New Surroundings

by Silver Rush

Introduction

Author's Note:

I'm looking for critical feedback on this. I want to know what people think of this story. If you like this and are interested so far, great! If you didn't like this, please tell me what I can do differently.

This story revolves around a teen-aged boy named Ben. He was a semi-ordinary kid in high school. He was fairly quiet, he got good grades, he hung out with friends every other weekend to play D&D (where he played the part of Dungeon Master), and he always did right by his friends. His best friend was a girl, Audra, who was almost the polar opposite to him. She was chatty and outgoing, was an A-B student, and admitted herself on at least one occasion to be a bit of an butt.

But our story doesn’t begin with them. Our story starts in Equestria, at the castle of Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight had been thinking about Canterlot High again. She kept thinking about her friends there and how drastically different their world was from hers. She just had this weird feeling that she couldn’t shake, but she couldn’t put her hoof on it. Then it clicked for her; if Equestria and Canterlot High, two completely separate worlds, existed simultaneously, could other worlds exist? It was there that Twilight Sparkle set out to find the answer to that question.

She first started with the magic mirror. She knew it was a link between Equestria and the human world where Canterlot High resided. But what type of magic was used to create that link and maintain it? She poured through her library, searching for an answer to that question. It was only after visiting the Star Swirl the Bearded section in the Canterlot Library that she found the answer she was looking for.

Star Swirl had traveled to many worlds using the mirror, as a matter of fact. However, according to her research, he had locked the portal to a single world, hence why it now only allowed for travel between Equestria and Canterlot High. The spell he used to manipulate the portal was missing as well, but, after working tirelessly for several weeks, Twilight had managed to piece together the spell she needed to unlock the portal. Now she stood before it with her friends; Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Spike, she wanted all of them to be there for this moment.

“Why, exactly, are you doing this again?” asked Fluttershy, slightly nervous as to what Twilight was about to attempt.

“Just imagine the possibilities,” responded Twilight. Her horn lit up and a book levitated over from the far wall and opened to the Mane 6. “Star Swirl the Bearded spent years travelling to different worlds, trying to catalog as many as possible. But even he admitted that there may be too many worlds to count.”

“That really doesn’t answer my question,” said Fluttershy.

“I’d go with Fluttershy on this one,” said Applejack. “What’s the point of all this?”

Twilight actually wasn’t sure of the answer to this. “I guess I just want to see what all these other worlds are like,” she said finally.

“That kind of curiosity can be dangerous,” said Rainbow Dash. “I am so up for this!”

“There could be an infinite number of ice cream flavors!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie, seeming elated at Twilight’s idea.

“There could also be an infinite number of Pinkie Pies for all we know,” said Rarity. “We already had to deal with that situation once.”

“Yeah, who knows what’s on the other side of that portal?” said Spike, stepping forward to Twilight. “There could be anything!”

“There must be something,” said Twilight. “Everypony, I just need you to trust me on this. Even if curiosity brings trouble with it, I know we can handle it together. So what do you say?” The others huddled together for a moment, mumbling with the occasional exclamation from one or the other. Finally they all broke the circle.

“Let’s flip the switch,” Spike said with a smile. Clearly curiosity had him and the others as well. At this, Twilight Sparkle turned to the mirror and the mechanism holding it, her horn glowing with the magic to travel across worlds.

Ben sat on his couch next to the television, staring at a blank document open on his laptop. His open tabs included Google Drive and various chat rooms for fans of MLP. It was on Earth, our original, genuine, bonafide Earth, that he resided. The TV he had on, but was barely listening to at the moment, was currently on Netflix, playing the show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. His best friend Audra sat on the other side of the couch, having been the one who introduced the show to him. Her eyes were shifting from the look of concentration on Ben's face to the cartoon on screen.

“What’re you working on there, bae?” Audra said teasingly.

“Stuff,” he replied, rubbing his eyes after staring at his computer screen for so long.

“Dude,” she said, “you’re watching MLP on Netflix, browsing MLP chat rooms, and writing MLP fan fiction on your laptop, and you still don’t acknowledge the fact you’ve become a Brony. Just embrace it, man.”

Ben pulled the screen of his laptop down. “You got two out of three,” he reposted. “I may be watching the show and hanging out in chat rooms, but the Google Doc is completely blank.”

“Why is that?”

“Writer’s block maybe? I don’t know.” Ben shut his laptop completely and hit the pause button on the TV remote. “I’ll be right back,” he said, standing and walking across the room towards the back of the house. He was originally headed for the bathroom, but he stopped before reaching it and instead stood in front of the full-length mirror in the hallway. His bookbag sat next to his bedroom door next to the mirror, haphazardly flung to the side the previous Friday. He looked at the mirror closely. He thought that he’d seen something in or on the mirror, something almost resembling a ripple in water.

“Ben,” Audra called down the hallway for him, “what are you looking at?”

“I could’ve sworn…” Ben mumbled to himself. He shook his head, pushing the thought aside. “It’s nothing,” he yelled back to Audra. “Just thought I saw something weird in the…”

This last part was cut off by the sudden opening of the massive portal in front of Ben. It radiated pink and purple, blinding Ben momentarily and forcing him to shield his eyes from the light. He felt his feet slipping, but before he could react, he lost his balance and toppled over. The portal acted like a vortex, drawing Ben into it. His first instinct was to grab onto the nearest object to try and stop himself, which turned out to be his backpack and didn’t help his current situation.

“Ben!” Audra yelled from the other end of the hallway. She bolted down the hallway toward him. By the time she reached him, he was halfway through the portal and quickly disappearing through it. Audra grabbed at Ben, merely catching the same bookbag he’d been able to grab. She pulled with all her might in vain, but soon she lost her balance as well, the both of them being pulled into the massive wormhole. As soon as they passed through the threshold, the portal closed behind them, disappearing as quickly as it came.

Comments

[RainbowCoolDash Pariah]

Do more please.