Doctor Tangled Web is a brilliant arcanist. It's just too bad he's so bored.

One day, he creates a spell for dimensional viewing. He searches through dimensions until he finds an interesting one, a steampunk fantasy dystopia (that is not Dishonored). Later, he decides that simply watching the guardsmen and their adventures is not enough.

He's swapping places with one of them. So Doctor Tangled Web, a Canterlot native who moved out, becomes a Senior Materium Defender of London, and must evade detection as long as possible, all while having an enjoyable vacation and climbing the ranks of the esteemed Defenders, the law enforcement of modern Earth.

By contrast, Senior Materium Defender Phillip Johnson finds himself stranded in a colorful land of ponies and friendship, with no oppressive government, no murder investigations and no aetheric amenities. Luckily, Doctor Tangled Web left an extensive library behind, all of which focuses on Phillip Johnson's acclimation while the good doctor is away on vacation. He's got some reading to do, to say the least.

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Yeah, so it's been a year and, in my various misadventures in life, I decided I actually want to create something. I've been assembling bits and pieces of this for some time with the goal of a story in mind, but it wasn't until recently that everything came together just so for this idea to work. I've got someone to prod me if I stop working, someone to edit and somebody to check those pesky facts, though if them or I miss something please tell us. I'll tag stuff as it becomes relevant. Arcanist essentially translates to magical scientists, like Starswirl the Bearded. I actually could not find (and neither could my team) the word for this in My Little Pony, and they seem to think 'arcanist' works fine.