//------------------------------// // Part 1, Chapter 3: Assorted Gifts // Story: The Portgate // by Archival //------------------------------// "Any place can be a homely place, if you know how to make it one." -Marie Kate Rose, author of Survival and Persistence in 100 Biomes -Trio- The sky was a shade of soft orange by the time the three castaways had decided to stop searching for anything salvageable. Sunset was about an hour away, and the various woodland animals that inhabited the neighboring woods began to get ready for the night. Nature's ambience had changed from the bird calls of day to the grasshopper chirps of evening. The grasses in the clearing swayed and danced with the breeze, and their verdant colors mixed and blended as they did so. The collection of supplies in the middle of the grassy clearing was rather sizable, with boxes and pallets arranged in a square twenty feet wide. Their dull tones of beige and grey stood out in stark contrast from the bright hues of their alien surroundings, a fact not unnoticed by their collectors. They stood around the boxes, each with a military ration in their hands, and talked amongst each other as they ate their "Chili Mac" meals. "I think we should see what's in those boxes tomorrow. For now," Noah suggested, "it would be a good idea to set up shelter, at least of some sorts." "Yep. Those pallets will come in handy sooner or later," Andrew replied, and they'll make real nice building materials. They won't block rain or cold well, but they can do for now. Speaking of which, how are we gonna find water?" "There's a small creek over there," Noah answered as he pointed towards the east. "We have a few days worth of water over there in the jugs, and we should have enough purification tablets for about two months. I think I can remember how to build a crude charcoal filter, so we should be set for water for as long as we're here if boiling works well. Plus, see those clouds? If there's clouds, that means there's rain, and freshwater, and... Andrew, we'll need a tarp or two for those pallets if it rains." "I thought as much," he replied. He was about to continue his train of thought, but Leah spoke first. "Aw, man, this is really good. What about food?" "Well, we have a few boxes of MREs, and they'll last for... I'd say six months. But afterwards? We'll have to hunt or forage, and I'm not sure if I want to eat alien food. Who knows," Andrew postulated, "the food here might be poisonous or something." "Hey, I'm up for it. Besides, didn't you see the squirrels? If they're anything like our squirrels, I'm willing to dig into one of them." "You'll eat anything," Noah teased. The three humans laughed as Celestia's majestic sun fell, to be replaced by Luna's dazzling night. "Rise and shine, boys!" Andrew and Noah groaned as Leah sprang up from her sleeping spot on the grass. The dim shine of the stars and the candescent glow of the moon provided just enough light to provide an outline of her surroundings, but it wasn't quite bright enough to provide a clear image of anything. The sound of shuffling broke through the twilight ambience as Leah pulled herself to her feet. "...It's not even bright enough to do anything, Leah. Go to sleep." There was a brief silence, then a more frantic shuffling, then a beep. Leah's face suddenly popped out of her dark surroundings as her laptop screen shined its bright white light onto her. "...Whassa matta wifyu?" "Well, if you and Noah are gonna be all dead and lifeless, then I guess I'll have to wait," Leah said to Andrew. Leah typed in her password when the login screen came up and hit the Enter key. She was greeted, as she had expected, with her pitch-black wallpaper and a small column of icons on the screen's left side. She clicked twice on the orange train icon and waited as "Japanese Metro Simulator 2022" booted up. "...Shouldn'cha save yer powrr?" "Don't we have solar chargers?" Leah clicked on the "Continue" button and began to play the game as Noah and Andrew went back to sleep in the serene silence and darkness of their alien yet familiar surroundings, interrupted only by the pitter-patter of a keyboard and the occasional bird call. "Oh, thank god!" Noah let go of the lid that he had just lifted a few seconds ago and picked up the four foot rifle, examining it and searching for scratches or bumps. He ran his hands along the barrel, its tip gleaming in the late morning sun. The words "BARRETT M107 .50 CALIBER" were etched onto the side of the gun. The trio of survivors were spending the morning unboxing the supplies that had came along with them and organizing them. Although some of the supplies didn't follow them through the Portgate, most of them ended up on the other side and ended up in a generally acceptable condition. So far, they had managed to find a large stock of food and medical supplies in the cardboard boxes. Solar panels that came with the research equipment provided electricity, and a large, oblong crate turned out to contain a sizable military-style tent. A large collection of construction equipment and tools came in two of the bigger plastic crates, ranging from shovels and axes to screwdrivers and wrenches. They had even found a box full of survival gear, packed to the brim with useful tools that were sure to help them during their time on the planet. But Noah was most interested in the green crates with five-pointed stars on their sides. If he was going to be staying on his world, he wanted to be prepared for whatever he would encounter. He had found more than enough guns, but ammunition was an issue. Even though he had found several cans of cartridges, he knew that they would eventually run out. And then? They would have to make it last. Noah put the gun back into the case before closing the box and carrying it to the weapons pile. Andrew was standing there, sorting the crates into categories and recording their contents on his tablet. He looked up from the screen and put the tablet down on a box of lab equipment before walking over and grabbing the case from Noah's hand. Andrew set it down leaning against a stack of ammunition crates before picking up his tablet again. "What was in it?" he asked. "Um, fifty-caliber rifle with three magazines and maintenance kit." "Alright," Andrew responded. He typed something into his tablet and was almost