(Note: Just in case any of you don't know, this is a remake of Equestria Girls.)

Day 1: The Summit

---

"Hello, Alexander." Her voice echoed towards me.

"Mom?" I inquired, needing to question her sudden appearance. I looked around, noticing my surroundings very foggy and wavy…like…in a dreamlike state… "Um…are you in my dreams, mom?"

"That is correct, Alex." She answered, closing her eyes and nodding for the brief moment. "I apologize for the intrusion, but there is only something I wanted to share with you."

"Don't worry about it, mom. You're not intruding." I assured her.

She released a small chuckle. "You need your own space. I learned that the hard way…" She recalled our last…slight conflict.

"Oh…right…well…" I shook my head. "It's fine. What did you need to tell me?"

"I left a note by the side of your bed. I'd like for you to read it once you wake up." She informed.

"A note?" I asked.

"Yes, let's just leave it at that. I'd like for you to continue receiving your rest. Sleep, my son, we shall see each other very soon…" Afterwards, she sent one last smile before she disappeared through wavy fades. I was still curious about this sudden appearance from my mother, however, I felt my body falling unconscious completely in order to comply with Luna's request.

---

Once I felt my actual body breaking from slumber, I was already looking to my side of the bed. I was asleep, but what Luna mentioned stuck to my mind. The note was not hard to find at all. It stood out from everything else with its large white grainy texture and its obvious formal penmanship inside. Using my magic, I swiftly grabbed the note and read it in bed.

Greetings, my son, you have been summoned to the Crystal Empire along with Twilight Sparkle and the rest of your friends under Prince and Princess circumstances. You shall be informed of these tasks, but as of right now, your presence is requested as soon as possible. XOXO, Love, Luna.

I couldn't help but smile at that last part. It just reminded me how…incredible it felt to have a real loving mother. However, with the "Prince and Princess circumstances", it made me feel a little queasy. This most likely referred to actual Prince and Princess royal duties, and I had unfortunately forgotten about such things. Would I have to do such duties from now on, alternating my lifestyle? Well…I'll guess I'll find out… But at least I'll be with those I love…my family… Miss Cadence, Tia, Mom, and my best friends.

Wasting no time, I got myself ready and started outside to meet the others.

---

I managed to come across Twilight in town near the sweet shop. She was sitting outside, seeming to be waiting as she looked around.

"Twilight." I stated, offering a smile and catching her attention. She turned her head to the source of the sound, spotting me. Her face formed a silent but joyous grin. We both exchanged an embrace.

"Alex! Did you get a letter from Princess Celestia too?" She asked.

"Well…from my mom… You think we're ready for whatever's ahead of us?" I sent her the question, feeling the need of her opinion on the matter, just to know I wasn't alone.

"As long as we're together, I'm sure we are!" She presented confidently, but then retracted it some. "…right?"

Attempting to not decline her mood any further, I patted her friendly on the shoulder and nodded. "Right. I'm sure." I looked around. "What about the others? Are they coming with us?"

"Yeah! They had to step inside the sweet shop because Pinkie smelled something delicious coming from the Cakes. They're in there trying to get her out as soon as possible." Twilight chuckled.

"Hm." I reacted with a small smile. "That's Pinkie."

A door immediately sounded by us. Applejack revealed herself as she walked out with a narrowed expression, dragging Pinkie Pie along with her.

"Wait! I'm not finished yet!" Pinkie cried out, flinging her hooves around her.

"Pinkie, we've wasted enough time as it is! We need to leave now!" Applejack announced a little angrily.

"But…" Pinkie sighed when she realized that nothing she did was going to stop Applejack.

Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity walked out behind her. Fluttershy turned her head and noticed me. She immediately flapped her wings and fluttered gently towards me, nuzzling her head on mine as soon as she reached.

"Are you two excited to go to the Crystal Empire on such an occasion?" Rarity asked Twilight and me.

"Well…we can't really say, but…" I tried to answer, but Applejack released a grunt, continuing to drag a saggy Pinkie Pie.

"Might we get things along here? I'd like to start headin' to the train before it can leave us. Those letters sounded mighty important."

"Can't argue with you there…" I muttered and gestured my head for our departure from Ponyville to the Crystal Empire.

---

During our train ride, Pinkie managed to brighten up again when reminded on how we'll be seeing the Princesses in the Crystal Empire. Pinkie has always loved the fresh air and "shininess" of the entire land itself. Of course, Pinkie has always been a sucker for shiny things, not to mention in a bad way of course.

"WHOOOO!" She cheered as soon as her eyes laid on the crystal environment we were to pass through.

The train eventually came to a halt. We gladly, and somewhat excitedly, exited off the train and began heading our way towards the Crystal Castle.

"Hoo-wee!" Applejack exclaimed as everypony slightly scattered except her, Twilight, and me. "Your very first princess and prince summit. You two must be over the moon!"

"Oh, I am excited." Twilight answered as we continued through the center of town. "But, to be honest, I'm a little nervous, too."

"Don't worry." I assured, holding a foreleg over her. "We'll be fine."

"You're nervicited!" Pinkie suddenly flashed in front of us. "It's like you wanna jump up and down and yell 'YAY ME!'" Pinkie demonstrated her so called "nervicitedness" by bouncing up and down. "But you also wanna curl up in a teeny-tiny ball and hide at the same time!" Pinkie did so, presenting her usual self. Nevertheless, Pinkie pulled herself out and rubbed a hoof on Twilight's and my mane."We've all been there!"

"I'm there almost every day." Fluttershy added sadly, causing me to face over to her and offer her a compensating kiss.

"You two got no reason to fret." Applejack assured. "Everything's gonna be juust..."

"TWILIGHT!" Rarity exclaimed loudly and swerved over to her, cutting off Applejack. "Ugh, sorry darling, but I just realized you're not wearing your crown." She pointed out, observing her head. "You haven't forgotten it back in Ponyville, have you?"

"It's in my bag." Twilight directed to a small bag she had brought with her.

"Oh, shoot." I expressed, remembering that I completely forgot my crown and actually didn't even know I was supposed to bring it. "Were we supposed to bring our crowns? I forgot mine…"

"Don't worry, I brought yours too." Twilight relieved me.

"Really? How did you…"

"Remember the day I asked you if I could see it for a while? Well…I kind of kept it near mine and forgot to return it…sorry…" She explained.

"Really? Oh well, then don't worry about it. It's probably safer in your hooves." We continued walking towards the castle. "It really means a lot to me, because it was given to me by my mother. But you're my best friend, and I trust you with it."

This allowed Twilight to form a light smile on her face. "Thanks…" However, it disappeared a little. "As for mine… I just feel a little self-conscious about wearing it." She stopped to face me. "Haven't really gotten accustomed to these yet, either..." She rose up in the air, flapping her wings, though she positioned herself in the wrong way, only staying in the air for a few seconds before she fell flat on the ground.

I helped her up and patted her comfortingly. "Don't worry, we'll get you there. I mean look at me. I had trouble at first, but now I'm doing pretty okay."

"Absolutely!" Rarity joined. "You are a princess now, Twilight. Embrace it! I'm telling you, if I had a crown like that, I would never take it off. Why, I'd sleep in the thing."

I reacted with a usual look for Rarity, but Twilight appeared to be more unamused, most likely because Rarity wasn't exactly taking this business seriously.

"Like I said." I approached Twilight, placing a foreleg around her once again. "Don't worry. Everything is going to be just fine. You said it yourself, remember?"

"Hm." Twilight smiled lightly. "Yeah…"

---

We entered the castle doors once we reached them. As soon as the inside was visible, horns immediately played, welcoming us. Twilight and I walked through, stopping near one of the royal guards, while the other girls stayed behind at the doors.

"His and her highness, Princess Twilight Sparkle and Prince Alex!" He announced proudly.

Miss Cadence in front of us laughed and quickly walked towards us. "Twilight! Alex! I haven't seen you both since the coronation!" She embraced us both.

"We have so much to discuss." My aunt walked towards us as well as my mother. "But, it can wait until tomorrow. You all look tired from your journey. Now, off to bed, all of you." She sweetly advised. The girls didn't really seem to mind and walked off to their rooms. I could hear Pinkie Pie cheering loudly.

"What, Tia? Already?" I shared light-heartedly, noticing my mother gazing at me with her eyes fully open, indicating her happiness. "We only just got here."

She smiled and closed her eyes. "I understand, but you'll need your rest for the very reason why we summoned you both here."

"I suppose you're right…"

Princess Luna walked a few steps towards me and placed a caring hoof on me. "Do you want my company for the night?"

I chuckled lightly. "Thanks, mom, but I think I'll be staying with Fluttershy."

"Hm." She revealed a closed grin. "I understand, but if you need anything, just call me."

I nodded. "Goodnight, mom."

"Goodnight, son."

I turned to my aunt before turning around to walk.

"Goodnight, Tia."

"Goodnight, Alex." She answered.

I began walking the opposite direction, hearing Miss Cadence. "Goodnight, Alex!"

"Goodnight, Miss Cadence." I returned.

"Do you really need to call me Miss Cadence?" She asked, giggling lightly. I stopped with a raised hoof and turned my head towards her. "You know I'm your cousin."

"Well…Miss Cadence sounds a lot better than Cousin Cadence, doesn't it?" I asked with a slight smirk.

"How about just Cadence? I'm not going to bite or anything."

"Thanks, but I'd like to show my respect and love for you as much as I can."

She smiled warmly. "You're sweet."

I sent one last smile before I walked off to bed.

---

I found and entered the room Fluttershy was in. She was already snuggling herself to comfort in bed.

"Like those royal cushions and bed sheets?" I asked, smiling a little at her adorableness.

"Yes!" Fluttershy practically exclaimed. "It's so fluffy! So soft and warm!" She nuzzled her head on the pillows, seemed to be in a state of ecstasy as if she was on a super fluffy cloud.

I chuckled. "I guess that's the perks of being a royal flower, huh?" Fluttershy merely gazed at me, her mouth resting on the pillow, but her adorable eyes staring directly into mine. After a moment of this sweet silence, I decided to visit Twilight before hitting the hay. "I'll going to go check up on Twi, and then I'll come and sleep, okay?"

"Mmk." She answered without moving from her current position.

---

I walked the distance and knocked on her door, awaiting her answer.

"Come in." Twilight announced from inside.

I did so, seeing Spike fix up his bed as I walked inside. I shifted my view towards Twilight. She was in front of a mirror about to place her crown on.

"Trying out the new look, huh?" I asked, being a little playful.

"Oh." She was lightly surprised. "Hey…" She looked at her crown and smiled lightly. "Yeah… I guess I am…"

As I walked towards her, she placed her crown lightly on her head. Then, she began observing herself for a moment in silence. However, I grew immediately concerned when her ears flopped down and she softly sighed.

"What is it?" I questioned, growing closer to her with a frown.

