Author's Notes:

Very dialogue heavy, but I hope you're ready for what Ex has to face just as much as he does.

I'm putting this in before I forget. Does anyone want to see Kavats? They are the cat version of a kubrow like Storm. If so, I know a way to integrate them.

“Stop! Thief!”

I forcefully opened the door to my room and leaned out into the hallway. Just past my door I watched a cloaked pony round a corner with Twilight hot on their heels. Quickly I left my room and crossed the hallway and banged on Serenity’s door.

“Serenity, grab your gun!” I yelled while I pounded on the door before I took off down the hallway.

A few seconds later her door shot open while she slipped her helmet on with one hand while the other held her shotgun. She took a quick second to look down both sides of the hallway before she found me to her right and started running. Quickly she matched my pace and caught up with me.

“What’s going on!?”

“I don’t know!”

As if on queue Twilight yelled, “She’s stolen my crown!”

‘Well that answers that!’

Following the sounds of hoof beats on the hard crystal floor we followed close behind Twilight and the mysterious pony. Reaching a longer hallway, Twilight’s horn glowed its signature purple hue before she disappeared in a flash of purple. Only to appear in front of the cloaked pony.

“STOP!”

The pony didn’t even stop. Before she crashed into the new princess, she teleported, causing the cloak to hit Twilight square in the face. It fell to the ground while Twilight recovered and looked over her shoulder. That little mistake caused all three of us to catch a glimpse of our bandit. She was an orange-ish and yellow colored mare with light green eyes, a mixed yellow and red mane and matching tail and she sported a sun cutie mark similar to Celestia’s on her flanks. She grinned wildly at Twilight before rounding the corner of the hall.

Continuing the chase, we joined up with Twilight. The bandit mare appeared to be headed somewhere, but the question was, where?

With a grunt, Twilight lunged forward at the mare, catching her off guard. Taking her to the ground both mares tumbled in a mix of limbs while they barrel rolled three times before they crashed through a set of double doors to a nearby closet. Before the doors shut, Serenity and I bashed them in with our shoulders, causing them to crash loudly on the adjacent walls. Taking the left hand side, I drew my Lex from my hip and pointed it at the orange mare while Serenity stood opposite of me at the ready with her shotgun.

I didn’t even notice the crown that bounced through the mirror on the opposite side of the room.

“FREEZE!”

The mare took a terrified gasp while her eyes went wide, “Humans!? Here!?”

Twilight glared at her angrily. “What did you do with my crown!?”

The mare didn’t answer. Her horn glowed bright green before she teleported to a nearby mirror in the room. Catching her out of the corner of my eye I turned and pointed my Lex at her and squeezed the trigger. She stumbled backwards into the mirror and disappeared before the shot went off.

BANG!

The round disappeared into the mirror causing it to ripple. I was so caught up on the chaos that I didn’t notice the rest of the girls standing at the door.

“Who was that?” Fluttershy asked, dumbfounded.

I lowered my weapon but continued to eye the mirror in case something else happened.

“Serenity… guard the room. Rest of you. Throne room.”

All of us -except Serenity- stood in the throne room of the Crystal Castle with the three other alicorn princesses standing right in front of us. The girls watched intently while I stood there with my arms crossed.

“Sunset Shimmer,” Celestia said, “A former student of mine. She began her studies not long before Twilight... and when she did not get what she wanted as quickly as she liked, she turned cruel and dishonest. I tried to help her… but she eventually decided to abandon her studies and pursue her own path… one that has sadly lead to stealing your crown.”

“She replaced it, with this,” Spike said while pulling out the cheaply made duplicate.

Celestia leaned down to Spikes level to examine it.

“I suppose Sunset Shimmer thought you wouldn’t notice right away that it was not yours, and by the time you did it would be too late to go after your crown and Element of Harmony.”

I bent over and took the crown from the dragon before I examined it, “Looks like some cheap knock off from a high school dance,” I said before crushing it in my hand. “Either way. Celestia, you owe us and explanation.”

“This way,” she said while walking toward the exit of the room with the rest of us following close behind. The walk to the storage room was a long and quiet one until we reached the room in question. Walking inside Serenity stood up from a nearby box she had been sitting on. Both Celestia and Luna walked up to the mirror.

“This is no ordinary mirror,” Luna started.

