They had breakfast in the decently rebuilt school cafeteria since the main table in Twilight’s Castle had been well and truly destroyed. It was easier to seat all eight of them here, anyway.
It was the strangest breakfast Twilight had ever been a part of. Usually every meal she’d had would follow some kind of theme - funny, heartwarming, awkward, or sad. This get-together somehow managed to be all of the above at different times; as if switches were flipping on and off in everypony’s mind.
One moment…
“Angel Bunny didn’t make it…” Fluttershy said, not even trying to hold in her tears. “I don’t even know what he was doing when it happened…”
“Fluttershy…” Rarity said, a hoof to her mouth. “I’m… I’m so sorry…”
“So many made it… I should be thankful they’re here… but I…” She broke down, putting her face in her hooves, prompting a few of her friends to come over, hug her, and give whatever assurances they were able to.
And the next…
Applejack punched a hole through her plate and the table. “...Huh.”
“Don’t know your own strength, eh?” Rainbow Dash asked with a sly grin.
“Ah guess not…”
“I wouldn’t be so happy Rainbow Dash,” Discord said, munching on a large wedge of cheese. “You’ll never be able to beat her in an athletic pursuit again.”
Rainbow Dash paled. “Oh no…”
And then there were laughs. Legitimate, real, joyful laughs.
Laughter, crying, and then awkward silence.
The awkward silence wasn’t memorable enough to have a distinct impression in Twilight’s mind. It was a suffocating presence somehow everywhere, but not quite tangible enough to hold on to. Like the soft buzzing of white noise.
Was this normal a few days after a tragedy?
Could anything this soon after a tragedy be considered normal?
Twilight sighed, looking to her side as another plate of food appeared on the table thanks to Discord. For a moment, Twilight stopped short, wondering why that simple motion made her stomach churn so much. It wasn't like Discord had ever fed them like this before, it shouldn’t be triggering any memories…
Spike should be the one bringing in the plates from the kitchen.
Twilight stood up suddenly, pushing her chair back. “I’m bringing Spike out today.”
Celestia blinked. “That seems like a good choice, but you don’t seem to be thinking straight right now.”
“I… he’s one of us, he needs to be here. Today i-”
“No, Twilight!” Pinkie wailed, standing up as well. “Marble needs out! She’s not going to last very long in there! Without me, I… I don’t know what’s going to happen to her!”
Twilight swallowed hard. “I… I…” She let out a deep breath. “You’re right. Spike can take care of himself in there, and we can be strong out here. The ponies who need out should come first…”
“Oh, it appears I forgot to tell you something,” Discord said, scratching his claws. “I visited the Roots yesterday and talked to Sunset. She needs to get out so she can hook up a screen so everyone can see into the Roots.”
“Discord!” Pinkie shouted. “M-marble! I…”
Rarity furrowed her brow. “If Sunset can get such a device working… Marble and all the others in the Roots would be able to talk to us easily. We wouldn’t have to worry about them as much.”
“That could take forever!” Pinkie jumped onto the table. “Girls, Marble’s not…”
“She can’t hurt herself in there, Pinkie,” Celestia said warmly. “It… it may be more dangerous for her out here than in there.”
Pinkie looked at Celestia with miniscule pupils, speechless at the implication. Her mane drooped slightly as the Princess’ words hit home. Tears welled up in her eyes and she sat down, uncharacteristically still.
“Pinkie…” Twilight said.
“Give her a minute,” Fluttershy said, holding up a hoof.
“No… no, we don’t have minutes,” Pinkie said, looking up with a determined - albeit wet - face. “Twilight, get Sunset out and put her to work as fast as you can. Every minute we waste is another minute Marble and the others can’t talk to us. A minute of sadness.”
Twilight looked at her in pity. “Are you sure…?”
“Nope,” Pinkie said, forcing a smile. “But do it anyway. We don’t need an argument.”
Twilight nodded, closing her eyes. Once again, she tapped into the power of the Roots, though she was cautious now. Slowly, a white glow took form to her side; at first a pony, then a human, then two separate bodies in different locations. Twilight twitched - finding it difficult to parse Sunset’s form precisely. She gave herself some extra time and magic to adjust the form, but she soon realized this limbo state wouldn’t be good for Sunset if she kept it up for too long.
Eventually, she released her magic, and Sunset stood before them.
Sunset Shimmer took a minute to examine herself, confused. Looking down, she saw a pair of hands. However, something wasn’t quite right. Not with the hands - they were normal - but with her head. Reaching up, she tapped her soft, rounded ears, the two fuzzy protrusions twitching slightly. Sprouting from her forehead was the hard tip of a horn.
Without thinking she held a hand out to a nearby cup, levitating it right into her fingers. She stared at in in disbelief for a moment - and then grinned. “Yes.”
It was at this point her tail started wagging, much to the surprise of her and everyone else. She pulled her tail up to her face, gawking. “I have a tail!?!”
