I awoke from what felt like the best night of sleep I’d had in a very long time, despite how completely insane the events of the day before went. However, I found myself in a position very much unlike the one I’d gone to sleep in. The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was a shaggy mass of navy blue with a streak of dark purple and pink in it. My hoof was resting on something that was… rising and falling in a familiarly slow, steady pattern.

“Ooh, wow…” I thought as I finally realized what happened. I somehow wound up cuddling up to Twilight in my sleep. “I hope she won’t be mad about this… Maybe if I just move REAL slow, I can—!”

A sudden yawn coming from the ball of blue, pink, and purple stopped my thought process dead.

“Good morning…” Twilight whispered.

“Uh… g-good morning, Twi…” I fearfully babbled.

“Oh, shit! It’s too late! I am so f—!”

“Sleeping with me wasn’t entirely different this time, was it?” she calmly asked as she rose from under my foreleg. I had no clue how to respond.

“Uh, I-I… um… huh?” I was baffled by her surprisingly calm reaction. "Wha...?"

“You moved around a lot in your sleep last night," she began, seeming to take note of my confusion. "I didn’t think you'd ever stop… I was about ready to wake you up until you wrapped your leg around me and settled yourself almost instantly," she explained.

"I... I did?"

"Mm-hmm. I wanted to move, but you finally calmed yourself down enough to lie perfectly still. Not to mention I was feeling much too lethargic to try slipping out of your grasp without waking you, so I decided to make the best of it and go back to sleep myself. I’ll admit, for as unusual as it was, it was… nice. It sort of reminded me of last night, minus that magnificent massage you gave me.”

“Wow, I’m sorry…” I said as I sat up. “I guess bein’ a pony messed up how I sleep, too… I-I didn't mean to um...”

“It's no big deal. From the way you were moving, it seemed like you were trying to find positions of sleep that were physically impossible for you to take in your current form, until you unconsciously found me and hugged me."

"Huh... I expected her t' be a LOT more upset that I spooned her in my sleep. Could she have gotten used to me that quickly?"

"...Y-you're not mad?" I blurted out, still a bit disheveled.

"Not in the least. I can only assume that was the most familiar position you could find, all things considered about our most recent sleeping arrangements... It also makes for an interesting little note to take down about how you're handling being turned into a species of life entirely different from your own... amongst all the other observations I've gathered thus far.”

"Might as well not push the issue further if she's over it already."

“Makes sense… I guess,” I concurred, moving a hoof to scratch my head. Something felt out of place, though… like the side of my afro mane was pushed up in a goofy fashion. Twilight’s giggling confirmed that I had a bad case of bed-head.

“Your mane… it looks so lopsided.” The unicorn kept chuckling.

“D’oh, blah,” I responded with a dismissive hoof wave. “Your hair ain’t lookin’ so hot either, scruffy.” Twilight scoffed.

“Touché… Why don’t we wake Spike and get ourselves cleaned up so we can tackle today’s tasks?”

“Aight.” With that, Twilight and I woke the dragon from his sleep (something he was none too happy about, to my amusement), got ourselves clean, and straightened our crazy-looking bed-manes up into their shapelier (in my case), more organized and publicly presentable nature. Washing up here was no different from washing up back in my universe. Despite this world being one where the dominant species was magical horses, therefore less advanced in terms of technology, it had many essential utilities and other things that humans used every day. I wondered if this world was only as different as it was because of the fact that magical ponies ruled it.

“Alright, Ty. Let’s crack open that notebook! I can’t wait to gather more information to report to the Princess for when we meet her! Which reminds me… Spike? Take a letter.”

“Okay,” Spike obliged as he grabbed a feather and a sheet of paper. “Ready.”

“Dear Princess Celestia… My guest and I were wondering if we were able to make an appointment to visit you today. He’d love to meet you and make your acquaintance. In addition, I’d like to share with you the knowledge I’ve gained from my experiences in his universe. While I am currently unsure exactly how the information I’ve acquired has any ties to my primary studies on friendship, I am sure that this information is worthwhile and may even be able to be documented, as well as open a new area of study on an entirely new subject of magic, which I will dub M.I.T.: Magic Intergalactic Travel! I’ve memorized the spell I utilized to send myself to the alternate universe, but I haven’t had much practice with it, which causes it to burn up a considerable deal of energy as of yet. As such, I currently can’t use it very often. In short, I hope to hear from you soon! Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Aaaand… done! Except I might need you to proofread it… Some of those words sounded way too hard for me to spell.”

“Ugh, Spike…”

“I got it. Lemme see it,” I said. Spike looked at Twilight, who gave him an affirming nod. He reluctantly handed me the letter, seemingly ashamed of his work. “You lookin’ like somebody died. It ain’t that bad, is it?”

“…Read it,” Spike mumbled.

“Alright, let’s see here… Dear Princess Celestia, my… apoin ment…? akwaintence…? nalege…? e-experianses…? a-a-acwired…?” At this point, I was trying VERY hard not to laugh at the poor little dragon’s illiteracy. I was noticeably failing, because every word he spelled wrong made me either snort, puff out my cheeks, or scoff. I was also grinning the entire time.

“Ohh, this is why I wanted YOU to do it, Twilight!” Spike complained, causing Twilight to scowl at me.

*Ahem* “Sorry. Sorry. Okay, I’ll get serious now,” I assured the dragon after I took a deep breath. “Awright then… pry marry…? What the... what is this…? Doc, you meant it? *SNORT* *AHEM* uh, where was I…? Oh, yeah… Oh, no… i-innergolacktick??” I completely lost it in a fit of laughter at that one. I dropped the paper and fell back on my haunches cracking up. I tried in vain to put a hoof in my mouth to control myself.

“Ty! That’s not nice!” Twilight scolded.

“I-I’m so s-s-sorry-hee-hee-hee-ha-ha-haaaa!"

*ZAP!* "AAGAHGGH! Oww…!” Twilight zapped me with a small jolt of magic to stop me from laughing.

“Are you finished?” the unicorn impatiently asked.

“Yeah… yeah I am…” as soon as I said that, Spike started stifling laughs of his own. “What?”

“Y-your hair…!” Spike choked out between laughs.

“My hair…? What… Oh, uh-uhh… No you didn’t…!”

