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0: The Fool2,857 words
1: The Magician2,485 words

1: The Magician

[Coastal city, Dead of Night]
Fluttershy politely excused herself through the crowd to get to the crash site. The road had ended, and the cart Pinkie had been riding on had crashed head-on into the side of a house. Pinkie herself and another girl were pulling themselves out of the timbers, apparently unharmed.

“I told you we’d find your friends faster.” The other girl said.

“Yeah, and that was so fun! Want to do it again?”

Pinkie had also been transformed. Her pink fur coat now replaced by paler pink skin-tone. She wore a pink dress that fell below her hips. Below that was a long skirt the same shade of fuchsia as her mane that extended to her sandals. The dress’s shoulder straps were affixed to the chest portion by two balloon shaped pins, one yellow and one blue. On the left one was inscribed “Πινκε” and on the right was a single symbol “Π.”

The other girl was dressed in a white robe that hung off her left shoulder. A black leather belt bound the cloth to her body. Wrapped around the robe was a pink piece of cloth that looked like it was supposed to hand off the body loosely but was instead tied into a knot creating a form of sash. The cloth was embroidered with the words “Νωρα Υαλκιριε,” and a monogram of a hammer and a lightning bolt. The girl’s hair was ginger orange and cut very short. Her green blue eyes held the same laughter and joy as Pinkie’s did.

“Oh, hey Fluttershy! Come meet my new friend!” Pinkie called out. This moved the attention of the crowd from the girls in the wrecked cart to the girl they were singling out. Fluttershy felt her muscles lock up, but then relax as the crowd began to disperse.

“Pinkie Pie, where did you find that cart?”

“In the street.”

“Did you ask anyone if you could borrow it?”

“Yep! And no one said they owned it, so they said it was okay if I used it.”

Fluttershy sighed, then turned to the stranger. “Hello. I’m Fluttershy.”

“Nora.” The girl, Nora, shook her hands with a very firm grip.

“It’s very nice to meet you. I don’t suppose you know where we are?”

“Not in the slightest.” She said. “All I remember was Pyrrha singing a lullaby to help us sleep after training, then I had a dream about the creation of the world, and a voice said we had to work together to escape something.”

“That, sounds familiar.” Fluttershy had also had a dream like that. She looked at the people who were still lingering around the crash site. ‘I wonder if anyone else had the same dream?’

“Pinkie, did you find any of our other friends? Or any of Nora’s?”

Nora shook her head. Pinkie was still sitting on the ground, tapping at the pin on her dress. “Cool.”

“Uh, what’s cool?” Nora asked.

“I just discovered Land Vehicles.” She said with a smile.

Fluttershy looked at Nora who looked just as confused as she was. “Uh, Pinkie Pie, you’ve ridden in hay-wagons before. And trains.”

“I mean in the game, silly filly. Hey Nora, you were in the cart with me. You must have discovered Land Vehicles too.” She then hopped onto her feet and put her hand against the Hammer symbol on Nora’s dress. To the surprise of everyone, a pink rectangle that looked like it was made of light appeared in front of Nora’s face. Written on it was a single line of text, “YOU DISCOVERED: LAND VEHICLES” over a picture of a wheel.

“Is, is that normal for you?” Nora asked nervously.

[Artistic city, Sunrise]
Despite their beauty, the streets were mostly empty. Twilight and Rarity were walking for nearly ten minutes without seeing anyone. Finally, they came upon an older man putting a large banner up above his shop. Twilight was quick to run up and ask him some questions, with Rarity following more slowly.

“Excuse me, sir.”

The man turned towards them, smiled politely and gave them a small bow. “Ohayō gozaimasu. How may I help you?”

Twilight took pause at the unusual greeting, “We’re looking for some friends of ours. Their names are Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Fluttershy. You wouldn’t have happened to see them?”

“No, I don’t know anyone by those names, and I haven’t seen anyone besides you this morning.”

“Okay, thank you.”

“Pardon me,” Rarity said, stepping forwards, “but could you tell us what that is?” She pointed up at something. Following her finger, Twilight saw a large clear prism hovering above the man’s head.

“Oh, the icon. That’s just to distinguish people like me from the rest of you.”

