//------------------------------// // 10 Home again? // Story: For science // by Znegil //------------------------------// "aaargh!" "She is harmless, let her go!", I begged him. "You mean this thing, I doubt it can even understand pain like humans do.", he used his knife again. "AAARGH!!... please help me..." "Twilight!" ---------------------- "Twilight!", I screamed, fell out of my bed and hit the floor. I was disoriented and still trapped in the shadows of my dream as Twilight stormed into my room. "Stella, what happened.", she asked. I grabbed her and searched her body for injuries. As I found none, I slowly came back to reality. "You're okay. Thank goodness." I pulled her into a hug. As I started to feel her body heat through my lingerie, I noticed what I was doing. Softly I pushed her a bit away and looked down on my hands. "Sorry..." "What happened?", she asked. "You screamed my name." "What is happening here?", I heard Spikes voice from the corridor. "Everything is fine, go somewhere else Spike.", Twilight shouted through the door. His steps moved away from us while he angrily said something I could not understand. "What happened?", she asked me again in a very calm tone and searched my eyes. "It was just a stupid nightmare...", I tried to explain. "Everything is fine now.", I declared not very convincing. "You screamed my name. What was it?" "I can't remember.", I lied. "Really?" I looked to her, into her purple eyes. "You didn't listen and came to earth... and horrible things happened to you." "It was just a dream. I'm fine.", she said. "Right, I'm sorry.", I took a few deep breaths and looked through the window. "I'm fine now. Maybe we should have breakfast and get ready for our journey to Fluttershy and the portal." I wiped my eyes. She looked at me for a moment. "Sure, let's do that.", she finally agreed. I took a new sweater and jeans from my backpack, while Twilight watched very interested. "What?", I asked her. She winced a bit as she was pulled from her thoughts. "I just thought about how much my friend Rarity will love to learn everything about your style of clothing and how it is fabricated." "So, I should bring a fashion magazine back with me as well?", I asked. "Oh, she would be forever grateful if you did something like this. I'm sure she could design you everything that's inside this magazine, she is a very talented designer." We went downstairs where Spike had prepared oatmeal with fruits for all of us. I had brought a sandwich with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and onions from my backpack. I looked at the oatmeal. "Twilight do you think any of your food could be poisonous to me?" "I'm not sure, everything you told me about your world was surprisingly similar to Equestria. But there is no way to say for sure. If you want to try it, you could eat your sandwich and at the end try the tiniest amount of the oatmeal. There is a way I could use my magic to... well... make you lose the things you have eaten if we notice negative effects." "You know a vomit spell?", I asked surprised. "That's not the official name for it... but yeah." I decided to try it, if humans were able to eat the food of this world, it would be incredible valuable information as well. I ate my sandwich first and then tried the tiniest bit of oatmeal with fruits. It tasted pretty much as I expected nothing surprising about it. While we chatted the next fifteen minutes I carefully monitored myself, Twilight was tense too. "Well at least oatmeal with fruits seems to be fine.", I finally declared. "We should make our way to Fluttershy now before we run out of time." She agreed, so I quickly got my backpack from the guest room and drank a bit from my water bottles on my way back down. Twilight had some saddlebags attached to her. I guessed for her journal to make notes or drawings about the portal. She teleported us out of Ponyville and from there we walked to Fluttershy's cottage. "I'm looking forward to being able to read some of the books in your library, in particular the ones about magic.", I told her as we walked next to each other in the morning sun. "Well, it's the same for me. The thought of being able to read books from another world is like a dream coming true.", she said smiling. "Maybe I will be able to bring you more than just books.", I tempted her. She got very excited. "What is it? Please tell me." "It's a surprise.", I teased. "And it will only work well if I find something in my apartment and I'm not sure it still works. So don't get your hopes up to much." A few minutes later we arrived at Fluttershy's cottage. I knocked and waited for a response. "Who's there?", I heard Fluttershy's voice from the other side. "It me, Stella. I'm on my way to the portal and brought Twilight with me." She opened the door. "It's so good to see you. Please come in.", she stepped aside to let us come in. "Hi Angel.", I greeted the white bunny who sat on the couch. He just turned his head away and hopped