1. Reflections on Anomalies

As Twilight walked towards the back of the Crystal Ballroom, her lit horn gradually dimmed. Was that the anomaly? Princess Celestia was quite vague as to what she was to investigate, only declaring that it was to be her top priority. Cadance was no more forthcoming. They didn’t want her to have any preconceived notions.

She tried compensating by upping her magical exertion. That worked. She turned around and walked back towards the entrance, from where the others were watching her and Spike; as she half-expected, her horn brightened again. She resumed walking towards the far end. Sunlight striking the exterior wall refracted and reflected throughout all the walls, the escaping prismatic light competing with the interior lighting. As before, her horn got increasingly dimmer the closer to the back she got.

“The anomaly appears to weaken my unicorn magic,” she said, her voice reverberating in the large, empty ballroom. “The further I go in this direction, the worse it gets.” Spike dutifully wrote that down. Back at the hallway, Rainbow Dash and Applejack exchanged uneasy looks; Princess Cadance had no visible reaction. “Compensation is possible via increased magical exertion.”

Time for a different experiment. The alicorn tried lifting her saddlebags with her magic and found it surprisingly difficult, as if they had gained a lot of weight. “Telekinesis is similarly affected.”

They reached the back wall. “To maintain light output here, I need ten times the normal exertion level.” Her number one assistant continued writing down her observations. The two walked along the back wall, searching for the point at which magic seemed the weakest.

They found it in front of a modest door, probably leading to a storage area. It was locked, both magically and physically, but that was easy enough to take care of—not quite as easy as it would have been if her magic was at full strength—but soon enough the door opened, indeed revealing a storage area with empty, shelf-lined walls.

But what immediately caught the alicorn’s eye was a mirror reflecting her lit horn. The glare made it difficult to see anything else, so she dimmed her horn. The only other light was from the ballroom behind her. Her eyes quickly adjusted revealing a familiar object. Why had it been moved here? Once she had passed through it to a strange realm, one populated by bipedal “humans.” It was at least another year before it opened again, so for now it ought to be “just” a mirror.

Twilight slowly crossed the dozen or so feet to the mirror, with each step her horn requiring additional exertion to maintain its brightness. The sound of her clopping hooves revealed the absence of reverberation, lending the room a claustrophobic vibe. By the time she had reached the mirror, it was taking unsustainable effort to maintain even a dim glow. “It sure looks like the mirror is the problem,” she told Spike.

The lavender alicorn in the reflection stared back at her. Might as well see what happens. She raised a hoof to touch the mirror’s surface. As expected, it met a solid surface—my horn went dark! In shock she jumped back; to her relief her horn resumed its dim glow.

“You okay?” Spike nervously asked.

“I-I’m fine,” Twilight assured him, her pounding heart calming down. “Just surprised, that’s all.” She touched the surface again, and again dark her horn went. This time she maintained contact and tried levitating her saddlebags. Nothing. She tried levitating her tail. Nothing.

Spike pointed apprehensively at her cutie mark. “Twilight…”

She saw the baby dragon’s reflection in the mirror and rotated so that she could see her reflected cutie mark. It was slowly fading. “That can’t be good,” she said, as she quickly broke contact with the mirror. Her horn resumed its dim glow and her cutie mark stopped fading; it actually began to darken, though more slowly than it faded. That makes perfect sense. A cutie mark is a magical projection onto the coat. Without magic to sustain it, it would have to fade. There’s barely enough magic here to restore the projection.

Twilight unlit her horn and again tried levitating her tail. This time it lifted, but her tail felt impossibly heavy to her telekinesis. She relayed all these observations to Spike, who wrote them all down.

“Let’s tell the others.” They started walking back. Her cutie mark continued to darken, returning to normal shortly after re-entering the ballroom. Twilight pondered what this all meant, with little success. The portal was closed, but it appeared to be suppressing her unicorn magic; this hadn’t happened even when it was open. In order to figure out what was going on, she needed a hypothesis to test. By the time she and Spike reached the entrance, an experiment had been devised.

The two found the other ponies just inside the hallway, waiting for their findings. Twilight got down to business. “The storage room back there has The Mirror,” she declared. “The one that Sunset Shimmer used to leave Equestria. It’s the source of the anomaly, isn’t it?” Twilight waited for Cadance to answer.

“Yes,” she confirmed. “I had it moved there to keep it out of the way.”

“What exactly is the anomaly doing?” asked Applejack.

“It’s suppressing magic. When I touched it, my magic completely vanished.”

“But only while you touched it, right?” Rainbow Dash anxiously asked.

“Only while I touched it,” she assured her. “I’m perfectly fine now.” Was that a foolish thing to do? What if it hadn’t been temporary?

Applejack didn’t look assured. “The mirror never did this before?”

“No,” Cadance replied. “Nopony knows where the mirror came from or how old it is, but nothing like this has ever happened during Celestia’s reign.” Her face became deadly serious. “Twilight, the affected area is growing. Slowly for now…”

Though she knew there could only be one answer, Twilight nonetheless had to ask the question. “My brother could not contain it?” Obviously not, or he’d be here containing it and not on a train to Canterlot. And he didn’t volunteer any information about this anomaly either, she now realized.

“He tried. His shield worked, but only temporarily. The smaller the volume contained, the faster it collapsed.” Of course. Shining Armor used unicorn magic. The shield was being eroded from the inside.

“There’s an experiment I need to perform,” Twilight stated. “Let’s go to the balcony.”

The ballroom opened up to a broad balcony. Twilight led the group outside into the late morning sun. The sounds of crystal ponies going about their lives drifted upwards from far below. Getting as far away from the anomaly as possible, she walked all the way to the railing. As the others joined her, she told them, “Leave this area in front of me clear.”

Twilight conjured a small cloud a foot off the ground, big enough to hold a single pony, from the humidity of the surrounding air. She was far enough away that her magic was unimpeded, as she had hoped. The cloud was positioned so that it had a straight line to the mirror. Faking a grin, she mockingly looked around and said, “I need the services of a pegasus. Any volunteers?”

The only pegasus present responded with forced enthusiasm. “‘Danger’ is my middle name!” With somewhat less enthusiasm, she asked, “What’cha got in mind?”

Twilight went serious; science wasn’t to be taken lightly. “Hop onto this cloud.” Rainbow Dash complied. “I want you to remain standing on this cloud while you use your wings to slowly push yourself all the way to the mirror.”

“What d’ya expect to happen?” she asked with a hint of trepidation. Known dangers are easier to pony up for than unknown dangers, figured Twilight.

“I can’t tell you; it could negatively impact the quality of the generated data.”

Rainbow Dash digested that for a moment and got indigestion. “Eggheads…” she quietly muttered under her breath.

Twilight pulled a device out of her saddlebag and gave it to Spike. It was rod-shaped, with a flattened rectangular head that possessed several knobs and a meter. “Take and record readings as we go,” she instructed. I won’t be able to use it once we get too close.

Spike grabbed it, turned it on and took his first reading. “99.9%, basically normal.” He wrote it down.

“Ah reckon that’s one of your scientific devices?”

“Sure is, Applejack. It’s a probe that measures the strength of the ambient magical field.” Her attention switched to the perched pegasus. “Okay, Rainbow Dash, let’s go.”

Rainbow Dash began to gently push herself forward with her wings, heading towards the mirror. Twilight exchanged a glance with Princess Cadance. Yeah, she probably shares my suspicions on what is about to happen.

Twilight, accompanied by Spike, started to follow Rainbow Dash and her cloud, remaining a few feet behind. Everypony else likewise followed Twilight. Spike took readings every so often and noted that the field strength was decreasing, slowly at first, but at an accelerating rate. It appeared to be proportional to the inverse square of the remaining distance to the mirror.

For over a hundred feet nothing in particular happened, but at some point Rainbow Dash started shifting her weight from hoof to hoof. “This cloud is starting to feel a bit funny.”

“Funny how?” asked Twilight.

“Well, it’s getting sorta, I don’t know, soggy.” Twilight was giving her one of those looks. “Yeah, I know it’s made of water, but—I dunno know… how to describe it… it’s like it’s starting to fall apart and, well, I don’t want it to fall apart, but it’s ignoring me.” Her weight shifting grew more aggressive as her footing became increasingly precarious. “And it’s getting harder to push with my wings.” Spike wrote it all down along with the probe’s reading of 3%. They were about 15 feet from the mirror. Twilight was all but certain as to what was about to happen.

The cloud was now visibly losing its cohesion as they entered the storage area, and Rainbow Dash was struggling to stay on top. She was also pumping her wings way too hard given her forward progress. 9 feet, 1%.

A few seconds later, the pegasus fell through the cloud, dissipating what was left of it. She instinctively tried to hover but to no avail; she fell to the floor. Fortunately it was only a few feet and she was shaken but unharmed. 6 feet, 0.5%.

“I can’t fly!”

“Nor stand on clouds or even keep a small cloud intact,” Twilight observed. She shook her head. “This is bad, very very bad.”

Rainbow Dash kept trying to take off but could do no more than hop a few inches off the ground, her flapping wings nearly useless. Twilight knew neither she nor Cadance would do any better.

Applejack couldn’t believe her eyes. “What about us earth ponies?”

Twilight was sure of the answer, but what experiment could she perform? There was no apple tree for Applejack to buck, and she certainly couldn’t conjure up one here—but then she had it. “Spike, put your quill down in front of Applejack.”

He did so.

“Now, Applejack, pick it up with your hoof.”

She tried, but she couldn’t lift it off the floor. “It’s just like when Tirek took our magic.”

Rainbow Dash walked over and tried to pick it up, also without success. “Yeah… remember how hard it was to turn those keys with our hooves?”

Spike tried his fire breath, but little more than sparks came out.

“I reckon none of us are immune,” Applejack concluded.

“Spike, go to the mirror and take a reading,” Twilight instructed. “Then touch it with the probe and take another reading.”

“On it.” Possessing actual claws, the absence of magic could not prevent him from picking up a quill or using the magic probe. “At one foot the field barely registers, under point zero one per cent.” He touched the probe to the mirror. “Zero.” He turned a knob, increasing sensitivity to maximum, and touched the probe to the mirror again. “Still zero.”

Twilight was satisfied; the experiment was over. “Let’s walk back. We’ll all return to normal once we get far enough away.”

Every few feet Rainbow Dash tried to take off, each time her wings providing more thrust; eventually she was able, with difficulty, to stay airborne. About fifty feet from the mirror, Twilight stopped and retrieved a different instrument from her saddlebag, this one a flattened box shape containing two meters, a compass-like pointer, and the usual collection of knobs.

“What’s that one do?” asked Applejack.

Twilight turned it on and set it on the floor. “The magical field behaves like a viscous gas. This device measures the flow and viscosity of the field. Levitating it messes up the readings, which is why I put it on the floor.” She waited a bit longer for the readings to settle down. “There’s no question about it,” she began. “Magic is flowing towards the mirror and the field viscosity is below normal.” Spike recorded the data off the device.

“I should take another reading closer to the mirror.” Twilight picked up the device, trotted a dozen feet closer to the mirror, with Spike tagging along, then set it down again. A half-minute later the readings had settled, showing that the flow was faster and the viscosity lower. The two rejoined the others, then all of them continued on to the balcony. Outside, the magic flow was minimal and the viscosity was normal.

Twilight walked over to the railing and leaned against it, staring off into the distance, letting it all sink in. Somehow the magic of their world was bleeding out; worse, the viscosity changes showed that something else was happening too—but what? How will she solve this one? Am I being tested yet again?

Applejack came up alongside her.

Twilight said, quietly, “You’d think I’d be used to it by now, but it doesn’t get any easier.” She continued to stare at infinity.

“We’re all here to help ya, doncha forget that.” She too stared into the distance.

Rainbow Dash drifted down in front of them, on the far side of the railing, forelegs crossed in defiance. “Why do I need magic to fly?!” she demanded. “Birds do it all the time and they aren’t magical.” She quickly added, “Most of them.”

Twilight looked at the pegasus in disbelief. “Wasn’t this covered in flight school?”

“Uh…” she sheepishly said, rubbing a hoof through her mane.

