• Published 25th Jul 2012
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Portal to Another World - Backburner



Twilight is convinced to use a new spell to take her friends on vacation, only to find no way back.

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Suspicions

Four days. Twilight thought about that fact. They had only been here four days and already so much had happened. Still, as shocking as all this had been, Twilight found herself thinking about the strangest things. What did Spike do when he came back to Ponyville only to find Twilight missing? Has anypony started a search to find them? It would be a useless effort; the only clue to their location was an open book on the reading stand, and even if they found it nopony else could be certain where they went.

Then there were the mysteries of this new world they found themselves on. Was it possible to convince Lilly to help them? What would happen if she says no? And how under Celestia’s sun does Rarity still smell like lavender when she hasn’t bathed in four days? Twilight almost felt like just giving up and lying in bed until her skin grafted to the sheet.. Alas she would never do that to her friends. Speaking of her friends, they’re taking this whole thing pretty well in retrospect. Maybe finding out you don’t exist makes you more docile.

“Oh dear Luna what’s going to happen to Fluttershy?” Twilight absent-mindedly said aloud at the thought of an even more pacified version of the quiet mare.

“I don’t know, is something wrong?” Pinkie said making Twilight jump. “Sorry, didn’t mean to spook you.” Pinkie’s voice was very calm and smooth with the usual perk absent.

“It’s ok Pinkie, I didn’t know you were still awake.”

“Everypony is, you didn’t think we were just going to sleep after Lilly got here screaming like it was a surprise party, did you?” Twilight knew something was wrong, Pinkie didn’t even say the word party with her usual enthusiasm.

“Pinkie, are you ok?”

“Yeah, of course Twilight.” Pinkie’s response fell flat between them, they both knew it was a lie.

“Pinkie I don’t believe you, whatever’s bothering you, you can tell me.”

“I’m not supposed to.” Pinkie said in a rather reserved voice. She’s turning into Fluttershy on me, Twilight thought.

“Pinkie, please just tell me.” Pinkie waited a long time before she spoke.

“The other ponies are, well we’re all acting funny, and not funny ‘ha ha’ funny, funny bad.”

“What do you mean?” Pinkie sat up and Twilight did the same when Pinkie turned to look at her.

“The girls were talking at the top of the stairs when you were with Lilly. Rarity said she missed home and would do anything to brush her hair back into its usual shape. Rainbow Dash said she missed flying and the feel of clouds. Applejack told us she was worried about Applebloom and Fluttershy, didn’t say anything.”

“Pinkie I don’t understand, how is that bad? Our friends always act like that.”

“No they don’t, back home Rarity would pull out a sofa and start bawling if one hair on her main was out of place. Rainbow Dash wouldn’t complain about not being able to fly, she’d keep trying and trying till she passed out or got what she wanted. Applejack would still talk about Applebloom, but she’d soften the blow for the rest of us and try to make it seem like we would be ok. Even Fluttershy would try in her quiet way to comfort us.” Twilight began to understand what Pinkie meant.

“You and I aren’t doing any better.” Pinkie continued. “Ever since I lost my ability to do, pretty much everything I do back home, I’ve tried to make the most of it. Walking along instead of bouncing isn’t so bad, and when I talk to Roger I feel like my usual self again, but that’s just it. I don’t feel like my normal self. It’s like we’re all losing our personalities, not on the same scale as when Discord came, but… we’re becoming like animals.” That statement hit Twilight hard.

“Pinkie if you’re thinking about those horses…”

“No twilight, I mean like dogs, dogs have thoughts feelings and emotions but half the time they lie around and do nothing all day. They don’t speak or pay attention to anything, not even to their friends. I told the others about this and they said I shouldn’t tell you because you’ll get sad again. But for some reason I don’t think that’s possible. The saddest thing in the world could happen to me right now and it wouldn’t even straighten my mane. I think we all feel that way.” When Pinkie finished she turned to look at the opposite wall.

“Pinkie… I…” Twilight started but was interrupted by Pinkie, her words gaining a slight zeal that was noticeable but nowhere near its usual level.

“And I know why too. This whole time everypony has been so focused on getting home and so worried about our talents going screwy we forgot what we still have.” Pinkie paused for a moment and looked back at Twilight. “Each other.”

“Pinkie, I don’t know what to say. I’m trying all I can to get us home”

“You’re missing the point. You don’t have to say anything.” Pinkie said as she leaned in and hugged Twilight. “We’ve all said enough, we all believe you’re going to get us home and I know once you do everything’s going to get a lot better. The reason I’m telling you this is because the only way we can go home is together. Twilight your one of my bestest besty best friends, don’t let this place or anything else make you forget that.”

