To Be A Master

by Someguy458

(1) — It's A Whole New World

"Remind me again why you woke us up so early?" Rarity yawned to Twilight as the Elements of Harmony gathered in the Castle of Friendship.

AJ supplied a yawn of her own. "Land sakes, Twilight, not even Ah usually gittup this early..."

Twilight smiled meekly. "Sorry, girls; I just couldn't sleep once I hit this breakthrough."

"Mind telling us WHAT this breakthrough IS?" Rainbow Dash drowsily retorted.

Pinkie jumped up and down excitedly, seemingly unaffected by the early hour. "Are we going somewhere fun?!"

"You could say that," Twilight relented.

Fluttershy grumbled, "Twilight, you'd better tell us what this is about, or Celestia help me..."

Everypony else stared at the usually pleasant mare. They'd heard of ponies getting moody when tired, but this one was quite the surprise.

The Princess cleared her throat. "Alright, do you girls remember those times I went to that alternate dimension where Sunset Shimmer lives?" Everypony nodded, so she continued, "Well, that all got me thinking: What if there are other dimensions out there?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "So lemme guess: you went full egghead-mode, and researched non-stop since then."

Twilight scoffed. "It wasn't non-stop! I got a whole 3 hours of sleep!"

Rainbow simply rolled her eyes.

"Anyways, I checked every book there is on quantum mechanics and parallel dimension theory, and I think I've figured out something." She stepped aside to show off the Mirror Portal, which was still outfitted with the mechanisms that made her return trip to Canterlot High possible. "Since this portal is already linked to another dimension, it figures that it would only take an extra bit of power to link to a different one."

Rarity pointed out, "But won't that mean that the original link gets severed?"

The Princess of Friendship shook her head. "Sunset's Journal should keep the connection."

The group murmured in acceptance.

Twilight's horn lit up. "Now, then, are you girls ready to visit a completely new dimension, unseen by pony-kind?"

Pinkie nearly exploded with excitement. "Ooh, YES! I've always wanted to visit another dimension; this'll be just like my stories!"

Twilight decided not to ask. Instead, she powered up her horn further, then siphoned that energy into the Portal. The machine did its thing, while Twilight's magic redirected the Portal's destination to somewhere other than Sunset's dimension. The Mirror warbled to life with that signature rippling effect, and once it settled into a stable state, Twilight could safely stop supplying extra power.

"Alright, it should be set." Twilight couldn't help but prance in place giddily. "I know this isn't very scientific of me, but I'm too excited, so let's just jump in!"

The others hesitantly looked at each other. "Ah dunno," AJ began nervously.

But her words fell on deaf ears as Twilight excitedly jumped through. Everypony held their breath in anticipation, waiting for any sign that the experiment had worked.

Several minutes passed. Pinkie fainted from holding her breath too long. Spike was considering jumping in after Twilight.

Finally, a rock came tumbling back through the Portal. The group sighed in relief, thankful that Twilight was still okay.

And so, with only a moment's hesitation further, they all stepped through the Portal.

---

Applejack stumbled out of the Portal first, finding herself in a thick forest. She heard the others arrive behind her, but didn't actually look; she was too busy dealing with the wave of nausea that'd overcome her.

Once that passed, she attempted to get up—

Only to find that she was already standing. Odd, she thought, why'm Ah still so close to the ground? And— hey, what's on mah head?

AJ felt for her face with a forelimb; indeed, there was something that felt like bone covering her entire head.

Then AJ realized that her forelimb had digits now.

"What in tarnation...?" She mumbled to herself, staring at the tan limb that was once her front right hoof.

Then Rarity screamed, "OH, SWEET CELESTIA!"

AJ turned at the sound, but froze when she saw what Rarity was screaming about.

They'd all transformed when they entered the portal. That much was to be somewhat expected, seeing as how Twilight said she always transformed when she visited Sunset's world.

But it was WHAT they'd each transformed into that was so concerning.

AJ had become a strange, 1' 4" biped with a skull adorning her head, and claws on her digits.

Rainbow Dash had become a 1' 8" eaglet, with a rainbow-colored feather on her forehead.

Fluttershy had become a 1' 4" bird with cottony wings and no discernible neck.

Pinkie Pie was now a 1' 4" ball of floating fluff with a tail and legs. That was it. No arms, no nothing.

Spike was now one of the tallest of the group, a 2' tall, bipedal, dragon-ish creature with a small fire burning on the end of his tail.

But Rarity's transformation was the most amusing of them all. Instead of the prim-and-proper fashionista she usually was, she was now a 1' tall caterpillar with a leaf headdress and six stubby limbs.