Twilight rolled her eyes. Probably too busy daydreaming about the Wonderbolts to pay attention. “Pegasus wings are too small,” she explained. “Wings of any size cannot provide both the raw speed and agility all pegasi have, never mind a pegasus like you.”

Rainbow Dash considered that for a moment. “I guess that makes sense. I always did wonder why birds had to work their wings so hard.”

Cadance joined them. “What now? Do you want to try your Rainbow Powers?”

Twilight looked down at the streets far below. She watched the crystal ponies going about their business, oblivious to the danger. Not that any purpose would be served by informing them at this time, other than to cause panic. Hopefully they will never need to know.

“Not yet,” she said with a sigh. “What worries me is that our magic will just follow the ambient magic to who knows where. I don’t think magic can reach the physical mirror itself.” She turned away from the railing to look at her fellow ponies. “If the ‘hole’ through which magic is draining is growing larger on its own, then using the Elements on it, forcing more magic through it, might only make it grow faster.”

“We do have some time,” Cadance said. “Assuming it continues to worsen at the current rate, it will be months before it seriously threatens the Crystal Heart.”

“Why not move it out to the middle of nowhere where it can’t bother anypony?” asked Applejack.

Cadance slowly shook her head. “I’m afraid it may be too late for that. Any ponies who attempt to move it will have to do so without using magic of any kind. It’s a long way down to the ground floor and the Crystal Heart is right outside.”

“Move the Crystal Heart?” Spike suggested.

“The affect that would have on the crystal ponies would be nearly as bad.”

“It wouldn’t be a permanent solution anyway,” added Twilight. “Given enough time it would bleed all the magic out of Equestria and beyond.” She didn’t add that the chances were good that at some point something would give, like a dam collapsing, increasing the flow exponentially.

“So let’s take care of it now!” insisted Rainbow Dash. “That way, we don’t have to worry about moving it.”

Twilight looked at the pegasus. You make it sound so easy. “Why don’t you go fetch the others.” It was time to get them involved. There had been no need for them to hang around as Twilight conducted her initial investigation, so Rarity was out shopping for fabrics, Pinkie Pie was shopping for a party, and Fluttershy was helping Pinkie Pie.

“On it!” Rainbow Dash vanished into the distance, leaving behind her rainbow contrail.

2. Chaotic Enlightenment

It didn’t take long for Rainbow Dash to find everypony. Rarity, obviously, was in the fashion district. As for Pinkie Pie… she had a way of standing out. Poor Fluttershy was with her, carrying all of the purchased party supplies. Will she ever stop being a doormat?

After touching bases with them, she flew ahead and waited for them at the castle. Rarity arrived first, with various bolts of fabric floating above her. After she had set them down, Rainbow Dash pointed a hoof at the grand staircase. “They’re at the top of the stairs.”

Rarity balked, whining, “You simply cannot expect me to climb all the way to the top!” Like most unicorns she didn’t know how to self-levitate or teleport, and naturally she lacked earth pony—or crystal pony—stamina.

You could use the exercise, the pegasus thought but didn’t say. Rainbow considered her options. I could carry her up, but I’d have to listen to her complain about what it was doing to her mane. That settled it. Let Twilight deal with it; she could teleport her or something. She was about to fetch the alicorn when Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy arrived.

Fluttershy was about ready to collapse from her load. This took priority. “Let’s get this stuff off you,” Rainbow Dash said as she hovered above Fluttershy and started removing the party supplies off Fluttershy’s back. Rarity quickly joined in using her telekinesis. Pinkie was happy to just stand there and observe her friends feeling good about helping another friend.

Between the two of them, it didn’t take long to finish unloading Fluttershy. Now to deal with Rarity. “I’ll fetch Twilight so she can teleport you to the balcony,” she told her. Turning her attention to the Pinkie, she said, “meet us at the top of the stairs.” Pinkie immediately pronked away. Being an earth pony, Rainbow knew it wouldn’t be a problem for her. Being Pinkie Pie…

Rainbow Dash grabbed Fluttershy by the hoof and launched in the direction of the door, heading outside. “Come on Fluttershy, we gotta get to the top before Pinkie Pie!” The balcony was many hundreds of feet above the ground. There was no way Pinkie could get there first!

Once outside, Dash got behind Fluttershy and started pushing her up with all her might. “I didn’t know we were racing her,” Fluttershy apologized, as she started flapping her wings, but Rainbow was too focused on winning to explain.

In mere seconds they reached the balcony, where Rainbow Dash found Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Princess Cadance, and Spike. Wait, what? Pinkie wasn’t even breathing hard, as if she’d been standing there for some time. Dash gritted her teeth as Pinkie innocently smiled back at her. How does she do that? It was pointless to ask; if even Twilight could not figure that out, what chance did she have?

She felt she was forgetting something. Oh yeah… Rarity. “Hey, Twilight, could you give Rarity a helping hoof? She’s at the foot of the stairs.” Twilight gave her a blank look. For such a smart pony, you can be incredibly dense sometimes. “You know… can’t fly, can’t teleport, not an earth pony?”

Understanding dawned on her. “Oh… sure… be right back.” Twilight teleported away and a few seconds later came back with Rarity.

“Much obliged,” the fashionista said, her mane totally not messed up.

Now that they were all together, Twilight summarized her findings. Rainbow Dash anticipated their predictable reactions.

“This will not do. We cannot allow Equestria to lose its magic.” Rarity, check.

“We must do something, for the sake of the magical critters.” Fluttershy, check.

They all looked expectantly at Pinkie Pie, wondering how she will put a positive, random spin on it.

“I’ve got nothing!” she chirped.

After a brief eye roll, Twilight continued. “We know so little about that mirror. It was already an ancient mystery when Princess Celestia’s reign began.”

“Why not ask someone just as ancient?” chirped Pinkie Pie.

Rainbow Dash glared at her. “Got anypony in mind?”

“How about Discord?” They all stared at Fluttershy.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Even if he does know, can we trust him?”

Fluttershy said, “He depends on magic more than we do. It’s in his interest to help us solve this.”

Rainbow Dash thought about how she couldn’t fly or even pick up a quill, but at least equine bodies were… rational. Nonetheless, Fluttershy had a good point—if he could be believed. If. “Then why doesn’t he fix it himself?” Working herself up, she shouted, “What if this is all his doing?!”

Fluttershy replied, calmly, “I know he sometimes can’t help himself, but even you have to admit this isn’t chaotic enough for his tastes.”

Rainbow Dash looked away. As much as she hated to admit it, nothing particularly chaotic was going on here. But why did Princess Celestia ask Twilight to look into this, but not Discord?

“Assumin’ he can’t fix it himself, why didn’t he say somethin’ or ask for help?” Good for you, Applejack!

“Because he knew you would all act this way!” Fluttershy said, not quite so calmly.

Everypony was silent.

Discord had been on his best behavior since the Tirek incident. He even did penance by undoing all the damage that occurred during Twilight’s battle with Tirek. But while the princesses and Fluttershy were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, the others still held reservations—Rainbow Dash most of all.

Twilight finally spoke. “We are not going to figure out Discord’s intentions by arguing amongst ourselves. Even if this anomaly is one of his games—and I think that unlikely—the only way to end it is to play along and see what he’s really after. I will ask him about The Mirror.”

“A wise choice!” Discord was suddenly floating in the air above them.

Rainbow Dash wondered how long he’d been there, invisible, listening in.

Twilight didn’t waste any time. “I’m asking.”

“And I shall answer: The mirror is my creation.”

You could hear a pin drop.

“Best. Revelation. Ever. Party!” Confetti fell and balloons rose as Pinkie blew a party horn.

“How does she do that?” Discord mused, thoughtfully rubbing his chin.

Oh, the way Twilight was looking at him. Dash knew that somewhere a line was being added to a checklist. Come on, Twilight, he’s just yanking your chain.

“Why is it sucking magic out of our realm?” the alicorn asked, by all appearances ignoring his last utterance.

A hammock came into existence, suspended in mid-air, and the draconequus casually settled into it. A tropical looking alcoholic beverage appeared in a paw, along with oversized sunglasses on his face, and he was now wearing a rather loud, colorful shirt. Rarity briefly grimaced at the horror.

“Because you damaged it when you used your Element of Harmony while on the other side.” He took a nonchalant sip. “You brought magic into that realm through your Element’s connection to the other Elements.”

“Surely you’re not blaming this on Twilight?”

“I’m merely stating the facts,” he replied to Rarity, taking yet another sip.

He sure seems unconcerned, considering the stakes, Rainbow Dash thought. Not exactly evidence this isn’t one of his games.

“I was not the reason the Element of Magic went through the mirror,” Twilight said, defending herself. “I had no idea this would happen when I used it and I had good reason to use it at the time.”

“None of which alters the fact that you did use it and thus caused damage.” He had started on his second drink, his head now resting on a pillow that wasn’t there before.

“Fine, I won’t dispute it.” Discord briefly lifted his sunglasses and shot her a quick smile. “What’s important is that we fix it. It would help if we knew more about it. For example, what was the point of a portal to a realm populated by bipedal versions of the ponies I know here?”

“None.” He took a long, contented sip. “That realm is not what you think it is.”

“Enlighten me,” she droned.

Discord casually finished off his drink. He then discarded all his old props in favor of a professorial outfit, wearing a black cape and tasseled square hat and standing in front of a lectern that floated in the air in front of him. “The realm you entered was nothing but a reflection of this realm,” he lectured. “It has no independent existence of its own. In some sense it doesn’t exist at all unless somepony goes through the mirror to observe it.”

“Sunset Shimmer,” said Twilight stating the obvious. “Why wasn’t there a reflection of me?”

“You became your own reflection. You, too, Spike.”

“So we all coulda gone through the mirror with Twilight and become our own reflections,” deduced Applejack.

“It certainly would have made my task easier,” Twilight pointed out. “I guess Princess Celestia was too cautious, but she did say she didn’t know much about it.”

Rainbow Dash took a few steps towards the draconequus. “When do you get to the part where you tell us how to fix it?” she demanded.

He gave her a professorial glare. “First you must understand what it is you are fixing.”

“Nnngh.” He’s just being difficult. But Twilight took his words at face value. That egghead would.

Twilight asked, “What kind of reflection turns ponies into bipedal creatures with hands?”

“And dragons into dogs!” Spike added.

“I believe you are smart enough to figure that out for yourself,” Discord replied, in a way that was not a smirk. Twilight sat on her haunches, closed her eyes, and thought. She had obviously accepted the challenge. Do you hafta indulge him?

“The reflection is distorted… physical form is different, though other attributes stay the same, such as personality, skin and hair color, cutie marks… What would be the cause of such distortion…” Twilight opened her eyes and looked at Discord. “If that realm is a reflection of ours, then what is it reflecting off of?”

“Bravo!” he cheered, as he placed a gold star over and down Twilight’s horn. “That is what got damaged and the other side of that is where the magic is going.”

The annoyed alicorn’s eyes went cross-eyed trying to look at the gold star. Her horn glowed as she pulled off the star, crumbled it, and tossed it. Having dealt with that, she then said, “What you really created was a barrier to keep magic from leaking out of Equestria.”

“Close enough,” he confirmed. “It thoroughly isolates this realm from the other.”

“And the mirror was simply a means of accessing the inner workings of the barrier.”

“Go on…” Discord was clapping his paws in excitement.

“And even though it’s not due to open for many moons, I bet you can snap your talons and let us in so we can fix it.”

His excitement melted away. “If only that were true. There is no magic in the vicinity of the mirror therefore I have no power over it.”

“And our Rainbow Powers?”

“At best, they would be useless for the same reason. At worst… remember it was the use of the Elements of Harmony that damaged it in the first place. That realm was a magic-free zone for a reason.”

Twilight’s tone hardened. “Are you saying it can’t be fixed?”

“From this side of the barrier, no,” he reluctantly confirmed. “It may be possible to fix it from the other side.” All his props vanished, leaving him naked in every sense. “I cannot exist there. You ponies can.”

That sunk in.

Applejack said, “You can get us there and back?”

“I believe so, but not this close to the mirror. You need to go back to Ponyville. When you are ready to visit that realm, I’ll be ready with the means.” Discard started to fade away.

“Wait! One last question.”

Discord unfaded and looked at Rainbow Dash.

