"Oh no!" Twilight said in shock. She and Spike were looking through an identical crystal ball. Inside it was a clear image of Marv, Dr. Bob, and all the klay people that surrounded the original ball on the other side of the portal. "I think it hurt one of them! How was I supposed to know there would be such small creatures on the other side?"
Spike was fixated on the blue figures he saw on the inside of the ball. "What are they, Twilight?" He asked, "I've never seen anything like that in Equestria."
"That's just it, Spike!" Twilight exclaimed, "I don't think this portal leads to Equestria!"
Spike scratched the top of his head, puzzled. "Um... Are they from the moon?"
"I don't think so."
"... Sattle Arabia?"
"Even less likely!" Twilight said, "I doubt they're even from this solar system! They may even be from another galaxy!"
"Don't you think that's just a little dangerous, Twilight?!" Spike jumped.
"I admit this is a little risky," Twilight said as she wrote down some quick notes on the Klay people. "but it's equally fascinating!"
"But what if this is a mistake?" Spike said worried, "What if these things are dangerous? What if they're some kind of super intelligent beings with a thirst to conquer?"
_______________________________________________________________________________
A few hours after the crystal ball came through the portal, Marv had finally gotten the crowd to disperse completely. Dr. Bob had agreed to do the job he was assigned with the promise of one thousand moneys, and had assembled a team to work with him.
Pick, his faithful assistant; Henry, Peter, and Franky the lanky, the average klay men with no important backstories; and Chip, a klay man with a large dent in the top of his head, were all chosen to work for him in exchange for twenty moneys and one very big hug.
They were all gathered between the portal and the orange ball. Dr. Bob was standing in front of them with a tiny, paper poster mounted on a stand made of toothpicks. The paper board had nothing but a bunch of illegible scribbles written on it.
"Okay everybody," The doctor began, "Thank you all for coming... except for you, Chip."
"Why did you even ask me to come if you don't want me here?" Chip asked.
"The only reason I wanted you to come is because I thought it would be funny if you hurt yourself." Dr. Bob said harshly.
"And the only reason I agreed was because I wanted to be with you... When you fail." Chip snapped back.
Dr. Bob tried to think of a quick response. "Oh yeah well... You're a three year old!"
"Ooh, good comeback," Chip said smugly.
"Shut up with that attitude!" Dr. Bob swung his stumpy arms wildly and knocked down the paper board and toothpick stand. He looked at the mess he had made and sighed. "You see what you made me do?"
"Was there even anything important written on that?" Chip asked. As the attention was diverted from the mess, Pick crawled over to the wreckage, grabbed the paper, and began chewing on it.
"Of course there was important stuff on it!" Dr. Bob said defensively. "Those were... top secret, important plans... and, like, intel and stuff from our satellites!"
"We don't have any satellites." Chip stated.
"Your mom has satellites!" Franky the lanky interrupted.
"Hah! Good one, Franky!" Said Peter.
"ALL RIGHT, LISTEN UP!" Dr. Bob commanded, immediately silencing all the other klay men. "We're running out of time. Anyway, we already know that objects can travel through this... purple disk thing; and that means that things from here can also get to... whatever is on the other side of it."
"Wow, that was actually a good observation, Dr. Bob." Chip said surprised.
"Yeah, that's because I'm a friggin' genius." Dr. Bob bragged, "So all we need is an army of specially trained hamsters armed with plastic explosives."
"And I will now take back my last compliment." Said Chip.
A seventh klay man waddled next to Dr. Bob. He looked regular aside from the fact that he had no arms. "Hey guys!" He said excitedly, "Do you guys need help!?"
"You don't have any arms..." Said Chip.
"That doesn't matter!" The armless klay man insisted, "I can still lend a helping hand!"
Dr. Bob pointed to the other side of the table. "Hey, you see that guy over there carrying that really heavy thing and walking near the edge of the table? Yeah, why don't you help him out with that."
The armless klay man walked off in the direction that the doctor had pointed saying, "Hey! Let me help you out with that!"
