Twilight landed with an explosion of light and sound. She was barely even conscious of the drop through the air, to land roughly on ground charred by the magic of their passing. Her ears rang and bright white splotches were all she could see. Even so she clutched at her necklace with one hoof, desperate for the touch of something familiar.
Yes, the power of her spells was still here. Just as a world close enough for Flurry to survive would probably have life that was similar to theirs, it would also need the rules of magic to be similar.
The terrifying possibility that she would find herself without her magic and lose her soul faded, and she slowly caught her breath.
This is why we’re sending probes. Ponies shouldn’t be taking risks like this. We aren’t helping Flurry if dozens of creatures have to die to bring her back.
As the world came back into focus, Twilight could see the damage from the probe’s trip. A sphere had been charred through dense foliage, about ten feet in all directions. The search spell tried to find open ground, but apparently the trailing branches of the willow-like trees weren’t thick enough to register.
The ground was black, but at least there weren’t any disfigured skeletons, or tiny civilizations crushed under their hooves. With an infinite number of worlds, there was an infinite number of ways Twilight could do harm.
Cadance had dropped her spear in transit, but she levitated it up now, leaning against the metal shaft rather than threatening with it. “You didn’t say the trip would be so… difficult.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “We crossed out of one universe and into another one. I didn’t think I had to explain.”
Twilight walked slowly towards the edge of their bubble, charred dirt warm under hooves. She kept her breathing slow, though the cold of her necklace against her coat suggested none of its defensive spells were in effect.
So either she was right about there being no poisons on this side, or her magic just wasn’t sensitive enough to detect the danger.
Humid air pressed her coat against her skin, and made each breath come heavily. Still, the sky was bright blue overhead, and the dense forest around them seemed like it might’ve fit in perfectly in the White Tail Woods without any difficulty.
Maybe this is the White Tail Woods, in a world where no ponies cleared it to build Ponyville. Twilight levitated her saddlebags to the ground in front of her, removing a heavy wooden box. As she flicked it open, half a dozen little trays opened with it, each one holding a different tool or pile of prepared raw ingredients.
Twilight took a set of tweezers, and carefully plucked a single leaf from beyond the reach of her burned bubble. She was careful never to contaminate it with Equestrian magic, or else spoil her readings with a false positive. There was no reason to get their hopes up for nothing.
“How close is Flurry?” Cadance asked, suddenly inches from Twilight’s face. She jerked, dropping her sample to the ground and contaminating her sterile tweezers.
She groaned, then unwrapped a fresh pair. “We don’t even know if this is the correct universe, Cadance. How about you, uh… protect me, while I do the examination. It will take a few minutes of concentration to get it right.”
Cadance snapped to attention, though her form wasn’t half as good as an actual guard. “You got it, Twilight! I’ll guard you while you lead us to my daughter.”
That isn’t what we’re doing. She didn’t bother correcting her, just went to work on the new sample. She ground away at a leaf, extracting its essence and dissolving it in a thin tube and dropping a little crystal shard inside.
I probably should’ve planned on this mission taking thirty seconds. We should’ve just taken samples back to my lab like the probes do.
“Stop right there!” Cadance shouted, her voice echoing through the trees. “I see you! Come out, or we’ll defend ourselves!”
It doesn’t really seem like self-defense if we’re the ones threatening other creatures.
Twilight looked up from the sample, following Cadance’s gaze to where something was moving in the trees. At least the crystal princess hadn’t gone insane with paranoia, yet.
Something with light blue feathers and skin, watching from above.
Then it landed abruptly, touching down on the edge of their protected bubble.
It didn’t remotely resemble a pony, or anything close to one. The general shape was vertical like a minotaur, though it was completely furless. It had wings instead of forelegs, and birdlike claws like a griffon. Its eyes were smaller though, and it didn’t have a beak.
Those claws might be dangerous, but not much more than a griffon or hippogriff.
The feathers around its head suggested hair, and its bare chest made her guess it might be female, though it was hard to say.
