With a final thrum of her engines the Tardis landed back on solid ground, this time with only a mild tremor as she drifted out of the sky.
"There's something you both should know," I said as we touched down with a lurch, absentmindedly rubbing my left elbow just above the stump, "I don't quite know how to describe it, but as soon as we get near the mounds you might feel something weird."
"Weird," the Doctor asked flatly as he looked at the console screen, "What kind of 'weird?'"
I struggled with the words as I rubbed the back of my head. Lyra looked up at me expectantly. "It's like, you might feel emotions that aren't actually yours? Rainbow felt afraid until suddenly she felt normal, and I felt like...I'd come home somehow." I looked around the central glass column at the Doctor, "Does that sound like something you've dealt with?"
"I suppose there's only one way to find out," he said as he retrieved his coat from the crash chair near the console and flashed me a smile, "Step right into the middle of it!"
I looked down to Lyra and put my hand gently on her shoulder, "Don't know if you remember Rainbow mentioning it, but we met a ghost here. She seems kind of iffy on ponies, and I don't know how she's going to take him," I gestured to the Doctor with a twitch of my head, "but I'll vouch for you."
"I don't care what way she feels about me," she declared with an angry frown on her face, "Right now she's going to have a lot of explaining to do for everything they've done."
"You've got that right," I replied with a nod, "Let's put this to rest, huh?"
"Let's," she said, and side by side we walked to the Tardis doors.
I meant to go on, but I ultimately felt I needed to speak my mind, so I stopped just before we would have exited, "Uh, and-" Lyra once again looked up waiting for me to speak my mind, but temporarily I was struck with second thoughts. Maybe this wasn't the time and place to say...Oh to hell with it. I settled for an awkward, "Thanks again for coming. I didn't say it before but I didn't want to come back her at first; she- It felt like the ghost was trying to manipulate me into helping her or...I don't know for sure. I'm just glad to have someone I know and can rely on."
She smiled up at me and patted my leg reassuringly, "Sounds like we both aren't sure if we want to find out what's really going on."
"What if it's something that we just can't accept," I muttered, "I mean, sure, I can probably take it and keep quiet, but you? If what you say is true, and the legends about humans prove even partly true...Twilight said it, but pony society as it is now would be over. What if the truth is too terrible to know? What do we do then?"
Lyra frowned as she looked ahead in thought, visibly struggling with the concept. "We've kind of already had at least one lie broken in our history," she said slowly, making sure each word was the right one before she uttered it, "when Princess Celestia declared she wasn't a deity I mean. It took a few years, but we struggled on." She then looked up at me with an assured smile, "We may not look it, but ponies are more resilient than we're given credit for. Even if it's initially horrible and we don't want to know our true history, whatever that is, we have a right to know it."
"Oh darling compaaaniooons," we heard the Doctor call from outside of the Tardis doors, "Adventure awaits! Let's up and at 'em!"
I squatted down to eye level and put a hand in Lyra's mane again before bringing it back around her shoulder, and squeezed her to my side with a smile on my face, "Maybe between us we'll make one brave person?"
"Deal," she flash a quick grin at me.
"Alright," I said with a nervous sigh as I straightened up, "Let's go."
And with that we pushed the doors out, striding onto the green grass and pale moonlight. The Doctor was standing in the middle of it all, the grass, mounds, and trees, taking in the night air it seemed. As soon as we were a few feet away from wooden blue craft the feelings once again returned. Lyra froze in the spot she'd just stepped into, a feeling of dread clearly overtaking her. I was back at her side instantly, making sure that she would be okay.
"It'll pass," I murmured softly, "Don't let it bother you. Whatever you're feeling can't hurt you."
She began to shiver in spite of the warm evening, and her eyes grew unfocused for a moment. She brought a hoof up to my hand, and I gently gripped it. "The images," she whispered, "They're coming back."
