More Than A Dream

by nanashi_jones

Chapter 5

Part 2: Equestria, A Land of Adventure

Twilight Sparkle woke standing in a field. That should have been her first clue that the spell didn’t work as she’d intended, but at that precise moment, she didn’t care. From where she was she recognized the break between the Everfree Forest and Ponyville, seeing the town just down the road. It looked idyllic, untouched. It looked perfect. It looked like home.

“Unnngh...”

The other ponies! Of course!

Turning, Twilight was prepared to greet the rest of her friends. She was not prepared to see Aurora Amaryllis, pushing shakily up from the ground on unsteady hands.

Further groans alerted her that not only Aurora was along, but so were the other human girls.

“Oh no,” Twilight whispered. “Oh no, no, no, no, no...”

Rainbow Dash then stepped out of the shade from a tree and panic leapt firmly into Twilight’s throat. She could see almost through her friend.

Though Rainbow Dash looked the same as she always did, multicolor mane, cyan fur and wings, she was completely translucent. Twilight could see through Rainbow to Iris Speede, who rose behind her friend.

Twilight thought the pegasus was looking at Twilight probably in much the same way Twilight was looking at her. Rainbow glanced down at her body on some primal need to assure her it was just Twilight who was see-through and her eyes widened. Twilight didn’t need to check. She knew if she looked down, she’d see her hooves, her mane casting over her withers and the whole of it would be equally as insubstantial.

“Twi?” Rainbow Dash said. Twilight could see fear welling up in Rainbow’s brave eyes.

“Yeah,” Twilight said, as she saw more humans and translucent pony friends come into view. “Something went wrong.”
~
The time it took to herd everypony and person into the Everfree’s sight-blocking copse was agonizing. The whole time, Twilight was saying she understood and could see, but they needed to get out of sight as humans were not exactly common in Equestria. As she sought to calm her friends, not to mention some very confused humans, she spent equally as much time trying to calm herself.

She hadn’t realized it when she was admiring Ponyville, but she couldn’t feel anything beneath her hooves other than a vague firmness. And when she walked, she noticed palms and grass passed right through her. She wasn’t really there. She did not want to think about that.

“Okay everypony,” she tried.

“What did you do to me?” Aurora said.

Twilight looked at the girl who had essentially been the caretaker of her soul for the last month or so. She had also been a subject of body takeover for the last two days. Twilight would need to be diplomatic about this.

“I accidentally brought you and the others along in an attempt-”

“I know that!” Aurora shrieked. “You were in my head! I was there!”

Silence.

Twilight looked down, unable to face her. “I’m sorry,” she said softly, guilt and regret blooming in her chest.

“No kidding you’re sorry! You stole my life you magical little-”

“Hey!”

Aurora turned and Iris was standing imposingly behind her. Aurora was stunned for a moment. She’d met Iris with rainbow hair- it hadn’t occurred to her that she might have normal, rich, chocolate-brown layers.

“You leave her alone!” The girl bore down on Aurora with sparks in her eyes. “These guys have been in a tough spot and they came to us for help and you’re being a HUGE jerk about it!”

Recovered, Aurora’s anger launched her right back at Iris. “They didn’t ask permission! They just took our bodies!”

“So what?!” Iris growled.

“Whoa, whoooooa!” Ashley suddenly appeared between the girls and pressed them away from each other.

Though fueled by enough adrenaline, neither the slight, runner-built Iris nor the slim, academic Aurora could resist Ashley’s height and powerful farm muscle.

“I’m thinkin’ everybody’s real riled up so we all need to take five and listen to, ah, Twilight here and see what she has to say.”

The group could practically see Aurora’s hackles rise again.

“Without screamin’,” Ashley said, giving her a steady look.

Aurora stared back. Fumed. And released. She stalked over to the edge of the clearing and slammed down to scowl at the dirt, away from everyone else. Hot tension thrummed outward from her.

Ashley sighed and walked over to where Applejack stood. Even in her not-all-there state, the farmpony wore her trusty stetson.

“You handled that mighty well, ma’am,” she said to Ashley.

Ashley smiled down crookedly at the pony. “Well. Y’know.”

Applejack winked up at the girl. “Yup.” She offered her hoof and after an amused moment, Ashley bent down to bump her fist against it.

Twilight expected Applejack and Ashley to stop short in deference to the fact that everypony was aware of how insubstantial they were. She gawped as both girls made contact without issue.

Blinking, she filed that away.

All eyes on her, she stepped into the clearing between pony and human. She noticed that every girl had sat down next to the pony and human they’d been sharing. She filed that away too.

Clearing her throat, though she suspected she didn’t really have one at the moment, she mentally “took the podium.”