Twilight returned the embrace and the two mares sat together for what felt like half an hour before Pinkie pulled away. “Goodnight,” she said before falling fast asleep in under ten seconds, not even bothering to lie flat on the bed. That’s Pinkie for you, Twilight thought, gives a heartwarming emotional speech under the influence of a world we don’t belong in and still manages to end it in a distinctly Pinkie way. Twilight laid back down and dwelled over Pinkies words before finally falling asleep.

* * *

Twilight rested the night through without making a peep and awoke to find Pinkie still asleep next to her. She had somehow managed to stay upright all night and her slow breaths made her pink main tickle her stomach making the pony giggle in her sleep. Twilight got up and left the room without disturbing the pink pony, shutting the door behind her before heading downstairs.

Applejack could be heard in the kitchen preparing breakfast. Twilight always wondered how she got so little sleep and did so much. It couldn’t have been later then 3 in the morning when Lilly arrived, what had she been doing all that time? Twilight got an answer when she entered the dinning room and found Roger clutching a full stomach with mountain upon mountain of apple based foods untouched in front of him.

“Morning Roger.” Twilight said.

“Good…morning…Twilight…Please help me before Applejack comes back with more…”

“Vittles coming up.” Applejack said barging into the room.

“Food,” Roger said. Applejack placed a gigantic apple pie the size of a newborn foal in front of Roger and cast an equally portioned smile at Twilight.

“Well looky here, Twilight’s gone from last to first one to open those eyes. Pull up a seat and I’ll bring out the next tray soon as I can.” Applejack had the same pacified feel as Pinkie, but it was much less obvious in Applejack’s case. Twilight sat next to Roger and helped herself to an apple tart.

“Where did she find all these Apples?” She asked Roger.

“I made the mistake of running to the store. Forty minute trip for an hour tasting food, I’m about to burst.” Twilight laughed slightly as she looked at the uneaten pie.

“Applejack always did think everypony needed just as much if not more then she could stomach as a portion. I learned that the hard way my first day in Ponyville.” Roger and Twilight made small talk as Applejack occasionally brought in more food. After a couple minutes Applejack left with the goal of waking the others for the re-introduction to Lilly.

“Twilight, can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“I know you must miss your home, everypony must be worried sick. But I was wondering, now that you know about the show, do you think things can just go back to normal for you?"

“I’ve been wondering about that myself Roger, and I don’t know. I’m going to have to gauge my reaction when I get back. For now all I know for sure is I need to get home, and what happens next happens.”

“I wish I could go with you, no matter what happens I hope you never have to come back to this place though. Earth is no place for Equestrians.”

“That’s not exactly true dad.” Came Lilly’s voice from across the room. Twilight turned to see her approaching from the doorway, her eyes firmly on Twilight and her hands grasping the little purple bag. “An Equestrian also means horse lover, horse lovers fit in just fine here.” Lilly took a seat on the opposite side of Roger, Twilight noticed she didn’t put down the bag, but held it in her left hand as she ate some of the mound of food.

“Thanks hun,” Roger said. “You sleep well?”

“As well as I could I suppose, still getting used to the idea of talking ponies. It’s not every day you see something like that.” Tell me about it, Twilight thought. “Can they all speak English or just this one?” Lilly said pointing to Twilight.

“Just me,” said Twilight.

“Can they understand English?”

“No, just me.”

“Then I guess there’s no point in waiting to ask this, could you explain to me exactly what I’d be doing if I decided to help you?”

“To put it frankly, all we need you to do is sit next to your father while Rarity and I cast the spell to summon the portal home, simple as that.”

“A portal?” Lilly said. “Is this some sort of one way kind of deal or a connection to another portal, like how dose this portal work?”

“Well, after we create the portal we tell it a destination, in this case home, and a twin portal appears in that location for our use.”

“Is this portal the same one you used to get here?” Twilight didn’t know where Lilly was going with this but she played along.

“Yes it’s the same spell.”

“So this portal, it can take you anywhere you want?” Twilight didn’t like that question. If there was something this place hadn’t diminished it was her brain and she knew when somepony had something else planned.

“Yes, it brought us here so I’d think it could take you anywhere.”

“Interesting,” Lilly dwelt on that for a second before continuing “How about…” but before she was able to finish Applejack returned with a trail of chatting ponies behind her. Each of them took a seat around the table and looked to Twilight for what to do next. Twilight looked around at her friends and motioned for them to begin eating. When everypony had begun to enjoy the spread Twilight saw Lilly stand to leave.

“Where are you going Lilly?” Roger asked.

