Three minutes left.

Okay, now I'm stressed. I'm not finished getting ready, and yet I want to take the time to get everything right. I fix every wrinkle in my fluffy, teal miniskirt that extended to my mid thigh. I straighten my white blouse with duel red shoulder straps. I button my blouse to perfection. My long white socks are tall and straight. My black shoes with thin black buckle strap over the top are secured neatly. My nails are . . . (sigh) . . . less than perfect but I suppose it has to do because I am out of time.

I hate that feeling! It galls me not to get everything right.

I look at the tall mirror on my door which is facing inward towards the room. I lean forward to get a close look at my face and hair. I have teal colored hair that's curled in many fluffy spiral loops. I have a yellow headband on top of my head that has the image of a red rook chess piece on both sides near and behind my ears. My eyes are reddish-brown, but my eyelids could use a touch of blush. I spend a few minutes touching it up, then glance at the time. I frown.

Damn it! Now a minute late. I hate that! Sometimes it's quite a curse to be a girl.

I'm not even done yet.

Looking back at the mirror, I give my cheeks a slight rosy blush. I examine my symmetrical dimples on each of my cheeks. They look . . . okay for now.

I wish I had more time!

On the other hand, I am pretty much done. I step back from the mirror and examine myself from head to toe. Despite being a senior in High School, I'm still pretty petite and cute. I could almost pass for a younger age, especially with my appearance and attire, but it looks professional, too. A little childish but my fellow students are used to that.

Still, I normally spend much more time on this, for appearances are very important to me. Whatever business my mother has in mind, it had better be pretty damn important because this interruption has thrown a wrench into my day at a very early point of it. It surprises me how much a few minutes can throw me off. Maybe I need to wake up even earlier. 6:00 AM? 5:45 AM?

But that would only give me six hours of sleep on average.

My eyelids droop halfway down as I continue to examine myself.

Sleep? Who needs sleep? I have an Empire to forge.

I know I got my schedule full to the brim, but that's the price of high ambitions. To make it big in this world, I have to work very hard for it.

I slap my cheeks lightly as I continue to examine myself in the mirror.

“You got this, Cozy,” I say aloud to myself. “The world is your oyster. You'll only get the power you deserve to receive, so make it happen.”

Among the final preparations I make before leaving my room is strapping my, which is disguiased as a cute red bow, I strap my fanny pack to my waist. Within it is a potentially critical preparation for my medical needs. In this case, it is a shot of insulin which several staff members at my school, and even a few students, know how to use, in case of an emergency. Once I have this on, I twist the red bow tie end of it behind me at the small of my back.

Next, I swipe up my augmented-reality glasses from a wireless charging station on my desk. I put them on and look at myself in the mirror. I adjust the glasses slightly, but it is hard to get plain-looking glasses like these wrong. They are just black-rimmed glasses with somewhat thick stems, and that was because it is actually an electronic device that syncs to my cellphone via bluetooth. The glasses secretly project a holographic-looking transparent screen floating in my vision (if I activate them, that is), but it can only be seen on one side of the glasses. Anyone looking towards the glasses cannot see what the digital screen projects. It is like a one-way mirror.

In addition, those lenses can adjust each side of the inward screen in order to correct my vision automatically according to a frequent scan of my eyes.

I admit, they do make me look a bit nerdy which is a bit damaging on the cute motif I am generally going for, but I've accepted this with a shrug because of the hidden advantages involved.

Besides, nobody argues against this considering the fact that I'm the daughter of Twilight Sparkle, the Principal of Canterlot High. Nerdiness simply comes with the territory, and knowledge is power. The more power I accumulate, the closer I am to meeting my grand ambitions.

As a final note of preparation, I grab my purse and strap it on, then I'm finally off.

Glancing at my watch on my left wrist, I see that I am three minutes behind schedule. It feels like an eternity. Such flaws in my schedule are highly grating. This definitely needs some work in the future.

* * *

Along my way to the kitchen, I am accosted by our robot pet dog, K-9. It’s digital barking sound begs for my attention until I pause for a brief moment to bend down and pet it. The round dome of its head detects the touch of my hand like a touch screen on a cellphone. The digital screen of its reddish alarm clock-like eyes change from open to shut in happy pleasure for the attention.

The dog moans a bit when I stand back up and resume my journey to the kitchen. I regret having to abandon it, but I’m running late enough as it is.

