Life is dull. At least, that is what Brad thought when he lived in his universe. Every day during the summer was almost the same. He’d wake up, grab a bite to eat, and then stay locked in his room writing fanfictions about ponies. He’d do this all day on most days, but some days he had the occasional band practice to take his mind off his stories. Life was dull, until one faithful day…
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“Brad, are you upstairs?” a feminine voice yelled through the halls of the home of Brad and his family.
“No, I’m in Antarctica, where do you think I am,” Brad answered back in a sarcastic, and snarky response.
“Well, can you do the dishes since you’re not doing anything important.”
“Will you yell at me if I don’t?”
“Probably.”
Brad sighed and lifted himself up out of his bed. He was currently surrounded by empty bags of chips and bottles of water, the stuff he pretty much lived off of for an entire day. Kicking a probably dirty shirt across his room into his wall, he exited down to the kitchen to do the dishes. His mom had long gone to work by the time he was down the steps and cleaning the dishes, which was a perfect chance for him to say his ideas to himself out loud.
“I might end up making it a shipping, but I need a twist. How about Fluttershy is in love with Pinkie Pie, but Pinkie is under a spell of some sort where she can’t love another pony until she has… has… wow, where am I even going with that.” Brad sighed again. His ideas were running out. And then, it hit him.
“Why don’t I do a cross dimension fanfiction? It could have everything in it, from action and adventure, to romance and suspense. Heck, I can even throw in some slice-of-life kind of situations somewhere, maybe as an introduction.” He felt that his idea was brilliant, but he just had to figure out how he was going to piece everything together, which was the difficult part.
The dishes were now completely clean and the dish washer was running on normal settings, but Brad could not come up with anything for his fanfiction. That’s when he heard a noise.
“Hello?” Brad asked, now officially scared. The noise was something like a wooshing sound, almost like a sound he’s heard before. “Is anyone there?”
He was now freaking out because there should be nobody else in the house. His mom had gone to work and his brother and dad were in Kentucky for a weekend. Brad then heard where the noise was coming from, the bathroom.
“GOTCHA!” Brad shouted when he opened the door to the small bathroom, but he didn’t see anything besides what was normally there. He proceeded to splash his face with some water from the sink to clear his mind some. “I must be hearing things,” he said to himself as he looked up into the mirror and saw a reflection that was not his own, it instead was that of a pony with lavender hair and a purple body with a set of pegasus wings.
Brad looked at this pegasus with a questioning look. The pegasus seemed to look back at Brad with a surprised look, and then one that was more serious. “Okay,” Brad said with a frightened expression. “I am now officially freaked out.”
Then, almost as if he could sense his emotions, the purple pegasus beckoned him toward the mirror. Reluctantly, Brad moved toward the mirror and, once he got close enough, he was grabbed by the purple pegasus and pulled into an area of all darkness except for a light that shown through where Brad had entered.
Brad was speechless. He didn’t know if screaming would help in this situation or not, but he decided that it wouldn’t. After these sudden thoughts, he saw that the purple pegasus was glowing. The pegasus got brighter and brighter until everything went black. The darkness around Brad consumed his mind as well as his surroundings as he blacked out…
“Ow, my head” Evening Glow began as she got up off the ground. Her eyes flickered open and she saw something she did not expect. Going from a bright bathroom to a dark unnamable room to a dark, dank forest was a little disorienting. “Where am I, and why is my voice really high pitched?”
After a look around, Evening Glow was still quite confused. She was in a forest, but not one she had ever experienced anywhere on Earth. It had trees that were twisted every which way and flowers that were all sorts of different colors. After a minute of looking at one particular flower, one that she had recognized from a cartoon, she thought that she was going insane. “Am I in the… Everfree Forest?” she asked herself with some disbelief.
“I can’t be in the Everfree Forest,” she told herself. “It only exists in the world of My Little Pony, and that is a fictional world. I must have fallen asleep; that’s it, I need to wake up.” Evening Glow then rubbed her eyes, but then stopped when she felt hooves instead of hands and fur instead of skin. “Okay, I can’t freak out… I can’t freak out…”
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Twilight was on her way to meet her zebra friend Zecora today for their weekly tea time. “I am glad Zecora and I have this weekly tradition,” she said to herself. “It gives me something to look forward to every week.” Twilight was happily trotting along the marked path to the hut of her friend, until she heard a scream. It was a scream of terror, she knew that much, but she didn’t know who it was from. ‘I should probably go check out who that was,’ Twilight thought to herself as she galloped with a purpose to the origin of the scream.
