After washing my hands several times in the ladies bathroom, I proceed to splash my face with water to help bring me back to my senses. Following that, I slowly look up to my reflection in the mirror ahead of me. I watch as water droplets drip off of my chin which thins out in seconds.

I can't get the earlier visit from Princess Twilight out of my head. Something felt wrong about that encounter. Something that was probably even dangerous to me.

“Um . . . yeah. Pleased to meet you . . . Cozy Glow,” she said to me very nervously. There was a cringe to her pose. A smallness to her eyes. It took me a while to notice that because she kept avoiding eye contact with me for the majority of the encounter.

She acted like she partially recognized me and was struggling to remind herself that I'm not the same Cozy Glow from her own universe. She was struggling to accept me as a different person and she did not entirely succeed. Part of her always remained on her guard just in case . . . of what? Why was she so afraid of me?

I don't know what my pony counterpart is like but, judging on how similar my mother was to Princess Twilight, it stood to reason that my pony counterpart must be very similar to me. My mother and Princess Twilight could easily pass as identical twins. They had the same body shape, the same color, the same face, the same voice. They had very similar mannerisms, body language, and apparent personality. Their body language alone was a seventy-two percent match. The error in difference between them likely stems from Princess Twilight's lack of familiarity with the human body but she was close enough to pass for human in the eyes of most of the world. If I wasn't studying her so carefully, even I could have missed it.

So if those two could share that much in common, what does that suggest about me and pony Cozy Glow?

Well, if she's anything like me then she's vastly intelligent, ambitious, strategic, manipulative, likely a very good liar, and . . . well. The further I continue the list, the greater the chances of error.

Pony Cozy Glow is born a pegasus pony in the magical world of Horse-Land. That is her reality and the only thing she's ever known. There is a ninety-seven percent chance I can dismiss “computer hacker” as a list of skills for pony Cozy. That also means she never had those resources to work with. She has been working with Victorian era kind of technology all of her life.

Well, for the most part. There does seem to be a few odd exceptions in their world. For example, I heard that they had digital arcade machines. Why would they have that and not computers?

Also, how could ponies type on them if they don't have hands anyway?

Illogical . . . all of it, but that just goes to prove it's unwise to evaluate their world by the standards of my own. The laws of physics are just a myth where they come from. They seem to operate more on cartoon logic.

I'd love to see that in action and get a chance to study it! Oh, the data I could collect!

I grab the sides of the sink and squeeze it with my hands. My head droops a bit while I continue to stare at my face in the mirror. My shoulder blades spread a bit.

So if pony Cozy is like me, or at least very similar to me, then she may have had an ambitious plan too and set that in motion. It doesn't have to be against anyone specific like my agenda against Diamond Tiara. Instead, she might have tried to accumulate power for its own sake. Considering how much trepidation Princess Twilight regarded me, it seems like pony Cozy already set her plans in motion. Maybe she even succeeded to take over their world for a moment but, in all probability, that was short lived. Since Princess Twilight is still around to tell the tale, it suggests that my counterparts ‘evil’ plan was curtailed to some extent. Perhaps even completely.

I got to admit, if I met my pony counterpart personally, I would be very intrigued and she would likely be too. However, knowing ourselves as well as we do, there would likely be at least a thread of caution between us as well. If we're too similar, it may include all the wrong ways.

But oh, the plans we could devise if we worked together! Encountering another with my vast intellect is very rare as it is, not to mention someone who could complement my personality completely.

In any case, it seems that Princess Twilight is judging me by the standards of my pony counterpart, and that is not looking good. If those fears were to spread to my mother, then I would suffer a fate worse than death.

Worse, even, than failing all my plans against Little Miss Prissy.

I contemplate the cruel irony of considering my own mother's pony counterpart as my potential enemy. The same woman who has my mother's face and voice. For all I know, maybe even the same spirit. The two women who grew up in different worlds but still share so much in common that they are practically two sides of the same coin. It pains me so much to consider anyone so similar to my beloved mother to be my enemy.

Not to mention dangerous. Of all the people in the world, my mother is the closest person I've ever met to being able to match my intellect. It's been super swell for me because it means she's able to nurture my potential like nobody else can. That is such a relief and comfort because that fact is otherwise very rare. Our intelligence sets us apart from others so severely that it often makes us feel lonely even when we stand in a crowd. To encounter another who can see the world the way I do . . . it validates every feeling I have.

The truth is my intelligence actually does surpass my mother’s by a noticeable margin, but not enough to draw us apart. Since she's older, she also has the advantage of experience, although I'm quickly catching up to her on that front.

I remember a moment when she and I lay with our backs on a picnic blanket as we gazed up at the stars. She challenged me with questions about knowledge of the stars and constellations. I answered most of her questions correctly. Every time I did, I could feel her beaming at me with pride. I felt relieved to notice that. For every correct answer I gave her, it weakened any hidden, lingering reservations she had about adopting me.

For the answers I either didn't get correct or know the answer to at all, she gladly taught me the correct answer. She was pleased to teach me something new, and I was eager to learn.

I close my eyes as I think back to that moment under the stars.

“Mommy,” I asked her in the past on that night under the stars, “do you really love me?”

“Of course I do!” my mother immediately replied. She acted shocked that I asked that question. “Why would you even ask me that?”

“I was just wondering,” I replied sheepishly. I didn't want her to know how insecure I felt. That would be a sign of weakness which might lead to disappointing her.

“I love you, Mommy,” I say as I hug her from her side. Tears leaked from my tightly squeezed eyes in a wince of desperation.

“I love you too!” Mommy replied warmly and lovingly. “You are the greatest blessing to ever come into my life, my darling Cozy Glow. I'm so glad to have met you and for you to share my life with me. I feel as if you complete me, as if we were always meant to be together.”

