WHOA! An update already? But it's only been two days!

That's right, readers! I was suddenly struck by inspiration! I can honestly say that I'm very excited for this story to continue now, and I just couldn't wait to keep writing! And get this, the chapter is longer, too! I do see every day updates coming back soon :D

Thank you shout out to Solar-Paladin-Kuro! If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be this eager to continue.
Here's chapter 10!

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC! The only characters I own in this story are Olivia, Sadie, Tara, and the boys.

"Um… it's a rock, Tara," Sadie giggled nervously

She tried to hide her worry as Tara held up the golden teleportation stone in front of her. If Tara had actually found out what that thing did, Olivia's life in Equestria could be over.

"Then why was it buzzing?" Tara accused.

Sadie froze and her eyes widened, "B-buzzing? Tara I think you might be hearing things. Rocks don't-," Sadie was interrupted by a loud buzzing noise. She looked up to see the stone in Tara's hand turning a reddish color as it began to vibrate.

"You were saying?" Tara asked with a smug but unimpressed expression.

"I… uh…," Sadie had no idea what to say. Not only was she frazzled because Tara now had her cornered, but the ponies must've been calling her for a reason. There could be an emergency. She stared blankly into Tara's eyes.

"Sadie, what's going on?" Tara demanded, "First you lie about Olivia being on vacation, and now this thing? Sadie what do you know that I don't?"

"Tara it's-," Sadie tried to explain.

"No. Don't even start saying 'it's hard to explain' or 'it's really Olivia's business to tell' because Sadie, I've heard it all before. And if this WAS only Olivia's business to tell, then why do all paths lead back to you?"

Sadie was speechless. She had no idea what to even think anymore. If she did tell Sadie, what would happen to Olivia? Could Tara keep the secret? And if she didn't tell Tara, what was going to happen? Would Tara just leave? Would she never speak to her again? Would she be angry at both her and Olivia?

"I'm waiting, Sadie," Tara said impatiently.

Sadie had to make a decision soon before one was made for her. Did she want to tell Tara? Was it okay to tell Tara? She had absolutely no idea. What she needed was more time to think about all of this. She needed enough time to ask Olivia what she thought, and also the ponies. All she needed was more time.

"Fine," Sadie sighed, "I'll tell you everything."

Tara smiled. It had been a lot easier that she had originally thought, but she managed to do it. She was finally going to hear what she needed to hear. She hated being left out of something, and this secret was really getting on her nerves.

"But you have to wait until tomorrow night," Sadie informed.

"What? But why?" Tara asked angrily.

"Because it's not the kind of thing I can just tell you and you'll believe me," Sadie said in almost a whisper, "I have to show you. And I can't do that right now."

Tara seemed to think over this for a few minutes, and then finally agreed, "Fine. Show me tomorrow night, no later. And you can forget about suddenly changing your mind, because you're not getting out of this one."

With that, Tara exited the room, leaving Sadie with a ton on her mind to deal with. Would it be okay to just tell Tara? She needed to ask the ponies about this and Olivia too. Also, if she was going to tell Tara, she'd need to find a way to do it without freaking her out. But how do you find a subtle way to tell someone that her friend lives in a world full of colorful ponies?

She fell back onto her bed and rested her head in her hands. At least she had bought herself a little more time. That was what she needed most, after all. All she had to do was go into Equestria and—

She froze mid-thought. The ponies had been calling her, and as it seemed, more than once. Something was definitely amiss. Her mind was instantly set from one worry to another as she grabbed her teleportation stone and instantly went to Equestria.

"Thanks, Mom," Olivia said weakly as Applejack lifted her onto her bed.

Applejack's face was flooded with concern for the young girl before her. The doctors said that she would be a little weak from pain medication, but this was just ridiculous. When she looked into Olivia's eyes, they were an off shade of grey, something she had never seen before. Sadness was a grey-blue color, but nothing like this. This grey was much too dark and dull to be even compared to the at least bright color that was sadness.

"Olivia," Applejack whispered in a concerned tone, "Has somethin' been botherin' you? You don't look quite right."

Olivia sported a nervous glance to her window, which overlooked the path into Ponyville, and then back to Applejack, "No… no I've been okay. Just really tired lately…"

Applejack didn't buy it for one second, but nodded all the same, "Well, if you do need anythin', I'm right here for ya, just like I've always been."

"Thanks Mom," Olivia said, a small but weak smile forming on her lips.

With that, Applejack left the room, leaving Olivia to sit alone in her thoughts.

It wasn't much of an improvement. She had left Rarity's mostly because she was lonely; not allowed to step outside of the empty boutique. Being alone for all that time got her to thinking, and she suddenly remembered those stares. Those ponies, staring holes into her as she was dragged back to Rarity's through magic.

