“Hey boss, what’s cooking?” Brew asked as he came in. It’d been just over a week since the trip and things were back to normal.

“Fish” I answered. “Tuna, to be exact. I got it in the mail as a gift from some. . . acquaintances. I’m going out to eat it.” The tuna also came with a very nice basket and a very sincere letter of apology for the failed transformation and subsequent thalassophobia. At least I could still go to the beach with no problem, just not in the water. I’d have to see if I had a similar reaction to a lakeside beach at some point.

“Well, there is a nice shady tree on a hill a little to the southeast from here that I go to occasionally to relax. The tree’s exactly on the top of the hill, so it’s pretty hard to miss.”

“Sounds like that’s the way to go today.” I finished up the tuna slab I was cooking and put it in a container, then the container into the basket. I may have only gotten one tuna from Queen Novo, but it was a really plump one. Half of it, specifically the right half, was in storage for later.

After cleaning up and wishing Brew a good day, I had a glass of water and left for the hill he mentioned. It was a little outside of town, but not close enough that the town sounds would be audible.

As I walked towards the hill, part of the ground was replaced with a portal and I stepped right into it. “This again? Well, at least I’m not getting sick this time.” During the fall, I had let go of the basket and it was falling slower than I was.

I could only hope for a soft landing.

I did not get a soft landing. In fact, I landed on my face. As I got up, I saw the basket land next to me right side up with only a little bounce before settling on the ground. “Why does this always happen to my face?”

“I would wager it's a result of the weighted leverage of your body in combination with the basic principles of gravity,” Twilight answered. “Excuse me a moment, I'm filing this data. . . " That was not how the Twilight I knew spoke.

“No, I think it’s just my luck, Twilight. At least I have my aura to protect me.” If I didn’t, my. . . everything would be a mess of scars and damage. “So, who brought me here?”

“That would be me. I’m Twilight Sparkle. . . And you somehow know my name, apparently.” She put a few notes onto a clipboard. “Interesting. Anyway, this artifact-” Twilight held up a copy of the choker I was wearing. “-was brought to me by a, uh, friend because of the associated trigger phrase, and dimensional stability is everyone’s responsibility, so I figured I’d test it here. In the safety of my lab. Where nobody could get hurt but me. And I’m an alicorn, so that’s actually pretty difficult. Just as a precaution and no other reason. Yep.” Her smile looked forced and maybe a little too broad.

“Riiight. So, it’s just us here?” I picked up the basket and put it on a nearby desk. Hopefully, the tuna was unharmed. It was certainly unarmed, but that didn’t matter.

“That's absolutely one hundred percent exactly what I said! Now, as a dimensional traveler I am, of course, curious as to who you are, how your artifact works, all that stuff. It is also sort of a matter of national security, since you are technically from another world.” She chuckled a bit before continuing. “So, I have a little list of questions I need to ask you. First of all, could you give me your name or, if you don’t have a name, some form of identification I can write down to use as a label in my paperwork? A glyph will do. If this is a personal question, you could just give me an abstract term to identify you with-”

I may not have had any blades, but I still cut off Twilight’s rambling. “I’m Yang Xiao Long. Three words, middle one is spelled X-I-A-O. You can just call me Yang.”

"Yang. Huh. Do you, perhaps, have any other names? Not that it's a bad name, it's just there are some cultures with multiple names--I mean, the local baker changed her name and I know a mare who has had, like, twelve different names. Were you always Yang Xiao Long, is what I'm asking. If that's not too rude to ask."

"Well, I did have a name before I turned into, well, me, but I forgot my name while I was being transformed, or it got taken from me. I don't know. I just took up the name of who I got turned into."

"Transformed. . . ? Huh." She frowned and wrote a few more things on her clipboard. I couldn’t see her notes, but I certainly hoped she had some paper on there. She probably did. "What exactly do you mean by that, miss Long?"

"Well, before I got transformed, I was a scrawny guy. No muscle at all and extremely timid. Then I accompanied some friends to a convention, one of them bought the Ember Celica-" I held up the compact weapons on my wrists for her to see. "-I put them on, activated them, and got warped to Equestria as Yang."

"I would assume you mean another version of Equestria, since I certainly don't have any records of you being here before. And it would explain how you recognized me. . . ."

“Got it in one, Twilight.” I was reminded of my fish in the basket when my stomach rumbled. “Hey, do you mind if we continue this while I have some food?” I pointed to the basket on the desk.