“I feel the same way!” I exclaimed with an explosion of relief. “Please, Mommy . . . never ever let me go!”

“I won't.” She kissed my forehead, then went on to say, “I promise. Cross my heart and hope to fly-”

“-stick a cupcake in my eye!” We finished together, and then we giggled.

It was a very warm and happy moment for me. As long as she's in my life, I feel whole again.

I sniff as I open my eyes, my mind returning to the present. As I look back at my reflection, I realize my vision got blurry with tears.

I promise too, Mommy. I won't ever let you go either. I won't let anyone come between us, not even your alternate self.

I sigh as I realize that my weakness, for the moment, is a dangerous lack of information. Since it seems very unlikely that I'll be able to squeeze that information from any adult that I know, I guess that means I'll have to roll up my sleeves and do this myself.

Still looking into the mirror as I wipe my tears away with a paper towel offered in a dispenser to the side of the mirror, I notice resolve sink deep into my eyes as I come up with a plan.

I need to do a little recon so I know what I'm up against. I think it's finally time I pay a long overdue, unannounced, and unauthorized visit to Horse-Land.

That'll be a little tricky, but bypassing security measures and gathering information is a specialty of mine. One of many.

When the door opens to a dull pink bathroom stall behind me, I focus on it through the mirror, gazing past the reflection of my right shoulder. There I see something that I do not expect, the sight of Ghost.

The mysterious boy is wearing long blue jeans and a gray sweat coat with hood over his head. He also wears large black sunglasses to help conceal more of his face. He rises off the toilet and silently approaches me from behind. In fact, he moves so quietly that part of me suspects Horse-Land magic at work with him.

But if he did have some magical item that helps him to go unnoticed on his job, then that alone does not explain his competence at his job in other ways. He acts more like he was a professional spy for sixty plus years and he somehow got magically youthened to become a young teenager again. With the way this world works sometimes ever since the Horse-Land magical leaks, I consider it unwise to wipe every theory off the table, no matter how unlikely it seems.

Ghost is among the very few individuals in my age range that I actually respect. Also, while I would never admit this to him openly, he also kind of creeps me out.

I have never succeeded to locate him before unless he wanted to be found. Anyone who is that good at going unnoticed or breaking into areas he's not supposed to be in order to gather intel means he could potentially show up anywhere.

Sometimes I still have vivid nightmares of the boy silently staring at me in the shadows of my bedroom at night while I am asleep, but he'd always vanish every time I check for him.

Like a Ghost!

“This is the ladies restroom, so I don't think you're supposed to be here,” I coyly inform him, still looking at him through the reflection of the mirror. “Not unless you spontaneously turned into a girl since last we met.”

After saying that, I turn to face him and cross my arms across my chest. A sly look grows on my face. “I must admit, that would be very interesting if it is so. Please say it is so!”

“I can become whatever I need to be in order to complete my mission,” Ghost says quietly to me as he stops three feet in front of me. “Usually a fly on the wall is more than sufficient.”

I look intrigued. “Are you telling me you have shapeshifting powers? If so, why not disguise yourself as a girl right now? I dare you!”

He shrugs carelessly as he answers, “Because I know for a fact that it's just the two of us in here. No further displays of my abilities are necessary, and regardless . . . it is beside the point for the moment.”

He lifts his right hand and holds up a black flash drive.

“Do you still want it?” he checks.

Honestly, there is a part of me that feels nervous about the power he's offering to me, but I don't hesitate to answer him because that may reveal my own weakness. I certainly don't want to underestimate him by revealing more than he probably already knows.

“Of course I do!”

He pulls it back as I reach for it, then says, “Ah-ah-ah! Payment first.”

I sigh a bit as I look at him. Normally I'd want proof that he has indeed delivered the merchandise I asked for before I start handing out payment, but he's proven too competent at his job (to the point of being scary) to question him now. Also, I don't want to lose him as a contact. He's too valuable as an asset. I may need his services again someday so it's tactically smart to remain on his good side.

Cooperatively, I pull out my cellphone from my purse. I navigate it to the information he's seeking then proceed to email it to him using a secure and digitally encrypted line.

Seconds later he feels a buzz from his own cellphone. He pulls it out of his left sweat coat pocket and checks it. I observe as he quickly types in a password of his own then presses his thumb on a thumb scanner on his phone. He pauses for about seven seconds as he observes it. After that, he nods in satisfaction as he looks at me, puts away his phone, and hands me the black flash drive. He says as he hands it over, “Our business is concluded.”

I take the flash drive into my right hand and look at it, then at him as I watch him leave without another word. In fact, I can't hear anything about him, including his sneakers as he walks. He makes absolutely no sound at all, almost as if he is a holographically projected illusion.

He pushes open the bathroom door, checks both ways in the hallway, then leaves to his left.

I look at the flash drive on the palm of my right hand, then clench it with a fist as I pull it close to my chest.

This flash drive, I knew, accomplishes a very important step in my plans. It may give access to great power, but at a very steep cost.

Also there are other dire implications of the information I may discover, but I'll never know for sure without moving the game forward.

My metaphorical chess game with Ghost concludes, for the moment. This one ends in a draw. I gain something and he gains something. Stars only knows what he'll do with the information I sent him, but I calculate an eighty-six percent chance that he'll use it to help him gather more intel on some other mission of his. I've been able to narrow it down to a few possibilities but I soon reach an impasse from there until I gather more intel myself.

Meanwhile, I manage to maneuver one of my pawns to the other side of the game board in a separate chess game I've been playing simultaneously. Because of that, it's now ready for replacement with any other chess piece of my choosing.

Which means the next move is mine.

Decisions. Decisions.

Next Chapter: Chapter Seven: The Student's Life Estimated time remaining: 16 Hours, 29 Minutes