Songs of the Spheres

by GMBlackjack


028 - Disclosure, Part 2

Twilight glanced awkwardly back at Celestia, sending her a magical ping.

Patience, Twilight, Celestia responded, keeping her regal gaze on the crowd below. Twilight followed her gaze to the crowd – thousands of individuals who had just gotten to the end of a world-shattering speech. There was no response from any of them beyond the unbelieving stares.

Daniel folded his hands together and rocked on his heels awkwardly.

Twilight turned on her ears, just to make sure she wasn’t missing anything. She could hear the breathing of Celestia, Luna, and Daniel – but there were no sounds from the crowd. She wouldn’t be able to hear a whisper from where she was, but it was still disconcerting.

She was preparing to go through with the ‘dead silence’ response they had planned when she heard it. Clapping – clapping from a pair of hooves she couldn’t see. The powerful clack hit her perceptions like a frying pan, but she couldn’t bring herself to be annoyed. Her strained smile softened into a genuine one as more applause began to come forth – after all, once one pony starts clapping, it puts the idea into the minds of others.

The crowd was shaken out of their silence into an eruption of celebratory noises. Twilight turned her ears off long before it stopped getting louder. She saw smiles. She saw excitement. Of the expressions she spied from her pier, most were positive - even the yaks seemed excited, and they were known for being grumpy and untrusting compared to the others. Such excitement at something new was contagious.

Twilight saw Daniel let out a sigh of relief. He waved to the crowd. A green-coated pegasus mare came up and met his hand with a hoofbump and an enthusiastic shout. Other flying creatures saw what the pegasus had done and flew up after her.

Luna smiled. “Please remain on the ground level! We aren’t prepared for a flood of visitors just yet! I’m glad you’re excited, and there will be time to meet those from the other worlds later. But let’s try to keep this at least somewhat organized.”

With mild disappointment on their faces, the flying people returned to the ground.

Twilight grinned at Luna, then back down at the crowd. “I… I have no words, everyone. Thank you for this. Thank you for… being so welcoming!”

Celestia put a hoof on Twilight. “People of Equis Vitis, today, by this simple act of welcoming applause, you have done our world proud. I’m sure you have many questions, and in time we will answer them. You can find some information in the books stacked around the palace gardens, and we will answer any other questions you have, but for now I believe the various world leaders would appreciate discussion of the future first. If it would please them, could we-”

Somepony nudged Twilight. She turned to see Pinkie at her side. “You’re welcome,” Pinkie said.

Twilight smirked. “You started the clapping, didn’t you?”

“Guilty as charged!” Pinkie giggled. “And I’ve got more in store. Just waiting for Celestia to finish her invites… And…” She slammed her hoof on a giant red button, unleashing streamers and confetti over the entire crowd. “HAVE A HAPPY HARMONIC!”

Celestia teleported them all to the palace’s grand hall, the solar and lunar princesses placed in their respective thrones with Pinkie, Twilight, and Daniel in front of them. The many stained glass windows depicting the great feats of Equestria’s history shone beautiful light in the currently empty space.

Luna raised an eyebrow at Pinkie. “Did you just create a holiday?”

“Yeah! The Harmonic! It’s like harmony and music! Many people, resonating as one!” She grinned. “Yes, I did plan it so I’d announce that just as we were teleported away, aren’t I clever?”

Celestia rolled her eyes. “I could see myself doing the same thing.”

“See? Clever.”

I like the name,” Daniel offered.

“Hey, Pinkie?” Twilight asked. “Everything went as planned, as you said. Things might go wrong now right?”

Pinkie nodded. “Yep. I’m sure that something, somewhere is going to go off the deep end, I’m just not sure what.”

“We’ll ensure it doesn’t happen here,” Luna said, a determined expression crossing her face. “The leaders of Equis are approaching this very hall. We need to be ready for all of them.”

Twilight nodded. “Right.”

“I’ll be taking my leave then!” Pinkie said. “Heh. I said ‘taking my leave’. Mooooost fancy! Anyway, see ya!” She bounced out a side door.

“Bye,” Twilight called. She took a seat between the two celestial alicorns, making sure she could see the sides of both their mouths. She didn’t have a throne there, but there was enough space for her. Daniel stood to Twilight’s side, trying his best to look like he belonged when clearly he didn’t.

Celestia took out her phone, checking incoming feed from the Hub. “Looks like everyone else’s speeches wrapped up. Mostly positive receptions, but that’s only the initial response. No detailed information yet.” She put the phone away.

“Sister, have your dreams told you anything of this day?” Luna asked.

Celestia shook her head. “I do not know. As of late, my dreams have been much less specific. As if my magic is unable to see much with certainty anymore. Pinkie probably does it better than me, at this point.”

Luna nodded. “Indeed…”

The front doors to the hall flew open, and the leaders began to flow in one by one. There were dozens – but Twilight only made special notice of a few, those she knew personally in one way or another. Thorax, the tremendous king of the changelings who may have looked like a terrifying cross between a stag and a vibrant green beetle but was actually a rather soft guy on the inside. Ember, the young blue dragonlord who had led the dragons away from their ways of senseless violence with her more thoughtful approach to life – even if she was still pretty aggressive when compared to the average pony or human. Rutherford, prince of the yaks, as usual with a scowl fixed on his face and fur over his eyes. Gaider, current chancellor of Griffonstone, an eagle-panther breed with sly eyes and an official purple sash over his feathered chest. The last individual that caught Twilight’s eye was Queen Novo, the white-coat fuschia-mane queen of the hippogriffs and seaponies… She was currently a hippogriff, given the non-aquatic nature of the realm, but Twilight knew she preferred the ‘glamour’ of the sea, like most of her race.

Others filed in – buffalo, minotaurs, and zebras – and Twilight tried her best to keep track of them, but she could only do so much.

When Ember spoke first, Twilight wasn’t surprised in the least.

“Okay!” Ember shouted. “As excited as I’m sure everyone here is, and as much as everyone is thinking ‘oh, this explains a lot about what the ponies have been doing lately’, I, for one, would like to ask why we didn’t get told about this any sooner?

Daniel coughed. “That’d be our fault. The other worlds as a whole, I mean. We have a lot of political nuance that your world – thankfully – doesn’t have. And some of our worlds, including mine, were hiding a lot more than just the existence of other worlds from people. It took two years to plan this so every world would be revealed at once.”

Thorax spoke up, voice wavering slightly. “See? A reasonable answer! I told you there wasn’t anything nefarious.”

“Why should we have waited for them!?” Rutherford demanded. “We don’t need to wait for anyone!”

“It’s polite,” Novo said, tapping her claws on the ground. “I’m more concerned about what they know about us than we don’t know about them.”

Daniel adjusted his glasses. “I actually don’t know much about you. I’ve heard about you, yes, but I never left Equestria while I’ve been here.”

“Why not?” Rutherford asked.

“Mostly? Busy exploring other worlds. There’s thousands out there, even if less than ten of them involved in active exploration.”

Thorax coughed. “So… Do you think we could do some exploring of our own?”