I huffed, “What gave it away? The fact the we all watched a pony fall into it!” I looked at Celestia, “Just be blunt and tell me what I need to know.”

Celestia sighed, “This mirror is supposed to be a gateway to another universe.”

I widened my eyes and tilted my head downward slightly before I glanced over at Serenity.

“If that’s true,” I looked back at Celestia, “You just proved every theory of alternate universes.”

“And it is still a theory,” Luna interjected, “Starswirl the Bearded discovered this relic long before my sister and I came to rule. Once every thirty moons this mirror opens…”

I crossed my arms, “Is that thirty moons as in a cycle? Or thirty moons as in three years?” I asked.

“Three years,” Luna answered, “And it only stays open for three days.”

I looked back at Celestia, who looked to the side in shame, “Celestia, you entrusted me to run security for this summit. It’s already off to a rough start with Twilight's brother giving me shit. And now… this?” I held out a hand to the mirror, “This is something I need to know about. I can protect you from an outside threat. But not the mirror hidden away in the closet!” I looked at the mirror, “How did Sunset even know we were here?” Luna looked at her sister. I rolled my eyes and face palmed my helmet while letting out a lengthy sigh.

“I may or may not have told her about Twilight… and the elements… and the summit… and the days the portal would be open…” Celestia shamefully admitted while looking to side at the floor.

I walked up to the portal, “I mean... if this leads to an alternate universe,” I stopped and turned to face the group, “How do we not know if there aren’t a pack of raging xenomorphs on the other side?”

“A-And what are…” Fluttershy gulped while sinking down against the floor in fear, “X-Xenomorphs?”

“Big, black, raging aliens that lay eggs in your stomach,” I shuttered at that memory, “Yeah… they’re bad.”

Opening my eyes I noticed that everyone was standing a single step further away from the portal. Maybe talking about the raging acid blood eating machine wasn’t the best idea? Then again, the predators weren’t all that nice either.

Bastards...

“Look,” Cadence said while stepping forward, “It’s my fault this wasn’t under better lock and key, but we need to get that crown back!”

“Agreed!” Luna said with a small nod, "Without the Element, Equestria is defenseless.”

“Ouch…”

“Excalibur, you have done us a great deed,” Luna said while holding a hoof to her chest, “But when you leave, Equestria will be vulnerable.”

“Tenno will be stationed here and- never mind we don’t have time! We have to act now!”

“Indeed,” Celestia said. She levitated a pair of saddlebags onto Twilight's back. “You understand what you must do?”

Twilight looked at her former mentor, “Of course...”

“Good,” Celestia replied, “Then you must go at once!”

She may have been calm, but the urgency was clear. Twilight took a deep breath to prepare herself.

“Woah woah woah!” I interjected while holding up a hand to stop her, “She is not going without an escort!” I said while pointing at the floor.

“Yeah!” Dash also interjected, “If she’s going! We’re going with her!”

All of Twilight's friends walked up and stood in front of her with determined smiles -except Pinkie, who looked ready to explode with excitement. They intended to help their friend. But this is a situation where they best stay on the sidelines.

“No!” Celestia and I said in unison.

“What!? Why not!?” Dash yelled angrily while stomping her hoof on the floor.

“Think back to the ship in the Everfree?” I reminded, “Not only did we deal with still active robotics but Serenity damn near killed us all in that unstable mindset she was in. We don’t know what we are facing… Serenity, Twilight and I are going and that’s it!” I swiped my hnd across my chest for emphasis.

“Excalibur… you and your teammate are staying also…”

“WHAT!?”

“Sending everypony could upset the balance of this alternate world. We can’t risk possible destruction,” Celestia said.

“And what if Twilight gets hurt!?” I shot back, “What if she gets captured, hurt, killed!? Now she’s stuck there for three years with no means of escape! Not happening Celestia, this is my op and you have no say in the matter!” I said angrily while swiping my hand across my chest then pointing to the floor.

“This is my land Excalibur!” she shot back, “I make the decisions here!”

“And I enforce the intergalactic laws!” I shot back, “With the meeting of new species comes new laws… Alternate planets/universes come new issues. Because you haven’t invented space travel that leaves me in charge! Meaning that in this situation you have no voice!” I looked at Serenity, “Five minutes. We gather our gear, weapons, ammo and archwing,” I looked back at Celestia, “We’ll stay discrete for the time being, but if the shit hits the fan we’re going hot!”

