Prologue: When Two Fronts Meet
To say the world was freaking out would be somewhat of an understatement.
One minute everything was as usual for what many perceived as normal. The next?
BOOM
Across the sky like a tidal wave at sea, a burst of purple, pink, and white went around the world. Much like how a setting sun would turn the sky hues of reds and oranges, the night side of things was like dawn had come and gone within 40 seconds with a flash of purple.
At the epicenter of this event in a town that one would dictate was literally at the center of the country it was in, smoke was pouring out of busted windows of the tower of the purplish blue crystal near the edge of town. Throughout the halls, the lead down into the building anything not nailed down was either knocked over or blown into the next room. Smoke still inside lingered in the air made the crystal ceilings become a slightly duller shade of gray, and it only grew the further one went.
Lower in the castle towards the basement was what remained of a lab set up, usually clean and organized on a significant level, the complete opposite that would make a particular spirit of chaos clap his hands and cheer for an encore.
Anything that wasn't reinforced glass was shattered, tables not bolted to the floor flipped over, books and papers still either blasted up against the wall, on the ground astray or still raining down, and two particular dents in the wall covered in debris.
However, that didn't stay the same for long as the items fall to the floor with soot cover purple 4-foot tall pony with their mane blown back like they took the full force of a wind cannon to the face, peeled away from the dent collapsing into the ground.
"Ohhhh....." she groaned, bringing two hooves up to rub her aching head. Mostly around the base of the 5-inch horn sticking out of her head.
"Spike...? You okay?" She called out. In a gigantic pile next to a smaller dent, a scaly purple claw stuck itself through like a zombie reaching out of its grave and gave a weak thumbs up before it went limp with a muffled sigh coming from underneath.
Sighing, she slowly picked herself up, using her wings to stabilize her shaky legs. Looking around the room that was once a lab, she could only sigh even more at the prospect of having to clean this mess up.
That thought was halted; however, when a bright bluish-white light caught her attention.
On the otherwise of the room where it was clear where the blast came from was a large horseshoe shape mirror with a plethora of equipment hooked up to it. Most of the said equipment was either a smoking mess from being overloaded, blown back, or still running.
The mirror itself, while in most states is just like any other mirror with the pane being a more silver color like polished chrome was now what one would see if they were walking in the surface of the sun. It warped itself with the energy being emitted acting like a bubble had formed over the mirror with the backside, barely visible, glowing hot white with the shifting bubble a dark blue.
Twilight was speechless at the sight that once was a portal to an alternate Equestria looks more like she just captured part of a star.
With caution, she slowly approached the new portal; her horn glowing a pinkish purple aura with a shield spell ready to go if needed. She could feel almost every hair stand up on her as she got closer; standing roughly within a hoof's reach away. Despite being closer and feeling the energy the mirror now had, she didn't feel the instability like before that resulted in the explosion. It was there, like how a bit of freshly smelted gold would still be warm even after a first long cool down.
Lifting a hoove, she slowly reached to the outer edge of the energy; feeling like it did have a texture like water but more like it was thick air. Pushing it further in until it was up to her joint, she watched in amazement as her entire forehoof slowly began to lose its solid form and become more transparent the closer she got it to the white energy.
Swiftly pulling it out and examining it, making sure that it wasn't staying like that and returned to normal, she glanced around back to the remaining equipment and the mess then back to the portal.
"Spike, take a letter and send it to everypony immediately."
While it was no surprise that Twilight's 5 main friends came to the castle within minutes following the explosion; Dash is the first on-site to comment how much of a mess the egghead alicorn could make in less than ten seconds (something Rainbow was both jealous and yet congratulated her for), Rarity and Applejack running up with the former being in utter shock at the mess and instantly went to organizing everything. Fluttershy, having heard the blast from over to her house like it was just next door, slowly flew in but made it roughly around the same time as the others.
