Inter-Something Gateway
As far as Flurry was concerned, the best part of Canterlot was seeing Aunt Twilight, while the best part of Ponyville was that it wasn’t Canterlot.
Sure, getting to see her other aunts and Sunburst was great—especially Sunburst!—but after Aunt Twilight, Uncle Spike, Grandma, and Grandpa, there just wasn’t anything fun in Canterlot. But Ponyville always seemed to have something new and exciting going on. A new building going up, a new monster knocking one down, or even just Aunt Pinkie experimenting with a new cupcake and needing taste testers.
Ponies waved as they went by, and Flurry waved back. Ponyville was a town where ponies weren't supposed to care that you were an alicorn, like Manehattan. Unlike Manehattan, nopony yelled at Flurry because her wings were "hogging the sidewalk." As Mom and Dad trotted with her to the crystal castle—another point for Ponyville; at least it had one proper building—Flurry could almost pretend she wasn’t in trouble. It lurked in the back of her mind, sure, but she could focus on the happy ponies surrounding her instead.
And when they got to the castle, she found somepony even better to focus on.
“Sunburst!” The moment she saw him in the entry hall, she took off and raced towards him, forelegs outstretched.
“Flurry!" The breath whuffed out of him as she gave him a hug. A very high-speed hug, but he deserved it. He was Sunburst after all, the best pony in the history of Equestria. "Oof. Goodness, you’ve grown.”
Flurry pulled back, spitting out red-orange hairs. “So has your beard.”
Sunburst smiled, running a hoof through the hair going down to his chest. “I’m trying it out. I think it makes me look distinguished.”
Heavy hoofsteps made Flurry look to the main staircase at the mare tottering down it. “Trixie thinks you look like an even more desperate Star Swirl cosplayer than usual.” Aunt Trixie, who would be Miss Great and Powerful Trixie if she were on stage but here just looked weird without wearing her cape or suit or anything, gave Flurry a nod. "Hey there, Menace. Explode anything lately?"
Flurry giggled. “Hi, Aunt Trixie! You grew too.”
“Ugh." Aunt Trixie rubbed her round belly as she took the last stair. "I’m not the one doing the growing. You may not be ‘Menace’ for much longer the way it’s going. Don’t know why I agreed to this.”
“Starlight won the bet,” Sunburst said as he moved to her side, kissing her cheek.
“More like she cheated. I stacked that deck fair and square!”
Mom and Dad walked up. Mom put on the little smile she had when she was being polite. “Trixie.”
Aunt Trixie didn't bother. “Cadence. Sparkle-colt.”
“Really?” said Dad.
Mom nudged him with a wing. “Let her be, dear. She’s snarking for two."
"I might be okay with that if she acted any differently when she wasn't pregnant."
That got him another wing nudge. "Have you thought about a name?”
"We're thinking something traditional," said Sunburst. "Gleam, Shine, Luster, along those lines."
Flurry settled in for a long, boring grown-up talk. They'd probably end up talking about her punishment, so she'd pay attention, but she'd still rather do just about anything else.
“You got our letter?” said Dad.
"Your little message flake nearly flew down Trixie's throat at breakfast, but yes."
“Starlight’s in the quaternary library getting everything set up." Sunburst started up the stairs. "Follow me.”
Walking helped with the boredom, even if they had to go slow for Aunt Trixie.
"Trixie still thinks you could just have Menace talk to Diamond Tiara."
Sunburst gave her the same look Flurry used to get when asking for a third bedtime story. "Just because you've been banned from Barnyard Bargains for life doesn't mean the rest of us want to join you."
"Then she can talk to Trixie. There are plenty of ponies with experience in getting over their entitlement without getting that one involved."
Mom shook her head. "We did consider a few other options, you included, but we think she's the best choice after talking to Flurry."
The chill, chased away by the warm friendliness of Ponyville, came back in force. "Who's 'that one'?" said Flurry.
"Don't worry, Menace," said Aunt Trixie, making Flurry worry more, "you'll find out soon enough. Though Trixie still thinks this is overkill. And she's not just saying that because she's been blamed for enough interdimensional incidents as it is."
