Tracy could feel the effects of Celestia's tea wearing off already. She had given him a bit of grace—long enough to have that last conversation with her. He certainly couldn't be upset with her over that.
All this time I thought Discord would trick me into breaking my contract. I watched that so carefully, I had no idea what he was really doing. But now it was done, and Tracy's fate was sealed. This is my home now.
He nudged Rose in the side with one hoof, grinning awkwardly at her. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry I didn't get off the Everwake. I planned on it, but... Discord was right. If I weren’t taking it, we wouldn't have spent the last few months together. I'd be asleep while everything happened."
Roseluck embraced him. Finally there were no squealing sirens, no boss or princess watching just over his shoulder. He could just hold her and let everything else drift away. But maybe not too long, because he was already relaxing, and that risked falling asleep right here in the living room.
"I forgive you," she finally said. "I know why you did it. You even had a good reason... or you think you did. But that doesn't mean I'm going to let that happen again. You heard what the princess said—you're a pony now. That means I expect better."
She leaned in for a kiss. He lost track of time after that. Eventually she broke away again. Somehow, she continued right where she left off. That made one of them who still remembered. "Hurting yourself 'for me' isn't fair. I won't be responsible for your choices anymore. From now on, we'll talk about it."
She dragged him upstairs—towards her room, rather than his own. By now the mercy of Celestia's brew was entirely gone. The Everwake Janet had dumped down his throat kept him going, but it was still a ton of effort.
"And don’t think we won't have to," she continued. They ignored Tracy's room completely, which was mostly shut. The shimmering pink and green of Celestia's mane radiated out from inside, along with hushed voices. "You won't be any less a bat when you wake up. You'll still want to sleep during the day and be awake at night."
He nodded wearily. "I think I’m... I think we might have to talk about this in a few days. Maybe a week? Two hours times... two months? My math isn't working right anymore."
"You won't be here when you wake up," Rose said, helping him up onto the bed. “Tomorrow morning I'm carting you off to Ponyville General. Now that we know what you have, you won't be a medical mystery."
"Can't you just... keep an eye on me?" he asked. "It's not like I'll go anywhere. I don't sleepwalk."
"No," she agreed. "And you won't sleep-eat either, or sleep-drink. I don't know how long it will take for you to wake up. Don't argue, you can't stop me anyway." She stuck her tongue out. "And when you wake up..."
"I don't know," he finished. He wobbled on his hooves, resting against the side of the bed. "I thought I knew what I wanted from life. Spent four years getting a degree in something your world barely has. The computers in this house are... the only ones in the whole world. I don't know what I'll do."
But even as he said it, Spark Gap realized it wasn't quite true. He might not know his job going forward, but life was about a whole lot more than where he worked. He had a pretty good idea that the rest of his life would involve the mare in this room. Maybe he could help run a flower stand. And learn to fly, and go to the Echo Caverns, and lots of other things.
"We'll figure it out together," she said.
Many years later.
Violet didn't mind getting up early to help at the flower shop. But as helpful as she always tried to be, she was far more eager to volunteer for the evening shift.
Mornings around the shop were always the same—the same dozen or so ponies came by for a healthy breakfast, there would be a few ready to pick up orders, and a shipment for the train bound to Canterlot or Manehattan. Then came a long stretch of nothing until lunch. And right when things got interesting, she was done.
But afternoon, though—afternoons were when anything happened. The ponies who called later in the day were often unexpected—travelers finishing their meetings at the castle, this year’s students from the friendship school, taking some time off.
The only thing she could really count on from day to day was that she'd meet somepony exciting.
Her mom didn't count, of course. Rose came in from the attached greenhouse, pushing a cart of flowers carefully cut from outside. She parked in the workspace behind the counter, then lifted a few trays carefully onto the table with blocks of green floral foam.
"Big order today?" Violet asked, gliding down from the upturned crate she used to stand at counter level. But there were no customers here at exactly this moment—she could always hurry over if anypony arrived. "Can I help?"
"We'll see," Mom said, patting her affectionately on the shoulder. "Aunt Lily should be here to help in a few minutes. But if there aren't any customers, maybe. Keep your eyes on the till, I have to go get the rest of the flowers."
She smiled, then turned back the way she came, slipping out the back to the family greenhouse. Violet's little brother Indigo spent far more of his time there, surrounded by growing things. But Violet just couldn't figure out what made it so interesting. It was the ponies who visited that made the shop fun, not anything they sold.
Even now, Violet's oversized ears sensed something happening on the street outside. She dodged around the counter, gliding over to the glass. The storefront wasn't large—aside from a few wax displays of the food they sold, there was just the counter and a little space for ponies to line up. There was nopony here now, so Violet dared hovering up above the wax display, peeking outside.
There was a strange pony in the streets of Ponyville, maybe the strangest she'd seen in a long time. She wore a lot of clothes, but not in the overly formal way of the fancy ponies from Canterlot or beyond. If anything, her clothes seemed silly. Several layers of dark cloth, including trousers that covered so much of her back legs she was tripping on them.
Her little brother wouldn't be able to hear through glass enough to know what ponies were saying outside. But then she wasn't strong enough to pull a single cart of arrangements, and he could do the whole thing on his own.
"Someone has to help me!" she yelled, stumbling towards one little crowd of creatures milling near the old city hall. But they backed away, a few taking to the air and muttering to themselves.
"I don't belong here!" she yelled, tail whipping around her like a whole cloud of flies was trying to bite her. But if there were flies, they wouldn't be able to get at her skin through all those layers.
Violet reached up, nudging the open sign around with her nose. She glanced once over her shoulder, making sure that Mom wasn't watching. Then she slipped out the door. She hovered high in the air at first, near the oversized "Flower Sisters" sign. She could land on the big sunflower if she wanted, and get a good view.
