//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: My Little Pony Adventure: Neck-and-Neck 
// by PhycoKrusk 
//------------------------------//

Following her experiences on the other side of a magic mirror, one Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Equestria, developed an interest in ‘the other places out there’; worlds beyond her own.

Naturally, this interest was hampered by the fact that finding other worlds proved to be anything but easy, but then, Twilight Sparkle was nothing if not determined. Though her research was frequently interrupted by local and national crises (and a trip to Manehattan) and threatened to take her another thirty moons or even longer, she eventually succeeded, and armed with an ample supply of paper, ink, and quills and with her closest friends on standby, she opened a ring-shaped portal and stepped into a new world.

This new world was inhabited by humans, although they were not the same humans that Twilight Sparkle had encountered during her journey through the magic mirror; it was not the same world she had encountered. There were no analogues to their Equestrian counterparts, and very, very few similarities between each of the worlds. They were so different that for a time, the Princess feared they would never find common ground, and even that armed conflict between the two would be unavoidable.

But only for a time, and a very brief one at that. Despite the differences between each world, these humans were happy to accept the friendship of Equestria, after some initial caution. In part, this was due to a sense of camaraderie felt because of the various disasters each world had survived, but it was due also in no small part to the presences of Mobians on Earth; otherwise ordinary animals that had been given intellect, speech and bipedal forms through the magical — and very little understood — Mobius Effect. Although greatly outnumbered by humans, Mobians were nevertheless integral members of society, and at the end of the day, ponies were really not so different from them.

The only trouble came from the portal itself; although it was not unsafe, it was unstable, requiring large amounts of energy to remain opened, and then only for brief windows of time. It was a problem, at least until a genius inventor devised a suitable power source. With only the windows of stability posing an obstacle, travel between worlds became no more complicated than purchasing a ticket for a very complex train that could only leave the station on certain days, the inconvenience of it enough to discourage mass population exchange.

What did readily travel between the worlds was information. News, of course, but also stories that were shared as much for information as they were in a grand game of one-upping each other. Stories of the dangers that each world faced, and the multitude of heroes that had saved them each time. As time went on, however, gradually two of them moved to the forefront, and the questions about them both mounted until finally, the questions were too much, and ponies, humans, and Mobians alike had to know:

Who’s fast, and who’s the fastest?