Imaginary Friendship is Magic!
By Boss Hoss
Chapter 1. The Search Begins.
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Once Upon A Time…
In the daylight, there was a strange, towering mansion at the most quiet part of a lonely street.
A lonely street a mile beyond the railroad tracks at the edge of town, far off in the most outlying district and thus the most quiet area in the city limits.
This place might have fit right at home in Equestria as the Estate of some landed and titled Noble of Canterlot, or even the home of the rich unicorn playboy, Fancypants,
-Assuming one could ignore the sickly trees dotted here and there around it, or the eye-watering colors it was painted in, much less the high tension power lines it was perched beneath, bathing the place in a constant low trickle of Electromagnetic Radiation...
In the raging, stormy night however, it might have looked more like the home of the legendary Tirek the Terrible of the First Age of Chaos.
For the long eared silhouette racing to the front door through the rain, it had the odd feel of home as she was drawn to the place like a magnet.
A slate colored hoof pressed on the doorbell underneath the bronze plaque, bearing the name; "Madam Foster's"
The door creaked open to reveal a pale, teenaged human redhead. Her eyes went wide at what she saw on the front stoop. "Oh My!.."
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One fine day in Equestria…
Twilight sat on the balcony of the Golden Oaks library, looking out over Ponyille.
It had been weeks since her little... "accident"
Well, accident is too inadequate to describe her full-blown mental “episode” and causing a riot that could have gotten somepony badly hurt with a badly used "Want it, Need it" spell.
While nopony was hurt, it caused her beloved mentor to use The Royal Canterlot Voice for the first time in living memory.
-ON HER.
-And a long talk in the library to explain herself, where she found out how much her friends and her Princess both cared about her.
Unfortunately, it also caused the incidental disappearance of her old Mr. Smartypants doll in the confusion of Celestia dispelling the "Want it, Need it" enchantment.
She had searched all over the park for several days when she could do it without being obvious.
Since then, she has tried to be subtle about finding Mr. Smartypants, only to be thwarted at every turn. Now, she had no other option.
Gingerly, she pulled out a very special book of spells, the Book of the Lost.
With exacting patience, she drew out the runes and circles for the ancient enchantment, Frostfire's Spell of Finding.
It had taken several weeks of preparation to get things just right for the casting; The chalk had come from the White Cliffs of Manehattan Point, the entrance to Manehattan Harbor. The colored sands were painstakingly collected from the Gallopacos islands, and the Amber obtained through Rarity, with her access to the gem traders from Camelon. Fortunately the Unyasi Zebrican Incense were easily prepared by Zecora, sparing her a trip to Canterlot to ask the Zebra Ambassador from Unyasi.
Finally, several hours into it, the setup preparations were done, all she had to do was cast the last part of the spell.
Suddenly, Spike hugged her leg as tight as he could, his eyes on the verge of tears "Twilight! Stop! What if this screws up somehow!"
Gently, Twilight removed the baby dragon with her magic and hugged him. "Don’t worry Spike. This will only take me to where Mr. Smartypants is.
All I have to do is grab her, chew out whoever had her, and walk home. Easy peasy! How far can she have gotten anyway for hoof's sake? She's a doll!"
Spike did not look convinced "Wouldn’t it be easier to have Rarity make a new one?"
Wide-eyed, Twilight blushed like a tomato "Ummm, NO! This was given to me by Shiny himself out of his allowance money! It was a gift of love from my BBBFF!
Even if I did try having Rarity make a new one, she'll ask who it's for! She'll see through any story I come up with! I'm a grown pony! I-I just cant'!"
She kissed Spike on the forehead "I'll only be gone no later than lunch. If I’m gone longer than that, then write to the Princess for help, okay?"
Still visibly worried, he nodded "All right, Twilight. Just be careful, okay?"
She put on her best brave face and posed dramatically "You can count on me, Spike! Now get back upstairs. The spell might have a dangerous backlash after I leave."
Now she waited until he scampered up the stairs and out of the basement floor, before her horn flared, adding the last part of the spell.
Her teleportation spell fired off as normal while the larger spell took and directed it, everything becoming a bright white light around her, shining through even her tightly shut eyelids.
*CRACK!*
The sound of vacuum breaking echoed off nearby walls as the 'port ended.
Cautiously, the lilac mare opened her eyes and looked around in horror!
She was sitting on a black...ish surface, more of a faded charcoal really, that smelled of tar and crisscrossed with cracks that had starved blades of grass poking through. She snorted dismissively. The cobblestone roads of Ponyville were better maintained, for Celestia's sakes.
A small forest of pine trees was to her left alongside the street that was lined in both directions with Manehattan style sidewalks. The street made a right-angle turn at a huge red brick building about a quarter mile away.
The few houses on the street seemed to be low, boxy one-story affairs, almost like bad imitations of ranch houses in Appleoosa.
Well, except for the huge, elaborate, and somewhat… forlorn estate before her.
True, the outer fence was a low marble-faced wall topped with wrought-iron fencing, kept in meticulous repair and complete with an ornate iron sign topping the gateway posts. After casting a translation spell, she found the sign read “Fosters”.
The grounds were the first sign something was off, looking quite drab compared to even the lowest holdings of minor nobility such as the House of Sparkle. Mother would be aghast at the state of the estate's lackluster grounds.
“If there is a groundskeeper for this place, he is seriously overpaid!”
-And finally, the house!
