Jack awoke with a start to thunderous applause. She twitched in her chair, nearly toppling over at the sudden noise. “I-I'm up!” she called, glancing around the box seat. “Oh.”

“You've been asleep for the past hour and a half,” Rarity stated, shooting a disapproving glare. “We're at intermission.”

“The play still ain't done yet?” Jack asked, rising from her chair and popping her back.

“It's intermission, darling. We're only halfway there.”

Jack suppressed a weary groan.

“Y-you've got a bit of...” Rarity gestured to the corner of her mouth. Jack mirrored the action, rubbing at the spot with the back of her hand. “Better.” The tailor nodded. She rose and headed towards the booth's exit. “Come on, Ms. Apple. We have a rendezvous to attend.”

Rarity escorted Jack to the student counsel room. As they opened it, they were greeted by two figures standing at the far end of the room, and four more sitting at the long table by the windows.

“Lady Belle! It's quite nice seeing you once again,” Celestia beamed, raising a gauntlet hand from her position near the blackboard. Rarity curtsied, smiling at the earthen-skinned woman as Jack stared, open mouthed at the two living legends. “Please, have a seat. I'd love to catch up with what you've been doing.”

“Things far more trivial than you, of that I can guarantee,” Rarity humbly said.

“The mundane begets the grand, does it not?” the pale, black-armored woman to Celestia's side retorted.

“Wise words, Luna,” her sister agreed. Celestia's attention briefly turned to Jack. “So, this must be the farmer, Jack. Am I correct?”

It took several seconds for Jack to overcome her near mental breakdown. The rulers of the country. The leaders of the Caballien council here. In this room. “Uh, eyup,” the farmer said after a long pause. She swallowed nervously and bowed. “R-right pleased ta meet ya.”

“Arise, Jack of the Apple clan,” Luna ordered. The farmer complied instantly. The Nightwalker smiled—an action that was no more than a pencil-thin line on her snowy features. “Pull up a chair, daughter of Johnny. Rarity and thou hath arrived just as we have begun palaver.”

Jack grabbed a seat next to the grinning Diane. The pink haired woman laughed.

“Aren't you just a gussied-up goosie?” Pinkie chortled, clapping her hands cheerfully. “With your nicely nice suit and hair all braidalaidaley.”

“Uh... thank... you?” Jack replied, guessing that was a complement. She turned her attention back to the two leaders of Caballo. “So, what's this palaver business? It a game?”

Luna rubbed at her chin, giving a confused glance towards the blonde. “Nay, tis palaver—where we may speak to our dear fellows without a care of title nor rank. I was merely going to tell young Lady Shields about a discovery up north that could revolutionize the world. Mayhaps not in our time, but in the time of our children's children.” She looked at Twila. “Thou art aware of the Scale theory, correct?”

Twila smiled. “What a surprise! I was actually speaking to Jack about that very thing a few days ago.”

“In the far north, across the ocean and resting within the heart of the old nations, our adventuring party discovered a magic anomaly. Twas a pool akin to a hot springs, nestled on a small plateau between two of the largest mountains in the area. Though we were surely tempted to jump in and awash ourselves free of the biting cold, we took precautions—the burnt scent of magic all but spilled from the shoreleine of those waters, and none of us were keen on stepping into an unknown magic.”

At this, the pale woman leaned forward, smiling. “We examined it and discovered it was a gateway.”

“To where?” Twila asked, just as enthused as the Nightwalker. “The Everfree forest in the land of the griffons?”

“Farther.” Luna's smile widened.

Twila gave it another brief moment. “The Everlost desert in the west?”

“We shall tell thou where it took us: a small island inside the Bermuda Triangle.”

The scholar narrowed her brow. She ran her fingers through her lavender hair. “I've never heard of the place.”

“Because it is not part of this world.”

The words hit Twila like a sack of bricks—she shot out of her chair and leaned forward on the table. “Y-you found another world?!” she proclaimed.

“Mayhaps 'another world' isn't right. 'Another dimension' would be the more precise. There were many similarities to our own—music, variations of our own history and, as icing on the cake, a similar language, at least with the single native I encountered.”

“Fascinating. What was the tribal like?”

“Nay, Lady Shields. The man was a far cry from a primitive tribal. He was a commercial piloting what they call an aerodynamic plane—a ship that flies the air rather than the sea. He lost his vessel traveling what he called 'the Devil's Triangle.' He was akin to an earth-folk—he had no magic to claim, and seemed frightened when I produced spells of my own. He was convinced that he was suffering a fever dream.”

“So, the world had no magic?”

Luna nodded, absentmindedly tapping the pommel of her sword. “According to him, thou art correct. He was from the town of Manhattan in Amarereka, and that it was their most advanced town in the world. If his people didn't know about magic, I have doubts that anyone else in their world does.”

“Manhattan?” Jack spoke up. “How do they got one of them too?”

