"Wait, what?!" Twilight yelped.
Lyra simply smiled at her reaction. "I said we already came up with a plan to get out of here."
Mayberry chose this moment to chime in. "Yeah, got it all figured out while you were spacing out over there." She wouldn't admit it, but the expression on the other unicorn's face was priceless as well as cute. Hopefully, Amber, the human version of her would restrain herself from hugging the befuddled pony too much.
Mayberry's concerns proved misplaced when Amber remained seated as she addressed the lavender unicorn. "Yup. And believe it or not, but it is actually pretty well thought out. We just need any insight you might have on this place and it's guards to make it work."
Twilight Sparkle, student of Celestia and Professor of Magic, simply sat down with an audible 'thump.' They had already planned it out? But organizing and planning was usually her thing!
"Hellooo! Where-ever-the-hell-we-are to Ms. Ponypants! We're waiting for your input!"
Amber leaned forward to snap her fingers in front of Twilight's eyes. The gesture successfully managed to get both her and Lyra's attention.
Lyra's eyes continued to watch Amber's hand "Doesn't that hurt when you do that?"
"Nope, but we're getting off track. Ms. Sporkle do you have any information we could use about this place?"
"Yeah!" Lyra chimed in. "I mean aren't you an honored member of the Silver Pinnacle?"
"Silver what now?" Amber interrupted.
"The Silver Pinnacle, a group of mages dedicated to advancing our understanding of magic far beyond what we currently know," answered Twilight. "And yes I am a member, though I'm rarely here so there's not really much I can tell you."
"Really?" Amber asked her tone flat and un-amused "I mean magic? Come on you've got to try harder than that."
"You're here aren't you?" asked Lyra. "I mean how else could you arrive here from your world."
"Why I'm here is a mystery, true, but it doesn't mean magic was involved."
Mayberry gave her human counterpart a very dead pan look before very pointedly looking at the pearlescent lance protruding from her own head. Doing so pretty much require crossing her eyes, but it got the point across.
The woman relented before such a persuasive argument "Ugh, right. Talking ponies in the form of unicorns. Don't question it, right?" Mayberry flashed her the widest grin her equine face was capable of.
"There, there" soothed Lyra, patting Amber's arm with a minty hoof. "I know it's bit much to swallow but it's true. I've been teaching Mayberry over there magic."
"Riiiiiight. Anyway, we're offtrack again. Since we haven't seen hide nor hair of a guard, we can assume they are either watching us remotely or just don't care enough to guard us. Either way, let's start phase one of Operation GTFO."
Pushing Lyra off her lap, Amber quickly stood to her full height before staggering back a few steps. "Whoa, stood up too fast again. You ready, horse-thingies?"
"Hey!" chorused Twilight and Lyra together.
"We are not horses! We are ponies! Right, May?" said Lyra, looking to her oddly silent companion for support.
The pale unicorn simply shrugged. "Eh. You've been calling me "horse-monkey" since day one."
"Good lord, stop bickering and let's blow this joint!" Amber exclaimed before grabbing up Twilight in her arms. With the first argumentative pony secured, she rushed at the cell door to deliver a powerful kick. As the ancient door burst from it's rusty hinges, the human ran through with a cry of "We go!"
"Freedom!" cried Lyra and Mayberry as they piled through the narrow door in pursuit of their friend.
***
"We're not lost!"
"We are to lost!"
"No, we're not!"
"Yes, we are! Tell her, May!"
"Where we again?"
Amber groaned, shifting the pony she was still holding in her arms. Her passenger, Twilight Sparkle, had apparently calmed down enough to argue with the mint green unicorn, Lyra or "lap pony" as Amber's mind now labeled her. Lap pony, the next sensational pet! She shook her head to clear it. "So what do we do now?" she asked, "I mean it's not like we can just wander these dark corridors all day long. It's a miracle we haven't run into any guards. Not too mention as soon as they notice we're gone, they'll come looking for us."
Lyra stopped to ponder. "We need an informant."
From her perch in Amber's arms, Twilight huffed. "Have you got one you've been hiding?"
"I got it!" Lyra exclaimed, the proverbial lightbulb appearing above her head. "We'll make one! Twilight, you remember that charming colt, Dawnstar, right?"
"The one everypony kept insisting looked like a male version of me….NO! Nononononono!" The unicorn tried her best to scramble away from the green light that rushed from Lyra's horn, but Amber held her firm.