Then it spoke, and somehow Twilight could understand what it said. “Outworlders. Why do you flock so low? Are you seeking a debt to be paid, or… collectors?”
She fumbled with her mouth in a little sack of something that looked terrifyingly like leather, then drew out a few metal disks. Not bits, but the same gold composing them. “No debt of mine.”
“We’re looking for my daughter,” Cadance called, before Twilight could even form words. No friendly greeting, no explanation of where they’d come from or telling that they were just peaceful explorers.
But Cadance probably isn’t peaceful. If she thinks this bird-thing will stop us from getting Flurry back, she’ll be violent.
“She looks like me, but smaller. Wings, horn, four hooves. Have you seen her?”
“Probably not, Cadance,” Twilight whispered. “We’re a thousand miles away from where she crossed.”
“Outworlders can talk! Good, good. Not sure what anyone would do with livestock on four legs. Better that you’re visitors, and not animals.”
The glow around Cadance’s spear grew brighter. She didn’t swing it at this bird, or point it in her direction. Instead she ground the shaft into the dirt, hard enough that the metal squeaked in protest.
“Answer my question. Have you seen another like us?”
Twilight glanced back to her test. It was nearly finished now, the water boiled away to a paste left in the tube. It shifted through a myriad of different colors as the crystal tried to match.
“This one never has. Walking on the ground, talking, wearing strange clothes of metal. No. Never seen you.”
This time Twilight was ready, cutting Cadance off before she could ask something else the stranger wouldn’t know how to answer. “You called us ‘Outworlders’. Do travelers come to your world often?”
The bird might have a furless face, but Twilight had more experience than most with that. She knew excitement when she saw it. “Not enough, not enough!” She spread her wings as she spoke, lifting a foot or so before landing closer to them. “Just stories of travelers from far away, so far no one could ever fly there. Stories of wonderful things you bring to trade. This one would like to trade.”
She bent down, picking up the metal disk with her claw and tossing it to the ground in front of Twilight. “What do you have worth gold? Something good? Something to tell stories about?”
“We aren’t here to trade,” Cadance declared, kicking the coin back towards their visitor. It slid along the ground, bumping into her claw. “We want to find the creature like me. One of us got lost here, a baby. If you tell us, we’ll reward you with far more than gold. If you don’t, we’ll be very upset.”
The tube finally stopped glowing, its contents returning to dirty brown. This isn’t the place.
“Creature like you? Yes, uh… right! I remember creature like you, now that you ask. This one knows. Far away! Long flight! You should… give this one something to trade. She can lead you! Outworlders share stories along the way!”
Twilight rested a wing on Cadance’s shoulder, whispering into her ear. “She’s lying, Cadance. My spell is finished, this is the wrong world.” Even as she said it, she could see little sign of comprehension from Cadance. She could hear just fine, but she didn’t want to hear.
“We need to prepare an expedition,” she said. “This creature knows where to go. Or… even better. We can bring her back with us, then travel to Flurry’s Vigil in Equestria and return to this world. She’ll be close to where she arrived, right?”
She gestured with the spear, no longer using the pointy end. “You would do that, right bird? Come with us, then lead us when we cross back into your world?”
The alien spread her wings in alarm, backing out of reach. “With? No, no! Never go with Outworlders! All the stories… never.” She tossed her coin back up into her bag, buttoning it shut. “You trade treasures, I lead you to the one you lost! No crossing or magic for this one!”
Twilight snapped her box shut, settling her saddlebags in place. The recall spell should bring both of them, but she wanted to be close to Cadance just in case. “Thank you for being so friendly with us,” she said, resting one leg on Cadance’s shoulder. That should be all the contact her magic would require.
The ten minutes weren’t up, but she didn’t need them to be. Twilight pressed down on the center of the necklace’s little recall disk, and magic exploded around them.
Their visitor took to the air in a flurry of feathers, swearing and shouting in fear. Twilight covered her eyes, but she was still blinded and deafened in the crossing.
