(Prolouge) A Crossed Wire
"Hey, Vip,” Etzer called, peering into the intricate mechanisms of the teleporter, “can you hand me the Wire Cutters?"
"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Viprin asked nervously, fidgeting in place, "I mean it says right on the box not to ‘perform unprofessional maintenance’."
"Oh, come on,” Etzer waved, “They only put that on the box so people don't make these things awesome, like we're doing. And I am a professional."
"If you say so..." Viprin said, using an unseen hand to toss the wire cutter to Etzer - who began to tamper with the inner machinations immediately.
"Strip those… tie that... annnd done!” the self-proclaimed mechanic decreed, “Alright, Vip, plug it in.” The teleporter was an orange circle, domed on one side to prevent accidental entry. Inside, hundreds of nozzle-like objects lined the interior – placed there to produce the portal. It was propped up on two metal poles, which were bolted to the floor. Viprin hesitantly reconnected the power, the hum of electricity sparking the machine to life. Within seconds, it seemed to be working perfectly.
"Alright, Viprin, slide back." Etzer warned. The two moved behind a table that they had set up in the room for portal experimentation. Viprin grabbed a remote controller and proceeded to guide a small toy car with an attached camera, into the vibrantly coloured portal. Upon crossing the portal’s threshold, the rift began to shake and distort violently – sparks flying out in all manner of directions.
"Oh no." Viprin said, very worried about the sudden destabilization. Then, in an instant, the portal exploded in a flurry of energy. No shrapnel, debris or destruction, only a raw light that consumed the entirety of the garage, devouring it whole. The building, and everything that was inside it, was ripped from the fabric of space and time.
Etzer woke up with a start, mind racing with newfound adrenaline. Flipping upright, he quickly gave his surroundings a look over – struggling to see in the darkened room. Not again... He looked over at Viprin, still lying out cold on the ground. The top half of his body was no longer hovering above the lower half.
"Vip, wake up." Etzer said in a hushed tone, nudging his friend lightly.
"WOUGH!" Viprin yelled, flipping up immediately. The upper half of his body quickly floated back to its original place. "Did we knock out the power again?" he questioned angrily, an edge apparent in his voice as he took in the gloomy surroundings.
"Looks like it," Etzer replied, dusting himself off, "We also need to apologize to the neighbors. I’ll go do that now, I guess..."
Etzer stretched before slowly making his way over to the side door. Tentatively grabbing a hold of the door, he took a deep breath before opening the door and marching out into the darkness of the Everfree.
"Sorry ev’r- the hell?" he yelled, "Where are we?"
A shockwave was felt by unicorns across Equestria – particularly the adept and experienced. A magical shockwave, its power only matched by the Elements of Harmony at its epicentre, dissipated as it rippled throughout the world. Most disregarded the sensation as normal – one of many incidents that Equestria was known to experience from time to time – but a certain Twilight Sparkle was quick to take note.
"Dear Princess Celestia,” she declared, Spike quickly jotting down the message.
“Recently I felt a powerful magic sweep across Equestria, seeming to come from the Everfree Forest. The signature is unlike anything I've seen before, like it was designed to be untraceable. This may be a major threat to Equestria, particularly the towns and settlements surrounding the forest. I would like for you to help me investigate the source of the magic with any resources that you could spare.
Sincerely,
Twilight Sparkle."
Twilight watched as Spike engulfed the message in a green flame, the resulting magical transformation disappearing through an open window towards Canterlot. From where she stood, Twilight could still feel the energy about her, hardly noticeable amongst the common magic frequencies of Ponyville, but distinct enough for her to discern. Unlike most spells, the only ‘identifier’ would be that it was impossible to keep track of, the signature changing and warping every second. Such power was meant to be kept hidden, an arcane field passing like the breeze. It behaved like chaos magic, not that unlike that from the looming forest to the North. The Everfree was known to ‘hiccup’ from time to time, but it was better to keep track of such events. Waiting with great anticipation, a return message arrived not even five minutes after alerting Princess Celestia.
"Finally." Twilight sighed, pacing around the globe as it popped back into the room in an almost identical bout of green fire.
"Dear Princess Twilight,” Spike read aloud to her in his clearest voice possible,
I too have felt the same shockwave that you speak of, and we do happen to share similar worries. I am almost positive that it is nothing to be concerned over, but one can never be too safe when it comes to the Everfree. A small group of magically sensitive guards and myself are preparing to travel to Ponyville now – and will most likely be en route by the time this message reaches you.
No worries,
Princess Celestia."
"I sure hope it's nothing." Twilight said aloud, seemingly to herself
"It's gotta be!" Spike reassured, trying to cheer her up, "I mean, who would plot against Equestria in the Everfree of all places?"
"Lots of ponies, Spike." Twilight said, an edge of worry becoming apparent in her voice, “If there is somepony scheming in the Everfree, it would be almost impossible to find them! It’s so close to Canterlot, they could be planning anything right beneath our noses.”
