Starlight stared at Twilight's outstretched hoof. Later on, when telling the story to others, she would add that her own decision too had been the result of the adrenaline still in her system. Whichever the case, she took Twilight's hoof in hers, and nodded towards the light.
Twilight stepped forward, and pulled.
It was a bit like waking up from a dream, like that period of distorted awareness between being asleep and fully awake. Starlight wasn't sure how long it lasted for. She wasn't even sure it could be measured, or if time existed at all there. In the space between spaces, the bridge between worlds. Then just as it all had begun, it all came to an end.
And Starlight realised that she was wet, and unable to breathe. Her limbs and body were floating, her eyes stung a little, and water had begun to fill her lungs. Her first instinct was to scream. That made things worse. Her second instinct was to cast a spell to give herself gills, which made things a lot better. At that point she got a look around, and noticed Twilight had chosen the much simpler option of using magic to create an air bubble around her head.
The two shared a look and a nod, then swam back towards the floating mass of light behind them and just slightly below them. All around them was water as far as their eyes could see, and a barely illuminated darkness. And a large looming shadow that neither of them seemed to notice.
Twilight and Starlight slipped out of the portal, inside Twilight's castle, covered in water. The second gasped for air for a few seconds before undoing her gills. Behind them, the light retreated, leaving the scale shimmering suspended in its harness.
"We could have died there!" Starlight almost yelled.
"Yeah."
"We could have popped out in the sky! Or inside solid rock, or inside a pit of acid, or lava! We could have ended up somewhere too hot or cold for life to exist, with no atmosphere or a poisonous one! We could have walked right into a star for all we knew!"
"Yeah."
"What the fuck were we thinking going in there without any precautions?" Starlight screamed.
The two sat in silence for a while, looking at each other, as a puddle of water slowly formed on the ground.
"We have four more scales currently stored in the laboratory. Do you want to check those out now?" asked Twilight.
Starlight looked at her, wide-eyed. "I..." But she failed to come up with an argument, unable to deny her own curiosity. "We're making a list. And we're not going through another portal until we've cast protective spells for everything that might be on the other side. I hope you have something to shield us against the inside of a star."
"It won't put us inside a star. I'm mostly sure it'll be a planet. And it's supposed to put us on land, too."
"Yeah, sure. That inspires trust in your theories. We didn't just experience the exact opposite or anything."
Twilight stood up. "If we ended up inside water there probably wasn't any land. The whole surface might have been flooded, and at that point putting us on solid footing would have meant too much pressure for our bodies." She looked back at the scale. "We're not going back in there for a while, right?"
Starlight nodded. "Absolutely not."
"Alright." Twilight helped Starlight back to her hooves. "Wanna help me prepare for the next one? That protection spells idea is probably a good one. Definitely a good one."
Starlight looked at Twilight. "You're absolutely crazy, and so is this. Go fetch the other scales, I'll start writing down a list of potential hazards."