“Oh, sorry, sorry!” Twilight blushed. “I can fix that, give me a mi-”
“No, no, no, it’s… it’s fine!” Sunset flexed her tail muscles, finding that it didn’t feel quite like a pony tail, not that she knew what other tails felt like. “It’s just… unexpected. Even powered up, this never happened.”
“I… probably just fused your two mental images of yourself together…” Twilight admitted, rubbing the back of her head.
“It works,” Sunset said, examining the back of her skirt, trying to figure out how to keep the fabric down flat with the awkward placement of the tail. “It feels like me, don’t panic.”
“If you say so…”
Pinkie was suddenly in Sunset’s face, ending her tail tinkering. “You need to get those screens set up. As soon as humanly possible!”
Sunset didn’t miss her use of the word ‘humanly’, she just decided not to question it. “Right. Twilight, you have all my broken supplies in storage by now, right?”
Twilight nodded.
“Discord, with me, we’re going to need to take all of those down to the Roots.”
Discord rubbed his hands together. “Mad science time?”
“Of a sort,” Sunset said with a shrug. “Uh… it’s good to see you all again, and I’ll be able to catch up later. Right now, there’s still work to be done.”
“Naturally,” Rarity said. “But first, I need to do something for you.”
“Rarity you don’t have t-”
Rarity quickly used her magic to force a hole in the back of Susnet’s skirt. She tugged the bacon-esque tail through the hole, pulling it tight. “There you go. Really, that was bothering me.”
Sunset rubbed the back of her hips. “Ow…”
“I am sorry, but I needed to work fast so you wouldn’t say no and go around as a crime against human decency.”
“...You’re all ponies.”
Rarity rolled her eyes and fixed Sunset with a level expression.
“Right… Thanks, Rarity.”
“Can we go now?” Discord muttered.
“Ye-”
Discord snapped his fingers and the two of them were gone.
Twilight stood up. “I’m going to check out the Roots for a few minutes, then we can figure out what needs to be done today.”
Celestia nodded. “Understood, Twilight.”
“Pinkie, anything you want to say to Marble?”
Pinkie gulped. “Only that she’s the bestest sister ever and that I’m doing everything I can to see her again. I’m sorry that I have to be out here…”
Twilight nodded, taking a breath and closing her eyes, allowing her consciousness to drift into the Roots below. She easily gained entry to the world within, finding herself face to face with Zecora.
“With Sunset free, does it fall to me?”
“Does what?” Twilight asked.
“Keeping this crowd from getting too loud,” Zecora said, pointing at an imaginary theme park some of the spirits had created - including Smolder, if the statue of the orange dragon on the roller coaster was any indication.
“...Sure,” Twilight said, smiling. “I hereby give you authority over the dreaming Roots, or whatever we’re calling them. Keep everyone in line, okay?”
“I endeavor to fulfill this task, I hope none want to bask.”
Twilight shrugged. “You get used to it.” She let her spirit drift through the Roots, finding Spike easily. “Hey there.”
“Twilight!” Spike said, getting up from his conversation with Smolder. They tried to hug, though Twilight found that her form was intangible to them. “Oh…”
Twilight smiled sadly. “I’ll give you all the hugs you want when I get you out. Sadly, it can’t be today. I need to save my power, and I already got Sunset out to do something with her machines. Until then, think you can help Zecora keep everyone grounded?”
“Oh, uh, sure!” Spike saluted. “You can count on me!”
“That’s my number one assistant!” Twilight nodded. “I really wish I could talk longer, but there’s a lot to do.”
“I understand. See you around!”
Twilight allowed herself to shift through the Roots again, finding a lone gray earth pony staring at nothing, a deep grimace on her face.
“Marble…?”
Marble jumped up and hid behind her tail, shivering in fear.
“Marble, it’s just me, Twilight.”
Marble made no response - she just kept staring at the purple alicorn with wide eyes.
Twilight sighed. “I have a message from Pinkie.” The mare perked up at that. “She says you’re the bestest sister ever and that she’s doing everything she can to see you again. She’s really sorry that she has to be out there - she really wants to be in here with you.”
Marble, ever so slightly, nodded. Twilight noticed she was crying - had she been crying before?
“...Anything you want to tell her?” Twilight asked.
Marble made no response at all. She just kept staring.
With a sad smile, Twilight turned. “...If you ever want to get a message out, just talk to Zecora, okay?”
Did Marble nod at that? Twilight couldn’t tell.
I really should stay longer, give her something more grounded…
Twilight shook her head. With a gulp, she removed her mind from the Roots.
~~~
Discord glanced at Sunset as she dug through a pile of damaged Earth technology that had been recently teleported to the Root caverns. “What exactly am I doing here?”
“Waiting,” Sunset said, pulling a dented metal box out of a console, frowning at the damage.
