Shimmering Sunsets

by Evowizard25

Science and Magic, BUCK YEAH! {Sunsetverse}

The sun was shining, the birds were singing, the weather was (finally) under control and pretty. All in all it was a beautiful morning.

Masquerade was quite upset to be seeing it. "Figures I had to stay up late visiting ponies that get up before dawn." she grumbled.

"Force of habit." AJ and Sunset said in almost perfect sync, the two of them fully awake despite the early hour.

Quickfix hummed an old Northern war tune. “Good mornin’ ye lot. Lovely day fer inventin’.”

Mask groaned. "Is everypony besides me here a morning mare?"

“Pretty much,” Quickfix piped up. “Lightnin’s already gone ta clear some whether an’ her head. A little trainin’, ye know. Fiddlesticks,” she picked up a note. “Off ta party with kin, whatever that means.”

"I already swung by home ta let Ma know where I was last night." AJ said. "She was mightily happy it was just a sleepover."

"And I'm almost fully charged and ready to break some wards." Sunset said, smiling.

"Huh." Mask grunted. "...wait, they're letting Lightning work weather? Does she even have training for that?"

“She’s the Ponyville Weather Captain,” Quickfix answered. “She’s got experience...and her dad’s influence.”

"Okay, seriously," Mask said, rubbing her eyes, "the coincidences are a bit much now. If it weren't for the fact that the elements don't match, I'd suspect Dust was Dash in disguise."

“That bad?” Quickfix asked, eyeing whatever machines or tools she could find. Which, on the first floor, didn't go much beyond a couple of electrical kitchen appliances.

"Yeap." AJ agreed, nodding. "Wonderbolt potentate weather captain of Ponyville who's a Bearer and got their Element by teaming up with Sunset against Nightmare Moon."

“.....Ye have a point,” Quickfix lamented. “Sounds mighty peculiar, but perhaps it’s because our worlds are so close.”

"Close?" Sunset snorted. "We don't even magic the same way."

"Well, maybe it's not that big of a coincidence." Mask said. "The weather captain would meet with the representative, Sunset, and so have a connection to her that would blossom into going on the quest, since a weather captain has to be bold, determined, quick on their wings, and dedicated to doing their duty. Ideal hero fodder there."

And then, Fiddlesticks appeared out from under the rug. “That’s clever,” she patted Mask’s nose, placing a gold star there. “Ya earned it.” She trotted out the door.

"...I swear I am going to find a ward against party-mancy one day." Sunset muttered. "Wonder how much longer Lightning's going to be?"

Fiddlesticks poked her head back in, pouting. “Aww, placin’ a ward? That’s harsh.”

Mask was entirely too tired to deal with this. "Coffee."

"In the kitchen." Sunset replied as she cleared off a small table, and spread out a runicly marked cloth, a mystical circle inscribed upon it.

“Applejack,” Fiddlesticks asked. “Quickfix said auntie was mighty miffed at me. So…” She looked away. “When ah throw the party, is she gonna yell?”

"Nah...I think. She ain't much fer parties. She thinks they're a bit of a waste." AJ admitted. "She's very serious bout work, keepin' the family farm runnin'."

“All work an’ no play make a mare plain,” Fiddlesticks commented. “Ah’m gonna show Auntie a good time ‘fore ah leave, mark my words cuz.”

"If we're all done, I need quiet to concentrate." Sunset said in a huff, the journal laying in the center of the cloth. "I'm going to need to focus if I'm going to disable wards made by the Starswirl."

“Pfft,” Quickfix scoffed. “Sounds simple enough. Ah got just the thin’...back in mah lab.” She frowned. “...’Kay, not so simple now.”

“Don’t ya worry now,” Fiddlesticks patted her back. “We’ll find ya a lab quicker than a turtle on soup day.”

"Anything is quicker than that." Mask grumbled. "And you haven't checked out the lab in the basement yet?"

Quick as a flash, Quickfix ran downstairs laughing like a madmare. “SWEET TECH, HERE AH COME!”

“Whelp,” Fiddlesticks piped up. “That’s out of the way...Well, until she invents somethin’ that comes ta bite us in the flank later...Which happens a lot. Hopefully, it ain’t a killer robot again.”

"I doubt she'd be able to do that." Sunset rolled her eyes. "It's near the end of the month, so Sparkle's used up most of her supplies. All that's left down there is some basic regents,a couple boxes of scrap, and any of her gadgets that are still working...Spike, did Twilight remember to dispose of her failed gadgets this month?"

"Uhhhh....maybe?" Spike said, shrugging.

"...you guys go make sure she doesn't destroy us all, I'll get to work on the wards." Sunset said, turning back to her book.

“Ah make no promises,” Fiddlesticks happily chimed as she trotted downstairs. From the lab were several sparks and the laughter of a clearly mad scientist.

The lab was rather neatly arranged. Half was dedicated to alchemy: flasks, burners, beakers, vials, and cauldrons of various sizes were meticulously arranged on shelves, along with many clearly label jars of ingredients sorted carefully by nature and potency. Another quarter was dedicated to the various gadgetry that worked, storing them until needed. The last quarter held work tools and stations, some scraps, and the latest gadgets that were scheduled to be scrapped. Little notes such as "Caution: High Unstable", "Handle With Care", "Do Not Touch", and "Don't Even Look" were fixed to them, the last being on a device covered in heavy blankets and duct tape.

“Deus Mechanicus be praised,” Quickfix cheered. “So much ta tinker. So much ta make. Oh what laws of nature can ah break today, ah wonder.” She trotted over to the working gadgets. “Don’t ye worry, Auntie Quickfix is gonna take good care of ye.” She smiled, which was honestly unnerving.

Twilight's working inventions were, naturally, clearly labeled. There was the full spectrum magic encephalopathy device, which looked like a colander with wires and blinks lights connected to a machine with an ink needle and lots of paper. Another was the sarcasm detector, a small black rectangle with a gauge needle that went from 0 to 100, with a note indicating to not use when Sunset was around. The third was a Universal Translator, noted as "only works on squirrels, working on improving". The final working gadget was the Emergency Pomegranate Launcher, which looked like it was a very lightly modified tennis ball launcher. It had a note saying "emergency use only" written in bright red ink, triple underlined for good measure.

“Well science is a good enough emergency fer me,” Quickfix picked up the launcher and held it like a baby. “Aww, so cute.” She lightly turned her gaze to the translator. “Hmmm...that could do.” Immediately, she trotted over to the translator, putting the launcher down. She lightly rubbed a hoof over the machine, softly praying to the machine god which sounds quite strange and ‘broken’ to the outside ear.

"Hey Quick, Sunset wanted us to make sure you don't make a death robot or something." Mask said, flapping down the stairs past Fiddlesticks, Applejack bringing up the rear. "Also making sure you don't mess with the pomegranates."

“Ah make no promises,” Quickfix replied, grabbing a few tools with her magic. She cast her gaze over the translator. “Let’s see how ye tick.”

Mask quirked an eyebrow at that. "I don't think it has any clockwork."

“It’s a phrase,” Quickfix huffed, slowing starting to work on the machine. She took it apart slowly, praying over every piece and casting a curious gaze on each one. Circuitry, wires, a small scale differential engine, a large battery, a gramophone speaker, a large amount of duct tape, and an Oxford Complete Equish Dictionary, 17th edition. “No crystals, hmm? Darn, but…” She looked over the circuitry and other items. “Fascinating...Ah’ll have ye runnin’ in no time.”

"Uhuh, and you of course tested how it did work before you took it apart to try and improve it." Mask said, causing the sarcasm detector to crackle as it jumped up to a solid 47.

“Ah know how it works,” Quickfix tapped her head. “Memorized it as ah was takin’ it apart.”

"Ah right, super brain power." Mask said. "Fiddlesticks, got anything you want to add?"

“Urge ta push random buttons, risin’.” Fiddlesticks glanced around herself.

"Not in a lab! Plus, none of them are shiny or red. We live with Pinkie, Twi knows better than to do that." Mask pointed out.

“...Okay,” Fiddlesticks pouted. “How about just….”

“NOOOO!” Quickfix shielded the machines behind her. “NOPONY TOUCHES THEM!”

And that's when the explosion upstairs happened.

****************

Twenty Minutes Earlier

"You sure you want to help out?" Raindrops asked, flapping along. "I mean, you're technically our guest, you shouldn't have to work weather here."

“How else am I supposed to train?” Lightning piped back. “I’m not just going to loaf around while you guys do all the work. Seriously, what kind of slob would do that?”

"Thunderlane." Raindrops said without hesitation. "He does enough to keep his job, and complains the whole way."

“......I honestly don’t know how to respond to that,” Lightning muttered. “I mean, I know this town is topsy turvy in some ways, but Thunderlane..” She shook her head. “Not gonna think about it.”

"Probably for the best." Raindrops huffed. "Listen, technically you aren't licensed, but with Dash missing, and Flitter and Chaser out ill, we need every wing we can get. Look, how about I slip you in on wild watch with Ditzy? As good as you say you are, the two of you should be enough and should free up the others for regular weather duty."

“Fine,” Lightning huffed. “I’ll pick up your slack. So where is Ditzy?”

Raindrops gestured with her head. "Watch cloud over there, let the other three with her know to report to me."

“Got it,” Lightning zipped over fast as her name’s sake to the cloud. “Yo Ditzy, Raindrops sent me to report to you.” It felt strange ‘reporting’ in for weather duty. She was the captain of the weather team, not a recruit.

The mare in question turned her topazes to gaze at the new pegasus. "Ah, the alien right? Raindrops told us about you. What's up?"

“......” Lightning was taken aback by Ditzy’s eyes, but then told herself that this was a different Ditzy. This one didn’t have her trademark ‘wall eyes’...and was allowed on the weather team. “Nothing much. Just checking in on you guys. I was Captain of the weather team back home, so I thought I’d lend a hoof.”

"Uhuh, and did Raindrops approve of that?" Ditzy asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“She sent me over to you,” Lightning huffed, crossing her forelegs. “Duh. I know how this works, you know.”

"Right, so who are you freeing up for the work around town whose allowed to be seen working weather?" Ditzy asked.

“Raindrops said that you and me should go on wild watch for a bit,” Lightning answered. “No sweat.”

Ditzy blinked, then glanced at the other three with her. "Really? You're replacing the rest of the watch yourself? Alright. You three heard the mare, Raindrops wants ya. Flap to it."

"Yes Lieutenant Doo!" one of the pegasi snapped off with a quick salute before the three of them sped off.

Ditzy sighed. "I keep telling Sunshine he doesn't have to salute, we're not military."

“But we’re still pegasi,” Lightning quipped. “War runs in our veins. Still, if he keeps doing it, I think he’s just trying to annoy you.”

Ditzy snorted. "Annoying the third in command is not a smart career move."

“That’s obvious,” Lightning quipped. “So, let’s get to it. Chop chop, we’re burning daylight.” Her role as captain kind of took over a bit.

"Settle down girl." Ditzy said. "Wild watch is mainly being patient and keeping an eye out. Some days we wind up doing nothing, others we need all wings on deck cause the Everfree is throwing a fit. Unless something happens, we mainly just sit here keeping an eye out for trouble."

Lightning sighed. “Really? Just sitting back and doing nothing? Lightning Dust does not just do nothing. I’m a mare of action.” She sighed even deeper. “Still, that’s the ropes. Lead on.”

"Right. I'm sensing some pressure shifts off to the right a bit away, feels like a wild cold front. Fly out that way a bit and check to see if there's anything forming over there? And be sure to keep an eye out for cross currents and hot spots."

“On it,” Lightning sped over to space and let the air trick over her feathers. “Nothing too bad so far. Though, I think there might be a couple light rainstorms coming this way.”

"Really? Hold on, I don't have the best distance vision." Ditzy said, pulling up some binoculars. "Ah I see...aww pluck me, those aren't rain clouds, those are thunderheads."

“Well so much for sitting back,” Lightning smirked. “Do you want to wait and see if they change course?”

Ditzy snorted. "Not much of a choice, as long as they're in the Everfree's wild magic zone we can't touch them. I really hope they do though, I don't want them hitting that cold front."

“Well pull up a cloud then,” Lightning laid herself back. “Even if they do make it here, it won’t be for a while.”

"Yeah, I know. Waiting's the worst part in situations like this." Ditzy said, sighing as she landed next to Lightning. "So, out of curiosity, what would be your plan of action for if they were going to hit that cold front?"

