//------------------------------//
// Chapter VI 
// Story: The Lost Princess 
// by Takarashi282 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 6

Those past forty-eight hours were very interesting to say the least. First, I fell off a cliff. Second, I realized that a horse was haunting my dreams. Third, my normally very understanding Vice Principal tried murdering us with lasers. Fourth, I went through a portal a second time, turning into a pony. And fifth, a piece of glass was lodged into my right hind leg. I didn’t notice the last one until the adrenaline filtered out of my system. Which didn’t take long.
I flipped onto my back, my leg a bloody mess. I took a look at it, and there it was. The glass stuck out an inch or two from my leg, another undoubtable inch or so inside my leg. Pain radiated throughout my whole lower body with each heartbeat.
“Jeez, man!” Al exclaimed, sitting on his haunches, his brown eyes examining the wound. “Hate to say this, but you’re gonna have to walk around on it a little bit.”
“Sounds lovely,” I grunted through gritted teeth. Al got up from his haunches, offering me a hoof. I took it, and he wrapped it around his back, flipping me onto my hooves. It felt like an atomic bomb went off in my leg.
“Okay, okay…” Al mumbled. “Through here.” He opened the door, and it opened to a long corridor, Windows to our left filtered the morning light through, making the purple crystalline walls bluish, reflecting onto the ceiling like water.
A door opened to our right, and a unicorn walked out. She had a pink coat, and a purple and teal mane and tail. A tuft of her mane was pushed off to the right, clipping her right eye as she looked at us. On her flank was another one of the weird brands, this time a star with a streak tailing behind it.
“Al!” she said pleasantly, her alto voice smooth as silk. “It’s been a while. Who’s…” She trailed off, her eyes falling to my leg. “Oh my…”
“Yep!” Al grunted. “We need to get this taken care of now. Is there anything that we can use as a tourniquet?”
The mare thought for a second. “Yes. One second.” She galloped back into the room she came from.
“Who was that?” I asked, my voice strained.
“Starlight Glimmer,” Al replied. “Now, lie on your back. We need to get this tourniquet on you.”
Starlight walked into the hallway again, carrying a towel out in front of her, a mystical aura surrounding it. “I hope this will do. Would you lift his leg for me?”
Al nodded, and lifted my right hind leg to an almost forty-five degree angle. Starlight stared at my leg as the towel swooped around it, just above the glass, and it tied itself in a tight knot. I felt my heartbeat below the towel.
“Okay.” Al looked back to Starlight. “How’s the teleportation spell coming, Starlight?”
She raised an eyebrow. “You’re kidding right?”
“It isn’t like I haven’t been here for eight months,” Al said sarcastically.
Starlight exhaled. “Yes. Hang on tight!”
The aura now surrounded all of us, and in a blinding flash, we appeared in front of a two-story-high building. Al offered me a hoof, and I took it, hauling myself onto my hooves. “Thank you Starlight,” Al said. “I’ve got it from here.” Starlight nodded, and Al tugged me toward the building.
“You still doing okay, Rod?” Al asked me.
I nodded, even though my gut was twisting. “Just peachy.”
Al gestured to the building. “Well, they’re gonna get you stitched up in a little bit. C’mon.”
I hobbled along with Al through the doors. The walls of the reception room were white, low carpet underneath our hooves. The desk in front of us was made of red oak, and a free receptionist gazed over the countertop.
“How long of a wait for the emergency room?” Al called to the receptionist.
“Five minutes,” she said. “Follow me, please.” She sped-walked through the hallway on the left. We picked up the pace, but nothing could beat her speed-walking ability. She pushed the a door open with her hoof and held it open for us. As we walked past, the low carpet turned into gleaming tile. There was another reception desk here of the same make as the one outside. Al sat me down into the chair, and talked to the receptionist there in a hushed tone. She nodded, ducking her head to talk into a microphone.
Al sat next to me, looking down to my leg and back up at me. “Man, that’s a lot gnarlier now that I really look at it.”
“It feels gnarly,” I said, my vision doubling. I laid my head on my hoof, and the world started to spin around me.
“Holy crap, I’m naked,” I noticed.
Al’s voice was distant. “Yeah. Don’t worry about it.”
My body went limp, a slow numbness taking over. The world got darker and darker until it went pitch black.




I woke up in a small room. A three-leveled desk was the opposite corner from me, the surrounding walls painted white. On the floor was the same tile that I saw going into the emergency room, with a greyish marble tile switching intermittently with a pure white stone.
