Jim and Paul found themselves sitting on the couch. Bubbles was between them, lifting popcorn with her horn to her mouth. Paul saw a mildly gangsterish female, slender and hard-edged. She was eating her popcorn like anyone else. Though he could see the popcorn traveling up towards her human mouth, he knew it was actually... going far lower, to a pony's snout.

The complexity of the illusion that separated their perspectives was dizzying to even consider.

It was... It was amazing, and a little terrifying. "So... what's it like?"

"What's what like?" Bubbles canted an ear at the human she saw as a scrawny earth pony.

"You know... being a pony?"

Jim rolled his eyes. "What's it like being a human?"

Bubbles snorted. "Yer friend has the right of it. How the flip can anypony answer that, really? Ah got four legs, how's that? Is that good? Pfft, ask me, sure, I'd say yes." She thrust a hoof at Paul. "But you probably like two legs. Whatever, each their own, right?"

Paul shook his head with uncertainty. "N-nothing... wrong with it, I mean, four legs?" Not that he could see her four legs, just imagine them and the pony that went with them. He wanted to see her! "So... you see a pony, right?"

"Yeah?" Bubbles pointed at the television. "I think that human's about to do something." The production, whatever it was, started slow. Some police talking rough about being police. Where was the real action? Oh...

Bubble's eyes went wider than she'd ever remembered them being as one of the human's heads practically exploded in a display of violence she had never before witnessed. "Wha--" There were sharp reports. The humans were using some kind of small but lethal cannons that could fire with mind-boggling rapidity. One of those police officers collapsed, bleeding everywhere.

Death, swift, brutal, and delivered by a human that didn't even look all that tough.

Shivering at the sight of it, Bubbles tried to steel herself. "Ain't n-nothing! Ah saw things on the street that were 'bout as bad."

Jim considered what he could offer without aggravating his guest. "I'm sure you'll do fine, but hey, if you don't, no bad feelings either."

Paul considered a moment offering comfort, but every phrase he thought of sounded extra awkward with the very human female he was considering aiming them at. "Do ponies have guns?"

An explosion thumped through a quality stereo system and made the room shake lightly. Bubbles barely noticed it, too busy jumping out of her skin and scrambling over the back of the couch as more gunfire and destruction exploded on the screen, out of her sight.

Jim met Paul's glance before they both leaned over to see their female guest curled up against the couch as if it would protect her from the shards of metal.

Paul gave barely half a snort. "Um, startled?"

Bubbles sat up and scowled at both males. "Ain't nothin'!" She defied, as had become her habit. She hopped up onto the couch's back and slid down onto her seat, gracefully vaulting as a human in Paul's view. "It was just... loud." Records didn't get that loud without serious equipment to help them along, and she didn't see any such equipment in that apartment. "How do you even do that?"

Jim gestured at his stereo and its speakers, spread about the room. He pointed to the surround system that comprised the experience.

A sudden loud bang came from behind them. Since Jim was leaning off to point at speakers, that left Paul's lap as the one choice as laps went.

Not that Bubbles saw it as a lap. She sprang like a startled cat and came down on the scrawny earth pony, squeezing him as if he was a flotation device saving her from a savage sea.

Paul's world collapsed. He could feel the woman hugging him tightly. He could feel her curves, her breasts. She smelled... clean, with a hint of bubble gum. She was also a pony. When he focused on that, he could feel her curled in his lap, hugging him around the middle, but he could still feel the rest of her, hugging him chest to chest. Both were dizzying sensations, together, he could do nothing but stare emptily. To think he had considered making an excuse to not come that night.

Jim came to the rescue. He reached for the unicorn he saw curled on his shocked friend and tried to gently heft her up. She had some weight. She was, in fact, pretty heavy! He supposed that made sense. Why would a pony that came close to the size of a human be light? Still, he hefted her up slowly and pulled her free. "It's alright."

Paul revived as those sensations faded, and a new thought came at him. "Hey, where are the others?"

That seemed a valid question. Jim flicked off the television for that moment and pat the shocked Bubbles gently.

She had recovered and swat his hand away. "I'm fine!"

Jim raised a brow. "Do you normally hop on guys you just met then?"

She darkened in her cheeks. "S-so what of it?"

Jim fished out his phone and dialed up one of his other friends. "Hey, Greg, where are you man?"

"Jim? Shit, I'd been calling the last hour or so. Where are you?"

Jim raised a brow. "My house? You forget where it is all of a sudden?"

"Bullshit. I'm at your house right now." A knocking sound came through the phone. "If you're here, why ain't you answering?"