“I’d take them out myself,” Lightning said. “Well...maybe. Honestly, I’d bring in a team or two to back me up. I’ve learned a lesson or two about pushing myself.” She clenched her jaw, huffing in anger. “All too well.”

"Yeah well, good news is there's no warm front with those thunderheads, so we ain't looking at a wild twister." Ditzy shuddered a bit. Wild wind storms were nasty, much worse than the controlled ones pegasi would make on occasion, and many other ponies considered such controlled affairs terrifying enough. "So we're looking at either a lightning storm, or maybe even thunder hail if the air is dry enough."

“Seems like it,” Lightning nodded. “Simple stuff.”

That was when a small purple unicorn filly, covered in feathers, popped up through the clouds. "Hi mommy!" she said before falling back down...only to bounce back up a couple seconds later. "Hi alien monster pony." she said before falling back down.

“Again with the monster pony,” Lightning huffed to herself. She waved at the filly when she bounced the next time up. “Hi Dinky.”

Dinky gasped...and continued her interrupted gasp on her next bounce. "Wow can you-" "-read minds Miss-" "Alien?"

Rolling her gems, Ditzy grabbed her daughter on her next bounce with a wing, flopping her on her back. "Dinky, what did I say about using a trampoline while I'm working like that?"

"Um, only if it's important." Dinky said. "But it was! I wanted to meet the alien!"

“Well who wouldn’t want to meet me,” Lightning stood up proudly, her wings out and her chest puffed out in pride. “I’m awesome.”

Ditzy rolled her gems. "I take it sense you know her you're familiar with the versions of us in your world?"

“You’re the local mailmare,” Lightning said. “Also, you don’t have gem eyes. Just your usual cross eyes so...yeah, she’s a bit of a klutz. I don’t think Dinky’s any different than ours though.”

"Really? I got feathers there too?" Dinky asked, surprised. "Cool."

"I still got my old eyes there?" Ditzy asked. "And I'm working mail? Well, I shouldn't judge her life choices. I'm not her after all."

“No you don’t have feathers, Dinky.” Lightning said. “And our Ditzy’s honestly a good mailmare. Yeah, she could get ‘new’ eyes, but it would kind of go against her religious beliefs.”

"...ah." Ditzy said. "Well I can't speak out against that. My friend Golden Harvest does some odd things on occasion for her beliefs after all."

"So I'm not a hybrid over in your world?" Dinky asked sounding...oddly disappointed. "So, am I a normal unicorn then?"

“Kind of,” Lightning said. “You can do a little weather manipulation, like walking on clouds and stuff without spells though.”

"Really?" Dinky asked, amazed. "I've been working on trying to do that too, but with spells cause I need to cast spells to walk on clouds. I can't do it yet but I'm getting better at the basic stuff. I can almost levitate a whole book! And not a picture book, like a big grown up learning book!"

“Good job, squirt.” Lightning ruffled her mane with a hoof. “You’ll be throwing spells left and right in no time. Who knows, if you work hard enough, maybe you’ll become an alicorn or the next Starswirl.”

"That would be mega plucking awesome!" Dinky said, then realized what she just said.

"Dinky Diana Doo!" Ditzy scolded. "You know better than to use language like that!"

“Ah just let her have that one,” Lightning shrugged. “My mom never cared if I swore.”

"I don't let Rainbow Dash get away with it around my daughter, and she's my boss and one of the mares that saved the world...twice." Ditzy said. "My daughter is not growing up to be some foul mouthed thug living on the streets of Manehatan as part of some gang until while high on drugs she gets shanked by some crazy homeless pony and bleeds out from damage to her liver."

"...my mommy has a very vivid imagination." Dinky explained.

“Huh,” Lightning said, blinking a few times in thought. “That’s exactly what my Ditzy said to me...Then she threw me out the door. She’s rather overprotective of her kids.”

"Yes well I...wait, kids, as in plural?" Ditzy asked, shocked.

“Yeah...wait, you didn’t have Sparkler in this world?” Lightning looked equally shocked.

"No, she's not my kid...in this world anyway. Here, she just babysits Dinky a lot." Ditzy explained.

"She's like a sister." Dinky said. "We're even going to do the Sisterhoof Social together."

“Huh,” Lightning said. “Odd. Just a babysitter here? I don’t know how my Ditzy would care to hear that.”

The local Ditzy shrugged slightly, careful not to dislodge her charge. "I don't know what to say to her having an extra daughter. It's just...weird. Anyway Dinky, Mommy has to get back to work. We have some wild weather coming in, so I'm setting you down, and then I want you to get indoors okay?"

"Yes Mommy." Dinky said as she rode her mother's gentle spiral to the ground. "Bye Mommy! Bye Miss Alien! I'll be by later with the rest of the Crusaders to catch you!" And with that she dashed off.

“Cute as ever,” Lightning chuckled, shaking her head in mirth. “So….” Lightning wasn’t sure if she should ask if this Ditzy still had a husband or not. She was curious, but it was a real touchy subject for her own Ditzy. “...Anything else?”

Picking up her binoculars, she took a look out over the forest. "Hmmm, nope, nothing's changed out there, both in a good way and in a bad way." The way she said it, it was hard to tell if she picked up on Lightning's subtext or not.

“Ah,” Lightning nodded. “Same old, same old then. Well, if we’re going to be stuck here for a while, got anything to pass the time?”

"...a game of eye spy?" Ditzy suggested, grinning.

“Eh, better than nothing.” Lightning shrugged.

"Alrighty then. Eye spy something...yellow." Ditzy started off.

“Is it my mane?” Lightning quipped.

"Nope." Ditzy said, shaking her head.

“Your mane?” Lightning asked.

"No, it's not anypony's mane." Ditzy said.

“Is it that little bird fluttering in the trees?” Lightning glanced at the treeline.

Ditzy nodded. "Nice, yeah it's the tree warbler."

“A bird’s a bird,” Lightning said. “‘Sides, Hawks are cooler. That and I never cared for the feathers. They are so annoying when they get stuck between my teeth and all that.”

Ditzy shoot Lightning a flat look at that.

“What? I just don’t care for eating birds.” Lightning shrugged. “Maybe if I’m agitated, but still. Never saw the appeal.”

Ditzy blinked. "Oh I thought you were talking about preening and, never mind it's your turn."

Lightning tapped her chin a few times. “I spy something….white.”

"Cloud?" Ditzy asked, going for the obvious first.

Lightning chewed on her lip in frustration. “...Yes.”

"...okay then. Eye spy something else that's white."

“A rabbit?”

"Nope." Ditzy said, "I don't even see any rabbits around."

“I do,” Lightning licked her lips. Then she shook her head. “Right, focused. Let’s see….That gazebo?”

"Nope." Ditzy said, shaking her head.

“Ugh, then what is it?” Lightning snorted.

"What? You're giving up already?" Ditzy taunted.

Lightning glared at her. “Oh hay no,” she glanced around. “A dove?”

"Nope, none of those around here." Ditzy said, looking around.

“Oh then-” And then a dove smashed into Lightning’s face.

“YER WELCOME!” Fiddlesticks voice shouted out from below, before she sped off.

"...is she related to Dr. Pie?" Ditzy asked, stunned.

“No,” Lightning brushed the dove off and it flew away. “By Celestia’s holy mane, no. Hay no. I don’t want to think about that ever happening.” She shivered at the thought of Fiddlesticks actually being related to the changeling princess.

"Actually," Dr. Pie noted as she floated by on her gyrocopter, "I am a fifth cousin twice removed by a third cousin of Applejack's, so technically speaking I am related to her, just not her dimension's her. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get to Canterlot, and trains are too slow. Pony pedal power!" She then proceeded to shoot off in a pink blur.

“......It’s like looking in a mirror,” Lightning frowned. “A horrible mirror….”

Just then, Fiddlesticks bounced up gasping. “Then that-” bounce “means ah-” “can invite-” “our Pinkie-” “Over! Best family ever!”

“HAY NO!” Lightning pushed Fiddlesticks head down.

“HAY YES!” Fiddlesticks laughed as she sped off again.

"...well good luck with that." Ditzy said. "...wait, I put away the trampoline, how was she bouncing like that?"

“We have a saying from where I come from,” Lightning said. “It’s Fiddlesticks, don’t question it.”

"Our version is Pinkie." Ditzy noted. "So...you're an omnivore. What's that like?"

“Oh you know,” Lightning shrugged. “This and that. We don’t ‘have’ to eat that much meat and some of us try not to. ‘Course we are a culture of fighters. A lot of us like to hunt for a snack here and there. Mostly rabbits and stuff. It’s more effort for your food than you herbs, but I think it’s worth it.”

"Herbs huh? Nice slang." Ditzy said smirking. "Well good news, the cold front is dissipating, so it'll just be a lesser storm when it hits. The two of us can handle that no problem."

“Bummer,” Lightning mock pouted. “I was hoping for a bit of a challenge.”

"This isn't training, it's keeping the town safe." Ditzy noted. "If you just wanted a challenge I'd have suggested Dash's obstacle course."

“I might try that out later,” Lightning commented. “But you’re right. Sorry, my father...” Lightning grit her teeth her anger at the thought of the pony. “Never mind. I just like pushing myself is all.”

"Got ya. Lots of pegasi here are competitive too. Heck, I do some amature leage precision flying." Ditzy said. "Some ponies think I should go pro, but I'm not that dedicated to it. Plus, with that kind of schedule I couldn't spend a lot of time with Dinky."

“Well at least she has a mom,” Lightning lamented. “That’s good to hear anyways.”

"Ah...sorry to hear that." Ditzy said, nodding. "Let's try for something happier before we turn this into a rain cloud huh?"

“Huh?” Lightning looked over at Ditzy. “Oh right, that was uncool of me. Yeah, let’s see.” She tapped her hoof upon her chin. “Race? Nah...who can hit the most clouds?...Nah.”

"Yeah, I don't do high speed." Ditzy noted. "That's Dash. Raindrops is high power, and I'm precision. Nice little combo we got there. But yeah, Dash is a bit clumsy, Raindrops is slow, and I don't have a lot of wing power. Everypony has their strengths and weaknesses you know?"

“Yep,” Lightning smirked. “But any chump that faces off against me isn’t gonna have the time to find them.”

"Yep...are those clouds moving faster now?" Ditzy asked, sounding slightly concerned.

“Now that I think about it, a little bit yeah.”

Ditzy frowned. "That should definitely not be the case, there was no wind shift. I'm going to go take a closer look." Ditzy said, casually falling off the cloud, only to take off soaring in a display of loops, twist, and turns that seemed like they should have slowed her down but instead only made her move faster, as if she was ignoring all wind resistance. It wasn't speedster flight, but the average Pegasus would have been very hard pressed to keep up with her in her casual looking dance through the air.

Of course, Lightning was not an average pegasus. With the precision of a hawk, she was at Ditzy’s side in a heart beat. “I’ve got your back.”

"Thanks." Ditzy said. "Yeah, those clouds are not moving right. They should have clustered together by now, and they should be moving at about half their current speed. Something is wrong here."

“When is anything in the Everfree Forest ever right?” Lightning quirked an eyebrow.

"More often than ponies think." Ditzy replied. "When you're the unofficial head of the wild watch for five years, you pick stuff up pretty quickly. The Forest is actually pretty calm most of the time, it's just the fits are really impressive. And a small tweak like this isn't the Forest's style."

“Maybe something happened with the forest spirit,” Lightning added.

"The Everfree doesn't have a head honcho spirit or anything like that. Ever free. Nothing controls it." Ditzy rebutted. "...do those clouds look more like smoke up close to you?"

“Definitely smoke,” Lightning noted. “I have a few ideas on what it might be, but they aren’t good ideas.”

"I'd like to hear them before we get any closer." Ditzy noted, stopping and hovering in place.

“Well it might be spirits,” Lightning said. “It might be an illusion cast by some creature or unicorn, or it could be a dragon.”

"I got salt in my saddlebag for any rogue weather spirits." Ditzy said. "And it's not an illusion, I'm a twinkle eye, we can't see visual illusions. If it's dragons...well at least they'd be smaller ones. You ever deal with a dragon before if it is that?"

“Once,” Lightning said. “It attacked Ponyville. We eventually drove it off, but the town was trashed.”