“Take a look,” Twilight said as she laughed and levitated a mirror towards me. My jaw almost hit the floor when I saw what she did to my mane. It looked like the hair of an anime character! It was so frizzy and unruly, with every strand of hair sticking upwards in crazy zigzag patterns that made it look like I was trying to brush it with a balloon. The unicorn and dragon were howling with laughter.

“I hate you both SO much right now… Heh heh… I guess I deserved this, though. Alright, lemme proofread this letter so we can get on with the day…” I picked up the letter and corrected every mistake the dragon made (there weren't too many of them, but his spelling could've used some help), and handed it to him. “There, happy now?”

“Thanks, Ty,” Twilight said, smiling. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

“Oh, hardy har-har,” I dryly responded as I walked up to her and poked her side. As I expected, she flinched and lifted a hind leg up to cover the side I'd poked.

“H-Hey, I told you not to do that!”

“Nooo, you told Tyshawn the human not to do that. I am Ponder Memoir the pony. Ponder Memoir does not recall Twilight Sparkle tellin’ him not t’ do this,” I joked as I began to hit Twilight with a barrage of pokes, which erupted into me tickling her half to death again.

“Hahahaha! T-Ty! St-st-sto-ha-ha-hop!”

“Sure… If you fix my hair,” I demanded as I kept tickling her. Of course, this didn’t last long as she once again used her magic to lift me off of her and drop me on the ground a few feet away.

“Okay… that’s… enough… distractions…” She breathlessly stated as she got up.

“I knew you were ticklish, Twilight, but wow…” Spike chimed in with a chuckle.

“If you try anything, Spike, I will turn your claws into pudding,” Twilight jokingly threatened as she giggled. “Now Ty, come here and let me fix you up so we can get started on this notebook.” I obliged as I picked my face up off the floor and walked toward the unicorn. She zapped me once again. I felt my mane with a hoof to make sure she didn’t try anything funny. “Spike… the letter.”

“Oh! Right!” Spike attentively complied as he grabbed the letter, rolled it up into a scroll and sent it on its way to Princess Celestia.

“Okay. Now that that’s out of the way,” Twilight murmured as she magically levitated the notebook from a nearby drawer and handed— I mean “hoofed” it over to me.

“Okey doke, where did we leave off…?” I mumbled. “Ahh yes, the sun-and-moon question… Alright… next up… ‘Are horses here able to communicate with humans?’ Nope. They don’t even speak. In fact, other than the basic biological similarities between horses and ponies, horses in my world hardly even LOOK like ponies here.”

“Wow… what DO they look like? What do they eat? How do they communicate with one another?” Twilight asked again and again.

“They’re much bigger than ponies— although not nearly as cute or multicolored—, as far as I know, they eat basically everything a pony eats— minus the sweets, among other things—, and they’re only capable of neighing. Basically, they ain’t nearly as intelligent as ponies are.”

“Darn… I wanted to meet one, too…”

“Bummer. Next up… ‘How is time measured here?’ We have seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years. There’s sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour, twenty-four hours in a day, seven days in a week, four to five weeks in a month— depending on the month—, and twelve months in a year.”

“Our worlds are exactly the same there.”

“Interesting… next… ‘How do humans communicate with one another over long distances?’ Well, we have traditional mail, which is sent an’ delivered by people. But then we have all kinds of crazy things, like phones, computers, walkie-talkies, and so on. Humans have TONS of different ways t’ communicate with each other much faster than mail. It’s hard for me to explain it because there’s so much in all that stuff that I couldn’t even comprehend it or condense into a simple explanation for ya.” Twilight and Spike just gawked at me like I was an alien… But then, I technically was.

“Phones? Computers? What the hay…?”

“Sounds like you’d need t’ pay another visit to my world t’ get what I mean. Basically, just like how you’re able to use Spike as a magic messenger, it’s just like a thing called e-mail in my world, where people are able to instantly send messages to each other, no matter how far away they are.”

“Ohh… I guess that makes a little more sense… I suppose I will need that extra trip…”

*BURP*

“Speakin’ of instant messages…” Spike caught the letter and handed it to Twilight. She quickly opened it and began to read:

Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student,

My apologies in advance for the shortness of this letter, but I’m currently very busy settling an issue between two nations in the far east who have cut each other off from valuable resources due to disagreements between their leaders. I will have time for you to pay me a visit, but it may not come until this evening. Your letter has given me much to discuss with you two, and I wish to see you as soon as possible. Give your guest my regards.

Regally yours,

Princess Celestia

P.S.: If you’re having difficulty with spelling, Spike, then please let me know. This letter was very hard to read with all the spelling corrections.

Hearing that last note made me laugh.

“Great. That puts a bit of a damper on our plans for today,” Twilight stated in disappointment.

“Not necessarily. Like you said last night, we could take this as an opportunity for me t’ give you more info about my world so you can be better prepared for—!”

*SLAM*

“What the h—!”

“HELLOOOOOO, TWI AND TY!!” shouted Pinkie Pie as she joyfully bounced into the room like a rabbit with a picnic basket and blanket on her back. Following her were Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, each of whom had miscellaneous supplies of their own.

“Well hello, girls!” Twilight greeted. “What brings you all here today?”

“Umm… well we were just wondering…” Fluttershy began.

“…if you guys wanted to come along for a group picnic!” Rainbow Dash finished. “Somepony else is covering my weather patrol shift for me…”

“…while I got up bright n’ early to finish all the chores I missed yesterdee…” Applejack continued.

“…and I don’t have any huge orders to fill today,” finished Rarity.

“We’re all free as birds to do anything we want today! Like party, or eat cake, or have a picnic, or go on a ridonkulously crazy adventure like we always do, or *GASP* PARTYYY!”

“But… you said party tw… Mm?” Another hoof found refuge on my face. No shock there. The shock came from the fact that the hoof was yellow, and that it gently, yet firmly pressed itself against my lips. So, with a mouthful of Fluttershy, I huffed and took an annoyed deadpan glare at the pegasus.

“Oh! Um… I’m sorry,” she apologized with a sheepish smile. “It’s just that ponies here know not to question Pinkie Pie on anything she says…”

“Fankf fo da hezf uh, Fwutterfy,” I flatly mumbled with the canary yellow pegasus’s hoof still firmly planted on my lips. She took it as the cue to finally take it off.

“Oops. Hee hee, sorry…”

“So anyway… You guys down to hang with us today? Or are you two lookin’ ta get romantic on your own,” Rainbow Dash teased with a wink and a nudge on Twilight’s shoulder.

