Friendship UA

by Whimsical

Chapter 1: W55.12XA

Sunday, March 14th, 2214, 4:29 PM

Izuku walked back and forth along the shoreline of Takoba beach, staring out at the ocean. It took a bit of an effort to get past all the trash, but thankfully once you were at the coastline, it wasn't as much of an obstruction. It seemed to Izuku that it was actually getting easier, like there was less trash to move through, or more likely that he was getting more used to it.

He often found himself walking out here, away from Kacchan, away from Tsubasa, away from everyone. Letting his thoughts drift among the crashing of the waves and the squawking of the seagulls. He didn't know how long he spent just standing there, but eventually, he noticed the sun setting on the horizon.

It felt like the end of a chapter, but his mind was made up. He held his U.A. application sheet in front of him. Unbidden, it brought back painful memories.

“What, you think you could be a hero, Deku? Give me a break; they’d be scraping you off the pavement before homeroom.”

“I know you have your heart set on this Izuku, but have you considered other career paths? You don't need to be a hero to help people. There are many ways someone without a quirk can improve the lives of others.”

“Pros are always risking their lives. I cannot simply say, ‘You can become a hero even without power.’ If you want to help others, then you could also become a police officer.”

That last one hurt the most. If even All Might didn't think he could be a hero, then he should just take this stupid sheet of paper and throw it in the ocean. He had decided he would do just that, but... but he just couldn't bring himself to do it.

‘If I can't be a hero, then shouldn't I stop pretending? Like ripping off a bandaid, it will hurt now, but at least it will be over and done with. But this is my dream. I don't want to give up on it so easily without even a fight. Shouldn't I at least try?

‘If I fail? Would I be able to live with that? I could pass. It's not impossible. This isn't my first setback. I didn't stop before. Is it possible, though? When was the last time a quirkless boy managed to do anything? Could I live with myself if I just give up? Would I be able to sleep at night knowing I just ran away?’

Izuku just couldn't make up his mind. He kept coming up with arguments and counterarguments, for and against. Each seemed perfectly valid, and each time he thought he settled on something, he thought of a reason why he should do the other.  Finally, he reached into his pocket with his left hand—he was still holding his application—and pulled out a coin. "Heads, I give them my application. Tails, I throw away my hopes and dreams."

He tossed the coin into the air.

"Twilight, Rainbow, and Pinkie arrived at the House of Enchanted Comics. She raised her hoof to the door and—"

"Uh, Pinkie, who are you—you know what, never mind,” Rainbow said, punctuating the end of her sentence with a sigh.

Twilight, Rainbow, and Pinkie arrived at the House of Enchanted Comics. Twilight rolled her eyes at Pinkie being Pinkie, but was happy she was here, both because she knew the way, thankfully, and because—actually, why did she invite Pinkie on this excursion?

Pinkie shrugged as if in answer to Twilight’s question. Twilight wondered if that was something related to Pinkie Sense or something else entirely. Then she decided she probably didn't want to know.

Twilight approached the door and spared a glance towards Rainbow. Her job was clear at least; backup in case things went south. It was unlikely. Surely the owner would understand her concerns if she presented them in a logical way, but it never hurt to be too careful.

Twilight placed her hoof on the door and pushed it open. The store was surprisingly ordinary. Twilight had expected the store's aesthetic to lean more heavily into the "Enchanted" part of the House of Enchanted Comics. Instead, it seemed to take the "House" of Enchanted Comics and run with it. Large wooden bookshelves lined most of the walls with various comics on them, but there weren't any stands in the middle of the room. The wall on her far left actually housed a fireplace and a pair of recliners with a coffee table between them, which featured a potted plant. The only part of the room that gave away that it was a storefront was the countertop on the opposite wall with a cash register resting upon its smooth wooden surface. 

A purple Unicorn mare stood behind the register and gave Twilight and her friends a friendly wave as they entered the establishment. "Hello. Welcome to the House of Enchanted Comics, where you can relax and enjoy a truly magical story."