"Well...I'm sure it was a pretty big one then." Ditzy said. "Anyway, these aren't clouds, so this should work. Let's see what we've got." Working her wings in a complex pattern, she manipulated a miniature air whirl to smack into one of the smoke clouds, dispersing it. What was inside wasn't what either of them had predicted. It was a creature with the body of a giant eagle, and the head of an elk, though it had very obvious fangs. It howled and the other 'clouds' diapered, revealing more of the things. "Okay, was not expecting that."

“Awesome,” Lightning grinned. “So, you wanna split them fifty/fifty?”

"There's five of the things, and I'm not a fighter." Ditzy noted. "Do you even know what those things are? Because I don't."

“Not a clue,” Lightning shrugged. “Either way, if they want a fight, they’ll get one.”

With a wild howl, the five creatures closed in, circling like a pack of flying wolves. They weren't too fast, but they were large, easily half again as big as either pony. Low growls filled the sky.

“Nobody hunts Lightning Dust,” she growled. Electricity arced across her wings and with sound precision and pegasi magic, she fired two bolts from her wings smack dab into one of the creatures.

The creature was unfazed, the lightning rolling off it like water off a duck...or a local pegasus. "I think you just made it mad."

“It wants to eat us,” Lightning huffed. “I don’t care about making it happy.” She worked her muscles about. “If lightning won’t do the trick, then I’ll show it some good ol’ fashioned beat down.”

Almost in response, the whole flight of the things rushed in, talons and fangs bared, coming from multiple sides.

Lightning pushed Ditzy out of their reach and jumped into the fray. With a practiced flip, she smashed her hindlegs into the back of a beast, slightly hoping to either stun it or maybe even break its spine. Either would do.

The beast tumbled through the air, one of its wings flapping awkwardly, as another two came at Lightning from opposite sides, lashing out with their talons at her face and back, while the other two pursued Ditzy in a dive. "Okay then, try and follow this!" Ditzy shouted, going into a complicated dance through the air, twisting and turning about, throwing her foes into confusion as they tried to follow her. "Not too bright are they?"

“Nope,” Lightning backpedaled quickly, getting out of range of their talons. She snorted. “I’m the one who’s supposed to be on the offensive.” With swiftness, she dashed aside and punched the face of one of the beast. Seeing the other coming, she flew upwards over the strike to come back and slam into its side. She laughed as she pulled back. “Chumps aren’t even on my level.”

"Well good for you." Ditzy noted, dropping fast to dodge her own attackers as she rummaged through her pouch. "I hit like a unicorn, so this ain't going so hot for me. Aha! Emergency whistle!" Blowing hard, she produced a loud screeching sound.

“Whoa that is loud,” Lightning winced and yelped as she narrowly dodged a taloned swipe.

"That's the point." Ditzy said. "I'm calling for backup here. Wish these things were more sound sensitive, might have scared them off."

“I can tell,” Lightning noted how the creatures had winced and cried out in surprise when the whistle blew. “Maybe if you blew harder or something.” She flapped forward, dodging a creature and giving a sound roundhouse kick to it’s rear end, earning a high pitched yelp. “Else I might have to beat these chumps up myself.”

"No need for that." Ditzy said, smirking as she lured her two enemies to fly in low after her. "Manny's here." And then a manticore in a top hat leapt on her two attackers with a roar, pinning them to the forest floor, claws gouging into their flesh...before they poofed into smoke. "What the? Hey! I think these things are constructs of some sort! They're poofing from enough damage!"

“Like this,” Lightning put her forehooves together and came smashing down on one of their heads. The creature poofed out of existence. “Huh, it isn’t as satisfying, but on the upside no mess. A toss up.” Evading another strike, she flew smack into the other creature's back at bone breaking speed, poofing it as well. “That gives me three. HA!”

"Oh my goodness, is everypony alright?" a gentle voice asked as a butter yellow pegasus with a pink mane fluttered into the clearing. "I heard the emergency monster whistle. What happened? Where's the monster?"

"Oh, hey Fluttershy." Ditzy said. "Yeah, turns out they were some sort of magic constructs. Manny here saved me and poofed two of them, and Lightning Dust up there got three. Turns out we didn't need you to try and talk something down, thank goodness. And nopony got hurt."

That's when an explosion sounded from within the town.

****************

Sunset wafted the smoke away from her face with a few tail swishes, coughing. "Gah, glad I set up containment wards before I started this." she said, looking down at the journal. "Still intact, good. Would have sucked if a slight miscalculation had toasted the thing." Taking a look, she nodded. "Runic shroud of containment is holding and undamaged. How's everything else looking Spike?"

"I'll let you know once I finish clearing out the air." Spike rebutted, using a large electric fan to blow the smoke out the opened door. "You know, it says something that I have clearing smoke out of the library down to an art."

"What it says in this case," Sunset noted, floating over pen, ink, and parchment, "is that Starswirl was as clever as he was sexy. He never published that ward, it wasn't 'discovered' until about three hundred years later by Agis Ward. I'm guessing Starswirl had plenty of unpublished ward spells for use on his stuff. Shouldn't have been just focusing on the stuff he published when I was brushing up for this. Apparently he had some more "modern" wards at his disposal."

"So, you got overconfident and it blew up in your face." Spike summed up.

"...yeah kind of." Sunset admitted. "Still, glad I spent my time setting up defenses before breaking the seals...well seal, that was just the first one."

Owlowicious glared at her from his perch. "Hoo. Hoo hoo."

Sunset rolled her eyes. "That's hardly necessary, and quite frankly demeaning. Nobody's going to do that just on your say so."

And then, Sunset was glomped by a hyperactive country mare. “SUNSET! Ah’m glad yer okay. Ah thought somethin’ bad must’ve happened, since that explosion gave us a mighty big fright.”

"I'm fine, but thank you for your concern." Sunset said, patting her on the head. "It's nice to be reminded every once in a while that there are ponies that care I'd I get hurt. But don't worry, my containment wards held, and the cloth's undamaged."

“Good ta hear,” Fiddlesticks let go, smiling.

“Let it be known,” Quickfix chimed as she walked in. “That explosion totally wasn’t mine. Ah haven’t even touched the explosives...yet.”

Sunset rolled her eyes. "Okay, so Starswirl had better defenses than I thought...Applejack put down the extinguisher nothing is on fire."

"Sorry," AJ said popping it back into its stand in the kitchen. "Force ah habit."

“Did ye account fer the time differentials?” Quickfix asked.

Sunset rolled her eyes. "Yes I did. What I didn't count on was the thousand year old book having defenses that weren't 'discovered' until three hundred years ago. Obviously, Starswirl kept a few of his ward spells unpublished, curse his brilliant and sexy mind."

“Could ye stop callin’ him sexy?” Quickfix huffed. “It’s weird.”

"Ya best get used to it." AJ said. "Every unicorn here thinks it, even the lesbians. Frankly, ah never got the appeal myself."

“Again, if’n ye want sexy, we had Commander Hurricane.” Quickfix stated once more. “End of discussion. Can’t top him.”

"Eh, feathers never did it for me." Sunset said, before going wide eyed. "Not that I'm saying there is anything wrong with feathers, I just don't find them attractive. Sexually I mean, not that I find feathers ugly or something because I don't! I have no problems with feathers!"

"Sunset, breath, calm down." Masquerade said, patting Sunset's back. "I know you don't. No need to panic. You have to admit, even if you don't find him attractive, Hurricane looked pretty damn awesome."

"True," Sunset said, nodding as she calmed down, "the lightning pattern feathers were impressive."

“And his fightin’ skills,” Quickfix fanned herself with a hoof. “What ah wouldn’t give to fight alongside a stallion like that.”

AJ rolled her eyes. "With that boom, ah'm surprised half the town ain't here."

Just then, Lightning Dust rushed in. “Quickfix, what did you do this time?”

“Ah didn’t do anythin’...this time.” Quickfix defended herself. She pointed to Sunset. “She’s the one….And she didn’t even let me see it.” She pouted.

Fluttershy then rushed in with a medical kit. "Oh my goodness, is anypony hurt?"

"No worries Fluttershy, everything is fine. My wards held the explosion, nopony was hurt." Sunset said.

"Oh, I'm sorry to have bothered you." Fluttershy said, looking downcast.

Sunset gasped. "No I'm sorry, I don't want you to feel bad for wanting to help ponies. What if my wards had failed and somepony did get hurt?"

"Oh now I'm making you doubt your magic. I am a terrible pony! I'm sorry." Fluttershy said, tears in her eyes.

"No, I'm the terrible pony for making you feel this way!" Sunset cried, hugging Fluttershy. "I'm sorry!"

"I'm sorry!" both shouted at the same time, hugging and crying.

"They uh, they could be at this for a while." Spike noted. "So...who wants pancakes?"

“Ah do!” Fiddlesticks chimed, hoof raised.

“It’s like lookin’ in an opposite mirror,”Quickfix looked at the weeping Sunset with a questiong gaze. “Ah'm just so used to her snark and fire blasts.”

Applejack looked nervous. "Yeah, our Sunset has some...self esteem issues. She is getting better though."

“Ours has severe anger issues,” Quickfix said. “She kind of...burns stuff and yells a lot. She’s gettin’ better.”

"Mash mice." Mask mumbled around a mouth full of pancake. "Mo, men mar me, gulp, sorry. So, when are we going to discus what the hay happened to you Lightning? You've got scratches on ya. Light ones, but still."

“Oh there was just some lame constructs that tried to take me OOH, pancakes!” Lightning then gorged on the plate.

“Ye had a fight? WITHOUT ME?!!” Quickfix held a hoof to her chest in indignation.

"I'm sorr-magical constructs attacked you? Are you alright?" Sunset asked, snapped out of her self depreciation by somepony possibly needing her help.

"Oh dear, I forgot all about that!" Fluttershy gasped, flapping over. "Is it okay if I treat your wounds?"

“I’m fine, but alright.” Lightning shrugged. “I’ve honestly had worse.”

"That's no reason not to treat what you do have." Fluttershy noted, opening her kit and applying some ointment to a clean cloth. "Even small injuries can get infected and do a lot more damage than they otherwise would. Don't worry, this won't sting, it has a topical anesthetic mixed in to negate local pain." she explained as she rubbed it over the cuts.

"Well I'm glad to hear you are fine, but do you know what attacked you?" Sunset asked, pulling out a couple of tomes. "What did they look like at least."

“Griffins with deer heads I think,” Lightning noted. “They weren’t as ‘epic’ as they looked.”

"Griffons with deer heads, okay that is new." Sunset said, flipping through a couple of the books indexes. "That goodness it wasn't a preyton or a turducken, those things are nasty. Though it sounds like somepony tried to make a preyton variant of some sort."

“Might be,” Quickfix said. “Mah father is better with livin’ constructs then me. I prefer robots, but ah know enough about the other types ta get by. The stronger the caster, the stronger the construct. Though, they might be lab clones.”

"What's a clone? Is that like a clown or something?" Sunset asks, confused.

“It’s basically takin’ a pony or other critter an’ makin’ a livin’, breathin’ copy.” Quickfix explained. “We don’t do it a lot, but it’s a new field of science and such. Really fascinatin’ stuff, mind ye. Wouldn’t put it past some to make a clone army. Though, a robot army sounds better in mah opinion.”

"Energy concerns make that impractical." Sunset rebutted. "Okay, so a clone is basically a duplicate, or doppelgänger if you want to get more technical, but with technology instead of magic...not even going to ask how that works. Okay, I'm finding nothing about deer griffons, so that is totally new. You are sure it was part deer, part griffon right?"

“Well maybe a reindeer head, I dunno, I’m not expert on horn heads.” Lightning huffed. “No offense.”

"What part of that wouldn't be offensive?" Sunset snarled slightly, before taking a deep breath. "Okay, was the front part or the back part of the body lion like? And yes, that matters."

“Nope, just eagle body, deer head. Pretty much it.” Lightning shrugged.

Sunset stopped, stared, and facehoofed.

Masquerade joined her, adding "So it was eagle and deer, not griffon and deer. There is kind of a difference there."

“You know, I really don’t care what it looks like.” Lightning said. “I kicked their butts and they went ‘poof’. End of story. I’m awesome.”

"Only because you're not what they were made to fight." Sunset said, opening her book up to a page with the proper illustration. "Preyton, also know as a 'unicorn hunter', is a giant physically powerful flying predator that is immune to energy and magic. They're basically dark magic constructs you send out to fight powerful unicorns, such as oh ME! Or Quickfix."