“You're three minutes and forty-seven seconds late,” my mother lightly scolds me as I enter the kitchen. She sat on one of the high dining chairs in the center of the room. She rests her elbows on a rectangular wooden table. Despite being Principal of Canterlot High, she is still fond of wearing a white scientist’s lab coat. She has her hair neatly tied up into a single, long ponytail with a purple bow. She regards me with a soft smile while sipping from her coffee mug. The steam of the hot cup of coffee momentarily fogs her own nerdy augmented-reality glasses.

“Yeah, I know!” I agree with frustration as I enter the room and put my purse on one of the empty seats. I see a cup of jasmine tea on the table, courtesy of my mother’s anticipation of my arrival to the kitchen.

What a sweetheart!

However, I don't appreciate rushing in the morning. That screws up my whole daily routine.

“I tried to get things settled as quickly as possible, but . . .” I trail off when I notice we have an unexpected visitor in our kitchen, and she looks very familiar. Impossibly familiar.

Sitting across from my mother was . . . my mother? Like an identical twin?

No, wait! Upon closer examination, I realize there are some differences between the two. Their faces perfectly match, but the other “Twilight” did not wear glasses at all. Her outfit is also a little bit regal looking. Rarity would probably be proud of it. Also her hair is long and straight, which more clearly shows the single brighter purple streak running through her hair.

“Uh . . .” I look taken aback, “. . . Princess Twilight Sparkle . . . I presume?” I ask tentatively.

It's just a guess, but a very logical one considering the information I have on hand.

Before now, I have been told many stories over the years by my mother and some of her friends about a parallel, magical world where sentient, magical talking horses, of all things, are the most predominant species.

I admit, I did question my mother's sanity when she first mentioned it, but she had more than enough evidence of Horse-Land magic to help verify her claims. Her ability to levitate objects within a magical purple aura with a supposedly magical gem she and her friends found in Camp Everfree, was enough to convince me that she is not entirely insane.

Instead, I had to question my own sanity when I first witnessed this.

I was surprised even further when I found out that this is common knowledge to many of her former schoolmates and old faculty members of Canterlot High.

“Um . . . yeah. Pleased to meet you . . . Cozy Glow,” Princess Twilight said to me very nervously. As in, suspiciously nervously.

That reaction immediately sounded warning bells in my head.

Why? Why is this version of my mother afraid of me? Did I do something wrong? As far as I know, we just met!

Or, more likely, this has something to do with my pony counterpart.

This is the first time I met Princess Twilight, though I heard of her many times from my mother and her friends. Sunset Shimmer even has a magical laptop computer that can communicate to Princess Twilight in Horse-Land at any time. I was told that this technology is a replacement for an old and outdated system of a magical copying textbook.

The thing is, because I never met Princess Twilight, she should be just as ignorant about me, other than maybe what my mother and Sunset told her . . . but there is something in her eyes that not only suggests familiarity, but fear.

Damn it! I don't like this. This is a new anomaly that I have no calculations for. As a result, I can't accurately predict where this is going.

Worse, this version of my mother seems to have a somewhat negative opinion of me. If that attitude of hers affects my mother then . . .

I shake my head. That thought led down avenues too painful to contemplate to its fullest.

Huh. I'm going to have to study this new threat carefully. I desperately need more information.

“I take it that this,” I nod at the Princess while I look at my mother, “is the reason you called me down here so early in the morning?”

As I say that, I move to sit in one of the elevated chairs, thus joining the two of them at the table. In this case, Princess Twilight is sitting two spaces further to my right. Mom is sitting across from me and also two spaces to my right.

While my mother answers, I absently stir my tea with a tiny silver spoon.

“Yes, and to announce the fact that I'll not be attending school today for the foreseeable future. I've already called the Vice Principal and informed him of the situation. He assures me that he understands and will take care of everything at Canterlot High while I'm gone.”

“Gone?” I ask in alarm. “Going where? To Horse-Land?”

“It's called Equestria,” Princess Twilight corrects me.

I quickly look at her to assess her. Princess Twilight's voice sounds casual when she speaks. She is also sipping some kind of drink but, whatever it is, it isn't hot. I have a funny feeling that it is carrot juice. I’ve noticed that Mom keeps an extra stock of that in the fridge as if preparing for the possible arrival of her pony friends at any time.

Princess Twilight looks pretty calm for the most part. Obviously her years spent as a Princess in Canterlot have refined her social graces, but I have a keen sense of observation. I did detect a few nervous signs from her, such as tiny beads of sweat on her brow. That could suggest that she is just hot, but that does not add up with the other pieces of evidence I've gathered on her so far.