Novo sighed. “Jumping the gun a bit, are we?”

“Oh, was I not supposed t-“

“It’s fine, Thorax,” Twilight said. “You’ll all get devices that allow you to travel to other universes after you learn a bit more about how things work out there. We don’t want you dropping right in the middle of a volcano or something by accident.”

“What’s so wrong with that?” Ember asked.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “It was just the first analogy that I thought of. I’m sure there’s an ice-volcano somewhere out there you wouldn’t be happy with.”

“Is there a world made entirely of donuts?” a zebra asked.

“…Maybe? We haven’t found one yet.”

“Well what worlds have you found?” Novo asked. “How about you actually tell us about our new friends?”

Twilight smiled. “Gladly. Let’s start with a world close to our own, which goes by the name of Lai…”

~~~

Sombra sat back in the large seat of her Puddlejumper and munched on a bag of Cheetos. The small ship was currently adrift in a random universe, several light minutes away from the primary planet. In about an hour it would automatically jump to another universe, just to keep the ‘feds’ off her trail. However, while they couldn’t see her, she could see them.

Usually she’d be working hard at hacking into something new or discovering another cache of top-secret information – but not today. Today, she just let her numerous screens display a constant feed of vastly entertaining text.

It was a good decision to tap into every social media outlet on every major world during the Disclosure. Everything was on digital fire and it was glorious. She sadly couldn’t see anything about Lai, but both Earths and Equis Cosmic were giving her plenty to go off of – not to mention the Hub and the primitive Equis Vitis Internet. So many points of view exploded onto the screen in front of her eyes. It was better than watching a movie.

She had turned it on a while ago. Virtually everyone knew the world governments were planning some announcement, and the theories were flying. The most common explanation was aliens. Not that far off, considering, and in the case of Earth Tau’ri it was literally true. Beyond that, there were a handful of other suggestions – secret world peace talks, revelations of secret scientific research (often involving space travel), or the coming of the apocalypse. …Or the Illuminati. That came up all the time.

Equis Cosmic generally steered away from those explanations, thinking things through in a more personal note – had they finally figured out how to reanimate the dead races? Was the Princess finally just too old? Had another world with life on it been discovered? There was a lot less panic in their messages as well, and more understanding. Even if some of their thoughts were dark, they anticipated the message with little fear.

The various hacker chat rooms she had opened in a side window had been trying their hardest to find out what the announcement was about – but Sombra had actively worked against them. She really wanted it to be a surprise. She stopped all Earth hackers with ease, though a couple from Equis Cosmic managed to find the answer. Sombra may have been from a world with highly advanced technology compared to the norm, but Equis Cosmic blew her out of the water.

At least she could be proud that the Earth hackers already hated her. They knew another hacker was working against them, and they knew it was her by her calling card. In the realm of hackers, however, there was respect in the hate. She knew this respect would only grow, with time.

And then the Disclosure happened.

The first responses?

WTF? So many WTFs from every platform. A few people tried to claim ‘I knew it!’ but that was complete bullcrap. The Equises were easy to look at for the most part – Vitis already knew where their Internet came from, so their messages were all about applauding the Princesses for a good speech. Cosmic could best be described as way too excited and hungry for information.

The Earths, however, were the best. Seconds after the announcement, complete non-sequitur arguments broke out on all sides, ranging from yelling at the immigrants for forcing everyone to find entire new universes to house them to yelling at the government for failing to use magic to cure cancer.

One message read, “this is why we need to stop teaching our children evolution!” How did that have anything to do with anything?

It was but one of many, many emotionally charged messages directed at everything everyone could point a finger at. Earth Vitis’s messages were generally more bitter and outrageous about it, but Earth Tau’ri had its fair share of stupid people with access to the Internet.

Sombra was a student of politics – she had to be, given her goal of finding out what really happened behind all the closed doors – but she had failed to realize how much humans fixated on things. If they cared a lot about one issue - say, gun control - everything major that happened needed to have some relation to that one issue. So many one-track minds…

They couldn’t realize that there was the new issue. That everything they had thought in their tiny little lives paled in comparison to the tiny taste they had just received of what really lay beyond.

Then again, Sombra supposed that not even those who spent their lives living and breathing the multiverse really looked beyond either. There were a handful of scientists digging into the strangeness of the world – time dilation, magical strength, the Beat, the structure of the multiverse – but they weren’t really searching. They sought to understand what they had already seen from their point of view, not delve as far as they could. They poked into the abyss and recoiled. Even Twilight had backed off after Rick had dropped by.

Really, only Corona was actively pushing the envelope, and that annoyed Sombra. How was she supposed to get her answers if nobody was looking? It was a bit infuriating really. She could get any piece of information she wanted, so long as it was on a computer somewhere. But if nobody found it, she was in the dark. She’d had just enough of a taste to know there was something out there.

She had no idea what, and that was both exciting and infuriating.

She focused back on the scrolling social media. Ah, the general public was starting to flood the ‘informational’ sites set up for precisely this moment, the ones the hackers had attempted to find earlier. The sites didn’t have the full directory, only touching on the handful of universes that were allies or interesting examples of universal parallelism. Things like Esefem and the Binary world had no mention.

Clearly, it wouldn’t do to terrify the population just yet.

Let them find out about Majora by word of mouth, until they thought she was nothing but a rumor. A clever ploy, Sombra had to admit.

The existence of magic caused a fun spark, especially on the Earths. Earth Vitis had a high belief in the mysterious force, simply because it was rather prevalent on the world, albeit not obvious. They had several messages along the lines of “Awesome! Magic is real!” The Tau’ri, on the other hand, didn’t have as much of that.

“All users of magic are servants to Satan, defilers of God’s nature!”

“Our governments haven’t opened a portal to other worlds – they’ve found Hell!”

“We must protect ourselves from these witches!”

“I bet they practice human sacrifice!”

A video popped up of Renee with a very displeased look on her face. “Ahem. I was expecting those who learned of magic to read more than the first sentence of the article we have on the subject, but clearly I was mistaken. The ‘magic’ we use in the other worlds is clearly not what your religions condemn...”

The video went on, but Sombra shut it off. She didn’t need to hear Renee try to dispel the religious paranoia of humanity. It wouldn’t have much effect. Sombra supposed Renee was right, but it wasn’t like real demons actually existed.

She paused for a moment, sitting back in her chair. What exactly was Majora then? There were numerous documents citing that she wasn’t using just magic to fight them. There was something else in there.

Sombra cursed herself for her dismissal – for all she knew there were demons manipulating everything around them. She couldn’t discount it, not anymore. Nothing was impossible as far as she was concerned.

She sat straight up – something interesting had just happened. Somebody in the Hub had just opened a chat server that was connected to the Internets of all the other universes involved. The hacker collectives moved in quickly, faster than anyone who actually wanted to chat. They started forming permanent connections through interdimensional servers. The uplink speed was pathetically slow, but the devices that had permanent data portals open did exist.

Earth Tau’ri got the short end of the stick since it took a lot more power to open a portal to them. Sombra was pretty sure there was actually a wireless signal being sent through the Mirror Portal right now to them, and even then it wasn’t that great.

Sombra watched in glee as the Internet fused. The initial chat room was run by somebody with the moniker TheGreatLulamoon.

“…No way,” Sombra said.

