Chapters Twilight had spent a little too much time in her library lately, more so than usual. I mean, of course it was like her to spend time there, but not so much that we didn't see her for a few days. I didn't think too much of it, maybe she was working especially hard studying for a test, or potentially just... Being Twilight. Nothing too drastic had been happened over those few days, so we didn't bother her. To be honest, I didn't expect her to bother ME so drastically.
"RARITY! I need your help!" Twilight busted loudly through the door, so much so the mannequins shook around her.
"Twilight, darling, what ARE you doing?! We haven't seen you in days and you suddenly have the gall to bust through my door, with no warning! You could have at least knocked first! We were getting worried!" I never liked to be bothered when I was working, as long as it was for a good reason, "What could you possibly need my help with anyway, unless you wanted to sort your mane out!"
"It's not that, if I explained it to you and you listened, I'm sure you'd understand, so just shut it and listen to me!" Twilight exclaimed, smoothing out her mane to make it more presentable, "The reason I've been inside so much, is because I've been reading up on different Universes! They could potentially exist and I think I've figured out a way to make a portal to one, so we could prove it! But I need another Unicorn's help and you're the one that's closest to me, in terms of friendship and of walking distance!" Twilight stood there at my door, looking visually tired, "That's why I need your help!"
"An experiment? Darling, you know that they go awry a lot of the time and I'm not sure I want to be on the receiving end of the blow- back from one of those experiments." I shook my head, but Twilight persisted,
"Come on! We could make a break-through!" I sighed,
"Fine, but if this goes badly, it's all on you." Twilight beamed,
"YES! I mean... Thanks! Now come on, follow me!" She turned and began trotting and quite a pace, of which I had no trouble keeping up with, towards her library. Of course it had to be there, it was almost like any other place for practising magic was inadequate to her.
After arrival, she slammed the door when I'd barely managed to get my back-left hoof inside, thankfully it didn't make contact. She opened a large, bulky book that lay on the table. Did she even bother to wipe all the dust off the cover before opening it? I would have, but this was Twilight we were talking about. "Now Rarity, I need you to connect with me in some way, it's really difficult to explain what I want you to think of right now and we NEED TO GET THIS DONE NOW!"
"Darling, have you not had much sleep lately?"
"Of course not! Not when there are whole Universes that are waiting to be discovered! Who knows what we could find?" And with this, our horns connected and started glowing. Mine glowed involuntarily of course; I had no idea what I had gotten myself into. Then there was a strange sensation. It felt like a flood of knowledge entering my head within an instant and I could actually comprehend what Twilight was talking about, which certainly did save some time.
When I had finally recovered from the flood of information and sifted through it all, Twilight was tapping her hoof impatiently, obviously waiting for me to catch up. I faced her and nodded, "That was certainly... Interesting..." was all I could muster at this point in time. Twilight only rolled her eyes, "You know the spell I dropped in there? I need you to use that with me. It should open up a portal."
"Are you sure this is safe Twilight, I mean-"
"Uh, yeah... Sure..." I would have believed that if it came from Applejack, but I wasn't faced with the Element of Honesty here, was I? I sighed. I might as well keep going, I'd already got the knowledge and it'd be rude for me to just turn and walk out now after I agreed beforehand. "3... 2... 1... Now!"
We both began to cast the spell, it didn't take too long before there was a bright light before us and it appeared to be a split of some form, getting larger by the second, but Twilight's determined expression told me to not stop. I hoped this was the result she was looking for, I certainly didn't want anything nasty to enter this world.
Soon enough, a large rippling portal was there before us. I could see a clouded room, but I couldn't make out any of the features exactly, but I think I could see sofas and curtains. I looked over at Twilight and it looked like she was about to explode with excitement. She began jumping up and down, the likes of which I'd only expect from Pinkie, "It worked, it worked! Rarity, do you know what this means?!"
"Not in the slightest darling."
"It means, we've proved the existence of other Universes!"
"And what do we do with this portal now? Does it close after a while?"
