Parallel

It was a warm summer morning in a small neighborhood, a morning much like any other. Two teenage boys, who were best friends that lived right next door to each other, were hanging out in one of the boys’ backyard. It was part of a routine they had. They would always spend every morning outside in one of their backyards talking about random topics. They also made it a habit to alternate between whose yard they would hang out in. The two boys were named Nathaniel and Nee-J. Today, the two boys were in the former’s yard.

“Hey, remember when you first spelled out your name for me, and I couldn’t pronounce it for the life of me?” Nathaniel asks. He was a boy of average height, with dark brown skin and black hair with an eraser top. He had a fascination with ninjas, and he was a great acrobat, practicing free running in his spare time.

“Yeah, and then I told you to say the word ‘knee,’ and then the letter ‘J,’ then you finally got it,” said Nee-J. He was a little taller than his friend Nathaniel despite being younger than him, and his skin was a lighter shade of brown, too. His head was more round and had less definition than Nathaniel’s, as well. Nee-J was the artist of the two, and he always carried a sketchbook filled with his own comics.

The conversation switched from name pronunciations to My Little Pony, which was the two friends’ favorite show.

“I’ve always wondered,” said Nathaniel, “What would it be like to live in Equestria?”

“Oh, God. Not that again,” Nee-J said, rolling his eyes. This wasn’t the first time that his friend brought up this question.

“What? You mean you’ve never thought of how cool it would be to live there?”

“I’m not saying that I haven’t, it’s just that you’ve brought this up several times in the past few days, and it’s getting kind of old.”

“Sorry, man. It’s just that it would be so freaking awesome! I even dreamed about it last night.”

“You are officially obsessed.”

“I’d expect the guy that makes his own comics to have some imagination.”

“Pssh. Whatever.”

The two friends continue to talk about the possibility of living in such a fantastical world as Equestria, when all of a sudden, they hear weird sound. It sounded like something out of a science fiction movie.

“What the hell?” said Nee-J, looking at his friend in surprise.

“I wonder what that was,” said Nathaniel, he then looked out into the open area of his backyard and saw what looked like a tiny orb just floating in midair.

“That’s weird,” he said. “Hey Nee-J, let’s check it out.”

“Alright,” he said, against his better judgment.

The boys walked towards the orb, Nathaniel in front, his curiosity much stronger than Nee-J’s.

“What do you think it is?” the latter asked.

“I dunno. Let’s find out,” said Nathaniel. He reached his hand out to touch the mysterious orb, but Nee-J grabbed it before he could do so.

“What the hell are you doing!?”

“What?”

“What do you mean ‘what’? A mysterious ball of light appears in your backyard out of nowhere and your first thought is to touch it?”

“Well, yeah.”

Nee-J slapped the back of Nathaniel’s head, shaking his head at his friend’s lapse in judgment.

“You ever thought that, oh I don’t know, something bad might happen if you touched it?” he asked.

“Well, I’m not just gonna leave it there,” Nathaniel retorted.

As the two boys went back and forth over the pros and cons of touching the unknown object, the orb suddenly got brighter, and in an instant, it grew much bigger, enveloping the two friends in its mass, effectively knocking them out.

After who knows how long, Nathaniel slowly woke up. He looked around and was very confused. Instead of being in his backyard, he was in a bedroom that he didn’t recognize. He got out of the bed, and walked out of the room, into the hallway.

“Nee-J?” he called out. “You around, man?”

All of a sudden, he heard a loud scream.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!”

“What in the-?” he thought. He ran in the direction of the scream and came to a door. When he opened it, he was shocked at what he saw. Instead of his friend, he saw a unicorn with a coat what was the same color as Nee-J’s skin tone, and a short, black mane. Instead of being a regular unicorn, he was an anthro unicorn, standing on his two hind legs and having hands in the place of front hooves. He was wearing a long sleeved graphic t-shirt with an opened button shirt over it and black skinny jeans.

“Nee-J!?” he said. “What the fuck happened to you!?”

The unicorn turned his head toward him, widened his eyes, and said “Speak for yourself!” he said. “Look in the mirror,” he moved over to give his friend space to look into the mirror. As Nathaniel peered into the glass, he was surprised at what he saw. Instead of seeing himself as a human, he saw himself as a pegasus with a coat that was the same color as his skin, and a mane that was done in a short afro Mohawk. He also noticed that he was wearing a black sleeveless shirt with matching sweatpants, as if he was about to do some parkour or something.

“We… we turned into ponies!” he said.

“No shit, Sherlock!” said, Nee-J. “I even checked to see if I had a cutie mark, and there it was!”

“Seriously? What does it look like?”

“A comic book with a pencil over it- wait, that’s not important!”

“I wonder what mine looks like…”

“Dude, I’m right here! If you’re gonna check to see if there’s a mark on your ass-”

“On my flank.”

“On your flank, do it when you’re alone!”

“Okay, I know this is crazy, but let’s just calm down. Maybe that orb we say just took us to an alternate universe or something.”

The term “alternate universe” echoes in Nee-J’s head. “That’s it!” he said. “I saw this mentioned on that TV show Fringe once.”

“What do you mean,” Nathaniel asked, confused.

“According to the show, there are infinite alternate universes to our own, and our minds are only aware of our lives in that one universe,” Nee-J explained. “Maybe that orb made our minds aware of our lives in this universe instead.”

“Okay, then we have nothing to worry about,” the other friend said reassuringly. “Technically nothing bad happened to us, we’ve just become aware of our alternate lives.”

“Maybe you’re right,” said Nee-J

All of a sudden, the two friends hear a knock on the door downstairs.

“Be right there!” says Nathaniel.

“The fuck is wrong with you?” said Nee-J. “We just entered an alternate universe and you’re gonna go answer the door.”

“I don’t wanna be rude.”

“Gee, what a compelling argument.”

The two ponies walk downstairs to see who was at the door. When the open it, they see a female anthro alicorn standing in front of them, one that the recognized.

“Hello, neighbors. My name is Twilight Sparkle. I’d like to be the first to welcome you two to Ponyville.”

New Neighbors and New Identities

This was shaping up to be a very bizarre day for Nathaniel and Nee-J, and it wasn’t even noon yet. Their day went from relatively normal to completely unreal in a matter of minutes. Nathaniel was taking it pretty well (perhaps a bit too well), but the whole “turning into ponies” thing was too much for Nee-J to handle. Standing in front of him and Nathaniel was Twilight Sparkle from their favorite TV show, only as an anthro version of herself. She was wearing a black shirt with a longer white shirt under it, a purple skirt, and black leggings. He just couldn’t believe it.

“I’m sorry, what did you say your name was?” he asked in disbelief.

“Twilight Sparkle,” the mare repeated. “I live in the hollowed out tree next door.”

“Oh, well it’s nice to meet you, Twilight,” Nathaniel said. “Why don’t you come in?”

“Actually,” said Nee-J, “could you give us a minute?” He shut the door and looked at his friend. “Are you insane?” he whispered. “We’re in an alternate universe and you want to invite people into our house?”

“Will you relax?” Nathaniel whispered. “I was thinking that she might help us out.”

“Oh yeah, I’m sure she’ll believe that we’re from a different universe and that we’re not really ponies,” Nee-J said sarcastically.

“Do you have a better idea?”

After a few seconds of silence, Nee-J finally relented. “Fine.”

The boys open the door again and let Twilight in. They lead her to the living room, and they all take a seat.

“So, what made you two decide to move to Ponyville?” she asked.

The two stallions looked at each other as if they were silently arguing over who would tell Twilight. Eventually, Nee-J sighed and looked at the mare.

“Well, it’s kind of a funny story…” he said, and Twilight tilted her head in a combination of curiosity and confusion. “You see, we came here… from a parallel universe.”

“Parallel universe?” she repeated back.

“I know it sounds crazy, but believe me when I say that I am telling the truth. We used to be humans, but then we found this weird orb of light that transported our consciousnesses to this universe instead of our own.”

“Oh, now that you mentioned that, it reminded me of a theory I read a while back. It said something about there being an infinite number of universes on parallel-”

“-dimensional plains,” Nee-J finished.

Meanwhile, Nathaniel was scratching his head trying to get a deeper understanding of what these two were saying.

“So what are your names?” Twilight asked.

“Nathaniel and Nee-J,” said Nathaniel, “but we might have different names in this universe.” On a whim, he decided to reach into his back pocket and found his wallet. He opened it up and looked for an ID of some sort. He eventually found a driver’s license with his photo on it. He looked at the name on it and a smile grows on his face.

“Dude!” he said to Nee-J. “My name in this universe is Lightning Star!”

“Really?” he asked in disbelief. He then reached into his own back pocket and found his own wallet. After poking around for his driver’s license, he found it and discovered his new name.

“Sketch?” he asked himself in disbelief.

“Well, the name does suit you,” his friend said.

“Okay then, Lightning Star and Sketch,” said Twilight. “Would you like a tour of Ponyville?”

“Sure!” said the pegasus.

“I guess... It’s not like we have much else to do,” said the unicorn.

“In that case, follow me,” she said enthusiastically. Nathaniel and Nee-J, or rather, Lightning Star and Sketch were about to follow the alicorn outside, but then Sketch remembered something. “Hold on, I’ll be right back,” he said. He rushed upstairs to the room he woke up in, and looked around.

“Since I obviously live here, where would I keep my sketchbook?” he said to himself. He then remembered that in his home universe, he kept his sketchbook in the drawer of his nightstand, so he checked the nightstand by the bed, and sure enough, his sketchbook was there. He quickly flipped through it and saw that all his comics were there, but all the people he drew were replaced by ponies. Before leaving the room, he also picked up a pencil, an eraser, and a knapsack.

Sketch rushed back downstairs where Lightning and Twilight were waiting. “Of course you’d take that with you,” said the pegasus.

“I never leave home without it,” said the unicorn.

“Well, let’s get going,” said Twilight.

Before they all left the house, Lightning Star spotted a key hanging on a hook next to the doorway. It was obviously the house key, so he grabbed it and locked the door before heading out with Sketch and Twilight.

Lightning and Sketch were already very familiar with the different landmarks of Ponyville because of how familiar they were with the show, but they didn’t know how to get to each place, and that was where Twilight came in. The two stallions made sure to remember where everything was, since it was apparent that they’ll be staying here for quite a while. They walked around the town in a circle, eventually reaching to a certain sweet shop towards the end of the tour.

“Over there is Sugarcube Corner, the local bakery,” said Twilight. All of a sudden, somepony opens the window and calls out to her.

“HEY TWILIGHT!” she said.

“Hello, Pinkie Pie!” the alicorn said back. “C’mon, you two. I’ll introduce you.”

Lightning and Sketch follow Twilight to the bakery, where the happy pink pony was waiting. Once inside, they got a good look at her. She was wearing a long sleeved shirt with pink and white stripes and a blue skirt.

“Oh, my gosh!” says Pinkie Pie. “Who are these two? I’ve never seen them before, and I know everypony in Ponyville, and when I say everypony, I mean EVERYPONY! There’s me, Twilight, the Cakes, Mayor Mare, BonBon, Berry Punch-”

“Okay, Pinkie. We get it,” said Twilight.

Sketch rolled his eyes. When he watched the My Little Pony show back home, he could never figure out how Pinkie’s friends put up with her. She was WAY too chatty for his tastes. Lightning Star, on the other hand, was really amused by the mare. Pinkie Pie was always his personal favorite among the characters.

“These two stallions are Lightning Star and Sketch,” said Twilight. “They just moved next door to me.”

“Oh really?” Pinkie asked. “Where are you guys from?”

“Fillydelphia,” said Lightning, going off on the information that was on his license.

“Wow!” she said.

“Well, that’s the end of the tour,” said Twilight. “Once you leave here, you just take the left path and you’ll be back home.”

“Thanks for the tour, Twi,” said Lightning.

“No problem,” she said. “Just being a good neighbor and friend.”

“Well, it was great meeting you two,” said Sketch. “We’re gonna head to the park.”

The two stallions leave and head for the Ponyville Park. As they walked, Lightning decided to ask his friend something.

“So, still think being here is so bad,” he asked.

“I’m not saying it’s bad,” Sketch answered. “It’s just that this is gonna take some serious getting used to. That’s why I wanted to go to the park. I want to see how my unicorn magic can help me with my comics.”

“In that case,” said Lightning, “when we get there, I’m gonna test my flying skills and see if I have ninja talents.”

“You do that.”

“Hey, just a quick thought, do you think Pinkie is kinda hot now?”

“Dude! She’s a fucking cartoon horse!”

“So are we, so what’s your point? We might not ever get back to our own universe, so we might as well live it up.”

“Well, when you put it like that…”

After a few hours of Lightning practicing his ninja skills and Sketch getting some comics done, the two friends decided that it was time to get back home.

“Man, I’m starving!” said Lightning.

“Hopefully, there will be something at home to eat,” said Sketch.

“I’m sure there is. So, did you discover any cool abilities as a unicorn?”

“So far, I know that I can use my magic to control my tools, fix small mistakes in my drawings, and get rid of lead smudges on the paper.”

“That’s pretty cool, but I found out that I have a knack for hiding wherever I want without being noticed, I have fast reflexes, and I can move super-fast over short distances.”

“This isn’t a competition, Nathaniel.”

“Lightning Star.”

“Whatever.”

When they reached home, Lightning took out the key from his pocket and unlocked the door. Once he and Sketch entered the house, they are taken aback by what they see.

“SURPRISE!!!” said six distinct voices.

Welcome Parties and Improvised Stories

Lightning Star and Sketch had almost had a heart attack when they saw all the ponies in their home, but then realized that it was Twilight and her five best friends, known as the Mane 6 to fans of the show. There were also three smaller ponies with them, too. Once they realized that it was just them, the two stallions calmed down.

"Thanks for the surprise, Twilight,” said Lightning, “but how did you get into our house? I thought I locked the door and I am sure the windows were locked."

"Well I am a unicorn and a student of Princess Celestia so a lock was really no trouble for me," she said with an air of confidence.

"You won’t do that often, will you?" he asked.

"Well, not as often as you think," she said with a giggle

"So this is one of Pinkie Pie’s famous parties?” Sketch asked, trying to change the subject.

“Oh yeah!” said a pony with a southern accent. “Y’all are so lucky. Normally they cost a heap of bits, but Pinkie decided to throw this little shindig for free."

Sketch looked in the direction of the voice, and his eyes widened at the sight of an orange mare with a blond mane and tail. She was wearing a white T-shirt and some blue jeans.

"Howdy! My name is Applejack. Pleased t’ meet ya!" she said she held out her hand.

“Hi. My name is Sketch, and this is my friend Lighting Star. It's great to meet you," he said while shaking her hand he winced a little at how firm the mare’s grip was.

Just then, Pinkie Pie was walking out with a tray of cupcakes. "Anypony up for some delicious cupcakes?” she asked cheerfully. Just then, somepony's tail trips Pinkie Pie, causing the tray and the cupcakes to fly up in the air. Lighting was the first to notice this, and his surroundings slowed down. He dashed such a high speed that to everypony else he was a nothing but a brown blur. In a matter of seconds Pinkie was in Lighting's arms.

"You okay?" he asked as he helped the mare up.

"Um… Yeah, thanks,” she says as her face turned red through her pink coat. Her eyes then widen in shock "Oh no! The cupcakes!!!"

The pastries had gotten some major air and were now taking gravity, until Sketch had an idea. He quickly took out his sketchbook, drew a table in it, and then used his magic to make it come to life. In an instant, the cupcakes landed on the table with precision. Everyone was in awe and started to cheer.

“Wow… That was impressive…” said a quiet mare as she approached Sketch slowly. She had a long pink mane and tail, and a yellow coat. She was wearing a pink summer dress. “I’m Fluttershy…” she said with a shy smile, and Sketch smiled back.

Then, a cyan-coated, rainbow-maned mare and a dark orange-coated, purple-maned filly came up to Lightning Star. "Wow! That was amazing!” said the filly. “You’re almost as fast as Rainbow Dash!”

"Yeah, almost as fast as me," said the mare. "The name’s Rainbow Dash, the fastest flyer in Equestria! And this little filly is Scootaloo. She’s my apprentice. We should race sometime, you and me."

"I would like that anytime, anyplace." Lighting said with confidence

Just then two more fillies came out of the crowd. One was a white unicorn with a light purple and pink mane and the other was a light yellow earth pony with a light red mane and pinkish red bow.

"Oh, these are my friends Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom," said Scootaloo.

"Hi!” said Sweetie Belle. “You guys were great! Is that how you got your cutie marks?"

Just as Lighting was about to explain, a white unicorn with an indigo colored mane came out and said "Sweetie Belle, it’s not ladylike to ask other ponies about their business like that," she said.

Lightning Star chuckled. "Oh, no. It’s quite fine, Miss…"

"Rarity,” she said, “and the ‘Miss’ won’t be necessary."

"Okay, now where was I? Oh yeah, it started back when I-“

"Hey, Lighting. Can I talk to you for a sec?" asked Sketch.

"Sure. What's up?"

Sketch then turns his back on the others, and forces Lightning to do the same.

"We don't know how we got our marks," he whispered.

"Well, we can just make it up as we go," the pegasus whispered back.

He turned around to face the crowd again. “So, it all started when I was a colt. Back in Fillydelphia, I was a student at the local dojo. One summer, we had a presentation day, where all the students come up with their own ninja moves and showcase them to everypony. So, I decided to make my move really flashy. I threw some shuriken into a pack of clouds, then I flew up there and kept moving between the clouds, kicking each one as I passed it. It eventually caused an awesome lightning shower, and my shuriken came flying out of the clouds in an awesome display! After the whole thing was over, I went home and found that I got my cutie mark!”

