I kept running, almost without any direction at all. At one point in a clearing Ruby told me to turn left and I did. Beyond that though, I just kept moving ‘away’ from the scene of the crash. I was good at this. It was a simple goal and every step of my gait got us closer to ‘away’. Over hills, down valleys, and almost always sticking with the forests. Especially where the trees were denser and the grass was taller. Other than crossing a few clear country roads I avoided anything man-made. At one point I thought I heard distant sirens over the sound of my breath but I never saw any.

The muscles in my legs were sore from all the distance we were making but I kept moving as quickly as I dared through the woods. Eventually though, I felt slick with sweat and everything I was carrying was starting to chafe the skin underneath my coat. I was going to just ignore that too but a little voice spoke up.

“Mom? Are you hurt?” my precious cargo asked me. Apparently she saw me cringing from the chafing. “We can stop. We’re really far away.”

She was right and I relented. We were firmly in the middle of wilderness when I stopped and slowly sat down on my haunches. Ruby let gravity slide her off my back. I took the opportunity to pull the bags off my sore neck where the straps were especially rough. Ruby took a few weak, half-crawls towards her bag next to me and pulled it open.

“Let’s make one of those saddlebags like Carrot Top did,” she suggested. She dug around inside it with her hooves until she pulled out a gray, lace-patterned sweater of hers.

It was obvious from how she lifted it in her aura and the strain on her face that her magical abilities were hitting some kind of wall. Which seemed understandable to me after all I saw her do today. She had made a huge leap in her abilities, right over what Minuette and Comet Tail were able to do, in just over twenty-four hours. I had a feeling she had probably been awake for most of that time too. Which begged the question…

“Ruby, how did you get so good at magic?” I asked her while she tossed the sweater over my back. A tiny frown formed on her muzzle as she tied off the arms of the sweater just below my forelegs. It seemed like something she wasn’t ready to talk about so I didn’t press. She turned back to our bags and started looking through mine.

“Princess Luna taught me some things… after she helped me... get over my problem,” she admitted. She seemed to tiredly study my belt instead of look at me, like she wasn’t sure if it would work.

“Oh! That’s great. What was the problem?” I asked, expecting some explanation about magic that was going to go over my head. I loved listening to her explain things though, so I wanted to hear it anyway.

“In Equestria, before we were sent here, he… he scared me,” she said with an edge of shame in her voice. I knew who she was talking about. I dragged her to me and held her close. She dropped the belt in her hooves to reciprocate the hugging.

“...what did he do?” I asked quietly.

“I was trying to use my gem-cutting spell offensively. But he just thought it was funny. I kept trying to focus and go over the process and he just-just kept laughing at me,” she explained in frustration. I traced a hoof down her back, trying to ease the tension growing there and remind her she was safe. “When I tried to retrace the steps in my dream... I could still feel him. And hear Minuette screaming. And you… you were all gone. Everyone died trying to protect me. And I couldn’t do anything. The thing that killed everyone I knew was laughing at me,” she explained as I felt her body shiver. “I was pathetic. He made me feel like...” Ruby trailed to a stop. She didn’t want to finish her sentence and she didn’t have to. I squeezed her tighter and rubbed her mane. Like Dad. Discord made her feel weak like Dad did.

“You know that’s not true, right? Especially not now,” I asked my tired filly. She trembled a bit but agreed.

"Yeah..."

Fortunately whatever Princess Luna did had clearly worked. Or at least, well enough. I felt a little crushed though: this was a trauma that Ruby didn’t want to share with me until now. I just rubbed her mane for a while and let her squeeze me back. I wanted to understand why she didn’t tell me but I was also worried about asking the wrong question.

“...why didn’t you tell us?” I finally asked.

“I was worried that you would all look down on me. Like I’m just some little… scaredy filly.”

“Pinchy, we wouldn’t have looked down on you,” I rejected the idea. She pulled away from me and looked up at me with tears burning in her exhausted eyes.

“But what if you did??” she squeaked. She wiped her eyes with her dirty fetlock and I could tell that just made it worse. “I was worried my friends wouldn't see me as their equal anymore. What if... you started seeing me as weak and helpless like everyone else secretly does?!” A sob choked out of her. “I didn’t want my friends babying me like Mom started doing.” So our mom really had been coddling her.

