//------------------------------// // Recollections // Story: New Generations and Friends // by A Random Guy //------------------------------// The walk back home was short. Once they got back, Murphy immediately took Zelda and Twilight to the pet store. It had occurred to him that they were completely unprepared to keep a horse of any kind in their house. He hoped that the pet store had some people that had some knowledge of horse care. Given that he had an alicorn on his hands, even the most rudimentary advice would be helpful. The problem he had at the store wasn’t that no one knew anything about horse care; rather no one would talk to him about horse care because they were too bewildered by a mythical creature coming into the store. It was a franchise pet shop, the kind that hired part-timers as well as in-house vets and groomers. Upper management prefers that these employees stayed busy. Despite that, they all dropped what they were doing, in some cases literally, to get a look at Twilight. For Zelda, the sudden mass attention came in like a tsunami, and she dove right in. She embellished the truth a little, saying she saved Twilight from a speeding bus. For Murphy, it was a hassle trying to get someone away from the alicorn long enough to tell him how to take care of her. One of the vets noted that Twilight acted more like a human baby than a regular foal, and recommended getting baby food. Murphy thought it sounded reasonable, and it matched up with his experience with Equestrian babies. The vet also added a comment about diapers before going back to cooing over the alicorn. Once Murphy pulled Zelda away from the attention, he stopped by the general store to pick up basic supplies. He took a moment to put Twilight in a diaper before an incident could happen, which he thanked himself for doing a minute later. After one messy clean up, they were off driving back home. “That was an adventure and a half,” Murphy said as they walked through the front door. “Kind of like the old days.” “Welcome home, Twilight,” Zelda said as she tailed behind her daddy. “Now I can actually give you a tour.” She put down Twilight on the floor, who crawled around on her own, possibly looking for ways to get into trouble. Murphy noticed that the alicorn’s crawl was very similar to a human’s crawl. “Guess that vet was on to something,” he thought. “This is the living room,” Zelda said as she followed Twilight around. “This is where our family watches TV.” “Which you won’t be watching until you’re done with your homework,” Murphy added. Zelda rolled her eyes. “I know, Dad. You don’t have to keep on reminding me.” Murphy watched as Zelda followed Twilight around the room. The alicorn glanced all over the place, curious about everything. She went to the TV cupboard and tried to open it up with her hooves. Zelda opened it up for her. Twilight crawled inside and tossed several CD cases out behind her. “Pull her out of there,” Murphy said, “She’s making a mess.” Zelda did as she was told, pulling the alicorn out of the cupboards and setting her down on the couch. “No Twilight, we don’t make messes in this house.” Twilight looked up at Zelda for a moment, then turned around and took off for the hallway. Zelda paced behind her, determined to make sure the alicorn didn’t get into trouble. “Keep her out of the kitchen,” Murphy said. “There’s a bunch of things she might hurt herself with in there.” “Okay, Dad,” Zelda replied. “Do you want to go in my room? I got a bunch of toys in my room.” “And don’t forget your homework,” he reminded. As his daughter led the alicorn down the hall, Murphy took the liberty of plopping down on the couch. It had been a long day for him, considering he added an extra couple hours to it in Equestria. He lazily picked up the remote and turned on the TV. “I hope they’ll be fine alone together,” Murphy thought as he browsed through the channels. “Ponies are resilient. I don’t think Zelda can do any real harm. And Twilight’s just a baby, so she won’t be doing anything in return.” He skipped passed the public broadcasting and skimmed through the basic cable options. “So there’s unicorn Twilight, and alicorn Twilight. Wait, Twilight’s an alicorn now, too. So, Baby Twilight and Mama Twilight instead? Heh, she’ll get a kick out of that one.” After perusing basic cable, he ended up on the sports sections. “Holy cow, this is going to get confusing. Maybe Twilight will have an answer for it, or maybe Pinkie Pie will come up with