Take Your Pony To Work

by Ximer

First published 27th of February, 2016

Harmony was nothing but a fictional character, until she made a wish of her own.

Harmony Chorus was supposed to be nothing more than a fictional character, nothing more than a series of sentences. Much to Hue's surprise, she turned out to be so much more, and wants to be a part of the real world. How will her life change when her wish is finally granted?

Chapter 1

I was already awake by the time the sun had started to peek over the horizon. My human would be asleep for at least another hour, but that was fine; he had earned the extra hours of sleep he snuck in on Sunday mornings. Besides, he was an excellent source of body heat, and the steady beat of his heart was soothing to listen to.

Soon enough, my human was awake and quite the morning mess to behold. His hair was in disarray, stomach audibly empty, but conscious enough to mumble “good morning, Harmony.” The depth of his voice always brought a smile to my muzzle.

Even on a Sunday, our mornings would always start the same; get up, shower, eat breakfast, and get dressed for the occasion; be it slacking off all day, or staying busy. It was the same thing, every day since I first met my human, we’ll call him Hue.

More exciting than work or play was when Hue would write; his mind filled with countless ideas, each one brimming with potential, and ready to be given a solid foundation. Perhaps I am a bit biased since he’s used me in one of said ideas that eventually saw the light of day. It still makes me smile knowing that others know about a small part of me.

When watching him write eventually grew boring, his lap was the perfect spot for a nap. The bed near the desk was a solid choice as well, but I enjoyed being near my human and still do even when he claims he wants to be alone. He always says I know how to bring him out of his shell when he doesn’t feel like coming out. I simply know him better than others do, to the point of being his voice of reason sometimes.

The deer around our house were always a welcome sight, and offered a bit of a reprieve from the chaos of the rest of the world. It reminded me of home, and it was always a treasured moment when we would feed them corn through a feeder during the winter months when food was scarce. Occasionally, they would linger nearby, waiting for us to finish and leave before returning to the food we had left for them.

Yes, my life was good here, what more could a mare ask for? A nice stallion, a good home, and the worries of tomorrow were far from our minds. As much as I hated to admit it, there was something that brought a frown to my muzzle when Hue wasn’t looking.

Despite being so close to him, despite all of the warmth he had to provide, I couldn’t return any of it. I was just a thought, a piece of a story that had one day spoken out to him. Needless to say watching him fall out of his chair after hearing his name spoken in a supposedly empty house was quite the experience.

Neither of us is certain as to how I came to be, but we have a loose theory; that enough thought, love, and work was put into the idea that was Harmony to breath a sort of life into me. A silly theory perhaps, but with no history of mental illness, no symptoms of multiple personality disorder, or any other logical explanation it’s the best we could come up with.

It was quickly decided that I be kept a secret, since talking about a plum colored unicorn, with a blue mane and tail from a land of talking ponies dwelling inside one’s mind might not be the best way to make friends; at least not the kind you’d want to make anyways.

Despite having to live in the shadows of his personal life, I was happy. During my year with him, I had experienced a lot and cherished the connection we shared. It was strange at times, being seen, but unable to truly interact with the world. I suppose I could be considered a ghost, or perhaps a guardian angel, but neither of those fit my style.

One day, Hue noticed my frown despite my best efforts to hide it from him. Even if I had, he didn’t need to see me to know that something was wrong. Our connection worked both ways, and while I was better at hiding some things from him, I could only mask my emotions for so long.

“What’s got you down?” Hue asked.

“Nothing, just thinking about things,” I shrugged nonchalantly. “Watching you go about your business.”

“Sounds boring,” Hue commented.

“Are you offering to trade places?” I joked with a halfhearted laugh.

As I spoke, I moved to push a hoof against him, only for it to phase through him effortlessly. The dark reminder of what I was, and what I could never be quickly dampened the mood between us. There was no hiding my frown this time, as I felt my expression shift against my will, dislodging the emotional mask I had worn.

“Harmony,” Hue said, his voice taking an unusual tone of concern. “What’s eating at you?”

I looked up at him, past the dark pools of brown that were staring back at me. I could tell he knew, or at least had an idea what was on my mind, but he wanted me to say it. He wanted me to tell him out loud what had caused perhaps the closest friend he had to frown.

“Here we are in the same room,” I started. “And I can’t touch you, play with you…hold you.”

Hue sat in his chair, giving me his undivided attention. I liked that about him, he didn’t try to multi-task when he was talking with somepony; he stopped and listened.

“I can ‘feel’ you to a certain extent, but that’s it,” I explained. “Sometimes, I think it would be better if I had just stayed a story. I just want more sometimes; I want to be something more than just a piece of fiction.”

“I think you discredit yourself,” Hue said after listening to me lament about being incorporeal. “I mean, you’re pretty real to just be a piece of fiction. None of the other characters I’ve made have just started talking out of the blue.”

I reluctantly nodded in agreement, as much as I didn’t like it, Hue had a point. There was something different about me, something special, but we had never been able to fully nail down what it was. Pondering on the subject usually led to frustration as no answers seemed to exist.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” I said, putting on the best smile I could muster. “A mare can dream though.”

I thought the subject would leave my mind after vocalizing it, but quite the opposite was true. Hue’s answer had only kindled the desire to be more than what I was. Even as I willed myself into his lap, I was reminded of my own limitations. I wasn’t truly laying there, it was only my will being projected there, nothing more. The heat I felt was from his emotions, the confirmation that he cared for me despite the lack of physical intimacy between us.

Night eventually came, the rest of the day having passed us by with nothing of major interest occurring; another lazy day in our home. As Hue prepared for bed I knew that would soon change, however. Soon, I would slip into Hue’s dreams, where even then the simple concept of touch eluded me. Existing was all I could do, and the scariest part of my existence was that if something were to happen to Hue, if his mind failed him, there was a good chance I would cease to exist. I would simply return to the void of nothingness I had supposedly come from, my only remnant being a few sentences stored on a website that will eventually fade into obscurity.

Even as Hue lifted the sheets for me, I envisioned another individual looking at him as if he were crazy holding his sheets up for thin air. I didn’t ponder on it for too long, however, wanting only to feel the warmth he had to offer. It was the closest thing for me to contact, and my tired soul yearned for it. Upon removing support to the sheets, they fell though me as if nothing was there.

“Goodnight Harmony,” Hue said before slowly drifting off.

“Goodnight,” I replied quietly, unable, and unwilling to simply fade away as I normally would tonight.

My mind was full of thoughts, some belonging to Hue that had drifted into mine, but most revolved around my dilemma. I had trouble believing I wasn’t some imaginary friend myself sometimes, but imaginary friends couldn’t ponder their own existence. I simply didn’t desire to share the fate of one, eventually fading away into nothingness.

A star caught my attention through the window. I smiled fondly as I remembered how I was inspired in the first place. Hue told me the story that spawned his stories in Equestria all started with a star, reminding him of when he used to make childish wishes. This gave me an idea; a silly idea, but something I felt I needed to do.

Slowly, I phased through the sheets, knowing I wouldn’t disturb Hue in doing so. I stopped myself from phasing through the floor, which was starting to become hard due to Hue’s mind slowly drifting off. I knew I had little time, but I didn’t need much for what I had in mind.

“Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight,” I chanted. “Wish I may, wish I might. Have this wish, I wish tonight…I wish…I wish…”

I found my vision blurring, and my voice failing me. Hue was nearing second stage of sleep, and taking me with him. I wanted to finish before then, but opening my mouth produced only a quiet hiss as I steadily faded away. I was determined to finish though, viewing what was once a childish task as a challenge now.

I mustered up what willpower I could and tried to speak once more, the desire to be heard driving me to remain in the waking world. I just wanted to be seen, to be heard, to belong. I wanted…I wanted to be- “re-al.”

---

I yawned before opening my eyes lazily; the vibrant swirling colors, and more proportionate surroundings that greeted me assured me of my location. I was in Equestria once more, or the Equestria that Hue had created at least. It was more of a collective effort really; most inspiration came from the show I was based on; other input came from fellow writers and theorist fans. Some even came from readers who had left comments that Hue applied to the world.

It all came together to make a pretty decent place. The only complaint I had was how I fit into this world in the beginning. I was blind when it came to sight, relying on my magic to see. It only worked when noise was made, which meant I had to constantly have some sort of sound in order to see.

I had quickly grown tired of such a limitation and given myself the ability to see, deviating from Hue’s original design. With a little thought, my vision became normal, or as normal as dream vision could be I suppose. It was a bit blurry, but not intolerable.

How I could see clearly while Hue was awake, and became blind for a brief period while he was asleep fascinated me. Unlike my existence question, however, I had a solid theory that his mind still associated me with a story, and the character I was linked to was blind in said story.

Rolling out of bed as I usually did, I put my thoughts aside and opted to venture out into Ponyville. It was always nice, warm, and peacefully empty. With the stories no longer continuing for the saga I had been a part of, there was no more timeline. The second Hue had typed in the last period was when this world froze in place.

There was no Celestia, no Luna, nopony. Not even Discord was immune to this fate; he had simply ceased to exist in this timeline. There was nothing left to do, nothing more to be said. At first, such a realization had disheartened me, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I wasn’t truly alone. I would only be here for a few hours before I would wake up once again to the sight of Hue. I didn’t have the heart to tell him what became of the world he created within the depths of his mind.

I stepped outside, greeted once again by the eerie silence. Not even the chirping of birds could be heard in this world, only the steady rise and fall of my hooves against the ground as I walked to the park. Of course, it too was empty, save for the occasional rubber ball or frisbee.

I sat down on the grass beneath a nearby tree and closed my eyes. I was pleased with myself for at least trying to defy what I was, what I was limited to. I could remember whispering one last word before vanishing from the waking world. “Real” such a strange word to utter before disappearing to those who could touch and feel what they wanted. It was a concept so close I could almost taste it, metaphorically speaking of course.

My left ear twitched as if irritated by something. I willed it to stop, only for it to resume its odd behavior once I broke my concentration from it. I soon realized why it had twitched to begin with, as the faint sound of hooves could be heard in the distance.

“Impossible…” I mumbled, rising from my resting place.

As I followed the hoof beats, a new sound joined in breaking the silence. It seemed to echo through the empty town, which put me on edge. I felt confident nothing could hurt me, but then again I was supposed to be nothing to begin with.

“H-hello?” I called out, still following what I could now clearly distinguish as singing.

“Twinkle twinkle little star~” sang the voice. “How I wonder what you are~”

The voice was feminine which eased my mind slightly. Still, I had seen enough horror movies with Hue to know that nursery rhyme songs didn’t always lead to good things. In fact, it usually resulted in the untimely demise of a key character.

As I cautiously rounded the corner, I saw another unicorn. She seemed to be busy casting some sort of spell on the building. Upon closer inspection, I noticed a broken window which made me wonder what in the world the mare was doing to break a window in the first place. Her coat was teal in color; her mane and tail a carrot orange, and her cutie mark looked like a white pawn chess piece with a black pawn partially hidden behind it.

“Umm…” I said, still struggling to accept what I was seeing.

“Hmm? Oh, there you are Harmony, how’ve you been?” the unicorn asked, turning to face me with bright yellow eyes.

“I’m…good,” I hesitantly replied. “I’m sorry, who are you, and how did you get here?”

“Oh, right, my name’s Teal,” Teal chirped happily.

“Teal,” I thought the name was about as creative as a wad of gum under a school desk. “Right, so…what are you doing here, nopony else is supposed to live here. I mean, the story’s over.”

“Hah, silly, the story only ends when you want it to,” Teal replied. “This world is still kicking, after all.”

The mare gave the building a solid kick for emphasis. I looked around, expecting to see something I had been missing the countless times I had been whisked away to this version of Equestria. As I expected, there was nothing new to be found; same sky, same ground, same Ponyville.

“No offense, but I don’t follow,” I confessed flatly.

“I didn’t expect you to, I’m not here to give you answers, after all,” Teal giggled.

“Then why are you here?” I asked.

“To give you what you want, of course,” Teal replied. “You want to be real right?”

“How do you know that?” I took a few surprised steps back from the mare.

“I know a lot about you, Harmony,” Teal said. “What you like, dislike, what you wished for more specifically.”

“Ooookay, officially freaked out now,” I muttered.

“Oh don’t be, you made a wish, so I’m going to help,” Teal said before vanishing and reappearing beside me. “I can help you.”

“How can you help me, when you’re nothing but a dream?” I asked, stepping away from the mare.

“Easy, all I need you to do is focus your magic where I tell you to,” Teal said happily.

“Sounds too good to be true,” I narrowed my eyes at her suspiciously. “And you still didn’t answer my question, how did you get here?”

“Does it really matter?” Teal giggled. “I’m offering you a chance to hold your stallion, the things your heart craves. Everything would be perfect.”

“At what cost?” I asked again.

“No cost to you,” Teal smiled. “Save for a bit of your time and effort, but I need answer in the next….five minutes, otherwise jolly green giant will wake up and our conversation will end.”

If this was a dream, it was one of the most vivid dreams I had experienced. A mare, to date the only other occupant in this barren version of Equestria, was offering me a chance to be corporeal; not just a vision or thought form. Logically, if it was a dream, there could be no negative outcomes in agreeing to this seemingly impossible perfect offer.

“Tick tock, tick tock,” Teal reminded me. “Time flows different here than in the real world.”

“Okay, I’ll do it,” I replied.

“Perfect, now just stand in front of me and do as I do,” Teal instructed.

This seemed too easy, there were no negative consequences that could immediately be detected, and I was getting what I wanted with what I could assume was of little to no benefit to this dream mare. Still, it was worth humoring her, and truthfully a small part of me believed that whatever she had in mind would work.

"Now, I'm going to focus my magic on the ground," Teal explained. "You do the same, but go light at first. Only increase when I say, understand?"

I nodded, as the reluctance within my soul began to fade, drowned out by the sound of two streams of energy pouring into the ground. My magic only worked within this dream world, which only solidified my belief that there was no harm in playing along with Teal.

"A little more," Teal said, cueing me to increase the output of energy from my end.

I did so and watched as a small pillar began to rise into the clear sky. It slowly grew with our efforts, until it seemingly reached what must have been the limitation of this dream. A black hole, exposing what appeared to be the room I had seen hours ago through a small rift.

"No way..." I mumbled.

"Focus, just a little bit more," Teal said, bringing me back to the task at hoof.

I did so and was treaded to a mirror image of the world we were both in now. Despite the two distractions, I maintained my concentration, unable to break focus to ask her how this was possible. I felt certain her answer would be "you made a wish."

"One last thing," Teal said with a mysterious smile on her muzzle. "I need you to wake up."

With an exaggerated step, the mare entered the pillar. Before I could react, her aura surrounded me, and pulled me into the phenomenon as well, causing me to black out.

---

I opened my eyes to darkness; it was Monday, the first work day. Today would be difficult to wake Hue up, but our schedule ran like clockwork, and it couldn't stop just because it was the first workday.

"Hey," I groggily mumbled. "The house is on fire, and your cat's dying."

"I don't have a cat," Hue mumbled back, his arms stretching out thr-over me?

I let out a squeal of surprise as I was tugged against him, too stunned by my new found solidity to protest. Hue, his brain still functioning at minimum capacity only sighed as he inhaled once my neck was against his nose.

"You're warm..." Hue mumbled lazily at first, not quite processing what he had just said. "Wait...warm?"

My human released me, sitting up in his bed as we faced each other; the dim light of his cell phone providing enough illumination in the room to see. Ordinarily, I was simply visible to him through his mind’s eye, no light needed.

"Sweet Celestia...it was real..." I whispered, staring up at Hue.

"Harmony, how?" Hue asked turning on the nightstand lamp.

Teal hadn't been just a dream, and I wanted to tell him everything, but at that moment my only response was to tackle him in a hug. Hue was knocked back onto the mattress from the impact, giving me time to plant a firm kiss upon his lips for the first time.

I couldn't keep the tears from flowing as I felt two strong arms wrap around me. It was a new feeling of security and warmth that I hadn't experienced yet, one that was much stronger than anything I had felt before.

"You've been wanting to do that for a while, huh?" Hue asked, wiping a tear from my eye.

"You have no idea," I sniffled, snuggling against him.

Reason slowly began to flood back and override my emotions. As much as I wanted to keep Hue in bed, he had a job to do, and for the first time I could do more than just watch. I finally felt as if I could contribute.

“I guess you need to get up, huh?” I grinned sheepishly.

Hue chuckled, lifting me up easily in his arms. I let out a squeak of surprise before falling into a fit of laughter as I was carried. Until this morning, I had only the vaguest assumption as to how strong Hue actually was, or how light I might be if I was actually corporeal.

I pouted when I was finally set down on the couch while Hue lazily gathered clean clothes from the laundry basket that he had washed and dried yesterday. A bit of a procrastinator, he had decided to wait until he absolutely had to hang his clothes up before doing so. I found this to be one of his less desirable traits and would regularly voice my displeasure about it.

As my human left me to shower, I decided to test my magic abilities. Focusing on a shirt, I tried to turn it inside out, imagining it and willing it to do so as I would when I manipulated objects in Equestria. Much to my delight, the shirt twisted in on itself, revealing a blurred decal of Darth Vader on the front with the words “who’s your daddy?” appearing to be backwards.

I rolled my eyes with a smile at Hue’s taste in clothing and let the shirt fall from my magical hold. This all seemed too good to be true; even my magic worked now. I couldn’t help but wonder what spell I had assisted that mare with that could possibly do something like this.

A growling noise took me by surprise, it was a sound I had only heard humans make before, but the only human present was currently in the shower. The sound made itself known once more, revealing it to be my own stomach. Of course, I was real now, which meant I had a stomach and was faced with the uncommon dilemma of figuring out what I could and couldn’t eat.

If this form was based off of the show, than I should be able to eat just about anything but meat. The problem was that Hue…was a carnivore, or considered himself to be one. This limited my options to fruits mostly, and Honey Nut Cheerios. I personally despised the cartoon bee, and found the puzzles on the back of his box to be of little challenge.

Begrudgingly, I decided to submit to the bee overlord, and pour myself a bowl of his cereal. I was thankful Hue had a secret unicorn fetish when making characters, otherwise doing so may prove a bit more challenging, as I was only two feet tall, and the cabinet for the box was a good seven feet above me. Were it not for my magic, I probably would have cursed Hue for having such a tall form with long arms.

Cereal suspended near me by magic, I made for the living room and stared at the T.V. Hue didn’t fancy it as much as other methods of entertainment, but always tried to catch old reruns of Star Trek The Next Generation. I preferred Ghost Adventures, and without what Hue called a DVR it was usually a debate between which show we would watch.

As I turned the large screen on with a muzzle full of milk and cereal a blond woman came into view after a brief delay. Hue had left it on the news channel, which put a small smile on my muzzle. I was a new inhabitant in this world after all, so I needed to learn what was happening in this new world that was now open to me.

“Last night’s strange turn of events still has most researchers baffled this morning as they scramble to find answers,” the woman said.