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‘Why did I scream, now somebody is bound to come and try and find me,’ Evening Glow thought to herself.
“Hello, is anypony there?” came a voice from some trees, a voice that Evening Glow recognized, but she was too afraid to acknowledge that she knew the voice.
‘Crap,’ Evening Glow thought to herself. ‘I gotta hide.’ And with that thought, she jumped into some bushes away from the voice that she heard. She then proceeded to make an opening in the bushes so she can see who it was in the trees that came over to check on her.
After about two minutes, a unicorn with a purple coat and purple hair with a pink highlight came out of the trees. Evening Glow knew this unicorn from somewhere, she just didn’t know where. “Hello? Are you in the bushes?” the purple unicorn said as she walked towards the bush that Evening Glow was hiding in.
“Eep,” Evening Glow squealed and then the purple unicorn stopped in her tracks.
“It’s fine if you’re scared to come out, I understand,” the purple unicorn said. “But, I could help you easier if you came out of those bushes and came to town with me.”
‘I feel like I should trust her,’ Evening Glow thought and decided to walk out of the bushes and confront the purple unicorn. At that moment, she got a good look of the unicorn, especially her cutie mark, which looked like one big star with some stars around it. “I know who you are, you’re Twilight Sparkle!”
“You know who I am?” Twilight asked with a questioning look on her face.
“Umm… Uh…” Evening Glow stammered. ‘Crap,’ she thought to herself. ‘I can’t let her know about the show.’
“It’s fine, a lot of ponies know who I am,” Twilight said. Evening Glow sighed, dodging the bullet for now. “So,” Twilight continued. “What is a pegasus like you doing in the Everfree Forest all alone?”
“I just kind of… appeared here,” Evening Glow said, putting on her best poker face.
“Well, we might as well get you into town. You look really hungry.”
Evening Glow was about to protest, until her stomach deceived her with a loud roar. She just nodded and the two ponies started their trek to the town of Ponyville. On the way, Evening Glow decided that her life as Brad had long since been left behind. As they entered the town, they were abruptly stopped by the local pink party pony, Pinkie Pie.
“Hey Twilight, ohmigosh, I figured out what spell you should try next. It’s one where you can turn food into other food. Like turning a cake into a bunch of cupcakes! Oh, I also figured out how to bake hot sauce into cupcakes! Now the cupcakes taste amazing! Oh, who’s this? I’ve never seen her before and I know everypony and I mean everypony in…” Pinkie went on until Twilight yelled her name.
“PINKIE!” Twilight shouted, now having the party pony’s attention. “This is… actually, I never even asked for her name. What is your name?”
“My name…” Evening Glow thought for a minute. “My name is Evening Glow.”
“Hi there! I’m Pinkie Pie. Oooh, I just had the best idea for your ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party!”
“That’s nice of you, but I don’t really want a party,” Evening Glow said. ‘What am I saying, an old fashion Pinkie Pie Party would be amazing… but I probably need to find out how I came here and how I turned into a pony.’
“Aww! Everypony needs a welcome party! An amazing party is very welcoming, in my opinion.”
“Actually, Twilight, can you take me to the local library?” Evening Glow began. “I need to research something really important.”
“Sure,” Twilight said. “Down this way.”
The duo left the party pony to her randomness and trotted to the Ponyville Public Library. Once there, Evening Glow got down to business.
“Twilight, I needed to tell you about this in private, with no other ponies around. I know you’d understand, but I don’t know about any other ponies,” Evening Glow began.
“The ponies in this town will understand. I bet if you gave them a chance…” Twilight started but got interrupted by Evening Glow.
“No, they won’t understand what I’m about to tell you,” Evening Glow said and motioned for Twilight to sit down. Once they were both sitting on the floor of the tree library, Evening Glow told Twilight everything.
“I’m not from your universe. I’m from a universe where there are people instead of ponies. In this world, your world and all the ponies that inhabit it are fictional. I don’t know how I got here, why I’m here, I don’t even know whether or not there is somebody in my body walking around in my life. Now you know everything…” Evening Glow finished with a sigh and a sad look.
