Chapter 1
A Very Strange World
Twilight Sparkle groaned as she slowly regained consciousness. The ride through the gateway in the mirror had been quick but terrifying. She opened her eyes and saw a clear blue sky up above. She could also feel a light breeze blowing across her face. She was no longer inside the Crystal Castle, but somewhere outside, lying on her back. At least she could confirm she had survived the journey. The only question now was where she had ended up.
“Uh, Twilight?”
Twilight immediately recognized that voice. “Huh? Spike? You’re not supposed to—” she began to say, but stopped once she turned to look at Spike.
Standing next to her was not the baby dragon she recognized, but something she had never seen or even heard of before. His body seemed… boxy, was the best word she could come up with. It was not quite a perfect square; it was slightly wider at the hips than at the shoulders. Its consistent thickness was half of its width at the hips. His legs were just as boxy; they were so short that were almost cube-shaped. The rest of his body was more rounded. His arms were much thinner and longer than his legs, reaching all the way to his waist. His head was shaped like a short cylinder with rounded edges. The strangest body part of all was his claws — if that’s what they were even called anymore. Instead of comprising of four sharp digits, they now took on a rather smooth crescent shape, and were just as thick as the rest of his arm.
And that was just the shape of Spike’s new body. The colors were just as strange. His head, “claws”, and most of his arms had the same purple color that Twilight recognized. His body above the waist and his arms around the shoulders were green, almost like he was wearing some kind of shirt. Everything below the waist was a navy blue — some kind of pants, perhaps? On top of his head was a red baseball cap — no idea where that came from. Perhaps the most surprising detail of all on Spike was his face. His mouth and green eyes seemed more like a pony than a dragon, and he apparently had no nose or ears. Despite the different details, it was similar to the face Twilight recognized, but appeared to be completely flat against his head. If it wasn’t for the occasional movement, she would have sworn it was painted on.
With all of these details accounted for, Twilight Sparkle asked the most important question of the moment. “Uh, Spike… What are you?”
Spike look down at his new body. He was just as confused by his new appearance. He was still standing on two legs, but his tail was now completely gone. After a quick look at himself, he said, “Uh… I don’t know.” He then looked over at Twilight. “In fact, I should be asking you the same question.”
“Huh?” asked Twilight in confusion. She raised her forelegs and, to her horror, what she saw was not a pair of legs with hooves, but a pair of lavender arms with the same crescent-shaped extremities that Spike now had. There was only one way a pony like her would react to such a sight. She immediately sat up and screamed.
Twilight finally covered her mouth after a few seconds. With that moment of panic over, she started to examine herself. She looked at her new appendages as she slowly moved them in every way possible. The best she could describe was that they opened and closed like crab claws, but there was more to this strange body part than that. One half of the crescent could curl to within the other half, and both halves could spread out until it was almost flat. Slightly panicked, she flailed her arms around, noticing that they could bend back and forth in the middle. She then reached down to grab one of her hind legs — now probably better known as simply a leg. Hers were twice as long as Spike’s, allowing her to differentiate the details of it better. It was more rounded at the hip joint, which allowed her leg to swing back and forth easily. At the other end, a tab-like protrusion stuck out at the front — presumably a foot. Like her arms, her legs could also bend in the middle. In fact, despite her boxy appearance, her new body seemed to be just as flexible as her pony body.
“Twilight, you have to get it together!” exclaimed Spike worriedly.
It was only now that Twilight Sparkle realized she had been panting heavily in panic. She took a deep breath to calm herself and stood up on all four limbs. Her neck didn’t seem to be able to bend backwards like it used to, so she had to turn her head sideways to look at Spike. “What… does the rest of me look like?” she asked, dreading whatever answer she would receive.
Spike answered as truthfully as he could. “Um, like you, only not you,” he answered. “You don’t seem to even have a muzzle anymore.”
“My muzzle?!” exclaimed Twilight, sitting down on her rear again. She felt her face and, sure enough, felt no protrusion at all. Just the smooth curved surface of her head. She started breathing rapidly again and was about to scream again when Spike rushed over and covered her mouth with his “claws”.
“Are you gonna scream again?” asked Spike.
Having been snapped out of it, Twilight shook her head.
Spike stepped back and looked around. “Where are we?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” answered Twilight. Looking around, she could see they were in some kind of grassy field. Not far away in the background were some tall buildings in all directions, indicating that they were in some kind of park within a city. The strangest sight of all was the trees within the park. They were conical in shape, but instead of having individual branches, they had round “sections” that got progressively smaller higher up.
