//------------------------------// // Chapter 12 - Warm Welcome // Story: Sweetie Belle and the Tablet of Knowledge // by CheshireTwilight //------------------------------// Sweetie Belle pushed the “B4” button as instructed by the Tablet and the door closed, surprising the fillies as the box suddenly shifted downwards. They had heard of elevators in the fancy skyscrapers of Manehattan, but they had never been in one. If it had been going any faster, their instincts about falling might have scared them. Thankfully, the large cargo elevator was designed for a very slow descent; slow enough that the four floors the elevator dropped took almost a full minute. When the doors opened, they were rewarded with the disappointing sight of a small storage room filled with metal containers. An unassuming metal door was embedded in the far wall. Like the rest of the facility, every surface was a dull beige or metal. Sweetie Belle was the first to speak. “According to the map, this should be the only room on this floor.” “Okay ... where does that door go?” Scootaloo asked, pointing towards the discrepancy. “Only one way to find out.” Sweetie Belle led the group across the room and opened the handle. A sudden gust of air inwards revealed that the room must have been at a much lower pressure. The room was much darker, not having any of the artificial light the storage room had. It took their eyes some times to adjust. “Ah’ve got a really bad feeling about this … A-Ah don’t think Ah can come with y-ya girls …,” Apple Bloom stuttered, her shivering had gotten much worse. “What’s gotten into you Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo shook her head in annoyance. “I mean, sure, we’re in a spooky, abandoned, underground building in the middle of nowhere, but we’ve never even been attacked yet alone hurt by anything. Why would there be anything now?” “Ah don’t know, b-but sis always told me ta trust ma instincts, and ma instincts tell me not ta go in there.” “Apple Bloom,” Sweetie Belle said in a calming tone, “It’s just one more room and we’re done.” She pointed towards the hallway beyond the door they had opened. Another door stood at the end of it. “You’ve already come this far, what’s another couple more steps? Besides, I doubt you’d be any safer here than over there.” Apple Bloom sighed. “Ah guess yer right,” she said, her somber tone betraying her lack of conviction. As they walked through the door, it slammed behind them; a clicking sound confirmed a bolt locked it in place. Apple Bloom, fearing the worst, tried to open it again but couldn’t. “Ah told ya this was a bad idea!” she cried, “We’re stuck and we can’t get out!”. She felt a strange sensation come over her. The small hallway seemed to tighten around her. Her friends saw the pure terror in her eyes and tried to calm her down, but despite their efforts she continued to shake in fear. They decided it would be faster to just pull her along, and so they each took one of Apple Bloom’s forehooves over their withers and dragged her through the other door. What awaited through the other door shocked them; even shocking Apple Bloom out of her new-found dread. The edges of the room were covered in the same complex machines which had inhabited the data-center. That wasn’t the focus though; at the center of the room stood a large glass cylinder filled with liquid. Suspended in the liquid was a small metal ball attached to several machines by wires. As they walked into the room the lights turned on, screens flickered with life, and the machines buzzed and cranked. One of these screens began to move, lowering itself towards the stunned fillies. “Welcome!” the screen said. Its smooth, male, melodic voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. As it did so, an audio visualization appeared on the screen corresponding to its words. “I’m glad you fillies could finally make it!” Apple Bloom—despite her previous fear—was the first to reply. “W-w-what are you?” The screen looked upwards—as if in thought—then moved beside the glass tube. When it replied, it was in a more somber tone. “I’m this metal ball over here. I used to be a … biological organism, just like you are … but I was scared of dying. Instead, I got myself put into this machine so that I could last longer … and I was right! I’ve lived for one million, four hundred thirty eight thousand, six hundred twelve years!” Scootaloo spoke without thinking. “Wow, that must have really sucked, living alone for that long …” Sweetie Belle hit her in the foreleg and whispered, “That’s not very nice.” “No it’s quite alright Sweetie Belle, I thank Scootaloo for her concern. It wasn’t really that lonely. I can put myself to sleep for as long as I want, so it’s not like I’ve been awake for that long. Besides, now I have some … ponies to talk to and we can all be friends!” “Before we do that,” Sweetie Belle asked, demurely, “can you get rid of … umm … this?” She pointed to her head. “Oh! That silly