THE SPACE BETWEEN
"At last!" Rarity announced, setting up her sewing machine in her quarters and throwing her suitcases to the side. "Everything's unpacked and in its proper place!"
"Hey, Rarity!" Rainbow Dash called out, passing Rarity's open door. "We're all meeting up in the first lounge Celestia showed us."
"I'll be right there!" Rarity followed Rainbow Dash to the lounge, where Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie waited for them on plush couches.
"All right, girls," Twilight said. "Now, from what I've read and seen, we've left the atmosphere of Equestria. Well, actually, the Guide – " she referred to the covered pad Celestia had given her " – refers to our home territory as 'Fourth Equestria'. Apparently, there are a lot of worlds that have plural natures because of split timelines, and that means there are a lot of Equestrias. Now, I don't really know where we're going, but according to all my sources, the Mists of Avalon will take us wherever we need to be. We just need to make sure we're ready for anyth – "
The ship crossed a border upon the seemingly endless seas. Fourth Equestria, or any Equestria, was now far behind. As the atmosphere of Fourth Equestria had affected the Doctor on his way in, the change in the atmosphere now affected the six on their way out.
Twilight fell off the couch and onto the floor, twitching. Her body was shaking out of her control, and she felt her skin stretching in odd ways. She heard around her the cries of her five friends; whatever was happening to her was happening to all of them. She lay on the floor, letting her stomach churn and her limbs vibrate until whatever had happened was over. When she was certain it had passed, she tried to stand.
Something was wrong, she noticed immediately. At first, she thought it was merely that her front legs were suddenly shorter than her back legs. Then she looked down. Said "front legs" weren't purple anymore, and ended in strange feet with five digits instead of hooves. It didn't even feel natural to stand on them. Twilight reared up on her hind legs, only to find that her posture felt more natural that way. She looked down at herself to see that the rest of her body also wasn't purple. Her hind legs had lengthened, and ended in more five-digited feet, though this time with shorter digits. She was also much taller; the doors, which she had assumed were as tall as they were to accommodate an alicorn of Celestia's height, were now just tall enough to let her through.
"No," Twilight said to herself. "It can't be…they're only myths and legends…"
Her friends had undergone the same transformation. They all rose to their hind legs once they saw Twilight do it. She looked around at all of them and was suddenly sure of what had happened, though it had before seemed impossible.
"What are we?" Rainbow Dash cried. "What happened?"
"We're creatures I thought didn't exist outside of fairy tales," Twilight explained. "We're…humans."
Rarity let out a scream. "HUMANS? How could this happen?"
"The Guide said that some worlds changed you depending on their atmospheres," Twilight said. "Especially if it makes you fit in with the dominant species of that world. Whatever world we're going to must have humans, or at least humanoids, as the dominant species." Struck by a thought, Twilight opened the Guide and looked up humans. "In fact…" She gasped. "Almost ALL the worlds outside Equestria have humanoids as dominant!"
"So we're stuck like this?" Rarity wailed as Pinkie Pie lost her balance and tipped over.
"Unless we find another world where we turn into something else," Twilight said. "I guess we'll just have to get used to this."
"Why didn't Celestia tell us?" Fluttershy asked.
"We wouldn't have believed her," Twilight answered. "Besides, I don't know if this is something you can prepare anypony for." Twilight suddenly gasped. "Oh my gosh! I just remembered!"
"What?" Rarity asked. "What is it?"
"In most human cultures," Twilight said, "it's really offensive to go naked! We need clothes!"
"That's why Celestia asked me to bring so many!" Rarity realized. "Well, I suppose I can whip something up for each of us. I'll have to modify what I brought, and that might take some time…we're not at all the same shape as what I brought with me…but I can make something. Erm, what areas do I have to make sure to cover?"
Twilight showed Rarity a diagram of a human as drawn by the Guide, explaining to her the minimum requirements for fashions. Rarity then took off at once for her quarters.
