Across The Pond

by Aurora Aura

Chapter 1: A Divergent Path

Summer was sliding into Autumn as lush green gave way to warm hues, it was the kind of day that seemed to only exist in stories. The air was warm from the summer sun and yet the pleasant breeze made today the perfect day to take walks and have picnics and all the other things ponies do on these days.

However, Twilight Sparkle was not taking part in any of that. Despite the beauty of the day it seemed all of her friends, including herself, were busy. Her excitable pegasus friend Rainbow Dash had taken to training pretty hard with quick mention of the Wonderbolts Academy as brief explanation. After the wedding of Princess Cadence and Shining Armor, Twilight’s older brother, Rarity had gotten a bit of notoriety and was receiving more orders than usual. Nothing she couldn’t handle but she kept busy. With the onset of fall Fluttershy had been helping her animals gather food for the coming hibernation months. It was also the time of the last harvest for the crops of Sweet Apple Acres and the Apple family had been quite busy with this years harvest. Pinkie Pie was more readily accessible than any of them and even she had been spending a lot of time helping the cakes even more than she had been.

Twilight didn’t mind that her friends were busy though, she herself had been working on her magic and that itself required much concentration. Specifically, she had been learning to extend her reach in teleportation. She had been getting better but she wanted to extend her reach all the way to the national capital of Canterlot from her home in Ponyville. She had gotten up early but decided to take a mental break and read a little before starting her busy day. She had already learned what spending too much time non stop in something did to her and she didn't want to mess up something this important.

Twilight had decided to wait for her number one assistant Spike to wake up so she could tell him personally that she'd be running around for the day. So the bookwormish purple unicorn sat in the large sitting room by the front door in her home. She lived within a large, hollowed out tree that doubled as the town library so she busied herself in her copy of "Daring-Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone" while she waited for her young dragon assistant to wake up.

She was reading for nearly an hour before she heard the sound of little claws on wood and Spike made his way downstairs. She was surprised he was getting up before the sun was already high overhead without prompting. Twilight immediately bookmarked her page and put the book aside.

"Good morning spike, you're up early," she pleasantly said.

"Morning Twilight, and you're one to talk," he snapped back.

"I was waiting for you to get up," Twilight answered by way of response. "And what has you so upset?"

"Because the sun is cruel. Maybe you can get Celestia to start raising the sun in the west, at least on the weekends." Spike paused for a moment to let Twilight explain why she was waiting for him. When she didn't he asked "So why were you waiting?"

"I'm glad you asked Spike," Twilight said as she stood up and merrily trotted up to him at the bottom of the stairs. "I'm going to be teleporting a lot today. I'll start off just going around town as a kind of warm up but towards the end I'll be teleporting to Canterlot and-"

"All the way to Canterlot!" Spike interjected.

"Yes, and I'm surprising Princess Celestia with it. I wanted to tell you so you didn't freak out when I was gone all day and didn't come home. I trust you here by yourself Spike. I should be back about noon tomorrow but I'm going to spend as much time as I can talking with the princess about it so maybe a little later. Definitely diner by the latest."

"Unless you send a letter?" Spike asked, crossing his arms but smiling nonetheless.

"Yup," Twilight responded, returning the smile. "See you later Spike."

"Bye Twilight."

And with that Twilight blinked away in a flash of light. Suddenly before her eyes was the city of Ponyville from the town's bell tower. Out in the distance she watched as the brilliant ball of golden light splashed the clouds with rays of pink and orange. After the spectacle had ended she teleported to Sugarcube Corner for a quick breakfast and to talk with Pinkie Pie. Despite their busy schedules all of them tried to talk as much as possible.

Another bright flash of light and Twilight as outside the front door to Sugarcube Corner watching as Mr. Cake turned the door sigh around, signifying they were now open. Twilight opened the door to the noticeably startled Mr. Cake.

"My miss Twilight, you nearly gave me a heart attack."

Twilight blushed sheepishly. "Sorry about that. Just came by for a quick bite to eat and to say hello to Pinkie Pie."

"Sorry Twilight, she left with the misses to a bake-off in Fillydelphia yesterday. I would have gone instead but they'll be gone all week and one of us needed to stay behind and watch little pumpkin and pound," Mr. Cake informed her.

