Theo stumbled into the lobby of the Feather building about an hour later. She hadn’t seen any sign of Sharp or Emerald trying to stop her. That hurt plenty in its own way—she’d ran away as though she were being followed, but she didn’t actually know that she was. Maybe they didn’t care.
The lobby was spacious and mostly empty, with a single reception desk by an elevator on the far wall and a large fountain in the center. So ponies did have them. They just weren’t installed in magical crystal castles.
There were actually three figures in the room, not just the mare behind the reception desk. Two burly-looking stallions blocked the way to the stairs. They wore suits instead of the metal armor more typical of ponies, though they were bulky enough that she wouldn’t have known if they had a handgun tucked away somewhere.
Stop being paranoid, Theo. They’re not going to hurt you. This place doesn’t even have guns.
“I’m afraid we don’t take visitors without appointments,” said the mare, watching her skeptically as she approached. “Whyever you’re here, you’re probably lost.”
“I’m not,” she said, pulling out the letter from her saddlebags and placing it on the table between them. “Kate Alasie gave that to me. She said I should show you, and I’d get to see her right away.”
The secretary looked annoyed, glancing once at the guards by the elevator. One began to make his way over—slowly, casually. Trying not to be obvious.
Theo ignored him, watching as the secretary looked the letter over. Once she saw the strange language, all her annoyance and apprehension vanished. She didn’t seem able to read what it said, but that didn’t matter. She passed it back after a few seconds, then bent down to a metal box in front of her with a few buttons. Not much resemblance to Equestrian technology, but she already knew to expect that.
“The VIP you’ve been waiting for has arrived, Miss Feather. Should I send her up?”
The response came back just as quickly. “Directly, please.”
“Right this way.” She gestured at the elevator. “Mr. Bullion will show you up.”
Theo slipped the letter away again, then approached the elivator. She hardly noticed the way Bullion clearly trailed behind her. She didn’t wonder what he might do if she tried to leave now, not at all.
Theo stepped into the elevator, and wasn’t entirely surprised to see a pony standing by a complex set of levers. Bullion reached over him with one thick hoof, flipping the lever highest on the board. There wasn’t even a number next to it like the others, just a little Feather symbol.
He nodded hurriedly, cranking at a wheel until the lever shut, then pressed cautiously on the lift lever. It was nothing like a modern elevator, of the hydraulic type she’d ridden in most often in her life. This one smacked her into the floor with the abrupt weight of gravity as they started to rise, with the operator-pony carefully manipulating the dials at every inch.
As they rose, the glass on the far wall became a window out of the building. Theo watched Manehattan rise all around her, then fall again as they rose above even the tallest native structure. Feather’s headquarters was bigger than any other structure in the city.
Finally they came to a jerky halt, and the operator rang a bell. “Penthouse,” he said, cranking the door open for them. Bullion waited behind her as before, until Theo stepped out into the space beyond.
It was vast and luxurious, everything she might expect from the CEO of a gigantic, successful company. Kate’s desk was near a window, which had to be separated into panels rather than sheets. Apparently Equestria didn’t have structural plate-glass.
Another side of the room was dedicated to chalkboards, bookshelves, and a workshop of sorts. Prominent in one corner of that workshop was a rugged laptop, weirdly large just like Theo’s own camera. It was pretty old, with the painfully-thick bezels of older generation computers. But the screen was on, and the computer hummed quietly. Windows 7.
Another stallion in a suit waited by a door on the far side, a thick earth pony just like the one who had led her up here. There was nopony else in the room, though she could almost hear voices of urgent activity through the floor. This space was peaceful, but the rest of the building was still an active company.
“You must be Theo Pichler,” Kate said from her desk, remaining bent over something. A large blueprint, with a drafting compass and square spread beside her.
She was a hippogriff, just like Theo expected. Even so, she bent down and fumbled with the necklace, pocketing it on pretense of removing her scarf for the heat.
“Did you really come here from Earth?” Theo asked, crossing from a granite floor and onto a soft white carpet. It seemed perfectly selected for her claws, just soft enough for her to appreciate in a way a pony never would. “Are you human?”
She watched her face, searching for any sign of recognition.
Had she been lied to? Was Sharp right after all this time?
“Forgive me, I haven’t used English in a long time,” she said. Her voice was halting, her words thickly accented. She hadn’t removed any jewelry, assuming she had even been wearing any. She wore little clothing, only a white vest and a little loop of silvery metal on her head, almost like a crown. Almost.
“I did not think I would.” She sat up, extending a claw towards her. “Forgive me for not shaking your hand. Can’t reach that far.”
Theo nodded, relaxing. Thank God, she’s real. She settled the scarf back into place, then searched for a seat. There were none on the other side of the desk, and after a few seconds she just settled onto her haunches.
The desk was apparently chosen to be just too tall to get a good look at what it might contain from this side. Kate must be sitting in a pretty tall chair too, to seem so big.
