//------------------------------//
// Chapter Forty-Seven 
// Story: A Journey Unthought Of 
// by Hustlin Tom 
//------------------------------//

The Royal Science Division was picking itself up from off the ground.  All of them had been deafened by the Doctor’s sonic barrage, but now the majority were fully able and ready once more.  Bunsen Burner, while not a medical doctor, was still looking over those who had not recovered as quickly as the others.  

“Somepony find out what that group has been up to; see if other subjects have been compromised or if the human was the only one desired by the Doctor.”  

A lieutenant in the Royal Army, a pegasus, came forth to report to the Chief Royal Science Officer, “Sir!”  

“Lieutenant Swiftfeet, what is the status of the Mad Adder?”  

“Subject is still fully contained; nothing has harmed its stasis.”  

“Well that is one miracle for today, thank Celestia.”  Bunsen Burner cleared away his patient and gave his full attention to the Lieutenant.  “With the sonic cannons out of commission, our only true hope of fighting is in the Unicorn Corps; everyone else will either be deafened by that infernal device the Doctor has or lose their equilibrium completely.  See to the retreat of non-essential staff and the incapacitated, and rally those unicorns whom are fit for duty to me.”  

“Sir.”  The soldier pony was true to his name as he left swiftly to do everything his commanding officer had ordered.  

“Now then, has anyone made progress on the box?  What is it?  What does it do?  How does it function?  I need answers ponies!”  

A researcher came to report, “We have literally not a single clue how this thing works.  It looks like an ordinary blue shed, but it’s completely seamless between the panels of wood, almost as if—“  

“Almost as if it were not made, but grown?”  Bunsen Burner murmured.  

“Well, yes, I suppose that could be said about it.”  

“Have you try internally investigating?”  

“Yes.  The force field we, uh, experienced earlier only reacts to threats; as long as no one tries to teleport inside, force it open, or even kick it, they can stand quite comfortably close.  Otherwise, they get thrown for a loop.”  

“So you’ve gleaned next to nothing?”  

“Not quite, we discovered after several attempts to teleport inside that the space we were aiming for was not as small as we thought, like two layers of space are overlapping each other.  We attribute that to pony error.”  

“I wouldn’t be too sure.”  

“Sir?”  

“What’s your name, my good earth pony?”  

“Rustling Breeze, sir.”  

“Can I call you Rustle?”  

“If you like, sir.”  

“Rustle, there is a very complex form of magic postulated by some and experimented in by very few ponies.  It’s called Dimensional Phasing.  Princess Luna herself is the most well-known practitioner of and creator of that magic.  It’s the magic to make objects appear from seemingly nowhere or to make objects intangible, storing large objects in small spaces, and overlapping two different parts of space that would naturally never meet.  That little box you’re trying to get into is much bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.”  

“What does that mean sir?”  

Bunsen Burner stared up at the blue box before him, intently studying every nuance and change in contour of the ‘wood’ panels.  “It means that this is unlike anything any pony has ever laid eyes on.  It took hundreds of years to technologically create teleportation, and thousands of years of study before that to create it magically.  If Princess Luna has only just created the magic behind this blue box, and no magical traces have been detected, this is thousands of years ahead of our time.”  

Another pony called out to Bunsen Burner, “Sir, the unicorns have detected the location of the intruders, and they’re almost here!”  

“Positions everypony!”  Bunsen Burner called out to those earth ponies and pegasi still there.  He turned to the researcher in front of him, “Rustling Breeze?”  

“Sir?”  

“Thank you for your services, now please get to safety.”  

“But you’re an earth pony too, sir.  Shouldn’t you come as well?”  

“I must do this; as an example to them, and to you.  Now go.”  

Rustling Breeze galloped off, and Bunsen Burner walked slowly to the door where his team of unicorns was already set up to intercept the troublesome intruders.