“The Lord of Chaos does not wait.”
“Unless you know how to safely remove a hard drive and check it for damage, you can’t exactly do anything just yet. Even with your magic, we need the basic code for the operating system or else all of this is basically useless.”
Discord let out an immensely annoyed groan, creating a ping-pong paddle out of nowhere and bouncing it repeatedly. A house of cards began to slowly materialize over his face.
Sunset didn’t mind - as long as he was still there when she did need him. She continued to dig through the technological junk, prying off panels and removing screens. Having a combination of magic and fingers was an immense boon in this endeavor. She was able to hold things and press buttons easily while all screws were removed with a simple rotation spell.
And it just so happened that the panel she opened revealed a computer interior that was relatively undamaged. She clapped her hands. “Yes!” Carefully, she pulled out a silver box - a solid state hard drive filled with all the information required to run a computer. And, just her luck, an undamaged processor chip was nearby, along with a few other computer components. “Found it!” She jumped up to a card table and laid all the components out.
Discord examined the drive and the chips. “And these things are more impressive than me?”
“What’s the square root of thirty-nine million, three-hundred forty thousand, nineteen?”
“...How could I possibly know that?”
Sunset levitated a small calculator out of the technology pile and pressed a few buttons. She held up the screen, displaying 6272.1622. “I couldn’t do that, you couldn’t do that, but this tiny computer could do it in a second.” She pointed at the hard drive and chips. “This is a big computer. I had programs specially designed to analyze magical field shapes in real time. It should be more than capable of analyzing the patterns within the Roots, given some tweaking - and magic from you, of course.”
Discord glared at the calculator, as if he could make it feel ashamed for showing him up. “Bah. It can’t do chaos.”
“True, computers can’t do magic.” Sunset frowned. “Trust me, I’ve tried. Things exploded. There was one time Starlight and I…” She trailed off, a haunted expression crossing her face. “D-discord, I’m going to need you to fix something.”
“Egh, order…” Discord shivered. “Unpleasant.”
Sunset grabbed a monitor with a shattered screen and heavily dented exterior on the table. “This thing. This is the screen in the best condition. We need to get it working. You’ll have to regrow the glass, of course, but the LCD screen behind that needs to be recreated in a very specific manner. Can you see the intricate patterns?”
Discord held a telescope up to his eye and squinted. Sunset knew he was scanning the device with his magic and the telescope was just for show, but she didn’t comment on it. “...This will be child’s play.” With a snap of his fingers, all the cracks and dents were ironed out of the monitor. It looked like it had never been broken.
“Wow.”
Discord smirked. “While I would love to continue basking in such praise, it’s not done. That’s just the shell - the inside will take more time.”
“How long?”
“Few minutes, tops.”
Sunset nodded. “Good. I’ll start wiring up everything else…” She carefully took loose cables from the junk pile and started to wire the chips and hard drive together. It didn’t take long - most of the cables connecting the pieces hadn’t been fried since they were so well protected. The few things she did need to wire, such as power, were augmented with her magic. She touched her finger to the power line and turned the CPU on. Without a monitor she didn’t exactly have a way to tell what it was doing, but it didn’t blow, so that was good.
She only noticed Celestia standing next to her when she finished. “Waugh!” She recoiled, falling onto her butt.
“Oh, sorry!” Celestia called, helping her up. “I didn’t want to interrupt you!”
“It’s… fine…” Sunset said, breathing slowly. “I’m just waiting for Discord, anyway.” She half expected the Lord of Chaos to snort and follow that up with a quip, but he was so focused on the monitor that he didn’t even register that she was talking. “What can I do for you?”
“How are you doing, Sunset?” Celestia asked, concern on her face.
“Pretty good, considering,” Sunset said with a smile. “It looks like we have the start of a pretty powerful computer, and we’ll be able to use that in conjunction with Discord’s magic to make more. Shouldn’t be too long before we have a primitive interface that’ll work as long as the Roots provide magic power.”
“Sunset, you know that’s not what I’m asking about.”
Sunset let her smile drop unceremoniously. “...It’s… hard. Starlight… all the others…”
“Are you not thinking of Earth?”
Sunset looked blankly into the distance. “Earth is fine, Celestia. The Tree severed the connection, remember?”
“But you can’t go back. They may not have lost it, but you lost your home. You lost both of them.”
Sunset gulped, unconsciously grabbing the spot on her neck where her geode should have been hanging. It wasn’t gone - just inside of her, like an Element - but it wasn’t slightly disquieting to not have it physically present. “I… I did. And… and the Mirror’s useless now, can’t even try to reactivate it with the whole magic loss thing.” Tears welled up in her eyes, but she kept a strong face. “I can never go back. But I will remember that world and the people in it. I will be a walking reminder that the destruction didn’t claim everything we knew. There’s a whole world out there, touched by magic, that will remember Equestria. Not just us.”