"I don't know, Alex. I'm just... worried, I guess. Princess Cadence was given the Crystal Empire to rule over. What if now that I'm a princess, Celestia expects me to lead a kingdom of my own?" She asked, the fear clearly in her eyes.

Before I could open my mouth, Spike intervened in exclaim. "That would be awesome!"

Twilight and I both turned to look at Spike, but Twilight had more of an annoyed look to her face. "No it would not! Just because I have this crown and these wings, it doesn't mean I'll be a good leader!" She closed her eyes solemnly and placed the crown away on a nightstand near her bed.

"Come on, Twi…" I placed a caring hoof on her shoulder. "Miss Cadence was given the Crystal Empire because it had suddenly appeared after a thousand years. There needed to be a good leader to take care of it and she fit the job perfectly. Besides, Shining Armor helps her with the kingdom as well. I doubt Tia would have you rule over a kingdom all by yourself."

"Well…there's you." She faced towards me.

"Well…yes…but besides that, I don't think she'd place us in a leadership position for a whole kingdom…unless she really needed to…"

"Yeah…I guess you're right… Thanks, Alex." She lightly hugged me.

I smiled lightly. "Of course."

Afterwards, she gently pulled away and headed for her bed. "Well, better get some shut eye then…" She stopped herself, remembering something. "Oh, here." She pulled out something from her bag. "You might want to keep this with you." She gave me my crown.

"Oh!" I accepted it. "Thanks, Twilight. Goodnight." I expressed as she climbed in her bed.

"Goodnight." She contently answered.

I turned off the light with my magic and turned around to walk out. However, I stopped when I heard Twilight grunt continuously. "Can't... tuck..." I turned around to see her having a struggle with not her bed, but her wings. When she tried to have them in their usual resting position, she would turn, shove, and finally rest until her wings suddenly erected repeatedly. I had to hold in a small laugh as I placed a hoof to my mouth. "Just trying to get comfortable!" She exclaimed, turning her face back to me and forcing her wings to be rested. "Hah…Finally." She looked at me again. "Okay…now Goodnight." She closed her eyes and began resting softly. However, I just had a feeling in my gut that her wings would pop out again, so I stayed there for a few seconds and waited with a smirk. As expected, her wing shot out, bringing the blanket on top of her over her completely. "Ugh!" She groaned annoyingly.

"Here, let me help you." I told her, feeling a tone of laughter. I walked over to her bed and removed the blanket. "You can't just force your wing to retract. That's like trying to fit a cube block into a sphere hole. You have to learn to ease it." I grabbed her wing with my hooves. "Geez…see, it's like so tense. No wonder it keeps popping out like that. You must have really been stressing out."

"Well…a little…" She answered a bit embarrassingly.

"Remember about those breathing exercises Miss Cadence taught you." I advised with a smile and massaged her wings a bit to where I could begin folding them softly. When I finally had them tucked neatly to her sides, I placed the covers over her and tucked her in. "Better?"

"Better." She reacted with a slight bashful expression, blushing a bit within her cheeks.

I merely chucked a bit inside. "Night, Twi." I rubbed her mane both comfortingly and playfully."

"Night…"

I walked out, leaving her to sleep, and returned to Fluttershy's and my room.

Fluttershy, overtaken by the very plush bedsheets, was already asleep by the time I walked in. I held in my soft chuckle and walked over to the bed. I placed my own crown near the nightstand and then got ready for bed. I quietly tucked myself in with Fluttershy and later closed my eyes, smiling in content.

---

I awoke in the middle of the night, however, as the room was still engulfed in complete darkness. Well…not completely dark. The first thing that caught my eye was the little light that seeped through the door. I studied it for a moment and noticed that the door was actually slightly ajar. It was closed, but not fully. Did I close it right last night..?

I felt Fluttershy embrace me from behind, mumbling lovely.

Then, I heard a soft growl, immediately catching my attention.

"Is somepony there?" I whispered, looking around, despite any light. However, with my eyes adjusting to the darkness, I managed to see something different in the room. I felt my heart pound a little as some fear struck into me. I carefully pulled away from Fluttershy's embrace and off the bed. I saw what appeared to be a figure in front of me. "Twilight…is that you?"

I slowly began walking towards the figure until I suddenly heard a voice I wasn't expecting outside.

"My crown! She's got my crown!" A yell echoed throughout the halls.

"H-huh?" Fluttershy sat up in alert.

"What?" I looked towards the door, ready to find out what happened. However, I was suddenly pushed towards the ground. "What the?!" I couldn't easily push myself back up, something was holding me down.

"Stop! Thief!" Twilight's voice continued to exclaim while I continued struggling.

"Star! Come on! We gotta go!" I heard another unfamiliar voice from outside.

The weight was lifted and the door was thrown open, leaving something vanishing out the room.

"Alex, are you okay!?" Fluttershy came to my aid.

I shook my head and quickly pushed myself up. "Come on! Twilight's in trouble!" We raced out the door to see Twilight chasing after two ponies in hoods, their identifies being practically hidden.

"She's stolen my crown!" The other girls were awoken and raced out to see what was going on. Twilight teleported herself in front of the two ponies. "Stop!" However, one of them teleported past Twilight, leaving the hood and revealing her appearance. But that didn't stop the mysterious mare thief. She looked back smugly, continuing to run. The other hooded pony was given an opportunity to pass Twilight, as she was focused on the other pony. As she ran, I noticed something in her mouth. And then I realized it… It was my crown!

I quickly worked my legs faster, catching up with Twilight to catch these scum thieves. The both of them continued running. The revealed one looked back and noticed Twilight gaining on her. Twilight took a chance and dove towards her, tackling her to the ground. They slid into another room, where the pony with Twilight's crown was pinned down.

"Star, catch!" She exclaimed and threw the crown towards her accomplice. The other pony quickly caught it. "Hurry! Get in!" The hooded pony did so, running and vanishing into a mirror.

"No!" I exclaimed.

"What did you do with my crown?" Twilight demanded.

"Sorry it had to be this way!" She apologized ruthlessly and then teleported out of her grip. "...Princess." She concluded mockingly, saluting and jumping into the mirror.

Every one of the girls gasped.

I began running, attempting to jump after her, but Twilight stopped me. She held me back with her magic, and then with her hooves when she reached me. "Alex, wait!"

"She's getting away, Twilight!" I answered back, full of adrenaline.

"You can't go after her! We don't even know what's on the other side!"

I sighed, feeling defeated and then even worse when I realized she took not only Twilight's crown, but the special crown my mother gave me.

"Who was that…?" Fluttershy asked, deeply surprised as much as the other girls were.

"…we have to hurry and tell the Princess…" Twilight announced.

"Okay…" I returned, sensing defeat in her tone as well.

---

We returned to the main hall. The princesses were still awake, most likely due to their royal duties.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight shouted, alarming them. "Thieves! They stole our crowns!"

"W-what?" Princess Celestia tried to understand. Twilight explained the situation, the appearance of the revealed pony, and made a mention of the hooded figure, which she could not describe, due to the clothing protecting the pony's identity. After Twilight's explanation, Celestia frowned seriously with closed eyes. "Sunset Shimmer." She answered after a moment of silence. "A former student of mine. She began her studies with me not long before Twilight. But when she did not get what she wanted as quickly as she liked, she turned cruel and dishonest. I tried to help her. But she eventually decided to abandon her studies and pursue her own path, one that has sadly led to her stealing your crown."

Spike came front with a crown that looked exactly liked Twilight's, only a lot cruder. "She replaced Twilight's with this one."

Princess Celestia analyzed it closely. "I suppose Sunset Shimmer thought you wouldn't notice right away that this was not yours." She began walking down the hall. "And by the time you did, it would be too late to go after your crown and element of harmony." Twilight quickly followed after her.

"But I don't understand! Where'd she go? Why did she take the crown?" Twilight desperately asked as the rest of the girls, including my mother and cousin, followed us.

"You'll soon know more about this place than even I do." Princess Celestia ended, concluding the last statement before we left the room.

She led us back where Sunset Shimmers had escaped, along with whoever was with her.

"I do not know who would accomplice Sunset Shimmer in stealing your crown, but whoever it is must still be with her on the other side…" Princess Celestia added, staring at the mirror in front of us.

"Other side?" I asked, beginning to feel the great need to retrieve my own crown back. "What do you mean?"

Princess Celestia looked towards my mother and motioned her head.

My mom looked at me and placed a hoof on my back. She led me towards the mirror and began explaining its existence. "This is no ordinary mirror." We stared at our reflections presented upon it. "It is a gateway to another world." She looked towards me, causing me to look back at her. "A gateway that opens once every thirty moons."

"Sparkly!" Pinkie Pie touched the mirror, creating fragile waves across the mirror.

Princess Luna merely returned an unamused and narrowed expression, which I would have done the same. She continued to explain as she used her magic to slowly drag Pinkie backwards with her hoof.

"It has always been kept in the throne room of Canterlot Castle. But when Princess Cadence took over the Crystal Empire, we sent it here for her to watch over." She continued.

"I had always hoped that Sunset Shimmer would someday use it to return." Princess Celestia added. "To come back to Equestria seeking my guidance. Obviously, this is not what has happened."

"Twilight, you must use the mirror to go into this other world and retrieve your crown." Miss Cadence added in light desperation. "Without it, the other elements of harmony have no power and Equestria is left without one of its most important means of defense."

"Your crown does not belong in the place Sunset Shimmer now calls home." My mother included importantly. "And in her possession your element of harmony will no doubt be used to bring harm to the inhabitants of this other realm. They will not have the power to defend themselves."

I narrowed my eyes determination. "I'm going in with her too. Her scum 'accomplice' took my crown and I'm getting that back as well!"

Princess Luna's eyes widened. "What? Alex… your crown holds no threat. Your element is within you…" She placed a hoof on my chest. "Nopony can take that away from you… You do not need to go."

I closed my eyes and placed my hoof on her hoof. I shook my head to politely disagree with her. "The crown you gave me is very important to me, mom… It was the day we finally…you know…officially bonded together as a family… If it weren't for this glorious memory…the crown would just be a crown to me…but you gave me this crown, mom. You placed it on my head and declared me a prince AND your son. Even then, I'm not leaving Twilight by herself… We've always gone through rough patches together and I'm not going to let this one slip by… I'm going in…"

My mother's eyes glimmered, shaking lightly as her eyes darted a small distance on me. "Alex…"

I sent her an assuring small smile. "I'll be okay."

She released a sigh through her nose and closed her eyes, holding her head down in thought. Then, she raised it and looked towards me. "…be safe…" She turned her head to Princess Celestia, who nodded her head in agreement.

"You both understand the importance of your task, then?" She asked us after she had placed a saddlebag on Twilight.

"Of course." Twilight answered as I nodded my head.

"Good. Then you must go at once."

Twilight inhaled a deep breath and sighed.

