"I just don't know," Rarity said to Fluttershy; flustered. This morning, Fluttershy had come to her and told her about how her brother was doing. At first her heart broke to hear about what had happened to him, then Fluttershy followed it up by asking her to heal him. Rarity knew she was "The Healer" and had seen her other self heal the other Applejack; but still, she had no idea on how to use her powers. It was only recently she found out why she "ponied up". And healing someone psychologically was far different than healing them physically.

All through the morning, Fluttershy had kept asking and Rarity had kept forestalling on giving her an answer. It's not that she didn't want to help; she just didn't think she could. And the last thing she wanted to do was to give Fluttershy any false hope. But here the were now, on their way to school, and Fluttershy wanted an answer.

"Rarity, you are The Healer," Fluttershy said in a tone of voice of a parent trying to convince a small child for the umpteenth time the can go to sleep without a night light on. "You have the ability, you have the power, you can do this. My brother needs you."

"Yeah Rarity. It kinda of your duty," Sandal added.

Rarity shot him a withering look in the rear view mirror before talking to Fluttershy again. "Darling, that is physical healing. And I haven't even tried that out yet. It was that horse thing with my name that did it last time."

"But you are her and she is you. You are both shades of the cosmic Rarity. So if she could, you can. And the brain is just an organ like the heart or the liver. You can fix all those." Fluttershy didn't know if she was pleading with Rarity or scolding her. In a way it felt like she was doing both.

"I just don't want you to get your hopes up darling. What if I can't do it?"

"They are my hopes to get up then. As long as you try; that's all I ask."

Rarity shook her head. "I will let you know after school," she said exhausted from arguing.

************************************************************************

"Twilight, it's time for school!" Ms. Sparkle called up the stairs.

Twilight rolled over and grumbled. Her brain barely able to process the words she heard. Then she felt something jump on her and she quickly opened her eyes to see Spike looking her in the face.

"Sorry," he said apologetically but with also a sense of urgency. "I forgot to tell you needed to set your alarm last night. But you really need to get up now."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure. No reason to apologize, I should have figured that out. We have alarm clocks too." Twilight was still drowsy but more of her brain had come online. Already she was figuring out what she had to do. "What's this world's Twilight do when she get's up?"

"She picks her clothes out, goes to the bathroom, showers, brushes her teeth, get's dressed, then goes down stairs to eat breakfast before going to school." Spike tried to answer as fast as he could. He knew Twilight was running late and didn't want to raise any red flags with the Sparkles.

Twilight nodded and sat up. "Sounds reasonable and logical. Ok. I can do this." She then got out of bed and started what would become her morning routine.

Before she had gone to bed she had done some more research on humans. She discovered that females in this culture were expected to remove most of their body hair, leaving only the hair above their eyes and on top of their head. And that hair had to be styles and shaped. She also found out that human females had what was called a "period" which horrified Twilight and she hopped to finish this mission before she had to experience on of those things.

Once she was in the shower, she debated on whether she should shave or not. She decided against it. This body had not produced hair long enough to be socially unacceptable and since she was already running late, she didn't want to push things further by trying something she had never done before. She did figure she would have to do it tomorrow and decided it would be a good idea to set her alarm extra early.

Once she was done with her morning grooming ritual, she went downstairs. As soon as she saw her (Sparkles) mother she quickly said, "Sorry Mom. I forgot to set my alarm."

"It's ok Sakura; there's a lot going on now. Just hurry up and eat your breakfast," Mrs. Sparkle said in an understanding voice. "I'll take you to school today. With things the way they are, your father and I would just feel safer."

"That's fine Mom," Twilight said relieved she wouldn't have to try and catch a bus.

************************************************************************

Pinkie's alarm clock had been going off for ten minutes now but still no sight nor sound of her. Maud was getting concerned. She walked upstairs and looked into her bedroom but Pinkie wasn't there. Now she was becoming really concerned. She decided to go to the room Sonata was staying in and opened the door.

Inside, in bed together was Pinkie and Sonata. Both (from what she could tell) had their clothes on. There were no tell tale signs of anything sexual having had happened; still, the way the two girls laid, it reminded her of how she and Big Mac would wake up together. There was a certain closeness there that was beyond just that of being in a small place with another person. The two appeared to be almost cuddling.

