The dining hall rang quiet as the two royal sisters sat enjoying their breakfast. It had been a first for some moons that the two simply got to enjoy each other's company to the delight of something so mundane and normal.

Of course, it was obvious that something closer to dread hung in the air. Celestia was slow in all her movements, seemingly overtaken by some thought that was bigger than anything she had done in a long time - enough to phase even her. Luna mostly ignored it, completely aware of that fact before their food had even been brought to them. Instead she confided in attempting to draw her sister away from such thoughts.

"So what are your plans with Sunset Shimmer, Tia?" she asked, her mouth nigh brimming with chewed up pancakes.

"Hm?" was Celestia's response, as she lifted her gaze from her plate. She cast her glance to Luna, which rewarded her with a giggle at what she saw.

"What has you so tickled, dear sister?" Luna asked as she downed her food. Celestia smiled and pointed a hoof to her own cheek. The lunar goddess' mouth formed an 'o' as she magically grabbed her handkerchief and wiped the side of her mouth, revealing a large clump of syrup had clung to her face.

Sighing away her troubled thoughts, Celestia returned to her sister's question. "I'm not sure I really know what I will do with Sunset here," she told honestly, "I will surely have some private time with her to catch up and to reward her efforts and achievements in her world, but…" she trailed off.

"But you are unsure if things will be too awkward for it to be a comfortable experience for the two of you," Luna constructed. Celestia nodded, allowing Luna a smile to form. "No worries, Sister, such is typical for the first time."

Celestia's eyebrow cocked as Luna just smiled at her. Suddenly, the meaning of the comment hit her, and a furious blush overtook her. "Luna! You know I would never do such a thing!"

Luna snickered as she dodged a balled napkin, "I tease, sister. We know your relations with your students, though far closer than normal, are purely platonic."

Celestia huffed as she returned to her breakfast. A smile formed on her lips as she and Luna shared another glance. Before long, the room was filled with the two's chipper laughs. The two calmed down, and continued to eat their breakfast in relative silence, with light chatter going between the two every once in awhile. After some time, the grand doors to the dining hall opened up, revealing Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Sunset.

"Good morning, friends!" Luna called, rising from her seat with a large grin, "How are you all on the morning of your great feat?"

"Pampered," AJ responded, obviously uncomfortable from the attention the staff give her and her friends, "You'd think after so many trips up here, I'd've gotten used t' it, but ah guess ah haven't."

"You never really do," Sunset chuckled.

"I, for one, love it!" Pinkie called as she took a seat next to Luna, "And it's totally not just because of the food."

Luna patted Pinkie's back, rather hard, but not enough to phase the mare. "The pink one understands; just try not to let it get to you."

"And if that's not enough," Celestia added, "Just let them know so. They'll respectfully give you room to be yourself - to a reasonable fault."

"Ah guess so," AJ said, sitting next to Pinkie. "Rarity and Fluttershy should be along soon. They wanted t' enjoy the showers before coming down."

"What about Twilight and Rainbow Dash?" Celestia asked.

"Twilight is still sleeping. She was up for a fair portion of the night studying Starswirl's notes. I wouldn't expect to see her before lunch." Sunset said, then passed a smile to AJ, "As for Rainbow Dash, she's probably still sawing logs for the sake of it."

"Ya' can say that again," AJ chuckled. "Anyway, what's for brunch?"

"Whatever your mortal hearts desire," Luna gleefully announced. Celestia cast her a glance with her eyebrow raised, moving Luna to correct herself. "Ahem, we mean...pancakes, eggs, and/or hay-bacon. Whichever you prefer."

The group shared a laugh as the chefs brought out more of every dish. "Anyway, I must ask you - Pinkie, Applejack - how are you feeling about this big event?" Celestia asked, returning her platter to the chefs, "I know it is incredibly last minute, and I'm giving you practically no time to prepare."

