//------------------------------//
// Chapter 13 - Unexpected Temptation 
// Story: Dawn 
// by Anachronon 
//------------------------------//

A rip in reality came to be in the magical land of Equestria. The animal lover stumbled out of it just before it flickered a few times and fell apart, no longer able to hold its stability.

It was horrible for the young human. It just felt so strange, like time had lost all meaning in there. When she looked around a tranquil winter scene presented itself in all its snowy glory.

Fluttershy gasped in wonder. "It's beautiful!" she thought joyfully.

The cosiest and prettiest cottage the teenager ever saw stood in front of her. It was like something out of a fairy tale. In the end she didn't know how long she truly stood and admired the scenery, but it had a charm you couldn't find at home.

She blinked in surprise. Was that a bunny with a scarf around its neck? She never saw something like that before, but it looked incredibly cute.

Those and more thoughts raced through Fluttershy's mind until the curious white rabbit stepped up to her, as if judging her very presence. It sat upright, crossed its paws in front of its chest and repeatedly hit the ground with its back leg, as if waiting for a reaction of the human. Was it glaring at her? Despite the awkwardness in the air the little cutie reminded her of her own pet bunny at home, Angel.

She went down on her haunches to look less threatening, "Hey little guy," the girl started with her soothing voice, "what are y-"

The door of the cottage opened and the teenager had to contain herself not to squee to the heavens.









It was a cloudy day in Ponyville, though that was to be expected with the weather schedule for this week. An order for a light snow flurry had been placed with the local weather team to create a fitting atmosphere for the upcoming Hearth's Warming Eve.

Fluttershy sat in her cottage, enjoying a nice cup of lavender tea. She glanced around and sighed internally, winter always made her home lonelier. Such was nature, most of her animal friends had to hibernate during this time. But at least she wasn't completely alone, her pony friends excluded of course. The pegasus was happy that Angel never wanted to hibernate, keeping her company instead. He was a special little bunny indeed.

Speaking of, he seemed to be spooked. "Angel Bunny, is something wrong? Was the salad not to your liking? I was sure that I got it right this time."

Her pet rolled his eyes at his owner's cluelessness, hopped to his basket, put the red scarf Rarity made around his neck and paused in front of the entrance. He was staring at her expectantly.

She bent her head to the side in confusion and came up with an idea why he behaved like that, "Oh my. Do you need to pee?"

Angel facepalmed, sometimes it was hard to be the only intelligent one in this household. He pointed at the door, then at the pegasus and back at the door, gesturing wildly with his arms afterwards.

Fluttershy let him out with an unsure expression on her face. Just what made Angel suddenly so skittish? Did he drink too much?  "Remember to clean your paws when you are finished."

There were way too many days in his life when Angel Bunny seriously questioned his owner's sanity and gave her a last mock salute before he vanished into the cold.

The animal caretaker put another piece of wood into her little fireplace. Flickering flames, crackling sounds of burning wood, tea, life could be wonderful. If not, much to Fluttershy's chagrin, for a certain draconequus who occupied her mind since his disappearance this morning.

Deep inside, so she tried to convince herself, was Discord a friendly individual, just very misunderstood. He simply needed a chance or two to prove himself... OK, perhaps even more. But that was what friendship was all about, right? Giving somepony… someone, another chance in life to learn from his past mistakes to become nicer and more approachable.

It didn't sit well with her how excited he became about the misfortune of Twilight and this other mare, Sunset Shimmer, when he got an idea to help. Her tummy was telling her that something bad would happen. But what was he planning? Hopefully nothing mean.

She needed to talk with Applejack for a long time to convince her friend that Discord didn't intentionally try to ruin her crops when he switched the Apples' water supply for their trees with liquified chocolate last summer. It was supposed to be a little prank, so he claimed. Pinkie Pie loved it if his antics ended with cotton candy clouds though.

After relaxing a little in her chair she glanced at the cuckoo clock hanging on the wall. Where was Angel Bunny?

"I should look for him before it gets dark," Fluttershy thought worriedly.

She flew up to the clothes hooks and took a pair of fluffy pink ear muffs and a light green scarf with her. The Bearer of Kindness was always a little stricken when it came to summer and winter. Normally a pegasus was much more resistant to the weather in order to fly at high altitudes, no matter the temperature. It was necessary to manipulate the sky without much problems.

