Once Sweetie Belle downloaded the coordinates, the Lor Starcutter took off and opened a portal.
The ship traversed it and appeared high in the sky of a planet.
"So, Lory, tell me what you see of this new planet," Sweetie Belle asked.
Images of the surface appeared on the large screen, and Sweetie Belle immediately recognized some stuff like Twilight's crystal tree castle or Canterlot Castle. However, there were many differences too, like Ponyville which didn't exactly look the same. The town was built differently, and seemed now to have two hearts: the castle and downtown where most businesses were gathered. While the houses kept their rustic appearance, the streets were now like in Manehattan or Canterlot and were filled with vehicles. No carriages however, but cars, some of which hovered over the road. There were also street lamps, traffic lights, many other modern stuff, and even robots! The dam was now a hydroelectric generator, and there were some factories in the outskirt.
Factories in Ponyville were so weird to see. So out of place.
No, scratch that! All that advanced technology was weird to see in Ponyville. Back in Sweetie's world, it was still weird to see a portal and the Lor there.
"IT WOULD SEEM THAT WE HAVE ARRIVED AT A TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED EQUESTRIA," the Lor stated. "A POSSIBILITY WOULD BE THAT WE ARE IN A FUTURE VERSION OF YOUR WORLD."
"Or we are in a version where the ponies put more care in technological advancements," Sweetie Belle said. "Or they got in contact with aliens. It could be any reason. Okay. Time to find this potential ally. I wonder who it will be? Twilight? Rainbow Dash? Or maybe even Rarity?"
She could feel an unknown powerful energy coming from below, from Ponyville, but she couldn't pinpoint its exact origin yet.
Well, she will find out soon enough, once she landed.
"Time to land, Lory. Go toward the place around Twilight's castle."
The Lor Starcutter followed her instructions and flew down toward Ponyville. Quickly enough, it drew the attention of the ponies, and when they saw that it was going toward the castle's place, most of them went there to see it land, filled with curiosity and some apprehension.
Sweetie Belle could feel that mysterious energy coming from somepony among them.
Once the Lor landed, the exit and the ramp appeared, allowing her to descend.
And she saw her, the origin of that energy. Right in front of the crowd, ready to attack if Sweetie Belle revealed to be a threat.
Scootaloo.
And as soon as Scootaloo recognised Sweetie Belle, she became very confused, lowering her guard as she said, "What?"
At her sides, the Sweetie Belle of this world and Apple Bloom both dropped their jaw, especially the white filly. And quickly enough, most of the crowd had either their jaw dropped too and/or were looking in confusion between the two Sweetie Belles.
Then, somepony finally remarked.
"She has wings!"
This drew the attention of everypony on the fact that, yes, she was an alicorn, and more jaws dropped.
"Sweetie Belle?! An alicorn?!" shouted Rarity among the crowd.
Then, Twilight, who was beside the local CMC, tried at several reprises to say something only to fail before she raised her head to the sky and yelled, "Discord! Is that your work?!"
The draconequus appeared beside her, pouting. "You know, I almost feel insulted that you immediately thought that I was responsible of this even if, this time, you are right."
Sweetie Belle flew to him. "I get it that you are the one who gave the coordinates of this universe to my Discord?"
Discord grinned at her. "You got it right! Your Discord contacted us on the Chaosnet about you, and I gave him the coordinates of this universe so you could encou-"
He was suddenly shoved out of the way by Twilight who took his place to face the filly. "You are from an alternate Equestria?!"
At this instant, despite their curiosity, most of the crowd decided that they had elsewhere to go and quickly vacated the area.
Sweetie Belle materialized a book on quantum physics and Twilight's eyes immediately focused on it.
"You see that book on quantum physics that you don't have? You see that book on quantum physics that you don't have? Go fetch it!"
And the filly threw the book with enough force that it would land at least one mile away and Twilight quickly flew after it. This made Discord as well as Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Spike, and the fillies still present laugh, and even the others barely held in a chuckle.
