It was late in the evening. The school was quiet, as it tended to be any time after school when there wasn't an event going on. Sunset and Twilight both frowned at the statue that absorbed their attention.
Twilight tapped it with a pen, only for the pen to sink several inches. "How long is this supposed to stay open?"
"About five days." Sunset crossed her arms. "People are getting more nosey about it. I'm afraid someone will just, you know, fall in."
"I would be lying if I didn't admit to being one of them." Twilight raised a brow. "To think there's another me, and you--"
"There's no other me," assured Sunset.
Twilight blinked in confusion. "How can you be sure?"
Sunset hiked a thumb at the statue. "I'm from there."
Twilight made a quick note. "Then the other you has to be here, but wait... Does that mean you're a horse?"
"Pony," corrected Sunset with a sigh. "A unicorn, to be specific."
Twilight leaned towards Sunset. "Fascinating! Well, you said the other... me... had a way of opening it whenever she wanted?"
Sunset gestured up at the school. "Her diary is linked to my diary, so they form a sort of bridge across worlds. She uses it to power a fancy contraption that lets her visit even when the time's wrong. How does that close it though?"
Twilight got a triumphant smile. "Well it's a simple matter of harmonics. If we make the portal not tied to Equestria, then it should close, like a hole with no other side."
Sunset hiked a brow. "Alright, I think I'm with you, so how?"
Twilight tapped at an elbow with the opposing hand a moment before she snapped her fingers, face lighting up with an idea. "We give it something else to harmonize with."
Sunset looked around, even if she wasn't sure what she could offer. "Like... a football?" She picked up the discarded ball.
"Well, maybe." Twilight frowned. "I think we need something with a bit more... resonance." She pointed up at the school. "What about the fake crown? It's like the Equestrian crown, but off just enough that it might mess with things and produce the desired effect."
Sunset raised a brow back at where the crown hid. "I was happy not thinking about that." She gave a soft and insincere laugh. "But if you really think it'd work..."
"I can't promise, but it's worth a try, right?"
With a heavy sigh, Sunset approached the school. The doors would be locked of course, but she'd worked really hard to make up for her demonic possession of the school. The principals trusted her, perhaps a bit too much. She produced a key and was inside in a hurry, dashing to where the crown was stored. It was nice of Twilight, er, the Equestrian one, to bring the crown back, as silly as it was.
She held it up and turned it around. It really was a lousy imitation. It barely looked alike except for the superficialities. Ah well. It was the best they had. She jogged out of the school and locked the door before descending the stairs towards Twilight, waving the crown.
Twilight had not been idle while Sunset was fetching the crown. She had a curious looking device assembled using the parts of a phone with a space for the crown to rest.
Sunset raised a brow at it. "You did not just build that."
Twilight blinked softly. "But I did... I've been considering the ramifications of this portal for a long time. This is just the first time I went ahead and put my theories to the test." She accepted the crown and slotted it into position. Her device lit up, casting light on the crown from below. "Are you ready?"
Sunset rolled a hand. "You clearly are. Go ahead."
Twilight smiled with eager anticipation and pressed the large red button without reservation. The device gave a soft hum before it jumped right out of her hands. The crown began sparkling and jumping, but it remained clipped to the odd device. The portal opened visibly, a deep purplish color that darkened to an impenetrable black shade as an odd throbbing noise filled the area.
Sunset's gaze darted between the portal and her friend. "Is it supposed to do... that?"
"I think so?" Not that Twilight knew for sure. When her phone got sucked violently into the portal and vanished, she knew. It wasn't a good knowledge. "No..." She took a slow step, only to collapse as a tremendous force pulled at her and left her clinging awkwardly at the sidewalk to avoid being sucked in.
Sunset reached to grab her friend even as the wind rushed past her into the portal. Her shoes slid across the ground and she lost her footing, managing little but to fall forward onto her belly with a shrill cry. The intense force plucked her from the ground and hurtled her to the portal as she screamed, "Help meee--" Her cry was cut short as she vanished.
