Act 1 Chapter 5
Act I: Collision of Worlds
Chapter 5: The Overview
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All in all, Twilight Sparkle had never thought she’d see the day where creatures from another world came to hers. Never mind the fact they’d be somehow morphed into something that didn’t look alien to her world—though she wasn’t quite sure why it happened all the same. And yet, here two such creatures were—one resembling a unicorn, the other an aged dragon (more aged than Spike, anyway). Such an opportunity couldn’t be missed.
“You really wanna do this, Twi?” Rainbow asked, “I mean, they just got here…”
“We don’t know how much longer they’ll be here,” Twilight responded, “For all we know, Princess Celestia could be making arrangements to send them home as we speak! I simply can’t pass up an opportunity to learn about another world—now that I know at least one actually exists!”
Corey and John looked to each other. If anypony paid special attention to Corey’s face, they’d have probably seen the briefest twinge of terror on his face. Incidentally, now that he was sure that things would be fine, his face hadn’t had much of an expression at all.
“Suit yourself,” The cyan mare said.
Since Rarity and Spike had yet to return—most likely because Rarity was still thinking of what she could do to help John’s situation—Twilight had taken the opportunity to construct a survey.
And she was about to start it.
“I have put together a list of questions I want to ask, before Rarity comes back,” Twilight said, in a tone of voice that was stern—one that, had Corey and John not been informed she was going to ask them questions, would have tipped them off she wasn’t going to back down from this. The list hovered in front of her—cloaked in the same magenta glow as her horn was, along with a quill and ink bottle.
“Uh,” Corey stuttered, his right hand obscuring his lower jaw, letting off awkward smiles, “Guess it’s not every day a primary source just…just drops into your laps, huh?”
John shot Corey a small look, the latter seemingly not noticing.
“I’m glad to see you understand,” Twilight said with a smile, “Alright, so my first question…” She held the quill with her left hand, tapping a part near the top of the list. “What do you guys usually look like, back in your world?”
“Um…” Corey said, attempting to answer, “Uh…For me, at least, not all that different—John wasn’t eight feet tall and doesn’t usually have scales, so he’s different—You see, we’re…uh…normally these creatures called…’Humans’…? Physically, not that different, but…but we can’t use magic or fly—and our ears are on the sides of our heads, and…I think, that’s more or less it—Oh! And we don’t have tails either!”
“Minor anatomical differences from ponies…no magic…” Twilight said, “I assume your world has no magic whatsoever, then?”
Corey nodded with a small, awkward grunt, while John nodded too.
“No magic?” Rainbow questioned, “How does the weather work then? I mean, does anypony control it?”
“Well, no,” The unicorn said, “It just kinda…happens.”
“The weather cycles like in the Everfree Forest?!” Rainbow asked, “Get out! The next thing you’ll tell me is that the animals in the wild don’t need special care!”
The ensuing silence told Twilight—and Rainbow, all they needed to know.
“Oh…oh goddess, you’re not joking…” said the pegasus, lightly shocked.
Twilight scribbled down the information she just heard, nodding, almost unfazed by that revelation.
It is a parallel world without magic, I suppose that much was to be expected, but still…
“So are all the humans in one country?” Twilight asked, earning her two very confused glances, “I mean…well, we’re in Equestria, and you’ll find mostly ponies in this country, but then we have dragon country out to the southeast, and griffons in another country, and so on…”
“Uh…no,” Corey said, “There are different kinds of humans all over the world…I forgot to mention, we aren’t covered in fur—or at least, not so much you can’t see the skin underneath—yeah, um…some people are…peach-colored, others, uh…chocolate-colored…” His face pinched a little, “Just some of the tones you’ll find. But no one over there’s like, green or blue or jet black or anything…”
“I see…” Twilight continued to scribble down notes, “All of this is very interesting…I might be able to find something on humans at least…Hmm…So, what’s human culture like? Is it any different from ours?”
Corey seemed to bristle. His face seemed to contort in discomfort, and he offered naught but a simple, “Um…uh…”
At this point, John put one of his massive hands on Corey’s shoulder, getting his attention.
“Oh, you want to take it from here?” Corey asked.
John gave a simple nod.