“Hey, don’t be sad,” Twilight said. “You’re here, and you seem happy with being in this world. That’s all that matters.”
Evening Glow smiled and wiped away a tear. “Thanks, Twilight,” she said. “Can I stay here for a while, at least, until I can get my own house?”
“You can stay here as long as you’d like,” Twilight said with a welcoming smile. “Now, I know what’d cheer you up.”
Twilight opened the door and in flew Pinkie Pie. “A PARTY!” Pinkie shouted with joy in her voice as she let loose her party cannon and covered the library in party decorations.
After about three hours of partying with Pinkie and some of the townsfolk, Evening Glow felt more and more welcome in the small town. At the party, she got a ton of welcomes as well as a chance of getting to meet some of the ponies that, as Brad, she could only imagine meeting. She made some friendships and she became comfortable with all the different ponies in town. At about two o’clock in the morning, the party ended almost too soon.
“Thank you for such a great party, Pinkie!” Evening Glow said.
“No problem, Glow! Have a good night!” Pinkie said as she left the tree library.
“Yeah, see y’all round, Glow,” AppleJack said with a tip of her brown Stetson.
“It was a pleasure meeting such a pony with an insightful mind for fashion,” Rarity said as she was leaving. “You should have a cutie mark for fashion instead of the one you have now.”
“Thanks Rarity, and bye AJ,” Evening Glow said as the ponies were walking out the door.
“Yeah, you’re a pretty cool pony, Glow. We should go flying sometime,” Rainbow Dash said as she trotted out the door.
“I’ll have to take you up on that,” Glow said with a competitive look in her eyes.
“Umm… it really was nice to meet you… you are pretty knowledgeable about animals,” Fluttershy said quietly, but loud enough that Evening Glow could hear her.
“It was nice to meet you as well, Fluttershy. I hope to hang out more often,” Glow said with a smile.
“You’re a very nice pony, Glow,” said Bon-Bon as she was walking with Lyra at her side.
“Yeah, you’re a pretty open-minded individual,” Lyra said.
“Well, I love and tolerate everypony equally. But, yeah, you guys are a really cute couple,” Glow said as the couple walked out.
“Yeah, you’re pretty nice. You seem like you’ve known everypony before you came here,” Derpy said, her daughter, Dinky, on her back sleeping.
“Nah, I’m just a good judge of character,” Glow said with a smile.
“You’re nice, but I feel like you’re not telling the whole truth,” Clockwork (or The Doctor as Evening Glow knew him by) said.
“Well, neither are you, Doctor,” Glow whispered, with a smirk at The Doctor’s expression at hearing his name being said by someone other than his assistant.
After all the guests were gone and Glow had said her individual good-byes to them all, she and Twilight were all alone. “Well, I’m going to get some sleep. See you in the morning,” Twilight said with a smile.
“Yeah, bed sounds good right about now,” Glow said, feeling the party have its effect on her. “Oh yeah, Twilight. Please don’t tell the Princess about what I told you. She might want to experiment on me or something weird like that.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Twilight said as she walked up to her room.
With a sigh of relief, Evening Glow went to the guest bedroom to sleep. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she fell into a deep sleep that couldn’t be interrupted by an earthquake.
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Far away, in the capital city of Canterlot, Princess Celestia was looking over her kingdom. Down there, amongst the sleeping ponies that were far away in their dreams, was some sort of creature powerful enough to create a rift large enough for something to drop from another universe. Whether or not that thing was dangerous or not was up to her and her years of experience.
“Sister,” came the voice of the Princess of the Night, Luna. “Thou needs to sleep to be at full strength to raise the sun in the morrow. What hath thou awake so late, sister?”
Celestia felt that she didn’t need to worry her younger sibling, but she wouldn’t be kept out of the loop for long. “Early this morning, right after I had raised the sun to start the day, there was a surge of a powerful magic,” Celestia informed her sister. “This magic was powerful enough to cause a rift and allow something from another universe into our own. It opened near the Everfree Forest, so I sent some of the Elite Royal Guard to go and investigate.”
“We- I will protect the night, thou has to rest,” Luna told her sister. Celestia was reluctant at first, but eventually gave in. “Get rest, sister. I will protect the night.”
