“Why did you turn me into a pony?”

Our fire is meager and meek because our fur is warm, and also because who knows how much dry, flammable stuff is in this drafty old dilapidated barn? We can’t build it outside though. The swirling winds and icy snow would extinguish it in minutes. Our fur is what keeps us warm, well mine at least. I can’t help but think my fur coat is warmer than my companion’s, because Twilight Sparkle, the unicorn who destroyed humanity and laughed, her lilac fur just looks so ragged and wrong, wrong like the rest of her. What happened to her?

That’s the question I probably should ask, but considering that I’m a little green-and-grey-haired, yellow-furred mare with weird red eyes, and considering that I don’t know why I am little, green, grey, yellow, red or female, I’m just afraid that I’ll never get that question answered if I ask anything else. I want to know why Twilight betrayed me, why she dumped me, why she did the same thing to all of us, then the whole world, and it all goes back to the completely inscrutable act of changing me into a pony for no reason. That’s where everything started, and... that’s also the first question that slips out of my girly-voiced round snout.

A displeased laugh graces Twilight Sparkle briefly, before she grumbles, “Starting right out with the big ones, huh.”

“It just doesn’t make sense,” I declare in that sweet female voice of mine I’ve gotten so used to, from where Twilight Sparkle has let me sit beside her at her fire, “I took you in, showed you nothing but kindness and next thing I know, I was turning into a pony, and you were laughing at me. You... you hated us, and you never said why. Why do you hate everyone so much, that you just laugh at us, then leave?”

Twilight doesn’t answer for a moment, but she sighs, gazing into the fire, and mutters, “I’m not a good pony.”

I feel like saying something, but she turns to me saying confidently and bitterly, “I am not a good pony, Meadowsweet. Until recently, I wasn’t even trying to be. I didn’t even know what a good pony really was. I try to be good, but then it’s just so hard to resist.”

With a shaky smile, she adds, “I mean you should have seen the look on your face! What was left of it at least. How many times would I have a chance to do that to somepony? The timing was just so perfect, I...”

Her face hardens at my look of worry and she turns to the fire again. “It was necessary to turn you into a pony, for experimental purposes,” she says neutrally, “Sorry if you think you’re some sort of special snowflake, whom I chose above all humanity. I just needed a test subject, and you were the closest option.”

“I wasn’t thinking that, but it does seem a little strange,” I reply cautiously, “You... changed my name to Meadowsweet. Why did you...?”

A soft laugh comes from her, as Twilight says warmly, “It’s fascinating, isn’t it? When your physical form was in its in-between state, I could perform tasks that normally can only happen to the very young. You were being ‘born’ in a sense, so it was trivial to give you a name, as if you were a newborn foal.”

“But... why?” I ask hopelessly, “Why did you change my name?”

Her laugh turns into an amused snort this time as she lifts a foreleg, looking at it and admitting fondly, “It was so hilarious how you started referring to yourself as ‘Meadowsweet.’ And you thought it was gonna be the name of our foal! You had no idea and...”

Wincing at me guiltily, she says, “Iiit was just for fun, sorry.”

“You know... I’m fine with ‘just for fun,’” I earnestly grant the surprised Twilight, “I thought there was some... terrible reason for it. I mean, it’s not like I remember having any other name, and my name really fits me as a pony, so... no harm done?”

“I... suppose so,” she says reluctantly, giving me a measured look, “It also might have shielded you somewhat from all that... financial trouble I left you in.”

“Why did you need all that money, anyway?” I ask her curiously, “What were you really doing? I thought you were some kind of... changeling invader, trying to give us some kind of a pony... transformation plague.”

“Oh, you found the biology books, huh,” Twilight says in an odd amusement.

“There wasn’t even a plague,” I say in confusion, “It wasn’t contagious at all!”

“It really threw you off the trail though, didn’t it?” Twilight asks hopefully. Her eyes are twinkling as she asks, “Did you find the imprints I left in my journal? Or was it the trashed emails? Did you find the clues in the safety deposit box? I’m sure you noticed the book with the hidden cutout inside it.”

“No, what?” I reply in befuddlement, “You left imprints in your... journal, that I used that trick where you rub a pencil over it. And the... trashed emails. You wanted me to find those?”

“How else was I going to get you to confront me in Baltimore?” Twilight says in chiding exasperation, “It worked perfectly, too. You arrived right on time for me to get ‘defeated’ so I could give the police someone to blame.”

“You set us up?!” I blurt in outrage.

“For a good reason,” Twilight assures me, lifting a skinny foreleg in my direction. Then her eyes widen with worry and she plants it, saying to me, “Oh oh, no but I didn’t think they would... I was just trying to throw them off my trail. I had reason, but I didn’t think they were going to torture you.”

Glaring at the fire, Twilight growls out, “They didn’t even have the balls to do anything but try and starve you to death. They had no right to do that to you Meadowsweet. Your own people did it! Your own military is just as bad as my Queen, in their own way.” She looks at me sorrowfully, saying, “They didn’t even treat you as human anymore.”

“Well I wasn’t,” I say a bit resentfully, not really meeting her eyes.

“That’s not the point,” Twilight fusses, “I got you out as quickly as I could. It wasn’t so bad, was it? I–I’m so sorry it got so bad, Meadowsweet. We searched for you and we found everyone else, and we couldn’t... couldn’t find you...”

“You found me,” I assure the wearily sagging unicorn, before Twilight passes out, because it looks like she’s about to do that, left to her own devices, and her own guilt, “I-if you really saved me, then... you’re amazing!”

Twilight doesn’t seem to understand, so I tell her, “If you didn’t intentionally make them do that to us, then it’s not even your fault. It’s just an accident, or their fault! I’m just so glad you didn’t plan all that.”