After the glow from the cast spell faded, Mayberry and Lyra beheld her work. Where Twiliht once was, a limp male stallion dangled from Amber's strong grasp.
"Yeah, you might want to fix this," Said Amber in a voice considerably lower than normal. "And soon."
Mayberry couldn't help but stare in awe. Her human self was hot as a dude! "Awww! Not fair! How come you're an absolute hunk as a dude instead of being….well me as a girl!"
Lyra blushed. "I might have added a few qualities to the XX to XY spell not normally there.
Silenced reigned for a short time before being toppled by Mayberry's newest and most hesitant question. "O-Kay….Why do you know such a spell?"
"Experimentation purposes!"
"You don't say."
"Not like that!"
"What does Bon-Bon think?"
"She's quite hap-No!"
Both Amber and Mayberry chuckled. At her own masculine laugh, Amber wordlessly pointed at Lyra's horn and then back to herself. Getting the hint, Lyra's horn flashed once more.
"Ah. Much better! Mirror please."
Another flash and a mirror appeared in Amber's hand. She gave the unicorn a nod of thanks and began her inspection. Face? Check. Nose? Check. Ears? Check. Eyes?..."Why are my eyes gold?"
Lyra's face flushed again. "No reason!"
"The spell resets your eye color?….so you cast that male spell on yourself?"
Lyra's horn simply flashed again. Gray-green eyes. Check.
"Right. Now that everything is in order and Lyra's kinky sex life has been examined (Hey!), we can get on to business. Twilight or should I say Dawnstar, are you there?"
The curled up form on the ground shivered. "Never again."
Amber leaned over to hear better. "Excuse me?"
"Never again!" the male voice of 'Dawnstar' said again. "We shall never speak of this again!"
The lavender unicorn stallion walked over to lyra and jabbed a large hoof into her chest. "The moment I find the way out, you change me back Lyra! I don't know why Amber pulled the magic inhibitors off you and Ms. Mayberry, but when I get back I want to be a mare again and this wretched thing off my horn!"
"Deal!" Lyra agreed with a carefree smile.
Still grumbling the stallion turned and stalked off up the hallway.
"Wow, what a grump!" Lyra exclaimed, wiping her brow with a hoof.
Mayberry nudged her with a hoof. "To be fair, you did turn her into a stallion against her will."
"I guess," Lyra deflated a bit. "Still did you see that length! Daayumn!"
"Lyra!"
"I mean the horn!"
"LYRA!"
"The one on her head!"
"Oh." Mayberry 's fur was unable to hid the blush now spreading across her cheeks.
"Yeah, but her penis was pretty big too."
Amber's palm promptly met her face. "Good lord, you two are horrid! I don't want the mental image of the penis of a mare who I've just flopping about in my mind! Just…ugh!" Amber shuddered. "Anyway, you might want to have that mare spell fired up for when she gets back."
***
After about ten minutes of waiting the sound of hooves galloping towards the intersection where the trio rested roused the two ponies and the human.
"Someponies coming!" said Lyra in a stage whisper. "they sound like they are in a hurry!"
"Is it Twilight?" whispered Amber.
"Unless she brought two friends, I doubt it. Listen!"
"Search the area! The prisoners escaped!"
The trio felt as if their stomachs had plummeted towards the planet's core.
"They know!"
"Think it was Twilight?" asked Mayberry
"Maybe. They couldn't logically keep her here against her will for too long. She's the former student and practically the surrogate daughter of Princess Celestia!"
"…..Who?"
"Oh right. You wouldn't know of her. One of the Diarch's of this realm and raiser of the Sun."
Amber opened her mouth to object, but Mayberry stepped in having had this conversation with Lyra multiple times. "She's a physical goddess, magic, and we've got incoming!"
With that curt explaination, three pegasi stallions in the armor of the Solar Royal Guard came thundering around the corner. The guards barely had time to even notice the very suspects they were looking for before a burst of green light flashed bowling the stallion in the middle over, sending him head of hooves into the wall.
The other two guards skidded to a stop. "Halt, criminal scum!" shouted Swordstorm, the youngest and most recent bearer of the most classic "I'm the new guy" name in the guard, his most authoritative voice. He was technically overstepping his authority but his superior didn't object oddly. Instead his light blue eyes bore into the magenta eyes of the largest of the two unicorns.
