I woke to the feeling of some pony being there in my head. As I came towards wakefulness, I was a little confused on account of having Shankar's arm over me, hugging me close against an unexpected draft of cool air coming in the window, and thinking it had something to do with that, but nope, it was a pony. So, after a few seconds, I said, "Hello?"
After another two seconds, I got a funny reply. I sounded kind of masculine. "It worked! Ah, hello. I… my cousin Sunset Shimmer asked me to help with your problem. Not that she couldn't do it, but it's an interesting problem while being low power, and… she thought I'd be a good fit for it."
I shrugged. "All right. What do you need? And which problem do you mean?"
"Princess Celestia's hair unraveling and possibly having unpredictable magical effects. I can track it down, maybe." A few seconds passed. I was about to speak when he continued, "I would like to switch into the body of somepony around there. Preferably male."
"We don't have any ponies here. There are horses a short walk away, but I don't know that you could talk in it, and if you could it would be very conspicuous."
"I'm sorry, somebody. Doesn't need to be a pony."
I nudged Shankar, figuring he was probably awake by now, and said, "Shankar, want to go to Equestria? Got some unicorn stallion here who wants to switch with you for a bit. At least, I think he's a unicorn."
He groggily began, "That's be awesome. Who are you?"
The hesitant voice said, "I'm Sunburst. All right. I'll see about getting this going. Also, I… heard you wear clothing."
"Yeah, normally. Problem?"
"No! Actually, Shankar, could you get dressed before I come over, if you aren't already? I don't mind anypon-one else not wearing or wearing, whatever, I'm used to it."
Shankar nodded. "OK. Anyway, I guess that I should not undress you while I'm there?"
Emphatically, "Yes, please."
Shankar got up and pulled his his pants on over his boxers. Even though Sunburst was still on the line, I also got up and threw on jeans and a T-shirt. I also picked out a neutral gray XL T-shirt I kept around as pyjamas and threw it at Shankar for him to wear on top instead of his shirt from yesterday. When we were done, I asked Sunburst, "When will this be?"
"I'm sorry, this is a terribly complicated spell that princess Celestia cast, and Sunset Shimmer modified it, and somepony else did too, and I need to make another change… I understand how it works and what I need to do to it, but actually doing it is quite another thing." Resigned, he added, "I… I think I should get some help with it. I'll be a few minutes. In the mean time, can you go near the last place you saw the hair?"
"Well, that's the problem. It's in another city. If I shed… somewhere in the New Jersey side of the rail system of New York metropolitan area, which is around a hundred miles wide. Or in the middle. "
"I see. Maybe go to the central rail terminal? Anything you shed might come back there, and we only need to be within a few miles of the hair, for a few minutes. And I could set up a relay." He seemed doubtful on that last part.
"Oh phew. So we don't even need to go into Manhattan, just go up to the river? Or does running water block magic or something?"
"There are some kinds that would have trouble with that, but not this kind. It might even help. All right. I'll be back in a few minutes. I mean, Sunset will."
I got the impression that he wasn't there anymore.
Lyra was waiting for us. She sat at the kitchen table, jiggling her legs, grinning. I was mildly surprised that she was fully dressed, and indeed dressed appropriately for church. "So?"
I blinked. "What?"
"How was it? What did you do? How important is it?"
"Well, we haven't started it yet. Sunburst will be along…"
"No, you two, last night."
"Impertinent question, but hardly anything beyond what you already know - he was there. When something more substantial happens, you will not get any details."
"When! Not if!" Her grin shifted to be directed at Shankar. I did not turn to look at his reaction, but her grin faded a bit as she did.
A knock on the door, and Lyra speeded down the stairs. There was the sound of a stumble, but before I could get into motion came a cry of "I'm fine!". Then, "It's Jack. See you later!" The door closed again.
I sat down at the table in the seat Lyra had left, and Shankar pulled out the opposite seat. I groaned lightly. "I feel exhausted. You?"
He nodded. "Started late, and I'm not used to being next to someone."
I put my head down on the table. "How do you want to go in?"
"Since we don't need to cross into NYC, car would probably be quicker."
I nodded dimly, and dragged myself through a simple breakfast. I actually got myself some of Rhiannon's cereal instead of making something.
Shankar frowned. "Why are you so tired? I got less sleep than you did, but you're just… droopy."
I shrugged and noticed that he'd eaten. "Can you drive?"
"Sure, so long as they don't change the plan and Sunset talks through you before throwing him into me."