"That... pfff That wasn't very nice," Fluttershy said. It was very difficult to not laugh.
Sweetie Belle shrugged unapologetically. "I didn't want to be at the receiving end of Twilight in Twilighting mode. I will wait for her to calm down before I start to answer her questions. This book should be a good enough diversion until then."
"Eh. We can't fault you on this one," Scootaloo said, and many agreed with a nod.
Pinkie Pie then suddenly was in front of Sweetie Belle. "Oh my gosh! I can't believe I'm meeting a Sweetie Belle from another universe! You would have been second if I had been allowed to go to the human world where I would have met the human Sweetie Belle, but since I wasn't, then you are first! And you are an alicorn! So does that make you a princess? Does this mean we are visited by royalty from another dimension? Will you talk to Princess Celestia and form an alliance that will start the process of making a powerful multiversal org-"
Applejack silenced her with a hoof in her mouth. "Down, girl. Leave the filly breathe. She just arrived."
Sweetie Belle giggled, then looked around at the ponies who still were present. There was the Element Bearers (excepted Twilight, of course), Discord, Starlight Glimmer, Spike, the CMC, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon surprisingly, and even who she recognized as Berry Pinch and Lily Longsocks from her school. Twilight then already returned with the book in her magic, muzzle down in it as she sat beside her friends without asking anything, but no doubt she will be listening. The others gave her amused smiles.
"Ahem. So... You are an alicorn," Rarity began awkwardly. "Does this mean that I am...?"
"Nope. Sorry Rarity, you aren't an alicorn in my universe," Sweetie Belle answered.
"What about Apple Bloom? If ya became an alicorn, then surely yer friends became alicorns too," Applejack asked, although she was very weirded out at the idea of an Apple being an alicorn. Also, the idea of the three Crusaders being alicorns was strangely terrifying.
"Nuhu. I'm the only one of the Crusaders who became an alicorn."
Some ponies released sighs of relief at her answer.
"What about that ship?" Rainbow Dash then asked as she admired the Lor Starcutter alongside most of the fillies. "Are you from an Equestria even more advanced than us that you have airships that can go to other universes?"
"Not at all. The Lor Starcutter is one of a kind. My Equestria is technologically less advanced than yours from what I can see. But with the way things are going, we should catch up soon enough."
"Then how did you get this ship?" Rainbow dash asked.
"Long story," Sweetie Belle answered. "How I became an alicorn is part of this story. It involves a long series of adventures with friends, ending up in fights against terrible foes that would put the likes of Sombra, Chrysalis, Tirek, or even Grogar himself to shame."
"Really now?" Scootaloo asked, interested. "How bad?"
"Do you want a full list or just the best?"
Scootaloo thought a bit. "Let's go for the full list."
So Sweetie Belle materialized a list of all the villains she fought. She also included her duels against Dedede, Meta Knight, and Kirby. she then gave it to Scootaloo who began to read, the others quickly going to her sides to read too, even Twilight.
The more they read of it, the more jaws dropped. Even Scootaloo was impressed at the last few foes in the list.
"So you fought a God before ascending? What kind of God was it?" Scootaloo asked.
"The kind of God that could create and destroy an universe as easily as we create and destroy sand castles," Sweetie Belle answered. "But like I pointed out in the list, I was far from being alone when I fought him."
"But now that you are an alicorn...?" the pegasus inquired.
"Well... I'm still not as powerful as him, but since he is not what I would call a skilled fighter, then I guess that I could take him one on one."
The local Sweetie Belle came to her side with stars in her eyes. "I didn't think there could be alternate versions of me so powerful!"
Sweetie Belle giggled. "There are powerful alternate versions of everyone. In the Omniverse, everything is possible, even Opal with superpowers."
"What?" Apple Bloom asked. "What'd be the superpowers of a cat?"
Sweetie Belle shrugged. "No idea." She then looked at Scootaloo. "Speaking of, what are your powers? I can feel some energy from you."