Ruby had started crying and I wasn’t sure if she wanted me to hold her in that moment or not. I had to do something though so I compromised and put a hoof on hers. She stiffened up at my touch and grew quiet but she still wouldn’t look up at me.

Her being insecure like this reminded me of when we were preteens. In confidence, she told me that part of her motivation for her schoolwork and art had been to be better than everyone else. Being average meant they could look down on her. If she was better than them, they couldn't do that.

Fortunately, I don't think she thought that way for long. I thought her work became its own reward. At some point I thought she stopped looking at others and just looked forward. She had a drive and however it began to form it was a part of her and something I admired and wished I had. She saw what she could do, not what she couldn't. By the time I figured she could go wherever she wanted for college, she didn’t have anything to prove. The decorations in her bedroom were proof enough of her abilities.

Meanwhile the decorations of my childhood room had been mostly her art too, just intermixed with a few posters. I’d like to think the fact she gave me those meant I was part of that drive. The fact that she let me hang one of the very paintings in my room that had won an award hanging in hers cemented that in my mind. Her only goal with college was she wanted to be there for our mom.

I thought all that made it clear she had moved past that insecurity. Now I wasn’t so sure if those feelings of inadequacy had just been buried or if this change reverted her to a younger mindset.

In our awkward silence the sky gave up trying to hold back the dark clouds and it started to rain on us. We continued standing there in it as it passed quickly from a sprinkle and straight into a downpour.

“I was scared too,” I finally said something to my small family member. “When I finally remembered that time in the caves, I almost had a panic attack. I started drinking again. We were all scared when he sent us here. He played with us and then he killed us,” I reminded her. “He tried to drown me and swallow me, I think.”

Ruby nodded, confirming my statement. “I guess but… I don’t want you to treat me like a foal. I’m not! ...I don’t know what I am anymore but I already grew up! I'm just... smaller now! Even if I feel like an impulsive crybaby,” She looked sad and exhausted and with the way her tail tucked under her, maybe a bit ashamed. “Besides, if our rescue plan fell apart... I don’t know what I would have done. I’m not innocent; children are supposed to be innocent. Children shouldn't worry they're going to kill someone.”

I was hearing what she was saying, but I was seeing conflicting emotions on her face and a small foal’s dreams withering in the rain. I moved my hoof around her and she didn’t resist. In fact, she leaned into me and was on the verge of crying again but she fought the tears.

“Is that what you want?” I whispered to her, just audible over the rain.

“Maybe I’m just tired,” she dismissed her feelings, ready to shut down.

“Hey, you’re not the only one dealing with this. I was your brother!” I reminded her. Brian was all I could really remember and he was still me, but that part of me felt over now. It was a past life.

“Then are you really a mare again? In your head?” she asked, looking up at me curiously. “I know you’re ‘Mom’, but… are you female? Did it really change you back, mentally?“

I knew what she was thinking: if I was female again or if I had always been, then she could be a child still. But in truth I didn’t know how to answer that. I knew it wasn’t just pronouns; it was supposed to be like a ‘feeling’ or maybe a lack of a feeling of discomfort with myself. If I had a choice now, I didn’t want to go back to being Brian. Maybe someone else, but going back to him would be uncomfortable. I wanted to be someone else and my old self, or whatever I was now, was potentially someone else. I wanted to move past Brian. What I wanted was to be with my friends. I wanted to be Mom. I don't think I minded being a mare necessarily if I got all that. Did that make me a mare?

“Maybe,” I tentatively affirmed. “You know, I was told you can be whatever you want to be,” I said, channeling my inner Minuette. “Are you sure you don’t want to be my filly? What about… your ‘lost childhood’?” She seemed to take a moment to reflect. I remembered the sketch she made of the three happy foals chasing each other down a hill. I wondered if that was longing or a flash of something past.

There was a longing look in her eyes as she spoke.. “I... don’t know what I want,” she finally admitted in a slump.