She recovered in seconds this time, as they were dumped back onto the familiar floor of her lab.
So did Cadance, whirling furiously on her. “You took us away from Flurry!” Her eyes flashed, but her spear was gone. She scanned the room in surprise, but her eyes never found it. Apparently the spell had missed something.
At least we weren’t crushed into a bloody pulp like that drone was. “Princess, that was the wrong world.” She ignored Cadance’s anger, ignored the technicians rushing to tend to the portal machinery. They would have dozens of questions, but all that could wait.
She opened up her equipment, levitating the tube closer to Cadance. “This would be pink if we had the right place. Look, Princess Cadance. It’s not.”
Cadance’s anger evaporated in an instant. She snatched the vial, holding it up to the light. But no amount of examination would turn it from brown to pink. “She said—”
“She told us she hadn’t seen another pony,” Twilight interrupted. “Then you told her we were going to bribe her, and she told you what she thought you wanted to hear. I’d be furious, but… considering we could’ve found a dozen evil Alicorns waiting to kill us, I’ll take an opportunistic bird.”
She levitated the heavy box of equipment over to a laboratory table, then looked to Spike. “Make a note. Exploratory incursion 001 was a failure. Mark the portal configuration as inhabited and likely safe. Everypony else, we’ll return to normal operations as soon as we get our next probe.”
Cadance remained entirely still as the technicians and lab assistants went to work cleaning things up. She ignored them as they took each piece of armor from her to sterilize, or when they sprayed her with foam to kill anything they’d brought along by accident.
“Mommy’s coming,” she whispered. “Mommy’s coming.”
I think Twilight needs to call in Celestia to get Cadance to calm the fuck down. This is becoming too much.
Celestia’s a Therapist, right? Think she could help?
10287418
I just hope its leading to something and isn't going to instantly erased once cadance finds flurry heart.
Yeah and that’s why Cadance shouldn’t have been there. Had that been a hostile situation, both of them could’ve been captured, killed, or worse by her hostilities. They’re lucky it was just one creature making assumptions, but even then Cadance almost made a big bad. I mean, they already did in some ways. That spear that was left behind is bound to be found, if not by that creature than by something else, and who knows what they’ll do with it. Best case, it ends up as a collector’s item. Worst case, it results in war, destruction, chaos, something that might bite Equestria as a whole in the arse, etc etc.
Cadance needs some serious TLC. That last line from her is very worrying, her actions in general have been very worrying, I really do not understand why nobody is helping Cadance. She’s literally going bat-shit crazy from her single-minded focus, worry, etc.
Twilight’s comment on how she isn’t hallucinating is actually valid! With how Cadance is acting I wouldn’t be surprised if she started being hyper-paranoid, start hallucinating. Why isn’t Twilight doing anything if she can see so clearly what is happening to her sister-in-law!?
It’s actually incredibly frustrating how little care the characters seem to have for Cadance. At this point it’s effectively “Oh, Cadance is going crazy. Let’s not help and instead exacerbate the issue by allowing her to be close to the situation,”
I mean not just Twilight, but the others around her should be noticing it. You’d think one of the other ponies would approach Twilight like, “Gee, Twilight, maybe we should HELP CADANCE!?”
I mean come on!
Lemme get this straight. I’m not really faulting the author for the character’s inaction here. Yes, I’m frustrated over it, but it’s actually believable that this would happen. Mostly. In the show there’ve been examples of characters ignoring other’s mental states. (Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Luna, Twilight, Cadance, Shining). So it’s believable that Twilight and the others would simply ignore, or not see Cadance’s issues. But there’s really a limit. I mean, Celestia eventually realised Luna’s condition. Applejack’s condition was eventually noticed. Pinkie Pie- actually not a good example they didn’t notice hers. Twilight’s condition was- no never mind I don’t think they noticed hers either.