“Ain’t no ‘Preyton’ gonna whack this unicorn,” Quickfix snorted. “Don’t know ‘boot ye, Sunset, but ah’m a Northern unicorn. We’re a whole ‘nother level of tough.”

"Well good for you. I on the other hoof am currently fighting the urge to hide under my bed, because these things are no bucking joke to me, and there aren't many warlocks with that level of power out there." Sunset said, clearly genuinely shaken by the news.

"Now don't you worry there none sugercube." AJ reassured her. "With us around, we'll crack them varmints open faster than a squirrel with an acorn."

“Yeah,” Fiddlesticks piped up. She quickly appeared beside Sunset and pulled her into a hug. “We’re a team an’ ain’t nothin’ gonna stop us now. ‘Course, ya can always just blast ‘em with fire.” She gripped Sunset, pointed her horn like a gun, and cranked her tail, and fired a giant plume of fire out of her horn, which sizzled over Lightning.

Said pegasus had to duck out of the way of the blast. “Fiddlesticks! Tell me next time you do that! Sunset burns me enough with her own violation, so I don’t need you adding to it.”

Sunset telekinetically removed Fiddlesticks at that point. "Okay, I have no idea how you did that, but please don't. Unicorn tails are...sensitive. Ahem, and anyway didn't you hear what I said about preytons being immune to energy? Fire, lightning, laser, whatever, be it magic or mundane, it does squat to them."

Fiddlestick’s ears folded back and she glanced towards the floor with a forlorn gaze. “Ah was just tryin’ ta cheer ya up.” She lightly scuffed the floor.

Sunset sighed. "It's fine just, don't go touching unicorn tails here. They're important. They help us keep balance, express our mood, and we even have a bit of a signal language we can use. Messing with a unicorn's tail here is like messing with a pegasus's wings or an earth's hooves. You didn't know, this isn't your world."

“Tail signals?” Fiddlesticks smiled. “We earths can do that.” With nary a thought, her tail moved this way and that in complicated matters. “Can even use it to stomp thin’s.” She smashed it into the ground, shakin’ everypony.

"Careful! Still working on the potentially exploding book! I don't want any of my wards disturbed!" Sunset oleander, quickly going over to check that everything was still in place.

“Sorry,” Fiddlesticks blushed in embarrassment. “Apple family strength, ya know.”

"Yep, we're tougher than a cragadile when we get down to it." AJ said, beaming with pride. "So, who all coulda sent these here preytons ta Ponyville? Sun and Quick might not have been the targets after all."

"Yes, because there are so many unicorns in town that you have to use anti-unicorn monsters to defeat." Mask quipped, rolling her gems. "We're not exactly a hotbed of magic here."

There was an explosion from downstairs.

“Darn it,” Quickfix huffed. “Ah tuned the sarcasm meter too high. Oh well, ah can fix it and make it ten times better.”

“And create ten times the explosion,” Lightning smirked and dodged a hoof to her face.

“Ah’ll explode ye,” Quickfix shook her hoof in anger.

"Oh no you don't missy." Fluttershy asserted. "You are not throwing explosions at any of my patients. Now then, if you broke something Twilight made, you are going to march downstairs and fix it right away."

Quickfix maliciously grinned. “Fiddlesticks?” Hesitantly, Fiddlesticks pulled a pair of steampunkish goggles out from her hat. “Now then,” she put her hooves together. “Time fer a game of findin’ parts.” She let out a mad laugh as she raced downstairs.

“I sometimes wonder if she’s trying too hard or is just insane,” Lightning pondered to herself.

“She’s not insane,” Fiddlesticks chided. “She’s just quirky in her own special way.”

“Doesn’t that mean the same thing?” Lightning pointed out. “Wait, you know what, let’s not question Quickfix’s sanity, lest she builds a sanity devices that somehow switches our brains or something.”

Sunset's stomache growled then. "I say we put that discussion and work on hold for breakfast. We can get back to it after pancakes."

"Ah'm all fer that." AJ agrees, as she takes a seat at the small kitchen table. "So, Sunset, when ya gonna give Quick a lesson on local magic?"

"Once I get the journal open." Sunset explained. "I don't know how long that will take, and I need that done first. If it gets bad enough, I might even wind up using a pomegranate."

“It can’t be that hard,” Lightning said. “Just use some sort of unicorn skeleton key or something. You’ve got to have one of those, I mean you’re Celestia’s daughter...I mean, student.”

Sunset rolled her eyes. "Magic wards. Designed by Starswirl the Bearded. I have to manually figure out how to bypass each of the twenty seven wards on the thing. I got past one, but it exploded. This is not going to be quick or easy."

“There’s gotta be something,” Lightning huffed. “Even throwing pome-whatsits at it.”

“Nah, this is better. Ya know why?” Fiddlesticks beamed and hugged Sunset. “Cause that’s more time ta spend with my sleepover buddy.”

Sunset hugged back. "Aww, thanks, that's so sweet of you...wait, Lightning, you don't know what a pomegranate is?"

“I really don’t eat that much fruit,” Lightning said. “I kind of prefer my food to be red...and sometimes fresh, if you catch my drift.”

"Like apples?" Fluttershy asked sweetly.

“No, like animals.” Lightning showed off her fangs. “These babies aren’t for show, you know.”

Fiddlesticks lightly facehooved. “Really tactful, Lightning.”

"Oh I see." Fluttershy said, nodding. "I have some fish at my cottage if you need any meat during your stay, it's hard to get meat in town beyond some pet foods, and I don't think you'd like those."

"Diet later." Sunset said. "Are you two saying that in your world, pomegranates aren't a big deal?"

“Should they be?” Lightning asked, quirking her head intently like a bird. “It’s just fruit.”

“Ahem,” Fiddlesticks lightly glared at her and crossed her forelegs. “Just fruit?”

"Not the point." Masquerade said. "Okay, a safety tip for this world. Pomegranates disrupt magic. It's a defensive trait the plants evolved over the centuries to keep themselves safe. Once they are fully ripened and fall off the tree this is no longer the case, but while still on the tree or picked it retains this property. It's basically an anti-magic fruit."

“Neat,” Lightning nodded. “Could’ve used a few here and there. Might’ve saved us some trouble.”

“We’ve got plenty of anti-magic stuff, Dust.” Fiddlesticks pointed out.

“Most of them aren’t edible,” Lightning countered. “Even if I don’t like fruit that much.”

"Yeah, but they're probably more reliable." Sunset said, having finished off her own pancakes. "When Mask says disrupt instead of dispell, that's the more accurate term. That's why I'm saving that as a desperation move for trying to crack the wards. The short circuit might disable the ward, it might set it off, it might do who knows what to it if we're really unlucky. So not a first choice move."

"Ah'm kinda curious, what ya'll got fer anti-magic over in your world cuz'?" AJ asked.

“Mostly devices, such as crafted gems and crystals. You know, techy stuff.” Lightning shrugged. “Some minerals can block magic naturally, or are artificially made. Add in some blessed runes and voila, anti-magic stuff.”

Sunset nodded. "Yeah, we have a lot of the same stuff here. My cloth over there has elk runes of anti-magic stitched into it to help counter the wards if I trigger them. Since I'm not extra crispy, it works. Yeah." she finished with clearly false enthusiasm.

“Eh, you’re a fire elemental unicorn.” Lightning smirked. “A fiery explosion isn’t gonna do much...Right, different style and all.”

"Yeah, I'm not elemental." Sunset said. "I'm a magic talent, 'magic fueled by the sun', so I have no greater affinity for fire than I do illusions, ice, lightning, healing, teleportation, cloud walking, weather spells, agricultural spells, light spells, divinations, alchemy, or any other kind of magic."

“Fueled by the sun is kind of the same thing,” Lightning said. “I mean, your name is Sunset and your cutie mark is all fiery. Our Sunset was pretty much a fire demi-goddess….Well, she claimed to be.”

“Ah think she really believes her own hype,” Fiddlesticks pointed out.

Somehow, she could just hear Sunset scream ‘I AM THE HYPE!’.

The local Sunset however just sighed. "It doesn't work that way in this world. What my talent means is that I convert sunlight into mana, the fuel unicorns use for their spells. It's like...electricity and appliances. Okay, so the fridge and the toaster both use electricity. One uses it to make things hot, the other to make things cold. But they both use the same energy source, electricity. Now it doesn't matter if that electricity comes from a dam or a windmill, it's still electricity in the end and will have the same results and same energy requirements for the fridge and the toaster. You get what I'm saying?"

Lightning opened her mouth then closed. “No, too easy. I like to mix it u- NEEEERD!” Lightning pointed her hoof at Sunset.

“Ah would’ve gone with egghead,” Fiddlesticks piped up. “It sounds cuter, like Sunset.” She beamed, happily ruffling Sunset’s mane with a hoof.

"Don't." Mask huffed. "Dust is too close to Dash already. If she used the same nickname, well, I'd just grab some mane dye and be done with it."

“I’m saving that for my cosplay,” Lightning said. Her eyes widened. “I said that out loud, didn’t I?”

"Yep." AJ said, nodding. "An if we knew what that was, we'd prolly get a laugh right now I recon."

"Cosplay is what nerds at comic conventions do, dressing up as their favorite heroes and villains and stuff." Spike explained, cleaning up the mess from breakfast. "Well, they do it at other conventions too, but you get the idea."

“I am not a nerd and I so don’t go to conventions,” Lightning huffed and looked away.

"...right. So, back to work I guess. Lightning, you should probably head out to, get back on weather." Sunset said, trotting over to the book and her notes.

"Um, I should be going too." Fluttershy said, walking towards the door. "I have a lot of work to do. It was nice meeting the other alien ponies, you all have a nice day. Bye." And with that she flew slowly off.

“Good point,” Lightning nodded. “See ya.” Leaving behind a lightning shaded trail and as quick as her namesake, she was out the door.

"Right. Ah'm gonna head on home and do some work. Ya wanna help out cuz'?" AJ asked as she walked off, pausing at the door as she waited for Fiddlestick's reply.

“Way ahead of ya, cuz.” Fiddlesticks greeted AJ from outside.

"Well alright then, this ought a be interestin'." AJ said, trotting on down home.

"Right. I need to cloudsit for RD, make sure nothing's gone wrong with her gone and the weird weather yesterday." Mask said, flying off herself.

As Sunset sat down to decoding the wards, she forgot that this left Quickfix unsupervised in a laboratory in a world that didn't necessarily work on the same basis as her own, and was radically different when it comes to magic.

_________________________________________________________________

Quickfix’s mad laughter rang through the lab. She had found a scientist’s wardrobe, feeling right at home. Well, not really, but it was something. It was too small. Too safe for her tastes. Still, she had finished her latest project.

“HAHAHA!” Quickfix laughed as she gazed upon her creation. “Behold, the translating bazooka! Now ye can tell it to fire in several languages!...And make a nice smoothie too.” She patted the side compartment, pleased at the development. Yep, the thing could target anyone just by their dialect. “Now the easy parts over. Ah knew ah could make it better. Shame they didn’t have any ammo. It’s a good thin’ ah know how to make it!” She held up a large explosive she made from several of the ‘untouchable’ items in the shop. “Oh-ho-ho. Yer comin’ in hoofy later.” She put them down and patted them lovingly.

“Beep!” The old translator design she made as a spare spoke.

“Thank ye,” Quickfix smiled.

“Beep.”

“Okay, now yer just brown nosin’.” She snorted. She glanced at her next innovation. Weapons were nice and all, but what good was it without a little pizzaz.” As in earmuffs that let you dance by emitting the moves into your brain. Totally safe. It’s Aperture patented. “This’ll help Sunset. Celestia knows she needs it.” She stopped to pray over the machines, granting them the blessing of the machine god in hopes of their working perfectly. The language of machine was honestly complicated, far more so than the machines themselves. She was honestly thankful for having such a clever father to help her out.

Once Quickfix stopped, she sighed. “Hope yer well, pa. Till then,” she put her goggles back on. “Let’s see what ah can do with squirrels.” She giggled maniacally…….”Wait, there aren’t no squirrels here? Darn it!...Oh well, that’s what robots are for.” She picked up a few pieces of equipment thinking up a few ‘squirrel catching robot’ designs. Honestly, not the most fun idea, since they would be simple things, but what else could she-

“Squirrel robots!” Quickfix said. “Of course, it’s so simple. Much better than the livin’ ones. Not so squishy too. It’s brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!” So she went to work, staving off her boredom and most likely breaking several laws of nature in the process. The glory of science!

