Hello From The Other Side

by FoxMcCloud7921


Let the Princess Win

Mane-iac had to hand it to Matterhorn, she was wise to get rid of her via portal to a different dimension. But apparently the girl had no idea where she had sent her. “How sloppy of you,” Mane-iac thought with amusement. “Oh well, it’s my problem now isn’t it?”

Considering this place was obviously not Maretropolis and no one was threatening to call the police, she decided it was best to act like a normal citizen, at least for the time being. At worst, people would think the woman needed a major haircut. “I feel the need to stop by the nearest hair salon…”

But they would have to wait. She already had a plan in mind but without her minions or the black market to depend on, she’d have to resort to more basic means, hence her trip to the local department store. But before that, she’d need something to get around in.

Luckily, she managed to find a white van on her way into town. The best part was the fact that the idiot left his keys in the car and the door unlocked. Were people here that confident about their possessions not being stolen? Mane-iac sure wasn’t complaining. “Sorry dear, I have to borrow this,” she said somewhat sadly as she got into the front seat and started the engine. She shifted into drive and drove off before the owner could come running out and scream at her.

Well, that was the easy part. Now she would have to find all the materials she needed for her new plan. Luckily, the chemical concoction she had been holding onto survived the trip over. She took out the small bottle of concentrated formula. “Oh the things we can do to this town,” she chuckled.

Building a bomb was easy if you knew all the components, which you could find anywhere. Again, with her resources stuck back in Maretropolis, she’d have to resort to explosive material such as fertilizer. Lots and lots of fertilizer.

Before she got up, she took a look in the mirror, finally noticing her attire. “Huh…I can’t deny it looks good but it’s just not…me…” She needed a wardrobe change but she’d worry about that later.

She parked in the front of the store by the front door. Of course, she was probably going to get a ticket but that wasn’t her problem was it? Going inside, it was easy to find everything she needed. You needed brains and brawn to be one of Maretropolis’ most wanted so she knew exactly what she needed.

After getting all the parts required plus half a dozen small bags of fertilizer, she made her way towards the front door. “Excuse me ma’am, checkout’s over here?” Mane-iac looked over to the man at the checkout desk.

“Oh I’m terribly sorry,” she said sweetly as she walked over. “Every store is different so I get lost around here.”

“That’s nice but you need to bring your stuff over here so I can scan it.”

“Oh…right…here’s the thing,” Mane-iac said as she leaned against the table, almost in the man’s face. “See I’m afraid coming over here has left me in a bad situation financially and considering all that’s in there is going to raise a red flag anyway…” The man had no time to react as her hair grabbed him and slammed his head into the wood, knocking him out. “Oh, really? You’ll let me take it for free? You’re such a kind person…the city will thank you for this later.” She then cackled as she left the building. If anyone had managed to witness the scene, they certainly weren’t brave enough to confront the woman.

As soon as she packed everything, she quickly drove off. The police would be notified eventually so for now she’d have to lay low. As she drove further downtown, she passed by the large concert hall and looked over to see a large sign depicting an event taking place tonight at seven.

Mane-iac grinned. “Well, well, well…I think I just found my first target…”

 


It was about two hours later when Sunset and Luna finally called it quits. “You are certainly a worthy adversary Sunset,” Luna declared. “You obviously have much experience.”

“Well I’m surprised you’re as good as you are and you’ve only been here only half a day,” Sunset said. “Did they create video games over there while I’ve been gone?”

“Not yet sadly, as least not with this kind of technology,” Luna said sadly. “If my counterpart is just as good, one of these days we will have to do battle.” Sunset snorted at the idea.

“Are you two finally done?” Celestia asked, who again was in the doorway.

Both of them blushed. “Were we really playing that long?” Luna asked.

“Yes, but I’m glad to see you two are bonding,” Celestia replied, smiling. “Luna, I know it may still be early but…I have a strange feeling that we should head back and check on Equestria.”