Sunburst gave her a funny look. “You were responsible for them.”
Aunt Trixie stuck out her tongue at him. “Trixie refuses to be responsible for anything outside of work hours.”
Flurry tilted her head. “Inter-what-now?”
"Royal pardon!" Aunt Trixie half-sang, her usual answer for stories she didn't want to tell Flurry. She usually pranced a bit when she said it, but with her belly bulging the way it was, that wasn't happening.
Sunburst turned back to Flurry, and the chill got even worse as he frowned. “I have to say, Flurry, I heard what you did, and I am not pleased with what you did with your classmate.”
Flurry felt her wings droop to the floor. “B-but—”
He shook his head. “I don't want to rub your nose in it while you're already being punished, but I still don't want you thinking it's acceptable behavior.”
Even Sunburst's disappointment wasn't enough to overwhelm the question nopony would answer. “What is my punishment?”
Sunburst turned his eyes forward and just kept walking. “You’ll see.”
Flurry took to the air, hovering in front of him. “That’s what Mom and Dad said!”
Pinkish magic dragged her onto Aunt Trixie's back. “Got to build up the anticipation, Menace. Otherwise there’s no weight to the reveal.” As Flurry fluttered off of her, Aunt Trixie rubbed her belly. “This one understands that much.”
Flurry didn’t say anything more until they reached one of the palace’s many libraries. She didn’t sulk, she just didn’t have anything to say to ponies who couldn’t give her a straight answer. Once they were in the library, she saw Aunt Starlight fiddling with a bunch of gadgets and gizmos surrounding a mirror.
Well, it might be a mirror. There was glass in a frame, but Aunt Starlight was standing right in front of it and Flurry didn’t see her on the other side. She didn't see the bookshelves behind her, either.
“The Menace arrived, Starlight,” said Aunt Trixie.
Aunt Starlight blinked and shook her head. “I guess time flies when you're calibrating portals." She waved to everypony in general. "Shining, Cadence. Hey there, Flurry.”
“Hi, Aunt Starlight." Flurry landed by her side and looked up at the whatever-it-was. "What’s this thing?”
“The mirror?” Aunt Starlight pulled a lever, sending all the stuff around the apparently-a-mirror to whirring and grinding. “It’s how you’re getting to your punishment.”
“Huh?” Flurry took a few steps back, watching magic build through all the different parts, the glow building along with the tingle in her horn until two giant globs of magic smacked into the glass, making a swirling ripple like the surface of a pond that couldn't stay still.
After a few moments of watching it, she turned back to Aunt Starlight. "Huh?"
Aunt Starlight just swept a foreleg towards the ripple. “Step on through.”
“But why?”
"It's where the mare who'll be looking after you lives," said Sunburst. "Far away in another world."
“Call it a tradition," Mom added. "Misbehaving princesses get banished. The way your graunties tell it, Star Swirl was very serious about time outs.”
“But, but…” Flurry looked around the room, not seeing anypony who looked like they’d be willing to help her. Unless…
She opened her eyes wide, bit her lip, and sniffled at the one pony she knew she could always count on, no matter what. “D-daddy?”
He shook his head. “It’s for your own good, sweetie.”
A quick pivot had her facing the other one pony she knew she could always count on. “Sunburst?”
Sunburst didn't even bother with the headshake. “That stopped working after your fourth birthday, Flurry.”
Flurry dropped the pout and stomped a hoof. “Shoot.”
“Come on, Flurry," said Aunt Starlight, "it's just for the weekend. Take it from me, it’s worse if you drag it out.”
After a few more thoughtful moments, Flurry heaved a big sigh. “Okaaaay. I just gotta walk through it?”
That got a nod. “That’s right.”
“Okay. See you soo—” Midword, Flurry pivoted on a hoof and galloped for the library’s door, only for sky-blue magic to lift her up and leave her wings pinned and legs scrambling on air. “Moooom! No fair!”
“So just because I’m a princess doesn’t that mean I can do what I want?”
Flurry sighed as she took in the smirk on Mom's muzzle. “Can I just say 'I get it' now?”
