Unity: One Year Later

by Kieva Lynn

Prophecy

"Hello... My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I guess I'm here to answer any questions you might have for me..."

President Whitmore watched from behind the curtains as Twilight Sparkle's press interview started. After the first few minutes, confident she would be able to handle it, he turned and walked down a hallway further into the portal facility, accompanied by a pair of secret service agents. They came to a locked door, which Whitmore released by pressing his hand to a scanner. “Wait out here. I don't expect this meeting to take very long.” He said, then went through the door leaving the agents to stand guard.

Beyond the door was a large circular chamber with a high arched ceiling. The walls were lined with computers and other advanced machines with several work stations which were manned when a private meeting like this one was not underway, and at the center stood one of the small dimensional 'windows' through which other worlds could be explored, or the beings on those worlds communicated with. As expected, Whitmore was the last to arrive. Already present was Agent Marsh, and Celestia and Luna watching through the window on their end. Also present was a projection of Pazu, the A.I. that controlled Singularity. Most startlingly, had the President not already known about it, was the second Celestia, actually in the room with him.

“How is she doing?” the first Celestia asked through the window.

“Quite well.” Whitmore answered as poured tea for himself and the Celestia actually in the room. “I was concerned, given what you've told me of her personality quirks, and frankly what I know of our reporters but Twilight is handling the media expertly.”

“Perhaps then, we should turn our attention to the true importance of this meeting.” Luna said, eyeing the second Celestia. “I'm will to trust you, since we've confirmed that you are not a changeling, though the idea of another Tia who knows spells mine own sister does not troubles me. Putting that aside though, are you truly certain that not telling them is the right thing to do?”

“I am.” The second Celestia answered. “The spell to truly move between worlds is difficult, and draining. I will of course teach it to you before I return to my own Eqqus, but to use it to attempt to return the population of Unity to their homes... Even I could manage no more than a few dozen each year...”

“Not to mention, even if you did try it, who's to say that no sooner than you were finished, Singularity grabs another large city from one world or another?” Whitmore said.

Pazu nodded. “Valid. My ability to control the systems is almost totally deteriorated.”

“But to tell them nothing...” The first Celestia argued.

“But sister we have given them hope.” Luna said. “Twilight has been informed that there may be a way to accomplish the feat 'someday.' And of course if the beacon works we will be able to at least communicate freely.”

“Exactly.” The second Celestia said. “But as I was going to say, that's only the lesser reason for silence. You already know of the greater. You may not have learned the Dimensional Transilience spell I did. But you do remember Mother's final prophecy?”

Luna nodded, and began to quote:

“Mother spoke those words five thousand years ago.” Second Celestia said. “Their 'distant future' is today. Already her machinations have bought my own Eqqus and our version of earth together. The nations of earth here are warned and preparing. And none too soon, when we saw Mother briefly, a year ago, she said the threat was drawing near. But I could not be still to ignore the fates of other realities- Yes? You have a question?” She was looking at Agent Marsh.

“Apologies sir, ma'ams... I'm just still confused as to how there can be another Princess Celestia who is basically the same person but from some 'other' Eqqus.” Marsh said.

“Allow me to explain.” Pazu said. “You already have an understanding of time as a fourth dimension alongside the three spatial dimensions. You speak of length, width, height, and duration. What I would ask you to do is expand on this: If you can, envision time as itself having three dimensions. The first, the length, is like the duration you think of. If you could build a time machine, and travel back and forth along that axis of time, you would go into the past or the future...”

“With you so far.” Marsh said.

“Yes, but what are the other two dimensions of time?” Luna asked.

Pazu continued “The second temporal dimension, which we will compare to width, is that which separates earth from eqqus, from hydealyn, from singularity. Build your time machine to cross time sideways, over this dimension, and you will find all the other worlds you have explored. Which of course is basically what you have already done in a limited sense with this portal facility, and what serves as the basis for Singularity's operation. But there is also a third dimension to time.”

“The third temporal dimension, compare it to height in spatial terms, separates alternate versions of the same world from each other. If you traveled along that axis from here, you would find other earths where history unfolded differently, and if you traveled along that axis from Eqqus you would find variants of that world's history, and so on. The differences range from subtle to gross, and are semi random though in general the further you go from your world the greater the differences are likely to be.”

“And that's where my twin here has come from.” First Celestia said. “One of these alternate timelines.”

Second Celestia said “Indeed, and where I must return to presently. But as for revealing the totality of this: ponies, and I suspect humans too, would not take kindly to knowing we could rescue them a few at a time. There would be demands to begin at once, and anger from those who had to wait, and as President Whitmore says all for naught since Singularity cannot be shut down and might undo all the work at any moment. And, as much as I hate to take such a hard view, a colony of our peoples somewhere beyond the looming threat is a good insurance policy.”

“We'll need to have a summit. With other heads of state from both worlds, to plan out our best course of action.” Whitmore said.

“Yes, but give me a week to learn this spell.” First Celestia said. “That way we can meet in person, on earth, without the limitations of the window.”

“An excellent idea. Are there any other questions?” Whitmore asked.

“Apologies sir,” Marsh said, “But I have two. The first is for you Mister Pazu. It sounds like your Singularity only takes places from along the second of those three time dimensions you talked about. But is it possible that it could also take from one of the others? Could our people there someday encounter new arrivals from our past or future? Or even alternate world copies of themselves?”

“As Singularity is designed, no.” Pazu said. “We hoped and assumed that our counterparts in other timelines would do much the same as we did, and understood the difficulties which might arise from someone in essence meeting themselves.” He glanced at the two Celestias. “However... The technology to move in any one temporal dimension is exactly the same as that needed to move in the other two, just, well, aimed differently I suppose you could say. As built, Singularity has inhibitors to prevent what you've suggested. But if they were to begin malfunctioning too, which is indeed a distinct possibility...”

“Something to keep in mind.” Luna mused.

“Right. As for my second question: I look at things from a military perspective. Anything at all you can tell us about this approaching threat...” Marsh asked Second Celestia.

The alicorn shook her head. “All mother said is that it comes from across what we call 'The Bleed,' the empty space between realities, and that it was so powerful as to be immune to both magic and technology, but not the merger of the two.”

“Hence the need for us to work together to combat it.” Whitmore nodded. “I'm not exactly thrilled by the prospect of an enemy we know nothing about though. How do you prepare for the unknown on this scale?”

“A fair question.” Luna agreed. “Flexibility for one. And running with what we do know... As soon as possible we should begin having experts learn about each others strengths and abilities, and searching for ways to combine them.”

“If it could be done without them knowing why, what our people in Unity have already accomplished in that regard might be very useful.” Marsh suggested. “Certainly this power source they built sounds like an impressive accomplishment.”

“Agreed.” Whitmore and both Celestias said at once.

“It's a six month head start, if nothing else.” Whitmore concluded.

“I'll see about putting the Arcanum in touch with the scientists at your facility.” Luna said, “Ideally as soon as tomorrow.”

“Okay then, I think we're finished for now.” The President said.

“Agreed. We will be in contact soon.” First Celestia said,

And Luna added “Let us hope we are in time...”