“Woooooooow!” said the three fillies, who didn’t even know that Lightning came up with that story off the top of his head.

“I can’t wait to hear Sketch’s story!” said Sweetie Belle.

“Oh, well I…” stuttered Sketch. He was never good at thinking on the spot.

“Oh, come on, darling,” said Rarity. “I’m sure your story is every bit as good as Lightning’s.”

“It’s not that!” Sketch said defensively. “Okay, I’ll tell you. When I was a colt, I entered a… comic book contest. It was a competition where young foals submit their best work, and the winner got to meet a famous comic book artist.”

“Is that who the stallion on yer shirt is?” asked Apple Bloom.

After giving a confused look, Sketch looked at his shirt, and noticed the stallion that was on it. Why didn’t he notice that before? Under the picture was the stallion’s name: Final Draft.

“Uh… yeah!” he said, rolling with it. “That’s him, alright! So anyway, I ended up winning the contest and I won tickets to Manehattan so I could meet Final Draft. Once I got there, he told me that my work was the best he’d ever seen from a foal my age, and he wanted to share some of his secrets with me. That’s how I learned how to bring my drawings to life. When I finally got the hang of the technique, my cutie mark appeared.”

“Amazing!” said Scootaloo.

“So, now that story time is over, why don’t we get this party started?” asked Lightning Star.

“I thought you’d never ask!” yelled Pinkie. She started the music and everypony started dancing. She pulled Lightning into the center of the room and started dancing with him, and he was more than able to keep up with her.

“Damn, look at them go,” thought Sketch, his thoughts were then interrupted by a tap on his shoulder. He turned around and came face to face with Applejack.

“Wanna dance, partner?” she asked.

Sketch chuckled nervously. He wasn’t much of a dancer, due to the fact that he was very uncoordinated. “Sorry, Applejack,” he said. “I don’t dance.”

“Whaddaya mean ‘ya don’t dance’?” she asked with a smile. “If that ain’t the most ridiculous thing Ah’ve ever heard!”

“Well, I’m not that good…”

“That may matter to a mare like Rarity, but not t’ me. C’mon, tiger!” AJ forcefully pulls Sketch into a dance, and he tried his best to keep up with her and not embarrass himself.

“Ah’ve been wonderin’, ” she said. “Are you and Lightning brothers? Ah mean, ya both have similar coats and all…”

“Oh, no,” said Sketch. “We’re just friends.”

Several hours later, all the ponies left the house, except for Lightning, Sketch, and Pinkie, who stayed behind to clean up.

“Thanks for the party, Pinkie,” said Lightning.

“Nooooooooooooo problem!” she said happily. “Well, that’s everything, so I’ll be on my way. I hope you two enjoy Ponyville. See ya tomorrow!”

As the mare skipped out the door, Lightning couldn’t help but stare at her, and Sketch quickly took notice.

“Were you really just ogling Pinkie Pie?” he asked once she was gone.

“I can’t help myself,” he said without the least bit of shame. “So what are we gonna do tomorrow?”

“I don’t know,” said the unicorn, “but if we’re gonna be living here on our own, we’re gonna need a source of income.”

“You don’t mean…” Lightning asked with fear in his voice.

“Yep,” said Sketch. “We have to get jobs.”

Quest for Jobs

The next morning, Lightning and Sketch wake up at about 8:30 in the morning, then go downstairs for breakfast.

“I still can’t believe we have to get… ugh… jobs.” Said Lightning

“Well, that’s one of the things that come with living on your own, pal,” said Sketch. “Unless, of course, you don’t mind starving.”

“Okay, smart-ass, I get it,” said the pegasus. “Maybe I can start a dojo.”

“To do that, you’d need money that we don’t have,” explained the unicorn. “We have to start small and work for somepony else.”

“In that case, why don’t you get a job at Sweet Apple Acres?” Lightning said with a suggestive tone. “I saw you and AJ on the dance floor last night. Got a thing for your favorite character? Heh, and you were on my case for liking Pinkie Pie.”

“Okay, first of all, Applejack pulled me into that dance against my will,” said Sketch. “Second of all, I’m not like you, Lightning. I’m not gonna just fall for her because she’s my favorite character.”

“Denial,” Lightning said in a singsong voice.

“Besides, you know hard manual labor doesn’t suit me. I wouldn’t last a day working at Sweet Apple Acres. That’s more suited for you.”

“In that case, why don’t I work there and put in a good word for you. I can be your…” Lightning stretches out his wings. “Wingman!”

Sketch shakes his head at the bad joke. “You working there would be a good idea, but please don’t play matchmaker,” he said.

“I was only kidding!” said the pegasus. “So, where are you gonna work?”

“I dunno. I’ll just look around I’m sure I’ll find something.”

“Good luck bro.”

After breakfast, the two stallions showered, got dressed, and went their separate ways on their quest for employment.

Taking Sketch’s suggestion of working at Sweet Apple Acres seriously, Lightning Star decided to go there to see if they were hiring. He figured that he would get there faster if he flew, not to mention it would help him get used to flying.

“Brr! It’s cold up here!” he said. Luckily, he had his hoodie wrapped around his waist just in case. After landing for a brief moment, and struggling to get his wings through the jacket’s wing holes, he got the hoodie on and took flight again.

It doesn’t take long for Lightning to reach Sweet Apple Acres, and he landed right at the front gate. He looked into the distance, but didn’t see anypony. He decided to walk onto the property and look around for Applejack or her older brother.

“I guess they’re not here,” he said to himself.

“Hold it right there, ya varmint!” yells somepony.

Lighting turned in the direction of the voice and saw a hoof coming straight for his face. He quickly dodged it, but lost his balance and fell to the ground, causing his hood to fall back from his head. He looked up at his attacker and saw that it was Applejack.

“AJ?” he said.

“Lightnin’ Star?” she said back, realizing who she just tried to kick in the face. “Dear Celestia, ya had me worried! What’re you doin’ walkin’ around here wearin’ a back hoodie like that?”

Lightning chuckled. “Well, I flew here, and it was pretty cold, so I put this on. I guess I forgot to take my hood off,” he said, getting on his hooves.

“Okay, ‘den,” said Applejack. “What brings ya here?”

“Well, I’m looking for a job, and I was hoping that you had an opening,” the pegasus explained.

“Yer in luck!” said the mare. “Ah’ve been lookin’ for somepony to help me get the apples down and keep watch for any shady characters. Ah reckon you’ll be perfect since you can use them ninja skills of yours to help me with the apples, and since yer a pegasus, you can fly over the orchards on patrol, too! An’ don’t worry, you’ll be paid plenty.”

“Thanks, AJ! I really appreciate it!” said a grateful Lightning. He was about to say something regarding Sketch, but decided not to. Knowing from past experiences, when he said not to do something, he meant it, so it would be a bad idea to try and hook him and AJ together.

“Didja want t’ say something else, sugarcube?” she asked.

“Nah, it’s nothing important,” said Lightning.

Meanwhile, as Sketch waked through the streets of Ponyville, he looked at the various shops and was disheartened to see that so far nopony was hiring. He was so focused on the different shops that he wasn’t looking in front of him, and he eventually bumped into somepony, knocking them to the ground. He immediately looks at the pony he bumped.

“Rarity? Oh man, I’m so sorry!” he said as he helped the mare up. “I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

“Oh, it’s no problem, Sketch,” she said. “I wasn’t watching where I was going, either. Was there something on your mind?”

“Well, I’m just looking for a job,” he said.

“Really!” she asked, unusually excited. “I’ve been looking for a design consultant, and after seeing your artistic ability last night, I was hoping that you’d like to fill that position!”

“Not that I don’t appreciate the offer,” said Sketch, “but all I did was draw a table.”

“Maybe so, darling, but you did it with such flair and style, and it seemed so effortless!” she said. “You simply must work for me! I will certainly make it worth your while.”

“Really?” he said.

“Would you like to discuss it over tea?” Rarity offered.

“Sure, I’d like that,” said Sketch

The two unicorns walked to the nearest tea shop to discuss their little business deal.

At about one thirty in the afternoon, Sketch returned home, with Lightning Star returning shortly after him.

“Hey, man!” he said as he came into the house. “How did the job search go?”

“It didn’t go so well at first, but I ran into Rarity a while ago, and she said that she was looking for a design consultant, so I jumped on the opportunity. She even treated me to tea,” said Sketch. “She said that I can start tomorrow at eight in the morning, and that she’ll pay me well.”

“That’s cool,” said Lightning. “Things went well on my end, too. I got the job at Sweet Apple Acres, and Applejack said that I start tomorrow at six AM.”

“Another reason why I couldn’t work there,” said Sketch. “Six AM is way too early for me to work.”

“So, are you sure you don’t want me to help you get close to AJ?” asked the pegasus. “I know you like her. You can’t hide it from me.”

“Don’t assume things that you can’t validate,” said the unicorn.

All of a sudden, there was a loud thud at the door.

“The hell was that,” said Sketch. “It sounded like somepony smashed into our door.”

Lighting opened the door and found a gray pegasus mare with a yellow mane similar to Rainbow Dash’s lying on the ground. Her golden eyes were crossed and she was wearing a mail mare uniform.

"Oh man, are you okay? You took quite a hit there," said Lighting.

"Yeah I'm fine after a while you don't feel a thing!" said the mare. "By the way, my name is Ditzy Doo but you can call me Derpy.”

"Oh, well I'm Lighting Star and this is my friend Sketch. What brings you here?"

"Well actually, I have some packages for both of you. Sorry I came so late, your house just got added to my route today, so I kinda forgot to come here earlier.”

“It’s no problem,” he said.

“Would you like so subscribe to Ponyville Daily and get the latest info on all things going on in Ponyville?" asked Derpy.

"Sure, why not? It would be good for us to stay in the know, anyways. Oh, and thanks for the packages, Derpy."

"No problem! I better get back to the post office. See ya!" she said, and she flew off into the sky, albeit rather clumsily.

As Lighting and Sketch open their crates they were amazed at what was inside.

"Holy crap! There’s ninja equipment in my package!" said Lighting.

"Mine has some art supplies," said Sketch. The two stallions then looked deeper into their packages and found a letter in each. Sketch read his aloud.

Dear Sketch,

You are, by far, my best student. I have taught you everything that I know, and now it is time I give you the tools that helped me become a true master artist. Use it wisely and to the best of your ability.

Your master,

Final Draft

"Wow dude, that’s awesome! Listen to mine!" said Lighting

Dear Lighting Star,

I have trained you in the ways of the ninja and, you are my greatest success. You have brought great honor and glory to our Dojo, and now I leave you with your own master ninja set. Also I am giving you the legendary Zandazu Blade. Keep it close and do not let it fall into the wrong hands. Also, I would like you to start a school in Ponyville and share our knowledge with the world. Remember that this blade is powerful and can cut through any material, so be extra careful!

Your Sensei,

Thunder Blitz

"I can’t believe that the stories we told yesterday were actually true!" said Sketch with a worried look on his face.

"I can’t believe I have to make a dojo!" said Lighting, a little annoyed.

“I thought that you wanted to make a dojo.”

“Yeah, but now I have to, which takes all the fun out of it.”

“Well, once we figure out a way to get back to our own universe, we don’t have to worry about any of this crap.”

Lightning stopped for a second to take in what his friend just said. “Wait, you mean you’re still that anxious to get back home?” he asked.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Sketch asked back. “I can understand why it would be cool to live here, but don’t you want your old life back? And aren’t you the least bit curious about how and why that orb of light appeared in your yard and took us here?”

“What do we have waiting for us back home?” Lightning asked. “Here we have these awesome abilities and we can live on our own even though we’re only seventeen! Back home, we have to go to school and put up with all the morons that bug the shit out of us every day.”

“But what about our parents?” Sketch asked. “Don’t’ you think they miss us?”

“You said it yourself: Our bodies are still there, it’s just that are minds are aware of our lives in this universe rather than our old one.”

“Well, I still miss my parents back home. This universe may be fun and all, but I don’t know if I can stay here for the rest of my life.

“Sketch-”

“Don’t call me that right now.”

The pegasus put his hand on his friend’s shoulder “Dude, this is our chance to live out our dreams! This is a gift! We should live it up to the fullest.”

Sketch stopped and thought for a minute. He then got up and said, “I don’t know, man…” he then trudged up the stairs.

Lightning Star and Sketch, or rather, Nathaniel and Nee-J, didn’t speak to each other for the rest of the day.

Stallions at Work

Sketch had set his alarm for seven AM, and the next morning, Monday morning, to be exact, it promptly woke him up. He let out a long yawn as he got out of bed, his mind going back to what was said last night, particularly the last thing that Lightning Star told him.

“This is a gift! We should live it up to the fullest.”

Despite the fact that he still wanted to go home, Sketch saw Lightning’s point. It would be a while before they found a way home (if they found a way home), so he might as well enjoy the days he has in Equestria.

After making his way downstairs, he wondered where Lightning was, but then he remembered that his job started at an earlier time, so Sketch was alone in the house. The unicorn made his breakfast, ate it, showered, got dressed, and was about to leave for Rarity’s place, but then he realized that he forgot something: his sketchbook. He also decided to take some of the supplies that Final Draft sent him.

By the time Sketch made it to Carousel Boutique, it was ten minutes to eight, so he was pretty early. He knocked on the door, and he heard a voice from inside say “Come in!” Sketch entered the room, and saw Rarity standing at her drafting table with her work glasses on. “Sketch, darling! You’re early!” she said with a smile.

“Well, I wanted to make a good first impression, since you’re my new boss, and all,” he said.

“Oh, perish the thought!” she said, waving her hand dismissively. “I may be the one paying you, but I don’t see myself as your boss.”

“Well, let’s just say that you are, for lack of a better word,” he said with a chuckle.

“If you insist, darling,” she said. “So, I don’t open for another two hours, so we can work on some designs until then, and after I open, you can help me with the customers.”

“Sounds like a plan,” he said. Sketch had seen a few fashion shows and creations from different designers back in his own universe (not that he’d readily admit it), so he resolved to use his limited knowledge in the best way he could.

“Okay, so I just finished this design for my summer collection, but I’m finding it hard to envision it in real life.” Rarity explained. “If I could, it would really help me figure out what colors to use.”

“Can I try something?” asked Sketch.

“By all means,” said the mare.

The stallion reached into his bag and pulled out a pack of tracing paper. Realizing what Sketch was about to do, Rarity stepped aside so he can have some room. Sketch placed a piece of tracing paper over Rarity’s design and took out a pencil. He used his hands to hold the paper in place, and then used his magic to use the pencil to trace the design along with the mannequin (or is it ponyquin?) template that came with it. After he finished tracing, he turned around and used his magic to bring the drawing to life. In an instant, Rarity’s creation became reality, only without any color.

“Oh my, darling,” she said. “That is just spectacular!”

“Thanks,” said Sketch, “but to be honest, I still don’t know if this will be a good substitute for the actual finished project. It might even fade away after a while, like a real pencil drawing.”

“That won’t be an issue,” she said. “Even if it was a good substitute, it would take the fun out of creating the outfit myself.”

“So, what colors are you thinking of using for this design?” he asked.

“Hmm… Let’s try some warm colors,” she suggested.

After about a half hour of constantly changing colors, Rarity finally decided on using earthy colors for her design. She then proceeded to thank you for helping her decide, saying that it usually takes her a longer time to make a decision. The two of you then moved on to other designs, and you worked until it was almost time to open up shop.

“Darling, could you do me a favor?” asked Rarity.

“Sure, what?” said Sketch.

“Could you head to the supply store and pick up a few things for me?” she asked, handing him a list of various items. “You know where it is, right?”

“Don’t worry,” he said, “I know where it is. I won’t be long.” With that, Sketch left the boutique and set off for the supply store. After a few minutes of walking, somepony caught sight of him and called his name.

“Hey there, Sketch!” said the pony.

The unicorn swung his head around to see who was addressing him. “Oh! Hi, Applejack,” he said.

“Ah haven’t seen ya since the party two nights ago. How’ve ya been?” she asked.

“Pretty good,” he said. “I just got a job as a design consultant for Rarity, and Lightning told me he’s working at your farm.”

“Oh yeah,” she said. “He’s been a big help, so far. Ah can really depend on him.”

“Yep, that sounds like him,” he said. “Anyway, I’m just headed to the store to get some things for Rarity.”

“Well, Ah’m goin’ to the store t’ get some supplies to fix up the barn,” she said.

The two decided to go into the store together and talk some more. Sketch and Applejack got to know each other more, and despite their different lifestyles, they had a lot in common.

“So, Sketch,” said AJ.

“Yeah,” said Sketch.

“Are ya free Friday night?” she asked. “Ah had a lot of fun talkin’ to ya and I’d like t’ meet up for dinner.”

“I’m not sure,” he said. “I might be. I don’t know how my schedule will work out.”

“Well, why don’t Ah give ya my number?” she asked. “That way you can let me know.”

“Sure, why not?” he said.

Sketch handed his phone to AJ so that she could enter her number.

“So, you’ll call me, right, sugarcube?” she said with a blush.

“Sure,” he said, not sure why she was acting this way. As the two parted ways, Sketch looked at the number that was added to his phone, and wondered if he should take Applejack up on her offer.

Earlier that same morning, Lighting Star set his alarm for five AM. Once he got up and did some stretching, he thought about the talk he had with Sketch yesterday, and he felt a little bad about what he said.

"I’ve got to make it up to Sketch somehow, or at least make him feel at home here," he said to himself.

The pegasus made his breakfast, ate it, showered, and got dressed. Just then, he thought about his Zandazu Blade and decided to take it with him, along with some shuriken. He made it to Sweet Apple Acres about fifteen minutes early.

"Better take my hood of this time. Don't want AJ mistaking me for a thief again," said Lighting.

