I followed behind Josey and Spritelight as the pair of them filed into the hallway again to get to the radio, feeling my tail flick idly behind me.

I was nervous. I was overwhelmed. I was trying to stitch the events from the past hour or so together and make sense of it all.

All I could do was go with it, accept I was now a pony, and that the world was effectively doomed unless something changed.

Something we had to change, apparently.

I was now included in this group of ponies since I had missed my chance to go through the portal into Equestria.

Josey arrived at the door to the headmistress' office and slowed down, bending her head down a little in a respectful manner as she passed it, but then got to the single door leading into the radio room beside it and lifted her head up again.

Spritelight and I followed her example in respect for the dead woman inside her office.

Josey's magic reached out for the door to open it. "Locked, as you said. Let me undo that."

I waited patiently to Spritelight's right side, looking sideways at her.

Most of her back was still stained with red from the bloodrain, but it had flaked or dripped out of her grey fur from halfway down her sides.

I could see how it could be mistaken for silver in the right light.

"I can see the silver now I'm up close to you," I suggested. "Your fur reflects the light a little. It's definitely not some common grey."

Spritelight peered sideways at me, a light raising of her lips betraying my compliment hit its target. "Why, thank you. That was a nice thing to say. I've been bothered by it ever since I arrived here."

"You did say that, yes," I returned with a smile. "I'm sure you're just getting used to our world just the same as I'm getting used to being like you."

"Hm, I had not considered that; I was too busy trying to make ambassadors and had the nastiest headache for the first weeks being here," the other unicorn explained. "Got me in a foul mood, to be sure."

"Why didn't you get some medicine for that headache? Weeks is a long time to be having one of those," I reacted surprised.

"I can't read human text," Spritelight stated to that. "Turkey told me she was glad I didn't experiment with your array of human medicines as some of it's poisonous. Don't tell her I actually did try; tasting a little of what I found on the tip of my tongue to figure out what it was. I just didn't realise I had come across this asprin stuff multiple times already before Turkey pointed me at the right box."

I stared at the other pony, feeling my left ear twitch on top of my head.

"That sounds awful, I'm not going to lie," I decided in considerable empathy to her plight.

There was an audible click and the door to the radioroom opened up.

"There we go," Josey spoke as she walked into the small room. "Now what's all this? A little studio? Any way to tune it to a local news station?"

I walked over to the open doorway, noticing half of Josey's body was still sticking out of the small space. "There should be a button labeled radio. Just tune the system to it instead of the microphone."

"I'm glad I don't have to try and make sense of that," Spritelight chuckled.

"There are dozens of buttons here," Josey called back, moving her head at an awkward angle to not get her horn stuck on the foam covering the walls.

"Yeah, look to the left? Like the far wall from the doorway? The radio should be there. Turn that on, then on the main panel to the right should be a source selector? I've only ever been in this room three or four times," I tried to explain. "They don't let delinquents like me into the radio room but it also has one of the only phones in the building, so..."

"You broke in," Spritelight finished my sentence.

"Yeah, while everyone was asleep," I admitted. "I tried to call someone to get me out of here. It's not a fun place to be."

"Schools never are," Josey called back from the room. "I think I found the radio button. Let me put it through the selector."

There was an audible click through the speakers set up through the building, and the voice of a newscaster followed immediately after.

Josey turned the volume up until we could more easily make out what the person on the radio was saying, but not so loud that it might wake the two sleeping mares in the communal room.

"...now passed through the Nevada desert. Reports from the affected area are... I have no words for it. If you're just tuning in, maybe waking up in one of our overseas territories, I hope you're with your loved ones. This is truly the end of days..." the obviously distraught newscaster stated through the radio.

"Well, it's clear they do know about it," Spritelight pointed out as Josey turned the radio off again.

"That much is obvious," Josey agreed, backing out of the cramped studio. "The question is what the army is doing about it. We run the risk of getting in harm's way if they go all out and throw nukes at it."

"You said that word before; nuke," Spritelight queried. "What does it mean?"

I looked the pony over in confusion. "You know; nuclear missile..."

"I forget you're from a different world," Josey coughed uneasily. "We've had a couple of worldwide wars here in recent history. One of the ways humans have tried to kill other humans has been with bombs."

"Right," Spritelight agreed. "One of the reasons I was coming here; to stop the wars."

"Two of these bombs were instrumental at ending the second world war; the ones dropped on the Japanese towns of Hiroshima and Nagasaki," Josey listed. "Considering you know about our wars, maybe those ring a bell?"

Spritelight obviously tried to remember something, and I wondered just how much she really knew about our world.

"The... atom bombs?" Spritelight finally spoke, the emotions on her face shifting from one of confusion to one of despair. "Don't tell me..."

