Mercifully, there were no dreams. I must have been extremely tired though, because I didn’t even remember any blackness, there was just an immediate loss of time. As if my little filly had just walked back over to me and nudged me awake. The sky looked darker, like it was late afternoon and I spotted Minuette standing behind her. Time had passed. The soreness was replaced with stiffness and a heavy numbness like I was one big bruise now. The tiny pink unicorn asked me if I wanted to watch cartoons though. I couldn’t say no to that.

Stiffly I got up and followed into the house in a lightheaded daze. Ruby was excitedly explaining to me and Minuette canning and where the food was stored. I was listening to the sound of her voice excitedly rise and fall more than her actual words.

“You wouldn’t even know it if you were looking right at it! Carrot says it’s designed that way in case you have to hide from people. And the way the air and water comes in and the way it’s stocked with supplies it even functions as a fallout shelter!”

“Meemaw and Papa were worried the bombs were going to fall,” Carrot explained shyly. “It made sense to build the shelter around the cool room. Although realistically I’m pretty sure you’d go stir-crazy down there.”

“There’s so much food though!” Ruby defended the grandeur of this bunker to us. Carrot shook her head as we stopped in the living room.

“It only looks like a lot lined up like that. I remember us rotating through the food. Nothing was ever more than a year or two old and there were only three of us. It would have taken a lot of effort to regrow after the bombs fell. All the topsoil in the garden would get thrown out. The fruit off the trees wouldn’t be safe to eat for a long time. If ever.”

There was a depressed silence.

“Sorry. I thought about this a lot growing up,” Carrot remarked embarrassed and rubbing the back of her hoof.

“You’re fine!” Minuette waved it off. “Hey! Speaking of thinking a lot, how about those ponies?”

I didn’t understand the segue but I wasn’t sure if we were supposed to.

“You mean Rainbow Rocks?” Comet corrected.

“Yeah, that! I’ll put it on,” Minuette volunteered as she walked over to where she left her phone and stared down at it. “Um. Hey, Carrot, can I borrow your stylus?”

It was at that point I realized who was missing. I looked around to confirm it.

“Where’s Chad?” I asked the room.

“He headed home. He needed some time to think,” Minuette offered an explanation to me as Carrot offered her her leg brace. Minuette bit down awkwardly on the stylus and pulled it from its sleeve. With it out I noticed it looked homemade. Like someone had stuck a tiny, crude bit of sponge into the end of a metal pen.

“I’ll put some tea on,” Carrot volunteered as she walked towards the kitchen. “Berry? Would you come help me?”

It felt like everyone was looking at me. I didn’t know what she wanted but I figured it couldn’t hurt. I stood and followed her in.

The kitchen wasn’t all that big. Against the far wall a series of small buckets lined the wall filled with various grains and dried goods. There used to be shelves of spices and canned goods on the wall but those shelves were leaning against the corner now and their contents stacked in front of them, some dented and dinged. There was a metal ice box behind me but I wasn’t sure how it worked or if it did at all.

“Would you put a few logs into the stove?” she pointed towards the stove and the chopped firewood sitting next to it. Wordlessly I went about it while she mouthed a pot’s handle and stood up onto her hind legs at the sink. She worked a hand pump while I carefully dragged some logs off the stack and pushed some into the stove. I wondered how long those logs would last. I wondered how many she had stockpiled and how a pony could chop wood.

Careful not to burn herself she sat the smaller pot in front of the leftover stew. She turned to look at me, inches from my face.

“Do you want anything, other than tea?” Carrot asked me softly.

“A cigarette?" I asked, knowing what she really meant. She frowned at me.

“I don’t have any tobacco. But I’m going to go grab some applesauce and a few other things. Did you want any moonshine?” she asked again.

I was feeling bad but not exceptionally. My body just felt heavy and dull. I could feel my heartbeat at the bottom of my hooves. I don’t think ponies were supposed to vomit.

“...yeah,” I vaguely accepted her offer. Carrot nodded.

“Watch the water for me,” she said stepping towards the backdoor. She then turned and raised her voice to the living room. “Do you ponies want chocolate or peanut butter??”

“Both!” came back an excited adult mare’s voice. Carrot shook her head, realizing she shouldn’t have bothered asking.

“‘Both’ is fine,” came a filly a second later.

“Yeah,” a stallion added passively. “...what is this for?”

---

Applejack: Sure wish you could stay longer.
Twilight Sparkle: Me too. But I have responsibilities in Equestria that I have to get back to. Its citizens need me. But now I can go through the portal whenever I need to. This isn't goodbye. It's just goodbye 'til next time. Ready?
Spike: Ready!