Pinkie, well... Pinkie was already there when she leaped out of a pile of books yet to be cleaned up and ranting on about how her 'Pinkie Sense' was going off and watching the 'amazing' light show flash across the sky and knew Twilight had succeeded in creating a portal to another dimension that she then began describing in such detail, yet so fast that Rainbow Dash had a hard time keeping up, that once she took a breath for the first time and smiled to the utter shock of the alicorn did she finally calm down to standard levels of rational comprehension.
While the mess in the lab was still needed to be cleared entirely and the halls leading from it a good wipe down, that idea was shelved for the moment as the main focus was what the portal now meant. While Twilight wanted to immediately begin investigating and researching what this discovery and accomplishment meant for the world, she had to wait for a few critical others. As the 7 of them remained in the map room in each of their respective chairs, watching the giant map of Equestria show 3 symbols; a sun, a crescent moon on a black back, and a purple and white star with two glimmering blue streams, all quickly converging onto the castle with the very latter jumping from place to place.
One would think something was wrong with the map until a sudden pop a small burst of like purple particles revealed the Unicron Startlight Glimmer who had a concerned look like she had just committed a crime.
"WHAT HAPPENED?!" she shouted and ran across the crystal floor and slid up to the table between Applejack and Rarity. "I GOT THE MESSAGE-" the scroll that Spike had sent out popped out of thin air unrolling itself, "-THAT THE WHOLE PLACE BLEW UP!"
A bit taken back by her reaction Twilight sent a disapproving glance to Spike who took notice and sluggishly shrugged in embarrassment. "What? You said, and I quote: 'The lab is in a bit of rough shape at the moment because of the tests.' And I simplified it by stating the obvious fact that it's like a tornado just hit."
Face, meet hoof...
Just then the sound of two distinct sets of metal slippers on crystal came from the halls outside the dark blue crystal double doors that connected to the map room. An aura of sun-gold encompassed both sets of handles as they swing graciously outward until two very large, at least by pony standards, came through the door.
The rulers of Equestria, the physical embodiments of the Sun and Moon strolling upon the land and in all practical sense, goddesses came strolling up to the large map. Upon seeing Princesses Celestia and Luna, both looking a little rough because they choose to instead of teleport, flew from Canterlot to Ponyville in record time, the six ponies all slid from their seats forming a small line and bowed.
Even Twilight zipped around at the end to do the same before she raised her head back up to her mentor, "Your Highness! Thank you for coming on such short notice."
"Twilight..." Celestia gave her former student a look that clearly said 'what have we said about this?'
"Sorry, Sorry..." She sheepishly said with a slight blush of embarrassment. Knowing that given she was a Princess too that she still didn't need to bow, " Force of habit."
The solar princess nodded in understanding, "As it may be, we were a little late than we had expected. Many across Equestria are sending reports of a strange purple wave going across the sky that originated from Ponyville. "
Twilight slightly flinch at that comment. Knowing full well what happens when the population at large sees something strange come from this town and can immediately point to her for being the source.
'But it's all in the name of science...' she mentally told herself. Though already picturing the number of noise complaints heading her way from far away as Manehatten.
Clearing her throat and composing herself the best degree she could from the embarrassment still lingering in her head, "So, now that everypony is here, I can finally so you why I called you here."
From the map room to the lab, the group trotted towards the lower levels. Though as they ventured deeper towards the lab, they began to see the full extent of what had possibly happened down there. While the walls and floor was a bit of a duller color than what made up most of the castle, the ever-growing amount of gray and black soot was adding more and more to the story the 8 mares speculated.
When they came up to the double wooden door that separated them. From the lab, it wasn't hard to miss the fact that they looked like they were barely holding onto their hinges with black streaks coming from around the doorway that the explosion had forced itself through.
With a slight nod of her head and hum of magic from her horn Twilight went to open the doors with just a little effort- THUNK
Everyone jumped back from the sudden collapse and plume of kicked up soot. Those in front of the group backed up some waving their hooves around the cloud and coughing some. Those in the back only really flinched or wince at the damage the pile of splinters and metal left behind.