The junior princess did have a certain logic to her points. With its close proximity to both Canterlot and her residence in Ponyville, the Everfree commanded a strategic position in Equestria. One could feasibly hide a small army within the boundaries of the forest, located in the deep caves and ruins of the felled castle. The Nightmare forces, small tribes of diamond dogs, the odd Kelpie or two, it was a well-known hideaway for the less than law abiding. It was rather fortunate that the Everfree was just as hostile to those that would seek it as refuge as it would for those that would try and cut it down. Devoid of any semblance of control or logical happenings, it was usually more trouble than it was worth to try and inhabit it.
Later, Princess Celestia arrived at the castle by chariot, flanked by ten guards. She knocked on Twilight’s door, and waited patiently for her arrival. Twilight was quick to open the large, crystalline door, a look of relief plastered on her face.
"Thank you for coming so quickly, Princess Celestia," Princess Twilight Sparkle greeted, inclining her head slightly as she shook her former mentor’s hoof.
"I'm afraid we won't have much time to talk much,” Celestia conceded regretfully, “If there is any chance that there is a threat lurking in the Everfree, we must look into it immediately. Hop in the chariot, we shall leave now." Twilight followed her elder into the vehicle almost immediately being pulled forward by a team of pegasi as she entered it.
"We're gonna die!" Viprin screamed fearfully, moving about spastically.
"Voop, chill. W-we're gonna be just f-fine." Etzer responded from a sitting position, trying to calm down his panicked friend.
"We're gonna be fine? One: We're in a forest of indeterminate size, Two: the teleporter doesn't work anymore, and Three: WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A FUCKING FOREST!" Viprin shrieked in a rushed and slurred manner, practically vibrating in place.
"Calm down, man! Let's just use our ships to fly over the forest." Etzer said, getting into a ship that materialized besides him. Viprin – who had sufficiently calmed down enough to start thinking and speaking rationally again – did the same.
The two ‘men’ of ‘science’ took their recently spawned craft out of the front door of their garage opening out to brave, new world. The forest seemingly stretched on unto all horizons, never breaking. To the war west, at least what could be assumed west if the orientation of the garage hadn’t changed, was a singular mountain with some kind of construction leeching off of the side. To the east appeared to be olden ruins jutting up from the trees, though the dilapidation and disrepair wouldn’t be very fruitful, most likely. Smoke emanating from the south was a good sign of civilization. Fire never really goes out of style, after all. The two directed themselves towards the would-be settlement, quickly zooming off to investigate the new realm that they had gotten themselves stranded on. Never knew, locals might be useful.
"Alright, let's see if we can find any proper civilization around here,” Etzer said, going over some quick scans, “Aha, small town over there." The two continued on their route, taking in the primitive and rudimentary design of the houses. Not as advanced as they would have liked to solve their universal displacement problem, but any amount of local civilization was better than none. As they continued to fly along, Etzer was taken aback upon passing by what appeared to be a flying chariot.
Twilight did a double take. Cubes? On some kind of transporter firework? The guards aimed their spears at them, defensively protecting both her and Princess Celestia, and the two parties came to stop before each other. One of them was a dark grey, with indentations for eyes and a large, spiked mouth that hovered above his body. He, if she could assume that either of the befuddling beings before her had genders, glowed grey. The other was the same grey, but he had glowing cyan eyes and mouth, except this one was just a normal, flat mouth. What seemed like an hour of awkward silence was broken by one of them.
"Okay, how did we get to the magical land of ponies, Etzer?" Viprin asked, a smug look on his face.
"Um... Uh..." Etzer started.
"THEY CAN TALK?!" Almost everypony around the chariot yelled – save Celestia, who looked onto the foreigners with curiosity.
"Uh, of course we can talk." Etzer replied, "We have mouths."
"But how- Wha...” Twilight stuttered as she looked upon the completely alien creatures, perhaps machines, "Regardless, the two of you will have to come with us. The magic you used had no signature, which is illegal if it's done purposefully without permission. Unless there’s been some kind of accident on your part, you’ve in serious violation of… quite a few laws actually."
"Okay..." Etzer said, "But we got here by mistake. Where are we exactly? I don’t even think we’re in the dimension we’re supposed to be in.” Celestia's horn lit up as she scanned the two of them, extrapolating the strange energy that appeared to be surrounding the two. She gasped as the scan completed, confirming their other universal claims.
"You are in the Principality of Equestria,” Celestia informed the bizarre duo in a regal tone, “It seems that whatever arcane power you have tampered with has brought you here, to us. This is not the same universe that you’ve originated from. Regardless, I am Princess Celestia, and this is Princess Twilight Sparkle. I am sorry about the… less than pleasant beginning, but hopefully we can put that behind us. Would you like to join us on our trip back to town for further discussion?"
"Sure, why not." Viprin said as his ship dematerialized and he fell into the chariot. Etzer did the same.
It was only when they were in the chariot when the size difference was noticeable. Both of them were about the size of Twilight's head.
"So... this is weird." Viprin said after a long pause, "We're in the magical land of ponies, we can't get back, and we're tiny. Things just keep getting better and better... Also, are you hungry too, Etzer?"
"Yeah, I think we should have gotten lunch before we messed with the teleporter." Etzer replied. He turned to the two princesses, "Hey, do you know of any good music places in the town?"
"Yes, there's-- wait did you say music?!"
