"Hmmmm...Oooohh...What a crazy day..." Twilight moaned as she started waking up, the events of yesterday coming back to her. She could smell something from downstairs. "Oh, Spike must be making breakfast. That's nice of him." She said to herself.

She got up and went to the mirror, where she brushed her hair. Being content, she trotted out the door, and walked along the balcony, happy that Spike had gotten right on this.

As she walked, though, she noticed something weird, Spike's door was still closed. My door was open just a bit. She looked inside and saw that I wasn't there. "I wonder if he's up also?" She asked herself. She walked past Spike's door and went down the stairs. Quickly to round the corner to the kitchen.

"Oh! Hey Twilight!" I was cooking eggs, while some pancakes were sitting on a hot plate. "I thought you'd be up a little later, I was just making breakfast for all of us, as a way of saying thanks." I had quite a bit of energy. I got more sleep last night than I usually do, and being here along with the Warmth (that's what I'll call it for now) seemed to really get me going.

Twilight looked a little shocked, "Wait, you know how to cook this?"

"Yep! We eat the same stuff. Except we usually also...oh...uhh...never mind." I thought I'd leave out the part about bacon and sausage and other meat. I didn't want to scare them, gross them out, offend them, or something. I knew that animals here are generally much more intelligent, and no one eats meat.

"What?" She looked intrigued.

"Nothing! We usually...uhh...also have orange juice! But I couldn't find any in the fridge." I put on the best poker face I could, apparently it was enough. Luckily, there actually wasn't any.

"Oh, I guess I'll go get some later. Thank you, by the way. You really didn't have to." She said sincerely, smiling.

"I know. But it makes me feel better about all of this." It did too. I had woken up really early. I figured I might as well, since they would have done it otherwise.

Twilight then noticed the black circles on the back of my hand. The ones that I used to make sure none of this was a dream.

"Hey, what is that?" She pointed and looked at my hand, but I didn't get it.

"What is what?" I looked at her, moving the eggs around.

"Those marks on your hand. What are they?"

Wow, how has no one noticed those yet? I thought. "Oh, they were an experiment. I wanted to try to remember my dreams more. So I drew these on the back of my hand. Whenever I notice them, I look at something, look away, and look back. If the thing changed, then I'm most likely dreaming, if not, then no. Dreams are usually too unstable for things you aren't looking at to stay the same. I actually did that when I first got here, because at first I thought there was no way this could be real. I was ecstatic when that statue on the table over there didn't change." I explained.

"Wow, that's really smart." She was a little mezmarized by the idea.

"Well it wasn't my idea, I got it offline...Um...Don't ask me what that is." I realized I didn't want to have to make myself look dumb again trying to explain the internet.

She just stared for second. "Why those marks though? Why the circles?"

"Hmmm...I dunno. It was just something I came up with. It only said to put something on the back of your hand. I don't remember how I got the idea, it was just something that intrigued me."

"Huh. Well, looks like you're almost done, I'll go wake up Spike." She turned, and started to walk, when Spike came around the corner.

"Uhhh...Twilight, you're making breakfast?" He was still half asleep.

"Oh, you're up. Nope! Alex is! He said he wanted to say thanks for letting us stay here." She said enthusiastically.

"Huh...hmm...okay." He said quietly, rubbing his eye.

"You've got good timing, it's all done." I then quickly set up two plates. "Here you both go."

Twilight took one plate with her magic. "Thanks!" She said with a smile, then walked off into the main room. Spike slowly walked up to me and grabbed the other plate. "Yeah, thanks." He said slightly groaning, but he did seem grateful. After he walked off into the room, I grabbed my plate and followed behind.

"Oh, this is pretty good!" Twilight said after taking a few bites.

"Thanks, I usually make a similar breakfast every day for myself, not always with pancakes, but you know." I said, then took a few bites. Oh, it really did turn out pretty good. Better than I usually do. I thought to myself as I chewed.

"Mmm...Yeah." Spike said, mouth full. I let out a small laugh.

"So how well have those marks been working?" Twilight asked after swallowing a bite of egg.

"It's really weird actually. I only started a little while ago. And nothing had really happened that much. But last night, it was seriously one of the most vivid dreams I've had in a while. I don't know if it's me being here, or this feeling I've had since I've gotten here, or what."

