Demons, like most beings, have their own wants and needs. We each have individual characteristics that separates us from the herd I mean group, group! We hate being similar, we like to be different. Enough to make mortals think that we may not be related to each other. In fact, some demons, like humans, hate each other. For those not in the know, humans are funny little creatures that also like to summon demons. They haven’t done so in quite a while, not after finding something more destructive. A bomb or something. Anyway, we don’t always get along. So while there is universal animosity for summoners, we trust other demons less. Just food for thought.

With the majority of the walk held in relative silence, I decided to take in the surroundings. Apparently, if the local signs and proud displays in shop windows were to be believed, Canterlot was the capital of Equestria. The cobblestone beneath my unwieldy four legs needed some getting used to, but eventually I acclimatised. Being flexible enough to take any form was a major bonus for a demon.

“So tomorrow,” Twilight began tentatively, “you’re coming to school.”

I sighed, the despondent gesture decorating my features with a sordid frown.

“Your… Principal intimated as much.”

Twilight walked in silence for a few more steps, before continuing. “Are you going to be okay?”

I sent her a quizzical look. Why worry about me? She was clearly the one that needed help.

“I’ll be fine,” I said dismissively. “As long as you keep your promise and send me back to the Other.” I could taste the rejuvenating properties of the aether there [1].

Twilight coughed in embarrassment. “I’m worried they will find out you’re a demon.”

“Demon summonings aren’t commonplace here?”

Twilight shook her head.

“Uhm… I’m pretty sure it hasn’t happened for a long time.”

She had a point. If it’s been a long time since a demon came through, then the residents would be in for quite a shock. They would probably throw a fit when they saw I was not a mere fable, legend, or whatever folklore that mythical creatures of destructive powers were relegated to when they found themselves no longer existent.

Clearly, Celestia knew about demons… so either she was very knowledgeable and knew they weren’t mythological, or she’s lived a very, very long time. I shuddered to think just how long she would have to live in order to be that knowledgeable and also that competent. She saw right through me the moment I spoke.

“Why didn’t you think it would fail?”

Twilight cocked her head. “I thought it would, actually,” she admitted. “So I was really surprised when you came through! Success!”

Not a success! You summoned a demon!

I rolled my eyes. “You do know demons are inherently bad, right?”

“Bad? You seem okay.”

“It’s because we’re under contract. Given the choice, I would slay you without hesitation. Then I’d go on a rampage and destroy as much of the world until something stops me.”

Twilight gaped at me. “Y-You wouldn’t really do that, would you?”

“Of course I would. I’m a demon. Did you miss the fine print that said don’t summon?”

Twilight averted her eyes. “I-I must have missed it in the preface.”

Oh dross, she was so bad at lying.

“Look,” I said, cutting in front of her and forcing her to stop. “The reason why we make it so dangerous for magi to summon us, is because we don’t want to be summoned! If we can’t get back, we’ll try and cause as much regret as possible before expiring. That’s how it works.”

Twilight’s shoulders wilted under my critical gaze. “I know,” she said in a small voice. “I’ll get you back, I promise. I’m actually really sorry about this.”

Her words were so unexpected, I forgot what to say next. A magus apologising to a demon? Never. If you’d told me that before, I wouldn’t have believed you.

“Well, okay then, as long as you don’t do it again,” I added lamely. What was I? Her father? This mortal plane must be rubbing its sentimentality all over me.

My mistress brightened with my encouragement. She smiled and started trotting briskly forward.

“Let’s get going!” She rounded the corner. “We can get some ice cream!”

————————

The store was filled with the vitality of life. The frenetic energy so focused with intent was very characteristic of the mortal plane. I had an appreciation for it. It was like watching waves crash onto a beachhead. They all seemed like they had a purpose, a strong will to persist against adversity. Of course, being summoned to the mortal plane, I was subject to partial imbuement of these laws, but I resisted them as much as I could. Like a strong-willed slave against the dog-chains of an ethereal master. Except the master was the laws of nature, and I was at the beck and call of those that perverted it. The magi.

