It was another normal day in the quiet Equestrian town of Ponyville. The citizens went about their daily business, knowing that today was scheduled to be a sunny day. The sky was a perfect blue, the grass was a vibrant green, and ponies of all different colours flooded the streets, going from market stall to market stall, buying the necessities for living in a small, quiet town. Everypony was happy and content with their life on that day. Well, everypony but one.
The one pony in distress was Princess Celestia’s top student, Twilight Sparkle. Inside the Ponyville library, Twilight was performing an experiment issued by the princess herself, and she needed several rare ingredients, one of which being a very rare, very precious and very important gem known as a Red Diamond. Twilight had all of the necessary ingredients, the Poison Joke seeds mixed with water, the hollow Manticore claw, and the Red Diamond, all of which had taken a long time to gather up, but that was not what had her in distress.
What had angered her was that about half of the Red Diamond was in Spike’s stomach.
“Spike!” Twilight Sparkle shouted at her assistant. She was glaring directly at the baby dragon, who was trying to hide what he just did behind his back, to no avail. Twilight was glaring daggers at him. She had needed that gem for an important experiment, and Spike had gone and taken a large bite out of it.
“Uh, hey Twilight. I, uh…” stammered the tiny dragon. Spike had been caught red-hoofed, and he knew it. It took all of three seconds for the baby dragon to decide his plan of action: run. Run fast, and run far. Before he could follow up on his master plan however, Twilight placed her front left hoof on his tail to stop him going anywhere.
“And just where do you think you’re going, Spike?” Twilight asked him in a dangerous tone. Spike stared into her purple eyes and gulped. Spike stammered some more, unable to come up with anything, until at the last second, an idea shot through his brain.
“I was, uh…going to go see Rarity. Yeah, that’s it. I was going to go to Rarity, and see if I could replace the, uh, Red Diamond. I wasn’t going to run away.” Spike quickly spat out, his green eyes shifting side to side. Unfortunately for the baby dragon, Twilight was not an idiot.
“Spike, I needed that gem for an important experiment. Why did you eat it?” Before Spike could answer, she covered his mouth with the hoof that was holding his tail. “Don’t answer that, I know why.”
“I mean, really Spike, how could you betray my trust like that? You’re normally such a good dragon, and I hate to see-”
“Twilight.”
“-you doing things like this! Do you like hurting my feelings, Spike? Because if you do, I may as well-”
“Twilight!”
“-make you leave! I really needed that gem for the experiment, Spike! The princess will be so mad-”
“TWILIGHT!”
The sudden shout from Spike caused Twilight to go silent for a few seconds, which was enough to hear a few knocks on the door. Twilight looked at Spike with a mixture of disappointment and anger. “We’ll talk about this later.” Twilight then opened the door to see Rarity standing in front of her. Twilight’s mood immediately brightened. It was always nice to see one of her friends and fellow elements.
“Oh, Twilight, I do hope I didn’t come at a bad time, perhaps later-” Rarity began, until she was cut off by Spike.
“Oh, no Rarity, you’re welcome here anytime. Come on in!” Spike shoved Twilight out of the way, much to her chagrin, to make way for Ponyville’s seamstress, on which he had an enormous crush. He thinks it a secret, but everyone knows, even Rarity. Twilight could practically see the love hearts floating around him.
“Oh, thank you, Spikey-wikey!” Rarity said in a baby voice, which would be irritating to anyone but Spike, because not only is it Rarity who says that, but he is in fact, a baby. The white unicorn gave Spike a little pat on the head, and he was putty in her hoofs.
“Now Twilight,” Rarity addressed the lavender unicorn, walking right past Spike, “I came here today because I have the most spectacular idea for a dress, and no one else has the time to model it for me! I need to see how it would look on somepony, and you seem to be the only one available.” Rarity explained her predicament to Twilight, who was still rather annoyed at the recent loss of the Red Diamond.
Suddenly, Twilight had an idea of her own. She looked at Rarity, and decided to see if she could make a deal.
“Alright, Rarity. I’ll model the dress.” Just as Rarity was about to squeal in delight, Twilight cut her off. “But only if you help me find a Red Diamond later on. It is imperative to my experiment, and it took me forever to find one, so it might take a while, but I really need it.”