“Uh…alright,” Corey said, looking…relieved, maybe? “Makes sense…I really wouldn’t be able to offer much anyway…”
The dragon only nodded again, this time in a sort of understanding manner. Twilight felt somepony nudge at her side, and turned to see Rainbow, now looking slightly amused. With a simple scoff, the newly coronated princess turned to John.
“So…” Twilight glanced to her list. “Hmm…” She floated the list over to John. “If you can, keep it concise—I still have more questions to ask…”
John began to go to work, writing away, the quill scratching away. It took him a short while to get all his thoughts down. Corey just seemed to wait, taking glances at the paper’s direction. At one point, he fiddled with his glasses, but he pretty much offered no help to John.
John finished his answer, and passed the paper over to the lavender alicorn. It wasn’t too hard to read what John had wrote down.
“A lot more cultures than I can count…” Twilight repeated aloud, reading the human-turned-dragon’s answer. “Could you give me an estimate, so that I can have an idea?”
John wrinkled his nose, clearly thinking. Corey didn’t seem to respond at all. After several seconds, John made a motion towards the paper. The paper went back to John. He wrote his answer, and Twilight read.
“Fifteen, off the top of your head?” Twilight asked. She looked off to her left, as though considering something. Her focus entirely on John now, she decided to pass him the list, only on the blank side of the parchment. She hardly made two-sided lists, and given the time she’d figured she’d have to work with, hadn’t prepared an extensive one—extensive by her standards anyway.
“Would you mind writing down anything about the cultures you know about?” Twilight asked. It took a long while—John would often pause to think of what to write next, but she remained focused on the quill scratching its way across the paper, trying to predict what she was about to read, and yet knowing it was impossible to truly do so.
Eventually, though, John managed to finish his written work, and turned it back over to Twilight, who began to go over the writing there.
…a culture a human is part of depends on what part of the world is born in, similar to our world…
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Corey had slipped away from the group when John took over the interview, somehow having managed to avoid being spotted. Actually, Twilight had seemed far more focused on John’s notes than anything else at the moment. As for Rainbow, she looked like she was mentally nodding off from all the nerdy indulgence Twilight was doing.
Go ahead and let her know, Corey thought, Not like I can really say anything…besides, we know how…volatile I can get when it comes to that kind of thing…
He turned out the window, seeing shapes—distant pegasus ponies, no doubt—working on…something, he was sure. The former human stared out the window, looking through what he could see.
Even if nothing bad’s happening here right now, I still feel stupid for putting together the code… Corey thought, But why? Why was there code that did this? I’d have maybe understood it if it were a virus…a thing that was an insanely elaborate way to print “Thanks for watching the episodes, brony!”…but why did it do this, of all things? Why did it warp me and John here…?
“Hi…”
Corey was called out of his thoughts real quick by the sound of Twilight’s voice—yes, when he turned to the voice, he saw her looking at him. Behind her, he could see Rainbow with the paper with all of Twilight’s notes…setting them aside before turning to John.
“O-oh, h-hey…” Corey stuttered, not paying too much mind to that, more worried she was trying to talk to him. And…standing right next to him.
“You were so quiet I didn’t notice you had walked off…” Twilight said, “Everything alright?”
“Sorry, I—uh…” Corey stumbled over the ability to form speech, “I just wasn’t sure I-I’d be able to answer any of your questions. Like you saw…I’m not that good in…in conversation.”
“Well, you were under a lot of stress at the time,” Twilight was obviously trying to give him comfort, something which Corey had to give her credit for, “But now that everything’s fine, maybe we can try again?”
“I…uh…” Corey said, “Okay…?”
Anypony paying attention to Corey’s face might see the discomforted, shifting emotional expression on his face, almost as if he didn’t know what emotion he should have all of a sudden.
“So…um,” Twilight did catch the awkward tic, but it didn’t stop her. She cast a quick glance behind her—Rainbow was turned to John, but she couldn’t tell what was going on over there—but Corey was surprised to see her horn wasn’t lit up—she wasn’t floating the list over. “What do humans…” She paused, casting another glance behind her, much longer than before. Corey could just see her lower jaw slightly contort, as if she were biting her lip.
