“Huh. That’s weird. They’re still out there.” “Who’s out there Spike?” “These weird ponies came up to the door like an hour ago, asking for you. I told them that you weren’t here right now, but you might be back later.” “Spike! You’re not supposed to turn ponies away! What if they needed me for something important?” Twilight sighed. “A lot of ponies are depending on me these days.You can’t just get rid of ponies because they came at a bad time.” “I didn’t tell them to go away because I didn’t want to deal with them, I told them to go away because they were weird.” “Weird how?” Spike peered through the peephole. “Weird in that they’ve been standing outside door the entire time. In the sun.” Twilight nudged him to the side and took a look through the peephole for herself. Three chocolate brown ponies stood on her castle’s stoop in the afternoon sun. A pegasus, earth pony, and a unicorn, all without a cutie mark. “Okay.. something’s off about this… have they been doing anything?” “Nothing notable, they’re just weird.” “Alright, well maybe it’s something easy to fix. I’ll go talk with them and get this straightened out.” Twilight paused. “If I’m not done in twenty minutes, get Starlight down here. This might be a real stinker.” Twilight opened the door and stepped outside, making sure to close it behind her. “Hi, welcome to the Friendship Castle,” she opened. “I’m Princess Twilight Sparkle. Sorry about the wait. I’m ready and willing to help you with any sort of friendship problem you have. What was your reason for coming by?” The trio cast looks to each other, eyes glowing with an odd light. There was a period of silence, until one of them spoke. "The Sparkle must excuse us. It is rude of us to commune by flux shifting in front of those whose vortal inputs are impaired." "Yes," chimed another, in an oddly stilted accent. "We will vocalize in your auditory language as a matter of courtesy." "Unless we wish to say unflattering things about you," the third prompted. "Just so," they announced in unison. "The Sparkle honors us by her presence. We remember the Sparkle. We are coterminous." The pegasus and earth pony turned to look at the unicorn, who stepped forward. “We have met the Sparkle many times before, but this Sparkle has met us for the first.” The unicorn stepped back to allow the earth pony to come forward. “We are there still, when you pierced into the vortessence. For a brief time you joined us. You are the one, between the worlds. Now the pegasus moved to speak. “You have brought us grief and jubilation beyond measure. Your song we shall sing for eternity, as we have done and will do. We cannot forget those whose cords you cut. Forgiveness is not ours to bestow.” They spoke in unison. “We never dreamed to meet you in corporeal form. The Sparkle can make use of these. These bodies are yours to command. The Sparkle knows best.” “Spike!” Twilight called over her shoulder. “Get Starlight! She’s gonna wanna see this!”