P. Twilight Sparkle—Earth, Canterlot City General Hospital. Before dawn on Day Three.
Doctor Oath walked into Twilight Sparkle’s room, a cardboard cup of coffee in one hand and a clipboard under the opposite arm. He was startled to see Twilight Velvet, Night Light and Cadance still sitting in the same chairs he had left them in last night. “Have you been here the whole time?” he asked.
“Have to,” Night Light mumbled around the last bite of a vending machine danish. “She might wake up, and have one of her manic episodes.”
“We’re the only ones who would have a chance of stopping her then,” Twilight Velvet added, her eyes glazed over as she sipped at her own cardboard cup of coffee. A tall stack of used cups were at her feet.
Cadance was asleep in her chair.
Dr. Oath looked with concern at both parents. “I really think you need to get outside help.”
“After this,” Twilight Velvet promised.
The door to the room opened, and Shining Armor walked in, a furry purple lump cradled in the crook of one arm. “Oh hi, Dr. Oath,” he said. To the others he said, “Look what I found in the parking lot.”
The lump uncurled into a purple puppy, with a green tuft of fur on the top of its head, a green underside, and florescent green ear flaps.
Shining’s parents gathered around to examine the animal, who looked up at them with curious eyes.
“Is that a dye job?” Night Light asked.
“I don’t think so,” said Shining. “Maybe he escaped from a lab. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if somebody figured out how to breed dogs with Markist colors to sell at a premium price as pets.”
“Or maybe somebody fed its mother a dissolved Marking plate,” Twilight Velvet said.
Shining stared curiously at the puppy. “That would mean that he has a counterpart in the Perfect World. Are there pets in the Perfect World?”
“It couldn’t very well be a perfect world without pets,” Night Light remarked.
“How would we be able to tell?” Shining asked.
“You know his name,” Twilight Velvet said. “The moment you picked him up, you knew. Even if it didn’t seem obvious.” She reached out and took the puppy from Shining’s arms before he had a chance to say anything. “Spike,” she said, looking the squirming puppy in the eyes. “You named him Spike, didn’t you?”
“...Yes,” said Shining Armor. He looked over at the still-sleeping form of Twilight Sparkle. “He didn’t have a license or collar. In fact, I think he’s been tending for himself for quite some time.”
Twilight Velvet felt the animal’s ribs. “Yes, I believe you’re right.”
Shining took back the dog. “I’m going to give him to Twilight.”
The parents looked at each other nervously, then looked to Dr. Oath.
The doctor had no idea why they were treating this idea like it might set off a bomb or something. “I have no objections,” he said.
Shining walked carefully over to the bed. He nudged Cadance awake, and then showed her the dog before slowly putting it down on the blanket covering Twilight Sparkle. He then took Cadance’s hand and quickly pulled her back to the corner of the room where everybody else was standing.
The puppy, Spike, looked around him in confusion, and then focused on the sight of Twilight’s face. Without a trace of fear, he bounded forward and started licking the exposed part of her face.
Twilight began to stir. She yawned, stretching out one arm, hand curled into a fist, when she suddenly froze. She would have stared intently at her hand, if her eyes were not still covered in gauze. “Where am I?” she asked. “W...what am I?”
Dr. Oath looked around at the others, who were all frozen in positions of wariness. “You’re in Canterlot General Hospital,” he told her. “And you’re still human.” He felt a little silly making that last remark.
Twilight deliberately opened her upraised hand, wiggling the fingers around. “I wasn’t a...human...before,” she said. She curled her hand once again and pointed it at the source of the voice she had heard. “Who are you?”
“I’m Doctor Oath.”
“And we’re your family,” Twilight Velvet said.
Twilight Sparkle’s fist shook slightly. “Do you look like me?” she asked with some insistence. “Are you human?”
“Yes,” said Night Light.
“Then you’re not my parents,” Twilight Sparkle said with some relief. “And I’m not your daughter. I’m sorry, I couldn’t control where the magic sent me. I think...” She pulled her fist back down to put it beside her chin in thought. “I think I passed another entity going the other way when I crossed into this plane of existence. The Twilight Sparkle you know might be in Equestria. In my pony body.”
“‘Magic’,” Shining Armor said flatly. “That word is not supposed to be in your vocabulary.”
Twilight Sparkle brought her fist down to her chest in fear. (Her other arm had been alternately holding and petting Spike this whole time.) “Why is that?”
“Because there’s no such thing as magic. I’m quoting you, Twily.”
