Chapter 1
“Princess Celestia, we came as fast as we could! What seems to be the problem?” Twilight panted, out of breath, as her, her friends, and Spike burst into the throne room.
“Twilight, you don’t have to be so formal. Just Celestia is fine.” Celestia got up from her throne. “And the problem is, that a portal to an unknown land has recently opened up in a nearby cave.”
“It does not seem to be Discord’s doing,” Luna says, rising from her own throne. “We- I did not sense his presence there.”
“We cannot go ourselves,” continued Celestia. “We are needed here, by our subjects. So we ask you all-” she gestured to Twilight and her friends “-to investigate. See if other side is dangerous, and possibly do some research.” Twilight’s eyes brightened at that.
“A new dimension? Awesome!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “When can we go?”
“Well, as you might expect for a long journey, you need to pack first.” Luna levitated six saddlebags, and a smaller backpack for Spike. “Fortunately for you, we have already packed all the necessities that you will need.”
Twilight’s ears drooped a bit, while Spike grumbled, “You got that right,” wobbling in the air a bit on his new wings.
“Well then, come on, then! Let’s go! Let’s make some new friends!” Pinkie Pie shouted excitedly before disappearing out the door.
“I’ll catch up to her,” Rainbow mumbled, racing towards the quickly-closing door, and managing to slip through before it slammed shut.
Twilight couldn’t contain her excitement. “A new dimension? This is going to be great! Imagine all the research I can do! Maybe the laws of physics would be different! Maybe we can start a trading business with the natives! Think of the resources!” She trotted happily out of the throne room. Applejack and Rarity shook their heads and chuckled to themselves, while Fluttershy looked positively terrified.
***
“Here it is,” Celestia said, pointing a hoof.
There, in the middle of a dark, damp cave, was the portal. It was a swirling blue vortex, hovering in midair, and it seemed to beckon Twilight in, with its mesmerising blueish spirals. Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity were uneasy around the
portal, while Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were extremely excited.
“What’re we waiting for? Let’s go already!” Rainbow cried impatiently.
“Yeah!” Pinkie agreed, bouncing in place.
“Now, girls, I need to make sure it’s safe to enter first-” started Twilight before Pinkie somehow was able to push the six of them into the portal simultaneously. Celestia gasped when the group vanished and the portal closed up behind them. She sighed in relief, however, when a wisp of green smoke materialized into a letter a few moments later.
Celestia unwrapped the letter and read it silently. “What does it say, sister?” Luna asked.
Celestia levitated the letter over to Luna. “Twilight says that they are in some sort of tunnel system, perhaps a sewer. She will continue to send us letters as long as she knows they are coming through.” She glanced towards the bottom of the page. “Oh, and she’s wondering who will take over her school and friendship duties while they are away.”
Luna chuckled at that. She brought out a clean piece of parchment and a quill with ink. “I suppose we should inform her on that last bit?”
Meanwhile, in a sewer in another dimension
“Oh, this is positively dreadful!” cried Rarity, her face contorted in a look of disgust. “Why couldn’t we be sent to a nice small town with a spa- yes a spa would be perfect right now!” She brought up a hoof to her forehead melodramatically. “Oh, this is the, worst, possible-” She cried out, having been slapped in the face by Rainbow Dash’s left wing.
“Oh, would you stop it already?!” Rainbow shouted. “It’s not that bad!”
“Girls!” Twilight magically enhanced her voice, causing the others to quiet. “That’s much better. Now, before anything else happens… Spike? Take a letter.”
Spike fumbled in his backpack before pulling out a piece of blank parchment and a quill.
“Just describe our surroundings for now,” Twilight said. “I’m still not sure if the letter will go through.” Spike furiously started to scribble something on the paper. “Oh, and can you ask who’s looking after the school and-”
“Already got it!” Spike said before burning the letter. A moment later, her belched out a neatly rolled up piece of paper. Twilight clapped her hooves together. “It works! We can communicate!” She levitated the letter in a magenta glow and unrolled it, scanning it. “She says to continue sending letters, and that Starlight has everything covered. That’s good to hear.” She rolled the letter back up and stored it in her saddlebag. “Now to get out of here…”
***
Walking by, Melody saw the manhole cover in the middle of the street being pushed out of the way. She, along with a few others, watched as seven figures climbed out. Six of them looked like small horses, while the seventh seemed to be some kind of reptile. The first thought that came to Melody’s mind was, “Runaway zoo animals,” so she pulled out her phone to call Animal Control and/or the police. When she looked back up, however, she did not expect to see that the rainbow-maned one was hovering a few feet off the ground. Melody’s eyes went wide as she realised that three of the six horse-things had wings. She froze in place when she heard the purple one hiss something at the flying one. She couldn’t understand the dialect, it sounded like some exotic language mixed with horse noises, but they were definitely words. Melody watched in amazement as the flying one slowly hovered back to the ground, grumbling something, while the one that scolded it looked angry.
Melody realised she was halfway in dialing the number for Animal Control. She hastily turned her phone off, and inched her way closer to the creatures. She wasn’t sure what they were, but she a sneaking suspicion that they didn’t belong here. She didn’t want to know what rich scientists might do to the poor creatures if they ever got their hands on them.
The pink one noticed that Melody was coming closer and rapidly said something to the purple one in a high-pitched voice. The purple one turned to her, and its face became an image of fear and suspicion.
“It’s alright, little horsies,” Melody cooed. “I won't hurt you.” The orange one with the hat noticed what she was doing and raised an eyebrow. Apparently, these things were intelligent enough to know that whatever she was doing was incredibly childish.
Suddenly, sirens rang in the distance. Someone must have called the police, and now they were coming to take these cute little horses and this reptile thing that also had wings. The creatures chittered worriedly amongst themselves; they obviously knew they were in danger. Who knew what would become of them?
Melody quickly pulled her hood up to make it harder for others to recognise her, and motioned for the creatures to follow her. The purple one understood and shouted something to the others before galloping after her. The blue one with the rainbow mane soared up into the air, seeming to be much faster that way. The people scattered as they barrelled through, quickly headed for a smaller street with less cars.
Melody ignored the passing people as they whipped out their phones and tried to pictures. She just looked back to make sure there were no stragglers, and noticed that the blue one was flying next to her. The others weren’t far behind, so Melody smiled and turned a corner into a quieter street.
After running for a few minutes without seeing any cars or people, the group stopped to catch their breath. At least, those except the orange one and the blue flying one. They didn’t even seem winded.
The purple one, panting, dropped the bag it was carrying on the ground, and, after rummaging through it, pulled out a lavender water bottle and took a swig. The others did the same, out of breath. Melody, not having a source of water on her at the moment, just stood there to try to catch her breath. After a short break, the eight started to walk in the direction of Melody’s house.
***
Twilight was suspicious of the strange monkey-thing that had helped them out, but decided their best bet was to trust it. It kind of resembled the humans from the mirror portal, but she couldn’t understand its language. And, by its behavior, it couldn’t understand them, either.
Nevertheless, when the sirens sounded, it had decided to help them get away instead of turning them in. Twilight smiled a little. Maybe this world wasn’t so bad.