"Twi? Are ya sure we should be here?”
Twilight Sparkle stood tall and proud surrounded by the mirrors in this special room in the Crystal Palace. “Of course. I learnt
so much about the humans where I was staying and there could be so many other worlds out there we could learn from! It’s just so exciting!” Twilight jumped around on the spot from excitement.
Pinkie Pie bounced around the mirrors. She was giggling and pausing at each one looking at it quizzically before bouncing on.
“So which one are we gunna choose Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked hovering above everybody else. She looked down at her friends. Everyone was here now. Fluttershy, Rarity, AJ, Twilight and Pinkie Pie.
Rarity moved off from the group and looked up at a mirror. “Why not this one? Its décor is just charming and it looks so chic!” Rarity said with a squeal. Twilight moved up to her friend and looked up at the beautiful mirror.
The mirror was carved unlike many of the mirrors here with little symbols and signs. Most were repeated squiggles were others looked like a type of rune that Twilight had never seen.
“Oooh! It looks so pretty! Can we go here Twilight? Can we, can we, can we?!” Pinkie nearly screamed with excitement. The ponies gathered around the giant mirror.
Twilight nodded with a small smile. “I guess we have to start somewhere right?”
“Right!” the other five ponies said in unison.
“Well than let’s go! Is everyone ready for an adventure?”
“Um… Twilight?” Fluttershy’s timid voice spoke up.
“Yes Fluttershy?” Twilight asked looking over her shoulder.
“Are you sure this is a good idea… what if we can’t get back?”
Rarity stepped in front of Fluttershy with sympathy on her face. “Fluttershy, I promise you, as long as we are together we shall be fine. We are on an educational trip into these new worlds to see what we can learn. We will all be fine.” The yellow Pegasus mare still looked unsure. After a few moments of her eyes shifting from the confident look on her friends faces she nodded. Rarity smiled at her friend. “Good. I am happy you feel safe, now let’s get a move on. We don’t want to miss anything going on at the other side.”
“Who should go through first?” Rainbow Dash asked finally landing and staring at the mirror. Everypony looked at one another expectantly before finally one of the mares stepped forward.
Twilight faced the mirror bravely. “I guess I should go first seeing how I have travelled to another world before. Everypony can go into the mirror straight after one another. Does everypony understand?” Nods were given to the Alicorn all round.
“Okay, I guess on the count of three.”
“One,
Two,
THREE!”
Twilight jumped into the portal feeling the coolness surround her again as she felt her body contorted and pulled as colours and images flashed by in spiral motions around her. Five different screams soon followed her own as the six mares were tugged to the only Celestia knows where.
I bright light filled her eyes as Twilight made contact with hard earth below face planting into the ground. Five similar thumps and crashes followed her as the others landed in where ever they were.
Instinctively Twilight tried to stand on her hooves. Only to find they weren’t there.
“Aaaggghhh!” Twilight screamed looking at the pale colour of her human hands. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no! I can’t be a human again! I just can’t!”
She looked at her body and saw her usual furry lavender coat was replaced by flesh coloured skin and her figure again looking like a humans. She reached up to try and find her faithful horn but to no avail. That would mean her magic and wings were gone too!
But where were the others. Twilight looked behind her to see five humans much like her all scattered in front of an old archway. She could barely recognize any of them. In the human world she had visited once before her skin was the same as her pony coat colour. Why was this world so different? She took a closer look at her friends and saw how much they had changed. Each pony was still recognisable in her own way but their hair colour… They weren’t the same either! Everyone had changed so much.
Rarity, her hair was still in its elegant curls just it was a deep rich beautiful brown colour that shone. It was tied too though, in a beautiful bun with loose curls and blue beading.
Pinkie Pie, her hair was now a bright and vibrant red, almost shading into pink! It was left in its messy uncontrollable puff ball atop her head.
Fluttershy, her hair was flowing free, a soft strawberry blonde colour leaving that hint of pink within the highlights.
Poor Rainbow Dash, her hair was blonde and in a high ponytail ruffled and full of multi-coloured ribbon attached to the base of the ponytail and flowing and twining with her hair.
Applejack’s hair was its usual blonde long and tied back with short string at the bottom except she was missing one thing…
“Mah hat?! Where’s ma hat!” she shouted frantically.
