Lost in Darkness

by Insanecrusader

Rating: teen
Tags: Romance, King Sombra, Queen Chrysalis, Other, Twilight Sparkle, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Human, Main 6
Length: 8458

Twilight's gone and thrown herself into a world drastically different than her own. meanwhile, could her plight be the workings of something much... darker?

Twilight's been to other worlds before, but there, magic existed. Now she has gone and thrown herself into a completely foreign universe where not only do people not believe in magic, it virtually doesn't exist! Can Twilight succeed in introducing equestrian magic to these humans or will she have to adapt to her new form? And how will Equestria fair without her?

Meanwhile, Twilight's friends begin to wonder if her disappearance was caused for a much darker purpose...

Written by Insanecrusader16

Cover art by the fantastic Adlynh

Published 2016-05-05 03:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2016-07-07 07:53:59 UTC

Chapter 1: Here We Go Again...

Twilight darted back and forth between shelves, looking for any tomes that stuck out to her as unfamiliar or new. She and her friends had already collected much of the ancient castle’s library a few months ago, but after Rarity and Spike's little mishap with the inspiration manifestation spell, Twilight thought it wouldn’t hurt to do a whole ‘nother sweep again. “You can never be too sure what you might miss,” is how the saying goes. However… This time she decided to only bring along Spike, as everyone else was working.

“Spike!” yelled Twilight from across the corridor. “I think I found something!” Her voice echoed throughout the castle.

In no time after she called, Spike was there at her side.

”You actually managed to find something?” he mused. Spike was always willing to help Twilight with anything, but that didn’t mean he always had to enjoy running around like a mad chicken in the dark. “What did’ja find?"

Twilight grinned at her assistant. “I have no idea, let's see.” she said. She blew off the dust on the book and opened it. Twilight studied it closely for a minute or two.

After three minutes without any word from her, Spike piped up in annoyance. “Well, come on, what did we find?”

Twilight looked up and opened her mouth. Spike leaned in, eager to know. “It's… Just another magic recipe for creating confectioneries…” Both of them sighed in disappointment. “Well, at the very least, maybe Pinkie will enjoy this.”

Spike, frowned and promptly walked away, looking for somewhere to sit and bang his head against the wall. They had been at this since daybreak… and it was nearly dusk! He didn’t know when they would call it a day, But Spike was so exhausted, he didn’t care. Twilight, on the other hoof, could go three days non-stop before crashing. It was crazy to him, but normal to her.

Suddenly, right as Spike had found a decent spot and laid down, the panel under him sunk into the floor, triggering a chain of rumblings all around them. A hidden door revealed itself from behind a wall, the door sealed with the symbol of magic. Twilight's cutie mark resonated with the seal on the door, opening it. “How did you guys completely miss this the first time?” Spike grumbled in confusion.

But Twilight never answered, as she was more focused on the contents of the small room they had just opened. Inside was a pedestal adorning a single royal blue tome. Twilight picked it up. It had the personal seal of Her Majesty's royal guardian, Starswirl The Bearded. Removing it and opening the paper revealed its contents to her.

At that moment she turned around, giving Spike the biggest smile he’s ever seen from the alicorn, she said, “I’ve got one…”

Fortunately for the baby dragon, all that meant to him was “Time to go home.”

Two days of intense research later...

As the sun reached the peak in the sky, five ponies and a dragon were gathered around in front of Twilight's castle. Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash had all been told by Spike to meet with her at noon for an important event of some sort. Most of them wondered what kind of occasion called for a formal summoning rather than their normal get-togethers. Twilight has never been one to use her rank like that before.

“So what’dya think Twilight's got for us that's so darn important?” Applejack mused.

“I couldn’t begin to fathom her reasons, the dear isn’t ever this cordial… Maybe the princesses have need of our services?” Rarity spoke up to reply.

“Maybe she’s going on a solo mission and she needs us to keep a lock on the town! That would be so awesome if I— I mean, if we got to be in charge.” Rainbow Dash chirped excitedly.

“Oh… maybe she just has a cold and didn’t want to feel useless…” Fluttershy quietly mumbled.

“What if she’s throwing us a royal surprise party?!” Pinkie Pie squealed at the top of her lungs.

Spike calmed them all down even though he didn’t even know what Twilight had in store for them. All he knew is that it had to do with that strange book she found two days ago. He hadn't been getting any sleep since then due to Twilight's constant buzzing around, doing more research.

"I'm sure that whatever's planned, she'll tell us when she gets out here." Spike told everyone

No sooner did everyone grow silent when Twilight burst through the double doors of the castle, book and tome in hoof.

“Girls… What I have here is something only a team of friends like us could ever accomplish.” She boasted. “For the last two days, I have been furiously researching an unusual book in the Castle of the Royal Sisters. A very special tome, containing a spell written by Starswirl the Bearded, used only by himself, his pupil, Clover the Clever and her five closest friends. ”

Everyone looked at her, very confused.

“You mean he never taught it to the princesses? Kinda seems hogwash when you make a spell, but keep it from the strongest magical beings.” Applejack said inquisitively.