In the meantime, Twilight stepped out in front of the full-length mirror in the lounge to examine herself. She'd noticed that while everypony's bright colors had neutralized out to the duller tones of human flesh, the hair upon their heads remained the same as their manes. Rarity's purple curls had still been present and cascaded down her back in full. Twilight played with her own hair, a short cut that retained the purple and pink pattern of her old mane. Pinkie still had her shock of pink curls, Fluttershy had a luxurious fall of light pink, Applejack retained her blonde ponytail as well as her hat, and Rainbow Dash sported a short cut of rainbow hues. Based on their physical appearances and ages combined with what she knew about humans, Twilight deduced that they were probably around the ages of early twenties by human years. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were also the only two to retain a piece of their old bodies; blue wings sprouted from Rainbow Dash's shoulder blades, and Fluttershy's yellow wings did the same, though both pairs now looked bigger so they could carry the new bodies to which they were attached. Finally, Twilight noted the cutie marks. The marks on their flanks were now transferred to their right shoulders, though the patterns hadn't changed at all. The matching necklaces of the Elements of Harmony remained around their necks.
"I feel so strange," Fluttershy said. "Humans do walk on their back legs, right?"
"Right," Twilight confirmed.
"But it's hard!" Pinkie complained after falling to the floor a second time.
Rarity burst through the door to the lounge, now dressed and carrying five other garments. "It's done!" she cried.
"That was fast," Fluttershy remarked.
"I've had a lot of years to practice," Rarity said, "and I only modified our gowns from the Gala. I gave each of them a special touch to reflect your personality. After all, I've read some of the tales about humans, and I know how much their fashions can vary."
Rarity herself was clothed in a very elaborate ballgown of dark pink, with a full skirt and a long train. Her sleeves were puffed out at the shoulder and had lace edges; her neckline was square and remained at a conservative height. When she took a step, the others saw that she had abandoned the glass slippers that usually went with that ensemble for a pair of old-fashioned, button-up high-heeled slippers in a paisley design that matched the gown. "And yes," she said, as though reading everypony's mind, "I was able to mold shoes for everyone too."
She doled out the clothes, which the others put on at once. Twilight slipped into a blue gown with off-the-shoulder straps and an A-line skirt that was shorter in the front than in the back, exposing her knees but trailing on the floor behind. A pair of glittering high heels finished it off. When Twilight looked back into the mirror, she remembered the few stories she'd read about humans that featured sorcerers and witches. She looked very much like one in this new dress.
Pinkie Pie's dress retained its blue-and-white-striped sleeveless bodice with small white poufs over each shoulder and a pink bow at the base of the neck. Her pink skirt, with its over-layer patterned with candy, was shortened considerably – above the knee – and puffed out to almost resembling a tutu. She laced up a pair of pink ballet slippers with blue bows on top. "This is perfect for dancing in!" Pinkie remarked.
"You might wanna master walkin' first," Applejack pointed out. Her outfit was actually in two pieces: a green and brown shirt with a collar and a bolo tie and a green skirt with a fringe that stopped below the knee. A pair of green cowboy boots with red and white accents offset the ensemble.
"Oh, my," Fluttershy said, stepping into her dress, a short, sleeveless green sundress with flowers on the hem and a blue sash. "It's beautiful!" She slipped her feet into a pair of green sandals.
"Aw, man!" Rainbow Dash groaned. "Do I HAVE to wear a big old skirt around everywhere?"
"I thought you might not want that," Rarity said, handing over the pieces of Rainbow Dash's new outfit. "So I made you something a little different."
Rainbow Dash slipped into a bright purple T-shirt and a pair of rainbow jeans that flared out at the bottom hems. She laced up a pair of golden sneakers to go with them. "Hey," she said, "this is actually pretty cool."
"I didn't account for the wings," Rarity admitted. "I didn't actually see you still had them at first. I'll work something out later so you and Fluttershy can still use them. But for now, this will have to do. Oh, I'll have to reconfigure all the outfits I brought if we're going to stay like this…or if we keep changing to new things!"
"But you did a great job!" Fluttershy complimented. "We all look perfect!"
Rarity blushed. "Well, I couldn't let you look any less. Hmm…you know, this could be a new challenge. Designing for entirely new shapes!"