~~~

“Are you sure nobody’s going to find us?” Trixie said, glancing over her shoulder, face lit only by the light of the laptop in front of her.

“Nobody will have any idea,” Discord said, summoning a wafer of silicon from the aether. “Unless you chose an obvious username or something.”

“R-right!”

“Oh, well, I guess they’ll know you did it instantly then. But we’re invisible, underground, and not technically in the Hub, so… Since Twilight’s busy I think we’ve got several hours.” He etched the wafer with a complex silicon pattern.

Trixie stared at the chat program open on the computer screen. There were only two participants – TheGreatLulamoon and CapriciousButterfree.

“Discord, nobody’s in here yet.”

“Oh, they’re there, trust me. The first ones to find the connection will be the clever types. Sombra’s probably already in your computer.”

“What!? Why didn’t we use a throwaway then!?”

“Because she’ll leave something hilarious on your desktop you’ll never be able to remove and I’ll love it,” Discord chuckled.

“Hey! She could just as easily make it explode! Or one of the others could!”

“Oh, they probably won’t, since you’re running this server here.” Discord said, feeding several wafers into a large metallic box. He summoned a giant book on the topic of Internet Technology and consulted it to see what to do next. “Sometimes I impress myself with how far I’m willing to go for some fun…”

“What even are you doing? We’re already connected!”

“Connected, yes, but not prepared for the heavy influx of traffic. You see, the wires we have permanently wired into the other universes are tiny, insufficient, and frankly likely to explode. They can’t handle the outrageous flood of colorful ones and zeroes! What I’m doing is making it so we can cause some real chaos.”

“How?”

“Send images. Or, more accurately, let the hackers get the images in your photos folder.”

“WHAT!? There are private things in there!”

“Privacy is overrated.”

“Nova will kill me!”

Discord raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Are there some special pictures in there I don’t know about?”

“You can shut up right now.”

“Nova and Trixie, sitting in a tree, K I-“

“You’re a juvenile delinquent!”

“Your point?”

“I…”

“Also your reactions prove that I’m right.”

Trixie went back to the computer and right into her image folders, deleting a file named ‘DELETE THIS.’ “There. Now everything’s fine.”

Discord smirked. “I refuse to believe that you deleted a picture of anything other than you and Nova in a compromising position of one kind or another.”

Trixie huffed. Discord completed the construction of his server, hooking it up to the network above them with his magic. “There we go; more data can go in and out now. Time to make another one…”

“You’re going to be busy.”

“And you’re going to greet our new guest.”

Trixie looked to the chat program. There was someone in there – one by the name of SoulKrazed. Hi!

Trixie lit her horn and typed back. You’re the first to show up! Welcome to the amazing interdimensional chat hub! Where you from?

The Hub. I’m a potion seller you’ve probably met.

Trixie blinked. “Discord, how is this going to work with someone who already knows everything?”

Discord rolled his eyes. “It’s not. Give it time.”

“Since when are you patient?”

“Since I had to teach myself how to create modems and servers,” Discord said, wiring something into a sphere of white magic.

Trixie typed a few things back to SoulKrazed. The conversation wasn’t all that interesting. “Humph. This is nowhere near as-“ Another name showed up, followed shortly thereafter by a handful of others. There was a bunch of ‘what is this?’ messages.

Trixie cleared her throat out of habit. Welcome to the amazing interdimensional chat hub! Where are you all from?

There were a bunch of quick responses, most with locations in a world rather than the world itself.

I meant universe. I’m not sure what ‘Indonesia’ is.

The responses were Earth Vitis, Earth Tau’ri, Equis Cosmic, and the Hub, though there were several who didn’t know the official name for their world.

Discord sent a message. We’re here to answer any and ALL questions you may have, no matter how prying!

Trixie glanced at Discord. “How are you doing that without a computer?”

“I’m converting my magic directly into a data stream for the Ethernet signals as they travel along the wires.”

“…What?”

“Magic,” Discord grunted. “I swear, I’m turning into Twilight here…” to emphasize the point, he actually transformed into Twilight. “Egad!”

Trixie rolled her eyes, turning back to the screen. “They’re asking about our world.”

Discord cackled. Equis Vitis is a world filled with adorable ponies who think friendship is the answer to everything. They like the color pink too much. When you meet them, boop them on the nose, they love that.

Another member responded quickly. We do not! Don’t boop us!

I’ll boop every pony I come across BECAUSE you all hate it, another said.

Trixie huffed. That’s cruel.

You’re one of them stupid ponies, aren’t you?

Who you calling stupid?

Somebody with the username LOLMOOD interrupted. MAXLOL LOL FRIGGISH THIS IS AWESOME TELL ME HOW YOU THINK YOU DO STUFF WITH THE TAIL BIG MOOD

Trixie looked to Discord. “…What?”

He transformed back into his regular form and shrugged. “I have no idea, but I’m going along with it.” The tail comes from your left nostril in the form of a powerful swan song that should have done the powerful brain thing ago.

I don’t get it, someone said.

Another responded. We’re experiencing culture. About as horrid as I was expecting.

YEAH WELL YOU CAN SHOW WHAT YOU REALLY MEAN HAHA SUCK IT :D :D XD LOL.

Trixie blinked. “Do we have a five year old in here?”

Discord didn’t respond vocally. This is hilarious. Barely a minute in and there are already baffled expressions all around.

XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD

Except from you. I don’t think you have enough brainpower to become baffled.

Ooh, burn! another said.

What? Did he light someone on fire? one of the users who Trixie was pretty sure was from Equis Cosmic.

It’s an expression. Means mister LOL got roasted. Served. Hold on a second, do we even have a term for that thing that ISN’T an expression?

A presumably human messenger responded. Burn – an expression that verbally insults an individual in an amusing, yet poignant, way.

NEEEEEEEEEEEEERD.

Trixie rolled her eyes, typing some messages back. “Amazingly childish. I can see why you thought this was a good fit for you.”

Discord smirked. “I’ve just been burned.”

“And roasted. And served.”

“The horror.”

“So far, though, no chaos,” Trixie observed. “You said there’d be juicy stuff.”

“Watch this.” Hey, by the way, did you all know the leader of Equis Cosmic is a being of godlike power who can destroy entire planets if she puts her mind to it?

Trixie grinned. “Oooooh, that’ll do it…”

Responses were varied.

You’re pulling our leg, nothing’s that powerful.

I knew it! I knew there was nothing but danger out here!

I, for one, am happy she’s on our side. And terrified that such power was ever needed.

Our Princess Twilight would never do anything like that without good reason!

SPAAAAAAAAACE XDDXDXDXDXDXXD

That better not be the most juicy thing you know about.