Non-Disclosure Agreement thing, right? Sure, no problem!” The screen made a clicking noise. “There all done.” “You mean I can talk about …,” Sweetie Belle hesitated. She was more-or-less- conditioned not to talk about the Tablet now so it took her a while to gather the courage to say anything. “I can talk about the Tablet now?” She cringed, but after waiting for a few seconds, nothing happened. “Yes! It worked! I can say whatever I want now! Acarel, tablets, non-disclosure agreement, hurray!” At this point, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo thought there friend had lost her mind. “Hey!” Scootaloo yelled at the screen. “What did you do to our friend?!” The screen tilted to one side. “Why don’t you ask her. It is what she wanted, after all,” it responded in a mischievous tone. “Umm, Sweetie Belle?” Apple Bloom asked. “Can you tell us what’s going on?” “Yes! I finally can! Isn’t that great! This facility is a product of some old ponies, I think. A company called ‘Acarel’ made it. They also made a type of artificial intelligence that has been living in my head for over a week-” “Uhh …,” Scootaloo said, “what do all those words mean Sweetie Belle. Not everypony can be a dictionary like you …” “Oh, right.” Sweetie Belle giggled awkwardly before continuing. “So, there was this group of ponies long ago that made really fancy stuff, like all these ‘electronics’ in the room. One of those things—I think—is this thing in my head called a ‘tablet’. It’s like a metal plate only I can see but it is also some kind of machine physically inside me too. Until now, it prevented me from speaking about it, but now I can! That’s what this adventure was all about!” Scootaloo sighed. “That’s all … I thought it would be more important than-” Apple Bloom gasped, realizing something. “Wait, hold on. Umm … big screen thingy … how do ya know our names?” “Oh, of course, we haven’t done introductions!” the monitor said, still speaking in a bright and cheery tone. “I’m Charles Christianson, CEO and now sole shareholder of Acarel Industries! Though you can just call me Charlie. You are Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. I heard you say your names from my monitors as you made your way down here!” ‘Ah have a weird feeling about all this. He was watchin’ us?’ Apple Bloom thought. “Yeah … good to meet you … Charlie.” ‘Hmm ... ,’ thought Sweetie Belle. ‘What does that name even mean? I mean, all names have got to have a meaning right?’ *Error 1: CLASSIFIED* came the response from the Tablet in a more robotic tone. ‘What the-’ “Hey, Charlie, what did you do?!” Sweetie Belle accused, pointing her hoof at the screen. “Tablet isn’t answering my questions now!” “My apologies,” Charlie replied in a somber tone again. The shift in mood was quite jarring. “The truth is … I have a favor to ask.” Sweetie Belle thought for a moment. “Well, I don’t like that you stopped the Tablet like that … but alright. You did cancel that NDA thing after all.” Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were pretty lost at this point, but gave up trying to understand. They could always ask Sweetie Belle on the long walk back to Ponyville after all. “Great!” The screen moved to the far end of the room. The fillies hadn’t noticed it but there was a large metal door going right up to the top of the 6 meter tall ceiling. Once the screen stopped in front of it, it continued. “Behind this door is a really big crystal that keeps this facility running. It used to work, but now it’s shut off and I can’t turn it on. It would be really great if you could … jump-start it for me.” Sweetie Belle considered what that would imply. “You mean, as in collect and insert exotic-hole quasi-particles in the 400 MHz frequency band to begin the Thaumaturgic Cascade Reaction?” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo’s mouths hung open at their friend’s knowledge. ‘How the hay does she know that?!’ they both thought. “Yep! Not sure what that Thaumaturgic Cascade is, but if it’s anything like an Exotic Energy Cascade then yes! I guess the tablet taught you some things, which is good. I’m not a very good teacher so we might have been here all day if I had to do it.” Charlie seemed to chuckle at this, but with the speakers it used, it came out more as an awkward collection of pops and static. Suddenly, the door began to grind open, latches on the outside of the door twisted, pulled and turned, releasing locking mechanisms and pulling the door open. The fillies had to cover their ears because the grinding was so excruciatingly loud. “Sorry about that!” The screen yelled over the noise. “This door hasn’t been used in a very long time!” The door’s opening was, thankfully, mercifully short; only opening about a meter; large enough to allow a filly through. They saw—as the door was opening—that it was over a meter thick and made of solid metal. Inside, the room was a 20 meter tall hexagonal horn-torus; thin bands of metal