“What do you mean, ‘people like you?’”

“There’s a Shinto shrine at the bottom of the hill.” The man pointed towards a stone staircase leading to a lower street. “The priestess there could explain it better than me.”

“Okay, well, thank you for your time.” Twilight said.

“Good luck finding your friends.” The man said, waving goodbye to them. “And if you get hungry, feel free to come back for a hot meal.”

Rarity needed a little help getting down the steps. But as they got closer to the street, they heard what sounded like an argument.

“How could ya’ll possibly blame this on us?”

“Because it’s always you three and your crazy schemes! Even after you got your cutie marks!”

“Apple Bloom? Diamond Tiara?” Rarity asked.

“Rarity. Twilight!” The youngest Apple family member ran over to the two, followed by another young girl.

“Princess Twilight. I’m so glad to see you here.”

Both girls stood shorter that Twilight and Rarity, with the top of Diamond Tiara’s head only coming up to Twilight’s chest, and Apple Bloom standing a little bit shorter than that.

Both of the former Earth Ponies were dressed in the same clothing. A large wrap-around robe formed the main piece, with Diamond’s in pink and Apple Bloom’s a soft yellow. Over this was a small apron held up by a cloth belt; again, with Diamond’s being colored after her mane in lavender and white, while Apple Bloom’s was red with a pink belt. Again, along the edge of their robes were more of the same symbols, and their Cutie Marks were printed on their belts. Their preferred accessories, Diamond’s tiara, and Apple Bloom’s ribbon were noticeably missing.

“Are you both okay?”

“Well, we’ve both been turned into monsters, been taken out of our homes and dumped in the middle of an empty city.” Diamond said, sarcastically.

“We’re alright.”

Twilight smiled. Looking around the street, she couldn’t see anything that looked like a shrine or anyone that looked like a priestess. Not that she knew what they would look like. “Rarity, I’m going to keep looking for that shrine that guy talked about. Why don’t you take the girls and keep looking for the rest of our friends?”

“Alright, Twilight. Come along girls.” Rarity and Apple Bloom began to walk down the street, but Diamond Tiara was noticeably hesitating. “Diamond Tiara? Are you coming?”

“I want to stay with Princess Twilight.” She crossed her arms, “It’s not because I’m scared or anything. I just don’t think it’s a good idea for her to be on her own right now.”

Twilight sighed. “Alright, you can come with me.” The lavender haired girl did a small jump as she ran over to the princess’s side. “We should meet up again at the top of the hill around,” She looked towards the rising sun, “lunch time?”

“Sounds alright to me. Good luck you two.” The two groups then went off in different directions.

As they left, a new figure stepped out from behind a corner. He stood out immediately with a bright green set of robes, a smaller set tucked into the waistband of a large skirt like piece, a second robe was worn like a coat. The skirt piece was decorated with a myriad of dark gray question marks. He was an older man with short brown hair and a rather unusual stance.

“Riddle me this,” he said to no one, “What do you call an opera where the orchestra never starts?” He looked down the road where Twilight and Diamond had left. “An opportunity.” He then began giggling in a rather disturbing manner as he ran off back down the street.

[Applejack’s Room, Midday]
It had taken a little while for Sero to find a girl who would even listen to his request, let alone help, but eventually he found someone willing to lend their aid. When they came back, Applejack had pulled out a number of different garments from the closet but couldn’t figure out which went where, or which end was the front.

“Uh, Miss?” She recognized Sero’s voice coming from the hallway. “I found someone to help you with, your problem.”

“Alright, send her in.”

Appearing in the doorway was a woman of about equal high to the former Earth Pony. She had light purple eyes and a thick head of golden yellow hair. She wore a yellow shirt that stopped above her stomach, and an open brown leather vest. A brown skirt hung off her wide hips. Her paws (Applejack still wasn’t sure of the right term) were dressed in a pair of heavy brown boots and yellow socks.

She gave Applejack a quick look over, nodded quickly, then walked over to the closet, “So, you’re not human?” She said, rummaging through the remaining clothes.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m a pony.”

“Aw. Like a real, cute little pony?”

