A few minutes later saw three ponies walking—one with the grace of a natural, two with the grace of newborns—a fourth pony continuing to bounce around the room with her head darting in all directions, and a fifth pony still circling through the hallway, ever increasing her flight speed and agility.
“Very good, everyone!” Fluttershy cheered her friends on. “I think we can try leaving the room now.”
“Yeah, I reckon it’s time we flag down Miss NASCAR with wings,” said Applejack. Rarity and Fluttershy nodded in agreement while Pinkie continued to bounce around, eying every object and dark corner suspiciously. Fluttershy lead the way gracefully and opened the double doors wider for the two friends who wobbled after her. Pinkie took notice and bounced closer. Rainbow Dash made one more pass before any of them made it into the bright hallway.
“My, she is getting fast isn’t …?” Rarity trailed off as she got a look at the well lit palace hall. “It’s magnificent! Is this whole palace made of crystal? And it’s so spacious! The wide hall, the high ceiling, those pillars, those banners, the diamond dangly light things attached to the ceiling. There are so many doors! How many rooms are in this hallway? This palace is simply divine! Could use some drapes though.”
“It sure is somethin’.”
“While trying my own wings out,” Fluttershy began, “I counted at least—”
“Yeah, this place has everything!” Pinkie called out, still pronking around. “Big tall ceilings that make you feel tiny. Shiny floors that are cold to the touch. And it even has long empty—WAIT!” She stopped suddenly in the air, having somehow gotten gravity and momentum both to ignore her for a few seconds. Once gravity remembered it was a law of nature and brought Pinkie to the floor she looked back at her vibrating tail. “MY TAIL IS TWITCHING! Twitch-a-twitch, Twitch’a’twitch! Why is—?”
“WOOOAAHH! Look out!”
Pinkie, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy all looked up just in time to watch a rainbow blur careen through the hallway and slam down onto Pinkie causing the two of them to bounce off the floor and into a wall.
“Rainbow! Pinkie!” Fluttershy quickly rushed to her friends’ aid while two more friends wobbled over at a slower pace. “Are you two alright?”
“Wow,” said Pinkie, her face pressed to the floor and her legs and belly against a wall, tail pointing up as if stuck to the wall, “You’re right, I probably should have dogged that, huh? But at least my tail stopped twitching.”
“Pinkie, who are you talking to?” asked Fluttershy.
“Number eight.”
“Ughh,” groaned Rainbow, flat on the floor, gaining Fluttershy’s attention.
“Rainbow! Are you alright? Are you hearing any voices?”
“Voices? What? Who? Fluttershy?”
“Yes, it’s me, Rainbow. We’re all here. Are you—”
“It’s about time the rest of you showed up!” Rainbow perked her head up. “I was getting bored of this hallway. I gotta get outside and REALLY fly!”
“You mean, get outside and find Twi, right?” corrected Applejack.
“Uh, yeah. And I’ll find her by flying! With how fast I can go I’ll find her in just ten seconds flat! Did you see me? Did you see how fast I was going! Even without my geode!”
“What we saw was a mighty crash just now as you plowed into Pinkie here.”
“Oh! Right. Heh. I was bored with just flying fast and started doing some tricks. You know, barrel rolls, aileron rolls, inside loop, pelican dive. Uh,” Dash blushed and grinned sheepishly, “the dive could have gone better.”
“Ya don’t say.”
“Hey, the other tricks went just fine!”
“Rainbow,” Fluttershy chided, “we already have a few messes to clean up, remember?”
“Uhh … yeah. But that was from before I got the hang of these babies!” Rainbow said, proudly looking over her withers at the blue wings she was flexing. She then gave them a hard flap, lifting her into the air then settling down on her four hooves and looked over the other ponies before her. “Hey, wow, I can totally recognize all of you! Heh, that portal doesn’t really change us all that much, huh? We even got our signs on our butts," Rainbow patted the lightning cloud on her hip.
Applejack looked where Rainbow was pointing and then back to her own hips. "Oh right. I think Sunset said every pony has these 'cute marks' or somethin'." She then frowned and mumbled out while shaking her hip, "Kind'a feels like I've been branded."
"Heh, mine should be called an awesome mark!"
