Twilight somehow losses herself in a maze of parallel dimensions together with the odd Alice.
While studying the properties of long range teleportation. A tired Twilight Sparkle messes up. Resulting that she and Alice a genetically altered super soldier gone rouge, is zapped into a parallel dimension. Now the two of them must find their way back to Twilight's real home, easier said than done. On their way they have to deal with Kidnappings, werewolf's, gaining friends and enemies on the way. most go; some stay, but never in one place for when you jump worlds everything can happen.
Note Please comment if you like/dislike the story. Also Like/dislike
Another explosion rang in her ears. Alice set the timer on the screen. A prerecorded message echoed throughout the facility: Ten seconds to self destruct! Another of her claymores exploded. she just nonchalantly ignored the it, grabbed the gear she swiped on the way. Right in front of her was the green doorway. The big circle was made of a special alloy of Titanium and Platinum and other various trace metals, it would not survive the the nuclear warhead sett to blow. The marvel of technology had taken almost twenty years of endless nights of research and development to make. It was a one of a kind item, a prototype. Just like her.
Detonation in 3.
She had destroyed every copy of the records of this facility. Every piece of information about it and her was none existent. Even most of the twos creators where gone and soon everyone working with them. The public notice of this facilities existence would never even be brought to light. She put her friends old hat on her head.
2
"It's now or never." She took the first step into the green watery surface. It was like ice cold jello.
1
She stepped trough completely.
Behind her the world flashed out of existence.
_-_
This morning Twilight was giddy with anticipation. The princess had after long last granted her request to study the sublaylines crystal that Starswirl the bearded made so long ago. Or with other words Starswirls oculus. The old magus had a theory that by utilizing the sublaylines long range teleportation was going to be instantaneous and mass did no longer matter in the equation. This theory was still unproven. Sublaylines had been proven to exist years ago. Nopony had just been able to tap into them... Yet! Twilight was was determined to be the first to do so.
An hour later somepony knocked on the door. Spike quickly went to answer it, twilight stayed in her lab preparing.
"Twilight your package is here!."
"Great! Bring it down!" Twilight called.
"There might be a problem with that!"
"Why?!"
"It's to big for me to carry safely!."
Twilight let out a deep sigh. "Coming!"
When she got upstairs a package double the height of Spike stood by the front door. "It's not that big but I see what you mean. Common Spike let's get get to work.
"Roger that!" The dragon saluted.
The morning thereafter Twilight was going over the notes from she had taken during the last day and night's study session. The magical contraption hummed gently. She was happy with the notes after the fourth time going trough them. Yawning she was going to switch it off. She focused her magic on the crystal matrix. Nothing happened.
"Odd." She mumbled, she tried again. This time the old magical instrument stopped. Once again the crystals where dormant. "That's better. Now..." She yawned and seated herself for another check on her notes. Upon she promptly fell asleep, unknowing to her the machine once again sprung to life.
_.-._
Before Alice was one of the strangest creatures she ever seen. A lavender unicorn slept head resting on a desk. She knew it had to be some sort dream or she was dead. There was also the likelihood that she was in a drug induced coma. That is, if she survived the nuclear blast.
She inspected a odd contraption in the middle of the basement, she at least thought that it was one. It was a mix of a library and a lab of some sort or a book filled lab if you so like. With a finger she gently prodded a the blueish crystal. To her surprise it was solid unlike everything else she had tried to touch in the room. She could freely walk around in the basement but getting up the stairs was impossible, out of the question so to say because her feet phased trough the staircase. After looking at the odd crystal contraption for a bit she decided to do like the pony. So she found herself a good spot and sat down. she leaned back on her rucksack, after she pulled her hat to cover her eyes she drifted into a restless sleep.
When Alice woke up the lavender unicorn also did. The unicorn somehow had gotten herself a blanket. Alice presumed it to be female anyway. She now looked wondering on the crystal contraption that Alice had earlier touched. The horn of the unicorn glowed magenta and Alice decided to take a closer look.
_-_
Twilight woke up to the hum of Starswirls old instrument.
"What the? I shut that off." And as Twilight did not need it for the time being, she decided to turn it off again. In the middle of this process she was startled by the sudden appearance of a strange face. She momentarily lost control of the power and the and the magical matrix overloaded. The crystals flashed with a loud, Foom!
o0o0o
Spike came to look what had caused the ruckus in the lab was. As he overlooked the lab he saw that everything stood in it's place. Not a sound coming from the room. The dragon shrugged his shoulders and closed the door. Happily he skipped out of the library, he was going over to carousel boutique to help Rarity to find more gems today. Oblivious to the fact that Twilight had gone up in smoke.
_-_
Coughing Twilight wobbled back up on her hooves. "What the buck just happened?" Her first sight was the inside of a cave, it was oddly familiar.
Somepony breathed through her teeth. "You tell me. Oh, hell my head!" The voice came from behind her.
Twilight spun around looking for the voice, before her in between her and the entrance sat a weird looking creature. It was naked of fur save for eyebrows. On its head it sported a long mane hanging lose over it's shoulders and down on her back. Then Twilight noticed a thin long tail. It had semi long white fur and a longer haired tuft in a chromatic style by the tip. It reminded her of a oddly colored griffon tail. It was clothed on most of it's body. only the arms and head was free of cloth if you don't count the hat it just put on.
"Ya going ta stare at me all day?" She snapped at Twilight.
Twilight snapped out of it and looked out of the maw of the cave. The sun was slowly making it's decent. "It's already getting dark? I can swear it was lunch time only moments ago." Twilight mumbled.
"I can testify to that or my watch is is completely of off." She. It was a she, looked at a wristwatch and tapped it few times.
"I don't know what just happened but... Who are you? What are you doing here? And why did I see you at my lab?" Twilight asked then she noticed a black handle strapped to her leg, most likely a knife. Twilight did not want to agitate a potential threat but she did want answer. Well to late now anyway.
"The names Alice, some call me Dawn so the names Alice Dawn."
"That's a odd way to say your name."
"Well I don't really have a proper name on paper. Alice was something that my caretakers called me so that stuck around the facility and some friends I had started to call me Dawn. Happy? Now what's your name?"
"Twilight. Twilight Sparkle. But I wanted to know what name you had when you where born with not what nicknames you had." She said skeptically and somehow she had forgotten about the knife.
_.-._
Alice let out a sigh. "Test subject #13 or like all the quacks called me 13." Alice had a love hate relationship with the number.
"Your real name is a number?"
"Nicknames are not that bad now are they? Also the ones that gave me that name is dead anyway. They could have called me Don Juan for all I care. Which is Squat!"
"Okay that still don't explain what you are doing here and how you where in my lab."
"I dunno. I was on my way to Sweden. I walked through a portal and whoop I was in your lab."
"Sweden? Never heard of."
"Did not think so. Somehow the teleporter I used must have overloaded. No colorful unicorns where I'm from." Then she slapped herself in the face. "Or the fact that that a nuclear explosion altered the properties of the portal."
"Did you say nuclear? Like in Atoms?"
"Yea. So?"
"How do you make a atom explode? They are indestructible!"
Alice laughed.
"What's so funny?"
"They are not indestructible, we have been able to split them for soon a hundred years." She was greatly amused. "What next? The sun is that the sun is circles the planet?!"
"It does. Princess Celestia have been maintaining the sun for thousands of years."