something random we can use, who knows? I’ll stop by tomorrow to ask. Dang it Zelda, why do you make it complicated?” He paused in his channel flipping when he reached a particular name on the guide. “No, it can’t be.” The channel he stopped on had a show that caught his eye, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. He knew that My Little Pony existed before he went to Equestria. It was a little show that was there to advertise playsets to young girls. He never watched it, and he never made a connection between the Equestrian ponies and the show ponies. And here it was, on his TV guide, waiting to be selected. Out of pure curiosity, he clicked the channel. Within minutes, he realized he wouldn’t get anything done that evening. <><><><><> “I’m home,” a voice called out, followed by a shutting door. “Hey, honey, how was your day?” Murphy looked behind the couch to see his wife, Janet, hanging up her coat in the closet. “It was all over the place,” he answered, “But fun. How was yours?” “Ah, boss was a butthead again today.” “Sorry to hear that,” Murphy said as he looked back at the TV screen. Janet shrugged as she headed for the hallway, but stopped behind the couch. “Is that… My Little Pony?” “Yep,” Murphy stated without looking away. “Rarity is making dresses for all her friends for the Grand Galloping Gala.” Janet stared down at her husband for a moment. “You’re watching a show for girls, you know that, right?” Murphy shrugged. “It does feel weird. But I think it’s a déjà vu type of weird.” Murphy paused for a moment to let out a breath as he watched the musical number. “Now I see why she was so stressed back then.” “How long have you been watching this?” Janet asked. “About an hour,” Murphy replied. “I found it on Netflix.” “Alight… I’ll get dinner started then,” she said as she walked down the hall. “Have fun with that,” Murphy said. The show reached the scene where Rarity was showing off her dresses to that one fashion pony. But of course, he rejects them because she listened to her friends who knew nothing about fashion. Though, Fluttershy may have been an exception, but she only knew stuff about sowing. He remembered this from his time in Equestria, but he wasn’t part of the dress making process. He was a part of the audience, giving support to his friends but not partaking in the Gala business. The whole Grand Galloping Gala didn’t appeal to him. Instead he got a pleasant night to himself while the girls went off to do their own thing in Canterlot. Murphy paid attention to none of the intricacies of the events leading to the big event. After watching this episode, he didn’t regret his decision. As the episode began to reach its climax, he heard Janet walking through the hallway and up to behind the couch. “Murphy, you know there’s a unicorn in a diaper playing with Zelda.” Murphy nodded. “Actually, she’s an alicorn. We found her today.” “And did you notice that it looks a little like the ponies in the show you’re watching?” “Yeah… I know a guy,” Murphy said, turning around to look up at his wife. “Like I said, my day was all over the place, but fun.” “Is… it safe to play with Zelda?” Janet asked with a concerned tone. “Trust me, they’re both fine,” he reassured her. “The person I know made sure they wouldn’t harm each other.” Janet didn’t look all that reassured. “You do realize there’s a fictional creature playing with our daughter right now? Is that getting into your skull?” “Don’t worry. The Home Owner’s Association doesn’t restrict mythical creatures. I checked.” Janet didn’t seem to respond. Instead, she turned around and walked back into the hallway, presumably to go cook dinner. Murphy turned back to the TV, where the show’s credits started rolling. <><><><><> The next day was the weekend, so no one had to go to work or school that day. Murphy usually spent his weekends sleeping till noon, like reasonable people do. A hard fact of life he learnt from becoming a parent is that small children aren’t reasonable people. They will get up early in the morning and make enough noise to drown out an atomic bomb going off in your house. With one child and one pony in the house, the noise only doubled. Once they woke up, the idea of sleep couldn’t be conceived for the morning. Instead, Murphy got out of bed, made himself some coffee, and plopped on the couch. He continued his activities from the previous night, watching a show about mythical creatures based on Greek legends marketed at a young female audience. It