"Thank you. It is a lovely space you have here, but I'm afraid I'm here on royal Princess of Friendship business and not pleasure." Twilight gave the salespony a smile and walked over to the counter, while Rainbow walked over to one of the shelves and pretended to be a customer.

"Daring Do and the Towers of Pnakotus!" Rainbow Dash took the comic from the shelf and haphazardly tossed it onto a nearby table.

While Rainbow walked over to one of the shelves and "pretended" to be a customer, she corrected.

The mare's eyes lit up with stars. "Whatever I can do to help. Do you need a book to teach the lessons of friendship to an as-of-yet undiscovered pony tribe? Do you need to practice a dangerous route through the badlands, and only our comics can provide an accurate representation? Is the last Daring Do comic actually a secret treasure map to the lost treasure of—"

"Actually, it's about the lack of warnings or safety instructions on magical comic books." Twilight said, cutting the salespony off before her suggestions got even more outlandish. 'Maybe that's why Pinkie Pie is here. They seem like they'd get along.' "Can I speak with the owner of this establishment?"

"Oh, uh... Yes, let me get him for you." The pony looked quite embarrassed given the situation. "Please, wait here just a moment." The salespony walked into the backroom, leaving the store to her, Rainbow, and Pinkie.

It should have been her, Rainbow, and Pinkie, but when she turned to Rainbow Dash she just found the latest Daring Do comic in her place. 'Really?' Twilight turned to Pinkie. "Can you believe Rainbow? I know she likes Daring Do but—" instead of finding Pinkie, she found another comic. "Fun, Fun Baking with Ms. Cupcake..." Twilight let out a sigh, then walked over to one of the recliners to wait. She couldn't be too upset with her friends; it wasn't like she was going to end up in a battle for the fate of Equestria at a comic book shop.

We should discuss this in person. Let's meet at Chiko's. 4:30. There can still be justice in the world.

That message was why Todoroki had found himself at an out-of-the-way restaurant with—depending on who you asked—one of the most brilliant geneticists currently living in Japan, or one of its most infamous crime lords. Her formal manner of dress—a purple business suit and blue-green shirt—could go with either of those descriptions. 'What I don't get is why you're so willing to trust me. The pros can't get to you, but you tell a kid your secret? Are you trying to get caught?'

"This still doesn't feel right to me." Todoroki looked Starlight Glimmer in the eyes, a much easier task to do when they were sitting down. Starlight was at least ten years his senior and a full head taller than him. "My father might be a bastard, but you're still criminals, good intentions or not."

"We're not asking you to join us, only to do what you know must be done. You know your father better than anyone; how do you think this ends? If you continue to reject him as you have, do you really think he's just going to take it lying down? He's just going to find another wife, have another kid, and try again," Starlight said. Her accent was surprisingly good; if Todoroki hadn't known better, he would have missed the slight American clip to her voice.

'Damn it, why do you always have to make so much sense? I should have turned you in by now.' This wasn't the first time Starlight had made the argument, but hearing it again was persuasive. He wasn't nearly as good at finding the right words as she seemed to be. "I know, but you still..."

"Break the law? Yes, but only to do what is right, and never more than is needed," Starlight said firmly before continuing in a more reserved tone. "Honestly I wish we didn't have to, but so often there isn't any other choice. This time, at least, we needn't do anything extreme. You want justice, and we want it too. For different reasons perhaps, but our goals in this matter do align."

Todoroki had a moment to think as Starlight started on her bowl of soup. "And just what are your goals here? If you want to take down some asshole that's let his quirk go to his head, you could probably just pull some hoodlum off the street for that. What's your game here Starlight?" He knew that wasn't the right question to ask. 'His power and influence. That's why. But why do you need my help? No, that's also the wrong question.' He knew the question most pressing to him. 'Why haven't I turned you in yet?'

Starlight set down her spoon and placed her hands in her lap before she responded. "This isn't a game and this isn't just about me. What we want is to bring down those that abuse their quirk for their own gain at the expense of others." Starlight looked Todoroki square in the eyes. "I know that's not a surprise to you. We both know that Endeavor has abused not only his quirk but his position in society and that he needs to be brought down. I know you don't want to work with us, but I also know that you know this is right."