"Yea right! And I have a tail!" she said laughing.
"You do have a tail..." Twilight giggled.
"WHAT!!"
Alice twisted around and jerked the twitching tail.
"No. Fucking. Way! Oh the fuckers! If I could I would go back and... And revive them and murder them slowly!" Alice Fumed for a moment.
"You mean that? With the killing?"
"If they all wasn't dead." Alice fumed.
After a long dead silence her stomach growled.
"Hungry?" Twilight giggled nervously. She did not want to become Alice's food anytime soon.
Alice rose a eyebrow to the pony. "What gave that away?" she said sarcastic.
Twilight quickly decided to work with the subject. "If this is where I think it is then where I live is only a few hours to the east. I think we can get of the mountain before it gets to dark." She looked out of the cave again. "We could get something to eat there."
Alice considered her options for a moment. "Sounds good. Let's get going then... Where do you think we are anyway?" She did not want to eat something. Ahem. Someone, that is sentient anyway.
"On Smokey mountain. We should be able to see Ponyville from here." Twilight said as she trotted out.
Twilight had not seen many bipedal creatures in her lifetime, if you don't count spike who is a dragon and so technically a quadruped. or a four legged creature if you so please to say so, others than the young dragons walking on two legs the only other species that walked on two legs in Equestria was the Diamond dogs. That she knew of anyway.
Their decent down the mountain was one in silence, Alice had ignored most of her questions. Twilight had plenty of them but no answers. Twilight had also not noticed the two plugs in Alice's ears, nor did she pick up the faint music that they played. Alice on the other hand was happy that her 64 gigabyte Ipod had survived her little trek through the lab facilities. She had even been able to retrieve a portable solar panel so she could charge it. Right now the little machine rested in her pocket and blasted a mix or rock and classic and anything between into her ear. Frankly most people thought that her taste in music was odd for the person she was, truth to be told she liked most music just not most of the techno/noise genre that some liked. They finally reached the end of the mountain and ended up in a forest. The forest struck her in a odd way, like it was unnatural somehow. The pony did not seem to mind it so Alice let the thought slide. She did notice the animals that lured in nearby bushes and so removed one of the earplugs.
Twilight walked briskly on the trail trough the forest. To call it a trail was a little unfair it was more like a small dirt road. Still she actively listened to any sounds that she found out of place, she heard none. Not much dangers in White tail woods. The odd pack of timberwolfes maybe some manticore cubs. It was not unheard of that the woods could be dangerous, especially at night. So far had Twilight not picked up any danger. Then Alice spoke for the first time since they left the cave.
"Don't ya think it's weird that we are rolling inta town in the middle of night?"
Twilight knew Ponyville and ponies came into town at the oddest of times sometimes. "Not at all I live there after all, Ponies come into town at random even some at night. Mostly through the train and not the forest but some still come at hoof. Why do you ask?" Twilight could not still get the accent that Alice had it sounded something like AJ's but not as heavy.
"Just a feeling that, no matter how odd it is with a live talking unicorn. I just... Just can't shake the feeling that's something is wrong."
"Like what?"
"I donno,Let's call it intuition. Also we are followed by some kind of beast, predator most likely."
"It's probably just a manticore cub or something, nothing I can't handle."
"They hunt in pack?"
Twilight swallowed. "No but Timberwolfes does." She said with a squeak.
Alice sighed. "Then it's probably the later then, 5 of them, three behind two to the sides."
The pony stopped dead in her tracks Alice almost walked right into her. "We need fire! A torch or something!" The pony panicked a little where she stood. "And I don't know a good fire spell."
"Fire? That's all?"
"Pretty much yea." The pony almost went into a hysterical giggle. 'Pony with magic that can't make fire, Great. Just Great!' Twilight thought to herself. She always used spike for that. Him being a dragon and all so she did not even bother learning one.
The bushes behind them rustled and and a barky looking wolf made of logs and sticks, slowly creeped out of the bushes. It snarled and growled at them, 4 more growls where heard all around them and joined the bigger wolf on the road. Alice let out a sigh seeing that Twilight was having a giggle fit about now. Alice pulled out a gun, a old mauser C96 or a 'Red9' as the also are called. she fired a round in front of the wolf. When the ground in front of it exploded it jumped back a little mostly by the sound of the gun, but it did not run away like Alice had thought it would. With a sigh Alice lit a flame where she had hit the ground, the wolf yipped by the heat of the flame as it licked its snout and fled into the woods whining as it ran. The other wolf was very quick to follow. 'Next time I just put a round through it's head.' Alice though to herself not amused in the least that she had wasted a round not knowing the next time she need to refill. Not that she needed to worry she had at least a 300 rounds more in her pack.
"What just happened?" The pony was still freaked by the wolf's, now maybe even by Alice.
"We needed fire and seeing that my gun did not scare it very much I made fire." Alice said dryly.
"You have magic?" The pony asked shocked, Alice had said that she did not believe that the princess moved the sun and she still didn't. She had after all yet to see this display of 'magic' in person. She had dismissed the thought about the lab.
"Not really, we call it pyrokinesis, I can do some other weird stuff with my mind. Creating fire and doing other things with my mind might count. Still I don't call it magic." 'Not yet atleast.' She reminded herself about the bandage around her leg with the thought.
"But I felt nothing, Usually when somepony uses magic around me I can feel the use of mana. The pony was visibly shocked. "How's that even possible?!" She blurted.
Alice felt that she needed to tell the mare some truth. "I'm a heavily genetic altered human. I have seen and done some odd stuff in my life. It would not surprise me if I could learn pony magic to some degree." 'She did claim that it existed. Alice had to atleast believe Twilight in something, how else could she trust the pony or the pony her for that matter. "But as you said no mana no magic."
This revelation shocked the pony even more. "What? Genetic altered?"
"Genetically altered, if said alone and yes. I'm a test platform for to create super soldiers. Than again that failed when I decided to to shut that little operation down. Easier said that done if you ask me." 'I had to take down a bunch of backup data and some retired scientists.' Alice thought grimly.
Twilight hit the head on the nail even seeing that she put two on two together. "You killed somepony?"
"Not somepony, somebody. They fucking deserved it!" Alice snarled. "Developing weapons of interplanetary destruction and other fucked up stuff. They did not deserve to live. Creating monsters from unborn children! Then... Then killing them off when they don't have any use for them anymore! Alice was starting to progressively more angry just by thinking of it.
"So... Y you killed them not to die like the others?" Twilight stuttered a little. 'Great now she is afraid of me.'
Alice gently shook her head. "No. I killed them so they could not do it ta another living being." Alice sighed. "They had already tried to put me down years ago... I did not die.. I.. I can't die. Trust me they tried. The last ten years of my life has been a mess especially the last three months." She sulked. "First I was lost and alone. I was only ten at the time. Then I found some friends, and Bradly another test subject. Our bodies where unstable according to the scientists." She snorted. "A load of bull. Then the bastards figured out that we lived and came after us. Bradly and my friends where killed when I was in a place we call Prague. When I figured out what had happened. It was not to hard seeing that I have some connections, I went to find every sonovabitch and ... And." Alice suppressed some tears.
"Killed them?"
"Quick and painless. Never even noticed me. It was more than they deserved, Bradly was like me. When I said I can't die well that's not entirely true. He was lowered into what's called kings acid. Nothings left of him."
