Star Trek: Phoenix

by Dewdrops on the Grass

Season 1 Episode 2: "Welcome to the Stars" Part 2

I’ve never liked mirrors.

Ponies say mirrors show you what everyone else sees, but that’s not true! It shows you a reflection. Bent light hitting your eyes to show a version that nopony else actually sees. Everything you see in a mirror is reversed. It’s backwards.

It’s wrong.

I’m not a vain pony. Oh I take care of my appearance, for hygiene. I make sure it’s always exactly the way it’s supposed to be. But I don’t waste time with makeup, jewelry, or any of that silly stuff. It’s not for me. It’s not what matters.

Ponies who think appearance are all that matters confuse me. Why? What matters is what they have to say, what they think, what they can do.  Appearance is just... it’s a surface level examination at best.

So that morning, when I was getting ready for the biggest most important examination I’d ever ever take in my entire life, I spent exactly the time I needed making sure my appearance looked the way it was supposed to and no more. And then I spent the next hour running around my room, making sure I had every possible book and scroll and so on in my bags because you never know what the exam is really going to be about.

Mom and Dad eventually escorted me out of my room, telling me everything would be fine, that I didn’t have to worry and that I had this. But they didn’t understand. If I messed up this exam my whole life would be over. Finished! Done! That’s it! Nothing else would matter. If I don’t get into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns I’ll be a laughingstock for the rest of my life! 

“Relax, honey, you’ll be fine,” Dad said for the ninety-fifth time as he and Mom pushed me out the door. “We’ll be with you every step of the way.”

I all but galloped my way towards the castle, eager to arrive at least a good thirty minutes early, so I’d have more time to study. I nodded politely to the royal guards as I passed them by. Most of them knew me by this point, since my BBBFF Shining Armor began his royal guard training a while back. They tolerated my existence, anyway, though I heard some of the whispers they said on occasion. “Nerd. Egghead.” Feh. What do they know? Not as much as I do, that’s for sure!

It didn’t take long for us to pass through the primary castle courtyard and head over to the tower that housed the School for Gifted Unicorns. Mom and Dad signed me in at the front desk, then we sat down to wait for me to be called up. I had one of the earlier exams so I knew I wouldn’t be waiting too long, but it was enough time to get some last minute practice in.

“Hon, should you really be reading that now?” Mom said, looking askance down at me, her muzzle pulled into a frown. “You might stress yourself out too much.”

“Oh let her read it, Velvet,” Dad replied, waving her off. “It’s how she relaxes. You know that.”

“I know, but it doesn’t mean I don’t worry...”

I tuned out Mom and Dad as I focused on my book. They argued like that a lot, always spending so much time focusing on my mental health. Worrying I wasn’t making good connections with other ponies. But I didn’t need to. I had Shining. I had Smarty Pants, my doll. What more does a filly need?

Sadly, all too soon my name was called. We were led into a lecture hall, where four stern looking ponies, each cradling a clipboard and pencil in their magic, glared down at me fiercely from the seats near the back. Then a stallion rolled in a wooden cart stuffed full of hay, with a picture of split in half eggshell on either side of a cartoonish dragon plastered to its side. The massive purple egg spotted with green dots atop the hay made clear what my goal was.

“So, your exam is simple,” one of the ponies in the back, a yellow coated unicorn mare said. “You just have to hatch the dragon egg.”

“Huh?” I mumbled, staring at the egg with wide, horrified eyes. I hadn’t expected this! Hatching a dragon’s egg? What kind of test is that?! I was expecting some basic telekinesis tricks, maybe moving objects around in various patterns. Some math, or-or a bit of science maybe. A written exam. Multiple choice questions. Essays. Something, anything other than… than this! This is absurd!

“Hatch the egg,” repeated the mare. “Get started.”

I continued to stare at the egg, unsure where I’d even start. Sure, the cartoon on the cart suggested I just pull it apart, but you can’t hatch an egg like that, can you? That’s how you break an egg to make an omelette! If I just broke open the egg, I’d kill the drake inside! Assuming there even was one. How’d they get this egg away from its mother? What kind of dragon was this? Why am I hatching a dragon’s egg for an entrance exam?! 

“Well, Miss Sparkle?” pressed one of the other judges.

Ugh. No time to worry about it. I focused on the egg and tried to summon up my magic, my brain swirling with various half remembered spell matrices and magical formulae and everything I’d studied all churned and frothed in a massive mess. My horn barely produced any sparks at all as I strained, grunting and groaning at the egg.

Scratch scratch scratch went the pencils of the judges.

“C’mon, honey, you can do it,” I heard my Dad whisper.

The more this went on, the more frustrated I became. I bounced around the room, gesturing wildly at the egg, even bowing at it at one point, until all I could manage was to try and force pure, raw magic through my horn, as if that was going to do anything.

Of course, as I knew very well, without a proper spell matrix raw magic does absolutely nothing, so nothing happened. My heart sank, I fell to my rump and bowed my head. “Sorry I wasted your time…”

The judges had a lot to write about that one. As I watched their pencils crawl along the paper, my whole body slumped until I all but melted into a puddle. A silly little puddle of Twilight goo. That’s all I felt like now. Worthless. Incapable.

Refuse.

But then the room filled with a distant flash of light. A boom echoed in the distance, rumbling louder and louder as it approached and swept over us. Instantly my horn lit up with a perfectly formed field as my magic reverberated with the distant explosion. Then it fired at the egg.

As if perfectly hatched, the egg fell apart, revealing an adorable little drake. A male baby dragon, in perfect health.

But before I could take that in, the situation accelerated. Like a broken dam, pure magical energy inundated me, so fast all I could do was scream. My eyes glowed pure white as I floated into the air, surrounded by a sizzling, vibrating, gyrating field of raw magic leaching out into my surroundings, as if my own internal stores of magic had been ripped open and exposed.  I couldn’t move or breathe or do anything other than writhe.

I felt more than saw my magic lash out, causing the judges to hover, my parents to undergo a brief temporary transformation to potted plants, the dragon to undergo an instant aging process to adulthood, smashing his head through the ceiling and two more ceilings above it for good measure.

I also heard Princess Celestia’s voice. I’d heard her make announcements before, at the Summer Sun Celebration, on vinyl etched recordings, and so on, so I knew it when I heard it. It filled me with a hope that she was coming to save me from myself, to stop whatever was happening.

But then fresh horror tore at my chest, along with… something else. Slowly, my magic pulsed, shifting from zapping out like lightning bolts in all directions to shooting towards the floor. Then it pulsed again, causing me to scream anew at a sensation of pulling, like some mighty beast had taken hold of every hair in my coat and pulled on it at once. Then my stomach lurched. I had just enough time to process Princess Celestia stepping before me, her eyes wide with shock and her mouth open to shout before my surroundings vanished.

I’d emerged into some sort of room of metal, colored in hideous shades of blue. The lighting was so dim I could barely make anything out save for what looked like a mirror at the center of the room. But this was all I needed to focus on. This was what pulled on my magic. I could see the magical flares being suckled into it, the occasional bits of waste magic causing little sparks to fly in all directions as the mirror drew me closer. I tried to stop it, to move my limbs, to pull away, to do something, anything. But I couldn’t.

“Mom! Dad! Heeelp meeeee!” I shrieked as my body touched the surface of the mirror.

BOOM

My vision whited out, my head full of stars as my ears rang with a mighty explosion. Then every one of my limbs stretched out to infinity, like a baker taking a rolling pin to a clump of dough, smushing me flat. Pain exploded along every nerve ending, my head spinning a million miles an hour.

Then a new flash of light; and a brief glimpse of various odd creatures roaming around a park before I slammed face first into the ground and skidded along the grass.

“Ooooh…” I groaned, every part of me feeling like an ursa major had used me like a chew toy then spat me back out. But my horn especially burned like fire. A quick glance upward at my horn showed the tip had a massive burn mark, with trails of smoke curling up into the sky. “What happened? Where… where am I?”

Shouts of alarm filled my ears. My eyes widened like saucers as I realized I was surrounded by massive creatures towering over me on two legs, with long gangly forelimbs ending in hands with claws like knives and teeth like sabers and horrible ear-piercing voices speaking a language that sounded like the speech of Tartarus itself.

I screamed at the top of my lungs as my heart accelerated into overdrive, my lungs pumping air like I was trying to fill the gasbags of an airship at record speed, every sense overwhelmed! The louder I screamed the more the creatures rambled on in their horrifying language!

And then a much louder shout cut through the crowd. While I didn’t understand the words, it sounded… different. Just slightly. Like it had been spoken with a different kind of throat. Another cry joined it, even louder, more authoritative.

Then, salvation! I took in a sharp breath as an older pony pushed her way through the crowd, one I’d never seen before. But still, a pony! She was much taller, ganglier, clearly in the middle of puberty, suggesting she was at least eleven, maybe almost twelve. She bore a brilliant amber coat and a mane of amaranth red, with daffodil yellow streaks. For some reason she wore a full body dress, so I couldn’t see her cutie mark. If she had hers. She might not yet.

As soon as I locked eyes on her, I babbled, “Who are you? What are those? What’s going on?!”

“Relax, kid, everything’s going to be okay,” she said in Canterlot-accented Ponish, whinnying softly. The familiar sounds soothed my frazzled nerves, a little. “Easy. Easy.”

Another voice roared through the crowd in that awful language, emanating from a giant of a creature who towered over the others as much as they towered over me, or so it felt like. It carried some sort of long boxy device in its hands and glowered at the older pony, sneering before it barked some other kind of order.