Discord obliged. Oh, you want to know more? Fair enough. Go to the articles on Equis Vitis, look at the Changelings. It says they can change form, what it doesn’t say is that they get stronger by absorbing love. One of the most effective methods they have is to replace a loved one and pretend to be them, absorbing the emotional affection like a parasite.

ERMAGERSH SO TERRIFYING.

Stupid, this guy’s a hack. Emotions aren’t tangible objects.

This sounds almost exactly like some of our legends! That’s stupid!

Hey, buddy, we’re humans, and we’re part of THEIR mythology. Maybe they’re part of ours? After all, unicorns.

What would that even MEAN?

Trixie typed a few things in. There’s a strange force called the Beat that’s present in every universe. We’re really not supposed to know about it, but it exists.

The Beat? What does that have to do with anything!

We’re not part of a song.

I AM MUSIC INCARNATE FEEL MY IN THE PLACE OF SONG XD

I can confirm the Beat is a thing.

Trixie! Starbeat here, what the heck are you doing!?

Oooooh, something tells me we’ve got the feds on us! Quick, save everything, burn the evidence and run!

Heck! My god, what strong language!

“Crud,” Trixie said. “How come she’s the one onto us?”

I gave her a tip. A message popped into the chat window from Sombra.

Sombra!? an Earth Vitis user responded. It’s an honor!

Wait, you know her too? an Earth Tau’ri user responded. Wait…

She’s interdimensional.

This explains so much.

Sombra sent another message. Glad you finally pieced that together. By the way, oh Great and Powerful Lulamoon, I did NOT expect you to be the one to do this kind of thing. Color me surprised. Nova is going to kill you.

Trixie narrowed her eyes. Nova will be understanding. It’s not like I’m associating with you. She’ll get you, Sombra. One day.

I’m not referring to that. <Sombra has uploaded the file Vanilla.jpg>

Trixie gasped and flushed a deep red. Discord howled with laughter. “Not what I was expecting! But still hilariously embarrassing!”

Trixie moaned. The image was of her doing the backstroke in a half-melted bowl of vanilla ice cream, Nova riding her like she was a surfboard.

I’ve got hundreds of these, Sombra messaged. Not that hard to restructure data that was just recently deleted. Also not hard to hack into your video camera. That’s a nice shade of red you’re turning. I’ll send this all to Nova right now…

Trixie closed the laptop and put her hooves over her head. “This is it. This is the day Trixie dies. Tell Nova I went out with some of my dignity intact.”

“That’d be a lie,” Discord observed.

“I know!”

A few moments later, Trixie’s phone started ringing. She tensed, slowly levitating it out of her robes. It was from Nova.

Trixie answered. “Hi-“

“WHAT DID YOU DO!?”

“Glimmy, promise not to be mad with Trixie-“

“I’M ALREADY MAD.”

Discord snapped the phone out of Trixie’s magic. “Yeah, Nova? Discord here. We’re causing chaos in a secret location with a computer and self-sustaining Internet. Don’t worry, I’m not telling them about Majora or the secret Tau’ri wars or anything, just riling them up, getting them introduced to each other. Oh – oh you still take issue to that? I’m ruining the plan you say? Well, then maybe Twilight shouldn’t have insisted I stay in the Hub! Ever think of that? I could have been a great help out there, but – oh wow you really aren’t listening to a thing I’m saying, are you? …Ouch, you wound me so.”

Trixie whimpered. “Trixie regrets everything about today already.”

Discord handed the phone back. Trixie put it to her ears. “H-hey Nova.”

“Look, Trixie, please tell me this was all Discord’s idea.”

“This was all Discord’s idea.”

“Trixie…”

“Okay, fine, it was mostly Discord, but I thought it would be a little fun, get the people to talk to each other, maybe… maybe bring about some friendships?”

“…I guess that’s a good reason. Just… Can’t really tell you to stop since I’m pretty sure Sombra will just keep the damn thing running herself. It’s best if you watch it until I can get there. Don’t try to rile them up.”

Trixie opened the laptop to see an argument between seven different people. “I don’t think they need our help to get riled up, actually. Discord underestimated them…”

“Did you?”

“Nah, I expected this. Trixie’s been on the Hub long enough to know humans love to argue.”

“…Trixie?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think Sombra got all the pictures?”

“…Yeah?”

“I am going to kill her.”

“Trixie is glad your anger is focused elsewhere.”

“I know she’s in there. See if you can get her to reveal anything.”

Trixie looked at the chat again. “I think she left. At least officially.”

“…Great. Look, we’ll talk later; I’ve got work to do. This president is a complete moron.”

“You and Corona would agree.”

“I know. Bye.”

Trixie put the phone down. She started breathing in and out rapidly. “I’m dead…”

“That went well, considering,” Discord pointed out.

“SO DEAD…”

“You don’t have to deal with Flutterfree. She has much higher standards than Nova.”

“Trixie feels like you’ve just insulted everyone involved, including yourself.”