Five minutes later Serenity and I walked back into the storage room with our arch-gear on our backs and our standard weapons builds. After making our final check of our gear, we prepared ourselves for the inevitable. The girls and princesses nervously stood nearby.

“I still think you two should stay here,” Celestia said while taking a step forward.

“Were Twilight’s knights,” I responded, not taking my attention away from my gear, “As much as I would rather be doing something else,” I stopped and looked at Celestia, “She is our priority. Besides, we made an agreement Celestia. I provide protection, you provide the resources… Unless you want to revoke that deal?” I said the last part while adjusting the harness on my Odonata.

She didn’t answer, so I took that as my answer that she wouldn’t interfere any further.

“Alright,” I said while finishing up my adjustment, “I’ll go in first. Then I'll give you the go ahead if it’s safe. Clear?” Both Twilight and Serenity nodded. “Alright,” I turned to face the portal, “Here goes… something…” Grabbing my gun off my back I held it at ready position before I took the few steps toward the portal. I ducked through. Soon, I felt the magic swirl around me as I passed through the realms. It wasn’t like stepping into a void portal. Nonono! It was almost as though my body was… changing?

Stepping out on the other side with a rather sore body, I examined my surroundings. From what my helmet was gathering it was sunny, and right around 70 degrees out. The oxygen level showed that the air was breathable. Sitting right out in front of me was a two story ‘U’ shaped building with a dome at the center and a flag fluttering in the wind on the flag pole at the top. The building was maroon in color while the five windows on each floor indicated it was an office building or school. Getting no dangerous warnings from my sensors I stuck my left hand back through the portal and waved Serenity and Twilight through. Lowering the gun, I turned to look behind me. All I saw was a massive granite statue of a horse rearing up on a pedestal. Walking around it I came around to the front. On the base of the statue was a small engraving.

“The Canterlot Wonder Colt,” I said to myself, “Erected to show strength, pride, and the will of what it means to be a true student?” Then it hit me like a Frisbee, “Wait a second!?” I looked over my shoulder before turning to face reality. In front of me sat a simple asphalt street. Across from it was a long row of simple houses. To the left a few miles away I could see skyscrapers populating a rather large city. From what I could piece together…

We were on Earth!

Actually an alternate version. But this was before the fall of the Orokin and the Sentient attack. Placing my gun on my back I quickly walked back to the portal where Twilight was laying on the ground holding her head while Serenity stood nearby.

Thankfully the portal had the decency to give Twilight clothes.

“Serenity! Penumbra! NOW!”

Following my order she disappeared in a flash. Following close behind I disappeared into the field, rendering me invisible. Nearby, Twilight looked up as a flash from the portal caught her attention. Out from the portal a small purple and green dog fell through landing on his face.

“Spike!? What are you doing here!?” she questioned.

Propping himself up on his front paws he shook his head before he looked up at Twilight, “Twilight, I’m sorry! I got nervous and scared and and and- hey where’s Excalibur?” he questioned while looking from side to side.

“What?” Twilight questioned while looking around herself. Upon seeing nothing she started to panic. Grabbing Spike, she pulled him up and held him close to her chest. “I-I don’t know!”

“Were right here...”

Twilight looked for me but didn’t see anything.

“Where?”

I stuck my head out of the invisible bubble, “Here!” I said quickly before grabbing her and the dragon-dog by the arm and dragging them in with us.

“Woah! What is going on!?”

“Yeah. Excalibur, what is going on? Where are we?” Serenity asked.

I placed my hands on each side of my head, “Okay look!” I said while holding my hands out in front of me, “From what I can gather we’re on Earth… before the Sentient invasion!” I looked over my shoulder at a passing car. “From the looks of it -and if my history is correct- it looks like the early twenty-first century!”

“So?” Spike questioned, “I don’t see what the problem is?”

“The problem is- wait, when did you- oh never mind! The problem is Serenity and I are from a time far ahead of this one!” I explained, “We don’t belong here, none of us do!” I sighed before looking at my teammate, “Serenity, I’m going to give you an Arcane Trickery and a device to hide your suit along with a storage device full of clothes. Pick whatever you want I don’t care! We have to blend!”