My chewing slowed as the image of what looked like Celestia’s mane lingered above a group of buildings from several different pictures. I had seen this in Hue’s world before, it was called the aurora…aurora…

“This unusual worldwide sighting of the Aurora Borealis was accompanied not only by the closest orbit of the moon in hundreds of years, but the arrival of a number of small equine beings that miraculously have the ability to communicate. A few claim to have been in the company of humans for quite some time, but so far they all speak as if this is their first time actually being present on Earth,” the woman said.

As the screen cut from her to a video of a stallion, and a mare talking with three humans my eyes widened. My mouth had stopped chewing altogether, and hung open long enough to allow the milk I hadn’t swallow to slowly drip out.

“Harmony,” I barely registered Hue’s agitated voice. “You’re making a mess, what’s-“

My magic swirled around his head and gently turned it towards the screen. I felt a weight against the couch as Hue sat down beside me, just as stunned as I was. I wasn’t quite sure if I should be relieved that I wasn’t the only pony who had been caught in some sort of rift, or worried if this was a dream that was slowly spiraling out of control.

“We reached out to Hasbro who has given us no comment on this recent development, as these equines share a striking resemblance to the My Little Pony franchise,” the report continued before switching over to three different humans who proceeded to debate if I was an animal or a sentient alien.

“Rude, I’m not an alien!” I huffed.

“To be fair, they don’t have a whole lot of options when it comes to labels. Calling you a pony is accurate, but it’s kind of degrading, since you clearly don’t roam around pastures all day,” Hue said. “I suppose this is one thing that PC can’t handle.”

“More important than what to label me as, look at how many reports there are of them,” I pointed out.

“I know, thousands,” Hue replied. “We weren’t the only ones…but how?”

“Uh…the magic of friendship?” I grinned.

“Funny, but I doubt it’s that easy,” Hue said, ruffling my mane.

“Whatever it is, we’ve got to put it aside for work,” I said, making my way back to the kitchen.

“We?” Hue asked.

“Yes we,” I repeated. “If there’s more than one pony that’s shown up, I’m not about to pass up an opportunity to experience the outside world.”

“You’ve seen it hundreds of times when you’ve been out with me,” Hue said.

“True, but I could never go where I wanted, or do what I wanted,” I smiled. “Please let me come, I promise I’ll stay out of the way.”

Hue sighed as he rubbed his forehead. I knew he couldn’t resist it when I put on a pleading expression, being a softie at heart. When he looked down at me I proceeded to give him my best puppy dog eyes, hoping to pull at his heart strings even further.

“Okay, you win,” Hue relented. “But you have to stay low, understand.”

“It’ll be like I’m not even there, I promise,” I gave a salute in an attempt to assure him I would be on my best behavior.

---

I sighed as I sat behind the counter where Hue was currently ringing another human’s goods up. While I had insisted on coming today after learning of other ponies somehow arriving on Earth, I felt confident I would get to meet one. So far, the number of ponies I had met remained a stagnant zero.

“I’m bored…” I moaned.

“You seemed fine when you weren’t corporeal,” Hue quietly replied as the customer left.

“Yeah, but that was when I could only watch you,” I said. “Now I can go where I want.”

“Not entirely, I’m pretty sure you had your ear against the door when my boss was telling me that there was no “bring a pony to work day,” Hue said. “I have to try to keep an eye on you so you don’t get into trouble.”

With an eye roll I got up to roam the isles at the game store, admiring card and board games alike. It wasn’t a common video game store that kids would supposedly beg their mothers to enter only to buy mature games for them, but a classy, more interactive game store.

There was a large area for card games and table top games to be held. Occasionally, Hue would take part in grand events like tournaments. Even though I could never participate, it was always fun to watch him play.

I couldn’t help but feel the occasional stare of other humans as I walked past them. It was clear that not everypony was as excited about us being here as Hue was. Much to my surprise, however, I noticed another mare holding a box of what appeared to be some sort of miniature game. I hadn’t even noticed her walk in.

Desperate to distract myself from the stares and whispers, I trotted over to the yellow mare. Her mane and tail were red and stopped just short of her glasses; a bottle of ink, with a pen beside it served as her cutie mark.

“Hi there,” I said as brightly as I could.

“Oh, um, hi,” the earth pony murmured quietly.

“My name’s Harmony, what’s yours?” I kept up my best smile, as I could tell this mare was a bit shy.

“Penny Bottle,” the mare blushed. “My human uses a pen most of the time so…it’s the first thing that came to her mind.”

“Wait, so yours doesn’t write with a keyboard?” I asked.

“Oh goodness no, she’s not very good at writing stories,” Penny giggled. “But she can draw amazing works of art, though I think I ruined one when I first spoke to her.”

“I see, weird,” I mumbled. “Anyways, what’s that you’re looking at?”

“Warmachine,” Penny replied. “I thought it would be fun to actually play a game with my human after just watching her for so long.”

“Really? Where is your human?” I asked.

“In there, playing against what she calls a neckbeard,” Penny said. “I didn’t want to distract her.”

“You mean you’re not there to cheer her on?” I tilted my head with a small smile.

“W-well, when you say it like that…”Penny put the box she had been considering down as she stood up, proving to be a bit taller than me, even with my horn taken into consideration.

“I’ve never seen a game of Warmachine anyways, I’ve only watched Hue play Warhammer, and that’s gotten kind of dull,” I explained, trotting alongside her into the larger portion of the store that held the gaming tables.

“Does he not do well?” Penny asked.

“Oh no, he does great,” I smirked. “A bit too great though, I’ve tried to talk him into moving onto something else.”

Penny pointed out her human, whose name was Nichole, who as she said was tied up in a game with another human. So enthralled was she, that when the two of us appeared beside her, she jumped slightly; the carpet of the game room muffling our hooves.

As I watched the two humans play, the more interested I became in this game. Magic controlling giant robots, what wasn’t to like about it? While I had never considered myself a nerdy pony by any means, just watching this game was slowly luring me in.

“Say, are you hungry?” Penny whispered.

“Now that you mention it…kind of, yeah,” I replied.

“What exactly is there to eat here?” the mare slowly rubbed the tip of her hoof against floor.

“I’m still new to the whole food thing myself,” I laughed, even though I was more than willing to experiment. “Even tried funyuns?”

---

I groaned as I clutched my stomach in one of the seats at the vet’s office. While funyuns had seemed like a good idea at the time, neither of us knew how I would react to certain foods. The tasty circles had been addicting, to the point of buying three bags, only to regret it roughly an hour later as partially digested chunks came back to greet me. Much to my displeasure, Penny seemed completely unfazed; perhaps her iron vat of a stomach was linked with her being an earth pony.

I had protested coming here, but the argument that I wasn’t an animal didn’t hold water. Technically speaking, I was a pony by definition, if you didn’t count the horn or ability to speak. Hue had also taken off from work to get me help, so I wasn’t really in a position to pick and choose where I went, even if the other humans there made me uncomfortable.

Hue hadn’t spoken to me much since we left the store. I felt guilty for causing him to leave early, and quite possibly causing trouble for him. It wasn’t hard to tell that he was upset with me, especially since I had promised to stay out of trouble.

“I’m sorry…” I whispered quietly.

Hue hesitated before speaking, taking in a deep breath before looking down at me. “Let’s just worry about getting you better right now.”

“Are you mad at me?” I asked.

“Yes Harmony, I am mad,” Hue sighed. “But I’m more worried about you being okay right now.”

Nothing else was said between us until we got home, after it was determined that I would be fine. Apparently ponies were tougher than we looked, according to the vet that degraded my intellect by using baby talk. If I hadn’t been sick, I would have told him off, but as it was I was too distressed to concern myself with him.

If anything good came from me being sick, it was the round the clock treatment and attention from my human. I felt pitiful not being able to do much after embarrassing him at work, and doubted I would be allowed to go back for a while. I had made a friend though, and that’s what I had hoped to do today, knowing that others had somehow appeared as well.

As the opening theme for Star Trek began to play while Hue and I shared the couch, I felt the desire to tell him everything about my strange dream, but something held me back. Perhaps a fear of ruining the moment, or making the day worse. Whatever it was, it won me over in keeping my thoughts to myself and I instead opted to snuggle up to Hue as best I could.

I smiled as I felt warm fingers slide through my mane, stroking my ears occasionally. Slowly but surely, the steady strokes and head rubs from my human lulled me to sleep with a goofy grin on my muzzle. Perhaps by tomorrow I would be over the damage I had done to myself, and be able to truly begin to explore this world.

Author's Notes:

This was a story that popped into my head. It is heavily based on the idea of Tulpas. I may do more, but for now I'm considering this one a one shot. Let me know what you guys think, and thanks for reading.

Chapter 2

I looked around the now bustling streets of Ponyville, trying to make sense of all the life that had come to occupy the once empty town. In my dreams, this sleepy border town to Canterlot had always been empty, but now there were all the ponies I knew from the show. Applejack was at her stand, while Rainbow Dash soared overhead.

“This isn’t right,” I said to myself. “None of this is supposed to be here.”

“Everypony got what they wanted though,” came a voice from behind me.

I turned around to see Teal rocking back and forth happily on her hooves. Her aura was as bubbly as ever, and she even waved to Pinkie Pie as she bounced by. My mind was still struggling to process what I was seeing, as the fourth wall breaking mare disappeared into sugar cube corner.

“This has to be a dream,” I mumbled.

“No, you’re just in the wrong story,” Teal rolled her eyes, but maintained a smile. “Besides you don’t exist here anymore, remember?”

“Wait, what?” the question snapped me out of my state of awe. “What do you mean I don’t exist?”

“Not in this Equestria you don’t,” Teal shook her hoof in a “no no” motion like Hue would when his niece would misbehave. “You’re just fiction, a passing thought.”

“Is Teal talking to herself again?” I heard one pony ask another as they walked by.

Panicked, I reached out to touch Teal, only for my hoof to pass through her. I fell on my haunches horrified by this revelation. I was still fake, I was still nothing more than some fictional character conjured up by the imagination of another.

“No…I’m not fake,” I whimpered.

An alarm started to go off which caused Teal to look at her barren foreleg, as if she were looking at a watch. A frown crossed her muzzle as if what she saw on her imaginary watch displeased her. As the alarm continued, she looked up at me, wearing an unsettling smile that sent a chill throughout my body.

“Well, I’d love to stay and chat, but things to be, ponies to do, you know the spiel,” Teal said, placing a hoof against my chest.

“Your own story, that’s what you wanted right? I gave it to you, your own “real” Slice of Life,” Teal’s smile turned mischievous, as her cutie mark began to glow. “But this is my story now, and there’s no more room for you.”

The clear blue sky shifted to a blood red, as did the rest of Ponyville. Its inhabitants still seemed blissfully unaware, and continued about their business. Teal was the only one that seemed aware of my presence, and with a gentle push, sent me tumbling backwards down a hole that flashed with vibrant colors.

---

“Harmony!” I heard Hue exclaim, giving me a firm shake.

I bolted upright, surprised to find myself no longer falling, but stationary, and in a cocoon of bed sheets. Hue started to peel away the covers, revealing the shaking unicorn beneath them. A part of me felt ashamed, getting so worked up about a nightmare. Everything seemed so real about it, even Teal.

“I don’t think we’ll be going to that brand of medicine anymore,” Hue said, scratching behind my ear in an attempt to drive the horrible experience from my mind. “Was that your first nightmare?”

I nodded as I leaned against him. He was already dressed and ready for work, which meant I had slept in. I would usually beat his alarm clock to the punch, but this morning was an odd exception. I was a bit disappointed in myself for letting him down, but after ingesting a good deal of the medicine the vet prescribed, it left my head swimming.

“I’m fixing to go to work,” Hue said, his hand ceasing its soothing motions. “Try not to get into too much trouble today, okay?”

“I can’t speak for the world around me,” I replied, earning me a kiss on the horn.

“I’m sure you’ll find a way to entertain yourself. Just one more day, and then I’ll start the new job which will leave more time for you, I promise,” Hue smiled.

“Didn’t your mom warn you about promises?” I teased.

“Bye Harmony,” Hue chuckled before closing the door.

“Bye,” I said staring at the door.

I let myself fall backwards into the mattress and levitated the sheets over me once more. I could hear it raining outside, which was soothing to listen to. So far my life among the corporeal had been less than satisfactory. I had gotten sick, been taken to a vet after getting sick, and had my first nightmare after taking medicine for said sickness. One could only wonder what else was left to enrich my experience.

As entertaining as it was to ponder on such things, my mind soon wandered back to what Teal had told me. She had granted my wish, given me a Slice of Life, but why call it my story? I shook my head in an attempt to forget about the mare, and dismiss her as a nightmare. This task was made easier upon hearing my stomach growl.

As warm and comfortable as the sheets were, especially with the rain tapping against the window, my need for food took precedence over being lazy. I couldn’t help but let out a reluctant sigh as I pushed the covers off of me, and jumping down to the floor.

My hooves clacked loudly against the tiles of the kitchen, which grew irritating. It was aggravating enough for me to stall my search for food and bring a few towels to lay down around the floor, which helped to soften the noise, but not by much. It did lower to a tolerable level that allowed me to focus once more on finding sustenance.

Hue, bless his socks, had gone out and bought just about everything he thought a pony would eat while I was passed out on his couch. I could only imagine the look of surprise when the cashiers saw a meat loving human walk up with a buggy full of fruits and greens. It was a sweet effort on his part, and while it gave me options, taste was still a new avenue for me to explore. Some of the options, however, were less than flattering.

“Ugh, carrots with the leaves attached?” I cocked an eyebrow as I levitated one in front of me. “I am not a farm pony Hue.”

As snooty as I was about my food, my stomach was in no mood for such nonsense, which is why I was left quite stunned when I found the green top of a carrot hanging from my muzzle. The warmth of my horn faded, which shed light as to how it had ended up in my mouth, but I was still stunned that my will had been overwhelmed by need.

Hanging as it was, I gave the leaf an experimental munch…and another…and another. Soon the carrot was being drawn up to my mouth as I consumed the carrot’s healthy green leaves with star filled eyes. Whether the hunger had any effect on my taste or not I didn’t care, all that mattered was the heavenly taste of carrots.

All too soon, the wonderful treat was gone. Thankfully, there were more where the first heavenly orange root came from, and they were devoured just as quickly. My mind was racing with the concept of taste, and it took what felt like a super pony effort to reel my mind back into reason. These were simple carrots, tasty carrots, but normal all the same.

Satisfied with my full stomach, I sheepishly closed the door to the fridge. With my one goal achieved, I was bored now, and had little to do except wait for Hue to return. Sitting around all day didn’t appeal to me, however, and so I began to pace and gather my thoughts.

I briefly considered writing to pass the time. After all, that’s what Hue had done, and I owed my very existence to his spare time. As appealing as that was, I wasn’t the writing type and headed back to the computer room. The room lacked a decent name, and since it wasn’t a guest bedroom or anything of the sort, we took to calling it that. It was better than just calling it “the room down the hall.”

Ever since I was able to speak, I felt things needed names, I even tried to name all of Hue’s miniatures. Much to my dismay, my human provided the lame excuse that painting names on hundreds of small bases wasn’t practical. I felt sorry for the little models, being stuck in one pose for their whole life, with no name; not even a number!

An idea struck me as I pushed open the door to the computer room. I found Hue’s carrying cases easily enough, and opened them with a gleeful smile on my muzzle. I always felt like the miniatures were alive somehow. As much work as Hue put into them, they might as well be. For all their life likeness though, they lacked names. This was a problem I was convinced I could rectify.

That was my plan, anyways. As I started to paint small names on the bases of Hue’s models, my mind began to run wild with possibilities. Soon, I was playfully making sound effects as alien jets flew around the room, held in the air by a mystical aura. Small soldiers wobbled forward in the same magical spell to be painted.

“And you’ll be….Ted,” I smiled, painting the name on the model’s base with a smile.

A sudden knock at the door caused a break in my concentration. This resulted in two jets crash landing on the floor, thankfully still in one piece. I let out a held breath once I was sure that Hue’s figures were safe.

There was another knock at the door which seemed louder than the first. It made me nervous, but I decided to venture towards the front door. The knocking hadn’t returned which struck me as odd, but even odder was that someone would come looking for Hue. We lived in the country, and were out of the way for the most part.

I stared at the door, not entirely willing to open the door myself. While I felt confident in my magical abilities, I wasn’t confident enough to try and assault a potential robber waiting on the other side.

I took in a deep breath and opened the door, only to find no one in sight. I looked around cautiously, assuming it might be a prankster, or worse, but couldn’t find any evidence of malicious activity. Only when I turned around to walk back inside did I notice the box beside the door, addressed to Hue.

I slapped my muzzle with my hoof out of embarrassment after realizing I had gotten worked up over a deliver worker. I sheepishly retreated back inside with Hue’s box, and relocked the door. Once the door was closed, I stared at the box and turned it over with my magic.

While it was morally, and legally, wrong of me to sneak a peek at Hue’s mail, I couldn’t help myself. I was curious, and up until yesterday it was something I would almost assuredly know about, save for the few things my human did manage to keep to himself.

As I opened the box, and removed the packaging, I realized with a blush the grave mistake I had made. This was no ordinary delivery, this was a much more…personal one. I couldn’t look at it with a straight expression and could only marvel at its design. I was stuck between a state of disbelief and embarrassment for my actions.

“O-oh my H-Hue…” I felt my cheeks heat up as I looked down at the box and reread the label, which gave me a bit of insight.

I quickly did my best to repackage Hue’s….delivery, and hid it behind the chair in the living room. I wanted to forget about what I had just seen, and felt the best way to do that was to return to my painting. Despite my progress, I still had a few hundred or so names to distribute.

It was as I re-entered the room that I noticed a few old folders poorly stacked on top of one another. How I had missed them before was a mystery, as their drab color, and aged appearance was hard to miss. Further observation placed them next to the “name jar” that Hue used to come up with names when he wrote.

Curious, I began to shift through the old paper work, smiling as I discovered old sketches, and a few rough drafts. While some would only view these folders as forgotten ideas, a certain fondness for the old, somewhat wrinkled papers captured my heart. To me, it was as if I was looking at a family album.

Some story ideas were silly, while others were creative, but they were all ones I never knew existed. Even as a product of Hue’s mind, there were parts of him that were a mystery to me, but this was something completely new.

As I pondered as to how Hue had kept all of this a secret, a sobering thought occurred to me. He hadn’t kept any of this a secret, he simply forgot about all of these ideas. It tugged at my heart the more I thought about how many ideas had been left here to simply fade away into nothingness. As much as I loved Hue, I couldn’t comprehend this about his nature, about the nature of all humans.

I looked over at the miniatures and figurines before returning to the pages of thoughts and stories. A human’s greatest gift was their ability to create, that’s what Hue told me. When I asked him why creators abandon their creations sometimes, he assured me they didn’t.

