Lyra pressed her nose against the window, staring out at the multitude of city lights as the ground dropped away and the plane rose above the coast. For the most part, the passengers seemed completely nonplussed by her presence, but she'd caught a few odd looks here and there as she'd boarded the flight. She could hardly blame them however. Despite her many years among them, even her own mind sometimes reverted and couldn't help but think of these alien creatures as strange and oh-so-weird. Yet what really stuck out in her mind was that none of them, not even those that seemed most surprised to find a unicorn flying coach, gave even a glimmer of thought to the miracle of the plane itself.

It'd been nearly a decade since the Veil had torn, since this other Earth—the one where talking monkeys had evolved in place of equines—had come to overlay the edges of Equestria. Those monkeys, those... humans... had seemed so strange, and so very, very alien at first. But of all ponies, Lyra was one who believed, at least far more than most, in the old axiom that a stranger is just a friend you're meeting for the first time. She'd quickly found herself enraptured by the new humans, and their world. She'd gone on a pilgrimage of sorts, taking in as many of the sights this new world offered as she could, returning home occasionally to tell friends and family of the wonders she'd seen. It had been some of the best years of her life, and still she felt like she'd barely scratched the surface. Every takeoff was the start of a new adventure, and she'd sworn long ago to never forget the sheer joy of it.

The green unicorn turned in the not-quite-pony-sized seat, leaning against the headrest while continuing to stare out the window, a faint smile crossing her muzzle as the millions of tiny lights all moved beneath her, a human city full of life and industry. As it faded beneath the clouds, she marveled at this weird species that bent metal, fire, and even the air itself to its will, harnessing whirling demons of fire beneath wings of composite aluminum to soar among the clouds. It wasn't magic, and yet... they'd even walked on the face of the moon!

Twilight

Twilight Sparkle stared up at the newly grown crystal... tree? castle? She wasn't quite sure what to call her new home. The tree-like form of it certainly echoed her prior residence of the Golden Oaks library, but it, this new thing, was a castle as well. The library had been strong and stout, but this was... well, "imposing" was the best word she could come up with.

She didn't mind... not really anyway. The old tree was, in a way, a touchstone, and had been close to her heart as such things often are, but when all was said and done, it was just a place. What really mattered—her friends, her family, Spike and Owlowiscious—they'd all escaped the brunt of Tirek's wrath, and that's what really mattered. The keepsakes she'd lost... well, it was sad, but she'd make new memories and have new things to remember them with eventually. The books could be replaced as well, maybe not exactly, but close enough. That was the entire point of libraries after all: to share knowledge. They were a bulwark against the darkness of ignorance, for nothing shared was ever truly lost. It was one of the few things that ran counter to universal entropy. While energy, matter, and the rest were reduced by time, and lessened the further they spread, knowledge gained and grew instead. It was a lot like friendship in that regard. It wasn't magic, and yet... it was!

Author's Notes:

As noted in the description, I originally wrote this for a writeoff contest in September of 2014. That's nearly two years ago now. Why I never published it, I'm not quite sure. I read it again for the first time in at least a year and realized, while far from my best work, it still captures something I haven't been able to put my finger on anywhere else, and figured it deserved to see some daylight. The cover image is a photo I took myself, of the Seattle skyline, which I routinely fly to/from for work, and inspired the Lyra segment of the story.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it!