Grace turned to see a yellow pegasus mare standing in the doorway. She wore a blank expression, and scanned the room. For a few moments, nopony said anything. Then, as her eyes found Grace, the pegasus blinked a few times, her eyes growing wider with each blink, then
“Oh, wow!” the pegasus exclaimed in an excited tone. Using both her wings and legs she darted forward, bumping Twilight out of the way. Then she began—as though she had not just knocked her aside like a bowling pin—asking where Twilight had found Grace
.
Pinkie and Grace winced as poor Twilight landed head-first on a pile of books, causing them to scatter from their semi-neat piling into full-mess mode. Twilight popped up with her eyes rolling in her sockets and a book speared on her horn. She seemed not to notice the book for the moment and she pushed herself to her hooves, swaying a little.
Twilight shook her head to clear it and then frowned at the newcomer, who was still examining Grace, from her over-sized fuzzy paws to her bushy tail. Grace was smiling just as enthusiastically, and she grabbed the excited pony in her paws and pulled her close, rubbing her fuzzy head against the newcomer’s pink mane, and prodding with her antennae.d she grabbed the excited pony in her paws and pulled her close, rubbing her fuzzy head against the newcomer’s pink mane.
“Hi!” Grace chuckled. “Nice to meet you.”
The pegasus gasped loud, and pressed against Grace’s chest with her soft hooves. Grace let her go and she stumbled backward.
“It can talk. Oh, my. I’ve never met an animal that could speak equine before.” The yellow pegasus stood and gazed at Grace through glossy—and very sparkly—eyes, her mouth hanging loosely.
“Ugh, she’s not an animal, you idiot,” A gruff voice called from somewhere behind the yellow pegasus. “Clearly she’s a pony who’s been morphed into a giant squirrel form by Twilight. I mean, come on!” The pegasus turned toward a small white rabbit beside her that Grace hadn’t noticed before.
“What’s that, Angelbunny?” the pegasus asked. “You say she’s really a pony?”
“Actually, yeah,” Grace replied, reverting back to her pony form. The yellow pegasus’s eyes went wide, while ‘Angelbunny’ just rolled his. Grace then looked down at Angelbunny. “Although, I designed this form myself. Twilight didn’t do anything to me.”
“You can understand me?!” Angelbunny and the yellow pegasus exclaimed simultaneously.
“You can understand him?!”Angelbunny and the yellow pegasus exclaimed simultaneously.
Even Angelbunny’s eyes were as wide as they would go.
Twilight, Spike and Pinkie Pie all joined the chorus after that. Apparently, it wasn’t common in to be able to communicate with animals this world either.
“Well, yeah. I’ve always been able to communicate with animals,” Grace said, shrugging.
“Oh,” The yellow pegasus replied. “I thought I was the only one.” She had collapsed onto the ground, shaking slightly. Her eyes were avoiding Grace’s gaze, although her mane blocked most of her face anyway.
Grace walked up to her, slowly. “Well, I am part squirrel.” The shivering stopped.
The yellow pegasus looked up at her. “Squirrel?”
Grace smiled, closing her eyes for a moment. “Yup. Name’s Grace.” She extended a hoof.
“Oh, um... Fluttershy,” the yellow pegasus cooed in such a soft voice that Grace could barely hear her.
Grace’s eye’s got big and sparkly again, and her mouth opened wide. “Fluttershy?! Oh, my gosh. It’s so great to meet you.Pinkie said you’d be so fun to meet. I can’t wait to see your other little woodland friends too.” She grabbed Fluttershy and hugged her again, almost as tightly as she had Pinkie Pie earlier. Fluttershy, however, seemed to go limp in her would be arms.
At this point, Twilight stepped in. “I guess I forgot to mention when you walked in, Fluttershy. This is Grace, she’s the pony who’ll be staying with you until we can find a way to send her back to her world.
~ ~ ~
While Twilight and gang were familiarizing themselves with the accidentally-interdimensional traveler, one nosy mint-green Unicorn was watching and from a window. She had known there was something odd about this newcomer from the second she'd seen her, but she didn't know what it was. This 'Grace' seemed like a normal enough Unicorn at first glance, but upon a second, the window-watcher discovered something about the newcomer's shadow: it did not match her body.
For some reason, even when this 'Grace' was walking on all fours, her shadow strode along with her in a similar fashion to a minotaur. Grace's shadow's back hooves connected together, but her fore-hoofs did not. In fact, they did not look like hoofs at all, and the rest of the shadow-body walked upright, also like a minotaur.
The main difference between a minotaur and this shadow, though, was that the head lacked horns, and possessed a mane on its head. The rear hoofs were also much larger than those of any creature she'd seen, and lastly, it seemed to be wearing ,garments, which Grace was not.
“What are you, stranger?” she murmured. “Your shadow is familiar, but—”
Just then, Grace transformed into her regular form, and the window-watcher's eyes grew very wide. Her shadow now fit her body, and her body was very similar to something she'd seen in a book from her 'History of Mythology' class back when she was still a foal.
“No. Way.”
Her body wasn't the same as the drawings in the book because of the giant bushy tail, as well as the ears being the wrong shape and she was covered in fur, but it was close. Perhaps the myth had gotten the form wrong? Whatever the reason, this was something she needed to investigate, and the best way to do that was—
“Lyra, what are you doing?”
“GYAH!”
Lyra nearly jumped out of her skin, tripping over her hooves as she struggled for balance. She collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath. Her room mate, Bon Bon, stood behind her, wearing a quizzical look on her face. Lyra gathered herself up, and trotted quickly in place.
“Bonbon, you're not going to believe this, but Twilight's got a real live alien in the library!”
Bonbon raised an eyebrow. “An alien.” Bonbon stated, skeptically.
“Yes!” Lyra squeaked, nodding rapidly.
“In Twilight Sparkle's library.”
“Yes!”
“Twilight Sparkle has an alien in her library.”
“YES! Just look!” Lyra insisted, waving a hoof at her and motioning at the window. “It looks like one of those Anthro-things back in mythology class! This one looks like a squirrel! Take a peek!” She indicated the set of binoculars she had mounted in front of the shades.
Bonbon rolled her eyes and walked toward the window. Looking through the binoculars, she saw Twilight, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie standing inside around another pony. She was unfamiliar to Bonbon, and had a brown coat with very large bangs on her mane, but was otherwise unremarkable, and certainly not an alien. Bonbon sighed, and looked over her shoulder at Lyra through half closed lids.
“Heartstrings.”
“Yes?”
“I don't know what you're smoking, but I want some of it.” Lyra blinked.
“Huh?”
“There is a pony in there that I've never seen before, and her choice of mane-style is certainly original, but she's hardly an alien.”
“But- but-!” Lyra pushed Bonbon out from in front of the window and peered inside again. Just as Bonbon had said, there was no alien. And also as she'd said, there was a pony she'd never seen before. Funny thing was, the pony was standing in the same place the alien had, and it had the same color fur as well.
Magic, maybe? An illusion?