“Yes, not everything is all part of my grand master plan,” Twilight says with a roll of her eyes, “All I was trying to do is potentiate the ionosphere with a ridiculously large scale magical spell. I wasn’t trying... to torture anyone, or make anyone suffer inordinately. How much do you think I plan ahead? You think I was deliberately dying in the snow, just to get into your home?”

“The... thought had occurred to me,” I say with a wince.

“I was dying,” she growls, glaring at me, “When I came to this world, someone had moved the cassette to some kind of cache out in the middle of the fucking wilderness. I came out in a blizzard, and there was nothing I could do but try to find shelter.”

“So you weren’t just pretending,” I quietly remark, voice thin with dread.

Twilight Sparkle looks at the fire.

“I’ve never been so cold before,” Twilight Sparkle says quietly, staring into the flame, “I had to fight that storm for days, totally unprepared. I couldn’t find shelter, and... I-I fell.”

Looking at me pensively under her bangs, she says, “I remember falling. I couldn’t feel my legs. I didn’t even know they’d given out until I hit the ground. I’d even stopped shivering. I read that’s a bad sign for hypothermia. I was so tired, and so cold...”

“I’m glad I saved you then,” I say in relief, grimacing a bit as I add, “Eeeeeven if you did all those... bad things. Nobody deserves to die like that.”

“The last thing I remember,” she concludes bitterly to the ground, “Is getting angry at the snow for covering me up, because it wasn’t just killing me, it was also hiding the body! It was just covering me up and there was nothing I could do about it but just die, a frozen fool. Then I was waking up in your bathtub.”

“For what it’s worth, that was the best moment of my life,” I tell her wistfully, “If you had died just then, I... I don’t know how I would have lived with that.”

Twilight gives a tearful, shaky laugh, as she says, “It was a close call, but ponies are pretty tough you might have noticed. I guess I finally have a chance to thank you for it. I know any of you bronies would have done the same, but nopony ever... saved my life like that, with no questions asked. It was... nice.”

“You thanked me before, but I thought you didn’t mean it,” I remark distantly, still remembering Twilight’s painful laughter so long before, wanting to hug her so bad, but afraid to break this tenuous connection we have here.

“Well, I did mean it,” she says, briefly wiping her eyes with a furry foreleg again, “And I really would have told you sooner if I didn’t have to betray you.”

“Your queen ordered you to betray us?” I ask cautiously.

Surprise colors Twilight’s features, before she gives a thicker laugh, saying, “Are you kidding? I’m plotting against my Queen, not following her orders! No, I did that all on my own.”

“Why then?” I ask, heart sinking, “Why did you betray us all?”

“What I did for you was a gift!” Twilight protests in outrage, “You should be thanking me for going through all the trouble for your stupid backwards civilization. You should be honored to be a pony, not ashamed!”

“You took away our humanity!” I protest in equal frustration.

“Humanity was a mistake,” Twilight growls bitterly.

“I... I’m not the one you should be arguing with,” I whine, ears low, “I know you’re wrong, but... someone else could say it better. I–I know humans aren’t...”

“You said once that you didn’t regret becoming a pony,” Twilight remarks quietly, “Did you mean that?”

“I... did,” I reluctantly admit.

“You wouldn’t believe how very few of you ever told me how much they liked being a pony,” Twilight says, her brow darkening, “So many who hated it, who hated me, when ponies are clearly the superior species.”

“Lots of people did regret it,” I try to explain to her, “I’m just the weird one. I like being a pony, and I don’t... hate you at all. I don’t even care if you turned me into a powerless earth pony, with no magic at all. I still found—”

“Seriously?” she asks, blinking at me in disbelief, “You think earth ponies are powerless?”

“W-well not totally,” I have to admit, “We just aren’t quite as magical as a unicorn.”

Giving me a look, Twilight announces tiredly, “Meadowsweet, earth ponies are the most magical ponies of all.”

“...what?” I ask blankly.

“Earth ponies are the... all the other tribes are attempts to improve on perfection, as far as I’ve been able to learn at least,” Twilight tells me in a tentative amusement, “You can bend the fabric of reality to your will! All I have is a horn.”

“I don’t... usually bend the fabric of reality to my will,” I protest weakly, “Other kinds of pony have more... control, and less unpredictability.”

“That may be true,” Twilight allows gracefully, “But earth ponies are the most powerful.” She sighs at that, turning to look at the fire.

“Why did... you turn me into an earth pony, then?” I ask, still floored by the revelation that Twilight Sparkle might be jealous of my magical powers.

“It was random,” Twilight says dismissively, not even looking my way, “You turned into the pony who you would have been. I could direct it a little, but for you, I didn’t do anything special.” With a weak smile, she says, “Guess you just... lucked out, huh?”

“Lucked out?! I turned into a—a girl!” I splutter in protest, “W-was that random, too?”

Twilight’s ears go flat at that, saying, “Yes, yes I know, you males all got changed into females so much. It’s just a factor of the sex chromosomes. Ponies have four, so only a quarter of us are male.”

“H-how does that work?” I ask in confusion, “Don’t you run out of—”

“It works better than human reproduction,” Twilight asserts sulkily, “It’s a matter of...”

She holds her head with a skinny hoof, and before I can ask, blurts out, “Gametogenesis. Males just have... more... gametes. So...”

I have no idea what gametes are, but Twilight Sparkle... isn’t doing so good.

“I don’t care if you resent me,” she says darkly, glaring at me as the fire crackles in front of her, “I don’t care if every human hates me. I don’t even care if no one in your world ever forgives me. You’re all lucky to be what you are, even if you don’t want to be a cute little earth pony mare.”

“Well I forgive you, at least,” I tell her uncertainly.