I placed a gentle hoof on her and managed to send her another small smile.

She nodded, and we both began walking towards the mirror.

However, Rainbow suddenly surprised us by landing in front of us in a flash.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. She's going? We're going with her!" She directed towards the others. "Right girls?"

Pinkie squealed. "Oooh! I'm so nervicited!"

"You do realize that's not a real word, right?" Applejack asked with a serious expression.

Twilight and I released more relieved smiles, eager to have their company with us, but Princess Celestia declined that offer. "I'm afraid I can't let you go."

"What?!" Rainbow exclaimed. "Why not?" She demanded.

"Sending all of you could upset the balance of this alternate world." Princess Celestia explained. "Creating havoc that would make it impossible for Twilight and Alex to get both their crowns back from Sunset Shimmer. This is something Princess Twilight and Prince Alex must do by themselves."

"Time is of the essence." My mother warned us. "On the third day," She presented a vision above her with her magic. "…when the moon reaches its peak in the night sky, the gateway will close, and once it does, it will be another thirty moons before you will be able to use it to return." Luna slightly looked back and then used her magic to pull out something. It was a bag. It wasn't exactly a saddlebag, as it only had one strap, but more of a messenger bag. "Here…" She called to me, placing the strap over my head to use my right shoulder for support while the bag hung on the left side of my body. "I had made it for you… I might as well give it to you now… A sort of…gift…to wish you good luck, as well as something that might help you on your journey…"

I was slightly surprised. I looked at it, noticing the emblem of a wolf, my cutie mark, hanging in the middle where the bag opened. It was shiny silver while the rest of the bag was black. I smiled tenderly, feeling a bit touched with Luna's gift. I threw my forelegs around her and held her tight. "Thank you…mom…"

She returned this embrace, but we eventually had to pull away. After assuring my safety through facial expressions, I turned back to Twilight. "Okay… Let's do this." As we both began walking towards the mirror, the girls gave us confident words of encouragement. I could tell that they knew we would be alright, and that they would be waiting for us when we'd be back. Twilight dipped the tip of her hoof into the mirror, but immediately retracted it when she saw the immense glow that emerged. Twilight looked at me in worriment. "We better hold hooves so we don't get separated somehow…" Twilight nodded and grabbed my hoof, almost holding it tightly as if she was scared. "Okay…we'll go on three…" I inhaled and released a deep exhale. "One…two…three!"

Still holding each other's hoof, we quickly stepped into the mirror, letting whatever take us to this "other side". We were immediately sucked into this whirling vortex. Twilight released a small cry of surprise as we were taken for a wild ride, heading to who knows where. However, I held her hoof tightly, making sure we wouldn't be separated.

---

My eyes were closed. I didn't know what happened. However, I heard Twilight groan. I felt some weight on top of me, so I assumed Twilight had landed on me after our rough ride. But something was different… just the way I felt… Like…especially Twilight. Her form just felt different. I just couldn't explain why.

"Ugh…Alex…are you oka—" She cut off her question as I began opening my eyes from a daze. "What the?! What happened to you?!"

"What…?" I fully opened my eyes, removing the blur and seeing Twilight clearly, only it WASN'T exactly her! She looked like herself, but completely different at the same time! "What happened to me?!" I exclaimed, ready to turn the table around. "What happened to YOU?!"

"What do you mea—" She was cut off once again when she raised these…two things where her hooves were supposed to be. She stared at them in shock for a moment. Suddenly, she screamed out loud. I quickly picked up my hoof and placed it on her mouth to stop her screaming, but then I noticed that I didn't have hooves anymore. I had…what she had! I removed the bottom part of my body from under her in order to sit more correctly and study what happened to me in shock.

She noticed this as well and grabbed the part that replaced my hoof. She picked up hers as well and then placed mine on hers. She observed it in a surprised manner, later gasping. She used hers to mess with mine, flexing whatever I had on my former hooves. She picked up both of hers and started panicking, completely not knowing what to do as she waved them around as if she wanted them gone at that moment.

Soon enough, she began hyperventilating. "Wha-What's going on?! I don't know what to do! I don't know what's going on!"

I placed my hooves…or whatever I had on her shoulders and looked at her straight in the eyes. "Twilight, calm down! Just take a deep breath! I know this is weird but you need to relax!"

"Yeah, Twilight, you totally need to calm down." We heard another familiar voice nearby, causing us to slowly look to our left.

What we saw shocked us both even more.

It was Spike, only…he wasn't a dragon anymore.

We stared at him as him only eyed each of us questioningly. "What?"

"Spike…you're…you're a dog!" I exclaimed in surprise.

"Huh?" He turned around; attempting to analyze himself, but most obviously noticed his tail. "I…I am! What?!"

Twilight managed to inhale a deep breath and slowly exhale, calming herself down and clearing her mind…for a moment. "Spike…what does the rest of us look like?"

"Well…" Spike observed us. "I mean…you guys look like you…only…not you… Both of your muzzles are really small!"

"Our muzzles?!" Twilight cried out and we both looked at each other. Then, we poked each of our muzzles, which were in fact absolutely small!

Twilight began to panic greatly again. She then released a high pitch squeal, as if she was about to yell out again, initiating me to place my…uh…former hoof to her mouth.

"Are you gonna scream again?" Spike asked. Twilight shook her head, allowing me to remove my former hoof. Afterwards, we looked around, noticing the completely different atmosphere and surroundings we were in. "Where are we?"

"I don't know." Twilight responded worriedly, moving towards where we were thrown out. "But that must serve as the gateway back to Equestria." She placed her former hoof through it, revealing her actual hoof through it. It was as if that magical barrier changed us! "We need to find our crowns as soon as possible and get back there." Twilight advised with a now determined look and turned around to face the building behind us. "I suggest we start searching the castle first."

"Works for me." Spike agreed and climbed abroad her back.

Twilight positioned herself to gallop, but I looked at my body and found it quite weird and difficult to do with such a form. "Uh…how exactly do we gallop like this?" I asked as I continued observing myself. However, Twilight already had run off ahead, looking quite…odd.

They came to a stop when another…uh…guy was walking his dog past them. He looked at them oddly.

"Yeah," Spike muttered to Twilight. "…I don't think that's how the new you is supposed to..."

Twilight quickly jumped up and dusted off what appeared to be her skirt.

"Huh…" I looked at the ground and noticed my legs. I flimsy tried to position them straight on the ground. I used my former hooves to help push me up, nothing too far from being a pony. However, I had some trouble adjusting when I was only on my legs. I tried walking to them, doing this as the other guy continued looking at Twilight strangely. Afterwards, he made a signal to his dog and continued moving on. I managed to reach Twilight, who was having trouble with her own legs as well. She appeared as if she was about to fall, so I quickly grabbed her former hoof with mine. Feeling unbalanced, she wrapped her former front legs around my body, holding me for support. "Huh… Just like Pinkie walks sometimes…" I mentioned.

"Come on." Twilight announced and placed her former hooves on my shoulders to push herself up straight. She began wobbling towards the building, but stopped at a nearby railing, holding that to keep herself up. I tried to stay behind her. "Let's hurry up and find our crowns! I do not wanna be like this for longer than I have to." She pulled herself up the steps using the railing. I tried walking without it, but had to keep my eyes on my…uh…where my back hooves were supposed to be.

"Look on the bright side." Spike commented towards Twilight. "You don't have those pesky wings to worry about anymore!"

Twilight returned a narrowed annoyed look, causing Spike to think twice about what he said.

Once I was up the steps with Twilight, she closed her eyes and moved her head around towards the door. Instead, she slammed it face-first.

"Whoa!" I grabbed her and pulled her slightly away from the door, turning her to face me. "Are you alright?!" I analyzed her face for any injuries.

"Yeah…yeah…" She rubbed her head. "Hold on." She turned her head back towards the door and began focusing on it, as if she was trying to activate her magic on it. Suddenly, she gasped. "My magic!" She faced me. "It isn't working!"

"Makes sense." Spike answered looking at the both of us. "You two don't exactly have your horns."

"WHAT?" Twilight exclaimed, looking above her head and pulling her hair straight down.

"We really need to find you a mirror…" Spike returned.

I flapped my former hoof, which was actually more flexible, on top of my head. "So what…? We're pretty much like earth ponies?" I inquired.

"Yeah…without the pony…" Spike responded and opened the door to the building.

"Well…I guess it isn't much of a big change for me since I did live most of my life as an earth pony…" I mentioned as we looked and then walked inside.

I began observing around in this, weird looking "castle", but something suddenly caught Twilight's attention causing her to run towards it. I followed her, noticing a display case with shiny artifacts inside. "What do you think, Alex?" She asked me, eyeing the objects closely. "Are these artifacts she's stolen from Equestria?"

"I don't know… I don't see any crowns here…" I returned.

Twilight continued eyeing around until she saw our reflections, which deeply surprised me as well. "What are we…?"

I looked at my mirrored reflection. Where did this all come from…? A black hoodie? Pants? Shoes? A sling backpack? A watch? Wristband? What?!

Unexpectedly, the hallway echoed with a loud ring of a bell, bringing in a swarm of other forms like us. I raised my former front leg and placed it in front of Twilight's chest, pushing and holding her towards the wall so we wouldn't be caught in whatever stampede-looking event that was going on.

The crowd eventually died down a little and instead of moving dangers, they all just stood still and talked to each other at one place. Twilight and I could only observe this with slightly widened eyes.

"I don't think this is a castle…" Spike offered.

"Wherever we are…we need to learn what are…and fast…" I suggested.

"And I know just the thing!" Twilight exclaimed.

"What?" I questioned.

"Research!"

"Research?"

"You know, studying?"

"Do we really have time for that?"

"Not book studying! I mean, yeah it would help, but we can just watch what others here do and learn from them!"

"…of course…"

"Come on…" Twilight grabbed my former hoof and held onto it. "Let's see what we can learn. This place is already freaking me out enough…"

I silently agreed with her and began walking. Spike trailed behind us as he participated in our observance towards others. Through our walk, Twilight and I continued to spot these…odd looking individuals. They were laughing with others or doing their own thing. Lockers seemed to fill the sides of the hallways. I noticed Twilight having trouble taking all this is, presenting a really uneasy expression. I was really surprised by these new surroundings, though I fortunately wasn't as worried as Twilight. Sure, I was in a completely new place I've never been before, but if I was alone, I most likely would have been desperately freaking out inside. Right now, I'm just glad that Twilight and Spike are with me.

Suddenly, my former hoof jerked forward. I looked front to see Twilight losing her balance and about to trip until I quickly placed my other hoof on her to support her. She faced me for what I did and smiled lightly as she nodded. She looked at her own former hooves and was able to contract them, appearing to feel confident, which allowed me to smile in content as well.

