Just watching the panicked lavender pony madly charge about her abode of arbor was enough to make me nervous. The only words she appeared able to formulate as she scrambled about the place, frantically tossing books from their shelves, were “Oh no oh no oh no oh no…!”
“Forgive me…” I said slowly, still standing exactly where I was, moving only occasionally to step out of the frantic unicorn’s way, “But… I don’t fully understand exactly what’s happening…”
Twilight jerked her head back at me, looking all the more like a psycho and less like a reliable companion.
“Luna, Celestia’s big sister, has become corrupt with the power that she and Celestia were supposed to share. The balance has been thrown off, and Luna has succumbed to the darkness in her heart, becoming…. Nightmare Moon.”
“And how do you know this for sure?” I asked Twilight.
“During my magical projections to worlds and realms beyond Equestria, my travels have taken me to more places than you can imagine: The most interesting of these being what I like to call “parallel planets”, where the same beings occupy a virtual copy of another world, but with events that are sometimes entirely opposite of what is happening on the planet you actually occupy. In one of these worlds I visited that was exactly like Equestria, I felt… the presence of a balance, a union, a HARMONY, the likes of which I had never encountered before. Something about this planet was different, and I wished to figure out what.
"Imagine my shock when, as it turned out, the difference was that Princess Celestia was the older sister, and I was her most prized student! Apparently, Celestia and Luna had created six very special gems called the Elements of Harmony that they used to maintain balance throughout Equestria, and used them to combat threats to the land. Many an evil threat was destroyed with their combined power, including the very God of Chaos himself.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, there’s a GOD of CHAOS here?”
“Apparently so. Anyhow, in that parallel universe I believe to be the most harmoniously balanced, Princess Luna went mad with power, angered that nopony appreciated her beautiful night. She attempted to bring eternal night to Equestria, and Celestia banished her to the moon for 1,000 years. During those years, Luna grew angrier and angrier at her sister and the citizens of Equestira, her anger manifesting as a powerful dark magic, that made her stronger than she had ever been, but at the price of her humanity. She felt nothing but anger and malice in her heart."
"Eventually, Nightmare Moon, as she was now known, escaped from her lunar prison, returning to Equestria to bring back eternal night. Thankfully, my 5 friends and I used the Elements of Harmony to defeat her and restore daylight to Equestria!”
“And where are those five friends now?”
“Well… I haven’t met them all yet. I met one of them when I first arrived in Ponyville, but she’s a littl-“
“A LITTLE WHAT?” a high voice bellowed from somewhere behind me, nearly sending me out of my skin.
“Pinkie Pie…?” Twilight said uncertainly, looking towards the direction of the disembodied voice.
The head of a bright pink pony with an even more outrageous… mane? Then, a bright pink pony with a ridiculously styled mane popped out from between two books on one of Twilight’s many bookcases, eyeing me once over with what looked to be a childish sense of wonder.
“Wow, Twi, who’s your friend?”
“This is… ah, David, Pinkie Pie… He’s… not from around here.”
“So he’s new in town!?” Pinkie Pie squealed with delight, looking back at me with an impossibly wide grin.
“Erm… Yes. But he’s not going to be here for very long, so I’m afraid you won’t be able to throw him a party.”
The pony in the bookcase deflated audibly like she was some kind of animated balloon, her downtrodden expression nearly infectious.
“Um… Excuse me?” I ventured, speaking to her almost cautiously. “How are you… doing that?”
“Doing what?” She asked me, genuinely confused.
“Umm… You know… Toying with the laws of physics like a cat with a ball of yarn.”
“Heehee! You talk weird, Mister. But, to answer your question, it’s all right here in this book!” Pinkie Pie stated simply, rifling through Twilight’s bookshelf until she came across the title she was looking for, tossing it to me.
I caught it, looking at the title.
“Breaking the Fourth Wall For Dummies.”
Twilight did a double take, her jaw appearing to have fallen on the floor.
“Pinkie… I don’t own that book.” Twilight said dumbfoundedly.
“Oh, I know! I keep it on me at all times, as a reference!” Pinkie said, popping up next to the awestruck unicorn.
“So why was it on my…?”
Pinkie Pie just gave Twilight a long, almost sympathetic look.
“Right…” Twilight said, shaking her head and walking towards her bookshelf to straighten it out.
Pinkie Pie looked up at me with a smile, looking for all the world like another pony I knew. In short, much too adorable.
“So you’re not gonna be around for long, huh…?” The party pony said dejectedly, looking at the floor.
“Ah… I guess not. Sorry, Pinkie Pie.” I said apologetically.
“Awww, that’s okay! I’m sure we’ll see eachother again some time! And besides, there’s always the Welcome Wag-“
“Pinkie…” Twilght said menacingly, “If you bring that thing into my library, you will never feel peace from my wrath ever again. Do you understand me?”
“Uh… Yeah… Yeah Twilight…” Pinkie said, backing behind me slowly, like she was going to use me as a shield.
“A-Anyway, Twilight, I gotta get back to Sugarcube Corner! Thanks for introducing me to your friend!” Pinkie said, pulling me into a surprise hug that was so tight it nearly cracked my ribs.
“Bye David! Make sure you can stay longer next time so I can throw you a party!”
“Aheh… Will do, Pinkie…” I said, putting my arms around her uncertainly. The pony held the embrace for a little longer, before hopping away, every bounce producing an audible, cartoonish springing noise.
I watched her bounce down the street for a few moments before turning back to the pony that made more sense.
“Nice friend you've got there, Twilight.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know.” She said, chuckling, turning back to me. “Now, I’m going to cast a spell on you that will allow you to transfer the knowledge of how to get from your world to mine. The issue with this spell, however, is that it will take some time to pull from your unconscious mind, which is the only part of your mind I can access while you’re asleep.”
Her horn began glistening again with the faint purple glow. I felt something… Tugging at my head. It felt like my memories were being tampered with, like they were a bookcase that could just barely fit one more book, and someone was trying to shove the extra volume in there.
“Ah…. AH.” I said, in surprise at the incredibly strange and indescribable sensation gripping at my very psyche itself. The memories were worming their way in, intertwining among my natural memories like it they were a DNA helix accepting a stem cell.
“Are you alright?” Twilight asked, trying to maintain focus on the no doubt difficult spell she was executing.
“Yeah, yeah, it just… Feels strange…” I said, feeling the memory become fully integrated. Twilight’s horn eventually stopped glowing, her magic subsiding.
“So, it’s done now?”
“Yes. It’ll take you about two weeks to fully remember the instructions you need to tell Celestia to get your physical bodies here.”
“And you’re sure she’s strong enough to do it?”
“She’s an alicorn, David." Twilight said, smiling at me. “Even when she was a baby, she had more dormant ability than all of the ability I have now, both natural and learned.”
“Alrighty then. If you say so, I believe you. One question, though. Why didn’t that hurt at all? Is it because this is like a dream.”
Twilight nodded.
“If you were to be injured, per se, you’d just wake up in your bed. And it’s time to wake up.”
Suddenly, Twilight pointed her horn directly at me, training it dead-center on me, and charged in my direction, full speed.