High atop the mountains, looming over glittering Canterlot, stands Atallama Observatory. There, a small but dedicated group of unicorns studies the heavens, using devices magical and mechanical. It’s a quiet post, well suited for the dedicated and obsessive researcher. Rarely does anything exciting happen.

“Professor, take a look at these readings!”

Midnight Sky, unicorn in charge of the overnight shift, brought in a long sheet of paper. A dozen enchanted quills had traced a crazy pattern over the previous evening. To his trained eye, he saw evidence of magical energy far beyond the capabilities of the most powerful unicorn. “Incredible, is it not?”

Silver Galaxy, professor emeritus of astronomy, Royal Canterlot University, adjusted his spectacles. Though retired from teaching, he couldn’t tear his tired eyes from his beloved heavens. And it was times like this that made the trek up the mountain worthwhile.

“This is remarkable,” he concurred. “Alicorn-level magic for certain. Multiple instances. But these patterns, they’re like nothing I’ve seen. Even during an eclipse, when the power of both Princesses interact, we don’t see spikes along the Φ and δ axes.”

“All readings show these energies came from the vicinity of Canterlot,” Midnight Sky added. “Should I alert the court?”

“Yes, please do so.” Silver Galaxy ordered. “Keep a close eye on the heavens and on the equipment while we wait for a response. The way I see it, either this anomaly was the work of the princesses, in which case we’ll be told not to worry about it, or it’s something they don’t recognize, in which case we’ll be told not to worry about it.”

“How will we know which it is?” the junior researcher asked.

“Just pay attention to the requests from the university,” Silver Galaxy explained. “If there’s even the slightest change to our everyday observations, it’s for a reason.”

Crossing Over
By Alaborn

Standard disclaimer: This is a not for profit fan work. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is copyright Hasbro, Inc. I make no claim to any copyrighted material mentioned herein.

Chapter 2: You’ve Got A Friend

After a quick and invigorating trot, I started to see signs of civilization. Rainbow Dash and I passed several farms and orchards before reaching a small town. And I do mean small. I saw dirt roads, one and two story homes, and small businesses. There were no cars, no telephone poles, no ambient buzz of electricity that so annoys me at times. The architecture looked sort of American, sort of European, from somewhere in the 1800’s, but a lot more garishly colored.

And the horses. Everywhere, I saw horses participating in the mundane activities of small town life, like characters plucked from an alternate universe Norman Rockwell painting. I think most were normal horses, with a fair number of other pegasi and some that I could only call unicorns. And none of them were colored normally.

“Okay, I’m going to introduce you to Twilight Sparkle. If anypony knows what to do, she’ll know.” Rainbow Dash flew up to a huge tree. Wait, not just a tree – it looks like a house has been built into it. I spotted a number of windows arranged haphazardly, and a door with a candle painted on it.

Rainbow Dash pushed open the door. “Twilight? You there?” she called out. I followed, stepping into a bookworm’s dream home. Every wall was covered with bookshelves, and more books were stacked on the floor.

A tall stack of books glowed purple. Individual books flew of their own volition, filing themselves onto the shelves. With the books gone, I saw a unicorn, with a pastel purple coat that has no place on any living creature. “Right here, Rainbow Dash,” she said, smiling.

“So, yeah,” Rainbow Dash started. “This is John,” she said, pointing to me. “I, uh, found him, outside town. I thought he should talk to you and, uh….” Rainbow Dash leaned in and whispered into Twilight Sparkle’s ear. She talked quietly for a long time, constantly glancing back at me. I ground my hoof into the floor nervously.

“Don’t worry, Rainbow Dash. You head off. I’ll be fine.” Rainbow Dash took off, and Twilight Sparkle turned to me. “So, John, was it?”

“Yeah, that’s me.”

“Rainbow Dash was very worried about you. Were you lost? Are you sick?”

“Yes, and no, or I don’t think so.” I had no idea what to do, so I decided on the truth. I was already thoroughly weirded out, so what else could happen?