Rarity lifted her head groggily looking about. “My, my. Where are we?” She tried to stand up much like Twilight had except to find fingered hands instead of her usual hooves. “AAAAHHHH! Where are my hooves! Where are my hooves!?”
Twilight ran over and tried to calm the fashionista. “Rarity! Calm down! Please you’ll draw to much attention and we don’t need attention. We all became humans like I did except we don’t look like the humans did in the other world I visited. Please calm down.”
Rarity had her mouth gaping open staring at the ‘human’ Twilight Sparkle above her. “Twi… Twilight… Your hair. It’s… black…”
Only Rarity would talk about hair before anything else. Instinctively Twilight reached to her hair at her side to find it missing. She felt atop her head and felt the usual texture of hair their just tied up in a bun. She also felt a new accessory. It felt like a small crown or tiara. She could find out later, but right now she needed to see if her friends were all okay.
Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were slowly waking up and Rarity was explaining everything to AJ. Fluttershy shot up from her place on the ground and instantly stood up on her human legs and began pacing.
Twilight stood with her mouth wide open staring at the mare, uh, girl. “Fluttershy, how did you do that so?”
“What do you mean- Ahhh!” She screamed more loudly than any living thing had ever heard leave her mouth. Fluttershy lifted up her hands and fingers looking at the new appendages. “How-“
“MY WINGS!” Rainbow Dash cut off Fluttershy trying to reach her back. “No! I can’t fly! I can’t be Rainbow Dash without my wings!”
The girl frantically started to panic walking all along the empty street they were in. Twilight shook her head at the chaos around her. Taking a deep breath she entered the chaos of her friends.
“Guys please calm down. This isn’t the time to panic, we need a plan.” Everyone heard the authority in Twilight’s voice and knew to take her advice (no matter how “un-calm” she had gotten in the past) and took deep breaths. “There, better. Now is anyone hurt?”
Everyone shook their heads confirming they were fine.
“Before you continue darling, may I ask were our new attire came from?” Rarity asked holding her long skirts out. Twilight noticed the outfits everyone was wearing now.
Rainbow Dash had tight white pants and a baggy flowing light orange pirate shirt on accompanied by a wooden necklace with a pendant with three spirals in the middle. Fluttershy had the same necklace on as Rainbow but was instead wearing an orange dress that was cut above knee height in the front but flowed to a full length train at the back. A silver belt with a pouch sat on her hip. But both former pegasi were without shoes.
Again Pinkie Pie and Applejack had clothing similarly coloured. Pinkie had a short light green tunic with gold trimming along the edges and dark green tights covering her legs and a pair of brown gladiator sandals. Applejack wore a green so dark it was almost black as a long sleeved undershirt with a light green belly top over the top. Brown pants and black boots tied the outfit together.
Twilight would have thought seeing the two other pony races of her friends in similar colours, Rarity and her would be the same, but she was proven wrong as she looked at her clothing then to Rarity’s. Unlike her, Rarity wore a full gown of a sea blue with long sleeves trimmed with white fur at the edges balancing the colours. A dark blue belt sat on her waist with three white feathers attached to the side. A hood was attached to the dress.
But Twilight was surprised at her outfit. A ruby red sleeveless belly top adorned her top half with only a simple tie around skirt trimmed with hanging gold pieces and golden stitched patterns all over it with black leggings hugged her legs tightly.
Two gold bangles with rubies inside sat high on her arm. Her feet were left bare as she walked to her friends.
Pinkie Pie was the first to speak up out of the six. “Wow! We all look so pretty! And so different!”
Rarity looked at each outfit accusingly. “I must say out of all the outfits here Twilight’s would be the most regal. She almost looks like a Princess of sorts with that jewelled red crown and necklace of hers. But I wonder why Fluttershy and Rainbow
Dash wear the colour orange and those necklaces while Pinkie Pie and Applejack wear the colour green, all matching pairs according to your tribe species and though I and Twilight technically were both unicorns are two different colours?”
“Maybe ‘cause Celestia turned her into a Alicorn it makes some sorta difference.” Applejack tried answering.
Rainbow Dash snorted. “It doesn’t matter why we do or don’t have the same colours, what matters is finding a way home!”
Twilight smiled. “It’s easy we just go back through the por…tal?” Turning around Twilight Sparkle saw the archway the exited through was gone. “No! Where is it?! It was right here!”