“Yes, we do seem to retain quite the resemblance on this world,” said Rarity, appraising her three diamonds. “Though I would have preferred we retain our clothing along with our features. And if I could just locate a mirror I’d love to get a closer look at my own pony form.”
“You don’t need a mirror, silly,” said Pinkie, her face still on the floor. “Just look at the floor!”
Rarity looked down quizzically but stopped, horrified, before her gaze even reached between her forehooves, and screamed. “The floor is reflective! Oh, no no no no!”
“Oh, Rarity,” asked Fluttershy, “what’s wrong about that?”
“Don’t you understand?! The floor is reflective! We’re on all fours and NAKED!”
“Oh jumpin’ June bugs!” yelled Applejack as she blushed and crossed her hind legs.
“Why would nudists design such a horror?!” Rarity shrieked.
“But the designer was a tree,” Pinkie reminded them. “Do they even know what clothes are?”
“I don’t care if the designer was a tree, a pony, a rock, or a teacup!” Rarity replied. “This simply will not do! Rainbow! Fluttershy! Have either of you located any closets, bedrooms, boutiques while roaming earlier?! Rarity needs clothing!”
“I cras—flew into a bedroom earlier.” said Rainbow.
“WHERE!?” cried Rarity stepping up to Rainbow her eyes wide and twitching. “Tell me tell me tell me tell me!”
“Um, it was down that way,” Rainbow answered pointing behind Rarity, “but I don’t—”
Rarity turned, wobbled, and made a valiant attempt at running in an unfamiliar body. She succeeded just long enough to pass by the portal room they had only just left before tripping over her own legs. As she attempted to pick herself up she got a good look at herself through her reflection in the floor and screamed again. “I’VE BEEN IMPALED!”
The others rushed to her side. Rainbow reached her first but overshot by a large margin and slid along the floor as she hadn’t learned how to brake, or walk, yet. This effectively made Fluttershy the first to reach her with Applejack bringing up the rear. Pinkie Pie was still against the wall and had started mumbling to herself.
“Rarity, where? Show me!” urged Fluttershy.
“Is it some of the broken furniture from the portal room?” asked Applejack.
“It’s in my head!” Rarity replied turning around and pointing at her forehead.
“Uh, Rarity, I believe that’s a horn,” Fluttershy said.
“I don’t care what it is; get it out!”
“But we can’t. You haven’t been impaled, it’s growing out of you.”
“It’s grow—I’m a monster! That portal has disfigured me!
“Rares! Yer a unicorn!” Applejack explained.
“I-I’m wha’?”
“Yer a unicorn, like Fluttershy is a pegasus, and ah’m, uh,” Applejack checked her forehead by tapping it with a hoof, “earth pony, was’it?”
“A unicorn?” asked Rarity looking at her horn, both directly and through her reflection in the floor. “I’m a unicorn. I’m a unicorn! Ooooohh! The majestic creature of legends! Beauty, mystery, magic. The divine equine!” During her revelation Rarity had stood up tall with her head high and her chest puffed out.
Meanwhile, Rainbow had corrected herself, hovered over, and landed before Rarity. “Uh, hate to burst your bubble there, Rarity, but we kind'a have a unicorn friend back home that turned into a she-demon and tried to enslave the school. Not sure how ‘divine’ you can call that.”
Rarity’s expression dropped from elation to menace. “I’ve lost my grace, dignity, and clothing, couldn’t you let me have this. One. Thing?”
“What? Sunset and Twi said there’s lots of unicorns here. It’s nothing special. Besides, you don’t even have wings!” Rainbow proudly returned to a hover.
Rarity and Applejack both leveled glares at her.
“Not that you’re not still awesome. You know, in your own ways. ‘Cause you’re my friends and all my friends are awesome! Heh.” Rainbow bashfully placed a hoof behind her head.
“Rainbow Dash,” Rarity warned, glaring at her. “Where was that bedroom?”
“Uh, that way. Not far. Door’s still open. Can’t miss it.” Rainbow Dash pointed further down the hall behind her and hovered a little higher, keeping her distance, as Rarity more calmly walked down the hallway. Once she had gone a little ways Rainbow turned to Applejack and Fluttershy. “She's not going to be happy when she finds that bedroom.”
“Why not?” Asked Fluttershy.
“I think it was Spike’s.”
“RAINBOW DASH!” came an angry shriek a moment later. “Find! Pony! Clothing! Now!”
