//------------------------------// // Let's Get it Started // Story: Sweet Child of Mine // by Ron Jeremy Pony //------------------------------// Sweet Child of Mine Chapter 1 ‘Let’s get it started’ (Ponyville – Gold Oaks Library) “Twilight!” Spike shouted as a blinding white light flashed through the library. Slowly Spike sat up to see something odd. The spell Twilight was working on seemed to be working. He walked toward her and touched her. She groaned and started to fall. He reached to catch her when something slithered through the portal. It stood, on two hind legs. It looked to be half pony and half something else. He noticed that it’s mane and tail looked very similar to Twilights. The creature carried her over to a bed and gently laid her down. “Spike… Damn Spike did mom give you youth potion or something?” the creature asked. “Mom?” he asked. “Yeah, mom, this mare… Oh for the love of Luna this isn’t right,” the creature said shaking its head. “What in the hay are you going on about?” Spike asked. The spell faltered before the creature could go back to it. The creature stood in the middle of the library, looking at the place where the spell had created a sort of gate, and then shook its head. “Son of a BITCH!” it shouted. “What or who, actually what and who are you?” Spike asked. “Someone that doesn’t exist yet, or doesn’t exist at all in this world,” the creature said. “Come again?” Spike asked. The creature walked over, dug around in its pocket and pulled out a crystal. Spike drooled as it offered it to him. He walked over, snatched it out the creature’s hand and began eating it with gusto. He felt the creature gently rub the place right beside his highest spine and let out a soft smoke laced purr. “I’m usually called a lot of things, but my friends call me Trip. As for what I am… I’m a Halfling. Half Pony, half… human,” the creature said. Spike noticed how feminine the creature sounded. If it was a girl she looked weird, and she was wearing clothes. There wasn’t a ball anywhere, so it wasn’t like she was dressing up for a special occasion. He studied it, decided that since it sounded like a she then it must be a she, and touched ‘her’ hand. “Why do they call you Trip?” he asked. “Because my father thought it was good fun to name me Triplana Sparkle,” she said. Spike snorted at the name. “I know,” she replied. “You called Twilight mom, why?” Spike asked. Trip sighed, looked at the sleeping unicorn and then out a window into the night sky. “Because where I come from she is my mom, well our mom. She’s taken care of you since you were a hatchling, so you were kind of my older brother… Mom was really busy working on a project, and I really wanted to see her. So I thought that I could try to work out a spell…” she said moving a bang of hair to reveal a tiny horn, “I thought it connected, and it did… but not at the right place, or something.” “Okay, but you said that your dad’s a human… What’s that?” Spike asked. She smiled, stood up, and looked down at him. He could see that her legs looked almost furless. She had hooves, and her legs did resemble Twilight’s back legs, but there was no real amount of fur on her legs. Instead of hooves on her forelegs she had weird claws, or maybe paws. Studying her for a moment he shook his head. “Okay, so, what’s a human?” he asked. She dug around in her pocket again and pulled out a photo. She handed it to him and he looked at a picture of a weird, mostly hairless, ape thing with a slightly older Twilight, leaning against it kissing its cheek. Next to him on the other side was a larger version of himself, and on his back was weird little foal. He studied the foal and then creature standing there. “That guy in the middle is my dad, and he’s a human. His name is Jerrad Farmer, and he’s from Earth. He was working with the idea of there being small interdimensional gateways between universes, and was trying to open one. I remember him telling mom it had taken him years to find out the frequency to open a gate. When he did… it… It pulled him, and some other stuff, through,” she said. “What other stuff?” Spike asked. She rubbed the back of her head and then looked at the floor. “A computer program that fused with the magic in the air to become a new form of life… The program should have just not existed outside of a computer. I mean it was just raw data, at least that’s what dad said. He had developed it to inform other universes about us. To tell them that he was peaceful. There was nothing here that could have downloaded it so, it should have just bounced around until the signal got