"You said that you felt warmer when you were falling. Do you think it means anything?" She asked.

"I don't know." I said simply, shaking me head a little. I really wanted some answers though.

"Well, want to go see the others?" Twilight asked.

"Oh! Yeah. I was pretty excited about that. I hope we have better timing."

"Heh, yeah. I'm actually gonna go tell them were gonna stop by. Hopefully they will be more ready than the others." She pointed out. It was a good idea. I didn't want to scare Fluttershy. Nor her animals again.

"Good idea. I'll wait for you to get back." I said. At that point, she had finished eating.

"I'll take that." Taking her plate from her. "I'll get this stuff."

"Oh! Thanks. I'll be right back. Come on Spike." She said, looking down at him. He finished his last gulp of food, and handed me the plate.

"Here you go. Looks like we may need for you to make breakfast again sometime, heh." He said simply, but politely. He then jumped up on Twilight's back, and they both disappeared from the room in a flash of purple light.

I brought the plates over and rinsed them off, then left them in the sink. I wasn't sure what to do with them next, there weren't any washing machines here.

Better just stay here. I don't need or want to scare anyone by going outside. I thought. It was still very strange for me to be here.

I walked back into the main room and looked at the shelves. Searching again for something interesting, and there was quite a bit. I took a book out simply called Magic, which made me laugh. I took the book and went to sit down on the couch. From the show, it seemed like there wasn't much of a limit on the types of things they could do with it, but I thought some examples would be good.

Most of what was in the book wasn't really any surprise. It explained the difficulties of more advanced spells, most of the types of things it's used for, and things that can't really be done at all.

Here's some examples. The farther the teleport, the harder it is to pull off. More complicated or more massive objects are harder to conjure. However, a full understanding of such an object is not always needed to do such. I guess that's why they don't just conjure food or gems or things like that. I though as I read. I even read a little bit about how to do some of the things, but it was really hard to understand, most of them seemed to require specific complicated thought processes.

I read through a lot of the book, not realizing what time it was. I looked at my watch.

"What? They've been gone for an hour. Has it really been that long?" I asked myself. I noticed how far I had gotten into the book. I wondered why it may be taking this long. There wasn't anything I could do though. I would just have to wait.

After several more minutes, I heard knocking at the door. They finally walked in.

"Oh, there you are." I closed the book, and smiled. I didn't want to seem impatient, and wasn't really.

"I'm sorry! I didn't think it would take that long." She said as Spike jumped off her back.

"Yeah. Heh, she ended up explaining everything to each of them. Rarity got it pretty quickly. Fluttershy just sort of nodded. Pinkie Pie wasn't exactly paying attention.

"Oh, thank you. And it's alright. I was a bit pre-occupied with this." I held up the book to them for them to glance at what it was.

"Oh, that's actually more advanced stuff." She realized, after seeing the title.

"Yeah. There didn't seem to be many limitations on types of magic that could be done on the show. So I wanted to see what was and wasn't actually possible for you to do." I explained. Some of the best things I saw on the show convinced me they could do most anything.

"Usually a unicorn is just limited by their skill and strength, and usually their magic has mostly to do with their specialties. There really are few other limits." She walked up and took the book with her magic after I held it up to her.

"And you're specialty is magic." I said as I stood.

"Yep! So, ready to go?"

"Yeah. I'm anxious to actually meet and talk to the others. Who first?" I asked excitedly.

"Alright, heh, calm down. We're going to see Rarity, she was intrigued by all of this, and she got the order for her client done." She told me. It really didn't matter who was first, I think they're all awesome.

"I'm ready when you are." I said smiling.

She nodded, then closed her eyes. I saw her horn glow for a second, and there was a bright flash of light around us again.

I was much more ready for it that time. Only ended up taking one balance step. Then shook my head a bit. We were now in front of Rarity's boutique again.

"Here we are!" She said happily, walking up to the door. She knocked.

"Come in!" We heard Rarity from inside. She sounded much more calm this time around. Twilight opened the door, Spike right behind her. I heard the bell above the door ring. Then stepped inside.

"Alex! Hello. Come! Sit. Twilight told me a lot." Rarity said excitedly. She was standing in the middle of the room, with a big, happy look on her face. I wasn't really expecting her to be so welcoming like this. Applejack I could see, Rarity, it was a little weirder.