“I can’t believe there was someone else here!” Theo exclaimed. “All this time, you’ve been… running Apple.”
Finally this new creature showed a little emotion. She smiled knowingly, glancing over her shoulder at the gigantic Feather logo framed there in the glass.
“You know that, but they don’t.” She flicked one wing towards the window. “But I don’t think you came to tell them, did you?”
Why did I come? She opened her mouth, but couldn’t find an answer, and just closed it again. “No. I didn’t want to come here at all… Kate?” She glanced to one side, at the laptop. “Were you actually prepared for this trip? Or just luckier than I was?”
“I don’t think I’d call landing here lucky by any definition,” she answered. “Though… if I remember Sleighsburg, it’s halfway to frozen already. So perhaps you’re lucky that you didn’t die before you could find help.”
“There was a pony there when I landed… I think maybe you might know him. Sharp Edge? He’s a blacksmith in Sleighsburg, expert on the Doorway…”
“Oh,” Kate’s expression went suddenly cold, and one claw scraped on the heavy wooden desk. “We’ve met. I’d prefer not to discuss him.”
Theo shivered in spite of herself. She wasn’t here to argue with Kate, she’d done enough of that with the pony who saved her life. She was here to escape from all that. “He doesn’t matter. I’m trying to get back home.”
For a second, Theo thought she could see Kate’s face harden again—but she was probably just imagining that. “I believe I was entirely thorough in my letter.” She rose from her desk suddenly, pacing past one section of gigantic window to a stone model not far from the desk.
Theo recognized it suddenly—it was the Doorway, perched precariously atop a tall desk. It was elevated high enough that Theo’s primary view was of the mechanical underside.
Whoever had crafted this had done so with spectacular accuracy, right down to the large support-section in the center, and the control box with its mysterious openings.
“I’ve been here for years, Theodor.” She raised an eyebrow at that, resting one claw on the side of the desk. “That’s, uh… strange name.”
“Don’t even get me started,” she said, letting a little of her annoyance through. “I wasn’t female on the other side. They call me Summer Ray on this side. Less of a headache.”
Kate winced, patting her shoulder consolingly. “I’m afraid I have no solution to that particular problem, not with all the wealth and resources I have amassed. I expect you’ve experienced an inadvertent side-effect of the Rosen bridge. The machinery that creates it is more than a little complex, as you can see.”
She leaned in, squinting at the model. “You’ve been studying it for years, and you can’t get it to work again?”
She nodded solemnly, walking past the model to one of her large drafting areas. She removed several huge scrolls from the desk, climbing up using a ladder on tracks to reach. Guess she didn’t find the time to learn to fly either.
“The bridge isn’t entirely artificial, The—Summer. Is that alright?” She didn’t actually wait for confirmation, spreading the first of the large scrolls over whatever she was sketching. “See, Summer?” She’d seen maps like this, false color overlays of radiation superimposed on topography. It was precisely the sort of map that the Observatory might’ve produced, though far less precise. Here each patch of color was obviously done by hand, with imprecise blurring between each real observation rather than computational modeling.
She did see. In the center of the map was the large ramp, and the structure underneath mostly buried in snow. The bridge. All the colors were distributed randomly, in entropic patches.
“When the bridge is activated…” She spread the second one, exactly over the first. Now the door itself was bright orange, with reddish fading to purple spread around it and every random patch of radiation gone.
Theo didn’t know exactly what was being measured here, and there was no scale. But the meaning was clear enough for her to see.
Kate supplied the answer. “The bridge doesn’t open to just anywhere. Think of it more like… a stargate. Did you ever watch that show?” Again, she didn’t wait for her response. She didn’t even seem to care. “You need a door open on the other side. So far as I can tell, this planet once had a much more advanced culture than it now possesses, one that explored well beyond the two worlds we know about. Equestria itself might be a distant colo—whatever, I can see you don’t care. My point is, their bridge on this side generates a phenomenon reliably that can—with exceptional rarity—be generated naturally. A precise configuration of difficult-to-produce high energy particles, either stabilizing an existing bridge or creating one. I’m afraid the specific science exceeds my grasp.”
And you were afraid of her, Sharp? If anything, watching the creature in front of her reminded Theo of Sharp himself. Hopelessly invested in her own craft, to the exclusion of everything else. She was even talking about nerdy TV shows, that Theo had seen thank you very much.
“Are you with me so far?”
Theo nodded hastily. “You’re saying the hippogriffs built a stargate here in their world, and used it to connect to spontaneously-generated conditions elsewhere.”
She nodded. “Yes, excellent. I forget you came from the Observatory—of course the basic principles wouldn’t be too much for you. I’ll condense. I believe the ancient civilization traveled from this world to many others—in each, they would send an expedition knowing they must succeed or die. The faction who arrived on our planet either failed to create the bridge on the other side, or, as I think is more likely, they did complete it. But after contact with our species, they chose to destroy it.