Far too terrified to think sensibly, I rushed forward and pressed myself up against the older pony, my knees quivering like jelly. “What’s going on?!” I shouted. “Where am I? Where’s Princess Celestia? Where’s Mom and Dad?”

The older pony’s jaw dropped as she looked at me like she’d seen a ghost. “Princess Celestia…?”

Nodding my head super fast I replied, “Yes, Princess Celestia! I-I was taking an exam! For the School for Gifted Unicorns! I was supposed to hatch this dragon egg and it was so hard and I couldn’t do it and then there was this big boom and my whole body was full of magic, then Princess Celestia came by to try and stop it, and there was this pull on my magic, like something trying to draw me in… and… then…”

I trailed off, uncertain what happened next. I barely remembered it. My brain ached like it had been squashed up in a butter churn. 

“And then what?” pressed the older pony.

Grunting, it took me a moment to respond, “Then she was gone! So were Mom and Dad! And I was in this weird blue room, with… with...”

The older pony gulped, her pupils shrinking to dots. “With a mirror. You touched it, didn’t you?”

Equal parts fear warring with shame welled up in my chest as I replied, “I didn’t mean to, but I couldn’t get away from it. It pulled me forward, drawing more and more of my magic out until I touched the surface, then there was an explosion...then I… I ended up here.” Wherever here is, I wondered as I scanned the area, seeing a large park, with a lot of tall buildings of a type I didn’t recognize at all. The smell of salt filled the air. Salt water, from the nearby bay. A huge bridge loomed overhead, more tall buildings in the distance.

...and the creatures. Those terrifying, monstrous creatures, still looming nearby despite the dispersal of the crowd. Trying to resist the urge to run away screaming in panic, I turned back to the older pony and said, “Please, tell me, where are we? Who are you? What are those? What’s going on?!”

She glanced around us and sighed. “It’s… It’s going to take a lot to explain. I’m Sunset Shimmer. What’s your name?”

“My name?” I said, holding a hoof to my chest. “I’m Twilight. Twilight Sparkle.”

“Well, Twilight,” said Sunset, wrapping her forehoof around my shoulder to pull me in close, “We need to get you inside as quickly as possible.”

I pushed her hoof away, my panic flash-boiling into ire. “Why? You haven’t told me what’s going on yet! Where are we? What are those things?!”

Sunset grunted, then glared up at the crowd of strange beings still lingering. In the same language the creatures used, she barked something, like some sort of order. The few creatures still remaining all dispersed, save for one. This one wore a blue uniform, who, like many of the other creatures, was hairless save for a single spot of mane atop her head, cut like a bowl, with points on either side framing similarly pointed ears. She seemed feminine, something she confirmed when she spoke to Sunset, who responded back with something unintelligible, then turned to me.
 
“Sorry about that.”

I stared in mute confusion, and more than a little trepidation, at the creature who lingered. “What were you saying to them? I couldn’t understand it.”

“You couldn’t?” she blinked. Then she rolled her eyes. “No, of course not, because you don’t have a UT yet. Hold on a second. T’Lona,” and then her speech dissolved into gibberish again.

“Youtee?” I murmured, tasting the unfamiliar syllables. They sounded a lot like some of the harsher Minotaur tongues I’d heard Mom speak in once, when she and Dad were playing some kind of game with a few other adults, something involving a lot of cards and books. “What is that?”

She didn’t respond. Instead she seemed to stop, taking a few slow deep breaths, as if focusing in some way. Then when she opened her eyes, she seemed calmer. Much calmer than I felt. “It stands for universal translator. It’s a piece of technology that’ll let us communicate with those who don’t speak Ponish. Which is everybody here.”

“Don’t you mean everypony?” I wondered.

“No, I don’t.”

Meanwhile, the creature took out some sort of device from her pocket and aimed it at me, pressing a few buttons. A warbling trill accompanied by rising and falling beeps emanated from it. “Uuuh… Sunset!” I murmured, pressing up against her again. “What’s that noise? What’s she doing with that, that thing?”

“Don’t worry Twilight, it’s just a tri--err, just a scanner,” Sunset replied. “It won’t hurt you. Trust me.”

“Indeed, she is correct,” added the creature, now speaking in perfect, unaccented Ponish. Hearing the beautiful flowing syllables of Ponish from the throat of something that looked incapable of producing the whinnies and nickers involved left me feeling more than a little unsettled. “My name is T’Lona. I am one of Sunset’s guardians. My apologies for the way in which you were greeted; no harm was intended, I assure you.”

“Oh.” Despite Sunset’s reassurances, I wasn’t sure I trusted this… T’Lona. She seemed cold. Unfeeling. I didn’t like that at all. “Sunset, please, where are we?” I repeated for what felt like the twentieth time.

T’Lona nodded at her tricorder, then dropped her arm to her side, allowing it to hang. “Perhaps that would be a question best answered at home, given no immediate signs of serious injury. Sunset, I will request another site-to-site transport so we can depart at once. . This will only take a moment. But can you please explain to Twilight what is about to happen?”

“Will do.” Then, as T’Lona stepped away, tapping a piece of jewelry on her chest, Sunset said to me, “So, Twilight, we’re going to take you to our home now. It’s going to involve something called a transporter.”

“Transporter?” I questioned. “Is that anything like a teleport?”

Sunset grinned. “Yes, actually. I’m surprised you’re familiar with that. Not a lot of unicorns are, especially not ones your age.”

“I’m not that young!” I protested immediately. “I’m eight years old!”

I saw one corner of her muzzle curl in amusement. “I can see that. Alright, I’ll skip the explanation then. So, you said you were taking an exam.”

“Uh-huh!” I nodded, eager for any kind of distraction from my current circumstances. “I’ve been studying a long time for it. But I wasn’t expecting the dragon egg!”

“Yeah, I can’t say I would’ve expected that either,” replied Sunset with a sudden frown. “That’s not the kind of test they gave me when I applied.”

My jaw fell open. “You were in the School for Gifted Unicorns?”

Winking at me, she said, “I wasn’t just in the school. I was Princess Celestia’s personal student.”

“Wow!” I gasped. “That’s amazing! But… but why did you leave? How did you end up here?”

“It wasn’t by choice,” Sunset said with a disappointed, frustrated snarl. “I got here the same way you did. I touched the mirror.”

“What was that mirror, anyway?”

She shrugged, rolling her shoulders. “I don’t know. No one does. I tried describing it, several times, but it never came up as resembling anything in any Federation database.”

“Federation… database?” I repeated. I knew what the two words that formed it meant, but together? It sounded like gibberish.

“Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself,” Sunset said, shaking her head.

T’Lona chose that moment to return to us. “We are about to transport. Prepare yourself.” Then she tapped her jewelry again. “T’Lona to Spacedock. Three for site-to-site transport.”

“Acknowledged, Commander,” came a clear, if very slightly muffled, response emanating from her chest.

Filled with a sudden nervous tension, I took a deep breath. Then my whole body twinged, like I’d been immersed in a warm bath and rubbed all over with dozens of little bristly toothbrushes, before I suddenly found myself in a completely different place.  It was a street lined with semi detached townhomes in a variety of materials, shapes, and colors that astounded me with their differences. In many ways it resembled the Nobles Quarter in Canterlot, which my family’s estate sat in. Well, I say estate. It’s more like a single house and a parcel of land. House Twilight has a long lineage, but we’ve never been very important in the Noble food chain.

The house we arrived in front of was, at first glance, very similar to the one I’d lived in my whole life. It stood three stories tall, with a small fenced-in backyard overflowing with flowers, and a large tree in the front. But that was where the similarities ended. Like all the other buildings I’d seen, this one appeared constructed from some material alien to me. Like some kind of unusual ceramic or metal.

T’Lona proceeded at once to the door. “Sunset, if you will please excuse me, I have some duties I must attend to before I can speak with Twilight further. Would you be willing to give Twilight a basic explanation of where she is and why?”

Sunset nodded, though one side of her muzzle pulled into a half frown. “Yeah, sure. You got it.”

“Thank you,” T’Lona said, nodding impassively. Then she disappeared inside.

“Well,” Sunset said, gesturing to the door with a hoof. “Shall we?”

Inside was even more impressive, if very strange. Several walls featured black panels with lit up buttons or controls of some sort. A similar screen built into some kind of device laid on a couple of the tables, including a desk in one corner. All the furniture was sleek, not so much modern as futuristic in some unusual way I couldn’t quite define, whether it was the sofas and armchairs in the living room, or the seating at the dining table. Most of the furniture was also clearly made for those on two legs and not ponies, though there were a couple of pieces around that were presumably for Sunset’s use, since they were much lower set to the ground, and conformed to pony body shape. No kitchen either, which struck me as utterly bizarre. “Don’t you cook?” I said as she took me on a brief tour of the lower level.

“Not necessary,” she said as she trotted over to a large slot of some kind on the wall next to the dining table that I’d taken for an empty shelf. “Are you thirsty? Want anything in particular?”

“...do you have apple juice?” I said after a moment of pure confusion.

She winked at me, then faced the shelf and said, “Two apple juices, three degrees.”

“Woah!” I gasped as two clear glasses of apple juice materialized from nowhere. “That’s really cool magic!”

Snickering, Sunset said, “Yeah, you could say that. Not even Starswirl could’ve done this.” She floated the two glasses in her field and strode over to the couch. She set the glasses down on a coffee table then patted an open space on the couch with one hoof. “Come on, sit.”