We hid around corners, not trying to attract much attention, and observed individuals in a group. In one group, there was someone playing with a sack or ball of some sort. In another, there was one lecturing from a book to two others, a bit dramatically. And then, there was another couple connecting their former hooves just like we were. Strange… We came across a room and looked inside a window. We noticed a female scribbling on a chalkboard, which held equations and formulas. That really looks familiar…

When we turned around, Twilight took the opportunity to observe the clothes she was wearing, presenting a sort of confused look on her face after noticing everyone else wearing clothes of the sort as well.

We continued our journey through the extraordinary hallways, where the population seemed to grow less dense as time passed. Catching us off guard, a girl on a scooter almost bumped into us. She stopped before she could hit us, merely moved around in a second, and continued forward, looking back at us with a curious expression. Is it just me…or did that girl look extremely like Scootaloo back home?

To an even greater surprise, two more familiar girls ran past us, seeming to chase the girl on the scooter. Those other two looked exactly like Sweetie Belle and Applebloom as well! I believe Twilight noticed this when she shared a look with Spike.

"I wonder what's in this room." Twilight commented, leading me to a different looking door than any other the ones here. She merely had to push it open. As soon as we walked in, the type of room seemed recognizable.

"Looks like a bathroom…" I answered as I looked around, especially noticing the stalls and sinks.

Twilight noticed a much clearer mirror, taking me to see our reflections on it with much more detail. However, before we could analyze ourselves thoroughly, one of the stall doors opened. Twilight and I immediately looked to who it was and found out that it was a male. He instantly freaked out and closed the stall door. Twilight strongly pulled on my former hoof and took me out of there as soon as possible.

Afterwards, with Spike tugging Twilight in fright, we both only stood to the side in front of some lockers. Seeing Twilight from the peripheral view, she appeared to be silently frightened in the inside, holding my former hoof almost like a little girl wanting to go home. I sighed quietly and only continued staring out at the crowd that passed us.

When Twilight finally felt safe enough to continue walking through the hallways cautiously, she began speaking.

"Okay… I think I overheard someone talking about 'hands' or something…" She mentioned. "He was looking at these." She stopped, and pulled up our former hooves to our face. "So I guess where our hooves are supposed to be, these things are actually called 'hands'…"

"I…suppose so…" I answered, taking in the new word.

"I'm really sorry." We heard a promptly recognizable voice around the corner. Twilight placed a hand above her head, near her ear. However, she realized her ears were not the same as when we were ponies and found that her actual ears were much smaller. "I just found them, and I thought I should give them to her." Twilight, Spike, and I looked past the corner. "I didn't know you had dropped them."

There we saw two girls confronting a rather timid looking one.

"Well, I did! And I was about to get them before you swooped in and ruined everything!" The one with fiery-colored hair answered angrily. A strand of the timid girl's hair fell to her face, causing her to notice it and place it back behind her ear. …Fluttershy? "You shouldn't pick up things that don't belong to you."

"They... don't really belong to you, either…" She returned.

"Excuse me?!" The angry one immediately slammed her hands on the lockers and trapped her inside. I gasped.

"N-n-nothing..." She slowly slid down on the locker.

"That's what I thought. They're as good as mine and you know it."

Spike began to growl beneath me, and I was having just enough of whoever this bully girl was.

However, the other one next to her sighed. "Give it up. She's not going to help us anymore. She already made it worse and is only wasting our time."

The girl on the left, the one with a fierce attitude, shot a short glare towards her and then looked back at the timid one. "You really are pathetic. It's no wonder your best friends are all stray animals."

I growled. I wasn't sure if this girl was really Fluttershy, but whatever the case was, no girl should be treated in such a way. "Hey!" I revealed myself, catching both of their attention. I stormed towards them, pointing fiercely. "You have no right to talk to her like that!"

"Excuse me?" She turned around, facing me.

Her apparent friend turned around and shot a widened look once she noticed me.

"He said you have no right to be such a bully to her!" Twilight joined me by my side, bringing Spike along with her.

The fierce one stormed towards us as well, leaving behind the other one.

We looked at each other in a glare for a moment until she released a greatly familiar sly smirk. "How cute. You two must be new here. I can speak to anyone any way I want."

"Says who?" I asked, continuing to keep my aggressive attitude towards her.

The girl studied me angrily for a moment. It wasn't until her friend walked towards us and advised her. "Let's just go."

Continuing to glare at me a little while longer, she eventually turned around and walked away with her. "Seriously, I give you one little thing to do and you can't handle it?!" She asked the other girl as they walked.

"Hey, try holding two with your mouth! It was like being in a roller coaster!" The other answered, their dialogue trailing off.

"I can't believe you two did that!" The timid one exclaimed, holding her contracted hands to her face in surprise.

"We couldn't just stand there." Twilight answered.

"Well, it's just that nobody ever stands up to Sunset Shimmer!"

I widened my eyes. How didn't I see it before?!

"Sunset Shimmer?" Twilight asked, surprised of this answer as well. She looked back at where the two headed at.

"You've heard of her?" She questioned.

"Sort of..." Twilight returned hesitantly.

"I don't think I've seen you two around before. Did you just transfer to Canterlot High from another school?"

Twilight and I looked at each other with silent shock.

"Um... yes! Another...heh…school! My name's Twilight." Twilight introduced herself, even adding a motion of her hands and leg.

"Alex." I added briefly.

The girl looked shyly to the left…just like Fluttershy would do… "I'm... Fluttershy." She answered quietly, but I wasn't clearly sure from the low volume.

"Sorry, what was that?" Twilight asked, holding a hand next to her ear.

"It's Fluttershy!" She backed away, held her head low, and returned the same answer even quieter.

"…you mean…your name is…Fluttershy…?" I gently asked, moving a bit towards her.

She nodded nervously.

I gasped and quickly rushed over to her to hug her tightly. As soon as I did, her body tightened up and she released a high pitched "Eep!". I slightly pulled away and placed my hands on her compassionately, looking at her face. "Are you alright..?"

She couldn't answer. Her face turned red hot. It appeared that she was sweating as well. All she could return were quiet whimpering noises.

Twilight quickly came to my aid, pulling me away softly and apologizing as she chuckled nervously. "Sorry, he gets really touchy when it comes to the feelings of others."

Fluttershy didn't answer and only stared at the floor in embarrassment.

"What's going on, Twilight?" I whispered to her worriedly. "Why is it like she doesn't even remember us…?"

"The rest of the girls didn't come with us, remember? These must be their…alternate…lives or something…I don't know!" She responded.

I merely sighed and looked back at her.

Her eyes were trailing along the floor until her face beamed with happiness.

"Oh my goodness!" She ran over to Spike and kneeled down. "Who's this sweet little guy?"

"That's Spike! My, uh... dog!" Twilight safely pointed out.

"Oh, he's so cute!" She held his face and cheeks towards her. After, she released them and retrieved something from her bag. "Go on, eat up, little pup!" She held out a bone-shaped biscuit for him. Spike stepped forward and took a bite. He munched on it for a while until he showed some excitement and began eating the whole treat.

"Oh, wouldn't you just give anything to know what they're really thinking?" She asked in wonder.

"He usually just te—"

I placed my hand on Twilight's mouth, shaking my head.

"Huh?" Fluttershy looked back at us.

"Oh, uh nothing!" Twilight realized her mistake nervously. "Never mind." Fluttershy returned to gazing back at Spike. "Sunset Shimmer said you picked some things up. Some things that belonged to her. It wouldn't be a couple of crowns, would it?"

Fluttershy looked back in curiosity and stood up. "How did you know?"

"Uh, lucky guess? Do you still have them?" Twilight asked excitedly.

"Mm-mm." Fluttershy shook her head.

"But you know what happened to them."

"Mm-hmm. This morning, I was passing out flyers for the animal shelter like I do every Wednesday. I had suddenly felt two things hit my head. When I looked next to me, there were two crowns." She sat by Spike and petted him. "I have no idea how they got there. But I didn't want anything to happen to them, so I decided to give them to Principal Celestia."

"Principal Celestia?" Twilight inquired, noticing the change in Princess. "She's the ruler here?"

Fluttershy stood up. "You could say that…" She returned with her eyes looking back in thought. "Technically, I guess she and Vice Principal Luna do make the rules."

"Vice Principal Luna?!" I couldn't help but exclaim out loud.

"Where is she now?" Twilight included.

"Probably in her office." Fluttershy shrugged. Twilight immediately grabbed my hand and ran the opposite direction. However, she realized that we both didn't even know where it was, so she took me back to Fluttershy. "Third door on your left." She directed as Spike had come back from his own mix up.

"Thank you!" Twilight began running off again.

"Oh wait!" Fluttershy exclaimed, stopping Twilight and me. "You're not really supposed to have pets on school grounds." She pointed at Spike. "Might wanna tuck him into your backpack." She advised softly. "That's what I do!" She turned around, revealing her yellow backpack with her cutie mark on the back. A bunny, cat, and bird suddenly popped out from inside. They jumped out and cuddled with her, causing her to sit down and return a mutual feeling. "They just get so lonely when I'm in school all day."

"Oh, okay! Thank you!" Twilight expressed.

The apparent school bell rang, having Fluttershy exclaim in surprise. "Oh no! I'm late for class!" With one quick sweep of her backpack, she got her critters back inside and raced off.

Twilight and I turned around to find the door Celestia was apparently in.

I couldn't help but release a sad sigh.

"What's wrong?" Twilight asked.

"It's just…seeing Fluttershy, only to know that she actually doesn't know you here…"

Twilight softly smiled and embraced me from the side. "Don't worry. You'll see her soon enough."

She knocked on the door when we reached it. "Come in." We heard from inside. Twilight readied herself to a bow and walked in. However, Tia was reading through what appeared to be a folder in front of her face and wasn't paying much attention. "How may I help you?"

Twilight raised herself and looked at me questionably. Nonetheless, she placed the bag with Spike in on the ground. "Um, uh... Whew." She seemed to have trouble introducing herself. Tia lowered the folder and seemed to stare at us with an uninterested look on her face. "My name's Twilight Sparkle. This is Alex." She presented me. "We're new here, and well, I understand that Fluttershy found a couple of crowns this morning and gave them to you."

"Yes." She closed the folder and stood up. "I've had Vice Principal Luna put them somewhere for safekeeping." She walked over to a cabinet and placed the folder inside. "No idea how they ended up in the front lawn." She closed it. "Were you two interested in running for Prince and Princess of the Fall Formal this year?"

My eyebrow raised in a curious way. "Uh, no. Not exactly. The truth is..." Twilight tried to think a way to explain herself. "…well, the truth is I... you see, the crown is actually..." She stopped and brought back Tia's question. "Prince and Princess of the Fall Formal?"

"It's Canterlot High's big fall dance." Tia answered, marking her calendar.

"Like the Grand Galloping Gala!" Twilight brought up.

"Uh, Grand Galloping Gala?" Tia asked slowly, clearing revealing that she had no idea what it was.