“In either case, the result for you and me is the same. Even if the bridge was working on this end—and it doesn’t appear to be—there is no device on the other end to stabilize a connection. You can’t open a door that isn’t there.”
She puffed herself out, spreading her wings a little. This was the moment she’d been building towards, the one she’d been preparing for. “We can’t go home, ever. Whatever conditions brought you here were fundamentally an entropically inconceivable accident. Even if we could repair the device on our end, you could end up anywhere. The trip would never be worth the risk.”
Theo stared out at the model, letting the weight of those words settle on her. Certainly they were discouraging—they were meant to be. But as she thought about it, she realized she was worried about nothing. She grinned, bouncing suddenly up and down.
“I think we might’ve accidentally discovered the thing that hippogriffs have been using for all these years!” She circled around the model, voice eager. “Barrow Observatory was recently commissioned by Graz University to perform a high-energy particle observation experiment. I was in the process of upgrading the array when I ended up here. It wasn’t an accident—it happened the instant I switched on the diagnostic. And I know it must still be working on the other side, because the next day I got a radio reply!”
She started pacing back and forth, barely even watching Kate’s expression. She couldn’t easily tell what emotions the other hippogriff might be feeling in any case, with her expression a mask like that.
“I think if we can get the bridge on our side fixed before the experiment ends, we should be able to cross right back! We can go home, Kate!” She reached out, settling one claw on her shoulder, before being casually brushed aside.
“I wish it were that simple,” Kate answered, her voice seeming strangely cold. “Summer, you don’t know how complex the machinery is on this side. Even I barely understand the gateway. Its components are mostly spells, not mechanical or electrical. Even when physically damaged, they apparently mend themselves—but not correctly. I’m certain that if the door’s power reserves weren’t already depleted, your arrival finished that task. You saw yourself—when you opened the door a second time, you were not able to return home.”
Summer stopped, frowning to herself. “How do you… know that?”
“Because you just said you got radio contact,” Kate said hastily. “If it was more than that, you wouldn’t be standing in my office.”
“Oh, right.” She relaxed again. “I think you’re right about power—but that’s a solvable problem. We can go south to the hippogriffs, and ask for their help.”
Kate shook her head again, turning away from the model and looking out at the setting sun with a distant, pained expression. “Again you run up against a barrier I have already encountered, Summer. The hippogriffs are not a cooperative faction. They seem… determined that the door never be opened again. Their fear for whatever is on the other side well exceeds irrational. Even a mention of humanity often results in hostility.”
Theo slumped onto her haunches in front of the desk, remembering her experience with the ambassador. She hadn’t exactly been treated well during that conversation. As soon as he’d seen proof of her humanity, he’d tried to get her locked away.
At least Kate hadn’t tried to do that. She spoke English, and she had artifacts from Earth. Theo wasn’t crazy! “If they’re so afraid of us, wouldn’t they be trying to get rid of us? You’re from Earth, and so am I. We’re loose to do whatever we want in Equestria. And apparently… we do a lot.” She glanced over her shoulder at the vast office again, and the designs framed on the wall.
Kate shook her head. “We’re in Equestria. They don’t seem to care how much trouble we cause as long as we leave their nation-state alone. If you tried to go to Seaquestria, you’d see for yourself. They’d lock you up and throw away the key. But… you don’t have to worry, Summer.” She fumbled in her drawer, removing something. An envelope, with something heavy inside. It thumped onto the desk between them.
“I wrote to you with a promise that we humans would stick together, and I meant it. I’ve amassed… more money than any one person can spend. So long as you’re in the city, I’ll make sure you live just as well as I do, no strings attached. But if you want to work for Feather, I’m sure we can find a place for you. Whatever your technical background, I guarantee you’re beyond every living person on this planet. Unless you’re an electrical engineer, in which case you’re beyond everyone else on this planet.” She chuckled, mostly to herself. Theo didn’t laugh along.
Theo reached out, scooping the envelope off the desk and turning it over in front of her. It wasn’t sealed, she could glance inside easily. A single scrawled note, and what looked like a house key.
Kate was offering her a life here in Manehattan. A comfortable, well-appointed life. From the total lack of signs of aging on Kate’s face, it was one that would probably last a decent long while. Longer than a real bird lived, anyway.
“Don’t you want to go home?” She wasn’t sure where the words came from, but she asked them anyway, settling the envelope down on the table in front of her. “The experiment on the other side only runs for… another year? There’s limited space up there. That’s assuming they didn’t end it already, which… I’m going to assume, because my disappearance shouldn’t reflect bad on the project. But still. We have a window we could use to go back. Maybe it will be hard, maybe we have to convince the hippogriffs to help us.