"You're gonna hafta tell us more about humans," Applejack admitted. "I haven't read as much of that mythology stuff as the rest of you."
"Neither did I," Rainbow Dash added. "Are humans monsters?"
"Sometimes," Twilight said. "Sometimes not. It really depends. Say, Rarity…were you still able to use your magic when you made these clothes?"
"I hardly even thought about it," Rarity admitted. She took off a shoe. With a wave of her hand, she was able to levitate it up and down. "It looks like even with our horns gone, we still have our powers."
"Hmm…" Twilight turned and pointed at Pinkie Pie. A bolt of magic shot from her finger and hit Pinkie's face; a large mustache grew from Pinkie's upper lip.
"Hey!" Pinkie cried. She then looked in the mirror and cracked up with laughter. "I look funny!"
Twilight dismissed the mustache with a snap of her fingers, an action that came to her almost instinctively. "Yep…we still have our powers, all right."
"So where are we going that we have to look like this anyway?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"We could probably find out in the cockpit," Twilight realized. "If we're getting close to somewhere that's actually…somewhere, the map might have it labeled now."
"So lemme see if I got this," Rainbow Dash spelled out as the six made their way to the cockpit. "Even though we stayed on the ocean the whole time, we completely left Equestria or Fourth Equestria or whatever that Guide calls it?"
"Exactly," Twilight answered.
They entered the cockpit, and the screens now showed a new map. The Starlight was approaching a large island. Text upon the screen labeled the island: "Avalon."
"Avalon itself!" Twilight gasped.
"So what's the story on this place anyway?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"It's supposed to be the place where a great king went to sleep instead of dying," Twilight answered. "He promised to come back after sleeping for a while. That's the most famous story about it, anyway. The stories always say it's one of the most magical places in existence, even though it can't be found in Equestria. I never thought about the ponies who lived there as not being ponies, though. Now that I think about it, the stories never really said whether they really were ponies, or whether they were humans. I always just assumed. I bet the writers of the stories did too."
"It must be a powerful story," Fluttershy said, "to have come from this world all the way to ours."
"Trust the mists," Applejack said, remembering Celestia's parting words. "Well, we're supposed to be here. Looks like we better dock and see what we can see."
"It's really happening," Twilight said softly. "This really is…something big."
"I can't wait!" Pinkie said excitedly.
The six friends, now human, stared up at the screen and watched as the Starlight drew itself closer and closer to Avalon.
AVALON
It was nighttime when the ship docked on the coast of Avalon. Rainbow Dash rushed above decks to toss down the anchor, locking the ship in place. Twilight knew that wasn't necessary; the ship wouldn't move from where it had been called until it was ready to do so. Rainbow Dash and Applejack heaved the gangplank over the side, and the six friends walked down onto the misty, sandy coast shrouded in darkness.
At first, they saw only the trees beyond the sandy strip of beach. They walked closer, looking at the forest before them. Every tree bore fruit. Some had oranges, some had pears, and some even had apples. Applejack plucked an apple from one of the larger trees. "This looks like the most beautiful apple I ever did see," she remarked. "Safe to take a bite, or is this food like that Tartarus place you told us about?"
"It should be safe," Twilight said. "All the plants on Avalon are benevolent. At least, that's what the legends say."
Applejack took a cautious bite of the apple. Her eyes widened. Without swallowing, she exclaimed, "This is the most DELICIOUS apple I ever did see!"
A rustling in the bushes caused Fluttershy to leap back and cry out in fear. Six heads turned to look at the underbrush. From the plants trundled an adorable creature, a white mammal about the size of a puppy. Its body and face looked like those of a baby seal.
"Oh, aren't you cute!" Fluttershy knelt and extended her hand to the strange animal. It walked closer to Fluttershy's hand, pressing against it; it was obviously used to being handled and petted. "You're adorable," Fluttershy reiterated.
"It's a mistmaker," Twilight identified. "I didn't read all that much about them, but I heard they like music."