That didn't mean nothing could harm them, but a lightning bolt for example was much less lethal for her tribe. It reminded her of Ditzy Doo, who was lucky that she was a pegasus with her tendency for clumsiness, otherwise the cross-eyed mare's cloud related accidents may have ended badly for her by now.

Alone the thought made Fluttershy sad.

The mana pathways of her pegasus magic, more specifically in her wings, were hypercharged. Her problem made itself known with the denser development of receptors for processing stimuli in her skin and feathers. Cold and hot wind currents let her body react much more violent. A condition known as pegathermia. She only went outside during the summer when it was absolutely necessary.

Fluttershy screamed his name into the cold, meaning her volume was perhaps slightly above household noise level. Finally she spotted him, "Angel, there you are! Come inside, the Everfree Forest is dangerous at ni-" Fluttershy couldn't say more before she was hit by a crushing hug.

Even much stranger, whatever it was, sounded and looked exactly like her, if not for not being a pony. And the cooing voice was a tad younger, "Aren't you just adorable? I've never actually seen one of you ponies before. I can't believe that you are so cute!"

The hug loosened only because the creature had chosen to pet her now. Whatever it was, it stood much like a minotaur while it petted the madly blushing pegasus. It felt unbelievable and much nicer than it had any right to be. Fluttershy groaned in the back of her mind. Of course! This had to be her human counterpart from the mirror world.

Twilight gave them all an accurate description of how they looked like, but something was off about the human's outer appearance, "Uhm, c-could you-eep!"

Her other self was in animal heaven and hugged the equine even tighter, "Oh my, you can really talk! That's just so incredibly wonderful. I-I just don't even know what to say!"

So this must have been how Spike felt when she met him and Twilight for the first time in Ponyville. How the tables had turned.

"D-do you mind letting me go?" the pony requested timidly.

Humanshy gasped and pulled back in shame, fighting the desire to cuddle more, "I-I'm so sorry. I just didn't know what to expect and you are so fluffy and small and huggable and... uhm, sorry, again."

Now that the girl could get a more level headed look at the to her hip reaching equine she stared in awe at her counterpart, "Are you... me?"

"Y-yes, my name is Fluttershy." The equine sighed and shook her head in frustration, "It's alright, it felt n-nice." She stammered the last word, feeling unsure about the sensation of being petted, "Let me guess. Discord?"

That question awoke the teenager's interest, "You know Mr. Discord? Uhm, I mean yes, he brought me here to help with an... issue."

"Let's go inside so we can warm up and talk," pony Shy suggested with a gentle smile.

The human nodded, wringing her hands as she followed the cottage's owner with quick steps, "I hope you don't mind me being here at such a late hour. I really don't want to intrude."

Meanwhile Angel put a paw on his forehead in a dramatic way and mock-fainted. Now there were two of them. What did he do in his life to deserve this?









"It looks even better on the inside," the student of CHS complimented in admiration, "I always dreamed about living like this." She felt a little uncomfortable about receiving such hospitality as a complete stranger and took a sip of the hot cocoa. Her eyes widened in delight, "It tastes amazing."

Equestrian Fluttershy took the words in stride, "Thanks. And yes, I know him. Discord is my friend, but he can be a little difficult to be around. I apologize if he did something inappropriate."

A closer examination gave the Bearer of Kindness interesting insight related to human fashion. She was no Rarity, rather just a model for a very short time, but she was certain that the fashionista would want to know every detail about their clothes.

And her counterpart's body was literally covered by it. Forest green horseshoes were on her hooves... On second thought, surely they were called something else. Her… not forelegs, arms were what minotaurs called them she believed, with hands at the ends rather than hooves. While they’d been outside, her hands were covered by some yellow fabric, with separate covers for each... finger when they were outside. Then there were her legs, which were engulfed by tight looking forest green fabric. The pegasus didn't know what to make out of it. Or the girl's upper body, having two mounds of flesh on her chest, similar to a female minotaur, just much smaller. She wore over her upper half a white gown, more or less. It seemed to be less formal, with... her Cutie Mark on it? Indeed, the small image was stitched upon the fabric on the right side. Strange. She even had a cyan green... something she wore outside over the gown-like piece of clothing and a dark pink scarf.