Rarity just looked at her bookworm friend oddly. “Twilight, why didn’t you just come to me in the first place? I have about five Red Diamonds. I usually use them on the really expensive dresses, but I’ll gladly give you one.” Rarity explained. Twilight just stood there, staring at Rarity, but not really looking at her. The white unicorn began to feel slightly uncomfortable.
“So…I spent almost four days looking for one out in Diamond Dog territory with Spike…when I could have just come to you?” Twilight said quietly. It was a dangerous kind of quiet, not the kind you really want to hear from anyone. As in ‘calm before the storm’ quiet. Twilight’s face slowly began turning red, and Rarity swore she could hear a teapot whistling somewhere. Twilight honestly looked like she was going to explode.
Rarity began to slowly back away. “Um, Twilight, dear, we should probably go get that gem you want, right?” she said, with a large cheesy grin afterwards. This seemed to help somewhat, as Twilight let out a ragged sigh, and though still obviously angry, followed Rarity out the door with a “Yeah, sure” spoken through gritted teeth. Before the door closed, Spike went to wave goodbye, when Twilight turned to look at him. Spike pretty much froze in fear.
As the two unicorns walked off towards Carousel Boutique to collect one of Rarity’s Red Diamonds, another pony approached them and asked something that Spike couldn’t hear. He saw they shook their heads “no”, and walked off. Spike noticed the pony in question was Fluttershy. The canary yellow pegasus looked like she was about to cry. Well, she looks like that most of the time, Spike thought to himself, but decided to go see what was wrong anyway.
“Hey, Fluttershy, you don’t look so good. What happened?” Spike asked her. In most situations, the shy pegasus would have spoken very quietly, but at the moment she was in distress, and spoke to Spike in a panicked manner.
“Oh Spike, it’s awful! Angel Bunny ran into the Everfree Forest! I’m afraid he might be hurt!” Fluttershy cried to Spike, before bursting into tears and falling into the little dragon’s arms.
Spike stood there for a few seconds, holding the crying pony and patting her on the pack, and then asked “Then why didn’t you go after him?”
Fluttershy stopped crying for a second and looked at Spike. “But…it’s the Everfree Forest…I don’t want to go there on my own…” Fluttershy whimpered in the most adorable way. She looked at Spike with her bright blue eyes, already wet with tears. “I can’t go out there, I’m too scared, and everyone else is too busy to help…but Angel Bunny could be hurt…oh, I thought that assertiveness class would help me…” and right after she finished that sentence, Fluttershy went right back to crying, though not as hard.
Spike had to think for a bit, but eventually came to a decision. “Well, Twilight doesn’t want me around for the moment anyway, so…” “Fluttershy, I could go with you if you want?” Spike offered with a forced smile.
Fluttershy stopped crying immediately. “Oh, thank you, Spike! I can’t thank you enough! We should get going right away!” Fluttershy said to Spike. After a second or two, she added, “If that’s alright with you…”
Spike rolled his eyes. “Yes, I’ll go, let me just go back to the library and leave a note.” And so, after leaving the aforementioned note, they headed out towards Fluttershy’s cottage, where the forest meets the Ponyville border.
///
About an hour later, after Twilight modeled for Rarity, the two girls had just picked up one of the Red Diamonds, and were heading back to the library. As they were doing so, Rarity was still confused as to what the experiment entailed.
“Twilight, tell me again what this experiment entails?” Rarity asked.
Twilight beamed, and began her explanation. “Well Rarity, what I am going to do is open a temporary inter-dimensional rift to a random location. If it works, this rift will gives us a few items from the other dimension. If not…” Twilight looked a little annoyed, “Then gathering all of those things will have been a waste.”
“Why does the princess want things from other dimensions?” Rarity asked, again confused. Twilight simply shook her head.
"I’m not sure, but I just assumed she wants confirmation that life exists in other dimensions.” Twilight scratched her head. “I think.”
When they arrived back at the library, they found that Spike was nowhere to be seen. The two called and searched for a few minutes, but he wasn’t there. “He probably went out for a while. Ugh, Celestia knows I need a break from him, anyway.” It was then that Twilight noticed the note that Spike had left. She used her magic to lift the piece of parchment.