"I see... How many?"
Alice was not surprised she cared, just surprised that she had not screamingly ran away yet. "Outside the facility around twenty of them. Inside? I don't really know I blew that up and ended up here. Maybe, just maybe I can find some peace here. Being created to kill don't always mean ya want ta." Alice had slumped down on the road whit her head on her knees arms gently wrapping around her legs. Tears rolled down her cheek.
"Oh." Was all Twilight could say.
"Now do you want to stand there all night or get going?" The tears still rolled down Alice's cheeks as she looked out mindlessly in the night sky.
Due to Alice emotional breakdown Twilight decided for them to camp out. Not that she got much reply from Alice that only started a small fire in the clearing that Twilight had found. Alice had also seen her first true display of pony magic as Twilight had gathered the firewood without even leaving her side. Beside all ammunition that Alice had packed on her she had also a couple of blankets for them that she produced from her rucksack. that and two nutrient bars, she offered one to Twilight and ate hers in haste. Facing away from Twilight she went to sleep. Twilight on the other hoof was in deep thought about what Alice had told her. What these beings had done to her, Human had she called herself. And what they had done to her friends. 'By Celestia that is not something somepony would think about doing for no reason' Twilight felt a great sadness for Alice. Pity and some fear seeing that she was a killer. But Twilight dismissed the thought about the girl before her. If there was something she had learned, then it was that everypony deserved another chance to right their wrongs. She was even willing to give Trixie another chance and so far had Alice done nothing to be hostile in anyway. Except against the Timberwolfes anyhow.
Twilight had at least gotten some rest during the night, not much but some. The notion that it might be Timberwolfes in the area and that she had slept only hours ago did not help at all. Alice had seemed to cheer up after her sleep and packed her belongings and they set of to Ponyville.
After a while so could not Twilight hold it any longer. "So?" She asked.
"So what?" Alice asked back.
"I was just wondering about stuff."
"Like what?"
"Like how you talk Equestrian? Your age, stuff like that."
"Equestrian? Hmm. In my world we call it English Than again some morons call it American not knowing it's a dialect."
"Is there a difference?"
"Not really some words and what not. You speak perfect English-American by the way."
"I do? Well. So you have other languages? Do you speak any of them?"
"Självklart." Alice giggled to the puzzled pony. "It meant of course. Swedish is one of eight languages I speak."
"So English, Swedish and?" Twilight rolled her eyes to the amused Alice.
"German, French, Italian, Latin, Spanish and Japanese. are the fluent ones." Note that the author don't speak them fluently. Hey Stop breaking the forth wall mister!... Sorry.
"Equestrian and some ancient, languages is not my thing."
"Me nether, but learn the language and you survive."
"Okay next question. How old are you.?
"Nineteen, Tha I look older. Being created in a lab instead of born so I have been technically and adult since I was five. I stopped aging physically when I was around seven Seeing that I reached my prime age apparently so I look a little older than I am. Except this thin it's brand new." She twirled the tip of her tail with a finger. "Human don't have tails. Normal humans that is."
"Oh.."
"What?"
"Don't tell that to a dragon, Apparently they have some bad blood with humans in the past according to dragon legends." Twilight looked back at when Spike had gone to the dragon migration, the topic had been some of the leisure talk in the magma pool.
"Like what?"
"The little I heard from Spike goes like this: They appeared out of thin air, their rods of fire was strong enough to burn us, they hunted us, we died, many did. Then they disappeared and our race was safe once again." Twilight told.
"Ouch, None should have their people mercilessly slaughtered."
"Like you did?"
"That was different. I did not commit genocide."
"So humans do that? Kill each other like that I mean?"
"Our history is riddled by war. Always a conflict somewhere. At some point in time a nation went to fight almost the entire world. They slaughtered the ones that they deemed unfit to live in their 'reich'. Many innocent humans died in that war. Another topic please."
"Back to the tail then. Why do you got it if other humans don't"
"Like hell I know to be honest. I'm sure I did not have it before I came here. Might have to do with my genes I'm not fully human. So calling me a chimera is not a long shot." They could now see Ponyville on the horizon from the little hill they stood on."Now it's your turn to talk I think." She shielded her eyes with her hat.
"What do you want to know?"
"Let's begin light. How old are ya? then ya can dump a part of your life history seeing that I have some done with mine."
"Sounds fair. I'm nineteen like you but born and raised a normal foal in Canterlot." She started. After a while she talked about how she came to study under the princess Celestia, she mentioned Spike again and her friends. Alice took interest in unicorn magic which pleased Twilight as it was a topic she was happy to show and talk about. More talking than showing but Alice still listened. She talked some about life in Equestria and then suddenly wanted to know more about Alice own abilities. Alice Showed her some or rather most of them that could be shown. She showed her basic ability to manipulate the elements according to Alice herself then she was relatively new to these herself and had best control over fire but it was nothing fancy. She demonstrated a low level of telekinesis that was a basic skill in Equestria. All this needed a bit of concentration. Then she told her about her telepathic power directly inside Twilight's mind. Twilight noticed that she took pleasure in startling the pony, Twilight then asked if she could read minds with it. To which Alice said that even trying that would give her a migraine for the rest of the day. But the ability that fascinated Twilight the most was and ability Alice called Shadowleap. Something that was hard even for a skilled magic user like Twilight to even try to replicate.
"Shadowleap?"
"Yea it's really cool. Check this out." With a small zip Alice faded out and appeared by a rock some distance away. Twilight teleported next to her.
"Teleportation? Without magic? Hows that even possible?."
"Well I don't know! But it has it's limits and a little twist to it. First I need to see my target, I can't go trough solid mater there is also a range limit seeing that I can't jump from here to Ponyville. And it's very energy draining to use. Two, three times tops before I need to rest.
"Oh, and no magic?"
"Not so far I can tell, according to the research notes I read all these 'Skills' are locked away abilities that the human brain can do, only that a normal humans body would probably die from using them, But i'm not directly not normal now am I." Alice giggled. 'At least she is in a good mood now.' "Also If I stand in a shadow that covers my whole body I can do this." Alice and Twilight had reached line of trees that Twilight knew belonged to the Apple family. Alice disappeared in the shadow of the trees, Twilight could not spot her.
"Alright so you are good at hiding?"
"Yea i'm good alright. Ya can say that I'm almost invisible. Alice popped out from nowhere besides Twilight, startling her. 'Pinkie warning there Alice..'
"Okay I would have believed that fully, if you did not have clothes. Noway that you can make them invisible.
"I bend light in a small field around my body for some reason if I'm sneaking in a shadow or rater I bend the lack of light. Not even the scientists could explain that one. The shadowleap and stealth thing I have had since I was born. It was fun sneaking around and scaring people. So it's only natural that I'm good at it." Alice giggled like a school filly.
"And that also have a limit?" Twilight said unamused. Hey is that even a word?! Shh your doing it again! *Smack* Sorry.
"Not so far I know." Alice was having a blast at the startled mare.
Decided that she had enough of the human fooling around she brought up a completely random topic and so started a nice little chat about everything and anything. Then suddenly she asked. "Do you ever wonder about your parents, you know the humans you are based on?"
Alice shrugged "Not really and I did not have a childhood to speak of. I was born almost an adult after all also I read in my file that I'm not even fully human remember I said chimera before."
