//------------------------------//
// Window Paine 
// Story: Strange New World 
// by Boopy Doopy 
//------------------------------//

Roxanne stepped outside again, back into the cold mountain top air that Lake stood in on Earth, and shapeshifted into a horse again. Her changeling powers still remained, even here on Earth.
No, she wasn’t exactly a horse now. She still had a horn, but this one was a bit shorter, with an almost spiked end. She had the same colors she did as a unicorn—the one she showed up as when they first left Earth—but her body wasn’t exactly the same. She had a purple shell sticking to her back; wings, she could tell, ones that were not dissimilar to a moth or a dragonfly. They were a lot like the ones she’d seen on the black creature in Sapphire’s neighborhood. Another changeling, she now knew.
Her body was complete with another shell protecting her underside, and a couple of crimson red moose like horns sticking out from the top of her head. She hadn’t seen anything like this in Equestria so far. But then there was also no slight itch to change into something else like there was with every new form she took. This was meant to be her body.
Strange that it didn’t have any terribly defining sex features, except maybe the stereotypical girly pastel pink color. The bits below her now looked largely unfamiliar, but maybe it was a stallion? Unless that was an ovipositor, then it would be a female. Maybe. It was difficult to tell, but not necessarily uncomfortable.
And emotions. Much like her shapeshifting power, her sixth sense remained, as available as ever to her. She couldn't sense anything from the Equus side while she stood on Earth, but Lake was there, writhing in discomfort as he shivered and stood naked looking at his phone. He wasn't happy, but he wasn't freaking out. He actually seemed a little hopeful. She immediately understood that these mountains might not have been in a location that was completely inaccessible.
Roxanne almost wanted to stay in her current form, but changed again a few seconds later, before anyone came through again or Lake turned around. A detail like this had… unknown implications for the future, ones she still needed time to process and think through. She became herself again—her real self—and stepped up to Lake to put a hand on his shoulder.
“Get out of the cold, dummy,” she said firmly, but lightheartedly, gently pulling him back to the portal. “You’re gonna get frostbitten standing around out here with no clothes.”
“Norway,” he told her, mostly ignoring her as his body shivered, his face and other parts of him already starting to turn read. “Th-this is Norway.” His teeth chattered as he looked into her eyes. “It’s not great, but it’s not terrible. But we don’t have passports or credit cards or anything, or any way to get to civilization. And Google doesn’t pull up directions from here to a town like Oslo,” he explained. “Th-th-this is some sort of island, at least f-f-five hundred miles north of m-mainland Europe.”
Norway, Roxanne considered. It was… better than the very worst place they could’ve been. Antarctica or Alaska or Greenland would’ve sucked badly. Norway wasn’t that much better though, especially not on an island. Why couldn't the universe have spit them out on a tropical resort? Like Thailand or Cambodia or Bali, a place with some nice beaches? They were naked enough already.
“We'll talk about it inside, Lake,” she said before too long as she started to shiver again, too. “Let's get out of the cold, please.” She eyed him once up and down before turning and heading back to warmth.
Tory was still upset, but had calmed down a little bit. He paced back and forth anxiously while Sapphire Glow gushed about the marvel of science this was and how she couldn't wait to show the Human In Equestria club what she discovered and how Twilight Sparkle would be so proud of her. Lilac Beauty meanwhile sat at a desk on the other side of the room, quickly scribbling something onto a sheet of paper. There was extremely tense and exciting energy pervading the space that Roxanne felt.
Tory raised an eyebrow and wore a hopeful expression as he stopped where he was, waiting for an answer to the obvious question. Roxanne looked to Lake to let him answer, and watched him trot up to show Tory his phone.
“It's Norway,” he explained, wiggling his body and ruffling his wings, trying to warm up, she could tell. His mane and feathers were already bristly from just a few minutes of standing out there. Sapphire Glow moved up to look over Lake's shoulder and stare at the device, too. Roxanne herself kept her distance and sat on her haunches on the ground. Interesting that the portal turned her back into a unicorn pony and not a changeling pony when she stepped through. She wondered why.
“And nowhere good in Norway either,” Lake continued. “Some island in the Atlantic, way farther north than anywhere in mainland Europe.” He used his fingers to zoom in and out on the map, saying, “There's no road or towns that I can see, but obviously that doesn't mean there aren't any towns. But it's harder to figure out stuff without any internet or data. Basically, only Alaska and Mars would be worse.”
