> A Twist in Evolution 3: Planewalking > by Dark Nightshade > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > The Reality Phaser > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It had been a few weeks since Twilight and the gang had gotten back from Antartica, which Smelting Scorcher spent making a few more reality phasers. It had been surprisingly difficult, mostly because he didn't have access to all of the right resources right away. But that was the past. He had finally finished his fourth reality phaser. They were rectangular, with knobs and a hole to create and project a portal to the other planes. Smelting Scorcher had gathered the group to talk to them about how they worked. "All you have to do it twist the knob on the left to tune the machine to another plane," he was saying. "And use the knob on the right to lock onto it. All portals, while locked, will go to that plane." "And how many planes are there?" Submersive Exploration asked. Smelting Scorcher shrugged, his torn black shirt rising and falling with his shoulders. His bronze colored shorts were covered in small tools, hanging on with small hooks. "I have no idea," he said. "There could be hundreds, there could be ten. Hopefully, there aren't that much for the pale brown man to be in." "Do you know what kind of creatures we could meet in these other planes?" Twilight asked. Smelting Scorcher shook his head. "They could be anything," he said. "Although I'm guessing that they might be humanoid. Honestly, these things haven't been tested yet, and I don't know what could be in these other planes." Twilight looked nervous when Smelting Scorcher said that. "Wait, these haven't been tested yet?" she asked. Smelting Scrocher shook his head. "Nope!" he said. "But don't worry, these are slightly more advanced versions of the same thing that the pale brown man stole from our tribe, and that one had been tested. That one worked, so these ones should also work!" Twilight still looked nervous but nodded anyway. "Ok, if you're sure about it," she said. "I am," Smelting Scorcher said. "Mostly. Now, we should probably start our adventure, right?" The rest of the group nodded. "Good. And Twilight, you're sure that it's ok for you to be gone from your school? We don't know how long we'll be gone, and we don't know if time works differently on these other planes." Twilight nodded. "Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna don't like it, but yes, they're ok with what we're doing," Twilight said. "Now, before we go, everyone needs to have their bags, ok?" Smelting Scorcher nodded. "Me and Ethereal Whisper also need our house coats," he said. Ethereal Whisper nodded and Rarity sighed. "They look so good when they are a part of you, but as coats, they don't look very good," she said. Smelting Scorcher shrugged. "Sometimes function is better than fashion," he said. "Yeah, you know how true that is," Ethereal Whisper said. "He does have a point, though," Broiling Striker said. She was wearing white pants and a red shirt. "Anyway, Submersive Exploration and I will get the travel bags. Are you sure the reality phasers will work?" Smelting Scorcher nodded. "Don't worry, I'm as sure that they will work as we are incompatible," he said. Broiling Striker's face erupted in a furious blush, and Submersive Exploration made an explanation of disgust. Everyone else reacted pretty much the same way. "Why would you say that?!" Submersive Exploration asked. She was wearing light green pants and a purple shirt. "That's my mom! WHY?!" "Hey, calm down, that was just a example," Smelting Scorcher said. "Me and your mom aren't fooling around. Although I wouldn't say no to that." "This is why you aren't in a relationship," Broiling Striker said as Submersive Exploration covered her ears and groaned. "I'm going to go start getting the travel bags," she said. She stared at Smelting Scorcher. "And you'd better stop it with saying that." As she headed up the stairs, Smelting Scorcher yelled out "I'm sorry!" After a few awkward seconds, Twilight cleared her throat. "Well, anyway, now that that's over, can we get back to our plan?" she asked. Smelting Scorcher nodded. "Right, sorry," he said. "We all set the reality phasers knobs to the same position." "Or we could all just enter through the same portal," Ethereal Whisper said. That wasn't the first time she had mentioned that idea. "Yeah, but it would be better if we had different devices," Smelting Scorcher said. "For multiple reasons." "I know, but we could just use the one portal," Ethereal Whisper said. She was wearing a pale blue shirt and midnight blue shorts. "I know, but we should use each device to make sure that they all work," Smelting Scorcher said. "Now, everyone get into your groups, and I'll hand out a reality phaser to each one." Flash was paired with Ethereal Whisper, Twilight was paired with Smelting Scorcher, Rarity was paired with Broiling Striker, and Sunset Shimmer was paired with Submersive Exploration. Speaking of Submersive Exploration, she had gathered all the backpacks at the top of the stairs to the basement, and was dragging them down, each backpack weighed down with food, rope, pepper spray and a knife, and a sleeping bag. Sunset Shimmer