Dear Twilight,
Angel Bunny is lost somewhere in the Everfree Forest. I went with Fluttershy to go find him. Don’t worry, we’ll both be fine.
Spike
Twilight sighed to herself. She turned to Rarity, “Rarity, would you like to stay and see the results? I mean, this could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!” The lavender unicorn was excited that the experiment could finally get done, and she could receive her approval from the Princess.
Rarity smiled and said “Well of course, Twilight. After all, it is a ‘once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’, as you said. So, what exactly do we need to do?”
Twilight quickly told her to head outside, behind the library, and to wait for her while she gathered the ingredients that she left around. Rarity complied, leaving Twilight to search. She had the Red Diamond on her at the moment, and she only had to look for a short while before the hollow Manticore claw was found, and the vial of Poison Joke water soon after. Smiling, Twilight finally set out to meet the white unicorn behind her residence.
“Alright Rarity,” Twilight motioned to the Red Diamond “I need you to levitate that in place while I make a hole with the claw.”
Rarity stared for a few seconds. “Um, Twilight dear, this is a diamond, yes?” Twilight nodded. “Diamonds are very solid, yes?” Twilight nodded again, sure of where this was heading. “So, how are you going to make a hole?” Rarity asked finally, somewhat sceptical about what was going to happen.
“Well Rarity, just levitate the diamond and I’ll show you.” Twilight stated. Rarity, still unsure as to how this would work, just shrugged and worked her magic.
Rarity’s horn began to glow a soft blue colour, and the diamond was enveloped in a blue field, and began to rise until it was at level with Twilights face. “Good Rarity. Now, please hold still.” Twilight then used her own magic, of a light purple hue, to lift up the Manticore claw. She placed the tip against the top of the diamond, and began to twist the claw back and forward, as if she was trying to start a fire. Not long after, there was a small hole in the diamond, much to Rarity’s shock.
“Alright Rarity, just hold still a little longer…” Twilight said, as she then used some more magic to life up the vial of Poison Joke water. She carefully poured it into the tip of the claw, which acted as a funnel for the water to enter the diamond. The blue water quickly filled the gem, which until now Rarity had not realised was mostly hollow. Finally, it was done. The Red Diamond with a glowing blue liquid inside. Rarity could not help but notice how…beautiful it was.
“Alright! Good work, Rarity. Now, I’m going to flood this gem with a particular spell. This will cause the gem to explode, and open a portal for a few seconds. We will then take the items for study!” Twilight bounced up and down. “Isn’t this exciting?” Rarity smiled uncomfortably. Yes, the prospect of new, never before seen items was exciting. Just not as exciting as the ecstatic lavender unicorn was making it out to be.
“Alright, let’s get started…” Twilight shuffled her hooves slightly, getting ready. “Rarity, you may want to stand back. I don’t want a shard of the diamond to hit you.”
The white unicorn looked horrified. “Oh, goodness, then I’d bleed! Red does not go with my mane!” But Twilight was already focused on the diamond.
She closed her eyes, focusing all of her power into the diamond. The gem began to vibrate and let off a low humming sound. It began to shake harder and harder, and became far louder, increasing in pitch as well. Cracks began to appear on the surface of the gem. Then, as it was about to reach its peak and explode, allowing Twilight and Rarity to be the first to see items from a different dimension…something happened.
Or rather, Pinkie Pie happened.
Just as Twilight was pumping the last of her power into the gem, a certain pink earth pony did what she did best, and appeared out of nowhere in front of Twilight.
“Hiya Twilight! What-“
“AHHH!”
Twilight would never get used to Pinkie Pie randomly showing up at any given moment, but now was especially bad, seeing as in surprise, Twilight cast another spell as a reflex. A teleportation spell. Nopony disappeared however. The diamond did.
The three ponies stood there in silence as Twilight contemplated what had just happened. Slowly, anger began to work its way into her features, and she turned towards Pinkie, glaring at her with murder in her eyes.
“Pinkie! Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Twilight shouted at her friend. Pinkie sat there, smiling dumbly.
“Nope, not a clue. Why do you ask?” Pinkie replied, staring at Twilight with a face of pure innocence. At this, Twilight exploded.