“You obviously knew about it before Princess Celestia,” she accused. “Why didn’t you tell anypony?”

“How do you think she found out?” He faded to nothing once more, this time without interruption.

For the next few hours the ponies went their separate ways. Twilight stayed at the castle, writing a report of her findings to Princess Celestia. She doubted her former mentor would be reading anything she didn’t already know. Discord would have known what was going on as soon as it started happening, and he had already informed Celestia.

She put into the cover letter a request for guidance on what to do next. After packaging the report up for delivery, she gave it to Spike. She didn’t have to wait long for a reply. Quickly scanning past the pleasantries, she found her answer: I have full confidence in your judgement and abilities. Do what you feel is necessary. It felt like yet another test, only this one she did not have the luxury of failing.

It was a terrible burden of responsibility. She wondered if she would have been better off if she had failed her entrance exam to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, as she almost did. She would never have been discovered by the Princess, never have been her personal student. She would have been just another ordinary unicorn, unburdened by the fate of Equestria.

But the alicorn princess knew it was pointless speculation, for it was her destiny that had brought her here.

Twilight contemplated her cutie mark. The large central star was on the Tree of Harmony itself, above the Sun and the Moon. It was surrounded by five small stars, six altogether, one for each Element of Harmony, with Magic, her Element, taking center stage, their destinies linked the day their cutie marks all appeared at the same time, years before they first met. Celestia must have known something when she saw hers appear after she had passed her entrance exam—not that she had ever asked her.

Where will my destiny take me?

Pinkie Pie held her party in an effort to boost morale. She reminded them of their previous successes, that at least this time there was no terrible monster or villain, and that they might even get to explore a strange new world. Think of the adventure! (That sure pushed Rainbow Dash’s button.) Exotic critters and fashions! (Ditto Fluttershy and Rarity.) Maybe even exotic apple orchards!

Twilight decided she would not have been better off, because then she would not have ponies like these for friends.

Later, on the train ride back to Ponyville, Twilight tried to come up with a plan for their mission to the other realm. There was so little to go on. She didn’t even know if they could cross over only once or as many times as they liked, and once there how would they find the hole? How would they plug it? She wished Pinkie Pie would just blurt out the knowledge she could not possibly have, as she has done before, that would answer these questions. Her wish was in vain. Why can’t she do that when it’d be useful?

Upon arriving in Ponyville, Twilight told the others to gather at her castle the following morning. They will find out what Discord has for them and take it from there.

“Fluttershy, why don’t you do the honors?” They were all present in her private library and Twilight was ready to get down to business.

“Discord?” she called out. “We’re ready for you.”

He popped into existence looking like a respectable scientist or inventor, wearing a lab coat and nerdy glasses, and holding a clipboard. No, nothing mad or crazy here, Twilight cynically thought. Addressing the group, he said, “I can get you to the other realm, and—” looking at Rainbow Dash “—yes, I can get you back.”

The pegasus stared back but said nothing in return.

“I am trying here,” he complained. Her stare softened, but not by much.

Twilight wanted to get things back on track. “What do you know about this other realm?”

“It’s a stickler for rules,” he said disdainfully, “and those rules do not recognize the existence of a magical field. Our magic can exist there, temporarily, but it must ‘bargain’”—he air quoted—”with those rules to get anything accomplished—and some things are non-negotiable.”

No magic. Stickler for rules. No wonder Discord can’t exist there. Won’t be fun for us either. “So we won’t have magic until we find the other end of the hole,” she said with a lack of enthusiasm. “I hope you can put us right on top of it.”

“There’s good news and there’s bad news,” he clichédly said.

Applejack adjusted her Stetson. “Start with the bad news.”

“I can only put you within fifty miles of the hole, almost certainly too far to get usable magic from it.”

“And how will we find it?” the orange mare continued.

Twilight answered that. “I have equipment that should be able to do that.” At least I figured that much out.

“In our realm this ‘hole’ looks like The Mirror. What will it look like over there?” asked Rarity.

“I don’t know,” replied Discord simply.

I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

When it became clear there were no further questions, Discord conjured what looked like a candy dispensing machine. Inside its glass container were cylindrical plaid pills, a combination of yellow and red matching the draconequus’ eyes.

“Now the good news,” he began. “One of these pills shall provide all of your inter-realm travel needs. It will take you there. It will get you back here. It will provide you with a supply of magic. And last but not least, it will make you invisible and inaudible to the locals so they’ll leave you alone.”

Twilight was quite impressed. “We simply swallow one?” The pills were on the large side, but not too big to swallow. If they did in fact hold a supply of magic, large was good.

Discord nodded. “One for each round trip. Each pill holds enough magic to last most of a day if used sparingly. When you’re about to run out, you’ll automatically return.”

Good. Don’t want to get stuck there without magic. “How do we return sooner?”

“You click your rear hooves three times—” he demonstrated with his own feet “—and think ‘there’s no place like home.’ Upon returning, any remaining magic in the pill is released back into the environment. You may take another pill immediately.”

He’s really thought this through. I didn’t know he had it in him. “When we go back there, how do we control where we end up?”

“You can return to any spot you’ve been to before. Just clearly think of your destination as you swallow the pill. To be placed in the area of the hole, avoid thinking of any destination.”

That seemed to cover all the bases. Twilight’s attention turned to the magic that has left Equestria. “What happened to the magic that has flowed into that realm?” she asked. “Is there any way to bring it back to our realm?”

Discord tapped his chin a few times in thought. “Unlikely,” he decided. “The magic would spread out to infinity and eventually decay into forms of energy permitted in that realm.”

The scientist within her was fascinated by a realm so different from her own, but she needed to focus on plugging that hole. Every day that passed meant that much more magic being lost from an ever increasing volume. It was an open question how fast the affected volume will recover—or even if it would. She could indulge herself on the physics of a non-magical realm once this was resolved.

Rarity said, “What you have come up with is quite impressive.”

Discord bowed slightly to the fashionista. “Thank you, my dear, but I am quite motivated. It is not in my interest for you to fail, even if you weren’t all my friends.”

Quite true, but still… That left the questions of when to make the first trip and who was to accompany her. Twilight considered her options.

“No time like the present,” she declared. She levitated the pill dispenser to herself and studied it. Nothing mysterious about it, just turn the knob and a pill should come out. It wasn’t even possible to insert a coin. That’d be silly, but with Discord one never knows.

“For this first trip I think it’s best that only Rainbow Dash accompany me.” That did not sit well with the others, not that she expected differently. She raised a hoof to preempt their objections. “I want to be airborne the entire time and get the lay of the land. I only plan on being there ten minutes at most.” Fluttershy could fly, obviously, but she wouldn’t object to being left out of the action. Assuming flying magic isn’t one of those non-negotiable items.

The other pegasus present could barely contain her excitement. “This is gonna be so awesome! I’m gonna be wingpony to a princess!”

The princess rolled her eyes as she levitated her saddlebags onto her back. Her magic probe was still in there from her trip to the Crystal Empire. It ought to be able to pick up the escaping magic dozens of miles away. If so, she can follow the increasing gradient to the source. If not… well, she’ll worry about it if it came to that.

She turned the knob on the pill dispenser two times and retrieved the two plaid pills. Before she could send them to their respective mouths, Discord had one last thing to say. “So that you cross over together, you both need to have a pill in your mouth before either of you swallow. Only one of you can select a destination—or, in this case, neither of you.” Looking at Rainbow Dash, he added, “Don’t chew.”

While the pegasus glared back, Twilight moved the pills into position, taking one into her mouth. It somehow tasted plaid and felt unpleasantly slimy, not that it was dissolving. You just couldn’t help yourself, could you? At least she wouldn’t need water to wash it down. Hopefully the taste won’t linger. She didn’t want to think about what the stuff inside would taste like if she did chew it.

Rainbow Dash had one in her mouth too and was clearly no happier with the taste and mouth feel. Discord got another glare from her as he put on his best “what did I do?” face. Enough already. She waved a hoof in front of the pegasus’ face to get her attention. Once she had it, she said “now.”

They both swallowed. It felt just as slimy going down—

3. Strangers in a Strange Land

—plunging to her death. Twilight found herself high in the sky with nothing but water far, far below. Her heart pounded as panic set in. Hooves desperately flailed in response to sudden weightlessness. Some small part of her mind was trying to make itself heard above the roar of the air racing past her. Wings. Suddenly remembering she could fly, her wings shot out. The air howling past tried to rip them off but only succeeded in slowing her fall.

The alicorn struggled to level out, angling her wings. After what felt like minutes, but was probably only seconds, she was flying horizontally through the air. Flying magic works, she noted with relief. Calming down, Twilight looked around for Rainbow Dash and found her by her side. She sighed. No doubt she recovered instantly. She slowed down and came to a halt, hovering over what she could now see was an ocean.

“Did you forget you had wings or something?” the pegasus asked.

Twilight cringed. How embarrassing. “Surprisingly easy to do when you weren’t born with them,” she dryly responded.

“I was about to grab you.”

I really need to fly more, a lot more. It wasn’t as if Rainbow Dash hadn’t been willing to teach her. There were simply too many other things she’d rather be doing with her free time. Pushing that out of her mind for now, she looked around, taking her first good look at their new surroundings. A few miles away was a coastline, with brownish, low mountains that almost but not quite reached the ocean. The sky above them was solid cloud cover, thick enough to appear gray. Rainbow Dash was climbing towards them and Twilight decided to follow. They came to a stop just beneath them.

“I don’t know, Twilight,” the pegasus said, inspecting the underside of the cloud. “These seem different somehow. Can we even stand on them?”

“They are unusually low for clouds,” Twilight pointed out. “Looks more like an elevated fog bank. And they certainly aren’t being managed by pegasi.” But water mist was still water mist. “Only one way to find out.” She disappeared into the cloud with Rainbow Dash right behind her.

The cloud was surprisingly thick, but before long they were hovering above the cloud top. “Here goes nothing,” said Rainbow Dash as she attempted to perch on the cloud—successfully.

Twilight joined her. “At least our pegasus magic seems to work here.” The sun was low in the sky over the distant mountains, shining brightly. It didn’t really look or feel any different than Celestia’s sun. “I wonder how it moves across the sky without magic?”

“Maybe it doesn’t move.”

Twilight figured they’d find out one way or the other soon enough. Time to find out if unicorn magic works. She used it to take the magic probe out of a saddlebag. So far, so good. She took a reading as Rainbow Dash watched. “This isn’t good.”

“It doesn’t work here?”

“Oh, it’s working. It’s just that it’s obviously reading the magical field generated by the pill.” The field couldn’t have extended very far, but she realized she had another problem. “If I move the probe far enough way to measure the ambient field…”

“You levitation magic fails and it falls into the ocean below.”

“Right,” she confirmed. “I need to do something about that, maybe put it on a long pole.”

“So? Use your magic to extend the handle of the probe.”

Why didn’t I think of that? She cast a morphing spell as she idly wondered if there was something about this realm making her dumber and Rainbow Dash smarter—and nothing happened. She tried again. Nothing happened. She put the probe away. “I can’t,” she said. “I wonder if this is what Discord meant.” But how could such a simple spell fail to work? What rule of this realm could possibly forbid it? “Our ten minutes is about up. Don’t want to worry the others.”

“Sure, we can come right back anyway.” They invoked the return spell and found themselves back where they started, in Twilight’s private library within her castle.

“Where’s Discord?” His absence was the first thing Twilight noticed. She frowned as she realized her questions about the magical field generated by those pills will have to go unanswered. At least that dispenser was still here.

Fluttershy said, “He felt he was no longer needed so he left.”

Pinkie Pie excitedly added, “But he knew you loved books so he left one behind for you!”

Twilight wondered what that was about but decided she didn’t have time for it now.

Rainbow Dash recounted their trip to everypony, as Twilight tried again to extend the probe’s handle—successfully this time. She made the handle as long as possible and still have it fit in her saddlebag, allowing the head of the device to poke out.

Applejack said, “Reckon ya made the right call to take only Rainbow Dash with you.”

Rarity added, “Imagine, our unicorn magic not working properly.”