"Oh, it was a…" Twilight and I heard Spike pop his head out of the backpack, having her quickly tuck it back in. "…big deal at our old school."

"And was there a prince and princess?" Tia returned to her calendar.

I rolled my eyes irritably at the thought of it.

"Yes, but they weren't exactly students."

As Tia began explaining what exactly this…dance was, I noticed a row of picture frames with Sunset Shimmer holding the crown of the dance on her head. The first one was her innocently surprised. The second, she appeared to know that she was already going to win. And the last one…well…let's just say she looked to be mad with power… "Here at Canterlot High, the students select two of their peers, a male and a female, to represent them. They receive a crown at the Fall Formal."

"You asked us if we were interested in running for Prince and Princess..." Twilight mentioned, walking out the door as I followed her. "Can anyone run?"

"Yes, you just need to let the head of the fall formal planning committee know you'd like to be on the ballot." Tia answered, placing a hand on her door, ready to close it. "Was there anything else?"

"Um, nope! That was it!"

"Thanks for the information, Tia." I expressed, causing Twilight to widen her eyes. I did the same once I realized what I just said.

"…what was that?" She asked from the doorway.

"Um…nothing Principal Celestia! Thank you!" I quickly corrected.

She continued staring at me for a moment.

"…well, if you do need anything else, my door is always open." Ironically, she immediately slammed it shut afterwards.

Twilight and I walked out of there and back into the hallway.

"You have to be careful, Alex…" Twilight warned softly towards me. "You can't keep bringing up things from Equestria…"

I sighed and stared at the ground. "I know…"

Nevertheless, Twilight smiled and grabbed my hand, holding on to it.

"Twilight, why didn't you guys just tell her the crowns are yours and ask for them back?" Spike asked, poking his head out of her backpack.

"I was going to, but imagine if one of them showed up in Equestria saying they came from a place filled with tall bushy two-legged creatures with these?" She wagged her foreign body parts around, emphasizing her point. "We'd think they were crazy!"

We noticed another guy staring at us from afar. He quickly looked back and slowly backed away.

"Hmm. You make a good point." Spike commented.

"Looks like if we want our crowns back, we'll have to become Prince and Princess of the Canterlot High Fall Formal. So that's what we're gonna do!" She stretched out her body and took my hand high towards the air.

"And how exactly do you plan on doing that?" Spike rained down on her confidence.

Keeping the huge grin on her face, she shook her head. "I have no idea!"

The school bell rang out loud, beginning the stampede of students in the hall. Twilight flinched, covering her head with her hands, but I quickly pulled her away and to the side of the wall with me, allowing the students flow normally.

Twilight released a breath of relief. "Thanks, Alex…"

"We have to stick together, don't we?" I asked, bringing her to a short smile.

However, she seemed to notice something past me. "Hey, look! There's Fluttershy!" She pointed to her, who was tugging and keeping her backpack closely. She seemed to try to keep attention away from her in the crowd as well. "If there's anyone that can help us start off at getting our crowns back, it's her. Come on." She lightly tugged me to follow her. We attempted to cautiously maneuver in the crowd, as the most of them seemed to be heading in the same direction. "Hey, Fluttershy!" Twilight greeted, slightly startling her.

"Oh! Hey, Twilight…" She returned.

"Where are you headed off to?"

"To the cafeteria."

"Cafeteria?"

"Yes…you know…for lunch…"

We walked by Fluttershy's side, eventually leading us to this huge room with tables spread out everywhere. There were already students with plates of food in front of them as they sat and talked with one another. I heard Twilight's stomach rumble. "Oh, good! I could really use something to eat!" Fluttershy led us to a line, where students seemed to be getting their food. "All this walking and running around has made me kind of hungry." Fluttershy grabbed a big blue tray and placed it on the counter. As she looked among the variety of food in front of her, Twilight and I followed what she did. "Listen…I know we've just met, but I was wondering if you might be able to help us with something.

Not exactly knowing what to get, I just grabbed whatever Twilight and Fluttershy grabbed.

"Of course!" Fluttershy responded positively.

Twilight and Fluttershy both grabbed a bowl of fruit and salad. Twilight held the bowl in her hand. "We've decided to run for Prince and Princess of the Fall Formal and—"

Before Twilight could finish, Fluttershy released a fearful gasp, accidentally spilling her own bowl on Twilight's clothes. "Oh, gosh!" She quickly looked around and grabbed some napkins nearby. "Sorry!" She hurriedly attempted to clean them. "It's just, oh, running for Fall Formal Princess is a REALLY bad idea." Fluttershy finished wiping and gently threw the napkins away.

"Why?" Twilight questioned.

"Sunset Shimmer wants to be Fall Formal Princess, and when she wants something, she gets it!" She emphasized by pointing and spoke in a loud hushed tone. "She'll make life awful for anyone that stands in her way." Fluttershy held out her tray to a really familiar lady at the end, who placed an apple on her tray, then eventually on Twilight's and mine. "Just ask the girl that ran against her for Princess of the Spring Fling."

As Twilight and Fluttershy continued conversing, I walked by their side and couldn't help but look back at the girls who looked exactly like the Cutie Mark Crusaders back home. I felt a little homesick, but I couldn't let that distract me.

"We have to try!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Oh, I don't think you understand. You'd have to convince everyone here to vote for you instead of her: the athletes, the fashionistas, the dramas, the eco kids, the techies, the rockers." She directed to every one of those groups, doing their own group representing thing at each table.

"Why is everypony..." At that word, Spike came out of her backpack and smacked her on the head, retreating back inside. "…uhh, everybody, separated this way?" She corrected after Fluttershy eyed her confusingly.

"Maybe it was different at your old school, but at C.H.S., everybody sticks to their own kind." Fluttershy took a seat by the table next to her. I wanted to sit right by her, close enough where I could actually touch her, but then I remembered that she wasn't the Fluttershy that knew me like back home, so I sadly followed Twilight and sat next to her instead. "One thing that they do have in common, is that they know Sunset Shimmer is going to rule the school until we graduate." Fluttershy messed with her spoon in the salad and then, using her hands, picked it up and placed the fruit in her mouth. I decided to follow this same manner.

"Not if I can help it!" Twilight reported confidently and then forced her head towards the apple, biting it and picking it up with her teeth. Fluttershy noticed Twilight not using her hands, and backed her head away from the bowl, confused at her action. Twilight looked at her, then at me, and then back at her, noticing her error. She used her hands to hold the apple instead. "So, ah…" She giggled nervously. "Where would I find the head of the party planning committee?"

"You can usually find her in the gym… Ever since the announcement of the Fall Formal, she's been spending as much free time as she has preparing the gym."

"Well, sounds pretty straightforward." Twilight turned to me. "Looks like that's where we're headed next. Oh!" She suddenly remembered something and looked at Fluttershy. "You said that Sunset Shimmer is always winning the Princess part of the Fall Formal right?"

"Yes?" Fluttershy replied.

"What about the Prince? Who wins that?"

"Well…it used to be someone she had dated but…it's a long story…"

"Huh…" Twilight thought for a moment.

"Fluttershy…" I began talking to her, actually almost feeling nervous as if I had technically never met her before, which was somewhat true. "I don't suppose you know who that girl was next to Sunset Shimmers when she was asking you about the crowns, do you?"

Fluttershy's eyes turned to the bowl of her fruit once she began speaking. "No…not really…" Her eyes reached mine, but then quickly retreated back to the bowl. "Sorry…"

"Oh…" I sunk a little back in my chair.

There was a moment of silence before Fluttershy decided to speak up again. "So…um…you two said you were going to run for the Prince and Princess of the Fall Formal, right?"

"Yeah." Twilight returned.

"So…uh…um…" Fluttershy seemed a little hesitant about what she wanted to say. "You're…um…dating or something…?"

This caused Twilight and I to reveal widened eyes in surprised, sharing a look with each other.

"Uh…" Twilight was speechless.

"I have seen you both holding hands…" Fluttershy mentioned quietly.

We couldn't say anything. That's when Twilight nervously decided to give us a break. "Um, can you excuse us for just one teeny tiny second?"

"Sure…" Fluttershy returned as Twilight quickly grabbed my hand led me to somewhere more…well…not exactly private, but away from Fluttershy.

"What? What's wrong?" I asked Twilight as we stood in the corner of the room.

"Yeah." Spike added, popping out of her bag. "You guys aren't dating, are you?"

"Well, no." Twilight replied. "But…um…I think we're going to have to pretend that we are…"

"Huh?" Both Spike and I questioned, a bit surprised.

"The Fall Formal. It's a dance right?" Twilight asked, gaining both a nod from Spike and me. "Well, Fluttershy said that the Prince used to go to someone Sunset Shimmer dated while she was a Princess. Now, I don't know how exactly it works, but I think it'd be best if we have everyone else here think that we are together. Otherwise, it'd make this job even more complicated! Better everyone here recognizes us as one, instead of two separate runners. Do you understand?"

"I…I guess…"

"Don't worry." Twilight assured. "You don't need do anything drastic, just um…" She looked at her hand and shrugged. "Hold my hand a lot, I guess?" She held it out towards me.

I stared it for a moment and then sighed lightly and a bit sadly. "Okay…" I grabbed it and held it.

Spike sighed as well. "Whatever you two say…" He then retreated back inside her backpack.

Twilight and I began walking back to the table. As we did, I couldn't help but feel a little uneasy about the situation. Of course, I wasn't uneasy because I felt uncomfortable about "pretending" to be Twilight's boyfriend. It's not that at all. It was just…the "pretending" reminded me of Fluttershy back home, inducing more homesickness into me. But hey…as soon as we get this done, the faster we can get back home.

"We're back! Sorry about that." Twilight told Fluttershy as we sat back down together. "To answer your question, we are dating, that's why we're both running for Prince and Princess of the Fall Formal." Twilight looked over to me. "Right?"

I tried to form a small grin. "Heh…right…"

"Oh…well…that's nice, I guess…" The volume of Fluttershy's words slowly decreased throughout the sentence. "Um…I should probably get going… I'm sure my animal friends are going to be a little hungry, so I might as well sneak some food for them…" She stood up and faced us, still presenting a slight shyness. "Good luck…B-bye…" Afterwards, she walked off.

Twilight and I finished up whatever we could, and started off for the gymnasium.

---

The gym wasn't too far or hard to find. There was an obvious placard type of sign by the huge double doors that stood out from any other door.

Twilight and I looked at each other. "Looks like this is it…" I said.

I opened the door and allowed Twilight to walk in first, following after her. We looked around and noticed balloons, streamers, and many more party decorations around. In the middle of our investigation, we heard a loud joyful cry scream out.

"Incoming!"

Immediately after, we were pummeled by a rain of streamers. However, we merely shook any on us off and walked over to the person responsible. As we reached her, she pulled out a balloon, inhaled deeply, and blew air into the balloon, inflating it.

