at a sporting goods store. Though they're intended for bicycles, they've combined them with some rock climbing webbing and achieved a passable result, if one that Rainbow won't be able to get on without Twilight's help. Still, Twilight's glad that at least some of the outing was successful, and that they now have phones and bags, her highest priorities. So she has a little smile as they trot into the alley towards the bar's back entrance.
It fades as she sees a human man leaning against the bar wall next to the door. He's dressed in an immaculate gray suit, and is wearing fancy bluetooth earpiece, though neither pony recognizes it for what it is.
"Twilight Sparkle," he says. His voice is flat, like he's stating the world's most boring fact.
"Yes?"
"Who's your friend?"
"Rainbow Dash."
"Fastest pegasus ever!" Dash breaks in. The human just nods.
"Is she like you?"
"She's a pony, if that's what you mean."
"Is she a machine?"
"No, she's a living pony. Who are you?"
"You can call me Mr. Gray," he says. "I'm here on behalf of office of the President." He displays an official-looking ID. Twilight examines it closely, but of course has no idea if it's authentic.
"Oh good," she says, "are you here to give us social security numbers? Not having one is a real pain."
"Perhaps," he says. "Congress is currently discussing the citizenship status of intelligent nonhumans. If they decide to grant it, you'll be able to get numbers."
"And if they don't?" Twilight asks.
"Then you'll be deported. Unless Homeland Security decides you're threats to national security."
"If you can deport us to Equestria," Twilight says, "please go ahead. Otherwise, where would you send us?"
Mr. Gray shrugs. "Not my department."
"So if they don't know yet," Dash says, "why are you here?"
He looks at the back of his hand. "I've been instructed to offer you a deal. It's come to our attention that you have some extraordinary abilities, Ms. Sparkle. It seems you believe you do as well, Ms. Dash. If you've read about current events, you know our government is engaged in a campaign against international terrorists. We'd like your help."
"Oh, you have no idea," Dash crows," we're the best at this sort of thing. Celestia calls us all the time to take care of stuff!"
"Hold on, Rainbow," Twilight says, frowning. "Mr. Gray, I am aware of current events, and this is a divisive issue here. Indefinite detentions, wars justified by deeply questionable information, the whole drone controversy...I trust Celestia to tell me the truth about threats to Equestria, and to never end a life if she can possibly avoid it. I don't think I trust you to do either of those."
"You haven't heard what I'm offering yet."
"I don't think it matters," Twilight says, "my objection to being a hired killer isn't based on the pay."
"The vote on the citizenship issue is in two days," Mr. Gray says, "and it's looking pretty close. The President supports it, of course, but that means the Republicans don't, even if half their evangelical wing weren't calling you the spawn of either the devil or man's hubris. There's also talk that it might require a constitutional amendment, and if that's the decision, that would be even harder to pass. The President supports equal rights as a matter of justice and personal conviction. But as a matter of political reality, his administration and and congressional allies might support it with more or less enthusiasm. Not to mention the other kinds of attention - journalists, fans, protesters - we've been working to keep safely away. You already benefit a great deal from our friendship, Ms. Sparkle. Be careful before you throw it away."
"Wait," Rainbow glares at him. "you're threatening to kick us out of the country if we don't help you hunt down your enemies?"
"I'm explaining political reality, Ms. Dash. And I think Homeland Security will be much more suspicious of you if you don't want to help us fight terrorism."
"Mr. Gray," Twilight says firmly, "this behavior doesn't do anything to put my fears to rest. Trying to bully us into being your thugs is repulsive."
"Politics isn't pretty, 'Princess'," Mr. Gray almost spits this last word, the first emotion he's shown in the whole conversation, "at least not here, outside magical cartoon land. And as happy as you are with Celestia, she's a mother stand-in, in a show for children. Here, we can't keep everyone safe with rainbows and deus-ex-machina accessories." He begins walking out of the alley, but places a business card in Twilight's saddlebag as he passes.
"Give me a call if you change your mind," he says over his shoulder, "but I wouldn't suggest waiting long. The wheels of politics wait for no man. Or mare."
"Huh," Rainbow says, "he was pretty specific about the rainbows and jewelry. Seems like he watched the show."
"Probably just research," Twilight sighs. "I'm less fond of it when someone else is researching me."
"Twi'," Rainbow says, voice lower, "what are we going to do? I don't want to work for that jerk, but how can we live in this world if their whole government turns against us?"
Twilight levitates the business card out of her bag and idly stares at it. It's gray, of course, and completely blank, save for a phone number printed in small black letters in the center. "I think," she says slowly, "it's time you met Alanna."
As it turned out, Rainbow meets all of Twilight's human friends at the impromptu meeting. When Twilight called Rosie to ask for Alanna's number, it hadn't taken much for her boss to get the story out of her. She'd come immediately, and called the others on her way.
Now Rainbow's introductions are done, and the five humans and two ponies sit around one of the closed bar's tables, an hour and a half before it opens. More accurately, seven humans and one pony sit around the table, while the other flits restlessly around the bar, but generally above it, despite Rosie's fears for her fixtures.
"And then he left, and gave me this weird card," Twilight finishes. "It doesn't even say what his job is."
"Probably some kind of spook," Annie-Jane says, "that's the kind of card they always have."
"Well," Alanna says. "the first order of business is: are you sure he was who he said he was, Twilight?"
"Not completely sure," Twilight says. "He seemed sincere, and his credentials didn't look poorly made or otherwise obviously forged, but I know nothing about what something like that is supposed to look like here, and barely more about reading human body language and facial expressions."
"Couldn't you do some kind of crazy lie detector spell or something?" AJ frowns at her.
"I do know a spell like that," Twilight speaks slowly, and frowns, "but mind magic is tricky at the best of times. Human minds might not work like pony ones, so it might give bad data, or not work at all. And honestly, it didn't occur to me. In Equestria you can't use that sort of thing on anyone that doesn't agree, so I mostly use it as a party trick."
"A party trick?" Rachel raises an eyebrow.
"Yeah! It's a paired spell: one target can tell if the other is lying, but no one else can. So you can do things like blindfold people so they don't know who knows if they're lying and then play a question game, or things like that."
"Man," Rachel grins, "I bet you have some wicked sleepover games they can't put on the show, eh?"
"You know it," Rainbow Dash smirks back at her. "There was this one time--"
"Girls," Alanna says, "I'm sure it's a great story, but perhaps another time? If you really have made an enemy in Washington, we need to figure out our plan."
"Well," Twilight's frown fades, "what can we do? If they decide we aren't citizens, we aren't protected by the law, right?"
"That's not entirely true," Alanna says. "Or at least, it's a lot more complicated. About the only thing they can do in a few days is not pass the law ruling that you are a citizen. If that happens then you aren't exactly a non-citizen, you're just still in legal limbo. Massachusetts says you're a person, and insofar as you were "born" anywhere, it was here. So there's a reasonable case to be made that this makes you a citizen by our current laws. If that's true, then they'd have to pass a law specifically saying you weren't, or get Massachusetts to amend its state constitution to do the same. And here, getting the government to actually pass a law is far harder than getting it not to."
"Wait," Rainbow Dash says," you lost me like, three words in. Can you give me the short version?"
"Even if they do what they threatened, I can probably make them waste a lot of time before they can actually throw you out."
"Oh."
"Alanna," Twilight frowns, "they said they were protecting us from things like reporters, and protesters and things like that. If they decided to stop, I don't know what will happen, and none of that even has to do with the law. And if you represent us, I'm sure there are all sorts of ways they could make your life worse too. Your government is much larger and more involved than ours. You don't have to do that for us. Even if they throw us out of the country, we'll be ok, I;m sure."
"Of course I don't have to do it, Twilight," Alanna smiles at her, "but I want to. And I'm not sure they'd throw you out peacefully - you said they threatened to label you a threat to security. They might lock you up, or worse. Besides, I'm not quite cynical enough yet to think it's just a coincidence that a magical pony princess appeared in my town. I believe you can do great things here, and I will help you do them."
Rainbow Dash grimaces and makes a gagging face, but Twilight leans up against Alanna affectionately.
"I'm so lucky I ended up meeting you all," she says, "you already risked so much to be there for me the first time. Are you all sure you want to do it again?"
None of the humans say anything, but all five gather her up into a hug. Rainbow flutters a bit closer, and Rosie scoops her up and pulls her in. She frowns, but doesn't try to get away, and in a moment the frown is gone too.
"Enough of being down on yourself," Annie-Jane says, "we're all in this with you, Twilight. We need more good people here, and you're a great one, even if you're a pony. And good people with reality-shaping magic are even better. I don't know where this one's going to end up, but we'll get there together."
"Thanks so much," Twilight says, then rolls her eyes. "Let's just hope it's not deported or shot."
"About that," Rachel says, "I found a lead in the case files. Someone was standing near the shooter and gave the police a rough description. I was thinking maybe we could go see him, see if he has anything else useful."
Dash, returned to the air, looks down at her. "Why do you think he'd tell us stuff he wouldn't tell them?"
"He might just remember more now," Rachel says, "no one's talked to him since that day, or at least not according to the case files I saw. And I thought maybe seeing Twilight would jog something in his memory. Or you might have a spell for that."
"I do have a few memory charms, and a potion Zecora taught me to make, though he'd have to agree, and I have no idea if I can get some of the potion ingredients here. But you're right, it couldn't hurt to ask."
"Great," Rachel says. "I don't have to go on duty for a few hours. Let's go now. Who's coming?
None of the other humans can. Alanna wants to start researching citizenship law, AJ has a prior engagement, and Fiona and Rosie have to work. So Rainbow Dash and Twilight accompany Rachel down to her car, and they're on their way.
The trip takes almost exactly half an hour. After about five minutes, Rainbow Dash stops being fascinated by the car, and starts complaining about how slow it is compared to flying.
"You're worse than a six-year-old," Rachel grumbles.
"Not my fault Twilight's too scared of silly wires to let us fly," Rainbow matches her tone.
"Did the show make up how often you crashed into her library?"
"I dunno, I haven't seen it."
"No," Twilight says.
"Then I don't want to fly with you until you've had some practice in the city," Rachel says, "I guess you pegasi can survive bolts of lightning, but if you got me wrapped up in a power like I'd be cooked like a chicken."
"Ugh," Twilight says, "I did not need to think about any part of that sentence."
"Me either," Dash says, "I think I'm going to be sick."
"Do it out the window," Rachel says, lowering Dash's.
"Hey, neat," Rainbow perks up, supposed sickness completely forgotten, and sticks her head out the window like a dog. "I wish I had my goggles, this feels more like it!"
Rachel shakes her head and drives on. Soon they're pulling up in front of a nondescript looking house in Waltham, a town somewhat further out than Cambridge in the Greater Boston conurbation.
"This is the place," Rachel gets out, "let's see if anyone's home." They walk up on the porch and she presses the doorbell. There's no answer, but a moment later they hear a door slam from the rear of the house.
"What the hay?" Rainbow says.
"I don't know," Rachel says, "but if he's running away rather than answering the door, I want a word with him." She starts running around the house, and the ponies quickly follow. Rachel rounds the edge of the building first, then jumps back with a yelp, colliding with Rainbow right behind her. Both fall to the ground in a tangle of limbs as a car speeds out of the driveway, barely missing them.
"Fuck, he's long gone," Rachel says, gathering herself, "we'll never get back to my car in time."
"But why's he running away?" Twilight says. "That's like Shining's rule one of guard work, if they run, they've got something to hide. How will we find out now that he's gotten away."
"Buck that, he hasn't yet" Rainbow says, "get on my back, Rachel. Twi, it's time to fly."
"But, the power lines..." Rachel looks up with a frown.
"Ok, I'm only gonna say something this sappy once. I've never hurt anypony but me in a crash. You get that? I'm not gonna start now. Now get on my bucking back and let's get this guy!"
Rachel wraps her arms around Dash's neck, and both ponies take to the air, soaring after the fleeing car.
The two ponies (and one human passenger) fly about a hundred feet off the ground, eyes locked on the mysterious car that weaves through the twisting streets below. Despite the serious mission, Twilight notices Rainbow Dash can't keep a grin off her face at being in the air again. This doesn't surprise Twilight at all, but she is a bit surprised to see Rachel's face unusually pale, her hands wrapped tightly around Dash's neck.
Their quarry is a tan SUV. At first the driver seems unaware of their pursuit. Like many flightless creatures, the human driver appears unaccustomed to looking up. Unfortunately, as they move out from the empty residential streets to the larger, well-traveled main roads, their unusual nature becomes a double-edged sword. With increasing frequency, pedestrians stop dead and point to the skies. As they fly out over Waltham's main street, a sedan on the opposite side of the road pulls over, and a woman leaps out of the passenger side, snapping photos with her cell phone. The SUV speeds up, and hooks an unexpected turn on to the highway on-ramp. The ponies have no trouble matching the maneuver, but it's not yet late enough in the afternoon for rush hour traffic, and the driver floors it as soon as the car's off the ramp and on to the highway proper.
"Awright," Rainbow Dash crows, beating her wings harder to keep up, "this is going to be fun." Behind her Twilight frowns, but buckles down with her own wings. Fortunately, the internal combustion engine is no match for pegasus magic, so even as a merely competent flier, Twilight knows she can keep up the pace for a good while.
"Do we have a way to get this guy to stop?" Rachel yells over the howling wind, eyes now squeezed shut against the maelstrom of flight at near a hundred miles per hour.
"Not really," Twilight yells back, "or at least, not any that I'm confident won't hurt him. I could try to stop it with telekinesis but this is way out of any research I've read, I'm not sure I could do it safely."
"So what, we're just going to fly after him until he gives up and stops?"
"Sounds great to me," Dash yells.
The highway is rising into the air below them. At first Twilight thinks it must be going up a hill, but then she sees the other road crisscrossing below it, and looks around. Ahead the buildings of the city loom large, glittering in the summer sun, and more, larger roads than she's ever seen crisscross in the air in front of her, raised on great pylons. She finds it a perplexing combination of beautiful and disturbing; unlike Cambridge across the river, here virtually nothing of nature is visible, just a seemingly endless jumble of concrete, steel, and asphalt into which they are plunging at speed.
"What the hay is this?" Rainbow yells.
"The Big Dig," Rachel answers, "it's made to let traffic bypass the city center."
"Why's it called a dig?" Twilight asks. The cars loom large below her now, just a few body lengths away, as she cuts under an overpass.
"That's why," Rachel says, briefly gesturing forward with one of her arms, though she grabs it with her other hand to retain a strong hold on Dash's neck.
Twilight looks up, following the line of her arm, and sees that not far ahead the road plunges down again into the orange-lit mouth of a tunnel. She gulps.
"Is he going in there?"
"He's out of exits. He can't go anywhere else."
"Oh, this is getting good," Dash says. Rachel closes her eyes again and groans.
They swoop down, and the bright summer world is replaced with the subterranean half-light of the tunnel. The ceiling is low, and Twilight's hooves nearly scrape the tops of the cars. Most of them have their lights on, and alternating bright and dark trace over the walls, making it hard to make out exactly where they are. The air is filled with exhaust and the sound of horns as the drivers notice the large creatures flying close above them. There's no shoulder outside the two lanes of traffic, and if Twilight and Dash were to try to fly side to side, there'd barely be room.
"Heads-up, Twi'," Dash calls from in front of her. The SUV is weaving at daredevil speeds between the lanes of traffic, only adding to the cacophony as terrified drivers lean on their horns in terror. Ahead two large semi trucks are driving in nearly abreast in the two lanes, with barely a car's length between the front of the one in the right lane and the back of the one in the left. Their trailers reach nearly to the tunnel roof, not leaving enough clearance for a pony.
"I think he's going to try to shoot that gap!" Rachel yells.
"No sweat," Dash smirks.
Rachel's right; the SUV speeds up in the clear left lane, then swerves deftly between the two large trucks. The rearmost's horn blares as the driver slams on the brakes, and swerves slightly into the other lane, nearly clipping Rainbow's wing. Rachel says something in a language Twilight doesn't understand, but a tone that sounds like cursing, and wraps her legs around Dash's barrel. Then they're at the gap. Dash nearly folds her wings flat against her body and zips through, making it look easy.
Twilight knows it won't be, and takes a deep breath. The rear truck's sudden brake widens the gap briefly, but then the front one slows as well, hearing the horn, and now it's narrowing again, rapidly. She's almost there, but the gap is shrinking too fast - she's not sure she can maintain control if she pulls her wings in that tight. Left without alternative, she lights her horn and briefly vanishes, reappearing in the other lane, ahead of the rear truck.
The actual magic of short-range teleportation is effortless for an alicorn as powerful as Twilight, of course, but recovering from doing so at speed is another matter. She maintains her inertial state on reappearance - which is just as well, lest she crash to the ground - but with only a split second to adjust to her new surroundings. They're pushing seventy-five miles per hour despite the tight spaces of the tunnel, and even cutting it close to the leading truck, she's not far from the wall. She turns hard left as soon as she appears, and feels just the tip of a feather touch the concrete wall before she's free and stable.
Behind her, the poor driver of the rear truck slams on the breaks again, mouth open in a yell at her sudden appearance not ten feet in front of his windshield. She nearly flies on to catch up with Dash, but then she sees the rear of the truck begin to skew far into the left lane as the driver loses control. She's close enough to see the him realize the same thing, and his eyes widen as he desperately manipulates the wheel. She doesn't know much about trucks, but she knows enough physics by heart to tell it's too late. Behind the truck, a pack of cars is driving close, curiosity overcoming fear as they try to get a glimpse of the ponies. They won't have time to stop if the truck blocks the tunnel. She realizes she only has one option left.
The driver's hands drop from the steering wheel as he feels the truck no longer touching the road, and a magenta light surrounds the truck and fills his cabin. Twilight's lifted the whole thing a few inches off the ground and wrestled it straight. Now she pulls it along with her as she flies, holding it in the correct lane through sheer power of magic. Beads of sweat roll down her coat* at the effort of controlling her flight while keeping the truck safely in the tiny lane.
The honking has stopped now, and the other truck, traveling at her left flank, is slowing to a stop. All around cars are doing the same, pulling into the left lane as they do. Twilight beats her wings harder, accelerating down the now-clear lane to catch up with Rainbow and the SUV, dragging the giant semi truck behind her. Ahead she sees a blue and prismatic flash as Rainbow banks left, merging into a larger tunnel, then she's in it as well. This one is four lanes, with generous shoulders, and well-lit, and she feels a tightness she didn't realize she'd been carrying lift as she suddenly has room to maneuver.
The truck's wheels have long since stopped turning, the driver having taken his foot off the gas once he realized he was no longer in contact with the road. She takes advantage of the newly raised roof and lifts it over the stopped traffic in the left lane, depositing it safely on the shoulder. She catches sight of the door opening, and the driver throws a dazed little wave as he stumbles unsteadily to his feet. She thinks she sees him take out his phone, but then turns back to the pursuit.
In the wide space they can maneuver safely, but their quarry has also put on speed, and Rainbow's magical multicolored contrail is lightly visible as she races to keep up. Twilight risks another short teleport on the straightaway to make up the distance, and now they're flying neck and neck, just behind the SUV, which is pushing a hundred in the clear center lane.
"Nice moves back there," Rachel leans over, looking either less panicked or resigned to her fate, "I thought we were going to cause a hell of an accident."
"I couldn't let anyone get hurt!"
Rachel just shakes her head and smiles.
"I hope you rub off on us, Princess, and not the other way around. Gonna stop this guy that way now?"
Twilight frowns. "If I try that again, I might fall out of the sky, give me a few minutes at least!" Ahead, Dash cries a warning.
The SUV 's taken a hard right, angling at the very last minute towards an exit tunnel. It barely makes it, the driver's side mirror missing the concrete support by millimeters. Rainbow has no trouble keeping her course, but Twilight again finds herself falling behind as she slows to make the turn. Sweat is dripping off her flanks and barrel now, and her wings feel like they're made of metal and motors again, not part of her body at all. But between adrenaline and her need to know who would go to so much trouble to avoid them, she manages force them to work, and catches up again.
The ramp ascends in a broad spiral and rises out of the tunnel back into the honeyed light of the early afternoon. it straightens out and now only the endless blue sky is above them, dotted with light clouds. Off to the left downtown Boston's skyscrapers loom, so large they look nearer than they are, like Twilight could brush her wing against one like the tunnel wall, if only she banked a bit. But ahead the road descends towards the waterfront, and the horizon in front of her meets only the grey-blue sheet of the Atlantic. A strong breeze kicks up, and she smells salt on the wind. One way or another, their quarry is running out of road.
There's a red light in front of them, but traffic's still light, and the driver of the SUV shows no signs of stopping. A horn cries out as a car moves through on green, but the SUV swerves deftly around and continues tearing down the street. They're at the waterfront proper now, and on her left Twilight can see the docks and the water of the bay in the gaps between buildings.
Then, barely slowing, certainly with no tell-tale brake lights, the SUV pulls a hard left, so tight Twilight is surprised it doesn't tip over, and screeches into the loading dock of an unremarkable looking warehouse. The ponies bank hard to come about, but the automatic door is already closing, and before they can reach it, it slams shut against the concrete.
Panting, Twilight and Rainbow hover outside the unassuming brick building. They hear sirens - a lot of them - coming from the direction of the tunnel.
"Well," Rachel says, "any bright ideas, or are we going in a window? Any way you can lift that door up, Twilight?"
"I could," she says, head tilted in thought, "but I'd rather not. I'm still pretty tired, and I'm not sure I could lift it and maintain a shield at the same time. I don't want to bet against an ambush."
Twilight and Rainbow set down just outside the warehouse office, and Rachel slides unsteadily to the ground.
"No offense, Rainbow," she says, "but I preferred teleporting."
"Suit yourself," Rainbow smirks, then mutters "wuss," under her breath. Rachel just chuckles and walks over to try the door. It's locked.
"Seemed too much to hope for anyway," she says, "speaking of teleporting, any chance you could get us in there?"
"If I can see open floor through the window, I could bring us in," Twilight says, frowning, "but it has the same problem as forcing the door, we'll be disoriented for a bit and we don't know if anyone's in there."
"Right, so safe drop zones only, that makes sense. Is that why you brought us to just outside the 7-11 that time, not right inside?" Twilight nods, and Rachel thinks a bit then continues. "Okay then, time for some good old fashioned off-the-books snooping." She looks between the office window and the ponies, seeming lost in thought for a moment. "I don't think your bodies are really shaped right to fit through that window, but I should be able to wriggle in. Can you protect me while I do, Twilight?" The pony nods. "Right. If it looks clear I'll open the door if I can, or you can just blink in."
"What if it isn't clear?" Rainbow says.
"I'll be fine, I'm a professional." Rachel pulls a small metal object out of her pocket and walks to the window. Curious, Twilight follows and watches what she's doing. She's about to ask, but Rachel holds a finger to her mouth, then returns silently to her work. She's using a glass cutter, and though Twilight hasn't seen one before, she quickly figures it out. Soon the human pops the plug of glass out. She's about to reach in and undo the latch when it briefly glows and opens itself. She shakes her head and eases the now unlatched window open. Twilight's shield snaps into focus around her, and Rainbow Dash gives her a boost with her back, letting her crawl in the window. Both mares tense up, ears pricked for any sound of a struggle, but the next thing they hear from inside is the click of the latch, and Rachel presses the door open.
"All clear," she whispers, and they file in with her. Once they're in and she's shut the door, she turns to Twilight and whispers again, "could you have just opened the latch without my cutting the window?"
"No," Twilight whispers, "I can't manipulate objects through obstructions, even if I can see them."
"But you can teleport places you can't even see."
"Yes."
"That doesn't make any sense."
"It's really complicated."
Rachel shakes her head and they creep through the office and into the warehouse proper, the ponies walking with knees bent, low to the ground. It isn't one of the larger storage buildings on the waterfront, but still the interior is cavernous, filled with cardboard boxes and a few larger white sea-shipping capsules. They dash behind the first of them, and peer out around the cover. The storage floor is silent and devoid of motion. They glance a second time, and Rachel motions to the corner of the next row down along the wall. They dart there, then again scan the area ahead. It remains quiet and still, but the ponies' sensitive noses twitch slightly.
"Twi'," Rainbow whispers, "do you smell smoke?"
"That's what it is," Twilight answers, "I thought it smelled familiar. Rachel, why are we smelling smoke?"
"Fuck," Rachel says, "they're probably burning records or something. Twi', put up your shield and head towards the smell, we're out of time."
The purple bubble snaps into being again and Rainbow Dash leads the way through the walls of containers. Soon Rachel can also smell the smoke on the air, then the blaring of the fire alarm fills the warehouse.
"We need to hurry," Rachel shouts over the din, "the fire department'll be on the way now." Now they can see smoke billowing over the shelf ahead of them, and the scent is heavy on the air.
"Will your shield protect us from this?" Rachel asks.
"The worst of it, but I have to let air in so I can't keep all the heat out. We need to grab what we can and hurry."
The fire looks to have started in the middle of a row, and the boxes on both sides are wreathed in flames. Twilight can tell immediately they're a total loss. Lying on the floor, though, between the shelves, are two figures, obscured by the haze of smoke. One is a human, bound and with a bag over his head, writhing on the floor. The other appears to be a pony, but as they approach they can see the telltale panel in its side is open, and a tangle of wires are strewn across the floor.
"Another pony robot?" Twilight says, "What the hay? Did Lasombra make more?"
"No time to worry about it now," Rachel says. Already the heat is uncomfortable, even through the shield. "We need to get out now. Can you bring both of them?"
"Yes, but I'll have to drop the shield for a moment to grab them. Cover your faces." Rainbow Dash closes her eyes and covers her face with her wings, and Rachel brings both arms up over her own. Twilight takes a deep breath of the partially protected air, then drops the shield. A wave of heat and smoke rushes into the gap, and for a moment she can't concentrate on anything else, but she shakes it off and catches both of the distant forms in her magic, pulling them quickly nearby before all of them vanish in a flash.
"Rarity..." Twilight says, looking over the partially disassembled mechanical pony lying on the floor of her room. She clearly was modeled after Rarity, but her normally pristine coat is coated in smoke and grease, and a complex tangle of wires and unlit LEDs has been dragged out of her side. Most painfully to Twilight, her horn has been partially cut open, revealing a complicated series of dark metal objects within.
"You know it's not really Rarity, right Twi'?" Rainbow Dash scowls down at the broken machine over Twilight's shoulder.
"Not yet, but maybe she could be. I started out like that, Rainbow. Maybe if we can fix her, we'll be able to get the real Rarity here."
"That's great, but she's pretty messed up. Do you know anything about fixing robots?"
"No, but I bet the Internet does!" Twilight eagerly pulls out her tablet and starts poking at it with her stylus. Rainbow Dash wanders over to where Rachel is sitting next to the unconscious human.
"So any idea who this guy is?" She asks.
"Yeah," Rachel frowns, "he's the guy we were going to see."
"I thought he ran away in that car. Why was he tied up?"
"I did too, but now I dunno. It'd be pretty weird to come forward as a witness if you were involved, anyway. I'd say we interrupted a kidnapping that turned into attempted murder."
"Whoa. That's pretty cool of us, so we gonna talk to him now?"
"Once he wakes up, but I'm worried he needs medical attention. I'm going to take him to the hospital, but smoke inhalation is pretty rare and the scanner's all over the warehouse fire. I was hoping I'd come up with some good story but it can't wait, so I'm just gonna have to go with the old anonymous tip, sadly."
"Ponyfeathers!" Twilight calls from the bedroll, where she's sitting poking at the tablet.
"What's up, Twi'?" Dash calls over.
"Turns out the Internet really doesn't have anything useful to say about pony robots. It's all just stories about me, and none of it's technical." She sighs, and bites her lower lip. "I'm going to have to go to plan B."
"Are you sure you want to do this, Twilight?" Rachel can't hide her scowl.
"Of course I don't want to, but I can't take the risk. He still makes me feel icky. But Rarity. It's been great having you here with me Rainbow, but I want to see the rest of the girls too. So much here is still confusing or just bucked up. I'm a Princess, you're Equestria's fastest pegasus, but without them we're not the full team, you know? If Rarity were...looking for a way in, and I was too scared to talk to a creep to help, what kind of friend would I be?"
Rainbow's wings and ears droop a little. "I hear that. You're right. But I'm gonna be there, and if he tries anything, I'm gonna buck him out the window. You can do an experiment, see if he can apologize fast enough to get me to catch him."
Twilight smiles a little. "That'd be a lot of math. Vectors even."
"Well," Rachel says, looking down at the unconscious human, "good thing you've got that covered, Rainbow, because I need to get this guy somewhere innocuous and call in this tip. You both have my number, right?"
Both ponies nod, and Rachel drapes the man over her shoulder and makes her way down the stairs. Twilight is mildly surprised she can carry him so easily, though he's rather short and she supposes Rachel is in good shape. She realizes she's letting her mind wander to avoid thinking about Lasombra just as her phone rings.
This is the first time it's ever done so. She spends a moment just staring confusedly at her saddlebag before she realizes what the noise is, and pulls out the phone. She's read the manual (of course) so puts it on speaker.
"Hello?" Her voice barely shows any signs of nervousness at all.
"Hello Twilight," Lasombra's voice sounds at least 50% less smarmy than she feared, but still at least 30% more than she'd like, "I didn't expect to hear from you again."
"I didn't expect you to either. But...did you ever make a Rarity?"
"You mean a Rarity like you? No. Why?"
"We found one. But she's broken. Did you tell anyone else how to make them?"
"No." He pauses for a second. "No, I didn't. But I did keep notes, obviously. It was quite the project. I keep them in the cloud. Someone else at work might have been able to find them, someone with access to our internal servers. Or a really dedicated hacker, I guess. And I had a few prototypes, though I don't think any of them are missing."
"You better not be lying," Rainbow Dash says.
"Is that the lovely Rachel?" Lasombra says. "Good to hear you're still looking out for Twilight."
"Yeah, no, it's Rainbow Dash. But she told me all about you, don't worry."
"Rainbow Dash? What? Is our server security really that bad?"
"Don't worry about it," Twilight sighs, "it's a long story and I care much more about Rarity right now. Look, she's here in my room and she's broken. Is...is there any way I can convince you to come fix her?"
There's a long silence from the line. Finally Lasombra speaks.
"Actually, you only had to ask. Are you still living at that bar?"
He arrives not long after. Rainbow Dash lets him in, and hovers menacingly above his head the whole way up the stairs. He seems to be staring at her.
"You're...you're actually her aren't you? I couldn't make Twilight's wings work, because the proportions from the show just don't work with flight, even at bird weight, let alone all the weight of a robot. And hovering like that isn't physically possible at all."
"Yeah, I am, punk. So you better watch out, my ability to kick your human flank also won't seem 'physically possible' if you mess with Twi' any more."
"I don't think humans call them 'flanks', Rainbow," Twilight says.
"You wanted 'ass'," Lasombra supplies instantly, but then sighs. "Look, I'm terrible at this sort of thing. I was going to just let it go before I got your message. But to be honest, Twilight, I owe you an apology. I never meant to make you...aware. I still don't know how it happened. All the prototypes, heck, you for several weeks, you were all just devices. I tried to make your reactions lifelike, of course. I was really proud of programming you to navigate my apartment competently. But until you disappeared that night, you never did anything that surprised me. You couldn't, you just did what I programmed you to. It was a fantasy. I never meant to...bring something alive into the world. I didn't react well when it turned out I did. I should have listened when you told me to leave, on the roof. I shouldn't ever have brought that lawsuit. I just didn't believe that somehow you'd grown. I was too confident in myself, and not proud enough of what you managed to become. I'm sorry."
