Doing as they said involved an awful lot of waiting around. It took almost another hour, with only minor interruption. Marie kept herself tucked away in a corner, where she wouldn’t have to be in front of her friends all the time. Sure, none of them had reacted with disgust and anger towards her yet, but it was really only a matter of time.

I was supposed to be back to normal before we got back. No one was supposed to see this. If Mum sees, she’ll never be able to forget it. Even if I learn what Ocellus can do.

Learning was precisely what she wanted to be doing right now. But when she asked, Ocellus only said, “These humans are already terrified of us. Using any magic around them might make them react violently. I can teach you later.”

And she was probably right, no matter how much she hated to admit it. The MI5 agents had been remarkably calm for humans who had just discovered their universe was missing a huge chunk of important information—but maybe they weren’t missing as much as she thought. Magic must have always existed, right? Like the mermaid thing.

At least while they were waiting she got a little time alone with Helen, to tell her about the night before. The aliens were all huddled together in one corner, discussing how and when a “Twilight” might be sending a message for them and expressing general frustration towards Ocellus. Marie didn’t know why they were upset with her, but she didn’t interfere.

David, meanwhile, was talking with the agents—either distracting them or trying to make a legal case for their innocence. Marie couldn’t tell which, but he sure seemed passionate about it.

That left her and Helen tucked away on a bench beside a shut window, which David had insisted they leave that way. “You have to try it, Hel. Just this flash, and… suddenly I could swim perfectly, and breathe underwater, and smell the fish all around me. All that in some stupid pond… we have to try in the ocean!”

Helen put up her hands defensively. “Nuh-uh. My father made me try that whole scuba thing once, when we did the Bahamas last year? Bloody nightmare, that. All that water stacked up on top of you like a sack ‘a bricks, knowin’ that if you lost the regulator or a shark got the wrong glint in your eye, you were finished.”

“Sharks don’t attack people,” Marie muttered. “And you wouldn’t need a regulator. That’s the whole point!”

She rolled her eyes. “That don’t make me even a wee bit more convinced, Marie. Maybe that ‘magic’ thing works well enough on you, with ‘yer…” She gestured up to her eyes, then looked away. “Well, yer’ thing. But I don’t got that. I don’t got no plans to roll my way down any hills.”

“I’d try to convince you, but…” She shook her head. “I don’t know if I can even do any magic. I don’t know if I can fly. Might be the only thing this is good for is…”

“Not dying,” Helen interrupted, squeezing her arm. “You ‘ent dead, Marie. That’s enough for me even if you never fly on no brooms or sing no fairy songs.”

It was like the whole kitchen lit up with color. The floral bench they were sitting on, the uncooked eggs still resting in the pan. It wasn’t like Marie had felt hungry before, but she certainly didn’t now. They came all the way up here for me. Put themselves in danger for me.

Not like I ever doubted they were my friends.

The front door opened again, and Marie caught a glimpse of a tall figure in white plastic. Hazardous Materials, apparently, carrying a large plastic case. A second figure followed, a little shorter and slimmer, but in the same inflated plastic suit.

They looked so silly that Silverstream actually laughed, loud enough that everyone in the room turned to stare. “You didn’t say you’d be inviting pillows!”

The humans reacted as though they hadn’t even heard her, hurrying past her to the kitchen table and opening their case. A number of instruments were inside, none of which looked like weapons but none that looked pleasant. Like they’d brought an entire doctor’s office in a few boxes.

Agent Smith followed them into the kitchen, raising his voice a little. “This is Dr. Kepler and Nurse Patel,” he said. “They’ll be making sure we’re safe to move. That might involve considerable waiting on our part, so try to get comfortable.”

“I can have someone run for tea,” Hayes suggested. But at his partner’s stern look, he lowered his voice. “We, uh… can have someone run for tea, can’t we?”

“I suppose so,” Agent Smith muttered. “I’ll send for tea. And… probably lunch while we’re at it. You, uh… people eat, don’t you?”

Of course, the visiting doctors had come to study the humans more than the Equestrians. And at the top of their interest list was Marie herself. Having a female doctor appeared to come with a double use, because seconds later she was asked to step into a bedroom with the woman and begin the most through, embarrassing examination of her life.

For once, she didn’t want Helen to be there with her, or even her mother.

What was worse, the doctor had to do everything from inside an inflated plastic suit, making her slow and somewhat uncoordinated. She stuck Marie’s arm three times before she finally got blood—healthy red as it went into the vial, not some sickly green like she’d imagined. So at least she had that going for her.

“We’re done,” the doctor said, snapping a single file folder closed and tucking it away into her case. “Sorry about all that, sweetheart. Hopefully it didn’t hurt too badly. You can get dressed again.

Marie nodded, closed her eyes—and suddenly she was dressed.

Dr. Kepler staggered back in surprise, dropping her case with a plastic thunk. “My god! You just… apparated it.”

