It was a beautiful day at the Castle of Friendship. The sun shone pleasantly through its many windows, sending prismatic rainbows bouncing off of the solid crystal structure and blinding the occasional unfortunately-positioned passerby. With a surprisingly slow schedule for the two-person castle staff this week, it seemed a good day to relax and do something fun – which, for one member of said "staff", currently involved roaming the halls with her face buried in the newest publication by an expert in the field of theoretical quantum magiphysics.

Twilight Sparkle, Alicorn Princess of Friendship, flipped a page of the book that floated in front of her in a cloud of pink magic, violet eyes scanning the words with an air of intense concentration. Another cloud of pink flared to life at her side, lifting pencil to paper and scribbling hurried notes while Twilight continued to examine the book. "The Rhinestone Theory does compensate for some of the spacial differentials, but this alternative balancer to the dimensional matrix seems highly unorthodox. Surely somepony would have realized by now if all that was needed was the same basic spell formula behind creating Soupy's Soap Bubbles!" She paused both her writing and her walking for a second, then continued. "Actually, I can absolutely see why nopony thought of that. Definitely will need to do some tests of my own to verify the hypothesis, ooo, this is going to be so much fun! I'll have Spike go shopping for—"

She was five steps past the small dragon waving for her attention before he cleared his throat. "Hey, Twilight, hold up!"

Twilight stopped and spun, beaming her number-one assistant a big smile. "Oh, Spike! I was just looking for you!"

"Yeah, I could see how hard you were looking," Spike quipped, giving her a knowing smirk. "It still freaks me out how you can walk and read and write like that without smacking into things." He trotted the last few steps to catch up with her, one of his ear fins cocked in the air.

"Peripheral vision is greatly under-appreciated," Twilight quipped back, magically snapping the book closed as she considered the short purple-and-green dragon. "Sorry, you know how I tune things out when I'm focused. I need you to— Wait. You were trying to get my attention. Did you need something?"

Spike raised an eye ridge in disbelief. "Well, I wouldn't say it's me that needs something… You're telling me you still haven't noticed?"

The purple alicorn paused then, letting her senses become fully alert. As she listened, she began to pick up on a distant, echoing sound of knocking. Its seemed to be coming from the castle's front door…and, if Twilight was hearing correctly, it was quickly growing more and more frantic. Twilight's eyes widened. "Someone's at the door?!" She whirled around and jumped into the air with wings flared, her pink magic carrying her book, pencil, notepad, and Spike. "How long have they been knocking? Why didn't you answer it? We have GOT to get some kind of staff!"

"Just a few minutes, I ran into you first, and that's what I keep saying!" Spike grumbled as he settled into the magical floating ride. The subject of hiring staff was an oft-discussed and equally-oft-forgotten issue, since, being that they lived in a magical self-maintaining crystal castle made of the power of harmony and rainbows, the need for extra ponies wandering around their home didn't seem important most of the time. Except, of course, for occasions like unexpected visitors at the distressingly distant front door.

Her head whirling with a mixture of confusion over the anxious knocking (which had reached a woodpecker-like tempo), curiosity about who could be visiting (most visitors called ahead, and her friends just came in), and irritation at having her casual study of the fascinating field of scientific spell research interrupted, Princess Twilight Sparkle raced down the stairs, landed in the front hall, placed Spike and her supplies safely down, and opened the front door to her castle home.

"Sorry for the wait! Can I help—?"

"TWILIGHT SPARKLE!" The wail preceded its maker with such a combination of volume, relief, and frank panic that it blew Twilight back a step. "Please, I need your help! I'm a human from another dimension and I woke up in this pony body a little bit ago and I have no idea how I got here and you're the super-magical alicorn princess who knows how to handle this stuff and for pity's sake can you help me get home?!"

Twilight Sparkle blinked, allowing herself a brief moment to assess the situation (and get her hearing back). Standing on the front step of the castle, hoof still outstretched from beating on the yellow door, stood a unicorn mare. Her coat was black, with a mane and tail in a bright combination of neon blues – and frazzled as if the wearer had just rolled out of bed. A cutie mark of an unfamiliar pencil mechanism marked her flank, its tip trailed by a river of blue that created the overall impression of the letter "B". And right now, she was staring at Twilight with blue, wild eyes, her chest heaving in desperate breaths.

The rest of what had just been said finally processed. Twilight blinked again, opened her mouth, closed it again, furrowed her brow, opened and closed her mouth one more time, and shook her head. Then she stepped aside, frowning slightly, and said, "Perhaps you'd better come inside."

Maybe the theoretical quantum magiphysics could wait.

---

Twilight decided to use the small antechamber off of the main hall; it wasn't used that often, but it had comfortable furniture and was only a short walk from the front door. The strange mare now sat on one of the couches, making a visible effort to get a hold of herself. After summoning a tea set and offering a cup to her visitor, Twilight stepped out into the hall, with the parting reassurance that she would be right back.

"Spike, I need you to get a hold of the girls," she said in a voice too low for their strange visitor to hear. Behind them, a sound like disgruntled muttering was followed by the loud, disturbingly-porcelain clack of something hitting the floor.

Spike saluted, shooting uneasy glances at the door. "You sure you wanna be left alone with her? She sounds a little…" He waved a green claw in circles by his right ear-fin.

"Please, Spike, I'm an alicorn Princess," she said lightly, flaring her wings for emphasis. It still felt strange hearing those words come out of her mouth, but Spike needed the calming reminder. "I'm sure I can handle one upset unicorn." A thoughtful frown crossed her face as she added, "And maybe she's not crazy. She mentioned 'humans' – that's what my friends through the magic mirror are called, remember? I think I'd better hear her out." Twilight nudged her assistant to get him moving before turning back to the door. "Just let the girls know that it's probably not urgent, but I'd like them to come by just in case."

As she reentered the room, Spike's running footsteps behind her made it clear how urgent he felt the situation was.

The blue-and-black unicorn snapped upright as Twilight came back in. She was smiling nervously. "Hi, you're back. I'm so sorry, I can't for the life of me figure out how you grip with these things…" The statement made little sense to Twilight - until she saw the teacup lying on the marble floor. That explained the dropping sound a moment ago. The black mare shuffled her hooves anxiously. "I don't, uh, think it's broken, but do you think you could…?"

Alright, crazy or not, this pony was definitely acting like somepony – er, someone – who had never had hooves before. Twilight magically levitated the empty cup to the table, then filled it with tea and placed it front of the unicorn again. The mare watched this simple magical feat with the wide-eyed wonder of, well, somepony who'd never seen a magical spell before. "It's fine. The cups are pretty durable, and it's easy to clean up in here," Twilight said soothingly. As the mare made a nervous second effort to pick up the cup, lifting it clumsily pressed between her hooves until she could take a sip, Twilight settled onto the opposite couch. Might as well get the ball rolling. "Alright, I'm listening. Why don't you start from the beginning?"

A huge sigh of relief whooshed from the unicorn's mouth, her cup almost slipping from her hooves. "Oh, thank you. I thought, I hoped maybe you'd listen to me; I mean, this has to sounds crazy! But I figure, you've at least met humans, with that magic mirror thingie, and you deal with crazy stuff all the time—"

"Hold it!" Twilight's eyes widened. "You know about Canterlot High? Then that is where you're from!" Well, this would be easy enough; they could just travel through the mirror and—

But the mare was shaking her head. She looked embarrassed. "No, no, sorry… Shoot, didn't mean to make things more confusing. See, I'm a human, but I'm not...THAT kind of human. Like, your friends there are sort of the same as your friends here, with the bright color schemes and the names, right?" She waved both of her forehooves at herself, then flinched as her cup slipped and splashed tea on the cushions. "Dangit, sorry, anyway, where I come from, that's not the case. Humans in my world are a pretty mundane set of colors, mostly different shades of brown, and there's no magic. Well, that's debatable, but we won't get into witchcraft because I don't like it—"

"But how do you know that?" Twilight interrupted, eyes narrowing. "You say you're not from Canterlot High, or from Equestria, but then how do you know what humans in Canterlot High look like?" Another, equally suspicious thought entered Twilight's head, and she found herself pacing the room, casting hard looks at her mysterious visitor. "For that matter, how did you know to come to me? You act like you know who I am already, which is impossible if you're from another world entirely!" The more she rolled the idea over in her head, the more Twilight's skepticism grew. This pony's story just didn't hold water.