It all flashed before her eyes again: the death, the ice, and the imprisonment. She couldn't help but once again focus on the last image and everything surrounding it. The large, lanky horse in its cage, it's plaintive eyes and tortured whinnies. Suddenly the foreign emotions passed. Even though each one of the images bit into her psyche, the memories of what she had seen began to creep back into her subconscious, save for one detail, one which she hadn't noticed before: the woman's eyes. As she looked from horse to human, the horrific state of being of the one seemed to inspire the apparent horror the other experienced from their situation. The woman herself was frightened by and sickened from what she was seeing.
The Doctor took in a deep breath through his nostrils, quickly exhaled out his mouth, and then turned to us. "You were right Adam! Pretty impressive how invasive those electroencephalographic signals are. Crude, but definitely do their job well!" When the both of us stared back at him blankly he walked a little closer to us, his coat swaying side to side as he walked, "It's like a psychic electric fence, only instead of running electricity through a physical boundary, a signal is broadcast over open-air that directly communicates with the brain over it's own native electrochemical frequency to either stay away or come back."
"So what's with the high pitched buzzing noise I'm hearing," Lyra asked as she flicked her ears and rubbed the inside with her hoof.
"Auditory hallucinations caused by minor incompatibility. Non-lethal, and scares most beings away, though clearly some ponies have been using this site as an easy adrenaline doping spot. Non-lethal and hidden, but most importantly hidden in plain sight: easily acknowledged as out of place but also subtle enough to be written off and easily ignored. Whoever set up this system had some good ideas on camouflage."
Over his shoulder the two of us noticed several greenish-yellow points of light seemingly appear out of nowhere. They swirled closer together until they clustered into a bright mass of light, and finally began to expand outward. Arms, legs, head, and clothes took shape out of the kaleidoscopic display, and the pale woman appeared once again.
The Doctor turn and gave a quick "Ooooh," of excitement before he looked at the spectral entity with a smile, "Hello there!"
Lyra meanwhile looked up at the spectre with some momentary confusion, murmuring to herself, "Same clothes but a different face."
I stepped forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Doctor. "Hey," I said in a truncated manner, "We need to see what you wanted to show me."
She looked first to Lyra, who glared right back at her. She looked visibly surprised by the animosity she seemed to show her, and just as surprised to see yet another humanoid. "You've brought more strangers," she said quietly, "Who are they?"
"Why does it matter-" I asked stiffly, before the Doctor interrupted me, "We're interested third parties, myself in particular."
Her attention was now drawn to him, silently waiting for him to continue, while Lyra came to stand at my left.
"I can sort of understand the theatrics when it comes to keeping the locals out," he gestured to his right, presumably to all the civilizations beyond the forest, "but we've had a good look at what's going on just behind the curtain. This solar system is a colossal wreck, and yet somehow complex life is still kicking when they haven't even managed to bang two atoms together. Now I've been around the block a few times, so in situations like this I'm accustomed to seeing the exploitation of lesser species for resources, profit, what-have-you, and while I admit it's charming NOT to see that happening here I think you owe all of us an explanation, starting with what you really are."
The spectral woman seemed surprised by the show of knowledge that the Doctor had provided and then looked first to me and then Lyra. The three of us looked at her silently, waiting and standing our ground for her to give in and spill the secrets of what was really going on with this bizarre world. Finally her image gave a sigh and she looked at us with weary eyes, "Very well. You may ask your questions."
"Don't mind if I do," the Doctor said as he deftly reached for his sonic screwdriver, and pointed it at the ghost as he activated it. The spectre shimmered with increased luminosity even as her features temporarily blurred. "Thought so," he said as he brought the device back to just in front of his face, "A nano-ghost, through and through: composed of trillions of molecule sized robots that are imprinted with a human intelligence." He looked our way as he continued his explanation, "In our universe's 23rd century Earth started digitizing human consciousnesses in an attempt to preserve great military minds and use them in battle simulations to evolve new tactics in a safe environment. When the technology started launching to the public people were unable to disassociate the memories of their loved ones with the real but now dead ones, and when a movement formed calling for the ghosts' right to personhood it was quickly gathered up and destroyed." He looked back to the spectre with a perplexed frown, "but it looks like the idea was allowed to go forward here, and this one got access to nanotechnology. Passive hydrogen consumption as your fuel source, am I right?"