“But look at all this!” She gestured around with her wings. “I know what’s convincing to most people, money. Maybe all we have to do is buy off a hippogriff to come with us with their… necklace-things. Whatever they are. And you said it yourself, you’ve been studying the portal for years now! If anyone can fix it, you can.”
Kate sat back in her chair, her expression going hard again. She settled both claws on the desk in front of her, tapping them impatiently as Theo ranted. At least she didn’t interrupt until she finished.
“Returning to Earth is too dangerous,” she repeated, like the words of some sacred mantra. “You probably won’t even end up on the right planet… and more importantly, even the attempt would upset a delicate balance of factors I have been working very precisely to control for almost a decade.” She spun her chair around, turning her back on Summer as she looked out the window.
Out in Manehattan below, the lights were coming on. Buildings lit up, and spotlights began to shine on billboards. Many were for Feather products. Did she buy those specifically, or does she just own all of them? “Maybe you haven’t taken the time to look, but this world is an opportunity, Summer. There are virgin soils out there, never touched. Ancient land still belongs to the ones who first settled it. There’s no hole in the ozone, the oceans aren’t rising.”
She spun back around, folding her claws across the desk. “We have a responsibility to these creatures. We aren’t just here to enjoy the luxuries that creating things for them provides. We’re prophets from a… doomed time. With my guidance, this planet can be kept from making the same mistakes as the one we left behind. Yes, that takes money, and exploiting certain resources… but the goal was never to keep civilization primitive. Even if I could leave today, I wouldn’t. Who would guide them if I don’t?”
Can’t they guide themselves? If you already think they made better choices, why would bringing us help?
“Okay.” Theo raised her wings defensively, backing a little way away from the desk. “I’m not trying to pressure you to leave, I’m sorry. I know you’ve been here a lot longer than I have. Obviously you’ve worked things out. You learned their language, you built this whole… company. That’s a lot to give up. But what about me? Let me take your bits and… travel south. I already have some friends who were willing to make the trip.”
Maybe if they don’t already hate me, they’ll still be willing to go. “They can take me down there. I might not even need your help, but… I wouldn’t say no. Maybe you could let me borrow what you’ve learned about the portal. If you have any designs, or technical sketches. I’m more of a software developer than an electrical engineer, but I can probably understand whatever you wrote.”
Kate’s expression remained unreadable. She tapped two claws on the desk, in a way that seemed casual to Theo, like a tick. Except that the guards on both sides of the room suddenly straightened, turning towards them. They still didn’t move—she was just getting their attention.
“I already explained this, Summer. I’m not going to explain it again. I’m sorry you lost Earth. But if you go back, your disappearance will be impossible to explain away.” She folded her claws across the desk again. “Can I be straight with you? I’m going to be straight with you.”
Theo nodded, rising to her claws and approaching the desk. “What do you think is going to happen to this place if those…” She cleared her throat. “If those people on the other side of that portal figure out what’s out here? A virgin world, uncorrupted, unspoiled. Perfect. You said it yourself, they might’ve accidentally discovered the way across. Combination of some… new telescope and the aurora. I’ve known it was possible for some time, since I had to build something similar to get here in the first place. For all I know, that university found my old designs.”
Summer’s mouth hung open, but she didn’t interrupt. She did keep glancing over her shoulder, wishing she’d listened to Sharp a little more with every moment.
“The balance I keep is on both sides of the doorway. Pressure on the hippogriffs to keep away from their old artifacts—otherwise, they might end up opening a door they should’ve left closed. And pressure on Earth, not to discover this. Obviously something must’ve been different about your crossing, or we would have had half a dozen people here by now. But no one fell here after you did. That means we’re still safe over here.”
She slumped forward, rubbing her temples with two claws. They weren’t actually sharp—she’d apparently trimmed them so close they were almost like fingers. Almost. “If none of the other difficulties before you will deter you, then listen to this, Summer. I am the most powerful person in Equestria. Even their monarch doesn’t have the eyes I have. Yeah, it fucking sucks that you lost your dick. It sucks you lost your family, or maybe your lover, or I don’t really care what. Cry about it, you’ve earned a good cry.
“But when you’re done crying, look me in the eye and realize you aren’t going home. I will not allow any hint of the bridge to be seen on that side. I will do anything to prevent that information from spreading. I’ve bought politicians, I’ve manipulated archeological funding boards. I’ve made ships never reach their ports.”
She tapped the desk again, and the guards began to approach. Slowly, keeping their distance. Earth ponies of that size would be faster than she was, and much stronger. There would be no getting past them to reach the doors.
“Take that envelope, live a life of luxury. Maybe help me save this planet, if you want to. Or don’t, just drink and fuck and die. There’s no cocaine here, but I could probably get you a metric assload of opium if you wanted it. I’ll get you anything you want, so long as you stay where I can see you, and don’t try to open things that should stay closed. Are we clear?”