“I’m going to make a quick phone call, I’ll be right back.” Lilly left the room through the kitchen so as not to disturb the other ponies, her little purple bag clutched in both hands.

“Roger,” Twilight started “is Lilly always that… inquisitive?” Maybe it was the way she said it but Twilight couldn’t throw off a suspicion of Lilly’s motive behind asking about the portal.

“Don’t worry Twilight, Lilly may not be someone you’re used to, but she’s got her heart in the right place.”

“Do you know what’s in the bag she’s carrying” This question was more out of personal interest then mistrust.

“No, she’s had it as long as I can remember. My wife bought it for her moving out present and ever since she’s never let it leave her side. I don’t know if you noticed, but yesterday she even held on to it despite having the daylights scared out of her.” Twilight decided to let Lilly’s questions go and joined her friends in the breakfast spread. Roger sat patiently watching as he rubbed his full stomach. When the ponies had finished and the dishes had been put away, Twilight found herself the center of a barrage of questions.

“So, what’s the plan with Lilly?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“She didn’t scream when I woke her up, which is a good sign I suppose, but has she decided to help us? Applejack added.

“How about it Twilight?” Pinkie chimed in. “Just say the word and I’ll get to work on some great things for you four to do!”

“Us four?” Twilight said. “What do you mean us four?”

“Well darling it’s not just you working the magic.” Rarity said playfully, if not a little flatter than her usual tone. “If Lilly’s going to help us then I’m going to need to be her friend as much as you, and of course Roger will be doing this with us.”

“Now wait, when did you girls decide all this?” Twilight asked.

“Well just before breakfast actually.” Applejack said. “We figured to get your magic at it’s fullest you would need all the help you could get.” Twilight thought this over; Applejack did have a point. No connection means no magical help from Lilly, and any boost from Roger just might…” But before she could finish her thought Lilly returned from her phone call, her purple bag gripped in both hands.

“OK,” she said. “When are we going to try and do this?” she asked Twilight and Roger as the other ponies stayed silent in frustration of being interrupted before Twilight could give an answer.

“Dose that question mean you’ll help us?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, I believe it does.” Something was off about Lilly’s voice, Twilight couldn’t put a hoof on it but something had changed about Lilly since yesterday. “So do we just sit in a circle sing kumbaya and summon this thing or what?”

“Well it’s not that simple,” Twilight said, taking note of Lilly’s tone. “The principle we’re going to be exploiting is our attachment to each other. Somehow we need to build a bond before we can actually start the spell or your presence will do us no good.” Lilly clutched her bag a little tighter, Twilight couldn’t tell if it was out of nervousness or…

“So you need to cast a bonding spell and then the portal spell?”

“No, there is no bonding spell, we need to become friends.”

“Really, that’s it? Ok we’re friends let’s go do this.” Twilight chuckled a little when Lilly said this, thinking it was a kind of joke. But when Lilly said nothing more Twilight stifled the giggle.

“It’s not that easy, Rarity and I need to feel a connection to you.”

“And how exactly are we going to do that?” Twilight nodded toward Pinkie and a giant smile spread its way across the pink mare’s face as she rushed outside.

“If there’s anypony that knows how to make friends it’s Pinkie Pie.”

“Alright… so how long is this going to take exactly? I’m due back to my job in a few days so I can’t stay forever.”

“Well it depends,” Twilight said, heading toward the door motioning for everypony to follow her. “If I know Pinkie it won’t take too long, but there’s a lot to do for sure. Even the most casual friendships take time to build.”

“You’re starting to sound like a Saturday morning cartoon special.” Lilly said jokingly. Twilight didn’t know what she meant by that, but it didn’t help to quell the feeling of distrust she had. This is no way to make friends with somepony, she told herself. How could she become friends with Lilly when she didn’t trust her? But there was something strange about Lilly, Twilight wished she could figure out what it was.

When the group walked outside they found Pinkie tracing a little circle in the dirt with a stick. A chair had been positioned facing the circle about a foot away from its edge. When Pinkie finished her circle she trotted up to Twilight and explained what she was supposed to do.

“It’s called a trust fall,” Pinkie said, her voice still lacking its usually perk. “One of you stands on the chair and falls back into the hooves of the other. Any good friendship is based on trust so this will give a foundation for everything else I have planned.” Twilight translated this all to Lilly as Pinkie said it causing Lilly to clench her bag even tighter in her right hand.

“Everything else?” Lilly said. “How long can it take to be friends with someone, is this really necessary?”