Just then, he spotted some figures going into the Acres.

"Huh, maybe that AJ and her brother," he thought to himself. "I’ll go and say hi. I’ll bet they’ll be really impressed that I showed up early!”

But when Lightning got closer to those two ponies, he realized that they weren’t who he thought they were. These ponies looked really suspicious, being dressed in black and having masks on.

"Okay, let's just steal these apples and get the hell out of here. The Apple family will be here any minute," said one of the masked ponies, proving the pegasus’s suspicions correct.

"Thieves? Here? At this hour? This isn’t good! I’d better stop them!" Lighting thought.

"Alright, this is good enough. That’s about all the apples we can carry, so let’s go," said the other thief. Just then a brown blur went across the two thieving ponies, slicing the bag they were carrying and spilling the stolen apples onto the ground.

"WHAT THE HELL!!!!" the thieves said in unison.

"You know it not right to steal,” Lightning said in a serious tone, revealing himself to the duo of criminals. “The Apple family worked their flanks off to grow these apples, so I don’t think they’ll take kindly to you two trying to swipe them.”

"Look, punk, why don’t you just mind your own business and we might just let you live," said the first thief.

“Ha, that’s cute. You actually think you’re a match for me. Don't make me laugh. You two aren’t shit compared to me."

The two thieves became angered, and they ran towards Lightning Star, ready to throw some punches. Just as they were about to reach him, Lighting jumped right over their heads and landed a hard roundhouse kick in one of the thieves’ face, sending him flying into one of the trees. The other thief charged after Lighting with a knife in his hand and tried to stab him, or at least slash one of his wings, but the pegasus easily dodged and disarmed him. As the knife flew out the stunned thief’s had, Lightning pulled out his Zandazu Blade. In a few rapid strokes, he sliced the thief’s mask, causing it to fall off and show the face of a frightened stallion on the verge of pissing himself.
"Let’s get the hell out of here!" the poor stallion said as he tried to cover his face with what remained of his mask. As the two defeated and humiliated trespassers left the ranch, Applejack just arrived to the scene.

"Ha! First day on the job, and your already kicking some flank!" said the mare.

"Well, I’ve got to make a good first impression, right?" said Lighting. "So, what should I do first?”

"Well you can start by helping me buck these here trees,” she said. “Now, just do what Ah do."

Applejack jumped, landed on her hands, and launched her hooves at the apple tree, striking it dead center and causing some of the apples to fall out into the basket she set by the trunk of the tree.

"Wow AJ, that’s amazing!” said an impressed Lightning, “but if you strike the tree at a 90 degree angle, then you should be able get more apples out of the tree. Let me show you."

Lighting got into his stance and did a roundhouse kick right in the center of an untouched tree. The force was so powerful that all the apples in the tree fell right off. Applejack’s jaws drop in awe. "You’re a nat’ral, partner! You should work here full time!" said the mare.

Lightning nervously chuckled, the idea of working at Sweet Apple Acres full time not sounding appealing to him.

The two ponies got to work bucking trees, repairing the farm, and patrolling the acres, for a few hours. By then, Lightning thought about trying to set up Applejack with Sketch again. He did think about the consequences of Sketch finding out what he did, but he decided to take the risk.

"So AJ, what do you think about Sketch?" said Lighting.

"Ah think he's a nice stallion," she said bluntly.

"Well, I'm sure you to have a lot in common. You should hang out with him sometime. He’s a really cool guy, take it from me."

"Ah'll consider it,” she said, unsure of whether or not she had much in common with Sketch. “Well, Ah’d better head into town t’ get some supplies that Ah need, but your free for the day, so here’s yer salary for the day, 200 bits."

"Wow, that's a lot!” said Lightning. “Is all of this necessary, Applejack?"
"Don’tcha worry ‘bout it, Lightnin’. You made our work ten times easier with your ninja skills and what not."

"Gee, thanks!” he said. “I’ll see you around."

As Lighting and Applejack parted ways Lighting decided to head over to Sugarcube Corner to see what Pinkie Pie was up to.

Sketch returned home at around one thirty in the afternoon, after a good day of helping Rarity out with her designs. He was surprised to see that Lightning Star had already come home from his job, too.

“I expected, that AJ would have you working till sundown,” he said.

“Nah, it’s only part time,” said the pegasus. “After I was let off for the day, I went to Sugarcube Corner to see if I could get a date with Pinkie Pie.”

“Let me guess, you failed miserably?” said the unicorn, knowing that his friend had a horrible track record when it came to girls.

“You wish!” he answered. “She said yes in a heartbeat! We’re going out dancing on Friday night. I may not be a unicorn like you, but I worked my magic! I’ve still got it!”

“Still got it?” asked Sketch. “Whatever ‘it’ is, I’m sure you never had it.”

“Whatever,” said Lightning, and then he remembered something important. “Hey, Sketch.”

“Yeah?”

“Look, man. I’m really sorry for what I said yesterday. I didn’t mean to make it seem like I didn’t care about you wanting to go home.”

“Apology accepted, but you did have a point. We may not be home, but we should take advantage of the fact that we’re here and enjoy ourselves. Matter of fact, there’s an important call I need to make.”

Sketch excused himself upstairs, and he dialed Applejack’s number on his phone.

“Hello?” the mare answered.

“Applejack, it’s Sketch,” he said. “I want to take you up on your offer.”

Don't-Call-it-a-Date Night

Several days passed, and the two boys (or rather, stallions) grew more and more used to their new environment. Both Lightning Star and Sketch had earned more than decent amounts of money for their new jobs, and the future was looking bright for them. It was Friday afternoon, and both stallions returned home from work.

“Okay, Sketch,” said Lightning. “I’m gonna be meeting up with Pinkie Pie at seven tonight. I won’t be back until… maybe midnight.”

“Okay. I’m gonna be going out tonight, too, but I’ll probably be back before you,” said Sketch.

“Really? What are you gonna be doing?” asked the pegasus.

“Well…” said the unicorn. “Applejack kind of asked me out to dinner earlier this week.”

“How much earlier are we talking?”

“Monday…”

“And you kept this from me why?”

“Because you’d go on about how you ‘knew that I had a thing for AJ,’ and I’d never hear the end of it.”

“If you didn’t have a thing for AJ, you wouldn’t be going out with her tonight.”

“It’s not like it’s a legitimate date,” Sketch said defensively. “She just wants to get to know me a little better.”

“Ohhhhhhhhh,” said Lighting. “So I guess she has a thing for you.”

“Just because she wants to get to know me?”

“No, because she wants to get to know you over dinner.”

Sketch rolled his eyes. “I knew I’d never hear the end of it from you. Anyway, I’m going to be meeting Applejack at around seven-thirty. It’s nothing fancy, just the local diner.”

“That sounds like her,” said Lightning. “You paying? It is the gentlemanly thing to do.”

“She might not want me to pay, but I’m going to be bringing enough bits with me, just in case,” said the unicorn.

“Sounds like a plan,” said the pegasus. “You’re not gonna bring your sketchbook with you, are you?”

“I thought about it, and I decided that I can leave it at home, for once,” he answered.

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Lightning went over to answer it, and was surprised to see Derpy at the door.

“Hey, Derpy,” he said. “Didn’t you give us our mail already?”

“Yeah, but two more packages just came in for you,” she explained. “I had to get the truck to bring them over.”

“You didn’t drive the truck, did you?” Sketch said, approaching the door.

“Oh, no!” she said laughing. “My supervisor would NEVER let me drive the truck!” She then turned around and called out to some other delivery ponies behind them. “Bring ‘em in, boys!”

The delivery ponies then carried out two huge packages one for Lightning, and one for Sketch. “Where do you’s two want these?”

“Um… just set them out front. We’ll take care of them,” said Lightning.

“Okay then,” said the other delivery pony. They set the packages at the foot of the front porch and then they left with Derpy.

“What do you think they are?” asked Sketch.

“Let’s find out,” said Lightning. He approached the packages and carefully used his blade to cut them open. He and Sketch were surprised to see that inside the packages were two motorcycles! The one that was in Lightning’s package was white with blue streaks of lightning on the sides. The one that was in Sketch’s package wasn’t as flashy; a simple dark blue accented with orange.

“Pinkie is gonna be so impressed when she see me pull up in this bad boy!” said Lightning.

“I’d still rather walk,” said Sketch. “If I showed up in this, AJ would probably assume that I’m trying to woo her.”

“I see what you mean…” said the pegasus.

That night, Lightning left the house before Sketch, taking his bike with him. He zoomed off to Sugarcube Corner, excited to take Pinkie Pie out. When he got there, she was already waiting outside for him.

“Sweet ride!” she said as he pulled up to her.

“Thanks! Just got it today,” said Lightning. “So, ready to go? I got you a pink helmet.”

“Aww! That’s so sweet!” the mare said as she pecked the stallion on the cheek, causing him to blush. “Let’s go. I know the hottest dance club in Ponyville!”

The two ponies sped off to the place that Pinkie had in mind. It seemed to be a regular building, but there was a pretty long line. Despite that, Pinkie took Lightning to the front of the line and flashed what looked like a special pass to the bouncer.

“Hey, Chuck!” she said. “This guy’s with me.”

“Gotcha, Pink!” said the bouncer. He happily let the two ponies inside. Beyond the door was a downwards staircase, which the climbed down to another door.

“So you have a VIP pass to this place?” asked Lightning.

“I have a VIP pass to a lot of clubs in Ponyville and out,” she said with a smile before opening the door.

Once the door opened, the music came blasting out from inside. “This is gonna be awesome!” Lightning shouted, although he couldn’t even hear himself. The two ponies danced, had a few drinks, and Pinkie introduced Lightning to the club’s guest DJ, DJ Pon-3. After they left, Lightning took Pinkie to the park.

“Kinda weird that we’re at the park when it’s minutes to midnight,” said the mare.

“It’s great for getting some alone time,” said the stallion.

“For what? Kissing?” she asked.

“Maybe,” he said.

“Well, sorry! I don’t kiss on the first date!” she said with a laugh.

“I can deal with that,” said Lightning, although in his mind, he was pretty disappointed. “Ready to go home?” he asked.

“While I would like to spend more time with you, I think I should go home,” she said.

Lightning and Pinkie Pie went back to Sugarcube corner, where the stallion dropped the mare off. He then sped off back home.

Sketch left the house at about quarter after seven to meet Applejack in the town square. At first he was worried about not making a first good impression because he didn’t have a car, then he remembered that he was going out with Applejack, the type of mare that wouldn’t mind walking. He immediately calmed down after realizing that.

Sketch arrived at the town square just minutes before seven thirty, and he saw that Applejack was already there.

“Hey, AJ,” he said to her. “I didn’t keep you waiting too long, did I?”

“Nah,” she said. “Ah’ve only been here for a few minutes. Ready t’ go?”

“Sure,” he said.

The two ponies made their way to the diner, and the wait to be seated was unusually short for a Friday night. As they got seated and waited for a waiter or waitress to come and take their order, they decided to kill time by talking.

“Y’know, my brother, Big McIntosh, was a might concerned about me goin’ out with you tonight,” Applejack said with a chuckle.

“It makes sense,” said Sketch. “You are his little sister, and he’s never met me. It’s a guy’s instinct to protect.”

“It’s not just that,” she said.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Well, when Ah go out apple buckin’, Ah usually wear clothes that are on the skimpy side so Ah don’t get too hot, so sometimes Ah attract unwanted attention from stallions that pass by the farm,” AJ explained. “Whenever Big Mac catches ‘em starin’, they take off lickety-split, tails between their legs.” The mare chuckles at the memories of her brother chasing off various oglers.

“It must be pretty annoying,” said Sketch. “Has anypony tried to approach you directly?”

“There was this one stallion that tried t’ flirt with me a few months ago,” she said. “Ah’d rather not go into it, but let’s just say that he learned his lesson. Well, enough ‘bout me. What about you, sugarcube? When did you first start doin’ the whole art thing?”

“To be honest, I can’t even remember,” he answered. “I’ve always been interested in cartoons and comics, so I thought it would be cool to make my own. I tend to look at the world in a different way that other peop- ahem, ponies.”

“I guess that attracts the mares, huh?” asked Applejack.

“Actually, no. I’ve always had trouble with the opposite sex,” admitted the unicorn. “This is actually the first time I’ve been out with a mare.”

“Really?” she asked, surprised. “Ah wasn’t expectin’ that.”

“Well, it’s true,” said Sketch. “It never really bothered me though. A lot of the girls I’ve met growing up were really superficial, but you’re different. You’re really down to earth, and you’re not afraid to tell it like it is.”

“I guess that’s why Ah’m the element of honesty,” she said with a chuckle.

At that point, the waitress finally arrived to take Sketch and Applejack’s orders. As the night went on, the two ponies continued to learn more about each other, enjoying the dinner as well. After they received the bill, Sketch took out his wallet, but Applejack stopped him.

“Uh, uh, uh, partner,” she said. “Ah invited ya t’ dinner, so Ah’m gonna be pickin’ up the tab t’night.”

“Oh, really?” he asked. “Well, that’s really nice of you.”

“Don’t mention it,” she said.

As the two ponies walked out of the diner, Sketch decided to be bold. “Mind if I walk you home?” he asked.

“Not at all,” said Applejack.

So, Sketch took AJ back to her home, where her brother was waiting. Seeing him made the unicorn’s heart skip a beat, as he looked at the large stallion in fear. Noticing how nervous Sketch was, she shooed Big Mac inside the house, which he did, but not before he shot a suspicious look at Sketch.

“Don’t mind him,” said Applejack. “Ah had a real nice time t’night.”

“Me too,” said the unicorn.

AJ smiled, then leaned forward to kiss Sketch on the cheek, making him blush. “G’night,” she said.

“Night,” he said back. Applejack chuckled, then walked into her house, and Sketch walked back to his house. By then, it was minutes to ten, so he had a few hours to himself before Lightning Star got home.

Lightning came home at around quarter after midnight. When he got inside, he saw Sketch looking through what looked like a pile of video games.

“Where did you get all those games?” he asked.

“After poking around the house some more, I found them in a box,” said the unicorn. “These are all the video games we had in our old universe, only with ponies, and some of the titles are different, too.”

“Cool, how did your date go?” asked Lightning.

“It wasn't a date,” said Sketch, “but it went pretty well. I got to know AJ a little better.”

“You think you might like her?”

“Still too early to tell.” In actuality, Sketch was starting to think that he might have feelings for Applejack, but he just didn’t want to admit it.

“Okay, then,” said Lightning. “My date went great, but Pinkie didn’t kiss me.”

“Don’t you think you’re going a little too fast?” the unicorn asked.

“Don’t you think you’re going a little too slow?” the pegasus retorted.

“Touche,” he said. “Well, tomorrow’s Saturday, so we can get a good gaming session in.”

“Can’t wait!” said Lightning.

Research

The next morning, after a good breakfast, Lightning Star and Sketch went into the living room and started playing one of the games that the latter found last night. This game was a fighting game featuring superhero and supervillain ponies, similar to Injustice, only with ponies, of course. The two were in the middle of a King of the Hill session, and a new player just joined the group.

“Midnight Mistress?” said Lightning. “Oooh! Scaaaaary!”

“She may very well be,” said Sketch. “Check her stats.”

After pressing a few buttons, Midnight Mistress’s statistics showed up on the screen. The two stallions were shocked to see that this player has had over two hundred matches, and hasn’t lost once.

“Okay, maybe she’s a little scary,” said Lightning. “Good thing I have a few matches before I get to her.”

All of a sudden, the phone rang, and Sketch got up to answer it. “You can play the next few matches while I get that,” he said. He went over to the phone and picked it up. “Hello?” he said.

“Hi, Sketch!” said a familiar voice.

“Hey, Twilight. What’s up,” he asked.

“Well, is Lightning Star home, too?” she asked.

“Yeah…” he answered.

“Can you two come over as soon as you can?” she asked. “I’ve found some things that you should see.”

“Sure, we’ll get ready, and we’ll be right over,” he said, and then he hung up the phone.

“Was that Twilight?” asked Lightning. “What did she want?”

“She found something that she wants us to see,” said Sketch. “She wants us to come over as soon as we can, so you need to get ready.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, because I’m already showered and dressed, and I’ve already brushed my teeth after breakfast,” said Sketch. “You, on the other hand, still have that ‘nightclub’ smell on you.”

“But I was just about to fight Midnight Mistress!” he whined.

“Too bad,” said Sketch.

Lightning Star grunted and stomped up the stairs to take a shower. Meanwhile, Sketch quickly types a message to Midnight Mistress.

“Sorry, Mistress. Something important has come up, so I have to leave. I’ll be looking out for you next time I’m online.”

A minute later, Midnight Mistress replied with a friend request.

After Lighting Star got ready, the two stallions left their house to visit their next-door neighbor, Twilight Sparkle.

When they get to the library, Sketch knocks on the door, which was promptly answered. The stallions were confused as to why they didn’t see anypony in front of them, but then they looked down to see a small purple and green dragon.

“Sorry, guys. Library’s closed for the weekend. Twilight’s orders,” he said.

“Spike! Who is that out there?” a familiar voice called out.

“Just two stallions, Twilight. No big deal,” the dragon responded.

“Twilight! It’s us, Lightning and Sketch!” Lightning called out.

The alicorn’s head then popped out of a nearby hallway. “Oh! It’s you two!” she says excitedly. “Come in, we have much to discuss.”

The two stallions enter the library and follow Twilight down the hallway she popped out of. The hallway led to a room that was unfamiliar to both Lightning and Sketch. “That’s weird,” whispered Lightning to his friend. “I’ve never seen this room in the show.”

“Twilight,” Sketch said to the alicorn, “did you have this room installed recently? It looks relatively new.”

