CHAPTER FIVE

Corey trotted into the library. His hooves were aching like heck, but he was hyped from visiting all the interesting locations in Ponyville. He'd enjoyed the coffeeshop, the Hothoof, the most; the owner, Vinyl Scratch, had some sweet music going on in there. If not for Fluttershy's obvious discomfort, he totally would have stayed longer.

Fluttershy had obviously been uneasy about being alone with him, considering that he was basically an alien to this world. She had been very hard to talk to, but when Corey had mentioned his pet snake, the yellow Pegasus had begun asking all sorts of questions about the animals in Peaceville. Their conversation had gone all sorts of directions after that, and Corey could safely say that he liked her. Not in the way he liked…some other people…but he liked her.

"Um, this is the Golden Oak Library. Twilight works here, and she lives in the loft above it," Fluttershy said. The library was large and open, with books scattered all across the floor and the shelves. A table stood in the middle of the floor, littered with scrolls and quills and pots of ink. Kin and Twilight, their backs to the door, were poring over some dusty old textbooks that Corey was sure were extremely boring.

"Twilight?" Fluttershy whispered. "We f-finished our tour…"

Twilight didn't seem to hear, flicking a page lightning fast, while Kin awkwardly shifted his book in his hooves.

Just then, the front door banged open, and a large, light grey shape bounded into the room. "Hey, guys!" Kon bellowed, smiling as widely as is possible for a pony to smile. "I just visited the best place in the world!"

Applejack followed him in, gently closing the door behind her. "He almost ate the Cakes out o' stock," she explained, blowing her bangs out of her eyes. "Had ta' drag him outta the store by his tail."

Twilight looked up, watching the Earth pony bounce along the walls, babbling about cheese cupcakes. "Well, as long as he didn't meet Pinkie Pie…those two together would be an unstoppable force of nature."

Corey followed Kon around the library, reading some of the titles on the shelves. Equestrian History sounded interesting, but a book about ponies' music styles would have been more informative. As long as he was here, why not learn?

Pulling out a thin tome called Tunes and Times: Canterlot Edition, the orange unicorn turned to his black-maned friend. "Kon, would you calm down?" he said, using his hoof to flip the book open. "I think some people – I mean, ponies – are trying to study here."

Kin mumbled an agreement, but didn't even look up from his book.

A few brisk knocks echoed on the library door, and then Rarity stepped in. "Everyone! Just wait until you see my latest creation!" she exclaimed, gesturing out of the door. "Come on in, darling. No one's judging you."

There was a pause, and then Laney entered the library. She was dressed in a frilly red ensemble that matched the color of her mane exactly, with black and green accents that reminded Corey of the clothes she wore back in Peaceville. "It's not often I get a living model to design on, what with how busy we've been lately," the white unicorn continued, "so I jumped at the chance to use Elaine. She has a lovely figure."

Laney's eyes were narrowed in anger at the use of her full name, and she was blushing as brightly as she ever had, but Corey wasn't looking at her face. His eyes strayed to the way the dress tied, exposing the jagged blue sound-wave marks on her flanks. "You look good, Lanes," he said casually, though inside he was blushing as hard as the green pony.

"I'm thinking of making a whole fashion line based on this one dress. What do you think, girls? Should I do it?" Rarity waited expectantly for her friends to answer.

Applejack rubbed the back of her head with a hoof. "Well, Ah ain't the pony to ask about fashion, but Ah think it's a mighty fine dress, Rare," she said.

"It's very nice," said Fluttershy softly.

Kin chose this opportune moment to come out of his reading mode and looked straight at Corey. "Corey, some of these magic techniques are awesome! I almost wish I was a unicorn. You should get Twilight to teach you!"

Twilight blushed. "I'm still a student myself, but if Corey and Laney want to learn some basic spells, that'd be okay with me."

