//------------------------------// // Over There // Story: The Other Side // by dashfire //------------------------------// AlterTwi opened the door, leading Rainbow Dash into her 'perimeters', which was really a apartment building in the middle of the city. Rainbow looked around the room. She noticed a newspaper on top of the desk, placed under a window view of uptown, with the headline "347 PONIES LOST IN AMBER FOR WORMHOLE IN FILLYDELPHIA SUBWAY SYSTEM". "Subway? What's a subway?" Rainbow asked, confused as she read the paper. AlterTwi turned to Rainbow Dash, surprised she didn't know what it was. "A subway's an underground transit system. Trains run through tunnels under cities so ponies can get to where they want faster... You don't have subways, where you're from?" Rainbow turned to AlterTwi, it was so weird to look at her 'friend' like this. She shoke her head. "Nope. I'm guessing my 'mother' told you." "That you're from the alternate universe and you're the missing princess of Eastern Equestria?" AlterTwi continued for Dash. "Yes." Rainbow shrugged. She looked out the large window showing a zeppelin floating over Central Park. The large aircraft felt intimidating to her. She wondered if she would ever be able to fly again. "What's she like?" Rainbow heard from behind her. She turned around to understand who AlterTwi meant. Seeing the expression on AlterTwi's face gave her the answer. "Well she's a lot like you I guess. Hair's different, your's kinda looks cooler. Different cutie mark though. You look like you know more about yourself than she does." AlterTwi, gave a wondering look. "Or maybe she's nothing like you at all..." Rainbow finished quietly. AlterTwi looked down, in her thoughts. She shrugs. "At least you said 'I'm cooler'." AlterTwi grins. Rainbow chuckles back. "You know when they find out about your return, you're gonna be famous." Rainbow looks at her. "How so?" "Well your kidnapping, it's a famous story." AlterTwi explained. "I'll get used to it, I'm kinda famous from where I'm from too." Rainbow reassured. "Really? How so?" "By performing a sonic rainboom!" Rainbow said, proudly. "A sonic rainboom?" AlterTwi asked, confused. "Lemme guess, you don't know what that is?" Rainbow said, disappointed. "No I know what it is, but it's not like it's hardly been done here. I'm sorry but you're not the only one who's performed a sonic rainboom before." AlterTwi said. "Not in this world at least." Rainbow was baffled. "What?!" "I'm sorry Rainbow." AlterTwi said. "Well, make yourself comfortable here. This will be your perimeter for now..." "So this is my home?" Rainbow interrupted. "Home?" AlterTwi asked, trying to repeat Rainbow's word as if were foreign. "I'm sorry what is a home?" "It's what we call the place we live in..." Rainbow said quietly. "From where I'm from." "Ohh, well in this world, we call it a perimeter." AlterTwi said. "But hey, if you're lucky you might be able to add a word into a dictionary." Rainbow smiled. "Yeah, maybe." Rainbow then began to notice a metal braclet on AlterTwi's right hoof. A red light is beeping from it. AlterTwi looked down at it and raised her hoof to talk into it. "Agent Sparkle." She said, like she's done so many times. "Mhm, I'll be on my way then." She then lowered her hoof back to the floor. "I'm on call for work." Rainbow nodded. "Okay then." "Talk to you soon." AlterTwi said, right before exiting the apartment. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BEEZ The window Twilight had opened to crossed closed right after Applejack walked through. "Ugh, what's that smell?" said Applejack, covering her nose with her hoof. Twilight is doing the same gesture. "Rotten books, tons of them!" The two ponies discover that they are in the same library as they were before, only this one has been abandoned and worn down. Books falling apart, the wood walls peeling off from erosion. Flies circling all over the place. "Let's get the hay outta here!" Applejack yelled. Twilight didn't fight back. They ran out of the library, into the fresh air. Both Twilight and Applejack inhaled as much freshair as they could. Twilight turned back to see that the duplicate library of her's was broken down and looked as it could fall at any moment. The whole color of it was dull and gray. "Uhh Twilight." She could hear Applejack say, behind her. "Ay think you should take a look at this." Twilight turned around to see all of what seemed