"You sure it's safe?" Bon Bon asked, leaning over a clay bowl in which something shimmering like mercury and changing color every second like petrol spot in a puddle was bubbling.

"Oh, that's not more dangerous than mixing the ingredients for your sweeties", Vinyl Scratch replied - it was she who was holding this very bowl in the air, not using her hands. This was a rare case of her using her magic not for controlling her DJ attributes like music plants, loudspeakers, etc. It all had begun with Octavia's research with a prodigious theme related to the theory of probability, physics, space geography (or what it was called?) and magic equally. And this together with the fact that Octavia was an ordinary girl without wings or "the wizard's bump", so she needed help to accomplish tasks connected with magic. No one from their acquaintances had a telescope, so they had had to use another way, found by Lyra, another mage apart from Vinyl in their gang. This was was creating something like a liquid mirror which could show any place. Better than any telescope! But creating it also required magic, and right now all group was taking part.

"No-no-no, don't lower it too much!" Octavia, who was leading the process (she was the only one who had had enough patience to learn the recipe by heart with all details), called Vinyl right on time - the liquid in the bowl suddenly boiled fiercer like over-heated milk and nearly flowed over the old crucible on which it was warmed up. You're not going to prepare a magic potion (actually that was it) on a cooker! Such things didn't like interruptions, and vice versa.

All five girls were in the garage next to Lyra's house - they all were curious what was going to take place eventually. Finally Octavia gestured to stop the process, and Vinyl placed the bowl on an old bed-table. The liquid was moving for some more seconds and then calmed down, having created a mirror surface.

"Let's try it out", Derpy offered. "Show us..."

"Not so fast, Derpy", Vinyl grinned. "Everybody knows what you wanna see. I'll do it better. Show me..."

"This also refers to you!" Lyra interfered. "Let's do like this. If there's another world, like ours - show it!"

The elixir wobbled, and an image appeared on its surface, like on a mini TV screen - it was an urban landscape. To put it easy, the reflection of a very very huge megalopolis. Then the image became "closer", so now people, cars and other details were seen.

"Did it work, girls?" Bon Bon lightly blew on the bowl, and the "reflection" moved. "Cool. But... Lyra, why did you ask for this?"

"She's crazy about parallel worlds", Vinyl inserted before Lyra could have opened her mouth. "But I don't think it's so parallel".

"I do". Octavia, as usually, was the first who noticed even more details: the people on the streets had no tails, and all "ordinary", no wings or magic. "Do you think it worked twice? The potion's prepared, and Lyra's right too... Thanks, girls. You're the best!"

"Hoop-la, Derpy! Where are you going?"

Thanks so much, Vinyl, Derpy thought. As soon as she decided to go and tell everyone who knew about this about the success, Vinyl started to ask questions... Maybe she shouldn't have gone? Because Derpy turned around, and her tail was already in the bowl with the mixture. Clumsiness refers to all parts of the body...

The mirror liquid suddenly bubbled again and formed a giant wave - or a hand which lost no time in pulling Derpy into a whirlwind of colors and shadows. At least she thought so - the rest saw something silver twirling and then gone with their friend.


Smells! - Derpy thought, sitting up - she was so dizzy that her crossed eyes must have turned to normal and back a hundred times - and almost immediately smashed into something firm with the top of her head. The ceiling? It can't be a all so low! This appeared to be the table's top. This time acting more careful, Derpy crawled from under the table and looked around. It looked like a kitchen which needed to be ventilated. I shouldn't have hurried, Derpy thought and twisted to glance at her tail which now had silver tip apart from its natural blond shade...

"Who's there?"

Derpy dived under the table again - how could she know there was anyone else apart from her here? She wasn't expecting for this at all... A second later a rough fist grabbed her wrist and pulled out to the light.

"Who are you? How did you get here?!"

Derpy would have answered if her tongue didn't get wooden with fear - you shouldn't argue with such giants if you're not one of them. What to say about a teenage girl! And it was clear that the host - whoever else could that be? - didn't have any tail, like the people from the liquid "mirror".
"Where were you hiding all the time?" the host hissed, not letting her go. "You showed yourself, so confess! You didn't appear out of thin air! I'm fed up with freaky friends who don't let my children grow up normally!"

"I... I am not..." Derpy mumbled, but the host's attention was now attracted to her wings sticking out of holes on her shirt:

"What? You think you're still a child?.. Fine. You'll stay here and I will make you a..."

It remained unclear whom her was going to make out of Derpy: the wild yell of pain sounded instead. Derpy recalled that one of her good friend's, Time Turner's, numerous brothers, Dandy Turner, had attempted to teach her how to defend herself. And it hadn't been for nothing - after Derpy slammed the giant in his nose with her forehead as strongly as she could (without thinking about consequences), her hands were free from the grasp. The girl dashed to the window, and her heart bounced to her throat - this kitchen was on twelfth floor, if not higher. Okay, she's going to jump, no more ways... What did Time teach me?.. - Derpy thought, hastily tugging to window handle.