started to help as Submersive Exploration got the first two down. Almost a minute later, everyone had their travel bags, and Smelting Scorcher started handing out the reality phasers. "Now, we have no idea what could be on the other side of these portals," he started saying. "So don't freak to to badly. Also, these things should auto-translater anything we hear on the other side, so not only will we still understand English, but we will also be able to understand the first language we hear." "How?" Twilight asked. "I'll answer that later," Smelting Scorcher said. "Now, set your knobs to a fourth of the way to the right." As the group set their knobs to the directed position, Smelting Scorcher aimed his device at the wall. "Aim at a good place, and press the button above the knob." As Smelting Scorcher pressed down on his button, a ball of light shot out of the hole in the front and hit the wall. It expanded until it was large enough for a person to walk to. Three other portals opened up besides the first. As the grew, the small spaces in between them disappeared. "I didn't think that would happen," Smelting Scorcher said. "Still that's cool to know." As they looked past the portals and into the world on the other side, they noticed that it looked like a cave. "Well then, lets get this adventure started!" Sunset Shimmer said as she stepped forward. She passed through the portal and turned towards the rest of the group. She beckoned at Submersive Exploration to follow. "Come on! Let's go!" Submersive Exploration hesitantly stepped towards the portal. As she passed through it, she shivered. "It's damp," she said. "Really damp." She turned towards the rest of the group and started to beckon. "It's completely fine!" she said. Ironically, it was then that something dropped down from the roof. Whatever it was grabbed onto Submersive Exploration and popped back towards the roof. Something else grabbed onto Sunset Shimmer. It all happened so fast that no one reacted for a few seconds. Whatever it was looked strongly blue, and almost looked like some kind of slime. Finally, Rarity screamed. "Sunset Shimmer!" she yelled out. She started running towards the portal, but Broiling Striker grabbed onto her. "No! We can't go running blindly into there!" she said. "Why not?" Rarity asked, struggling to get out of her grip. "Because we don't know what took them!" Broiling Striker said. "We should at least get over there," Smelting Scorcher said. "I don't know how long the portals will remain open." As if on queue, the first one closed. "Ok, never mind!" Broiling Striker said. "Everyone through the portals!" The group started rushing towards the remaining portals. Rarity and Broiling Striker managed to get through one before it closed. The rest barely managed to get through in time. > The Slime Kingdom: Part 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The group froze for a few seconds and stared at the now empty wall. But only for a few seconds. Starting with Flash, they started looking up at the ceiling of the cave, ready to run at a moments notice. But there was nothing. There was a few seconds of confused silence. Finally, Flash spoke. "Where did they go?" he asked. "I think there's a hole up there," Smelting Scorcher said. 'What even was that?" Broiling Striker asked. She was pissed, and a little afraid for her daughter. She crossed her arms and sniffled a little. "We need to find them. And we need to punish whatever it was that took them!" "Hey, we'll find them," Smelting Scorcher said. "It'll be ok." "How do you know that?" Broiling Striker asked. "Because Sunset Shimmer still has her reality phaser," Smelting Scorcher said. "They can track each other." Broiling Striker looked up at him, skepticism clear on her face. "Your able to track her?" she asked. "Of course," Smelting Scorcher said. "I made sure that we could find each other and that they won't run out of power. They run off of solar power." "Well, that's good," Ethereal Whisper said. She shivered, her nipples standing slightly erect. "It is damp here." Broiling Striker looked at her, smiled and nodded. "Yeah, that's nice," Broiling Striker said. She turned back to Smelting Scorcher. "Ok, lead us on, then," Broiling Striker said. "I want my daughter back." Smelting Scorcher looked at his reality phaser and flipped it over. He removed a panel which revealed a screen. There were four blips on the screen. Three of them were close together. The other one was near the edge of the screen. "Now, we could have it show the path that they took to get where they are now, but since we can't get to the roof, that won't really help," Smelting Scorcher said. "Are you sure that they went through the roof?" Broiling Striker asked. Smelting Scorcher pressed a button, and the screen showed the fourth blip moving upwards, then straight, and Smelting Scorcher nodded. "Yes, I am sure," he said. "Fortunately, this has allowed a mini-map to be started." Twilight rubbed her temples. "These.....these have a mapping ability?" she asked. Smelting Scorcher nodded and smiled embarrassedly. His face turned a little red. "Yeah, that was a last minute thing," he said. "I saw you playing one of those open world video games with and decided to include