By the foot of the mattress, Al sat on a chair. There was a tinge of frustration in his eyes, a notable frown on his face as he stared blankly at the wall before him.
“You’re staring, Al,” I said, my throat surprisingly dry.
Al jumped, blinking. “R-right! Sorry.” He took a look over at me, managing a smile. “Good morning, sunshine.”
“Trust me, the sun ain’t exactly shining,” I joked. Curious, I checked out my leg. At first, I couldn’t tell that the injury nor the stitches were actually there. But upon further inspection, I saw the fine red line faintly between tufts of fur. The fur around the cut turned from orange to dark red, and I could see bits of dark thread over the cut. But for a population lacking opposable thumbs, or any fingers for that matter, it was stitched up with expertise.
“Apparently, the glass struck a major artery,” Al relayed from memory. “Good thing we didn’t decide to remove it before getting you to the emergency room. You’d lost enough blood before then that you passed out before they got you.”
“Yikes,” I said. “So how long was I out?”
Al shrugged. “Thirty minutes or so. You were in and out of the emergency room in ten minutes, and they brought you to the main clinic.”
I frowned. That meant Al was waiting for me in this dull room for about twenty minutes. I was surprised he didn’t go nuts.
Then I saw a piece of paper at the foot of the table that I lay on. It was scribbled down, surprisingly hard to read for Al’s penmanship:
“Princess Twilight, Nightmare Moon has appeared in the human world. Please respond.”
A second later, the door opened to my side, and out came a unicorn with a white coat and a stethoscope. A white plastic name tag displayed on his breast read, I kid you not, Seth O’Scope. He had a short grey mane that looked like an unkempt mohawk more than anything, his grey tail only going down to his upper leg. His coat was olive green. His flank bore a brand that looked like, you guessed it, a stethoscope.
He sat in the rotating chair in front of his desk and swirled around to catch my eye. “Nice to see you’re awake, Mr…?”
“MacBride,” I finished. “Rodrick MacBride.”
A curious eyebrow shot upward. “Rodrick, huh? I’ve not heard that name around these parts. Where are you from?”
I knit my eyebrows. I lived in Canterlot City, but that was in the human world. Was there even a place here named Canterlot?
Fortunately, Al chimed in. “He was born in Appleloosa, Dr. O’Scope. That’s probably why you’re not familiar with the naming conventions.”
O’Scope squinted. “Perhaps. I’ve got some family in Appleloosa, but none of them are native, so…” He trailed off. “Anyways. What’s your healthcare provider, Mr. MacBride?”
“Royal Healthcare, Dr. O’Scope,” Al blurted. “Just put it under my name.”
There was that eyebrow again. But O’Scope simply shrugged. “What’s your name, then?”
“Alexandrite Stone.”
O’Scope lit his horn, a pen floating to paper. “All right, Mr. Stone, I’m technically not allowed to do this, but being apart of the Royal Healthcare system, I’ll make an exception. You can expect a bill in two week’s time.”
“Thank you, Dr. O’Scope,” Al said. He then gestured to the door. “Let’s go, Rod.”
We walked out of the room, the clopping of our hooves catching me once again off guard. My leg still throbbed with pain, but it was a lot less intense than before.
“We’ll get you painkillers,” Al said, as if reciting off a list. “The doctors said to tell you that you don’t want to do any running any time soon. It may pop the stitches.”
I nodded. “Thanks, Al.”
“No problem,” he responded. “And one more thing…” He lowered his voice until it was almost a whisper. “I understand you’re from Canterlot, but you’d best not wear it like a badge. Canterlotians are infamous for being very snooty, discriminative and inconsiderate. Barring the Princesses, they aren’t the most popular bunch here.”
I knit my eyebrows. “But at home, Canterlot’s a low-to-middle class area. Wouldn’t it be  the same here?”
Al shook his head gravely. “Even though our worlds run parallel, there are some massive differences. Like Celestia being a Princess here, but in your world, she’s just a high school principal.”
Frustration kindled inside me. I stepped in front of him. “Excuse me, ‘your world’?” It came out harsher than I meant it. “Why are you disowning our home all of a sudden?”
Al’s brown eyes couldn’t keep hold my gaze. He looked down and to his left. “I don’t want to talk about it here, Rod.” His eyes were soft, and he was much more withdrawn than ever before.