Twilight looked around in a panic. Their friends were nowhere in sight. No one was in sight. She lifted a hand and lunged forward, trying to get away when the force hefted her right up off the ground and she was sucked into the voracious portal.
They fell into the space between spaces. Their bodies reconfigured in a haze of pain and discomfort, but they couldn't see each other, let alone themselves. They were both close and so very far away, but they could hear screaming. Was it their own, or that of their friend, that they couldn't tell.
They fell roughly to grassy turf with a chorus of grunts of pain.
Sunset raised a... hoof? to her head. She realized the limb-mismatch quickly and blinked. "Did we go to Equestria?"
Twilight slowly sat up, blinking through her thick glasses. She was still wearing the same clothes she had been before, and they fit well enough for her equine frame. "What happened?" She rose up on two legs, wobbling in place as she tried to stand as a human might and even managing it with direct attention. "Oh..." Her eyes swept over her transformed body. "T-this... I'm a horse."
"Pony," offered Sunset as she rose to her hooves, looking around. They were not in the Crystal Empire, not by far. She couldn't tell where they were at all. She had also come with her clothes, which was not normal for the portal. Her leather jacket fit quite nicely despite her having become a pony. "Where are we?" They were in a forest, but not the center of one. She could see a small town nearby, mostly quiet and still. It had torches for lights, scattered about. Not electric lights. Not lanterns. This was... not Equestria, or so she figured, or maybe it was a little town?
Twilight fell to all fours with a soft oof. "How do we get back?" She looked around a moment and gave a happy noise as she approached her fallen phone. She reached for it, but it fell apart the moment she attempted to pick it up. "Not... this..." She looked around suspiciously before her eyes settled on a small figure lit by a torch. "Look, a little pony kid!"
Sunset turned quickly. The proportions were wrong for a foal. "It's just a little pony." She stepped forward. "Maybe they can at least tell us where we are."
Twilight quickly scooped up the remnants of her phone and the faux crown, stuffing it in a pocket as best she could with a hoof she had no practice using. She had to, um, well, she tried to run and fell back down to all fours. She only moved forward by merit of having four legs to balance on as she awkwardly ambled along after Sunset. "Wait up! How do you move like this?"
Sunset resisted a moment of annoyance. This was human Twilight. Why would she know how to be a pony? With a forced smile, she lent a hoof back to Twilight and helped encourage her forward. "It takes some practice, but it isn't nearly as bad as human moving."
"S-sure, I suppose." She could walk along at a slow rate. "I have a tail," she said as if she had just noticed, but she did have one. It even swished as she looked over her shoulder at it. "Do I look horrible?" Sunset opened her mouth to reply, but Twilight didn't stop, "Oh of course you wouldn't think so. I mean you are a pony."
Sunset went red at the accusation, as true as it was in some ways. "You're really not bad looking. You're even cute."
Twilight flushed red and laughed a little. "I'm a cute little pony. Of course."
"Hello?" The small pony approached with dull pink fur and darker red mane and tail. "Oh, hello!" He scampered, his legs seeming too short to really reach the ground. "Are you from Turves?"
Sunset tilted her head. Where was Turves? "Afraid not. Nice to meet you, mister...?"
"Oh, I'm Rose Petal." He gestured to himself, then spread his hooves wide as he sat down. "Welcome to our village. Did you come to join the spring festival? You're just in time for that!" He sounded quite happy to see them, his face split into a huge smile.
Twilight was even more lost than Sunset. "Do you know the way back to Canterlot High?"
Rose blinked softly. "Where? Is that in the mountains?" He rose to his hooves. "Nevermind that, come with me. It's too late to be wandering out. A forest animal might try to take a bite out of you."
Sunset tapped her chin as she looked around the town they were approaching. The homes were little more than straw and thatch huts, with only a meager few being ritzy enough to be made of wood, and not a single one made of stone or brick. "Oh, I'm Sunset Shimmer, and this is my friend, Twilight Sparkle."
