100. The Hero of China

PONYVILLE, FOURTH EQUESTRIA

A week passed all too fast, and soon, it was time to begin preparations to leave once more.

...

"But you just got here!" Sweetie Belle cried in dismay.

"Oh…I know it must seem that way," Rarity replied in an attempt to console the young filly as she levitated her things into several flower-patterned suitcases, "but I have been here for a whole week. And, well, chaotic disaster on other worlds just won't wait. Neither will the fashion opportunities you find when you look outside Equestria!"

"Well…I'm gonna miss you," Sweetie Belle told her sister.

"And I you," Rarity replied. Suddenly, a thought struck her: a remembrance from the reading of Celestia's journal, the delving into the sun princess' journey with Luna. "Sweetie Belle…"

"Yeah, Rarity?"

"I would just like you to know that no matter what, I will always try to protect and do what is best for you. I know that sometimes…well, I've failed at being a good sister. I've been selfish in all sorts of nasty ways. I've even pushed you too hard with the boutique…promise me you will set aside quite enough time to be a true Cutie Mark Crusader, won't you, dear?"

"Of course!" Sweetie Belle chirped.

"I just…I want you to know that I love you," Rarity said sincerely. "And I always shall."

"Aw, Rarity…" Sweetie Belle shuffled her foreleg. "I love you too."

Rarity's eyes misted up. She extended a hoof. "Hug?" Her voice cracked.

"HUG!" Sweetie Belle practically pounced, and the sisters embraced.

...

Mr. and Mrs. Cake came downstairs to find a seven-layer cake waiting for them, its icing scraping the ceiling from where it rested on the counter. "I BAKED YOU A CAKE!" Pinkie Pie announced as she popped up from behind the counter in a shower of confetti. "…But then I ate it. As usual. And I felt bad, so I baked you an EVEN BETTER CAKE!"

"Pinkie Pie!" Mr. Cake replied, aghast with happiness. Spotting a distinctive pattern in the icing, he leaned over the confection. The cake as a whole was iced blue with pink accents, but in a slightly deeper shade of pink, words in script had been written around the edge of the cake. "Pound and Pumpkin, and I'll keep thinking of you…" he read out loud.

"The whole thing says 'Mr. and Mrs. Cake, thank you so much for everything, especially letting me come back and stay this week! I'm going to miss you so much, and Pound and Pumpkin too, and I'll keep thinking of you! I hope you remember me, and don't forget to smile!" Pinkie beamed.

"Oh, trust us," Mrs. Cake told her. "It's hard not to smile when we remember you."

"Well, let's dig in!" Mr. Cake brought out plates and began to cut slices. "Though…Pinkie, if you ate that whole other cake, you're probably not hungry – "

He was interrupted when, without warning, Pinkie grabbed the first slice and began to eat it voraciously, taking three bites to devour the whole thing.

...

Fluttershy had taken time to say goodbye to each and every one of the animals present at her home, especially Baromett and Angel. "Now, you should all be nice to Cheerilee while I'm gone!" she ordered.

Angel folded his front paws in a huff.

"We'll all muddle through somehow," Cheerilee promised Fluttershy with a smile. "And don't be afraid to bring home any more new friends from your travels!"

At this hypothetical, Angel was flabbergasted, his jaw dropping.

"I'll remember that!" Fluttershy replied. "Well…I should get going. Good luck! I hope to see you all again soon!"

"Have fun out there!" Cheerilee told Fluttershy, and as the two parted ways, they exchanged a wave goodbye.

Angel saw his opportunity, and charged –

Only for Cheerilee to beat him to the lock on Baromett's pen, putting a hoof on it. "Oh, NO, you don't!" she laughed. "Fluttershy may not know how the poor thing got out and got lost in the forest, but I do, and you won't get to pull THAT stunt again on my watch!"

...

Rainbow Dash had agreed to help the pegasus legion arrange the weather for that afternoon. Once all clouds were in place, she flew above to survey their work. "Great job, everypony!" she congratulated. However, her eyes were drawn to a deep gray storm cloud at the back of the scene. "Okay, who brought a storm cloud into the middle of what was SUPPOSED to be a clear afternoon? I'm not pointing hooves, but…" She looked cautiously toward Ditzy.

"Actually, we did that on purpose!" Ditzy giggled.

"Huh?" Rainbow Dash was taken aback.

"ATEEEEEEEEN-TION!" Bulk Biceps roared, and every pegasus but Rainbow Dash lined up in front of the storm cloud.

"To wish Rainbow Dash good luck on her journey," Helia proclaimed, "a twenty-one-lightning salute!"

Each pegasus kicked the cloud in turn, causing a great BOOM and a crash of lightning. At the end of it all, they saluted as one. "GOODBYE, RAINBOW DASH!" they barked.

"You guuuuuuys!" Rainbow Dash was touched. "You didn't have to do that! You're gonna make me get all emotional and embarrass myself!"

"But you're a friend!" Ditzy emphasized. "I don't know how we're gonna get all the weather together without you!"

"Heh…you can do it," Rainbow Dash remarked. "Just remember to listen to what Scootaloo says, all right? Okay…I really gotta get going. Catch ya later!"

As Rainbow Dash sped off, the sound of twenty-one more crashes of lightning followed.

...

After Applejack had said her goodbyes to all of her family, it was Braeburn alone who walked her to the end of the path leading to the gate of Sweet Apple Acres.

"I promise we'll talk about shuttin' it off for good," Braeburn said sincerely.

"Talk ain't good enough," Applejack replied firmly.

Braeburn sighed. "Applejack – "

"I know I can't take over your life, and I sure don't wanna take away all your successes," Applejack reminded him. "I'm just…I'm just scared, that's all."

"Well…thanks," Braeburn replied softly. "I know you ain't tryin' to undermine me. And if I'm tellin' the truth, it's real nice knowin' that I got somepony who cares about me so much. Not that Granny, Big Mac, an' Apple Bloom don't, but…well, the more the better."

"I care about all y'all," Applejack asserted. "At the end of the day…can't make you turn that thing off if you don't want. But you know everythin' that happened to me. You know what wish I made, an' what happened to the others when they made theirs."

"I know."

"Then…" Applejack sighed. "I guess I just gotta trust you to make the right decision."

"You're sayin' that like I won't!" Braeburn huffed.

"It ain't about you!" Applejack told him. "It's about that Kyubey. But…you've got a point. You're smart enough to see right through his tricks, Braeburn. I already said everythin' I needed to. Whichever choice you make…I know it'll be the right one."

"Thanks, Applejack."

"Ain't nothin'."

"I'll miss ya."

"I'll miss ya too, Braeburn."

At the gate, they embraced briefly before parting ways: Applejack to the train station and Braeburn back toward the barn.

...

That morning, Spike had slept in later than usual, just enjoying the time to be lazy. What roused him from sleep was the sound of books being shuffled around downstairs. He opened a bleary eye and muttered a muffled "Huh?"

Spike padded down the stairs to find Twilight picking several books off the shelves. Certain ones she levitated disappeared altogether, moving into her personal inventory alongside her wand and new staff.

"Twilight?" Spike asked. "What're you doing?"

"I'm taking along a few more books for the voyage," Twilight answered. "Now that I have a better sense of the stuff we encounter, I thought it might be a good idea to take along a few extra materials, particularly of the older legends about the gods. Stuff I thought was just mythology until I saw it with my own eyes! You know, Dawn must have read all of these at some point. I wonder just how much she knew. Spike, do you remember when Pinkie Pie found that book about the mirror pool on a hidden shelf? Dawn must have put it there. Who KNOWS what other secret and potentially important information she hid in this library?" She looked to Spike directly, gleefully. "Spike…after I leave, what do you say about taking on a bit of a scavenger hunt? Somepony should go over the library and look for more hidden shelves and panels in case Dawn hid something else we'd find interesting! What do you think?"

"I…wait!" Spike cried. "I forgot what day it was! I forgot you were leaving today!"

"Sorry," Twilight replied. "I thought for sure I reminded you last night – "

"You probably did," Spike told her. "It's just hard to believe you've gotta leave again." Seeing Twilight's expression of concern when he announced this, Spike quickly added, "But I'll be fine! I'm in charge of the whole library, y'know. And this also means I get to find whatever else Dawn hid in here before you do!"

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Twilight pressed. "I know you missed us a lot."

"I'll be fine," Spike asserted. "I mean, you are still gonna send letters, right?"

"Right!"

"Then I can read them and pretend that I'm on the adventure with you!"

Twilight twitched at the sudden advent of an idea. "Oh, gosh…I don't know why I didn't think of it BEFORE!" she cried. "Spike!"

"What?"

"How would you like to come along with us? Just once. We couldn't leave the library unattended…and it's pretty dangerous out there. One adventure on whatever world the Starlight sends us to, and then we drop you off right back at home. But it might be good for us to all have a little more time together."

Spike's eyes widened. "Do you MEAN it?"

Twilight nodded. "You don't have to if you don't want to."

"Of COURSE I want to!" Spike cried. "Getting to go with you on one of your awesome adventures? Seeing another world besides Equestria? And…sharing close quarters with Rarity…" A silly smile overtook him. "It's practically a dream come true! You're sure the others won't mind?"

"Why would they?" Twilight replied.

"Just give me a minute!" Spike ran upstairs to pack his personal effects into a bag. When he returned, he asked, "But who's gonna watch the library?"

"I don't know," Twilight admitted. "I think we're just going to have to close it down for a while. But we have time on our side. By manipulating the mist engine, we can get back here within a week. Maybe even tomorrow! Maybe we already got back an hour ago and are waiting for the two of us to leave so we don't run into our past selves! It won't be that long."

"And I promise I'll start looking for hidden stuff the minute I get back!" Spike vowed. "Now, let's go have an adventure!"

Twilight laughed. "I'm glad you're enthusiastic about this, Spike, but I haven't finished packing my books yet!" She returned to her visual sorting of the shelves.

...

Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie waited at the train station. "It ain't like Twilight to be late," Applejack remarked.

Twilight barreled toward them just then with Spike in tow. "Sorry!" she panted. "I couldn't decide which edition of the Starswirl the Bearded Encyclopedia of Explainable Supernatural Phenomena to take, so I ended up just grabbing them both!"

"Well, you're just in time for the next train," Rarity informed her. "Oh, and Spike, dear, thank you for coming to see us off. We really hadn't given you a proper goodbye – "

"He's coming with us," Twilight stated.

"WHAT?" the others said in unison.

"For just one adventure," Twilight clarified. "If that's all right with everypony."

Rarity gasped. "Why, of COURSE it's all right! Why didn't we think of it earlier? It isn't fair that we should have all the fun and leave little Spikey-Wikey on his own!"

"Just so ya know it's dangerous," Applejack said sternly.

"Oh, I know," Spike told her. "But I'm a dragon, remember? I can handle pretty much anything!" He made sure to say that directly to Rarity.

"Dragons are pretty resilient," Fluttershy reminded the others. "After all, they do bathe in lava."

"Well, I've no doubt that Spike can hold his own," Rarity said with a nod, much to Spike's delight.

"We'd love to have ya along!" Rainbow Dash asserted.

"Quick, everypony!" Pinkie Pie urged from aboard the train…which nopony had seen her actually get on. "Get on the train before it leaves!"

Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Spike all filed aboard, taking seats near each other as the train was set into motion.

"So…what happens now?" Spike asked.

"We take the train to Horseshoe Bay, where the Starlight is!" Pinkie Pie answered. "And that's when the magic happens!"

...

THE SPACE BETWEEN

Spike was absolutely stunned for the duration of his first Starlight takeoff. The prospect of sailing on the ocean alone was exciting enough, but after the mists had come and gone, Spike was left in awe as he stared out at the vast expanse of stars and other celestial bodies. Equestria itself became a quickly shrinking sphere, its moon a stray sidekick. Then even the sun itself became distant until it was no more than a pinprick of light; another star, indistinguishable among the host.

The young dragon was left at a loss for words for a long time. He didn't think he would ever truly have his fill of the view, so he forcibly pulled himself away from staring over the side of the ship so he could talk to Twilight.

"Having fun?" she asked.

"'Fun' doesn't even begin to describe it!" Spike gushed. "This is…this is AMAZING! This is what you've been doing all this time?"

"Yup." Twilight nodded.

"Twilight!" Rarity tossed the white bard's robe over to her fellow unicorn; Twilight levitated it over her body.

Spike, noticing that Rarity wore a similar garment, asked, "What's that robe for?"

"It fits us whether we're ponies or humans," Twilight told him. "Which reminds me…we should get something made for you in case you change, too. Which you probably will."

"I shall get to work on it immediately!" Rarity vowed. "Spike, would you mind following me to my remote studio for a fitting?"

"N-not at all!" Spike stammered excitedly.

Rarity led him down belowdecks, to the room that she'd converted into a fashion workshop. "I'll have to make it extra roomy," she muttered to herself. "I've no idea quite what size you'll be."

As Spike surveyed the room, taking in the sights of all the projects Rarity had laid out on every available surface and all the ribbons, sequins, buttons, and fabrics spread about between them, Rarity unrolled a great sheet of white off a snow-colored roll of cloth. "I suppose I'll begin by…" Rarity stopped herself midsentence. "No. I have just realized…yes, I must dare to be DIFFERENT!" She turned to Spike. "Before I begin…Spike, surely you've noticed we all wear white. You won't feel left out if your garment is a different color, will you?"

"Not at all!" Spike emphasized. "I'd LOVE to wear something you made special just for me!" Then he mentally kicked himself. Yes, he'd fully admitted to her a while back that he had a slight crush on her, but they hadn't talked about it since, and he wasn't sure how she felt about the whole matter. Well, he did know one thing. She obviously thought he was too young for consideration, else she would have addressed his affections directly, either by shooting him down or cozying up to him. He'd heard about how she acted around handsome stallions like Blueblood; Rarity wasn't one to beat around the bush when the matter was less complicated. He wondered if she would never be interested in him and knew it, and she simply was sparing him the heartbreak…or if she, like he, was wondering if something would come of it when he was a few years older and no longer just a kid in her eyes. There was no way for him to read her mind and know. In the meantime, he had promised himself to try and be less obvious about his admiration…but so far, it wasn't quite working.

"Good!" Rarity cried. "Because I simply MUST make you something unique. It wouldn't do to simply copy my own robe. It's got to stand out!" She put back the white cloth, unrolling a length of jet black instead.

