Evening Glow woke up to not only the warmth of the sun, but also the sound of flapping wings. She realized, after opening her eyes, that there was an owl in her room and it was perched upon the guest bedroom dresser. “Why, hello there. What brings you into my room?” Evening Glow asked this to the somewhat familiar owl.
“Who?” the owl asked in response.
“Umm… okay?” Evening Glow was not yet fully awake and ready to deal with such shenanigans. She got up out of bed and looked into a mirror on the wall. She scanned her body from head to toe and sighed. She didn’t look ugly in her eyes, but then again, she didn’t know what a pony’s standards of beauty were. She had a nice mane and tail that looked a tad dirty from landing in the Everfree Forest the other day. Her eyes soon trailed down to her flank where her cutie mark, a half sun and moon, was. “Well, I guess I’m going to have to get used to this.”
Glow left her room to see if anyone was using the bathroom. To her luck, it was not yet occupied. She walked in to use the shower, which she had some difficulty with at first because of her hooves. As soon as she got the shower on she felt all the filth from yesterday wash off her coat. She took this moment to really think about her situation. “Okay, I’m in Equestria. I have that much figured out. I am in the body of a girl pony. Well, it could be worse. I have no idea why I’m here and what I’m supposed to do to get back. And therein lays the problem. What should I make my priority?” After saying this, Glow heard a knock at the bathroom door.
“Hey, Glow,” Twilight began through the door. “When you’re done I made some breakfast.”
‘Wow, she didn’t have to do that,’ Glow thought to herself. “Thank you, Twilight,” she said to her gracious host.
“It’s no trouble,” Twilight replied and trotted away. Glow finally thought it was time to get out of the shower and go eat some breakfast. As she walked through the library, she couldn’t help but look at some of the books on the shelves. After she reached the small kitchen table, she pulled up her chair and sat down.
“So what are we having?” Glow asked with a hungry stare. She didn’t quite realize how famished she was until Twilight had mentioned breakfast. Glow didn’t eat anything at the party since she couldn’t pick anything up and didn’t want to look like a fool for trying.
“We’re having some fried daffodils with sliced apples!” Twilight exclaimed with happiness as she set down the two plates for them.
Glow looked at the food hungrily and tried picking up an apple slice with one hoof as Twilight was doing, but to no avail. Next, she tried with two hooves and had slightly more luck, but the apple slice dropped back on the plate. Glow tried this 5 or 6 times, each time getting slightly closer but still dropping the slice of apple.
“Umm… do you need help?” Twilight asked.
“No, no, I’ve got this,” Glow said as she picked up the apple slice and watched as it fell right out of her hooves again. “UGH! Of all the creatures on this world, I had to turn into the one without hands…” She laid her jaw on the table in defeat and closed her eyes, thinking of all the ways she could eat a single slice of apple with hands, until she felt something poking her head. She looked to see what it was and, to her surprise, it was a floating apple slice. “What the…”
“I figured you needed some help, even if you’re too stubborn to ask for it,” Twilight said with the slightest bit of annoyance present in her voice.
Glow, reluctantly, started eating her food as it was being levitated to her by Twilight. After both of their breakfasts were eaten, Glow got up out of her chair. “Well, I’m going to go look at some books,” she said as Twilight levitated the dishes into the sink.
“Can I ask you some questions while you read?” Twilight asked.
“Sure, I guess,” Glow said, a little wary as to what the questions were going to be about.
She stepped into the library’s main room and browsed for books that she needed to look through. She spotted a section of pony anatomy books and flew up to grab them. She was amazed at how comfortable it felt to fly. She then, once she reached the shelves with the anatomy books on them, pulled some of them off and accidentally dropped them. She watched as they piled on the baby dragon that just walked through the door. “Ohmigosh! Are you okay?” She asked frantically.
“Ow,” the baby dragon said as he pushed the books off of him. “Yeah, I’m fine. That’s happened more times than I can count.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re okay Spike,” Glow said with a smile.
“Wait, who are you and how do you know my name?” Spike asked with a concerned look.