around the edge of the room framed large hexagonal reflective panels that covered every surface, including the door that had just opened. The door was half way up from the floor and a simple metal walkway extended from it to the crystal in the center of the room. The screen wasn’t lying when he said that the crystal was huge. Extending from the floor to the ceiling and attached on both ends by small metal struts—which attached seamlessly to the rest of the room—the purple, crystalline, octogonal bipyramid was at least 12 meters tall. “Wow …” Sweetie Belle sat on her haunches, stunned. She was joined by Apple Bloom and Scootaloo as they sat just in front of the door leading to the giant room. “Yep. Probably the greatest achievement Acarel ever made. This can take a lot of energy from the Exotic field.” After thinking for a moment, Sweetie Belle realized that something was off. “I knew something was weird about this … this is a reactor, isn’t it.” “It sure is ...” The screen said. For the first time since it started talking, it sounded serious. “Wouldn’t that be dangerous? This room is designed to absorb energy; if I was in it with that much energy moving around, I could die!” The screen seemed to sigh, although it might have just been static. “I was afraid that you might say that. I can’t let you leave, Sweetie Belle. Not until you start it back up. I didn’t bring you here so that you could take company property and just leave.” “Wait … you brought me here? I came here all by my own free-” BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG “Hey!” Scootaloo yelled. “What the hey?!” Apple Bloom cried as well. The three fillies had been focusing on Charlie so much that she didn’t notice the two treaded robots carrying large black cylinders enter the room and make the loud noises. “Looks like playing the ‘nice super-intelligence’ wasn’t enough. You are going to do what I say. These robots can fire five hundred seven point six two millimeter metal bullets at two and a half times the speed of sound. If you don’t do what I want, I’ll give some of those shells to your friends.” ‘Tablet! Come on, help me! What should I do!’ Sweetie thought quickly. *Error 1: CLASSIFIED* ‘Ponyfeathers! That’s why it did that.’ “W-wha … I don’t get it?” Scootaloo said, not fazed by the Charlie’s fancy talk. “Why can’t you just do … whatever it is you need to do, yourself? Why Sweetie Belle?” “I’m not one for stories, but I suppose I can humor little children who are going to help me so much.” It lowered its screen to where it was at the eye level of the fillies. “Neither my species nor I can perform ‘magic’ as you call it. It never existed until we made it. It was purely an accident of another company, ‘Riestall Microelectronics’. They were working with atomic transis- uhh… really small things ... when suddenly they found that the energy was suddenly disappearing from parts of the structure. Eventually they found that ‘electron sinks’ were being formed in the pockets created by the electromagnetic fields at the subatomic level when the ‘really small things’ jittered at certain frequencies. This was the first artificial creation of Exotic Hole-Quasiparticles. About a decade of research led to huge breakthroughs in our understanding of the universe and in creating ‘magic’. We would send energy to the Exotic Field using one frequency and we could get it back as a large variety of other energies: gravitational, electromagnetic, kinetic, you name it, with other frequencies. “The problem is, those microelectronics were very hard to manufacture and were completely unreliable. The creation of EHQs was probably the most complicated process in modern physics. Despite the fact that we— Acarel that is—created a crystalline material capable of absorbing and manipulating energy from the Exotic Field, we didn’t have time to create an exotic hole capturing system capable of starting a Exotic Energy Cascade before the … end happened.” The screen paused long enough for the fillies to respond. “What’s electricity, and electrons, and those other words ...?” Scootaloo asked. “Uhh … Ah’m kinda lost,” Apple Bloom whispered. “The end? Do you mean when your civilization ended?” Sweetie Belle asked as well, almost at the same time. The screen emitted the static sigh again. “The end … I guess that’s a good enough name. It wasn’t given a real name since it happened so fast. It was rather simple, really. We didn’t realize the effects that ‘magic’ had on matter. It wore it out; EHQs would spontaneously appear in areas where the Exotic Field was highly concentrated and would rip electrons off of matter, causing them to break down. By the time we found out about this ‘radiation’, it was already too late. A few of our underground bunkers like this one resisted this effect because of the cancellation fields we built around them to prevented ‘magic’ attacks, but most buildings weren’t … including our country’s military facilities.” Charlie left