"I'm reasonably confident they'll ask first. Sunset saw enough of cars to know that jumping in is a poor idea." I half expected her to jump in at that point, but she didn't.
So we went down and got in Shankar's car and the next thing I knew I was waking up. Still in the car, and not particularly better rested, in what was probably Hoboken.
Shankar was poking me with his hands curled up and I guessed, "Sunburst?"
"Yes, it's Sunburst. This… this is amazing."
"Yeah." I murmured. "What's really amazing to me is how drained I feel. Lethargic."
"Hmm." Sunburst considered me. "I wonder… oh. This is very strange." His tone made it sound like it was a human thing, not a magic weirdness thing. He continued, "While using magic is roughly the same in this body, it's much harder to feel it. It's like doing things with numb hooves."
My mind churned a little. "Wait, so I can do magic the same here as I could in Equestria?"
"I'm not sure." He held out a hand and held it just above Shankar's cell phone where it was sitting on the dashboard. Then it leapt up to his hand. "Yes, the power's there, but it's so hard to feel what I'm doing." He set it down again. "I guess that explains why Sunset's amulet just broke."
"The amulet broke?"
"Yes. I think it broke when I swapped into his body? Maybe he should have taken it off first."
"I feel a disturbance in the force, as if a million perverted ideas cried out in anguish, and were suddenly silenced. Dammit, we hardly got to do anything with it! Why couldn't it have lasted a few more days? We didn't even get to use it for the useful things, like proving the existence of magic!"
Sunburst seemed a bit confused, but asked, "But didn't I just say you can do that anyway?"
"Oh, right." I yawned again.
"You have to get up and move."
"What?"
"Wake up. Walk around. Get out of this thing. And bring me with you. My legs want to move. At least, I think that's what that feeling means. Show me how to walk and I'll show you how to use magic."
That was a good enough deal that I dragged myself up and out. I walked around the car and opened the door for him, and helped him out. That was actually quite involved. While trying to get him up, I took stock of the situation in more detail. We were in a business district, near-deserted on a Sunday morning. There was the sound (and smell) of diesel trains idling. Once I got him up, I took his hand and led off slowly along the sidewalk. "Here's that rail hub you mentioned we should stay near."
"Ah. Yes. About that. I'm not so sure that'll work. There's much more local magic here than I was expecting after what I heard from Sunset. But it's worth a try."
We walked around it until we found the entrance, then realized we didn't actually need to go in, so we went down to the nearby waterfront park and wandered. He explained magic at me but I persistently couldn't understand what he was referring to. After a time it came out that even when I'd been in Sunset's body I hadn't been hooked up to the senses in her horn at all. And yet, I'd managed to control the magic enough to draw. After a while I managed to recreate the feeling I'd had when I was levitating the pen and paper.
"Hmm. Yes, that works too. Cruder than you can achieve by direct control, but having the magic control itself does seem like your best option. Back in Equestria, that's advanced, but lacking a horn of your own, it might be your only option."
For a moment, I was glad he agreed, and then I realized he was saying things I hadn't realized and then I realized I was levitating a tiny scrap of bubblegum wrapper next to my shoe. I dropped it hastily, ashamed that I hadn't thought not to do this in public. On the other hand, I hadn't expected to succeed.
Also, I didn't feel tired anymore.
Sunburst nodded. "I think you succeeded because the last bit of hair just got sucked up."
"How would that help me do it? Did I steal the magic again?"
"No, Sunset's 'sponge' as you've called it noticed it was done and stopped sucking on you. I also expect you have your cutie mark back."
I was tempted to just check right then, and then was shocked that I was so tempted. Ponies rubbing off on me. "Well, great then. I guess you can switch back and we'll go home and thank you for explaining what you did."
He pursed his lips. "I suppose so. It looks like I…"
Sunset used my mouth to interrupt him. "You did it! Only an hour!"
He moaned, "I didn't really do anything. And I'm wondering why the energy was lost in the first place. This isn't a magic vacuum at all."
As she said it, Sunset's objection faltered - "Yes, it is!…n't. Huh. Yeah, it's still a bit of a desert, but there's more than in the parts of the badlands. I think. It's hard to feel." A pause of a few seconds. Then, doubtfully, "Do you think the hair triggered the local field to be self-sustaining?"
"Probably not, no. I have some thoughts. Did you really feel it sucking, or did you assume it was sucking because that's what happened to the hair?"