“I've told her that many times, yet she still insists on calling it ‘Horse-Land,’” my mother informs Princess Twilight with a cute, nerdy, amusing snicker that makes her snort a bit.

“Very amusing,” Princess Twilight said a bit emptily while trying to keep her facial expression carefully neutral.

“And yes,” mother confirms as she looks to me, winning back my attention. “I am going to 'Horse-Land', as you call it, for the foreseeable future.”

“Whatever this mission is . . . is it dangerous?” I ask Princess Twilight in concern.

For the first time, Princess Twilight regards me in positive surprise. I said something she did not expect but, whatever it is, she approves of it. From what I gather based on what I said, I think she's responding positively to my concern about my mother.

Noticing that made me angry, but I hide it well.

Princess Twilight is surprised that I have concern for the very woman who adopted me and gave me a beautiful home? Why? Does she think I’m some kind of monster?

My eyes shrink slightly as I realize something while I continue to regard her.

Wait a second! That's exactly it! She thinks I'm a monster because of something the pony version of me did!

“No, no, Cozy! No!” Princess Twilight strongly assures. She sounds very happy to report that news. She leans slightly towards me as if to emphasize her next point more. “I would never endanger your mother on purpose without a good reason. Fortunately, in this case, the thing I have in mind is far from dangerous.”

“Then why do you need her?” I ask in confusion. “Surely you have many pony citizens you can call upon as Princess of Horse-Land. Surely one of them could . . .” I trail off as my eyes glaze when I realize what's going on. “Unless it has to do with something that only exists in the human world.” My eyes focus back on Princess Twilight. “That's it, isn't it? Does it have something to do with the communication device you put in Sunset's computer?”

“Uh, yeah. Something like that,” Princess Twilight agrees as she looks a little evasive again. She lifts up her cup (of carrot juice?) and sips on it. The look on her face seems to indicate hope that I drop this uncomfortable subject for her.

But this is my mother she's talking about, one of the most precious persons in the world to me.

“Well,” I adjust my glasses a bit, “I'm pretty good at computers too. I think I might be able to handle your problem if it's a software issue.”

“It's not,” my mother assures me then sips her coffee.

Princess Twilight sighs since one of her hopes is already dashed, so she said, “That computer I have in my world had to be built from scratch. Just like we are transformed as we cross through the trans-dimensional barrier, our gear is as well.

“I actually tried to take a cellphone with me through the barrier once. It became a book on the other side. I'm not complaining too much with the results. You may not know this about me, but I love books!

“This one, however, seemed to be filled with nothing but gibberish to me. Gibberish that only your mother seemed to be able to make heads or tails of.

“Needless to say,” Princess Twilight grins as she lifts her cup, “that 'book' had pretty poor cellphone reception in Equestria.”

“The book’s contents were made up of the cellphones digital software written in code,” Mother explains to me. “A lot of it was simply written in binary.”

“Did you test what happens if the 'book' is transferred back to our world?” I ask curiously.

“Of course I did!” my mother firmly assures me. “Any good scientist would test their hypothesis to its logical conclusion.

“We did transfer the book back to our world, much as you have suggested, and it became a cellphone again. Notably, a very glitchy cellphone. The operating system on it got badly corrupted on its return trip, along with all other data on it. I copied it over to an external hard drive and tried my best to work with it. Not only does the software seem to be missing a lot of code, but the ones it has seemed a bit mixed. I was able to reset the phone back to factory settings later on. It needed a new software update to correct the glitches on its BIOS. Once that was done, the phone worked good as new, but at the cost of all of its previous data.”

“We think some information got lost when it transformed into a book,” Twilight put in. “It's as if the book physically wasn't big enough to contain all that data the cellphone had.”

“I would imagine so,” I agree with Princess Twilight. “Even a dumb phone on the market can have more data than an average book you can hold in your hands, or . . . hooves, as it were.”

Something I said made Princess Twilight snicker.

“What?” I ask curiously and slightly accusingly.

“Cozy, you're so adorable!” Princess Twilight said with a smile at me. “I'm really glad to meet you at last. Your mother has been telling me great things about you.”

“Like what?” I ask in a polite attempt to fish for more information.

“Well,” she shrugs, “among the things that I’ve learned about you from her is that you are a great assistant to her, you are Student Council President, you help her a lot around the house, you're wonderful with chess, and you play the violin.”

“Tournament good,” my mother added proudly. “Even national tournament good. My daughter is so amazing! I can't wait to see what else she'll accomplish when she grows up.”