Discord smirked. “The evidence of a true master at work.”

~~~

Corona stood outside the door to her Quantum Physics classroom, leaning against the wall with the motivational cat poster on it. Hang in there!

She gulped. An entire day had passed since Disclosure, and classes hadn’t been cancelled because of it. So… Today was the day. She was going to do it. The first day of the rest of her life.

She wasn’t sure she would have been able to go through with it without all her friends here for support.

Applejack put a hand on her shoulder. “We’re here for you if anything goes wrong.”

Pinkie gave a Corona thumbs up. “I can get you out of there in an instant!”

Fluttershy smiled. “I don’t think it’ll come to that. Don’t worry, Corona.”

“I’m sure everyone will love you,” Rarity emphasized.

Sparky clapped her hands. “How could they not? They’ve all known you for a long time.”

Sugarcoat shrugged. “They could feel threatened.”

“Sugarcoat!” Rarity blurted.

“Rarity, it’s fine,” Corona said. “I get more nervous if I receive nothing but positive reinforcement, makes me question myself more.” She took off her jacket and handed it to Sparky. “Thank you for all being here. I know a lot of you have lives, it must have taken some working to be here today.”

“Pfft, I can miss Cornerstone for one day,” Sparky said.

“No offense to my fashion classes, but they don’t mean as much as you do,” Rarity added.

Fluttershy hugged Corona. “Anything for your big day.”

Corona smiled. “Thanks. So… Here goes.” She opened the door to the classroom slightly, poking her head around the corner. The rest of the class was already in there, listening to Doctor Turner’s intro bit.

“Now, today’s class is going to be a bit special,” the brown-haired man said, smirking. “I’m sure you’re all dying to learn about the probability curve equations for electron shells, but the world has come a-knocking. Unless you’ve been living under a rock – which, let’s be honest, may be the case with Pomello – you know that the government has revealed the existence of other universes.”

The various students nodded.

“You may think I have put aside class today to talk about the scientific implications of this momentous event. I do have a few topics set aside for discussion, but I doubt we’ll be able to get to them today. Because I’ve got a much bigger surprise for you all today. What if I told you one of your fellow classmates that you’ve known for three and a half years was secretly from one of these alternate universes all along?”

The students started to look amongst themselves with surprised expressions.

“I would like to introduce you all to someone you’ve known for a long time. You can come in now.”

Corona felt a hand press against her spine and forcefully push her through the doorway, the door slamming behind her quickly thereafter. There was truly no turning back at this point. She stumbled slightly in her four boots, but she managed to keep her balance despite the large textbooks in her saddlebags. With a deep breath she trotted over to the front row of class, her necklace bouncing with every step. The silver transformation bracelet glinted in the light, catching the eyes of her classmates. She took her seat at the front row of class, took out her Quantum Physics textbook, and then grinned sheepishly at her fellow students. “Uh… Hi! I’m Protégé Corona Shimmer from Equis Vitis. I’m a unicorn with a special talent in fire magic and I’m actually thirty-two years old. But you can all just keep calling me Corona.”

There was silence.

Doctor Turner shrugged. “Feel free to ask her questions. You can take the entire class period if you want. The electrons can wait.”

Micro Chips raised a hand.

Corona raised an eyebrow. “Micro, you already knew what I was.”

“Well, maybe, but I didn’t know you were a Protégé. What’s that mean?”

“Oh,” Corona said. “Right. It means I’m the personal student of one of the ruling Princesses of Equis Vitis. I haven’t done any actual studying under Celestia for a long, long time, but she hasn’t revoked the title, so… There you go.”

“So, wait, you’re royalty?” a student called Pixie Sticks asked.

“More like adopted royalty…?” Corona said, shrugging. “I suppose I have considerable authority back there, if I wanted. Celestia’s made it clear I’m always welcome back.”

“How does magic work on a quantum level?” the class genius, Chrome Tesla, asked.

Corona smirked. “You’re lucky I’m curious enough to work on that in my own time. Different universes use magic differently, and the process by which magical powers are adjusted when transferring from universe to universe is poorly understood. That said, I can describe how the natural magic of this world and most Equises works. Magic is constructed from miniscule particles called thaums that exist as a force-carrier alongside photons and bosons. These carriers can, sometimes, interact with physical matter. My horn is an amazing organ infused with complex lattices of perfect subatomic structures that interface with all thaums it can get ahold of, ‘wiring’ them together like a circuit. A spell is constructed by creating a chain of thaums in distinct patterns and tying the long line into a circle, which unleashes the desired effect. It acts a lot like DNA replication, actually, with the subatomic structures sewing everything together and…”

Sparky closed the door. “I think she’s got it.”

“That class knows her,” Sugarcoat said. “The rest of the college may not be so open.”

Applejack folded her arms. “That’s why we’re here.”

Rarity smirked. “The school newsletter’s going out soon with an article all about Corona. I’ve made sure it’s nice to her.”

“People can be cruel, though,” Fluttershy said.

“Yes, yes, I know, but we’ll give her the best we can offer.”

Pinkie squealed. “This is so exciting! A unicorn living among humans! There’ll be a book about this someday, I’m telling you!”

Rarity nodded. “Let’s make it a happy book, shall we, dears?”

~~~

Renee let out a delighted sigh, looking up from the menu at the skyline from which the Eiffel Tower was easily visible. “I have wanted to visit this city for so long,” Renee said. “The center of class for your world…”

Daniel shrugged. “They don’t call it the City of Love for nothing. Though I have to admit, being here and not hearing people talk in French is bizarre.”

“I bet the waiters are glad they no longer have to deal with clueless foreigners who don’t know the language.”

“It may be worse. Now there’s clueless foreigners who do know the language and can no longer be dismissed.”

Renee blinked. “What an uncharacteristically pessimistic remark from you!”

Daniel sighed. “Sorry. There’s just… Well there’s a lot going wrong. Your world got lucky, everyone’s mostly on the same page. Here… I don’t think a world war is going to break out, but some people are calling for one. Enough that news outlets have started covering the idea.”

“It’s more than that.”

“There’s also the fact that it’s 2011 here, but 2018 over in Earth Vitis. The economy is having a mild freak-out at possible predictions of future historical events. Stocks are being bought and sold like candy, the Internet is fusing because of Trixie, and the religious fallout is extreme…”

Renee facehooved. “I made that speech for a reason…”

“And it helped, trust me, it got a lot of outlets to cover the scientific side of your magic. But humans don’t like changing their minds about things. Ever. There’s already a heavy anti-unicorn movement forming, and talk of purging the translation spell’s propagation throughout the world.”

“I’m… Not sure we can stop it, now that we’ve released it the way we have.”

“I know. We probably should have thought that through a little better…”

“How else was I supposed to address the masses? We don’t exactly have a technological universal translator!”

“True,” Daniel said, sitting back. “I guess we would have just had to deal with it regardless. Magic is such an integral part of your society. I don’t think the anti-unicorn movement has realized that every race on your world has some form of magic to them. The majority of universes in the east have magic…”

“They’ll come around,” Renee said.

“Some of them, yes. Others… I don’t know. Zealots have always existed. Women’s rights… Racism… You name it. The world moves on, but some people always stay behind. It probably doesn’t help that the Middle East is screaming bloody murder.”

“Oh?”

“None of the nations in that area of the world were involved in the Stargate Program – except Egypt, but not everyone considers it an actual part. We didn’t tell any of them because they were always filled with violence, terrorism, and anger at the rest of the world. We were afraid if any one of them knew it would light the powder keg. It’s pretty clear that the powder keg is now exploding because we didn’t tell them.”

“They’re the ones calling for war, aren’t they?”

“Mostly. For once in their lives they seem to agree on something.”

“At what cost…” Renee muttered. The waiter dropped by, serving their meals – fancy cakes in the shape of the Eiffel Tower.

Daniel blinked. “I don’t know what I was expecting.”

“Daniel, please, this is a refined dish. And unlike some of the flavorless crumbs in Canterlot that are inexplicably popular, this has flavor.” She carefully separated the top of the tower with her magic and levitated it into her mouth and bit down, the flavor melting on her tongue. She leaned back in her chair, pleased. “This… This is food.”

Daniel looked down at his plate. “It really isn’t enough to be a meal. More like… a snack.”

Renee looked like she wanted to be insulted, but instead could only sit and realize how right Daniel was. “Well… We can order twenty more, we have the cash, and nobody’s able to judge us.”

“Oh, they can judge us all right.”

Renee rolled her eyes. “Well, I know we’re being stared at and all the phones are out.” She turned behind her and smiled for the camera of a Russian man to prove her awareness. “I just think it’s not a thing to concern ourselves with at the moment. Just sit back, relax, enjoy our meal, and let the press do whatever they want later.”

“The press is dangerous.”

Renee shrugged. “Perhaps… Oh look, it appears a reporter has worked up the gumption to talk to us.”

A man scurried up to them with a confident smile on his face and a professional camera under his shoulder. He took out a recording device. “Doctor Daniel Jackson, Miss Renee, it is an honor. I am Phillip Laurent with Le Monde. Would you care for a short interview?”

“It’s no trouble at all,” Renee said, lifting her hat up slightly. “What would you like to know?”

“Is it true that you two were the ones responsible for the Disclosure plan?”