“Oh sister, there’s no way those two could have caused any trouble,” Luna said with a wave of her hand. “Besides, Twilight can handle things if need be.”

“But that’s what I worry about,” Celestia argued. “What if she finds out it isn’t us over there?”

“Wait…Twilight doesn’t know you two are over here?” Sunset asked.

“No…Celestia thought she could be clever and pull one over Twilight,” Luna said.

“I didn’t see the harm in it, considering we weren’t going to be gone long,” Celestia explained.

“Oh boy…well maybe she’s right,” Sunset said. “I can take you two back to the school.”

Luna sighed. “Alright fine… but what if everything’s alright then?”

“Luna…”

“Fine, fine we’ll go.”

“Just one thing?” Sunset asked. “No offense but um…do you two think you could change into something more…current?” Both sisters looked at one another and started laughing.

 


Equestria

 

The sound of the clock ticking echoed throughout the quiet room. Both sisters were sitting on their thrones, looking as bored as ever. “Well…I suppose it was only a matter of time before we were going to run out of things to do,” Luna grumbled.

She then heard a snore beside her and saw that her sister had fallen asleep, partly from doing nothing but also because she had a full stomach. Luna sighed. “Figures…” She then got up and decided to take a stroll through the castle grounds.

It certainly was strange to see walking, talking equines about but Luna couldn’t deny the world of its beauty and…quietness. Sure, their world was mostly the same but they had buildings, cars, computers, etc. Here it was like they’ve gone back in time, to a time where life was a lot less…complicated.

Maybe that’s why she wanted to come here, to get away from the usual. But alas, even here she has duties to fulfill. Perhaps it may be a boring day to her and her sister, but to the princesses it was probably one of the few off days they had. Now it seemed that she appreciated only having to worry over a high school instead of an entire country.

As she kept walking, she noticed she was being followed. She stopped and noticed the two members of the Lunar Guard standing at attention behind her. “…Have you two always been following me?”

The two ponies looked at one another. “Of course Your Majesty,” one of them, a female said. “It’s our duty is it not?” While Luna relished in the idea of having her own Guard and having them do whatever she wanted, she didn’t like the idea of always being watched.

“Of course…” Luna said. She then studied the guard who had spoken closer. “Take off your helmet.”

The pony looked confused as she pulled off her helmet and that’s when Luna realized something was different. The pony looked equine but the anatomy was slightly different. Even so she looked…

“Oh my gosh,” Luna said, going over and putting her hooves on the pony’s cheeks. “You are adorable.”

The mare started to blush as the other looked at Luna in confusion. “Um…thank you Your Highness?”

“Oh that’s right,” Luna remembered. “The princess did say they were known as thestrals…oh I want to take one home with me and snuggle with it.” She then cleared her throat. “You’ll forgive me…”

“S-Sergeant Sabre ma’am,” the thestral stuttered.

“Yes.” She looked to the two of them. “I need you two to do something for me.”

“Anything Your Majesty,” Sabre said.

“My sister and I have to go to Ponyville for a bit. However, the Guard cannot know about this. It’s…secret business.”

“Okay?”

“Can you arrange us a chariot?”

“At once ma’am.” Sabre saluted as she put her helmet back on. “We’ll have them meet you in the gardens.”

“Thank you.” Luna then returned to the throne room where her sister was still sleeping. “Celestia? Wake up, we need to get going.” Of course, Celestia only responded with a loud snore. “Seriously sister, wake up!” She tried nudging her but that didn’t seem to have anymore effect. She then spotted a vase full of flowers nearby and dragged it over with her magic, tipping it over and dropping the water on her face.

“Agh! TO THE DUNGEON!” Well, apparently she learned the Royal Canterlot Voice rather quickly. “L-Luna?”

“Sorry Tia, the cake really did a number apparently. We have a carriage awaiting us.”

“Huh?” Celestia then got to her feet. “Why? Are the princesses back?”

“No, I arranged the carriage.”

“You? Why?” She looked at the clock. “It’s still kind of early don’t you think?”