Human Fluttershy shook her head dismissively, "No, not at all. He was very nice, if kind of strange. He reminds me a lot of Pinkie Pie. Mr. Discord even saved me and my friends from-"  Her eyes turned to pinpricks, realization and panic hit their mark. "MY FRIENDS! Oh no, where are they?! T-they should have been directly behind me!"

The mare was caught off-guard by the shouting and retreated behind her mane, "Y-your friends?"

Her human counterpart left the comfortable couch and ran up and down in full blown fear, "Did Mr. Discord's portal fail? Did I do something wrong? Ohhh, I knew this chance was too good to be true."

A noise of flapping wings brought her to a halt. The next thing she saw and felt was fur and hair. Normally her situation was reversed, but this time an animal, her own counterpart no less, was hugging the teenager to calm her down.

After at least five minutes the embrace ended and Human Fluttershy giggled when the soft mane tickled her nose. She scratched her equine version behind the ears to show her gratitude and earned herself quite an unexpected reaction, but she didn't mind. It was commonly shown by Applejack's horses.

Equestrian Fluttershy hummed blissfully and leaned her head further into the girl's hand. "A little bit to the right please... lower, if you don't mind. Hmm~"

Her tail started to swing a little.

Fluttershy didn't know that ponies could be this adorable, her heart nearly couldn’t take it. The other her was a such beautiful pegasus.

"I didn't know you had a thing for being touched by yourself. Fluttershy, you never cease to surprise me, you naughty little pony," a new but familiar voice echoed through the cottage, laughing at what he saw.

Both Fluttershys squeaked and jumped from each other with red faces.

Discord appeared above them in a recumbent position, supporting his head with a claw and a highly amused smile on his face. For the first time the human saw his true form.

"Mr. Discord?! W-what are you?!" the student of Canterlot High inquired in excitement. She was always fascinated by all kinds of animals, fictional or not. But the teenager never heard before from an animal made of so many different parts.

The God of Chaos took a proud pose, "It seems I have an admirer! I am a draconequus of course! But what should I expect? I'm one of a kind. Oh, and I like the new half human half pony look, very convincing and fashionable. Take a look!"

Now the mare knew what was bugging her about her counterpart, humans didn't normally look like this.

Confused by the mad spirit's statement Humanshy looked in the wood framed mirror that suddenly emerged from the ground to see that he was right. Fluffy equine ears sat upon her head, butter yellow wings passed through her upper clothes just enough to move freely without destroying them, her hair had even its ponytail-like extension.

"B-but how?" she asked unsurely. That explained the tingling on her back, but she just thought it were goosebumps! Instead, she saw her wings.

Discord floated to the ground, "Isn't it obvious my dear? Your Elements granted magic can now finally flow freely through your body in a dimension full of potent energy. It is no longer restricted by the poor atmosphere of your own world."

A bonus to him was that the humans were traceable at last.

The teenager hadn’t been able to pony-up since the whole Anon-a-Miss business started. She thought they had lost their magic for good after they abandoned Sunset and Twilight, as well-deserved punishment.

"Discord!" Pony Fluttershy screamed scoldingly like a disappointed mother.

Mentioned mad spirit's cheeky attitude vanished and was replaced by a tense expression. He put his focus on the small pegasus, who flew up to his face, her front hooves at her sides, eyes dangerously narrowed.

The equine pointed with a hoof at the former villain, "What do you have to say for yourself, mister?!"

Discord chuckled awkwardly, pulling nervously at his neck with a claw like it was a collar. The scaled patch of skin stretched like one, "Would it make it better if I said that I had nothing else than the utmost best intentions? I even brought you milk!" A bottle of milk appeared in his paw, the label was decorated with a sad smiley face of the draconequus.

The mare was not amused

Human Fluttershy shook her head lightly, while getting her priorities straight. She closed the distance between her and the God of Chaos in an instant as well, "Mr. Discord, where are my friends? Why aren't they here?!"

He glanced between the two emotional females and couldn't come up with a punchline that would diffuse the situation for him. One was clearly angry with him, but why? He simply tried to help after all. The other looked near tears, if her glistened eyes were anything to go by. Worried sick for her friends' well-being.