“It’s better than not working at all, trust me.” Twilight walked over to the dispenser. “Ready to go back?” Rainbow Dash nodded. Twilight dispensed two more pills. “We’ll return to the exact spot we left.” Addressing everypony else, she said, “This time I expect we’ll be there a few hours.” They both swallowed their pills. The taste definitely needs improvement.

Both ponies were once again on top of that cloud. Rainbow Dash went airborne and looked around a bit, not that there was much to see here, while Twilight got down to business with her magic probe.

How far did the pill’s magic field extend? The devil was always in the details. Slowly, she moved the probe away from her. Once it got far enough away, the probe’s head would no longer be supported by her magic and will try to fall, creating a torque she will sense. And that’s exactly what happened when it was about two feet in front of her eyes.

She moved the probe around her body, looking for the boundary on all sides. The boundary appeared to form a bubble around her that loosely followed her form. A bubble is likely what it is; something needs to keep the magical field from spreading out to infinity. But it had to have a limited lifespan, otherwise Discord could have used it to encase The Mirror. Probably one of the reasons the pill’s magic supply couldn’t last very long.

She repositioned it so that its head was in front of her eyes just outside the bubble. Good, I can still read the display. No magic was registering. Not so good. She brought it back inside so that she could increase its sensitivity by turning a knob, then out again for another reading. Still nothing. She repeated several more times until, finally, something registered—extremely weak, almost undetectable, but definitely there. They had their work cut out for them.

“Rainbow Dash!” she shouted. “I got something!” As the pegasus swiftly returned to her side, Twilight noted that her rainbow contrail vanished a few feet behind her tail, right at the boundary of her bubble.

“It’s detecting magic, but it’s extremely weak,” she told her. “Let’s go to the coast over there for another reading.” The tops of the low mountains were poking above the clouds.

“Lead the way!”

Twilight first dived through the clouds so they could see the shoreline. It took only a few minutes to cross the miles of water separating them from land. The mountains abutting the shore were sparsely covered with vegetation, suggesting limited rainfall. Looking down she saw a road hugging the coast with tiny, shiny objects of some sort moving along it. Considering their altitude, they sure must be moving fast.

“Let’s go down.” Twilight started her descent to the road. Along the way, they crossed paths with some birds. They seemed much like the birds of home; they even flew the same way. Most birds do not use flying magic, she remembered. If only Fluttershy were here to talk to them—if she could talk to them. But they could walk on clouds, so who could say?

They were now low enough to make out the moving objects. Twilight recognized them. She pointed out one of the cars to Rainbow Dash and headed towards it. As fast as it was going, it was nothing for pegasi. They came up along one side of it and Twilight looked inside. She saw two of those bipedal creatures (people, humans), similar to but not quite the same as what she saw—and became—in that mirror realm. One of them was clearly operating the car. Neither of them noticed their presence.

Rainbow Dash was mystified. “How’s this thing moving? Nothing is pulling or pushing it! You sure there’s no magic?”

“It’s called a ‘car.’ I saw them in the mirror realm. I’m not sure how it works, but it doesn’t use magic. Look at the occupants inside.”

The pegasus lowered her head and looked through the window. “Whoa! Is that what you were?”

“Yep. Not quite like this, but then they’re not reflections of ponies.” Twilight wanted to take another reading. Pointing, she said, “Let’s land on that beach up ahead.”

It was a small beach but they had it all to themselves. If humans frequented beaches, they apparently preferred to do so when it was warmer and sunnier. Twilight got out the probe and took another reading. “It’s definitely stronger, though still very weak.” She put the probe away, as she said, “We should continue in the same direction.”

Rainbow Dash was at the water’s edge, staring off into the distance, as small, incoming waves lapped at her hooves. Twilight joined her as an incoming breeze ruffled their manes. The water was cold, though not unbearably so.

“How long would it take to fly to the other side?”

Twilight had no answer to give her. “We should get going.”

They took off and headed inland, leaving the ocean behind, following what appeared to be a river valley, though no water was currently flowing. After a mile the vegetation started to get thicker, with numerous small trees. Occasionally they saw a well-maintained dirt trail. To keep going in a reasonably straight line they eventually had to climb over a thousand feet.

After about ten miles, they encountered a valley where the trees were much larger, some over two hundred feet tall. There were also buildings, roads, cars, and plenty of people walking about. Twilight decided it was as good a spot as any to take another reading. They landed on the roof of a building.

First things first. Twilight got out the probe and took a reading. “We’re definitely going in the right direction. Still have ways to go though.”

“Why do you think the trees are so much bigger here?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Can’t be a coincidence these buildings are here. Could it be a farm of some sort?”

Twilight looked around. “Doesn’t look like a farm. I don’t see any fruit on these trees.” She walked over to the edge of the roof and looked down. “And these humans don’t seem to be working a farm.” They didn’t appear to be doing anything other than to walk around for no discernible reason.

Now that she saw a large number of them, Twilight noted patterns about their appearance that differentiated them from the mirror realm inhabitants. Most obvious was skin and hair color. The clothing seemed different too, in the sense that almost none bore anything that looked like a cutie mark. On the one hoof, without magic there shouldn’t be any cutie marks; but on the other hoof, the mirror realm people had them on their clothing despite the lack of magic. Come to think of it, that doesn’t really make sense, but then it was just a reflection of Equestria according to Discord.

Rainbow Dash had joined her. “They’re just walking around the trees on those dirt paths.” The paths were roped off from the trees. For some reason they weren’t allowed to get too close to the trees. “Let’s see where they’re going.”

“Wait a minute.” There were voices from the people below. Twilight tried to focus on one of the conversations, her ears swiveling to best extract it from the background noise. They were speaking Equestrian! Rainbow Dash obviously heard it too, her mouth agape. The two ponies looked at each other in disbelief.

“Am I imagining things?”

“No, I hear it too,” the alicorn assured her. The implications were mind-boggling. There’s no way this is a coincidence, but how is it possible? “Okay, let’s follow one of the paths.”

They took wing and flew over a path, high enough to avoid the humans. There didn’t seem to be much point to it. It was just a forest of really big trees. All the humans seemed to be doing was admiring the trees, but why?

“There’s a sign in front of that really big tree,” Rainbow Dash said, pointing it out. There were humans currently standing in front of it, so they hovered at a safe distance waiting for them to leave. Once they did, they landed in front of it.

Twilight gazed at the sign, making out letters, numbers, and words that were all too familiar. They can write Equestrian too? The sign stated that the tree was the “father of the forest,” 16 feet 10 inches in diameter and 250 feet high.

“I guess this is the biggest tree here?” said Rainbow Dash, as more humans approached. They went airborne before the humans could walk into them.

Twilight had many questions that lacked answers. “Do they come here just to visit these trees?” They circled the tree, spiraling higher and higher, examining it from all angles. “It certainly is a magnificent tree. I’m not sure if this species exists in Equestria.”

They hovered once they reached the top of the tree. Twilight wondered why the trees were so much bigger in this valley than the others. So many mysteries; if only they could ask the humans below. But even if they could turn off their invisibility—can we?—who knows how they’d react? “Let’s be on our way.”

The mountain range continued for another fifteen miles or so. An enormous valley opened up in front of them, jam-packed with civilization. The clouds did not penetrate this far inland; the sun was shining, clearly higher than it was earlier. They now knew it was late morning, that they had been heading east (presumably), and that in this realm the sun actually did rise without magic—somehow.

Far to the north they could see a large body of water surrounded by civilization on both sides as far as they could see. It was so much larger than any Equestrian city, including Manehattan. There was even a modest collection of skyscrapers, though nothing as tall as in Manehattan.

Twilight selected a building on which to land and take another reading. Like all the buildings here it was surrounded by paved roads on which cars travelled. Twilight observed how the cars took turns crossing an intersection. Somehow they knew when to go through without stopping and when they needed to stop. She regretted not having had the opportunity to be in a car in the mirror realm. They landed and she took another reading. “It’s still getting stronger.”

“What’s that!” Twilight became aware of a distant noise as Rainbow Dash pointed at what resembled a gigantic bird. It was descending towards where those tall buildings were, moving quite fast even by pegasi standards, and it was getting louder and louder.

“Is it made of metal?” asked Twilight. It looked shiny. “I think that’s a machine.”

“No magic, huh? It’s not even moving its wings.”

“Just one more mystery, I guess.” Maybe it was gliding in to a landing, but what’s causing that dreadful noise? Twilight folded her ears to muffle it, but the humans around them were simply ignoring it. “Let’s stay focused,” she verbally reminded herself. “We can explore this realm once we take care of the hole.”

They continued flying east across the valley, amazed at the sheer number of buildings, cars and people. Their passage went unnoticed, as expected, even when they flew near the ground to get a good look at the inhabitants and buildings. A metal bird flew noisily overhead every few minutes, almost always on the same path.

Every so often, they landed on top of a building to take another reading. In time, the magical field started getting weaker. They first back tracked, then tried going north. They were rewarded with stronger readings.

They flew past the spot where the metal birds were landing, staying a safe distance away. The machines landed at high speed on wheels before slowing to a crawl. Others were accelerating to take off, always heading north. How they accelerated was a complete mystery, though it certainly involved a lot of noise, as was how they left the ground and rapidly climbed without ever moving their wings. However it was done, humans presumably traveled great distances this way.

With ever more frequent changes in direction, they closed in on the hole. Once the magical field strength got high enough, she decided it was time to use the flow meter. She got it out of her saddlebag and set it down on the roof they had landed on. “Stand back,” she told Rainbow Dash. It had to stay outside of their bubbles. That made it hard to read the meters, but the compass-like needle was large enough to see clearly from several feet away. It was pointing away from a large, two-story apartment complex. After the device was put away, the two flew off in the indicated direction.

Hovering in front of building, Twilight once again used her magic probe. “We’re definitely getting close.” So close, they almost didn’t need their bubbles anymore. The flow meter couldn’t point up or down—I need to fix that—so she relied on the probe to determine where on the wall the field strength was at a maximum. That was in front of a second floor window. It was quite large, being sized for humans. The two ponies hovered in front of it, looking in through the open curtains. It was an office of some sort, currently unoccupied.

“It appears to be inside.” Twilight put away the probe. “I’ll teleport us in.”

Once inside they looked around. Twilight examined a desk, way too big for a pony, with a mechanically elaborate chair that was clearly designed for humans. On the desk Twilight recognized a computer, having used one in the mirror realm. Could they be made in Equestria? Would they even work in Equestria? They were rather useful.

“No. Way.”

Twilight was startled out of her train of thought. She turned and saw Rainbow Dash hovering in front of a bookshelf (books!) looking at—that’s not possible. She flew up to join the pegasus and get a closer look. There was no mistake. It was a doll of a gray pegasus, wings flared, with a blonde mane and tail. The eyes and cutie mark were unmistakable. Derpy.

“No. Way.”

They both turned to the source of that exclamation to discover it came from a female human standing in the doorway. She was staring at them in disbelief, mouth hanging open, a hand fidgeting behind her head.

Twilight briefly stopped flapping her wings. “You can see us?”

After a second or two, the female weakly replied, “And hear you, T-Twilight.”

What happened to their invisibility! How long have they been visible? What trick did Discord pull on them? Wait. “You know my name?”

For some reason the human didn’t know how to answer that simple question. Twilight tried to interpret her body language. Assuming there was any similarity to pony body language, and her experiences in the mirror realm showed that there should be, she would have to conclude that the human was shocked at seeing them—and obviously not because she had no idea what they were.

“Might as well,” the human said, seemingly granting herself permission to tentatively accept the reality of what she was seeing. “Yes, I know your name, Princess Twilight Sparkle.” She paused for a second, scrutinizing the lavender pony. “Yep, alicorn, definitely princess.” Looking at the pegasus, she said, “Yours too, Rainbow Dash.”

Twilight found the presence of mind to start a checklist of mysteries to solve. (1) How could she possibly know this much about us, anything about us? That was quickly followed by (2) Given that she does, why does she act like she’s seeing the impossible? Speaking of names… “May I ask what your name is?” she asked politely.

The female—woman, she recalled—in front of her again seemed torn between possible answers. Twilight used those seconds to study her further. Compared to the other women she had observed so far, this one appeared to be average in height and build, with light skin tone and brownish hair that was long enough to reach past the shoulders. There was no hint of anything resembling a cutie mark on her clothing. (3) Do they have cutie marks at all? Lacking magic, it was unlikely, but maybe there was a non-magical equivalent.

