All It Takes is the Turn of a Key

by Fallen_Stargazer

OPEN! The Gateway to a New World!

The land of Equestria. A world of wondrous magic and a near utopian paradise. Sure it has its occasional power hungry villain, con pony, or mischievous god like being of chaos looking to cause a little mayhem, but all in all it’s a pretty peaceful place. The two princesses rule over the land, bringing day and night. It is during the late afternoon, just as Princess Luna dots the sky with the first star of the evening, that we see a lavender unicorn walking through the center square of Ponyville, once again going over her meticulous check list to make sure she had completed all main tasks for her day. She smiled as she checked off the final thing, making sure that she had sent her weekly friendship report to Princess Celestia.

Twilight Sparkle smiled as she saw the wisp of smoke and green flame fly off to Canterlot, humming to herself as she headed back to her home. All of a sudden she heard the sound of something coming closer at incredible speeds. She turned towards the sound and was instantly blinded by a rainbow and cyan blur crashing into her. She groaned and looked up, the Pegasus in question being Rainbow Dash , one of Twilight’s best friends and fellow Element of Harmony. “Uh Heheh, sorry about that Twilight. Guess I caught a bad wind current there.” She said with a guilty smile and pulled her friend up.

Twilight brushed herself off, feeling a slight hint of déjà vu as this had been how the two mares had first met, though that day included a mud puddle, which thankfully was not there this time. “It’s alright Rainbow Dash. I was just on my way home for the evening.” She said with a smile and looked at her friend. Rainbow gave a smile and nod.

“Oh hey before you go, think you could give me your opinion on a new trick I’m working on?” Rainbow said with her usual enthusiastic and overconfident smirk.

Twilight blinked and looked at her. The prismatic Pegasus was always planning new tricks to try and impress ponies as well as the Wonderbolts. Though more often then anypony would like, said tricks often ended up with Rainbow crashing into a tree, the ground, a building, or like just a few minutes ago, another pony. Twilight then shrugged. “Why not. I’ve got a few minutes to spare before I need to check the library logs.”

Rainbow smiled broadly and prepped to fly up. “You won’t regret it. I’m practicing on a way to do a sonic rainboom that changes the clouds to rainbow colored for a bit. Then add a little buccaneer blaze and cloud breaking to it and you got yourself rainbow fireworks.” She said, explaining to her friend the details of the trick before shooting up into the air, gaining altitude to perform the legendary technique.

Twilight smiled at her friend as she took off into the air, patiently awaiting whether the trick would work and cause a spectacle like planned, or cause her friend to go flying out of control into the nearest foliage once again. She watched as Rainbow broke through the cone of air, the large explosion of color spanning out and actually changing the clouds like intended. Twilight smiled as she felt the wave of energy wash over her, but then felt something strange. She felt her magic begin to react inside her and around her, as well as hearing what sounded like a whisper to her. “Open the gate to the Unicorn. Monoceros!” Twilight gasped as she felt a magical surge surrounding her, her body becoming lighter as she felt the ground beneath her hooves fall away. She tried to give a scream but was silenced as she fell into a dark void.

---

Lucy Heartfilia sighed as she and her friends had come back from another mission. While the initial goal of the mission had been accomplished, the aftermath caused by Natsu’s reckless attacks had been near cataclysmic once again. She shook her head, smiling softly as they once again re-entered the town of Magnolia, home of their friends and guild. The infamous Fairy Tail. She smiled as she saw the large guild building in the distance, having a few small flashbacks about her various adventures with them before something out of the corner of her eye drew her attention. It was one of the local magic shops around the city, and there in the window case was a velvet box with a silver key laid on it. Now to most passersby they would think nothing of it, but to a trained Stellar Spirit mage like Lucy, she immediately knew it to be a gate key. She walked over to the window, leaving Natsu and Gray to head off back to the guild for more competitions between the two, Happy following behind them carrying a pile of clothes as Gray had once again stripped his clothes without people even noticing until it was done.

She walked up to the store window, looking down at the key. On the head of the key was a white inlay with a deep azure blue horse head on it, but on the horse’s head was a long horn. Her eyes sparkled as she recognized it. Monoceros, the key of the Unicorn. While it wasn’t one of the twelve ecliptic zodiac keys, Monoceros was still a very rare key. As most stellar spirit mages knew, even among the spirits, unicorns were a scarce breed. She smiled happily and walked into the store, eager to purchase the key. Several minutes later, after haggling with the sales clerk to try and lower the exorbitant price, she came out with a slight smile, despite the hefty sum of jewels she had to pay for it. But she decided it was worth it for the rare key.

After checking back in with the guild, giving Mirajane the letter from the client saying the job was complete, she could hardly contain herself. “Oh who can wait. Alright let’s see my new Spirit.” She smiled, not having noticed the unicorn head on the key go from azure blue to a lavender color. She held the key out, focusing her magic on it. “I am one who connects a road to the Stellar Spirit world. Thou shalt respond to the calling and pass through the gate.” A keyhole appeared and expanded out to a magic seal, opening the doorway between realms. “Open a gate to the Unicorn. Monoceros!” She said, releasing the energy as the seal expanded and a bright flash of magic occurred, blinding a few of the people nearby. Lucy had turned her head away for a moment before turning back, her eyes widening a bit at the spirit that appeared before her. A large, somewhat cartoonish looking horse with lavender fur, dark violet hair with a pink streak in it and a tail with matching pattern, the signature unicorn horn, as well as a strange mark on both sides of it’s flanks.