'You're a lot like my father,' Todoroki pondered. 'Confident. Always getting what you want. Always wanting everyone to agree with you. You make it seem like you're giving me a choice in the matter, but you fully expect that I'm going to agree with you by the end of this.'

Starlight turned back to her soup. "Take your time to consider it. Despite my insistence, I won't force you into working with us. Take it from me; when I start looking for reasons to not do something, it tends to be because I know it's what must be done. I just don't want to admit it at the time."

'Why haven't I turned you in yet? Because I want to agree with you.' He didn't want to admit that, but he couldn't avoid it any longer. 'You and him always seem to get what you want. The difference is, he uses power and influence to control others. You just settle for being right.' He couldn't deny it any more. 'And you're not wrong here, are you? If I don't stop him, then who will? How many more lives will he have to ruin before I say enough is enough?'

"I..." He swallowed. The words were still hard to say, as true as they were. "What do you need me to do? I wish I could feel better about this, but you're right. This cannot go on any longer." That was it. 'There's no turning back any more.'

‘It wasn't like she was going to end up in a battle for the fate of Equestria at a comic book shop.’ Why did she always have to be wrong about these things, for Celestia's sake. Twilight Sparkle found herself hurtling through the air, her horn and wings bound by some strange magic chains. She worked as fast as she could to counteract it, but Artistic Flare—the owner of the House of Enchanted Comics—was a skilled Unicorn made dangerous by Dusklight's Diamond. 'Where does everypony find these things? Do you just walk into a back alley store and have a dark artifact gift wrapped for you?'

She applied several counterspells to the magic binding her and, after several precious seconds, was able to loosen up the chains on her wings. 'Ok, that helps. Step one: get some semblance of control. Check. Step two of uncontrolled aerial descent (dark magic variant): find a place to land in the event I can't counterspell the magic entirely.' Twilight scanned the unfamiliar landscape below her and decided upon a nearby beach. Hopefully the soft sand could mitigate the impact should the worst happen. She twisted her body and did what angling she could with her wings to bring her path in line with the beach. Then she renewed her counterspell efforts in full.

Normally countering this type of spell would be easy. Just find a weak point in the spell and pull it apart, much like unraveling a piece of cloth by pulling on a loose thread. No matter how powerful the Unicorn, you can only do so much on the fly, so this spell couldn't be tied together perfectly. The problem was the spell was also keeping her from using magic through her horn. If she wasn't an Alicorn, Twilight would be dead. As an Alicorn, she could use her Earth Pony magic as a vessel to cast spells internally. Unfortunately, Twilight had mostly neglected that part of being an Alicorn. Thus it was like trying to get somepony that didn't speak your language to pull the thread for you. Oh, and they had never heard of cloth before, and seem confused by the idea of a thread. Twilight could think of a better analogy when she wasn't falling to her death.

Finally, she managed to find a particularly shoddy piece of spellwork, weak enough that it didn't require any finesse to tear apart. The chains binding her evaporated into the air, and she spread her wings. "Now just to—" She looked down. "Hey! Watch out!"

Twilight realized too late she managed to break the spell only a few feet off the ground. She did her best to recover, spreading her wings and starting a spell to cancel her momentum, but it was too late. She crashed head first into the strange creature in front of her, sending them both careening into the sand of the beach. She felt the force hit her all at once, and it was only by her reactions—honed by countless failed attempts at flying—that she was able to use her magic to distribute the impact force to her body evenly. It still hurt, but the spell could be cast instantly and kept her from breaking anything.

With another quick spell, the pain in Twilight's body faded. She would have to deal with it later; this was just a delay, but she needed to be able to think clearly right now. She brought herself up to her hooves, then felt something warm trickle down her face, between her eyes. 'Is that...' she rubbed the area with her hoof, and when she pulled it away there was fresh blood on her coat. In shock, she looked down at the sight before her. The creature she had crashed into lay on the sand with a hole the size of her horn gouged into its chest.

