Interlude - Letter From Twilight
“Good morning...um, Princess?”
“Good morn to you.”
The maid who had greeted Luna watched her happily gait along the castle hallways, eyebrows raising in surprise at the Princess’ behavior. Normally, such acts of carefreeness would have been far from the Princess of the night’s routine, but she was feeling most pleased, and for once, she didn’t give two flicks of a tail how the staff viewed her.
Last night had been most excellent. The night sky was impeccable, there were many subjects who visited her night court, several amicable deals were negotiated, and, even if it had only been for a moment, she managed to visit her most beloved friend in his slumber. Scruffy had finally worn his amulet at home, and it worked perfectly as a beacon even outside of Ponyville. It allowed Luna to find him in moments. Unfortunately, the moments after had also been the one single detail that which marred the most perfect of nights.
Something in the nightmare she banished struck Luna as strange, although what it was, she didn’t quite know. In the moment before her spell dissipated whatever terror stalked her friend’s dream, Luna felt the ambient magic shift and recede, as if something had left the dream realm.
If only you hadn’t been so hasty, Luna reprimanded herself. When she sensed the nightmare haunting Scruffy, she had made her way to him and planned to deal with it as with any other dreamer she visited. However, this time something was impeding her entry to the dream. It felt as if some force pulled her back, preventing her from helping him. She had to use all her might to force her way in, and once the barrier gave, there was an odd sensation of rapid movement, and she was unceremoniously dumped in the dream. Disoriented, she simply cast her magic to make the nightmare break apart, not even taking a moment to examine it, to allow her friend to return to his rest.
“Pleasant morning, Princess,” a solar guard saluted.
“Morning, sergeant,” Luna curtly nodded.
Once Scruffy was dreaming peacefully again, and she departed his dream, the same feeling of accelerated momentum grabbed her and made her feel adrift, but amidst it she noticed something else. For just a split second, it felt as if there were far more dreamers than normal all around her, but after the strange sensation had passed, she found herself gently floating in the dream realm above Equestria.
“Good morning, Lady Luna.”
“Bright Light,” Luna bowed her head slightly. Bright Light was one of the ponies Luna was immensely grateful had decided to work for the Diarchy. If it wasn’t for her, Raven, and their other aides, Luna feared the Kingdom would have fallen to an avalanche of paperwork a long time ago. “Punctual as ever. It is remarkable how you manage to always arrive here even before my sister.” The yellow earth pony tittered behind her hoof.
“Only when I’m assigned the early morning shift. When I was first starting my job here, one night I couldn’t sleep and decided to come here an hour early. The look on Celestia’s face was priceless when she came in and realized I had already sorted all the paperwork for her in advance. After that, it became a thing between the two of us that I would always be earlier than her when I get this shift.” Bright Light had switched from slight giggling to proper laughter as she recounted the reason behind her early arrivals.
“...” Luna nodded in reply, pondering if this ‘thing’ was something modern ponies did, and if it was something she should be aware of.
“How was your night, Lady Luna?” Bright Light asked, now noticeably closer to Luna than a moment ago.
“It was as we hope each night to be. We managed to fulfill our duties as the Princess of the Night most excellently!” Luna proclaimed with great pride in her voice and her chin held up high. She had gone back to using the ‘royal we’ without noticing. Bright Light gave a small smile, slightly disappointed that the intricacies of small talk still eluded the Princess of the Night.
The two of them made their way to the Princesses’ office, which was located in the east wing of the Royal Castle and away from most of the more publicly available areas. The room lacked the usual decor found in the castle, instead being sparsely furnished with bookshelves, file cabinets, and six desks arranged around the room. The two bigger desks, incidentally also sporting the larger stacks of scrolls, letters, and other documents, belonged to Luna and Celestia, while the other four belonged to their secretaries and assistants. They sat down to their respective places, and had barely had enough time to start before Celestia walked in, levitating a steaming cup and a stack of paper with her.
“Good morning,” Celestia greeted them both with her usual warm smile. Bright Light waved at her while Luna walked to Celestia and gave her a brief hug.
“Morn to you, sister.”
“Good morning, Celestia. I hope you are not planning on adding to our already teetering pile of paperwork,” the colorful earth mare quipped joyfully.