“Rainbow!” shouted a flustered Twilight, her cheeks a light pink. I shook my head and sighed as the ‘dating Twilight’ rumor became fresh in my mind once more.

“Not in front-a Spike, Rainbow! What would the neighbors think?” I jokingly warned in a melodramatic tone. I also knew I still had some reconciling to do with the periwinkle pegasus in particular, and I figured I'd break the ice by making a small joke at my own expense.

“Hah! Good one, Ty!” she commended, seeming to enjoy the quip.

“Yeah, thanks... Anyway, I suppose we got the time to go on that picnic witch-y’all. How ‘bout it, Twi?”

“Sure, why not?” she responded with uncertainty. “I was hoping to learn a bit more before we did anything today, though…”

“You’ve got all the time in the world to learn stuff, egghead! Come on!” Rainbow Dash teased.

“Alright now, Rainbow. Lay off ‘er,” Applejack interjected.

“Yes, it’s entirely up to Twilight on what she wants to do. There is no need to pressure her,” added Rarity. With that, the room went silent as everyone waited for Twilight’s answer.

“Hmm… Umm… I don’t know…” Twilight was in deep thought over what she wanted to do.

“Any day now, Twilight!” Rainbow Dash rudely commented. It seemed to go unnoticed by the purple unicorn as she was still figuring out what she wanted to do.

“Y’know what? Why don’t we turn this into a learnin’ experience for all of us? Sharin’ is carin’, ain’t it?” I suggested.

"Yeah, that sounds dandy t' me," Applejack agreed.

"Indeed. We should all get to learn a little more about our newest acquaintance," Rarity added.

"Hold on!" Twilight objected before pulling me to the side to discuss something with me. "Are you sure you want to do that...? What if you wind up revealing yourself by accident?" she whispered.

"Trust me. I won't," I whispered back. "Even if I did, two of 'em already know I'm not really from here. Worst case scenario, we spill the beans about everything."

"You sure? I mean, any small detail that seems askew from the story you told A.J. and Dash could lead to your cover being blown. Plus, she might not look it, but Applejack has a keen eye for detail... This seems too risky."

"True... but then they can vouch for us since they know already. Plus, we only told Applejack I'm from a different world. No details were included. The only one other than Spike who knows any more is Rainbow. Does she have a keen eye for detail?"

"Hmm... Not quite, but that doesn't mean she didn't pay close attention to you; especially with the Cutie Mark thing..."

"Okay... If we DO let anything slip, then we jus' go ahead an' admit the 'different world' thing, but NOT the human part. Jus' t' play it safe. I trust those two are holdin' up their promise anyway, since the other three don't seem t' know about it yet. Other than that, we jus' get to know one another a li'l bit more."

"And the 'dating' thing?" she questioned, veritably stumping me.

"Um... I... have no idea. Maybe we could jus' downplay it at this point. The less we talk or think about it, the less it'll get brought up."

“Seems reasonable enough...” Twilight agreed as she turned back toward her friends. “Okay, my mind’s made up. We will go on that picnic with you!”

“HOORAY!” everyone but Twilight shouted. With that, Twilight gathered some supplies of her own, including the notebook, and we were all on our way…

It was such a beautiful day outside. The skies were clear, the sunlight was comfortably warm, and everything was so serene; especially the area the girls chose to settle and set everything up. A large, grassy meadow with a single oak tree looming over the area Pinkie Pie decided to mat the blanket. The wind was cool and soft, blowing ever so gently and rustling the tree and grass.

“Wow… It seems so… peaceful here,” I stated in amazement.

“That’s what makes this one of the most desirable spots for us to have these picnics,” Rarity replied. “This area brings out such a calming and euphoric vibe on a day as magnificent as this…” she finished as she magically conjured up a luxurious-looking couch to lay her luminescent white-and-purple form on.

“I thought this was a picnic… Why do you need that couch?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Rarity here’s too scared of a little bitta dirt gettin’ on her oh-so froufrou coat to use the blanket or the ground for a proper place ta rest,” quipped Applejack as she set a basket down and pulled out some plates. We both shared a chuckle at the white unicorn’s expense.

“VERY funny, Applejack,” Rarity sarcastically remarked. “But a REAL lady knows to keep her appearance as lovely and radiant as she can at all times.”

“I’m just gonna pretend ya didn’t say that,” Applejack stated with a hint of annoyance. “Ya know, so I don’t gotta embarrass ya in front-a our guest here.”

“Alright, girls, that’s enough,” Twilight intervened.

“Yeah,” Pinkie Pie added as she pulled food out of her basket. Of course, everything the pink party mare pulled out was some kind of cake, pie, or other sweet baked treat. “We’ve got too much fun and cake and pie and tasty pastry to have and too much friend to be shipping to be fighting each other. Who needs fighting when you can have cake?” She asked as she pulled out a giant chocolate cake that should NOT have been able to fit in that basket with all the other things she packed, and set it in the middle of the blanket.

“Good point,” Applejack concurred with a smile.

“So, if y’all don’t mind me askin’, what exactly do y’all do on these picnics?” I said.

“We usually just sit, eat, and share stories with each other,” Fluttershy answered. “We get together and simply enjoy each other’s company while we catch up with one another.”

“Unless you’re like Twilight,” teased Rainbow Dash. “One of the times we did this, she was so freaked out about missing some imaginary deadline for sending a letter to Princess Celestia that she went completely crazy and hypnotized the entire town into fighting over some dumb doll. According to Scootaloo, you looked like you went insane, and tried to force her, Applebloom, and Sweetie Belle to play with that doll.” The blue pegasus started cracking up.

“You WHAT?” I asked the apparently-crazed mare in shock as I laughed.

“I… kinda let my obsession with organization and scheduling get the best of me…” she answered with a sheepish titter.

“Yeah. Like making a checklist, then making another checklist for that checklist, then making another checklist for those checklists,” Spike interposed. “I had such a bad case of writer’s cramp that day…” he added as he held up his claw.

“Speakin’ o’ dolls… Applebloom an’ I caught Big Mac a few times cuddlin’ up to some ugly li’l thing in his sleep… Calls it ‘Ms. SmartyPants' or somethin’… Ya want it back, Twi?” asked Applejack.

“Ms. SmartyPants is not ugly,” Twilight answered with contempt. “But no, I stopped playing with her years ago. It’s nice to know she has a new home,” she finished in an oddly caring and motherly tone.