Maybe Spike was right, and she really was crazy. Or worse…

The mare didn't answer for a long moment, massaging her head in one hoof and muttering something about "screwing up" and "way to break the space-time continuum". She didn't seem to have trouble holding her teacup now, but Twilight allowed for the possibility that she too distracted to overthink the simple task. It had happened to Twilight when she had fingers. "Aaaugh, I didn't realize how hard this would be to explain…" the unicorn sighed. Her blue eyes met Twilight's, waves of uncertainty, fear, and, interestingly, frank stubbornness passing over her face. "Um...okay. I'm going to try and lay this out in a way that...makes some kind of sense?"

Twilight nodded. The unicorn took a deep breath, stroking her blue tail distractedly. "Okay, picture this. Let's say that, where I'm from, we sort of...have a way of looking at other...worlds? Like yours? And Canterlot High? The point is, I know I'm not from those worlds, because with this...technology of ours, I've seen your world. And that one. That's how I know that they're different from mine."

Twilight raised an eyebrow; her confidence in this story was not growing by great leaps and bounds. The unicorn must have sensed this, because she did a frantic erasure mark with her hooves. "I can prove it! For example, I know about your visits to the mirror world of Canterlot High. You stopped Sunset Shimmer when she stole your crown, and became a crazy demon creature, and tried to zombify the school. And then in the next mov-uh, visit, you helped your human friends AND Sunset stop the, oh, what're they called...the Sirens! In a rock concert battle. There was a massive, magical unicorn in the sky. It was kind of cool," she added with a distant grin.

"You know, you could know all of that because you came from that world," Twilight pointed out delicately. She was the Princess of Friendship, she reminded herself, and Princesses of Friendship give ponies a chance to prove they're not off their rocker. At least the possibility of this pony being a spy was growing less likely, unless she was just the most unconvincing and underprepared spy in the history of Equestria.

The mare facehoofed. "Right, okay. Sorry, I'm way better at explaining things when I can write them down first. Let's try something more specific…" She pointed a hoof at Twilight. "Your world, then. With our, um, technology, I've seen a few things that aren't common knowledge. Liiiike…" She thought for a moment, then brightened. "Oh, how about how you got your—! No, that's no good, need something more current." Twilight blinked, suddenly feeling an intense desire to know what the unicorn had been about to say, but she was already brightening with another idea. "The Cutie Map! You have that table that turns into a map of all of Equestria, right? When you defeated Tirek and got your new powers from the Tree of Harmony, it created this castle, and a 3D map that calls your cutie marks when it's sending you on a friendship mission!"

Twilight's ears perked upright, and she stopped pacing. It wasn't exactly a secret that the table in the Council Room could turn into a magical map, and her friends' families knew about it...but it wasn't common knowledge, either. She frowned slightly. "Alright, that's a little more convincing. But, I'm sorry, I still need more evidence than that." While the idea of another alternate world with an unknown civilization that apparently lacked magic and yet had the capability of seeing into other realities was fascinating, Twilight kept reminding herself to be careful.

The unicorn chewed her lip, thinking hard. "Okay…how about this. I'll name off the missions I know you guys have been on." She held one hoof up, and pointed at the frog of it with the other. "First mission: all of you Elements of Harmony girls go to that weird, unnamed village where everypony has equals signs for cutie marks. Fluttershy saves the day by revealing Starlight Glimmer's fake mark with water, and the villagers help you get your marks back before Starlight gets away." Her hoof pointed at her other hoof again, though maybe lightly to the left of the last point. "Mission two: Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash go to Gryphonstone. Almost save the lost idol of something-or-other, but find out that the real mission was to help Gilda see the power of friendship so she can help the Gryphonstone gryphons get back on their feet. Pinkie Pie also saves the gryphonscones through the power of baking powder." Another point, again slightly farther to the left. "And mission three: Rarity and Applejack go to Manehatten to help Coco Pommel organize a theatre event so the locals would realize the value of coming together as a community! Also, Rarity replaced Applejack's old cowboy hat that got torn up." She stopped and stared at the hoof she had been pointing at for a long moment. "Man, that hand gesture works way better with hands."

Twilight Sparkle realized that her jaw was hanging open, and snapped it shut. The unicorn quit studying her hooves long enough to notice this, and gave a lopsided grin. "It's a little hard to swallow, huh?"

"A...a little, yes," the alicorn princess stammered, her mind working at lightning speed. The Idol of Boreous – Rainbow claimed they hadn't shared that incident with the anyone, in case it upset the gryphons to know their precious relic was lost for good. This pony definitely hadn't been at Starlight's village (a black-coated pony was rare enough not to miss). And Applejack's hat!

Twilight frowned again as something occurred to her. "You only mentioned three friendship missions, though. What about the mission Fluttershy and I took to help the Hooffields and McColts?"

The mare stared, blue eyes completely blank of comprehension. "The what with the who now? You did that? Nah, I don't know what you're talking about there. Must not be something I've seen yet." A small grin crossed her face. "That sounds neat, though."

That was a little comforting, at least; whatever method this pony was using to observe (or spy on?) her and her friends must not be entirely current. And, as much as she wanted to be cautious, Twilight had to admit one thing: it was hard to accuse a pony of lying when she looked and acted that clueless.

"So do you believe me now?" The black-coated unicorn watched her anxiously, pawing at her blue-striped tail.

Twilight took a deep, slow breath... and let it out as an amazed laugh. "I'll admit, it's getting a little bit easier to believe your story." She began to pace the room again, her scientific curiosity buzzing. "If what you're saying is true… then, this is an amazing discovery! The idea of another universe with the ability to see into other worlds, and you say you do it without magic? I can only imagine the knowledge you gain from looking into other realities!" Hopefully it doesn't involve anything too embarrassing for me and my friends, the logic centers of her brain noted, but she was too busy being fascinated to pay attention to it. Something else that had been puzzling Twilight suddenly fell into place, and she turned to face the mare. "So that's how you knew to come to me for help?"

"Yes!" The mare bounced on the couch cushions, so giddy with relief that her smile was almost literally splitting her face in half. "Oh man, I knew this was a good idea! Yes, you're kind of a big deal in our, uh, thingie, so I knew you were super skilled with magic and deal with bizarre problems like this all the time! Plus, I mean, you do magical research and stuff, and you have that mirror that travels to other dimensions, so if anyone could figure this out—"

"Alright, alright!" Well, that had been a bit more flattering than expected, although she wasn't entirely sure about how she felt about being the object of study for an unknown collection of otherdimensional beings. "I mean, I can't promise I'll be able to help, but… Look, we've gotten really far off track. Let's go back to what actually happened to you, and this time, please try to tell me everything in order." A gentle way of pointing out that they had been going off on more rabbit trails than Angel Bunny at the annual Easter Egg Hide.

"Okay. Right. Okay." The blue-maned mare took a deep breath to compose herself. When she spoke again, it was calmer and more deliberate. "Okay. The last thing I remember is, I was sitting at my computer, working on some writing." She paused, biting her lip. "Um, do you know what computers…?"

