Across The Pond

A Flash of light and Twilight was gone, leaving Applejack, Granny Smith, and Big Macintosh in the barn. For a moment it was silent.

"Well, let's not waste any time, we got a lot to do" said Applejack, still amazed at how bright the teleportation spell was. Whenever Twilight teleported it was always bright but that last one seemed brighter somehow. She wrote it off to distance and moved on.

They two sibling walked out the door as Granny Smith went to wake Applebloom, the youngest of her three grandchildren.

And so began another normal day at Sweet Apple Acres.

Twilight felt sunlight hit her face, and a slight rocking motion. At first she thought about chastising the baby Dragon for waking her but soon realized that it would be a pointless gesture. She sat up almost immanently, soon wishing she hadn't. she leaned towards the window the light had entered from and allowed her small breakfast of Oats and Hay to come up.

when she was done she began to look around. It was a small, triangular room but still big enough to move about in. There were boxes off varying sizes along 2 of the 3 walls; one of these two had a break in the boxes for a narrow door. This was clearly not a room many ponies entered very often. The third wall, which her bed was resting against, had a window on it, as well as map of a large island- no ... this was too big to be merely an island. This had to be a continent. But how could that be? The top of the map indicated she was looking at a map of a place called Tameriel.

She didn't want to think about that now, she wanted to know who these ... things were that she had found herself with. She turned around and noticed a chair next to her bed. on this chair was a globe. She smiled at the familiar site. Geography was a subject she liked, but then, she liked almost every subject. Twilight's smile faded when she noticed the globe was missing Equestria, and right in it's place was a vast ocean.

She didn't have time to ponder why that could be before the door to her small room opened up and one of the cat creatures walked in.

Twilight just stared in bewilderment. She knew it was rude and wished she could look away but she had never seen or heard of anything like this before.

"Hello friend, do not be scared, i only wish to help you back to shore." said the mysterious creature.

"Who are you?" Twilight asked.

her gaze was met with the creatures eyes becoming as big as saucers before the creature said "you can ... talk?" The creature said this slow, not because he thought she would not understand but because he didn't understand.

Both now standing in confusion twilight took this as the time to ask her newly formed questions "who are you, why is you globe incomplete and your map of a place nopony has ever heard of?" Twilight asked. She silently kicked herself wishing she had asked where they were or where they were heading.

The creatures eyes slowly returned to normal before smiling at the barage of questions he was hit with and saying "My name is Ra'Zahmirr, I am a Khajiit of Elsweyr. There is much of the world still to be discovered and i suspect we may have made a breakthrough" said Ra'Zahmirr, allowing an excited tone to creep into his voice.

"Do they have names where you are from?" asked Ra'Zahmirr.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle, i'm from Equestria" She said rather sheepishly

"Well you are a far way from any island friend, we are in the Topal Sea, we can get you to shore later today" said Ra'Zahmirr.

"How can we get to shore, i din't see any land when i first got here?" asked twilight in confusion

"With the early morning brings a light fog, i think the fog mixed with the darkness of early morning might have taken part in your missing of the land that surrounds us" said Ra'Zahmirr.

"Well how come I can't go to shore now?" asked Twilight, too exhausted to be angry.

"We must first gather Crystallized Moonlight from these waters before returning to shore of this venture was a pointless one." said Ra'Zahmirr in a matter-of-fact tone.

Twilight only stared, she didn't know what was going on but she wasn't stupid. "You can't crystallize moonlight" said Twilight. She was begging to think that they were messing with her.

"It is an alchemy ingredient that no one else in all of Nirn has a bigger part in" said Ra'Zahmirr. Twilight couldn't tell if it was Pride of a holier than thou attitude in the Khajiit voice. She decided it best not to question the creature and just wait for them to finish what they came to do.

The inside of Sugar Cube Corner was  bright mixture of streamers and balloons, a large banner hung along to wall, scrolled across in hasty yet somewhat elegant script  Congratulations Twilight

Nearly all the guest had arrived. Fluttershy was listening to Rarity tell a story about her recent trip to Manehattan, which had meant a lot to both her and her career.