Celestia’s concern turned into a smile. “...You have hope.”
“I guess.”
Celestia put a hoof on her shoulder. “Sunset, you have hope. In a situation like this, even the strongest of mares will struggle to hold on to something bigger than themselves.”
“...Even you?”
Celestia’s smile faltered. “...Yes. Even me.”
“...I’m sorry. This is the second time you’ve lost her.”
The regal princess nodded slowly, pain evident on her face. “There is no moon on this world, Sunset. I would have liked there to be one. Liked there to be some memory. Something that was… her. Could have been used to remember her.”
“There are pictures of her in the school,” Sunset said. “I know there are.”
“We must not forget…” Celestia said. Unexpectedly, she pulled Sunset into a hug. “And we must not neglect the present by dwelling on the past. We must be there for each other.”
“...I… I can try.”
“Good.” Celestia slowly released her from the embrace. “Sunset, I have something to ask you.”
“Anything.”
“Once, long ago, you were my student.” Celestia’s eyes softened. “Twilight has surpassed me, and I find myself wanting someone to teach once more. I can think of none more qualified than yourself.”
“...You’re asking me back?”
“I would have earlier, but you were so happy in your world. Now that you’re here, y-”
“Yes,” Sunset said, interrupting her. “Yes, I’d love to. I’ll… I’ll learn all I can. Friendship, magic, science, this new world… I’ll do it at your side.”
Celestia beamed. “Thank you, Sunset. You don’t know what this means to me.”
Sunset nodded with a soft chuckle. “Yeah… I think we both need it…”
“DONEAROONI WITH PEPPERONI!” Discord shouted, setting the monitor down on the table. “It’s all yours!”
Sunset leaped to the table with fire in her eyes. She plugged two cables into the back of the monitor and began to run power through the wires. With the push of a button, she turned the computer on.
The monitor lit up, displaying a familiar apple-shaped logo.
“YEAH!” Sunset said, pumping her fist into the air. “We’ve got it!”
A login prompt appeared on the screen.
Sunset glared at it. “...Probably should have thought about needing a keyboard. To the junk pile!” She jumped back from the table and started rummaging around once more.
With a smile on her face, Celestia decided it was best to leave them to their work.
~~~
Twilight stood at the edge of Equestrian soil, looking at the world beyond. It was peculiar, to say the least - this area of the Everfree had been of low elevation, and now all of it was a significant distance above the ground. Only a few of the nearby trees reached to the current height of Twilight, though to be fair most of the trees immediately around the crash zone had been flattened.
Very little moved out there - most likely the larger animals had been scared off by the crash. There’d been a few small mammals, birds, and the like, but nothing larger so far. She could see very far into the distance, but she had a hard time figuring out what the shapes were due to the concave nature of the Sphere.
Not the best name, but it was all they had come up with so far. Maybe they would name the new world something else, later, but for now it was the Sphere.
Twilight opened her wings and glided down to the Sphere’s surface, her hooves touching down on alien soil. She had done this before, but this time she had a purpose in mind. She placed a hoof on the Equestrian soil and focused - promptly causing a new Root to shoot out into the sunlight. Standing next to it, her eyes went white and she shot an immense beam of harmonious energy into the sky.
Nodding to herself, she trotted a few yards away from the Root and tried to do the same thing.
All she produced was a powerful purple laser - her standard alicorn power. Not to mention she also felt sick to her stomach having walked this far. She quickly returned to the Root, breathing a sigh of relief as the energy flooded back into her.
She collected herself and used her magic to extend the Root further, until the crystal tendril reached to where she had been standing a moment before. Once again, she could unleash the harmony blast easily.
Delicately, she ran a hoof across the Root. My power is tied to this physical location… I won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. It was a mildly disappointing realization, but she didn’t let it bother her.
Instead, she wanted to know more.
“Rainbow Dash, would you please come here?” she asked the air, leaning against the Root. A moment later she lit her horn, sending out a magic ping directed at Discord.
Rainbow Dash arrived first, a grumpy expression on her face. “This is going to get old really quickly.”
“Would you have prefered I came and got you in person, wasting a back and forth trip?” Twilight asked. “Regardless, I think you’ll like this.”
“How so?”
“Wait a minute, we still nee-”
“DISCORD!” Discord shouted, appearing in a shower of sparks.
“That was fast,” Twilight observed.
“Psh, moving quickly is no issue to me.”
“Does Sunset even know why you left?”
Discord pondered this. “...Maybe…?”
Twilight facehooved. “Guess we should do this quickly. Discord, I need you to try sending some chaos magic into the forest. Rainbow Dash, you should go flying. Stay low to the ground, but fly out a ways from here and then come back. Got it?”
“Got it!” Rainbow said, saluting. She took off in a gust of wind, leaving the two others in the dust.
Discord chuckled. He snapped his fingers, creating a flying pig and sending it after Rainbow Dash.