Scootaloo smirked before she materialized a red cube. She then sent it toward Sweetie Belle who let it come. Once it touched her, the world around her became weird. It took on red colors and became glitchy. Then, not unlike when Discord first unleashed chaos on Ponyville, houses began to levitate out of the ground. Quickly enough, the effects of the cube disappeared, and the floating buildings disappeared, now back at their place.
Sweetie Belle was amazed as she looked around. "Woah! What was that? Some kind of illusion?"
Smirking again, Scootaloo then materialized an apple and tossed it at Sweetie Belle who caught it.
"Mmh... I can feel its texture. If it was an illusion, I shouldn't be able to feel anything, right? Unless your illusions are that good?" She took a bit of the apple. "I can even- Pouah!" She spat the apple. "Why does it taste like licorice? Pouah! Pouah!"
Apple Bloom looked at Scootaloo in horror. "How could ya do something so horrible? I thought ya weren't evil!"
Scootaloo grinned evilly. "What? Licorice is good!"
"You are the only one who likes licorice!" shouted the local Sweetie Belle in disgust.
What remained of the licorice apple disappeared as Sweetie Belle glared at Scootaloo. She then laughed. "That was a good one! Here, have a cookie." She materialised a cookie and sent it right into Scootaloo's mouth. The pegasus couldn't stop herself from chewing and she rapidly started sweating because of her mouth burning.
"L-liquid rainbow in a cookie... Now that's evil," Scootaloo said as she resisted the urge to run and drink the whole river.
The two exchanged smirks that promised that it was war, much to the amusement of Discord.
"If you two start a prank war, could you please do it on another planet?" Spike pleaded. "We don't want to rebuild Ponyville. Again."
"Don't worry Spike. So, really, what is your power?" Sweetie Belle asked Scootaloo.
"You guessed it actually, I use illusions. I can alter the reality of my targets and turn it real for them. This includes my own reality. And I can then transpose these fake realities into the real world, like I did for that apple."
"Neat!"
"What about you?" Scootaloo asked as she looked at Sweetie Belle's Cutie Mark. "What are you the alicorn from? Darkness?"
"Void. Which is darkness I guess. I have total control of an unique energy that comes from it, which is nothing else than the energy at the origin of all others, of everything. So I can create from it any other energies that I can think of, and from them, do pretty much anything. Including..." A red cube materialized at her side as she smiled smugly. "This."
Scootaloo, and everyone, stared at the cube in awe. "Tha... That's cheating!" the pegasus eventually shouted.
"Sorry. It's how I work," Sweetie Belle said with a shrug before she looked at the cube. "How do you call this energy? It's really powerful."
"Phantom energy," Scootaloo answered.
"Wait. How come everything is created from the void?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Void is nothing, right? Then how could something come from... nothing?"
"Because void has no rules, making it true chaos," Twilight lectured. "And true chaos being unstable, then it eventually turns into something else. Why do you think most stories starting with the beginning of the universe go "at first, there was chaos"?"
"I don't know, the only stories I ever read are Daring Do. And classics that everypony knows of course. Wait a minute. Does this make this Sweetie Belle an alicorn of chaos? Isn't it... uh... What's the word...?"
"Paradoxical? Not really. Take Cadance for example. Love is known to be a great source of chaos. Magic too by the way. But alicorns aren't just about chaos or order, they are about harmony, which chaos is part of," Twilight explained. Then, she looked back at Sweetie Belle with a raised eyebrow. "But I hope that you have an alicorn of order to counter all that chaos."
"Aww. But I'm pretty ordered. I keep my room all tidied up. If I decided to really turn chaotic, then my Discord would be out of a job, and I don't want that. I prefer to use my chaos to do good, like fighting bad guys."
"Uh. Just for info, if you see Chrysalis around, don't attack her, she has turned over a new leaf," Starlight informed.
This surprised Sweetie Belle. "Really? How did you manage it? No matter how much I kicked her flank in my dimension, she refused to join the friendship side. Now she's in Tartarus alongside Sombra, Tirek, and Grogar."