a mini-map." "That is incredibly convenient," Twilight said. "Is this information shared between all reality phasers?" Smelting Scorcher nodded. "Of course," he said. "Now, I suggest that we explore this cave. I think that's a way out over there." He pointed at a section of the wall that was set back, different from the rest of the wall. "This is all supper convenient," Twilight said. Sunset Shimmer and Submersive Exploration had been pulled by something though a sort of tunnel. It was sticky and slimy, and just felt weird. After almost a minute, they stopped. They were dropped into a small room, onto a small rubbery mattress like thing. It was very liquid like. "What the hell just happened?" Sunset Shimmer asked, franticly rolling of the bed and standing up. Submersive Exploration rolled off the bed just a few seconds after Sunset Shimmer, thinking about whatever it was that had taken them. "I don't know, but whatever those things were felt kinda like water," Submersive Exploration said. Sunset Shimmer looked at Submersive Exploration. "They did, but what does that have to do with this?" Sunset Shimmer asked. Submersive Exploration rolled her eyes. "It means that the dominate species are some kind of semi-solid creatures," she said. "Dominate species?" Sunset Shimmer asked skeptically. "How do you know that they were the dominate species?" "Well, they dumped us on this water bed," Submersive Exploration said. "And it was after a lot of turns. Even if they weren't the dominate species, they were at least intelligent." Sunset Shimmer nodded. "Ok, good point," she said. "But how are we going to get back to the others? How are we going to find them?" "I don't know," Submersive Exploration said with a shrug, "But I do know that that-" she pointed at the hole in the ceiling they had fallen through. "-can't be the only exit out of here." "Well, yeah," Sunset Shimmer said. "There's a door right behind you." Submersive Exploration turned around to see that Sunset Shimmer was right-there was the outlining of a door, and what looked like a handle on the right side of it. Submersive Exploration looked at Sunset Shimmer. "You think it's unlocked?" Submersive Exploration asked. Sunset Shimmer shrugged. "There's only one way to find out," she said. She walked towards the door and pulled the handle. > The Slime Kingdom: Part 2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Smelting Scorcher squeezed through the tight gap that he had pointed out. It was a long, thin passage way that was much darker than had cave they had first been in. Smelting Scorcher still wasn't sure why that was, but he was more concerned with finding Sunset Shimmer and Submersive Exploration. Smelting Scorcher stopped again, rubbing several irritated spots that had been scrapping against the wall for a while. He looked at where they were going, seeing that it seemed lighter than behind them. "I think we're almost there," he called to the rest of the group. They stayed several feet behind him just in case something dangerous appeared. "Finally!" Ethereal Whisper exclaimed. "This is tight!" Ethereal Whisper was the second one behind Smelting Scorcher, with Broiling Striker behind Smelting Scorcher. "That's what she said," Smelting Scorcher muttered to himself as he started shuffling towards the light. "What was that?" Broiling Striker asked. "Nothing!" Smelting Scorcher called back. As he neared the light, he noticed where the light was pouring in from. He grinned. It was an exit! He shuffled forward, and tentatively peaked out of the hole. There were several bright burning torches that were in holders on the walls. There were two other ways into the room. Other than that, it was empty. Smelting Scorcher slowly moved out, eyes darting from exit to exit. As he slowly walked out into the room, Broiling Striker poked her head out from behind the passage way. "I think it's safe to come out," she said. Smelting Scorcher turned around and nodded. "I think you're right," he said. "Come on, we need to decide which way to go." As the group filed out of the tunnel, Smelting Scorcher looked at the map on the screen. "Are we closer to Submersive Exploration and Sunset Shimmer?" Broiling Striker asked. "I don't know," Smelting Scorcher said with a shrug. "The map data is only filled in a little bit, so it's impossible to tell. But we probably are, though. There's like, a 95% chance that we are getting closer." "What about the other 5%?" Broiling Striker asked. "The other five percent means we're going away from them," Smelting Scorcher said. "Now, which way should we go?" Flash pointed at the entrance on the right. "There's some kind of noise coming from that way," he said. "Do we want to go check that out, or avoid it?" "Is there really? Everyone be quiet!" Smelting Scorcher said. The group was already quiet, but now they stopped moving all together. After a couple of seconds, a faint clatter, accompanied with some faint voices were heard. "Voices mean someone intelligent, right?" Rarity asked. "Technically, yes," Twilight said. She had been oddly queit during the whole thing. "But we don't know if they're savage or if their even willing to talk to us." "That is a good point," Rarity said. She shuddered. "Ugh, I