that sentence hanging, like it was supposed to mean something. “Uhh … that doesn’t really answer the question. How did that cause ‘the end’?” Sweetie Belle asked again. Charlie got frustrated at that, “Argh! Your kind is so naive … Look, military bases are built to protect a country from external threats. With the breakdown of matter, their electronics were compromised; situations of electronic breakdown that were probabilistically impossible were now very real. Even if there wasn’t a high concentration of exotic energy, it was easy enough to create it artificially in a bomb. Most military facilities couldn’t protect countries any longer. Eventually an accident was bound to occur. The failsafe on one of my country’s nuclear weapons caused it to be fired prematurely. It was stopped while in mid-air, but it caused an EMP blackout of another nation. “They were allied with us so it didn’t start a war, but other nations saw it as a sign of weakness and attacked this allied nation using terrorism and sabotage. With our electronics not working correctly, we couldn’t protect them as we thought we could. We resorted to using our nuclear bombs. Other developed nations, afraid the same might happen to them, developed their own bombs. This arms race ended with a nuclear attack on our nation by our allies. We retaliated, then they retaliated, then other nations retaliated, then the world ended. Simple.” “What are-” Scootaloo started, trying her hardest to keep up. “Nuclear Bombs and weapons,” Charlie inferred, groaning, “are really powerful explosives like fireworks that can destroy an entire city.” The fillies were shocked by his casual dismissal of something so dangerous. “Wait a second …,” Sweetie Belle said, finding an inconsistency. “Why did your ally attack you?” “Probably the same reason we attacked another ally, by accident. We couldn’t stop using electronics and ‘magic’, we were too reliant on it … but they were simply incompatible with each other. Us engineers and scientists tried to get governments to stop using them, but it was too convenient … and we were destroyed because of it.” “Tha-that’s awful!” “It doesn’t matter now. How fortuitous it was that the first of your kind to find one of my devices would be an ignorant child with the ability to literally reignite my ambitions. I’m going to be taking back this world one way or another and fix our mistakes once and for all … and you are going to help me.” BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG It emphasized this point by firing the weapons again. This caused the fillies to jump down with their hooves over their heads. “Okay, Okay!” Sweetie Belle sobbed. “Please, just don’t hurt my friends … they don’t know what’s going on.” The screen turned back to the crystal. “Good. Just tap your horn-thing to the crystal and push your ‘magic’ into it. Once you’ve done that, you’re free to go. See, I can be nice. You got the NDA taken away, and I get my crystal powered. No one gets hurt and everyone wins.” Sweetie Belle didn’t think that was a very good deal, but seeing as she didn’t have much of a choice, she didn’t voice her concern. She slowly walked across the metal catwalk. When she reached the crystal, she closed her eyes, focusing on her horn and generating the 400 Mhz pulse. When she tapped her horn to the crystal, the energy suddenly left; completely absorbed by it. The crystal began to glow. Just as she determined that it worked, she heard the door behind her shut. She turned, only to see her friends had been forced into the room with her. Before she could react, the door sealed and the energy within the room beginning to charge. Only now did she realize the danger she was in. **Don’t worry, you’re ‘magical’ creatures** Charlie said sarcastically; its voice seemed to be emanating from everywhere. She realized that it was coming from inside her head, just like the Tablet. **You should be able to handle a little ‘magical’ energy. Still, in a few minutes the cancer risk from the reactor should be very real. Wish I could have made your death a little more painless, but our stupid tablet products had failsafes that prevented too much tampering so I can’t just finish you remotely. I would have shot you with the robots but I couldn’t risk you attacking me once you returned to this room. Also, teleportation shouldn’t work. I don’t remember the exact science behind it, but with this much interference, there’s no way you’ll be able to leave the Exotic Field in one piece. Do try though … it’s not like it matters to me. Oh, but here I am rambling. I’ve already got what I want, and I have an entire warehouse of Exotic-powered drones to prepare. Goodbye.