“So my name is John, Jonathan Lockhart. I live by myself in Indianapolis. I go to school part time and I deliver pizzas. This morning, I was running to class, tripped through a glowing portal, and woke up here. Oh, and this morning, I was in my own body, not this one. I don’t know where I am, but this is not my world.”

Twilight Sparkle thought for a while. “Well, that’s… interesting. Let me see what I can figure out. Let’s start with the portal. Was it powered by transmutation or evocation energy? Did it act by movement along the n+1 dimensional axis, or via space folding?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Now, Twilight Sparkle looked as confused as me. “But you’re a wizard, right?”

I shook my head. “I can’t do magic. No one can. I mean, in my world.”

“But you’re a unicorn,” she responded.

“I’m a unicorn?” It dawned on me that I hadn’t seen my face since waking up in this nightmare. Twilight Sparkle was quick on the uptake, and used her telekinesis to bring over a mirror. Sure enough, I was a unicorn. My spiral horn was a similar color to my hooves, and I had a mane the same yellow color as my tail. I noticed my face, or muzzle now, appeared squarer than the two women with whom I had interacted. Finally, I saw a marking on my flank, an orange wand and cauldron like what you might see in Professor Snape’s Potions class. Maybe that’s why she thought I was a wizard.

“Okay. We can’t talk the magical particulars, so let’s talk about where you’re from.” Twilight Sparkle used her magic again, bringing over a quill and scroll. “You said you’re from a city I’m not familiar with, but I also heard you say ‘my world’ earlier. What do you call your world?”

“Earth?” I responded, hesitantly. That wasn’t going to describe the situation I was in.

“That’s just an archaic term for this world. Are you from the past? But that wouldn’t make any sense either, to use the ancient earth pony term, since you’re a unicorn.”

“I don’t know what the year is here. But that’s the thing. Even if your earth and my earth had the same year, I know it’s not the same world. My world is the human world, not the horse… pony world.”

Now it was Twilight Sparkle’s turn to be confused. “Human? I’m not familiar with that term.”

“Bipedal creatures?” I explained. “Distantly related to apes or monkeys, but without so much hair?”

“Still doesn’t ring a bell,” she said.

This was going to take a long time. I sat down. That movement reminded me that I was wearing saddlebags. “Okay. Like I said, I was a human, in my human world, when I fell through some magical portal. I woke up in this body. My clothes were gone, but apparently, this bag was with me.”

“Oh, maybe there’s something in there that will help restore your memory,” Twilight said.

“I don’t think my memory’s the problem,” I said. I reached back, pushing the saddlebags off me and onto the floor. I fumbled with the buckles, and was surprised at the flexibility of my hooves. The movements I was used to doing with hands could be duplicated, to some extent. I didn’t think I’d be typing any time soon, but I could grasp straps, undo a buckle, and even open a button.

Inside, surprisingly, I found the contents of my backpack. It wasn’t organized in the same manner as my backpack, but it was all there: my calculus and physics textbooks, my homework, pencils and pens, my cell phone, and my iPod. I also found two items I didn’t recognize: a ring of old-fashioned keys, and a small cloth pouch. That pouch was heavy, and sounded like it contained coins.

I grabbed the physics textbook and opened it. It looked the same. I knew there were photos in it. I found one, showing a student performing one of the lab tests from Chapter 1. “There, Twilight Sparkle. That’s a picture of a human.”

Twilight Sparkle had been carefully examining my pencils and pens. That didn’t surprise me; if she was still using quills to write, a ball point pen would be some incredible invention. She dropped the writing utensils immediately and looked at the picture. “No, I don’t know them.” She then grabbed the book from my hooves.

“What a remarkable book!” she exclaimed. “Such precise printing! Full color pictures! And how did they make paper this thin and uniform?” She paged through it rapidly. “But this book needs a better editor. I don’t think many of these formulas are right.”

“Those formulas are correct,” I said. “They’re correct, in my world. The human world. The world where no one can make books fly with magic.”