“Good heavens, I would never do that,” Celestia answered back equally jovially, depositing the papers she had been levitating on to her desk. “There’s a few urgent documents I need to look over here. The rest,” she explained as she separated the papers, “is a letter from my dearest student.” Luna and Bright Light both looked at the new pile questioningly.
“...There’s over ten letters worth of paper in that, Sister,” Luna marveled.
“So there is,” Celestia happily exclaimed, clearly eager to read it. The two other mares glanced at each other. “Lulu, how long are you planning to stay awake? I would love to have lunch with you in the garden while we pour over what my student has to say.” Bright Light snickered behind her hoof at Celestia’s pet name for Luna, much to the Night Princess’ chagrin.
“I’ve rested well, I’ll retire to slumber when we have gotten everything done.”
Celestia hummed happily in response.
********************
Once they had gone through most of the paperwork and had a quick meeting with a few nobles, the sisters left for an early lunch. They were seated across a small table in the garden beneath a tree, a tray full of treats and delicacies that would have made anypony’s mouth water on a small trolley next to them. They both had finished their meals and were enjoying a cup of tea as a dessert. And a piece of cake for Celestia as an actual dessert.
Now that they had a moment of free time, Celestia summoned Twilight’s scroll from their office.
“You could make a banner out of that…” Luna commented amusedly as the scroll slowly unfurled. There were several separate pieces of paper tucked within the folds of the scroll, which Celestia levitated to a small pile, held together with her magic so that the wind couldn’t blow them away.
“Seems like she’s been taking a lot of notes,” Celestia pointed out. Once they got to the end of the scroll, Celestia’s eyes widened, before letting out a very unprincess like gigglesnort. She turned the scroll around, and it didn’t take long for Luna to see what amused her sister so. On the very end of the scroll seemed to be a smudgy imprint of Twilight’s face, with several splotches that Luna could only surmise to be drops of drool.
“Perhaps it would be wise for you to impart some lessons in going to bed at the right hour to your student?” Luna ventured with a straight face, only causing Celestia go renew her giggling.
“If only anypony was capable of doing that,” she replied, shaking her head.
“So, what has your esteemed student been up to?” Luna asked, intrigued. Celestia returned to the start of the letter, and began reading.
“Hmm… It appears she and her friends were so worried that they hadn’t heard from Scruffy in over a week, that they decided to visit him,” Celestia said after a moment, curiosity evident in her voice.
“Truly? They went to the Everfree Forest? And they found where he lives?” Luna asked, her excitement growing with each question.
“It would appear so. One of the separate notes should have a map on it.” Luna shifted through the pile, quickly finding the note in question. On the note was a rough sketch of Ponyville and the Everfree forest, and the approximate path the group had taken to reach Scruffy’s home.
His home is located on the other side of the forest, and not in the forest itself? That is an...odd revelation. Celestia too noted the oddity, and they continued reading.
“Good, they asked Zecora to lend her expertise to navigate the forest safely,” Celestia said with a hint of pride in her voice. “They didn’t encounter any dangers passing through the forest… And it appears Twilight already knew that our friend lived at the edge of the forest, so she knew where to start looking.”
“Oh? I don’t remember her mentioning that in any of her reports. Perhaps she just forgot then,” Luna idly commented.
Celestia continued to read further, but soon a small frown etched on to her face, slowly growing bigger and bigger.
“Sister?” Luna prompted when Celestia had kept silent, but Luna’s call made her lift her eyes from the paper and her face returned to neutral.
“...Things might have just gotten a bit more complicated.”
********************
“That two legged fool! This is unbelievable!” Luna vehemently muttered, glaring at the ground while she paced back and forth.
“...” Celestia kept examining Twilight’s notes, so deep in her thoughts she hardly heard Luna stomp her way next to her.
“How is it possible he had no idea what kind of danger he put himself in?”
“Hmm? Sorry, Luna, what did you say?” Celestia asked, lifting herself from the scroll.
“Hmph!” Luna harrumphed and proceeded to angrily brew herself another cup of tea.
“Remarkable…” Celestia idly commented as she reread the scroll again.
“If by remarkable you mean it is very lucky that Scruffy hasn’t gotten himself killed, then we agree.” That finally got Celestia out of her thoughts.
“Yes... You are, of course, right. It is worrying that our new friend has put himself at such risk, with an Ursa den no less,” Celestia shook her head.