“So, what do you want…”

I glanced back curiously as to why Twilight had trailed off. She was staring at a booth which contained a few foals. Ah, I saw the reason. These were the three that were harassing me earlier. Now that I had given them a good scare, they were glaring at Twilight with a mixture of fear and hostility.

“Why are they staring at me like that?” Twilight mumbled to herself. “I hadn’t done anything yet…”

“Might be because I scared them half to death in your form.”

“You what?!” I knew it was a mistake as soon as the last word left my mouth. Her eyes widened into a panicked stare and Twilight herded me to the nearest booth with a frantic series of shoves. I stumbled into the seating, managing to awkwardly balance myself on my behind. It was harder than it looks, let me tell you. Twilight slid into the opposite end and gave me an uncomfortable stare.

“What did you do?” she hissed.

“Well…” Since I didn’t have Twilight’s True Name, I had to tread the path cautiously. So far she’d been cordial, but what if she were to decide that being nice was a nuisance? I had to play my cards carefully.

“I just told them that I was a demon.” It was true. Demons don’t lie… that much.

Twilight glanced back at the foals and then shrank into her seat. “Amethyst is staring at me really hard.”

Amethyst? Oh Ammy. Must be a nickname.

“So what? Just glare at them back.” I drew a hoof across my throat in a slashing gesture. “This usually does the trick.”

Twilight’s eyes widened in surprise. “Y-You can’t do that!”

“Why not?”

“You just can’t?”

“Threatening the aggressor is just tit for tat isn’t it?” I will admit, I haven’t brushed up on mortal etiquette for a while, but this rule is universal across many universes.

Twilight shook her head. “You don’t understand. Amethyst is really popular you can’t just… do what you did.”

It was like she was searching desperately for reasons to disapprove of my methods.

Hmm, the social dynamics of mortals are confusing. Better try a different tack.

“Okay, perhaps I was a little hasty. I was new to the world, give me a break. I was summoned so suddenly.”

A shadow of guilt drifted across her face. Twilight bowed her head.

“Okay,” she mumbled into her mane.

By the Other, I hope she’s not going to cry again. “Let’s get ice cream,” I said quickly, trying to move the conversation in a favourable direction.

Twilight perked up at that. “Yes,” she said, looking like she was trying her best not to look in the direction of the trio. “I’ll arrange for the order.”

The waiter had drifted to our table more than arrived. He had a suave elegance that matched a high class restaurant than the homely parlour we were in. His moustache, which looked suspiciously fraudulent, twitched as he took down the order, and I found myself mesmerised with the movement of his facial hair. It’s the little things, you know?

“I’ll have a vanilla shake and a strawberry sundae,” Twilight said. She turned to me. “Anything else?”

I shook my head. Much as I would like to live up to the gluttonous behaviour of some of my more exotic demonic counterparts, my continuing discretion in this mortal plane might be under threat when passing ponies took in a foal eating out the poor parlour’s stock of ice cream. I knew self-control. Really.

No less than a minute after ordering, the desserts were presented in front of us. Vanilla milkshake for Twilight and strawberry sundae for me. Now before you say anything disparaging about the colour pink and what feminine qualities it might impart on me, let me remind you that I am a demon. Gender isn’t really a fixed construct, and pink used to be a male colour for younglings in the day. At least it was in one mortal plane. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

The strawberry sundae looked delectable, let me tell you. Strawberries crowned the side of the boat-shaped dish, with generous rings of strawberry syrup and blueberries added on the sides. Wafers surrounded the central creation with flakes of chocolate sprinkled over the top. Service was lightning fast and the presentation was excellent. Now the taste…

Tears flowed out of my eyes. This was delicious! I was beyond words.

“Stop that.” Twilight’s voice was pitched low as she leaned across the table. “You look like it’s your first time eating food.”

“Technically it is my first time eating food. It’s different between mortal containers.”

Twilight shook away the flash of curiosity flooding her eyes. “Just… try to act normal, okay.”