Twilight only smiled as she got to talk about her idol. “From what i've gathered from the journal the tome was in, Starswirl thought that it was too risky for Celestia to use it alone.”

She opened the journal to read aloud to them. "She was indeed powerful enough to cast it, but i fear of her safety as well as this fledgling kingdom if something should go awry." Twilight quoted. She looked up to meet her friends eyes. "The spell itself is to much for one pony, it required the magical power of each race, unicorn, pegasi and earth ponies." She explained. "so naturally, Clover made the decision to teach it to her comrades." Twilight concluded.

At this point, Rainbow Dash had had enough. “Dangerous” was her surname after all. “ All right, Twilight, you have me. Just cut the fluff and tell us what we’re doing already!” she exclaimed, pumping her forelegs while in the air.

Twilight was impressed that Rainbow would be interested in spell casting. After all, she wasn’t an egghead.

“This spell, when done correctly, will open a gate to other worlds.” Twilight announced.

Rarity interrupted. “Like the mirror in the Crystal Empire?”

Twilight shook her head, like she knew the exact outcome. “Not exactly,” she explained, “The mirror uses magic directly from its source. Since this is just a spell, it takes magic from the surrounding environment. This will take all of us to cast, and if all goes to plan, I'll have you guys with me to get us back to Equestria!”

Spike looked at his best friend worriedly. “Are you sure that’s safe? What if it fails and only you get transported? What if there's no magic in the world you end up in? What i-”

Twilight put her hoof over his mouth. “Everything will be fine, Spike… I promise.” She hugged him tightly before handing everypony a copy of instructions.

As they got ready to start, they all looked at each other nervously. One by one they began to tap into their magic and they centered them all onto Twilight, creating a bright sphere of light, enveloping her as she began the incantation.

“From North, South, East and West, to the vast stars and universes above there will always be comradery, friendship and-”

Before she could finish, the sphere exploded into swirl of mist and stars. Strands of light shot out amongst the group, while the orb that had swallowed her faded into a cloud of red and purple. It slowly dissipated and, to their shock, Twilight had disappeared…

“And now for something completely different…”

It was 11:55 pm, Thursday, December 31st, 2015. Five minutes until the end of the year. John had been trying to get some sleep but his fruitloop neighbors had other plans. Noisy, obnoxious plans. It had been like this for the three years he had lived in the neighborhood. He didn't enjoy fireworks as much as most do, ever since he was a kid, any loud noise or even the possibility of a loud noise would be too much for his sensitive hearing, but while he eventually eased up on his childhood annoyances, there was always one thing he never liked: ignorance.

The twenty-four year old had already asked them to keep the festivities quiet. He even got a seemingly honest response from the “chill” Mr. Rice. “Pfft… honest. Yeah right, if he’s any example, then boy scouts truly are the only honest people left in this world.” he mumbled to himself. He should’ve known better than to trust a high school flunkie would keep his word on anything.

To John, the five minutes of non-stop banging and yelling felt more like hours, as he buried his head in his pillow in an attempt to drown the cacophony out. He wanted nothing more right now than for the clock to skip right over the midnight hour to spare him of the torture of his troublesome neighbors.

He thought to himself, This whole thing sounds awfully familiar... His subconscious came alive.

Another voice spoke up, in the most sassy tone as well, “Well, you do deal with it every year…”

“Oh, be quiet, you!” John said aloud.

Luckily, he lived by himself.

“And you wonder why people think you’re weird,” the voice quipped.

He laid back down and pushed his feeling to ponder to the back of his head. Slowly drifting off, he heard one last bang as he closed his eyes, though he could've sworn that bang sounded more like a swoosh. Without any more thoughts, he fell asleep.

The next morning started off like any day, just with the added bonus of being painfully slow. Like any new year should be for John. He got up and got dressed in his favorite outfit: blue jeans and a shirt with a police box and the words “The Doctor will see you now.” Topped off with his old blue and black high school letterman. You would think, being twenty-four, he would've been able to buy some new jackets, but John stuck with that one. It was also the only jacket he owned that would keep him warm in January. He draped it over his desk chair while he went to brush his teeth.

As he made his way across the hallway to his bathroom, he managed to trip over something. A door. More specifically, the door to his extra bedroom. Nevermind that he almost fell on his face, more important was the fact that something completely ripped the door out of its place and onto the floor.

He had to do a double-take on what he was seeing.

“Okay, what happened here? John said with a tinge of disbelief.

His house was not even five years old and he knew the contractor: he did not cut corners. Suddenly, he picked up the sound of footsteps… hushed footsteps… as if someone didn't want to be noticed. They were coming from inside the extra bedroom.

As soon as he looked up, he heard the closet shut from inside. John quickly grabbed his set of handcuffs given to him by his granddad off of the nightstand, quietly making his way to the closet. He listened for his intruder, for any sign of whether they were a man or a woman. Being in such a clustered space, John knew whoever was in there was gonna be breathing real heavy.

“Higher pitch, shorter breaths, deduction: female.” he listed to himself. He could tell by her rapid exhales that she was more scared than anything. This was no burglary. But then, what was she doing here? How did she get here? Questions for later. John spoke up to the woman behind the door.