“Of course you forgive me,” Twilight drawls unappreciatively, with a roll of her eyes, “You’re Meadowsweet! You’ll forgive anything, even when you shouldn’t!”

“You... have a point there,” I admit uneasily, as Twilight shakes her head, looking at me with those beautiful purple eyes, saying earnestly,

“No, you don’t understand. I destroyed humanity. I willingly destroyed humanity, and I would do so again. And without even hearing my reasons for it... you forgive me.”

“W-well you must have had pretty good reasons, so...” I say, lifting a hoof shlyly.

“I just don’t get it!” Twilight shouts, collapsing to her belly by the fire in a resigned, exhausted frustration, the kind where you have given up hope, but you still press on, “I cannot find anyone in your world who forgives me just like that, and you just... do? Nopony does that, Meadowsweet! Of all the humans I’ve ever met in all the world, you have to be the stupidest, nicest, most...”

After a pause, I prompt her uncertainly, “most...?”

Twilight Sparkle is not even meeting my eyes anymore, just looking at me in horror.

“Oh no ,” she says in a voice thick with dread, “It can’t be. Not you!” She scrambles to her hooves, edging back from me, declaring, “You’re just... we... we came together by chance! You were the first person to find me. I can’t stop finding you! It has to be, but how could you be—?!”

On her shaky, skinny legs, Twilight paces frantically in front of me, saying to herself, “I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it! How could I have been so blind? Of course it was you. It was you all along!”

“What was me?!” I ask, scrambling up in panic as Twilight rushes up to me to answer.

“You are the one who I have been looking for!” Twilight tells me in astonished delight with a huge smile, like right in my face! “All this time and I never realized it. You have to be the one I’m looking for. There’s no other possible explanation! I–I–I just know it’s true!”

“B-b-but I was... right... here?” I ask uneasily, stepping back from the eager unicorn, “You knew where I was. What are you talking about?”

“Ohh this is so amazing. This is so perfect. I can’t believe it. It’s going to be okay. It’s going to be okay!” Twilight says to the back of the barn, ignoring me again and continuing to pace with all the excitement of a giddy schoolgirl.

As I blank at her reaction, she finishes her circuituous path, looking at me with such hunger, saying huskily with a frenetic desperation, “I need you to come to Equestria with me.”

“What?” I ask numbly, struck numb from the idea that Twilight would say that, even after all we’ve been through!

“I really mean it this time!” she whines almost childishly, her tail and ears going down, as if in apology? What do I say to her? She knows I know she’s lying, right? She’s lying, right?

Then Twilight turns away and starts pacing again, muttering to herself, “Oh, but they’ll surely have the portal guarded. I could probably sneak through myself, but...”

“Actually I’m pretty sneaky—” I start to cut it, but Twilight interrupts my interruption, saying triumphantly,

“That’s it!”

She hurries back and crouches low before me almost playfully, saying, “I need you to promise me that when you get there you’ll say you did this willingly. You’re willing to come to Equestria with me, right?”

“Wha—what about my friends??” I ask in utter confusion. “They’re in t-trouble and maybe dying! I—”

“I swear to you that their best chance to survive is if you come with me to Equestria,” Twilight says in absolute confidence, “Right here, right now.”

“Okay?” I say in continued lack of understanding, “Why would their—”

“Great!” Twilight declares cheerfully, “So you’ll do it? You’re a brony, right? Of course you want to go to Equestria! There might even be mares willing to...” Wincing at me, she checks out my flank and says “Uh... oh. Right. But still, you want to meet the rest of the cast don’t you?”

“You bet I do!” I declare at her, “And I always wanted to go to Equestria. Even when you tricked us the first time, I really wanted to. I never stopped! I’m just confused—”

“So you’ll go, willingly?” she asks, shifting on her hooves anxiously, “You’ll tell them you came to Equestria of your own free will?”

“Yes! But—” I start again, but Twilight says,

“Don’t worry, everything will work out alright. As long as you tell them you came willingly.” Twilight adds in gleeful relief, “Ohh, this is so exciting, Meadowsweet! You’re my best friend, and we’re going to save the world!”

“What?!”

Twilight’s spell hits me like a blackjack to the lower brain stem. I didn’t even notice her horn lighting up, I was so confused. It’s not a stun spell, not an anything spell, just a meaty thwack and then I’m spiraling down into darkness.

There are... voices around me, singing. I can’t understand what they’re singing. Just a wordless song so complex it sounds like a tree full of migrating birds, but lower in pitch, muted, and at a distance. I... I think I’m... awake? When did I fall asleep?

There are people around me, gazing down at me as I crack my eyes open with a quiet moan. They’re ponies, actually, all surrounding this bed I’m laying on, with a thin cover pulled up to lay over my body. I open my eyes to regard one and it’s Cheerilee.

...

It’s Cheerilee! Holy crap! She has a headband, but with her curly bouncy pink bangs, and her dark pink fur that’s probably not pink and I should ask what color it is specifically right away before I offend anyone else BUT IT IS CHEERILEE. Equestria’s greatest schoolteacher is looking down at me with a green headband holding back her bangs, and a very... very grim look on her face.

I’m in a bed of some sort, in a room with Cheerilee and and also Bon Bon! The one with the blue and pink hair! And a third... pony that I don’t recognize, but I think Twilight did it! I think we’re in Equestria!

I don’t see Twilight around. The mare I don’t recognize with pink hair, and deep purple fur is smiling at me as I awaken, looking my way with gentle eyes. The other two are... not smiling. Bon Bon looks worried, and Cheerilee looks uncharacteristically serious, as she frowns at me and says, “Oh boo oh mew melevi, lemudenini be mewver biliziu li muah ohbibi ohh luthuim vlejah zimah zerl limu mayor-r-r limu thul lervenu.”