I stepped back into place. “Okay. Let’s go ahead and do this.”
The rest of the trip was held in silence. As we were looking for meds in the pharmacy, I noticed he did snap out of his distant mood a little bit. I breathed a sigh of relief. I’ve seen him in the pit of despair before, and it didn’t end that quickly.
But he got me pain meds, and right as soon as we were about to head out the door, two ponies and a dragon walked in. It was Starlight and Twilight, but I hadn’t recognized the dragon. He stood to about Twilight’s neck, his green spikes atop his head making him appear a bit taller than he actually was. His scales were pink, reflecting the light with a soft glow. His eyes were an amber green, greener than any eyes than I’ve ever seen.
“I heard from Starlight that your friend was injured,” Twilight said. She glanced at me. “Is everything all ri…” She squinted, scanning me up and down. “Do I… know you from somewhere?”
“Yeah.” I waved. “I’m Rod. The guy from your dreams.”
Both Starlight and the mini dragon shot a confused look at Twilight, mixed with concern. Twilight looked just plain shocked. “Wh-what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in your own world?”
Before I could reply, Al cut me off. “We don’t have much time. Nightmare Moon has appeared in the human world,” he said, his voice lowered. “We need to neutralize her before Canterlot City is razed to the ground.”
Twilight’s eyes widened, and she hesitated. Finally, she nodded. “Right. Starlight, Al, come with me.” Her eyes darted toward me in alertness. “Do you know how to use magic?”
My eyebrow soared. “Magic?”
Twilight sighed. “Okay. You stay here. We’ll take care of Nightmare Moon.”
I creased my eyebrows. “Wait. You expect me to sit around here while you guys do the dirty work?”
Twilight returned the look. “Rod, you’re injured. I don’t want you to hurt yourself even more.”
“I’ll be fine!” I hissed. “I’m more than capable of helping you guys.”
“Dammit, Rod, we can’t argue about this,” Al intervened. He turned toward Twilight. “We need to go now.”
Twilight sighed once again. “Right. We don’t have time.” She glanced at me. “You can come with, then. Just be careful.”
Relief flooded through me. I nodded. “I will.”
She nodded. “Get in close.”
We made a tighter semicircle around Twilight, and she lit her horn. There was a bright flash and brief acceleration before we arrived in the crystal building again. It was the same library we had arrived in. The floor was wet, and I figured that either Starlight or the little dragon must’ve cleaned up the mess I’d left behind.
I had only blinked and Al jumped into the portal, followed closely by Starlight. Twilight shot a look toward me. “Go ahead.”
I nodded, jumping into the portal.
A split second after, my head throbbed. A thousand thoughts were jammed into my head; of magic, of myself, and calculations that I didn’t understand. It felt like someone took a jackhammer to my skull when we finally appeared on the other side, my gut twisting in many different ways. I struggled to keep my balance as the world spun around me.
When my vision steadied, my breath froze in my lungs. Houses in front of me were in shambles, low fire consuming what was left of them. Police cars were cut in half and exploded. A crowd of people fled from the scene. Yet no sight of Nightmare Moon.
Twilight held her head to her palm, wincing. She was around my same height in her human form. She wore light blue jeans and a lavender tee, her hair falling to her mid-back. “Okay. We don’t want them to apprehend Princess Luna.”
“Vice Principal,” I corrected. “But she isn’t in control of this. This might as well be a different person at this point.”
Twilight nodded. “Yes, but not only that. Prince—Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna watch over the portal too. If they were both gone, then that would have serious consequences.” Twilight folded her arms. “But in order to prevent this, we need a diversion. Something to occupy the police so we can placate Nightmare Moon.”
“I got it!” a voice volunteered from below me. I looked, and saw a small dog, with the same colors the little dragon had. “I can stall them while you guys do your stuff.”
Twilight’s eyes softened, eyebrows creasing in concern. “Are you sure, Spike?”
Spike nodded. “It’s a lot better than one of you guys getting arrested.”
Suddenly, a zap and explosion broke over the chaos. A dark figure floated through the air, undoubtedly Nightmare Moon.
Twilight opened her mouth as if to say something, but then closed it. “Alright,” she said, her voice straining in reluctance. “Stay safe, Spike.”
Spike yipped dutifully in response, heading off toward the police cars.
Whatever softness that was in Twilight’s expression was now gone. “Everypony else, follow me! We need to get to Nightmare Moon!”