“I’m gonna need you to step out now, this is my home you’re trespassing on, ya’ know…” John said, trying to make his voice sound deeper, but he just sounded like an idiot.

The woman replied in a rather condescending tone. “Want to hold out for maybe a second more? Unless you want to see me with no clothes on, please hold.”

Now John was completely confused. “You’re telling me… that you don’t have any clothes on? At all?!” he shouted in astonishment.

“Sadly, you are correct. Now would you step out so I can get some air?” She chirped.

He thought about it for a moment. How in the devil does a woman show up at my house and knock down a door while naked? More questions began to pop up. There’s no way she could've snuck in. The alarms would’ve gone off and the wiring was sealed in the walls, the only unprotected possible entry would be the window in the bathroom, but it's too small, so that's not it.

He walked away from the closet for a moment, giving the mysterious stranger the opportunity to come out.

She interrupted John’s train of thought when she cleared her throat. “Finally. I thought you were gonna be a whole lot more angry, but it seems you’re just as bewildered as I am.” She adjusted the red Broncos t-shirt she was wearing, along with a pair of jeans. Needless to say, when John turned around he instantly confirmed to himself that he had no women's clothes. At least they weren't sliding off her, just really baggy.

“Alright Miss-appear, what is a girl like you doing in my home?” He asked. Sadly, she could only shake her head, making her purple, magenta highlighted hair swish around. Odd choice for hair color, he might add.

“I’m as clueless as you.” She scratched her noggin. “One second, I'm standing in the front of my home, next, I'm laying on the floor of somepo- someone’s bedroom.”

“Well, where’s your home?” John at this point thought this girl got drunk and-

“No… there’s no possible way even if she was drunk. What the hell?” He corrected himself.

She again re-adjusted her shirt. “I don’t think you could get to it. It's a long story, anyway…” She waved the question off.

John lifted his brow. “Oh? I have all day miss...Miss…” He didn’t know why he hadn’t asked this first. “What’s your name again? Let's start with just that.” he looked at her, waiting for her reply eagerly.

“Twilight Sparkle….. Twilight Anne Marie Sparkle….”

Chapter 2: Fitting In

John felt as if a freight train had just rammed into him at a hundred miles per hour. The realization hit him so hard, his mind was incapacitated for a few moments.

Did she just say her name was Twilight Sparkle? His thoughts started to race. What in the world is a cartoon pony… human doing in my house? How did she end up here?! In this universe? But maybe the biggest thought John had was that somewhere out there, magical ponies existed…

Twilight cocked her head. She had only said her name and already the human was looking agasp. “Uhh, is there still someone left in there?” She asked the brain-dead male in front of her.

Contrary to what she thought, John’s brain was going a million miles a second trying to process everything still.

Hey… nimrod… are you just gonna stand there and keep the girl waiting? Sassed the voice inside his head.

Oh, yeah! I’ll just tell her the fact that she’s in a world where her world is a kids cartoon! I’ll just tell her she’s not supposed to exist!. John snapped.

How about your name Mr. Smart-Mouth? The voice said.

John suddenly rolled his eyes and hit his head with his fist, much to the surprise of Twilight. “Oh, will you just be quiet!?” He shouted. She looked at him and giggled, seeing such a creature act this way was certainly a sight.

“Is this how all of your ki- friends react when meeting someone new?” She poked. Twilight was trying her best not to give what she was away yet, however without knowing it, She already had.

John stopped tormenting himself to look up at her with a sheepish smile. He pulled his fists away from his head.

“Oh! Sorry! I tend to go off talking to myself and… you know… sometimes I argue with disembodied voices.” He replied nervously. He held out his left hand to Twilight. “Name’s John, John Morrows.”

He shook her hand. It felt loose and awkward, however, like using hands was a foreign thing to her.

She’s not exactly what you would call, a perfect human. John was reminded. This was of course, a pony princess whose only had to use hands and fingers a grand total of three times.

Pony… He then remembered his first big question, One he half already knew, but he wanted to hear her side of the story. “So about that long story you haven’t told me yet…”

Now it was her time to look sheepish. “Well… okay, I’ll tell, you but you’re gonna think I’m crazy…”

“...and now I'm here! I tried using my magic from that room all morning before you woke up, but all I could muster was some levitation. Trying to do any more puts too much strain on me to function properly.” Twilight said defeatedly. “It’s almost as if there’s no magic in the environment...” She began to realize something and fell to her knees. “No… No, no, no… This can’t be happening!” She began to hyperventilate. “Please tell me humans in this universe can use magic! She gripped John by the shoulders, staring him straight in the eyes.

John just shook his head, keeping a wide-eyed look upon his face. “Not unless you count pulling a bunny out of a hat magic.”

Twilight released him and went into full panic mode. “Oh… Oh, please, no! How could this have happened?! I did everything right!” She darted frantically around the room. ”My friends must be worried to death over this! Celestia! Luna! Anypony!” She cried out fruitlessly. She was too far, an entire universe too far. Even for a princess, John knew Twilight was in a bleak situation. Alone with limited to no magic available, completely powerless to this new and unknown world which she was dropped into.

