She felt like her whole body was spinning in darkness; a disorienting, nauseating and vertigo-inducing feeling that only slightly diminished as she heard distant voices coming from somewhere around her.

"Luna!" One of the distant voices called out. It was familiar. She knew the owner of this voice. "What happened?" the voice demanded. It was strange. She knew the voice but she also knew she had never spoken to it.

"We don't know," another familiar voice said. There was a sound now, like a shrill din of some sort, louder and more clear than the muffled voices around her as they debated just outside of her understanding.

Laetitia groaned, trying to rub her head with her hands, but her body was too heavy, her mind too jumbled. There was too much noise, too many distractions. Instead, she focused on her own efforts, putting her arms down, firmly. She needed to push herself up.

There was something strange, yet familiar… was she asleep again, dreaming of a body mirroring Luna's? It was something they had done before, for fun, after all, but why now? She tried to remember and shake her head as the thought of the pony form seemed to simplify her adjustments.

She groaned at the effort. She felt… drained. As if she had been practicing psionics with Geist again for several hours. She finally stood up and swayed. She stumbled, ready to fall down, only for something warm and ticklish to hold her up.

"Luna, careful!" Laetitia shook her head and stared in confusion at the alicorn in front of her. She had never seen her in her original form, but there were only so many princesses and only one woman who had those shades in her hair. "T-twilight Sparkle?"

"Yeah, it's me," Twilight answered, looking at Celestia and another, male unicorn with evident worry. "What happened Luna?"

'Luna?' She blinked, looking down at her body in bewilderment. This wasn't a dream. She was really here and she was… she was… "Je ne—I'm not—" she stammered, trying to sort through her thoughts. As usual, when she was tired, her languages mixed up heavily.

Celestia gasped. Luna had mentioned that the secret was out, at least for Celestia and some of Twilight's friends. She saw the dawning understanding in her eyes. "Oh no… Laetitia?"

"What?!"

"Please, Twilight… don't shout, I have the strongest headache right now…"

"Sorry!" Twilight said, wincing. It was adorable how her ears flattened and she looked so contrite. Briefly, Laetitia wondered how cute in comparison Sunset would be in her original form. "But, I don't understand! How are you here? And how did Princess Celestia recognize you?"

The Princess grimaced. "I'm afraid that is a long story… and I believe for Laetitia to tell. But more urgently, where is my sister? What happened?"

Laetitia shook her head. "The last thing I remember, I was in the kitchen, infiltrating a mansion as one of the cooks…" she trailed off. Darkness. Blood. Screams. Jane. "Oh. Oh no." She covered her mouth in horror.

"Laetitia? Speak to me."

Celestia's calm voice snapped Laetitia back to reality. She looked at the Princess. She knew who she was. What she meant to Sunset. Who she was to Sunset… and now… "If-if I am correct, Princess…" she shook her head. "Jane was possessed by something… she was not using technology. She… she wasn't using psionics." She looked down. She couldn't find it in herself to look at Celestia in the eye. "She was using blood magic… and she wasn't herself."

"But Jane is incapable of using magic on her own," Twilight said, unaware of the sudden chill in the room. "The only magic she had in her was from that transfusion from…" her eyes became wide. "Oh…"

"Princess!" The unnamed stallion in the room shouted, his magic flaring as Celestia collapsed.

"It can't be…" the Princess whispered, "not my Little Sun."

"I can't be sure what was happening, your highness," Laetitia said gently, "but Luna is there. Let us trust her and wait for more news."

Celestia's eyes studied Laetitia for a moment. "Yes… of course. I must rest… excuse me… and perhaps, you should… talk to Twilight and Shining armor. They should know what is happening…"

Laetitia gulped, looking at Twilight. "Of course."

Celestia nodded, a feeble, jerky attempt before she vanished in a burst of light.

Gilda snorted, slowly circling the panting Alejandra. "You're telling me, you went into the Everfree Forest with these skills and survived? Ponyfeathers. You would barely make it out alive in Cloudsdale's Flight Kindergarten, much less the real world out there."

Alejandra shook her head and pushed herself up. Her whole body hurt. She had claw marks on her chest, on her withers, had her tail bitten, her beak smashed onto the floor, and to add insult to injury, Gilda hadn't shut up about it at all.

'If I were a unicorn, you'd be fried chicken by now, you over-confident yarn-chaser!' Alejandra thought to herself, imagining the many ways she could make Gilda explode.

"I don't get it," Gilda continued, completely unaware of her charge's murderous intent. "Galahad said he trained you a little. I'd thought you'd learnt by know how to look up and down in a fight."

Growling, Alejandra started circling as well, but Gilda did not look worried.

"And he said you were some sort of soldier in the other world? And you promised to protect Princess Twidweeb, Lady of Eggheads all by yourself? Chick, what you need is to find yourself a nice place to roost and just dedicate yourself to laying eggs, following that gang is a sure way to get murderized fairly quickly. Usually by things that can disintegrate you."

Gilda casually jumped and hovered, letting Alejandra fly under her to crash and roll. "Yep. A nice nest. That is what you need. You know what, Gabby would be a better bodyguard. I'll give you that you have endurance and strength, but fighting doesn't really seem to be your forte, y'know?"

"Ragh! SHUT UP!" Alejandra roared jumping up and doing her best to fly above, under, behind—any angle to get close enough to rip Gilda's throat out.

"Whoops!" Gilda laughed, dropping under an attack and using her tail to slap Alejandra on the beak. Again. "Wait, I get it, I get. You don't want to body-guard her. You want her body!"

Alejandra's eyes went wide.

"But I'm not sure she's really into the bondage thing," Gilda said, shrugging. "But, y'never know, right? Maybe she does like kicking kittens. Hey, if that's her thing, you're prime material, chick. I've never met anygriffon so willing to take a beating."

Alejandra saw red.

The next thing she knew, she was on the floor, a heavy weight on her back, and she was struggling to get up, but unable to do so.

"Alright, alright!" Galahad called, "That's enough for today," he walked into Alejandra's field of view and looked at her with a wary face. "You there, G?"

"Y-yeah… what the hell happened?"

Galahad grinned. "Gilda is doing better than even I expected."

A snort was the reply from above, followed by the weight coming off of Alejandra's back. She groaned, just then realizing how much worse she felt than earlier.

"Come on." A claw made its way down to her, and she looked up to see Gilda offering to help her up.

Grumbling, she accepted it, and the other griffon pulled her up with ease.

Galahad patted her shoulder. "You should go rest."

"Ugh. I think I will… and then you'll tell me how this whole thing qualifies as training." Alejandra started making her way to Gabby's house, leaving the other two griffons behind.

Gabby had woken up earlier and insisted she stay there, and that she would be back as soon as she finished her chores. The young griffon had been a bundle of energy, so much so that Alejandra didn't have a chance to really talk to her… the reality was really confusing. Gabby was basically her. Just… younger.

She shook her head. Too much to think about now.

"Sleep first. Then I'll figure it out," she said, laying down with a deep, pained moan. "And then I get my guns and kill Galahad and Gilda."