She nodded silently as her figure now fully returned to it's sharp, crystal clear projection. I put my hand on the Doctor's shoulder and he looked to me. Gesturing with my head that I want to speak he silently took a step back. I looked up at her as I pondered the Doctor's words: who was she in life? A General? Perhaps the one Lyra had been talking about before? She didn't strike me as the type, but then again who knew if I was guessing right?
"Look," I finally said with a wave of my arms, righty and stubby, "I don't know who you are or were, but this world is in danger. There's a hole we ripped in reality, and we need something powerful to fix it. I don't care if you see me as some kind of legacy or successor or whatever, just help me save everyone, alright? After that you can do whatever the hell you want with me." I glanced down at stubby again, and muttered, "What's left of me."
"You mean the Tessaract has opened," she asked.
"Tessaract," I muttered as I looked back to the Doctor and Lyra and shrugged, "Are we talking about the same thing?"
"It might be we aggravated an already present problem," the Doctor murmured to me as he once again stepped forward, "Alright, you seem to already have some knowledge of advanced astronomical phenomena. My ship," he pointed over his shoulder to the Tardis, "smashed into your universe many months ago, I’m guessing 'opening the Tessaract', while he came about two months ago making the hole grow bigger. We already have a device that can close it back up. Do you have a power source available that might be enough to close the Tessaract?"
"And while we're at it, did you create the pony races," Lyra at last blurted as she looked up to the woman, "I know you're a scientist; I've seen a woman wearing the same clothes as you. Why did you create us? Why did you put us in cages? What did you do to destroy everything?" She didn't realize it, but she had been taking a step forward with each question, and with each the ghost gave ground, almost as if she was afraid of her. "Well," Lyra at last barked, and the woman visibly flinched, "Tell me! I deserve to know! What is our history? What really happened?"
After some indecision, the ghost quietly declared, "You already know a great deal, more than I would have expected," She nodded to herself before she looked down at the now fearless pony, "but you have so much yet to learn. I will help you all, but to do that I will need your help in return. I need a body."
I looked over to the Doctor in alarm, murmuring behind my remaining hand, "Is that a good idea?" Before he could respond I heard Lyra say with a frustrated huff, "Fine. Use me."
"What," I exclaimed in disbelief, "Lyra, no! We can't trust her like this."
She looked back at me, her frustration now venting on me, "Adam, just think for a second! We need the Doctor because he seems to get what's going on more than either of us, and I've got magic that I can use for whatever she needs one of us for, and you're not exactly in the best shape. Right now I'm the most logical choice if this has to happen, so get over whatever feelings you have for me, and just let this happen!" She then looked back up to the ghost and snorted slightly, "Make this quick. I've had one too many beings inside my head today already, so I'm not in the mood for any funny business. Got it?"
Perplexed by the comment but seemingly letting it slide, the spirit declared softly, "I only need you for some tasks: you will remain your own self otherwise." She gently reached a hand down, and the image seemed to cup Lyra's cheek, and she stiffened. Instinctively I took a step forward, but the Doctor held me back with just his left hand. "You remind me so much of them," she said softly, a deep sadness coming over her face, before she slowly evaporated into countless points of light. Lazily they began to spin around Lyra's head, slowly covering her neck, legs, barrel, and hind-end, all the way down to her tail. For a moment her entire form was covered in golden-green light, like a bright torch cutting through the night.
Eventually the light faded and her coat was returned to normal. I jogged to her side, putting a hand to her coat as I knelt down to see if she was alright. As soon as I touched her I instinctively drew my hand away, as I felt a new ticklish sensation on her barrel. As I did I saw what looked like strange, luminescent dust come off of her. As soon as my hand was free the particles froze in mid-air, and then slowly flew back on Lyra, almost as if they'd never been disturbed at all. When she turned her head to me and opened her eyes they seemed to stare past me completely. The spirit's voice emanated out of her, but her mouth did not open at all, "Come with me: time is growing short."