Sunset Shimmer seemed to turn her life around in Rainbow Rocks. She seemed apologetic like a good children’s villain at the end of the first movie. In this one, the school still hated her and her only friends were the people Twilight told to befriend her. They didn’t really seem to believe in her but they were nice to her. She wanted to prove she changed though. The movie’s subplot was about her.

The use of Equestrian magic at the end of the first movie got the attention of some immortal teenage sirens exiled in our world. They used their voices and magical amulets to turn the student body on itself and fall in love with them so they could root out the source of the Equestrian magic and take it for themselves.

Meanwhile, the humans who befriended Twilight in the first movie ‘ponied up’ and gained ears and tails whenever they played music now. Something to do with direct exposure to Equestrian magic, something that didn’t exist in our world until then apparently. They didn’t understand why it happened specifically when playing music though.

So naturally, it was a musical. It ended with two ‘bands’ battling with the student body between them. The good guys played a song human Fluttershy wrote on a hill overlooking the stage while the sirens were singing high and hypnotic pop-rock notes. The sirens’ sheer vocal power, powered up from stealing emotions from the students, overpowered the humans.

Then Sunset, not participating in the band until now, took up the microphone. The DJ gave her a beat and she started singing some kind of uniting song. Twilight joined in. Then the whole band. Then the whole school. Sunset Shimmer ‘ponied up’ with ears and tails like the rest of the good guys had been doing and then some kind of giant rainbow alicorn made of light came from their magic and crippled the sirens’ magic and singing voices. The defeated sirens ran off, cursed to be regular humans.

I wondered if there were actually other magical creatures on Earth like them. Or magical artifacts like their amulets. If this movie happened because a little bit of Equestrian magic was used on Earth, what would happen now with all the magical ponies appearing?

Sunset Shimmer: [voiceover] Dear Princess Twilight,
Missing you already, and I hope you'll be back soon. Things are definitely looking up for me here at Canterlot High. But I know I still have a lot to learn about friendship. Hope you don't mind if I write to you for advice when I need it.
Your friend, Sunset Shimmer.
Rainbow Dash: You ready or what?
Sunset Shimmer: Ready!
Pinkie Pie: One! Two! Three! Four!

The credits started but nobody made an effort to get up or stop the movie. There was another song playing and it was beautiful. It was about how when with our friends we shined like rainbows. We all listened in silence. Minuette didn’t even finish the chocolate peanut butter cookie pie slice sticking out of her mouth.

I wondered if Sunset Shimmer was still out there somewhere. Maybe she was behind the show. If she didn’t get caught up in the “Five Score” curse and lived out her life as a human she’d probably be in her forties now. She had seemed content to give up her old life and her old body and stay on this side of the portal as a human because she had friends. They made her into a better person and she was happy with them. Nothing was more important to her than the bonds she made. It hurt how relevant that was to me now.

Ruby looked up at me and smiled. Then wrapped herself around me and nuzzled into my chest. “It’s okay, Mom,” Ruby consoled me. I didn’t even realize I had been tearing up.

The conversation on Rainbow Rocks and the nature of Equestria Girls lasted for hours. We had no way to know where it took place, besides near a school. Maybe. We didn't know how accurate it was, considering twenty-five years ago cell phones weren’t a huge thing, humans didn’t come in those colors or those names and it would take a conspiracy to cover up what apparently happened. But we had information, a lot of information, and no way to find the exact line between fact and fiction. Ruby was especially interested in figuring out the nature of Equestrian magic and if the way it worked for the humans in the movie gave any hints to how it worked for ponies.

Eventually we had more carrot stew and it started to get dark. Since we were going to have to turn on some lights or burn some candles anyway, Comet Tail suggested a change of scenery and everyone liked the idea.

It felt like a long time since I had looked up just for the sake of stargazing. It was a perfect, clear night for it. We all sat out on a blanket Carrot provided. A dimmed electric lantern sat nearby so that we didn’t trip over each other.

I wasn’t sure if it was our larger eyes or just because Carrot’s homestead was in the middle of nowhere but the sky was absolutely speckled with stars tonight. It looked even better than what I remembered from Comet’s favorite spot outside Lawson.

When we got out there Comet quizzed me on what I remembered. It was easy to explain where the North Star was at our latitude. And from there, you had the Ursa Minor and Ursa Major and could orientate the rest. I got a little lost among all the new stars trying to draw out the Herdsman though. Well, I had the essentials down at least. Comet was happy to point out a few more then went about setting his telescope up for some planets.

Ruby started talking more about her theory on magic.

