The Link Between the Worlds

The citizens of Ponyville gawked at what was being escorted out of Princess Twilight's castle. The air held no hint of noise beyond the soft droning of insects. Lyra Heartstrings, labeled Local Nutcase by most of the town, would have raised her hoof in triumph if she hadn't been carrying her lyre. Her roommate, however, seemed to have something in her eye, as it would not stop twitching.

Shining Armor trotted toward the newcomers, expecting an attack of some sort. He looked them over, no detail missing his keen eyes. The pink one wore a smile that was consistently expanding. It's eyes were darting everywhere in its field of vision, eventually landing on the town's pastry cheif. It was wearing a full set of clothing, including a sweater with a beatbox design. How odd, Shining Armor thought.

The boy, however, was squinting at the ponies, as if he were trying to discover the secrets of the universe. He had a hat with a pine tree marked on it. What is its purpose? Why would you wear unessecary clothing? thought the stallion. The boy was now reaching into his vest for something. The Captain instantly suspected an attack. Shining Armor reacted immediately, firing a blast of magic at the child and knocking the dangerous weapon from his hands. Lifting the nefarious construct from the ground, realizing it was, a book?

He caught a glimpse of the number three before the voice to his right exploded in scalding rage.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?!"

Shining Armor winced. Right, the old pegasus. "I was, err, looking for a weapon."

The senior was seething with rage. The pink one was glaring at him while helping the other child up. "You honestly think that Dipper would carry a weapon?"

This is getting more and more awkward. "Well, see, you have to understand, you're all possibly hostile in our eyes, and I had to be careful, so I…" his explanation died on his lips as he felt the white pegasus' eyes boring into him.

Mabel blinked at him. "We're still human, aren't we?"

The depth of Mabel's words were lost on him. So, they call themselves humans. Interesting. But his musings were interrupted by the high-pitched voice right beside his ear.

"Yeah, you shouldn't have done that, Shiny." Shining Armor cursed under his breath.

"Pinkie Pie, how did you get past the guards?" inquired the Captain, sighing as he did so.

The little baker giggled. "They said something about leaving them alone, so I decided to see what you were doing."

Shining Armor lifted an eyebrow. "And they let you walk right past them?"

Pinkie giggled again. "Well, they were on the ground with their hooves over their ears. So, yeah, I guess they let me walk right past them. Why do you ask?"

Shining Armor turned around, and, indeed, two guards were shivering on the ground, their hooves clamped over their ears. Yet another sigh escaped his lips. "No reason, Pinkie, no reason at all."

The unicorn turned back towards the children. The one with the pine tree hat had gotten up, and was brushing off some dirt from his arms. The pink one, however, was simply staring at Pinkie, and Shining Armor swore he could see fireworks in her eyes.

Right, back to business. "Well, I have a few questions for you."

"Where are you from?"

"Gravity Falls, Oregon."

Flash Sentry was not a pony who liked following a checklist. He would rather add his own, personally signature in everything he created. Yet here he was, reading questions off of this checklist to the human child with the hat. Just my luck that I got this job. Shining Armor probably hates my guts right now. Of course, I can't blame him after what I did to Twilight. Of course, when somepony is in danger and somepony else cares for that somepony, the mind takes hold. Maybe she's lost in the middle of the desert, with no food or water. Maybe she was turned into a frog and is trapped under a log right now? Or maybe, she's floating in space, slowly dying from the lack of oxygen! Flash sucked in a breath. He needed to concentrate. If he didn't get any information to his superior and active leader of Equestria, Celestia knows what he would do to the orange pegasus. He shook any more thoughts of Twilight of his head. He needed to concentrate. His first two interview had been extremely unsuccessful. The old pegasus, who identified himself as "Mr. Mystery", or "Stan Pines," had started to spout some gibberish about how he had just killed twenty zombies with a baseball bat and brass knuckles, and refused to answer to any "cutesy little pony." Upon being reminded that he himself was a "cutesy little pony," Stan walked out of Lyra Heartstring's house and hadn't come back in.

The pink one, or "Mabel Pines," had been asked one question and responded with thirty thousand of her own. Flash had decided she was useless and sent her outside.

"What's your planet's name?"

"Earth." Dipper paused for a moment. "Could I maybe ask you a few questions?"

Flash hesitated. This wasn't supposed to happen. But he was never one to follow a checklist. "Sure, why not?"

"Okay, uh, what's your name?"

"My name's Flash Sentry."

"So, what's this place called, anyway?"

"You're in Ponyville, which is a city in Equestria, on the planet Equus."

Dipper snorted at the names.

"What's so funny?"

"It's just that you named a city filled with ponies Ponyville."

Flash cracked a smile. "It does seem rather silly, doesn't it?"

Dipper nodded his head. "And on top of that, 'Equestria', in an old language of ours called Latin, means 'Land of Horses', or 'Land of Ponies', rather."

Flash chucked at that. "Is that so?"

Their laughter died into silence.

"So whose's the ruler of this country?"

Flash Sentry tensed. "It was, up until one hour ago, Princess Celestia."

Dipper didn't catch the hesitation in his answer. "A princess? Who is the queen?"

"Well, the only queen we know of was Queen Crysalis, queen of the Changelings."

There was silence for a minute, an Dipper started laughing again. "What is it?" asked Flash.

When the laughter stopped, his response was, "I just realized that I'm talking to a magical pony in the land of Equestria after fighting off a zombie invasion."

Flash was a bit confused, but he decided that this a good place to end the interrogation. "Well, good talking to you, Dipper. And sorry about Shining Armor earlier. He was just really worried since he lost his little sister and all."

Dipper's eyes widened. "What do you mean?"

Flash mentally facehoofed. Now he was going to have to explain it to Dipper, but the jovial atmosphere had already left room. Why not tell him?

"Well, the spot that you came in, the castle, it was somehow linked to a somewhere in your dimension. Anyone who was caught in the entry point would be sucked into and out the other side."

Dipper's head was asking so many questions that it physically hurt. But one question shouted above the rest. "Where's Soos?"

"Okay, I think he's waking up."

Soos opened his eyes and saw a yellow and red pair staring back at him. He yelped and jumped off of the table that had mysteriously appeared inside the Mystery Shack. Before him was one of the strangest things he had ever seen, and that was saying something. On the far left, he saw a white horse, about eye level with himself. It had a horn protruding from its forehead and wings folded by its side. Its mane seemed to be made a rainbows and was rippling in the nonexistent wind. If he had to guess a gender, he would say female.

In the middle, there seemed to be the sum of an eagle, a lion, a horse, and a deer, as well as other such random animals. It was currently sporting the typical attire of a doctor, a stethoscope, a white lab coat, the works. He looked male.

And on the right was the most adorable thing he had ever seen. It was a small, purple pony with wings and a horn like the first, but this horse only reached Soos' chest. She had a sheepish grin on her face that just screamed, Hug me.

The collase of animals stepped forwards. "I believe we have some explaining and introductions to do, don't you agree?"