As the two eyed each other, the reckless guardspony screamed "For the Princess!" and charged valiantly into battle with the large creature. Amber answered his heroics with a roundhouse to the face landing her foot solidly with the side of his head. The heavy impact jarred Amber's leg and set the young recruit's armor to rattling as he crashed to the floor, joining his companion in unconciousness.
The last of the three, the officer broke off the staring contest with Mayberry to check his companions. Seeing that they were fine, he looked back up angrily. "You are all under arre-"
"I know you!" Mayberry blurted out, finally recognizing the eerily familiar stallion. The anger drained from the officer's face and his wings drooped from his sides as he recognized that voice and those eyes. "I see we meet again, Inspection Ninja," the dread creeping into his voice.
Eventually the group emerged from the underground labrynth into the daylight. When Amber, Lyra, and Mayberry looked back at the mountain that they stood in the shadow of, they could see the silvery spire piercing the heavens.
It hadn't been easy, getting the story from the guard, but piece-by-piece, the trio had bled him of the information they had wanted.
Apparently the second Princess who had been searching with Twilight for some criminal had felt the magical surge of the teleportation and had gathered a few guards to go and reclaim the unicorn. Upon entering The Princess had inadvertently run into 'Dawnstar' who was in the middle of questioning the mages. Easily recognizing Twilight, she had removed the spell and magic inhibitor after a few comments that had left the unicorn's cheeks aflame with embarrassment. From there, the guards fresh from Canterlot had split up to search for the escaped ponies and the "human."
Lyra had then thanked the guard for his help before Amber knocked him out with a well-placed hammerblow to the back of the skull.
"Man, my foot and my hands hurt! What are those guards made out of? Steel?" groused Amber as she massaged her hands. Lyra and Mayberry trotted along beside her.
"You did notice the last fellow was wearing a helmet before you dropped him, right?" asked Mayberry, her tone teasing.
The human frowned. "I guess that's true. Aches like hell." She looked around at the rocky slopes of the mountain. "We are way too exposed out here. If those bird-brained guards can fly we'll get caught in no time." A quick glance down the slope showed how close they were to the treeline. "Come on, if we can get to those trees we'll be fine."
"Lead the way!" piped Lyra as she pranced behind the human. "Coming May?"
"On my way." Came the answer as the tall mare slowly picked her way down the mountain. "Gah! Stupid hooves are not meant for this!"
***
After severable stumbles on Mayberry's part forced Amber to carry the mare down the slope, the trio finally made it to the tree line.
"So what now? We need a plan" Lyra as the group stopped underneath some evergreens to rest.
The unicorn promptly curled up next to Amber, who'd sat down with a thump with her back to one tree
"That seems to be the theme of the day doesn't it?"
Amber simply shrugged. "I dunno. The only one's that would know why I'm here are the jackasses back at the Pinnacle and they weren't exactly the most helpful bunch."
"What about the Princesses?" Lyra's question hung in the air. Both Mayberry and Amber looked thoughtful, though the green unicorn could feel the other mare's anxiety.
"I don't know," Amber said slowly, "I mean if they can help us get back that'd be freaking awesome, but at the same time will they actually help us? I mean, if an alien creature showed up and asked for help getting home in my world, they'd be strapped to a table and dissected like that!"
Mayberry's face strained. "Must….nitpick…..stupid….comment!" A hand reached out and batted her ears playfully.
"Quiet you." Amber scolded with a smirk on her face. "Anyway, it might be a good idea for at least one of us to go speak to them."
"If that's our plan, then why did we knock out the guards that were supposed to bring us to the Princesses?"
Amber and Mayberry stared at Lyra in silence.
"Uhhhhhh" Amber offered helpfully.
Mayberry offered a slightly different answer. "We want to meet them on our terms, not drug before them by the guards like some criminals."
Lyra smiled, clopping her front hooves together. "An excellent idea!" Her expression fell quickly though. "What about Twilight? She definitely does not like you for some reason."
"Perhaps I can be of some assistance there." A new voice rang out from behind the trio. As they turned and looked in shock, an old man, bedecked in worn blue robes and a battered wizard's cap perched atop his head, struggled to free his robes from the clutches of a bush.
Finally freeing himself, the old man strode up to Amber to offer his hand. "Greetings, fair lady! I...I….I appear to have forgotten my own blasted name."