It was a quick ride back to the motel, mainly because of the fact that the bus was buzzing with excitement the entire way back. Kind of like an amusement park ride station. Except more canned... Literally? I don't even know what this bus is made out of, and I was the one who summoned it. There's Equestrian logic for yah.

I knew that Discord's intentions for this were good, but I still think there were a few of us still suspicious of him. The way he controlled everything with a little too much ease probably creeped out some of us. I mean, in two days, he got us all to follow his lead instead of our own. I dunno. Just a thought.

Although the ride back to our 'base' was short, I still managed to fit in a decent conversation with Discord about what we were doing. I sat down next to him while Francine took off with the bus.

"Yo."

"Hello. What can I help you with?"

"A question."

"Okay, throw it at me. I'll see if I can answer it."

I chuckled at the way he said that. "Heh. I wanted to know: You got a group of fifteen people, all of which were ponies yesterday, to follow your lead into this plan of yours. Are you sure you really know what you're doing? Because I don't want a disaster happening in two dimensions."

"I see where your point is coming from, but I'm certain I know what to do here."

"I know, sort of, but really. Do you know what will happen after we fix the problem on Earth? You said time works differently here, so I'll bet that years have already passed by in Equestria. Everybody here has a home, you know."

"I don't. And to be perfectly honest, being around a population of annoying equestrians really had gotten on my nerves. I never developed feelings for anypony... I've lived my life, and I just want to make things right here before something... happens."

"Something? Happens? Really? You're making me ask more questions than you'll answer."

"Sorry. Since I am the original link between Equestria and Earth, I'm unstable in the fourth dimension. I'm a time jumper, and that means that... Wait a minute. Have you ever heard of Schrodinger's Cat?"

"The quantum physics experiment for the cat that's locked in a potentially lethal box is neither dead nor alive until the box is opened?"

"Yes. I am sort of like Schrodinger's cat in the sense that I have no idea how old I am until I die, so I'm unstable in the fourth dimension. I really have no idea how long I have left on Earth... Could be anywhere from a thousand years to a day... So in answer to your question of why I appear to be acting 'bossy', it's because I need to be hasty about solving this problem, and I'm the only person I can trust."

"Well, if I want to complicate the way I think about the universe any further, I'll just ask you."

"You're welcome to it." He said sarcastically.

After the bus stopped and parked back at the motel, it was a very busy two hours before everybody (Everypony, maybe? Damn.) would even try to sleep, and then another hour before everyone actually went to sleep. Essentially, it seemed as though we treated it like a sixth-grade overnight field trip. Not that I had a problem with it, or anything. Especially because I was in a room with Francine, Stephanie, and Dashie. The check in to the place was kind of hilarious, because of what Discord did to get us in here.

When we first stepped into the puny office for the place (All sixteen of us, like a boss), we were greeted by a short Hindu-looking guy. "Hollo and walcum to de Starright Motel. How mey I asseest you?"

Discord (naturally.) was the one to talk for us. "Thank you. How many rooms do you have available?"

"Well, how meny does you need?"

"Four. Adjacent if possible."

"You are een luck. There are fuur at the buttum rieght hand cornehr of de complex. Each room cawsts therty nien a night, so four of those meens you are going to pay...." He pulled out a small calculator from underneath the desk he was sitting at and punched in some numbers. "One hahndered and feefty nien dollors."

"Thank you." He put his right hand behind his back and summoned a billfold. That sneaky bastard. "Is it okay to be in cash?"

"Yes. Dat would be fine." Discord pulled out the billfold into clear view and counted out the money, then handed it to the man behind the counter, who in return handed us a set of four keys. "Thenk you. Your rooms are numbers eleven through fourteen."

