> Words spoken on Painted Canvas
>  by LucidTech
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Spoken by the Sunset
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Alice stood in front of her most recent drawing, the paint still wet upon the taut fabric of the canvas. It was a simple enough painting by all rights, merely detailing a normal sunrise that rose between two skyscrapers outside her apartment. The painting hadn’t been made as a commission; rather, the artist had felt an unexplainable emotion that had summarily lead the painter to place the colors down with her careful tools and steady eyes. To try and preserve the feeling. 

        Now though, despite the fact that the girl was fully aware of what story the colors contained, she didn't see a warming sunrise in her painting, anymore. The hopeful image faded from her mind as the feelings of hope and joy drained from her body, the conclusion to her work bringing an end to the energy that had run through her only moments prior. All she could see now was a sunset to the closing of a cloudy day where only fuzzy, unsure sunlight had graced the surface of the earth. And only now had some small amount of light decided to grace the surface for the short moments before the world was plunged into the icy chill of night.

        As she looked at the painting, a voice at the back of her head echoed loudly with a plea to end the pain, a voice that had become more and more prominent in her day to day life. Now, it was begging Alice to discard the sunset as a fleeting light that meant nothing, and to end all that she had come so far to accomplish. Alice was no famous painter, alone in this rundown art studio, not a solid penny of savings to her name. She had only become a small time artist to try and get by with her life. Yet, no matter how many times she told herself this, another voice would tell her the actual reason was to try and carry on her father’s work, to follow in his footsteps. It was at this point in her musings that the voice would whisper once again, without fail, and tell her to follow those footsteps off the edge of a building.

        Just like dear old dad.

        Alice gazed into the art she had created, depressingly entranced by her own work as the murmurings in the back of her head wormed through each of her thoughts. She was quite silent by nature; any who had spent any time with the artist would bear witness to her overt shyness. But the trouble was obvious from the girl’s perspective. Words just weren’t enough. They didn’t say enough of a person. She couldn’t feel the emotion in people’s words like she could from their paintings. They just weren’t colorful enough. Not for Alice.

 Yet, despite her lack of communication skills, Alice spoke openly to herself in moments of loneliness and darkness such as this, moments when no one else would listen. Because of this, she was forced into the drudges of her own mind and, unfortunately for the poor girl, the things found there were not cheerful, casting her deeper into the pits of despair that consumed her.

        Her mental 'condition' was easily recognizable by anyone who would give her a few moments of free speech. So obvious, in fact, that a few doctors who had spoken with her suggested antidepressants. The problem wasn't what kind of medicine to take though, it was that any medicine cost far too much for someone like Alice, someone who barely managed to buy enough food to live on. And so, no matter how much she needed the medicine, she wouldn't be able to afford it. Money was no object; it was an impossibility.

        She wouldn’t have had to live like this, of course, if her godparents had supported her like her parent's had wished them too. At the mere thought of the selfish individuals who had all but removed themselves from her life, Alice’s other condition made itself known: swift mood swings. Rage rose and she clenched her teeth in restraint, wanting nothing more than to destroy this piece of art that sat in front of her. She declined this feeling, valuing the art to be far more important than to be at the butt end of directionless rage. Instead, she opted to merely wait for the anger to run its course. 

        After the rage dissipated and her heartbeat returned to the calm rhythm she knew, the, now stoic, artist lifted the canvas from the easel it rested on. That is to say, the one that held the emotion of the reds, oranges, and yellows which had caused her inner torment after finishing it. Now though, on the departing platform of her emotional roller coaster, it was with a content heart that the artist gave it one last look over, before setting it against a nearby wall so it could dry in peace and out of sight. 

        With that minor job out of the way, Alice wiped her paint stricken hands across her pants, adding to the various other marks upon their surface. Each piece of the artist’s attire spoke of her past. From the scars and streaks of paint that decorated her, once white, pants, to the worn and weathered brown beret atop her head. Her shirt was askew from her hurried drawing, the sleeves caked in dried paint from the years. It only took the practiced artist a few seconds to straighten up, bringing the creases of her outfit in line. Without a way to check if she looked presentable, the girl simply smiled and climbed out her window. Her feet landed safely on the metal grid just outside, without missing a moment the artist strode over to the side and leaned against the railing of the fire escape. 

        Below her, the busy city expelled the various noises of advertisements, advertisers, traffic, and talking pedestrians meshing into one another to form the babble that now floated lightly up to the Alice’s ears. This was her habit after finishing a painting, to look over the city that seemed so evil on the front, but deep, deep down could be so kind. She wished with all her heart she could show the kind side of the city. Unfortunately though, people had a tendency to keep their own ideas, and even though the saying recommends not to judge a book by its cover, everyone did it regardless.

        As Alice looked out over the city from her perch, imagining all the different colors of people and lives stirring below, she heard something that she hadn’t expected: a knock at her own door. Somewhat surprised by the fact that someone had come to see her, the artist made her way towards the sound. She had no friends that would have come to visit her, and she was much too high up and out of the way to be mistaken for some other room.  With hesitant steps, the distressed female made her way across the room and opened the door.

        In the doorway stood a large cardboard package. Alice raised an eyebrow in curiosity at the sight and looked at the man who stood next to it. He was dressed in blue denim workwear and held a clipboard in front of himself, his hat advertising he was part of ‘West End Shipping Co.’, accompanying repugnant smells of sweat and exertion included with no extra charge. A moment passed before the man looked up from his clipboard and realized that the door in front of him had opened.

        “Hello, I have a package for a Missus Alice Rendight. Would that happen to be you, ma’am?” the man asked with a glance to the artist whom stood stock still in the door. It took the girl a few moments of shocked silence before she managed to nod her head and confirm his guess. Without further delay, he wheeled the box into the apartment.

        The artist attempted to muster a few words to stop him, but came up short as she was handed the clipboard and informed that she needed to sign the paper resting upon it. She did so without further thought and handed the paper back to the man. He looked at the signature and smiled. Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out an envelope and handed it to the confused girl. She took it resignedly and thanked the man for the delivery. He returned the thanks for signing for the package and walked out of the room, leaving Alice to close the door behind him.

        Now alone with the odd box in front of her, the girl couldn’t help but stand stunned for a few moments. Had someone really just sent her a gift? She pondered over this peculiarity as she looked at the container in front of her. The cardboard rectangle was barely wider than her own body and it stood a little above her own height. After a moment, Alice decided to shift her thoughts from ‘what’ to 'who'. Who could have sent the package? The question played solely across the ridges of her mind for a moment before she was reminded of the envelope that still rested in her hand.

        With child-like exuberance, Alice tore t he envelope open wide and pulled the letter from the grasp of its papery tomb. She tossed the torn, empty envelope to the side as she opened her note and unfolded the paper. 

‘Hello there, Alice. I have seen quite a lot of your work as of late and I must say I think you are quite the talent. I have therefore decided to gift this mirror to you in hopes that it will keep your spirits up and perhaps inspire future drawings.

Sincerely,
        Dr. Ocsid’

        Though the name didn’t seem familiar, and was most definitely odd, that didn’t stop the painter from tearing into the cardboard box with the speed of a nine year old on christmas. As the cardboard fell to the sides, it revealed a mirror sitting perfectly in the middle of the box. Disregarding the curiosity as to how it managed to survive being shipped like that without any cushioning or styrofoam, Alice immediately stepped in front of the reflective surface, gazing in amazement at how absolutely shiny and clear the surface was. Tearing her gaze from the full body mirror, she brought her eyes to the beautiful bronze filigree work that twisted and wound around the glass-like surface.

        Despite the eloquent metalwork, Alice’s attention was only held for a short moment before her gaze once again flicked impatiently toward the surface of the glass-like material. Now that she was once again looking into the reflective surface held within the metal casing, Alice couldn’t help but let her inner child out. This was expressed in the form of making faces and giggling as the copy of herself dutifully performed the same ludicrous facial expression. 

After several minutes of this, the girl smiled widely and stepped away from the mirror. It had been a long time since she had laughed or smiled like that and now that she had been so blessed with this strange gift, she couldn’t help but feel the urge to draw, if only to put her feelings down upon an empty canvas.

        With this idea implanted in her head, the girl walked over to the easel she had been using earlier that morning and clicked it flat. In addition to the unwieldy wooden support for her paintings, she grabbed her brushes and oil-based paint as well. With these in her hands, she was about to leave, when she stopped and decided to grab her painting of the sunrise as well, just in case she felt the need to repaint portions of it while she was out. She carefully sleeved the, now dry, painting within a rectangular cloth pocket that fit the canvas like a glove. Once inside the cover of cloth, she placed both inside a small cardboard box for protection and picked up the equipment she had placed on the ground to shroud the drawing.

        With both hands full of painting equipment, or of paintings themselves, the girl smiled to herself and made to leave the apartment. As she did so, she stopped one more time and looked into the reflective mirror. It had been quite a while since she had seen any such thing and it occurred to Alice she had no idea what the metal surface felt like. With her childish curiosity still in full force, she began shuffling some of the painting tools around in her grasp. After a moment, she reached out and touched the surface of the reflection with her forefinger. After feeling the reassuring coolness of the mirror on the tip of her finger, she regretfully pulled away. Or at least, she tried to. A feeling of fear incomparable to anything else spiked through her as she realized that she couldn’t, no matter how hard she tried, get away from the surface of the mirror. Her finger was stuck to the surface with such strength she would have sworn that her flesh had fused with her reflection. 

