I awoke instantly. Cindy put Sandra in front of us. I could see everyone was awake around me. "Alright, so what's this plan of yours that couldn't wait until we were done talking to Luna?"

Cindy tilted herself. "Oh, well I was thinking I could come out a few ways. We could keep growing until I budded off, like I started with the head, or I could move into our foal that Crystal gave us, or Sandra's foal that you gave her. I... kind of got excited about it."

Sandra looked baffled. "Can someone catch me up on all this? What is Cindy talking about?"

Dusk pointed up at Cindy. "She's an alien. Like, literally, not any metaphorical way. Cindy, you really should have let us finish talking with Luna. I wanted to hear her ideas."

I held up a hand. "We can go back to Luna , but you're getting ahead of yourself, Cindy. You're assuming we have to split apart."

Cindy looked confused. "Don't we? I've been hijacking your body for a long time now. I thought you'd be eager to have it to yourself again. You've been very accommodating about it, sure..."

Sandra frowned. "Cindy, you and Will are practically siblings at this point."

Cindy looked confused, then pleased, a smile growing wide. "Are we really? I never had a sibling before... Do you think of me that way, Will?"

I scratched her gently behind one of her big pony ears. "You're a bit more than that, seeing as we're sharing a body. I'm a little annoyed you didn't tell me the whole truth earlier, but I get it. I'd probably have flipped my shit if you tried to explain all that back then."

Cindy looked uncertain. "I was hoping to have you as a lover, but I suppose a sibling is even closer, even if we're skipping the children part of it."

Dusk shook his head. "You two already share the foals you two made. You don't need to... get it from each other."

Sandra nodded in agreement. "Sure, that makes sense, so, uh, alien? Come on, guys, you're not explaining this much to me."

Cindy took a soft breath. "Alright, quick version. I'm a creature of energy, rather than squishy biologics. I got swept up in whatever pushed all the pony energy into your world and got caught by Will, and here I am. I'm enjoying my time as a squishy organic. In theory, every princess like Will has another of my people inside them."

Sandra pointed at herself. "What do I have?"

Cindy tilted her head. "With the gift gone, nothing, but probably a plant. I know of one that behaves similarly to your tongues. Mind you, when I say 'plant', that's just the closest equivalent I can think of. Energy, not biologics."

Sandra sank to her haunches. "I know more, and yet I feel more confused than ever before. So a crazy alien energy plant, and a pony, got together inside me, and here I am?"

Dusk nodded. "That's about the size of it. I must have just gotten a rock or something, since I'm pretty much all unicorn."

I pointed at Cindy. "So, the big question in my mind, what do your people think of all this?"

"I have no idea," she confessed. "I can't go check without leaving you behind, and then I don't think I could come back."

Sandra shook her head. "What about your... uh, family, and life? Didn't you have any commitments before, boom, alien planet?"

"This is my first family." Cindy smiled gently. "I want to keep it. I was 'born' by natural forces, then raised by others who were only related to me by merit of being similar. You are all very different, not similar to me, but caring for me. I like, no, love, this family. I don't want to go."

Dusk sat up with a smile. "Then don't! We like you too, Cindy. Right?"

Sandra bobbed her head. "Sure. I liked you, Cindy, even when I thought you were just a crazy part of Will. It's actually almost a relief to know you're not a part of his splintering psyche."

I shrugged my shoulders. "I've grown attached to you."

Cindy burst into a giggle. "That was a terrible joke, and you know it. Well alright, if you're happy with this weight on your shoulders, I won't insist... There's still the option of becoming one person instead of two."

I felt an ear raising of its own volition. "That sounded like the most intimidating option. What would that entail?"

Cindy tilted a little one way, then the other. "It's hard to... explain, but you have an energy all of your own. I would match its, uh, frequency, and we'd fade into one another, our waves becoming a combination of the two. We would stop existing, as individuals, and become a new person that has the best parts of both."

Sandra clopped a hoof on the ground. "No."

Dusk pointed up at me. "It's his decision."

I didn't exactly like the idea of, basically, dying, even if something 'like' me resulted from it. "Uh, let's not go down that road... Dusk, you said you thought you could affect Cindy's people?"

Dusk perked up excitedly. "Oh yeah! I'll need to practice, and Cindy will have to tell me when I'm doing it right, but I'm, like, 95% sure."

It wasn't a lot to work with, but it was something.

Author's Notes:

Sandra gets caught up, then Cindy has a heart-to-heart with her family. Typos are the result of translating biological emotions to the waveform thoughts of Cindy's people.