Summer backed away from the guards. She was already up against the desk—so she moved to the side, towards the bookshelf. “We’re clear,” she said, opening the envelope and holding up the key. “So this… this is somewhere for me to live?”
Kate relaxed. “Yes. Now let’s see sense for a moment. We don’t need to be enemies. Humans should stick together. Just enjoy what I want to give you, and don’t give me grief. It isn’t a bad life here, really. Equestria might seem primitive, but it isn’t as culturally different as you think. For all you know, you might forget about being a man.”
Summer moved in a blur, slamming her shoulder into the model. It tumbled, heavy stone and metal table crashing right into the window. The glass shattered in a spectacular spray of multicolored shards.
“The fuck are you—”
The first guard lunged for her. Summer dodged, climbing up on the wrecked desk and leaping out the opening. Glass dug into her side and one of her back legs, but she ignored it—it didn’t hurt much.
She didn’t even think about the distance, and the spectacular drop down below her. She spread her wings and flew.
Seriously, the amount of focus the story places on rubbing his gender change in his face is starting to get outright creepy, and I can't even tell if it's intentional or not at this point. Not to mention the weird focus on constantly saying his name is weird, when it really isn't whether you look at it as an Equestrian or as a human.
I can clearly see why Kate wants to keep the doorway closed, to keep the humans from ruining Equestria. Kate, however, seems to have forgotten just how obstinate the human male can be, especially when said human male has been emasculated against his will and someone is doing her level best to keep him from gong home. Oh, well, we all make mistakes, right? Theo and Kate both.
Forget about being a man... Kate, with those words you have proved the arrogance of power overriding common sense of common men. A clear cut case of foot-in-mouth disease. I'm not a doctor, so I can't suggest a cure. Hope you like the taste of hoof.
Honestly, Kate and her whole "all of humanity is evil and will ruin everything forever" spiel would piss me off too. I'd never agree to anything she says. It also seems like there is a way home, but Kate is doing her best to suppress it.
Also, Is Kate clueless about her whole "white mans burden" thing she's doing? Gotta enlighten those savages, am I right?
Kate is correct. Die in place with some honor, Theo.
Trashing that relationship with Kate was just STUPID. My god, choose your battles, dude.
9799918
Not just that. Theo's arrival also proved that humans have (accidentally) built the other end of the doorway.
And the radio transmission proved that the door opening didn't destroy the doorway-structure(the observatory).
Now it's just a matter of time until the phenomenon it is observed again.
Even if the observatory is deconstructed, a similar experiment might be set up again in the future.
In the end no matter how much power they have amassed, no single human is capable of stopping all of humanity, there are just too many humans for that in this age. And now there is one in Equestria who wants to go home.
From this point onward I would have begun preparing Equestria for eventual contact with humans.
9799953
that is me to a T we humans are awesome and were the best around i do agree with her on the civilising the primitives angle though
9799918
9799953
Nah, is all bullshit. Kate´s true concern is having to deal with competition.
He/She has become used to being a normal fish in a small pound. Kate currently runs a powerful corporation and own ultra-advanced tech which grants her an edge in almost every area ("Even their monarch doesn’t have the eyes I have."). And everyone has to deal with it because she is the only one who can provide such wonderful gizmos.
Now, if the portal is repaired and humanity discovers Equus suddenly there will be a lot of governments and organizations compiting for the resources. Kate just wants to keep this "paradise" for herself.
I wonder if there’s any significance to Emerald’s full name being Emerald Aurora?
Also, I’m having trouble picturing what these characters look like. All I can remember is that Sharp Edge has a spiked mane and Emerald Aurora is grey and green, and I recently re-read the early chapters. And then Kate isn’t described at all.
Calling it now: the aurora is significant because of electromagnetic interference.
"elivator" is a typo for "elevator".
"until the lever shut" doesn't make sense - maybe it should be "until the door shut"?
Hope he can put his bits where his mouth is.
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/jamesbond/images/4/4a/Mister_Bullion_%28Goldie%29_-_Profile.jpg
At least Theo isn’t staying fooled/on the dark side for long, even if they’re still mad at Sharp. On the other hand, now they’ve got to, what, race like a batpony out of Tartarus for Mt. Aris? And Kate’s probably truthful (if self-interestedly so) about what reception they can most likely expect (namedropping of the Princess Of Friendship aside).
More confusing is that Kate claims to not be able to reinitiate contact with Earth, yet implies she’s continuing to manipulate things there as well as in Equestria (possibly via agents such as those we met two chapters ago?).
...Also, is the summary in the chapter titles from any particular POV? Most (such as this one) seem to be from Theo/Summer’s, but a few referred to the group in third person.
Well, Theo now has two enemies. Back to Sharp and Emerald I guess. It's gonna be awkward but awkward is better than dead.
Considering the rest of world isn't hooked up yet, there probably isn't much she could do with it.
