Big Macintosh strutted through the barn, head held excessively high. A big, blue, star-studded wizards hat sat on his head, perfectly matching the cape draped over his back. In his head the only thing louder then the fanfare and fireworks was the cheers and applause of the audience consisting of ponies from all around Equestria, and even some from beyond. With every step as he strutted across his imaginary stage his cape fluttered dramatically, accentuating his perfect masculine physique. Every few seconds a mare would faint and need to be carried off.
When he reached the middle of the stage he stopped and struck a pose, causing several more mares to faint in awe. Fillies and colts cheered in glee as fireworks shot from behind the stage.
"Behold!" he shouted, accidentally speaking out loud, "The Grate and Powerrr..." He was yanked out of his fantasy by a shout, a squeak and two thumps in the hay by the ladder to the loft.
He looked nervously over at the hay bales he was supposed to be taking up to the loft. The one on top was slightly askew and there was a small cloud of straw hanging over where the thumps had been.
After several nerve wracking seconds Apple Bloom's head popped up from behind the misaligned bale. "Mac, if you tell anypony ya found me and spike in the hay loft, I'll tell everypony ya like ta prance 'round in stolen mare's cloths in front o' the doll ya stole from Twilight," she said with a remarkably Fluttershy like glare.
Spike struggled to figure out which way was up in the sea of hay he found himself in. After finding the ground, thereby determining he was headed down, not up, he tunneled through the hay in a semi random direction. Eventually he emerged from the the hay and was met by a most abnormal sight: Big Macintosh, dressed as Trixie, next to Twilight's Smartypants doll.
"Nope," Mac pronounced decisively, spinning on the spot and trotting hastily out of the barn, "Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope..." he continued, his voice fading into the distance.
Spike watched the door, wondering what exactly he had just witnessed, until Apple Bloom dropped down in front of him. "You okay, Spike?" she asked, leaning in entirely to close for Spike's comfort.
"Ya..." Spike relied uncomfortably, glancing to either side. Apple Bloom leaned closer, ever so slowly closing the gap between them, and closing her eyes at the same time, as if she was going to...
A groan came from the base of the ladder. "Wrong universe!" Spike exclaimed before frantically tunneling back into the hay as fast as he could.
"Apple Bloom?" Spike groaned from the bottom of the ladder, clutching his head where it had hit the ground.
Apple Bloom stared at the hay for a long time, trying to figure out what just happened. "Am so confused," she finally managed as spike emerged from behind the bales. It was only now that she realized the spike in the hay was an ever so slightly darker shade of purple then her spike, and had ever so slightly sharper looking spines, and all manner of other differences that nopony who hadn't spent so much time looking at him would notice. "Ah need a nap."
Deep in the hay Spike finally found the gate to Other Space that had brought him here. Okay, how does Pinkie do this? Before he could finish his thought a stray mote of moonlight illuminated a patch of bright pink in the mass of blond hay. "Thanks, Luna," he said, grabbing hold of the pink. "Okay, pinkie, lets go."
"Spi~ke!" Rarity called from the mane room of the Golden Oaks library that was serving as her temporary home. "Spike, its almost time for dinner! Where are you?" She was starting to get worried, it wasn't like Spike to forget about one of their dates. "Oh, I hope he's not in any kind of danger," she muttered to herself, glancing around the room anxiously. "Maybe Twilight can find him for me."
On her way to the shared bedroom, beyond which was the balcony on which Twilight was currently reading something not at all romantic or interesting in any way, Rarity stopped, a nearly imperceptible scraping caught her attention. Her ears perked and spun in different directions to narrow down the location of the tiny sound and she followed it back to the mane room. behind Twilight's lectern on the bottom shelf she found a small inscription of ancient unicorn hieroglyphs. Her understanding of her ancestral language was a bit underdeveloped, but she could make out the symbols for Light, Passage and Hidden.
She illuminated her horn so she could see better, but it didn't help, she still couldn't read the inscription. As she stared she began to notes little fuzzy sparks of energy flowing through the words, familiar looking sparks. "Tea," she stated, standing and trotting swiftly to the kitchen. "I need some tea." She hadn't had a cup of tea since last night and the effects had nearly worn off.
She entered the library's modest kitchen and magically lifted the tea and press from their cupboard and the kettle from the stove. With a bright flash of magic the water was hot and the tea was steeping. After a few minutes finely manipulating leaves, twigs and something she couldn't identify and wasn't sure she wanted to, the tea was ready, and she transferred it to a mug and carried it over to the shelf that was making the strange sound.
Taking a comfortable position lying on her belly she drank deep, closed her eyes and took a moment to center herself, taking her time with the now familiar earthy, spring taste of the faery tea. When she opened her eyes and looked at the hieroglyphs again she saw the thoughts and memories of the moment of their creation.
An ancient unicorn with light green coat and mane scrawled unknowable secrets from a large book with a golden chisel. Birds chirped and danced in the warm summer breeze. A voice rang out like a laughing stream in the dreamscape of memory. "Grandmother Clover, thine supper grows cold. Wouldst thou not join thine own family at the table? The high Sun herself bade us rest after our migration, to defy-"
"In a moment, child," The elderly mare replied with a voice like autumn breeze through the bows of a willow tree. "This, too, is by the word of the goddesses."
Somehow Rarity found the answer to the inscription in that memory, perhaps feeling the intent as it was being made. She cast a simple light spell on the glyphs of Passage and Light, in that order, and a small, hidden door opened in the back of the shelf.
"Okay, Spikie, this ones yours," Pinkie said, depositing her pudgy, purple passenger on the shimmering orb of thoughts and memories that comprised the universe he was from.
"Thanks, Pinkie. You're a life saver," the little interdimensional spelunker replied with a wave.
He watched her zip away into the endless garden of realities and took a moment to gather himself before allowing himself to sink into the mercurial miasma of everything beneath him. I think that's enough interdimensional travel for, like, forever, he thought as he reconstituted in his reality once again.
Once he had fully rematerialized he took stock of his surroundings: nothing. On further inspection he discovered that it was simply really dark, and cramped, and upside down, with his knee jammed into his chin making it hard to breath, let alone call for help. Aw crud, did I end up in one of the long forgotten secret compartments in the library? With a snort of green flame he confirmed his fears, so he did the one thing he was really capable of in his tangled position; he scratched at the wall with his one free hand.
After what felt like hours, but was in all honesty probably about six minutes, the wall he was scratching miraculously opened and spike tumbled out into the library, and onto Rarity's forelegs, where he found himself propped upside down against her chest.
"How did you ever manage to end up in there, Spike?" Rarity asked with a mellow smile, magically righting him and floating him into a nuzzle.
"Long story, I'll tell you about it at dinner," once I figure out what actually happened, he replied, returning the nuzzle and hugging her neck. "I'm just glad its over." Glimpses of his travels flashed through the air: fields of many colored lights, each one a world unto itself, realities that could have been cast adrift from neglect, and Big Macintosh behaving in a most curious way.
"Well, I'm sure you had quite the adventure getting caught in a millenia old trap for interdimensional interlopers," Rarity said, lifting Spike onto her back and trotting towards the door, "but we'll be late for our reservation at this rate, so we should get going." Maybe i should just have this tea every morning...