felt weird watching the show for a few reasons. One reason was that he could recall a time when he, and his elementary and middle school friends, would make fun of these girly type shows. Care Bears, Strawberry Short Cake, Jem and the Holograms, and of course the old My Little Pony. Back then, they were girly things not worthy of actually watching in fear of being called a girl. Those were naïve times. Another weird thing about watching the show was how it all felt familiar, but felt wrong without him being there. Most of the episodes depicted the same events he experienced in his time in Equestria, just without him. The dragon episode, for instance, didn’t go as smoothly as the show described it. Murphy was there, fifteen years younger, and had broken a rock off the ceiling and dropped it on the dragon’s head. The dragon wasn’t happy about it. It proceeded to tear up the entire mountain before Fluttershy subdued it. In Murphy’s opinion, the cartoon didn’t come close to showing how impressive Fluttershy looked lecturing a rampaging dragon. Fortunately for Equestria, that was only one of the few mishaps Murphy created. He did more good than harm. Like the time they visited Appleloosa, and a war almost broke out between the buffalo and ponies. Murphy managed to solve the problem before the battle even started. He suggested to both sides that the buffalo were to run through the central town road, then make a festival out of it. Both of them agreed to the idea and made peace. It was a good thing too, because they had real spears and weapons as opposed to apple pies. After those two episodes, Murphy skipped the ones he was supposed to be a big part of. He jumped around to episodes that sounded like he wasn’t there to witness the events. Any episode that mentioned the Grand Galloping Gala was on that list. He knew Fluttershy had a short fashion model career, but he didn’t pay attention to it. Watching the episode were Pinkie Pie freaked out over Gummy’s birthday party was like opening a wound. Murphy was part of the surprise party. He saw that she had a bit of a mental breakdown, but didn’t realize the extent of it before watching this episode. The rest of the morning went on like this until Zelda asked to take Baby Twilight to the park. He agreed, and Janet went along with them. She was curious about the new alicorn in the family, and wanted to see her in action. They spent the rest of the afternoon at the public playground. Zelda led Twilight around the playset, and Murphy and Janet kept a close eye on them. The rest of the afternoon went on like this until they went home. The next day was similar. Murphy woke up and finished watching the Grand Galloping Gala episode. He almost left but then realized that there were still three more seasons left of the series. He continued on, skipping the season premier with Discord. He didn’t need to relive that again. One of the episodes of the day was about the time when the Baby Cakes were born. He wasn’t involved much with the Cake family, though from what Pinkie had told him he gathered they had the best job in the world. After becoming a parent, he found that claim utterly true and utterly bogus at the same time, and found the episode incredibly relatable. A thought crossed his mind about Twilight, Mama Twilight that is, as he watched Lesson Zero. She had wings the last time he met her. Would this series show how she got her wings? Twilight didn’t go in depth on what happened. And if that was the case, would the series show all the events that happened while he was gone. He continued watching up to the episode with the Cutie Mark Crusaders and their questionable news article business. He remembered they published something about him that humans do normally, and privately, that ponies found disgusting, but couldn’t for the life of him remember what it was. He did remember that it happened shortly before he left to go back to his home world. The next day was Monday, when everyone had to go back to work or school. No one had thought out who would take care of Baby Twilight while everyone was gone. Impulsively, Murphy volunteered to take her with him to work until they can find a babysitting service or daycare that would accept irregular requests. The drive to work went well. Murphy managed to fit Baby Twilight into Zelda’s old car seat. He packed extra diapers and baby food, just in case, and packed several toys to keep her occupied. It was the slow time of year for his work, so he