Doing Research Here! {open}

[Twilight Sparkle]

A large section of the courtyard had been roped off with an impressive mixture of, well, rope and tape. Several rickety pegs had been shoved into the ground, forming a shape that the geometrically savvy would call a hexagon. Most would probably just notice that it was similar to a stop sign. Not that most people would spend all that much time studying the roped off area that much, not considering the action going on within it. For within it, a girl with deep violet hair was walking off in areas, occasionally falling flat and studying the grass with an almost freakish level of intensity.

"The grass here appears to be less uniform in color," murmured Twilight, picking a blade of it and holding it up to her eyes. She squinted, studying it more closely. "It appears to have developed in a very unnatural manner. Likely somepony wasn't left in charge of making sure the grass grows properly," Twilight paused for a moment, then reached for a note pad. She hurriedly scratched out something loosely resembling a note, which turned out to be a laborious process. Twilight could read and write better than most, but she was still getting down the whole human thing. She paused to study the note for a few seconds, nodded, and then added the grass to her "specimen" containers, which were several jars that she'd found scattered here and there.

"But where's the magic?" she wondered, casting her gaze over the lawn. "Everypony knows that things move because of a careful balance... and that balance seems to be missing. It just doesn't make sense. What else besides magic would bring us here..."

She tapped her lips with a pencil, before an idea struck. Rising to her feet, she scanned the crowd, looking for another Shifted. there were only so many, really... ah, possibly that person?

"Excuse me!" called Twilight, waving a hand. "I was wondering if you could maybe help me here? I've important research going on..."

[Deleted]

Jasmine had been wandering about all day. It was just so beautiful that she couldn't not go out. And it was so free outside, nothing like being in the castle courtyard with guards everywhere she turned. The weather was much cooler than it normally was in Agrabah, but it was still nice and comfortable.

As she was walking, Jasmine noticed that there was a roped off area. It looked a little haphazardly put together. But then again, she'd never actually seen a roped off area before, so there was no way she could actually judge it. Inside of the rope of area was a girl with strangely purple hair. All of a sudden, this person got up and called to her.

"Um... I guess I could help you. What do you need help with?" Jasmine asked. She'd never actually done any work before or helped someone, but it could be an interesting experience. It's not like she'd ever actually been able to choose not to help someone, she just wasn't allowed. And everything her father didn't allow her to do had been fun so far.

[Twilight Sparkle]

Well, this pony was certainly... different. Twilight nearly caught herself staring. Really, she shouldn't be too surprised. The pony's coloring reminded her of the ponies from Saddle Arabia. So she likely came from somewhere like that. Logical enough. Yes, everything here had to obey logic. Twilight nodded, then held out the blade of grass.

"I need you to study this," she instructed, her tone utterly serious. "Tell me what you see, and, well, how it's different from where you came from." Twilight paused, considering the instructions. "Is it, well greener or perhaps more round than you remember? Stuff like that."

Twilight nodded again before shuffling around. Within moments, she had her notebook out, the pen at ready. Well, it was a few awkward moments; Twilight dropped the pen a time or two and she nearly scrawled all over the notes. But she managed. Eventually. and then she looked to Jasmine with rapt attention and near fascination.

"Go on. I'm ready."

[Deleted]

Jasmine started to observe the grass. There wasn't that much back in Agrabah, but there was some around the various ponds that dotted the city. She was sure this grass wasn't quite as green as the grass she had seen before. It was a little duller, not as lush. She reached down and brushed some. It wasn't nearly as soft either.

"Well, It's not quite as green as most of the grass from my home, but it's greener than the grass that grew further from water sources. It's nowhere near is soft as the grass the grew near water, but it's much softer than the grass that grew away from water. So in all, this grass is in between the two grasses I've seen in Agrabah," Jasmine said. She tried to explain it as best she could, but she had never really had to explain something before. She hoped it made sense to this girl.

"Oh, and is your hair natural? I've seen lots of people with hair colors that didn't exist in Agrabah, but I've yet to see anyone with your hair color," Jasmine asked. She was really interested in the odd purple color of the girl's hair. She'd never actually seen a color quite like it anywhere in Agrabah.

[Twilight Sparkle]

While Jasmine talked, Twilight hurriedly scribbled notes. Not as green as the grass from home... but greener than dead grass. Twilight paused in her scribbling to take her own third look at the grass, chewing her lip for a moment. Yes, that certainly seemed to make sense... yes. Twilight nodded and began scribbling again, listening intently to Jasmine's explanation.

"It just doesn't seem quite right to me," mumbled Twilight, staring at the notes. She'd definitely have to get more research... but, oh, wait, Jasmine was asking a question. Twilight stared at Jasmine, her violet eyes wide for a moment before nearly rolling toward the sky. Twilight opted for a slight smile and tried not to sound like she wasn't fed up with getting that question by now: "It's natural, yeah. Born with it and everything. It wasn't that uncommon where I come from, really. There were several ponies that had manes of wild colors. Two of my closest friends had brilliant pink hair and this really lush, deep purplish blue," Twilight paused, tilting her head slightly, "or was that bluish purple... she explained it to me once, but I'm not a pony of fashion."