“But what about Sunset Shimmer!?” Twilight nervously asked from her spot on the ground, “She still has my crown!”

'Right… the main objective.'

I grabbed my forehead, tipped my head and closed my eyes, “Unfortunately I have nothing! I have no address, a cell phone, nothing!” I said frustrated while looking up and holding my hand out for a moment, “For all I know she could have hopped a plane and could be halfway to Russia!”

“Can’t you use one of your devices to track her?” Twilight asked.

“No… well? Yes… sort of… If she has some type of wireless device, I can track her… I have other means but that’s the biggest factor in finding her within the next two and a half days,” I explained.

“So were screwed?” Serenity asked.

“Well… no. A teenage girl in an alternate world probably lacks the basic funds to go very far. She’s probably within a twenty-mile radius, maybe less.”

“So it’s like finding a needle in a haystack?” Twilight said.

“More like finding the hay in a needle stack…”

Twilight turned away and faced the nearby building, “Well,” she looked over her shoulder at us, “We might as well start searching the castle grounds!” She said before propping herself up on all fours and running for the front door.

“Twilight! That’s not-” she was wasn’t even listening, “How humans… walk… damn…”

I tossed Serenity an Arcane Trickery while I messed with my own. After slipping them into our helmets and activating them we disconnected our archwings and sent them into a low orbit near our location. Catching up to Twilight, who nervously and awkwardly attempted to walk on two legs for the first time. She grabbed the nearby rail to the stairs of the school for support. Secretly I grabbed her hand and much to her surprise helped her walk to the front door with Spike at our feet. Once we reached the door she ‘attempted’ to use her magic on the door, only for it to do nothing. Before she panicked further. I let out an annoyed sigh and opened the door and pushed her inside. Before we walked any further I grabbed Twilight by the shoulders and slipped a pair of glasses on her nose.

“Void tracers. So you can see us until we change.”

Twilight nodded. With Serenity following close behind while I lead the way to a nearby bathroom. I told Twilight to place the Suit cloak on Serenity’s back and help her change while I did the same in the men’s bathroom. The nice thing about Vauban’s little invention is it basically uses the void energy in the suit and dematerialize it into the device, allowing the operator to call it up at a moment’s notice. Meaning, I can go incognito and still be fully armed. I placed my Soma and Skana into a storage device and changed into a simple pair of grey cargo pants, tennis shoes, a light blue shirt, a black nylon hoodie, and finally a simple blue ball cap with an old Spartan warrior on the front. Finally I took my Lex and put it in my waistband on my back and activated its cloak.

Walking out of the stall I quickly locked the door to the restroom and looked in the mirror. Holding my right hand up I looked at it before opening the claws. Time to blend. A few minutes later I placed my Venka in a storage device and looked at the clean shaven man in front of me.

“Drop eh’m dead…”

Walking out of the men’s room and into the hall I could finally see what I had walked into. The long hall contained a long row of simple green lockers for students. The floor was a bland blue vinyl tile. The walls were a light green and the ceiling was another shade of dark green with various lights lighting the hall. Walking up to the women’s room I caught Serenity walking out. Fiddling with her waistband she wore a pair of skinny blues jeans, some tennis shoes and a white shirt. I also noticed that she was missing a certain purple humanized alicorn and her purple and green dog.

“Where’s Twilight?” I asked walking up to the young woman.

“Neh! She- son of a-” Serenity stopped fiddling with her waistband, “Spike heard something and Twilight followed,” looking down she continued to mess with her pants, “Ah! I can’t get these things to work!”

I reached over and grabbed each side of her pants and gave them a hike upwards before slowly adjusting them downwards. Letting go I looked at her.

“Better?”

“Yes… thanks.”

“No prob. Now let’s find our missing girl.”

Walking down the maze of halls I send Serenity upstairs while I continued to peruse the first floor of the what I could now identify as a high school. Passing the occasional teacher and student I was starting to see a hardcore resemblance.

“Look out!”

Turning around I came face to face with a group of three young girls. Crashing into me all four of us fell to the floor with a THUD. I landed on my back while the three younger teens dog piled onto my chest. With a groan I lifted my head and looked at the culprits. My eyes widened in surprise.

