//-------------------------------------------------------// Quite Ah' Conundrum -by Blooming Cherries- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// A Varmint //-------------------------------------------------------// Author's Note Just a side series I want to work on to kind of help get them writing juices flowing for Igniting the Torch.... I get bored. Nothing serious. I came up with the idea by watching both cartoons in the same day. I don't think this idea has come into fruition yet. Well. Not like I did a whole lot of lookin' either. Anywho, here y'all go. A story you never knew you needed. Or wanted. I don't even want it... I'll update after I finish the chapter for Igniting the Torch, Which is where the majority of focus is going. I don't believe anything is plagiarized. Having not seen Sandy in anything. Well. I didnt look very hard either. So hopefully all is good. A Varmint Five hours. It has been five long hours since Twilight had asked Spike and the girls for some help with a few inventions. At first it had not been that much of a problem for anypony; only taking a few minutes here and there to finish what had been asked of them. But as they worked the seconds had turned into minutes, and minutes to hours. And boy were the digits changing slowly as they moved around and hefted materials to and fro for five hours. They ended up in the library of the Castle of Friendhsip working on Twilight's portal machine. Shelve of books surrounding them in almost every direction as they worked to the bone to help Twilight. And as much as Applejack loved helping her friends... This wasn't how she wanted to spend her entire day. Applejack wiped some sweat of her brow with the back of her hand. "Alrighty, Twilight. I don't mean to be such a bull about it. But this is the last contraption us and, Spike gotta help ya with, right? Cause this isn't how ah' planned on spendin' my entire day," said Applejack. Her red and white-striped fleece shirt and pair if worn jeans were covered in oil and dirt that wasn't stained on there previously from work at Sweet Apple Acres. "Not that ah' don't mind helping ya out. Shoot. I usually head over faster than cheetah with it's tail on fire. You just usually give us more of a heads-up as far as time goes." Twilight smiled and nodded in response. "Yes. Just this last thing I need you all to assist me with. After we do a trial run and are all finished wrapping up here, you all may do as you wish. I really appreciate all of you for coming over to help me with a few things and apologize for keeping you here most of the day." Twilight dusted off the lab coat she was wearing that covered her purple dress shirt and part of her skirt. "Don't sweat it, egghead. What are friends for?" Rainbow Dash dismissed Twilight's apology with a wave of her hand. Not wanting to get her new favorite Wonderbolts t-shirt shirt covered in gunk, Rainbow decided to work with her shirt and jacket off leaving only her dark blue bra on. Thankfully she kept her black workout shorts on. Her exact words being somewhere along the lines of, "Nopony new is going to see my bra anytime soon anyway so who cares if it gets dirty". A spot free Rarity was taking off a pair of white rubber gloves with her own three-diamond cutie mark embedded near the cuffs. When the gloves came off she inspected her nails for any untimely breaks or chips. "I second that notion, Twilight darling. We are indeed happy to help whenever you need to. But I must say that a little more of a notice would be more convenient on our ends, dear. I didn't expect my dress shirt to get sullied by dust," Rarity said with disgust as she inspected her royal purple dress shirt, dusting it with her manicured hands upon completion. "It looks really good on you, Rarity," said Fluttershy. Rairty did a quick twirl with her hands on her hips. "Do you think so? I think it goes wonderful with my mane. I've been trying a fabric out that stretches and I think the results are astonishing. I used a similar fabric to sew these black dress pants as well." Fluttershy smiled and nodded shooting her a thumbs-up. Though she shrank behind her mane afterwards. A blush spreading across her face. "I really love how it shows off your hips. Among other things," Fluttershy whispered to nopony in particular. Though she did receive a wink from Rarity. "All right girls. Here's the last piece I need to add," Twilight help up a box with lights, wires, a dial and a large amythyst-like crystal on top of it. The contraption in which Twilight needed help with was just an add-on for the portal she made into the mirror, or "Human", world. She had been researching into expanding the metaphorical horizons of the portal's capabilities. "This little add-on will enhance the portal generator's dimensional wavelength and allow possible, if not definite, inter-dimensional travel. It will expand the very concepts of how we see our reality by alternating the machine's point of focus." The clicking of claws entering the room changed the center of attention from Twilight, whom finished her explanation of the mechanical add-on to her portal, to Spike the Dragon as he entered the room with a tray of drinks and snacks. "In summary, she can travel to other realities if it works correctly. If it works," Spike said smugly. The tray he carried assorted with seven glasses filled with his special Dragon Punch with some apple slices and colby jack cheese cubes. "Spike!" Twlight yelled, glaring