“Wow… that’s insane. Heh heh… Of all the things to lose ya mind over, and you chose a letter?”

“I was under the impression that the Princess expected a letter on what I learned about friendship every week, okay? But that wasn’t as bad as the time Rainbow tried to steal a book from the hospital…” Twilight grinned defiantly.

“Twilight, you’d better not!” Dash warned.

“Oh, please, do tell!” I encouraged. I was eager to hear this one.

“Well one time, Rainbow broke her wing and had to sit in the hospital for about a week. She got so bored of just sitting there that I decided that I’d give her a book to read. At first, she stubbornly refused it and called me an ‘egghead.’ She even said that, and I quote, ‘I’m an athlete! Athletes don’t read! Reading’s for eggheads like you, Twilight.’”

“Wow, Rainbow. Not a fan o’ readin’?” the sky blue mare ignored me as she sat and pouted.

“Oh, it gets better,” Twilight interjected. “So I left the book there, and when we came back to visit her a couple days later, she started acting weird like she didn’t want any of us there. I suspected that she’d taken a liking to it and didn’t want to be disturbed while she read it, but then I thought I was being silly. Turns out she really liked that book, because when she was released from the hospital before she could finish it, she decided it was a good idea to sneak back in at night and try to take the book herself.”

“Woooooow. What kinda book was it? An’ why ain’t you just ask Twi for a copy, Rainbow? She has a library, y’know,” I joked and chuckled with the group.

“Daring Do, only the most awesome book series ever. And it was because I was scared of being a hypocrite,” Rainbow shamefully admitted, still pouting.

“Aww, Dashie!” Pinkie began. “Don’t be a Grumpy McGrumpy-Pants! We’ll all get to tell an embarrassing story so you won’t feel all sad.”

“Yeah, sure,” Rainbow said as she cheered up. “If that’s the case, then why don’t you tell Ty about that time you kept harassing that donkey until he agreed to become your friend?”

“Harassin’ a donkey?” I asked. “That don’t sound like such a great idea…”

“Oh, believe me; I almost thought the same thing!” Pinkie exclaimed. “Okay, so that day was an extra-special awesome day where I was feeling more excited than usual!”

“Trust me, that’s sayin’ a lot,” interjected Applejack.

“Yeah! So anyway, I was so happy that I suddenly burst into a random song that I made up in my head on the spot that I like to call, ‘Smile,’ which is about—!”

“Lemme guess: smilin’?” I sarcastically asked.

“OOH, so close! But no; it was about MAKING everypony smile!”

“What th— But—… Ah whatever, jus’ go on witcha story…”

“Okie dokie lokie! So when I got done with the song, I came across this really sad, grumpy donkey. His name was Cranky Doodle Donkey. But don’t call him ‘Doodle.’ He only lets his special somedonkey, Matilda, call him that. So anyway, I was trying sooo super hard to get him to smile, but he just wouldn’t! I shot him with a confetti cannon filled with cake batter, had Rarity make him a new wig after I crushed his old one thinking it was a spider, and I even chased him relentlessly around the town all day just to apologize for burning and completely ruining his most prized scrapbook full of important life memories!”

“…My goodness, I can only IMAGINE why he wouldn’t wanna become friends with you after all that…” Here, I came to the conclusion that Pinkie Pie was nuts.

“I totally know, right!? So anyway, I FINALLY got him to smile and become my friend after I got Matilda to show up and give him a kiss. Say, speaking of kissing, I wonder… have you and Twilight kissed yet?”

“…WHAT???” Twilight and I asked in unified shock. I heard snickering coming from everyone but Twilight and Pinkie, who was actually dead serious about her question. The fact that she was serious shocked me even more.

“I mean, it’s totally okay if you haven’t. I get it if you guys are—! OOP!” I shoved my own hoof into her mouth.

“Nuh-uh! Next story, please!” I shouted, still very flustered. I heard more chuckles coming from everyone else.

“Say it, don’t display it! Sheesh!” Pinkie angrily complained after I removed my hoof.

“I’m really sorry… But hey, at least you know how I feel, right?” I said sympathetically as I placed a hoof on her shoulder.

“Aww, you’re right! Come ‘ere, you!” she said as she picked me up off the ground and wrapped me into the second most painful bear hug I’d ever become a victim of.

“AAAGH! How are you…! So strong…!?” I choked out as she squeezed the life out of me like a tube of toothpaste. She held me there for a few excruciatingly agonizing seconds before she decided to loosen me from her double anaconda grip. I took some time to catch my breath while everyone laughed at my misfortune. “So… who’s next on the list of storytellers?”

“Oh, I have one… if you don’t mind me going…” Fluttershy timidly said.

“Ooh, this one’s gotta be good…”

“Yes… well, no, not for the pony in the story, but—!”

“I get what you mean. Please, tell ya story.”

“Okay… there was this one time where Rarity had me try out some of her designs for a photo shoot done by famous pony named Photo Finish…”

“Fluttershy! Why’d you have to pick thaaat oneeeeee???” Rarity whined.

“Thanks for the confirmation, Rarity,” I joked. “As you was sayin’, Ms. Shy?”

“Hee hee… right. So Photo Finish decided that she not only wanted me to become a model, she also decided that she didn’t want anything to do with Rarity…”

“Hah. How ironic…”

“Yes. We tried to be happy, but it turned out Rarity got jealous of me. At the same time, I started to hate becoming a model. There was too much unnecessary attention, and I had no time for my friends. Both of us confided in Twilight to keep our true feelings secret, but she was given so many secrets to keep that she wound up blurting them all out. Luckily, she didn’t do it until after Rarity and I decided to be honest with each other.” Fluttershy was merciful in not keeping Rarity on the hot seat (no pun intended) for too long.

“Yeah, but she still blew my cover about my crush on Rarity,” Spike complained.

“Oh please, Spike,” countered Rainbow Dash. “We all coulda seen it from the highest point in Cloudsdale!”

“Ohh, it was that obvious?” Spike whined.

“Well, you were drooling over her since the instant we met her…” Twilight said matter-of-factly.

“Leave poor Spikey-Wikey alone!” countered Rarity. “He can’t help it if he has such wonderful taste in mares,” she added as she cantered over to hug and nuzzle the dragon.

“Aww, isn’t that schweet…” I teased. “Spike an’ Rarity… such a cute couple!”