“Oh no, not at all. . . Anyway.” Twilight cleared her throat and brought the token to my attention. “How did you come by this device? Was it part of. . . Ember Celica, you called them?”

“Oh, that’s my token. It’s a duplicate of the one I’m wearing.” I pointed to the one I was wearing as I sat down. “Rarity, the one where I’m from, made it for me and then I turned it into my token, especially since I didn’t have anything else I could use.” I pulled out the tuna from the basket. The fish was still warm and smelled pretty good.

“Your token? You made. . . wait, let me see if I understand what you are saying.” She pointed at the choker on my neck. “Rarity made you that.” She pointed to the one I wasn’t wearing. “And you duplicated it, and made it into. . . a trans-reality bridging anchor? How did you do that?” Inquisitive, this Sparkle was.

"I don't know how it works, but it was explained to me as willing a little piece of your soul into it and tossing it into the multiverse. The original stays with you, but others like me can find and use them to call for others. Say, what's your story?"

“Well. . . I was born in Canterlot - the capital of Equestria, and I. . . wait. If you already know a Twilight Sparkle, shouldn’t you know my story already? Or something close to it? Hmm.” Notes were written on the clipboard. “Anyways, I moved here to Ponyville after finding friends here, and, um, I kind of. . . stuck around, became a princess, saved the world a few times. . .”

“I haven’t really talked with my Twilight much and it looks like I forgot to pack some silverware.” Just as I was lamenting the lack of silverware, something crossed my mind. “Hey, wait a minute.” This Twilight was born here, so she wasn’t Displaced, which means she shouldn’t have been able to summon me. There was something fishy here, and it wasn’t the tuna in front of me.

“What? Oh. Yes, yes I have spare silverware. Just give me ten seconds.” Twilight teleported away and returned seconds later with a fork and knife.

“Thanks.” I accepted the silverware. “So, if you’re not like me in how you got here, how did you use the token? As far as I know, you shouldn’t be able to.” I cut into the tuna and was rewarded by the scent of the fish becoming stronger.

"Look, your version of Twilight might not be familiar with trans-reality interference for whatever reason, but the existence of other universes is a well known fact and it's so easy to monitor fluctuations in the spacetime manifold that manticores evolved to do it naturally! This-" Twilight pointed to the token "-is a simple tran-reality bridging anchor with a somatic activation component and singular target connection. Frankly, tossing it out into the multiverse is actually sort of irresponsible. It could have been triggered by any number of thinking beings. I'm not sure why you're so surprised."

I took a bite of the tuna and found that, while the texture was not what I was used to, it wasn’t bad either. “What would Pinkie say?” It may have been a stupid retort, but it was the best I could think of.

“That’s. . . a bit of a non-sequitur. Look, if there’s any reason I shouldn’t have been able to activate this, maybe you should tell me. That way, we can double check the enchantment together.” Her speech was interrupted by a pause. The pause was interrupted by her speech and her eyes narrowing at me. “You said this was explained to you. Who explained it?”

I took another quick bite of the tuna. “Another displaced person. His name’s Ross, but considering the powers, skills, and weapon he’s got, I’m more inclined to call him Ruby Ross.” Something that sounded like whispering caught my attention. “Twilight? Are we not as alone as you said we were?”

“What? Oh. That. That. . . is. . . a cat!” Twilight revealed her lack of a poker face.

“Well, I’m willing to share some of my tuna with this cat. If Opal was any indicator, I’m pretty good with cats.” Or the time I got pinned by a metric boatload of kitten gravity powers. Cats might not actually have any real gravity powers, but it sure seemed like it.

“I seriously don’t know how it keeps getting in the lab. I should ask Fluttershy about the cat at-”

A bookshelf fell over and my fish was snagged from my plate by a cat eared girl. “Mmmm!” she said around the fish.

“That’s actually kind of cute.” I couldn’t stay mad for any period of time at someone who got turned into Blake. “Twilight, I think I found the cat.”

Blake, or at least the person who got a body like hers’, froze at my voice and looked at me. The tuna was still in her mouth.

“Yes. Well.” That was all Twilight said.

I smiled and waved at the faunus. “Hi, Blake, or whatever your name is. I’m Yang.” As I calmly introduced myself, I kept thinking “Don’t scratch the cat ears. Don’t scratch the cat ears. Don’t scratch the cat ears.”

