Beyond the Bounds of Universes

by CTVulpin

Scene 18 Twilight's Castle

“All right, that should do it,” Starlight Glimmer said as she set the final gem in place in the mirror. She looked over to where Sci-Twi was standing and asked, “Does it look ok to you?”

Sci-Twi tapped her magic detector lightly as she looked the mirror over critically. “I think that should be enough gems to hold the magic,” she said, “but without testing it I can’t be- look out!”

Starlight looked back at the mirror and jumped back when she saw the gems array was glowing and the glass was rippling. “What in Equestria?” she exclaimed.

A second later, she got her answer as Princess Twilight and an ash-grey unicorn stallion with a red and orange mane stepped through the mirror on their hind legs and promptly lost their balance. Princess Twilight picked herself up with a chuckle and then helped her companion to his hooves. “You ok, Ash?” she asked.

“Nothing broken,” Ashen Blaze replied. He looked around the room, taking note of Starlight and Sunset Shimmer, who was also in the room, and did a double-take when he saw Sci-Twi. “Um, Twi,” he said to Princess Twilight, pointing at the lavender unicorn, “Maybe we miscalculated a bit, because I’m seeing double yous.”

“Hm?” Twilight said, looking where Ash was pointing. “Oh, no, that’s Sci-Twi. She’s my double from another dimension. She helped craft the portal spell.”

Ash lowered his hoof slowly and gave the Princess a bemused look. “Doppelgangers again,” he said. “Bah re.”

“So, this is the infamous Ashen Blaze, I assume?” Sunset asked.

“Yep,” Princess Twilight said, brightly. “Ash, I’d like you to meet Sunset Shimmer. She’s a former student of Celestia who lives in Sci-Twi’s world now. And this,” she indicated the last pony in the room, “Is Starlight Glimmer, my friendship pupil.”

Ash glanced briefly at both the mares, nodded curtly, and said, “Hello,” before turning back to the mirror and putting his hoof on it.

“Wait, wait,” Starlight said, “you’re not leaving already?”

“I’ll be back,” Ash said. “I just need to verify this thing works both ways. Plus, there’s a certain dragon and small host of hangers-on that need assurance Twi and I made it safely. Destulf Taryn, Transport.” The mirror wavered and Ash stepped through.

“Well, he’s a real ray of sunshine,” Sunset said, deadpan.

“You get used to it,” Princess Twilight said with a shrug.

“So,” Sci-Twi said, walking over to the mirror, “we’ve successfully built a portal to another universe in, what, an afternoon? Amazing. Now what? Are we done?”

Princess Twilight checked her flank. “If we’ve accomplished what the Map wanted us to do,” she said, “our cuties marks should-” Her cutie mark and Sci-Twi’s flashed with light a few times. “There we go!” Princess Twilight said, grinning. “Mission accomplished.”

The mirror flickered and started rippling, and the Twilights both stepped back as Spike walked through, with Ash shortly behind him. “And there we go,” Ash said, brushing his hooves together, “back where you belong, Spike. Now, did anypony have something planned to celebrate a job well done, or do we just wing it-agh!” Two brown earth pony mares, one with a messy brown mane and a wrench cutie mark and other with a piebald snout and a film projector cutie mark, and a turquoise pegasus with a quill pen cutie mark and a wolfish tail came tumbling through the mirror in rapid succession, burying Ash under their bodies.

“Oops, sorry,” the mares all said at once.

Ash just muttered darkly under his breath as Sunset and Sci-Twi hurried over to help untangle the pony pile.

Princess Twilight started to help as well, but a sudden knock on the workroom door distracted her. She went to the door and opened it a crack, enough for her to see who outside without letting anypony see in. “Oh,” she said when she saw who it was, “Rarity! What are you doing here?”

“Pardon the intrusion, Twilight,” Rarity said, “but after helping Spike get all those gems today, I’m afraid my curiosity has gotten the better of me. Might I ask how your efforts to reach Ash’s world are coming along?”

“Uh,” Princess Twilight said, looking over her shoulder at the state of the room. Ash and the three Taryn girls had all managed to get to their hooves, so the Princess grabbed Ash in her magic, brought him over to the door, and set him down next to her before opening the door wide and saying, “See for yourself!”

Rarity squeed in delight and hugged Ash tightly, momentarily blind to the other ponies crowding the room. Ash shot Twilight a hard look over Rarity’s head, but it only lasted a second before his expression softened and he returned Rarity’s embrace with one leg. “Good to see you too, Rarity,” he said.

Comments

[ConsciousHaze196]

This is kind of a cliffhanger: they didn't pick names for newcomers. This Shara is probably very different from the magical version.

[CTVulpin]

8481000
Should it ever become necessary to go from one to the other, the two mirror portals are in the same building. Heck, the Taryn mirror is probably going to be in the same room as the CHS one next time it shows up.

[CTVulpin]

8481018
Sadly, this story must end somewhere, and ultimately, picking new names for Shara and Samantha is a minor detail with no relevance to this story's main goal.
And yes, this Shara is very different from the character in my old O'naries Tumblr.

[ConsciousHaze196]

8481067 Oh, to imagine trading and migration routes between worlds going through Twilight's castle, long lines of people with bags going through toll posts and metal scanners

[CTVulpin]

8481110
There are many reasons why something like that would never happen with my world and characters, but it does seem like an interesting idea to develop a story around...

[Noctis Prism]

Awesome job!