"Yes, I know what computers are," Twilight replied quickly, feeling a dash of pride at her human-based knowledge. She'd really been meaning to discuss the concept behind those portable machines to some of the technical institutes, computing technology was still ages behind—

"Great! Anyway, it was probably around 8 o'clock in the evening, and I was finally getting some writing done. Then all of a sudden, I feel this...buzzing sensation. It was really freaky, like the time I gave blood and almost passed out. The next thing I know, I'm waking up in a field, and it's the middle of the day, which was an immediate red flag. I didn't even notice the whole 'pony' thing at first because I was a little upset about passing out, I've never done that before…" She noticed Twilight's motivating stare and took another calming breath. "Anyway, once I figured out what and where I was, and, you know, decided I hadn't just lost my mind, I came to find you." She flexed one of her forehooves, giving it a considering look. "You know, I always thought it'd be tricky to learn to run on four legs, but it came a lot quicker than I expected. You guys get great shock absorption with these things."

The mare fell silent at last, watching Twilight expectantly. Twilight, for her part, was glad of the silence. This wasn't a lot of evidence to go on, unfortunately; a buzzing sensation, then blacking out? The physical transformation seemed similar to how the mirror affected a traveler's body, so maybe it was a universal constant for dimensional travel. But for her to just be plucked out of the air? That suggested a powerful space-time anomaly or perhaps some kind of magical intervention…

This would definitely take further study. Twilight stood to her hooves, eyes bright with determination, and was just opening her mouth to put her first plan into motion, when the door slammed open and ponies poured in like colorful floodwaters.

"Yo, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash was in first, followed closely by Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack. Spike managed to squeeze into the small antechamber as well, which, with six ponies and a baby dragon, had quickly gone from cozy to crowded. "Who's this crazy pony Spike's all worked up about?" Her pink eyes shot to the mare, and she frowned. "Is that her? She doesn't look so tough."

Twilight gave Spike a very pointed glare that sent the clear message of exactly how much she approved of his popularizing the idea that their visitor was crazy. She would have turned a similar glare on Rainbow Dash for saying it out loud like that, except Rainbow Dash wasn't paying enough attention to notice. "Thanks for coming, girls. You got here faster than I expected!" She mentally counted her friends again. "Where's Fluttershy?"

"Dunno where Fluttershy is, but we were over at Sugarcube Corner getting cupcakes for Gummi's birthday party," Pinkie Pie explained, and walked right past Rainbow Dash to stick her nose in the face of their guest. "Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie! Welcome to Ponyville!"

"Hi," the mare answered back with a nervous smile.

"Spike said this here pony was claimin' to be one o' them humans from some other dimension or somethin'," Applejack put in, studying said pony with interest. "Ya look like a normal pony t'me, if'n ya don't mind my sayin', ma'am."

"No, you're good."

"I for one am quite interested in hearing this story," Rarity said, eyes shining eagerly. The six must have run to get here, because the pale unicorn was busily patting loosened hair-wisps back into her otherwise perfectly styled mane. "Twilight's told us all about the human world, and I've just been dying to talk to one of you. You must tell me all about what the latest fashions are like!"

"Ah, she might not be from the same human world that I've been to, Rarity," Twilight put in. This drew confused looks and a new slurry of questions from everypony, and suddenly Twilight understood why her visitor had looked so uncomfortable trying to explain this bizarre story.

It was during this time that some ponies began to realize that the black-coated mare was still looking expectantly at Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie, for her part, had decided that this was a staring contest; if it were, they would have been dead tied, because they'd been staring at each other without blinking for a good thirty seconds. But finally, their visitor tilted her head and asked, "Well?"

Pinkie Pie tilted her head right back. "Well what?"

"Aren't you going to…I dunno, tell them my backstory or something?"

"Why would I do that, silly?" Pinkie giggled, then suddenly leaned uncomfortably close to the pony's face. "Do I know you from somewhere?" She gasped loudly. "You're not my secret penpal from Gryphongolia, are you?! This is super, we are going to have such a cool party for you—!"

"No, nonono, no, I'm not! I just, it…it's… it just seems like something you'd…" The mare groaned and put a throw pillow over her head, curling up like she was checking to see if she could melt into the couch cushions. "Nevermind, just ignore that, please," her muffled voice said through the fabric.

Twilight resisted the urge to chuckle, then scolded herself. No, she was a Princess! And until proven otherwise, this pony was a distressed traveler from another dimension, who needed help getting home. Exactly the sort of problem the Elements of Harmony could help with!

Twilight cleared her throat, drawing the attention of the girls (and Spike). "Well! Now that everypony's here – except Fluttershy – I suppose introductions are in order! Girls, this is—" Twilight stopped. She spent a long moment frantically searching her memory as a deep, purple blush began to work across her face. Finally, unable to avoid it any longer, Twilight Sparkle turned to the mare under the throw pillow and said, in tones of deep embarrassment, "I am so sorry. Here we've been talking all this time, and I never asked your name!"

"Huh?" A blue eye peeked out from around the pillow. "You di— Oh wow, you're right! I was so freaked out, I didn't notice." Setting the throw pillow aside, the mare sat up properly and dipped her head towards the general crowd of staring eyes. "I'm, uh, Jenn. Nice to meet you."

"Ima Gem?" Twilight repeated. Well, it wasn't the strangest name she'd—

"Wait, what? No, my name is Jenn. J-E-N-N. Short for Jennifer. I mean, I go by River sometimes, but…" Jenn stopped then and looked down, shooting an oddly suspicious glare at her B-shaped cutie mark.

Twilight searched her mental catalogue for information on the human's name, figuring it would provide some useful information about her possibly-human guest. To her surprise, she came up empty. Almost every culture she knew of assigned some sort of significance to their names, but the etymology of "Jennifer" was completely unfamiliar—

"What kind of a name is that?" Rainbow Dash asked, once again demonstrating her skill at wielding the Blunt Stick. "It sounds weird."

Rarity jabbed her in the side, which started a glaring match between the two of them. "Well, I think it's a lovely name!"

"I dunno, she looks more like a River Babble to me!" Pinkie Pie added off-handedly.

Jennifer's jaw dropped. "Did you just—?"

"Ya know," Applejack cut in, shooting Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie a pointed look, "it might do us all a sight more good to here this pony's story before we get lost fussin' over what kind of name she has." The apple-farming earth pony turned to her purple friend and, in tones of great patience, said, "Maybe ya'll better fill us in on what ye know now, Twa'light."

"I think that's a good idea," Twilight said, making a mental note to help Applejack clean out the barn this weekend as a much-deserved gesture of gratitude. "As I was saying… Jenn, this is Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and you've already met Spike. Now, I think it would be best for all of us if you told them exactly what you told me." And then I can get their opinions on what to do about it.

"Oh…right…" Jenn looked at each of the expectant faces staring at her. Her ears wilted as she heaved a weary sigh. "Let's see if I can keep it all straight a second time…"

Somewhere close to and yet incredibly far from Ponyville, a figure stirred and stretched with a cavernous yawn, having just woken from his usual 11:15 AM nap. He was quite looking forward to the day's events, especially considering the new project he was starting. And speaking of which, now was probably a good time to check up on how the beginnings of said project were going.

The figure summoned a magical orb that peered through the cracks of space-time to show him the location and pony he wished to see. An amused hum passed his lips as he spotted his victim – ahem, project. She looked deliciously confused about her situation, which was always the best part—

Something caught his eye. He peered closer, then widened the viewing portal to see better. The scene that filled out before him made him suck in a breath sharply.

"No! What—? That's cheating!"

With a flash of light and a puff of smoke, the figure crushed the viewing portal in his hand and teleported away.

.

---

.

Meanwhile, in Ponyville, a certain brown stallion wearing a white collar and green bowtie frantically twisted dials and pulled levers. The inside of the stallion's workshop was always a mess, but as he trotted to and fro between beeping machines and unfolding papers of printed data, the mess seemed to visibly grow in size and mastery of the floor space.

"Great whickering stallions! It's off the charts! Where is that—? Muffins! Where are you?!"

A light gray head poked out upside-down from the top of one of his failed experiments, the mare's off-set pupils staring down at him. "Yeah, Doc?"

"I need that device you were using to prop up your popsicle stick house!"