“Yes, mistress,” I shot back with a mocking smile. Then proceeded to demolish the ice cream like it had been Atlantis. That poor city… the magus should have remembered to check her wording. ‘See and sea’ sound so similar.

We should teach her a lesson.

Though the words were spoken in barely more than a whisper, I heard. My hearing is excellent. Sure enough, peeking over Twilight’s shoulder, it was Amethyst talking to her two buddies.

“Your ‘friends’ over there are plotting against you,” I said mildly between gulps of sugary ecstasy. “You should do something about it.”

Twilight looked at me as if I were daft. “How do you know that?”

I shrugged. “I have good hearing.”

She seemed to doubt my statement, but nevertheless looked like she acknowledged that I wasn’t trying to deceive her. “Maybe we should wait before casting aspersions.” She almost turned her head again, but through an invisible struggle of will, managed to keep it trained on me.

“Could you… listen in?”

Oh a conundrum. Technically, it was a request, not an order, I could disregard it. But keeping my mistress safe and feeling up to the task of sending me back to the Other was a good idea.

“Okay,” I said reluctantly, “but eavesdropping is a bad habit.”

Twilight’s brows contracted with the injustice of my accusations. “Didn’t you just do the same thing?”

“I can’t help it if something drifts into my ear. If I can’t help it, it’s not eavesdropping, because there’s no intent behind it.”

Twilight pursed her lips. “Will you do it, or not?”

“Alright, alright, don’t get your knickers in a twist.”

“My what?”

“Never mind.”

This time I concentrated on actually making out the words the trio was saying.

So I think we should keep spreading the rumours.

I don’t know Ammy, I don’t really like doing it. Plus the last time we met she was really scary—

Glitter Star, I swear if we weren’t friends for so long, I’d toss you out.

There was an uncomfortable pause.

Okay, Ammy, I’ll do it.

Good.

How about you Cream? Are you going to help me, or not?

I-I’m always in, you know me.

Finally. Nice one. Well let’s get some ice cream and have a little treat. Let that nerdy little know-it-all have a bit of peace before the storm hits.

I didn’t bother listening in any further as the conversation turned to inane topics of mundane gossip, changing fashions, and what they would get for their next birthday.

“So?” Twilight looked hopeful.

“They don’t like you, that’s for sure. They’re planning on starting a smear campaign.”

“A what?”

“It’s a tactic among politicians in the High Courts of—actually, never mind. What’s important is that you now know.”

Instead of looking happy at a demon’s job well done, Twilight’s head sunk to the table and she moaned pitifully.

“My life is over.”

I rolled my eyes. “Your life is definitely not over. What’s with you mortals and over-dramatising everything?” I gave her an awkward pat on the head. “You’ll be fine. If you don’t like them, you can just cast a spell on them.”

“What?” She looked like the idea had never even occurred to her.

“You’re a magus, right? Just use magic to solve your problem. That’s how it works among you. Can’t find something? Magic. Can’t reach something? Magic. Curious about centuries old text that contains instructions on summoning a malevolent being of power? Magic.”

Already I saw the last heavily ironic statement had flown over the young magus’ head. She was already pondering the conundrum of solving her little dispute with magic. I sighed. Seems like my sarcasm had totally missed the mark and landed in the Eternal Void [2].

After finishing our desserts, Twilight paid for them and retreated with single-minded determination back to her home. On the way, I ducked into an alley and turned invisible, ghosting my mistress back to her residence behind her. She didn’t say much, burying her nose in her books. Her mother looked worried, but could not do much other than inquire about her trip. Twilight had responded with vague statements of ‘it was fine’, ‘thank you’, ‘I’m going to study, now’, and then beat it back to her room in an impressive timeframe.

Shifting back into my usual form, I perched in the corner of her room, smelling of the usual flaky parchment and ink that usually suffused a magus’ room. I didn’t say anything. Not like there was much to say. I wasn’t serious about using magic, but try explaining that to a magus. They were obsessed with the subject, there wasn’t much I could do, not that I was invested in the idea of stopping a magus from studying magic, I would have better luck teaching a cat to swim.

