This is Equestria.

A land of magic, friendship, and–in some cases–magical friendship. It owes its founding moment to this, as it was the friendship of its founders that drove away the beasts of ice that fed on discord and strife. Embellished? Perhaps, but no one can argue with the deep magic wielded by Equestria's residents.

While other parts of its world are inhabited by a variety of creatures, including griffins, minotaurs, dragons, and the shapeshifting changelings, Equestria is inhabited primarily by ponies. These ponies come in all manner of pastel colors, but their most defining traits are their Cutie Marks. A Cutie Mark is a symbol on a pony's flank, magically given to each pony that shows what their unique place is in this world. Though, it should be noted, these marks are often up to very wide and wild interpretations.

There are three main types of ponies. Unicorn ponies have a horn on their heads, allowing them to channel their inner magic into manipulating the world around them. Pegasus ponies have wings, allowing them to channel their inner magic into flight and controlling the weather. Finally, Earth ponies have neither horns nor wings, but their inner magic gives them a stronger constitution as well as the ability to care and nurture plants and others.

Equestria is an absolute monarchy ruled by two princesses: Princess Celestia who governs the day, and Princess Luna who governs the night. There is also Princess Mi Amore Cadenza ("Cadence" to her friends), who rules over the Crystal Empire, an affiliated territory to the north; and Princess Twilight Sparkle, the relatively new Princess of Friendship. All princess are alicorns, ponies with the magic and appendages of all three pony types. They are ageless beings with powerful magic strong enough to control the heavenly bodies associated with their domain. Just as the pegasi of Equestria are responsible for maintaining the weather cycle of the world, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are responsible for raising and lowering the sun and moon.

Would-be attackers would be wise to remember this fact before assuming the ponies' emphasis on friendship makes them weak.

---

Princess Twilight Sparkle did not fret. Fretting implied a pointless worrying over irrational fears. Over things that, when examined logically, turned out to be nothing at all. It was pointless, illogical, and absolutely not something she did.

"I should have gone with her. This is a magical problem, and she can't wield the Magic of Friendship if her friends don't remember who she is!"

It didn't count as "fretting" if your fears were entirely rational. Or at least that's what she told herself.

"What if she doesn't get to the Memory Stone in time? What if whoever has it erases her memory too? What if her friends don't understand and they attack her?"

She paced back and forth in the throne room of the Castle of Friendship. A hardback journal with a stylized red-and-yellow sun sat on the large circular table in the center, the ghostly illusionary map of the world staying in place despite it. Around the table were six thrones, each with their own icon to match their owner's Cutie Mark. One contained a six-point purple star to match Twilight's Cutie Mark.

"What if they erase so much memory she has to be sent back to kindergarten? What if they erase her memory of learning how to breathe? She'll suffocate!"

Next to Twilight's throne was a smaller chair occupied by her assistant Spike, a young dragon she had helped to hatch the same day she received her cutie mark. While he often helped categorize her research into the arcane and organize her increasingly varied schedule as Equestria's newest princess, he considered his most important duty to Twilight to be her friend. And as her friend...

"Hey, Twilight!" he yelled. "What theorem did Haycarte have about time travel?"

"Haycarte didn't have a theorem about time travel," Twilight said automatically, turning to face him. "Starswirl the Bearded was the one that wrote several theorems on the subject. I've told you this, Spike!"

Spike couldn't resist a smug look. "Breathe, Twilight."

Twilight glared at him, then closed her eyes, inhaled deeply while pulling her front hoof toward her chest, then exhaled slowly while motioning away from herself.

She paused, then repeated the breathing exercise. And repeated it again.

"How bad was it?" she asked.

Spike shrugged. "Not too bad, considering. Usually I have to ask you what Daring Do stole from the Vulpine."

Twilight's eye twitched. "Those are two completely different book series!" she shrieked, her wings flaring. "Completely different publishers! Different genres! And no, I don't care if they're both technically speculative fiction; Daring Do has more grounding in this reality than Magic Trek!"

"See?" Spike said. "I didn't even have to bring out the big guns."