Blake quickly composed herself, set the tuna on the plate I’d brought, and took it. “I. . . will be right back.” She walked out of the room with the tuna. Honestly, while I wanted more of it, I didn’t really care at that moment.

“Okay, yes, she’s the one that found your token.” With a sigh, Twilight continued. “Try not to be too upset, okay? This whole thing, whatever it is, has been very confusing for her.”

“So, when did she show up here?”

“She landed in the Everfree about. . . two weeks ago.” One of her eyebrows went up in curiosity. “You. . . seem to know a lot about her situation. . . and it does seem similar to yours. How familiar are you with this phenomena, Miss Long?”

“Well, having gone through it myself, I’d say I’m somewhat familiar with it.”

"Experiencing a phenomena is not the same as studying it. We've been looking for some sort of explanation ever since she got here. If you have any information, it would be. . . " She sighed and continued. "Look. Can I be frank? You're our first lead here. You and your token. And I know that Briar just. . . stole your lunch, and that was very rude of her. And I know I opened this meeting trying to deceive you, and that wasn't right of me. But. . . we're very worried. We haven't been able to determine Briar's original universal signature to any significant degree, which in combination with her physical alteration and. . . other symptoms, suggests she was abducted and placed here by unknown forces. If you don't know anything, you can just say so. If you know something, but not everything, that's okay too. It's still more than what we've got. I'm sorry for how poorly we've treated you thus far, it. . . was not at all fair of us. You seem to be as much a victim as Briar is. I just hope you can find it in your heart to help us figure out what is going on here. Okay?"

“I’m not too worried about the lunch.” I did wish I’d known I was going to be here. I’d have cooked up the rest of the tuna. “And as far as I know, there’s no way back. At least nobody’s looked into it on my side, so I have no clues there. As for, Briar, was it? All I can suggest is giving her some support and Fluttershy hugs. Maybe I should talk with her.”

I think I may have said the wrong thing because Twilight was looking and sounding a little ticked off. "Miss Long--Yang. Can you at LEAST tell me what is going on? Because you keep talking about stuff as though I should already know about it, these tokens and displaced people and Ember bracelets, but I do not have any frame of reference for these terms!"

Not even a second after Twilight’s statement, Briar returned with a plate. "Ahem. I would like to apologize for my poor introduction. . . . um. Do you. . . ?" She set the plate on the desk, revealing the cookies on it.

My attention was briefly drawn to the plate. "Ooh, cookies. Thanks.” I wanted one, but I still had the issue of an angry Twilight near me, so I addressed that first. “As for those things, tokens are the summoning items, like the choker that summoned me. I made mine a while after I got transformed. Displaced people, like me and Briar, presumably, got removed from their universe and sent to another as a fictional character from some show or game. The Ember Celica are just my gauntlets-slash-bracelets, and they are what sent me to my Equestria." I took a bite of one of the cookies. It was good.

"Fictional. . . ? This seems pretty real to me," Briar commented.

"Oh, this is real, but back where I came from, Yang Xiao Long was a fictional character."

"So, when you said you took your name from the person you got turned into, it's because. . . you recognized your new form from a story,” Twilight clarified. “Not some flash of mysterious inspiration from nowhere, just. . . ?"

"Yep. Not a shred of originality on my part with the name." Credit for that goes to whoever came up with it.

". . . .I think I'll be out at the training area." Briar gave me a look before leaving the lab.

"Is there anything else you need to know?" I asked Twilight before watching Briar leave. I was kind of worried for her.

". . . Well. . . I'd like to get a scan of your ethereal structure, just for comparison to Briar's. And maybe set up a recording of making tokens. . . but I think that can wait." She glanced out of a window. "You're absolutely sure that, apart from forgetting your original name, you have not been mentally affected by your transformation?"

"Well, I have gotten an explosive and literal hair trigger temper and a tendency to crack bad puns occasionally, but otherwise, I haven't noticed anything. As for the scan, well, sure." I’d just have to take off the Ember Celica in case they would mess with the scan.

"I. . . think we should hold off on that. Until after you talk with Briar. And. . . Blake."

Now that was an interesting statement. “Briar and Blake? It’s your turn to explain.”