finished when Leah seemingly appeared out of nowhere and dropped a cardboard box at his feet. "Here's some microscopes. Not sure why they have eighteen of them, but oh well." "Why do we need these?" Noah asked. "Because I wanna do science experiments here. I know that we might not ever get back home, but it's a fun thing for me to do in my free time. Besides, we might be able to scrap these for spare parts in the future." "Good point," Andrew remarked. "You said eighteen, right? Well, go ahead and put it with the rest of the science junk that came over." "Hey, rude! It's not junk," Leah giggled. She set the box down next to a small collection of scientific equipment, glad that she was getting along well with her fellow castaways. The three of them were already pretty good pals, and she was happy to have them with her. She was even happier to know the feeling was mutual. Their work continued late into the afternoon, and by the time they had finished the sun was already halfway under the horizon. None of them complained, though. -Luna- Gong... Gong... The gigantic grandfather's clock rang out twelve times with its deep, solemn toll, signaling the passing of midnight. Luna glanced at the clock in her quarters, glad to put down her quill and leave the messy pile of paperwork that was on her Gryphon pine desk for something a bit more soothing. It was always somewhat liberating for her to explore the dreams of her subjects and talk to them in a way that she never could in the real world. When they were awake, ponies always seemed to talk to her like... like she was a princess. But in the dreamscape, she was free to talk with her citizens like a regular pony and get to know her subjects in ways she never could as a ruler. The navy blue circular rug in the middle of her office was expertly embroidered by Canterlot artisans with her crescent-moon cutie mark. Its fibers were silky smooth and extremely fine, and they were quite helpful in allowing Luna's mind to enter the state of relaxation that was necessary for dreamwalking. She sat down, closed her eyes, and began her meditation, passively charging her magic as she did so. Dreamwalking involves transitioning the mind from the physical realm to the magical field and from the magical field to the dreamscape. The process was quite magic-intensive, and it could only be performed with the magic of several thousand unicorn mages. Luna was an alicorn, so that was no issue. In fact, the process felt like a simple teleportation spell to her, and once she had gathered enough ambient magic she easily transitioned into the dreamscape, a vast void filled with pinpricks of all sizes and colors. She floated amongst the starlike points, each one representing a being's dream. After thousands of years, their minds were familiar to Luna, and she felt at ease with them. But there was something off that night. Somewhere, something - or somepony - was clearly different. Luna closed her eyes and focused, honing in on the discrepancy. The three lights that she had found clustered together didn't look any different from any she had seen except for being a bit more dull. So it was a surprise when she realized that the lights felt...hollow. As if something was missing. Luna paused for a second, contemplating the reason these dreams had a sense of emptiness about them.... Magic. Or rather, a lack thereof. All living creatures gave off a small yet distinct magical signature. Luna could sense those signatures and find out what species it belonged to, their sex, and their age, among other things. These beings, however, didn't give off a single trace of magic. What were they? Luna carefully prepared to enter those dreamscapes. She was so used to entering the dreams of ponies that the steps she took were second nature. However, these creatures were something different. Luna slowly and carefully probed the dream, gently easing herself in. She soon found herself standing in a blank white void, which she assumed to be the dream. It was empty, save for a lone wooden bookshelf with an assortment of reading material within it. She walked up to the bookshelf, staring at the spines of the books that lined it. It was clear that the books were composed of some strange material. It was shiny and smooth, but was definitely not metal. It was too... light for that. She pulled a rather thick book off the shelf, reading the title. Though the language was unfamiliar, she knew that the front of the book read Advanced Chemistry, Third Edition. Luna could tell that "Chemistry" meant alchemy, judging from the flasks and tubes on the cover. She flipped the book open to the front flap and found a rather odd chart composed of labeled squares simply titled "The Periodic Table of Elements", noticing that the pages in the book were made of unbelievably thin sheets of what seemed to be lacquered paper. She estimated that it was at least a thousand sheets thick, which was odd considering books of that size should only be able to hold three hundred or so pages. The table consisted of about a hundred squares set in a peculiar stack that seemed to peak at the left and right ends. Each square contained one or two letters of the strange language in the middle, with an element name and various numbers above and below it. Luna looked at what seemed to be a guide to reading the squares. She didn't know what an "Atomic Number" or "Molar Mass" was, but the rest was rather easy to figure out. The only problem was that there were 118 elements. Sure, there was Gold and Iron in the table, but most of the elements were unknown to her. Argon, Polonium, Bismuth...what were they supposed to be? Luna was curious, but she knew that she had to act unobtrusively in a dream for the dreamer to not notice her. If she looked further into the book, the dreamer might notice, and Luna would rather not draw the attention of an unknown being. She slotted the book back onto the shelf, hoping that she would be able to come back to it, before she left the dream and returned to reality. When she opened her eyes, she immediately looked at the clock. It was about two-fifteen, which was rather early for her sessions. She stood up, trotted over to her office chair, and sat, thinking about what the past two hours meant. It was a good thing she had prematurely stopped, because it was a lot to take in.