The theory had to be declined when the windowsill was gone from under Derpy's feet. Deep inhale, quick exhale, more, more... Yes! Derpy's wings unfurled, having become about four times larger than in usual state, and at the height of the second floor she dashed up, flying from side to side between the buildings on insane speed (damned inertia!) before crash-landing in a sub-street behind the rubbish bins. It was better to get there than to that host...

Or it wasn't.

"Where's she?"

"Did you see that?"

"What?"

"Didn't you notice? A flying girl! She whizzed over the street and was gone!"

Derpy bit her lip not to freak out - she could, because she was more than scared.

"Yes, this is it!"

More voices telling different things but with the same sense... What should she do? Stay here? They will find her in a moment. Such landing effect is enough to wake all neighborhood. Should she fly away? Where to? She could be noticed from anywhere. If only... No. Derpy still couldn't fly well enough to reach the roof of the tallest building, and this was going to take time, because she was in the megalopolis which she had seen in the "mirror"... and it was senseless...

"Derpy Hooves?"

Derpy bounced with alert, but two alien hands didn't let her put everyone on alert again, having held her still.

"Hush, be quiet". A young man was now near her. Despite his being dressed in an old denim suit, his appearance was as if he had come out of a Victorian history textbook: chin-length auburn curls, bright blue eyes, thin lines and in all some... nobility was present in him, if so. "You're Derpy Hooves, aren't you?"

Derpy nodded, a slight squeak escaping her mouth.

"Stay calm. My name is Victorian Turner".

"P-prove, c-can you?.." This wasn't very convincing, but gave a result: her unexpected "opponent" moved his hand over his hair, showing his "mage's bump" in the middle of his forehead and activating it immediately - the apple core which had stuck to Derpy's shirt unattached itself on its own and fell into the closest bin. The "light effect" accompanying it appeared to be emerald green.

"I don't know what else to do". Victorian did a little twirl, showing that he also had a tail, as curly as his hair. "Enough?"

Derpy nodded.

"Your friends told Time what had happened, and he asked me to find you", Victorian informed. "Don't worry. I'm the main specialist in strange worlds among us..."

Time... He's looking for me, he didn't forget... - it flashed in Derpy's head, but went out as soon as the smell of rubbish struck her nose again.

"Y-you've been here?" she asked, attempting to cope with her clattering teeth.

"More than once. I know everything here... You're smart because you didn't clean your tail. The remains of your potion will help to get you back... that's the point, really: going from one world to another is a delicate matter, up to personal interference. To put it easy, your print is needed... Time's gonna come soon. It's not going to work without him".

"There she is!"

These words thrown by some almost random passer-by worked like an alarm: the whose sub-street suddenly was crowded with people eager to see something incredible for them. But Victorian didn't seem to give a damn about such mob - he got forward from behind the garbage bins, having stood between Derpy and the crowd:

"Anything wrong? Listen up, go away in peace. Can't you see she's horrified?"

"Move, freak!" someone from the mob shouted. "Don't protect an alien!"

"YES!" many voices yelled. "She's alien and dangerous!"

Victorian threw his head back and laughed like mad:

"Oh, really?! Then I am armed and dangerous!"

The words quickly gained a proof: all bins flew up at once and rumbled like hundreds of iron barrels falling from the tallest skyscrapers. And the "starter" didn't lose time: two second later Derpy realized she was flying, but not at her will - Victorian flew up, clutching her so that she couldn't fall out of his grasp. He must be a very powerful mage, Derpy though: she has seen Lyra's trials to learn to fly using her magic to make her body soar, but she had briskly surrendered. This was loads more difficult than making stubborn wings unfurl.

It seemed to Derpy that she had blacked out before Victorian let her go. They appeared in a dim windowless space full of bookshelves which didn't have an opportunity to get even one more book put on them. A mini library. But that was not the matter - the main thing was the one waiting for them.

"Derpy? Are you okay?"

"Time!" Derpy squeaked with delight that she saw someone familiar. In a moment Time Turner was drawn in her hug. "Goodness, I'm happy!"

"Am I not?" Time pronounced, getting out of her embrace. "I was afraid they were going to run experiments on you! It's great that your friends told me everything... Hush, hush, it's fine..." Having recalled Dandy's advice on what was the easiest way to calm a girl down, he obeyed it and kissed Derpy on the cheek, which made her stop. "We gotta wait. Victorian's gonna make a way out".

"Don't butter me up, bro. You both are gonna help me".

No, some things don't change, Derpy thought.