Beyond the Bounds of Universes

by CTVulpin

Scene 1 - Twilight's Castle

“Spiiiike!”

The little purple dragon cracked open the door to his bedroom and peered out into the hall. “What’s up, Twilight?” he asked, one hand reaching back to scratch at the irritating nubs developing on his shoulders.

“Cut that out, Spike,” Twilight scolded gently. “We still don’t know if scratching will stunt your wing growth.”

“Did you just come here to nag me?” Spike grumped.

“Ah,” Twilight stammered. “No, sorry. Have you seen my notes on inter-world portals anywhere? I thought I’d left them on top of the books last night, but they’re not there anymore.”

Spike shook his head. “You were up later than usual working on them,” he said, “maybe you just misplaced them because you were too tired.”

“Maybe,” Twilight said, looking away, “but I’ve searched every inch of-” She stopped with a sudden gasp and looked down at her flank. Spike leaned out of his door enough to see that Twilight’s Cutie Mark was pulsating with light. “The Map!” Twilight exclaimed happily. “It’s been ages since I got a mission for it. This is going to be…” Her ears fell and she frowned slightly. “But I have to find those notes.”

“No worries, Twi,” Spike said, emerging fully from his room, “I’ll find ‘em while you’re out doing your duty to Equestria.”

Twilight gave the little dragon a quick hug. “I can always count on you,” she said. “Now, let’s find out where I’m headed to!” She took off down the hall at a full gallop, leaving Spike to sprint after her.

Further down the hall, Starlight Glimmer emerged from a side passage just in time to narrowly avoid being run over by the galloping Princess of Friendship. Starlight threw herself up against the wall with a cry and watched Twilight gallop on until Spike came by. “Where’s the fire?” Starlight asked.

“It’s the Map,” Spike panted.

“Oh,” Starlight said. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Wonder what’s up this time.” She levitated a grateful Spike onto her back and took off in pursuit.

One of the doors to the Map Room was still slightly open when Starlight and Spike reached it. They slipped inside and then Spike hopped off Starlight’s back as they both looked around. Besides them, Twilight was the only one in the room, and she was completely fixated on the Map, which had already assumed its active form displaying Equestria and the neighboring lands. “So,” Starlight said, sidling up to Twilight, “who’s your partner going to be? Rainbow Dash? Rarity?”

Twilight’s head made a startled little jerk. “Um,” she said, simply raising a hoof to point. Starlight looked, and her eyes squinted in confusion.

Spike climbed up onto one of the thrones to get a better look. “Huh?” he exclaimed, rubbing his eyes. “Am I the only one seeing two of Twilight’s cutie mark floating there?” he asked.

“Nope,” Starlight said, “I see it too.”

“…and they’re floating over Ponyville?” Spike asked.

“Yeah,” Twilight said slowly. As soon as the word escaped her mouth, however, the paired pink starburst symbols flickered and jumped to orbit a point a good foot beyond the edge of the Map. After a moment, they flickered again and returned to hovering over the model of Ponyville.

“You think it’s broken again?” Spike asked, “Like after Starlight used it in her time-travel spell?”

“Well, I haven’t been messing with it!” Starlight said defensively.

Twilight cast a general detection spell over the Map, and then shook her head. “There’s no sign of any kind of tampering,” she said, “and outside our little circle, I think only Discord could hijack or alter the Map’s magic, but he hasn’t been in here alone since… ever.” She watched the paired images of her cutie mark flicker between Ponyville and off the edge of the Map a couple more times, and then sighed. “Well, it wants something from me, so let’s figure out what.” She looked at Spike and Starlight. “Any ideas?”

Starlight raised an eyebrow. “Unless there are two of you in Ponyville all of a sudden-”

“Hold up!” Spike said suddenly. “The mirror!” Twilight and Starlight both looked at him in confusion. “Th- Canterlot High,” Spike said, gesturing widely. “There’s a Twilight Sparkle in that world, right?”

Twilight’s confused expression changed to thoughtfulness as she looked at the Map again. “That doesn’t make much sense,” she said, “but on the other hoof, it does in a strange sort of way. It’s worth a shot at least. Good thinking, Spike.”

Starlight glanced from Twilight, to Spike, and back again. “What are you two talking about?”

Twilight blinked. “We haven’t told you about the magic mirror yet?” she asked.

“No.”

---

“…So, let me get this straight,” Starlight said as she followed Twilight and Spike down a hallway, “You own a magic mirror that lets you travel to an… alternate version of Equestria full of ‘humans’ instead of ponies, the portal spell turns you into a human when you go through it, and-”

“I become a dog,” Spike cut in.

“Right,” Starlight said. “And, this world’s population is mostly human versions of ponies from Ponyville and nearby, including all our friends.”

“That’s about it, yes,” Twilight said, coming to a stop by a door and conjuring a key out of the air, which she then inserted into the door’s lock.

“How did I not know about this before?” Starlight asked. Spike and Twilight both looked at her, but before they could respond, she continued, “When I was plotting my revenge, I studied everything about you, Twilight. In exhaustive detail. I researched your abilities, your friends, this castle, the Map, every bit of recent history even remotely related to you, and I never found so much as a hint you had access to a portal to another dimension!”

“What, really?” Spike asked, incredulous.

Twilight gave Spike a sideways look. “I’m not surprised, “she said, “since we’ve made a point of not publicizing the Mirror’s existence, Spike.”

“I know,” the dragon said, “but I don’t recall the Order-naries portals being a big secret.”

“Order what?” Starlight asked.

Spike threw up his hands. “Seriously?!” he exclaimed. “How ‘exhaustive’ was your research again, Starlight?”

“All right, that’s enough chatting,” Twilight said, turning the key and opening the door. “We can test the limits of Starlight’s history knowledge later. We have more important things to think about. Like how I’m going to track down the other Twilight Sparkle; it’s been so long since I’ve been to CHS, the girls probably graduated from there by now.” She stepped into the room, which contained only the tall freestanding mirror-portal with the augmenter frame Twilight had built to bypass the portal spell’s time-lock and a bookstand holding a brown book emblazoned with Princess Celestia’s sun cutie mark. The book was glowing and vibrating gently.

“Looks like Sunset Shimmer’s got something she needs to talk about,” Spike said. He gave Twilight a cheeky look. “Gee, what a perfect coincidence.”

Twilight just rolled her eyes with a good-natured smirk and summoned the book over to her, opening it to the last place she recalled seeing a blank page.

Comments

[badninja]

Will this should be an interesting road trip. I am tracking this one.

[HelgaButtercup]

Sounds interesting ! waiting for more!

[BenRG]

This is an interesting start. When the Map rebooted in that season 6 episode and showed two of Twilight's cutie marks over Canterlot, I wondered if there had been an friendship problem that only Princess Twilight and Sci-Twi could solve together. Maybe reuniting Sunset with Celestia?

I'm looking forward to seeing where you take this!

[narusakufan]

This sounds really good. I can't wait for more.