“Hang on, Twilight!” I shouted, as we fell through the air.

She tightly grasped my throat as we fell, still not used to the sensation of Traveling (even though we must have done it about a dozen times). Then again, I’m not really complaining. It gives me a chance to get a strangle-hug from Twilight.

“And…” I flared out my win-Wait, I don’t have wings. Why am I in earth pony form? “Um, Twilight?” I shouted, a hint of nervousness in my voice. “Think you could, oh, I dunno, teleport us to someplace somewhat safer?”

“What!? Why can’t you just-?”

“Wings are gone! Sorry!” I apologized, grinning sheepishly. “So! The ground is getting awfully close…”

I swear, even though it is damn near impossible to hear things when free falling from about a couple hundred feet in mid-air, even as a pony, I heard Twilight let loose an exasperated sigh. Before I could ask her what was wrong (other than the fact that we were plummeting at an alarming rate), her horn flashed, and I felt myself crash into the ground with a muffled WHUMP.

“Ow…Twilight, you okay?” I asked, as I peeled my face off of the ground, stars lightly dancing in front of my eyes. Apparently, she had teleported us closer to the ground, thus negating the damage caused by physics, and gravity.

She groaned lightly, and said, “Yes, I’m fine…Oh, my head hurts.”

I frowned, and got up as soon as she had let go of my neck, and rolled onto the ground. Concerned, I glanced around, and then shifted into my human form once I saw that no one, or pony, was in the area. Placing a hand on her side, I felt her heart beat rapidly through her fur coat.

“You don’t seem like you’re fine,” I commented, slinging my backpack off of my shoulders, and rummaging in it.

“No, really, I’m fine. I’m just tired,” Twilight insisted, smiling at me.

“Twilight, you’ve pulled off crazier teleporting spells than that without breaking a sweat. Need I remind you about the Death Eaters?” I joked, pulling out a slightly dented tin canteen.

“That was an emergency!” she protested, accepting the canteen gratefully.

“Hey, I had a gun! I coulda handled them.” I stretched out on the ground while Twilight drank from the canteen.

“Your revolver holds six rounds,” Twilight pointed out.

“So?”

“There were twenty four of them! There was no way you could have gotten all of them,” she insisted, giving me her best, ‘It’s highly illogical’ look.

“Love you too,” I mumbled, rolling my eyes.

She giggled, and crawled over to me, laying her head on my chest. Together, we stared up at the crystal blue sky above us, and watched some of the clouds roll by. Birds softly chirped in the trees around us, and I let loose a content sigh.

“It’s good to be home,” Twilight murmured. “It feels like it’s been forever since we’ve seen everypony…”

“Only been about five seconds if I remember,” I muttered. My eyelids grew heavy, and I suppressed a yawn. The sudden fall, and then the rapid transformation had drained me a bit. Well, it doesn’t help when the last world you went to involved you and your OP magic girlfriend (I still don’t think that word fits her…) kicking ass on a near godlike level.

“Cthulhu…never wanna deal with HIM anytime soon...maybe next Tuesday,” I sighed. Putting a hand on Twilight, I said, “A nap sounds pretty good right now. Care to join me?”

When Twilight’s answer was to move herself closer to me, I nodded, and muttered, “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’.”

The sound of Twilight groaning woke me up from my short nap…okay, I say it was short, but in reality, the sun had set, and stars were twinkling in the night sky. Looking at Twilight, I saw that her eyes were squeezed shut, and dots of sweat beaded her forehead. Worried, I put a hand on her forehead, and winced when I felt how hot it was. Oddly enough, it only felt like heat was coming from…her horn?

“Okay, didn’t see that coming,” I whispered. Curious, I touched the tip of her horn, only to quickly snatch it back, barely holding back a gasp of pain. The tip of my finger now had a shiny burn mark on it.

“Not good.” I picked Twilight up in my arms, carefully avoiding her horn, and said, “Hey, Twi, wake up.”

Her eyes slowly blinked open, and she looked at me tiredly. “Nate…I feel…strange,” she admitted, rubbing her head in discomfort. Tensing a little, she asked, “Why are you carrying me?”