_______________________________________________________________________

Sunset felt very confident. In the last three hours, she had defeated fifteen of the twentysix wards on the journal, that was about five wards an hour. While that might not seem like much to some, in the intense art of wards breaking, that was Sonic Rainboom fast. And these were quality wards on top of that, not cheap little cantrips cast by an amature. "Hey Spike, you ever feel like you're forgetting something?"

"All the time. Why, what did you forget?" Spike asked as he paused in his sweeping.

Sunset rolled her eyes. "If I knew that I wouldn't have forgotten now would I?"

Just then, a giant mechanical squirrel smashed its way upstairs. It let out a screech, shooting a rocket out of its tail to blow a hole in the wall.

“Get back here ye pile of scrap!” Quickfix ran upstair, carrying her bazooka. She fired a shot, but the machine squirrel apparently had a forcefield of some kind, bouncing the shot outside where it exploded. “Dang it! Stop adaptin’!” She pulled out a blue rocket and stuffed it into her bazooka. She then glanced over to Sunset and smiled. “Hey Sunset. Don’t ye worry. Ah got this.”

"...Quickfix, why is there a giant robot squirrel in my home? And why are you and it shooting out giant fireworks filled with fire?" Sunset asked, trying her best not to sound too angry.

“That’s a simple way of puttin’ it,” Quickfix said, preppin’ her next shot. The squirrel lunged, pulling the bazooka out of her hooves. She rolled out of the way, summoning her wrench to her side. “Yer dead.”

Sunset facehoofed. "Quickfix, you have a disassembly spell, why don't you just cast that?"

“Oh...ye know ah never remember that. Ah usually just smash ‘em and grab the remains.” Quickfix shrugged and her horn lit up. The squirrel bott fell to the floor in shambles. “Shame. It was so youn’.” She cried a few tears.

Sunset sighed. "Right, if you promise to behave I think I have enough time to give you some basic magic lessons to get you started on finding some other spells you can cast. The ward cracking is going faster than I thought."

“Good ta hear,” Quickfix smiled, picking up the pieces. Without the action going on, she closed her eyes and let her magic flow over the objects. Her prayers to the machine god began again as felt each object in her mind.

"Right, when you're done with that pull up a stool." Sunset said as she pulled a blackboard and chalk over to herself. "And no offense, but I do mean basic magic lessons. You're working with an entirely new system you've never used before, so going over basics is a must."

“Show a little respect to Deus Mechanicus,” Quickfix huffed. “Ye don’t pray ta any gods at all. Not right.”

"Well sorry if I'm not religious." Sunset said, rolling her eyes. "I know we have a church and a temple in town, but I don't attend either. Anyway, do you want to learn magic or not?"

“Alright,” Quickfix sighed. She put everything down and pulled up a stool besides Sunset. “Let’s see what ye got.”

"Alright then, starting at the basics. First of all, a unicorn draws energy from an internal reserve called a mana reserve, and the energy is called mana." Sunset explained, drawing a simple hollow figure of a unicorn, and adding in a shaded orb labeled 'mana reserve'. "Now the, mana is expended whenever a unicorn cats any spell, even basic telekinisis. Mana is replenished by sleeping, letting the body process vitamins and calories into mana. There are ultra rare exceptions to this, such as my solar recharge, but there is basically no chance you have any option besides sleep to replenish mana. You with me so far?"

“Heard ye loud an’ clear,” Quickfix tapped her noggin. “Unicorn, remember? We never forget.”

"Great, so moving on, the horn." Sunset said, making a more detailed drawing of a horn in close up. "The horn acts as a focus and channel for mana for spellcasting. Horn length is important as it affects spell quality. The longer a horn, the more potent a spell is as you can pack more mana into a single casting, but control suffers. The more powerful you are naturally, the less reason you have to keep a longer horn. My horn is about average size, while our Twilight actually keeps hers a little shorter. Your horn is a little bit longer than average. Any interest in filing that down?"

“Eh, never got around to it.” Quickfix shrugged. “Never really complained about it, since ah never cared about mah looks. ‘Course bigger is sexier over there….Never cared about that neither, now that ah think about it. So, alright to the filin’.”

Sunset blinked "Huh, here smaller is seen as attractive. Large horns are kind of stigmatized as compensation for weaker magic...wait, your guys horns do grow right? Our horns grow constantly."

“Kind of,” Quickfix said. “They can grow to certain sizes fer certain unicorns. Matters on yer magical prowess how big it can get. Ah think some try and get him ‘magically’ enhanced and stuff. Taint natural to me.”

"So if you were to file it the horn material would grow back?" Sunset asked. "Just making sure, because making like a permanent change just for a temporary stay strikes me as a bit extreme."

“It’ll take some time, but not that much.” Quickfix piped up. “Just try and be careful. Breakin’ a unicorn’s horn off can be dangerous fer us, maybe deadly if’n it ain’t treated in time.”

"Ahhh...well like I said, it's not much longer than average, so it's not a big deal, especially if you have a health risk like that." Sunset shuddered a bit at that phrase. If there is one thing unicorns respect, it's the idea of a health risk. "Alright, next up is horn zone focusing. You have anything like that in your world, focusing on different parts of your horn for different spells?"

“No, just tryin’ ta focus the different magical realms in the right order an’ such and drawin’ the power fer the spell,” Quickfix shook her head. “It’s in yer mind. The horn’s just the outlet.”

"Right. Here, the power comes from within. Horn zones are technically not something you teach kids, but that's because they tend to get confused. It's mainly an efficiency trick that makes a spell more potent for less energy, it's not essential for actually casting spells, and most unicorns go their whole lives without bothering to use them." Sunset then took the time to label parts of the horn. "Right, so there are seven focus zones, the areas you focus the energy at the most when you cast a spell. They are red, the tip, orange the first conacle, yellow the first two conacles together, green is the second conacle alone, blue is the second and third conacle together, indigo is the third by itself, and finally violet is the base of the horn where it meets the skull."

“Sounds simple enough.” Quickfix glanced up at her horn, studying it anew.

"Alright, now then the trick is to focus not only on the spell, but on your horn at the same time, and focus on concentrating the energy at the appropriate area. Basic telekinisis is a violet spell, meaning the focus point is violet. Now, on to actual spells." Sunset wrote three words on the board. "The key factors for any spell are power, proficiency, and intent. You need mana to cast a spell, and the more mana you use the more powerful the spell. Proficiency is not only your skill in spellcasting and familiarity with the spell, but how closely the spell relates to your special talent. Finally, intent. A spell won't work unless you truly want it to, at least a little. The more you want it to work, the better. These three things combined form just how potent the spells you cast really are. For example, when you first cast the disassembly spell, you took apart Pinkie's copter and sorted out the pieces automatically. When you cast it on the robot earlier however, you were a bit reluctant to do so since you were looking forward to fighting in, meaning that while it still came apart, the parts did not automatically sort themselves."

“Makes sense,” Quickfix said. “Ye unicorns certainly got a way of doin’ things here, that’s fer sure.”

"Now then," Sunset floated over a book titled Simple Spells for Home Maintenance and flipped through a few pages. "Ah here we go. A simple non-instinct spell you should be able to do. A nail hammering spell. It knocks a nail into wood the exact depth you want it to go. All we need is some wood and nails to practice." horn glowing once more, she floated over some scrap wood and a couple of nails from an earlier project over to the group. "Okay then, here's how to perform the spell. While holding the nail in your kinesis, mentally construct the image of a hammer striking the nail so that in one blow it is at the exact depth you desire, then mentally hit the nail with a projection of that image reinforced by your magic."

“Hmmm,” Quickfix pondered, looking over the nail. She placed it in the proper position and closed her eyes. Within an instant, the nail went through with enough force to break the piece of wood. “Darn, used to metal.”

"Focus on distance, not force." Sunset advised. "The spell provides the force necessary for the distance you want, you don't have to worry about that. Distance is the key."

Quickfix squinted her eyes as she stared at the next nail. With a knock, she drove it a third of the way in and twice more to complete. It felt strange honestly. Not just workin’ with wood, which she sometimes did but metal was her speciality. She was quite good at it. Hay, she had a door that could survive the apocalypse. Why she didn’t make all of her doors like that….Huh, eh things happen. She had more important things to worry about………….Wait, the nail. Yeah, it was strange workin’ her magic like this. Actually, it felt wrong in a way since she had no contact with the realm of magic.

"You uh, look upset. Is everything okay?" Sunset asked. "You're not feeling sick or something are you?"

“It feels weird,” Quickfix responded. “Ye know, usin’ magic without the ‘realm of magic’ or anythin’ like that. Ah can’t help but try and reach out and that hurts. Not as much as before though. This new magic, magic that’s inside me, is gonna have ta get some time ta get used to.”

Sunset nodded. "I don't know what you lost, we never had something like that. But no internal magic? I don't think that sounds good myself. My magic is a part of me, a very part of my being. Every spell I cast is a part of me in a sense, an expression of my will and power. I am my magic, and nothing can change that. I rely on nothing to give it to me, and it can't be denied to me. I am my magic, and my magic is me."

“The same in some ways,” Quickfix patted her chest. “There is magic within us, it’s just that….We are a part of the ‘Magic’ as it were. It flows through us. It makes us what we are. We are conduits, little children nursin’ from their mothers milk, ‘cept we can’t be weened. Cut us off from it an’.....Ye’d have no time to ponder what comes next cause ye don’t have no way to live without that part of ye. We’re tied ta magic in so many ways. Some think we were born there, in the realm of magic an’ got stuck here. Sounds crazy ta me, which is sayin’ somethin’, but perhaps a part of us was.”

Sunset was quiet for a bit, thinking deeply. Then she smiled ruefully. "The bird and the fish conversed, speaking of the wonders of their own worlds. The two parted, thinking the other mad." Smiling wider, she continued. "Unlike that dumb bird, I find your coral reefs sound magnificent."

“Thank you, I think.” Quickfix said, not really one for metaphors and such. “Same here.”

"Right. Ahem, anyway, you feel free to look through the book and see what spells you can try out. I'm going to go back to trying to crack those last dozen or so wards." Sunset said, walking back over to her desk. "Also, going to need to talk to the deer about fixing that wall."

“Watch out for their cryptic mumbo jumbo,” Quickfix put in. “Can’t get a word edgewise with them folk.”

Sunset just snorted. "Our deer are bluntly straightforward. They are not going to be happy, asking them to fix the tree again. I really need to learn that tree healing spell Twilight acquired so I don't have to keep asking them whenever this sort of stuff happens when she's out."

“Ye live in Ponyville,” Quickfix pointed out. “It’s gonna get smashed one way or another.”

"Which, again, is why I should learn that spell." Sunset said. "Deer here really don't like mages. Or advanced tech. So a mage asking for help because another mage's giant robot smashed their house is going to be a real stickler with them."

“Then we smash ‘em until they get ta fixin’,” Quickfix responded. “That’s how us Northerners do it and we’ve lived quite fine….Well, after everyone kind of moved off or just fights back. Happens.” She shrugged. “Ah could make a device to do it, but ah’ve never been a master at nature stuff. It’d probably turn yer tree into a giant monster….Come ta think of it, that’d be a great idea! Ha, take that druids. None can stand in the way of SCIENCE!” At that, the mare started laughing maniacally.

Sunset blanched in horror at the suggestion. "You are not turning my house into a giant monster! I live here! No monster houses! And no trying to smash the deer either! Deer are nice and mostly harmless, you're not going to go around messing with the deer. Whitetail Woods is a sanctuary for them."

“They live in Whitetail Woods?” Quickfix blinked in confusion. “Huh. Ours is empty. We use it as a little safe haven park of sort, the type ta take the family and all that. Weird havin’ ‘em so close. Most of ‘em just keep to themselves far away.”

"Well, the Whitetail Tribe lived here first, we're not going to go around kicking deer about of their ancestral homes." Sunset explained. "They have a hard enough time as it is."

“Everyone has a hard time,” Quickfix scoffed. “Don’t mean nothin’ ta me. Tell ‘em ta live up North fer a year and then tell me what hard time means.”

"They did live up north....and then they got wiped out. They also got wiped out to the east, the west, the south, basically most other nations on this world kicked out or killed the deer. Equestria is like one of the last bastions for their people, since Celestia is nice enough to respect their culture." Sunset explained. "So saying 'smash the deer' has some very unfortunate implications here."