With no further orders, or much else to do, I settled into my spot and took a nap [3].

————————

“I’ve found it!”

Startled from my trance, I lifted my head and saw the familiar expression of triumph tinged with exhaustion that decorated my mistress’ features. She grinned at me and showed me a small doll in the shape of a horse. It was grey with roughly-made dreadlocks, with buttons for eyes and spotted pants.

“What’s that?”

“She’s called Smarty Pants. She’s going to help me fit in.”

I frowned at the doll. “So what? It’s got a charm on it to attract ponies to it or something?”

Twilight looked shocked by the idea. “Of course not, why would anypony do that?”

I shrugged, not getting it. “What’s it for, then? What happened to the magic?”

“I created it using magic,” she answered, looking proud. I noticed the fine stitching and work on the parts. The mathematical precision of each thoughtful ratio of material to length was clear from her casting. It still had a rough, handmade look, but there was a lot of care put into it. Still, I didn’t understand how this would help.

“So…?”

Twilight looked frustrated with my apparent lack of acuity of her mysterious plans. “So, I’m going to show it to everypony! When they see that I can make them a doll, they might ask for one, and then they…” She took an unsteady breath. “Then they might like me.”

“Oh.” I could see a thousand things wrong with the assumption, but the fact that she tried was unexpectedly noble of her. I can respect a magus that, for once, hadn’t used magic to solve a problem directly. “So that’s it? It’s just a doll?”

“Yes.” She looked confused by the question. “What else would it be?”

I was thinking it was like some kind of magical explosive, or maybe a cursed doll that would strike down her foes once asleep, or something along those lines.

“Uhh, nothing,” I said quickly, “what time is it—hrngh?!”

Throwing back the curtains to the window, I found the sky had turned a bruised purple, showing the dawn of a new day.

“By the Other, did you spend all night doing this?!” I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, magi were no stranger to hard, gruelling work in the wee hours of the night.

Twilight looked a tad ashamed of the fact. “Mom came in a few times, but stopped coming when I told her it was something for school.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“I didn’t lie!” she added hastily. “It was for school.”

Though she didn’t ‘lie’ per se, Twilight harboured guilt for deceiving her mother. It wasn’t my problem, so I let it drop.

“Well… do you have school today?”

Twilight nodded glumly.

“Right. Let’s get your things together. I’ll come with you.”

Twilight blinked in surprise. “Why?”

Should I tell her that I was forced to by her school’s Principal? No, that would just be asking for trouble.

“I think I should. Just in case.” I wasn’t a very imaginative demon, but then, deception and subterfuge had never been a particularly strong point in my arsenal of abilities. I knew enough to get by, you know, assassination, maybe a little political deception, etc. Inventing an excuse to go to school? I hadn’t the experience for that.

“Twilight!”

What?!

The voice had filtered through the door, I recognised it as my mistress’ mother. Twilight met my eyes, filled with panic. Taking the hint, I quickly turned invisible, just as the door knob worked open and a head poked through the doorway.

“Goodness, Twilight, did you shut yourself in here the whole night?”

Twilight hesitated, but then nodded.

Velvet shook her head in consternation. “You shouldn’t be working so late,” she chided. “You should leave that kind of stress until later.”

Twilight nodded glumly.

Velvet smiled. “Good. Get ready and then I’ll walk you to school.”

“Mom!”

Velvet chuckled. “Oh alright then, I’ll just see you off. You can’t blame a mother for wanting to spend time with her children, right?”

As Velvet left the room, I reappeared.

“So is she your teacher too?”

“What?”

“Your mother. Usually teachers give that kind of lecture.”

“Moms do too, you know.”

“Huh. Well is she more powerful than you?”

“Huh?”

“Cause if you have the power, you can just challenge her for the right to succession and overthrow her as the head of the household.”

“I can’t do that!”

“Oh right, you’d have to deal with your father too.”

“S-Stop! Why the hay would I do that?”

“So you can take your first steps in controlling everything and everyone around of course, that’s what magi do.”

Twilight stomped her hoof, nostrils flaring in indignation. “If that’s what magi do, then I’m not a magus.”