". . . Like I said. We don't know exactly how the transition works, or who's behind it. But. . . ." Twilight paused and looked to the side. "The simple fact of the matter is that while Briar may be the one in charge of their body, Blake is still present. Briar couldn't hear her until after a harmony magic interaction, which meant she spent a whole day as a silent prisoner in her own mind. Even now, they haven't quite figured out how swapping works and. . . the point is, Blake recognized your emblem on the token and. . . " She shrugged in that way ponies do before looking back at me. "She was expecting her friend. Not. . . whoever you are."

"Oh." I gave myself a moment to let that description sink in. Briar and Blake were two souls in one body, which reminded me of something, though I wasn’t sure what it was. I was only certain of there being green and black. "Well, I'm willing to talk with her."

"Yeah. . . I'll take you to the training grounds, but, um. Well. . .” Twilight sighed. "Just. . . don't screw this up, okay?" After I collected the basket and cookies, I followed Twilight out of the lab. Outside on the path to the training grounds, we went past some signs that said ‘AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY’.

We came to a clearing with a semicircle of stone diases, one of which had a log on it. The log wasn’t there for long thanks to a shot from Briar, or maybe Blake, I couldn’t tell which. I was willing to bet on Blake being there thanks to the way she replaced the shot log with a new one using the Gambol Shroud as if it were an extension of her arm.

Twilight nodded at me and I went forward. “Briar, Blake, whoever’s there?”

A cat ear flicked and the bladed pistol hooked another log. She pulled it towards herself before blocking it with the sheathe portion of the weapon. “Gah! Ugh.” She rolled her shoulders as she recovered, probably Briar if the skill difference was any indicator. “Twilight told you, then.”

"Yeah. Is there anything I can do to help you? Any questions I can answer?"

Briar took a moment before speaking. "The last time that Blake saw Yang, she was unconscious on Beacon's courtyard and missing an arm. That was a few months before whatever this is happened. Ever since we found your 'token', I've been dealing with a teenager who can kill shadow monsters having a meltdown in my mind." She looked at me and I saw that she had a calm look of anger on her tear stained face. “Frankly, I don’t think she’s unjustified.”

"I know exactly what Blake's talking about, and given the situation, I can't blame her at all. And you know what? I think both of you need a hug." If my experience with Fluttershy was any indicator, hugs were really good at calming scared people down.

I got a bladed sheath pointed at me in response. "And I think you need to realize that it's not that easy. Maybe for you, this was fiction. I never saw the show--I don't even know if we come from the same version of Earth, but given it was Gambol Shroud that brought me here. . . the point is, for me, and for her, this was real. We were planning to start looking for a way to get her back her body in a week, you know. This. . . " She sighed and lowered the sheath. "You call yourself Yang, but how much of Yang are you? Is there a version of Yang, stuck in the back of your mind like Blake was when we first got here? Has she been trapped in her own body this whole time? Has she. . . fallen apart, without being able to interact with anything, just watching? Did she think that since you had memories of her not being real she wasn't real. . . ?"

I sighed. It was a heavy question, but I answered it. "I don't know. I just don't know."

Briar paused. ". . . Okay." She sheathed Gambol Shroud and stuck it on her back. "I think. . . maybe we should all talk this out. Me and Blake have figured out she can control one of her shadow clones--she can't interact with the world through it, but she can at least talk through it. And. . . honestly, I guess we haven't been fair about this. We let our expectations color our interactions, but… anyway." She sat down on the grass, cross legged, and closed her eyes.

Another Blake, this one with her V4 outfit on, appeared next to Briar and looked at me. With a sigh, she started talking. "Right. So. Hi. . . I guess. . . Um. Sorry about the fish. . . thing."

"I've got the other half of that fish at home, so it's no problem." I sat down across from Briar. "Hello. The name I go by is Yang Xiao Long, even though I'm not really her."

"Briar Blumenthal. Former analyst, now huntress in training. Apparently." Coughs "Speaking of which. . . might be best to mention this now, I used to be a guy, so. . . you know."

"Blake Belladonna, former huntress, now a ghost looking for a body. . . so. . . . just to clarify, this work of fiction you read. . . . how much do you know about me, exactly?"

I thought for a moment. "Let's see, you left the White Fang, you left Adam on that train, you're part of team RWBY, you're a cat faunus, you're a book lover, your parents have this really nice house on an island I can't recall the name of, and you had a run-in with a chameleon faunus. It's been a while since I saw the show I saw you in, so some of the details escape me."