“Yeah!” Princess Twilight laughs a bit nervously. “Imagine that.” I notice how Twilight shuts down a bit after that. Talking about my abilities made her nervous for some reason.

I narrow my eyes slightly at Twilight, then ask out of the blue, “So . . . I take it my pony counterpart is a unicorn in your reality?”

Princess Twilight immediately shakes her head in objection, but she did not verbally correct me until she set her cup down. “No, Cozy. Pegasus, actually.”

Okay, now it's absolutely confirmed. Twilight has indeed met my pony counterpart, and that prior experience scared her. She would not know what breed of pony my pony self is unless they met each other.

Also, pegasus? Really? Everything about me in this reality stretches as close to magical as this world can get. The things I can do with computers and people are kind of magical.

“Oh! Well . . . that's cool too, I guess,” I say a bit emptily. Although, on second thought . . .

“Hey!” I cheer brightly as I get an idea, then look back and forth between Twilight and my mother. “Take me with you! I want to see what my body looks like on the other side!” I then focus on Twilight. “You're an alicorn, right? That means you have both a horn and wings?”

“Um, yeah. That's true, although I wasn't born with the wings,” Princess Twilight informed.

“Then you can teach me how to fly on the other side!” I cry out in excitement, and I am not faking! This idea sounds really thrilling to me.

“Ah . . . no. I don't think so,” Princess Twilight denies.

“Aw.” I look, and am, exceedingly disappointed with that answer. “Why not?”

“Because you have school today and many duties to perform,” my mother reminds me.

I squint an eye at my mother. “Really?! You're going to play that card on me right now?

“Look, my work here in this world is something I truly do take very seriously but what can I possibly learn in school today that can't be matched or surpassed by even one day exploring a whole another alien world? I'd get ten times more learning experience from this than anything I'd ever learn in school in a whole year!”

“Your education here in this world is very important,” Princess Twilight said in an insistent, slightly authoritative voice. “I don't blame you for being curious about my world. In fact, I kind of admire that, but the lessons you'd learn in my world would only benefit you there. We both have very different worlds in many regards. They are similar in some ways, including the most important ways-”

“-like friendship,” my mother chimes in.

“Uh . . . right!” pony Twilight enthusiastically agreed. “Like friendship! That, at least, seems to be a universal language between our two worlds.”

Princess Twilight turns to look at me. “But, in my world, you won't learn about computers or the internet or all of the very special things that only exist here.

“Sure, some of us can fly in my world and some of us have magic but here . . . what you can do is available to everypony!”

I snicker slightly at her wording, and she notices that.

She responds with a grin, then says, “In your world, you have vast machines that can transport many people across the world in a fraction of the time that we can with our hot air balloons. You have buildings artificially conditioned with cooler or hotter temperatures.

“In many ways, I'm jealous of you, Cozy Glow. You get to grow up in a structured world.”

I am tempted to say that I beg to differ, but I keep my mouth shut on that.

Then I thought about her words more. For everything she said my world has, I try to imagine my world without the things she listed. I very quickly realize that the kind of technology level it sounds like she has pushes her world back to the Victorian era somewhere.

This world was certainly less pleasant for members of my gender back during the same time era. As much as I see so many flaws in my world now, I've got to admit that we live like kings and queens compared to the vast majority of people less than a century ago.

However, Twilight's society seems more like a Matriarchal system, which makes me more than a little curious to experience what that is like.

Of course, I realize that pony Twilight is pushing me away from exploring her world on purpose for some reason, and I cannot shake the feeling that it has something to do with my pony counterpart. Twilight is afraid of her, true, but perhaps she is more afraid if the two of us meet each other. Does she think my pony self would be a bad influence on me? Surely it couldn’t be the other way around, could it?

I notice that Princess Twilight is being very evasive about certain details. I’m aware of how she attempts to distract me with certain kinds of answers while shutting down some of my questions.

Twilight definitely does not want me to visit Horse-Land, and yet she has no problem inviting my mother. This means there is nothing wrong with her world itself, at least not for the moment. The problem has something to do with me specifically.

“But . . . mom, how am I going to get to school without you?” After I ask her that, I inwardly wince at myself. I'm reaching, I know, but I feel desperate.

If I could just calm down and think this through rationally, I might be able to come up with a better excuse.

If push came to shove, I could just take the bus to school but I would be quite late at this point.