After a few seconds, the flying pig vanished into nothing, but Rainbow Dash was still flying strong.
“I’m getting a distinct sense of deja vu,” Discord muttered.
“I think our power - yours and mine - isn’t fully compatible with this world,” Twilight theorized, glancing at the Root at their side. “We need these Roots to access our full potential.”
“That’s going to put a dampener on my worldwide party,” Discord muttered, folding his arms.
“Well, with any luck Pinkie will still be able to throw on-”
A Sonic Rainboom went off over their heads, shaking the world around them. Rainbow Dash promptly landed on the ground before them and grinned coyly. “Pinks is gonna be just fine out there.”
“Rainbow! If your magic had fail-”
“It wasn't gonna fail,” Rainbow said, stretching her legs and wings. “Didn’t even get tired! And I heard your entire conversation, too. And Rarity and Applejack’s conversation. Your magic eggheadery was much more interesting than their drivel, by the way. Oh, Discord? Sunset’s having a conniption.”
“I’m surprised you know that word,” Discord marveled.
“I don’t. She’s using it to describe her own situation. I think she’s a few seconds away from realizing she can just ask me to drag you back.”
Discord grunted. “Back to tech-buzz, I guess… unless a certain princess needs me?”
“No, I got everything I needed,” Twilight said. “Get back to your computers.”
With a scowl, Discord vanished.
“Rainbow, don’t go yet,” Twilight said, holding out a wing. “I’ve got something else for you.”
“Whaaat?”
“How would you like to scout a few miles out from our landing site and see what’s out there? You’re the fastest, and I trust you to handle yourself. Plus, you’ll know instantly if we need you back here.”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes lit up. “I would love to do that more than anything in the world.”
“I thought so.” Twilight smiled. “Be back by full nightfall.”
“I won’t let you down!” With a burst of color, Rainbow Dash shot into the air, leaving a rainbow trail of magic behind.
Twilight waved at her as she left. Normally I’d worry about the display drawing attention, but we crashed here and caused an earthquake, anything that cares already knows about us.
~~~
“What’s the problem, Applejack?” Rarity asked as they walked into the earth pony’s ‘farming shed’. It was far too pretty looking to be considered a shed in Rarity’s mind, but Applejack hadn’t come up with anything else to call the place they were keeping most thier plants, seeds, and farming tools.
“There’s some stuff missin’,” Applejack said, walking to a small window-facing shelf lined with potted plants, a few of which were starting to fruit thanks to her earth pony magic. “There was a tomato plant just about ripe in here yesterday, and now it’s gone.”
“Animals?”
“Ah thought so at first, but then Ah wondered why they would take the pot with it. Not to mention none of the other fruits were disturbed at all.”
Rarity pursed her lips. “So it was stolen?”
“Maybe,” Applejack said. “Or maybe it was just Rainbow Dash takin’ it for a snack and not tellin’ me.”
“She can hear you, you know.”
“Ah know.”
Rarity shrugged. “Well, I don’t think it was Rainbow. And if it was, I still think we have a thief. Some of those chemicals I organized yesterday had been shifted around, and one of the peroxide bottles were gone. Maybe others as well - I hadn’t made a full catalog yet.”
“Who’d be takin’ them?” Applejack asked. “We haven’t seen any ponies, dragons, humans, what have ya. Just animals.”
“For all we know, it’s ghosts,” Rarity said, shrugging. “We don’t know anything about this world, maybe there are birds with the instinct to cleverly steal things.”
“Hmm…”
“Just be on your guard. I’ll bring this up with Celestia, see if we can sense something with her magic.” A moment later, she put a hoof on Applejack. “...It must be hard for you, working the farm on your own.”
“Ah won’t be forever,” Applejack said. “Applebloom and Big Mac will be out here soon enough. Ah’ve just got to get it ready for them.”
“Applejack…”
Applejack didn’t miss a beat. “Yes, it’s hard. But this isn’t the first time Ah’ve had to move on, Rarity. Ah know how Ah deal with it.” She looked out the window at the sky. “Ah’ll have my cry, don’t worry. But it’s not gonna come out until there’s time to let it.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely,” Applejack said. She cracked a smile. “After all, Ah am known for cryin’ on the inside, right?”
Rarity couldn’t help but laugh. “Yes… I suppose.”
The two bumped hooves and went their separate ways a moment later.
~~~
Fluttershy calmly looked at the hydra.
The hydra glared back.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t have you going on a rampage,” Fluttershy said, shaking her head.
The hydra hissed.
“We have two major buildings, mister hydra. There’s still plenty of Everfree Forest for you to go hunting in, you don’t need to give us trouble.”
The beast growled.
“No! Don’t leave Equestrian soil! I don’t know what’s out there and I don’t want you hurting anyone out there!”
The hydra lowered two of its heads to Fluttershy’s level.