Twilight sighed and trotted over to Spike. "Thanks," she said, pulling him into a hug.

"Hey, what are annoying little brothers for, anyway?" he answered.

Twilight just hugged him tighter. "I'm scared for Sunset, Spike."

"Yeah, I don't blame you," he said. "A stone that can erase people's memories? And she's got to destroy it by sundown today or her friends lose their memories of her?"

Twilight took another deep breath. "Thank you for reminding me."

Spike winced. "All I'm saying is this isn't nothing. But Sunset's smart, remember? She'll know what to do."

Twilight nodded. "You're right, Spike," she said firmly. "We have to trust her."

She looked around at her castle. "Besides," she said, "she could always stay here if she needs to..."

"No kidding," Spike said with a laugh. "Celestia knows we've got more than enough rooms."

"While I'm sure you do, young Spike," an older, more motherly voice said from the front door, "I must admit I'm at a loss as to what you would need them for."

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight yelled in a surprising mix of elation and shock. She ran up to the larger princess. "What are you doing here? Not that I'm upset to see you; I'm actually really glad to see you, but you never come visit for no reas—"

"Twilight," Celestia said with a gentle smile.

Twilight closed her eyes and breathed. "Sorry, Princess," she said. "I'm still really worried about Sunset Shimmer."

Celestia's smile fell slightly. "No word yet?"

Twilight shook her head. "She has until sundown, right?" She gasped. "Wait, if you're here, then you've already lowered the sun! She's out of time!"

"Not necessarily," Celestia said with a wave of her hoof. "I can lower the sun from here if I so choose. Luna is also capable, and on a night like tonight she might even be willing."

"Or you could just lower the sun early," Spike said.

"Spike!" Celestia gasped, holding her hoof to her chest. "You would dare to suppose that I, a Princess of Equestria, would flaunt my power and responsibility in such a vulgar fashion?"

Twilight looked at Celestia with a half-lidded stare. "You lowered the sun early, didn't you?"

Celestia adopted her most regal pose, though the slight blush on her face betrayed her. "I lowered the sun as I always do," she said. "Precisely when I mean to."

Any further musings were cut off by the journal glowing and vibrating on the table. Twilight gasped and flew over to it, opening it with her magic as she approached. As quick as she could, she turned to the last used page.

"She's safe!" Twilight yelled.

Spike let out the breath he didn't know he was holding and collapsed back in his chair. "Good job, Sunset," he said to himself. With a grunt, he lifted himself back up.

Twilight still had one hoof on the journal, Celestia looking over her shoulder. Both of them wore tired, genuine smiles. Twilight levitated a quill over to herself and held it over the journal for a moment before glancing to Celestia and motioning for her to take the quill. With a teary smile, Celestia wrote in the journal.

---

Friendship is Multiversal: Discovery

Episode 1: New Friends

---

This is Canterlot High School.

Located in the center of Canterlot City, it is, to all observers in its world, completely mundane. A standard public institution living in the academic and athletic shadow of its crosstown rival Crystal Preparatory School.

To a multiversal observer, however, it is noted for being a world with a strong resemblance to Equestria. While Canterlot City's world is only populated by humans, these humans bear skin and hair colors more reminiscent of Equestria's colorful pastel ponies.

In addition, many–though not all–ponies in Equestria have counterparts in Canterlot City. These counterparts bear the same coloration, hair color, and names. The human counterpart, despite not having a cutie mark of their own, will often have the same mark somewhere on their person via a shirt or accessory.

Canterlot High is run by Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna; Crystal Prep is run by Principal Cadence.

---

The next day, in a completely different world, Sunset Shimmer, a completely normal teenager, sat with her other friends at their completely normal high school.

Until a frisbee was blocked from striking one of the girls by a crystal shield appearing out of nowhere.

"Sorry!" the boy said, grabbing the frisbee and running back to his group.

Rarity dismissed her shield with a flick of her wrist. "Do try to be more careful, next time?" she said, mostly for her own benefit.

Sunset laughed to herself. Completely normal friends. With magic.