————————

Outside, I met Twilight by an alleyway as she passed by. She was waved goodbye by her mother, tears and all, like it was her first day. It was very touching, in that suffocating mortal kind of way. I got the feeling that Velvet was a bit of a mother hen, and it sort of made sense with the way Twilight sort of kept to herself in school.

“Still angry?” I asked, stepping out of the shadows, morphing into the pony form.

Twilight barely glanced my way.

“No.”

“You sound angry.”

“I don’t.”

“Well you do.”

“Of course I do!” Twilight snapped. “You can’t just say all those mean things about my parents!”

Oh, right. Some mortals were very touchy about the subject of families. It never really occurred to me because magi usually tended to spawn from disconnected roots, all kept under the chains of obligation and dependence until they one day exceeded the power of their master. Sometimes that would never happen, magi were notorious for hoarding their knowledge.

Twilight stalked off.

“Hey,” I called out, stopping her.

Twilight slowed, then stopped.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I wasn’t thinking.” Well, it was partially my fault, and Twilight was one of the first magi not to treat me as anything more than a slave. I had to remind myself that she and I were supposed to working together to get out of this summoning conundrum. I could ill-afford a testy mistress anyway. If she learned any of the more compelling uses for some of the spells…

Twilight sighed. “It’s alright, I guess. You probably didn’t know, I forgot that you weren’t from around here.”

Surprised by the relatively mature forbearance of my mistress, I failed to make a reply.

————————

Outside the gate, Principal Celestia was there with a stern look and all.

“I trust there will not be any trouble from you.” It wasn’t a question.

“No,” I replied anyway, glancing at my mistress. “So if you’ll excuse me…” I made to move forward but a canopy of wings stretched out to block my path.

“Hold on.”

I stopped, staring back at the alicorn.

“You can’t just walk in there.” Celestia wrapped a wing around me. I shivered at the contact. “You have to be introduced. Follow me.”

Sighing, I kept pace alongside Celestia. Twilight was sent ahead to class, and with a hesitant glance back at me, she complied with Celestia’s orders. Meanwhile, the sight of Celestia walking with me must be a rare case, because some of the other foals passing us by were curious, and they stared at us with interest.

“Just remember, a week of your time, and most likely you’ll be sent back to the Other. There’s only six days left. Behave.”

“I’ll do my best.”

Celestia eyed me coldly. “Any less than your best and I’ll know.”

“Yeesh, alright. I won’t cause any trouble. What can a bunch of these foals do anyway?”

“One of them dragged you from another dimension of existence.”

“Oh yeah, there was that.”

Celestia showed me a satisfied smirk. We ascended the steps and entered the building with the students around us giving a wide berth.

“Why are they all avoiding us like that?”

“It might have something to do with the fact that a demon is with me.”

I snorted derisively. “More like the fact that you are royalty.”

Celestia eyed me critically. “Be that as it may, some ponies here are taught defence against certain types of magic. Magic that includes summonings and the such. Be on guard, but remember, don’t harm anypony.”

I rolled my eyes. “You repeat it like I’m going to do it anyway.”

Her glare made me skip a step.

“Alright, alright,” I said quickly. “No need to break out the Pendant or anything. I’ll make sure I won’t hurt them for no good reason.”

Celestia stared at me, as if deciding whether or not to add anything. Finally, she removed her gaze so much like a hot brand drawing away inches from flesh. After a pause, she added, “You’ll protect Twilight won’t you?”

I frowned in confusion. “Of course, she’s my ticket out of here. Of course you could do that, but uhh, no offence, I don’t really trust you to hold up your end of the bargain. She at least is sincere enough.”

Surprisingly Celestia chuckled at that. “That she is. You’ll also be staying with her in your pony form at the Sparkle residence.”

I blinked at that. “I’m already staying there as an invisible demon, what’s the problem?”

Celestia rolled her eyes, then shot me a look that made me feel as thick as a plank of wood. “The problem is that you cease to exist moving from and to the school. That’ll raise suspicion, and we’d much rather this be limited to as few ponies as possible, okay?”