And she was having an absolute FIT about it. "What in Equestria happened to me?!" She exclaimed. "My fabulously kempt fur is gone; replaced by this– this THING!"

Fluttershy looked at herself and stated, "Oh my..." Then she felt her wing with her newfound beak, and decided to nuzzle into her cotton-y wings.

Rainbow looked at herself. "Aw, nuts. Well, at least I can still fly..."

Pinkie looked at herself, then started doing mid-air cartwheels with a strange amount of practiced ease. "Wheee! This is so much fun!"

Spike looked at himself, then pumped his fist in excitement. "Sweet! I'm not a dog again!"

Rainbow blinked. "What do you mean, 'again'?"

Spike blushed, turning his already reddish skin even redder. "N-nothing..."

Then Twilight's voice asked, "You girls alright?" Everyone turned to see their friend, and gasped.

She seemed Equine enough, but there were just some things off about it, like the proportions. She'd become an off-white color, with fluffy magenta-streaked hair and a dark horn, but no wings to speak of.

Everyone marveled at her. "Twilight?!" Rainbow Dash asked. "No fair, you barely changed!"

"Hey, don't blame me," she defended, "I didn't choose these forms!"

"Well, neither did we!" Rainbow retorted.

"Don't look at me!" Rarity exclaimed, trying and failing to cover her face with her stubby limbs. "I'm hideous!"

"Rarity, nopony cares whatcha look like," Applejack pointed out, "since all o' us're in th' same boat as ya."

"That's easy for you to say," Rarity shot back, "you already have something covering your face!"

Fluttershy took the opportunity to look at AJ, then nearly fainted. "Is that a skull you're wearing!?"

Everypony else gasped, including AJ. The farmpony quickly grabbed the headpiece and took it off, then—

Applejack stopped when she saw everyone else's expressions. They seemed frozen in fear by... By her face?

She put the skull back on, and the others unfroze, shivering. "You know what?" Rarity stated, "I think I'm alright with my form now."

Everypony else nodded in agreement; Applejack grumbled in offense.

"Girls!" Twilight scolded, "We shouldn't be arguing like this! This is a whole new world we're in, and the first thing you want to do here is fight? Shame on you!"

AJ and Rarity looked down dejectedly. "Sorry, Twilight."

She nodded contently. "Good. Now, let's —"

But whatever she was about to say, it was interrupted by a rustle in the bushes. The group fell silent, gathering together for safety as an unknown creature approached.

A large yellow rat with a lightning-shaped tail leapt out of the bushes, then froze when it saw the group.

Twilight blinked. "Huh, I was imagining something more threatening."

The rat gasped, "Pika?!", then rushed back into the bushes. Everypony looked on confusedly.

Then the rat came back, a young human boy in tow. "What is it, Pikachu?" he asked.

"Pika Pika Pi!" the rat chittered, pointing at the group.

The kid looked up, and gasped. "Woah, that's a lot of rare Pokémon!"

"Wha?" Fluttershy vocalized.

The kid turned his hat backwards, declaring, "I'm gonna catch 'em all! Go, Pikachu!"

Pikachu jumped forward, a determined look on its face. "Pika!"

And with that, the first fight of their visit began.

Comments

[Nitro Indigo]

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "So lemme guess: you went full egghead-mode, and researched non-stop since then."

Twilight scoffed. "It wasn't non-stop! I got a whole 3 hours of sleep!"

Rainbow simply rolled her eyes.

HA!

This first chapter was... decent. The banter between the Mane 6 was characterful, but it’s odd that the were so willing to abandon all their commitments without question. The illustrations are cute, but they’d look better as the cover than embedded between the text.

So far, there’s not much to set this apart from other Pokémon crossovers, except that the characters who were transformed into Pokémon don’t seem to understand them automatically. In particular, the setup reminds me of a fic called Rescuers of Harmony, which also involves all the Mane 6 being turned into Pokémon after Twilight summons a portal, including Pinkie Pie becoming a Swirlix.

Also, Rufflet is always male. Have I read enough Starscribe to know where this is going, or...?

[Someguy458]

10691290

Rufflet is always male

I actually completely missed that; that gives me SO MANY IDEAS!

Edit: Well, it gives me an idea.

[SonicStreak5344]

It's Ash and Pikachu. The dynamic duo of the anime show. I wonder what adventure Ash is gonna get dragged into! Train to be the very best!

[Lex the Pikachu]

I don't like that you call Pikachu a rat, its a mouse pokemon. Ratatta and Raticate, now they are rats. Also, pokemon can understand each other, so the mane6 and Spike would have understood Pikachu.