Episode 1: The Soul Spectrum Dimension Part 2: Twilight Sparkle

“Who’s Fluttershy?” asked Garion. The bizarre scenario of talking to a sparkly, winged unicorn continued to pull at his senses. It became extremely difficult for him to think with a sane, state of mind, but slowly, and arduously, he managed to chew his words to the best of his abilities.

Twilight Sparkle earnestly replied, “She’s a shy yellow Pegasus who loves animals with an extreme passion.”

Garion’s mind went back to the yellow pony they encountered when they first arrived. “Um, she wouldn’t happen to live in a small cottage… amidst the outskirts of town, would she?” he asked.

“Yeah, or at least within that kind of area,” Twilight replied.

“Um, I…I think we actually came by her when we arrived…. She ran away when I attempted to say ‘hello’.”

Twilight exhaled a mellow sigh, before walking quickly to a bookshelf to pick out random books with her magic, “Don’t worry, she just doesn’t like meeting new people. And she might have just mistaken you for some kind of a… monster.” After saying this, Twilight abruptly caught onto what she just said, seeing Garion’s look of slight confusion. “Sorry. Honestly, it would actually be a normal thing for Fluttershy to be timid around new ponies, or creatures, but I don’t know why she would run away from a hello.”

“Well… I was… We were…uh….” Garion stuttered.

“Yes?”

Suddenly, Garion was unsure about how to relay the fight that he and Aaron had. Would she care if she knew they were fighting or not? How forgiving would she be? He didn’t want to her to suspect the aggressive behavior of human beings, since he had just convinced her that they had meant no harm. But somehow, his instincts were telling him that honesty was the correct move, despite the pain it may inflict. It was only a small fight, right? Or was it? “I think Butterfly caught me and Aaron fighting.”

Twilight only responded with, “Her name is actually Fluttershy.”

Garion felt like smacking himself for that, but apologized, “I’m sorry.”

“No need to worry. Some people are better with names than others.”

A severely awkward silence followed. Twilight continued looking through her books.

“How are you doing that?” Garion asked out of curiosity.

Twilight looked up from the books that she piled on the table. “Huh? Oh, Levitation. It’s an ability that many unicorns are born with,” said Twilight with kind of a puzzled expression.

Garion could only note the fact that Twilight Sparkle was more than just a unicorn.

“So why were you fighting?” she asked, skeptically but not unkindly, finally selecting a scroll from a shelf above her. She carried this scroll within the purple aura of her magic, and set it on the table.

“It’s a long story. A painfully, stupid story. Mostly, it was all me, with my crazy ambitions, and just being plain stupid today. Because of that, I lost a lot of money at home, which sucks for Aaron, because it was his apartment too.”

Twilight appeared lost, so Garion added, “We both have to pay rent for the apartment that we share, and I basically plunged us into extreme dept.”

Twilight responded with, “I’m sorry to hear that. But think of this, you’re here and not there, so you shouldn’t even have to worry about it for now.”

“Yes! I’m here. Here, in a scenario more unexpected and mind-blowing than I could ever imagine seeing! That’s the whole insanity of it!” Garion blurted, losing control, “The whole fabric of reality as I knew it changed in an instant today! I’m either going crazy or I’ve already LOST IT. Tell me, do I look insane to you? Am I dreaming!?”

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh…………...”

“Don’t answer that! If it is just a dream, then I like it,” Garion voiced, not sure he knew what he was talking about anymore. It was almost like his mind was not his own, anymore. Nothing made any sense to him. Still, he knew that there was something that he truly did know. “I want this to be real,” he muttered.

“Well okay then. But really, you are awake…it’s not a dream…Oh, never mind,” Twilight uttered, feeling worried about Garion. She decided not pursue the topic, though. Whoever this person was, he sure must not have been very happy before. Or maybe he just needed to calm down. Perhaps it wasn’t just him, but his entire world that may be unhappy right now. She had so many questions that she wanted to ask him, but obviously now was not the time.