“Shining Armor,” said Twilight Sparkle, getting a little breathless with fear. “Same nickname for me as back home. I...I made a huge mistake. I was essentially running away because of what I did, but I didn’t think of what it would mean for my family. I left without even saying goodbye! And without magic, how will I be able to put things right, and give you your human Twilight Sparkle?!”
Cadance walked over and fearlessly took Twilight Sparkle into her embrace. “You seem very scared right now, whoever you think you are.”
Twilight returned the hug, and took in a whiff of Cadance’s perfume. “You’re Cadance, my pony-sitter,” she concluded. “And you don’t believe me.”
“I didn’t mean to—”
“—No, it’s OK,” she said, softly pushing Cadance away. “In a world without magic, the transmutation of personalities might not even be theoretically possible, while under the realm of magic it was until now only theoretical, especially across the barrier between universes that I felt myself pass through. In fact...aaahh!”
Twilight grabbed her head with both hands, causing Spike to drop out onto the bed.
Cadance suddenly backed away as she felt her face heat up from within—the same effect she had experienced when getting to close too the sleeping Twilight. “What’s going on?”
“The mana I absorbed during the exam—I brought it with me! And this human body can’t handle it. I need to vent the excess somehow.” She ran a hand through her hairline. “Do humans have horns? Wait, don’t answer that, of course you don’t. So what do I do? The pressure keeps building. I need an answer, or my head will literally burst!”
Twilight Velvet turned with urgency to Dr. Oath. “Doctor! What do you—?”
“—Stop!” Night Light declared, pointing at Twilight Sparkle.
She was holding her right fist up in the air, shaking it like she was using it to ring a bell.
“That’s her ‘shut up, I need to think’ signal,” Twilight Velvet whispered to the Doctor, who closed his open mouth.
The raised fist then began moving erratically.
Twilight Velvet smiled. “And that’s her writing mental equations,” she added.
“I do have eyes, correct?” Twilight Sparkle finally asked.
“Yes,” said Doctor Oath. “They’re covered because they’re injured.”
“But the neural pathways are still intact, yes?”
“Um, yes.”
“Alright,” Twilight Sparkle concluded. “That’s close enough to the first cornu bundle that it might work.” She swung her blind head around. “Is there anybody above me?”
Dr. Oath looked up at the ceiling. “No...”
“Sorry for the property damage,” Twilight said quickly, then tilted her head back as a blinding beam of energy shot out of her eyes, demolishing a small part of the ceiling. The beam continued out into the sky without diminishment.
Shining turned to look out the window. “Wow,” he proclaimed. “That thing’s not stopping. I hope you don’t hit any planes...or satellites.”
After nearly a minute, the beam began to fade. Twilight raised her hands at that point and cupped them in front of herself. The beam deflected off of her hands and bathed her face. She moved her hands around to get the beam to cover different parts of her. There was a burning smell as the bandages ignited, yet there seemed to be no sign that the energies Twilight was channeling were hurting her in any way.
The others in the room carefully crept closer. Cadance waved a hand over Twilight’s forehead, and communicated by a smile that the microwaving effect from earlier was no longer in effect.
The beam suddenly shut off, and Twilight removed her hands. The bandages over her face and shoulders had been completely converted into a fine dust that floated in the air, and the parts of her body that were now exposed were completely unblemished.
“Did you just heal yourself?” Night Light asked incredulously.
“Yup, Dad,” Twilight answered with a proud smile. “I saw this unicorn doctor use a healing spell on Shining that one time he fell down the stairs. The spell had looked so complex at the time that I thought I didn’t have a chance of ever replicating it. But the memory stayed perfectly clear in my mind, and when I brought it up I just knew how to do it myself with my magic.” She looked at her hands, studying how the fingers flexed, and even pulling a finger with her other hand. “Oh, and do you believe me now when I say I’m an alternate universe counterpart of your Twilight Sparkle?” She smiled at them so innocently...
“How old are you, um...did you say ‘pony’...Twilight Sparkle?”
“Yes, and I’m nine years old.”
“Not in that body you’re not,” Shining remarked.
Twilight looked down at herself under the blanket, then clasped her hands up in front of her collarbone. “So...no magic?” she asked, deliberately changing the topic.
“No magic,” said Shining. “Our Twilight spent a long time investigating people who claimed to wield magic, and all of them were frauds.”
“But you have science, right?”
“Oh yes,” Night Light replied. “Our Twilight was a whiz at science.”
“I like science, too,” Twilight Sparkle said shyly. “I’m just not a natural at understanding it like I do magic. On my world only unicorns, one third of the pony population, can truly realize the full potential of magic. I’ve always dreamed of finding scientific equivalents to magical spells and artifacts, so everypony can use the wonders promised by magic equally. Do you have a scientific means of contacting parallel realities?”