The whole group nodding in agreement, we ran into the fray. My leg burned with pain as we weaved between the rubble of blown-apart houses. The smell of smoke lingered in the air, filling my lungs with a prickling pain. As we delved deeper, I heard screams over the crackling fire and police sirens. A mother holding an unconscious child, a father trying to lift rubble off of his son, a child crying next to a motionless sister…. There was a terror that words cannot describe, and that burns into memory what anger and hatred bring.
Finally, we reached where Nightmare Moon was wreaking havok. Her wings flapped stronger still, her eyes filled with burning coals of anger. A cold fear entered my gut as I realized that Vice Principal Luna was gone.
Twilight took a step forward, a faint aura glowing brighter around her. “Luna…” The aura flashed brightly about her, and when it was gone, lavender wings unfolded from her back; not in the same violent fashion as Nightmare Moon’s, but gracefully. With a flap of her wings, she was already up in the air, her longer hair and tail flowing behind her.
“We’ve got company!” Al yelled beside me. I looked around, and saw a crowd of people sprinting our way.
My heart skipped a beat. “These aren’t…?”
Al nodded. “The same creatures that attacked you and Ms. Luna.”
“Crap,” I cursed. “What’re we going to do?”
Al stepped forward, and I noticed the same aura around him that Twilight had had. “For right now, keep behind me.” The aura grew brighter and engulfed him, growing a tail, longer mane of hair, and horse-like ears.
I don’t know why I wasn’t phased by Twilight turning into a human/pony chimera. But as soon as Al turned, despite the weight of our situation, I started laughing. Harder than I would’ve liked.
Al shot an eyebrow up at me. “What?”
It took a little for my hysterical laughter to calm down. “It’s just… your power is the power of furries.”
Al rolled his eyes as I started cracking up again. “Friendship,” he said, irritation bubbling in his voice. He glanced toward the upcoming crowd of superpowered people-zombies. “And if you don’t turn, you can kiss your smart ass goodbye.”
Then I proceeded to see him sprint toward them and kick a whole line of them a hundred yards as if they were human-sized footballs. I stopped laughing after that.
Starlight Glimmer landed beside me in her human/pony form, blasting a laser beam out of her horn to clear out a group of baddies. “Hey!” she exclaimed. “Why aren’t you turning?”
I gave an irritated shrug. “I don’t know how!”
Starlight grunted, blasting another baddie to the sky. “Do something you’re good at! Singing, drumming—”
“I’m not good at any of those things.”
Starlight grunted a little louder this time. “You know what I mean! The rest will come to you; just do it!” With that, she jumped away, blasting a couple other baddies.
I looked around. Starlight was blasting enemies left and right, and Al was continuing to wreck their faces in. Twilight was drawing Nightmare Moon’s attention, trying to get close to her and calm her down. As was, I was useless.
So I surveyed my surroundings. There was no way I was going to learn to fly in the next forever. There was no way that I could take down one of those superpowered dudes in hand-to-hand combat.
But then I noticed that there was a ton of water pooling where Al was fighting. What could I do with a whole bunch of water?
It was then that I felt my mind starting to clear. There were a few things that I could do with water. I could freeze it, but I didn’t have the means to do so. Same went with heating it to a gaseous state. Unless I could use one of the girls’ magic. But Twilight and Starlight were too busy to help me. I didn’t see any chemicals that could react with it, so what could I use…
That’s when I saw the dangling powerline. A powerline dangling near to where Al was. If the line was live, I could find a way to lower it. I traced it back to its pole. Surprisingly, it was still in tact.
I discovered I was surprisingly calm, considering the dumbass thing that I was about to do.
You see, with having a background in pranks, there were a few elaborate ones that required me to throw something, like a pencil or a rock to trigger something, like to flip a bucket of water. Needless to say, I developed a good throwing arm.
But instead of a pencil, I picked up a fragment of brick. Instead of a water bucket, I threw it close-range at Nightmare Moon’s back. And like with those other pranks, I ran for my life.
“Al!” I screamed as a blast of energy hit directly behind me. “Get out of the water!”
“What?” He yelled back
I pointed to the powerline. “Get out of the water now!”
His eyes widened considerably when he noticed what I was pointing at. He didn’t waste any time running.
Meanwhile, I was running in a full-out sprint toward the powerline. My lungs burned as the pole grew closer and closer. 			Another blast behind me, making me stumble. I started doubting my chances of making it.