Blake nodded slowly, started to say something, stopped, and frowned. ". . . I suspect that's not half of what you remember, but that. . . . isn't going to be important I guess. Not unless some of us find a way back." I didn’t miss her looking at my arm. "So. Can I ask. . . I mean, if this series has Yang as a character, and it continues after the fall of Beacon, that means--"

Briar interjected. "Blake, I don't think you should ask. Not right now. It's important, but. . . " She turned to me. "We'll be able to summon you at any time with your token, right?"

"Yep” I affirmed. “Even if it's only five minutes after sending me back. I actually had to do that once. Hey, mind if I ask you two a question?"

Briar shrugged.

"No, go ahead” Blake said.

"Alright. I used to be a guy as well, like you, Briar, and it hasn't come up for me yet, but how do you walk with heels like those?" I pointed to Briar and Blake’s footwear. I knew it was only a matter of time before Rarity would get me in some of those shoes, what with Twilight giving her all those pictures from who knows where.

"Flawlessly."

Briar rolled her eyes. "You know heels were originally for horse riders, right?"

That was news to me. "I thought they were originally to make short kings look taller, though I can see how that would work."

"Alright. So. . . question for you. Well. . . for Ruby through you. You said you met Ruby. . . or a Ruby person. . . is she in your version of Equestria?"

Blake added to the question. "And. . . how is she. . . ? I mean, even if she isn't. . . er. . . if you aren't Yang, there. . . should be some connection, right? Or does it not work that way?"

"That guy with Ruby's skills and Crescent Rose is from yet another part of the multiverse” I explained. “No relation to me except that we're on good terms. And yes, that guy is still a guy. I haven't seen him for a while, but I hope he's doing alright."

"Oh. Okay. Still a guy. Right. I guess that makes sense. . . if you were a guy and Briar was a guy, I guess guys are fans of the show. . . . for some reason."

Briar summed things up. "So we've got a cross-dresser, an amnesiac, and a non-fan sharing a body with the original character." A break of silence filled the air for a moment. "What do you want to bet whoever ends up as Weiss is a rabid shipper?"

I doubled over in laughter at the sudden idea. "That would perfect this group of misfits."

Once I collected myself, Briar continued. "Right. So. Is there some sort of network of. . . what do we call ourselves, the displaced people? The far-from-homers? I don't know."

"Displaced. As far as networks go, well, you're only the fourth Displaced I've met so far. The others are Ross, Artorias, and Ita. In order, Ross has Ruby's skills, Artorias is this huge knight, and Ita's a goddess."

"A. . . goddess. . . What kind of goddess, exactly?"

"I don't know how she got that kind of power either. Also, she's a Hoopa with some shapeshifting skills. Pokemon."

"Hoopa? Frig, then she's probably a trickster. You should watch your step around--"

Blake suddenly said "Rainbow."

"What?"

We were joined by a particular prismatic pegasus. "Holy Celestia, you found another weasel!"

"I thought the term was 'Sweet Celestia'.” I said. “Eh, not a big deal."

"Yeah, well, I'm a bit old fashioned." She stuck out a hoof to shake. "Name's Rainbow Dash. Fastest flyer in Equestria--"

"RAINBOW!" Twilight galloped up to us. "How many times do I have to tell you not to interfere with Briar's training?!"

"Well she's clearly NOT doing any training right now!"

"Yeah, I may have derailed the training a bit, but it's all good” I said.

"It's cool, it's cool. I don't know a lot about you weasels, but I'm sure you have to be one good looking stallion to get Briar's eye."

"What?" Briar asked.

"What?" I asked.

Rainbow waved a hoof at my hair. "The colorful ones are guys. That's what Fluttershy says."

Blake was the first to respond. ". . . Yes, that's absolutely right. We're in the middle of complex mating negotiations and our long term plan to take over Equestria with our thousand young, should take about three, four hundred litters."

"What" Briar said. Meanwhile, Twilight’s face could have been photographed and used for poker face lessons.

My inner troll, a rarely seen being, decided to play along with Blake. “Part of that is coming up with names. Let’s see, there’s General #1, Coco, Vader, Sento, what else?”

“Well, we should make sure each litter has its own theme, obviously” Blake pointed out.

“So this is a thing, then. We’re actually doing this” Briar said.

“Of course” I affirmed. “Now, we can’t really afford to wait until all of the litters are grown up, so we also have to make plans to begin our conquest after the, oh, fifth litter?”