Frowning, I set my hoof down to feel the material. It was smooth to the touch, like some kind of felt or velour, except it didn’t look like it. Maybe it was some fancy techno-whatsit material like everything else about this place. So I hopped up onto the couch, and sank into it. The sensation against my coat soothed me. It relaxed me, like the most comfortable couch I’d ever sat on. It distracted me from my worries.

For about five seconds. Then they came pouring back in like water through a broken dam. My mouth drying out didn’t help much either. So I reached out for the apple juice and took the glass in my forehooves, not trusting my horn to levitate it yet.  A single sip flooded my mouth with a burst of flavor, just like the best apple juice I’d ever had back home, except slightly different. Tarter, slightly less sweet. I drained the glass straight away then set it down on the table, my hooves shaking so badly I almost dropped it on the floor. 

“Better?” Sunset said, eying me with a concerned expression.

“A little,” I admitted. “But I have so many questions, I don’t even know where to begin!”

“All right then,” Sunset sighed. She slouched back in her seat and closed her eyes, repeating that odd meditation I saw her perform earlier. Then she opened them again. “So, let’s start with the basics. You’re on a different planet. We’re not on Equus anymore. That mirror portal you came through? It’s one-way. There’s no way back. You’re stuck here.”

“What?!” I shrieked, slapping both hooves to my cheeks so hard I clocked myself. “But that’s impossible! I can’t be stuck here! I have a family! A life! I was going to be a student at the School for Gifted Unicorns!”

Sunset reached out a hoof, offering for me to nuzzle into the crook of her shoulder. I took it immediately, grateful for the familiar touch of a pony, even one I didn’t really know yet. “I know how you feel, Twilight,” she said as she stroked a hoof on my head, the gesture far more soothing than I expected it to be. “I had the same reaction when I first showed up.” Then she snorted and smirked. “Actually, I kind of attacked them and got shot in the process.”

“S-shot? As in, with a gun?!” I gasped. Guns weren’t unheard of in Equestria, though they were very uncommon. I knew how they operated only thanks to reading some of Shiny’s books when he wasn’t paying attention to them. They’re rare even in the Royal Guard, usually  only for those in the most important posts.

“A phaser, actually. It’s not really a gun. It’s more like a…” She trailed off, thinking for a moment, then nodded. “Kind of like a sleep spell, except in a beam of light, and... not actually magic. Okay, that was a bad analogy and it’s a lot more complicated than that. Anyway, that’s not the point. The point is, we are stuck here. We can’t go home.”

“But… But…” Those words burrowed into my heart like a parasite, consuming it from the inside till it split into pieces. Unbidden tears came to my eyes as I slumped against Sunset, sobbing softly. “I want to go home. I don’t want to be here.”

Sunset’s grip on me tightened. I could hear her heartbeat speed up, her chest shaking. Wetness trickled onto my forehead. “I know, Twilight. I know.” She sniffled, then rubbed her hoof through my hair. “Hey, but it’s not so bad, you know? It could be a lot worse.”

“How?” I whispered. “I’ll never see my mom or dad again. Or my BBBFF. Or practice magic. Or, or anything. My life is ruined.”

“BBBFF?” she muttered in confusion.

“Big brother best friend forever,” I answered, a sorrowful sigh escaping me. “Shining Armor. He’s very important to me.”

Sunset ran her hoof through my hair some more. “Sounds like it. Well, like I said, it could be worse. We’re alive. We’re not going to starve. We have a place to live. And who knows? Maybe now that they’ve seen the mirror portal open up twice, they can figure out a way to send us back.”

I pulled away immediately, hope surging in my chest. “Really? You mean it?”

She laughed, once, then shrugged as her mouth curled up into a sheepish smile. “I… dunno? Maybe? This society, it’s a lot more advanced than ours. You’ve already seen a bit of their technology, but there’s so much more to see, it’s… you have to see it to believe it. These people, they travel the stars. They have ships that can go to other planets, moving at speeds faster than light.”

“How is that possible?” I breathed, so taken aback by that I feared my jaw would fall off my face. “According to relativity--”

“They have a way around that,” she interrupted, now grinning at me. “You’re really smart for such a young kid, Twilight. You must love to read.”

“I do love to read,” I said, glaring at her. “That’s not a bad thing.”

She sat back and tousled my hair, snickering. “Didn’t say it was. Reading’s pretty awesome.”

“Oh.” I blinked several times, falling back onto my rump. “I… I’ve never heard anypony say that besides my family before. Everypony else always makes fun of me for it.”

Sunset snorted. “And those ponies are stupid. Being smart is a badge of pride, not shame. And if you like learning, well… There's a lot to learn here, too. Though it takes some time to get used to it all.”

“What do you mean?”

In response, she hopped off the couch and beckoned for me to follow. She led me over to one of the desks and pointed at the chair next to it. It was so high off the ground I could barely reach it standing on my rear hooves, let alone get up on it. “This is a normal chair for an adult in this world,” she said. “You saw how they all stand on two legs, right? Well that’s true of almost every single sapient species they’ve ever met. Apparently four legs are extremely uncommon. And when they do exist, they’re as tall as everyone else is, not small like we are.”

“Ponies aren’t that small,” I protested in a huff. “We’re pretty large for Equus.”

“Yeah. Exactly. For Equus.” Sunset reached into a pocket on her dress and pulled out some sort of thin device, shaped like a piece of paper, with a lit up piece of glass. “This is called a PADD by the way. It’s… kind of like a portable library. Except it’s a library the size of a planet. And it’s also got a few other things built in.” At my blank look, she shook her head. “Let me show you.”

She set it down so I could see the screen clearly while she tapped at the buttons with her magic. Then a picture appeared on it, in flawless color, as real as if I was looking through a window. It was of Sunset standing next to two of the two-legged creatures. One was T’Lona, impassive as ever, standing in a manner similar to that of a soldier at ease. The other, with a darker skin tone, a red uniform, poofy hair, round ears, and a bright smile waved at the camera. “That’s Amina Riviera, my other guardian,” Sunset said, pointing to the red uniformed one. “She’s a human. T’Lona is a Vulcan. They’re just two of what are called humanoid species.”

“Humanoid,” I repeated, testing the word. “Is that like an equinoid, only on two legs?”

“Basically.” She tapped another button and brought up a few more pictures, showcasing various others. Pointing to one with sky blue skin and antennae sticking out of her head, she said, “This one’s an Andorian. And this one is a Tellarite.” She pointed to one covered in fur, stouter and shorter, with a swine-like nose.

Then she named a large number of others, an astonishing variety with names I couldn’t even hope to pronounce. All stood on two legs, like variants of the same species, just with different colors of skin or facial appearances. “A lot of them look pretty similar, but even if they look the same on the outside, they’re really different on the inside,” she said. “They’re all from different planets, with different biologies.”

Taking in all this new information left my head spinning, even though I usually read more than this in a single sitting. It was just so different. So bizarre. “So we’re the odd ones out, then,” I muttered.

“Uh-huh,” Sunset nodded with a grimace. “It takes a lot of adjustment. And I do mean a lot. This place wasn’t built with ponies in mind. But I’ve been getting by. I’ll help you get by too.”

The assumption in that statement, that I’d just accept this new situation, with all these weird creatures, with this place that was nothing like home, with no one I knew around… it felt like a slap in the face. And I took it as such.

“No!” I shouted, stomping my hoof on the floor. “I want to go home. So you’d better figure out a way to take us home right now!”

“Jeez, kid, you think I wouldn’t have done that if I could?” Sunset shot back. “I already went through all the crap you’re going through right now. Been there, done that, got the freaking t-shirt! You are stuck here. You’re not going home. You got that?”

Like a punch to the gut, her words impacted me with solid force, knocking me for a loop. I screamed something unintelligible at her and ran for the door. I wasn’t going to stay in this stupid place for a second longer!

Of course, being an older, larger pony she galloped ahead of me, but I skidded under her, sliding between her legs. Then she barked, “Computer, emergency lockdown mode, enable!” which caused a voice to echo something in acknowledgement.

Not knowing what that meant, I hurtled myself at the door anyway, only to find it more solid than a brick wall. “Stupid door!” I cried, smacking it with my forehoof. “Open!”

A loud buzzing noise sounded. “Lockdown is in effect,” echoed that same voice. “Please enter security code to disable lockdown.”

“Unlock the door!” I screeched.

“That access code is not recognized. Please restate request.”

A hoof brushed my back and I shrank away from it at once. “Hey, Twilight, easy, easy. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled. I’m not trying to scare you, I promise.”

“Don’t touch me! Leave me alone!” I screamed back. I sped between her legs and found the furthest corner of the room, wedging myself behind a shelf.

I heard Sunset curse in some language unfamiliar to me, then the sound of her hoofsteps approaching. “Twilight, please come out of there,” she said.

“No! I said leave me alone, you foalnapper!”

“Foalnapper?!” Sunset roared. I saw her face pop up from behind the shelf, twisted up with real anger. “You think I--for pony’s sake if it was up to me you’d still be at home, Twilight! I didn’t want you here either!”

More steps rumbled through the house, this time singular rather than proper pairs. “Sunset, why is there so much commotion?” echoed the voice of T’Lona.

“Because Twilight’s acting like a spoiled little--”

“Sunset,” T’Lona interrupted, a single word command that, despite its lack of volume or emotion, ripped through Sunset’s words like a knife tearing apart a sail.

I poked my head out so I could see what was going on. I watched Sunset take several deep breaths, shut her eyes, and practice that meditation technique again. When she opened them this time, she was still agitated, but much calmer. “I tried to explain the situation to Twilight. I wanted to help her understand that she’s not going home. She became upset.”