“As We mentioned, their lands are a parallel to our own. For example, during one of our nightly palavers, the man mentioned that I looked akin to a knight from King Arthur's round table. I pressed him on the matter; I thought if he knew of my father, then he might know of myself.”

“And...?” Twila pressed. Luna shook her head.

“Not only had he never heard of me, but he stated that Arthur Pendragon was a simple story designed to inspire people in a dark period of their history.”

“That don't make a lick a damn sense,” Jack argued. “If it's a parallel like yer sayin', then where's the connections? How do we get spells an they get flyin' ships or whatever you were sayin'?”

Luna crossed her arms and bounced her head briefly. “A parallel does not follow line for line, Jack.”

“But—”

“—I consider the two worlds closest to a game of chance using dice. The numbers rolled may be different, but is it not true that they abide by the same rules, correct? Both sets are made from bone and decorated with ink, both have similar weight, both are rolled from the same cup. One world's myth may very well be fact in the other, due to extenuating circumstances, and vice versa.”

“Hmm,” Jack grunted, crossing her arms. “I ain't sure if I like the idea of me jus' bein' a story or somethin' in another world.”

“Myth wouldn't be so bad, methinks. Tis when you meet yourself in flesh and bone—that is when the problems would arise.”

“A second me...” Jack trailed off, the thought filling her gut with a deep seated dread.

“God help us all if there were two of the hayseed in the same room,” Dash disinterestedly quipped, propping her feet onto the table and gazing at the Nightwalker. “Now, not to hurry you along, your highness, but when are you going to mention why you're telling us all of this?”

“I simply thought I'd share some of my findings with you all. Lady Shields has always been interested in the sciences, and I believed she would appreciate our discovery.” The pale woman looked towards the scholar. “That, and with this new information, I was hoping to bring forth a proposition.”

“For me?” Twila said, pointing a finger at her chest.

“Indeed. I was hoping on our next excursion to this other world, you could venture with me.”

Twila's eyes widened to almost comedic proportions. “M-me?! Going to a world only a handful have visited and getting the opportunity to study it?!” She clapped her hands gleefully. “L-let me go get packed!”

Luna chuckled, the action strange coming from such a serious and somber looking individual. “Nay, Twila. I only arrived back in my homeland days ago. I shan't be leaving for a while. Besides, thou needs to complete your education here as well.”

At Luna's words, the young woman calmed down a bit. “Right.” She coughed into her hand. “My apologies—I was far too excited at the idea.”

“Tis an exciting concept. While my knowledge has always been focused upon warfare and tactics, I cannot help but be enthralled by the new world myself.” She stole a glance to the Daywalker. “My apologies, Celestia. I spoke far beyond my normal amount. I fear I may have stole thine thunder.”

Celestia smiled good-naturedly. “I was not the one traveling to exotic locations and speaking to outworlders. Please, speak as much as you like—the floor is yours. I'm sure they have questions.”

“Ooh! Ooh!” Pinkie shouted, lifting her hand up as high as she could and waving her arm frantically.

“Mmm?” Celestia questioned. “Is something the matter, Diane?”

“I was just wondering if they had video games a-and pizza and dinosaurs there!”

Luna tilted her head, recalling the many nights of palaver she held with the native. “I, uh, believe they did have the first two, mayhaps even the third. However, I cannot say our topics crossed over much regarding entertainment, save for music. ”

Pinkie nodded, content with the answer.

“Could We ask why thou were wondering those... very specific items?”

“Simple! Because any world with pizza and video games in it can't be evil, right?”

Dash felt like she was stepping onto a landmine. “A-and the dinosaurs?” she asked.

Pinkie grinned and put two fingers next to her jaw. “Because dinosaurs are, like, super-cool! Raaaahhhh!” she bellowed, hopping above her chair and standing proudly on top of the wooden table.

The rest in the room did their best to ignore her.

Celestia seemed to suddenly perk up. “Does anyone have the time?”

Twila snapped her fingers. An ethereal grandfather clock rose from the floor. Its ghostly visage shown five minutes until the hour.

“Showboat,” Isabelle said.

“A little bit,” Twila admitted, blushing slightly. “I was mostly curious if I could get the shape and consistency of a time-measuring device that large.”

“Something like this should be cake for a soul-folk as strong as you are. Heck, you could probably do a clock-tower without breaking a sweat.” Dash smirked, playing with a strand of hair.

The talented soul-folk smiled at her friend, saying nothing.

“As much as it pains me to say so, we should return to the theater box—the play will return in moments, and twould be folly to miss even a moment,” Luna said politely. “While mine sister and I have pressing matters after the play, we will be returning to campus soon. We may...” she put a gauntleted finger to her chin in thought. “Chill around then. C-chill around? Is that atypical speech for this generation?” she asked herself.

“Close enough, bro,” Dash answered with a shrug.