John walked over to the pony-turned-human. He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“Hey… calm down, for all you know it could’ve been worse. Instead of this world, it could’ve been a much, much more dangerous one still without magic.”

Twilight looked up at him, calmer, but depressed about the whole situation. “I know, but I still can’t get home.” She sighed. “Even if there was just enough magic in this world, I still would need at least five beings that could harness such power to make the spell work!” She sat down on the floor. “And like you said, there’s no trace of any sort of magic…”

John sat down next to her. He had always been pretty sure that magic was only a idea of pure fantasy, but now- after what he just witnessed this morning- he couldn’t use any amount of science, physics or logic to explain this exponential event. It threw the entire human understanding of the universe straight out the window, so at this point, truly anything could happen.

John once again tried to get the distressed princess to cheer up. “Look… I know right now you’re separated from home, and you feel powerless in the face of a completely alien environment.”

She raised her head, but didn't meet his eyes. Hopefully, that means she’s listening...

John continued, “But just from you being here… it breaks every fundamental law of logic and science that this world has come to know.”

This time, Twilight came to look at him eye to eye, giving him a perplexed expression. Both her and John were well taught in their respective sciences, but this was new. She quickly began to piece together what the man was getting after.

“This world has no magic, and yet I was still thrown here…” Twilight stated. John nodded his head.

“Keep going…” He egged her on.

Twilight paused for a moment, still thinking on her words. “And that - theoretically, according to you - would be impossible, therefore challenging that theory, nullifying the improbability of magic being able to exist in this world.” She rabbled.

John had a major in physics but even he thought that what she said was a mouthful. “In other words, anything is now possible.”

Twilight stood up and beamed a determined smile at John. “That’s right! And if so, then maybe there’s still a chance to utilize the full extent of my powers here!” She exclaimed.

Then she had an idea that began turning the gears in her head. “If that’s possible, then not only could I get back my magic….”

“I could introduce real magic to this dark little world…”

John and Twilight had been pondering the whole “magic” issue all day, all while going through town, getting the princess familiar with the place. Getting clothes, groceries (since she retained her vegan pony nature), and simply getting acquainted. However, John had yet to disclose what he knew about her existence.

Twilight was finally wearing proper clothing. Blue skinny jeans, a lavender t-shirt with a philosiraptor plastered across the front, a midnight purple jacket and a pair of sneakers. Surprisingly, she chose it all, giving John a good laugh.

Driving home, he wanted to know what the show never specified about the ponies. The first one that came to mind was age.

“So, Twilight, this may seem out of the blue, but… exactly how old are you?” He peered over to the passenger side where she sat.

“Oh, I don’t mind! It’s not weird at all.” she assured him. ”I’m a little over four years.” She replied cheerfully.

John went completely wide-eyed from this. “F-four years?!” He sputtered. She’s a horse dumbass. Four horse years is equal to twenty and a half human years… The voice in John’s head said patronizingly.

“Oh… four years, so… twenty-three human years.” He corrected himself nervously. Why am I always the one saving your ass? I’m you, for crying out loud!

“Will you just stop it already?” John replied to the voice aloud, Much to the amusement of Twilight. She started to giggle at how goofy he was acting.

“Wow… is it really that big of an inner battle to figure how old I am as a human?” She said merrily.

John chuckled a bit, he always knew he was a tad weird at times… scratch that, most of the time. But most people just saw it as awkward or strange, which he admitted to.However, Very rarely - as an adult - has he ever made someone laugh at him. This wasn’t a bad feeling, he rather enjoyed giving them a reason to laugh. It’s what brought out his younger, high school self.

“Well, that’s surely… interesting, to say the least.” He still felt a little nervous after he yet again talked to himself. “Hey, look! There’s the house.” He paused. “I think it’s time I started cooking some dinner for myself, since… ya’ know… you don’t eat meat…” John twiddled his thumbs.

Twilight got out and started walking inside with some of the grocery bags. “That’s fine. I’m gonna do some work on how I got here.” She was a good ways ahead of him already. “Just have something for me when you’re done.” She said as she walked inside.

John grabbed the five bags left, locked his car and began walking towards the door when he heard a loud noise from inside.

“John! I think we don’t have to worry about this world having no magic!” Twilight shouted. John rushed inside to see what she was talking about.

“What makes you say that?” He had to shout, as there seemed to be a hurricane wind inside his house. He knew something was definitely wrong.

He made his way to the bedroom doorway where Twilight was. “What the hell is happening?” They looked at one another with fearful expressions.

“We don’t have to worry about having no magic…”

“Because it’s about to explode all over the place!” Twilight forced John to the ground just before the entire house erupted into a blinding light, as what appeared to be a rainboom ejected from the chaos.

The blast set off car alarms, broke windows, and disoriented senile townsfolk. The two stood up and scanned what was left of John’s house.

“Good thing I had homeowner’s insurance.” He kicked the still intact, but still unhinged door. “The guys downtown aren’t gonna believe this.”