wasn’t worried about her being too much of a distraction. They arrived at his work a few minutes before Murphy needed to be there. He worked at an architectural firm, a small branch of a larger company. The building he worked at was small, consisting of several offices, a main entranceway, and a break room. They entered into the main entrance, where Murphy led Baby Twilight to his office in the back. His other coworkers hadn’t arrived yet, so it was a quiet affair compared to other public places Twilight went. They entered his office. Murphy pulled out several of Twilight’s toys and spread them across the floor. She looked at them for a little bit, but ignored them and went to the drawers of his desk. Murphy pulled her away before she could open them and placed her in the center of the toys. She sat there until he sat down, and then rushed back to the drawer. Murphy let her open the drawer this time as he booted his computer up. “What harm could a baby pony do?” he thought to himself. He started working on his company’s latest project, ignoring the file-sifting Baby Twilight. She finished searching the drawer, then left it open as she went to another drawer. This continued on until Baby Twilight had opened every drawer, cupboard, and receptacle in the room. When she was done, she went to the toy pile and picked up a yellow plastic ball. Murphy didn’t bother closing everything she opened. He was too busy with his work. Fifteen minutes had passed. Murphy was in the middle of trisecting an angle with a digital compass and straight edge when he heard a popping sound come out of nowhere. He looked up just in time to be blinded by a flash of light. The light sputtered out, leaving two adult sized ponies in the middle of the office. “Murphy! How’s it going” said one of the ponies. “I knew this would work.” He uncovered his eyes to see who the two ponies were. To his lack of surprise, the first speaker turned out to be Twilight, Mama Twilight. The second pony was a grey, wall-eyed pegasus that he had a few clumsy run ins with back in Equestria. Murphy quickly saved his work and smiled at the visitors. “Oh, hey Twilight. Hey Ditzy.” The pegasus gave a goofy grin at the mention of her name. “Glad to have you here. So, what brings you to my neck of the woods?” “You’re not going to ask how we got here?” Mama Twilight asked. Murphy shrugged. “Magic, I guess. You found a mystical artifact in a cave somewhere and used that?” “Close, I actually pinpointed your watch’s location. That thing has a huge emittance signature that’s hard to ignore. By using a preexisting portal and rewiring it to take us”- Ditzy nudged the alicorn in the side, interrupting her explanation. “Or I can tell you about it later. I have great news!” “Is the news that you can use my watch to travel between worlds at your own will?” Murphy said. “I was wondering how you would do it.” “By extension, sort of. Turns out there are a bunch of laws in the cosmic universe that restrict travel between worlds. I didn’t know that until you”- Twilight forced herself to stop. “I’ll get to that in a bit.” “So the good news?” “Yes, I looked into what you asked me the other day, and I found something that can work out.” “Oh, I thought you already took care of that.” Twilight seemed a bit taken back. “No… That’s what I’m doing right now.” “Oh, don’t be modest.” Murphy pointed behind Twilight. “Really, I can’t thank you enough for this little cutie.” “Cutie?” Twilight turned around and looked down at the pile of toys. Baby Twilight looked up at Mama Twilight, giving her a big smile as she played with a ball. “Zelda loves playing with her,” Murphy said. “You didn’t send a name with her, so Zelda took the liberty of naming her Twilight Sparkle.” “Uh, wah?” Twilight stuttered. “I personally call her Baby Twilight, for obvious reasons. So, where’d you find a baby alicorn? I thought there were only three adults in Equestria.” Twilight stood staring at the infant. “Murphy… I don’t even know who this alicorn is.” “Then she’s an orphan? Holy- I had no idea! Did”- The adult alicorn snapped back around, interrupting Murphy. “I didn’t send her! I didn’t think baby alicorns even existed. Even if they did, why in the world would I choose to send a child of a rare species to a strange world alone as opposed to a responsible adult?!” “I”- Murphy paused. “Oh crap, we have an MIA alicorn on our hands.” “Oh crap indeed,” Twilight echoed. “Okay, let’s get to the facts. How did you find… Baby Twilight?” “Found