We filed out of the office and into the rooms. It was a slow process getting to bed, mainly because Steph and I had to summon everything for the other two and ourselves. It was also a silent process getting into bed, and that was for the fact that everyone had a little bit too much time to converse with each other on the bus. I just ended up whipping out my laptop and playing Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 while the others found a rerun of Applebuck Season on the Hub. Dashie was a little stubborn to believe that it actually happened until she got to the ending where AJ apologized to her. It was hopeless by that point, especially by the way she let her comments loose. I'll just not go into the details.

By the time everyone was both tired and bored from arguing with Dash, it was about half past ten, and we all figured that we had stayed up a little late for the circumstances. However, the sleeping situation was far more awkward than anticipated. Because nobody really knew each other, nobody was willing to sleep in the same bed together. Even Dashie, whose only comment on the subject was "Eew". And so it ended up that Steph and I wound up on the floor with Francine and RD's extra sheets. Phfft. Unicorn humility FTW.

It was a relatively nice rest, but only for half of it. For the first half of the night, I vividly recall having the exact same dream the night before. Remember the Psycho style Twilight? Yeah, that's the one. Although I still had no idea how this correlated to my real life, I still had a feeling that this would, indeed, become a reoccurring nightmare. After waking up i.n a sweaty, sleep deprived state, I staggered to my feet on the cold carpet (F***ing motels... How do they work?) and made my way to the sink in the bathroom. The problem was, by now I was wide awake. And if anybody knows me, they would know that I pretty much have no chance of going back to sleep after waking up. I checked my watch as I got myself a glass of water. Only midnight. Damn it. This could be a long night. And that it was. I ended up laying in my makeshift bed for around two hours before I guess I just dozed off back to sleep.

Have you ever had one of those dreams that seems like you can control, to the point where it seems real? You don't come across those very often, but when you do, it seems like they last for eternity. Until you wake up, which I guess is the part where you try to recall what the hell just happened and end up realizing that it was just a dream. One of those happened that night. Well, sort of...

I awoke. As my eyes adjusted to the new found light of the room, I could get a rather good glimpse of where I was. Doing that resulted in a hardcore double take on my part, because I found myself in Twilight's treehouse.
"Again?" I asked myself. At this point, because I was aware that I was actually in what appeared to be a dream, I could figure that this was either a very elaborate dream or another reality. I hoisted myself off the wooden floor that I was laying down on. To find myself fall on my sad purple nose again. F***, I was a pony again.

But to be honest, I didn't know if that was a bad thing or not, so I tried calling out for somepony to help. I rolled over into a standing position to get a clearer view of the house. Nopony home...