"Really?"
"The tail is from a lion if ya did not know, just silkier hair. I think I have some horse in there to."
"That's freaky, might explain the tail."
"It might but nothing in my world have Freaking rainbow hair!"
"One of my friends have a chromatic mane."
"Fun for ya, love to meet them." Twilight figured Alice did not want to talk more as she hummed a song.
Alice had put one of her earphones in her ear and put on some a shuffle list. She enjoyed the silent walk for a couple of minutes.
"Sound catchy, what is it?" Twilight wondered.
"Song called Loreley." Alice continued to hum.
"Sounds happy." 'not really' thought Alice then she sung with the song.
Oh, the stories we where told. Quite a vision to behold. Mysteries of the seas in her eyes of gold... Laying on the silver stone, such a lonely sight. Barnacles become a throne, my poor Loreley
And the winds would cry, and many men will die. And all the waves would bow down to the loreley...
Alice saw that the pony was troubled by the last part and so started to hum the tune instead.
"You have songs about death? That's .. Tragic."
"It's about an old German folktale." Then she hummed again as they walked into town. Ponies that saw them ether ran away or just glared at them, most glares where against Twilight but she was oblivious to it, Alice thought as she did not mention it. She still had that odd feeling that this world gave her. Something was off, she just knew it. The most obvious thing was that it looked different, more colorful and vivid. Somehow cartoony so to speak. Still everything had the same amount of details that her world did. Still this was not the thing that bugged her.
"Ponies can be a little xenophobic at times. Don't worry they'll warm up to you in time." Some of the colorful equines watch curiously out on them from the windows. Not many but some. Others was ether hiding or glaring daggers into them. Alice heard a low whistle in the middle of a song change. She extended a hand and caught whatever that came their way. Not surprised that what she caught was a small rock. Twilight missed it and so continued happily along the road. 'The hell? I thought that ponies where a friendly bunch.' "I just have to send a letter, then I can show you the town proper." Twilight was as cheerful as she had been most of the time.
"Sure." Alice let the rock fall and stepped on it as it landed, muffling the sound. 'Who the fuck chucks rocks at people?' A minute later another rock was thrown. This time Alice was ready and had removed the earpiece, she caught the rock this one was aimed directly at Twilight's head and so Alice moved in such a fashion that she noticed. Alice chucked it back to the source, deliberately missing the pony hiding in the alley. "Next time I will hit ya with whatever ya throw ya bastard! With a blur the pony disappeared from the alley.
"What was that about?" The pony stared at Alice.
"Somepony as ya say, chucked a rock at ya for the second time since we came into town." Alice growled.
"Now that's weird. And now when you say it. Most ponies have been acting strange... And I have not seen Pinkie yet she usually feel when somepony new comes to town." The pony mumbled. "Let's go to the library I need to find Spike to see if something happened."
"Could not agree more." Somehow Alice felt that this was just the start of it. She was going to regret how right she was.
When they came to the library Twilight quickly unlocked the door with a spell. Inside she stopped dead in her tracks. The library was dusty, like somepony had not live there for a long time. Not to long but still a year or two. Most of the things where on the wrong places, somethings where gone completely. The bird perch was none existent. Twilight was confounded to say the least. They went inside, lit the lamps and took a seat. At least Alice did.
"Like I said I have an odd feeling." Alice said after a good hour of the pony frantically looking around, grumbling over the dust and panicking when she could find no sign of herself ever had lived there. Alice was picking around in and organizing her bag. Feeling the odd feeling that something was off again, Alice switched out the standard Combat knife on her leg with a Full tang Combat knife with a guard ring. Alice inspected the fine blade. This knife was not some cheap thing. It was a custom made blade it fit perfectly in her hand, with a spin she set it into it's custom sheath on her left thigh. The 16 inch blade fit perfectly. The other knife she stashed in her left boot. You never knew when you needed a knife. She considered the shoulder holster for her gun but voted against it and stashed it in the bag. Guns was not her forte even if she was almost a perfect marksman. Still she was better with knifes. When she was done outfitting herself and going trough the bag, she started to grow bored. When Alice had not seen Twilight for the last five minutes or so, she decided it was time to take a proper look around. She went to a door with a small candle on it and opened it, only to see the basement she first woken up in. Her gut feeling told her to go down.
Twilight had finally calmed down after a while, she was beginning to understand what have happened here. She was not in Ponyville or her Ponyville anyway. Somehow Starswirl's oculus had transported them to an alternative Equestria. Similar to her own, but not precisely like it. Parallel dimension meant one thing. The question was only. How to get back? She had a plan, but for it to work she needed to get to Canterlot and so far the ponies of Ponyville had seemed less than welcoming. Trotting out of her, no correction the library's master bedroom she was going to tell the news to Alice as she was the only thing that was for certain in this world right now. "Alic.." She stopped dead on the stairs highest steps, they where not alone in the library anymore.
"Hello. Twilight Sparkle." Said the mare she held Alice's bag in her magical grasp, her mane flowed like a raging fire. Her wing's flared and she lowered her head to a ready. Before Twilight could react she saw the magic burst forth, the only thing she did was scream.
Alice heard the scream from above. "Twilight!" she quickly made it up the stairs or rater she flashed up with her shadowleap. She flung the door open and had a throwing knife in her hand, slightly concealed to get the edge. Before her stood a big mutha fucker of a pony, she was easy twice the size of a normal pony. She held Twilight in a magical grasp, the smaller mare unconscious. Alice did not hesitate, the knife flew true but the big pony deflected it with a wing. Her eyes glowed like the sun itself, her horn amassed a pulsing light and before Alice knew it she was flung down into the basement. Her body started to shutdown by the massive damage it had been delivered. The last thing she saw before she faded away was her body, left half of it was like it had been drained of all water and well she looked like a half burnt mummy right now. in time her body would heal, but now it shut down in a state of death like stasis.
~~~0~~~
The fury of the sun looked down the pitiful staircase, down to the dark basement below. There laid a broken body and so a dead being. She felt no life from the creature. She left the library, she still carried the mare and the bag in her grasp. "We don't know how you escaped thy prison Twilight Sparkle. One month ago, We will not make the same mistake again." She flashed back to her castle, when she returned her entire appearance had changed, her mane of flame had calmed and her eyes no longer glowed. The now flowing rainbow of her mane completed her calm face mostly, it was more flaring than it had once been. Back when she was Princess Celestia. Now when she was Queen Sol or Sol Fury as she called herself now. Never mind the trivial small thinking she had a execution to plan, this was going to be a grand spectacle. The only being in Equestria with the power to destroy her, was at the mercy of her hoof. Two years ago, The nightmare had almost been destroyed by this little mare. But she had been able to plant the seed in a new host. Celestia, who had foalishly lowered her guard, thinking her dead had been an easy target. It had only taken her a week to become strong enough to plant the seed of hatred, another to make Celestia her pawn. She had even tried to get rid of Luna, by once again branding her a traitor. Twilight and the element of magic was as now the only threat to her. Luna had escaped thanks to Twilight and she to had been branded a traitor, her friends closely monitored for months to clear them from suspicion of hiding Luna. Twilight herself had been captured and sent to Mares.(Mars) She had somehow escaped. 'Never again will you bother me Sparkle.' The nightmare thought proudly in her head. Somewhere deep inside her Celestia wept.