"HEY! NO, NOT YOU AGAIN! WHOA, WHOA! WHO-" **CRASH!**
Dr. Bob turned back to his team and continued, "Okay, so about those hamsters…"
"Would you forget about the hamsters!" Chip interrupted, clearly irritated.
"Well Chip, do you have any ideas?" Asked Dr. Bob.
"Why don't we just walk through it and see what's on the other side?" Chip asked, "I thought that was what you were going to suggest."
"Well, I was going to have the hamsters do that."
"And what did you want the plastic explosives for?"
"…Sometimes it's better if you don't know."
Chip began to walk away. "You know what, If you're not going to take this seriously, I'm just gonna leave."
"Okay, fine!" Dr. Bob said grudgingly, "We'll go with your plan. I don't know where to get that many hamsters anyway." Chip turned around and walked back proudly.
“Hey, hey, hey! Hold the phone. Hold the phone!” Henry exclaimed, “Hold the phone for me, Pick.”
“WHEEEEEEW!!!” Pick responded inaudibly.
“You want us to go in that big purple portal!” Henry continued.
“...Yeah!” Dr. Bob said after a very long pause.
"But what if there's no oxygen on the other side and I can't hear?" Peter worried.
"Oxygen is for eating, not hearing," said Franky.
"Oh yeah, duh!" Peter agreed.
Dr. Bob turned to face the enormous warp in the middle of the table. “Everyone line up beside me!” He commanded, “But don’t hold my hand, that’s weird.” The other klay men lined up beside him. “Okay, one the count of three... Chip’s gonna go first.”
“What? Why do I have to go first?” Chip complained.
“Because it was your idea,” said Dr. Bob “But don’t worry. No matter what happens in there, I’ll be perfectly safe.”
Chip ignored Dr. Bob’s comment and stepped forward to the strange gateway. The closer he got to the portal the more he was overcome with the sense that he didn’t belong. He extended one stubby hand and touched the warp. It didn’t feel like anything. his stump passed through it as easily as if it were only empty air. Let’s hope there is oxygen on the other side, he thought. Then he stepped into the portal. For a long time, he couldn’t see anything, he couldn’t hear anything, and he couldn’t move. It was as if he, and everything else had disappeared, and nothing else in the universe existed anymore; but soon, vision and sound returned to him. The first thing he was able to see were the book shelves in Twilight’s library, and the first thing he heard was a loud thud as he landed face down on her desk.
Chip had expected that no one else would follow him, that Dr. Bob and the others would leave and wait for him to return on his own, if at all; but, only a few moments later, Peter fell down on the desk too, then Henry, then Franky, then Pick, and finally Dr. Bob. They all lay down on the table for a few seconds, dazed from their journey. Chip was the first to move. He looked up and stared at the cluttered table.
“Well, this isn’t too different.” He mumbled, “It’s a table just like klay world.”
“Klay world, is that what you call where you’re from?” Twilight asked. She was standing in front of the table just as she had been, this time with a quill and notepad.
The other klay men started to stir as well, but all of them stopped moving when they saw Twilight, the pastel colored unicorn that was roughly a hundred times their mass. Most of them stared, but Pick stood up, raised his arms and screamed as loud as he could. As an interesting side note, Pick has the potential to scream very, very loudly.
“WWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-”
“Oh, no! Please don’t be scared!” Twilight insisted.
“-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-” Pick relentlessly continued.
“Um...” Twilight looked around the room and saw a chocolate cupcake she had gotten from Sugarcube Corner earlier that day. She lifted it with her magic and placed it on the table in front of Pick. “Cupcake?” She asked hopefully.
“-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-”
“With extra frosting?” She added.
“-AAAAAAA- Okay!” Pick finally stopped and swiped a chunk of frosting from the cupcake. When he lifted it to his head, a slit opened on his face that formed a mouth, something that klay men only show when they’re eating. He stuffed the frosting into his mouth, but got more on his face than anything else.
Twilight gave out a sigh of relief, then turned to the other klay men that were still staring at her. “Um... hi...” she said awkwardly.