What had suddenly made them look at her like that? They had never acted like this before, had they? Now that she thought about it, she never paid much attention to the ponies around her as she walked through town. Had it always been this way? But why?

She looked down at her hands with a disappointed frown. She was a human, that's why. She was different. She didn't have hooves, she didn't have fur, and she didn't have wings or a horn. She was nothing like the ponies of Equestria. Not at all. Of course those other ponies looked at her strangely, she was nothing but an animal to them.

But that wasn't the nature of ponies, was it? They weren't like humans. They didn't look down upon others for their differences, no, they were too good natured to do that. But then again…

'BLANK FLANK!'

The words of Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara echoed in her mind. She gritted her teeth, she hated those ponies so much. Ever since that day, that day long ago when she had first arrived in Ponyville, when she had first met those two spoiled ponies.

She remembered that day very well, even though everypony else suspected that she had forgotten after her outburst. But she remembered it quite clearly. She stood between the two and her friends, defending the three fillies with all that she could. They couldn't help that they didn't have their cutie marks yet. It wasn't their fault they were different.

It wasn't her fault she was different.

But the way they were staring at her. Those burning, piercing stares. It still made her stomach churn just imagining them. At first, they had only bugged her for a moment, but as she thought about it more and more, they continued to get to her. The stares seemingly got darker and more powerful. They were more powerful than her. They were better than her. She would never be like them. She was different.

She shook her head. This all felt like a big nightmare. Ever since she broke her side of the deal, her life had been spiraling out of her hands. Not only have the events changed, though. Personalities have changed as well.

Applejack was a lot quieter, and a lot more sincere than normal. She became a lot more gentle when she talked to Olivia; careful to watch what she said. Nopony said it was a bad thing, but it was different. This wasn't the strong willed pony she was used to.

Then there was Rarity. Olivia had no idea what had gotten into that pony. It was like all of a sudden, all the dangers of Equestria had become ten times more dangerous. She was more protective than she had ever been before. All of a sudden, it was always 'you just got out of the hospital' to anything Olivia tried to do. Rarity had changed a lot recently, and Olivia wasn't sure if she liked it or not.

She needed somepony to go to, anypony. But the way Applejack was acting, it didn't seem like she was going to be much help, and the others were all usually too busy to talk much. Sure, if there was a serious problem, they would gladly drop their work. But what was she going to say? That ponies had been staring at her strangely? She had already tried telling Rarity, and she just shrugged it off like Olivia was just imagining things.

Olivia sighed; there was no use in telling anypony. She just had to work through things herself. But this wasn't something she could just get over, was it? She had been driving herself insane thinking about it. She stared out the window at the path leading to Ponyville. There was one thing she was sure about: she never wanted to see those stares again.

Applejack walked slowly down the stairs back to where her friends were. She couldn't stop thinking about that strange color in Olivia's eyes. She had thought she'd seen every color Olivia's eyes allowed, but that color was just… odd.

What could it have meant? It wasn't scared, or sad, or nervous, those were all different shades of blue. This wasn't a shade of blue at all, it was just grey. And that was another thing. All the colors she had seen so far were very bright and vibrant. Even the color of sadness was at least a little bit vibrant. This was just plain, dull grey.

Olivia was beginning to really worry her. Ever since she got out of the hospital, she was acting a lot stranger than normal. She was always jumpy, and didn't talk as much. It seemed like every little sudden movement would scare her. She was acting as if she was seven years old again.

When Applejack reached the bottom of the stairs, everypony was staring at her with concerned expressions.

"What did Olivia say?" Pinkie spoke up first.

Applejack looked down at the ground, "She didn't say all that much. Even when I asked her if she was alright, she just stared out the window."

"Well, I have to admit, I wasn't sure about this whole 'acting weird' thing," Rainbow Dash admitted, "But the way she looked just now…"

Nopony really knew how to describe it. Most ponies would say that she just looked tired, but they knew better than that. She looked as if she had just been fighting, but without the injuries save the scar on her cheek from before the hospital.

Just then, a strange buzzing sound came from the center of the room. Everypony backed away as they saw a blinding, bluish light appear from thin air. The light began to move and form a shape and a rather odd shape at that. It was about five and a half feet tall, skinny, and a familiar looking ponytail hanging off the back.

"Now look who decided to show up," Rainbow Dash grumbled as the light dissolved revealing a rather panicked looking teenager.

"I'm so sorry," Sadie began, "It wasn't my fault, see, cuz Tara was in my room and—,"

"Settle down, sugar cube. It's alright," Applejack assured.

Sadie took a deep breath and sat back on a bale of hay, "Okay, I'm cool. What were you guys calling for?"