_.-._
Alice reentered the world of the living when a creak came from the basement door, without thinking she drew a knife and threw it with her good arm, if not for the excruciating pain from her left arm she would have hit her target. Applejack stared fear struck on the blade that had planted itself in the door only inches from her face.
"WHOA! Watcha there. Ya could hurt a pony."
"That was the Idea." Hissed Alice she was ready to draw one of the other throwing knifes she had, then she noticed the trade mark hat that the pony had. Twilight had mentioned her friends and the mare with the southern accent and the stetson was not hard to notice. "Sorry thought tha' ya was someone to come and kill me." She said.
"Kill ya? Nonsense! Why would ah do tha'? Ah just saw Queen Sol leave with Twi, which meant one thing somepony left their safe-house." The farmer pony said one eye still on the knife.
"Sorry I threw that at ya then. Guess ya get a little cranky if someone fries ya, leaving ya dead in a heap on the floor in a basement. To bad she did not finish the job." Alice said wincing as she got up her arm ached and her head felt like she had way to much to drink. Her arm had stopped healing somewhere halfway. 'Guess I need some gas.' With that she meant food and water. "I don't recon ya have something to eat?"
The mare shook her head. " Not on me sugar cube. Sorry, if we was at tha farm ya could have some apples. What are ya anyway?"
"Alice. let's leave it at that." She got back on her feet. "I knew something was wrong," she mumbled. "That mare, Queen or whatever what does she want with Twilight?"
"Twi stopped her from publicly executing Princess Luna, Sol branded her a traitor and banished her to Mares. With tha help of Luna, we managed to free her a month ago. Twi was on her way to her safe-house in smokey mountain, what did ya do with her? Why come to Ponyville she knew it was dangerous!" The mare looked at Alice as she picked up her own stetson from the basement floor.
"Because we did not know that. According to Twilight, she lived in Ponyville. Her world was not like this. It only strengthens my suspicions." She mumbled the last part. "Are ya one of Twilight's friends?"
"Ah am, would never betray her."
"Great, can ya help me I need to save her." Applejack had never seen such determination in a set of eyes before. There was not only determination tho there was also something else, Applejack thought it was revenge.
"Ah can. Ya know where tha acres are?" Alice nodded. "Can ya get there?" once again Alice nodded. AJ told her to get to the Apple's farm asap. Then she rushed out the library. Alice wanted to take a little more stealthy approach. First she retrieved her knifes. With four being more or less destroyed by the alicorns magic she counted eight knifes on her, all of them was throwing knifes, all concealed and her two combat knifes where damaged or warped beyond use, a shame really. Her destroyed clothes barely holding on to her body. The military grade stuff was hardy, but not to flameproof. Lucky for her she had left a jacket when she first shadowleapt to the basement door, with she now donned.
She limped to the kitchen and turned the faucet. Stale water pouring through the pipes. She waited a moment and then begun to take large gulps of the life giving acid. Yes water is a Acid, it's also a base. She felt that her body pumped life into dead tissue, reanimating dead cells and most of her headache gave way. she counted to ten and drank again. This time she started to feel that her stomach was being filled. A good sign, now all she needed was food to replace the damaged cells that could not be brought back. Headache almost gone she noted. She made way in the shadows, the library was far from any forest that could easily conceal her, she had to resort to her skills to make way. hard to do with her damaged body. once she even resorted to start a fire in a flower stall to conceal her movement. If the 'Queen' had know that they came into Ponyville, then there was a risk that if she was seen that she knew that Alice was still alive. Half an hour after AJ had left her at the house she reached the orchard. She "stole" an apple and ate it. It was not much but it helped with her limp and she felt some of her skin closing on her left breast. Funny how the body saw something like that more important than a leg or an arm. Now it only accounted to that she got an irritating itch, when she regained the sense of touch.
She closed in on the farm house, AJ was greeting a white unicorn with a stylish mane and showed her in. She sneacked closer to the house and came into sight on the porch. "Having guests?"
"Yea, friends of Twi don't worry. Also Granny Smith know that ya coming. Ah had the pleasure of telling of your injuries to her." Then AJ faced her. "Ya looking better, Rarity probably still want ya to take a shower. Get tha blood cakes of ya an all that." She was referring to the slightly healed burns that now sported blood clots, better than raw burns worse than scars. not that Alice would get any if she got something to eat. The only scars she had was the almost invisible ones on her arms and one slit on her cheekbone, left side. you needed to really look to see them. They where the result of torture and a tale for another time. Her stomach growled.
"And something ta eat if ya don't mind. Would really help."
"Ah will see if Fluttershy will take a look at them wounds, she probably will be scared of ya, especially of ya carry that knife."
"Ain't losing it."
"Suit y'self. Common in."
Inside there was some noise from what Alice smelled was the kitchen. Alice had to didn't have to duck to get into the door without hitting her head, like when she had in the library. The answer came pretty quickly as a big red stallion leisured on a sofa, AJ promptly or more or less forced Alice into it.
"Tis 'ere is my brother Big Macintosh, just call 'im Big mac for short. Ah will help with dinner. Ya can hit tha sho'er when Rainbow get out Alice. she hit tha mud on the way 'ere." Applejack snickered and went to where the sweet smell of apples being cooked.
"Sup." Alice said.
"Eyupp."
Then they did not say anything to each other more, still they had a silent understanding of each other. The mare known as Rainbow Dash sipped into the kitchen to talk with her friends. Mac nodded to Alice and he too went to the Kitchen. Alice felt comfortable on the sofa and leaned back. She sighed, she could not come up with a sound plan on how to get to or rescue Twilight. She also wondered why none of Twilight's other friends had greeted her. After a minute or so a light green old mare came in, Alice came to the conclusion that this was Granny Smith. She had a tray on her back.
"Now missy I understand if ya don't want to eat with us, here ya go." The old mare presented a small feast on the plate, putting it on the table.
"It's not like I did not want too, I was just not invited to it." Alice said calmly. To be fair she preferred to be alone right now.
The old mare chuckled. "That be true, sorry about that. Now eat and if ya want more there is plenty, just join us in the kitchen or if ya want to the shower is upstairs to the left, can't miss it." The old mare slowly made her way to the kitchen. Alice was already eating the food before her and she had been crying from the start. It was the best darn food she had ever eaten. And she had eaten gourmet food from earth, this topped that. Alice quickly ate just to finish the darn crying! She felt that most of the food being processed quickly and a tingling feeling in her breast and limbs started, the burn that had been on her cheek she could feel was gone.
She made it to the bathroom. it was a big room with a big tub with a shower in. You could easily fit at least fit two adults in the tub. Alice closed the door, turned on the shower and stripped of her damaged clothing. somehow her underwear was still holding together but her hipsters had become half string. When she had attempted to remove the bra she had, it fell apart in her hand. 'That's just great.' She was happy that her body was quickly healing the most serious damages so quickly, that being right now her skin. Being forced to run around almost naked, was not as fun on the other hand. With a annoyed sigh she dropped the useless piece of cloth in a bin and went to the shower. The warm steaming water gently caressed her skin, dried blood and clots loosened and fell off dissolving slowly in the steamy water. Like liquid bliss.
"What do you mean she did not come home?" Rarity asked the purple and green dragon that had gathered them.