Twilight sighs. "I understand. I've had spells get out of hand. And I'm not sure you really did, anyway. Look," she takes to the air, and Lasombra falls backwards, landing heavily on the floor. His jaw drops. "After I was shot, I woke up flesh and blood, with all my powers back. I don't know what happened, not really, and I still remember those first weeks, when I was a machine. It's all surreal. But my current theory is that you didn't make me, you just made...something enough like me. A door, or a way in. I don't know why I was looking for that, or it was looking for me, but that's my working theory."
Lasombra closes his jaw and rises unsteadily. "Well. This changes things. And now," he looks over at Rainbow Dash, "the rest of the crew's coming too? And you think if we repair this Rarity-bot, she might turn into the real thing?"
"That's right," Rainbow says, "I hope your lame world's ready for all six of us."
Twilight's own jaw nearly drops as Lasombra breaks out in the first smile she's ever seen on his face.
"Oh, it isn't," he giggles, completely out of keeping with everything she knows about him, "but I'm so excited to see it anyway. This is going to be great."
"Wait, you're happy about this?"
"Oh come on," he sighs, but doesn't stop smiling, "I made a super-accurate Twilight Sparkle robot. It was years, years of effort. I don't know anyone who loves the show - and I do - who doesn't think our world could use a Princess of Friendship. Badly. It was that hope that made me want to make it happen, even if I could at best get a fake, a fantasy. And even if I couldn't let go of that fantasy when I should have." He glances at Rainbow Dash, smile edging dangerously into smirk territory. "Besides, if 'Daring Don't' is at all true to life, you should know something about confusing fantasy and reality, Rainbow."
"Okay, it's just weird to have you talking about my life with episode titles," Rainbow's cheeks color a bit, "but I think I know what you mean."
"Anyway," now his smirk does fade, "I know I've been a jerk, and I said my piece, I don't expect us to ever be great friends or anything. But let's see if we can get one of your other friends back."
Twilight lands next to the wrecked Rarity bot, and Lasombra pulls a toolkit from his backpack, and sits down to work. He mostly works in silence. Rainbow quickly gets bored and wanders off to mess with her tablet, but Twilight asks an endless stream of questions. Soon he's getting her to fetch him tools and parts out of the large pile he's brought in his pack, mostly just to keep her busy.
It takes three hours, two trips to the electronics store, and a complete rebuilding of the dissected horn, but finally the LEDs in Rarity's side all light up green, and her chest begins moving.
"This unit doesn't have any behavioral programming at all," Lasombra says, closing the access panel, "either whoever made her hadn't gotten around to putting it in yet, or they wiped it before you got to her. But she's at least repaired. I could make some for her, if you wanted."
"Rainbow Dash showed up when all I had was a stuffed doll," Twilight said, "let's just leave her for a bit and see if she wakes up on her own. If she doesn't within a few days, maybe we'll try that, but I assume creating the programming wouldn't be easy."
Lasombra nods. "Especially if it needs to be as detailed as what you had, and match Rarity's personality. I'd need to do a lot of research with the show, and then it'd take at least a month. I could re-use a lot of the physical controls, of course, but it's still a lot of work." He stops, and an awkward silence reigns for a bit.
"Sweet, two hundred thousand likes!" Rainbow crows from across the room.
"What is she talking about?" Lasombra frowns.
"You don't want to know."
He just raises an eyebrow.
Twilight sighs. "She's posting 'selfies' on Facebook."
"Of course she is."
The silence reigns for a moment again, then Twilight looks over at the fixed Rarity, and smiles a little.
"It's amazing, it really does look lifelike. You have quite the talent."
"Perhaps in her honor you should say I am a talent."
Twilight snorts. "Maybe. Thanks for your help. You didn't have to come and do this. I appreciate it."
"Of course." Twilight thinks he looks like he's going to say more for a moment, but she isn't quite sure she can read humans that well yet. In any case, he pauses for a moment instead, then turns to leave. "It was my pleasure. Take care." He starts down the stairs.
"Can I save your phone number? You know, in case?" Twilight says, just before he opens the door.
The sun has vanished behind the low hills to the west of the city - the last, even smaller vestiges of the range that holds Annie-Jane's farm - but its light still lingers, red and shading to violet, staining everything to match the ruddy brick facades of the bar and surrounding buildings. The cloyingly sticky August day is giving ground in the face of the evening breeze, which brings the cool of the endless sea, and the music of wind chimes. The dome of the sky is nearly black.
Which is to say, it is twilight, and leaning against the bar's wall, steeping in it, thinking about this unbelievably long day "off", is Princess Twilight. Despite her name, she muses, her younger self wouldn't have enjoyed an evening like this, just lamented the difficulty the dimming light brought to making out the letters on whatever page was hovering in front of her muzzle as she walked. Even in moments like this, Twilight doesn't exactly regret her youthful monomania, but she can see regret from here, and considers that someday she might arrive there. That certainly she would have, had her life not changed at that midsummer those few years ago.
A breeze tussles her mane, and the chimes sound again. This time she registers them, and looks around the street in idle curiosity, wondering which house or shop is the source of the noise. She can't see them anywhere. Then she hears them again, and now that she's paying attention, she can tell they aren't coming from a building, but from one of the trees lining the road - the one right in front of the bar, in fact, not far away.
Curious, she walks towards it, and a few body lengths away she catches sight of the source of the noise. What she'd taken to be wind chimes are actually a large number of silvery amulets or icons, each about as long as a hoof, hung from the branches of the tree. She moves closer, then stops, mouth slightly open. On the flat of every one of the amulets, her cutie mark is etched, and among them, hung from the tree on ribbons of blue or magenta that match her mane, there's a second canopy of pieces of lavender paper.
She comes close, not sure if she feels dread or excitement, or what. Both the amulets and the slips of paper appear to vary in age - a few look to have seen rain, which must date them from before she came back from the farm, and many look washed out by the sun. One of the slips of paper seems totally new, and she rotates it gently in her magic. It's folded over itself, like a card, and held fast with a small strip of tape. She wouldn't be Twilight Sparkle if she didn't open it, and inside a short message is written in a neat hand:
Thank you for saving my truck.
There must be several dozen pieces of paper hanging from the tree, at least. Some of the older ones were either never secured or have come open on their own, and she gently rotates them to see if there's writing. It's faded and smudged, but legible.
Your story made me a better friend.
I reconnected with my oldest friend, cheering for you at your trial.
When I saw you for the first time, I felt fifty years younger.
I owe you my life, after the robbery.
The wind picks up, and she can imagine the tree is singing the words. The fur around her eyes is damp, and she looks down reflexively. Around her hooves, several objects have been left at the base of the tree: a few coins, a half-dozen purple candles, burned nearly down, three small plastic dolls of herself, a handful of printed photos or drawings, all of her. She can't help but think it looks like a shrine. She reads some of the newer pieces.
Please help me learn to make friends like you did.
I need to pass this algebra test so badly, help me study like you.
Make the terrorists nice, like you did with Discord, so my daddy can come home.
None of these are signed. She's not even sure how she feels about this, or how to think about it. There's a heavy thud next to her. She looks up, and sees Rainbow Dash folding her wings.
"Hey Twi," the pegasus says lightly, then looks at her face, and pauses. "What's with this tree? You look...weird."
"Didn't we agree you shouldn't fly in the city?"
"Whatever. I decided that was dumb after we both totally kicked flank in that awesome car chase. And even I can tell you were trying to change the subject." Dash reads a couple of the slips of paper. "Oh, neat! You've got fans!"
"Rainbow!" Twilight gently slips a few of the more pleading messages off the branches and floats them in front of Dash. "These aren't fan letters, and they aren't treating me like a wonderbolt! These are prayers, like I'm...some kind of god."
Rainbow reads them over.
"Well, look, you kind of are."
"No I'm not. I'm just a pony."
Rainbow rolls her eyes at her. "Come on, princess. We all left 'just a pony' behind like twenty legendary monsters ago. Then you got wings and a castle. I'm going to be the best wonderbolt ever, but you'll still be the one everypony remembers, not just sports fans."
"You know what I mean. How could I help with any of this? They didn't even leave their names."
"Well, ok, maybe you won't be able to take this human's math test for her," Dash concedes, "and you'd just tell her she has to learn it herself anyway. But I know you've been working on spells to fix their world. Just the whole giant planet, and you think you can pull enough stuff out of the air to fix how they've been bucking it up. And the best part is, I think you can, because that's what you do."
Twilight's just looking at her now, head sideways, eyes wide.
"Look, I know you don't want to think you're better than anypony else. I love that about you, we all do. And I dunno maybe you're right, maybe Cherilee and Big Mac and Lyra and Bon Bon would all do what you do, if they could. But they can't. I'm the first pony in forever that can do the sonic rainboom. All six of us are amazing. But when I can't do something, we all go to you. I think these humans," she waves a wing at the tree, "are betting on the right pony. Even if you won't do their homework."
Twilight blinks. "Thanks, Rainbow," she nuzzles up against her friend. "I think I needed that. But still, I don't feel good about this. I should tell them I'm not --"
She trails off as both of them notice a sudden increase in the noise drifting out from the bar's open door. They look over at the large window and see the two parties of humans at the tables there talking excitedly and gesturing at something further inside.
"We'd better see what that is," Twilight says, and Dash nods. The two friends walk in the door together.
"Oh, girls, thank Celestia," Rarity says from the stairs, "I certainly hope you can tell me just what is going on."
Twilight decides the best plan is to fill Rarity in on the way to dinner. She briefly considers eating at the bar, but thanks to Dash's social media escapades providing their electronics, she's still got a fair bit of money, and she knows Rarity will appreciate something a bit fancier. So the three ponies walk to Harvard Square proper.
Throughout the walk, she can see Rarity's eyes darting to the buildings and people, her mouth slightly open. She's polite, of course, and listens attentively to Twilight's story, but Twilight can almost see the questions and excitement building up. She finishes just as they're approaching the square itself.
"Well Twilight," Rarity says, "that's quite a lot to take in. I don't know what to say."
"You looked like you had plenty of ideas on the way over," Rainbow says.
"Well, yes, but that's not about anything important. Not about Twilight's - our - situation here. But this whole place, a world where everyone wears clothes all the time--"
She stops as they turn the corner into Harvard Square proper. It's full dark now, but this early in the evening, everything is still open and lit up, and crowds of people still fill the sidewalks and lawns. The benches surrounding the paved square outside the subway station are similarly packed, and street performers and vendors fill it.
"Oh my," Rarity whispers. The square seems to agree. Assorted clumps of humans can see them now, and pause just long enough to make their surprise clear, before moving on about their business. "Oh, turning heads already, and I haven't even made us outfits! Now, where were you taking us, Twilight?"
They walk across the busy square, and Twilight nearly laughs aloud at Rarity's obvious inner conflict. Her eyes dart constantly from human to human. Even Twilight noticed early on in her stay how many different kinds of outfits humans here wear, and her research into their names gave her some glimpse into the incredibly complicated messages they send to others, though she found herself too involved in other projects to really work it out. She also quickly noticed that for all their similarities in coloration, human bodies vary far more than ponies in type - height, weight, and proportion. She can only imagine what Rarity's trained eyes and mind make of the dizzying variety on display in the square.
Despite her curiosity, though, Rarity holds her head high and face aloft, steady, proud, and beautiful, looking for all the world like she's on a runway. And the attention they get warrants it. Where Twilight alone drew glances, and Twilight and Rainbow drew attention, Rarity seems to command it. Twilight remembers that Rachel claimed, and her own research substantiated, that Americans don't have nobility, but something in Rarity's stance seems to have translated even across species lines. Where people politely tried not to look too long or point at Rainbow and Twilight, now they whisper excitedly, or stare after the ponies as they pass. Twilight knows rarity well enough to tell that she's pleased.
Soon they arrive at the heart of the square, a rectangular lawn contained by wooden fences and surrounded on all sides by shops and restaurants. It's always reminded Twilight of some of the commons on the edges of Ponyville, and the humans sitting or lying on the grass of the ponies there. She has a soft spot for it for this reason. Also, Rosie knows the owner of one of the nicer restaurants here, one that has some tables on the edge of the green. She leads the group there, and luckily there's an open outside table, perfect for watching the crowd and enjoying the evening.
"Well, this is lovely," Rarity says, and picks up the menu. She frowns. "Oh dear, there's quite a lot of...flesh, in these dishes."
"You get used to it," Rainbow says.
"Used to eating meat? For shame, Rainbow Dash."
"Of course not," Rainbow rolls her eyes, "used to ignoring it on the menu. I'm not going to eat it, that's gross."
"Apparently horses and ponies here eat it sometimes," Twilight says, "but it doesn't seem to be very good for them either."
"They have ponies here?" Rarity and Dash ask, basically simultaneously.
"Not like you think," Twilight says, "they can't talk. They're certainly not nearly as smart as we are, and seem like they might not even be self-aware."
"That's bucked up," Rainbow says.
"You have no idea. I saw some out on Annie-Jane's farm while I was recovering there. It was...really strange."
They spend a moment looking at the menu.
"I must say," Rarity says after a moment, "I know some Prench, but either it's different here, or I've forgotten more than I thought, because I have no idea what most of these dishes are."
"Tell me about it," Rainbow says.
"Let's look it up," Twilight pulls out her phone and stylus, and begins prodding at it as Rarity looks on, eyes wide.
"Darling, what is that?"
"Oh,' Twilight says, and quickly explains.
"Well. When you told me they had machines that could do things our magic can't, I have to admit I didn't quite understand. That's quite remarkable."
"I know! Don't worry, we'll get you one tomorrow, that store is already closed. I've only used the phone function once, but even just that is incredible. It's such a simple thing to be able to do at heart - send a voice from one object to another - but it changes so much. It's so much more powerful and versatile than Spike's letters. Can you imagine if we'd had something like this in Ponyville?"
"I think Pinkie would die of happiness when she figured out how to send group texts," Rainbow chuckled, "she could invite everyone to a party at any time."
"At this rate, it seems like she will," Twilight says, "I can't imagine it'll just be us three that end up here."
The three stare at their menus for a moment.
"Twilight," Rarity says, "I know you're a bit worried about, ah, what you should and shouldn't do with your princess powers here but...do you think this world is prepared for Pinkie Pie?"
"Is anyone?"
"Fair point."
They manage to figure out at least which of the dishes on the menu contain dead animals, and when the waiter returns they have their orders ready. Twilight also orders the table a pot of tea, to a smile from Rarity.
"Well, I must say," the unicorn begins, "this is a charming place, Twilight. And so many outfits! We must look terribly out of place without them. Will I have time tomorrow to throw a little something together for us? It seems like there's so much going on here, but I'm afraid in all your story I didn't quite pick up what you plan to do next, and when."
Twilight blushes. "I actually don't have a full plan."
Rarity gasps. "No checklist detailing every waking moment? Are you sure you're my Twilight, not one from a very close mirror world?"
"Ever since I woke up in that farmhouse, I haven't been able to keep more than a rough schedule," Twilight admits, "there's just too much I don't know. It feels like I've been in reaction mode. I have a work schedule, and that's about it."
"Well, perhaps that's just what you need, then! Can that machine make a schedule?"
"Of course."
"Then let's get to it! When do you work tomorrow?"
"I start at four. It's an exciting day tomorrow, actually! We have a special monthly 'club night' where we take down most of the tables and set up a dance floor. You two should come and dance!"
"Oh, I do love a good dance, even if it seems there are no handsome stallions in this world," Rarity says.
"Could be pretty cool, I guess," Rainbow's tone doesn't really match her words, but then she perks up, "oh, hey, 'club night'? You mean like, dance club?"
"I guess? I haven't worked one yet."
"Rares, I think that's like Vinyl's kind of dancing," Rainbow chuckles, "not really your scene."
"Oh. Well, I shall make do. I suppose at least there will be some exciting clothing to look at." Rainbow rolls her eyes.
"In any case. Anything else, Twilight?"
"Not unless Rachel calls about that witness we pulled out of the fire. I suppose the pony bill might go to vote tomorrow too, but there's nothing we can do about that one."
"Perfect! Then you should mark your schedule from noon to four. We're going shopping! And then I'm going to make you girls fabulous again."
"I can't wait," Rainbow deadpans.
Despite the pegasus's grousing, it turns out to be a successful afternoon of shopping and sewing. Rainbow's good reputation at the Verizon store persists, so they're able to get Rarity a phone and tablet without hassle or excessive spending. The manager, a recent Harvard grad named Mary, even agrees to come to the bar after her shift. And while Twilight is quite confident that Dash won't be making much use of the outfits Rarity made for her, the princess herself feels much better about going on shift in one of her own new outfits, a dapper black and white affair modeled after the suits the wait staff wore at the restaurant the night before. At her request, the seamstress even included pants. She'd asked why Twilight felt so strongly about covering her hindquarters, but dropped the issue at her warning glance.
Twilight's shift begins equally well. Rosie finally has her replace the sign, and club night doubles as a celebration of the new name. Still despite the success of the day so far, Twilight feels tense, and only as the first customers come trickling in, talking about the news, does she realize it's because of the upcoming vote. As of four-thirty, though, it becomes clear that the slow-moving congress won't get to the vote today.
Speculation runs wild among the early patrons, still more interested in food than the dancing that will come later in the evening, and Twilight can't help but overhear enough to piece the situation together. Both the upper and lower houses seem bitterly divided, mostly along partisan lines, and debate raged throughout the afternoon, but most agree that the vote will come soon, probably tomorrow morning. Whether out of genuine support or regard for her presence, all of the patrons seem to support the bill, but many worry it is doomed, and cite the lack of filibuster as evidence that the opposition know it can't pass a straight-up vote.
Her stomach knots up at that, and Twilight refocuses on her work. Rarity and Rainbow - Twilight notes to her surprise that the latter is, in fact, wearing one of her new outfits - are sitting at a table on the edge of the dance floor. Rarity sips from a glass of white wine, while Dash is grinning into a mug of hard cider. They both smile and nod vigorously at her in greeting, and Rarity levitates her glass in a toast. Twilight smiles back, but her stomach churns again.
It isn't long before the bar fills up, and loud music - as suspected, more of Vinyl's style than Octavia's - begins pounding through the bar. It's incredibly busy, and serving a milling crowd of dancers is a totally different experience than table service, so Twilight's shift flies by in a whirlwind of duty and stress.
It ends at eleven, but club night keeps the bar open until two, adding an extra closing shift. By the time she's done, though, Twilight's body aches, and her head and stomach feel like two great balls of stress and fatigue. She sees Rarity sitting primly on a bar stool, sipping another wine and chatting with several well-dressed humans. Her friend smiles, and the blue glow of her magic engulfs one of their sleeves, gently pulling it up for her to examine.
Rainbow Dash is occasionally visible above the dance floor, flitting into the air in some absurd move, usually shortly followed by a cheer or whistle. Twilight can't help but smile, and briefly thinks of joining one of her friends, but her eyes are drooping, and she still can't entirely avoid the thought of the vote, coming so soon. Shaking her head to clear it, she turns and heads upstairs to their room.
Her plan is to do some research on the day's debate, look up what a 'filibuster' is, and perhaps look for some blogs speculating about the likely outcome of the vote. The reality is that she passes out almost as soon as she lies down.
When Twilight finally wakes up, it's almost afternoon. She just lies on the bedroll for a moment, basking in the air-conditioned coolness and the warm feeling of what she assumes is Rainbow Dash's coat pressed up against her side. Finally she opens her eyes and sees that instead Rarity slumbers next to her, and Dash is nowhere to be found.
Slightly unsettled at the inversion of the natural order that is Rarity sleeping later than Rainbow Dash, she shakes her head vigorously to clear it, and staggers to her hooves. She hears now over the noise of the window air conditioner a hubbub or commotion from the street, somewhat louder and more sustained than the normal noise of business. Frowning, she walks to the window and peers out.
A large crowd is gathered on the street in front of the bar. Or rather, as she looks, two large crowds, facing each other angrily across a line of police officers, including Rachel. Twilight recognizes them from her reading about the civil rights movement as protesters, and indeed they are carrying large numbers of hand decorated signs. The group on the left appears better organized - they have large signs, many of the printed, and several humans are moving among them, unmistakably in charge. Unfortunately, she instinctively takes cover, peering out the window around the wall, when she notices that this group's agenda is distinctly anti-her. Some of the posters just have her cutie mark with the iconic red circle and line around it. Most of the rest don't directly talk about her or ponies at all, but say things like "Americans are Humans" or the like. A few, all hand-written, read "Go Back to Equestria" or similar. And a few reference bible verses, primarily psalm 8:7, referring to "dominion over the animals and beasts". She sees the last and remembers the horses and cows on the farm, and feels a bit sick thinking of herself penned in a field, wingless and hornless.
At least the other group is clearly a counter-protest. Somewhat smaller and far less organized, she recognizes a few faces in this crowd from stores she's been to, or as customers from the bar. Most of them don't have signs at all, and those that do are hand-drawn, half on pieces of cardboard that look like they were cut from boxes left in the recycling. There's no overall system to the signs, other than support. A few are recognizable as her or Rainbow Dash's cutie marks, crudely drawn. A few have variants on "ponies are people too". And one woman is holding a sign that says "Four Legs Good, You Guys Bad" and waving it at the other group, to Twilight's bewilderment.
The counter-protest, and Rachel and her coworkers keeping the groups separate and away from the bar's entrance, reassure her a bit, but still she feels a heavy weight as she looks at the sheer size of the anti-pony group. It goes along the broad sidewalk further than she can see. With all the people she meets on the street being so friendly, Twilight never realized there were so many people that objected to her presence. She wonders if they were kept away by Mr. Grey, as he claimed, or if they've been galvanized by the impending vote...
As soon as she thinks of the vote, she bolts to her bag and pulls out her tablet to check the news. Rarity stirs and mumbles something groggily at the sound, then raises her head. "Something wrong?"
"There are protesters outside," Twilight says, "I need to see if they've voted yet," her stylus flies over the screen, then it finishes loading, "looks like no."
"Oh dear," Rarity says, "are there a lot of them out there?"
"Yeah, mostly against us, though not all. I'm worried about how they'll react to the vote."
Rarity nods, then looks around, still waking up. "Wait, where's Rainbow Dash?"
"I don't know," Twilight says, then suddenly looks up, eyes wide. "Wait, you don't think she went out there, do you? Did she come to bed with you?"
"No, she was still dancing when I came up. For all the napping she does, she can certainly stay up late when she wants to."
Twilight frowns. "Maybe she went somewhere else when we closed, then. But still, we should check, let's call her."
"Oh!" Rarity can't hide a bit of excitement, "I was so curious about how the phone on these works."
Twilight pulls out Rarity's phone and shows her how to dial Rainbow, and turn on the speaker phone. She puts it down between them and they both stare at it as it rings repeatedly.
"If she turned it off..." Twilight mutters under her breath.
"Ugh, my head," Twilight still thinks Rainbow's voice sounds unnaturally loud coming from the tiny object. "What's up, Rares?"
"Rainbow Dash! We were worried sick when you weren't here this morning!"
"You don't have to yell so much Rarity, the microphone is very sensitive," Twilight mutters to her.
"Ugh, and so's my head," Dash says. "I'm just at Mary's place, what's the big deal?"
"The big deal," Rarity growls, "is that we have a huge crowd of humans outside waving signs at us, and we were worried you'd gotten in a fight with them...hold on, Mary's place?"
"Oh yeah," Twilight can practically hear the smirk through the phone, "and don't worry, we weren't doing any fighting."
"Rainbow! Did you have a drunken fling with a human?" Twilight has to ask, because Rarity is pretending to faint on the bedroll.
"Geez Twi', not like there are any ponies around here. Well except you girls, and hooking up with a friend would be totally uncool. I needed to let off steam and she was curious. What's wrong with that? And we did it again after we sobered up. That was a lot better. Did you know she was an athlete at college? 'Track', which I guess means running. She told me humans are natural endurance runners!" She pauses. "Definitely agree with the endurance part."
"I don't even know how long I'll have to live with knowing that now. Thanks so much."
"No problem, Twi', I've got your back. But uh, angry humans outside?"
"Yes! They're having the vote any minute now, and they're outside demonstrating against us. Well, and a few are counter-protesting in our favor."
"Oh man," another voice comes out of Rainbow's phone, and Twilight recognizes Mary via speaker phone, "I've gotta call my friends and get over there to help! Sorry Rainbow, rain check?"
"Awww, ponyfeathers. You're right, I should get back there too. What's our plan, Twi'?"
"Hide in here until the vote," she sighs, "then go deliver a friendship speech either way. There will probably be reporters."
Rarity's recovered at this point, and is idly poking at her tablet, which she's still getting used to. "Girls," she says, "if I'm reading this right, they've started calling the vote."
"On my way," Rainbow says, and hangs up.
The noise from outside grows louder. Twilight and Rarity stare at the tablet. Rarity is pressing refresh every few seconds, hoping the live blog will update with the vote result.
"I knew Rainbow enjoyed the clubs from time to time back home," she murmurs, "but I didn't expect this."
"I didn't even know she was into mares. Or women." Twilight says.
"You really should come to more of Pinkie's sleepovers. Or perhaps shouldn't, but they grew on me. I suppose I should have suspected, she has a thing for athletes of any species or gender."
"She always seems to schedule them when I'm busy."
There's still no word, but the noise from outside grows again, and takes on an angrier tenor. Twilight rushes to the window just in time to see Rainbow Dash touch down among their supporters. Mary's clinging to her mane with one hand and holding her phone in the other. The human drops to the ground, still talking into it, and Rainbow flies into the alley.
"Rainbow's here," Twilight says, just before she comes up the stairs.
"Hey girls."
"Good timing," Rarity says, "this...blog...just changed. It says they voted the bill down."
Twilight falls to her knees with a sigh.
"Err, voted down is the bad one, right?"
"Yes," Twilight rolls her eyes, "it means we don't get recognized as valid citizens. Now we need to see what Alanna can do, and hope she can stop them from kicking us out of the country." The noise from outside grows again. "And deliver a friendship speech."
"Twilight, dear, are you sure this is wise?" Rarity's walking next to her towards the stairs, despite the question.
"I have to do something! I don't know why these humans don't like me, but I have to try to fix it. What kind of Princess of Friendship am I otherwise?"
"An uninjured one?" Rainbow offers.
"Come on, Rainbow, I'll be prepared, they're not going to hurt me. Besides, Rachel's there."
"Well, we're coming too," Rarity says, "give me just a moment to put on something nice. You should too."
"Rarity! This is no time..." Twilight pauses and thinks, "actually you're right, this is totally the time."
Rarity grins and floats a dress over to her. "Try this one."
The outfit is two pieces, both a crisp white: a long skirt, shaped somewhat like that on her gala dress, and a jacket. She's relieved to see the skirt is long enough to cover her hindquarters to human standards.
"This isn't nearly as colorful as your usual, Rarity," she says, putting it on.
"Well, the other outfits are more me," she replies, "but I felt you might need something for serious occasions. Human business attire is frightfully drab, but apparently that's how they feel it should be. Though I have to admit, the lines are very nice."
Rarity's put on a similar outfit, but hers is jet black, contrasting with her alabaster coat. Twilight has to admit they look quite the pair, each dark where the other is light.
"Rainbow Dash," Rarity says, "won't you put on yours?"
"Nah, I'm good."
"Humans expect this of you, Rainbow," Twilight says. "They think only animals go around naked."
"Yeah, well, seems like half of them think we're all animals already," Rainbow scowls, "and the rest like us anyway. So I'm just gonna stay naked and awesome."
Rarity sighs and Twilight rolls her eyes, but she knows any further argument would just be stalling. She takes a deep breath.
"Ok girls, let's go talk."
Twilight has to admit, to herself anyway, that prospects don't look especially good for reconciliation. The support crowd has grown since the morning, which she supposes is good, but mostly just means both now stretch down off the sidewalk in opposite directions. The leading elements are exchanging seething glares, and sometimes words, across the line of police officers led by Rachel. There's a plastic tape across the sidewalk that keeps a narrow space clear, just wide enough for two humans to pass each other. The whole rest of the sidewalk is taken up by the crowd, and the noise here at street level is significant, if not deafening.
Rachel sees the three ponies come on to the street and gestures frantically to her fellow officers, then rushes over to Twilight.
"What are you doing here? You know they're," she gestures to the larger group, "all protesting you, right?"
"Of course. I want to talk to them and reassure them that I don't mean them any harm."
"Twilight, they aren't afraid of you, they're angry and bigoted! Ugh, I kind of thought that whole 'always talk to them first' thing was an exaggeration."
"Of course not, why wouldn't I?"
"Because they hate you!"
"Well they aren't going to stop if I hide from them, are they?"
"I don't think they're going to stop no matter what," Rachel sighs. "Look, I can't stop you, and I wouldn't if I could. But I know crowds like this, and I don't think this is going to go well."
"We know," Rarity sighs.
"I have to try," Twilight says, "look, there are reporters over there." On the opposite side of the street, several news crews are hastily moving their cameras to get a shot of their conversation. "Even if I can't get through to any of them, people will see me try. It's all I can do, Rachel."
"You could stay inside and let us keep you safe," the human grumbles.
"Until when? Do you think they'll go away on their own? We lost the vote. We're going to have to bring people around and try again. Might as well start now."
Rachel sighs and lowers her head, and steps back. Twilight can hear her talking into her radio, and the police push their cordon out a bit to make room for the three ponies to stand in. Twilight steps up. The noise of the crowd is quite loud here, and only seems to have grown overall - her allies are silent now, but the others are yelling their slogans louder, though with no real coordination.
"Please listen everyone!" Twilight yells. Her voice barely clears the noise, and even the first rows, who she's confident can hear her, ignore the request.
Frowning, she opens her wings and takes to the air, hovering slightly above the heads of the crowd. She siphons a bit of magic from her shield to amplify her voice, just slightly. Rainbow Dash takes to the air as well, hovering beside her.
"Everyone, please!" Even the small bit of amplification is apparent, and the crowd quiets down for a moment, apparently out of sheer shock.
"Thank you. Now, I don't know why you're angry, but I'm here to introduce myself and I hope we can be friends!"
The noise level increases again, with an awful lot of laughter involved. Twilight is quite confident it isn't the good kind. She feels horribly unprepared. She didn't have a speech ready, she hadn't even thought she'd have to give one, and certainly not under these circumstances.
"Who wants to be friends with a machine?" Someone yells.
"Or an animal?"
"We're not animals," Twilight yells, though even she thinks her voice sounds thin and defensive, "we're thinking creatures just like you. I don't know--"
"You're nothing like us, you belong in a cartoon! You've got no place in the real world!"
"Take your witchcraft and go back to the devil!"
"Where the hay did that one come from?" Rainbow Dash mutters next to her.
"Please, I can explain everything," Twilight tries to start again, but the general roar of the crowd is back now, and she falters.
