//------------------------------// // Chapter Four: Secrets // Story: Gravity Falls: Secrets of Equestria // by Pentrath //------------------------------// A few hours of grueling boredom passed as Dipper found nothing he was interested in out of the many activities Applebloom suggested. He was waiting patiently for this party that Pinkie was throwing to start so he could get it over with and find a way to get home. Mable and Soos on the other hand were having a blast as Applebloom , Sweetiebelle and Scootaloo all played hide and seek with Soos being the seeker. Dipper sighed and decided to excuse himself and went back to the guest room inside the farmhouse hoping to get some peace sense Soos and Mable were currently occupied. He laid down on one of the beds and pulled out his journal and began to scroll through it, frantically trying to find something, anything he could have missed. It was long after he had skimmed through the book that he fell asleep. A few hours had passed by the time Soos and Mable made it back to their room only to find Dipper passed out on the bed with his journal laying open on his chest. They had only just entered the room when their door swung open, revealing a very excited Pinkie Pie. Pinkie pushed Soos and Mable out the door and told them to wait while she got Dipper. Dipper was then rudely awoken by Pinkie Pie as she came to inform him that the party was about to start. “Wakey wakey sleepy head” Pinkie screamed nearly giving Dipper a heart attack. “Ahhhhhhhhh!” Dipper said as he leaped up and fell off the bed. He regained his posture quickly and picked himself up as well as the journal that had fallen on the floor. Pinkie gave an interested look at the book but Dipper ignored it and placed the journal back into his vest pocket. He then turned to Pinkie to ask why she woke him up but before he could ask, Pinkie answered his question. “Before you ask I just came by to inform you the party was starting any minute, Applebloom and AppleJack already left, headed toward SugarCube Corner and Soos and Mable is waiting outside. You should quickly get yourself ready and lets go, go go go” Pinkie exclaimed with excitement as she bounced around Dipper. Dipper said nothing and only sighed as he grabbed his hat and placed it back on his head. “Ok I’m read-Ahhhhhhhhhh!” Was all Dipper could say before he was snatched by Pinkie as she dragged him out of the room, grabbing the others on the way out and toward the gate exiting Sweet Apple Acres. They quickly made their way through town and arrived at a large gingerbread house looking bakery. “Were here” Pinkie exclaimed before pushing open the doors and pulling Dipper, Mable and Soos inside. As soon as they entered, they were greeted with a loud chorus of ponies who blew streamers and confetti everywhere as they greeted the new ponies in “Ponyville”. Mable and Soos went wide eyed as they saw all of the confections and decorations for the party. “I think I have died and went to heaven.” Mable exclaimed. “(Gasp)” Oh no, did my party scare you to death? Pinkie said in a panicked tone. “Um no, that was just a figure of speech” Mable said, to which Pinkie Pie calmed. “So um… where is Twilight?” Dipper asked, hoping to speak with the unicorn. “Oh Twilight won’t be back for another hour, so we can enjoy your party, and then set up “Twilights Welcome Home Party.” Pinkie had the biggest grin on her face as she imagined Twilights expression to her party. “So there will be two parties in a row” Mable and Soos said in unison as they pranced around an annoyed Dipper. “But I thought there was only one” Dipper asked puzzled. “Oh there was originally going to be but, Twilight is late getting home and I already prepared this party for you three so it wouldn’t go to waste.” Pinkie answered with a smile. Mable and Soos had stopped prancing and walked over to Dipper and Pinkie; “Oh come on Dipper it will be fun, and besides you have been a grumpy pants lately, and you need to lighten up” Mable said rubbing her hoof in Dippers face. “Yeah come on Dude, lighten up.” Soos said as he pulled Dipper up next to him. Dipper let out a long sigh, “We are going to be here a while”. Three fillies had gathered in the back room, out of sight of the large crowd of ponies as they planned out their next move. Scootaloo pulled out several small candles out of a bag she had and a match. “I got the candles.” She said. Sweetibelle pulled out a picture frame with a photo of Diamond Tiara and Silverspoon on it, with a large red ‘X’ crossed over it. “I got the picture.” Sweetie said in a singsong voice. “And ah brought the book, now all we need to do is sneak out and make our way into the Everfree Forest.” Applebloom stated as the three fillies looked around at the crowd of distracted ponies, looking for a place to make their exit. The three filly’s noticed a small opening that lead to the entrance of Sugar Cube Corner, were they could squeeze though the currently distracted ponies. Applebloom, SweetieBelle and Scootaloo made their way silently past the group of ponies while also looking out for Pinkie and their sisters. The made it to the door and out of the bakery, in which they headed toward the Everfree Forest, unbeknownst to anypony, there was a black shadowy figure hovering behind them as they departed in the forest. It’s really late when Twilight and Spike got home, Twilight had hoped to get some sleep when they got back but as soon as she opened the door she was greeted by Pinkie and a bunch of other ponies that screamed “Surprise” causing Twilight to nearly leap out of her skin. After gathering her bearings she annoyingly sigh and figured she would enjoy the party and would go to bed latter, it would be nice to have let Pinkie go through the trouble and leave her empty hooved. A couple of hours past and it was now really late at night as the last of the party goes were leaving her library with her friends staying behind to help clean up. “So how was your party?” Pinkie asked, while bouncing around Twilight. “It was great Pinkie, as usual” Twilight