As I turned through the pages, I came across a few villain ideas. Some lightened my mood, while others made me glad that Hue had stashed them away in this folder. There was one that caught my attention that looked a bit more recent than the others, however. Its page was unblemished, and sketch much clearer. I assumed this must have been the original villain for my story and passed it over.

“Doppelganger…weird myth,” I mused finding a few more ideas that brought a smile to my face as I read through them.

Page after page was the same; more characters, more plots, more forgotten ideas. Each one resonated with me in some way, and I couldn’t help but notice that the deeper I dove into these creative folders, the more complex the ideas became. I felt…guilty, like I had climbed over these other ideas that I thought were better to somehow become more than a thought.

I eventually closed the folder when I reached the ideas for a My Little Pony fanfiction. I knew what I would find there. I didn’t have the will to look back on the fake past I had been given, mostly out of fear that I would somehow regress to what I once was, and lose my grip of what I felt was a fragile thread of true existence. That Harmony had been adored by a multitude of people, but I was nothing but a shadow of her now that I was real.

That’s when it dawned on me, that I wasn’t meant to be her. I could be whatever I want to be now, it was my choice. I felt there was so much more to me than what Hue had typed out on a document for others to see, and now I could prove it.
---

“Harmony?” I heard Hue call as he walked down the hallway. “Are you in-“

I turned to face him as he flipped on the light to the computer room. After finding the folders I had spent a lot of time trying to decide what to do with myself. I now felt confident that I was meant to get out into the world, like other ponies. I didn’t want to stay cooped up all day.

“What are you doing?” Hue asked.

“Job applications,” I replied. “I want to be out in the world.”

“Harmony, there’s tons of ways to do that without trying to find a job, which is hard enough to begin with,” Hue said, picking me up briefly to sit in his chair, holding me in his lap. “Trust me, it’s not as fun as it sounds.”

“Maybe, but it’s better than wasting away,” I sighed. “I may be breathing, but if I’m not doing something with myself, how am I any different than all the others in there?”

Hue’s eyes followed my hoof towards the folders I had been shifting through. I watched anxiously as he picked one up and opened it up in front of me, looking down at it from over my shoulder. I could only imagine now what was running through his mind as he shifted through the pages. Ever since I had become corporeal, I had lost the link with Hue and couldn’t pick up on his feelings like I once could.

I expected him to be mad at me for going through his personal stuff, but what he did next took me completely off guard. He was smiling, laughing at times even. I had heard Hue laugh thousands of times, often at crude jokes or mockingly at those who had earned his ire, but this was a different laugh. This sounded innocent, kind and genuine.

“I can’t believe I forgot about these,” he said.

“So you did forget,” I mumbled.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Hue nudged me.

“You just left them there, your thoughts,” I looked up at him. “Why?”

Hue didn’t reply, but instead stared down at the folder. I may have lost my link with him, but I knew him well enough to tell when he was nervous about something. He was afraid of answering wrong; as if this was some kind of test of his character. I already knew Hue inside and out, I just wanted answers which is why it stung a bit knowing that he was trying to pick his words carefully.

“Just say what’s on your mind,” I said, hopefully ruining whatever composed thought he had put together. I just wanted the real Hue to answer.

“I just forgot,” He said with a sigh, the words leaving his mouth without hesitation. “I wrote stuff down to get it out of my head and onto paper to hopefully make something, and nothing came from it.”

“I see…” I said quietly, leaning against him, feeling his heart beat against my back; he was definitely nervous.

“Look, if this is about you being a thought, we both know you’re more than that,” Hue stroked my mane.

“What does that make the others?” I placed a hoof against his chest. “Were they less than what I was?”

“Harmony,” Hue’s face twisted slightly as I put pressure on him about this. “Humans have an ingrained instinct to create, I don’t know how else to explain it. Sometimes the best way to create is to get your ideas down where you can see them. Sometimes we make good ones, and sometimes we make bad ones, that doesn’t make them any less important if they never go anywhere. You learn what works and what doesn’t.”

I tilted my head in confusion at his explanation. His ideas had been discarded in a folder; it seemed obvious that he viewed them as less important. Some of the papers were faded slightly, hinting to their age.

“Harmony, if I didn’t care about my ideas, my past, then why did I take the time to store them?” Hue said. “I’m human, I forget things and I stumble sometimes, but I’d like to think that I saved those to look back on sweeter times in my life. All of that was before you even existed.”

“I just feel bad for them,” I sighed. “Like they never got their story.”

“I’d like to think that some of those ideas went into making your story,” Hue smiled. “Besides all stories have to come to an end anyways. Whether it’s in a back story, or a simple profile, it has to come to an end or it just rots from the inside out.”

“Stories can…rot?” I asked as I was set down on the ground so Hue could get up.

I chewed on the thought and vision of a book slowly decaying. Being a previous work of fiction, the image was unsettling, to say the least.

“You’re not a story though, you’ve got a life…so, I guess it is kind of up to you what you do with it,” Hue rubbed the back if his neck as I followed him down the hallway. “I’m just worried you wouldn’t be able to find anything, with you being a pony….no offense.”

“None taken, and I’m sure there are plenty of others who are having this same conversation with their human, if they haven’t already,” I leaned against him affectionately.

“Heh, yeah…by the way,” Hue looked down at me. “The mail didn’t happen to run today, did it?”

Even with my fur, I couldn’t help but grow cold when he brought up the mail. I had hoped he wouldn’t know, but I had forgotten all about the magical little device called a smart phone. Such a device was capable of alerting one to all sorts of things; mail included.

“Uhh…maybe?” I blushed. “M-maybe the better question is why you uh….y-you know.”

“….so you saw…” Hue averted his eyes.

“Yeah…I kind of wondered why you would order…that.” I rocked back and forth on my hooves.

“Well, you and me,” Hue started. “We couldn’t…you know-“

“I know, it’s just weird,” I cocked an eyebrow at him as an idea came to me. “Why you’d still want that, when you have the real thing?”

“Is that an invitation?” Hue chuckled.

“As long as you toss that “toy” on your way to your room,” I flicked my tail for emphasis, savoring the nervous expression on my human’s face. “A toy can’t make a man out of you, after all.”

---

I stoked my human’s hair, the dark fibers shining softly off from the limited light in the room. His breathing was steady and slow, even as I hummed to him. Hue always slept better when I sang or hummed to him. I figured he needed to be at his best for tomorrow.

Even as I watched him sleep, I couldn’t help but think about what he said. All stories needed to have an end, or they would rot. It still didn’t make sense to me, since I had seen first hoof what happens when a story ends. Why was an end always an inevitability?

I shook the head from my thought, ceasing my humming as I kissed Hue on the forehead. It was time I joined him in slumber, and hoped that it would be nightmare free this time.

Author's Notes:

So what teal learned today; how to paint, that odd things arrive in the mail, and some interesting other stuff to advance the plot. I think this can turn out to be a pretty interesting story, and those that I've ran it by liked it. I hope you do as well, thanks for reading, your comments are always appreciated.

Chapter 3

“Still wanting the whole job thing to go through?” Hue asked as he pulled up in front of what he told me was probably one of the more progressive, and laid back environments he could think of; a coffee shop.

“I’m sure, and this is the last one on the list, since Best Buy turned me down,” I sighed.

I was skeptical when Hue made me fill out the application for the Morning Dew, as I had never been that crazy about the idea of coffee. It was used as a kick starter, and I personally saw it as a crutch which Hue thankfully didn’t rely on. Why others needed such a high dose of caffeine baffled me, but to each their own.

We both got out of the car and approached the small, unassuming building. While the outside seemed simple enough, with a dark coat of paint with only the name and a few plants as decorations, the inside was much more pleasing to the eye.

The lighting was at the perfect level, even if it was a bit late for coffee, but some humans were weird. It was surprisingly roomy and everything from the tables to the seats seemed welcoming. The level of comfort was on par of walking into one’s own house to get away from the rest of the world. Just like the building, the interior was mostly dark wood furniture. The walls were a cream color that reminded me of the beverage shops like this were famous for as a staple request from their customers.

What threw me for a loop was what it was lacking, the stares of humans. This was probably due to the fact that a few ponies were in the building as well. Most of the humans were busy with computers or books. The ponies in the building seemed content to carry on conversations with a few of the humans at their tables. Some even sat on the couches and read over their shoulder. A few humans held the book in between the two of them to make things easier.

“This place…” I stammered after noticing a hoof slide a cup up onto the counter.

“What did I tell you?” Hue smiled. “This is probably your best chance Harmony.”

“Hi, welcome to the Morning Dew,” a rather thin girl called out to us.

While I was by no means shy, this place just seemed too unreal. The fact that we had been addressed instead of just ignored or stared at threw me for a loop and I instinctively hid behind Hue’s legs like a school filly.

“She’s trying to get out and about,” Hue covered for me as I peeked out from behind him.

“Aww,” the girl cooed as Hue approached the counter, forcing me to follow him. “Rough times with the crazies out there?”

“You could say that, mostly stares, but even that can wear you down after a while,” Hue replied picking me up to set me on a bar stool.

I let out a brief squeak before I was set down, which gave me a better look at the woman that had spoken to us. Her name tag read Alexis, which I thought was a pretty name. She had thin frame glasses, like Hue’s and when she spoke, I could just barely catch what looked like a tongue piercing. I already felt more comfortable around her than I did with all the uniformed busy bodies at all the other stores and shops I had been to.

“So what’s your name?” Alexis asked.

“Harmony,” I replied quietly, tapping my hooves together.

I realized now why I was suddenly so nervous; I actually wanted to be here. Unlike the other interviews where I had just expected failure, I felt different about this place.

“That’s a nice name,” Alexis said with a nod. “You wouldn’t happen to be the pony that was interviewing in a few minutes, would you?”

“Kind of, how’d you know?” I blushed.

“You’ve got that “new” vibe to you,” Alexis explained. “Kind of caught between scared and hopeful, and I’ll take a wild guess this wasn’t your first choice?”

“To be honest, no it wasn’t,” I confessed, which made Hue face palm. “I didn’t really feel welcome at the other places though, and I got turned down. Hue talked me in to giving this place a try, even though I’m not a fan of coffee.”

“I take it Hue is your human?” Alexis cast a smirk at him. “Which would make him either an artist or-”

“Fanfiction author,” I shrugged earning a giggle from the woman. “A good one though. I mean, he made me.”

“Thanks,” Hue sighed.

“Well, now that I’ve gotten you out of your shell a little, think you could handle a more formal interview?” Alexis asked.

“Wait, you mean-“ I pointed a hoof at her in disbelief.

“I always manage the front when it comes time for interviews, it gives me a chance to actually talk with them,” Alexis smiled. “Anyone can put on a good front and act sweet. You come across as a genuine sweetheart though, so you’ve already got a good foot...hoof rather, in the door.”

I could tell she meant what she said, and while I was written out to be a sweet little pony, that didn’t mean I had to stay that way. I had kept telling myself over and over that I could be whatever I want to be, that this was my story now. For Hue’s sake though, and my own peace of mind, I had opted to keep my personality intact. If I was being honest with myself, I didn’t have it in me to be evil or mean.

As I followed Alexis past the counter and behind the doors, I encounter another employee who seemed happy to see me. Her smile was contagious, and I found myself smiling back, even as I was lead into my potential manager’s office.

---

Hue was waiting for me when as I entered the main room once more. He was talking to an earth pony that had taken over for Alexis while she was away with me. Her name was Arusha which struck me as an odd name for a pony, until I realized what her name meant, or was rather as it had to do with coffee, go figure. Her mane and tail were black, while her coat was a very mild orange; a cup with steam vapor coming up from it served as her cutie mark.

I trotted ahead of Alexis, gaining Hue’s attention, as hooves made much more noise than shoes could ever hope to against tile. Thankfully, my human knew me well enough to spread his arms out in anticipation and brace himself as I jumped into his lap.

“So how’d it go?” Hue asked, ruffling my mane a bit.

“It went well,” Alexis said leaning against the counter. “She’s got the job if she wants it. Arusha is the lone soldier right now, and I think it’d be good if there was another pony to work with.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Arusha trying to hide a hopeful smile. Her efforts were in vain however; as it was clear to anyone who looked her way that she was behind this idea wholeheartedly. So was I since Arusha seemed like a nice pony, and I wanted to make a few friends of my own kind.

My smile grew wide as Alexis offered me the job. All the other humans had rejected me without much consideration. Being a literal work of fiction, it was hard to have any kind of resume. I tried my best to convince myself that was why the other humans had turned me down, but I knew better.

“Yes, yes!” I cheered excitedly before regaining my self-control. “I-I mean, yes, I would like that, very much so.”

“Good,” Alexis nodded, placing a cute cap on my head. “Then I’ll be seeing you here around seven, bright and early.”

“Looks like you’ll be beating me to work,” Hue commented. “But, we can work that out later, I think we’ve had enough running around for one day.”

I nodded in agreeance with Hue. Rejection could certainly take its toll on you, but persistence had paid off today. I was grateful for the opportunity to get to work for Alexis, and I was eager to make my own life story, not relying on what had been written out for me. I wanted to be different, and besides, how many would listen to a pony sing any ways?

“You know we’re going to have to work on your magic now,” Hue said as we left.

“Why is that?” I asked, happily trotting alongside him.

“Because if you get teleportation down, then you wouldn’t have to rely on me for transportation,” Hue explained. “Your people skills might need some work too.”

“Pfft, I have great people skills,” I rolled my eyes with a playful smile. “Who wouldn’t love me?”

“Humans not used to being served by a talking, colorful equine that can perform magic and break the laws of physics as we know it,” Hue replied in his endearing long winded fashion. “In case you need a recap, people just stared at you almost everywhere you went, and Alexis was the only one to really give you a chance.”

“I know that, but I can’t see any humans being abusive towards me,” I said as I focused on the door handle, unlocking and opening it simultaneously before Hue could pull out his keys.

“You’d be surprised,” Hue’s voice became muffled as he walked around to the driver’s side. “Trust me, there are some nasty examples of human life walking about.”

“Ooh, I predict a little roll play~” I grinned.

“Not the roll play you might be interested in, but roll play all the same,” Hue laughed as the car’s engine roared to life.

“Okay, so you be the big bad customer then, and I’ll be the innocent little bar mare,” I fluttered my eye lashes for emphasis.

“Okay, I’ll take a latte,” Hue said.

“Okay, no problem,” I chirped happily.

“Hmm, on second thought…a cappuccino is sounding better to me, I think I’ll have that instead,” Hue smirked. “Oh, and can I get about a dozen or so doughnuts?”

“Uhh, sure,” I laughed.

“You don’t have doughnuts though,” Hue said.

“Well, I just started,” I explained, countering his odd rude tone.

“There’s a menu right behind you, you ponies aren’t very observant, huh?” Hue rolled his eyes.

“Well if we don’t serve doughnuts why’d you come here?” I huffed.

“See, you can’t do that,” Hue said, breaking character. “Even if they’re being a complete bum, you still can’t go off on them. That will cost you your reputation and more than likely your job too.”

“I think that’s a bad example of a person, no one’s that mean,” I shook my head.

“I pulled it from personal experience,” Hue replied. “I’ve been living with humans a lot longer than you have. Trust me Harmony, there are some bad apples.”

“I get that,” I said, tapping my hooves. “But you didn’t have to be that mean.”

I looked over at my human, giving him the hurt pony eyes in an attempt to tug on his heart strings. These eyes usually had an odd affect, however, and only resulted in Hue trying not to laugh. I never understood how looking hurt brought amusement to Hue, but he explained it as me going over the top with my display.

“Come on, don’t give me the pony eyes,” Hue pleaded, which only caused me to intensify my gaze.

“Can I get ice cream?” I asked, my tail swishing in anticipation.

Hue seemed to be swept up in conflict at my request. I knew he was probably going to assume I would get sick again, but surely if ponies from the show could eat cupcakes with no problem, than ice cream should be harmless as long as it was in moderation.

“Fine, but just one,” Hue replied. “I don’t want you getting sick again, okay.”

“I love you,” I sighed happily, wrapping my forelegs around his torso.

“Love you too, you crazy little unicorn,” Hue chuckled.

---

The wind blew against my mane relentlessly, dragging me from the requiem of sleep. My surroundings consisted of nothing, literally nothing but waste land and a grey depressing sky. I instantly assumed that this was just another dream, which served to ebb my fear slightly.

“Amazing, isn’t it?” I heard Teal call out through the wind. “What a world void of creativity can look like.”

“Teal, what is this place?” I asked, cautiously approaching the mare.

“The end,” Teal replied. “Where visions come to die, and where thoughts cease to exist. This is what happens when humans, ponies, everyone stops caring.”

I squinted and tried to focus through the roiling wind, filled with what appeared to be a blue dust. For a few seconds I could make out shapes among the particles, but all too soon they faded away into nothingness. As Teal had said, there was nothing here but wasted space.

“Why are you showing me this?” I asked. “How are you showing me this?”

“I felt like talking to you,” Teal replied. “As for how, I’d rather not give everything away.”

“Then what questions can you answer?” I sighed. “Why do you keep appearing?”

“Harmony, I’m hurt, you don’t enjoy my company?” Teal placed a hoof over her heart for added drama.

“I will admit, you are a bit…strange, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like you,” I replied. “I just wish I knew more about you. Like why all these ponies appeared in the world shortly after you showed up, or how I can touch and exist at all in the real world. I just want answers.”

"You say that as if there's just one," Teal put a hoof to her chin, tapping it as she considered my response. “Tell you what; I’ll answer only yes or no questions. The first question that isn’t yes or no will end this little session, deal?”

“I guess that will have to do,” I sighed.

“Perfect,” The strange mare clopped her fore hooves together. “Let’s get started then.”

“Is this another dream?” I asked.

Teal paused for a moment, as if considering how to best answer the question I had decided to start with. While I felt confident it was, something about this place seemed…too real. Eventually Teal simply nodded her head in acknowledgment that it was indeed a dream.

“Are you responsible for this place?” I asked, slightly dreading the answer.

“…yes,” Teal’s smile sent shivers down my spine.

“Are you responsible for my current world?” I managed to ask without my voice wavering.

“Hmm, that’s a tough one, but no,” Teal replied.

I nearly pressed for her for more, but caught myself before doing so. I needed to find out as much as I could before this “dream” ended and I was left with even more questions. One that came to mind was quite disturbing.

“Do you want to do to my world what you did to this one?” I asked.

“No,” Teal replied flatly.

I was a bit stunned by her response. I had braced myself for the worst, expecting her answer to be that of some cliché villain, but she lacked ill will. Then again, I was taking her word on all of these questions, and she could be lying to my face just to appease me.

“Anything else?” Teal asked, flicking her tail with a wide grin on her muzzle.

I wanted to ask why so badly, but I knew that would be playing into her hoof. There were only so many yes and no questions I could ask that could prove fruitful in finding out more about Teal and her ambitions, whatever they may be.

“Do you keep bringing me back to this dream?” I asked, not quite sure what else to ask of the mare.

