The Power of Portals

by Flames173

Chapter 12

Luke and Twilight were sifting through countless pieces of paper, all notes and info about different inventions, most for the portal box. Fluttershy was sitting in the corner, watching very intently.

"Fluttershy, you sure you don't want me to get you a video game or something to play while we do this?" Luke asked, stopping his so far fruitless search temporarily.

"No, I'm ok, thanks though." she said.

"All right." Luke looked back at the paper in his hand. "I found it!" he exclaimed. "This paper is it!" he quickly looked it over again.

"So, what's wrong with the thing?" Twilight asked.

"It's solar powered. It must have been in the basement too long while we were in Equestria." Luke said.

"Ok, I can create a small solar blast that should be large enough to power it up."

"How? You don't have your magic anymore." Luke pointed out.

"Duh, Archicolties's death laser."

"You mean Archimedes's?"

"No, Archicolties. Whatever, the name doesn't matter! Just, get me some mirrors!"

***

After a few minutes of searching and placing mirrors just right, the two geniuses recreated the death laser and they charged the machine. Luke pressed the button, after carefully disassembling the laser, to recreate the portal, and it worked! The swirling orange vortex floated in front of them.

"Ladies first." Luke said, gesturing at the portal.

"Such a gentlecolt." Twilight said as she went through the portal, Luke following just behind. The portal shivered then shut after they passed through, trapping Fluttershy in Joe's parent's basement, alone, besides obviously the stairs, but that would take a lot of explaining if she were caught.

***

Jodi and I were still going through the castle. I began to realize that all of the guards appeared to be perfect replicas of each other, and they walked, perfectly in sync, at the same cadence as each other. I stopped her when another group of guards passed. I did a series of hoof signals to tell her something.

"What?" she asked.

I grabbed my ear and pulled down slightly.

"What are you saying?" she asked.

"Those guards, they're exactly like each other and timed perfectly too. Also, this," I tugged my ear again "means be quiet." I whispered.

"How should I know that? I don't know sign language!" Jodi whispered back.

"It's not sign language, it's military hand signals. They were used so the-"

"I don't care, just, what is your point in telling me they were exactly the same?"

"Wait, did you guys hear something?" One of the guards asked, stopping the patrol in their tracks.

"Yeah, I did, I just thought I was hearing things." Another guard said. The third looked around the hall.

"Shh." I put my hoof to Jodi's mouth and pushed the two of us back into the shadows. I pulled the flimsy fabric of my costume above my eyes, making myself completely invisible.

"It was probably nothing." The second guard said.

"Let me do a quick sweep check." The third guard said before his horn glowed and a green beam spun around the area."There's something over there." He said, jabbing a hoof in our direction, his horn glowing again.

"Nah, that's where the castle was damaged, remember? It still needs repairing, that's probably the pile of supplies." The first guard said.

"Oh, right." he laughed. "Then it's clear, let's go guys." he said as the small continued on their path.

I waited a few seconds, just to be sure they were gone before pulling the fabric out of my eyes again. I looked at Jodi and nodded, then we went down the hall again. We passed several other patrols of guards on our journey, but we were careful enough, so none caught us again. While we were walking, there was a door that hadn't been there in the show, and I stopped in front of it.

"What, why did you stop Joe?" Jodi asked.

"This door." I said.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"It's not supposed to be here."

"What do you mean?"

"See that door?" I pointed at the next door over.

"Yeah?"

"That's the door to Celestia's bedroom. That door on the other side is Luna's room. There isn't a door between them in the show."

"So? Maybe the carpenters built it between the last episode and now."

"No, the last episode wasn't that long ago. This door is already dusty and has slight damage from water and overuse like the other doors. There is no way a door that young could look like this." I explained quietly. "Plus, my sixth sense is telling me something is wrong with it." I went up to it and put my face to the floor. I peered under the small crack to see if I could tell what was happening. All I could see were countless hooves and a white stallion lying on the ground, probably injured. I stood up and put my ear on the door. I heard two voices conversing just loud enough for me to hear. One voice was familiar, the other, not so much.

"You won't get away with this." Flash said.

"But you foolish guard, I already have." The unknown voice said. "And there's nothing you, the guards, Chrysalis, or those two stupid pegasi can do about it." Whoever it was laughed evilly. Then there was a loud blast and a thud, I quickly looked through the crack again to see an orange body by the white one.

"Jodi, I think our number 1 suspect is through that door." I said.