I gave Sunset some time; after ten long seconds, she replied, "There was definitely less magic yesterday than there is today. But, I don't really know for sure that it was so little that it would suck hard enough to crack Celestia's hair open, let alone leave physical hair as residue. What other ideas do you have?"
"Well. If it was definitely less, there goes one idea."
Sunset took over my voice as if about to speak again, but merely remained about-to-say-something for around a second. It finally came out, "Which was?"
"Sympathetic stimulated resonant antiparallel parasitism."
My eyebrows rose, and Sunset deadpanned, "I don't think bashing jargon into each other is the answer. Reeks of overcompensation."
He continued, ignoring her remark, "Orrr… maybe it's something simpler, like if something pulled on the hair, extruding it. No vacuum, but magic becomes hair."
Sunset groaned just as I'd been about to. After we were done, I said, "Yes. I pulled on it."
He added, "Yes, so Shankar just pointed out. That would have been good to know. Sunset's amulet might not have broken if…"
Sunset sharply interrupted, "It broke?" She suddenly claimed my arm and used it to reach out and pull on the amulet's lanyard until it pulled out of Shankar's T-shirt. Once it was partially exposed, she touched it. I could abruptly feel simultaneously being Shankar, Sunset, Sunburst, and myself. It was a little overwhelming for the moment until she released it. "Seems to be working to me."
"That's intended?" Sunburst shouted in alarm. "That's… not… it doesn't…" Suddenly, Sunset was gone, and after a moment I realized Shankar was back.
He scratched the back of his head and asked, "Uh, how are you feeling?"
I gave him a thumbs-up. "Much better. You?"
He shrugged. "Sunset was being Sunset again. Just, this time I was a unicorn. So on the net, pretty nifty, actually. Kind of wish it went longer."
I nodded. "Yeah, I totally understand that. So, what…" I held up as I felt Sunset rejoin us.
"So… we did get all of Celestia's magic, but there are some odds and ends to wrap up. Do you mind if Sunburst swaps back again?"
Shankar grinned. "How convenient. Yes, that would be very nice."
"All right! Ah, would you give me the amulet for a minute?"
Shankar handed it over, and I reached out - I felt Sunset was also reaching out, but my arm's motions matched my intentions and not hers - and took it. I felt all four of us for a moment, but then that stopped. Sunset closed my eyes, and then nothing happened for a little while.
I hadn't previously held my eyes closed while a pony spoke through me, and since I wasn't doing anything with my own body, I thought of checking for anything else I was aware of on her end. After a few moments I heard faint hoofbeats outside, and smelled ink. Then my eyes reopened and it crowded out the other sensations. "All right. I made some improvements Sunburst suggested. So. I see you're back near Manehattan again. Do you plan to go home?"
Shankar nodded. "We have my car. If Sunburst is switching with me, Rachel can drive. Or we can put it off around forty minutes."
Sunburst's voice took over. "If it's all the same to you, now would be better. What I want to do, I can do while riding, if it's anything like riding a train."
I took a deep breath. I didn't much like driving on unfamiliar roads, or in unfamiliar cars, let alone both. "All right. Sunset, don't interrupt me for the next hour." - "Understood."
So we got up and headed back to the car, and I adjusted the mirrors. "So, what are you doing, Sunburst?"
He put a hand to the bridge of his nose as if adjusting nonexistent glasses, and then felt his face a little. "Trying to figure out a bit more about how your magic works. Because it seems to be changing as we watch."
"That's worrisome."
"Exactly. So I'm doing some very basic experiments to get some readings, and I'll repeat them over time."
I opened Shankar's GPS and told it to give me directions home. Sunburst had many questions for me now that I was alert, and I spent the trip telling him about the superficialities of a sequence of topics - GPS, satellites, space flight, (pause for him to perform magic tests), technological progress over the ages, origin of man, evolution of species, (pause for him to perform more magic tests), cosmogony…
"… so yeah, we can't really see any further back than a few thousand years after the beginning, or whenever the cosmic microwave background is from. But, everything after that is pretty well-founded because we can just look up and see it. Even with now knowing about magic I remain…" My thoughts were interrupted by my realizing that the GPS's directions had gotten me off the highway at an unfamiliar exit. I was stuck crossing the river into Highland Park. I took the turn the GPS directed me to, spotted a parking spot, and pulled into it.
Deep breaths.
"This is why I don't like driving. Now I don't know how to get home." I poked at its interface.
Sunburst watched in interest and confusion. "Didn't you ask it to direct you home?"
"It's Shankar's GPS, so it was directing me to his home, not mine."