Twilight Velvet shook her head. “I’m sorry, but on this world that’s still in the realm of fiction.”
Twilight Sparkle thought for a bit. “Well, hope is not entirely lost.” She threw aside the covers (burying Spike with a yelp) and got out of bed, swaying for a bit as she tried to stand upright. “I breached the barrier between worlds using magic,” she stated. “I still hold a good deal of magic inside me without harm.”
“How much magic?” Cadance asked.
“Enough to rip this room out of the hospital and hurl it to Ponyville. Humanville? The next town over. Anyway, the fact that I can still hold and use magic means that this world is not antithetical to magic. It just doesn’t have that much of it right now.” She walked over to the window in her hospital gown and looked outside. “The trip between worlds should have left a weak spot, and maybe my magic will be enough to re-open it.” She blinked, and when her eyes opened, they glowed the same color of white as before, but much less intensely. “Hm...” she said as she scanned the landscape. “I can’t seem to see the weak spot, but I do see a magical artifact, right there! I should be able to use that to not just get home, but to get both of us into our proper bodies!” She turned back to them, the glow rapidly fading. “Let’s go, before it disappears!”
The parents looked to Dr. Oath for guidance. He just threw his hands up in the air.
“I’m sorry,” he told them, “but this is completely beyond my experience.”
Shining got a robe out of a closet and wrapped it around Twilight, directing her to put on a pair of slippers. “I’m sorry,” he said to the doctor, “but I have no idea if this is an emergency or not, so we’ll have to leave right now.”
“We’ll come back later,” Twilight Velvet said. “At the very least to tell you what happened.”
The doctor pointed up at the hole in the ceiling.
“You can probably charge the Church for that,” Cadance said. “I’ve got a feeling they’ll want to take a look at it.”
Once again, the doctor threw up his hands in helplessness.
Twilight Sparkle’s eyes lit up again, and she was pulled towards the door. She scrambled her feet to keep up with the supernatural pull, yelling, “Follow me!”
In seconds the doctor was alone.
...And then Shining Armor ran back in to retrieve Spike.
P. Rarity—The Markist Church of Canterlot. Shortly after dawn.
It took a long time for most of the many guests of the Church to get ready for the trip to Canterlot High School, and the portal that would take the three ponies home. Three ponies, because Pinkie and Maud had left already.
Rarity for once was early, but that was because she hadn’t gotten much sleep. At first, it was to review the fashion notes she had taken. And then it was to worry about what might happen to Applejack before the stubborn mule finally decided to do the right thing and return home. And then there was one other thing...
“Bishop Gnosi?”
“Yes, Rarity?”
“Do we have the time to visit the Solarium again? It piqued my curiosity.”
# # #
“I’m curious how magic might work in this world,” Rarity confided to Gnosi a few minutes later while he unlocked the greenhouse-like building. “How it might be working in this body, and how it works in there.” She pointed to the bright inner door of the Solarium.
“We Markists have the ability to convert concentrated sunlight into magic,” Gnosi patiently explained, “but we can’t hold on to it. So we can do all kinds of crazy things in the Solarium, but those things stop as soon as we leave.”
Rarity looked steadily at the glowing door. “Those of us who swapped bodies brought our magic with us, but unlike you, we can hold it. The fact that that door is blinding to me but not you suggests that I would just get a sunburn in there. But I’ve noticed that it doesn’t seem as bright to me today as it did yesterday. So over time, I think I would lose my stored magic and gain the ability to convert sunlight.”
Gnosi nodded. “That’s quite possible. But since you’re all returning to your own bodies today, we won’t have a way to test that hypothesis.”
Rarity said nothing. She knew that there was one pony who wasn’t returning.
# # #
After Gnosi and Rarity returned to the church, Rarity went to her room and pulled out the farewell letter to Applejack she had written in the dark hours of the previous night. She added a P.S. telling Applejack to see the bishops if she had any problems with her magic, as they knew more than they let on. She planned to slip the letter into Applejack’s locker at the school when nobody was looking.
When she returned to the group, she found them about to set out for the school, with the expectation that they would get there a few minutes before classes started.
P. Rainbow Dash.
On the van trip over to the school, Rainbow Dash started asking her parents about friends she knew in Equestria, to see if her human counterpart knew them as well.
Her question of “And what about Gilda?” was met by a stony silence. For a moment, Rainbow thought that this meant that griffons didn’t have counterparts on Earth.
“We don’t talk about Gilda,” Windy Whistles finally replied.