“Woah! Yes ma’am!” Rainbow answered, a slight quiver in her voice, and darted into the nearest room away from Rarity. Not one second passed before a loud thud was heard.
“Be careful, Rainbow! Try not to make any more messes,” Fluttershy called as Rainbow left the first room and proceeded to the next, at a slower pace, with a hoof pressed to her forehead.
Rarity calmly returned to Fluttershy and Applejack shortly after Rainbow made it around the hall’s bend. “Now then. We wait for Rainbow’s return, get dressed, find Twi, and leave this horrid world!”
“Oh Rarity, it’s not horrid. I think this place seems nice,” said Fluttershy.
“Yeah, Rares, we can’t judge a whole world just because a magic portal decided not to give us any clothes.
Rarity looked sternly at Applejack and Fluttershy, advancing on them as she spoke, “When I stay at a hotel I expect polite room service and a bellboy to carry my luggage. When I go to a spa I expect a mani-pedi and a relaxing soak in a hot tub. When I enter a magic portal to another world and end up in an alien body I expect it to dress me for the occasion! Is it so difficult to provide proper accommodations?!”
Fluttershy and Applejack began to cower and back away from their friend’s tirade. Applejack, not having practiced walking backward with four legs ended up tripping and landing on her hindquarters rendering her unable to backup any farther. “Now, now, Rares, ah—”
Applejack was saved from Rarity’s growing anger by a buzzing sound from the portal room.
“EEEAAKKKK! NOW THEY’RE BUZZING AT ME!” Pinkie jumped up and began to pronk in a circle around her friends. “MAKE IT STHAP!” Too preoccupied to notice the proximity of the nearest wall, she jumped directly into it, bounced, and landed on her back with her four legs splayed out in all directions.
“Pinkie! Cover yourself!” Rarity looked away with a forehoof over her eyes.
“Rarity!” Pinkie shrieked from the floor. “There’s more important things here than our horsey hoo-haws! You’re being udderly ridiculous!”
Fluttershy trotted to Pinkie and began petting her mane. “Pinkie, it’s okay, that buzzing isn’t in your head; we hear it too.”
“Oh! Okay then,” Pinkie smiled. “I’ll just go back to mumbling and whispering back to numbers three, eight, and twelve. I should probably start naming them.”
The other three girls looked at each other, concerned for their pink friend. Applejack glanced toward the portal room where the buzzing was coming from and made a tilting motion with her head in that direction. Rarity and Fluttershy nodded and the three of them walked toward the sound as Pinkie began mumbling to herself again. “None of yall's hearing voices, right?”
They shook their heads.
“No, darling, just this buzzing. Any idea what might be causing it?” Rarity asked then gasped. “Our cell phones! Could it be they came through with us?”
“Ah don’t know, Rares. Ah suspect they’re with our clothes … wherever that might be. And even if they did, there ain’t no satellites here for ‘em to connect to. No way to get calls or texts.”
“Texts! Sunset’s journal!” concluded Fluttershy.
“Darling, you’re right! Twily must be writing to us. Pinkie found this side’s copy earlier; it must be somewhere in this mess.
“Oh, I am very sorry about the mess,” Fluttershy looked around the room. “Though, it wasn’t this bad when I left.”
“I’m afraid we had some ‘accidents’ of our own. Accidents we shall not speak of.”
“Hey, over here.” said Applejack, attempting to push away some debris with a hoof. “Sounds like it’s under here. There anyway to turn on the lights in here? Still a bit dark.”
“I’ll look for a lamp or light switch, darlings. You two find that journal.”
Fluttershy joined Applejack in locating Sunset’s correspondence journal. Eventually a little glow could be seen in the darkness as Sunset and Twilight’s combined cutie marks were uncovered. “Here it is!”
“Bring it over here," Rarity called. "I found a small lamp. Though it’s not plugged into anything. Perhaps it’s battery powered?”
“Do y'all think ponies know batteries? Twi seemed confused by a lot of the tech in our world.”
With a click of a button, the lamp Rarity found was brightly shining. “Seems they do,” Rarity answered. "Magic batteries, perhaps?"
The ponies looked at the journal on the floor as they faced another problem. “Uh, how do we carry it over there?” asked Applejack.