Okay, no, I should be specific. Cheerilee frowns at me and sings “Oh boo oh mew melevi, lemudenini be mewver biliziu li muah ohbibi ohh luthuim vlejah zimah zerl limu mayor-r-r limu thul lervenu.”

Eyes snapping wide, I sit up and wince as the back of my head throbs in pain. It’s tender to the touch of a forehoof, but more importantly I’m sitting up here in a tiny little bed that’s just my size, in a tiny little room with a door that’s just a tiny little wooden door, not a towering plastic behemoth high above my head. And I look at Cheerilee in alarm, saying, “W-w-what?! Were you singing a—a song? Do you speak English? I didn’t think—y-you have to speak English! You did in the show! Sorry I—I don’t speak... Ponish?”

Cheerilee’s mouth drops open in shock.

I don’t know how she manages to sound sarcastic when singing, but somehow, Bon Bon, grinding her forehoof into her forehead, sings very sarcastically, “Boo zhoo neh uh” something something “the noon the Z linilalala” something “ahh.”

Staring past me, Cheerilee bites her lip, and quivers furiously, then she turns around and strides her flower marked ass stiffly away from me, singing over her shoulder angrily, “Zeemoo boomie...” then more gibberish. The only phrase I recognize in it is “bee booze,” and she’s definitely not singing about that. I do recognize the groan of exasperation at the end though.

Cheerilee pushes the door knob with her hoof and the whole door swings open. The dark pink schoolteacher pony stomps out of the room then, and slams the door behind her with a flick of her tail.

In the silence, the unknown purple (definitely purple ) pony winces sympathetically at me and sings quietly something that ends in “knee may moo.” I don’t know whether to be reassured or scared that one of the words she sang there sounded a lot like a low growl.

My first ten minutes in Equestria are a lot like the rest of my social life: extremely awkward and kind of terrifying. Bon Bon sings something to the purple one like, “New zoo leem weng,” etc etc, “theel eevee—” and she just groans in exasperation at the end of that, like Cheerilee did.

The purple mare with the pink mane doesn’t look happy either, gazing at the door after Cheerilee and singing, “Beh thoona booey meh ohhh...” with a rising tone at the end that sounds... unfinished.

They don’t talk with each other anymore, and I uh... I’m just curious out of my skull. I try smiling at the purple one because she seems nice, and I say carefully, “Meadowsweet,” pointing at my own chest. Then I reach a forehoof out and point it at her, asking, “You?”

She only hesitates a moment before touching her own shoulder with a forehoof and singing, “mleenie may jeh jioonah.”

“Mlee–nee, may jeh,” I repeat uncertainly. The mare balks at that, shaking her head, and repeating “mleenie may je jionnah” but singing it like...

“jeh jioon?” I try, singing the second word higher. She nods and smiles. “mleenie may jeh—” I start to sing and she stops my words with a touch of a hoof.

“Mleen,” she sings high, then “nimeh” lower. Oh right. I try singing the second word low, and the rest high, but she shakes her head at that too, dammit. Bon Bon’s watching us in amusement, so I guess this is okay to do?

“Mleen” she sings, lifting her forehoof, then lowering it and singing “nimeh” lower in pitch, then raises her hoof and her pitch again, singing, “jeh,” raising it again and singing “jioon.” Finally, she returns to four hooves and adds a lower pitched “Ah.”

So. The... wow. Pitch is really important for the Equestrian language. I hope I don’t have to get the exact notes right.

“Jioon... ah?” I venture, the last part lower.

She smiles brightly at that, and hops on her hooves once, declaring, “Bveeyou!”

I manage to sing her name well enough for Jejuna to smile brightly and sing in return “mezzo sweend, mleni meh moo” where “sweend” is lower in pitch, and “mleni meh” is higher.

When I try singing just “mleni meh,” her eyes widen in surprise and she starts to nod, but then the door opens, and Applejack walks in.

Applejack. Walks in.

I don’t recognize her at first, because she’s not wearing her hat, but she’s got the same verdant green eyes, the same orangeish fur that’s another color I should learn ASAP. The same adorable white speckles on her cheeks, the same straw blonde bouncy bangs that cowlick up just a little bit between her broad, conical ears. It’s Applejack! She looks... worn out.

“Howdy there uh, sugarcube,” Applejack sings, but in plain English, thank goodness.

“Woah,” Applejack murmurs in surprise, with briefly narrowing irises, looking down as she touches her own breast/shoulders, “Been a... while,” she says to herself slowly. Then meeting my eyes again with hers of brilliant green, she tries to smile and says in a shaky sort of warble,

“Sorry if’n I get the wrong word zometimes, idz uh... it’s been a while since I dalked like this.” It does sound like she’s speaking more clearly, but...

“...dalked?” I ask, tilting an ear in slight confusion.

“Talked, zor—sorry,” she says with her smile more like a sheepish grimace, “Ah wasn’ the bes’ of us to the human speak in the startin’ place. You cain unnerstand me though, can ya?”

“Oh, so... you only speak um... ‘human’ in the show?” I ask thoughtfully.

Applejack relaxes at that and nods, saying, “Yep, bud ah’m best we got in right now, an’ we need answers from you, pronto.”

“Me?!” I whine in utter confoundment, “I don’t even know where I am! I don’t know what Equestria is like. I don’t know what’s going on! Where’s Twilight?”

“She’z not anywhere you have da worry about,” Applejack says, narrowing her eyes quite worryingly at me, “She cain’t hurt you now, no matter what say about her, and that’s the honest truth. Ah just wanna know if she foalnapped ya, or if you’re here of your own vree will.”

I...honestly don’t know what to say.

