The kitchen table of Jackie's farmhouse was packed full. I sat at the head of the table, with Zecora's chair and body practically pressed against me, almost protectively. On the other side of me, Twilight sat, and next to her Spike sat. Next to Zecora, Scarlet sat, twiddling her thumbs.

The five of us from Equestria faced the five human college girls from Earth, all of whom were watching us, waiting for an explanation as to what they'd seen a few days ago. They'd tried to ask Twilight and Spike, but they'd apparently been too scared for my wellbeing to answer, so Jackie had made the decision to ask me when I was available to talk.

When she told me it was Monday of the following week, I decided that it was time to set things straight with them. It was only the ten of us there. Malcom and the owner of the farm, the grandmother Pomeline Smith, and Jackie's younger sister, an elementary school student named Marigold Smith, were all out. Malcom was the head of the farm work and as such was making sure all of the winter chores were done. Pomeline worked at Camelot College as a cook part time, mostly so Jackie could get a discount on her college classes since family members of employees were eligible for a family discount, and Marigold was at elementary school.

Leaning forward a bit, I looked into the eyes of each of the gathered girls. Shye looked understandably nervous, Diane's hair was tied back in a tight ponytail and she had a look of mostly confusion on her face, Dash looked angry, but at what or who I wouldn't guess, Jackie was a bit apprehensive, and Trisha had a somewhat worried expression on her face. "Alright, I'm not going to sugarcoat this," I said. "The five of us are from a completely alien world called Equestria." I held up my hand to stop the influx of questions. "Please let us explain before you ask questions."

Taking out the journal, I placed it on the table and opened it to the page where Sunset had made me write that note to Celestia. "This journal works something like an interdimensional cell phone. Its counterpart is in the hands of the princess of a country I call home. It was because of her that I came to try and bring Sunset Shimmer, or Sienna as you know her, back to the world I now call home. You saw how it lit up and vibrated, yes? That was when the princess was writing back. And I know now that you saw Sunset pass into solid stone. That was her returning to Equestria."

Leaning back, I continued. "I did lie to you five about a few things, but not about others. My name is Jethro Bethridge. I was originally from another Earth until I found myself in the world where my friends here were born. This is my marefriend Zecora, and my close friends Scarlet Dusk, Twilight Sparkle, and Spike the Dragon."

"Spike? Like the dragon from My Little Pony?" Diane asked, holding up an image of the first-generation Spike on her phone for all to see.

"That's me…" Spike said in awe.

"Please, let me finish the explanations," I said. "Now, this will also be hard to believe, I know, but on my Earth, the year is 2022. If history of this world goes anything like the one I know, starting next year, a new television show directed at little girls called My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic will begin airing on TV. It follows the stories of six Pony mares and those around them who live in the Equestrian town of Ponyville. Those Pony's names were Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. After three seasons of the show, one of those mares became a Pony princess. There was a movie made before the start of the fourth season called Equestria Girls. In it, the newly ascended Pony princess had to travel to another world to retrieve a magical artifact that another Pony stole. The Pony who stole that artifact was named Sunset Shimmer."

"Pff, yeah right," Dash said, rolling her eyes, "Like I'd believe that Sienna was from some girly show."

"Dash, hush," Jackie said, smacking her friend upside the head. "He's tellin' the truth."

"Then he's insane!" Dash shouted. "I don't believe him!"

"Dashelle! That's no way to speak about the man who saved our lives!" Trisha exclaimed.

"Trisha, it's fine," I said, "she has every right to be skeptical."

"Um…girls…?" Shye said.

"Skeptical?!" Dash said, ignoring the poor shy girl. "It's downright impossible!"

"Um…girls…?" Shye asked again.

"What is it, Shye?" I spoke up before anyone else could.

Shye looked a bit startled by me paying any attention to her. She smiled and nodded at me before turning back to her friends. "Why don't we, um…let Jethro talk first?"