“Perhaps, but I admit maybe we’ve stayed here long enough. It’s not that I want to leave but…”

“But?”

“Perhaps its just intuition or something magical-related with this place but I feel…slightly uneasy.”

“Luna, if you’re worried that some national crisis-”

“That isn’t it, though yes that would be an issue; I just think perhaps we’ve had enough fun for today.”

Celestia was surprised to hear that coming from her own sister. “Wait, you’re not worried the other Luna is playing your-”

“No…but if she scratched anything I will kill her.”

The two alicorns then went out to the gardens (after Celestia insisted on writing a small note letting anyone know the two were running an errand) as the midnight blue carriage awaited them. “At least it looks comfortable,” Celestia commented as the two went inside.

“Well, what else would you expect from the Lunar Guard?” Luna said quite smugly. “But seriously, I had no idea thestrals could be so cute!”

“You can’t take one home…cause then it’ll turn into a human,” Celestia reminded her as the carriage took off.

“Hmm…yes that is true.”

It was only when they were about halfway to Ponyville that Celestia realized something. “Wait a minute, if we land in Ponyville, everyone’s going to see us!”

“…Yeah I didn’t think of that one thoroughly did I?”

“Don’t worry, I have an idea,” Celestia said as she opened her window and looked towards the pegasus stallions pulling the carriage. “Excuse me!” The carriage slowed down as the two ponies looked to her. “Sorry to interrupt you but…instead of landing in Ponyville we need you to stop right above Ponyville Castle…like maybe a hundred meters up?” The one pegasus stared at his partner who only shrugged in confusion.

Once they had finally reached Ponyville, they were so high up one would have to crane their neck in order to see them right above the castle. “Wait, are you sure about this?” Luna asked.

“Don’t worry sister, we have wings after all so we can just float down,” Celestia said. She then opened the door and waved to the two pegasi. “Thank you for the ride!” She then jumped out. Luna just shook her head and followed suit.

“Is it just me or has today been very weird?” one of the pegasi asked.

“Totally weird,” the other pegasus nodded.

It wasn’t the most graceful landing Princess Celestia would ever have, and maybe it was fortunate that being an alicorn made one immortal (again, pony world physics apparently do not coincide with earth physics) since the landing she made probably would’ve twisted something. Needless to say, her legs hurt after that.

Luna wasn’t as fortunate, deciding to use her sister as a landing pad. “Thank you sister,” Celestia said bemused as she lay sprawled out.

“Well you were so confident this was such a good idea,” Luna said as she managed to get up. “Well, at least we managed to reach the front door without any unwanted attention.

“Princess Celestia? Princess Luna?” The two of them looked behind them to see Starlight Glimmer staring at them with a large bag of produce.

“I stand corrected,” Luna sighed. She then put on a smile. “Starlight Glimmer, what a…surprise to see you.”

“Um…right,” Starlight said. “Did you two need to see Twilight about something?”

“Well…not exactly,” Celestia said. “Alright Celestia, play it cool and she’ll suspect nothing…” “We just needed to…see that room again with the mirror but we didn’t want to disturb Twilight of course.”

“Oh I’m sure she won’t mind,” Starlight said as she walked up to the door. “I’ll just-”

“No,” Celestia said, putting a hoof on her shoulder. “She really can’t know we’re here.”

Starlight suddenly looked suspicious. “Alright, what’s going on here?”

“Should we just tell her sister?” Luna asked.

Celestia sighed. “I guess we don’t have a choice. Starlight, I know we may look like the princesses but-”

“Wait a minute.” Starlight’s horn suddenly glowed and she appeared to perform some sort of scanning spell. “Wait…no…you’re not changelings are you?”

“No,” Celestia said, now looking annoyed. “That mirror you saw that goes to another world. We’re from that world.”

“I knew it!” Starlight almost shouted. “I knew there was something funny going on here! So wait…where are…?”

“They’re on the other side,” Luna explained.