"What the fuck is wrong with you people? Why not at least give her a chance?" Mary's voice rings out even over the din, at least from up here, and there's a moment of quiet at the front of the ranks as they process the challenge from their opposite human number.
"Easy for you to say," a woman yells back, "I saw you ride in on that blue one!"
"Yeah, I bet you want to ride it in more ways than that, slut" a man near her yells.
Dead quiet seems to reign for a moment. Unfortunately, that's the moment in which Rainbow decides to make her indignation known.
"What they buck is wrong with you people, that's our business!" She yells.
No, she'd been wrong. This is dead quiet. Even Rachel and her police are staring up at Rainbow, mouths open.
Mary lowers and shakes her head, and breaks the silence. "Oh fuck."
Then everything happens at once. There's a huge roar from the anti-pony crowd as they surge forward towards the horribly outnumbered police and the other group beyond. Some throw down their signs, others tear off the posterboard and wield them as makeshift clubs. The police barely have time to react. A few manage to set their riot shields and ready their clubs, but several officers are caught off guard and bowled over. Their supporters roar back and charge themselves, and soon the police line has vanished into a roiling sea of bodies. Twilight's shield glows magenta around Rarity and Rachel, holding the crowd at bay, but it happened too quickly for her to help the other officers and now they're hopelessly entangled.
She hovers stunned for a moment, considering what she can possibly do. Beside her, Rainbow's jaw is slack. The swirling melee has nearly reached Mary now, and Twilight grabs her in her magic and pulls her free, extending the shield.
"No," she yells, "what are you doing? I want a piece of those assholes!"
"They want a piece of you more, after what Rainbow said," Twilight yells back.
"Why do they even care?" Dash says.
"I told you to read up on human culture! They've never met another intelligent species before, and a lot of them think it's wrong just to love someone of the same gender! They think it's like if Applejack were having sex with Winona or something!"
"It's not our fault they're bigots," Rainbow looks sheepish, at odds with her words. "Besides, you didn't really expect me to do homework, did you?"
"Okay, I get you guys do this a lot," Mary says, looking uncomfortably down at the brawl taking place beneath her hovering feet, "but could we save the bickering until after the actual battle?"
"You're right," Twilight sighs, "but I don't know what do to about this one, I can't break it up without losing the shield!"
Below her, someone in the rear of the anti-pony mob isn't going to let distance stop them, and a large rock sails over the crowd, heading for the rear ranks of the pro-pony side. Twilight catches it in her magic and drops it on the ground. Around one of the police officers a cloud of tear gas is blossoming out, and fighters fall to their knees, but there aren't enough police still standing to really capitalize on it, and the fight is only growing as the two groups continue to flow together. She sees several humans lying motionless on the ground.
"Ponyfeathers, this isn't at all what I wanted," she mutters, desperately thinking about what she can do to stop the disaster. Then she looks sharply up as Rainbow Dash abruptly soars higher, aiming for the second story of a nearby building.
"Rainbow, stop," she calls, hurrying after her, "if you get much further, I won't be able to keep your shield up!"
She's already nearly out of range of Rarity and Rachel, and has no choice but to grab and pull them along with her. Juggling three-body telekenesis plus four shields isn't trivial even for her, and she's feeling the strain in her horn now. Her once-pristine jacket and skirt are dark with sweat.
"Rainbow, where are you going?" She calls.
"Heads-up, Twi', I saw something in that window," Rainbow points with her hoof to the one she's flying towards.
"What? What did you--"
Twilight cuts off with a yelp as a powerful, pinpoint force slams into her personal shield. An angry ripple of magenta flashes in front of her, and she nearly loses it with the sheer energy of the impact. Weirdly, there's no sound.
A moment later, just as Rainbow Dash barrels through the window, she realizes two things: the impact came from just that direction, and the force on the shield felt stronger than, but otherwise nearly identical to, the gunshot she stopped in the convenience store.
Cursing, she puts on speed, and dives after Rainbow Dash.
In the few seconds it takes for Twilight to get a clear enough view of the floor inside the window to blink herself and her unwitting passengers in, Rainbow Dash has already laid out her assailant. He's a large human man, dressed in heavy-looking gray and black clothing, a lot like the armor the police wear, including helmet. Whatever protective value it might have hasn't done him any good though; there's an angry red smear around his nose, and more of Rainbow's mane and forehead than usual are tinted crimson. A long firearm of some sort, nearly as tall as the human himself, lies not far away. Rainbow shakes her head, sending a few drops of blood to stain the floorboards.
"Hey Twi', you uh, missed the excitement. This guy's bigger than AJ, but he sure has a glass jaw."
"Humans don't have body magic like we do, especially earth ponies," Twilight sighs, "you might have really hurt him."
Rachel shakes her head and staggers a bit. "I'll never get used to that," she mutters, then turns to Dash. "You saw this guy lining up a shot from all that way?"
"These eyes don't miss a thing when I'm flying!"
"And he wasn't just lining it up," Twilight says, "he definitely took it, I felt it on my shield. That thing is really powerful."
Rachel frowns and hurries over to the prone man. "Yeah, it's a sniper rifle. Those things don't mess around. I called in backup during our little trip, and forensics will do what they can," she says, examining him, "but I can't imagine we'll find the slug in all that shit down there. They can probably prove it fired, anyway...but mostly I hope this joker talks."
"What do you mean, I know he shot at me."
Rachel sighs. "This is just going to get harder, Twilight. We lost that vote. Your legal status is up in the air again. And now there are people right here who are happy about that. You know I won't give up on you, but some people will assume you're lying. We need to really prove stuff like this."
"Is he going to be okay? At least enough to question?" Twilight knows Rainbow well enough to realize she's covering with that last sentence - her friend isn't any more comfortable with inflicting permanent injuries than she is.
"We'll see what the medic says," Rachel cuffs the man, "but he's breathing steadily and it looks like his helmet took most of the blow to the back of his head, I think he'll be fine. But this gear's expensive. Guys like this mostly aren't in it for themselves, and mostly don't talk to police."
Twilight shakes her head and gets ready to answer when a wracked sob from the corner of the room interrupts her. She turns to look and sees Mary sitting up against the wall, head cradled in her arms, shaking violently. Twilight turns to go to her, but Rainbow Dash is there in a flash.
"Hey," she leans up against the human and rests her chin on her head, "I didn't even see Twi' bring you in. Never been in a fight like this before?"
Mary shakes her head and looks up, tears in her eyes.
"It seemed a lot more fun in your stories."
"Well yeah, I was trying to impress you. I wasn't going to say we spent half the time...worried."
"Oh ignore her ego, dear," Rarity says, "I was terrified."
"It's ok Rainbow," she giggles, "you can tell me you were afraid. You already impressed your way into my bed."
Dash's ears prick up. "Yeah I did!" She pauses. "Ok, fine, afraid. But you better not tell anyone."
"Just like you didn't tell anyone we hooked up?"
Dash winces. "So not doing Twilight's homework was my bad, but I didn't know! Ponies don't care about that stuff. Besides, it was awesome!"
Mary gives her a little peck on the cheek. "It's ok, I was kidding. It's kind of nice, really. Most humans get ashamed of that sort of thing. It's flattering it just makes you happy."
"Humans are really weird," Dash says, and Mary giggles.
"Look, this is a great moment," Rachel says, "but I have backup out there breaking up the mob and I'm going to have to get this asshole to the medics and then down to the station. Want to give me your statements now so you can go home?"
"Sure," Twilight nods. "I've never given a statement before, though, so you'll have to walk me through it."
Twilight's read enough crime novels to suspect that proper procedure would involve separating them, to prevent them getting their stories straight. She can't really blame Rachel for neglecting it, though, especially since she's been with them ever since they left the bar. After she finishes, they each take their turn, leaving Rarity to wait a bit with Twilight.
"Sorry you had to hit the ground running," she tells the unicorn, "I got to ease into this a bit."
"Don't worry, darling," Rarity nuzzles her, "we're all used to it by now. To be perfectly honest, I've grown to appreciate it. It was before I met you, but I used to be a bit of a drama queen, you know."
"I had no idea," Twilight grins at her.
"Oh yes, it's sad but true. But you know, risking horrible death at the claws or teeth - or hands, I suppose - of creatures you've never heard of really gives you perspective."
"Yeah, you don't conjure up that couch to faint on more than once or twice a week."
"I'm glad you understand."
Twilight really laughs now, for the first time in what feels like forever. "I really missed you, Rarity." They lean up against each other for a moment, then Rachel calls Rarity over, and Twilight wanders over to Dash and Mary.
"So, uh, yeah, sorry for getting you into this mess." Rainbow's saying.
"Look, Dash," Mary says, putting a hand on her shoulder, "part of 'friends with benefits' is the 'friends' bit, you know? I've never been that scared in my life, but I'm not sorry I came. I would be sorry if I'd stayed home while you all dealt with this like some useless pretty princess." She thinks for a minute, then turns to Twilight, "err, no offense, Princess. It kind of means something different here."
Twilight just laughs. "It's okay, I read about that."
"Anyway, want me to take you home?" Dash asks.
"If you really want. But I don't feel very safe right now. Would it be okay if I hung out with you for a bit? I'd feel better going back in a few hours, when I won't be as worried some thugs will show up any minute."
"I don't mind. Twi'?"
"Stay as long as you like," Twilight smiles at her, "I'd be honored if you thought of me as a friend, too. Though I think I'll skip the benefits." They all laugh again. It feels easy, but that little corner of Twilight's mind that's always looking at herself wonders if she's just avoiding thinking about everything else going on.
"Ok girls, all done," Rarity trots over, "now, shall we get out of this ghastly empty apartment and back to our homey, way-too-full one?"
They walk over to the window, and below they can see the police have arrived in force - several SWAT vans complete with heavily armored officers seem to have effectively quelled the fighting. A few clouds of thick gas still linger, and the vans are cutting off the normally busy street in both directions. Twilight realizes that the bar is supposed to open in a few hours, but it seems increasingly unlikely to happen. What look like hundreds of people are still milling about, boxed in by the police, waiting to be booked.
"I think it'd be safer to teleport us," Twilight says, "I'm not sure I want to fly over that crowd. Can you find your own way out, Rachel, or do you want me to take you with us?"
"I'll sort it out," she says, "it might look weird if I go with you."
Twilight nods, and before they can blink, they're back in their familiar storeroom.
"Goodness," Rarity says, moving toward the bedroll, "it's so early still. I feel like this day should be almost over." She looks ready to lie down, but then freezes. "Twilight, what's this?" A small white envelope has been placed neatly on the bedroll, impossible to miss. Rarity lifts it over to Twilight.
Her heart sinks, and she has a dreadful certainty she knows what's in it. She opens it up, and a single business card falls out, unremarkable, solid gray, blank save for a single phone number.
She checks it against the card in her saddlebag, but mostly out of a sort of morbid conviction. It is, of course, another copy of the same card.
"So, are you going to call?" Alanna asks. Most of their human friends had headed over as soon as the news of the vote broke, and the rest did so when they heard about the riot, but only Alanna's already here. She commutes by bicycle, and so dodged the street closures.
"I don't want to," Twilight floats the card in front of her eyes and scowls at it. "It seems like he knew this was going to happen, maybe even caused it. He certainly predicted it, when he talked to us earlier. I don't want to work for someone who will do that. Why, do you think I should?"
"I think he could fix a lot of your problems," Alanna says, then smiles, "but I wouldn't call either."
"I'm not happy he got it in here with all that stuff going on on the street, either," Twilight says, "do you think he has someone watching us?"
"That or a camera, yeah. Certainly somewhere in the surrounding buildings, though if he got in here he probably left some kind of spy stuff in the room, too. Can you find it with your magic?"
"Maybe. But I'm going to do this first," she smiles, "I don't mind if he sees it."
She gets up and walks to the window, still floating the business card along with her. She stares out the window for a moment, scanning the surrounding buildings, though she doesn't really expect to see anything. Then she opens the window and brings the business card just outside it before incinerating it in a blast of magenta energy. She shuts the window and blind.
"I feel a bit better. Now, what am I looking for?"
"I don't really know, exactly. I'm not an expert in this sort of stuff, and if Mr. Gray really works for the government, he must have way better stuff than law enforcement anyway. But they'd certainly be electronic, and probably be broadcasting, since he wouldn't want to have to pick them back up."
Twilight shakes her head. "I'm sure a spell to find either of those is possible, but I'd have to develop it, it might take a while."
"Well, what about something like that anti-cheating stuff they used at the Games? Can you just stop them working for now?" Rarity asks.
"Hm, maybe," Twilight says, "but I'd have to know more about how they work."
"You probably shouldn't," Alanna says, "anything that will knock them out would probably be disruptive to a lot of other technology - causing harmful interference like that is illegal."
"What the hay? What kind of bucked up law is it that? You can't stop somep-one from spying on you?" Rainbow glares at her.
"Everyone has their phones on them all the time, and we need to beam signals all over the place. It's really hard to make a dead zone without causing trouble for anyone else; you need to know exactly what you're doing. Twilight probably would, but we restrict these things because not everyone would. And of course assuming they are listening, if you did it, they'd have proof you did it knowingly."
"So that's it? We just let these jerks watch us sleep? Ugh."
"I'll figure out a detection spell," Twilight says, "until then, let's just go somewhere else. Follow me."
They trudge down the stairs to the kitchen, and Twilight and Rarity drag some chairs from the bar proper into the tight space before slamming the heavy, noise-blocking doors designed to protect the diners from the noise of the kitchen, and vice versa.
"There we go," the princess says, "I can't imagine they put anything in the kitchen. And we aren't doing any better in any case."
"Great! So now that we're alone," Rainbow Dash says, "what's our plan?"
"Well...actually, I have no idea," Twilight's ears droop. "I barely even know how this world works. It seemed like everyone liked us! And now...we lost this vote, somehow, but it's all a bunch of people we've never met or seen or talked to voting on it, so how would they know? Before we had a trial, and they talked to me and looked at evidence and that makes sense! Did we really lose this vote because Mr. Gray and whoever he works for can just make that happen?
"And then, all those people showing up to complain about us! I'd barely even started to study religion so I don't even know what their problem was! I feel like I just showed up again, just when it was all starting to make sense."
Alanna puts a hand on her head, and Rarity and Dash move to lean against her. For a few moments, Alanna gently strokes her head, and everyone is silent.
"I don't know, really," Alanna says finally, "but...when I read your journal for the trial, you said you didn't really grasp what the numbers here mean. I think you were right. I'm not sure anyone does, really, but at least we've grown up here, so we're used to some of the consequences. And I think something like yesterday is one of them. There are hundreds of millions of people in America. There were maybe a few hundred people in that protest group. It looked like a lot, because they had to stretch out along the sidewalk, and they had a message that we didn't like. But it wasn't. Maybe that's because it was just the people who could get here on short notice. But there's a pretty common tactic among people with a lot of money that want people to think their ideas are popular: they pay to bring people places to protest. I bet that's what happened here, and I bet your Mr. Gray is behind it. Those people could have been from all over the place, and compared to hundreds of millions of people, they don't seem like that many."
"That'd be nice," Twilight sniffs, "but we have no evidence. It could be that, and you're right it sounds reasonable, but those are the most dangerous kinds of unscientific assumptions - ones that sound reasonable and support things you wish were true."
"I have a bit of evidence here, it turns out," Rarity's pulled out her tablet while Twilight wasn't looking at her, and rotates the screen towards her. "I remembered seeing one of Rainbow's, ah, admirers, post this to her wall. Look!"
On her screen is a popular political poll math blog, posting about the 'pony issue.' "'According to the my analysis,'" Twilight reads, "'the best estimate is that right around 70% of Americans strongly support equal rights for talking horses, with another 15% or so mostly indifferent. We've come a long way since the 1950's, and it shows - while horrible systematic inequality persists, the numbers have long held that fewer and fewer Americans are willing to write laws that directly and overtly condone bigotry. Apparently this has become accepted enough that we're not even willing to do it to obviously sapient nonhumans. It'd make me feel some hope for once, if I weren't so worried Congress won't listen tomorrow.' Oh, I see, this article is from yesterday."
"Sure," Alanna says, "but opinion can't have changed so quickly overnight. People mostly do support you - they just didn't come out in the street to show it. Well, until those bigots showed up, and then they did. I bet not even Mr. Gray expected so many to come out to support you so quickly!"
"Well, he didn't expect my raw magnetism," Rainbow Dash grins.
"But according to those numbers," Twilight frowns, "something near 85% of the country is with us or doesn't much care. So how did congress vote that bill down? Aren't they supposed to represent the people?"
Rarity and Alanna look away awkwardly, then notice the other doing so, and chuckle.
"Twilight, how did you spend so long in Canterlot with the Princess and not end up understanding anything about politics?" Rarity asks.
Twilight blushes. "Well, I mostly read a lot. And did spells. I was her student in magic, not in everything, you know."
"Yes, well. It can be a dreadfully dreary thing to do, dear. I know we don't elect our nobles in Equestria, but even with Celeista ruling over everything, you must have noticed how many are, well...not the finest of leaders."
"Of course, they're," here Twilight does a passable Celestia impression, "'a bunch of selfish, vindictive divas that would sell all of Equestria if they thought they'd get a nice new sofa'." Everyone looked at her, eyes wide. "Even Celestia has to let off steam sometimes, you know. But isn't that the point of picking your leaders? That you can do better?"
"It's supposed to be," Alanna nods, "but in America right now, you need a lot of money and support to run for office, which means you're usually rich to begin with, and you almost always need to be sponsored by one of the two major parties. Let's say you only got the best half of the Canterlot nobles. How would you do then?"
"I can count about five that are tolerable, out of a few hundred. So not a lot better."
Alanna nods.
"That's depressing. At least in Equestria, Celestia can limit the damage."
"We don't like royalty here, and to be fair, on Earth they have an even worse record. Not being immortal, benevolent sun goddesses is probably related. I think having to figure it all out ourselves has made us stronger, but...well, we certainly pay a price."
"Ok, I'm sure this is totally interesting," Dash yawns, "to eggheads. But, uh, I don't see how it tells us what to do."
"Well, it means that playing for time might be effective," Alanna says. "Congress never has a great approval rating, and one vote, people will overlook, especially since they're often already the best of a bad lot. But the more often they have to make unpopular decisions, the more political capital they burn. I'm going to go file our legal challenges as soon as I leave here. If we can hold up any attempts to deport you in the courts, they might have to turn around and pass a rights bill or get thrown out next election."
"So, you want us to sit around while you do boring nerd stuff?" Dash scowls at her.
"Nope," Alanna grins at her, "I have a mission for you I think you'll love, Rainbow Dash, but it'll have to wait until Rosie gets here."
"Good timing," Rosie says from the door, though she doesn't seem to have just come in, "I was wondering when you'd think about me. What's your plan?"
"I'm going to fund some good old fashioned public outreach," Alanna reaches into her purse and pulls out her checkbook. To Twilight, something about her looks very much like Pinkie Pie, just for a moment.
"You don't mean a party, do you?"
"As a matter of fact, I do. Drinks are on me tonight, for everyone. This is the Prancing Pony now. Why don't you ladies get out there and do some prancing? I imagine there will be a lot of cameras. Should be worth a percentage point or two."
"This just turned into my kind of plan," Rainbow turns to Mary, who still looks a little shell-shocked. "Willing to do some more dancing, Cutie?"
She nods a little, and smiles.
"Ok then," Rosie pulls out her phone, "it'll take me about an hour to tell the staff we're back on. Twilight, you're not working this time, you need to mingle. But you all can help get this place set up for it. I hope you know what you're doing Alanna, this isn't going to be cheap."
Twilight leans against the Prancing Pony's doorjamb, watching the mostly-silent street in front of her. Rachel's still gone, and all but a few of her fellow officers are, as well, as are all of the protesters, hauled off to cool down in cells or dispersed. The street's still closed; it's covered with abandoned signs, scraps of torn clothing, a few loose bricks or stones, and some disturbing dark red stains. The strange shrine on the tree is mostly gone, the pendants and scraps of paper lying on the ground or blowing across the street.
The few remaining officers are cleaning up, throwing most of the refuse into various bags. Twilight isn't sure if they're keeping it or throwing it away, and approaches the nearest officer.
"Excuse me, are you keeping these slips of paper, or can I take them?"
The officer radios his commander to check, and Twilight waits a moment.
"You're welcome to them, m'am. No one asked to put them up, so taking them down wasn't a crime, they aren't evidence."
"Thanks." Twilight gathers them up in her magic and pulls them all to her, sticking them in her saddlebags. The officer next to her stops and stares.
"Wow," he says, "I heard what they said about you, but I just got here. I gotta say, I didn't really believe. Is it really magic?"
"That's what we call it, anyway. Want some help cleaning up? You keeping any of this?"
"Forensics already came through and took everything they wanted," he says, "this is all junk. I won't stop you from helping."
"Hold the bag open, then," he holds the black plastic mouth wide, and Twilight sweeps most of the trash into a tightening funnel, channeling it in.
"Uh, thanks," the officer shakes his head. "Why'd you make it all swirl like a tornado like that?"
"It's harder to move a lot of objects in different ways," Twilight perks up at the rare lecture opportunity, "so I try to move them the same way if I can. This way I just swirl everything along a couple of simple lines."
"Huh. I sorta figured you could just do whatever you want with it. Can humans learn that?"
"You'd need a horn like mine."
"Too bad, it'd come in handy."
"You've done some great things with technology," Twilight says. "Maybe now that you know it's possible, you'll be able to figure it out."
The officer nods. "Maybe we will. Thanks for the help, m'am, seems like we can reopen the street ahead of schedule."
"Of course."
He moves off, talking on the radio, and the other officers begin to remove the cordons on the street. Now that August is trailing off, the day is pleasantly cool, and Twilight stands for a moment in the empty street, gazing at the tree. A few pendants still hang from it, and a few broken chains, but some of the branches have been torn off, and all the slips of paper and small offerings are gone. She's confident she feels something about this, but she'd have trouble articulating what. Instead she just shakes her head a little, and keeps staring. A breeze twists the leaves and remaining pendants, and drifts through across her mane and coat, then a heavier wind sweeps along her back as Rainbow Dash comes to rest beside her. Mary drops off her back, carrying a large shoulder bag. The human's eyes are rimmed in red.
"Hey girls," Twilight says, "I thought you were going home to get changed, Mary."
"I was," she sighs, "then I saw the apartment..."
Twilight winces. "What happened?"
"I guess some of them got out, or word got round. They broke a bunch of windows and trashed my stuff."
"Yeah, and left some nasty graffiti," Dash scowled. "We called the police and they checked it out, but do you mind if Mary stays here for a bit?"
"Of course not," Twilight says, "it's getting cozy in there, but it's a small price to pay for a friend."
"Hey Twilight," Rosie calls from the door of the bar, "willing to set up a sign for me?"
"Sure," Twilight trots to the door, and they start setting up for the evening.
The sky is red with sunset by the time the street's fully open and bustling again, and they've opened up the whole front of the bar, leaving it open to the cool summer air and the broad sidewalk. They've put a triangle sign out in front: "Pony rights solidarity night - food and drink on the house, no haters allowed." All the passersby stop to read it. Many come in and sit down, and many of the others smile. Only a few look upset. Twilight just watches for a while and smiles, nursing her iced tea at a front table. Rarity, Dash, and Mary are all sitting with her, but they don't say much, content to enjoy the evening and sip their drinks.
As the street outside darkens, word of the event seems to spread. A steady trickle of people start appearing, and a few come and offer sympathy or support to the ponies, which they gratefully accept. Twilight catches a few scowling faces on the edges of the light, but a few of Rachel's off-duty coworkers are enjoying their drinks rather obtrusively near the entrance, and no one tries anything. Twilight feels herself relaxing a little, and soon she, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash are telling Mary about their adventures - she's never seen the show, so they're all new to her. As they do, the event around them gets livelier and livelier, and soon they're having to speak loudly over the sounds of music and mingling, and Twilight sits right on the edge of the bright bar and the dark street. Everyone laughs at the end of a story.
"Wait, so Pinkie can really just...sense things like that?" Mary asks, getting her chuckling under control.
"Yeah," Rainbow says, "and sometimes I swear she can just create party supplies. I don't know where she stores 'em otherwise."
"How does that work?"
"Best not to ask, dear," Rarity says, "we unicorns understand our own magic quite well, but there are still things in Equestria we don't understand. Like Pinkie."
"I'm surprised you're okay not knowing, Twilight. You don't seem the type."
Twilight snorts. "I spent a whole week trying to figure it out a few years ago. It did drive me crazy for a while. Finally I just had to accept it. Now I think I wasn't really being fair. Like Rarity said, unicorns were pretty arrogant for most of history, and we only really studied ourselves. Pegasus magic is pretty well documented too, though mostly by soldiers and weather-workers rather than academics. But nopony ever did serious studies on earth pony magic. Everyone's always sort of assumed it's just good for growing things, but unicorns and pegasi have magic that adapts to our cutie marks. I don't see why earth ponies shouldn't be the same. I think Pinkie's abilities just follow her talent."
"Parties?"
"Being funny," Twilight counters. "I've seen her do some incredible things, but they're never predictable, and often aren't repeatable or even voluntary. It mostly depends on what would be unexpected or amusing. Really, between that and the sonic rainboom that linked all our cutie marks, I think the Elements of Harmony, or maybe the Tree of Harmony, or just whatever forces they represent, picked us out long before Nightmare Moon came back."
"So Pinkie can do anything, but only if it's funny? And you think it might be because of the Element of Laughter? You really are a big deal, aren't you?"
"Yeah!" Rainbow Dash says proudly. "We're the best."
Rarity glares at her. "We were just fillies, dear. If it was about something in us, it wasn't really anything we picked."
"Or if it was, that's really creepy," Twilight says, "because it'd be choices we made later, and how would the Elements know? Everything we know says ponies can choose, even with our cutie marks, and that's really important. If the Elements could see what we were going to do, how could we have a choice?"
Everyone nods, and the table goes quiet for a minute.
"Wow, I've never seen pants so serious! But don't worry, I'm here now," Pinkie Pie says. Twilight's jaw drops and she turns to see the earth pony casually draped over the back of the table's one previously empty chair. "Auntie Pinkie's going to get this party started!"
"Pinike! Wherever did you come from?" Rarity is the first to respond.
"Ponyville silly! Well, I think. It's kinda fuzzy. Did we all pass out and wake up in human-land?" Everyone blinks at her for a moment. Before anyone sorts out a reply, she looks pensive and starts up again. "Only, I don't remember inviting anypony, or even the start of the party, so I guess not? But why would you wake up in a dark strange place if you didn't have a really good time the night before? That's so wrong!"
"Err, where did you wake up, Pinks?" Dash manages.
"Oh, that way," Pinkie gestures in the direction of Harvard Square, "it was all dark and I was in a big pile of weird toy ponies. So then I came and found you girls instead!"
"Wait, you have Pinkie-sense for us now?" Twilight asks.
"Not really," Pinkie tilts her head sideways, "I just found the party, and you were here! So it worked out."
"That one never came up when I was studying it either!"
"Well of course not, silly. Why would I be in your basement if there was a party going on!? Unless the party was in your basement, but we didn't do that. Why have we never had a 'Freaky Science Party' in your basement? That's a good idea!"
Twilight splutters for a bit, but then her long-dormant mental Pinkie Pie protocols kick in, and she just starts laughing. Not long after, the rest of the table joins her, and they move on to introductions and, eventually, after Pinkie introduces herself not only to the table but to every guest within accosting distance, Twilight settles down to fill her in.
"Wait," Pinkie narrows her eyes at her, "this sounds like exposition. Is this exposition?"
"Well, you need to know--"
"Shame on you, Twilight! There's a party going on! Exposition is for after, when we're all cozy and curled up together, duh! Now come on fillies, let's go have some fun!" She produces a party had and noisemaker from Celestia-knows-where, and Twilight doesn't have the heart to tell her it doesn't seem like that kind of party.
She decides that it must be part of Pinkie's magic that, within about half an hour, it seems exactly like that kind of party, and no one seems to mind.
Twilight doesn't want to think about how late it is when they end up all sprawled out on the floor of the (thankfully air conditioned) kitchen. Mary and Rainbow brought some spare blankets from Mary's place, and, just as Pinkie predicted, the four ponies and human are nice and cozy.
"Yep, it sounds like some serious Twilight things are happening," Pinkie says, after hearing most of the story. "I'm sure now you've gotten all relaxed again your super Princess brain will figure it all out. But come on Rarity, you must be so excited, they were all wearing clothes and they were all so funky and different!"
Rarity grins at her. "Oh you have no idea, darling! I have so many ideas, and now I have you to try more of them on! Oh, and you Mary, if you'd like some."
"Uh, sure, I guess," Mary says. "If you don't mind all the trouble."
"Nonsense! Any friend of Rainbow's is a friend of mine. Besides, you were so nice to give us those phones and tablets, it's really the least I could do."
"Oooh," Pinkie says, "you're a friend of Dashie? Wait...are you a friend friend or just a friend?"
Dash and Mary look away and blush, and Pinkie squeals with glee.
"Ooooh, Dashie, this is so exciting! You've got to tell Auntie Pinkie allllll about it! I've been wondering about humans ever since Twilight told us she had a crush on one!"
"Pinkie!" Dash and Twilight yelp simultaneously.
"I've never told you I had a crush on a human!" Twilight splutters.
"I read between the lines. And then you did, just now."
Twilight buries her face in her hooves. "It's different," she tries to ignore the heat on her cheeks, "I was a human at the time. They have all sorts of weird hormones!"
"Hey now," Dash says, "are you saying there's something wrong with ponies and humans?"
"Ugh, of course not, I'm just...trying to be accurate!"
"I'm right here, you know," Mary looks down at her folded hands, and the ponies half-grins immediately fade.
"Hey, Pinkie didn't mean it like that," Dash says, lightly bringing a wing around behind Mary. A moment later, she lets herself fall into it. "She just gets excited about new things."
"Yeah, I'd never even seen a human before today! And you're all graceful moving around on your two legs, it's so totally different from ponies! And your're even better with your hands than Spike is with his cool claws! It just makes me wonder what --"
"Yes Pinkie, we get the idea," Rarity says. "But perhaps instead of trying to get Rainbow to gossip about her friend, you could read about it? I understand there's plenty of, uh, literature on the subject." She looks at Twilight, who nods and blushes.
"Hmmmm, maybe..." Pinkie says, balancing her chin on her hoof. Twilight isn't entirely comfortable with her expression, but decides to let it slide.
"Yes, well," Rarity continues, "we'll go to the Square tomorrow, Pinkie. You'll love it, so much is going on! There are so many interesting people to see, and they have a wonderful chocolate shop. And we can get you a phone and tablet, and some clothes."
"Oh!" Pinkie practically bounces off the blanket, despite lying on her side. "That sounds super exciting! Can we go now?"
"They aren't open now, dear, it's," Rarity looks at the time on her phone and frowns, "far too late. Or perhaps early. We'll have to wait until we get up."
"Oh, okie dokie! What are we waiting for then?" As if someone's pressed a switch, Pinkie's out like a light.
"Are we sure she's not a robot?" Dash grumbles. "How does she do that?"
"I guess we could check," Twilight looks askance at Pinkie's gently rising and falling side, "but do you really think anyone could fake Pinkie Pie convincingly?"