"I guess..." Twilight scratched the back of her neck and I groaned,
"You mean you didn't know?"
"Not really, but I can't know everything there is to know about portals though, can I?" As she said this I rolled my eyes and the portal began to shimmer and clear up. I stayed stationary, I didn't want to go anywhere near the thing, but Twilight... She began walking up to it! "Twilight, what are you doing? I-it could be dangerous!"
"It'll be fine! Come and help me look in, see if you can find anything of interest!"
"No chance darling, I've already helped you open it, I'm not going anywhere near it!"
"If there was any danger, it should have passed by now. Don't worry so much, hey, I'll even put my hoof in to prove it!" At this point, her hoof strayed too close to the portal for my liking, so I quickly ran up and shoved it down, "N-no no! It's okay Twilight, I believe you!" I looked up at the portal out of curiosity, seeing a crisper image, when out of the room's window, I could see a strange, metal construct roll by. It had wheels, but it wasn't pulled by any ponies at all, it just... Went forward as if pulled by something invisible. "T-Twilight, did you see that?"
"See what?"
"I-it was like a chariot, only not a chariot and it wasn't being pulled by anything!" At this remark, a grin began spreading across Twilight's face. "Wow, so the world there must be really different! And possibly more advanced!" I couldn't believe her enthusiasm! We knew nothing about this world and she was already obsessing over it! I did not like the look of that metal construct and here she was, getting all worked up about it! It could potentially be dangerous, I thought Twilight was supposed to be the calm, composed and sensible one, but when she gets worked up about something, she just cannot be reasoned with...
This was when the portal started to shimmer even brighter and some books began to fall off the shelves and being right next to it did not help my confidence. It shimmered even brighter and got slightly bigger, some of the books around were now swirling around the room, throwing loose pages everywhere, "T-Twilight, what's happening?!" I knew something'd go wrong!
"I-I don't know! Come on, we gotta get out of here!" Twilight went towards the door, but I was remained still with fear, the portal eventually swallowing me up in a blinding light. The last thing I heard was Twilight yelling my name.
Mondays took a lot out of me these days... Maybe it was just the fact I got to bed so late on a Sundays and Mondays were just so annoying... I was in the easiest year of school as well, things were going to get a lot more difficult next year and here I was complaining. I walked home with my friends, one headphone off the ear, one headphone on.
When we got to my house and I turned down the driveway, my friend yelled, "Tell your brother he's a Hobbit!"
"Yeah, yeah!" I shouted back, grinning to myself. I unlocked the front door and stepped in, sighing loudly as I dumped my bag down on the floor and taking out everything that needed to go into the kitchen and chucking it on the floor and leaving the school books and pencil case inside and trudging up the stairs to my room. I dumped the bag in my tiny room. It was filled with total junk and dust. MLP cards on the side and the card stand ups of Twilight, Fluttershy, Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell on the stereo, a small bookshelf and 2 more shelves filled with ornaments and my jewellery box.
I stomped back downstairs, turning into the computer room and booting it up, it made a horrendous whirring sound. I shuddered and tried my best to ignore it as I picked up the stuff that needed to go into the kitchen and opened the door into the lounge as best I could, my hands full, shoving it open with my foot. I inhaled, but at the sight in the next room, the air was quickly expired faster than I would have liked.
There, laying on the ground, completely passed out, was... Rarity? My first thought was, 'Oh my God. A Unicorn. From Equestria. In our Universe. In my house.', my second thought was, 'Damn... I hoped if any of the cast from MLP appeared in my house, it'd be Fluttershy...' I clearly had my thoughts in order. I shook those thoughts out my head, doing what I should have done in the first place and went to help her, dropping my things. Not knowing what to do of course, I just lifted her up in a sitting up position. I couldn't leave her here, more importantly, how would people react if they saw a Unicorn in my house?
It didn't take much effort to get her up the stairs and into my room without my brother noticing. She was surprisingly light and my brother spent most of his time cooped up in his room, likely playing League of Legends and listening to a pod-cast at the same time. Not knowing what else to do, I put her under the bedsheets and went downstairs to do my chores and put my stuff away. When I'd finished, I went upstairs to check on Rarity.
