Spliced was truly uncertain about meeting this Fluttershy as she stepped through the cottage door with Discord talking to somepony inside, no doubt the mare herself. She was aware that the locals were not particularly pleased with her presence, and she could not deny herself feeling different from them on an instinctual level that she had been fighting since she’d come here. It could literally be anything causing her to feel this way as she was happy to be out and free but she was willing to wager that this irrational and odd feeling had something to do with her being in a different dimension. It could be anything causing it - her personality, her behaviour, possibly even their background thaumatic radiation signatures being different, but whatever it was, it was bothering her. She would need to do some research on it, providing if these ponies had such technology for such experiments.

Still, she had to deal with this tea time meeting while keeping her past a secret until the ponies here trusted her enough so she could continue her research. Or, as the case was due to the stance of the local authorities (and whatever Discord was) on her work being a possible danger to the inhabitant, until she could find a new direction.

Stepping through the doorway, she was assaulted by a wave of different odours and sounds of animals emitting from the cottage. It was almost overwhelming, with the mare needing to rest against the door to steady herself.

“Oh my, are you okay?” a mare asked her, with hooves helping her stand.

“Yes, yes,” Spliced said uncertainly, looking at the mare next to her. She was a yellow Thi-pegasus, with a long pink mane and tail, and big light blue eyes. “Just a slight dizzy spell, nothing to worry about…”

“Oh dear.” The mare looked quite worried. “Here, let me help you.”

Spliced couldn’t bring herself to protest as the mare - Fluttershy? - guided her over to a seat by a table with a tea set on it. “I’ll be right back,” she promised. “I just need to get a few things from the kitchen.”

Watching her hustle off, Spliced blinked in surprise. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of this mare, who seemed almost overwhelmingly… nice. Perhaps things would be oka-

“Oh hello there, Splicy,” a voice cooed and almost caused her to leap out of her coat. “So glad you decided to join us.”

“Yo-you,” she stammered at the thing sitting directly across of her, drinking from a tea cup.

“Yes, me, the one and only Dis-wait, I did this joke already,” Discord said as he apparently tossed the tea away and drank the teacup down-

“Discord!” the mare shouted, causing both Spliced and the creature to leap in their chairs. “What have we talked about? Scaring other ponies?”

“It’s… it’s okay,” Spliced managed as she tried to calm her pounding heart. “I knew he was here already, but I wasn’t expecting him to be right there all of a sudden... how are you that fast?” she asked the draconequus.

“Oh, I have my own little form of teleportation,” Discord replied smugly. “You might have seen it once before.”

“Tele-that’s a theoretical technology at best!” Spliced sputtered. “And-” She sank into her seat. “And these people have been doing the impossible since I got here,” she muttered to herself. “I really shouldn’t be surprised anymore.”

“Impossible? Why, my dear, I do six impossible things before breakfast every day!” Discord preened. “But I do apologize, dear Fluttershy… I wasn’t trying to scare her, not on purpose anyway.” Spliced could clearly see the unspoken this time in his eyes. “Besides, the me of your realm should have made some sort of impact. But then again, if I could go through this realm’s Door to the Realms in Between to get to yours, that means something happened the handsome and/or beautiful draconequus over there.”

“I am almost certain there was never mention of your kind in my world’s history books,” Spliced said. “Only in some old, discarded, discredited false religious mythos.” This caused him to huff although he kept a twinkle in his eye. Rolling her eyes, Spliced looked to her side and saw the host looking at her with her big eyes. “Oh, right, I have yet to introduce myself,” Spliced leaned over and held her hoof out. “My name is Spliced Genome miss...”

“Oh, I’m Fluttershy,” she stammered, looking off to the side for a moment. The mare did shake her hoof though, and flashed her a smile. “It is nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Spliced said as she looked around the room. “It has a very unique aroma here; do you deal with a lot of animals?”

“Oh yes, I am the caretaker of the animals that live in the Everfree forest,” Fluttershy said, perking up. “I have mice, birds, bats, sloths, Mr. Bear, beavers-”

“Wait, did you just say a bear?” Spliced asked as she leaned across the the table, her eyes widening.

“Oh yes,” she said happily. “He is just a dear, so kind and sweet.”