Dash's teeth were clenched. "Fine…but we really should be calling the police about Sienna."

"No police," I said. "I have no identity here. Neither do the other five. And if word got out we were claiming to be from a distant Pony world, we'd be locked up faster than you can say Jack Robinson. And even if we didn't, we'd be arrested without ID. Now please…just hear me out."

Jackie gave Dash one final glare before turning back to me. "All yours, sugarcube."

I nodded. "Thanks, Jackie." I turned to the five. "The world I come from is the same one from the show I just described. Don't ask me how that's possible, because I couldn't even begin to tell you. But everything is practically the same. And when the portal between our worlds opened, I came through with Zecora and Scarlet to try and bring Sunset back home."

"But why now, darling?" Trisha asked. "By your own admission, Sienna came here ten years ago. Or was that a lie, too?"

"That was the truth," I said. "Sunset arrived here ten years ago. I couldn't begin to tell you why now. Maybe it's because of me. Maybe the princess is finally ready to talk to her. All I know is that I wanted to stop her from making some very bad mistakes. But things were wrong. They went wrong the moment we arrived."

"Oh no…that's awful," Shye said.

"What happened?" Diane asked.

"For one, in the Equestria Girls movie, Sunset Shimmer ruled over a high school as the queen bee type," I explained. "The portal was in front of this high school. But when I got here, we were in front of that statue instead. And Camelot College was there instead of the high school I expected. Not only that, but in the Equestria Girls human world, the Ponies had human counterparts. And the main characters were the human counterparts of five of the six Ponies. Sunset Shimmer broke their friendship apart through subterfuge and taking advantage of their childish naivety by sending phony texts. Sound familiar?"

The five girls looked at each other, then Diane's eyes widened. "Wait, are you saying I have a Pony version of me?"

"I actually think you do. However, Twilight Sparkle here can confirm it." I turned to Twilight. "What do you think, Twi? Doesn't she remind you of Pinkie Pie?"

Twilight had been looking over each of the girls in front of us with a concentrated look, and slowly nodded. "The voice matches."

Diane's smile warmed my heart considerably. She took off her beanie and looked at it, which had the Generation Three Pinkie Pie still on it. "I'm Pinkie Pie! Yay!"

"Calm your tits there, Diane," Scarlet chuckled, "there's a lot more."

Diane sat down and watched as I pointed next to Trisha. "Your counterpart is a Unicorn named Rarity. She owns a stylish boutique in Ponyville and has done a great deal for herself."

"That sounds marvelous, darling," she said.

I looked at Jackie. "Your counterpart is an Earth Pony, or rather, just a normal Pony, named Applejack. You live on a farm where you grow a ton of apple trees." Jackie nodded as I turned to Shye. "Your counterpart is a Pegasus named Fluttershy. You live in a cottage and take care of plenty of different animals, including one named Angel, or Angel Bunny."

"Wait…I never told you about Angel," Shye said. "How did you know?"

"I didn't. It just matches what I've seen in the show. Fluttershy has a pet by that name," I said before turning to Dash. "Your counterpart is Rainbow Dash, a tomboyish Pegasus who's the self-proclaimed fastest flyer in all of Equestria."

Diane giggled. "We'll plan a party with Pinkie Pie-" she began.

I couldn't help myself. I joined in. "-and watch her balloons lift her up to the sky."

We both looked at each other, grinned, then continued. "Scootaloo will show us games to play, and Toola-Roola will be painting away. Rainbow Dash always dresses in style. Sweetie Belle's magic brings a great big smile. I hope we hear a story from Cheerilee, and a beautiful Starsong melody."

"Stop singing that!" Dash said. "I do not dress in style!"

"I thought ya didn't believe Jethro here," Jackie asked, suppressing a snicker.

"Oh, shut up!" Dash said, a blush creeping up on her face.