“Ah wouldn’t say, little, but yeah.” She used her arm to cover her mother-parts. “Are you going to help me get dressed?”

“I mean, if I must.” She said, pulling out a hanger with some article of clothing, holding it up against her, then putting it back. “Too frilly.”

“Yeah, maybe just stick to the simple stuff. I never really bothered with clothes before now.”

“I kind of figured that out.” She pulled out another article, this one orange and more basic in design. “What do you think of this one?”

“Uh, what are they?”

“A bra and panties. Girls wear them to cover our private parts.” She put one of the clothes on the ground. “Put your legs in the holes and pull it up to your waist.” As she did, the girl put the other article over her chest and did something to the straps to keep it in place. Now that both articles were on, she found they did a decent job of covering her more sensitive parts.

“Now that we’ve got you in underwear, let’s try on some real clothes.”

“Wait, these aren’t real clothes?”

“I mean, they are, but they’re mostly just for modesty. No one will see them unless you want them too.” She walked over to the bed. “So, does anything strike your fancy… You know I don’t think I ever got your name.”

“It’s Applejack.”

“I’m Yang.”

Applejack looked over the available clothes. She picked out a pair of yellow short pants which Yang told her were just called shorts. Yang found an orange plaid short-sleeve shirt with Applejack’s Cutie Mark on it, which she accepted. Lastly were a pair of leather sandals which worked as the human equivalent of horseshoes. They also found a red scrunchy on the nightstand which Applejack used to bind her hair. Yang assured her that she looked very attractive for a human.

The two girls exited the room to find Sero reclining on a couch in the sitting room with another boy. His hair was yellow with a black bolt running through it. His shirt was white with black lightning bolt patterns on the shoulders and back. He seemed very relaxed until the girls walked in, then suddenly he was alert and flirty.

“Hello, beautiful ladies.” He said.

“This is Kaminari Denki, a friend of mine from school.” Sero explained.

“I must say, if I get to stay here with you, I have no plans of trying to leave this cage.”

Yang rolled her eyes, “You’re a real charmer, Denki. I’m Yang Xiao Long.” She took his hand in hers and shook it.

“I’m Applejack.” She copied Yang’s actions, but felt she may have used too much force as Denki’s eyes went wide as she shook his hand.

“Woah! You are way stronger than you look!” He said, while holding his hand in pain.

“Oh, sorry about that.” She apologized. “Well, now that the pleasantries are over, does anyone actually know where we are or what we’re doing here?”

“Nope, all I remember was falling asleep and then waking up here.” The boys nodded, Yang’s story sounding very familiar. “But what I do know, is that we’re not going to get any answers siting around here. Let’s hit the town.” With that, she went out through the door with an air of confidence. The other three followed her with only a moment’s hesitation.

The world they found themselves in was incredibly hot and dry, like Appaloosa or Dodge Junction back home. The streets were black and hard. Some kind of rock, AJ guessed. The only plant life she could see were towering palm trees. Overhead was a forest of metal poles with black lamps with multi-colored lights in them. The others didn’t seem put off by these sights, thus encouraging her need to stay close to these individuals.

“Holy!” Sero suddenly exclaimed. The others turned to see him pointing at something. Mounted on a distant hill was a massive sign spelling out a single word.

HOLLYWOOD

[Coastal city, Dead of Night]
Fluttershy stared out at the water. The moon was full, so she could see the black chopping waves in the silver light. It was understandably frightening, but she found a strange fixation with it.

A sudden gust of wind sent a chill through her body and she pulled her robes tight around her. She wished she still had her regular clothes, but instead she was dressed in a butter yellow linen robe with teal green rope keeping it tied to her body.

“Fluttershy, I think I found something.” Running up to the shy girl was somebody she once would have been terrified of, but now she was one of her closest friends. “There’s some kind of massive palace or temple down the street. It’s bound to have some answers.” Sunset Shimmer said. The red and yellow haired teen was also dressed in a linen robe. Hers was a soft orange and went down to her mid-thighs. A purple sash was tied around her waist and a gold headband with a red and yellow sun held her hair back.

“Okay, lets go.” The two human high school girls ran off to Sunset’s mystery building, not knowing that one of them had a duplicate in the city with them.

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