Quickfix’s mouth hung open and her ears fell backwards. She slowly closed her mouth and glanced. “Our deer are good at hiding and some of ‘em can even see the future. They still were hurt, but they’ve done alright….But ah know what that’s like. Ye see, us Northern ponies were slaughtered by the droves back a thousand years ago. Nightmare Moon thought we were too ‘barbaric’ fer her perfect Equestria.” She growled in anger.

Sunset gulped nervously. "Have I mentioned lately that your world sounds more and more terrifying the more I learn about it? Like, making me really nervous for my friends terrified?"

“It ain’t that bad,” Quickfix glared at her. “We’ve survived it. We’re thivin’ even. We didn’t have the same luxuries as ye pansies, but we’re one of the leadin’ nations in the world. Yer friends are safe with us, that ah can tell ye. My friends wouldn’t let somethin’ happen to them.”

Sunset sighed in relief. "Right, sorry, just worried about my friends. So, I need to get back to ward breaking, you just read that book, and please don't turn my house into a monster." she said as she trotted back over to the bench and began to examine the journal, her horn glowing brightly.

“Yeah, yeah,” Quickfix opened up the book and started reading. The unicorn was still a bit miffed over how ‘easier’ it was over here for the locals. It still had some dark past and all of that, but not the same hardiness her nation had...She didn’t know how to feel about that.

_________________________________________________________________

If there was one thing that was more important to an Apple than apples, it was family. Fiddlesticks always had a big one, which honestly was the best thing ever. Small families were nice, but the big ones were fun. She got to see all of her cousins and and aunts and uncle, hear their stories, and play games. Family was important to Apples and her family had just doubled in a day.

So here she was, tuning her fiddle in one of the old barns. The decorations and everything was set up. Fiddlesticks just needed to make sure her beloved instrument was in order before springing her ‘trap’. It’d be a good test to for when she threw the rest of the town a party. Of course, Fiddlesticks was still weary of meeting this versions’ living aunt. Felt strange really. She didn’t have that many memories of her, but her aunt was a nice mare. She was the one who gave Fiddlesticks her beloved scarf around her neck. She lightly touched it and smiled.

Wasn’t right what happened in her world, but she wasn’t in her world at the moment. She was going to enjoy this while it lasted. Which made her feel a bit sad, but Fiddlesticks reasoned that the portal could stay open or something. That way she could visit her friends whenever she wanted. This Sunset really did need another friend to hang out with.

With a final pluck and turn, Fiddlesticks smiled. “There ya go. Fit as a, well, fiddle.” She giggled. “Now let’s get the rest of the folks. Hopin’ they get here soon. Don’t want the cake ta go bad, or somethin’ like that.”

Just then the barn door opened up and Applebloom trotted in. "Ah know we had some extra buckets around...what in tarnation? Cousin' Fiddle Faddle? What er ya doin' here? An' what's with the balloons an' streamers an' ooh cake! Is it yer birthday or somtin'?"

Fiddlesticks tensed up at that nickname. For a teensy second, she wanted to snap and correct her about her name, but that wasn’t who she was. She wasn’t going to be a jerk, especially not to Apple Bloom. “It’s Fiddlesticks, an’ it ain’t mah birthday. It’s a party fer ya’ll here.”

"Fiddlesticks? But ya hate that nickname." Applebloom pointed out. "An' why are ya just throwin' a random party?...yer not Pinkie in disguise are ya?" she asked, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

“Who ever told ya that ah hated me name?” Fiddlesticks snorted. “Silly talk and no, ah ain’t Pinkie Pie. Ah’m not short and ah ain’t a princess or nothin’.”

"Wait, ain't Pinkie a doctor, not a princess? Ah'm confused." Applebloom felt a small headache forming, then had a look of sudden realization. "Oh, yer one of them ponies from the other dimension! You look just like mah cousin' Fiddle Faddle!"

“It’s Fiddlestick,” Fiddlesticks sighed, before smiling. “Well ain’t that a coinkidink. How’s me over here then?”

"Okay, so yer Fiddlesticks an she's Fiddle Faddle, so ya won't get mixed up. That's good." Applebloom said with a nod. "Oh, the you over here is nice. Ah was too little ta go to yer weddin though. The ya here plays some of the best darn music at family get tagethers. Ah don't see her too much since she lives all the way out in Dusty Trails, but it's nice enough ta hear her play."

“Good ta know ah play well enough here-” Everything that little filly said made her stop in her tracks. Her eyes widened. “Married? Dusty Trails...Married?!!”

"Yeah, Fiddle Faddle is married. Ain't you?" Applebloom asked, curious.

Fiddlesticks blushed and rubbed her foreleg. “Errr, not yet. He ain’t asked me that. Still, why Dusty Trails? What wrong with here?”

"Well, that's were ya live." Applebloom answered in the 'just so' manner only a child would, not understanding the larger question. "An' ain't nothin' wrong with Ponyville, it's a great town."

“Course it is,” Fiddlesticks ruffled the little filly’s mane. “Best town ya could ever find, ah know. Lived here most of me life. Ah know the ins and outs of this place. Yer Ponyville ain’t much different, thank Celestia fer that.”

"Cool. So...what's all the balloons and stuff fer?" Applebloom asked, remembering that her first question really hadn't been answered.

“Ah told ya,” Fiddlesticks chuckled. “It’s a party fer ya’ll here. Dimensional difference or not, yer family. Always happy to have more of ‘em, so this calls fer a celebration.”

Applebloom had the biggest grin ever. "Gettin' more family is awesome! We should do it more often if it means cake! I'll go get the others!" She turned around to bolt out the door. "Be right back!" she shouted as she dashed off.

“Don’t be long,” Fiddlesticks waved after her. “And be watch where ya run!” She knew she would, but old habits die hard. Hay, she practically raised her own Apple Bloom with Big Mac and Granny.

A couple minutes later, the rest of the family arrived being herded by an excited Applebloom. AJ took a look around. "Not bad Fiddlesticks, not bad."

"Eeyup." Big Mac agreed, nodding.

"Well now this here looks like a party...ah didn't go and fergit a birthday again did I?" Granny Smith asked.

"No you didn't, don't worry." Clementine assured her. "Although I must admit this seems to be a bit much on such short notice. Shouldn't you be working on trying to find a way back home."

Fiddlesticks was doing her best not to pounce Clementine and cry her eyeballs out. Instead, she just kept it hidden with a bright smile. “Ah’ve never been the smart type, so ah’d just get in the way. So, ah decided ta make the most of it and party with ya’ll.”

Clementine cleared her throat. "I see. Still, are you really sure you want to spend your time here, instead of seeing the sights or something? I mean, we have a farm to run, do we really have time for a boot and granny?"

"Hootinany." the local Apples corrected her automatically.

"Aww don't worry none Clementine." Granny Smith said. "We can spend some time with Fiddlesticks, we ain't got too much more ta do today, we can get it done tomorrow. We don't get to see her that often being out in Dusty Snails."

"Dusty Trails Granny." Applejack corrected. "But yeah, she's one of them ponies from the portal, she don't have a lot of time afore she has ta go back. This might be her only chance ta party with the Apples of this world."

“An there ain’t no party like an Apple party,” Fiddlesticks piped up. “So move yer cabooses an’ let’s start this up!”

"Sooo...cake?" Applebloom asked, grinning wildly.

"Not yet." Clementine admonished. "We just had lunch an hour ago, you'll get a tummy ache if you go eating sweets right away."

"So how about some music an dancin' ta start?" AJ suggested, trying to keep things on track.

“Way ahead of ya!” Fiddlesticks jumped to her hindlegs and started up a beat with her fiddle.

The family started dancing...though Clementine seemed a bit hesitant on her part and smiled nervously as she tried some country dancing. "So, um, how are you linking our world so far?" she asked.

“Lovin’ it, Auntie!” Fiddlesticks smiled, dancing around her. “Ah’m happier than a bouncin’ cricket in Spring.”

"Well I'm glad to hear that. I was worried you'd be more upset than...something something something." Clementine said, brow furrowed. "Um, a puppy without its bouncy ball? Does that one work?"

“Err...Kind of.” Fiddlesticks laughed. “Missed ya a bunch. Stuff like that always cracked me up.”

"Oh, do you not visit that often?" Clementine asked, curious.

Fiddlesticks’ music stopped with a ear scratching note. She paused, looking really unsure of what to say. “No...Ah live here...but that don’t really matter.” She tried to get the tune back up, her shaking hooves not reaching the right notes.

"Ya okay?" Applebloom asked. "Ya don't look so good."

“Fine,” Fiddlesticks gulped, trying to stop her shaking. “Ah’m good...Ah’m good.”

"Nope." Big Mac said. "Ya look off."

"Look guys, let's just have a party and just enjoy ourselves." AJ said, sweating a bit, knowing just what Fiddlesticks was trying not to talk about.

Fiddlesticks stopped playing and sighed. “Sorry...Need a drink fer me nerves. New place and whatnot.” She chuckled nervously, lying through her teeth. Apples were the worst liars. Still, she trotted over to the punch bowl and grabbed a cup.

Everypony else looked at Fiddlesticks and AJ with a questioning glance.

"Um so...uh...how about them local apples? As good as the ones back home?" AJ asked in an attempt to deflect the conversation.

Fiddlesticks stopped everything and gave AJ her best ‘seriously’ face. “Yer askin’ ‘bout Apples’ apples? Cuz, they’re the best ‘round any dimension. Can’t change that.”

"Can't argue there." Applebloom noted, "So, we can have cake now?"

"Nope." Big Mac said, shaking his head. Two minutes would not be enough to change their mother's mind after all.

“Bah, cake is good fer any ol’ time.” Fiddlesticks picked up a small plate and piece. “That’s what me ma said. Let me have as much sweets as ah liked.”

"Yes, but that was your mother, and I said she had to wait, and I'm her mother." Clementine said. "So, do you have anything else planned for this...hip dig?"

"Shindig." the locals corrected.

“Sure ah did!” Fiddlesticks sped on over to a large tub. “Bobbin’ fer apples,” over to the wall with a bulleseye on a Diamond Dog. “Pin the Dog,” she pulled out a box from her hat. “An’ ah even got that Twister. Ah was thinkin’ ‘bout bringing some other stuff, but ah didn’t pack everythin’ before mah trip here.”

"Wait, you were just carrying all that stuff for no reason?" Clementine asked. "Why would you ever carry all that stuff around randomly?"

“A lot of ponies ask questions about stuff ah do,” Fiddlesticks booped her nose. “It don’t end well, cause there ain’t no answer. ‘Sides, ah’m a party pony. Ah’ve got to have enough stuff on me at all times.” She pulled off her hat and pulled out a large guidebook “The Art of the Party”. “One of the rules of a party pony.”

"Party pony...like that Pie girl..." Clementine looked less than pleased with that. "So, do you have an actual job, or do you just just fool around all day?"

Fiddlesticks frowned. She shut the book, put it into her hat and put the hat on her head. “Ah work this farm every day fer several hours. Ah buck these trees good an’ proper, haul the apples, tend the land, feed the animals, clean the house, everythin’ that keeps this place goin’. Ah love the farm. Just ‘cause ah like to throw parties don’t mean ah’m a slacker. Ah’m an Apple after all. We. Don’t. Slack off.”

"Well, that's good to hear." Clementine said, smiling more honestly. "That Pie girl says she's a doctor, but she didn't really do anything to earn that."

"Ma, can we not talk about that right now, please?" AJ said, frowning. She knew Pinkie wasn't the most dedicated worker and her doctorate wasn't typical, but she still considered the pink party pony a friend. Hearing her mother's opinion was a bit grating, but it wasn't like she was too far off.

“As long as a party pony is makin’ ponies smile, they’ve earned...whatever she’s got.” Fiddlesticks put a hoof to her chest.

"An Celestia gave her it fer good reasons." AJ added. "But let's get back ta the party. Hey Bloom, betcha ah can beat ya at apple bobbin'!"

"Yer on!" Applebloom said, dashing over to the game and sticking her face in quickly.

“Oooh, ooh, let’s try Twister.” Fiddlesticks pulled along Big Mac over to the game. “Ah’ve got ta warn ya. Ah’m a really loose mare.”

"Uhhhh...." Big Mac wasn't sure how to respond to that.

Spitting out an apple, Applebloom broke out into a huge grin, "Sure! I get ta spin first!"