I huffed. “Fine.”

Rounding the corner, I spotted a small sign that hung over a doorway proclaiming the room as ‘Class 2A’. Light spilled out into the hallway and I could hear the distinct murmur of a teacher droning on about complex magical theory. If I concentrated, I could probably make out more of the words, but I wasn’t interested in expending the energy because we were moving towards it anyway.

As we entered, the teacher kept talking, but attention was slowly siphoned by the students as they spotted the Princess and myself, the effect of the shifting focus looking like a ripple moving through a puddle of ponies. When I was starting to feel nervous about a whole bunch of staring, Celestia decided to introduce me in the lull as the teacher realised we were standing there. Trust me, it’s similar to an army staring down a lone demon on the battlefield, I haven’t had the best experiences of that.

“Hello, my little ponies. Good morning.”

“Good morning, Princess Celestia,” the class chorused. By the Other, it was like hearing the drone of mechanical golems.

“Class, I want you to say hello to a student that’s going to be with us for a very short time. He’s an exchange student that’ll be staying for the duration of a week.” With that, Celestia propelled me forward with the not-so-gentle shove of her wing, making me stumble forward.

“I’m Morpheus,” I said curtly. I wasn’t a fan of being the centre of attention. Well, unless I was burning down a city. Then it’s unavoidable.

“Morpheus is a little shy,” Celestia added, “help him feel welcome. You must set a good example for the School.”

The teacher smiled uneasily, gesturing for me to take a seat. By the way she reacted she was probably briefed as to what I was by Celestia, but wasn’t given too many details. I shrugged, deciding to go with the flow and not cause a scene. I spotted Twilight sitting alone in one of the front rows and plonked myself next to her. She busied herself by burying her head in her book, but sent me a grateful smile.

“Great!” Celestia tilted her head to the teacher as she bowed. “Please attend to your studies, I’m looking forward to seeing your dazzling performance at the term examinations.” As she left, the class broke into a smattering of whispering. From the snippets of conversation there was a lot of here and there about me and why I would choose to sit next to Twilight and who I was, so on and so forth.

“Thanks,” Twilight mumbled, “I can’t skip orientation week classes so I was afraid I would be sitting alone.”

“Eh.” I dismissed her concerns with the wave of my hoof. I stared at it, then decided I like claws better. It looked like a weird stump on the end of my forelimbs. “I’ll stick around you because you’re my mistress.”

“Still… thanks.”

Again there was that weird feeling that Twilight was different from all the magi I’d seen so far. Even Celestia, in most ways, had fit to the tee. There was something about my mistress that made me uncomfortable.

“No problem.” Unless there was another demon, then there could be a problem. A fatal problem. “Orientation? Start of the year?”

“Second year for formal tuition,” Twilight replied softly. She glanced at the teacher, but she was preparing something up the front. “I haven’t been in this class for long.” She bit her lip. “It’ll be better after this week, I can study alone.”

Before I could say anything about that, the teacher tapped the desk gently with her hoof to get everyone’s attention.

“Now, we have a quick quiz!” the teacher declared, to the groans of dismay and disappointment of the cohort. Twilight looked happy for some reason. She must have studied. Hah, magi, study was their forte.

————————

Time moved slow for me as the class moved on. I doodled during the test and didn’t pay much attention in the class. The teacher seemed like she wanted to say something, but was afraid to say it, like I was some nasty wart that had to be ignored somehow. I didn’t mind, I just fell in and out of a trance until…

“Hey, what are you doing, class has ended. It’s break time.”

My eyes focused on Twilight.

“Oh, it’s over?” I yawned.

“Yes,” Twilight said quickly, glancing behind me. “So let’s go. Come on.”

“Why?” I groaned as I stretched, some of my joints cracking in response. Mortal containers get stiff when you leave them alone after a while. I should keep that in mind. “It was comfortable where I was napping.” Even though I didn’t really sleep.

“You were sleeping?”

I nodded.

Twilight blinked. “But you looked like you were wide awake.”