Corey was about to accept when a rainbow blur whizzed in through the library's skylight. It landed on the floor nest to Twilight and Fluttershy and solidified into a sky-blue Pegasus with a multicolored mane. "Hey, Twilight, guess what I just – whoa. What did I miss?" she said, looking around at them all.

"Rainbow, this is Grojband…Corey, Laney, Kin, and Kon. They're from Peaceville, in an alternate world! Grojband, this is Rainbow Dash. She's –"

"The fastest flyer in all of Equestria!" The Pegasus flapped her wings and hovered off the ground. "Twi, how did they get here? I thought nopony was able to, because of those rule things."

"That's what Ah said." Applejack sat on the floor, tracing circles in the wood grains with the tip of her hoof. "But Ah guess there's more to it than that."

"These ponies proved Star Swirl the Bearded wrong," Twilight said. "I got a chance to examine Kin earlier, and their DNA isn't Equestrian. There's a good chance that they're living proof disclaiming some of the most ancient laws in the book…wait a minute. What is wrong with me? Why haven't I written Princess Celestia about this? Spike! Spiiiike!"

The little dragon didn't answer.

Corey looked around, realizing for the first time that the scaly assistant hadn't been in the room when Corey and Fluttershy entered the library. "I think he left. Is that normal?"

Laney, who'd been shrugging off the dress since Rarity's attention turned elsewhere, stopped mid-twist and peered behind her. "He didn't go out the door…I would have noticed."

The white unicorn gasped. "Oh, Spikey-Wikey! What ever could have happened, Twilight?"

"Spikey-Wikey?" Kin whispered.

"This is bad. This is very bad." Twilight took a deep breath, then let it out. "Without Spike, I can't send any letters to Princess Celestia. I'll fail my assignments AND the princess won't learn about Grojband! This is getting more complicated than I thought. Guys, help me! Where would Spike go if he left the library?"

Fluttershy perked up. "He goes to Rarity's shop a lot, but no one's there, so…"

"I locked the shop behind me, and he certainly wasn't there when I left," Rarity said, eyes wide with emotion.

"He wouldn't be at Sweet Apple Acres, that's fer sure," Applejack nodded. "Ah can't think of anyplace that little dragon would go. Or a reason why he'd leave ya. How long has it been since ya last saw him, Twi?"

Twilight thought a moment, "He accompanied Kin and me around Ponyville, but I think he was with us the whole time. I lost track of him at Sugar Cube Corner."

Rainbow Dash spoke up. Corey jumped a little bit; he'd almost forgotten that the Pegasus was there. "We'll start there, then," she said. "Meet you guys at Sugar Cube Corner." Without a warning, she zipped back out the window and was gone.

Corey remembered Sugar Cube Corner. It was a tall, sweet-smelling building shaped vaguely like a cupcake. The owner, Mrs. Cake, had practically forced a large number of free pastries in Corey's face when she learned that he was new in town. The one thing that was surprising him the most in Ponyville was how nice everyone was to everyone else. It was like Trina didn't exist anymore. Corey could get used to that.

Twilight slammed her book shut and stood up shakily. "Spike's like a little brother," she stammered. "I-I take care of him like Shining Armor took care of me. What will I do if he's gone?"

"Hey, sugarcube," Applejack said kindly. "Ah'm sure he just got left behind at the bakery, and he's eatin' a plateful of sapphire cupcakes right about now. Don't worry too much. It'll all be okay."

Laney kicked her dress into a corner of the library, hiding it behind a pile of books. "Kin? Are you coming?"

"I'm gonna stay here and see if I can read up on teleportation and stuff. If we're going to get back home, we might as well start somewhere," the dark grey Earth pony said, turning back to his pile of books. "Good luck, though."

Corey and Laney followed the others out the door, but the green unicorn held the orange one back with her hoof. "Core," she whispered. "We need to talk."