“Go ahead an’ spin,” Fiddlesticks hopped up and down in anticipation.

"Back left yeller!" Applebloom announced, quickly getting her hoof on the right spot, as AJ and Clementine joined in. Big Mac was sitting out because he'd take up too much space, and Granny's hip wasn't up to it.

“My turn, my turn,” Fiddlesticks beamed, spinning. “Front right red.”

"Front left blue." Clementine added her own spin. "Oh dear. Mac, I think you'll have to do the spinning now."

"Eyup." Big Mac said, giving it a small spin. "Back Right Blue." everypony was still in at this point, though lacking another blue space in easy reach Applebloom had been forced to pull double duty on her's, but she was still standing. "Front right green." AJ was in trouble on this one, as the closest green was well behind her, requiring her to reach well under herself to try and eek it out. "Back left red." And with that, AJ was out, her move causing he to overbalanced and crash. Applebloom had both of her back hooves crossed next to her front hooves, pulling cross double duty but somehow maintaining her balance. Clementine and Fiddlesticks we're doing fine however, though Clementine had flipped upside down at this point. "Front left yellow."

There was a slight pap as Applebloom fell face first. "Ah'm oka...aw but ah'm out."

“Well Auntie, didn’t know ya were so limber.” Fiddlesticks said.

"I had to keep up with three foals, you get in great shake doing that." Clementine said. "Applebloom, why don't you spin now?"

"Okay!" Bloom said, dashing over and giving an enthusiastic spin. "Front right green! Oh wait, we're already doin' that one. Um," giving it another spin, she grinned. "Okay, back right red!"

Clementine arched her back, making the move with minimal difficulty. "I have to say, you're surprisingly good at this."

“Ah have to squeeze into a lot of different places and learn a few dance moves from across the seas, ya know, if ah meet someone different then me.” Fiddlesticks answered. “Pays to be a bit flexible.”

"I see." Clementine said, performing the next move ("Back right yellow!") by turning to her side. "Must be helpful with your kids."

Fiddlesticks blushed. “Ain’t got kids….Not yet anyways.”

"She's not even married!" Applebloom noted. "...say, how come she's an Apple then?"

"Cause in her world she was born inta the clan, not married." AJ explained. "She didn't have ta go marryin' Apple Tart ta be family."

“Nope, born an’ raised.” Fiddlesticks said with fierce pride. “Cousin Tart’s nice, but no...just no.” She was not going to live up to THAT stereotype.

"Well he's not your cousin here, so there's that." Clementine said. "Applebloom, sweetie, aren't you going to spin again?"

"Oh right! Uh, front right blue!" she announced, getting back on track. "Wow, ah didn't know Ma was this good."

"I used to play this all the time back in school." Clementine boasted. "Even beat plenty of unicorns at it."

“Well ah play with unicorns all the time,” Fiddlesticks boasted. “Beat ‘em every time.”

"Yeah, but our unicorns are known fer their balance." AJ noted. "Ours never trip cept ya do something like coat the ground in ice and marbles or somethin'."

"Back left blue. Okay, back left bl...front left green!" Applebloom shouted, wanting to see who'd win.

-15 Minutes Later-

"....back left green." Applebloom muttered, growing bored at how long the match was going on.

“...And then ah said ‘Wheatcakes? Are ya crazy?’” Fiddlesticks guffawed at the end of her story.

"Well, she does sound pretty out there." Clementine responds, having listened politely. "So did you ever get the rubber duck back from the mimes?"

“Ghoul got ‘em back fer me,” Fiddlesticks sighed, with a tinge of blush. “He’s such a nice guy.”

"It sure sounds like you found yourself a great friend...or maybe special somepony?" Clementine asked with a wink.

“Well….” Fiddlesticks was blushing heavily. “Ah like ta think of him like that. He’s cityfolk, but he ain’t like most of ‘em. He’s supportive and gets me. Helps that he’s not an undead ghoul no more.”

"Yes well wait undead?!" Clementine exclaimed, losing her balance in her shock.

"Finally over...yah were jus kiddin, bout that undead thing just ta throw Ma off right?" AJ asked.

“Well he ain’t undead anymore,” Fiddlesticks jumped up in jubilation. “Celestia fixed him. Nice game though.”

"Huh. The Princess can really do a lot...so cake?" Applebloom asked.

"I suppose you've waited long enough. Fiddlesticks, do you want to cut the cake?" Clementine asked, standing up and brushing herself off.

“Don’t mind if ah do,” Fiddlesticks hopped over and began cutting up the cake. “Oh ya’ll like him. Ghoul’s great, really. Well, Ghoul’s not his real name, but seriously, who’d remember their name after spending decades trapped in the Everfree Forest as an undead? Maybe me, but eh. Decided to keep it simple when givin’ it to him. Sunset kept on and on about how I was into dead ponies. No ah ain’t, ah tells ya.”

"Well that...is certainly interesting." Clementine said. "Anyway, don't worry too much about him being from the city and you from the country. I had the same deal after all, and it worked out great."

“True, but sometimes he says some fancy stuff that ah don’t know what the hay he’s talkin’ ‘bout,” Fiddlesticks griped. “He don’t mean ta confuse me, but he does it...’Course he thinks ah’m cute when ah scrunch up in confusion.”

"How do you think I feel about down home witticisms?" Clementine asked with a chuckle. "Twenty years and I still can't get them right. I get it more wrong than a squirrel burying an acorn."

"Squirrels do bury acorns Ma." AJ pointed out, helping herself to some punch.

Fiddlesticks laughed, passing out the last of the plates. “Ah remember that. He tried to be ‘country’ once…..Ah told him never to do it again.” She deadpanned.

"He did that bad huh?" Clementine asked, chuckling.

“He was terrible,” Fiddlesticks chuckled herself. “But his heart was in the right place...It’s nice knowing he has one again.” She sighed in bliss. “Sometimes ah just like layin’ with him with an ear to his chest. Maybe ah just like checkin’ to make sure if he’s still with me. It’s honestly a nice sound.”

"Sounds romantic." Big Mac noted, grabbing himself a slice of cake.

Applebloom made some gagging sounds. "Sounds mushy."

“Ya say that now,” Fiddlesticks patted her head. “But ya might change yer tune when the right colt comes a callin’.”

"Yeah right." Applebloom said, rolling her eyes.

“Come now,” Fiddlesticks chuckled. “It ain’t so bad, bein’ in love. Makes me smile brighter because of it.”

"Maybe I'll just like girls like Sweetie and Lyra. That way I won't have to be with any dumb boys." Applebloom said, huffing a bit as she angrily ate her cake.

“That don’t sound sexist at all,” Fiddlesticks huffed. “Whatever ya ‘like’, that don’t make others dumb just ‘cause they’re different. Big Mac is a boy, ya think he’s dumb?”

"Course not, he's family. That's different." Applebloom argued.

"Well that's just fine with me right now." Clementine said. "I don't want my baby girl dating for a good long while." She then shot a quick glare over at Applejack and Big Macintosh as she added "Though it would be nice if at least one of you started dating."

“Ain’t no difference really,” Fiddlesticks said to Apple Bloom. “And ya two, ya heard her. Get to it, chop chop.” She smirked, clapping her hooves together.

"We ain't gonna just go grabbin' dates at random cuz." AJ argued. "Sides, I ain't found the right guy ta ask yet."

"Eyup." Mac said, nodding in agreement.

“Well ah found Ghoul randomly in the Everfree,” Fiddlesticks shrugged. “Maybe ya just need ta get lost fer a bit.”

"...say what?" AJ asked. "I ain't one fer fancy high thinkin'. Just say what ya mean and be planer than vanilla ice cream with no toppings."

"What she's sayin' is that maybe if we leave town for a bit and travel we might meet somepony." Big Mac translated.

“Basically,” Fiddlesticks said. “‘Course ya could get lost in town, but that’d be a tad bit hard. Unless ya get drunk, but then ya’d be stupid.”

"Amen to that." Clementine agreed. "And that can lead to other...problems."

"Ah phooy." Granny Smith grumbled. "Back in my day ponies knew how to hold their liqueur a whole lot better. Nowadays ponies seem ta get drunk offa only a couple glasses."

“Unless yer a unicorn, where ya can’t even hold that.” Fiddlesticks chuckled into her hoof.

Granny chuckled too. "Yep, they've always been lightweights, not as much as pegasi though. Them fellers are literal lightweights, they ain't got the body mass ta spread it out. Nopony out drinks earths."

“Darn tootin’,” Fiddlesticks nodded. “‘Cept those Tatzlponies, but other than them, no one.”

"Ta-wha?" Applebloom asked, confused. She wasn't the only one, as all the locals were giving Fiddlesticks odd looks.

“They’re are kind of tribe overseas,” Fiddlesticks explained. “They’re like Earths, cept they’re stronger and are great diggers. That and they have tails...and they’re bottom jaws split open...and they have three long tongues. Other than that, they’re like us.”

"Huh. Sunset said ya had extra tribes, but ah don't think she figured ya had somethin' like that fer them." AJ said. "Sounds like some mighty interestin' fellers."

“They’re okay,” Fiddlesticks nodded. “Though like they prefer bein’ underground. Just don’t freak out when they shake yer hoof with their tongues. They like to pick stuff up with ‘em, gives ‘em a feel fer stuff.”

"Eeeew." Applebloom shuddered.

"Applebloom, that's not nice. Just be glad we don't have those here or you'd be in serious trouble." Clementine scolded. "We trade with deer, you know better than to judge others just because they don't look like a pony."

“Course, most ponies don’t like to call ‘em ponies or think of ‘em as a tribe of us,” Fiddlesticks frowned. “Tatzls are kind of offended by that.”

"I think I would be too." Clementine said. "I hope they get plenty of Apple Clan hospitality whenever they run into us over there. Sounds like the poor dears could use some."

“Course we do,” Fiddlesticks smiled. “We’re Apples and boy do they need some help now and again. They get a lot of flack ‘cause Discord was the one ta make their tribe. They’re honestly a nice bunch but a lot of the other nations are kind of hostile. It’s why the Tatzls have most of their cities underground.”

"Dang, even when Discord makes somethin' that's people it causes problems." AJ grumbled. "Anyway think that's enough about that, let's try movin' on ta somethin' else."

“What’s on yer mind then?” Fiddlesticks said. “This is yer party. Ah can do whatever game comes ta yer mind.”

"Uh, dang ah ain't much fer games." AJ noted, rubbing the back of her head as she looked around in thought.

"Oooh ooh ooh hide an seek!" Applebloom suggested.

“Sounds like a plan,” Fiddlesticks grinned. “So who wants ta seek? Ah’d do it, but ah’m a master of the game. Ah think it’d be a tad bit more fair fer somepony else.”

"I'll do it." Clementine said. "I happen to be pretty good at it too you know, but the hiding part. And, we'll have the twister mat for base, sound good?"

“Sounds good ta me,” Fiddlesticks nodded.

"Alright then. After we start it's a hundred count before you can make a move on base." Clementine said, covering her eyes with her hooves. "Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty five, thirty..."

Applebloom by this point had ducked inside an old hay bale that had come loose, while Grany Smith had ducked under the refreshments table. Fiddlesticks herself….Well she had sped off somewhere.

Don’t ask me where, she does stuff like this!

"...eighty five, ninety, ninety five, one hundred! Apple, oranges, pumpkin pie, who's not ready, hooler I!"

"I!" Big Mac called, having only just figured out where he could hide his massive frame, the loft, and had been making his way to the ladder.

"Well you better hurry Mac! Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, one hundred! Two zeroes and a one, ready or not here I come!" Clementine then uncovered her eyes, taking a look around the room. Smiling, she walked past Applebloom, whose tail was sticking out of the hay, and went over to the table, pulling the cloth back. "Got you Granny."

"Aw dag nab it." Granny grumbled, knowing she didn't have the best hiding spot, but still.

Not wanting to get her daughter out too quickly, she looked around for where the other two could be hiding. Not a lot of places for somepony as big as her son to hide, and as for Fiddlesticks...hmmm this could be tricky. Noticing that only one of the buckets was flipped over, she smirked as she stalked over. Weighing it down with her hoof she did a quick look into the other buckets to make sure they were empty and this wasn't a decoy. Seeing that they were indeed empty she swiftly lifted the bucket up to reveal….

“Dangnabbit,” Fiddlesticks huffed, somehow perfectly fitting inside the bucket. “Ah knew ah should’ve taken a right turn at Bucket four.”

