Twilight and Alena appeared in Alena's home with a flash of light and a pop; the human opened her eyes after the light faded a second later, and made her way over to the light switch to turn the lights on. The second they were on, one thing was apparent to Alena: someone had entered the home after they had all left. There were clues of someone else being here, as there were things that were out which were originally somewhere else, and so on. Twilight looked at Alena questioningly, which seemed to say that she didn't know that something was up.

"Someone else was here while we were gone, and is possibly still here," Alena said in a hushed tone to Twilight, who in turn lit up her horn to cast a spell.

"I just used a spell that would alert me to anypony's presence within this house, and there doesn't seem to be any reaction."

"That can mean one of two things: whatever's in the house isn't a pony, or there's no one in the house right now." Alena thought for a moment, "Hey, think you could see how recent the tracks are in the house, excluding your own?"

Twilight's eyes went wide, "I've never thought about doing that, though using that spell shouldn't have surprised me. Let me get to work on it."

"You do realize that you could've done all that with your own magic at half the cost and cast time, right?"

'Oh, let her feel useful; it would've taken me a few minutes to figure out how to do some of these things anyway.'

"Whatever. I'll be here if you need me, just gonna go watch some YouTube."

'Wait, the Internet works here?'

"No it doesn't, I'm just watching memories of videos that you've seen. By the way, feels like Sparky's almost done with the spell. Pay attention. Also, remind me to teach you how to teleport later; it could save our lives in the near future. That, and there's a lot of spells we could craft using the base from the teleport spell."

Before Alena could respond to Alissa's last comment, Twilight got her attention, "The spell's done and it's been cast. Now, let's see exactly what's hiding out in your house..."

The track finding spell was cast on the house, and immediately we were surprised to find another pony's tracks in the house; the only odd thing was that they glowed a bright caustic green color.

"So, Twilight, are you sure that whatever's in my house isn't a pony?"

Twilight had a look of confusion on her face, though that didn't last long, and took on a look of suspicion. "Well, the only other race that could produce these sort of pony hoof prints would be the Changelings, but I didn't think that we had any in this town..."

"Well, we aren't going to find out what's going on without following the tracks through the house. Come on," Alena beckoned to Twilight, as she left the common room and followed the tracks through the hallway. 'Whatever's in here better not have gotten into my workstation. There's enough stuff in there to get me incarcerated for computer fraud acts with at least a fifty year sentence.' Fortunately, the tracks lead away from Alena's workstation room between the two bedrooms, and she breathed a sigh of relief. That relief was short lived, however, as the tracks lead straight to her bedroom, and then all over it. Then there was her iPod Classic, which was absolutely covered in green.

"Jeez, it's like they had a thing for... awesome... music... Twilight, stay here, I'm going to go to the common room again. Whatever comes out, do not attack it. Just keep it in your sights until I return."

A moment later, music started playing throughout the house; Twilight noticed that there were speakers through the hallways, and possibly through the whole house. It sure did sound like it. The song was new to her, but Twilight seemed to like the music; it was catchy, and filled her with a feeling of elation. She felt like she could conquer anything she set herself to.

That feeling didn't last long however, as just when the song was about to get even better, it stopped just before the beat dropped at 38 seconds in. Twilight felt like she had the rug pulled out from under her hooves, though it seemed that whatever else was in the house had an even bigger buzz killed, and voiced their opinion. A pony had come out of the closet, shouting obscenities for killing the 'wubs', and ruining her mood. The pony, whom Twilight recognized (and secretly fangirled over), had a snowy white coat, two toned blue mane and tail that looked like it hadn't been brushed and yet still looked good, and piercing red eyes. The unicorn's cutie mark was a mirrored image of two bridged eighth notes.

"Oh, Princess Twilight, funny seeing you here. Ehe, he he he, heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-I'm not getting out of this, am I?"

Twilight narrowed her eyes, "No, you're not getting out of explaining this one, Vinyl Scratch; if that's even your real name."

Just before Vinyl was about to answer, the two heard footsteps through the house, headed their way. Twilight wasn't worried, though that wasn't the case for Vinyl. 'That's unmistakably the sound of something bipedal, but there aren't very many races within Equestria's borders that are bipedal. The only exception would be the Diamond Dogs, but their caves are outside town borders. There's only one other race that would be in Equestria which is bipedal... but that's impossible... All the humans were evacuated from this world eons ago by Princess Luna herself! There can't be a human here, can there? This house does kind of fit the level of technology from the Humans' early days of society.'

Any further thoughts were cut off, as Alena had come up to the doorway and had leaned against the frame. "So, who's our little friend here?"