The head disappeared for a moment, then reappeared, holding a bulbous gauge with a rapidly-spinning red needle at the center. "Oh, yeah, it did great! I'm almost up to the fourteenth floor!" she giggled, wings fluttering over her bubble cutie mark as she barely kept from tipping off of her awkward perch.

"Well, I'm afraid I need it now, my dear," Doc said firmly, holding out his hoof. Muffins dropped it inaccurately, and the earth pony stallion had to sidestep to avoid a bruise on the head. He snagged the device without a word of complaint and ran to another machine, where he rammed the gauge into one of the gaping holes, and twisted it into place.

The gauge immediately exploded, sending tinkling glass everywhere. Doc ducked, but his eyes remained locked on the readouts as a blaring alarm began to ring.

"Great whickering stallions…" he whispered. "It's happened again."

Muffins let out a small victory cheer as she reached the fourteenth floor of her popsicle stick house, and crowned it with one of her trademark muffins.

.

---

.

Confusion reigned in the council hall of the Castle of Friendship. The girls all sat at their assigned chairs, and the supposed interdimensional visitor in pony form hovered next to Twilight, looking more than a little frazzled at all the arguments echoing around (and at) her.

"Ah don't like it!" Applejack said loudly, thumping her hoof against the crystal table. They had moved here after the tiny antechamber proved to be too small a space to handle this many arguing ponies. "If'n she is tellin' the truth, and I don't mean to say for sure she ain't, why're they spyin' on us?! Them's our private lives they're lookin' at!"

"We, uh…don't think of it as spying…," Jenn put in timidly.

Applejack fixed her with a penetrating look. "Then what do ya call it?"

"It, uh… Look, it's just something we do! We watch interesting things happening in other places!" Jenn said, looking more than a little pained. "I promise, nobody's doing it to bother anybody! We didn't even know it was possible to cross dimensions like this and meet you for real!"

"That's as may be," Rarity said, more calmly than Applejack, although she also still looked bewildered from hearing the blue-maned unicorn's story. "And perhaps it's not so great a drama as you think, Applejack. My question is, how can we be sure that you're telling the truth, Miss Jenn? Is there some way to confirm that your story is on the level? I think we're all a little concerned that this might be an elaborate cover-up for why you know so much personal information."

"It would be kinda weird if a spy just came running up and said all that super spy-sounding stuff that makes her look like a spy, though," Pinkie Pie put in, pink curls bouncing as she doe-skipped around the room for no apparent reason. "It sure made us all suspicious super fast!"

Twilight let out a sigh of relief at the sensible point from her earth pony friend. It was amazing what intelligent observations could come out of the normally absent-minded Pinkie. "Pinkie Pie has a point. I think we should at least take steps to verify Jenn's story. In fact, I might have some equipment from my mirror machine experiments that could do the trick!"

"You been experimentin' on that thing?" Applejack looked slightly concerned. "You sure that's wise, sugarcube?"

"Sure!" The alicorn's eyes cut to the side. "Probably. No dimensional rifts in space-time so far!" Several mumbled groans filled the air.

"Well, I'm sure it will be alright," Rarity said, forcing herself to relax. "If anypony can do something like…that, it's you, Twilight."

"I think this whole thing could be bogus." Rainbow Dash, who had been flying circles around the overhanging tree stump in the room to think, swept down and landed square in the middle of the table. She pointed a hoof at Jenn, and narrowed her pink eyes to slits. There was a long, tense silence. Then the rainbow-maned pony's face grew into a huge grin. "But if it isn't, it sounds awesome! Finally, we get some funky travelers from another world on this side of the mirror!" Rainbow bucked the air energetically. "If it's anything like what you run into every time you visit Canterlot High, Twilight, we're probably gonna get some cool monster to fight any day now! Or maybe she's part of some interdimensional task force that's waiting to sweep in when we open the mirror." The cyan pegasus did a quick one-two while wearing a huge grin. "Either way, I get to kick some tail!"

Rarity and Jenn wore identical horrified looks. "Oh, I hope not, Rainbow. My new line for the Summer Sun Fashion Show is due in two weeks!"

"No way, there's no big monsters on my side of things!" Jenn said hurriedly. "Unless you open the portal in the middle of the tiger exhibit at a zoo or something. We're really pretty boring in the monster department." She paused for a moment, chewing her lip. "And, okay, I'm not part of some secret task force, but I might caution against jumping through the portal and introducing yourselves. Pretty sure more than a few people would absolutely freak out in a bad way."

Twilight considered this. While it sounded less than optimal, she did remember a conversation with Canterlot High's Rarity – mentions of governments and power-hungry organizations that might not react positively to learning there was magic in the world. It made sense that another human world like Jenn's, where magic wasn't native, would have similar issues. And at least Jenn had been upfront about the issue – it heightened Twilight's confidence that she was making the right decision.

"Alright then!" Twilight stood up, nodding her head sharply. "We'll approach this with caution, but I think it's safe to move forward with testing. First, let's see if we can verify Jenn's status as a native of another dimension. I've already started, in fact." And she drew out the blinking hoofheld device she had been hiding under the table during this entire conversation.

Jenn leaned close to it with her eyes wide, not noticing that other ponies in the room were doing the same. "Oooo, cool. What's that?"

"This," Twilight said proudly, "is a Dimensional Cross-Particle Energy Reader. It measures foreign particles related to travel between universes! I've been working on it since I discovered their existence in follow-up studies on my own travels through the mirror. Who knew I'd get to test it out so soon?!" She rubbed her hooves together with a giggle, but stopped abruptly when she realized that everypony was staring at her oddly. Twilight cleared her throat, blushing. "Ahem. Anyway, I let it sit under the table so it could get a good reading on you while we talked. It should know something any minute."

Jenn beamed; that was definitely not the face of somepony who was afraid of their cover story being blown wide open. "That's awesome! And then you can use it to find some way to get me home?"

"Well… we'll see," Twilight said cautiously. "I'll certainly do my best. I have a theory that adapting your energy signature to one of Star Swirl's original spells will let me link to your world through the mirror that takes me to Canterlot High. It could take a few days of testing." Unable to hold it in anymore, Twilight let a huge grin spread across her face. "This is going to be so much fun!" she squealed.

Jenn looked bothered for a moment. "A few days…? I didn't think I'd be gone that long," she murmured. Twilight's excitement dimmed a little at the worry on the possibly-a-human's face.

"Don't worry, dear," Rarity said soothingly. "I'm sure Twilight will work as quickly as she can." Several other voices piped up to add to the encouragement, which had a visible calming effect on Jenn. She took a deep breath, and nodded her head slowly.

"Well, I mean… You guys are my best bet of getting home. If I have to wait, I have to wait." Jenn's face grew a little more strained. "But if you can hurry it at all without, y'know, putting anybody in danger, I'd really appreciate it."

Twilight smiled again, already feeling the wave of internal energy she always got when she was on the brink of a new research topic. This could open an entirely new field in the understanding of inter-dimensional connectivity! The readings on her Dimensional Cross-Particle Energy Reader were already chock-full of interesting new data that she could decipher, and once she studied the effects of the human-turned-pony's disruption of the native Equestrian magic particle fields, she could begin developing the matrix to unite the mirror's interdimensional spell holdings with the foreign particles so as to lock onto that one singular universe through reverse-wave photon spread—

"Well, all this sure sounds like it'll be fun for you, Twalight," Applejack said with a half-smile, which was when Twilight realized that she'd started chattering all of this techno-babble out loud. But the others just gave her those knowing grins and eye-rolls they always did when they had to deal with her Science Mode (except for Jenn, who just stared at her with amazed incomprehension). Applejack nodded at Jenn; the tough earth pony mare still looked cautious, but Twilight's confidence seemed to have relaxed her suspicions a little. "Ah don't know how we can help, but if you say this here pony needs it, we'll all pitch in where we can."

"Naturally, darling."

"And we'll be ready to pound the monsters when they show up!" Rainbow thrust her chest out proudly.