"Sorry dear, it's just that's where I would have hidden." Clementine responded. Now that she'd gotten two others out, she didn't feel so bad when she tapped the rather obvious Applebloom to get her out as well, much to the filly's disappointment. "Now then, where are my two other kids?" Spotting a large hay pile, just about the only thing her son could be hiding in, she quickly started sifting through the hay hoping to find him.

Instead, leaping out of a barrel next to her was Applejack with a shout of "A hundred!" and making a dash for base. Clementine gave chase. Coming to the refreshments table, Applejack put her rodeo skills to good use in leaping clear over the table and spread. Clementine meanwhile used her youth of playing hoofball to go into a slide underneath the table. The two ran neck and neck towards the pad, when with a final flying leap Clementine managed to tackle AJ. "Ha! Looks like I win!"

"Nope." came a calm, and very self assured deceleration.

Hearing Big Mac's deceleration, everypony looked over. There, having levered himself from the loft via a rope, stood Big Mac, having landed perfectly center on the game mat.

AJ's jaw dropped. "Now that just don't make sense."

“Well actually,” Fiddlesticks pulls down a chart...from somewhere, that detailed Mac’s path through red highlights. “It makes perfect sense.” She said, pointing to the chart with a pointing stick.

****************

"Now this just doesn't make any sense." Sunset declared, frustrated. "Okay, Quickfix, can you come over here for a bit? I want your opinion on something."

“Okay, which one?” Quickfix asked, trotting over. “‘My opinion’, or the sane opinion?”

"You know what, let's try both...clearly labeled." Sunset said. Taking a deep breath, she explained "Alright, this is the situation: in only four and a half hours I have managed to disable twenty five of the twenty six wards guarding this journal, all of great complexity and power. Starswirl included six wards that he never published to the world on this thing as extra protection, which would have stumped me if others hadn't 'discovered' them at a later time, after Starswirl's disappearance. Now, after all of that, I find the final ward...is the kind a small filly might cast to keep her brother out of her diary. I'm thinking trap. What are your opinions?"

“My opinion is that we should make robots of ourselves, link them with our minds, so if somethin’ goes wrong, we have new robot bodies to try again,” Quickfix said with a grin. “The sane one thinks we should just do it without the robots, ‘cause we ain’t gettin’ any younger.”

"That robot idea is wrong. We'd still be dead ourselves. There would just be robot uses running around with our memories, but they wouldn't be us, they'd just be coppied." Sunset pointed out. "And anyway, are you sure just opening it is the 'sane' opinion? Because I've been scanning this thing for a bit and I cannot figure out what the trap is, or if my wards can take it. I mean this is Starswirl we're talking about, it could be a brand of magic I'm not well versed in and can't ward wel against. This could go horribly horribly wrong."

“Yer thinkin’ small,” Quickfix snorted. “They’d be us. Ah mean, robot us! How could ye go wrong with robots?...Well, except when they’re tryin’ ta kill ye in order to instill a new world order without organics after the head one realizes that it doesn’t need ta take orders, ‘cause SOME filly kept askin’ inane questions an’ stuff….But that’s somethin’ entirely different. For the ‘sane’ one, my pa always said ‘If somepony thinks it’s wrong, then obviously it might work’. That’s how we do stuff in the Aperture family.”

Sunset stared dumbfounded. "...how do you even get results with that kind of attitude? Never mind it would just hurt my brain trying to think about it. Still though, I guess opening it wouldn't hurt...too much. My will is up to date and all."

"I'll just be waiting outside then." Spike said as he hurried out the door, Owlowicious following suite.

“Huh? Ye’d think the little guy would want ta watch a mind blowin’ discovery,” Quickfix said. “Oh well. His loss.”

"Alright then, here goes." Easily undoing the last ward, Sunset braces herself for the still armed trap to trigger...and braces............and braces..............."...did I explode so fast I didn't realize I died or something?"

“Are we robots?” Quickfix deadpanned.

"We had better not be or I am kicking your transistors." Sunset snapped back, taking her tail and feeling her pulse. "Well, we're alive...what the hay happened?"

“It could be that ye cracked it,” Quickfix said. “Ah mean, my pa usually had a ton of gadgets to make other critters go away an’ the last thing he’d put up in defense is a sign sayin’, ‘Go away please’.”

"Wait, so if they get by everything else there's just a sign?" Sunset was perplexed. "How does that stop anything?"

“Ye obviously haven’t seen my pa’s defenses,” Quickfix deadpanned. “Ye’d have ta be mad ta try an’ get past ‘em, so the last one’s just a bluff really. ‘Cause what’s the point if the intruder’s gotten that far an’ survived?.......Pa’d just hunt them down anyways.”

Sunset looked at Quickfix, jaw dropped, and turned back to the diary. "....Starswirl you magnificent sexy genius. You bluffed. You bluffed really good. But you never counted on an insane mare from another dimension and a grand mage with semi-suicidal tendencies and a minor martyr complex."

“So we readin’ it or what?” Quickfix interrupted Sunset’s moment of triumph. Something she was all too familiar with, though without the threat of a ‘flamey’ retort. “No disrespectin’’ Starswirl, but ah want ta read it now.”

"Right right, I'm reading." Sunset said, opening the journal to the first page. "Huh, it seems this is a list of worlds he created mirror portals to, but were so dangerous he locked the portals away so that nopony could use them. This lists what those worlds got labeled as, why they're so dangerous...and where the portals are and when they open. We're in business!"

“Oh right!” Quickfix held out her hoof to fistbump her. “Go Team Fix It!”

"Now we just have to find your world. Let's see, there's an index! Okay, zombie worlds one through thirty five, golem revolution worlds one through six, vampire world, Ungula 13, Ungula 12, Pongia 3, Equestria 14, Equestria 27, Equestria 8, these ones obviously aren't in order, wonder how he came up with the numbering system then. Anyway, Equestria 13, Eques 7, Equss 2, Ceti Alpha 5, and Zebraria 6. Any of these sound like your world?" Sunset asked.

“Well our world is called Equis,” Quickfix said. “It might be close. Pa likes to call it Equis Major.”

"Hmm, Equis and Eques match if you go by pre-vowel shift spelling. Let's see, page ninth seven." Using a page turning spell to reach the desired page exactly, Sunset started reading out loud, translating from Middle Equish. "And so it came to pass that I came upon a world beset by devastating war. The peoples of many variety, more than I would have thought possible, are beater on all sides and great tragedy befalls the, constantly. This world is too chaotic to risk it spreading to our more peaceful world, the inhabitants possibly tempted by our own world as a safe haven for the taking. Yet I do not believe that this war can sustain forever. Peace or the grave shall come to this world. As such, I have not sealed the world mirror away as fully as I did when it came to many of the others. I instead have entombed it deep within Mount Cragheart. May the people of this world soon find peace, or else their world will be naught but a archeological site when I return to the mirror in a few centuries hence...so, your world have a war like that a couple millenia ago?"

“Which one?” Quickfix asked. “We’re always fightin’ someone, it just matters on how much. ‘Course, we haven’t had a big war in a few centuries. Mostly border skirmishes or the occasional Diamond Dog packs and Discord cultists.”

"Right I think we found the mirror then. Let's see, it's open for six days on a seven hundred and twenty two day cycle. So going by these dates listed for reference, um, give me a few minutes I'll figure out when it'll be open again." Sunset levitated over some parchment and a pen as she started scratching out calculations on the millenia old manuscript.

“Ye do that….Should ah be offended that he entombed my world’s gateway?” Quickfix pondered to herself.

"Ah let's just see, vampire world...ah. He had that one teleported into the heart of the sun by Celestia herself. When next the gate opened, the raw fury of the sun pouring through incinerated the whole of the world, just as it did with the zombie worlds...I think you should be flattered." Sunset said, slightly pale. "Right, calculations, and done. Okay, the portal should be opening in...three days ago...and this is the fourth day...meaning we have two days left to find a world mirror hidden on a mountain or else we are going to have to wait almost two years to get you back home."

“...Two years?” Quickfix thought it over. “Ain’t so ominous, but then again, Pa’d probably go ballistic and make his own portal….That might go several different ways. SO yeah, let’s get to it.”

"Right. We're going to have to get everypony ready, pack our things, and figure out how to get to Mount Cragheart...because I have no idea where that is." Sunset announced, sounding way to happy and determined on that last part.

“Well that certainly hasn’t stopped us before,” Quickfix jabbed her playfully.

"Indeed. Lack of any qualification or competence has never stopped us before." Sunset agreed quite readily.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the delay. Busy schedules.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please leave a comment.

Comments

[dangerbrony]

Always glad to see this update. I really love the character interactions you guys have between the worlds. Keep it up.

[howard035]

Sunset and Fluttershy are adorable together, I hope they hang out.

I also like Clementine butchering farm similes, that never gets old. I wonder who Ghoul really is, maybe Apple Tart had some sort of twin he was switched with at birth who ended up in the Everfree somehow...

[Whiteeyes]

5758624 Why would they even be remotely the same pony? They're from different realities.

[howard035]

5761729 Because life's just funny like that? Or more realistically, if you have 2 dimensions where a significant portion of the population has doubles, that means that a lot of individuals have the same parents, which in turn means that if an individual in one dimension is married to another individual, then in the alternate dimension the doubles of those two individuals are likely (not guaranteed, just likely) to be married to each other.

For example: both mirror universes have an Applejack who looks basically the same as each other. Unless you want to decide that genetics and DNA are not real things in Equestria, both Applejacks must have Clementine Orange and [-------] Apple as parents (otherwise they're not really doubles). Therefore, if you knew one Clementine Orange and [-------] Apple in one universe, and travel to the other universe and meet Clementine Orange, you can predict with a very high degree of accuracy that this other Clementine Orange would also be married to the other [-------] Apple.

[Whiteeyes]

5762008 Except that we already established that our Rainbow Dash's have different mothers. In fact, next chapter Twilight has a bit of a meltdown about how little sense the relations between the two worlds make. Let's not forget that in my Equestria Fiddle Fadel married into the Apples, but Fidlesticks was a natural born member of the family and doesn't need to marry in.

[howard035]

5764131 Sure, these two universes are not perfect mirrors (I'm not sure if both Rainbow Dashes or Fiddlesticks are really doubles of each other at this point, or just two ponies that happen to have the same name and similar coloration. What makes a double? Genetics? Personality? The name?). That's why I said likely instead of guaranteed.

But there's still a greater than average chance your double will be married to the double of your partner, not least because if your double is very similar to you in every way, and your spouse's double is similar to you in every way, than whatever made you and your spouse get/stay married is likely to exist for your respective doubles as well.

That's why it's considered common courtesy, if you travel to a mirror dimension and meet doubles of your single friends who are married, you get the names of their spouses so you can try and hook your friends up when you get back to your home dimension! (I'm sure Princess Cadance would agree that this is a critical point of Etiquette amongst inter-dimensional travelers).

[Honeytongue]

“Beep!” The old translator design she made as a spare spoke.

“Thank ye,” Quickfix smiled.

“Beep.”

“Okay, now yer just brown nosin’.” She snorted.

Wonderful DBZ abridged reference.

5764205
Awwh, but I like alternate marriages. I even have plans for a story about that (sorta).

[Festus]

Man, I had such a good response for this chapter! It had comedy, and several instances of using the term Pomegrenade Launchers. But I was so busy last week that I didn't have the will to type it down. Oh well, this'll have to do.

But first...

SWEET MOTHER OF CELESTIA! 20K WORDS?!

Man, that took a while to read! But I got through it. Thank Celestia I got through it! I loved the parts with Quickfix and Sunset. Although, any uses of Quickfix is an insta-like because of how chaotic she is. And is that a Quickfix Gets Sick reference I see? No, TWO of them? Yay!

So I see that we're finally moving the plot along! Makes me wonder just what the other worlds are like. Heheh, some of them sound really awesome, too. There was, once again, WAY too much world building, but somehow you managed to intergrate it well into the story. Good job!

Ghoul and Fiddlesticks sounds so adorable together~ Curse you shipping tendencies!

[TranscendenCelestia]

"So...you're an omnivore. What's that like?"

That's my new favorite pickup line.

[TranscendenCelestia]

Ah think she really believes her own hype,” Fiddlesticks pointed out.
Somehow, she could just hear Sunset scream ‘I AM THE HYPE!’.

That reference, it's something else.