“Okay everypony... And *ahem* person. As you can see, my spell didn’t work quite as intended. I’m sorry that we’ve inconvenienced you further. With any luck, we’ll get this sorted out quickly and you back to your home. For now, I’ll have to ask that you stay here in the Everfree forest and-”

“What are we doing for food?”

Ashley and Iris shot a dangerous look at Aurora, who scowled back.

“It’s a legitimate question,” Aurora said, biting out every word.

Twilight tapped a hoof to her chin in thought. She could feel her hoof hitting her chin softly, so there was that.

“Hmm. Maybe we can take you to Zecora. She knows these woods better than any-”

“Thanks," Aurora said, bitterly. "I know who she is.”

Twilight also could apparently feel the heat of embarrassment rise to her cheeks. Everypony was supposed to resonate with their human in a significant way. That had been one of the key foci of the spell. She could see it with Applejack and Rainbow Dash, easily, but how did she ever resonate with such a grumpy girl?

“How about everyone else?”

The human girls all nodded. Apparently, they knew as much as her pony friends. Okay. Good to know.

“Alright. Then, first we’ll get you to her hut and after that we’ll go and take care of getting you home. Sound good?”

General noises of assent floated up.

“Then let’s head out.”
~
As the group walked, Twilight noticed that Aurora kept well back from her, as well as the rest of the group. She could feel her anger and frustration rolling off in waves.

Twilight sighed. She hated to admit it, but she was jealous of everypony else. As she trudged, everyone else hiked and struck up soft conversations with one another- human, pony and all in between. From where Twilight observed, the entirety of her friends circle was getting along with their human counterparts like they were long-lost friends save for her and Aurora.

Rarity excused herself from chatting with Keiko and Nova and trotted up next to Twilight.

“I know that look dear,” she said, a smile in her whispering voice. “Why not tell me what’s on your mind?”

Twilight felt some of her envy lessen. Well, she may not be able to connect with Aurora, but she appreciated the friends she already had.

“I’m trying to figure out what went wrong with the spell,” Twilight said. “We should have woken up in those crystal cocoons and that was the end of it.”

Rarity nodded. “Hm, well, I can’t say anything to the spell, dear. It was as beyond me as Applejack’s farm work. Are you certain you did everything right?”

“As right as I could with what I had,” Twilight affirmed. “I was in completely uncharted areas. I was mixing that world’s most advanced methods of looking at reality with my understanding of unicorn-based magic.”

“Maybe you were just plain wrong,” Aurora grumbled from the back.

Twilight twitched and turned. Before she could glare, she realized Aurora hadn’t spoken above the low voice Twilight was sharing with Rarity. How had...

“Rarity?” Twilight said. “Can you ask Keiko if she can hear you?”

Rarity was puzzled. “She’s right there.”

“Humor me? And whisper it. As quietly as you can.”

Giving Twilight a curious eyebrow, Rarity’s lips moved and Twilight watched as Keiko perked up as if someone had tapped her shoulder.

Aloud to the group, the fashionista from the human world cocked her head. “I can hear you,” she said.

That stopped everyone.

Twilight quickly discovered that all the girls were able to hear their respective ponies regardless of how quiet they were.

“What. Did. You. Do to us?” Aurora growled, stalking forward to loom over Twilight.

“If I knew that, I’d have fixed it by now,” Twilight said, clamping as hard as she could on her temper. She was just about done with this girl’s attitude.

“Aw, ease up,” Diane said, resting a hand Aurora’s shoulder. “Twilight’s done a lot for us. I mean, we are on an alien world talking to another sentient life form. Total Star Trek. How cool is that?”

“I know, right!” Pinkie said, hopping next to her human. “I was thinking the same thing!”

“High hoof!” Diane offered.

Pinkie bounced up to slap Diane’s palm with a forehoof.

“Oh, we so need to party when we get a chance,” Diane said.

“So yes,” Pinkie said with a grin.

Aurora blinked at them. “She- They stole our lives! Uprooted us in the middle of living! How can- How are you so blasé about all this?!”

“You’re kidding right?” Iris volunteered from where she leaned against a tree. “I got to fly. Without, like, a plane or any of it. Who gets to say they did that?”

“I spoke with animals,” Nova commented softly, a half-smile on her face.

“I used magic to make things float. And could focus on details like never before,” Keiko noted. “To say nothing of the ideas that were just bubbling away when Rarity woke.”

“I figure a good bit of what I knew naturally about farmin’ came from this here pony. And when she was awake, gosh, it was like I could feel the whole world just beneath my boots. That’s a pretty amazing thing,” Ashley added.

“I ate, like, ten cakes a day and didn’t gain a pound. Not one!” Diane chimed in.

Aurora stared around, her jaw slack.