"I told you Rarity. I have not seen Twilight since yesterday morning when I put a blanket on her when she slept in the lab. She did not come home last night and now I'm really worried. I even sent a letter to the princess asking if she knew.."
"Did she know?"
"I do not." All ponies in the library snapped their heads to the voice. Princess Celestia walked into the small door her tall frame forced her to gently bow her head. Luna who followed closely did not have to.
"Princesses!" The ponies in the room begun to bow down to the monarchs.
"No need to bow my little ponies." The friends got back on hoof. "It was not my intention to meet you all, not now anyway. Luna and I have been investigating Twilight's disappearance since yesterday night." Celestia said with her serine voice.
"We came to take a look at the last place Twilight Sparkle was seen." Luna added. "I believe I was right sister, Twilight was last here. Spike you were right in sending that letter, it made my sister realize something VERY IMPORTANT." She growled the last words to her sister almost unnoticed by the other ponies. Celestia blushed a little.
"Spike as Luna said your letter spread some light over the situation." She hung her head a little. "And it's probably my fault that it happened. Twilight Sparkle is no longer in this world."
Five ponies and a dragon almost screamed in shock. All of them stared at the princess of the sun. Mouths gaping
"Y-Y-you mean she is...is..D-d-dead?" Pinkies mane deflated with each stutter.
A surprised Celestia had made the wrong choice of words and only now she realized it. "Oh no! That was not what I meant at all. See not even me or Luna can find her using our magic in fact there is almost no trace of her left." Pinkies mane somewhat puffed up again.
"That is why we are here." Luna continued. "If Twilight was only dead we would have been able to find her easily. Knowing my sister, we knew that she kept tabs on her student. What we want to say is that we don't really know what happened but we have a theory." Luna excused herself and went down into the lab.
The ponies above stirred a little and tried to ask the princess questions what this was all about. "in due time" was all Celestia said.
Luna came topside again after only minute. "That was unsuspected. Have you all not looked in the lab?" the ponies that was addressed shook their heads.
"They only got here before you did princess." Spike excused.
Luna nodded calmly. "Twilight is not dead. Yet anyway." She turned back to the lab. "Come with me please." The rest of them followed her as she descended into the lab. Luna and the rest with wings flew while the other took the stairs. She made them gather around the Oculus.
"An' now what?" Applejack eyes the spinning crystal.
"That did not look like that the last time I looked." Spike said with a confused look.
"Because it was not activated properly. Let me explain. This is Starswirl the bearded's Oculus, it allows ponies to pear into the sub lay lines or that was the intended design." Celestia said. She knew much about the contraption but she had never seen it in its intended use, also she had never seen it being used like this. Luna frowned a little when her sister stole the spotlight. "It seems that it somehow transported Twilight to another world. The text here and here mention the name of it but it's only random numbers." She pointed at two lines of ancient runes the only pony in the room that could read them properly was herself and Luna, Rarity could only understand a few basic runes.
"The first one is our world. the other where she is now, look closely and you can see a difference in the runes." The five ponies and the dragon stared intensively at the crystal screen. "It tells also about her status and a short summary of what she have done so far in that world. It also speaks of a task she need to do. A quest if you will. So far she have only completed one objective, hard to do if you don't know them. But that is not the interesting part here, it's this." She pointed a hoof to another panel.
"Subject 13." Luna began. "Alice 'Dawn' Pendragon.
Status: Alive. Semi immoral.
Age: 19
Alignment: Ruthless avenger.
Species: Human, Composite.
Sex: Female.
Potential: Unknown It looks like she is strong, it also says that she is in a 'party' with Twilight." Luna added after she read a small list.
"What does it say about Twilight?" Dash almost faceplanted the other list set.
Celestia gently pulled her away with a stream of magic. "Patience Rainbow. I'll read it to you all but I can't say it's accurate:
Twilight Sparkle.
Status: Alive, Immortal, Status effects: Sleep.
Age: 19
Alignment: Harmonius defender.
Species: Equestrian Error
Sex: Female.
Potential: Unknown.
Phantasms: Element of Magic. Shroud of harmony." Then Celestia stopped telling the list, it was longer for both of them, unnecessary information for the most part. "See not completely accurate, for one she is not immortal. There is also a small summary of the two of them."
"HUZZAH!" Luna beat one hoof in the air as the crystal projected the lists of the party and two screens of pictures in the upper corners. Both displaying the faces of the two. between them a larger picture showed a bathroom familiar to most of the ponies and what Celestia knew was the castle's dungeon. In contrary to hers that had been gathering dust the last fifty years or so this one was cleaned. Luna flickered some her magic and the screens separated to occupy a wall each. "We are so boss!"
"Luna.." Celestia gave her a stern look. Luna gave her a sheepish grin. "Great work." Celestia beamed to her sister. The other ponies saw that Luna was relived. "Think you can get some sound?"
"I think so.." Luna's horn flared up again and the sound of falling water made it's presence. That and a load of swearing. All heads snapped to the screen the sound came from. Yes somehow the sound came from the wall. Alice was cursing like a sailor pony that stubbed his hoof on a nail. but she was screaming on a red big pony that with haste ran out of the bathroom when she had somehow pulled a knife from somewhere and thrown it at him.
Applejack growled a little. "When Ah get mah hoof' on her! Nopony does that to mah brother an' get's away wit' it!" Still growling.
"Applejack dear I can understand why she did as she did. You don't just walk into a lady who cleans herself it's rude." Rarity puffed.
Twilight slowly woke up to the clopping of hooves against tiles of stone. No not hooves, metal. the she remembered what happened. She was shackled to the wall, teleportation was not an option then. The clopping got louder and louder and louder. She knew who it was that now stood before the cell door. Celestia. The towering mare looked down on the lavender pony.
"Twilight Sparkle. Tomorrow at dusk you will face the ultimate punishment Equestria has to offer. Execution." The queen wanted the mare to cover before her as she stared her down.
Twilight looked upon the ruler, she did not even flinch under the hard gaze. "Bring it on Nightmare."
This enraged the queen. "Tomorrow at noon!" She put her face closer to the bars, bad mistake. Twilight spat the furious mare in the face. "AT NOON AND WE WILL DO IT BY OUR HOOF! " Twilight just looked on her with arrogance. A plan was already formulating in her head when the queen stormed of. Twilight laid there on the bunk with a smug smile.
_.-._
"Can't ya be alone in the bathroom, seriously these ponies are weird." Alice had somehow dodged the small hoard of ponies inside and made it to the porch out back. After Big mac had walked in on her it had become a once sided discusion inside when 3 mares decided to chew out the big stallion for his little mistake. All he had done was forget to knock when he brought a fresh towel and there was no lock on the door, broken. Alice had quickly finished glancing herself in the mirror she noticed her her eyes, streaks of red was starting to overtake the amber. Never a good sign for her, once had her eyes gone into fully crimson. The mess after that had resulted in the deaths of seven people and a cat, she had mercilessly eaten the later alive.
Always remember your training, essential for your and others survival. Find balance with your inner demon Her inner monologue of master Pao was interrupted by someone.
"Ah so it's you that she want's me to meet." A cloaked mare said. Alice gave her a quick glance from what she could see she was a unicorn a little big, probably the angle of sight. She had a red luster to her white coat. "To bad I don't have the time to properly introduce myself. I bring grave news, friend of Twilight." Alice listened what she said but did not look.