“Sunset, how old is Twilight?”

“I’m eight years old!” I answered for Sunset. When T’Lona glanced my way, I hid back behind the shelf.

“I see,” T’Lona said. “Sunset, I believe it might be best if you wait for Amina to come home before you attempt to speak any more with Twilight. You should return to your school project.”

Sunset sighed, then nodded. “Okay. I’ll get back to it then.”

I heard the sound of Sunset trotting away, then more steps coming closer to me. “Twilight, may I ask you to step out from behind the shelf?”

“Do I have to?” I murmured in response.

“No. If you would prefer to remain back there, you can. However, I am not sure it would be very comfortable for you for long.”

She made a good point. Already, my shoulders and back muscles ached from being forced into the small space. The wall and shelf unit chafing against my coat made it worse. “Okay.” I slunk out from behind the shelf.

T’Lona, hunched down at my eye level, gazed at me impassively. “I apologize if Sunset Shimmer upset you. I had hoped she would have more tact.”

Frankly I didn’t trust this T’Lona further than I could throw her either. She was too… cold. Like there was nothing there. No heart. No soul. Just a lack of passion. Like a golem, walking around imitating life without having a true life of its own. So I carefully stepped around her till I could get back to the couch, and opted to sit down on that. “It’s fine,” I said.

She arched an eyebrow at me, then nodded. “It seems my own demeanor intimidates you as well. That is understandable. I will be respectful and give you your space. If you need me for any reason, I will be up two flights of stairs, in the room on the right. If you get hungry, the replicator on the wall can provide. I will check on you in an hour. Does this sound acceptable?”

Seriously, what the heck is with her? It’s like she’s a machine herself. Maybe she is. Maybe that’s what Vulcans are. Logic-based machines. “S-sure,” I murmured, not trusting my own voice right now.

“Very well. Please excuse me, Twilight,” she said. Then without a single look back she departed up the stairs.

It was only after she left that I realized I hadn’t asked her to unlock the door and let me leave. I was still trapped here in this weird house. I sank myself deeper into the couch, wishing it was my bed so I could hide under the blankets. With Smarty Pants. And a good book.

But I didn’t have any of that. No doll. No blankets. No BBBFF. No nothing.

Unbidden moisture drizzled down my face until the exhaustion of the situation claimed me. I fell into a deep, dark sleep.

“Wait, there’s another pony staying with us now?”

“Yes, Amina. Did you not receive my communique?”

“T’Lona, I was giving final exams all day at the Academy. I didn’t have time to read it.”

“Ah, I see. My apologies then. I would have sought to send you a higher priority message if I had realized.”

“So where did she come from?”

Groaning, I opened my sleep-coated eyes, blinking as a groggy, half-awake energy filled my mind. My mouth opened in a massive, tongue-stretching yawn, all four hooves stretching out so hard I could hear the bones crack. Then I fell back against the couch. “Five more minutes, Mom,” I mumbled.

Then my eyes shot open as I realized that wasn’t Mom and Dad I heard talking. I looked up to see, not far away, T’Lona standing next to a vaguely familiar creature wearing a red uniform. It took me a moment or two to recognize Sunset’s other guardian, Amina. Unsure whether or not to draw attention to myself, I shut my eyes immediately and pretended to sleep.

“Sorry, hon, but I saw your eyes open.”

Sighing, I opened them back up to see Amina had come closer. Unlike Sunset, who seemed mostly angry and tried to cover it up by pretending to be nice, and T’Lona, who struck me as cold and lacking in compassion, she had a warm, honest face that instantly reminded me of my Mom. Or Princess Celestia. Or maybe both. She was the first one of these weird two-legged creatures that didn’t look like a monster ready to claw my face off. Her smile was genuine, soothing even. Like she actually cared. “Hi,” I said quietly, still groggy.

“Hey there,” she said back. “Would it be okay if I sat down with you?”

“Uh, sure, I guess,” I replied with a shrug. I shifted in position to get her some more room, since she was so much bigger than me.

She very carefully sat down next to me, and gave me plenty of space. “Thank you. Been on my feet all day. My name is Amina. What’s yours?”

The corners of my mouth turned upward a tad. “Twilight. Twilight Sparkle.”

Her smile grew. “That sounds like a beautiful name, Twilight. I like it. So, I’m guessing you’ve had a pretty rough day, huh?”

“You can say that again,” I grumbled.

“Yeah? You wanna tell me about it?”

I don’t know why, exactly. Maybe it was the sleep. Maybe she was really as nice as she seemed. But for whatever reason, I trusted her enough to dump my entire story on her. And she listened. She didn’t interrupt me, or ask a ton of probing questions, or do anything else other than listen. Finally I got to the point of when I had fallen asleep. “And then I woke up and you were here.”

She nodded, her smile straining a bit. “I'm sorry for how Sunset treated you. She means well, but she’s… she’s still learning.”

I nodded. My mood felt… not happier. Lighter, perhaps. The talk took some weight off my shoulders. But there was a question I had to ask. “Was she right though? Am I… stuck here?”

Amina’s smile disappeared as her gaze turned sad. She looked away for a moment, then looked back at me and nodded. “I’m sorry, but, yes. We’ve been trying very hard to figure out what brought Sunset here, but we haven’t. Yet.”

My forelegs buckled, then gave out under me. “Oh,” I said with a heavy sigh.

“You can come lay over here, if you want,” she said, gently patting her leg.

I looked up at her, suddenly full of doubt, wondering if this was some kind of trick. But she seemed so honest. So kind, too. And snuggling with Sunset earlier was nice. I… after another second’s hesitation I leapt for the chance and promptly plopped myself down atop her lap. 

She laid her hand down atop my head, and used tender strokes to soothe me. “I know we’re all strangers to you, Twilight,” she said. “And this is a strange new world to you. You didn’t ask for any of this to happen.”

“No, I didn’t,” I moaned, fresh tears welling up. “I just want to go home.”

“I hear you, honey.” She rubbed my hair some more, and then moved her hand down to my neck, and kneaded at the muscles there. Not hard enough to hurt. Just enough to feel nice. Relaxing. “T’Lona and I have been trying to do what we can for Sunset. We’d be happy to let you stay with us too, if you’d like. I know you and Sunset might not have gotten along at first, but it would be good for both of you to have a fellow pony around, don’t you think?”

“I guess.” I turned over on her lap, letting her have better access to my left shoulder. That was the one I’d slept on, and it hurt more. “I feel so lost. This morning, I knew who I was, where I was going in life. Now, I don’t even know anymore.”

“Oh honey…” Amina leaned in and held me close, a full body hug that left me feeling like I’d been wrapped up in the warmest blanket imaginable. Had anyone else done this, it might’ve felt threatening, or even suffocating, but not with her. “Can I tell you a little secret?”

“Go ahead.”

She laid me back down and returned to petting me. “Well, when I was little, I lived on a different planet. It wasn’t as nice as Earth. There were a lot of mean people there, mean people who hurt others. But I managed to escape, thanks to T’Lona. She was a Cadet at Starfleet Academy at the time, just in training, serving aboard a starship. She rescued me. She brought me here. To Earth. I’ve been here ever since. My life became so much better after I came here. I found a passion, in science. T’Lona and I got married. I’m much happier than I ever was before.”

“Wow,” I breathed, staring up at her with wide eyes. “Really?”

“Mm-hmm,” she nodded. Then she grinned. “Now, I’m not saying some strapping young person’s going to come flying in to sweep you off your hooves, and I’m not saying your life before you came here was bad. It sounds like it was pretty good. But there’s a lot of good here too. That’s all I’m saying.”

“Huh. I guess… Sunset did say things could be a lot worse, all things considered,” I said, smiling back.

“Exactly. And let me make you a promise sweetie, the same one I made Sunset: if we can find a way to send you home, we’ll do it. I mean it.”

“Yay!” I cheered, hopping off the couch to bounce around the room. Then I paused and blushed as my stomach growled loud enough to be heard miles away. “Um, hehe… I guess I haven’t eaten since this morning.”

“Perhaps this would be a good time to enjoy a meal together,” suggested T’Lona, who startled me as I hadn’t realized she’d been standing there the whole time. She must’ve been silently observing. It scared me a little, even despite Amina’s reassurances. 

Still, it wasn’t a bad idea. Maybe I was wrong about T’Lona. Who knows? 

“Sounds good to me,” Amina said. She hauled herself off the couch, walked over to a panel on the wall and tapped it. “Sunset? Twilight, T’Lona and I are going to have dinner together. Would you care to join us?”

“Sure. I’ll be right down,” came Sunset through some hidden speaker. At least I thought it was a speaker. It sounded so clear she might as well have been standing right next to me.

I hopped into one of the two pony-designed chairs at the table. “Huh. If Sunset was the only pony here before me, why’re there two pony-chairs?” I wondered, not meaning to speak as loud as I did.

“‘Cause I asked them to get two,” Sunset said as she finished trouncing her way down the stairs. She eyed me and sighed, then walked over to Amina and whispered something in her ear.

Amina promptly flushed, then shrugged and whispered something back. Now suspicious, I gazed at them and said, “What? What is it?”

“Don’t worry about it, dear. We can talk about it later,” Amina said, ignoring the harsh glare Sunset fired her way. “Let’s focus on dinner first. What would you like to have, Twilight? We’ve programmed a lot of pony dishes into the replicator since Sunset joined us, so if you want something familiar we can make it.”