        Shocked silent by this development, she wasn’t ready when a sudden tug, which had no source as far as the girl could tell, sent her head over heels into the mirror. The surface rippled as she passed through it, as if it had never been a mirror at all. She fell through the silver tunnel in a blind panic, fear and surprise ruling her actions as she tumbled aimlessly. Desperate for something solid, she clutched tightly to the painting of a sunrise resting within her grip, her other pieces of art equipment dropping alongside her. As she plummeted, a thought filtered through her mind that might have caused her to laugh if she wasn’t so sure that this was going to end horribly. A girl named Alice had just fallen through the looking glass.

        Alice emerged on the other side of the tunnel falling in a tumble of body and limbs into a surprisingly comfortable landing.  She looked around as the world continued to spin dizzily around her. She was in some kind of dark room, but beyond that... Alice tried to focus her vision, but after failing to notice any solid piece of detail wherever she had ended up, the girl gave up on her consciousness and fell into the solid blackness of a deep sleep.
        
        She dreamt of nothing in this forced sleep as her mind rested from the event that had just occurred. Slowly, groggily, her mind came back to her and she opened her eyes a sliver to see into the now lit room surrounding her. Details began to filter together as her vision recomposed itself. Deciding she needed a better perspective, Alice sat up. The first major development she discovered was that she was now in a higher altitude than before. Someone had moved her from the floor onto a couch, where she now rested.

        Despite her body yelling in protest, she opened her eyes more and saw all her painting equipment had made it through with her, the containers from her oil paints somehow surviving the trip undamaged. Moving her sight past this reassuring detail, the girl noticed she was now inside of a very odd room. It appeared to be completely circular and the walls looked to be composed of a thick wood.  On the floor sat a very basic rug and all around her were houses for small critters. Bird houses and small beds, cat houses and even mouse holes at some points.

        Alice sat on that couch for as long as she could until she recalled her nasty trip through the mirror. With a jolt, the girl sat upright as she pondered over the matter of if she was dreaming or if she was in some serious danger. As she delved into this problem mentally, an intake of breath from her right blind side made the girl turn to face whomever or whatever had just approached.

        It turned out to be the latter as Alice took notice of a cream-colored pegasus standing not too far away. The girl’s brain decided now was a good time to stop working and immediately left her alone to face this creature. The quadruped spoke softly under its breath as it cautiously approached, but from this distance, Alice couldn’t make out a single word.

        As it continued its slow approach, Alice noticed two things. Assuming that the biology of these creatures were similar to the horses of her own world, then, from the way its face was curved and the thinness of its barrel, it was safe to assume that the creature was a young female. Secondly, the voice it spoke in, though soft, revealed that it wasn’t just the lack of volume that made Alice unable to understand it, but also the fact that whatever language it was speaking wasn’t one with which Alice was familiar.

        Her mind briefly returned from its fishing trip to inform her this creature could be dangerous, and then left the rest to her instincts. With a jolt, Alice stood from the couch and backed away from the pegasus in fear. In response to the sudden action, the creature stopped her approach and looked at Alice with an expression that spoke volumes of the worried emotion she must have been feeling. Minutes past slowly by to the tick of a clock before the yellow pegasus once again moved. She slowly stepped forward one more step and seated herself on the couch that Alice had been laying on minutes prior.

        The pony smiled at her with a calm, kind grin and patted the cushion next to herself. It took Alice a few moments to catch on to what the pony was trying to say before she realized it was an invitation to sit next to the mare. For her part, the girl was caught between running for her life and walking to the couch once again when she caught the sight of the box that contained her drawing, her beret sitting atop it. The box had been placed safely on the middle of a nearby table and, even though the hat was obscuring it, it was obvious that a great deal had been taken into account when caring for that particular piece.

        After wondering why this was for a few moments, the answer hit her like a truck. The reason for the actions of the pegasus was good will and Alice was now fully aware of how horrible a guest she was being. She found me clenching that box to my chest and so she thought it was extremely important to me. With this in mind, she put it in a prominent place where she could keep track of it, Alice thought to herself. After this realization, the artist looked once more to the mare whose face still held the same calm, inviting smile that almost made the innocence and caring palpable, regardless of the distance between the two.

        Still slightly hesitant to the odd creature, but now much more trusting of its motivation, Alice walked over to the box and picked it up from the table. The box was in the same condition as it had been when Alice left the house with it and appeared to have not been opened while she was unconscious. Grabbing her hat from the top and replacing it upon her head, and with the box giving what little comfort it could within her grasp, Alice walked back over to the couch and sat down on its cushions. 

        A natural silence formed in the air as the two females sat next to one another. In this silence, both entertained their own thoughts. For the pegasus, she was hoping that she could manage to care for this odd creature that had stumbled into her house while she had gone out. Even more mysterious than the appearance of it inside her house was the art equipment that had come with it. There was no way it could have gotten in lugging all that equipment unless it could utilize magic. 

        Alice’s mind was running circles around what was happening. Pegasi and mirrors and odd languages, oh my. As her mind teetered on the brink of collapsing, the girl took a deep breath and opened the box that rested on her lap. The movement caught the eye of the yellow mare at her side and she looked over to see Alice pulling the cloth rectangle from within the cardboard. A second more passed as Alice reached into the cloth pocket and retrieved the drawing of a sunset.

        She heard a series of noises that sounded familiar and looked to the winged pony whose eyes were now locked on the painting, her mouth moving in time with the syllables of her language. Though the words held no meaning on their own, the tone held within the words spoke clear to the artist. It was a tone of praise and amazement. This was enough to ease off what little stress remained and Alice smiled to herself.

        I don’t know if this is a dream or if this is another weird twist in my life... but if it’s the latter and all of the inhabitants of this world are as kind as her, then maybe... maybe it’s a twist for the better.


> Spoken by the Roses
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Everything seemed so surreal around her as Alice leaned against the counter in the kitchen of the small cottage. All the minor details seemed so much more crisp than usual. The result was Alice wondering if, in fact, her subconscious wasn’t just dreaming up this world as some kind of reaction to her own twisted mind. At this thought the girl looked out the window of the kitchen to see the pegasus who had met her earlier that same day moving about the backyard as she took care of the various animals that took residence there.

Alice smiled as she witnessed the care that the pegasus would treat each of the animals with. She had unending patience and if an animal started to act up she would calmly wait as it vented its emotions. It amazed Alice to see this creature use so much of her own time to take care of this vast amount of animals that had taken up residence in and around her house. So much kindness for something so small.

With a mental snap Alice returned to her previous dilemma, was the world around her real or fictional? Not entirely sure either way Alice ran over several thoughts as to some way she could find out if this world were in fact real. As this thought danced through her head an option came to her mind and Alice turned her head to the side in order to examine the utensils that rested in the sink from the lunch that had been served moments earlier.

With a gentle hand she lifted the knife that had been used to cut the fresh loaf of bread. The human examined the sharpened blade as she ran her eyes over the several jagged ridges designed to shred loaves of bread to bits. Alice was apprehensive of what she was just about to do but sighed as she steady her grasp on the knife and pricked her thumb lightly. After the deed was done Alice removed the blade from her thumb but kept it on hand. 

She had felt a twinge of pain at the puncture and had flinched slightly before she looked at the thumb, the blood that pooled from the wound was shocking in the sense that it seemed so wrong from its surroundings. While all other red in the house was distractingly bright and stark her blood was still the same as it had always been, a dull crimson. Distracted as she was, Alice didn’t notice the arrival of the yellow pegasus until she gasped.

Alice was quite the sight standing there with a bloody finger and a knife with a stain of red at the tip. The pegasus immediately ran over to the girl and took the blade from her grasp and hurriedly stashed it away in a chest of drawers, immediately locking it shut with the sharpened blade tucked deeply within. Though the girl realized this was quite the serious situation for the pegasus Alice couldn’t help but laugh at how she had reacted to the sight.

This worried the pegasus more but she didn’t have time left in the day to go get anypony to help her with this unexpected guest who seemed to have just hurt herself for no other reason then 'just because'. With this in mind the cream colored pony decided that she would watch the human for the rest of the day and first thing tomorrow after she awoke she would go and fetch the one friend she could rely on when her own knowledge on animals was put into question.

With this decision in mind the remainder of the day went largely without event as the pegasus was dead set on making sure that Alice was safe from herself and Alice was trying her best to not worry the frantic caretaker. After several attempts at trying to calm the butterscotch pony through showing her that she wasn't insane Alice eventually just ended up sitting once again on the couch in the living room of the generous pony who had taken her in.

As the time ticked by Alice began to pay attention to the idle whispers of the pegasus as she talked to the other animals that shared her abode. It seemed that even if Alice figured out what each of the sounds actually meant she wouldn’t be able to speak the language because of the technicals behind how it was formed.

The pony used the entirety of her muzzle to shape the sounds of her language for each of the words she spoke. Alice, lacking that much volume in her own mouth, realized she would be unable to recreate the vast majority of the sounds without extreme practice. With this in mind the human leaned back on the couch and looked blankly into the air. Her thoughts drifted to the idea that this world was indeed real.