On top of me sat the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

Or at least their human counter parts. Apple Bloom, who was on my left arm, wore a simple pair of blue jeans, a simple light green top and yellow boots. Scootaloo sat square in the middle on my chest. She was wearing a pair of black boots with green socks hanging out the top, she had pair of olive drab cargo shorts on and a black hoodie. Finally, on my right arm Sweetie Belle sat in a pair of purple boots with yellow straps, a yellow skirt, a white and pink striped shirt and a purple over coat. Quickly shaking their heads, they looked at my dumbfounded expression right in the eye. Laughing nervously in unison while avoiding eye contact they apologized.

“Hehehe… sorry mister,” Apple Bloom started.

“We didn’t see you there,” Scootaloo joined in.

“Hope we didn’t hurt you,” Sweetie Belle finished.

Shaking my head, I quickly regained my composure, “Uh… its nothing…” I put on a friendlier tone, “Accidents happen. Besides… I’ve had worse,” I said with a friendly half smile.

Yeah… like being shot!

“We’re still sorry,” they apologized in unison.

“Its fine girls,” I said before sitting up while they slid off of me and stood up. Following close behind I rose to my feet. Just like their pony counterparts I towered over them. Marveling at my height they looked at me wide eyed. I looked around for a second before looking at their awestruck expressions. I chuckled.

“Yes I know I’m tall.” The shook their heads again. “Hey! Have you three seen a purple girl in a skirt walk by?”

“Purple girl in a skirt?” Scootaloo said to herself while looking at the floor in thought. The other two did the same.

Personally that was one of the most awkward questions I have ever asked a person. Yeah purple skin, and hair, most likely walking on all fours and has a talking dog? Haven’t seen her? Oh, okay!

“Oh!” Apple Bloom realized while holding out her hand and pointing to the ceiling, “Yeah! She went that way!” she said while turning to the side and pointing down the original direction I was headed. I thanked them before they ran off in some direction to wreak some kind of havoc while I headed after Twilight. After walking around a few more corners I ended up passing a teen girl in the rather dead hallway.

Something just screamed bad girl.

She wore a pair of black leather boots with a purple flame on the front, an orange mini skirt with a yellow and purple stripe on the lower left side, and her purple shirt was hidden under her black leather jacket. She had orange-ish yellow skin, green eyes, and red and yellow hair.

“Sup new guy!” she said as we got closer.

“Not much hot stuff,” I replied casually.

She put on an evil half smirk at the compliment as we passed each other in the hall. Rounding the final corner, I caught Twilight standing nearby with Spike being petted by a long, pink haired girl with a white cat, rabbit and red bird near her. She wore a simple white tank top with a green skirt with a pink lace and a pair of green boots with pink socks dotted with white polka dots.

“Oh! Excalibur!” Twilight said when she saw me, “Where have you been?”

“Looking for you…”

The pink haired girl turned to look at me. I simply waved as I walked past her. Walking up to Twilight she quickly introduced me.

“Oh! Fluttershy this is Excalibur! My uh…?”

“Cousin,” I answered for her while holding out my hand to the girl who was now at mid stance. “Were transfer students from Baltimore.”

She took my hand gently, “I… It’s nice to meet you…”

Yep… no matter the universe… she will always be as shy as shit.

“Likewise,” I smiled while letting go of her hand and looking at Twilight.

“Fluttershy here was just telling me about the crown.”

That caught my attention.

“I didn’t know what to do with it, so I gave it to Principle Celestia,” she explained.

Physically I kept my cool… mentally I face palmed.

“Priiincipal Celestia?” Twilight questioned while turning her head to the left and holding up her hands to her chest and leaning in a little, “She’s the ruler here?”

‘Oh GOD!’

It was time for me to jump in before Twilight screwed up even further.

“Where is her office by the way?” I asked, “We need to meet with her anyway about classes.”

“Third door on your left,” Fluttershy said with a smile while pointing down the hallway.

RING!

“Oh no! I’m late for class!” Fluttershy quickly said before taking off her backpack and swiping up her animals in her bag. “I’d suggest putting Spike in your bag!” she said before running off with a wave and a smile. She rounded the corner at the same time a certain frame in question rounded the corner.

Looking over her shoulder and pointing Serenity asked, “Was that… Fluttershy?”