She walked over to the window to view the status of the town. Ponies were cautiously walking around picking up carts and cleaning up messes. Some of them conducted their actions in a bashful manner, as if they realized that they had been overreacting before. After feeling satisfied that the town was recovering on its own, she moved back to the table and beckoned Garion over. “By the way, I never got your names,” she asked, hoping that she could engage Garion in conversation to cheer him up a bit.

“Oh... I-I’m Garion…. And the other guy is Aaron,” the human replied.

“Well, pleased to meet you, Garion,” Twilight Sparkle eagerly said, emitting one of the warmest smiles that Garion had ever seen.

“Wow, really? I mean, even after the chaos I just caused?” said Garion, suddenly feeling safe and secure, just for the way that she was talking to him.

“It’s no trouble at all, really. Things like these happen more frequently than you would expect. Stampedes, parasprites, bunnies; they probably just thought you were-Never mind. Anyway, those are interesting names that you have,” she commented.

“Yeah, they’re not as inspirational as Twilight Sparkle or anything,” he didn’t really mean it as a serious compliment but nevertheless it appeared to make her glow a bit when he said that.

Twilight Sparkle quickly returned to herself and said, “Anyway, Aaron couldn’t have gone very far, so we might be able to reach him before he actually walks into any danger. But first I need to know what you’ve seen since you’ve been here, so that I might be able to guess where he’s gone.”

She gestured to the scroll on the table, and unrolled it with her magic. “This is the map of Equestria. We live in the area of the northwestern quadrant over here, north of the equator and west of the meridian. On this coast to the east is where one of our countries most bustling and thriving cities, Mane Hatton lies. And in the central southern basin lies Appaloosa. The Midwest is mostly flatlands and hilly terrain with lots of trees. In the western region going north and south are the unicorn mountains. In the very center of the country on a mountain is where Equestria’s Capital, Canterlot lies. And just south of that is the little valley where Ponyville rests. You can actually see the castle on the mountain from here.”

Garion’s reaction to this was: one, this was the most colorful map he had ever seen, and two, that this was ominously familiar. “Wow. That’s just amazing.”

“I know right? Maps are wonderful tools. Just looking at all the labels and land features is such a spectacular way of knowing your land,” she said cheerfully.

“No, I mean…well yeah, but what I meant was that the Map of this area of Equestria looks just like a map of America, the country I come from. Except that Las Pegasus over here is Las Vegas and Phillydelphia up here is Philadelphia in my world. At least those are two of the parallels I’m seeing here.”

Twilight stopped, and a huge freaky smile appeared on her face.

“Uh, why are you staring at me like that?” Garion addressed, becoming worried again.

“It’s amazing! Tell me what they look like! I wonder if their physical appearances look similar to my world as well!” She exclaimed with such glorious enthusiasm, she caused Garion to almost fall back.

To Garion, this sudden new side to Twilight Sparkle was unexpected. Whoever this lady was, she wasn’t the stereotypical girly pony that he originally put her out her to be. “Well I’ve never visited that many other places before, and I’ve only seen photographs of the most famous places on Earth. You see, I live in the middle here, in the central area of America in Omahoof Neighbraska - well, in my world it’s Omaha Nebraska.”

“So that would explain why you appeared in the middle area of Equestria, near Ponyville. THAT IS, if you spontaneously appeared here. I doubt you would have chosen to just show up at some random town like this.”

“Actually, that’s the weird part. To us, it looked as though this world spontaneously appeared to us,” Garion related.

“Huh?”

“I felt like I was witnessing the creation of new world.”

Twilight put a hoof to her chin in deep thought, “So how did you mean to get here and why?”

“Well I…..never….really meant to. It was a complete accident, to put it simply.”

Suddenly Twilight Sparkle’s excitement dimmed, “You mean, this was never intended?”

“Nope.”

“Oh my gosh…” Twilight Sparkle gasped.