Rose smiled at the introductions. "Nice to meet you both. I figured you just didn't want to say. Some people prefer to keep that sort of thing a secret around the spring festival." He did a slow turn. "It's too late for most people... want to stay with me?" He pointed at himself. "My place isn't very big, but enough for three ponies to sleep the night safely."
Twilight shook her head. "We should really--"
Sunset clapped a hoof over Twilight's mouth as she leaned in to whisper, "Look, we should take what we can get. We won't get anywhere in the dark. Let's get some sleep and consider this in the morning."
Twilight cleared her throat as the hoof was removed. "As I was saying, we should accept your kind invitation, um Rose, was it?"
"Rose Petal," he reminded with a chipper tone as he led the way to a small hut and nudged open the door to it. "I don't normally wander this late, but I had a feeling, I did, that I should take a look, just one, and there you both were!"
If Sunset is carying her diary with her, then things are going to get intresting. If she isnt, then theres going to be a lot of confusion when EQTwilight either writes through or comes through the portal once she has the thing stabilised once more. Thats assuming the linking with the Dungeon Dimentions means there was an Eldritch entity in the Crystal Palace that Pinkie Pie had to Tea Party with.
Oops, just realised, SciTwi in Everfree with Magic.
Its a wonder Discord didnt Feel that.
I am so ready
Hm, I'm assuming this is an parallel world to Equestria,, maybe?
Was actually thinking of doing a fic along these lines myself.
7290560 They are in Everglow, Ponyfinder's world.
So begins another adventure! So I wonder what classes the girls are going to be?
This is going to be fun
Yay, new Ponyfinder fic!
The pic is adorable.
Everglow! This is goin' on my favorites.
Although... they wanted to destroy the portal to Equestria because people might accidentally go there?
And, of course, they thought "we'll just.. mess with magic we barely understand because it'll be safer for everyone."
Sure it will.
Uh, slight issue with disassociating the portal with Equestria: Unless they could reverse it, Sunset would never be able to go back home.
Of course, there are much larger issues for these two to worry about right now. This should be fun, though the title's kind of awkward. Is it in continuity with the other Equestria/Everglow stories?
The principals trust her - The principals trusted her
darkened to a impenetrable - darkened to an impenetrable
as the vanished - as she vanished
They fell between the space - They fell through(?) the space
and it fit well enough - and they fit well enough
despite becoming - despite her having become
As if she just - As if she had just
he lead the way - he led the way
*****
Hmmm... I'd never considered what might happen differently if 'human' twilight crossed over to Everglow.
This is going to be awesome!
7291082 Do you have a better idea for a title?
7291197 Typos fixed just before bed! Let the adventure continue!
7291428
Switch the last two words and it'll flow a lot better.
Did those other stories happen in this continuity? If so equestria has experience and contact with everglow, making retrieving then not that hard. Considering Sunbutt & Moonbutt have clerics now it's only a matter of time for them to go gone... once someone finds them, that is!
While they wait for that, though... adventure awaits!
7291935 Fix'd
Another Everglow crossover fanfic! We were about due for one of these!
In this case, it's taking Sunset and "SciTwi" and throwing them into Everglow. That'll be an interesting matchup, since the latter is essentially a normal human (albeit with a dash of super-science) and Sunset has a bit of experience with cross-dimensional travel. So they're going to be approaching things from a different perspective than the usual "Equestria to Everglow" learning curve.
I am a bit confused at the initial problem that got this fic started, however. The implication seems to be that "thirty moons" have passed, and that the portal is now open of its own accord for a few days, as per the original Equestria Girls movie. The issue is that Sunset and Twilight are worried that someone might pass through it, which is a reasonable fear...but it goes off the rails when they try to tamper with the portal to artificially close it. Why bother doing that to begin with? Suppose that someone does wander through the portal; so what? Sunset already knows that Twilight can jury-rig it open whenever she wants, and so can send anyone right back even after the portal closes of its own accord. This is a problem that wasn't really in need of a radical solution.
While I don't mean to harp on this, I can't help but feel that there were much better ways that this could have been done, especially since "Midnight Sparkle," at the end of the Friendship Games, was using out-of-control cross-dimensional magic. Why not reference that as a factor in the transdimensional shenanigans that were necessary to start this fic, rather than having Twilight and Sunset suddenly being idiots?