Point being, while I hate their inaction, it’s totally believable for the characters to act the way they are.
can't read atm but happy it's up.
10287445
It's probably going to go on like this until either Cadence goes full Nightmare or she just snaps in some other way.
That place is mostly harmless is the same way Earth is.
This is how you get Nightmare Cadance. Twilight’s reactions I can understand, her social-fu is lacking so she solves social situations by applying brute force a lot of the time. Instead of calming Cadance down, she instead goes all-in and devotes everything to looking for the metaphorical Solve Everything Button, that’s just who she is. And the thing is, she’s so grossly overpowered that this approach works out for her more often than not. Some kid lost their favorite toy? Consoling a child is hard, and teaching them about dealing with loss is sad and frustrating. How about conjuring a replacement from midair? That doesn’t count? Alright, there are half a dozen powerful tracking spells in that book on the table. It allows her to neatly bypass all the problems that come with actually engaging with other people on an empathetic level—it’s no wonder she needed years of actual, dedicated study to learn how normal interactions work. But what gets me is that no one else seems to notice or care about Cadance’s issues. Twilight might be dealing with them in the only way she knows how, but what about Shining? Celestia? I bet Luna could empathize with her sense of loss right now. And surely Cadance hangs out with non-godlike beings every so often, so where are her friends? Maybe horse-world has a problem with toxic masculinity and everyone is encouraged to bottle up their emotions and ignore outbursts from anyone else. Or perhaps there’s a reasonable explanation, but from where I’m standing, the narrative seems to support the idea that Cadance is a sad, lonely person with no friends.
No Flurry makes Cadance go something something...
10287431
Considering Cadence is going to come across her daughter as either the apparent adopted daughter of another alicorn or a subject of probably cruel experimentation, her snowballing mental state is definitely going somewhere flashy.
better reunited them soon or Candace will become a villain so terrible that she eclipse nightmare moon
Poor bird-person. As far as she can tell, a pair of fae just blasted apart a bit of forest, refused to trade, and tried to get her to come with them to their alien realm. That can't be good for business.
10287445
The issue becomes a question of containment. How do you keep an alicorn who's spiraling out of control from just tearing down every attempt to hold her back? At this rate, they may have to petrify her just to keep her from descending further into madness.
Next stop Twilight meets a galarion ponyta
Cadace is royalty. Not only that but she's Princess Regent of the Chrystal Empire. Exactly how are you supposed to control that? She's an alicorn, besides that and worse a MOTHER whose child has vanished. This is a powder keg situation that needs addressing pronto. Celestia needs to help. Twilight is helping in her way which is finding Flurry. Someone else that is not her sister-in-law has to step up and deal with Cadance and that would be Celestia or perhaps Luna would be better.
I certainly hope that Twilight can tune into the proper universe without any major mishaps along the way. The very fact she's worried should make everybody else worried.
10287534
Not or, and. Celestia and Luna, with Shining's approval - something hard to come, for it's his daughter too.
She's gonna go mad, isn't she?
I don't think this chapter adds anything to the story. We've already had several chapters showing the impact of losing her daughter on Cadance. It makes me worried about the ultimate length of this story.
10287520
But Outworlders left behind a shiny spear as a token of apology! This one is pleased with the outcome.
10287578
The idea here, I think, is to show how the actual world-hopping bit works, show that it's still a lot of trial-and-error that mostly leads to wrong worlds, and therefore explain why it's going to be a while before the ponies are able to actually find the one the rest of the story is taking place in.
Gah! A false alarm, just when we think that they found the right one.
Well, this will be harder than we thought. Seriously though, Cadance should stay for any future trips. It won't be long before the frustration gets to her and she starts physically lashing out at innocent people.
You're not helping yourselves either. Don't know any search-and-rescue attempt where the rescuers would actually put themselves in such unpredictable and dangerous situations. The cold hard calculus speaks for itself: Two dead ponies is worse than one.