Meanwhile in another part of space-time…

“Rainbow Dash! For the last time, stop foolin’ around and help us!” Applejack shouted angrily at the pegasus. All five of them had been trying to solve Twilight's disappearance for at least two days now. They got Spike to send a letter to Celestia but she hasn’t responded. With AJ leading the search and the little dragon helping, they had successfully…

“...Gotten absolutely NOWHERE!” cried Rarity as she paced around the new castle library. “How in Equestria is anypony supposed to do this?”

Spike was sitting down, skimming through books to find anything about trans-dimensional locator spells. “Twilight said it herself: the spell she used could only be cast by the bearers of the elements.” He shook his tiny fists in the air. “I even told her the risks! And she still ignored me!”

Fluttershy calmed the frustrated dragon. “Oh… I’m sure Twilight wasn’t ignoring you, Spike, that’s not like her to do that…” She said in a soothing voice.

Rainbow Dash flew in from the balcony above to interject. “Yeah… I mean I’m not a total egghead, but if I was an all-powerful alicorn, I would’ve taken the risk like she did.

Applejack snorted at her remark. “But, Rainbow, if you were a princess like Twilight, you couldn’t just go off on your own time to do something that would run the risk of… well… whatever happened here!” AJ sighed, there was no point in getting angry again. “She’s too important to lose. Both as our best friend and as the Princess of Magic.”

Spike pondered for a moment. He had an idea. “Hey… what if the old pony sisters castle had something?” He piped up. “That’s where me and Twi found the spell in the first place! There’s bound to be more where that came from!” He jumped up from his seat, but Rainbow Dash was already revving up.

Applejack raised her brow at this. “Now, Rainbow, ah’ know what you’re think’n and I’m tellin you right now… DO NOT-” But she was too late to stop her, she had already blasted into the stratosphere, and just as she was getting out of sight, the four on the ground witnessed a Sonic Rainboom. This one seemed to be much more powerful as the whole ground shook from the blast.

Unbeknownst to the Mane Six, another, more sinister duo looked on as their plans slowly unfolded....

“Are you entirely sure this will work?” Spoke a devilish cloaked figure. “These annoying ponies are not as weak minded as you think… what if they catch on?”

From an unlit lantern was spat out a cloud of black mist. It took on no shape, but it had a voice only those from Tartarus could compare to.

“I have lived my life… thriving off of greed, conflict and hate… no matter how strong the flame may burn… Darkness can extinguish any light… because Darkness resides in every being in existence…

Darkness lives on where the flame cannot… And as the flame will eventually fade, the shadows will take their place, undying….

“You speak strong words but we see where these words alone have gotten you?” the female voice cooed.

Darkness is patient for the day the light finally dies. We wait, my dear… we will wait. For their time will come. And the queen of fools shall lead her possy to what they want, and in return, i will soon receive my due justice.

“And me?” She snapped.

Patience…. Our time will come… for Darkness can never die… we can wait an eternity…

Author's Note

Hiya folks! just like I promised Chapter two is out and I'm feeling good about this one!

however I do feel like I don't have enough spacing or not big enough chapters. Believe me, I've been busting my butt to get this out and I want it to be good!

so if you think I should make my chapters longer, just comment below! really if you have any advice at all, one writer to another!

And no, if you thought I was bringing our villains to the spotlight, you are mistaken. I simply wanted to introduce thefuture conflict

also the bit about their ages was taken from a study my agg class was doing and in the process, i found this! comparing horses age to humans!
see you next time! ciao!

Chapter 3: We're Living On A Pra- On SCIENCE!

“So you left the stove on while you two were shopping… Just great…” grumbled the insurance agent as he surveyed John and Twilight. They had driven to the agency downtown with Johns car that miraculously survived the explosion, even though it was the nearest to the house.

“Yep, I must’ve left it on by accident before me and my friend here left late that morning.” John replied hastily, Laughing nervously as he spoke. He just prayed to god they didn’t ask for an official investigation.

So.... What can you do about all this sir?” Twilight pleaded. She was told to follow his lead, in keeping her mouth shut about any of the actual events that conspired.

The heavy set man sighed. “Well, WE can only cover a quarter of the damage, for the rest of the cost… That’s out of our hands as it’s a manufacturing error. You’re gonna have to bring it up with them if you want better conditions, but I doubt, they’ll comply even if you were to get’em in court.” The agent scanned John head to toe. “... And you don’t look like the type to go to court, nor the one to afford the expenditures” He belittled him.

John sighed and look at Twilight. “I guess it’s a good thing i have a spare camping tent in the trunk.” He said optimistically.

“A tent? What’s that doing in there?” She probed. Not something anyone would bring with them on an everyday basis.

“I go on lot of campouts… You never know when you may need one.” John smiled.

“So this is where we’ll be sleeping?” Twilight asked as she dropped the green bag on the rubble covered floor. “In a tent in the middle of a ruined house?” She didn’t know whether to laugh at the silliness of the situation or disappointed that they lost the house.