** Its monologue ended with a click. “Uhh … Sweetie Belle?” Scootaloo asked, ignorant of the conversation going on in Sweetie Belle’s head. “You were just kidding right? This room isn’t really dangerous.” “Yeah,” Apple Bloom agreed, a fake grin on her face. “Even if it was, you could just get us outta here, like you always do, right?” Sweetie Belle could take it anymore and started crying. “I’m so sorry! I-I didn’t mean for any of this to happen! It was just supposed to be some dumb computer thing that I talk to and then we go home …” “Come on Sweetie Belle!” Scootaloo yelled, physically shaking some sense into Sweetie Belle. “You can’t just give up now! Twilight’s taught you magic, right? That Tablet thing was teaching you stuff too! If there’s anypony that can get us out of here, it’s you!” Sweetie Belle wiped her tears and nodded. “A-alright, but I need you girls to step back and not talk … like at all.” ‘Now, I need to remember what Twilight taught me about teleportation ...’ One month ago, during Twilight Time The three fillies were sitting on the floor of Twilight’s library, doing new things in the hopes of getting their Cutie Marks. Scootaloo eventually got bored taking apart and putting things back together and decided to learn new ways she could improve her scooter. Apple Bloom also got bored of plants and was now learning how to build sculpt wood. Sweetie Belle, however, was the only one to stick to the same thing, still trying to get better at magic. “That’s looking good Scootaloo!” Twilight complimented. “Adding bigger wheels offers more stability but it will slow you down.” “Really? I was hoping bigger wheels would make it faster. How do I make it faster?!” Twilight thought for a moment. “Well … I suppose you could try improving the aerodynamics … although that might be tricky for a filly to-” “Hey Twilight!” Apple Bloom called. “Can you come here for a minute?” “Sure Apple Bloom.” Sweetie Belle could hear Scootaloo mumble something about covering the scooter with feathers but decided to focus on the new conversation starting. “Ah tried to make Princess Celestia but it didn’t come out right.” Apple Bloom showed her sculpture to Twilight. To Sweetie Belle it looked more like a blob then a pony. “Why does Celestia have five legs?” Twilight asked, not really thinking. “It doesn’t have five legs! That’s the tail!” “Oh right …” Twilight was about to go back upstairs when Sweetie Belle had an idea. “Hey Twilight, could you teach me how to teleport?” “Teleport?! I think that’s a bit too advanced for you Sweetie Belle …” Sweetie Belle looked down in shame “C-could you at least try … ?” Twilight had only taught Sweetie Belle telekinesis and light magic. At Sweetie’s stage in training, the focus was mostly on control and developing power rather than using a wide range of spells. Still, there was something about her enthusiasm for magic that reminded Twilight of herself at that age. “Alright … I don’t want you doing it yourself just yet, but I can teach you the basics.” Sweetie Belle sat in front of her teacher in rapt attention. “The first thing you need to know is that you can only teleport matter.” Twilight brought out a board, writing ‘energy’ and ‘matter’ on it. “That’s things like leaves and rocks. You can’t teleport energy like light or a magic shield.” Sweetie Belle nodded as Twilight drew the illustrations. “This also means that you can’t mix them together. All teleportation spells prevent you from teleporting simple things like light, but if there is magic anywhere near you, then you will be in serious danger if you attempt the spell. That’s true for all magic: ‘Magic doesn’t mix with Magic’. Once matter and energy goes into the Aether, you won’t be able to bring yourself back.” “Okay … so I get that the Aether is where magic comes from, but how do you go into the Aether?” “Excellent question!” Twilight said. Sweetie Belle blushed slightly at the praise. “You see, the key to teleportation is to move into and out of the Aether instantaneously. The key is it has to be very quick since ponies like us don’t belong there, and won’t last long. There are ways to stay in the Aether longer but they require lots of energy and it’s not very useful.” “Have you been to the Aether before … like not just for teleporting?” “Yes … once. Pri- Celestia has a space she created in the Aether that she brought me to when I became a princess-” “Does that mean I could be a princess too if I went into the Aether?!” Twilight giggled. “I don’t think so. It required: a special spell, a deep understanding of magic and friendship, and the Elements of Harmony to pull it off. Who knows though …” Twilight decided to get back on topic. “Anyway, the key thing for teleporting is control of matter through the Aether. You envelop yourself in magical energy, think of the path to take in order to reach the destination you have in mind, then send that energy through the Aether along the path. The energy slowly dissipates since you can’t bring that energy out of the Aether, but it protects you as you arrive at your destination. The actual process is much more difficult and requires advanced knowledge of physics and thaumaturgy, but that’s the basic concept.” Sweetie Belle grinned at the memory. It wasn’t