'Oh no.' "No, no, no no." She didn't, she couldn't have. She checked for a pulse, but she couldn't see how it could have survived the impact. Twilight blinked, she couldn't afford to freeze. She took all of the mounting panic, pain, and thoughts of 'I killed it,' and shoved them as far away from her conscious thoughts as she could. She had to set this right; panic could come later.

"Ok, start over from step one." She checked the creature over again and did a quick scan with her magic to get an idea of the creature's anatomy. "Male, if they're anything like the other creatures in Equestria. Intelligent; their clothing was clearly designed with aesthetics in mind. And... dead. No wait—" She almost missed it, the ever so faint beating of a heart. "Just barely alive." 

Twilight could hardly believe it. 'He survived? Well, “survived” probably isn't the best—No. No time for that; if he's alive, then I can still save him. But how?' There was precious little time, and Twilight wasn't a doctor. The healing spells she knew were all for minor injuries, and she didn't even know if they were compatible with non-ponies.

The outlook was grim, and it was all her fault. 'No, don't think like that. Be productive.' Slowly, an idea started to form. Applications of several spells she knew started to slot themselves together. A picture formed, but one that Twilight had to admit was on the border—and that might be too kind of a word—of magical ethics. She looked down to her bloodstained hoof. 'I'll do what I have to, to make this right. Oh, Celestia, I hope this is the right thing to do.'

Twilight started her spellwork, beginning with a detailed magical scan of herself. She needed a template and she was the only living thing around that she could use. Second, she performed the same scan on the creature in front of her. This spell wouldn't be reversible, but a subsequent application would be possible. The only problem was that the scan also included a gaping hole in it, in both senses of the phrase. 'It will have to do. If I can find another of his kind I should be able to fill in that... gap.' Twilight cringed, then continued onward.

The next step was working together all of the individual pieces of the spell. The core of it was a spell that would change whichever pony the spell was cast upon to match the template. She had once used it to transform herself and her friends into Breezies after an incident. That spell wasn't perfect; it wasn't intended for long term use, and it didn't need to be exact. This spell needed to be all of those things.

With the details worked out, Twilight lit her horn and began applying the template of herself onto the near-dead body laying in front of her. She didn't have time to make the spell flawless from the outset and instead made it flexible, able to be adjusted as it was being cast, so that Twilight could make corrections as she saw it take effect.

Twilight lost track of time—though it was probably best measured in hours—as she cast the spell, writing and rewriting the finer details. It certainly wouldn't be pleasant for anypony conscious. By the end of the process, her horn felt like it was on fire, but it had worked, at least as far as she could tell. Twilight looked down at the green Alicorn now in front of her.

It had worked, and now she could panic.

Izuku didn't know why he was feeling groggy all of a sudden. He tried to think back, but things were fuzzy. He had been on the beach about to toss a coin... no, he did that. It had landed on... 

'Watch out!' 

He had turned and his vision was filled by an indistinct mess of purple. He remembered a spike of pain, and then several indescribable senasions. Now he felt like he had just woken up after going to sleep way too late—probably compiling his hero notes again.

But he wasn't in bed. He could feel the sand beneath him, though it felt... more distant? He cracked his eyes open and the light from the sky was blinding. There was also a noise in the background, though he couldn't quite make it out. He turned his head to face it—for some reason he couldn't quite seem to move as he intended—and the sight before him wasn't what he expected to see—whatever that was. A purple-winged-and-horned horse-like creature was pacing back and forth. The turn of his head also seemed to bring what they were saying into focus.

"... Celestia, oh Celestia. What have I done? What could I have done? What would you have done?" the purple horse repeated these questions between bouts of hyperventilating during its frantic pacing.

"Who's Celestia?" It was the first thing that came to his mind. He only realized he spoke it out loud when the creature stopped dead in its tracks, almost like someone pushed pause on a video.

"You're awake? Oh, thank Celestia, you're awake!" the purple horse turned to face Izuku. "I was worried something had gone horribly wrong. Well, more horribly wrong. But it didn't, and you're all right. Well, I hope you're all right. You are all right, right?"