"I can't ask you to believe me," I said, "but I wanted to just tell you the truth. Especially since I have to go back there and try and stop Sunset Shimmer from whatever it is she's planning."

"Now hold on just a cotton pickin' minute!" Jackie said, standing and looking at me with a glare. "Yer injured, and yer just gonna go after Sienna just like that?"

"I've already lingered in this world for longer than I should," I said. "Injury or no injury, I need to go home. Right now, Sunset is dangerous. She needs to be stopped. Here she arrived with no magic, no identification, no money, nothing to fit into this world, and yet somehow she managed to find herself a house, plenty of toys, and even a gun. And that's just in a decade. Back in Equestria, she has access to her magic. She's a force to be reckoned with. She's more dangerous than I thought." I turned to Twilight. "Twilight, did you send a message to Celestia?"

"Multiple times!" she exclaimed, sounding worried. "She hasn't responded!"

"That's not a good sign," I said. I tried to stand, and Zecora and Twilight helped me to my feet.

"Now wait just a minute!" Trisha shouted, standing and rushing over. "I did not give you my blood just so you could go gallivanting off and hurt yourself again! You need to rest!"

She tried to push me back down, but I blocked her attempt. "Trisha, please. I need to do this. Where I'm from, there's magic that can speed up my own healing process." I winced as I took another step. "I need to go. The portal back home closes in a few days. There's no time to lose."

"Yer as stubborn as ah am," Jackie said.

"You and your Pony counterpart both," I said.

"Ah don't like the idea of yah just leavin' when yer still injured," she said, "and the Doc wouldn't either."

"Jackie, I'll walk back if I have to," I said. "I need to do this. It's my fault she got away, and I need to make things right."

"No need fer all that," she said. "Ah'll take yah back."

I looked at her with a grateful smile. "I appreciate it," I said. "Where's our stuff?"

"Upstairs," Jackie said. "Scarlet here told us where ya were stayin', so she and ah went and grabbed everythin' and brought it here. Ah'll go get it."

She rushed upstairs, and Zecora quickly followed behind. Nobody said anything as the two girls grabbed the bags and came back downstairs. I looked around the kitchen. It was a relatively clean one, with plenty of counter space, an old but still functioning fridge, a ceiling fan above the dining room table, and a sliding glass door right next to the table. When I laid my eyes on Sunset's pistol, which was sitting on the kitchen counter, I pointed at it. "Give that to me."

"Now hold on there, darling," Trisha said, "what are you planning to do with that weapon?"

"I'm taking it back with me to Equestria."

Twilight's eyes widened. She knew what guns were, thanks to our study sessions about Earth kings and rulers, and she'd been both fascinated and afraid of their destructive power. One thing the two of us had avoided talking about was what to do about any potential development of those weapons back in Equestria. They had gunpowder, or fireworkpowder as they called it since they had fireworks, but Twilight and I both feared it was only a matter of time before some brilliant Pony, or Griffon, or even Lycan, developed something like this. "Jethro, that thing nearly killed you!" she shouted, voice trembling with fear. "And you're bringing it back to Equestria?"

"No, Twilight. Guns don't kill people. People kill people. Sunset was the one who had the gun. She's the one that fired it."

I saw Spike flinch at that, but I wasn't the only one. Twilight noticed it too, as did Trisha. The young college girl immediately stood, walked over, and hugged the dragon-turned-human close to her. "Darling, it wasn't your fault. It really wasn't. Remember what you said to me? You told me how much Jethro meant to you."

"And I nearly got him killed," he sniffed, clinging to the human version of his crush.

Trisha shook her head. "Don't say such things, Spike. You might have acted rashly, but your intentions were nothing short of pure and gallant."

"She's right, Spike," I added, reaching over to ruffle his new hair gently. "If you hadn't acted, she might very well have taken me with her back to Equestria. And she'd have the gun with her."

"I…I guess so," he said.

"Oh, Spike…" Twilight said, making her way over to her number one assistant and hugging him along with Trisha.