too weak,” she said. “What happened?” Spike asked. “Oh I like this part of the story! Tell me again! Tell me again!” a voice said. “For the love of Luna… HAL!” she shouted. “I wanted to join you Trip! I wanted to see what you were doing! This is a brand new world… Ooooooo…. Books! DATA!!!!!” the voice screamed before a strange bright light formed into a blue looking pony. It didn’t exactly look real. Instead it looked like a ghost, but the pony ran over to a book, touched it, and Spike watched as the book became blue, turned into a weird group of numbers and then disappeared into the weird little thing. “Friend SPIKE!” it happily said running to him. Spike felt it wrap it’s hooves around him and hug tightly. He felt an electrical shock for a moment before the creature let him go. “I am so HAPPY to see friend SPIKE!” it shouted. “Yeah… Hal, that’s your name right?” Spike asked. “Yes, I am Hal, Human/Alien/Learningaide! Friend Trip I have over sixty-five Terabytes of information stored from the books… Is friend Celestia still mad about her cupcake recipes?” Hal asked. “Cupcake recipes?” Spike asked. “Hal got into Celestia’s recipe vault at Canterlot castle… He downloaded everything. She lost over twenty-five thousand cake and cupcake recipes in the span of about two seconds. I recall her talking about banishment to the moon,” Trip said. “Wait… What?” he asked. “Trip to the moon was fun! Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy!” Hal shouted as ‘he’ jumped around simulating low gravity. “It got very boring… and the only thing in the building up there was pictures of stallions…” Hal said making a gaging gesture. “Spike… What was that?” Twilight asked. “Mom?” Trip said. Twilight looked at the creature standing there, scooted back, with her eyes wide. “What are you?!” Twilight exclaimed. “Mom… I… I’m your daughter. I’m Trip… you know Triplana Sparkle,” she said. “Nonononononononono, I don’t have a filly… and you don’t look like a pony… although you have my mane… What are you?” she asked. “She’s a Halfling,” Spike said. “Friend Trip is a Halfling!” Hal shouted. “What is that?” Twilight asked. “Ooooooooo…. Starswirl’s book of advanced magic… Friend Twilight… You got it back… Hal will download it for you!” Hal said as he touched the large tome. All throughout Ponyville everyone heard the sound of a mare screaming ‘NOOOO STOP THAT!’ Hal looked at the library and his lighter solid blue eyes widened. “All of the DATA IS BACK! YAY!!!!” ‘he’ yelled happily before he started running to each book. “Hal, stop it!” Trip shouted. Hal stopped after downloading the sixth book and looked at Trip. “But, Hal has to download all Data… Creator Jerrad said to download all Data,” Hal said. “Hal, you’re making mom go into one of her fits. Do you remember what she did last time?” Trip asked. Hal shuttered and sat down. “Hal will be good. Hal doesn’t like the jar,” Hal said. “What in the name of Celestia is going on?!” Twilight shouted. “Mom… I think we need to talk,” Trip said. Trip began explaining everything to Twilight, who had spike taking notes, about how she got here, what happened, who Hal was, who her father was, what her father was, and then she even told her about the recipe incident. Twilight giggled a little at that, but pressed for her to go on. When she finished Twilight sat there. She looked at the picture and studied the ‘human’ this version of her was leaning against. “What’s he like?” she asked. “Dad’s always been cool. He’s smart, I mean he’s a little out there at times, but really smart. You know… He figured out how interdimensional gateways work. He actually ended up here because of one,” Trip answered. “Why didn’t he go home?” Twilight asked. “Dad figured out how they worked, but he didn’t map them. He couldn’t find the gateway home again. He said that you helped him for nearly two years before the both of you realized that it was going to be impossible to find the correct gateway, or if you did he would be too old to use it,” she said. “How did we…” Twilight asked. “The both of you liked each other, but… Ummm… I don’t know everything. I mean you guys didn’t exactly tell me how he proposed. I kind of figured that it must have been something… weird. Don’t get me wrong, I mean I like seeing a cute stallion and everything, but I don’t like talking about what mares and stallions do you know,” she said flicking her tail. Twilight nodded and blushed. She stretched a hoof out and touched the creature, no touched her. “Do you know how to get back home?” Twilight asked. Trip shook her head. “No…” she said. For the first time