Chapter 1
"Hnnnghh..... Hnnnnghh.... Come on..."
A white stallion, standing on his hind legs, watched a certain purple unicorn's head bobbing up and down with a smile. It was such a wonderful sight. He probably would have taken a picture if he weren't so focused on the task at hoof. If only she were to help him with his little 'problem' more often.
"Can you hurry it up, Amparo?" Twilight looked up at her colleague, a worried look plastered on her face. She glanced around the workshop quickly, fearing that they'd be found out.
The base of their operations was very simplistic considering what they were doing. Beige concrete walls were lined with shelves of mysterious objects that came in all shapes and sizes. Some of which were slick with various fluids. The work bench that normally sat in the center of the large room had been pushed off to the side, dominated by random lengths of wire and electrical components. Oddly enough the floor was clear of it's usual content. The two windows, whose sole purpose was to keep the room from looking like a dungeon, could easily be reached by anypony curious about the noises coming from inside. Of course the door was left slightly ajar in case a pony needed help at the front of the electronics store.
“We could get in really big trouble if we get caught." the mare added before having her head lowered on to the rod in front of her. She could tell that he was enjoying himself. Sadly, she had agreed to this torture. Out of desperation of course, but she'd been in an unaltered state of mind, so she was legally obligated to provide him the services Amparo requested.
If you're so scared of getting caught you should stop talking..." Amparo smirked as he forced her head to resume its previous bobbing motion. Nothing like giving orders to one that you consider to be your superior. Nothing like it at all.
"That's it... Almost there... Hnnnghh!" the stallion grunted, before shoving Twilight's head down one last time. He held her there for a few moments before letting her up. The way she looked was absolutely priceless. The past two hours made her look as if she'd locked in the workshop for days. Amparo wanted anal and he got it. Then he rubbed it in her face just like he had told her.
Tossing the wrench away, the purple unicorn glared at the earth pony she'd been working with for the last few hours. "It's about time you finished! I'm surprised you didn't make a huge mess like last time." Twilight complained, clearly miffed about her treatment. "Now could you please tell me what this thing is?"
Amparo simply smiled as he walked over to his work table and put his tools down. "That 'thing', is a dimensional portal and possibly the ticket go me getting my doctorate degree." He took a pencil in his teeth and began writing several notes about his progress. As he worked, Twilight asked him about where he got the idea for such a project.
"My cousin Screwloose. I found her old project notebook a few months ago and came across it. This was actually her last project before she had her mental breakdown, so I thought that I'd finish it for her." The young stallion glanced up from his notes to gaze upon the large metal ring, the only long lasting features being its immense size and the small touch screen located on the right side of the device. Amparo quickly returned his attention to his notebooks, making a sketch of the machine and checking it against the reference.
All the while the lavender mare stared at him as if he were insane. How could anypony want to take part in something Screwloose had started? Much less travel somewhere else using it.
"Are you sure that it'll work? Don't take this personally, but it was designed by somepony that has to live in a padded room."
“Of course I'm sure! She even has the notes to prove it." Twilight trotted over to where her friend was sitting and looked at where he was pointing. Sure enough there were notes describing a separate Equestria. However, the notes weren't what she had expected.
Amongst the expected details on similarities were small accounts of a terrifying creature stalking her. The more she read the more it seemed that a series of events in the other universe had caused Screwloose's psyche to be broken by some mysterious malevolent force. Could it be the Slendermane that she'd been hearing about lately? It couldn't be. Slendermane was just a weird killer in a video game. He wasn't real.... Or was he?
By the time she had formulated a logical argument as to why he shouldn’t go through with his plans, Amparo was nearly done cleaning up the mess that they had made.earlier. Had Amparo even properly analyzed his cousin’s notes? It didn’t seem like it.
“Are you bucking mad?! There is no way you can go through with this!” Twilight yelled, slamming her hoof on the floor. “Your cousin went crazy because of this. Becoming an innovative scientist is one thing, but do you really want to end up locked away in a padded room?” she added. Twilight wasn’t about to let a fellow scientist risk his sanity over somepony else’s failed invention. Who else would understand the big words she loved using so much? Who else would actually read the books about the obscure historical accounts of Equestrians she gave as gifts?!?!
"Innovation and creativity, as Star Swirl the Bearded once said, consists largely of rearranging what we know in order to find out what we do not know. Therefore, to become an innovator, or even creative, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally consider to be strange and dangerous." Amparo interrupted. He didn’t bother to look at Twilight. There was still more cleaning to be done.
Amparo continued on about how he planned to minimize each risk that he could possibly control as he cleaned. He would be sending himself to the only known parallel universe. Once there he would only explore the first settlement he arrived at, an only once he was certain they were peaceful in nature, would he attempt to contact their ruler. If he found anypony that matched anypony he knew, save for a goatee, he would come home immediately. It was scientifically proven that having a goatee increases one’s chances of being evil, after all. The sole thing that he didn’t was the very one that could mess up anything regardless of how simple it was.
“Have you thought about what could happen if Derpy is making her rounds during the experiment?”