When Twilight finally found her way to the Moon Gate, it felt as if she had once again stepped through another portal into a different world. The tranquil and beautiful atmosphere of Oogway Garden was replaced by the bustling activity of many animal citizens going about their daily lives. Most of the population seemed to contain ducks, geese, rabbits, pigs, goats and sheep. They all wore clothing and were walking around on two legs, though some were ridding on two-wheeled carts pulled by antelopes.
Twilight and Spike kept close to each other while making their way along the main road. An occasional glance at the Tonkinese cat and panda cub would be made from some of the animals they passed by. Despite the many sounds all around her, Twilight was able to pick up a faint, yet familiar, voice coming from a nearby side street.
"Oh, I'm-I'm so sorry-" The voice said with fear. "I didn't know!"
"Fluttershy?" Twilight murmured.
"Huh?" replied Spike.
Twilight motioned him to be silent and follow her, as she went towards the side street, trying to locate the voice.
"I-I just found it, and thought I should give it to her. I didn't know 'You' had dropped it!"
They turned around an alleyway corner, and saw two figures at the end of it. One was an elephant wearing a light yellow robe with cyan trimming, and a pink sash. She was trying to hide herself behind a pink parasol. The other appeared to be some type of big cat wearing a black cape and a red and golden hood.
"Well I did," said the hooded figure, whose back was towards Twilight's view, as she pointed at the elephant. "And I would've had it if You and your big nose hadn't scooped it up on me! You really shouldn't take things that don't belong to you."
Not making any eye contact, the elephant muttered softly. "It, it doesn't really belong to you either."
"Excuse Me?!!" The big cat snarled as she lunged closer to the elephant, pressing her against the wall, while brandishing a katar.
The elephant squeaked with terror at the sight of the bladed weapon only inches away from her throat. "N-nothing!" She quickly replied while slowly sliding down to the ground.
"That's what I thought!" the figure remarked.
Twilight's reaction instantly changed from shock to pure rage. The pupils in her eyes turned to thin slits, while her ears folded back and her whiskers pointed forwards. Spike also looked ready to do something.
"You're such a pathetic pachyderm." the figure continued. "It's no wonder your only friends are a bunch of parent-less children."
Finally hearing enough, Twilight emerged from around the corner, and stood in the middle of the alleyway entrance. Her shadow seemed to be towering over the two larger animals.
"How DARE you speak to her that way!" she yowled at the hooded figure.
The figure stopped and turned around towards Twilight. "What did you say?!" She growled lowly as she unsheathed the claws in her free hand.
Twilight began to walk towards the big cat as she growled back. "I said; 'How dare you speak to her that way'."
As the two cats got closer, Twilight could see more of the figure's frontal view. The reverse side of her cape was the same wavy red and golden pattern of her hood, resembling flames as she moved, and was held together by a jade brooch. She wore a sleeveless sky magenta shirt, with black trimming, and a flaming half-red-half-yellow sun. A studded black leather belt was wrapped around her waist, and a matching pair of wrist guards on her striped orange-tawny and rust-red arms. Her pants were bright orange, the lower part of her legs wrapped in light yellow cloth, and she had sandals similar to Twilight's.
Beneath the big cat's hood, her mint-green eyes reflected the morning sunlight, and large white teeth barred while growling. Twilight growled louder, as they kept slowly advancing towards each other. When the space between them was only a couple steps away, they finally stopped and stared at each other, for what seemed to last for eternity. Then the big cat stopped growling and gave a smug grin, as she flicked her tail at Twilight's nose.
"You obviously don't know who I am, do you?" The big cat asked while putting her katar away and pulling her hood back, revealing her face to have both features of a lioness and a tigress.
"No." Twilight rubbed her nose and replied. "And I could care less."
The ligress chuckled at this remark and bent down so her face met Twilight's.
"Well, you really should." she purred in amusement, then proceeded to get up and walk past Twilight. "I can talk to anyone, anyway I want."
Taking notice of a duck and a pig watching nearby, the ligress quickly moved right in front of them, and gave a threatening snarl. The pig and duck ran away screaming in panic as they tried to find a place to hide. When the on-lookers had disappeared, the ligress returned her attention on Twilight, giving the same smug expression from earlier.
"Because everyone here knows, that I can do anything I want, to anyone... who gets in my way." she growled those last five words slowly.
Twilight did not so much as flinch at this. "I've dealt with worse things than you."
