Something is up. Something is really, really up. Not like the movie, but there' something up all right. The center of Ponyville seems to be meowing, and Twilight can't figure out why. Is there a cat stuck somewhere? Is there a family of strays dashing about? Is Opalesence missing again? According to Rarity, Opal has been "Just a little sweet pea!" But Twilight knows it's not true because just the other day Opalesence had gotten into her herb garden again.
Twilight has read book after book, confronted wise pony after wise pony, checked for strays and strays again. Nothing. But what really got the Princess was the sparks of pink that jumped at her unexplainably. Was it a new insect? A parasprite? Was it just Twilight's imagination? But suddenly an idea dawned on the lavender Alicorn. What if the sparks are making the meowing noises? But what could the sparks be? Twilight had to consult the books again for further research.
After a week of nothing, she began to dig deeper into her old books. Princess Celestia had given Twilight some worn out books (and a few brand new ones) to use for magic and research purposes. Twilight came along a book named, Portals; Different Types of Portals and Where They take You. "It couldn't hurt to try it." Twilight said to herself. She coughed as she cleaned the thick layer of cobwebs and dust off the book. The cover had a picture of a green portal with a statue of a dragon on top. A dragon portal. Classical, Twilight thought to herself.
The pages were yellowed and dusty, and she managed to find a few spiders in the pages. Twilight managed a Cleaning Spell to clean up the whole book. "Looks brand new. That's some spell all right. It worked wonders on this book." Twilight said. Although the binder of the book was a little torn, the rest of the book was shiny and new. No more bugs in the pages, no more dust on the covers, and no more sticky cobwebs that stuck to her hooves!
Once again, Twilight flipped through the pages. Dragon portal, human portal, parasprite portal...ah ha! She found something called the Kitten's Meow Portal. Twilight read to herself, "When the portal is in construction, pink sparks fly about. All the time, all the time the portal meows. When the portal is finished, if you walk through it, you can enter a kitty-fied version of your world. Although you'll have to find a purple portal somewhere in order to return to your home world. If you cannot find the purple portal, find the ruler of the kitten kingdom and ask her to open it for you. If that does not work, then you may be stuck in the world unless you can find the zebra-colored cat in the forest to open you the special emergency green portal." Twilight read.
"Well, that was certainly helpful. Sort of. I mean, now I know all the basics, but I don't know the first thing about a cat's life. Maybe I have a book on it." Twilight grabbed a book on the life of a cat (it was also very old, so another Cleaning Spell had to be don on it). She looked out over the balcony at the portal. There WAS no portal yet. There were pink sparks flying all around, and the occasional meowing. Twilight returned to her library, sat back in a chair, and read.
Twilight Sparkle awoke from a nap, her cat book laying gently on her lap. "Oh! I must have fallen asleep. What chapter am I on?" Twilight said to herself, opening to the introduction. "I must not have gotten very far." Twilight giggled. She yawned, and looked at the balcony. "Wonder how that...portal is doing?" Twilight asked herself. The meowing was terribly noisy, however when she looked down the portal was finished.
"There's a little pinky portal in the town square! It meows and meows like a cowardly bear!" Pinkie Pie sang through the town. The song annoyed Twilight. Bears don't meow, cats do, Twilight said, annoyed. Pinkie was fun and all, but she didn't know all the stuff Twilight did. Or the sound difference between a cat and a bear, apparently.
"Okay then, well, maybe the Princess should know about this..." Twilight said to herself. She sent a nice letter to the Princess, but Luna was the one to respond:
Dearest Twilight,
Tia...I mean, Celestia, is gone for a very important matter with your brother and Cadence in the Crystal Empire. However, I would be happy to come and look at this portal for her. I'll even take notes! I will come tomorrow, and we can check out this strange, pink, meowing kitty portal together. You can bring your friends, too, if you want.
Sincerely,
Princess Luna
Twilight was happy that SOME Princess was coming to check out the portal. But she wasn't necessarily happy that it was Luna, of all ponies. But she did get to bring along her friends, so that was okay. Luna was coming, she was going to take notes for the Princess, and they could get rid of the portal once and for all! Or so Twilight thought...
Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy stood in front of the surprisingly loud portal. "How long is Luna gonna take?" Rainbow Dash said, flying in circles around her friends as they waited for the Princess to show up. Suddenly a familiar cream pony with red hair hopped up to say hello.
"Hi guys!" Roseluck said. Twilight and friends said hello just as Luna popped up with a pad of paper and a pen. So Twilight told her everything that she had learned. Except....a force was pulling them in. All of them. The Mane Six, Luna, Roseluck...they had no idea what was going on!