"Jeez, Twi, Spike was right. You blew the place up," Dash, hovering just above them towards the back blowing some of the dust away, commented when she leaned forward to get a closer look at the mess.
Twilight, however, while wanting to steer away from the topic of the state the room was in, couldn't resist face hoofing with enough force that it was actually audible and echoed slightly off the crystal walls. Without another word, the group moved into the lab that was like Rainbow Dash's comment, only if the cleanup crew beat them to it. Most of the mess was 'neatly' placed on the uprighted tables with every book piled in stacks that even dwarfed Celestia in height. Papers were stacked back up in piles but needed re-reorganizing, every wall needed a good wipe down and some of the machines that got fired from the blast were lined up against the opposite wall where the dents were.
They did a good job hiding Twilight's but failed to cover Spike's given how high up he was launched. Something that at the sight again made him rub the back of his head in a particular spot. Overall the place was at the halfway point between chaotic and organized. Something Twilight mental scolded herself for not fixing up the place before her friends got here.
But what really caught most of their attention was the mirror portal that they remember her using months ago with the Sunset Shimmer incident and on and off uses. For most of the girls, it was confusing and strange seeing the mirror look like a giant blue bubble, for Pinkie it looked like something she could bounce off like a giant ball. But for the Princesses and Starlight, they saw it in more or less a mixture of concern, curiosity, and wonder knowing full well what Twilight's experiments were meant to bring.
"Now," Twilight cleared her throat to address the group, "Most of you may not know what I, or many researchers in both Cantorlot and Manehatten, have been conducting tests on the greater implications of the mirror. For those who do know... well, you saw what happened and what's the result." She gestured a hoove to the portal.
"Question." Rainbow Dash raised a hoove.
"Yes?"
"What?" she dumbfoundingly said without a second thought.
Sighing Twilight felt that she would definitely need something later for the growing headache she was developing,
"To put it simply, while the portal only works every 30 moons to connect to the alternate version of Equestria, the human world, it can run on an alternate power source to keep it constantly connected. But it got me thinking: baring the locations that this end of the portal is at, is that it's been in both Cantorlot, the Crystal Empire, and here and links to the exact same location in the other world, what if it could be linked to somewhere else?"
With a quick flash of her horn, she popped from where she was standing to over to the side next to the machine, "While a full understanding of the mirror is still... to put it simply, bleak in some areas. Given the fact that it was around the time Starswirl banished the sirens from Equestria and that it could be even older than that, after heavily researching every note left by anypony about the portal made us come to the theory the mirror could be used to go other places. Both in our world where you didn't have to use a spell, just say or think where you want to go and poof! you're there. Go from one side of the world to another in instantaneous teleportation. What could take days or even weeks to travel from one place to another done within seconds? All without the literal need of a teleportation spell or even a unicorn."
Twilight paused for a second on the last sentence. Rolling it around her mind to filter out what could be added or taken away from it, "Well, maybe a unicorn if you're going pretty far. But for regular use, no problem! And just think, if it connects to an alternate version of Equestria where we could literally meet a whole new version of our lives, just imagine all the other possibilities!"
Poofing back to where she originally was with a big smile that screamed scientific madness; her friends, well, had mixed reactions. Dash had pretty much stopped following after Twilight went into lecture mode. Not even bothering to fly in place and just stand there with an equally dumbfounded Applejack and Rarity. Pinkie was a mixed bag of just bouncing in place with a neutral look that she would give when actually confused about something. Fluttershy, after the alicorn reached her louder parts, flinched back some when she reappeared.
The others weren't so affected given that they already knew this information. Though to see Twilight go on a craze about 'something with science' was still strange to witness after all this time.
Upon seeing that no one else shared the same thoughts about the project as she did, Twilight dropped her smile and took a deep, calming breath.
"To put it in even simplier terms, for some time many including myself and Starlight have been working to make the portal be able to connect to locations outside of its original mirror connection. Hopefully in ways that if it's able to be connected to other mirrors or even other objects that just need to be empowered by the same magic the mirror has, then you could literally step through this mirror right now and, for those who can't fly, be in Cloudsdale within moments of stepping through other than having to have some means of flying up there."