When Jackie and Zecora came back down and saw the raw display of emotion from Spike and the two girls, the two looked at me with confusion. "Love, is everything alright down here?" Zecora asked, rejoining me at the table as she placed her bags next to her chair.

"Yeah," I replied. "Poor Spike is just feeling guilty about what happened."

Zecora looked with sympathy at the young pre-teen. "I had heard that Dragons feel emotions stronger than most. When this is over, perhaps you two should spend some time together. What was it you called it? Male bonding?"

I chuckled. "Yeah, I think that's a good idea." I turned to Jackie, who was holding my backpack along with the laptop bag I'd purchased with the cheap laptop I'd bought earlier. "Thanks for getting these for me, even if my story makes me sound like the ramblings of a madman."

"Ain't a problem. Yer story might not make sense, but ah can tell when someone's lyin' and when someone ain't right in the head. Yer neither."

Dash didn't look quite as convinced as Jackie, and I could also tell that the others were a bit skeptical themselves. Not that I could blame any of them for it. It was a hard story to believe. I looked back at the four Equestrians turned human, and nodded. The three women all stood and I went to Spike's side. The poor drake still looked guilt stricken even after our little talk, so I helped him out to the Suburban. The poor boy still had an absolutely miserable face on him as I helped buckle him in. Twilight was immediately by his side, arms around him and whispering that everything was okay.

Trisha, who'd driven the other four here in her silver four door Volvo, got into her car. "We'll follow behind you," she said to Jackie as she got into her car. Shye, Dash and Diane all got into her car as well, and soon we were on the highway heading back into the city. Jackie asked if we wanted to listen to the radio, but we all declined. I sat in the far back next to Zecora, who leaned against me and buried her face into my chest lovingly. Scarlet was on my other side, making sure my wounded arm didn't hit anything to set off the pain.

Fortunately, traffic on the highway was pretty light, and before we knew it, we were pulling into Camelot College's parking lot. Jackie and Trisha parked in some spaces as close to the hidden King Arthur statue as possible. The sky was overcast but fortunately for us, it wasn't raining. Zecora and Scarlet both insisted on carrying my bags.

We made our way through the underbrush and finally entered the glade where the statue stood still, tall and firm, ignorant of the violence that had transpired here only a few days prior. The grass was still disturbed, and I saw dried specks of blood on the ground where I'd been hit.

Twilight handed Spike over to Trisha, who held the young boy close. The former Unicorn rushed over to the statue, then placed her hand through. I could see her hand morph into a hoof. She breathed a sigh of relief. Dash was watching this with incredulous astonishment. "What the fuck…?" was all she could say as she made her way over to the statue. She put her hand to it, and jumped back in fear as her own hand turned into a cyan equine leg. "Seriously, what the fuck?!"

"Dashelle, not in front of a child!" Trisha shouted, keeping her hands over Spike's ears.

"You can't seriously expect me to not swear after that!" Dash shouted, her eyes a mix of anger and terror.

"Um…girls…can we not?" Shye asked quietly.

"Shye's right," I said louder. "And Spike isn't a child anymore. The poor kid's been through too much lately." Trisha held Spike tighter, and Twilight rushed up to him, silently thanking Trisha and holding Spike close. I turned to the five college girls. "I can't thank you ladies enough for what you've done. If it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't have been able to find Sunset and I would have probably been taken into custody after they found out my lack of identity."

"But you wouldn't have been hurt, too," Diane said sadly.

"Don't think like that," I said gently. "It just happened. Nobody's at fault here. And we don't know that she wouldn't have hurt. This Sunset Shimmer seems different somehow. I don't know what wrong with her, but she seems different. I saw her eyes glow before she vanished."

"What, like a Goa'uld?" Scarlet asked.

I shook my head. "I doubt they exist. It was different. It was like she was possessed."

"You think there's some kind of magic on Earth?" Twilight asked nervously.