“Yes,” I answered, “But I’ll explain later. As of right now I need to set something up.”

“What?”

I opened my holo feed after making sure we weren’t being spotted.

“Hope you two are ready for high school?”

Leading the way Twilight walked through the principals door sporting a way to over exaggerated bow. I held my face while walking through the veil to what was going to be a hard time. Looking up from my palm I saw a rather tall black chair with some very familiar rainbow hued hair poking out over the top. The room was a simple office with a wooden desk, a rather old looking phone on what would be the right hand side, a microphone, a computer and a golden name tag, a few pictures in the background and a calendar on a cork board to our right.

“How can I help you?”

I gave Twilight an elbow to the side before the chair in front of us swiveled around. In it sat Principal Celestia, the almighty ruler of… whatever the name of this high school is. She wore a yellow jacket with her cutie mark as a pin on the left collar along with a purple and white stripped under shirt. Awkward silence filled the air while she placed her elbow on the desk and placed her hand on her cheek, clearly bored.

I cleared my throat, “My name is Excalibur and this is my sister and cousin Serenity and Twilight,” I said while gesturing to the two girls behind me. They waved nervously, “We were told to meet with you?”

Celestia looked up, surprised before turning to search through some files, “New students? I was not informed of this. Where are you from?”

“Baltimore,” I replied. “I was told that you were supposed to be getting an email about our arrival?”

Turning back, she told and gestured for us to take a seat in some nearby seats while she messed with the computer on her desk. Sitting down we silently waited while the sounds of a clicking mouse filled the air. After a minute or two she “Aha’d!” and started to read. After another minute she looked us.

“I don’t know why this didn’t come to my attention earlier, but? Everything seems to be in order… your paperwork must have gotten buried or something,” she messed with the computer some more, “Do you have your class schedules?”

We all looked at each other, “No…” I answered. ‘Shoot me!’ “We weren’t told much other than this was our school and we are to meet with Principal Celestia,” I lied, “Didn’t help that we just landed late last night and haven’t had time to unpack our stuff.”

“I see,” she stood up, “Give me a few minutes to put something together.”

Walking over to one of the file cabinets she started go through a few manila folders.

Serenity leaned close to me and held a hand to my ear, “I can’t believe this is working!” she whispered.

“Don’t fuck this up!” I whispered back, harshly.

“What was that?” Celestia asked while turning slightly.

I had to act quickly!

“Will you quit kicking me Serenity!?” I faked being annoyed, “God, you annoy me at times…” I turned to the side and crossed my arms during the last sentence.

Serenity watched me with a bewildered expression. I turned to partially face her and leaned in slightly.

“Fake it…”

She silently “Ohhhh’d” before fighting back.

“Well if you would stop sitting so close we wouldn’t have this issue now would we!?”

“Yeah yeah yeah whatever… just… stay in your chair…” I went back to my fake annoyance.

Twilight just watched in confusion. On the other side of the room Celestia continued to mess with her paperwork. Serenity kicked my foot for the first time.

“Will you cut it out!” I snapped while turning to face her.

“I didn’t do anything!”

“Bullshit!”

Celestia turned to face us to see what was going on.

“Kids…”

“I’m not doing anything!” Serenity yelled at me.

“Quite your fuckin’ lying!”

“Oh you’re just as bad as dad!” she shot back while crossing her arms and looked to the side, angrily.

I could probably milk this if I try hard enough.

“Kids…”

“Don’t compare me to that asshole! I didn’t walk out on us sis! I cared for you and did everything he should have!” I kicked my chair out and stood up and looked at my enraged ‘sister’ with anger, “You have no idea how hard it was to raise you alone after mom died!”

She kicked her seat out and looked me in the eye, “You just had mention mom!?”

“KIDS!!!” Celestia boomed while placing a hand on each of our shoulders and stepping in between us while pushing us back slightly, “I don’t know what you are dealing with at the moment but you have my sympathies you truly do!” she said while looking at both of us. Twilight just sat in her chair nervously. “If you ever want to talk my door is always open… but I will not have you two fighting in my school. Is that clear?”

Both of us looked to the side at the floor in mock shame, “Yes Principle Celestia,” we mumbled in unison.

