The Link Between the Worlds

"Hello?"

"…"

"Are you there?"

"…"

"…"

"Why do you ask this?"

"I have questions. Questions about you."

"We all have our questions, don't we? What is life? Why is there life? What is our purpose?"

"But I have questions that can be answered."

"You already have the answers. They are there, but you don't reach out and find them."

"You are being cryptic."

"Some would say otherwise."

"But who are you? What is your name?"

"I am called many names by many people."

"But what do most ponies call you?"

"Who are you?"

"Excuse me?"

"Who are you? What is your name?"

"My name is Discord, a draconequus, a spirit of unrest and disharmony, and I once ruled over Equestria in a state of absolute power."

"…"

"Hello?"

"Ugh, what happened?"

The lavender Alicorn shook her head. The apple seemed to have disappeared. The the experiment fail? She rubbed her hoof along her neck, taking in her surroundings. She saw a rectangle of light ahead of her, probably a door of some kind. Feeling with her hoof, she deduced that it must be made of wood. Wood? All of my doors are made out of crystal. She decided to ask if anypony was nearby.

"H-." Her efforts of greeting were immediately stopped by a hoof stuffed into her mouth. She looked up and saw Celestia shaking her head, bringing her other hoof to her own mouth, making a shh motion.

Twilight was obviously confused. Where were they? Why was Celestia here? And were was Spike? She'd have to figure it out without asking Celestia.

So, there's a door ahead of me, and I'm in a tight space. I must be in a pantry, or closet or something. What can I feel around me? Twilight moved her hoof around and felt what she thought was clothing of some kind. So I'm in a clothing closet. That information might be useful. Now let's see where I. She cast a quick spell, keeping the light from her horn at a minimum. Just a simple location spell.

To Twilight's surprise, her spell told her that she was somewhere undetectable by magic. That's odd. Where could I be in Equestria? The changeling hive? No, wood isn't something that they would use. Dragon Country? No, there's that problem with wood again. Wait! The Griffon Kingdom! That's it, I'm on the other side of the border. And ever since that cannibalism incident last week, it's been a no-magic territory. So Twilight concluded that her spell must have gone wrong, and Celestia had come to teleport her away before she finished it and hurt herself.

But her musings were cut off by a sudden noise. "Dipper? Mr. Pines? Mabel?" Twilight ears perked up. Hm. It sounded male, and the worry in his voice made his sound like he was looking for somepony. Those don't sound like griffon names, though.

Whatever was on the other side of the door moved around, called out for a "Dipper", and finally said, "Must have passed out after the ritual. They're probably outside." Twilight could hear hoofsteps heading away from the closet. A door opened with a creak and shut. The two occupants of the closet breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well, now that that's over," came a voice behind both Twilight and the Solar Deity.

"Spike!" cried the purple pony. She dodge around Celestia and pulled the baby dragon into a hug.

"Hey, Twilight." Spike returned the embrace. "I was calling and calling for you to come out of your room, but you wouldn't answer."

"Yeah… sorry about that." The young mare blushed in embarrassment. I was so wrapped up in the spell, I didn't even hear him. She turned to the white Alicorn. "Do you know why and where we are here?"

"Don't I get a 'Hello?'"

Twilight took a step back. The clothing she'd touched earlier just talked to her.

Celestia sighed. "Discord, why were you in Twilight's castle?"

The clothes slowly stood up and in a flash of white, our friendly neighborhood draconequus was there. "Well, you see, Tia, there's a simple, rational, completely ordinary answer to that. The voice in my head told me to."

"Right…" Celestia made a mental note to have Discord sent to a mental institution in Manehatten.

"But enough about me. You were about to tell Twilight here how you failed to save us and doomed us all to eternity in an alternate dimension." He chuckled. This will be interesting. "But this closet is rather cramped, don't you think? Let's talk outside, why don't we?"

The draconequus grabbed the knob in his claw and threw the door open. All of them, except for Discord, of course, stood in awe at the sight of the building before them. What they could tell about it was that it most certainly created by something other than ponies. Or it had been created by something other than ponies and then been destroyed. What used to obviously be walls were reduced to rubble, and a gooey acid pooled on the floor. In the middle of the room, though, a complex rune just exuding exponetial amounts of power was etched into the floor.