“We may not have asked for their presence in our lives,” Keiko said, leaning down to wrap an affectionate arm around Rarity. “But we can’t deny the impact they’ve had on us. Even if I woke back in that field thinking this was all a dream, I like to think I’d be better for such a dream.”

Rarity blushed. “Oh, well put. Thank you, Keiko. Most kind of you. All of you.”

Aurora didn’t hear the alabaster pony. She instead was looking to each of the assembled. To Iris, to Rainbow Dash. To Ashley, to Applejack. To Keiko, to Rarity. To Nova, to Fluttershy. To Diane, to Pinkie Pie. All returned her gaze simply, calmly. They weren’t worried, they weren’t angry. If anything, they looked concerned. They looked concerned for Aurora.

Her gaze dropped, falling on Twilight. Having walked close, she smiled timidly up at Aurora. The righteous anger that had propped Aurora up fizzled away and her hands dropped with her head.

She turned from the group and walked a few steps. She stopped, looked as if she were about to say something, then shook her head and kept walking into a dense patch of wilderness.

Iris huffed and started toward her, determination settling on her brow. Ashley put a hand out but Applejack beat her to it, biting down on Iris’s jeans. Iris turned to the pair.

“Let her go, Sugarcube,” Applejack said.

“She just needs to cool off,” Ashley affirmed.

Iris looked after her, frowning. She glanced up at Rainbow Dash, who fluttered nearby. The pair shared a meaningful look and Rainbow tilted forward in a bolt of colorful contrail.

“Hey!” Applejack called out.

Iris smirked at the pair, then stumbled several feet as if someone had grabbed her roughly and tried to yank her into Aurora’s path.

“Whoooooooa!” Rainbow came flying back into the clearing and slammed bodily into her human counterpart. The matched pony and human went down in a tangle of hooves and limbs.

“Oh my,” Fluttershy said, hooves to her mouth. She and Nova raced over to Rainbow and Iris.

“What... Just happened?” Rarity said.

Twilight was squinting, but before she could speak she skidded across the ground.

“What the-”

She just as suddenly skidded again as if being dragged by an invisible leash.

“What’s-”

The yanking got serious as she soon disappeared into the foliage, unable to grab onto the ground firmly, and found herself unwillingly following in Aurora’s wake.

Everyone looked to one another.

Diane and Pinkie spoke in the same excited voice at the exact same time. “When can we do that?!”
~
Once she got her hooves under her, Twilight trotted to catch up with Aurora, who was blindly pushing her way through the groves.

“That’s not the right way!” Twilight called.

“I know! I don’t want to know, but I do! Hopefully some manticore will try and eat me so I can wake up from this insanity!”

Twilight huffed. She recognized this mood. It was the I’m-tired-of-the-world one. She’d always suspected it was as trying on the outside as the in, she just wished she could have gotten affirmation another way.

“That’s not how this works!” Twilight called back to Aurora, who continued stomping forward.

“You’re a ghost pony, what do you know?”

“That you’re two steps from Poison Joke!”

Aurora froze. Looking down, a patch of blue flowers innocently threatened her very being. Memory that she shouldn’t have came unbidden and she felt anxious and worried for herself while trying to calm down all of her friends. Correction: all of Twilight’s friends.

Twilight caught up with her, but gave the Joke a respectful distance. While she was mostly certain that she wasn’t really as present in Equestria as she wished, she didn’t want to test her insubstantiality against the Poison Joke. Once was more than enough, thanks.

“Thanks,” said Aurora grudgingly. She turned and aimed for a new direction. “Why’re you following me anyway? Can’t take a hint?”

“Can’t get free,” Twilight said, trotting to match Aurora’s stomping walk. “There seems to be a limited distance we can get from one another before I start getting drawn back to you. I think the other girls understood this instinctually, but you and I-”

“Uuuugh, will you please shut up? Like right now?” Aurora said, halting mid stride. “Because you sound so... So...” She glared back at Twilight, her expression clouding, then ripped her gaze away. "Rrrrr!"

Twilight plopped on her rump and glared up at the girl.

“Look, I’m using magic and theories completely out of my expertise here. If you have an idea, I’d love to hear it!”

Aurora scowled. “I’m a psychology student.”

“Double-majoring in physics,” Twilight retorted with a smirk.

“Aaaaaaaaaaargh!” Aurora yelled at the purple pony. “Stop- Stop doing that!” She slumped then, folding down to sit in the dirt. “Just- just stop...” She buried her face in her arms, not crying, but definitely trying to shut everything out.

Across from one another, the pair lapsed into silence. The only sound was the gentle rustling of the brush and the occasional Everfree creature from far away.

“I’m sorry,” Twilight said, her voice back under control. “I never meant for all this to happen.”