“Programmed?” I mouthed. More of their strange techno-wizardry. I had to learn how this stuff worked. “Um, can you make spaghetti and wheatballs?”

Amina beamed, then turned to the slot on the wall. “Spaghetti and wheatballs.” Then she paused to let it form from the sparkly thin air and pulled out a steaming fresh plate. The scent of marinara sauce and freshly cooked buckwheat filled my nostrils with a heavenly odor, and caused my stomach to rumble again. “Here you go, hon.”

She set it down in front of me, along with a pair of eating utensils and a large napkin, then fetched the others their food. I didn’t bother to look at what they had. I was too hungry. I managed, just barely, to pick up the fork in my magic, then shoved forkful after forkful of noodles and sauce into my mouth, moaning with every bite. I cleaned off my plate in about five minutes, then dropped my fork atop it. “Phew…”

“Careful there, Twilight,” Amina said with a chuckle. “You don’t want to get a stomach ache.”

“I’ll be fine,” I said, grinning. “I did that at home all the time. Mom always yelled at me to eat slower, but who has time for that?”

T’Lona arched an eyebrow at that. “Curious. It seems you and my mate share a similar philosophy.”

“Oh stop it, T’Lona.”

Sunset leaned over her plate and eyed me as she scarfed down a bite of what looked like fish atop a bed of rice. “Hey, listen, Twilight, I’m sorry I yelled at you earlier.”

A sullen frown replaced my smile. “You called me spoiled.”

“And you called me a foalnapper,” Sunset pointed out with a matching expression.

My lips curled up into what my BBBFF always called my ‘Twilynanas pout.’ “So what, you expect me to just forgive you like that?”

“No,” Sunset replied, shaking her head. “Just saying, you’re not innocent.”

“Girls…” Amina said in a warning tone.

Sunset scowled and sat back in her chair. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine, Miss Amina,” I said, while giving Sunset a smug smirk. “I accept Sunset’s apology.”

The rest of dinner proceeded with small amounts of back and forth conversation, just enough to teach me a few basic things about the house. Apparently there was some kind of machine called a “computer” that could be asked questions for information and to do things like change the temperature in the room or play music, or even videos, which were apparently like movies except in your own home. Half-way through dinner a couple of people showed up the door to install a bed and some furniture in a bedroom upstairs--evidently I’d have the room across from Sunset’s.

After dinner, Amina showed me a few basic tricks to using the computer, particularly at a terminal or through the portable PADD device that Sunset showed me earlier. Then she took me upstairs and showed me my new room. “I’ll take some leave tomorrow to help you decorate and personalize the place, honey,” she said. Then she frowned momentarily. “Though I might have to spend some time grading some exams here. Anyway, nevermind that. There’s one other thing we do need to talk about.” She explained it to me.

My jaw fell open. “What do you mean I have to wear clothes?!”

We spent a while arguing about it, but eventually she convinced me, especially once she provided me some basic clothes. Then she showed me where the bathroom was, and wished me a good night.

At first I laid down in bed, too tired and sore to do much else. My magic surge took far more out of me than I had realized, and the rapid back and forth of everything since, even with that nap, left me feeling absolutely knackered. I desperately needed a shower.

...and the toilet. I hadn’t had the chance since I left my parent’s house this morning and wow did I need to go bad. So, despite my aching body screaming at me not to move, I pulled myself off the bed and trotted over to the bathroom.

… and then stopped. Nothing appeared recognizable. Was that a toilet? That basin might’ve been a sink, but where were the handles for the faucet? Why is everything so high up? Is that cubicle tank thing a shower? What do I do with any of this? How… “Oh no…” I muttered.

My whole body burned like fire as I trudged over and knocked at Sunset’s door. It slid open after a moment, revealing a grumpy, half asleep Sunset. “What?”

“... can you show me how to use the toilet, please?”

I didn’t sleep well that night. Nightmares of great clawed beasts chasing me through endless hallways lit in eerie blue light, my magic spiralling out of control and hurting everyone around me, Princess Celestia herself declaring I wasn’t worthy of living in Equestria and banishing me… by the time I awoke that morning I’d had every variation of those nightmares and then some.

So I trudged my way down the stairs, wearing the royal blue full body sundress they’d replicated for me, along with a single side saddle bag where I’d stuffed my new PADD into. I still didn’t have much of a clue how to use it, despite what they showed me. It was designed for use with hands, and I didn’t have hands. And my magic wasn’t that strong yet either.

No sunlight streamed through the windows, as dawn had yet to break. Or whoever it was that raised the sun here hadn’t gotten it done yet. I tried searching for a clock somewhere only to remember what they told me about that, that I had to ask the computer. “Computer,” I said, still not enjoying the unfamiliar syllables, “what time is it?”

“The current time is 0522.” 

Not even six o’clock yet. No wonder the sun wasn’t up. But I wasn’t about to go back to sleep either. Not with those nightmares. So instead, my stomach rumbling, I wandered over to the replicator food slot thing. Only once I got there did I realize my problem. Like everything else in this darn world, it was too high up, too much for me to reach. So I had to drag my chair over and use it as a stepstool. I still barely reached it once I was up there.

“Um… ummm…” I mumbled as I considered what I wanted.

“That selection is not valid. Please restate request.”

I almost fell backward, startled by the sudden voice. “Sorry,” I whispered. Then I pondered for a good couple of minutes before I finally said, “Pancakes and scrambled eggs, and a cup of coffee.”

“Please specify type of coffee.”

“Prench Roast,” I replied immediately. 

“That variety is not available. Please specify another.”

“What do you mean that’s not available?” I groused, smacking the wall next to it with a hoof. “It’s the most basic kind of… oh. Right. Ugh, look, just give me some coffee with cream and sugar, okay?”

That seemed to satisfy the machine, because it made a musical swirly noise and produced a steaming plate of pancakes, eggs, and a mug of coffee. It took me a couple of trips to take it all over to the table. By the time I sat down, I’d heard the thunder of boot-covered feet descending, revealing both Amina and T’Lona. T’Lona was dressed in her uniform, but Amina wore some sort of dark blue fabric pants, a white t-shirt, and a leather jacket. “Oh, Twilight!” Amina said, blinking in surprise. “We weren’t expecting you up so early.”

I shrugged. “Didn’t sleep well.” I turned to my food and took the first bite of pancakes. Just like the food last night, it tasted impeccably delicious. Like the best my mom ever whipped up.

I hated it.

T’Lona and Amina both exchanged a look they thought I couldn’t see, then sat down at the table with their own breakfasts. “I’m sorry to hear that, honey,” Amina said. She reached out a hand to set on my hoof, which I allowed, after briefly pulling away. “I know it can’t be easy, waking up in an unfamiliar house.”

“No.” I popped a bite of eggs into my mouth. Hated them too. They tasted far, far too good for my current mood. “It’s not.”

“Well,” Amina said after taking a moment to clear her throat. “There’s a few things we can try to do about that. If you’re okay with it, I’d like to take you to see a couple of doctors today. One’s going to perform a checkup, just to make sure you’re in good health, that you didn’t get hurt somehow by traveling here. The other is a therapist.”

I carefully lifted the mug of coffee and took a sip. Too perfect. Just like the food. “A therapist?”

She gave me a hesitant smile. “A counselor. Someone you can talk to, who’ll listen. Her name is Belle Hendrix. Sunset’s been seeing her for the past six months, and she’s been remarkable in helping Sunset to adjust.”

Scarfing down another forkful of eggs and pancakes, I replied, “Do I get a choice?”

She winced at that and let out a quiet sigh. “Of course you do, Twilight. We’re not going to force you to do anything you don’t want to do.”

“Okay.” I shoved the rest of the food in my mouth, swallowed, and finished off the coffee. Despite my mood, and despite how stupidly perfect the food tasted… It really did help. A little. “When do we go?”

The answer to that turned out to be in a couple of hours. Amina, as a teacher at a place called Starfleet Academy--apparently some sort of school for people in Starfleet, which was an organization dedicated to exploration and defense of the Federation--had a lot of exams to grade, while T’Lona evidently had duties she needed to attend to. That suited me just fine.

So I spent that time practicing with my PADD device, and with a free terminal at one of the desks. At first I amused myself by calling up some basic science information, nothing I didn’t already know. But then I looked up astronomy, one of my favorite subjects. The more I read, the more confused I became. Planets orbiting their parent stars? No alicorn to raise the sun and moon every day? What was this?!

“Wow. You’re even more upset over that than I was.”

Blanching in sudden surprise, I looked up to see Sunset Shimmer gazing down upon me. Despite her words, her smile was sympathetic, not mocking. “You knew about this?” I asked.

“Yeah.” She came around the desk and sat down on the floor next to me. “Had a pretty big argument with Amina and T’Lona about it. But they proved it. They even took me up onto Earth Spacedock to show me the proof with my own eyes.”

“Earth Spacedock?” I said, feeling like some sort of clueless tourist, constantly lost in all these new terms.

She brought out her own PADD and called up an image of a colossal structure, shaped something like an upside down chess piece, with the largest parts a great huge oval up top, tapering down to a pillar like structure all the way to the bottom. The stars visible around it, in addition to the curvature of a planet below, told me it was in orbit. She pointed at a small object entering the structure. “See that? That’s a starship. It’s about five hundred meters long.”

“Woah,” I gasped. “That must mean this Spacedock thing is at least five kilometers tall!”

“Closer to six, actually,” Sunset said, chuckling. “It’s visible from the surface, but only with binoculars. It's in a geosychronous orbit, passing over San Francisco once per day. That's the city we were in where you first arrived."