"WAIT!" Pinkie jumped waving her hooves frantically in the air, "DOES THAT MEAN I CAN GO ANYWHERE AND HAVE A PARTY ON THE SPOT AND JUMP STRAIGHT TO ANOTHER AT THE SAME TIME?!"
"...yes?"
Pinkie, abruptly, froze in place, quite literally hovering 3 inches off the ground with no explanation that if anyone in the room tried to explain knew it would be a lost cause. Her entire body began to shake like it was being struck by an earthquake was washing through her until in a burst of dust and confetti, the pink mare 'exploded' in a shower of glee and joy so much she practically bounced off the walls, which in turn left Pinkie shaped imprints in the soot, out the door, and down the hall.
While the echoing of her cheers and yells about how 'she can be the biggest party planner ever' slowly faded away, the group collectively sighed and turned back to Twilight who was already gathering items into a set of saddlebags.
"I've already come prepared with just about everything I need," she hitched the saddles over her back, "So it really did connect, all I would need to do is go through, make sure the trip through is stable and step back through. Bearing any sudden disaster it should be a piece of cake."
From a plant that wasn't originally in the room, Pinke sprouted from the pot with the clump of dirt and a small red flower on her head scanning over the room like a camera searching for the source of the magic word she heard, "Cake?"
"Woah, Twi!" Dash came around holding up a 'hold on for a moment' gesture, "Are you seriously just about to walk through that thing without even thinking it over? I mean, you of all ponies ALWAYS over thinks it. How do you know if it won't send you to some tarturas baring wasteland filled with hideous creatures trying to eat you!? Or you go through and walk right off a cliff! Or-" she was cut off when a magic purple hand came around her mouth silencing her.
"Okay, Rainbow, I get the point," completely picking her up she moved the pegasus back over to the others. "But in the likelihood that any of that did happen, I had set the portal to link up in our world. So if my calculations are correct, I should go from here to around the town of Bale Fields."
"Why Bale Fields?" Applejack asked wondering why her friend would want to go to farmland in the middle of Equestria. It was where most of the food comes from Equestria that didn't come from outside trading.
"As Rainbow Dash had to ever so stated about possible problems, I had figured that instead of going somewhere, say, the Crystal Empire, going to a simple farming town and appearing in a field would be better than getting warped into the middle of a blizzard."
It took her a moment to think it over but Applejack saw the logic in it, "Point taken."
"Besides, it won't be that long. This is just a test to see if it can connect here to our world first. We don't need to worry about waiting a couple of hours to days." Stepping around she came up facing to the portal. "Ready, Spike?"
"Uh.... maybe I should stay here? You know, to watch over the equipment and maybe clean up a bit?" the small dragon pulled out a broom that he used to lean on next to the broken machines.
While she would counterargue his statement, a voice was telling her that it would help minimize other potential problems and that the place did need to get cleaned up.
"Alright, you can stay." There was a very silent 'yes!' from the dragon. Glancing back to the portal, while all that was need was 5 small strides, Twilight turned around to face Celestia who had a rather neutral look on her face. "Aren't you going to say anything? That it might be too risky just to go through the portal or something?"
"Twilight," Celestia took a step forward lowering her head a little to be a bit more eye level, "You are your own princess to might these decisions. And while I would recommend more study goes into this event to what lead up to the earlier blast, 'and your track record of getting in and out of these kinds of problems...', I believe that this will bear fruit to what you hope to accomplish once you step back through."
With those words, Twilight felt a new wave of determination swell up inside of her. Sending a reassuring nod to her mentor, Twilight sucked in a deep breath and came up to the blue bubble. Within the first step of feeling the tip of her horn, then muzzle, then entire front half of her body go passed the barrier of energy, in a flash of the blue she slowly disappeared into the light.