After a too-long pause, Aurora spoke.

“I know. I know... Everything you thought. And did. It’s like, I don’t even notice till I nearly step in Poison Joke and then I can remember feeling my horn go floppy and wow- how do I even know what that’s supposed to feel like?”

Aurora lifted her head up to not merely look at Twilight, but to see her. See her rich, violet mane with its two stripes, her big, worried, amethyst eyes, her cutie mark. Some distant, echo-y part of her felt like she was looking in a mirror.

“You freak me out in so many ways,” Aurora said.

Twilight let a chuckle free. “Being human was pretty freaky for me, even though I wasn’t...” She waved her hoof generally.

“Yeah, but you were at least there. You actually were in my life. My body. I've never been here, never been you. I have all these memories- These sense recollections of a completely different person!" She winced. "Pony! How am I supposed to cope with that? I didn’t get in your head and bleed my life into you, you got into my head and bled your life into me!”

Aurora shook her head, amazed and perplexed all at once.

"I'm... I'm supposed to be myself. My thoughts, my accomplishments, it's all at least mine. Then you show up and it's like, who am I? Am I her? How much of me is her? How much of me is me?"

She slumped against her knees.

“Don’t you get how... How messed up that is?”

Another quiet descended. Finally, Twilight nodded, saying, “Yes, yes, I do. I was in your head too. So, I think it’s safe to say we have both been through a unique set of circumstances.”

Aurora snorted and shook her head again. Suddenly she worried that she was starting to mimic nonverbal equine cues. That she was further losing herself.

Trying to deflect the sudden panic spike, she grumbled, “No. Really?”

Twilight giggled in response.

“Yeah. Heh heh. Okay.”

Straightening her posture, Twilight tried to project her confidence, or at the very least, her sincerity.

“Aurora, I wish I could take it all back, but I can’t. And right now, I can’t go far without you. Literally. I can promise you this though. Once this is all over, I’m out of your life and you can get on with yours.”

Aurora looked at Twilight, but before she could say anything, something in the distance caught her eye. Twilight followed her gaze and saw that Aurora was looking through a hole in the Everfree. It showed a bit of Ponyville.

“Can you... Remove you from me?”

Twilight let her gaze drop. “I don’t know. I learned the spell so quickly. All these mutations and outlier manifestations of it are really confusing me. Honestly, we have a lot to sort out if my friends and I are...” She waved a hoof at her not-all-there self.

Aurora nodded.

“Okay,” she said, breathing out.

They sat in quiet for a minute or two, just looking at Ponyville. A crooked smile blossomed and Aurora cocked her head at Twilight.

“You know... It just hit me,” she said. “I’m living the dream. Magical land. Epic quest. If only Gandalf was here...”

Twilight chortled. “Well, I’m no Gandalf, but I cast a mean teleportation spell.”

Crashing branches and disrupted forest came from behind them. Twilight and Aurora turned to see Applejack hauling back on an arms-pinwheeling Iris who hovered precariously over the patch of Poison Joke. Ashley appeared and brought the girl all the way back to standing.

“Yeesh,” Ashley said. “You’d think a grounded Rainbow would be less a problem.”

“Just means more awesome to go around,” Rainbow said soaring into view. She then lit on Twilight and Aurora, flying over to them. “Hey! What’re you guys doing out here?”

Twilight and Aurora shared a glance.

“Working out a truce,” Twilight said.
~
“Why are we still going to Zecora’s?” Rainbow asked once the group had regathered. “We can’t drop the humans off. We’re pretty much on a leash to these guys. No offense.”

Iris smirked. “You kidding? I’m hoping this means you can get going fast enough and drag me into the air.”

Rainbow’s eyes ignited with the possibilities, a small smile growing on her face.

“We’ve been gone a month,” Twilight said, preventing further discussion on theoretical stunts. “We don’t know what’s happened and since I don’t have Spike here, I can’t get a message to the Princesses. The girls are less likely to make a commotion with just one zebra in the middle of Everfree rather than parading all through Ponyville.”

“Makes sense to me,” Diane said. Several feet behind her, Pinkie Pie floated a foot off the ground in a lawn chair, sipping soda and relaxing as she was dragged steadily along.

“She isn’t heavy, is she?” Nova asked her, watching the pair.

“She ain’t heavy, she’s my sister,” Diane replied blithely.

Pinkie quickly appeared on Diane’s shoulder, grinning. The two nuzzled one another in appreciation.

Nova looked at them, then down at Fluttershy, who was hovering along the ground. The pegasus seemed to respond to an unheard question and looked up at Nova. After a quiet flap, she floated up to rest on Nova’s shoulder. The girl and pony both blinked in surprise, sharing little smiles at the comfort of the positions.