Fluttershy decided to experiment with this concept. "What is this place, filled with so many wonders?" she sang. "Casting its spell, that I am now under! Apples on trees and mistmakers cute as bunnies, mists on the sea and the fruit taste like honey!"
"Aaaaah," the mistmaker sighed. "Aaaahhh…" A fine mist exuded from its mouth and nostrils as it sighed.
Fluttershy gave a little squeal.
"Let's keep going," Twilight suggested. Reluctantly, Fluttershy left the mistmaker behind.
The forest became deeper and darker, but never seemed frightening, instead of giving off a sense of security. Birds chirped from the upper branches, and the breeze rustled the leaves gently. At the end of the forest, the six came out into a grassy, hilly clearing from which the coastline was visible to the left.
"Look," Twilight said hushedly. A strange creature was sitting on a rock, combing her hair. She appeared to the others to be like a sea pony, but with the upper half of a human instead of an equine, and with a tail that looked more like that of a fish than a seahorse. "I think they're called mermaids," Twilight whispered.
Fluttershy looked ahead and let out a great scream. The others turned to see what she'd seen and gasped accordingly. A great blob of black slime, as big as all six young women combined, was sliding by, its two red eyes focusing on the strangers to its island. It rolled its eyes at their screams and continued leisurely.
"It's just a Brollachan," Twilight realized with a sigh. "Some of them are harmful, but not that one."
"This place just keeps gettin' weirder," Applejack pointed out.
Suddenly, the voice of a child pierced through the dark air: "Magus, look!"
Coming over the hill was an odd duo indeed. The child who had spoken was a girl who looked to be the age of five by human standards, and her frame was humanoid, but she definitely wasn't an actual human. Her skin was gray like stone, and her hands and feet ended in claws. Large, batlike wings protruded from her back, the span of them twice as wide as her body. A tuft of dark hair topped off her innocent, smiling face. Twilight identified her immediately as a gargoyle. The other was human, and at first, Twilight mistook him for an old man, only to realize that he was about her age; his hair, white as snow, had thrown her off. His robes were the same white color as his hair. He led the child on towards the group with a look on his face as though he'd been expecting them.
"Welcome," the young white-haired man greeted. "I see you're new to Avalon."
"We are," Twilight replied.
"I wonder if you are the six everyone's been talking about," the white-haired man continued. "How did you come to this place?"
"We sailed," Applejack answered.
"All the way from Equestria!" Pinkie Pie added.
"We're students of Princess Celestia," said Twilight. "She and her sister Luna apparently sailed on the mists once."
"Legends speak of Celestia and Luna," the white-haired man said. "They were before my time, but they left their marks indeed. They contained a cosmic force that some beings said was more powerful than any Avalonian: the Elements of Harmony."
"You mean these?" Rainbow Dash pointed to her necklace.
"You see," Fluttershy said nervously, "we're sort of the new Elements of Harmony. The princesses told us we needed to sail on some sort of mission to stop an angel of darkness."
"Then you are the six the legends speak of!" the white-haired man said, giving a double-take. "Excuse my rudeness. I should have introduced myself earlier. You may call me the Magus. Everyone else does." At the insistent tugging of the child on his sleeve, the Magus added, "This is Angela."
"Hello!" Angela said with a wave.
"I'm Twilight Sparkle," Twilight introduced, and the others followed suit:
"Name's Applejack."
"I am Rarity!"
"Um…I'm Fluttershy…"
"I'm the one and only Rainbow Dash!"
"And I'm Pinkie Pie!"
"It is a pleasure," the Magus said.
"Pardon me if I'm bein' rude," Applejack spoke up, "but we don't really have a clue what's goin' on in the first place. I mean, we know the Elements of Harmony are powerful stuff, and we gotta stop the multiverse from bein' turned all bad, but what are we even fightin'? How do these mists even work? What's all out there in the multiverse? Sounds like you know much more than we do."
"As inhabitants of the island go," the Magus said, "I am relatively new. However, I've been here long enough to hear many of the stories that surround Avalon. Won't you come with me so we can speak?"
"Let's go back to see Catherine!" Angela suggested.
"Sure!" Pinkie agreed.