"Hi, my name's Twilight Sparkle and..." The girl in front of us turned around, causing the both of us to duck to avoid the extremely long balloon. "Pinkie Pie?" Twilight asked after we both had a good look of her face. It did make sense now…

Pinkie removed her lips from the balloon in shock, allowing it to deflate completely in front of her.

"Huh, are you psychic?" Pinkie demanded pulling on Twilight's collar and eyeing her directly.

"Uh, no. I don't think so, unless of course that's something you can do here." Twilight responded, leaving Pinkie to let her go.

I caught her before she fell to the ground, pushing her back up.

"Eh, not usually." Pinkie Pie shrugged and walked away to continue on with her work.

"Fluttershy said this is where we'd find the head of the Fall Formal planning committee." Twilight mentioned.

"Fluttershy, huh?" Pinkie tied the end of the balloon and released it. "Don't let the whole 'shy' thing fool you, she can be a real meanie."

"Meanie?" I questioned, unable to believe such a thing.

"You two aren't friends?" Twilight inquired about, confused about the situation as well.

"Weird a bit to get your name on the ballot, huh?" Pinkie returned, not exactly answering our questions. "Dance is the day after tomorrow."

"We're brand new here."

"Oooh!" Pinkie squealed in delight. "I thought you two didn't look familiar." However, she faced her attention more on Twilight. Then, she began analyzing her more thoroughly, moving her body around. "Though, now that I'm really lookin' at you, do you have a twin sister who lives in the city, has a pet dog named Spike that looks just like that one?" She asked, pointing at Spike who was too busy messing with a balloon.

"Uh…" Twilight wondered, not exactly knowing what to say. "Maybe?" She shrugged.

"Thought so. Anywho," Pinkie pulled out a clipboard from her hair and presented it to Twilight. "Just need to fill this out and you are officially up for the coveted Princess of the Fall Formal crown." She also searched through her hair and pulled something else out: a pen.

"Great." Twilight responded. "Alex here will be running for the Prince position."

"Ahh!" Pinkie reacted. "You're lucky that no other guy wants to be an inch near Sunset Shimmers, so you have a good chance!" She patted my head.

"Hah…thanks." I expressed.

Pinkie Pie returned her attention to Twilight. Twilight remained still, looking at Pinkie with a smile. Pinkie returned the same expression and blinked her eyes. When Twilight realized Pinkie was waiting for her to sign, she frowned and then pulled out a nervous grin. She opened her mouth and grabbed the pen with her teeth instead, seeing how she usually uses her magic for doing such a task. Pinkie didn't seem to mind much. She only continued smiling, blinking twice. Twilight must had remembered the "hands" thing as she pulled up her hand and grabbed the pen with it instead. She seemed to make a fist and write on the paper with a completely still and inflexible motion. Afterwards, Pinkie presented the clipboard in front of me.

Twilight passed the pen over to me, but instead of making a fist, I used only two of those five uh…what were they…fingers I think…to hold the pen.

"Go ahead and sign on the next page." Pinkie mentioned.

Using my left hand, I flipped the front page up and noticed an empty paper beneath. I attempted my best sign my name, but I couldn't help but feel the scribbling unsteady. Nonetheless, since my name was pretty short, I finished in a few seconds. I released the grip of the front page and allowed it to fall on top of the page with my name. I noticed Twilight's huge scribble of her name and widened my eyes.

Pinkie Pie turned the clipboard around and widened her eyes upon seeing it as well. "Wow!" She exclaimed flipping the page to see my signature as well. "No offense, but you two have really bad handwriting. It's like you've never held a pen before."

Twilight laughed nervously. "Is it?"

"Somebody order a dozen cases of fizzy apple cider?" A figured appeared by the open door, holding not only a recognizable voice, but a huge case of "fizzy apple cider".

"Oh oh! Me, me, me, me, me, yeah, ha ha, me!" Pinkie skipped over to person that dropped the case on the table.

She lifted up her cowboy hat and wiped her forehead.

Twilight opened her mouth in surprised as I whispered under my breath. "…Applejack?"

"Can you bring in the rest?" She asked someone outside the door.

"Eeyup." He answered, revealing himself before he even came in with his usual saying.

Applejack carried one of the cases Big Macintosh was carrying and moved it over to the table. However, she stopped to notice Twilight and me. "Hey, I know you two."

"You do?" Twilight and I asked simultaneously.

"Sure, you're the new students who gave Sunset Shimmer the what for today." She swung the bottle of cider to her lips and pulled the cap off with her teeth. She spat out the cap and gulped the cider.

"Twilight Sparkle and Alex here are going to run against Sunset Shimmer for the Prince and Princess of the Fall Formal!" Pinkie Pie mentioned, holding another balloon in her hand.

Applejack immediately spat out her cider as Pinkie inflated a heart-shaped balloon. Applejack faced the two of us, wiping her mouth. "I'd think twice about that! I'm sure she'll approach you all friendly like..." Applejack stopped, noticing Pinkie float in the air with the balloon she just filled, and pulled her down. She grabbed the heart-shaped balloon and began scribbling on it while Pinkie inflated another one. She held it up for us to see that it was Sunset Shimmer drawn on it. "I sure am looking forward to some friendly competition!" She faked her voice as Sunset Shimmer and then moved on to the other balloon that Pinkie had, which drawn Twilight was on. "That's so good to hear." Applejack returned to her usual voice and turned Sunset Shimmer's balloon around, revealing a needle behind. "But then, here comes the backstabbing." She poked the needle in Twilight's balloon, popping it. She turned towards me. "And for you, trust me, you wouldn't want to be near Sunset Shimmer if she wins Princess of the Fall Formal." I didn't really say anything from that. Just from her interaction with Fluttershy, I didn't need any evidence to know that was the truth. Applejack released her grip on the heart-shaped balloon, allowing Pinkie to jump and catch the end with her teeth. "However, about the only girl in this school you can trust less than Sunset Shimmer is Rainbow Dash."

"Rainbow Dash?" Twilight and I both questioned simultaneously once again.

"She's the captain of, like, every team at Canterlot High!" Pinkie surprised us when she passed by us, bouncing on a huge yellow balloon but eventually popping it.

"She's also the captain saying of how she's going to do something for ya and turning around and not even bothering to show up."

Twilight and I shared a look with each other.

"Sounds like Rainbow Dash…" I muttered, shrugging.

Twilight looked at Applejack and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Thanks for the advice Applejack, but this is something we really need to do."

"Huh, suit yourself." Applejack rolled her eyes back, not intervening. "Hey, how do you know my name is Applejack?" She scratched her chin and looked curiously at Twilight, who was caught off-guard.

"Um, I uh..." Twilight nervously laughed.

I decided to step in, thinking of something that could possibly work. "We heard someone named Applejack was the most helpful and dependable person in the hallways. Seeing you bring in cases of cider for the Fall Formal, we figured it was you."

"Heh." Applejack chuckled a bit embarrassingly as she rubbed her head. "I wouldn't be so sure to say that…"

I smiled at Applejack's shining modesty.

"Well, it sure was nice meeting you both!" Twilight shook Applejack's hand and waved over to Pinkie. She grabbed my hand and began slowly leading me out. "I'm sure I'll be seeing you around!" Once we were out into the partially empty hallway, Twilight released a breath of relief. "Phew. That was close. Thanks."

I returned a shrug.

Spike poked his head out of Twilight's backpack. "So…what are you gonna do now?"

"Hm…" Twilight thought. "I don't really know… Rainbow Dash would probably be the next pony to find…but…I really wouldn't know where to look for her…"

I sighed. "Yeah…I mean…we still feel pretty lost here…" I tapped my head, closing my eyes on thought. "Our main mission is to get our crowns back in three days, including today. To get our crowns back, we have to become Prince and Princess of the Fall Formal. And we can't easily ask for them back, even if we explain why because everyone here will think we're crazy. So…to become Prince and Princess of the Fall Formal we have to get everyone's, or at least the majority of the vote. Now to do that…well…" I shrugged. "We have to probably be nice and get everyone to like us here but…how exactly do we do that…?" I looked back and sighed.

Twilight placed a hand on my shoulder. "We'll think of something." She looked around her. "Let's have a look around and see what we can come across."

"Okay…" I returned, still feeling a little worried.

We roamed the hallways; passing by students that seemed to be spending their lunch time hanging around in the area, as the bell hadn't rang yet. When we reached a fork in the hallway, needing to have us turn either left or right, we must importantly noticed a darkened hallway to the left, which wasn't exactly safe-looking either. The light on the ceiling flickered and an open locker creaked open by itself.

"Can't believe I didn't recognize you earlier." We heard roughly, as if someone was holding in anger through clenched teeth. We turned to see Sunset Shimmer walking towards us. "Should've known Princess Celestia would send her prized pupil and apparent nephew here after my crowns, as well as her little dog, too." She ended, looking at Spike.

"Your crowns?!" I questioned aggressively. "You don't even deserve to look at them!"

"Hmph." Sunset Shimmer continued her spoiled smirk. "Whatever." She flipped her hand carelessly. "This is just a minor setback for me. You two don't know the first thing about this place and I already rule it." She paced around us, clicking memories in my mind.

"You know…" I began, continuing to keep my eye on her. "You awfully remind me a lot of someone I know…"

"Let me guess." She returned. "Long shiny gray bang over her right eye? Light blue coat? A microphone for her cutie mark?"

I gasped, completely surprised by her knowledge of her description. "How do you know that conceited jerk?"

"'Conceited jerk'? Now that's not very nice…" We heard behind us. Sunset Shimmer's eyes turned slightly to the right.

Twilight and I looked back.

As I was able to observe her body fully, I was able to recognize who this was. She had that same long gray bang across her right eye, but this time, the back of her hair was in a ponytail. She seemed to wear a small leather jacket with a white T-shirt underneath. For her underclothing, there were short shorts, revealing most of her legs. Her shoes didn't really stand out like Sunset Shimmer.

"Starlight?!" I called, unable to immediately believe it was her.

She poured a smug look on her face and shrugged, closing her eyes and lifting her hands up in the air. "The one and only."

I remembered back when Sunset Shimmer stole Twilight's crown. She yelled out "Star"… It must have been her then… Starlight was her accomplice!

"It was you who helped Sunset Shimmer steal our crowns!?" I exclaimed.

She merely shrugged again. "Maybe. It's not like you deserved it anyway." She scoffed. "Why, if you were to be given such a high authority, you'd probably lead all of us to our doom. Think of it as saving everypony back in Equestria from absolute chaos."

"What are you talking about?" Twilight questioned. "I doubt you two went out of your way to save our 'ruling' over Equestria. You don't even know what the actual hay is going on!"