"Oh. From the way you were… umm. I thought you lived together."
"That was a one time thing so far, but we're hoping that could happen again. Say, can you get hold of Shankar to ask if there's anything we should pick up from his apartment?"
Sunburst boggled. "In principle, yes. In practice, no."
"Oh well, let's head home, then. Let's see if he's got me in there. Sort by… recent. Mechanic, work, home, parents, airport. Well, that's not promising. Maybe it's in forwards order so I'd be last? Hmm. Beach. BF." I raised an eyebrow. Boyfriend?Well, that would explain some things, but not others. Maybe his sister also uses it. "GF, finally! This… is not my address. On the other hand, it's back in Chicago, so I guess it really was recent first and it's not that he's been two-timing me, he just hasn't updated his address book lately. Sorry, rambling."
I backed out of the menu and found the way of inputting addresses manually. Entered my own, and saved it as 'Rachel'. More deep breaths, and I hit the 'go' button. The GPS began directing me home, but I was not feeling so together that I wanted to resume the science talk. Plus, if he wanted more detail, I couldn't give it. And it's been awfully one-sided. I should be gathering more information myself. On the other hand, I'm driving. It's one thing to spout off things you already know while you're driving, it's quite another to learn new things. So we'll get home and it'll be his turn. What should I ask about… we had something we wanted to ask about yesterday… oh, right. Only the apocalypse.
"Is something wrong?", he cut in.
"Well, I just remembered a prophecy of some sort that we heard about yesterday, that was… worrisome."
"Hmm. Prophecy is really unreliable back in Equestria, barely even worth thinking about most of the time, because they're hard to make, and anyway any prophecy can be interfered with by enough magic working against it directly and precisely. And we have a lot of magic. But here? There isn't so much magic. Maybe prophecy is more reliable here. What does it say, exactly?"
"We don't have the exact text, if it's textual at all. We only have a vague recollection by someone who has altered her own memory in the mean time."
Sunburst gave me an incredulous look that I caught out of the corner of my eye, and sighed. "That's less than… what were you hoping to find out, if that's all you had?"
"You've already said enough to be helpful - we can break it if we can find out what it is."
"Two more problems. First, it takes a lot of magic. More than Sunset has. More than Starlight probably does by now. Maybe more than princess Cadance has. Maybe she could crack a weak one. There are a few that princess Celestia can't shatter. Second, you need to know exactly what it's predicting so it doesn't just accommodate whatever you're doing, in a way you don't like. Exact texts are important. So it sounds like you're going to have to work within it."
"What about if you know at least one thing it requires, and prevent that?"
"Each prophecy only requires one thing. Sometimes a complicated thing."
"Like, 'every X does Y' is one thing? What if we can make at least one X not do Y?"
"That doesn't sound like the kind of wording prophecies generally use. Also, if you try to break it without using enough magic to actually break it, something will come up to make you fail, some way or another."
Ah. That was what Cadence meant about 'barring catastrophe', with predicting her wedding. She had a prophecy, but was acknowledging that something really big and magical could conceivably come along to break it.
We pulled into the alley behind my apartment and I helped Sunburst out of the car, up the stairs, and to the table. "So. Magic. Got anything else you can teach me about how to do it?"
Sunburst made a glasses-pushing gesture again, and swallowed. "Do you have any notes already? I understand there was… something."
I went to Rhiannon's room and retrieved her notes. Sunburst read through a bit. "These diagrams could be better." I handed him blank pages to fill with better diagrams. He had some difficulty with hands, but it wasn't crippling, merely slowing. I wrote what he said about each one. "… used for detection of disturbances… Say, did you do the tests recently?"
"Oh my. Let's see, I did it after we sat down, but how long has it been? We should write all the results down…" So I copied down the figures as he dictated to me.
It consisted of three short time series - the first started at 12.1 and changed to 12.2, the second was all zeroes, and the third bounced around in the low nineties. "So, not rapid change."
"Not rapid, but there seems to be an upward drift. Will want to keep checking. Now, about these… uh, just a moment." He squinted. "I think Shankar's trying to contact me."
After a few seconds, Shankar said, "Rhiannon didn't send that dream, Rachel."
I blinked. "What?"
"I just asked her how to interpret the dream she sent you, but she has no idea what I'm talking about. Hold on, here's princess Celestia, looks like she wants to talk."
Then he slumped down in his seat - it seemed that neither of them was in charge of Shankar's body. After a few seconds, I had the bright idea of touching the amulet to join in.