A distraction of greater proportions was needed, something bold, something cocky, something unexpected. Discord snapped his claw behind his back... and a squeaking Rainbow Dash made her entrance.

She fell flatly on her muzzle, "OW!" The last thing the Wonderbolt aspirant knew was that she was napping on a cloud before being ponynapped. Rainbow looked up and saw the trio, "What the hay is going on here?!" The ever so loyal pegasus flew between her childhood friend and the freaky, kind of like her friend, looking creature that was something between a minotaur and a pony, "I don't know what you are, buster, but nothing hurts my fr-GAH!"

Human Fluttershy was squealing this time for real and cuddled the stuff out of the chromatic mare, rubbing her cheek against the athlete's fur, "Dashie, you are so cute as a pony!"

Rainbow Dash grumbled about being treated like a pet for nearly three minutes, bringing about quite a bit of laughter from Discord. Fluttershy meanwhile explained who and what the creature was while stealing envious glances at the two of them. 

Finally the teenager released her hold on the cerulean pegasus. Her rosy face and pained smile told stories about her embarrassment, "I-I really need to learn to control myself, don't I?" This world would soon be the death of her. There was only so much adorableness she could take.

Discord grinned slyly, "Come on my dear, you haven’t even seen the foals yet."

Alone the thought made her squirm on the inside. Fluttershy was torn between disciplining herself, because it was ethically and morally wrong to go after sentient children despite the strong wish to cuddle with a baby pony.

Rainbow inspected her wings for damaged feathers, the next preening session would take forever. She stared dryly at the human, "You think?" Then she glared at the God of Chaos, "You DO know that our local egghead doesn't want to see them for now, right? And I'm sure the same can be said about the other princesses."

Before her counterpart could sulk Pony Fluttershy admonished gently the other mare, "Rainbow Dash, I know you don't like what they did, but they deserve a second chance and it speaks a lot for them that they left their own world behind just to show how sorry they are. I don't want to excuse their behaviour, but it is a start in the right direction." Her eyes were pleading, "Somepony has to take the first step."

The weather manager of Ponyville was dumbfounded for a few seconds, sometimes it was simply astonishing how much her shy friend had changed over the years. Then she surrendered with a shrug, a smile and a sigh, "Yeah, yeah, I guess you're right."

The draconequus cleared his throat, taking the opportunity of the much calmer Fluttershy duo, "I admit that I may owe you a few explanations."

A snap of his claws later he wore a white lab coat, a piece of chalk flew at his side and a big blackboard filled the room.

The Lord of Disharmony tried to sound like a storyteller, "Imagine a portal made by my humble self," the chalk drew sphere and a smiling human Discord figure with a crown on his head besides it.

"Now imagine how said portal, only theoretical of course, lost its stability after a stray lance of Dark Magic hit it. I, of course, did my best to protect the other girls in the meantime."

A sketch of the other four Rainbooms as a group was made. They were smaller, hugging each other and huddling together in fear behind a determined, big and muscled Discord, who wore a long cape with a giant 'D' on it. A bubble was protecting the group, while lots of deadly looking lances tried to penetrate the shield around them. Windigos circled their future prey.

The third picture showed the rip he made in reality with a lance in it, its formerly smooth outline now drawn in waves.

His voice took a dramatic touch, "I tried everything I could, but alas the portal created something never seen before by mortal eyes. Your friends were sucked in before I could react and I had to save the world like the always helpful entity I am."

Rainbow Dash snorted.

A fourth sketch visualized a helplessly flying Rarity whose speech bubble was filled with a 'My hair!’, Applejack's screaming head was looking out of the portal, recognizable because of her headgear. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were gone. Discord held his hands high in the sky and they were drawn as if they were surrounded by a blinding light. The Windigos lay defeated around him, with crosses as eyes.

Everything returned to normal with a snap of his fingers, and he exclaimed joyfully, "The end!" before bowing in front of his small audience, "Thank you all for believing in me, without your support and my know how it wouldn't have been possible! It was a pleasure. Autograph sessions until the end of time, between now and yesterday."

They could have sworn they heard clapping sounds in the background.