Glow started to sweat at this question. She really didn’t know how to explain without telling the whole story to the baby dragon. Noticing her worried expression, Twilight jumped into the conversation.
“Spike, she’s my guest and I told her about you,” Twilight said as she walked through the doorway.
“Oh, okay,” Spike said and walked upstairs to do his chores.
Glow sighed at that close call and picked a book out of the pile. The book was titled “Physical Anatomy of the Common Pegasus” and it looked like something you’d see a medical student reading. This seemed perfect for what Glow needed.
“Hey Glow,” Twilight said. “Can I ask those questions now?”
“Sure,” Glow said, looking though the book’s table of contents for what she needed.
“Where did you come up with your name?” Twilight began.
“Oh, well I used to draw ponies and give them names and Evening Glow was a name for one of them and it just… popped into my mind… but she didn’t exactly look like I do,” Glow said in reply.
“Well, that seems reasonable,” Twilight said, preparing to ask her next question. “Are our universes similar?”
“Yes and no,” Glow said, taking herself away from her book. “Besides the whole pony thing everything is fairly similar. Well, except not everyone in my universe is as tolerant as the ponies here are. Also, I was a guy in my universe.”
“You were a…” Twilight began her question, but trailed off as Glow nodded her head.
“Today is a little uneasy for me,” Glow began. “Yesterday I was running on adrenalin and had no time to worry about my current situation. But, now that my adrenalin high has worn off, I’ve been worried about how I’m going to cope with my new identity and gender.”
“Well, you had me pretty fooled,” Twilight said with a little blush. “I thought you were pretty calm for someone who just traveled into a world they thought fiction.”
“Thanks… I think,” Glow said, sensing that the questions were now over for now.
After about two and a half hours of research into pony anatomy, Evening Glow was officially burnt out. “I don’t get it! None of these books have the answers I need,” she shouted through the library, getting Twilight, who was writing down notes, to look over at her curiously.
“Hey Glow, what’s wrong?” Twilight asked from across the library.
“The simplest question,” Glow said with a hint of anger in her voice. “It doesn’t answer the simplest question!”
“What question is that?” Twilight asked, trying to calm Glow down a bit.
“It doesn’t tell me how to use the bathroom,” Glow said with a look of sincere anger and fear, but Twilight couldn’t help but snicker slightly. “I’m serious! What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, nothing,” Twilight said with a smile. “It’s just funny how, of all the things that are new to you, you are wondering how to go to the bathroom.”
“It’s not just that,” Glow said with more sadness than anger this time. “I also don’t know how to use my hooves to pick things up…”
“Well, I could tell you, if that would help,” Twilight said.
“It’s better than not eating and not using the restroom,” Glow said. “Okay, let’s get started!”
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Celestia was sitting uneasily at the highest tower of her castle. Whatever this being was that came to her beloved kingdom, it managed to disguise it’s magic and hide in plain sight. At least, that’s what she deduced after the guards came back with absolutely nothing. ‘Should I warn Twilight,’ she asked herself over and over. ‘Maybe I should just send more protection over to Ponyville.’
“Sister,” Luna said, walking through the door to her sister’s watch tower. “Before thou try anything… brash, consider that this… whatever it is, may not be something to worry about.”
“Of course it’s something to worry about, Luna,” Celestia said in a stern but calm tone. “Understanding is something I’ve been trying to gain for thousands of years.”
“But, thou mustn’t confuse the quest for understanding with fear,” Luna said. “It is pony nature to fear what we do not understand. It is of no exception to the powerful rulers of Equestria.”
“You do have a valid point, Luna,” Celestia said, turning her head towards her sister. “But I will not rest until I have captured whatever it is and figured out whether it is good or bad.”
Luna walked out of the tower as Celestia turned back to gaze upon her kingdom. ‘Oh, Cici,’ Luna thought to herself. ‘Thou art letting your emotions get the better of you.’
Celestia was now alone again, alone to contemplate her next move. She now realized what she must do. She took out a piece of parchment, a quill, and an inkwell and began to write a letter to her star pupil. ‘Twilight will tell me if she sees anything strange,’ Celestia thought to herself as she wrote the letter. ‘She must.’