“Thankfully, now that your student has warned him, he’ll know to stay away from that area.”
“Indeed… Luna, what do you make of this, portal?” Celestia asked after a moment. Luna lifted her gaze from the teacup she was stirring and locked eyes with Celestia.
“It seems too unlikely. Another world? Who could have possibly made the portal? And why there?”
“Everfree would be a perfect place to hide something you don’t want anypony to find… But as to who could have made it, I don’t have the faintest clue.” Celestia gazed across the garden, enjoying the gusts of wind and rays of sunlight as she pondered what ramifications this new piece of information would have.
“I suppose the next question is, how long has it been there?” Luna said, sipping her tea.
“Hmm… If I had to hazard a guess, I would say it hasn’t been there for long. It is too out in the open, somepony would have found it, either from our side or his side, if it had been there even for decades. But, since it’s located in the Everfree, it is possible that Scruffy is the first one to remain unscathed after finding it.”
“Let’s hope that is not the case,” Luna dismissed. “While it is true that the gateway is not hidden, it’s certainly not something everypony would simply stumble through. I’m more interested in the reaction it had to Twilight. Perhaps the portal hasn’t been active all the time, and it requires a charge from an unicorn to function?”
“That is also a possibility,” Celestia frowned. “We know too little to make any conclusions. We must investigate this matter further.”
“I agree, but I think it best we not examine the portal ourselves, least we incur another violent reaction from it.”
“I’ll make sure to get a research team together the moment I have free time today. I’m sure there’s many ambitious gentlecolts in the Ministry of Magic that would be eager to examine it. I’m sure Twilight would be equally eager to help them,” Celestia said with a slight smile.
“Then I’ll leave that matter to you,” Luna replied, standing up from her seat.
“Heading to bed, Lulu?” As Celestia asked that, Luna let out a long yawn and stretched her limbs.
“In a moment, there’s one more matter to be taken care of before I head to bed.”
“And what is that?”
“We need to make sure Scruffy doesn’t put himself in needless danger again.”
What could Luna possibly mean with that last statement? Is she:
A) Going to call in the Royal Guard?
B) Burn the whole forest down?
C) Cast a protective spell on Scruffy?D) Stay right by him, protect him from all the dangers so that he swoons in to her hoofs and then snuggle with him to make sure he doesn't get anymore colds and oh nevermind 
And before anypony says anything!!!!!!!!! 
EQG isn't canon. There, I said it. 
I didn't say anything earlier because I though it might be spoilery, but Elliott, bless his heart, pointed out that it might beget confusion if you are wondering why the royal sisters are so apparently befuddled by the portal. So there we go.
Have a pleasant week everypony. 
(Oh, and don't worry, I promise there's gonna be a real chapter next.)
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The answer is D. Obviously. Even with the strike through the whole sentence.
She's going to get the Royal Guard to burn down the forest while she casts a protective spell on Scruffy and stays right with him until he's smitten with her
8851522
so (E) all of the above
8851535
Yup, but that just doesn't sound as cool
The answer is D. Now I wonder what happened to Sunset Shimmer in this universe, if she existed at all.
It’s gonna be a mix of B) and D).
Luna's shipping herself with Scruffy? Huh, I never would have guessed she was into humans. I bet it's because he gives her ear scritches and belly rubs... mares are crazy for the hands, bro. Get him a curry comb and they'll be lining up for the lucky guy.
(Just remember to keep the reigns and tack hidden unless it's one of those adult-only parties, if you know what I mean Scruffy)
The self-charging aspect of the portal hadn't occurred to me but it'd make sense that it would be "dead" until a unicorn, or magic-heavy, being got close enough for it to leech some power (like a Ursa Major that is almost pure magic). Considering how large the reaction is, proportional to the unicorn, it would be wise for the Sisters to keep their distance.
Luna's dream cleaning experience also makes sense too, having to push through the portal to reach Scruffy and then feeling a lot more dreamers. Heh, if she only knew a "few more" was actually seven billion. Has Scruffy told Twilight about the World's population yet?
Something tells me the next time Scruffy steps through, there's gonna be a bunch of ponies waiting for him.
8851613
Chapter 22:
8851560
But Sunset is in America and Scruffy is obviously somewhere in Europe. Plus, his portal is in much, much less populated area. So I don't think they would encounter Sunset from his portal.