"Then we'll throw a sending-you-home-to-your-own-dimension party! Whoopie!" Pinkie Pie turned a somersault.

Twilight opened her mouth to thank her friends. She was surprised when she was interrupted. "Oh man, thank you guys so much." Everypony turned to look at Jenn, who had planted her hooves on the table. She looked like she was about to cry, and scrubbed at one moist eye with her hoof. "This is, just…I can't tell you how freaked out I was, and I know you don't have any reason to trust what I'm saying, but I really, really want to go home and—" She broke off, sucking in a breath. "Just…thanks a lot. I'm sure if anyone can figure it out, it's you guys."

Even Applejack looked touched by the genuine-sounding words. Twilight nodded to herself, feeling warm inside. They were definitely doing the right thing, helping this pony – human – get home. A little bit of worry niggled past her good feelings, though: first, she had to find out if she could.

Twilight brushed off the negative thought. This might not be a Friendship Problem, but it was probably a magic/science problem, and that was the next best thing!

.

---

.

One Hour Later

It was not, in fact, the next best thing, for anypony.

"Okay, this time it's sure to work!" Twilight said, exactly as she had the last seven times they'd tried the mirror machine that was currently connected to Jenn's head by a large, outlandish helmet that resembled a colander full of wires. Jenn flinched involuntarily as Twilight reached for the lever that would turn it on.

"Is it going to shock me again?"

"Noooooomaybe. I'm pretty sure I worked those bugs out this time." Twilight cracked a nervous grin that did nothing to help Jenn feel better, but, seeing no alternatives, Jenn just closed her eyes and braced herself, praying that this time, something would actually happen.

She sort of got her wish; an electric shock that makes your hair (mane?) stand perfectly on end and sends you five inches off the floor is definitely something. "YEOW!" As soon as she could feel the floor under her feet again, Jenn ripped the heavy helmet off of her head and scrambled backwards, panting. "Oh come on!" she yelled, more at the hunk of metal than at anyone in particular. "What've you got against me, you jerk piece of tinfoil?!" Taking a few more deep breaths to calm her heart rate, Jenn looked beseechingly back at Twilight, who had already started fiddling with the machine again. "Is this ever going to work?" she moaned.

"Yes," Twilight said firmly, already digging back into the machinery that she'd been fiddling with, attaching things to, and reassembling parts of for the better part of an hour. "We're close to a breakthrough, I'm sure of it! Any time now!" But this time, there was no hiding the doubt in her voice. Jenn heaved a sigh and flopped on the floor, face buried in her weird pony arm-legs while she tried to shut out the weirdness around her for a few minutes.

Despite Twilight's optimism starting out, the last hour had quickly deteriorated everyone's moods. Instead of helping Twilight to narrow down the problem, the constant failures were confusing the alicorn to the point of open frustration. Spike could at least act as a gofer and be of some help, but Rainbow Dash was bored out of her mind, bouncing off of the ceiling supports of Twilight's laboratory like a bird searching vainly for a window, and Applejack and Rarity had invented a game where they pointed out interesting shapes formed by the crooked spindles of printer paper flopped accordion-like across the floor. Pinkie Pie had been sent off forty-five minutes ago to find Fluttershy in case they needed to use the Elements of Harmony against any attacks of interdimensional monsters, but neither mare had returned yet, which of course meant that everyone was secretly jealous of them.

And through all of this, Jenn kept herself busy counting all of the reasons why she'd rather be anywhere than here, in a pony body, wearing weird pseudo-science gadgetry on her head that kept randomly shocking her, and wondering when (or if) she would ever get home at this rate.

Sitting around watching Twilight work (and having nothing better to do than sit around being a test dummy) had given Jenn some time to think about her situation. She'd long since decided that this couldn't be a dream – none of her dreams were this vivid without her knowing it wasn't real – but that didn't make it any less amazing or freaky to be walking around in a Saturday morning kids' cartoon. And the irony was not lost on her that this was probably a dream come true for some people. The chance to explore another dimension? The thrill of meeting fictional characters in person? How exciting! How adventurous! And she liked adventure, right?

Except adventure in stories were usually a lot more exciting, and a lot less standing around in a room being simultaneously bored, anxious, and uncomfortable. (Well, okay, they did usually stress the uncomfortable parts.) And many of said adventure stories downplayed that whole bit where the heroine fretted over how worried her family was going to be when they discovered she was mysteriously gone without a trace, not to mention what it would do to her job. That depressing line of thought kept growing on itself, until Jenn spent only half of her time being bored and uncomfortable, and the other half suppressing anxiety attacks. She really, really wanted to go home, and the fact that doing so didn't look any closer to happening wasn't helping her feel any better.

The human-turned-pony was almost relieved when Twilight finally burst with frustration.

"I don't understand!" The lavender alicorn trotted in a circle around the stubbornly closed mirror portal. "The readings are clearly showing signs of non-native dimensional particles on our end, but I can't lock onto an exterior source point! It's like something is interrupting the signal." She came back over to Jenn and set the helmet back on her head, magically manipulating parts of the wiring while scribbling something on a clipboard. Jenn felt a little envious of how easy magic made multitasking.

"Perhaps you should take a break, Darling," Rarity suggested gently, wading over through the sheaves of paper print-outs littering the floor. "You're beginning to look a little worse for wear."

Twilight made a "Pfffff" sound of dismissal, despite the fact that several strands of her mane were hanging in her face. "I'm fine. I won't really get freaked out until we've gone twelve straight hours without any clear breakthroughs. Then, oh-ho, then you'll see what stress looks like!" She let out a shallow laugh, which died quickly when nobody else laughed with her.

"If'n it's anythin' like the time she thought she was overdue for a letter to Princess Celestia, I don't wanna be around then," Applejack murmured. Rainbow Dash made an agreeing hum as she hovered lazily by, flying on her back as only a magically-gravity-defying creature can.

Jenn cleared her throat. It felt ridiculous to make suggestions about the use of magic to a genius pony princess from a highly fluorescent TV show, but what could it hurt? "Um, Twilight? What about that Energy Particle device thing you were using in the council room? Is that any help?"

The device in question flew through the air on a wave of purple magic, coming to a floating stop in front of Twilight's squinting eyes. "Yes, it's providing me with the data on your foreign dimensional particles. But it seems to be having the same problem as my particle translation device." Twilight looked up then, and saw the roomful of slightly impatient stares. realize. She heaved a sigh and then trotted back over to stand next to the mirror, pointing at various parts as she explained what she was trying to do.

"You all – except maybe you, Jenn – remember how I used this device to create a stable portal to Canterlot High's world using the preexisting spell in Sunset Shimmer's journal?" Everypony nodded, looking at the uppermost point on the mirror where Twilight's copy of that magical journal usually floated. It had been removed for this experiment, and now wires and cables snaked down from that access point, most of them leading to the colander on Jenn's head. "That is an example of Multiverse Connectivity – connecting two separate universes through a common link, which in that case was a pre-existing spell that linked two items across the dimensional divide. The mirror already provides the basic spell for connecting the universes in the first place; I'm just trying to change the search parameters so it will know we're trying to find a different universe!" Twilight caused the device in her magic to wave back in forth theatrically. "My Cross-Particle Energy Reader is picking up on foreign dimensional particles that came through with Jenn, so I theorized that I could use those readings to give the portal something to look for. Theoretically, if the spell can lock onto another spell across dimensions, it should be able to do the same thing by finding a dimension full of the same particles Jenn has and connecting them to form a new portal!"

"So you're saying the machine is looking at the weird particles on me," Jenn repeated slowly, restating to make sure she understood, "and is looking for other, matching particles out there in all the universes so it can show you where to point the portal?"

"Exactly!" Twilight exclaimed, looking pleased. Her pleasure faded quickly back into frustration, though. "But it's not working. I thought it would be easy, but Starswirl's original portal spell is amazingly complex, and changing it to locate a completely different substance and lock onto a new location is harder than I thought. I keep getting these weird feedback loops, like the portal is trying to turn in on itself."