at Spike. "I've been clear on the fact that you 'need' to start wearing pants." "Hey," Spike sat the tray down on an small table and threw his claws in the hair defensively, in a joking manner. "Until you can come up with a legitimate reason to wear any kind of pants or shorts, I'm just gonna wear this awesome pink and light purple, probably Thistle, long-sleeved shirt. Besides... I hate pants," Spike grumbled. Twilight looked down at the dragon before her. Spike was a little over half her size at an approximate four feet tall, minus the spines, compared to her average height of six feet. Well. Give or take. "You need to wear pants because it's not decent for you to go anywhere like that! Not to mention you are currently half-naked right now. With 'company' over!" Twilight shouted. "It's not indecent, Twilight. I have internal genitalia that nobody can see unless I'm aroused. So unless sompony in here is in their Estrus cycle...," Spike accusingly pointed at all of his friends in the room. "Which none of you are. I can tell. I don't believe we have a problem with me not wearing pants." Rainbow Dash's brow furrowed. "And just how in Tartarus would you even know if we were in heat, huh!? Typical male assumption?" The other mares, excluding Twilight who was doing some tweaks to the box she showed off, looked at Spike with mixed expressions of offense and curiosity. The gazes of four mares burrowed into Spike's skull. He sighed and tapped the tip of his muzzle. "I can smell you. My dragon sense of smell is far stronger than that of a simple canine's. Apex predatory species and such. I grew up with you girls. I know every last scent you girls give off. Every... Single... One." Spike stated matter-of-factlly, putting extra emphasis to his last three words. Blushes and horrified expressions spread between the four mares. They looked at each other, the floor and anywhere else they could divert their attention to but Spike. "Oh. I suppose that would, ummmm... Do it," said Rainbow Dash. The clang of a hammer on a nearby table caught the attention of everybody in the room and shifted their focus to Twilight, whom made the noise. "All right. I have done some final tweaks to my device. All I need to do is fire up the portal to test out my hypothesis." The portal was originally used to travel between this world of Equestria with that of a mirror world. Twilight Sparkle, and once Starlight Glimmer, used this portal to see their friend Sunset Shimmer. The smooth mirror was the medium for the portal. Twilight had hooked parts and components to it. Twilight used a book that was linked to a twin copy owned by Sunset in the mirror world as the focus point to conjure a portal to where the book was linked to. Twilight smiled widely "This will will allow me to switch the focus of the portal from Sunset's journal to this crystal infused with Alicorn magic. If my theory is correct, it will let me travel to other universes. Maybe even other mirrored worlds. I can go into further details regarding how it works but I just really want to test it out after doing five months of calculations," Twilight gushed. Everybody gathered in front of the portal to watch the experiment unfold. Twilight turned a dial that rested on option one, the default position, to the third option. The crystal on the device began to slowly fill with yellow light, illuminating the device and its surroundings. When the whole crystal was filled to the brim with yellow the portal began to come alive. Gears turned and parts moved. Eventually magic began to swirl in the mirror and the machine began to hum. Twilight and company watched the portal with amazement as it began to work. However the humming became louder and more obnoxious, turning to more of a whine as it increased it pitch. The gears and the other parts started to increase in speed, smoke starting to rise from the friction. Faces that were of awe turned to worry and despair. Twilight tried to rush the machine and turn it off, but the machine exploded before she could react. Twilight and her friends coughed and wheezed as smoke flooded the room. "Is-" Twilight coughed. "- everypony okay?" asked a concerned Twilight. She waved her hand around try to shoo away some of the smoke. "Y-yeah," Spike said. "Shy and I are alright," Rainbow Dash added. Applejack had taken of her signature stetson and used it to waft away some of the smoke. "I'm fine, Twi'," But something was off. Twilight could hear an additional person coughing. She saw a silhouette of someone by the portal. The additional voice was coughing up a lung. "When I get my hands on ya you're gonna be deader than disco, Spongebob," the additional voice threatened. Twilight's eyes widened and she lit up her horn, casting a spell to dissipate the lingering smoke. The smoke vanished at an alarming rate and the room was clear of smoke. Though her guesses were right. There was an additional person there. To Twilight it looked like the person appeared to be-. "What's with the overgrown varmint!?" Applejack shouted , pointing at the new addition to the room. The figure was a bipedal squirrel about the same exact height as Applejack. She was a female if the purple bikini and the matching purple and green bikini skirt said anything. Not to mention her feminine yet toned form similar to that of Rainbow Dash and Applejack's. The squirrel girl pointed a clawed finger at Applejack. "Who ya callin' a varmint, ya pastel horse!" The squirrel hollered angrily.