There's always some air of mystery and uncertainty when the magical map in Twilight's castle activates, but after a long period of dormancy it summons Twilight with a most perplexing image: two cutie marks as usual, but both are hers, and they alternately orbit over Ponyville and float over the edge of the map entirely. To find the answer to what the Map is asking of her, Twilight turns not just to her student, Starlight Glimmer but must also travel to the parallel dimension of Canterlot High to consult with her alternate self and Sunset Shimmer.
The combined brainpower of three magic savants and one scientist should be enough to puzzle out the Map's intentions, but none of them can guess where the path will lead them.
Chapters (20)
Will this should be an interesting road trip. I am tracking this one.
Sounds interesting ! waiting for more!
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!
Well this is going to be an interesting conversation.
Interesting! So, the Map's summons goes beyond worlds? That means, potentially, any of the Seven could be summoned to Equestria by way of an animated hand tattoo. Given how easily Fluttershy freaks out, Sunset should send her a warning!
A question to the author: When did you decide against the more fandom-traditional cutie mark on the hips?
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I wanted it in a spot not normally covered by clothes. Also, to try and minimize awkwardness.
This sounds really good. I can't wait for more.
Seriously Pinkie pop the question to him. You would be a great couple.
Something tells me that Princess Twilight is on a steep road down the incline to 'geek out'. She couldn't be more excited to show off the castle and its' toys, could she?
Why isn't there a mystery tag?
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I am usually unsure what tags best fit my stories, but I suppose you have a point. Tag added.
I suspect, Starlight, that the reason is that Sci-Twi is also the Bearer of the Element of Magic. Because her magic is a mirror of Princess Twilight's own, I suspect that the map's arcane intelligence (AI) cannot differentiate between them.
Really? So it's a true AI then - Able to process data fed into it (no matter how inadvertently) and alter its own program to integrate the new data and increase its own efficiency.
Hey; we could use a link to that other story that Twilight alluded to here!
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If you're referring to Starlight's highly condensed history of the Order-naries 'verse, the stories are grouped here.
Who is this? I think you ment Sunset Shimmer but some how Starlight Glimmer's name partially migrated up here. Also the plot thickens I see. I wonder just how many universes they will crossover with?
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Fixed.
Ack.
I initially gave that line to Starlight, then decided it would work better from Sunset, and I apparently missed the "Glimmer" when I went to change the name. Then managed to gloss over it during my editing pass because all these mares have distinct but still too-similar names...
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Princess Sci-Twi Starshine Sunset Shimmer Glimmer Sparkle
I don't think that Sunset is right anyway. There's no evidence that Midnight Sparkle's portals were stable and safe. Although they directly connected Earth and Equestria without any intermediate universes, the way it caused space-time on Earth to start to distort and break up suggests that the spell was even more destructive and unstable than whatever created the chain.
Danger, danger Twilight! Why do I think Discord is going to show up at the worst point or start screwing with Sci-Twi?
Owing the God of Chaos anything is not exactly a good idea. That said, I think Twilight is confident in Fluttershy's ability to rein him in, if need be.
Right now, I'm wondering just how large the explosion that the two Twilights' latest experiment will cause.
When Discord's around, expect a lot of chaotic fun and laughs.
Yeah, I get the impression that most ancient magical artefacts are sentient and possibly following an agenda (either their creator's or one that they have created for themselves). In the case of the Mirror of Worlds, I'm wondering if it is as self-aware as The Guardian of Forever from the Star Trek universe.
Well I hope as I-Twi will at least wait until Starlight and Princess Twilight stop fighting and are fully paying attention before she messes with this magic. I think those two are going to keep arguing.
I'm betting that the Zap Apple Wood is the problem. It's wild magic from an environment that is known to be resistant to most pony magics so logic suggests that it would screw up any pony magical matrix that was imposed upon it.
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That's actually a good point.
I rather think that they should consider ‘earthing’ Sci-Twi to drain out the foreign magic into some suitable container; she’s going to have a limit and reaching it could injure her.
Stupid Princess Twilight. Hopefully she learns from this experience.
Two Pinkies and two Cheese Sandwiches and two Party Favors, what kind of party would that make?..
They might already have tested that with Pinkie (from Friendship Games Bloopers), but if not, they shouldn't have assumed that the particular portal would work right for the other world's residents. It's not certain that whoever designed it, had Canterlot High's people travelling to Equestria in mind.
Do they have a way to connect Canterlot High and Taryn, since it could be convenient for, world interconnections?
This is kind of a cliffhanger: they didn't pick names for newcomers. This Shara is probably very different from the magical version.
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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.
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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.
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
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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...
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our sanity going off a cliff and into a volcano
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I wonder if the magnitude would be exponenally or logarithmically increased?
Also, we can now find out if ponies CAN explode twice.
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Shouldn't we wait until Sci-Twi is bad before we ground her?
Awesome job!
Dangit Starlight. Just hop through the portal already!