//------------------------------// // Prologue: Oops. // Story: My Little Pony : Explorers of Dimensions // by Jelly Bean //------------------------------// "Alright, Pinkie, Rainbow, do you have everything ready?" Twilight called, excitement obvious in her voice. "We need to get this done at the proper time, or it'll never work right!" "Yepperonie, Twilight! I got everything right here!" Pinkie exclaimed, somehow managing to carry several heavy objects of unknown purpose whilist simultaneously bouncing in place. "Yeah, and believe me, it was a real hassle getting Rarity to let these gems go." Rainbow grunted, far less receptive of the ridiculous strain placed upon her back. Even for such an athletic mare, this was a bit too much, not that she would ever tell anyone that. Rainbow, Twilight and Pinkie were all located on the inside of Twilight's Library/Treehouse. And not treehouse as in what the Cutie Mark Crusaders had, an actual living tree, that was a house. Magic. Go figure. Normally, I wouldn't bother describing said treehouse. We all know what it looks like, anyway. But this time, it was much different. The floors had been covered in some kind of glowing, rubbery gunk, also known to unicorns and anyone who had bothered to read a basic magical theory textbook as a magical insulator. Anything that could be moved on the bottom floor was, and things that normally couldn't were teleported out of the way. A large white inscription was drawn across the walls and floor, also glowing, as magical runes and enchantment circles are wont to do, and thin, almost invisible bolts of magical energy crackled along it. All in all, a very intimidating setup, revealing that whatever spell was going to be cast here required remarkable precision and power, one that would take at least seven unicorns a week to fully power it. So naturally Twilight would have it done before lunchtime. "I know, Rainbow, but just think of the possibilities of this spell! Long range teleportation like this has never been attempted before! This would revolutionize modern travel!" Twilight exclaimed with her typical adorkable glee, nearly bouncing in place as she said it. Rainbow grunted and dropped the gems on the floor roughly. "Twi, if whatever magicky thing you're doing here needs this much stuff to do it, I think it's just too...too...what's the word..." Rainbow trailed off, putting her hoof to her chin in thought, before realizing this was a bad idea and quickly regaining her balance. "Oh! Right! Impractable! No, impractical. Yes, that's the word." Rainbow pointed out. Twilight frowned and opened her mouth, preparing to launch into 'Lecture mode,' but before she could, Pinkie launched into the conversation with all the timing of a rampaging elephant. "Silly Dashie, it doesn't work like that! It's a biggo-humongous-super-duper-ubër spell, so it's made to travel really really REALLY long distances! Like going from Ponyville all the way to Zebrica in a few seconds!" Pinkie said, helpfully illustrating her point by stretching her forelegs apart in a "This much" gesture, apparently unaware of the fact that typical physics both prohibits any sort of limb stretching like taffy and the fact that she shouldn't be able to do that on four legs whilist carrying several massive machines on her back." Twilight blinked in confusion as she stared at Pinkie casually bitch-slapping physics, closed her eyes, took three deep breaths, and turned back to the similarly bewildered blue pegasus, locking the current memory away in an ever expanding mental file called "Pinkie pie." "Yes, Rainbow, exactly what Pinkie said." Twilight said in a voice slightly off kilter, before levitating the several baskets of gems away from Rainbow, teleporting Spike back upstairs as he tried to sneakily take a few gems, and dropped the basket in the circle. The next ten minutes were spent carefully arranging the gems in a specific pattern, while Pinkie held Spike at bay with her incessant yammering. "Pinkie?" Twilight asked, calling up the stairs. "And then I was like- 'Oatmeal? Are you CRAZY?!' and then she was like-" "Pinkie!" Twilight called slightly louder. Pinkie popped out of nowhere downstairs. "Yes, Twilight?" She said cheerfully. Twilight once again took three deep breaths. "Pinkie, can you help get the Ontological Inertia Calibrator running? I don't really want to pop out of existence." The magical purple pony said to the physics defying pink abomination. "I already set it up! I put in batteries, because I knew you'd want to have it going by now!" Twilight's jaw flapped uselessly for a moment as she tried to comprehend what the insane baker had just said. Really, this was turning out to be a bad day, even by Pinkie Pie standards of unlogic. In the meantime, Rainbow Dash cheerfully