“I don’t know,” I confess, looking around the room again, at the other two ponies who have backed up to let Applejack speak, “Both? Neither? She just... what are you gonna do to her?”

Applejack groans in exasperation, scraping her hoof before glaring at me, and saying, “You sound mighty confused, good you be careful what you say? What does ‘she just’ even mean?”

“Oh, it was a sentence fragment,” I tell her, blushing, “I didn’t know how to finish the sentence, so I had to say something else. B-but is Twilight going to be okay?”

“Depending on how you answer,” Applejack says testily, “Are you here of your own vv...free will, or did she foalnap you?”

“She...”

I give up. “She foalnapped me of my own free will,” I grumble.

Applejack gives me a befuddled look. “Listen sugarcube,” she says carefully, “Maybe ah’m not unnerstanding your words right. She foalnapped you...?”

“Right,” I answer as Applejack leads me cautiously on.

“And you came here of your own free will,” Applejack concludes skeptically.

“Look, what happened was...” I rub my forehead with a hoof, adding, “Sorry, that was another sentence fragment. What happened is first, Twilight asked me to come with her to Equestria, and she said it would save the world and all my friends. Then, I said yes. Because I want to be here, of my own free will.”

“Then why did you arrive in a sack?!” Applejack declares in loud aggravation, lashing her end tied blonde tail.

“Twilight said she needed to sneak me across the portal,” I hastily explain, “I tried to tell her I was already sneaky, but she cast a uhhh sleep spell on me, and then I woke up here.”

“So...” Applejack’s eye twitches, “You are here of your own free will, an’ she clubbed you in the head and foalnapped you against of your free will, but you to wantin’ be here in the first place.”

“Y-yes,” I say, sighing and slumping back down on my wrists. Which I have, because ponies aren’t amputees. Our forehooves just don’t have as many thingies on them as hands.

“Well, that is definidely the sorta thing that fool pony’d do,” Applejack says wryly with a half smile, half grimace of disgust, “We thought she juzt nabbed ya and slung you over her back like some kinda vool dang ruffian. That wouldn’t’a worked at all.”

“Why wouldn’t it have worked? I’d still be here, right?” I ask, a little resentful at how close Twilight came to resembling that statement.

“The Elements o’ Harmony cain’t be unwilling,” Applejack counters in surprised confusion, “Am ah sayin’ it of wrong?”

“What do the Elements of Harmony have to do with me? ” I ask with a frustrated huff.

Applejack gives me a penetrating look, like she’s searching inside my eyes for my very soul.

“...what?” I reply, squirming under her gaze. I really don’t know what’s going on at all!

“She didn’t tell you, did she?” Applejack says at last, ceasing her fierce stare, closing her eyes and shaking her head slowly, “‘Course she wouldn’t tell you.”

“Wouldn’t tell me what?” I ask, forcing myself to settle down from trying to escape over the back of my bed.

Applejack opens her eyes again, and looks at me with an appeasing smile, as she says plainly, “Sugarcube, you are the sixth Element o’ Harmony! You’re gonna be Kindness!”

“What about Fluttershy?” I ask, and immediately regret it. Applejack’s smile freezes. Her only movement is a slight contraction of her irises. Oh god. Oh no. That explains everything.

“Lemme zhow you~” Applejack sings in a shaky tone, looking away from me, then clears her throat, saying, “Lemme show you around. Ah... need some time to think of the words. Ah don’t think Twilight has the power to tell you.”

“O-okay,” I say, clutching my blanket in the crook of my forelegs, as Applejack turns around to face the door. Thinking a moment, I add, “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” Applejack asks, looking over her shoulder.

“I’m sorry she was... lost,” I quietly clarify.

Applejack gives me an odd look, then the orange pony just says, “C’mon, follow me.”

Looking to Bon Bon, Applejack sings something like, “Meir-r-r linnie moo laybu boobie” something “linnie moo” something “rrmoomie le bing.”

Yeah I have no idea.

Bon Bon sags with relief at that though, a silly smile falling across her face, as she faintly sings, “bibi bing bview meh.”

“Vimie bing joule,” Applejack replies softly with a tentative, aching hope in her two-note song that makes me wish I knew what they were saying. I know Bon Bon straightens up again, when Applejack sings more authoritatively, “Zeezeeoo joule “ something something, “zeem.” At Bon Bon’s outright salute, Applejack adds, “B’meirrr” something “linnie moo” and I don’t catch the rest until she ends in “booey aahh.”

“Jinern,” Bon Bon sings, standing smartly on all fours again. Away from her, heading halfway out the door, Applejack looks back to me and calls out in English,

“You comin’?”

Oh? Oh... oh! Applejack’s talking English to me again. Springing to attention myself, the blanket pools around my fallen form, as I look to the others and say, “Thank you—uh, I mean...” I try singing “mleni meh” and a quick, joyful laugh bursts out of the purple furred Jejuna, while Bon Bon just tilts her head and gives me her own penetratingly pensive look. Then hopping off the bed, I trot off after the light orange farm pony.

The hallway we emerge into is only barely lit by a wall sconce, and only the glow of the cool moon pours in through the curtained windows in a small entryway at the end of the hallway, in whatever building we are in. Another pony I don’t recognize lounges sideways on a couch in that entryway. I think they’re green, but it’s hard to tell in this light. Applejack looks their way, but they just silently wave us on with a hoof.

I follow Applejack out the second shockingly ordinary sized door, out onto a dirt path amid the shadows of many buildings all around. It leads to a larger path of flat stones, eerily lit by street lamps of some sort at regular intervals.