“A bear,” Spliced repeated as she lifted the teacup with her thaumatics to her lips. “As a pet of some kind?”

“Oh no, not at all,” Fluttershy was aghast at this notion and gave a look that made Spliced feel weird. “He is still a wild animal but as with the rest of animals, I do take care of them.”

“I see?” Spliced trailed off uncertainly, seeing Discord off to the side and enjoying himself at her discomfort. “I’m sorry, I’m not that good with interacting with others; I was forcibly isolated by myself for a long time and-”

“Oh my!” Fluttershy raced over and and wrapped her up in a hug. “I’m so sorry to hear that.”

Spliced tried to figure out how to respond to this, her body acting without her being aware and hugging Fluttershy back.

“It’s alright; even before that happened, I was terrible at working with others. Main reason why I worked alone to be honest.”

Discord started to laugh at that, causing her to wince. That creature knew about her and could easily ensure she was to be trapped back on the moon or far worse if he spoke out.

“Oh, okay,” Fluttershy hummed. “How do you like the tea?”

“It’s very good, best I’ve had in a long time,” Spliced said with a laugh, amused by her own joke.

“Thank you,” Fluttershy said innocently enough that it made Spliced feel slightly uncomfortable at trying to make light of her own misfortune. “I’m glad to hear you like it.”

“Fluttershy makes just the best tea,” Discord said with a smile on his face and Spliced had to wonder if there was some sort of relationship between them. It would explain his protectiveness over the mare. “If you stay here long, you can have some more.”

“Right,” Spliced said nervously, hearing the underlying threat in his message. Flicking her tail uneasily, Spliced put down the teacup and looked at Fluttershy. “This has been very nice and all, but I think I will take my leave. I do want to see more of this town and before it gets dark…” Spliced trailed off, knowing she was just spewing lies and by the look on Discord’s face, he knew it too.

“Oh, alright,” Fluttershy said in a bit of dejected tone that caused Spliced a stab of fear, wondering if this qualified as hurting one of Twilight’s friends.

“I do mean it, Fluttershy, this has been very nice and you’ve been a wonderful host.” Spliced said, shaking the mare’s hoof. “I’d love to do this again, I really would.”

“Then you can come by next week,” Discord said, appearing by her side. “It would be just wonderful to have you again; you can even tell Fluttershy some stories of yourself next time.”

“Oh that would be so nice,” Fluttershy said with a smile on her face. “I cannot wait to see you again. I mean, if that’s okay,”

Wincing internally at this new obligation she was stuck in, Spliced said it would be fine and that she hoped the two would have a nice day.

Stepping outside of the cottage, Spliced tilted her head upwards and began to limber up her wings. It had been a long time since she’d had a chance to fly properly and it might help her relax to a degree after that whole ordeal. Taking off into the air with some trouble due to her long hiatus from the action, she began to fly around in an aimless manner around Ponyville.

Already she felt herself calming down after the encounter with Discord. She didn’t know what she would do about him, but she would need something if she were-

Spliced paused on the spot, almost tumbling over in the air. She managed to correct and prevent herself from crashing into the ground but the thought remained in her head. She had no real plans in what she would do with her life now that she was free. It wasn’t safe for her to pick up where she had left off on her research, what with the princesses and that draconequus creature watching her and threatening her with serious harm. That and she didn’t have any of her original equipment to continue her work, and the local technology level was so far behind what she’d known that she didn’t think she could recreate what she had lost out of what was readily available in this world. Spliced could spend years helping advance the local technology to reach what she knew but that held no appeal for her as it would require her to work with others far below her intelligence, something she had no patience for.

Letting out a tired sigh, Spliced knew she had to find something to occupy her time while she was living here or she would go crazy. Looking around herself, she could see that she was over some orchard with apples growing. Banking to decelerate her speed, she landed among the trees and saw the freshest, healthiest looking apples she had ever seen. While she was tempted to just take one, if she recalled correctly one of Twilight’s friends was a farmer and this was her farm and it would be in poor taste to steal one.

