Flurry Heart shifted in her seat uncomfortably, though calling it a “seat” was generous. Dimensional travel was a pretty streamlined process nowadays; a talented mage like her could pinpoint a spot in the multiverse, cast the correct cantrip, and usually arrive in a picosecond.
Usually.
On the off chance a warp spell failed, the hapless spellcaster found themselves in the Between Place. A waiting room-esque void that would mercifully dump any occupant back home after a few minutes.
Flurry just wished less waiting was needed. She had been running late to her appointment even before her teleportation spell fizzled, and Aunt Twilight was always hounding her about the importance of being punctual.
An earsplitting crack shredded the fabric of reality in front of Flurry Heart and a human girl tumbled out. The girl flailed her arms and braced for wood floor impact, but a gold aura halted her fall.
The girl's eyes swiveled to Flurry and she grinned in thankful embarrassment.
“I’ll let you down slowly,” Flurry promised. “Oh wait. What am I thinking? You probably don’t speak a whinny of Ponish.”
“Speak it? Nah, I don’t have the snout. Can understand you just fine though.”
Flurry’s eyebrows went up and the girl dropped down, rolling over on the pseudo floor before standing and looking around.
“Yeesh, the Between Place,” the girl noted. “Been a hot minute since I derped bad enough to land here. How ‘bout you? Frequent flier on the universe's most unstable airline?”
Aunt Twilight always said not to talk to unknown creatures. Especially ones that know magic.
“I don’t hafta answer any of that."
“Right. Yeah. Sorry for prodding, Princess.”
Flurry fanned the feathers on her oversized wings. Just in case she needed to flitter out of the stranger's reach.
“How d’you know I’m a royal? You some sorta dimensional stalker?”
The girl waved dismissively and reclined against an illusory wall across the room. “As if. I just know a few trivia tidbits about your neck of the omniversal woods. Like how the ponies in charge don’t dish out the wings and horn package deal to just any old foal.”
“Oh yeah?” Flurry flapped a few times, but remained in her seat. Curiosity was beginning to outweigh caution. “What if I toldja I was born with these? What then, buckskin?”
The girl had produced a book from somewhere and appeared more interested in its open face than her indignant temporary roommate.
“Then I’d say you got a pretty good roll of the genetic dice. But I’d also still say you’re a Princess, since you understand my English perfectly, and you obviously know some heavy duty dimensional travel magic.” The girl licked a finger and flipped a page. “Plus you didn't correct me when I called you royalty. Not that it matters for the time being. We’re both equals in between planes, aren’t we?”
Flurry sighed, not sure if she was expressing agreement or defeat. Her hind hooves dangled as she re-readjusted her seating and looked around the featureless antechamber. She wished she too had a book to occupy herself.
The longest stint Flurry had ever spent betwixt worlds was after botching a complicated time travel spell taught to her by Doctor Minuette. She had wanted to inform her past self that their homework was in the foyer’s office desk drawer. The goal was to save a few minutes of frantic searching, but the result was three tedious hours alone in this phantom foyer. And humming to herself had gotten boring after the first ten minutes.
Scritch. Scritch scratch scritch.
Flurry’s attention snapped back to the girl, then to the pencil moving back and forth across the face of that ever present book.
“Whatcha doing?”
“I’m dropping a line to my bestie saying I’ll be late to her get-together. Just in case she checks her messages while waiting on me.”
“Nice. Wish I was able to write ahead. Instead of just sitting here twiddling my fetlocks.”
“Yeah, ‘fraid I can’t help you there kiddo. I’m sure whoever you were rushing to reach won’t be too upset though. As if anyone on any plane worth visiting is dumb enough to tell off an Alicorn Princess.”
Flurry allowed herself a smile at that. Just a small one. “Pony Life,” she mumbled.
“Hmm?”
“I was on my way to the Pony Life continuity before I landed here. Aunt Twilight says that place is kinda kooky, but I got real curious and made contact with her counterpart anyway. She -Aunt Twilight’s counterpart, I mean,- was real excited to meet me, so I promised to be over today.”
The girl’s pencil had stopped moving. “How... how old are you?”
“Nine and a half.”
The girl shook her head. “Man, I didn’t attempt my first dimensional travel til I was fourteen. You’re really something, Flurry Heart.”
The Princess blinked in disbelief and girl looked away, uncharacteristically embarrassed.
“I uh... I got your name from-”
Sudden shimmers kicked up around the corners of the phantom room. Walls that weren’t walls began dissolving, and the two occupants felt themselves start dissipating too.
“Welp,” the girl shut her book and stretched her arms. “Looks like we’re both on our way outta here.”
“Oh no you don’t!” A few flaps was all it took to rocket Flurry across the room and pin her disintegrating hooves against the girl’s withering leather jacket. “Who in Tartarus are you?” She glanced down. “And how come your book has Aunt Twilight’s Cutie Mark on it??”
Both pony and girl were little more than ghosts at this point, allowing the latter to phase out of the former’s grip and run a few fingers through her red and blond hair.
“I’m a friend of your Aunt’s, if you really wanna know. On my way to congratulate her on picking up that new Faithful Student of hers. Luster something. My guess is my particles were on their way into Equestria and they bumped into yours that were on their way out.”
Fading Flurry pursed her lips. “So... I didn’t mess up my spell?”
“Nah. We both just had some freaky bad luck. Nice to know my portal wasn’t malfunctioning either.”
The girl was nearly gone, and tunnel vision creeping in Flurry’s periphery told her she herself wasn’t far behind.
“You still didn’t tell me your name!”
The girl's invisible lips moved, but produced no sound. Then Flurry Heart was sprawled back on her bedroom floor, mouth full of carpet fibers. She sprang up and glanced at the sundial in the windowsill.
11:11 AM. Not yet late for her Pony Life Twilight's lunch party. Flurry ignited her horn, readying another teleportation cantrip while wondering what that cocky human girl's deal was. Then she shrugged it off and in a tidy puff she was gone.
Several floors below Flurry’s bedroom, in the basement of the Crystal Castle, a pair of pencils rolled through the plane of the Equestria Girls Mirror portal. A journal dropped haphazardly on top of them, open to a surreptitious sketch of a high-strung alicorn foal.
Got held up, Twi. Sorry about this.
Grumpy frumpy feathers here is keeping me
company in the meantime. Student of yours?
Oh for the love of Faust that's Flurry Heart.
Be nice to her, please. No doubt she's terribly
embarrassed to be stuck In Between. Especially today of all days.
Sunset Shimmer trotted through the Mirror Portal, gathering her journal and pencils before tucking them into her saddlebag and peering around.
"This is not the Castle Of Friendship," she announced to no one but herself. "But hey, it's still Equestria. That's progress, right?"
Sunset made her way up the stairs, wondering whether she'd need to fire up another teleportation spell to get to Twilight. The answer would likely be yes. She hoped her out-of-practice spellcasting didn't mean another trip to the In Between, but the thought of seeing Flurry there again did make her chuckle. Hopefully Luster Dawn would be every bit as easy to tease.
Sunset had forgotten how much fun could be had while visiting home.
Author's Note
I know Snippets have been slow these past few months. Been working on longer, unpublished projects in the background and will have a blog post up in the next few days more details.
I thank you all who are still sticking with me. It's high time I delivered on past promised sequels and longform fics.