“Oh yes,” she said. “I got it made a while after my coronation. I only come down here when I need to do some intense private research.”

“There’s your explanation,” Sketch whispered to Lightning.

“So, remember when you guys told me that you were from a parallel universe?” she asked, and the stallions nodded their heads. “Well, I’ve been looking through the library’s archives, and I’ve found several books about universal theories. I haven’t looked through any of them yet, and I thought that you guys would want to help me find something about how you got here to Equestria.”

“We have to… look through books…” Lightning said unenthusiastically. He never was one for doing research, so this didn’t seem too exciting.

“Don’t mind him,” said Sketch. “If this means finding out how we were brought here, we’re prepared to do this.”

“That’s what I like to hear!” Twilight said happily.

The three ponies got to work, looking through the books that Twilight had picked out, there were about fifteen of them, and they had to look through them thoroughly, which was gonna take a while, so Twilight decided to make conversation.

“So, how have you two been adjusting to Ponyville, so far?” she asked.

“Pretty good,” said Lightning.

“Applejack told me that you’ve been helping out at the farm, Lightning,” she said to the pegasus, “and Rarity told me that you’ve been helping out as a design consultant, Sketch,” she said to the unicorn.

“Yep,” he answered. “It’s actually not so bad living here.”

“If you don’t mind my asking,” said Twilight, “if you like living here, why do you want to go home so badly?”

Lightning’s ears perked and he shook his head at the alicorn. Sketch was still a little touchy about the idea of staying in Equestria forever. Twilight then realized that she just crossed a line that she shouldn’t have. Sketch, in the meantime, stayed quiet, his back turned to the other two ponies.

“I’m sorry, Sketch I shouldn’t have-”

“No, it’s fine,” said the unicorn. “I’m still not sure if I want to stay here or not, but I still want to know how Lightning and I got here, this is less about getting home and more about having closure.”

“I see,” said Twilight. “Still, I should have been more sensitive…”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, turning to the mare with a smile on his face. “Let’s get back to work.”

After a few minutes of silence, Twilight decides to start up another conversation. “So… Pinkie Pie called me earlier at about midnight while I was looking for these books,” she said. “She told me that you took her out on a date, Lightning.”

“She did?” the pegasus asked excitedly. “What did she say?”

“She said that she had a really great time, and she’s looking forward to going out with you again,” Twilight answers. “Do you like her?”

“Like her?” Sketch said. “He’s practically obsessed with her. After she agreed to go out with him, he wouldn’t shut up about it.”

“Piss off!” said Lightning.

“Well, Applejack called me earlier that same night and said that she went out to dinner with you, Sketch,” said Twilight. “She said that she enjoyed getting to know you, and she might ask you out again.”

The unicorn blushes, while Lightning Star lets out a chuckle.

After a good while, all hope seemed to be lost, but then Sketch found something very interesting.

“Guys, I think I found something very interesting,” he said. Twilight and Lightning gather around him and look at the book the unicorn had in his hands.

“It’s something called the Dimension Orb,” he said. “It’s some kind of spell that transports beings across dimensions, but that’s all it says.”

“Look at the bottom,” said Twilight. “It says more information can be found in a book called Dimension Spanning Spells, but the only copy of the book that I know of is in the Canterlot library.”

“Then it looks like we’re heading to Canterlot,” said Lightning Star.

Trip to Canterlot

“So how soon can we get to Canterlot?” asked Sketch.

“Actually, we can go there today,” said Twilight. “The next train leaves at twelve.”

“That’s a half hour from now,” said Lightning Star. “We’d better get moving!”

The three ponies made their way to the train station, and when they got there, they saw Applejack carrying a cart of apples with her. She must have just gotten a new shipment.

“Howdy, y’all!” she said.

“Hey, Applejack…” Sketch said nervously.

“So, where are y’all headed off to?” she asked.

“Oh, we’re headed off to Canterlot,” said Twilight. “We’re going to see if the library over there has a book that we’re missing.”

“Oh, well will ya be back soon?” asked the cowpony. “Ah was hopin’ that Sketch an’ I could hang out again.”

Lightning grinned and wrapped an arm around Sketch’s shoulder. “Don’t sweat it, AJ,” he said. “We’ll have him back in no time!”

“Alright, then,” she said with a blush. “Ah’ll see y’all later.”

After Applejack said goodbye and left, the trio of ponies purchased their tickets and made it on the train before the final boarding call. They all sat in a booth and prepared for the ride ahead. Twilight said that the ride was about forty-five minutes long, but the two stallions were okay with it. As the alicorn was watching Sketch draw in his book, she looked up and noticed something that Lightning Star was doing. He was in a meditative stance, and was floating in midair without using his wings.

“How is he doing that?” asked Twilight.

“Oh, that?” said the unicorn. “It’s something that he learned to do recently. Probably a product of his ninja training or something.”

“You think he can hear us?” asked Twilight.

“Yes, loud and clear actually,” said Lightning with a slightly annoyed tone. “Oops. Sorry,” Twilight said with a blush.

The rest of the ride was spent in relative silence, until the train came to an abrupt stop. “Fillies and gentleclolts, we have arrived in Canterlot.”

“Well, here we are,” said Twilight as she and the two stallions got off the train. “I’m gonna go get a snack. You guys want anything?”

“Just a soda will be fine,” said Lightning.

“Same here,” said Sketch.

The alicorn nodded her head and trotted over to the snack bar. Meanwhile, Lightning Star and Sketch looked at all the ponies in the city. They were all wearing fancy clothes and the sight of it all made the two stallions feel outclassed and intimidated.

“Dude, we are totally not dressed for success,” said the pegasus. Despite the fact that he felt nervous he felt the need to make a joke.

The unicorn rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t matter, Lightning,” he said, trying to sound like he didn’t care, when in reality, he did. He just wanted to sound confident for the sake of his friend’s comfort. “We’re here on business. We’re not here to see who’s the best dressed. We shouldn’t feel ashamed of our looks.”

“Well, you should,” said somepony. “Those rags are atrocious!”

Lightning and Sketch turned around to see a white unicorn mare with a pink mane and tail approaching them. The recognized her as one of the background characters on the show, but couldn’t put a finger on her name.

“And you are?” said Lightning, offended and annoyed.

“I am Fleur de Lis, wife of Fancy Pants,” she said with a pompous attitude. “I must ask: what on earth are you two wearing.”

“Just normal clothes that normal ponies wear,” said Sketch. “Sometimes simple is better.”

“Not in this case,” said Fleur. “Those outfits are utter atrocities!”

“Oh yeah?” said Lightning, getting agitated. “Well you look like a-”

“Hey you guys! I got your sodas,” Twilight interrupted.

“Oh, thanks Twi,” said Sketch.

Fleur de Lis gave the two stallions and incredulous look. “Wait, y-you two know Princess Twilight Sparkle?” she asked.

“Yes,” says the princess. “They’re good friends of mine.”

“Now if you’ll excuse us, Fleur,” said Lightning, “we have someplace to be.”

The three ponies continued their walk through Canterlot, looking for the library.

“We should be there in about five minutes, guys,” said Twilight.

“Okay, cool,” said Sketch, when his phone suddenly rang. “Hello?” he answered.

“Sketch, darling! It’s Rarity,” said the pony on the other line. “I was wondering if you could work late on Monday. One of my deadlines got pushed to an earlier date, so I’ll need your help get my designs ready.”

“No problem, Rarity,” said the stallion. “You can count on me.”

“Oh, you’re a lifesaver, darling!” said the mare. “Bye!”

“Bye,” he said, hanging up the phone. All of a sudden, Sketch, Lighting, and Twilight hear a loud alarm, followed by screams of fear and the sound of hooves hitting the ground.

“Stop! Thieves! Come back with my jewels!” somepony yells, and the trio turns in the direction from where the voice was coming. They saw a middle aged earth stallion standing outside a jewelry store. They assumed that he was the owner.

A duo of masked stallions was running away from the store with large sacks of stolen jewelry in hand.

“Guys! We’ve gotta stop them!” said Lightning.

“Don’t be stupid, Lightning!” said Sketch. “This isn’t a TV show where you can stand up to thugs and not get your ass kicked! Even if we’re not really from here, this is still real life, not to mention the fact that we can’t attract too much attention to ourselves.”

“Well, you can stand here, but I’m gonna do something!” sad the pegasus.

Sketch sighed and looked at Twilight. “Let’s go. If he goes solo, he’s bound to do something stupid,” he said. The alicorn nodded her head and followed him. “God, this is so cliché,” thought Sketch.

Lightning flew as fast as he could, but even though the thieves were carrying huge sacks of cash, they were quick on their hooves. Realizing that his friend couldn’t catch up, Sketch took out his drawing book and drew a picture of a manticore with incredible speed. He then used his magic to bring the beast to life, and it was able to close in on the two criminals, who stop dead in their tracks at the sight of the creature.

With his targets frozen in fear, Lightning was able to catch the two thugs and pin them to the ground. Twilight had to catch up on foo because she hadn’t gotten used to her wings yet. She casts a spell that paralyzed the two thieves, allowing Lightning to get off of them.

“There,” said the pegasus. “All taken care of.”

“That was simply amazing, you three!” said the store owner, who was running towards the three heroes.

“Oh, it was nothing,” said Sketch, not wanting to attract any more unwanted attention. “You don’t need to make a big deal out of it.”

“Au contraire, my friend,” said the owner, “you three are heroes! You all deserve a handsome reward.”

“No, really, it’s not-”

“Don’t mind my friend,” Lightning interrupted, causing the unicorn to glare at him. “We’d happily accept your reward.” The pegasus followed the store owner into his shop, while Twilight put a hand on Sketch’s shoulder.

“Come on, there’s no avoiding this,” she said. “We might as well make the best of this.”

“What about these guys?” he asked, referring to the still paralyzed thieves that were helplessly lying on the ground.

“We’ll take care of them,” said a stallion from the royal guard, who had just arrived with several other guards. He took a moment to bow to Twilight before he and his colleagues proceeded to take the criminals away.

Twilight and Sketch walk into the jewelry store, where they saw lighting wearing a platinum wristband. “Check it out, guys!” he said. “We all get to pick out one piece of jewelry to keep for free.”

“It’s the least I can do,” said the store owner. “My name is Luster, by the way.”

“Well, thanks regardless, Luster,” said Twilight.

“No problem, princess,” he said with a bow.

Twilight ended up picking out an onyx encrusted ring, while Sketch was still browsing the store. He wasn’t much of a jewelry guy, and he was looking for something that wasn’t too flashy. Then again, he was in Canterlot, so what were the odds of finding something like that here?

His eyes then focused on a necklace towards the far end of the store. The necklace had a charm on it that was a reddish-orange color. Sketch started to think about Applejack, and how good this necklace would look on her, but then he remembered that AJ wasn’t a jewelry type of pony (which, coincidentally, is another thing that she had in common with him). He thought about it for a minute and decided that even if she didn’t want the necklace, it wouldn’t be that big a deal since it was free.

“Excuse me, Luster,” said Sketch.

“Yes, sir?” he answered, quickly trotting over to the unicorn’s side.

“I’d like to get this necklace,” he said. “It’s a gift for somepony.”

“Is it a special somepony?” Luster asked.

“No, just a friend,” the unicorn said with a blush.

Luster chuckled and retrieved the necklace form is glass casing. “Whatever you say,” he said.

Once all three ponies made their purchases, they thanked Luster once again for his generous reward and proceeded to the door, only to be shocked by what they saw out the window.

A crowd of reporter ponies was outside, anxious for Lightning, Sketch, and Twilight to exit the building and bombard them with questions.

“Fuck,” Sketch said under his breath.

Escape the Press

“Ugh! I KNEW this would happen!” Sketch said in frustration.

“Okay, okay, calm down,” said Lightning. “What happened has happened, so we just need to find a way out of this.”

“Luster,” said Twilight, “Is there a back door we can use?”

“Oh, yes,” he said. “Let me just bring the shades down on these windows so they won’t see you sneaking out the back.”

“Well, that takes care of getting out of here without being jumped,” said Sketch, “but those press ponies are bound to put two and two together and go looking for us. What then?”

“I know a disguise spell that should take care of that for us,” Twilight said. Her horn started to glow, and a white flash filled the room. After the light faded, Lightning Star and Sketch couldn’t recognize themselves, let alone each other.

“Now let’s get out of here,” the princess said, her appearance changed to resemble that of a regular earth pony.

Luster led the three ponies out the back entrance of his store, and once they were free, Twilight led Lightning and Sketch to the Canterlot library.

“Phew, that was close,” said Lightning. “Damn, this place is huge!”

“SHHH!!!” said a nearby librarian.

“Sorry,” whispered the pegasus

“Check it out,” Sketch said, looking out of a nearby window. “I can see some paparazzi looking for us.”

“Well, the section that has the book we’re looking for doesn’t have any windows,” explained Twilight. “Once we get there, I can release the spell.”

The three ponies walked through the Canterlot library, eventually reaching the section that Twilight mentioned. She released the spell, and they all got to looking for the book.

“This section isn’t too big, since knowledge on other universes is relatively limited, so we should find the book easily,” she explained.

“Found it!” Sketch said.

“Okay, maybe that was a little too easy,” she muttered.

Twilight took the book from Sketch and held it in front of her with her magic. She looked through the table of contents for the section of the book on the Dimension Orb, and eventually found it.

“So, what does it say?” asked Lightning.

“Give me a minute,” Twilight said, noticeably annoyed. “Okay, it says here that the Dimension Orb is a spell that transports beings across dimensions.”

“That’s exactly what the book back in your library said,” said the pegasus. “How does that help us? This means that we went through all this trouble for noth-MMMPH!”

Lightning’s rant was silenced by Sketch, who drew a muzzle on him with his magic. “Maybe if you shut the hell up and let her finish, we’ll find something out,” he said, then he turned to Twilight. “Go on, Twi.”

The alicorn nodded her head and continued reading. “It says here that the spell is like an advanced form of a normal teleportation spell,” she explained. “The only difference is that the Dimension Orb spell requires much more magical energy and finesse due to the massive distance between neighboring universes. The farther the distance, the more power required. Only a very powerful pony can cast a spell of this caliber. There's not much else in here that's of any use to us.”

“Well that takes care of the ‘how,’ so now we need to find out the ‘who’ and the ‘why,’” said Sketch.

“Well, doing more reading won’t figure that out for us, so we should probably just head home,” said Twilight.

“Good call,” said Sketch, and he removed the muzzle from Lightning’s snout.

“You’re a dick,” he said.

“I’ve been called worse,” the unicorn retorted.

The three ponies walked through the halls of the library, heading towards the entrance, when they hear two voices coming from a nearby hallway.

“Thanks for coming to help me look for this book,” the first voice said.

“It wasn’t of my own accord sister. You dragged me here against my will,” the second voice remarked.

“You’ve been cooped up in your room for days, Luna. You need some fresh air,” the first voice said, while the second voice simply huffed in annoyance.

“Wait, did that voice just say ‘Luna’?” asked Lighting. Meanwhile, Twilight’s face brightened up instantly.

“Oh, this is perfect!” she squeals. “I’ve wanted to introduce you two to them!”

“Them?” Sketch asked.

“Is that who I think it is?” the first voice called out. Out of the hallway walked two alicorn mares, one taller than the other. The taller one had a white coat with a pale pink tint and a pastel colored mane and tail that both seemed to move on their own. The shorter mare had a dark blue coat, with a mane and tail in two tones of blue that moved in the same fashion as the other mare. The taller alicorn was wearing a causal afternoon dress, while the shorter alicorn wore a dress that was a little more formal.

“Princess Celestia! Princess Luna!” Twilight exclaimed. She quickly walked over to the princesses and hugged them tightly.

“It’s good to see you, my faithful student,” said Celestia.

“Who are your friends?” asked Luna.

“Oh, right. These are my friends Lightning Star and Sketch,” the young mare said. “They just moved to Ponyville about a week ago.”

“It’s nice to meet you, princesses,” said Lightning.

“Yes, it’s an honor,” said Sketch.

“Ah, I see,” said Celestia. “So what brings you three here all the way to the Canterlot library?”

“Well, we came to see a book that I didn’t have,” Twilight explained nervously. She wasn’t sure if she should tell Celestia and Luna that her two friends were from another universe and that she’s been helping them find some information on how they came to Equestria. She looked back at the two stallions, who quickly realized why she was so hesitant, and they give a nod to her, signaling that it was okay to tell the princesses.

“It was a book called Dimension Spanning Spells,” she said. “You see, these two are… from another universe. They were brought here with the Dimension Orb spell, and the book said that a very powerful pony had to have cast it, but we don’t know who, so we’re just heading home.”

The sisters’ faces show the same expression of shock when they hear the notion of the two stallions before them being from a different universe.

“The Dimension Orb spell, hmm?” pondered Celestia. “I’ve heard of it.”

“Wasn’t it developed by Star Swirl the Bearded?” asked Luna.

“I think the book said that…” answered Twilight. “If only we had a lead on who casted the spell on Lightning and Sketch.”

“I’m afraid to say this to you three,” Celestia said, “but it would be best if you don’t try to find out who cast the spell.”

“What!?” the three young ponies exclaimed.

“Spending so much time trying to find that out on your own would only cause unneeded stress,” she explained. “With that in mind, I will take it upon myself to find out for you.”

“You don’t have to do that, Princess,” said Sketch.

“Besides, you probably have more important things to do,” said Lighting.

“As long as you two are here in Equestria, you are my subjects, and it is my duty as a princess to serve my subjects,” the princess said. “Think of this as a way of upholding that duty.”

“If you insist,” said Sketch. “We really appreciate you doing this for us.”