"I'm not too worried about it," Pinkie shrugged, "Ever since Nightmare Moon, Mr. and Mrs. Cake have made sure to be prepared for when I suddenly disappear. They know that a big royal event could happen at any moment that will have my attention called to it." She dropped her face to her plate as a pancake stack was placed onto it, devouring the whole thing in one bite. Another stack quickly took its place. "They'll probably just call up their cousin, Velvet Cake." If one looked closely, there was a stint of pain glazed beyond her eyes.

Eyes turned to Applejack, who seemed rather drowned in thought. "Ah'm not rightly sure what t' think. Ah' can't say that Big Mac and Granny Smith haven't taken the same precautions, but two months is an awful long time compared to our previous bouts and adventures."

"I'm sure it will be fine, Applejack," came a voice from the doorway. All turned to see a freshly bathed Rarity and Fluttershy entering the dining hall. "Even if Big Mac and Granny Smith can't alone take care of the farm, they have Applebloom now, who's more than enough grown up to take on the majority of your work. What she can't, you and I both know that Big Mac can."

Applejack cast a glance to the mare, before smiling and releasing a sigh. "Thanks Rarity, ah' guess I just know that ah'm bound to get mighty homesick while we're gone."

"We all will," Rarity returned with a smile.

Silence was drawn over the group as they returned to their food. An occasional giggle or chuckle was released at some of Pinkie's antics as she tried to lift such a fog.

Before long, Princess Celestia rose from her seat and began to pace the dining hall. Though most of them simply assumed her nervous of times to come, Luna picked up on subtle hints that only those closest to her could have gotten. Her ears shifted at Sunset's laughs and words, and her vision would rhythmically pass over the orange mare.

Luna looked to Sunset herself. She seemed mostly oblivious to Celestia's motions. Shifting her eyes between the two quickly, Luna decided to act. "So, Sunset," she started, lifting the silence from the table, "Please, if you don't mind, do share with us your tales of….Canterlot High was it?" Celestia's ears speared up and rounded around as she stopped her pace rotation. Luna let a grin cross her visage.

"Uh, yeah, that's it," she said, her eyes widening and a faint blush covering her muzzle as she suddenly became nervous.

"Go ahead Sunny! Twilight has told us a little bit about this before, but we want to hear more from you!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Especially the other ussessus!"

"Mhm!" Rarity chimed in, "I must admit, from Twilight's pictures and descriptions, I'm not too fond of the 'human' aspect of our counterparts - but how similar they must be despite it does intrigue me."

"You want to know about how the human you does tailoring, don't you?" Sunset said with a smug grin.

Rarity sputtered and lifted a hoof to her chest in faux offense. "Why, of course not!" The two shared a giggle, "Surely, darling, but don't be afraid to let me know anything else that is interesting about her."

Celestia returned to her seat next to Sunset as everyone set aside their plates for the staff to come retrieve. Sunset began retelling everything from shortly after her escape; getting picked up by a passing high school principal - Celestia's counterpart - who then took her in when she learned that she was homeless. She enrolled her in her own school, where Sunset quickly used ego and intelligence to climb the social ladder.

Some years passed and the portal reactivated. She went through and did some reconnaissance of current events. She learned of Nightmare Moon's return and defeat, Discord's return and defeat, and most importantly, the ones behind it all - Twilight Sparkle and her friends, Twilight being the protege of the Princess. Some quick research told her that Twilight had been studying under Celestia for as long as Sunset had, but was more pure. Sunset predicted Twilight's ascension and planned to strike during her next return.

She gave her corrupted view on the Fall Formal, followed by her slow reformation with her newfound friends and the rest of the students leading up to the battle with the Sirens - where she was shown to have completely turned over a new leaf.

After the story, Pinkie brought back her desire to hear about their counterparts. Sunset simply laughed and threw the group a bone.