I don't see Scruffy and Luna's relationship being in anyway romantic. Friends certainly; but Scruffy is an old man and a widower. He's just happy to have people to talk too.
8851673
In Equestria, Canterlot is much more European than American. Who knows where she'll pop up.
i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/653/469/83a.png
The Royal Guard sucks. It’s obvious that none of them have any skill to survive anywhere other than an urban environment.
8851668
Darn it! And he had the TV right there for them. Just a few videos of a low Earth orbit shot of the World's dark side and all the lights. I suppose a better way would be to (get dragged by) Twilight visiting the Natural History Museum in DC. Could stop by the world population counter, with accompanying birth/death counters. Mmm, then again, there's always the internet.
Worldometers
So twilight is passing on her own biased conclusion onto others.
8851800
Maybe he doesn't have Discovery Channel on his cable?
8851613
It really depends on if Celestia read that part of the report out to Luna AND if Luna bothered to listen as she was stomping about in her
rageirritationD is clearly the best option. Luna x Scruffy OTP
Dammit can’t save to iBook app
The answer is "B)<--cool shades"
The answer is E.
E) Luna pounces him and fucks him so much that he is too tired to make the trip on his own and always needs her to escort him safely there.
8852626
But what if it backfires, and Scruffy turns out to be somekind of sex god? 
Then Luna needs to be carried everywhere when she's too tired to move. 
Hmm, I guess that's one way of doing it.
8851982
It might be that Twilight simply didn't mention it in her report, or that she said there's 7 million of them, since she didn't believe Scruffy when they talked.
8852652
You say that like it would be a bad thing.
8851800
I have a gut feeling that meters site is fake - a few of those meters go up way too frequently for the category they represent. "People with no access to drinking water", for example, was ticking up at a clockwork one per second.
If people lose access to drinking water, it tends to effect an area, which is not predictable and more of a burst than one per second.
8854539
The tickers are only an approximation. Their clockwork precision is also an effect of taking a large number (for a given measurement of time) and metering it out one unit at a time. If that number happens to be equivalent to the number of seconds then it'll tick the same speed as a clock's second hand. You didn't think the population counter is actually getting live reports of births from around the world, did you? Same goes for all the other tickers.
8854648
If that were the case, though, it would seem to me that all the tickers would be set to go at the same rate. Instead, some go noticeably faster than others, and it seems to me to be an attempt at making itself look more legit, when it is not.
8854688
Yes, some would indeed go faster than others. If the number is ~31 million a year then that ticker is gonna tick once a second. If the number per year is less, such as 360 a year, then it'll only tick once a day.
If either of the sisters go through the portal, not being able to "feel" the sun or moon would freak them right out even knowing it's a different world.
8854889
Hmm, well the portal is still there, so maybe they still feel their respective heavenly bodies, but they just feel really really distant?
8855049
Right, they could feel Equestria's sun and moon, but I mean they wouldn't be feeling Earth's sun and moon.
I wouldn't worry about the portal or EQG. The sisters know of that portal, and its particulars. A new portal that they know nothing about, on the other hand, is a totally different problem. After all, there is no guarantee that THIS portal is the same as the other, just as assuming all car engines are V6s -- or even that all cars only use diesel -- will land a mechanic in trouble.
Oooh, things are starting to get good now! Or should I say even better? Xp
Crap. Is it bad that I finished this story in two days?
8857584
Why would it be bad?
8857585
It means I don't get to enjoy it by reading it over a for a longer time.
8857588
I guess that means I need to get back to writing. 
Crap!
8857589
Nah dude. Go at your own pace.
My answer is C.
8860111 It was actually D. All of the above (YOUR EXPECTATIONS WERE SUBVERTED!!!)
8857589 Carp? I respond with 'guppy'!
8854539 I could solve that problem by exterminating 2 billion people!
Then everyone left has plenty of water!
(Logic without empathy is terrifying...)
I'll go for either B or D
8862509
8874504
Nooooooo!
8874711
Hahahahaha I see you got the Ref i made lol
i choose A or C
more towards A tho....
It sounds like celestia and luna are believing scruffy and not twilight.
more please
B
Because A and C are to obvious. Let's go full Nightmare Moon on it.