"W-where are they?! Take me to them, please!" Humanshy shouted panicky

“Not the worst idea. Twilight will throw a fit if she sees you here in Ponyville,” Rainbow Dash commented from the couch, completely ignoring Angel’s death glare.

"Discord..." the Equestrian version said in mild annoyance.

The draconequus interrupted her incoming lecture, "No time my dear." He tossed dramatically the protesting teenager over his shoulder and announced in full hero mode, "Discoooord to the rescuuuue!"

Both vanished, their bodies popping like soap bubbles.

The cyan pony rolled her eyes, "Whatever, I have much more important things to do anyway." Rainbow Dash yawned, she needed to catch up with her interrupted nap time. She brought a cloud from the outside into the animal lover's living-room, "Wake me up if my awesomeness is needed."

Fluttershy could only shake her head at her childhood friend in good humor. But she wouldn't want the chromatic pegasus in any other way.

Her door was suddenly slammed open. A wild Pinkie Pie had appeared.

The creator of the legendary Sonic Rainboom grumbled tiredly and glanced briefly at the intruder before she went back to sleep. Seriously, what did a righteous mare have to do here before she could take a well-deserved nap?

Pinkie was searching in every corner and ran madly through the entire cottage before she came to a stop in front of her two friends, although only one of them was still awake, “Girls! My Pinkie Sense was telling me that somepony new arrived in Ponyville! I looked aaaall over the town and found nothing! I’m so confused, that never happened before!”

Fluttershy examined what was left of her door and could only sigh softly. She wondered if Applejack was still free this evening.









"And Ah tell y'all, Ah know where we're goin'! Ah'm never lost!" human Applejack screamed over the snow storm.

Nothing could fool an Apple's sense of direction.

"Darling, you are insane! We need to find shelter from the storm before we freeze to death!" Rarity retorted immediately and glanced at the unfazed girl besides her, "And why do you look absolutely unfazed by the weather!?"

"T-tell me your s-secret!" Pinkie Pie pleaded with a trembling voice.

Wind and snow were unforgiving, they could feel the cold despite their thick clothes.

The fashionista wore now an elegant black coat with a big stuffed hood to protect her face as best as possible, royal purple fringed knee high winter boots, black thermal leggings with three blue diamonds sewn onto the right thigh, fine black gloves and an indigo colored belt. Beneath her jacket a fashionable long-sleeved midnight blue shirt.

Pinkie’s outfit consisted among other things of pink boots with blue edges around the top, a yellow jacket and an amber colored beanie that was somehow able to contain her ears and a big portion of her hair in a logic defying way. Three balloon shaped bobbles, one yellow, two blue, were dangling from the left side. Red and white striped leggings, a violet skirt and a white shirt with the same symbol of the three balloons upon it completed everything.

Applejack had a red and dark green checked jacket over a forest green shirt, normal blue jeans with a black belt and a red apple-shaped buckle. For the winter, she wore stuffed dark brown cowboy boots and red gloves. Her favourite hat was a given.

Only Rainbow Dash wore something related to winter sport. She wore a ski worthy outfit to be precise, meaning a white and dark green striped winter beanie, red snow goggles, a black winter jacket with stripes in the colors of the rainbow on the sides and the end of her sleeves over a steel blue shirt, padded black trousers with the same rainbow stripes and to a little over her ankles reaching blue half-boots.

But what surprised them the most, besides their freezing location, was the fact that they were all ponied up. Magical hair extensions, ears, even the athlete's wings, it was all there.

Rainbow simply shrugged cluelessly with her shoulders, “Chillax Rarity, I really don’t know what you’re talking about. I guess it’s a little cold, but it could be worse.”

“Are ya serious? It’s like we stepped into a freezer, Dash,” Applejack commented in disbelief.

Another mystery they had no answer to, but two much more important things were on their agenda. Finding shelter and their missing friend Fluttershy.

“G-girls! I-I think I see a l-light over there! And it’s c-close!” Pinkie Pie informed hopefully and ran ahead.

“Darn it Pinkie! Ya don’t know what it might be! Wait up!” the cowgirl admonished harshly as the rest gave chase.