Maud knocked on the door and the two slowly woke up. Neither showed any signs of shame. In fact, they both seemed quite happy and content.

"Oh hi Maud!" Pinkie said in her usual cheerful voice.

"Your alarm was going off and I didn't hear you."

"Oh, sorry. Sonata had a bad dream so I came in here to comfort her, like you used to with me."

"That's fine," Maud said in her usual deadpan but inside she was - what? What was she really feeling? She she afraid that maybe her sister was lesbian? Pinkie was a kind soul and honest to a fault. Her reason for being in bed with Sonata rang true. But even if she were a lesbian; was she a homophobe? Maud didn't like all these new feelings she had been having since she started dating Big Mac. She also knew she would never give them up either.

"Thank you Pinkie. That was the best sleep I've had in, well, almost fourteen hundred years," Sonata said with a smile.

"Awe, it's ok. Hey, you want to come to school with me? I think you still might be enrolled there."

Sonata beamed. "Sure!"

"Ok, but you two had better hurry up or you'll be late," Maud said.

"Oh yeah," Pinkie laughed. "Hey, you want to get a shower together? It'll save time."

"Ok," Sonata responded with a shrug.

The two bounded off toward the bathroom; leaving Maud more confused than ever.

******************************************************************

Adagio woke to the smell of eggs and bacon. Her long deprived stomach growled in anticipation and desire. She slowly got up and walked to the kitchen where Sunset was making breakfast, still in her pajamas.

"Hi," Sunset said in a pleasant voice. "Just making breakfast. I was going to call you after it was done."

Adagio nodded and sat down at the bar. "Don't you have school?" she asked somewhat confused.

"I'm going in late. At this point Principle Celestia knows all about me. So it's ok. I also texted the others to let them know I'll be late."

"Oh," Adagio simply said. She looked at Sunset for a bit and then asked, "Still don't trust me?"

Sunset put a plate of food before Adagio and a glass of orange juice. "No," she plainly responded and turned around to get her own plate.

"Honest and wise. You'll make someone a wonderful wife someday," Adagio said with a slightly snarky tone.

Sunset laughed as she turned around and sat her own plate down. "I'm not the marrying type." The two ate in silence for awhile before Sunset spoke again.

"I'm actually going to be dropping out of school here shortly. Something big, something horrible is going on. I'm not sure if you're not even part of it." Sunset stopped and looked at Adagio who suddenly looked uncomfortable. Not enough for Sunset to know without a doubt Adagio was involved but enough for her to continue to keep her guard up.

"Twilight and I are investigating what it is. Once we know for sure; we'll face it, defeat it, then we're both going back to Equestria. And so are you three as well now. Once we're through, we're closing the portal forever, somehow. I'm not leaving any lose ends behind."

"Fair enough," Adagio said, finishing her plate. "Honestly, I want to get back as well. Always have. So that all sounds good to me."

Sunset then said, "Twilight can't leave school. Reasons," Sunset paused not knowing how much to reveal up front. "So, I could use your help. It would be a great way to show me you're serious about changing."

"Fine," Adagio said and in her head she thought, Better the chance for me to what did Chrysalis say? - corrupt you.

******************************************************************

Applejack walked straight into Aria's room, banging a pot with a wooden spoon. The Siren jumped up out of bed with a scream.

"What heck hayseed?" she said angrily.

"Time to get up girlie. You got chores to do. Big Mac's outside and waiting for ya. Now get dressed and get to steppin'."

Aria growled, vowed to kill them all in her head, and did as Applejack said.

***********************************************************************

Rarity, Fluttershy, and Sandal walked to their usual meeting spot when their phones went off. Both Rarity and Fluttershy looked to see that it was a message from Sunset Shimmer. It simply said she was going to be late and that she would explain later.

Rarity looked at Fluttershy and asked, "What do you think that means?"

"I don't know, "Fluttershy started to say before she stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes wide in terror. "But I think it has something to do with her," she said as she pointed to Sonata walking up along side Pinkie Pie.