“We’re trendsetters,” Pinkie said, sliding on stylish sunglasses.

“How chic,” Diane replied, wearing her own movie star shades.

“Two Rainbows and two Pinkies,” Twilight muttered with a smile.

“And they just feed off each other,” Aurora said, watching Diane bop Pinkie over her head like a loose balloon, the pink pony giggling the whole time. The girls nearby them shared in the laugh.

“Well, the spell was supposed to find like minds that would nurture our pony spirits,” Twilight said, trying for a positive approach.

Aurora turned her gaze forward. “I’m doing a real great job of that,” she muttered sarcastically.

Before Twilight could offer at least an intellectual protest, the brush parted and a lone zebra appeared. She wore gold neck bands and earrings with a side saddle bag, but no cloak. Zecora only wore that when going into town.

“Familiar voices I heard and so I came, but you are not the little ponies that I know by name,” the little zebra said in her melodic, rhyming timbre.

“Oh, Zecora, it’s so good to see you!” Twilight exclaimed, trotting around Aurora to approach her friend and sometimes teacher. “We’ve been through a lot and I was... Hoping...”

Zecora didn’t turn, didn’t blink, didn’t even bat an eye when Twilight stepped in front of her.

“Zecora?” Twilight said, her voice tightening. She waved a hoof in front of Zecora, who merely turned to look at the gathered humans clearly.

“She can’t see me...” Twilight whispered.

Having watched the whole thing, Aurora stepped forward at the distress she saw on Twilight's face. As Zecora's gaze settled on her approach, she knew she couldn't back out now, instead getting bizarre déjà vu as she made contact with a talking little zebra she’d technically never met before.

“Uh. Hi,” Aurora said. “My name’s Aurora.” Turning, she indicated the other humans. “And that’s Keiko, Nova, Diane, Iris and Ashley. Sorry if we’ve confused you. This is all kind of confusing to us too.”

She rubbed her hands on her slacks, nervously trying to find the best words.

“Your friends are actually right in front of you, but you can’t see them.”

Zecora approached Aurora and beckoned her. The girl got down on one knee, letting the shamaness turn her head left, then right.

“Twilight Sparkle say your voice and eyes- when you say they are before me, do you mean a guise?”

As Aurora fought back her sudden piqued ire at more comparisons to Twilight, the purple unicorn went over to Zecora’s side and tried to place a hoof on her back, only to have it fall through. The purple pony looked on the verge of tears. Without turning, Aurora could feel the tension behind her, and hear soft noises of panic from the other ponies.

“No. No guise,” Aurora said, focusing on the conversation.

“A spell perhaps to fool even the wise?”

“Not that either. We’re, uh...” She looked at the other girls, who were smiling reassuringly.
Iris was the first to speak up. “It’s okay, ‘Ro. We got your back.” The rest nodded in agreement, looking at Aurora with implicit trust. Aurora blushed at the feeling of support- they were probably just continuing the dynamic Twilight established back home. Still, people had her back. Even though they weren’t hers, it was a good feeling.

Emboldened, Aurora turned back to Zecora and said, “We’re humans. The ponies you knew hid their... Spirits? I guess that’s best. They hid their spirits in our bodies in another world, but... Something happened. So they tried to get back, but we came along too. Though they aren’t in us any more. They’re all around you actually- trying to get your attention.”

She nodded at Twilight.

“Twilight’s right there. She looks like she’s about to cry because she can’t talk to you.”

Zecora looked at Twilight, or more accurately, the space Twilight was standing in. After a few tense breaths from the unicorn, Zecora nodded.

“Perhaps it is best that we return to my hut. There you can better explain to me what is what.”
~
Back at Zecora’s hut, Aurora went through more déjà vu. Though, it was less pronounced as the place was pretty crowded and much smaller than her memories from Twilight recalled.

“Why not just have your rump out in the Everfree?” Pinkie asked the other ponies, her head poking out of a wall. “Not like anything can happen to us.”

“Perhaps,” Rarity said as she tried to find a space where she wouldn’t be in or through something. “But, not all of us are comfortable being half in a fireplace, Pinkie.”

“Suit yourself,” Rainbow said, hovering with one wing flapping through a mask. “Being a ghost is kind of cool.”

As the ponies talked, Zecora had each human girl kneel in front of her so that she could examine them. She put a dab of something white on their foreheads and cheeks and lit a candle to watch the smoke change colors as she wafted it about them.

Aurora had to admit, she was a bit fascinated. While Zecora was as stereotypical a shaman as you could get, what with the tribal masks and a hut filled with strange plants, she approached their problems more scientifically and thoughtfully than she expected. Aurora had Twilight’s memories of Zecora, but she regarded them, like everything else she remembered from the unicorn, with heavy skepticism and personal review.