“No problem,” she said. “In the meantime, why don’t you enjoy your days in Equestria? The more you try to get used to life here, the easier it’ll be for you to remain patient while I figure this out for you.”

“Can we go back to the castle now, sister?” asked Luna. “I sent a friend request to a pony online, and I want to see if I received a response.”

Sketch’s ears perked at what the princess of the night says. On a whim, he decided to ask her what just came to his mind.

“You wouldn’t happen to be Midnight Mistress, would you?” he asked.

The dark princess’s eyes widened. “Why, yes I am?” she replied. “You wouldn’t happen to be Iron_Hooves, would you?”

“That’s me,” the unicorn replied.

Celestia chuckled. “Looks like you’ve met these two before, little sister.”

“Oh, ha, ha, ha,” says the younger sibling.

“Well, it was nice seeing you two,” said Twilight. “I guess we’ll be heading home now.”

“Since you three went through so much trouble getting here, why don’t Luna and I send you back to Ponyville with an instant transportation spell.”

“Really? That would be awesome,” said Lightning.

The two alicorn siblings smiled and began to chant the incantation for the transportation spell. A circle appeared on the ground once the incantation finished, and the princess waved goodbye before the circle transported back to Twilight’s library in an instant.

“Well, that was some adventure…” said Sketch “What time is it?”

“Five PM,” Lightning answered.

“Really?” asked Twilight. “That whole fiasco at the jewelry store really set us back, then.”

“Well, I don’t know about you guys, but after all this, I’m thinking about staying home all day tomorrow,” said the unicorn.

“I totally understand,” said the alicorn. “This day has made me feel pretty exhausted, myself.”

“Thanks for everything, Twi. We may not know who brought us here, but we never would’ve found out about the Dimension Orb if you hadn’t helped us out,” said the pegasus.

“It was no trouble at all,” the young princess said. “So what are you two gonna do, now?”

“Well, there’s nothing else to do but wait for Celestia to figure things out for us. We’ll just live our lives in the meantime,” Sketch said.

“You’re not upset or disappointed about it, are you?” she asked.

“Nah, we’ll manage,” he answered.

“Okay, then. See you guys around,” she said.

“Bye,” the two stallions said before leaving Twilight’s house.

When they get home, Lightning pops in a movie while Sketch gets some popcorn ready.

“So I guess we’ll be stuck here for a while,” said the unicorn.

“Yep,” said the pegasus. “So, you gonna call Applejack?”

“Maybe later,” Sketch answered.

Getting Closer

“What time is it?” Sketch asked once the movie finished.

“It’s about… five minutes to seven,” answered Lightning Star. “By the way, weren’t you supposed to call AJ?”

“Aw, shit!” yelled the unicorn. “I forgot!”

“You know what you should do?” said the pegasus, “You should show up without calling. She’ll be so surprised!”

“Or she’ll freak out,” Sketch retorted.

“Yeah, if it were anypony else,” Lightning said, “but this is you we’re talking about. She wouldn’t care if you broke into her house. Applejack would still be happy to see you. She obviously likes you.”

“You’re just assuming things,” Sketch denied. “I doubt she feels that way.”

Lightning rolls his eyes and Sketch leaves the house, with his sketchbook and his knapsack, as usual. He thought about taking his motorcycle; he hadn’t touched it since it came in the mail, but he decided to walk instead. After about ten minutes, he reached Sweet Apple Acres. As he was about to knock on the front door of the Apple Family home, a loud crash made him jump in surprise. Wondering what it was, Sketch walked in the direction the crash came from, and found the Cutie Mark Crusaders on the ground, covered in dirt.

“I guess hang gliding isn’t our special talent, girls,” said Scootaloo.

“Didn’t you guys try that already?” asked the stallion.

“Oh, hi, Sketch!” the three girls said in unison. “What brings ya t’ Sweet Apple Acres?” asked Apple Bloom.

“I was supposed to meet up with your sister today,” he explained. “You wouldn’t happen to know where she is, would you?”

“Oh, she’s in the barn. Follow me!” the young filly said, and Sketch followed her to the barn, with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo tagging along. Once they got there, the southern filly shouts something that makes the unicorn stallion blush.

“APPLEJACK! YOUR COLTFRIEND IS HERE!!!”

“Wait, what!?” Sketch said, flustered. The three fillies began to giggle amongst themselves.

The barn door swung open, and Applejack stomped out, looking frustrated. “He AIN’T my coltfriend, Apple Bloom!” she said sternly. “He’s just a friend!”

“Well, that proves it. She doesn’t have feelings for me,” Sketch thought, oblivious to the blush that was on the southern mare’s face. “Don’t mind them, AJ. They’re just being kids,” he said.

“Alright,” she said, calming down. “So, how was Canterlot?”

“It was… something…” he answered. “I’ll tell you when we get to… where are we going, exactly?”

“Ah was thinkin’ we could go to the Ponyville Pool Hall,” she suggested.

“I didn’t know there was a pool hall here,” he said. “Twilight must have forgotten to mention it when she gave me and Lightning a tour of Ponyville.”

“Oh, yer gonna love it!” she said. “They got the best drinks… well, next to my family’s cider of course.”

“Well, lead the way,” he said, letting Applejack do just that. Just as they were about to leave the farm, though, the three fillies called out to them. “Have fun on your date!” they yelled. Applejack was going to run after them, but Sketch convinced her otherwise. “It’s not worth it,” he said.

The two ponies arrived at the pool hall after about fifteen minutes of walking. “You know,” said Sketch as he opened the door to the establishment, “I could have taken my motorcycle and we wouldn’t have to walk. In hindsight, that would have been a better idea.”

“Nah. Ah’m perfectly fine with us walkin’,” said AJ. “Yer fun t’ talk to and havin’ a roarin’ engine in our ears would ruin that.”

“Well, when you put it that way…” he said, finding a vacant pool table and putting some bits in. “You can break,” he said.

“Thank ya kindly,” said AJ as she got cue sticks for her and Sketch. “So, what happened in Canterlot?”

“Well, Twilight, Lightning, and I went there to find a book that Twilight didn’t have in her library,” he explained as AJ sank a ball.

“Ah reckon Ah’m stripes, then. Anyways, what made you and Lightnin’ want to go with her?” she asked.

Sketch hesitated. He wasn’t sure if he should tell Applejack that he and Lightning were from another universe. Then again, what would be the harm in telling her? It’s not like she’d think of him any differently. Was he worried that she wouldn’t like him? Wait, why would he be worried about that? He doesn’t have feelings for her, right? Regardless, it’d be best to stay on the safe side.

“She didn’t want to go alone, and we didn’t have anything to do, so we decided to go with her,” he said. “Anyway, when we got there, we saw these thugs robbing a jewelry store. Lightning wanted to be a hero and went after them, and Twilight and I tagged along so he wouldn’t be alone.”

“That stallion just loves trouble, don’t he?” AJ asked.

“Pretty much…” Sketch answered. “So, we ended up stopping the thieves and the owner of the store let us each have a piece of jewelry from his store, free of charge.”

“Well, that was mighty nice of ‘im,” said the mare.

Sketch suddenly remembered that he had gotten a necklace for Applejack from that store, and he never took it out of his knapsack when he got home, so it must still be in there now. “One second, Applejack,” he said as he reached into the bag for the velvet box that contained the necklace.

“I know you’re not a jewelry kind of pony,” he said as he held the box in front of the mare, “but I got this for you from the store.”

Applejack gingerly opened the box and gasped when she saw the necklace inside. “Do you like it?” Sketch asked nervously.

“Ah think it’s gorgeous,” she answered, and the stallion gave a sigh of relief. “I thought you weren’t gonna like it,” he said.

“Now why wouldn’t Ah like somethin’ that you went through so much trouble t’ get for me?” she asked as she put the necklace on. “How does it look?”

“Beautiful,” Sketch said without thinking, then he snapped back to reality. “The necklace, I mean. It looks beautiful on you.”

“Ah know what ya meant,” the mare said with a chuckle. “Now, let’s get back to this game while you tell me the rest of yer story.”

“Alright then,” the unicorn said as he lined up his cue for another shot. “So, Twilight, Lightning and I snuck out the back door of the jewelry store…”

Several minutes later…

“Well, Ah’ll be darned. Looks like y’all had a pretty eventful day,” Applejack said.

“I know,” replied Sketch. “That’s why I plan on staying home all day tomorrow.”

“Ah know Ah would if Ah had a day that hectic,” she chuckled.

“Oh, and one more thing,” he said.

“What?” the mare asked.

“I win,” Sketch gloated as he sank the eight-ball

“Ah let ya win.”

“I thought you were the element of honesty.”

“What makes ya think Ah’m lyin’?”

“You’re doing that thing with your eyes.”

Applejack sighed. “Okay, maybe ya did beat me, but A’ll get ya next time. Fer now, why don’t we get somethin’ t’ drink?”

Sketch and AJ went to the bar and ordered some ciders, which came in two large mugs.

“Bottoms up!” the mare said as she downed half the glass in one gulp.

“Damn,” said the unicorn. “Losing must make you thirsty.”

“Real funny, sugarcube,” she said. “My granny says I have the appetite of a full-grown stallion.”

“Gee, I wonder why,” he said sarcastically as he took a sip of his cider. “Wow, you were right. This stuff is good.”

“Just you wait ‘till cider season. My family’s cider will make ya do backflips!” Applejack boasted.

“We’ll see,” Sketch teased.

Once their cider was finished, the two ponies left the pool hall and headed back to Sweet Apple Acres. As they walked, Sketch looked at Applejack’s necklace, admiring the way the moonlight reflected off of it. Once the two got to the farm, she calls him out.

“What’re ya starin’ at my chest for, tiger?” said Applejack with a smirk on her face.

“Huh!?” Sketch said, flustered.

“You didn’t think Ah would be that ignorant, did ya?” she asked.

“N-no! It was nothing like that! Not that you’re not pretty or anything, but I was just looking at your necklace because it looked really nice in the moonlight and-”

“Simmer down, Sally,” the mare chuckled. “Ah’m only pullin’ yer tail.”

The unicorn sighed with relief. “Don’t do that. I get nervous when I get put into situations like that.”

“Is that so?” she laughed. “Yer pretty jittery, ain’t ya?” She then calmed down. “But seriously, though… you think Ah’m pretty?”

“Oh, man…” Sketch thought. “I walked right into that one.”

“Well, I mean… yeah…” he admitted.

The mare chuckled again. She was really in the laughing mood tonight. She wrapped and arm around his and leaned in close to him. “Well, Ah think that yer quite the catch, yerself,” she said softly.

“R-really?” Sketch asked. “I don’t get that a lot.”

“There’s a first time for everything, ain’t there?” said Applejack, her voice no louder than a whisper, yet she was so close that Sketch could hear her clearly, her sweet, southern voice making him lose some of the tension he had. He turned his head to say something, but found Applejack’s face mere centimeters away from his, her eyes closed, and her lips puckered. Before he could even register what was going on, her lips met his and her arms wrapped around him.

Sketch was in total shock at what was happening. He couldn’t believe that he was being kissed. The fact that the one kissing him was an anthropomorphic pony didn’t seem to reach him, at the moment. The only thing that was a surprise to him was being kissed at all. Applejack’s lips were soft, softer than he would expect from a mare like her. They also tasted like apples, which wasn’t a surprise to him, but he also tasted a hint of cinnamon, as well. As the seconds passed, all of Sketch’s inhibitions seemed to fade as Applejack kissed him. He even built up the courage to kiss her back, an action that she gladly accepted. After what felt like hours, but was only a minute in actuality, the two ponies separated, and looked into each other’s eyes. Applejack’s were full of passion, while Sketch’s eyes were glazed over.

The mare chuckled yet again and said. “Ah’ll see ya around,” before walking to her house.

As the unicorn walked home, he didn’t know how to feel about what just happened. He had convinced himself that he didn’t have feelings for Applejack, that she was just a close friend, but if that were true, he wouldn’t have let her kiss him, at least not for as long as she did. Maybe he let it happen because he didn’t want to upset her? No, that’s a stupid idea. It’s obvious that he enjoyed it, even if it was just a little. Maybe he really did have feelings for AJ, and all it took was a kiss for him to finally realize it. He wondered what she’d say the next time they met. Would she want a relationship? A serious one? Sketch felt like he’d have to say yes. He wouldn’t want to friendzone the only girl that’s ever liked her, especially when he knew what it felt like to be in that position. He knew it very well.

Sketch decided that he was thinking about it way too much, and continued on home with the only thought in his mind being sleep.

When he finally got home, he saw that all the lights were turned off. “That’s weird,” he thought. “It’s only nine o’ clock. It’s not like Lightning to go to sleep this early. Our trip to Canterlot must have tried him out more than it did me.”

It was still light enough to see, thanks to the moon, so Sketch made his way upstairs and saw that the light in Lightning’s room was switched on.

“Oh, I guess he is awake then,” the unicorn thought. He approached the door and knocked, but there was no response. He knocked again, but there was still no answer. He then opened the door slowly, in case his friend was sleeping and just forgot to switch off the light.

Inside, he saw Lightning Star, wide awake, reading some scrolls. There was something different about him. He seemed to have a frustrated, no, an angry look on his face.

“Oh, sorry, man. I didn’t know you were reading,” said Sketch. “I just wanted to let you know that I’m back.”

“Whatever,” the pegasus replied.

This was odd. Sketch expected Lightning to ask him a million and one questions about how your outing with AJ went, but this time he didn’t seem to care.

“Everything alright?”

“I’m fine. Why do you care?”

“Because I’m your friend. That’s how the whole ‘friendship’ thing works.”

“Well, I’m just fine, so you have nothing to worry about, so just go away.”

“What’s your deal, Lightning?”

“It’s nothing. Mind your own damn business!”

“Dude, calm down!”

Lightning got out of his seat and turned around to face Sketch. “Don’t tell me what to do! I said I’m fine, now get out!” he yelled, grabbing a nearby throwing knife and chucking it at Sketch. Luckily, he was so mad, it threw his aim off completely, and he missed by several inches.

“Alright, alright, I’ll go!” said the unicorn. “What the fuck, man?” He walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. As he walked to his own room, he wondered: what could have happened to make Lightning so angry?

A Huge Misunderstanding

Earlier that same night, about twenty minutes after Sketch left to see Applejack, Lightning Star was feeling pretty bored sitting at home by himself. He thought that maybe he could just turn in early, but that wasn’t like him, He’d usually stay up all night, but he was so damn bored. Maybe he could go out for a nighttime fly. He hasn’t been using his wings lately; meanwhile Sketch can use his unicorn magic like it was second nature. It was pretty ironic, considering the fact that Lightning was more excited about being a pony than Sketch was.

“Yeah, a good stretch of the wings will be good for me,” he said to himself. Just then, the phone rang, and the pegasus scrambled to answer it. Maybe he could strike up a conversation with whoever was on the other line.

“Hello?” he said.

“Hi, Lightning. It’s Twilight,” said the pony on the other line. “I’d hate to bother you again, but while we were in Canterlot, Spike injured his leg, and I don’t have anypony to help me sort out these books.”

“Oh, man. Is the little guy okay? What happened?”

“He’s fine, but he refuses to tell me exactly how it happened. He must be embarrassed or something. Anyway, I was wondering if you and Sketch could come and help me out, so long as you two aren’t busy, of course.”

“Well, Sketch is out of the house, right now, but I’d be happy to come over and help you out.”

“Oh, thank you, Lightning. I owe you one.”

“Nah, think of this as me paying you back for helping me and Sketch find out how we came here. I’ll be right there, ‘kay?”

“Sure.”

Lightning hangs up the phone, gets his keys, and heads out the house on his way to Twilight’s. When he gets there, he’s greeted by a flustered looking Alicorn and a mess of books to stack.

“What happened?” he asked.

“Well, a new shipment of books came in while we were in Canterlot, so I decided to reorganize everything,” Twilight explained. “Spike and I did most of the work, but then I went up to my room for a minute, and when I came back down, the poor dragon was on the ground, clutching his leg. I plan on having Fluttershy come over tomorrow so she can take a look at it.” She then turns around, gesturing to the bookshelves. “As you can see, only the top shelves are left.”

“Not that I don’t mind helping you, and all…” said the pegasus, “but can’t you use your wings to get up there instead of having somepony hold a ladder for you?”

“Well… It’s just that… I haven’t gotten used to my wings yet…”

“Hasn’t Rainbow Dash been giving you lessons?”

“Let’s just say I’m not suited to her teaching style.”

“So, you aren’t used to your wings, which you’ve had for a month, but you thought that getting help from a human that was turned into a pegasus a week ago was a better idea?”

“Well, when you put it like that, it does sound kind of ridiculous.”

“Well, you’re gonna practice using those wings now. Just get some books off the floor, fly up to stack them, and I’ll be right below you so I can catch you if anything goes wrong.”

“Okay…”

Elsewhere in Ponyville, Pinkie Pie was in her bedroom at Sugarcube Corner, sitting idly on her bed, something that was rare for the pink pony. She couldn’t stop thinking about Lightning since last night, and she’s been completely out of it all day. She remembers talking to Rainbow Dash earlier that day.

“Hey, Pinkie. What’s up?” she said.

“Well, I was just going over to see Lightning!” the pink mare happily replied.

“Oh, he isn’t home. While I was on weather patrol earlier today, I saw him at the train station with Twilight and-”

“The train station! Maybe I can catch up to him!”

“I don’t think so. I saw them a half hour ago. Wherever they were going, they’re probably halfway there by now. You can always call him.”

“Oh, I don’t want to be a bother to him. He’s probably busy with something important.”

“Since when do you ever ‘not want to be a bother’ to anypony? Unless… you probably don’t want him to think you’re annoying, do you?”

“Well…”

“And that’s because you like him!”