“Then... I’ll give you everything!” I vowed. I pulled her into a tight hug. Ruby let out a startled laugh at my nonsensical dramatics but that died quickly and she started to squeeze me back. “You're my everything already anyway. You know that, right?" My friend, my pride, my sister, my daughter. "I would burn down the world if you needed the fire for a night light!"

Her own muffled giggles tickled into my chest. “I love you too, Mom,” she said.

“So... be yourself, okay?” I told her, running a wet foreleg carefully over her rain-slicked mane. “Be everything, because you're already mine. Tell me if I’m babying you too much and I promise I’ll cut back. Until you figure out what you are, you can be a mess like your mom!”

There was clearly more on her mind but at least a happier smile found its way back into her tired, absinthe eyes. She agreed. “Okay, but you have to only do what feels right too. Okay?”

“It’s a deal!” I agreed and kissed the crown of her water-logged mane to seal it.

The rain wasn’t too cold, but it would eventually soak us through. I started to seriously consider if she might get sick out here in the rain. I looked around at the soaked woods and then up at the overcast clouds above us. They felt… ominous. “Alright!” I started a new topic. “How about I get us out of the rain?”

She agreed and I did my best to help her finish making the makeshift saddlebag and then she slung it on top of the sweater on my back. The weight of the bags weren’t perfectly distributed but once Ruby was weighing down the middle I could tell they weren’t going anywhere. She got her windbreaker out of her bag and I threw that over her to keep the rain off her and my back.

I continued heading in the direction we had been going. Once Ruby had been tucked in and covered she seemed to grow quiet and still almost instantly. I tried to tread carefully. Now that she was off her tired legs and some of the weight on her mind had been addressed, I thought maybe she had finally fallen asleep. She definitely needed it.

When we got to the next country road though, I saw the land across it was open pasture. I didn’t think it was a good idea to travel through that. Not in the daylight, anyway. I turned to look at the sun and get an idea of how long it would be until night. That was when I realized it.

“We’ve been going north,” I said out loud, so surprised I had to hear it to confirm that yes, the sun was moving towards the horizon to our left. Ruby shifted slightly on my back.

“Princess Luna... said go north,” she mumbled without sitting up.

“But our friends are back in Creighton? Right?” I asked her, not sure if I was going to get anything more out of the sleepy filly. I stepped further back from the road and into the woods again to conceal ourselves better. I arbitrarily decided to go east for now, as if that’d make the sun set faster. That was the direction the storm was coming from though, the clouds looked darker there.

“She couldn’t find them. She said... if we went north... we’d get help,” she tried explaining half-awake. I accepted that at first but questions came to mind. I wondered what all Princess Luna knew and what she told Ruby. Or what she was like at all when not the embodiment of a nightmare. I didn’t want to keep Ruby awake, but she seemed relaxed and warm. She was at least resting now.

“So, what's Princess Luna like? Were you scared when you met her? She scared the horse apples out of me,” I said, trying to keep the conversation light for my dozing daughter and for my own mood. We were more lost than I realized and it seemed like a storm was coming.

“I tried to find Minnie and Comet. But I got lost and she found me... in the dark. She said there’s a ‘fog’ growing and it’s getting hard to find ponies from dreams. But foal dreams are still bright enough.”

“She seems... pretty good at finding ponies in the dark,” I joked good-naturedly. Luna found me in the dark too, in a way. But Ruby’s was physical. I couldn’t imagine her wandering in the dark woods alone. It terrified me to imagine what her state of mind must have been. How alone she must have felt. She was just getting the hang of walking again when I last saw her. How long did she travel like that? I would have added my tears to the downpour if I couldn’t feel her weight on me or feel her soft breathing on my neck. I could understand why Princess Luna found her now: a child lost and alone in the dark trying to find her mother. I would need to thank her if I ever saw her again.

I stumbled a bit; the wet rocks and the dim light of the sun was making the uneven ground difficult. We were far away from city lights and with those dark clouds it was going to get way too dark to walk around soon. I walked back out to the road to look for somewhere we could possibly go. There was an old-looking barn a little way up the road. That might be dry.

“So... she couldn’t find any ponies… so she got Nathan for you?”

