Pine trees and Purple Stars

In Equestria

Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Pinkie all stood in front of the portal awaiting the princesses arrival.

"Does everypony have everything they need? Food, emergency supplies, etc.?" Twilight asked her friends, paceing the floor. They all nodded. "Good" Twilight said in response.

"Ugh! I'm tired of waiting! Can't we just go already?" Rainbow asked impatiently.

"The Princess clearly stated in her letter to wait with our supplies until she got here." Twilight clarified. "Spike's upstairs ready to greet the princess and lead her down here. Besides, this isn't just some adventure, this is an opportunity to learn more about other worlds."

        "I wouldn't mind waiting." Fluttershy said.

"Thank you for following my directions."

The four of them turned there heads to see princess Celestia in the doorway. They all bowed.

"That won't be necessary." The Princess said, ushering the mares to stand. "Have you tested the portal?" Celestia asked Twilight.

"Yes princess." Twilight said nodding.

"Excuse me princess," Pinkie asked anxiously, "What was the super important thing we needed to know?"

"Of course." The Princess replied. "There are a two things you need to know." The group nodded before Celestia continued. "The first thing, Twilight has told me about the other versions of you in the Canterlot High Demension. If any of you encounter ponies, or other things like this, you must return at once."

The group nodded.

"But princess, how will we get back if we can't find the portal? Hypothetically speaking." Twilight asked.

Celestia nodded. "That's my next point." She answered as she levitated a purple, six pointed star gem out of the bag she was wearing. It looked like Twilight's Element of Harmony, but with a darker purple. "This is an emergency gem. Twilight has also told me about your human counter parts having powers and 'ponying up' during emergencies. So, we have inserted Equestrian magic into this gem. You put your hoof, or whatever type of hoof you have, on it and say, 'friendship is magic'. The magic wil release and give you your normal pony 'powers' so to speak. But be warned, anypony may use this. Even ponies who aren't from our dimension, so make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hoofs." Celestia paused to make sure everypony understood and continued. "The magic will return to the gem after one hour. To open a portal to Equestria, face it towards a flat surface and say 'return to Equestria' and it will open a portal. For safety purposes we put a lock on the gem. So as soon as the four of you enter or exit the portal, it will automatically close."

"That's ALOT to remember!" Pinkie commented. Celestia smiled, knowing that Pinkie tends to spit out her thoughts without thinking.

"Does everypony have all they need?" Celestia asked the rest of them. They all nodded. "Very well. Twilight? The glasses please." Twilight opened a chest that held the glasses and presented it to Celestia. Celestia took the glasses and placed them on the top of the portal. She looked to Twilight and nodded. Twilight nodded back and flipped a switched. The portal lit up and opened. The portal was very different from the Cantorlot High portal. It was blue coloured with zigzag markings instead of the white/pink colour with spiral markings. Twilight, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Pinkie all stepped up to the portal. They looked at each other and back to the portal. Twilight put her hoof into the portal and pulled it back, much like when she first entered the CHS portal. She then walked into the portal. Pinkie followed and dove into the portal, giggling. Fluttershy stepped back. Rainbow gave her a reassuring smile and ushered her into the portal. Then Rainbow flew into the portal. Spike tried to run into the portal but Celestia shut it off before he could make it.

"I'm sorry Spike, but you can't go this time. We need you at Canterlot." Celestia said to Spike.

"Okay..." Spike said back.

"Iron Hoof, Silver Spike!" Celestia called. Two guards holding weapons appeared from the doorway.

"Yes Princess?" They both said in unison.

"Keep your eyes on this portal. Don't let anypony open it or disturb it. Silver Spike?" The light gray coated pony saluted. "At night use your magic to call over Luna's guards Nightwing and Navy Night for the night shift. Understood?"

"Yes Princess!" The gaurds said. They saluted and got into their positions on each side of the portal.

"Wow. Professional." Spike commented.

"Come Spike," Celestia said, "we have work to do."

"Awww.... Okay." Spike groaned as he followed the Princess out of the room and up the stairs.

"I'm sure we can fit a royal back rub in there somewhere." Celestia said winking.

"Yessss!" Spike said victoriously.