The sudden sound of running water jolted the woman to a decision. “Fair enough, I suppose,” she said in a hurry. “My name’s Meg. I’ll be back in a second.” She quickly left the room.

“What just happened?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Wish I knew,” Twilight shrugged. One thing seemed certain: this ‘Meg’ was going to return with another human. And there was still the hole to find, apparently somewhere in their home. They needed to get past the introductions and get their assistance. It should help if they already knew who they were. Could the magical field somehow have given them knowledge of the ponies? Absurd as that sounded, what other explanation was there?

Twilight’s musings were interrupted by approaching voices. “Just tell me what you see…” Meg’s voice insisted. This time a man appeared in the doorway. Upon seeing them, he, too, stood there in wide-eyed disbelief. “Well?”

“D-do I have t-to?” he stammered.

“Yes.”

Again, Twilight wondered how they could simultaneously know who they were yet refuse to believe their senses.

The human male sighed in resignation. “I see Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash hovering in our office.” He turned away from them. “This can’t be happening.”

This seemed as good an opportunity as any to address her checklist items. “Why can’t this be happening?”

“Great,” the man said. “You also sound like Twilight.”

(1a) How could they possibly know what we sound like? She noticed that her fellow pony was too stunned herself to say anything. Just as well; this situation called for her diplomatic training. How would Celestia handle this?

His apparent mate slipped past him to enter the room, holding—oh, great, as if it weren’t weird enough already—a Pinkie Pie doll. “Because you are fictional characters created for the purpose of selling dolls like this to little girls,” she declared, as if that would be sufficient to banish them from reality.

Rainbow Dash broke out in laughter. Pointing a hoof to her chest, she proclaimed, “I’m too awesome to be fictional!”

Twilight face-hoofed. Not what Celestia would do. She became aware of what she was doing. She wouldn’t face-hoof either. The newest princess stopped face-hoofing and put on her best diplomatic face. “For now, could you accept that we are happening and hold a conversation with us?” She looked at them expectantly.

Meg sighed. “Why not.” She leaned back against a wall. “We can’t both be crazy,” she muttered.

Her mate also entered the room and stood beside her. Twilight noted he was several inches taller, had short black hair with slightly darker skin, and was also average looking, based on her limited experience with humans. “Don’t take this the wrong way,” the man said. I need to get his name. “I mean, it’s a fantasy-come-true to actually meet you, but why are you trespassing in our home?”

(4)—no, make that (1b)—a fantasy-come-true to meet us?

She didn’t like being accused of trespassing, not that she could blame them for feeling that way. Of course, they should never have been aware they were there in the first place, but, well… she will deal with Discord later.

So she explained to them, as they attentively listened, that magic was pouring out of her realm into theirs and that the exit point was somewhere in their home. They were there to find the precise location of the hole and, somehow, plug it. Any assistance they could offer would be appreciated. Would they want anything in return? So long as it was within reason…

“Wow… sounds like a two-part season finale.”

“Whaa?” (4) What’s a season finale? (4a) Why would it have parts?

“I guess it’s my turn now.” The man walked over to the desk, after first motioning the ponies to move out of his way. He sat down, woke up the computer and started typing with those hands and also moving—what was that?—oh, right, a mouse. He turned the monitor so the ponies would have an unobstructed view.

Twilight saw a drawing of a crowd of ponies in front of the snow-covered Town Hall, with Mayor Mare up front addressing them. They were all caricatures, with oversized heads, shortened barrels and ludicrously large eyes, but nonetheless she could identify many of the ponies. Oddly enough, they were all wearing the winter wrap-up uniforms from a few years back—her first winter wrap-up in Ponyville if she wasn’t mistaken. But where are all the stallions?

“This is sort of like a movie,” he explained, “though technically it’s called a cartoon. I’m about to play my favorite musical number.”

Musical number? No music was played during winter wrap-up activities, nor has a bridleway musical ever been written about it—as if those Manehattanites could care enough about a small rural town to write one. This should be interesting. Rainbow Dash looked skeptical, but Twilight was somewhat aware of what these computers could do.

Twilight heard a click and everything in the drawing started to move; there was also sound. The mayor started her motivational speech, then there was a cut to the crowd and she saw herself jumping high trying to catch the mayor’s attention. Wait. What?! She watched as she saw herself worrying about which team to join, and there was Rainbow Dash and Applejack leading their respective teams. That happened. Maybe some of the details were off, but nothing important.

The screen went dark. A spotlight revealed Rainbow Dash, who started to sing. Three months of winter— “Me, singing? I can’t sing!”

A few seconds later, Twilight had the same reaction. “Me neither!”

“Besides, nopony breaks out into song like that in real life.”

“Season 4, episode 8, Rarity Takes Manehattan,” the man said reflexively.

Rainbow Dash gave him a blank stare. “Say what now?”

He paused the video. “You said something like that in that episode, after you got tickets to the Bridleway show Hinny of the Hills and right before Rarity broke out in song.”

The pegasus was silent for a few seconds. “I remember the tickets and saying something like that,” she said, “but Rarity did not sing. I mean, she can sing, she’s in the Ponytones, but not then. That’s absurd. Right, Twilight?”

“That’s how I remember it.” This was surreal. She then realized that the ponies in the cartoon sounded exactly like them. That takes care of (1) and (1a). (1b) also, now that I think about it. Oh, and (2) as well. She felt like she was forgetting something… oh right. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t get your name.”

“Steve, and this is my wife, Meg,” he replied. Twilight gave back a practiced smile. “Getting back to this, are you saying winter wrap-up isn’t real?”

Rainbow Dash reacted as if someone just claimed rainbow waterfalls didn’t exist. “Of course it’s real! The southern birds don’t fly back all by themselves! But we don’t make a musical out of it!” Getting that out of her system, she reconsidered. “Though I have to admit it was a catchy tune and I was awesome singing it—even if it never happened.”

“I’m sorry if that sounded like a stupid question,” he explained, “but we don’t know how much these cartoons reflect your reality. You can hardly blame us for taking advantage of this opportunity.”

Twilight could hardly fault them. “I wouldn’t mind finding out either, for obvious reasons.”

Steve resumed the video. They came to the part where Applejack was singing about farming. Rainbow Dash found something else to jump on. “Everyone ain’t a word.”

The remainder of the musical played without interruption. In a following scene, Twilight offered to help Rainbow Dash clear out the clouds The pegasus flapped her wings to point out that the unicorn lacked them. “Sorry, Twilight,” said the onscreen Rainbow Dash, then off she flew.

The two friends looked at each other. That did happen, and Twilight knew that the next scene, in which she attempted to help Rarity make bird nests, also (embarrassingly) happened. “That’s enough.” It was a lot to take in. It was also a distraction from their mission, though perhaps a necessary one. “Apart from the musical, it’s disturbingly accurate.”

“There’s one more scene I want your opinion on.” Steve turned the screen back to himself, typed and clicked some more, then turned the screen back to the ponies.

They watched as Twilight rewrote the unfinished masterpiece of Star Swirl the Bearded, then cast it. Beams of light erupted from the Elements of Harmony and converged on Twilight, who vanished to the shock of the others. The present Twilight’s eyes went wide as she watched her encounter with Princess Celestia in the starry realm. Being told it was time for her to fulfill her destiny. Her transformation into an alicorn. Celestia informing everypony she was now a princess. “STOP!”

Never had she shared what happened up there, not even with her friends, nor did they expect her to. It was a deeply personal memory. Shock was turning to anger. How could they possibly have this? What else did they have? What do I tell Princess Celestia?

The human stopped the video.

Rainbow Dash looked at her friend, surprised at the anger on her face. She cautiously asked, “Did that actually happen? Apart from the singing…”

Trying hard to keep her voice level, Twilight replied, “Even the singing. Celestia wanted to show me how much it meant to her.”

“I had no idea this would upset you, please believe me.” He, too, saw the anger on her face, and it was starting to scare him.

Twilight struggled to get her emotions under control. She told herself that these two humans were not responsible for this; don’t take it out on them. They could even be of help. It wouldn’t hurt to have locals aiding them. Remember why they were here. What would Celestia do?

She said, finally, “You are not to blame.” Looking into their eyes, she added, “Having said that, you must understand we do not live our lives for your entertainment.”

Meg glanced at the doll she was holding, looking as if she was about to say something, but she remained silent.

“Now, if you don’t mind, we have a mission to accomplish.” Twilight got the magic flow meter out of her saddlebag. Steve and Meg stared at the lavender glow of her horn and the glow surrounding the manipulated object. Surely they’ve seen this countless times in that cartoon? But then they’re seeing something right in front of them that’s supposed to be impossible in their realm.

Twilight switched it on, set it on the floor, and stepped back. As she waited for the measurements to settle, she collected her thoughts. She should not have nearly lost control like that. The humans were actually becoming scared of what she might do to them, and she was willing to bet they knew what an alicorn could do. Her mentor would not approve. She had to do better.

It was pointing towards the window. In the opposite direction was Meg. Probably on the other side of the wall. Twilight put the flow meter back, took out the magic probe and looked for the boundary of her bubble. That’s odd, I can’t seem to find it. She examined the readings more closely. So that’s why we’re visible: the bubble’s gone. She didn’t notice because of all the magic from the hole. Discord had some explaining to do. At least she didn’t have to worry about conserving her magic.

Twilight followed the probe as she moved it towards Meg, following the increasing gradient. The humans had been watching quietly, fascinated, but eventually Meg noticed where the probe was heading. Somewhat nervously, she asked, “May I ask what you’re doing?”

The alicorn put her measurements on hold. “Of course you may,” she assured her. Here was an opportunity to repair any damage. She took a deep breath. “I apologize for nearly losing it a few minutes ago, but… well… the implications of what you showed us were… troubling.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Meg quickly said. “We didn’t think about how you’d react. It could have been handled better.”

Twilight had no reply to that. It wasn’t clear how one would sugar-coat the fact that the most private moments of her life were considered entertainment here. But it wasn’t productive to dwell on it right now. Answering Meg’s question, she said, “I’m measuring the strength of the magical field looking for the hole. It seems to be near you.”

Meg was still holding the Pinkie Pie doll. What are the odds? Silly question. The probe moved close to the doll as Meg held it away from her body. Twilight moved the probe all around it, from top to bottom, front to back, side to side. All around it, the field was many times normal strength. With resignation, she said, “The doll is the exit point.”

Rainbow Dash flew to the doll, hovering for a close view. “She’s not even here and she’s still being Pinkie Pie!”

“Our doll?” Meg said, staring at the pegasus hovering so close to her. “How is that possible?”

Twilight thought: you mean you didn’t watch my scientific investigation of Pinkie Sense? What she said was: “I haven’t a clue. The more important question is how to stop the flow of magic.”

“Is there anything we can do to help?” asked Meg.

Was there anything they could do to help? Twilight put the magic probe away as she pondered that. Hold on to the doll, obviously. Where else would she take it? She couldn’t bring it back to Equestria; the hole would almost certainly stay behind and become unanchored, freely floating about. What if it went deep underground? She couldn’t simply destroy the doll for the same reason. Even teleporting with the doll may be unwise. Any information they could provide about this realm would be useful too.

Well, she thought, I guess I’m stuck with them for a while. But how far could she trust them? And what would they want in return?

“I’d appreciate any help you can offer, but I do have a few conditions.” They patiently waited for her to continue. “First, you will not mention our presence to anypo—anyone else.” They nodded agreement, though Rainbow Dash shot her a mystified look upon hearing “anyone.”

“Second, you will not say anything about the magic flowing out of that doll, or about the significance of that doll in general.” They nodded to that too.

“Third, you will keep an eye out for anything unusual. Your home now has a strong magical field, something that’s not supposed to exist in this realm. I don’t know if anything unusual will happen, but any observations would be useful data.”

“You mean like talking cartoon ponies suddenly showing up?” Steve deadpanned.

