War Zone-Equestria

Illuminated in the light of the morning sun, Ponyville's residents were all out enjoying the day very early, spending time with their friends. Some residents however kept to their own business despite having opportunities to enjoy them. One particular buzz was coming from Twilight's library; It was a mess. Her books littered the floor with pages ripped up and scattered everywhere. Twilight wasn’t particularly fazed by the mess though, at least not in her current state of mind. She was a little dazed and confused and had sparks coming from her horn. Her hair stood up, frilly and singed, as if copious amounts of electricity had surged through it, along with her tail. Her coat seemed just fine apart from the odd patches of scruffy hair. Whatever it was she had done had woken up Spike though, and he was quick out of bed and running down from the stairs, rubbing his eyes and looking around confused.

“What’s all the noise Twilight?” Spike asked as he entered the room. “What’s all this mess? And what in Equestria happened to you?” Spike asked, getting no response back from Twilight who seemed to just be staring into the ground. Spike starting to get a little bit worried by her lack of reaction walked right up to Twilight waving his hand in her face and shaking her around, eventually resorting to yelling to get her attention “Twilight? Twilight? TWILIGHT?!”

Twilight jumped in shock and snapped right into action. She seemed oblivious to the mess at first, she was just trying to get her bearings and make sure she was still in one piece.

“What? Who? Where are we, Spike? What happened?” Twilight asked confused, jittering and jumping around. She ran to a mirror quickly almost throwing Spike aside in her panic. She stared at herself in the mirror for several seconds surveying her features, before she started to calm down. “Ok, everything seems to be ok" She said commenting on her appearance. She turned around and took in her surroundings, and although she wasn't entirely surprised by the mess, she didn’t seem all that enthusiastic to clean it.

“Ugh, Spike I’m sorry for the noise. I was trying out some new spells from the books delivered from the royal library in Canterlot. The Princess obviously wasn’t lying when she said the spells were difficult.” Twilight explained to her confused assistant, looking around at the mess.

“Oh, that’s ok Twilight... I guess I wasn’t sleeping too well anyway.” Spike told her as he started to pick up the books and Parchment lying on the floor, as per what he considered his duty as her assistant.

“Why? What’s bothering you Spike?” Twilight asked, concerned about what may have been bothering him. Spike seemed hesitant to tell her but realized she could probably help him out.

“Well it’s not that the sleep is rough, I just haven’t felt the same lately. It’s been a while since I last talked to Rarity. I really miss her.” Spike explained.

Twilight didn’t seem too surprised that Spike’s troubles were because of Rarity. Rarity had seemed to be a bit of a shut in for almost two weeks, and hardly anypony had seen her, but the time one of the girls had seen her, she wouldn’t tell her why she was inside so often; Twilight hadn't seen her in person either for longer than Spike, and though she wanted to know what was up, she could stand not knowing for the time being, but could see why spike was troubled.

“It’s alright Spike, she’ll come around and tell us what's happening soon.” She tried comforting him.

“I sure hope so… Hey Twilight?” Spike picked up a book looking at it confused.

Twilight looked over at him placing a few books on the table in the middle of the room with her magic.

“Yes Spike?” She replied.

Spike studied the book's cover a little bit.

“I thought the books the Princess sent you were just about advanced magic...” he said looking at the cover image.

“They are…” Twilight said confused, shelving a few catagorised books. Spike walked over to her with the book.

“This one looks different from the others.” he said, pointing out that while the others bore a title of the spells and magic inside them with a picture relating to the topic, this one was indeed different in appearance and no apparant title on the cover; and Twilight knew she didn't have it before hand. Twilight whisked the book out of his hands with magic and scanned the pages skimming through them. It didn't take her very long to find a page with magical inscriptions on it.

“Well… there are a few spells in here, but it's definately not your typical tutorial book...” Twilight said intrigued, as she scanned the book all over looking for a title. “Dimensions and Time,” she read on the first page of the book. 'Odd that it doesn't have a title on the cover.' she thought to herself.

“Do you want me to send it back?” Spike asked her. Twilight might have said yes had she not become so interested in what the book might contain.

“No that’s ok Spike, I think I might actually read through this. I haven't seen a book like it before...” she replied. Spike shrugged and continued to pick up books and shelve them.  Twilight looked at the room; it was looking much cleaner than before in the short amount of time they'd actually been cleaning. “There are still a few hours till morning Spike. Why don’t you go have a rest or go out for a bit?”

Spike looked at her confused, but he’d never turn down a break. “Ok then Twilight. Thanks.” He said with a smile as he made his way back upstairs.

Twilight used her magic to sweep up the rest of the books that were still out, but instead of shelving them she simply placed them on the table in the centre of the room, and eagerly rushed to her chair to read the book Spike had found. Within only a short time since beginning reading it, she was again devoting the entirity of her attention to it.

She had minimal practical knowledge of the wide array of scientific material she was reading. She knew all about space and time, but alternate dimensions had never been something she paid particular attention to other than a slightly humerous concept. As usual with any book that took Twilight's interest, it kept her reading for what must have been hours. A fair way through the book, if not almost finished, having learnt about the basic concept of an alternate dimension, she found a line that seemed to stand out as important to her. She read it aloud to herself.

“There are always at least two dimensions, and they are always the opposite of the other in some way. They could be different in the nature of the inhabbiting creatures and which ones exist there, their personalities and traits compared to any counterpart they may have, which almost all the inhabitants each world will have one of. Other differences can include the environment, the locations, and current events taking place. There are so many possibilities, but they must always be different. If two dimensions against all odds, were to mirror each other…” Twilight suddenly stopped as she heard a noise that startled her. She looked outside the window and saw that June Bug was walking by and had accidentally bumped into her library wall with her cart. She ran outside to see if she was okay.

"June Bug are you alright?" She asked, noticing June Bug was dazed and had a bruise on her side.

"I'm... I'm alright Twilight... I'm sorry if I woke you... I'm in a hurry to get to the other side of town, I was meant to be there much earlier, but I slept in..." June Bug said, before yawning.

"I can't believe it's still morning... Good to know I wasn't the only pony who stayed in though. I remember it looking much sunnier..." Twilight mused, looking at the clouds filling the sky.

"Well, yesterday was a beautiful, I was getting up early to pick a group of a special type of flower I saw growing outside of the Everfree forest a week ago. I need to get there before the scheduled storm so they aren't drowned in the rain." June Bug Explained.

"Hmm, I thought the pegasus were scheduling a storm tomorrow..." Twilight said confused.

"Uh, well as far as I know the plans haven't been changed. I better run Twilight, I'll talk to you another time soon." June Bug said offering a smile before walking her cart away.

Twilight waved her off, still looking concerned as she walked back inside towards the table with her open book on it.

"If today is the scheduled downpour... and I thought it was tomorrow... then I... oh darn!" Twilight cursed as she realised she'd stayed up reading all night and not even realised it. "And that means Pinkie is holding her party at sugarcube corner! I have to get there and help her set up!” Twilight realised as she rememberred the commitments she had to keep.

She closed the book with a bookmark to checkpoint her progress. She seemed to forget that she had stopped reading mid-sentence, but she was far to distracted to be bothered to relocate her progress. She knew she could catch up to her spot when she got back. Ready to go she wondered if Spike had been asleep the whole time she was reading, and considered waking him up, but she knew she'd have returned before he woke up if he was in that deep a sleep. Bringing concentration to her mind, Twilight used her magic to transport herself all the way to Sugar Cube Corner to get ready for a party.