“I spent so long gathering the ingredients for this experiment, and you ruined it! I had a Manticore claw, which I had to hollow out myself, which took forever. You do not want to know what I had to do to obtain a claw. Then, I had to go get some Poison Joke seeds. My horn went floppy for a little while after that, as well. I had to go see Zecora for a remedy! Then, I had to trek out into Diamond dog territory to go and get a Red Diamond, and that took forever as well. Spike ended up eating it, and I had to find another one! Then, after all of that effort, you show up and scare the life out of me, and I teleport the ingredients to an unknown location! So, Pinkie, do you want to know what you’ve done? What you’ve done is-”
BOOM!
Twilight’s rant was interrupted by a large red flash from the Everfree Forest. The shockwave from what they could only assume to be an explosion flew past not long after, causing everypony to take a step backward. When it was over, the three stood in silence once more, while the rest of the town went into a commotion behind them.
“What you’ve done is saved everyone, Pinkie.” Twilight stated incredulously. She couldn’t believe it. Neither could Rarity. The two where in shock as to how large the explosion was. They were certainly not expecting that! Thank Celestia nopony was nearby, or things could have gotten bad.
It was then that Twilight remembered Spike’s note.
“SPIKE! FLUTTERSHY! OH NO!”
///
Not long beforehand, in a different dimension…
“Dammit! Dammit, dammit, dammit! And damn you!”
Geo was not happy. She was not the kind of person to take losing lightly, especially when the person she just lost to showed no reaction. As much as she loved playing video games, she could never beat her friend and roommate, Christian.
“It seems I win again, Georgina. You should practice more. Maybe then you might have a chance at success.”
Geo looked over to her left at her counterpart sitting on the couch next to her, controller in hand, slight smirk on his face, piercing blue eyes focused squarely on her. Smug bloody bastard.
The pudgy girl rose to her feet, and looked down at her gaunt roommate. “I challenge you to a rematch, Chris!” Geo announced, using the nickname he hated, hoping for a reaction.
Christian simply shrugged in reply. “As you wish, Georgina. I will just defeat you again.” In return, he used her full name, something she despised, causing her to grit her teeth further. This show of anger brought a smile to Christian’s face.
"I told you, don't call me Georgina! I hate that!" Geo yelled at her roommate.
Christian did not look amused. "Then do not call me Chris! That is an indication that my name is Christopher, which it certainly is not." Christian replied. His expression then returned to the smug smirk he had earlier.
“Are you sure you will not need more practice? I could allow some time between the matches…” Christian suggested, knowing she would be too proud to accept. He was proven right when Geo glared at him, grabbed her controller, and sat down. “Once more, Geo. Are you sure you do not require further practice? Practice does make perfect.” Again, he smirked, knowing exactly what was coming next.
“Yeah, but if practice makes perfect, and perfection is, as you put it, ‘universally impossible’, then…” Geo started, and the odd duo said the next part together:
“Why practice?”
Geo glared at Christian once again. “God, you suck! Why can’t you let me win for once? I mean, you always do nice things for women!” Geo cried, frustrated.
Christian simply pulled off another one of his trademark smirks and replied “Yes, I will be the first to admit that I treat women a little too well sometimes. However, I do not classify you as a woman.”
This ended with Geo punching Christian in the arm.
“So, make yourself useful. I defeated you, and we both know what that means.” Christian smirked once again. Geo sighed. “Fine. I’ll go get your damn Pepsi.” She walked towards the kitchen, “Next time, whether you win or not, I’m not getting you another one of these stupid drinks! I mean, how can you even drink this stuff anyway? Drink Coke like someone who doesn’t suck!”
Christian stood up to defend himself. “For your information, from a taste standpoint, Pepsi is far superior to Coca-Cola. It does not taste as sweet as Coke or leave that strange sugary film on your teeth, and it finishes crisp and clean without an aftertaste.”
The two continued to bicker, eventually drinking their cola choices and competing once again (Christian won, much to the chagrin of his female roommate) before it happened.
When it happened, the two were in the middle of another heated discussion.
“How couldn’t you cry? It was such a sad moment!”
“No it was not. The dog had simply died at the end of the movie. There was no reason to be sad.”