Twilight looked back and saw a statue atop a pedestal. The pedestal was a little taller than she was, and the statue was of a horse — which also had a rather strange boxy shape — rearing on its hind legs. She reached out toward the pedestal and, instead of touching something solid, her arm passed through. Not only that, but she could see the part of her arm that was through has morphed back to the hoof and foreleg she was familiar with. “This must serve as the gateway back to Equestria,” she noted. She pulled her arm back through and saw it was now back to the same strange arm and “claw” she now had.
Twilight Sparkle shook her head and said with determination, “We need to find my crown and get back there as soon as possible. I suggest we start by looking around this park.”
“Works for me,” agreed Spike with a shrug.
Twilight stood up on all four limbs again and began to run forward. She only made it a few steps before tripping over herself. She got up and tried again, but got a similar result. Unable to look ahead, a third attempt ended when she slammed her head against one of the strange-looking trees.
Spike calmly walked up to Twilight and said, “Yeah, I don’t think that’s how the new you is supposed to walk.”
Twilight looked over at Spike, who seemed to be having an easy time walking around in his new body. She reasoned this was because he was already used to walking on two legs, while she, a pony, was used to walking on four legs instead.
Twilight rubbed her head — which was still sore from slamming into that tree — and soon realized something wasn’t right. She felt all over her forehead. She still had hair on her head, which stuck out quite noticeably, but that was all there was. “My horn!” she gasped. “It’s gone! Does that mean…?” Twilight looked around for something and decided to settle for the strange-looking tree in front of her. She concentrated on the tree, willing her magic to do something — anything — to it. Nothing happened. She gasped again. “My magic won’t work!”
Twilight Sparkle sighed, accepting her now powerless state. Understanding there was no point in moping about her loss, she attempted to stand up the same way Spike was. She wobbled around on her legs a bit and fell forward, grabbing one of the “branches” of the tree to stop herself. “C’mon, Spike,” she said. “I do not wanna be like this for longer than I have to.”
“Well, look on the bright side. You don’t have those pesky wings to worry about anymore,” Spike pointed out.
Twilight glared at him, but had to admit he was right. Her back was void of any wings, as far as she could tell. She let go of the tree and tried standing up again. She was getting better at her new stance, but almost fell on her first step. She quickly placed her arms on top of Spike’s head for support.
“Hey, I was just joking!” exclaimed Spike. He felt almost insulted at this display of how much shorter he was, despite their nearly identical body shapes.
Twilight quickly apologized and got off of him. She took a moment to get used to her new center of gravity before making another attempt at walking. As she stood there, she looked around and saw something useful. “Look!” she said, pointing up ahead. “There’s a path over there! That should be able to lead us somewhere.”
Twilight took a step forward. She wobbled a bit, but was able to stay upright. She smiled to herself at this achievement. Progress! She was making progress! Slowly, she took one more step, then another, then another. By the time she and Spike finally reached the path, she was no longer holding her arms out struggling for balance. Now she was able to get around with ease in this strange body.
Twilight looked left and right up both ends of the paved pathway. The park didn’t seem to have a lot of visitors today, which was just as well. She didn’t want to attract any unwanted attention from her attempts to get used to her new form. Confirming the coast was clear, she stepped forward onto the path.
Clack. Clack.
That noise startled Twilight for a moment. It was unlike anything she had heard before — except maybe for when Princess Celestia had dropped that fake crown on the floor earlier that morning. It had sounded like it came from directly beneath her, so she looked down at her feet. She took a step forward and heard that noise again. She walked around on the path a little more and confirmed the strange noise was her own footsteps. It was so unlike the clopping of hooves she was used to whenever she walked on a hard surface. It was yet another strange detail of this other world she would have to get used to.
Curious about why her feet made such a noise, Twilight wondered if the same could be true for the rest of her new body. She tapped herself on the arm and, sure enough, it made a similar clacking noise. This was nothing at all like flesh or other organic material. She thought over all kinds of materials that were known to exist. She eventually concluded there was only one type of material that could make such a noise and come in such simple shapes.
“Strange… Whatever we are, we seem to be made of some kind of… plastic,” Twilight noted. Plastic was not unheard of in Equestria, but it wasn’t exactly a common material. The fact that she was able to even identify it based only on what she had read in books was remarkable.