“I trust you, Lulu,” Celestia said with a smirk as Luna’s face distorted at being called her old nickname from their foalhood. Celestia left the tower on the top of the Canterlot Royal Castle to go to her bedroom. It was modest, for a princess’s bedroom, with a large bed in the far corner of the room, an oak desk with a scatter of scrolls both empty and completely filled front and back and inkwells both full and empty, and a fireplace with pillows around it where she normally read the letters from her student, Twilight, and her friends. Whatever happened in the Everfree Forest today, she would eventually need to tell her student about it, but for now she was going to sleep.
Evening Glow woke up to not only the warmth of the sun, but also the sound of flapping wings. She realized, after opening her eyes, that there was an owl in her room and it was perched upon the guest bedroom dresser. “Why, hello there. What brings you into my room?” Evening Glow asked this to the somewhat familiar owl.
“Who?” the owl asked in response.
“Umm… okay?” Evening Glow was not yet fully awake and ready to deal with such shenanigans. She got up out of bed and looked into a mirror on the wall. She scanned her body from head to toe and sighed. She didn’t look ugly in her eyes, but then again, she didn’t know what a pony’s standards of beauty were. She had a nice mane and tail that looked a tad dirty from landing in the Everfree Forest the other day. Her eyes soon trailed down to her flank where her cutie mark, a half sun and moon, was. “Well, I guess I’m going to have to get used to this.”
Glow left her room to see if anyone was using the bathroom. To her luck, it was not yet occupied. She walked in to use the shower, which she had some difficulty with at first because of her hooves. As soon as she got the shower on she felt all the filth from yesterday wash off her coat. She took this moment to really think about her situation. “Okay, I’m in Equestria. I have that much figured out. I am in the body of a girl pony. Well, it could be worse. I have no idea why I’m here and what I’m supposed to do to get back. And therein lays the problem. What should I make my priority?” After saying this, Glow heard a knock at the bathroom door.
“Hey, Glow,” Twilight began through the door. “When you’re done I made some breakfast.”
‘Wow, she didn’t have to do that,’ Glow thought to herself. “Thank you, Twilight,” she said to her gracious host.
“It’s no trouble,” Twilight replied and trotted away. Glow finally thought it was time to get out of the shower and go eat some breakfast. As she walked through the library, she couldn’t help but look at some of the books on the shelves. After she reached the small kitchen table, she pulled up her chair and sat down.
“So what are we having?” Glow asked with a hungry stare. She didn’t quite realize how famished she was until Twilight had mentioned breakfast. Glow didn’t eat anything at the party since she couldn’t pick anything up and didn’t want to look like a fool for trying.
“We’re having some fried daffodils with sliced apples!” Twilight exclaimed with happiness as she set down the two plates for them.
Glow looked at the food hungrily and tried picking up an apple slice with one hoof as Twilight was doing, but to no avail. Next, she tried with two hooves and had slightly more luck, but the apple slice dropped back on the plate. Glow tried this 5 or 6 times, each time getting slightly closer but still dropping the slice of apple.
“Umm… do you need help?” Twilight asked.
“No, no, I’ve got this,” Glow said as she picked up the apple slice and watched as it fell right out of her hooves again. “UGH! Of all the creatures on this world, I had to turn into the one without hands…” She laid her jaw on the table in defeat and closed her eyes, thinking of all the ways she could eat a single slice of apple with hands, until she felt something poking her head. She looked to see what it was and, to her surprise, it was a floating apple slice. “What the…”
“I figured you needed some help, even if you’re too stubborn to ask for it,” Twilight said with the slightest bit of annoyance present in her voice.
Glow, reluctantly, started eating her food as it was being levitated to her by Twilight. After both of their breakfasts were eaten, Glow got up out of her chair. “Well, I’m going to go look at some books,” she said as Twilight levitated the dishes into the sink.
“Can I ask you some questions while you read?” Twilight asked.
“Sure, I guess,” Glow said, a little wary as to what the questions were going to be about.
She stepped into the library’s main room and browsed for books that she needed to look through. She spotted a section of pony anatomy books and flew up to grab them. She was amazed at how comfortable it felt to fly. She then, once she reached the shelves with the anatomy books on them, pulled some of them off and accidentally dropped them. She watched as they piled on the baby dragon that just walked through the door. “Ohmigosh! Are you okay?” She asked frantically.
“Ow,” the baby dragon said as he pushed the books off of him. “Yeah, I’m fine. That’s happened more times than I can count.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re okay Spike,” Glow said with a smile.