"Yeah..." 'No not at all, why are you looking at me like that? How does that smile even fit on your face? Why does everything else about you scream "sanity was my dump stat"?' Izuku would have backed away if he could, but he. Just. Couldn't. Something was indeed very wrong; he just couldn't place it, and he had a feeling it was because whatever happened was so unimaginably wrong that he didn't want to figure it out.

"Oh, oh good. That was really close. Sorry, where are my manners; I'm Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship." Twilight extended a hoof towards Izuku.

'Twilight Sparkle.' Izuku turned the name over in his head a couple of times, seeing if he could place it. It was clearly American, but it didn't ring a bell. 'Well, best not to get on her bad side.' "Uh... yah... I'm Izuku, Izuku Mid—" he stopped when he went to shake her hoof and saw a green stump where his hand should be. His eyes went wide at the sight, and he saw Twilight look from the stump of his hand, to him, and back to the stump.

"Ok, there is something I need to explain. It's not as bad as it looks, so don't panic."

"I would like to discuss some of the finer details between just the two of us," Starlight said to Endeavor. It was the cue for Todoroki to excuse himself from the meeting that Starlight had arranged—rather last minute—at his father's hero agency.

'I wonder if Starlight needed to give him more than a name to arrange this meeting.' Todoroki stepped out of the meeting room and made his way to his father's office. 'The top geneticist—working on the bleeding edge of quirk research, no less—asking about his son's quirk. I don't think she could have spoon fed that bastard more perfect bait than that.'

In front of the office in question, Todoroki saw a man—presumably the person he was supposed to meet—waiting in front of the door. His green hair was combed down over the back of his neck and brushed against the collar of his lab coat, which covered otherwise unremarkable clothing. Todoroki checked to make sure the hallway was clear—probably the fifth time he had looked over his shoulder since leaving the meeting—then cleared his throat. He could give one of three codewords here: 'Mint', 'Photocopier', or 'Mr. Horikoshi.' He just needed a sentence that seemed natural

"Working late?" It wasn't the question that was important, but what would come next, "We're having a meeting in the other room. If you don't have anything else, I could probably get some mint tea." Todoroki could feel his hands shake as he waited for a response. 'Because, of course, I'm just known for my hospitality.'

"No, but thank you. I brought something from home. Thank you for the hospitality though; much better than you get back at Tokyo," the man replied.

'Tokyo. That's the response word. It is him.' Todoroki checked to make sure they were alone and—

"Will you stop that?" the man hissed in a particularly loud whisper. "We're just two people having a friendly conversation. The only suspicious thing here is you constantly looking over your shoulder. Presentation is everything; act like you're supposed to be here, and people will think you're supposed to be here."

"Fine. Let's just get this over with." Todoroki unlocked the door with the key he had taken from home. "Before anyone catches us in here and starts asking questions." The last thing Todoroki wanted to do was explain to someone why he had broken into his father's office.

"No one's going to be asking any questions. Again, presentation. Your father owns the agency; it's not strange for you to be in his office—or, at least, no one is going to think that if you don't look like you just stuffed a body into a closet. By the same token, if people see me in the office with you, they'll just assume I'm supposed to be there. But, if it makes you feel better, should anyone ask—and they won't, trust me—I'm just one of Starlight's assistants, and you're showing me around as a courtesy while your father and Starlight talk in private. If they press further for some reason, my name's Hazard and I'm a chemist; that should be enough for them."

'Just what is up with that man? Hazard was it? Just an American then? Or is that an alias?' Todorki walked into Endeavor's office and closed the door behind him. 'He probably is a chemist, or at least has some knowledge about chemistry. It would be too easy to get caught if someone asked him about his knowledge otherwise. If that's the case, then why is he working with Starlight? It's not the kind of career path that leads one to be breaking into offices.'

The office was rather large and ornately decorated with bookshelves on the far end and a table and chairs on the right-hand side. What he and Hazard were interested in, however, was the desk with a computer on the right side of the room in front of a large window that took up the majority of the wall.