“Oh, I have an idea.” Fluttershy sat down and used her forelegs to scoop up the journal, at which point it stopped buzzing, and held it under her barrel. She then eyed the table underneath the lamp Rarity found and spread her wings with determination. Flapping them hard, she lifted herself into the air. However, the angle of her back from a sitting position caused her to fly backward. “Woah, oh my!” Fluttershy attempted to correct herself but only managed to wobble side to side with her hind legs running in place. “Ahhh! Oh my goodness, oh my goodness.”
“Fluttershy, turn!”
“I don’t know how to turn,” she said as her right hind leg clipped the edge of the equipment connected to the portal and spun her around, causing her to fly in a backward circle. “Ahh!”
Applejack wobbled toward her, reared onto her hind legs, and tried to stabilize her with her forelegs only to fall onto her back the moment Fluttershy knocked into her. The impact startled Fluttershy and she squeaked and dropped the journal on Applejack’s muzzle with a thud.
“Gahh!”
“I’m so sorry!” said Fluttershy as she bumped into the table she had originally been trying to get to, and knocked the lamp off of it. “AHH! I’m so sorry!”
“Fluttershy, stop flapping!” suggested Rarity.
Fluttershy immediately stopped flapping her wings and folded them against her sides on instinct. She landed like a sack of bricks on top of some books in the corner of the room.
“Oof!”
“I didn’t mean all at once, darling! Are you alright?” Rarity went to check on her while Applejack groaned and rolled onto her belly to stand.
Applejack looked at the journal that had bounced off her face, and the small lamp that had thankfully survived the fall. She walked over to the lamp, looked at her hooves, sighed and picked the lamp up with her mouth. Better this than the journal, she thought. She placed it down next to the journal and used a hoof to push open the cover. Rarity and a dizzy Fluttershy joined her as she attempted to flip to the latest page without folding or ripping any pages in the process. “There’s got to be a better way.”
“Rarity, can you turn the pages with your horn?” asked Fluttershy.
“I suppose I could try, but I don’t see how that would be an improvement,” she answered. Applejack made way for Rarity who leaned down and pressed the tip of her horn in between some pages of the journal and lifted, finding some blank pages.
“Uh, sugarcube, I think she meant with horn magic.”
“Oh!" Rarity grew a self-satisfied smile, "I had completely forgotten we unicorns could do that.” Her smile faded as she thought for a moment. “How do we do that?”
“Um,” offered Fluttershy, “I usually see Twily gesturing with her hands when she uses her telekinesis, but not always. Maybe the gestures make it easier but aren’t necessary. Oh, but that’s with her geode, not a horn, and Twi's never used magic in our world.”
“What about your diamond shields?” asked Applejack. “What do ya do? Jus’ think or gesture them movin’ and they go?”
“Hrmm,” Rarity hummed. “After a fashion, yes. I suppose I could try the same on the pages.”
Rarity raised one hoof and made swiping motions in the air over the book. When that failed to do more than generate minute amounts of wind, her face scrunched up in mounting concentration and the swiping intensified. She then tried the other hoof.
Neither hoof proving successful on their own, Rarity then leaned back and stood on just her hind hooves and gestured with both front hooves.
She was on her second double-hoof swipe when gravity, plus her new pony physiology brought her front half crashing onto the crystal floor with a startled, “Oof!”
“You okay, Rarity?” Fluttershy asked, moving to stand beside her.
“Yes, dear. I’m fine,” was Rarity’s reply as she saw Fluttershy’s outstretched hoof and accepted it.
Fluttershy tried to help her up but misjudged the leverage and merely fell on top of her with a surprised, “Eep!”
Hoping to help her friends save face before giving in and snickering at them, Applejack went back to flipping pages with her hooves, “Never mind, girls, ah think we’re almost there.”
It only took a few more seconds before she finally found the latest message. They began to read noting that, while the text started clear and smoothly written, just like Twily’s usual handwriting, it slowly degraded into a sloppy mess with spelling mistakes and a complete lack of punctuation.
Are you girls okay? I’m getting worried. I thought you were going to write back to let me know you’re all okay.