They didn’t expect to find an entire city under a pink bubble. Not having much of a choice, except freezing to death, they looked carefully for some sort of entrance. Strangely there was none, did they need a special invitation? Or a password?

“Wahh!” Rainbow exclaimed in surprise when she fell.

“Oh dear. Are you alright?” Rarity inquired in concern.

“Yeah, don’t worry. I just tripped over something big. Help me out here, it looked strange,” came the immediate reply.

The quartet dug a little and stared in a mix of wonder and uncertainty at the culprit. It seemed to be a long sharp tipped curved crystal. It looked like a disfigured horn. But it was the color that unnerved them most, a rich blood red.

“Well, paint me brown and call me a pony. That thing looks like the real deal. Maybe some kind of ruby?” Applejack guessed thoughtfully.

Rarity looked enviously at their chromatic friend, “You don’t think we could share?” She held her hands up in a surrendering motion when Pinkie and Applejack glared at her, “I didn’t mean to sound greedy about it.” Rarity looked apologetically at Dash, “Sorry Darling, I just never saw a jewel of such a size or exotic beauty. I fear I lost myself there for a moment, please excuse my forwardness.” The fashionista lowered her head in honest shame.

Rainbow Dash grinned, “There is nothing to forgive.” Now she smiled from ear to ear, and her voice took a higher pitch, “Can you believe my luck!? Soooo awesome! Imagine how much money I could get for this baby when we are back home!”

Pinkie adapted more to the cold, but she could have sworn it was a little warmer, now that they were directly in front of this, whatever it was, “What is if someone reaaaally misses that thing and just lost it?”

The athlete snorted, “Really Pinkie? It was buried under like a ton of snow! I’m sure we were just very lucky to find it first. Finders keepers, losers weepers and all that.”

Rainbow took the crystal, careful not to cut herself and put it into one of the bigger pockets of her jacket.

“Stop! Who are you strangers? And more importantly, what are you?” a casual, timber male voice demanded to know.

They slowly turned their heads and couldn’t believe their eyes, two small honest to good horses, or ponies from what the Rainbooms remembered, looked up at them.

Both wore shiny platinum colored metal armor around their bodies from neck to tail, well, the tails poked out of a hole. And then there were their helmets, like right out of a history museum, the hooves enjoyed protection by specially crafted horseshoes. It gave them an appearance similar to the soldiers of ancient Greece or the Roman Empire.

One was the male pony who spoke with them, surely the bigger, more… angular one. He had a cyanish gray coat, brown eyes and a short mint colored tail.

The female pony was easy to identify because of her long eyelashes and her more feminine frame, perhaps the longer dark gray tail was a sign, too. She had a dark sea green coat and purple eyes.

But the coat of both equines didn’t look like made of normal fur, but smooth crystal, or at least it had a very crystalline shine. And it was fairly easy to take them seriously thanks to the long spears they pointed at the girls.

Pinkie Pie voiced her opinion nonetheless, ignoring the sharp objects, “Uhhhh, shiny! And cute, too! Just look at you!”

The mare blushed, but her male colleague remained unfazed. “Madam, don’t think you can sweet talk your way out of this situation. I never saw anything like you before and we observed your suspicious behaviour for quite some time now. In the name of Prince Shining Armor and Princess Mi Amore de Cadenza, I must ask you to come with us for further questioning.”

“Whoa! Hold your horses!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed nervously. The guards weren’t amused. “Sorry. But what are the charges?”

It was now the mare who replied, her voice a mix between scratchy and aristrocratic, “Being a potential threat to the Crystal Empire. A unit of unknown possibly hostile creatures arriving by unknown means, and certainly not the Friendship Express, otherwise you wouldn’t have come from the east.”

“Friendship what now?” Applejack asked, completely dumbfounded.

The crystal pony continued, “And then we have your suspicious activity, you inspected the shield before beginning a survey of its size. If you were visitors, you simply would have entered.”

They didn’t know that was possible. How embarrassing.

But the chromatic teenager wouldn’t let such an insult slide, “Are you kidding us?! We-”

Rarity tried to save the situation and put a hand on Rainbow Dash’s shoulder to calm her down, “Please officers! I think there is a huge misunderstanding.” She made a little curtsey, “My name is Rarity.” then gestured to her friends, “And these are Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. We are humans and come from a far away land. I don’t think you heard of it before, if you don't recognize what we are in the first place.”