"She hasn't really joined the "friendship side"," Twilight said. "It's... a long story."
"That and she's smart enough to understand that she wouldn't stand a chance against me if she tried to conquer Equestria again," Scootaloo said.
"Uh. My Chrysalis must have had a few less brain cells than yours. I mean, I one shot her with a giant beam on her face while she was on her magic-nullifying throne surrounded by her minions, and she went on by resurrecting Sombra and breaking Tirek out of Tartarus before sending them after me, Tirek powered by the magic of Twilight, Celestia, Luna, and Cadance that the Changelings had captured. And when I defeated them, she still went on by bringing Grogar back from wherever he was exiled. She never learned."
"Not the same circumstances I guess. She had a whole war to see how much out of her league I was. And even then, by the end, the majority of her Changelings were now in good relation with ponies and other species, so she knew that it would have been suicidal for her to try anything."
Something gained Sweetie Belle's attention in what Scootaloo said. "A war?"
This made the ponies around look at each others, a deep sadness filling them. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity each gave a hug respectively to Lily Longstocks, Berry Pinch, and Silver Spoon (Diamond Tiara also hugged the grey filly) as the fillies seemed ready to cry.
"Let's... talk in my castle," Twilight eventually said before she looked at the three mares who were hugging the fillies. "I don't think that you should come..."
The three mares agreed before they began to walk away, followed by the fillies (excepted the CMC). Discord also decided to go with the yellow pegasus
The remaining ponies then entered Twilight's castle where they told Sweetie Belle about what happened while sitting around a table.
A ruby came out of a rift and was found by Scootaloo. With the ruby came a mad human scientist known as Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik. Scootaloo managed to stop him from getting the ruby by accidentally swallowing it and using its powers to teleport Eggman away. That was how Scootaloo gained her Phantom powers, but they came with the mind of a psychopath that had been trapped inside the ruby and who named himself Infinite, so she now had to share her body with him. And because the power of the ruby was shared between the two, she could use only 50%.
Eggman eventually began to build robots using animals as power sources and used them to search Scootaloo to get the ruby for himself. The doctor had built a secret robot factory under Manehattan and even allied himself with Tirek so he learned to give magic to his robots. Once he had enough robots, he began to invade Manehattan. The invasion failed thanks to Scootaloo, ending up with the ponies discovering Eggman's hideout. Eggman and Tirek however escaped to a HQ that the human had secretly built in the Badlands. Tirek then managed to convince Discord to betray the ponies, and eventually, war began against Eggman's army of robots. Eggman managed to conquer all the South part of the continent that had previously been conquered by the Storm Empire, and Equestria managed to convince the griffons, the yaks, the zebras, the dragons, and the hippogriffs to join. Even the changelings allied themselves with the ponies, Chrysalis judging that she would have no future joining Eggman.
Ponyville was attacked by a huge force that included Tirek, Discord, and Eggman in a powerful mecha. While the ponies managed to push them back thanks to newly made copies of the Phantom Ruby, the town was entirely destroyed, and some ponies died. When Eggman found out how to teleport whole fleets, other cities were also attacked, and the war spreed to everywhere. But in the end, thanks to more and more Phantom Ruby copies being built, the Alliance managed to send a general assault from the North, East, and West, and Eggman's HQ in the Badlands was quickly captured. However, by then, Eggman had built another, bigger fortress in the center of the desert, not far of Klugetown, from which he was building a huge space fortress named the Death Egg. He intended to use it to absorb the magic of the whole planet!