“Don’t you dare…”
Many of the heads considered this and drew back cautiously - leaving only one to keep its gaze on Fluttershy.
Fluttershy sighed. “Look, I’m going to find some local animals today. I’ll probably be able to find you a hunting ground, but you’ll have to wait patiently. Okay?”
The last head seemed to accept this and fell in line with the other heads.
“Now, you can go hunt in the Everfree all you want. Most of the creatures are still in there, aside from the overly magical ones. ...The forest is probably a lot safer now, come to think of it.” She shook her head - something to bring up later. Satisfied that the hydra was no longer going to be a problem, she spread her wings and took to the sky. She wasn’t going very far - just enough to land on one of the trees of the Sphere.
She looked around for a bird of prey, finding an eagle nest within a few minutes. She alighted on the nearby branch, making soothing noises so as not to spook the bird away. Now that she was close and not about to be pecked into oblivion, she was able to examine the bird. It looked a lot like the eagles of her world - specifically the bald eagle - but there were a few minor differences in coloration, feather pattern, and eye placement.
“Hey, I’m Fluttershy. How’s it going here?”
The bird told her that hunting hadn’t quite been as easy since the rocks fell from the sky. He was considering moving, but he would hate to abandon its nest.
“Oh, there are lots of small mammals and birds within the Everfree on top of that rock, if you’re willing to explore a bit.”
The eagle thanked her. He’d have to think about it though - it was dangerous to go someplace new, even if it was in sight range.
“Anyway, I’m from that new rock. I’m trying to figure out what this place is like. I have some friends like you who want to go find new places to hunt. Know of any place?”
The bird ruffled his feathers and gestured toward a large forest in the distance covered in lush green trees. If he was going to abandon this nest, he would go there. Absolutely flourishing with life. There was probably a walking beast in the midst of it.
“A… what?”
The eagle lacked the intelligence to convey an abstract idea to Fluttershy. All she got was that it was big and had something to do with trees. The Eagle just kept getting confused trying to explain it better.
“Okay, I’ll go look myself later, then. Have you seen any… houses? Things that are built by other creatures, like that castle you can see over there?”
Yes, in fact, the eagle had seen such things, built by ponies. The structures weren’t any near here, but if Fluttershy were to travel several miles she would arrive at a village.
“Do any other creatures build things?”
The eagle said no at first - but then he remembered there were odd things the ponies were never around. Not that he knew who built them, or how to describe what the odd things were. That was all Fluttershy was going to get out of him.
“Okay, thanks for your time! If you need any help and don’t want to worry about predators, drop by the small group of buildings over there and ask the other animals for Fluttershy. We call it a school - and it’s a safe zone for animals, which means no hunting there. Got it?”
The eagle didn’t understand why that would be, but he was able to understand the content of the sentence.
Fluttershy smiled, waved goodbye, and set out to find another animal to interview…
~~~
“How much longer?” Pinkie asked, ramming her snout into Sunset’s face.
“I don’t know,” Sunset said, brushing Pinkie off. She and Discord had wrapped one of the Roots in a metallic band criss-crossed with magical focus crystals, each of which were currently being wired together.
“But you’re plugging it into the Roots! It has to be done soon, right?”
Sunset shook her head. “This will not work on the first try. We’ll get a garbled signal I’m going to have to decode into a digital image. That will take up the majority of our time.”
“Majority!? The day’s already more than half over!”
“It’d be cause for celebration if we got it done today,” Sunset pointed out as she wired a few more things together.
Discord groaned. “This is more trouble than it’s worth…”
“Don’t say that!” Pinkie shouted, getting in his face. “Those ponies in there need out! We can’t do that, so they need to be able to see us!”
“They’ll be fine.”
“You don’t know that! You don’t know most the ponies in there! I do! It’s not good for them to be locked up in an eternal dream!”
Discord frowned, giving her no response. He used his magic to weld a few more wires together, infusing them with the own magics he had been using to interface with the Roots. This allowed signals to pass through to the computer - which was now encased in a smooth crystal cover rather than being a loose collection of chips and wires.
Pinkie jumped in front of Sunset again, getting in the way of her wiring. “What can I do to help?”
“...Pinkie, you don’t have an aptitude for electronics. I’m not sure there’s much you can do.”
“I need to be there for Marble.”
“And to do that, you need to leave me to my work,” Sunset pushed her away, plugging two wires together.
“B-but…” Pinkie twitched. “I… I can’t do nothing!”
“I’ll let you know the instant it starts working,” Sunset promised. “But the more I talk to you and fight to focus, the longer it will take.”
Tears welled up in Pinkie’s eyes. “Okay…”
“Pink-”
Pinkie was gone.
With a sigh, Sunset plugged in the last wire. The display program on the computer’s screen went from black nothingness to technicolor static.
“...While delightfully chaotic, I’m not sure if this bodes well or not,” Discord commented.
