Of Rifts and Ponies

It was happening again. A visitor from another world was going to appear in Equestria. Twilight was no stranger to visitors from other worlds. On more than one occasion new ponies would appear and nopony would have any idea as to who they were or where they came from, often they would be confused and more than one had been panicking about "having hooves". Most of the time they managed to get back to their world by one way or another. Some managed to find the devices that had brought them there in the first place while others had to resort to finding some magical anomaly that was a result of their presence.

Some however had not wanted to go back at all. Some had said the world they were from was so horrible that they were much happier in the more peaceful Equestria. Others thought that they could do a lot of good things for Ponykind. For instance that strange "Doctor" fellow who had just shown up in this weird blue box, which now he and Derpy would frequently go into, then come back out with very satisfied looks. When Twilight had asked him about this he said something about time travel and she immediately dropped the matter, not wanting a repeat of her own time traveling mishap.

What interested Twilight the most however was that all of these other-worldly ponies seemed to all describe vastly different worlds. Once a stallion with goggles and a hard hat described a world where two companies had teams of mercenaries endlessly fighting over worthless land while another who wore strange robes and could do magic without a horn told of a massive empire across multiple planets and a fierce rebellion to overthrow it. All of these wildly varying accounts had lead to her making the beginnings of a theory of a large network of interconnected worlds with different cultures and civilizations in each one.

In any case the ones who chose to stay rarely talked about the worlds they were from, this was because the stories that they had told would be so traumatic for the peace loving ponies that they could cause horrible nightmares, not to mention that they were told by the Princesses to keep the fact that they were other-worldly beings a secret. One mare in particular had told stories of a world where her civilization had torn itself apart in a massive war that lasted two hours and left most of the planet dead and everything from the air to the majority of the food would slowly kill you if you were exposed to it. Just thinking about something like that happening in Equestria made Twilight shudder. As it was though, many of the Visitors, as the Princesses had dubbed them, who stayed had ended up starting very happy lives and some had even found their special somepony and gotten married.

As Twilight and her friends walked along towards the point in the Everfree where her detection spell predicted the arrival she grinned to herself as she remembered some of the more likable visitors such as the one who had the tales of a barren war-struck planet. She went by the name of Moira and seemed a bit crazy but was the nicest pony you would ever meet. She was one of the ones who had decided to stay in Equestria and had set up an odds and ends shop.

Each pony was having different thoughts about the possibility of a new arrival. "I hope the're a pegasus" Rainbow Dash thought, "it's always funny watching them try to use their wings for the first time

"I wonder if that spell Twi' came up with can really tell when someone is coming to our world again?”Applejack thought with no small amount of doubt.

"I do hope this one is a proper lady or gentlecolt," Rarity began. "That last one was simply a ruffian." She got no further as the conversation was stolen away from her.

"Iwonderwhattheirfavoritekindofcupcakeisohmygoshmaybetheydontknowwhatcupcakesarewheretheyarefromthatssosadillhavetoteachthemmycupcakesong!" (do I even have to say)Pinkie suddenly spouted out.

"Pinkie, I’m sure that he or she will know what a cupcake is." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.

"BUT WHAT IF THEY DONT!" Pinkie wailed, the force of it making Dash roll over a few times in the air.

"Sugar cube, even if they don’t know what cupcakes are y'all can just teach them." Applejack grinned as she watched Pinkie's hair practically explode in a wave of excitement.

Twilight spoke up, "Girls whoever this new visitor is make sure that you remember to be gentle with them so they are less likely to panic, got it?"

"Yeah, yeah we got it" Rainbow muttered, then she perked up, "Remember when Moira showed up? I thought she was gonna freak out like the rest of them but she thought it was amazing!" They all began to laugh at the thought of the strange shop owner, Rarity however huffed. "I do wish she would make that little shop of hers less offending to the senses though, it looks shabby and always smells atrocious from whatever new experiment she is doing.

"Aw lighten up, Rar' at least she makes herself useful. Remember the time you got a bunch of that tree sap the crusaders brought in from the forest in yer tail? She had some chemical thing that made it come right out!" Applejack cheerfully said.

Rarity gave her a scathing glare. "Yes and you seem to forget it also turned my tail orange." At this Rainbow Dash began to guffaw at the memory of Rarity hiding herself under a elaborate disguise anytime she was in public for over a week.

"Ok girls we're here! remember, dont rush them with questions all at once." They waited for a few minutes and nothing happened. "Uhh, Twi you sure that fancy spell of yours can predict when new folks are gonna pop out of nowhere?"

"Well, not one hundred percent sure, maybe seventy-three point four percent."

Suddenly a large crackling ball of blue energy began to grow out of nowhere and Pinkie Pie began to shake like a leaf in a gale. "Oh my gosh this is the biggest doozy Ive ever felt!" She yelled as she shook.

Fluttershy, who had been quiet up to this point, began to worry more than normal, "What if its another one of the mean ones?" Although it had only happened once the arrival of a not just unpleasant or rude but genuinely evil pony had nearly destroyed Equestria. Fortunately however the incident had been contained with the general public none the wiser. Twilight was about to comment when the energy ball exploded in a flash of light and blinded them all. After they could see again they noticed that their was a seventh pony among them. A light brownish grayish pegasis stallion with a darker brown mane and tail was splayed out on the ground. He didnt look very old maybe just a few years younger than Rainbow Dash. He had a strange metal band on his left foreleg that had a green screen and a few buttons and knobs. he also had a blue golf bag slung over his shoulder. His most startling feature however was the fact that his eyes were a pale grey as though the color had been sucked out of them. He groggily sat up and looked around at the gathered ponies. "Huh... im surronded by a bunch of colorful ponies, either I hit my head really hard on entry or its happening again." He tried to stand up but staggered and almost fell over but Fluttershy caught him. She tried shaking him but found that he had passed out. The girls looked at each other for a minute and then Rarity spoke up, "He said 'again' what do you suppose that means?"

"Yeah and he didn't even seem to notice that he was a pony" Rainbow added. They all looked at the unconcious stallion with their own questions. Who was he? What was his world like? Was he violent? What did that thing on his arm do? What did he mean by again? And most importantly: DID HE KNOW WHAT CUPCAKES WERE?!?!?!?!?!?