Twilight Sparkle fluttered her wings awkwardly. Those things really got in the way when she had saddlebags on, especially ones of this size.

She had spent two weeks packing, consulting various experts on survival and travel. Nopony really had any idea what another universe might hold. She was actually rather scared, but Celestia herself had asked her to take up this mission. She couldn't let her people down, especially now that she was the newest princess.

The other elements were probably already in place. They were scheduled for transport in only a few hours. Twilight had just finished saying goodbye to her parents - Both of whom cried despite her insistence she would be back soon - and her brother. He was more confident in Celestia's plan then the others.

Twilight descended the castle's stairs, trying to remain clam. She had been at the Equestrian Research and Experimentation Center before, but not for an actual mission. In fact, nopony had. This was their first foray.

Celestia had founded the EREC project a few years ago, back when Twilight was still a unicorn. The Princess was never very open about her motives, but Twilight guessed that it was formed in response to renewed Changeling aggression. Celestia had, supposedly, known that other universes existed for years, but she hadn't decided to try and contact them until just after Shining Armor's wedding. This decision could technically be unrelated to the Changeling attack, but Twilight thought that was highly unlikely. Celestia probably wanted to make first contact to insure that Chrysalis didn't. A whole universe could provide a lot of breeding ground for the monsters.

Eventually, she finished descending into the depths of the castle. The room around her was a coat of sterile grey she found calming. It reminded her of when she was conducting her own experiments in a lab - Although those typically didn't involve herself as a test subject. Ponies scurried around with lab coats on, holding clipboards with magic or in their mouths. They had spent a considerable amount of time figuring out exactly what conditions were ideal for this kind of travel. It had probably been very expensive, but that wasn't really Twilight's area.

After a few minutes, one of the scientists around her walked up and requested that she get into position.

"Well... Guess this is it, then," she muttered, trotting down a hallway off to her side.

The guard at the door saluted her as she walked in to the room at the end, the heavy lead door closing behind her. Twilight made her way to a pedestal in the middle of the room, trying to ignore the scientists peering down at her from the observation windows overhead. She got herself situated.

"I'm ready!" she called, her voice slightly shaky.

"Okay, Twilight. All other participants are in place. You are confirmed for travel," a voice rumbled from the rather poor overhead speakers, "And good luck out there. Oh, and there's some others who have stuff to say."

The radio cut off with a trademark crunch of static before new voices filled the room.

"You can do it, Twi!"

"Be- Be safe, okay?"

"I know y'all got this!"

"Have fun in the new universe!"

"I believe in you, Darling."

"Twilight, you've made me so proud. I know you'll be able to do this.

Twilight smiled. Her friends were outside of the room, sitting in a hexagonal shape inside of a tube, but she could still hear them over the intercom. The tube they were sitting in was a specially designed alloy that was supposed to channel the magic from their elements in a focused beam directly to her, which would then give her enough magical power to pop through the walls of a universe. Or it could just vaporize her, but the scientists assured her that wouldn't happen.

Twilight braced herself.

"Elements, please begin channeling."

Only a few seconds now.

"We are go for magical beam in ten seconds. Twilight, good luck out there."

Twilight stood up, facing the tunnel. First pony to ever leave the universe. She could have done worse.

"Five."

This was it.

"Four."

For Celestia.

"Three."

For Equestria.

"Two."

Twilight inhaled deeply.

"One."

A rainbow of magic blasted down the tunnel. It focused on Twilight's horn, her crown inches away. She gasped. This felt powerful. She was probably more magical then Celestia and Luna combined. Now, she just had to put it to good use.

Twilight focused on the empty space in front of her. Take me someplace... Interesting.

She felt her horn release magic.

Then everything went dark.

* * *

Mayor Acone was having a bad day.

New York was never a very easy place to manage. Crime, corruption, traffic, gang violence, rent prices... It wasn't exactly a small town in Nebraska. But the media - Damn them - Seemed to think that Acone should have been more proactive about things. Like he hadn't worked hard! He loved this city, but he wasn't superman, for God's sake!

A man significantly less hot-headed (and Italian) than he would have had the sense to sit down and shut his mouth until the death or marriage of a celebrity drew the media's attention back to worthless fluff, but Acone was never one for shutting his mouth. Instead, he had decided to host a press conference to tell those yellow bastards exactly why he was a damn good Mayor.

He stepped up to the podium, wearing his trademark suit. His wife thought it made him look smart.

"I'm sure you're wondering why I've called this press conference," he began, cameras rolling, "Well, I just wanted to clear up a few things."

Unfazed by the collective sigh of the audience, he pressed on. "I know that some have questioned my policies. Said that I don't truly care about the people, or the health of this city. That I'm just a lazy fat Italian man who only got into office because I ate the ballots of the competition!"

The crowd chuckled. Acone himself held back his laughter. Laughing at your own jokes was arrogant, and that was not he persona Tony Acone tried to purport. Still, this conference was going fine. All he had to do was talk, and if there was one thing he was good at, it was talking.

Unfortunately, he hadn't planned for an unconscious purple unicorn - With wings no less - To burst out of the sky in a terrifying display of rainbow light and thunder-like sounds.

The crowd screamed, confusing and fear rippling through the reporters. Those who had a little experience under their belts began taking as many pictures as they could, their cameras acting like strobe lights to some unseen rave. Acone himself stared upwards, spewing obscenities that would have made the nuns back in grade school skin him alive, as the Unicorn dropped out of the ball of rainbow light she had appeared in. She fell a solid ten feet to the ground, barely missing Acone as she landed some six feet behind his podium.

