Chapter 1 — Welcome, everypony, to Canterlot!
Welcome to the magical land of Ponyville! Everyone's gathered at the train station, waiting for their ride to the fantastic kingdom of Canterlot. While many have been there before, there's still some that have never set hoof on Canterlotian soil.
Several ponies - among them being one lilac (Wysteria), one orange (Sparkleworks), one white (Sunny Daze), one magenta (Kimono), and one blue (Rainbow Dash) - arrive at the station. These five seem to be waiting on somepony.
"This isn't good, this isn't good!" says Wysteria, slightly panicking. "The train should be here at any minute, and still no sign of Minty...!"
"I'm sure she'll be here soon, dahling," assures Rainbow Dash with a smile. "Though it is quite worrying how long of a time she's been taking..."
"Maybe she wanted to find something sparkly to show the locals?" suggests Sparkleworks.
"Or something green." Wysteria checks the time on her flower bouquet-themed watch.
"Heyyyy!" Here comes Minty. "Sorry I'm late! I couldn't find the...whoa!" She trips, crashing into the others.
"I...kinda lost track of time making a gift for the princess of Canterlot!" She pulls out a box with green wrapping paper and sparkly, pastel rainbow ribbon. "Then I lost it and it took some time to find. But here it is~"
Everypony is amazed.
"Whoa, super-sparkly!"
"It's brilliant, dahling!"
"How delightful!"
"What could it be?"
"Nuh-uh!" Minty shakes her head. "Wait until we get to Canterlot, okay?"
They board the train, headed to their destination.
"How long is this train anyway?" asks Sunny Daze.
"Who knows..." Then Minty's got an idea. "Let's play a game to pass the time!"
"Like what?"
"Let's play 'I Spy'! I'll begin! I spy with my little eye..." A few seconds later... "something with flowers!"
Wysteria looks at her watch again, but not to check the time. "Um, my wristwatch?"
"Ding ding! Youuuu got it! Your turn, Razz!"
Another purple pony, Razzaroo, takes her turn. "I spy with my little eye, something... rainbow!"
"Rainbow Dash?" says Sunny.
"Uh huh! Her mane, her Cutie Mark, and half her name!"
"Why thank you, dahling!" Rainbow does a mane flip.
——————
About an hour of fun activities later...
Everypony arrives at Canterlot.
"Isn't it quite a sight?" Kimono asks, stepping off the train with her friends. "This is Canterlot! The kingdom of harmony ruled by Princess Celestia herself!" They all go inside.
"I think she retired..." Sparkleworks and Sunny take note of the banners. Instead of white/light pink/light teal ones with gold suns, they see light purple/light magenta/gold ones with stars.
"Well, who's the new princess, then?"
"If I remember correctly..." Minty sees the stained glass. "The current princess is... forgot her name. Twinkle Sparkle?"
"Twilight Sparkle." A pink pony with golden hair steps forward. "Hi, I'm Luster Dawn. A student of the princess of friendship. You are?"
"Pleased to meetcha!" Sunny shakes her hoof. "Sunny's the name! And we're visitors here!"
"My name is Rainbow Dash, dahling," greets Rainbow.
"Rainbow Dash? Haven't I heard that name before?"
"Oh, dahling, I'm pretty popular in Ponyville~"
"Now I know two Rainbow Dashes!" Luster shows them around. "Alright, lemme show you around!"
——————
First stop: the throne room.
"Unfortunately, she's not here. She's off on a friendship mission with her friends."
"That's fine!" After crashing into a pedestal and saving a relic - which almost broke - Minty asks, "Hey, Luster, does she know we're in here? I don't wanna intrude."
"I mean, I'm allowed in here...'cause I'm her student. But she doesn't know about you guys."
"We'd better get out of here, then." Sparkleworks turns around and leaves, the others following.
Next stop: the library.
"Phenomenal, so many books!" Looking around, Kimono grabs one of the books from the shelf. "The Studies of Friendship by Twilight Sparkle? So she's a princess and an author? Oh, this is amazing! Bet Cheerilee would love this!"
"Luster! We know a princess," says Minty.
"Who?"
"Princess Rarity of Unicornia! She does get distracted easily...!"
"Now, doesn't that sound familiar?" comments Sunny.
"She," adds Kimono, "as well as our Cheerilee, Brights Brightly, and Thistle Whistle, made a beautiful rainbow about a few years ago. Though, Rarity didn't cooperate at first, but eventually she got the hang of it!"
"At some point, dahling, I became Pink Dash!" Rainbow didn't like that part of the story, it seems.
"Pink Dash..." giggles Luster. "Was it all just one shade of pink, or was it multiple like a rainbow?"
"All pink. I prefer rainbows, dahling, rainbows!"
"And eventually all the colors disappeared...!"
"Well." Luster grabs another book. "That Rarity of yours sounds like...or, sounded like, a piece of work!"
"Yes, yes, yes! But it's all over now!" smiles Razzaroo.
"That's good!"
——————
Last stop: the mirror room.
"Whoa...!" The ponies are amazed.
"And this is the mirror room! I don't know much about it, but from what Miss Twilight told me, it's said to hold a mysterious power..."
Rainbow examines it. "What kind of power, dahling?"
"A portal to another world."
"A portal, huh?" The girls turn around. Minty's messing with the portal.
"Oh my Celestia!" exclaims Luster.
"Minty?! What are you doing!!" Kimono tries to stop her.
"This thing's cool!" Minty sticks her hind legs through it, then her hooves, then one hoof, all while giggling.
"Minty, you should probably stop that...!" warns Sunny.
"Yes, yes, yes!" says Razzaroo. "You don't know what's behind it."
"Oh, relax, Razz and Sunny!" Unfortunately, she tries to stand up and falls backwards, going through the portal.
"Aaaaaaaah!!!"
"Minty!!"
After falling through the portal, Minty wakes up. She's... not exactly sure where she is...or what she is.
"Hey...! Where's my hooves?! What are these? Wait. Am I...A-"
After realizing what she's become, she has a sitting-on-the-ground-screaming-her-head-off-moment, just like Twilight did when she became a human.
To be continued...