"But we're not there now," I said.

"Nope." She brought up a different image, this time a map showcasing a large sprawling continent with massive landforms stretching out to the upper left and right, taping down to a pair of peninsulas and a much smaller isthmus furthest to the south. A large ridge of spiny mountains split the western third of it from the rest. “See, here’s San Francisco, on the coast of California. We’re all the way up here, nestled into this harbor, over fifteen hundred kilometers to the north, in a city called Vancouver, in British Columbia.”

“Wow,” I gasped. “But, wait, that means we teleported that distance yesterday, right? How is that possible? Even Princess Celestia herself can’t teleport more than a couple hundred kilometers!”

Sunset frowned momentarily at that, her brow creasing. “I know. But however they do it, fifteen hundred is nothing. Actually, hmm. Computer!” A beeping sound arose from a hidden speaker. “What’s the maximum range of a Federation transporter?”

“The standard maximum range of a Federation transporter is forty thousand kilometers.”

Sunset whistled. “Well, there you go then.”

“Forty… forty thousand…” My eye twitched as my brain tried to comprehend that. Then after a moment I gave up. I peered at the map, taking in the details, the sheer number of cities listed. Then my eyes narrowed. “Um, Sunset, a lot of these city names, they’re--”

“I know,” Sunset said. “They’re a lot like Equestrian names. As far as T’Lona and Amina can tell, that’s just a quirk of the universal translator.” Then she frowned. “Though there’s also a lot of plant and animal life on this planet similar to ours. And most of the species on ours appear in the mythology of many of this planet’s cultures. That’s why they have a word for unicorn.” Turning off the map, she brought up some other images instead.

Instantly my mouth puckered like I’d tasted something foul. “What is that? It’s like some kind of really freaky messed up version of a pony!”

“Apparently,” Sunset answered with a groan, “it’s based upon the equines native to this planet. But I know what you mean. They look… wrong. All out of proportion.”

“You’re telling me,” I said, gaping at the picture. “The muzzle is way too big, the eyes are far too small and way too far apart, the shape of the head is all wrong, and don’t even get me started on those legs!”

She turned off the image. “Yeah, it’s kind of like… well, here, let me show you.” Then she pulled up a pair of images. On one side was a picture of a human, like Amina, wearing one of those Starfleet uniforms. On the other side was a picture of… something similar in appearance to the human, at first. A large monkey of some kind. “This is called a chimpanzee. Apparently they’re a related species to humans. There’s a lot of other similar species related to them, all a lot less intelligent than they are. First time I saw what they call a horse, Amina suggested this comparison.”

“I suppose,” I said, shaking my head. “But wow. I wouldn’t want to meet one of these things.”

Sunset’s whole body shuddered as she made a face. “No. No you don’t. You think the way they look is wrong? Try how they smell. It’s so messed up.”

"I'd rather not picture it, thanks," I said. "Sunset, you said you went onto that Spacedock thing right? That must mean you went into space!"

Sunset scratched the back of her head and shrugged. "Sort of? They beamed--er, teleported--me up there. So I didn't go up in a shuttle or something. They showed me around, let me see out the windows, then brought me back down."

"But you were still in space, right?" I said, leaning forward, my tail swishing in excitement. "What was it like?"

She stared at the ceiling for a moment before answering. "It was like being in any other building. They have artificial gravity so I wasn't floating. If I didn't know I was in space, I wouldn't have realized it."

"Oh." I sat back, a flash of disappointment running through my heart. 

"Listen, Twilight," Sunset said, sighing as she gave me an apologetic look. "I really am sorry for the way I talked to you yesterday. It was rude and inconsiderate."

Narrowing my eyes in suspicion, I asked, "Did Amina tell you to say that?"

"No." Sunset's cheeks flushed a florid pink. "I thought about it after going to bed. I was trying to save you the freakouts I went through when I first arrived. But I did the opposite of help. I'm sorry."

I stared at her for a good long moment or two, searching for some sort of sign of deception. But either there was none or she was good at hiding it, so I smiled back. "Apology accepted. I'm sorry I called you a foalnapper."

She grinned at that, and thrust out her hoof. "Wanna try to be friends then?"

I bumped it, feeling some of the weight on my heart lighten. "Sure."

"So, Twilight," Sunset said, with her brow creasing. "You kept mentioning Princess Celestia yesterday. Did you… get to talk to her?"

I shook my head, my muzzle curling into a frown. "No. I didn't. She came by after my magic surge but I never got to say anything. Why?"

Sunset paled and looked away from me. "No reason. Just… just wondering if she misses me."

Worry wormed its way into my heart. “Was… how long were you her student?”

She took several long moments before she said anything. “Five years,” she whispered. “She found me with my magic surging at the orphanage, and stopped it before I could destroy the place. She said my magic was wild, uncontained, and needed focus, so she brought me into the castle to teach me. She…” A dark scowl overtook Sunset’s face. She stomped a forehoof into the floor. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. She probably didn’t care when I went missing. Forget it.”

“But, Sunset--”

“I said forget it, Twilight,” Sunset repeated in a tone that brokered no argument. She scowled for a moment longer, then sat back and performed her meditative gesture. As she did so the lines of tension on her face eased, until they faded. “Sorry. I’d rather not talk about it right now.”

“Okay.” Seeking for a subject change, I asked, “So… how long have you been on Earth then?”

“Six months, more or less,” Sunset replied. “Why?”

“I was just… wait a minute.” My eyes narrowed, my brow furrowed in concentration, then my eyes shot back open as I gasped. “Sunset, that doesn’t make any sense. If you’ve only been here for six months, I should’ve heard about you. I spent a long time studying up on Princess Celestia before I had my exam.”

“So?” Sunset said with an annoyed shrug. “Just means no one bothered to mention me in any books.”

“No, that’s not it,” I said, shaking my head. “Because the books did mention she’d had personal students before, but the last one was…  twenty years ago. And she disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Even my mom mentioned it at one point.”

Sunset’s eyes practically popped out of her skull as she fell over backwards onto her rump. “What?” she breathed.

Anxiety gnawing at my belly like a wriggling parasite, I swallowed to clear my throat, then said, “Sunset, what year was it when you left Equestria?”

“Year of Celestia 968,” she answered, her voice trembling. “What… what year was it for you?”

I sighed and said, “988 YC.”

“Holy crap,” Sunset gasped. “Twenty… twenty years passed in Equestria in just six months on Earth? How is that possible?”

“Well,” I said, frowning, “I, um, I remember reading something about time dilation with relativity, about different gravity wells and so on causing different passages of time. It was all theoretical, but… I don’t know.”

Sunset rapidly shook her head. “No, no, it can’t just be that. I’ve learned enough of what these people know about science to know that. It must’ve been that mirror. Something about it might not have just transported us through space. Maybe it did so through time as well.”

“You mean, it sent you in the future, or me into the past?” I ventured.

“I know it’s possible,” Sunset said with a nod. “I don’t know a lot of the details, but time travel isn’t unheard of to the Federation. And you and I both know it’s possible through magic as well, if very difficult. You might not have had a chance to see it, but when I saw that mirror, it was old. The whole place was broken down, like it had been there for millennia, or tens of millennia even. It’s possible the mirror wasn’t working right. Maybe it wasn’t supposed to send us through time, but did so anyway because it was half broken.”

“Is there any way for us to find out?”

Sunset sighed and bowed her head. “No. I’m going to bring this up to T’Lona later. She needs to know about this.” 

“Okay,” I replied. My heart sank. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset--”

Sunset held out a hoof for silence, while using the other one to practice her meditation thing she’d been doing.  “No, don’t worry about it. We can’t do anything about this right now anyway. It’s just… we just have to accept it. We’ll figure it out.”

“Right.” I fell silent for a moment, then as I watched her, I became curious, so I asked, “So, um, what’s that thing you keep doing to calm down?”

She blinked, then grinned and slowly demonstrated it. “You mean this? It’s a Vulcan calming technique. T’Lona showed it to me. She says it’s one of the earliest things Vulcans practice as kids, to help restrain their emotions.”

I snorted. “What emotions? She’s like a robot.”

Sunset shook her head vigorously. “No, no she isn’t, Twilight. She feels the same range of emotions you or I do. But for Vulcans, they’re… intense. So intense they can drive them mad. So they found ways to control them, harness them, through the study of logic, and meditation. There are a lot of terms they use for this, but T’Lona favors the term ‘passion’s mastery.’”

“Oh.” I glanced up towards the ceiling, where I knew T’Lona was in her office, somewhere in the house. “...you sure she feels things?”

Sunset’s muzzle curled into a small smile. “I’m certain she does. Trust me.”

“Okay, girls,” Amina said as she walked over to us. In addition to her outfit she wore a small backpack. “Ready to head out?”

“Oh, you’re coming with?” I said, looking to Sunset.

“Mmhmm. It’s time for my weekly appointment with Belle, so I’ll be having mine while you’re getting your checkup.”

Amina had us follow her over to the front door. “What’s she like?” I asked.

“She’s really nice. Kind of strange, but nice,” Sunset said.

As we stepped outside, I took a moment to take in my surroundings. All I’d seen yesterday was the townhomes up and down this street, but now I had the opportunity to observe the city around us. Like what little I’d seen of San Francisco, the horizon was dominated by towering skyscrapers, massive structures of glass and metal with most of the available surfaces covered either in trees or in some kind of shiny, reflective dark material. People of all sorts, of all the species Sunset showed me and more bustled about the streets, holding conversations, laughing, a few hawking handcrafted wares or offering services. On the whole, apart from the technology on display, it struck me as similar to Canterlot’s market district on a busy day.