“Well, we weren’t the only ones,” Renee said. “Disclosure was an effort that required the ideas and input of thousands of people from several worlds. But it would not be a stretch to consider us among the project heads.”

“Do you consider the efforts a success?”

“It’s only been a day, Mister Laurent, so we cannot say for certain if it was a success. But from what I have seen, I am confident it’ll turn out well in the end.”

“Would there be anything about the plan you would change now that you’ve seen immediate results?”

“Earlier explanations on magic,” Renee said. “First impressions are everything, and I’m afraid we rather blew the first mentions of it.”


“Doctor Jackson?”

Daniel furrowed his brow. “If I were to change something… have the dimensional license system working long before Disclosure. My own card didn’t work earlier today. Almost got arrested.”

“The bureaucracy ensures that something will go wrong, dear,” Renee said. “If not that, something else.”

Mister Laurent nodded. “Well, thank you for your time. Enjoy the rest of your lunch. You can expect to see an article in the papers by the morn.” He turned off his recorder.

“Can’t wait to see how we get portrayed,” Renee smirked. “Do go easy on us.”

“I’m not a madman. I will portray you as objectively as possible. What I would fear is the secondary articles made from mine.”

Daniel nodded. “Those are always the worst. Bloggers are vicious.”

Mister Laurent turned and walked away, dropping a newspaper behind him.

“Oh!” Renee called, jumping out of her chair. “Mister Laurent! You dropped-“ She stopped talking. From her current height, she could see a small wire dangling from under her and Daniel’s table. She ducked her head all the way under the table and saw it.

A bomb.

“My Stars!” She called, ripping the bomb off the table with her magic. She levitated it as far into the sky as she could. “Daniel, call the bomb squad or whatever it is here, we’ve got a-” The bomb exploded in a ball of fire far above them, shaking the entire block of Paris.

Shrapnel rained down upon the diner, the dangerous bits blocked by Renee’s large crystal shield. She let out a deep breath. “Okay. All clear!”

Several people started calling the police on their phones.

Daniel sat back in his chair and sighed. “There’ll be a bomb squad coming.”

“Great,” Renee said, climbing back into her chair. “There goes our lovely afternoon.”

“…Are you okay, Renee?”

“Please, my life is in danger almost constantly these days, hardly shaken at all.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow.

“…Fine. My heart is racing, I have an image of myself exploding all over everyone’s faces in a shower of blood, and I can see Sweetie Belle crying at my funeral.” She sagged. “I’m used to the mental images at this point. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing.”

Daniel held her front hoof. “I think it’s a necessary thing for people in our line of work.”

“I know. I know…”

~~~

“It took them one day,” Queen Luna said, pacing around her darkened throne room. “One day! It was one of the first things they found out! Just… Argh!”

Toph shrugged. “I guess they just latched onto what they cared about.”

“Hatred doesn’t fall far from the tree,” Lieshy added.

Lady Rarity looked at her Queen. “What are you going to do?”

“I have to go out there and tell them something. They won’t accept nothing. But if I go out there, I’m going to purposefully sound sympathetic, and it’s going to stir the rage into an explosion.”

Toph folded her arms. “I think you should just tell them exactly what you think. Stand strong, be aggressive, they can’t defy you. You are the alicorn of this world, they have to listen to you.”

“They’ll use Armonia as a force against me if they can. I can’t exactly tell them their Goddess is dead either. They wouldn’t believe me and it’d probably get me beheaded quicker than this business.”

“So? Stand your ground. You have the powe-“

“Toph, you don’t understand, I see them beheading me after acting like that.” She pointed at her oculus eyes. “They will kill me if I talk about the Goddess.”

“…Are they really that dumb?!”

“Yes,” Lady Rarity said. “They will not turn back on their ways in one day. It will take years of slow acclimation that has been decidedly ruined by their little discovery.”

Vivian put a finger to her chin. “Luna, what if you just tell them in a neutral voice what’s happening, and that they’re free to choose?”

“They want a why, Vivian. And if I tell them the real why, I… I well I can’t see but it’s very likely they won’t trust me anymore.”

“Political suicide,” Lady Rarity said.

Toph grunted. “I could just go out and yell at them.”

“You’d die,” the Queen deadpanned.

“Yeesh. Aggressive much?”

“Yeah. I haven’t paid them as much attention as I should have…” the Queen shook her head. “My own fault, I raised them to be like this. To not like change.”

“Or was it the Goddess?” Lieshy asked.

“I… I don’t know.” The Queen gulped. “I think I have to do it though. The political suicide. I’ll tell the exact truth, and hope their previous trust in me isn’t completely destroyed. After all, you’ve saved them from many threats, they should be able to see that for what it is…”

“Don’t,” a new voice said.

The group turned to the trotting form of Starcei. Toph tensed, hand on the Master Sword’s hilt, but Starcei shook her head. “I am not here to fight, Toph. I am here to talk.”

The Queen looked down at Starcei. “It has been a long time.”

“Eons,” Starcei said.

“I really should kill you.”

“And you would be right to do so. But hear me out before you try. You can keep your kingdom if you provide a secondary reason.”

“What would that be? They hate the Arcei and think anyone who’d take them in deserves to die!” The Queen grunted. “That includes all the universes that have taken Arcei in which is, last count, all of them.”

“The friendship with the other universes is ruined for the time being,” Starcei said. “For that I am deeply ashamed. But you can build them up. As a leader, you can say one thing and do another. Call this a solution to the Arcei problem. They’ll be moved offworld and will have no further reason to harvest the Runes. You are preventing a bloody war against the Arcei by moving them peacefully. They’ll accept this reason.”

“…But it’s not the reason.”

“Not the only reason. But it’s the only reason you need to talk about.”

“I approve of this plan,” Lieshy said. “It’s clever. Make them think it’s because of them and that it’s good.”

Vivian shrugged. “But… They’ll all keep hating the Arcei!”

“That’s not going to change for at least a generation,” Starcei said. “Not without some spectacular event. And the Queen making a speech about peace does not qualify as a spectacular event.”

Queen Luna sighed. “Fine. That makes sense, Starcei. It will work. Thank you. I do have one question for you though… why?”

“My ponies owe you something for allowing us to move out. You should be able to keep your kingdom.”

“Yes… Still. They view all the other worlds as enemies.”

“Something to be worked out over years, not in a day. Talk to Renee and Daniel after things die down on their end, they’ll be able to help.”

“I know this…” Luna lowered her head to be level with Starcei’s. “What’s your angle here?”

“…Amending. If you’ll believe that.”

Queen Luna’s eyes widened. “You? Amending?”

“Believe it or not,” Starcei said. “It’s true. I’m leaving now – if you’ll let me.”

“Where are you going?”

“To tell my ponies everything,” Starcei said. “They’ll ostracize their mother. Then… I’ll just wander other worlds. I don’t know where I’ll end up, if anywhere. My life has served its purpose here.”

The Queen nodded. “…You may leave, Starcei.”

Starci lit her arcs and vanished without so much as bowing or waving.

Toph shrugged. “You know, I’m never sure what to think of her.”

“She is wise beyond measure, but deeply regretful,” Lady Rarity said. “If you get the chance, take some time to get to know her.”

The Queen scowled. “Well, I guess I’m going to go half-lie to my ponies now. I’d ask for luck, but I’m not sure I want it.”

“Don’t you want to write it out first?” Vivian asked.

“No. I’ll do it as I usually do it.” She walked out of their presence and toward the palace balcony.

“Doomed chinchillas,” Lieshy muttered.

Toph just focused on the receding footsteps of Queen Luna. She gripped the hilt of the Master Sword tightly, just… angry. Angry at how stupid people could be.

