Alexander looked back just in time to see a raging Princess her concerned-looking student come tumbling out of the rift in a jumbled pile of legs, wings, and hair. "Why would you FOLLOW me?" groaned Alexander. Celestia glared at him for a moment, before her eyes widened in surprise and a bit of awe at the surroundings. All three of them were on a gleaming white circular platform, which had intricate golden runes scribed on the pillars jutting out of it. Floating in the nauseating purple-blue void around them were countless other platforms, all connected by winding, twisting, and frequently non-euclidean walkways. Each of the platforms looked different, some vastly so, others seemingly identical but for a minute detail. Some were circular, some square, and in fact, nearly every possible (and some impossible) geometric shape was present, and every colour visible (and some not, judging by the seemingly dead-ended paths) adorned them. Most platforms which appeared similar were clustered in groups around a much larger central platform, much like the one Celestia laid on as she took in the grand spectacle around her. Her anger quickly drained, and she was left feeling giddy at seeing something truly new and awe-inspiring for the first time in a long, long number of years.
With a click, the chiming, otherworldly music came to a halt. Celestia looked over to Alexander, who was once again holding his boombox, his finger on the red 'on/off' button "It's beautiful, isn't it?" Celestia could only nod in agreement."
Twilight was the first to regain her composure. "Where exactly are we?" Alexander smiled.
"The place-between-places. The outside, the warp, the slip, the nexus. It's got a lot of names, as you might expect." Twilight nodded, having guessed as much. Alex sat down on his boombox. "You two really should get back, but..."
"But?" Asked Celestia.
"Well, no offense to you, but it's pretty obvious that you've been having a bad day. Or week. Or more," noted Alex. "So, considering how I attributed to that, I'm going to make an offer to you. I usually don't do this so, consider it carefully. How would you two like to take a little tr-"
"TAKE A LITTLE TRIP, TAKE A LITTLE TRIP WITH MEEEE!" blared the boombox. Alex kicked it.
"As I was SAYING," Alex continued, giving an exasperated look at the boombox, "You two could kick around the multiverse with me for a while, have some laughs, see the sights. Relaxing for the princess, and one heck of a learning experience for the student, yeah?" Celestia, having regained her composure, nudged her crown back into place.
"I do wish I could. But other than the fire-" Alex rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly at the mention of the library debacle. "-I have a country to run. I do thank you for your offer, and wish we had met and parted on better terms." Celestia sighed. "I wish you the best of luck on your travels." Alexander blinked.
"You do realize no time passes for you in a reality you aren't in, right? So, until you go back into your reality, no time will pass. You would come out the same second that you left, more or less. Like, three minutes of deviation." Celestia looked at Twilight. Twilight looked at Celestia. Both of them grinned like madmares. "That's a yes, then?"
A short time later, Alex was giving a rundown of what to and not to do in the place-between-places. "First rule- Don't wander off EVER, unless you know what you're doing, or don't care where you wind up. It's really easy to get lost when the path can be in four dimensions at once, going uphill both ways. Second rule- Never leave the paths. Ever. Paths or platforms, that's it. It's deliberately difficult to leave the path or platforms, but you can if you try. Don't. Even I don't know what happens. Nobody ever comes back."
Alex rummaged around in his backpack. After a few seconds, he pulled out two necklaces. "These will let me find you in the event anything separates us. Put them on, and they should stay on, barring any sort of cosmic shenanigans or sufficiently powerful force. Which leads me to rule three. Three- Respect local beliefs, because there's a decent chance they're grounded in fact. Dodging smitings is never fun. Trust me on that."
"Speaking from recent experience?" smirked Celestia, as she secured the necklace.
"Nah, you only tried to tackle me. Toss some thunderbolts around and then we're talkin'." Alex took a sip from his canteen before shuffling it back into one of myriad hiding places in his coat. "Anyways, that's the big three. Just remember those and use common sense and you're good. Now, when navigating the paths in here, always remember that the paths can't hurt you, but you can hurt you. Just keep that fact in mind, and don't get antsy. As long as you believe you can walk up an infinite, impossible staircase and get off at the right spot, you can." Alex sat up and grabbed the boombox. "So, what kind of place do you two want to visit first?"
Twilight and Celestia sat down and started to discus the topic at hand. After a short while, a consensus was obviously reached. Celestia and Twilight walked over to Alex. "You two ready to go?" Celestia nodded.
"We've decided that as long as it's more-or-less safe, exciting, and fun, we really don't care."
"Oh, that's really specific," grumbled Alex. Then his face lit up. "I know JUST the place!"
The trio arrived at the right platform about an hour and a half of walking, which would have been much shorter if the path hadn't wrapped around itself in somewhere around six dimensions at once, the sheer incomprehensibility of which prompted all of them to take a break. "That was one hell of a snag in the path," groaned Alexander as he walked up to the platform. The platform in question was made primarily of polished chrome and steel, with a mosaic in the center which greatly resembled a wheel. An automobile wheel, not a wagon wheel. Alex explained this to Twilight and Celestia as he fiddled with two oddly-shaped bracelets. In the center of the mosaic was a planet, which seemed somewhat out of place, given the racing theme of the rest of the platform. A large crimson band slid through the background of the mosaic, behind both the wheel and planet.
"So, any hints?" asked Celestia, grinning.
Alexander smirked. "Nope." The two bracelets both chimed softly. "Okay, you're gonna need to put these on to blend in with the locals. At least that shouldn't be TOO hard where we're going. Don't freak out, but it's gonna do some shape-shifting." Twilight eyed hers curiously, before slipping it on. Rather abruptly, there was an odd sort of schlooping noise, and Twilight now stood on two legs, looking more-or-less human. Her hair was still the same shape and colour, and instead of purple fur, she now had light skin. Thankfully, the bracelet also conjured clothes. Specifically, a white button-up shirt, purple argyle sweater-vest, and a pair of khakis. An over-sized cloth belt looped through the khakis,hanging out the back and emulating her now-missing tail. Oddly, she still had pony-shaped ears.
"This is... new," remarked Twilight. "And a lot of clothes, too."
Alex shrugged. "Cultural nudity taboo, plus exposure to the elements." Celestia eyed the bracelet warily before shrugging and slipping it on.
Nothing happened.
"Is there something wrong w-" The bracelet began to emit a series of short beeps. "Should I be taking this off?"
Schloop.
Celestia still had her ethereally-waving hair. Dark skinned, more a heavy tan than a natural shade, she wore a somewhat elaborate, yet unrestricting gold-trimmed and decorated dress, and still maintained her crown.
"That's not very subtle," noted Alex. "Let me reconfigure this thing for something that won't stand out." Twilight found herself wearing a pair of purple-dyed jeans and a jacket over her getup, and Celestia found herself in a white two-piece suit. "Close enough."
"You know, I find myself liking this suit," remarked Celestia, as she and Twilight took a few first wobbly, human steps around.
With that, all three of them walked through the rift to destinations unknown.