"That makes sense," Twilight said. "Well can I get a muffin to go then?"

"Any particular flavor?"

"It doesn't matter, I've yet to get something here that didn't taste great," Twilight told the now blushing Mr. Cake as he put a fresh blueberry muffin in a paper bag and passed it over to Twilight.

"Well thank you for saying so."

"It's the truth," Twilight told him. "Talk to you later Mr. Cake."

Another flash and Twilight was next to a bench in the town park. Twilight sat and ate her muffin as she watched some ducks splash around in the creek water. After she finished her breakfast she began her day of teleporting. She resolved to see all of her friends she could. She didn't know Pinkie Pie was going to be out of town and decided that was unacceptable. First she went to Fluttershy's cottage and helped pass out breakfast for her animals. After they fed the animals the two mares talked for a few hours before Twilight decided to move on.

It was nearing noon so in a flash Twilight was outside the Carousel Boutique and began knocking on the front door. After about a minute a slightly frazzled Rarity opened the door.

"I thought you could use a break. Want to get lunch?" Twilight asked.

"I'd love to darling, let me freshen up a tad before we head off though. Come in, please," Rarity said as she walked back inside. Twilight followed and sat in the open foyer of Rarity's home.

As Rarity walked up Sweetie Belle came running down the stairs asking if the door was for her. After Rarity informed her little sister that it was Twilight the filly seemed to deflate. Twilight idly wondered what the trio of fillies were up to while she waited for Rarity. Rarity came down after about fifteen minutes and they went out to Rarity's favorite restaurant. Twilight was fairly fond of their food as well. They both settled on a daisy sandwich and talked about Rarity's work. Periodically Twilight would ask a question but otherwise let Rarity take the lead. Twilight wasn't nearly as into the fashion scene as Rarity was but Twilight loved it when ponies were passionate about things and passionate was probably the only word she could use to describe Rarity's affinity for fashion.

They stayed long after they finished their meals but eventually Rarity said she had to get back to her work and Twilight walked with Rarity back to her house. Once they had said their goodbyes Twilight set off to find Rainbow Dash. Knowing Rainbow would be training she went first to the field outside of town where Rainbow liked to practice. Rainbow Dash said she liked it because of the open space but given that is was as close as possible to town as she was allowed to practice Twilight suspected there might be another reason but Twilight never voiced it. Rainbow Dash was more than deserving of a few spectators and that's just what she found when the flash of light from her teleportation dissipated.

High above the fields Rainbow Dash was soaring through the clouds and slicing the air as she performed all the tricks in her book and some she had yet to fully perfect. Much to the delight of the small crowd that had gathered to watch her. Twilight joined the crowd and watched on in awe as Rainbow Dash raced towards the ground only to pull out of the dive in the last possible second. The stunts continued for several hours and Twilight just sat and cheered when appropriate. About halfway through Rainbow consciously realized Twilight had joined the crowed and spun through the clouds until she had spelled out the words "Hi Twilight" and looped around the words a few times for good measure.

When the sun started to inch it's way towards the horizon Rainbow Dash landed to properly greet Twilight.

"Hey Twi, what's up?"

"You're getting really good Rainbow Dash, that was amazing."

Rainbow Dash blushed a little but quickly got over it and said "Of course I am. I'm training for the Wonderbolt's Academy. Applications are due in another month or so and we have to send in flight times and a bunch of other stuff. Can't be behind anyone. If I want to stick out I have to be the best."

"Well good luck Rainbow Dash," Twilight said with a smile. "I have to get going though. I still have to meet with Applejack and then I'm heading off for Canterlot."

"Why are you heading out to Canterlot?" Rainbow Dash asked her.

"I'm teleporting there, and the reason is to see if I can."

"Wow, that's a good bit away Twi," Rainbow Dash said, sounding impressed. "You know, you're pretty awesome yourself Twilight."

"Thanks Rainbow, I'll talk to you later."

"Later Twilight," Rainbow Dash said as a flash of light enveloped Twilight.

A moment later Twilight was breathing in the rustic smell of Sweet Apple Acres. As Twilight walk the path up to her friend's barn she saw Applejack and Big Macintosh were putting away their farming equipment for the day and trotted up beside them.

"Hello Applejack, Big Macintosh," Twilight greeted.