“Stalling, perhaps?” Teal asked in return. “Even for you, this is grasping at straws…but yes.”

“Even for me…what do you mean?” I asked, covering my mouth with a hoof after I realized what I had said.

“ That marks the end of our little game!” Teal exclaimed with glee. “Well, I hope this shed some light on things, perhaps brought you a bit closer to the “answer” your boxed in mind is seeking?”

“Who are you, really?” I asked, ignoring her taunts.

Teal’s expression became neutral as she approached me. Her eyes, once full of energy, seemed different now as she got closer to me. Her mane seemed to be duller, as did her coat. It only got worse the closer she came to me. It was as if the beautiful image of Teal had been distorted somehow, and was struggling to stay together as the mare leaned her muzzle against my ear. For a split second, I thought I saw a mirror image of myself.

“I’m your best friend,” Teal whispered.

---

My eyes opened to darkness, save for the alarm clock which had yet to go off. Much like when Hue would disconnect from a hug, so was the feeling of losing contact with my dream; the only way of communication with this mysterious mare that had changed my life.

“No, not yet!” I exclaimed forcing my eyes shut as tightly as I could, as if somehow that would bring the dream back.

The dream had already faded, and left me with a new set of questions, on top of the old ones that hadn’t been satisfied by Teal’s game. She spoke of existence as if there were multiple worlds, and my only solace in this knowledge was that she had no intent of destroying mine, or so she claimed.

My skepticism of the dream mare would have to wait until later though. For now, I had to focus on work, and since Hue was already up and in the shower I reasoned that he could use some company, and let myself in, much to his surprise. I could already tell that, despite my odd night time experience, today was going to be a good day.

Author's Notes:

Hope you guys enjoy, and as always thanks for reading. I always appreciate your thoughts and comments

Chapter 4

I stared at the coffee maker as if it was the Gordian knot itself. While human inventions were fascinating, they simply hadn’t been designed with any other species in mind, save for those intended for use on animals. Even though I was a pony, I didn’t necessarily fall into the latter category, which put me in the sentient species lacking the knowledge to accurately operate such a device.

“Problem?” Arusha asked, her voice carrying a soft accent.

“Just trying to figure this thing out before Alexis gets here,” I replied. “I want to try and be a good employee.”

Arusha shrugged and continued to get the rest of the store up and running while Trisha got things ready in the back, doughnuts of all things. After last night I made it a priority to study the menu thoroughly, and I would have a bone to pick with Hue later today and confirm with him that we did in fact serve doughnuts.

So far, everyone had been nice, but I had only been introduced to two co-workers. According to Trisha, things would get busy the first four hours of the day. I convinced myself I could handle it with magic, but I knew it would take more than that to do a good job and it would be even harder to prove to people that a pony could do a human’s job just as well.

“Pardon me,” Arusha said, pulling me out of my pre work psych up.

The earth pony proceeded to flip a switch, pull a lever, and quickly slide a cup beneath the nozzle in a few rapid movements. The speed at which she moved, coupled with the grace at which she executed said motions, was an impressive feat. I nearly applauded after witnessing her work, since my own efforts to deduce the inner workings of the machine had not yielded results..

“So, how long before I’m able to do that?” I asked.

“Whenever you’re ready,” Arusha laughed, taking a sip of the drink she had prepared.

I shivered at the strong smell of the coffee, amazed at Arusha’s ability to endure its taste. While the scent wasn’t unpleasant, it was still overwhelming my senses. The mare gave me an odd look as she picked up on my detachment from her beverage.

“Not a fan of coffee?” Arusha asked.

“Not really,” I shook my head.

“You are an odd mare,” Arusha laughed. “Why accept this job if you do not like what you serve?”

“Well, I’ve actually never tried it,” I confessed. “I don’t think I’d like it though, since its smell alone is pretty strong.”

Wordlessly, Arusha crafted another cup with the same amazing speed that she had done so to produce her own. I could see where this was going as she pushed the cup towards me on the counter. While I still found the idea of coffee to be silly, the mare had a point; how could I excel if I didn’t even like the product?

“Okay,” I sighed, levitating the cup towards me. “Just one sip.”

“Of course,” Arusha smiled knowingly.

I closed my eyes as the cup drew closer to my muzzle. Part of me wanted to smack the cup away as the scent grew stronger, but I knew better than to possibly hinder any chance of furthering my friendship with Arusha. Even if I hated it, I could tell she wanted me to try it, and I had already agreed to it.

The liquid was incredibly hot, so true to my word only a small sip managed to make it into my mouth before I recoiled from the cup. How Arusha, or anyone for that matter, could stand the heat was beyond me…until I let the taste settle in.

Arusha could see my magic begin to waver and quickly grabbed the cup levitating in midair before it could fall. My eyes went wide with wonder as my breathing got heavier after sampling the coffee. It was like magic, only in liquid form that the humans had somehow extracted from a plant. I found myself wondering why I had been so against coffee in the first place.

“Harmony?” Arusha waved a hoof in front of me. “Earth to Harmony?”

“So good…” I mumbled in response.

“Arusha,” I vaguely picked up Alexis’ voice. “You didn’t break Harmony, did you?”

“No ma’am, she just tried a bit of coffee,” Arusha replied. “Though, I did not expect this type of reaction.”

Alexis sighed and snapped her fingers in front of me a few times, breaking my coffee bean induced trance. I jumped back, still a bit dazed by what I had just experienced, and couldn’t help but notice how much lighter I felt. If one sip of coffee did that, there was no telling what a whole cup would do.

“You okay?” Alexis asked.

“That was coffee?” I asked in response.

“Well that was without cream, but if you’d like-“ Arusha started to say.

“I think we should save the sampling for after hours,” Alexis cut in. “You’re okay to work still, right?”

“Uh, yes ma’am,” I nodded. “I’m fit for duty.”

“Good, let’s hope you keep that attitude through your first week,” my boss said. “None of this is overly complicated, but it still ask you to interact with others. So let’s work on the maker first, since it’s the main reason people come here…that and free wifi.”

I watched and listened as Alexis went through the finer details about the various ins and outs. When it was my turn to try, my magic worked almost as well as a human’s hands, making the process easier, but still slower than how Arusha’s method. How the earth pony had worked out such a smooth process was impressive.

Being one who believed in trials by fire, Alexis had me making the orders for Trisha when she took them. I was thankful to avoid talking to the masses for a while, even if it meant sometimes making a bit of a fool of myself when my magic shorted out on accident. There was a small reward that came with using magic though, which came in the form of having a small audience as cups floated in a mystic aura, filing and making themselves.

While Arusha was easily faster than me, I could get away with being a bit showier so long as I got the orders done in a somewhat timely manner. When I would slip up or stumble any who were watching would draw in a long hiss of air through clinched teeth. Thankfully, I suffered no more than four spilt cups.

As my fears of being among the public started to melt away, I started to hum to myself. While I was certain I had never heard the tune before, I couldn’t seem to get it out of my head as if I had heard it before. It wasn’t until Alexis tapped me on the shoulder that the tune in my mind came to an abrupt end.

It’s getting close to lunch,” she smiled. “You’ve done good so far, we may have you swap out with Trisha now that the morning rush is over.”

“Yes ma’am,” I nodded, doing my best to snuff out the surge of resurfacing fear.

No sooner had I turned around to head for the back, I noticed her. Sitting at the bar in plain sight, was the mare from my dreams, Teal. She smiled as my eyes fell on her and she gave me a wink. The fact that she was outside of my dreams unnerved me greatly, and I went as far as to poke myself with one of the coffee straws, just to ensure I was still awake.

“Oh stop that, you’re not asleep,” Teal rolled her eyes.

“How are you here?” I asked, dumbfounded by her response.

“Why shouldn’t I be?” Teal gave me a suspicious look as if I was the one with the problem.

“You’re a dream, you’ve been a dream,” I stammered. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

Teal just shrugged and picked up three pieces of toast that had been stacked on top of each other, noisily taking a bite. “I call this a toast sandwich.”

“Do you take anything seriously?” I huffed.

“I take plenty of things seriously,” Teal laughed. “I mean, what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t see how you were doing your first day on the job?”

“Well, here I am,” I smiled nervously. “Soo…what is it you do?”

“I write,” Teal smiled mischievously. “Nothing major right now, but I’m working on something big.”

Teal’s voice betrayed her innocent appearance, there was more to her than what she would have me believe. I glanced over at Arusha who just seemed to wave to us as if nothing was wrong or out of place, completely unaware that this was the pony responsible for her freedom, or that’s what Teal had led me to believe.

“Do you do this with any other pony?” I asked.

“Silly Harmony, that game’s already over, remember? “ Teal shook her head.

“I give up,” I whined, letting my head rest on the counter.

“Aww, buck up,” Teal cooed before taking another bite of her peculiar sandwich. “You’re doing good kid, though the whole coffee shop thing has me for a loop.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, unwilling to move my head from its resting position.

“Well, aside from being boring, it just doesn’t seem like a good fit long term,” Teal replied. “Not saying that it’s bad right now, but keep your eyes open, y’know?”

“No, I don’t” I sighed. “Look, I appreciate what you’ve done for me and everypony else, but I want to live my life differently from what I was just written out to believe I was meant to do, or what my worth was. I know I’m more than just a pretty voice, and I want to make my own destiny.”

Teal shrugged wordlessly and produced a small brown lunch bag from somewhere on her and slid it towards me. “It’s your lunch, you should probably eat something.”

“What did you do to it?” I raised a skeptic eyebrow at the mare as I opened to see a sandwich.

“It’s an old family tradition you see,” Teal explained, making gestures with her hooves. “First I get two slices of bread, and then I take a little peanut butter and a little jelly and apply both to one slice of bread each before mashing them together.”

“I know it’s a peanut butter and jelly sandwich,” I rolled my eyes. “What else did you add to it?”

“Well, if you want to count the wrapping it’s in, plastic I suppose,” Teal replied. “But I wouldn’t count the brown bag as an addition though, since it’s just there to keep the sandwich safe.”

Nervously I removed the sandwich from the wrapping and took a bite, all while Teal was watching me. Her eyes occasionally drifted over to a stay noise or conversation, but for the most part she remained focused on me. After a good minute passed without incident, I decided it was safe to keep eating what Teal said she had prepared, where one could only guess, which brought up an interesting question.

“Where did you make this?” I asked after swallowing my mouthful.

“Home,” Teal answered without further elaboration.

“So where’s home,” I pressed. “I mean, do you live with a human, or are you just some deity that thrives on playing games?”

“As appealing as the second opinion of my life style sounds, I am no deity,” Teal laughed, but her tone was much less heartfelt than before and carried a sad undertone as she continued. “As far as homes go…I used to have a human.”

“Used to?” I asked taking another bite of the sandwich. “Did something happen?”

“It’s a long story, but the short of it is…I left him,” Teal replied. “He doesn’t even remember me, probably.”

“Wait, if we were all bound to our humans, how were you able to leave?” I pointed a hoof at the mare who simply smiled.

“Mmmmmagic,” Teal dangled her hooves in front of her face comically.

“Come on, this is serious,” I huffed.

“Hey, what’s a thought form to do when she’s forgotten?” Teal asked. “I didn’t have much choice but to leave, otherwise I would have faded away into nothingness and you’ve seen what that looks like.”

It was hard to forget the lasting image of what Teal had called the void. If that had been her inevitable fate with this human, I could understand her wanting to leave. I was left wondering how she had managed to escape, but I had the feeling her answer would be the same as always. How many others hadn’t been so fortunate though?

“Why did your human start to forget you?” I asked.

“I’d rather not talk about it,” Teal replied. “Truth is, I’ve kind of forgotten about him too. I can’t even remember what he looks like anymore.”

Where once I had been creeped out by Teal’s general being, I actually felt sorry for her now. I was still a bit leery of her, but I could see from her expressions and hear the sadness in her voice. She felt pain like anypony else, and wasn’t immune to isolation’s harsh effect on the spirit.

“Well, I’ve stayed long enough,” Teal stretched before hopping off the stool and onto the floor. “I hope the rest of your day goes well.”

“Yeah…you too,” I nodded as Teal turned to leave.

I looked back down at what little was left of the sandwich Teal had brought me. She couldn’t be all bad, or so my stomach was telling me. The fact that she had appeared to me in broad daylight put to rest any doubt that she was real, but that meant that all she had done, and all she had shown me must also be real, and not some fictional environment.

---

Working the front had been an interesting experience. Getting to interact with humans and ponies alike was perhaps the best part of this job to me. While I doubted that I would meet the literal mare from my dreams every single day, it set this day apart from any that would come after it. My mind was always defaulting to our conversation, right up until Hue walked through the door to wait out what remained of my shift.

I was so relieved to see him my ears stood up from their tired, flat position, and my tail swished behind the counter until I willed it to stop. Arusha saw my reaction and tried to hide her laughter. I rolled my eyes and turned back around to find my lips brushing against Hue’s. The crafty human had closed the distance between us quickly and waited until I turned back around.

“How was your first day?” Hue asked casually, as my cheeks burned.

“I-it was good,” I pressed my hooves together. “How was your day?”

“Pretty good, new place, new environment, I could get used to it,” Hue replied. “So, ready to take off?”

“I will be in a little bit,” I smiled waiting for the last few minutes to tick away.

I didn’t have to wait long though, and I was by Hue’s side in a flash of light. I had been working on teleportation, which was perhaps the hardest spell for me to grasp. It was as if the world around me shifted and blurred before coming back into focus at the desired point, which was a complex concept in reality.

The Harmony from the stories I had watched Hue write was supposedly a powerful unicorn. Contrary to what was written I was subpar, if that. I wasn’t ashamed of my lacking skills though, as this wasn’t some violent story or a fantasy where I needed them at my beck and call anymore. This was Hue’s world, which was thankfully world ending monster free.

“I bet you’re pretty hungry, huh?” Hue said holding the door open for me.

The mention of food reminded me of Teal’s visit earlier today. My muzzle must have twisted as I recalled our interactions because I nearly ran into the car door before noticing Hue had stopped and was looking down at me in concern.

“Something eating at you?” Hue asked slowly opening the door to let me in.

I nodded before jumping in, allowing him to close it behind me. Once he was inside and had started the engine up, I sighed as I prepared to explain what I had been experiencing. Whether or not he would believe me was another story, but with all that had happened around us, I had a feeling he wouldn’t find it too strange.

“I met my dream mare today,” I said.

“Wait, you uh...swing both ways?” Hue asked, his voice carrying a small amount of hope under it.

“Both ways…no, no, not that type of dream mare,” I huffed. “Get your mind out of the gutter.”

“Okay, okay,” Hue laughed. “But you know, if you ever wanted to do something like that, all harem style and what not-“

“I’m glad I know where you stand on the issue, and will take it under oh so much consideration,” I rolled my eyes at my human’s dirty mind. “Seriously though, I met the mare from my dreams…the one from my nightmare.”

“So this mare has been plaguing your subconscious up until today?” Hue asked. “What did she want?”

“Nothing,” I replied. “She uh…brought me lunch.”

“…and?” Hue pressed for more.

“What do you mean “and?” that’s all there was too it,” I said. “The fact that she’s real and not some figment of my imagination is troubling though, especially after all that she’s shown me.”

“What did she show you?” Hue asked.

“Equestria, as well as a world that was void of creativity,” I replied. “It was all real.”

“Equestria is just fiction though,” Hue said as we came to our first red light.

“I was supposed to be just fiction,” I reminded him. “Just like all the other ponies you see walking or flying around. Which would make a pretty good argument that Equestria is real too.”

“Okay, so suppose Equerstria is real, then what?” Hue asked. “I mean, it’s not like it can be accessed. I mean, if it could be I know a good percentage of bronies and pegasisters would leave this place in a heartbeat and not think twice about it.”

“But…I saw it,” I mumbled quietly.

“Does this mare always appear in your sleep?” Hue rubbed behind my left ear, soothing me.

I nodded in reply. This mare had been a reoccurring experience that I first took as some sort of sign or fore warning. My opinion of this bizarre mare had shifted dramatically now that she was a living, breathing being; one that felt and experienced emotions the same as I did.

“Does this mare have a name?” Hue moved his hand away to turn the car onto the freeway home, facing me towards the setting sun, a reminder that soon I would probably be seeing her again.

“Her name is Teal,” I replied, averting my eyes from the sun in time to catch a strange expression cross Hue’s face for a few seconds.

“That’s a pretty strange name for a pony,” Hue eventually commented.

“Yeah, I thought so too,” I said, resting my head on his leg. “Also, we do make doughnuts.”

----

I couldn't sleep, even after spending time with Hue, I still couldn't fall asleep. The dominating part of my mind knew what was waiting for me the second I drifted off. I had already seen her once, I didn't really want to see her again today. As much as I would have loved to stay awake I knew I couldn't remain like this forever. I would eventually pass out, either at work or in bed, and she would be waiting.

What else did she have to show me? What else was there to know about the world? More importantly, why was I so special to her? I had to be in some way or another, since she had repeatedly visited me in my sleep, and now my place of work. I briefly wondered if I would see her tomorrow, or if the work day would carry on as it normally would.

I could feel it slowly wrapping around me, the sweet embrace of sleep. A feeling I assumed I would ordinarily enjoy, if not for the strange experiences I went through upon reaching the dreaming world. This time, I couldn't muster the energy to keep my eyes open and fight off the creeping weariness. I could only close my eyes, and hope that my dreams would be normal for once.

Author's Notes:

"Silly Harmony, it's not up to you."

Thanks for reading, sorry for the delay. Sadly, work takes precedence over FiM. You know, bills and what have you.

Final Chaaaa- Oops a Teal has occured

Off days had to be the best days of the week. Even though Hue only had two of them, I was fortunate enough to get three, having an odd work schedule and such. This left me to my own devices for one day of the week, with no one to spend time with. I was by myself, save the deer that decided to grace the lawn occasionally. They provided little in the way of conversation though, and only stuck around for a few minutes before wondering off into the woods. Thankfully, I had convinced Hue not to hunt this year and wouldn’t lose any of my “friends.”

That being said, my real friends lived in the city, which was too far to reach with magic. As bored as I was, it was no surprise that Hue’s PlayStation Four soon fell under my curious stare. I had seen him play thousands of times, mostly online, as he himself hated playing alone as well. He had his own group, and he would let their voices come through the T.V. so that I didn’t feel left out of the conversation.

With a shrug, I powered it on and let the disc that was already inside play, Final Fantasy Fourteen. He loved this game, and was perhaps borderline addicted to it. Thankfully, after being a part of his mind for so long, I knew the ins and outs of his information, and logged on as Hue easily enough. His password was sweet too, as I had a little input in it and he had never changed it.

As I logged in, I couldn’t help but take note of how…bland Hue’s character looked. While I had never been one to judge his taste, I struggled to play as the tall, poorly made clone of my human. I was relieved to find that Hue had a remedy to his awful taste in gaming appearances in the form of a potion, which I found amusing, and followed the instructions that eventually led me to the editing screen.