“It’s a little complicated. Alright, let’s go.”

Just as I made to move away from my desk, some of the foals in the classroom had surrounded our seating. I swept my gaze around the foals that were accosting us. We were boxed in, Twilight’s eyes were filled with dismay and regret for not escaping earlier. I glanced up, but the teacher was already gone. Well, talk about being left for dead. I sighed. Well, better face the music.

“Uhhh, can I help you?” I asked. Instantly, I was surrounded by questions as each foal clamoured curiously for my attention.

“Where are you from?”

“What do you do?”

“Why are you here?”

“Why’d you transfer?”

“You came with the Princess! You must be special! Tell us about it!”

“You know Twilight, why’s that?”

At the last question, the rest of the foals fell silent. I saw who had spoken and it was none other than Amethyst, flanked by her cronies. The rest of the foals silently split like a shark through a shoal of fish. I eyed her coolly as she approached, not intimidated in the slightest. Honestly, this kind of thing never changes, it’s always one toughie with two lackeys. Except this time it was foals, and I couldn’t lift a claw to harm them. Oh wait. There was that. Better answer before I looked brain-dead.

“Her family’s my host.”

“Oh really?” Amethyst licked her lips. “So you’re not friends with Twilight?”

Twilight flinched at the accusation, and found something interesting to look on her desk. Must be the woodgrain, it’s nice this time of year. Amethyst’s eyes gleaned with the obvious opportunity that presented itself.

“You’re not going to say you’re friends with her, right?”

“We’re not friends,” I said flatly. Twilight sagged at the desk.

Amethyst shot Twilight a triumphant grin. “Stop by our table at the cafeteria. We’ll save a spot for you.”

From the way Twilight’s shoulders were shaking, I figured she was on the verge of crying.

“No thanks, I’ve got to keep Twilight company.”

Amethyst’s jaw dropped. Twilight froze.

“W-What?”

I shrugged. “We’re not friends yet. We’re probationary.”

“Okay class, get back to your seats.” An elderly stallion had entered the room. “Break time’s over.”

“Break time may be over, but this isn’t,” Amethyst growled, sending me a glare. I could understand. A public snub like that wouldn’t be swept under the rug.

I snorted in dismissal at her threat, which only served to turn her redder than a tomato. With a huff, she stormed back to her seat as the rest of the classmates filtered back to their seats.

I sank back down next to my mistress, wondering if that was the right move. Why did I defend her like that? I mean it got in her good graces, but now the situation was much more complicated.

“Thanks,” Twilight whispered to me, her voice barely carrying over the stallion’s lecture.

“Don’t mention it,” I replied, though my mind was elsewhere.

What to do, what to do?

————————

[1] Fun fact: Alternate universes and dimensions are infinitely overlaid without any spatial differentiation, so the barrier between them has zero distance. The only thing that separates me from my home dimension in the Other was the barrier between planes. A skin of energy that only magic could penetrate. It was quite literally so near, yet so far.

[2] For those in the dark, the Eternal Void housed some of the most dangerous beings in existence, the Void Maws. The Eternal Void, true to its name, is the large void between dimensions. Which is strange considering there is literally no space between the dimensions. Anyway, Void Maws eat anything. Stray creatures or objects that have accidentally landed in the void, concepts, emotions, even the occasional lette or punctuaton I tend to stay away from them as much as possible

[3] Naps are a loose term. The more correct term would be a trance. Demons rarely need to sleep. Instead we stay in a trance-like state. Sometimes, if we stay in that state long enough, minerals and such would impregnate our skin and eventually harden into an exoskeleton of sorts. Upon awakening, the effect would look like the effect of a statue come to life. Of course the simple way would be to don the feature via transformation magic, but then the fun would be taken out of scaring the odd trespasser in our master’s humble abode.

Author's Notes:

For those in the know, GoogleDocs has asploded for me, so I have no idea whether parts of my story transferred/coded properly.

Also, I'm a dum-dum.

Next Chapter: Book filly, silly.

As always, my personally promised pernicious readers, thanks for reading!