"So," Twilight Sparkle said, adjusting her glasses. "Any word from Equestria?"

"Easy, Twilight," Sunset said with a laugh. "The princess is still getting her research together. And her primary source is still on an extended tour of the world." She cocked her head. "Why so impatient?"

Twilight almost vibrated in place. "Principal Celestia said we could do an independent study!"

Sunset blinked. "We?"

"Yeah! In magic!"

Sunset paled. "That's not a good idea."

Twilight's face fell. "What do you mean? I thought you'd be excited?"

"Hang on, Twi," Applejack said in her southern accent. "What Sunny here isn't telling ya is that the last time she tried to study magic here, she hooked us up to all sorts of gizmos and whatsits and—"

"And the whole thing exploded!" Rainbow Dash finished with a yell.

"Like my eardrum just now?" Applejack muttered, rubbing the ear closest to Rainbow gingerly.

"You want to study it?" a quiet voice said outside of the group.

Sunset turned around. "Wallflower!" she greeted with an awkward smile. "How, um... how long were you standing there?"

Wallflower Blush shrugged. "Not long, this time. But why do you want to study magic? After I almost..." She trailed off and looked downcast.

"Hey, none of that!" Sunset said with a snap of her fingers. "You won't learn from mistakes if all you do is beat yourself up over them."

"And magic's already here," Twilight continued. "We need to know how it works here so someone else... doesn't..."

"Find an ancient artifact and use it to selectively erase people's memories?" Wallflower snarked.

"Or absorb a bunch of stolen magic, go insane, and try to punch a hole to the next universe over," Twilight answered.

"Or meticulously plan for years, steal a magical artifact from your homeland, bring it back to this world, get chased by said artifact's rightful owner who happens to be the counterpart to Twilight here, go through a long convoluted process to try and get the artifact that ends up causing a bad reaction with your own magic and turning you into a literal she-demon that tries to brainwash all the students at the school and literally kill the five of them?" Sunset said.

Everyone stared at her.

She shrugged. "Like I said, stop beating yourself up over it."

"But what's there to study?" Wallflower said after a moment.

"Besides us?" Twilight said, casually levitating a book with her magic.

Sunset tapped the hardback journal bearing Princess Twilight's cutie mark in her hands. "I've got a journal here that matches one that Princess Twilight has," she explained. "Anything we write in one shows up in the other, even if we're in different worlds. After she heard that the Memory Stone that you used was an artifact from Equestria, she started researching to see what other artifacts or enemies might have been here."

Wallflower withdrew a bit. "Enemies?"

"Yeah," Rainbow Dash slid into the conversation. "Remember those three girls that showed up at the school last year and convinced everyone we needed to turn the music festival into a battle of the bands?"

"Oh, them. They were from Aquatica?"

"Equestria," Sunset corrected. "And yes, they were. Over a thousand years ago they were banished here by Starswirl the Bearded, into 'a world without magic.'" It was her turn to withdraw a little. "Of course, after I brought magic here, they came after it like..."

"Flies on a honeypot?" Applejack said with a grin.

Wallflower scratched her arm. "What... what kind of magic did they have?" Twilight perked up at the question, not having been around for the incident.

Sunset rolled her eyes. "They fed off of conflict. They made people angry and irritable, which gave them more magic, which made people more angry. The really fun part was when we got angry, they were able to leech off of our magic and..." She sighed. "That wasn't a fun time."

"But it brought us closer together, Darling," Rarity said, laying a hand on Sunset's shoulder. "And, let's face it, we all needed a bit of a wake-up call then."

"Thanks," Sunset said quietly. She focused back on Wallflower. "So yeah, Princess Twilight's trying to find out what else was sent to our world." She looked back down at the journal. "Maybe we can actually prevent a problem, this time."

---

"Gotta say," Twilight said, reclining on her throne, "I am hoping things settle down for a little while, in our world and Sunset's."

Spike put down his comic. "You just jinxed it."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Come on, Spike, that's not—"

A knock at the castle doors echoed through the throne room. "Hello?" a slightly nasal voice said. "Is anybody here?"