It was an odd moment for me; being a character myself I couldn’t help but notice the odd development within me as I went through the options. I had never been given the power to create or change anything on this level. I tried my best to suppress the feeling of power as I scrolled through the female options of the various races of the game.

While there were no options related for anything resembling my own kind, I settled on the dragon like appearance of one race and began making the smaller changes to her, such as skin, eye, and hair color as well as scales. I settled on a light blue skin color, with dark blue hair and black horns. Two red shimmering eyes stared back at me through the screen, a friendly smile and button nose set below them.

“So cute,” I giggled as I saved the changes to Hue’s character.

I smiled victoriously as I moved faster, now that Hue’s character was a bit more streamline and lightweight. Thankfully, his character’s name wasn’t too masculine and worked for a female character as well. The new look also garnered the attention of a few lonely nerds who Hue identified as “neck beards” when he was online.

As fun as slaying monsters and fighting Primals turned out to be, I quickly grew bored with the repetitive button pressing. Each class had a certain flow of buttons to it, and after playing with all of them I really couldn’t settle on any of the combat classes. This boredom is what led to me using up a good portion of Hue’s resources in crafting, not that he would mind since it would get him in game money in the long run.

I eventually logged out, putting in a disk that was titled GTA Five. I had watched Hue play this game a few times and it hadn’t really interested me. Now that I was behind the controls, however, I found myself smiling as I broke into my first car. The fact that I could do almost anything in this game excited me, and before long I was committing several felonies and avoiding the police, in the game of course.

Hue had a lot of vehicles to choose from, including a tank at his disposal. I couldn’t help but laugh as I pancaked both humans and cars alike in the wake of my terrible, terrible magical unicorn wrath. My magic seemingly worked of its own accord as it located my human’s secret stash of CDs. One being a Disney classic set, which held the desired song that came to mind as I continued my rampage through the streets.

Soon, I was singing along to Hell Fire, my mind locked in the game, until finally my tank became little more than a fireball with the words “Wasted” appearing on screen. As if a switch had been flipped, I looked around confused as to what had been occurring around me.

“What happened?” I asked aloud as the sounds of sirens and screams faded.

My character was placed outside of what looked like a hospital with no means of transportation. I was about to give up until I discovered the phone and called for a ride, at Hue’s expense, unfortunately. It was for a good cause though, and soon I was at a pier, trying to park a few of Hue’s virtual cars on a boat.

I had clearly lost track of time, as the fidgeting of the door knob announced Hue’s return. I was a bit stunned that I had spent almost an entire day on a game. I could no longer criticize gamers for just sitting down and wasting a day indoors now, having done so myself.

“You’re playing Grand Theft Auto?” Hue asked. No hello, or how was your day, jus straight to the elephant in the room.

“Um, yes?” I smiled sheepishly.

“Oh, well that’s cool,” Hue said. “As long as you didn’t go absolutely crazy on my file.”

The game camera briefly shifted to reveal several expensive cars beneath the water’s surface. They were my failed attempts at trying to get a car onto a boat, which was difficult to do with or without hands. Thankfully Hue’s back was turned long enough for me to get out of the water.

“N-nope, nothing like that,” I replied.

“Good to see you having a little fun at least,” Hue commented. “Not all stressed out about Teal.”

“I actually haven’t seen her,” I said after recounting our last encounter.

While not encountering the mare wasn’t entirely a bad thing, being unable to keep tabs on such a pony wasn’t a good thing. For some reason, I felt…responsible, as if I had to talk to her and keep up with her. After learning of her unfortunate past, that feeling was only strengthened. It had been a few weeks since I had last seen, or heard her questionable advice.

“I see,” Hue shrugged. “Strange mares aside, I think it’s time to break out the keyboard again.”

“Have a bit of inspiration?” I asked excitedly.

“Mostly a bunch of small ideas, but sometimes those come together to form a bigger picture,” Hue replied. “Whether it’s good or bad is up for debate.”

“So is it fanfiction, or the other project you’ve pecked away at?” I poked his side, abandoning my game.

“Still fanfiction,” Hue said. “Oddly enough, Hasbro has actually redoubled their efforts in the show now that you guys have appeared, wanting to appeal to a new crowd I suppose.”

“Hasbro aside, what was your idea?” I leaned up against my human, batting my eyelashes.

“One was an Avenger type story, since the ground work has already been laid for that,” Hue chuckled, stroking my mane, while ensuring to get a few ear scratches in. “Plenty of bad guys to choose from or make up.”

“As long as I get to be Miss Stark,” I said with the snootiest voice I could muster.

“Loosely based on that series,” Hue clarified as he pulled his hand away. “I might even use an old throwback from the first story I wanted to make, or just make a new HiE entirely. I mean, why not right?”

“Yeah, but those have kind of been done to death, haven’t they?” I pointed out before being scooped up off my hooves with a surprised squeak.

“You came from one of those “done to death” stories, remember,” Hue teased. “On a side note, I would think you’d be used to being swept off your hooves by now, figuratively and literally.”

“I am,” I smiled as I lazily squirmed in his arms. “I kind of like being carried, to be honest. You have to admit I’m more adorable when I pretend I’m not expecting it.”

“One has to wonder if you ponies are related to house cats in some way,” Hue rolled his eyes.

Even as Hue sat me back down and went about his business I continued to watch him. I didn’t care if he wasn’t the greatest or brightest human; all that mattered was that he was mine. Whether I was an accident or not, I was glad I had been a part of his life.

---

The En-opps, a Teal has occurred… 01001001 00100000 01110111 01101111 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01101100 01100101 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01100101 01101110 01100100

---

I woke up the next morning with a strange feeling, as if I had forgotten about something important. As I came to my senses, I could feel a vacant warm spot beside me, meaning that Hue had already started his morning routine.

Not wanting to be left behind, I quickly got out of bed and proceeded to go about my own routine as well, getting what I could out of the way while I waited on the shower. Despite my best efforts to occupy my mind I was still unable to shake the feeling that something wasn’t right.

Each step I took, each room I entered, everything I did felt wrong somehow. Something in my mind was telling me that continuing was wrong, but that didn’t make sense. Even the words I recorded in the diary Hue bought for me felt as if they shouldn’t exist now. I found myself poking my own foreleg, to ensure I was still a solid being.

“You okay, Harmony?” Hue asked with a concerned look on his face.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I lied. “I guess I’m just feeling a little uh…I guess disoriented is the best word for it.”

“Heh, not pregnant are you?” Hue chuckled, seemingly unfazed by whatever it was in the air that was making me feel this way.

“I doubt it’s morning sickness,” I scoffed. “Don’t you feel it?”

Hue stood stock still, as if trying to sense what I did. I could tell by his puzzled expression that he couldn’t, and that he was immune to whatever this was. My human confirmed this with a sad shake of his head.

“Sorry Harmony, I don’t feel anything, but then again I’m not the one with magic,” Hue said. “Maybe that’s why you feel off, something might be wrong with you horn?”

Before I could respond, Hue gave the tip of my horn a gentle peck, sending shivers down my spine. While I highly doubted the method of “kissing it better” would make the feeling go away for good, it did serve to put me in a good mood.

With the negative feeling gone, I was able to finish getting ready and psych myself up for work. It wasn’t until Hue and I parted ways that the feeling of uncertainty returned, as if it had been waiting for Hue to leave. I wanted to turn and run back to him, but I had already walked inside, and his car was no longer visible. Even the inside of the building offered no protect from this sensation.

While I wouldn’t consider myself a clever pony by any means, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out something was off with Arusha with just a glance. The poor mare seemed to be out of it, far worse than I was, as she feebly worked the coffee maker.

Something else seemed off about her as well, not to mention the entire building. I could feel my muzzle scrunch in frustration as I struggled to comprehend what I was feeling. It was something obvious to my psyche, but so subtle that I couldn’t detect it by sight.

“Greetings, Harmony,” Arusha said tiredly.

“Arusha, are you feeling okay?” I asked.

“Never better…” Arusha replied as her ears drooped. “Is what I wish I could say. It’s as if the life of today has just been drained.”

“Yeah, I noticed that too,” I commented as the earth pony allowed me to prepare my own cup of coffee.

After taking a sip of what I expected to be a revitalizing morning boost, I quickly spat it back out into the cup. It wasn’t the heat or lack of sugar, but the lack of taste entirely that disgusted me. Even the flow of liquid felt wrong, but my mind could only pick up the lack of taste.

I swiftly tried to eat a doughnut, but the result was the same. It was like putting a pillow in one’s mouth, dry and tasteless. I looked over at Arusha who I could tell was struggling to keep down her coffee. Even if it hadn’t been the best taste in the world, which I would know a thing or two about, it still would have been better than nothing at all.

“You know, you really shouldn’t get food you’re not going to finish,” Teal said with a mouthful of doughnut. “It’s really disgusting.”

“Teal what are…is that the doughnut I just-never mind, what’s going on?” I asked, slightly disgusted with the mare.

“It’s it great? I finally got it right, and it’s all thanks to you,” Teal smiled. “A world that can’t end, that will never end.”

“A world that will never end…what are you talking about?” I pointed an accusing hoof at her as Arusha joined me.

“This is my story Harmony, and I really couldn’t let you end it so soon,” Teal shrugged. “So I might have stepped in and gave this story a gentle nudge in the right direction.”

Despite her cryptic explanation, I was still hung up on what she had said previously. She wanted a world that wouldn’t end, but that didn’t make sense. Sure, Earth might be consumed by the sun one day or something crazy like that, but it wouldn’t just abruptly grind to a halt like-

“You didn’t…” I mumbled.

“Ah, the mare finally caught on,” Teal clopped her fore hooves together with glee. “It took a while, but I just couldn’t let things end like they normally do.”

“This time…you’ve done this before…that world,” My eyes were glued to the mare. “Did you lie?”

“Of course not silly, I just stopped a story from ending,” Teal smiled. “I already told you, that world withered away because there was no creativity. As magical as we are, ponies are just too predictable.”

“That’s why you brought all the characters the humans made here!” I exclaimed as her true motives were finally coming out of the shadows. “You didn’t want us, you wanted the humans!”

“Smart girl,” Teal grinned. “They can’t be predicted, their creativity is endless. One could even argue that it’s magical, since it gave life to all of you to begin with.”

“You can’t hope to get away with this, once they realize who you are and what you’ve done-“ Arusha started to say.

“They’ll what?” Teal snapped. “Arrest me? Throw me in a padded room? You flatter me, but I can do just about anything I want now. Besides, why would you want this to end?”

“Because you and I both know what happens if something isn’t allowed to come full circle,” I tried to reason with Teal. “I don’t want that.”

“I clearly remember you wanting your human, consider this the trade off,” Teal shrugged. “You get to keep living on agelessly with Hue with only one negative draw back, you can’t taste food, oh the horror.”

“Who knows if it will stop there?” Arusha huffed.

“I do, because I say it will,” Teal rolled her eyes. “I think you both need to chill for a while, maybe a good time skip is in order. Then you’ll see there’s nothing to worry about…you’ll all see this time.”

“Wait, you can’t just-“

---

“-make time…pass?” I looked around confused as I found myself back in my home.

From the window, I could see that it was dark outside now, giving credibility to Teal’s claim. How she had been able to make both time, and the space around me shift was something I couldn’t quite wrap my head around. With just a simple suggestion, Teal had displayed godlike power.

“Harmony?” I heard Hue call out from our room.

For a few brief moments, a burden was lifted from my back. Hue was still here, and she hadn’t taken him away. To that end I was grateful and rushed to meet him, ready to tell him about how time had just passed and everything had just shifted about all because Teal wanted it to.

“Hue thank goodness, you’re still here,” I sighed.

“Yeah…we just got home, and you wanted to get set up on Facebook,” Hue raised an eyebrow at me. “Are you feeling okay?”

“No, I mean yes, but that’s not what’s wrong,” I stumbled over my words. “Teal sent me here against my will.”

“So is Teal your boss now?” Hue chuckled.

“I’m being serious, I just remember talking to her and now I’m home,” I said as I started to pace. “I should still be at work.”

“Well you only have to wait until six a.m. tomorrow,” Hue mused.

“Hue I’m serious!” I shouted, gaining his attention.

“Okay, okay, calm down,” Hue held up his hands defensively. “Let’s not get crazy, I mean, it’s not like she hurt you right?”

“Well, no but-“ I started to argue my case until Hue cut me off.

“Then I don’t see what the problem is,” Hue shrugged, obviously doubting my claim. “I think your tea will help you calm down a bit and then we can discuss this more, I don’t think it was a time skip. You may have just had some unicorn problem.”

As Hue stood up against the light my eyes widened in horror. Whether it was a trick on my eyes, or my mess of a mental state, I could see Hue’s skin color had faded a bit. It had gone from the rich, healthy tan to a softer pale color. My human had exited the room before I could say anything to address it.

I quickly followed him, but was confused when I couldn’t seem to detect the same color loss from before. It was as if there had never been a difference, but I was certain I had seen something off about Hue.

“What’s wrong?” Hue asked, turning around at the frantic sound of my hooves clacking against the floor.

“I…” I started to say, only to reconsider after it sank in that Hue wouldn’t believe me if I told him. In fact, he may call me crazy. “…nothing.”

I let Hue continue on his original path towards the kitchen with a sigh. Was I truly losing my mind? Hue talked and acted as if I had behaved normally for the duration of the day, a day that I couldn’t recall at all. Truthfully, I really wanted to do exactly what Teal said and just go through life with my human, but all of this felt wrong now.

“What should I do?” I asked aloud as I hung my head.

---

No amount of debating my circumstances had helped reason with Hue. He still doubted that I had just lost track of time and could only remember talking to Teal last. Had I possessed a way to contact Arusha, I would have at least had a witness. Perhaps she would agree with me. Then Hue might believe me and we could do something.

As optimistic a thought as that was, Teal had pointed out that there really wasn’t much that could be done. No one or pony would believe me, even with Arusha to confirm my story. Calling her out on making all of the ponies real would only make her a hero to the others, why she hadn’t already revealed herself was another mystery altogether. Perhaps it was yet another elaborate link in the chain to get what she wanted; a perfect, never ending world.

As I lay awake with Hue’s arm around me, the uneasy feeling kept sleep just out of reach until exhaustion started to run its course. I didn’t fight it as the world around me melted away, replaced by swiftly by a bright, stained glass circle in a dark void.

I stood on it, unwilling to move for fear of breaking it, until after a few experimental taps revealed that it was quite sturdy. This dream had been different from all of the others I had experienced so far, but I was still expecting Teal to emerge from the circle.

“Teal, this isn’t funny anymore!” I shouted, my voice echoing into the darkness.

“There was no humor intended,” replied a new voice.

The voice carried an odd aura of authority, but was gentle and caring. Before I had time to ponder the voice’s owner, the sound of hooves clacking across the stained glass echoed throughout the darkness and produced the image of an alicorn, a pony that I had yet to see on Earth. The flowing mane and tail, as well as the shorter stature left little doubt as to who had come to occupy my dreams.

“P-princess Luna?” I stammered in disbelief.

“Be at ease, you’re safe from Teal’s gaze as long as I hold you in my dream world,” Luna said. “It’s taken a great effort to reach you, Harmony.”

“How is this possible?” I asked.

“Equestria and Earth are intertwined,” Luna explained. “One cannot exist without the other, which is why I sought you out after Teal expressed such interest in you.”

“What makes me special?” I laughed nervously. “I’m just a unicorn trying to keep a job in a coffee shop.”

Luna opened her mouth as if ready to reply, but stopped as if she had reconsidered what her response would be. “You wanted to be real, you wanted to make your own path, despite what your cutie mark revealed your destiny to be. While it may seem insignificant, so long as you retain your individuality, Teal cannot have complete control as she claims.”

“How do you know Teal?” I asked.

“She was a skilled unicorn, quite gifted in magic,” Luna said. “But something happened to her that caused her to turn violent, unpredictable, and eventually drastic measures were taken. Even her cutie mark changed shape entirely. World after world has grown cold and quiet wherever she goes.”

“Now that she’s here, you’re out of time and options,” I concluded. “How is she able to do this?”

“We can’t say for certain, but we believe that whatever happened to Teal is not of Equestrian origin,” Luna said. “We believe something came from the world you and your fellow ponies now dwell in.”

“Teal talked about having a human, that doesn’t make sense,” I looked down in thought. “Why would she tell me she had one if she came from Equestria?”

“If what we theorize is true, then the mare you spoke with did not lie, but confirm our suspicions,” Luna replied. “Which would explain the drastic behavior changes.”

“Is there some way to stop her?” I asked.

“Only Teal can truly undo what she has set into motion,” Luna said. “But if you could somehow reopen the portal to Equestria, we should be able to overwhelm her. My sister and I have concluded this to be the best chance at stopping her.”

“You’re asking me to reunite two worlds, I can think of a thousand different ponies that are better suited for that,” I commented. “I mean, what happens if I fail?”

“Then this world, and ours, will turn to dust,” Luna’s response sent chills down my spine as I recalled what I had seen with Teal. “Not even the humans can stop what has been set in motion.”

If I were to disappear that would be one thing, but I couldn’t live with myself knowing that Hue was in danger as well. Teal truly believed she was helping somehow, and if it took a bit of mare hoofing to show her the light, then I would certainly do it for him, and for all the others.

“So much for the simple Slice of Life stuff,” I sighed. “Where do I even start?”

Without warning, Luna braced her horn against my own. No sooner had she done so, various images passed before my eyes. Years, days, months, all seemed irrelevant through Luna’s point of view. Finally, a strange cave came into view, as well as a metal sign that read Woolpit.

“Woolpit…” I said aloud as Luna backed away from me.

“I wish I could stay longer, but my influence across the void is fading,” Luna sighed. “You have to move quickly once you’re awake; it won’t take long for things to grow out of hoof. Already the Tree of Harmony has started to fade in color in our world.”

“Luna, I can’t do this alone, I’m just one pony,” I said as the glass beneath us began to crack.

“You already have a friend that believes in you, and as long as you have that you’re never alone,” Luna said as she faded entirely.

I sat up quickly in our bed as my dream came to an end. Luna’s words were still ringing through my ears, and the thought of something more serious than the disappearance of taste gave me the energy to leap out of bed. While I knew I had a mission, Hue was ignorant to what Luna had warned me about.

“Harmony, what are you doing?” Hue groaned.

“No time to explain,” I replied.

“Bullshit, anything causing a miniature horse to jump out of bed at four in the morning requires one,” Hue said as he struggled out of bed behind me.

“Okay then, I need to get to Woolpit,” I sighed as I pulled out a bag from Hue’s closet.

“Fuck!” Hue exclaimed as he tripped in the darkness of our room. “Wait, Woolpit, as in Woolpit England?”

“I guess, all I know is that Woolpit appeared in my dream Luna showed me,” I said. “It’s where the portal is located.”

“Okay, Harmony, this has gone on long enough,” Hue huffed. “There’s no conspiracy, no imminent threat, and no reason for you to go to Woolpit which is halfway across the planet.”