They all chuckle, but Twilight gently runs her magic over Pinkie's side just in case, looking for a panel. The subject giggles and twitches her legs at the touch, and Twilight can't find anything suspicious.
"She's Pinkie all right," Twilight says, then yawns, "and has a pretty good idea. Ready for bed, girls?"
They nod, and settle in to sleep.
No one's bothered to set an alarm, but they're all woken up by a vigorously bouncing Pinkie Pie a little before noon - a surprisingly reasonable hour, Twilight thinks. After a quick set of showers, they set out for Harvard Square.
Immediately on walking out the door, Twilight feels something's slightly off. She can't immediately tell what it is, but then she looks towards the tree that used to feature her curious makeshift shrine.
Three humans in purple shirts, two men and a woman, are sitting facing away from it on similarly purple mats. The branches are once again covered in slips of paper and a few of the pendants. Each of the humans is leaning on a wooden stick wrapped in purple tape. When they see her, all three stand and bow from the waist. They straighten and smile at her, but show no signs of approaching.
"What the hay?" Rainbow says.
"I have no idea," Twilight replies, and walks over towards them.
"Hello Princess," the woman says. Twilight still isn't perfect on human body language, but she thinks all three of them look nervous.
"Um, hello," Twilight says, not feeling particularly comfortable herself. "Did you fix this?"
"Yes, Princess," one of the men grins at her, "us and some of the others who made it in the first place."
"Oh. That's...nice of you. Um, and why are you here with these sticks?"
"Because they're so super upset that it got trashed that they've decided to become an order of warrior monks protecting your weird shrine forever from any who would violate it! That's why they have those cool purple sticks!" Pinkie's timing is impeccable as always.
"I don't think that's it, Pinkie." Twilight rolls her eyes.
"No, she's basically right," the second man says. "Do all of you have magic like this? I think we're going to need a more complicated shrine."
"No one has magic like Pinkie Pie, don't worry," Twilight says, "but...look, you know I'm not some kind of god, right? You don't need to do this, I'm just a pony."
"Just a highly magical pony princes of friendship, who's decided to help us humans no matter how little we deserve it?"
"Don't say that, most of you have been really nice! And I'm nowhere near as powerful as a real princess like Celestia."
The woman shrugs. "She isn't here, and I haven't met any 'real' gods lately either. You're what we've got, Princess, and we appreciate you. I guess we'll stop showing that if you ask, but it isn't just us. Did you see all the papers people left earlier? You've given a lot of us hope for the first time in a long time. For some of us, for the first time ever."
"I did see them," Twilight says, "actually I have the ones I could save here," she floats the scraps out of her bag, "though they're not in great shape."
The three humans look at them and smile. "May we have them?" the woman asks. "I'm sure we can fix them."
"Uh, sure, I guess. And...I'm glad you appreciate me. I'm just...I 'm not used to ponies, or people, treating me like I'm special. I'm sure anyone lucky enough to be a princess would do what I do."
"I'm not," the woman smiles, "but it's okay, Princess, it's part of your charm. Thank you for coming and talking to us. I suspect you will find many will be leaving offerings here. You should come and collect them on the way back."
"Uh...thanks. What are your names?"
"We decided to take on special names when we started this," the man on the left says. "We all picked stars, after your cutie mark. I'm Cygnus, he's Sirius, and she's Polaris."
"You're really taking this seriously, huh?"
"Of course, Princess," Sirius says. "We have some pretty awesome robes coming, but they're still in the mail."
"Well, nice to meet all of you. I have to admit, I didn't expect this, but I'm glad the fight didn't drive off everyone who likes me."
None of the three can hide a smile.
"Are you going to Harvard Square?" Polaris asks. Twilight nods.
"I can't wait to hear about that one," she says.
"What do you mean?" Twilight asks.
They all only smile, and bow again. Twilight smiles back. She almost bows herself, but remembers her princess training, and decides they probably wouldn't take it the right way. Instead they all turn and start on their way again.
"You ok, Twi'?" Rainbow asks.
"I think so," she sighs. "I'm just not sure why they decided to do that."
Rarity and Rainbow share a glance.
"They told you why, darling," Rarity says slowly. "And I know you're smart enough to know they're right. You can't pretend you aren't special here."
Twilight sighs. "I know, I know. You're right."
"Are you afraid of it, then?" Rarity asks.
"Afraid?"
"Well, yes. There's no Celestia here, no Discord, no Tirek. Do you think anyone here could stop you from doing whatever you chose?"
"The humans have a lot of nasty weapons."
"You didn't seem so bothered by that ghastly 'rifle' yesterday."
Twilight nods. "They have a lot that are nastier than that. But you're right, I'm not sure any are nasty enough. I talked with Fiona about this, before you all arrived. I don't want to be Celestia here. And I don't think the humans want me to, even those ones. Maybe you're right and fear is the right word, but I think it's a justified fear. They'd hate me if I just...took over."
Rarity nods. "I suppose that makes sense. But this Mr. Gray doesn't seem to have the same qualms with using all his powers against you. And it seems that some of them agree that they could use your help. You should figure it out soon. Before it's too late."
"And we can help!" Pinkie rubs up against her other side. "There aren't any other Pinkies in this world either! Or Dashies or Rarities! We'll all help!"
"Yeah," Dash says.
"You girls are the best," Twilight smiles at them, "but I still don't know what we need to do! Wait...what's that noise?"
The road from the Prancing Pony to Harvard Square intersects Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge's major road, opposite the Cambridge Common, a large park adjacent to the Square. Normally it's peaceful and lovely but mostly empty, save for the occasional picnicker or jogger, and a few tourists looking at the various Revolutionary War memorials and historical plaques.
Today, though, as they approach it, the sound of many voices rings down the street. They share a glance, then hurry around the bend. As they do, the words of a song emerge from the general hubbub. It takes Twilight a bit of time to place it, then her jaw falls open.
"Are they singing about giving you a crown?" Dash asks her.
"It's from the movie about my time through the mirror," Twilight says.
"Those humans sang a bunch?"
"No, they added a lot of songs. I guess because the show's meant for foals."
"Those don't look like foals," Pinkie says.
They can see the common clearly now, and it's absolutely filled with people, all singing and waving signs. Unlike yesterday, though, all of them are for the ponies. Just like yesterday, many of the feature Twilight's cutie mark or general messages of support and acceptance, but there are also a healthy number of Rarity and Rainbow Dash signs, and even a few for Pinkie, Applejack, and Fluttershy. The whole place seems to have a carnival air, the humans singing and prancing happily. Many of them have ponies on their clothes, and a few even appear to have dressed up like them. Twilight appreciates the sentiment, even if she finds the final result a bit strange looking.
The crowd looks like it fills the common entirely; Twilight thinks they must number nearly a thousand. But a cordon of police spoils the joyous mood slightly, and it's hard to tell to what extent they're protecting the demonstrators, and to what extent they're watching them suspiciously.
"Now this is the kind of fan response I was hoping for," Dash grins.
"They're all here to support us?" Twilight can't quite believe it.
The crowd seems to have seen them now, and the nearby humans have stopped singing and waving their signs and are pointing excitedly and waving, all smiles.
"It certainly looks like it," Rarity says. "I think, Twilight, now might be the time for that friendship speech."
Twilight manages a weak smile. "I hope I'm ready."
Dash and Pinkie press up against her, and her smile strengthens.
"I have every confidence in you, my dear," Rarity says, "you'll make Celestia proud."
"Ok," Twilight takes a deep breath. "I'm going to take us to that statue in the middle, see it? Everyone should be able to hear from there. You coming, Mary?"
The human woman looks nervous for a moment, then shrugs and nods.
"Everyone gather round then." In a moment, they vanish, and a hush falls over the crowd as they reappear on the flat marble of the Civil War memorial, surrounding the statue of Abraham Lincoln.
Twilight takes a deep breath, and prepares to speak.
Twilight takes a couple of deep breaths, trying to tell herself it's just like her coronation. When she looks up from her hooves and the marble platform, though, out over the large crowd of humans staring at her, she can't keep herself convinced. There really are quite a lot of them, and being so tall and compact compared to ponies, they can really cram into the space.
Okay Twilight, you can do this. You're a Princess, after all! And your friends are right here! Well, most of them. And all you have to do is say thanks, after all.
"Hello everyone." Lame start, but got the job done, and you didn't say 'everypony'. B+. The crowd is still silent, apparently waiting for some kind of content.
"Thank you all for coming." Okay you're just getting worse and worse here Twilight, get it together! "When I first got here, I thought I was lucky to meet humans that accepted and befriended me right away. When I started researching your history online, I read a lot of scary things. Well, you probably know that," she chuckles, "my diary got published, after all." Some scattered laughs echo up from the crowd as well. Positive response, excellent! Your grade is improving, keep it together, we'll ace this one yet.
"But since then, I've realized it's more complicated than that." Right, good, 'turns out you're all awesome, thanks for being my friends' move on to the chatting, short and sweet. "In Equestria, we're lucky in many ways, but especially in our leadership. No pony alive picked Celestia, but I think all of us would, if asked."
What are you doing, Twilight, this isn't what we agreed on! Short and sweet! Twilight forces down the nagging student voice, that little part of her that still thinks she'll fail at anything unrehearsed. The one that always wanted to go back and study, the one that told her having friends wasn't worth risking rejection. Instead she thinks of the recently-dubbed Polaris, Cygnus, and Sirius, and of the six curiously-familiar humans that befriended and helped her when she arrived, and of Mary and even David. She thinks about the numbers she saw online, and the mismatch between them and the result of the vote in Congress. She feels her friends close and warm, even on the summer day, and smiles.
The crowd's been silent all through her pause, silent and still. In the absence of waving signs and hands, she notices not only the eyes on her, but the machines as well: countless people are holding up smartphones, and several of the now-familiar camera crews linger in the back. If you go off-script here, Twilight, the whole world will know!
When she replies, she hears echos of all her friends in her mind's voice. Buck you, past Twilight. I want it to.
"As I said, I really appreciate you coming out here to support me today. But you shouldn't have to. Last night, we all," she gestures to her friends with her wing, "saw the numbers online. It isn't just most of you here that wanted to accept us, it is most of you everywhere. On Equestria, we're lucky to have leaders that are better than we are, and that want to be better still. I've seen it in Celestia, and felt it in myself, just now, when I was thinking about what to say to you all here. It makes me so happy that you all came here for us...but it makes me so sad that you had to. To see that where our leaders were better than we deserved, yours are worse than you do."
No one's cheering or saying anything, and there's still a part of her that's terrified it means she's lost them, that wants to vomit off the side of the marble, to fly into the sun and hope to find Celestia there to tell her she passes. Her legs shake, just a little, but she forces them to stop, and looks into the eyes of a few of the nearby humans instead.
"When I came up here, I just wanted to thank you for the support, to say that I'd be glad for it as long as you wanted to give it. But looking out on how many of you care about this, I realized that isn't right. I'm not even from this world, and I don't know how long I'll be able to stay. I'm honored to be the thing that made you come here today, but I don't want to be the reason you stay. I know this isn't the first important issue where your leaders have ignored you, and if you just let the be about me, it won't be the last. This should be about you, and about them. If you stay, please make it about that." She takes one last deep breath. The crowd is still silent, but she doesn't think they look hostile. If she's reading them right, mostly they're shocked. Now virtually all of them have their phones or tablets out, a whole sea of little boxes and waiting faces.
"I don't know what you should ask them to do," she says, softer now, "but I'd love the chance to help you figure it out. And I do know, if you want to have a better world, you need to build it. And you need to build it by making sure that the people who make those calls, day to day, are as good and wise and accepting as you are. You need your leaders to be your friends, to care about you and what you need and want. If you stay here, stay because you want to make that happen. Then you won't need to make them let us stay; they'll do it themselves."
The silence remains. Well, you've done it now, Princess. Did she always sound that sarcastic? Now the people and the leaders will agree all right. They'll all want us gone!
A few humans are moving to the back now, obviously getting ready to leave. All of them are lowering their cameras and tablets. Then they're just standing, staring. She's still smiling at them, but mostly out of inertia. She's got an image of Annie-Jane's farm in her head, ready to teleport - she's not sure anywhere closer will be safe.
Then someone in the middle of the crowd starts clapping, and somehow it spreads, slowly for a few seconds, and then like a match catching it's all around her like the roar of water around a tiny boat, and they're waving the signs again and calling her name, and in her head, the little voice is quiet.
Applejack wakes up falling, tangled up with another pony. It's a short fall, and then they're lying in a pile on a wooden floor, a tangle of yellow and orange limbs, slightly sore from the impact. There's a butterfly-covered flank in her face, and her head is all fuzzy.
"Ugh." She's great with words in cases like this.
She disentangles herself from Fluttershy and stands up, a bit shakily. The room she's in is a little bigger than her bedroom in the farmhouse. About half of it is filled with boxes, the rest, near where they fell, is bare and clean, like something's recently been removed from it. The room is curiously cool despite the warm sunlight spilling in through the front window. There's a second in the rear, but it's filled with a strange box, making a kind of soft clacking noise. Curiously, there are two small stuffed ponies on the floor near them - one looks like Rarity, the other like Pinkie Pie.
"Oooh-ee, my heads fuzzier than a sheep on shearin' day," Applejack mutters, then nudges Fluttershy with her hoof. "Y'all right there sugarcube?"
"My head feels funny too," Fluttershy says, getting to her hooves, "but I think so." She looks around. "Where are we?"
Applejack and Fluttershy nose around the empty room for a while, but quickly discover the boxes are full of foodstuffs, and nothing else seems remarkable about it, save that the shelves are uncomfortably tall for ponies, and none of the brands are familiar.
"Applejack, I don't think this is Equestria," Fluttershy says, lifting up a can of soda. "I don't recognize this at all."
"I think you're right there, sugarcube," Applejack frowns down at the large bag of King Arthur brand flower, "what's this critter riding on this pony? Some sorta minotaur?"
"Um, I think maybe it's one of those humans Twilight told us about?"
"Huh, I bet you're right. Why're we still ourselves then?"
"I have no idea."
The two ponies just stare at the colorful logo for a minute.
"Well, I reckon we won't find out hangin' around in here," Applejack closes the box. "Looks like just the one door, so I s'pose we should start there."
Fluttershy hesitates for a moment as the farmpony opens the door and walks out, then follows her friend out on to the rickety staircase leading down into the bar proper.
Behind them in the storeroom, the five or six hidden microphones cheerfully keep broadcasting.
The ponies are nearly mobbed by supporters when they leap down from the statue. For a while, Twilight's mostly just hoofbumping and accepting thanks or pleasantries, but after a good fifteen or twenty minutes, a familiar face works her way to the front.
"Hello Rachel," she says, feeling a lump in her throat. The policewoman just stares at her for a second, and the rest of the crowd pulls back and quiets down at the intensity of her gaze.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Princess," she finally says. "There's turning Mr. Gray down, and then there's that."
"I know. But I feel good about it, Rachel. I know it's the right thing to do."
"I think you might be right," Rachel sighs, "because I've got some news you need to hear."
"Wait, are they sending some kind of police crackdown? I thought protest was protected."
"No they aren't, and yes it is," Rachel sighs. "Look, I'm glad so many people support you, but this one's a bit, uh, delicate. Can we go somewhere a little more private?"
"Is it urgent? A lot of people want to talk to me right now."
"Of course it's urgent! Fuck, you think I don't know you're busy? I just spent ages fighting through the crowd!" She takes a deep breath. "Look, it's about our...injured friends."
Twilight frowns, then nods. "Okay everyone," she raises her voice, letting it carry over most of the crowd, "I'll be right back." Then, in a flash of light, Rachel, Mary, and the ponies are gone.
Applejack and Fluttershy have just made it to the bottom of the stairs, and are preparing to explore the bar, when a heavy thud sounds from the back hallway. Fluttershy immediately leaps behind the cover of a table.
"What do you t-think that was?" she whispers.
"I'm gonna find out," Applejack replies, and trots into the hallway. At the far end, past the heavy, sound-thwarting kitchen doors, the door to the alley is on the floor, hinges pulled free from the wall. A hulking human in thick clothing looms over the door, a massive battering ram held in both hands.
"Well hello there partner," Applejack says, "what can I do you for?"
He doesn't answer, and instead casts aside the battering ram, reaching for something at his belt. He doesn't get it. This isn't Applejack's first trip to this particular rodeo, and as soon as he decides to move rather than speak, her hooves are off the ground and she's going full-tilt down the hallway. Before he can get his gun free, her hooves slam into his chest. The body armor spreads the impact and probably saves his life, but it isn't magic, and her earth pony body is, magic and muscle honed by years of applebucking and adventuring. He topples over, his helmet cracks open when his head slams down on the short stairs between bar and alley, and he's out like a light.
Applejack's momentum carries her forward, and Fluttershy is right behind. Both mares burst through the door and into the alley, where six other humans, similarly dressed, are waiting, guns drawn. Before either pony can react, a volley of small darts fly from the weapons, each with a tiny popping sound. The shots are hasty, but the humans are experienced. Two of them hit Fluttershy, and one Applejack. The earth pony feels a little prick as the dart pierces her flank.
She turns to her assailant, ready to charge in, aware the tiny projectile hasn't injured her, but then her head swims. Oh buck, poison. Beside her, Fluttershy passes out without ceremony, breathing evenly but evidently down for the count. Tranquilizers, then...
She's a bit slowed, but the humans clearly haven't ever met an earthy pony. Her native magic swells from her bones and the swimming sensation fades. The humans are just staring, expecting her to pass out.
For two of them, it's their last mistake. She leaps at him with speed Rainbow Dash would envy, and this is a direct, prepared strike with her forehooves against an unsuspecting target. Their sharp edges break through the armored vest, driving the polymer into his chest. Like Rainbow Dash, Applejack's used to the magical resilience of Equestria's natives, and doesn't expect the human to lack it. She's committed to her maneuver, though, and launches herself off his broken form, slamming her head into the face of the man next to him, ruining it with a sickening crack. She lands eyes wide, taken totally unprepared by the limits of flesh and bone devoid of magic.
As four more darts slam into her, she has to admit, she'd have had trouble getting all of them before they got more shots off, in any case. But the unexpected fragility of even such large creatures took her by surprise, and she let it throw off her tempo. Rusty... she thinks, before she passes out.
Not twenty feet away, just as Applejack slumps to the ground in the alley, Twilight and company wink into existence in the kitchen.
"Ok Rachel," Twilight says, " what can you tell us about our 'friends'?"
"Nothing good," Rachel frowns. "It's all a massive clusterfuck. The guy they were treating for smoke inhalation got transferred out of the hospital here. Since we couldn't tell them the injury was related to the case, and it wasn't through the department, I can't really figure out where he went. We could subpoena it, but we'd need to convince a judge it was relevant to the case, and unauthorized ponyback car chases aren't exactly up to the strictest standards of evidence.
"That was pretty suspicious on its own, but hen the feds just yanked that sniper out of our cell! That one was a legit police action, but some joker from Homeland Security showed up and said they had reason to believe he was an international terrorist. They claimed jurisdiction and just walked him out. I can't imagine we'll ever see him again.
"The whole thing stinks, Twilight. I wasn't sure Mr. Gray really had those connections before, but I am now."
Everyone falls silent for what feels like a long time.
"Well," Twilight says finally, "that at least suggests he was behind the first shooting, too. Unless he's just trying to stop us from solving that one out of spite. So I think we can call that one closed. And I guess it just means next time we tangle with those guys, I need to capture one in my magic, so we don't have to take him to the hospital or police station."
Rachel looks away, but then nods. "Yeah. My department are good people, and I don't think they're in his pocket. But we can't turn down Homeland Security."
"I know," Twilight says softly, "it isn't your fault. Besides, I'm not sure we could have gotten much more out of them than this anyway. Sure, he got his people out, but he showed himself all the same, I'd say. Thanks for letting me know, though, Rachel, and sorry I snapped at you," she nuzzles the human gently, and Rachel lightly scratches her head. "You were right, that was really important. I just...there's a lot going on, you know?"
"Yeah, I know," Rachel manages a smile, "don't sweat it, I get it's stressful. I guess you should get back, huh?"
"It'll be thirsty," Pinkie pipes in, "we should get a drink first, while we're here! Who wants soda?"
There are general murmurs of assent, and Pinkie bounces out through the heavy kitchen door, making for the bar's soda fountain. As soon as she enters the hallway she stops, and the door bounces against her rump.
"You should come see this, Twi'," she says, excitement gone.
All three fallen humans are gone, but the broken door, discarded battering ram, and three splatters of blood, one small one on the stairs, and two large in the alley, leave no doubt that this was the site of a struggle. Blood trails from the larger pools to one of the doors on the opposite side of the alley, but it doesn't even open from this side.
"I don't get it," Rachel says, "this is a SWAT-issue ram, and these," she picks up some fragments of the ruined helmet and armor, "are bits of SWAT body armor. That's the same stuff that sniper was wearing. It seems like they got in a fight with someone, and they probably won, since someone was still around to drag off the injured..."
"...but who did they fight with," Twilight concludes, "since we're all here. Could it have been Rosie?"
"Rosie's great," Rachel snorts, "but I don't think she's been in a fight in her life. I saw a customer get rowdy once, her kitchen staff had to break it up. I don't think she could hurt one of these thugs, let alone three."
"What if she wasn't alone? Maybe Alanna or Annie-Jane were with her..."
"Or maybe it was your shrine guards?" Rarity says.
Twilight's eyes widen, and she runs to the mouth of the alley, but the three are still leaning on their staves around the tree, looking mostly bored. The others catch up as she stops.
"Oh thank goodness," Rarity says, "but perhaps they saw or heard something?"
"It couldn't hurt to ask," Twilight says, "but I'm calling Rosie, just to be sure."
She starts rooting around in her saddlebags for her phone, and as she does so, it lets out an unfamiliar beep.
"What was that? I haven't heard that noise before."
"New text message, I think," Rachel says.
"I don't even know what that is," Twilight pulls out her phone, and discovers the message pops up on its own when she wakes it up. It isn't a text message, though, it's a photo. She gasps, and the others stare at the tiny, floating screen. It shows a picture of Applejack and Fluttershy, caged, hooves in chains.
"What...no..." Twilight starts, then the phone vibrates and beeps again, a disarmingly innocuous word balloon indicates another message from the same number:
Twilight spins to face the scene in the alley, her phone forgotten. It nearly plummets to its doom on the pavement, before Rarity catches it in her magic.
"Were they real?" Twilight mutters, eyes wide, sweeping the scene.
"Twilight, dear, calm down..." Rarity starts.
"I need to know if it was really them." Frantically she begins examining the alley. Drops of blood lift in her magic's grasp and she peers at them intently, then snorts and shakes her head. Now the magic is flowing all throughout the alley, rooting through the dumpster and sweeping underneath the stairs. Sirius walks to the mouth of the alleyway and stares; it looks as if the whole place is flooded with iridescent magenta mist. Then it rolls quickly towards Twilight and dissipates, leaving shards of polymer and other miscellaneous detritus hovering in front of her.
With increasing desperation, eye beginning to twitch, she tosses aside litter and shards of armor until, with a cry of triumph, she lets all the flotsam fall leaving only the tip of a tiny needle rotating slowly in front of her. The glow returns, surrounding it, and a complicated chemical model appears in the same light, floating above it.
"Carbon...hydrogen..." she mutters, and pulls the tablet from her saddlebag. Glancing back and forth between the model and the screen, she frantically moves her stylus.
"Twi'," Rainbow Dash says softly, "does it even matter? Rarity wasn't 'real' when we got her back, then she was. Don't we need them either way?"
"Of course it matters," Twilight says calmly, not looking up from the screen. "Either they took some machines that might someday be our friends, or they took our friends."
Rainbow, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie exchange a look.
"Wait, I don't get..." Mary starts, then Rarity nudges her and desperately whispers in her ear, and she stops.
Twilight's stylus goes still. "Uses," she mutters, "veterinary medicine...veterinary medicine! It's a sedative! You can't sedate a machine!" She stuffs the tablet back in her bag then tears off into the hallway and up the stairs, her friends hurrying after her. When she reaches the old storeroom, she pulls the stuffed Rarity and Pinkie Pie to her, and practically tears the rest of the room apart looking for the others.
"They're not here," she turns to the others, "they aren't here!"
Rarity leans up against her. "I know, dear. We're all worried, but please calm down. We don't know where they are."
Twilight ignores her. "I know you're listening, Mister Gray. You brought sedatives, so you've figured out we're not machines. You seem like someone who's done his research. You must have watched that stupid show. You must know what I'll do for my friends. I will never help anyone who hurts them. Never. Let them go now, and I won't try to find you."
From Rarity's grip, Twilight's phone dings as it gets a new text message. Everyone clusters around it.
You missed your chance to work for me. Now you just have to go away. Call off the rally, leave the city. Disappear. Then I'll let them go, unharmed.
They stare at it, and another message pops up.
There's no magic box this time, Princess.
"I can't," Twilight says, miserable, "I can't call them off, I just told them not to do it for me! They won't listen to me."
I have faith in you. You can make them believe. You'd better.
Twilight looks near panic. Her wings are angrily taut, her stance low. Desperately her mind races, but she can't fully focus on the problem thinking of her friends alone, scared, new to the world, attacked before they saw a friendly face. She wishes she'd had time to research the listening devices more, see if there's some way to track the signal...
"Twilight," Rarity says softly, "what are we going to do?"
Desperately, Twilight shakes her head at her friend. She pulls out her tablet again and opens the drawing program, scrawling on the screen: they can hear us. Rarity nods and gulps.
She thinks about just giving in. She did it with Tirek, after all, gave up Equestria to save her friends. Is this situation different? Well, in one way, certainly - Mr. Gray is right, there's no magic box here. If she gives up this time, she is giving up, no doubt, no little hope for that trump card. And she understood Tirek, for all his evil, knew what he wanted. When she gave up there, he was getting it all. If she gives up here, Mr. Gray isn't. She knows, after all, that once he wanted not only her neutrality, but her cooperation. She's read enough about the shady world he lives in here to know what he's offering here is a compromise. But in mentioning the box, he's proved he knows about Tirek, and about her choice there. So why is he offering a compromise, when he has all the cards?
Her stomach feels like it's sinking into the floor when she realizes he can't be. It doesn't make any sense. She sees herself giving in, dispersing the crowd as best she can, retiring to the farm...and Fluttershy and Applejack never coming. She sees another text, giving her some mission, an endless string of requests while her friends - her friends - grow old in a cage.
She'd been willing to give up magic for them, even freedom, to live her whole life empty of power, under Triek's hoof, but to live it together. And she'd still do that. But this...this is something else. Nearly screaming internally at that little ember of false hope, that tiny bit that tells her that her friends are worth any sacrifice, she lifts the stylus again.
He's lying, she writes, somehow keeping the stylus steady, he'll never let them go, he'll just want more and more. I have to find them. I need to figure out what an earth pony and a pegasus have that humans don't.
The whole crowd stares at the tablet for a moment, then Rarity gently takes the stylus from her grip and writes, body magic.
Polaris doesn't consider her birth name much of a loss. She's never felt much like a Cindy. She's never felt much like an investment banker either, for that matter, but she hadn't felt much like anything else, and retirement before thirty at least sounded nice.
She's also never felt much like a fighter, but her parents started her on martial arts years ago, and she enjoys it enough she's kept with it. You have to get your exercise somehow, after all - as a woman in a competitive world, she couldn't get clients if she didn't look like society expected her to. Besides, she could always pretend her sparring partner was one of those clients.
She also never expected to take that early retirement to follow a magical pony princess, but for the first time, she feels like she's doing what she wants to, instead of what someone else expects. So she leans, purple-clad, on her purple staff, and enjoys the breeze wafting over the shrine, the fluttering noise of the papers on the tree. She even enjoys the stares of passersby, that weightless feeling of, finally, just not giving a damn what they think of her.
The men with her are distracted, clearly curious about the commotion in the alley, wondering what their Princess and her friends are up to. She is too, of course, but she's enjoying the single-minded discipline of guarding, and so she doesn't let it get to her.
Besides, they're providing plenty of commentary all their own, even if nothing much is happening now that the ponies and their human have gone back into the bar.
Then the lull is over. The Princess appears on ground next to them in a burst of light, the rush of displaced air pushing back against the breeze and setting the papers and medallions on the tree fluttering and clattering loudly. Her wings are spread in a way that even Polaris can read as angry, and her stance is low and looks nervous. Objectively, she's the size of a mid-sized dog, but even aside from her literally magical appearance, the air seems tense around her, full of power, and her presence feels massive. Polaris feels like, with the Princess so close, if she just knew how to move her body, what to think, she could feel the pinpricks of power herself, move objects with her mind, or take to the air. She feels like it's just a gesture or magic word away.
She finds herself falling to her knees. Beside her, she's aware of the movement of the two men doing the same. The Princess looks over at them, frowning a bit, then smiles a tight smile.
"Thank you," she whispers, closing her eyes and nuzzling each of them with her soft (admittedly adorable) cheek. Polaris thinks she can feel a tingling fire at the touch.
Then the Princess steps back and opens her eyes, and they're glowing with pure, unquenchable white light, like the first two stars of evening against a purple sky. Polaris wills herself not to look away. The Princess sweeps the streets with that near-unbearable gaze, then with a single beat of her wings, a lavender-scented downdraft and a twinkle of magenta energy, she's in the air, sparkling with magic, leaving a trail like a comet as she soars into the blue.
Polaris realizes she should be writing this down. She'll have to remember to bring a notepad tomorrow. "The Book of Twilight" has a ring to it that she rather fancies. She thinks she'll open it with the diary. After a moment, she decides to use her prerogative as this shift's lead guard.
"You're in charge until I get back," she tells Sirius. "The others are going to want to know what happens." Grabbing her staff, she rushes into her car and does her best to chase the Princess's shooting star across the city.
Applejack's head is even fuzzier than before, and her eyelids feel like they're carved from stone and just as immobile. Gradually her brain starts working, and her recent memory comes back. She still can't open her eyes, but she's aware of a little prickling in her foreleg, and of the sedative running in her veins, battling with her magic.
Gotcha, she thinks, y'all still don't give us earth ponies enough credit. Ain't got the dosage right. Suppose I'm glad, means you prolly aren't tryin' to put me out forever. She winces at the thought. Even though I reckon those last two of you weren't so lucky.
She can move her leg, barely, and focuses all her will on it. She feels metal pressed up against it, probably the bar of a cage, and after what feels like hours of trying just to move her hoof, she scrapes the IV against it, just lightly enough to dislodge the needle, letting it drip the liquid into her coat instead of her vein. She knows it'll be a while still before she can fight it off fully, and lies back to wait. She can hear voices, now, not far away.
"I hope you know what you're doing, sir," one says. He sounds just barely older than a colt, or whatever humans call it, and nervous. "She's smart. Probably smarter than I am. I don't think she'll buy that you'll let them go if she gives in."
"She gave in to Tirek," this sounds like a stallion, one full of confidence. Tirek..are they talking about Twi'? Applejack's heart soars at the thought that her friend might be here, and looking for her.
"That wasn't the same. He was getting everything he wanted. We aren't."