Twilight held a hoof to her chest, inhaled, then exhaled slowly as she held her hoof away. "Fine," she said to Spike as she got up, "I jinxed it."

Spike put down his comic and joined her. "It could be nothing..."

"Nope!" Twilight said, not sure whether to be exasperated or thrilled. "You heard him; he said 'anybody,' not 'anypony.' He's not from around here."

She opened the castle doors to see two ponies. One was a tan earth pony about Twilight's age with an electric blue mane and tail and a bracelet with a green gem around one foreleg, the other a young orange pegasuswhite mane and tail.

"Can you help us?" the earth pony said.

"We're from another world, and we're not sure how to get home," the pegasus said.

Twilight looked at Spike.

Spike rolled his eyes and nodded.

Twilight looked back to the ponies. "If we can, we will," she said with a nod. "Come on in."

"Thanks," the pegasus said.

The tan earth pony stallion's Cutie Mark reminded Twilight of her pegasus friend Rainbow Dash's. It was a blue ball—the same electric blue as his mane and tail—with several speed lines. The ball was surrounded by a rainbow ring that looked to represent a sonic rainboom, the phenomenon that happened when Rainbow Dash reached her top speed and broke the sound barrier.

The pegasus' Cutie Mark was a little less straightforward, though Twilight was happy to see that he had one. Foals of his apparent age were always hit-or-miss (in the case of her friends' younger sisters, more 'miss' than 'hit'), but it was good to see that he had found his place in life. His was a pair of mechanical gears connected to a flying contraption. Perhaps he was skilled at building flying machines?

"Just get in before Pinkie sees you," Spike said, ushering them inside.

"Sees who?" Pinkie asked.

"Sees the two new ponies that she hasn't met and will probably want to throw a party for," Spike said without thinking. He blinked, turned slowly to his left, and saw Pinkie Pie sitting calmly next to him.

She grinned.

"Gah!" Spike jumped back, startled. "How di–never mind."

Pinkie pronked over to Twilight and the newcomers. "Hi!" she said, shaking the earth pony's hoof. "I'm Pinkie Pie! And you must be new because I've never seen you before and I know everypony in town and that means you're new in town and that means I don't know you so hi, I'm Pinkie Pie, what's your name?"

The earth pony struck what he hoped was a winning pose. "I'm Fast Hooves..." His face fell. "Fast Hooves," he repeated.

"Fast, are you okay?" the pegasus said. His face scrunched in confusion. "Why am I saying it too?"

"What's wrong?" Twilight said.

Fast turned to her, scared. "My name's not Fast Hooves. I mean, it is, but..."

Twilight put a hoof on his shoulder. "Don't hurt yourself," she said. "Breathe."

"But what's going on?" the pegasus said.

Twilight shook her head. "There's a lot of magic in Equestria, and part of it helps us decide on names."

"Oh!" Pinkie said. "Is that why Shining Armor is Captain of the Guard? And Double Diamond is really good at skiing?"

"Exactly," Twilight said. "So your Equestrian name must be Fast Hooves."

Fast Hooves scratched the back of his head. "Is it permanent?"

Twilight grimaced. "I... don't know. If it's based on Equestria's magic field then it should stop once we can get you home."

"Great! When can we do that?"

"I don't know that either..." Twilight said, looking at the floor.

"Woah, woah," Fast said, lifting her head up. "None of that. An adventure's no fun if it's too easy, right, Miles?"

"Right!" the pegasus answered. "Wait..."

The two new ponies looked at each other.

The pegasus groaned and buried his face in his hooves while Fast fell over laughing hysterically.

"Does this Equestrian magic have a sense of humor?" the pegasus muttered.

Twilight demurred with a "It's hard to say" the same time that Pinkie said "Definitely!"

The pegasus glared at Pinkie before turning to Twilight and saying, "My name is Miles Per Hour."

Fast Hooves kept laughing.

---

"Yes!" Sunset cheered as she and Twilight walked into the lab. "Principal Celestia kept all my equipment!"

Twilight looked over the mess of ancient computers and tangled instruments. "This is the stuff that blew up?"