The world was most definitely not imagined or, if it was, then it was most likely medically induced given how she had actually felt the pain in her finger when she had cut it. With this in mind Alice brought her 'wounded' hand up to her face and examined the already healing wound upon her thumb. Now the only thing left for Alice was to try and figure out what exactly it meant that she was now in another world that she could never hope to understand.

As the thoughts raged on within the girl’s mind the day passed and Alice soon found herself sitting in the fading twilight of the afternoon. With a smile to the butterscotch mare she rested her feet upon the couch and yawned loudly and purposefully before placing her beret on the end table behind her head. She closed her eyes and after a few moments the mare finished whatever she had meant to do that night before she retreated to what Alice assumed to be her own room up the stairs.

 I really do owe her for what she’s done for me, I just wish I knew a way to pay her. Alice thought to herself. As she lay on the couch the girl got an idea for how she could show her appreciation. With a small smile Alice opened one of her eyes and noticed her art equipment resting just across the empty living room from her. With a glance around the silent apartment Alice raised herself slowly off of the couch and flinched as the springs squeaked slightly in response causing the artist's grin to vanish altogether. 

After a moment where Alice remained stock still, she reached over slowly and grabbed her beret. Another moment longer in the painful silence and the girl began to move fully once again, sure that the cream colored pegasus was not descending the stairs. Her first choice of action was deciding to approach her easel and she smiled happily to herself as she moved it to the middle of the room. Once there she clicked it noiselessly open, opting for stealth rather then speed in this situation, and angled it so that she could use the moonlight leaking in from the window to provide enough light for the distinction of colors. Afterwards Alice set up her single blank canvas upon it and set about placing various paints on the metal tin she used to keep the colors contained.

She looked intently at the blank white canvas that rested in front of her as she imagined what the end result would look like. After a moment a smile crossed her face and she dipped her brush into the yellow paint.  She hurriedly placed the outline upon the painting surface, occasionally pausing to look at the mare in her memories before she continued her work at a busy pace.

The night passed to the sound of the brush scratches upon a canvas as the girl busily went about painting her payment to the caring veterinarian. After the mare herself was complete, butterfly mark on her flank and all, the girl began to draw a small rabbit that stood at her lowered muzzle. The rabbit was tightly hugging the mare with compassion and Alice smiled to herself at the sight. She had seen the rabbit around the building but he hadn’t seemed to like Alice much.

With the details of the rabbit completely displayed upon the painting the girl moved on to the sprawling green grass with a forest behind it as her setting. With surprising eagerness Alice found herself drawing the painstaking details of the background. This was payment after all and Alice wanted desperately to show how grateful she was for the kind caretaker who had taken her in with no notice and had fed her from her own supply of food. It was a kindness that she hadn’t come across and she wanted to show the mare that she didn't put it off thoughtlessly. 

With the background painted Alice stepped away from the painting and looked at it from her increased distance. It was immediately apparent to the skilled artist that the sides of the painting produced too much mundane space around the mare for her liking. Desperate to find something to solve this problem the girl let her gaze drift around the room until it came to something that gave her an idea.

On the table in the kitchen was a vase full of dethorned white roses. She smiled to herself at the symbolism of a rose without thorns in this current world and turned back to the painting that rested in front of her. With her keen eyes she realized that white wouldn’t look quite right among the other colors of the painting and decided on a much more bright replacement. 

Alice stepped away from the painting once again, this time in finality, and habitually ran her fingers over her pants. Smiling at the finished product, Alice moved behind the easel and repositioned it, along with the painting still upon it's rest, so that it would be obvious to the mare when she came down the stairs in the morning. With that last bit of work done Alice happily placed her hat once again on the end table and laid down on the couch.

She was awoken a few hours later to the sound of a gasp and smiled to herself, the girl sat up from her impromptu bed in order to catch the look on the mares faced. It was practically decorated in surprise which swiftly changed to appreciation. The mare started to look around and caught the smile of Alice, who was looking over the back of the couch. The pegasus returned a genuine smile in response and Alice let the subtle fears of rejection disappear from her mind. She had doubted that the mare would have done such a thing, but her inner pessimism had spoken against it and left the artist unsure. 

After a moment the pegasus approached the girl and leapt into the air, Alice flinched slightly at the act but the flinch turned into shock as the cream colored mare wrapped her hooves around the girl’s neck. Deducing this as an act of thanks the girl returned the hug for a moment before pulling the mare away from her neck and looked into the eyes of the softhearted pony that were slowly gathering tears of joy. Alice clicked her tongue to get the mare’s attention and, after she was looking at Alice, shook her head and pointed at the tears that were beginning to fall down the face of the mare. 

Understanding the actions of the girl the mare shook her head and wiped her cheeks clean of the salty liquid. With that done Alice set the mare upon the floor once again and stood from her seat in the couch. Now upright the girl retrieved her beret from the end table and stretched out as her back popped several times. The sudden noise alarmed the mare but when she saw Alice walking perfectly fine toward the painting she smiled and shook it off as an oddity for another time.

Alice looked at the painting in this full sunlight and smiled at the way it had turned out, despite the time of day that it had been drawn at. As she studied it she felt some pressure and turned to see the mare nodding her head sideways toward the door. Alice returned with a nod and had started to head towards the destination when she felt a tug on her sleeve and saw the mare pointing towards the painting.

After a moment Alice realized the message and picked up the now dry painting from the easel; slid it into the rectangle of cloth, the one that had held the sunrise upon her arrival; and placed it once again inside the box. Then, with finality, Alice took the package that contained her painting out the door that the mare opened for her as they left. Once outside the girl was overcome by the extremely fresh air and paused to take two deep inhales of it. In the smog filled city you couldn’t find this kind of air no matter where you looked but here it was as clear as it was plentiful.

After taking her share of the refreshing oxygen the girl nodded to the mare and the two of them set out. It was clear that they were heading towards the town that sat in the distance. What would happen within that town, however, was still up to question. One thing was sure though as both of the females approached the settlement that sat in the distance, they would be importing far more questions than they would answers.  

This became more than obvious when the human’s welcome to the town was composed of a flash of cyan and sudden pain in the right side of her face. Her instincts kicked in as the girl fell to the side, she quickly spun with what little traction remained in her right foot and landed on her back with the painting held tightly to her chest.

As she lay motionless on the ground she heard an exchange of ‘words’ between whatever had just hit her and the butterscotch pony who had taken her in. For a moment she merely laid there until she eventually decided to stand from her prone position and take a look at her attacker. She was surprised to see both ponies looking at her in shock as if she had just risen from the dead. Ignoring the looks she lifted her fingers to massage the side of her head where she had just been hit by what felt like a sledge hammer.

Alice's fingers touched her skin and informed her of a sickly wet feeling, hesitantly the girl brought her fingers down into view. She was shocked silent as she saw they were covered in blood that had now started to run down her hand. If her mind had ever come back from its fishing trip it would have left right then as the girl stood stock still and didn’t move. 

Her actions, or rather her inactions, were imitated by her would be attacker and her caretaker until suddenly the latter of the two sprung into action. She quickly rambled off several 'words' to the blue pegasus that hovered in the air to her side and with a nod the speed demon was off again. With the attacker gone the caretaker jumped into the air and fluttered over to the human. With a determined expression on her face the pony pressed Alice’s hand against her own head. Catching the idea Alice began to push against the wound with her own strength and the mare let go to hurriedly look around the area. 

She dashed off at a fast pace that was slightly slower than that of the blue mare, a minute later and she had returned with a torn piece of rough white cloth. She lightly nudged the human's hand and Alice removed it from the wound. The pressure now missing from her own hand was quickly replaced by the pressure of the ad-lib bandage as it was wrapped around her forehead and when she was done the pegasus backed away to double check her work.  

A minute or two later and the would be attacker arrived with another pony. This one didn’t have wings, rather its head was decorated with a horn. Despite the urgency of the moment Alice’s breath left her in surprise as she saw the pony. Pegasus? Okay, the girl could deal with a pegasus. A unicorn though? That was something she wasn’t entirely sure she could believe.

A second passed where the unicorn hurriedly looked the human over before Alice found herself being ushered along behind the unicorn as the two pegasi pushed her lightly from behind. They quickly made their way towards a tree that stood in the distance, Alice was unsure what to make of the destination until she noticed that it was another hollowed out tree house, much like the cottage she had been living earlier.

Once inside the odd house the bandage was removed and a sponge was used to clear the blood from the wound. With the wound fully revealed the cream colored pegasus visibly flinched from looking at the lesion. This was a cue for the cyan pegasus to pull the pink haired animal caretaker into a hug to provide what comfort she could, with the pegasus in her arms the rainbow maned attacker looked to the unicorn who nodded.

The unicorn closed her eyes and slowly a glow began to emit from her horn. No way... Alice thought as the light continued to build. After a moment longer a small orb had formed at the tip of the lavender unicorn’s horn for a second before it suddenly shattered and a beam hit Alice in the side of the head where the wound was. Surprisingly the magic didn’t hurt and actually numbed that side of her face for a moment before the glow stopped and the unicorn opened her eyes. “No way, magic is real here.... Maybe I am dreaming after all.” Alice said out loud in disbelief

The other two ponies looked confused by her words but her caretaker nodded her head.  Ah, so they can’t understand me either. Can’t say I didn’t expect that to happen. Alice thought to herself as she looked into the faces of the three mares that were gathered around her. After a moment the cream colored pegasus started speaking to the unicorn and a discussion started up between the mares.

