In a waiting room, a teenage boy sits in a chair impatiently. There seems to be a mixture of anticipation and anxiety running through him. He's about to be given a new assignment, and his briefing is twenty minutes late. He looks around the room, with a single window that has sunlight permanently streaming through it, a potted plant in every corner, and a bunch of ergonomic wooden chairs lining the grey-blue walls. His eyes then travel back to the office door that should have been opened a while ago.
His leg bounces impatiently, and he leans back, trying to will the man to walk through the door. When suddenly a shadow appears in the sneak-proof grayed window, and the knob turns and the door is freed with a soft click. A man of about forty-five is revealed when it opens, and his suit stays sharp and flat as he walks through and closes the door. He's holding a manila file under his arm, and his hard face softens when his eyes find the boy.
"Ah, Mamoru, you're here already." His voice is almost swallowed by the vast peace the room tries to invoke with its gently-toned paint.
"One, you're late. I'm guessing I'm not enrolling into a girl's school this time, eh, you big pervert. You would have been here early if that were the case." The boy, Mamoru, sighs, remembering the many times that that has happened. "And what's with the new form? It fit more when you Looked like the ancient pervert you are." he adds, eyeing the sharp, professional-looking person before him.
"Well someone's quick to judge. You're right, I guess. There won't be any gender swapping for you this time." the man smiles, rolling with the verbal punches.
"So what do you got for me this time?" Mamoru questions, looking at him curiously.
"Well, look for yourself." the manila file is handed over to the boy, who opens it and flips through the case files. The man continues, "It seems that the Oneron Dimension and the neighboring Equestrian Dimension have been rubbing edges, and it's causing an unnerving amount of ripples in the dimensional layers. If it continues there may be either a dimension meld or both of them will tear, and that can't happen. You need to find the creation sites of these ripples and fix this before Oneron is gone completely."
"It's Earth, not Oneron. Oneron's gone." The boy closes the file and looks at the man with a look of annoyance.
"Say it how you like, soon that's the name "Earth" will go by. It's Real name." The man counters.
"Fine, say it your way, I'm off. The transport to this Equestrian dimension is ready?" Mamoru asks, itching to leave.
The man looks a little shocked, "Well I assumed that you would be going back to Oneron, preparations haven't been made to take you to the other dimension. If you do, a transformation would be necessary, seeing as the dominant species are sentient variations of ponies." He tells the boy.
"Get it done. I need a bit of different in my life right now. Oh, and I'd like to be a Pegasus if that's possible." the boy stands. "Send me the necessary spells, I like to do my own work." he adds, and walks out of a door directly opposite the one the man came through.
The door closed, the man looks at it for a moment.
"Goodbye. Goodbye." he mumbles, "He can't even say goodbye. He wasn't like that before." he pauses, considering Mamoru's words. "Maybe he really does need some change. If I remember correctly, soon it'll be a full century since Yui left him..." The man sighs, and goes back into his office to prepare the spells for Mamoru.
"So you want to bring me to your past?" A teenager asks his girlfriend in a bit of disbelief.
"You need to see me as I was." She says, looking into his eyes as she sits in his lap, her slender arms resting on his shoulders, gently wrapped around his neck.
He isn't sure whether she is joking or not, but the way she looks at him makes him want to believe her, so he does. What he doesn't say, is that the past of someone, while shaping who they are, isn't as important as the present. He feels this way about her because of who she is, not what she's been through.
"And I think I want it to be today." she says, uncertain of herself.
"Today?" His surprise is easily seen in his face.
"I have everything I need, we can do it now." She is suddenly more confident.
He considers his options: If she's telling the truth, then he is looking at a once in a lifetime chance to travel through time. If not, then He's got a memory. So he decides to go with it.
"If you think it's a good idea then let's do it!" He says enthusiastically, hugging her waist tighter.
"Ah!" she giggles. "Seth, stop it! You're squeezing me!" She yelps playfully.
"But you're so cute!" He tells her in a sing-song voice.
"Come on! I need to get my things!" she giggles while squirming a bit.
"Things for what?" He asks curiously.
"The time travel!" She responds, and soon after he lets her go with a nod and 'that's reasonable' written on his face.
She comes back with a stained dark wooden box, with a rusty latch and an odd symbol carved onto the cover. It looks very old and Seth eyes it.
"What's in there?" Apprehension is in his voice.
"My materials, Duh." she says, refusing to elaborate.
He shrugs it off, deciding he'll find out anyway. Before she opens the box, he jumps up.
"My bag!" He says suddenly and runs upstairs. He comes back down with a backpack heavy with drawings, stories, and tech.
"You're bringing That?" she questions you.
"You got your book from the past, Serenity, so why can't I some lessons?" He reason. She shrugs, telling him to not leave anything behind in the past. He agrees, and Serenity opens the box and removes chalk and two black candles.
She draws a circle on the ground and put the candles in the center, and she steps into the circle with a match.
"Step in the circle. I'm going to light the candles and then I'll have to focus on where we are going." she tells him.
"That's it?" He asks, confused.
"Yup." She tells you as you step into the circle.
She lights the candles, and then she closes her eyes. He stands there for a second, and slowly there's an odd pull from behind his heart that he has figured out points towards areas of high energy. It's coming from Serenity. He looks at her, and gets one of his urges to hug her. Seth touches her, and in the back of his head he can hear her voice telling him to not touch her. He puts his arms down, and notices the candles.
The flames don't flicker. How is that possible? He stares at the unflinching flames until his eyes hurt. Shutting his eyes tight, he decides against looking back at those weird candles. Looking around, nothing's happened yet. Then, the wind starts to pick up. He doesn't think anything of it but instead turns his thoughts to his favorite show; My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. He was on a website for fans of the show and saw a particular topic about a human traveling to the show's imaginary land of Equestria.
His mind fills with thoughts of the stories he read there. Suddenly the wind spins around the circle in a whirlwind, the candles not moving at all. He looks at the cyclone in awe, and in the back of his head he says,
I wish I was in Equestria...
One of the flames shivers.
Everything goes black, and Seth feels a gut-wrenching, skin-crawling sensation and passes out.