//------------------------------//
// Shenaniganery 
// Story: Destination: Thataway! 
// by Hawattie 
//------------------------------//

	We stood before the ornate wooden door which (presumably) led to Ner's inner sanctum/lair thing. I turned to my friends. "Y'all ready for this?" I asked.
Fphant nodded resolutely. The Courier shrugged. Aquapony shook like a leaf.
"Alright, that's what I like to hear!" I exclaimed. I turned back to the door and studiously ignored Fphant muttering that none of them had said anything. Summoning up all of my bravado I kicked the door wide open with gusto, ready for anything.
A howling maelstrom of swirling hot pink clouds raged through an infinite void beyond the door. Jagged chunks of what looked like ice whistled like bullets through the pink clouds. I had no sense of scale, but I imagined that what we were viewing was titanic in scale. As I watched a second door identical to the one I'd just kicked open materialized a stone's throw away from us. The second door opened much less violently than mine had and I blinked when I saw that it was myself opening it up.
For a brief moment I locked eyes with myself. Then the other me smiled and waved. I waved back. Both of our hooves glittered prettily in the light given off by the howling pink clouds. "Damn," I whistled, "that is one sexy pony over there."
Over the other me's shoulder I saw another Fphant face-pawing. I glanced back to see my own Fphant making an identical gesture.
I closed the door.
"What the hell just happened?" the Courier angrily asked the ceiling.
"Whoops!" the ceiling replied in Ner's voice. A metaphorical screech nearly filled the room and almost shattered our eardrums. "Try that again."
I tried the door again.
The same howling pink maelstrom greeted us, but if I wasn't mistaken we were viewing it from a different perspective this time. Also, there was a door a stone's throw away which contained another me. 
For a brief moment I locked eyes with myself. I smiled and waved at the other me. He waved back. Both of our hooves glittered prettily in the light given off by the howling pink clouds. I could faintly hear the other me exclaim how sexy I was.
I glanced over both of my shoulders. Sure enough, both versions of Fphantom were face-pawing.
The other me closed his door and I followed suit.
"Sorry," Ner' apologized before the Courier could say anything. "We had to complete that stable time-loop or else the paradox would've killed us all."
The Courier, undaunted, still had a question to ask angrily. "What the hell was all that pink shit?"
"You know how I said you're from a different universe than ours?"
"Yeah, what of it?" the Courier crossed his arms huffily.
"That 'pink shit,' as you so eloquently put it, is the space between your universe, this universe, and all the other universes."
"And you just happen to have a doorway that opens up into that lying around?"
"Hey, now!" Ner' sounded mildly offended for some reason. "I don't go around criticizing your life choices, now do I?"
"I... but, what?" the Courier spluttered. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that Fphant and Aquapony were munching on some popcorn that they'd found lying around somewhere. I walked over and joined them.
"Do you think they'll ever stop bickering?" I asked Fphant while stealing a hoof full of popcorn.
"Uhm, yes," the Courier said. He also walked over and took some of Fphant's popcorn. "Especially since we didn't ever start bickering."
I raised a single skeptical eyebrow. "Then what would you call what you two were just doing?"
The Courier held up one finger to signal me to be patient as he chewed through the last bit of Fphant's popcorn. Fphant looked put out that we'd eaten all of his popcorn and tried to reach for some of Aquapony's. He was unsuccessful, as Aquapony saw the move coming a mile away and shielded his popcorn with a hoof.
Eventually the Courier swallowed his popcorn and let out a belch. "Ah, those food thingies tasted good. What are they called?"
"You don't know what popcorn is?" Aquapony blurted incredulously. Fphant snuck a handful of popcorn away from him while he was distracted. I did too.
"Nope, we either never had it in the first place back on Earth or it was all destroyed when the world got nuked to hell." Fphant and I finished off the last of Aquapony's popcorn. The Courier turned to me. "Now, in answer to your question..."
"What the heck, guys!" Aquapony exclaimed, cutting the Courier off. "Why'd you eat all my popcorn?"
Fphant shrugged apologetically. Or at least I think he did. I never could quite tell what he was doing. "Because it was tasty and you were distracted?"
"That's no reason to steal my food though!"
"Sure it is," the Courier supplied. "I've known of people who've been killed for less."
Aquapony leveled a sharp glare at the Courier. "Maybe in whatever bass-ackwards place you come from, but this is Equestria!" he shouted with a stomp.
"...Land of the popcorn thieves!" I added, stomping the same way.
Ner' chuckled from the ceiling. "Now this is bickering."
"Shush you!" Aquapony yelled, shaking his hoof at the ceiling for emphasis. If this were any other place I'd have thought he looked like a crazy person right then. "You just focus on actually making that door go where it should and keep your nose out of our bickering!"
I opened my mouth to say something stupid but instead got a taste of Aquapony's hoof. It tasted like dirt with a hint of butter. "If you only have stupid things to say then don't say anything at all," he told me. He removed his hoof and I closed my mouth with a snap. "Is that door ready yet?" he asked the ceiling.
"One moment please," Ner' said coolly, "it's not like manipulating dimensions is easy or anything." A soft ding, like that from a microwave, came from the door. "You should be good to go."
"Finally," Aquapony seethed. With no warning whatsoever he had his teeth clamped down around my ear and I was being dragged bodily towards the door. "Come on then," he growled around his mouthful of me, "we're going thataway!"