“For the time being… If what I have in mind goes to plan, we should have a house again in a few weeks” John gave her a big grin. Their was a gleam of determination in his eyes.

“If you can regain more of your power, you could teach me and with both of us combined, we could make an even better house that before!” He exclaimed.

Twilight giggled. “You want me to teach you? That puts my number of pupils up to 3.” She was of course referring to Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer.

“Well yeah. You can’t do this on your own!there may be magic here now, but I doubt any one pony could make a house out of nothing let alone at only half power.” He persuaded her to look at his inclusion as helpful.

“... Okay… but if something else goes boom, it wasn’t me, it was you.” She chuckled.

For days on end Twilight and John set up countless experiments around the lot, trying to see if the magic was diffusing into the air… looking to receive any positive feedback from machines only Twilight could build let alone understand. The explosion had expunged a massive amount, but much of it, she said was still concentrated around a certain point.

“So most likely, when you got thrown into this alternate dimension, you inadvertently, caused a small tear.” John deduced.

“VERY small, infact.” Twilight corrected. “It seems that it's not anywhere big enough to cause any harm to the area, but small enough to allow a minute- but constant -flow of equestrian magic to seep into this world.” She concluded.

John looked at Twilight surprised. “So little by little, America is becoming more magical?” he said jokingly. She just gave him a puzzled look.

“A-Mer-I-Ca? What's an America? Sounds like Some kind of chocolate…” John laughed. “Nonononono. It's a country. Like Equestria is a kingdom.” he pointed out.

Twilight giggled, “Oh… well then in that case, I guess you're right.” To Twilight, this man she had only met a few days ago was telling her so much about his world. To her it was a little off-putting, there was so much difference between then but at the same time, they both understood each other's science lingo. It was a pleasant experience for the usually alienated mare.

“So what are you thinking we could do?” Asked John. “The way it seems, the magic is flowing into my world at a slow trickle.”

Twilight all of the sudden felt something shift on her back. She quickly jolted her hands back to feel it out, but to her bewilderment nothing was there. So not only have I lost most of my magic, but now my wings too… She said to herself.

“Uhhh… Twilight? Did you hear me?” John asked.

She quickly snapped out of her thoughts. “Most of the magic that came from the initial blast is surrounding the house, our end goal is to diffuse enough of it into the air that will allow me AND you to use it to the full extent.” Twilight said with a calculating look on her face.

John tried to speak up, as that only gave a general explanation. “And how do w-” He was interrupted by Twilight, who was now pacing the ground.

“-We need something to do exactly that, diffuse the magic.” She turned to face John, but refused to look him in the eyes while concentrating. She was in her zone now. “You wouldn’t happen to have anything that diffuses substances into the air would you?” She inquired.

John didn’t even have to think to come up with the answer. “Yeah, we have something like that but they’re small and need… well a source to diffuse from.” He interjected.

Twilight was already coming up with the details. “So the magic already in the air can’t be used with it.” She looked around the house and came upon the spot where the tear was. They had marked where it was and she could see energy ripples escaping it. Just then, Twilights eyes came aglow as she grasped an idea.

“But we could pull in more from the rift and then diffuse that! Pump and diffuse!” She turned around and quickly grasped John’s shoulders, a look of excitement in her magenta eyes. “I AM…” She threw her hands up triumphantly. “A GENIUS!!” Twilight bursted.

John just looked at her with wide eyes and a smile, both happy and a little surprised at her sudden outburst of glee. “That’s great Twilight, but how…” John only stopped because he knew his friend wasn’t listening yet.

“Twilight…” he said once.

She ignored him, in her own bliss.

Twilight, listen.” he called her yet again, still to no no avail.

“Twilight!” John almost barked. He had to grab her hand to get her attention.

She stopped congratulating herself long enough to notice someone had grabbed hold of her hand. She looked to see it was John. “Uhhh… Why are you holding my hand?” she asked.

John couldn’t afford to meet eyes with the girl as he now was holding himself back from blushing. Not because he was holding hands with his favorite pony, oh no. It was because such an action was awkward.

What was i supposed to do? Yell at her? Yeah, that’s not really gonna make things go any faster… John thought to himself.

He let go of her and recomposed himself so he could look at Twilight. “Because you weren’t listening.” He sighed.

Twilight, on the other hand couldn’t keep her blush hidden. “Oh… hehe… sorry. I guess my friends personalities rubbed off on me a little.” She laughed a little. “I was being a little to pink just then, I guess.” She smiled sheepishly.

John smiled back but he couldn’t lose track of what he needed to say. “What i needed to tell you is that even with a pump and a few diffusers, the rift needs to be bigger before anything can fit.”

Twilight thought for a moment. “We need a device that can cut matter, the rift is made of magic which, if my estimates are right, can be a substitute for a type of tangible matter.” She looked at her friend in hopes that his mind didn’t just melt from her techno-babble. “You understand all that right? No confusion?” she asked somewhat desperately.

John nodded his head and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, loud and clear Ms. Spock, and as a matter of fact such a device also exists but there’s only one of them that i know of…”

Twilight gave a sigh of relief. “One is better than none though.”