~~~

“THE EQUESTRIAN STARBEAM INQUIRER, TODAY, HERE WITH A SPECIAL!”

Television screens across the galaxy lit up with the most popular news program – in many cases the only news program ponies trusted for galaxy-wide news.

“I’m your host, Rainbow Depths!” a rainbow-maned earth pony stallion with a black coat announced.

“And I’m your co-host, Quanta!” an albino pegasus mare said, her red eyes somehow comforting rather than threatening.

“And do we have a treat for you today! As the vast majority of you are aware, yesterday our Princess, Twilight ‘Cosmo’ Sparkle, made an announcement, revealing the recent discovery of other universes close to our own. Since then, the overall reaction of our galaxy has been overwhelmingly positive, but also full of unfounded rumors.”

“Those rumors will be dispelled shortly – our reporters have gone to the Princess herself, read the mysterious Directory of Other Universes, and even traveled to a handful of other worlds to bring you the real scoop!”

“First, some history. Imagine, if you will, back in the time of the Tree of Harmony and a fully vibrant Equis where Twilight Sparkle hadn’t moved on to discover space travel, but rather found a mysterious sphere with the power to travel to other universes. This is exactly what happened in a universe close to ours somewhat recently. An alternate version of the Princess we all know, Charter-Princess Twilight Sparkle, found such a device and unlocked its secrets, taking her and her friends on adventures across the many worlds they could suddenly visit.”

“Just like our Princess would have, she made friends, many of which joined her in the explorations of the multiverse, spreading far and wide. Alliances were formed, friends were made, and even a couple of enemies were fought. Two years into their explorations, they found us. Shortly thereafter our fleets were called to aid them on a top secret military operation. The details of the event are still classified, but we do know we were very successful and that the rest of the multiverse felt like they owed us for our help.”

“Four years after the Charter initially stepped into another universe, six universes participated in the act of Disclosure. This is what happened yesterday, when everyone banded together and decided they should no longer keep secrets from their people. That may seem long to us, but apparently for the other universes that is an extremely short amount of time. The schedule was a compromise.”

“What were these worlds? Well, one was us, clearly. We are one of only two naturally space capable universes involved, and we are by far the one with the most planets, even if we do not have the most advanced technology. We have been given the title Equis Cosmic as homage to our impressive might in the realm of space. The home of the Charter is Equis Vitis, given the name because they were the first to explore the other worlds, akin to a vine. Their world is almost a perfect image of our deep past, down to the same ponies. Historical figures such as Celestia and Luna are still ruling on Equis Vitis, as well as all the races we lost in our past. It is cause for celebration – our long lost brothers and sisters are being returned to us.”

“Equis Vitis is naturally connected to a world filled with humans called Earth Vitis, a world that Equis Vitis had been in contact with for several years prior to finding the dimensional device, through a Mirror Portal created by one Starswirl the Bearded. We did some research into our own history and discovered that our world had a Mirror Portal as well, but the world it leads to is a dead one, destroyed by a nuclear war. Earth Vitis has no other races besides humans naturally, only a small amount of magic, as well as over two hundred distinct nations. Their people often mirror ponies in the world of Equis Vitis for an unknown reason. Yes, they have a Twilight Sparkle as well, though she goes by Sparky and isn’t a Princess. She is responsible for the invention of the portable dimensional device.”

“There is another Earth as well, Earth Tau’ri, located in what is tentatively called the ‘western’ part of the multiverse, far removed from the rest of the worlds we know here in the ‘east’ multiverse. Their history is parallel to that of Earth Vitis, though strangely they generally don’t mirror individuals, even if all two hundred nations are more or less the same. Earth Tau’ri has almost no magic, and is in a universe with aliens. Earth Tau’ri has used relations with these aliens to achieve a respectable space program, and while they do not control more than a handful of star systems, their level of technology is far beyond our own.”

“Back in the east multiverse, we have two other worlds – the Elemental World and Lai. Lai is a pony-based world where there are more than just pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies. They have seaponies, deer, a tail-mouth race called a mawlie, and a race of seers called the oculi. Combinations of pegasus wings, unicorn horns, and other features are somewhat common over there. They also have an artificial race, known as the Arcei, but there is a large political fallout in their world regarding them, an issue that will sadly have to be reported on at another time. The Elemental World is run by humans with a quasi-magical power that allows them to bend the four elements. There are four nations in the world, three based in elements, and one that serves as a unity of the powers. The people of the Elemental World completed a long hundred-year war just as the Charter arrived, and because of this they are a hardened people who are nonetheless endlessly seeking peace among everyone.”

“These are just the briefest of possible looks at our new friends. There’s more information available online, should you wish to know more.”

“Now, before we get to our interviews and curiosities found in the Directory, there is a movement happening in our own universe in response to this Disclosure. We’re talking about the Dual Migration, a powerful idea headed by the Princess’ own descendant, Jade Snow.”

“Jade Snow, an alicorn many of you have likely heard of for her heroism in the Adank Mines Tragedy and clever solution of the Third Rim Crisis, has declared that the revelation of the other universes were precisely what our universe needed. I’ll just let her explain it for us, in her mission statement speech.”

All the screens switched to a video of a green alicorn with a wispy white mane smiling warmly. “Ponies of Equestria, I am Jade Snow, and what has just been revealed to us is more than new friends. It is a chance to reclaim what our world lost so long ago in the ancient war. Our brothers and sisters – the griffons, the dragons, the changelings, the minotaurs, the yaks, the zebras – all these graceful creatures that were exterminated in our past struggles. Our family can be whole again, and it can grow to beyond what it ever was before with the humans, the mushroom people, and the other varied creatures of the world. Today, I unveil the Dual Migration movement, a program I’ve had in the works for months now. Many of the worlds that are our allies have people struggling, homeless, in need of a family to teach them love and care. Their worlds do not have space. But we have an endless supply of worlds, and an extensive amount of resources. In addition, many of us in the galaxy will want nothing more than to go live somewhere new, somewhere where the culture is different.

“This is what Dual Migration is about. They’ll come to us, we’ll come to them. Through this initiative, our worlds will band together as one – in unity and family. Some may not want us, but we will make sure we let them know they’re wanted. We’ve been alone in the universe for far too long. It’s time to fix that.”

Cosmo turned away from the Enterprise’s main screen. “Well, she’s certainly ambitious.”

O’Neill smirked. “She didn’t approve this plan with you beforehand, did she?”