“I have to stop Teal!” I shouted, the lights flickering on as my magic discharged accidentally. “Before she wipes out everything.”

“Teal can’t hurt you,” Hue said. “Nothing is going to happen.”

“I’ve seen what happens, and I’m going with or without your help!” I snapped, only to cover my mouth afterwards.

Hue said nothing as I silently made my way towards the door. I had no real plan, no method of transport, and only a dream as instruction. From Hue’s point of view, it was justifiable to assume I had finally gone off the deep end.

“Please don’t do this,” Hue begged.

“You still don’t believe me,” I looked up at him. “I always believed you.”

“Harmony, it’s just hard to wrap my mind around this very spontaneous trip without some kind of evidence that it’s not a wild goose chase.” Hue said.

I was about to reply when a knock sounded at our door, putting both of us on guard. Hue’s expression shifted to one of panic as he approached the door and grabbed the bat that was hidden in the umbrella basket. He put his hand on the knob, but was unable to turn it out of fear.

“Harmony, can you hear me?” came a very familiar voice.

“Arusha?” I said aloud and focused on the door knob, shifting the simple mechanisms within to be met by my friend.

Hue lowered the bat, sliding it back into the basket as the mare brought me into a hug. I looked up at my human, who gave me a knowing nod. Arusha had no idea where I lived, or means of transportation to my knowledge, but somehow she had found her way to my house and something seemed to be troubling her.

Author's Notes:

It's Just A Dream

“So both of you saw Princess Luna?” Hue asked, to which both Arusha and I nodded in agreement. “And this Teal character is the reason for you guys losing one of your sense?”

Both of us nodded once more, confirming each other’s story. Hue sighed and proceeded to pace as he rubbed his brow in frustration. He was now dealing with two mares with a mission instead of one, and the thought of being out numbered at four thirty in the morning wasn’t the best way to start the day.

“I don’t believe this,” Hue mumbled.

“Hue, why would I make this up?” I asked. “Why would either of us make this up?”

“I don’t know,” Hue said. “I mean, time skipping, things losing their color, the world coming undo? The Earth isn’t set up to die like that; granted humans have royally screwed up on a few things, but nothing that ridiculous.”

“We speak the truth, what do we have to do to convince you?” Arusha asked.

“…I can think of a few things,” Hue said, his frustration oozing out as he eyed both of us.

---

“And that’s how the sex scene would start,” I said as the sun rose to from the passenger side of Hue’s car.

“As entertaining as that sounds, I’m not sure I could handle two mares,” Hue said, sipping on a coffee Arusha had expertly crafted before we left. “I have trouble keeping up with you sometimes.”

“You’re taking this surprisingly well, Hue,” Arusha spoke up. “Are you still upset about my intrusion?”

“No, as weird as all of this is, I’ve never known Harmony to be a liar,” Hue replied. “You both described almost identical dreams. The real concern I have is how you can afford tickets to the United Kingdoms.”

“Oh, I just asked for it,” Arusha shrugged. “I mean, my designer was a bit curious, but I just told her I needed to see a friend.”

“And she just let you?” I asked, turning in my seat to look at Arusha.

“It’s better than staying there,” the mare sighed. “Day in and day out it’s as if she’s too busy to acknowledge me now. Before it was easy, being nothing more than a part of her subconscious; now it’s as if I don’t exist at all. I took up a job to be around others for a change.”

“I had no idea…” I mumbled.

“A big house doesn’t lead to happiness, you can have everything you want, but still have an empty spirit,” Arusha sighed.

“Have you told her that?” Hue asked. “I mean, surely she’d listen if you brought up your feelings.”

“She called me her “Guilty Pleasure” when I was nothing more than a dreamt up character, and I’m fairly certain she’s kept me around out of an obligation as my creator,” Arusha huffed. “I almost want to agree with Teal in some ways, how things shouldn’t end. Because if she had delayed her arrival until after our show was pulled, I probably wouldn’t be here now.”

“Arusha, you know what she’s doing isn’t right though, it’s going to hurt a lot of innocent ponies and people,” I said.

“I know, that’s why I tried to find you as quickly as I could,” Arusha replied. “Well, more like followed Luna’s guidance. I couldn’t remember where you lived.”

“Something’s bugging me,” Hue spoke up. “If she had the ability to throw both you and Arusha through time, what else does she have at her disposal?”

Neither of us could answer his question. Teal’s abilities seemed endless, and trying to imagine what else she could do or control was a terrifying thought. This was a mare that was trying to play the part of a hero, but spoke of ambitions that would only cause pain to others. Whether she was truly evil, or just misguided was irrelevant for now, however.

“I don’t suppose Luna gave you any tips for if and when you actually find this thing?” Hue asked.

“Nothing, she didn’t get to stay long, or what equates for long in regards to dreams,” I said. “What about you Arusha?”

“Nothing, just that we would know what to do, and that the Elements would be with us,” the mare shrugged.

“Typical pep-talk mumbo-jumbo,” Hue said. “Seriously, the Elements?”

“Hey, you can’t just dismiss what Luna said to Arusha as a pep-talk,” I poked my human in the arm making him chuckle. “It could be a clue, or a shortened set of instructions…in an annoyingly cryptic message.”

A loud thud from the roof of the car triggered Hue to slam on his breaks. Upon doing so, what looked like a pale pony rolled onto the street from the roof of the vehicle. Its coat, mane and tail were all grey and faded, having a drained look about it. Curiously, it lacked a cutie mark on either flank, and its caution tape yellow eyes glared ominously at us through the window. What appeared to be blue dust seemed to be slowly trickling down from the corner of its eyes, almost as if it was crying.

“Harmony, is that a crazy friend of yours?” Hue asked, his voice rising as he spoke.

“That’s a negative Ghost Rider,” I shook my head as two more thuds sounded on the roof.

Slowly, the pony caught in Hue’s headlights stumbled towards the car, dust continuing to sprinkle the ground. It opened its mouth only for a dry, raspy groan to escape. I couldn’t help but think of a zombie, even as the sounds of shuffling hooves on Hue’s car filled me with dread.

“That’s not a pony Mister Hue,” Arusha said, her voice far more calm and stable than either of ours. “Push the gas pedal.”

“It sure looks like a pony, and I’m not really wanting to get charged with murder first thing in the morning,” Hue replied.

“Hue it’s a fucking Zombie, just-“ I started to say, only to jump back in my seat as a dent was formed in the roof of the car.

“Stop talking and ram it!” Arusha shouted.

The hoof indention in the roof was all the encouragement Hue needed. He slammed his foot on the gas pedal, hitting the pale pony with the full force of his car. Much to our surprise, instead of rolling off the car, or getting turned into road kill, the pony simply evaporated into the same blue dust that had been seeping out of its eyes.

Two more hooves slammed into the roof of the car, which caused Hue to speed up significantly. It didn’t take long for the two ponies on the roof to slide off onto the road behind us, bouncing on the asphalt before rolling to a halt.

“I’m gonna be that guy that asks the obvious…what the fuck!?” Hue exclaimed.

“I don’t know…but that dust…” I mumbled.

“I hope this “wild goose chase” has your attention now,” Arusha said.

---

Teal slowly tapped her hoof against the desk in her solid white room as she tried and failed once more to get inside Harmony’s mind. The unicorn had been unusually resilient to her mental assault, almost to the point of her reactions being nonexistent. It would almost be impressive, if she wasn’t receiving help from the sliver of connection Luna had struggled to form. The mare’s distain for the princesses was only strengthened by their medaling in what was supposed to be her greatest moment, the moment she could finally be the hero.

Fortunately, Luna could only safe guard one pony at a time with her limited connection to this world, leaving Arusha exposed to Teal’s probing. While she had only been able to pull a small fraction of the information from the earth pony, it was enough to piece together what the alicorns were doing to conspire against her plans.

They wanted to reopen the portal to Equestria, after being sealed for countless centuries because of Celestia’s fillyhood misadventures. Starswirl had been very careful in concealing its location. The only glimmer of light that had ever been cast upon the once free flowing portal were two young human children who had somehow opened it, only to return to their world in Woolpit.

It had been deemed a mystery at the time, but the human’s “science” had explained it away. Science was such a laughable concept to Teal. An over complex view of the world, instead of accepting things as they are, that’s all science was to her. What was science to one who defied its laws?

“Teal?” a deep voice called out.

The unicorn turned around and smiled at her brother. He was a tall stallion, not uncommon for pegasi, though his dull grey and silver coat and mane were a bit off for his tribe. A stereotypical storm cloud adorned his flanks, which was a rather common cutie mark for an Equestrian pegasus.

“There’s my dopy brother,” Teal said playfully.

“I wish you wouldn’t call me that,” the stallion rolled his eyes as Teal leaned against him.

“Oh don’t be such a stick in the mud Bumble Wings,” the mare poked Bumble with her horn.

“Did you want something?” Bumble sighed. “And I told you to call me B.”

“Okay, B, I have a little job that needs doing before we can really start to make change for the better,” Teal said.

“What kind of job?” B asked.

“Well, it’s one I think you’d be comfortable with,” Teal smirked as she danced around a straight forward answer. “It’s kind of what landed you in jail in the first place before I got you out of that nasty hole Celestia threw you in.”

“Not interested,” B snorted. “And I already told you I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I know, and you’re sticking to that story, but the rest of Equestria is going to believe a Princess’ words over a private. You remember how they treated you, how they scoffed at your side of the story?” Teal’s words seemed to coil around the stallion, pressing all the right buttons as she spoke.

“I’m not a killer,” B said. “I’m not going to go through with anything that involves that.”

“I didn’t say kill, I just need you to…stall some ponies for a bit,” Teal replied. “Nothing deadly or life ending at all, just a little roughing up, you know?”

“Teal, where is all of this coming from?” B asked. “This isn’t the sister I remember.”

“That sister is thinking of the entire world right now, two if you want to get technical,” Teal huffed. “I need your help for this to work, it’s too early for me to try and chase after these three without setting the rest of this world up first.”

“This just seems so radically different from the little sister I know,” B sighed.

“Look, if you’re going to drag your hooves through this I can find somepony else, and put you back in Equestria; we both know what will happen to you there,” Teal’s horn began to glow. “As mom used to say, I brought you into this world, I can take you out of it.”

“…fine,” B relented as he hung his head.

“Good, I can’t do this alone, and I wouldn’t want to do it with anypony else,” Teal said as her attitude shifted in the blink of an eye. “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time, I’m sorry if I got carried away.”

B tried his best to read his sister, to see if she was being honest with him. He had never known her to react so explosively, even if it involved the bizarre projects that she insisted working on into odd hours of the night. It was only after being brought to this bizarre world that this radical shift had taken place. Still, she was the only family he had, and Teal had freed him from the cell he had been left to rot in.

“So where am I going?” B asked.

“I need you to find some way to stop these ponies in a nice little place called New York,” Teal replied. “However you want to, and I promise I’ll give you what you want.”

B nodded before taking his leave of his sister. Teal watched him leave anxiously, hoping he wouldn’t notice the blue dust that fell from her eye. The mare knew those ponies she had sent wouldn’t be enough to stop Harmony or Arusha, but as long as she could slow them down that was all she needed. The strain it was putting on was almost not worth the delay.

“Time to recharge…” Teal said as she caught some of the dust that fell from her tear duct.

The mare slowly walked down a long, white hallway with no decorations to speak of, save for a large mirror. Three doors were there to greet Teal; one on the left, two on the right. She approached the first door on the right, and twisted the knob with her magic, smiling as the door slid back to reveal a bound and terrified mare.

“Hello there,” Teal smile, her breathing heavy as she felt her weakness creeping up on her.

The mare struggled against her bindings, the gag in her mouth muting any response or protest she might have had about her current circumstances. Teal simply stroked her cheek with a sly smile on her muzzle as she removed the gag.

“W-what do you want? Where am I?” the mare asked.

“Shh,” Teal gently pressed a hoof against the mare’s lips. “This is all just a dream, and I’m here to free you from it.”

“Who are you?” the mare asked once Teal had removed her hoof.

“I go by Teal now, I think it has a nice ring to it, don’t you?” Teal smiled.

“P-please, untie me…” the mare whimpered.

“Didn’t I say this was just a dream?” Teal asked rhetorically. “I won’t hurt you.”

Tears continued to flow from the captive mare’s eyes, even as Teal sat down in front of her, stroking her mane slowly. For a split second, she could have sworn that she saw the coat of the mare shift and dull before returning to its natural blue color. What had certainly changed were her eyes, which were now solid black, reflecting the mare’s own horrified expression back at her.

As she stared into Teal’s eyes, she found herself unable to move. The mare couldn’t find the energy to pull away even as her lips parted slightly before pressing against hers in a kiss. Teal slowly over powered her own will, teasing her tongue slightly. It wasn’t until the first fifteen seconds had passed that she noticed something was wrong.

Each time Teal shifted or tried to draw out the kiss, she felt weaker. Soon it was through Teal’s strength alone that their lips were able to remain connected. Teal opened her onyx black eyes, showing the mare her reflection once more.

Horror swept over the pony as she saw her own coat dull in color with each passing second. Stranger than the draining of her coat color, was the curious lack of a cutie mark where once a flower could easily be seen on her sides. Yet despite her fear, she lacked the energy to struggle free or move at all, and only groaned into the draining kiss.

As the seconds continued to tick by, Teal’s eyes slowly started to lose their black hue. Color swirled with white settled around the large iris pooled out from the darkness as if it had been there all along. The unsettling part was that the color was a brilliant green, just like hers; this was the last observation her mind registered before all of her sense came to a halt, but she wasn’t dead physically, caught in limbo.

Teal pulled away from the mare, a few strings of saliva mixed with blue dust. She smiled as she stroked the mare’s mane affectionately. She already felt better than she had a few moments ago, especially with such a young mare. Despite the pleasant feeling of energy coursing through her once more, she lamented the glaring flaw she had been cursed with.

While her creator had never meant for such a curse to truly exist, and simply remain a work of fiction, she was real and with her existence came the need for another being’s energy. She couldn’t sustain herself, and Teal’s magic alone was an inadequate source of energy.

“This is all just a dream…” Teal said before leaving the mare to her fate.

Teal stopped in front of the mirror in the hallway and stared at herself, admiring her new eyes. They matched her mane better than the previous set from a pony named Summer Breeze. The number of ponies whose energy she had stolen was well beyond her ability to remember. For a while, their memories would drift through her subconscious before settling down with the rest, just like their cutie marks would.

A blue line began to circle the mare’s hooves before working its way up and across her body, leaving yellow fur in its wake. The line passed over her barrel and left a pair of yellow wings behind, giving her the appearance of an alicorn. Teal smiled as the line reached her head, melting her horn away, until nothing was left but a small grey jewel which was quickly concealed by her mane.

“Hello, my name’s Summer Breeze,” the mare said to herself as a beautiful flower replaced the two chess pieces on her flank. “And I’m ready to start phase three.”

Her voice was different, her laugh was unique; to a normal pony there was no connection to her or Teal. Summer Breeze’s life would not go unlived, and the mare would be safe kept in the limbo Teal had left her in. She regretted trying to slow Harmony down with those drained ponies, but there was no helping it now. All she could do was keep going with her plan, and hope Harmony would remain predictable for a while longer.

Author's Notes:

Sorry I've been moving at a snail's pace. Now that Dark Souls 3 is finished I shouldn't be as occupied. I hope people have enjoyed this story and thanks for reading. I always appreciate your comments and thoughts on it. I really enjoy Teal's character, and writing about her.

A Wolf Among Sheep

Being on an airplane was an exciting experience, especially with a group that had never flown before. Arusha was a bit more excited than Hue, who kept looking through an old folder. From his expression he seemed to be wrapped up in his own little world, with something heavy obviously resting on his mind.

“Something wrong?” I asked.

“Nothing really,” Hue replied, obviously fibbing. “Just worried about getting to Woolpit.”

I sighed as I looked out the window to see the world below us appear drastically different than from the ground. Everything was so small from this point of view, and gave me a bit of insight as to what pegasi saw as they passed over. A part of me wished that I could see things from here forever, high above everyone else. There were no problems up here, just the clouds and sun.

“I’m just trying to take my mind off the fact that this Teal character might want us dead,” Hue said closing the folder.

“If we weren’t in public I could help with that,” I teased him, trying to keep the mood lighthearted as I took the folder from him.

“Horse fucker…” I heard a man mutter from across the seat; my ears being much more sensitive than Hue’s to the offense.

I opened the folder as my horn glowed briefly, until I heard the man scream in pain as hot coffee spilt onto his lap. A tragic accident really, but thankfully the coffee cup was still intact and hadn’t hit the floor.

Arusha was still asleep, having finally run out of steam from the day’s events. It was as if she ran on coffee, and the absence of the substance resulted in her devolving into a snoring, adorable drooling mess. As cute as she was, I was tempted to force some of the airline’s coffee down her to wake her up.

“So how long until we land?” I asked flipping through the folder’s numerous pages.

“Shouldn’t be too much longer, we won’t have a whole lot of time to mingle around when we get to New York,” Hue replied getting comfortable in his seat.

I nodded, absorbed in all of the old stories Hue had written before finally settling on me. It was still hard to believe that only a few weeks ago I was still bound to the limits of Hue’s imagination. Teal had certainly shaken up the world as she knew it, and not all for the better. While I didn’t want to make Hue worry, I had noticed the color of our world dulling.

Everyone seemed to either be oblivious to the change, their gaze held captive by their smart phones, or noticed but didn’t quite understand what was wrong. The world was dying, and there wouldn’t even be an uproar about it until it was too late. Eventually the changes would become noticeable to humans, and even more so to ponies, but by then it would be too late.

If the world was slowly dulling like a rotting apple, then I couldn’t begin to imagine what shape Equestria was in. Luna had said the Tree of Harmony was losing its color; if it died, there was no telling what might happen.

My thoughts were derailed as I turned the page to a sketch of a pony that had no mane or tail. It was clearly a mare, with the curved muzzle and feminine frame. It’s eyes were black and empty, with only a small circle on its head providing any form of individuality. Some bits of Hue’s chicken scratch hand writing adorned the sides of the pages with arrows pointing to certain parts of the pony.

“So what was this one called?” I asked, poking Hue to get his attention.

“Uh…I can’t remember the name, but it was supposed to be a doppelganger, I think,” Hue replied after looking the picture over.

“You made a doppelganger?” I raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t there changlings in Equestria lore that do the same thing?”

“Yeah, but they feed off of emotions like love and stuff, doppelgangers are different and more unpredictable,” Hue argued. “If you ever meet your spirit double you supposedly die on the spot.”

“Soo…could this pony become Celestia then?” I smirked.

“Possibly, I don’t really remember finishing her so I can’t say for sure what she could or couldn’t do,” Hue shrugged nonchalantly.

“So much unfinished stuff in here,” I commented. “…what made you not want to use her?”