Sunset scratched the back of her head and smiled awkwardly. "Yeah, it is." She brightened up. "Actually, I'm really glad you're here."

"Thanks," Twilight said with a small smile.

Sunset motioned at the equipment. "The first time I tried this, I was coming at it from an Equestrian perspective. I was too busy trying to reconcile what I knew of magic with what I was seeing. When at the same time as I was getting attacked by manifested cutie marks you were building something that could actually measure magic!"

"And stole magic," Twilight added, staring at the ground.

Sunset rolled her eyes and smiled. "Point being, you're in a much better place to study this. I couldn't find any answers on my own, but maybe, with the magic of friendship...?"

Twilight tried to smile.

Sunset grimaced. "Was that too cheesy?"

Twilight giggled. "It's fine."

"It was way too cheesy!" a muffled voice snarked from Twilight's backpack.

Twilight looked around the empty lab before setting her backpack on the ground and letting out her small dog, Spike, a purple and green terrier bearing a not-so-surprising resemblance to his draconic counterpart in Equestria.

"Sorry to keep you in there so long," Twilight said.

"Eh, it's fine," Spike said. "Your backpack's still more interesting than staying in my bed all day."

"Really?" Sunset said with a smirk. "You wouldn't rather be in the backyard chasing squirrels?"

Spike shrugged, which worked surprisingly well for a dog. "I do enjoy a good squirrel chase, but school has Fluttershy." He looked around the lab. "Speaking of...?"

Twilight shook her head. "We had study hall now, so it was easy to turn that into an independent study; but I think Fluttershy has English right now."

"Maybe we can pull her in for a day," Sunset said, giving Spike a scratch behind the ears.

"Eh, you'll do," he said as he leaned into the scratch.

The door to the lab opened, and in an instant Spike dove behind one of the tables.

"Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle?" a mint-skinned woman with golden hair said in a Trottingham accent.

"That's us," Twilight said, perhaps a little too loudly.

Sunset put on a relaxed smile. "How can we help?"

The woman smiled thinly. "I'm Ms. Gentleheart, the new guidance counselor. Principal Celestia asked me to oversee your independent study."

"It's great to meet you," Sunset said, stepping forward to shake hands and give Twilight a chance to catch her breath and not freak out about getting in trouble for bringing Spike to school. "Did Principal Celestia tell you anything about our project?"

Gentleheart shook her head. "She just said something about the 'magic of friendship.' Perhaps you can elaborate?"

"Inter-personal relationships," Sunset said.

"And their effect on the environment," Twilight added.

Gentleheart glanced from one girl to the other. "Indeed," she said. "This sounds like an ambitious study, particularly if your parameters are ill-defined." She nodded. "Perhaps we can start with that. If you could provide a summary of what you intend to research, and especially note how you intend to measure it, and have that for me next class?"

"We can do that," Twilight said, much more sure of herself now that they were discussing assignments. "How many pages should we have? Ten? Fifteen?"

Gentleheart cracked a smile. "Let's make this one a two-page summary," she said. "Double-spaced."

Twilight almost looked disappointed.

"We'll try to restrain ourselves," Sunset said with a smirk.

Gentleheart nodded. "Between this and college applications, I suspect we'll be seeing each other quite a bit these next few months. Don't hesitate to come see me if you need anything; I'm here for you, after all."

With more thanks and handshakes, Ms. Gentleheart left the lab.

Twilight turned to Sunset. "We're not putting anything in there about actual magic, right?"

---

"I'm sorry," Princess Twilight said. "We can travel to another world, but it's a lot like ours, except with humans instead of ponies."

"Huh," Miles said, leafing through the various notes and scrolls assembled on the map. "So can we. Human world and everything."

This caught Twilight's attention. "Does the human world have this 'chaos' you were talking about?"

Miles nodded. "It's one thing both our worlds have in common."

Twilight shook her head. "So not the same human world, either." She sighed and pushed another tome aside. "How did you end up here, anyway?"