"So, uh, Rarity…" Spike asked as she worked. "I know I've heard all about your adventures in your letters, but I'm still curious. What's it…like?"

"Well, that's a rather big question," Rarity answered, steering a scissors around a pattern in the cloth. "So much has happened that I'm afraid you're going to have to get a little more specific."

"Well…it's just…do you like being out here?" Spike clarified. "Is it as great as it sounds, or is it more of a…scary thing? Because of all the danger and villains."

"Well, to be honest, it's a little bit of both," Rarity told him. "I suppose it's becoming somewhat of a normal life in that respect. Landing on a new world and making new friends is always inspiring. But it's difficult whenever we have to see those friends put in danger and know that we're the ones who have to do something about it. I must admit…sometimes I envy you, getting to live a quiet life back in Ponyville."

"You mean a boring life," Spike corrected. "Yeah, it's quiet and safe…and that's about it. Now that I know there's so much more out there than what I'm used to, well, I gotta see it for myself!"

"Perhaps it's true what they say about the grass always being greener," Rarity remarked.

"And we should both be happy with what we've got?"

"Precisely."

"Well…just don't forget to visit Ponyville every so often," Spike insisted. "I mean…not just because I wanna see you, but because you need a break."

"And while I'm glad you get to live more peacefully," Rarity told him, "we really must be more conscious of helping you get out and about every once in a while. A breath of fresh cosmic air, so to speak." She had finished the garment, putting in a final stitch and levitating it. "What do you think?"

It was a very roomy robe of black, edged with silver embroidery. "It's AWESOME!" Spike gushed. "It looks like something a wizard would wear!"

Rarity lowered it down over Spike, clothing him in it. "You would make quite an adorable little wizard," she gushed. "Now, let's rejoin the others, shall we?"

"Right!"

...

It wasn't too long before the telltale "ding" sounded across the ship, signaling that the vessel had come within range of a target world. Twilight was the first to reach the control room; Spike, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy filtered in afterward.

"Okay, everypony," Twilight announced, "we're probably in for a change pretty soon. Get ready, Spike. This could get a little…weird."

"Okay…" Spike was nervous.

After some time passed and nothing had happened, Spike piped up, "Um, nothing's – "

The ship pulled into the aura of the next world, and the transformation overcame the group. Spike observed as the outlines of his six friends blurred and reshaped themselves, replacing them all with the forms of humans.

"WHOA!" Spike cried upon this observation. Despite all that he'd read in the letters, he had never gotten a truly good idea of what a human would look like; the sight was completely alien. However, his friends were still recognizable, and Rarity was still as beautiful as ever, carrying the same grace in her human body that she had in her pony shape. "So that's what you turn into EVERY TIME?"

"Not EVERY time," Pinkie clarified. "Sometimes we're Kentaurides! That's half pony and half this! It's really fun because we get to be BOTH!"

"But how do you keep your balance on just two legs?" Spike asked.

"The same way YOU keep your balance on two legs," Rainbow Dash reminded him.

"Oh." Living amongst ponies had given Spike the idea that four legs were the norm, even though he was well conscious of the fact that he was built differently. "Right."

"That's weird," Twilight observed. "Spike…you didn't change."

Spike looked down at himself in his long, trailing black robe. "You're right," he realized. "Why did you guys and not me?"

"Maybe dragons don't change across worlds," Fluttershy suggested.

"Actually, I think we might be coming into range of a world where dragons are a normal thing to see," Twilight theorized. She turned to look at the map on the control panel screen. "Well…that's proof enough."

"What is?" Rarity asked as the others turned to look up at the map.

Twilight pointed to their current location. "That."

The icon of their ship was rapidly approaching a digital dot labeled "The Land of Dragons."

...

LESHOU, CHINA, THE LAND OF DRAGONS

The Starlight turned up in a lake in the midst of an open plain. Rarity scouted abovedeck to see who might be observing, then called back down, "I think we're alone!"

Her friends all scrambled up to the deck to take a look around. "Whoa…" Spike muttered as he took in the view. Mountains were just visible on the very distant horizon. Closer to the lake, but still some ways away, two clusters of buildings were visible; to the left, it looked like a busy town area, while the right-hand view seemed to be more spread out into farms. All the architecture visible was short, not reaching anywhere over three stories tall, but from what the group could see, it was quite colorful. The buildings were as gems set into a backing of bright green grass; the landscape was generally hilly. The surrounding air was pleasantly warm, and above, the sun shone brightly in a blue sky with only a few plump white clouds to accompany it.

"So," Rainbow Dash asked, "Spike, how's your first look at another world?"

"Whoa…" Spike replied. "It's…well, to be honest, it doesn't look ALL that different from home. It's still pretty, though. And I bet if we get into town, it's gonna look WAY different. So…do we just go?"

"Not yet," Rarity informed him. "First, I've got to go take a look around and see what it is we're supposed to be wearing. It seems to me I'll have better luck with that over there." She pointed to the area that appeared to be a town. "In the meantime, Twilight will read up on this place and see what it is we need to be aware of."

"Everypony but Rarity, follow me belowdecks," Twilight commanded. "Rarity? It's stealth mission time."

"Aww…" Spike let out a groan at the thought that only Rarity had to separate herself from the group for a while. Still, he was curious to see what Twilight would turn up.

In a matter of minutes, Rarity had changed into her stealth suit and gone out into town while Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Spike sat around the lounge, watching Twilight make her way through the Guide.

"They didn't write much on this world," Twilight informed the group, "but apparently, it has close ties to something called the 'Spirit Realm.'" She blinked. "There's that term again. That thing Celestia said I tapped into during my entry exam. Hang on…" She abandoned her search for information on the Land of Dragons, choosing instead to seek out the Spirit Realm. "Huh. It looks like it's some kind of plane where ethereal spirits live, and some of them can interact with the material plane at certain points. There are guardian spirits, spirits of the dead…and, I quote from the Guide, 'some that are just plain bizarre and better left alone.' Thanks, Guide." She rolled her eyes. "But it looks like the Spirit Realm crosses all sorts of worlds. I think the Land of Dragons is just a place where it's easier for the Spirit Realm and the material plane to interact."

"But what did that have to do with your entry exam?" Spike asked. "Or me?"

"I'm not really sure," Twilight admitted. "I don't remember ever having met spirits."

"Maybe it's like the Netherworld!" Rainbow Dash suggested. "What's the difference, anyway?"

"I'm not sure about that either," said Twilight. "But I'm guessing the Netherworld is a place JUST for the dead, and the Spirit Realm is only for…certain kinds of the dead. From what I read, it sounds like spirits are kind of a big deal and really powerful."

Rarity soon returned, bringing news, which she laid out as the others followed her down to her studio. "I went into town to look about," she explained. "I was right, by the way. It is a town. My guess is that the other buildings we saw were more of an agricultural residential area similar to Sweet Apple Acres. The streets were quite busy, which gave me a lot of examples of human fashion to look at. Though one thing did strike me as rather odd. Twilight, you said Spike probably didn't change because this world would have dragons on it, did you not?"

"Yes?" Twilight was perplexed.

"Well," Rarity informed her, "I didn't see a single dragon."

"Maybe I just don't change from place to place," Spike said worriedly. "Do you think I'll stand out?"

"I think there's only one way to know," Twilight said. "We can't just leave Spike on the ship. Besides, if this world is connected to the Spirit Realm, then maybe the people here will be open-minded enough to accept a dragon, even if there aren't any on this world."

"Anyway," Rarity continued, "the architecture is like NOTHING we've seen before. It's still basic structure, of course, but the cultural touches are distinctly different. Inspiring, in fact. I can hardly wait for you to see it all! But first, of course, we've got to dress the part. As for Spike, that will be easy enough. I'll just have to convert it into the style of dress I saw here, which will only take a few cuts."

"And, uh…could you maybe make it a little smaller?" Spike asked, nearly tripping on his hem.

"Of course!" Rarity promised. "Now that I know you're not going to be transforming into anything larger. I'll hem that right up! As for the rest of you, I have some ideas already." She threw open the door to the studio. "Now, let's get started!"

Rarity began with Spike's tiny robe, taking it in to fit him better and retooling it so that it folded over itself. The silver hem and lapel were made more prominent, with silver edging now making up the collar, cuffs, and a sash. When Rarity lowered it back onto Spike, it was a perfect fit, and much more in line with the Hanfu style.

"Sweet!" Spike twirled in front of a mirror, looking it over.

"I've got an idea of what to make for each of you," Rarity went on. "Though, Rainbow Dash…"

"Yeah?" Rainbow Dash got the feeling bad news was coming.

"Just looking at the citizens in the street," Rarity told her, "you'll blend in best if you wear a skirt."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine. But I still don't understand how any of you can move practically in those flouncy things!"

Rarity set to work. Her first project was Pinkie Pie. Pinkie's garment consisted of a bright pink gown with a flowery pattern and a network of pink ribbons spilling down over the skirt from a sash. Her flowing sleeves were deep blue, and a length of orange fabric was draped over them.

After that came Rarity herself. She fashioned a golden bodice adorned with many beads, using only a simple stringy loop to keep it fixed around her neck. Her wide, green sash was also embroidered with beads, alternating shades of gold, light green, and dark green. Her light green sleeves began with elegant puffs. Her skirt was almost a mint shade, with a segment of fabric with a light green floral design against a deep green backdrop falling over the skirt's front. A golden orange length of cloth draped over it all.

Applejack's clothing was simpler, starting with a bright yellow shirt that had a sensible high collar and tighter sleeves. From there, the bodice descended into orange and became pale yellow at the skirt level.

Fluttershy's garment featured flowing yellow sleeves and red embroidery on the neckline. A yellow overskirt culminated in a red hem at knee level, after which a green underskirt took over until it reached the floor. The entire ensemble was tied off with a green sash, and another length of fabric featuring green, leafy patterns draped down over both layers of skirt.

Rainbow Dash had to admit her clothing wasn't too flowery for her liking. The collar was high, the skirt thin, and the sleeves not quite as draping as some of the others'. It was all fashioned as a one-piece dress of blue with brown accents. A red sash cinched it, and a purple ribbon was tied near the neck.

Finally, Twilight was given a light lavender bodice and skirt, offset with sleeves of deep blue and a drape of violet.

"Wow," Spike said in awe. "Rarity…you are REALLY good. Everypony looks FANTASTIC!" Once again, he hadn't been at all subtle, but there was no way he could let art he liked that much go without a massive compliment. That would have simply felt like an injustice.

"One more thing," Rarity announced. "All the mares seem to wear their manes tied up like this." She plucked a length of green ribbon off the table and bound her hair atop her head in it, curls spilling down from a fountain of violet hair. She passed out color-coordinated ribbons to Twilight, Pinkie, Applejack, and Fluttershy, letting them put their own hair up. She was thankful that Pinkie did the job herself, as Rarity wasn't quite sure how to hold curls that massive in a neat bun; somehow Pinkie managed. "I'm afraid your mane is simply too short at the moment," Rarity told Rainbow Dash.

"All right." Twilight tied off her hair. "Is everypony ready to go?"

"Where are we going?" Fluttershy asked eagerly.

"I'm curious about where Rarity went downtown," Twilight decided. "I think that might give us the best sense of how people live here."

"Oh, you're just going to love it!" Rarity gushed.

"Then I say let's do it!" Spike agreed.

...

Downtown Leshou was bustling with activity. The technology level did not seem to have reached the motors and electricity apparent in New York, as was evident from the fact that the streets were filled with horses and carts instead of cars and buses. Circular shapes seemed to have been incorporated into the architecture in a bigger way than had been seen on any of the other worlds the traveling party had seen so far. To sharply contrast, the doors of most of the buildings were impeccable rectangles inset with intricate angular designs. Sloping, colorful gabled roofs topped it all off.

As Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Spike made their way down the street, all were anxious about how the townspeople would react to Spike. As it turned out, no one really paid him much attention. The eyes of the public seemed to just flicker over him.

"I wonder if any of our currency works here," Twilight mused.

"Well, let's see." Rarity approached a shop with several beaded necklaces on display. "Pardon me. We aren't from around here. Would you happen to accept bits in exchange for one of your fine wares?"

The dark-haired salesman regarded Rarity with confusion. "Bits…?"

"I'm sorry," Rarity corrected. "I suppose I meant to say…Galleons?"

The salesman shook his head. "Haven't heard of it. You must be from REALLY far away."

"Erm…" Rarity put out an array of coins. "Will any of these suffice?"

The salesman picked up one, obtained from the Seven Deserts. "This looks like something from the west…but I wouldn't know how to exchange it. I'll tell you what. I can tell it's all real gold, silver, and bronze, so I'll exchange you one necklace for three."

"That seems fair to me," Rarity replied, and the trade was made. Now the proud owner of a length of jade beads, Rarity slipped the necklace over her head and let it rest on her shoulders.

"Looks like this place really is different," Twilight pointed out, thinking on the currency faux pas.

"Hey!" Rainbow Dash suddenly noticed a display that caught her interest outside one of the shops. "Look at all these cool swords!" She ran toward a rack of gleaming metal broadswords that caught the sunlight.

The shopkeeper exited in order to replace an empty slot on the rack, and as he hung the sword, he saw Rainbow Dash. "It's not often I get women looking at these," he remarked. "A gift for your husband, perhaps?"

"WHAT?" Rainbow Dash was immediately offended. "Um, NO! I want one of these for me!"

The shopkeeper laughed. "What, do you think you can be another Mulan?"

By that time, Rainbow Dash's friends had filed in behind her, observing as Rainbow Dash asked, "What's a…'Mulan'?"

"You don't know the tale of Fa Mulan?" the shopkeeper asked. "I thought the story had spread throughout all of China, let alone Leshou. She lives in this town, you know! Where are you from? You dress like you're Chinese, but your hair tells a different story…and anyone in this nation would have known who Mulan is."

"We're travelers," Rainbow Dash responded. "We've been all over the place."

The shopkeeper looked dubiously at the group. "With your husbands…?"

"What is WITH you and the husband thing?" Rainbow Dash snapped. "We traveled by ourselves!"

"Then I commend you for making it so far without ailing health or being killed by highwaymen," the shopkeeper said in awe. "A land where women of your age aren't married off by now…it must be far away indeed. Unless…" His demeanor changed tone. "Unless you were all dishonored. I did not think of that. My apologies."

"THAT'S the only part of this you thought was rude?" Rainbow Dash yelled.