Kate's a problem, but Sharp might not be innocent either.
That sounds a bit more spiteful than it needed to be.
Uh...not really.
There ain't no time to fly when you're busy taking over the world.
A super advanced race afraid of humans. Strange they didn't just destroy Earth. Must be something. Pacifism? Whatever First Inheritance is?
Other than the morality and ethics of "guiding" the civilization, ponies suddenly leveling up in the tech tree might make the hippogriffs more jumpy. They might start caring about the humans interfering with their world.
She has a God Complex. Humanity can't help these poor ponies but she alone with a her trusted disciples can bring about a new era of prosperity.
The heck is she doing against them? It's almost like she is waging some sort of private war against them.
Ouch. Rubbed her face in the mud and kicked her for good measure. I could only imagine what she said to Sharp when their "friendship" ended.
Oh, so she's a human traitor. Picking their side over helping her species, huh? What a d***.
Am I the only one who believe all hippogriffs are descendants from human visitors, and super in denial about it.
And another thing... Theo is acting so rash here and wit Sharp... it’s almost as if there’s some sort of hormonal thing going on that’s messing with his thinking. Whatever could that be?
Other than her being a cunt, I'm 100% on Kate's side. She's completely correct, in just about every way. I feel for Theo, I really do, but there is no way this ends well for Equestria if humans discover them. Additionally, if Kate can figure out a way to spark the information age in Equestria without causing climate change that is also a major win. And it seems that is her goal.
Unless something happens to make her out to be an even bigger cunt than shown here, I'm likely to remain on her side. Though I still dislike her as a person, I can grudgingly agree with her points.
9799953
I don't think Kate is correct in her reasonings, but she is correct that humans discovering Equestria wouldn't be good. It would change both worlds too much, too soon. And too far in humans' favor. They'll be able to reverse engineer magic faster than Equestria can technology, meaning humans will become even more advanced than they already are. Infrastructurally, scientifically, and they have the population to out compete them.
Better to wait until Equestria is on equal footing technologically, first. Otherwise a number of things could go wrong.
Just one thing feather. oh what is that.... I can fly byeeeeeee
I disagree with almost everything Kate said, she's just as corrupting of an influence as the rest of Humanity would be by her definition, and she's ignoring all of the potential benefits that could come from inter-species cooperation (90% of pollution could easily be solved with magic, stopping dangerous hurricanes, solving the global food crisis, and ponies clearly have an appetite and use for advanced technology) , not to mention they have a means of functional, economic, INTERDIMENSIONAL travel, and the practically incalculable benefits that could bring both species, she's forcing them to ignore it. I'm pretty convinced that on top of her Misanthropy (unfortunate, and incorrect, but not uncommon), she's just to use to being a big fish in a small pond, and doesn't want her house of cards to come crashing down around her. That being said, not sure why Theo ran away so deliberately, could have just walked out of the building, took the bits, and then betrayed kate afterwards.
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It might be the other way around. Humans are descendants of the hippogriff civilization. "First Inheritance" sounds promising. Also the fact that two different experiments recreated the conditions required for travel. The Hippogriffs are masters of transformation magic. And don't forget the government agents' reactions to the portal story. Theodor Pichler and Summer Ray are truly two sides of the same coin.
9800364
A little bit of identity crisis mixed in with the feeling of betrayal. Whatever happens to the gang, Sharp will be kept at a distance. Whatever doubts Theo had about returning to Earth are now gone. But so is any future relationship between her and Sharp.
9800553
You might be right about that. But it might be the hippogriffs that are the true threat. They won't like the fact that an "inferior" pony civilization is suddenly bootstrapped into the future. And their fear of humans might blow up into a true interstellar war. We don't know how much knowledge or technology of their old civilization they retained but any amount would spell disaster to both humanity and ponies. Humans might end up exploiting the world and that is a bad thing, but hippogriffs are consumed by fear (or at least a group of them). They are the ones likely to act irrationally.
9800735
I don't think she's misanthropic. It's more of a case of understanding the consequences of an advanced race meeting with a "less advanced" race. There will be great social disruption of the "inferior" civilization. Not to mention all the sort of societal problems that come with technological development (pollution, war, industrial exploitation, etc.). I guess she thinks her subtle manipulation will be enough to avoid the growing pains and problems our civilizations went through and are still going through. Though I have to say it's not fair for her to judge us the way she did. We didn't have anyone bootstrapping us. We had to learn lessons the hard way. Ponies will have to learn those lessons one way or another if they have access to that sort of tech. Then again Kate is painfully ambitious.
9800846
The belief that Ponies are a less technologically advanced civilization than humans is indisputable, but that's not the same thing as being a weaker civilization. In terms of military might Ponies don't have defenses against guns or nukes, but human's don't have much of a defense against hurricanes. That's without even considering more directly offensive magics or immortal rulers capable of tossing around celesital bodies like baseballs. On top of which the fact that having a single choke point between dimensions that's barely wide enough to drive a truck through isn't really conducive to invasions. I don't think they'd have to worry to hard about going the way of the Aztecs.