“Norway is a western country though,” Roxanne chimed in, “so it's better than being in, like, Nepal. Hawaii would be nicer though.”
“Well, I don't know what any of those places are, but I can't wait to see them!” Sapphire Glow said excitedly. “It'll be an adventure, exploring Earth until we get to your home!”
“Except it's not an adventure because either way, we don't have some way to get anywhere from right there!” Tory said. “We don't have any supplies or money for supplies or anything! Why did it disappear from Lake's apartment but reappear in Norway when it's the same door as before? It doesn't make any sense!”
“I'm sure it'll be fine, though,” Sapphire Glow smiled and said before Roxanne could tell him to calm down. “That's Earth right there! Halfway home, right? It'll be fun, especially if I get to be a human the whole time! There's gonna be so much to study!”
Roxanne was glad for Sapphire Glow’s naivety, because it helped to work down Tory's frustration. His anxiety was making its way back to Lake, who's breathing was starting to pick up again. It was extremely unlike the stallion.
He closed his eyes, took a breath, and lowered his emotions. “Sorry,” he apologized, then shook his head. “I should've realized that trekking through snow to find some sort of civilization was supposed to be the most fun ever. It's an adventure!” He was a little bit sarcastic, but mostly joking. It went over Sapphire Glow’s head once again, who moved to lean into Tory as she talked excitedly about how it would definitely be loads of fun. It made Lake give a small smile and settle back down.
“We're gonna need to make a plan about this though,” he said. “We're gonna need warm clothes and camping supplies and food and a whole lot of other shit, too, to be able to get anywhere. If we can get anywhere.”
“I have old clothes you guys could probably wear, if you're okay with mare's stuff,” Sapphire said. “And I can ask my mom if she can loan us some money for camping supplies, too, and write to Twilight Sparkle if need be.”
She's gonna say no, Roxanne already knew. She doesn't like your obsessive personality and your reckless behavior. And Roxanne didn't know who Princess Twilight Sparkle was yet beyond brief mentions, but if the dictator of this world was going to reply to a message, she would've already done so.
“We're also gonna want to check out the area, too,” Roxanne said, knowing what Tory was thinking and speaking before he did. “Do a little scouting to see if it's worth it to try and get somewhere. It probably doesn't have to be all of us, but it should be.”
“After we find out why the portal disappeared before, though,” Lake finished. “I don't want us going through that thing only for it to disappear again on us. Being in the mountains if that happened would suck.”
“Any theories as to why it disappeared before, Sapphire?” Tory asked, with a raised eyebrow.
“No, but I'll definitely be trying to see why!” she assured him. “I've been trying to figure that out since you three said it disappeared the first time. Worldgates are meant to be relatively stable once they show up, existing for thousands of years at a time. If it's disappearing and reappearing, that could explain why it brought you to a different location. Or it could also be that the magical buildup in your apartment that caused it to appear in the first place dissipated quickly, so there's no more connection to that place. If the magic is still here on this side—which it is, since the portal is here—the connection would probably want to be created someplace with a lot of undisturbed magical buildup… um, is Norway someplace like that?”
“Undisturbed? Sure, part of it, probably,” Roxanne said. “Magical? I doubt it… well, I would've doubted it. I don't know anymore, obviously.”
“As far as we know, Earth has no magic,” Tory said. “Risking it disappearing on us and leaving us stranded in Norway in what's almost November is way too dangerous though. I think Roxanne and Lake will agree.” Roxanne nodded and Lake gave a quick “yeah” before Tory let out an annoyed sigh.
“I'll work on studying that, yeah, if it's dangerous,” Sapphire Glow decided. Then she grinned slyly, and put a hoof on Tory’s chest. “Besides,” she started to continue, “I still gotta find how how humans use hands to wash themselves, like you–”
“Not right now with the flirting, please?” he interrupted, grabbing her forehoof with one of his own and gently lowering it back to the floor. “Right now isn't the time, Sapphire, seriously.”
Huh, so he actually does have a little bit of a thing for her, Roxanne thought silently. That was interesting. She didn't need to be a mind reader to know that Lake could see it, too, with the way he shifted uncomfortably.
“Well, anyway,” Sapphire Glow continued a second later, “I need to talk to Lilac Beauty about staying here for a while and studying this. And I’m gonna need to get my notebook and some supplies from my house, too, to take and record proper measurements.”