Miles sighed. "We were trying to head back to the human world to check on things, we opened the portal, and then everything went..." He waved his hooves. "Sideways. Next thing we know we're ponies." He looked at his hoof. "And that's never happened when we hop worlds, either."

Twilight made a few more notes on a parchment. "Spike?" she called.

"Coming!" Spike's voice echoed from one of the hallways. The scurrying of his claws reverberated off the crystal walls, making it near-impossible to tell how close he actually was until he actually arrived a moment later.

"What's..." He took a few breaths. "Up?"

Twilight smiled at him. "Catch your breath, then can you send this to Celestia? I need to tell her about our new guests."

"Can do!" Spike said with a salute. He took the parchment and incinerated it in a tongue of green flame. "Where is Fast Hooves, anyway?"

"He wanted to go for a run," Miles said. "Left us 'eggheads' to do our thing."

"Heh, he even sounds like Rainbow Dash."

Twilight pondered that. "Come to think of it, he does seem a lot like Rainb–"

A dull boom shook the castle.

Twilight groaned. "Rainbow Dash." She hopped off her throne and started trotting towards the door.

Spike and Miles followed close behind her. "Who's Rainbow Dash?" Miles asked.

"Only the fastest pony alive!" Spike gushed.

"She is the only pony that can break the sound barrier," Twilight conceded.

"Was," Miles said with a smirk as they got to the door.

They opened the door to see Fast Hooves and Rainbow Dash crouched at a starting line, Pinkie Pie standing between them wearing a white-and-black striped referee outfit.

"On your mark," she yelled, "get set... GO!"

Both ponies were gone in a blur: one blue, one rainbow-colored. After a moment, the sky lit up with a Sonic Rainboom.

"There's Rainbow Dash," Twilight said.

A moment later, another boom echoed over the hills. The shockwave was more golden, but it was unmistakably a rainboom.

"And there's Fast Hooves," Miles said.

Spike just gaped. "That's it," he muttered. "I'm going to go read comics. At least they make sense!"

---

Sunset sat down across from Snails, both of them hooked up to a monitoring machine. "So, I'm going to explain what's going on, mostly for the camera." She motioned to the video camera Twilight was standing behind. "I'm going to use my magic on you, which is going to let me read your mind. I promise not to reveal anything about what I see to anyone else, and I promise not to tease you about it either. Twilight's going to get some readings from this, and hopefully we'll understand a little bit more. Does that make sense to you?"

The sophomore stared for a moment before nodding slowly.

Susnset repressed a groan. "Snails, do I have permission to read your mind?"

Snails hesitated. "Promise you won't tell anyone?"

"I promise."

She held out her hand, and Snails timidly took it.

Instantly Sunset's eyes glowed a pure white. The instrumentation went wild as the magical energy around Sunset spiked. Twilight furiously jotted down notes, reluctantly trusting the camera and instrument logs to catch the finer details.

After about ten seconds, the glow stopped. Sunset took hold of Snails' hand and pulled him into an awkward—but heartfelt—hug. She whispered a few words in his ear, and he slowly hugged her back. They held it for a moment before Sunset patted Snails on the back twice and they broke apart.

As soon as the instrumentation leads were disconnected from the two of them, Twilight shoved a printout from the machine into Sunset's hands. "Look at this!"

Sunset guided Snails towards the door. "Better get back to class, Snails," she said absently, taking the paper from Twilight. Her smile grew. "This is real?"

"Actual documented electromagnetic interference along the same wavelengths as before?"

Sunset looked back at Twilight and her eyes widened. "So how much was from my gemstone, and how much was from..." She pointed at Twilight's head.

"What?" Twilight felt for her ears, which had migrated to the top of her head and become significantly more equine.

"Hey, you Ponied Up!" Spike said as he hopped onto a desk.

"Why, though?" Twilight said, taking the data back from Sunset and pouring over it.

"I never really got a good answer for that," Sunset said. "But my best guess is your magic reacts to... discoveries?"

"That..." Twilight adjusted her glasses. "That doesn't sound scientific."

"Well, this is what we're here to find out, right?"