“I guess…I just didn’t like where the project was going,” Hue hesitated before answering. “The ability to take up the mantel of whomever one takes the life of, and totally replace them was too great a threat for Equestria to deal with in the long run.”

“With all that’s happened, I’m kind of glad you didn’t finish her,” I said. “I’d hate to see a real one.”

“That’s the idea behind her, you’d never know who it was until it’s too late,” Hue said rubbing his forehead as he spoke.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Fine, I just don’t do well on planes I suppose,” Hue put on his best face, but I could tell he was in a bit of pain.

“Take a nap for a bit, we’ve still got-“

---

“Harmony wake Arusha up, we’re here,” Hue said, cutting me off.

“…oh come on!” I exclaimed. “Damnit Teal!”

“What?” Hue looked down at me confused.

“It happened again,” I huffed as Arusha stretched after being woken up by the commotion. “I was just about to tell you to take a nap until you turned and told me to wake Arusha up.”

“I was asleep?” Arusha asked.

“Yeah, you were talking to Harmony and just crashed. You didn’t even give any warning either, you just fell asleep mid-sentence,” Hue chuckled.

“As funny as all of that was, Teal is skipping things again,” I said, bringing the conversation back on topic.

“I didn’t notice,” Arusha commented as she followed us out of the plane. “I don’t doubt you though, as she sent us both home once with no memory of the event.”

“The last time this happened it was because she was frustrated with us, like she wanted to try to prove that everything was okay,” I said. “Why use that power now unless there’s something she wants us to see?”

“She doesn’t respect air time?” Hue offered with a chuckle. “I wouldn’t be complaining honestly, if I had a fast forward button I would use it to get past all of the boring stuff life throws at you.”

I didn’t reply as I kept working over what exactly she might have in store for us. I harbored more frustration than fear for the mare after she pretended to be a friend, albeit a creepy one. Even as we entered the lobby to await what little we had brought with us, I wasn’t able to relax. All I could think about was what Teal might do next.

Perhaps it was this paranoia that made one stallion in particular stand out amongst the humans and ponies flooding in and out of the New York airport. He just stared at me, his eyes tired and slightly sunken in. I could tell he was exhausted, and from the malice hidden within those eyes I had the feeling that he didn’t want to have a friendly conversation.

“Harmony, what’s the hold up?” Hue asked, bringing an end to my staring contest with the other pony.

“Uh,” I glanced back in the stallion’s direction, only to find that he was no longer there. “Nothing.”

“I think something to eat would do everypony some good,” Arusha proposed. “Perhaps dispel any fears or troubled spirits.”

Hue and I both agreed and it surprised neither of us that she was instantly drawn to a Starbucks. Arusha’s choice brought a smile to my face all the same, as she had enough enthusiasm about the menu for all three of us.

As they ordered, I glanced around the airport, trying to find a way to keep my mind off of where we were going. Hue had taken off work, Arusha had come through for us on tickets, but all I had contributed so far was a dream that for all I know could have been planted by Teal instead of Luna. Fortunately for me, fate seemed delighted to through a stallion my way, literally.

I had but seconds to react to the speeding pegasus who resembled the one that had stared me down earlier. Thankfully, I was fast enough to avoid getting hit, but the same could not be said for the Starbuck’s counter as the stallion’s hooves collided with it long enough to send him rocketing back in my direction.

Hue was caught in the stallion’s path and knocked to the ground, thankfully unharmed. While I had managed to avoid the stallion the first time he was much closer now. His speed put him only inches from me, and time seemed to stand still briefly as I locked eyes with him.

As time began to resume it’s normal speed I shut my eyes, awaiting the inevitable sting from the stallion’s impact. As I held my eyes shut I found myself waiting for an attack that wouldn’t seem to come and I wondered if Teal had somehow stopped time.

The sound of cheering prompted me to open my eyes. When I did, I was treated to the sight of a yellow pegasus pinning down the stallion. She had yellow fur, and a vibrant orange for her mane color. A flower served as her cutie mark. The mystery mare narrowed her eyes at the stallion and seemed to be giving him a rather harsh verbal beating.

The stallion held a straight face through the entire ordeal, almost as if he was bored. Only when he flung the mare off of him did his expression change to one of anger before speeding off through the airport.

The mare rose to her hooves and dusted herself off after being thrown from the chest of my assailant. There was something familiar about her that I couldn’t quite put my hoof on, but I dismissed it as my nerves trying to settle down. With a sigh, a nervous smile had replaced the angry stare the mare had only moments ago.

“Thanks,” I said finally working up the nerve to react to the heroine.

“It’s nothing, I can hardly believe you’re real though,” the mare replied.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I had a dream about you, but I thought you had-oh there they are,” the mare beamed as Hue and Arusha came to check on me.

“Everything okay Harmony?” Hue asked, his voice filled with concern.

“Yeah, everything’s fine thanks to…umm…” I fumbled, with the mare’s name.

“Summer Breeze,” the mare replied. “And I don’t think out meeting was an accident.”

---

The plane bound for the United Kingdoms was high above the rest of the world. Convincing Harmony to bring Summer Breeze along had been an easy enough task. Her tender heart and curiosity was her biggest weakness, and the mare intended to exploit it right up to the end.

Summer Breeze smiled as the small band of friends joked in the row behind her. Their laughter was what she longed for, her ears burning at the sound of sorrow or bitterness. Her regret for being responsible for the silence of so many voices was thankfully hidden from the others as she listened to what she could never have.

She would often fool herself as Teal that she could finally find happiness when her plans and visions were realized. Even as the world began to grow dull in color, she wished for her perfect continuation. Things needed to continue, even if they were forced. It gave her hope for a world that she could never see alone.

Harmony was the final piece to her extravagant puzzle, and she would turn the key to the door of her world herself. Of all the worlds she had seen, this was the only one that offered her a location for Equestria, and a genuine one at that.

“Soon little pony,” Summer Breeze said as she tried to get comfortable. “Soon you’ll see what I’ve tried to create.”

Author's Notes:

Sorry this took a while, I've been busy with life stuff. Anyways Next chapter will be the final one, this story was one that I tried to have fun with. Thanks for reading.

Finale

The trip to Woolpit from the airport had been an interesting one, especially with our new addition to our crew. Summer Breeze seemed like a nice pony, and Arusha had supported the idea of her coming with us. The only opposition was Hue, who said he felt something was off about her.

His fear stemmed from how much she knew about each of us. While I tried to convince him that Luna could have provided her with that information, he didn’t seem to buy it. His argument was that Arusha and I both had been given rather vague instructions as to what to do when we arrived at our destination.

“If Luna truly led her to us, why would she give her more insight into things than you?” Hue had said, his words echoing through my mind. While I was still in favor of the mare, he did bring up a good point, but it was one that I didn’t want to address at the moment.

As I pushed Summer Breeze’s information aside, I looked up to notice a sign that had a small metal wolf and two green children standing beside what looked like a mill of some sort. The words WOOLPIT were beneath the metal art on the sign.

“So, this is where it ends?” Arusha asked aloud.

“If Luna was telling the truth, then yes,” I said. “I didn’t see a city though; I saw woods, and a well.”

“Deforestation for houses seems to have taken its toll on the nearby woods,” Hue motioned with his in the direction of the forest. “If Luna came through here, she might be remembering the location from a long time ago.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Summer Breeze asked nervously.

“It means that whatever Harmony saw might not be there anymore, and we don’t have a magic detector.” Hue replied.

“A magic detec-“

“He’s making a bad joke about metal detectors,” I interrupted Summer Breeze.

“Well I thought it was fitting,” Hue shrugged. “Seriously though, I don’t know how to intend to find a random location in the woods, one that might not even be there anymore.”

“I know it’s out there,” I said as my eyes scanned the woods intensely.

“I know you’re right,” Summer Breeze said, giving me a warm smile. “It has to be, why else would Luna…oh my!”

Summer Breeze pointed with her hoof at a few of the trees. At first I didn’t see what she had seen, until I studier them a bit more. There were dull spots on them, grey and faded as if the tree was dying. I hadn’t noticed them because of the trees back home that had grey colored bark. The more I looked for them, the more I noticed the prevalent discoloration.

The entire tree line was dotted with these spots. This had to be what Luna was talking about, the life draining from the world just to keep this endless play Teal wanted going. I could only summarize that deeper into the woods it was worse.

“We need to find this place, and soon,” Arusha said as she picked up on what we were staring at.

“You’re probably not going to be doing much of anything today,” Hue said. “It’ll be dark soon, and I don’t think searching the woods at night is the best course of action.”

“Hue, you see this right?” I asked pointing at the trees.

“…see what?” Hue scratched his head.

“It’s no good, I guess humans can’t see what we see,” Summer Breeze said.

“Sorry guys, I believe you that something might be wrong, but I just see trees,” Hue shrugged.

“They’re dying,” Arusha said flatly.

“We might die too if we go poking around the woods in the dark,” Hue huffed. “Haven’t you ever seen a horror movie before? All the bad stuff happens at night.”

“This isn’t a horror story though,” Summer Breeze said before quickly covering her muzzle briefly. “I-I mean, this is the real world after all, right?”

“I doubt one night in this place will hurt anything,” Hue said. “If something happens to you three who’s going to fix things?”

“Fine,” I gave in as my ears drooped, Hue’s stupid human logic winning out over my drive to see Luna’s request through.

“It’s lasted this long, I don’t think another day will make that big of an impact,” Hue scooped me up as he spoke.

After being on my hooves a good portion of the day, I wasn’t going to complain about being carried for a bit. Arusha snickered at me, but I didn’t pay her much mind. Summer Breeze on the other hoof, was difficult to read.

As Hue carried me, I caught what looked like a tiny hint of jealousy. Her expression had soured briefly before we began to look for a hotel. We eventually found one called the Bell Hotel, which was still within the vicinity of where we needed to look.

---

Night had fallen and with it four tired bodies on a single bed. Despite there being more than one, we had unanimously came to the conclusion that Hue was more comfortable than a bed. I blamed it on herd mentality, and the desire to be close to another being.

Arusha was draped over Hue’s chest, rising and falling with each breath he took. I opted to sleep curled up in his left arm with my head resting on his chest. The steady beat of his heart was beginning to lull me to sleep. Instead of counting sheep, I preferred to count heart beats.

Summer Breeze had taken the other arm, hugging it possessively. I couldn’t help but notice that her muzzle held a frown as she slept. She was a difficult mare to read, but nothing malicious in nature had ever come up while we were together.

I didn’t know why, but it was like meeting an old friend when she came to our rescue at the airport. Not just any pony would do that; put themselves in harm’s way for another. It had disturbed me a bit when I saw the look of jealousy on her muzzle when Hue picked me up, but I hadn’t really given it much thought. Perhaps her human didn’t have the same feelings for her as Hue had for me.

As I closed my eyes for the last time that night I tried to forget the looming disaster that we were literally walking distance from. The colors of this world had started to grow dim, and ever since touching down in the United Kingdom, I had found the drive to press on getting harder. It had been subtle before, but now it was beginning to weigh down on me.

I assumed it was because of Teal’s ideal world, one without end, which brought a troubling thought to light. If all of this was being forced upon us, then when should the story have truly ended? I had been in a world that ceased to move forward and it was a scary thought that this one might as well. I didn’t want to end, but I didn’t want to turn to dust either.

It was this moment of clarity that I sympathized with Teal. She didn’t want to end either, she didn’t want anypony to come to an end. To the mare, it was a curse that was worse than death. If Hue had never focused on my being as much as he did, I would have just drifted away long ago. The same could probably be said for numerous ponies that had appeared on Earth.

Why did things have to end? Journeys, love stories, songs, even sad stories; they all came to an end eventually. If I didn’t exist, would Hue have just forgotten about me and moved on? Would I have become like Teal and go to the extreme to stop a limbo like existence from happening?

My thoughts eventually gave way to exhaustion, and I slipped into the dream world. Such transitions had usually been a horrible experience as it tore me from Hue’s side. Now that Teal had been absent from them, they had improved significantly. Much to my dismay, tonight’s encounter was a set back from what I had been experiencing.

As I opened my eyes, I found myself in a cave. The rock walls were lined with crystals of all shapes and sizes, each giving off a very faint, pulsating glow. I knew this cave well, as I had watched the shows with Hue. This was Equestria, and this cave was home to the Tree of Harmony.

Far from the beauty I was expecting to see, I was greeted by a tree with a very dim light. I quickly trotted up to the tree, noticing the shift in crystal’s color as I got closer. A pulsing light, much like a heartbeat, was all that came from the tree. The elements that had once shone brightly were as candles that had been snuffed out.

Several vines lay around the tree, each one withered and lifeless. I assumed Discord’s plants had sensed the trees weakness and tried to sprout once more, only to die from the changes Teal had set in motion. Even as I observed the fading tree, the grey wave over the crystals grew and darkened those that were closest to the tree.

It was then I understood what was happening. Harmony had been thrown out of balance, and the tree was directly affected by such an action. The ground around it wasn’t dying, the tree was trying to keep itself alive, by absorbing what it could.

For a split second after the crystals lost their light, the element gems within its branches were lit up. The display faded as suddenly as it had appeared. The wave moved again and the elements lit up as the process repeated itself.

“It is as we feared,” Luna said as she approached me. “The tree is dying, and it will take our world with it.”

“It’s spreading like a weed,” I commented.

“We can only do so much here, the rest is in your hooves,” Luna looked down at me with a somber expression. “What comes next may be your hardest test.”

“A test?” I asked.

“You have to remain strong, heed my warning Harmony,” Luna replied. “When the time comes to act you can’t show any sign of weakness.”

“I don’t understand, what will I have to do?” I looked up at the princess, who was starting to fade in color.

“You need to hurry, just trust me!” Luna exclaimed. “Wake up!”

My eyes flew open at the command, greeted by a slowly rising sun. I didn’t hesitate to leap out of bed, waking the others in the process. I couldn’t stop to sleep in today, as much as my tired body wanted me to. When a princess tells you to get up, you tend to ignore the groans and complaints that follow.

“Harmony, it’s too way early,” Hue mumbled incoherently.

“I saw it!” I exclaimed. “I saw the tree!”

“What tree?” Arusha asked.

“The Tree of Harmony, it’s dying,” I replied. “It’s getting worse and worse on their side.”

Summer Breeze just stared at me, not saying anything. Whether out of disbelief or the fact that she had been quite rudely awakened I couldn’t tell. If I were to guess, it was probably a mixture of both. She eventually shook her head and jumped onto the floor.

“I vote for breakfast at least,” Hue said.

I was about to protest until my own stomach rumbled, letting me know it wasn’t having any of my early morning shit. In Hue’s defense, saving two worlds from turning to dust was never done on an empty stomach, and so I relented to eating first.

---

Breakfast had been a bit underwhelming, but I couldn’t complain too much, since we were on a deadline. How short that deadline was, I couldn’t say for certain. Even as we trudged through the woods I was unsure how much longer we had.

The woods were dying, much like the Tree of Harmony. The deeper we went, the worse it appeared to affect the wildlife. Where it had only been the tree line yesterday, the field had been peppered by grey patches. It made me wonder which would give way first, Earth or Equestria?

If there was any silver lining to be found, it was the damage itself as it was a good indicator where the well was. It was reasonable to assume that if all of this was starting in Equestria, then it was reasonable to believe that the same thing applied to the well.

“How much farther do you think it is?” Arusha asked.

“Based on what we’re seeing, not much,” Summer Breeze replied as she flew ahead of us.

No sooner had she spoke up, a tree branch blackened and fell down right in front of Hue. Things were getting worse now that the tree in Equestria was steadily dying. How a crystal tree was able to have such a huge impact on Earth was a mystery to me, but one that could be solved later.

Going deeper into the woods, towards the damage proved to be surprisingly effective, as Arusha tripped and rolled straight into the stone structure we were looking for. Time had not been kind to the well, as it was covered in moss and vines, all of which were grey and withered. It was so unassuming that if we had moved just a little deeper we would have missed it.

“Well we found it, now what?” Hue asked.

“Umm…I don’t actually know,” I confessed.

“I think I can help with that,” Summer Breeze volunteered, eagerly walking up towards the well. “I’ll need a hoof though.”

The mare motioned for me to join her at the edge of the well. As I approached her, I could hear something odd coming from deep within the hole the stones encircled. At the bottom there was a rippling pool that seemed to move of its own accord. It cast our reflections perfectly, almost as if it was made of glass instead of liquid.

“Amazing isn’t it?” Summer Breeze asked.

“I guess, but what did you have in mind to activate it…or…something?” My gaze was held by the rippling water.

“Well, I thought I’d start by doing this,” Summer Breeze said, right before a hard shove sent me over the edge.

I didn’t even have time to scream before hitting the bottom, sinking into an unknown vortex that seemed to zip around me at alarming speeds. Thankfully, that came to an end upon landing on what felt like solid ground.

Hue landed beside me with Arusha in his arms. Instantly the colors around us shifted into a vibrant baby blue, before finally settling on two separate colors on each side. To my left was a midnight blue, while the half on my right was solid white, with a few yellow spots that occasionally trickled down as the vortex fluctuated. The best way to describe it was like looking at a nebula from a telescope, only it was much closer.

The only sound was that of a heartbeat, occurring in time with the shift in colors and patterns. Despite the beauty of the plain we had landed in, fear took root as I realized there was no visible exit.

“Welcome,” I heard Summer Breeze say as she landed gracefully. “I owe you a huge thanks Harmony. I mean, without you, I never would have been able to enter the current.”

“Summer Breeze, I don’t understand, why would you want to come here?” I asked.

“Silly H-armony,” Summer Breeze’s voice gave way to one that was all too familiar. “I already told you, to keep things from fading away.”

“Teal!” Arusha exclaimed.

“Guess the jig is up,” Summer Breeze shrugged as a blue line danced across her coat, leaving behind familiar blue fur. “Not that it matters anymore. Summer Breeze, Bumble Wings, all played a part…as did countless other ponies to get me here.”

“Countless?” Hue asked.

“Teal has been my favorite so far, but I can’t keep her body and mind sustained on bread alone,” Teal said as her horn reappeared. “That’s why the others were so important, it’s why I brought you all here in the first place, in case I needed you.”

“You’re a monster!” Hue spat. “You’ve been killing ponies!?”

“I haven’t killed them,” Teal giggled. “They’re just…sleeping, I’m no monster. You would know though, right?”

“What are you talking about Teal?” I fumed. “Hue’s not a monster!”

“He made me, I think that qualifies,” Teal retorted. “Don’t you remember me?”

Teal’s eyes shifted to a solid black as she stared at Hue. Her coat began to fluctuate in a variety of colors, as did the cutie mark on her flank. It was a baseball, then a wrench; it kept shifting to different items with each coat change.

“What are you?” Arusha slowly worked her way behind Hue’s legs.

“I’m what you call a doppelganger, noponie’s life in my care has ever gone unlived,” Teal replied. “I couldn’t reach the current between worlds on my own, I needed help.”