“In all honesty no,” Twilight replied, “but if we want the best possible chance of getting the portal to work in the shortest amount of time this is how we’re going to do it.” Twilight highly doubted Lilly wanted to take the time they would need to form an authentic friendship, and she doubted even more that her friends would be willing to wait while that friendship grew. Lilly looked to Pinkie’s simple drawing in the dirt with slight concern she attempted to mask with a smile.

“How are you going to catch me?” she asked Twilight.

“What do you mean? Just like Pinkie said I’ll stand behind you and…”

“I know how it’s supposed to work, it’s just… you’re kind of… small compared to me. Standing in that little circle you’re not going to be able to stop me from falling until I’m parallel to the ground. And even then only if your back can support my body weight.”

“I’m not going to catch you with my back,” Twilight said smiling a little. “I’ll use my magic.” Twilight lit up her horn to emphasize her point, but Lilly started to shift uncomfortably on her heels.

“Are you sure you can do that? I mean I don’t want to be rude but you said your magic wasn’t working at full strength, that’s the whole reason we’re doing this in the first place. How do I know it’s safe?”

“Well if your scared hun I’ll go first, I’ve got faith in Twilight.” Roger said.

“You’re doing this too dad?” Lilly said.

“Well of course, they need to be friends with me too.”

“Rarity and I will go first,” Twilight interjected. “We’re already friends with each other so we’ll just get that out of the way and see for ourselves if we can do this with only our magic or not.” Twilight trotted over to the circle and instructed Rarity to climb onto the chair. With only minimal effort and surprisingly lax protest she managed to position herself so she was standing on her back hooves facing away from Twilight. Using the back of the chair to steady herself.

“Twilight, promise me if you fail to catch me you’ll at least stop me from falling in the dirt, I’m dirty enough as it is.” Twilight promised and lit up her horn as a cue for Rarity to fall. Rarity straightened her fore hooves against the backing of the chair and pushed herself backward. As it became clear she had passed the threshold of being able to stop herself, Twilight pushed against her with her magic. Rarity came to a stop slightly above Twilight’s horn looking up at the sky.

“You ok Rarity?” Twilight asked.

“I must admit I was a little frightened for a second there, but now that I think about it this is a rather comfortable view.” Twilight gently lowered Rarity to the ground and stopped her magic. She had meant to turn Rarity right side up but found herself already pushing her magic slightly beyond where she wanted it. As Rarity flipped herself over and stood, Twilight climbed onto the chair. Standing on her back hooves was the difficult part, and once she had her balance she found herself enjoying the new perspective from this height.

“Alright Twilight, you can push off now.” Rarity said lighting up her horn. Twilight complied and sailed backwards only to be stopped at roughly a seventy-degree angle from the ground. Twilight could barely feel Rarity’s magic holding her up, giving her almost a feeling of weightlessness she found herself enjoying. After being lowered to the ground Twilight stood and turned to Roger.

“Would you like to go next?” She asked him, hoping the reassurance of seeing her father take the fall would ease Lilly into it. Roger agreed and stepped up onto the chair.

“Now Twilight I’m a bit bigger then Rarity, so please account for this when I… well… don’t drop me.” Twilight gave him the signal and Roger fell back, letting out a small shriek when Twilight stopped him with her magic. Roger was much harder to stop then Rarity and Twilight was glad when she had finally set him down but was proud of how little it fatigued her. Maybe it was the fact that most of the magic she had attempted since arrival on Earth had fallen flat, but this small accomplishment felt like a milestone to her goal.

Roger caught Twilight without incident and Rarity had little trouble catching or being caught by him. All that was left was Lilly. Lilly tentatively made her way to the chair and stepped up onto it. After a slight wobble Twilight saw she was still holding her little bag.

“Aren’t you going to set that down first?” Twilight asked. Lilly shook her head and clenched the bag tighter.

“I’d like to keep it with me, whenever you’re ready I guess.” She said turning to face the other way. Twilight gave the signal and Lilly let out a high pitch shriek on par with her original screaming the night before. Twilight caught her and lowered her to the ground, out of the corner of her eye she saw Lilly held the bag even after Twilight had climbed onto the chair. Without bothering to question it she fell backwards and felt a slight twist of fear when the sky zoomed past her view.

Lilly caught Twilight slightly lower then parallel to the ground and balanced her precariously as one hand still clutched the bag. Lilly tried to set Twilight down but her hand slipped inches above the ground dropping Twilight on her flank. When it was Rarity’s turn this repeated. The magic caught the screaming Lilly and Lilly fumbled Rarity just above the ground.

“I’m sorry,” Lilly said in a tone that seemed genuine. “I’m not used to catching ponies.” Yet somehow Twilight couldn’t help but notice the way Lilly squeezed her bag when she said this.