said as she yawned. “But I really need to get some sleep” she said as she was heading off to her room. She passed by Dipper, Mable and Soos who were passed out on the floor with Soos and Mable having frosting all over their muzzles. “Who are these three” Twilight stopped to ask. “Oh these three fillies here, ah saved them the other day, found them snooping around in the Everfree about to be attacked by TimberWolves” AppleJack said. “Do you know where they came from? Where their parents could be?” Twilight asked only for AJ to shake her head. “Ah be lying if I said ah did” AJ replied. Just as Twilight was about to ask another question, Dipper began to wake up, upon seeing the purple unicorn he immediately jumped up and ran over to the unicorn, excited to finally be able to ask her help to get home. “I have been waiting to get to meet you,” Dipper said in a haste, “I’ve been told you can help me, my sister and our friend Soos, get back to our home in Gravity Falls.” “Gravity Falls?” Twilight asked puzzled as she levitated several books that displayed locations all throughout Equestria. She began to scroll through the books until she found one that displayed a map showing the entire overworld of Equestria, but she did not see any place called ‘Gravity Falls’. “I’m sorry but I don’t see the placed you described anywhere on these maps.” Twilight said. “What!” Dipper said in a worried tone as he grabbed the book and looked over the map several times. He noticed the world layout was completely different to that of the maps he say back in Gravity Falls and all of the places that he saw on the map, he was certain was not places that existed in any maps he saw at the museum or library. “This cannot be” Dipper exclaimed as he pulled out Journal #3 and began to scroll through it. Twilight could only look in confusion as the little filly kept scrolling frantically through his little book. When her eyes caught wind of the 6 fingered hand and #3 on it her eyes went wide. The Journal was not providing Dipper with the info he needed, he groaned and sat down with a depressed look on his face. “Are you alright?” Twilight finally asked snapping out of her stupor. “If it will make you fill any better, the map in that book is only a compressed version and does not contain all locations in the world, I could return to Canterlot tomorrow to see if the princess has a more complete version of the world map.” “It won’t do any good” Dipper said, with a bit of distraught in his voice. “Why won’t it” Rainbow Dash asked, slightly confused by the situation. Dipper bit his lip as he was not sure if he should tell them about what he just figured out, as he was afraid they would not believe him, but he had little options, himself, Mable and Soos needed to return home and these ponies were the only ones that could help him find some way. “Because Gravity Falls doesn’t exist in this dimension” Dipper finally said. “WHAT!” All the ponies exclaimed in shock, as they took in what Dipper just said. Mable and Soos was now awake, startled and awoken by the sudden scream. “What’s going on” Mable asked drearily. “Your brother believes that you home exist in another dimension, which is not possible as that would mean you three had to have come from another dimension as well.” Twilight said. “I am serious” Dipper shouted, “Me, Mable and Soos came from another dimension, at first I had though we only teleported here but now I know that machine must have brought us to another world.” “Um..what now?” Twilight asked, still confused as to what the filly was saying. “Um can you excuse me and my brother for a sec?” Mable asked quickly as she pulled Dipper to the side. “What are you doing?” she asked in a whispered tone. “ These ponies might be our only way home and I just found out, Gravity Falls is just some hitchhike away, were in another dimension” Dipper whispered back. Mable went silent then sighed and made a nodding motion, indicating for Dipper to tell them. Dipper turned back to Twilight and the others and began to explain what happened before Apple Jack saved them from the Timber Wolves. “It was the middle of the night when our Great Uncle Stan had decided to leave the Mystery Shack and went out for a drive, of course this behavior was normal for our uncle so we did not think any about it at the time. The next morning however I went to go get our uncle to make breakfast when I saw the vending machine in the middle of our gift shop was now leaning wide open like a door revealing a flight of stair leading to a secret room. After getting Soos and my sister, we investigated the room, only to find it was a small lab located under our uncle’s museum. We walked through it until we found a door leading to a much bigger room, inside we found a huge triangle shaped device with a large circle in the center and some weird text written around the circle. Soos accidentally hit a lever nearby and the machine and it started up, there was a blinding white light as a powerful force began to pull us toward the center of the triangle. The next thing we knew we woke up in the middle of that strange forest and was chased by this pack of wooden wolves. The rest is you all know” Dipper confessed. Twilight looked at her friends who were rather confused and shocked by the little colts story, on one hand it felt a little farfetched that this story wasn’t something the little colt made up, on the other hand however, it is just as unlikely the fillies got lost in the Everfree Forest near Ponyville when this Gravity Falls is likely somewhere far beyond Equestria, far too far for 3 fillies to have wondered all the way to Ponyville. Twilight was about to speak when Apple Jack spoke up. “It’s not that we don’t want to believe ya, Dipper…it’s just that story is a little hard to believe.” Apple Jack replied honestly. “But it’s true” Dipper said as he held the journal open up to Twilight revealing the contents inside. He scrolled to a page that showed a mini map of Gravity Falls. Twilight was surprised by this book even more so do to the fact this info