Discord seemed unfazed by the wreckage surrounding him. He dawned a magician's cape from seemingly nowhere and from the depths of it, pulled out a table. "Now then, Celestia, please explain to Twilight were we are." A devilish smile played on his lips. Celestia despised that smile.

"Well, okay then." The Princess of Friendship, her servant Spike, and the snow-white Alicorn took a seat around the table. "It went down like this."

Soos had been looking for the Pines family for over 10 minutes, and had come to the conclusion that they must be in the top floor of the house. As he neared the Mystery Shack, though, he thought he heard voices. The one speaking sounded like a female. Soos leaned against the door.

"And that's how we got here," the voice finished.

Soos backed away from the door and walked toward the shattered window, intent on getting a look at the intruders. He paused. What was that rustling in the bushes behind him. He tensed his shoulders and turned his head. No one was there. Must of been a pterodactyl or something.

He reached the window and, careful not to touch the grass shards, grabbed the window sill and lifted himself up, finally getting a good look at who was speaking.

What he saw made him fall back to the ground with a loud thunk.

Dipper groaned. What had happened? His vision was blurry, but he could tell that he wasn't in the Mystery Shack anymore. Just gotta wait 'til I can see straight. A sharp jab in his side told him that someone else thought otherwise.

"Other-dimensional travelers, wake up." Another sharp jab with, was that a spear? Yeah, it looks like a spear. His eyesight fully restored, he looked at what was trying to wake up. And wake up he did. What was on the other end of the sphere seemed to be a pale blue equine, about three feet tall and sporting golden armor.

Okay, Dipper, you've seen worse. Nothing's going to top an angry Bill Cypher. Gather some data and formulate and explanation. But before the first words were out of his mouth, his sister yelled, "Oh my gosh, a pony!" and rushed at it, pulling it into a tight hug. The poor thing, fortunately, didn't have time to draw his spear to ward off the attack. Dipper heard his sister whisper into its ears, "We going to have so much fun together." as the pony's eyes went wide.

As hilariously awkward as this situation was, it was interrupted by the screaming of an old man. Or rather, an old stallion. Yes, our favorite cheapskate who didn't drive someone to suicide (seriously, how did Nickolodeon not censor that episode?) has been transformed into a lovable, huggable equine, a pegasus specifically, complete with white fur, a fez, and a mark on his flank resembling a triangle surrounded by four ovals.

"I'm a monster! An adorable monster!" screamed the newest edition to the pony race.

"Actually, sir, you are a pony," responded a guard, stating the obvious.

"I know that! Why do you think I'm screaming?!" Grunkle Stan angrily retaliated.

"I still might take offense at the fact that you are calling me a monster," responded the ever so insightful guard.

"Why does the universe hate me?!" Stan was crying now.

"Actually, the multiverse hates you. And your transformation was most likely completely random, with a one out of a million chance that it would occur," explained the guard.

Stan looked up. "So, the multiverse hates me?"

"Err, yes."

The old stallion rose, creating what would have been a very rude hand gesture, had he actually had hands. "Darn you multiverse! I will have my revenge!"

Somehow the first guard had extracted himself from the Iron Grip of Mabel. "I'm going to go check on something. You two stay here."

"Yes, sir," came the two responses in unison.

The guard hurriedly trotted out the main castle door, shaking in fear of the creature with no concept of personal space. Monsters, all of them, he thought.

Dipper took in his surroundings. Around him appeared to be a home made of pure crystal, although why an architect would take such an expensive job was beyond him. I don't know how we got here, and I have no data to work off of other than the pony calling me "other-dimensional". So I managed to break through the barrier of space and time?

But as he retreated into deep thought, he failed to note that time seemed to slow, and the world took on a gray color scheme. What did get his attention, though, was the laughter.

"Hello there, Pine Tree, fancy meeting you here."

Dipper took up a rather pathetic fighting position to combat an unseen foe. "Bill."

"Incorrect. I'm part of Bill." The table in the center of the room, the one surrounded by seven crystal chairs, slowly turned toward him. An eye with an elongated pupil stared at him. "Bill is safe back in your dimension, but I, of course, the part that was watching you, was sucked into our little dimensional mix-up as well."

"Why are you here, Bill?" Dipper inquired.

"To warn you. Sometimes ignorance is the best thing for the mind. Knowledge has the power to be harmful if used correctly." The eye closed, and the world returned to its normal state.