As they started up a conversation that Alice was completely incapable of understanding the human removed the layers of protection from the painting and looked once more at the work of art that detailed the veterinarian amongst the several red roses that bloomed from the bottom corners of the picture. Not a moment had passed before the dark voice in the back of her head started to compare her to a rose in the manner that in order to get a proper rose bush it had to be cared for and yet it provided nothing solid in return.

It compared her to the uselessness of roses beyond that of pleasure of sight. It compared her to the red that decorated the multitude of petals in the picture, red like blood. It compared her to the thorns that were commonly decorating the flowers, the thorns were simple things that could harm those that tried to appreciate the beauty and scent of the flower but could so easily be removed by someone who knew what they were doing.

In this process of thoughts that collected amongst her she became suddenly aware of a silence in the air around her and the feeling of three pairs of eyes drilling holes in the back of her head. Suddenly she became aware of shivers running down her spine and turned around to look at the mares but paused half way when she noticed something that was different about herself. A dark aura seemed to surround the girl as she moved and the thoughts dug deeper into her head until the voices telling her to kill herself died away. With the voices out of her head the darkness that surround the girl dissipated and she sat down hard onto the floor, astounded.

For a moment nothing happened, nothing but silence as the three mares looked warily at the odd creature that had not a moment prior been surrounded by a dark aura. Suddenly the silence was shattered as the girl cried. She hadn’t cried in so long but with the culmination of everything that had happened so quickly she couldn’t help it. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back and Alice clearly wasn’t going to be getting medical attention in regards to her soul anytime soon.

With a look of compassion the cream colored mare started toward the crying human but found her path blocked by the cyan pegasus. With a few words that the flyer didn’t expect to hear from the caretaker she let the shy veterinarian through to sit next to the weeping Alice who only cried harder in response. The girl's mental capacity for emotion had finally shattered and now here she was crying. Things didn’t make sense to the girl and she very much doubted they ever would.

(Alright, first reference to Alice in Wonderland was easy to find last chapter. If you can find the one in this chapter I would like you to imagine me applauding your achievement. -N64Fan)
> Spoken from Within
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	(Sorry for such a long wait to only give you this measly chapter, I've been having a bit of an issue with writer's block recently and on top of that I wanted to make sure I portrayed this chapter how I wanted to. I knew what I wanted the dark aura to be, but showing that in written form was a challenge. -N64Fan)

Alice wasn’t quite sure how long she had remained crying with the yellow pegasus at her side to keep her company, but she was sure it had been quite long enough. With one last sniffle of sadness the artist wiped the wet tears from her face onto her shirt sleeve and patted the small cream colored pony beside her to assure her she was fine now. With that done Alice raised her gaze from the pink mane of the pegasus to discover they had a new pony in the room who hadn’t been there prior to Alice’s mental snap.

The creature took Alice’s breath away with its beauty and intrigue that seemed to flow from it in waves. The mysterious pony appeared to be both a unicorn and a pegasus at the same time, in addition to this it stood at twice the height of the other ponies that Alice’s meager experience had shown her. Her hair was a shocking sight all its own as well, it was like a pastel rainbow that billowed in an ethereal wind that only affected her. 

Caught unawares and not entirely sure what pony custom was Alice was quite unsure of what exactly she was expected to do in this situation that she had suddenly been thrust into. Looking for some hint as to the appropriate action she glanced to the other ponies, all of whom were bowing before the oddity. Deciding that it must be someone, or somepony as the case may be, of great importance the girl decided to copy the acts of the ponies as best she could. With this plan in mind Alice stood from the ground where she had been crying not a minute earlier and curtseyed to the being.

The creature spoke a word or two and the other ponies raised from their bows, Alice mirrored and stood from her curtsy to look once more at the creature before her. The odd feminine being looked over the gathered ponies with caring, parental eyes before directing her gaze to Alice, the girl merely looked back with eyes that were bloodshot from her earlier tears. The creature spoke a few more words in the odd, echoing, equine language and all the ponies looked to Alice in anticipation as if an important question had been asked. Alice shrugged her shoulders and looked back to the white pony.

After a few more seconds of silence the veterinarian pegasus broke into the silence with a soft shy tone. When she had finished speaking the white alicorn nodded to the cream colored mare before returning her gaze to Alice. The tall pony spoke a few more words that seemed different from the usual language, Alice shrugged again and the white pony spoke in another language. After they had gone through about fifty separate languages, none of which the human understood, the white creature shook her head and sighed.

Alice remained standing and kept a casual stance that she had slipped into about halfway through the ‘talk’. Abruptly the lavender unicorn spoke up with a respectful tone that reminded Alice of children talking to their fathers. The white being returned more words and both of them looked to Alice with curious, contemplative gazes. Confused Alice looked towards the yellow mare, who had taken her in, for guidance. The pegasus looked troubled over what to do for a minute while she bit her lower lip before looking back to Alice and hesitantly nodding head. 

WIth faith in the cream colored pegasus Alice looked back to the white creature standing before her and determinedly nodded her head. The creature smiled gently at the act and returned the nod with a smile. After a moment the creature closed her eyes and focused, in response to her will her horn began to glow an odd yellow color. A split second later Alice found herself surrounded by the same aura. Panic began to rise in the back of her mind at suddenly being at the mercy of the odd creature and she found herself looking to her side once again. Her gaze was met with a calm, steady look from the pegasus and Alice let herself relax. Taking a deep breath and focusing on her heartbeat the human distracted herself as the magic did its work.

After a moment of the aura swirling around her Alice felt the urge to close her eyes, she did as her instincts told her as they had only caused fairly harmless results so far and within a moment she had plunged her sight into the darkness of her shut eyelids. With the distractions of her sight gone Alice felt a tugging so soft and so fragile from somewhere within herself that she wasn’t entirely sure that she wasn’t just imagining it. The girl paused for a moment as she focused on the feeling and tried to find a way to use or examine it. After a moment of struggle with her own self she took an alternate approach and attempted to treat it like one would a muscle.

Immediately after trying to flex the oddity within herself the voices from the back of her mind came up once again and Alice opened her eyes to see the darkness that had surrounded her earlier surrounding her once again. The darkness floated freely around in the air, like water without gravity, but always stayed within arm’s reach of the girl. After hesitating for several minutes Alice reached out to touch it, it parted around her finger and began to twist in spirals around her extended digit.

“Curiouser and curiouser.” Alice said as she toyed with the animated semi-liquid darkness that floated around her. The mares were all giving her an odd look as she toyed with the black substance about her and began to lose herself in the simplest movements, it was like she was inside a lava lamp. Though the ponies couldn’t tell, Alice could easily feel that this.. whatever it was... wasn’t malevolent. It wasn’t even dark in any sense of the word beyond its color. It was similar to that feeling you get when you see a stranger with a familiar face, you fell like you know them and yet you don’t at the same time.

After a while Alice noticed the white creature walk out of the room with the lavender unicorn following shortly behind but was too intrigued by this odd substance she had conjured to think much about it. With the darkness flowing through the gaps between her fingers Alice didn’t notice the blue pegasus approaching until she stood directly in front of the girl. Alice waved the darkness to the side as if brushing cobwebs from the air before turning to look at the pegasus.

The normally proud face of the cyan mare had disappeared and was now replaced by an ashamed look that spoke volumes of the regret she felt for her hasty action of attacking Alice when she had seen her coming into town. The pegasus said a few words and Alice easily deduced from the tone that it was an apology, despite not knowing what the pegasus was saying Alice smiled. It’s that thought that counts after all, I’m sure she was merely protecting her friend. 

As she smiled at the seriousness of the mare’s apology Alice had reached out to tussle the mare’s hair when she was interrupted as the darkness in the air flooded into her upside down palm. As her hand hovered above the mare with the liquid between her hand and the pegasus' forehead the orb of odd substance held an odd purple glow until the mare looked up and confusion flooded her mind. In response the substance shifted colors to an orange-brown color.

Confusion was clear in both females’ eyes and a moment of silence passed. In the quiet she had been granted the girl’s mind worked overtime and after a minute Alice suddenly realized it was changing colors to ‘match’ the emotions of the mare. With this realization Alice once more felt the odd subconscious urging to close her eyes, this time it wasn't a quiet suggestion though, it was closer to a voice shouting at her from within her head, Alice once again decided to obey.

As she did so she directed her mind towards the odd, color-shifting orb just above the blue pegasus’ head. A moment passed and nothing happened, just as Alice had given up on the experiment she had jumped into head first a wave of emotion and power hit her mind. Riding along the pressurized wave of energy was a name. The name was not in words but in a very descriptive feeling that could, from Alice’s point of view, easily be related to diving into subzero water. 

Rainbow Dash.

Alice backed away suddenly as the voices of her subconscious rose as if on cue and began to whisper meaningless phrases in her ears, prominent among them were two words, Wonderbolts and Fluttershy. Her legs gave out for a moment, causing her to fall back slightly from the verbal assault. Realizing her slip up the girl managed to catch herself with her right foot and halt her stumble. As the mess of words danced about her mind the girl clamped her hands to her ears in an attempt to block the sound, much to her dismay however the sound came from within not without. Her shaky stance buckled once again and the girl found herself face first on the floor as the relentless voices continued to reverberate inside her skull.