The stallion stepped forward, his eyes narrowed, “That may be the case Ms. Rarity, but do you think we are stupid?”

Her eyes widened in shock and worry, “W-whatever do you mean? I can assure you that these are our names. I didn’t lie about our identities, if that is what you are worried about, good sir.”

His partner rolled her eyes, but gave them a scowl as well, “I am Private Fresh Step, this is Corporal Steel Hoof. We witnessed both how King Sombra was defeated by Spike, the Brave and Glorious and Princess Mi Amore de Cadenza. Everypony was present when Her Highness gave a speech afterwards. She introduced the Element Bearers to us all. And guess what?”

Pinkie jumped into Fresh Step’s face, “You had the bestest, most amazingist of parties?!”

Steel Hoof pointed his weapon at the party planner and entertained the thought if they were mocking their intelligence. It made him angry, “What kind of morons do you think we are? They are ponies from Equestria you imbeciles, not whatever you are.”

Pinkie Pie hopped up and down, “We get to choose? What kind of morons are there?”

The rest of the group groaned, before shouting in unison, “Pinkie Pie!”

Her equine ears folded down for a moment before she suddenly pulled a brown bag out of her hair from beneath her beanie, “Ohhh Officers~!” Reaching in, she took a some of its contents out and held the temptation right before their eyes, sugarcubes.

“Why do Ah have a bad feelin’ about this?” Applejack whispered rhetorically to herself.

The pink girl kneeled down and looked deeply into the crystal ponies' eyes, her voice uncharacteristically slow and understanding, “I’m sure all this guarding around must be tiring for you. I mean, standing at the same place the whole day or walking the same route over and over again without a break sounds extremely boring. In fact, you look like you could need a well-deserved reward from your Auntie Pinkie Pie.”

Fresh Step and Steel Hoof felt a little nervous now, glanced briefly at her friends behind the teenager, who seemed to be quite shocked themselves from what they just witnessed, and back at Pinkie.

She had now half lidded eyes and winked playfully at them, “However, I think we all know that you want to taste my sugar. So, what will it be? Trick or... treat?”









“Ah can’t believe ya just did that! What in tarnation where ya thinkin’?!” Applejack shouted in fury and shame, her cheeks were burning.

Pinkie chuckled awkwardly, “Hehe, well, you see. They were ponies and I had sugarcubes and… well...” She didn’t really know what to say.

“Why?” Rarity grabbed the party lover’s shoulders and fixed her with a twitching glare, “Why?!” The fashionista vigorously shook her friend the entire time when she vented her frustrations. “We came here from our WORLD to look for a way to APOLOGIZE! And where are we? Contained in prison as a potential threat to the Empire! We’ve been charged with trespassing, bribery and attempted SEDUCTION of two Royal Guards! Pinkie! SEDUCTION! Do you have ANY idea how many things are fundamentally WRONG with what I just said?!”

Pinkie Pie’s eyes were still rolling, “Err-”

The fashionista closed the distance between their faces, nose to nose, “TOO MANY!”

Rainbow Dash meanwhile did her own thing. She held onto two bars of their prison cell and pressed her visage against the cold metal, “We have civil rights! I demand to speak with the one in charge here! And a lawyer, too! A good one! We are like the first humans who ever took a step into your kingdom! Did you never hear of diplomatic immunity before?! We are like ambassadors of our race or something!” They were already an hour in this place! An hour!

A door opened in the distance and closing steps echoed through the dungeon. Clopping sounds.

Steel Hoof stopped in front of their cell. “It is your lucky day ladies. The prince wants to see you. Follow me and don’t try anything funny.” He attempted to glare at Pinkie Pie, but failed for the most part. His cheeks glowed red, “T-that goes especially for you, you succubus! For your information in case you forgot, Prince Shining Armor is happily married!”

The brave stallion led them the entire way to the throne room. And kept a great distance to a certain pink teenager.









Rarity couldn’t believe her friend. Whatever gave her the impression it would be a good idea to do what she did would remain a mystery to her forever. At least she could admire the Crystal Palace this time. Under better circumstances.