I stayed quiet while Amina escorted us down the street to what she referred to as a train station. While outwardly it resembled the train stations I’d visited in Equestria, the actual train functioned differently. Sunset watched me in amusement as I boarded what she called a “mag-lev” and said I was reacting the same exact way she did. “It really is safe, Twilight, even if it looks unsafe.”

True to her word, we arrived at our destination hale and unharmed. This district of Vancouver featured a number of medical facilities mixed in with small parks and other greenery, and scores of people milling about performing various tasks. While Sunset split off to head into one of the smaller buildings, Amina led me into the primary building, a taller structure with at least ten different floors. Stepping to a screen near the front desk, she signed me in. “It’s electronic, so they know you’re here,” she said.

Not long after, I was called in to see a physician, a human man with a similar skin tone to Amina’s, with a well groomed beard and a pleasant smile. He kept up a friendly conversation while he ran a different version of a tricorder over me, and proved to be especially friendly when I started asking questions about my vital signs and everything. “Well, Twilight,” he said after a few moments. “It looks to me like you’re in excellent health. The only concerning thing I noticed was a much lower amount of the unusual energy signature in your body, far lower than we’ve seen in Sunset Shimmer.”

Tapping my hoof, I said, “That sounds like mana drain. But there’s still some there, right?”

“Yes, there is,” he said.

“Then it’s fine. It’ll build itself back up. Might take a few days but it’ll be okay.” 

“All right then, you would know best,” he replied with a laugh. “Now, there’s just one other thing we have to do. We need to install a universal translator. This is a very quick procedure, a single injection. You’ll feel some tingling, maybe a bit of pinching after I inject it. Is that okay?”

“Go ahead,” I said after a moment’s hesitation. True to his word it was a single press of something he called a hypospray. Like he said it pinched at the inside of my brain, like something grabbing hold. Then my vision blurred, just for a second. Once it unblurred, I realized my surroundings had changed. Up till now, except for the stuff listed on Sunset’s PADD, which had been written in Ponish, I hadn’t been able to read anything on any of the walls or screens. But now  all the strange foreign characters shifted to match its Ponish equivalent. On occasion, I would still find a word or two I was unfamiliar with, but at least I could read everything. It took a small load off my mind.

Then I was escorted by Amina over to the smaller building. While the larger building had all the accoutrements of a hospital, this one featured a warm, inviting atmosphere. Soothing pastel colors decorated the walls, a calming music played over some sort of speakers, and very few people waited in the small waiting room. “Most people prefer to see their therapists over a communicator, but Sunset prefers to see hers in person. If you prefer, after your first appointment you can always see her by communicator at home.”

The concept of speaking to someone over such a distance still baffled me enough that all I could do was shrug. “Okay then.”

Amina’s smile turned a bit strained at that, but she patted my forehoof and said, “Once you go in, Sunset and I’ll wait out here for you. Then we can go shopping for your room, if you’d like.”

“...can we get some books? I like books.”

She smiled wide, showing off her shiny teeth. “I think we can manage that, yeah.”

Sunset came out of the doorway, followed by a tall woman with skin the color of coffee with cream. At first I thought the woman was a human, until I saw her pointed ears. Despite those, though, unlike all the other Vulcans I’d seen walking down the street, she wore her hair long, streaming down the back of her floor-length forest green tunic and skirt. She was also the first person I’d seen since coming to this planet that possessed a normal hair color, rather than just brown, yellow, or black. Her hair featured a combination of dark olive green with streaks of turquoise and aquamarine in the mix. She also bore a quirky, energetic smile, brimming with obvious emotion. “I’ll see you next week, Sunset,” she said in a perky voice higher pitched than I would’ve expected from her.

“Thanks, Belle,” Sunset said, waving. She trotted over to us and took a seat next to Amina before winking at me.

Belle brought a PADD out from a pocket in her tunic and then smiled at me. “Twilight Sparkle?”

Gulping, I hopped up off my chair. “Um, yes, that’s me,” I said, my voice shaking.

Smiling wider, Belle gestured with a hand to the corridor behind her. “Right this way, please.”

As I trudged after her, every step felt heavier and heavier, like lead weights attached to my hooves. She led me into a small room decorated much like the waiting room, with a window open to let sunlight stream in, and a variety of furniture. To my surprise there was a couch made to conform to ponies, just like in Amina’s house. “Please, sit anywhere you like,” Belle said as she sat down into an armchair.

I hopped up on the couch and settled in, happy to be off my hooves. “Thanks.”

“So, we’re going to try to take this slow, to your comfort level, okay Twilight?” Belle said as she set down her PADD and gave me her full attention. She interlaced her hands and placed them on her lap. “I know you’ve had a rough couple of days.”

I nodded, my mouth slamming shut as if my jaw had been welded.

She shifted in her seat and leaned forward. “Sunset’s told me a lot about Equestria. It sounds like it’s a wonderful place. I’m guessing you miss it a lot.”

I nodded again, still unable to speak.

“I know you only came to us yesterday, and you haven’t had much time to adjust,” Belle said, her smile sympathetic. “That’s why I’m here, to listen. I know it isn’t easy.”

“No, it isn’t,” I muttered. “It’s awful. I never asked to be teleported across the universe to some weird planet with a bunch of weird tall creatures. I want my family. I want Mom and Dad. ...I want my BBBFF…”

“BBBFF?” she prodded.

I explained. I told her everything about my brother, about my family, about my exam, about my life. When I finished, she smiled at me calmly and said, “It isn’t easy, being in the position you’re in. Especially not when you have to adapt to a place like this. I don’t know what that’s like, but I do know what it’s like to feel alien and isolated.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

She pulled her hair back, gestured to her pointy ears, then grinned. “I’m sure you noticed these when you came in. Everyone does. A lot of people assume that plus the long hair and smile means I’m a Romulan, and start treating me like such. Every once in a while some young, fresh-faced security officer calmly asks to speak with me, just to make sure I’m not some Romulan spy.” She laughed, a rich, hearty laugh with only a trace of bitterness. “Oh when I was younger, that really made me mad. Especially right after the Tomed Incident.”

Eying her quizzically, I said, “What’s the Tomed Incident?”

Her smile dimmed considerably. “A very long story, and not a happy one. Suffice to say, it nearly led to war between the Romulans and the Federation. It’s also led to a lot of distrust for Romulans that, sadly, has lasted to this day, almost fifty years later.”

“Oh.” I resolved to look into the details of that later. I do love reading about history, even the sadder parts of history. “But if you’re not a Rom… Romoo… Romoo-lan, then what are you?”

She shook her head and winked at me. “I’m a Vulcan. Half-Vulcan. I took after my human mother, unlike most half-Vulcans, especially after my father died when I was young. So I embraced my humanity.”

Blinking, I stared at her. “But, Sunset told me Vulcans have really strong emotions.”

“We do,” she acknowledged with a chuckle. “Extremely strong. But I keep mine under control, and I use them. I don’t let them use me. I just don’t agree with most Vulcans that repressing shows of emotion is healthy. There’s a lot of ways you can express your emotions while keeping them in check.”

I found myself smiling at that, the first smile to cross my muzzle since I’d walked in there. “I like that. I wouldn’t want to be all gloomy all the time.”

She burst into loud laughter at that. “No, no you wouldn’t.” A small beep emanated from her PADD. She checked it and let out a sigh. "Forty-five minutes already? I apologize, Twilight, but we're almost out of time for today. Do you feel this helped? I’d be happy to keep meeting with you if it did.”

I nodded, smiling wider. “Yeah… yeah I think it did. I feel a bit better about things.”

Grinning back, her eyes twinkling, she replied, “Glad to hear it. Well, tell you what, Twilight. We can do weekly meetings, same time each week. And I’ll give you my contact information.” She tapped a couple buttons on her PADD, and my own bleeped once. “If you need me at any time, day or night, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. That’s what I’m here for. You might be far from home, but you’re not alone, okay?”

“Thanks, Belle,” I said. Then, on instinct, I rushed forward and hugged her. She stiffened for a moment, then relaxed and stroked my head, till I released her, my cheeks flaming. “Sorry.”

She winked. “It’s fine.” She led me out to the main room. “Take care now.”

With a spring to my step, I rejoined Amina and Sunset. We spent the rest of the day out, ordering goods to be delivered, for furniture, posters, and other decorations. “Normally we could just order this stuff from home,” Amina said, “but there’s always something better about shopping in person. Oh, and that reminds me: we need to stop by the farrier’s. They’ve been making shoes for Sunset but you’ll need some too. Can’t have you wearing out your hooves all the time.”

“But wait a second,” I said after we left the third store. “I didn’t see you give the cashier any money.”

Amina eyed me for a moment, then softly shook her head. “That’s because we don’t need any, honey. Earth’s economy doesn’t use money like that for most things. Haven't for a long time.”

That brought me to a halt. “Wait, then how does the economy work?”

Sunset slapped a hoof to her face. “Oh here we go…”

Amina launched into a long, complicated explanation, which I could tell she was trying to dumb down as best she could, but it left my head spinning like crazy. “But, that doesn’t… how… that’s so…”

“I know it’s strange, but it does work,” Amina said, abandoning her explanation. “You’ll learn more about it when we get you enrolled in school.”

“School? I get to go to school?” I perked up at that, excited. “When? When do I get to start?”

Amina bent down and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Well, not immediately. There’s some things you’ll have to learn first. We’ll get you some tutors, just like we did with Sunset.”