The sound alerted the white alicorn who had been about to leave and she hurriedly entered the room. Upon seeing the collapsed human on the ground writhing in pain she approached cautiously and lightly pressed the edge of her horn to the biped’s head. Immediately her frantic movements stopped and Alice remained motionless on the ground. A moment passed where the human remained like this, with her body facing upward. With a flash of yellow from the creature’s head Alice’s eyes snapped open suddenly.

When Alice opened her eyes the odd substance had disappeared from the air and she found herself once again looking at the blue pegasus who now had a worried look on her face. Feeling like she had just taken a sledgehammer to her head the girl looked groggily at the pegasus. “Rainbow Dash?” She asked in a curious tone, like you would to a friend who you hadn't seen in a while. The blue mare’s eyes widened in reaction to her name but all the others in the room looked at the human with confusion displayed upon their face.

Though the barely awake Alice couldn't understand the words the ponies worked with she was fairly sure that, despite the fact that they couldn't understand a single word the human said, the pegasus had identified it as her own name and was now feverishly trying to convince the other's of the improbable fact. I guess names hold some kind of power here then, if she can identify her own name even when I say it in my language. What of those other whispers though, what were they? Alice thought to herself as she lay on the ground in her self induced trance, keeping her gaze on the roof..

With a sudden jolt she realized that something had just been removed from her forehead and she rolled her eyes to just under edge of the fully open lids to see the white creature rising to her hooves behind her. In what could be construed as a drunken attempt to move Alice rolled onto her side and pushed herself to her feet with her hands in attempt to meet the gaze of the white being.

Once she was steady on her own two feet Alice bowed to the creature to show her thanks for trying to help. The bow was somewhat jerky as Alice was trying to be careful and not send herself head over heels on her unsure feet as she did so. When she stood from the bow she was somewhat surprised to see the creature returning a bow of her own. After the creature had risen from her bow she looked at Alice with a kind of motherly caring. Though it was most likely an attempt to ease her and make her feel more comfortable Alice suddenly found herself depressed despite the bright surroundings. 

Seeing Alice’s reaction visible on her face the creature frowned slightly before bidding what Alice assumed to be a goodbye to all the other assembled ponies and, flashing her horn once, disappeared from the room. With the creature gone Alice felt a sudden repercussion of her headache and flinched slightly at the recursion of mental pain before shaking her head to try and clear it, rather than diminishing the pain spiked and the human immediately grabbed her head with both hands.

Upon seeing the actions of Alice the cream colored pegasus approached the human and nuzzled into her waist to try and comfort her. The human glanced down at the pressure against her midsection and smiled. Releasing her hands from the side of her skull Alice nodded towards the door and shrugged as she attempted to ask whether or not they could leave. The pegasus nodded in understanding and spoke a few short words to the unicorn who stood a fair distance away.

The two left the building and made an uneventful trip back to the cottage that they had come from, upon arrival the human would immediately collapse into a sleeping pose on the couch, the various events of the day having taken quite a lot out of her in regards to her own personal stamina. The pegasus on the other hand wasn’t tired in the least as it was still early morning and she still had several chores to accomplish around the house.

What neither female was aware of though was that their return trip had been noticed by another member of the town and even as they went about their normal habits that pink earth pony who had seen them was preparing something that Alice wasn’t going to soon forget.
> Spoken by the Streamers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Alice sat in the middle of the chaos, unsure of what had exactly happened to bring her here. All around ponies of varying colors, heights, and races busied themselves with a multitude of games and activities. Leaving the human awestruck at the door to the building, up until that morning the girl had only seen four ponies, only two of which were from the same race, and while the white one had been quite breathtaking nothing was more amazing to the artist then what she now saw.

So many differently colored ponies of all shades of the rainbow, and some even from beyond the range of ol’ Roy G. Biv, were moving about the crowded room with drinks and cake alongside one another in what could be called harmony. They always made way for their fellow pony-kind regardless of what the other ponies had busied themselves with among the vast amount of distractions the party provided. It was quite amazing indeed, to see so many physically different ponies moving about amongst themselves in a blur of greetings and brief salutations. A blur of color and organized confusion. 

When Alice had first seen the four different races of ponies her mind told her that they were probably like humans in that the unicorns would all be similar in some respects while the pegasus would all share a trait of being reliable in emergency. She hadn’t found the ‘normal’ ponies, the ones she related to the most, until the morning of this same day. And all she could say was that they were most definitely not similar to the ones from her world that they visually resembled. 

It had all started that morning, after Alice had decided to go about some of the easier morning chores that she knew she could handle. This allowed her to work alongside the yellow pegasus that had taken care of her and attempt to repay some of the kindness she had been shown. It was during this time, while she went about feeding some of the birds, that a blur of pink shot out from around the cottage and hit her square in the chest. 

Completely disoriented by the tackle Alice was quite shocked a moment later when she found herself lying on her back with a pink pony, devoid of both horn and wings, pinning her to the ground with a manic expression. The once peaceful backyard was now flooded with squeaks and panicked chirps from the sudden attack and Alice couldn’t help but share in their fear.

The pony continued to stare down at the human with a grin splayed across her face until a soft, shy voice spoke up from a fair distance away. Both recognized the voice and moved their heads to see the pegasus kicking her hoof embarrassedly against the ground as she said a few timid words that Alice, of course, had no idea what to make of aside from the fact that they sounded like a suggestion in the form of a question. After she was done speaking the pink pony stepped away from the human and Alice stood from the dirt, wiping some of the mess of her shirt and pants.

The pink pony suddenly exploded into action and started spouting strange words in an explosion of sound. After a time the cream colored pegasus spoke up and the pink pony nodded. That was when Alice suddenly found herself being dragged by her sleeve towards the town by the crazy earth pony, despite the sudden act the girl managed to see the rabbit, whom she had painted with the yellow pegasus, pull out a pocket watch from behind his back and smile as he waved it in the air in some sort of odd farewell. A minute later and here she was, standing awkwardly in the doorway of a building with what Alice assumed to be a slightly insane pony.

The crazy mare with bouncy hair shouted a few words to the gathered ponies and they all turned to see the biped standing in the doorway. There was a brief pause where they all looked at her in shock, a moment where Alice was truly terrified. These ponies knew nothing of her; knew only she was different from them in pretty much every way, shape, and form. So now the question was, what would they do in response?

It has been said that in such moments as these time seems to stretch and you feel like it lasts forever. This implies that the person who is experiencing this moment feels that it lasts far too long but in reality it never lasts long enough for them. The fear pumping through their veins, the pure adrenaline pouring into the person’s brain, telling them to run. Flight. Anything to get away from the air so thick with tension and ‘what if’s.

Time shrinks, it shrinks into a shining pinprick in the distance as the person’s brain desperately tries to work out the answers to which the question is completely obscured. They find themselves at the edge of mental thought, in bullet time as it were, where their mind is free to think a dozen thoughts every millisecond and never stop. Never stop because it doesn’t want to, it wants to be free of the situation.

Alice found herself there now, her thoughts dancing across the edges of time as the voices in the back of her head once again made themselves known. The girl could practically feel the dark weightless liquid rising about her. Suddenly and without warning, like a snapping rubber band, Alice found herself once more at the doorway to the party, though she had never actually left. Beside her the pink pony was blathering away to the gathered guests in her normal flurry of syllables, slowly the crowd set about their games once again, occasionally turning to look at the human.

Before Alice could state her hesitations in regards to the party she found that the mysterious pony had disappeared. A moment later and the human ended up with a glass of punch in her hand after the party pony brought it to her. She didn’t stay long, however, as she was quickly dashing to and fro about the room as the hostess of the party, making sure everything was in order and that everyone was content.

She did such a good job that the only being in the building who didn’t feel at ease was Alice. She had never been one for parties in all her life, she avoided them if she could manage. She hated social events and this party was a nightmare and a half’s worth of them. Not only was she standing out in the crowd but the vast majority of the party goers were actively searching her out. Panic chased her mind around the room while she tried to find someplace to hide away, some location that would allow her to disappear from their view.

Eventually Alice settled into the back corner of the room behind the punch table and settled into the comforting shadows that hid her quite well from the prying eyes all around the room. She sat there for a fair period of time, the views of the other ponies missing her as she sat there, out of sight and out of mind. She was hidden from all of them. Well, at least, all but the pink pony who promptly ran up to her and dragged her towards one of the games. Alice tried in vain to fight against the pony but she was unnaturally strong and the artist soon found herself standing in the middle of the main room with a path cleared in between her and a poster of a pony that looked to be missing her tail. Before she could even figure out what was going on she was promptly blindfolded and spun, leaving only a false piece of material in her hand to place on the poster.

When the spinning stopped Alice didn’t move. Not because she was unsteady, rather because of the eerie tingle that was running over her spine. She could feel them all looking at her. The pairs upon pairs of eyes staring at her and into her at the same time to the point that it felt like her very identity was being torn to shreds by all these staring eyes. Unfortunately this put her in a bad position mentally and, taking advantage of her unstable emotions, the voices in the back of her head rose up from the grave where the girl had buried them the day prior. 

A few exclamations of surprise sounded from around the human but she couldn’t hear them, her attention was being taken by the loud whispers in her ears. Telling her that the creatures around her thought her to be some horrible monster and telling her that if she really didn’t like being at parties she could just end her life and she would never have to go to another one for the rest of her life... Telling her that they were only trying to gain her trust so they could betray her.