“Wait, who are you and how do you know my name?” Spike asked with a concerned look.
Glow started to sweat at this question. She really didn’t know how to explain without telling the whole story to the baby dragon. Noticing her worried expression, Twilight jumped into the conversation.
“Spike, she’s my guest and I told her about you,” Twilight said as she walked through the doorway.
“Oh, okay,” Spike said and walked upstairs to do his chores.
Glow sighed at that close call and picked a book out of the pile. The book was titled “Physical Anatomy of the Common Pegasus” and it looked like something you’d see a medical student reading. This seemed perfect for what Glow needed.
“Hey Glow,” Twilight said. “Can I ask those questions now?”
“Sure,” Glow said, looking though the book’s table of contents for what she needed.
“Where did you come up with your name?” Twilight began.
“Oh, well I used to draw ponies and give them names and Evening Glow was a name for one of them and it just… popped into my mind… but she didn’t exactly look like I do,” Glow said in reply.
“Well, that seems reasonable,” Twilight said, preparing to ask her next question. “Are our universes similar?”
“Yes and no,” Glow said, taking herself away from her book. “Besides the whole pony thing everything is fairly similar. Well, except not everyone in my universe is as tolerant as the ponies here are. Also, I was a guy in my universe.”
“You were a…” Twilight began her question, but trailed off as Glow nodded her head.
“Today is a little uneasy for me,” Glow began. “Yesterday I was running on adrenalin and had no time to worry about my current situation. But, now that my adrenalin high has worn off, I’ve been worried about how I’m going to cope with my new identity and gender.”
“Well, you had me pretty fooled,” Twilight said with a little blush. “I thought you were pretty calm for someone who just traveled into a world they thought fiction.”
“Thanks… I think,” Glow said, sensing that the questions were now over for now.
After about two and a half hours of research into pony anatomy, Evening Glow was officially burnt out. “I don’t get it! None of these books have the answers I need,” she shouted through the library, getting Twilight, who was writing down notes, to look over at her curiously.
“Hey Glow, what’s wrong?” Twilight asked from across the library.
“The simplest question,” Glow said with a hint of anger in her voice. “It doesn’t answer the simplest question!”
“What question is that?” Twilight asked, trying to calm Glow down a bit.
“It doesn’t tell me how to use the bathroom,” Glow said with a look of sincere anger and fear, but Twilight couldn’t help but snicker slightly. “I’m serious! What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, nothing,” Twilight said with a smile. “It’s just funny how, of all the things that are new to you, you are wondering how to go to the bathroom.”
“It’s not just that,” Glow said with more sadness than anger this time. “I also don’t know how to use my hooves to pick things up…”
“Well, I could tell you, if that would help,” Twilight said.
“It’s better than not eating and not using the restroom,” Glow said. “Okay, let’s get started!”
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Celestia was sitting uneasily at the highest tower of her castle. Whatever this being was that came to her beloved kingdom, it managed to disguise it’s magic and hide in plain sight. At least, that’s what she deduced after the guards came back with absolutely nothing. ‘Should I warn Twilight,’ she asked herself over and over. ‘Maybe I should just send more protection over to Ponyville.’
“Sister,” Luna said, walking through the door to her sister’s watch tower. “Before thou try anything… brash, consider that this… whatever it is, may not be something to worry about.”
“Of course it’s something to worry about, Luna,” Celestia said in a stern but calm tone. “Understanding is something I’ve been trying to gain for thousands of years.”
“But, thou mustn’t confuse the quest for understanding with fear,” Luna said. “It is pony nature to fear what we do not understand. It is of no exception to the powerful rulers of Equestria.”
“You do have a valid point, Luna,” Celestia said, turning her head towards her sister. “But I will not rest until I have captured whatever it is and figured out whether it is good or bad.”
Luna walked out of the tower as Celestia turned back to gaze upon her kingdom. ‘Oh, Cici,’ Luna thought to herself. ‘Thou art letting your emotions get the better of you.’
Celestia was now alone again, alone to contemplate her next move. She now realized what she must do. She took out a piece of parchment, a quill, and an inkwell and began to write a letter to her star pupil. ‘Twilight will tell me if she sees anything strange,’ Celestia thought to herself as she wrote the letter. ‘She must.’