"Well, it seems like every single person in Equestria has a counterpart there - I'm actually really surprised I haven't run into myself or Twilight there," she explained, "Principal Celestia is nowhere near as wise as Princess Celestia, but is a fair bit smarter, simply due to the technological advancements present there. Vice Principal Luna is about the same way, but replacing sheer intelligence with her jokester tendencies." Luna's head tilted in confusion. "Apparently Luna had problems connecting with the students until she and Celestia started an annual event where they purposely try their hardest to embarrass themselves in front of the school."

"Oh!" the royal sisters exclaimed. "We have been doing something quite similar for a long time," Luna stated.

"I started the tradition shortly after Luna's banishment so that when she returned, the citizens could better connect with her," Celestia confirmed.

"It has worked wonders for myself - surely this means that my human counterpart has had similar success?"

"Yep!" Sunset nodded with a smile, "At first, she was unsure; nervous, but she warmed up to it. Everyone enjoys her now, simply because she's so funny throughout the year." Sunset glanced to her friends. "As for you guys, Rarity spends most of her time at her parents' home or in the school's clubrooms. She likes to make outfits and uniforms for the various groups and clubs in the school, something that has the ability to make her some good money, but she hasn't decided to capitalize just yet. She says that since she's in high school and has a full scholarship to a business school in Manehattan, she just wants to be as generous as possible to the people she's grown so close to."

"That sure does sound like Rarity," Applejack chuckled. Rarity, however, was slightly confused.

"You say that she, well rather, we are still in school. Why is that?"

Sunset winced, "I'm not completely sure. Humans do have a similar lifespan to us, however, something goes wonky when we swap worlds."

"How so?" Celestia asked, "Also, how does my counterpart compare in age if she is but another human?"

"Well, as for us normal ponies, it just seems like it subtracts about five years from our age. For example, I and Twilight are both twenty-two, but there, we're seventeen. Most people on Earth will attend basic schooling until they're eighteen."

"And trust me, Princess, your counterpart confused me at first too," Sunset told Celestia, "The Principal is only about forty years old." Celestia's eyes widened.

"There must be something amiss there; I'm well over two millenia old."

"I'm not too sure on the facts, but she's said that it's family tradition to have at least one girl in the family every generation. The luck just points to every generation looking the same for the most part. If it's any indication, it probably means that her family has been doing this for since long before the medieval era that Equestria's technology could be compared to."

Silence sat over the room for a moment as the two sisters mulled over this fact. Pinkie nudged Sunset, pushing for her to continue another subject.

She obliged, "On a more comical note, that has nothing to do with age, me and the girls have been picking on Rainbow Dash recently. She seems to have a crush on someone."

"What!?" Rarity exclaimed, "Explain! I must know!"

Sunset laughed, "My Rarity reacted the same way. Her name is Aurora; she's one of Dash's teammates on the soccer team."

"Oh my," Fluttershy muttered, "I didn't take Rainbow to play for that team." Pinkie let out a snort and a chuckle at the pun.

"I always assumed it," Sunset said, "Even before I really knew her, I suspected it of her. Anyway, right now her and Aurora just have a lot of unaddressed tension. I kind of want to start push-"

Before she can finish, the doors to the dining hall open. Everyone turned to see an extremely disheveled Twilight carrying a sleeping Rainbow Dash with her magic. "We're sorry we're late!"

She quickly rushed to the seat next to Sunset, plopping down and donning a humongous smile that said, 'Please don't hate me.' As the silence continued, Rainbow Dash let loose a large snore. Everyone took a glance to the still floating mare, then back to Twilight, who again sheepishly smiled, releasing her.

Of course, as tired and nervous as she is, she forgot to put her friend down first. Rainbow Dash fell straight down onto the floor next to Applejack, an audible "Ow!" being heard from her. The now awake mare shot up and looked around with a hoof to her head. "Where am I?"

"You overslept, so Twi was nice enough to escort you to the rest of us so we can get on our way," Applejack told her with a smug grin.