do hope that they aren't savage." "So do we want to go that way?" Broiling Striker asked. "Raise your hand if we should go that way." Twilight, Rarity, Ethereal Whisper and Smelting Scorcher raised their hands. Flash's hand didn't go up. Smelting Scorcher shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, but majority rules," he said. Flash nodded. "I'm not going to complain," he said. They turned back to the passage way with the voices. Meanwhile, Sunset Shimmer pulled the door open. From where she was standing, she couldn't see anything that might be dangerous. “What’s in there?” Submersive Exploration whispered. “There isn’t anything,” Sunset Shimmer whispered back. She slowly crept into the room, head swiveling around to see if anything moved. As Submersive Exploration slowly followed Sunset Shimmer, she noticed another door. “Hey, there’s another one,” Submersive Exploration said, pointing towards it. Sunset Shimmer nodded and started slowly walking towards it. Then they both froze as they heard a noise on the other side of it. It sounded a little like a voice. It continued, and they realized that it was a voice. And even more surprising, it was speaking in English! They couldn’t hear specifically what the person was saying, but it seemed to be getting closer. Suddenly, the door in front of them was flung open, and in walked...something. It looked human, but it looked like it was made up of blue jello, or some other kind of semi-solid. The person was also completely naked. As the door hit the wall, the person in the door frame froze as she stared at Submersive Exploration and Sunset Shimmer. Nothing happened for a few seconds. “Uh, I think your theory may have been right,” the girl finally said, her head turning to face someone behind her. “Which one?” Another voice asked. Another semi-solid looking girl appeared in the doorway. This one looked like a darker blue jello. Her jaw dropped. Submersive Exploration awkwardly raised her hand, waving it. “Hi,” she said nervously. “We come in peace.” After a few seconds, the dark blue girl raised her hands and exclaimed “YES!” making her rather large breasts bounce around. The blue girl sighed and rubbed her temples. “Oh, boy. Now she’s going to rant,” she said. The dark blue girl put her arms down, her smile wide and a little strange looking. “Who are you?” She asked. “Where do you come from?” The dark blue girl continued to rapid fire questions at the two, leaving them no time to answere any of her questions. After almost half a minute, the blue girl put her hand on the darker blue girl’s shoulder. “Calm down a little,” she said. “Let them answer some of your questions, and let’s take them to the queen. She’ll need to know about them.” “Your....queen?” Sunset Shimmer tentatively asked. “Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble,” the dark blue girl said. “She’ll just need to see you two. Are there any more like you?” “There are more like us,” Submersive Exploration said. The darker blue girl grinned. "Oh, this is amazing," she said. She turned to the lighter blue girl. "Finally, one of my theories was right!" The lighter blue girl sighed. "Yes, one is," she said. "I'm as surprised as you are." "Oh, this is great!" the darker skinned girl said. She turned back to Submersive Exploration and Sunset Shimmer. "So what are your names? What species are you?" "Well, I'm Sunset Shimmer, and I am a unicorn, originally," Sunset Shimmer said. The lighter skinned girl frowned. "What do you mean, originally?" she asked. "Is that not what you are now?" Sunset Shimmer shook her head. "No, right now, I'm a human," she said. "A unicorn is basically a horse with a horn on it's forehead." "What's a horse?" the darker skinned girl asked. "An equine," Sunset Shimmer said. "It walks on all four legs and is covered in fur." The darker skinned girl nodded, fascinated by what she was hearing. "I don't think we have something like that, but that sounds cool," she said. She turned to Submersive Exploration. "And you? You're a human, right?" Submersive Exploration shook her head. "No, actually," she said. "I'm a mermaid. Those are close to humans, but with a fish tail instead of legs." The darker skinned girl and the lighter skinned girl both looked at Submersive Exploration's legs. "But you have legs," the lighter skinned girl said. "Yeah, I'm able to swap between legs and a tail," Submersive Exploration said. "Now how about you two? What are your names? What's your species?" "We're both slimes," the darker skinned girl said. "My name is Puddling Theorizer, and this-" She gestured at her lighter skinned friend- "Is Eternal Skepticism." "Did you have to tell them our names?" Eternal Skepticism asked, her watery eyebrows furrowed. Puddling Theorizer turned to her. "Yes!" Puddling Theorizer said throwing her arms in the air again, her large breasts bouncing around again. She turned back to Sunset Shimmer and Submersive Exploration. "Now, we need to take you too our queen. Follow us!" Puddling Theorizer and Eternal Skepticism turned around and started walking in the opposite direction. Sunset Shimmer and Submersive Exploration shared a skeptic look, but followed the two slimes anyway. They were in for some series excitement.