Then hurry and tell, the others are her friends to. So long you speak I will hear. Alice thought to the mare who with a nod went inside.
Then tell them we shall. The mysterious mare went inside to the seven inside happily greeted her. Alice could now hear everything that she spoke, or thought to her.
"My friends. As you know Twilight have been taken by Queen fury." Alice tried to meditate at the same time so their responses was a blurry mess. "It have come to my knowledge that she intends to execute her tomorrow at noon, we have little time to act." Alice lost her focus. "The elements are not in our possession, this have proven a problem in the past and I don't think we can get them again like last time seeing that discord is not in the mix."
Twilight is held in the castle dungeon right?
Yes.
Take me to her. I can get her out without them even noticing. All I need is a map
Sorry we can't do that, we will reveal the plan now so stand by.
"I don't know if I'm strong enough but with Twilight's help I believe we can defeat her without the elements."
Alice decided that the plans details could wait. She had another thing to do for the time being. Not becoming a rampaging murderer. Why did this happen again? ....
Alice had spent the night in her mind for the most part. sensing that it was not enough to quell whatever demon she had in her head in time she decided to go with it, last time had taken a week of meditating and relaxing. She splashed herself with some water. the red in her eyes still lingered. The train they where riding moved about little in the turn it took. Somehow the trains in Equestria did not bump around as much as Earths.
When she sat in her seat the mysterious pony smiled at her. "Feeling better?" ´She asked giggling. She had enjoyed this morning a hundred times better than Alice.
"Not really. Do you know how hard it is to adapt to this?" Alice pointed to her feet.
"No I have lived with it. But learning to walk is not the issue here is it?" The cloaked mare had the stomach to still giggle after what she had done to her. And not to mention what situation they were going to face later.
"Ah yes suddenly becoming a pony really helps. If it was an illusion of some sort I would have been fine with it but a full transformation? Really?"
"We have been over this. It's fully reversible when you want to, the medallion I gave you gives you full control for 24 hours."
"I know... I tested it just to make sure. Still walking on all fours make me feel weird." Not to mention perverted, she thought.
The other mare had reviled that she uses a similar to hide her own identity as Sun Flare a happy go lucky unicorn that had moved to ponyville only a day or so after Twilight's banishment to Mares, Equestrias equivalent to Mars. Her true identity is, you guessed it none other than Princess Luna. She spoke highly of her lavender friend and the importance why she would be saved.
Alice tried to mentally go over the map over town and roughly the castle. Lay of the lands, a key factor in any plan. when she was interrupted. Again. "Oh what do you think Dawny?" The bubbly mare Pinkie Pie asked.
"Uh What?"
"What cake to have. Strawberry or chocolate?"
"Why not both?" She enjoyed the company of Twilight's friends for the most part but somehow Pinkie bugged her like fuck some how. Rainbow was somehow mad at Alice for being all cause for this and Rarity did not stop complementing her looks, especially after she was turned pony. Alice was lean and slim like the princess taller than most mares and graceful according to her. Alice saw noting graceful about her new appearance, she had stumbled and tumbled around more in those first minutes of her crash course in walking ,something she did not even needed when she was human. She was now a brilliantly white pony with golden mane and a part of her tail was in the same stile as Rd's. Her coat held a golden luster. Then she remembered the walk to the train. Almost every pony had stared at her, even when she donned the cloak that Luna had, to hide her lack of a cutiemark.
"What do you think Sunny?" Pinkies nick name on Luna.
"That depends on this working... But I agree with Dawn, mixing it would be best." Alice was not a name in Equestria per say and so they settled on calling her Dawn. Alice just rolled her eyes. Arguing about cake now? The train came to it's destination and they set off. It was still early and the execution was sett to happen in three hours. The buzz of the town was the event held at 2 o'clock. The rumors where not happy ones to hear but to their relief not many ponies thought the same. public execution? unheard of in the kingdom before. The group of ponies headed to the royal square just outside the gates to the castle. A grand podium was already built. Alice silently broke from the group as they came near the castle, she saw no guard in one of the towers and jumped up in a shadow that covered parts of it.
With her hood up she once again turned human, making her pony self the escape plan if needed as it more easely could blend into the crowd. Sticking to the shadows she made her way into the castle. The guards she encountered was easily outmaneuvered and dodged, she even stole some keys with ease. The guards pony only noticed that his keys was gone later that night when he had to knock on his own door so his marefriend could open.
Alice encountered the first obstacle with a challenge when the the only entrance to the dungeon was blocked by four guards. A plan quickly formulated i her head, she back tracked into another corridor. Then she screamed for help! In mere moments two of the guards come and past her unknowing of the being that shadowed them. Now to hurry, she made it back to the door. The two pegasi guards stood vigilantly outside until she started a small fire in a pot plant further down the corridor. The guards looked at each other and went to the fire with a small nod. She easily found the right key, the most unused one. With a satisfied snap the door swung open and she entered unnoticed. She hid in the few shadows the lit corridor provided sipping fast between them pausing in every to make sure she was not followed of noticed. After a set of stairs she came to the actual cells.
Hiding in a shadow she let her mind wander to a familiar mares. Twilight? It's Alice.
Good to know, Alice i have something to tell you. We are not in my world this is a parallel universe of Equestria.
I suspected that. I also know who threw that rock.
You do?
Oh and we have a plan to fix this mess. Just one question do ya think ya can use the elements?
I... I think so.. No I know I can! What's the plan and who are we? She thought confidently. Alice let a gleeful smile reach her lips.
...
Escape went without a hitch. Twilight's last meal came and Alice sneaked out with the food cart. Less than five minutes later bumpy stair ride included she was back with the others. After a silent greeting to them she said.
"The elements can be used, Twilight knows a way to summon them."
"Then we?" Luna asked.
"Yes all we need to do is buy her time." She said in a hushed tone.
"Easy." Luna begun to prepare some complex magical matrixes.
Half an hour later the convicted mare was brought up on the stage. The Queen made a confident speech about her crimes to the nation. That if she had only lived her millenia long sentence in peace on mares she would be a free mare. Then she asked "Any last words. Twilight?"
"I have." Twilight lifted her bowed head and stared the queen in her eyes. "We will stop you nightmare no mater what it takes. And a question, Why do you cry?"
The queen let out a menacing laughter. "What are talking about Twilight Sparkle. Stop me? Crying? What makes you think you can stop me? You have nothing against me!"
Twilight mumbled some incoherent.
"What?"
"I said. We have an Alice!" Twilight took a defiant stance on stage.
"What?" The queen let out.
"Supp!" Alice growled as loud as she could when she flashed up on stage. Arm hooked around Fury's neck she tossed her into the castle wall. The hollow wall crumbled by the impact, Alice slid by the high velocity she had coming to a halt by the ruined wall. "common I know you have more fight in you than that!" She growled.
With a furious cry the Alicorn lounged at her horn ready to kill. Alice sidestepped her charge grabed her leg and swung her around and into the wall again, this time she bounced off it. Her mane started to change as guards was making the way up to the stage only to be blocked by a purple shield. "Shining" She growled. "I will deal with you later!" She stared at one of the guards in purple armor. Getting Twilight's brother in the plan had been easy he had been on Twilight's side since the start. A quick letter from Luna was all that it took. She tried to lift Alice in a magical grip only for it to be rejected. Add Magical resistance to the list Alice thought. The mare tried even harder before Alice came to stand still. Visual strain was covering her face as Luna's matrix of spells kicked in and aided Alice. One does not battle an alicorn goddess without backup. Fury resorted to the one thing she could think of, Kicking Alice flank and it was precisely what she did, but in the face. The force from the unseen dual kick to the face made Alice fly into the barrier, a normal human's head would been teared off by the force. Alice slowly got back on her feet, with a hand motion fire shot from her hand. Fury no longer saw amber eyes in her opponent they where Crimson red. Alice felt her losing control by the second.