“Not as cute as you and Twi,” Applejack quipped. She got me good, because all I could do there was lower my head and face-hoof while I got laughed at again.

“Oh, that’s a good one, Applejack,” Twilight sarcastically remarked. “But you know what’s funnier? That time you thought you could work yourself half to death picking up your brother’s chores while he was injured.”

“…that’s a low blow, Twi,” Applejack retorted with a small chuckle. “But I’ll tell ya what: I’ll tell this one. Okay, so Big Mac was injured, so I figured I was able t’ pick up his slack on the apple buckin’.”

“Apple buckin’?” I asked.

“It’s where ya kick a tree with both yer back legs an’ make all the apples on it fall into a basket.”

“Oh.”

“Eeyup. So anyway, I was in WAY over my head on that one cuz my work schedule was already so plum full that I stopped bein’ able to get any proper shut-eye. I kinda did more harm than good cuz of it…”

“Yeah, I’ll say…” Rainbow interjected. “She was supposed to help me with a trick by helping me propel myself into the air faster than I normally could, but she wound up catapulting me into Twilight’s house…”

“…releasing a bunny rabbit stampede all over Ponyville when she tried to round them up like they were cattle, even though I told her to be gentle with them…” Fluttershy added.

“…giving everypony who came to Sugarcube Corner one of those days a bad case of food poisoning from really icky baked bads…” continued Pinkie Pie.

“Those cupcakes were good!” Spike announced.

“Eww, Spike! You got them from the trash that day!”

“Tha'ss nasty, yo…” I said with disgust. He simply shrugged like dumpster diving was a profession of his.

“…and worst of all, she constantly refused to let anypony help her with her chores because she was so determined to prove Big Macintosh wrong on her ability to handle more than double her workload,” Twilight finished.

“Wow, Applejack… seems like you’re the worst one yet,” I said as I laughed.

“Aw, come on!” Applejack protested. “That’s worse than makin’ the whole town fight over a doll cuz of a misunderstandin’, stealin’ books from hospitals cuz of prideful shame, relentlessly harassin’ others t’ solicit friendship, or one-uppin’ yer best friend on somethin’ she worked real hard for, then throwin’ it away?”

“Hmm, to be fair, I’d say i’ss VERY close… but you did cause a stampede of rabbits throughout the town, as well as poison a bunch-a ponies with ill-prepared food while you deprived yourself of sleep, all cuz you was stubbornly refusin’ any help from ya friends because you was tryin’, but apparently failed to prove a point to ya big bro that became invalid the minute you stopped gettin’ the rest you needed since you already overextended yaself before takin’ up the challenge. In short, yours seems to have caused the most damage, especially to yaself. So yea, you win!”

“Now that’s…!” the orange farm pony began to scream, but seemed to lose her words. “But I…! That ain’t…! *sigh* Fine, ya got me…” she disdainfully admitted.

“Aww, come on now… Don’t get so down on yaself… At least yours was the funniest yet,” I said as I consoled her by placing a hoof on her shoulder.

“Y’know what? Yea, it was pretty funny, huh?” She chuckled a little. “Thanks, Ty! Lemme show ya how much I appreciate that…” She said as she moved to hug me with a mischievous grin.

“Uh, n-no! I’m good! I’ll pass!” I said, distraught as I tried to run. I didn’t get very far. Applejack caught up to me in a matter of seconds before she stomped on my tail and dragged me towards her. All that farm work must have made her EXTREMELY fast and strong. “No! I don’t wanna hug! S-Some apple pie will do just fine! Please!” I begged.

“Aww, don’t run,” she said in mock sympathy. “I jus’ wanna show ya some love.” She picked me up so I was standing on my hind legs and squeezed me from behind much harder than Pinkie Pie did. This was no doubt the worst “hug” I’d ever partaken in.

“AAAAH-HA-HA-HA-HOW!! MY RI-HI-HI-IBS!!” I screamed as the mare crushed the life out of me.

“Applejack! Put him down!” I heard Twilight shout. Applejack obliged as she finally let go of me. I almost fell to the ground, but managed to steady myself on my hooves.

“Hah… hah… I’m not sure… which one of you… gives worse hugs… you… or Pinkie…” I breathlessly and painstakingly joked as I offered a congratulatory high fi… handsha… thumbs uh… hoof touch.

“I’m sure that’s somethin’ only you can decide,” she joked back as we touched hooves and rejoined the others at the picnic. I’d be feeling sore for weeks after those inconceivably strong bear hugs.

“So… who hasn’t told a story yet?” I asked.

“Just you, Rarity and Spike,” Rainbow answered.

“Ah, okay. So… Spike, you wanna go first?”

“Nah, I don’t have a story,” he answered. “I’m just too awesome to embarrass myself in any way. So you can go!”

“Ya sure ya ain’t got one, Spike?” Applejack skeptically asked as she smirked. “Cuz I can think of at least three for ya…”

“Yeah. Like the time you got jealous of Owloysius,” Twilight added.

“Owl-oh-what-now??” I asked.

“Owloysius, my pet owl. He came to me one night and cleaned up after I’d fallen asleep studying and Spike was too tired to finish the chores I’d given him. Owloysius quickly became my #2 assistant, and he still is.”

“I guess that explains all the hootin’ I heard last night…”

“Yep, that’s him. Spike thought I was replacing him with Owloysius… ESPECIALLY after he burned one of my books and lied to me about it.”

“Sorry, Twilight…” Spike remorsefully said.

“It’s okay… now, anyway. I still love you.”

“Thanks… I uh… luhyoutoo…” The dragon slurred the last part out of awkwardness (which I’d assume was because I was there), looking away as he pushed a finger on each of his claws together.

“Remember the advice I gave Twi and Ty, Spikey-Wikey. It applies to everyone else, too,” Rarity advised. “…even you.” She winked at him, which caused him to start blushing. I puffed out my cheeks to keep from snickering at the dragon.

“Right… Can we get back to the story now? I’d rather tell that.”

“Go… *AHEM* right ahead,” I answered, still fighting laughter.

“Okay. Where’d we leave off… Oh! The book. So Twilight found the book and got angry at me for it. I kept trying my best to make it up to her, but Owloysius was always two steps ahead of me. I eventually tried to frame him for making a mess of the library so she’d get rid of him and…”

“Got caught in the act red-handed… literally,” Twilight interrupted before taking a bite out of what looked like a dandelion sandwich.