Finally, I was close enough. Unfortunately, Nightmare Moon was close enough behind that I could hear her next shot charging. I jumped to the side, feeling a little pop. Nightmare Moon shot, the impact of the blast sending me rolling to the side. The powerline fell parallel to me, the wire falling down into the water below it. I watched as a whole crowd of the enemy stiffened, smoke coming off of their clothes as they started falling down, one by one into the electrified water.
I was belly-down in the dirt, and I could feel every scrape and bruise on me. I struggled to get up, but the pain in my leg kept me from doing so. I looked down and realized that my jeans were turning a dark, wet shade of crimson.
The next thing I saw was Nightmare Moon zooming toward me. Her horn was surrounded with a cloud of energy, bending her head back before she shot. I braced for impact…
But none came. I opened my eyes as I heard a thud a few feet away from me. Twilight straddled on top of Nightmare Moon, holding her wrists down to the ground with an iron grip.
“Luna, listen to me!” Twilight pleaded. “I know you’re still there. Please, come back!”
Nightmare Moon struggled beneath Twilight, her horn lighting a few times, but fizzling out before it grew too strong.
“This isn’t what Celestia would have wanted!” Twilight continued. “If you keep this up, you won’t see her again. Please, Luna.”
Nightmare Moon’s struggling slowly halted. “Please remember,” Twilight said. “Remember who you are.”
Slowly, an ashy essence began to come off of Nightmare Moon, floating into the air and dissipating. Soon, her wings disappeared, her horn following, and the inky, night-like hue of her skin lightened to what it used to be. Soon, it was all gone, and Twilight knelt above Ms. Luna, her clothes in tatters, scrapes and bruises lining her arms. The tears in her eyes turned into heaving sobs. Twilight stood, offering a hand to her, and when Luna took it, Twilight embraced her.
Abruptly, one of the creatures I electrocuted hopped up from the water, and sprinted toward the two. Despite my leg, I hopped up, running toward them. I cried out to them when a sudden explosion of orange flashed before me, knocking me to the ground. The dome seemed to be made out of pure energy, spreading out for a few hundred yards at the very least. 	The enemy faded from existence, leaving behind a trail of dust. I looked around and was surprised to see that Al, Twilight and Luna remained unaffected.
Al ran over, stopping a few feet in front of me. “Looks like you finally did it.” He gestured to the crown of his head.
I did the same only to feel a horn like I had when I was in the pony world. It was warm to the touch.




After a while the police came and investigated the area. Fortunately, they didn’t recognize Nightmare Moon as Ms. Luna, so they brought the search elsewhere. One officer offered to take Ms. Luna with her to treat her for shock, and she quietly agreed.
When another one of them mentioned a dog that he’d kicked, Twilight was furious. It took both Starlight and Al to keep her from pummeling him. It took me asking the guy to figure out that Spike was taken to the pound just a few blocks from where we were at.
But that was in sitting position, because the pain from popping my stitches was that bad. I took off my shirt to act as a tourniquet to keep myself from bleeding too much. I’d tightened it to the point that I could feel my pulse throughout my whole leg. Al and Starlight offered to scavenge for any sort of First Aid kit that hopefully had needle and gut, leaving Twilight and I together for a little bit.
There was a long, awkward silence between us, mostly due to me and my awesome social skills. But in all seriousness, in addition to popping my stitches, I was hoping to avoid any other damage to my person due to her current mood.
But surprisingly, she broke the ice. “So, how are you feeling?”
It was actually so surprising that I thought that she was talking to someone else. “Oh,” I finally said. “I’m fine. Just a little woozy is all.”
She nodded. “That blast that you conjured,” she mentioned. “Are you sure you haven’t used magic before?”
“Positive,” I responded.
She frowned, resting her chin on her wrist. “I wonder if that’s from us being connected.”
I knit my eyebrows. I had forgotten all about that little detail.
“Of course,” she continued, “it could also be a random blast of magic. It’s common for beginners.”
While it hurt my pride to hear that, I didn’t respond. Truth is that I didn’t have control over that. I hated that.
There was another brief silence. I remembered how clear my mind was, how powerful I had felt. It was almost as if I could cut through the fabrics of reality. It was exhilarating. “What was that anyway?” Twilight looked at me, confused. “I mean, the different forms.”
Twilight shrugged. “I don’t know. My first visit here is when those forms started activating out of nowhere. It started with my six friends here, and now it seems to have spread.”