Twilight tapped her pen to her lips for a while, considering the roped off area. an idea struck and she bent over, rummaging through her jars to procure one containing a ladybug. Twilight shook it for a bit, watching the critter scurry, then nodded and held it out for Jasmine to take. "What about this? Does this look like something from your home?"

For Twilight, it looked like it needed to smile. Or sing. Or possibly learn how to express itself properly.

[Deleted]

Jasmine listened intently to the girl's explanation. So it was natural. She had expected as much. It would be kind of awkward to paint hair. It was very interesting that some people had hair that color. Jas found it weird enough that some people had yellow hair. It was just a strange color for hair, even stranger than the purple. "Oh wait, you never told me your name. And I didn't tell you mine. I'm Jasmine. What's your name?" Jasmine asked.

The girl held out a jar for her. Jasmine took it and examined the creature inside. It was a little round bug with a red back and black polka dots. It didn't actually look like a real living thing. "I've never seen something like this before. It looks like it should be a kid's toy or a painted sculpture," Jasmine said.

Jasmine placed the jar on the ground. The bug was really strange to her. There just didn't seem like anything she could do with it. Best to not think about it, she decided.

[Twilight Sparkle]

"Name? Oh, I'm Twilight Sparkle," offered Twilight, accompanying the greeting with a quick, friendly smile. It faded as fast as her intention shifted, determination lining her face as she studied the creature contained within the glass. Twilight watched as Jasmine handled it, looking closely. The purple-haired scholar scribbled notes, taking into account not only what Jasmine said by how she reacted. Girl seems dazed the notes read after effects of Shifting? Wild world?

Twilight paused, studying what she'd written, tapping her pen against her lips while she did. She glanced up at Jasmine, who was still holding it. "That's it?" she asked, blinking. "It just looks... like a toy?" that wasn't helpful. It just meant that Jasmine had apparently never seen such a thing. Okay, that might be a little helpful, Twilight supposed. She made a note of it before turning, rummaging about in her things for a few moments. What else could she pull up and have question... hmm...

"Ah, here," she extracted a set of notes, flipping through them and nodding. "Right, so, what about the sky?' she leaned forward, an expression of intense interest upon her face.

[Deleted]

"That's a nice name," Jasmine said. And she really meant it. Twilight Sparkle was a very pretty name. A little odd, but very nice. Then the girl talked about the bug. It really did seem like a toy to her. Nothing interesting except the coloration. "Yeah, it just looks like a toy. Or it could be used a decoration, if it wasn't alive."

"The sky?" She asked after Twilight mentioned it. "Um... well it's blue today, like it should be. And it has a few clouds, which weren't all that common in Agrabah." There wasn't much more she could think to say. "It looks much like it did in Agrabah, other than the clouds," She opted to finish. Jas hopped that was good enough for Twilight.

[Twilight Sparkle]

"A toy," repeated Twilight. She left off the comments about her name; she was already starting to get used to people having odd reactions to her name and hair. Not her fault that everyone here had such... odd names. Yes, they were quite clearly the odd ones. This whole world, for that matter, was intensely odd. It just seemed that Twilight was the only one who really noticed this.

The next question got, well, a reaction, Twilight supposed. She frowned as she scribble down what Jasmine said. It wasn't particularly informative, to be sure, but at least Jasmine was being more than a little cooperative. She wasn't even asking questions, which Twilight had suspected at this point. Clearly the ex-unicorn wasn't the only pony who had questions about this place; Jasmine must have been thinking the very same thing.

"Well, yes, it is the right color," she conceded, casting a quick look skyward herself. "But doesn't it seem a little... off to you? Like the clouds," she pointed, "they're oddly shaped. And the sky just isn't... blue enough. And where are all the ponies that should be taking care of the clouds and weather? It's just..." she frowned up at the sky, 'unnatural." she paused, still staring for a few seconds before looking to Jasmine. "You think so too, right?"

[Deleted]

Twilight's question was a little odd to her. The sky did seem a little odd, but that wasn't the weird question. It was the one about ponies taking care of the weather. What would ponies be doing with the weather? And how would they even do that? "Um... how would ponies help with the weather? And to answer your other question, the sky is not quite as bright as in Agrabah, and the clouds are much wispier than the ones that normally were in the sky," Jas said.

The more Jasmine thought about the questions, the weirder this seemed. She started to piece things together with that great brain of hers. This girl in front of her must have been from a world where ponies did a lot of things. One quite different from Agrabah and the world they were in now. If humans could cross over... could other beings do it too? Could this girl in front of her possibly be a pony?

No, Jasmine decided. That would be weird. And if a pony did cross over, wouldn't it still be a pony? Well, Jasmine could ask one thing. "Where are you from?"