“She asked if there was a human I’d feel safe with,” she said from my back. And then Ruby directed her to Nathan instead of our mom. I had a feeling it wasn't just the babying: she knew our mom wouldn’t have let her try to save me. Our mom wouldn’t have risked Ruby for me. I wouldn’t have deserved it.

“You told me where he lived and that he was a good person,” she added drowsily after a moment, as if the thought bubbled up from her as she started sinking back into sleep.

“He is,” I affirmed. There was no doubt about that. He would be fine whatever happened to him. As long as he kept being himself.

I walked in silence for a little longer. I mostly watched where my hooves fell and occasionally looked up at the barn to see if it was looking any closer. After a while another question came to mind.

“So, what’s the deal with the notebook?” I asked. I didn’t hear a response so I turned my neck to check on her. She was fast asleep now, her hooves tucked under the belt attaching our bags together, keeping her in place under her waterproof cover. My questions could wait.

---

By the time I reached the barn the sun was starting to set. Cracks and wear clearly showed in the old, darkened wood. The rusted tin roof seemed intact though so I had my hopes up that there weren’t a lot of nasty animals making nests inside.

The first barn door I tried was the one that led out to the pasture. A pasture that was full of cows just sitting out and seemingly enjoying the rain. That door was locked. I didn’t think Ruby was up for cutting it open so I walked around the barn to look for another entrance.

The opposite side of the barn had another wide barn door. This one was pointed towards a tiny farmhouse nestled in the middle of the property. I didn’t see any lights or movement but the cows told me someone at least checked on the property. With the coast seemingly clear I tried the ‘front’ entrance of the barn. That was locked as well. Almost giving up, I walked around to the last side and saw a human-sized door. There were no handles but just a cut in the wood to grip it so I tried giving it a push. To my surprise wood slid against wood for a moment until the door swung open on hinges.

It was incredibly dark inside but from the light of the setting sun I spotted one little black shadow dart away. I couldn’t hear anything inside over the rain beating on the roof to clue me in to what I saw. After staring into that darkness for a while, I saw there were a few of those little black shapes inside, all with reflective eyes. I watched, unsure what I had encountered until one of them braved back into the fading light and I saw it was a cat. They were all cats and there were at least six of them. I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.

I knew barn cats kept rats and things out from eating the food stored in them, so it stood to reason they were probably the only creatures I had to worry about in the barn. I continued standing there while the bravest of them all approached me cautiously. It gave my leg a tentative sniff before rubbing up against my leg wanting affection. I lifted my other foreleg and tried to carefully pet it. It gave an approving purr. With that invite, I carefully stepped inside with deliberate steps and pushed the door closed behind me.

The heavy sound of the rain pelting the tin roof was almost deafening but in a relaxing, almost hypnotic way. My eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness and after a moment I could make out well enough to see the outline of the cats and make out what I was smelling: there was indeed hay stored in here. With all the humidity in the air and the hay sitting in the warmer darkness the smell of the hay was permeating my nostrils. It smelled faintly sweet and it made my stomach growl. The last thing I had was some watery oats in my cage the night before. I didn’t know what energy I was running on anymore but the thought of food made me hungry enough to try what I was smelling.

I found a nice corner where a hay bale had been scratched loose and was falling apart. I looked around at the cats, warily, and pet the one nearest me again. It definitely seemed to consider me not-vermin, but I was still worried they would freak out if they saw me eating it. Do they know people don’t eat hay? My stomach gurgled again and I risked it anyway.

I carefully took a bite out of the bale. It felt like a mouth full of kind of dry grass. It tasted like grass… and dirt.

I don’t know what I expected.

I chewed the hay a little more anyway, grinding it in the back of my mouth a bit. There was a dirty grit to it. I tried to swallow it and gagged instead. I pushed it out of my mouth with my tongue: I wasn’t getting it down.

Clean hay. Ponies eat clean hay.

Unable to eat it, I figured maybe it would be better bedding then. I kicked some of the loose hay back together then carefully laid down on it so as to not rock my sleeping passenger too much. The hay was softer and a little less dirty than the ground. It was also just a tad scratchy, but like laying in grass. It would work.