I raised an eyebrow. “So you’re saying that you caused these forms to happen?”
Twilight knitted her eyebrows. “I can’t really take credit for it. If anything, I reawakened magic in this world, but that may not even be the case.” Twilight glanced at me. “Why do you ask?”
I shrugged. “I just want to learn more about this. I mean, I discover a power that I didn’t know I had, and I don’t even know what to do with it.”
Twilight smiled a bit. “Well, I am a teacher, you know. If you wanted, I could fill you in on some of the basics.”
I raised my eyebrows, surprised. “Really? You would do that?”
Twilight nodded. “I’ve had a couple pupils in the past… well, literally a couple. I would love to take another.”
“But you’re a princess. I wouldn’t want to be too much of a burden on you…”
She shrugged. “It’s all right, really. I’ve done this before. I can handle both princesshood and tutorship.”
That was an easy decision. “Sure,” I said. “I would love to be your pupil.”
Twilight smiled widely. “Great! But while we’re still here, you might want to pack what you need, and…”
That’s when the realization struck me. “Wait,” I interrupted. “We’re going to your world for this?”
Twilight nodded slowly, her smile somewhat weakening. “O-of course? I mean, where else would we go?”
I paused. I couldn’t just go. “Actually, I’ll need to hold off on that decision,” I said. “I have some things to take care of.”
Twilight’s confused grin dissipated. “Oh. Okay.”
Soon after that, Al and Starlight arrived with a first aid kit, with needle and gut. They told me they couldn’t find any sedatives, so they’d have to do the stitching raw. As my leg had completely run out of feeling at this point, I didn’t think it really mattered.
Then I soon discovered that I needed to take my pants off. I looked around, requested kindly for the girls to turn away as I stripped down to naught but my underwear for Al to start stitching me up. It was really convenient, then, that Al had had taken nursing courses that taught him how to do this sort of thing effectively.
Unfortunately, the feeling in my leg came back quite quickly. Needless to say, the whole operation was painful and drawn out. Imagine, on top of applying disinfectant that burned like the fires of hell, that you were getting rope burn, except on a smaller scale with a needle stabbing into you every half an inch to an inch into your flesh. That’s what it felt like.
But soon enough, it was over, and Al had made an expert stitching job. He dressed the wound, and he was done.
When I arrived home, I was relieved to find my house unscathed. It was a stark difference between the utter carnage and the relative order found here. But the tension in the atmosphere still remained. It wasn’t the calm that I had come to take for granted. It was as if the whole world was holding its breath, waiting for another strike.
Al helped me hobble to the door, and rang the doorbell. My mom wasted no time in answering. The door swung wide open, and her eyes widened as she saw me shirtless, my pants caked in blood, looking as if I had escaped a collapsing building.
“Oh my God,” she gasped. She took a startled step forward. She put a hand on my cheek, sweeping off the dust with her thumb. “What happened? Y’all weren’t…?”
Al nodded gravely. “I’m sorry, Ms. MacBride. I would’ve come sooner if I had known.”
Mom waved a hand. “Don’t go blaming yourself, darlin’.” She held out an arm to me and I took it. “Let’s wash you up,” she said, stepping inside.
She took a look back at Al. “Don’t be a stranger, Al. You can come in.”
Al hesitated, then shook his head. “I’m afraid that I have to go. I’m late for something.”
Mom cocked an eyebrow. “Okay. Just be careful.”
Al nodded. “I will. Thanks, Ms. MacBride.”
With that, Al left, and Mom helped me hobble up the stairs to the shower. Mom demanded that she saw where all the blood came from. I relented, showing her the wound. It was longer than I had remembered it being, and the jaggedness of the top and bottom of it indicated that I’d also torn it bigger as I was running around.
Mom raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t go to the hospital, did you?” She gestured to the stitches.
I considered what I should say. Finally, I shook my head. “No, this is Al’s handiwork.”
Mom frowned, nodding to herself. “It’s very well done.”
Shortly thereafter, she left me to clean myself up, and offered to prepare me a new set of clothes. Since I wasn’t necessarily in the condition to do so myself, I welcomed her help. I gingerly scrubbed off all of the dust and blood off my body, each water droplet from the shower head falling on my injury sending stabbing pain into my leg.
I let my mind wander. What would it be like to bathe as a pony? How long will it take for my fur to dry? How in the world was I supposed to use soap with the lack of hands? How different would being a pony be from being a human?