"You read her diary, too. They don't know how we do things here. She might be gullible." The stallion chuckles, a sound devoid of warmth. "But no, you're probably right. If I had to bet, my money is she comes looking for us, and finds us. I'm hoping for it, in fact."
"Why are you hoping for that, sir? She's like fucking Gandalf or something! That sniper rifle didn't even touch her."
Applejack's magic is surging through her now, and cautiously she manages to lift her eyelids just a bit. The room is dark, but the two humans stand next to a glowing screen, silhouetted by its bright light. The smaller one - probably the colt, she thinks - sits in a chair. The other is massive, and looms over him, leaning on a metal box sporting a large switch and a complicated nest of wires. He pats it with his paw before responding.
"That's why we brought this, kid. Don't worry, just like Gandalf, without her spooky powers, she'll be as weak as an old man."
Applejack takes a deep breath. Fluttershy's next to her, out cold, another IV running to her foreleg. Slowly, carefully, Applejack nudges her, trying to move her just far enough to knock it loose without letting the humans see her. Neither is facing her now, but she knows that in the quiet of the room, any major movement might be loud enough to draw attention. It's slower going even than getting her own needle out. She hopes she'll manage it in time for 'Shy to wake up before Twilight arrives.
She's pretty sure they'll need all the help they can get.
Applejack's eyes have slowly grown accustomed to the dark room, and now she sees she was wrong in thinking that there were only two humans in the room. In the shadows surrounding the bright screen, six more lurk. They're large and burly looking, clearly some kind of guards. They're holding weapons that look similar to the ones their fellows used against them in the alley.
As best she can without moving, she tries to figure out the safest path from the cage to the massive device in the center of the room. She's never faced weapons like these before, but she's sparred with unicorns enough to recognize and seek cover in cases like this. Before too long, she feels like she has a reasonable plan.
"I'm gonna go grab some coffee, kid," the big human in the middle of the room says, interrupting her musing. "Want any?"
"No sir," despite Applejack's unfamiliarity with humans, there's no mistaking the quaver in this one's voice, "but what if she shows up while you're gone?"
"I can't imagine she'll get here that fast. Besides, you have the guards. If she somehow does, just hit the switch, they'll take care of the rest." the large one's clearly a practiced liar, but Applejack isn't the Element of Honesty for nothing; she's pretty confident he isn't planning to come back.
I wonder what's going on there, she lets her thoughts drift a bit, but then returns to the practical issue of planning her escape and inevitable support of Twilight. She's exactly as confident she can help as she is Twilight will appear, which is to say, she's sure of it.
Driving through Cambridge is hard enough at the best of times. Following a frantic, incandescent alicorn on an impromptu search pattern isn't the best of times. The effect of said alicorn on the other drivers also doesn't help. Nonetheless, Polaris manages to make it work, primarily due to the erratic nature of that search pattern. Twice she almost loses her, but she gets lucky and the Princess veers back into her sight.
Half an hour in, infuriatingly stopped at a railroad crossing, she remembers her Glass prototype, pulls it out of the glove, and sets it to record.
Fifteen minutes after that, as she's driving along a seemingly unremarkable residential street on the southern side of town, near the river, Twilight stops dead not far above her, the first time she's been motionless. She pulls over and hurries out of the car just in time to catch the purple contrail as the Princess comes to the earth like a meteor. The impact site's under a block away, and she sprints down the street towards it, staff in hand.
Even through the heavy concrete walls and thick metal door of the apartment building's basement, Twilight can sense the magic in Applejack and Fluttershy's bones clearly. It's like nothing human, or anything she's sensed elsewhere in the city, and like this, with all her skill focused on drawing in and detecting magical energy, she couldn't possibly miss it.
Of course, with the amount of stray energy she's pulling in just by being this receptive, there's bound to be some leakage. It's just light, except right up against her body, and she expects she might need the power, so she considers it an acceptable price to pay.
Right at her hooves, though, the energy is incredible, and the pavement will tell the tale - her physically gentle landing nonetheless kicks up a cloud of pulverized concrete and leaves her hoofprints blown into the sidewalk. She frowns at it and takes lightly to the air again, hovering just above the several-inch-wide zone at which the magic rolling off of her is tactile. There's only one door into the basement. It's unmarked and made of heavy steel, clearly intended as a service exit only. The main entrance is no doubt inside.
Both, she realizes, are probably traps. But she's far beyond caring now. It's already been too long since the demand without a response; her friends aren't dead, she's sure, because she can still feel their magic, but she's afraid of what Mr. Gray might have done to them. Torture doesn't seem outside his playbook. She's afraid for them and out of patience, and with it any desire to be clever. She glares at the door and it blows inward off its hinges in a cloud of pulverized concrete, clattering to the ground a full body length inside the dark basement.
Eyes still casting a clear white light, the rest of her glowing magenta, she floats into the basement. Against other unicorns she'd raise a full shield, but she's done the math; the metal projectiles the humans use will be torn apart by the magic rolling off her coat. She has nothing to fear, so she's filled herself up with anger instead.
Then, as she crosses the threshold into the basement, a horrible keening wail fills the air, making her feel like her head is splitting, and she feels a sharp pain all along her horn. She's not quite sure what's going on, and she can still feel the magic, but it's like taking a blow right to the base of the horn - the pain shorts her out, and she loses the spell for a moment.
It only takes a moment for everything to go straight to Tartarus. The newly uncontrolled energy rolls out from her, scorching a blast pattern on the concrete floor around her at a radius of more than a full body length. The shockwave shatters every glass object in the room, including a computer screen, and blows out a significant chunk of the empty door frame, filling the air with choking concrete dust. It also knocks the humans in the room reeling, but by the time Twilight collects herself, they're already recovering, and she's significantly outnumbered. The horrible high noise doesn't seem to be bothering them, but it's making it impossible for Twilight to concentrate, and she can't bring advanced spells together.
Advanced spells like, for example, her shield.
She sees Applejack and Fluttershy lying in the ruins of a cage. They're hooked to IVs, but their sides are moving evenly as they breathe, and they don't appear to be hurt. She makes a snap decision, and dives behind the remains of the door to consider her next move.
Applejack too can barely concentrate over the awful noise filling the air, but she's seen enough to know Twilight needs her. The humans are all focused on the door. They're still firing the darts they used against her, she sees, and is relieved they seem to be trying to take Twilight alive. Still, her friend is in trouble - these humans clearly have a plan. Two of them hang back, firing the occasional dart towards her hiding place to keep her pinned, while the other four work their way around the outside of the room, out of Twilight's easy line of sight should she glance around the corner.
Of course, all of them are ignoring the unconscious ponies in the cage - a cage that's been blown open by Twilight's magical surge. Not that Applejack would have any trouble kicking it open, but it'll certainly help keep the humans unaware. With Twilight pinned, they're moving quickly and confidently across the room, secure that there's no danger.
As the first one creeps near, Applejack shows him the error of his ways. She pushes off with her powerful hind legs and extends her forelegs, smashing them into the human's chest and knocking him backwards into the wall. She's trying not to aim for anything vital, but she knows she can't afford to leave them upright; as soon as she moves, her clock is ticking, and she's not at all sure she'll be able to get to the two at the rear in time, let alone the ones on the opposite side.
"Twi'," she yells as she lands, "I'm okay, gonna do what I can in here!" She hopes her friend will be able to help somehow, even with the horrible noise apparently disrupting her magic.
No time to worry about it now, though. She's rolled with the impact to let her momentum carry her near the second human, and she bucks his leg with all her might, feeling the bone shatter. He falls to the ground, dropping his weapon, and she shatters it underhoof as she moves towards the two in the rear. The distance looks too far, though, and they're already bringing their weapons to bear on her. She weaves back and forth, trying to make herself a hard target, but a dart hits her side from the opposite wall, and she feels herself slowing just a bit as the sedative tries to take hold again. She doesn't think she'll make it.
Polaris arrives just in time to hear Applejack call out to the Princess from inside, and sees the object of her devotion taking cover in the ruined doorway. She's no longer glowing, and Polaris frowns to see her on the back foot...hoof? Whichever.
"Princess," she calls out, "what's wrong?"
"This awful noise! It's got some resonance with my horn, I can't concentrate right!"
"What noise?"
"You can't hear it?" the Princess frowns at her, then her eyes widen. "We must not have the same aural range! It's too high or low for you to hear, but it's driving me crazy!"
"They're fighting you with a dog whistle?"
"Depressingly clever, I agree. But Applejack's in there, I've got to help her, magic or no!"
Polaris drops into her fighting stance, readying her staff. "I've got your back. Ready?"
The Princess nods at her and smiles a tight smile. "Go."
Polaris leaps around the doorway and quickly takes in the scene. An orange pony is charging at two men in the rear of the room, but looks to be under heavy fire and flanked by two more crouching against the wall to her left, on Polaris's side. The Princess's side is free and clear. Another man is in the middle of the room, but he's unarmed and cowering behind a strange-looking machine. She decides the quadrupeds will get to the back of the room faster, and herself charges at the two on her left with a yell, hoping to throw off their aim.
She takes the first by surprise and knocks the gun out of his hand, then follows up with a knee to his crouching face. His head snaps back and hits the wall, and he slumps to the ground. The second turns and raises his gun at her, but she pivots to the side and the dart - not a bullet, she notes - harmlessly impacts the thick edge of her robe, rather than her stomach. He doesn't get another shot - she strikes the back of his hand with her staff and he nervelessly drops the gun, then she twists the other end around behind him, sweeping him from his feet. She kicks the gun away, confident she'll be well on her way to the other two by the time he can retrieve it --
"Stop," a menacing voice fills the air, and she turns to see one of the two men at the back pointing his weapon right at her. This isn't one of the weird-looking tranquilizer guns the others have been using - it's unmistakably a combat rifle. "We don't need you alive, girl, so stop right there."
She looks around. The orange pony is out cold a few feet short of the second gunman at the back, who's now got the Princess pinned behind a support pillar in the middle of the room. And at this distance, there's no way Polaris is going to be able to close against an actual automatic weapon. Desperately she looks around the room, and wonders if she can tell her Glass to call the police softly enough not to be heard, and if they can possibly arrive in time.
Then she sees what their enemies can't. Hidden behind the bulky machine, a yellow, pink maned pony is staring, wide-eyed, at the unarmed young man. Polaris doesn't have a clear view of both the pony's eyes, but even at this angle, she's nearly unbearably adorable, and Polaris has to fight down the urge to squeal like an eight-year old.
The young man, caught full-on by her gaze, doesn't stand a chance. With a sigh, he pulls the heavy switch back down into the off position and stands up, hands raised.
"I surrender," he says.
"Sean, what the fuck--" says the man with the rifle, but he's cut off as the Princess takes to the air again, hovering in the middle of the room. Her horn glows brightly and Polaris cries out in joy. All the thugs are surrounded in a magenta glow, hands and feet bound with ropes of energy. One starts to protest, and finds his mouth filled with a translucent glowing gag.
"Thank goodness," the Princess says, "that noise was about to drive me crazy." She looks over at Sean. "What was that?"
"I saw your speech on YouTube," he shrugs, idly stroking the yellow pony's head. She hunkers down adorably, but doesn't try to stop him. "I didn't sign up to shoot cute ponies, I just wanted to catch terrorists. I just needed...a reminder."
The Princess blinks at him, then grins. "Fluttershy's good at that, yes." The yellow pony smiles back at her.
Polaris reaches up to the side of her headset and stops the recording. Then, after a moment of thought, starts it uploading to YouTube.
Twilight approaches the young human man - Sean, he said - as the newly awoken Applejack finishes trussing up the soldiers. They've already said hello again, but everyone agrees the full story can wait until Rachel and Annie-Jane show up with the later's van to help haul the captives.
"So," Twilight says, leaning a hoof against the large machine still sitting at the center of the wrecked room, "could you really not make a smaller noisemaker?"
He blinks rapidly at her. "Uh...what? Why do you call it that?"
"That isn't what it's supposed to do? It made this awful whine that really screwed up my ears and horn. I could barely concentrate!"
"Oh," it seems to Twilight that he looks sad. "Wow. I could have saved a lot of time and effort. No, it does way more than that - it throws out a ton of static on every frequency we could come up with that isn't harmful. Cellular, radio, all that stuff, none of it would have worked in here. We figured we were bound to hit whatever freaky stuff you did one way or another. The sound was just...well, why not, you know?"
Twilight giggles. "Oh, that's silly! Magic isn't on the electromagnetic spectrum! Though I suppose it's possible one of those things caused the horn resonance, rather than the sound." She turns her head sideways and tightens her mouth in thought. "I suppose we could isolate each component of the device and do some tests..."
"Um, Twilight," Fluttershy's leaning up against Polaris, enjoying a head scratching, "I'd really rather never hear that noise ever again, if that's ok."
"I agree," Applejack calls over, "besides, do y'all really want that thing around when this guy knows where you live and all?"
Twilight frowns, but nods. "You're right, everypony. Much though it pains me, now is probably not the time for science. But, uh, Sean, you could make it again if you needed to...right?"
He thinks for a minute, then nods. Twilight perks up a bit. "Stand back, then."
Everyone moves to the edges of the room, then her horn glows and the device emits some curls of acrid smoke. There are some pops and sparks, and several of the exposed wires fall loose at one or both ends.
"I suppose you'd better just tell me about Mr. Gray, then," Twilight says. "How closely did you work with him? Was he here?"
"Oh yeah! He dropped those two off, and was here until about ten minutes before you got here. He said he was going on a coffee run, but it's only a few minutes away, so I sorta figured he'd gone before you got here. That's one of the reasons I gave up."
"Yeah," Applejack said, "I could tell he weren't coming back soon as he told ya."
"You were awake? How'd we get the dose that far wrong?"
Twilight laughs. "You just didn't know about earth ponies. Applejack's magic isn't quite as strong as mine, and it's in a totally different form, but she's a lot stronger, faster, and tougher than any earth animal her size. If you'd given her enough to keep her unconscious it probably would have looked like a lethal dose."
"Twi'," Applejack glares at her, "don't tell him! What if he's a double agent or something?"
"I'm not really worried about that, AJ. I trust him. They had us pretty well pinned down when he turned that thing off, after all. Besides, if they ever do capture any of us again, I'd rather they not kill you accidentally. Or one of the others when they don't realize only earth ponies are that tough. Can you imagine if they gave Rarity an Applejack-sized dose?"
Applejack winces, then nods. "Fair 'nuff. So how long's it gonna take for your friends to get here?"
"Probably another ten minutes or so," Twilight sighs. "I just hope they beat the real police. They like us, ever since I helped Rachel, but this would be a bit much to explain, especially why they can't just take these guys into custody." She turns to Sean again. "Anyway, Mr, Gray really does work for the government, right? I couldn't really tell if his badge was fake when he showed me."
"Oh yeah," Sean says, "Homeland Security, the uh, shadier side of it. I got recruited last year, right out of college. Seemed exciting, you know? It was right after those marathon bombers and the lockdown," the ponies looked confused, but Polaris just nodded, "and I wanted to stop that from ever happening again. But it didn't turn out that way. Then with you guys, well...it was the last straw."
"Seems like a mighty dangerous move," Applejack says. "If they're willin' to do this to us, what're they gonna do to you when they find out you betrayed 'em?"
Sean looks queasy, but his voice is firm. "They won't be happy, that's for sure. But it was the right thing to do. After that speech you gave, they were never going to let you go, if they got you. Mr. Gray tried to hide how mad he was, but I could tell. He's got it in for you now."
"The Princess will protect him, like she protected herself," Polaris says, voice serene.
"That's very nice of you to say," Twilight can't resist a little eye roll, "but I still have to sleep sometimes. No matter how angry Mr. Gray is, though, he's playing a complicated game here, and I don't think he wants to lose. I can't always be there to protect you, so we have to make sure doing anything to you would be a bad move."
"How do we do that?"
"Well, you can't prove your story, right?"
"Not really. I mean, I have an ID card, but it isn't like my specific activities are public record. That would kind of defeat the purpose."
"Right. So we need to make sure you tell it, and that you stay somewhere visible."
"I don't follow, sugarcube," Applejack frowns.
"No, I think she might be right," Sean says, "or at least, it's our best chance. If I'm outspoken and visible, if anything happens, it'll support my story," he turns to Twilight. "Let me guess, you want me to go to the park?"
"Exactly," Twilight smiles at him. "Well, I'll take you. Can't have you getting attacked on the way."
"Princess?" Polaris looks over at her. Twilight waits for a moment for her to continue, then realizes she's waiting for permission.
"Oh, err, you don't need to ask me before you talk to me."
Polaris nods and blushes. "I will ask my comrades to set up a watch on him, if you don't mind."
"I was planning on just having him stay in the park. It sounded like a lot of them were planning on staying there for a long time to keep up the protest."
"Of course," Polaris nods back, "but I've read about things like this. They don't all have to be snipers and soldiers. If he's just in there in that big crowd, all sorts of accidents can happen. Someone was drinking. A veteran saw him as a deserter, got mad. We aren't earth ponies either. All it takes is a knife, and it's easy to make up a story for that. Uh, no offense, Princess. I'm sure you know best."
Twilight sighs. "Polaris, I appreciate that you respect me so much, but I already told you I'm not a god. I don't know best. Three months ago I didn't know this planet existed! I'll take your advice, if you agree that if I need it again, you won't be so nervous about giving it to me."
Polaris manages a smile. "I'll do my best."
The sound of a car pulling up echoes in through the broken doorway. Twilight glides over and peers out.
"That's them," she says, "AJ, Fluttershy, go back to the bar with them. Polaris, you too. I'll meet you there as soon as I get Sean settled, and I'll fill you in, I promise. I just need to make sure he'll be ok."
Fluttershy smiles up at Sean. "We understand. He was so nice to us, we can't let those mean humans hurt him. I'm sure I'll see you again soon, Sean."
The human grins goofily, then blushes as soon as he realizes it. "T-thanks Fluttershy."
"Come on, you girls can ride in my car," Polaris says. Twilight finds it horribly unfair that she seems perfectly willing to be casual around the other ponies. "That kind of van doesn't have any seats in the back. Besides, I've got a convertible!"
"What's a car?" Applejack says.
"What's a convertible?" Fluttershy continues.
"Don't worry," Polaris grins at them, "you'll love it. Just be sure to hold on to your hat, Applejack."
"I've had better apples," Applejack says around the mouthful of food, "but puttin' this cheese and honey on 'em's a great idea, and the bread ain't half bad neither. What'd you say this cheese was?" She's sitting with Pinkie, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Rarity at the just-opened bar, waiting for Twilight to come back from the park. Her friends have given her the very quick rundown on the situation, and now the ponies are enjoying a selection of the vegetarian appetizers.
"Brie, dear," Rarity says. "We have it back home as well, though it's imported from Prance so we don't often see it in the Ponyville market."
"Fancy it goin' so well with apples, then."
Rarity rolls her eyes. "You do know apples don't just grow in Ponyville, or even just in Equestria, don't you?"
"'Course I do," Applejack huffs, "but all the ones worth eatin' do. I guess that's why they need to dress these up all fancy-like."
Pinkie giggles at her. "Don't worry Applejack, I'm sure this would be even better with Sweet Apple Acres apples!"
"Darn right," Applejack nods, then pauses before changing the subject. "So, what's the story with that weird human with the purple dress? She was followin' after Twi' like Scoots does with Dash."
"Hey now," Dash says, "Scoots is way cooler than that. She just doesn't have much family, you know? She just thinks of me like a big sis. Those humans think Twi's some kind of..." She looks a bit lost for words.
"God, is the word Twilight used," Rarity says, "I gave in and looked it up later. It's...quite the large concept. They're kind of like the Princesses, supposed to be like humans but far more powerful. But of course, humans have no magic at all, and gods supposedly do. But if they exist at all, they're very...distant. So different groups have had different gods, or even just believe in one, and most say the others aren't real or true. I could barely sort it all out, though the stories were interesting. Twilight says most of the differences go back to no humans at all living longer than a century or so. We know what things were like thousands of years ago, at least in part, because we can just ask the Princesses, or a dragon if we're lucky. Nothing that can speak and think lives that long here so they just have to sort it out as best they can."
"I don't think I'll ever get used to this place," Applejack looks down at her food. "But why do they think Twi's like that? She must've told 'em. I reckon with some diagrams."
"Oh yeah she told 'em first thing," Rainbow says, "but they just said she was better, since she's actually around. Seems right to me, who needs gods that never show up when you've got Twi'?"
"Oh, poor Twilight," Fluttershy says, "all that attention, all those expectations."
"Oh yes," Rarity says, gesturing at the tree turned shrine out the window, "all those little pieces of paper are requests to her, or thanks for things she's done. She reads them all, of course, but I think they make her a bit sad. Not the thanks, of course, but the requests."
"Huh," Applejack says, sipping her hard cider, "well, y'all aren't gods. No one'd ever mistake Rainbow here for some all-powerful critter." Rainbow scowls at her. "How're y'all gettin' on with the natives?"
Pinkie grins wide and nudges Rainbow. "Yeah Dashie, how're you getting on? Where is your mare, uh, womanfirend anyway?"
Applejack nearly spits out a mouthful of cider.
"Pinkie," Applejack would have described Rainbow's tone as a whine, though not to her face, "they say girlfriend. And Mary's not my girlfriend, so I don't need to know where she is."
"Oh thank Celestia," Applejack says, "so you didn't go sleepin' with a human?"
"What? No, I totally did, it was awesome, we're just not together or anything, we're just friends. Friends with benefits they say here. It's pretty cool."
Applejack shakes her head. "Well, you are always goin' on about your speed, I guess."
"What's the matter AJ, jealous?"
"You know I ain't, ya fool filly. I just...y'know what, never you mind, I don't want to know how that works."
"Oh, well, um," Fluttershy says, "humans are clearly mammals. I'm sure you could figure it out. I can and you have plenty of animals too."
Before anyone else can respond, Pinkie falls over on the table laughing, managing to smear her face with ranch dressing and the remains of an onion ring. Dash narrowly rescues her cider and scowls at her, but her laughter's contagious, and within a few moments, everyone else is in stitches as well.
"Oh, girls," Rarity says, "I'm so glad all of us are together again. The four of us against the world felt so hopeless, but the six of us? Well, that's just every day, now isn't it?"
Applejack can't help but agree.
The clear tone of Twilight's phone cuts through the peaceful, quiet skies as she's flying back from the park to the bar. Sean's testimony is already making the social media rounds, and she's reasonably confident the two guards Polaris arranged for his small tent will keep him safe from any "accidents". She isn't expecting a call, but breathes out when the number isn't unknown or Mr. Gray's (she put the number on the card in her contacts, just in case), but Alanna.
"Hello Alanna! What can I do for you?"
"Twilight, I just saw that buy's story online. You really turned a government agent?"
"Well, I'd say turned is a bit much, Fluttershy just looked at him for a bit and he gave up. It seemed like he wasn't very happy working for Mr. Gray."
"That's not the point! That was a huge risk, Twilight, and you already know they know where you live! You're pushing them into a corner. You might get what you want, but if you don't...look, we shouldn't talk seriously this way. They might be listening."
"They can do that?"
"It depends, but probably. The bar's open, right?"
Twilight glances at the time displayed on her phone. "Yes, they opened about half an hour ago."
"Good, the crowds should make it safe. Make sure all your friends are there, I'll be there as soon as I can. See you soon."
The line goes dead, and Twilight calls up Rainbow Dash's number.
"Dash? Are you at the bar? Great. Is everypony with you? Great. Get Mary there too. Alanna's worried about us, she's on her way to talk. No, she's worried our phones are being monitored. Apparently. Good, see you soon."
Hanging up, she tosses the phone back in the saddlebags, and beats down harder with her wings.
As it turns out Alanna's plan is simple: bring the ponies (and Mary) to her house. It's not exactly a hiding place, since she's their attorney of record, but Twilight doesn't plan to hide in any case. And it's a large, comfortable old house in North Cambridge, among other wealthy humans that enjoy their privacy. It's set back from the road, with a top-of-the-line security system, and they're quite confident that, unlike at least some parts of the bar, it contains no listening devices.
It's also the best they're likely to get within the city.
When they arrive, they find Polaris waiting with two more robed humans, a man and a woman. It seems their actual garb has come in; they're dressed in what look like martial arts outfits, done up in a lavender matching Twilight's coat, with trim that matches the blue of her mane. She's still disconcerted to see it, and can't help but blush a little.
"Hello Polaris," she says, channeling Clestia's princess lessons, "what brings you here?"
"Your friend Ms. Rare sent me an email," the human replies with a small smile, "she asked if I could help with security. I arranged for Orion," she gestures to the man, "and Cygnus to stay here. They'll keep watch while you're away and make sure no one sneaks in."
"I didn't realize you were in charge of...whatever you people are, dear," Rarity says.
Now Polaris blushes a little. "Well, Ms. Rarity, we never really had leaders, exactly, but when everyone saw my video of that fight where Twilight lost her magic, they sort of decided to put me in charge."
"Oh, congratulations! Do we need to have a 'getting promoted to the head of your weird kinda-cult' party?" Pinkie bounces up to her.
"Pinkie," Twilight is blushing furiously now, "that's very rude, they aren't even kind of a cult!"
"I dunno," Cygnus says, "we kinda are." Her friends glare at her. "Princess. Err, no disrespect intended. But it's all pretty religious, isn't it? I mean, I feel a lot like I did when I was young, before I lapsed...maybe it's just me..." she trails off and briefly reminds Twilight of Fluttershy.
"Well, leaving that one on the table," Polaris tries to recover, "I don't need a party, Pinkie. It's mostly extra work, but I'm glad to be able to help out. And these two are some of our most experienced fighters, they'll make sure to keep the place secure while you're gone." Pinkie's mane begins to droop, and her eyes get watery at the thought of a party being unnecessary. "But uh, you could have a moving-in party, I'm sure, and if you really want to celebrate my 'promotion' I'll come to it if you like."
Pinkie perks back up and begins bouncing around the driveway, grinning. "Oooh, and this is such a big house, we'll be able to have a great party! Maybe I'll do a garden party..." her voice fades as she hops into said garden.
Twilight chuckles. "Well everyp-" she remembers Mary and cuts herself off, "everyone, shall we get settled in?"
Aside from Pinkie's party, which is small but successful, they settle in without much issue. For the first few nights, Twilight misses the comfort of feeling her friends close, and every night she misses Spike's presence at her bedside, but it's nice to have her own space again, and after the second evening the temptation to find AJ or Rarity and ask to lean up against them fades. She doesn't avoid it out of fear of awkwardness, exactly; once or twice she feels as if Rarity is on the verge of asking the same thing. But she feels that it'd be unbecoming, and foalish. She has been here the longest, after all, and is a Princess. But the temptation is strong enough that when she catches a glimpse of a terrified-looking Fluttershy knocking on Rarity's door on the first night, she feels nothing but a brief ache of jealousy that her friend feels more secure asking for help than she does, and then a sort of ashamed happiness that Fluttershy's likely to feel better, newly dropped into this strange world.
Soon she settles into a routine, enough of one that she can start making a daily checklist again. It's rudimentary compared to her Ponyville one, but she feels as if a weight is lifted from her as she thinks once again of the future, even if only a day ahead. On most days it's simple: Breakfast. Fly to the park. Talk to the humans protesting. Lunch in the square with the girls. Back to the park, all together. Dinner at the house. Study humans online (subject of study varies daily). Bed.
And so the week slips by. Every day she arrives at the park with a little kernel of fear in the back of her mind, that she'll find it a battlefield, victim of some horrible play by Mr. Gray or some hateful human group. Instead, though, each morning she finds there are more and more people in the park. It starts with the unemployed and students, but soon others have joined up, not staying in the park all the time, but showing up as their lives allow, bringing food or drink or just enthusiasm. Gradually the park fills and they begin overflowing into the law school quad and Harvard Yard, and into the common spaces at the center of the square. By the end of the week, Twilight has to make her initial survey from the air, so as to take in all the little tent villages that have sprung up in and around the Square.
At the start of the next week, they start hearing about other groups doing the same thing in other cities. First across the country, and then beyond, people start taking to parks and streets. Twilight hears it compared to something called the "Occupy Movement", and some similar anti-war protests, and spends the evening researching them. The next day she talks to many of them using Skype, an experience she finds deeply strange, even compared to the speaker phone. She's trying not to take over, not to make it about her, but she hears in their voices how much they appreciate hearing from her, how much they feel they owe to her. All she did was talk a bit, and have some magic! She wonders if she'll ever get used to this part of being a Princess.
When she was a filly, still dreaming of what she might one day be, she used to love to sit in an empty crate, lovingly decorated in crayon and sticker, and pretend it was a tiny airship, taking her beyond the horizon. She feels like somewhere deep inside her, she's still that filly, looking out through two camera-eyes, pressing shiny star-sticker buttons to control the alicorn princess shell she presents to the world. She wonders if Celestia still feels like that, too, and if not, how many centuries it took for the feeling to fade.
But shell or no, the world sees the Princess, and the next day a half-dozen more towns and cities have their own growing groups of humans taking to the streets. In America most put supporting the ponies first on their list of demands, but her message seems to have taken as well, and all of them have a healthy number of signs demanding everything from campaign reform to digital democracy. Abroad, a few humans wave signs demanding their governments offer asylum to the ponies, but most call for reforms. This, at least, makes Twilight smile.
More bodies on the street isn't the only way her reputation grows. Halfway through week two, she's featured on the Google doodle. Rainbow Dash grumbles frequently that Twilight gets posted more on Facebook than she does, despite not having her own account (though Rainbow's own following has also grown significantly). And, despite no longer working at Rosie's bar, she finds herself with no shortage of money, as humans from all over send her donations, trusting her to use the funds wisely.
She has no idea how to use it all. She uses some to buy food and drink for the crowd in the park, but just sits on the rest, hoping someday to figure out a use for it.
As the second week draws to a close, though, and the scent of the coming autumn drifts across the city with the sunset breeze, Twilight feels the knot in her stomach growing. She wakes each day just waiting for something to break, for the fourth hoof to fall. Every city they add feels like a triumph, but just makes her more afraid that when it happens, it'll happen somewhere she can't possibly reach in time. So the week ends in a battle between hope and fear.
On the first day of the third week, there's a premature fall chill in the air. It sets all the ponies grumbling anew at the strangeness of a world where the weather's so unpredictable It's cool enough that many of the humans in the park and square have broken out light jackets, and Twilight can see the campers bringing heavy sleeping bags and camp stoves in. She sends a few of the regulars to fetch more, glad to have something useful to do with more of the donation money.
As the sun's sinking and the six ponies are preparing to head back to the house, Twilight's phone jingles as she receives a new text message. She frowns as she sees it's from an unknown number. Before she can read it, the alert sounds twice more as two more texts arrive from the same sender. She reads them:
From Rachel. Can't use my own phone, might be watched. Department mobilizing, something big tonight.
Think it's about you. They didn't tell me, had to hear it from a friend on the dl. Our dept's all with you but this one's bigger, lots of depts involved.
Coming tonight I think, after sundown. Leave now if you want to get out, or be sure not to if you want to be there. Good luck, will do what I can.
"Hold up girls," Twilight says, and they all turn to face her. "Come up with a list of what you need to stay here for at least the night and we'll send someone to buy it in the square. You all need to see this."