The house somehow reminded her of the houses of Solstice Heights beyond Canterlot Proper, but the color!? Mother would be as appalled as Rarity would be at the sight of this dump!
"Oh Celestia! Did Pinkie Pie paint this house? Where in Equestria am I?"
Quickly, she pulled the world map out of her saddlebag and set her enchanted homing compass needle on it.
Unfortunately the tiny red arrow spun in place without stopping until she seized it.
Slowly and deliberately, trying to put off the inevitable completion of her chain of thoughts, she put both back into her saddlebag.
Finally she could put it off no longer, putting her face in her hooves with heartfelt "Oh... Roadapples..."
Worried, she looked up at the sky. The sun above seemed subtly... wrong. It didn’t seem to be moving right, nor did it seem to have a personally loving warmth to it once she opened her magic senses to it. The clouds were also moving oddly, like the ones she had seen in the *gulp* Everfree!
Slowly, she turned in place, stopping when she saw a creature on the other side of the street. It stood on it's lawn, wearing a green sweater and tan slacks like a Canterlot Nuveau-Riche Preppie as it watered its lawn. The creature turn a long, flat, pale face to her, framed in a patchy white mane, and wrinkled like Granny Smith.
Sighing in relief, the magical mare let loose the breath she was holding when it shook its head dismissively. It grumbled to itself and went back to what it was doing. Apparently creatures like her were a common enough sight to even be dismissed as a...nuisance?!
For the next ten minutes, she just sat where she was near the curb. She found herself trying not to hyperventilate as she fought to control her panic at most definitely finding herself trapped on an alien world until either the Princess comes to rescue her or she finds her own way back.
Closing her eyes, she spoke to herself to try and calm down “Come on, Twilight. You can calm down. The inhabitants don’t seem to be a threat and are ignoring you. Think, Twilight! What would Princess Celestia do?”
As if the universe was laughing at her attempts to calm down, a huge lumbering shape walked past on the cracked sidewalk that made her look up in surprise.
A Minotaur?! Here?! Not like any Minotaur she had ever seen either, his mouth filled with huge fangs like a picket fence, and his eyes as huge as dinner plates. His physique and horns put even Iron Will to shame as he was more like Tom the fake diamond wrapped in a fur coat. His meager clothing was not reassuring either, dressed as a warrior right down to a silver skull belt buckle and barbaric laced-together leather pants. –Leather, for Celestia’s sakes!
Horrified, Twilight did her best to look non-threatening or even delicious as the enormous bull stomped past.
Surprised, the purple bull stopped and did a double take, and walked back to peer down with genuine concern at the lavender unicorn. It definitely worried him that one of her eyes were twitching and that an increasing number of hairs on her navy mane and tail were definitely sticking out in stress.
Well, Eduardo could not let a fellow Imaginary Friend sit there feeling lost and scared -Or anyone else for that matter… He screwed up his courage and spoke to the pretty unicorn. “Hola, Seniorita! Ees you lost? You look so sad! …That make Eduardo sad…”
Stunned, Twilight sat up on her haunches. While his voice sounded like a cement mixer, it had an innocent, foal-like quality to it like Pipsqueak did, even if it had a strong Caballo accent. Strangely it somehow made her think of Big Macintosh as he must have been as a foal.
Clearly this was not like any Minotaur she had heard of back on Equis. “Er, yes. M-my name is Twilight, Twilight Sparkle! E-excuse me sir, I am looking for something. My spells led me here. It… It points to that strange house over there!”
His face brightened up, the terrifying fangs somehow curving into a charming smile “Oh! SI! SI! Is Señora Fosters! Is good home to monstrous like Eduardo!“
Taking a deep breath, Twilight screwed up her courage ‘All right Twilight Sparkle, time to do some investigating while you wait for Princess Celestia to save your flank…’
She looked into those enormous, googly eyes that she could swear was larger than even Pinkie Pie’s when she was on a sugar rush bender. “So, um, are there any… dolls in there, Mr. Eduardo?”
Giggling like a foal, the Minotaur bounced on his hooves, bouncing her several inches into the air with each hop. No wonder the sidewalk and road was cracked.
“Si! Me have many dollies! Would pretty unicorn Twilight please have tea party with Eduardo?! Me have real cookies, and Señorita Frankie will let me use real tea today!”
He got down on his stumpy hooves and knees, pleading. “Pretty Pleeeeeeeeese!?”
Rubbing her chin in thought, Twilight considered the invitation while the Minotaur visibly sweated, awaiting her decision.
If Mr. Smarty Pants had somehow come into this Minotaur’s possession, she would have the doll back in just a few minutes. If he didn’t have her, then she would be in the place she felt the spell leading her to.
-And if this was a trap leading to a stewpot, well, she wasn’t the most powerful unicorn in a thousand years for nothing, right? The end of this mess was in sight!
Finally standing up, Twilight dipped her head in thanks to the monster. “Of course! I would love to Mr. Eduardo. I’m sure it will be a fine tea party with your dollies.”
With a resounding “YAYYY!” the Minotaur scooped her up in his massive treetrunk arms and ran to the manor house, giggling like a school foal.
Twilight only had time to wonder what she had gotten herself into before the beast raced at Pinkie Pie speeds up onto a broad mahogany porch that could accommodate the Princesses and their Guard Detail quite nicely.
The Magical Mare only had time to notice elegantly carved wooden doors before Eduardo slammed the burgundy painted double-doors open like a runaway train…