Spike stepped onto the path and, like Twilight, his footsteps also made the same clacking noise. He began quickly walking around in circles with a goofy grin on his face. He found the new noise rather entertaining. He was having so much fun, he almost failed to see Twilight walking away. He stopped as soon as he glanced in her direction. “Hey, where are you going?!” exclaimed Spike as he ran to catch up to her, the rapid clacking of his footsteps not lost to him.
Twilight sighed. “I’m not sure,” she admitted as they continued walking. “I just had this thought that if the crown was here, Sunset Shimmer may have already gotten it by now. If what Princess Celestia said was true, that means Sunset would already be using my crown to cause all kinds of havoc in this world. Strange as this place seems, I’m pretty sure that’s not the case. That can only mean that she has yet to find it.”
“That’s good, right?” said Spike optimistically.
“I don’t know. If she hasn’t found it yet, that means she’s still looking for it. Therefore, we should expect to see her somewhere in this park. As far as I can tell, she’s not here, which means the crown’s not here either. My crown had simply fallen through the mirror, which means it couldn’t have gone far on its own. If it’s not here in this park, then that can only mean something else has taken it. We have no idea who or what may have it right now. What if they plan on doing something terrible with it? What if they have plans similar to Sunset Shimmer? What if Sunset Shimmer already knows who has it and is planning to take it from them? Would she try to steal it from them or bribe them into giving it to her? What if—”
Twilight’s panic-rant was cut short when she tripped on something and fell forward. She didn’t land on the ground, but rather at the edge of a fountain. She had been so busy with her thoughts that she had failed to even notice the fountain right in front of her. She began to get back up when she looked down at the water — actual water, thank goodness.
Looking down at her reflection in the water, Twilight Sparkle was finally able to see what she now looked like. Although the shape of her body was mostly the same as Spike’s, the colors on it were quite different. Like Spike, her face consisted of a mouth and pair of violet eyes — almost identical to what her pony form had — but lacked a nose and ears. Despite the lack of these details, she somehow still had all of her senses, including smell and hearing. Instead of a hat, she had hair on her head that was the same color — dark blue with a violet and magenta streak across the front and back — and mostly the same style — straight, short in the front and longer in the back — as her mane. Her head, most of her arms, and the upper half of her legs were the same lavender color as her pony form’s coat; everywhere else, she appeared to be wearing some kind of clothes. Her torso and shoulders were sky blue. On the front of her torso was what appeared to be a few buttons lined up vertically in the middle, and just below the neck was apparently a loosely-tied magenta bow-tie. The lower half of her legs was violet with a strip of magenta along the top, and a strip of black around her feet. Wrapped around the upper half of her legs was a violet skirt of some kind — the only part of her that was not made of plastic, but rather some kind of cloth. Printed on the left side of that skirt was a six-pointed magenta star with five smaller white stars evenly spaced around it — her Cutie Mark on her pony body.
Now that she finally saw every detail of her strange new body, Twilight had only one thought in mind. “What am I?” she quietly asked herself as she continued to stare at her reflection in the water.
“I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure we won’t find any answers by just standing here,” replied Spike as he walked around the fountain to continue down the path.
Twilight shook her head and stood up. “You’re right, Spike,” she said calmly. “Our best bet now would be to search the city outside of this park.” She followed Spike around the fountain and they both walked a short distance down the path to a nearby street.
Now standing at the edge of a city street, Twilight and Spike got their first real view of what kind of world they were now in. The street itself was unbelievably smooth, with white and yellow lines painted along its length. The sidewalk they stood on was just as smooth, but consisted of square tiles just large enough for one of them to stand on just one. The buildings varied a lot in colors and seemed to be made of large bricks that had no mortar at all to hold them together. Moving up and down the street were odd-looking carriages that could move on their own, making a strange humming noise as they moved. And finally, there were the citizens. They all had the same basic shape — aside from hair or hats — but came in many different colors; not just the “clothes” they wore, but also their skin — although yellow seemed to be rather common for that part. They were all just walking up and down the street, going about their daily lives.
Taking in all of these details, Twilight Sparkle had only one thought in mind. “What kind of place is this?” she asked quietly.
Twilight and Spike jumped a little when one young individual rode by on his skateboard, laughing excitedly as he zoomed past them.
“We’re definitely not in Equestria anymore,” Spike simply said.