“So... music is magic?” Comet summarized what Ruby had said while he tried to carefully adjust the focus knob on his telescope with hooves.

“Wait, no, I thought friendship was magic?” I butted in. Minuette snickered next to me.

“That just means friendship is music,” Minuette transposed. I heard a bit of stifled laughter, this time from Carrot. The long conversation was finally getting to us. Carrot cleared her throat politely and ‘hmm’ed.

“If that’s true, then when we ‘face the music’... is it like we’re seeing an old friend again?” Carrot pondered, not sounding entirely serious.

“Just as a metaphor,” Ruby said with a sigh, slightly annoyed at our antics. She was still deeply invested into this conversation. “Like the way music rhymes. You know how you can expect part of a song’s melody from the parts before it? You're expecting to hear something and then it happens. And then there’s a rhythm and tempo to it. That’s like a sine wave, like it’s a form of energy. And then you’re applying meaning on top of that energy, like lyrics or other instruments, like you’re encoding a message onto the wave.”

“...Ruby, I love you... and I’m listening... but honest question, did you ever smoke weed and not tell me?” I asked, feeling like this thinking sounded familiar.

“What? No!”

“...alright, that’s Venus,” Comet announced looking up from the telescope satisfied. He pointed out towards the west horizon. “You got Mercury right above it too.”

Carrot Top, standing next to him, took the first peek. She looked down into the eyepiece for a moment then looked up with her naked eyes to where the planets were.

“Huh. You’d think they were just stars,” Carrot said appreciatively.

“You would but they’re so much closer,” Comet said longingly. “Do you know what the word ‘planet’ means?”

“Wanderer,” Carrot answered.

“Right. And that’s how they got our attention back in the day, because they didn’t move with the rest of the stars through the seasons, they appear to move in a spiral, because we move around the sun with them at different distances.”

Comet was in ‘professor mode’. I had heard all of this before, multiple times: it was like a familiar song and it was usually therapeutic to hear. Looking up at all the stars that night though I couldn't help but feel small. Those stars were there before I got here and they would be there when I left. And It didn't matter how close any of it was when I couldn't ever reach them.

There was something going on closer though: Ruby was still explaining her magic theory to Minuette and me.

“...all doing a different part, is harmony. That’s why when they played together, they could tap into harmony magic. The Equestrian magic now in them manifested during songs the way it normally manifests when a spell is cast. But there aren’t instructions for the magic in a song like there is in a spell to it, so it just kind of… gave off magical radiation. Like the filament in a light bulb.”

“Huh,” Minuette nodded, trying to take it all in.

“Minuette? Did you want to look?” Carrot asked. Minuette nodded emphatically and got up to look in the telescope. Carrot took her place on the blanket.

“And you... read this in your last memory in Equestria?” I asked my little scholar. I think I figured out the parts I zoned out on.

“No. I was trying to cast a spell I never did before and I was trying to remember the fundamentals I read about in magic kindergarten. But I didn’t really understand the context of the explanation anymore. Not until I saw them playing music in Rainbow Rocks. It was about rhythm and instinct from muscle memory like when playing music.”

“So... does that help? Did you figure it out?”

“Maybe. But the only spell I remember the ‘melody’ to was the one I couldn’t cast, a magic beam. And I only remember fumbling over it. I... think all I’ve been doing the past few days is bashing keys,” she grumbled and tried to look down at the broken pocket watch around her neck.

“I think I remember the ‘melody’ or whatever to telekinesis,” Comet said as he entered the conversation. “I knew a couple of spells back then. Telekinesis felt like, if I had to put it into words… ‘It is familiar. You feel the edges of it. It is a part of you. You can feel the joints connecting it to you and.. you move it along that axis…’. if that makes any sense.”

“A little,” Ruby said, nodded contemplatively.

“That’s cool,” Minuette said to seemingly nothing in particular. She walked back over to the blanket. “Pinchy? Did you want a go?” She gestured to the telescope.

Ruby nodded, stood up and walked over to it. She was bending and lifting her back legs more now but there was still an odd fumble here and there when she tried to step with the wrong leg or too fast. Still though, my little unicorn was walking more confidently than even this morning. It made me wonder how much that old lady had been coddling her while I was at Nathan’s.

“Um,” Ruby mumbled and looked back over at us. “Comet Tail? A little help?” Ruby gestured to the height of the eyepiece, it was above her eye level.

“Shoot! Sorry,” Comet apologized and trotted over to mess with the tripod legs. They were already as low as they went. “Rubes, bring the light over?”

I watched Ruby walk over to the lantern next to Carrot and bite down on the handle. As she was walking it back to the telescope though, she suddenly stopped and sat it down. Then sat down in front of it and lifted it up in her hooves to look at it, like she suddenly noticed something new about it.