“Not at all, the little rascal,” Cosmo said with a smirk. “She probably knew I’d tell her to wait for a while after Disclosure to start it up. Must have taken a lot to get past Starlight’s radar.”

“I plead innocence, I was busy making sure the ponies wouldn’t flip out when you told them,” the AI chirped.

“All is forgiven,” Cosmo said. “I should probably be mad at her… But I’m not. That little speech of hers… It just fills me with hope.”

O’Neill shrugged. “The young people have a way of doing that, don’t they?”

“She’s over a century old, O’Neill. That’s well past middle age for a normal unicorn.”

O’Neill blinked. “…Wait, how long do you ponies live?”

“Naturally? The limit is around two hundred years. If you can get ahold of magic the limit is impossible to measure.”

“Fun,” O’Neill said. “How old are you?”

“Not polite to ask a woman her age,” Cosmo asserted.

“3,824 years,” the AI chirped.

Cosmo rolled her eyes. “Well there you go. Truly ancient.”

“I know some people who were older.”

“Oh? Which race was that?”

O’Neill blinked. “You know, I’m going to get yelled at for telling you this, but I have the authority. Our benefactors were a race called the Asgard. They prolonged their lives through perpetual, endless cloning. They eventually had to wipe themselves out because the cloning was detrimental, but they’re still around.”

“How?”

O’Neill smirked. “Why do you think we call it an Asgard Core? Their minds are spread throughout those machines, assisting how they can.”

Cosmo blinked. “…Even in death, they help you.”

“Yeah.”

“…O’Neill, do you think they wish to be alive again?”

“Of course they do, but their technology can’t d-“

“You haven’t tried Magic,” Cosmo said, tapping her chest. “And you haven’t tried the power of Harmony itself.”

“Are you offering to revive them?”

“I’m offering to try. If they’re willing.”

“Well, I’d have to ask Th-“

A hologram of a short, gray alien with pale skin and large black eyes appeared. “Twilight Cosmo Sparkle of Equis Cosmic, I am Thor of the Asgard. We would be eternally grateful if you attempted such a thing.”

O’Neill cursed. “I thought we were done with you popping in and out at random times!”

“The moment called for it, O’Neill.”

Cosmo smiled warmly at Thor. “I will do my best. I do not guarantee instant results, but it is the least I can do.”

~~~

“AAAAAAAAAAAA!” Twilight wailed, ramming her head into the desk she was sitting at, sending vast amounts of paperwork flying in every direction. “Spike, it’s finally happened. Tartarus has come to the surface and grabbed a hold of me. I’ll never leave.”

“It’s not that bad,” Spike said, reading over a sheet of paper. “It… Twilight?” He tapped her. “I’m talking.”

Twilight lifted her head from the desk, groaning. “Why can’t I just stay down and wallow in my own hatred of pieces of paper with walls of text on them?”

“Because you’re exaggerating. It’s not that bad. It's just paper. I’ve been dealing with your paperwork for years, if I can do it, so can you.”

“But… There’s so much… This is going to keep me from adventuring as much! And something tells me this workload is only going to get bigger and bigger!”

Pinkie Pie appeared from behind a stack of papers. “Oh, Twilight, you don’t have to come on every adventure.”

“But I want to,” Twilight said.

“You could hire someone else to do all this paperwork if you didn’t care for it,” Spike said. “I mean, I can’t do it all, but I know some people who would…”

“No, this is too important to leave it with hired people I don’t trust,” Twilight said, holding up a huge document. “For instance, this one is about that Dual Migration movement, and has seventeen different check boxes ranging from ‘yes, accept all proposals’ to ‘no, reject all proposals’. Clearly the actual answer is somewhere in the middle but it’s so hard to choose. I don’t really think I should let someone else do that…”

“You’re the princess,” Pinkie said.

“I know. I know…” Twilight rolled her eyes. “Look at me, whining. I shouldn’t be whining, I’m the Charter-Princess. I need to pony-up and face what’s going on. I just… Wish it could be a little more fun.”

Pinkie pulled a boombox out of her mane and set it on a nearby desk. A strange Harmonic tune began to play. Pinkie smirked. “I didn’t call it the Harmonic for nothing.”

Twilight took a breath, letting the Harmonic flow into her.

Like a child, I wish to play

But, at the end of the day

I need to be the princess

The princess everyone needs

These stacks of paper, daunting

The consequences, haunting

Worlds hang on my decisions

Millions judging all my deeds.”

Pinkie jumped in, grinning.

Come on Twi, no need to fret

The fun’s not over just yet

So what if paperwork’s mean?

The multiverse calls our names!”

Pinkie gave Spike a top hat and cane, pushing him into the song.

“Check there, stamp that, approve this

Don’t care if the others hiss

Wrap it up fast as you can

Then come to join the fun games!”

Twilight smiled to the two of them, chuckling.

I cannot have all the best

This may be some kind of test

The call pulls me down two roads

I will need to decide soon

Not today, but eventually...”

Far away, in another world entirely, Corona the unicorn broke into song while trotting down a college hallway.

I have shown my true colors

To my brothers and sisters

Accepted me as I am

Together in friendship’s tune!”

On a different earth, amidst a bomb investigation, Renee couldn’t help herself.

“Stars! The horrid explosions!

Dears! The elegant culture!

Oh! What beautiful conflict!”

“Renee, why are you singing?”

Renee smirked in Daniel’s direction.

The heartsongs give no reason

They come in special season

The empathy of the worlds,

Harmoniously ringing!”

Siron looked over the land that was soon to be his.

“Power, magic, extortion

control, determination

The world below me is my

Part amidst the harmony.”

Toph tapped her feet against the ground.

“People never want to change

Sometimes I just find this strange

But show them I will and – wait,

Why the heck am I singing?”

Cosmo felt the familiar feel of a heartsong wash over her. With a childish laugh in her voice, she joined in.

“The life and hope without end

Our worlds, with great fire, conjoined

I never thought I would see

The day of sorrows’ ending.”

O’Neill blinked, and felt suddenly compelled to say something.

“I don’t get what’s going on

Or why I feel like, um, gone?

Cosmo, what’s happening here?

The things my mouth is doing?”

“You are doing great, O’Neill”

“What am I even doing?”

Trixie laughed as she read messages flying past on her computer screen.

“Trixie the Great, Powerful,

Back with the might of a bull

All thought she was the background,

But Trixie never stays down!”

Discord snapped his fingers, summoning dozens of dancing shadow puppets.

Trixie should thank her great friend,

For showing her the great bend,

The what to prosperity

Chaotic day on the town!”

Twilight felt the power of the heartsong come back to her. She couldn’t hear it – she never could – but the power was still there.

“All of us in Harmony…

Creating sanctuary…

Fighting for a bright future…

Coming from the Harmonic…”

The music faded, the tune ended, and most everyone went back to their lives like nothing had happened, but they all felt more confident in the future of the world.

Except Sombra.

She had just witnessed a song cross multiversal barriers with no explanation.

She suddenly felt like she understood nothing.

She also felt a little left out.