“Heh heh, yeah… at that point, I thought Twilight didn’t love me anymore, so I ran away into the Everfree Forest…”

“You went in there alone??” Fluttershy asked in surprise.

“Yeah. It wasn’t as scary as you guys made it out to be… at least, until I went into this cave full of jewels. I thought I would’ve had it made in there…! That is, ‘til the dragon those jewels belonged to came and found me eating some of ‘em. He wasn’t too happy… He would’ve swallowed me whole if it wasn’t for Twilight and Owloysius coming to my rescue.”

“The ketchup footprints told us where he was. We barely made it out of there alive,” Twilight said in between bites.

“Ketchup? Why was there ketchup on ya feet?”

“It was one of the things I was using to try and frame Owloysius…” I shot him a look of bewilderment because I had no idea why he would need ketchup on his feet to frame an owl for messing up a library.

“Okay then…?”

“Yeah… well, that’s my story!” he announced, finally relieved. “Your turn, Rarity!”

"Oh, dear!" Rarity said in alarm. "I'm not certain I have one for you..."

"You sure?" I asked.

"Well..." she pondered as she looked at the ground with a hoof on her chin. "OOH! I've got a wonderful story to tell!"

"Le'ss hear it."

"Alright. There was this one time where a big, scary dragon had decided to take a nap in a mountain not very far off from Ponyville. The dragon's snoring was becoming a bit of a hazard for the towns-ponies because the smoke billowing from him as he snored was causing a severe case of smog over our town."

"Wow... musta been one big dragon..." How big exactly, I could only imagine.

"Oh, yes it was enormous! As a result of the dragon's resting place becoming a danger for us, the girls and I had taken it upon ourselves to embark on a journey up the mountain to reason with him, hoping to convince him to move."

"Whaaat? That sounds no less than insane! Wasn't any of you scared?"

"Pshh, it wasn't THAT scary," Rainbow proudly said with a dismissive wave of her hoof. "I wasn't afraid at all!"

"You say that NOW, Rainbow," Applejack began. "But you shoulda seen the look on yer face after Pinkie Pie spooked the daylights outta you by pretendin' t' be a dragon," she finished, laughing. Everyone joined her except Rainbow, who speechlessly glared at the orange cowpony before chuckling a little herself.

"Okay, maybe I was a LITTLE scared... I'll give you that much. But I was nowhere near as scared as Fluttershy."

"Oh, yes," Rarity interjected. "We were all a bit frightful about taking such a hazardous voyage into a dragon's lair. Fluttershy, however, was outright petrified."

"I um... don't like dragons... their big, sharp teeth and their long, jagged claws are absolutely horrifying..." Fluttershy admitted with a shudder at the thought.

"Well that don't make sense..." I said with uncertainty. "What about Spike here? He's a dragon. I assume not a very big one, but yea..."

"But Spike's a baby dragon. He's an exception, especially because of how cute he is." I saw Spike grin as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Yeah, and I've spent my entire life around ponies," the little dragon added. "Even if I was big and scary, which actually did happen one time, I wouldn't even dream of hurting anypony! I'd sooner give up all the jewels in the world than lay a claw on a pony."

"Aww, that's my Spikey-Wikey... so noble!" Rarity praised, making Spike blush. "Shall I continue my story?"

"Yea," I simply stated.

"Alright, where was I... Oh, yes! We took the trip, but Fluttershy's fear of dragons was affecting all of us. She was so afraid that she couldn't fly, she panicked once and caused a rockslide that forced us to take a long detour, and she spent almost the entire time lagging behind everypony which made the perilous journey much longer than it should have been. I felt so horrible for her, but none of us could understand her fear. In fact, all of us had hardly even known one another."

"Wow, Fluttershy..." I said with a hint of pity as I gave her a worried look. The butter-colored pegasus simply smiled warmly at me with her long pink mane hanging over one of her large turquoise eyes as she sat, her hooves folded while she nibbled on a slice of apple pie. I suppose it was a way to let me know that she was fine, but I was sure of one thing; she was just ADORABLE!

"...when we reached our destination, each of us had tried to convince the dragon in our own individual ways," Rarity continued. "I tried to flatter him, Twilight tried to reason with him, Pinkie tried to... quite frankly, I'm not sure WHAT Pinkie tried..."

"I tried to party with him!" Pinkie practically screamed. I was SO shocked at hearing her attempt at persuasion. "That big ol' Meanie-Pants dragon wouldn't know a party from a picnic! He ruined the costume I put on, too! I worked so hard on it." I could tell she was about to go off on a tangent, but I decided, against my better judgment, to listen. "I got the idea for it from this drawing I saw one time of some weird animal that had the face of a duck, but the head of a flower, and a flagpole for a tail with the flag showing a screw and a baseball on it and the body of something... I guess it was a decorated water raft or something...?" It took me a second to realize it, but my eyes widened as it hit me that Pinkie was describing (with unbelievable accuracy) an image of Daffy Duck from a REALLY old Looney Tunes episode... I couldn't even BEGIN to fathom how she could have come across such a thing in a place where TV didn't exist.

"Right... so Rainbow Dash had tried to use brute force in the form of, according to the dragon, kicking him. In return, that beast callously blew Dash out of the cave and sent her flying into the rest of us and knocking everyone except Fluttershy out. She saw us and, to everypony's surprise, stood up to the dragon! She scolded him like a mother would her foal! It was simply a spectacular sight to behold. He backed down as if he were staring at his own worst fear and even agreed to leave! Fluttershy saved the day!"

"Whaaaaa?" I said in pleasant surprise, turning my gaze from the white unicorn to the yellow pegasus. She gave me that same warm, inviting smile that completely betrayed the Fluttershy that Rarity portrayed in her story. "You... you are just full o' surprises, ain't you?" I asked as I smiled back at her.

"I do believe it's your turn, now," Rarity informed as she pointed a hoof at me. Everypony’s eyes widened in intrigue as they simultaneously focused their gaze on me.

“Oh boy… this is gonna take A LOTTA on-the-spot editin’…” I took a deep breath and a bite of chocolate cake before I began.

“Okay, here goes… Couple things you’ll all need t’ know, though… One: As some of you know, I’m from an alternate universe that Twilight accidentally sent herself to. An’ Two: A lot of the things I’mma mention might not make sense to y’all, so I’mma keep it simple. I’mma hafta ask y’all t’ hold ya questions ‘til I’m done.” Everyone but Spike and Twilight stared me down even harder, studying me with their eyes. I was starting to get nervous…

“So… you’re NOT from Las Pegasus??” Rarity asked.