Hazard walked over to the computer and plugged in what looked like a small laptop computer. "Well let's hope this works. I'll admit I'm not really much of a hacker, but the guy that put this together really wouldn't blend in that well." Hazard flipped the screen open and text started scrolling quickly down the display. "Well, since we're stuck waiting, what about your part in this? I doubt your father's dumb enough to just have a document that says, 'How I arranged an illegal quirk marrige and put my wife in the loony bin—'"

"Don't bring my mother into this." Todoroki said the words louder than intended. 'No that's not the problem. Just, why did you have to say it like that?' Something about Hazard rubbed Todoroki the wrong way; he seemed almost flippant about the whole situation. 'I thought the people that worked for Starlight were supposed to be—' He searched for the right word, but couldn’t find it. What had he expected? For them to all be exactly like Starlight. 'Probably.'

"That's fair, though expect that and much worse from the press when the story gets out. You're recounting your experiences with Endeavor, so they will put you front and center in the news. There's no escaping that." Hazard looked over at the laptop as the text displayed on the screen seemed to have a different structure to it now. "Now we can prepare you for that, but as I understand it, you want to cut ties with us as soon as possible."

'That much is true, at least. Associating with criminals is the last thing I want to make a habit of. I don't think I'll need help telling the press the truth.' Todoroki took out a flash drive and placed it on the desk. "My statement, and I'll pass on your offer. Whatever you guys are planning after this, I don't want any part of it."

Hazard took the flash drive and placed it in his coat's pocket. "I didn't say you had to be a part of any plans, but have it your way." Hazard unplugged the small computer—it must have finished its search—and attached it to a harness on the inside of his lab coat, which he then buttoned up. "That should do it. With any luck, your father's reputation will be a smoldering pile of ash by tomorrow afternoon." He turned to leave, then paused for a moment like he was going to say something. Whatever it was, he evidently thought better of it as he shook his head before continuing out the door and down the hall.

"I said not to panic," Twilight said, more firmly than the last two times.

"You turned me into a pony," Izuku responded for the third time. 'Magic is real. Other worlds exist. You're a talking pony. I'm a talking pony. How do you expect me not to panic?'

"It was the only way I could save you," Twilight countered for the third time.

Unable to come up with a good response, Izuku just rubbed his head with his hooves, deciding to file all of his thoughts about these world shattering revelations under "later".  'Ok, think about this rationally. It probably was the only way she could save me. But, a pony?' Izuku took a few deep breaths. "Ok, ok. I know, you saved me, this is just so much to take in." 

How was he going to explain this to his mom? 'Sorry I'm late, a purple pony princess crashed into me from the sky. I almost died, but don't worry, she turned me into a pony so everything's ok now. How was your day?'

Twilight walked over and rested one of her wings on Izuku's shoulder. It was surprisingly soft. "I know. Just remember that this isn't permanent. I just need time and another human." She gave a reassuring smile. "Is your home nearby? We should probably get you someplace safe, then we can get you back to normal."

Izuku nodded. "It's this way." Izuku turned towards the entrance to the beach. His attempt at walking over was cut off as he nearly tripped over himself trying to stand on two legs. "Right, quadruped." Trying to stay on four legs, he attempted to head back towards the highway. Unsuccessfully. 'This is much harder than it looks.'

"There is a bit of a rhythm to it," Twilight chimed in. "Left front up, right hind up, left front down, right front up—"

Izuku fell over on his side. 'Ok, just how do you balance with only your left legs?' Getting up was less of a difficult task. He rolled onto his chest, then his body seemed to feel lighter as he rose to a standing position before promptly falling over again because standing apparently wasn't something he could do either. Instead, he was able to land on his front hooves rather than his back or side again.

Twilight studied Izuku for a moment. "Ok, maybe it would be easier to start with a trot. Raise a front hoof and the opposite back hoof, bring them forward, then repeat with the opposite set." She performed a slow trot in a circle to demonstrate the motions.

'This is easier.' Izuku was able to copy Twilight's movements with only a bit of effort. The motions were simple; the hardest part was actively keeping himself from trying to stand on two legs. While he couldn't go fast, he could at least go.