With the Magus and Angela leading the way, the eight traveled over the rolling hills of the isle, arriving eventually at a stone bastion nestled in a crop of mountains. They walked up the steps, and a host of young gargoyles peered out at them from the towers, gossiping.
Inside the castle, a young brunette woman dressed in royal finery waited in an antechamber. "Magus!" she cried, rising to greet her friend. "Who have ye brought back?" Her voice carried a thick accent that those from Earth territories would have recognized as Scottish.
"These are the Elements of Harmony," the Magus explained. "You've heard the tales, haven't you?"
"Why, yes!" the woman exclaimed. "Just like Celestia and Luna!"
"I also think they are the six from the prophecy that Merlin left behind," Magus added.
"They're really nice," Angela said, with all the innocence of youth. "So I think so too!"
"Greetings," the woman said to the six newcomers. "I am Princess Catherine."
Twilight immediately bowed, and the other five followed suit.
"May I present…" The Magus suddenly stopped, looking down at Angela. "Do you remember their names?"
"Oh, yes!" Angela nodded. "That's Twilight Sparkle, and Applejack, and Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie!"
"It's an honor to meet you," Fluttershy said. "Are you the princess of this island?"
"Nay," Catherine answered. "My throne is far away and long gone. The true king of this island lies sleeping. However, the other creatures who live here have passed on many stories to me about this island. The hags, the mermaids, the fey…all have spoken of the princesses Celestia and Luna, who visited here long ago."
"Why were they here?" Twilight asked.
"To spread the gifts of the Elements," Catherine replied. "A simple mission, but an important one."
"We have a lot of questions," Rainbow Dash brought up.
"I should imagine so," Catherine replied. "What do ye wish to know?"
"What we're supposed to do," Fluttershy said.
"What evil we're fighting," Rainbow Dash added.
"How do the mists work?" Twilight contributed.
"And what's in the rest of the multiverse?" Pinkie finished.
"That last one is a complex question," Catherine admitted. "Very few beings know that in full. The only way to know that is to actually see it for yourself."
"That's where the mists come in," the Magus said.
"The mists of Avalon don't send you where you want to go," Angela said. "They send you where you need to go!"
"For the most part," the Magus said. "They can take you across worlds, through space, and even through time. If you give your destiny over to them, they will carry you. However, the mermaids say that Celestia and Luna found a way to harness the power of the mists in a sort of machine, something they called an 'engine', so they could direct their ship wherever they wished."
"The engine from the ship!" Twilight realized. "It must run on the mists!"
"If you can find a way to take the mists with you for the engine," Catherine said, "you're welcome to do so. Avalon will never run out of mist."
"I bet I can take the mist with me," Twilight said. "I'm a pretty powerful unicorn…not to brag." She caught herself. "I guess I should call myself a 'witch' now that I'm human."
"Ye weren't human?" Catherine raised an eyebrow. "Then how did ye become one?"
Twilight had to think of how best to say it. "Anyone who was human would become a pony if they went to our world," she finally said. "We were ponies, so when we left, we became human. I read that most of the worlds are populated by humanoids, so it looks like we stay like this for a while."
"The world the Magus and I came from were populated by humans," Catherine said, "though there were many other creatures as well. Like the gargoyles. We brought them here because they were in grave danger in our world. We hope they can grow up here in peace."
"So do I," Fluttershy said.
"I like Avalon," said Angela. "It's my home!"
"Let me see if I got this," Rainbow Dash reiterated. "If we don't know where to go, the mists will take us where we need to be. But if we do know, Celestia and Luna's engine can take us wherever we want?"
"Correct," the Magus confirmed.
"I guess that answers what we need to do," Twilight said. "Even if we don't know, the mists will. We should take some for the engine anyway for when we figure it out."
"That still leaves the question of what we're up against," Rarity remembered.