“I’ll go with you to talk to her,” Lake suggested. “I don’t think she likes you very much, so I should probably do the talking.” Sapphire Glow smiled sheepishly at that, and then went with Lake to the other side of the room to speak with the older mare. It gave Roxanne a chance to ask the obvious question of Tory.
“Are you okay? Because right now, you seem like you’re doing worse than Lake.” She didn’t need to ask. She knew the answer, and knew he was going to refute it.
“I’m fine,” he told her, letting out a breath. “I just expected that getting into this house would be the hardest part. Not that we would have to travel the world to get back to Pennsylvania.” Tory let out another breath, then asked, “Are you okay though, Roxie?”
Roxanne hesitated, just a second, and Tory saw it. She knew he did. He raised an eyebrow and looked at her expectantly. No point in beating around the bush now. He and Lake were both gonna find out eventually after all.
“I’m still a changeling pony on that side,” she said as casually as she could. It didn’t matter how she spoke though; just like she expected, Tory’s look changed from curious to concern. Why wouldn’t it?
“You were a human though. We all were. I saw. What do you mean you’re still a changeling pony?”
“I mean exactly that,” she shrugged, then turned to step back through the portal. It was just as cold as it was a minute ago, the wind still biting her skin. Tory followed her through and took her in as he crossed his arms over his chest and hopped from foot to foot. He did not want to be out here, and waited impatiently for her to do something.
She didn’t hesitate, and shapeshifted again. She was practically able to hear him blinking in shock while the wind howled around them as his jaw fell to the floor. He was more shocked right then than he had been by anything during this whole adventure so far. His eyes were wide as he took in the sight of her, practically bulging out of his skull.
“I– you– why would you still be like that?” he asked. “None of the rest of us are still horses. It doesn’t make any sense!”
“I’ve no idea,” Roxanne shook her head as she twitched her new wings. Her voice wasn’t feminine, but it wasn’t masculine exactly. Androgynous? Definitely nasally, at least. It was kind of like her body now was, interestingly enough. What did that mean?
“Yes, we’re back on Earth, Tory,” she said as her friend started to think it. “If we weren’t, Lake’s GPS on his phone wouldn’t work. And obviously I can still feel your emotions and sort of read your mind. And no, I have no idea why I’d be able to. I just know I can.”
“That makes no sense at all,” Tory said as he shook his head, letting out a cold breath before turning to head back through to the Equus side of the portal. Roxanne quickly followed after him, and watched him pace back and forth again as she stepped through. Interesting that whenever she went through the portal, it seemed to change her into either a regular Equestrian looking unicorn or a regular human. Not the body that felt most natural so far. The changeling.
“But maybe that’s a good thing,” Tory continued as he paced. “Maybe we can use that somehow. If you have wings now, you could learn to fly and find somewhere for us to get to and contact the police. Or learn a teleportation spell, like those cops did to us. This could actually work.”
“I don’t know about flying for hundreds of miles, but maybe,” she agreed. “Teleportation could work, if there was a way to do it on Earth. We’d have to learn how to do that here though.” Or they could always get some tents and camping gear if need be, she thought, but she wasn’t sure how good of a plan that was. Roxanne didn’t have a terrible amount of faith in any of camping or flying or teleporting. She had a feeling none would get them particularly far.
Thankfully, Tory couldn’t read her mind. He settled some as she put on a confident smile, and more so when Sapphire Glow and Lake explained that Lilac Beauty would be okay with them studying their house and would let them forego their restraining order. The four of them were getting somewhere.
Sapphire Glow explained to Lilac Beauty that they would be back soon after she gathered what she needed from her home, and she, Roxanne, and Tory left quickly after that, leaving Lake to keep watch over the portal. As they walked down the street to get back—more like cantered since Sapphire didn’t want to waste time outside—Roxanne explained to her what she did to Tory, about her still having magical abilities while on Earth.
“Huh, that's interesting!” Sapphire said as they moved along. “Are you sure you haven't secretly been a changeling this whole time, Roxie?” she asked.
“Uh, yeah, pretty sure.”
“Hmmm. I wonder why it would make you swap back and forth between human and pony in that case. As far as I understood, worldgates don't permanently change you—not over short timescales anyway. But it seems like you–”
“Hold on,” Tory quickly interrupted. “Bring it back. What do you mean ‘over short timescales’? Are you saying there's a chance we go back to Earth and get stuck as ponies instead of people?”
