Celestia Abroad

The Multiverse is vast, so vast that it's mere vastness of it's hugeness is beyond the comprehension of mortal beings. It's millions of branches, each containing hundreds of millions of universes defy convention and logic. The whole situation is so incomprehensible that most beings, especially in the more rigorously scientific universes tend to ignore the existence of universes beyond their own. However, even in the most scientific of universes, one can still if they look hard enough find evidence of other less boring worlds. For the intrepid explorer-- the type who isn't afraid to seek out stories scribbled on the stall doors of bus stations or the private diaries of pony princesses, the Multiverse in all its glory awaits.

Sometimes, however one can hear these stories without having to dig through the remains of some vagrant's sponge bath, or risking banishment to some heavenly body. Of course, being friends with the storyteller can be of much assistance in this matter. For while the type of writer who sees bus station stall doors as an acceptable canvas may be talk to anyone, what parts of their story actually came from another universe, and which are merely the result of Thunderbird would tax even the most studious scholars of the Multiverse.

Somewhere out in the Multiverse, on one of the branches in which the primary evolutionary pressures favored cuteness above more pressing needs such as camouflage, a group of friends were on a train. The train like the friends themselves also favored form over function, having been decorated like the desserts so favored by the species occupying it. Inside in a private car, owned by the before mentioned pony princess, eight friends were in the middle of a long journey.

"Are we there yet?" a pink pony asked, for the one thousandth one hundred and fifth time that hour.

"NO!" shouted a dark blue pony with a flowing ethereal mane, her voice shaking the train and knocking every apple off all the trees in a five mile radius.

"How about now?" the pink one asked again.

"Pinkie Pie! We won't be in the Crystal Empire for another twenty four hours," said a lavender winged unicorn.

Off to the left, a winged pony with a rainbow colored mane shifted position. "I hate being bored. I wish we were at the All Equestrian Exposition already! Why did they have to hold it all the way up north in the Crystal Empire?"

"Rainbow Dash! Don't be so insensitive. It won't be just ponies attending this Exposition, there will be Griffons too. Some of them will be flying in, and the shortest route between two points on a globe is a great circle. That means that the further north the exposition, the shorter the Griffons have to fly," the purple pony replied.

Rainbow Dash flew a loop, before landing again. "When you are as awesome as me, the short distance is always a straight line. I don't need to fly in any crazy circle to get where I'm going."

"You know, patience is a virtue," said a white unicorn with blue diamonds on it's flank.

"That's what my parents always said, but I'm bored, and I want to be there now," Pinkie Pie replied.

"You know Rainbow Dash, Rarity has a point. Sometimes, being bored is better than the alternatives," said a white pony with both a horn and wings. "Twilight Sparkle, did I ever tell you about the time that I wished to be in the most interesting place in all the worlds?"

The lavender unicorn shook her head. "No Celestia,  you never did."

"That's a shame, its a very interesting story," Celestia replied.

"Why haven't we heard this story yet?" the blue pony with the ethereal mane replied.

She was the younger sister of Celestia, and with the exception of a rather long imprisonment on the moon was one of her sister's closest confidants. She couldn't imagine her sister withholding such an interesting story.

"Now, this was back when Luna was on the moon. It was about a hundred and twenty years ago, that is if I remember correctly," replied Celestia.

"Is it a scary story?" asked a yellow winged pony?

"No Fluttershy, it isn't a scary story. There aren't any monsters in it," the Princess said in a reassuring voice.

All of the ponies circled around Celestia, eager to here her tale.