“Oh!” My mother looks at me as if I had a good point, and for a brief moment that gave me hope, but then she said, “I forgot to tell you, I already called Sunset Shimmer about that. She's on her way here right now to pick you up.”

“Really? Sunny is coming here?” Princess Twilight asks my mom in delight.

“Um, yes.” After my mother answers, she adjusts her glasses a bit. “We can stay for a few more minutes if you want to say hi to her, but the sooner we get on with our mission, the sooner I'll be done. You may have duties to perform as Princess of Equestria, but I have my life and obligations as well. I can't set aside everything for you all the time, I hope you know, regardless of how fondly I think of you.”

“Oh, I know,” Princess Twilight said with a bit of regret. “I'm really sorry for troubling you with this, but there really is nopony else I can ask. Nopony in my world knows your technology better than you do, especially not magical technology. I do have some talent in it myself,” Twilight bragged as she placed a hand on her chest, “especially the magic part, but we have to work together to solve this kind of problem. If we don't, you know what could happen.”

“Does this have something to do with the portal between our two worlds in our basement?” I ask in the hopes to probe for more details. “Please, you two, be straight with me. I can take it.”

For a moment they glance at each other as if silently debating something, then Twilight sighs as she says, “Yes, Cozy, that's exactly it . . . but it's a little more involved than that.

“You see, ever since the statue at Canterlot High got damaged, it has been leaking Equestrian magic into your world.

“It took us a long time to discover that. Fortunately, I had your mother's help in that regard. She was the one that really narrowed it down.”

For a while, my mother spouts a bunch of technobabble to explain how she did it. She also does it so fast that even my head starts spinning. That is not an easy thing to do.

“Uh, yeah . . . what she said,” Princess Twilight agrees lamely.

“Anyway,” Princess Twilight focuses back on me, and I to her. “Ever since then, we sealed up the leak on the statue by redirecting it to the more stable portal in the basement here, but then we discovered there were other places throughout both of our worlds where magic leaks through. We've been attempting to patch things up, and we’ve definitely made some progress, but it's been very slow going lately.”

“Which means,” my mother adjusts her glasses again, “Princess Twilight wants my help to construct a device which could help her in locating more of the leaks. If we can find that, then we can patch up all of the remaining sources of leaks on both sides. If we do so, we won't accidentally get more magical menaces in our world like we had before.”

“You mean like your magical necklace that lets you basically use telekinesis?” I remind my mother. “Also, will that thing still continue to function if you seal up all the leaks?”

“Well, yeah, magic can do that,” my mother agrees, “but it can also turn those who are not prepared for it into a monster. You've heard about Juniper Montage, or Gloriosa at Camp Everfree, or even me!”

“I'm sorry about that,” Princess Twilight said to her counterpart with deep regret. “I really wish you didn't have to suffer like that, but that's exactly why we're trying to get these leaks under control. Magic,” she shakes her head, “isn't really meant for this world.”

“Oh, we've done alright for ourselves,” my mother argues, ironically, with herself in a way.

“Nevertheless,” my mother resumes, “I do agree that we should do everything in our combined power to help contain the situation more. If we do, we might not even need superpowers anymore because no would-be villain will use them against us, either. Things should return back to the way they were before, except better since I've also discovered dear friends during this journey.”

Princess Twilight smiles brightly as she says, “That part, at least, I am infinitely grateful for. My friends have been an immeasurable blessing in my life. I can't imagine my life without them. To see you blessed with the same fate really warms my heart. I'm so glad you all met each other.”

Mother smiles brightly in return as she says, “Me, too.”

The front doorbell rang.

“I'll get it!” I volunteer. I climb down the seat then quickly race across the house to answer the door.

Along the way, I overhear something that I find startlingly poignant.

“She really does come across as a sweet and innocent girl, doesn’t she?” presumably Princess Twilight asks my mother, but since they both have the same voice, it is a little hard to tell the difference without watching them speak.

“Oh, the best!” the other woman, most likely my mother, agrees. “You have no idea how proud I am of her.”

I find my mother's words reassuring.

I open the door. As I expect, I behold Sunset Shimmer.

At first Sunset looks at her motorcycle behind her, but then she turns to regard me after I open the door.

I assess her.

Today, Sunset is wearing denim jean pants and wore her practically trademark black leather jacket. In one of her hands, she also is holding her motorcycle helmet.

“Good morning, Cozy Glow!” Sunset greets me brightly. “May I come in?”

“Good morning, Professor Sunny, and yes.” I step aside. “Please do come in. We have a surprise guest here that I think may interest you.”