The ponies glanced at each other nervously before Rarity stepped up to the plate, "Well, we've been noticing that Olivia's been acting rather off recently."

"Yea!" Pinkie Pie suddenly shouted, making Sadie jump, "And Rarity was all 'she must be hiding something' and Twilight said that we needed to find out what it was! But then Rainbow said it would be mean to force her while she's down! And then we shouted and shouted and shouted until Applejack said we needed to call you! And here we are!"

Sadie stared at the pink pony for a second; giving her brain a minute to process the speedy explanation it was just given, "So… you're saying… Olivia's acting weird?"

"Pretty much!" Pinkie confirmed.

"But… you see… we don't really want to… you know… force her to say anything… just yet," Fluttershy tried to clarify.

Sadie thought about this for a few minutes then stood up, "Alright, let me go see if I notice anything."

She began to walk out the door when Twilight stopped her in her tracks, "Actually, Sadie, she's upstairs in her room."

Sadie turned around; things were already starting to look strange. Olivia was usually outside playing with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. What was she doing in her room at this time of day?

Without wanting to think about it much more, Sadie shrugged and made her way up the stairs to Olivia's room, where she was in for a little bit of a surprise.

When she opened the door, there was Olivia, or what looked like Olivia. She was staring out the window with a blank expression that was impossible to read. Her shoulders were slouched over slightly, and there were small bags forming under her eyes.

"…Liv?" Was all Sadie could manage to say.

Olivia gave a small, startled gasp and quickly turned around.

"Oh… hey, Sadie," Olivia greeted, calming down back to her neutral state.

"Are… are you feeling okay?" Sadie asked in almost a whisper.

Olivia nodded, but said nothing. Like she had decided before, there was no use in telling anypony, even if Sadie wasn't a pony. She probably wouldn't understand anyway.

Sadie had no idea what to say. Olivia was acting strange, alright, but this was even stranger than Sadie was used to. It seemed like the little girls energy was suddenly just drained away.

"Have you been sleeping? At all?" Sadie asked.

Olivia nodded again, getting a little annoyed with Sadie's questioning.

Sadie needed something, anything to get Olivia's attention to her. She needed something to cheer the little girl up.

"Why don't we go down into Ponyville and find the Crusaders? I bet their worried about you."

Olivia's eyes widened and she turned to Sadie. There was no way she was going into Ponyville. She never wanted to see those burning stares again, ever, "No!"

"Huh?" Sadie asked, very confused, "But you love going down to Ponyville."

"I don't want to," Olivia insisted, a nervous look forming in her eyes.

"Olivia, what is going on? You're acting totally insane! This isn't like you."

"I'm just really tired, Sadie. That's all," Olivia grumbled.

"Are you sure you've been sleeping enough? You always want to go outside, Liv. What's getting into you?" Sadie asked, desperate to find the cause in this sudden behavior.

"Sadie, I just don't want to go!"

"How do you think it's going up there?" Twilight asked her friends.

"I sure hope it's going well," Rarity sighed, "I really would just like things to go back to normal."

All of their heads popped up when they heard footsteps coming down the stairs. They all stared with hopefulness in their eyes, waiting to see if everything would be okay.

Unfortunately, judging by the solemn look on Sadie's face, things didn't go as smoothly as they had hoped.

"Well, she's acting different, that's for sure," Sadie sighed as she made her way back over to her bale of hay.

"So? What happened?" Rainbow asked.

"It was so… weird. It's like Olivia isn't Olivia anymore. She just kept staring out the window and nodding to any and every question I asked her," Sadie reported glumly.

"That doesn't seem like her at all…" Twilight pondered.

"And get this," Sadie announced, "She doesn't want to leave her room! I asked her if she wanted to come out with me, but I couldn't even get her to come down the stairs!"

The ponies were taken back by this. Olivia was usually one to run outside whenever she got the chance. Wanting to stay in her room was the most unusual thing they had heard yet.

"Well… what should we do?" Fluttershy asked.

Sadie thought for a second, "We need to get her to open up. There's obviously a reason why she's acting like this. It can't just be nothing."

"Oh, but I've tried," Rarity sighed, "I've tried everything I could, but she just wouldn't speak up."

"I would expect that. She's almost a teenage girl, and it's human nature to bottle up your feelings. She's not going to open up to just anyone, let alone a parental figure."

"Well, then I guess I'm not gonna do any good," Applejack sighed, "Who do ya think she'll open up to?"

"My first guess would be Scootaloo," Sadie informed, "But since all three of the fillies have kept secrets for Olivia before, I don't want to take any chances with that."

"What's your second guess, then?" Rarity asked with a hint of curiosity in her voice.

"Fluttershy," Sadie shrugged as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.