"I don't know, Sunset Shimmer" a voice cut in from the open door, "because it's certainly not what you wrote in your research summary."

Twilight, Spike, and Sunset all turned to see Ms. Gentleheart closing the door, the aforementioned research summary in her hand.

"It's not what it looks like!" Twilight blurted.

"It's exactly what it looks like," Spike deadpanned.

Sunset smiled weakly. "What does it look like?"

Gentleheart looked at Sunset, Twilight and Spike in turn. "Between the conversation, the... pony? ears, and the talking dog," she said, "I'd have to say 'magic.'"

"You, uh..." Twilight blushed. "Figured that out?"

"Yes," Gentleheart said with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "Principal Celestia neglected to tell me that the 'magic of friendship' was not metaphorical."

"It's really not," Sunset said. "I can get you a writeup."

Gentleheart handed her the research summary. "Along with a less euphemistic research summary, perhaps?"

Sunset scratched the back of her head. "Yeah..."

Gentleheart nodded. "I meant what I said earlier," she said as she opened the door. "I am here for you, and I do look forward to what you discover with this study."

She backed out of the lab and shut the door as gently as she could. She took one breath to collect herself, then walked purposefully back to her office, shut the door, turned off the light, and collapsed into her chair.

"You should pet me."

She jumped. She did not shriek. But she came very close to it.

Spike winced, but hopped up onto her desk. "Sorry," he said. "I thought you knew I was there."

Gentleheart held a hand to her chest and brought her breathing under control. "You did give me quite a fright, there," she said, "though I admit to not being most perceptive right now." She sat up. "Now, can you tell me why you thought it necessary to follow me?"

Spike sat. "You seemed sad. And I'm a licensed therapy dog, so it's scientifically proven that petting me makes people feel better."

Gentleheart sighed, but she allowed herself a smile. Slowly, she stroked the side of Spike's head. Spike leaned into the pet, trying not to ruin the moment.

"Twilight's very lucky," Gentleheart finally whispered, "to have such a loyal friend with her."

"She's pretty awesome," Spike said.

"And what was your name?"

Spike sat taller. "I'm Spike, Twilight's Number One Assistant."

Gentleheart nodded, then got up and opened the door. "Well, I'm sure she will be needing her assistant right now."

"Okay," Spike said as he hopped down. "But if you ever need me..."

Gentleheart smiled. "I know exactly where to find you."

Spike nodded and left.

Gentleheart closed the door and collapsed back in her chair. She sat there for a few moments, eyes closed, a few tears running down her face.

---

Princess Celestia was tired. The past few days had been an emotional whirlwind. Between seeing Sunset Shimmer in person for the first time since her initial escape, showing her and Twilight the restricted section, and now staying up late to see if she was successful in destroying the Memory Stone, Celestia was emotionally and physically exhausted.

But Twilight’s letter couldn’t be ignored. She didn’t have a problem with otherworldly visitors, provided they arrived intentionally and with peaceful intent. Fast Hooves and Miles Per Hour certainly seemed like peaceful colts, but she owed it to her little ponies to see that they got home safely.

Which brought her, in the gentle light of her sister’s moon, to Ponyville. And the home of—unironically—her favorite mailmare.

She made sure to only knock three times. Ditzy Do’s guest was very insistent on that.

The grey pegasus in question answered almost immediately. “Princess Celestia!” she said. “Come in, come in!”

“Thank you, Ditzy Do,” Celestia said, ducking her head and walking into the house. “Is your guest around?”

“He’s in the basement,” she answered with a bow.

“Thank you,” Celestia said, making her way down the stairs.

A brown earth pony with an hourglass cutie mark hunched over a workbench muttering to himself in some variation of a Trottingham accent. “No, no; the Harkness coil needs to connect to the negative end so it can—“ He froze, then turned around, a broad smile on his face. “Princess Celestia!” he said with no small amount of enthusiasm. “What brings you here?”

“Hello, Doctor,” Celestia said with a gentle smile. “I’m afraid I need your help with something.”

Next Chapter: Episode 2: Space-Time Turbulence Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 55 Minutes