her in a box shortly after I got back from Equestria. And now, well…” Murphy pointed at Baby Twilight again. “She’s just here. I thought she was the pony you sent for Zelda’s birthday.” “No, I came here to tell you Ditzy was going to be that pony.” Twilight waved a hoof around the aforementioned pegasus, who smiled back. “She’s cheerful, good with kids, shock-absorbent. I believe she’s a great candidate for the job.” “That’s good. Ditzy, I’m glad you’re willing to help me out.” Ditzy excitedly flapped her wings. “That situation is taken care of. Now what are we going to do about Baby Twilight?” Everyone looked at the alicorn on the floor, who bit down hard on a plastic teething ring. They stood there for a moment, watching the tyke do her thing. Before anyone said something, a loud knock came from the doorway. “Hey Murphy! How’s your weekend? Boy, did I have a doozy at that conference. Things”- A large portly man stood in the doorway. His jaw dropped at the sight of three mythical creatures in front of Murphy’s desk. “Murphy, are these ponies in your office?” the man stuttered. Murphy cleared his throat. “Yes, John, these are ponies in my office.” He pointed at the alicorn. “This is Twilight, and that’s”- “Holy crap it’s Derpy Hooves!” John burst out. “They can’t be real. They look so real! Are they real?” Twilight stared at this newcomer as he gawked over them. “Uh, I’m a thinking equine, so logic dictates that makes me real.” Murphy nodded to the pegasus. “Also, that’s Ditzy Doo. She finds the other name a bit offensive.” John put a hand over his heart. “I am so sorry for saying that, Miss Doo. I didn’t know what came over me.” Ditzy shrugged, as if saying it wasn’t too big of a deal. “Anyways,” John continued, “How the heck did you get The Twilight Sparkle and The Der- sorry- Ditzy Doo in your office?” “We teleported in,” Twilight said. “We’re only visiting for a little bit. I see Murphy has talked a lot about us.” “Oh no, not at all,” John said. “I know about you from My Little Pony!” “Er, what?” Twilight asked. “You watch that show?” Murphy asked. John nodded vigorously. “Oh yeah. There’s a whole community of adults who watch My Little Pony. We call ourselves Bronies!” Murphy leaned back in his chair. “There’s a name for that?” “John,” Twilight said, “Could we have a moment? It’s nice meeting you, but we were discussing something important.” “Sure, by all means. Sorry for barging in.” John looked at Murphy. “Hey, there’s a club down at the Rec Center for Bronies. You should come down.” “I’ll probably pass,” Murphy replied. “Suit yourself,” John said as he left. Everyone in the room waited till they couldn’t hear Johns footsteps down the hall. When it was silent, Twilight spoke again. “Okay, about Baby Twilight. I’ll talk with Celestia, see if there’s any work of a missing baby alicorn. There’s probably some multiversal law we have to follow in an event like this.” “Sounds reasonable,” Murphy said. “Until then, take care of her. I know Zelda might be upset that Baby Twilight will be leaving, but Ditzy’s still available, if that’s fine.” “Zelda should understand. She knew it’s a temporary thing.” Murphy looked at Ditzy. “Are you alright with this kind of insanity? I have a feeling there’s more people like John out there.” Ditzy nodded and gave the same goofy smile she was giving for the entire time. Twilight nodded as well. “This is all weird.” “What’s weird?” Murphy asked. “The trans-dimensional party gift? The alicorn popping out of nowhere? Me mistaking the alicorn as the party gift? John? Pick and choose the weirdest. Oddly enough, it’s not that different from when I was in Ponyville.” Twilight shrugged. “To be fair, Ponyville is probably weirder now than it ever has been.” Time was wrapping up for the office party. Twilight and Murphy exchanged goodbyes and hugs, while Ditzy and Murphy exchanged hand/hoofshakes. Before long, the two ponies popped out of existence, leaving Murphy and Baby Twilight alone once again. “Well, now that was a thing,” Murphy thought. “Back to work. Freaking trisections won’t do themselves.” A knock at the doorway interrupted his thoughts. “So, Murphy, can I talk with the ponies?” “They just left the universe, John.” “Drat. Can you at least tell me”- Murphy held up a finger. “John, please let me do my trisections.” <><><><><> The rest of the day went by quickly. There wasn’t anything Murphy could do about the whole alicorn situation, so he continued on with his business as usual. He