Twilight blinked before she responded, "Erm, this pony, if you could call her that, is Vinyl Scratch. She's the one that broke into your home and messed with your stuff."

"Hey! I didn't mess with her stuff, I just listened to her music player!"

Alena gave a small chuckle, "Well, that still counts as 'messing with my stuff.' So, mind explaining not coming up on Twilight's 'find-a-pony' spell?"

"That's easy, I'm not a pony. I'm what ponies call a 'Changeling'."

"What do they do, aside from shapeshift that is?"

Twilight butted in before something could be said, "They suck emotions, usually love, out of a pony until there is nothing left but a shell of their former self."

This comment got Vinyl angry; very angry, actually. "HEY! We do NOT suck all emotion out of a pony till they're a miserable shell! We Changelings have no way of recharging our magic naturally like the rest of the species that live on this planet, so we siphon off magic from other races. No, we don't steal emotions, we gather energy from ambient emotions that are around the area. Freely given love, which is the most powerful emotion that can be converted into magic, is way better than what you get from stealing it; this was learned long ago. You want to know how we solved the starvation problem that the Changeling hives had about fifty years ago? We set up adoption centers, filled 'em with nymphs, or 'baby Changelings', and put them in a room with a one-way mirror while some prospective parents came in and toured the place. The nymphs would make forms based on traits from both parents, and someone from the staff would give them an enchantment so that the form stayed unless the Changeling willed it off. The adopted nymphs gathered enough love from their parents that the operation of only three orphanages kept the whole Changeling race alive and well. Another example of getting 'free love' was having Changelings get into the entertainment business; authors, musicians, heck, even party clowns. Last I heard, there were a few Changelings in the modelling business as well. One of them is very well known, and is married to a noble."

"So, Vinyl, meet Alena. Alena, this is Vinyl Scratch, who is apparently a Changeling."

Alena offered Vinyl a hand for her to shake, who did so vigorously. "Awesome to meet you, Alena! By the way, would you mind if I based my future musical creations off of some of your music?"

"Uh, yeah, go nuts. Not like they can claim copyright over inter-dimensional borders or anything."

All was fine with the world, at least it was until Twilight voiced something obvious. "Um, not to be the mean one, but we haven't addressed the main issue here: Vinyl broke into your home. Am I the only one that sees there's something wrong with that statement?"

It took all of one second for Alena to provide an answer to the question posed by Twilight, "I'm not pressing charges."

That got Twilight's right eye to twitch, "What did you say?"

"I said that I'm not pressing charges. By your reaction, it seems that some laws from my world are the same over here; unless you personally saw Vinyl here break into the house, you cannot prosecute her without me pressing charges. Since this is still clearly my home, citizenship notwithstanding, I still hold dominion over what goes on in my own house. Vinyl will not be charged, and there's nothing you can say about it."

"B-but, she broke into your home! You should be furious!"

Alena waved a hand in the air, "And I said that I'm not pressing charges. It'd be a different story if she had malicious intent, mind you, but that isn't the case."

Twilight slumped down in defeat and let go an annoyed sigh, "Fine, I won't bother you about it again. Let's just go pick a movie and get back to my place. Vinyl, I guess you're welcome to join us if you'd like. I know that Luna would be happy to see you."

"That sounds awesome, I haven't seen Princess Luna in a while. Would you mind if we walked back to your place though?"

The pair was about to leave, when Alena brought something that should've been obvious to their attention, "So, what about the whole Changeling thing? I thought you were going to bring her to whoever deals with that sort of thing."

Twilight got an offended look on her face, "Hey, just because I've had negative opinions about a race does not mean that I have the power to do whatever I like to them. All sentient creatures deserve equal rights, misconceptions be damned."

Vinyl thought that this would be a good time to chime in, "Well, it seems that dear old Celestia doesn't trust us enough to share your views. though she hasn't done anything towards us... yet. She's always been a bit wary when it came to species other than her little ponies."

"Well, as long as she doesn't act upon her personal opinions of those that she doesn't trust, then there isn't really anything that can be done. It would take quite a bit of maneuvering, but if she did let her personal opinions affect any laws that are put into placec which infringe upon the rights of sentient beings, and it can be proven, then she can and may very well be dethroned. I don't like to think about it, but if she doesn't uphold the rights of everyone, then she isn't really that fit to rule." Twilight could barely believe what she had just said to Alena and Vinyl, but deep down, she knew that she stood by every word that she had just said.

"Whoa, look at you, Miss Future Ruler of Equestria! If I had any say, I'd think that you would make the perfect ruler for all of Equestria, let alone Princess Celestia's replacement!"