"Oh, but we do, Twilight Sparkle." She continued pacing around, stopped in silence for a moment, and then faced us rapidly. "Pop quiz: what happens when you bring an Element of Harmony into an alternate world?" Twilight was only given a second to think about it until Sunset Shimmer introduded again. "... You don't know? Seriously?" She laughed. I didn't know exactly what she meant. The only thing in my mind was that the elements wouldn't work back home. "And you're supposed to be Princess Celestia's star student? Then again, what were the chances she'd find somepony as bright as me to take under her wing after I decided to leave Equestria. Bit embarrassing that you were the best she could do."

I scoffed. "Pretty ironic to call yourself bright when you mistook my crown as an Element of Harmony."

"What are you talking about?" Sunset Shimmer eyed me with a raised eyebrow.

"I wouldn't really believe him, if I were you." Starlight added, glaring at me mockingly. "He tries to make himself sound important when he's really not."

I growled inside, but chose to ignore Starlight's comment.

"That crown isn't my actual element. It was given to me on my coronation day. It holds no use to you."

"Oh really?" Sunset Shimmer asked me skeptically. "Then why do you want it back so badly?"

"…" I look towards the floor. "My mother gave it to me…"

Starlight narrowed her eyes.

"Oh no." Sunset Shimmer returned in a mocking baby tone. "Poor boy lost his gift from mommy." She scoffed. "Even then, I'm sure you're just trying to buy your way into having me believe this isn't your actual element."

"It's the truth!" I stomped fiercely on the ground.

"Okay then. Prove it." Sunset Shimmer eyed me with a smirk. "Go on." My eyes drifted towards the floor with my angry frown. I didn't really know how to… I mean…unless I somehow create a flash of light within me…but even if I was able to, I wouldn't be sure if it was exactly a good idea… "Hah. I knew." Sunset Shimmer spoke after my moment of silence. "Nice try, but you're going to have to do much better than that."

Spike stretched himself out of Twilight's backpack and growled fiercely as he could.

"Oh, and I'd keep an eye on your mutt. Hate for him to be taken away from you." She warned in a hostile manner, recklessly staring at her nails.

"Is that a threat?" Spike curled his paw into a beckoning fist.

"Oh, of course not." Sunset Shimmer mocked, leading Spike to bark. "But I'd cut down on the chatter if I were you." She pushed Spike's snout backwards with her finger. "Don't want everyone to know you don't belong here, now would you?" She mentioned to us. "You two want to be a Prince and Princess here? Please." She began walking out from under the shaded hallway. "You don't know the first thing about fitting in."

As she continued walking off, Starlight stayed by, but only for a moment. Keeping that annoying smug look on her face, she stared at us for a moment. "Hmph." She shared and then walked off to follow Sunset Shimmer.

We were left in silence in the darkness.

I couldn't help but feel hurt, even though these were our enemies and we had no reason to be down. I placed myself roughly on a closed locker, hearing the bang sound from it, and then slid sadly towards the floor. Remembering that I was wearing a hoodie, I grabbed it and flung it across my head, covering it. After, I rested my hands on my angled knees and lowered my head, facing the floor. I actually even felt the need…well…the need to cry, unfortunately.

"Alex…" I heard Twilight's voice speak out to me empathetically.

I didn't answer.

I just…inhaled a heavy breath and exhaled it.

Steps sounded near me. I could hear Twilight sit near me. There was a moment silence until she lightly embraced me compassionately from the side.

"Come on…we're in this together… You're not alone…" She encouraged.

"I...I know…" I remained silent for another moment until I slowly raised my head and looked towards Twilight. "But…don't you feel so…lost?"

"Well…sure. But it's just for a while. We go through obstacles; we find a way through it, and then move on." She smiled, sharing a small chuckle. "That's something I sort of learned from you…"

"Hm…" I smiled lightly, not from happiness, but recognizing my failures. "It's funny, isn't it? Just a while ago, I was telling you that we're together and we'll make it through anything as long as we stay together. And yet here I am and you're the one who's telling me the same thing… Guess that makes me a hypocrite, huh? I try to give such advice to my friends when I can't even follow it…"

"You're not a hypocrite, Alex. You're a wonderful pony…" She stopped and thought back. "Um…wonderful person, and you can't be any more amazing than you already are. Just because you seem to have trouble following your own advice, it doesn't mean you're a hypocrite. Otherwise, you'd be perfect. No one is perfect. There are only traits that we personally find perfect. Just like…to me… I find you perfect…no matter what anyone else thinks..."

I was actually honestly really touched by Twilight's last statement. Seriously, it caused this good jump in heart. I turned to Twilight, my mouth slightly agape. And then, it softly turned into a smile. "Thanks…Twilight…"

Spike jumped out of her backpack and placed his paws on me excitedly. "Yeah! Come on! We have a lot of work to do if we want to show Sunset Shimmer what we're made of!"

"Hm…" I continued smiling, this time in hope and small happiness. "You're right."

He jumped back into Twilight's backpack in excitement, ready for our departure.

I stood up and held out a hand to help Twilight. She noticed and grinned, placing her hand on mine to accept it. I pulled her up. We both just looked at each other for a moment. And then, I couldn't help but just embrace her so compassionately. She giggled softly and returned it. After a while, we pulled away.

"Let's get going…" I told her, refilled with hope.

---

Twilight and I now wandered in the seemingly empty halls. At least the good thing was that it wasn't dark like that one hallway. However, we came across this…foreign object. It seemed like some kind of machine, although, nothing completely advanced like Twilight had in her home. She stopped in front of it, gazing at the snacks inside. She even licked her lips, expressing that she was hungry.

"Didn't you just eat a while ago?" I asked with a small grin.

"Yeah…but…all I really ate was the salad. It was hard to eat enough…"

"Hm…" I lightly rubbed my chin, analyzing the machine. "Well, I'm not exactly sure how you get something out of it…"

Twilight looked to the sides of the machine. "It looks like it could be opened." She grabbed hold onto the side and began pulling it. The machine only returned a creak of movement. For some odd reason, she tried pushing it. When that didn't work she planted her face on the glass covering, specifically eyeing the peanut butter snack inside. Afterwards, she pushed herself to the floor, supporting her body with her hands, and raised her left leg into the air, appearing as if she was going to buck it.

"Uh…"I slipped, not entirely sure of what to make of this.

However, someone else came by, wearing a dress, but a hoodie covering the top.

"Excuse me." She closed her eyes and walked towards the machine. Staring into the machine, she began twirling, if I recall, her fingers mystically. "The GREAT and POWERFUL TRIXIE..." She announced, adding that infamous roll to her name. "…needs some peanut butter crackers." She finished, kind of cutting off the mood from the first part of her sentence. She held what appeared to be a bit in her hand. She placed it inside a slot and pressed a few buttons. Finally, that snack Twilight was gazing at fell from its row and towards the bottom, allowing Trixie to stick her hand inside the slot below and retrieve her snack. "Voilà!" She presented it towards us. It was as if she KNEW that we had no idea how this machine worked…

"Hm." I expressed as I saw Trixie leave. "I guess she's still a little…you know… in this world."

Twilight smiled lightly. "I know we just had a meaningful talk, and I hate to admit it but… Sunset Shimmer is right. I don't know the first thing about this place. If we're gonna really fit in and win votes, we need to do some research."

"Research?" Spike questioned.

"This place has a school, I have to believe it's got a library." She shrugged.

"Hold on." I mentioned, remembering about my backpack, which was really the bag Luna gave me back in Equestria. I crouched down and pulled off my backpack, placing it in front of me. I noticed the shiny wolf emblem, which served as a sort of zipper on the front for a small pocket. I unzipped it and looked inside, noticing a handful of bits. I looked up at Twilight. "You still want that snack?"

Twilight looked back at the machine and chuckled. "Sure looks treaty…"

I grabbed a bit from the pocket, and zipped it back closed, flinging the backpack around my shoulder and standing back up. "If this machine takes bits…" I walked towards it with a bit ready. "Then…" I placed the bit into the same coin slot Trixie had. I still had to push the buttons, but I didn't really know exactly how that worked. However, I noticed a letter and a number on each row of the snacks. And then I looked at the buttons on the machine, representing a letter and number as well. Putting two and two together, I matched the letter and number with the buttons on the machine towards the ones under the snack. To my success, it was slowly being brought my direction. The clamp holding it up opened…but the snack did not come falling down. "Huh…?" I tried to analyze what was wrong, crouching down to see more of the top of the snack. For some reason, it seemed to have caught stuck on the clamp, so even when it was open, it wouldn't fall down. I narrowed my eyes. I stood up and lightly banged on the machine a bit. Nothing happened. I sighed and walked over to the side of the machine. I gained a little distance and then rushed towards it, hitting it with my shoulder. I looked at the inside as I rubbed my shoulder. It was still there. I walked back to the side and grabbed ahold of the top part of the machine. I attempted to rock it lightly, but not too much. After a moment, I stopped and observed the inside again. Still nothing.

"…wow…" I released, clearing feeling bummed out in an angry kind of way towards this machine.

"Don't worry! I've got this." Spike jumped out of Twilight's backpack and towards the machine. He hopped and slipped in through the hand slot underneath. Once he was inside, he spotted the hanging snack. He shook his rear in preparation and then hopped to grab hold onto the snack with his teeth. However, he soon found himself hanging along with the snack. He furrowed his eyebrows angrily and then began shaking his head, soon whole body to get that snack off. He growled as he fiercely attempted to accomplish his task. Nevertheless, soon enough, the snack popped open, but Spike was thrown against the glass of the machine, slowly sliding down until he reached bottom.

I reached my hand through the slot and pulled out both the snack and Spike.

"You okay…?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Yeah I'm fine." He chuckled a little victoriously. "Good thing I'm a dog, huh?"

I smiled, handing Twilight her snack. "Sure."

"Well, thank you both." Twilight expressed, laughing a little as well.

---

Twilight and I resumed our walking, searching for a library.

With her snack opened, she grabbed one of the crackers inside and dipped a piece in the peanut butter next to it. She licked her lips once again when bringing the cracker to her face. She bit off the peanut butter covered piece in her mouth and closed her lips, soon moaning in pleasure with closed eyes. Once she swallowed, she opened her eyes and dipped another part of the cracker into the peanut butter but offered to me instead. "Mm?"

I chuckled at her generous action. "No, thanks."

"Come on!" She brought it closer to my mouth, encouraging for me to take a bite.

I sighed contently. "Okay, okay." I opened my mouth, allowing her to place the piece in for me to bite off. I chewed a bit and then swallowed. It was satisfying, but not exactly something to fight over.

"Mmmm." Twilight nodded her head towards me, hoping that I thought it was just as good.

I could only return a soft chuckle.

"You guys are weird…" Spike commented after noticing our scene.

"Coming from the talking dog?" Twilight countered with.

"Hey! I'm a dragon back where we're from!"

"Heh, yeah." Twilight returned. "A dragon who takes five-hour bubble baths."