“Oh…and Twilight doesn’t know does she?”

“No and we hope we can keep it that way,” Celestia said. “Can we just get to that room please?”

“Alright, I’ll show you the way,” Starlight sighed. “But if we get caught, I’m not getting thrown under the carriage.”

She opened the doors and led the two alicorns inside. “Twilight should be in her office in the library,” Starlight said. “And Spike should be over at Rarity’s currently so I think the coast should be clear…follow me.”

She led them down  rows of doors before she found the second to last door on the right. “Here we go.”

“Wait, how do you know which one is which?” Luna asked.

“Believe me, I’ve gotten lost here so many times so I literally marked each door with a marker spell that’ll tell me which place is which.” She opened the door and went inside. However, as the three walked inside, they suddenly stopped in their tracks.

“Hello Starlight, Princesses.” The large white rotating chair that certainly wasn’t there before turned which revealed Twilight’s presence. She was about to say something more but then realized she put too much oomph into her spin and now she was facing to the left of them. “Wait a minute…” She shifted so she was now looking straight at them. “Ahem…as I was saying…hello ladies. What a surprise to see you all here.”

She then got up and walked towards them slowly. “It really is a surprise to see you two again, especially since we just saw each other about six hours ago.”

“They just wanted to come see the portal again,” Starlight explained.

“Oh really?” Twilight looked at the two suspiciously. “And why is that, ‘Princess’ Celestia?”

“She knows…or at least she suspects it,” Celestia thought. “Time to put those acting lessons to good use.” “Before we departed last time, I couldn’t help but notice something was…off about the portal and even though I tried to brush it off, the feeling kept nagging me.”

Twilight suddenly looked surprised. “Really?” She went over to the portal and studied it closely. “Everything seems in working order. I admit this thing doesn’t get used very often so…” She then chuckled. “Oh I see what you’re doing…you’re trying to throw me off with an excuse. But why don’t you two tell me why you’re really here?”

“You know…um…I’m just gonna get going now, bye!” Starlight said, teleporting quickly before Twilight decided to stop her.

“…I’ll be having a word with her later,” Twilight said. “Anyway, you two better start explaining yourselves.”

“I don’t appreciate your tone Twilight,” Celestia said. “You sound like you suspect us of something.”

“Of course I do!” Well, she wasn’t one hundred percent certain…maybe ninety-six. “You two switched places with the princesses didn’t you!?”

“Now why would we do that?” Luna asked.

“I…I don’t know!” Twilight yelled. “But I pick up on the little things you know. When you two left, it was Celestia without the crown who used the teleportation spell. Now how would Principal Celestia know that spell? The truth is she didn’t and it was Princess Celestia who did the spell.”

“I’m not seeing the relevance here,” Celestia said.

Twilight was now gritting her teeth and ready to scream. They were definitely cool-headed, much more than she imagined. “I suppose they have Princess Celestia to thank for that,” she grumbled in her head. Then all of a sudden a smirk came to her face as it finally hit her. That was it.

“Alright…I may not have concrete evidence that a switch was made…but I can still prove you two are in fact Principals Celestia and Luna!” She smiled as a number of books suddenly appeared in her possession. “These books contain a lot of information about the princesses, information you two should already know.” She then grinned. “So if I’m wrong about this, then it should be easy right?”

“You’re…going to quiz us?” Luna said, her bravado started to slip.

“Of course. You two know how much I love quizzes…or do you?” She then opened one of the books. “So…what do you say?”

“I think this is rather ridiculous,” Luna said. “We don’t have time to answer-”

“We accept.”

“What?” Luna stared at her sister, her look of determination never fading. “Celestia, you can’t be serious!?”

“Oh just humor her Luna,” Celestia said. “Like she said, she loves quizzes.” Luna could only facehoof horribly.

“Great!” Twilight said happily. She then looked through her book. “Okay, first question. This is an easy one: what is the name of Princess Celestia’s pet?”

“Philomena of course,” Celestia said. Thank goodness for notes.