“Uh…” Marie looked down, and found that Kepler was right. Her dress and underclothes were still crumpled on the bed, but she… was wearing them anyway. Even better, her wings weren’t rubbing up against the improper cuts down the back. She turned, and found perfect openings formed in the blouse, in exactly the right places. “Oh. Oops. Sorry.”

“Sorry?” The woman opened the case, removing a pair of scissors from inside. She hurried over, snipping away a piece from Marie’s shoulder without invitation.

Marie felt a prick of pain, like pushing too hard on something sharp—and the blouse fuzzed away in a puff of green smoke. Bloody hell.

“That… what did you just do, Marie? Can you do it again?”

She turned away, covering her chest self-consciously—but nothing happened this time. She gritted her teeth, trying to recreate the way she’d felt. After a few seconds she shook her head, picking up the fabric from the bed and pulling it on. “Sorry. I don’t know what happened. Ocellus says I shouldn’t be worried if it takes me a little while to learn my powers.”

“Right.” Dr. Kepler scribbled down a few more things, then finally left her alone.

Marie took a few moments in the loneliness of the bedroom to collect herself, recovering from the embarrassment. It wasn’t like she hadn’t had a doctor’s appointment before, but… not in some stranger’s bedroom, without her mother there, and with a doctor in a plastic suit.

It’s not their fault. They’re just trying to keep the country safe. What if I really could make people sick? I’d want them to find out, wouldn’t I? She did, but maybe with a little more dignity.

Their captors had multiplied from a few into several dozen, figures in thick suits with bits of plastic and strange machines. David seemed to be watching them through the cracks in the windows, but Agent Smith and Agent Hayes offered no explanation about what they were doing.

Even without being told, they could see some of it. The house was being covered with plastic, as thick and sturdy as the suits their new doctors were wearing.

Their imprisonment in the house lasted until nightfall. Marie watched from a distant chair as David and Helen ate with the Equestrians—and she didn’t feel even a little bit hungry.

But then night came, and Marie realized what the figures outside had been building so diligently. A tube, wide enough that even Yona could pass through it without difficulty, leading to… somewhere.

“Ready for transport, Agent Smith,” said Doctor Kepler, gesturing back towards the front door. “You’ll be happy to hear that every person exposed thus far is testing negative across our suite of common toxins and diseases. Extensive laboratory testing will be required to make certain conclusions, however.”

“What about the girl?”

Marie tensed, knowing without any changeling magic who they must be talking about. But why are you asking her that here? The other thing was obviously meant to reassure David and Helen, but this—

The doctor’s eyes narrowed just a touch inside her suit. “Healthy, far as I can tell. Weren’t for the wings and her, uh… eyes… I’d give her approval for any summer camp she wanted. We need better equipment for her, and… the others.”

“Are we done with this yet?” Smolder asked, folding her arms. “We’ve done everything you said. Time to let us go, right?”

“Time to…” Smith repeated, shifting quickly from confusion to amusement. “No, we aren’t. But we’re ready to move to better accommodations. Don’t worry, my partner and I will be just as bored as you are.”

“Great,” she said, glancing briefly at the door to the back garden. But like the rest of the house, it had been completely covered with plastic. She could probably melt through it in moments, if she was willing.

Marie could feel the doubt move through her, a complex series of feelings that eventually settled on simultaneous trust and annoyance for Ocellus. “Is everyone ready?” the dragon asked, with an undertone so thick she doubted even the humans would miss it.

“Yona is not happy about this,” the yak said, shuffling uneasily on her hooves. All four humans watched her fearfully, maybe even more frightened of her than they were of the dragon. Of course they are. She’s huge! That plastic wouldn’t slow her down for a second if she wanted to go through it. “But tiny humans obviously worked hard to make all this—would be inconsiderate to smash. Very impolite.”

“R-right,” Smith said. “Inconsiderate. Now let’s not keep the drivers waiting. Consider yourselves… guests of Her Majesty, if… a tad unconventional.”

“Can’t wait to hear what the queen has to say about this,” Patel muttered, loud enough that Marie could hear. Or maybe that was just the little speaker in his suit.

They left. Marie and Ocellus ended up at the front of the line, though whether that was because they were similar or just by some coincidence, she couldn’t have said. They didn’t have to walk next to each other to talk.

“You think they’ll treat us fairly?” she asked. “Probably should’ve… checked on that before we were almost locked up already.”

“I hope so,” Marie said, unhelpfully. “Police make mistakes, but I think they do want what’s best for us.”

“For you. Mr. Smith wouldn’t even negotiate until he saw you were alive.” They passed through a black plastic tube, which Marie realized was taking them all the way down the drive. Cold air blasted past her, lifting her hair and making her shiver once. Little lights set into the ceiling illuminated the way into two separate vehicles.

“We’ll have to do this by size,” Smith called from up ahead of them. “If you could try to get an equal number of heavy and light, er… people… into each of our trucks, that would be helpful. Single file then, don’t stop. We’ll be on our way to somewhere more comfortable before you know it.”