got his trisections done, made some progress of a project his company threw at him, and clocked off around three like he usually did. The drive home was clear of traffic, which Murphy always enjoyed. Baby Twilight seemed to enjoy it as well. Murphy checked the rear-view mirror to see her snoozing away in the car seat. He had to stop himself from instinctively putting some Tool or Rob Zombie on the car radio. Instead, he threw on Lou Bega and kept the volume turned down low. There was no way he would miss out on cruising down a light-traffic road without something energetic playing. As Mambo Number 5 played away, he noted how odd it was having an alicorn sleeping in the backseat. “How the heck did you end up here anyways?” Murphy thought. “An alicorn of the MIA variety. No one knows where you came from, yet I have you in a car seat driving down a highway as if it was normal. How the heck did that happen?” Twilight didn’t answer his thoughts. Instead she kept on sleeping through the rest of the drive. By the time Murphy finished humming along to The Most Expensive Girl, they had already pulled into the driveway. “We’re home,” Murphy said as he turned off the car. “Time to get up.” Twilight yawned as Murphy unbuckled the seat and took her out of the car. Once they walked inside the house, she was wide awake and bouncing in his arms. Murphy knelt down by the couch and released Baby Twilight. “Alright, off you go. Don’t get into trouble.” The alicorn held tight on his wrist as he put her down. Murphy tried to pull back, but she kept a tight grip on his watch with her hooves. “Can you let go please?” Despite his pleading, she wouldn’t let go. Murphy didn’t notice earlier that day, but this was the watch that took him to Equestria. He had a few other watches, which he mostly wore for style. Who needs a clock on your wrist when you have one on your phone? Today of all days he decided to put it on. He hardly even wore this specific one on regular occasions. But today, the day a couple of Equestrians dropped by in his office, he had put it on. And now Baby Twilight was tugging at it hard. “Alright, if you stop pulling on it, I’ll let you play around with it.” Oddly enough, the baby alicorn understood this. She loosened her grip, letting Murphy have his arm back. He undid the watch’s strap and held it out in front of Twilight. “This is very special to me. It’s very magical and holds a lot of memories. Please don’t lose it.” He handed it to the baby alicorn, who took it in her teeth by the strap. She turned to the hallway and scampered down to the farthest room as fast as her baby legs could take her. After she disappeared around a corner, Murphy plopped down on the couch and switched on the TV. “Why do I regret doing that now?” After navigating the TV guide, then flipping over to Netflix, he found himself looking at where he’d left off on My Little Pony. He had the house to himself for the afternoon. Janet was with Zelda at karate practice and wouldn’t be back till the evening. Murphy planned to enjoy the quiet as long as he could. If anything, Baby Twilight would need some business taken care of, but that’s just how infancy goes. He noticed the title of the next episode on the list. “Canterlot Wedding, Part 1,” he read in his head. “I don’t remember a wedding. I guess this picks up from when I left Equestria.” He hit play, and the episode started. The episode began as normal. Pleasant music, the ladies having a picnic, Spike running in with a letter from Celestia that would kick-start the plot. He had become familiar with this process long before he knew this show existed. The part he didn’t expect was the big reveal the Twilight had a brother. “Duh duh duhn!” Murphy thought. “She has a brother! Who’s getting married! I wonder if Baby Twilight has a brother she’s not telling me about. Now that I think about it, did Twilight ever talk about her family?” As the show went on, from the train ride to meeting the bride and groom to be, he wondered when Twilight talked about her family at all. She never mentioned what her parents did, nor did she mention anything about this alicorn babysitter she had as a kid. “What the heck Twilight. I thought alicorns were rare. Then again, I’ve been dealing with two alicorns for the past couple of days. Freaking family problems.” And now that he thought of it, the other mares never brought up their parents. All this time they spent together and they never talk about what their families do, unless