"Rainbow Dash," Rarity said sternly. "Please! Don't make a scene." She stepped between Rainbow Dash and the shopkeeper. "You'll have to forgive my friend. She's very…"

"Not happy that you don't think I'm tough enough to survive a trip," Rainbow Dash growled. "Or touch a sword."

"…Unorthodox?" the shopkeeper asked.

Rainbow Dash was about to vocalize even more offense, but Rarity put up a hand toward her. "As you can probably tell, we come from a land where customs are vastly different. I apologize for any friction this may cause."

"Your apology is accepted," the shopkeeper told Rarity with a nod. "And I apologize for speculation about your honor."

"Now," Rarity continued, "I truly am interested in hearing more about this Mulan you spoke of. Especially since you've compared her to my friend. It must be a fascinating story."

"You don't know the half of it," the shopkeeper said. "A little less than a year ago, the Hun army penetrated the Wall that protects China from invaders." He briefly stopped to wonder as to how the travelers before him had entered, but he couldn't imagine six women making up a hostile army, so he assumed they had been granted legal entry. "The Emperor called upon one man from every family to serve in the Imperial army and put a stop to the Huns. Everyone in town knows that Fa Zhou never recovered from his war wounds, but he was the only man able to serve out of the Fa family. They never had a son, you know. Certainly Fa Zhou must have tried for one, but he never did complain about the lack of one. Now, were it me, and I'd only fathered a daughter…well, I wouldn't rest until there was a boy in the family to grow up alongside her and look after her. But Zhou seemed happy enough with his lot. When the draft came, he accepted, but we all knew his wounds would prevent him from being a competent soldier. As the story goes, his daughter, Fa Mulan, stole his armor, his sword, and his draft papers, dressing herself as a man and joining the army in his place, posing as his son. Not once during all of her training did anyone in the army suspect she was a woman! Truly odd, as she is a beautiful woman. I wouldn't have thought her face would pass for a man's. She was found out, but it was her and no one else who was able to kill the leader of the Hun army and rescue the Emperor from a hostage situation. Her penalty should have been death, but because of what she did for our country and Emperor, his majesty pardoned her and declared her a hero. And who are we to argue with the word of the Emperor? She must have been a truly great warrior. I have never seen her fight, but I can only imagine! I hear tell that if there should be another war, she would be welcomed back into the army with open arms under the benevolence of his majesty. And that's all I know."

"How fascinating!" Rarity cried.

"Wha – " Rainbow Dash was awestruck. "Why wouldn't she have been allowed to fight if they knew she was a woman? Why would she have had to DIE?"

The shopkeeper shook his head. "Strange, strange customs indeed. It is a woman's duty to the Emperor to bear sons to fill the army. To defy this duty is to defy the Emperor himself."

"I dunno," Twilight interjected. "The Emperor seemed okay with it in the end."

"In the end, perhaps," the shopkeeper conceded. "Now, are you going to buy anything, or take up all of my time telling stories?"

"That depends," Rainbow Dash growled. "Are you even going to LET us buy swords? Or do mares like us have to die if they touch them?"

The shopkeeper was taken aback. "I get the feeling you think I'm rude," he told her, "but I'm not the one who just referred to all of her friends as horses. I would never!"

"It's a compliment where we come from?" Rarity attempted. "Anyhow, I can see we've already wasted enough of your time. We'd best move along. Thank you so much for the information." She took two steps away, then turned back; "By the way, could you point us to the residential district of this town?"

"Most people live that way if they're downtown," the shopkeeper replied, waving a hand toward a segment of the city. "But everyone that farms lives out that way." He gestured in a direction that the group realized would be the way to the smaller outcropping of buildings they'd seen from the deck of the Starlight. "That's where you'd actually find that infamous Fa Mulan, by the way."

"Thank you kindly," Rarity said before curtsying quickly and setting off. Twilight, Spike, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie followed her in step; Rainbow Dash lingered just long enough to give the sword seller a sour glare before hurrying to catch up.

"What was WITH that?" Rainbow Dash cried once they were out of earshot. "That guy was a jerk!"

"I'm well aware of that," Rarity replied, "but in this case, I felt it would pay to be diplomatic. That being said, I wouldn't give him a cent for any of his wares, even if he had the most spectacular bow and arrows in the whole cosmos."

"I liked that story he told," Pinkie Pie brought up. "That Mulan sounds AWESOME! I wonder if we could meet her!"

"It might be a good idea to at least wander down to the farming district to get a better sense of this area," Twilight suggested. "After all, the Mists sent us to this particular place for a reason."

"Then onward we go!" Rarity declared.

...

More than halfway down the road from town to the farms, Spike asked his six companions, "So, uh…anypony else notice that people are sorta…looking through me?"

"I did notice that," Twilight admitted. "It doesn't seem possible that they just can't see you. Maybe there are more dragons here than we thought, and everypony's just used to them."

The farms in this half of Leshou were walled off from each other with stone barriers. Gateways provided entry into each farm.

"Now, this feels more like home," Applejack observed. "Always did prefer the countryside."

"Which I've never truly understood," Rarity replied. "Truly, the city is where the action is."

"Yeah," Applejack responded, "well, sometimes, ya just wanna settle down somewhere peaceful."

The sound of a booming drum filled the air, a steady rhythmic beat.

"Is a party starting?" Pinkie asked.

People began to file out of the farm gateways and into the road once they heard the sound of the drums. Twilight observed the worried looks upon their faces. "I don't think it's a party," she declared. "And I definitely don't think things are peaceful around here."

Five riders settled upon tawny horses came thundering down the road toward the farms. They bore great banners of gold and red, signifying that they were emissaries from a governmental entity. Twilight beckoned, and she and her friends moved off to the side of the road to let the riders pull into the center of the area, where they halted. All the surrounding civilians watched in a horrified silence as the drum kept on and on like a heartbeat in the sky.

When he was sure he had the full attention of everyone in the area, the rider of the frontmost horse, a tall, thin man with a wiry mustache and clothed in robes of blue, announced in a high-pitched voice: "We come bearing news from the Imperial City! The harbors of China are under attack by a rogue navy!"

A collective gasp rang out from the observers.

"So far, only one ship has been identified," the man continued. "Some have said it looks like a pirate ship, but that is pure speculation. The destruction this ship – this NAVY has caused is far too much to have been wreaked by one band of pirates! So far, the following ports have been attacked to the point at which no ships can enter or leave their harbors: Moling! Yangzhou! Ningbo!"

The gasps of the crowd increased as each name was called out: "Wenzhou! Minyue!" The thin man paused. "They are going after our ability to trade by sea. Should they continue, China may suffer economic devastation. And that is not to speak of the human casualties in each attack. As such, the Emperor has declared war upon this…seafaring entity. One man from every family shall serve to combat and put an end to our enemy."

"We only just got here," Twilight lamented, "and already, there's a war."

"Yeah," Rainbow Dash muttered, "well, I'm gonna do something about it." She strode toward the company astride the horses.

"Rainbow Dash!" Applejack hissed, falling into step alongside her. "How do you know we're helpin' the right side?"

"Because we're helping the side that got attacked," Rainbow Dash whispered back. "Isn't it obvious?" She raised her voice to get the attention of the man in blue: "HEY!"

"EXCUSE me!" the man huffed, turning to look at Rainbow Dash. "What makes you think you can address a man so rudely? Let alone a counsel to the Emperor."

"I've helped out PLENTY of kings and queens!" Rainbow Dash insisted. "And princes and princesses, too! And sultans, and…well, the details aren't important. I wanna help fight the guys who're blowing up the ports!"

At this, the man seemed completely taken aback.

"And wherever Rainbow Dash goes," Applejack spoke up, "we go with her!"

"If this country's in danger," Twilight added, "then we have to protect it!"

"Are you ASKING for conscription into the Imperial army?" the man asked, regarding the women with interest.

"Um…yes?" Fluttershy answered.

The man outright guffawed. "WOMEN, volunteering to be in the frontlines! You know it is a ridiculous notion! You would do well to return to your homes and pick up whatever kitchen work you abandoned to come out here!"

A new voice, female, spoke up from the crowd: "I seem to recall you making an exception last time China was in danger."

All eyes turned to the young woman who'd spoken. Lightly tan in complexion and raven-haired,she wore a garment of green, with a flowing, pale yellow skirt and a long blue and red sash. The expression upon her face was stern, fixated directly upon the man making the declaration. "Isn't that right, Chi Fu?" she continued.

Chi Fu huffed. "An exception was made for you in the past, Fa Mulan, and exceptions will be made for you again, by order of the Emperor. Exceptions, need I remind you, that I wholeheartedly DISagree with. However, we cannot just let women into the army en masse! Unless you want our military to collapse into complete disarray!"

"What makes them so different from me?" Mulan asked.

"The Emperor believes you have the soul and the skill of a man," Chi Fu informed her. "You are no ordinary woman." Almost inaudibly, he added, "In his eyes, anyway…"

"If this ship is destroying entire port cities," Mulan insisted, "then we need all the help we can get."

"And we will find sufficient soldiers within our MALE ranks," Chi Fu retorted. "Which leads me to ask: are you saying that you will serve?"

Mulan approached the band of Imperial emissaries briskly. One of them handed her a conscription scroll. "For my country," she told Chi Fu. She wanted it very clear that while she was far from the sort of person who would withdraw aid to her own country because of personal grudges, she was not happy with Chi Fu's treatment of Rainbow Dash and her companions in the slightest.

"If this diversion is over," Chi Fu insisted, "we shall continue."

Rainbow Dash tried to tell him, "This is NOT over – "

"THE YE FAMILY!" Chi Fu called out.

"HEY!" Rainbow Dash yelled as a young man stepped forth to take another scroll from the Emperor's men. "ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME – "

"THE LIAO FAMILY!"

"Is ANYPONY listening to me?" Rainbow Dash cried as men young and old fell into line to take up their scrolls.

"I am." Mulan had approached Rainbow Dash, her expression softening to one of sympathy. "I'm sorry. I thought things would have changed."

"Changed?" Applejack questioned.

"Well…" Mulan replied.

"Hey, I remember your name!" Pinkie Pie cried. "We got told a story all about you and how you dressed up as a stallion to get into the army! Then you saved everyone, and the Emperor was super impressed!"

"Well…it was a human man," Mulan clarified, unsure why Pinkie Pie had thought she'd disguised herself as a horse. "But I thought all of that would have changed the Emperor's mind. I'm…not really surprised that Chi Fu is still living in the past, but he wouldn't have turned you down if the Emperor had declared he couldn't."

"It's okay," Twilight reassured Mulan. "We're not exactly from around here. Maybe it also has a little bit to do with that. I mean…we might not seem exactly trustworthy yet."

Mulan admitted, rather sheepishly, "I'd thought you all looked a little…well…"

"Different?" Twilight supplied.

"Purple doesn't seem to be a common mane color in this land," Rarity added.

"Yes," Mulan agreed. "Are…you from outside China?"

"Pretty far outside," Twilight confirmed.

Mulan's brow furrowed in confusion. "Then why do you want to protect China so much?"

"We want to protect anypony who needs help," Fluttershy told her. "We can't just stand back while all of your port cities get destroyed and people get hurt."

As they conversed, Chi Fu had finished dealing out conscription papers. Mulan only paid him just enough of an ear to hear that he'd ordered all recruits to report to the same camp where she'd journeyed to at the beginning of the last war against the Huns. Once he was gone, she asked Twilight, "Where are you staying?"

"Well…uh…we hadn't exactly thought about that," Twilight admitted. "We could just go back to the…" Saying "ship" to a stranger was probably not the best idea until she could explain how the ship had become parked in the lake. "…Vehicle we came in on. It's pretty roomy."

"All right." Mulan nodded. "If you need anything for food, you could stay for dinner with my family tonight."

"Why are you being so helpful to us?" Rainbow Dash asked, slightly suspicious. "You just MET us."

"Well…" Mulan replied, "let's just say that a while ago, I met some other people who were from…far away. Probably as far away as you're from. Trusting them turned out to be the right thing in the long run. So…if there's any way I can help, I will. Especially after you got THAT as your official greeting."

"So you know that guy?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"He observed the camp where I trained," Mulan answered.

"I bet he was nicer when he thought he was just talking to stallions," Fluttershy speculated. "I mean…men."

"Noooooo…he got on the men's nerves too," Mulan confirmed.

"Not surprising," Twilight huffed. "Anyway…if you're offering, I think it would be great to have dinner together. We haven't been in this land very long, and if you don't mind, we'd all like to hear more about your story."

"Not to mention that tomorrow you've gotta ride off to war!" Pinkie Pie cried, somewhat horrified. "We can't let you go without a proper going-away party!"

Mulan smiled at this, though it was somewhat of a sad smile. "My family probably isn't going to be too happy that I'm heading out."

"Are you…scared?" Twilight asked.

"Twilight, that's rude," Rarity whispered.

"No, it's all right," Mulan clarified. "Yes…I am afraid. The moment I heard those drums, I knew what was coming. But I can't sit by and watch either. And to be honest, I've done more frightening things." She turned toward one of the gates. "We should go. Mother will be wanting my help getting the food ready."

"Thank you again for this," Twilight emphasized as the group moved through the gate, into the walls of one of the estates, to see a wide expanse of field bearing a house, a stable, and a small shrine on a hill.

"Yeah, thanks!" Spike asserted. "It's real nice of you."

Mulan took notice of Spike for the first time, a little surprised. "Is…he your family guardian?" she asked Twilight.

"Family guardian?" Twilight repeated. "I don't think so. What's that mean, anyway?"

"Every family is watched over by the spirits," Mulan explained, guessing that wherever Twilight came from, she wasn't aware of spiritual protection. "Guardians accompany us through our hardest times. We all have them. We just…usually don't notice each other's. Well, mine gets himself noticed a lot, but he's sort of loud."

Twilight knew Spike wasn't a spirit, but that was probably the fact that would make him stand out in this world. She suddenly realized why he'd gone so unnoticed in the crowd. Dragons must have been common guardians. That only made sense, given the connection of this land to the Spirit Realm and its seemingly misplaced name referencing dragons. If its dragons resided in the Spirit Realm, all suddenly made sense. "I guess he is sort of my family guardian," Twilight answered. "He's been with me since I was young, and he's always helped me through the good times and the bad times."

"Aw, shucks, Twilight…" Spike blushed.