Rainbow Dash was helping pinkie put up streamers in the higher places in the rafters that the giddy pink pony could not reach without a stool or later of some sort.

As for Pinkie Pie, she was busy making batch after batch of pastries, dozens after dozens of sugary treats for her and her friends to enjoy. Even if not all of it was eaten she was sure she could find some pony who would enjoy a cupcake especially one made from Pinkie Pie's own special recipe.

Applejack was helping decorate the pastries but not having Pinkie's natural skill with frosting or Rarity's eye for detail they weren't coming out so well. Pinkie Pie didn't mind though.

"say pinkie, what is your special recipe for these cupcakes of yours?" asked Applejack, allowing herself not to worry about the disaster of a frosting mess she was creating.

"Can you keep a secret?" Pinkie Pie whispered to her southern friend.

"Ah' sure can Pinkie, what is it" Applejack said, now not even paying attention to the frosting and focusing all her attention on Pinkie Pie.

"Pinkie Promise?" Pinkie said, now staring down the Orange mare.

"Ah' pinkie promise" said Applejack as she went through the motions.

"Okie-dokie-lokie" said Pinkie, her voice excited but lowered in volume. "Come closer"

Applejack leaned, prepared to hear what made her eccentric friend's treats taste so hoof licking good

"Alright" said Pinkie Pie "the secret to my baked goods are ... SUGAR!!!" Pinkie Pie yelled before rocketing around the room gather all the sugar in site and even some in strange places like the lap shade and under the baking tray Applejack was using to decorate the cupcakes on.

Recovering from the fear she had almost lost her hearing she stared in astonishment as her friends pour every grain of sugar in the bowl. Unsure how it all would fit, but it did. Applejack had know Pinkie Pie for a long time and, unlike Twilight, knew better than to ask her 'How' so she just smiled at her as she continued to decorate.

Moments later Rainbow Dash came through the kitchen doors

Rainbow looked a little confused at first then asked Applejack "That enough frosting?"

Applejack looked down and saw that during Pinkie's little outburst she had squeezed to frosting tube all out over the counter, and subsequently the Cupcakes

"Well at least the frosting is equal now" Applejack muttered to nopony in particular. "even if it is a few inches thick"

"Ri-ight" Rainbow said, drawing out the word as she spoke it. "So pinks, where is the guest of honor anyway. I'm getting antsy." Rainbow said, excited to get this surprise party started she was starting to shake

"I dunno, i told spike earlier to bring her here." Pinkie said, starting to rub her chin before letting out a quick gasp "what if she found out and started her own surprise party so when we go looking for her she surprises us, ooh it's so genius! Lets go to the party i don't wanna wait another second" Pinkie Pie said so fast everypony almost missed her excitedly run towards the door to the party she assumed awaited them.

"What in the name of Celestia is going on?" asked rarity and Applejack dragged Pinkie Pie from the door

"Pinkie Pie thinks Twi is throwing a surprise party for this surprise party" said Applejack while gripping Pinkie's tail in her mouth.

"I doubt it, Twilight isn't the type to pull off something like that, and even if she was somepony would have been in on it" Rainbow Dash said, sounding a little bored

"oh no," Fluttershy said in a quite tone that almost went unnoticed "what if she got lost"

"ah' wouldn't worry about it, she probably just wanted to spend a little more time with her family an' the Princess" said Applejack in the best reassuring voice she could muster. She still could help but worry a little, after all, Twilight did say she would be back by dinner, and it wasn't like her to be late.

Spike burst through the door of the sweets shop "I just wrote ... a letter ... to the Princess" Spike said between gasps. Had the baby dragon ran all the way here Applejack thought to herself.

"and" Rainbow Dash said, gesturing for spike to continue as Rarity brought spike a glass of water.

"Well I was getting worried when she didn't show up and so I sent a letter to Celestia asking her to ask Twilight when she'd be back" Spike finally said, what came next was only slightly above a whisper, but it still range out in all of thier ears "I got a response from the Princess, it says Twilight never made it to Canterlot"

There was a long silence. After what felt like an eternity the silence was broken by Rarity, asking what they were all thinking "Where's Twilight?"