Intellectually Twilight's aware that her namesake time is longer here, where no magic raises sun and moon, but it still catches her off-guard when she experiences it, and makes her remember savoring that long sunset in the hills with Fiona, that seems so long ago. Tonight she feels all these things as the shadows lengthen and the sun sinks red, but it seems her stomach's following it in descent, since she knows it marks the approach of something unknown but terrible, the last grain of sand in the unseen hourglass she's felt counting down the pregnant peace of the last few weeks.
Before she can wax too poetic, her friends start trickling in with whatever supplies they felt most useful.
Rainbow Dash is the first, second, and third back; she's taking frequent laps to the sporting goods store, hauling outdoor blankets, tents, and sleeping bags to distribute to those that don't have them and don't want to flee. Applejack and Fluttershy are together, and return next. Applejack's roped a wheelbarrow to herself, and filled it and her saddlebags to the brim with produce. Fluttershy trots beside her, bags bulging with more.. Rarity arrives next, floating many bottles of (sparkling, of course) water in her wake. Twilight sees the neck of a bottle of wine poking out of one saddlebag. Pinkie Pie's the last one back. She's somehow commandeered three shopping carts, roped them together, and filled all three with baked goods. She sits gleefully on top of a pile of bakery boxes in the lead cart, wearing a party hat and watching streamers and glitter stream behind her as she speeds across the pavement. Twilight decides to be glad she's brought so much, and to not think about how, exactly, she's steering or propelling the cart-train. Needless to say, concerned humans scramble out of her way, but she rolls perfectly to a stop directly in front of Twilight, arriving with a burst of confetti.
They load all the supplies into a tent, and Twilight touches it briefly with her horn, enchanting it to keep the inside chilled. The sun's scraping the horizon now, and Twilight turns, throat dry, to look at Massachusetts Avenue, the major road that runs along the park. Still nothing looks amiss; summer sunsets are late enough that rush hour's already over, and traffic's flowing freely, the slowing effect of the packed park long since passed as the protest merged into the city's routine. Then Twilight notices the police cars pulling up. Their lights aren't on, so it takes a moment to realize they aren't just normal cars parking, but then she counts five or six, including a large van, and she starts galloping towards them. With a shout, her friends are beside her, and they draw up to the edge of the road in time to see the van's doors open.
Out of it come Rachel, Alanna, Rosie, Fiona, and Annie-Jane. Rachel's in uniform, but the rest are in work or casual clothes. From the other police cars, in ones and twos, Rachel's squad-mates emerge.
"Rachel," Twilight frowns, "what's all this? Didn't you just text me?"
"Yeah," her human friend says, "I did. There's a protest here, though, and so some of us from the department decided we'd better, uh, make sure everyone behaves."
"Whadda ya mean, make sure we behave?" Applejack glares at her. "We've been behavin' these last few weeks, haven't we?" Rachel rolls her eyes.
"Applejack, dear," Rarity says, "she means they're here because they've heard things that make them worried about our safety. They don't want to make sure we behave."
"Oh," Applejack stops glaring, but grumbles at Rarity, "well why couldn't she just say that?"
"I assume because they're worried some other part of their government will cause trouble, but don't want to be quoted as saying that."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Rachel says, "we just know street gatherings have a tendency for violence. Clearly we've had officers present the whole time." She glances at Applejack and throws a tiny wink.
"I'm never gonna get used to this place," Applejack sighs. "Humans can't ever seem to say what they mean."
"Well, Rachel can speak for herself, but I'm here because I think you folks have a good point, and Twilight's my friend," Annie-Jane says, "and that's the whole truth." The other humans nod. "I'm gonna go see who I can talk into making me one of these signs."
"We missed you at the bar," Rosie smiles at Twilight, "but when Rachel said there might be something going on here, we decided maybe we'd bring it to you." She flashes some bottles of cider in a bag. "I called your former coworkers, most of 'em are on their way, and I left a sign at the bar."
Twilight can't resist nuzzling each of them. "Thank you so much. Whatever's coming, I'm glad you're here with me."
The sun slips below the horizon as they go off to find a place, and even among all these supporters, the presence of people she knows and respects makes her feel better. Her pony friends press up against her too, and she feels some of the knot in her stomach unravel. She looks out over the street, feeling a bit more at peace. The long shadows of sunset stretch along the empty street, casting it in lines of black and orange.
The empty street.
Heart sinking, Twilight steps to the edge of the street and looks in both directions. The last few cars disappear around the corner into Harvard Square, and then it's totally empty, devoid of cars as far as she can see. Heart sinking, she flies slightly up, just high enough to see over the humans. On every side of the park, the roads are completely empty. She's reminded of an anecdote she read (of course!) about the sea before a tidal wave, or a river before certain kinds of flash flood, how the water disappears for a little while before the deluge. Throat bone dry again, she lands next to her friends.
"All the cars are gone..." she murmurs.
"I saw," Rachel says softly, "I guess it could happen this early, but probably means they've cut off the roads."
"Why would they do that?"
"Probably because they want to fill them with a lot of police. Maybe the National Guard."
Three of Twilgiht's purple-clad followers have appeared out of the crowd, staves held ready. The rest of the crowd has noticed something's up now, and they've gone quiet, looking at the road. Around the corner from the square, going against the now-irrelevant normal flow of traffic, several large vehicles roll into view, bigger even than the police vans Twilight's seen parked outside Rachel's station. A few more appear from the other side. Rachel swears under her breath.
"Yep, Guard. Damn, Twilight, you're in the big leagues now."
"I take it that's not a good thing in this case," Rarity murmurs.
"Not so much. I hope they just needed to transport more bodies, and left the actual work to the SWAT. If they're dumb enough to have sent live rounds, this is getting even uglier."
Black-armored figures start pouring from the sides of the vehicles, and Twilight notes to her relief they're carrying the characteristic plastic shields and clubs of riot squads, rather than long arms. Beside her Rachel breathes out.
"Okay, at least there's that. Maybe we'll get out of this without anyone getting killed. How's that shield of yours, Twilight? Now might be a good time."
Twilight nods, and the energy shield snaps into being around the edges of the park. A black SUV pulls out in front of the assembling SWAT officers, stopping not far from the shield, and Mr. Gray steps out of the passenger seat.
"You again," Rainbow Dash calls at him, "you've got some nerve showing up here!'
"I tried to be reasonable with you," he replies, "but you're harboring a defector, and none of you ponies are authorized to be in the country. While your legal appeal is going on, I've been authorized to take you into custody, and place your 'guest' under arrest for treason. The governor's office has also informed me this protest is disrupting the intended use of the park and it needs to disperse."
"That's bullshit!" Rosie calls out. "If we can't protest on public property, what does our right to assemble even mean?"
"I have my orders," Mr. Gray says, "now are you going to lower this nonsense and listen to the law?"
An angry rumble rises from the crowd. Twilight's friends array in combat stance around her, and her human guards press close.
"Officer Diaz, I see you in there! Some of the rest of you are police too! Are you going to ignore my orders?"
"Fuck your orders!" Rachel shouts back. "You aren't my superior, and I haven't heard anything from my chief! I'm off the clock engaged in a legal protest!" She hastily takes off her hat and uniform jacket.
"Yes, all your direct superiors seem to be mysteriously out of contact," Mr. Gray grumbles. "Fine, but don't say I didn't give you the chance."
He steps back and his mouth moves as he says something softly into an earpiece. A loud, mechanical racket fills the air as several helicopters clear the surrounding buildings, flying low over the park. Twilight wonders if they don't realize that the shield is a bubble, or if they plan to drop bombs on it, though she's pretty confident it can hold. In the streets, the heavy vehicles turn, facing the open troop compartments towards her. She wonders what's going on for a moment, before she catches sight of the large speaker in the back of one.
"They didn't need to carry more troops," she yells, "they needed the room for equipment! They're going to pump that noise out again! Get ready, everyone!"
She braces herself, hoping she'll be able to keep the shield up despite the distracting noise. The SWAT officers are nearly assembled, stretching in a single long line all around the perimeter of the park.
"Princess," one of her human guards says, "we need to fall back. If something goes wrong, we need to buy you time to recover. We won't be able to hold them off alone."
"But, what about--" she begins, but Applejack cuts her off.
"He's right, Twi', if that shield goes they're gonna try to rush you and take you out. The rest of us can try to take those contraptions out but it won't do a lick of good if they get to you first."
She tries to protest again, but Applejack's already picked her up, and she doesn't have the heart to fight.
"Stay safe, y'hear?" Applejack drops her off at the base of the statue and gives her a nuzzle before running back to the front line.
Twilight backs herself up against the marble base. Her three human guards nearly block out her sight, but she can see the lines are assembled completely now.
The ear-splitting noise fills the air, and even prepared she can't help but wince. It's incredibly loud this time, and coming from all directions, each speaker giving out a slightly different range, making her head spin. Still, she's just barely holding the shield; she couldn't put it up with this distraction, but she can keep it going.
Then, with a yell, the whole mass of SWAT officers raises their shields and charges into the bubble. Twilight's strained on all sides, her horn aches as she struggles to channel enough power in all directions to keep it from buckling, despite the pain in her head and the bizarre resonance.
For almost a minute, she thinks she's got it. Then one of the massive APCs slams into the barrier, and the whole thing buckles. The purple shield cracks and collapses.
As soon as she hears the horrible screech again, Applejack knows, with the certainty of watching an old tree teeter and fall, that Twilight's shield won't be able to hold, that it's just a matter of time.
"Rachel," she calls to the human next to her, "those speakers are makin' a noise only we ponies can hear, it's gonna drive Twi' crazy. I don't reckon she'll be able to hold the shield. Soon as it's gone, I'm making for those big machines that make it. Pinkie, you come too. What do we need to know? Why're they wearin' those weird masks?"
"They're gas masks," Rachel says, "I've got one, but I don't think it'll fit you. Probably means they're planning to use tear gas. It's made from concentrated spice and makes you miserable, it's nonlethal but they use it to disperse crowds like this, it's pretty much incapacitating."
"Okay then Rainbow," Applejack says, "think you and Fluttershy can make us a nice wind, maybe blow it away?"
Rainbow just smirks at her and takes to the air. Nearly instantly the breeze starts to pick up, ruffling the hair and clothes of the humans who stare at the increasingly blurred forms of the pegasi, jaws slack.
"That should help the rest of y'all," Applejack continues, "but we'll be goin' into the thick of it Pinkie. We've just gotta hope earth pony grit'll get it done. You gonna be ok with the noise?"
Pinkie just grins and produces massive earphones from her saddlebag, plugging them into her phone.
"Why didn't we get those for everypony?" Applejack starts, but time's clearly running short. The wall black-armored humans are pressing against the barrier with their shields now, and she can see the energy dancing across the surface as Twilight feeds it magic.
"Allrighty then," she says, but can barely hear herself over the white noise, the sound of the straining shield, and the heavy thrumming of the helicopters. She gives it up as a bad job and just looks over at Rachel, who pulls out a club and nods back. She tenses her legs and prepares for the worst. Around her the bravest of the human protesters have assembled. Many of them have torn their signs from their poles and are wielding the wooden sticks, a few have scrounged heavy branches from the ground, and a few more are just brandishing fists. All of them form a line around Twilight and the others that mirrors the line of SWAT officers pressing against the shield. Between their apparent inexperience and lack of equipment, Applejack would trade any three of them for a guardpony, but at least they look enthusiastic, and she hopes the humans will continue to underestimate the ponies based on their size and lack of weapons.
Just as Rainbow's winds kick into high speed, blowing trash, loose papers, and discarded signs around the perimeter of the park in a weird cyclone, one of the massive human vehicles runs headlong into the shield to Applejack's left; she looks up in shock, but can't see anyone in the driver's seat. The heavy impact proves too much for Twilight, and the shield wavers and vanishes, letting the vehicle crash through, scattering protesters and attackers alike as it tips over in the park, digging a deep furrow in the grass.
All along the line, SWAT officers pull out tear gas grenades and toss them towards the park, but they're caught up in the artificial storm that has the protesters at its eye, and spiral into the air, scattering white trails like clouds into the swirling wind. They pause for a moment, apparently confused, and then charge through the growing cloud, shields raised. A few think to throw again after they pass into the eye, but the protesters have already begun to counter-charge. A few canisters go wide, a few more are caught and thrown into the cyclone by the defenders, and Rarity manages to snag several from nearby them in magic, tossing them into the vortex. Still a few land in the park, sending the rear ranks of the protesters scrambling away, and Applejack's eyes water just from the few fumes that escape into the still air around her.
Still she gallops forward, Pinkie keeping pace despite the fact that she's more dancing than running, in time with whatever beat is playing through her excessively large headphones. Ahead the funnel looks like a true twister now, swirling and white, though the cloud isn't totally opaque, but she knows the clouds aren't harmless water, but rather painful incapacitating gas. Before that hurdle, though, the grim line of human attackers advances to meet them.
Their human allies are charging enthusiastically behind them, but Applejack and Pinkie are faster. She considers slowing to let them catch up, but doesn't think there's much chance Pinkie will do the same. She hopes that if a whole section of the line collapses on them, the protesters will at least be able to take advantage of the confusion.
As she approaches, though, it looks like the officers are more interested in holding ranks than swarming the two ponies. Since they're expecting a full-on assault, it's a reasonable plan, but Applejack knows all she has to do is break through. The noise and chaos of battle are already growing around her, the noise clearly indicating protesters and police have met elsewhere in the park, but she's tunnel-visioning on the few humans in front of her, now growing very near. They raise their shields to chest height, ready to block the expected attack. Applejack's approaching a shorter but scrappy looking woman, who raises her club behind her, ready to sweep down after deflecting the initial blow. At the last minute, though, she swerves to face the largest man she can see. Quickly, before she can lose all momentum from her gallop, she feigns a jump. He raises his shield, ready to stop her hooves from planting on his chest, and then she goes low, sliding along the park's grass, the rough earth painful on her belly. She pulls her head as low as she can, hoping it'll be enough, and lets the inertia from her gallop bring her between his large, planted legs. As she feels herself slowing, she plants all four hooves, just like she's done a thousand times in rodeo practice, and throws her hindquarters up under him in a blue-ribbon ponybuck. Despite his weight, he's caught completely off guard, and tumbles left, knocking the officer next to him heavily to the ground in a tumble.
Applejack feels a club fall on her withers, but it's a surprised, impromptu blow, without considered force behind it, so it smarts, but has nowhere near enough force to stop her. Rather than striking back, she takes to her hooves again, powering towards the cloud at a frantic gallop. Pinkie's keeping pace again with her casual-seeming bouncing pace, and she's just as happy she didn't see how the party pony arranged to get through the lines, for the sake of her sanity. Several of the officers turn to pursue them, but even an unencumbered human can't keep pace with a pony over a short distance, let alone one with a shield and armor. They fall behind, and then Applejack sees the mob of protesters engulf them, their ordered line rolling up at the point she broke through it, degenerating into a melee that would have made Discord proud.
Then her time's up. She can feel her nose twitching in irritation at the leading edge of the tear gas cyclone. She takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, and tries not to breathe at all. Her nose and eyelids still feel on fire, and tears roll down her face. Even her coat feels itchy and loose on her bones and muscles. She nearly cries out, but barely stops herself from taking the breath that would fill her lungs with liquid fire. She holds her breath as long as she possibly can, lights dancing before her slammed-shut eyes, then comes to a stop and takes a deep, halting breath, hoping to taste sweet air. She does, and opens her eyes.
The swirling cloud is well behind her now, and through the misty barrier she can see utter chaos reigns in the park, but now she's standing on the street between two APCs. The piercing noise is sharp and urgent here, coming from two large speakers, one on each side of her, apparently moved free of the vehicles. Pinkie's next to her, smiling, of course.
"Mmmm, spicy," she says, licking her lips. Applejack can't help but snort to suppress a giggle. She's about to tell Pinkie to take the left speaker when her friend leaps unexpectedly away from her, eyes widening. An angry red line appears across Pinkie's side, accompanied by a bang and the stench of fireworks. Reflexively, Applejack leaps for cover behind the speaker to her right, and Pinkie staggers behind the one on the left, trailing droplets of blood across the pavement.
"Oh dear, that looked bad," Mr. Gray's voice cuts through the screech from the speaker, "you should probably get that looked at. Come out now and I promise I won't hurt you further."
"Yeah, buck that and you," Applejack grumbles, making sure the speaker's well between her and the voice. She glances at Pinkie and mimes bucking the massive device behind her. Pinkie smiles thinly and nods. Applejack turns her rear legs towards it, and locks her eyes on Pinkie's. Her friend staggers to her hooves and manages to mimic the pose. Pinkie nods once, twice, thrice in order, then near-simultaneously both of them rear up and slam their hooves into the speakers behind them.
Applejack knows exactly how much force it takes to knock every apple from each tree on Sweet Apple Acres, and even with her earth pony connection to growing things, the answer is "a lot". Because of this, she rarely uses even that much force in combat - it's rare she wants to kill her opponents, after all. But this speaker is massive, and she doesn't want just do damage it, she wants to ruin it. She wants to make sure that Twilight will be able to end the battle, decisively, with her magic, before they can fix whatever's wrong with it. So, for the first of her countless kicks in her adult life, Applejack just lets go. She feels her muscles pour power into her hooves, feels the fire in her bones as her magic joins it. Her hooves slam into the reinforced metal side of the speaker, and she worries for a moment they'll punch through, tangling her legs. Luckily, though, the humans have reinforced the device, clearly prepared for it to take a beating. But while it's equipped to deal with a sudden sharp shock over a small area, and the metal side now merely sports a massive dent, it isn't made to deal with the follow through. The sustained force of the kick sends the massive machine clear of the ground nearly to the height of Applejack. Through the momentary gap she can see Mr. Gray's shocked face; he was moving up behind the speaker, pistol ready, and now finds it heading towards him as an unintentional projectile. She sees the gun drop from his shaking hand and then the speaker slams down again, either between them or on top of him, she can't tell. The noise stops as the flight causes the cord to tear the power source out of the speaker completely, and there's a spray of sparks as the bottom hits the pavement at an odd angle and one edge slides along. Then, finally, the whole massive box teeters and falls to its side on the street with a crunch of bending metal and failing electronics. Applejack nods grimly at its ruin.
Pinkie, injured, didn't manage quite the same blow, but she hit her speaker hard enough to sever the power cord, and at least now it's fallen silent. Now only the speakers in the helicopters still sound, distantly from here.
Applejack's eyes snap back to the rubble, where Mr. Grey is crawling unsteadily towards his gun. She rushes forward and gets there first, crushing it under her hoof.
"Y'all'd best be givin' up now," she says.
Urbane affection gone, Mr. Gray only snarls at her. Quicker than she'd have imagined possible for a creature his size, he's pulls a wicked looking knife from his belt and lunges at her. She leaps back, and manages to knock the blow aside with her hoof, but she was caught off guard, and he recovers quicker, lunging at her in a series of wicked thrusts she barely manages to turn aside or avoid. Where previously her opponents overconfidence has worked against them, Mr. Gray is serious and angry now, and his knife and arms give him a serious reach advantage over the pony, despite her strength. She thinks a slice or two won't kill her, but she's never been entirely comfortable with just thinking she won't be killed.
Twice more he thrusts at her, and both times she barely manages to avoid it, but she's giving ground. The sparking ruin of the speaker is close behind her now, and she's not sure where to go. When he comes this time, she rears back instead, and tries to bring a hoof down on his hand or blade as it's extended, but he's too fast, and she lands heavily, dangerously overexposed. He draws back to thrust the knife towards her head, and she doesn't think she'll be able to pull back in time. Mostly she hopes she'll get clear enough to catch it on her muzzle, rather than her crown or eye.
Then Mr. Gray falls heavily in front of her, knife tumbling from his fingers, as Pinkie Pie half jumps, half collapses on his back with a yell. He turns to wrestle her off, fumbling for the knife with his other hand.
Applejack's first hoofblow shatters the hand. She's pretty sure the second, to the head, just knocks him out, but she finds herself hard-pressed to care. She comes down to all four hooves again, breathing heavily.
"Y'okay there sugarcube?"
"Yeppers," Pinkie says, without much of her usual enthusiasm. "Just need a cupcake or two and I'll be all ready go party again!"
"Maybe a bandage'd do better," Applejack scowls down at the still oozing wound in her side. She tears off a few long strips of Mr. Gray's shirt with her mouth and starts tying them around Pinkie's barrel.
"Yeah, that might be good too. What next?"
"You're gonna stay right here and eat those cupcakes. I won't have you openin' this up again out there. I'm gonna make sure they can't get this other speaker back in action and go help our friends in the park."
Pinkie droops a little, but nods.
"Listen up, I think I've wrecked these, but Twi' needs them all gone at once, and I can't get to the ones in the air. If they bring these back before Rainbow or Fluttershy can take those out, we're sunk. You'll be here to rest, sure, but if Mr. Gray here moves a muscle you hit him hard, and if anyone else shows up, you hit them too, you hear?"
Pinkie nods. "Can I hit him anyway?"
Applejack nuzzles her. "You don't really wanna do that do ya, sugarcube?" Pinkie hesitates, then shakes her head. "Good. I know he's a right nasty piece o' work but we got him good already. Let's make sure all our friends are safe, and leave the nastiness to his lot." Pinkie nods again, and this time nuzzles back with a small smile.
"Thanks AJ. Go kick some flank."
Applejack pauses to send a full buck into the less-damaged speaker, shattering the internal structure, then prepares herself for the plunge through the tear gas vortex again. Well Rainbow Dash, I hope you've got a plan to take down those flying machines.
Rainbow Dash is looking for a plan to avoid getting shot. Right now, like most of Rainbow Dash's plans, it involves going faster.
Pulling the tear gas up into a vortex was child's play, of course, for a future Wonderbolt, Ponyville weather leader, and in generally awesome pegasus. But what she hadn't realized was that the humans in those big flying machines were carrying guns, which they were now using to fire on her. She's already told Fluttershy to break off and rejoin Twilight on the ground, and she's confident her speed will make it impossible for the humans to get a bead on her with their light weapons.
Of course, now she's not sure what to do from here. Sometime, even her wings are going to get tired, and if she stops on her circular pattern to charge one of the airships, she's not sure they won't hit her before she can get to them.
So, because she's the Rainbow Dash, she starts beating her wings harder and harder. As she gains speed she has to widen her circle a little bit, sweeping the edges of the park clear of trash as it's drawn into the misty cyclone of refuse and tear gas, and the helicopters follow, hoping finally to get a reasonable shot.
All going according to plan. She's pretty sure, anyway. She hopes.
The fighting's nearing Twilight, and still the resonance from the helicopter speakers is bouncing around her head and horn, ruining her advanced spells. She hates having to stand back like this and stall for time, but she knows the superior training and armament of the SWAT teams will tell if she can't eventually bail them out. Already several large clouds of tear gas drift across the park, and fewer and fewer of the protesters are still on their feet. Between the shields, armor, and superior weapons, far fewer of their enemies are out of action, though she's proud to see Rarity still standing proud with a group of protesters around her.
One of her human guards shoves her back against the base of the statue.
"They're coming, Princess. Stay behind us."
She just nods, and they fan out in front of her, staves at the ready. The wooden weapons look hopelessly outmatched by the high-tech armor and large plastic shields of the SWAT officers, and Twilight fully expects to be engaged herself before long. Fluttershy's next to her, looking, as usual, scared, though Twilight has every faith that when it comes down to it, she'll never leave.
A group of six SWAT officers wins through, and her three guards move to engage them. The guards, she has to admit, and seem to be dancing rings around the shields and shorter clubs of their enemies, but as expected, even the heavy wooden sticks don't seem to be able to land much of a telling blow on the solid, armored humans.
Well, Twilight thinks, I may not be able to win the battle, but I'm not powerless yet. Fighting through the pain, she channels just a little energy through her horn into the staves, and each of their tips glows. It's a simple version of the energy bolt she learned as part of her princess training, like she used against the tatzlwurm. Sending the blast as a beam's too much for her to sustain for long, but keeping it focused on a few points is much simpler.
The next blow the guard lands delivers a jolt like a taser, and the officer falls to the ground, only slightly more stunned than the guard that landed it. All eyes snap to Twilight, and the attackers renew their efforts to break through, twirling into a dizzying storm of doges, strikes, and shield blocks with the guards. Two officers fall, then the first guard goes down heavily after a strong kick to the leg. The other two guards tighten ranks, but two more SWAT officers approach and manage to slip by the fracas. Twilight braces to get her hooves dirty again; she's worried she's rusty after relying on her alicorn magic for so long. She feels Fluttershy's coat against her as he friend leans into her, giving or taking comfort, or both. She lowers her head threateningly, a nearly instinctive posture, since she knows full well it's been several geological epochs - and probably at least one technical speciation - since unicorns used their horns in physical combat. Nonetheless, she braces herself.
Then, from the twirling cyclone on the edge of the park, a burst of prismatic light erupts, bathing the combatants in disco-color. Twilight's never been this close to a sonic rainboom before, and the force of the magic knocks her to her knees. Fluttershy shrinks down beside her. The humans are even less prepared, though, and all around they're thrown from their feet, dropping their weapons, or simply gaze awestruck at the sky, conflict forgotten at the sight.
The helicopters, caught in a plane with the explosion itself, are less lucky. The wave of magic washes over them, staining them for a moment in color, and then the electronics all go dark at once. Desperately the pilots struggle with the purely mechanical backup controls, trying to keep the vehicles from slamming disastrously into the park below.
Fortunately or unfortunately for them, their ultrasonic speakers have cut off as well, and the failing craft are caught in the rising tide of Twilight's returning magic, deposited safely on the cleared streets around the park.
Next to the statue at the center of the park, Twilight hovers, glowing like a star come to earth, violet and white. She sees most of the battle spread out before her, bathed in the flickering lights of her newly-returned power. She wonders what she can use to separate enemy from friend and expel only the former - perhaps something about their gas masks? She begins to compose an impromptu spell.
Then it proves unnecessary. All across the park, the SWAT officers look upon her floating, incandescent form, and break. A few gather up the presence of mind to collect fallen friends or retain their equipment, but most simply drop everything and turn tail, running heedless into the deepening night. The exhausted protesters watch them go, and gather up the injured. In dribs and drabs, all of them make their way to the statue, and the light of Twilight's floating star.
"See," Rainbow dash says, landing next to Mary, "going fast. Never fails."
After she's sure all the attackers have fled the park, and everyone who wants to stay is back, Twilight raises the shield again. Someone offers her some large headphones, and she hopes they'll be enough if their enemies bring in more speakers; she's not sure to what extent the distracting noise disrupts her magic, and to what extent it's the strange resonance between her horn and the ultrasonic static. She hopes she'll have at least a day before she has to find out.
For the moment, she takes up her organizer role again. Between the ruins of the park, the hunt for missing friends, and caring for the injured, there are countless things that need doing, and plenty of people who can do them, they just need to be matched up with the tasks. By the time that's done, and everything is going smoothly, from Fiona's hospital tent to Rosie's "missing friend mixer", the sky is well and truly dark, the park lit by countless camping lamps and the soft purple glow of the domed shield overhead. Twilight's guards settle in outside her tent as she prepares to go in.
"Are you two ever going to sleep?" she asks before she goes.
"There are a few more of us here, but everyone was up for the fight. We've got relief coming in a few hours, they're napping now."
She nods, and goes in to find her sleeping bag. She could stand to sleep herself, but she isn't willing to turn in before checking on the other protest locations. She knows the other group in Cambridge, across the street at Harvard Yard, is gone: without Twilight's shield, everyone was either rounded up before the battle, or slipped out and joined the larger group in the park, itself shrunk by injuries, a few arrests, and a fair number of people who weren't willing to stay in the face of potential arrest. Twilight can't really blame them, and while overall the group has shrunk, it's probably just as well: they might have to stay for quite a while, or abandon the protest, and the packed state of the park beforehand would have made it difficult to put the tents anywhere.
The situation isn't as bad as she feared, but still at least six other cities have had their protests shut down, with mass arrests. She makes a quick post to their organizing forum, letting everyone know she's okay and that they weathered the storm. After her first few attempts at posting proved...unpopular, she's taken to keeping her contributions terse. The crowds of humans seem to pick up the slack in any case; this is no exception, as by the time she's finished and submitted her brief statement, three videos and several dozen blurry phone photos of the battle have gone up. She finally lets herself drift off, content that the world will not end without her presence for a few hours.
Twilight awakes to the somewhat gentle nudging of Applejack. She opens her eyes blearily and sits up a little, momentarily confused at being in the tent rather than her bed at Alanna's house.
"See, you just gotta give her a good nudge," Applejack says over her shoulder. One of the guards stands there, frowning at her.
"That hardly seems proper."
Applejack snorts. "Twi' ain't no proper lady. 'Specially not before noon."
"Uhh...what's up, AJ?" Twilight manages. The guard-human answers instead.
"A couple of suits are standing outside the bubble asking to talk to you, Princess."
Twilight gathers herself up, casts a quick spell to restore order to her mane, tail, and coat, and follows Applejack and the guard into the park. Curiously, none of the police presence she expected is in evidence. Instead, traffic fills the streets as normal, and everyday life seems to be carrying on as if nothing untoward had happened the night before, though a few spent tear gas canisters are still lying on the pavement.
Rather than going to the edge of Mass Ave, her guard takes her to the edge of the park adjoining the smaller Garden Street. Two humans - as expected, in expensive looking suits - wait there, one woman, one man, both dark-haired and fair-skinned. When they see her approach, the woman produces a badge that, to her eyes, looks a lot like Mr. Gray's.
"Twilight Sparkle," she nods at Twilight. Twilight wouldn't say her voice is cold, but only because it's so steady that describing it with any kind of adjective would imply a commitment to tone that it certainly lacked. "I am Agent Harris. This is Agent Smith. We've come to speak with you on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security." Agent Smith nods and produces an identical badge.
Twilight nods at them. "Talk, then."
"Our information is confidential." Twilight thinks that Agent Harris's emotions are probably also confidential, explaining her continued lack of any kind of inflection. "We were instructed to share them only with you or your equine colleagues. We would appreciate it if you would come with us. It is not far. We promise no harm will come to you." Agent Smith nods again. Twilight hypothesizes that his voice is also confidential.
"How stupid d'ya think we are?" Applejack butts in.
"Our analysis indicates Princess Twilight Sparkle is extremely intelligent," Agent Harris says. "We have insufficient data on you. We called away the," here she pauses, Twilight notes, the first variance in her tone or cadence, "erroneously deployed personnel from here and all other protest sites, to show our good faith. Please check."
Twilight floats her tablet out of her saddlebag, keeping her eyes on the agents. She's gratified to see both pairs of eyes widen slightly. Good, she thinks, they're still surprised by my magic. She checks their organizational forums, making sure to control the stylus with her magic as overtly as possible. It seems they're telling the truth; over the course of the night, the authorities pulled back entirely, leaving the remaining protests unmolested. Five of the protests that were broken up overnight have reformed, with most or all of their participants released from jail with no charges.
"She's telling the truth," Twilight murmurs.
"And just like that, you're gonna go with her? If they get you out o' the picture, they can do whatever they want to the rest of us," Applejack says.
"I'll be alright. I can keep a personal shield up along with this one."
"And what if they break it again? Nothin' doin', Twi'. I know you need to hear 'em out, but no way am I lettin' you go alone."