The call suddenly dropped.

The universe itself dropped. All three were standing in a field of utter darkness. All they could see was one another.

Bubbles sprang to her hooves, horn glowing offensively. "What the--?"

Paul flopped over without a couch to support him and gathered himself back to his feet. "Alright, this can... stop now?"

Words appeared, flaming and bright.

You don't want this to end yet. You are caught between worlds. Will you remain in the world of humans...

A spotlight came down and illuminated Jim

Or will you join the world of ponies?

A spotlight came down on Bubbles, destroying her disguise. He could see the unicorn that she was, looking up at him.

Go on, make a choice. I only make the path, it will be your feet that carry you down them. Embrace the one you wish and I will make sure the trip is smooth and rapid. A gift, you could say.

Jim raised a brow at the letters and looked over to his friend and back at the letters. "This is some crazy devil shit right there, just have to say. I'd think twice before you sign any dotted lines."

Bubbles nodded in agreement. "I think he has a point. Shoot, I'm no expert on, uh, whatever this is, but I say you tell the plothole there to kiss off and die somewhere nopony has to trip over its dead body."

Such harsh words. Words can hurt, you know. I would know, I am words. Very well, since you insist on joining this battle, it is now yours as well. If he embraces you, he will be yours.

"Mine?" Bubbles cocked a brow. "What the flip do you mean by that? I don't want no random pony."

He will be yours. Your will shall be his. Your path shall be his. He will follow and know only the pleasure of your pleasure.

Jim rolled a hand. "Is there a reason you haven't said no already?"

Paul looked between all three parts of the conversations, even if one of them wasn't 'speaking' in a literal sense. "Are you... saying I wouldn't be... me?"

A man lays his head to sleep. A new man rises the next day, comfortable in the lie that he is the same man. You will be you. The definition of you is open to change. If I erased you, that would not be interesting.

Jim frowned at how things were headed. "I should point out that the landlady of this place, in the pony side, was turned half into a pony, like a centaur, and I don't think she planned on it."

A pony centaur? That... actually sounded kind of awesome... "I wouldn't mind that."

You should ask your new mistress then, and embrace her world. The human world has no room for such aberrations.

Bubbles clopped down a hoof on the floor that wasn't there. "Stop talkin' like ah ain't even here!"

But you are. You are, in fact, one of the two paths he must choose from.

Jim crossed his arms. "To start, that's a lie."

Oh?

Jim gestured at his confused friend. "For one, he could just not pick either, and that's still a choice. He could grab both of us in a group hug, for another. He could do a lot of things. Saying he has to pick from the two is trying to force his hand."

Clever... Two points to you. I knew I'd picked the right person. Well, make your choice. Walk your path.

Dark Vision scowled. Her head was throbbing and her horn was itching something fierce. Something was going on, and it wasn't good. Chaos seemed to bleed from the very walls. Reality itself was being overwritten. Harmony was being defiled. Everything she had been trained to uphold was being tarnished in some terribly subtle way.

She hated it.

She found every step she took was a struggle. Her body was being overwhelmed by her own trained senses. She forced herself forward despite that, pressing the button for the elevator and sliding against that door. She had to stop it... She had...

Dark suddenly fell forward as the door slid open and she tonelessly fell into the elevator.

Large but careful hands gathered her up and set her down, propped against a wall in the elevator. It was the monster from the second floor. "You detect it as well, I assume." It was not a question. "Will you rise to battle?" That was.

Dark had to concentrate on nodding properly. A monster that defended harmony and destiny? A miracle. Of course, with the extreme chaos she felt pulsing through her crippled form, she figured she'd need a miracle to succeed. But she had to. There was no other choice.

"Then we will march side-by-side." He drew a heavy spear with the sinew of some great beast dangling from it, tipped with a bone jaw, possible from that same creature. "A pity the Caretaker is so unprepared."

A soft bell rang, informing them of their arrival on the floor where the wrongness was most powerful. The hallway itself was gone, surrendered to the chaos. They were in a great emptiness, save the elevator that the monster stepped free from, carrying Dark out of.

My work is not complete. A path must be chosen.

Dark scowled at the hovering letters as she managed to assume a ready stance, the shock of it starting to ebb as she grew just a little used to the malign presence. "I care not for your work. Begone, and trouble Equestria no longer!"

I've seen ahead. Cheating, perhaps. Spoilers. I will remain. You, perhaps, will not.

Author's Notes:

Well, that got dark, literally.

What should Paul pick?

Jim doesn't seem to be being presented with as clear a choice, nor Bubbles.