I thought about getting Ruby off my back and onto the hay but I didn’t want to wake her up. She would probably just get dirtier on the hay. My back was relatively dry thanks to the windbreaker that was her impromptu blanket.

So, I just laid there in the dark stuck under my daughter. It was fairly warm and dry though. We even had some company and white noise. I brushed a hoof against one of the cats curiously inspecting me while I listened to the relentless tinny sound of the rain on the roof.

I just watched the cats mingle and groom themselves for a while. I wasn’t tired, I hadn’t been awake all that long, but there wasn’t much difference in the light of the barn between my eyes open and closed and I found them closing for long stretches at a time.

The day had felt surreal. Sure my whole week or so had felt surreal but today was different. This morning I was in a cage and through the actions of a dream princess, a determined filly and a friend, I was warm and with that filly again. My luck was starting to change and I was scared this was temporary.

I was a little scared to fall asleep again. I didn’t know what it was, but I felt a sense of doom. It had started when I was running and it had been getting stronger. I was scared I wouldn’t wake up here safe with her. Like maybe this was the dream and the yawning darkness I was on the edge of was something else, a reality. I was scared of what would be on the other side, if anything at all.

These feelings were silly though. If I went to sleep now, Discord couldn’t get me. Nightmare Moon destroyed my hallucination/stain/whatever and promised “no more nightmares but her”. And she seemed benevolent enough from what my friends had to say about Princess Luna that in retrospect I think she was teasing me about that.

Instead of sleeping though, I drifted in and out of awareness. The endless drone of the rain and the soft purring of the cats was consoling but hypnotic and endless. I could feel Ruby’s weight and her breath and knew she was okay and warm as long as I felt those things.

The barn had gotten even darker, probably from dusk finishing. I could still make out the general geometry and the cats’ eyes though. I briefly wondered if my own eyes were reflective like theirs, considering how well I could still see. But I didn’t think about it long, the rain continued to wash my thoughts away.

There was a new sound at some point. And light. I was so out of it, I thought I was just dreaming at first. The door had opened and there was a figure carrying a light. I panicked when I saw it was a human but relaxed slightly when I got a better view of her.

It was an old woman in blue jeans and a blouse. I couldn’t make out details well, but from her posture, little glasses and the wispiness to her hair she was probably someone’s grandmother and maybe even someone’s great grandmother. In one hand she was carrying a flashlight and an umbrella in the crook of her shoulder, in the other hand was a half gallon jug of milk. The cats all came running, like little black moths to a light.

“Mama’s here~!” she called out to them. Her flashlight swept across the floor to the left of her and landed on some empty bowls. She started to shuffle over to them. “Mama’s sorry she’s so late! She was waiting for the rain to let up but she needs to get to sleep!”

She fumbled with the flashlight for a moment to get the jug in her other hand open. I took the moment to fumble to my heavy hooves, trying hard to keep my back level to not dump my daughter. I stepped on the sleeve of the windbreaker and that nearly slid off my back as I shuffled backwards into the corner with the hay bales. I brushed against a few and then accidentally fumbled a bit on some loose boards laying on the floor. I froze and listened for any sound over the tinny assault on the roof above.

“There you go my babies~, drink up! Be big and strong! Yes~!” she cooed, presumably having poured the milk out for the cats. I was probably being overly paranoid. I didn’t think she had heard me. I doubted her hearing was any better than her eyesight. Neither was probably poor enough for a three foot purple “cat” to sneak in and get some milk though.

My stomach protested again. I knew she couldn’t hear it but it felt so strong I half-expected her to feel it. I normally didn’t get hungry this easily. It must have been from sitting on piles of warm, inedible food. I would try eating the hay again when she left but with a face to the owner now, the idea seemed more morally wrong.

I briefly wondered if Ruby had packed anything when I saw the flashlight shift again. It seemed still for a moment on the floor and I didn’t realize she was looking at anything with the flashlight until I saw the beam slowly tracking across the ground… towards me.

“Hello? ...Horsey?” came her shrill voice. I briefly panicked as the light came closer, tracing along the ground at muddy hoof tracks that led right to me. The flashlight landed on me in the corner and she looked startled for a moment, but strangely, that quickly passed.