“Who are you, really?” I asked.

“…I’m Teal,” the mare in front of us smiled wickedly as light began to stream from her eyes. “I’m hurt you don’t remember me.”

The mare was slowly lifted up by an unseen force, six lights swarming around her as she rose above us. Her horn grew slightly, gaining a sharper tip than a regular unicorn’s. Her coat began to fluctuate once again. Her cutie mark was gone entirely, followed by a slightly lengthened mane and tail with a set of translucent wings occasionally coming through on her back.

“There’s only one mind fit to ensure the survival of these two worlds,” Teal said, her voice echoed by another. “Now I have the power to truly stop the end that looms over us, and yet you choose to try and stop me.”

“You saw the damage you’ve done Teal, it was spreading while we were in the woods!” I shouted.

“I can stop it now,” Teal replied. “Enough of this, if you won’t side with me then you force me to snuff out your light for good.”

The surrounding vortex shifted in color once more as the mare landed across from me. Upon touching down, Arusha and Hue were knocked backwards; it was clear she wanted this to be between me and her. With a tap of her hoof, what appeared to be a floor materialized beneath us.

“I don’t want to fight you!” I exclaimed.

“That’s a shame, because I need to be the only one in control here,” Teal replied as her horn started to glow. “There’s no room for backseat drivers.”

Above us, several holes materialized to produce cannons that seemed oddly familiar. Teal laughed as they fired strange, orange projectiles towards me, forcing me to keep moving. Teal stood still as her eyes and horn continued to glow through the chaos, which gave me an idea.

After teleporting out of the way of one of the strange cannon balls, I rushed towards Teal, the cannons tracking my every move. Teal’s look of confidence swiftly changed as I turned her own power against her. I teleported away at the last second, avoiding the explosion that engulfed the mare.

Before I could hoof pump in celebration, the floor began to heat up; a crystal trail rushing towards me. Its presence was almost shark like in appearance, as Teal rose high into the air to direct its movements with her magic. It seemed she had adapted quickly and knew better than to stay where I could reach her.

I sent out a small bolt of magic, which Teal deflected easily. She smiled wickedly as another crystal trail joined the first, trying to box me in. She was too strong now that we weren’t on level playing fields.

“Harmony, use your voice!” Hue shouted. “I gave you a voice, now show her what it can do!”

“Stay out of this!” Teal boomed, sending a small shard of crystal towards Hue and Arusha.

As I watched the crystals, I realized what he wanted me to do. I took a deep breath, my horn glowing as I did so in preparation. I was supposed to use my voice to entertain other ponies, I never thought I would be forced to go beyond that. As long as Hue said it was okay, then I had no problem using it to get Teal on the straight and narrow.

I released my held breath, holding a single note at the highest octave I could hit. The crystals stopped as Teal clutched her ears, the soundwave visible and reverberating through the vortex. The crystals began to shake and quiver as cracks form on them before finally shattering. Hue covered Arusha to keep her from getting hit by any stray fragments; his backpack taking a majority of the damage.

Teal dropped to the floor, struggling to stand. The mare snarled at me hatefully, the white fading from her coat as it continued to rapidly shift. Her mane had shrunk as well, returning to a more natural length for the mare. I could only assume she had taken a hefty blow, but clearly wasn’t down for the count.

“You still think you have any say in this little story?” Teal growled. “Maybe a reminder is in order!”

No sooner had she finished speaking, my world became dark. I could only hear Hue and Arusha’s despite cries, alongside Teal’s hideous laughter. I quickly realized I was blind again; the one thing I feared most was losing my ability to see after working so hard to gain it with Hue.

I could hear something big moving across the floor, much bigger than Hue, and definitely not Arusha. It was rough and almost sounded like scales sliding across-uh oh.

I focused as best as I could with my magic to gain some sort of idea what was around me. I had done it before having sight, and thankfully I still had the magic memory to perform a passive sound spell. As the sounds came in, I could make out a tall creature, with what appeared to be a mare sitting on it’s arrow like head.

“A snake!?” I jumped back as I realized what I was looking at.

“I need a break from all the dirty work,” Teal giggled. “My friend here has gladly volunteered.”

Before I could utter a reply, the snake lunged towards me with alarming speed. Its huge body did it’s best to trap me in its coils of solid muscle. Thankfully the snake was as loud as it was big and gave me an idea of where it would be going, but I couldn’t keep up forever.

As Teal laughed at my struggles, she revealed where she was, and I fired a spell at her once more. This time, she was dislodged from the head of the snake, and it quickly began to lose form as it fell to the makeshift floor, dissolving into what felt like steam.

As the snake vanished, so too did Teal’s hold over my eye sight. It was as if someone had thrown a light switch and I could see her coat burn a bright yellow before fading back into the sea of colors. Her horn lost some of it’s size but retained the sharp point it had developed.

“How…how are you doing this!?” Teal screamed. “You’re not the hero, I am!”

“This isn’t about heroes and villains Teal, what you’re doing is wrong!” I shouted.

“I will not give up! Not to you!” Teal roared as the floor began to quake and rumble.

Her horn held an orange glow to it as she rose up once more. This time, several trees followed her into the air from the ground. Their trunks were enormous, and their branches seemed more suited to be thick, burly arms than mere wood. Strange still were the giant fruits that began to grow on them.

It was a massive orb, painted with all the colors of a rainbow. They twitched and shook violently as small pops of static danced across the skin of the fruit. They were zap apples, only these were the size of a small car.

Eventually the fruit started to fall, prompting me to teleport to one of the branches as Hue and Arusha clung to one of the trees. The floor was now bathed in static and large bolts of electricity, promising a painful end if one was to lose focus.

“Teal, stop it!” I shouted. “You’ll kill them!”

“I’ll just rewrite the story, just as easily as I wrote that idiot stallion out of the picture,” Teal said.

Before I could respond, a large apple nearly hit the branch I was on. I teleported to a neighboring branch only to be met by more falling fruit; each leaving a dangerous trail of energy behind. The mare was going to ruthless extremes now, desperately wanting to stop me.

I looked up and began firing into the leafs of the giant trees, setting them on fire. The smoke rose up towards Teal and it forced her to teleport away from the heat and smoke that was choking her.

As she landed to catch her breath, I destroyed the branch she was resting on, taking her by surprise. I hadn’t noticed the fruit hanging above her, which fell on top of her, delivering a series of painful shocks, if her expression was any indication of the power behind a car sized zap apple.

Before Teal hit the ground, the trees began to retreat into the ground, the static coming to an abrupt end. The mare let out a hateful scream and rose up once more on a powerful set of wings, leaving a multicolored spectrum behind her.

“Stop it!” Teal exclaimed as she flew towards me.

I was swept off my hooves, carried up by Teal as she flew like a bullet skyward. I realized that she was planning to drop me and teleported away, firing another burst of energy at the mare. She was getting sloppy now, and I could feel her attempts becoming frantic and poorly planned.

We both saved ourselves before landing on the hard floor that had been given form. This fight with Teal was beginning to take its toll on me. The same could be said for Teal, only she looked to be in worse shape than me.

“Why…despite all I’ve thrown at you…why are you still standing?” Teal panted.

“Because I can’t let your plan go on,” I replied. “Everything has to end at some point Teal, don’t you see that?”

“I won’t let it end!” Teal shouted. “Just stop fighting me!”

Teal retained a purple color as her coat finally ceased to display a vibrant, ever changing mix. Her horn was glowing white and discharging static as she glared at me with solid white eyes; a pink orb form at the tip of her horn, growing to an impressive size.

I followed suit, a part of me doubting myself in my ability to hold her back. Her temper had reached its limit and she was dead set on getting her way. I was determined to stop her from getting the never ending story she wanted. Such a life came at too great a cost, no matter what new power she might have.

We fired at the same time, the rays of energy colliding as they struggled against each other. I could sense her emotions that she had poured into making her beam. Anger, rage, sorrow, all of these I could sense in her assault on me, but the most prevalent emotion was fear. She feared losing this fight. She had come so far, only to be met by a pony that was just as determined as she was.

“Stop it Harmony!” Teal shouted. “I have to win!”

“I’m not going to give up!” I shot back.

“Sable, stop this!” Hue shouted.

For a split second I felt Teal’s control over her spell weaken at the mention of the strange name. It was long enough for me to overpower her, sending my stream of energy crashing through hers and into the unicorn who had conjured it.

A loud boom filled the air as the trace amounts of Teal’s energy faded into nothingness. The smoke was slowly being drained away into the vortex, revealing not one pony, but two. Once the smoke had cleared it revealed one mare standing, while Teal lay motionless a few feet from her.

The new pony had no mane or tail to speak off, and was covered in a grey coat of fur. The dullness of her coat was only matched by her bizarre eyes which were pitch black. They reflected my own image back at me like a mirror as I stared into them. To top off her strange appearance, a simple, white gem sat on her forehead where a horn should be.

I could only assume this was the real doppelganger, exposed at last for what she truly was. She stared at me; panting heavily as she stood on trembling legs. It looked as if the smallest gust would topple her for good. She slowly shifted her weight to try and remain standing with her head lowered.

“Sable,” Hue said again as he approached the trembling mare. “Sable Template.”

“D-don’t call me by that name!” Sable’s voice was higher than Teal’s, and was more subdued in volume. “I-I’m not….I’m not yours anymore…I need to keep going.”

The mare backed away from Hue on unsteady legs. It was a miracle that she didn’t trip over herself in her attempt to get away from my human. It was sad to watch what had only moments ago been a terrifying pony, now cowering in fear at the presence of a magicless human.

“No, it’s time to end this,” I said trotting towards her with a light at the tip of my horn. “This has gone on long enough.”

“Harmony, you don’t have to do anything,” Hue said as he knelt down beside me. “She’s your sister.”

“M-My sister!?” I stared at Hue in disbelief.

“Her name is Sable Template.” Hue said. ”I didn’t realize it at first, but it’s hard to deny something I worked on when it’s standing in front of me.”

“…just kill me…” Sable said quietly. “Get it over with, so I don’t have to be around when the end comes.”

“Sable, why did you run?” Hue asked. “Why did you just vanish one day?”

“Because you stopped believing in me!” Sable snapped, falling down from her outburst. “So many worlds…you humans make them only to tear them down in the end, never knowing that you snuffed out hundreds…thousands…billions of lives. I didn’t want to be next.”

Hue sighed in defeat, his shoulders slumping as a silent acknowledgement of Sable’s words. I was still left trying to wrap my mind around having been his second thought form. How Hue had forgotten her I had no idea, but I summarized that it had something to do with her fleeing.

“Sable,” I said softly. “I’m not going to kill you.”

“Do you think I’ve learned anything from this?” Sable asked. “If you don’t I’ll just come back.”

“Is what Hue said true?” I ignored her empty threat. “Are we sisters?”

“…yes,” Sable admitted.

“Then why would I hurt you?” I huffed.

“I’m a monster!” Sable growled. “It’s all I can be…no matter how hard I tried…I’ve always been the monster Hue made me to be.”

Despite all the hateful thoughts that should have occupied my mind, I was losing my will to harm her. I had been fighting against my family the entire time, and I had come close to killing her. Though she called herself a monster, in the light I saw only a terrified mare.

“I don’t see a monster Sable,” I said as I approached her.

“Why...?” Sable’s expression shifted as I walked towards her. “I hurt everypony…I ruined worlds…why aren’t you doing anything?”

“Because that’s not the way I was made,” I replied. “I was blind, but I made myself better with Hue’s help, now I see. Why do you think you’re beyond help?”

“I hurt other ponies…killed other ponies…I can’t be fixed,” Sable said, her body shaking as she tried to fight back the emotions welling up inside her.

“Sable, I’m sorry,” Hue said. “I never wanted you to feel bad. I poured my heart into you, like everything I work on.”

“Then why…why didn’t you finish me?” Sable asked.

“Because it wasn’t time for your story,” Hue replied. “I almost forgot about you until Harmony showed me the old folder that held your profile in it.”

“Y-you kept that?” I could see tears form at the edge of Sable’s eyes as she looked up at Hue.

“I kept it safe for when the time came,” Hue explained. “Even if I don’t use one of my ideas right away, I never want to forget them.”

“…I’m…” Sable muttered as I sensed her resolve breaking down. “…I’m…sorry.”

Sable fell forward, sobbing weakly as Hue caught her. I didn’t see a monster in his arms, a monster wouldn’t have it in them to say sorry and truly mean it in their hearts.

As Sable cried, I saw a strange light coming from her flank. A moment later, something flew from the light and into the vortex, leaving behind a noticeable glow. More speeding streaks of light followed the first, each disappearing into different parts of the swirling chaos of color around us.

Before long I noticed a change in our surroundings as the vortex cleared; leaving behind a calm, beautiful image of what appeared to be open space showing Earth, rolled out like a scroll. Beneath it was the familiar image of Canterlot Castle, set high upon the mountain. Luna had spoken the truth when she said our worlds were connected, they were literally on top of one another.

“Beautiful…” Arusha whispered.

After what seemed like an eternity, the glow on Sable’s flank faded with one last light, which looked like a cutie mark. It floated over to Teal’s dormant form, causing her to yawn as she sleepily got to her hooves. “What…happened?”

Sable went limp in Hue’s arms, her breathing labored. She had given up all of the energy she had stolen, leaving her weak. She looked up at Hue with a sniffle, her eyes reflecting his appearance back at him.

“Sable, are you okay?” I asked.

“I threw everything away, everything I had at you,” Sable replied. “I’ve got nothing left.”

“Wait, no you can’t-“

“I can Harmony, and I need to,” Sable said. “I can’t keep feeding off other ponies.”

Wordlessly, Hue relinquished his hold on Sable, walking towards his bag. I quickly stepped in with my magic, propping Sable up as best as I could. She was so light now, weighing close to nothing after her literally draining experience.

“Hue, what are you doing?” I called to my human.

As if cued by my question, another light started to come from Sable’s flank, taking on a curious form. When the light settled, a mirror cutie mark was seamlessly etched onto her hip. As I stared at it, I could actually see my reflection in her cutie mark.

“My own…” Sable sobbed.

She didn’t have time to finish as a bright light started to shine all around us. The image of Earth and Equestria had been flipped, with Earth resting beneath the world of ponies. We were rushing towards the strange world at blinding speed, rendering us deaf from the howling wind that accompanied our departure from the void we had been trapped in.

----

Slowly, sight and sound returned to me, the first thing being the sound of murmuring. I opened my eyes slowly to see several ponies I didn’t know. A guard was among them, glaring menacingly down at me. I looked over to my side to find Hue, with tired eyes and a sleepy looking Sable in his arms.

“You caused quite a stir,” an angelic voice said, sobering my senses.

Celestia slowly approached us, Arusha instantly rolling onto her hooves to bow. I couldn’t believe it, we were actually in Equestria, but not through some words on a page, this was the real Equestria. All my life I had just dwelt here as a character, but now I was in front of one of the most powerful ponies in existence.

“I…um,” I stammered as Hue started to sit up.

“Be at ease Harmony,” Celestia smiled. “I’m aware of you and your friend’s actions. As well as a certain pony present.”

Sable’s eyes opened suddenly, reflecting Celstia’s visage as she tried to burry herself deeper into Hue’s arms. It was hard to tell what Celestia was feeling, a master piece of a poker face hiding any hint as to what she was thinking.

“Wait, your majesty,” I started, earning her attention. “Sable…Sable’s not a bad pony, she was just-“

“Putting the lives of everypony in danger,” Celestia cut me off. “At the very least she should be imprisoned.”

“Umm, if I may Princess,” Hue spoke up. “She’s not a threat anymore, we worked it out….kind of…with lots of explosion…and friendship?”

Celestia kept her poker face up as she stared as Hue intensely. If she had put a bit of thought into it, she would probably create lasers with her eyes, no horn required!

“Forgiveness isn’t earned in an hour,” Celestia said. “Trust is even harder to earn back.”

Sable pulled away from Hue’s protective hold; cautiously approaching the mighty alicorn who now controlled her fate. She tried to make herself as small as possible as several audible whispers carried hateful remarks and names.

“I don’t have any excuse to give you,” Sable admitted. “I tried to stop an end from coming, only to ensure my own instead.”

“Sable, one shouldn’t wish for something past its time to keep going,” Celestia said. “Speaking form experience, if something is fleeting and temporary, that should only add to its value. You should want to enjoy every second of it…if something has no end, it slowly loses its value to you.”

Sable hung her head low, almost touching the ground with her nose. She had no fight left in her, no will to argue her case. Celestia could easily end her life here and now, but for some reason she hadn’t yet. I could only imagine what was going through her mind as she stared thoughtfully at the defeated mare.

“Misguided or not, you’ve still committed crimes against Equestria,” Celestia’s tone changed to that of a scolding mother. “You deserve the harshest sentence we have, if we were to go by the books…which is why I’ve come to my decision.”

Sable tensed up, readying herself to take whatever punishment Celestia thought was fit for her. I could only hold my breath as the seconds seemed to slow down to minutes, prolonging the judgement Sable had earned.

“Six months in Canterlot to begin your reformation,” Celestia said “You’re to serve two years of community service, and receive random stops from Princess Twilight Sparkle in order to ensure your cooperation.”

“…what?” Sable looked up cautiously at Celestia, confusion apparent on her muzzle, even with expressionless eyes.

“It’s called a second chance,” Celestia said firmly. “If you do anything to compromise it, there will be no mercy next time.”

Hue, Arusha and myself let out a held sigh of relief. For whatever reason, Celestia had decided against throwing her away for good, sentencing her to death, or some unknown punishment far worse.

“Thank you, Princess,” Sable bowed, still trembling after expecting the worst for her future.

“Don’ thank me yet,” Celestia raised an eyebrow. “You still have a long way to go.”

Sable nodded wordlessly as two guards stepped forward to occupy her left and right. She smiled sheepishly at me before she vanished in the blink of an eye. With my sister out of the way, Celestia’s gaze now fell on us.

“As for you three,” Celestia started. “Thank you for all that you’ve done. Though I’m afraid I’m not quite certain what to make of a human dwelling here once more.”

“I wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for him Princess,” I spoke up for my human. “I don’t think I could picture a world without Hue in my life.”

“I had planned to send him back, but I believe such action wouldn’t be in the best interest of reforming Sable,” Celestia smiled. “I think Ponyville would be a perfect place to start off in getting all of you adjusted to Equestria.”

I leaned back against Hue in relief, feeling his arms wrap around me as he stood up. I looked up at him, filled with glee that I wouldn’t be alone as we started over in this world. As long as I had him by my side, I knew I wouldn’t be afraid of what comes next; be it an end, or something else entirely.

Author's Notes:

This was oddly refreshing to finish. It started out as a random idea that came to me when I was pretty down in the dumps and creativity seemed to avoid me like the plague. I forgot about what really mattered and wasn't writing for fun anymore, which is why I wanted to have fun with this story. I'm not sure if this should continue, a part of me wants it to, but I guess I'll leave that up to you guys.