Touché. “Uh, sure…” But then the hidden assumption behind that statement dawned on the alicorn. Wait, ponies don’t talk here? She quickly shook her head to clear that thought. Never mind, later… “Finally, you will Pinkie Promise to these three conditions.” They ought to know what that means; their reaction should be most informative.

“If we don’t?” asked Meg quietly.

“I’ll take possession of the doll and move it elsewhere,” Twilight flatly stated. “You shall have no further involvement.” The list of conditions was perfectly reasonable, in Twilight’s opinion, so their hesitation was evidence that they did know what a Pinkie Promise was and took it seriously.

The two humans looked at each other, came to an unspoken agreement, then started in unison. “Cross my hear—”

Twilight interrupted them. “Not to me, to Pinkie Pie herself.”

“You mean this doll?” asked Meg dubiously.

Rainbow Dash flew over to Twilight and gave her the are-you-crazy look. Twilight ignored her; she’ll explain later.

“When I come back, I’ll have Pinkie Pie with me. You do know the consequences of breaking a Pinkie Promise?”

They nodded. Meg spoke for both of them. “Okay, we’ll do it.”

Rainbow Dash looked at them and rolled her eyes. Twilight couldn’t help but notice that the humans were amused by her antics, though they tried to hide it. They expect this sort of behavior from Rainbow Dash. She followed that line of thought to its logical conclusion: They know what to expect from me.

“I think we’re about done here. Before we leave, would you mind if I take a look at your books and possibly borrow one or two? I’d like to learn more about this realm. It may help in figuring out a solution.”

“Loan a book to Princess Twilight Sparkle?” he said tongue-in-cheek. “It would be an honor! I know just the one.” Steve picked out a book and handed it to her. Twilight accepted it with her magic as she grimaced ever so slightly. At least they weren’t bowing to her, even in jest. The book was too big to fit in her saddlebag; it was human-sized like everything else here.

Meg hesitantly asked, “May I ask a favor in return?”

“I’m listening.” So long as it’s within reason…

“Could you bring Derpy here for us to meet?” Twilight didn’t expect that!

Rainbow Dash snorted. “That featherbrain?” She flew over to the doll and stared at it. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, she’s nice and all, but, really?”

Meg didn’t seem surprised by that reaction. “You may be surprised how popular she is over here.”

Popular? This realm is full of surprises. What to do? Twilight couldn’t just say “yes” and if necessary force Derpy to come. Even if she was willing, was it the right thing to do? But it didn’t seem constructive to just flat out refuse either. Twilight decided to give a non-answer for now. “I can’t make any promises, but I’ll consider it.”

Rainbow Dash gave her another are-you-crazy look.

“So Daring Do is out of the question?”

Twilight’s mouth hung open, too flabbergasted to respond, but Rainbow Dash, thank Celestia, was not. “Daring Do doesn’t like meeting her fans—and leave it at that.”

Thank Luna too, they seemed to accept that at face value, as if they knew what that tomb raiding, treasure hunting pegasus was like. For hay’s sake, they seemed to know she wasn’t just a fictional character. That wasn’t common knowledge and “A. K. Yearling” wanted it that way. More of those cartoons? Whatever, I’ve had enough for one day. “We’ll be back here tomorrow, same time. Okay?”

Meg and Steve briefly consulted with each other. “Works for us.”

Twilight laid the book on her back and held it there magically, then she looked at Rainbow Dash. She’s had enough too. “Let’s go.” They both clicked their rear hooves three times, and thought, there’s no place like home.

4. Realities

Spike was in the kitchen upstairs making daffodil sandwiches, with pickles just the way Twilight liked it. The baby dragon figured they would be hungry when they got back from all that adventuring. Everypony else had left a few hours ago, shortly after Twilight and Rainbow Dash had departed.

“Pinkie Pie? Derpy?”

They’re back! What about Pinkie and Derpy? As Spike listened in to the argument downstairs, he fetched his pre-written note and breathed green fire on it, sending it on its way. He then made his way to the curved stairway along the wall.

“We can use their help and indulging them will help us get it,” Twilight patiently explained. “Where would I even keep that doll? I can’t risk bringing it here or destroying it. Besides, a Pinkie Promise is a good insurance policy if you ask me.”

“You don’t even know she can enforce it there!”

“They don’t know she can’t,” she said, as she walked over to her desk, with the pegasus hovering right behind her. “It’s enough they think I believe she can.”

That was evidently a little too complicated for Rainbow Dash to parse. “Well… what about Derpy? She did drop a piano on you once, in case you forgot.”

“You know I was investigating Pinkie Sense at the time.” She levitated the human book onto her desk. “I already had a shield up by then, so no harm done. Being chased by that hydra was much worse.” By now, her saddlebags were also on her desk. “Besides, that’s all ancient history,” she concluded.

Rainbow Dash had run out of objections, and in the silence that followed Twilight’s anxiety resurfaced. “What do I tell Celestia about all this?”

“Uh, Twilight?” The two ponies looked up at Spike, who was halfway down the stairs. “She’s on her way now.”

“What!?” Sheer terror gripped the alicorn’s face.

“After you left, she sent me a note asking me to inform her when you returned.”

Twilight was really starting to freak out, nervously hopping on her hooves. She’s so good at it, Spike thought, what with all the practice she’s had. “Did you accidentally make the hole bigger or something?” he speculated.

That caught Twilight off guard, interrupting her anxiety attack. She stopped her nervous hopping and took a breath. “No… no, nothing like that. We actually made a little progress on that front.”

At that moment, Princess Celestia teleported into the library.

Everypony bowed to the Solar Diarch. “Princess Twilight Sparkle, you should know by now you do not need to bow before me,” she kindly reminded her.

“Sorry…” she sheepishly said as she stood up. “It’s just that I wasn’t expecting you to check up on me so soon. You wrote that you trusted my judgement.”

“And I do trust your judgement,” she assured her, “but this isn’t one of my tests. With the future of Equestria at stake, I am obligated to stay on top of the situation and offer what guidance I can.”

“Yes, of course.”

“Discord informed me of the assistance he provided.” She pointed to the dispenser, now on a top shelf. Spike figured it would be best if it was out of the way. “Those are the pills?”

“Yes,” Twilight replied with some bitterness. “They worked, though Discord couldn’t restrain himself from pulling a prank on us.”

Celestia was surprised by that. “Are you certain?”

“Our invisibility went away, making us visible to two of the inhabitants of that realm while inside their home.”

“Would that happen to be where you found the hole?”

Twilight’s mane was getting quite frazzled by now. Clearly, she had already had one too many surprises that day. What had happened in that other realm to do this to her?

“How did you guess?” she weakly said.

“It was my understanding that the pill could not generate a contained magical field in the presence of a sufficiently strong ambient magical field. Didn’t you read the instruction manual? It was uncharacteristically orderly of him to—” Twilight face-hoofed. “…is something wrong?”

“I didn’t know that was an instruction manual.”

Celestia changed the subject. “Tell me about your contact with the natives. Unplanned it may have been, but I hope it was fruitful.”

“We did learn much from them and they are willing to help us.” Twilight gave her report. Spike was amazed at what he heard. Dolls of Equestrian ponies? Cartoons that accurately showed what happened here? But with musicals? Hard restrictions on unicorn magic? Similarities but also differences to the mirror realm? The popularity of Derpy? Spike wondered if he was popular there, too. Maybe I’ll get to go there and find out!

Celestia took it all in without interrupting, barely reacting only when Twilight described watching her ascension in that cartoon.

Having concluded her report, Twilight now sought guidance. “Do you think it’s a good idea to bring Pinkie Pie or Derpy there?”

Rainbow Dash did not, if her scowl was any indication. Celestia took a moment to compose her response. “I think you are practicing the art of diplomacy, as a princess should. It has its risks and rewards; the rewards ought to outweigh the risks.”

“I think that’s true for Pinkie Pie, but I’m not sure about Derpy. It’s a lot to ask of her and I’m not sure she’s up to it.”

Rainbow Dash added, “Let’s just say she’s not the brightest pony around.”

“Perhaps she would benefit from rising up to the challenge? She did participate in the Equestria Games, if I recall.”

“I suppose. It certainly would be nice to know why she’s so popular there. I’ll sleep on it.” Twilight lifted a huge book. “This is the book Steve loaned me.” She flipped through the pages. “It describes the physics of their realm.” She quickly scanned a page at random. “I definitely must read this. I’d sure like to know how their Sun moves without your magic—any magic!”

“I could sleep in late if it could be applied here,” joked the Princess of the Sun, but her demeanor then became serious. “There is a possibility these humans may wish to come here.”

Twilight looked up at her mentor. “If they do, is the correct answer to allow it?”

“As I said, this isn’t a test,” Celestia said in a sympathetic tone. “There is no right or wrong answer, just difficult choices. All things being equal, I’d prefer they stay in their realm; but having said that, I leave it up to you.”

Celestia bowed to Twilight, emphasizing the point; the others quickly followed suit. She then teleported away as Twilight nervously shifted her weight from hoof to hoof. Spike felt sympathy for her. She hates it when Celestia does that.

“I’m sure glad I don’t have to make those decisions,” said Rainbow Dash.

Nor I, thought Spike. Clearly Princess Celestia wants Twilight to take the next step in being a princess.

Twilight decided to change the subject. “Spike, by any chance do you have something for us to eat? I could use some food right now.”

“You know I do!”

“Did that just happen?” Meg blankly stared at the spot just occupied by two ponies.

“Uh… well…” Shifting his eyes to the bookshelf, her husband observed, “The physics book I loaned her is still gone.”

There was silence for several seconds. Meg put the doll on the desk and walked over to where the ponies had been. “I guess we can’t both hallucinate the same thing,” she said with a lack of conviction. She got on her hands and knees and started to carefully examine the off-white carpet.

“What do you expect to find?”

“I dunno. Maybe they’d shed a feather or some fur,” she said as she continued her search. Cyan and lavender hairs ought to stand out. After fruitlessly inspecting several square feet, she said, “We should’ve taken a picture.”

“Not that that would convince anyone,” Steve said. “We’d simply be praised for the photorealistic CGI skills we’d suddenly acquired.” He then added, as an afterthought, “And criticized for giving them realistic proportions.”

“Yeah, well, if they really had eyes that big, there’d be no room left in their skulls for their brains,” she said as she continued searching. “Anyway, the pictures would be for us. It’d be some kind of proof we’re not crazy.” She got up off the floor. “I can’t find anything.” Unnecessarily dusting herself off, she said, “Besides, sharing those pictures would break our upcoming Pinkie Promise.”

“There you go,” he said. “We’ll have our proof when they show up tomorrow.”

There was silence as that sank in. “Wow. Pinkie Pie will be here.” Meg stared at the doll. “Could she possibly be as she’s portrayed in the show?”

“The evidence suggests it,” Steve reasoned, folding his arms. “Twilight and Rainbow Dash are as portrayed. There’s such a thing as a Pinkie Promise. They refer to Derpy and Daring Do in ways that are consistent with the show. We know that Winter Wrap-up is real, that Twilight’s ascension happened more or less as depicted.” He took a breath. “And don’t forget their reaction to discovering that the doll was the other side of their ‘hole.’”

Meg said, trying to mimic Rainbow Dash, “She’s not even here and she’s still being Pinkie Pie!” She started slowly pacing back and forth across the room, trying to digest it all. “It’s all real. It’s a brony dream come true. But why our doll, out of all the dolls in the world? Why any doll, never mind a Pinkie Pie doll?”

There was no answer to that; it was obvious the ponies had no answer to that. Steve watched his wife pace for a few moments in silence. “Would you go there if you could?”

She stopped pacing and looked at him. “To Equestria, you mean?”

“Yeah.”

“Sure,” she said, stating the obvious. “Too bad Twilight wasn’t handing out visa applications.”

Steve went over and picked up the doll, holding it out. “Luckily we’re in possession of a Pinkie Pie doll that is spewing out magic like there’s no tomorrow,” he said half-seriously. “Maybe there’ll be a random cosmic accident that mysteriously transports us to the Everfree Forest. We’ll be attacked by timberwolves, or maybe manticores, and just in the nick of time the Mane Six will show up to save us and become our instant best friends, dedicated to making our Equestrian fantasies come true!”

“Really?” she retorted.