“I’m still questioning my sanity. None of this should be happening, and yet I would be a moron to deny it or to pass it off. I don’t know which direction I should take or how to even respond blah blah blah blah...”

Twilight was confused by all this. If they hadn’t caused this then who or what did? “Do you have magic in your world?” she asked.

“…And the door of our apartment is still standing there in the air, and we can walk through it back into our world if we wanted, which I’m still having trouble comprehending,” rambled Garion, who twilight had been slightly ignoring.

“Wait, what!?” Twilight Sparkle blurted out.

“Huh?”

“What did you just say?” The unicorn asked desperately.

“What did you just say?” Garion demanded.

“You first.”

“But I heard you ask a question earlier.”

“Fine! Do you have magic in your world?”

“Sure, we got music, colors, sunsets, love… what else would we need for magic?”

“No like, tangible magic. The kind that you control.”

“Only if it came from God himself,” he said, feeling a little awkward suddenly. ‘Holy Smokes!’ He had completely pushed that out of his mind since he had been here. Could that be why he was here? It would certainly be an interesting idea.

“Alright, fine! Now tell me what you said before!” Twilight demanded.

“I forgot.”

“How could you have forgotten? It was only a few seconds ago!”

“Wait, oh yeah! Now I remember. I was just saying that this couldn’t have been a dream if-”

“No after that!” the Unicorn pushed.

“-I was saying that I would have thought of a better way to walk into town if I only-”

“No, no, no! After that, the part about the portal or something,” Said twilight, stamping her hooves on the ground with utter frustration.

“Oh that? Sorry, how silly of me. It’s the door to our apartment that we came through to get here. On one side it’s our world and on the other it’s yours. It’s standing somewhere in one of the fields beyond this town.”

Twilight’s expression got freakishly huge.

“So we’ve just been around exploring, basically. Can you please put me back to my original size again?” he asked, now starting to freak. Right now, he stood head to head level with the unicorn, but that didn’t account for the size of her head! And right now her eyes were HUGE! These were the type of eyes that looked straight into you. Not like a pair of human’s eyes that you could possibly avoid when communicating, no, there was no way to avoid the soul-piercing gaze of the eyeballs that these ponies held on their faces.

Garion took a deep breath and realized he was just over exaggerating, not quite used the proportions of this world yet.

“I can’t, at least not yet. It was an accident that I managed to shrink you two,” Twilight Sparkle explained. She backed away from Garion and glanced outside to see a bird land on a lamppost.

“I was trying to perform something else. It was a spontaneous reaction that you shrunk and until I figure out why my spell didn’t work on you, it will be too risky to try to reverse. And even if I could do it now, I would need to have the both of you in the same place.” Twilight’s expression grew stern with annoyance. “But since your friend has run off into the who-knows-where, the wide range in distance between him and you would potentially expel all the energy I have in me, and possibly kill me.”

“Oh, geez. Forget about it then, it can wait. I don’t want to cause you to get hurt,” said Garion awkwardly, “So we have to get Aaron back.”

“Of course we do! Without any magic, or wings, or any strong abilities-no offence-he’s going to die out there by himself!” Twilight hollered, “And after they find him, I’ll have to take you two to Princess Celestia.”

“Princess Celestia? Wait a minute, don’t you mean we’ll go find him. Who’s ‘they?’”

“I’m going to send my friends Apple Jack and Rainbow Dash to go find Aaron. You and I are going to check out the Portal to make sure to confirm its security.”

“What?”

“Your world has no magic and our world is very dangerous, so if anything like a parasprite, dragon, or some form of evil gets into your world, who knows how many of your kind will get hurt?”

“Uhhh… That can happen?” Garion remembered locking the door before they left, but then again, it was just a flimsy plank of wood on hinges.

“Don’t worry, Aaron will be fine. Rainbow Dash and AJ are two of the most reliable ponies I know.”

The feeling of security escaped Garion. It never occurred to him the horrible things that could happen if these innocent creatures had contact with the human world! He didn’t even want to think about it!

“Let’s go, then!” he urged, feeling paranoid.

