//------------------------------//
// Dimension Traveling is Dangerous 
// Story: Beyond the Everfree 
// by Hawthorn 
//------------------------------//

	Colgate fell out of the sky, landing on a pine tree.
“Ow...” The blue mare delicately found her way to the ground, avoiding needles to the best of her ability. She was covered in them despite her efforts. She looked around, taking in the scenery. She began walking around when she noticed something missing. 
“Lyra? Lyra! Where are you?!” Frantically running about, Colgate was desperate to find her friend. After galloping around in every direction, she finally gave up. She heard hoofsteps coming from behind her, and turned around to see Lyra walking toward her. 
“Lyra! I’m so happy to see you! Where are we?” Ecstatic to see Lyra again, and terrified of this strange new world, Colgate stuck to Lyra like the tree sap that was all in her mane.. 
“Colgate, I’ve got something to show you!” Lyra led Colgate into a clearing, where a small tent was placed. A dirt path was ahead of the clearing. The two mares walked into the tent, and Lyra pointed to a human girl unconscious on the floor.
“I landed on it when we fell out of the sky!” Lyra was positively beaming. 
“Oh, you landed on a human. Wait.. You landed on a human?! Oh no...” Colgate was not beaming. She wasn’t excited at all. In fact, she was less than so. In other words, Colgate was upset.
“Lyra... You realise that we... we are ponies in a human world...” It was more to clear her mind than to make sure the teal unicorn understood the situation. Lyra nodded blissfully at first. As she gave herself time to think about where she was and what situation she had gotten herself into, her nods became slower and less excited. 
“Oh...” Lyra was not happy anymore. Thinking clearer now, Lyra realised what was happening. Then, Lyra froze. Her gaze was on the middle of the tent.
From Colgate’s point of view, Lyra seemed to be under some magical spell of some sort, forcing her to become a living statue. She was barely even breathing.
“Lyra?” Colgate walked around the mare. She shifted her own gaze to match Lyra’s.
“Um... Hello?” Colgate managed to mumble. The previously unconscious human girl was now sitting up, staring at candy-colored miniature horse statue, and the other, alive, candy-colored, miniature horse.
“Hi!” The human girl said rather loudly. “My name’s Maria! You must be Colgate, aka Minuette.” Colgate stood dumbfounded. She had never met this girl -or any human girl for that matter- and yet she knew her name, and the name of some other pony that must bear some resemblance to her.
“It’s just Colgate, actually. Most ponies tend to call me Minuette for some reason, though...” The girl, grinning ecstatically, nodded. 
Colgate set aside her thoughts about Maria, and gently bucked Lyra on her side to snap her out of the trance. Startled, Lyra jumped, and no longer was a statue. 
“Lyra, this is Maria. Maria, Lyra. Now that you two are acquainted, we must be going.”
“Colgate! This is my life’s dream! We can’t let it slip between our hooves! How about we...” Lyra was cut off, however by the sound of a car approaching.
“Oh no!” Maria sprang to her feet, looking out of the tent. “My parents and friends are coming! Hide!” Maria shoved a pile of sleeping bags onto the surprised mares, and as casually as possible, rested her head on them. Lyra tapped the girl.
“Maria,” she whispered. “Zecora gave us this powdery stuff. Could you get us some water to activate it?” Maria nodded, and as calm as possible, slipped out of the tent. 
A few minutes later, Maria returned with a bottle of water, and two girls about her age. The last one in zipped up the tent.
“Ladies, you can come out now. These guys are my friends. I have your water.” Lyra rolled out from under the sleeping bags, while Colgate tentatively crawled out.
Two gasps from behind Maria, followed by three grins, two confused, but happy, and one satisfied. Lyra and Colgate chose to ignore the eyes that followed their every move, and retrieved the water. Colgate tore open the package with her magic. Inside it was an orange power that smelled like oranges. She then dumped the contents of the package into the bottle. 
“Looks, um, delicious?” Lyra commented. 
“Well, cheers!” Lyra stole the bottle, now filled with orange slush, and took a sip. Colgate took the bottle and did the same. She barely managed to screw the lid back on before collapsing on Lyra, who collapsed onto the sleeping bags. The three girls watched them as they lay for a while. 
Well. Maria, care to explain why there are ponies in our tent?” Katie asked after a few minutes. Allison turned her attention to Maria, also wanting to hear the story.
“Okay, okay, so I was just laying here, minding my own business, trying to shove down nausea, when all of a sudden, a heavy object just falls out of the sky on top of me!” Maria relayed the rest of the story to her friends while two mares slowly disappeared, replaced by humans.

----------------------------------

A few hours after that, two girls sat up. One was blonde with bright yellow eyes, and she was wearing a shirt that was green, teal shorts, and teal flip-flops. The shirt had a picture of Lyra confidently smiling, with a caption that said, “Anthropology.”
The other girl had brown hair, blue eyes, and a blue and white shirt that had a picture of colgate with a toothbrush. It said, “Brushie Brush Brush.” 
They opened their eyes. It was darker in the tent than it had been last. Allison woke up as well. She opened her eyes, and was surprised to find a blonde, yellow-eyed girl a few inches from her face. She jumped back.
“Sorry,” The blonde blushed. 
Allison blurted quietly, “L-Lyra?” The confused girl nodded.
“Lyra, you’re a human. And that means..” Alison sat up to look for Colgate. Instead of a pony, in Colgate’s place was another human girl. Allison nodded slowly, taking this in. She looked back at Lyra and whispered, “Okay, Lyra. Go back to sleep. We can figure out if you can walk and help you get used to being a human in the morning.” Lyra crawled back to her spot on the ground, and fell asleep.