The ponies in the previous drabble are MLP:FIM ones. Just so you know. And Sparky Bolt is one of my Second Life ponysonas.
Anyway, here's a similar crossover drabble in the opposite direction. Sweetwater is a town entirely of my own concoction.
If it were possible for Louise de la Valliere's ears to droop any lower, you could have tied them together under her chin. As it was, they couldn't, so you couldn't.
As it was, she hung her head in frustrated shame and followed the carter towards Sweetwater. The frustration came from the fact that apparently, she had failed the Springtime Summoning spectacularly. The shame came from the fact that she was naked.
Additional facts, such as the carter also being naked as the day she was born, and didn't give a buck about that, and that both she and said carter were not human, were ignored.
In truth, the carter had only discovered the white-haired, pink-maned unicorn with the dot cutie mark thanks to her screaming her head off. Screaming due to discovering one's newly transformed and transported state is a quite understandable reaction, especially when one is transported far away from familiar territory. In this case, the Tristain Academy of Magic, which at the very least could have scratched its collective head in bewilderment and locked the poor girl up for study.
Instead, she got to walk alongside a talking horse that called herself Steady Load, pulling a cart laden with kegs towards somewhere called Sweetwater.
"It's nice to have some company on the road," the slightly road-dirty, teal mare said cheerfully.
Louise just grunted.
"Even if they've fallen through a portal from another world," Steady Load continued on, "and only just relearned how to walk."
"Huh?" Louise blinked at the mare, who continued pulling her cart along as though no startling revelation had been delivered.
"Oh! Of course, you don't know about the mirror portal to that human Equestria, Sunset Shimmer and all that. The Princesses did try to keep it all under wraps, but all it takes is one bit of gossip here and there, and then Sunset Shimmer returned, and it all came out into the open. And... there have been other arrivals."
"Others?" Louise managed to get out.
"Sparky Bolt can tell you about his encounter, and the Guard will be able to help as well. Anyway, see the smoke? We're almost there!"
"We are?" Louise looked up; sure enough, the unmistakable columns of chimney smoke rose above the small hill in front of them. Thoughts of being able to rest, eat, and maybe get some answers, spurred her on.
About half an hour later she got her first look at Sweetwater, across what seemed to be endless fields of barley and hop vines.
Dominating the town was a large brick building, which Steady Load informed her was Sweetwater Brewery. A rather gaudy statue of a portly pony raising a tankard high cemented what the otherwise cryptic symbols on the front probably said. Louise continued to follow Steady's inexorable trajectory towards a helmeted stallion clearly manning (stallioning? colting?) a guard post.
"Hi there!" Steady greeted the Guard, "Got somebeing here that fell through a portal about three hours back along the road."
"Really?" the Guard eyed Louise clinically. "White coat, pink mane, pink eyes, dot on the flank. Hmm. Name?"
Louise drew herself up as regally as she could. "Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière," she declared, "Friend of Princess Henrietta de Tristain of the royal family of Tristain." She took a breath. "I don't know how, but I have come to this land, and wish to return." She blinked. "Return as a human, hopefully."
The Guard blinked. "That's quite a name. Anyway, I'll need you two to accompany me to the station, there's formalities to go through, then a medical check. Other than that, welcome to Sweetwater."
"Uh..." Steady looked worried. "I have these kegs to deliver."
"Huh. Well, you follow us to the station, then when Loo... Louise... did I get that right?"
"Yes, you did thank you," Louise smiled.
"Oh phew. Some portal arrivals have really tricky names. Anyway, I'll leave you in the station's capable hooves, and your companion here can drop her load off and return to the station straight away," he looked directly at Steady, who nodded assent.
The walk was almost pleasant; other than the brewery, the buildings were so similar to those of Tristain that Louise could almost think herself home, if it wasn't for the decidedly non-human population. She also noticed a large number of shops sold items related to liquor; here a shop specialised in wine glasses, another hawking drinks apparently made from lemons. One shop took her attention, since she couldn't make head or tail of the thing on the sign.
"What in Brimir's name is that?" she finally asked.
"That's supposed to be a yeast cell," her escort explained, "that's Culture Strain's shop of various brewing yeasts. Once a year the brewery makes short runs of beer based on his latest strains, all the same malts and hop varieties, just different yeasts in each. You'd be amazed at how different they taste." He licked his lips. "He also does yeasts for spirits, wines, baking... and Yeasty-Mite."
"Yeasty what?"
"Yeasty-Mite. It's an extract made of used up yeasts, thick, black, really strong savoury flavour. Most ponies spread a little on bread or toast. Trust me, you only need a little."
Louise privately decided to avoid the stuff.
A short while later the two stopped in front of a serious white building that was clearly the Guard Station, judging by the serious font of the text above the seriously designed door and the serious Guardsponies flanking it. Louise was led into an equally serious and businesslike reception area where another Guard was rather less seriously hoeing into what smelled like lunch.
"Okay fatso, work to do," Louise's escort smirked at the indignant noise that resulted, "got a portal visitor here. Write 'er up for the Princess."
"Sure thing, you living stickpony," the actually fighting fit receptionist smirked at the raspberry that resulted as her actually equally fighting fit escort returned to his post, "Anyway, take a seat and I'll get the forms and things. Hungry?"
"Um... yes," Louise managed to get out, "yes I am."
"Okay, I'll scare up something as well."
Louise looked around the room. There were several couches, which looked like they were the local equivalent of chairs since one pony could recline without much comfort. The walls were adorned with various posters, most incomprehensible, some were clearly warnings about dangerous creatures, and others wanted posters. A couple of pot plants sulked in their respective corners, and a small undecorative fountain offered water to anyone who wanted it.
"Sandwich?" Louise turned to find the receptionist had returned with the promised forms, as well as a sandwich on a plate and, to her surprise, two wings, one of which deftly removed the plate and offered it to her.
Which caused Louise some concern. Her first instinct was to reach for the plate... except all she had was a hoof. That had been in contact with dirty roads for hours.
"Something wrong?" the guard was watching her with interest; unknown to Louise two other guardsponies were watching her through a window spelled to look like the rest of the wall.
"It's... how can I hold a plate with a hoof?"
"Well, you're a unicorn. Use your magic. Telekinesis." The guard shrugged.
That suggestion caused even more concern. Louise had no wand, for one, and she wanted to eat the sandwich, not explode it, for another. While there were people whose sandwiches should explode, such as Kirche for example, Louise herself was definitely not one of them.
And this has been another episode of Crap I Wrote During My Lunch Break. Stay detuned.