"Now hold on," Applejack put in, frowning in thought as she studied the mirror. "If'n you go changin' which world the portal points to, d'ya risk losin' your link to Canterlot High? I thought you said once that there's a whole lotta worlds out there."

Twilight shook her head, looking much more confident in her answer to this question. "No, if my plan works, it will be simple to redirect the portal back to Canterlot High; I'd just have to put the journal back in as the source point, and it will snap back into place. Right now, the real challenge is finding the world Jenn is from, because the portal has never connected to that one."

Jenn rubbed her eyes, trying to massage away the numb feeling in her brain. "So…what does that mean for getting me home?" she asked, hoping she'd sort of understand Twilight's answer.

"It means we keep trying," Twilight said stubbornly, and her horn erupted in more pink magic that began rapidly reassembling parts. "I've at least figured out how to jump the portal to a new location; the trick now is giving the mirror a clear trail to follow, which means I need to find out why your dimensional particles aren't doing the job."

That sounds complicated, Jenn didn't say out loud, because it would be stating the obvious, and she didn't want to look like an idiot. Math and science stuff had always been a little harder for her to wrap her brain around, and apparently, adding magical science to the mix did not help. Her brain felt foggy just trying to keep up.

Still, it was encouraging to see someone so dedicated to getting her home. That helped her calm down a little. And to realize that she had another problem to deal with.

Twilight was calling out orders now, sending the others into motion. "Rainbow Dash, see if you can hunt down Spike and ask him to bring two of those conductor cables instead of one. Applejack, can you look in the library for a book on thaumatergical wavelength studies? It should be in Section A-B17.335, it has a green cover with bright blue lightning bolts on the spine, you can't miss it. Rarity, this'll sound strange, but I could really use a bolt of that purple silk you had in your work room last week—"

"Um, Twilight?"

The purple alicorn swung to face her, staring with the focused intensity of someone who is thinking about something else very hard. "Yes?"

"Uh, sorry to interrupt, but…" She felt her pony ears tip down in embarrassment. "Can you tell me where the little pony's room is…?"

Somepony in the room giggled, and was elbowed into silence. Twilight's intensity faded a little as she smiled in understanding. "Of course. Spike, can you—?" She stopped, apparently remembering that she'd sent Spike, and now everyone else, off running on errands. "Orrr…here, this will show you the way." Twilight lit her horn with a pinkish glow and touched it to Jenn's head. The black pony felt a slight shiver run over her skin, and then a faint purple light appeared and began slowly travelling towards the exit. "There! Follow that, and it'll take you right to the restrooms."

Jenn was already halfway out the door. "Thanks a ton! I'll try to be quick!" she called back, her voice echoing and fading away in the cavernous crystal hallway.

Being out of that room for a while was a relief unto itself; sitting around and being patient had never been her strong suits. As Jenn trotted after Twilight's spell, she couldn't help but goggle all over again at the gorgeous crystal castle (not to mention the magical light ball). It was probably a good thing that the guiding spell stayed within three feet of her, so she couldn't lose it while she was distracted.

"Well, here I am. In the My Little Pony world. As a pony. Hopefully for real and not because my mind has finally snapped." Sometimes talking out loud helped, although she was also enjoying how her voice echoed on the high ceilings. "All in all, this could be going a lot worse," she added, trying to be upbeat. Despite her initial panic, she'd had enough presence of mind to make up a handful – hoofful? – of rules for herself before arriving on Twilight's doorstep. Rule Number One: avoid telling the ponies that their world was a supposedly-fictional TV show. A good rule, except she hadn't considered how that would mesh with explaining why she knew about Twilight's existence. That had led to more yelling and accusations of espionage than she ever wanted to hear again in her life. Jenn made an amendment to Rule Number One while staring at the floor: don't tell people they are from a fictional TV show, OR that you know things no normal pony would know without being a spy or a stalker.

She was pretty proud of the explanation she'd come up with to cover her slip; it wasn't a lie, and it sounded saner than the detailed truth. It fit well with Rule Number Two: be as honest as possible. Not that she was prone to lying, anyway, but there were enough fanfictions covering this sort of thing to make it clear that she wasn't going to get far if she fiddle-farted around with no clue what she was doing. Those two rules were all she'd come up with, but despite some awkwardness, it was working out well so far. Probably more would pop up as she went, hopefully before she broke her or somebody else's brain.

With that less than encouraging thought on her mind, Jenn sent a little prayer for sanity and calm nerves heavenward. Then she focused her attention back on her most current and pressing need, which involved following a bobbing, magical spell to the restrooms.

There's a good reason why they don't discuss how the ponies in the aforementioned television show use the restroom, and it's the same reason why it won't be discussed here. Let it be said only that it wasn't actually that different. The hardest part was figuring out how to work the sink, and Jenn was so involved in maneuvering her black-coated hooves around the shiny silver handles that she didn't realize she was no longer the only person in the room.

"Really, is it too much to ask that you ladies put the toilet seat up oncein a while?"

"AAAAAAAIIIIIEEEEE!"

Discord rung a finger in his ear as he stared up at the unicorn clinging from a light fixture in a rictus of panic. "If you haven't discovered your special talent yet, my dear, I would venture it has something to do with shattering glass with sound waves," he said dryly.

"What are you doing in here?!" Jenn screeched.

"What, the Lord of Chaos can't use the facilities?"

"This is the ladies' room!"

Discord tilted his serpentine neck back in an upside-down U, giving the door Jenn had entered a thoughtful study. "Is it? You're sure?"

Jenn paused for a long moment, gripped in the paralyzing fist of uncertainty.

"You look to be a smidge stuck." Discord was quite abruptly at her level, which, considering she currently hung upside down from a light fixture, was a little disconcerting. Jenn glanced down (up?) at the floor and realized the cartoon-physics-level height that she'd just jumped.

"Well you kind of snuck up on me and freaked me the crap out," she snapped, clutching the light fixture tightly. "Is defying gravity common in Equestria? Also if this isn't the ladies' room, Twilight's magical guide over there," she tilted her head towards the hovering ball of purple light by the door, "needs to be fired, and while we're on the subject, would you mind helping me down, please?" Maybe she could have worded that last request more politely, but she was a little focused on her current height off the ground.

Discord's bright yellow eyes widened with mock regret. (Oh yes, Jenn could feel the "mock" in there.) "My dearlady, it would behoove me to help a pony I've so unfortunately distressed." Jenn wasn't really that surprised when the hoof on Discord's left hind goat leg literally popped off and bounced across the tiles like a rubber ball. "Will this do the trick?" The loony ex-villain folded his body into the shape of a staircase that led down to the floor. After a moment of considering how weird it would be to walk on stairs that were actually a person, Jenn decided that this was the least weird part of her day, and soon she was back on the bathroom tile.

While Discord remolded himself into his normal discordant shape, Jenn took a long moment to stare at the draconequees. Now that she was feeling less panicked from a combination of being snuck up on and finding a guy in the girls' restroom, she could fully appreciate the fact that standing in front of her was Discord: that loopy, kind of entertaining, somewhat emotionally unstable chaos master who used to be a villain and now showed up once in a while, apparently trying to be a good guy. He looked even more discombobulated in person, with all of those mismatched animal parts that somehow worked together to form his body. And he had a smug look on his face, like he knew something she didn't. It was all a little unnerving…and, well, kind of interesting.

Well, it wouldn't hurt to be cordial, Jenn decided, and put on her best smile. Plus, hey, maybe he can help Twilight figure out how to get me home. "Sorry about yelling. Thanks for your help. I'm Jenn. I'm…visiting." After the confusion with Twilight, maybe it would be a good idea to not pour out her entire weird story the second she met people in this world. She'd call that Rule Number Three.

Discord waved her off, smiling indulgently (which is a really irritating way to smile at somebody, just saying). "I shan't hold it against you. Myself, I was just popping by to say hello to my dear friend, Princess Twilight Sparkle. We're quite close, you know." His uneven eyes widened innocently. "I heard that there might be a little bit of a situation!"