“Nope! Never even heard-a the place. So yea, this story is about how Twi an’ I met…” I had everyone’s undivided attention here. “So… a couple days ago, I was at my house… relaxin’ from a long day o’ the daily grind when I saw this purple flash showin’ up in my room. I ain’t know what t’ think of it, cuz that type o’ thing never happens in my world, given that magic SUPPOSEDLY ain’t real there. Clearly, science in my world was wrong in this regard..."

"DEAD wrong..."

"Anyway, after a good minute of a small, suspenseful hurricane in my room, POOF! In comes Twilight Sparkle. When we met, she was as shocked as I was. We started talkin’, an’ she said somethin’ about a place called Equestria, but I told her she was in America.”

“America? What kind of world is that?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“That ain’t the name o’ the world I live in. Tha’ss the name o’ the country in the world I live in. It ain’t all that different from Equestria, except for a few key differences…”

“And by ‘few,’ he means a LOT…” Twilight added.

“Yea. So anyway, I told her a li’l bit about my world, like how there wasn't supposed t' be such a thing as magic or that… um… unicorns an’ pegasi don’t exist there.” With that, I got a collective “WHAT???” from most of the group. “Yep. It was already a lot for her t’ take in, plus she said the spell she used drained her power. So she stayed with me. The next day, I told her I’d be able to take her around a small part o’ my world, so long as she could keep herself hidden inside a bag…”

“But…” Applejack began. “You ain't that much bigger n’ us! How’d ya keep Twi hidden in a bag without gettin’ spotted?"

“One of many questions you’ll have answered in due time. So anyway, I hid her in the bag an’ we went on to explore. To make sure she got as much info as she possibly needed, I gave her a notebook to record any notes or questions…”

“This notebook, to be exact,” Twilight stated as she telekinetically lifted it up from her saddlebag. “It has ALL of the information I’d collected from my time in Ty’s world, plus a lot of questions that I want him to answer.” Everyone responded with a collection of “ooh’s” and “ah’s.”

“The li’l trip we took… didn’t exactly go too smooth… On our way to a big city, we almost blew our cover when Twi was writin’ too loudly an’ squealed when I tapped her as a way to tell her t’ stop. When we did get there, though, everything smoothed out. I spent the whole afternoon walkin’ all around the place so she could get as much info as possible. She wound up fillin’ that entire notebook up. Every page, front n’ back, covered with notes. As a li’l bonus, I took her to a donut shop an’ got us a few donuts an’ a chocolate éclair.”

“Oh, yeah!” Twilight realized. “You still owe me for leaving that éclair on that bench when we—!”

“Continuin’ the story, we also went an’ got somethin’ she said don’t exist here called a ‘slushy’ before we sat down in a park an’ I finally let her outta the bag.’”

“Ooh, that sounds delicious!” Pinkie Pie happily stated. “What’s it made of?”

“I’ss definitely somethin’ you’d like, Pinkie. I’ss kinda like soda, but if it was mixed with fruit juice an’ ice cream. Take out the ‘cream,’ add in more ice, grind the ice up as much as possible, get a straw, an’ BAM! Slushy. They come in tons of different flavors, most of which are based on fruit, and they’re really cold an’ sweet.”

“*GASP* Ohmygosh, I wanna make one right now! That sounds so awesomely, wonderfully, amazingly delicious!” She exclaimed. She then started licking her own face like she had slushy all over it.

“Trust me; it is. Hah, even Twilight could tell ya. I gave her one little sip an’ she practically ripped my head off for the rest of it!” Everyone had a laugh at Twilight’s expense.

“I did not!” the lavender mare hastily objected. “I got a good enough sip to get something called ‘brain freeze,’ which, according to Ty, is a temporary headache you get when you eat or drink something extremely cold too quickly.”

“Yea, she learned the hard way, which I suffered for when she spit the slushy she had in her mouth all over me.”

“Wow, Twilight! I thought you’d be more considerate than that,” Rarity criticized as she laughed.

“It caught me off guard!” she defended.

“Yea. So we got into a li’l bit of a spat over who wanted the rest o’ the slushy more, which we resolved when we drank the slushy together...”

“We both drank it too quickly and we both got brain freeze…”

“…this caused us to almost get our cover blown a second time.”

“Some stranger walked up to us to see what the matter was. I tried to hide back in the bag. But then, remembering an agreement Ty and I made before we left…”

“Twi pretended to be my pet dog in disguise. How we pulled that off an’ got away with it still baffles me… But then after that stranger left, another one who apparently recognized Twilight spotted us…”

“I wanted to introduce myself to them and hopefully gain more information, but before I could say anything, Ty picked me up and ran like there was a manticore chasing us.”

“I couldn’t risk Twilight bein’ taken away an’ havin’ any kind of harm inflicted on her, so I did what I thought was necessary… We managed to escape the guy chasin’ us for a long enough time that I told her why she wasn’t allowed to be seen by anybody there at that moment. At first, she was upset at me, but we eventually came to an agreement, an’ she gave me one of the cutest smiles I’d ever seen…”

“D’aww… Such a romantic story…” said Rarity.

“Really?” I asked in confusion. “I don’t see how… Anyway, back to the story. So we clear things up, but the second we do, the stranger who was chasin’ us found us again. What’s worse was that…”

“He brought two of his friends along,” Twilight interjected.

“What’s weird is that… is that the two uh… stallions he brought along… had Cutie Marks that looked identical to the ones you two have…” I said as I pointed hooves at Rainbow Dash and Rarity. I was careful with my words because I didn’t want to let them know about humans or that I am one. I figured that’d be a little surprise for Twilight to show them after I was gone so I didn’t wind up scaring anyone.

“WHAT??” shouted a shocked Rarity.

“Did they look anything like us?” asked Rainbow.

“No, not in the least,” I answered. “They just had those marks on ‘em. But anyway, I hid Twilight back in the bag an’ hauled a— err… booty tryin’ t’ get away from ‘em. They eventually surrounded me. I thought we’d be done like dinner but then…”

“I came up with a last-minute spell that allowed Ty to take us back to his house.”

“I was just about t’ say…” Applejack began. “Why didn’t y’all jus’ teleport back t’ his house?”