"Twilight? Spike? You guys home...?" No response. Yeah, that was probably a bad sign. I found the door leading into the basement and opened it, taking another look. Still no Twilight. I walked out of the house to see if I could find anypony willing to help. And much to my dismay, I saw no pastel cartoon characters wandering the streets. Well, thanks! That helps a s***load. Remembering the first appearance of Zecora on the show, I could guess that there was at least a few ponies in this town... So I went to Sugarcube Corner. To be truthful, I was panicking. Mainly because I strictly remember being in Northern California literally what felt like minutes ago.
It wasn't really hard to find, mainly because I was blocking all other thoughts out of my head. My head was cloudy, just like the sky. And although it may not have seemed like it before, I was freaking out. I mean, it's one thing to be a pony again, but seriously. At this point I think life was just screwing with me. Especially when I saw a pink head pop up from the window in front of me. It was a quick sight, but the pony responsible was clearly evident: Pinkie Pie. Although she gave me a startled look when she first saw me, her look switched to somewhat joy when she saw me... I guess she remembers me. She also made a 'Come here!' gesture to me, proving that not only something was wrong, but that I was a crucial key in solving the problem.
I bolted over to the giant gingerbread-looking house before realizing what I could have done to get here: Teleportation. Derp. Well, now I remember that. And now I don't blame Twilight for walking pretty much everywhere. It's kind of hard to remember those kind of things, believe it or not. I still opened the door to get in, which I can only assume was only unlocked for me to get in, while at the exact same time being greeted by fifteen familiar faces.
The first one to regain speech and talk to me was Applejack. "Yer' late. A'hm assumin' you didn't get to sleep until about two in the morning then?"
"Bingo. You know, this situation is only going to get more and more awkward until someponies point is made, and therefore I have to ask you: What the hell is exactly going on here?" I asked through uneven breathing and wheezing.
"Well, we're back in Equestria, for starters." Alex said.
"Besides the obvious, Alex." Celestia objected, who (thankfully) had her wings and horn back.
"Either we're in the Machine's joke of the Matrix, or we're switching between realities. I honestly didn't believe that this wasn't a dream either until-" Francine started to say before I cut her off.
"Look! I know what's happening with us, but what's happening out there?" I swung a hoof at the window to emphasize my point. "I mean, who knows how much time has passed since we were last here? It could be years!"
I got my point across, but nopony seemed to have an answer to my question. So with that, everyone scattered around the building to find evidence that could prove the date. Within about five minutes, Applejack's faint voice came from upstairs, instantly hinting that something was probably very wrong. "Good hay... It's only been two days... Discord! What could that mean?"
The look on Discord's chaotic little face could have been considered 'priceless' if it weren't for the thing that he said afterwards. "Oh God... The two universes... Ours and yours... Are merging."
There was a long time that nopony would talk until Alex tried to brighten the conversation. "Why would that be a bad thing?" My guess is that he regretted saying that directly after it came out of his sorry purple mouth.
"Why wouldn't that be a bad thing? Look, only about one out of every thousand on Earth knows what MLP is, and half of those people are trolls. If ponies started coming to Earth, or we started coming here, hardly anybody would know what to do with each other, probably involving in conflict. Major conflict, too. And that's only in the case that just the ponies and humans collide. What about the worlds themselves? It would be pure chaos. And not even the kind Discord could handle." Jackie said before getting interrupted by an angered Discord.
"Listen, young mare. There's no kind of chaos I can't han-"
"Guys! Arguing does NOT help right now!" I protruded.
"Then what does?" They both yelled at me in unison.
I gave them my 'Seriously?' face to get them to shut up. "Well, first of all, finding out where everypony went, and why they went there..."
Everyone cut me off with those annoying parting words (Examples: 'On it!' 'Gotcha!') and stormed out the door, obviously not wanting to hear the rest of the bickering between Discord and Jackie.
I left with the majority of them to see what was up, but I stopped dead in my tracks and headed upstairs, realizing that Applejack hadn't come back down after she started this. I went down the short hallway and into the only open door. Inside, she was sitting wide-eyed on a bed, looking out the window that pointed north in the room.
"AJ? You okay?" I asked her.
"No." She pointed at the window slowly. I peered over her shoulder to see what was up.
"Holy s***..."
There were no words to describe how we were feeling, but there were several to describe what we saw. Outside the window, clearly visible from the bedroom, was Canterlot. That wouldn't be too shocking if it weren't the fact that it was in flames. Smoke was also billowing above the castle, forming a cloud of smog similar to the one generated by the dragon in episode eight of the first season.
"Well, now what?" AJ finally said.
"We get the others. GUYS!!! COME QUICK!!!" I yelled. There was a quick response from the others, which came in the form of a stampeding herd of ponies and a dragon. Discord and Twilight screwed the thought of walking, and just teleported up here instead.
The look on everyone's face was just plain depressing when they looked out the window. It was even worse when Walter tried to get an answer out of this mess. "So now what the hell do we do?"
"I have no f***ing clue." Alex said a moment later.
"Should we go there?" Celestia asked.
"I guess we have no other choice. Discord? How good are you with teleporting multiple things?" I replied.
"Pretty good. See for yourself." And before any of us could realize what he was doing, he did it. Nearly instantaneously, all fifteen of us were directly in front of the Canterlot Palace. The normally bright and cheerful palace grounds were now gloomy and dark. A frightened pegasus bolted from the door and started flying away from the front gates, only to be stopped by Discord, who hoped to collect some answers from him.
"Just where do you think you're going?" Discord inquired.
"Oh, come on! Do I really have to explain this again?" He didn't seem to be too shaken up by the fact that he was talking to the former enemy of Equestria. This couldn't mean anything good at this point.
"To us, yes." Celestia said.
"Celestia? Where were you?!?"
"It's a very long story that I do not have the time for. First, you tell us."
"Okay, fine. Ever since you left, Luna assumed the role that you did while she was on the moon, raising both the sun and the moon. Basically a queen. But that's not all. Ponies have been waking up who think that they're something called a human."
I couldn't help but cut him off there. "DAMMIT!!! WE'RE TOO LATE!!!"
"LET ME FINISH! Anyway, several of them don't remember who they were, but a few actually recognize this place. Those are the ones who are peaceful. Can you explain this?"
"Yes. Where the humans come from, there's this fanbase..." We all pitched in to explain what was going on, but it took about ten minutes. Too long.
"So you're telling me that they're all from a different universe?!?" He yelled.
"Basically. Watch out for the others; they may be very aggressive."
"We already knew that. Some of the 'Anti-Bronies' you mentioned earlier are the ones responsible for this." He swung a hoof at the cloud of smoke coming from the fire in the castle.
"Oh my God. You're kidding me..." Bill said, staring wide-eyed at the pillar of smoke.
"I wouldn't. I have no reason to kid at a hectic time like this."
"One last question," Celestia piped in, "How long was I gone?"
"Couldn't have been more than two days. Why?"
"This is worse than I thought... The two universes are literally colliding within the fourth dimension..." Discord said.
"Thanks for the help." I said as I turned back towards the rest of my group. "Any more ideas?"
Discord's answer alarmed me, even though it sounded legitimate. "Find Luna, then get back to the barn."