took photos of the spazzing purple alicorn with the camera she had gotten by accidentally kicking the Ontological Inertia Calibrator. Oh, I didn't mention that she was an alicorn? I thought you would have guessed that. I mean, seriously. Keep up with the show. Ignoring our little crisis, as 2/3ds of the ponies present in the room are unaware of us even discussing this, Twilight had already begun charging the circle. Bolts of magic flew from her horn, into the runes and also gave everyone in a mile radius of the library frizzy hair. The gems formed complex patterns as the magic arced through them. At this point, even Rainbow was intrested. It was certainly pretty, so it's only natural that anyone would be curious. The excess magic ran across the insulator on the floor and was returned to the air. And that was when all Tartarus broke loose. Because while there was a magical insulator on the floor, the runic circle extended up to the walls too, meaning that there was an entire section of the library unprotected. Normally, it isn't like Twilight to make such a mistake. She wouldn't, too, if it wasn't for one small problem that every scientist, mythical purple winged god-horse or not, dreads. She forgot something. In particular, she forgot where the spell she was preforming was. Her library. Normally, it's actually better for the walls to be unprotected. The magic leaves through there and doesn't all cluster together once it's in the air. But she forgot the site. Ponyville had been home to some very strange things and powerful magics. In under a few years, it had to deal with the return of nightmare moon, An ursa minor attack, the Great and Powerful Trixie's day long reign of tyranny, Discord, a dragon, changelings, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. That's a lot. And the treehouse had experienced the very worst of it. Almost every magical mishap in Ponyville happened there or near there, in addition to being home to the most powerful unicorn in several hundred years for Celestia knows how long, plus her magical dragon assistant with a direct line to Princess Celestia and Luna, plus Celestia and Luna actually visiting there, plus several full on blasts with the elements of harmony, and to top it all off being Ground Zero of an alicorn Ascension. It was pretty magically saturated. So what was supposed to be a ventilation system, ended up just releasing all that latent energy. The library flared with a blinding light. Ponies on the streets yelped and covered their eyes, while others looked worriedly at said building, wondering what could cause such a blast. Inside the Library, it was even worse. Magic quite literally peeled off the walls, the sinks, the ponies and the books, being sucked into the circle like some kind of vortex. The Ontilogical Inertia Calibrator exploded, and the gems drifting about decided to forgo traditional physics and melt together. All the magic in the entire house, every last bit from all of those years, was sucked into it. It sat there, glowing, in the middle of the house. One second. Two seconds. Three seconds. BOOM. Now, before I can go around explaining just how badly this spell fucked up, I need to explain it's basics. Picture the planet as a single, thin pane of glass, that curves around to meet itself. The spell was to essentially use a surgeons precision to piece apart the individual grains, and tunnel your way through to reach the other side in a matter of seconds. A more powerful version of the spell isn't limited to the planet. Picture now, the universe. Millions upon millions of galaxies, filled with billions of planets and stars in each one. Not just a single layer. Picture it as a pane of glass, a massive one. Like a coffee table if the crumbs from a particularly nutty cookie were galaxies. And make sure the planets are glass too. And the stars and the galaxies, and moving glass at that. Always rotating. Always shifting. Always breathing. All of that, the wonder of the universe, contained in a pane of glass used for windows, all of it existing, never quite touching. That spell would move with the grain of the universe itself. Fluid. Alive. What happened instead was the rough equivalent of driving a flaming monster truck into the coffee table while "Eye of the Tiger" Plays in the background, accompanied by an angry horde of hippopotamus. It could be compared to, say, rather than lighting a sparkler on the fourth of July, you accidentally set off twelve nuclear missiles. To say the treehouse blew apart would be an understatement of such porpotions that it could almost be counted as a lie. It didn't blow up, it was vaporized. It was vaporized so thoroughly that everyone who had ever seen it suffered a sudden moment of doubt that it had ever been there, and