"If it's anything like the show, there are a few Equestrian artifacts here," I replied. "That, and the Dazzlings are definitely here. She could very well be under their influence."

"The who now?" Jackie asked.

"Dazzlings," I repeated. "They're a group of Sirens from Equestria that were banished and presumably ended up in the human world. At least in the show. Celestia wasn't sure about that part since all she knew about the Sirens was that they were all wiped out. I'm sure they were here at some point, but whether they're still around is up for debate. But that's not important right now. What is important is Sunset." I stood up taller, facing the portal. "Ladies, I'm really grateful for all of your help over the past few days. It means a lot. But for now, this is farewell."

"But…what you said about Sienna? What are you going to do?" Shye asked.

I shook my head. "She may be a forced to be reckoned with over there, but I know a certain purple Unicorn here who's every bit her match. And five other mares who can blast some sense into her with the friendship rainbow laser. That, and two Alicorn princesses who can raise the sun and moon. But we need to hurry." I looked at Spike and the other girls. "Let's go home. But before I do, here." I reached into my bag and pulled out the journal. I handed it to Jackie, who took it hesitantly. "This journal is currently our only connection to this world. I'm hoping that it can be used to keep in touch with all of you and to keep this portal open more permanently. Keep it secret. Keep it safe."

She took it almost reverently and held it close. "Ah will…"

I nodded at them all, then turned to the portal. "No more wasting time. Let's go."

And with that, I stepped through…

The rainbow vortex enveloped my entire being, stretching and warping me in the same way it had before. But something was wrong. I could feel it in my jelly-like bones. There was a dark red hue that began to envelop the swirling vortex, and the colors began to bleed through.

I screamed…

…and the next thing I knew, I was tumbling down a long ramp. Pain from my injury swelled up as I hit my injured arm and shoulder. From behind me, I heard four other familiar shouts of surprise and pain as we all headed down.

I groaned, trying to get the ringing in my ear to stop, only to realize that the ringing wasn't coming from my ears. And it wasn't ringing. Groaning, I pushed myself up and looked around the room. It was bathed in red and there was an alarm ringing from everywhere. Aside from us, the room was empty of anyone, but the door to the mirror room was open. Blown off of its hinges.

"What's that noise?" Scarlet asked, standing back on all hooves and covering her ears with her wings.

"Sounds like an alert," I said, slowly standing and looking down at my body. Everything was back as it should be, and the familiar tightness in my back had returned. "Someone help me out of my shirt. My wings need to spread."

Twilight rushed over, using her magic to remove my jacket and shirt. Immediately, my wings spread behind me and I sighed in contentment. Spike came over next, bringing me a set of clothes which Rarity had altered for me. Twilight used her magic to help me into them, and then began using a spell on my injuries. The pain receded, and I sighed in relief.

That's when I heard the new arrivals from the mirror. "Whoa!" a scratchy female voice shouted as a familiar looking cyan Pegasus tumbled out of the mirror and down the ramp. She was quickly followed by an orange Earth Pony with a Stetson, then a white Unicorn, a pink Earth Pony, and a yellow Pegasus. Spike, the girls, and myself all watched in shock as the five new Ponies fell towards the foot of the ramp. "Nng…that was a fucking trip," the Rainbow Dash lookalike groaned as she looked down at her hooves. "Oh my God! What happened to my hands!?"

"Settle down there, Sally!" Jackie said, trying her hardest to stand on her hooves.

"What the hell are you five doing here?!" I shouted, moving towards them. A panicked Twilight followed, still trying to use the healing spell on me.

Jackie, now in the exact form of Applejack, stood faster than the rest. She looked up at me, then down at an object on the ground. "Just after ya left, this thing began tah vibrate and glow. Ah figured it was from yer princess, so ah looked. It wasn't good."

I snatched the book and opened it to the glowing pages. And my blood ran cold.

JETHRO HELP ERIS IS GONE!