Waiting at the door to the house was a triad of people. The tallest of them all was a thin man with a pencil-thin mustache that curved into a short beard; though he was balding, his remaining dark hair, streaked with gray, was pulled into a short ponytail at the back of his head. He was clothed in a robe of varying shades of blue, with a red sash. In one hand, he carried a walking stick, which he planted firmly on the ground for support. Accompanying him was a shorter woman, sporting thicker hair – once again raven offset with silver – pulled atop her head. She was clothed in a garment with violet sleeves, a maroon skirt, and a blue midsection. Shortest and oldest of all was a bent-over woman with completely white hair contained in a puffy bun, her clothing consisting of a robe of many blues. All three regarded Mulan with a mournful concern.

Mulan knew what they were all thinking. "Mother, Father, Grandmother…you know I had to say yes."

"We've already had to lose you to one war," her mother replied somberly. "We worried every day about whether or not you would come home. We didn't think we would ever have to see this again. That peace would have lasted…"

"You went in my place," Mulan's father interrupted. "These attacks do not sound like the work of something so terrible as the Huns. I could have gone in yours."

"No, you couldn't!" Mulan snapped suddenly. "You know your injuries would have stopped you. One of us had to go, and you would have been hurt! It had to be me!"

"But you have so much to lose…" Mulan's mother said softly.

Her grandmother put a hand on her mother's arm. "She knows what she's doing, Li," the elderly woman insisted. "Let her make the choice."

Fa Li decided not to mince any more words with her mother-in-law or with her daughter. She instead realized the other topic she should have addressed. "Who are they?" she asked, looking to the six Equestrians.

"I sort of invited them to dinner?" Mulan said sheepishly. "They're travelers, and they didn't really have any plans, so I thought I'd offer to help them out for a night. And you saw what Chi Fu put them through."

"That we did," Mulan's grandmother huffed. "That man's got a bamboo stick up his – "

"We would be glad to help them for one night," Fa Li said with a nod. "Where have you traveled from?"

"Um…" Twilight grasped for an answer.

"West," Rarity supplied, remembering the words of the jewelry vendor and producing a denarius to show.

"Have you come with anyone else?" Fa Li asked in confusion.

"No," Rarity replied. "Just us. Six ma – women, one guardian."

As soon as Rarity mentioned the idea of a guardian, the eyes of all three of Mulan's family darted down to Spike, the trio taking notice of him for the first time. "Uh…hi," Spike said nervously, waving.

"Kind of fat for a dragon, don't you think?" Mulan's grandmother whispered, not as quietly as she thought she had.

"HEY!" Spike snapped.

"Grandma…" Fa Li sighed. "We apologize. We did not mean to insult you," she told Spike.

"It's fine," Spike reassured her with a wave of a hand.

"Six women traveling alone, with only one guardian spirit…" Mulan's father mulled over the concept in his mind. "It does not seem wise."

"Father," Mulan reminded him, "that was more than I had."

"Well, we've survived so far," Twilight added. "To be honest, it's been a little surprising how many people are surprised. Where we come from, it's not that weird for women to go on journeys and have adventures. We even help fight our country's enemies."

"I have not heard of a nation in the west that has such customs," Mulan's father stated plainly.

"Father," Mulan said sternly. She was beginning to form her own theory about the strange travelers she'd met; time would tell if she was right.

"What are you called?" Mulan's father asked, his tone turning to one of curiosity.

One by one, the introductions rolled out: "I'm Twilight Sparkle."

"My name is Rarity."

"Applejack."

"PINKIE PIE IN THE HOUSE!"

"Rainbow Dash!"

"Fluttershy." A little more audible than usual.

"And I'm Spike!"

While Mulan's family was taken aback at the exotic-sounding names, they figured such monikers were common in whatever western nation these travelers called home. "I am Fa Zhou," Mulan's father introduced. "This is my wife, Fa Li. And my mother, Fa Jia."

"But you can just call me Grandmother!" Mulan's grandmother insisted. "Everybody else does."

"Well, it's great to meet y'all!" Applejack said warmly. "Thanks again for lettin' us stay for dinner. Mighty nice of ya."

"It is our pleasure," Fa Li insisted. "Mulan, we should begin to prepare the food. We have a lot of guests to feed."

"Mind if I lend a hoof?" Applejack asked.

"Or me?" Pinkie Pie added. "I make a meeeaaan dessert!"

"That she does," Applejack confirmed.

"I wanna help, too!" Spike volunteered. "Can't go wrong with a little fire-breathing action in the kitchen!"

Fa Li shook her head. "You are our guests. You do not have to – "

"We just put seven extra mouths at yer table," Applejack reminded her. "'Sides. It's fun for us. And when I say fun…" She lowered her voice. "I mean it's almost way too much fun for Pinkie Pie."

"I think that's a great idea," Mulan said hurriedly. She was nervous about the concept of being alone in the kitchen with her mother, having to explain her decision once more, having to watch the older woman worry for her daughter's life.

...

Once Mulan, Fa Li, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Spike had dispersed to the kitchen, that left Grandmother, Fa Zhou, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy to sit in a small, cozy living room of sorts.

"So what's the deal with this last war?" Rainbow Dash asked. "The one where Mulan went off to fight in the first place?"

"The Huns," Fa Zhou said solemnly. "Raiders from the north. China has had a long history of fighting them. The Emperor built a wall in order to keep them out of our country, but the leader of the Hun army, Shan-Yu, saw it as a challenge. They say Shan-Yu was a cruel and ruthless man." He sighed. "I once was called to fight, myself, long before Mulan went into battle. It is how I gained these injuries."

"Oh…I'm sorry," Fluttershy said automatically.

"So…Shan-Yu would have been one of the most chaotic things ever to happen to this country, right?" Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes," Fa Zhou confirmed. "He would. It is a relief to us all that he is dead."

Twilight wasn't so sure. Already, her mind was on Discord, and how Shan-Yu would probably appeal to him. She wasn't wrong; Discord certainly would have put the leader of the Hun army back on the playing field in a heartbeat if not for the fact that he knew Maleficent was fixated on doing the same.

"Dinner's ready!" Mulan announced energetically, sliding into the room. "It really does go a lot faster with a dragon helping out."

"Happy to help!" Spike replied, walking into the room with a bow.

In a few minutes, all were situated around a long table. Bowls of hot rice and vegetables were served, and all but Fluttershy were passed plates laden with the meat of chickens raised on that very farm.

"We were talking about the Hun invasions earlier," Twilight brought up. "What we're really curious about, though, is when Mulan went into war herself."

"If you want to talk about it," Fluttershy added politely.

"I don't mind," Mulan told her. "It was…well…the day Chi Fu rode in to announce the Huns had breached the wall, I had already been through a lot. I was publicly dishonored, and I wasn't sure what that meant for my future."

"Doing what?" Twilight asked before Rarity elbowed her hard. Twilight realized that was probably another one of those questions it was more polite not to have asked.

"Well…in the land where you come from, are marriages arranged?" Mulan asked. So far, her guests had such different beliefs from her family already, she figured it was best to double-check.

"Arranged?" Rarity repeated. "Well, a lot of planning goes into them – "

"No," Mulan corrected. "I mean, do the bride and groom get picked out for each other?"

"No!" Twilight cried in horror. "That would be…" Before she could criticize the system, as she personally felt it was incredibly wrong, she realized she was being treated as a guest in the home of people who didn't see it that way. "Different from how we do things," she concluded.

"Every woman in town is evaluated by a matchmaker. She decides if we're ready to become brides and begin starting families," Mulan explained. "My evaluation was that day, but everything that could go wrong did. The worst part is…a lot of what happened was just an accident. But I felt like it was my fault because in my heart, I really wasn't ready to think about marriage or acting like a housewife. I went there because it was what I was supposed to do, but I really didn't know if that future was for me. I didn't think there was another way, but I felt like I didn't know what I wanted or what was best for me. So when everything went up in flames, I felt like it was because of me not being sure. I thought I should want to be a perfect bride and a perfect daughter, but that didn't really match what was inside of me. It was at the point where I didn't recognize myself in the mirror. Anyway, the matchmaker announced to the entire village that because of my mistakes, I would never bring my family honor. I know every other woman that was evaluated that day did everything right, and I couldn't understand why it was so hard for me to just be quiet and pour the tea, like they did.

"But everything changed when the war drums started beating. Suddenly, my dishonor didn't matter. They wanted a man from every family, and my father was the only man we had." Mulan looked to Zhou then, asking him with her eyes if she could proceed, or if she had best preserve his honor by skipping the details.

Zhou responded by picking up that part of the story. "I was prepared to ride into battle with my wounds," he said, "even though they prevented me from walking. I tried to tell myself that I would fare well, taking up my sword and going through the motions of battle, but my body couldn't take it. I eventually accepted the fact that I would have been killed on the battlefield. But to protect China was more important than my life." He looked back to Mulan. "When she left in my place…I was terrified. Mulan, Li, and my mother are the most precious treasures I have. I knew I could not follow her, or the generals would know what she had done and kill her. By the time I knew she was gone, there was no way I could have intercepted her before she would have reached the camp. I am grateful every day that she was returned to us safely." He smiled. "But perhaps this part of the story is best told by her."

Mulan nodded. "I knew my father would die if he went. And inside of me, I was still thinking about my honor and how it was lost. While the rest of my family slept, I was awake, thinking about everything and how it was all wrong. That's when I got the idea. I knew it would have sounded crazy if I told it to anyone, but it was the only way I could think of to make everything right. I'd like to think I did it to protect my father…but I did it for my own honor too. I thought maybe, if I could help save China, that somehow that would make up for my mistakes with the matchmaker…and for all the things I'd been feeling about myself. I did it all before I could talk myself out of it. I cut my hair. I dressed in my father's armor to hide my body. I stole his conscription document so I could turn it in at the training camp. I prayed to my ancestors for safety…for my family and myself."

"And they told me!" Grandmother interrupted. "They woke me up to let me know EXACTLY what she'd done!"

"They did a little more than that," Mulan went on. "They sent me a guardian. Or…at least I thought they did. That's a long story. In the middle of the night, when it was all done, I rode out. Somewhere along the road, I think I realized how dangerous it was. What I was doing. But once I left the gates, I couldn't go back.

"When I got to the camp, I trained with the other soldiers. No one ever found out during all that time what I really was. They all thought I was a man. Fa Zhou's secret son, Ping. It's kind of amazing that they didn't figure it out earlier on, now that I think about it. I was pretty obvious."

"But she got to train with a real hunk of a general!" Grandmother emphasized.

Mulan flushed slightly. "Grandmother…well, yes. The general of the trainees. Li Shang. He's special to me. He's everything a general should be. He did his best to bring out the best in us. He…gave up on me, once. But I figured out one of the tests he gave us. Everyone thought he was challenging our strength, but I figured out what he was really testing was our mind, and after I passed his challenge, he didn't give up on me again. But in the end, after all that time together, he wasn't just a general. He was a friend. And…maybe a little more." She smiled. "We write to each other a lot. His family lives far away from here, and our lives are pretty different, but we stay in touch when we can.

"Anyway, I marched as part of the Imperial Army into my first battle. We defeated the Huns, but I took an injury from Shan-Yu's blade. They couldn't treat me without finding out what I was. They told Shang to execute me for treason…but he spared my life. He said it was because I saved his life during the battle, and he was repaying his debt to me. I know it was because of more than that. There was more than just debt between us.

"We thought the Huns died in that battle, but we were wrong. I was the only one who saw them rise from the snow and head for the Imperial City. I rode ahead to warn Shang and the Emperor. Shan-Yu and I got there at the same time. Shang and a couple other soldiers of the army joined me to come up with a plan to save the Emperor, and that time, we killed Shan-Yu for good."

"The Emperor looked upon her deeds with such gratitude," Zhou added, "that he declared her a hero and pardoned all of her actions."

"He very nearly appointed her to the council!" Li emphasized.

"I didn't want that," Mulan said with a shake of her head. "I just wanted to come back home. And that's where we are now."

"You're super brave!" Pinkie Pie cried.

"Thank you," Mulan replied. "I don't know about 'brave'…I know now that I did what had to be done." Her smile inverted. "I just thought that what I did might change the Emperor and Chi Fu's mind about all women."

"It's okay," Twilight told her. "We'll think of something. We're not just going to sit around and watch these people get hurt. Especially now that we know one of the people on the line."

Mulan was flattered, and couldn't suppress a grin.

"We just need to come up with an idea as good as yours," Rainbow Dash insisted. "Or…" Something struck her, right in the most impulsive part of the mind. "What if the idea WAS yours?"

"What does that mean?" Mulan asked confusedly.

"Hear me out!" Rainbow Dash said excitedly. "So let's say the six of us all dressed up as guys too! It worked for you! Why wouldn't it work for us?"

"Rainbow Dash, that idea is…" Twilight had been about to tear it down. "…Actually, doable, now that I think about it. I might be able to think of a way to alter our voices…"

"EXCUSE me!" Rarity cried in shock. "Are you actually ENDORSING this insane idea?"

"It sounds like somethin' Loki would come up with," Applejack remarked. "Not that I'm against the sounds of it."

"You really want to go through that much rigmarole in order to help defend this country?" Rarity huffed. "What's so difficult about fighting as ourselves?"

"The Emperor might want to have our heads on a plate if we show up at the battlefield," Twilight pointed out. "We're not just women. We're outsiders. They might think we're the ENEMY." She looked around the table. "Fluttershy? Pinkie Pie?"

"Sounds like fun!" Pinkie exclaimed. "If we're gonna be honest, I did feel a little left out that we didn't get to switch when Loki put glamour on everypony. BUT NOW IT'S PINKIE PIE'S TURN!" She attached a thick, black fake mustache, previously unseen in her hand, to her face, grinning madly.

"I guess that doesn't sound like a bad idea," Fluttershy mused.

"Are you KIDDING ME?" Rarity cried in exasperation. "Everywhere else we've gone, we've been able to be ourselves and earn acceptance for it! And now you're telling me we're going to cover up who we are just to fit in with some silly rule? Well, I'm not having it! They'll have me as Rarity, or not at all!"

"Well, technically, you were 'Melody' in that other kingdom," Applejack pointed out.

"That was DIFFERENT!" Rarity groaned.

"And it's not exactly a 'silly rule,'" Twilight reminded her. "Lives are on the line."

"Twilight Sparkle," Rarity said sternly, "you know very well that we have our ways of escaping death."

"It would be better if we could all be on the same side to begin with," Twilight snapped.