"Hmph." He retracted back into her bag a little angrily.

Twilight dipped another piece of the cracker into the peanut butter and placed it into her mouth. "Now if I was a library…where would I be…" Her voice was muffled a bit, due to the cracker inside. We both continued to look around until we noticed a large doorway to our left. We looked inside and it only took us the sight of mountains of books to figure out what it was. "Aha! Let's go!" Twilight grabbed my hand pulled me in with eyes full of excitement.

There was no one else in the library. Figures.

Twilight covered the rest of her snack, placed it in her backpack, and walked over to a female placing books on the shelves. "Excuse me, ma'am. Might we use your books for a little research?"

"Books?" She answered, looking back and noticing us. "Why don't you try the computers? Research is the perfect occasion for their use!" She sent a hearty grin.

"Um…" Twilight looked around. "…computers?"

The grin on the apparent librarian faded away. "Um…yes…the ones right behind you…" She pointed towards another odd looking machine, except it was much smaller.

"Oh." Twilight responded, taking a seat on the chair in front of it. "This computer?"

"…yes…" The librarian turned back around and continued stacking books.

I grabbed a chair nearby and sat down next to Twilight in front of the same computer.

"Okay…um…" Twilight observed the computer confusingly. I had no idea how to use it either. "…how do I do research with this?"

The librarian stopped and slowly turned around to face us again. "…you move the mouse right there and use it to click the internet button on the screen. From there, you can use the keyboard to type and search whatever you're researching for…" She turned back and resumed her stacking.

Twilight remained silent for a moment, analyzing the tools in front of her. She raised her hands and looked at them, and then back at the screen, blinking her eyes in confusion. She moved closer to the screen, and then at what appeared to be the keyboard. However, neither of us really had no idea what to do. Even the librarian's directions were kind of…vague to us as we had no prior experience to this… "computer".

"So… I just push the letters here…" She pointed towards the keyboard, later banging on it. "…and then the words and moving pictures will come up here?" She picked up the object with the screen.

It took a longer moment for the librarian to turn around. I believe I heard her sigh before she turned back to us.

"That's right." She walked over to Twilight and placed the screen back down.

Twilight pressed a single button, and we received a beep as a result. "Maybe this place does have magic."

Behind us, I could hear the librarian walk away with her stack of books.

"Well, let's see what we can come up with." I announced as we stared at the screen.

However, a sudden blast of music interrupted us and caught our attention. The librarian came back and slapped a hand to her forehead. To the other side, we saw the three girls that looked like Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo back home. They were bouncing up and down in tune with the music. But something about the song was ODDLY familiar.

The librarian shut the sound off. "Uh, girls, what are you doing?"

As Twilight continued messing with the computer, I continued observing the scene.

"We're just seeing how many hits our new music video has gotten." The girl I assumed to be Sweetie Belle responded with.

Applebloom turned on the music, to which they began bouncing in rhythm to again.

"'So the three of us will fight the fight...!'" The lyrics sounded out, bringing the memory back into my mind.

That's their theme song!

The librarian placed her hands to her ears. "No, just..." She took the speaker off, having them be unallowed to listen any further. "No! The school computers are for research purposes only." She walked away, holding the speaker.

"It's just as well, y'all," Applebloom spoke to the rest of her friends. "…some of the comments about our song were really awful: 'Epic Fail,' 'Funniest thing I've ever seen!'"

" 'I hear chicken in this…'" Scootaloo pointed out in the screen. "What does that even mean?!"

"Funniest thing they've ever seen, huh?" Sweetie Belle brought back, causing them to brighten up with an idea.

"Uh, I don't know that that's what you should take from..." Twilight tried to tell them, but they ran off. She faced the computer and moved closer, messing with the screen. She began pounding the keyboard with whole fists, rather those flexible attachments individually.

"Uh… Twilight. I think you're supposed to use these?" I presented, wiggling them. They're the only ones small enough that actually fit each key…"

"Oh…Um…" She stared at the screen blankly for a moment. "You know what?" She pushed herself away. "I think it'd be easier if we hit the books instead… At least that's something I know how to use."

I shrugged as she grabbed her backpack and stood up. Then, we decided to look around the shelves. Twilight was picking out every single book that could help us with our position. But she was taking out too many, and as she carried them all, she was having a really tough time doing so. I wanted to help, but the books were wobbling from the long tower and soon caused her to fall, bringing down all the books.

"Shhh!" The librarian shushed, despite the book-covered Twilight on the floor.

I held out my hand towards Twilight. "Maybe you should carry a few at a time?" I suggested.

She grabbed my hand, allowing me to pull her up. She wiped off her skirt and chuckled a little nervously. "Sorry… It's just that… I'm used to my magic back home… I could carry as much as I wanted."

"Well…we should really pick these up…" Spike walked out from her backpack and looked around. He choose one book to grab ahold with his teeth and lift.

Twilight noticed him and crouched down to pick one with her mouth as well. Spike noticed her error and pointed out the book Twilight held with his paw. He then pointed towards her hands, reminding her how she had to use her hands instead.

"Ugh." She released the book and then grabbed it with her hands. "Sorry…keep forgetting…" She continued to grab the rest of her books using them. I kneeled on the floor and helped her with them as well. When we placed all the books on a nearby table, Twilight seemed to be attracted to another new foreign machine. She touched the top part and lifted it as if it was some kind of lid. "What's this…?" She asked as we both noticed another glassy surface inside. Twilight studied it for a moment, looking around, until she placed her hands on the machine to have a closer look. However, the machine sent out a blinding bright light, startling Twilight greatly to where she was pushed against me and having me being thrown to the floor along with her. "Sorry, Alex…"

"It's fine." I brought her with me as I stood up. "You okay?"

"Mm-hm." She nodded.

"Well, I suppose that's enough exploring, huh?"

"Heh…yeah…" She rubbed her head.

Twilight and I walked back to the table to attempt to learn more about our new environment through books. Unfortunately, it was going to be a boring process...well…not for Twilight…

---

After I don't know how long of holding my hand against my cheek in fatigue, an announcement jolted me slightly alert.

"The library will be closing in five minutes."

Twilight rested her cheek with her hand as well. She closed the book and yawned.

"Wow…that was a good read!" She faced me. "So these…" She pointed to the flexible structures on her hand. "…are apparently fingers." She pointed to where her forelegs would be. "Our arms. And instead of our back hooves…" She faced and motioned her legs. "We have feet!" She then turned her attention towards her chest. "And weirdly, I—" Suddenly, she cut herself off in mid-sentence, gasping. "Ah! I hadn't even thought about where we're going to sleep tonight!"

"Way ahead of you." Spike announced near us by some stairs.

"Spike?" I inquired. "Where were you?"

"I got kind of bored, so I did a little of my own exploration upstairs! Come on, I wanna show you something!"

Twilight and I exchanged a look with each other. Nevertheless, we stood up and followed Spike up the stairs. He led us to a corner of the upper portion of the library, stopping near something that was covered. He smiled and began to pull the cover off with his paw. "It's a little…" He coughed due to the dust. "…dusty. But it doesn't seem like anybody comes up here."

Spike had revealed to us that he had actually made a bed out of books. Twilight and I walked towards to it and sat down.

"It's perfect, Spike." She shared with a warm smile.

Twilight rewarded him with a head and belly scratch. "So, how did your research go?" He asked.

"Well, I found a lot cool things about our new bodies!" She answered. "But I also found this book!" She presented a blue book in front of her. "It's called a yearbook. It seems to be something they used to keep a record of things that have happened at the school." She opened the book and towards a specific page. "Look." She pointed towards a picture…a picture that held each of the new girls in this world. "That's Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, and I'm gonna bet the girl on the far right is Rarity."

Spike's eyes widened and took the book to his side. "There's a Rarity here?" He wagged his tail happily, but then looked back in embarrassment. "I mean, uh... interesting photo!" He returned the book.

"It's interesting because they look like they're friends…" Twilight added more softly.

"They do look like our friends. But I thought we figured that out already." Spike responded.

"No, I mean... they look like they're friends with each other. But it doesn't seem like they're friends now…" Twilight mentioned, resting her head on her hand sadly.

Thinking back on it, with their arguments toward one another, I had to agree. "You're right…"

"Not so much." Spike included.

Twilight allowed herself to fall back, using an open book as a pillow. "I just can't help but get the feeling that Sunset Shimmer had something to do with it."

"I wouldn't put it past her." Spike shared. "But she wanted your crown 'cause she's planning on doing something even worse! If you're gonna stop her, you gotta focus on making friends here. Can't worry about why these girls aren't friends anymore." He circled around and rested himself by Twilight and me. "Even if they do remind you of your Ponyville friends." He finished sleepily.

"You're right, Spike." Twilight placed her left arm around him, sighing both contently and sleepily. "Eye on the prize." I stood up from my seated position and looked around. "Where are you going?" Twilight asked, looking up towards me.

"Trying to find someplace to sleep…" I tapped my finger on my chin.

"You know… There's a perfectly comfortable bed right here." Twilight pointed out, almost as if I had never even noticed it before.

I turned around to face her and chuckled a little. "I can't say the same about comfort but…it doesn't look like there's a lot of space."

"Don't be ridiculous." Twilight reacted and faced Spike. "Spike, do you mind moving to the top here instead?" She patted the stack of books behind her.

"I guess not…" Spike tiredly lifted himself and placed himself on the spot.

I smiled lightly and sat down as Twilight scooted to the right to make some room. "Thanks, Spike."

"Sure wish I had a pillow though…"

His comment made me wonder.

"Hm…" I took off my backpack and placed it in front of me. I opened the main compartment and immediately noticed several pillows stuffed inside. Coincidence, but who's complaining when it's perfect for such an occasion? My mother is the Princess of the night after all… "Here." I pulled one out and gave it to Spike.

Spike opened his eyes and quickly grabbed it when he realized what it was. "Cool! How'd you get this?!"

"My mom had placed it in my bag." I answered and gave one to Twilight, who replaced it with the book she had under her head. I pulled one out for myself and placed it where I would sleep.

"Wow. Princess Luna must be really amazing." He mentioned, placing the pillow below him and resting on it.

As he said that, I noticed one last thing tucked in my backpack. A lunar hoof-stitched blanket. I smiled at this sight. "Yeah…she really is…" I pulled it out and unrolled it. It seemed big enough for Twilight and I to share.

"Heh, wow." Twilight spoke, noticing the blanket as well. "Seems like your mom really prepared for your sleep."

"Hm…" I began to think once again. "I wonder if she could come into my dream…even in this world…"

Nonetheless, I spread the blanket out for Twilight and me. As soon as we were much more comfortable than before, we began our rest.

"Goodnight, Alex." Twilight expressed as she comfortably tucked herself with the blanket.

I gazed at the moon, thinking of my mother and feeling some sort of connection with her, even though she was technically far away.

"Goodnight, Twi…"