Blake answered. “Training on the fifth, but actually setting them out only after the tenth. They do take a while to mature.”

“Is this conquest going to be nonviolent?” Twilight casually asked, though her casual tone seemed a bit forced.

“We are going to teach them how to conquer with violins” I explained. “They’ll string everyone along for whatever the plan will be, and before you know it, we’ll be able to play Celestia herself like a fiddle. Equestria will bow to our will.”

Blake was having trouble hiding a grin. “It will be a well orchestrated effort, crescendoing after some serious percussion. It’ll have to start slow, of course, and be kept low-key.”

“Really. Where am I in all of this?” Briar asked.

I thought for a moment. “Well, Blake is currently just a shadow clone, so you’re going to have to do her work in addition to your own. You will be responsible for managing our supplies, supply lines, and getting Discord to feed our enemy false information with soup lies.”

Rainbow facehooved. “That one was a stretch. And I know stretches. I know dozens of them. I work out.”

“Yeah, I’d give that a point four two on the Pinkie Scale, funny enough to recognize but not funny enough to laugh about” Twilight added

I shrugged at the criticism. “Can’t blame me for trying. I think it’s still a good idea.”

“Well, this is more Blake’s idea than mine” Briar said. “We’d have to wait until she gets the body back, I’m not going to. . . uh. . . you know.”

“Yeah. . . that’s fair, I guess” Blake admitted.

“I guess it can wait a bit” I said. “Besides, that also gives us more time to come up with a better plan.”

“Yeah. That’s. . . true. . . ”

“Wait. You’re not actually serious about conquering Equestria, right?” Rainbow asked.

“No, we’re not” I answered. “If we were, why would we discuss our plans so openly?”

“You would be surprised how often that happens” Twilight said.

“. . . Well, I’m surprised it happens at all” Briar added.

“Just sneak up and surprise them, then their plan is foiled” I pointed out. After all, what better way to stop someone’s plan than revealing you heard it all right there?

Blake looked away from me for a moment. “That can. . . backfire.”

“Right. Look before you leap, or. . . ” Briar looked at me as she left the sentence hanging.

I knew what she was getting at, and I couldn’t come up with a good response. “Yeah. So…”

“Anyway, Dash, I keep telling you we aren’t weasels.”

I pointed to Blake and Briar."Well, you two are cats. I'm human. Hey, Rainbow, here's a thought exercise for you: Briar's female, and I'm also female. See if you can imagine what a male might look like."

"Wait seriously? Huh.” Rainbow scrutinized me. "You know what? I think you're lying."

"I'm not lying. I'm Yang Xiao Long."

I saw Blake’s lips quirk for a moment. "Seriously though, Rainbow, Yang and I--or, uh, Yang and Briar. . . . um." She took a moment to clear her throat. How that worked was beyond me. "The thousand young thing was a joke, and she is female, we just have different hair colors. That happens."

Briar continued. "And, anyway, she. . . she's kind of here on business. Like, you know, figuring out what's going on business."

"Very important business” I added.

Rainbow paused to think before shrugging. "Yeah, okay. Just one thing: I know you weasels like to 'wrestle'--"

Blake shouted "RAINBOW!" while Briar facepalmed and said something under her breath.

"--so I'll forgive a few cuts and bite marks, but if you seriously hurt her I'll dump you in a lake, got it?"

“At least it's not the ocean” I thought with a small sigh of relief. "There will be no wrestling here. Of any kind."

"Yeah, sure, I completely believe that. Well, what you do is your business. I'll catch you weasels later." After a quick salute, she took off with a rainbow contrail.

Twilight still had a poker face on after Rainbow was gone. "So. Yes. That was Rainbow Dash."

"Hard to mistake her for anyone else, really” I said. “So, Briar, do you have any other questions?"

"Well. . . how long will you be staying?" Briar asked.

"Until you send me away."

". . . Wait, do you mean. . . you're stuck here? Until I, uh. . . deactivate your Token?"

"That is definitely poor safety protocol" Twilight observed.

I answered Briar. "Just hold it, say something about how I'm done here, and then I'll be on my way back to my Equestria. Hopefully not face first."

". . . and what if we decide never to do that?" Blake asked.

"Blake.” Briar firmly said.

"I'd probably make myself a nuisance until you do send me back" I answered.