"I've just about had it with this place!" Rarity stood angrily. "Telling me what mares can and can't do. I was willing to put up with it in the name of diplomacy, but now, it's simply become too much to bear! And I'm certain Rainbow Dash agrees with me!"

"Actually," Rainbow Dash told her, "I was thinking that if we joined their army as stallions and then let them know who we were after we saved everything, that'd blow their minds like Mulan did, and no more telling us what we can't do because of us being mares!"

"You seem pretty confident you'll be able to help us win," Mulan pointed out.

"We've done a lot of awesome stuff on our travels," Rainbow Dash informed her.

"They also seem quite…impulsive," Li confessed in a whisper to Grandmother.

"Well, so's your daughter!" Grandmother whispered back. "And we all remembered how well that turned out!"

"Well, it looks like a five to one vote in favor," Twilight tallied.

Rarity sat back down, her lips pursed, seeming almost to deflate.

"Well, if you're going to join up with the army, you'll need to be ready by tomorrow," Mulan pointed out. "And that means armor, weapons, and conscription papers. There's an armory in town where you can get most of those things, but…"

"Papers," Twilight repeated. "We don't have any. Or any family here we can be claiming to represent."

All were silent awhile before Twilight spoke again: "Unless we…" She shook her head. "No. That'd be wrong. Wouldn't it? But it's the only way I can think of."

"What would be so wrong?" Fluttershy asked.

"If…if we forged them," Twilight said cautiously. "It doesn't feel right. But at the same time…it's the one thing holding us back. I'm not so sure they're just going to take a bunch of volunteers out of the blue."

"They would if you could pay them off," Mulan informed her.

"Well, we've got a lot of money," Applejack explained. "Just…not a lot of the coins they use here."

"Well, we're not from around here," Rainbow Dash reminded her. "So we have to make do with what we have."

"Right," Twilight agreed. "And in any case…if we want to make this look realistic, it has to look like we have families in this area that we can claim. People who can back us up that we're all guys."

"How are you even going to pull that off?" Mulan asked.

"I should be able to copy handwriting easily enough," Twilight told her. "Let's just say I have a bit of a magic touch. All I'd need to see is a sample scroll to know what to copy."

"You could see mine," Mulan offered.

"Mulan," Zhou cautioned. "Are you sure this is wise?"

"Father, they can help," Mulan insisted. Though, much like when she'd examined her heart to figure out why she'd gone to war against the Huns and discovered that it was as much about restoring her honor as it was about protecting her father, maybe more, Mulan was beginning to suspect an ulterior motive in herself, one she wasn't yet ready to voice. For all intents and purposes, she wanted to act to help the six travelers and their guardian. However, she was well aware that a large part of her wanted to see what would happen if the Emperor and his staff were wowed by even more female warriors. Rainbow Dash's idea sounded solid: the idea of proving themselves and then revealing their true identities. Mulan had been irked when she saw how little had changed because of her actions: an exception only granted to her. If there was a way to turn the ripple she'd started into a tidal wave, she was all for it.

...

That was why after dinner, Mulan set right to work in the study, clearing off the desk and laying out her conscription papers, blank parchment, and ink for Twilight to begin work. As Twilight sat down and began the art of copying, Mulan looked over the paper she'd taken off the desk, the one that had dominated its surface. She'd already read the words upon it, but she felt the need to revisit them under the current circumstances.

"Fa Mulan:

"As always, I hope you are well. It pleases me to hear that life is running smoothly for you on the farm. Here, things are somewhat more hectic. I can't neglect my training, even in peacetime. I like to think my skill with a sword has gotten even better than it was when we fought together. Somehow, I get the feeling that you haven't put your sword down, either. Let me know if I'm right. I'm sure you're the best sword wielder in Leshou right now.

"I am saving up money to make my way to visit you again. I want to see you. It made me happy when you said that you think of me that much…I think of you just as often. If it's not too improper of me to say so, there are nights I even see you in my dreams.

"Perhaps we could spar and test skill against each other. It's probably more important for both of us to be able to take a break, however. We'll have lunches and dinners together in downtown Leshou. I will let you know more when I get closer to being able to make the trip.

"I hope to hear from you again soon. Please keep me updated on how life is for you.

"Li Shang"

Mulan rolled up the letter, tucking it discreetly away. She had intended to start the reply letter to him that night, telling him she looked forward to his visit, but it seemed that with a new conflict on the horizon, both she and Shang would be torn away from their home addresses and given something else to focus on. With any luck, or at least as much luck as could be expected in wartime, they would be able to meet up at the training camp once more and talk in person. He'd been right, after all. She hadn't stopped practicing the art of wielding a sword ever since her return from the last war, and her speed and precision had increased noticeably.

"How's it coming?" she asked Twilight, putting all such thoughts aside for the moment.

"Great," Twilight replied. "I've got mine done. Wanna see?"

Mulan took up the copy she'd made. "This looks official," she remarked, her eyes widening as she was taken aback by the accuracy.

"Twilight does a lot of writing," Spike explained. "She's really good at making stuff professional. And I bet she even used a little m – "

"Magnificent penmanship," Rarity interrupted, "for which she's known throughout our land."

Twilight gave Rarity an appreciative nod. They didn't yet have confirmation that magic existed in this world, and Rarity had suspected that Twilight would consider the unleashing of magic on a nonmagical world as detrimental as unleashing knowledge about the future would have been on the Nine Realms of the past.

"Shine, of the Dusk family," Mulan read out loud. "Interesting pick!"

"I wanted something I wouldn't forget," Twilight said. "'Dusk Shine' is close enough to Twilight Sparkle, but it's also a bit more masculine-sounding." She turned back to the other Equestrians. "You'll all need to think on what names you want."

"This is an important decision!" Pinkie Pie mused. "It could take me a while to come up with it. After all, picking a new name is a process that takes GOT IT!"

Twilight took out a new parchment, beginning work on the next conscription paper.

"Ugh…" Rarity groaned. "Just…just leave mine blank at the name. I'll figure it out later." Lower, she grumbled, "I still can't believe we're going through with this."

...

Once Twilight's work was finished, the six Equestrian women and their newly decreed guardian decided to take their leave.

"We want to get to the armory before it closes down," Twilight explained.

"You know what to do with your hair?" Mulan asked.

"We saw enough men in town that I think we have a idea." Twilight nodded. "I wanted to thank you again for everything."

"It was my honor." Mulan smiled warmly.

"Maybe we'll meet up on the battlefield!" Spike said enthusiastically.

"Maybe we will," Mulan agreed. Solemnly, she added, "I'll pray for you."

Twilight wasn't sure how to respond, as prayer wasn't in her repertoire. It seemed unfair not to reciprocate. "We'll wish you the best" was what she eventually came up with.

As the Fa family's seven guests departed for downtown, Mulan turned away from the door, shutting it to come face-to-face with Li. She flinched, aware that she was about to have the very conversation she'd dreaded.

"Mother…"

Li closed her eyes and let out a cleansing sigh. "Mulan, I know that you had to accept. But I already had to be afraid of losing my little girl once."

"You won't lose me," Mulan insisted, even though she wasn't quite sure of the veracity of her statement. After all, war was war. "I'm as strong as any man."

"Many men died," Li reminded her.

"If I come home a hero again," Mulan insisted, "I'll bring honor to this family. I'm still not ready to get married, and I don't know if my future is going to be like the other women in town. This might be the only way the Fa family can even have its honor."

She knew the argument was hollow, and she anticipated her mother's rebuttal before Li even said the words: "Honor is nothing compared to my daughter's life. Your father and grandmother feel the same way."

"I know they do." Mulan bowed her head somberly. "I don't like that I have to leave you all behind. And I know you're afraid. So am I. But I have to go."

Li's sigh was one of defeat. "I know. There's nothing I can say or do to stop you."

Mulan quickly stepped toward her mother, embracing her tightly. "I'll miss you."

"As I will miss you," Li replied softly. "Conduct yourself with honor. Serve well. Remember that we love you, and above all else, take care of yourself."

"I will," Mulan promised. "You'll make sure everything here goes smoothly while I'm gone?"

"As best I can."

"I love you," Mulan said softly, meaningfully.

...

Similar conversations followed with her father and grandmother, but eventually the Fa family household accepted that Mulan had to be on her way the following morning.

Beneath a night-blue sky studded with a pearly moon, the young woman stepped out into the yard, intent on making her way to the small shrine atop the hill. It was rotund in shape, and inside of it were many engraved plaques paying homage to the generations of Fa ancestors who had come before. The largest and central plaque was devoted to Fa Heng, the founder of the family. High above the plaques, twelve thin pillars culminated in statues of animals, one of each of the zodiac. Mulan knew that one of these pillars had been empty until recently, though she'd never taken the time to look up and see it for herself – she'd only taken it for granted that all of the guardian statues would be there.

What she did notice was the incense burner, a small golden disk that hung near Heng's plaque. Ever since Mulan had begun visiting the shrine as a little girl, she'd observed the burner, either putting her own incense in it or observing her family doing so. And it had borne the carven image of a dragon, a tiny sculpture that snaked along the edge of the disk. Since Mulan had returned victorious from the war against the Huns, the burner's design had changed: a tiny golden cricket, not a dragon, watched over the incense sticks. It was an understandable change, and not one that had caused any confusion; Mulan wasn't sure if anyone besides her had even noticed, but she was sure that if Zhou, Li, or Grandmother had, they would have all understood the transformation.

Reverently, Mulan lit a stick of incense, placing it gently upon the burner where the cricket could watch it flicker and smoke. She knelt before Heng's plaque and bowed her head. "Well…it's happening again," she began. "I'm going to war. Again. I would appreciate help if you can give it, but please watch over my family while I'm gone. Especially my father. And if you can spare any help for those six women I met today…I think they'll need everything they can get. I know they already have a guardian with them, but they have a long road ahead." She was silent a moment to let the words sink in. Then she told the plaques "Thank you" and rose, moving back toward the house.

Once Mulan had left, a stillness fell over the shrine, and the only sign that time passed at all was the slow crumbling of the incense within the golden burner. Once the small structure was in complete solitude and silence, however, the inscriptions on Fa Heng's plaque gained a blue luminosity, starting out faint and growing to a steady glow.

A faint blue shade smoked out from the plaque, taking a human shape: a very tall and slightly rotund man, clad in a blue robe, with no hair to speak of atop his head but sporting an impressive beard. The spirit of Fa Heng visually surveyed the empty shrine, taking in all of the plaques and statues before calling upon the one he wished to address: "Cri-Kee: awaken!"

The incense burner crashed to the ground, surrounded by a puff of smoke. Out of that smoke, a tiny cricket, the colors of a periwinkle, hopped, looking eagerly up to Heng and giving a quiet cheep.

"Awaken the others," Heng sternly ordered Cri-Kee.

With a squeak of consent, Cri-Kee moved to where the golden disk had fallen to the floor. He began to hop upon it, and the sound that resulted was that of an echoing gong.

The spirits of every Fa ancestor represented in the shrine burst forth at the sound of the calling, forming a bright blue convergence.

No sooner had the ancestors convened than they began to complain. "Can't China catch a break for ONCE?" a shrill male voice cried out. "Always with the invading and the wars!"

"How does that girl expect to ever settle down and get married when she rides out to get killed every other week?" a female voice chimed in.

Another: "Well, she didn't seem to be getting anywhere fast in THAT direction anyway!"

"Oh, no you did NOT!"

"At least she's not dressed as a MAN this time."

"Did you have a PROBLEM with her dressing as a man? She can dress however she wants!"

"You weren't singing that tune LAST time!"

"Well, last time, we didn't know she'd end up being the most productive member of this family since Fa Nuan!"

"HEY!"

"SILENCE!" Heng waved a hand over the room, and the squabbling spirits fell silent. "Regardless of our feelings on the situation, Fa Mulan is yet again in danger. It falls to us to hear her prayer and protect her as is our duty."

"What about those friends she talked about?" one of the men brought up. "They seem pretty shady to me!"

The Equestrians had not gone unnoticed by the ancestors, who had been able to peripherally view their entrance onto the Fa family farm. They were not omniscient, but when it came to their family, they knew almost all. Heng nodded to acknowledge the concern. "I suspect they are not of this realm," he admitted. "It is not clear whether they are here to help or harm Mulan. If my suspicions are right, they have the potential to be her greatest allies…or her greatest enemies. Which is why we must be sure in our decision. We must choose a course of action that will serve us either in protecting Mulan's allies alongside her…or protecting her from them."

"Well, why not awaken a guardian, then?" a woman asked.

"Yes! A guardian!" one of the men agreed. The cacophony rose again:

"Send the strongest!"

"No, the wisest!"

"No, the quickest!"

"What good will being QUICK do?"

"Help Mulan escape enemies! Isn't it obvious?"

"Oh, that's going to look good on the battlefield when the heroine of China turns and RUNS away as fast as she can!"

"Well, then, send the rat if it means that much to you!"

"The RAT! The second most useless?"

"EXCUSE ME! The rat was the only one there for me during the time when I needed someone most!"

"That's because none of the other guardians like you!"

Heng floated back and rolled his eyes. Sometimes he wondered why he even bothered.

"At least the rat isn't as much of a walking catastrophe as Mushu!"

"I thought he did pretty well last time. He did earn re-ascension and all."

"Re-ascension? That's not a word!"

"Well, sor-ry, Mr. I Eat the Dictionary for Breakfast!"

"Whatever you call it, Mulan's the ONLY person in this family who's ever had any luck with Mushu! It was obviously a fluke!"

"Or…perhaps not," Heng said suddenly, his deep voice undercutting the rapid-fire arguments and inducing another silence.

"What's that supposed to mean?" one of the men asked.

"It is well known amongst all of us that Mulan is…different," Heng admitted. "We are built upon tradition, but she was only able to bloom when she threw tradition away and chose her own path. A path that we would not have chosen for her. Of all the guardians, the dragon is by nature the one who stands out from the others…and Mushu…truly stands out." He sighed. "And lest we forget, Mulan was born in the year of the dragon. It was why I would have sent the Great Stone Dragon after her during the first war."

The question replayed itself in his head, the way it always did whenever he let himself think about it too much: why did the Great Stone Dragon fail? Why did its statue crumble? It was easy just to blame Mushu and say he had done the awakening ritual incorrectly, but as little credit as Heng tended to give Mushu, the dragon always had been an expert at awakening spirits. It was as if the statue had been an empty shell, and the spirit of the Great Stone Dragon no longer inhabited it, but Heng could not see why that would be the case, or where the majestic dragon would have departed to. One thing was for sure: it would take far more than a careless smaller dragon to murder such a being as the Great Stone Dragon. The Great Stone Dragon was not only gone indefinitely, but had apparently been gone for a while. Yet no explanation offered itself up for the odd phenomenon, and Heng, as he had done a thousand times before, had to let the question go.