“Okay, okay, okay, I like him! I really want to talk to him, but I don’t want him to think I’m too pushy, ‘cause then he’ll want to avoid me, andthenhe’llwantnothingtodowithmeandI’llbesinglefortherestofmylifeand-” the earth pony was interrupted by a hand being placed on her mouth.

“You are worrying about this WAY too much,” said Rainbow Dash. “The last thing Ponyville needs is another Twilight.”

Pinkie took a deep breath. “You’re right, Dashie. I’ll catch up with him later tonight.”

The earth pony got up off her bed and set out to go see Lightning, like she had promised herself to do earlier that day.

Pinkie walked down the streets of Ponyville, and she got excited when she saw Lightning’s house, she ran up to it, but as she got closer, she saw that the lights were out.

“Aw, nuts!” the mare said. “He’s probably sleeping. Oh well, I'll just visit him at work tomorrow.” Just then, she heard two voices coming from Twilight’s place; one from Twilight, and the other from… Lightning? Pinkie got closer to the library so she can hear.

“Lightning, I don’t know if I can-”

“Just relax. I’m right here.”

“I can’t hold out. I’m gonna… I’m gonna… AAAGH!”

Twilight’s scream was followed by a thud, and Pinkie tried to process what she just heard. “Wait… they couldn’t be… no way!” The mare ran up to the door and swung it open to see a horrific sight. Twilight was on top of Lightning, looking pretty exhausted, and Lightning had his arms wrapped around her.

“See Twi? You have nothing to worry about,” Lightning said to the alicorn.

“Okay, but you’re still gonna catch me, right?” she asked nervously.

“Of course I am, but don’t worry about that. Just concentrate on what you’re doing,” the pegasus said.

Twilight’s wings began to tire out, and they started to flap at an uneven rhythm. “Lightning, I don’t know if I can-”

“Just relax. I’m right here,” he assured with a soothing voice.

Twilight could feel herself losing her balance. She knew she was going to fall. “I can’t hold out. I’m gonna… I’m gonna… AAAGH!” The alicorn started to fall, and Lightning caught her, falling back to the ground with her on top of him, and his arms wrapped around her. The next thing that the two ponies heard was a loud gasp. They looked up to see Pinkie Pie standing in the doorway, tears welling up in her big, blue eyes. Twilight and Lightning then noticed the compromising position that they were in, and the alicorn quickly got off of her friend, fixing her skirt. Lightning quickly gets on his hooves and walks towards Pinkie.

“Pinkie, wait. It’s not what you thi-” he tried to say, but she didn’t want to hear any of it. She turned tail and ran as fast as she could.

“Twilight, I-”

“I understand. Go after her.”

And Lightning did just that. He ran out of the library and tried to catch up to Pinkie, but it turned out that she was faster than she let on. The stallion had to use his speed boost to catch up to her, but she quickly turned into an alleyway. Lightning decided to fly up to the rooftops to get a better view, that way it would be easier to keep the mare in his sights. He jumped from roof to roof, trying to catch up to her.

“Pinkie! Just hold on for a second!” he called out. “Damn, this mare can run,” he thought.

He finally caught up to her just as she got to Sugarcube Corner. “Pinkie, just give me one second,” he said, out of breath.

“No! I won’t give you a second!” she yelled. “I saw you and Twilight, and I heard what you two were saying inside, too! How could you go out with me one night, then bang another pony the next night!?”

“We weren’t doing that!” the pegasus said. “We were just-”

“I don’t’ want to hear it!” Pinkie said, pushing the stallion. “Just stay away from me!”

Before Lightning can say anything else, Pinkie went inside and slammed the door in his face. Realizing that there was no way to calm the mare down, the pegasus walked home, dragging his hooves and hanging his head.

Later that night, Lightning was in his room, reading through some scrolls. He heard the front door open, meaning that Sketch was home, but he didn’t acknowledge it. A minute later, he heard him knock on his door, but he ignored him, hoping that he’d go away. The unicorn knocked a second time, and Lightning ignored him yet again. Sketch then opened the door and walked inside.

“Oh, sorry, man. I didn’t know you were reading,” he said. “I just wanted to let you know that I’m back.”

“Whatever,” the pegasus replied. Normally, he’d bombard Sketch with questions on how the outing with AJ went, but he had other things on his mind.

“Everything alright?”

“I’m fine. Why do you care?”

“Because I’m your friend. That’s how the whole ‘friendship’ thing works.”

“Well, I’m just fine, so you have nothing to worry about, so just go away.”

“What’s you deal, Lightning?”

“It’s nothing. Mind your own damn business!”

“Dude, calm down!”

Lightning got out of his seat and turned around to face Sketch. “Don’t tell me what to do! I said I’m fine, now get out!” he yelled, grabbing a nearby throwing knife and chucking it at Sketch. Luckily, he was so mad, it threw his aim off completely, and he missed by several inches.

“Alright, alright, I’ll go!” said the unicorn. “What the fuck, man?” He walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. Lightning walked towards where he threw the knife and pulled it out of the wall. After putting it away, he decided to turn in for the night. As he went to sleep, the memory of the events that transpired earlier that night began to haunt his mind…

Getting to the Bottom of It

Sketch was walking through Ponyville, on his way home from working at the Carousel Boutique. As he passed by an alleyway, he saw a light, a familiar light, out of the corner of his eye. He peered back into the alley and took a look at the light again, and immediately recognized it.

“The Dimension Orb…” he said to himself. He walked closer to the shining artifact and looked straight at it. An image started to form within the light, and when the image solidified, Sketch was shocked by what he saw.

It was a house, his house from the Human dimension. The front door opened and out walked his parents. They were walking to the car, probably to go out somewhere. A tear fell from Sketch’s eye as he saw this. He wanted to go back right then and there, but how would Lightning Star know about the Orb’s reappearance if Sketch wasn’t there to tell him about it. The unicorn then considered running home and getting Lightning, but there was no guarantee that the orb would be there when they got back, and he was still mad at him, even after the fight they had two days ago, so he’d ignore any of his calls. As Sketch tried to figure out this situation, a voice broke his train of thought.

“Sketch?”

The unicorn turned around and was surprised to see Applejack standing there with a confused look on her face. “What’re ya doin?” she asked as she looked behind him and saw the light. “Is that some kinda portal?” she asked.

“…Sort of…” he replied.

“Yer not… leavin’, are ya?” she asked.

“Well… it’s complicated AJ…”

“Nothin’s complicated. You just don’t want t’ tell me.”

“I can’t get into the details, it’s just that I have to leave.”

The cowpony looked down at the ground sadly. “You know, if ya wanted t' leave me, you could've just said so,” she said as she turned to leave. Sketch tried to approach her, but she flicked her tail in his face.

“Applejack, wait!” he called out, only for his cry to be ignored. He then turned around to see that the portal, along with the Dimension Orb, was gone.

“Perfect,” said Sketch. “My one way back home is gone for who knows how long, and AJ hates me.”

“Do not fret, Sketch,” said a voice from out of nowhere.

“What?” he said, wondering where this voice was coming from.

“This is merely a dream,” the voice said as the environment around Sketch began to break away, leaving him in a white void. A dark blue mist began to appear in the void and the mist solidified into pony form.

“Princess Luna?” the unicorn said in disbelief.

“I sensed an immense mass of distress coming from here, so I came to see if I could alleviate it,” she said.

“Well, now that you mention it… I have been feeling a little distressed.”

“Do tell.”

“Well, you know how Lightning and I aren’t really from here, right?” The princess nodded her head in response. “Well, I’ve been really conflicted about whether or not I want to go back. I’ve made a lot of friends here, especially one pony in particular.”

“Applejack, I presume?”

“Y-yeah… It’s just that she… I don’t know. I just really like being with her, and she’s a really nice mare, and she enjoys being with me, too, but I… I can’t make a choice between the people I’ve left behind back home, and the ponies I’ve met here. I know that with the whole parallel universe thing, I won’t really be gone, but I’ll still have the memories from both worlds in my mind, so I’ll still be affected by my decision.”

Luna nodded again, continuing to listen.

“And Applejack… I’m starting to have feelings for her that I’ve never had for any girl before…”

‘’It’s okay to say that you love her, you know,” the alicorn said reassuringly.

“I know, but given my luck with girls in the past, I don’t know how she’ll react if I tell her,” the unicorn said apprehensively.

“If she is as fond of you as you say she is, I have no doubt in my mind that she will return your feelings,” Luna said with a smile.

Sketch stayed quiet for a moment, and then smiled back at the princess. “Thanks Luna,” he said. “But… if you ask me, I think Lightning’s more messed up than I am.”

“I know,” said Luna. “When I mentioned that I sensed a mass of distress, I was referring to him, but I sensed some from you as well, and I came to you after I failed to penetrate his dream.”

“Failed?” Sketch asked. He thought that the princess of the night would never have problems getting into ponies’ dreams.

“In the Dreamscape, there are many doors which are the entrances to ponies’ dreams,” she explained. “When I approached your friend’s door, the sheer amount of negative energy coming from inside was preventing me from entering. That only happens when a pony is feeling extreme distress and is shutting themselves out from others.”

The stallion then remembered how shut in Lightning was acting just hours ago.

“I could penetrate the barrier, but it requires me to use a more powerful spell that requires the caster to be in close proximity to the subject,” Luna continued. “I did hear voices from inside, though. Lightning was arguing with Twilight’s friend Pinkie Pie. I didn’t hear exactly what they were saying, but Pinkie sounded angry with Lightning about something.”

“They must have had a falling out…” said Sketch. He then looked up at Luna with a determined look on his face. “Don’t worry, Luna. I’ll try and find out what happened and see if I can fix it.”

“I knew you would,” she said. “I’m not as knowledgeable as my sister when it comes to friendship, but I know a good pair of friends when I see them.”

The unicorn chuckled. “You really think so, huh?” he asked, and the alicorn nodded her head in response. “No doubt in my mind,” she said. “I must go. Good luck, Sketch.”

With those final words, Luna’s body began to dissipate into a blue mist, which disappears into the white void. Once the mist disappears, Sketch wakes up from his dream with a start, looking around his room instinctively.

“Daylight?” he said to himself. “I couldn’t have been asleep for that long.” He decided that it wasn’t that big a deal and chalked it up to some kind of magic. When he went downstairs for breakfast, he saw that Lightning Star was sitting at the table, slowly eating his food with an emotionless expression on his face. Sketch decided not to say anything to him, lest he cause him to lash out again. Instead, he got his breakfast ready and ate in the living room.

“I planned on sleeping in today,” he thought, “but now I have to figure out what happened between Lightning and Pinkie Pie. Even if I didn’t, though, I can’t relax here with Lightning being all pissy.” He gulped the last of his food down and got ready to go out, and as always, he took is sketchbook and knapsack with him.

As he walked through Ponyville, Sketch wondered where he should go first. The most logical choice would be to go see Pinkie Pie, but from Luna’s description of what she heard in Lightning’s subconscious, she most likely wasn’t in the mood to see anypony. With all the thinking that the unicorn was doing, he ended up accidentally bumping into somepony, somepony that let out a squee when they made impact with the absent-minded stallion.

“Fluttershy?” said Sketch. “Oh man, I’m sorry.”

“Oh, it’s alright,” she said. “I wasn’t really looking where I was going.”

“Same here,” he chuckled. “Anyway, have you seen Pinkie Pie at all today? I know it’s still early, but-”

“Well, I did stop by Sugarcube Corner earlier today, but she wasn’t around for her shift,” the pegasus explained. “When I asked the Cakes, they told me that she’s been cooped up in her room all day.”

“Damn it,” thought Sketch. “I had a feeling she wasn’t gonna be in a talking mood.” He sighed. “I see. Well, I’ll see you around, Fluttershy.”

“Bye, Sketch,” she said, and the two ponies went their separate ways. The stallion eventually made it to Sugarcube Corner and made his way inside, being greeted by Mr. and Mrs. Cake as he entered.

“Hello there, Sketch,” they said.

“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Cake,” he answered. “I heard Pinkie wasn’t feeling well, so I came to check on her, if that’s alright.”

“That’s very nice of you,” said Mrs. Cake. “We weren’t able to get her to let us in, but maybe you can.”

“Why does everypony have so much faith in me all of a sudden?” the unicorn thought to himself.

“Pinkie’s room is up the staircase, third door to your right,” said Mr. Cake, and Sketch nodded his head in thanks.

When he got to the top of the stairs, he started to hear sobbing coming from behind the door that Mr. Cake mentioned. Said sobbing then turned into grumbling, then into yelling, then back to sobbing.

“She’s a fucking wreck,” Sketch thought to himself as he approached the door. After hesitating for a second, he knocked on Pinkie’s door. “Pinkie?” he called. “It’s Sketch. I’d like to talk to you, if you don’t mind.”

“If you came here to defend Lightning, then go away!” she shouted. “I don’t want to hear anything about that dirty, stinkin’ cheater!”

“Cheater?” he thought. “What is she talking about?” He decided to find out what she meant by that word. “I’m not here to defend him,” he said. “In all honesty, I don’t know what happened between you two. He wouldn’t tell me.”

“Just like he didn’t tell me about him and Twilight,” Pinkie said with a huff.

“Him and Twilight?” Sketch said. “What are you talking about? What happened?”

Silence.

That silence was followed by hooves tapping the ground, becoming increasingly loud. After that, without warning, the door swung open, revealing an angry mare with tears flowing down her face, a polar opposite of her normal self. Her mane was nowhere near as bouncy as usual. In fact, it had no life in it at all, hanging down in a depressing manner. Her coat wasn’t at bright as usual, either, instead being a dull shade of pink.

“You want to know what happened?” she asked. “I’ll tell you what happened! I caught Lightning cheating on me with Twilight! I went to her place last night looking for him, and I saw her on top of him! Right in the middle of the floor, too! He had the nerve to go out with me then sleep with some other mare the night after! I’ll never forgive him!”

“Pinkie, calm down,” Sketch said. “This is probably some big misunderstanding. If you won’t talk to Lightning, at least let Twilight explain-”

“No way!” the mare yelled. “I’m not talking to that stallion stealer either!”

“Pinkie, just-”

“Just go, Sketch,” she said. “I’m not in the mood.” With that, the pink mare closed the door, leaving Sketch standing there in the hallway.

“This is gonna be harder than I thought,” he said to himself.

As Sketch left Sugarcube Corner, he wondered what to do next. “Okay,” he thought. “Whatever went down between Lightning and Pinkie, Twilight must be involved, based on what she said, so she’d be able to tell me what happened.” The stallion made his way to the library, and when he got there, he heard a loud voice from inside.

“What do you mean you don’t have the new Daring Do book!? It came out yesterday!”

“Rainbow Dash…” Sketch sighed to himself.

“It didn’t come in the new shipment of books that I got,” said Twilight. “I contacted the publishing company already and they said that there was a misprint in the books, so they have to print them over again.”

“What the hell!? Seriously!?” Rainbow said.

The unicorn shook his head and knocked on the library door. “Come in,” said Twilight. The unicorn stepped into the store and the two mares smiled.

“Sketch!” said the rainbow-maned pegasus. “What’s up?”

“Not much,” he answered.

“Is there anything I can help you with?” asked Twilight.

“Well, actually…” he started, but then he hesitated. “Wait,” he thought. “Should I really talk to Twilight about this with Rainbow Dash here? Well, she is close to Pinkie Pie, so she might be able to help in some way…”

“Something wrong?” the alicorn asked.

Sketch let out a sigh, then made his decision.

“I need to talk to the both of you. It’s about something that happened last night.”

Intervention

The moment Twilight heard the words “last night,” she knew where this was going. She also knew it was not going to end well with Rainbow Dash being in the room. With this in mind, she turned to the pegasus and said,

"Rainbow Dash, whatever Sketch is about to say, just stay calm."

"Um... okay, Twi…" Dash said, confused as to what her friend was getting at.

"So you know how Pinkie Pie has been acting weird lately?" Sketch asked

"Yeah…" answered the pegasus.

"I think it has something to do with Lighting and her having a falling out. When I went to go see her earlier today, she said something about him being, in her words, ‘a dirty, stinkin’ cheater’.”

"WHAT!!!!!" Rainbow Dash yelled. "Oh, when I get my hands on that little weasel, I'll crush him!"

The agitated pegasus spread her wings, getting ready to fly off and find Lightning, but before she could, Twilight stopped her dead in her tracks with a paralysis spell.

"Rainbow, wait! It's not Lightning’s fault!" said the alicorn.

“What do you mean ‘it’s not his fault’!?” she argued. “Pinkie told me that she loved him, and he went and broke Pinkie’s heart! That rat with wings deserves the flank kicking of a lifetime!”

"Well..." Twilight started. “It was all a big misunderstanding. I called Lightning over to help me stack some books since Spike was injured. I wasn’t comfortable with flying on my own, so I had him over so he could catch me if I fell.”

“How could you not be comfortable with flying when I’ve been teaching you?” Dash inquired.

“Well, your training methods don’t really suit me…” Twilight admitted, and Rainbow Dash grunts in response.

“Anyway, while I was shelving some books on the top shelf, my wings started to tire out, and I fell on top of Lighting, and we ended up is a rather… compromising position. That was when Pinkie Pie came and assumed the worst.”

“Wow…” said the pegasus. “So that’s what happened. You know, this could have been avoided if you’d just try harder during our training sessions.”

Sketch puts a hand on his forehead and sighs incredulously. “Dash, I think we have more important things to worry about, like getting Pinkie and Lightning to make up,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about it on the way over here and I came up with an idea.”

“And that is…” said Rainbow.

“An intervention. We’ll get those two in the same room together so that they can work this out face to face.”

