MLP: The Portal

Chapter 1: The Accident

"Are you sure that this idea is totally safe, Twilight?" Rainbow Dash asked skeptically.

In the presence of all of her friends, Twilight instructed Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity to all stand side by side and keep still. Spike and the others watched from their seats at the Table of Harmony in the center of the room.

"Don't worry, Rainbow. I've tended to all of the calculations. It's completely safe teleportation." Twilight reassured her confidently.

"You teleport all the time though, darling," Rarity pointed out. "What do you need this for?" She asked curiously.

"Well," Starlight started. "Twilight and I were thinking; you guys get friendship problems from all over Equestria and beyond. So, what better way to improve the efficiency of our friendship problem solving than to make it where we can instantly appear wherever the problem is?" She explained.

"That makes sense. As long as it's safe." Fluttershy said, her nerves beginning to calm.

"Don't go vaporizing our friends now, you two. Be careful." Applejack said.

"Not to worry, Applejack. We got this, right, Starlight?"

"That's right." Starlight nodded, sharing Twilight's confidence.

"Well, let's do it then! Don't keep us waiting!" Pinkie exclaimed excitedly, leaning forward a bit in her anticipation.

"Heheh, alright, Pinkie. Ready, girls?" Twilight asked them.

"Ready!" Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity answered in unison.

With that, Starlight and Twilight took their places, pointing their glowing horns at the three of them. They took in slow breaths, building up the power required to perform the spell.

"Here we go…" Spike said under his breath.

POP!

"Fluttershy! It's tea time!" Discord shouted in a sing-song voice.

Starlight and Twilight both jumped in surprise, firing off their magic. The beams collided on the ground before Fluttershy in the middle, and a dark portal suddenly opened up from underneath them.

"Oh myy!" Fluttershy shouted.

"Ah!" Rarity screeched.

"Guys?!" Dash trembled.

They all fought against the pull of the portal wing and hoof, but the three of them were dragged by their tails into the portal, and they quickly disappeared into it.

It closed up behind them.

For a few long seconds there was absolute silence. All in the room were frozen in absolute shock, eyes wide open and jaws down on the floor. Twilight was the first to break the looming silence.

"Discord!" She growled, her teeth grinding in hot anger. Discord's reaction, while shocked, was less than apologetic as he held up his hands and floated backwards.

"Easy there, princess. Now don't get your wings tied in a knot."

"Do you have any idea what ya just did?!" Applejack shouted at him.

"I…came in at a bad time…?" Discord guessed, shrinking in size slightly.

"You just interrupted a long-distance teleportation spell at its most critical moment!" Starlight screamed.

"And that's bad, right? We teleport all the time, sooo…" Discord pointed out, his head spinning all the way around.

"But this one was meant for incredible distances! If it went wrong, that means Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy could be anywhere!" Twilight responded.

"Did you say Fluttershy could be anywhere?" Discord asked slowly.

"So…are Rarity and the others gone?" Spike asked Twilight.

"No! Of course they're not gone! They're just…somewhere else! Right?" Pinkie tried.

No one responded.

"Uh…Twilight? Right…?"

Rainbow Dash was the last to tumble out onto the other side of the portal, spinning into a cannonball position like tumbleweed through bushes and branches.

Finally, she collided into a tangled mess with Rarity and Fluttershy, stopping her in place. The three of them groaned in pain, backing off each other. They sat back uncomfortably.

"Goodness me! Is that you, Rainbow Dash?" Rarity called out.

"Yeah. Ow, my legs got all scratched up. Fluttershy, you there?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I can't see anything!" Fluttershy shivered, panic clearly apparent in the tone of her soft-spoken voice.

"It wasn't nighttime just a second ago. Where did that portal take us?" Rainbow Dash wondered aloud.

"Why does my body feel so weird? And it is colder than a glacier out here." Rarity shivered.

"We should look for help, girls, before we freeze to death." Fluttershy suggested through chattering teeth.

"Right!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, being the first of the three to attempt to get up.

To her surprise and confusion, her body did not respond naturally to her brain commanding her to stand. Instead of getting up on all fours, she found herself standing up tall on only two legs.

"Woah…" Dash exhaled, wiggling some unknown appendages attached to the ends of her legs. Suddenly, she found herself far more concerned.

"Guys? Where are my hooves?!" Dash yelled, starting to freak out.

"You feel it too?" Fluttershy asked quickly.

"Girls, as peculiar as this all is, perhaps we should get our situation figured out and retire to somewhere warm, and then figure all of this out." Rarity said quickly.

"Rarity's right! We gotta get moving! Hold hooves, girls. We gotta stay together." Dash said, taking charge of the situation now.

The three of them all reached out for each other, their strange hooves wrapping around each other at the ends in a foreign way. They blindly stumbled through the trees in a line, with Rainbow Dash frantically pulling the others along behind her.

None of them said anything to each other, but all of them were feeling the exact same fear, dread, and anxiety; they had no idea where they were, or what they were going to find…

Or what would be waiting for them.

Twilight sighed, still bubbling with a frantic and anxious energy, speed-reading through books upon books, page after page. She let out a long, frustrated sigh.

"I'm finding nothing! There's nothing in these books that can help us!" Twilight screamed in a flustered panic.

"I'm not finding anything either. Nothing about tracking teleportation." Starlight said in disappointment, setting the book she'd been looking through back in its place on the shelf.

"Nothing? Nothing at all?" Twilight asked. Starlight shook her head.

"Tracking the other side of teleportation has never been attempted before. There's no books for a situation like this." Starlight said with a sigh.

Twilight did not respond, sitting down and staring at the ground with an empty, wide-eyed stare. Her books fell to the floor, and her head sagged as realization hit her.

"They're gone… Did we…? Are they…?" Twilight trailed off, her emotions beginning to overpower her. Tears began to fight out of her eyes, despite her best efforts to resist them. Starlight quickly was by her side, placing a comforting hoof on her.

"I'm-I'm sure they're fine. If nopony has ever figured out how to track teleportation, then we'll just have to be the first to figure it out! There's no way we're gonna give it up now." Starlight said determinedly. Twilight nodded, lifting her head up.

"You're right. No way we won't," She agreed, standing up again. She wiped her eyes, turning towards Starlight. "Could you go and let the others know what the situation is? I'm sure they're worried sick too, and they need their nerves calmed."

"Alright, Twilight." Starlight nodded, leaving the room.

Twilight let out a sigh, taking a few moments to collect herself and gather her bearings. She scratched at her chest with one of her hooves.

"There's no way we won't give up…" She repeated in a hushed tone…