//------------------------------//
// 29 - Through the Breach 
// Story: It's OK to Be a Pony 
// by David Silver 
//------------------------------//

With the portal warmed up, Lyra and Lucy stepped through one after the other, to crash onto the pavement in front of Canterlot High. Lyra gathered herself up and stood on wobbling legs to see a much shorter human with a big grin.

Lucy grinned up at Lyra. "Fingers." She wriggled them at Lyra. She still had a sparkly look to her, like someone dumped glitter in her hair, but she was as normal as any other human in this place otherwise. "Alright, so where could Sam have gone..."

Lyra smiled a little. "You're still adorable, even as a freaky human."

"Hey Lyra!" A human rushed up towards her. A glance at her skirt told Lyra it was Carrot Top's human counterpart. "Who's the shrimp? Are you babysitting?"

Lucy shook her head. "She's my guardian."

Carrot Top looked baffled. "Oh... Well good luck with that!" She moved off, rubbing behind her head.

Lyra chuckled softly. "I don't think we should use that line. I think we both look underaged here. Let's go with the little sister angle for now?"

Lucy quickly agreed and they set off down the road, away from the high school. Lucy noticed her little skirt had her cutie mark on it. "That's amazing! How does it know what cutie mark you should have? Do humans in this world earn cutie marks the same way?"

Lyra raised a brow. "You know, I wouldn't be surprised. Let's try asking somepony if they could help us find Sam."

They approached a police officer standing at the next corner. Lucy took the lead, smiling up at the man. "Hello officer. We're trying to find a friend of ours but we don't know exactly where he lives."

The officer crouched down to be on Lucy's level. "Aw, is that right? We'll find them, don't you worry."

Lucy wondered a little. Police officers weren't usually quite that eager to help a random lost person, but she'd take the help where she found it. "His name's Sam. He just moved in a few days ago at most?"

"Oh! Sam?! Who can forget that guy. Kind of a weird name if you ask me, but he's alright."

Lyra blinked. "You met him then?"

"Not directly," confessed the officer as he stood up. "But my friends have. They were going to throw him a surprise party later today as a sort of 'welcome to the neighborhood' thing. If you're friends of his, you should come along. I'm sure he'll be happy to see you."

Lucy pointed at the officer. "What's your name?"

"Straight and Narrow, nice to meet you Lucy." He tipped his hat towards Lucy with a bright smile.

Lucy certainly didn't recall giving her name, but thought better of making a big fuss of it. "Nice to meet you too..."

Lyra grinned. "Great! So where's the party going to be?""

Straight laughed softly. "Never change, Lyra. You always loved going to parties, but I swear you always hide in the back. You should join the center stage more often." He pointed to one of the buildings. "He's right there. Name's on the door, not hard to find. I should get back to my patrol. Good luck."

Lyra and Lucy gave friendly waves, then moved on. Lucy spoke quietly to Lyra, "If I wasn't already told this wasn't the real Earth, I would be convinced right now. That was weird."

Lyra tilted her head. "Which part? He seemed nice to me."

Lucy pointed at herself. "I didn't tell him my name! How'd he know that?"

Lyra shrugged softly. "Pinkie Pie does that kind of thing from time to time, and she's not the only one."

Lucy put a hand over her face. "Alright, so... a pony thing. This is a pony world, except the ponies are missing tails and have hands."

Lyra tilted her head the other way, thinking about it. "I'd like to see what your world's really like, but let's focus on fixing things, or we could lose all of it."

"All of it?" Lucy frowned lightly. "Can you explain that?"

Lyra explained on the way, "Luna implied the human world and the pony worlds are all kinda... rubbing against each other? Celestia said she could use Sam somehow to fix it."

Lucy looked thoughtful. "What if they push into each other?"

"What? Like become one world?" Lyra raised a brow. "That would be a huge mess.  Let's not do that."

Lyra's tophat buzzed, which surprised her. She didn't think it'd work across dimensions, but there it was, buzzing softly. She tried to flick an ear, but human ears didn't work like that. She reached up and twisted the hat and saw a blurry picture of Twilight approaching the house. She looked nervous in the static-filled view, glancing left and right. "Huh, that's odd. Twilight's at the one-human house."

Lucy tilted her head up at Lyra. "How can you tell that?" She couldn't see the image very well from her angle, but not for lack of trying.

Lyra watched Twilight peek in through a window, then duck down. With a flash of green flames, Twilight became Lyra, tophat and monocle included. She straightened herself out then walked up the the door, knocking on it. "What the?!"

"What!?" Lucy frowned. "What are you looking at? Talk to me."

Lyra licked over her lips. "I think we need to get back home..."

Lucy pointed at the apartment building they had reached the door of. "We're getting Sam, remember? Focus, Lyra. What are you staring at?"

Lyra shook her head, dismissing the image. "Somepony's pretending to be me! I saw Twilight just poof! She turned into me, and she got into the once-human house!"

Lucy cringed a little at the idea of it. "That... I don't even know."

Lyra tugged at Lucy's shoulder. "Let's go back."

Lucy pointed at the house. "This is our chance. We should get Sam, then figure out what's going on."