Across The Pond

“Spi-ike, Spi-ike.” The lavender unicorn called out to her assistant. She was starting to get restless waiting for him to gather all the notes he had on teleportation and she was anxious to get started. “Spike!” The unicorn shouted, now beginning to become a bit annoyed with him.

“Yes Twilight?” came the familiar voice of her assistant and longtime friend Spike from behind her. A loud yelp and hop was her response.

“Spike! Didn’t somepony ever tell you that you shouldn’t sneak up on ponies like that?” asked Twilight. “Sneak up? But you were calling me.” Said spike with a confused look on his face.

“Weren’t you upstairs?” Said Twilight, ignoring Spike’s protest. “No, just in the other room gathering those scrolls you asked me to get” said Spike. “But I thought they were Upstairs?” asked twilight. “You brought them down yesterday night when you decided you wanted to start working on this first thing in the morning. Don’t you remember Twilight?”

Twilight blushed a little at the realization but quickly got over it. “So do you have everything Spike?” inquired Twilight.

“Yeah, but I still don’t know why you need to teleport any further than you already do.” Spike said with a hint off annoyance in his tone. He didn’t see why it was so important to get up so early to practice a spell twilight already knows. She was the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria, even if she was just making a spell more unique it still would take more than a fe hours for her.

“Because Spike, it would make it a lot easier to visit my family in Canterlot if I could just teleport myself there, then back when I’m done.” Said Twilight in a matter-of-fact tone.

“But then why so early” Spike said, annoyance starting to creep into his voice.

“Because Spike, an early start to any day can improve productivity. And I don’t want to waste any time with this spell.” Twilight lectured at the half awake baby dragon, already thinking of what she will do with her family when she gets to Canterlot. Silently hoping that it would be today.

“Fine” Spike said in defeat. “So where do we start Twilight?” asked the baby dragon, getting over the loss pretty quickly. “Well first, let’s see what we have here.” Said Twilight as she took the first of her scrolls, her eyes already scanning over every detail she had written.

Spike just stood there and watched. He was unsure why this long-range teleporting thing was so important to Twilight but he could see it mattered so he decided he would stop arguing for the time being and just help the mare. He didn’t know how long twilight was going to be looking at these scrolls so he let his mind wander.

“AH-HA!”  Exclaimed Twilight only moment later.

Now it was the Baby Dragon’s turn to be startled. He fell back into the bookcase, sending several books tumbling down on top of him.

“You okay?” Twilight asked a bit worried but trying to stifle laughter at the same time.

“I’ll be fine” said spike, rubbing his back. “So did you find anything useful?”

“Sure did.” Twilight said with glee.

“well?” ask Spike in anticipation.

“I knew I had done some research on the subject before. But I didn’t think I would find it so quickly” Twilight admitted rubbing the back of her head.

“So what’s next?” asked Spike, trying not to sound bored but letting a yawn slip into her words as he spoke.

“Next, is to do a few practice runs. Nothing too far away, just across town to start with.” Twilight said with certain finality to it. She was moving a lot faster than she anticipated; perhaps they really didn’t need to get up any earlier than usual. But Twilight decided to keep that to herself.

“Alright, just be careful Twilight, you don’t want to teleport into somepony’s house; especially at this hour. Who knows what they will think.” Cautioned Spike.

“It’ll be fine Spike.” Twilight assured.

Let’s try to go to Sweet Apple Acres first, Twilight thought to herself. Her friend Applejack was sure to be up at this hour, no doubt getting ready for a hard day’s work.

“Alright” said Twilight, taking in a slow breath before allowing her horn to glow that incandescent purple light.

In a flash she was gone, leaving spike alone in the Ponyville Library.

“I’m going back to bed” said Spike stubbornly, to no pony specifically.

“Ah’ don’t care how much we gotta do; I’m sure we can handle it.” Said an orange earth pony in a confidant tone. “Alright young’uns, let’s get the day started” said an elderly, green earth pony.

“Alright Granny Smith” said the orange mare as she began a brisk walk towards the door of their barn with a larger red earth pony. They were nearing the door flash of light stopped her a few feet short.

The three earth ponies looked down, away from the light. And when the light had receded and the lifted their heads, Twilight Sparkle stood in its place.

“Hey Applejack, how are you this morning?” asked Twilight in as normal a tone as she could muster

“Well howdy there Twi, I’m doing just fine and yourself?” ask Applejack in return.

“I’m fine, just testing out something I’ve been working on” said Twilight

“Oh? And what might that be?” asked Applejack

“Long range teleporting!” Twilight said triumphantly

“Ah’ don’t follow” said Applejack. “Couldn’t you always do that?”

“No, I’ve never had a reason to either. But now I want to start teleporting from here to Canterlot so I can visit my family more often without spending so many bits riding the friendship express.” Said Twilight, still pleased with herself. “This was my first test”

“Well Twi, ah’ reckon you’ll be done in no time at all” Said Applejack. She knew her friend was very magical and could probably teleport all of Ponyville if she put her mind to it. “So where did you teleport from anyhow, how far?” ask Applejack.

“From my house” Said Twilight, allowing a smile to creep onto her face. She wasn’t one to brag but it still filled her with a certain happiness whenever she did something she thought was noteworthy.

A whistle that indicated one was impressed came from the direction of the large red earthpony. “I’m with Big Mac on this one Twilight, I know you are real good at magic and what not but all the way across town on your first run-through. That’s a might impressive” Applejack said. “why, ah’ bet you could make it all the way to Canterlot right now if you put enough power behind your spell” Appljack continued.

“you really think?” asked Twilight.

“ah’ sure do, and so does Big Mac, ain’t that right big brother?” asked Applejack. “Eeyup” was the response.

Twilight thought to herself for a moment. She had wished she could make it all the way to Canterlot today to surprise her family. And the spell across town didn’t take very much out of her. In fact, she felt like it was just a normal teleportation spell, she was sure she could make it.

“Alright, stand back” said Twilight, her horn already beginning to glow. “I’ll be back later today around dinner time” Twilight promised.

“see ya then” Applejack responded as her and her brother began to back away.

Twilight’s horn began to glow brighter as she began to redirect all her attention to the spell she was about to cast. She cleared her mind and pictured the throne room at the Canterlot Palace. That’s where she decided to materialize. She focused all her willpower and magic into her horn and in a flash of light she was gone.

A blinding light appeared and Twilight followed. Only, instead of finding herself on the tiled floors of the Princess' Throne Room she found herself falling. She didn't fall far, but she landed in a large area of liquid she quickly identified as salt water.

It was cold.

She span around and around, treading water trying to find something, anything familiar. with no luck she looked for something dry so she could warm up and figure out exactly what happened. She decided to go to the large boat that wasn't too far off from where she was, but it was moving away from her, she had to act now.

In a flash of light Twilight was no longer in the cold waters, rather, she was on hard wood that made up the floor on the deck of the ship she had teleported to.

She looked around, what greeted her was not the faces of friendly pony sailors. Instead, staring back at her with as much confusion on their face as she had was large, almost cat-like creatures, except the walked on their hind legs; and their was something wrong with their paws.

It was all too much to take in. Everything started to fade to black, and Twilight fainted.