My Little Human: Friendship Across Worlds

Cadance grunted, the stream of pink magic blasting out of her horn like a fire hose, straining to hold back the torrent of red energy coming from Trixie.

“Sweetie Belle, hurry up!” Scootaloo begged.

“No, not that one... not that one... that one's too small...” Sweetie Belle frantically tossed gem after gem out of Spike's gem case until she finally held a large diamond in her hoof. “I found one! Here, take this one!” Sh offered the gem to Shining Armor, who snatched it up in his telekinetic grip and carefully fitted it into the core of the shield generator as Carrot Cake held the casing open.

“There, got it!” Shining released his grip on the diamond and Carrot helped him close up the casing. Dinky galloped to the front door of the newly-replanted library.

“Princess Cadance! You can come in now!”

“Thank...you...Dinky!” Cadance poured everything she had into the repulsion spell, slowly but surely driving Trixie's beam back into her horn. Beads of sweat trickled down the alicorn's face, but she didn't dare move a hoof, instead keeping every last erg of energy flowing into her horn.

“Urg...ugh!” Trixie staggered backward, holding her front hooves to her head. “Trixie gives up! Aaaaahhhh!”

A loud BOOM accompanied the showpony's somersault through the air as she catapaulted  clear over Ponyville Town Hall. Panting, Cadance ended the spell and stumbled back into the library basement. The moment she stepped through the basement door, Shining Armor pushed his horn into the charging port and reactivated the shield. The protective bubble reappeared, this time stronger and longer-lasting.

“Pinkie Pie?” Pumpkin Cake asked, looking up at her mother.

“No, sweetie, Pinkie's not here right now,” Cup Cake murmured sadly. “I do hope she's all right though,” she whispered to herself.

*** *** ***

“Got any threes?”

“Go fish.”

“Rats.”

The Cute Mark Crusaders and Dinky were playing card games in the main foyer of the library. Outside the front window, they could see strange, bizarre and sometimes frightening things happening as a result of Discord's magic. The road outside had turned into a canal, filled with bunnies doing backstroke. Screwball and Screw Loose floated over the roofs of houses, loudly playing vuvuzelas.

Down in the basement, Shining Armor was penning a letter to his sister while his wife rested comfortably, sipping on an oat smoothie.

Shining folded up the letter into a paper aeroplane like Twilight's and held it out to Cadance. “Could your spell find where the last portal was?”

“I think it could do that,” Cadance got up and positioned herself with her horn pointing at the wall. “I'm sure Twilight and her friends could use a little encouragement.”

She closed her eyes and a bright burst of magic erupted from her horn, tracing runes in a circle on the wall. The portal opened and Cadance manipulated the spell carefully, searching for the traces of magic that would lead her to Spike's last known location.

“There,” she announced. “I've redirected the portal to the last connected location. Toss it through, Shining.”

Shining tossed the plane through the portal and watched it vanish into the swirling blue maelstrom.

Pinkie Pie's house, later that night...

“So then Ah said to the stock agent “You find me a pony as big as that and Ah'll show y'all a green dog!”” Applejack declared.

Rainbow Dash doubled over laughing. “That's hilarious!”

“Ah tell ya, there ain't a pony or horse in either world that can do some of the stuff Ah've seen Big Macintosh do at Sweet Apple Acres...”

“Hey, look!” Spike pointed at the wall where he had cast a portal a few days ago. “Another portal! It must be Cadance!”

Sure enough, the blue doorway was there.

“Can we go through that one?” Rainbow Dash wondered.

“No, not yet,” Twilight told her. “We can't leave this world until we find Rarity.”

A white paper aeroplane sailed through and zoomed over the ponies' heads, hitting the wall opposite and falling behind the couch. The portal closed immediately after, leaving Fluttershy to retrieve the plane with her thin, delicate hands.

“I think it's another letter!” she exclaimed.

Dear Twilight,

I'm glad you and Spike are OK and it sounds like you're making good progress. Thanks for the tip about the shield generator, by the way, it was a lifesaver! Tell Spike Cadance will reimburse him for the diamond once the Crystal Empire's mines are operational again.

I know you're working hard, but we really need you to step it up over there. Some mare calling herself The Great and Powerful Trixie showed up-

“Oh, not her again!” Dash facepalmed.

-and ripped the library right out of the ground! She's been corrupted by Discord, and from what Spike tells me she was responsible for letting him loose in the first place. Cadance managed to fight her off and I installed the diamond with the help of Mr. Cake, but things are going south really fast. I wish I could come through and help you, but I need to be here to keep the generator going. Please find Rarity as soon as you can and get back here! Give you other friends my best.

Your BBBFF,

Shining Armor

“Going south?” Pinkie tilted her head quizzically at Fluttershy. “Does that mean Discord's going to take a holiday?”

“No, Pinkie, it means things are getting worse!” Twilight tugged on a lock of her hair nervously. “Tomorrow's Friday. If everypony can meet at my apartment on the weekend, we can start checking every magazine office for any human who might be Rarity in disguise.”

“Twilight?” Fluttershy asked.

“What if they won't let us in?” Dash, always the weather pony, just had to rain on someone's parade.

“I'd like to avoid doing what we did at the stadium again,” Pinkie interjected.

“Excuse me, but...” Fluttershy tried again.

“I think Fluttershy might have something,” Whoof finally helped the shy pegasus out.

“Yes, Fluttershy?” Twilight prompted.

“I think I've already found her.” Fluttershy held up a glossy fashion magazine swiped from the waiting room in her surgery. On the second page from the cover was a greeting from the editor along with her photo, the headshot showing a woman with a very familiar coiffeure.