“This will be good for you, dear. And it is only for a weekend. Have fun!”
"I thought it was supposed to be a punishment."
Mom winked. "You'll see."
And before Flurry could say anything else, Mom tossed her into the ripple. Rather than smack into the mirror, Flurry kept going, surrounded by twisting rainbows and flashing lights that made every magic sense she had go nuts. She couldn't tell if she was spinning in every direction, or if she was the one thing in the world that was actually holding still.
Eventually, things started getting less crazy than more. By the time Flurry could tell up from down again, she found herself staring up at the clouds. Which didn’t make any kind of sense. Wasn’t she still in the castle?
“Hey there. You must be Flurry Heart. Heard a lot about you.”
The unfamiliar voice made her blink and sit up. Everything felt… weird. Not painful, but nothing like it should. A glimpse of something in the corner of Flurry’s eye made her pause. She tried shifting a foreleg, and the thing slipped by again. Slowly, almost (almost!) fearfully, Flurry turned to face it.
It wriggled. It twitched. It was a very familiar shade of pink. And as Flurry followed it to its source, she realized that under the dress she hadn't been wearing a minute ago, it was attached to her.
“Ahhhhh!”
“Yeah, that’s a pretty typical reaction.”
Flurry tore her gaze away from her warped foreleg to see some orange monster looming over her, with a missing muzzle and hair like flames and more wriggly mini-hooves coming out of her legs.
“AHHHHHHH!”
The monster… just stood there. Probably stunned by Flurry’s ferocious battle cry. Though the way it sighed made it seem less than completely terrified. “Less typical, but still more so than I’d like." It pressed some mini-hooves against its mini-snout and rubbed it. "Really wish Fluttershy were here right now.”
“Y-you know Aunt Fluttershy?” Aunt Fluttershy definitely had some strange and even scary friends, but they behaved themselves. Usually.
“Both of them," the monster said, like that was something that made sense. "Not surprised nopony mentioned me, though. Your whole family has a bad record with that kind of thing." It laughed for some reason. "No offense."
"Wait, you're..." Flurry hesitated and realized that nopony ever had mentioned the name of the mare who'd be taking care of her. "Um, 'that one'?"
That got the monster to smile. She was actually kind of pretty, in a weird, flat-faced kind of way. "I see you met Trixie. I'm Sunset Shimmer. It's nice to meet you." She reached towards Flurry with those grasping mini-hooves. "Come on, up you get.”
“What are you—” Flurry watched in fascinated horror as Miss Sunset wrapped their mini-hooves together, then pulled until Flurry had reared up. “Wh-whoa…” Sunset let go, leaving Flurry to wave her forelegs for balance until she realized she didn't actually need to.
Flurry looked herself over. The dress reminded her of one Aunt Rarity had made for her, the same colors as her mane with enough frills to keep Aunt Rarity from trying to add more. This one went down to her knees, and below it her hind hooves were completely covered by really weird looking shoes with little wings on the heels.
It took a few tries to get that much; Flurry's attention kept drifting back to the awful mini-hooves coming out of her fetlocks. she looked back at Miss Sunset, who was dressed up like a business stallion in jacket and pants and even a tie with a two-tone sun on it. Flurry felt her face, feeling bumps and smooth patches that made her more sure of the horrible truth. “A-am I…”
Miss Sunset nodded. "Same creature as me, yeah. It's part of what the portal does. Welcome to Earth, Flurry Heart. You're going to be human for the next few days."
Flurry didn't scream again, but she did think about it.
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I can absolutely believe that Trixie would think calling her out on cheating was cheating. And then ignore the fact that she was the one who was actually cheating.
Okay, now I'm curious, what the hay did Sunset do to Trixie?!
Oh, so it's nothing personal...
Also, glad you didnt leave it on a cliff hanger just as Flurry went through.
I think this is the first time I've seen someone refer to fingers as 'mini-hooves.' That's actually a great way to put it for a laypony. Not that Flurry's a laypony, but you get the point (badum tss).
Sorry
Gonna need to work a little harder than that to make an escape, kiddo. Shoulda tried teleportation. Or smoke bombs.