In her mind’s eye, she had awaited witch-doctor-y faith healing, but Zecora was clearly using conventional methodology to analyze and weigh data, then determine what was going on with the girls. Her tools were the only thing unconventional.

Aurora found her overall disbelief diminishing as a result. If Twilight was right in her respect of Zecora, who was Aurora to call into question the rest of what the two academics shared from their time together?

Twilight leaned against Aurora the whole time Aurora watched. She shook occasionally. After Aurora had been examined, she placed an arm around the pony and that seemed to relax her. The thanks in Twilight’s eyes was palpable.

Aurora looked away from it. “I just don’t need you freaking out,” she said, sotto voce.

“I appreciate it all the same,” Twilight replied.

Zecora made tea for everyone after she was done.

Keiko, who was sitting on Aurora’s other side, was noticeably giddy.

Aurora openly regarded Keiko, who’d taken off her jacket and reclined as if she were on holiday, sipping tea with an old friend. Keiko noticed the attention and winked at Aurora.

“You may be having troubles,” she said, leaning in to whisper. “But I am having a blast. I just wish I’d brought the right outfit for all this...” She shuddered. “Nature.”

“I know what you mean, darling,” Rarity said. “Mucking about in the Everfree can be quite invigorating if done correctly, but only-”

“When properly prepared,” Keiko and Rarity said in unison.

The pair beamed at one another.

Aurora just stared. How did they do that?

“If I may have everyone’s attention please, I promise my answers, they will not tease.”

The hubbub died down and pony and human alike turned their eyes on Zecora, who sipped slowly from her tea.

“Powerful, dangerous magic has been cast these days and the effects were not meant to stay those ways. From what I have learned speaking with Aurora here, makes your conditions of pony and friend equally clear. Thanks to all the magic, Spirit Bonds have taken form, and until you free the pony bodies cocooned, this will be the norm.”

“The spell wasn’t meant to stay those ways?” Twilight asked. “What do you mean?”

Aurora passed the questions along, and Zecora sipped her tea again, clearly in no rush.

“The spell used here is one familiar to my tribe, but typically we do this with a magical kind of... ‘Spirit Bribe.’ This bribe makes safe a spirit outside its home, to allow the mind to expand and the soul to roam. By bringing in the magic of her horn, Twilight has given it the flavor of a unicorn. Since unicorn magic uses so much energy, when conditions changed, the spell did as well to keep synergy.”

The group sat, bewildered a bit by Zecora’s rhyming ways and what she was implying.

Twilight was the first to speak, with a soft, realizing, “Oh.”

“You got all that?” Applejack asked.

“When we came back, the magic was still going for the spell. We must have... Bounced off the cocoons the Changeling Queen made- they were supposed to protect our bodies from everything, after all. Looks like that included ourselves. Since we didn’t get back to our bodies, the spell was still active and kept us tethered to the other girls.”

“But how did y’all end up outside us?” Ashley asked.

“Because of the spell back on Earth,” Aurora said.

Everyone turned to look at her. She twitched at the sudden attention. If that kept up, she was going to have to get used to the... Appreciation the other girls offered her. It contrasted greatly with how her life had been.

She was reminded of the attention her grandmother offered: warm, genuine. She thought she’d never get that again. Yet, here she was, being paid the courtesy of awareness and waiting silence.

Clearing her throat, she went on.

“Like Rarity said, Twilight was trying to cut a spell with another spell, which is... Tricky if I’m still remembering unicorn magic right.” Twilight nodded, so Aurora went on. “That was a lot of energy and part of it incorporated a failsafe to return the girls to us if it didn’t work out, right?”

Twilight nodded again. “I’m not as proficient in spirit magic as Zecora or the Princess. I stuck to the idea that we needed bodies of some sort.”

“Okay,” Aurora said. “So I’m guessing when you ponies bounced off your bodies, the failsafe kicked in and sent you back to us, but because of all that energy...”

“We had already come too!” Keiko squealed as if shouting “Eureka!”

When everyone turned to her, she smirked with an upward tilt of her chin. “Genius applies to more than just fashion.”

“Here here,” Rarity chimed.

“So it was all these back and forths, messin’ up the spell big time,” Applejack said.

“Pretty much,” Aurora said. “Lots of energy, too many variables and a limited number of ways for the spell to disperse. I’m no Twilight Sparkle, but I can tell we got mega lucky.”

“Perhaps this was luck, perhaps it was not,” Zecora said. “A Spirit Bond like this should not be what was wrought.”

“Y’know,” Iris said from her lean against the hut’s walls. “It’d help if you didn’t talk all rhymey and riddley.”