Sunset shrugged. “I don’t really know, to be honest.” With a sigh, she folded her hands together. “And now comes the part where we throw darts at a wall and see what sticks. Discord, vary the frequency and intensity of your magic. Somewhere, there’s going to be a clearer pattern. Somewhere…”
~~~
Rainbow Dash had discovered the most amazing thing about this world.
There didn’t seem to be an upper limit to how high she could fly.
She’d passed the clouds several minutes ago and she was still going up at a breakneck pace. The air hadn’t gotten too cold or thin - if anything, it had gotten warmer, presumably due to its proximity with the sun. At some point she had realized she didn’t exactly feel like any particular direction was ‘down’ anymore. She knew enough science to know that was because ‘gravity was weird’, but that’s as far as her knowledge went, not that she particularly cared about why. It was pretty cool regardless.
She eventually brought herself to a stop and looked down. She was so high up she almost couldn’t see the sliver of New Equestria among the greens of the forest. Not that she was in any danger of losing it - she was still distinctly aware of everything her friends were doing. Even Sunset. Already she’d learned to push a lot of that into the background, but she still found herself annoyed that she couldn’t fully enjoy the silence anymore.
Falling asleep had been a nightmare. She’d needed to ask Twilight for a sleep spell.
With a shake of her head, Rainbow returned her focus to the present, looking down at the ground. From this high up, she could spot several things. Many, many miles away from New Equestria were towns, roads, and even a few cities. For a moment, she considered flying to them - but she reasoned that was probably a dumb idea. Better wait until she had Celestia or Rarity to open contact with a new people. Normally Pinkie would be on that list too, but at the moment she wasn't doing too hot.
“I have my reasons!” Pinkie blurted as she walked through the Root caverns.
“Wh - can you hear my thoughts!?” Rainbow shouted at the air.
“No. Yes. It depends, really.” Pinkie sighed. “Pinkie Sense is stronger, let’s go with that.”
“...Sure…” Rainbow shook her head. “Any suggestions?”
Pinkie shook her head and continued on her way - either ignoring Rainbow or no longer hearing her.
Rainbow furrowed her brow. Weird… She looked back down at the ground, taking it all in.
Then a forest close to New Equestria moved. The entire thing, like it was an animal of some kind.
Rainbow took a second to process this before flying at the ground as fast as she could - unleashing a Sonic Rainboom in the process. She’d been doing a lot of those lately, and she hadn’t even felt all that tired. Maybe she was in better shape than she thought, or perhaps the Element of Loyalty provided her with some extra strength.
It didn’t really matter; she was sailing down toward the moving forest faster than the sound trailing behind her. She flared her wings, bringing herself to a stop as the sonic energy passed her by, shaking the trees beneath her and scaring off several birds from the back of the forest.
The back of the forest.
Rainbow gawked at a mile-wide creature with eight lumpy, bulbous legs atop feet larger than most towns. It had no head or eye, but each of the eight feet had a large bluish crystal embedded at the base that shimmered with power. It was impossible to see much of the creature’s actual skin, since virtually every square foot of the beast was covered in thick, rich soil on top of which an entire forest grew. The trees were notably of a different color than the greenery the behemoth was walking through. Occasionally, Rainbow would see one of the gems flash for a moment, and a tree would teleport off the creature’s back and appear in the ground below.
“How could this get any weirder…?”
Rainbow noticed there were smaller versions of the creature on its back, each with their own unique arrangements of plants upon them. They ranged from the size of a small house to monstrosities that would make dragons look pathetic - and all of them paled in comparison to the living forest they all walked on.
She decided she needed a closer look. She flew in, finding the trundling forest to be filled with the normal wildlife… and metal birds with a crystal in their forehead instead of eyes. The metal birds were about half her size, but were extremely menacing simply because they stared at her whenever she got close.
She got the impression she was an unwelcome intruder and backed away from the birds - the forest was clearly theirs. As fast as she was, she didn’t want to take a risk against a flock of metallic angry birds. Taking a moment to collect herself, she looked at the sun; it was in its crescent phase right now, heralding the coming of night. She spread her wings, preparing to head back.
And then she noticed smoke. A thin trail heading into the air, likely from an artificial campfire rather than a natural forest blaze. She didn’t even stop to think - she took off toward it. She’d need to hurry to get back in time, so she was going to forego stealth.
Let’s hope they’re friendly…
Rainbow Dash landed powerfully in a small clearing, in the center of which was a small fire and a few bedrolls. Three earth ponies looked at her with hanging jaws.
“Heh. You all look like you’ve never seen a pegasus before,” Rainbow said, striking a pose.
“W-we haven’t!” the lead - a soft red mare - said, sputtering. “I… I’ve never seen anything fly quite like that!”