Twilight groaned as she felt her body become stable once more. She slowly stood up, feeling her magic settle as she slowly opened her eyes. Though a part of her wished she hadn’t as she now found herself surrounded by large creatures covered in clothes, well except for one nearby, that had little hair on the bodies except for their heads. She blinked and looked around, panicking slightly as she tried to get her bearings. “W-Where in Equestria am I?!” Her vocal outburst caused one of the stange bipeds to walk towards her, reaching out.

Her instinct kicked in and she immediately began to ready a teleport, only to stop when she realized she had no idea where she was, and a teleport would not have been the safest idea as she could end up someplace worse. She stopped as she looked towards the one coming towards her. It’s eyes were brown with a blond mane, wearing strange clothes with a set of keys on it’s hips. She eyed the mysterious creature, judging by it’s physical form that it was female and spoke. “um. My name is Twilight Sparkle.”

The blond creature smiled and spoke to her, shocking Twilight with the fact that it could speak as well. “My name is Lucy. So then, shall we set up the contract?” She said, holding up a note pad and pen.

Twilight blinked at this, still a bit surprised that the female creature could talk. “Contract? What contract?” She said, unsure of what exactly was happening, using a great deal of her willpower to remain calm in this unnatural situation.

Lucy blinked as the unicorn questioned about what a contract was. “The contract between us of course. Aren’t all Stellar Spirits familiar with the rules of a contract when summoned?”

Twilight blinked and looked at Lucy. “Stellar Spirit? I’m not sure what that is but I can tell you I’m not one. I was just watching my friend perform a stunt when I felt a strong magic pull me here.” At this Lucy, as well as several other of the creatures around looked visibly disturbed. If the creature Lucy had summoned wasn’t a Stellar Spirit…..Then what in the name of the heavens above was it?

Comments

[TheScribbler]

Excellent. I think you stumbled a bit at the beginning, but that straightened out nicely.

[cloudedguardian]

Can I have that picture? O.O

[Fallen_Stargazer]

931328 lol I just googled it so idk who the original artist is, but feel free to use it.

[Mondays Dawn]

ok, this is even better than i could have hoped for, and as for what you said in the description, there are ALWAYS plots the manga never covers.

[Firedon]

the Pegasus in question being Rainbow Dash (shocker I know),
that (shocker I know) seems unnecessary and should be removed, it kinda disrupts the flow of reading.
This also applies to the other short parts in brackets.

[treegrowth]

I like this, but I think we have a problem here.
Namely speaking, the spacing between paragraphs. I'll be honest with you, I HATE paragraphs that don't show between characters' dialogue.
Here's an example:

"Hey Dad!" I said excitedly. "I got some new hunting gear for the two of us, want to come?" "Sure!" he responded, "As soon as I get the axe out of the tree." I raised an eyebrow, "Umm, why is the axe stuck in the tree?" I asked. "Popeye lost it!" he yelled. I simply face-palmed, that was always his favorite excuse since I was little.

Here's how to fix it:

"Hey Dad!" I said excitedly. "I got some new hunting gear for the two of us, want to come?"

"Sure!" he responded, "As soon as I get the axe out of the tree."

I raised an eyebrow, "Umm, why is the axe stuck in the tree?" I asked.

"Popeye lost it!" he yelled.

I simply face-palmed, that was always his favorite excuse since I was little.

There!
... sorry if I came out as mean, but that kind of writing has always bugged me.
other than that, it's pretty well done.
The characters seem believable, though the normal very vocal ones don't seem to be talking (Natsu and Gray naming two).
The story is well put together, but it seems rushed, maybe you could add a bit more detail to the little things like adding a few more lines for some of the characters that didn't had a chance to talk before in this chapter.
Overall, this chapter is flawed but I still enjoyed it, I like the story idea so far it just needs to be polished a little bit.

[FLUTTERxxDASH]

my only major problem is the speech but I can live with that.

[The Slending Angel]

(don’t ask me how a pony can shrug I’m not a vet)

I DUNNO. LAWL.

img00.deviantart.net/c3a1/i/2012/185/8/7/lawl_i_dunno_by_hornswaggler-d560sti.png

“You won’t regret it. I’m practicing on a way to do a sonic rainboom that changes the clouds to rainbow colored for a bit. Then add a little buccaneer blaze and cloud breaking to it and you got yourself rainbow fireworks.”

...That... Actually sounds really cool.

“Open the gate to the Unicorn. Monoceros!” Twilight gasped as she felt a magical surge surrounding her, her body becoming lighter as she felt the ground beneath her hooves fall away. She tried to give a scream but was silenced as she fell into a dark void.

i.ytimg.com/vi/bf2nhEoZNm0/maxresdefault.jpg