Smirking, Aurora said, “You never had a professor who expected you to play at their level, did you, Iris?”

She shrugged. “If anyone’s busting on me, it’s coach.” She blinked, looking off into the distance as perspective came rushing in. “Man. Hope I can still go back to my scholarship.”

“We’ll get the Princess to write you a Get Out of Crazy note,” Diana chirped.

The girls laughed. Save Aurora who scowled. “Can we not use the ‘c-word?’ I feel like we’re in glass houses enough as is.”

“You really need to lighten up,” Diana said from across the hut. “Here, catch Pinkie!”

Suddenly, Aurora was bowled over by an airborne, fast-moving pink pony.

From the ground, Aurora regarded the smiling pony with cool detachment.

“You lightened up, yet?” Pinkie asked.

“I have a ghost pony on my chest. If anything, I’m heavier.”

Pinkie giggled. “You’re funny like Twilight, you know that?”

Aurora rolled her eyes.

“As entertaining as seeing just half these talks could be,” Zecora said. “Is it true you can feel the weight of silly Pinkie?”

“Yep,” Aurora, groaned, easing the pony off. “The ponies can only seem to interact with us. Everything else is passing through them.”

Twilight looked at her in surprise.

Aurora rolled her eyes as she sat back up. “I am studying two doctorates. I do notice things and think sometimes.”

Zecora’s brows raised and her lips pursed in amazement. “The other Spirit Bonds you do feel? This is more than can be real!”

“Like I said,” Aurora commented. “We used a lot of energy. Rainbow Dash did a Sonic Rainboom for magic fuel.”

Zecora turned to Iris, who gestured to an invisible, smug-looking Rainbow Dash. “Team effort,” Iris said.

“Hey!” Rainbow said, good-naturedly. “I did all the work.”

“With my body,” Iris replied, grinning.

“Girls...” Applejack said.

The pair turned to the farm pony while Zecora seemed to contemplate Iris’s description.

“Stay focused,” Applejack said. “Now. No offense to all the magic talk- I’m sure this spirit bond-o stuff is interestin’, but we still got that Smiling Pony to deal with.”

“That’s right! In all the excitement, I completely forgot,” Twilight said. Turning to Aurora, she added, “Can you ask Zecora about him?”

Aurora passed on Twilight’s question and Zecora grew somber.

“Ah yes,” Zecora said. “Too well the Dream Eater’s news to me is known, shall I tell you about him or would you like to be shown?”

“Shown,” voted Rainbow, Pinkie, Iris and Diane in unison.
~
The path was a straight line that came up to the Everfree and stopped. It looked like somepony had been making a road and given up when they’d gotten a good peek at what the forest had to offer. The path’s new direction, curved along the Everfree’s edge, only furthered this idea.

As the girls examined the path closer though, they noticed it wasn’t ground trampled in use or spread dirt. It was dead earth. Grass was browned and frail and broken. What rock showed beneath was scarred and brittle and dry. Tree trunks and branches were hewn from the ground up.

It looked as if Death itself had walked to the forest, then changed directions.

“Celestia’s mane...” Rarity murmured.

“You said it,” Diane said in equally hushed tones.

“So he came one day,” Zecora said. “Moving along in his destructive way, but at the Everfree’s edge did he hold and his manner no longer was so bold. Then around did the Dream Eater spin, never to darken this forest again.”

“That’s... Weird,” Twilight said.

“Don’t make much sense given everything else the varmit’s done,” Ashley added.

“It seems the ponies in Canterlot would agree as I saw them in the same place not far from we.”

“Pardon?” Keiko said.

“They wore shields on their chests and official business in their eyes and seeing Dream Eater’s distaste, acted like they found a prize. Some cities he spared, yet others he tore through, had I not seen him pause at Everfree, I’d be concerned too. So they spoke more, never seeing my face about how they could get ponies to live in this place.”

“Ponies in Everfree?” Nova said. “That’s- I know I- I mean, Fluttershy lives nearby, and Zecora can handle the forest, but having more ponies move all the way in? That’s... That’s a bad idea.”

“Not if you bulldoze it,” Aurora said.

The girls all turned to her. They kept doing that. Maybe they weren’t just following Twilight’s lead?

“The Smiling Pony eats Harmony, right? I don’t think this place is exactly buzzing with the stuff.” She slapped a mosquito from her neck. “Or if it is, maybe it’s not the way he likes it. Remember how the Changeling Queen said he treated her people like junk food? What if Everfree or places like it are food too, but just too tough to swallow?”

Twilight nodded, catching up with Aurora’s logic. “If that’s true, then he might need ponies or another set of creatures to inhabit it and...” Her eyes widened. “No.”

“What?” Iris said. “Can someone or somepony help me out here, because I’m not getting it.”