But there was nothing to be afraid of. The pony wasn't attacking. After some more confused yelling, she collapsed to the street, whimpering to herself. A few passing creatures nudged closer to her, but seemed too intimidated by all her strange clothes to get too close.
Lots of ponies were intimidated by new things. Not Violet, though. She was made of stronger stuff.
She landed on the street a few steps away from the pony. She kept her wings spread, ready to take off at the first sign of danger. Just because she was braver than lots of Ponyville didn't mean she was careless.
"Excuse me," she said, loud enough that the mare would hear her. "Are you okay?"
At first there was no response—then she looked up. "Hell no. Look around you. What kind of world is this?"
"Equestria," she answered politely. "It's a really nice world. That's what my dad always says."
The crystal mare groaned, stumbling awkwardly to four hooves. She was taller than Violet—not as old as her mom and dad, but still fully grown. "Does he know any others?"
"One," she said absently. "We used to watch movies from there. But the old TV stopped working when I was still a filly. I'm not a filly anymore, obviously." She twisted slightly to the side, displaying her sextant cutie mark. "See? I'm a young mare now. Like you. I'm done with school and everything."
The crystal pony hardly reacted to the important things. But she looked up, a feeble shred of hope visible where before there had been only fear. "I'm not supposed to be here, kid," she said. "I'm lost... lost from another world. None of these people seem to care that they're horses. They won't take me seriously. Do you know anyone who will?"
"I mean... duh." She turned, flicking one wing towards the door. "My dad came to Equestria right before I was born. He doesn't leave very often, but he still knows a lot. More than Amaranth's parents know about other worlds. She's just pretending because she knows it bothers me."
"Can you take me?" she asked, increasingly desperate. "I think I... I think I did something stupid. Incredibly stupid. Anyone who isn't from here might be able to help me. I have to get home."
"Sure, yeah. I'm sure Dad wouldn't mind. Come on." She trotted off into the shop, holding the door open with her mouth. As expected, the crystal mare was clumsy, stumbling over her unnecessary clothes and almost tripping on her way in. But she made it inside, right about the time that Mom rolled another cart of flowers through the doors.
"You were outside?" she asked, leaving the cart by the standing fridge and making her way to the counter. "Oh, you've brought somepony. Evening, miss! What can I get for you?"
Violet answered before the pony did. "She's lost, Mom. I think she's from another world."
Her mom froze, but only for a moment. She didn't act afraid like the other ponies had. She just watched, taking in the stranger with one intense look.
"Your daughter?" the stranger asked. "She's right. I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out. I don't belong here, and I need to find my way home. Can you tell me anything about horseworld?"
"Equestria," Violet put in. "I told her that already, Mom."
Mom nodded. "Violet, fly down to the relay station and get your father. I think he won't mind leaving work a little early for this."
"Sure thing!" Violet ran, dodging around the strange crystal pony and out the door. "Mom will take care of you, weird pony. Don't worry! She's used to ponies from other worlds."
She galloped for a few steps, then took off into the late afternoon sky.
It took her less than a minute to fly across Ponyville to the relay station. It didn’t matter that she didn’t have feathers, or any of the weather-magic that pegasai enjoyed. Violet was just as fast without any of those advantages.
The Relay Station was an ugly, boxy building, surrounded by Ponyville’s suburbs. While the other structures at least tried to imitate what “old town” ponyville looked like, the relay station didn’t even try. It stood out for its strangeness, from the huge transmission towers on its roof to the flickering neon “on air” lights that occasionally came on near its front.
Violet didn’t bother going through the front, but instead landed right on the roof. She dodged carefully around the strange towers and cables, some of which she knew were incredibly dangerous. She didn’t know which, so she was extra-careful and didn’t touch any.
The rooftop door was always kept unlocked, so she didn’t even have to coax the lock into opening for her. Violet slipped inside, dodging down a dim wooden hallway and following the subtle buzz of electricity in the air.
She found her father where she knew she would, tending to the machines the way a farmer watched their crops.
It didn’t matter that Spark Gap wasn’t the richest pony in Ponyville, or the most important. Her dad was someone to be proud of.
The bat was tall and lean, one of the tallest ponies Violet knew. He wore a toolbelt around his waist and heavy goggles on his head, dodging around strange machines as though dancing with an invisible partner. He didn’t keep any lights on while he worked, relying on the subtle glow from dials and readouts. But that was just fine for Violet--her eyes were just as good.
“Hey dad!” she called, as soon as he didn’t have his head in something. “Mom sent me to get you.”
He froze, ears twitching for a moment in confusion at the sound. But then he noticed her, grinning. He closed the distance in a blur of wings and darkness, embracing her in an ozone-scented hug. “I thought we talked about breaking into work, muffin. Those transmitters are dangerous.”
But he didn’t sound mad, not really. He’d long since given up trying to keep her out. Keeping a young bat away from something they wanted to see was an impossible task, and they both knew it.
“I’m careful!” she squeaked. “‘sides, mom sent me this time! I’m not just ditching.”
Finally he settled her back down, lifting his goggles away from his eyes. “Alright then, muffin. Tell me.”
She did. Dad listened carefully, not interrupting her even one time. “That sounds like a good reason to come home early,” he finally said. “Stay right there, I just need to hang up my stuff. You can show me that corkscrew you’ve been practicing.” His eyes narrowed, just a little. “You are practicing your flight drills, aren’t you?”
Violet giggled in answer, turning to leave. “See you at home!” she galloped back out the way she came, not glancing behind her even once to see what Spark was doing. She slowed as she reached the door, hovering carefully between the antennas before zipping up into the air again, flying for home as fast as she could.
The weird pony was in good hooves now. Dad would take care of everything, like he always did.