“Dogs are people too!”
“You have a warped definition of the word ‘people’. A creature with a conscience is not a person. Besides, it was just a dog.”
“Well, yeah, I suppose…but still, you’re a man. Aren’t men supposed to be attached to man’s best friend?”
“…”
“Yeah, a man’s best friend is a dog. A girl’s best friend is a diamond. I can see who the smarter sex is.”
“Indeed. The ‘best friend’ of a female is a chunk of super-heated carbon. The ‘best friend’ of a male is a creature capable of aiding in hunting, gathering and is a decent companion. Yes, I can see who the smarter sex is.”
“Dammit Christian, what the hell is your pro-”
BOOM!
It was at that moment that a bright red portal opened up in the room, quickly sucking several things inside of it, including the television, couch, coffee table and fridge. Christian was sitting close to where it opened, and was sucked in almost immediately. He didn’t even have time to make a sound. Geo, however, had a short amount of time to try and grab something, and scream at the top of her lungs as she was sucked in as well. And, almost as soon as it had opened, the portal closed, leaving no trace that it had been there.
Besides the ruined room, of course.
///
Back in the present time, in the outskirts of the Everfree Forest…
“Oh please Spike, hurry! We can’t waste any more time! Angel could be hurt with all of the nasty creatures out here!” Fluttershy yelled, or rather, her equivalent of yelling.
Spike and Fluttershy had been in the Everfree forest for just over an hour now, searching for Angel Bunny, with little success. Indeed, all they had found so far were some wild rabbits, a few birds, and even some timber-wolves. Besides the usual fauna and other scary elements of the forest, Angel was nowhere to be found.
In actuality, Angel had found his way out of the forest not that long ago, but Fluttershy didn’t know that. Nor did Angel know where Fluttershy was. Otherwise, he would have probably rushed to get her, because he knows how scared Fluttershy is of the Everfree Forest. He would also have nopony to feed him.
“Angel Bunny! Where are you?” Fluttershy called, again at her level of calling. Luckily Spike was there to at least make some real noise. The two called and searched, searched and called, but Angel just was not there, and they doubted Angel would delve too deep into the forest, on account of the many things living there that may not exactly see him as anything more than food.
“Angel!” Spike yelled, in a more frustrated tone. He could have been at home napping, or trying to impress Rarity some more. He wished he hadn’t agreed to this. Then again, this was Fluttershy, and if she couldn’t find Angel, she would never stop crying.
It may have been a good thing that the purple flash before the two distracted Spike from his less-than-friendly thoughts.
Fluttershy, being Fluttershy, squealed and hid behind Spike, trembling in fear as to what had appeared before them. Spike, being Spike, rolled his eyes. He had recognised the purple flash, and knew it was Twilights particular brand of magic. What appeared before them was not Twilight, however. It was a Red Diamond, filled with a glowing blue liquid. It was vibrating and letting off a high-pitched noise that was steadily increasing in pitch and volume.
“Relax, Fluttershy, it’s just one of Twilight’s experiments. No need to-” Spike began, before stopping himself. The little purple dragon thought back to when Twilight had told him about the experiment.
The Red Diamond will be filled with the Poison Joke water, and then the gem will be flooded with a special spell. Then, the gem will explode, opening a temporary portal to another dimension. From there, we will be able to study whatever items are sucked through, and hope that they prove life exists somewhere other than Equestria.
Then, the gem will explode, opening a temporary portal to another dimension.
The gem will explode.
EXPLODE?!
“Fluttershy! Run!”
But it was too late. Before they could take more than five steps…
BOOM!
The explosion had much more force and was far louder for the timid canary pegasus and the baby purple dragon on account of the proximity. The explosion flung Spike into a nearby bush. He was out like a light, but would be fine. But Fluttershy was blown into a tree, and hit the solid trunk head-first, and a shard of the gem from the explosion hit her in the fore-hoof, lodging itself inside.
The last thing she saw before she went out was a red patch in the air in front of her, and Spike calling her name.
This was the very first act that sent a chain of events into motion, which would change Ponyville forever…
And this change would come in the form of two strange creatures named Christian and Georgina.
Sorry, Geo.