“He’s going to destroy the Everfree,” Nova said, her voice quiet.

Ashley nodded. “He’s farming. Got some soil here but can’t do anything with it. Get some fellers in who can, and they’re extra interested in makin’ this crop good. Once it’s come up...”

A chill settled among every person and pony in the treeline.

“It’s just one forest, right?” Aurora said, sarcastically. She sighed, shook her head. “This guy really has got everypony spooked.”

Iris and Rainbow shared a look. “You guys are kidding me right?” Iris said. “We’re fighting deforestation?”

“Against the Dream Eater is where you stand,” Zecora said. “Should you not treat him right, then he will eat more than your land.”

“You keep calling him ‘Dream Eater,’” Nova said. “Why?”

“Once, long ago, a smiling pony came to the land of my birth. The tribes fled as he bled all the life from the earth. He took many trees, he took plains of gold, he took zebra sick, healthy, young and old. He ate our love, he ate our tomorrow, he ate all we knew leaving us only with sorrow. So deep this sorrow grew that nightmares were all my zebras knew. Dream Eater we called him with fear, until a protector did appear.”

“Who was that?” Iris asked.

“A wise shaman, from a tribe far away said to have fire in his eyes and a new juju in his sway. Only he did stand in the monster’s path, disappearing the Dream Eater and his wrath.”

“What did the shaman do?” Ashley asked.

After a long pause, Zecora spoke. “Lost that knowledge is, nopony knows what took place. When my zebra kin went to find the shaman, he was gone without a trace.”

“Well that’s helpful,” Rainbow said.

“Sure it is!” Twilight chimed in. “It means he can be beat.” Her voice darkened. “We just have to find out how.”

“You get on that Twi,” Rainbow said. “Meanwhile, I’d like to get back to my body.”

“We all would,” Rarity said.

“I could do this for a while longer,” Pinkie replied, popping out of Diane’s dark afro.

Aurora had a thoughtful hand to her chin. Ashley noticed and sauntered over to squat next to the girl.

“Whatcha thinkin’ ‘Ro?” Ashley asked, picking up the nickname Iris had started.

Aurora glanced up at Ashley, who, even squatted down with her, had a head’s height advantage.

“Do you remember anything from Applejack’s memory about anypony acting like this?”

“Well, I remember ‘em panickin’ pretty easy, but nothin’ like this.”

“Exactly. Same for me and Twilight. The others are probably the same way too.” Aurora started rubbing a grass stem between her fingers, unaware that everyone had quieted for her. “I don’t think the Smiling Pony just gets you afraid, I think he affects basic critical faculty reasoning. The only way to catch it is if...”

“You have an outsider’s perspective,” Twilight said, quietly.

Aurora blinked and turned to share a knowing smile with her.

“So what?” Ashley asked.

“So we have to not only get the girls back to their bodies, but probably have to go through a veritable minefield of freshly paranoid ponies. We may even have to speak directly to the Princesses and convince them that they’re being affected on a subconscious level and being directed to their own destruction.” Her smile turned brittle. “No pressure.”

Ashley however was beaming.

“So. You’re in?”

Aurora looked at the scorched earth path and thought, It’s just a little thing. Just the first pebble in a possibly giant avalanche. And we’re probably the only ones standing in the way of those first pebbles...

Ashley’s face started pinching in worry as Aurora kept silent and poker-faced. Then, Aurora let the grass shoot fall and patted her hands on her thighs, rising.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m in,” Aurora said. She followed Ashley’s rise and added, “I’m still kind of pissed, but I’m not heartless.”

Ashley clapped her on the shoulder.

“If we’re to get our bodies back,” Rarity said. “We still have to get to Canterlot and the Princess’s cavern.”

“Yeah, and it’s probably locked down tighter than Fort Knox,” Aurora said. “Some unknown humans strolling up aren’t going to get the red carpet to the Princess, especially with everypony all twitchy. I mean, Twilight, do you know any way in?”

She shook her head.

“I’m only aware of official routes to and through the kingdom,” Twilight said.

“Well... We could always take the sneaky ninja route!” Pinkie said.

Everyone turned to her.

“What? Am I the only pony who knows about the sneaky ninja route?”

Comments

[Jlargent]

“Being awesome doesn’t have to make sense,” Rainbow said from the back. “I kick impossible to the curb all the time, Twilight. You should really just accept it now.”

RD is a fan of Gurren Lagann.

[Ulti Shadow Lord]

Never forget the sneaky ninja route. Ever.

[nanashi_jones]

2467630

It's a very important route after all.

[shapeshiftingpedro]

2467630>>2474055 Cartoon logic is undeniable.

[Pinklestia]

Pinkie Pie seems to know as lot of things others don't...