Shocked at seeing themselves surrounded by humans, Monster X and the Albino Hyper Gyaos brace themselves and prepare for a panic. However, everyone just walks past them and only a few give them odd looks. Confused, they realize their bodies feel funny and they look down and are surprised to find they have turned into humans. Monster X has become a tall man with jet black skin and grey-white hair, wearing a black trenchcoat, pants, and boots. His face is covered by a white mask and a scarf. Hyper Gyaos has become a tall woman with pure white skin and white hair with a purple fringe, wearing a white hoodie, pants, shoes, and an amethyst necklace.
The master communicates with them telepathically and explains that this parallel universe is an unusual one. It naturally connects to Equestria every thirty moons, but trying to connect to it at any other time is taxing. He detects three powerful magical artifacts and tells them to do their best to acquire them, but warns them that the portal will only stay open for about six hours.
After spending a few moments to get used to their new bodies, Monster X asks if Hyper Gyaos can sense energy. When she confirms she can, he says that's excellent and advises they split up to increase their chances of finding the artifacts. He tells her to avoid making a scene and only kill if absolutely necessary. When she turns away for a few seconds, he's already gone, annoying her.
Sunset Shimmer sets up Christmas decorations in her apartment. The former Equestrian Unicorn muses that after living in the human world for over four years, she still barely understands Christmas. While she gets that it is a holiday similar to Hearth's Warming Eve, aspects like the Christmas tree and Santa Claus make no sense. Nonetheless, she is happy that Twilight Sparkle helped redeem her and she is now friends with the human world's versions of Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Applejack. Her friends invited her to the carnival. As she walks, she thinks about how lately, groups of people around the city have started to get into fights for no reason. She wonders if magic could be involved, but remembers magic doesn't work in this world except with artifacts like the Element of Magic. She then remembers a detail Rarity mentioned from a brawl at her fashion show: right before it started, someone was singing...
Monster X checks the museum and city hall, but the artifacts inside are ordinary. As he wanders the city, he muses that it is the first time he had been able to move within a society for a long time. On his home planet, the Xilians were of similar size and appearance to humans, and since he was a 120 meter tall Kaiju, he could not join them. He fought what he was told to fight. He went where he was told to go. He destroyed what he was told to destroy. And then as soon as he was finished he was ordered away and locked in that comet they housed him in. He'd dutifully stay there and meditate until he was called upon again, and the process repeated. Sometimes his sense of time felt vague when in meditation, the months and years always tended to blur. Sometimes it felt like only days had passed, despite decades flying by. Other times felt like years locked away in solitude, whilst he was later informed only weeks had been spent. Wasn't like it really mattered, he served his master and just followed their orders. That was all he needed to do.
Monster X feels light-hearted for the first time in a long time as he moves through the crowds. He enters the mall to find everybody inside arguing and fighting. All except two in the corner who are singing. He detects the energy coming from their necklaces and figures he's found his targets.
Hyper Gyaos laments her life right now as she wanders the carnival. She's stuck in this weak human body, cold, surrounded by beings she doesn't know, and cannot fly. The only consolation is that her hunger no longer feels all-consuming and painful. She spies a turkey leg from a food stand and steals it.
Sunset Shimmer arrives at the carnival and receives a text from her friends saying Applejack's van got a flat tire and they will be late. She looks up to find Hyper Gyaos being yelled at by the food vendor for taking the turkey leg without paying the carnival tickets. Hyper Gyaos is preparing to attack the man when Sunset altruistically offers some tickets and placates the man. Sunset then pulls her to the side, taking her for a lost visitor. Hyper Gyaos is confused by this stranger helping her, but follows her lead. She finishes eating the turkey leg and throws the bone in a trash can, which grosses Sunset out as she is a former pony and can't even touch meat.
Sunset introduces herself and asks for her name, but Hyper Gyaos says she doesn't have a name. Sunset is saddened and between this and the Gyaos' mannerisms assumes this means she is from an abusive family. Little does she know that she is correct, in a way. As they sit on a bench, Hyper Gyaos remembers how her grandmother, mother, aunts, and sisters constantly tried to eat everything, including her, and how her life was a constant fight for survival. She also remembers how she was the only Gyaos who could think for herself and think of things other than her next meal. She feels a strange feeling in her chest and starts shedding tears. She says her family is gone and she is all alone now. Sunset remembers how she left the closest thing she had to a mother, Princess Celestia, when she abandoned Equestria to come here, and thinks this is a similar situation. She decides to share the lesson Twilight Sparkle showed her. You will never be alone as long as you invite new friends in. Sunset says if she is going to have new friends, she needs a name. Sunset looks her over and after noting her pearl-hued irises, calls her Irys. Hyper Gyaos gives a warm smile and says she likes it. From now on, her name is Irys. Sunset Shimmer shakes Irys' hand and says she guesses she is her first friend.
In the mall, the Sirens Sonata Dusk and Aria Blaze use their magic song to trigger hatred in the people so that they can feed on said hatred as well as shoplift without anyone noticing them. Said hatred is in the form of a green mist that flows off the people and into them, invisible to normal human eyes. Sonata looks up and sees Monster X moving towards them, unaffected by their song. She tries to get Aria's attention, but every time Aria turns, he's gone. Frantic, Sonata insists that someone creepy is stalking them, but she brushes her off until Monster X is almost right on top of them. Scared, they run behind a door and lock it, but he easily breaks through it. They run away, and Monster X notes their necklaces' effect on the people around him. Target Acquired.