"Oh, hey! That could be really helpful. I'm kind of the reason for the situation," Jenn said with a nervous giggle. She glanced around at their present location. Yup, still (as best as she could tell) the mare's room. "Soooo um, out of curiosity: if you're here to see them, what brought you in here?"

"Well, when a guy eats certain spicy dishes for lunch, he eventually—"

Jenn waved a hoof in a rapid erasure. "No, I mean what are you doing in the ladies' room? Did Twilight send you to find me, or do you just…I don't know, usually walk into restrooms for the opposite gender? I mean, I know you're Discord and everything, but come on. Boundaries."

At this, Discord smugly drew to his full height, suddenly wearing a nice suit with a VIP badge. He raised a bushy white eyebrow. "Excuse me, Miss 'River', but while you are obviously new here, I happen to be Discord: esteemed friend of the Elements of Harmony, not to mention personal confidant of the Element of Kindness, an official Cutie Mark Crusader, and Inter-Dimensional Pie Contest Judge Supreme. I'm sure that, of the two of us, I have greater visitation rights and bathroom privileges in this particular castle than one little lost human."

Jenn's eyes narrowed, partly from annoyance at his snarky attitude, and partly because little alarm bells were going off in her head. "I didn't get around to telling you I'm a human yet." She narrowed her eyes further. "And I said my name was Jenn, not River."

"Really? My mistake. I probably determined it from your highly thematic cutie mark design," Discord said casually, poofing from the spot where he'd been standing and reappearing near Jenn's flank to investigate the mechanical pencil/river-themed mark. She resisted the urge to horse-kick him out of her Personal Space Bubble, but only barely. "Really, if you're going to blend in around here, it wouldn't hurt to take a less conspicuous name for a while."

She noted that for later. "And the 'human' part?"

He hand-waved this. "I'm sure I simply overheard that when I passed by the lab on the way here."

Jenn chewed her lip, still eyeing him warily. That…maybe made sense. She felt like she'd missed something, though. Stop being paranoid, she scolded herself. Discord was a good guy now! Okay, he was still learning how to be a good guy, if the show was any gauge, but that was beside the point. Jenn plunked her hindquarters on the tile floor and rubbed her head, grimacing when she accidentally bonked the horn poking through her hair. "Okay, fine. Sorry if I'm being a grump. It's been a weird day and I get testy when I'm stressed out." She took a deep breath and mustered what she hoped was a nice smile. "Let's start over. You already picked up the bit about me being a human in a pony body, so at least we can skip that part! Are you here to help Twilight figure out how to send me home?" He knows how to open portals to other dimensions, right? I'm sure I remember something like that happening.

"Oh, I'm sure Twilight doesn't need little old me to help with a big magical friendship problem like that," Discord said cheerfully. "But of course I'll offer my meager services." In an unexpected scene change, Jenn suddenly found herself sitting at a small wooden dining set, set with tea, across from Discord. The gray-headed draconequus leaned on the table with a look of fascination. (Yes, the whole set-up was still in the restroom.) "First things first, though! How are you liking your little soiree in Equestria, my dear?"

"It's, uh…I mean, it's pretty cool." Jenn shrugged uneasily, trying to figure out how to sit without bending her tail the wrong way. "I'd be more relaxed if I knew I had a reliable way of getting home. Speaking of which, I probably better get back—"

"What, you don't like it here?" Discord put a lion paw to his heart, adopting a wounded look. "Is our colorful dimension not exciting enough for you?"

Jenn frowned at him. "That's not it. If you were just ripped out of your home unexpectedly, not to mention one that—" She stopped short. No, no, Rule Number One. "Uh, not to mention being turned into a different species, wouldn't you be freaked out?"

Discord thought this over, leaning back in his chair while the teacup in his hand added sugar to itself. "Hmmm, well, it's not exactly a problem I have to deal with on a regular basis," he said. There was that touch of smug again; she couldn't decide if it was normal for him, or if he was being snarky because she'd yelled at him earlier. A second later, though, Discord's bushy white eyebrows dipped thoughtfully. Those yellow and red eyes studied her up and down, as if trying to figure out an unusual puzzle. "Personally, though, I'm surprised that you came here. A whole new world at your hooftips, and you go running for help? I won't say it's not practical, but don't you types normally like to wander around a bit, take in the sights and such before you go on your grand quest to get home or whatever?"

"Well, sure, if this happened to some people, they'd probably—" Jenn's mouth clapped shut as his words caught up to her. There were those alarm bells again! "Are you saying this has actually happened to other people? I thought this sort of thing only happened in fanfiction! How many of us are there?!"

Discord's guffaw echoed loudly in the porcelain acoustics of the restroom. "You say that as if you aren't sitting right here! Oh, it's too rich! To answer your question, my dear, you're the only one in town that I'm aware of at the moment. But the occasional visitor from another dimension pops in more often than dear Twilight realizes."

Jenn felt a little thrill of excitement and leaned forward. "If you know so much about interdimensional travel, do you know how to send me home? I'd be happy not to have to waste more of Twilight's time." That reminded Jenn of just how long she'd been gone. She stood quickly and began working her way around the space-hogging tea table. "Speaking of which, we should really be getting back, I don't want Twilight to think I've run off—"

"Oh, certainly!" Discord poofed the table out of existence and stood. Jenn could hear his mismatched feet tapping on the floor as he followed her, still talking in a casual tone. "It's really a shame that you plan to run off so quickly, though. And to say you aren't happy being in that lovely pony body! One might think that anypony would be pleased to try out something of their own design…"

Jenn stopped, one hoof hovering in the air. Those alarm bells from earlier? Yeah, they were going full Defcon One now. All of the pieces, the little hints and jabs, fell into place like a magical self-ordering puzzle.

Slowly, the black-coated, blue-maned unicorn turned on her hoof, blue eyes narrowing to slits.

"YOU did this to me," she hissed.

Discord smirked, lounging backwards in midair with his arms comfortably folded behind his head. "Took you long enough, 'River Babble'."

"What—! How— W—" Jenn sputtered a full thirty seconds before something intelligible came out. "Why?!"

Discord shrugged, radiating full smug by this point. "You're the oh-so-smart writer who gets everyone in character, aren't you? YOU figure it out."

"Writer? This has something to do with my writing? But what did—" Her eyes widened. "Oh my word, is this about that My Little Pony fanfiction I'm working on?" The ridiculous truth slammed her in the face. "Does this have something to do with what I wrote about you?"

Discord sniffed, rolling his eyes up to look at the ceiling. "It's entirely possible that you're getting warmer."

"Oh my freaking word." Jenn put a hoof to her head, mind racing. "W…wait, wait, clear something up for me here." A terrible thought had entered her head. If the show was real, then that meant that the writers of the show were writing about real events. And if that was true, and Discord knew about the story she'd been writing… "Are the things I write real?" Jenn sucked in a harsh breath. "Am I…am I making things happen to real people?!"

For a little context, it is important to note that in certain internet social circles where Jenn spent a great deal of time, there was a popular headcanon among many authors, writers, creators, and otherwise imaginative people. The theory was that, somewhere, somehow, in some other dimension or universe, the events and characters someone wrote about came into existence, unfolding exactly how the writer dictated. That the writer was, in fact, almost god-like in their ability to affect the lives of these characters they had created.

While this theory was popular by some, it was not Jenn's favorite theory by a long shot. Several choice events she had written or was planning to write about bounced through her head and made sent a sick feeling in her stomach – including the one Discord was talking about. The scene involved Discord being confronted with a super-powerful creature of dark magic whom he had made a deal with centuries ago, and finding out what a bad idea making a deal with a super-powerful creature of dark magic really was. It was going to lead into all sorts of important plot development with the main characters trying to stop the creature of dark magic, and Discord trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to hinder it from his captured position. It was important to the story, even though it did not, in fact, offer a flattering view of Discord's strength.