You’re not stuck over there are you? Did you find the other journal? Did you find Twi? Are you in her palace? Or did you come out of the wrong portal? Is there more than one portal in that world? Are you even on the right world?! Twi said there were other worlds so there must be more than one portal! You could be anywhere now! Oh please write back! We should have waited for Twi to write us. We should be just searching for Sunset! I should be searching for Sunset! Please, please, please write back! Can you even write back if I’m still writing? Do these journals work like walkie-talkies and I have to stop writing before you can reply? Or are they more like cell phones and we can both write together? What am I saying writing?! This is a BOOK! How does it even do ANYTHING other than be a book! None of this magic stuff even makes any sense anymore. You all just walked THROUGH a mirror. That shouldn’t happen! It was normal glass a moment ago. I tried walking through it and just hit my head! Then I started writing in this journal and Spike put a paw through and it turned into a claw! That’s just wrong on so many levels. He offered to follow you to make sure you’re all alright, but I said no! What if you’re all lost? I don’t want him lost too! Are you coming back? Are you getting this message? Do I need to stop writing so you can write back? How are you going to write back as ponies? You won’t have hands! You don’t have hands. How do ponies write without magic? How do ponies have magic? How does magic exist? YREARGGGGHHHHH! None of this makes any sense, and I actually just wrote YREARGGGGHHHHh, that’s not even a word, I don’t know what that is except maybe some horribly formed onomatopoeia and I actually expect that to show up in another journal in a different world lived in by magical talking ponies on the other side of a magic mirror on our high school’s front yard! If I hadn’t seen it for myself at the friendship games back when I turned into that horrible horrible ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ THING i never would have believed in any of this or maybe i just passed out then and this is all a dream and the friendship games are still going onor maybe i passed out earlier because theres no way those giant carnivorous plants at the race werereal so i must have pased out earlier than that i must be in some kind of quesadilla fueled coma or hallucination i beged them not to make me eat those at lunch im so glad theyre nice to me now but that’s part of the halucination2 isnt it i must be passed out in the nurses office in crystalprep with a stomak ache EVERYTHING I KNOW IS WRONG
The message ended there. Rarity and Applejack looked at each other in a panic. “Darling, we have to write back this instant! The poor dear is losing her mind over this. WE NEED A PEN!” They stumbled off as quickly as they could.
“But she’s right," Applejack called to her, "what do we do when we find a pen? Ah can’t write with these hooves, an’ you don’t know how to work yer horn!”
“We’ll think of something!” urged Rarity as she looked over the desk where she found the lamp. “But we need a pen first! All I’m finding are feathers. Why are there feathers on a writing desk?!”
“Quills!” exclaimed Applejack. “Are those quills? And ink?”
“Oh! You’re right, darling. How quaint.”
“Quaint; nothin’!” Applejack waddled back to the journal. “Bring them over here, and the ink!”
“Do you know how hard it is to get black ink out of WHITE FUR?!”
“Auugh! Fine! You get the quills, just show me the ink.” Applejack met up with Rarity.
Rarity pointed out the ink jar and picked up a bundle of quills in her mouth to take back to the journal. She tripped over her hooves in her rush; the surprise caused her to drop the quills as she tumbled. When she stood up, the quills were clinging to her coat and she began trying to pick them off with her hooves.
Spotting the ink jar on the table Applejack took it in her mouth, followed Rarity back, and spat it onto the floor. “The jar’s closed; you wouldn’t have gotten nothin’ on ya!”
“Wait! The jar’s closed?! How do we open it?!”
“Uh, ah-ah don’ know!” Applejack thought for a moment. “Okay, Ah’ll grab the lid in my teeth and you grab the rest of the jar in your teeth and we’ll twist!”
“We’ll spill it all on the floor! And ourselves!”
“Yeah, but there should still be enough left to dip a quill into.”
“But, but,” Rarity protested. “Ohhh! Alright! Twily needs this now!”
Applejack bent down and grabbed the lid in her mouth and took a few steps away from the journal. Rarity darted forward, tilted her head, and got her teeth around the thicker base of the jar. They paused a moment as they got a look at each other and how close their faces were—their parted lips nearly touching—and blushed. Their eyes both dropped to the jar they each held between their teeth, mostly obscured by their muzzles, and back up to their eyes. “Wisst!” said Applejack.
“Wru?”
“Dwist!”
“Oo!”
The two of them twisted their necks trying to pry off the lid. They kept losing their balance and ended up circling themselves as they re-positioned their legs to remain standing.