Twilight smiles at her. "Of course you aren't. Shall we go?"
Applejack blinks, and Twilight thinks she expected more of a fight. "Uh, sure," is all she says. Still smiling, Twilight channels a bit of power into her horn, and they appear outside the shield next to the human agents, who have the good grace to look slightly stunned.
"Well, Agent Harris," she says, adding some extra honey to her voice to bring up the conversational average, "lead on."
The agents don't seem inclined to conversation, and lead them silently to a nondescript house a short distance away, then usher them into a sitting room - it looks completely normal, which throws Twilight for a bit of a loop. Agent Smith produces some kind of device he runs around the room before grunting and nodding at Agent Harris.
"Thank you for coming." Twilight concludes that even in private, they don't have clearance to her emotional state. "We've come on orders directly from the Secretary, who has informed us that these orders come from the President. We have been instructed to convey our official apology for the actions of a rogue element of the Department, led by the treacherous Mr. Gray."
"Rogue element my flank," Applejack growls, "I don't buy that for a mayfly's minute."
Agent Harris continues as if she hadn't spoken, though Twilight agrees with the sentiment. "Mr. Gray took a personal interest in you that was not in line with the beliefs or policies of the government. This is not confidential; we are merely informing you in advance, and will be issuing an official apology in a press conference as soon as this meeting has concluded. Furthermore, I have been informed that the President is furious at Congress's failure to recognize that you are due full 'human' rights as self-aware creatures. He plans to dedicate his efforts to correcting this error as soon as possible and believes he can reach an agreement with congressional Republicans within the week."
"Y'all just got yer flanks kicked in and wanna save face," Applejack summarizes. Twilight's increasingly glad she came along.
"We hope that this gesture of goodwill will restore your faith in us, and that you will return it by expressing yourself within our political system, as our citizens have for hundreds of years. Our actions are not contingent on that, however. Both the Secretary and the President agree that the right to protest is an important freedom, which the actions of this rogue element put in danger."
Applejack seems to have no response to this. Twilight nods at her. "Thank you, Agent Harris."
Agent Harris just nods and continues. "I am now delivering the information we consider confidential. While I have no power to compel you, we would appreciate this remaining between us. As a rogue special agent of this department, the details of Mr. Gray's crimes cannot become public, so his fate would normally be decided by internal tribunal. We understand, however, that Mr. Gray's unsanctioned vendetta against you may have taken on something of a personal tone, and so are prepared to deliver him to you to deal with as you see fit."
"Wait, what," Twilight's amused mood vanishes in an instant, "you want to give a person to me to punish, like a gift? Why would I--"
"Hold up there, Twi'," Applejack says, "Ms. Agent, what're y'all gonna do with him if we don't take him?"
"Details of trials and punishments for special agents are confidential."
"Twi', they're tryin' to give him away to you for revenge. Whatcha' reckon they're gonna do to him if you say no?"
Twilight thinks for a bit, then slowly nods. "Very well Agent Harris," she can barely keep the disgust out of her voice, "we'll take him."
Agent Harris nods back. "Agent Smith," she looks over at her compatriot and gestures to the other exit to the sitting room. He takes his leave, Twilight assumes to go get Mr. Gray.
As soon as he's gone, Agent Harris hurries to Twilight's side, her face suddenly tense, but lit by a small smile.
"Oh thank goodness," she says, "you're just what I hoped. Thank you, Princess."
"Wh-what?" Twilight manages. Applejack doesn't even get that much.
"We don't have much time! I was hoping you'd be...well, you. I've seen all the shows, I never thought I'd get to meet you! Can I touch your mane?"
"Uh, sure?"
With a gleeful squeal that reminds Twilight of Sweetie Belle, Agent Harris gently strokes her mane. "Oooh, it's so soft. Thanks, Princess. He'll be back soon, but just keep doing what you're doing. Plenty of us are rooting for you, too."
She pulls back, brushing a few stray purple hairs from her suit, and her face is completely blank again, leaving Twilight slightly stunned. Applejack's slack jaw indicates she's likewise still processing the sudden change. They manage to get themselves together by the time Agent Smith comes back in, carrying the massive, unconscious form of Mr. Gray. He looks distinctly the worse for wear from his experiences the previous night, and there's a clear smirk on Applejack's muzzle. Still, he's breathing evenly.
"Mr. Gray is sleeping off injuries he somehow acquired in the line of his ill-fated attack last night," Agent Harris briefly glances at Applejack's smug face, "but our doctors assure us he will make a full recovery. I hereby officially turn him over to your custody, though of course the record of my doing so is highly confidential. Thank you for agreeing to this meeting, Princess Sparkle, and I hope you carefully consider everything I have told you today. Feel free to depart whenever you desire."
"Uh, sure, see ya," Applejack mutters.
"I believe you will not," Agent Harris counters. She moves to open the door.
Before she can get there, Twilight takes hold of Mr. Gray in her magic and powers up a teleport. Just as Agent Harris turns the knob, both ponies and their new "prisoner" vanish.
Polaris wakes up in the mid-morning after the battle. Normally she sets her alarm for six A.M sharp, but after showing up too late for the fighting, she pushed herself hard helping out in the aftermath, and let herself sleep in as recompense. What she finds when she finally crawls out of her tent, though, makes her regret her sloth: a small crowd of unfamiliar people are standing expectantly around her tent, dressed in a motley assortment of purple clothing and carrying varied impromptu weapons: everything from sticks blown down by Rainbow's windstorm to a replica sword and a frying pan.
She's still bleary-eyed. She hasn't showered, and after working hard and then sleeping in a thick sleeping bag due to the evening chill, she feels like her whole body is covered in a thin shell of salt and grime. She doesn't want anyone looking at her, let alone a star-struck bunch of newbies.
"Hello," she starts.
"Hi there!" She hadn't noticed the little girl in the middle of the crowd, who seems far too chipper for this time of morning. "We're here because we heard you were the best Twilight priest person!"
"What? I'm not...she isn't...you're like, eight. Do your parents know where you are?"
"Of course we do," a man standing behind her says. Another man next to him nods at her.
"And I'm eleven," the girl pouts.
Polaris pauses for a bit, looking at all the eager faces around her. Some part of her wants to tell how wrong they are about the Princess, and about her. Then she remembers those few weeks ago - they seem so long! - when the Princess told her something very similar, standing at their first shrine outside the Prancing Pony. Maybe we are close enough to all that, after all. She lets herself smile, and takes a deep breath.
"Okay," she says, "if you're all serious, spread out. Give yourselves plenty of room, there aren't so many of us in the park you can't. More! Like ten feet each, you want to hurt someone? Ok, now I'm going to do my morning exercises. See how well you can follow along."
Despite what she says, she takes her forms slowly. Even so, a handful of them give up somewhere through the run. The rest can't really move like she does, of course, but they try. It was all she ever thought they could do, and she smiles again as she finishes. Between the uncomfortable sleeping arrangements and her unusual hours, she's feeling a bit off anyway, and is sweating even at the end of the "easy" workout. She sits down - reasonably gracefully, she thinks - on the grass. She's pleased to see the girl and her dads have stuck with it, and the girl jogs over. She really is adorable.
"Ms. Polaris," she says, looking at the ground, "can you tell us about your adventure with the Princess? I watched the video, but I wanna hear you tell it."
Polaris grins up at her and pats the ground next to her. "I'd love to."
"Oh, is she waking up?" Fluttershy's soft voice welcomes Pinkie back from her dreamless, drug-fueled sleep. She's lying on a sleeping bag on top of what feels like a folding table, one of a dozen or so set up under a tented pavilion that reminds her of fancy garden parties. The last thing she remembers is stumbling, bleeding, through the delightfully spicy cloud with Applejack.
Fluttershy, Rarity, and Fiona are sitting next to her makeshift cot, smiling at her. Being Pinkie Pie, she reflexively smiles back.
"Hey girls," she says, though it's more of a croak through her dry throat, "I guess we won?"
"Yes, dear," Rarity smiles down at her, "thanks in large part to you. Well done."
Fiona puts a big cup with a similarly big straw down on the table next to Pinkie's head, and she takes a long sip. It's just water, which disappoints her a bit, but it still feels wonderful on her parched throat.
"Great!" She sounds more like herself now. "How'd I get here? I don't remember anything, really."
"You lost a lot of blood," Fiona said, "but Applejack came and found me as soon as she could, and I brought you here and patched you up. You're lucky you ponies are so tough. I'm not sure a human would have made it."
"The secret is my rigorous diet," Pinkie nods her head, "plenty of cupcakes."
Fiona's mouth quirks up in a tiny smile. "Twilight said it was your magical nature as an earth pony."
"Well yeah, she'd say that, but I'm way more of a Pinkie Pie expert than she is."
The others finally laugh, and Pinkie does a bit too. It makes her side hurt, but it's worth it. Then she looks around, and feels a bit down again.
"All these humans got hurt in the fighting?" All of the other cots are occupied by humans in various states of bandaging, or connected to medical equipment.
"More than just them," Fiona says. "The rest were too badly hurt for us, and had to go to hospitals and risk arrest, or were feeling well enough to walk around or sleep in their own tents."
"But...why isn't anyone visiting anyone else? Don't they have friends to come cheer them up?"
"We were visiting everyone," Fluttershy says, "but then it looked like you might wake up, so we came over here."
"But you just met them. What about their old friends?"
"Twilight had to put the shield back up," Rarity says, "if they have other friends, they might be outside. Or they were hurt too, and had to go to the hospital. Or they got arrested, a few people did."
"But that's so sad! We have to have a party or something!"
Fiona laughs again. "Pinkie, you're the closest one here to recovery, and you're in no shape for a party."
"But we have to do something! Being hurt and alone is so sad!"
"We will," Fluttershy says, "we found a, um, monitor? And Fiona has a movie! It's the first one Twilight liked in this world, she says."
"Yeah," Fiona nods, "Love Actually. It's a great movie, and she mentioned seeing it in her journal, so her guards wanted to watch it." She gestures to the purple-clad figures at the edges of the pavilion; Pinkie had taken them as guards for the patients. "We figured we'd show it here and make everyone feel better while we're at it."
"Oh, it's a happy movie? I've never seen a human movie before! This is so exciting! Are they all black and white and quiet like ours?"
"No, Pinkie," Fiona laughs, "they're full color and sound. And it's...well, parts of it are very happy, you'll see now, though, look." She turns her head to where one of the guards is wheeling in a stand containing a large, black, shiny object that doesn't look much like a projection screen at all, but Pinkie assumes will show the movie. He fiddles with it a bit and connects Fiona's tablet to it, and then it lights up in full color, showing scenes of humans joyfully greeting each other. A young, male-sounding voice begins speaking over it, and the movie begins.
"Oh I am so excited," Rarity says, "I do love a good romance."
A little over two hours later, Pinkie feels like she's been through every emotion ever, including a fair number she's never really considered before. Fiona's grinning next to her, and Fluttershy's crying, one wing draped over Pinkie and the other wrapped around Rarity. who's sobbing into a handkerchief. Among the patients, few eyes are dry.
"Oh my," Fluttershy manages, "that was nothing like the movies we have at home."
"But so beautiful! So many love stories, sad and happy, it was wonderful!" As always, Rarity seems to be able to stop crying on command.
"I'll say," Pinkie agrees. "Hey Fiona, that song that played when Karen was upset...she was singing about smiling for other ponies, even when you hurt, right? That's why it was so pretty and so sad?"
"I think so," Fiona says, "and great art means different things to different people. In the movie it means some of that, but also how Karen's life is so tied up in her children, in being a good wife. They're older, and it wasn't long ago that everyone had expectations for women that weren't fair, tied up in marriage and family. I think she's struggling with it in that scene I find it really powerful, but I suppose it seems strange to you."
"Nope. I mean, I don't know about any of that stuff about mares and marriage or whatever, but...I thought it was powerful too." Pinkie isn't used to not knowing if she wants to laugh or cry, but she finds she isn't upset at it. "Can I get a record of it?"
Fiona does laugh at that, and Rarity looks at her, head tilted. "Well," Fiona says, "a physical record could be hard, but I could put it on your tablet. Would you like that?"
Pinkie smiles and nods.
"Hey Rainbow, what's an awesome pony like you doing in a place like this?"
Rainbow shakes off her nap at Mary's voice, and comes to her hooves just outside the human woman's tent.
"Oh, uh, hey," she says.
"Hey yourself," Mary grins at her, "but I don't buy you napping outside my tent by accident. Looking for a little stress relief?"
"No! I mean, not like, that kind of no, you know I love it, but, uh..."
Mary turns her head sideways and waits, smile fading a little.
"Look, I'm not good at this kind of stuff, but, things are getting pretty crazy out there, you know? It seems like we might win soon."
"So what? Wait, are you breaking up with me? You know we aren't dating, right?"
"What? Jeez, no, look, it's just like...we all think we came here for a reason, right? Twi' thinks this might be it, getting you guys to get your voices back in your screwed-up politics. If it is, then...after this, we might just disappear. And even if we don't, we'll have to start looking for a way home."
"So...what, you're warning me? You don't have to do that, silly pony. That's kind of how 'friends with benefits' works. I knew you wouldn't be around forever."
"No, that's not...look, I hate mushy stuff. I just felt like I should say...I'll miss you, ok? You're a pretty cool girl."
Mary pulls her into her arms and plants a kiss on her nose.
"I'll miss you too. You're pretty awesome, Rainbow Dash."
"Yeah, I know. I guess it takes one to know one, huh?"
Mary raises an eyebrow at her. "Sure." She's quiet for a bit, just holding Rainbow close. She'd never admit it, but Rainbow finds herself calming down. "Thanks for telling me, even if it was a bit mushy," Mary murmurs into her ear. "Don't worry, I'll never tell." She gently runs a hand down Rainbow's back, causing the mare to shiver. "Now, how about that stress relief?"
"Wait, here? That tent doesn't even have walls."
"What's the matter, future-Wonderbolt? I thought you loved an audience."
"Oh," Rainbow pounces, flapping her wings lightly and pushing Mary back into the tent, "it is on."
And so the morning passes, until Twilight and Applejack return with Mr. Gray.
Twilight can tell some of the humans don't approve of her bringing Mr. Gray to the infirmary tent, but none seem to have any interest in challenging her. Still, she gathers a sizable crowd as she floats his still-unconscious bulk across the park.
When she arrives, she finds Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Fiona already there, along with some other injured humans. Pinkie's got some headphones on and a curious expression Twilight can't identify, Fluttershy is resting her head against Fiona, and Rarity's sobbing into a handkerchief.
"Oh no," Twilight says, "is everything okay? Was someone injured worse than we though?"
"Oh, no, nothing like that," Fluttershy says, "we just watched a movie. Love Actually, I think Fiona said you saw it? It was...nice."
"Oh yes, I really enjoyed that one?"
"Twilight dear," Rarity seems to have completely recovered in an instant, "are you dragging that ghastly Mr. Gray with you?"
"Yes," Twilight frowns, "I was hoping to find a cot for him."
"I'm feeling better," Pinkie says, getting to her hooves without apparent discomfort, "he can have my cot!"
"Uh, are you sure sugarcube? He shot you." Applejack glares at Mr. Gray.
"Yeppers, Fiona did a super duper job and I'm totally fine now, see?" Pinkie gyrates around the tent in a fashion Twilight's pretty confident she couldn't match even uninjured.
"That's very kind of you, Pinkie."
"How did he end up with you, anyway? Did you capture him?" Rarity asks.
"Darndest thing," Applejack says, "his people gave him to us. They plumb sold him upriver."
"Whatever do you mean?"
"Just that, Rares. They said he was leadin' a 'rogue element', acted like they had nothin' to do with all that nonsense he pulled!"
"Right," Twilight continues, "and then they gave him to me as some sort of...bribe? I don't even really know, but it seemed like someone thought I might want to take revenge or something."
"Um, why did you agree to take him? Do you think we can reform him like Discord?" Fluttershy asks.
"Probably not," Twilight sighs, "he seemed pretty stubborn. I was going to say no, but then AJ asked me what I thought they'd do to him if I refused, since they were so willing to give him over to a vengeful enemy."
For a little while, everyone's quiet, even the crowd that's gathered around, pretending not to eavesdrop.
"...oh. Right." Fluttershy finally says.
Fiona glances over at his large form. "We'll make sure he gets well," she says, "but you need to figure out what you want to do with him."
"I figured I'd let him go, if he wanted," Twilight says.
"Are you sure? He might try again."
"I don't think so," she says, "I'm pretty sure Applejack's right, and he was following orders. Maybe he'll come around and tell the story, maybe he'll just leave, but I don't want to try to hold him. It'd be a lot of work, and it'd look too much like we were taking some kind of revenge."
Fiona nods.
"Say," Applejack says, "it's great to see you girls again, but has any of y'all seen Rainbow?"
There's a snicker from the crowd, and a man speaks up. "No, but a lot of us have heard her."
"Consarn it, Rainbow," Applejack mutters, as Fluttershy's cheeks go bright red. Rarity 'faints' onto a sleeping bag.
Pinkie just starts laughing, and soon it's spread to all the friends, and they feel some of their tensions fading away.
"So," Fiona says, "I've got some other movies on my tablet. Who wants to see Princess Mononoke?"
"Oh, that sounds wonderful," Rarity says, "I didn't know Earth had Princesses!"
Fiona chuckles. "You'll see."
Many hours and several movies later, the sun's nearly down, and the ponies are getting ready to head out, finally joined again by a barely-embarrassed Rainbow Dash. Their spirits are higher, both because of the movies and company, and because after lifting the shield, the only people who've come to the park have been more and more supporters. They got word halfway through the afternoon that the Harvard Yard protest has returned in full swing, and every so often Twilight checks her tablet, finding more and more springing up around the country. Somehow, she feels like they came off the battle even better than they went in. After reading about similar movements in the past, she isn't entirely surprised, but much as she loved reading about Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, and the rest, it's a totally different kind of excitement to feel like she's at the center of it herself. Even if she hasn't been quite as passive as they were.
"Let's go back to Alanna's," she says to her friends, "I think everyone here will be safe for the night, and I want to keep it about them. Especially if Agent Harris's word is good and the President plans to pass a rights bill for us, I want everyone to know that's still not really the heart of the issue."
"Sure, Twi', sounds good. Uh..." Dash leans over and whispers in her ear, "do you think it's okay if Mary comes?"
Twilight just smiles back. "Of course, Rainbow. But I want to talk to you a bit tomorrow about this atmosphere thing. We've let it fall by the wayside for too long."
"Ugh, fine," Dash says, "I guess I can do a bit of work."
The ponies laugh, but just as they're about to leave, Polaris walks up next to Twilight.
"Princess," she gives a little bow.
"Hello, Polaris," Twilight's given up on trying to get her to stop with the bowing, or to use her name. "What can I do for you?"
"I overheard you planning to go back to Ms. Rare's house. I've alerted your guard, but what should we do if Mr. Gray wakes up?"
"Unless he causes trouble, nothing. He's not a prisoner."
Polaris frowns. "Even if he tries to leave?"
Twilight nods. "I won't keep him. I took him in to spare him punishment. If anyone deserves it, it's the people that ordered him to do this, then sold him out to try to cover themselves. But it looks like no one here wants to let them get away with it."
Polaris still looks disgruntled, but just nods. "Of course, Princess. Goodnight."
"Goodnight, Polaris," Twilight nods at her, then she and her friends vanish.
Mr. Gray awakens on a sleeping bag and near-darkness. He opens his eyes, and casts about. His body aches, and in front of him he can see almost nothing, but he doesn't seem to be bound. He turns over with minor and manageable pain, and sees the park bathed in moonlight. He manages to suppress a curse, and instead rolls nearly silently out of the cot to the grass. Many of his enemies have taken his size to mean he can't move quietly, and few have lived to regret their mistake.
He sticks to the shadows of the pavilion and makes his way to its edge. There's a tree on one side, and the branches leave spiderwebs of darkness on the silver-gray grass. He slips up next to the trunk, and peers out towards the edge of the park. It looks like he's in luck - the shield doesn't appear to be up. There are several large groups of protesters sitting around fires in drum circles or roasting marshmallows, and he's momentarily confused at their lack of concern for what must be an ongoing siege, but he files it away for later. Instead, he silently thanks them for ruining their night vision with the fires, and prepares to make a break for it.
He twists around the trunk of the tree towards the best route, a short shot to Massachusetts Avenue that's mostly under the canopy. He starts along it at a brisk walk, keeping his steps silent, and nearly runs headlong into a small woman carrying a staff.
"Hold on," she says.
He raises a fist, and she just rolls her eyes and raises her staff.
"I'm not going to stop you," she says, "the Princess ordered me not to. I just want to tell you the truth before you go."
"She told you not to stop me? You mean the purple pony, right?"
"The Princess," she says, her voice annoyingly respectful, "yes. And she did tell me to let you go, yes. Do you know how you got here?"
"Captured after the battle."
"Wrong. Your own Department turned you over to her. They said you were leading a 'rogue element'. They cut you loose to cover themselves. The Princess took you because she thought they'd treat you worse. And now she ordered me to let you go, even though I don't want to . Do you understand what I'm telling you? She's better than any of us deserve, and you need to know it."
Mr. Gray feels a fear and sadness gnawing at his stomach. Neither of these are emotions he's used to or much likes. He's always feared that some day it would come to this - he is, after all, not an idiot, and knows the price covert agents sometimes pay. He feels in his pocket for his phone. It's still there. He pulls it out and turns it on.
It doesn't have service. It doesn't even seem to have a plan. There's a simple post-it note on the back of the case, bearing only the numeral zero. He sighs and puts it away, and closes his eyes.
"You still leaving?"
He nods and snarls at the woman, and she just shrugs and steps aside.
"If you ever want to come back, she'll have you," she says as he goes, "I've never seen her turn anyone away."
He just nods - no point in arguing with a fanatic- and walks on, considering his next moves. It's nice at least, he supposes, not to have to hide anymore. He's got some stashes around Boston, at least a few of which he's pretty sure the Department didn't know about, a few identities he can slip on. He's a professional, after all, and it was just a job. There's always more work for a professional, sooner or later, and he'll be just as glad if the next doesn't have anything to do with magical ponies.
First, though, he thinks, it might be time for a little vacation. He feels he's earned it. Smiling a little, he vanishes into the night.
Summer fades into autumn. The leaves here change all on their own, and fall all on their own, at rates that differ between species and even between individual trees. Twilight finds it vexingly chaotic, but when they walk along the tree-lined road between Alanna's house and Harvard Square, and Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash cavort and wrestle in falling leaves, or when one lands gently on Fluttershy's nose and provokes an adorably subdued sneeze, she can't help but smile.
She's reminded of one of the more curious movies she's seen, and by this time, it's quite a few, one of Fiona's favorites, Pleasantville. There was a lot in it she didn't understand, and a lot more she needed to research, but the core concept, of color seeping into a monochrome world, struck her. As the leaves fall as they will, drawn by no conscious force but by the wind and the rain and the invisible mathematics of genes and physics, she feels like maybe a little more color is falling with them, painting the world and even her coat with colors just a bit brighter than before. She remembers her diary, how confused, even how angry, she was at the strangeness of the world, how it seemed to hurtle along, uncontrolled. Now she knows it is, quite literally, in constant free-fall around its massive sun, and she's no longer sure if the confusion, anger, and fear are stronger than the wonder she feels at knowing that, and so much more.
She wonders again how she got here, and when or how she'll leave, and if she'll visit even more worlds, after. If she visits a dozen in her perhaps-immortal life, she thinks she might have a few things to teach even Celestia.
"A, um, penny for your thoughts, dear?" Rarity breaks through her reverie. She's been drifting into thought more and more, lately.
"Oh, sorry," she says, looking down at her hooves, "I didn't mean to zone out. I was just thinking."
"Well, yes, I rather assumed. That's why I asked what you were thinking about."
"I...I don't even really know, I guess. Just how strange this place is, how our different worlds shape us, even the small things. Would we be us if our leaves fell on their own?"
"Mmmm," Rarity looks askance at her, "it is a wonder, isn't it, how it all just seems to work, all on its own? And still manages to be so beautiful."
"Yeah." Twilight says, and lapses for a bit into silence. "I wonder if we wanted to come here."
"Much as I'd like to go home, I certainly am glad we did."
"So am I."
They walk on, and then the days walk on with them. Every day Twilight wakes up and reads the news, and the protests grow, both in size and number. True to Agent Harris's word, Congress soon passes an equal rights bill, and it's a load off her mind, but despite her fears, it seems the humans agree that they need major changes. They still can't agree on quite what they are, but Twilight remains resolved to leave them to it.
Her friends keep busy helping out. As the winter approaches, the die-hards in the park gear up for colder weather. Applejack helps them make a greenhouse, her magic bringing the seedlings to food-bearing size far faster than they'd expected. Pinkie's rock farming background comes in unexpectedly handy, as she manages to produce and move large stones, helping make make a crude shelter they can heat with a fire and sleep in. Rarity produces a surprisingly number of chic (and, of course, cozy) parkas. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash mostly just help out, with varying degrees of skill but high enthusiasm.
And Twilight herself tries to figure out how to research spells in a world without magic. A host of Congressional candidates have emerged with platforms supporting strong reforms, running as independents, funded by donations or even just running on word-of-mouth alone. It looks likely they'll win, barring true voter fraud. The humans, as she'd hoped, have it well in hand. That means, though, that the time to stall is over: she wants to figure out two things: if magic can help the atmosphere, and how she can get them home. One way or another, she's pretty sure their time here should be reaching an end.
Of course, that just leaves two problems. First, while she's pretty sure she can team up with Rainbow Dash to change the atmosphere's composition, she needs to figure out what to do with all the stuff they take out. Second, she has no idea at all how to move between worlds, and no basis for research.
Much though the latter bothers her, she decides she's got to go for the first. At least that's the kind of thing she has some idea how to deal with. So she starts poking around online, but the science is so different from Equestria's that she can't really figure it out. Then, a few weeks in, she has a realization - she doesn't have to. Many prominent scientists are active online, so instead of trying to figure out the best plan herself, she just sends messages to as many as she can find, asking. Many ignore her or don't believe her, of course, but a few respond, and once they've talked voice to voice, or face to face, more and more believe her. Eventually she's talking to many of the world's greatest minds, figuring out what to do with a pile of carbon and assorted exotic greenhouse gasses. She loves it, in between being too busy to realize how cool the whole thing is.
And so September goes, and life walks on.
Mr. Gray hasn't left Boston, though even he couldn't say why. He's not angry about being thwarted by the ponies, and he's not just telling himself that. In fact, he finds it funny enough he wishes he could tell someone, but he holds his past close. He is, after all, a professional.
Still, if he could tell his story, there'd be a long list of enemies he's foiled, and genuine good he's done, though he'd be the first to admit that was never the core of his motivation. Still, more than a handful of criminals, terrorists (domestic and otherwise), kingpins, and warlords owe their deaths or prison terms to his action, and he thinks, overall, he's made the world better. So it amuses him, when he thinks about it, that the ones that beat him looked like they came, quite literally, from a kids show. He supposes that as ways to go out go, it isn't bad.
Still, he's in Boston. It's a fine city to relax in, especially in the fall. He can't afford sentiment, but he allows himself to appreciate New England's fall days. It's easier than thinking about other reasons he might be staying. Easier than wondering if he's getting soft. So the end of September finds him sitting at an outdoor table at one of downtown Boston's many bars. He's sipping a hard cider, a beverage he's only recently acquired a taste for, but he's drinking in the evening, the street traffic, the orange trees in the park across the street, and the similarly orange light of sunset seeping in between the buildings.
He's heard New England autumns make people introspective, but in this case, it's between that, the alcohol, and the strange mood that's taken him for the whole month. It's a brew far more potent than the cider.
"Is this seat taken?"
He looks up at the speaker, a slightly younger man with dark hair and a tightly-kept mustache and goatee, wearing an expensive-looking suit. It certainly could be a perspective employer. He hasn't been advertising his presence here, but in his line of work, one doesn't always need to. He shrugs, and gestures to the open chair. The other man smiles at him and sits.
"Hello, Mr. Gray," he says softly. There isn't much of anyone around, in any case; it's early for the bar's evening rush.
"I think you have me mistaken for someone else," he says, mostly as a formality.
"Only if I've missed an alias change. I know you're the person I'm looking for, if not the name."
He shrugs again. The stranger continues.
"My name is David Lasombra." Mr. Gray does recognize that, though of course he doesn't show it. "I have a proposal for you."
After nearly a month of effort, Twilight and the team of scientists finally have a plan, and she's standing with Rainbow Dash on the statue at the center of the park. It seems a fitting place to start the long flight that will, if all goes well, give her human friends a second chance at responsible atmospheric management.
In the end, she found their solution pleasingly elegant, and not so dissimilar to her joking suggestion about banishing the greenhouse gasses to the moon. Where Earth suffers from an overabundance of them, her closest neighbor, Mars, suffers from a distinct lack - at least from the perspective of liquid water and therefore life. Twilight's spell aims to transport the extra gases there. The scientists aren't sure if it'll be enough to restore blues and greens to the red planet, but they're sure it couldn't hurt, which seems, overall, an improvement on the status quo.
"Are you sure I can't come?" Twilight hears Mary ask Rainbow Dash.
"It isn't safe," Twilight answers first, "we have to fly near the edge of the atmosphere to make sure enough of the pollution is below us. Pegasus magic keeps us safe from the cold and lack of atmosphere, but we won't have the energy to spare to share it with you. You'd suffocate and freeze, probably in that order."
"It's okay." Rainbow gives her a peck on the lips, "thanks for offering. Don't worry, I'll let you ride me for hours later." She winks, and Twilight turns away, blushing, though not as furiously as Mary.
"Good luck, Princess," Polaris says, strapping the last of the equipment on her. A little of it is designed to measure levels of various gasses, making sure the spell is working, but most of it is to let the scientists watch and film their progress for posterity. Rather than making a spell to remove some percentage of the pollutants, they decided it was easier to simply remove all of them from an appropriate percentage of the sky. As such, Rainbow and Twilight plan to make several circuits of the planet over some of the more densely inhabited or heavily polluted areas, letting the atmosphere itself take care of balancing the situation out.
With a nod to Rainbow, then another and a smile to the assembled crowd, Twilight takes to the air. The pegasus follows shortly, then surges ahead. As they clear the tallest buildings, Twilight speaks into her headset, clearing them with Logan airport. After getting the all-clear, Rainbow pours on the speed, and her characteristic prismatic wake trails out behind her.
Twilight can't fly as fast as Rainbow Dash on her own, of course, but she can tether herself to her friend's magic, riding her wake like a cyclist following a truck. It's only part of the spell, of course, but it lets her ride along without too badly straining herself, and lets her concentrate on the real bulk of the magic. They clear the target height, and she can feel the magic flowing through her into Rainbow, and into her magic's wake, seeping down into the atmosphere below, working as intended. She hears the excited chatter of the scientists watching the cameras and instruments, but tunes it out - she can tell from the tone everything looks good from their end, and she wants to focus on keeping up the complicated magic for the several hours it will take to circumnavigate the earth on three separate routes, even at Rainbow's impressive speeds.