[Twilight Sparkle]

"What?' asked Twilight, turning to look at Jasmine. Her face crinkled in confusion. "Well, isn't it obvious? The pegasus ponies fly up there and move the clouds around, making sure they're in the right position for whenever we need shade or rain or snow or whatever. They're also the ones who make sure that we have the fight variations of clouds in the sky, because they know how to make them, you see. I've actually been to Cloudsdale, which is where the make the clouds back home, and I saw the cloud factory first hand. It's actually really fascinating, because they work on--"

Twilight paused, looking to Jasmine. She'd launched into full on lecture mode and hadn't quite realized it. The unicorn blushed and turned, suddenly feigning great interest in the greenery that lay beneath her hooves. She was playing with it when she realized that Jasmine provided an answer, which, of course, had to be quickly scribbled down into the notes. No sooner had Twilight caught up with that, however, when Jasmine was asking a question of her own. Slightly startled, Twilight looked up at Jasmine. She blinked her large, purple eyes, considering.

"Why, I'm from Equestria. From Ponyville, to be really accurate, though I used to live in Canterlot before that. What about you? Where did you say you from...?" she flipped through her notes. "Agrabah? Is that near Saddle Arabia? You kind of look like a Saddle Arabian pony, only, you know," she waved her hand, "all deformed, like most of the creatures here..."

[Deleted]

Jasmine listened to Twilight's explanation intently. It was fascinating just by the pure strangeness of it all. Jas had never seen a Pegasus before and had just assumed they weren't real. But that obviously wasn't right because Twilight used to see them every day... And there was a place where clouds were made. Maybe Agrabah was far from it, and that was why they never got any clouds.

Jas then registered that Twilight was asking her something. "Well... Agrabah isn't really close to anything," she said with a little blush, "but it is-- Wait, did you just call me deformed?" Jasmine was able to hold her anger. Years of training for moments like this really did help. She knew exactly what she should and shouldn't do, but this girl had just called her deformed. That was just... "um, do you have any more questions for me?" she asked, hoping her inner rage didn't show through.

[Twilight Sparkle]

"What? Oh, yes, I did," agreed Twilight, nodding. Her face  crinkled in concern as she looked Jasmine over. "It's not like it's your fault though; we all seem to be suffering from the same strange magic. I think it had something to do with whatever brought us over here. It seems to have turned us into these strange creatures, sort of like trolls only less hairy and paler. You're actually the first darker version that I've seen, which is why I figured you might be from somewhere else."

Twilight shrugged. It all made perfect sense to her. There weren't any creatures that even loosely resembled the creatures here back where she came from. Again: the closest were those trolls. Ergo they must all be, well, trolls. Twilight figured that she, too, was some breed of troll now, with her magics having just affected the transformation enough to leave her with her normal mane and eyes. Either that or the whole mane thing was some kind of weird side effect of the transformation/transportation; she hadn't really delved into that.

"Hmm, I don't know..." mused Twilight for a while. "You see, I'm trying to determine if the Shift was the same for all of us, or if we were all from different areas or what. There's just too many unanswered questions..." Twilight trailed off, tapping her pen against her lips for a while. She licked them, her lips, not the pen, and then looked back to Jasmine. "Do you remember how you got here? Maybe if you tell me about it, I can figure something out..."

[Deleted]

"um... this is how I normally look. Most of the people of my world look similar to me, but there are some animals that are just as intelligent as the people. Iago being one of them," Jasmine said. She hoped Twilight wouldn't look at her weird after that. It was probably really strange to her, anyone looking like this. At least, it seemed that way based on what she said. Jasmine decided not to think too much about it.

The new question was surely something better. And it was probably the easiest one so far. "Well, my father had just called me to him. He had probably found out that I had been out in the city. As I was leaving my room, I shifted over to here. I ended up in some place called Italy," Jas said.

[Twilight Sparkle]

"You... you normally look like that?" asked Twilight. She scanned the girl for several seconds, sizing her up. Did... did most of these people normally look like this? Was Twilight the odd one? Then that meant... Twilight chewed her lip as she mulled that over. Jasmine kept insisting that people back home were more or less like her, along with several intelligent animals. Twilight nearly let out a sigh of relief at that: hearing that there was even some small connection between her world and someone else's was a sign for celebration.

Remembering that she should be keeping careful note, Twilight did precisely that. Her pen flew across the page, scratching out several notes, many of which commented upon themselves in a near circulatory manner. Twilight paused to look them over, tapping her pen to her lip. As she paused, Jasmine's next bit of information came. Twilight carefully wrote down as many of the details as she could, though she wasn't sure there was anything all that helpful to be found.

"I disappeared after I was given a special book," she said, not looking up from her notepad, "but you say you weren't doing anything weird? You weren't, say, the subject of a magical experiment or perhaps preparing to cast a spell of great magnitude?"

Because that, at least, would make sense. There just had to be a connection somewhere...