that the massive crater in the ground had always existed there. The very foundations of the planet shook. Continents cracked, avalanches fell, volcanoes erupted, the very water of the oceans was sucked five feet into the air and dropped again. The air cooked and split, and a massive firestorm erupted in a single pillar. Meanwhile, in Canterlot: "As you can see, your highness, It would be in our best interests were we to follow the new plan, and totally change the Judicial system. It would not only increase efficiency, but would reduce the amount of biased trials by 50%." Silver Briefcase, the head of the Canterlot Institute of Law finished, never once lifting his head from his prostrated position on the ground." Celestia sighed inwardly at the unnecessary formality, but showed no signs of her internal displeasure on the outside. "Your concerns have been noted, Silver, and I agree that it is a fantastic idea. It will take some time to implement it, however, but I assure you I will do my very best to use it." The ever-regal Princess of the Sun said, with her trademark gentle smile. "INDEED. WE TOO FIND THINE PROPOSAL INTERESTING. AS WE HAVE SPENT THE LAST MONTH STUDYING THE NEW LAWS SO THAT WE MAY, AS THE SAYING GOES, "CATCH UP WITH THE TIMES", WE AGREE THAT THE CURRENT JUDICIAL SYSTEM IS IN NEED OF CHANGE." Luna said in the Royal Canterlot Voice, also known as yelling at the top of your lungs. To Silver's credit, he didn't even blink when Luna brought out the vocal heavy artillery. However, he could have also gone into shock, so there's that. "Thank you, Your highnesses. I am pleased that-" Luna suddenly shot bolt upright in her throne. GET DOWN! She roared, the force of it knocking everyone on their stomach anyway, so it was kind of pointless. Celestia stared at Luna in shock. "Lulu, what's the matter?!" Celestia cried, all forms of composure or secret nicknames slipping in worry for her sister. Luna, ignorant or just not caring of the odd stares she was receiving, spoke slowly, yet with an urgency none could ignore. "Something is coming. Something big. Something very, very powerful and very bad, and we need to make a shield NOW!" She cried, the panic eventually overcoming her as she leapt up from her seat. A few of the nobles rolled their eyes. 'There's Luna.' They thought. 'Why did anyone bring her back? We were fine with one princess, not two.' Or at least, that's what they would have thought, if every living being in Canterlot didn't suddenly feel a profound fear penetrate their very minds and souls. A second later, they found out why as the entire city shook like a pair of maracas. Celestia quickly threw up a shield around all of Canterlot, and not a moment too soon. Seconds after casting the spell, the universe broke. Just broke. Everything. Physics, time, space, reality itself. Shattered like a toy. Well, not broke into pieces mind you. More like cracked. Yes, a crack. A crack in the very fabric of the universe. The air, the seas the skies, the crack shot straight up in the air and spread out, as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to a 6 inch thick wall of plexiglass. Equestria, quaked. Zebrica quaked. Griffonia quaked. The sun, the stars, the galaxies in the sky. Foom, a crack. And once it faded, every living being looked outside, and saw what had happened. And they gasped. The world was distorted, but only superficially. That would heal. Light and sound were bent, but that would heal. What was worrying was the massive, physics defying rip in space time that hovered or sank below the earth and spun along the horizon. It was coming from Ponyville. Meanwhile at Ponyville: Canterlot was bad. Ponyville was worse. Ironically, it was the crack that saved everyone. Pure fire, pure energy, locked in a rift in the universe. Bleeding out into nothing. Certainly, it still hit but with much less force than it could have. And what the Ponyvillians could see that anyone from Canterlot couldn't was that the cracks were healing. That wasn't much reassurance. Buildings drifted through zero gravity. Inertia took a big steaming dump on acceleration, and trees grew in reverse. It was like discord, but with less chaos, and more broken universe. Ponies huddled up, terrified and crying, in the town square. Miraculously, there were no deaths nor injuries, and so there was only a lot of cleanup duty and psychiatrists needed. Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy met in front of Sugarcube corner, accompanied by Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle. "Fluttershah, darlin, what happened to yah?" Applejack asked, concerned about Fluttershy. Her coat was matted down and dirty, and quite scuffed up and scratched. She was weeping, as you would expect something as innocent as Fluttershy to do when caught in an explosion. In response, Fluttershy only cried harder. Horror crossed Applejack's face. "Oh no. Sugarcube, are yer animal friends okay?" Fluttershy managed to control herself long enough to give a nod of her head, before bursting back into tears. Meanwhile, the cracks in the universe were ashamed of themselves. "Applejack! Fluttershy! Darlings, are you alright?" Rarity called, pushing her way past groups of ponies, while somehow still managing to look relatively good in the midst of a colossal disaster. Applejack nodded. "Ah'm fine, and so is Bloom and Scoots here, even if we're all a little shaken up." Worry crossed her face, an expression that did not look good on her. "But Flutters here...she ain't respondin' tah me, she just keeps on cryin'." Rarity walked over to Fluttershy, as the terrified Sweetie Belle, following closely behind, spotted her friends and ran to them, giving them a massive tackle hug that was absolutely nothing like how Sweetie normally behaved. We'll leave the kids alone for now, because it just doesn't really feel right describing kids crying in fear. "Fluttershy, dear, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" Fluttershy only sobbed harder. By now, some ponies were starting to take notice, and a few were looking around worriedly. No one liked seeing the adorable pegasus cry. "Please, darling, look at me. No, no, look at me." She said, gently guiding Fluttershy's face with a hoof to look at her. Fluttershy just kind of fell into Rarity, and began crying on her. Startled as she was, the alabaster unicorn mare cared deeply for her friends, and so said nothing. On the other hand, Fluttershy did say something. Two somethings actually. "Rainbow -sob- -choke- dash..." she whispered. Rarity froze. The two words pinged around in her mind, sitting dormant until she finally realized what the yellow pegasus was talking about. "Applejack...?" Rarity asked in a small, terrified, hoarse voice. The kind of voice where you know the answer will be bad but you just have to ask anyway. "Where's Rainbow?" Applejack froze. Rainbow Dash. Her friend. Rainbow Dash, the speedster. Rainbow Dash, the pegasus who never abandoned her friends and should be here by now. Rainbow Dash, the pegasus who was at Twilight's the last time she saw her. 'How did she forget?' Applejack asked herself, her head spinning. Her stomach felt like it wanted to leap out of her throat. And Pinkie! Where was Pinkie? Pinkie was with Twilight too! And- Oh. "Twilight." Applejack said. Oddly enough, it caught everyone's attention. "Twilight lives in that library. Twilight was making a new spell." She said, horror crossing her face: And several others too. "Twilight, Pinkie and Rainbow were all in that library." With hardly a word, everyone ran over to the library. If something can be said about Ponyville's citizens, it's that they care for each other. They panic and yell when danger comes by, but if one of their one is threatened, everyone stands up to the call. And with that in mind, I would like you to imagine the utter despair that crossed their minds when they walked to the crater, and found nothing. Literally nothing existed there, any more. It was a reverse mountain. With a single wailing cry, everyone in Ponyville broke down in tears. And then pink happened. What? Pink. "Hey, what's everyone crying about?" Came a cheerful, bubbly voice that everyone in Ponyville knew and loved. And the crowd turned. And there was Pinkamina Diane Pie, in all her Party-tastic glory. Eight balloons were tied around her tail. Two paper chains were wrapped around her hind leg. And draped across her back were Spike and Rainbow Dash, Unconcious and charred, but fine. And the crowd cheered, and rushed forward and hugged and laughed and sung because everyone was okay and- "AAAAAAH!" And they stopped. This was getting old, but no less painful. They rushed forward to the crater, and there, at the bottom, was Princess Twilight Sparkle. The downside was that Princess Twilight Sparkle was actively being pulled into a crack in the universe. A great, shiny green hole that was sucking her in. And then Fluttershy happened. In one of the bravest acts in her lifetime, she overcame her fear, dove down to Twilight... At a very slow, halting pace. The winds were difficult, and she wasn't that great of a flier. It did have the added bonus effect of spurring on the rest of the Pegasi and Unicorns to try and help too. From Twilight's perspective, feathers and magic blotted out the sun, and she felt herself slowing. And then she stopped slowing. A pegasus, a light grey pegasus with fury in her eyes and a sharp eating utensil as a cutie mark had hit Bon Bon. And that's all she saw before she was sucked in, and everything went utterly black.