“Who knows?” he said with a straight face. “There’s enough fan fiction that follows that formula. Maybe there’s something to it.”

Meg wasn’t interested in playing that game. “One small problem… we’ve already met two of them and the self-proclaimed Princess of Friendship did not become our friend, ‘instant’ or ‘best’ or otherwise.”

“Isn’t that a little unfair?”

“Is it? I think the whole Pinkie Promise business says it all. She sees us as a nuisance, to be tolerated only out of necessity. You weren’t there, but her first words made it clear she thought she was invisible. They never intended to deal with us natives.”

Steve mulled that over. “Maybe so, but she’s still willing to make lemonade out of lemons. She is asking for our help.” He shrugged. “Perhaps season four didn’t happen yet?”

“Sure, why not?” she said mockingly. “Plenty of fan fiction ignores the later seasons, after all. Twilight’s an alicorn, so at least season three happened.” She resumed pacing, reconsidering. “Seriously, though. What if that was true? How do we even find out without potentially altering the future? We can’t just ask, ‘Have you fought Tirek yet?’”

Steve went up to her and held her. “Let’s just take it one step at a time and see what happens tomorrow, okay? If we’re lucky, we can even put fan-fiction-consensus to the test.”

“Huh?”

“The consensus is that Derpy is a mailmare. Maybe we’ll get to ask her ourselves.”

The hours flew by as Twilight buried herself in the borrowed physics book. It focused on breadth rather than depth, including, amongst many others, topics such as particle dynamics, conservation laws, fluid mechanics, kinetic theory of gasses, thermodynamics, electromagnetism, and optics. Most of it was already familiar to her, allowing her to breeze right through the chapters. She noted that they had mathematical notation in common too; the equations were just as comprehensible as the words.

There were only two notable differences between this book and an Equestrian equivalent. The first was that they frequently used names that were similar to but different from the ones she was familiar with. It’s like they were parodying them, replacing syllables such as “mare” or “neigh” or “oats” and the like with apparently arbitrary sequences of letters. “Newton” instead of “Neighton?” What sort of cosmic joke was being played here?

The second was the assumption that the equations provided described reality unconditionally, no exceptions even being conceivable. An Equestrian physics book would devote much attention to how magic could modify those equations—or make them irrelevant. This was a book on physics for a realm that had no magic.

But the final chapters blew her mind. Twilight had never encountered anything resembling Relativity and Quantum Mechanics before. The structure of reality implied at absurdly small or absurdly large scales was just… hard to swallow. Did any of it apply here? Was it a consequence of the absence of magic? Did ponydom’s understandable preoccupation with magic blind them to other avenues of research? Was this how their machines could do stuff impossible to even the most powerful magic?

It was getting late. Only Owlowiscious kept her silent company, Spike having gone to bed a while ago. “I should call it a night,” she told him. “I have a full day tomorrow.” The owl blinked in reply.

Twilight took one last look at her collection of notes and checklists she wrote up earlier, making sure she hadn’t forgotten to write down anything. Satisfied she had not, she extinguished the light and walked towards the stairway.

As she climbed the stairs to her bedroom, she thought about the humans. I didn’t exactly live up to being the Princess of Friendship, but what could I’ve realistically done differently? This was territory as uncharted as it gets and the stakes were too high. Could friendship be magic where magic doesn’t even exist? Regardless, she needed at least a working relationship with the humans for the foreseeable future. But once the hole has been plugged, then what?

The newest princess climbed into bed and slipped under the covers. As she drifted off to sleep, she felt slightly envious of a certain pegasus’ inability to overthink problems—but just slightly.

Twilight saw Sugarcube Corner in the distance and began her descent. Rainbow Dash had told her there was a good chance she’d find Derpy there most mornings. Pinkie Pie would be there too, obviously, as she lived and worked there.

Not yet skilled at multitasking while flying, Twilight had to choose between looking for Derpy or landing. It made her aware, again, of her need to get in lots of flying time—but then, that’s why she wasn’t walking to Sugarcube Corner. She choose landing.

Once on the ground, she quickly determined the pegasus wasn’t outside. She went inside and found Derpy ordering something from Pinkie Pie at the counter. Pinkie immediately noticed her.

“Hi, Twilight!” said Pinkie as she bounced and beamed. “When do we meet our biggest fans?”

How did she… never mind, that way lies madness, she groaned internally. Derpy turned around and saw her.

“Princess!” she said, as she quickly bowed.

Twilight still wasn’t used to that. At least it didn’t happen much in Ponyville, where everypony remembers when she was just a pony like everypony else. That castle, though, was starting to have an effect.

“Hi, Derpy,” she greeted her cheerfully. “I’m here to talk to you, actually, and this concerns you, too, Pinkie Pie,”—her voice acquiring a slight edge—”though you seem to already know that… somehow.” She looked Pinkie in the eye, but of course that didn’t faze her.

“Just a hunch,” she chirped with a big smile.

Sigh… “Derpy, why don’t you finish ordering first. It’s on me.”

After she got a blueberry muffin, they all went into the back party room so they could talk in private. Mrs. Cake was quite understanding after Twilight explained she needed Pinkie’s services.

Although Derpy regularly delivered mail to her at the castle, Twilight had never before really held a conversation with the gray pegasus. She started off with small talk, asking Derpy about her job delivering mail and her participation in the Equestria Games. She did her best, as usual, not to pay too much attention to the pegasus’ eyes; it didn’t seem much of an impediment anyway. Derpy’s personality was as bubbly as her cutie mark.

But they weren’t there just for the smalltalk and Derpy was clearly getting nervous over the other horseshoe yet to drop; she wasn’t an idiot, despite what some might think. It was time to get down to business.

“About why I want to talk to you…” Twilight began. How am I going to explain this to her? “Before I say anything, I want to make it crystal clear you don’t have to do what I’m about to ask of you.”

“Okay?” Derpy said, her eyes slowly drifting apart.

“It involves traveling to an… exotic place. You’ll be there for a few hours, preferably this morning.” Pinkie started bouncing with excitement, but Derpy…

“Today?!” she exclaimed, the shock causing her eyes to suddenly realign. “I don’t think I can take the day off on such short notice.”

“Tomorrow is fine, too,” Twilight quickly assured her. “Regardless, I’ll take care of that. The mail service will be informed you are on royal business.” Spike already had the letter written and ready to go.

That impressed the gray pegasus, at first, but then common sense kicked in. “Why do you need me?”

Twilight could no longer beat around the bush. She looked briefly at Pinkie to let her know she needed to pay attention too. “We are going to another realm. The inhabitants there are not ponies; they’re not like anything we have here. We need their help with a serious problem. Two of them are willing to help and have agreed to Pinkie Promise to a set of conditions.” Looking at Pinkie, she said, “That’s why I need you to come along.”

At hearing the words “Pinkie Promise” the pink pony’s smile vanished. “They do know I take Pinkie Promises very seriously?”

“They do,” Twilight confirmed.

“Okay!” Pinkie said as her smile returned and her bouncing resumed.

Derpy was no less perplexed. “I still don’t get why you need me.”

Twilight was starting to regret ever getting the pegasus involved with this, but then Celestia’s words came back to her. She should have the opportunity to rise up to the challenge. “The two who agreed to help us have asked for a favor in return.” No turning back now… “They would like to meet you.”

Derpy blinked. “Meet me?” she asked hesitantly. “Why? How could they even know I exist?”

Twilight sighed. “They do. They know about all of us, myself included. I don’t really understand how it’s possible either. Just accept that it is. They’re such big fans, they even have dolls of each of you.”

“They have a Pinkie Pie doll?!” Pinkie practically exploded. “Does it talk? I’d love to have one that talks then I’ll always have somepony to talk to. But once I made many copies of myself and my copies could talk and that was no fun at all—”

Twilight stuck her hoof in her mouth. “Pinkie, please.” Derpy merely gave a small laugh at Pinkie being Pinkie.

“Sorry,” the pink pony giggled, “I got carried away. I do that sometimes!”

You think? Twilight looked at Derpy. “It’s your choice. You don’t have to do this.” She waited patiently for her answer.

“Let me get this straight…” That did not sound promising. “There are these mysterious ponies who really like me even though they’ve never met me and they want to meet me now and they aren’t in Equestria—they actually have a doll of me?”

“I know it sounds crazy—believe me, I know.” They weren’t ponies, but she didn’t bother correcting her. It was not looking good at all, not the way Derpy was looking creeped out. Not that I can blame her. Do they also have dolls of me?

“Where would they even get a doll of me?” she demanded.

Given her understanding of the situation, Twilight’s guess would be that they simply bought it at a store. Somehow, she doubted that would be a productive response to her question. “I don’t really know.” It technically was an honest answer.

Derpy slowly shook her head. “I’m sorry, Princess. My answer is ‘no.’”

Twilight waited as Pinkie Pie packed her saddlebags with various confections. Whether the humans will enjoy them—can even eat them—was an open question, one that would be answered soon enough. Regardless, she had advised Pinkie to avoid anything with hay or flowers.

The two went on hoof back to the castle. Once inside, they went straight to Twilight’s private library. Spike was there but not Rainbow Dash. Her absence was annoying; she was supposed to be there. Pinkie was fairly certain Dashie had to be in the castle somewhere, and on her hunch they first checked throne room. Sure enough, there she was, sitting smugly on her throne, insufferably pleased with herself.

“I can’t get enough of this awesomeness!” she said as they approached her.

Really, Rainbow Dash? thought Twilight with some irritation. That isn’t what these thrones are for.

“Do you think they have dolls of you too?” Pinkie Pie asked the smug pegasus.

Rainbow Dash was unprepared for that question. After giving it some thought, she said, “Why not? I’d make an awesome doll! I bet there’s a Twilight doll too.”

“Unicorn or alicorn?” asked Pinkie.

“Argh… let’s get going,” Twilight said, rolling her eyes, as she led them back to the library.

“What about a Spike doll?” Spike asked a little too casually.

“How about a castle play set?” suggested Pinkie.

Once in the library, Twilight lost no time in preparing for the trip. She put on her saddlebags, and into that Discord’s instruction manual. Yesterday, she had read it after dinner and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually quite thorough and organized. He really did make an effort to keep his chaotic nature under control. We ought to find some way to harmlessly indulge his chaos, she had thought as she put it into a saddlebag. Turns out those bubbles had some interesting features. The invisibility can be turned on and off, and the size of the bubble was adjustable too.

Twilight took four pills out of the dispenser and set them aside. She reminded Pinkie and Spike how the pills worked—and warned them about the taste. Twilight had everypony stand in a circle and for Spike to get on her back. A pill was levitated into the open mouth of each traveler. Once that was done, she thought of their destination and gave word for everypony to swallow their pill.

They were in the office in the home of the humans. Spike checked himself to see if he was a dragon or a dog, was satisfied he was still a dragon and hopped to the floor.

“I look so happy!” Pinkie Pie chirped. “Does it talk?”

The party pony happened to be facing her doll. Both dolls were left on the edge of a chair, evidently put there for their return. Twilight levitated them to the floor, got out her magic probe and checked the doll. “It’s still the exit point of the hole.”

“What are the odds it’d be my doll?” Pinkie innocently asked. A pin drop could be heard as they all stared at her. “Does it at least listen?”

“And there you are… again.” Meg was standing in the doorway, with her husband off to the side and behind her, still not quite believing her eyes. “I see you brought Pinkie Pie and also your number one assistant.”

Spike stood that much taller upon hearing his reputation preceded him. “She’d be lost without me!”

Twilight noticed that Steve was focusing his attention on something rectangular he was holding in his hand. He apparently touched it on the side she couldn’t see, and it made some kind of chirping sound in response. He then put it into a pocket. Did he just take a picture? Not that it matters if they go through with the Pinkie Promise. Maybe they just wanted proof they weren’t going crazy. She found she could actually empathize with their situation. Was it really that different when she herself discovered that Daring Do wasn’t fictional? But at least that pegasus wasn’t an impossible creature from a different realm.

“We’re still real,” Twilight tried to say flippantly. Might as well address the ursa minor in the room. “You’ve probably noticed Derpy isn’t with us. I did ask her, but I’m sorry to say she declined.”