“Hold on, I want to be prepared, just in case,” said Twilight, who quickly lifted some random saddle bags out of nowhere and started putting tools, food, and other assorted items  in.

The saddle bag, though, brought some distressed confusion to Garion, “Uh, Twilight?”

She had been on the ground synching up the ropes with her mouth. “Yes?”

“Uh.. Where did you get… How did you get…. Um, weren’t there supposed to be no hu-….. Nevermind.”

Twilight Sparkle motioned him towards the door to start going.

Garion walked to the door, but the instant that his hand touched the doorknob, the door slammed open, smashing his wrist against the wall. “Aggh!” he bellowed. Amongst the hollering, the book that had been a stowaway in his pocket for the last half-hour, separated from his jacket, and landed on the floor.

The entity that caused the door to open so rashly, was a pink pony with a funky mane. She looked over to the human, who rubbed his wrist with pain. “Oh, I’m sorry!” the mare said, as soon as she realized that she had caused the harm, “I probably should have knocked, sorry.”

“It’s okay,” said Garion, rubbing a new bruise that he couldn’t see, due to the graphics of the cartoon universe.

“I just wanted to come in to welcome you to Ponyville, seeing as though you are new here.”

“Thanks, I guess. Who are you?”

“My friends call me Pinkie Pie. What’s your name?”

“Garion.”

“Darion?”

“No, Garion.”

“Gary?”

“Gare-ee-un,” Garion phonated.

“Can I just call you Gary?”

“No,” this was actually a common occurrence whenever Garion introduced himself. For some odd reason, the majority of people who couldn’t pronounce his name always insisted on calling him ‘Gary.’

“Alright, Garion. I just came to apologize for our running-away-screaming-in-agony moment when you first arrived. We thought you were those creepy shadow monsters that attacked our town last week. You two kinda looked just like them, except that you two were standing in thin air, and every pony knows that shadows like to lie on the ground or lean against walls.”

“What?” muttered both Garion and Twilight.

“It’s an odd story, but I’ll save that for a better time,” said Pinkie Pie.

“What kind of Crazy world do you live in!?” Garion blurted out.

“Please calm down! We’re trying to help you,” cooled Twilight Sparkle, who was beginning to grow impatient. “Pinkie Pie, did you happen to see another human like Garion, go by somewhere?”

“Oh yes! I came to him first after he left the library! First I apologized to him, then I sang him a song, then offered him a cupcake, but he just stuffed it in his mouth and said ‘My stomach is burning red, the cupcake sooths me to victory. Giant yummy Cupcake.’ And then he walked off.”

“What?”

“I don’t know, but he looked like he loved my Cupcakes.”

“Quick Pinkie, do you know which direction he went?” asked Twilight.

“Well first he tripped over a bucket and then he started going up North.”

“Can you go find Applejack and Rainbow dash, and please tell them that we’re missing a friend and he’s probably gone north into the Everfree forest?”

“Sure thang!”

“Good, and if you can find Spike, would you please tell him that his day off is going to have to be postponed?”

“I’m on it like chocolate on ice-cream!” said Pinkie Pie, bringing her hoof to her forehead in salute, “Well, gotta go! See ya, Garion!” and then the pink pony ran out the door as sudden as she came in.

Meanwhile, Twilight had been holding fallen book with her magic.

“Is this your book?” she asked, opening it and scrolling through the thin pages, “Wow! That’s a lot of words! I’ve read big books all my life, but this one is intense!”

“Yes, it’s mine! Can you leave it there for now? We gotta check that door!” he said hastily.

“Oh yes, Right! No more distractions!” she carefully laid the book on the table, and the two of them ran swiftly out of the door.

The sun was rising high in the sky, the town was decorated in splendor, and a blue sky was painted with swirling tufts of clouds above. ‘This is nice,’ Garion thought, ‘After we get Aaron, I should be able to adapt to this lifestyle, even if it is weird. I’ll have to find a way to tell my family, though.’

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