Then my mind went to Twilight’s offer. It was a great opportunity, one that, if it didn’t require what it did, I would take without a moment’s hesitation. However, all great things require sacrifices, great or small. I thought of Mom, wondering about her reaction to this offer. Would she say no outright, or would she welcome the opportunity as immediately? And if she did, I can trust Jeff to keep her company in my absence.
But reluctance still tugged at my heart. I didn’t want to leave because a part of me was afraid of what would happen if Jeff left. If anything happened to her, I wouldn’t be there for her. Of course, I was positive that Jeff wouldn’t do something like that. It just wasn’t him. But regardless, my stupid mind thought of all of the negative outcomes before the positive.
After a little bit more of a soak, I dried myself off and wrapped myself in a towel. When I opened the door, I was glad to discover that my mom had set out clothes for me in front of the door. I grabbed them, shutting the bathroom door behind me and gingerly got dressed.
A bubble of anxiety built up in my chest. I had to ask her. As much as I hated to leave, I wanted to know more about what I could do. Besides, because of my mental connection with Twilight, I was likely wrapped up in this until she found a way to disconnect ourselves from each other.
I opened the door, freshly dressed, and hobbled downstairs. Mom would be in her usual place, reclined on the loveseat with a book. As I landed in the living room, I saw that she was there in addition to a box of Manenese food. When she saw me, she gestured to the coffee table, which had another box. “If you’re hungry, I got some for you, too.”
I smiled, also wondering how long I had been in the shower. “Thanks, Mom.” I walked over and picked up the chopsticks and the box of food, opening the top as I gently let myself down on the sofa. Shrimp fried rice. Only the best thing to ever be made.
I was suddenly aware of how hungry I was. I hadn’t had lunch because I was making things up for school, and I had a light breakfast. Maybe it was because of the unsettling fact that Twilight could control my body at almost any time.
So, my dinner was gone in around five minutes, and it wasn’t a meager box, either. I stretched my back, lying against the back of the sofa, filled with a comfortable fullness.
“Well, well, well, someone was hungry,” Mom remarked.
I nodded. Now was the time to ask her. But would she believe me? I shook the doubt in my head away. If there was anything that I’ve learned conversing with Mrs. Butterworth, it was that I should try anyway.
“So, Mom,” I started. “I was wondering…”
And immediately I told her the truth of what was happening. I apologized that I had lied, that I was actually going to Ms. Luna’s house to get some clarity on what was happening. I explained everything having to do with this world first, leaving the confusing details for the last. When I told her that there was a pony inside my head, she at first looked confused and concerned. But as I mentioned the portal and the pony world, her eyes widened in realization, and whatever concerns of me being mental was washed away.
She nodded. “I know of Twilight Sparkle,” she said. “Celestia’d talk about her on occasion. Said that she caused a whole buttload of strange events.” She rested her chin on her thumbs. “But y’all said you were wondering about something.”
I nodded back. “Uhm…” I swallowed down the anxiety. “Twilight Sparkle made me an offer. It turns out that in the other world, I am a unicorn.” It suddenly struck me how silly this was. I could feel heat swirl in my cheeks. “A-and, she said that she would be willing to teach me magic.”
Her eyebrows raised as she realized my question. “You want to go to the pony world to learn magic.”
My heart thumping in my chest, I nodded. “Yes, and I want to go as soon as possible.”
It was silent, and my heart thumped in my ears. Mom knit her eyebrows, looking down at the carpet.
“But Rod,” she said. “Your schooling. You only have about a month before school ends. For good.”
My heart sunk as I realized that. “Yeah,” I said. “We could do packets while I’m there. I may not be able to make the classes, but I can still complete the credits so I can graduate.”
Mom stared at me in disbelief. “But you’re so close, Rod! Can’t you wait until after school ends?”
I sighed. “Mom, Twilight needs my help. I’d just be putting myself in more danger if I didn’t know how to use this.”
“My God, Rod!” she snapped. “You’re just a teenager. Why does she expect you to put your hiney on the line so she can fulfill her delusions of grandeur?”
“This isn’t about that!” I snapped back. “This is about getting Celestia back!”
“Celestia is dead!” she screamed.
The whole world went silent. It was as if the air stood still, waiting like a pane of thin glass to be broken. It was then that I realized Mom’s expression. It was broken, despairing. It was a side of her that I never wanted to see ever again.
She spoke in shattered breath. “I don’t want to lose you too.”