Meg looked disappointed. “Oh.” She shrugged, saying, “Well, at least you tried.” She turned to Steve then back again. “Should we get the Pinkie Promise out of the way?”

That was her cue; Pinkie Pie was all business. The pink pony hopped on to a chair then on to the desk, the better to look them in the eyes. “Go for it, Twilight.”

Twilight adopted her best regal stance, flaring her wings, but decided against practicing her Royal Canterlot Voice, so as to not disturb the neighbors. “Do you, Meg and Steve, Pinkie Promise, first, that you have not already revealed our presence or our mission or the significance of that doll to other inhabitants of this realm, nor shall you do so; and, second, to not hinder our mission to stop the flow of magic into your realm?” Pinkie Pie’s stare was fixated on them now. To their credit, the humans stared right back at her, though not without some visible trepidation.

“We do,” they said in unison. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

“Awesome! Pinkie Promise party!” she yelled, leaping for joy.

But oddly enough, Twilight noticed, there were no balloons or streamers—and no party cannon. Whatever the hay kind of magic Pinkie had, like unicorn magic it, too, was being impaired. Not that she seemed to notice or care. She emptied her saddlebag onto the desk, revealing various confections and one baby alligator.

“Gummy!” Pinkie scolded. “I said you couldn’t come!” But she just couldn’t stay mad at her pet baby alligator for long and gave him a hug. “But since you’re here, go enjoy yourself!” she said as she released him. Gummy stood there on his short, stubby legs, blinking first one eye then the other.

Steve carefully avoided Gummy as he reached for a chocolate cupcake. It seemed a bit small in his hand, having been made for ponies. He gave it a sniff, and satisfied that it smelled quite edible, took a small bite. “This really is delicious,” he said after savoring the taste. “From Sugarcube Corner, right?”

“That’s right!” beamed Pinkie Pie. “I made them myself.” She picked up a blueberry muffin and hoofed it to Meg. “By the way, this is Derpy’s favorite. I gave her one from this same batch like an hour ago.”

“Now that I gotta try!” But Meg didn’t take the muffin right away, instead scrutinizing how Pinkie was holding the muffin with her hoof. Lacking magic, Twilight contemplated, humans would find that curious.

After having satisfied her curiosity, Meg carefully grasped the muffin with finger and thumb and brought it to her mouth. She took a large bite. “Mmmmm.” For several seconds she masticated before finally swallowing. “I can see why.” The rest of the muffin quickly followed.

Having finished off the blueberry muffin, Meg looked over the remaining confections. “Ooooo.” Her hand reached out to pick up a cupcake with vanilla frosting with several—Twilight’s pupils shrank to pinpoints as she realized what they were.

“Don’t eat that!” she warned her. Meg looked at her questioningly. “That has gems in it.” That got Spike’s attention. He held out a hand, giving his best puppy dog eyes impression. It took only seconds for Meg to crumble.

“Okay, but only if you’ll show us how you send letters to Princess Celestia.” Spike eagerly nodded his head, and soon the sounds of crunching gems filled the room. Meg watched in fascination; the baby dragon was too focused on the cupcake to notice the attention.

Twilight gave Pinkie a harsh look. Pinkie shrugged. “You said no hay or flowers,” the pink pony said. “You didn’t say anything about gems!” There was no point in pointing out that ponies don’t eat gems either.

“You actually have cupcakes and muffins made with hay and flowers?” asked Steve.

“Well, duh!” Pinkie replied. “They add nice, savory flavors.”

“I’ll take your word for it. We humans can’t eat those things.”

Pinkie put a hoof to her chin. “Hmm… that must be why Twilight told me to not to bring those.”

Steve gave the alicorn a penetrating look. “Interesting. I wonder how you would know that.”

Twilight could not help feeling that he knew exactly how she would know that, but she had so far avoided mentioning The Mirror and its connection to the current situation, and she didn’t care to mention it now. “I have my ways,” she merely said.

Looking to quickly change the subject, Twilight remembered what Spike had agreed to in exchange for the cupcake. Could he do that here? That would be something worth finding out. Spike had finished the cupcake, so Twilight took out a sheet of paper and a quill and sent it over to the baby dragon. “Now it’s your turn to keep up your end of the agreement.”

After Spike grabbed the floating items out of the air, Twilight started dictating. “Princess Celestia, I am writing to you from the other realm, in Steve and Meg’s home, to see if it’s possible. They have Pinkie Promised as planned. Derpy decided not to come. Princess Twilight Sparkle.” The humans seemed impressed that she had talked to Celestia about them, which is what she was rather hoping for. I might be getting the hang of diplomacy.

Spike made a show out of rolling up the sheet of paper, holding it in the air and breathing his green flame onto it. The turned-to-smoke letter wandered aimlessly. It didn’t look promising. But then it settled on a direction, heading towards the Pinkie Pie doll, and upon reaching it, the smoke went into the doll and vanished.

“That looks promising,” Twilight commented. They all stared at the doll, as if waiting for it to come to life.

“Uh, should we be expecting an immediate response?” All heads turned to Twilight for an answer.

“It’s hard to say, Meg.” She could be tied up in some meeting.

“Well, while we’re waiting, could you answer a question about Derpy, since she couldn’t be here?”

Twilight quickly glanced at Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. Either of them would be better able to answer questions about her; neither seemed unwilling to do so. It would be interesting to find out what they wanted to know. “We can certainly try.”

Meg pulled up a chair in front of the ponies and sat down. “What’s her job?”

“She works for the Royal Equestrian Mail as a mailmare,” Twilight replied. A knowing smile blossomed on the woman’s face. She apparently expected that answer; why ask the question? “Her occupation was shown in the cartoon?”

“Not exactly… there was one episode where she was shown working for a pegasus delivery service but she dropped—uh… well she was never shown to be a mailmare.”

“Let me guess,” said Rainbow Dash as she gave Twilight as self-satisfied look. “A piano?”

“Among other things, yeah,” Meg confirmed. “Quite honestly, it looked rather fatal. How did you survive?”

Looked fatal? Huh? The former unicorn recounted what happened. “After a potted plant fell a few feet from me, I looked up, saw what was coming, and immediately raised a shield. Other than a minor bruise from a piece of that shattered pot, I was unharmed.” Oh, yeah… better make that point, too. “I don’t blame Derpy for what happened. I was investigating Pinkie Sense at the time.”

“She sure was!” confirmed Pinkie Pie. “We even got chased by a hydra!” Rainbow Dash just snickered.

“That’s interesting… in the show you made no attempt to shield yourself or even get out of the way.”

Twilight’s jaw went slack for several seconds. “I’m glad I’m smarter than that in real life.”

Meg responded with a quick, nervous smile. “Uh, speaking of the hydra, when you came to a chasm, and the hydra destroyed what sorta passed for a bridge, why didn’t you simply teleport across?”

“Uh… I did teleport.” It was farther than she had ever teleported before, and she was terrified to attempt it, and she hesitated until the last possible second, but she did teleport. Jumping would have been suicide. “What do you think I did?” she asked. That cartoon appears to be less than perfectly accurate.

“Well… you jumped, fell to the bottom, bounced off a giant mud bubble that happened to just form, and wound up on the other side.”

Twilight blinked. “Bounced off a giant mud bubble,” she droned.

“The bubble did burst after you bounced off it,” Meg sheepishly added. She looked at Pinkie Pie and Spike, knowing they witnessed the event, but they also blankly looked at her like she was spouting nonsense.

The alicorn slightly tilted her head. “That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“I’m sure I’ve said sillier things!” protested Pinkie Pie.

Twilight had to suppress a chuckle as she looked at the offended earth pony. “Yes,” she sighed. “Yes, you certainly have.”

“We can show you the scene…”

Should I watch it? There was no reason to think they were making this up. Who could possibly make up stuff like this? It was bizarre how that cartoon could both be so accurate and yet… take poetic license with certain events. “No, that won’t be necessary.”

Nopony spoke. The silence was becoming awkward. I might as well explore this a little further. “Any other misconceptions I can clear up?” she tried to ask cheerfully.

The two humans looked at each other and, by some unspoken agreement, Steve went next. “What was the most recent major event to have happened in Equestria? Before this ‘hole,’ of course.”

Twilight pondered the purpose of that question. Obviously they wanted to determine how close the most recent cartoon is to the present. But why not just state the most recent event they know of? There’s no reason to keep that a secret; on the contrary, they’d want to know what has transpired since. Or—her eyes widened—they’re afraid they know our future! Is that even possible? Only one way to find out. “That would be the defeat of Tirek about two months ago.”

He let out a sigh of relief. “That was the most recent episode. It aired a month ago.”

That kept things uncomplicated; Twilight hated time loops. She had to give them credit, though, for considering that. Bad as it was that they knew so much about their past, it’d be even worse if they knew their future! Twilight thought it prudent to gather more data points. “Anything else?”

“Well…” began Meg, “in the episode about the recent Equestria Games there seems to be a huge plot hole…”

Rainbow Dash said, “What do you mean?”

“The unicorn magic disabling spell…”

“To prevent cheating. What of it?”

“Surely Celestia did not have her magic disabled.”

“Duh, princesses were exempt, right, Twilight?”

“I did cast the spell to light the—” She looked at Spike.

“I’m past that,” he dismissed with a nonchalant wave of his claw. But then he began fidgeting with those claws. He must be realizing his faking of the Cloudsdale anthem was seen by many more than just the entire stadium. That was far more embarrassing. Terribly, painfully, soul-crushingly embarrassing. Oh, Spike…

Meg continued. “Then when that cloud was hit by an ice arrow, why did no princess do anything about it?”

“You honestly don’t know?” asked Twilight, genuinely surprised. That was hardly an insignificant detail…

“As it was shown, it never occurred to you or any other princess to do something about it. Nor do we know if Derpy placed or not in—what was it?—air sprinting?”

That made Rainbow Dash’s day. “Nopony tell them, got that?” she ordered. “It’s nice to know we got some secrets!”

“That includes you, Gummy,” warned Pinkie Pie, wagging her hoof at the baby alligator. Gummy stood there on his short, stubby legs, blinking first one eye then the other.

Eh, why not? They’re not entitled to know everything. “Let’s just say us princesses aren’t morons,” smirked Twilight. Nonetheless it gave her food for thought. That was an odd omission. It did make them look like idiots if that’s how it was portrayed.

“I guess you get to have some secrets,” Steve conceded half-jokingly.

Spike burped up a letter. He caught it and started reading it aloud. “Princess Twilight Sparkle. Apparently, we can communicate between realms. Give my regards to Meg and Steve. Princess Celestia.”

Twilight levitated it over to Steve. “You may keep this as a souvenir. You shouldn’t show it to others, though I suspect nopony would believe you if you did.”

“No, you’re quite right,” he mused, as he took hold of it. “Our sanity would be questioned if we claimed it was real.”

Rainbow Dash flew to the window and looked outside. “This trip down memory lane is nice and all, but I think I’m gonna fly around for a bit and see what’s out there. Twilight, could you teleport me outside?”

“Before you go…” The pegasus turned her head towards Steve. “Stay away from airplanes—flying machines. I’m serious.”

“Yeah, we saw those. Really noisy. How do they fly without magic? They don’t even flap their wings!”

“It’d take too long to explain. Just… stay away from them. Their engines—the noisy bits—can suck you in and kill you.” Rainbow Dash grimaced in response.

I hope she keeps her recklessness under control, even if “danger” is her middle name. The alicorn quietly sighed. Oh, who am I kidding…

“They leave behind a lot of air turbulence too.”

“Okay, sheesh, I get the message.” She looked out the window again. “Looks like the coast is clear. Twilight?”

“Coming,” she said as she flew over. They hovered, facing each other, front hooves touching. Her horn flashed brightly and they were on the other side of the window. Rainbow Dash broke contact, turned to face upwards and outwards, and with one powerful flap of her wings vanished, leaving behind a rainbow contrail—that ended after a few dozen feet, the point at which the magical field got too diluted to sustain it. Twilight teleported back inside.

The humans stood with their mouths open, not believing what they just saw.

“You two just broke so many laws of physics,” Steve said. “I can’t believe the universe let you get away with that.”

Twilight mulled that over for a moment. “We need to talk about that. There are some things I can’t do and I don’t understand why.”