I stayed there for around half an hour, looking up at the clock occasionally to check the time. My parents came back at five. At about 4:45, she started to come around. I had no idea what she was going to say to me, how she was going to react, after all, I'm pretty sure that none of the ponies except Twilight had seen a human before... Except in the fanfics, but they didn't really happen, in the series...
She didn't look at me straight away, putting a hoof to her forehead, "W-where in Celestia's name am I?" Her eyes met mine and her eyes widened, "Oh Sweet Celestia, is this a dream?" My eyebrows were pulled up in a worried expression, "I-I don't think so..." Rarity looked like she was about to faint, as she was so infamously known for, "D-don't faint, I found you in my house, I-I have no idea what you're doing here, but I'm not here to do anything nasty..."
"Darling, no offence but I don't even know what you are."
"I'm a human, but I don't think you've ever seen a human have you?" She shook her head,
"Not at all." I think she was getting irritated by my hair. It was messy and tangled, I hadn't brushed it in a while...
I heard a slam of a front door and I had to think quickly and whispered, "Look, Rarity I can't risk anyone seeing you right now, so I'm going to go downstairs and I'm going to act as if it's a normal school night. I would prefer it if you either stayed in the bed and didn't move, or hide under the bed."
"Right... Wait a second, how did you know my name?" She asked, jumping out of the bed and lifting up the sheets to reveal the underneath of the bed. "Uh... I-it's a long story, I-I'll tell you sometime when we're alone..."
"AJ!" My parents yelled from downstairs (Yeah, my nickname is AJ. But not that AJ.)
"Yeah, I'm here!" I yelled back, but then turned to where Rarity was, "Just don't make any noise and I'll come to tell you more about this world another time." Rarity looked at me sceptically and I couldn't blame her. Here she was, in another universe separate from her own, but now she was being told by something she'd never seen before and that somehow knows her name that she doesn't mean her any harm and that she's trying to help. I just crossed my fingers that she hadn't seen the stand-ups of her sister, her sister's friend and two of her friends.
"Just sit tight and I'll be back up later..." At this I left for the downstairs. I knew Rarity wouldn't really do anything stupid, she could be level headed when she wanted to.
Well, this was undignified. The dust underneath here was far too thick for my liking. I couldn't help but cough a few times. I could hear something coming from another room; it sounded like talking and had some rather... Uncouth language. I tried my best to block it out, as I could hear another person stomp up the stairs. I was not going to budge from under here regardless. I just had to keep quiet and hopefully I would get some answers when the time called for it, like why on Equestria did she have stand-ups of two of my friends, my sister and one of her friends here? I tried not to think too deeply, but I instead waited patiently, not even daring to poke my head out. How long was I going to be here for anyway?
How long had I left her up there for? My thoughts were racing as I ate dinner with my family. We talked about normal family things. Which of course is a lie. It usually ends up being a 'heated conversation' about many different things. I contributed slightly less than usual, playing it off as the fact I was hungry and tired and maybe not feeling too well. I said I'd probably be fine by morning, but I hatched a plan in my head. My brother was heading off to a college open day tomorrow and I would act like I was ill to get off school. When my parents went to work, I would begin talking to Rarity. She would undoubtedly have a lot of questions and I had a few as well.
My parents made me snap out of it by instructing me to clear the rest of the table. I obediently did as I was told, planning all the more of what I was going to do. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm pretty good at acting.
My dad needed the computer, so that was off limits for about an hour. Perfect time to give Rarity an overview of where she was at least. I hurried upstairs, I wondered how agitated she'd be at more for leaving her for so long...
Upon lifting up the sheets, she crawling out instantly, blowing her mane out of her eyes and coughing a little, "Well, it's about time. Do you have any idea how long it's been?" She brushed herself off a little.