And yea, Flurry, prepare to be a muggle for a few days. And be nice to Sunset, you hear? She's doing you a favor.
REALLY good job on the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up in all the right places. Certainly appreciated the work that went into Flurry's view as the adults sent her to Sunset's adopted universe as well as the dialogues between the adults.
Most assuredly looking forward to more of this.
I'm wondering how well Cadence explained things, or if Sunset's gonna go "You sent your kid to turn into a magicless being for a whole weekend, just because of a cookie?!"
...
Nice chapter titles! I wonder what the next mangled phrase is gonna be!
Trixie being the one to call someone else Menace is a pretty bold move on her part, but I suppose that's what she's known for.
oh, been a long time since I felt this about one of your stories. I don't care for this. I have no problem with a no magic time out in another dimension. I just don't think you send a child into a strange world alone. Either Sunset should have come through to escort her, or Shining and/or Cadance walk though and drop her off so to speak
Is Sunset the principal? You love to see it.
Luster Dawn being Trixie's daughter rather than Starlight's was unexpected, but I have to admit, it makes sense considering the colour schemes. I mean, if Sunburst is the father, then you'd think that Starlight's daughter would be a lighter shade than her, not a darker one.
To be fair, if I suddenly discovered I was spending a weekend with Sunset Shimmer, I'd scream too. Maybe not for exactly the same reasons, but I'd definitely scream.
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One theory could be Trixie attended Celestia's school at the same time as Sunset, got a feeling the old Sunset might have had issues with the egotistical Illusionist attending a school for "real" magic users and gotten Trixie kicked out or did something that made Trixie quit. I mean Imagine your Sunset, your Celestia's personal student with massive magic powe in all areas of magic and a Stage Magician with some talent with Illusion is going around calling her self Great and Powerful? Putting her self on YOUR level?
Could also explain why Trixie was so bent on revenge aginst Twilight, the Princess's previous student haveing driven her from a prestigious school and then then new one utterly humiliates you with a display of raw magical talent? It's like the wound being torn open again.
We know why Twilight has friction with Trixie, Twilight is very humble and didn't want to show off. But she had to clean up Trixie's mess, then the next time she saw her Trixie I causing havoc with a dark magic artifact and again Twilight had to clean up the mess?
... I mean, that's not unfair.
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True, with Sunset and Trixie, it'd be a battle of egos. Problem is Sunset was both egotistical and smart.
10992577
Obligatory reminder that the moniker of "Great and Powerful" originates with the eponymous "wizard" of Oz, who earns those scare quotes by being a stage magician with no actual magic thrust into a world full of it.
I'm loving this
I can't wait to see what awaits Flurry when she embarks on her epic journey alongside Sunset.
Also, continuity is important, never be afraid to establish that
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And of course by the time he genuinely is a powerful and respected wizard in Oz he's dropped the title entirely. (Although he never really stops being an entertainer.)
“AHHHHHHH!"
(What? It's been a hell of a week? It kinda helped letting that out.)
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I can see that 😂🙂🤭
Hahahaha!
I’m excited to see what’s coming next! Hope you get back to this soon.
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I hope an hour and a half later was soon enough!
Banishment to a non-magical world (for the weekend) is an exceedingly good way to give Flurry some perspective on what it's like not being in power and/or an alicorn.
Ahhh banishment. The traditional punishment for princesses. I’m now imagining some seldom used section of the equestrian law books outlining combinations of banishment periods and locations for various crimes and misdemeanors.
Did she seriously just call Flurry a menace just now!!!
Seriously, I mean seriously!?!?!?
Wow, I was kinda expecting Starlight would be married to Sunburst, but not Trixie tbh.
So that explains why she was brought here in the first place. Boy I sure am glad I decided to give this story a try cause now it's getting good!
grabs popcorn
Yep, you'll get the hang of it Flurry.
Pats shoulder
Seeing for Badum's stuff, Starlight sent herself into the prehistoric past, Luster being Trixie's daughter fits. It's also nice to see people not just cheap out and use what the series finally supposedly showed.
Also. Flurry's reaction is perfectly normal. Auntie Twilight would be proud.