"Hmm... I can't let Fluttershy go into a potentially dangerous dimension without me." Discord said, invisible to the gaurds in the corner of the room.

~O~

Gravity Falls, 6:00 PM

Dipper waited at the front doorway for his Grunkle Ford with the monster hunting supplies. He was almost exploding with excitement. It was another chance for him to show Ford his potential. He had already told Stan and Mabel where he was going so they wouldn't worry.

"Ready to go?" Ford asked as he walked out of the vending machine's secret entrance.

"Oh I was born ready!" Dipper replied, trying to look cool in front of his idol. Ford laughed.

"Well then, here's the situation." Ford pulled out his second journal to a page with a black spider on it. The top read "Giganticus-Aracnea".  "These spiders are very rare and hunt deep in the Gravity Falls forest. I was hunting for them last night but I lost my glasses. I've only seen them a couple of times. What I can estimate is that their height is approximately 1.4 meters high." He explained pointing to the measurements and math on the page.

"Wow," Dipper commented, "Those are some big spiders."

"Indeed they are." Ford replied, smiling. He closed the book and stuffed it into a pocket in his lab coat. "Now wear this." He pulled out a harness with a tube attached to a container on the back. It was sort of like those machines they used in the Ghostbusters movies. "I tried tightening it so it would fit, so sorry if it's a bit to big." Ford picked it up and helped Dipper put it on. It was much like the harnesses you put on before rock climbing. Then put on his own. They made their way out side and tested the mechanism. Ford pressed a button near the end of the tube and a green liquid shot out of it onto the tree where Ford was aiming. He ushered Dipper to do the same.  Dipper aimed and fired. He was a bit off from where Ford had shot but was good enough.

"So what are these for exactly?" Dipper asked, studying the contraption.

"Well, from what I did learn about the spiders, this is a sort of 'pest control' for them. It's a mix of a few chemicals. It won't harm us but you might want to avoid getting it in your eyes." Dipper nodded in definite understanding. "Well then, let's go." Ford said with a map in his hands, leading the way. Dipper followed and they began the journey into the forest. Unaware that they were about to find not only giant spiders.

~O~

Twilights P.O.V.

I woke up with a familiar feeling. I opened my eyes to find me and my friends in a forest of some kind. I looked and, like I guessed, was human. I was in the same clothes that I had at CHS, but I noticed my mane, er, hair was in a bun as well as the presents of glasses. I also noticed, when I stood up, that I was shorter in this dimension. It looked like I was younger. I looked around and as far as I could tell, my friends we're in the same forms as they're CHS counterparts. But they we're about my height too. They we're all getting up. I could tell Fluttershy was terrified.

"Oh, why did it half to be night?" Fluttershy asked, almost crying. They all started to realize their new forms.

"Umm Twilight? What are we?" Rainbow asked examining herself, "OH MY GOSH I DON'T HAVE WINGS!" Rainbow screamed.

"Shhhh! Calm down! We don't know what's out here." I said putting my...umm...finger on her lips. "To answer you're question, we are 'humans'. These same creatures are in the CHS dimension so I know more about their way of life then you do. So I suggest that if we meet any other humans, which we will have to do at some point, I should do most of the talking." I explained to all of them. Pinkie, strangely enough, was already walking. I guess that's just Pinkie. I've learned that with Pinkie, it's best not to question things. Pinkie and I helped Rainbow and Fluttershy up and gave a little lesson in walking, as well as using hands and the kind of language they use.

"Okay now we need to find shelter for the night." I said. Fluttershy notice a squirrel chewing on a nut nearby.

"Umm excuse me Mr. Squirrel," Fluttershy said bending down to the squirrel, "Do you know if there's any shelter nearby?" The squirrel didn't seem afraid of her, but still didn't understand her. "Sorry girls, nothing." She said as the squirrel an off with is nut.

"That's okay Flutters," Rainbow said, "You tried."

"So what do we do now?" Pinkie asked, bouncing around us.

"Well, my survival books said that we should follow the direction of water or a stream. Everypony look for a stream!" We all spread out a little bit until Pinkie shouted that she found one. We all made our way to her as she pointed to a small stream.

"Nice Pinkie!" Rainbow exclaimed. We started to go upstream until we heard a twig snap.