There was a light. Light in the eyes of the Equines, light in the whole room, piercing through his closed eyelids, hurting his retinae. Not even shielding his eyes with open hands helped.
In a moment the light subsided and all the Equines fell to the floor. The pink one with her hair puffed out, no one would fathom it used to be straight; Fluttershy, no longer limping; the blue one, no longer bruised. But outside of that, everything appeared unchanged.
The power was slowly switching back on, and the advisor heard the uncalibrated communications, orders barked back and forth, nowhere and everywhere. He listened in.
There wasn’t anyone complaining about being displaced in space or time. The Ion Cannon Frigates were at their places, the Fighters buzzing happily about them. Equestria was still in danger.
The advisor took off his headset and switched it off. With his eyes closed, he tried his best not to think of what would come next.
“Hey, Twi, did we win? I can’t see anything through this metal.” Someone kicked the wall, causing it the reverbs to echo across the room and forced the speaker to cover his ears. The carpet didn’t help too much.
“I, uh...” Twilight stammered. “I don’t know.” There was a slight, peculiar buzzing sound, the one the advisor heard whenever he saw a unicorn casting a spell. “Still can’t cast my magic here. It seems we’re trapped. What if the Elements were weakened by the Inhibitors too?!”
There was a crackle of static in the room’s speakers. “Um, are we connected, Fleet Command?” someone asked. The advisor opened his eyes. The screen in the room wasn’t on, it was only the sound contact coming in from somewhere.
“Yes, you are connected to the whole Fleet, expedition team,” answered Fleet Command’s soothing voice. If she could use her lips through all the machinery she was roped into, the advisor bet she’d be smirking slightly.
“Oh, the whole fleet? All right. Well, let me explain what happened here. Turns out the crystalline ornaments in the ruins we’ve found weren’t actually ornaments at all. They’re conduits for the psychic energy, we believe. We don’t have the machinery here to test it clearly, but... Never mind. They’re powered up now. The whole city glows like a supernova.
“But, you see, this is just the beginning. Most of the machinery here is down, except for one thing. The sphere we’ve noticed in the main building. With the power up, I think we can calibrate it...
“It seems to show a galaxy. This galaxy. It seems so similar to ours.” The scientist fell silent for a moment. “This world is highlighted along with a number of others. One of the worlds is highlighted stronger. We’re centering on it to see what it is.” The silence stretched into minutes.
“Fleet Command, are we still connected?”
“Yes, the Fleet can hear you.”
“We’re bringing in a camera, I hope it still works. You must see it.”
The screen in the room flashed to life. The advisor took a minute to adjust his eyes and finally see what was there, and even then he didn’t quite register it. White spheres were probably stars, green, he believed, were inhabitable planets. Above one of the planets there was a white arrow, perhaps an indication of where they were. In the centre there was a slightly bigger green sphere with a blue ring circling it. What was the most curious, however, was that the sphere was labelled Hiigara.
The word “Hiigara” was on the Guidestone, as the advisor remembered. The Guidestone led them to a planet, with a portal on its surface, which in turn transported the whole Fleet here.
The advisor took out his cigar, unmindful of the six curious stares directed at him. With shaking hands, he fished through his pockets for something to fill it up with, but found his vial was empty. He looked to the right and found the body of his unconscious colleague there, a full nicotine vial in his pocket. The advisor filled his cigar and lit it up.
A few puffs of vapour unclenched his muscles. With a few twitches in his eye, he chuckled at first, then broke into a full laugh. “This isn’t Hiigara! Hahaha!” He paused for a moment, clenching his stomach, but still laughing. “Did you hear it, Fleet Command? It isn’t Hiigara!”
The guards that later barged into the room found a most bizarre scene. Two unconscious guards at either side, with the advisor – an old and respected man – rolling around in laughter, six ponies staring at him, baffled.