Does she want her list, or something…? Corey thought to himself, but Twilight soon turned back to him…shaking her head slightly?
“What do humans do for fun?” Twilight questioned.
“For fun…” Corey began to think.
Don’t wanna go into video games since I don’t have a visual aid…same with animating…She’d get sprites confused with mythical sprites…That leaves…
“Well, some humans tend to…make up stuff…like stories!” Corey hit his mark, and he felt it deep down. He felt safe talking about that particular hobby.
“Stories? So your world has books too!” Twilight responded, but Corey kept going.
“Right! Some of us do it for a job, others do…do it as a sort of…hobby…” Corey felt only a little hesitant in admitting this next part, “I’m one of them…”
“Really?!” Twilight asked, “so…um, how does…how does that work?”
Corey paused. Is she trying to make me feel comfortable…
However, he soon cast aside this thought in favor of his answer…
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“I don’t know where to start, really. It feels like...like I can do anything. Like, I can free myself from the shackles of daily life, and just go into something I made up, and build everything as it goes. The feeling is hard to describe, really…It’s like…like…the pen is merely a medium to transmit a river of creativity to the paper. The paper then stands as a tome to all of that!”
Listening to him speak now, you’d never guess he was the same guy who fumbled so badly explaining human technology—something’s he’s supposed to be a pro in, or something like that… John thought to himself. For that matter, you start wondering how he can’t talk to girls…
“You must write a lot, huh?” Twilight asked.
She’s clearly not asking him any of her questions anymore… John mused, watching the spectacle. Meh, whatever.
“I’ve been writing on the side ever since I was real young,” Corey confirmed, with all semblance of skittishness and anxiety vanishing now. “It’s been something I’ve worked at since I was incredibly young.”
John heard somepony on his left snicker. It wasn’t hard to realize who it was. Rainbow looked to him with an all-too mischievous grin. She made a small motion towards them, but didn’t say anything. Not that John needed to hear her speak to know where she was going.
John knew there was only one way he could get this pegasus to respond to his concerns. He took a deep breath—through his nose, before pressing his clawed hand to his throat. He reached out, touching Rainbow’s shoulder.
His face contorted, his throat tightened, and he began to, very carefully, force air out of his mouth in conjunction with moving his tongue. He spoke, very clearly, one word.
“Don’t.”
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Equestria’s capital city, Canterlot, was a fair way north of Ponyville. Towards the center of the much larger and louder city, stood Canterlot Castle, the home of the rulers of the land. Currently, the solar princess, Celestia, stood at the balcony of one of the towers, her gaze directed at the village she had just left. Her thoughts were entirely on the unexpected visitors she had left in the care of Twilight and her friends. She couldn’t help but wonder what was going through their heads, faced with a world unfamiliar to them, and in such unfamiliar bodies.
But with any luck, they shouldn’t need to worry for long. They should be able to return home… she thought to herself, Provided that he’s able to send them back.
She gazed out towards Ponyville for a few moments longer, before she closed her eyes, letting out a small sigh which came sort of close to a scoff.
“I would much appreciate it if we could skip your surprise appearance…” she mused, seemingly to herself more than anypony else, but Princess Celestia was not alone. Behind her, a large painting began to move and twitch, like something was inside of it. And indeed something was—it was beginning to remove itself from the canvas close to the bottom of the painting. It revealed itself slowly, sounding like a slice of cheese being peeled off of a piece of plastic.
The first thing to come out of the painting was a pair of black dress shoes, closely followed by brown dress pants. Next was a torso, covered by a yellow long sleeved collared shirt which was left untucked. The hands of the creature could not be seen, tucked away in the pockets of the pants. Finally, the head came out, the flesh gray and aged—a small white beard off the tip of the chin, and his eyebrows matched the beard. His hair was also white, but only towards the front while the rest was black, running down to the back of his head. Coming out from the top of his head were two horns, one ram horn, one elk horn.
It was Discord himself, spirit of chaos, and up until recently, malignant. Now, however, he seemed to be changing his ways for the better.
“Sorry, but as they say, ‘old habits are hard to let go of’,” he said, taking one last step forward and popping completely out of the painting. On his back were two wings: one blue pegasus wing, one purple bat wing. “Well, as requested, I have arrived.”