"Thank you! You're...umm...really taking to this well." I pointed out.

"Oh, but of course! Who wouldn't be interested? Especially when you seemed so kind!" She was definitely excited, which I wasn't expecting.

Spike seemed to be jealous, and I noticed, when he looked at me, I shrugged back. I walked over to the table. We all sat down with her.

"So, Twilight told me that you know about everything through this 'story'. What's it like?"

I spent the next few minutes explaining. She seemed to understand clearly. Twilight had already gotten a lot through.

"So what do you think is going on? Someone like you, into the 'show', gets taken away to it's origin. Why do you think that has happened?" She asked after I finished.

"Not even Celestia knows. However, she told me she knew that my world was there, but nothing else about. She could feel it, and she recently started having dreams of seeing it from space or something like that."

"Really? She never told us about it." Twilight said.

"I don't know. Maybe she felt it wasn't important, or maybe it didn't mean much to her. But now that I'm here, it changes a lot." I realized as I said it.

"And what of this other thing? This 'feeling' you have?" Rarity asked.

"Well, ever since I got here, I've felt something like I'm warmer internally, but normal. When I jumped off of Rainbow Dash's house, I was slowed down by something, and the feeling grew stronger until I landed."

"Well, we'll just have to see what happens from this point on I suppose." Rarity said. It was true too, we could only wait.

"Yeah." I agreed. The thought of magic came to me again. "So...uh...Rarity, what kind of magic can you do? I know it has mostly to do with your profession, but what do you think you could do if you really tried?" I wanted to know.

She looked a little stunned, "Well, that's not something I was expecting. It's not very likely, but I suppose if I tried hard enough, I could teleport some short distance. That kind of magic isn't really within my abilities though."

"Oh Rarity, I'm sure it would be easy for you!" Spike said appreciatively.

"So it's possible right? It's possible for any unicorn to do any type of magic that any other could do, with enough effort?" I asked.

"Oh! Yes, of course. It's just easier for me because magic is my specialty." Twilight said.

"So, you just don't take interest in learning new magic?" I asked Rarity.

"Well, no. My interest is in what I do. Fashion, not magic tricks." She said, with a small amount of distaste.

"But, don't you think it would be useful to know more? If I could do it, I'd probably be more like Twilight. Most people back home would probably do the same." Twilight blushed a little. No one noticed though.

"But magic here is common place. It's not something that everyone finds to be all and only fascinating." Twilight pointed out to me. I hadn't really though of it that way. It made sense, but it was still an amazing thing to me.

"I guess that makes sense." I said.

"Oh! Wow, is that the time?" Rarity said after glancing at the clock. "I'm so sorry everyone. But I actually have some work I must get to.

"Oh, not a problem, I think we were about to get going anyway. We still need to see Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie." Twilight said.

"Right. Thank you so much for having me over. I'm glad you're taking to all of this so well."

"Any time darling! Please come over some time so we can maybe discuss those close you're wearing. They seem...interesting."

"Heh, sure." I said smiling, as we all started walking out the door.

We all walked a little ways away from her house.

"Man, she really did take that all well." I said.

"Of course she did! She's...Rarity." Spike said with love in her name.

Twilight rolled her eyes, then looked at me, "She's usually good with new people. As long as, you know, it isn't someone like Photo Finish." She joked. "So! Ready to go to Fluttershy's?"

"Yes. Definitely." I answered. Fluttershy was going to be great, I just knew it.

"Alright." She said, and in no time at all, she had taken us all to the front of Fluttershy's cottage.

The animals did not freak out this time.

"She really is good at what she does." I said as we all approached the front door.

"Well you should know. You've seen what she's capable of." Twilight said.

"Heh, right."

Twilight knocked on the door. "Fluttershy? We're here." She said through the door.

"Oh! Umm...Please, come in." We heard her say timidly from inside.

CRASH!

There was sound of something toppling over.

"AAH! No! Angel, get off of there!" We heard, and quickly opened the door to step inside.

Angel was sitting stubbornly on top of a tall cupboard. A small table had been knocked over with a plant in a vase. There was dirt everywhere.