“Oh? Is that so?” Sunset asks curiously as she cocks her head.

“Yes. She's in the kitchen,” I inform her.

“Is your mother still here?” Sunset asks as she steps inside and shuts the front door behind her with a gentle backwards kick. “She told me that you needed to be picked up for school today, so I brought an extra helmet for you, but she informed me little else. For example, she did not inform me why she is calling upon me.”

“Oh, shoot. The helmet. I forgot about that.” I frown, then gently pat my hair. “That's going to mess up my hair.”

“You do have a brush or comb in your purse, don't you?” Sunset checks. “If not, I believe I can lend you one before you get to class.”

“I do. It's just . . . I don't like it when anything tries to mess with my hair. It takes me a long time to get it just right.”

Sunset looked over my curly hair, then nodded in agreement. “I imagine so. Sorry about that, but the motorcycle is all I got. I can't afford much on a teacher’s salary, but a motorcycle definitely helps save on gas. That can be so important with gas prices these days.”

“I'll take your word for it,” I partially agree.

“Sunny! Please come into the kitchen and meet someone!” my mother calls aloud, still within the kitchen.

“Sure. Coming.”

Sunset does so. She enters the kitchen.

“Good morning, Twilight!” Sunset greets her friend happily, then looks in surprise at the other woman. “Or should I say . . . Twilights.”

Princess Twilight Sparkle hops off her seat, approaches Sunset Shimmer and gives her a warm hug which she gladly returns.

Meanwhile I observe this in the living room, silentlygathering data.

“It's so good to see you again, Sunset Shimmer! I missed you so much!” Princess Twilight squeals a bit as she squeezes her friend in her hug.

“It's good to see you too, Twilight,” Sunset Shimmer says warmly in return, and I notice the fact she did not call her friend “Princess Twilight” or “Your Majesty”. Instead, the greeting is much more personal. I have a distinct feeling that Princess Twilight had requested that her personal friends dispense with formal, royal titles.

When they part from their hug, Sunset asks, “How is life treating you in Equestria? Is life as a Princess in Canterlot all that you expected?”

“Expected? Um,” pony Twilight thinks for a moment, then absently shrugs. “Eh. I guess you can say that, because I did expect some surprises.

“Overall, however, it's mostly just boring and stately, superficial stuff.

“I'm always pleased when my friends come over to visit me. I think,” she taps her lips, “I especially look forward to Pinkie Pie’s visits because she brings sweets with her.” Twilight waved Sunset off. “But, of course, I love all my friends so it's always good to see them, you included.”

“Um,” Sunset Shimmer shifts a finger back and forth between both Twilights, “I take it that this meeting has to do with that, um,” she spares a quick glance at me, then looks back at Twilight as she says bit more quietly with the back of her hand against her mouth, “thing we discussed earlier?”

Oh! Now I feel REALLY paranoid!

“It's okay, Sunset, she knows,” Princess Twilight said with another dismissive wave. “And yes, that's exactly what I've come to collect my lovely sister for.”

“Sisters,” Sunny says with a happy grin. “Yeah! I like that term. Very appropriate.”

“My other sister, Princess Cadance, proposed the idea first,” pony Twilight announces. “I thought it was a good idea, so I went for it.”

“Well,” Sunset raises her hands to her hips, “at least our worlds didn't blow up with you meeting each other,” Sunny says as she looks back and forth between Twilight and my mother. “Some had feared that was a possibility for some strange reason.”

To even propose that idea at all made Princess Twilight laugh nervously, then say, “Yeah. Heh-heh. Huh. Imagine that.” She rubs the back of her neck.

“Well, it's great to see you again, Twilight, but I really need to get to school and drag this little munchkin along with me.” As Sunset says that, she sounds a little reluctant to depart, but necessity drives her on.

“Yeah, of course,” pony Twilight agrees a little sadly. “School is important. You don't want to be late, nor make her late either.”

Princess Twilight then regards me. “As I said earlier, it's finally nice to meet you, Cozy! I hope you continue to have a happy and wonderful life with your new mother.”

“Um, gee-golly! That sure is swell. Thanks for the sentiment, Your Majesty. That really makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside,” I say insincerely with a bright, happy, fake smile that tends to fool most others.

Deep down, however, I do not really believe her. She is up to something. I just know it. Whatever it is, it's making me very uncomfortable.

And nobody would like me when I'm uncomfortable!

Next Chapter: Chapter Four: Ride with an Angel Estimated time remaining: 17 Hours, 12 Minutes