“Oh! Oh my. Hello there. Are you for Ashley?” she asked but continued to approach me, cautiously. I tried to step back further away from her. I wasn’t scared of her, but felt bad for getting caught trespassing. “Sssh. Sssh. It’s okay, girl. Calm down. What’s that on your back?”

“I’m sorry. I’ll go,” I told her. That made her stop approaching and the flashlight swept away from me momentarily while she scanned the rest of the hay. It eventually came back to me, blinding my eyes.

“Who’s there? I have a gun,” she warned. I didn’t see where she would have kept a gun on her person. Maybe it was an empty threat or a promise she’d go get one.

“It’s me. I’m the one talking, “ I said with a raised hoof. “I’m... a pony. The magical talking kind,” I tried to explain succinctly.

The flashlight lowered and I looked up to see her eyes were wide and blinking rapidly, as if to clear her vision. She didn’t scream though and she didn’t run. At her age she might not have been able to do either. Maybe unable to do either, she was forced to process what she was dealing with.

“Oh. Oooh. You’re the alien on the television!” she said with more surprise than alarm. She shuffled closer to look at me. I thought back to the police encounter so many hours ago. The child with the cellphone? If I made the news, I hoped everyone else’s response was as calm as this lady’s. She got within ten feet of me. The beam of her flashlight traveled over my body and nearly blinded me when momentarily traced over my eyes.

“Is that your baby?” she asked as her flashlight fell behind me.

I looked back over my body and saw Ruby’s form was exposed from the pulled windbreaker. She stirred, likely from the light and went to cover her eyes with a hoof. I saw her eyes crack open.

“She’s my daughter,” I declared while looking at my bundle. I looked back at the woman. “I’m sorry. We’ll go. We were just getting out of the rain.”

“Oh! No, no! Stay, stay. Please. You’ll catch a cold out there,” she insisted. “Are… are you alone? Is anyone coming to pick you up?”

I felt a sense of relief at this stranger’s kindness. “No. It's... it's just us. No one's coming.”

“Oh. Oh dear. Did you fall out of your spaceship?” she asked genuinely. It was my turn to blink in confusion. Oh. Right: alien.

“...oh! No, we’re not from outer space. We’re from… well, another dimension.”

“Mom? What’s going on?” came a sleepy little voice on my back, almost in a whisper so that the old woman wouldn’t hear.

“Oh no. That’s awful,” the woman declared, impassioned. She was taking this strangely in stride. I wondered if she gave all this kindness to every stranger in her barn. “Will you be okay? Do you have a way to phone home?” I thought about what she said and remembered the portal from Equestria Girls.

“Maybe. But I don’t know where it is. And I don’t think it’s safe there right now,” I admitted.

“Oh, you poor thing…” she cooed in sympathy. “My name’s Beverly. What’s yours?” I smiled at her introduction.

“I’m Berry Punch. This is my daughter Ruby Pinch,” I introduced us. This stranger seemed safe enough. If she thought we were aliens why didn’t she think we were dangerous?

“It’s nice to meet you both. I was just about to head to bed, but could I get you anything? Blankets? Are you hungry?”

“Well…”

---

Beverly had brought us leftovers. She even warmed them up and put them on plates. Mustard greens, carrots, diced potatoes.

“Literal aliens...” her husband mumbled half-awake. Those were the first words he said after watching us quietly eat for several minutes. When Beverly came back she brought him. The husband, Paul, dressed in pajama bottoms and a plaid shirt, studied us warily. He was as stooped and wrinkled as her but twice as tan. He had a pistol in a simple holster on the belt hanging over his pants. He didn’t act like it was there though. Just assurance of his and Beverly’s safety, maybe.

“They’re from another dimension where ponies can talk,” Beverly corrected him.

“They sure know English real well,” he mumbled suspiciously.

“It’s a really similar dimension, I guess,” I suggested. We were speaking English in our memory, I think. Or maybe I just didn’t realize it was different. I could have told them we used to be human but at this point that would have just complicated things.

“Except you’re horses?” he clarified.

