It may surprise you to learn that out of all of the Emperor's closest servants, Bloodfury has the highest raw IQ. The guy can do quantum physics in his head and can perfectly quote classical literature at the drop of a hat. He could probably revolutionize any industry he chose to go into. But that's not going to happen. He doesn't want to change the world, he wants to hurt people. Talk about wasted potential.
Quote taken from -name redacted by order Lord-Director Poison Pie-.
The crystal castle wasn't really that bad. It was certainly different than what Apple Thorn was used to, but in a good way. The food that Twilight let them have was actually fresh instead of that pre-packaged or frozen stuff most people ate in the Union. The architecture was a little more girly than he would have liked but it had a certain spark to it that it didn't back home. Apple Thorn liked brick and concrete as much as the next guy but also wished his countrymen would at least consider adding some variety to their buildings.
Though Apple Thorn was doing fairly well so far, considering the circumstances, he was a little worried about his friends. Out of the three of them, Mourning Bell seemed to be taking it the worst. Since his arrival he had become increasingly agitated, and had stormed off to the top of the palace to sulk about half an hour ago. While this wasn't terribly abnormal behavior for him, it still made Apple Thorn worry about what Mourning would do if he had to stay for much longer.
In contrast, Stealthaloo was well behaved, but Apple Thorn had seen him give some of the natives some odd looks out of the corner of his eye. The kind that Apple Thorn imagined serial killers make before they murder people in excruciating ways. Than again, maybe it's just because Steatlthaloo hadn't had lunch yet.
In any case, Twilight Sparkle had brought all of the other elements over to discuss the current situation and was currently talking with them in the throne room. In the meantime, she had given Apple Thorn and Stealthaloo something to eat, and shuffled them off to the the library.
That led to their current situation, He and Stealthaloo were currently sitting at some table in Twilight's library, Apple Thorn thinking in silence while Stealthaloo perused some books. He was currently engrossed in some sort of work about history, though what he could possibly find so interesting about the history of some extra-dimensional primitives was a mystery to Apple Thorn.
"Hey," he asked Stealthaloo, tapping on the table to get his attention. "What are you reading about that's so interesting?"
Stealthaloo lowered the tome away from his face giving Apple Thorn a conceited smirk in the process. "Oh, I'm just looking up some of the differences between our dimension and this one. And I have to say I've found some interesting stuff."
"Like what?"
His grin became even wider in response. "If I had to use one word to describe their history it would be "boring". They had a whole thousand year period where basically nothing happened. The local version of our emperor Helios, princess Celestia, doesn't seem to be quite as ambitious as he is. So on the whole things are fairly peaceful around here."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Maybe I'll explain later, if I feel like it, but for the moment we have more important things to discuss."
Narrowing his eyes in suspicion, Apple Thorn coldly asked, "Like what?"
Bringing his head closer to Apple Thorn, Stealthaloo spoke in an icy manner, his voice completely devoid of its former faux cheerfulness. "This is important. I have checked the room to make sure we are not being listened to and we are not. Do not repeat what I am about to say to anyone else. Do you understand?"
Apple Thorn leaned back in his seat and straitened his lab coat nervously. Taking a moment to get his bearings, he answered hesitantly, "OK, I get the point. Just tone it down a little, all right?"
"No." Stealthaloo deadpanned. "Everything you just witnessed in relation to the dimensional portal has been a lie. Dimensional travel does not work through machines like we just we just saw, and it most certainly could never work through something originally designed to be a teleporter. Someone deliberately brought us here, and made it look like an accident to both the princess and Lulamoon. Now, do you have any questions?"
Seemingly unfazed by Stealthaloo's revelations, Apple Thorn answered, "Yeah I do. Are you going to finish that apple?" he said while pointing to a half eaten apple that had been left over from lunch lying near Stealthaloo's side of the table that they were both sharing.
Stealthaloo's left eye twitched and his mouth fell open. He closed it and opened again a few more times before slamming his head onto the table and mumbling something to himself in Federate. Now Apple Thorn had never studied the Federate language before, but he had picked up a couple of words over the years. Suffice it to say, he was pretty sure that Stealthaloo was cussing him out.
Feeling content with himself, Apple Thorn skipped merrily over to Stealthaloo and gave him a hearty pat on the back. "There, there. Don't feel so bad. I'll ask you a real question now. I notice you only mentioned Lulamoon and Twilight Sparkle in the list of people that our mysterious dimension hopper was trying to fool. Not Dark Star. Why is that?"
After slowly peeling his face off of the table, Stealthaloo finally answered. "First of all, void you. You're a flank-hole, your sister's a skank, and your brother looks like a discount washing machine."
"Secondly, you're right. To send something even as small a golf ball to other dimensions like he has been doing, Dark Star would need at least rudimentary knowledge of how dimensional portals operate. He's probably been lying to Lulamoon to keep the secret police happy. After all, the UID does not like it when people go blabbing their secrets. I suspect the reason he told the princess to rebuild that weird teleporter thing was to keep her busy until Poison Pie gets back from visiting the United Federate Autocracy in two weeks and can sort everything out. He probably made that portal he used to talk to us all by himself."
"Now," he let out a deep breath and glared at Apple Thorn, "do you have any other questions? And if they're about lunch again I swear I'm going to claw your eyes out."
Giving Stealthaloo a pouting look, Apple Thorn returned to his chair, having sneaked Stealthaloo's apple into his coat while his friend was having an intimate moment with the table.
After getting comfortable, he let his ears droop, gave a melancholic sigh and asked, "Yeah I got one, who do you think did this to us?"
"That's a good question. They would have had to been able to access to Dark Star's house, which incredibly warded as it is was why we were staying there in the first place, and have sufficient knowledge of dimensional science to bring us here." Taking a moment to pause, he pursed his lips like he had just swallowed something sour, and spat out, "Which means that whoever did this is a high ranking member of the UID. And since Poison Pie would never authorize something like this, they have either gone rogue or are a griffin spy."
For the first time since they had arrived into backwater dimension, Apple Thorn felt a stab of fear in his heart. While the inner workings of the Secret Police had always been, well, secretive, even he knew that the punishment for betraying them made execution look merciful by comparison. The only reason someone would knowingly do so anyway in such a brazen manner was that they had a lot to gain from this. Which means . . .
"Stealthaloo, we're in a lot of danger, aren't we?"
"Yes", he replied, giving a thin smile, "very much so."
Suddenly they were interrupted as they heard Twilight's voice. "Desperados! We're ready to see you now!"
Stealthaloo graced his friend with a smile, "It looks like that's our cue. Ready to go?"
"Alright but first, how did you know what that dragon's name was back there, you never heard it from anyone before you used it." Apple Thorn asked as they walked towards Twilight.
"Oh that," Stealthaloo waved a claw in the air dismissively, "Poison Pie has a dragon for an assistant back home who looks and sounds exactly the same way. I just guessed that they were the same guy despite lacking the weird gender change that everyone else here has, and I was right." But," Stealthaloo paused before giving a pensive expression which quickly turned to a cruel grin, "Don't tell Mourning Bell that. Let's tell him I'm psychic or something. It'll drive him crazy."
With that behind them, both friends laughed hysterically as they walked towards the throne room.