“Why not?” Rainbow asked.
“She and our Rainbow aren’t friends anymore,” Bow said tersely. “She’s a criminal now.”
“That’s why we tell her and the other Fluttershy never to go near The Heights. She runs the gang there, The Bloody Feathers.”
“A gang dear,” Bow corrected his wife. “There are lots of gangs in The Heights.”
“Isn’t Gilda on the Griffonstone Raptor team?” Bishop Gnosi asked from the driver’s seat of the van. “How can they let a student with a criminal record play on a sports team?”
“I’ve found that there are a lot of irregularities at Griffonstone High,” Bishop Meridiem replied. “Including the fact that the principal leads one of the other regional gangs.”
At the prompting of Archbishop August’s raised eyebrow, Meridiem added, “Unbelievers, sir.”
Meanwhile the two pegasi had descended into their own bubble of stunned silence, which lasted for the remainder of the trip.
Sunset Shimmer—Canterlot High. Shortly before First Period.
Sunset Shimmer got off of the bus, shouldering her backpack. As she ascended the steps to the school, she stopped on seeing Principal Celestia standing in front of the doors with arms crossed, staring right at her. Sunset quickly turned, only to run into the arms of Vice-Principal Luna, who held her fast.
“We would like to have a word with you, Miss Shimmer,” Luna said in a stern voice, grabbing her arm and walking her over to her sister. Sunset tried breaking free, but saw no way to pull it off. As she was frog-marched, Sunset strongly resisted the urge to look at the rearing horse statue, her possible escape route back to Equestria. She hoped that she was merely in trouble for something she had done in school, and that her secret was still safe.
Celestia walked around the corner of the building, to a narrow corridor between the exterior wall and a large manicured shrubbery, putting her out of sight of the curious students rushing into the school so as not to be late to classes. Luna brought Sunset before her.
“I’ve just been told of your true identity, Sunset,” Celestia told her. “I got the word directly out of my pony counterpart’s mouth.”
Luna released Sunset, who slumped down in defeat. “What did she tell you about me?” she asked.
“She told me of your crimes, both actual and planned,” the Principal told her. “She gave me two options. Either I can send you back through the portal before it closes, in which case she intends to send you to someplace named ‘Tartarus’ for a year to teach you some priorities. Or she will allow me to put you in one of our prisons, where you will have to live without magic.”
Sunset resisted the urge to proclaim the unfairness of her lot to the universe. “And which of those are you going to pick?”
“Neither,” Principal Celestia said with some degree of disgust. “Instead, I am offering you sanctuary from Equestrian justice.”
“What?!” Sunset said, straightening up.
“For the supposed inspiration of the Markist religion and source for all Harmony in two worlds, your princess has some enormous blind spots,” Luna said. She walked around Sunset so she could stand beside Celestia. “You are free to run away if you wish and try to make a life for yourself in the human world. If you do that you will never be allowed to use the portal to return to your homeworld, but you will have complete freedom to do whatever you want with your life.”
“Or you can choose to remain a student of this school, and become my personal charge, at least until you attain the age of eighteen,” Celestia told her. “I will allow you to start over and gain a second education on this world. I promise you that I will not prejudge you for what you did under the Princess. But neither will I forget the kinds of manipulations I now know you are capable of.”
“When the portal opens again,” Luna continued, “we will report your progress, if any, to the Princess, and it will be up to her to decide if she will allow you to return to Equestria without having to face punishment there.” She shrugged. “Or you can spend the rest of your life here. It’s all up to you.”
Sunset looked down at the ground. Her plans of using the inventions of this world to get her revenge on the Princess had been completely dashed. Both of the possibilities offered by the principal and vice-principal seemed attractive to her.
“Before you decide, there is one more matter that has to be dealt with first,” Principal Celestia told her. “When you used the portal to enter this world, did you pass through it only once, or multiple times?”
Sunset thought back before answering. “Multiple times.”
The Principal shook her head sadly. “That is what the Princess suspected. Although you had no way of knowing it, every time you passed from Earth to Equestria while carrying magic within you, you destabilized the artifact.”
“I didn’t even know I had any magic within me,” Sunset admitted. “I have been unable to access it.”
“Nevertheless, your magic did harm the portal, and this did have consequences,” Luna told her. “Six young pony females—”
“—Fillies?”
“Yes, fillies. Six random fillies and their human counterparts on this world were forced to switch minds with each other. We need to get this problem fixed by midnight tonight—”
“—Or those poor fillies will be stuck in this world for moons,” Sunset concluded in stark realization. “Do they all have families?”