“Yeah. I don’t get it either,” I admitted after swallowing my bite. I felt like I was getting into lying territory but Ruby didn’t correct or add anything to my explanation. Instead she quietly nibbled on a bit of carrot.

“Are there humans there?” he asked. I considered how the portal worked in the movie: turning ponies into humans one way and humans into ponies the other, and was going to say ‘no’ but remembered what and where I was.

“I don’t think so? Unless we swapped places or something. We didn’t come here willingly. We got kicked out by… well, a magical dragon-horse creature.” I really didn't want to get into that either.

“Uh huh. So you’re refugees. There a lot of you?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I admitted.

“Paul, stop harassing them and let them eat!”

“I’m trying to make sure the aliens in our barn aren’t dangerous!” he exasperated.

“Look at the little one! Do they look dangerous to you?” Beverly countered. I looked over at Ruby who seemed to frown from the words at the nearly untouched food offered to her. She hadn’t said a word in front of them.

Paul for his part didn’t raise his voice to his wife again. He studied us, huffed and remained quiet until Beverly took our plates back from us.

“I hope you stay for breakfast,” Beverly offered. “I would love for you to meet our granddaughter Ashley. She loves ponies. When I first saw you I thought you were a gift for her birthday. She’s turning eight soon and she’s got a pink toy that doesn’t look too different from you!”

I smiled and nodded noncommittally to that. In my head though, I realized now we barely dodged having to explain our lives had been a cartoon in this world. In the dim light and partially covered I guess they hadn’t made out our cutie marks. Otherwise she might have made the connection and asked more questions.

"Bev, you're thinking of Emma. Ash's twenty-eight," the man firmly but directly corrected her.

"Oh. Oh, right," she agreed then just put that aside and looked back to us. “Ruby? Would you like a nightlight?” she asked my daughter. Ruby looked up at her and after a second quietly shook her head.

“Okay then. Good night, ponies!” she called to us. Her husband was waiting at the door with the open umbrella patiently. She turned to the cats now loitering around. “Good night, babies!” And with that they let us return to the dark with the sound of the rain and the cats.

“We should go,” Ruby spoke up as soon as they were gone. She placed a leg on mine for emphasis.

“Do you think they’re dangerous?” I asked. I was still unsure but the food in my stomach put me a bit at ease.

“No. But they might think we are. And we are,” Ruby explained. I frowned. Sure we both had effective ways to break bones and Ruby could probably melt some faces but… well, Paul had a gun, I guess?

“...okay, we’ll leave before dawn.”

Ruby was silent for a while and eventually answered with the soft green glow of her horn. She stood up shakily and looked around until she saw the loose boards next to us. I saw one of the boards begin to glow and she lifted it up and wedged it at an angle into the ground against the door they had come in. As her light faded she looked at me and then nodded. “Okay,” she agreed.

“Yeah, that’s fair,” I agreed when it grew dark again. I put my foreleg around Ruby and nuzzled her. Ruby responded by quietly scooting closer to me. We laid like that for a while until I spoke up again.

“You know, I don't think she thought you were dangerous. I think she thought you were very cute,” I tried to defend Beverly. I didn’t think she would want to hurt us. Not after she melted when she saw Ruby. Ruby was quiet for a moment and I didn’t think she was going to respond until she did.

“Do you think she would still think I’m cute if she knew I’m like thirty-five and held a man at gunpoint with his own gun?” Ruby asked. I wondered where she got thirty-five until I realized she was counting her human and guessing on pony years.

“You’re not thirty-five,” I argued. “That’s cheating! That would make me almost fifty. I’m not fifty!” I didn’t know how old I was but if she was a preteen I was probably in my thirties now. It didn’t feel like a big difference from twenty-five but I wasn’t sure how ponies aged.

“I guess so,” she agreed quietly.

“...Besides,” I started and kissed her on the top of her head. “I have a general idea how old you are and I saw what you can do and I still think you’re adorable.”

"Mom," Ruby whined.

"Too much?" I asked.

Ruby didn't say anything but responded by nuzzling back into me and laying her head down. I followed suit then closed my eyes, exchanging one darkness for another.

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