"This island carries with it a rich history of all things cosmic and magical," Magus said. "We know of the prophecy about you because Merlin, one of the greatest wizards ever to live, left it behind. Others have come and left behind their stories. That's how we know about the Old Ones. They say that in ancient times, there were beings that enveloped different worlds in darkness and chaos. They stood for disharmony and unrest, playing with the multiverse as though it was a game. Goodness and love eventually triumphed, banishing the Old Ones, but they couldn't be destroyed. They were like malevolent gods…immortal. They had powers beyond anyone's imagining."
"Plays with the multiverse like a game…immortal…stands for disharmony…" Twilight's eyes widened. "Sound familiar?"
"Discord!" the others cried.
"Who?" Catherine asked.
"An evil being that tried to turn our entire world into chaos," Rarity explained. "It was dreadful! He mixed up day and night, he turned our town upside down, and he changed us all so we would ruin our friendship with each other!"
"But we defeated him!" Rainbow Dash pointed out. "When we figured out we had to stand together, and we used our powers as the Elements of Harmony, that guy didn't stand a chance!"
"So…the Elements of Harmony are more powerful than the Old Ones?" Pinkie guessed.
"Or just as powerful," the Magus asserted.
"Are there good Old Ones?" Twilight asked, thinking of Celestia.
"There are benevolent immortals who stand for harmony and love," Catherine affirmed. "But the majority of them were born after the Age of Chaos when the Old Ones reigned."
"That's good, at least," Fluttershy said in relief.
"If the angel of darkness, who we can guess at best is not a true Old One but may still be very powerful, triumphs over existence," the Magus said, "he may bring the rest of the Old Ones with him. That seems like the only way to truly make a multiverse made of nothing but disharmony."
"But make no mistake," Catherine said. "As the Elements of Harmony, you shouldn't only focus on the powerful. What the angel of darkness would need is a multiverse that would allow such things to happen. A multiverse has already given over to war and fighting. Great acts of evil have been done when the least powerful did not recognize love and tolerance. The Magus and I fled our world with our friends and the gargoyle eggs after mortal humans took it upon themselves to attack us for power. Even we have made our mistakes…we doomed our own greatest friends to an eternity of sleeping death because of our anger and bad judgment."
"Do not blame yourself," the Magus told Catherine sharply. "The mistake was mine. I will shoulder the blame."
"I don't think you should feel bad," Fluttershy said. "It happened a long time ago, and you know what you did wrong. You know better now."
"That does not undo the curse upon our friends," the Magus snapped.
"But almost every curse can be undone," Twilight pointed out. "You never know. Whatever happened, there's a chance that it can be fixed someday. And if…no, WHEN it does, you'll be waiting right here to say you're sorry!"
Catherine smiled. "I do hope you're right. You're quite optimistic ones. A good thing, if we're to face all the miseries the multiverse has to offer."
"Miseries?" Fluttershy trembled at the thought.
"Don't worry," Rainbow Dash said, slinging an arm around Fluttershy's shoulder. "We can handle anything, so long as we're together! As Catherine said, we just gotta be optimistic! And like I said a long time ago…you have me!"
"I think we understand now," Rarity said conclusively.
"We are glad to have met the six of the prophecy," the Magus said. "It is good to know that you are on your way."
"And I think what we have to do in the beginning," Pinkie deduced, "is use our powers as the Elements to remind everyone of the friendship and love they can have in their hearts. Then the angel of darkness won't stand a chance!"
"I'm not sure it will be that simple," Twilight said. "I mean, I'm sure we can do it…but we have no idea what's out there waiting. I just wouldn't assume anything. Anyway, I'll take the mists with me to use on the engine. Then we can see where we need to go." She turned to address Catherine and the Magus: "Thank you for answering our questions. To tell you the truth, I'm glad that our first stop led us to people as good as you."
The Magus was about to argue that he couldn't possibly be called a good person, not after what he'd done, but he remembered Fluttershy's assertion that he had indeed learned from his mistake, and Twilight's belief that all curses could be lifted. He did not hold back from arguing simply because he did not want to contradict what his guests had said; he held back because, after thinking about what they had said, he believed himself to be less of a bad person.
"I wish you the utmost luck on your journey," he said at last.
"As do I," Catherine said.
"Me too!" little Angela chirped.