Our hoofsteps mingle with that of other ponies walking up and down this path, not ponies from my group, or Ainsworth, but ponies who have a certain... tired confidence in their poise, like ponies who’ve been walking this way all their lives. I can pick out their colors as we pass under street lamps, and even see some who look like I might have seen them on the show. Way more hairstyles than I ever saw back on Earth, since most of us Earthling ponies barely knew how to brush our own manes and tails. Not many ponies wearing clothing though, despite the cool night breeze ruffling my fur.

I’m pretty warm, having that thick winter coat that I seem to have grown over the past months. It’s not winter time in Equestria, is it? Do I have to shave this stuff off or what?

Groups of ponies are singing quietly together as they walk, in that strange language. Making light conversation I assume. It almost looks like humans in a mall, except on all fours, outside, in the dark, and without being surrounded by advertisements. Some carry their own lights: lanterns held in their mouths, or their magic. Nobody talks to Applejack, or tries to talk to me, but I hunch closer to that apple emblazoned butt as we walk, nervous that someone’s going to try.

“Can we speak here?” I whisper to her ear nervously.

“...not yet,” Applejack whispers back, and just keeps on trotting. The farm pony knows these ways well, and as our hooves clump quietly on the dirt, I find we start heading up a sloping hill. The buildings fall away as we start to pass grass and trees on the right. I can’t tell where the trees end, might be a whole forest beyond there. The Everfree?

Applejack’s voice doesn’t sound... quite like herself, but I definitely detected tones of Ashleigh Ball in it. Her accent’s... a little weird, but I can’t really complain at this point. Applejack is Applejack, a stocky golden orange earth pony with brilliant green eyes, and little white freckles on her face, and her... shoulders, and her butt. Okay, she has way more freckles, and she’s missing her hat, but...

I have no idea who the heck Applejack really is, do I?

As we crest the top of the hill, we’re all alone up here. Further ahead the path turns back towards the town, but that’s not the way we go. Applejack walks off the path, heading away from the road. Following curiously, I watch the strangely hatless mare sit on her haunches, then pat the grass next to her.

Sitting my own butt next to her, I still can’t believe she’s real, whoever she is. I don’t know why it’s so hard to believe, with all Twilight Sparkle did to me, with what I am. But even if she isn’t a perfect match for the cartoon, Applejack is here, next to me, warm and soft and weighty where our thighs press side by side against one another, and real. There’s something incredible about that.

“Well, whaddya think?” Applejack asks fondly, gazing forward.

“About what?” I ask, tilting my head at her.

“About the view,” Applejack asserts, pointing a hoof in front of her. I turn to look and the glowing, twinkling stars bloom across all the sky like an endless army of fireflies high overhead, not just black and white, but spread around in painted colors like impossibly distant clouds of purple and pink. The moon, pale and round, shines its icy glow down on a land illuminated in blue. It sails in a sea of stars so many stars it feels like I could drown in their gorgeous canvas of light. The glimmering lights of the town are below us on the treeless hill we sit upon, two ponies sitting down on our feet, and lightly braced on our forehooves.

I sink down to laying on my side, and I just can’t take in how beautiful it is. The small sea of golden lights below us from windows and street lamps softly accentuate the dark curves of each building. The miles and miles beyond the town’s edge, all the way to the sea of stars, full of dark fields, and mysterious stands of trees. Not all is enveloped in darkness out there. Some kind of glowing motes, actual fireflies I suppose, drift in shifting clouds here and there in the distance.

“Welcome to the Dreamlands,” Applejack says softly, as we gaze over this beautiful vista.

“It’s beautiful!” I reply, in shock from how with no city illumination, the night skies above my planet were beyond amazing, and these look even more beautiful. This whole quiet, cool landscape just captures my heart in a way that I’ve never felt before. There’s something amazing here, something more precious than all the jewels in the world. Though I don’t actually know how many jewels this world has.

“It is beautiful, an’ dangerous,” Applejack cautions, “Y’gotta be careful not to let th’ beauty blind you. But it is worth a look-see.”

“Thank you, Applejack,” I tell her in aching gratitude, looking towards Applejack, regrettably away from that view, “That’s why you wanted to show me this?”

“That and to zsoften the blow, if you ain’t figured out yet,” Applejack says, still gazing fixedly forward. “Thiz is... what you might call Equestria. It ain’t sunny, it ain’t got no rainbows, and everything you saw in that there show of yours was a lie.”

I look forward again, gazing silently at the strange beauty beyond us. “I don’t think it was all a lie,” I say carefully, “It’s just nighttime right now.”

“Heh...” Applejack says with a wistful smile, “You could say that ah s’pose.”

Then, with my heart hurting for a different reason now, I ask, “When did Nightmare Moon bring about eternal night?”

Giving me a surprised look, Applejack sounds impressed when she says, “You’re pretty zharp, partner. You got all that just from th’ pilot episode?”

“I–I’m pretty dumb actually,” I say, lifting a hoof and blushing at it, “It was just kind of obvious. I saw Nightmare Moon, and you said Equestria isn’t sunny... so she must have done the eternal night thing. She must have done it when...” Looking Applejack’s way, my ears go down as I ask leerily, “Was it when Fluttershy... died?”

Applejack snorts a laugh. I don’t expect that. I don’t think she expects it either, crossing her green eyes and looking at her own orange snout. “Ah dunno when the queen brought about the eternal night,” Applejack says sheepishly to me, “Quite a bit before mah time.”

Looking down the hill again, Applejack’s ears are held carefully upward as she says softly, “Ah ain’t never seen the sun before.”

What.

“H-how?” I ask completely incredulously, looking past her trying to conceive of how, “Wouldn’t the planet freeze? How do you grow apples without... without sunlight?”

Applejack doesn’t answer for a moment, then she sings, “Boo bing zerluniah boov mage zerliniah.”

A pause, and she adds, “Truth is, lay down when the sun comes to rise. Ah think that’s right.”

“Is that what it means?” I ask curiously.