into the next room. "He still isn't much of a fan of me.", I mumbled. "Angel isn't a fan of anypony except for Fluttershy.", Twilight told me. "This is just typical behavior for him." "Well he can be a bit jealous...", Fluttershy muttered. "But please take a seat." While we had her lovely tea, I told her about what I learned so far, and she told us about a sick raccoon she had treated this morning. "I even tried some oatmeal with fruit this morning, and I didn't explode.", I said. "Oh no, this could happen?", she said, her face was full of concern for me. "Sorry, it was just a lame joke. I was afraid the food could be toxic to me, that's all.", I calmed her. "I will be very careful when I try things, and only if Twilight is nearby, because she could probably help when I get in trouble this way." I looked at my watch. "Oh look at the time, we have to go now to reach the portal in time, thanks for your hospitality Fluttershy." I stood up and gave her a soft hug before we left her home. ... We reach the spot where the portal would open a few minutes early. Twilight used her magic to levitate something out of her saddle bag, a button and what looked like a little lamp. "You worry that I could get hurt, but so do I.", she said. "The Everfree Forest isn't a safe place, even at day, so I want you to have this." The button floated next to me, and I grabbed it. "It's a simple one-way signal device. For example, parents give these to their foals, so they can push the button when they want to be picked up from their friend's house." I pushed the button and the part Twilight held in her hoof emitted a flash of light and a *Ding* sound. "Like this.",Twilight told me. "I want you to push it when you arrive through the portal and want me to pick you up. Then I can teleport here, and after a little walk we can teleport to the library." "You can teleport all the way to here?", I asked. "Since I saw this place now and I would teleport alone, yes I could." "That is a very nice offer from you, but I don't want to interrupt you in whatever you do just to pick me up here.", I held the button in front of her. "Please be reasonable.", she pushed the button back to me. "I would do this for all of my friends, whatever I would be doing, it can't be more important then to make sure a friend will not be hurt." "Okay, thanks for your concern.", I put the button into my pocket and looked at my watch. "The portal should open any moment now." Twilight's quill and journal floated out of her saddlebag. We watched the spot where I remembered the portal to open. Then suddenly without a sound or anything it just was there like it always had been. "I didn't expect it to appear like that.", Twilight said. She started to draw the portal itself and what she could see through it. "See you later.", I said and jumped through the portal. I waved at her from the other side; sound did not pass through the portal. She was still sketching as the portal switched to the next random location, the standard black space with a lot of stars visible. I went to the next room and checked the clock on my lab wall, it was noon, just as expected. This came with the additional bonus of the guards changing at noon, so I would wait some more minutes until it was done for sure. This way the new guards wouldn't be curious why I left the building without entering it first. ... Twenty minutes later, I left my lab and made my way to the entrance when I heard a familiar voice behind me, my boss. "Miss Mulier, what are you doing here? You have the week off because of a family emergency." I turned towards him. "Hi Dr. Caput, I am, but I have forgotten some of my keys... so I came back to get them. See you on Monday." "Okay... Until Monday..." I quickly turned around again and moved towards the exit. When I finally sat in my car, I was very relieved. 'That was much to close, I hope he doesn't suspect anything.' I started the engine and was happy to bring some distance between Dr. Caput and me. ... I opened the door to my apartment. It looked different... no, it felt different. Everything was at the same place... but somehow it felt cold and lonely. I wasn't joking when I told Twilight I didn't make friends that easy in my world. The few friends I had in school, we didn't stay in touch for long. I had nearly every electronic gimmick you could buy, all the games, drones, and stuff kept me occupied, there was no need for finding friends. How could it be, after a few days in another world I had more friends there than here. I chased those feelings away. I had a lot to do. I put my backpack down and opened my closet. I pulled out a large box labeled "Electronic Junk". I searched through its content; it should be somewhere inside this box. After a few moments I found what I was looking for, a solar charger I had bought for this one time I had gone camping a few months ago. I put it on my window sill to test if it was still working, it was. Next, I had to download a lot of stuff from YouTube.