Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack stared at the contraption in front on them. On top of a blue checked tablecloth, a selection of wires, flashing lights, glowing vials, sugary pastries and other treats were laid out. An icing-covered cake, decorated with cherries and strawberries, was encircled by a coil of thick wire, along which pulses of blue light spiralled upwards. Electrodes were sticking out of large pot of cream. At one end of the table sat a pink cubic box with a T-shaped plunger, from which two wires disappeared behind a plate of macaroons. Behind the table stood Pinkie Pie, beaming a full power Pinkie Pie grin.
“Isn’t it great?” she said. “I had the idea while doing a spectrographic analysis of a piece of fairy cake. Behold the Infinite Imponability Generator!”
“Impona-what-now?” said Applejack.
“Imponability. Improbability with hooves. Finite levels of imponability are easy to generate, and are just the thing to use for party tricks. Or to prank Dashie by appearing beside her after she has flown halfway across Equestria at top speed to avoid you. I thought that generating the infinite levels of imponability that would be needed to let a pony cross all time, space, and reality boundaries, must be virtually impossible. Then I reasoned, if it is virtually impossible, then it has to logically be a finite improbability, and hence also finite imponability. So, all I needed to do was to figure out how imponable it is, and feed that figure into an atomic vector plotter linked by an n-complex knot to an intelligent class-89 artificial mane, suspended in a strong producer of Brownian motion (that is, a nice hot cup of tea).”
“That makes no sense whatsoever,” said Twilight.
Pinkie Pie placed her fore hooves on the pink plunger and grinned. Her friends looked back with blank faces.
“So, what will happen when you press that thing?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“It powers the magneto and sends an electrical signal into the jelly to activate the chain reaction,” said Pinkie. Fluttershy took a step back and tried to hide behind her mane.
“And what happens then?” asked Rarity.
“I have no idea.”
She pushed the plunger.
The marestream cruised through the clouds high above the Equestrian coastline. Pipp hummed the tune to her latest song. Zipp pushed the controls with a hoof to make it sway to the rhythm. Sunny, Izzy, Misty, and Hitch sat behind them.
“Who wants to join in a game of cards,” asked Hitch.
“I’m in,” said Zipp. “Just let me engage the autopilot.”
“The marestream has an autopilot?” said Sunny.
“It does now, thanks to Izzy.”
“I unicycled it out of an old word processor, an alarm clock, a crystal ball, and a raspberry pie,” said Izzy.
“So,” said Zipp, looking at the control screen, “we have three options. Do we set it to go to Zephyr Heights by: one—the shortest route, two—the most scenic route, or three—the most interesting route.”
“What is the most interesting route?” asked Pipp.
“The route that includes the most interesting detours along the way, said Izzy. I programmed it by feeding the contents of Sunny’s dad’s library, the Epicure’s Guide to Equestria, and the geotagged data on Pipp’s phone into a boosted decision tree, but I haven’t had a chance to test it yet. Go for that one.”
“Autopilot option three engaged,” said Zipp.
All ponies were thrown backwards as the marestream shot forwards. A bright dazzling rainbow of colours lit up the window. Once they got to their hooves and looked out, they saw the marestrem was following a spiral trajectory through a black tunnel lit by innumerable stars.
“Where are we?” asked Pipp.
“According to the display,” said Zipp, staring at the console, “we are now entering hippospace.”
“What is that? Where is that?” asked Sunny.
“Oh—” said Izzy, her face lighting up in a moment of revelation. “I just remembered. When I reassembled the prismatic multidrive regulator, I forgot to re-engage the reality shift limiter. My bad. Oops.”
“The reality shift limiter?” said Zipp. “What does that do?”
“It limits the magnitude of shifts in reality of course,” said Izzy.
“What is going on?” asked Misty.
“I have no idea,” replied Pipp.
There was a ding from an alarm clock bell sticking out of the dashboard. “We have another message on the console,” said Zipp.
“Does it say where we are?” said Sunny.
“No…” replied Zipp with a tone of voice that made her level of bewilderment know to all. “It’s asking whether we agree to pick up some hitchhikers.”
Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle walked along the college corridor with Spike the dog at their heels. Sunset placed a hand on Twilight’s shoulder and smiled.
“You got this Twilight.”
“I guess.” She looked at the ground and hugged her notebook to her chest.