Just as Alice was about to lose herself in her insane thoughts, she tore the blindfold from her face and dropped the false tail to the ground. With her vision unobscured she saw the various dark batches of some mysterious substance floating about her, the source of the sudden silence that had stricken the party goers. All of the ponies had backed away from her in fear. Among them, much to Alice’s chagrin, was the pink pony who was now practically shaking in her horseshoes. The hostess had made one horrible mistake when she was planning the party, she hadn’t talked to her friends about what might happen with the human.

Alice looked around, emotions raging across her eyes. Confusion from the sudden changes of her life, Hurt from how the ponies looked at her, Pain because of how her own wishes had been discarded, but under it all though was one single driving force. Anger. The dark blobs that floated around her tinted red and Alice swung her vision across the room, daring somepony to meet her eyes. None obliged though and Alice’s rage spiked again as she couldn’t help but wonder if this is how they were going to treat her. In this moment of anger there was only a single sensible voice in her mind, she heard her own voice whisper at the back of her head.  ‘Calm down, you can’t lose your temper here.’ ‘They have done nothing wrong.’ ‘Is this really what you want them to remember you for?’ 

With a shuddering inhale from the human to calm herself the orbs gained all their other colors again and once again returned to their normal black. With her rage gone the human looked once more around at the ponies, some of which were beginning to raise their sight hesitantly, and let the slightly less shuddering exhale exit her mouth. Adopting a bent over posture that displayed her broken inner self to a tee the human exited the building and set off under the noonday sun, back down the worn dirt road that led toward the cottage at the edge of the woods.

The orbs of darkness continued to hover about Alice as she walked alone. Alone, that is, bar the voices in her head of course. She often played with the idea that, if she had so many different voices of varying volume in her head, did that mean that she was just another voice in her head, but was loud enough to be heard? Was this really her or was it some foreign body that she walked in. The curse of sleepless nights, that’s what these demented ideas and false memories were.

About halfway to the cottage, the girl heard the sound of approaching hooves and looked over shoulder to see the pink pony running to catch up with her; Upon the ponies sides rested an odd pair of bags that were held on the mare's back by a single length of fabric. Alice stopped her slow walk and turned around to wait for the mare to catch up, partially because she didn't want to go home quite yet, partially because she was sorry for ruining the party. When she arrived, the pony reached into the saddlebags at her sides and withdrew a thermos and a small box.

Hesitantly, the human opened the box while keeping an eye on the pony. She briefly let her gaze move from the pony  to the inside of the container, within were several slices of  beautifully made cake. Realizing she was no longer looking at the party pony, Alice quickly did so and noticed a change in her facial expression, a hopeful, apologetic grin spread across the hostess’ face. Next, she slowly took a drink from the thermos and found it to be the same punch that she had sampled while she had been at the event. Alice allowed herself a smile at the pony’s sentiment and was shocked when the mare started bouncing up and down in response.

Fearing another attack by the pony like she had been greeted with earlier, Alice put her hands in front of herself, the dark liquid acted at the movement and quickly pooled into the palm of one of her hands as she took a step back to protect herself. The orb solidified, as it had the day before, and turned pink. A second later and her mind was flooded with random words and thoughts again, this time led by the emotional wave that said to the human ‘Pinkie Pie’. It was different though as, unlike with Rainbow Dash, it wasn’t a full on assault of ideas, but rather like walking into a completely chaotic room where at some points only a few ideas echoed while at others entire legions rested.

Two ideals were predominate here as well though, ‘Parties’ and ‘Smile’. By this time, Pinkie Pie had stopped bouncing and was looking at the human with her head tilted in curiousity. Alice dropped her hands and let the dark semi-liquid fade away into wherever it went. After a short pause she smiled again at the pony in front of her, this time in a knowing way. “Pinkie Pie, what a fitting name.”

The pony's eyes widened as her name was spoken and she started jumping all around again. With a content grin to herself Alice moved to the side of the dirt road and sat down with her box of cake and her thermos and started her own small picnic with just herself. A moment later and they were joined by Rainbow Dash and the cream colored mare, both of whom had been on their way to the party to see how the human had been doing without her caretaker. They were slightly surprised to find the human on the grass with Pinkie Pie talking away though. When the party pony noticed that her other friends had arrived she darted away to retrieve more food for the impromptu picnic and the pegasi settled down on either side of their human friend.

The pink pony returned with several boxes of cake balanced on her back and three additional ponies at her sides. Alice recognized one of them as the librarian but was at a loss for the other two. One of them, an earth pony like Pinkie, had an orange coat and blonde mane, upon which rested a wide-brimmed stetson. As she walked along sinewy cords of muscle danced underneath her skin, speaking of her strength. The other of the two was a unicorn and displayed a white coat with a deep purple mane, she was quite the opposite of the other and moved with a gracious, careful step.

Shortly the group of ponies arrived, the boxes of cake were more then enough for the ponies to eat and Alice was happy to be treated to a few thermos’ full of apple cider that was provided by the orange earth pony. After the first sip of the drink she was hooked, it was like all of the sweetness of regular apples condensed into a single liquid, even better was it was still warm from the process of being created giving it a warm homemade feel.

The six ponies and the human relaxed as the day ticked away, each of the prior grateful to have to opportunity to be with their friends amongst the chaos of their lives. Alice sat on the outskirts of the picnic, smiling to herself as the ponies enjoyed each others company, letting the moments tick by as she continued drinking from the thermos of apple cider. It wasn’t something she ever really got to witness in the city she was from, a calm moment where a group of friends would just hang out together with no panic or rush.

After a moment the cream colored pegasus noticed that the human wasn’t among the tight knit group and came over to sit with her. Alice smiled and let herself fall onto her back to look into the sky, tinted orange by the sunset. The pegasus followed the action and laid down as well. After a moment it occurred to Alice that she didn’t know the name of this pony, the one who had done the most for her. Now determined Alice decided that, sometime soon, she would see about learning the mare’s name with her new found voodoo magics of emotion if she could learn how to control summoning them.

In the meantime though the human was happy merely to lay on the grass next to the mare that she trusted the most as the sun set behind the constant horizon and plunged the world into the deep blue of the night. The moon shone down from above and a few of the mares left the picnic, before each of them left they shared a hoofbumb with the human. Pinkie had left somewhat early, surprising just about everyone, when she had gotten up to leave Alice had offered the thermos back to her but the mare had declined. This left Alice alone with the pegasi of the group. They enjoyed each other’s company but before long Alice found herself yawning loudly as she looked up into the full moon that seemed to be luring her to sleep.

When Alice awoke the next morning she found the yellow pegasus asleep on the grass nearby while the cyan speed demon took her nap on a cloud. Alice paused briefly to wonder how she was staying on top of the cloud but disregarded it when her mind started to stutter over the fact that this was a world of ‘talking’ ponies. With a content grin the human turned her gaze to her surroundings. The light of the sun as it just started to breach the horizon reflected across the greenery all around and left the vibrant emerald colors of the trees and grass to shine in the beautiful morning.

Alice found her beret and thermos next to each other on the ground where she had fallen asleep, she couldn’t remember putting them there herself and assumed that one of the pegasi must have done so for which she gave them silent thanks in her thoughts. Taking a sip of the remaining apple cider caused her to smile, it was still warm from the thermos and it still had the same homemade taste in it. She quickly finished the addicting drink and pocketed the thermos before looking to the sleeping pegasi.

With a grin Alice quickly and quietly made her way to the cottage and retrieved her painting equipment from within, then she hurriedly returned to the clearing to find both pegasi still asleep. Silently the human set up her easel and placed the second and last of the empty canvases she had brought with her upon the wooden stand. With a glance around the edge to view the subject of her painting again Alice started her art.

All of the colors on her palette started to disappear with their hurried use as they were being utilized upon the canvas and, before either of the pegasi had awoken, the girl had finished her painting. When she was finished a wave of sleepiness hit the human and she yawned again. After looking over the painting with a grin the human turned the easel around so that both of the winged ponies would be able to see it when they woke up.

After placing it such the human picked up the rest of her equipment except the easel and the painting and returned to the cottage. The return trip was short as it had been the first time and, upon arrival, she rested the various pieces of painting material and flopped herself loudly upon the couch to try and catch up on the hours of sleep she had missed with her early rising.

A few moments later Rainbow Dash awoke as the light started to reflect off the bright white of the cloud that she rested on. She groggily opened her eyes to her surroundings, the first thing that she noticed upon doing so was, much to her surprise, a painting of herself displayed within full view. Excited at the prospect of having been drawn by an artist she dropped off the cloud and lowered herself to the level of the painting to get a closer look. The action of her dropping loudly to the ground awakened the cream colored mare and she came over to have a look at the image as well.

Both were quite impressed by the picture, esspecially Rainbow Dash as her ego sky rocketed. Displayed on the picture the cyan mare’s face was set in a determined scowl and raindrops etched their way across her face as she set off to some unknown goal. Lightning danced across the background and Rainbow couldn’t help but grin at the fact that whoever had drawn this painting of her had posed her in such an epic way. Meanwhile, not too far away, the artist rested on her borrowed bed, knowing not of the praise that Rainbow gave the drawing, but not caring as she descended deeper and deeper into the comforting folds of her dreams.
> Spoken by the Judged
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Alice slowly stirred from her position on the couch, stretching her arms above her head for a moment before relaxing them once again. After moving to a sitting position she took a few minutes to wake herself up before noticing a sheet of paper resting on the end table next to her hat. With one more stretch to wake herself up fully the girl stood from the couch and grabbed her hat from the end table, placing it securely on her head after she had done so.