“Aiit! Orth ay!” said Rarity.
“Wht?”
“Orher wy!”
“Oo!”
“FLOPPY EARS! Get the soap!” came a yell from Pinkie Pie out in the hallway.
They stopped and gave each other confused looks, then glanced at Pinkie for a moment, before Rarity called out, “Dwisst!”
They twisted the other way, finally popping the lid off without further trouble. Ink splashed onto the floor. They both backed up and Rarity squealed, angling her neck and the jar upward to keep as much ink in the bottle as possible. She cringed; feeling wetness on her hoof and not wanting to think about how much may have splashed onto her fur coat.
Applejack spat out the lid, jumped around the ink spill, nearly tumbling to her side upon landing, and went for the quills hanging off Rarity. “Ow! dun rte ee!” Rarity protested as Applejack got more than just quills.
“Furrppphh! Fuprh!” Applejack tried to spit out two of the three quills, and the bits of white fur, she had grabbed in her mouth. She ended up losing all three quills and bent down to pick one back up. “Ow!” she cried when she got the wrong end and with a bit more force than she wanted. She spat it back out again and tried to grab it as it flittered back to the ground, only succeeding in bashing her muzzle into the floor when she missed.
“Wss go’n un?” Rarity tried to ask, unable to look down to find out.
“Ah got it, ah got it, jus’ hold on!” Applejack made another try for the quill and got it in the middle with the ends sticking out the sides of her mouth. She turned to Rarity, still holding the mostly empty ink jar, and reared back for a better angle.
Rarity’s eyes looked from the jar to the quill in Applejack’s mouth, then back to the jar, and back to Applejack. Her eyes widened seeing how unsteady Applejack was walking on just her hind legs and pony hips as she neared the jar with the quill tip hanging out the left side of her mouth. “Arefful, Crful!”
“Old dill. Hld sill.”
Applejack concentrated, slowly leaning to the side with the pointed end of the quill hanging out of her mouth on hips not meant for bipedal posing. She held her forelegs out to the opposite side and slightly behind her for balance; waving them about as if they were still arms. And for the first time since arriving in the pony world, the group of brand new ponies did something, relatively, right the first time. Applejack pulled away from Rarity with a quill properly tipped with ink in her mouth and smiled. She dropped back down to all fours, looked down to find the journal, and yelled through the quill. “NUUUUU! Id closded!”
Rarity’s eyes went wide again and she spat out the jar to the side of the room, making sure it landed far away from the both of them, and dived for the journal that had closed after they left it. “Hold on, darling. Don’t let that quill drop!
Rarity checked her forehooves and cringed when she found only one to be free of ink. She flipped the book open with the tip of her horn, but it was to a page that was already filled. She then used her clean right forehoof to flip through the pages as quickly as she could, without tearing them apart, while she held the other side of the journal down with her horn. She needed to lift her head away each time she flipped through additional pages so she could trap them down with her horn. A few pages got folded and crumpled in the process, but no tears.
She found Twily’s preserved mental breakdown and the first empty page beyond it. “AH HA!” She circled her hindquarters around the journal while holding the pages open for Applejack with her horn and hoof.
Applejack eyed the empty page, leaned down with her head turned sideways and tilted ninety degrees, so that the ink end of the quill was down toward the journal, but stopped before closing in. “Wru du ah wrte?”
Rarity resisted the urge to facehoof with her face still in the journal, “Just write ‘we’re OK!’ We’ll handle specifics later! And don’t get any ink in my hair!”
Applejack nodded and was about to attempt writing when the portal flashed and an object slammed into Rarity’s side knocking her away from the journal which promptly closed behind her.
“Ahhh!” squeaked Fluttershy, collapsing back into the pony world.
“Frudersy?” asked Applejack.
“Twily’s okay,” Fluttershy explained, picking herself up, “she just needed some calming down.” She looked around seeing Rarity covered in feathers, Applejack looking mournfully at the closed journal at her forehooves, and ink splotches over the floor and on both their fur coats. “What’s going on here?”
Rarity and Applejack looked at each other, then at Fluttershy, then the portal, then back to each other. Applejack spat out the quill and averted her eyes. “Nothin’.”
Rarity stood up and began brushing the remaining quills off her coat with her clean hoof. “Indeed.”