Tracy lifted one of his wings, shuffling awkwardly. "I don't mean to sound impolite, but that doesn't sound very related to what I saw. There are bat wings in the mirror, Princess. When there shouldn't be. I've had one of my coworkers call me a demon, and I'm afraid he might be right."
Twilight's horn glowed, and the books began sorting themselves into smaller piles. Without even looking at them she guided each one into a different stack, until they covered the desk and every nearby table too. "It's my understanding that Equestria has grown beyond such insensitivity," she said, voice low. "If anypony in my town is still using language like that, so long after Luna's return... I need to know. They need some remedial friendship lessons."
What? Tracy's confusion only grew, rapidly equaling his wish that Spike had been here instead. But the dragon was nowhere to be found, just as he had no obvious escape from the angry princess. "No one in Ponyville," he said. "Your town has been great to me. I'm talking about things I see in my world, through the Worldgate. Reflections that aren't there."
Twilight relaxed. "If that's all it is, then I'm relieved. I'm the Princess of Friendship first, Tracy. Magic second. But if it isn't a friendship problem, then... I may have a theory. I don't know that it answers my own questions, unfortunately. But at least one of us will walk away knowing more."
She took a deep breath. "You've been living in another world for almost a year now. The only creatures who ever remained longer were those banished from their homes forever. From what I've learned about the place you came from, your home doesn't have much magic, isn't that true?"
He nodded. "None at all. Or at least so little that most people never see it. I never saw any until I came here."
A chair levitated across the room towards him, stopping just beside him. "Well then, Tracy. You may want to sit down for this."
He did, dread building in the back of his mind. "Whatever you're thinking, Princess... you should just tell me."
"Magic tends to grow," she said. "You can stamp it out, ruin friendships, try to crush it. But if you don't, it will grow. I think you may've been in Equestria long enough that our magic has started changing you."
She gestured towards his flank with one wing. "That cutie mark—the visitors you brought here didn't have them, do you remember? Those marks are important to ponies—they tell us our special talents, and where we fit into Equestria's Harmony. Do you believe in fate, Tracy?"
"No," he snapped, without hesitation. "Can't have fate with free will. Either it's my choice or it isn't. I have to believe I have a choice."
She smiled weakly at him—the first time she'd smiled during the entire conversation. "We can have both, otherworlder. But that's a conversation for another time. I'm afraid there are no books to check out to you—you're one of only two examples I've ever seen. A creature from a place without magic, joining a world that does. Books will be written about this encounter, no matter how it ends."
"So you think I'm fated to... what, exactly?"
She shrugged, and the wilderness of books vanished from around her. "Can't say. But you wanted an explanation, and now you have one. You can't spend all this time around magic without consequences. My guess is you're bringing it back with you to wherever you came from."
It made about as much sense as any theory he'd considered so far. Somehow bringing leftover magic back across to his world. "So if your theory is right, how do I make it stop? Seeing reflections is one thing, but what if it started happening for real?"
Twilight shrugged. "I told you. Magic grows, and friendship makes it stronger. Deeper relationships foster more powerful magic. From what I hear. Of course Love is the strongest friendship of all. If you want magic gone, the only choice you have is to stay away. Leave Equestria, let your friendships wither. Eventually even the strongest magic can be erased that way."
You know about that too? He tensed, but didn't argue with her. Rose's sisters probably... half the town already knew we were dating. "I can't do that." And I wouldn't, even if the lease let me move out tomorrow.
The princess's smile widened. "Then come back to me in two months, and we'll finish this conversation about destiny."
She left him then, feeling no wiser about the fears that drove him. He could think of nowhere else to go for answers, except maybe Discord. But he'd already tried that, and only got a cold "Your lease expires in two months," message in reply.
He visited the flower stand on the way home, as much for an evening snack as a chance to make sure his girlfriend was doing okay.
There were no more nightmares that day—after all, he was already in Equestria. Here he'd had wings for so long that being anything else would be unbelievably strange.
To his surprise, Tracy found a message waiting on his phone when he finally returned home, from one of the few names that didn't go straight to his ignore list. It was Janet.
"I'd like to talk about the Emmerson project you just submitted before work today. Can I come over? I'd like to do it at your place."
Under any other circumstances, he might've thought she was coming onto him. But that would've made it the first he'd ever had that kind of attention from Janet, who had always acted more like a protective guardian for her staff.
"In my place?" he sent back. "You know where that is?" He wasn't asking about address, and he didn't need to say so.
"Yes. I need to see for myself. I'll swing by Krispy Kreme on my way over, ask your girlfriend if she wants anything."