The next couple of days were spent in a tense silence. Suddenly, Mom wanted to avoid any question about Twilight or the events that had happened. Instead, when she got of work, she brought me to hobby places where I could build my own contraptions, Crescent Harbor, on drives to show me what a great place Canterlot City was.
But the next day after that, she stopped trying to convince me. With nothing else that caught my fancy, I asked my mom if she could drive me to Al’s so that we could hang out. She silently agreed. But when we arrived and knocked on his door, his parents carefully told me that he was not home, and they didn’t know when he would be back.
Effectively grounded, I tried to fill my time with different things. I had bought new books to read, finished a couple contraptions that Mom got me the materials for, and downloaded games on my phone to play, while humming tone-deafly to songs on my old MP3 player.
The next day, Mom was particularly out of touch. She would hardly respond to when I tried to talk to her, and conversations were limited to a few words. It was as if I stepped back to the past, and dad had left afresh. Except she was losing me, too.




It was the day before Spring Break ended. Mom had resumed her normal patterns of speech, except her normal enthusiasm was somewhat absent. Even though she didn’t have work that day, she headed out to grab something. When I tried asking her, she didn’t respond with a straight answer.
So I resumed the activities of the past five days. I had finished two books, and the games on my phone had gotten stale. I freed my phone of that unneeded space, and I downloaded new ones afresh, only to realize they were the exact same type of game as before.
Irritated, I laid on my bed, playing with a spinning part on one of the contraptions I had made. Originally, I had made it to be a start to a sort of Rube Goldberg machine, but I barely had the desire to finish it. But a marble would start at the top of a pinwheel, turning it and nudging yet another marble around a halfpipe made out of a thick boba straw to hit a set of dominoes. That was about how far I had gotten.
It was a couple more hours before I heard my mom scream out for me. Reluctantly, I trudged out of my bedroom, my leg now faded to a dull ache. I descended the stairs to see that my mom was carrying a bag of thick, notebook-esque booklets. She handed it to me, and I took it, looking inside. They were marked with Pre-Calculus Section 4, English 12 Section 4, World History Section 2… these were packets for the final quarter of my classes.
I stared at them in disbelief. “Mom,” I asked. “What’re these for?”
I caught Mom’s eye, and her eyes were soft. “Rod,” she said. “I’m sorry that I yelled at you, and that I was too stubborn to take your word.” She inhaled deeply, her eyes getting glassy. “I realize that trying to shelter you from this is only going to make things worse for her.”
“Her?” I asked, but then I realized who she was talking about. “Celestia.”
Mom nodded. “I can’t keep y’all around forever Rod, and I’m not in the mood to forgive Twilight for wrappin’ you up in this bullcrap, but…” Mom sniffed, a tear falling down her face. “If you really wanna go, I send you with my blessing.”
My eyes widened. I set the bag down. “Mom…” I nearly tackled her with a hug, and she hugged back harder, her wet face on my neck. “Thank you.”
She sniffed as she pulled away from the hug. She wiped the tears away with her palm. “Holy bajeezus,” she said, managing a laugh. “I leak more than that Vanhoover Dam.”
I laughed. It was good to see that her sense of humor was back.
“Anywho, y’all better get packin’.” She gave me a smile. “Don’t care if y’all’re naked as a baby there, you’re takin’ some clothes.”




I packed a couple bags full of things that would put my mom at ease, five changes of clothes, the basic hygene products, and a few trinkets that I was actually considering using. Within about half an hour though, I was ready to go.
Mom bearhugged my before I went, commanding me to do my packets and to send her regular mail, her tone threatening death. It was probably another half an hour before I was actually going.
And after a final hug, I went. The walk to the school took a little longer than usual. But when I got there, I saw that the Wondercolts statue had been absolutely decimated; only the hooves remained.
I faced toward the mirror-like base, breathing deeply. This was the last time I would see this world for a while. I took a long look around, as if saying goodbye. Finally, I stepped through the portal, my mass changing all at once as I walked in through the other side. My backpacks were now strung around my barrel, fit to burst.
Twilight stood against the wall, sorting through the books rapidly when she noticed me. She smiled. “I suppose your mom finally let you go.”
I smirked. “Nah,” I said in a sarcastic tone, “I definitely snuck out and took all this unnecessary cargo, y’know, just in case.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Oh yeah. You’re such a bad boy.” She laughed to herself. “In any case, shall we get started?”