        With her head now properly covered Alice reached over a picked up the note, unsure of what to think of it. Upon the white sheet was a slightly crude drawing of grocery bags and coins which Alice assumed had been left for her to inform her that the cream pegasus had gone shopping and that she would be alone for some unknown period of time.

After another look over the paper to ensure she wasn’t missing something Alice put it back on the end table and took a look at her surroundings for a moment before deciding to spend the day relaxing in the sun. She straightened her outfit out of habit before heading out the door and into the grassy area behind the house where the pegasus had set up several chairs for her and her friends to sit in should they come to visit.

As she exited the house a reflection of light danced across her eyes, blinding her breifly, before she managed to see past the red tint everything had suddenly taken on. A stir of motion in the distance caught her eye and Alice narrowed her eyelids to get a better look. Slowly the blurred outline of something that looked similar to a pony took shape and Alice began a slow approach. 

The thing turned its head to look at her, its blue eyes staring directly into her own for what seemed like an eternity before the creature took flight and ran into the Everfree Forest. Alice, believing she had scared away one of the animals that Fluttershy had started taking care of, took off after it. Sprinting towards the forest as fast as she could to try and calm the creature. Though as she approached she started to feel some kind of pseudo pull on her mind to avoid entering the forest, telling her something bad would happen should she even get close to it.

Ignoring the mental urge Alice pressed on toward the forest in pursuit of the creature she had scared away. Just as she had passed into the woods the dark aura rose up around her, hampering any further progress she wished to make. Slightly taken aback but not one to give in so easily Alice managed to push past the barrier that the odd substance had created. She had done so when it immediately reacted, coiling around her and binding her to the dirt floor of the forest.

”Just give up.” “There is no hope.” “Shh, all will be over soon.” “Peaceful death.”

As the voices tore at her mind Alice attempted to move her hands over her ears in a vain attempt to stop the sound, only to be thwarted by her bonds. She writhed helplessly on the forest floor, the voices tearing through her mind.

        A cracking noise sounded from nearby but in her delirium Alice wasn’t sure if she imagined it or if it was real. As she lay there, her eyes staring helplessly up at the canopy of the forest a black face slowly edged into view. The blue eyes from earlier looked down at her with a mixture of fear and curiosity. Time stretched onwards for both of the beings while the creature looked down at her, trying to decide what to do. Suddenly, having decided its course, the being  nudged Alice with its muzzle and turned her onto her back, a moment longer passed before a slight tingling sensation passed through her and she felt herself lift off the ground. The tingling sensation ended and Alice was rested across the back of the creature, who immediately started moving.

        Slowly the being carried her back to Fluttershy’s cottage with a steady pace. As they left the forest the black substance released her and seeped back into the ground and Alice found herself slowly regaining control of herself, though her movements were still limited. After arriving at the cottage the girl was carefully lowered to the floor of the building. Struggling to get her muscles to listen to her, Alice heard hoof steps as the creature moved around the house looking for something that might help the biped. 

        With a surge of energy, and by straining her body against the phantom bonds that had been on her only moments before, Alice managed to lift herself off of the ground and onto the nearby couch. After securing her seat the biped looked to her side and saw the same creature who had run into the forest earlier standing next to the couch, looking at the human with a tilted head. 

        With what she presumed to be a soft smile the human patted the seat next to herself invitingly and, after a moment of analysis, the creature took the offer. With obstructions out of the way and the light filtering in through the windows of the cottage Alice was afforded a better look of the creature that had saved her from her own aura.

        The being did indeed look equine in nature though it was very clearly NOT equine. The black reflective carapace and the single colored eyes of the creature hinted towards some kind of insect or bug. It was obviously sentient though and Alice found herself wishing, not for the first time, that she could speak the language of this planet or world or universe or wherever she was.

        Wishing to find out more about this creature, and wanting to know if that trip into the forest had permanently damaged her ‘magic’, Alice put her hand out to the being with her palm open. The creature looked at her in confusion until the odd black semi-liquid began to rise out of the floor around her. Fear flashed across the creature’s face as the magic built into the biped’s outstretched hand.

        Just as the orb had finished forming, the creature closed its eyes tightly to avoid witnessing its own end. However, when nothing happened immediately, the creature opened its eyes once again to see a swirling ball of eldritch green. Alice smiled to the creature from behind her orb and closed her eyes tightly, waiting for the whispers that would tell her about who she was sitting with.

The whispers never came. In their place instead was a series of visions, similar to a slideshow. And, in much the same way as the whispers. it was a flood of information with two prominent thoughts that stood out amongst the roar of information. Changeling, Alone Followed shortly thereafter by what Alice assumed to be the being’s name. Photo

“Photo?” Alice said aloud, more as a question to herself then to clarify the name with the being in front of her. “Photo the changeling?” The biped looked to the creature who sat next to her and witnessed as her eyes opened wide in recognition and surprise. “Well, that’s interesting.” At her words the creature raised an eyebrow, or would have had it any eyebrows, but didn’t make a move to question her.

Time slowly ticked away once again, leaving both of the inhabitants to think to themselves about what had just happened. Alice was more curious about the magic trying to kill her when she entered the forest where as Photo was more insistent on trying to figure out what this odd being was that had welcomed her so warmly.

        Unable to speak with each other both being’s were left to their own peace until the door to the cottage opened. The changeling started at the noise but Alice grasped her reassuringly on the leg with an honest gaze. After a deep breath to calm itself the changeling once again settled into the couch and waited as the owner of the household made her way into the room.

        As the pony entered through the now open door Alice realized that a conversation was being had. Before she could do anything Alice found herself on the couch looking at both Twilight and Fluttershy, both of whom she had taken the opportunity to learn the name of one day when neither of them had been busy.

        Everything remained still for a second while both parties assesed the situation, until chaos sprung into action. The changeling jumped off the couch and faced off towards the ponies while Twilight stepped forward and lowered her horn towards the creature while magic began to build in the room. Just as tensions had reached their peak Alice quickly stood from her position on the couch and stood squarely between the two.

        “No.” Though none of the inhabitants could understand the word specifically, the tone came away loud and clear and both the changeling and the unicorn slowly released their magic. It was at that point that Alice was joined by Fluttershy who was looking toward the changeling with the same kind eyes that Alice had been greeted with when she had stumbled into the world.

        “Twilight.” The unicorn looked at the human as she recognized her name being spoken. “Photo.” The changeling looked up as well before nodding. Alice and Fluttershy slowly moved aside and let the changeling walk slowly towards the librarian. Carefully, and with much hesitation on both sides, the two raised hooves and shook. Though no one in that room was aware of it that simple act had triggered an immense set of events that would forever change the relationship between ponies and changelings, and in the middle of it would a biped who still couldn’t speak any words of their languages.

(Sorry about the short chapter, I'm a bit out of practice for writing this. Hopefully I can manage to write some more chapters soonish. In other news, there isn't an Alice in Wonderland reference in this chapter. I ran out of things to refer to sorry. -N64Fan)
> Spoken by the Queen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Twilight glanced sidelong towards Alice as the chariot, upon which they were passengers, flew through the air. After their encounter with Photo a week ago the ponies had managed to get in touch with Chrysalis, who had hidden herself, and the remainder of her changelings, from detection. They had managed some degree of negotiation through Photo but it was clear that they would need to meet, ruler to ruler, to complete negotiations.

        Alice leaned out of the chariot, though carefully keeping her feet within the incredible flying vehicle, and spread her arms wide as the wind raced by her face and brought out a smile. Beneath her the country land sprawled and her heart soared ever higher. This must be what birds felt like, flying through the air high above everything. Rainbow never missed a chance to show off and had quickly left the chariot and had started flying alongside the chariot right next to the girl. Displaying her ability to keep up with the entourage while performing rolls through the air.

        She glanced over her shoulder and saw the smiling faces of the other chariot riders looking back to her. She knew the names of all but one. Pinkie was there, as were all her friends. However the name of the large unicorn/pegasus still evaded her. Curiousity ever her master, Alice began to gather some of the black substance and formed it into an orb in her hand. Twilight had helped her with her magic control, though it was slow going without being able to converse. They had, however, settled on a name for it. ‘Ink’. Which Twilight called whatever she called the stuff on the end of her quill when she wrote. 

        Alice began to lift the orb towards Celestia, but her hand was grabbed in a telekinetic yellow. She looked toward Celestia who shook her head with a playful smile. Alice smiled back shyly and then dropped her hand, letting the Ink fade away as she did so. Though she wasn’t sure why the large being had declined the action she suspected it was for the best and decided to let her keep her privacy. She turned her attention back to the open air and closed her eyes, enjoying the wispy air as it covered her in a blanket of crisp morning chill. 

        She heard the chatter of the ponies around her but she felt separate from it, as if she were in an entirely different realm then it. It was a common feeling for her by this point. They were her friends, that was clear, but it was hard to be much more then that when conversation was difficult. Fluttershy had tried her hardest to bring Alice into the circle of friends, but taking an hour out of her schedule to chat about weather was something that even her kindness couldn't manage to do all the time. Which was probably for the best.