“Your horn feels like a pointy Bunsen burner,” I stated. “I got worried, so I’m walking us to town.”

“But you’re in human form,” she protested, squirming in my arms.

I tightened my grip on her, and stubbornly said, “It’s nighttime. The only ones who will be watching us are the moon, and a couple eccentric ponies. Maybe some artists.”

“Well, even then, where are we going?”

“I’m thinking we should head to my place,” I answered. “I should still have some of the books I borrowed from the library in there, and one of them should be a medical textbook.” A trolling idea popped into my head, and I grinned. “And maybe we can have some coffee.”

“I don’t like coffee though.”

“Me neither,” I said in a low voice, smiling suggestively. I couldn’t keep it up for long though, and I busted up laughing, despite Twilight’s apparent illness.

Twilight wasn’t amused. She jabbed her horn at my side, and I yelped in pain. Much to the surprise of both of us, my shirt now had a small scorch mark on the side of it, and a small hole torn into it.

“I didn’t mean to do that!” Twilight instantly said, looking at her horn with a hint of fear in her eyes. “I don’t know how that happened…”

“Yeah. Your horn isn’t that pointy…” I then pushed my glasses up a little, and cleared my throat. “Uh, scratch that.”

Indeed, as Twilight saw in the dim reflection of my glasses, that her horn had lengthened, and was now significantly pointier than before. Man, did I just really use the word “pointier”? Sorry, off-topic.

“What’s happening to me?” Twilight whispered, her voice trembling.

“I don’t know, but I have some suspicions…” I replied truthfully. “Let’s get to the library then.”

“What about your place?”

“Spike isn’t at my house. We’re gonna have to have him send a letter to the Princesses,” I said firmly, taking off down the path. “If this is what I think it is, things could get…messy.”

After a hasty explanation, Spike had sent the letter to Princess Celestia, despite the late hour, and I had set Twilight in her bed. She had fallen asleep again, this time because of a whispered sleeping spell on my part, and I was slumped in a chair next to her bed.

“Is she gonna be okay?” the small dragon asked, looking at the unicorn with concern evident on his face.

A half-smile appeared on my face, I tousled the small dragon’s head (it’s really awkward to do that to lizard with no hair), and chuckled. “Spike, this is Twilight we’re talking about. Not being okay isn’t on her to-do list,” I joked.

He laughed, and sat on a small stool next to my chair. For a while, we just chatted, him asking me about our latest adventures. Just as I finished telling him how we tricked The Capitol into thinking we had died in the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games (fun story, remind me to tell you guys), he gagged suddenly, and a puff of green flame shot out. The flames quickly transformed into a scroll, bearing the mark of the royal family.

Spike and I both snatched at it at the same time, both of us eager to hear what the Princess had to say.

I started to read it out loud, while Spike tapped his clawed food on the ground nervously. “’Spike, Sean…’” I stopped for a moment, and looked at Spike. Celestia used that name only when things were vastly serious. “’Move Twilight to her basement, and have Spike gather the rest of the girls. Luna and I, along with Shining Armor and Cadence, will be there shortly. Sean, do not leave Twilight’s side for even a moment.’”

Spike and I stared at the letter incredulously. I don’t think either of us were expecting THAT sort of response.

This doth not bode well for the home team.

“Spike, you heard the letter! Er, I mean, read the-Oh, you know what I mean!” I said, crumpling up the letter, and shoving it into my pocket. “Go get the girls. I’ll move Twilight downstairs. Wait…”

Just before I went to the door, I pulled the curtains in Twilight’s room shut, and gestured for Spike to do the same as he went down. He got the idea, and did as I asked, before scampering out the door. I gave him a few seconds, and then snuck into the basement, trying to make as little noise as possible. As soon as I reached the bottom, I gently set her down on a blanket, and sat by her, tugging my revolver out of its personal Pocket Dimension.

This is definitely bad.

Very. Very. Bad.

Next Chapter: 10) Shouting Match Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 41 Minutes