Rainbow looked at Twilight who avoided eye contact while a blush crossed her face. "Uh, well, thanks I guess. Could we get some food before we go though?"

"Of course, our rainbow haired friend," Luna said. A bell was rung and two final platters of pancakes were brought out to the mares. The two were quick in finishing the food, and before the staff had even come to retrieve the plates, the group was off.

Along the way, Rarity took the time to fix Twilight's mane. The group was mostly silent as they walked, seemingly muted by the sheer anxiousness of what was about to happen. Twilight, after Rarity had finished her mane, was short of hyperventilating. Celestia and Luna, picking up on this, each placed a wing on her back. Twilight glanced between them and let out a sigh. Sunset looked at the trio with remorse. She knew that she could have been in that position if she hadn't let greed get to her.

Descending into Starswirl's chambers, a deep echo seemed to reverberate off the walls of the cave. Even for the most patient of the group, the spiral staircase was seemingly endless; dragging them down into an eternal abyss that they would never escape from.

Eventually, though, they did reach the bottom of the flight. The group stopped to allow Celestia to open up the secret room, noticeably tensing as she did. As the wall seemingly faded from existence, the six mares that would soon depart took a deep breath. The group entered as one, not wanting to separate if possible.

The mirror stood dauntingly, seeming to haunt the girls as they approached. Celestia and Luna stepped to either side of the mirror and faced the group while Sunset wandered off in a random direction. The expressions of the girls ranged from overconfident to petrified.

"I'm told you all studied a fair amount," Celestia said. "Do you feel ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Fluttershy stammered, "I just hope we don't end up too far apart."

"Maybe we'll get lucky since we're going en masse," Rarity said, silently hoping the same.

"Don't worry, Fluttershy!" Pinkie said, practically jumping onto the mare, "I'll stick by your side, no matter what dimensional law gets in my way."

"I don't doubt it Pinkie," Fluttershy said, "Thanks for the comfort."

"We wish you all well," Luna said. "Please, come back in one piece - no matter how long it takes."

"But do be careful," Celestia said, "I know from my own experiences how dangerous these other worlds can be."

Silence hung in the air a moment before the group started going into the portal one by one. Applejack and Rarity entered after a moment of hesitation, followed by Pinkie guiding Fluttershy through. Rainbow gave the princesses a sure smile and bolted through. Twilight took a moment, glancing across the room towards Sunset - giving the distracted mare a pleading look. When Sunset didn't turn around from the shelf she was facing, Twilight sighed and entered the portal; its shimmering sound being the last thing that the two princesses would hear from the six mares for two months.


The first thing Rainbow Dash could focus on was motion. Lots and lots of motion, happening very fast, and very sporadically. There was an extreme amount of colors and everything was spinning. Even for her, this was beginning to become a bit too much.

That is until it all ended very quickly, and the only thing she could process was the wooden floorboard she was on and the fact that her face hurt. Alot.

She quickly sat up, groaning in pain as she rose a hand to tend to the pain. She rubbed the back of her head as she looked around. She looked to be in a small wooden structure; there was a trap door in the corner of the room, and a window in the wall opposite her, and behind her was a tall, full body mirror.

'Maybe I should look out that window and try to-' she stopped her thought as her eyes went back to the mirror.

Staring back at her was something she could not properly imagine. Lowering her hand from her head, she extended it in front of her, inspecting it carefully, flexing each individual finger and muscle. Looking back to the mirror, she raised her hand to her face. She carefully touched each feature, silently in awe and shock of what was before her. She ran a hand through her rainbow hair, which for once in her life, was perfectly straight with no frays or knots.

She straightened her back, turning to get a better look at her human figure; She was skinny, but not completely frail. She had clothing on, which confused her slightly, but after starting to lift the bottom of her light blue top, the cool air that attacked her stomach helped her understand why. She lifted her shirt up, not letting the air get to her. The first thing she noticed was her slightly toned belly, her muscles peeking out underneath her tanned skin.