“Be confident,” said Sunset. “You are the brightest physics student in Canterlot High. You were ranked number one on the exam results list. You have outstanding references. And you have thought up your own advanced project for studying electromagnetic anomalies, built your own instruments, collected the data, analysed it. Any sensible professor would want to have you as a summer student.”
Twilight was unsure about something. “Should I talk about what I found? What we know about Equestrian magic?”
“No,” said Sunset firmly. “The only thing that could stop us from getting this internship is if we scare her off with crazy stories of flying ponies and talking dogs. Stick to the physics. At least until she knows us better.”
They reached an office door. Sunset knocked politely.
“Here we go.”
The door was opened by a tall woman with long blonde hair tied in a ponytail wearing blue trousers, high boots, a white blouse and jacket. She looked a little over fifty years old.
“You must be Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle?” she said kindly. “Please come in.”
Twilight and Sunset walked into the office and sat down. The office was tidy, with a vase of flowers on the desk. Photographs of smiling children and horses were lined up on a shelf next to another full of books. Sunset noted the words astrophysics, quantum, and equestrianism featured in many titles. The professor sat down behind the desk and picked up a printed document. She smiled.
“I read through the project report you send me. I’m very impressed. You collected a lot of good data—you must have built a good noise filter for your sensor—and your Fourier analysis methods are quite innovative.”
Twilight smiled.
“I would be delighted to take you on as summer project students,” she continued. “You remind me of some of the things I got up to when I was your age. You’ve clearly done a lot of good scientific work and have learnt a lot on your own. I think you could be on to something big.”
Twilight’s eyes lit up but she was too nervous to say anything. Sunset spoke up. “We want to do a thorough investigation of the electromagnetic anomalies Twilight measured and see if we can correlate them with atmospheric phenomena or other effects.”
“That sounds nice, but… I was hoping you could investigate Equestrian magic.”
Now Sunset was speechless. Twilight blurted out, “Thank you Professor Megan Williams. That is exactly what we want to do.”
Megan responded with a warm smile. “I like your dog by the way. Does he talk?”
The mass of luminous butterflies and flowers covering the window flew away to reveal a bright blue sky dotted with fluffy white clouds. The marestream hit the ground, folded its wings, and purred contentedly. Zipp, Pipp, Sunny, Izzy, Hitch, and Misty all peered out of the window. They saw a town square surrounded by houses with a fountain and flowering bushes.
“This is pretty,” said Sunny.
“A bit twee,” said Zipp.
“Just look at those cute little houses,” said Pipp, taking photos with her phone, “the roofs and windows are so quaint. I wonder where we are? I can’t get a signal.”
Izzy stuck her head out of a side window and saw a small blue-green pony.
“Hi new friend! Can you tell us where we are?”
“P-Ponyville,” she stammered, backing away from the mysterious flying machine with an anxious expression.
“Ponyville!” cried Pipp.
“The legendary town where Twilight Sparkle had her Castle of Friendship,” said Sunny.
“Have we travelled back in time?” said Zipp.
Hitch joined Izzy at the window. “Is there some pony who wants a lift somewhere?” he asked the pony.
“Oh! Yes. Rainbow Dash. She’s just packing.” She cantered off into one of the buildings.
“Rainbow Dash?” said Misty.
“She was one of Twilight Sparkle’s best friends!” said Sunny. “The bearer of the element of loyalty.”
“The fastest wonderbolt ever! The pegasus who did the sonic rainboom!” said Zipp. “We are going to meet her!”
They rushed out of the marestream door, grinning with anticipation.
Rainbow Dash walked out of a doorway and came to great them.
“Hello darlings! How darling of you all to come to pick me up. I say when Spike said he had found a magic wand and a spell that would summon transport to take us on a trip over the rainbow, I was thinking of something more like the crystal carriage of the princesses of Unicornia.” She looked at the marestream. “But this is delightful. So exquisite. Now, I have quite a few cases with me as I do like to be prepared when travelling. And would it be quite all right if Pinkie Pie came along too? And Minty and Toola-Roola? They would so love to join us on this adventure.”
She looked at Sunny and Zipp’s shocked faces.
“Did I say something wrong?”
“She’s… not quite what I imagined,” Sunny whispered to Zipp.
“Yeah…” said Zipp, in her suspicious detective voice. “All the books say Rainbow Dash had wings.”
“But,” said Pipp, “look at her mane, and her accessories! She knows how to dress in style.”