She wasn't feeling so good about some of the ponies they had met. "Rarity couldn't stop talking about you while she turned me into a life-sized Barbie doll," she said. "I think she wanted me to set you up with her. And that Rainbow Dash has a way-too-big ego. Core, don't you see that we can't trust them? We should find a way out of here on our own."

Corey sighed and rolled his eyes. "Are you kidding? These guys are awesome! And they have – hello – a library? That we can use to get information? Besides, we can't leave Equestria without our lyric-writing champion – Trina. Have you noticed that she, Nick, and Mina are nowhere to be found?"

Laney's eyes widened. "I hadn't thought about that. I figured we'd just left them behind."

"Well, they were touching us too, so they must have been pulled along," Corey said. "I can't imagine Trina in this place, though. She'd die from too much niceness."

"That brings me to something else, Core," Laney whispered. "The machine. We don't have it, remember? What if we can't get back home? What if we're stuck here…as ponies…forever?"

Corey bit his lip. If anything, he'd figured that Kin would be able to rebuild the machine and they'd be home after a day or two of sightseeing, but he hadn't taken into account the three months it'd taken to build the thing in the first place. Or the fact that the technology in Equestria didn't seem quite as advanced as what they had on Earth.

The group ahead slowed down. They had reached the bakery; the tall pink roof of Sugar Cube Corner loomed above them, and the intoxicating scent of freshly baked cupcakes rushed out of the open door. "Relax, Lanes," the orange unicorn said. "Let's think about something else. Just wait till you try one of these cupcakes. They're even better than my dad's bake-sale brownies."

Rainbow Dash was already talking to Mrs. Cake inside. Twilight and Fluttershy entered the store, and everyone else waited outside. The shop was big, but with so many ponies inside at one time Spike might get lost again in the crowd. Corey peered into the window, pushing Laney's head against the thin glass panes. The counter was aglow with light, and tall stacks of baked goods gleamed temptingly in their cases. Kon pressed up against the window too, and Corey could almost hear him salivating.

Twilight raced back out the door, breathing heavily. "Mrs. Cake says she saw him leave with me and Kin. He's not there."

"What are we gonna do now?" Applejack said, facehoofing.

"I could do a quick flyby over Ponyville," Rainbow Dash suggested. "I'm sure I could spot him. He kind of stands out from all of the ponies."

Twilight nodded, but it was a halfhearted, sad nod.

"Hey, it's okay, Twi. We'll find Spike," Applejack said. "Ya just gotta calm down. You're the one with the logic and brains in this here outfit. What would Forelock Holmes do?"

Twilight sucked in a deep breath. "Okay…let's see. Spike is always with me…but when he's not, he's either at Rarity's or at Sugar Cube Corner. Since he can't be at either of those places, he's either been dragonnapped, or he got lost. And since we've lived in Ponyville at least a whole year, and know the town like the back of our hooves…"

No one finished Twilight's sentence, but they were all thinking the same thing.

Kon opened his mouth to say something – probably something totally off-subject, like "I like cheese" – when a pink blur appeared in Corey's peripheral vision.

"Did you see that, you guys?" he said. "Just over there…"

Everyone turned their heads, and when they least expected it, the pink blur leaped at them from the opposite direction.

"Hi! Welcome to Ponyville! My name is Pinkie Pie!"

I bet you all were surprised. What?! An update a whole day early?!

Don't get your hope up, though...next week's chapter will appear on Sunday, as scheduled.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! We wanted to get back to you sooner, but if you're a guest you're kind of hard to get a hold of.

PinkieLover - We did indeed take that into account. If you look at the Author's Note for Chapter One, it says that the MLP portion of this story is set between Seasons Two and Three. So, Twilight isn't an alicorn, and yes, Magic Duel did not happen.

On the same note, I'm flattered that Lanes is your favorite character. For...reasons :3

Keep an eye out for our Halloween/Nightmare Night oneshots, which will hopefully come out on Thursday.

Don't forget to read and review, and see you all next week!