"Perhaps Mulan and Mushu are best suited for each other," Heng said, "loath as I am to admit it. The dragon is proud and passionate. Mulan is headstrong. Somehow, they brought out the best in each other. Perhaps that is what needs to occur once more." The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like a viable concept. He set aside his bias against Mushu's more aggravating behaviors to consider it truly.

And he realized, in the process, that perhaps the only thing worse than listening to Mushu's loud mouth was having woken up the entire family and listened to them argue only for Heng to have come to the conclusion himself. It was unthinkable for a family founder to make decisions without the counsel of the other family spirits, but at the same time, just leaving them lie and deciding on a plan of action himself would have been a real time-saver.

He paused to let the idea sink in among the others, bracing himself for a wave of negative reactions. Instead, he was met with:

"That's a great idea!"

"Why didn't we think of that before?"

"She's the only person that ever got him to actually be useful."

"We just need to give HER to HIM as the guardian."

"A dragon for a dragon!"

Then one voice: "And if he fails?"

"We shall have to trust in him," Heng sighed. "I wouldn't have allowed him to ascend to the position of guardian if I didn't expect him to keep up the standard he set for himself. If we are in agreement, then he shall awaken. Those in favor?"

"AYE!" the majority of the spirits chorused. They all looked to the last spirit, who had not spoken; tall and thin, sporting a long beard and a tall hat, he was busy moving beads around on an abacus. No one was quite sure exactly what he was calculating, but once he finished, he looked up and nodded. "The math is sound!"

"Very well." Heng picked up the fallen incense burner disc, holding it up high next to one of the towering pillars. The statue upon the pillar's summit was that of a svelte dragon, little over a foot tall, striking a dramatic pose with arms raised and teeth bared in an attempt to appear absolutely ferocious. Heng held the disc out before the dragon statue by the edges of his fingers. "Awaken Mushu," he commanded.

Cri-Kee leapt from the floor to the wall to the opposite wall before landing on the disc, hopping up and down on it once to produce a loud, tinny ringing.

At the sound of the miniature gong, a hundred hairline cracks appeared in the dragon statue's exterior. The stone skin fell away, revealing a live dragon of bright red beneath, striking his pose. As soon as the dragon noticed he'd been awakened from stone, he threw his arms out to his sides triumphantly and cried, "I LIIIIIIIIIVE! Ha-ha-HAAA!" He laughed joyously. "Man, it feels GOOD to be a guardian! SO! What's my first job, huh? Watch over Fa Zhou on a long journey? Oh, I know, I know." His tone became relaxed, teasing. "You want me to go to another war with Mulan, don'tcha?"

"As a matter of fact…" Heng replied.

Mushu flinched. All of his energy dissipated. "Oh."

"A naval force is terrorizing the Chinese ports, according to an emissary from the Emperor," Heng explained. "One man from every family was called to put a stop to them. Only one woman was allowed, and that woman is Mulan."

"Man, can't we ever catch a break?" Mushu groaned. "I'm still brushin' gunpowder off my scales from the last war!"

"That's what I said!" a voice called out from the crowd of ancestors.

"Your task will be to aid her in this turmoil as you did last time," Heng informed Mushu. "We are expecting you to protect her as well as before."

"You got it!" Mushu exclaimed loudly, saluting. "I will protect Mulan with my LIFE!"

"Do NOT let your guard down," Heng insisted sternly, "and do NOT abandon her."

"Chill out!" Mushu groaned. "Whatchu think I am, some kinda slacker? I'm not gonna lie down on the job, you know." He glared at Heng in resentment. Resentment that Heng might not believe he was going to take his new job seriously after how hard he'd worked for it. But even more importantly, resentment that Heng even entertained the possibility of Mushu letting Mulan down.

He was fired up about getting a task so soon; that had not been exaggerated. But deep down, Mushu felt a seed of doubt growing. A seed of fear. Of all the Fa family, Mulan was particularly special to him. He'd seen her survive a lot before, but the thought that she was about to be in danger again was unsettling nonetheless.

"That is good to hear." Heng nodded in understanding. "We give you our full trust."

"Then what am I waitin' around here for?" Mushu's grin returned in full force. "WE GOT ANOTHER WAR TO WIN!" He leapt off the pedestal, landing neatly on the shrine floor, ready to take off.

"There is something else you need to know," Heng stated firmly, and Mushu froze in place. "Mulan's prayer was not just for herself. Six foreigners and their guardian have appeared, and she is aiding them onto the battlefield. All but the guardian are women, and they plan to disguise themselves in the same manner as Mulan did. She prayed for assistance for them as well as herself."

"Waaaiiiiiit a minute," Mushu said slowly, turning to face Heng. "And how do we know these are allies? Showin' up outta nowhere and all."

"We don't," Heng admitted. "Not with certainty. What is more…I am not certain they are of this realm."

"What, you mean like they're spirits?" Mushu asked.

"It is unlikely," Heng replied, "but they have an aura about them that is…unfamiliar."

"So you're sayin' they're from another world or somethin'," Mushu clarified.

"Yes," Heng sighed. "I am saying…they are from another world…or something."

"And this is only the SECOND THING YOU THINK TO TELL ME?" Mushu exploded into ire. "WE ARE DEALING WITH A FULL-ON ALIEN INVASION HERE, AND YOU WAKE ME UP TO SAY, 'Oh, hey there, Mushu, small favor, could you maybe help out with a naval assault that's coming up in a few days, oh, and by the way, A BUNCH OF INVADERS FROM ANOTHER PLANET TURNED UP IN OUR OWN BACK YARD AND YOU MIGHT WANNA LOOK AT THAT WHEN YOU GET THE CHANCE!'?"

"We have no proof they are hostile!" Heng practically growled.

"YOU DON'T HAVE ANY PROOF THEY'RE NOT HOSTILE!" Mushu snapped back. "Oh, we are gonna go check this out RIGHT now!" He stormed toward the exit of the shrine.

"'We'?" Heng repeated, staring after the determined dragon.

"You wanted the dream team back together?" Mushu called back over his shoulder. "Well, the dream team's gettin' back together! Me and Mulan are gonna get to the bottom of this!"

His pace quickened, and he left earshot.

Heng sighed. "I suppose he's not wrong. He just doesn't have to be so loud about it."

"Well, you really didn't give the issue much attention!" a shrill male voice piped up. "Interlopers from another realm are more of a pressing issue than local threats!"

"But they're not THREATS!" a female voice chimed in. "The local ones are actually destroying things!"

"We should have taken a vote on this!"

"Asking for a vote is only asking for Fa Yin to hold up the entire process by babbling!"

"I RESENT THAT! Your MOTHER is the one who babbles!"

"I'm his mother, Yin, and I resent THAT."

Heng was well aware it would take over an hour for the argument to dissipate and everyone to go back to a state of rest. There was nothing to do but wait it out. At least it was slightly entertaining.

...

In her darkened bedchamber, Mulan looked out the window over the quiet fields of the farm one last time. Then she lay down, closing her eyes. Despite an undercurrent of bad nerves brought on by the thought of her imminent departure, she was able to drift into slumber relatively quickly.

No later than thirty seconds after she did, she was alerted to the sound of brass banging on brass very close to her ears. She shrieked as she sat up in bed, heart racing from the sudden awakening.

"RIIIIISE AND SHINE!" Mushu yelled from where he stood on the nightstand. He'd pilfered a bronze kettle and ladle from the kitchen and was using them as a makeshift alarm clock.

"Mushu!" Mulan hissed. "Quiet down! You'll wake everybody else up!"

Mushu set down the kitchen implements. "So there's good news and bad news. Whatcha want first?"

"Uh…the good news?" Mulan asked in confusion.

"The good news is…WE ARE BACK IN BUSINESS, BABY!" Mushu crowed. "The ancestors picked ME to watch over you in the upcoming war, which of course means we're gonna win it."

Mulan smiled upon hearing this. She'd missed having Mushu around. It was a shame that the ancestors would only see fit to let him out when there was grave danger that required his assistance. "So what's the bad news?"

"The bad news is that we've got six invaders from another world running around town!" Mushu hissed.

"Six…Twilight and her friends?" Mulan realized. "How do you know they're from another world?"
"'Cause the head ancestor himself clued me in," Mushu explained. "He picked up some kinda aura. And I KNOW that's bad news!"

"They seemed pretty friendly to me," Mulan told him. "Besides. You remember the last people who came here from another world. They helped us out a lot."

The idea that there were other worlds beyond the one she knew and the Spirit Realm had been strange to grasp at first, but Mushu had told her of adventures he'd had in other realms. It had hit home when three of his otherworldly traveling companions had turned up in the Land of Dragons to fight alongside the Imperial Army. Though Mulan's memories of the order of events were something she was having trouble figuring out.

"Yeah, well, we got lucky," Mushu reminded her. "I knew THEY weren't gonna be trouble. I've never heard of any Twilight Sparkle! I say we check that girl out. See if she actually comes in peace."

"I don't have any reason not to trust them," Mulan insisted. This was followed by a sigh of defeat. "But you're not going to let me sleep until we've investigated them, are you?"

"Nnnnope."

Mulan threw aside her blanket. "Okay. We'll check them out and see what their story actually is. It is a little suspicious that they never did say the name of the land they were from. Actually…" Her feet hit the floor. "I was starting to wonder if maybe they did come from another world. Maybe if I tell them what I know, they'll be able to tell me the truth."

"All right!" Mushu cried victoriously. "So. Did they tell you where they were stayin'?"
"No," Mulan admitted. "They did say they had a place to stay. I do know they were going into town to get armor."

"Right. Because that plan's gonna work six more times."

"It will," Mulan insisted with a scowl. "I don't think anyone's going to expect any other women to try the same thing so soon. And…well…I want them to get away with it."

"You already think of them as your friends?"
"I think they're friendly at least. But I also want to see the look on everyone's face when they see that even more women were able to help us win a victory."

"Huh?"
"I'm still the only one allowed to fight," Mulan informed her guardian. "It didn't matter so much at first, but now that I've seen that not much has changed, that bothers me. Maybe they can help us change things and help everyone see that women can be just as good for the Imperial army as men."

"You're trying to lead some sort of revolution, aren't you?" Mushu crossed his arms and regarded Mulan with skepticism.

"Well, why shouldn't I?" Mulan crossed her arms to stare at him in return. "Out there, I figured out who I really was. It isn't right that they should just forbid every other woman from trying to do the same thing."

Mushu relented with a sigh. "Guess I can't blame ya. But before you take this too far, how about we check out whether or not your little revolutionaries are actually on your side?"

"Right." Mulan sought out her daywear. "I guess it's better safe than sorry."

...

It struck Mulan that every night after a conscription ended with her sneaking out of the house. This time, however, she intended to be back in bed at some point in the night, as soon as she got some answers. The answers Mushu wanted, at least. She saddled up Khan, her raven-black horse, and rode him out the gate, Mushu perched on her shoulder.

"We should be able to catch them on the way out of town," she explained. "If not…they said they were staying here on the thing they rode in on. I'm not sure if that's a wagon or – "

"A boat docked in the middle of a lake?" Mushu suggested.

"Uhhh…why would it be a boat docked in the middle of a lake?" Mulan asked.

"Because there is A BOAT DOCKED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LAKE!" Mushu pointed. "Now, I KNOW somethin's fishy about that!"

Mulan took notice of the Starlight in its position in the body of water partway between town and the farms. She could have sworn that she'd looked at that part of the landscape before, but the ship didn't become clear to her vision until Mushu pointed it out. "That is weird," she agreed. "I'm not sure they could have sailed it all the way up the river."

"You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?"

"We check it out?"

"Read my mind, girl."

Mulan steered Khan on a direct course for the Starlight.

...

It had taken some haggling over unfamiliar coins, but the Equestrian contingent had eventually gotten the armor seller to swap out six suits of armor for a fair amount of what he knew were precious metals, even if they came stamped with strange inscriptions. Of course, they'd had to make up a tale about picking the suits up for heretofore unseen male relatives.

Once the seven were safely around the corner, the armor was pocketed in Hammerspace inventories, and the group set back out to the Starlight to get outfitted, noticing behind them that the armory was closing up shop for the night.

"Okay, WHY did you make me get one of these?" Rainbow Dash hissed as she, Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Spike began the walk back to the lake. "I already HAVE armor."

"You can't use Spectrum here," Twilight insisted. "I haven't seen anything CLOSE to that kind of technology here. It'd be like bringing knowledge of the future back to 616th Midgard. We might set off some kind of terrible chain reaction that throws this world into chaos."

"Fiiiiiiiiine," Rainbow Dash groaned. "I'll get to use that thing SOMETIME, right?"

"There are infinite worlds with millions of technological permutations," Twilight reassured her. "So yes, you'll get to wear Spectrum again."

"Sweet!"

Once aboard the ship, the seven drew up a game plan. The transformation had to begin with the hair. Rarity was still in somewhat of a sulk, but brightened when the topic came around to cutting and styling her friends' hair to look more masculine.

"Twilight's shall be the easiest," she mused. "It's nearly the same length already. I estimate all I'll have to do is tie it off. As for Pinkie Pie, on the other hoof…I'm not sure I can tie up those curls."

"I could straighten them out," Fluttershy brought up. "I do it on my mane all the time."

"B…b…but…" Pinkie Pie grabbed onto the longer ends of her bouncy, curly hair, her eyes growing wide and shiny and her lower lip quivering. "If there's a spring in my mane, there's a spring in my step! If there's no spring in my mane, then what happens to my step? Is it less springy?"

"You're not going to be any less Pinkie Pie with a straight mane," Twilight tried to reassure her. "The way you wear your mane doesn't define who you are – "

"Actually, it speaks volumes about who you are," Rarity interrupted. "My own coiffure is meant to convey a sense of elegance. Pinkie Pie's curls represent fun."

"THEY REPRESENT FUN," Pinkie reiterated.

"You'll still be FUN!" Twilight argued. "And you can grow the curls all back after this!"

"Hmmm…" Pinkie thought it over. "I guess I can learn to live without them. But if I have to straighten out my mane, can I have something else to make up for it?"