"Really?" the ligress asked with mocking interest. "That's big talk for a wittle putty tat."
Suddenly a crow came flying down into the alley. It landed right beside the ligress, holding a scroll in one of its clawed feet.
"This better be important." the ligress said with annoyance for being interrupted.
The crow handed the scroll to her and replied. "Ma'am, if it wasn't, I wouldn't be here."
The ligress opened the scroll's seal with one of her claws, then proceeded to read it. This didn't last too long, as she quickly rolled it back up and returned it to the crow. There seemed to be a hint of urgency coming from her.
"Tell them I'm on my way!" She instructed. "And have all available re-enforcements sent over."
"Yes Ma'am." croaked the crow as it took off.
The ligress watched as the black bird disappeared from view, then turned towards Twilight once again.
"Consider yourself lucky that I have more pressing matters to deal with. But I Will be back looking for you to finish our little chat. So if I were you, I'd take this rare opportunity to leave as far away from this place as possible. I hear it's lovely in Mongolia this time of year." She grinned slyly after saying that last part.
With a sudden burst of speed and acrobatic skill, she leaped and climbed her way up towards the rooftop of a building facing the alley entrance.
"So until then, zaijian." she said while giving a wave-salute like gesture.
Before Twilight could figure out where she had seen that gesture before, the ligress was gone. A long silence filled the alley as she kept staring at the spot where the big cat had last been. The sound of movement from behind broke her trance, as she watched the elephant getting up.
"I can't believe you just did that!" she spoke with a mixture of shock and awe.
Twilight shrugged and replied. "I couldn't just stand there and watch!'
"Oh! Well, no- I mean- it's just that..." the elephant said as she began fidgeting with her parasol. Then she stopped, looked directly at Twilight and said sincerely. "No one's Ever stood up to Sunset Shimmer like That before."
"Sunset Shimmer?!" Twilight gasped in surprise, as she repeated the name and instinctively looked over her shoulder.
Her mind was now suddenly putting all the pieces together. The gesture, those colours, her voice, it all made sense now! Sunset Shimmer was the whole reason Twilight was here in the first place. The former student of Princess Celestia had used the portal to return to Equestria from this world, and stolen Twilight's crown! Except, in Equestria, Sunset Shimmer had been a unicorn, while in this world she was now a...
"You've heard of her?" the elephant asked.
"Sort of." Twilight admitted.
"I don't think I've ever seen you around here before." said the elephant as she briefly looked down at her feet.
Realizing neither one knew each others' name yet, Twilight meowed cheerfully. "I'm Twilight Sparkle by the way."
The elephant, whom Twilight had mentally referred to her as Elephant Fluttershy, glanced at Twilight for a moment before replying very softly. "I'm...I'm Feiwuni."
Twilight pricked her ears up as she moved a bit closer. "Sorry, what was that?"
"I'm Feiwuni." Said the elephant in that very soft tone again.
"Didn't really quite get that." Twilight meowed as she moved closer again.
"It's Feiwuni!" the elephant squeaked while using the pink parasol to hide her face.
Twilight took a few steps back to give Feiwuni some space. "You know, this is probably gonna sound crazy, but you remind me of someone I know."
The parasol came down slightly. Feiwuni looked at Twilight, then towards the alley entrance, where Spike had just appeared from his hiding place. Her expression instantly changed from timid to ecstatic.
"Oh My Goodness!" she squealed with glee as she rushed towards Spike.
"Aaaaah!" Twilight screamed, just barely getting out of the way from the one-elephant stampede.
Spike quickly began to back up when Feiwuni stopped right in front of him.
"Who's This little guy?" She asked while kneeling down to have a closer look at the panda cub.
Twilight emerged from between two baskets and replied back. "That's Spike. He's...Uh..My little panda."
A sudden gasp of delight came from the elephant. "You mean, you adopted him?!" She asked while turning around to face Twilight.
"I guess you could say that." Twilight answered sheepishly.
"Oh, that is so amazing!" Feiwuni focused her attention back on Spike, beaming a large smile on her face, while petting him with her trunk. "I have never seen a baby panda this close before. He's Soooooo Cute."
"Well, well." Spike said smugly, in the same way he had done when Fluttershy had first met him. "Talk about deja vu."
"Oooh, and he talks too!" Feiwuni rummaged her trunk inside a bag she had been carrying, and pulled out a saucer-sized cookie. "Would you like an almond cookie?"