"Oh!" Twilight was the first to do something. She walked up to the broken vase, and collected all of the broken pieces into a pile with her magic. She then swept up the dirt into another.

"Thank you, Twilight." Fluttershy said, ignoring Angel after that point, she knew she probably wouldn't get him down.

"Not a problem!" She said happily, as she levitated the pieces of the vase into the air. They all started darting around each other quickly back into a formation the seemed like a 3D puzzle taken apart. Slowly, they moved towards one another, and when they touched, they seemed to fuse. The vase was good as new.

"Wow." I said, watching it with great interest. "Good job" I said as I looked at her.

"Heh, thanks. Not too hard." She replied as she picked up the dirt and plant and put them back into the vase.

"How did you know where each piece went so quickly?" Fluttershy asked. It was true too, it was like she had fixed a hundred times before this.

"I used a spell I just recently learned. It allows me to quickly understand simple things." She said as she finally put it back on the table which Fluttershy had put back upright.

"Simple things?" I asked.

"Well, the more complicated, the longer it usually takes to understand."

"Ha! That's like cheating." I laughed. It was a really cool concept to me though.

"No it isn't! I wouldn't use it for something like that!"

"I'm only teasing." I laughed again. I looked over at Fluttershy, who chuckled to herself.

"Hi Fluttershy!" I said to her kindly.

"Oh! Uhh...Hello." She was still shy. However, she was good with animals, so she would probably be good with aliens. I acted the same as everyone else though.

"Don't be so worried, Fluttershy. Alex has been good so far." Spike said. It was nice to know he also warmed up a bit to me.

"Oh, I know. It's just weird, you know, with an alien...um...in your house."

"Yeah. It would be weird to me too. It seems you handled your...uhh...friends pretty well." I looked at some of the animals outside through the window.

"Oh, yes. They just had a bit of a fright before. They had never seen something like you."

"I figured." I said. "It's amazing to actually meet you! I thought you were awesome in the show." I really was excited. I could hear myself breathing. The whole situation with the vase caught me off guard a bit.

"Heh, thanks." She said, in her normal voice now, which of course still seems small.

"What were you doing?" Twilight asked.

"Oh, just waiting." Fluttershy looked at Angel with an annoyed face. He was asleep on top of the cupboard. He obviously wasn't interested in any of this.

"What was he doing?" I asked. I knew Angel was a hassle, but also unpredictable.

"I don't know. He must've not been happy that you were coming over."

"That's okay. I know he's like that."

Fluttershy smiled weakly, then she looked at my hand. "Hey, what are those markings?" She noticed them much faster than anyone else.

Twilight answered for me, "They were to try to dream more, apparently."

"Yeah. It's been an ongoing experimental...thing."

She just sort of nodded like she understood, then looked at Twilight. "Hey, can you help me with something...umm...alone?"

"Uh, yeah! What do you need?" She said as she approached her.

"Just some help with an animal upstairs." She said, as she turned to the stairs and started walking with Twilight.

"Can I help?" I asked.

"Oh! Uhh, no. I haven't gotten a chance to tell him about you. Spike, you can come though." She looked at him.

"Alright. I'm good with these guys." He said kind of proudly.

"Okay, I'll just wait down here." I said to the three of them. They just quickly looked back and nodded.

I stood there for about 5 minutes. I looked outside at some of the animals, who were watching me closely. I just waved with a smile. I didn't really know how to act, but they didn't do anything but keep staring.

Suddenly...

"Oh my goodness!" I heard Fluttershy from upstairs, "I forgot what time it was! Oh dear! Oh no!" She yelled as she ran down the stairs. "Sorry Alex! I need to go somewhere!" She said as she flew past me quickly and out the door.

Twilight and Spiked came down. "What was that about?" I asked.

"Dunno." Spike said, looking at Twilight.

"Yeah, no clue." She said back.

"What now?" I asked.

"Pinkie Pie?" She jogged my memory.

"Oh, yeah. I'm ready when you both are."

They both seemed to smile a bit, which confused me.

"Alright, here we go." She said in a weird tone. Then she closed her eyes and there was a flash.

When it dissipated, it was now dark, very dark. It was a little unnerving. Had the spell gone wrong that time?

"Umm...Hello?" I called out.

"SURPRISE!"