On one of the arboretum's knolls, Michael and Irene sat on the grass beneath one of the many apple trees. They sat there, up against its mighty trunk, almost leaning on each other as much as they were leaning on the tree.

During the whole walk from the ponification area to the gardens, the two hadn't said a word more to each other.

Michael looked at Irene. He saw a pony and he didn't know why that didn't bother him. She looked up at him and smiled.

        "Michael?"

His mind was drifting, caught in her scent as much as the scent of the apple blossoms.

         "Hm?"

"You haven't said a word."

"I haven't?"

"No."

Michael thought, or tried to think anyway.

        "I'm sorry," he said, "but, I don’t know..."

Irene giggled a little, "Michael Frost doesn't know something? The world really must be coming to an end."    

He stared at her, his face a total blank. Then he started laughing; small at first, but it quickly grew into a loud, side splitting laugh. Soon he was on his back, clutching his ribs.

"What's so funny?" Irene asked.

Michael slowly stopped laughing and lied back on the grass, staring up at the blue sky through the canopy of the apple tree. She lied down next to him. He let out a deep sigh.

        "I'm not sure; I really just don't know. I-" he shifted onto his side to face her, "I mean, I've been here three days. I've seen ponies walking around, talking. But it... it's different, I mean, you're exactly the same."

"What were you expecting?"

He fumbled around for words, "I dunno... but I'm just so happy you're... You. That you're still so..."

         "Beautiful, caring, kind, wonderful..." Michael didn't know why he didn't just say those words out loud instead of screaming them in his mind.

Irene laughed, "You should have seen me just after I got ponified! I was stumbling around, bumping into everything...”

Michael sat up and turned away from her, his face buried in his palm, "Irene, I'm so sorry."

She straightened up to match him, "Sorry for what?"

"For not being there for you."

"Oh, it's alright. You did the right thing going to take care of that fire."

A knot formed in his stomach.

"There... there was no fire."

Irene was taken aback at first, but then she realized what must have really happened. She smiled and put her hoof on his shoulder.

        "Michael, it's alright. I... I understand."

She didn't. Even if she had figured out what actually happened, she could never know the reason, his reason, why. To her, it was a common case of just not being prepared to handle the massive physical change of a friend; she had seen it more than a few times. But to Michael, it was so much more than that. He wasn't just losing a friend: he was losing the love that he never realized he had until it became missing from his life.

"But now it's too late. It's over. There's no way I could become a pony, and..."

         For once, Michael thought with his heart, instead of his mind. Even if there was a way, he could never ask her to change back. He could see how happy she was in her new life and it would be selfish of him to ask her to give it all up.

He wiped his tears as subtly as he could, so Irene wouldn't see, and put on a smile.

        "You know what? I'm starving, how about you?" He asked her.

"Sure, that would be great. Dinner's on me."

From the nearby bushes came a familiar high pitched voice, "Oooh! Me Too! Let's Eat!... Oops."

        Irene looked shocked and Michael was furious. He got up, picked up an apple off the floor, and whipped towards the voice.

"Ow!"

"Bull’s-eye." He thought, and flung a few more into the bushes.

        Two more voices yelped in pain.

Irene looked at the bushes sternly, "Alright you three, come on out."

Out from behind the bushes appeared Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and an orange pony wearing a cowboy hat.

"Mighty sorry for snoopin, Shimmer," apologized the orange pony, "I was just out here tendin to the apple trees when these two roped me into their shenanigans."

"I, too, am sorry. When the two of you left, I simply could not help myself," Rarity dipped her head.

"I'm sorry too. Snooping isn't nice."

Twilight's voice came over the P.A. system, "Would Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and all ponification specialists not in the middle of treatments please report to my conference room? Thank you."

As Rarity and the other ponies left, Irene looked at Michael sheepishly, "Sorry, looks like our dinner will have to be put on hold."

"That's alright, go on. We'll see each other later."

Irene trotted off. When she was finally out of sight, Michael slumped against the tree, and sighed.

         The next morning, Michael went to the cafeteria and grabbed a tray full of food for both humans and ponies. Balancing the contents of the tray carefully, we went to the information desk in the reception area. This time, it was a bluish-grey pony with blonde hair.  

         "Um, excuse me, but..." Michael couldn't help but get distracted by the pony's one crooked eye.

She became noticeably annoyed, "Look, I know it's crooked. Deal with it. Now whadda you want?"