"I'm sure it's nothing. Probably just a high wind or something!" Luna said, getting Twilight to roll her eyes. Twilight struggled away from the meowing portal. Rainbow Dash grabbed a light post, and her friends clinged on. Pinkie, at the end, grabbed Twilight. That extra long weight snapped the light post right in half! The Mane Six went in. Luna was humming a happy tune to herself, too optimistic to be realizing that she was about to become a kitty, and she was sucked in as well. Last of all, poor little Roseluck didn't know what was happening. She just sat there in awe as her friends and a Princess had just been swept away. Suddenly, she realized SHE was getting sucked in too. She struggled to grab what was left of the light post. But it was too late.
Roseluck had swept away too.
"Uh..." Twilight was the first to awake in the world. She touched her head, but instead of feeling her hard hoof, she feels a little, soft, furry something. She glances down at her hooves, and sees they are paws instead. Twilight is used to life without opposable thumbs, so she would be okay. The weirdest thing was that she still obtained her horn and wings! She was an Alicorn kitten, no doubt about it. "I need to find a mirror. This is all too weird." Twilight said to herself sleepily. But she didn't want to leave her friends. They would wake up, be scared, worry about her...and possibly get lost in a search! Twilight instead looked at her. She had a long tail that was the color of her hair, she had kept her mane. She was pretty sure her eyes were beady and the same color as her pony eyes, judging what Opalasence looks like.
So far, there were no really big changes EXCEPT WAKING UP IN THE MIDDLE OF A CAT WORLD. Oh, and BEING ONE!!! Luckily, Twilight had researched the basic life of a cat, so she could help her friends along the way. Rarity might know some, because she has a cat back at home. Yes, but, does she watch Opalesence? Surely Rarity wouldn't allow her cat to hunt, so Rarity might not know what a cat's life consists of. Twilight had so much stuff running through her mind that she didn't realize Princess Luna waking up.
"Ugh....Twilight, where are we?" Purred Luna. Twilight looked at the Princess. She sounded different. Twilight had called it. Cats meow, mew, pure, hiss, and occasionally growl to speak with each other.
"Not sure, Princess. I think we're in the cat world, but my question is, where is the cat world and where is other civilization?" Twilight asked. She sounded...weird, too. It was kinda cool. Difference isn't always a bad thing, in Twilight's mind. Maybe being a cat would be easier than being a pony. Maybe the food would taste better and the dresses would be prettier.
"Hey, Twilight? What would Spike be?" Pinkie asked. The others were awake. Twilight thought. Spike couldn't be a cat. I mean, he could, but wouldn't that be slavery, having a pet cat if you were one? Maybe Spike was a type of bird. Maybe he would be a dove or a cardinal....maybe a blue jay. Or maybe he'd be a chipmunk or a squirrel.
"A chipmunk or a squirrel, or maybe a bird. I should have brought him along." Twilight said. When suddenly she heard a squeal. Three new cats approached them.
"Oh ma gosh! Are y'all okay?" The kitten asked. She was yellow with her pink mane and tail. Apple Bloom! Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo approached. "Who are you anyways? Are you robbers? YOU CAN'T HAVE MY KITTY MARK!" The one that must have been Sweetie Belle said. That must be what they called cutie marks. Kitty marks. The one that looked like Scootaloo sighed, "We don't have kitty marks, Sweetie! Sorry, we're the Kitty Mark Crusaders! I'm Scootaloo, that one with the whole robber spiel is Sweetie Belle, and the one with the bow is Apple Bloom."
"Luna, do you still that pad of paper?" Twilight asked. Luna nodded, "Then write that down. Cutie marks are called Kitty Marks." Twilight looked at the Kitty Mark Crusaders' confused faces. Sweetie Belle had a face that was so confused, she wasn't exactly sure how confused she was. "What's a....cutie mark?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh! You don't know what a cutie mark is? It's the mark on a pony's flank depicting their special talent! It's the pony version of your fluffy wittle kitty marks!" Pinkie Pie cheered. "What's a pony?" Sweetie Belle asked. This time, Applejack spoke up.
"A pony has four legs like ya, but they have these things called manes, and they have tails. But they have hooves instead a' paws. And we have snouts instead of little noses." Applejack said. Then she slapped her hand over her mouth, eyes big as pearls.
"YOU do?" The Kitty Mark Crusaders said together. Applejack managed to whimper out, "I think I've said too much already." Rarity leapt next to her. "Yes, Applejack, yes you have."
"We're from Equestria, a far off world full of horses! When a portal opened up and sucked us in we landed here." Rainbow Dash.
