Chapter One: Bridging Universes
Meetings of Twilights, Spikes, and others: The Conversion Verse
ChapterOne: Bridging Universes
Magical sparks flew around the laboratory underneath Golden Oaks. Coming from a magical reaction happening between the horn of a certain newly crowned, purple pony princess and a mirror hooked up to some kind of complex looking piece of machinery. While her little dragon assistant stood in a far corner, holding a towel and a glass of water on a silver tray.
"I think… That's it! It should work this time! I think it's actually working!!!" Twilight called out excitedly with a huge smile on her face, as her horn powered down. Though there still seemed to be a faint red glow to it from exertion. And she was sweating profusely.
Without being told, Spike ran to her and offered the towel for her to wipe her face, followed by the glass of water. Which guzzled down, before levitating the glass back on the trey. "Thanks Spike", she said without bothering to turn away from her work.
In front of her was swirling white light inside the mirror. The product of weeks of precision magical work. And numerous shattered mirrors.
Some time ago, a thought forced itself into her head and refused to leave till she seriously entertained the idea. After her previous excursion into the human world, shortly after she had become an Alicorn Princess, she had thought about the possibility of visiting other universes.
But the mirror in The Crystal Empire Palace only seemed to bridge the two universes. And the sheer power behind the mirror, at least from what she was able to read off it, seemed beyond even the power of an Alicorn. And that's not even getting into the technical aspects that would undoubtedly be needed in bridging two worlds, even if she was able to muster the raw magical power.
So as tempting as the idea was, she realized there was simply no feasible way she could put it to the test. At least till recently…
She didn't know how, or even why, but she suddenly gained the urge to work on this little project. And even stranger, she seemed to somehow have a better understanding of the technical aspects of bridging universes. Something she should have by all rights questioned, but her compulsion to work on this project was too strong.
"Twilight… are you sure about this?" Spike asked while looking over the portal alongside her. She ignored him. "Twilight… Twilight!"
"Wha… oh yeah! Of course Spike!" She replied, after shaking herself out of her trance.
Spike raised an eyebrow, but decided against questioning her little… moment. "We still don't know what's on the other side of this thing, Twi."
"I know. I know. But it's not like I'm going in there alone, immediately, all by myself." She waved her hoof around as if to dispel his worries. "Tomorrow, I'm going to contact the princesses and get the girls all together to plan out our little expedition, while we continue to monitor the stability of the portal. If we can, maybe even try to see what's on the other side of this thing before we go through." She gave him a little pat on the shoulder.
"I just hope you're right about this Twi… And this doesn't blow up in your face as bad as some of your other experiments. Like that thing with the pies a couple months ago. That was a huge mess you made." He teased and got a very light flick to the back of the head for his troubles. "Ouh!"
"It's not going to end like that Spike. Now why don't you head on in for the night. It's… getting late."
"What about you?", he asked with a raised eye. "You're not going to stay up all night by this thing again? Are you?"
"No, I'll be up there soon enough. I just need to stay down and monitor the portal for a bit.
"Ok. If you say so, Twilight." He yawned as headed off for the night. "Just don't stare at that thing all night."
"Uh-huh", she responded. Not really paying attention to him anymore.
She stayed down there in her basement laboratory for a long while…
Morning Time
"What's he still doing here?"
Spike heard an unfamiliar voice, speaking in what he thought was a Scotony accent.
"I don't know… I... (angry groan) I don't know. Damn. Just… get out of here before he sees you."
This voice sounded kind of like Twilight's, but different. Harsher.
"Twilight?" Spike asked out loud as rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.
He heard something quickly run out as he got out of his little basket bed.
"Oh, hey Spike… Whatcha doin buddy? Good morning", she said with a very forced happy tone. Along with a forced smile that formed from lips that seemed unused to moving in such a way. Her breath had a strong odor to it, that Spike would not normally associate with Twilight Sparkle.
"Uh, just waking up", he replied while getting to his feet and staring at the unicorn. "Twilight, is everything ok? You seem kind of… off."
"Uh, don't be silly Spikey", Twilight forced out. Visibly cringing at the last word, before quickly reasserting her false friendliness. "It's just me, your good old boss and adopted sister, Twilight."
"Ok. But I heard you talking to sompony I couldn't recognize just now. He sounded odd. And told him to leave before I got up."
"That was just one of Princess Celestia's goons giving me a private message for just the two of us. That's all. I just didn't want him to bother you while you were sleeping", she explained quickly. Then turned away from him, before he could make any further inquiries. "Now, shouldn't you be getting started on breakfast or something?"
Spike looked her over with a mix of suspicion and nervousness. While Twilight looked at just about everything in the room, but him. Seemingly as a passive aggressive way of telling him to take a hike.
"Yeah, I'll go get started on that." Her only reply as the dragon slowly started to leave the room, was a quick and disinterested, "umm-hmm", as she continued to look around. He kept an eye on her until she was out of his sight.
Meanwhile in another universe
"Uugh…" Twilight groaned. She had woken up with dull pain in her back, her knees, and the back of her head, and her senses was just now starting to come back as she lit up her horn to illuminate her dark surroundings.
This is the Twilight Sparkle, that those from her own universe would consider the true version. Twilight Prime if you will. And she has found herself waking up on a quilt and pillow on the floor, in what looked like her own lab. But it was in such a disorganized state, she may have screamed and fainted like Rarity if she found her lab like this: Books and papers were scattered haphazardly throughout the room. Empty glass bottles covered pretty much every surface that could theoretically be used as a table. And the room stunk of old alcohol.
Twi prime's first thought was to lecture whoever was in-charge of this lab on proper cleanliness… and possibly the dangers of alcoholism, whenever they came back. But she shook that thought out of her head, knowing she had to focus on what was important. Namely why she found herself in the first place.
Moving her hooves to get up, she heard the alarming sound of a chain along with a slight tug near the base of her left hind leg. Causing her eyes to shoot wide open as she instinctively gave it a feeble tug. Before quickly calming herself to prevent panicking.
At first she tried teleporting, only to get a shock around her leg that brought her back down to her little makeshift bed. "Uuuugh," she groaned weekly. Before giving a quick magical scan of her shackle.
It had a powerful enchantment on it that would electrocute her if she tried any magical means of getting out of it. Though she may be able to overload it with a surge of magicka. Though not without taking another shock trying.
She looked at it for a long moment, threading the upcoming shock. But she pushed those fears aside and readied her horn. Clenching her teeth and eyelids as she built up Magicka, before releasing it into the shackle. Which as she predicted, resulted in another shock to her leg. This one much more drawn out than the last. Almost causing her to black out. But she fought against the pain and the shackle ultimately broke in half under the force of her power. Before she collapsed back to the floor.
Twilight was left hyperventilating slightly. But as soon as she was able, she let out a long sigh of relief at her new found sense freedom. But she knew she wasn't out of the woods yet. As she still had no idea where she was, how she got in this predicament, who's responsible, and if they had any more surprises for her. Though worryingly, she realized by how strong the enchantment on her shackle was, they were probably rather adept in magic.
Meanwhile, in Equestria Prime
A Spike The Dragon not of this universe was wandering through Ponyville. Absent-mindedly waving to ponies who greeted him. He carried himself determinedly on his mission.
Back at Golden Oaks
Spike was half heartedly making breakfast. Still concerned about what was going on with Twilight. When he burps out a letter.
Author's Note
Ok, there's the first chapter. I hope it was of some interest to someone. And if someone is willing to give me any feed back, I would very much appreciate it.
