The room was dark and filled to the brim with books, papers, and scattered office items. At first glance one could tell someone had been doing some hardcore research work on the place. Sticking near a wall seemed to be a large round object, covered completely by a mantle.
Some muffled noises could be heard from upstairs, and then a door opened with a loud creak, letting in some light from the room above. The noises then became more clear voices, which echoed in the room as they carried on their conversation.
“Yo, Sky, did you bring everything we need?” inquired a unicorn mare with a light yellow cloak and light blue mane and eyes, who was carrying saddle bags filled with rolled scrolls, which almost hid her cutie mark, depicting a crescent moon with mist stripes covering it.
“I…think I…do indeed, Misty.” replied a unicorn stallion with a blue coat, white mane and yellow eyes, as he struggled to carefully place down the seemingly heavy bag he brought with him, opening it to make sure about the items it contained. The bag was covering his cutie mark, consisting of a shining sun barely hidden by a cloud.
Misty brought out a scroll from the bunch on her bag and unrolled it, then brought a quill as well, and began to check the items on the scroll as the stallion brought them out one by one.
“Do you think it will work this time, sis?“ wondered Sky as he began to arrange the several objects from the bag in a classification only the two of them seemed to understand.
“Oh, it better does!” she replied in a sunny tone, putting down the list and helping Sky with the items. “We’ve been researching this thing for months now; it would all go to waste if we stopped now anyway!”
“That IS true I guess…” Sky continued. “Still, you’d think this kind of thing would be sort of…unstable.” he said with a worried tone, as he began to walk towards the large round object and reached for the mantle covering it, ready to take it off.
Misty gave him a gentle nudge on the side. “Hey. We will make this thing work, just like we did with all our previous inventions!”
Sky shuddered at first, thinking of the duo’s previous creations, having flashbacks of the countless failures they ended up as at first, with their fair share of explosions. Then he shook those thoughts away, as he smiled and remembered that they, indeed, ended up working just as intended.
“You are right, sis!” he nodded at her. “We can’t give this one up either! It might as well be the GREATEST of our inventions so far!” he claimed as he held a hoof up high, with a smile and sparkles on his eyes, as he took off the mantle off.
Standing in front of them was a large metallic structure composed of a round hollow part connected to a flat platform, and what seemed like an incomplete control panel on a side of the structure.
“Well, we better get to work then~!” Misty chanted happily as she began to bring the objects they had arranged before.
“Sure thing! This thing won’t make itself work after all!” he said as well, bringing their tools with his magic.
There were tools scattered all over the floor, as well as smaller pieces: bolts, nuts, screws and cables. The hours had passed, but the hard work and concentration kept the duo distracted enough to notice the clock on one of the walls nearby, as well as the light of dawn coming into the room from the single window in the room.
After a long night of putting everything together, the siblings stood next to each other, with sweat in their foreheads and bags under their eyes. It was like this every time they came up with an invention that they were sure would amaze the masses and make their lives easier. Many had already told them they had a promising future in engineering and similar careers, and they certainly looked forward to it. In the meantime, their minds would constantly come up with new ideas.
But none like this one so far.
They stared at the product of their arduous work, with sparkles in their tired eyes. The machine lied there staring back at them, almost like calling to them.
“…think it’s ready then?” Sky said, stretching out a bit.
“After all those all-nighters? It BETTER be ready for us!” Misty replied, letting out a long yawn.
They continued to stare at their new creation for a few more moments before the two of them just plopped in the floor, finally getting some rest.
Just as they did, another unicorn stallion walked downstairs, calling to his younger siblings. His coat was of a light gray color, a combed back short black mane, dark purple eyes and a trimmed beard. His cutie mark seemed to represent the bright morning sun rising out of a hill.
“Hey, Misty, Sky, breakfast is re-”
As he was speaking, he noticed the brothers were sleeping soundly on the floor, the blue stallion letting out small bubbles out his snout, and the mare letting out cute snores.
He couldn’t help but smile at the scene, as he kept walking downstairs, bringing a couple of mantles with him.
“Every time.” He chuckled to himself as he covered his siblings with the mantles, before taking a gander at the device they had spent the last night working on.
“Here’s hoping that thing doesn’t explode this time.” he whispered as if the other two could listen to him at the moment. After staring at the machine for a little while, he looked back at them as they snuggled on their covers.
“You two are going to go the distance.” he whispered to them this time. “Even if I don’t fully understand your devices and way of thinking most of the time, I just know your passion for your creations will take you far and wide. I just couldn’t ask for better brothers.”
“I still wish you didn’t have to pull all nighters every single time, but I guess I can’t blame you.” he finished with a chuckle as he walked back upstairs, leaving them to a well deserved rest.
“Project log, item #264, date is…September 27…place of origin…Stella…destination…yet unknown…making final preparations…”
It was night time once again, and the inventors were up again, ready to give their newest creation a test ride. Misty was recording the necessary information on their diary, and Sky was making the final arrangements on the device. As usual, they asked their elder brother, Bright Dawn, to be there for the test as a witness. It was how he was used to see their stuff exploding quite a few times in the past.