It didn't take long for Celestia to find Luna. She ended up cowering in her bedroom, in her bed, at the end of the left staircase, just as she predicted. It was quite a sight to see the indigo princess of Equestria on the verge of tears.

"Holy bit! Are you okay?" Francine blurted out.

"N-n-no... The Humans are t-taking over. And there's n-nothing we can do..." Luna's voice was shaky.

"Sister, please. Come with us. We need your help." Celestia pleaded.

"W-what for? There's n-no use..."

"We can explain. Just come with us."

"I c-can't let my citizens j-just go like this."

"There's nothing else you can do here. Follow us."

"To where?"

"Earth. It's our only hope."

Luna reluctantly agreed to it as Discord teleported us all back to Ponyville. Luna was alarmed by the fact that Ponyville was completely abandoned.

"So, to the barn then?" I suggested. The rest agreed, and soon we were all on our way to save Equestria. And probably Earth, too. It was a rather grueling walk to the barn, mainly because of how friggin' scary Ponyville looked with nopony there.

When we found ourselves in front of the barn, nothing seemed unusual. We all knew it was too good to be true. A brave Applejack bucked open the door to see what was inside and was shocked (as all of us were) at what was in front of us. Replacing the usual hay and straw on the ground, was Bill's living room. It was almost as if we just all walked out of Bill's kitchen and never went to Cali in the first place... I stepped forward into the room. After a split second of complete disorientation, I found myself to be a human on all fours again. Whoa. I turned around and got to my feet.

"You guys coming?" I found that everypony was looking up at me, which was a little awkward, given that I was six feet tall and they were only around three. "Oh, sorry."

The rest walked into the room, revealing the human version of themselves. Two new faces were revealed this time, in which Pinkie Pie was a artsy-looking, poofy-haired teenager, while Luna was a tall, thin, dark skinned woman. After they were used to their new found universe, we could get back to what we were trying to do: Get back to California.

"Any ideas for what to do next?" Francine asked.