as useful as she hoped but it did calm her down. ‘Right … now I remember! The basics are: to wrap yourself in energy, follow a path to the destination, and then push the energy back through the Aether while tracing the point from source to destination … Okay, maybe that isn’t so easy. The problem is with the energy; I didn’t learn any teleportation spells so I don’t know how exactly to do it without mixing energy and matter together-’ “No offense ... Sweetie Belle,” Apple Bloom said weakly, “but I think we should hurry up … I’m starting to feel sick.” ‘Ponyfeathers! No time! Come on, think Sweetie Belle! Focus! How did the Tablet do it... ‘Capture Aether field quasiparticles … harmonize quasiparticle propagation waves to … uh … External Field Manipulator receivers! That’s it. I need to scan the area for matter-waves and harmonize the frequencies with my horn, then … umm … do I cycle the frequencies on the odd set of functions on the Farrier Series or do I play the fields straight and go for a multivariate regression? Arggh! Does that even matter?! There’s no way my horn has the sensitivity to even try to perform that!’ *Error 2: Too many questions, please provide a single question and the time necessary for thi-* ‘Enough already Tablet! I know tha-’ Sweetie Belle’s eyes went wide. ‘Wait, you work now?!’ *Assuming by ‘work’ you mean ‘can answer questions without [redacted] preventing answers’. Yes. As stated, in the case where the subject’s life is in danger, one or more of the rules may be overridden to ensure this device conforms with ethical guidelines.* ‘Oh thank Celestia! Wait … why didn’t you help us when those robots were threatening us?!’ *The Mark II Goliath semi-autonomous fighting vehicles are designed to give a warning before firing on living creatures. Until that warning was made, your lives were not in danger.* ‘But that … never mind! There’s no time, hurry, teleport us now!’ *This device cannot do that. The interference is too strong to attempt a Massive Instantaneous Trans-spatial Transport.* ‘Is there any way to shut the crystal off then?’ *Negative, the crystal can only be shut off by destroying it or by pushing enough energy into the Aether that the crystal can no longer support the Exotic Energy Cascade. Destroying it is inadvisable and will destroy the facility, the town of Boiling Water, and destabilize the planet’s mantle causing global earthquakes and destruction. ‘Yeah … let’s not do that ...’ *Stopping the cascade is possible, but it will require seven times the current maximum energy throughput of your horn.* ‘Maybe there is another way… I can probably move the energy around my friends, I think. If I do that, would you be able to teleport them?’ *You may begin movement of exotic energy, but it is likely not within your horn’s capabilities. This device cannot guarantee compliance, but it will teleport the fillies when the chance of survival reaches above the acceptable probability. Due to the exponential nature of the interference, it is unadvisable until less than 0.815413% risk of failure.* Sweetie Belle wanted to ask if he could lower the number so they were more likely to escape, but felt that it wasn’t worth the risk of a failed teleport. “Hey … girls.” Sweetie Belle coughed. She didn’t realize she had been in the reactor so long that it was making her feel ill as well. “I-I think I can get us out.” Scootaloo coughed. “Hurry! We … we don’t have much time … I can feel it …” Sweetie Belle wasted no time. She strained her neck, focusing on her horn. She could sense the magical energy all around them. It was like a maelstrom flowing from the crystal unimpeded; whittling away at them like a rock in a stream. Try as she might, Sweetie Belle couldn’t do anything against so much power. ‘There’s got to be a way to do this! My friends are counting on me! But where can I get more magic-’ She facehoofed. ‘I’m surrounded by magic for pony’s sake!’ She used the “wind’s” energy against it. She wasn’t exactly controlling it—she wasn’t strong enough for that—rather she acted like a wind-powered fan, using the “wind” to push more “wind”. The difference was obvious; she felt like she was as strong as Celestia. Still, it wasn’t enough. ‘My … horn … I’m using the maximum it can take, but … how can I get more power.’ The sensation reminded her of the Tree of Harmony. ‘Now I remember where I felt this feeling before! When I touched my horn to the Tree, I felt a burning sensation, but then, I remembered my friends and...’ She crawled over to her friends. “I know this might sounds crazy, but I need you to think back to the time we last teleported. Those feelings we felt at the Tree of Harmony.” Apple Bloom coughed heavily. “Ya … ya mean those nice happy feelings about friendship and crusadin’ and stuff?” Sweetie Belle nodded. “Well … alright then.” Scootaloo shrugged weakly. She could barely stand. “I guess it makes sense. It worked when we teleported last time … it could work now.”