“Good…” she let go of us and walked back to her desk and took a seat in her chair while we sat back down. “I’ll set up something for you three during lunch… here.” She opened a drawer in her desk and pulled out a small note pad. “If anybody asks, show them these notes. You are free to explore the school for now until lunch starts. When lunch is over come and grab your schedules. Okay?”

All three of us nodded in response.

She finished signing three notes and handed them to me before I passed them around to the two other girls.

“Any other questions?” Celestia asked.

“Uh… yes?” Twilight said nervously, “Fluttershy said she gave you a crown?”

“Ah yes!” Celestia answered while standing up, “I gave it to my sister for safe keeping. Don’t know what it was doing on the front lawn?” She stopped at the cork board behind us while we followed her in our seats, “Were you interested in participating in this year’s Fall Formal?”

“Well I… Fall uh...Formal?”

‘Don’t do it Twilight…’

“Its Canterlot High’s biggest dance of the year,” she said while marking this upcoming Friday on the calendar.

“Like the Grand Galloping Gala!?” Twilight said excitedly.

I face palmed for the who knows the how many-th time.

"The Grand Galloping Gala?" Celestia questioned awkwardly.

“Oh… it was a big, thing, at my other... school!” she recovered nervously.

Celestia just looked at her awkwardly while raising an eyebrow before shrugging it off and going back to her calendar.

“And was there a princess?”

“Yes… but she wasn’t actually a student…” Twilight replied, still nervous about our situation.

“Well. Here at Canterlot High the students choose the princess and she receivers her crown at the Fall Formal.”

Twilight looked to the side in thought while rubbing her index finger on her chin.

“So, can anyone run?” Twilight asked while looking back at the Principal.

Celestia turned back, “Yes. You just have to let the head of the Fall Formal planning committee know that you would like to be on the ballet. Do the rest of you have any more questions?” We all looked at each other before shaking our heads and looking back at Celestia. “Alright then.” We stood up from our seats and headed for the door. Once we reached the door I stopped.

“Thank you principal… and sorry for the outburst,” I said while faking sadness, “Serenity has always been trouble since mom died.”

“You’re welcome Excalibur. And remember, if you ever want to talk, my door is always open,” she said with a smile.

“Will do.”

Turning away Celestia closed the door to her office while I walked up to the two girls that stood nearby. Taking up position on each side of me we walked down the hall. The sound of a zipper was heard as Spike stuck his head out of Twilight's bag.

“I don’t get it? Why didn’t you guys just ask for the crown back?” he asked.

“Spike,” Twilight answered, “What if someone from this universe came to Equestria and tried to explain well… this!” she said while gesturing to the building. "They'd think they were crazy!"

“She has a point Spike,” I replied, “We couldn’t just walk in there and say that that crown is a magical element and our local alicorn princess needs it to protect her kingdom while her two futuristic knights are here to get it back. Then I slap my gun on the table.” I sighed, “We need to come up with a plan.”

“Well… what do you have in mind?” Serenity asked.

“This leads to all of a few ways,” I replied while we rounded a corner, “Either ‘A’ I suit up and kick in that door and demand for the crown. Which, personally I’d rather not have this lead to a massive manhunt and the possibility of the government finding out about the portal. ‘B’ we try to find where it is hidden and take it during the night or ‘C’” I glanced at Twilight, “Somebody enters in this dance in the hopes of winning.”

“When is the dance?” Serenity asked.

“This Friday. The same day we need to get back.”

“Hmmm…”

“We also need to find Sunset Shimmer. From what I have noticed we have a huge situation. Everybody has a counterpart, meaning that Sunset has one too.”

“I actually dealt with one earlier when she was bullying Fluttershy,” Twilight said rather nonchalantly.

“You what!?” I questioned while we stopped walking.

“She was bullying Fluttershy! I just wasn’t going to stand there!”

I face palmed… again and groaned, “There is no way she’s that stupid…”

“Like you said Excalibur,” Serenity chimed in, “She could be the duplicate.”

“True,” I looked up and started walking again, “Look, we have about two and a half days to do this. Nice thing is we know the location of the crown, which is our main objective. Arresting Sunset is the secondary. Just blend in an act like we belong here. We'll gather the necessary evidence as we go. ”

“Right!” both Serenity and Twilight said in unison.

Silence.

“Spike, don’t fuck it up…”

“Hey!?”