John shook his head in disagreement. “But it’s inside my old college… And locked tight. Only one person at a time can use it and only from inside a sealed containment lab.”

Twilight had been told about John’s education, including this college. It was big, unlike Celestias School for Gifted Unicorns.

“So we just go up to the dean and ask for it” She gestured. John just sighed as he has to yet again bring reality to the magical being. “Its not that simple, its high-tech, one of a kind and irreplaceable.It would take months on end to make another one.” He dropped his head low. “The dean would much quicker set herself on fire then give the device to anyone, and what would even be my excuse?”

Twilight went back to thinking. She was not one to just give up if it meant not learning about things. So there’s only one. It’s probably tightly secured in the college. We only need to use it once, but having it around for the random occasion will always be a plus, so we’ll need blueprints so i can replicate it. Nobody should be around at night…

Twilight paused for a moment. She realized what she was implying to herself. Am I really about to do this? Of all people? I guess there’s no way around it though…

Twilight looked up and with a determined look in her eye she pointed skyward.

“We’re gonna steal that device!”

Meanwhile, in Equestria…

“Con’sarnit!” yelled Applejack. All five of Twilight’s best friends were gathered around the cutie map, desperately searching for anything they had had brought back from the castle ruins that could help them get their friend back. They had been at this for days, with AJ leading the search. They had looked all over the old ruin for anything but for one reason or another, they couldn’t find anything substantial.

“Maybe we should just tell the princesses already!” demanded Rainbowdash, who had been egging the farm hand to do so since day one. “It’s been almost a week!”

“And tell’er what? That the five of us allowed her ta’ just go up and disappear?” Applejack snorted defiantly. “I had a bad feeling about that spell, but I decided to let her be her for once and do a little experimentin’... fat lota’ good came from that mess.”

Rarity came to comfort the earth pony. “Dear, it’s not your fault, things simply happen and no one could’ve known the spell would go ary” She consoled.

Applejack drooped her head down and sighed. “But we could’ve done somethin’ to save her, shucks, we could’ve jumped in that vortex to stay with her. I feel that it’s my responsibility to set things right… I don’t want the Princesses any more stressed than they already are.”

Fluttershy walked toward the distressed apple farmer, speaking softly. “But maybe this is more than we can handle on our own. The princesses know more about these spells then any of us.” She said timidly.

Now it was Spike’s turn to help. “Remember the time when you tried working the whole harvest by yourself? You were sleep deprived for days until twilight and the rest of us joined in.” He looked up at Applejack. “I don’t think this is how Twilight would want you.” He reconciled with her.

“So it’s five to one then.” Rarity exclaimed. “We are going to canterlot to get help and that’s that.” She began to trot towards the exit. “Come on everypony, tickets are on me!” She shouted.

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Ya’ sure you got enough bits for that? Twilight's usually the one ta' handle that mess."

As the other four filed out, Rarity looked back on the earth pony, who was the last to be out the door. “Oh darling, spike is still a youth, it’s not as expensive as you think and besides…” She grinned fiendishly. “... I have my ways…”

Back on earth…

“ARE YOU NUTS!?” Shouted John. “You want to sneak into my college, break into the tech facility and steal the device?!” At this point, he was astonished at the level twilight was willing to go for this.

She sighed. “It’s not like we have any other option, John.” She gave a devious smile. “Besides, we’re going to bring it back before anyone notices it’s gone!

“And what if it breaks?” John interjected.

“That’s why we’re also gonna steal the blueprints… So we can make another one in case.” She smiled.

John continued to stare at her, eyes wide with a look of pure shock. “please for the love of God tell me we’re doing this at night.” he said wearily.

“I've got the general plan already sorted out…” she grabbed some paper and pencil to demonstrate. “we’ll walk in during school hours, you’ll talk to the people there as if it's just a conjugal alumni visit.”

John interrupted her. “why? What will you be doing?” he asked.

Twilight grinned. “Why, looking at their library of course!” she squeed.

“Then what's the whole point of being there during the day!?”

Twilight put a finger over Johns mouth to shush him. “we need to be inside the building the entire time. It'll make things simpler for us” She explained calmly.

“You know where the lab is then?” John snarked. He knew she had only been shown the campus ONCE and all she saw was the outside.

Twilight twitched and gave him blank look. “It’s in… the fifth hallway…” She muttered. “In the… Mitchel building…” She slowly kept lowering her voice in embarrassment.

John rolled his eyes and took out his car keys. He unlocked it and started to walk to it.

“What are you doing?” Asked Twilight, who was oogling the keys in his hand. No matter how many times she had been in that vehicle, the technology behind it always amazed her.

“Just grabbing something you didn’t think of” John smirked. He grabbed something off of the backseat and came back to twilight with it. “Yet another mind-blowing device from the human race, courtesy of Microsoft corp., The laptop computer.” He sat next to Twilight and opened it on his lap.

“That’s a COMPUTER?!” Twilight Shouted.

“You’ve seen one before?” John raised an eyebrow. He watched MLP often but can’t recall twilight ever using a computer.