"Hey... how... long?" She coughed between the words.
Seven mares was now crowding half of the stage that was not barred by magic. "I have them." Twilight called as a flash willed a set of jewelry to manifest on their respectively wielder. "Gimme a minute to finish this."
"No!" The Nightmare cried. Celestia long into her mind just thought 'You reap what you sow. Nightmare.' The red eyed Alice launched herself at the alicorn in rage, no longer able to control herself properly as she snarled like a savage animal. .
Twilight could only watch in horror as Alice brawled with her mentor or her body at least. Celestia was not going to be happy when she came back in control. The human and alicorn traded blows and magic. Luna's matrixes allowed Alice to control her natural abilites with much more power. Fire did not hurt her mentor and the magical resistance from Alice made Fury's attacks more or less useless. The fight was equal and with both Luna and Shining armor holding the shielding in place and Alice holding Fury occupied nothing could stop the group that now had Summoned the power needed to vanquish the Nightmare from Celestia. Alice flipped Fury on her back and locked her down.
"Alice get out of there!" A hole in the shield opened.
No! Her thought sounded strained, Hit me too, I can't control my own actions anymore. She growled in her mind. Kill tear. NO! Only subdue. Do it Twilight! Or one of us might die!
Twilight closed her eyes. She hoped that the Elements of harmony would have mercy on her new friend. Her friend who had killed so many. Her friend that now fought both herself and the nightmare to save Celestia. A being that she did not know herself.
"May the elements have mercy on your soul." She let a single tear fall as the group of ponies ascended into the air a rainbow forming around them. The shield fell around the two and the rainbow struck it's target, a shock wave of harmonious energy flowed over Canterlot as it once again tried purging the nightmare from the world. As it subdued nightmare was no more, in her stead stood Celestia again. The flame of her mane had died down, flowing gently in the wind her chromatic ethereal mane swayed. A warm smile on her face, in her magical grasp Alice was put gently on her back. Tears gently rolled down he cheeks, eyes filled with pride as she looked over the ones that once again had saved her kingdom.
"Well done My little ponies and thank you." She looked out over the stunned crowd of her ponies. In a kind regal manner she asked the ponies to leave for their homes as she now would. The audience murmured. Celestia did not care that she had onlookers, she gracefully made way to her sister and nuzzled her. "It's good to she you again Luna. We have much to do, much wrongs to correct." She looked at her back and at Twilight. "Let's begin with these." Then she turned to the castle, as the regal pony walked by the wall repaired itself. Twilight and the others followed after when Luna gave them a graceful nod towards the castle.
...
Twilight sat by Alice bedside as she rested in a grand bed, Celestia's own to be correct. Night was falling and Twilight was starting to feel the events of these two days come to her. Not enough sleep and sitting in a dungeon did that to a pony, she nodded off a couple of times. Then fell asleep. She stirred a little in her sleep when she felt somepony move her but she did not wake up.
Twilight slowly stirred from her slumber. "How is it?" A familiar voice asked.
"It's great. Sorry for the trouble of making this." Another familiar voice said.
"Do not worry, our chefs are used to serving Griffins at occasion. A little meal like this is no trouble, how is the tea?" The first asked.
"Simply divine Princess." The second said. Twilight sat up in the bed she was sleeping in, She was sure that she had slept sitting on a cushion.
"Any complications from the element blast?" Said the first one Celestia.
"It's the third time ya ask I'm fine. Also I can ask ya the same." Twilight looked at the other person in the room. It looked like they had eaten "Good afternoon sleepy head."
"Afternoon?" Twilight asked confused. Alice just nodded and took a sip of her tea.
"It's just past lunchtime. Don't not worry I have talked to your friends and the princesses about all this." A third voice said.
Twilight snapped her head to the male voice. "Who are you?" She asked to the second human in the room. The male was tall as tall as Celestia at least maybe taller. he was clad in royal blue clothes with golden and silver trims, over his heart a version of Celestia and Luna's crest embroidered. He supported his old frame on a staff with bells on it.
"I am like you from another world. Then again I came here by my own means to aid you. Looks like you activated Starswirls Oculus." He sighed. "I should have never help him build that old thing. Never mind that now." he said with a shake on his head. "Well not much I can do about it. Darn thing ripped the universal laylines a new ass!" He grunted.
"What?" Twilight just said. Confusion held a tight grip in her face.
"What he want to say Twilight is that when we came here by the oculus we tared a hole in the sub laylines. Now he want's us to fix it. Easy remedy too apparently. To say anyway, all we need to do is go through one of those." Alice pointed at the far wall in the opposite corner of the room. A blue silver sphere hung in the air barely visible to her eye. "Looks like only you and I can truly see them too."
"That's a rift? In universes?"
"Yes if we go trough it, we close it. Thing is that's not the only one and we won't get to your home this time and because I'm here it means there is a good chance that we might stumble upon human populated worlds."
"I gave Alice some things you two might need. One is a notebook for you. the others you will see." Twilight got up from the bed as she listened.
"Then we better get going then." She said confidently much to Celestia's surprise.
"Really? You are going to accept that? Just like that?" Celestia said.
"I am. Fist I already was thinking about how to get home to my friends, my Ponyville and my mentor. I was also set in stone to show Alice my world. Not this or another, it just are going to take a little longer." Then she turned to Alice. "Are you with me?" She reached a hoof to Alice.
With a smile she grabbed the hoof of her furry friend. "Ya betcha." She picked up her hat from the night stand.
"Alice I'm sorry for your things." Celestia said again, this was the fourth time this hour.
"No, no. Don't worry I'm just happy that she took interest in my Ipod and the solar-cell and did not vaporize those. Everything else can easily be replaced. just bad that we can't bring food."
"We can't?" Twilight corked her head when she looked at her.
"Can't take the trip. most things can't. I gave Alice a spell matrix on her clothing and other things to make them immune to the effect of displacement decay. Most things can't take more than one or two trip before they break." Twilight nodded at him again and stepped up to the rift. Which in turn hummed and expanded, like it knew that they was going to pass trough it.
Before she took the last step to touch the oculus she turned around and said. "Thank you Princess Celestia and you too, who ever you are." He gave her a smile and graceful nod before he to disappeared into thin air, the world flashed away in a great blinding light,
"Did you have to look like that?" Celestia said. "The poor girl might be confused now." she had now turned to look at the second pony in the room, replacing the man. The old stallion chuckled with a light blush.
"Eh, can't really tell her that I helped myself build that thing." He grinned as he too started to fade from the room. "I am Starswirl the beaded after all." said the spectral voice of the old pony.
Twilight regained her eyesight in a clearing of pine and oak. "Wonder where we are." She said.
"I don't know... But it looks familiar." Alice said. Then it hit her. She knew where they where now. A very familiar sound could be heard only a few hundred meters away. A highway.