Following herself upward, her eyes laid to rest on her chest for a moment, questioning the rainbow-patterned straps that covered her teats. She turned, taking a look at her back and giving herself a moment to admire how lean her shoulder muscles were.

That's when she noticed that her back was noticeably lacking in two certain appendages. She blanked for a moment before her eyes widened and she mentally panicked. She started glancing around the room, as if searching for her missing wings. That's when it hit her. Amongst the few things that she heard during the group's study session last night, humans' lack of magic in any form known to Equus was one of them. 'I must not have thought about pegasi at the time,' she thought.

Sighing over the loss of her wings, she returned the shirt to her person and pulled herself off the ground, making an attempt to stand in the manner that Twilight had shown them. She found it far easier to pull off than she had anticipated, further proving just how awesome and athletic she was-

-until she took a step, that is. Not accounting for her weight to shift as she moved a leg forward, she fell straight forward, her face meeting the maple floor faster than she could react. She groaned as she lay there, contemplating just how awesome that must have looked. Grunting, she pushed herself onto her knees and back up to her feet. She spent the next several minutes attempting to correctly walk before getting it down much faster than her first attempt would have one believe.

Once she could confidently walk a few laps around the room, she rounded over to the window in the wall of the structure. Looking out, she saw a large number of roofs and trees. The roofs were a lot like the tiling that many Canterlot businesses used, which led her to believe that she was in a commercial area. Smiling that she'd be able to blend in a little easier, she returned to the trap door. She reached down to the latch, flexing her seconds for a second before wrapping them around it and pulling up. The door lifted with relative ease, allowing Rainbow to feel better about understanding her new body so well and quickly.

She peeked down the escape. It didn't take her long to recognize the sleek, sturdy figure of a maple tree. 'A treehouse, eh?' she thought, 'I might want to remember this place in case I need a place to stay.'

With a plan in mind, she turned around and let her legs drop from the floor of the treehouse. Her foot rested on the ladder for a moment before she processed how to bend her legs to continue down. Confident with how fast she was learning her new body, she quickly began her descent.

That is, until a shudder came from the rung beneath her. She had no time to react before she plummeted six feet to the ground. She landed squarely on her back, the air being forced from her lungs all at once. She lay there for a moment, focusing on regaining her breath. 'Smooth, Rainbow Crash.' she belittled herself. A leaf fluttered down and landed on her forehead, and she gave a quick blow to rid it from her presence. Grunting, she pushed herself up and got back to her feet.

Only then, did a burning pain make itself known in her left knee. She collapsed again, keeping herself propped up on her other leg. She grasped the source for a moment, then brought back her hands to look at the damage. A large gash had appeared on her leg, blood welling up around it. She looked to where she had fallen and noticed a piece of fabric from her pants fluttering against the breeze where it was snagged on a large outcrop of the tree's bark.

"Great," she muttered, "I've been here for less than thirty minutes and I already need a doctor." She rolled her eyes. 'Yeah, right. Come on, Dash, you've come back from worse. You can't afford a hospital visit here...literally perhaps.'

She clenched her teeth, forcing herself upright and putting most of her weight onto her good leg.

'I won't be able to get back into that treehouse like this,' she realized, 'Buck, I've already got to look for some poor person to take me in.'

Rainbow glanced around. She was in a fenced off area. There were only two ways out of where she was: over the fence or through the house in front of her. She weighed the options for a moment. 'Maybe I could just hide behind the tree for a few hours while my leg gets better.'

Before she could turn around though, she heard the large glass door of the property slide open. She turned, wide eyed, catching the eye of a black and green haired girl. The girl stood there for a second, scanning her. 'I'm screwed.'

"Oh my god!" the girl flinched, likely noticing the gash on Rainbow's leg, "Are you okay!?"