This is the sort of frustration that's counter-productive. The bird wasn't bribed as much as she was threatened. This isn't a hostage situation, Cadance. Calm down or get out. You're going to end up doing more harm to Flurry than her teleportation ever did.
I can imagine her face as a combination of:
Try world 666, with luck they will find Flurry
Yeah, to be honest she is being a bit too loopy and is breaking my immersion a bit. She is supposed to be leading the Empire for theoretical Eons and she cannot muster mental fortitude to get her act together and just crack under pressure?
She is a not a liability in just this current event but should be deposed and locked up for the future of all if she is this weak of a of a person.
Uh...why the heck isn't Cadance medically incarcerated?
10288319
Because she's a princess with a temper.
10288394
She's kind of outnumbered by princesses that aren't emotionally distraught dangers to themselves and other (world)s.
10288096
From what I understand Cadance isn't actually that old. Not much more then Twilights parents maybe even. Also I've personally seen what happens to a parent who's child is missing (at least for actual caring parents). The pressure and panic often leads to massive lapses of judgement.
10287520
Not contain that will only make it worse. Help. Give her updates on what's going on but dont let her be involved. Distract her, keep her busy with other things.
I see what you did there.🐦
10288491
This is not panic, it is sustained over period of time. This is mental illness at this point, and Cadence is way too powerful in status and raw oomph to be allowed to roam free if she is this brittle. Even loving parents can get over themselves and act in fashion that somehow resembles logic in time.
Like i said earlier she needs something to do, she is fidgeting and lashing out since she has nothing useful to do. This is why professionals sometimes gets people to cook a meal for the search party or something like it. It keeps them busy and give them feeling of doing something, it is a bit sad that no one is there to keep her in line.
Cadance shows no signs of calming down and being cool about finding Flurry, when that's what's needed the most. This will definitely become – already is a problem.
Cadance needs to be counseled or stoned, but as it stands she is too big of a liability to be allowed to continue directly interfering.
Wouldn't it be just peachy if there was a time differential and it ends up being decades in Earth time for their weeks of Equus time? Come on. Let's My Little Fae it!
Keep going! ;)
yeah cadence is is nit stable and fit for such a task.
Cadance is going to cause huge problems before we're done.
Oh she is, just not about this exact incident.
Okay, yeah, we're in the wrong place.
Huge, massive problems.
10288491
Why would Cadance be older than Twilight's parents? She was her babysitter. A teen when Twilight was a filly.
Artwork for this chapter: https://derpibooru.org/images/2392150
derpicdn.net/img/view/2020/7/6/2392150.jpg
Being super honest, Cadance here doesn't seem to resemble herself in any meaningful way.
Are you telling me that she is willing to trust a shady-ass harpy, but not her sister-in-law who is that child's flesh and blood, with no prior reason given for that distrust?
I know mothers can get upset when their kids go missing, but this is "Those womenfolk sure are hysterical!" levels. Mothers are perfectly capable of thinking rationally when they have to, even in times of crisis.
Flurry Heart has been missing for a long time now, surely she's gotten past the initial freakout stage. Instead, this just feels insulting.
10353502
I think that it’s believable how cadence has gone down the bad side of losing flurry heart. Having all the power, influence, money, magic, and yet no having any tangible progress is hard enough; her desperation and lack of capability to do anything herself could have very easily led her to the mental state she is in now.
10353502
Flurry Heart is the first naturally born Alicorn, and is still a baby, where they don't have much control of their magic and can't exactly tell when they are in danger. We can't forget that some worlds might run off a different time zone. In a magical world, you have to consider all of the possibilities.
Soon™
Also, that bird sounds like she has some stories of her own to share. I wouldn't mind spending a couple hours there to meet the locals if they're all as excitable and generous as she was.
"So there I was, surrounded on all sides by a swam of Zerg, their Queen of Blades looming over my prone form..." Caching.
10402084
Yeah they really shouldn't let her come on future trips because they could have been led into danger and she was so desperate she would have gone willing until it was too late.