Twilight searched the entire wall looking for a place the archway might be hiding but to no avail. They were stuck here until they figured out some way to get home. Twilight kicked a stone down the street in anger for it only to hit someone.
“Ow!” a painful cry came from the end of the street.
“Sorry!” Twilight called out sympathetically. She was not off to a good start “exploring” this new world when all she did was hurt others.
A boy with an angry face came round the corner and stomped over to them. He was extremely weird looking with the sides of his hair shaven off leaving only a triangle with a ponytail in sitting high in the middle. He wore a tunic and pants similar in colour to Rarity’s dress and carried a green bag with what looked like a long eared cat inside.
“What’s the big idea?! Hitting me in the head with a rock while I’m out looking for a flying bison! I mean how else are we going to find Appa if we don’t-” he yelled his voice getting higher as he screamed at the six girls.
Suddenly a large rock crashed from the ground underneath the boy sending him high into the sky stopping him from finishing his sentence. His arms went flailing as he started to plummet towards the ground.
“Sorry about ponytail boy, he’s just got issues.” Said a voice coming around the corner. A small girl with thick black hair and a green tunic and pants walked around the corner. She stomped her foot on the ground again sending the strange boy flying and landing in front of her. “Sokka be nice. Apologize to these people. Though I have to say to whoever kicked that rock, it was an epic shot! Hit him straight in the middle of his head! Priceless! The name’s Toph by the way and mister ponytail here is Sokka. You guys aren’t from around here are you?”
“Uh, no.” Twilight said slightly apprehensive. “We aren’t from around here. It’s nice to meet you though Toph and Sokka. My name is Twilight Sparkle and these are my best friends, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Fluttershy.” She motioned to each of her friends.
Toph snorted. “Well it was nice seeing you all.” She cracked up with laughter and even Sokka lying on the ground cracked up laughing at some joke.
“What’s so funny?” Rainbow Dash asked dreading on the tone of threatening, taking offense at the laughing.
Toph managed to get her giggles under control. “Well, ya see. I’m blind! Hahaha!” She continued laughing at her own jokes as she pulled a funny face revealing her glazed over pupils and irises showing she was indeed blind.
“Oh I’m so sorry to hear that darling!” Rarity exclaimed shocked at the poor girls eyes.
Toph waved her hand dismissively. “Meh. Don’t worry I can see perfectly fine with these babies!” she waved her feet in the air wiggling her toes.
Fluttershy stepped forward intrigued. “You see with your feet? How?”
“I’m an Earth bender see, so I use the earth to ‘see’ my surroundings. Pretty neat huh?”
“What in the hay, is earth bending?” Applejack asked exasperated. Toph looked, well not literally, at the friends confused.
“You’ve never heard of Element bending? Where have you been since forever?! A lot of people can bend these days. Mainly fire nation’s soldiers but, ya know, what can you do?”
Sokka finally stood up straight and pointed at Toph accusingly. “Not cool Toph. Not cool.” His attention turned to the friends though but his eyes narrowed down on Twilight. “You. You are a… a… FIRE NATION!”
“I’m a what?” Twilight asked confused. “What’s a ‘fire nation’?”
Toph grabbed Sokka by the ear. “SHE IS NOT FIRE NATION DODO!” she screamed into his ear.
“Yes she is! Look at her clothing! RED! It’s all red! She’s fire nation. Though I didn’t expect Fire Nation to be this stupid waltzing around Ba Sing Se in their national clothing. Hey look! She’s a Water Tribe!” He exclaimed pointing at Rarity.
Rarity looked alarmed and cleared her throat. “Hem hem. I’m Rarity not this… Water Tribe or whatever you called it. I am a lady.” But Sokka took no notice of her speech and instead moved onto the Earth ponies.
“Look these guys are Earth Kingdom! But these two…” he said looking at the pegasi. “I don’t know what you are. What nation are you from?” The two girls looked startled when Sokka came and grabbed their necklaces. “Hey I’ve seen these before…”
You could see the gears in Sokka’s head click. “We need to go see Aang. Now.”
Toph looked confused. “Wait, why? And what happened to the accusations at the Fire Nation girl? I was enjoying listening to your rant.”
Sokka looked dead serious as he grabbed Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash’s arms and dragged them away.
“Because they're Air Benders.”