to be Ponyville desserted. It was a ghost town. She could see Sugercube Corner down a few yards. The top has levelled into the foundation of the building. Not only that, but a large amber stone covered it with the other half of the village. "It seems that Ponyville has been abandoned." Twilight said, curious. "Ay think I noticed that. Ay wonder what that amber thing is for?" "HALT!" Came a roaring voice, seemingly from the sky. Twilight and Applejack resisted to move, not sure of what was going to happen to them. They soon saw two guards flying down, with a larger pony behind them. Their black silhouette hid their identity, until they landed on the ground. The guards looked like the ones from Celestia's castle and the other pony was Princess Luna! "WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE? BORDER CROSSERS? YOU KNOW IT'S AGAINST THE RULES TO CROSS THE BORDER WITHOUT PERMISSION!" "No! No! No!" Twilight jumped to say. "Princess Celestia send us here." "Princess Celestia, eh? Why would she do such thing?" Luna asked, unconvinced. "Well, we can't really, but just take us to her and we'll prove it to you!" Twilight said. "Please. My name is Twilight Sparkle..." "Twilight Sparkle?!" Luna said shocked. Twilight stopped. "You know who I am?" "Yes, of course! From the prophecy Celestia was given to years ago! You've come here to save our world?" Luna was becoming excited now. With her unicorn, she made a carraige appear. "Please follow us to the Canterlot Castle!" She said, turning to Twilight and Applejack. The two ponies exchanged looks and shrugged. The carraige ride seemed quicker than usual. Twilight looked down to see Ponyville, half covered in the amber. "What happened?" She asked Luna. Luna sighed. "It's been happening for twenty years now. Their has been no real explanation yet. But these wormholes started to appear, in both Eastern and Western Equestria." "Eastern and Western?" Applejack blurted out. "Of course, both nations had to resort to amber protocol to stop these wormholes, even if it does take pony lives and damage the environment, it is needed to save our world from collasping into itself." Luna explained. "And the prophecy said that you, Twilight Sparkle, will discover the reason to all this and fix it." "Fix it?" Twilight asked, unsure if she could. Luna nodded. "Yes." The carraige began to fly over Canterlot. Twilight noticed a tower completely covered in amber. "My Celestia." Twilight said in a low voice. She looked ahead of her and saw the Royal Castle, standing on the cliffside. Twilight wondered what was awaiting in her future and what the Princess Celestia here would be like. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AlterTwi walked into the headquarters of FRINGE DIVISION. "Twilight!" She heard from the side of her. AlterTwi turned to see Alternate Spitfire standing in the doorway of an office. This Spitfire had her hair down, instead of up. She gestured AlterTwi to enter. "Cherilee wants the team in her." AlterTwi follows Spitfire in. AlterTwi's team consisted of three ponies, herself, Spitfire and another a named colt named Clover. Clove had a dark blue mane and his coat was a lighter shade of blue. Alternate Cherilee stood in front of the three, as they lined up in front of her. Alternate Cherilee seemed much more tough and rigid. Instead of curls, her mane was completely straight, as if it was not cared about at all. She had a straight face when she spoke. "Twilight, Spitfire, Clover; there has been another spike of radio activity detected on our borders, around the same place we last detected it. Now since these detections are not close to being far apart, this is not a coincidence. We seem to have invaders from another world. Twilight," She spoke directly to AlterTwi, "I want you to take your team to the location of the radiation zone." AlterTwi nodded. "And where will that be ma'am?" "Ponyville, it is between the borders of Eastern and Western Equestria. It is also a fully quarantined town." Cherilee explained. "Becareful of crossing the borderlines of the country, remember the thirtieth parallel; no pony crosses it without permission. Don't want Princesses Celestia and Luna on our flank." "Ponyville is west from here, your journey will probably take you a half a day." Cherilee concluded. The team nodded. "We'll alert you when we arrive." AlterTwi said, and the three exited the office on their way to the quarantined.