Looking at the apples and licking her lips, she knew she would need to find some way to gain some currency so she could buy an ap-

“Howdy there partner, see that you’re admiring mah apples,” a mare said from behind her with a light chuckle in her voice. She turned out to be a Thir- earth pony with a brilliant orange coat, a long blond mane and a hat on her head. “Mah name is Applejack and this here is the Sweet Apple Acres,” she introduced herself as she held out her hoof for Spliced to take which she did.

“I’m Spliced Genome and I must admit that I’ve not seen better apples grown before and I’ve seen several ponies spend years in crossbreeding the quote unquote perfect apple,” she said honestly enough. There was always a balance between high quality verse high quantity that was near impossible to meet. “I would love to try one but I don’t have any means to pay for it.” Spliced tilted her head as she picked up a rock from the ground. “Although I could turn this rock into gold as payment…”

“Shucks, you don’t need to do that. Just try one,” Applejack said shaking her head. “Besides, wouldn’t creating gold and stuff just break the whole economy?”

“Well, yes,” Spliced said, dropping the rock as she looked at the well knowledged mare. “Placing value on a mineral can lead to problems of discrediting the economy of any market, which is why where I am from, they have it on a more non physical existence kind of credit.”

“Makes sense, Ah suppose,” the mare drawled out. “Where ya from, by the way? Ah don’t recall a sixth alicorn anywhere and mah family is everywhere.”

“I’m not from this world, so to speak,” Spliced said as she directed her thaumatic energies to pick an apple for herself. “I’m from another dimension or reality or whatever the exact terminology is.”

“Ah’m going to guess you didn’t come from Twilight’s magic mirror as this is the first Ah’ve heard of you,” Applejack said with a raised eyebrow.

Spliced had to resist the urge to explain there was no such thing as magic and instead filed away the fact that Twilight had something akin to the broken gateway she used to get here. “No, I didn’t; I came through a portal on the moon,” Spliced told the mare as she bit into the apple. She paused and began to eat a bit more vigorously. After finishing it in quick fashion, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hoof. “My, that was delicious! The best I’ve ever had.”

“Well thanks partner,” Applejack said with a smile on her face. “Always glad to hear a pony enjoying one of mah apples.”

“You’re most welcome, Applejack,” Spliced said with a smile and gave a look at the apples in the trees. “I have to find a way to find some way to buy some more in the future.”

“Well, are ya going to be staying here in Ponyville long?”

“For some time until things clear up; after which I do not know,” Spliced replied. “It all depends.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow, but said nothing to this. After a moment, she returned to her friendly expression. “Well, as long as you’re here in town, there’s plenty of apples for you,” she said. “And as Ah said, mah family grows them all around Equestria too.”

“Good to know.” Spliced looked around. “So, how did you and Twilight meet, anyway? I know she said she made five close friends when she first came here, but she never said why she moved to this town in the first place.”

Applejack’s eyes lit up. “Well now, that’s quite the story,” she said. “Y’see, a few years ago, it was time for the annual Summer Sun Celebration - the longest day of the year, when we all stay up to watch Princess Celestia raise the sun.”

Spliced’s eye twitched at that, and if Applejack noticed, she made no comment about it. “Anyway, every year she comes to one town and raises the sun-” Spliced’s eye twitched again - “And all the locals have a big festival to celebrate. That year it was Ponyville, and she sent Twilight down to check on the preparations. Mah family and I were in charge of food, and of course we did our best… anyway, everypony did their part, and the setup went off without a hitch. ‘Course, there was a big incident when it came time for the actual raising of the sun, but Twilight and I and our other friends - Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy - went through quite an adventure, and by the time it was all said and done, the six of us were inseparable. That’s when Twilight and Spike decided to move here, and they’ve lived in Ponyville ever since.”

Spliced looked intrigued. “What kind of adventure?”

Applejack looked hesitant. “Sorry, but that’s kind of… personal,” she said reluctantly. “But it brought us all together, and showed us the magic of friendship.”

Spliced’s eye twitched again. “Well. So, I heard this was also the first residential site in Ponyville when it was founded?”

Applejack nodded happily. “All the way back when mah granny was just a little filly!”

Spliced blinked at that, but listened with interest as Applejack began to describe the story of the town’s founding. She almost facehooved when she heard one of the names involved, but managed to restrain herself.

Seriously, who in their right mind would give their foal the first name Stinking?