“While that is a good idea, Sketch, there’s one problem,” said Twilight. “Those two won’t even leave their houses. From what you told us, Pinkie’s in her room having mood swings and Lightning is having random bursts of anger.”

"Don't worry about Lighting. I'll take care of him," Sketch said. “Rainbow Dash, you convince Pinkie Pie to go with you to your place. I doubt that she’ll want to come here, considering that she’s just as mad with Twilight as she is with Lightning.”

“Right,” said Rainbow, and she flies out the nearest window, leaving a rainbow trail.

“Good luck with Lightning,” said Twilight.

“Thanks,” replied Sketch. “If he’s still as mad as he was last night, I’m gonna need it.”

As Sketch entered the house, he immediately noticed the eerie silence. His first instinct was to go to Lighting’s room, where he’d most likely be moping about Pinkie, but to his surprise, he wasn’t there. Sketch then proceeded to look throughout the entire house, but he couldn’t find his pegasus friend anywhere.

“Shit, he must have left the house. This is gonna make it harder for me to find him,” the unicorn said to himself.

Just then, Sketch heard some noises. After listening harder, the noises sounded like thumping, as if somepony was punching something. He started to follow the noises, and the closer he got to where they were coming from, the louder they became. Eventually, Sketch reached a door that he never saw before.

“Why haven’t I noticed this door before?” he thought to himself as he opened said door, and he was met with a staircase that led downwards. “I didn’t know we had a basement,” he thought again as he descended down the stairs. As he went down, he heard grumbling, grumbling that sounded very familiar. “Found him,” the unicorn thought.

"Lighting, what are you doing down… here…" Sketch tried to say, but he was taken aback by what he saw.

Instead of the basement that he was expecting to see, Sketch saw a room that was set up like a training area, complete with punching bags and martial arts dummies. As he expected, though, he did find Lightning, who was punching and kicking the life out of one of the dummies while he grumbled to himself. He was so wrapped up in what he was doing that he didn’t seem to notice that Sketch had entered the room. Lightning continued to thrash away at the wooden figure until one fierce kick sends its head flying off and into a pile of already destroyed practice dummies.

“You’ve got some issues, don’t you?” the unicorn asks with his trademark sarcasm. He knew that he was risking getting another knife thrown at him, but Lightning needed a reality check.

"What do you want?” he asked coldly. “And make it quick. I don't need you standing there taking up space."

“Oh, please. Don’t play the whole ‘brooding heartbroken tough guy’ game with me,” Sketch retorted. “I’m sure you can find something more productive to do than destroy dummies while moping about Pinkie.”

“I’ll do what I want.”

“’I’ll do what I want!’ Will you listen to yourself? You sound like a little foal. You really need to grow up.”

“Who are you to say anything? I’m sure your relationship with Applejack is perfect, but my relationship with Pinkie Pie is down the toilet because of some stupid misunderstanding!”

“If it’s so stupid, why don’t you try and do something about it?”

“You don’t think I tried!? Pinkie wouldn’t listen to me!”

“So you’re just gonna give up there? Some ninja you are.”

“Shut up! I don’t want to talk about it anymore!”

“Fine, but Twilight needs us over at her place.”

“No way! I’m not going there again. If I hadn’t gone there last night, none of this would have happened!”

“So now you’re gonna blame Twilight? You just can’t take responsibility, huh?” Sketch scoffed. “I can’t believe you’re being such a drama queen over Pinkie Pie. If you ask me, she’s not even worth it.”

Lightning’s ears twitched at that remark. He turned his head and looked at the unicorn with anger in his eyes. “What did you say?” he said threateningly.

“I said she’s not even worth it. You’re losing your shit over a mare that’s not even all that good looking. On top of that, she’s incredibly annoying. I don’t even know how you can stand to be around her for more than a minute. If you ask me, you’re better off without her.”

As Lightning stood there and took all the insults in, Sketch looked up to make sure the basement door was still open. He then looked back at Lightning, and the pegasus spread his wings almost instantaneously, a sign that Sketch needed to run.

And run he did. The unicorn left the basement at a running speed that almost rivaled that of Rainbow Dash. By the time he got to the front door, he heard a threatening scream come from the basement.

“I’LL KILL YOU FOR SAYING THAT, YOU LITTLE, PRICK!”

Sketch ran as fast as his legs could carry him, and he couldn’t help but chuckle. He had planned for Lightning to get this mad, and now he’s going to foolishly chase him right to Twilight’s library, where a trap was waiting for the foolish stallion. The unicorn stopped right at the front door and turned around to see that Lightning had just flown out the front door, the force of the wind shutting the door. The enraged pegasus was flying right towards Sketch, who merely smirked and opened the door behind him before stepping to one side. Waiting for Lightning was a spider web that was Sketch drew and planted in the doorway. Lightning saw the web and tried to stop, but he was flying too fast, and the web was too close for him to stop in time. The poor stallion ended up crashing into the web and tumbling into the library.

“What the hell is all this about,” he yelled. “Let me out of he-AAAAAAAAAGH!!!”

Lightning was quickly silenced by an electrical shock that coursed through the web, electrifying the pegasus into submission. After receiving the painful shock, he looked up and saw Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and to his surprise, Pinkie Pie, as well. However, she didn’t seem happy to be there. In fact, there was a magical barrier surrounding her, as if she were being held against her will. Just then, a sudden realization struck Lightning.

“Don’t tell me, this is-”

“An intervention? You catch on quick,” said Sketch. He then looked at Rainbow and Pinkie. "How were you able to wrangle her, Dash?" he asked.

The pegasus let out a sigh "Well…"

SEVERAL MINUTES EARLIER

Rainbow Dash was flying as fast as she could towards Sugarcube Corner, where her pink friend was sure to be moping in her room. When she finally reached the aforementioned bakery, she flew up to Pinkie's window and rapped her knuckles on the glass repeatedly.

"Pinkie!" she called. "Pinkie, come over here!"

The mare in question was lying on her bed, her coat, mane, and tail all in the same condition that Sketch told her it was in. "This really is serious," the pegasus said to herself.

"Leave me alone, Rainbow Dash," she said in a monotone voice, not even bothering to look at the pony she was talking to. "I want to be alone."

"But you've got to come out of there," Dash pleaded. "You can't stay cooped up in your room all day."

"And why not?" Pinkie defiantly retorted, finally looking at her flying friend.

The pegasus was put on the spot right there. She had to come up with some reason why Pinkie would leave her room, and for some reason, she was finding it difficult to find a legitimate excuse.

"Because… because…" she repeated, until she finally figured out a good alibi, her face brightening at her sudden realization. "Because Applejack broke another Pinkie Promise!"

Almost instantaneously, the pink earth pony's coat and mane brightened and returned to form, not in joy, however, but in anger.

"WHAT!!!" she shouted, her voice almost resembling that of a demon. "WHERE IS SHE!?"

"She's at Twilight's house, but she's about to leave, so we gotta hurry!" Dash said with false urgency as she resisted the urge to chuckle evilly. "Got her," she thought to herself.

"Long story short, I was able to lure Pinkie here," Rainbow Dash said as she finished her brief story.

"What's the point in all this! We don't have anything to say to each other!" Lighting yelled.

"For once I have to agree with him," Pinkie said, not even bothering to look at her ex-coltfriend, "but just because I agree with him doesn't mean I forgive him."

"But I didn't do anything to ..."

"I don't want to hear it, you liar!!!"

"ANYWAY!" Sketch interrupted, silencing the bickering couple. "Like I said, this is an intervention. Both of you have been acting really moody lately, and while I can't speak for everypony, it's really friggin' annoying!"

Lighting and Pinkie Pie looked at each other, mostly with disdain, then they looked back at Sketch.

"But we're fine!" the pink mare argued. "There's nothing going on between us."

The unicorn stallion couldn't help but smirk. "I never said there was something going on," he said as the mare's ears fell in embarrassment. "So, since neither of you are going anywhere, why don't you tell me exactly what happened, Pinkie?"

"You're listening to HER side of the story!?" Lightning said. "What the hell, man! I thought we were friends!"

"I thought the same thing when you threw a knife at me last night," Sketch bluntly retorted. "Besides, you'll get your turn, so just sit and be quiet." He then turned his attention back to Pinkie. "Go on."

"Okay, fine," the mare said. "Last night, I was going to pay Lightning a visit, but when I got to your house, nopony was home. I was about to head back home, but then I heard voices coming from here as I passed by."

Twilight started to twiddle her thumbs; she knew exactly what was coming next.

"What exactly did you hear?" Sketch asked.

"Well, Twilight was all 'Lightning, I don't know if I can-' and then Lightning was all 'Just relax, I'm right here,' and then Twilight was all 'I can't hold out. I'm gonna… I'm gonna… AAAGH!'"

Everypony stood there as they listened to Pinkie's account of what happened, all with varying degrees of shock and disbelief. Twilight was more embarrassed than anything else, having to conceal her face with her wings to avoid making eye contact with anypony. No offense to Lightning, but she never wanted to lose her virginity to him. In addition to that, she wanted to have her first time on a big, comfortable bed in a romantic setting, not in the middle of the floor like some kind of wild animal.

Sketch cleared his throat and attempted to disregard Pinkie’s rather… vivid interpretation of the events that took place that night. “Okay, well… Lightning, why don’t you tell me your side of the story?”

“Hmph,” the pegasus grunted. “Well, while you were out with Applejack last night, Twilight called and asked if-”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back it up,” Rainbow Dash interrupted. “You went out with AJ, Sketch?”

“That’s not the point, Dash,” he said, annoyed. “Continue, Lightning.”

“Right. Twilight called me and said that she needed help re-shelving because Spike had an injury, so I came over to help out. She still wasn’t used to flying yet, so I stayed on the ground to catch her if she fell. When she said ‘I’m gonna-’ she meant that she was gonna fall, and when she screamed, it was because she was falling to the ground.”

Pinkie took the stallion’s explanation in for a moment, but then she scoffed at him. “I wonder how long it took you to make that story up,” she says. “Knowing you, it probably took you all night.”

Lightning’s frustration with the mare came to an all-time high at that moment. Wasn’t Applejack supposed to be the stubborn one? It’s like Pinkie refused to believe the truth, and he had had enough of it.

“If I’m lying, then answer me this, Pinkie:” he said, raising his voice, “if Twilight and I were having sex, why were all of our clothes on when you found us on the floor!? Last time I checked, it was impossible to have sex like that! On top of that, if I didn’t care about you, I wouldn’t have chased you halfway across town to explain myself!”

Pinkie’s eyes widened, firstly because she never thought that Lightning would raise his voice to her like that. Secondly, she realized that he was right. If he really liked Twilight more than her, he wouldn’t have even cared if she hated him, and he wouldn’t have gone after her.

Seeing that the mare’s face lost its tension, Lightning figured that she got the message, and he lowered his voice. "Pinkie Pie, I would never try to hurt you,” he said, and he made sure that he was looking in her eyes before continuing. “I love you, and the last thing I’d want to do is give you a reason to doubt that.”

Sketch and Twilight looked at each other for a moment and nodded to each other. They then proceeded to break the restraints they had on their friends, Twilight releasing Pinkie from the barrier, and Sketch erasing the web that was keeping Lightning on the ground. Pinkie looked into Lightning’s eyes as a tear fell from one of hers, and she rushed over to him, wrapping him in a big hug.

“Oh, Lightning!” she said. “I’m so sorry! I shouldn’t have been so mean to you. You’re right; I should’ve known that you’d never try to hurt my feelings.”

“It’s okay Pinkie,” the pegasus said, hugging her back. “I’m just glad you believe me now.”

“Let me make it up to you,” she said, quickly regaining her cheerful personality, “Let’s go out and spend all day together! We’ll go to the movies, then go to dinner, then go walk around town, then go to another party, then-”

“That sounds great, Pinkie,” Lightning said.

“Why don’t we go now?” she asked.

“I don’t see why not,” he said, and he took the mares hand and walked out of the library with her, not even acknowledging the existence of the other ponies in the room.

“Goodbye,” Rainbow Dash said sarcastically after the newly reformed couple shut the door.

“Let them have their moment, Rainbow,” said Twilight.

“Well, thank God that’s over,” said Sketch with a heavy sigh.

“Who?” the two mares asked in confusion.

“Uh.. never mind,” he said. “Anyway, now that this whole soap opera is over, I’m going back home.”

“To do what?” Rainbow asked.

“If Lightning is gonna be out with Pinkie all day, that means I’ll have the whole house to myself! I’d be stone cold crazy to pass that up! I was planning on sleeping in today anyway, but then all this crazy drama happened. Now I really could use a rest.”

“I could use some downtime, too,” said Twilight. “I guess our trip to Canterlot yesterday took a lot out of us, huh?”

“Canterlot?” the pegasus asked. “That’s where you guys were going yesterday? What happened?”

Sketch and Twilight sighed. While they could use a rest, a few minutes of storytime wouldn’t kill them.

“Sit down, Dash,” said the stallion. “We’ll tell you all about it.”

Things On My Mind

The next day, Lightning headed off to Sweet Apple Acres, and Sketch headed off to Carousel Boutique. Sketch then remembered that Rarity had asked him to stay late at work because of increased deadlines, so now he's stuck discussing design choices with Rarity, which would've been fine if Sketch wasn't preoccupied with something that's been bothering him since he woke up.

“Okay, so for this design, I’m torn between making the sleeves stop just above the elbow, or just below,” Rarity said to Sketch.

"Well, I could bring both options to life and see which one looks better…" he said somewhat lazily, and the fashionista unicorn noticed it immediately.

"Something wrong, darling?" she asked. "You seem to be deep in thought."

"Huh?" he said, snapping out of his stupor. "Oh, no. I'm just a little out of it. You know how Mondays are."

"Oh, I see," she says. "You know, now that you've mentioned it, having you stay late on a Monday isn't such a good idea. You've already done your normal time, so if you want-"

"No, no, it's okay," the stallion said. "Don't worry about me."

In actuality, Sketch wasn't tired because it was Monday. In fact, he wasn't tired at all. Rarity was actually spot on with her first guess. He was deep in thought. Since he woke up this morning, all Sketch would think about was that dream he had two nights ago. Even if it was a dream, he had an opportunity to go home, but he didn't want to leave Applejack. Once he gave it more thought, he didn't want to leave any of the ponies he came to know in Equestria. Rarity, who'd given him a job; Twilight, who went out of her way to help him and Lightning Star learn about how they got to Equestria in the first place; he'd miss all of the new friend's he's made, and he wouldn't want to tear Lightning away from Pinkie Pie, either.

But Sketch also missed his family in the human dimension. While he didn't have nearly as many friends there, he did love his family, and he still felt some attachment to his home world. Plus, if he wanted to stay in Equestria, he'd have to tell Princess Celestia, who's been spending her time trying to find out who cast the Dimension Orb spell to take him and Lightning to this world. All that time would have gone to waste if he were to decide to stay in Equestria. Sketch just couldn't figure out whether or not he wanted to leav-

"Sketch, are you sure you're alright?" Rarity asked again. "While I do need to get these designs done, I don't want to make you feel like you're obligated to stay any longer than you need to."

"Yeah, I'm totally fine," he lied. "I was just thinking about which sleeve choice would look better. In fact, now that I think of it, I think that having the sleeves end just under the elbow would be a better option." Sketch lit up his horn and looked at the drawing Rarity made of the longer-sleeved design. In a flash, the design came to life.

“Hmm… I see what you mean, darling,” Rarity said. “You really have an eye for these things. Now let’s experiment with some color choices!”

“Sure, Rarity,” Sketch said unenthusiastically.

“You alright up there, sugarcube?”

“Huh? Oh yeah, I’m fine, Applejack.”

“You sure, Lightnin’? You seem a little tuckered out. Ya know, you’ve been here longer than usual. Ah know the family an’ I could use some help gettin’ some more apples down fer the upcomin’ cider season, but Ah don’t want ya t’ feel like ya have t’ be here.”

“No, no, it’s fine, AJ. I want to be here.”

“If ya say so, but yer welcome t' leave whenever you like…”

"Don't worry. Like I said, I'm fine."

Despite what he said, Lightning was a little less than "fine". He was having a dilemma similar to Sketch's. While he was less anxious about going back to his universe when he and Sketch first came to this one, lately he's been thinking about the big picture. There was a possibility that Princess Celestia would be unable to figure out who sent them to this dimension, and while he was ready to accept that, he was worried that Sketch wouldn't be. Plus, if Celestia did figure it out and found a way to get them both back home, would he really want to leave? He was sure that Sketch would jump at the opportunity despite the friends he's made here, but Lightning was also sure that the decision wouldn't be as easy for him. Back home, all they had was each other, and they didn't really have much going for them, but in this world the possibilities were near endless. They could do things here that they never would have even dreamed of doing in their home world, and they had goals that they could work towards. Sure, there was the option of him staying and Sketch leaving, but despite his love for Equestria, the last thing Lightning wanted was to be separated from his best friend.

Then there was Pinkie Pie. Lightning just got over a hurdle in his relationship with her, and the last thing he needed was to add more strain. He imagined how he would feel in her position. Having the pony you're dating tell you that they're from another world and that they have to go back? That's one long-distance relationship that would never work out. Lightning shook his head. If he planned on staying at Sweet Apple Acres until seven in the evening, he needed to focus on the task at hand.

At five-thirty, Sketch left the Carousel Boutique to go home. “Goodbye, darling! Thanks for all your help!” Rarity called out as he left.

“No problem, Rarity.” he said back, wanting nothing more than to go home and relax. “I need something to get my mind off that stupid dream,” he thought to himself as he entered his house. He looked around the living room, his eyes finally focusing on his video games. “That should do it.” Sketch popped in a fighting game, the same one he was playing two days ago, and powered on the TV before plopping on the couch and finding a comfortable position.