For once, it goes off without a hitch. Throughout much of the world, people stop and stare at the sky, thrilled by the solid band of rainbow running clear across the sky. Those that watched the news know what it is, while others can only wonder, but it's certainly like no rainbow they've seen: they can watch it pass across the sky, like the work of an invisible paintbrush.
Even riding Dash's magical wake, Twilight's wings are sore by the end of the trip, and her legs are tingly and asleep. As they intersect their own wake above the park in Cambridge, Rainbow sighs, and heads for the ground. Twilight feels elated, though, despite her fatigue, and, laughing, she soars a little higher, relishing the feeling of the sun on her wings, bright in the thin air above the clouds.
Then, with a start, she feels herself breaking through...something, some barrier that feels like the surface tension of water, but leaves her dry, and she's in another world entirely, flying above a crystal sea, filled with coral and fishes. Above her is a perfect clear sky, lit by a silver sun. In her bones and horn she feels home keenly, though she has no idea where she is.
In shock, worried about unintentionally abandoning her friends, she falters, and falls to the surface of the water. Instead of the expected splash, though, she passes again through that strange barrier, and finds herself recovering back in Earth's yellow-lit sky. She takes a few deep breaths, then follows Dash down.
"Girls," she says, finding them all clustered around the pegasus, "I think I figured out--"
She's interrupted by a burst of laughter from Pinkie and Applejack. Rarity and Fluttershy just look confused.
"Check it out, Twi," Dash says proudly, brandishing her tablet. It shows her newest Facebook post, a photo of herself coming down, wake trailing, apparently taken by someone in the park. It bears a caption: Good news! We just made your planet 20% cooler!
"Rainbow! Did you really use that awful catchphrase?" Rarity asks. Rainbow nods, grinning.
"That's terrible," Twilight frowns at her. "Besides, we didn't make it 20% cooler, that would be a disaster, they'd have an ice age! You'll scare them! Anyway, I have way more important news!"
Twilight feels it, somewhere she can't really pin down, but now that she's been home again, she aches for it. Just being back for that moment filled her with magic and peace and belonging she hadn't known she's been missing. The only question now is when. In this, as in so many other things, she turns to her friends.
It's a complicated conversation. Everypony is keen to help their human friends, but most of them also have reason to want to return. Applejack and Fluttershy are worried about their responsibilities, and homesick. Rarity tries to be graceful, but Twilight can tell that she too is worried about how her affairs stand in Ponyville, whether time has passed her trend-dependent business on, or set it back. Pinkie seems cheerfully indifferent, but finally admits she's worried about missing birthdays. Rainbow Dash tries to act neutral, but she's not so hard to read, and it isn't difficult to see why she'd be the most conflicted. The Wonderbolts remain a dream, but she's even more exceptional on Earth, which strokes her ego, and of all the ponies, she's most readily embraced human culture. Still, when they mention home, Twilight sees her eyes drift skyward; she doesn't even seem aware of it. They all seem broadly agreed the time is near.
Finally, they agree to wait one more month, until the beginning of November. Twilight thinks, and her friends agree, that she'd like to be sure the election is fair, and to see how well the reform candidates fare. If they do well, she can announce her departure then, and have it seem appropriate. If they do poorly, or it seems the elections are somehow unfairly run, she can reconsider, stay to help. In any case, the next day, if all goes well, they'll all depart.
She'd rather not have an audience for that part, so she decides to take off from Annie-Jane's farm. She isn't sure she can find the exact spot she broke through last time, so she hopes simply flying to the edge of the atmosphere will be enough, in which case anywhere will do. If not, they were at least approaching the city from the west, so it's as good a place as any to start a search.
That just leaves them with right around a month to spend. They settle in, in their own ways, to do so. Twilight decides to split it between research in the day, and seeing friends at the Prancing Pony in the evenings. She also announces that she'll be speaking to the protesters in the park on election day.
Mr. Gray's back in his element, and though he'd of course never show it, he's loving it. He doesn't have a little symbol on his butt like those weird ponies (the thought of having one makes him crack a slight smile) but he's always felt this shadowy world is where he was meant to be, looking for connections, leverage, the ways in and out unseen.
Lasombra's assignment for him is difficult. There's a massive capability gap between them and their enemies. They're outnumbered and outgunned, but he's used to that. It's another thing he finds he's missed. But day by day he thinks he's figuring it out, finding the way in. He thinks he'll have it all set up in time for election day.
Applejack stands next to Twilight and her other pony friends on the base of the statue, looking out over the park, waiting for the election results to come in. She's proud of everything they've done here in the last month. Almost half the park's a garden, largely thanks to her, and several new structures loom in the distance. If they need to, the humans will be able to stay safely all winter, and if they don't, some are already talking about maintaining the garden, using the techniques Applejack showed them and the magic she wove into the soil, and using it to feed the needy. She smiles at the thought. The magic should last at least a few years, maybe more, and she hopes when it fades, the power of old fashioned hard work will prove equal to the task of keeping the garden going.
There's a big screen set up nearby, showing the news coverage of the elections. The polls are looking good for picking up a majority in congress, which seems to surprise many of their human friends, though Applejack isn't sure why. Even the news networks have been forced to respond, listing "Independent" on their charts next to the usual Republican and Democrat sections. They remain too hidebound to list the proper party name the loose coalition of progressive candidates has been using: "Reform".
A hush falls over the crowd as the results start coming in.
Lasombra's already claimed he'll cover the other approaches to the park, though Mr. Gray has no idea how he'll get them all; as far as he knows, theirs is a two-person operation. Nonetheless, he's not being paid to ask questions, so he finds himself sneaking through yet another vacant apartment, this one on the edge of the Cambridge Common. He's close enough to hear the sounds of the crowd through the open window. They're cheering as the first election results come in; apparently it's going at least as well as the polls predicted.
"I've secured our flanks," Lasombra's voice sounds through his earpiece, "are you proceeding on schedule?"
Silently Mr. Gray reaches up and presses the earpiece gently, sending the affirmative tone.
"Excellent. I'm en route; see you soon and stick to the plan."
Mr. Gray sends the tone again, then skulks towards the window.
Rainbow's grinning wide as the last of the results come in, wing around Mary. She knows this means she'll have to leave soon, and she's ready - of course she's ready, Rainbow Dash isn't going to be sad over something so mushy! So of course she's happy the humans elected so many of their friends. Twilight's told her that it'll be a long road for them still, that there are powerful interests entrenched in the government that might takes years or decades to root out, but to Dash, this doesn't sound very different from all the other "impossible" missions they've had. She knows their human friends can do it. After all, they're their friends.
So when the final results come in, and the lavender "Independent" bar outweighs the blue and red ones combined, she leans close against Mary and cheers with everyone else, then falls silent as Twilight moves forward to start her speech.
She's good at it, of course. She's Twilight, after all. But Dash has heard a lot of these before, and there's hardly anything exciting about them at all, so she finds her keen eyes drifting around the dark park, taking in the nearly-bare streetlit trees, the throng of happy people, drinking in Twilight's words, and the dark facades of the buildings, far beyond the park...
Her eyes stop on one building, caught by the telltale glint of metal in the orange streetlight. She feels them widen, and her wings spring to readiness.
"Twilight," she hisses at her friend, "shield!"
Twilight doesn't miss a beat in her speech, but Dash sees the purple globe spring up around her, and the crowd murmurs. As Twilight tries to reassure them, Rainbow springs into the air, heading towards the building at her best speed. She hopes she can get there before the gunner can find a new target.
Polaris creeps up the empty apartment's stairs with newly-practiced silence. She's spent the last month focusing on that in particular - her staff skills haven't let her down yet, but if she isn't willing to use a gun herself, she feels she should at least have the best chance to get to her ideal range undetected.
She's glad she bothered. On a whim, she'd searched for vacant apartments near the common, and found none, but after further digging had discovered this one, rented not by an individual but by a company, and just for November. Now she's slipped in through a curiously unsecured window, and every instinct she has is telling her she was right. The three-story condo faces the park and is totally unfurnished, and she saw coming in that one of the third floor windows is ideally placed with a view to the statue. Now she's reached the third floor, and eases around the doorway to peer at the window.
As she suspected, a large man lies prone, facing out the window, armed with a long rifle. She sighs in her head. She's been hoping against hope they were over this, but apparently either someone hasn't learned the lesson they claimed, or some other interest group has decided, against all evidence, that removing the Princess will somehow make this all go away. She slides her staff free, and prepares to strike. One blow to the hand followed by a second to the head should do it - make him lose the trigger, then hopefully knock him cleanly out.
Just as she's about to leap, she hears the muffled sound of two silenced shots and twin blooms of blood spring forth, one on the man's back and one on his head. He slumps, motionless, dropping the rifle. She steps back and sees Mr. Gray step into the room. He bends down and checks the man's pulse.
"Ah," a man's voice says behind her, "I can see we had nothing to worry about, after all." She turns to look and sees a well-dressed, dark haired man with a neat mustache and goatee finish climbing quietly up the stairs.
"What do you mean?" Mr. Gray asks from the other room. The new arrival gestures to her. Polaris turns to meet Mr. Gray's eyes; he nods at her.
"Well, well. Good to see she's in good hands."
"Thanks? What are you doing here?" Polaris can't quite hide her distrust.
"He paid me," Mr. Gray shrugs, and looks towards the other man.
"David Lasombra," he introduces himself. "I felt I owed Twilight. So when I heard from some of my contracts in the wider corporate world that a few of the more...reckless companies feared a loss of influence in Washington, and felt that removing Twilight might somehow help, I felt I should intervene."
"This is their plan? One guy in an apartment?"
"Not at all. As I said, I have my connections. Some of them are more sympathetic than others, and I was able to work with them to...misdirect most of their agents. They've somehow ended up in Officer Diaz's holding cells. This crude gentleman was their ace in the hole."
"Thanks, I suppose," Polaris nods at him. "We'll take any help we can get."
"Yes, well," Lasombra says, "as I said, I owed her."
"I've read the diary," Polaris says.
"I suppose you have," he sighs. "Well, good luck."
She nods, and heads down the stairs.
"So, what's your plan now?" Mr. Gray shakes off his confusion at seeing Polaris, and focuses on Lasombra's voice.
"My old bosses fired me," he says, then gestures to the window and the exuberant crowd outside, "but it sounds like their bosses just did the same to them. We don't hold grudges in my line of work; enough enemies as it is. I'll take a few months off, wait for the dust to settle, then see if the new guys need me. A good word from her might not hurt." He nods towards the stairs after Polaris. "You?"
"Back to work, I suppose," Lasombra shrugs. "I had a lot of vacation saved up, but it's mostly gone. Plenty to do in the robotics field, as usual." He stares down the stairs, mouth tight, and is silent for a long while. Outside, the crowd cheers again.
"Still," he says, "I enjoyed this. I felt like I was doing some real good."
Mr. Gray finds himself nodding, slowly. He pulls his old badge out of his pocket and gives it a long stare. Finally, he sighs, and tosses it out the window.
"I bet we can still catch up to her," he says.
Lasombra looks up, mouth open, then smiles.
"Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
"How'd you know my first name? But I go by Lou."
"Wait, your name is actually Loius?"
"First generation. Parents're French. Why'd you call me that if you didn't know?"
"I don't know if I'm more shocked it happened to be your name, or that you haven't seen Casablanca." Lasombra laughs as they head down the stairs. "I have it, if you'd like to."
"What, to watch it with you?"
"Sure. What are friends for?"
Mr. Gray - Lou - is silent for a floor's worth of stairs. "I don't know," he says finally, "I haven't had any since I was a kid."
Lasombra looks at him. "Me either, come to think," he says, "unless you count ones I've made myself. Which you shouldn't. I guess we'll just have to figure it out."
"Yeah," Lou finds himself smiling, "I guess we will."
Rarity loves Ponyville, of course; she'd hardly still live there otherwise, with so many of her clients in Manehattan or Canterlot. She isn't as vocal about it as Applejack, perhaps, but in her heart she knows she never plans to leave. Still, though, she can see how Annie-Jane's parents might say the same for their farm, out here in the farthest reaches of Massachusetts. Twilight's told her a little about her own experience of it in the summer, about the endless trees on the hills, compared to Ponyville's plains, about the night rising out of the dark valley. She wouldn't say the normally precise alicorn had quite hit poetic, but she'd certainly aspired to it. It had done Rarity proud to hear.
Now, in early November, it has an admittedly different kind of beauty, stark and windswept. The last bright leaves of Earth's chaotic autumn still cling to the trees like the few streamers intact after one of Pinkie's wilder parties, but the dense trees are mostly bare and ghostly-gray against the pale blue autumnal sky. It looks, she thinks, like the cover of a particularly delicious romance novel; all that's missing is a bleak stone keep inhabited by a brooding vampony or misunderstood noble. A pity, really, since those things are missing in her life, as well, but a lady makes do. It's hard for her to resent it, in any case, because her heart is full with one massive thought: they're going home.
She hasn't been here all that long, of course, in the grand scheme of things. Certainly nowhere near Twilight's near six-month ordeal, much of it scared and alone, merely trying to discover what sort of world she'd come to. Still, she's felt the months keenly, and in the way of those displaced, her new routine's replaced the old completely enough to feel like a new life entirely, essentially eternal. Like she's always been a pony in a human world, dreaming of being Rarity. But now they're going home. In triumph. Well, something close enough. They've helped the humans make a start, anyway.
Lost in her own silent musings, staring out the window to the hills, covered in those wonderfully bare, grasping branches, Rarity barely notices the short November day pass in comfortable if contemplative silence; apparently her friends are just as content to look inward as she is. Even Pinkie says nothing, though when Rarity notices the sun nearing the hilltops and looks up, she notices her exuberant friend wearing her earbuds, grinning and nodding along with whatever's playing.
"Shall we go?" She says to the room at large.
Twilight nods, Rainbow cracks her joints and stretches her wings as she stands, and Pinkie bounces to her hooves as she sees the others moving. Applejack and Fluttershy are already outside, along with their human friends, wandering the farmland. Still silently, they walk out to meet the others, and together they head up into the hills.
Rainbow Dash told Twilight she was silly when the princess first said she wanted to leave at sunset, but even though she'll never admit it, now that she sees the darkness rising from the top of the hill, she thinks she understands. She can't say why and, being the Rainbow Dash certainly doesn't care that she can't, but it feels right.
The humans have found a hot-air balloon somewhere, one similar to the one Twilight used to travel in before she got her wings, and everypony except Twilight - and, of course, Rainbow herself - is getting in, struggling with the unusually high basket, clearly designed for humans.
The cheering section is pretty small - just Twilight's first five human friends, Mary of course, and Polaris, who no one had the heart to turn away. Rainbow understands why the others wanted it that way, but she still kind of wishes for another giant, cheering crowd, like the one that erupted after their victories in the elections and Twilight's speech, and that greeted her when she emerged, slightly confused, from the empty apartment where she'd found that Gray and Lasombra, of all the humans, had for once beaten her to the heroic punch. Still, the important ones are here, and she's glad she let her friends have this one. She's already said goodbye to Mary of course, several times, and quite enthusiastically. Still, she finds a tiny, unwelcome tightness in her chest, and turns to her human friend.
"It's been great. Take care of yourself, y'hear?"
"I'll miss you," Mary says back.
"You too," Rainbow whispers back. "If there's a way we can come back and visit, I will."
Twilight's not far off, saying her own goodbyes, and then the last of their friends tumbles into the basket. With the night beginning to gather in the deepest parts of the valley, they're out of time and excuses. Rainbow slips into one of the makeshift harnesses attached to basket, and Twilight into the other, and then they're off, pulling their friends along into the air just like in the good old days. Rainbow's eyes are watering a little - solely from the speed and her lack of goggles, of course - but flying free again, she can't help but wear a grin. She glances over at Twilight and finds her friend grinning back as they soar into the darkening sky, homeward.
Polaris always feels a little small, staring into the sky, but now, watching her Princess dwindle, purple coat fading into the purpling sky, aiming to leave the world, she feels microscopic, a nameless observer of something vast, lucky to rate a footnote. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out her phone, fully intending to record their flight for history. Then she reconsiders, and thinks that, maybe, it'd be just as well if people imagined this one for themselves. She lets her phone sit heavily in her hand, and just watches. The tiny ponies fade quickly into the sky, but the large, bright balloon barely seems to shrink at all, a bright bubble seemingly suspended as the sky goes dark.
In her palm, the phone vibrates once. Reflexively she looks at it and sees Rainbow Dash has, of course, just posted a status. The text reads: so long, Earth, it's been real, and is accompanied by a photo of the Princess flying high above the dark earth, with a blue wingtip visible in the foreground. She looks back up, smiling slightly, and the balloon is gone.
Twilight's almost ready to decide they've gone too high, that they need to head west rather than merely further up, when she feels a tickle pass over her body, and the near-darkness of Earth's lingering dusk is replaced by the warm, blazing glory of Celestia's sun. She looks up and finds that this is more literal than she expected: the Sun Princess herself flies just before them, seemingly glowing in a brilliant sunrise as only she can deliver. When she sees them, though, her smile does its best to keep up.
"Welcome home, my little ponies," she says, and then it feels real. "Please, come tell me all about it."
Twilight and her friends had left the city several hours ago, at dawn, following Celestia. Now, with the sun already halfway up the sky, they saw for the first time a sign of something built in the strange wilderness below: eight ornate marble columns, surrounding a circular basin of the same stone, open to the sky. Just ahead of them, Celestia began her descent, apparently aiming for a narrow patch of cleared flagstones just on the basin's lip. Twilight looked over at Applejack, shrugged, and followed.
As the other six ponies approached, they saw the flagstone was not bare: a small statue, half-overgrown, sat on the edge of the basin. Celestia was already clearing it off with her magic, carefully sending the vines and roots into the thick growth around them; the basin itself was curiously spotless. She finished as they walked beside her, and saw the figure was that of an alicorn, smaller than any they'd seen, and curled tightly around herself as if asleep, but unmistakably horned and winged.
"This place has fallen on harder times than I'd hoped," Celestia said, seemingly to herself, "but the pool itself is clear. It should still work," she laughed here, high and clear, "though, for all I know, nothing could stop it working."
"That's great, Pr-err, sugarcube," Applejack said, "but what in tarnation does it do when it works?"
Celestia turned to her and smiled, and lit her horn. The status lifted its head, and opened its small mouth. Twilight did a double take, she moved so smoothly, and had to look again and see the telltale marble sheen to be sure she was really stone, not a living pony. Before Twilight could register her surprise, though, a healthy flow of water began spilling from the statue's mouth into the basin, and all of them immediately turned to look.
The water was breathtaking, mesmerizing, shimmering in the late-morning sun in an array of lights and darks that Twilight at first thought must be the result of a perfect angle of the light. Then she looked closer, and was no longer sure it was water at all. The liquid spilling forth looked similar to Luna's mane: dark as night, filled with stars. She looked to where it was beginning - faster than it should be - to fill the large basin, and it looked like nothing so much as the night sky itself was seeping into the pool, stars swirling and churning as if a thousand nights were passing at incredible speed.
Before she'd really had time to finish gaping, it seemed to finish. The alicorn statue's mouth closed, and it curled up again, and the strangest sight now greeted them: the basin seemed to be filled with a pool from a different place and time, reflecting, rather than the bright daytime sky above, an utterly clear star-studded night.
"Oh my," Rarity breathed. "Those aren't our stars. What is this...Celestia?"
"The next adventure," Celestia replied, "should any of you wish it. You've of course already done more than enough, but lately I get the feeling some of you have grown restless," here Rainbow Dash nodded, and Pinkie's perpetual smile faded slightly, "and I realized that here, I have adventure enough even for those as experienced as you. This, Rarity, is a map, and, with the right spells, also a gateway."
"A map of the stars? But Rarity's right, this doesn't look like our night sky," Twilight said.
"Not quite a map of stars, though I think perhaps, soon, it will not be so far off. But no, this is a map of worlds."
"Ooh, like that weird human mirror world?" Pinkie asked.
"Nor quite like those, though closer. Magic, as you know, is full of surprises, and the mirror worlds are a part of it even I do not understand. They are part of Equestria, and depend upon it, as you must have noticed. I wonder, sometimes, if the mirror creates them to reveal things about us, or show us how things might have been. But you could not travel to them without the mirror's magic. They do not exist in that sense. These do, or may."
"So these are Planets then? Alien planets?" Twilight nearly bounced with glee.
"Indeed," Celestia smiled at her, "though not as alien as you might think. If you go to one of these worlds, you will likely see a great deal that is familiar. Even before Luna and I arrived on Equestria, all these worlds were one vast land of wonder, so large no pony, not even I or my sister, could possibly travel it all. Then the story changed. Now they are these many worlds, scattered through the sky.
"When it all changed, it happened so thoroughly that now by all physical indication, they have always been separate, since the dawn of time, save for curious similarities. Some have ponies, or creatures very like them. Some," she smiled at Applejack, "have apple trees. Stories of creatures that now exist only on other worlds persist elsewhere, memories of times when one could walk to visit them. Now, if you are willing, you could visit them."
"Is that it, then?" Rainbow leaned back and cocked her head, looking skeptical, "just go visit some other worlds for fun? Don't get me wrong, it sounds better than sitting around in the city all day, but I thought we were talking adventure. Something important. Fate of the world stuff. I liked saving the world."
Celestia frowned a little. "Do not misunderstand, Rainbow. These worlds are not safe. Many need saving, or are more complicated. None are identical to Equestria, and some are defined as much by what they lack as by what they share. The Tree of Harmony was unique in all the world, even before it changed. Friendship carries great power everywhere, but not always of the same sort, or so direct. Some, until recently, lacked magic entirely, and so have no creatures that can sense or use it. And some are made of lands that were always frightening to us, full of creatures with very different goals and views than ponies. The less frightening ones are powerful beasts that only seek to consume and destroy. The more frightening, well, even for you, perhaps we should not yet speak of them. We would need to choose which worlds you visited first carefully.
"But do not misunderstand. This work is important. The physical world may not remember that it was once all one, but magic does, and ever since the world split, it has been working, as much as possible, to bring the worlds back together. That time is growing close. Magic has crept back everywhere, the whole night sky, and it will not be too long now before others learn to harness it, to ride the currents of magic and move through the void much faster than they previously thought they could. Then all of us will begin to meet again, and a new age will come, for good and ill. You could be among the first to visit these new places, to form their opinions of ponies, to bring back some harmony they may have lacked. To prepare them to work together, against the many that will prefer a different path."
"Um, you mean like when we told everypony about the magic of friendship?" Fluttershy asked.
"Yes, but instead of Equestria, you would be spreading it throughout other worlds."
"That sounds...nice. Scary, but nice."
"I am so in," Rainbow Dash nodded.
Slowly or quickly, the rest agreed.
"I am so proud of you, my little ponies," Celestia said, "proud, but not surprised. In truth, I expected as much, and have several possibilities picked out. We should go back home for now, and look at a few candidates before we decide. It will still be nearly a century, I think, before the first worlds start to meet. Perhaps a bit less, if we decide to push it along. But I have also never used this pool as a gate before. While I am quite sure it is safe, the changes in magic may have unexpected results, or adapt you to the local world in strange ways, at least a first, in the same way the mirror turned Twilight into a human. I will do what I can from here, but we will need to choose somewhere reasonably safe for our first test, though of course we will pick somewhere that looks like it could use your help. I suggest somewhere without native magic users, so your magic will be better able to keep you safe, but we can sort it out. I admit, despite not going myself, I'm excited!"
Pinkie bounced happily at this. "So am I! There are so many friends I never knew I had!"
They all smiled at her, and got ready to head back, eager to decide where to go first.
The world has changed a great deal in the five years since the Princess and her friends left. Mostly, Polaris thinks with satisfaction, for the better. She has a lot more work to do now, of course, or a lot more complicated work, anyway. The Royal Friendship Guard (a compromise name, though it only took her a few months to be able to say to business contacts with a straight face, making it one of the better options) is several thousand strong now, and operates throughout the world. There's no guarding of princesses left to do at all, of course, and she hardly runs it all herself, but she thinks the Princess would be proud of the work they're doing in her name: feeding the poor, supporting good causes, advancing peace and international cooperation.
Whatever Lou and David do; she's finally convinced they're doing good, but still doesn't quite understand the shadowy world they do it in. Of course, she supposes, that's why they do it, not her. She's less sure how the Princess would feel about the increasingly religious attitude among some of the younger members. She can't deny it was always there, of course, can't deny it in herself, for that matter, but she feels it's different with those who've never met her, who don't realize she's a pony of flesh and blood, easily embarrassed by the appearance of worship.
Or, she muses, smiling a bit as she thinks it, maybe she's just getting old, and wants those kids to get off her lawn. After all, she still finds the time, every week, to sit for an hour and look at the tree-shrine in the park outside their office. It's actually the same tree that stood outside the Pony back in the day. The City couldn't let it stay there, once it became a site of international pilgrimage, simply because it was disruptive to traffic, so they were glad to let Polaris move it here. It's thrived since then, and now is nearly large enough to carry all the prayers and gifts. Almost. At least its wide branches, draped in purple and blue and silver, still look beautiful in the late-summer sun. Polaris can't help but smile, always, to look at it.
Today, though, as she looks, her quiet thoughts are broken by a twinkle of purple light from the trunk, inexplicable and brief - one might say, a sparkle - but unmistakably there, at least to her. Before she knows it she's on her feet, then running, though she doesn't mind, since now she's laughing and grinning and can't get to the tree fast enough. There, suspended on a thick purple ribbon from the largest branch, is a beautiful purple envelope bearing an achingly familiar six-pointed star, and Polaris's name in an elegant hand.
Careful not to damage the envelope, hands moving with all the precision of her training, which she's painstakingly maintained, she pulls the enclosed letter out. Her discipline remains good enough that her hands shake only a little. There, sitting cross-legged under the shrine-tree, ignoring the growing crowd of tourists that saw the sparkle, or heard about it, she begins to read.
Dear Polaris,
I'm sorry it's taken me so long to write this. So much happened so quickly, when we got back! We filled Celestia in, of course, on everything. She especially loved to hear about you, and said you remind her of some of her favorite captains of the guard, and should be proud of all you did. I know I don't always think to say it, but I agree. I'm still not used to ponies people serving me, so I didn't say thanks as much as I should have.
Anyway, I don't know if or when I'll be able to visit. We have a lot to do here. Your world is just the first of many we plan to visit, and I hope someday you'll be able to meet the ponies and humans and other things from the others - there are so many great and strange and complicated people in the universe. But we all still remember you, and all your friends there, all the time. You were the first new world we visited, even if we didn't remember it, and you taught us so much, we'll never forget. I hope you didn't forget us either, or think we'd forgotten you.
Polaris has to stop reading to laugh, looking around at the purple-flagged office behind her, the countless gifts and prayers and thanks hanging from the tree.
We still haven't really solved the memory issue, we've just been sending letters with ourselves. I guess I didn't even tell you about the memory issue, huh, since I didn't know about it when I was there? Anyway, there is one, and we've been sending ourselves notes to help solve it. But Celestia thinks she can figure it out in a few more decades, and before she does, we don't want to come back to Earth to see you all. After all, writing ourselves notes about some new world and our mission there is one thing, but I don't even know how I'd write myself a note that would make me understand how much I appreciate you all, how much I want to thank you for your help, and to make me enjoy, as much as I should, one more night of your wonderfully strange movies or social media.
I promise, though, I will be back. And before that, I'll write. Watch this tree on this date each month. I think we have enough control over the spell to make sure it will arrive then. I won't always be able to write myself, but we'll at least be sure to send on the envelope. Maybe I'll do pictures.
I've included a few letters from me or the girls to other humans. If you could send them along, I'd appreciate it. If you'd like to write back, we'd all love to hear from you. The envelope should return to us in no less than twenty four and no more than forty eight hours.
I'll fill you in next time on some of the worlds we've been to. It's been a wild ride, but I want to make sure the spell works before I write too much! We all miss you and hope we'll be able to come back soon.
Yours,
Twilight
It's getting harder and harder for Polaris to get around now. She's had to cut down to nearly no staff exercises, and increasingly has to run the Royal Guard from her desk, or lean on a younger aide. It galls her, but she knew it'd happen eventually.
She has measured out her life in purple envelopes, and as a point of pride, she still walks to the tree herself, and will until she can't. She doesn't think this one will be her last, or second-to-last; she expects to have several years of them yet, at least, and medicine keeps getting better, but she's accepted that she can probably see the end from here, and the month between each letter only seems to keep shrinking. It's both a curse and a blessing.
Today, November's letter should arrive. The Princess is many things, and high among them is punctual. It's a pleasantly warm day for so late in the year, and the sun feels wonderful on her wrinkled skin. They long ago changed the spot where the envelope appears, since once the public figured it out crowd control became impossible, but Polaris always felt it should appear outside, under a tree, for tradition's sake, so now it simply manifests in her private garden. She still always sends back a small selection of the papers people hang, because the Princess seems to appreciate it, and because she feels it's only appropriate, but now she can savor the letters in private.
She's looking away, lost in thought, and so misses the sparkle of magic, so her first indication that something's different this time is when an unexpected sound fills the garden.
"Hello, Polaris," comes a voice she's never forgotten. Her throat tightens. She can't turn so quickly anymore, but she does her best. She still has a little of her old speed, and she couldn't hold back on this one, even if she wanted to.
The Princess looks exactly the same, and Polaris feels unspeakably old and pathetic and grateful and blessed. Then the soft fur presses against her side, and she blinks back the tears.
"I missed you," they both say at once.
"I'm sorry I couldn't come sooner," the Princess says. "The memory issue was harder than we thought. We still haven't solved it, not really. It's just, now the worlds have grown so close, it went away on its own. The last few we've been to, we didn't lose anything at all."
"I'm sorry too, Princess," Polaris says, "I got old without you."
"Princess, even now? It's Twilight, Polaris. Please. You never had to earn it, but even if you did, you have."
"I'll try," Polaris manages a wry smile, and pulls herself together. "So what brings you here?"
The Princess - Twilight - blinks. "I came to see you. I promised. And I wanted to, besides. But you're right, I suppose. Us world-traveling ambassadors, I suppose we can't ever do just one thing. Even if it is visit a great friend. Like I said, everything seems to be coming together, all the worlds, back in the same magio-physical framework. It should be possible now to build a craft to ride the magical currents between worlds. I'd like to talk to your scientists about it. I was hoping you'd escort me, one more time."
Polaris can't help but grin. "Of course."
Twilight smiles back, but swallows in a way Polaris thinks looks nervous.
"And then, after that, I was hoping you'd come back with me. I know you'd be leaving a lot behind, but I've missed you so. And...if you stay here, I don't know how much longer you'll have. I know sometimes people are ready to go, but if you're not, if you're willing to come back instead...you know a lot about humans, and logistics, and other things we could use, and we have different magic there. You'll get a lot more time, if you want it."
Polaris is quiet for a bit, but she knows that it's ultimately just for show.
"Did you really think I'd say no?"
Twilight laughs. "I'd certainly hoped you wouldn't. But it can wait. I haven't seen you in ages. Let's catch up. Is the Pony still around?"
"Of course," Polaris says, "though you might not recognize it."
"Well," Twilight says, "it seems I have several kinds of catching up to do, then."
And so they do. For today, anyway, the worlds and stars can wait on two old friends.