“It means go you to bed when sun rises, or you’ll be sorry,” Applejack says with a bitter tone to her voice, “Something we sing to foals, so they ain’t get no hurt.”

Blinking, I declare in astonishment, “They hurt foals, if they don’t go to bed before the sun rises?!”

Applejack spears me with a look, saying stiffly, “Ah might have mah words mixed up again. You’ll find out when anyway. Don’t worry by we’ll make zure you get right down time to bed.”

“I’m... not even going to question that,” I admit flatly, “There’s just so much to know. I still have so much to learn about Equest—the Dreamlands, I don’t know where to start.”

“You’ll probably wanna learn somethin’ of the home speak,” Applejack suggests, lifting a hoof and looking down at it, “Ah don’t know all your speak so good. Human speak, that is. They cared ah said mah lines,” Applejack glances down, admitting, “Rest ah just had to pick out on myself.”

Pick out... “Oh, you mean pick up on,” I realize as the golden haired pony turns her ears down in shame. “That’s pretty incredible!” I tell Applejack as her ears turn up in not-shame, “You speak English so well, and you weren’t even taught how?”

“I-hi-hit ain’t no big deal,” the now bashful apple pony says, looking away. “It’s just... puttin’ the words together. You’ll probly pick our speak up beautiful quick, of yourself.”

Her face grows grim again as looks back at me and she says, “By the by, not you should speak in your own tongue ‘round other ponies. You won’t be the first pony babbling in strange tongue, but of your words, some big trouble. Lots ponies of these days know the human word Nightmare, word Equestria, if the wrong ponies get wind of it, well...”

Sighing, Applejack dulls her gaze and concludes, “Make a lotta trouble will for us is all. Best not speak human speak when’re around ponies you don’t know.”

“I could understand Nightmare, but why is the word Equestria forbidden?” I ask cautiously.

“Those ain’t the only two,” Applejack retorts, “Bella’ll get you familiarized ah imagine. But this ain’t Equestria. Equestria’s just... an old mare’s tale. This land is called vale mliluj, kinda like land o’ dreams. The Dreamlands. It’s a bid of a trick itself. Vale peerriluj might be a better way t’say it, but nopony wants to get taken in by the queen’s finest to have a little chat about that.”

She tilts an ear and adds, “Peerrilu means not a dream, more like a nightmare.”

With wide eyes, I gaze down to the town, saying, “It’s that bad, is it?”

“Y’gotta be careful not to let th’ beauty blind you,” Applejack repeats, solemnly, “But now that you’re here, we can...”

Her voice catches in her throat. Wait what? To my confusion and dismay, Applejack slowly breaks down crying now, staring down at the town while she says, “That darn fool Twilight, she actually did it. If you’re the mare she was looking for, we might be able to... we might all be able to... finally...”

I don’t know if it’s appropriate, but to hell with Equestria if I’m gonna let Applejack cry by herself. I wrap my forelegs around her barrel from behind, and she’s even warmer when you hug her. I feel... unfathomable strength in her, yet such vulnerability, like I could break her with a word.

“I’ll be her,” I furiously tell the mare in my arms, “Even if I’m not the right mare, I’ll be her anyway. Because you need her.”

I don’t know if crying louder is a good sign or not, but I feel like I dodged the bullet there, or... no, I feel like something I tried to do finally managed to go right.

We’re sitting together after that, because that’s what ponies do. Just sitting on our haunches, hip to hip, looking up at stars more beautiful than I’ve ever seen on Earth, and thinking.

“Fluttershy was Twilight’s only friend,” Applejack says out of the blue in a tight voice.

“Before Twilight met you?” I ask cautiously.

“All of pony was enemies, or underneath Twilight,” Applejack says frankly, “Fluttershy was... differnt.” She gives a wistful sigh, adding, “Gentlest soul I ever did meet.”

“...how did she die?” I ask, immediately regretting it.

Applejack looks down at that, silent, and I’ve totally overstepped my bounds, oh god. I said something horribly wrong.

“She died,” Applejack says flatly, meeting my eyes humorlessly, “Ah don’t know better how put to it. She was uh... taken apart? No that ain’t it.”

“Disintegrated?” I suggest in horror.

“Geshundheit,” Applejack replies casually. “But it ain’t how she died so much as how she lived. What they did to her was...” Applejack looks down again, her voice heavy as she says, “Unforgivable.” It doesn’t look like she wants it to be.

Before I can ask, Applejack spears me with a harsher look, saying seriously, “An’ you ain’t her. You seem like a nice mare and all, but ah don’t trust Twilight Sparkle, not one bit.” Poking me in the chest, Applejack says, “And that means I don’t trust you not one bit neither. So if thinking you to be new Fluttershy, better think twice, ‘cause I ain’t let you hurt Twilight like that, no matter who y’are. If thinking by you to be Kindness, you better be mighty sure you’re up to the task.”

I push her hoof away.

“It’s not like I have any choice,” I tell Applejack resentfully, “All my friends are... are dead, or worse. My whole world is gonna be taken over. And you need Kindness or the Elements of Harmony don’t work. If I’m not good enough, I don’t know what you could do. You seriously couldn’t find one pony in all of um... vale mleeloo that was kind as me?”

“We... tried, sugarcube,” Applejack says with difficulty, leaving her nervous forehoof lifted, “If Twilight hadn’t gone off on th’ queen’s duty... it’s a magicky thing. Our world... lost Kindness. Takes a mite to recover like... long as a pony lives like. An’ legends say only th’ Elementa Magic can find th’ others.”

“And Twilight’s the Element of Magic,” I venture cautiously.

“Twilight’s the reason any of us believe in the Elements at all,” Applejack replies firmly, “She found the records and uncovered the hidings. She done everything she could to save us all. Ah trust her with mah life.”