those relations came up and talked about stuff. Was it a social taboo in Equestria not to talk about families? Then again, he never brought up his own family out of nowhere when he was in high school. He had been thinking about this in the back of his head as he watched the rest of the episode play out. Twilight freaking out over a bride she thought was evil because the alicorn ex-babysitter was a bit of a stuck up jerk. “Twilight, if you’re suspicious, then I’m suspicious too. But people and ponies change, sometimes for the worst.” Her friends seemed to chalk it up to pre-wedding stress, which Murphy could understand. Janet was not the most pleasant person to spend time with as their own wedding day drew near. “Pre-marital stress, geez, gets everyone I guess.” The episode was enjoyable so far, but he couldn’t decide if Twilight was right or not. She had some valid points, but everyone else did as well. Then the alicorn-brainwashing-the-brother scene popped up. “Yep, green flames equals evil. Zecora made that point clear when I broke her brewing pot thing.” The rest of the episode seemed to point to this being a coincidence, but Murphy was on Twlight’s side now. “Alright, maybe green isn’t all evil, but I heard the dramatic music in that scene. I’m not dumb, show writers.” Murphy felt he was right next to Twilight, trying to support her but remaining unheard. As the episode reached its climax at the wedding rehearsal, he still stuck by her side, even though her friends walked away disappointed at her. He almost went with them when the ex-babysitter showed some sympathy towards Twilight, but that went away when green fire came out of her eyes and she banished Twilight to the underworld. To be continued! “Called it!” Murphy yelled out. “Green flames equals evil! Hear that, Baby Twilight? Green flames are evil!” He didn’t know if she heard him, or understood him, but he didn’t care. Boy, did he miss out on some awesome stuff when he left Equestria. “On to part two!” He clicked play, and came across a crystal cave. Villain taunting, real ex-babysitter revealed, big song to give emphasize evilness of imposter and show sympathy towards real pony. This seemed all too familiar to Murphy, though the singing in a minecart wasn’t. The song then transitioned right into the wedding. “Oh, the evil imposter is going to get it now!” “Put your hands up and stand up!” a heavy voice yelled behind Murphy’s head. “That isn’t from the show,” Murphy thought. Something inside him told his body that it would be in his best interest to do as the voice said. He stood up, put his hands up, and out of pure curiosity, turned around. “Don’t you dare move a muscle!” The voice yelled again. Murphy stopped turning midway through the action. He crammed his head to the side to see who yelled, but no one was behind him. “On behalf of the Multiverse Investigation Authority, you are under arrest!” This time, the voice sounded like it came from the ground. Murphy looked down behind the couch, careful to not make any sudden movements. At the entrance to the hallway stood Baby Twilight, who had the angriest face he had ever seen. It would have been kind of cute, if it weren’t for the submachine gun that she held, primed and aimed at Murphy. Murphy stuttered at the sight of the gun. “Uh… what’s going on?” Baby Twilight’s mouth moved, and the heavy voice came out of it. “I’m agent Rodney of the MIA. You’re being charged with possession of contraband dimensional items.” “Er… what?” “Your watch…” Baby Twilight held out a hoof, not letting the weapon waver away. In the hoof, Twilight held Murphy’s mythical watch that he got from a Taiwanese thrift shop. “It’s illegal shit, man.” “Oh…” Behind Murphy, he could hear the TV still going. “She’s a changeling. She takes the form of somepony you love and gains power by feeding off you love form them.” Murphy looked just in time to see the evil imposter alicorn burst into a ball of green flames, then magnificently transform into a giant bug queen thing. “Right you are, Princess,” the bug queen cackled as the flames died down. “Hey, ignore the TV,” Baby Twilight, or agent Rodney of the MIA, yelled. “I’m taking you in.” Murphy looked back at the alicorn just in time to see her burst into a ball of green flames, revealing a black bug the size of an infant. “Time to go,” the bug hissed as the flames died down. “Zelda is going to freak,” Murphy muttered as he followed the orders of the now-insect agent Rodney and his submachine gun.