since coming here her eyes began to tear up. Twilight looked at her, and all thoughts about this being an alien creature left her mind. She pulled the crying Halfling into a hug and gently stroked her mane. “It’s all right,” she said. She felt the girl shaking and continued to comfort her. For several minutes she cried until finally she pulled back. Twilight noticed part of her mane moving a little. She pushed it back a little to reveal a pair of ears on top of her head. The ears had a very soft coat of lavender fur on them, but that seemed to be the only real place she had any fur. “You… The other you would kill me for trying that spell alone,” Trip sniffed. “Spell? What spell?” Twilight asked. “Hal, project the spell I was working on,” Trip said. Hal looked, from where he was sitting, toward the ceiling and a bright blue light shined through his eyes and illuminated the room. He focused the light and suddenly it began to look like a floating piece of paper. Suddenly it began turning with enough speed that it would have put Rainbow Dash to shame before it stopped. Twilight looked at the spell, back at the girl, and then back at the spell. She shook her head, got up and paced the floor before finally turning back to Trip. “What in the Hay were you doing trying to combine a teleportation spell with a tracking spell?! Do you know how dangerous that is? You could have gotten killed! This other me wouldn’t be upset, she’d be furious at you!” Twilight berated her. “Mom…” she started before Twilight shook her head. “I’m going to think that this other me loves you very much, and I’m going to believe that if she is anything like me then she would be disappointed, furious, and would wear your flank out until you couldn’t sit straight. What were you trying to do?!” Twilight exclaimed. “Friend Trip missed Friend Twilight. Friend Twilight was helping Friend Celestia in Canterlot! Friend Celestia had found Creator Jerrad!” Hal said. “What is he going on about?” Twilight asked. She looked at the girl who was looking at the floor with her ears laid back. “Trip, what is he talking about?” she asked. “Dad… Went to help uncle Shining. He… He was helping them learn how to store information into the crystals… Uncle Shining said that Dad was just outside of the city for a second. Just a second, and then something got him. He went looking for him… Mom he said that something Dark had taken Dad and was using him. It was using him to open gateways, lots of them. I… I just wanted to help Mom! I thought that I could maybe talk to him!” she cried. Twilight felt her heart go out to the girl. She pulled her into another hug and held her. She had wanted to help her mother with her father. The both of them had lost… This other version of her had lost her husband and this girl had lost her father. She went back to comforting her. “We’ll do everything we can to help. Spike, take a letter,” she said. Spike put down the piece of parchment he was working on and picked up another one. “Dear Princess Celestia, I have news to report on a strange occurrence. I was practicing a spell earlier which would allow me to view into nearby universes, but a surge knocked me back and out. It appeared that the surge that did this was caused by a young… let’s say filly… named Triplana who came from one of these universes. She, and a strange friend of hers, have arrived here by accident, and it is impartive that we assist them in getting home. From my understanding of what she said the universe she comes from is very much like our own, but a terrible thing has happened there. I would like to request an audience with you for her. Your fateful student, Twilight Sparkle,” she said. Spike rolled it up, but before he began she looked at him. “Spike, go ahead and send the notes we took as well. I want Princess Celestia to know what is going on,” she said. He nodded, grabbed the notes, the letter, kept them rolled up, and then breathed fire on them. They turned into a sort of sparkly mist and floated out the window. They waited for about thirty minutes when Spike let out a huge belch of flame and a very tight scroll formed. He handed it to Twilight who opened it. “Dear Twilight and Triplana, I quite understand her plight and extend an invitation to see me at once. I am also interested in this Hal creature, but rest assured he will not be allowed near the royal recipe vault. I will do all that I can to help. Because of the hour, I have asked Luna to send one of her carriages to pick you both up. It should be arriving shortly. Your Mentor and Friend, Princess Celestia,” Twilight read.