"I, uh, didn't thank you for saving me, did I?" Izuku said as he started toward the entrance of the beach. "Thank you for that. If you weren't—never mind." 'If you weren't here I would be dead,' was what he was going to say, but he realized the problem with that statement.

"It was nothing." Twilight looked off towards the side. "I just did what anypony would have done."

'Liar.' Izuku continued down the path, though the trash was giving him more trouble than usual. A thought occurred to him, and he looked towards the wings at his side. 'I mean, why not?' Getting them to move at first was a challenge; having wings was decidedly not a natural feeling. He did eventually manage to move them in a way that could be considered flapping, in slow motion, if you looked at it sideways.

_{"It's not as easy as it looks,"} Twilight said from behind Izuku.

"Hmm?" he turned back to face Twilight. He didn't like the way sounds seemed to fade away if he wasn't facing them.

"Flying. Pegasi make it look easy, but I ended up crashing more times than I can count before I was able to do anything more than just hover in place." Izuku noticed a slight blush on Twilight's face, probably from a memory of some embarrassing attempt.

Izuku led them to the main roadway, then started trotting along the sidewalk towards home. This gave him time to think while Twilight seemed distracted taking in all of the sights. It was still hard to believe that she was from an entirely different world, and not just—as he had originally thought—America. "When you think about it, it's not that different from a mutation quirk. She was able to save me, and—"

_{"You know you're talking to yourself, right?"} Twilight said something from behind him.

"Sorry, what was that? I've been having trouble hearing since..." He gestured to his—now pony—form. "At least, if I'm not looking at you it's hard."

"I see." Twilight seemed to think for a few moments. "Oh, of course. Pony ears. I guess it works differently for humans. You need to point your ears at something if you want to hear it." She swiveled her ears around to accentuate the point. "Anyway, I was saying that you were talking to yourself. I wasn't sure if you know."

"Oh, sorry. I do that sometimes." Izuku turned his head away while keeping his ears trained on Twilight. It was a very disorienting sensation. Twilight's voice was the same volume in both ears, which his brain told him meant she should be right in front of him. On the other hand, another part of his brain took the position of his ears into account and placed her behind him and off to the side. It was like the feeling you get when you flip your tongue over and touch the top of it to your bottom teeth—it felt like Twilight was speaking from two places at once, even though Izuku could only hear one source of sound.

'Hopefully that's not hardwired into my brain.' He decided to focus on his ears. He needed to practice if he wanted to move past the disorientation. He moved them around to get a feel for their range of motion. In doing so, he found his hearing had improved; he just needed to be selective with what he focused on.

The two ponies continued down the sidewalk, and Izuku saw a group of people walking towards them. 'Oh no, I can't let them see me like this.' He turned to Twilight, 'And what are they going to think of a pony from another world?' Izuku braced himself, but as they passed by the group, there was a surprising lack of a reaction.

'Do they just think it's a quirk?' Izuku wondered. He thought back to the video he had watched of Slide Ruler's lecture on Quirk Mechanics given at Harvard a few years ago. 'Even the most extreme mutation quirks can't go this far. They would still look roughly human, be bipedal or at least capable of walking on two legs, have arms... Do most people just not know this?'

It was probably for the best, people were becoming more common the closer they got toward the centre of the city. There would be a side path they would turn on to up ahead, but it was still a ways away. The less attention they drew to themselves the better in the end.

Izuku turned his thoughts back to his current situation. 'I guess I'm just going to have to make the best of this for a time.' He wondered how long it would be before Twilight could turn him back. 'A few days? A week? Longer?' At least it was spring break; if this had happened a few days earlier, it would have made for some awkward conversations.

Awkward conversations like the one he'd had with All Might on that fateful day. ‘I cannot simply say, "You can become a hero even without power."’ All Might had said it before taking that sludge villain into custody. 'Even All Might, the greatest hero, doesn't think you can make it without a quirk.' Izuku lingered on that thought and on those words for a time.

