"Hi Dex. Everything is fine, at least with me. This is Lori. Apparently, you two haven't met yet." Sophie says. 

"Well, I was there the day your machine crashed here, but I had to leave early, before you woke up. It's nice to meet you." He says, looking concerned when he notices that I'm practically sobbing. "Are you ok?" He asks. 

"Yeah, I'm fine." I say, probably not too convincingly. " I just… used to know a version of you, in my old universe. We were… really close." 

"Well, now I'll be your friend in this universe. If you want to be." 

"Yeah. That sounds great." I want to throw my arms around him, and tell him that I love him, but all he knows about me is my name, and that I’m not from here. 

“Do you two want to come over to Rimeshire after school tomorrow?” He asks. 

“Yeah, sure.” I say, trying to sound casual. 

“Why not?” Sophie says. 

“Great! I’ll see you tomorrow!” He says. What did I just get myself into? How will I keep calm with him, at his house? Sophie and I leap back to Havenfield, where Grady is wrestling with the verminion, my least favorite creature here. Me and Sophie dive in to help him, and I manage to come out fairly clean, unlike Sophie and Grady. 

“Thanks for the help girls. I think Edaline was making Ripplepuffs, but you might want to shower first. Especially you, Sophie.” To be fair, she was the dirtiest of all of us. We all go inside, and head to the showers at Edaline’s command. After I’m out, I put on a comfy t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants, then go downstairs. The ripplepuffs are heavenly. After a while, Edaline asks how our days were, and Sophie and I are forced to recount what happened during inflicting lessons. By the time we finish explaining, Grady and Edaline both look more confused. 

“So… you inflicted on each other, and when the red light beams met each other, it was like when you mix core energy with a brain push?” Grady asks. 

“Yeah, pretty much.” Sophie replies. He rubbed his temples. 

“You need to stop finding new weird things with your abilities.” 

“I’ll try. But to be fair, this is the first thing I figured out since I discovered that I can teleport without free-falling.” 

“And that was what? Like a few weeks ago?” He sighs, and we’re about to go back upstairs, when I remember about the sleepover. 

“Is it ok with you guys if we go over to Everglen for a sleepover Friday?” I ask. 

“That’s fine.” Edaline says. 

“Oh, and Dex wanted us to come over after school tomorrow too.” Sophie adds. 

“Just have fun.” Grady replies. We go to our room, and each sit on our own beds. 

“Are you gonna be ok going over to Dex’s tomorrow? You looked kinda nervous after you agreed.” 

“Yeah. I’ll be fine. It was just a lot, finding out that he’s in this universe and all.” 

“You sure? We don’t have to go.” 

“Yeah. I still want to be with him, even if it’s just as a friend.” 

“Ok. And I’ll be there with you if it gets to be too much.” I smile. 

“Thanks. Maybe we should start working on the spin the bottle game.” We had decided that we didn’t want to make just anyone kiss, so we were going to do it a little differently. There would be a spinner with different options on what you would do with the other person. One of them would be kiss, but there would be other things too, like ‘one unlimited dare’ or ‘tell a secret’. Sophie went to track down some paper and markers, while I brainstormed some prompt ideas in a notebook.

“Got the stuff!” Sophie says when she gets back with the supplies. 

“Good. I have a few ideas of different things to put on it.” 

“Read them to me while I start cutting this thing out.” 

“Ok, so I’ve got kiss the person the bottle lands on, one unlimited dare to the person the bottle lands on, the person the bottle lands on has to tell a secret to the one who spun the bottle, hug the person the bottle lands on, hail a family member of the person the bottle lands on, swap an item of clothing with the person the bottle lands on, everyone asks the person the bottle one question, and two truths and one lie are given by the person who spun the bottle to the person who the bottle landed on. If they guess right, they get to choose one prank elixir to give to the spinner, but if they get it wrong, they have to drink one. That’s eight things, and we have eleven people coming. I think we should come up with at least three more, so there’s the possibility of everyone getting something different.” 

“You said one where the person the bottle lands on has to tell a secret to the one who spun the bottle, what if you add another one, where the person it lands on has to tell a secret to the whole room?” Sophie suggests. 

“That’s a good idea.” I added it to the list. “What else?” 

“Oh there should be a skill contest between the person who spun the bottle and the one it landed on!” 

“Tam and Linh will dominate that.” 

“It might not land on them.” 

“Good point. I’ll add it. Now we need one more.” 

“I’m out of ideas.” 

“Wait, I think I have something.” 

“What?” she asks with a smile on her face. 

“The person who spun the bottle and the one it landed on have to dance to a love song in front of everyone!” 

“That. Sounds. Amazing.” She says. We spend the next hour or so making the spinner, and comparing who we think should spin what. We had just finished when Edaline called us down for dinner. After we ate and got ready for bed, I started getting nervous about going to Rimeshire tomorrow. What if I slip up, and call Dex my boyfriend or something? He would be so weirded out, and maybe even hate me. How could I live with that? I curl up in a little ball and hug Kitty tight. 

“Hey, Silveny was in your universe, right?” Sophie asks. 

“Yeah.” 

“Why don’t you reach out to her telepathically? I’ll go with you, and help explain to her that you’re a friend. It might help you with those nightmares you’ve been having.” Why didn’t I think of that before? Silveny used to help me with my nightmares all the time! 

“Yeah, let’s do that.” We link our minds, and Sophie sends out a loud call of SILVENY! 

SOPHIE? FRIEND? KEEFE? HELP? 

I don’t need help tonight, my sister from another universe does, though. Her name is Lori. 

Hi Silveny. I transmit. 

Do you think you can help both of us sleep tonight? 

HELP! SOPHIE! LORI! SLEEP! FRIENDS! SOPHIE! KEEFE! LORI! FITZ! VISIT! WYNN! LUNA! GREYFELL! 

Wait, Silveny you don’t need to come here! Sophie transmitted, but it was too late. The mamma allicorn had made up her mind. We run outside just in time to see the whole family of alicorns teleport in. Grady had run out when he heard the crack. 

“What are the alicorns doing here?!” He shouted when he noticed the family of feathery horses descending from the sky. 

“I don’t know! I reached out to Silveny to see if she could help Lori sleep, and she teleported here with the whole family!” Sophie answers, just as Silveny nickers behind her. Her happy shouts fill both of our heads. 

SOPHIE! FRIEND! VISIT! LORI? The last one is more of a question. 

Yeah. I’m Lori. 

LORI! FRIEND! 

“Oh! Hi there!” I say aloud as Luna comes and starts sniffing at me. “Woah!” I cry as Wynn comes over and almost tackles me. 

“Why don’t we sleep out here tonight, under Calla’s Panakes tree?” Sophie suggests. 

“That sounds great.” I say, and Edaline starts conjuring up pillows. After only a few minutes, we each have a comfy pillow bed under the Panakes, and an alicorn baby to snuggly with. I stroke Wynn’s nose, and he gives the cutest little yawn in the world. As I drift off to sleep, Silveny fills my head with pictures of her and her family running across grassy fields, flying through starry skies, and snuggling under huge trees. I fall asleep, and finally get a night without nightmares or flashbacks.