The girl had come to enjoy her time alone, knowing she had friends made her solitary bearable. And the looks on their faces when she gave them the results of one such lonely, yet peaceful, drawing session always brought a smile to her face. So, Alice had decided, even though she was sometimes lonely, she was never truly and completely alone like she had been before. 

This idea alone was enough to comfort her heart in the moments of self doubt that had started coming less and less often. So, from the girl’s perspective, everything was perfect. She didn’t want to interfere with so tight a friendship, and she knew she could rely on any of the six ponies to help her if she needed it. It was the best kind of companionship that she had ever had in her life, and the idea that she was so blessed was enough on it’s own to bring a smile to the painter’s face.

A sharp noise caught her attention and Alice turned to see Fluttershy clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth, the sign they had developed for when she wanted Alice’s attention. The pegasus signaled towards an empty seat and smiled. Contendedly, Alice took a seat on the chariot and Rainbow Dash flew in to sit next to her. The vehicle began it’s descent into a patch of trees and each of those on board did something to reinforce their seating position.

The landing was a little rough, but the pegasus who had been flying to carriage were very experienced and managed to land without injuring any of those aboard. Each of the females aboard stepped off and turned their gaze to the massive black pillar of a hive that the changelings had hid with all the magic they could spare. After the large graceful being spoke to the pegasi who were still attached to the carriage she turned and nodded to the others.

Alice followed the six mares towards the large dark building that towered high overhead. As she approached a growing feeling of unease came into being in the pit of her stomach. The changelings all gave her dirty looks as she walked past them, even more than Celestia it seemed. Alice didn’t know why she was so hated, but the chill that ran down her spine kept her silence. She tilted her head downward and began to kick her feet. She wasn’t sure of the reason behind the hatred, but you don’t need to understand something to be affected by it.

Celestia glanced at the human and a look of sympathy came over her face, but she couldn’t comfort her with words. Not only that but if she were to use magic to ease her pain the changelings might overeact. So the human had to remain depressed as they walked through the halls of the hive. Celestia desperately wanted to explain that the changelings held a hatred for things that they didn’t understand, but she couldn’t.

Things only got worse a few steps away from the changeling queen. Ink had started to gather around the girl, putting the changelings on edge. Using slight magic the princess attempted to comfort Alice, but to no avail. So they entered the throne room. As they entered Alice glanced upwards and gasped as she looked upon Chrysalis. The Ink began to deteriorate into the ground but Alice stopped it, holding it in the real world. Chrysalis raised an eyebrow and began to chat with Celestia.

Alice didn’t understand them of course, but even if she could she wouldn’t have been paying attention. Her mind had flashed alive as she gazed at the changeling queen. Alice left the room immediately, heading towards the chariot. The ponies made to go after her but was stopped by Celestia, who nodded to a changeling that had ran after her. The ponies took comfort in the fact that they recognized the changeling as Photo. Twilight looked at her friends before nodding to the princess, she nodded in response and the meeting started.

An hour or two had passed at they had been about to leave for a break. Chrysalis was proving a troublesome being to compromise with. She refused to budge on several topics that Celestia could not let stand. They stood from their chairs and all of them made to leave but were stopped as Alice ran in in a blur, Photo tailing behind her. Under one of her arms Alice held a canvas that was covered with a cloth. Celestia turned towards the human with a smile but was surprised when she ran past her towards Chrysalis. 

Several guards blocked her off, afraid she may be trying a mad attempt on the queen’s life. Alice handed over the painting to them and pointed excitedly towards the queen. Hesitantly, one of the guards held the canvas in a magical grip and brought it to Chrysalis. The other eyed the human, not taking an eye off of her. When the queen received her gift she looked towards the human with a look full of questions. All the ponies had stopped their exits and had turned to watch the events that were unfolding.

Chrysalis removed the cloth to look at the painting underneath. In shock her magic stopped and the canvas began to fall, ever on the ball she managed to catch it before it hit the ground. Detailed on the painting was a drawing of Chrysalis, showing a sort of beauty that no one would think could be applied to her. Light drifted down at a perfect angel as Chrysalis’s hair flowed behind her. Words couldn’t do it justice, after all, how could you describe a beautiful picture of changeling? Yet here it was. The queen sat in shock while Alice smiled boldly. The second guard, who thought that some spell had been cast on the ruler, turned around and hit Alice across the face.

She tumbled away weakly, her beret sliding across the slick floor. Shocked by the action Alice’s emotions collapsed. Chrysalis immediately began berating the changeling, but Alice couldn’t hear her, she was beginning to cry as she lay on the floor. Chrysalis looked toward the human and began a slow approach, placing the painting on the table for everyone to look at as she stepped closer. 

Alice cringed and Ink rose from the ground, the Ink seemed to examine the situation for a moment before it formed a shell around the girl, protecting her from anything that might wish her harm. Chrysalis paused in surprise, then took the last few steps. Upon arrival she tapped the shell and found it to be quite solid. Chrysalis’s face twisted in rage but she didn’t act upon it. The queen turned around, seeing Celestia and the other ponies engrossed in an examination of the picture. Looks of awe covered all their faces. 

Chrysalis approached Celestia and began to chat. A look of surprise came across the princess’s face for a moment before she smiled softly. 

Alice cried, tears poured from her eyes onto the floor. She wasn’t sure why she was crying anymore, she didn’t know what had happened, all she remembered was that she had been hurt. Slowly, Alice composed herself. With a final sniffle she turned her gaze upward and found herself encased in a shell of Ink. The human tried to dismiss the Ink only to find that she couldn’t. She began to panic, a memory surfacing of when the Ink had tried to kill her upon entering the Everfree. She pushed against the surface, but it didn’t budge. 

A new set of tears came to the girl’s eyes as she was struck with an unnatural fear for dying alone by this strange magic. She sat down and looked at the black abyss that had formed around her. She had closed her eyes for a moment when a cracking noise caught her attention. Alice looked up and saw green veins shooting through the shell. The green spread in erratic patterns until it covered the entirety of the shell. Then, it broke in a rush of flame.

The bits of the shell melted as they flew through the air, turning from solid to liquid to gas before finally disappearing altogether. Alice looked up in surprise and spotted Chrysalis standing over her, the queen’s horn flickered with her telltale green flame and Alice knew at once who was responsible for freeing her from her prison. She lunged forward and wrapped her arms around Chrysalis as she fought back tears of joy.

The changeling queen looked to the pony’s for answers about the act but they all shrugged in return. Chrysalis turned her attention back to the human who held tightly to her and let a shard of a smile shatter her stoic mask. Celestia smiled to herself as she watched the Changeling queen and couldn’t help but feel that if it hadn’t been for Alice nothing would have been accomplished that day. Now, though, judging by the look in Chrysalis’s eye, there may be hope yet.
	
	

> Spoken by the Peace
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Soft scratches surrendered to silence, then slightly sought a subtle sound. They rose and fell like escalators, growing and fading through time itself. Alice rubbed her head a bit, and with dreary eyes gazed once more. Looking there upon her canvas and the work at which it held. She placed the brush against it’s surface and drew with lines of paint, emitting now that scratching sound that kept the void at bay. Colored streams, like waterways, danced across what she had drawn, altering so covertly what she had done before.

        The moon outside hung at its apex, the world cast in eerie glow. The soft blue glow was all she had to paint by, she hadn’t dared a lamp. She was drawn to paint tonight, her bones calling her to act, but the night was somber and she daren’t to break it, so lamps were left in unlit. She would hate to wake dear Fluttershy, after all she’d done to help. So our heroine, from the looking glass, made do with what she had. A tinge of some imperfect blue on a dim but constant light. 

        Blinking back the calls of sleep, Alice paced her goal, and painted upon her canvas more as the weary night crept on. Orange was used for sunset colors, recalling moments that she remembered, just a couple hours back. Streamers came in thin and wavy lines, celebrating this; a moment she had hoped so long for and had finally come to pass. This moment that she had waited on was one she longed to keep, and so she stayed up through night to keep it held for her. The canvas was her memory, and the paint held all her thoughts, and as she brought it to perfection her strokes came slow and sweet, careful not to lose the hours the easel stole so far.

Hours at the easel but none were spent at ease. She fought both drifting memory and the wily draws of her bed. It was something worth recording, something she needed drawn. And when she finished she looked back and smiled, but was interrupted by a yawn. Light had cracked the straight horizon, shifting blue to cream, and it was then she found her bed and let it take her, needing precious sleep.

Hours yet, until at last, Fluttershy would come. She’d look upon the canvas and the painter in her bed, she’d piece it all together, and she’d take beret from head. She’d place it lightly on the bedside table, let it rest as well. And she would head downstairs to cook her breakfast, smiling all the while.

The night before had been a party like no party a pony had been thrown. Fireworks had been approved, after the mayor’s hums and haws. But to surprise of all who’d gathered, damage was not there seen, Pinkie been quite apt prepared to handle all and everything between. The mayor sighed when the party stopped, happy nothing frayed, she supposed she’d been quick to judge, mare’s are grown not made. Like many kinds of creature’s, a curse is never set, from mare to all of ponykind, or some other species yet. 

Celestia and Chrysalis had shaken hoofs, the paper signed and framed. From that day on two kingdoms rested, courtesy of this; They brought no weapons to that meeting, only pens to set it straight. And both were more than happy, to have finally found accord. Peace on earth, good will to mare and stallion both. And changelings now of course.