But if she was actually creating real-life events… If she were somehow responsible for hurting people…

Discord's guffaw bounced around the bathroom again, breaking Jenn out of her frantic circle of worrying. "Don't flatter yourself, my dear! None of that drivel has actually happened. Whatever the humans who make that silly TV show adaptation have got, I assure you that you don't have it." He narrowed his eyes. "That doesn't excuse your portraying me in such an unflattering light, of course. Making it out like I, the Lord of Chaos, could be overpowered so easily. It's insulting!" He sniffed dramatically.

Intense relief flooded Jenn. She hadn't hurt anyone… But, with the release of the fear came a fresh flood of indignant rage. "You did this over something that's not even—? That's insane!" Jenn exclaimed. "I haven't even posted it online yet! It'll be ages until I do, and for crying out loud, I am pretty sure my story is far from the worst thing ever written about you! I mean have you even SEEN half of the shipping fics that exist?!" She was waving her hooves by this point. "At least in my story, you were going to come out a way better person by the end of everything!" Her volume rose with her anger, so Jenn was fully maxed out by the time she pointed a hoof at herself and shrieked, "Are you really telling me that you yanked me out of my home and mutated me because you were mildly insulted?!"

Discord shrugged, showing no concern at all for her full-on rant. He even smirked. "That, and it's a fun prank to pull."

"Oh my word." Jenn flung a hoof in the air, rolling her eyes. Some thought in the back of her mind – that little one linked to her sense of survival – quietly questioned if yelling at a super-powered magical creature of chaos was either smart or safe. Angry rants rarely run on rational thought, though, so it was ignored. Jenn marched up to Discord and reared up on her back legs so that she could plant a hoof as high up his chest as possible. "Send. Me back. Now," she growled.

"Well, that's no fun." Discord tut-tutted, waving an eagle talon back and forth in her face. "You've only just gotten here! I'd hardly be doing you a favor by sending you back so soon."

"Listen, dude, I've got family and friends who'll worry about me, not to mention a job. And I shouldn't be here. So unless you convince me I'll be sent back to the exact time and place that I left, I'm in a bit of a hurry!"

"Oh, River Babble, don't get yourself tied up in a knot!" The draconequus giggled as his serpentine body jumbled into an impossible tangle. "Learn to have some fun! You'll certainly have some time to, since you," he tapped her playfully on the nose, "are going to be a pony for a good little while yet."

Jenn narrowed her eyes. "So you're not going to send me home?"

"Let me think about it…mmmno."

She turned on her hoof and marched out the door. "Then I'm telling Twilight!"

Discord blinked, jaw dropping open as the door swung shut in his face. "Wha—!" He poofed out of the restroom, reappearing in front of Jenn and wearing a scandalized look. "Are you seriously going to tattle on me? How old are you?"

"Oh, don't give me that," Jenn snorted, skirting around him and trotting faster down the hall. The purple spell Twilight had sent with her guided the way back towards where the Elements of Harmony would be. "'Tattling' is what bullies accuse little elementary school kids of doing so they won't tell the teacher that the bullies are being jerks!"

"Jerk, wellll, that's a bit of a harsh term," Discord protested, floating faster to keep up with her. "Maybe you just need to learn to take a joke!" He frowned after her as she kept marching. "What makes you think they'll believe you over me, anyway?"

"Oh, so you're going to lie to them! What a great friend you are!" Jenn grated, marching right on. The concern in Discord's voice began to sink in. Discord was worried! He didn't want her to tell Twilight! Jenn paused long enough to point a hoof at him. "I know why you came here. You weren't expecting me to spill the beans to Twilight first thing! You're hoping to run me off before she can find a way to send me home, to prolong your little joke!" She set off trotting again, feeling a hot surge of satisfaction. "Well, forget it, Discord. I'm not playing your stupid game!"

In another poof of smoke, Discord appeared so directly in front of Jenn that she smacked her nose into him. He was scowling down at her. "Look, Miss Priss, I was going to send you back eventually," he muttered, glancing around as if he was afraid somepony would overhear. "But if you go whining to Twilight, I definitely won't be in a charitable mood for helping you out!"

"Too bad." Jenn skirted him again, hopping over his red, tufted tail. "I guess I'm just back at Plan A. I bet Twilight will figure it out faster than you would take sending me home!" Boiling mad and running on a granite-hard stubborn streak, there was no stopping her now.

Discord, for whatever reason, wasn't using any truly forceful means to stop her, even though he obviously could. Maybe he was conscious enough of what being a good guy meant to know that that would be taking things too far. Of course, his moral compass was obviously still skewed a bit, if this was his idea of a prank. The draconequus appeared in front of her again, this time forming a brick barricade and wearing a comical green military outfit. "Hold up just a minute!" he ordered. Jenn ignored him and walked up to the wall, searching for a way through.

Discord jogged over to her, his face sour. "Fine, if you're going to be all high and mighty, I'll have to pull out the big guns." He leaned close to her, eyebrow waggling. "You didn't happen to see anything come through with you, did you?"

Jenn slowed just a little. The question sank down through her bubble of liquid anger, settling into her brain. She glanced sideways at him. "There wasn't anything around me when I woke up…" Was there? She tried to think.

With a flourish of his hand, Discord conjured a little bubble in his talon. Inside of the bubble, as if seen through a fuzzy television screen, sat a rectangular, blue device. Jenn's eyes widened in disbelief. "Is that my 3DS? You brought some of my stuff?"

That smug grin was reasserting dominance on Discord's face. He observed the bubble, twisting it back and forth. "It might be. Oh, I don't have it here, of course; who knows where it's gone off to. I'd imagine you'd want to look for it so you don't leave it here, though."

Jenn turned this over in her mind for a moment. Yes, that would be a shame – she really liked that 3DS, even if it did have a broken hinge. And which game did it have plugged into it right now? Was she at risk of losing her hard-earned Pokedex collection?!

She suddenly realized what he was doing. With a growl, Jenn turned back to the brick wall blocking her way, found an urn against the wall, and clumsily scrambled over it, hopping down on the other side. She was not going to let him have his way that easily!

Discord was immediately after her, calling out a list of items that only fueled Jenn's angry sense of purpose.

"Wait! Seriously? You're just going to leave that?"

"It's replaceable and I probably play it too much, anyway!"

"What about your phone?"

That one hurt. "It'll probably turn up!"

"Your wallet?"

"Pretty sure no ponies are going to steal my credit cards or my identity!"

"Well, if you don't care about those things, I suppose you aren't worried about Chewie."

This time, Jenn stopped dead. Not just her body, either – her whole brain came to a screeching, grinding halt. Slowly, with the same gravity but much more mounting horror than back at the restroom, Jenn turned, stared at Discord, and asked him exactly what he was implying.

With a face entirely full of smug, he told her.

"You. Did. WHAT?!"

.

---

.

Twilight stopped in the middle of her explanation of one of the parts of the attachment she was constructing. Her horn was pinging. A worried line crossed the alicorn's face.

"What's up, Twilight?" Spike asked, setting down a large bundle of wiring.

"Something's wrong. My spell is supposed to bring Jenn straight back here. But it's getting out of range!" She flared her wings, signaling Rainbow Dash to follow her. "Come on, we need to check on her!"

They zoomed out, buzzing over the heads of the finally returning Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. The pink-and-yellow pegasus was brimming with happiness as she stepped over the threshold. "Girls, you'll never believe what I—"

"No time, Fluttershy!" Twilight yelled, as she and Rainbow Dash bolted down the hall.

Twilight's stomach continued to sink as the spell led her further and further down the halls. They stopped at the restroom, which was empty. (Rainbow asked a random question about how Twilight had gotten hoofmarks on the ceiling, but Twilight ignored it.) They continued to follow the ping of Twilight's horn, until at last, they landed at the door of the castle – and Twilight's fears were confirmed.

"She's left the castle! She's gone!"