Still not gonna spill the magical beans? Are you really gonna hide that from her? Argued the voice in his head.
Oh, so i should just walk up to her and tell her she’s a cartoon? The creation of a woman's childhood dreams? That she’s FAKE? I want to help her, not make her question her existence. John snapped back. Besides she is real. Real as the sky is blue. What more proof do i need other than her standing right infront of me? John countered his consciousness. He opened up his laptop to his home page, google.

“Behold peasant, THE BIGGEST LIBRARY IN THE UNIVERSE!” Boomed John playfully.

Twilight jabbed him with her elbow. “Yeah, i’ll believe it when i see some proof” She teased. “So this is what i need to infiltrate the college?”

John shook his head. “Not quite… it’s more about what I have stored in here… A Map of the Whole campus.” He clicked on an icon bringing up a set of images. They were all maps, each detailing a different portion of John’s university. Below them were a assortment of other images, some John knew he couldn’t let Twilight see so he quickly subverted them and magnified the 5 he needed.

It didn’t matter though she got of glimpse of them anyway. “Hey, what were those other ones?”

“Nothing important, i’ll show you them later.” John quickly responded, nearly dropping a sweat.

“If you say so, which map are we looking at?” She moved on.

John pointed to the second one. “This is the Rob Decator Physics Building.” John pointed out. “It just so happens to be a small facility, which is both great… and terrible…”

Twilight cocked her head in confusion. “Why both? Explain” She persisted.

John gave her a stone wall stare. Apparently this girl hasn’t been to a-. John stopped mid thought. oh wait, she went to a private… college i guess? Celestias School for gifted unicorns… what kinda school is it? Bah! nevermind, getting off topic. He looked back at twilight who was still waiting on him to answer. “Sooooo…. Are you gonna tell me?” She asked.

“Oh, it’s great because it’ll be quick getting out… well not counting every other obstacle outside an in.” John said, half begrudgingly. Wasn’t exactly going to be easy or quick, but compared to the other buildings, it would be saving a lot of time getting out.

“And bad because?...” Twilight began.

“Bad because if we get spotted by anyone while inside…” He hoped she could add that together. Come on Twilight, it’s not rocket science! He gestured her to finish the sentence.

“...Because... There will be less places to hide or escape!” She widened her eyes. “Oh my! But who would be their to spot us?” She followed up.

John listed the potential threats. “Janitors, the occasional nocturnal freshman, drunk freshmen and... “ He brought up a picture of a hallway inside and pointed at a small black box in the far wall. “Those things…” he hissed, like that black box was the absolute death of the world.

“What exactly are those things?” She mimicked.

“Security cameras…” John answered, sounding as serious as solid snake. “Basically, they’re the guards” He simplified.
“Ah… i see..” Twilight muttered as she scratched her head. Well this sounding more risky than i first thought… and it was already dangerous to begin with! Twilight thought to herself. But it’s all we got, and i think John can get us through it… She trailed off.

“ Okay so here’s the plan, since twilight.exe seems to have experienced a error 404.” He grabbed a sheet of paper and pulled twilight over to the car trunk. He began to draw things out on the paper on his vehicle, using it as a table.

“We’ll be waiting inside the building until 8:00 at night, that’s when the last late night class ends. From that point onward, if we get caught, then we’re gonna have to face the dean.” John shivered at the idea of having to tell his former dean he broke into the university. “Hopefully, when that time arrives we’ll already be close to the lab, there’s an unmonitored broom closet in the hall before it we can hide in" He drew a line from the closet to the lab door, then drew a small keypad on the adjacent wall to the door. “The lab is locked by a special code that normally only students are given.. But i was a student and wrote down the code so if i was given permission on a visit i could access it.”

Twilight listened carefully. So far, their plan seemed simple: hide and swipe, there just had to be a catch though…

“Any cameras on the doorway?” asked Twilight. John smiled at her question, as if he knew she knew she was right.

“Yes, there’s one directly across from it, but we can remove the storage tape inside it to render the time we were in there undetected!” John grinned as he said it. “We’ll put it back in before we leave, all we need for that is a screwdri—”

Twilight stopped him mid sentence as she realized something…. “How are we gonna get it back before dawn?!” she yelped.

John snapped his fingers and pointed at her. “Thats where you come in mah dear... “ he gave her a cocky smile. “Once we complete the process of opening the rift and all what not. You can teleport it back to the lab from my house.” He told her. “I already have a water pump in my shed behind what used to be my house.” John mentioned.

“So steal the device, open the rift and pump out the magic, and return it using the magic we will then possess! It’s brilliant!” Twilight beamed with determination and excitement.

John only had one more question for her. “ do you still think we can pull this off? I mean… this is your idea after all…” He asked timidly.

Twilight looked at him and then looked at the maps. Looking at them filled her with determination. “It’s a team effort and if someone like you, who would go so far to help somone they only met a week ago…”

She looked back at him. “Let’s do it!”

Author's Note

well this took way too long to get out.

but hey! another 1,000 words longer than the last two!
come next time were goin' incognito!
Discord:Ooooooh what fun!
Pinkie Pie:
IT
IS
ON