She then walked away from me towards the mound I had seen her disappear into before. I lurched upward to watch, now noticing the Doctor as he casually walked by after the woman who now held possession of my best friend.
"What do we do," I said breathlessly.
He looked at me calmly, clearly not a care in the world, "I think we'll let her invite us aboard."
I was about to ask what he meant when he simply pointed to Lyra's body. A small cloud of the spirit's particles flew off of her left shoulder to pass straight into the mound before her. At first nothing much happened. Suddenly there was a small but definite tremor beneath our feet, and Lyra's body backed up from the mound. Slowly the earth turned and rolled, and the grass ripped up from the ground as something rose upward and forward towards us. It was metal, that much I could figure, and it was rectangular in shape, taller than the both of us. Finally with a groan and a lurch the metal structure halted its advance and silence followed, but for only a second. The spirit turned Lyra's head toward us and she gestured for us to come closer. As we walked to just in front of the metal frame a small hatch appeared above us, and a bright blue light shone at our feet, and then slowly slid over our bodies. I guessed we were being scanned, for what I don't know, but I didn't necessarily want to make any sudden movements.
"Unidentified," a cold, metallic voice said with a boom, "Leave this area at once. Your presence is in violation of our security protocols. Leave this area at once, or be subject to the full extent of the United American Continent's military force."
"Override security protocols," the spirit's voice said out of Lyra's body, "These refugees are under my protection in accordance with the Fernandez Asylum Mandate."
"Warning: two entities outside of expected physiology detected. Do you wish to continue with invoking Asylum Mandate?"
"Yes," she replied firmly.
"Authorization required. Please enter personnel number and state Call-Sign."
From out of nowhere a keypad made of light appeared in front of Lyra's body. Her horn lit up and a golden rectangle materialized in the air just in front of the pad. The golden field warped to punch in number after number. The way it looked made it seem like a finger was pressing through the field to push the buttons, white numbers appearing in front of her mirroring the code she was entering, until the sequence was finished.
"Personnel number: 25037854. State Call-Sign to finalize appeal."
With a frustrated sigh at the tedium of the procedure, the spirit declare crisply, "Call-Sign: Maiden. Grant these refugees Master level access to all facilities."
There was a pause, I'm guessing to make us sweat, because I would have figured machines however far in the future this was wouldn't need to grind or load too much. "Authorization confirmed," the mechanical voice finally intoned, "Master level access granted." The uniform metal suddenly caved in slightly, and pieces of the door slid in and open, leaving a hexagonal shaped hole for us to walk through. "On behalf of the United American Continent, we welcome you aboard the UAC Vanguard." With it's peace seemingly made, the machine voice went silent, and the blue light turned off.
Lyra's body then shook its head, and she turned to look back at us, and I was glad to see it was really her. She let out a quick breath and rolled her eyes, "Seriously, is that all you needed me for? All that drama for nothing?"
Suddenly her body went stiff and her eyes unfocused, and the spirit responded through her, "No, there is still more to do. As we go further in I will show you more. You might believe me if you see it rather than just hearing what I say."
Lyra's posture returned to normal, and she once again sighed in frustration, "Great. Looking forward to it."
"If we're going to go any further we need to know who you are really," I finally said, "I'm getting tired of just calling you a ghost, or him-" I pointed to the Doctor, "-calling you a nano-ghost like it makes a difference."
"Just call me Maiden," the spirit said through Lyra, and she stepped into the hexagonal portal, "Now we need to get going. There's still a lot we need to do."
"Then by all means lead on, Maiden," the Doctor said as he strolled in after Lyra's body, and I after him. The door seamlessly closed behind us, and with a rumble I knew it had sunk back into the ground, leaving barely evidence it had been there at all. Low level lights turned on beneath us to illuminate our feet, and the box we were in slowly began to descend, sinking further into the ground to greater mysteries deep down.