"Yeah, development on them never really stopped. They're still the go-to deterrent against another world war, even if everyone claims they're not using them anymore," Josey pointed out. "They get launched by missiles nowadays, not dropped from planes."

"Humans love killing other humans," I added for good measure.

"Unfortunately all too true," Josey agreed.

Spritelight stood in shock, blinked, and then shook her head at us. "No. No, we can't allow them to do that."

"What are we going to do about it, Sprite? Honestly? We're stuck here trying to stay ahead of the wall of flesh and figure out how to stop it destroying the world," Josey pointed out. "We can't take on the whole US Army at the same time."

"What exactly was the plan to begin with?" I asked, confused beyond measure. "I'm not entirely sure either of you had a plan when you arrived here, other than 'staying ahead of the wall of flesh', or you haven't shared it with me yet."

"There's a mana well in Yellowstone. We're trying to get me over there so I can tap into it and potentially restore the barriers between worlds," Josey explained.

"A mana well?" I asked, and Spritelight lifted her left hoof up to her own horn.

"Our magic uses mana. We regenerate mana inside our bodies naturally, but having an outside source like a crystal or a natural mana well allows us to use more magic than we have stored inside ourselves," she explained quickly.

"I'm an alicorn because I already had a lot of magic potential inside me, even as a human," Josey added. "If I could get to that mana well, combined with my own magic..."

"She would temporarily become the most powerful pony we have available," Spritelight finished explaining. "On the same level as Celestia and Luna in their prime."

That was a lot to take in, even with the unfamiliar names being used as reference.

"So this magic potential," I started, lifting my left hoof to touch the base of my own horn, "is the reason I'm a unicorn as well?"

"Yes," Spritelight agreed. "If you had less magic potential but more of an affinity for flying, you'd have become a Pegasus like Turkey. Less of even that, and you'd have become an Earthpony. Neither horn nor wings."

"Like my girlfriend Rhonda," Josey pointed out. "Although she's a Pinkie, and they are special. The both of them break through conventionality like Discord."

"Hm, yes. I did not expect that to happen to her when I chose her as an ambassador; she just felt like there was potential to her," Spritelight pointed out.

"Okay, so to Yellowstone. That's a day's drive from here by car. We've gone there on a school outing to have a look at the geysers," I noted. "There should still be a map or two littering about in someone's room."

"Oh, that would be helpful," Josey offered with a smile. "Any idea where to start looking?"

"Any of the bedrooms, probably in one of the cabinets. The headmistress won't allow us to put posters up," I suggested.

"Three floors above us, so we each take a floor then?" Spritelight wondered.

"Sure, take the top floor since you can sense the wall's approach. Maybe make sure the balloon is still secure on the roof," Josey delegated, then motioned at me. "Middle. Keep you between Spritelight and myself so you can call to either of us if you need help. I'll take the lower floor so I can move in either direction to help out in case Rainbow or Turkey need me."

Spritelight snorted to Josey's proposal. "Sure, let me walk the distance AND get out in the blood rain to get my coat stained more."

"Do I have to remind you we wouldn't be in this situation if not for your little mistake, Spritelight dear?" Josey pressed.

"Fine," the unicorn sighed. "Make your bed and lie in it, I suppose."

"On that note; there should be two beds per room. Make sure to look under them and behind the bedside cabinets," I pointed out. "There are little hiding places in every room which only the girls who live there know about. They might have propped their maps in one of those."

"Oh, the joys of a controlled environment," Josey chuckled. "Doesn't matter how beautifully dressed a prison is; the inmates will always find ways around the system."

"You have personal experience?" I asked, to which she shook her head.

"No, just movies," she explained. "What floor is your room on?"

"Middle, so you sent me to the right one," I chuckled. "Don't have a map of Yellowstone, but I know where Bridget hides her cigarettes and where Marianne hides tampons."

"What, you're not allowed tampons here?" Josey asked incredulous.

"No, you're only allowed pads. Insertion is for sex with your husband after you marry, that's the Christian way don't you know?" I replied with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

Josey glanced in the direction of the headmistress' office. "Well, let's see how many of your fellow students end up returning here after we're done."

"My guess? Five or six at most; they're true believers," I shrugged, noting Spritelight finally setting in motion.

"This world and its ways are all sorts of dumb," she breathed out. "You would benefit from Equestrian rule."

"That's what the colonizers said when they came to this land," Josey pointed out. "We were wrong then as well. Best restore order and worry about those details later. Maybe we can set up a bidirectional portal or something; give people a choice."

"Right," Spritelight mused, cantering over to the staircase. "Let's find that darn map already."