Now, If you're talking about economic domination of a lesser nation, I also don't think that this would be too much of an issue. While Equestria can't be considered post-scarcity, and can't compare to earth's industrial might, it clearly has an industrial base (mass produced products, chain stores, etc), a decently high GDP per capita (If the apple's are considered poor, they're still much better off than most of earth), and while there would definitely be cross portal business, the restrictions on travel and shipping between the two just wouldn't be conducive to economic domination even if the portal was open 24-7. It would just be too logistically difficult to make equestria dependent on earth for anything other than low volume luxury goods (ie, high tech gear)
The only route I can see that might actually have a chance of being dangerous would be cultural domination. while this would undoubtably bring change to equestrian culture, it would hardly be a one way street. No reason Countess coloratura couldn't be just as big on earth as any earth artist on equestria. I'd imagine it might go something like the cultural relationship between the US and Japan. While one side is culturally dominant by shear account of volume, and is largely consumed and enjoyed by the smaller nations, the smaller regions still retain their cultural character, individual contributions, and obtains influence on the larger culture as well (Pokemon for example). Additionally, I really don't see this as a problem, as culture is always changing, and I don't think that it should be preserved and isolated simply for traditions sake, but that's just my opinion.
As for growing pains, again, most could be easily avoidable through the use of magic. Based on some back of the napkin math, you could power a small town for a day with about 1000 lightening bolts, and considering they only take a few seconds to make, that's like a hours work for 10 pegasi. Who's worried about co2 pollution when you can practically grow forests on demand. While this won't solve everything, it would greatly help. Additionally, despite what many people seem to believe, war is not a biproduct of technological advancement, while the opposite is sometimes true, making peoples lives easier shouldn't lead to them killing each other more often just for the sake of it.
Ultimately, she is ignoring the benefits of bringing together the worlds. Society gets better when we cooperate and bring new ideas to the table, which is primarily what connecting the worlds would allow. Both sides could advance so much farther and better than they ever could alone.
Sorry for the rant, once I got thinking about this I just couldn't stop
9799887
I mean have you read Star's other fics? This isn't anything new and isn't overkill. Completely ignoring it would be weird
9799964
That wasn't a relationship. That was a threat. "Live in my gilded cage or I will ruin everything for you, and prevent you from achieving your goals or reaching your destination." It wasn't even a particularly veiled threat.
9800282
Kate isn't picking ponies/hippogriffs over humans. She's picking greed over Theo and going home. The only thing she's betraying is any relationships she personally had on Earth, if there were any at all.
9800974
All valid points but I think Kate is more worried about the sort of social disruption ponies will inflict upon themselves with the introduction of new technology rather than whatever plans humanity would have for them. She's probably betting that ponies will act like humans with the introduction of new technology. But ponies don't have first hoof experience with the social effects technology creates. Given how successful Feather is and the sort of culture that rose with it, it's not an entirely false assumption.
Technically, it is technology that allows the faster processing of resources, which in turn allows the rapid growth of nations and an increasing hunger for more resources. With the fact that resources are finite, nations will have to compete, thus making war increasing likely. It's kind of a chicken and egg story. War does speed things up though. Though I wonder if the information age might be a greater catalyst for development.
The story seems to imply that the World Wars spurred the development of tech ponies don't have. Guess Kate wants to give that tech basically for free. She doesn't seem to believe humanity would be willing to share the lessons it learned. It might be a bad idea though. Without experience, ponies might have a WW1 that suspiciously looks like a WW3.
Though I'm starting to think she's trying to develop a rival (or at least buffer) to either the Seaquestrian Hippogriffs (if they're still advanced) or the original interstellar Hippogriff civilization (if Seaquestria is a "degenerate" colony). Having someone vastly more powerful looking over your shoulder but doing nothing must be nerve wracking.
But it's not though. It certainly shouldn't be to Kate, you know, the other person from Earth?
Is there some deep inside joke I'm missing or something? Because this doesn't make any plausible sense. I'm starting to think you had the worst falling out with someone named Theodor or something.
The Castle of Friendship having elevators... Well, I suppose it's possible. That's basically what a tree's vascular system is. But good luck scaling it up for something larger than water and nutrients.
Bold of you to assume Kate isn't keeping some good stuff for herself.
It's an Einstein-Rosen bridge, Theo. It'll take a bit more than an engineer with a laptop to crack it.
The colony theory would explain a lot. Especially since Seaquestria may not be the only colony we know of. Equestria's history goes back millennia; who's to say when the travelers first came to Earth?
She knew your name, Theo. She's clearly been spying on you. Well, not you specifically, not at first, but she's definitely had someone watching the device.