Sunset frowned darkly at that. “Can you get her better ones?”

Amina nodded. “Yes, yes. You know I’m sorry about your experience with them, Sunset. If you’d told me sooner--”

Waving a hoof dismissively and snorting, Sunset said, “Forget it. It’s over with.”

“How soon can we do that?” I asked, my tail swishing. “I want to learn.”

She considered that. “You might have to give us a few days, but definitely by next week.”

“Yes yes yes!” I cheered, bouncing around happily.

“Oh, if you’re excited now, honey, just wait till you see this next place,” Amina said, beckoning me along. “You wanted to see some books, right?”

“Yes!” Skipping and hopping I followed along, eager to see what she had in store. She led us to a small, out of the way building, further down the street, tucked into one corner. It struck me as a bit more old fashioned, with a door that had to be pulled open, even, more like the kind of shop you’d see in Canterlot than what I’d become accustomed to seeing. And inside… oh the inside filled my nostrils with the heavenly scent of books. Musky, sweet, soaking in like I’d stepped into my favorite bookstore in Canterlot. For a moment it took me back, and all I saw and heard around me were ponies. I could even hear my mom talking to me, asking me to keep up with her.

Then the image faded, replaced with the real books around me. Books written for humans, or Vulcans, or whoever. But still books. Real books, not just the words on a screen. “How many can we get?” I said, my mouth open, drool running down my chin.

“As many as you want, sweetie,” Amina said with a wide grin. “Well, within reason. We only have so much shelving space.”

“I’m going to get all the books!” I declared.

I did not, in fact, get all the books. But I did get plenty, enough to occupy much of my time. Not sure where to start, I focused on basic informational guides about the society I found myself in, and worked my way out from there. It kept me busy for a few days, before they started me on tutoring.

I liked the tutors. They were nice, and responded happily to my questions. Between them and some occasional assistance from Sunset I found myself adapting, if very slowly.

Though I still didn’t like where I had to stay too much. Frequently I found myself feeling sad, or even distraught, and locked myself away in my room. I still missed my family dearly, and… as amazing and incredible as all this technology was, I still wanted to be home. I wanted to learn about magic.

So one day, a couple of weeks after I’d first arrived on Earth, I asked Sunset about the topic. “You spent years with Princess Celestia, right? Do you think you could teach me magic?”

“Uuuh… I can try,” Sunset said, uncertainty written all over her face. “I don’t have any of the books, though, other than the one I brought with me. And I haven’t had a lot of practice lately.”

“That’s fine, that’s fine,” I said, wrapping my hooves around her foreleg. “Please, please please please?”

She glared down at me for a moment, then chuckled and ruffled my hair. “Sure, Twi. I can do that.”

“If I may interject,” said T’Lona, who’d been sitting at the nearby desk, working on some sort of project related to her primary duties. “I would like to study the two of you as you practice magic. It will help us better understand your physiology, as well as what this magic actually is.”

Arching an eyebrow, I leaned in towards Sunset and whispered, “What does she mean?”

Leaning back she replied, “T’Lona doesn’t like the word magic. She thinks it’s some kind of energy field we’re using.”

“That’s dumb.”

“I know.”

Pulling away from Sunset, I looked up to T’Lona, then gave a hesitant nod. “I’m okay with it. It’d be good, in case Sunset or I get seriously hurt, right?”

T’Lona cocked her head in that way I’d learned expressed significant concern. “Is that a likely possibility with this activity?”

“Not so long as we’re smart about it,” Sunset replied immediately. “But it might be a good idea to do it… somewhere that isn’t the house.”

“I see.” T’Lona looked down at her terminal, then nodded. “I believe, given I have approval from my superiors to perform such observations, I should be able to secure us a place we can use for this purpose. There will be medical personnel nearby, in the event of injury.”

“Awesome, thanks T’Lona,” Sunset said.

It took a while longer before we had the space, but once we did, Sunset set about teaching me some of the basics. I’d gotten a grip on basic telekinesis, but she soon had me performing various feats with it, to strengthen my magic. “You’ve got a lot of power,” she said, “but not a lot of control. You’re going to have to learn that before we can get anywhere.”

Sometimes the basics struck me as boring, but the more time I spent with Sunset, the more I started to care about her. Amina was great. She was almost like an aunt, in a way. She was certainly a friend, after the first couple of months. T’Lona was okay too. But they weren’t ponies. Sunset was.

It was maybe six months after I first came to Earth. A year for Sunset. We’d been in the middle of celebrating it, as something akin to a birthday, since we weren’t sure when our birthdays were relative to the calendar the Federation used. I’d gotten Sunset a gift I’d picked out, a copy of a book she’d wanted for a long while. When she opened up the package, I saw her smile spread from ear to ear. She threw herself on me and embraced me in a strong, fierce hug. “Thank you, Twilight. I love it.”

“You got it, BSBFF,” I replied with a smile. Then I blinked, my jaw dropping as I realized what I’d just said.

Sunset froze. She looked down at me, her eyes wide with shock. “Did… did you just… call me…”

“My big sister?” I whispered. My heart leapt into my throat as I backed myself away. “I… yeah. Is… is that okay? I didn’t, if I shouldn’t have, I’m sorry--”

Her hoof shot forward to cover my mouth. “Don’t apologize. Don’t ever apologize for that.” Her eyes shining, tears dripping down her cheeks as she threw her arms around me once more. “I’ve never had a sister before.”

As she held me close, I happened to catch sight of Amina, who’d fallen against T’Lona, crying softly at the sight. “Look at them, T’Lona,” I heard her whisper. “They’re so wonderful.”

“Indeed,” T’Lona whispered back.

I snuggled into the crook of Sunset’s neck. “Well you do now.”

As the months continued to pass, Sunset and I grew closer and closer. She became cheerier, less sarcastic, far less of the grump she’d been when I first met her. When we hit my one-year anniversary, she took me aside early that day for a serious conversation.

“I’ve been thinking, Twilight,” she said as we sat together on her bed, listening to some quiet music. “I’ve been with T’Lona and Amina for a long time. They’re… they’re kind of like parents to me now.” She laughed and wrapped a foreleg around me. “I don’t think I ever would’ve thought that without you around, but I mean, I’ve got a little sister. Why not a Mother and a Mom too?”

“How long have you felt that way?” I asked her as I laid back, staring at the ceiling, where we’d set some dancing lights to play.

“Not sure,” she said with a shrug. “Probably a lot longer than I’ve been thinking about it consciously though.”

I frowned, sighing. “They’re not my parents.”

“Hey, never said they had to be,” she replied, giving me a reassuring smile. “But, well, you knew your parents. I never did. My first memories are of an orphanage in Canterlot. Don’t know if I would’ve ever made it out of there without my magic surge.” Her smile became bittersweet. “But you know, I spent five years in Canterlot Castle… and now it doesn’t even feel like it could be home anymore? It’s like a distant memory. Like some place I used to go to, once upon a time. But this, here, this house? You? T’Lona and Amina? This is my home.”

“...then you’ve given up on ever going back,” I said, my words tasting sour. My stomach churned, roiling with uncomfortable feelings.

“What? No, no, Twi, no,” she shook her head. “No way. I might think of this place as home now, but Equestria’s where I came from. I’d never give up on it.”

A sigh of relief escaped my lips. “Good. ‘Cause I sure haven’t. I want to see my parents again someday. I want to see the pegasi clear the clouds, see earth ponies growing their plants, unicorns casting spells that aren’t you or me.” The sigh swiftly drew back in as I took a sharp breath. “But… they still have no idea how we got here.”

“Maybe they don’t. And maybe they haven’t found Equestria in the stars either,” Sunset said. A confident smile grew on her face. “But you know what? There’s still a way we could do it.”

I sat up immediately. “How?”

In answer, she brought up her PADD and showed me a familiar image. An image of a place I’d visited in San Francisco many times by now, accompanying Amina on the occasional trip to see her teach her classes. Starfleet Academy. “We join Starfleet.”

A deep frown pulled at my muzzle. “But, but, we’re still too young! Sunset, you’re not even thirteen yet. You have to be at least sixteen or seventeen just to take the entrance exam, and eighteen to start your classes. And then it’s four years before you become an officer, and you’d just be an Ensign.”

She nodded, her smile growing. “Yeah, I know Twi. I’m not saying it’s something we can do right away. We’ll have to wait till we’re old enough. But we can do this. We’re smart enough. We just have to make sure we study, focus our education towards this goal.”

I shook my head. “But, but, Sunset… we won’t get to pick where we go. It’d take forever this way!”

“I know it would,” Sunset said, the determined grin refusing to give even an inch. “And I know it’d take you a few years to join me. And even once we’re in Starfleet together, it might take us many more years. Decades, even. But we’ll find Equestria again. We can do this together.” She looked back down at me and held out a hoof. “Promise me, sis. Promise me you’ll join Starfleet with me. That we’ll use our positions in Starfleet to help find our way back to Equestria.”

It was stupid. It’d take a long time, possibly forever even. We might never see Equestria again in our lifetimes even if we did this. But then… that was already the case, wasn’t it? I’d learned so much in the year since I came to Earth. I understood, even better than I once did, just how massive the galaxy was. The odds of a survey ship or satellite finding Equestria were, well, astronomical.

At least if we joined Starfleet, made our way up the ranks, to the point of having our own ship, our own mission… maybe we’d have a chance. Maybe.

Besides, what else was I going to do with my life?

So I took her hoof and shook it. “I promise. We’ll join Starfleet. And we’ll find our way home.”