On a typical day, it was a tossup whether Alicorn Catgirl Twilight-chan's bigger struggle was using her slender arms to swing her magical daikatana as she battled the faceless hordes of Changeling assassins that plagued the neon-washed streets of Neo Canterlot, or whether it was her struggle to maintain a modicum of modesty given her impractically short miniskirt and the cartwheels, flips, and twirls that her fighting style called for. She hated both the skirt and the Professor’s insistence that she wear it. But this was not a typical day, as evidenced by the building-sized pink and black energy disc ripping through downtown, uprooting shining towers like weeds and tossing hovercars like silicon dust. Twilight-chan heard crackling over her in-ear comm unit as she flew closer to the singularity. “Professor Cinch,” she shouted over the roaring wind, pressing a purple-furred paw to it. “There’s too much interference!” The comm went silent. Twilight-chan frowned, then threw herself into a dive, straight toward the heart of the maelstrom. As she wove her way through the swirling debris cloud, she saw with her own oversized eyes what others had reported: an image of small horses on the other side, some running pell-mell, others standing in apparent shock… And all of them purple, just like her. [hr] Twilight-chan awoke in the remains of a once-clean laboratory that was stuffed to capacity with talking purple horses of near-identical appearance. All shared Twilight-chan’s birthmark; most had horns; and roughly half had wings. One was talking to her. “What was that?” Twilight-chan said, picking herself up. “I said you’re tall like they are,” the unicorn shouted over the din. Its mouth was more squarish than most others, and its voice was deep. “Sorry… who are you?!” “He’s Dusk,” said a higher-pitched unicorn with a bandaged eye and a tattered black catsuit. “I’m Tuesday.” She managed an anatomically-improbable hoof-raise, pointing deeper into the laboratory. “And if you have any bright ideas about how to stop Midnight, talk to Glasses!” Twilight-chan waded through the throng of chattering horses, eventually reaching two purple humanoids arguing in front of a chalkboard. “...But what will you accomplish by collapsing the separation between dimensions?” shouted one of them: a teen girl wearing glasses. “That isn’t the point,” replied the other: a she-demon engulfed in some sort of scintillating bubble of force, and with glowing accents around her eyes, horn, and wings. “But it’s what you’re doing,” Glasses said. “I should know; I almost tore apart the fabric between worlds in my reality!” Midnight held up a circular device. “All I wanted was to understand the power I detected. To absorb it, to become more than I was…” Twilight-chan had seen enough. Her horn lit, and she dropped into a combat stance, conjuring a huge, translucent daikatana into her right hand. “Konnichiwa,” she said. Glasses turned, took notice of her, and recoiled. “What the… ohmigosh, are you some kind of anthro-cat version of us with a laser sword?!” Midnight raised a hand toward Twilight-chan. “Please… I'm just tired of being forced to do what others want. ‘Twilight, study this. Twilight, compete in the Friendship Games…’” Twilight-chan frowned, and looked down at her miniskirt. “I hated those too,” Glasses said. “But giving up this power doesn't have to be the end of your choices. Don’t do this because you have to; let it be because you want these worlds to live!” Midnight narrowed her eyes. “I can’t go back. You don’t understand the hold Principal Cinch has on me.” “Wait,” Twilight-chan said. “You know a Cinch in your reality as well?” Both Midnight and Glasses nodded. “She’s pretty much the worst,” Glasses said. Twilight-chan lowered the daikatana. “Then perhaps… we can make a deal? If you can find the courage to let these words live, maybe I can finally find the courage to tell my Cinch where she can stuff this awful skirt?” Glasses and Midnight both looked down at it and grimaced. “Ohmigosh,” Midnight said. “That's… almost as terrible as Cinch herself…” “Then let us be brave together,” Twilight-chan said, extending a paw. Power surged as Midnight closed her eyes and brought her hands together. The world went white… [hr] Twilight-chan awoke in a crater at the heart of Neo Canterlot. Her comm buzzed with questions from Professor Cinch, but she didn't listen. Instead, she pawed the comm and cleared her throat. “Yes, this is Twilight-chan. Mission accomplished, but Professor… we need to talk about something.” She smiled, thinking about comfy and practical sweatpants.