This particular case, however, had him a bit more worried than usual, as his younger siblings had done a very basic explanation of what their new device was supposed to do. It was revolutionary compared to their previous creations, indeed, but also seemed to carry some yet untold risks than the past artifacts didn’t really bring.
For safety’s sake, he felt compelled to ask them one more time.
“So…tell me again, what’s this thing supposed to do?”
“We’ve told you a hundred times already!” his sister sighed, putting down her tools for a moment as her other brother continued with his side of the preparations.
“But! You’ll be our witness this time too, so it’s only fair that you fully know what’s going to happen!” she sang in her usual cheerful voice as she looked up at her elder brother.
“Basically, this machine will allow us to visit places that no one else has seen before! Isn’t that neat?” the mare finished with a radiant smile in her face.
While the idea of discovering and exploring new worlds certainly was revolutionary, Bright still had his fair share of worries. What would they find on the other side? Would it be safe? Would they really be ok?
He decided to direct his next question to his younger brother, who was still making some last minute arrangements to the device.
“Where would you be going, exactly? And how do you know it’s safe?” he asked, with a clearly preoccupied tone on his voice.
Sky stopped for a moment, smiled at his brother, and turned around again, pressing some buttons on the machine’s console. As he finished the sequence, the machine hummed and lighted up, slowly showing what seemed like a mirror-like portal in the center of the large round part of the contraption. The “mirror”, afterwards, began to show an image on it, blurry at first, but it slowly became clearer, now showing what looked like a futuristic-like citadel, apparently seen from inside a cave, in a far away hill.
Bright was amazed at the sight in front of him. To be able to visualize such an alternate world was already quite the progress, and his brothers were about to step into it.
It was then that a couple more questions popped in his head.
“Wait, so you are 100% sure this…portal, will get you into that world. But how do you plan on coming back? And how long will you be gone?”
Sky smiled at him. “We already planned that. As it is right now, the portal is, indeed, one way only. However, on our previous tests, we had already been sending some pieces and tools in there, so the very first thing we are going to do once we are on the other side ourselves is to set up another platform similar to this one, though maybe less bulky, and work on stabilizing the portal so it should allow us to travel safely back and forth.”
“As for how long we will be gone…” Misty continued. “Since we already arranged the schematics for this device, it shouldn’t take us too long to prepare the platform on the other side. All things considered, it should take us about…3 days tops?” she wondered, looking at Sky, to which he replied by nodding.
“We will return immediately after we have secured the second platform in the other world.” He continued. “It’s a promise. So don’t worry and just wait for us.”
“Yep!” Misty said with a smile. “We’ll be back before you realize, so you better have some snacks ready to celebrate!” she chuckled, pointing her hoof playfully at Bright.
“Alright then, it’s not like I could stop you now, even if I tried.” he replied with a nod.
Misty and Sky nodded back at him with a smile before picking up their saddle bags with their tools in them, and a pair of carts with more pieces as well. They turned around one more time, still smiling, and waved at their brother.
“We’ll be right back!” They said, taking a deep breath and letting out heavy sighs as they stepped into the portal, towards a new and fantastic world, as Bright waved back at them, wishing them good luck and a swift return.
It had been almost 2 weeks since his brothers used their portal, and ever since then, nothing. Bright would come by the room every single day, expecting them to be just sleeping in the floor, but they were never there. He was at the edge of his nerves.
“…Come on guys…” he sighed as he once again entered the room. He began to look meticulously through the room, hoping to find them sleeping under a pile of papers or something, but still nothing. He then walked towards the machine, and looked through the controls.
While he wasn’t as gifted as his brothers with technology, they still had looked up to him on that regard. He had some knowledge about it in general, though nothing as advanced as this device. Still, he was desperate enough to try to figure it out.
“Let’s see…I should be able to, at least, get this thing running, and then…” he whispered to himself as he tampered with the controls, the machine buzzing out with life once more, after those long weeks.
After nearly half an hour of attempting to configure the device, the portal once again opened. The image on it began distorted, just like before, but after a short while, it shifted into a clearer form. This time, however, instead of showing a futuristic landscape, it showed something different. Something resembling a castle on the side of a mountain…
Bright looked at the portal for a few moments, aware of the difference, and thus unsure if he was desperate enough to give it a try himself. He shook his head, knowing that his brothers’ life could be at stake, and he decided. He rushed to grab his saddle bag and pick up all the things he felt would be of use on his travel. When he was done, he gave the notes on a table nearby another look.
“INTERDIMENSIONAL PORTAL – EXPERIMENTAL
Created and manufactured by Misty Evening and Midday Sky”
It was then that he noticed a little note scribbled on the side.
“This one’s for you, our Bright bro!”
“…I’m bringing you guys back home, I promise.” Bright Dawn whispered to himself, as he looked up, took a deep breath, and jumped into the portal himself, and into the unknown.