confirms her suspicions about the book. AppleJack looks sheepishly at Twilight, hoping she has an answer for this. Twilight sighed and looked at Dipper and began to speak. “Look, this info is hard to believe as many books I possess that talks about dimension jumping is nothing but science fiction and would be impossible for a normal unicorn to pull off..” Twilight was cut off looking at the sadden look of the young fillies. “But” Twilight continued. “If you will be willing to let me borrow your journals, I might be able to study them and find some way to send you home, I mean if what you said is true and this book hold secrets from your dimension, it may hold a way to return you home.” Dipper was very reluctant to just hand over the journals, while these ponies have proven, not to be a threat and are rather friendly, Dipper just had to many bad experiences letting other creatures besides his family touch the journals, but her logic is sound, if there is any way to send them home then the journals may hold the answer. “Ok I will lend them to you but I really want them back when you find something” Dipper said as he handed over the first journal. “I promise I will” Twilight said. Dipper handed her another journal with a # 1 engraved on it, and as he reached in his coat to get the last journal, he froze as he felt nothing in his vest pocket. He began to dig deeper in his vest until deciding to take it off all together and frantically shaking it in desperation to find a journal that was no longer there. When Journal #2 did not appear, Dipper began to panic, he had lost one of the journals in this new world anyone (or in Dippers case anypony) could have just waltzed by and picked up the journal and walked off and Dipper would have no clues as to which pony did so. “No no no no no no this can’t be happening” Dipper screamed out. “Dipper calm down, I am sure you can find your bo…” Was all Twilight managed to say before the door of her library slammed open and three frantic little fillies rushed inside. Applebloom was the first of the fillies to speak, while the others were still catching their bearings. “Twilight, Twilight” the little filly exclaimed. “We did something awful” Applebloom admitted. “Girls calm down, and calmly tell me what happened” Twilight said Before Applebloom could answer, AppleJack interrupted. “Where in tarnation have you fillies been” AppleJack said with a stern look. “Ah was about to come looking for you three” Applebloom looked up nervously at her sister, scared to tell her the truth, but she is aware of the gravitation of what her and her friends did, she has to warn Twilight and the others. “We were in the Everfree Forest” AppleJack spoke up only to get gasps from the other ponies. “Why were ya’ll in the Everfree, didn’t I tell you never to go there without supervision” AppleJacked scolded her little sister. “Yeah you did, but we went there trying to get our cutiemarks in monster hunting, using this journal” Sweetiebelle said pulling out a worn out red journal baring a six fingered hand with the number 2 imprinted in the middle of the hand. “Hey that’s my journal” Dipper exclaimed before snatching the journal from Sweetiebelle. “What were you girls doing with his journal, and how was it going to help you monster hunt” Twilight asked. “Ooo maybe the journal has magical monster locating powers” Pinkie Pie said in an eerie tone. “Don’t be ridiculous” Rainbow said. “A book can’t locate monsters, that’s just absurd” “It’s true, that journal is filled with different monsters and how to summon them, and we made the mistake of summoning one” Applebloom said catching the attention of Dipper, Mable and Soos. “Wh-who d…did you summon” Dipper asked only for AppleJack to interrupt the conversation. “Ah don’t wana here anymore of this monster nonsense” Applejack said. “Ya’ll went into the Everfree Forest without anypony being there to insure you were safe and you took one of Dippers journals without his permission, I otta ground all three of ya, but I’m going to make ya’ll work on my farm all day tomorrow as punishment.” AppleJack warned. “But” Applebloom said, but was cut off by AJ. “No ‘buts’ ah want ya’ll to apologize to Dipper and then I am taking you three home, it is way past your bed times. Sighing in defeat, the three fillies apologized to Dipper before AppleJack lead the little fillies out, turning to inform Dipper not to stay to much longer and to return to the farm. As AppleJack left, Dipper couldn’t help but feel a bit worried that Applebloom and her friends actually summoned something, but seeing how nothing has happened yet, Dipper was skeptical but he was going to question Applebloom on this later. He turned to Twilight and handed the final journal to her, hoping that the three journals possessed some means to return them home before himself, Soos and his sister said their goodbyes and left the library so they could catch up to AppleJack. After everypony had left, Twilight gathered the three journals and frantically ran to her desk. She laid the journals on the desk before walking over to her bed side cabinet and pushing it aside, revealing a secret hatch. Upon opening the hatch, it revealed as small metal box with a key attached to the side of it. Twilight lifted the box out and carried it to her desk before informing Spike that she would be up late studying and told him to go to bed in which he complied. After insuring he was asleep, Twilight returned to her desk and used the key to open the metal container, inside was a worn out red book that she immediately pulled out and placed next to the other journals, after blowing off some dust it revealed that the book had the same kind of six fingered hand symbol the other journals had only the number that was imprinted on this book was number 4. Twilight could not hold back her excitement, this could answer so many of her questions but it also revealed some new ones. Twilight looked at the 4 journals, “Finally, maybe I’ll be able to solve this mystery” Twilight said as she opened the first page of Journal #1.