Michael snapped out of it, "Oh, yeah, sorry. Anyway, I'm looking for Shimmer Stardust's room. I'm a friend of hers and I thought I'd bring her some breakfast."

The pony eyed him suspiciously, but then set to work searching through the computer.

         "Shimmer Stardust... Shimmer Stardust... Oh, sorry, looks like you should have tried for dinner."

"What?"

"All of the Ponyville ponies shipped out last night."

"What?!" Michael leaned over the counter, "What do you mean 'shipped out'?! Shipped out where?!"

"Back to Ponyville. They left on the zeppelin last night."

He froze.

"How many?" he asked in a dull tone.

"How many what?"

"How many ponies were there from Ponyville?"

The mare looked at the computer screen, "Seven."

Michael turned on his heel and ran off towards Jack's room.

The blonde pony shouted after him, "Can I have your muffins?!"

Jacked walked back from the shower into the room to see Michael frantically packing all of his gear.

         "Michael! Michael! What are you doing?! What's going on?!"

"Gone. They're all gone, Jack! Every last one of them."

He began following Michael back and forth across the room, "Who? Who's gone?"

"Twilight, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Irene; every pony from Ponyville just got up last night and left for Equestria."

"So?"

Michael slammed his suitcase shut, and let out a deep breath.

"Something's happened."

"What do you mean 'something's happened'? What's happened?"

"I don't know, but something big."

Jack was getting frustrated, "Michael, I thought you were over this whole pony conspiracy thing; what happened?" Then he understood, "This is about Irene, isn't it? You met with her yesterday and now it's got you all hot and bothered."

Michael looked at him in disbelief, "What? No!"

"Bullshit!"

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me, MIKE; I'm calling bullshit on this."

Jack never called him 'Mike' unless he was upset.

Michael was getting equally upset, "Jack, You're my best friend and I love you like a brother, but do not push me on this."

"Then you tell me why this isn't just you overreacting to nothing!"

"Alright, you want it, here you go!" Michael got right up in Jack's face, "Last night, Twilight called all of her friends into a meeting. But not only did she call her friends, who are all department heads in this place, but all the ponification specialists! Then every pony from Ponyville leaves in the middle of the night!"

"So?"

Michael began pacing again, "Jack, Irene knows we're both here! If she was planning on leaving, she would have at least said 'goodbye'. That means, whatever it was, it was very important and very last minute. Jack, something is up."

Now he was starting to get concerned, "So, what do you think it is?"

"I don't know, I just-" Michael stopped dead in his tracks, "Unless... Twilight!" He pounded his fist on the table next to him.

"What?" Jack didn't understand.

Michael spun to face him, "Twilight! She and her friends must have had a damned good reason to leave this facility to be run by their alternates so suddenly. That's not something you do on a lark. That's something you do with instructions from someone higher up. She and Princess Celestia are very close. Not only that, but she and her friends, at one point, formed something called the 'elements of harmony' to defeat 'Nightmare Moon'."

"Where are you getting all this?!"

Michael gave Jack a dirty look, "You know, if you're going to join their species, at least read about their history." He resumed, "So! I'm thinking the Princess was the higher up. I'm thinking Princess Celestia must have called the dream team back. And I'm thinking that Irene left with them."

"But why? Why Irene?"

Michael sighed, "Jack, you know Irene. Rarity is her friend and she could never turn away an adventure.

   He latched his suitcase, pulled up the handle, and headed towards the door.

Jack ran behind him and put grabbed him by the shoulder, "Wait! Where are you going?"

"There are holes in every fence, Jack, and loose bricks in every wall, and there's a big wall with my name on it."

He looked at Michael, half in horror, half in sheer disbelief.

   "No... You don't mean... How?!"

Michael pushed on, "I don't know, not yet. But you know me; I'll figure it out."

"I'm coming with you."

Michael did a heel face turn, "Nuh uh. You came here to get ponified. Stay here, man. I'll be fine."

Jack was about to protest again but he stopped him. His face became as serious as Jack had ever seen it.

"Jack, seriously, stay here. What I'm about to do is probably going to be extremely dangerous and you've never performed well under pressure. That's why you're the guy at the university filing grant proposals and I'm the guy exploding stuff," He gave his friend a hug, knowing that this was possibly the last time he'd ever see him again.

"Trust me: I'm a scientist." Next Chapter: Chapter 10 Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 2 Minutes