"And I wish you good luck raising all the children," Fluttershy said with a smile directed at Angela.
"We will take nothing but the best care of our eggs," Catherine affirmed. "We mustn't keep you any longer from your duties."
"Right," Twilight said. "Hopefully, we'll all meet up again someday. I mean, since Avalon is kind of a hub of the worlds, we have to, right? Anyway, thanks for everything."
"Goodbye!" Pinkie said, waving enthusiastically as she and her friends turned to leave.
Twilight was able to gather a fairly large ball of the mists in her hands, holding it like a solid substance, and carry it back to the ship. Once onboard, she carried it immediately to the engine room. Rainbow Dash hauled up the anchor, and Applejack brought the gangplank onboard. Then they and Rarity and Pinkie followed Twilight, and they knelt to examine the complex machine.
"How's this thing supposed to work anyhow?" Applejack voiced the thought on everypony's mind.
"Try putting the mist in here!" Pinkie suggested, pointing to a glass chamber. She pressed a button, and it opened. Twilight lay the mist inside experimentally, knowing she could always get more from outside if it didn't work. Pinkie closed the chamber, and the mist spread out, taking on its gaseous quality again. Without warning, Pinkie thumped several parts of the engine, making all sorts of clanking noises.
"Do you even know what you're doing?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I have no idea!" Pinkie announced proudly.
Suddenly, the engine roared to life, whirring pleasantly.
"Pinkie!" Rarity gasped. "But how did you do that?"
"No clue!" Pinkie said happily.
The six women returned to the cockpit. The navigation screen was now replaced by a larger map, one that resembled a star chart. Twilight tested a few of the buttons on the dashboard to find that she could select a course if she wished. One key opened up another menu in which she could enter coordinates or simply select "Take the course of the mists." Twilight chose that option. The Starlight turned itself around smoothly and sailed directly away from Avalon.
"I guess we just let it take its course from here," Twilight said, and the friends left the cockpit to attend to their own devices. Rarity retired immediately to her chamber, inspired in two ways: to make more clothes to fit the new humanoid frames, and to make clothes inspired by the lush greenery of Avalon and the finery worn by Catherine and the Magus to send back to Equestria for her studio. Applejack moved to the kitchen, looking through the stockpiled rations to see what food she could make for the others. Pinkie Pie just shut herself in her room and turned on some very loud music; over in her room, looking over the Guide, Twilight could hear the bass of Pinkie's music as well as the thumping of feet that indicated that Pinkie was fervently dancing. Fluttershy sat in the lounge where they had all become human, looking over a sketch pad. She'd never drawn much before, but it was something she'd always wanted to try, and the journey would certainly give her the free time; she began by sketching the shape of young Angela's face.
Rainbow Dash eschewed the belowdecks area entirely, choosing to sit up in the misty air and watch Avalon slip further and further away. Once it was out of sight, she would turn her view forward to see what was coming.
THE SPACE BETWEEN
"Hey! HEY! GET UP HERE!"
Rainbow Dash realized the others couldn't hear her from belowdecks, so she rushed downstairs, running through the hallway that contained the doors to their private chambers. "HEY EVERYPONY! YOU HAVE TO COME to SEE THIS!"
"What is it?" Rarity sighed, peeking out of her chamber. "I was in the middle of one of my best new creations!"
"Trust me," Rainbow Dash urged, "you HAVE to come to see this!"
She convinced Rarity, Pinkie, and Twilight to come with her, then tracked down Applejack and Fluttershy before leading everypony above decks.
"What could ya possibly have seen," Applejack muttered, walking up the stairway, "that could be so…" When she reached the deck, her jaw dropped. "Well, I'll be…"
The ship was no longer sailing upon the water. Somewhere along the crossing of the lines from one plane of existence to the next, it had left the sea far behind. It now sailed in space, among stars and supernovas set against pitch blackness. Despite the open deck, the Starlight still allowed its passengers to breathe air, presumably another enchantment added for convenience.
Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie stared in awe, watching their vehicle slip silently through the greatness of the cosmos and thinking about how much there really was out there that they still didn't understand.