“…Okay, maybe too easy,” Twilight grumbled slightly. “Okay, next question: what’s Luna’s favorite cake?”

“Um…” Luna thought for a moment. “Black Forest?”

“…” Twilight suddenly tossed the book across the room. “Okay, those were just lucky guesses. Now we’re going to go a little bit more current: Luna, you have to answer this one yourself: when we dealt with the Tantabus before, do you remember why that creature was created in the first place?” She then smirked at her. “Better yet, do you even know what a Tantabus is?”

Luna scoffed. “Of course I know what a Tantabus is…” However, she didn’t know the answer to that question. Well, if there was one thing she was good at in school it was throwing out answers. “It’s because…well…do I really have to say it?”

“Yes! You do!” Twilight glared at her.

“Is this what happened to you Luna?” Luna thought to herself. “Is that what caused you to turn evil?” She sighed. “Fine, I don’t know. I don’t know because I’m not Princess Luna and she’s not Princess Celestia. I’m tired of playing this game so can we just go home now?” Celestia just shook her head disappointingly.

Twilight froze for a second. This…this wasn’t how she imagined it would be ending. “Oh come on! At least put a little more effort into it!” Well, this wasn’t as much fun as she thought. She sighed. “Look…I’m not…angry I just…who’s idea was it in the first place?”

“Technically it was their idea,” Celestia said. “I don’t think she meant any harm in it.”

“Well she could’ve told me and saved me all the stress,” Twilight grumbled. “Still, I guess I can’t really blame you two, not completely anyway. But why didn’t you two tell me?”

“We thought if we could get away with it without you knowing we would,” Celestia said, bowing her head slightly. “We’re sorry…”

Twilight looked uncomfortable. “This is…kind of weird. Having you two bowing and apologizing to me. Well, I suppose we can go look for them on the other side. Do you know where they are?”

“Well, if they didn’t trash the car then hopefully they’re at our house,” Luna said.

“Wait a minute…you let them into your house willingly!?” Twilight almost yelled.

“Considering we’re pretty much all the same I don’t think it’s as bad as it sounds,” Celestia said calmly. “Then again, if they broke anything…”

“I can see you look worried so we’ll just head over there right away. Follow me.” Twilight was about to step into the portal when her muzzle hit the glass. “Huh?” She tapped the mirror slightly. “This can’t be right…the portal should be open.”

“I think I now understand your uneasiness dear sister,” Celestia whispered.

“Oh no, no no no nonononononono! Twilight shrieked as she went around the portal. “This can’t be happening! This is absolutely the worst time for this thing to break! We need those two back to lower the sun and raise the moon.”

“You know they taught us to do that…” Luna said.

“That’s not the point! If something happens in Equestria, we need Princess Celestia and Princess Luna!” Twilight took a deep breath. “Okay, no need to panic, I’ll just disassemble everything and figure out the problem that way.”

“Um…is the mirror supposed to be turning red?” Celestia asked.

“Huh?” Twilight looked at the mirror and saw the glass turning a blood red. “No…it really shouldn’t be doing that…” Suddenly the portal opened and the three of them felt themselves get sucked in. “No it’s really not supposed to do this!” Twilight screamed as she was pulled inside.

The two alicorns tried to grab hold of something but even with their strength they were still being pulled in. “Hold on Luna!” Celestia managed to grab her with a wing. “We have to go in there! We can’t just leave Twilight behind!”

“Are you kidding me!?” Luna yelled back as books started to fly around the room. “How do we know that isn’t a portal to Hell!?”

“Oh for crying out loud Luna, enough with the damn video game-!” Suddenly a book hit her straight in the head, causing Celestia to lose her grip around the bookshelf as the two were then sucked into the portal. Once they went through, the portal closed once again, leaving the room a complete mess.

There was then a knock on the door. “Twilight?” Starlight opened the door and looked inside, suddenly gawking at the entire mess. “Oh great…am I gonna have to report alicorn on alicorn violence…?”