"Y-yeah, sorry about that... I usually don't spend so much time up here, I didn't want to arouse any suspicion..." I cast a quick glance down the corridor and listen out for my brother's obnoxiously loud music. It was as if he thought he was the only one in the house. After checking the corridor, I sit on the bed and Rarity does the same.
Now I had to sort out what I was going to say first off. Keeping my questions simple, I started off with the most stereotypical question I could muster. "Where exactly am I?" The girl smirked, quite obviously prepared for this one.
"You're on Earth. UK, England... That probably doesn't help too much..."
"You are right. I have never heard of those places in my life." I sighed and clearing my throat, my eyes being drawn to the card stand-ups. "And why do you have those? I'm actually finding it quite unsettling..." I pointed and I saw that she began turning a bit red, scratching the back of her neck. "Heh... O-oh yeah... I-it's a weird thing... Um... I-I think I should explain to you tomorrow... Or just... Show you..."
Now what exactly did she mean by that? What could she possibly show me that would answer my questions? I could see that the girl was smiling sheepishly at me. I decided not to push further on the subject, the poor dear looked like she was about to get a nosebleed.
She bit her lip, "A-anything else you want to know?"
"Ah right, yes. I assume the next question relates to the one before, but how did you know my name darling?"
"Yeah, you're right, it does relate to the other question..." She wrung her hands, "I-it's sort of awkward to explain right now... I promise you though, you'll have some answers tomorrow..."
"If you say so dear..." Remembering my manners, my head snapped back up to her face, "Dear, dear, I've been so caught up in the recent goings on that I have forgotten one crucial thing. What's your name darling?"
"Ariana..." She looked over to me and smiled.
"Now darling, one thing has been bothering me. Your mane is messy beyond belief, you cannot expect me to sit idly by whilst it's all tangled like that."
"Y-yeah," She ran a hand through it, her hand go caught in a few of the knots which caused my brow to furrow. "Also, humans don't really refer to their hair as manes... Just sayin'..."
"Whatever darling, fetch me a hairbrush and I'll get to work on it."
"OW!" I grimaced as the brush pulled and worked it's way through the tangled mess.
"Now now, if you had taken better care of it, it wouldn't hurt so much."
"Y- Ow... Yeah..." I couldn't deny that she had a point. I tried my best to ignore the pain, but not to much avail, I could feel my eyes watering up but no tears came. Before I knew it, she had finished with my hair and soon returned the hairbrush to the side, "You really must look after your HAIR better," She ran a hoof through it, "It's very nice, but there's not much you can do with it if you don't take care of it."
"I get that a lot, usually from my mum."
Time passed, I valiantly tried to get Ariana to style her hair a little bit, but she refused. I sighed in defeat. Eventually her father yelled up to her that the 'computer' room was free. Or at least that's what I think he said. She shouted back down that she would go on in a bit if she felt up to it. She made a comment on that she wasn't feeling too well, which I could of course call her bluff on. "You're lying about the whole headache thing aren't you dear?"
"Yeeep..." She sighed, "But it's for a good reason. It's the whole façade that is going to get you your answers tomorrow."
"Fair enough darling."
Later on, I kept up the whole 'Being ill' act until about 9pm. I was worried I would start having withdrawal symptoms from being away from the computer for a long time, or any form of electronics for that matter. I drew the curtains and stepped into the bathroom to get changed, telling Rarity to stay put.
Upon my return, I found Rarity still sat patiently on the bed. She was looking around at the room's décor, but her attention snapped back to me as I entered. "Now, I'm guessing you're not content with sleeping underneath the bed."
"You are correct. It was far too dusty under there."
"Fair enough..." I pulled the bedsheets up and gestured for her to climb in. When she did, I got in as well, hoping the bed wouldn't be too cramped. Thankfully it wasn't. "If someone comes in, then just hide under the bedsheets. I'll try to hide you further."
"Right. Goodnight then."
"Night..." We soon settled down, my parents came up and soon gave me the usual goodnight, Rarity hiding underneath the covers as per my instructions. Soon I drifted off, I wasn't sure how long it took for Rarity to go to sleep though.