Rose got home a few minutes later, smelling somewhere between perfume and sweat. But the latter was no longer unfamiliar to Tracy, or even remotely off-putting. "Wait, don't make dinner," he said, blocking her way into the kitchen.
"And let you poison us again?" She pushed him aside with a hoof, grinning. "We talked about this, Spark. A pile of leaves isn't a meal. I cook, you clean. Simple."
"It's not that." He rested one hoof on hers, stopping her from opening the fridge. "It's my boss, Janet? She wants to come over before work. About a half hour from now, if I had to guess."
Roseluck looked up, meeting his eyes. "Another visitor from your world. This one coming in here intentionally?"
He nodded. "It's important. She's not just the only reason I got the job, she also has the power to destroy me, if she wants. If she thinks Equestria is evil, I think she'll do it."
But she hasn't yet. My login credentials still work, and I got my paycheck on Thursday as scheduled. Didn’t even take any hours away for time spent sick.
"Then I'll have to make something," Rose said. "How do we make sure she doesn't..." She trailed off, expression darkening. "Destroy you? Does that happen a lot in your world?"
"Not usually," he admitted. "But she hasn't done it yet, even after seeing the Worldgate. I think she'll be cool about it once she gets a look around."
They wouldn't have to wait long to find out. This time Tracy went out alone, with a single sweatshirt to keep off the harshest that a San Jose "winter" could throw at him. For a few seconds he stood motionless on the porch, struggling to mentally reconcile the presence of a sunrise while the world behind him was experiencing its own sunset.
He'd been right about timing too—Janet pulled up less than two minutes after he stepped out. She got out, a dozen doughnuts in hand. She looked the same as last time, except that she had her cross prominently on the outside of her jacket.
How she wasn't baking alive with a fleece jacket and scarf like that, he couldn't guess. "Cast and brace are gone," she said, stopping about ten feet down the path from him. "Guess you're healing well?"
He nodded, flexing the formerly-injured arm. "Can't put much weight on it, and it's a little stiff. But it's strong enough to use again, and that's what counts." He hesitated, staring at the box she carried. "I can smell those from here. You really did get them fresh."
She nodded. "Drove through on the way over, just like I said. Now, how do we do this? Going into..." She glanced up at the apartment door. It was open behind him, though the inner door was shut this time. The coats and shoes hanging in the entryway wouldn't fit a human, but it would take more than a cursory glance to tell something was wrong.
"Just walk across," he said. "If you're sure you want to talk on that side. We could go over the project out here if you wanted. My neighbors probably aren't even up yet."
She closed the distance between them in a few angry steps, shoving the box into his arms. "If it was just about the Emmerson project, I would've done it over the phone. We lost Steven, Tracy. He took severance, and he's going home. I don't know what's going on here, but I need to know it isn't... I need to know this isn't for the other side.
"If it is... I'm going to ask you politely to resign, just like Steven. Nice and civil."
He didn't have to guess what “other side” meant. Before moving in, it was the kind of emotional fervor that would've made him break down laughing. But after everything he'd seen—did he know she was being paranoid?"
"It's not," he said flatly. "On the other side of that door is the nicest, kindest place you've ever seen. The town on their side is ruled by a deadass 'Princess of Friendship.' Pretty sure if there were any real demons over there, they'd burst into flames just by trying to walk around."
Janet didn't falter. "I need to see that for myself. I'll know evil when I see it."
Tracy turned towards the doorway. "Then walk straight through and don't stop. I told Rose you were bringing some breakfast stuff. She knows one place still open this late that we might be able to get a few more. But rather than going ourselves, we thought... I guess you'll just have to see it for yourself."
By now, Tracy had seen far too many people make this transition—probably more than the lease intended. There was no reason to anticipate anything particularly unusual. If anything, he was most interested to see what would happen to a pantsuit when it crossed from one universe to another.
Janet didn't linger by the threshold, leaning back and forth and debating internally the way his friends from home did. She marched right past him, crossing from one world into another.
The actual transition was a blur, just as it had been on the first trip through. He saw feathers and a flash of claws, then she was on the other side.
There would be no having a conversation between worlds. Tracy followed, tossing the box into the air so he could catch it between his back and his wings on the other side. He nailed the transition perfectly, balancing the box on his shoulders as he slid past Janet to open the door.
He hadn't been imagining things, Janet wasn't a pony. Her face was narrower, with an avian beak and a pair of gold eyes. She had a mane and tail in the same places, but those were blue and green feathers, not fur. Her coat looked the same though, and from the waist she looked like a pony.
A pony wearing a pantsuit, looking like she might topple over sideways at any moment.
"Welcome to my apartment," he said, pushing the door open in front of her. "And, I suppose, welcome to Equestria."