“I had no clue where it was,” Twilight answered. “Plus, I was so freaked out and being moved around so much that I couldn’t think straight. So I cast a spell on Ty, which gave him enough of my energy that, if he kept up a constant running speed for a long enough time while keeping an image of his home in his mind, would teleport us right to it…”

“That spell worked a li’l bit TOO well… It worked in that it teleported us to my house… but what happened was that we materialized with me still runnin’. I slammed my head against the door full-force. Then, tryin’ to keep Twilight from gettin’ hurt, I twisted as I fell, but then sprained my hoof when I landed on the ground.”

“I tried to warn you about the conditions of that spell...”

“We ain’t have no time for no warnings. But anyway, there I was, barely conscious but extremely disoriented, my head leakin’ blood, my hoof swollen an’ throbbin’ with pain.”

“Oh my… it almost sounds like you tried to fight the door… and lost,” Fluttershy joked to everyone’s humored surprise.

“Ohhohoho, Fluttershy got jokes,” I said, amused.

“Oh… that was mean… I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be. That was really funny. Besides, if that sounded bad, you shoulda seen my door…” I garnered a light, cute little giggle out of the yellow pegasus.

“I managed to teleport us back inside of his house, given that I was able to think clearly again, and used a healing spell to treat his injuries,” Twilight continued. “That day was one I could never forget… As completely unorthodox and outright crazy as everything went… I loved every minute of it. ” That last part caught me completely off guard… but in a way that made me feel… warm inside.

“Yea, I’ll say… So much happened that day…” I said as I looked down and shook my head, contemplating Twilight's most recent words. “The next mornin’, we exchanged information with each other until Twi mentioned somethin’ about a Princess Celestia an’ how she studies directly under her. With that, I decided I wanted to come here, so POOF! Here I am! The end…” Everyone was silent, fathoming the kind of universe I lived in, although having only the tiniest clue of what it’s even like, not even knowing the species of animal that ruled it, let alone all the things my world had that this one didn’t.

“Hey… how long WILL you be staying here?” asked Pinkie Pie.

“And does anypony in your world know that you came here?” added Fluttershy, which raised a huge point in my head.

“She’s right… No one back home knows where I am… They must be freakin’ out about me right now…”

“I… I don’t know for sure how long I’ll be here…” I said, now thinking about my disappearance from my own world and its effects. “But… I don’t think it’ll be for much longer… I have others in my world that’re prolly worried sick about me right now. They have no idea where I am… but at the same time, I… I want to stay here to get t’ know this place, especially all o’ you a bit better… it’s so wonderful here. I’ve only been here a day, but everything seems so different… in such a way that I’d love to stay here longer just to explore and find out what life is really like in Equestria… But I've been here too long already... Considerin' all the things I've missed back home by simply takin' this trip, I'll probably wind up leavin' once we're done meetin' this Princess. After that, I'm not sure we'll meet again...”

Everyone gazed at me with concern as my facial expression morphed into one of intense worry. I took a look at each pony, and even at Spike. But the face that worried me the most… was Twilight’s. She looked so hurt by my statement that when we locked eyes, I felt my heart drop as I suddenly became short of breath. I was rendered speechless as we stared at one another. “Twilight…” I finally mumbled.

“I… I understand your feelings…” She spoke with a slight waver in her voice. “I should've realized the ramifications of dragging you light-years away from your home… We can go back after we--!”

“I… I’ll stay for another day,” I boldly interrupted. “At the very least, jus' to answer all your questions before I go back home. That’s already beyond pushin’ it for me, but I’m willin’ to make that sacrifice… for… for you, Twilight…” I knew that that would be taken the wrong way by everyone around me, but I didn’t care. I had already failed in my self-appointed mission to harbor no unusual feelings for anyone in Equestria. However, at this point, I’d spent far too much time hanging around the wonderful, illustrious unicorn mare to just disregard the fact that I’d formed a bond with her… I was thinking of her more than anything else.

“A-are you sure? You don’t have to do that for me… What about your friends and family back home?” she said as her large, violet-rimmed eyes began to water.

“*sigh* Yes… Honestly, you made quite an impact on me since we met, even if we only known one another for less than a week… I can’t jus’ let that go… I know I’ll have a LOT of explainin’ t’ do when I go back. But I don’t know what will happen between us, or if we’ll ever meet again after I’m gone, so I will make the best of the time we have together, Twilight…” I smiled at her, finally sure that I knew what I was doing.

“Oh, Ty…” She said as she walked over to hug me; a hug that DIDN’T hurt, thank goodness… I returned the hug with gusto as everyone around us admired with “d’awws” except for Rainbow Dash, whom I saw sitting and folding her forelegs across her chest, vehemently trying to avert her gaze, but still making occasional side-eyed glances at me. Spike was comically pretending to gag himself… that dragon’s got a lot to learn if he wants a shot with Rarity. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a flying chariot headed towards us.

“Hey… what’s that?” I asked as I moved a foreleg to point up at the chariot. Twi and I broke the hug to watch as it descended and landed gracefully beside the area the picnic was settled. Pulling the chariot were two identical, very tall white pegasus stallions wearing golden armor that kind of looked like that of Ancient Roman gladiators.

“Miss Twilight Sparkle,” one stallion sternly announced. “Princess Celestia requires your presence. She also requests that you bring a guest with you. I assume the black one with the unusual mane is he?”

“Unusual?” I indignantly remarked. “What’s so…?” I trailed off as I got a gut feeling that someone was going to take the initiative to shove a hoof in my mouth once more. I looked around and saw everyone staring at me like I was going to make a big mistake in finishing my question. I wouldn’t give anyone else the pleasure of doing so, so I sighed and half-heartedly placed my own hoof into my mouth and shut up.

“Yes, sirs. He is the guest I informed the Princess of,” Twilight responded.

“Very well. You two are to come to Canterlot now,” said the guard.

“Looks like we’ll have to continue this another time… Bye girls!” said Twilight as she took the notebook and a couple of food items, packed them into her saddlebag, and hopped into the chariot, followed by Spike.

“I’ss been real fun, y’all! I hope we can do it again sometime!” I happily added as I made my way into the carriage.

“Bye!” “Good bye!” “See ya later!” “Buh-bye!” “So long!” the five mares called back and waved as the guard pegasi flared their wings and took flight, the chariot following behind them. With that, I was on my way to finally meet the Goddess of the Sun…