“Maybe you’re on to something.” Twilight Sparkle’s horn glowed again, and she grabbed another book off the shelves. “For decades, the greatest unicorn wizards have striven to develop a unified theory of time, space, and magic. The details are far beyond my own level of knowledge, but this book, which discusses the theory in laypony’s terms, makes a very interesting point.” She pointed her hoof to the relevant passage. “‘The very nature of the interaction of these elemental forces of the universe cannot be rendered into laws consistent along observations made by ponykind. This fact suggests the existence of universes beyond the reach of magic known to ponykind, with influences that ripple through all universes, including our own, following laws yet to be discovered.’”

A fascinating theory, but then the implications hit me. “But if you can’t interact with other universes, how will I ever get home?”

“There are magical forces more powerful than unicorn magic,” Twilight Sparkle responded. “For example, in the time since I arrived in Ponyville, the legendary Nightmare Moon threatened to cloak the land in eternal darkness, and Discord, master of chaos, sought to replace the world’s harmony with a reign of disorder and a rain of chocolate milk. Both threats were defeated through the powers of the Elements of Harmony.”

Either of those sounded better than facing an immortal and evil wizard who sought to subjugate all non-wizards and rule the world. Hey, I’ll take my victories where I can find them.

“So, John, while I’ll use every resource at my disposal to figure out what happened, and how to help you, I want you instead to focus on….” Twilight Sparkle paused, and looked past me. I turned my head and followed Twilight’s gaze out the window. Rainbow Dash was hovering there. She was looking at Twilight eagerly, almost smiling, with a heavy white coat with buckles clenched in her teeth. A straitjacket. So that’s the kind of hospital Rainbow Dash thought I needed.

“Uh, Dash, I don’t think we’re going to need that,” Twilight Sparkle said.

Rainbow Dash dropped the straitjacket. “You sure?” she asked. “You’re really sure?”

“Yes, Rainbow Dash. John is going to be like any other new friend in Ponyville.” Twilight Sparkle’s words were quite reassuring to me.

“Oooo-kay.” Rainbow Dash didn’t sound convinced as she left.

Twilight Sparkle turned back to me. “Like I was saying, John, I don’t want you to feel different. Focus on our similarities. For example, I’m a student too. Star pupil of Princess Celestia, here in Ponyville to study the magic of friendship.”

I laughed. “Not that similar, really. I’m just a kid taking a few courses at the local community college, still with no idea what he wants to do with his life. You seem like a student on a whole different level.”

Twilight Sparkle walked towards the stairs. “Spike? I need you to take a letter.”

The creature that came down the stairs was not one of these ponies. It was a small dragon. He was purple and green, looking a lot more like a human boy than the fierce beasts I pictured Charlie Weasley hunting. “Spike” was ready, with a quill and scroll in his clawed hands.

“Dear Princess Celestia,” Twilight Sparkle dictated. “I have had the honor of meeting a most remarkable new friend. Though he hails from a place nopony has ever visited, we share so much in common. Today, I learned that friendship can come in the most unexpected ways.
“Still, the nature of his appearance is a conundrum to me, and my friend desires to find a way home. I shall summarize my findings in a follow-up letter. I would ask that you share my correspondence with your advisors, and hope that their combined wisdom will help this friend in need.

“Your faithful student,

“Twilight Sparkle.”

Why Twilight Sparkle needed to dictate the letter, I didn’t know. She had been writing notes just fine mere minutes ago. Spike rolled up the scroll, held it up, and suddenly exhaled a heatless green flame. The scroll disintegrated. I didn’t know how dragons are supposed to work here, but since Twilight Sparkle wasn’t perturbed by this accident, maybe that was supposed to happen.

“John, I can only promise that all of us will do whatever we can to help you. In the meantime, please feel free to sleep in the library.”

I could get used to that. “Say, Twilight Sparkle, does the library have any copies of the Harry Potter series?” I asked.

“Never heard of it,” she replied.

Please, get me out of here.