“Maybe another King of the Hill match will entertain me,” he said before powering on his microphone. He searched for a quick match and was randomly put in a room with other players. As fate would have it, a familiar friend was in that very room, and that friend was the current King.

“Nopony can defeat Midnight Mistress!” the pony boasted. Several players that were beaten had left the room, fed up with losing countless times. Sketch, however, was willing to step up. He heard Luna chuckle as she accepted his challenge. “I was wondering when you’d be online. I’ve been awaiting this bout since you postponed our last one two days ago.”

“Work was late today,” he replied. “But enough of that, let’s play.”

“I like the sound of that, friend,” she said as the game started. The minute the game announcer yelled “FIGHT!” the two ponies went at it, both proving to be a match for the other. There were random comments from other players like “Wow!” or “Look at ‘em go!” or “Who do you think’s gonna win?” Sketch and Luna were so evenly matched that the timer ran out before either of them could lose all of their health. All eyes were on the health bars, and by a fraction of a centimeter…

“I lost!? But how!?” Luna yelled into her mic as the announcer declared the winner.

“THE WINNER IS GR@PHIK_002!” it said, and all the spectating players gasped into their mics.

“Good game, Mistress,” Sketch said.

The princess gave a conceding sigh. “Good game, indeed.”

Just then, one player said. “Wait, if this guy beat Midnight Mistress, there’s no way any of us can beat him!” Almost instantly, all the other players left the room, leaving Sketch and Luna alone.

“Spoilsports,” the princess remarked. “Well, would you like to leave and just have a private chat?”

“Sounds good,” the unicorn replied, albeit a little unenthusiastically. Luna picked up on it almost immediately.

“Is there something wrong, friend?” she asked.

“It’s nothing,” he denied.

“It’s about the dream you had two nights ago, isn’t it?” the princess asked, catching Sketch off- guard.

“Wha-? How did you know?” he asked in shock.

“Sometimes dreams can have a psychological effect on the pony that has them,” Luna explained. “Care to talk about it?”

“No, it’s fine, Princess Luna,” the stallion said. “I wouldn’t want to bother you with my problems.”

“Nonsense! As Princess of the Night, it is my duty to help my subjects with problems brought about by their dreams,” she insisted, “and there’s no need to be formal with me. I consider you my friend, so just ‘Luna’ is fine.”

“Well, if you insist…” Sketch said with a sigh, “I don’t know if I want to stay in Equestria or not. I miss my family back in my dimension, but I really like the ponies I’ve met here, plus there’s Applejack… I really like her and I know she likes me back, so I don’t want to break her heart by just leaving.”

“I see. Go on,” Luna said, sensing that there was more on Sketch’s mind.

“I know Lightning loves it here, and I don’t want to force him to go with me back to our own world, especially since he’s got a marefriend… And then there’s your sister…”

“Celestia?” Luna asks in disbelief. “What about her?”

“She said she’d help to find out who cast the spell to take us to this world,” the unicorn explained. “If I decided to stay, all the time she put into helping me and Lightning would go to waste.”

“My sister is an understanding mare, Sketch,” the Princess of the Night assured.
“I’m sure that she wouldn’t be mad at you if you decide to stay. Also, if Applejack really loves you, she’ll understand as well. As for Lightning, you two are the best of friends, so I’m sure that he’ll understand if you want to go.”

Sketch stayed silent and thought for a moment before Luna chimed in again. “I’m not saying that you have to leave, however, for it’s not my decision to make. I am just saying that you should do what’s best for yourself. Just take some time to think about it, and you should come to a decision.”

“Thanks, Luna,” Sketch said.

“My pleasure, friend,” Luna replied. “Same time tomorrow?”

“Definitely,” said the stallion.

Once the two ponies said their goodbyes, Sketch powered off the game system and started to head off to the kitchen and get something to snack on. Deciding on a bag of pretzels, the unicorn went up to his room and got to drawing, as usual. After about an hour, Lightning Star arrived home and made his way upstairs.

“Hey, Sketch…” he said.

“Hey, Lightning. You sound tired,” the unicorn said back.

“Nah, I just have some stuff on my mind.”

“You and me both, man.”

“Really? Like what?” the pegasus asked as he took a seat at the kitchen table.

Sketch sighed. Was he really about to tell the same story twice? On a whim, he decided to give Lightning the short version. “Well, I’m starting to feel really unsure of whether or not I want to go home because of all the friends I made here, but I don’t want all the time Princess Celestia’s put into helping us get home to waste. I also don’t want to separate you from Pinkie Pie, either.”

Lightning’s eyes widened in surprise. “That’s almost exactly what was on my mind,” he said.

“Really?” asked Sketch.

“Yeah,” Lightning said, “only I didn’t want you to feel like you had to stay here just because I want to, and I don’t want Celestia’s time to go to waste either.”

“Well, Luna told me that Celestia wouldn’t be mad at us if we decided to stay,” the unicorn explained. “She also said that I should only think about my happiness.”

“That’s some pretty sound advice,” Lightning says. “So, is the answer any clearer to you?”

Sketch sat silently in thought as Lightning sat patiently waiting for a response. The unicorn thought about the consequences of both staying in this universe and going back to his own, and then it dawned on him. Earlier, when he explained the multiverse theory to Lightning, he said that technically nothing bad happened to them, only that their minds were now aware of their lives in this universe. With that being the case, then that meant that he and Lightning never really left their own universe, so remaining in this one wouldn’t cause any repercussions. On top of that, if he Lightning exist in this universe, then their families must exist here as well!

With these realizations in mind, Sketch came to a decision. He raised his head to Lightning and said with a smile:

“I’m staying.”

Confession

“Really, Sketch?” asked Lightning Star. “You sure?”

“I’m sure,” he answered. “I’m definitely staying.”

“Not that I’m disappointed, but what made you decide not to leave?”

“Well, remember when we first got here, I told you that this is a parallel universe, and that our minds are-”

“Short version, please!” the Pegasus interrupted, not wanting his brain to be overloaded by another lecture on parallel universes.

“Okay, well if we exist in this world, then our families must exist here, too, so there’s no reason for us to leave!” Sketch said as if he was the first stallion to discover fire.

“Whoa…” Lightning said as his friend’s realization finally clicked in his head. “Leave it to you to think of that, but I’m glad you did.”

“Thanks, but there’s something else I’ve been thinking about, too,” said the unicorn.

“Like what?”

“While we obviously need to tell Celestia that we’ve decided to stay… we also need to tell the others that we’re not from here.”

Lightning’s ears twitched at this. “What!? Why would we need to do that!?”

“They’re our friends, Lightning.” said Sketch “We shouldn’t keep secrets from them. Don’t forget that Twilight already knows, and it wouldn’t be fair to have her keep this from her best friends. Besides, I don’t think they’ll think any differently of us.”
The pegasus sighed. “If you say so, Sketch…” he said. “So, when should we tell them?”

“I was thinking tonight,” the unicorn answered. “The sooner, the better.”

“In that case, I’ll call Twi,” said Lightning.

“Spike, could you get the door?” Twilight asked her assistant as she shelved a book.

“Sure thing, Twilight,” he said eagerly as he jogged towards the library’s front door. “Hey, Sketch. Hey, Lightning,” he said as he saw who was at the door. “Twilight told me that she was expecting you.”

“She did, did she?” asked Lightning.

“Yes,” Twilight answered. “You sounded serious on the phone earlier,”

“Well, this is pretty serious,” said Sketch.

“In that case, take a seat,” said the princess as the two stallions complied with her request. “Would you two like some tea?” she asked.

“No thanks,” the two stallions said.

“Okay then. So, what did you guys want to talk to me about?”

“Well, there are two things we need to tell you,” said the unicorn. “Firstly… we’ve decided to stay here in Equestria, and we plan on telling Princess Celestia as well.”

“Really,” the alicorn asked in disbelief. “That’s great to hear!” She clapped her hands together in excitement, but that excitement quickly faded as she saw the worried expression on her friends’ faces. “What’s wrong?” she asked, unaware of what they were about to tell her.

“Well, there’s something else,” said Lightning. “We plan on telling the others, too.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Well, firstly, we don’t think it’s fair for us to have you keep this secret form your closest friends,” Sketch explained. “Secondly, we think they deserve to know. They’ve helped us to get used to life here, and we wouldn’t even want to stay here if it wasn’t for them.”

“Well, when you put it that way, it makes sense,” Twilight admitted. “So I’m guessing you want to tell them tonight.”

“If it’s possible,” said Lightning.

“Well, I’ll contact them and get them all here,” she offered.

“You don’t need to do that,” he said.

“I know. I want to,” she insisted. “It’s the least I could do. Besides, you two could use some time to… prepare for what you’re about to tell them.”

“Thanks, Twilight,” said Sketch. “Maybe we could use a sip of tea.”

“Everypony’s here, guys,” Twilight said to Lightning and Sketch, who were sitting in her guest room while they waited for everypony to arrive.

“Thanks, Twilight,” said the unicorn. “We’ll be down in a second.”

The princess nodded her head as she left the room and headed downstairs where her friends were waiting.

“Well, it’s now or never, buddy,” said Lightning.

“I know,” said Sketch. “I know I said that they wouldn’t take it too badly, but now I’m not so sure.”

“Well, there’s no turning back now,” said the pegasus. “Let’s just hope that you were right.”

Meanwhile, down on the ground floor of the library, Twilight’s friends were wondering what Sketch and Lightning had to tell them.

“They’ll be down in a second, girls,” said Twilight.

“Ah wonder what they wanna tell us,” Applejack thought out loud.

“Well, it must be important if they insisted on telling us tonight…” Fluttershy said.

“Which only begs the question of what they want to tell us even more,” Rarity added.

“Anypony want to take a guess at what it is?” Spike asked, trying to lighten the mood.

“Oh! Here they come now!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she spotted the two stallions coming down the stairs.

“Goodnight everypony,” said Sketch as he and Lightning reached the foot of the staircase. “Thanks for coming on such short notice.”

“No sweat, guys!” Rainbow Dash said, waving a hand. “We’re your friends. It’s only natural that we’d want to come.”

“Thanks, Dash. That should make what we’re about to tell you a lot easier,” Lightning said with a pause. “This may sound really crazy, but just bear with us.” He then looked at Sketch, not wanting to be the one to drop the bomb on everypony. Sketch was okay with it, though. He was prepared for this, at least somewhat…

“We have a secret that we’ve been keeping from you, and we feel that you all deserve to know,” he said before taking a deep breath. “Lightning and I… aren’t from Equestria. In fact, we’re not even from this universe.”

All the ponies, plus Spike, had varying looks on their faces. Some were of shock, others were of disbelief. The only one in the room that had a neutral reaction was Twilight, since she already knew this.

“Now, before you start assuming that we’re crazy, hear us out,” Lightning said before anypony could get a word in. “We really are telling the truth. We were pulled into this world by an ancient spell known as the Dimension Orb. Twilight helped us find out about the spell.”

“In fact, the reason why the three of us went to Canterlot the other day was so we could learn more about the spell. Even the royal sisters know about this, and Celestia’s been trying to find a way to figure out how to get us home as well as who cast the spell in the first place.”

“Wait, Twilight knew!?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you guys, but I felt like this had to be kept a secret,” the young princess said apologetically.

“We’re not mad at you, darling. We’re just surprised that you knew,” Rarity said.

“We don’t blame you for keeping a secret,” Fluttershy assured.

“But wait, if y’all ain’t from here, how were y’all able to get used to life here so fast?” Applejack asked.

The two stallions weren’t expecting this, and Lightning turned to Sketch yet again. “Well, in our world, Equestria exists in fiction, so we were already familiar with it before we got here.”

“So those stories about how you got your cutie marks weren’t true?” Spike asked.

“We thought they weren’t, but we found out that they were true the next day when we got letters from the ponies we mentioned in our stories,” Lightning explained.

“But wait, you said that Princess Celestia’s been trying to find a way to get you home,” Pinkie Pie said. “Does that mean that… you guys are leaving?”

All the ponies and Spike pause at this realization, the possibility of their new friends wanting to leave going completely over their heads. Looks of sadness grew on their faces, especially on Pinkie and Applejack’s.

“We thought about it,” Sketch said with a sigh, “and we did want to leave at first, but after we got used to living here and got to know you all better… we’ve decided to stay.”
Cheers started to fill the room, and Sketch and Lightning were relieved that this all went well. Applejack and Pinkie Pie got up and hugged the two stallions, and that quickly escalated into a group hug.

“So what now?” Spike asks.

“Well, first off, we need to tell Celestia that we’ve decided to stay,” Lightning said.

“Well, that’s easy enough,” said Twilight. “Spike, take a letter.”

“Actually, Twilight,” Sketch interrupted. “We’d rather tell the princess in person. Can we request an audience with her?”

“That can be arranged,” she said as she found and audience request form as had Spike fill it out. With the form completed and proofread, Spike burned the letter with his magical dragon breath and sent it off to Princess Celestia.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think that you’ll get a fast reply,” the alicorn said wistfully. “Princess Celestia gets one or two audience requests every day, so her schedule might be ful-”

Just then, a knock on the door interrupted Twilight’s sentence. She walked up to the door, wondering who was there. The library was closed for the day, and she wasn’t expecting anypony else over.

“Good evening, may I… help… you…?”

“Who is it Twilight?” Spike asked from inside.

“P-p-p-p-…” the young mare stuttered.

“Goodness, Twilight,” said the pony at the door. “You’d think that you’d be comfortable having me over after all these years.”

Recognizing the voice, everypony rushed to the door to confirm their suspicion.

“PRINCESS CELESTIA!?” they all said in shock.

“Were you all not expecting me?” she asked casually.

“Well, no…” said Twilight, who finally recovered from her stupor.

“May I come in?” Celestia politely asked.

“Oh! Of course!” the younger alicorn said as everypony scrambled out of the doorway to let Celestia in. With everypony settled in the room, Celestia cleared her throat and began to speak.

“So, I received an audience request form from Sketch and Lightning Star, and I decided to come see you in person because I had a feeling that this was important,” she explained, then she turned her attention to the two stallions. “Well, what would you like to tell me?”

Once again, Lightning looked at Sketch, and the latter rolled his eyes. While he usually doesn’t mind doing the talking, sometimes he’d like somepony else to do it. He sighed, and then he looked up at the princess, who was a whole head and a half taller than him, and began to explain. “You see, Princess, Lightning and I are very grateful for all you’ve done to help us find out who brought us here, but…”

“But…?”

“We’ve decided that we’d like to stay here in this world,” he finally said. “We’re sorry if we wasted any of your time.”

Thankfully, Princess Celestia didn’t look upset. In fact, she even chuckled to herself. “It’s quite alright, young stallion. You haven’t wasted my time at all. I already knew who cast the Dimension Orb spell.”

Everypony’s eyes widened. “You did?” they all said in surprise.

“Of course I did, my little ponies,” she said. “It’d be pretty silly of me if I didn’t know that I cast the spell.”

“WHAT!?”

The princess of the sun merely chuckled again. “Allow me to explain,” she said. “For the past several months, I’ve been doing research on parallel universes, and with my recent mastery of the Dimension Orb spell, I wanted to see if beings from a parallel universe could adapt to living in this one. Luckily, I was able to find a universe where Equestria was a fictional place, so I picked to pull beings from there. I planned on letting you go home once my little experiment was complete, but since you’ve decided to stay, there’s no need for that.”

“Wait, so you just chose two random people to bring here so you could see how quickly we would adapt?” Lightning asked.

“Yes,” she answered.

“So we were just your guinea pigs?” Sketch asked.

“If you want to put it that way,” she shrugged.

“And here I thought that all the talk about Celestia being a troll was bullshit,” thought Sketch.

“In all seriousness, though, I’m glad you’ve decided to stay here,” the princess smiled.

“Well, thanks for bringing us here, Princess,” Lightning said gratefully.

“My pleasure,”

“You know what this calls for?” Pinkie Pie asks out of nowhere.

“What?” everypony asks.

The mare simply pulls a cannon out of practically nowhere and says “A PARTY!!!!”

Epilogue

It’s been three months since Sketch and Lightning Star decided to stay in Equestria, and the both of them have become quite content with their new lives.

After Pinkie Pie’s impromptu celebration, the two stallions decided to test Sketch’s theory of their families existing in Equestria by visiting Baltimare, their supposed hometown from their cutie mark stories. Sure enough, they were recognized by some of the ponies there, and they were happy to direct the stallions to where their parents lived. After a heartwarming reconnection, Sketch and Lightning have been keeping in touch with their families.

Sketch continued to work for Rarity as her design consultant, and they were eventually invited to a Canterlot fashion show to showcase Rarity’s new collection. As a show of gratitude for Sketch’s assistance, Rarity introduced him to one of her Canterlot colleagues, who had connections with one of the major publishers in Equestria. After some calls and meetings, Sketch was finally able to get a comic book series, and he’s making a more than decent living. He still assists Rarity with her designs every now and then, and he maintains contact with his gamer friend, Princess Luna. Sketch’s relationship with Applejack is still going strong. He is also preparing for an appearance at the Manehattan Comic Convention with his mentor, Final Draft.

Lightning Star eventually earned enough money to open his own dojo in Ponyville. Many young colts, and even some fillies, look forward to his after-school martial arts lessons. His old teacher even offered to make an appearance, and he reminded the young stallion that he still had much to learn. He has maintained a healthy relationship with Pinkie Pie, and they haven’t fought once since their first big argument.

While the two stallions have accomplished different things in their lives, they still live together in Ponyville, right next door to their good friend, Twilight Sparkle. While living in a new world had its challenges, both Lightning and Sketch feel that it was worth it. In fact, they believe that being brought to this new world was the best thing that’s ever happened to them.