Call it the hu-man's burden.
Kate has definitely bought into her own hype. You're not a god, dear, you're just a Connecticut Yankee in Princess Celestia's court. I can understand her professed motivations, but there's definitely an element of "I'm in a comfortable position and I will do anything to ensure I stay here" at work. Such as stick a thermite charge in an airship engine.
Yeah, Theo is not in a good situation right now. The question is whether she can salvage it to any degree.
9801352
Given the response, I think she means "Strange name for a woman."
This might be controversial, but I agree with parts of what Kate is saying. She should be helping guide Equestria into a prosperous future using her knowledge. But she shouldn't try to force them to change or act like she's better, because she just knows how to make advanced technology. She should also try to prevent the destruction of the environment with things like pollution, but she should do that by guiding the equestrians to a greener, more renewable path.
9800974
Well, how powerful the immortals in MLP are really isn't much of a problem because other than like Tirek, Discord, and Sombra all of them are quite vulnerable to something as mundane as a baseball bat to the back of the skull. People give them all way too much credit.
And given the canon, anything other than unicorn magic is just a liability. How many pegasi are needed to form and sustain something like a hurricane? What's the margin or effort before the whole thing goes pear shaped and they lose control of it? Like pony buildings aren't immune to being destroyed and they aren't immune to the elements.
"those back home would do everything they can to exploit and control this world"
"stand back while I exploit and control this world"
bit of a god-complex going on there as well
9802039
Good point about the immortals being vulnerable (as far as we know, but that's more of a head cannon question). As for only unicorn magic being a threat, keep in mind, before the unification, the other two tribes apparently were able to avoid unicorn domination or conquest, and I doubt it was just through the skill of their diplomats. That's true about wide scale effects being potentially costly to maintain over time, but lets look at something more small scale. We've seen that a single pegasus can make a lightning producing cloud man (mare?) portable. The average lightning bolt on earth can travel 25 miles, and carries about 1,000,000,000 joules of energy. For reference, a round from a .45 colt carries 1,600 joules. Obviously such a small cloud wouldn't be so drastic, but even if a personal lightning bolt was has 1 millionth the power and 1000th the range of an earth one, it would still be comparable to a bullet in terms of destructive power. Obviously we can't make any real estimates equestria's military potential, especially due to the inconsistency of magic's capabilities shown, and based on what I've seen I'd say that earth would probably win due to lacking the same linchpins of power and having greater population, resources, and experience. However, the point I was trying to make was that conquering Equestria, as it's been described in this story, would be extremely difficult, costly, and not really practical without extremely serious provocation, making one of kate's potential objections to contacting earth a non-issue.
Neat.
I'm torn on Kate. On one hand, she's clearly a manipulative, controlling monster pretty much exactly as described by Sharp. But on the other hand, she may not be wrong about keeping the door closed between Earth and Equestria.
OK but, like, why did Theo jump out the window. She could've easily run away after leaving the building.
9806247
She couldn't leave any other way. And apparently she objected to Kate so much to even "pretend" to accept and quietly leave (or knew she would be followed).
I'd like to believe that if they ever came face to face, the Equestrians would ultimately have a more positive influence on the Humans than Humans having an ultimately negative influence on the Equestrians. Friendship is magic after all. Just a thought.
9811528
Then we find a way to start a proper war with them anyway. -_-
In Kate's place I'd still attempted to keep existence of a portal under the rugs, though. Way too much risk.
Not sure what side this referring to. I get the feeling Late has more access to Earth than she is letting on. She knew Theo came through, she knows about Barrow, and she knew about the gate before she came over since she mentioned research at a university. Not sure what University though 9801405 mentioned Connecticut.
10021584
Don't think I know what I'm talking about. That's a very dangerous mistake. That was just a reference to a Mark Twain novel.
Theo is holding the biggest, fattest, most obnoxious Idiot Ball in this chapter and it's getting on my nerves. There was LITERALLY NO REASON FOR HER TO BREAK THINGS AND FLY AWAY. All she did was piss off someone powerful before getting away from their clutches. It's a dramatic exit for the reason of having a dramatic exit and no other.
10182146
Kate just explained she killed to keep the bridge a secret, and the bodyguards were closing in on Theo. If Theo went with them, there's a chance he might never escape.
10264638
Yooo, you're right. I think Sharp had mentioned something of a Hippogriff curse that sinked boats, and this must be it! A mass killing spree disguised as a legend. Crazy little detail, I love it.
The villain has a point, but it is coming from the wrong angle and from the wrong person. The villain has also admitted to complete corruption and a willingness to commit murder. Theo really is an idiot for not seeing this before now. There have been obvious hints since the beginning of the story. I won't name them, but they started back in the Crystal Empire and have only gotten more obvious from there.
That last part would piss me off. It's like someone said to you "your my bitch now". Also he switched genders. Extra pissed off.