"Well howdy there Twi', What brings ya to our neck of the woods?" Applejack asked as Big Macintosh nodded in Twilight's direction as acknowledgement before walking away to get more of their field supplies put away.

"Just stopping by to say hi before I head off to Canterlot."

"Ya sure you ain't gonna miss your train?" Applejack asked, looking up at the fading light in the sky.

"It's fine Applejack, I'm teleporting to Canterlot. Been practicing all day and I'm sure I can do it."

"Well I guess ya are the element of magic. Still, don't that seem a might far? Not that ya can't do it but should ya?"

"I was worried about that too Applejack. But I've asked the guards clear out the gardens around sunset. Didn't tell them why but they said they'd take care of it for me."

"Well, if ya have it figured out. Good luck Twi' but ah' gotta finish helping Big Mac, talk to ya later," Applejack said as she started rushing over to help big mac with a particularly large load of apples he was having trouble dragging up the hill to their barn.

"Bye Applejack, I'll see you when I get back," and with that Twilight sat down and closed her eyes.

She began to focus all her energy. Focusing in on the Canterlot garden was first but she also had to focus on where she was in relation to it. Little identifiable landmarks like that old tree that seemed to have been there since Celestia was a filly, the bench right under that tree that she had shared with Celestia when Twilight had lived in Canterlot and, obviously, the castle itself. Twilight had began to sweat a little but forced her willpower to focus on the direction as much as she could. She clenched her teeth and in a brilliant display of light she was gone.

The moment Sweet Apple Acres blinked from Twilight Sparkle’s vision the only sensation she felt was falling. Though the sensation was short lived as the rushing winds from the fall quickly become icy water, and salt water at that. She figured that out after accidentally inhaling a good mouthful of it. Twilight was kicking about in the water, coughing up a lung and trying not to drown. Twilight was never a weak swimmer, she wouldn’t call herself a strong swimmer either but she was decent. She just hasn’t gone swimming since she was a little filly though she had recently read a book on swimming techniques.

She recovered from the initial shock of the cold water fairly quickly. Though what slowed her down was the unusually bright light from her spell. Twilight began teleporting ten to fifteen feet in random directions to get out of the water, each time falling into the salty waters again. Darkness was taking over the sky and if Twilight could have seen what way she needed to teleport she couldn’t now that she was freshly blinded.

AS the blotches faded from her vision she began to spin around in the water trying to find any sort of land but still saw nothing. She opted to stay put and tread water until her eyes had adjusted to the oncoming darkness and she could properly see. She knew that if started swimming in the wrong direction things might just go from bad to worse. With that in mind she shot a light beacon spell into the air and she just waited, wondering what had gone wrong.

Her limbs were getting tired now and while her eyes had adjusted nearly ten minutes ago she still couldn't see land in any direction. She have no way of knowing how much time has passed while she waited but to her it felt like hours. She was feeling weak now. The cold waters had long since chilled her limbs into clumsy numbness but now it was just an overall weakness. Twilight was losing a mental battle with the ocean and it hurt to continue to fight the waters. She start to slip below the water. Not immediately, but over the next few minutes. She’d fall a few inches then fight her way back up, She’d fall a few more inches and fail to fight all the way back up.

It was a give and take and the ocean was definitely taking more. A particularly large wave hit her like a ton of bricks and sent Twilight below the waters. She couldn’t breath and worse, every fiber of my being screamed, begged for that precious air. To just take in a breath. She wasn’t strong enough to fight her way back up but she needed to breath, She had to. So She did.

It didn’t make everything worse like Twilight imagined it would. Instead she felt this strange serenity, all the fear escaping her body leaving only peace as the water filled her lungs. She began to lose herself to it. Suddenly Twilight wasn’t even cold anymore as the darkness slowly took over her body until it swallowed her whole and there was only the blackness.

Comments

[North Dakota]

Please keep doing this

[Tits and shit]

This need some serious work! Please find a editor it really needs one.... Have a good day!

[NightmareKnight]

Well I enjoyed chapter one of the revamped version, though I did notice a couple errors here and there. If you're interested, I could edit for you and clean up those nasty little errors.

[EJSuperStar]

Great work :) I found this when looking on the similar of the Skyrim mlp fan fic im writing (its not done, and not even uploaded yet)

Edit: its uploaded now :D