"Is this about that ridiculous mustache?" Applejack guessed.

When Pinkie Pie turned to face her, the mustache was already planted beneath her nose. "Maybe."

"Let me make it pink so it's actually convincing," Rarity told her, "and you've got yourself a deal."

"All RIGHT!" Pinkie turned to Fluttershy. "Fluttershy…DO YOUR WORST."

Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie separated themselves from the group to set about the task of straightening their manes for the cutting. "You've gotta lot of curls too, Rarity," Applejack pointed out.

"I'll take care of it later," Rarity said quickly. "Now, let's see about your mane."

In a few moments, Rarity had Applejack sitting down in a chair, an apron wrapped around her to guard her body from loose strands of severed hair. "We'll just need to take it to chin length," Rarity told Applejack as she undid the latter's ponytail.

"While you do that," Twilight said, "I wanna go back and check up on something to see if I can figure out a spell for changing our voices to sound deeper. Spike, are you – "

Spike had taken up a position on another nearby chair to watch Rarity at work. His eyes were practically heart shaped.

"…Never mind," Twilight finished. She'd only wanted to look for one book, anyway, and she was fairly sure she knew where it was. She realized she'd nearly requested Spike's help out of pure habit.

"I'll go with you," Rainbow Dash told Twilight. "I'm not really in the mood to just watch Rarity cut hair for hours."

"You can't rush art," Rarity said curtly.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash set off down the hall to Twilight's room. Once they had reached their destination, Twilight began rummaging through the shelves where she'd stacked up books among other trinkets picked up along the way.

"So what are you looking for?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"My book about the plants of the Everfree Forest," Twilight replied, turning to face Rainbow Dash as her hand groped about on the shelf. "You know, the one Spike and Zecora kept trying to get me to read when I thought it was just a bunch of superstitions? It has an entry all about Poison Joke and its effects and biological makeup. You remember that Poison Joke makes Fluttershy's voice deeper?"

"How could anypony forget Flutterguy?" Rainbow Dash laughed.

"Well," Twilight went on, "I was thinking if I could isolate the factor in Poison Joke that resonated with Fluttershy in particular, I might be able to come up with a voice changing spell. I already have a basic idea of how it would go, but it's always good to cross-reference against a template."

Twilight's hand blindly knocked a glass sphere off the shelf; it thumped onto her toes. "Ow!" Reaching down to pick up the thankfully unbroken sphere, Twilight recognized it. "Hey…my Remembrall!" She swept down to scoop it up, and as soon as the glass touched her hands, the Remembrall filled with a bright crimson. "Huh," Twilight remarked. "Guess I forgot something."

"Like what?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Like…" Twilight looked up at the shelf where she'd been searching. "Like the fact that I got all this stuff at Diagon Alley, and I never even used it!"

"I could have told you you wouldn't be using that moon chart," Rainbow Dash reminded her. "Actually, I'm pretty sure I DID tell you that."

"Having a moon chart around actually…reminds me of Luna," Twilight admitted softly. "I like looking at it and thinking of her. Thinking of her makes me think of back home." She cast a glance over the rest of the shelf. "The rest of this stuff, though…we might actually be able to use some of George Weasley's joke items in battle. The Shield Hats would be a bit conspicuous with our armor, and I don't even know if we'll have to worry about being cursed here anyway, but we might just be able to get away with hiding some of these things on ourselves." Twilight plucked an Extendable Ear, a Decoy Detonator, and a handful of Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder off the shelf.

"What about those other fireworks?" Rainbow Dash asked, pointing at the Wildfire Whiz-Bangs.

"Fireworks that are almost impossible to put out?" Twilight raised an eyebrow. "How would THAT be inconspicuous?"

"We're gonna have to use the Elements anyway," Rainbow Dash pointed out. "There's not much inconspicuous about a giant rainbow."

"Right." Twilight took a few of the fireworks down as well.

"Y'know what else might come in handy?" Rainbow Dash pointed out. "One of those anti-magic ropes. In case we DO come up against somepony magical here."

"I think that's a great idea!" Twilight concurred; she moved to the door with her prizes, and Rainbow Dash followed her back down the hall. "Oh. And that's another thing. We need to be more careful about the pronouns we use."

"Pronouns?"

"You know, words like 'somepony' and 'everypony.' And you saw how that salesman reacted when we called each other 'mares.' We have to start using human pronouns. At least in worlds where we need to make an impression. When we get a better sense of things, we can relax on it a bit. But for now, on this world, it's going to have to be 'someone' and 'everyone.' 'Women' and 'men.' ESPECIALLY while we're in disguise as st – as men. Wow. I'm REALLY not used to that yet. But we need to blend in as much as we can if this disguise is gonna work."

"Right," Rainbow Dash agreed.

They returned to find Rarity undoing the apron from around Applejack's shoulders; the latter's blonde hair had been halved in length. "And now, to top it off…" Rarity swiped a yellow ribbon off a side table, taking Applejack's hair up into a small bun and tying it off with the ribbon. "There." She passed Applejack a hand mirror. "How's that?"

"Not bad!" Applejack nodded. "Lookin' like a stallion already."

Rarity had by that time obtained a broom; before she could begin sweeping up the copious blonde hairs on the ground, Spike intercepted the tool. "I'll help out with that!" he said enthusiastically, sweeping all of Applejack's cut-off hair into a pile.

"So who's next?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Hmm…" Rarity gave Rainbow Dash's hair a once-over. "Your hair is just a bit too short, actually. It wouldn't make much sense to clip extensions in it, and besides, I doubt I even have any rainbow-colored extensions on me. It's not exactly something you think you'll need on a trip, you know. I suppose the next thing to do would be to wait for Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie to return."

In only a few moments, they did, with two heads of pink hair completely flattened, swinging down past their shoulders. Fluttershy appeared satisfied with herself, but Pinkie sported a conspicuous frown. "My hair is sad," she moped, "so I feel sad too."

"It's just gonna be for a while," Twilight tried to reassure her.

"I know," Pinkie sighed. Still, her eyes were downcast.

"Put that mustache back on," Twilight commanded.

"Okay." Pinkie fixed her trusty pink mustache beneath her nose, then let out a small giggle. "I feel sillier already! And a little bit like an old-fashioned villain who steals freshly baked pies and ties them to train tracks while their bakers watch all their hard work get RUN OVER BY THE WHEELS!"

Twilight snapped her fingers, and with a sparkle, the mustache became bright pink. "How about being a male soldier?" she asked.

"Private Pinkie Pie, reporting for duty!" Pinkie saluted energetically. Then her hand fell, and she sighed again. "It's still not the same. I'll get used to it."

"Well, we might as well get the cutting done while we're at this point," Rarity suggested. "Sit down and I'll – "

A thumping sound was heard overhead, and all seven fell still and silent.

"Did you hear that?" Twilight whispered.

The sound became clearer. It was unmistakably the noise of footsteps.

"Someone's onboard!" Rainbow Dash hissed.

"And we're all accounted for," Rarity added hushedly.

"We gotta get the jump on them," Rainbow Dash insisted; her greatsword materialized in her hands. Twilight couldn't complain about that; if an intruder had gotten aboard the Starlight, then that person had already seen a strange sight.

"It might not be an enemy," Twilight whispered urgently. "We are docked in the middle of a lake. Somepony…somebody might just have wanted to investigate."

"The gangplank is up," Rainbow Dash reminded her. "Whoever it is went through a lot of trouble to get up onto the deck. And since when has anyone else ever been this interested in the ship? It didn't belong where it was in New York, either!"

It was something Twilight had never given much thought to: the fact that the Starlight tended to be left alone by the other denizens of whatever world it landed on unless the Equestrians had shown it to someone specific. She chalked it up to protective magical measures that Celestia and Luna must have put in place. "And we can't be too careful," Twilight relented. "All right, everyone. Weapons out." Her wooden staff materialized. Bow, katana, pistols, and whip appeared for Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack.

"Whoa!" This was the first Spike had seen of their weaponry in action.

"Let's go." Rainbow Dash was the first to move; the others followed.

Up one deck, the seven found themselves around the corner from whatever was making the noise. "On my count," Rainbow Dash said quietly. "One…two…THREE!"

Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Twilight, Applejack, and Spike leapt around the corner, crying out, "HA!"

"SURPRISE!" Pinkie Pie yelled at the same time, and as she jumped, a burst of confetti followed her.

With a scream of surprise, Mulan stumbled backward; Mulan clawed at her shoulder to keep from falling off.

"Mulan?" Rainbow Dash said in surprise. "What are YOU doing here?"

"I – " Mulan tried to say.

"The better question is, what are YOU doin' here?" Mushu yelled accusingly, finding his feet and pointing at Rainbow Dash. "Mulan's ancestors tipped me off to what you're doin'. I know all about how y'all ain't from this world!"

"Uh-oh," Pinkie Pie squeaked.

"Hang on." Twilight stepped forward. "You're Mulan's family guardian, aren't you? Are you from the Spirit Realm?"

"I don't see how that's any of your business," Mushu spat, "but I'm her guardian, all right, and that includes guardin' her from weirdos from other worlds who charge her with big weapons!"

"Whoops…" Twilight dismissed the staff. "Weapons down, girls."

At Twilight's command, her friends got rid of their armament.

"We heard you up here and we thought you were an intruder," Twilight confessed. "We were afraid you might be an enemy."

"Well, we're here because Mushu thinks you're all intruders," Mulan replied sternly. "You're not just from another land on this world, are you?"

"Well…" Twilight struggled for the proper answer.

"It's okay," Mulan reassured her. "I know that there are more out there. I actually have friends from another world."

"Wait…what?" Twilight shook her head. "Are other worlds common knowledge around here?"
"Not exactly," Mulan replied. "A while back, Mushu ended up taking a journey to a bunch of other worlds. Then I…well…it's kind of hard to explain."

"Try us!" Rainbow Dash encouraged. "We've heard about a lot of weird things!"

"Well…I sort of have a couple sets of memories about the same things," Mulan began.

"Wait, what?" Mushu shook his head, turning to look directly at Mulan's face. "How come you never mentioned this?"

"Because I didn't think it was that strange at first," Mulan told him. "And then because I didn't know how to put it into words. It didn't really seem possible. I just remember a couple things happening at the same time that…couldn't have happened at the same time. I didn't even figure it out until after the war. I was having trouble sleeping one night and thinking about a lot of things…"

"Explain yourself," Mushu commanded.

"On one hand, I remember joining the army, meeting the other trainees, arriving at the village in the Tung Shao Pass after the Hun army burned it down, fighting off the entire Hun army in the mountains, and facing Shan-Yu on the roof of the palace," Mulan recounted. "You remember that too, right?"
"Yeah," Mushu confirmed. "That was how it happened."

"But then I remembered that I also met three soldiers in the army who you told me were your friends from another world, marched through the village in the Tung Shao Pass before the Huns destroyed it, fought a bunch of weird animals Shan-Yu had under his control, and fought Shan-Yu out front of the palace," Mulan continued. "None of that could have happened at the same time. One set of events had to have happened, or the other. I didn't notice something was off until later. I thought maybe I was just remembering wrong, and I'm still trying to piece it all together."

"You realize what this means?" Mushu was flabbergasted. "Someone went and pulled a COSMIC RESET on us!"

"A COSMIC RESET!" Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash all cried.

"You…know what happened?" Mulan looked to them curiously.

"It's some kind of magic that allows time to get turned back on a world so everyone on it lives out the same events over again," Twilight explained. "We have an enemy who did that to a world we visited to try and take it over after failing the first time. I wonder if that's connected."

"Basically, they put us through the same war twice," Mushu went on. "Same thing, same amount of time…little differences. And that somebody was trying to give Shan-Yu a winning edge. Didn't count on us being good enough to win twice."

"So…all the memories are right?" Mulan recapitulated.

"Yeah," Mushu told her, "and like a lot of things, nobody's gonna notice it unless it gets pointed out."

"So why did I notice it?" Mulan asked.

"Our friends in the Seven Deserts noticed it too when it happened to them," Twilight pointed out. "Maybe some people have more of a capacity for magical memory retention across timelines. I've done a lot of studies on memory theory. In fact, I'm still trying to figure out a concrete thesis on True Memory Theory. One of our other enemies once gave all of us except me opposite personalities on our home world as what I guess is just a big joke to him, and the only way to put things right was to put back everyone's memories of our friendship, so that got me thinking about the nuances of memory and what makes it at the core versus a memory tinted by personal experience. That's not even taking into account what differentiates a core memory from a general one, and if the backup memories contained in filly teeth are more accurate than adult – "

"Twilight?" Rainbow Dash interrupted.

"Yeah?" Twilight replied.

"Can we just stick to the important parts?" Rainbow Dash begged. "You're boring everypony…boring everyone to sleep here!"

"I'm not bored," Mulan clarified. "Just…very confused."

"I'll try to make it simple," Twilight said. "Two timelines running at once on the same world mean two sets of memories. In everyone else's head, the two just got reconciled. You might have a natural affinity for remembering things clearer, so you were able to pick out what belonged to one timeline and what belonged to the other."

"The point is, at some point, I met people from other worlds, and I helped fight alongside them," Mulan simplified. "You don't have to hide it from me. Why did you come here? Was it really just to help us out against that enemy navy, or was it for something else?"

"The truth is, we don't quite know," Rarity admitted. "Our travels have all been dictated by a magical force that deems our destination to be wherever we NEED to go, though it isn't always immediately clear why. Something here apparently needs our help."

"Y'all gettin' attacked right when we showed up was kind of a clue," Applejack added.

"Do you know about this…?" Mulan asked Mushu.

"I've heard some stuff about some kinda mist." Mushu shrugged. "Gets you where you need to go when you need to be there."

"We've fought all kinds of bad guys on a bunch of other worlds!" Rainbow Dash boasted. "And we're ready to protect your homeland, too! Sure, we might've just landed here today, but you need help the same as everypony…as everybody else!"

"Well, thank you," Mulan replied sincerely.

"No, thank YOU for giving us the awesome idea of getting into the army in disguise!" Rainbow Dash told her. "We were just getting started on that when you showed up."

Mulan's eyes were drawn to Applejack's hair. "You're looking manlier already," she said teasingly. "In the good way."

"One down," Rarity emphasized. "A few yet to go."

"So what is your story?" Mulan asked. "Where do you come from?"

"That…takes a while to explain," Twilight replied.

Mulan shrugged – slightly, so as not to dislocate her guardian's position. "I've got time. Mushu?"