From nowhere, an eerie yellow-green light grew into existence right above Ruby’s head. Everyone else turned to look at the sudden light but Ruby ignored it and continued to stare at the lantern.

“Get away from that!” I shouted at her. I stood up but before I could pull her away the intensity of the light magnified over and over.

We were awash in a green daylight. Our long shadows stretched out to the now clearly visible treeline. Then at its brightest there was a sound of glass exploding and we were dumped into pitch blackness.

“Ruby??” I fumbled towards where I last saw her and tripped over something soft and fluffy. Minuette started screaming and kicking from underneath me. Something tackled me to the ground from the side and pinned me. It had hooves. She had hooves. “Carrot Top?”

“Berry Punch,” she acknowledged from on top of me and felt around my chest for my neck, then my muzzle. When she found my mouth I felt her hoof recede then come back for one gentle poke.

“Minuette,” she called out her own name. “Sorry... I thought you were abducting me.”

“Ruby? Comet?” I asked while my eyes readjusted from the light. I could start to make out Carrot’s outline then the stars behind her.

Gentler this time, that green glow came back and we could see again. We all turned to look at it. Ruby stood right under it. Then I realized it was actually touching her. It was her horn. Her horn was glowing. We stared in awe.

“It has a resonance!” she declared with a proud smile.

---

It understandably turned into a very late night.

Being a dirt horse who didn’t take high school physics or music theory, it mostly all went over my hornless head. It was fascinating to watch though. We moved indoors and Carrot sat out some candles and a second battery-powered lantern. The lantern was understandably tucked away safely in the corner, away from the unicorns relearning ‘how to magic’ from their smallest member.

Comet Tail was the second to relearn how to ignite his horn. His magic glowed a blue. Which started a short-lived and discredited theory that Minuette’s would be blue too based on eye color. Hers was a golden color.

Once they each had a new flashlight, they started trying to move objects with them. It was apparently a little more complicated than just ‘willing’ it over, otherwise you might accidentally move things. They discussed Ruby’s theory about confidence and muscle memory and figured familiar objects would be easier and require less effort.

With this theory, Comet Tail walked over to his telescope case and smiled down at its latches. They glowed when his horn glowed. And then flipped open. He even managed to swing the case lid open after dropping it a few times.

Minuette figured it out with a cookie. She said it was something about the anticipation and the expected joy. Ruby tried to explain that that was similar to the melody and cause-effect nature of it.

Surprising us all, Ruby had the most trouble. We tried pencils, clothes, her pocket watch, her Fluttershy plushie, rocks, scissors, cookies, Comet’s telescope, the broken lantern, I volunteered myself, and, after some persuasion, the working lantern was tried. She couldn’t seem to do the ‘spell’.

We asked if it was her age. She claimed it was a confidence and rhythm issue.

“I know you’ll get it. You’re a genius! You’re the one who figured it out,” I reminded her. She nodded quietly, but was starting to look tired and contemplative. I wondered how early her bedtime was supposed to be. She really wanted to get this.

Yet the most she did was put a fleeting glimmer on an object that quickly sputtered out. While Comet Tail and Minuette were pushing and pulling things over and picking them in their magical grasps, Ruby was struggling to get a grip. She tried a metronome phone app. Then something that made awful noise pitches in specific frequencies. Then we tried playing pony songs.

After another hour of frustration and seeing her friends get it, Ruby finally gave up. I rarely saw her do that. She said the doubt and exhaustion was doing more harm than good at that point. She wanted to go to bed and would try again in the morning.

That’s when we found out there was only one bed in the house. After a short, tired discussion of sleeping arrangements about who gets the bed, Minuette suggested everypony got the bed. It was fair and simple so we all piled onto it.

It turns out four and a half little ponies fit not too uncomfortably on a queen-sized bed if they’re willing to cuddle a little. To none of our surprise, little ponies like to cuddle.

Ruby fit perfectly in my legs and Comet Tail slept with his back against mine. Carrot slept across from me and Minuette used Carrot’s cutie mark as a pillow and her rear legs brushed against mine. With so many warm, fuzzy bodies we had no need for blankets. I thought because of my nap in the middle of the afternoon I would have trouble sleeping yet the body heat from all my fuzzy friends in the uncirculated air of the room pushed me into a light-headed, heat-induced coma. It was almost as good as getting blackout drunk. I could almost imagine the room slowly spinning me to sleep.

Next Chapter: 17. Keep In Touch Estimated time remaining: 11 Hours, 14 Minutes