Spike's eyes appeared to bulge out while he stared at the cookie and licked his lips. "Yeeessss, Pleeeeeeeease."
"Such nice manners." Feiwuni cooed sweetly and gave the cookie to him. "Here you go."
"Wow. It's, it's a really Big cookie." Spike gazed at it for a moment, before eating it noisily. "Umm! Num-Nom-Num!"
Feiwuni sighed as she spoke to Twilight. "You must feel really lucky to have him."
"Oh yeah." Twilight purred in agreement. "I don't know what I'd do without him."
Twilight realized that now was the perfect moment to get some answers from Feiwuni. "Sunset Shimmer had mentioned earlier you had something that she claimed was hers. Something really important. It wasn't a crown by any chance was it?"
Feiwuni had been only half-listening to Twilight, while she was petting Spike and giving him more cookies. When the crown was mentioned, she stopped what she was doing entirely, and turned to Twilight in pure amazement.
"How did You know that?"
"Uh, lucky guess, hehe." Twilight quickly replied and then asked anxiously. "Do you still have it?"
"Bu." was all that Feiwuni replied as she shook her head.
Taking that as a 'no', Twilight felt disappointed at first. However, she pressed on. "But you do know what happened to it?"
"Shi." A nodding head came from the elephant this time. "Earlier this morning, I was outside Oogway Garden's Moon Gate giving out volunteer fliers for Yinghuo Orphanage, like I do every Wednesday. But, like almost every other Wednesday, no one took any of my fliers. That of course made me upset and disappointed, since the orphanage really needs more volunteers, and I always couldn't seem to get anyone's attention.
I went to sit down behind one of the two stone Guardian lions, and started to cry, when something hard and metallic hit me on the head. After saying 'Ow' and rubbing my head, I looked around to see a strange little golden crown, with a purple star-shaped jewel, lying nearby. Picking it up with my trunk, I had a closer look at it. I don't know where it came from, but I knew it looked very important. So I went over to see Master Lian, and gave it to her for safe keeping."
"Master Lian?" Twilight repeated the name. "Is she like the ruler around here?"
"She's the Land of Harmony's senior Kung Fu master," Feiwuni answered. "Along with her sister, Master Ming-Yue, if that's what you mean."
"Where can I find her?" Twilight asked.
"At the Palace of Blooming Lotus." the elephant replied as she got up.
"Well that's good to know," Spike remarked, while rubbing cookie crumbs off his face. "We were just heading there anyways."
"Thanks." Twilight said to Feiwuni, as she and Spike started heading down the side-street.
"You're welcome.' Feiwuni called back to them. "Oh, Wait!"
Twilight and Spike stopped and looked back at Feiwuni.
"Yes?" They both asked at the same time.
"Umm," Feiwuni began, as she twirled her parasol nervously. "If it's alright with you- I mean- when you're done seeing Master Lian that is...Would you like to have lunch with me later? Unless of course, you have other plans, which is also fine, "
"I'm sure we can arrange that." Twilight mewed cheerfully.
"Oh, really? Yay!" Feiwuni started clapping her large round flat forelegs together, just like how a pony would have done. "I wanted to thank you for what you did back there. Does lunch at Jade Hare noodle-shop sound good to you?"
"Okay." Twilight replied, then started to head towards the main road. Then she realized she didn't know where Jade Hare noodle-shop was. So she stopped, and turned back to ask Feiwuni the directions. Before she could ask, Feiwuni started giving them to her.
"It's the last building on your right, towards the Palace, before you reach the bridge. It will also be the building with the most decorations for the Autumn Moon Festival. You can't miss it."
"Thanks." Twilight said.
Just then, the distant sound of a bell could be heard.
"Oh my goodness! I forgot," Feiwuni gasped in realization. "I'm late! The children are probably starting to worry about me or something."
Spike and Twilight moved aside to allow Feiwuni to pass through.
"See you around the Hour of the Horse." she added before she went down the main road in the direction Twilight and Spike had come from.
The two of them watched as the crowd immediately began to part away, for the on-coming elephant with the yellow robe and pink parasol.
"Excuse me! Sorry! Thank you! Pardon me! Sorry!" Feiwuni kept saying, until she finally turned along a side street, and was out of sight.
"Well that certainly was interesting." Twilight noted, as she and Spike proceeded to continue their journey towards the Palace of Blooming Lotus.