“Not in the short term,” the mare smiled. “Don't worry. We're talking on the order of many decades, otherwise I wouldn't have changed into a human when I stepped through the portal. I've heard of it happening to Gaia the Great after she spent three thousand years on Earth, saving creatures from enslavement far and wide. She looked like a human for years afterwards they say. But she was changed back into a pony after–”
“She's basically telling you we'll be fine,” Roxanne cut in. Well, they'll be fine anyway. She already had new powers for her to keep on Earth, it seemed.
“Don't you worry, you'll still get a chance to use those human hands on me, Tory,” she smirked. Interesting how the more and more she continued flirting with him, the way he became slowly, ever so slightly more embarrassed. No way the two wouldn't hook up within a month, whether in Equestria or on Earth. Sapphire Glow was working him, even if she held nothing beyond physical attraction to him as far as Roxanne could tell.
“That just makes me wanna get the hell out of here as quickly as we possibly can all the more,” Tory replied. “God, why did I follow you through to here?” he asked as he sent an exasperated look Roxanne's way. Then he looked back to Sapphire Glow and quickly finished, “And you know what I meant when I said that.”
“Oh, I absolutely do,” the mare grinned.
“Only Lake gets to use the excuse that we dragged him along,” Roxanne retorted. “You followed after me all on your own.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he replied sarcastically, but with a smile. Good. He was quickly getting out of his dumb funk. Calming down one anxious mess of a horse was stressful enough already, but Lake had an excuse about that, too.
Tory sighed, still more frustrated than he was anxious, but even that was waning. “I was just expecting us to get home and find a million people waiting to interview us, not to end up in Norway… why don't you teleport us to your house, Sapphire?” he asked. “We've seen you teleport yourself before.”
“You think I have enough energy to teleport myself and two other ponies back and forth across the city like I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle?” she replied. “No way. Even if I did, I want to save my magic to study that portal. If it takes a few extra minutes, it takes a few extra minutes.” It was the first time either of them saw Sapphire being conservative with her judgment. Tory smiled and made the obvious comment.
“Oh, of course, you would never be wasteful and reckless, would you?” She turned and sent a grin his way before facing forward again. He sent a knowing look and a shake of his head Roxanne's way at that.
And Tory’s pretending he's not working her back, she considered silently. Interesting.
It wasn't too long before they finally got back to their temporary home. Shimmering Diamond was on the couch as they went in, and grunted a greeting to Sapphire that she ignored. The mare instead headed quickly into her bedroom to grab her things, and then to the desk in the dining room to scribble a few notes down and burn them in the candle. Both Roxanne and Tory stood patiently waiting for her to finish up so they could head back.
“What's gotten into her?” Shimmering Diamond asked casually. “No wait, don't tell me: more human stuff?”
“We found the portal back to our home,” Tory replied. “Sapphire’s gonna take some measurements and figure out what's going on.”
“We might still need to stay here though, if it's not trouble,” Roxanne continued before Shimmering Diamond could ask the obvious. “The portal doesn't lead exactly to the right place, unfortunately. But like we said, once we find a way back home, you can follow us if you want.”
“I might take you up on your offer sometime,” Shimmering replied humorously as she took a sip of her beer. It didn't take a mind reader to realize she didn't believe them, but who would? Lilac Beauty barely did.
“Make sure she stays out of trouble though,” she continued. “I don't want one more message about how Sapphire's been arrested again. You won't be staying here if I get a call like that.”
Hopefully we won't be staying here very much longer anyway, Roxanne thought. She had doubts about moving along in the short term though. Nothing was really going their way.
Sapphire Glow, of course, was a different story, and radiated excitement before she even said anything. She carried a notepad and several weird looking instruments in her magic as she approached.
“Let's get going! I wanna explore Earth!” she chanted excitedly as she stepped back out the door.
Roxanne had a strong feeling this was gonna be a long afternoon, and an even stronger one about how it would probably turn out. She tried not to think of that as she shapeshifted into a changeling again, the one she knew was meant to be her. She took a moment to close her eyes and gather up some of the protective feeling she'd saved from the other one she saw weeks before. She might need it for the long haul.
She was one hundred percent certain that they weren't getting back home to Pennsylvania anytime soon.