"And what if we died before we could send you back?" Blake asked.

Twilight interjected. "Okay. The point that Blake is trying to make is that having transitions be completely out of your control is a very, VERY big issue. I think there might be something for this in the royal library somewhere. . . "

"That is a good point.” Why that never crossed my mind before was a mystery. Another idea came to mind and I voiced it. “Hey, Briar, odd question that we are uniquely qualified to answer: what do you think so far of being female?"

Briar answered. "Well, since I'm female on an alien world where my gender identity is socially secondary to being a foreign species and is in fact occasionally unclear to the locals, I have to say that thus far my opinion runs along the lines of 'my balance is different' and not much else." She crossed her arms and continued. "Your blatant deflection aside, I'm not going to keep you here against your will. Blake was just. . . . curious."

"Curious. . . right." Blake didn’t sound fully confident in her answer.

Twilight talking to herself caught my attention. ". . . could take me a week. . . should be able to find. . . Okay." She turned her attention to us. "So, here's what I'm thinking. I take a quick scan of Yang's ethereal structure, then we send her back--we can call her back in a week for the token-making demonstration. Hopefully by that point I should have found a quantum anchoring spell in the Canterlot Archives, so you" points at Briar "can make your own token and anchor yourself to this reality. Then I'll go back to Yang's reality with her, spend the day there to anchor her to that reality, and then you can call us back. I'm pretty sure that the anchors will let you return to the realities they are anchored to without any problems."

"I figured you wouldn't let her keep me here like that” I said before answering my own question. “As for me, well, my Rarity took me in, got various human fashion magazines from Twilight, which I don't know how she got, and I had to put up with her fashion antics. When she was making my swimwear, she must have made over a hundred sketches easily. Trust me when I say that, while the clothing options available to females is greater, there's also something to be said for fewer choices making things go faster. So whenever you go to visit Rarity, be ready to stop her."

"You. . . you've never been to New York, have you?" Briar asked.

"Nope. Is it a good thing that I haven't been there?"

"Eeeenh. . . . So. Quick recap: we become Displaced by being handed enchanted objects that just so happen to look like critical objects to the supposedly fictional characters we will be transformed into and are sent to random worlds, and nobody knows why these objects exist."

I took a moment to think over Briar’s recap. "Yep. That about sums it up."

"And we make tokens. . . somehow. . . and toss them into the multiverse, where they just land on a random world. . . are you going to have to make a new token now that we've got this one?"

"Nope. It's a one and done thing."

"So. . . it just auto-replicates somehow?"

Twilight briefly interjected. "Actually, given the fractal nature of universal inter-relations, that does make some sense. Although. . . ." Her words soon turned into numbers, which I tuned out.

Blake finished the string of inquires. "And. . . you're not Yang, you just. . . look like her. And you took her name because you forgot your own."

I nodded. "Yes to both of you."

"Right” Briar started. “Well, this reeks of dangerous and unknown mysteries, but I guess there's nothing else we can figure out--"

"Wait. If you know so much about me, you. . . you know how my Yang's. . . . how she's doing. Right?" Blake asked.

I took a moment to answer. "Last I saw, she had a new robotic arm, most likely from Weiss, and was looking for you.”

"Oh. I. . . uh. Was she, uh. . . ." She started shrinking in on herself a bit.

Briar looked at me for a moment before tilting her head towards Blake. I took that as my cue to say something. "I'm pretty sure she'd do anything for you, and not just because you're teammates." At that moment, I remembered something. "Hey, Twilight, scan please?"

"Oh! Right." Twilight’s horn lit up and she cast a spell on me. ". . . Hmm. Interesting. You seem to have. . . well, there is a vacillation in your core ethereal structure, but it's almost entirely balanced. I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't scanned Briar before, the waveform almost completely cancels itself out. . . almost as if it was set to. . . . Anyway, the rest of your ethereal construct is similar to Blake's. Deeply integrated self consistency, an extension manifestation. . . it's not identical, obviously, but it's clear from a thaumic standpoint that you are derived from the same stock. Although. . . hmm. I'm sorry, thought I saw something. I can only get so good a reading without my equipment. It's probably just a small interaction bump, nothing to worry about."

"You can do a better scan next time, right?"

"If you let her strap you to a table" Briar said.

"Don't know if you're into that" Blake added.

"Why would the straps be necessary? Couldn't I just sit on the table?" I asked.