Looking beyond that, I started to roll my eyes at the sapphic tension between Sunset and Twilight (e.g. the blushing and asking if they looked cute)...but in this case I made myself stop. That's largely because I don't think that possibility can be written off completely, though I do think it requires more finesse than this chapter has shown so far. While the "midnight snack" scene in Rainbow Rocks probably wasn't meant to be shipping, I suppose that there's room for taking it that way. Throw in that teenagers are expected to "experiment" some, and the tension that comes from being in a dangerous new world (and the sense of unreality that Twilight is probably going to have about everything), and it's not impossible to consider.
(That said, I'm a bit baffled by why this fic chose to leave their clothes on when they went to Everglow; having them both arrive naked - and how Sunset and Twilight would have each reacted to that very differently - would have been a great way to drive up the sort of situation this chapter seemed to want to push.)
Of course, I'm also curious as to how this connects to the other Everglow fics written so far, since there's undoubtedly going to be some kind of connection. It's a shame that we'll probably be made to wait for a while to find out what it is.
7292212 You took a lot more out of a compliment than I tried to insert. Sunset isn't coming onto Twilight, just saying she looks good as a pony, and not ugly at all. There's shipping going on, but it's going on by the readers, not the author. The only pony with romance in his head is the new pony, and he's polite enough to ask bluntly, but we'll get to that when we get to that.
I'm entirely baffled as to why SciTwi's super science is less of a valid reason to mess everything up than deciding she relapses magically? They don't want people wandering through, even if they could be potentially sent back anymore than Twilight wanted anypony messing with her summoning circle to Everglow even after she learned how to dimensionally jump.
The means of their jump was also very important, for the whens and the hows. Using the crown is why they arrived clothed, and they're in the past of Everglow, before the other ones, but you'd need to be a real Ponyfinder lore fanatic to have an idea what village they've arrived in.
7292292 I might very well be taking more with regards to Sunset's comment than was intended, but given that the previous interactions between the two (in the original source material) were entirely devoid of them commenting on each other's looks or blushing at their statements, those actions felt more laden with innuendo than you were intending. That is, they came across as being more than just idle comments and reactions with no deeper meaning.
I think you misunderstood me here. I wasn't advocating for a "relapse" on Twilight's part, nor is this a question of "validity" per se. Rather, it's a question of plausibility in terms of character motivations. Suggesting that Twilight's previous rampage had left lasting damage that unexpectedly interference (or something like that) strikes me as more plausible than having Twilight and Sunset decide to foul up the portal itself over a relatively minor concern about someone wandering through it (particularly since Friendship Games seems to imply that Equestrian-Twilight just left the portal open all the time, and that Sunset knew that and didn't particularly care).
Well, from Rose's statement, they're probably not that far away from Turves. That said, I'm a bit surprised...so they're in Everglow's past, prior to the other fics?
into
She reached for it, but it fell apart the moment she attempted to pick it up. (Change of subject)
um, well,
I have a tail," she said as if she had just noticed, but she did have one.
or
I have a tail." She had just noticed, but she did have one.
Oh no. They're under-age where they come from.
7298857 Typos fixed, and Sunset is [UNDEFINED] years old. We have no real idea how old she is or not. MLP is really good at avoiding the topic.
7300299
Holy shit, it´s the same author!
Good, it made that typo joke thing and I thought he was copying you. I also thought the story might have been ruined by bad storytelling. Good thing it´s you, David!
You clever clever little author.
I was thinking when I started, "Twilight and Sunset go to Everglow. Haven't we done this already?, at least in part?"
But you've outfoxed me again! One day I'll have my vengeance, I will!
In my mind, the big red button obviously has "Mad Science" written across it.
7374268 I'd say that most Ponyfinder stories are done by david as far as I am aware! Though I can't say how much I know about other authors who write stories in this 'Verse.
The Typo Strikes Back.
8657036
Fixed!