Despite the armies of the Alliance managing to reach the fortress, even destroying Eggman's most powerful robot and defeating Discord, the Death Egg was launched into space and absorbed all the magic of the world. The one who truly absorbed the magic, however, was Tirek who now had the size of a mountain. Scootaloo and Infinite had to merge, becoming Phantom, to be able to face him with the full power of the Phantom Ruby, helped by the Element Bearers with their newly unlocked Rainbow Power. That was until Eggman petrified Tirek by surprise with one of the Storm King's special bombs and used the Staff of Sacanas to absorb all the magic out of him before killing him. The doctor used the magic to return to his home dimension where he took a set of powerful gems called the Chaos Emeralds to become even more powerful. Then, with the help of two versions of Eggman's nemesis who was a blue hedgehog named Sonic, of another hedgehog who was black named Shadow, and of another set of Chaos Emeralds, the group fought the mad scientist in a terrible battle and won. After that, the ponies brought the Staff of Sacanas back to Equus and released all the magic in it.
Following the war, the ponies and other peoples rebuilt, using Eggman's technology to gain a big technological advance (but eco-friendly). Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity adopted Berry Pinch, Lily Longstocks, and Silver Spoon who had been orphaned in the war. As for Phantom, she decided to continue to live as Scootaloo.
"So should I call you Scootaloo, or Phantom?" Sweetie Belle asked.
Scootaloo, or Phantom, now in her anthropomorphic form, shrugged. "Whatever you prefer. Personally, I prefer Scootaloo when I'm being Scootaloo, and Phantom when I'm being Phantom, but I don't mind if you call me Phantom while I'm being Scootaloo or vice versa."
"Ok. Well, if you want me to go give Eggman a bad time, just ask and I will give him the worst time of his life, without killing him," Sweetie Belle quickly reassured the ponies.
Scootaloo shrugged again. "I will bring the offer to past Sonic. And I wouldn't mind if you killed him."
"Don't," Twilight deadpanned.
"Beside, killing him would be too nice for him," Sweetie Belle said as she smirked, the others understanding what she wasn't saying.
"I like the way you think," Scootaloo said before she gave a fist bump to a fist-shaped green shield that appeared beside her.
"Anyway, I'm sorry for what you all went through. It feels... weird to think that ponies that I see often back home are dead here. Even if they aren't the ones I personally know, it still hurts."
A moment of silence followed before Twilight eventually said, "S-so... From what Discord said earlier, he sent the coordinates of our universe to you. But, why? Why did you come to our universe?"
Sweetie Belle silently thanked Twilight for the change of subject before she said, "I'm here to talk to you about the... Omniversal Alliance Initiative."
Discord suddenly appeared, wearing a weird blue, red, and white uniform, and said, "I understood that reference!" before disappearing.
Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. "Of course you understand that reference. You are the one who gave it to me."
"An omniversal alliance?" Spike asked.
"I'm working on creating a powerful alliance to face yet-to-coming threats that I have been warned about. I asked my Discord to help me find potential powerful allies and your Discord answered the call to give him the coordinates of your universe, obviously so I could get introduced to Scootaloo Phantom over there," Sweetie Belle explained before she smiled at the anthropomorphic filly. "What do you think about exploring other universes alongside me, living exciting adventures while making new allies and facing new enemies?"
Before Scootaloo could answer, Twilight said, "Wait, what are these threats you talked about?"
"Two Gods and an army that will threaten countless universes across the Omniverse. I don't know the details however. Yes, this means that we will probably enter a war that will put the one you went through to shame, but it's either that or leave these threats do as they want and risk our universes being conquered, destroyed, or whatever else they intend to do. I... would perfectly understand if you decide to not join."
"I'm joining," Scootaloo said without hesitation. "I don't know about the others, but I will join. And I can even lead you to more allies that I'm sure will accept to join you."
"The Sonics?" Sweetie Belle guessed.
"And their friends," Scootaloo added. "The older versions are even used to fighting god-like beings."
"Great!"
Scootaloo then looked at Twilight. "While I lead Sweetie Belle through the portal to meet Sonic and the others, how about you go to Canterlot to talk to Celestia and Luna about this?"
Twilight nodded. "Yes. This is a decision that should be discussed with all the leaders of the Alliance."
"Uh... It makes me think that we should talk to the leaders of the other kingdoms in my world about this Omniversal Alliance," Sweetie Belle thought out loud. "Also, note to self: find a better name than Omniversal Alliance."