The rhythmic clip-clopping of hooves made it easy for Izuku to get lost in thought. He only really noticed when he was broken out of his reverie by the sound of metal clanking against metal. 'What was that?' He turned toward the source of the sound and noticed a soda can rolling beside a trash bin and two people continuing in the opposite direction. 'Really, they're not even going to bother to pick it up?'

"Hey—"

He was going to call the couple out, but his attention was suddenly drawn to Twilight's horn, which was glowing with a magenta light. That same light surrounded the discarded can, and he watched as the can lifted itself into the air and gracefully fell into the waste receptacle. 'Is this another thing she can do with magic?'

‘I cannot simply say, "You can become a hero even without power."’

The revelation hit Izuku in much the same way that All Might would hit a villain—hard. 'It might not be exactly what I had in mind. But maybe a path has opened up for me.'

"Twilight?" Izuku nearly panicked. 'Am I really about to do this? Shouldn't I think this through a little more?'

"Yes?" Twilight inclined her head towards Izuku.

"I..." The words nearly died in his throat. 'No backing down now, just go for it.' Izuku recomposed himself, then started again "I've wanted all my life to be a hero. To be able to save people. I thought it wasn't meant to be, but... You saved me, so if I'm a pony like you, then could I also save people?" Izuku winced.

'Was that too direct?' He had needed to get the words out, but there was probably a better way than that to say them.

"Izuku." Twilight let his name hang there a moment before continuing. "I've had to save my world on a few occasions. It isn't something glorious, just something I needed to do. If you really want to save people, then yes, you can. If you're looking for something more, though," Twilight paused, likely to collect her thoughts. "Being a hero isn't a means to an end; it's something you do because it's right. Do you understand that?"

"I do." There was no hesitation. "I want to be a hero so that others may smile, despite the danger we face."

Twilight seemed to consider this. "And you understand that I cannot spend too long in this world? I trust that my friends can handle the... situation that brought me here, but I will need to return. When I do, I don't think I will be able to return to this world. I have a magical connection back to Equestria; it's complicated, but the important part is that I can follow it back. I don't have that kind of a connection to this place, so coming back is likely not possible."

'In other words, I wont get to change my mind later.' This gave Izuku some pause. He closed his eyes, then gave a nod. "I understand."

"I understand." Izuku spoke the words with a sense of finality.

Twilight, on the other hoof, was now working through the implications of what had just happened, and what she had done. She was glad that Izuku wanted to do good, but thinking of all the things she was going to need to teach him drew her attention to an inescapable fact. 'I just gave all of the power of an Alicorn to a random pony.' She gave thanks to Celestia that Izuku seemed to be a genuinely good person, but also had to acknowledge how catastrophically bad things could have been if he were not.

"You've chosen a hard path to trot." Twilight took a moment to collect her thoughts; so much needed to be done. "We don't have much time. We have so much material that we will need to cover. You'll need to start with the fundamentals; you can't build a house without a foundation. But actually being a hero also requires you to learn advanced concepts. I'll do what I can to teach you, and I can write some books on the more advanced topics we won't give time to get to. But I can't stay here forever; I have responsibilities back in my world, not to mention friends and family."

Izuku gave Twilight a nod, and she took it as an invitation to continue. "In Equestria, most ponies belong to one of three tribes: Earth Ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns. What you are is a combination of all three, an Alicorn..."

Cherry was staring out at Takoba beach. It was on the route back to her newly furnished home, and while she normally didn't pay much mind to the trash-laiden shores, today something caught her eye. A pink girl with antennae growing from her hair was cleaning up the shores. It was something she found inspiring, not the sort of thing you would have seen in the American city Cherry had grown up in.

She decided to watch for a time, while drifting between the scene in front of her and her own idle thoughts. As she turned to leave she saw something glinting in the sand of the beach. She reached into her jacket and pulled out a small pocket knife. With a quick flick of her wrist, the knife seemed to cut into the fabric of space, slicing open a portal in the air above the knife, and in the sand below what she realized was a coin. 'Lucky!' She looked at the coin as it fell into her open palm and found All Might's emblazoned face staring back at her.