Twilight blushed a little at the compliment, "Awww, stop. I couildn't possibly replace both Princess Luna and Celestia, I'd have to stay up twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Alicorns may not need rest, but it still helps one's mind to keep to a healthy sleep schedule."

Once she sensed that Twilight didn't have anything else to add, Alena butted in, "Hey Vinyl, you want to come with Twilight and I back to her place, and watch a movie?"

Vinyl's ears perked up, "That would be awesome! When are we going?"

"Just as soon as we find a movie to bring back with us."

The three of them entered the common room and browsed the collection of movies that lined the shelves within the room; one of them caught Twilight's attention, "Hey Alena, what's 'Archer'?"

Alena grabbed the dvd case out of Twilight's aura, briskly walked over to the shelf that it was grabbed from, and placed it back. "No, we're not watching Archer; I'd rather not have you become a sarcastic ass just before Luna gets here, and have me explain why you've picked up nearly every single thing one should not do in the presence of those with power. Seriously, if it were any other day and Luna weren't coming, I'd be totally for vegging out with a couple rolls of weed and watching it with you two and Placidia... Though, we'd need to get someone to go on a snack run, cause I'm all out of munchies."

Twilight's eyes narrowed, "Weed? Wait a second, you don't mean marijuana, do you?"

"Why, is it illegal here too?"

Vinyl butted in, "No, it's completely legal, as well as other drugs; get em' at a local dispensary. The list of legal and regulated drugs are weed, lsd, quite obviously alcohol, tobacco, cocaine, meth, and morphine. There's different guidelines for dispensing the different drugs and substances, though weed and tobacco have the loosest ones."

"Thank you Vinyl, but I don't think we needed the whole explanation about all that. We need to be picking a movie, remember? Anyway, I've got the perfect movie for all of us to watch: Grandma's Boy." Alena went over the the other shelf and grabbed the movie, the Xbox, and a spare screen from her room; the three of them teleported back to Twilight's place.

Placidia and Spike were still in the middle of their game, when a telltale pop and flash of light interrupted Spike's scheming. Spike silently got up from the table he and Placidia sat at, walked over to a nearby shelf, and grabbed a camera. Placidia was a little confused, until Spike took a picture of the board and the layout, the photo printing out within moments of the picture being taken.

"It's in case you come back again; I'd like to continue the game from where we left off."

Placidia couldn't help but scratch Spike on the back of his head and coo at him, which made him blush profusely.

"Ahem," All heads turned to Alena, "Are we going to watch a movie, or fawn all over Spike and make him uncomfortable? I'm all for messing around with people, but it's only entertaining for so long; let's get this movie going! Oh, and could someone get the popcorn while I get all this set up?"

"Oh, Alena don't set anything up yet, I have to go down to the lab and get my generator."

Before a response could be made, there was a loud pop and a flash, though it wasn't purple, but blue... Royal blue. Vinyl beat everyone to the punch however, and addressed the princess with a small curtsey. She didn't give the oh so original 'Your Highness'; no, Vinyl just asked the Princess of The Night, Scourge of Nightmares, Bane of Fears, Protector of Dreams, Princess of Parties, "What's up?"

"Change of plan! I'm teleporting you back to your home this minute. Discord felt your magic signature and there's no doubt that Celestia will find out soon!"

Twilight stopped what she was doing, and joined in on the conversation. "Wait, what's so wrong with Princess Celestia finding out that Alena and Placidia are here?"

Luna's eyes went wide, like dinner plates, "What's wrong with Alena and Placidia being here? Well, let me tell you! Celestia is a little iffy when it comes to, ah, visitors' this goes triple for visitors from other worlds, whom wield power that is very similar to our own and Discord's. It would no doubt unsettle her that the two of you have come unannounced, and haven't come directly to us before gallivanting around town with little to no supervision. No, you do not count, Twilight Sparkle. I was talking about guards, this town has absolutely none whatsoever. It is a gross underestimation towards those that live a life of crime, and would jump at the chance to bring someone as powerful as Alena, Alissa, or Placidia to their side.

Twilight, Vinyl," Luna addressed the two, "the two of you will accompany Alena and Placidia back to their world and gain an understanding of how things are over there as of now. You will come back in one month's time according to our world, which is two months over there. I will not be able to teleport your home back with you four, but I will disguise it as a normal home that fits right in with the rest of the houses. Twilight," PurpleSmart nodded, "your request to have Ponyville become its own city-state has been approved not only by me, but by the council as well. Ponyville is now its own independent country, and everyone has dual citizenship. The checkpoints will be set up when you return so you can oversee the process and make sure that We did not miss anything."