The designs and the entire interior were marvelous!

“Would ya look at that. The entire palace is really made of fancy crystals. Ah never thought that such a place could exist,” the cowgirl admitted in admiration.

“Here we are,” Steel said stoically. He gave Pinkie Pie a last glare before he left.

They stood in front of a giant double door of hypnotizingly bright amaranth colored crystal. Two armored guards flanked the door, and while the design was the same as the earlier guards, the colours were different.

“You may enter. The prince and his guest are waiting for you,” one of the guards from the right informed in a smoky voice, he looked a little older than the other. When his wrinkles were anything to go by.

Though they wondered who that guest could be. Perhaps Sunset or Twilight?

“Thank you kindly, sir,” Rarity replied politely.

Rainbow Dash was still looking at the door, of course somebody as awesome as her could do exactly the same, “Yeah, what she said.”

Applejack tipped her hat in acknowledgement.

The throne room was a giant impressively built hall with many pillars. A wide royal purple carpet covered the ice blue crystalline floor from the door to the throne. They could see their reflections every step of the way.

But only the fashionista admired this fact.

On the cushioned crystal throne sat who could only be Prince Shining Armor. He wore a military uniform in gold and purple, which gave them the impression that he was maybe at a certain point in his life a leading officer of their army, or still is if the medals were any indication.

He had a white coat, moderate cerulean eyes, moderate sapphire blue hooves and a mane and tail in three shades of blue, Rarity wasn’t sure what colors exactly.

The fashionista kneeled in front of him, “Your Highness. It is a pleasure.”

She felt like in a dream where she always played princess herself. The parties of high society must be simply divine at this place!

Rainbow Dash and Applejack grumbled, but followed her example. Pinkie Pie didn’t want to make her friends any madder at her than they already were, so she decided to play along, for now.

The co-ruler of the Crystal Empire cringed internally at seeing them kneel. Now he knew what Cadence meant when she said that it made her feel uncomfortable when the crystal ponies and others bowed to her, sometimes making it a contest who could do it lower than the rest to show how respectful they were.

“Alright, please rise. I think there are a few things we have to discuss first. For example why I received a report in which is written that two of my guards captured four strangers who tried to… seduce them,” Shining started calmly, but clearly perplexed.

“W-what?!” a new voice squeaked from it seemed behind the throne.

It sounded frighteningly familiar to the present Rainbooms.

The unicorn sighed heavily, “And here I hoped to get that out of the way fast without any unnecessary distractions.” He glanced behind himself, “You can come out now.”

Fluttershy came into view and looked with widely opened eyes at her fellow humans, her head felt hot, “Y-you tried to s-se...eep!”

She couldn’t even blink before her friends glomped the poor girl.

“Fluttershy! You are alright!” Pinkie exclaimed gladly.

“We missed you Darling! We thought you landed somewhere in Equestria! All on your own!” Rarity supported dramatically.

Shining cleared his throat, “Could we come back to the topic at hoof, please? I know who you all are and what my sister and wife think about you. But I listened to what Ms. Fluttershy had to say and while I should leave you in the dungeon for what you did, I guess I could give you rooms in the castle until my wife returns from Canterlot. She’ll want to talk about what you did here and to Sunset Shimmer at home in your world. Hopefully I won’t be banished to the couch for an indefinite amount of time when she finds out that I didn’t consult her first.”

The girls had to giggle at the last part, not knowing that he was deadly serious.

“That’s mighty neighbourly of ya, Yer Highness,” Applejack added thankfully.

“Uhm, Prince Shining Armor is Princess Twilight’s big brother and Princess Cadence was her baby-I mean foalsitter. I think you should know that, because that might explain why Mr. Armor’s wife is angry with us as well,” Fluttershy said quietly.

Rainbow stopped the girly stuff and looked judgingly at the unicorn in front of her, “Soooo, you are the egghead’s brother and hooked up with the one who watched over her when she was young? Respect dude, but do you really think you can help us?”

Rarity wanted to faint, Fluttershy facepalmed and Pinkie Pie and Applejack already feared that they would see the empire’s dungeon a second time.

But Shining Armor gave the chromatic athlete his best deadpan expression, “Yep, you are Rainbow Dash’s counterpart, alright.”