"All the time in the world to hear these ones explain themselves," Mushu grunted.

"Can we talk and style at the same time?" Rarity asked.

"If you could stick around a while longer, it actually would be great to run our new looks by you and see if they pass," Twilight added.

"I'd be happy to," Mulan emphasized. Mushu gave a noncommittal snort.

"Then let us get back to work, shall we?" Rarity suggested.

...

As Rarity trimmed and tied up Pinkie and Fluttershy's hair, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack were tasked with giving Mulan a brief summary of their history. Spike, in the meantime, was still entranced watching Rarity work and kept busy sweeping up the hair clippings that fell to the floor.

Mulan was taken aback to hear that the women she was seeing were not truly human, but Mushu didn't seem fazed by the idea. After a while, it didn't seem to matter anymore, though it did go a long way to explaining the pronouns Mulan had heard the group use earlier.

After hearing about the group's origin in Equestria and the deeds they'd done in other realms, Mushu lightened up distinctly, introducing himself officially as "The magnificent, the mighty, the one and only Mushu, guardian of the Fa family!"

Twilight was the last to have her hair tied up, as Rainbow Dash's hair refused to obey any ribbon due to its length. Rarity insisted after that, as per usual, "I'll take care of my own mane. Er, hair."

"Then let's split up and get our armor on," Twilight suggested.

"We'll see if you pass," Mulan told her with a wink.

Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash dispersed to their rooms, closing the doors so as to have privacy for their final preparations. Spike, Mushu, and Mulan awaited the final presentation eagerly.

The door to Twilight's room opened at last. "Presenting…" Twilight's voice rang out from inside. She stepped out, fully clad in her new armor. "Dusk Shine." She smiled proudly at Mulan.

Pinkie Pie threw open her door, leaping out and pirouetting, not an easy feat while fully armored. "And I'm BUBBLE BERRY!" she introduced.

Fluttershy's door swung open gently and slowly. For a moment, Fluttershy worried about if she'd done a good enough job fastening her armor, and even for a slight moment if she just plain looked too female in the face to pass for a man at all. She swallowed those worries, walking out into the hall and announcing the name she'd chosen for herself: "I'm…Butterscotch."

"Still Applejack!" Applejack announced as she entered, clad in her own armor. The name had been known to be used in Equestria for both mares and stallions over time, and so for the sake of convenience, she hadn't changed it.

"And I'm Rainbow BLITZ!" Rainbow Dash announced, sliding into the hallway.

The last door opened; Rarity stormed into the hall. She hadn't cut, tied, or even straightened her plum-colored hair. Nor had she put on any armor; in fact, she still wore the green gown from earlier that day. "Ab. So. LUTE. Ly. Not," she snarled.

"Seriously, Rarity?" Rainbow Dash groaned. "Do you even REALIZE how much is on the line here?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," Rarity huffed. "But look at all of you. Jumping through hoops to make yourselves look like who you're not because an absolutely stupid rule says you can't BE yourselves. Even Pinkie Pie, who I KNOW is still upset over her…admittedly unexplainable symbiotic relationship with her curls."

"But if we don't do this, we can't help protect everypony from the bad guys!" Pinkie Pie reminded her. "I'm okay with being a little less happy than usual for that! Besides, what's the difference between this and what we did in Jötunheim?"

"It just seems wrong to me," Rarity defended hastily. "They will have me as I am…as Rarity…or not at all. I know you're dead set on changing their minds by subverting their expectations. Letting them see what mares can do AFTER we've done it. I'd much rather them see what I can do while I'm wearing my own face, my own hair, my own voice, and, for the record, a skirt."

Twilight picked up on a slight hesitation here and there, a tremble in her voice, an altogether too-hard edge in her defensive anger. She had the distinct feeling that Rarity wasn't telling a crucial part of the story: something she wanted to hide.

"Well, the rest of us are going through with the plan!" Rainbow Dash yelled.

"And you're welcome to do it!" Rarity retorted. "Just don't expect me to play along with you!"

Fluttershy sidled closer to Mulan. "Um…I'm sorry you had to see this," she said quietly.

"It's all right," Mulan replied. Watching the argument was awkward indeed, but Mulan knew it would be both rude and unproductive to leave unless asked to do so. Besides, she knew quite well that she was the same way when arguing: headstrong, and not about to keep her opinion to herself.

"You can't just NOT go to battle with us!" Rainbow Dash cried. "We need you! We need all six of the Elements! And we're not going to just leave a friend behind!"

"So you go your way to the battlefield and I shall go mine," Rarity resolved, crossing her arms.

"Rarity," Twilight broke in, "is something going on? It kind of feels like there's – "

"The only thing that's GOING ON is that I am NOT about to dress up as something I'm not to play nice with a STUPID rule!" Rarity practically screamed.

Twilight knew that was all she was going to get out of her friend on that front.

"If I can say something?" Mulan spoke up. "In the morning, they're going to expect all the soldiers who are enlisted to show up at the training camp. Once we're there, the experienced troops are going to head right out to battle while the reserves stay back and train. The reserves will only be called in if they're needed, and I don't know when or even if they will be. I know they're going to put me in the troop that goes right to the frontlines, and if I'm hearing right what you're saying about your history with battle, you'll be there too, or at least the ones of you that are enlisted. What we can do is have everyone but Rarity head out tomorrow. It's less than a day's ride. When they assign our troop, we'll have a location, and we can send a message back to Rarity saying where we're going. It should arrive in time for her to catch up, and she can show up in her own way."

"Thank you!" Rarity sighed. "See? We've got a plan!"

"WHAT?" Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped. She turned to Mulan. "How COULD you?"

"Well, I'm sorry for being practical!" Mulan put her hands on her hips forcefully. "But I think we all know that Rarity's not going to back down."

"Most certainly not," Rarity affirmed.

"It's a good plan, really," Twilight stated with a nod. "That way, we can approach this from a couple angles. Five of us from the inside, along with the army, and Rarity from an outside perspective coming on an alternate route to the battlefield."

"While I'm here," Rarity asked Mulan, "do you suppose your family would mind if I gave them a hand around the farm for a day? Since you'll be gone and they'll be temporarily shorthanded."

"They'd love that," Mulan told her. She loved that idea too, in fact.

"You, doin' farmwork?" Applejack raised a skeptical brow.

"I've helped you out on Sweet Apple Acres before!" Rarity reminded her. "How tough can this be?"

Applejack felt it better not to raise yet another argument. Besides, Rarity was not one to be underestimated in any task.

"Rainbow Dash…" Rarity turned back to her current opponent. "I truly don't want to part on a sour note. I just want you to understand. This is important to me."

"I don't get it, okay?" Rainbow Dash said sternly. "I don't understand why it's so hard for you to just go along with the rest of us on this. It feels like getting into this battle is a lot more important than the people on this world knowing who you are. Believe me, I want EVERYONE to know me for who I really am and cheer me on as a hero! But you gotta do stuff that's not easy for that! We both know that!" She emitted a drawn-out, defeated sigh. "But if it's really that important to you…we've got a plan, and we'll do it. You can stay back and catch up to us later."

The frustration was still evidently radiating off of her. Twilight, however, hung onto her theory. A piece of the puzzle was missing. She'd just have to find a way to tell Rainbow Dash that in private.

"Um…if you guys don't mind," Spike broke in, "I kinda wanna stay with Rarity. To make sure she's not all alone. Especially if she's going to be heading out to wherever the battlefield is by herself. I am a guardian, after all. I think."

"Oh, Spikey-Wikey!" Rarity gushed. "You're so sweet!"

"Thanks…" Spike scratched his head, blushing.

"I don't mind that," Twilight stated. "Actually, I feel a lot better not having one of us all alone."

"So do I," Applejack agreed.

Rainbow Dash contributed a single, brief nod. Her face was still set in a scowl.

"The rest of us can guard each other!" Pinkie Pie cried.

"Then I think we're set," said Twilight. "There's just one last piece. The voices. Now, this is the first time I've tried this spell, but I'm pretty confident in the mechanics. Here goes nothing…"

Twilight's wand flicked into appearance, and she aimed it at her own throat. A maroon aura channeled from it into her body. Clearing her throat, Twilight asked, "How do I sound?"

She knew as soon as she said it that what she'd done was make her voice higher. She clapped her hands over her mouth as Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Spike, Mulan, and Mushu all broke into varying degrees of laughter.

"YOU SOUND LIKE A CHIPMUNK!" Pinkie Pie guffawed, nearly falling on the floor.

Hurriedly, panicked, Twilight swirled her wand in circles in front of her throat, attempting to dial the pitch down a few octaves. "How about now?" she asked. That time, it came out sounding much lower and distinctly male.

"Perfect!" Mulan complimented.

"Now, it's time for the rest of you." Twilight grinned at Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy.

One by one, she turned the pitches of their voices down, and they tested out their new sound:

"Well, I'll be!"

"You sound like a Southern version of Soarin, Applejack!"

"Do I have the Poison Joke voice back again? …Oh, yes, there it is."

"IT'S THE RETURN OF FLUTTERGUY! AND THE BIRTH OF PINKIE GUY! AND RAINBOW DUDE! AND…"

"We get the point, Pinkie."

"That's Bubble Berry to you, mister!"

"That's right," Applejack realized. "We gotta start usin' the names as soon as we can to get used to it. From here on out, the five of us are guys."

"Y'know, I could've used a spell like that back when I was doing this," Mulan laughed. "But honestly, you all sound great. I think you can pull this off."

"Thank you," Twilight told her. "We couldn't have thought of this without you. It's really your plan."

"Well, I'm glad it's working out," Mulan replied. "Starting tomorrow, they're going to see exactly what we can do."

...

Arrangements were made to meet in the morning; then, it was agreed upon by all that sleep was needed. Mulan disembarked from the Starlight, moving out to where Khan awaited her at the lakeshore so she could ride back home.

"You sure this is gonna work?" Mushu asked her. "Those girls are crazy!"

"Well, you know what they say," Mulan reminded him. "Some things are so crazy, they might just work. After all…" She allowed herself a proud grin. "That's how I was."

...

Chapter 100:

· WHOA HOLY COW 100 CHAPTERS HOW DID WE GET HERE

· Something I should state right now: "Mulan II" does not exist for me. No, I haven't seen it. But I know what happens in it. And it is absolutely NOT what I believe would happen to any of these characters. Ergo, we're picking up after the events of the first film/Kingdom Hearts II. The second film never did AND NEVER WILL happen.

· Rejected chapter title: "This Is Not My Boyfriend's Armor."

· Spike is going to be an important guest star for this storylet. He needed some time to play in the main cast. I don't intend on having him join every adventure, or even 90% of them, but in this one, he had to come.

· The idea of tying the LoD to the Spirit Realm helped me go a fair ways to explaining how Guardians, the ancestral spirits, and other phenomena that occur in Mulan work. The idea of the "Spirit Realm" comes from Avatar: The Last Airbender.

· I chose the town of Leshou for Mulan's hometown because it is, as far as I know, the only Chinese city mentioned in the original poem of Mulan. Which I have not read. I should probably get on that. Leshou is probably not where I set it, but Chryse wasn't either in Greece. This fanfic is already a geographical trainwreck…

· The idea I was going for with the conscription is that social change happens slowly. Mulan joining was revolutionary, but from my viewpoint, the "powers that be" don't change the rules overnight because of one revolutionary act. It takes more. I wanted to display that, and that led into me being able to exploit the Mane Six's dragsonas. Or five of them, anyway.

· "Jia" is my headcanon name for Mulan's grandmother, but she's referred to as "Grandmother" in most of the prose because that's what everyone calls her in the film anyway.

· My idea of the Mulan/Shang romance is that it's in the fledgling stages. As I have it, they've just confessed feelings for each other and are pen-pal-ing.

· "Heng" is another name I just picked for headcanoning the head ancestor.

· I like the idea of Cri-Kee becoming the new "awakener" of Guardians, since obviously Mushu wouldn't be anymore. The end scene had him playing the gong to "True to Your Heart," which sparked the idea for me. I also think that he would be just as rewarded by the ancestors as Mushu was for his assistance, though obviously he's far, FAR away from Guardian level (and also is not a spirit).

· Writing the ancestors bickering is far too fun.

· Mulan being born in the year of the dragon is even more headcanon. I feel like your Guardian would be somehow tied to your birth year.

· What's happened is that Mushu went on his adventures with Sora in KH1 before Mulan as a film happened, then he at some point told Mulan about what happened on that journey. KH establishes that Summons made it out of their world collapse because of strong hearts, so he wouldn't have had to be woken by the ancestors in order to move.

· At first, I didn't bring up Sora by name in the Seven Deserts or Olympic Greece because I had somewhat of a beef with the KH mythos. A tsundere love/hate thing. I knew I'd have to use it, and I WANTED to, but I'd been angry at the midquels that were out at the time and it just became a mess. I'm now at the point where I'm fully on the edge of my seat for III and unbelievably hyped. However, I'm going to now make it a goal not to call Sora, Donald, or Goofy by name until the actual KH related storylets kick off. This is for two reasons. One is, despite the importance of KH to this canon (as you'll see by me having Mulan remember the Cosmic Reset), I want the first time we go through these Disney storylets to focus on the characters of the films and their experiences without Sora eating stage time. The other is that when Sora DOES show up, I just want to pull out all the stops by having the pieces fall in place that he's touched all these different worlds and they've seen his effects. When the KH-original characters and worlds show up (eventually…at the rate I write, probably in ten years), it's going to be a bit of a game-changer for the fic.

· I realize I never addressed before how the Starlight gets…unnoticed by the majority of people. For now, I'm going with "You don't see it unless it's pointed out or you're magical." As a spirit/Guardian, Mushu would find it obvious in his field of vision. (I apologize if I end up retconning this again later. Sometimes I do things that seem cool and realize I have no way to explain them.)

· Whenever Pinkie Pie is depressed, her hair goes limp. I only have to wonder if it's the other way around.

· She did so want to wear that fake mustache in S3, though. I just had to indulge her!

· Even I forgot how much "useful stuff" we picked up in Diagon Alley that turned out to be not-so-useful…YET.

· You may have noticed a couple references to yet more fandoms in Twilight's explanation of her studies of memory theory.

· I used what I observe to be the most common genderbend names for the Mane Six minus Rarity among the fandom. (Rarity has a genderbend name too, but we'll address that later.) This is basically going to be my funtimes exploiting the genderbend headcanons via dragsona.