Twilight smiled, "Thank you Princess Luna, I greatly appreciate your actions."

Vinyl's eyes went wide at the implications of Ponyville becoming independent, "Wait, if Ponyville's going to be an independent city-state, then - "

"Yes, I will personally be spearheading true peaceful talks with the Changeling Council to bring about a peaceful relationship between our races."

"Can Princess Cadence attend the talks as well?"

Twilight nodded, "Yes, of course she will attend the peace talks; it'd be foolish to have peace talks without having another nation that's already allies with the ones we're trying to build a treaty with. Plus, I'm pretty sure she's secretly proud of the fact that her nation is wholly responsible for keeping the Changelings peaceful."

"Tread lightly, Sparkle; we wouldn't want to tip the scales too much too soon. Any power shift is likely to make Celestia worried. I will take the time that you are gone for your research sabbatical to see if I can figure out exactly what is plaguing my dearest sister's mind. Now, all of you need to gather yourselves in a close circle, I am getting ready to transport you to the other world. Oh, and be warned Twilight and Vinyl, this teleport will instantaneously turn you into humans, though you will be able to access your magic. However, I must warn you that whatever magic you use is forever lost until you return to Equus. The human world does not have any sort of magic field that is known of currently, so unless Alena or Alissa are feeling generous, you must keep watch over your magic reserves. Lose too much, and there's a good chance that you will end up comatose. Now, let Us begin."

Luna channeled a good chunk of her magic straight to her horn, though instead of the spell charging up there, she shot it onto the floor of the library, and a magic circle, for lack of a better term, made itself known to the inhabitants. Everyone could feel the sheer amount of power needed for the spell, and the more adept of the magic users were just barely able to make out what went into the spell, though Twilight couldn't help but notice something: the magic exactly matched her own signature!

"Princess Luna, this spell is crafted so that it matches my own signature. I thought doing so was illegal?"

The Princess of the Night had a look of concentration on her face which never left as she replied to Twilight, "Yes, it is still illegal; I am doing it however so as to clear my involvement with you traveling to another world. You going to another world randomly would be seen as something inconsequential, whereas if I were to send you somewhere, there would be no end of suspicion. It is more for their protection and yours rather than mine. Celestia would have no end of questions if she found out I transported you. Now, the spell is almost done, so brace yourselves for the teleport."

Before anyone could do so however, all four of the girls were teleported out of the library, and back to Alena's homeworld. Whether they got back her house however, is a different story.

There was a flash outside, and the girls emerged slightly disoriented, but no worse for wear. Alena and Placidia immediately noticed that they weren't back where the house originally was, but in the middle of a small town. Twilight and Vinyl got up with no problem, while Alena and Placidia took a moment to gather themselves before they stood up. When they did, Alena noticed almost instantly that they weren't even in the same state that they left from in the first place. There definitely wasn't a CVS Pharmacy near a warehouse, and she's never lived near a Dunk 'n Donuts. It took a moment, but a look of realization dawned upon Alena's face.

"Hey guys, I know where we can spend the night."

Placidia looked straight at Alena, "Oh, please do tell, where are we staying now that we quite obviously aren't anywhere near my house?"

Alena rolled her eyes and started walking, "I've got an acquaintance that owns several safe houses in most small towns that surround every major city all across the country. He gave me instructions to where each of them are, and made me swear that I wouldn't bring anyone to them that have the potential to reveal their location to anyone that matters. I need you all to swear that you will absolutely not reveal the location to the safe house that we're nearing to anyone. At all. I cannot stress this enough, these places are almost always being used by someone who also knows this guy, and put his neck out for me when I needed to use one. I had to give him all of my info to make him trust me that I wouldn't reveal their locations to anyone that would rat us out."

"Wait, when you say all of your inf - "

"When I say all of my info, I mean all of my info. He's the only other person that I trust with my online identity. Oh, we're here." Alena turned her attention towards a nondescript looking garage, which looked like an auto shop, and there were a few cars parked around the lot in front of it; a Viper, Mustang GT, GTO, and a Honda Civic. Alena went over to the keypad near the garage door, punched in a code, and opened the door. What stood in front of them, was most obviously not the interior of an auto shop, but looked like a crash house. A queen size bed, a giant flatscreen tv, xbox one, ps4, a fully stocked kitchen, laundry machines, and a bathroom with a shower. Off to one side were multiple armoires, with piles of clothes in different sizes and colors.

Alena lead the other three into the safe house, and shut the garage door before she flopped onto the bed and fell asleep. Everyone else climbed on and promptly fell asleep. They could sort things out tomorrow...