“I believe so,” said Luna.
Sunset looked the two sisters in the eyes. “You may accuse me of a great many things, but I have never knowingly harmed fillies, or tried to separate one from her family. How can I help?”
“The Princess suspected that you might still possess a magical journal?”
Sunset put down her backpack and removed the large brown book. “Yes, I still have it. Does she wish to use it to coordinate our efforts?”
“Yes,” said Principal Celestia. “My method of speaking with the Princess is very limited. Using the journal will speed things considerably.”
“Alright, you can have it for today,” Sunset said, handing the book over to Celestia. “I trust you not to look at any of my conversations with the Princess.”
“You can count on us,” Celestia said. She set up the book against a windowsill and flipped through it. Finding a blank section, she began writing headers on each page. “We’ve got a lot of individuals to keep track of,” she explained, “and I want each pair of alternates to have the possibility to communicate privately with each other.” On the page labeled “Celestia” she wrote, “Sunset agrees to help.”
The words “I appreciate it,” soon appeared next to the earlier sentence. Sunset could imagine the expression on the Princess’ face, like biting into a sour lemon. She stepped forward to flip through the pages, to see if she recognized any of the names.
One of the names was “Twilight Sparkle”, which Sunset thought she had run into at some point as a pony, but had no recollection of as a human. Rarity she had met as a human, but their contact had been too limited for Sunset to have ever suspected her true identity. “Pinkie Pie” sounded familiar, but Sunset couldn’t be sure from where. The other two names and one placeholder were a complete mystery to her. (The last entry was merely “Orange skin, yellow hair”.)
“Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rarity spent the night in the Markist Church, and will be here shortly,” Principal Celestia told Sunset. “Someone from the church is going to Canterlot General Hospital to check on the status of Twilight Sparkle, as we are having trouble getting through to them right now. Other members of the Church are trying to track down the mystery pony.”
“I will shortly make an announcement to the students of Canterlot High, referencing Equestria in a way that will not arouse suspicion in anyone unaware of its existence,” Luna told Sunset. “If the missing pony is attending this school, then she will respond. If not, then I will visit Crystal Prep Academy and try to have the same coded message played over their intercom system.”
“And I have to run the school. We would like you to stay here and coordinate communications with Equestria, and with us,” Celestia told Sunset.
(In her heart, Principal Celestia had a strong suspicion that she would not in fact be allowed to run the school today. But she decided to at least try to avoid the inevitable.)
“Alright,” said Sunset, taking the pen from the Principal. Producing a cell phone of doubtful provenance, she asked the two for their own cell numbers, to add to her address book.
Celestia walked over to the corner of the building as the bell for first period started ringing. “Do you see that mat in front of the statue?” she asked, having to shout to be heard.
Nobody heard the sound of a car screeching to a halt behind them, of a car door bursting open, and of the sound of feet pounding across the lawn towards the school.
Sunset looked where the Principal was pointing, at what looked like a mat of fake grass placed in front of the invisible portal. “Yes?”
“That is a magical discharge mat, sent over by the Princess. It is essential that anyone who wishes to use that portal use the mat to discharge all of their magic first, or there will be consequences. I’m trusting you to enforce this vital rule.”
“Alright,” Sunset said, stepping out of the corridor to approach the pedestal.
H. Gnosi & Meridiem.
On the edge of another lawn, the bus with “Church of the Markists” emblazoned across it had come to a stop. The two bishops got out, opened the side door, and helped everyone to exit. They then led the way across the lawn.
“There’s something important I need to tell you,” Gnosi said over his shoulder. “Something we only found out about this morning. It’s about your magic, and what it does to the portal.”
Bishop Meridiem tapped his shoulder to interrupt him, pointing at the distant figure of Sunset Shimmer. “Do you recognize that young Markist?” she asked.
Gnosi looked. “No, I’ve never seen her before in my life. How strange.”
Meridiem meanwhile had spotted the running figure, and felt a feeling of dread. “Get everybody back in the van!” she shouted to the Archbishop, before making a run for the horse statue.
Gnosi ran after her.
P. Twilight Sparkle.
“Home!” screamed Twilight Sparkle as she passed Celestia, Luna and Sunset, running full speed. Her eyes were glowing with magic as she launched herself into the air to fly right through the portal, and over the discharge mat. Her family were a few feet behind her, trying to catch up.
“Stop her!” Celestia cried.
Luna tried to get Twilight to touch the mat. Sunset tried to tackle her out of the way. They both ended up bouncing off each other as Twilight sailed through the portal.
There was a blinding flash of light from the portal as it overloaded...