When she was fully engulfed in the light and vanished, there was a brief silence that lasted a good 6 seconds before Rainbow Dash huffed crossing her hooves, "Here we go again..." she muttered remember the first time they had to play this waiting game.
In a flash of orange and blinding white light, Twilight slowly stepped away from the portal into a grassy field that went straight up to her shoulders. Having to blink a couple of times and even rub her eyes clear of any spots in her vision, she immediately went into research mode. Scanning over the land for anything of interest.
The sun was directly above with several clouds scattered across the sky occasionally dimming the light. A quick check of her compass showed that it still pointed North and that her magic even worked. Though while it was all well and right, there was one thing she noticed; every breath she took in smell like she was sticking her nose into a rusty boiler. She slightly cringed when a gust of wind would only make it stronger.
'Side note: breathable air but an unknown, awful stench to it...
Shaking her head to clear the thought and mark it down for later, she began her track in the direction she faced from the portal. Though the high grass was a bit of a hindrance, though she bet Applejack would trot through it like a regular walk, she still keeps up a pretty good pace.
While there wasn't much to see around her from a distance, she could see a bunch of thin towering structures. Some look like white poles with massive three-bladed propellers spinning in place grouped with a dozen others that even some didn't turn. Others were large grayish structures that had a broad base and got thinner with cables reaching out between each tower going across the horizon like a never-ending suspension bridge. Up ahead she saw a similar line of structures, though these look liked trees had lost all their branches and had cables going between them. The grass itself was starting to thin out a d she could see a metal fence that signaled it's ending.
Without much thought, she unfolded her wings and gave a hard flap with a little jump. But truth be told it felt like she had to put in a bit more strength in that one flap than she usually would have to.
Going forward, she came upon a small hill that flattened out to a massive road. It was much like the ones seen in the larger cities like Manehatten or Las Pegasus for two way traffic to have enough space and on the sides in case something happened.
Looking to her left, she saw the road continue into the distance towards the towers. Listening to her right, she saw a large gray sign on the opposite side just a little away from her. Hoping that this could be her first real clue into finding a possible settlement of some kind Twilight added a little more pep in her step.
Crossing the road and down the embankment towards the giant billboard. Slowing back to a steady wall, she rounded the edge of the sign and stood roughly 12 feet back to get a full overview of the sign before her.
Author's Note
This chapter and the next two are, compared to what I'm making, are actually brand new compared to the story itself since the original form of the story was to soley take place on Earth.
I got the idea of this idea from several things:
There really isn't any actually Storm Chasing fics of any kind out there that actually involve storm chasing as its core element to drive the storm and not something like a 'romance to bring together' or 'children of X-main characters'.
I prefer to write characters as Anthro for it being a bit easier to work with a human based character with a human. One idea involves a separate story with Rainbow Dash and the movie Into the Storm but for this I wanted them to be their original selves because I don't see a random pony pulling a hero move in getting in and driving a pick up truck on their first try in the human world.
Because it was set on Earth and Equestria now being the arena I'm having to change up some parts of the original story to fit. (Such as one scene later involving high tension power lines and the chasers.)
This story itself was inspired by another story I once found on this site (which I think was deleted after many failed attempts at finding it again) called Project: Windrunner that involved Equestria suffering a tornado outbreak and after having been connected to the human world go upon enlisting help. The story, while was pretty good for the start, however, never actually made it to the chasing or even human side.
So, based on what I could remember, this story could serve as a bit of a tribute to it.
Also on note: Locations will vary on different names that the MLP lore has given (such as on point I discovered Bittsburgh is the Equestria version of Pittsburgh), and as some variations make Equestria be more in the shape of North America, areas are bound to be mixed. For example, as Dodge Junction is equivalent to Dodge City, Kansas, Bale Fields is equivalent to Greensburg, Kansas. As Manehatten, Fillydelphia, and Baltimare are to the East coast and its Earth counterparts, places like Appleloosa will be located more to a place similar to Amarillo, Texas (cuz it has to be Texas) with more places being brought on from the comics like Salt Lick City and Chicoltgo.