He bowed, spreading his arms slightly. The bow was only halfway done, though.
“Thank you,” Celestia said. To say that there was no reason to be concerned Discord was free wasn’t exactly true, but to say that he had stayed true to his word so far was true—he hadn’t done anything that could be considered him relapsing into his old ways, at least, not yet, “Now that you are here, I wish to speak to you—“
“About the temporal distortion from earlier?”
Celestia paused, raising a brow, “You already knew?”
The spirit of chaos only chuckled, “Well of course…”
One snap of the fingers later, Discord vanished, appearing a second later next to the solar princess, leaning against the railing of the balcony.
“I can pick up any form of imbalance that could transpire around us—I’d have to be a fool to allow something like that to slip by me unnoticed. That said, I still don’t know what exactly came through, so would you mind filling in the blanks?”
“Two beings from another world, one whose inhabitants are referred to as ‘humans’,” Celestia summarized.
“Humans, eh?” questioned Discord, for the first time showing what could have been interest, “Tell me, what do they look like?”
“Their appearances had changed the moment they entered our world,” Celestia continued, “One is now a unicorn, the other changed into a dragon…early adult stage, to be precise.”
Discord chuckled again, “Was that the dragon I’ve heard of recently, the one who attacked the town?”
“The attack was merely a misunderstanding. Once he was finally confronted, it was confirmed he was no threat. Now he and his friend are with Twilight awaiting for my return, which brings me to why I have called you,” Celestia finally turned to face Discord directly, “Your magic allows you to bend the reality around you to your will. So, would it also allow you to open a portal back to where they have come from?”
Discord placed one hand to his chin, seemingly going into deep thought after Celestia made her request. His moment of pause wasn’t for long, however. He put his hand back down upon railing, and gave his answer.
“Yes?”
A slight smile began to spread across the solar princess’s lips.
Well, that was easier than—
“And no.” Discord added a contradiction to his answer.
“What do you mean?” Celestia’s smile faded as she asked why Discord’s answer was as it was.
“The distortion that occurred closed as quickly as it opened, leaving no trace behind. By extension, it left no trace to its source,” Discord raised one hand, extending the index finger, using his magic to form a small white orb.
“As you know, with each universe that exists, there are an infinite number more,” The orb moved forward slowly, as more orbs seemed to come out of it, filling not only the outside but the inside room as well, “And with each world, there is a difference from the other.”
The orbs began to change, some changing colors, others changing shape, and still different ones changing size.
“Trying to search each of them individually would take far too long. Even if we had them narrow the list down to universes with humans, that would still leave far too many to search.” Discord closed his hands, causing all the orbs to change back and come together into one single orb, “Sorry to say, but without a way to trace them back to their original world…they’ll never return home…”
Princess Celestia frowned.
“You know, you shouldn’t scowl like that…” Discord said in a mocking tone, “They say it causes wrinkles…”
The solar princess’s attention was elsewhere, however.
So even Discord is unable to pinpoint alternate worlds…I had hoped I could tell them good news about the prospects of their safe return home, but…it looks like I’m going to have to be the bearer of bad news…
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Some time had passed at the library. Rarity and Spike had returned, the former ready to construct what was now taking shape as a sort of coat for John. John, meanwhile, had to do his best manikin impression so that she could go to work. Corey stood off to the side, eyes half-closed, looking towards the ground. Twilight was currently looking over the notes from earlier, waiting for Rarity to finish. Rainbow, meanwhile, leaned against the wall, looking half-asleep.
Why do I have to close my eyes, again? John wondered to himself, standing precisely still. He couldn’t see anything through his closed eyes, and as such, was starting to get curious as to what exactly the unicorn mare was doing. Slowly he tried to open one eye, hoping that he could get a glimpse of—
“Uh-uh!” scolded Rarity, covering the eye John tried to open, “No peeking, you don’t want to ruin the surprise, do you?”
John groaned a little, closing his eye again.