"Science demands accuracy and precision!" Twilight proclaimed. She looked as serious as she sounded.

The serious look gave me a bit of pause. ". . . We'll see how I feel about the idea later."

"So. I. . . guess we're done, for now. . . " Briar stood and held out a hand. "It was certainly interesting meeting you, Yang. Definitely one of the strangest things to happen to me."

I accepted the hand and stood up. “Hopefully, it turns out to be a good thing in the end.”

Twilight attempted to send me away. "Your work here is done, Yang. I hereby send you off!" Nothing happened. I could imagine the crickets chirping. "Okay. That's weird."

"Here." Briar took the token from Twilight. "Thanks for dropping by. See you in a week. Your work here is done!" As the portal opened beneath me, I waved goodbye and got ready for the short interdimensional trip.

I landed on my feet after exiting the portal and looked around. I was back where I was when I was summoned, and it appeared to be a bit later in the day as well.

“Yang!” was all the warning I got before Pinkie wrapped me in a high speed hug. “It’s good to see you again.”

“It’s only been a week” I pointed out.

“Yeah, but it feels like it’s been months. Ooh, I just thought of something I’d like you to try: a breakfast milkshake. Grass-free, of course.”

“Breakfast milkshake?”

“I got some bacon to go yesterday at your place, delicious stuff, by the way, and I’ve done some culinary experimentation with it. Care to try it?”

I was about to politely decline when my stomach growled, answering for me. Briar and blake had taken the fish I was going to try. “I guess I will.”

“Thanks, Yang.” I walked with Pinkie to Sugarcube Corner and took a seat while she set to work on her breakfast milkshake. After a minute, she came out of the kitchen and gave me the shake.

I took a sip of the thick mixture and tasted the bacon, some cheese, and a few vegetables. “It’s not bad, but it’s not the kind of thing I’d have for breakfast. It’s a bit too cold for that.”

“Ah. Well, thanks for the input. I’ve got something else I’d like you to try as well.” A few seconds later, Pinkie had put a plate in front of me with some slightly steaming food on it. “We’ve had breakfast quiches for a while here, but this one is the first here with bacon in it, and I want to make sure I got it right.”

I ate a bite of the quiche, tasting bacon, egg, cheese, and a few vegetables, likely the same kind as were in the shake. “Well, it’s a better breakfast choice than the shake. It’s warmer and simpler, though I think you put a little too much bacon in it.”

“Nonsense!”

“It overpowers the egg, cheese, and crust. Either add more of those or reduce the amount of bacon. If I may ask, is there any reason you wanted me to be your taste tester?”

“Quite simple: Ponies are more herbivorous, griffons are more carnivorous, and while Spike could have helped me, he’s busy, so that just left you. That, and my Pinkie Sense told me you missed breakfast and brunch. As my way of saying ‘thank you’ for trying these out and critiquing them, the quiche and milkshake are on the house.”

“No, they’re on the table.” I pointed to the food in question.

“No, they’re on a plate and in a cup.”

“So they are. And they’re on you?”

“That was only the first time I tried to make them and I was 54% asleep at the time. I was 100% awake after that though.”

“. . . Right. Well, thanks, Pinkie.”

“And here’s the rest of the quiche for you.” Pinkie slid half of the full breakfast pastry, cut into slices, in front of me. “It’s on the house and plate as well. Besides, you need food.”

“Thanks again.” As I ate my free experimental breakfast, I looked outside and let the sun warm my face. “I think I’ll go jogging today since the weather’s good. Three laps around town, late lunch, four more, and then dinner. Gotta change first.”

After I finished my meal and thanked Pinkie, I went home to start my new plan.

Author's Notes:

Before everyone rushes to post a particular type of Gif:

YES! After nearly seven months, IT IS BACK! And it's a crossover with MasterWeaver's (Not) Black and White. This thing was a massive pain in a place where the sun doesn't shine (Earth's mantle), but it's finally here.

If there's one thing I learned, it's this: Discord chat RP is not a bad method for writing crossovers; it's straight up terrible. Planning, sure, but it's better to write it out in a Gdoc where both sides can edit it. If anything, I'd use Discord for voice chat and picture sharing to get ideas across and use a Gdoc for text.

After I get my bearings on what the timeframe is in I Burn again, I will begin working on the next chapter. I've already got ideas, so there's that.