“Didn’t you just say you don’t trust her one bit?” I ask, with a bewildered tilt of my head.

“W-well ah trust her reeoo... her intentions,” Applejack says nervously, “She just gets a mite... confusedlike at times. A bit.”

“Don’t you have her in prison right now, or something?” I ask a little skeptically. I’m not so sure if Applejack is... attempting to deceive me, or just... confused. She already struggles to find the words even when things aren’t horribly complicated, so I guess I can’t blame her.

“Ah... uh...” Applejack scrunches up her muzzle and tilts an ear, venturing out, “M-mostly we’re puttin’ watch of her. But maybe ah trust Twiligh’, not her judgement at times. Got she a good heart, but... came here back when, it looked like she ain’t eaten in weeks.”

“I thought she looked like a demon, at first,” I say faintly.

“A whut?” Applejack asks, raising her ear again.

“A... a monster,” I reply slowly, “I didn’t even think about how much she looked like... me.”

“You?” Applejack replies in confusion.

“I had to... not eat for... a few weeks once, when I was in a prison. Got really dehydrated, and started getting... skinny,” I say, staring at my own, lush, healthy, well-fed forelegs. “Twilight... she was at least as thin as I was. Is she gonna be okay?”

“...ah caught somma that,” Applejack admits stoically, “Let’s get on down to seeing her, so that we cain of each other make more sense.”

Applejack walks with me down the hill back into town, but we head into a different house from before, a house that is also dark inside. Then we uh... turn around, and head back outside the front door again. I have no idea what she’s doing, as Applejack circles a second house, twice, walks in through the door, then heads up the stairs.

She looks back down at me and whispers, “C’mon!”

“Sorry,” I whisper, halfway up the second step, “These stairs are so tiny!”

“What’re you talkin’ about? C’mon!” Applejack whispers back, and goes on heading up.

At least I don’t have to practically climb up the stairs like I did back in Ainsworth, but these stairs are weirdly narrow, just enough room for my hoof to plant on them, and so shallow. I make it, but I keep stumbling, expecting the stair to be higher, ascending with difficulty to find Applejack in an adjoining room, waiting by an open window.

She gestures at it with a forehoof, whispering, “After you, sugarcube.”

Looking down, the window opens up to a six foot drop to an alleyway outside the house. I dunno if she’s testing me or what, but I jump down all the way to the earth, and as Applejack plummets down beside me, a flick of her tail shuts the window panes above us. Then she strolls down the alleyway—which dead ends—before just hopping the fence at the end of it. I follow suit, as Applejack opens a window in the house on this side of the alley, and climbs in there.

“Is this a test or something?” I whisper after squeezing in after her.

“Almost there,” she whispers back. Then we just... walk out the front door of that building, and travel around another building, to a third alleyway. There’s an even narrower alleyway behind that house, between it and a tall fence, and after going through there, Applejack climbs the fence again, coming down on the other side, as I soon follow. She’s already opened a trap door on the ground in the yard on the other side of this fence, saying, “In here.”

We move down a set of wooden steps, while Applejack pulls the trap door shut above us, leaving us in total darkness. She pushes past me then, and I don’t know where anything is. There’s a series of clicks I orient my ears at though, and I find Applejack facing an inner door, opening at her hoof to an equally dark interior. After I follow her blindly in, and the door closes behind me, Applejack opens the door across this tiny room. It leads to another set of steps going downward, but I can see them this time, because there is a dim glow coming from below.

Down we go, and slowly since I’m not used to these weird sized stairs. Hooves are surprisingly good at gripping though, so I don’t fall or anything. She follows the glow as we exit another door, leading into a large chamber very dimly lit, but beyond it are two large double doors, with light shining in from under them. Applejack just pulls them open, letting bright light flood into this room. My eyes sting as they shrink to adjust, and I follow her out into a mess of light, motion and noise, bright ponies and stone walls.

We enter an ampitheater of sorts. It’s huge! A big cavern hollowed out of stone or something, with glowing lights all along various bannisters on either side. There are ponies here, walking about, filling the air with a thin chorus of song. A pegasus even rises, in two flaps to the upper level. Two levels of walkways circle this ampitheater, each with ponies walking around the edge of this place. And suspended up in the center is a... sun? A bright glowing ball of fiery light overhead, that illuminates everything brightly, and feels kind of warm.

“Welcome to the Resistance!” Applejack announces much more loudly, waving a forehoof around, and leading me in as I gawk at the geometric designs carved along the walls, and a burbling stone water fountain in the center of this place right under the fireball. There are a few ponies laying around it as we approach, as though it were just an ordinary summer’s day.

“Wait here,” Applejack says, leaving me to stand by the fountain, “Ah need to go figgur where Twilight’s bein’ got.”

So watching Applejack hothoof it away, up some stairs, across a balcony, and down one of the halls bordering the ampitheater, I wait there by the fountain with no ability to talk to anyone else. Of course somepony immediately decides to talk to me.

Author's Notes:

And now for something completely different!

Sorry for the lack of updates. I like to write around 3 chapters ahead of what I’m trying to call finished, in case I need to make any massive changes that nobody’s gonna wanna re-read. When I published the last chapter, I had... no buffer. So I needed to write 3 chapters before I could publish one. Ideally I’d want to write 4 chapters ahead, but you’ve all been waiting long enough I think. Chapters 34 and 35 are “finished” and so I think it’s safe to say that this chapter isn’t going to change much, retroactively.

By the way, try taking the cover art of this story and editing it, turning the brightness levels up really high. That is why I haven’t been able to use this wonderful picture drawn by Andromidus as cover art:

Sorry, Andromidus! You’re right it does kind of look like wings!