Now, Rarity, I know you have talent here, but I’ve only ever seen you design dresses, the dragon thought as his vision once more resembled a wall of darkness—the inside of his eyelids, Honestly, I’m afraid I’m wearing something like one right now. Wish I could say this out loud…
“And…” Rarity began, “Voila, it is done!” There was no mistaking the pride in her voice. John heard the sounds of something being moved—perhaps by magic? “Now open your eyes and see!”
Well, here goes nothing… John thought to himself, taking a deep breath, not knowing exactly what was covering him. Slowly, his eyes opened, and after they saw his reflection in the mirror in front of him, his eyes went wide in surprise. Whoa!
John found himself rapidly taking back all the complaints he’d had just two seconds ago, taking in the sight of his reflection. Over his upper body was a dark blue hooded sweater. However, Rarity wasn’t satisfied with just that; also on the design was a dragon’s head over the left arm and torso in black, contrasting with the blue.
“Well, what do you think?”
Writing my response… John paused, won’t be enough…
The human-turned-dragon took a deep breath, directing all his attention to his throat, making sure the air was going to the right spot. He turned to Rarity.
“Thank…you…” John rasped. Rarity was a bit shocked.
“Oh, he spoke!” Rarity exclaimed.
“Yup,” Rainbow cut in, “He said one word not too long before you got back…” She walked up to John, examining the new hoodie for a few seconds, before giving her own comment on John’s new wardrobe: “Nice threads.”
“I’m glad you all like it so much!” Rarity chirped, “I even made sure to include holes on the back for your wings.”
John turned around to see two wings perfectly sticking out through the back of the sweater, from about where his shoulderblades were.
Not bad… John thought to himself as he looked further at his wings, which were folded, So…how do I use these things?
He tried to focus on his wings, to see if he could feel the muscle on his back. One eye closed as he felt something twitch—faint, but still there. One moment later, his own wing snapped towards his nose, slapping him square in the face.
John blinked, not expecting the action to happen. Behind him, Rainbow broke out in a fit of laughter.
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All the while, Corey could only watch in envy. Not because John had just gotten fitted, certainly not because John played the role of manikin, but because of a much simpler fact. He lost control of separating his thoughts from voice once again.
“How can he be so calm…”
“What do you mean?”
Corey straightened up in posture. Did I say that out loud…
He looked over, seeing Twilight—of course, she was close enough to hear him.
“There’s a very good chance we might never be able to go home…” Corey stated, slowly moving his left hand to his forehead—minding the horn he was very aware was there this time—before resting it there, “How come I’m the only one who’s a nervous wreck…”
“Everypony copes differently, I suppose,” Twilight said in a reassuring tone, putting one hand on Corey’s shoulder, “But try and stay positive, I’m sure that Princess Celestia will return soon with good news…”
Corey turned his head to look at the purple alicorn, who was looking upon him with such a sweet, reassuring smile that he couldn’t help but feel compelled to relax.
At least, until a flash of light filled his vision—made worse by his glasses. Corey blinked, seeing the solar princess herself.
She’s back…Hope it’s good…
All heads turned to Princess Celestia. Corey couldn’t see her facial expression straight away. John didn’t quite get a good look either. She seemed to be dodging meeting their eyes directly for a time, her head hung. However, she seemed to quickly gather herself, looking up to address them—and the whole room.
“I am sorry, but your stay may be longer than you expected…” Her voice was sympathetic, but Corey just felt pathetic upon realizing what it was she was trying to tell him. The despair that had been eating at him ever since he realized what the code had done finally got past what little optimism he had left towards his and John’s situation.
Well, this is just perfect…we’re stuck in Equestria with no way back home…due to some code I decided to run…
The thought in Corey’s head that echoed most of all was:
It’s all my fault…
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It seems Corey was a bit too thorough in compiling* that codespell**. Not only transplanting them to another reality, but neatly sealing the breach behind them. Efficiency can be a bad thing.
*that's the right word, right? I don't know much about programming
**or spellcode. Either works
5001200
Compile would be the right word. As for the code thing, that will be revealed in due time.
5003926 Nice retaliation! I agree; the Daleks suck ass. But, they ARE kinda fun to RP as.
Ok. I remember the original story even after this time.
I know it has been a long while since you have put this one out there but I really like it!
Great improvement! I hope to see if your other(?) stories have progressed in talent as well.