"Jesus!"

Acone stared at the unconscious horse at his feet, ignoring the part of his brain that told him to panic. He needed to remain clam - it would be good for PR, and maybe it would make the damn fools behind him stop screaming like the Yankees had just lost the World Series to the Astros.

The horse was purple. That definitely wasn't normal. It also wasn't really a horse, per say - If Acone had to guess, it would probably only be about four feet tall. Maybe a pony? Then again, it had wings and a horn, so he supposed it was some sort of Pegasus-Unicorn... Thing. Which definitely wasn't supposed to exist.

Stranger still was the way she looked. There were weird outlines on her body, and the light didn't quite reflect her well. She looked sort of like a cartoon come to life.

Acone would have probably started at her in confusion if he wasn't distracted by a loud banging sound to his left. He spun around, his own fear suddenly transforming into anger as he looked for the source of the noise.

"SIR!" An NYPD officer shouted, "GET AWAY FROM THE HORSE!"

Just to emphasize his point, he shot his gun into the air again.

"It's a horse, not a goddamn terrorist! You're really going to shoot a fucking horse?"

"Sir, get away! It could be dangerous! That explosion it appeared in was probably meant for you!"

"It fucking teleported here!" Acone screamed back, "Of course it's going to make a loud fucking noise! What the the hell do you want to shoot it for? It's a fuckin' Unicorn! Do you know what the media will do if my police force shoots a fuckin' Unicorn? Every little girl in America will be crying for months!"

For such a short guy, Acone had a loud voice.

"SIR! GET AWAY!"

"If you fuckin' shoot this unicorn, I swear to god, Jim-"

"SIR! SIR, IT'S MOVING!"

Much to Acone's surprise, the unicorn opened its eyes. He had thought she would be out for at least a couple of hours after a fall from that height.

Acone didn't have much time to think about the duration of unconsciousness, however, as his brain was soon completely occupied with other things. Namely, the fact that the unicorn had looked straight at him and said "Where- Where is-"

"JESUS CHRIST, IT TALKS!"

Behind him, the reporters began to click their cameras even faster. If it wasn't for the police officers in the area keeping them back, they probably would have stormed the scene, no doubt accidentally trampling the mayor and the unicorn in the process.

"Sir! Sir, back away!"

Jim was running at him now. Great. Just what he needed.

"Sir, this is dangerous, it could have a bomb on it! Please, get away!"

"Jim, I have a fucking talking unicorn here. If you shoot it, I swear to god, I will have your badge and your head framed in my goddamn office. Understand?"

Acone, momentarily out of breath from yelling, turned back to the unicorn.

"What the hell are you?"

"My- My name is Twilight Sparkle," the unicorn chocked out, obviously still very weak, "And I come here on a- A diplomatic mission from- Equest... Equestri..."

Her head slowly slumped back down to the ground as it passed out again (or, rather, as she passed out again.) Acone stared at her for another few seconds, before turning back to Jim.

"Jim. This is a talking unicorn pegasus horse here on a diplomatic mission. Who appeared here in a rainbow explosion which was probably magical. If you don't put that fucking pistol away..."

Jim, however, was already ahead of him, sealing the strap on his holster.

"So, uh-" Jim started, still dumbfounded and dazed by the assault of Camera flashes, "What do we do now?"

"Get her in a car. Police car. Actually, call an ambulance, she's probably hurt from that fall."

"Do you really think our doctors are qualified to help on a magic horse?"

"No, you're right. Maybe get a vet?"

"It is a magic horse, sir."

"Right. So, uh - Tell them to not do shit unless they absolutely have to. So get her on an ambulance, and get some of the other officers to start getting a hospital or something on lockdown. I want the horse in a ward by itself. We can't have a dumbass tourist killing this."

"Right. Okay. The ambulance is probably already on the way, I'm sure at least one person called nine-one-one when they heard the explosion. Probably have half the fire department rushing here."

Acone nodded. "Make sure it happens. And try to calm this crowd down."

Jim barked a few orders into his radio, then turned back to the mayor. "Okay. Done."

"Ambulance?"

"On the way. We're taking her to Sacred Heart Hospital - It's not on the island, but it's close enough."

"Alright. Okay."

Acone smiled to himself, somewhat proud of how he was handling the situation. And the blogs said I was wishy-washy.

"So. We have a magical diplomat horse. Don't think that's ever actually happened before - Too fuckin' ridiculous, I guess," Acone thought out loud, "Which I guess means - Jim!"

Jim, who had been lost in the memory of a strange dream he had had while his sister was away at Equestrian camp in 8th grade which suddenly seemed a lot more plausible, turned back to the mayor.

"I need to get on the phone with the president. You guard this horse."

"Er- Shouldn't you talk to the crowd?"

"Oh," Acone said, turning back to face the storm of camera flashes and microphones, "Right. Yeah."

He slowly stood up and walked a few paces back to the podium. All he had to do was calm down a crowd by explaining that there was a magical... Talking... Unicorn...

Grimacing, mayor Acone turned on a mic.

"Well, that was certainly a shock! I'm sure you're all wondering what the hell that was all about. Well..."

End Chapter.

Author's Note

Hopefully this isn't terrible.

Feel free to critique it - In fact, that would be kind of nice.