“You’ve been puttin’ on quite the color show for a while now,” a brown stallion said. Rainbow noticed with curiosity that none of them were multicolored - their manes were just darker or lighter shades of their coats, and their eyes all matched as well. They also lacked cutie marks, but Rainbow decided not to comment on that.
“Glad to know I’ve had an audience. The name’s Rainbow Dash, Element of Loyalty and Wonderbolt.”
“Are you from the sky rock?” A small yellow mare asked, eyes wide.
“Yep! We call it New Equestria - and that’s a big story I don’t have time to get into, unfortunately. I have to be back there before night falls.”
“But that’s several hours away, at least!” the red mare noted.
“Not by flying!” Rainbow smirked. “Though I’ll have to push it.”
The red mare nodded. “We shouldn’t keep you - we’ll see you tomorrow, most likely. We are heading toward the sky ro- New Equestria.”
“Oh, good!” Rainbow clapped her hooves - an action that confused the ponies. “Everypony will be really interested in meeting our new neighbors. Word of warning, Pinkie’s probably going to throw some kind of party for you when you arrive, so prepare for sudden inexplicable festivities.”
The ponies blinked, clearly not sure what to make of this.
“It’ll be fun, trust me.”
“We’ll… see.” The red mare shook her head. “I am Red Fox, this is my husband Chestnut Beaver, and our daughter Yellow Eagle.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Rainbow said with a bow. “See you tomorrow!” She took off in a burst of color, leaving them behind with their camp.
“Until then, Dash,” Chestnut Beaver called. He frowned, uncertainty plain on his face.
~~~
Night had fallen a couple hours ago.
And still, Sunset worked. Discord may not have felt the exhaustion from a lack of sleep - but she certainly did.
But she wasn’t going to be one to give up. Not when she knew she was close. They had made immense progress, far easier than she would have expected. As time went on, what had started as a simple technological chore had become like… instinct to her. She could feel the power of the Geode coursing through her in more ways than simple empathy. It was as if she could feel and understand the very cables she was working with. They had no minds, they had no emotion, but they had a purpose, and that purpose had become plain to her.
It was a very subtle ability, one that had taken her a while to notice, but it was certainly a useful one. Complex systems simplified before her eyes, falling into place like pieces of a puzzle.
With a burst of magic, she encased her hands in a powerful, glowing light. Her eyes lit up with the intensity of a sun, making Discord flinch. She touched one of her fingers to Discord, one to the Roots, and a toe to the mechanisms of the computer. A burst of solar power emanated from her, creating a flow of magic from Discord to the Root to the computer and back to Discord. The cycle allowed all the magics to work in a conjunction of harmony, chaos, and rigid technological order.
The garbled technicolor static of the computer’s display program jumped into clear focus, displaying an image of Zecora talking to Spike about ‘Derpy’s house of horror’.
“I think it’s fine,” Spike said, leaning on the door. “Nobody’s going into the funhouse unless they want to.”
“Seeing a blade go through one’s chest is, for our mental states, not the best.”
“Tell that to Smold- SUNSET!?”
“Hey guys!” Sunset said, tapping the screen. “Can you hear me?”
“We hear you!” Spike said, shaking his head. “Just… why are you a floating square?”
“I’m displaying this on a computer screen,” Sunset explained. “You know, like the devices Starlight and I were using?” She grimaced as she used the unicorn’s name, but she tried her best to move past it.
“...Maybe?” Spike said with a shrug.
“Anyway, first thing’s first. Discord, find Pinkie; Spike, find Marble. I-”
Pinkie appeared without Discord so much as lifting a finger, pressing her face into the screen. “MARBLE! Where are you!?”
Marble didn’t need to be called either - she calmly walked in front of the screen, a smile on her face. She put a hoof to her side of the screen. Pinkie did the same.
“I’m so sorry I can’t come in there and I’m so sorry I couldn't be there and i’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry…”
Marble let out a choking ‘mhm’ noise and pressed both hooves to the screen, crying profusely. Pinkie did the same, her tears choking out her words. For once, the pink pony was at a loss for words.
Discord snapped his fingers, taking Sunset and himself away from the confrontation. They appeared in Twilight’s room, startling her awake.
“A little privacy?” Twilight muttered, rubbing her head.
“...I was planning on telling you in the morning…” Sunset said, glaring at Discord. “But we got the interface working. Pinkie’s talking to Marble right now.”
Twilight’s annoyed expression was replaced with relief. “That’s good. I was getting worried about them - about both of them.”
“I think they’ll be fine. With time,” Sunset said.
“And now Pinkie can create an actual party for our guests tomorrow!” Discord said, rubbing his hands together. “I can’t wait to blow their little minds.”
“Discord, we don’t want to scare them away,” Twilight said with a huff. “We need friends in this new world, not enemies. We should tread carefully.”
“Fine…” Discord grumbled. “You’ve all been cramping my style a lot lately…”
“This is a very serious situation,” Sunset said, pressing her hands together, ears twitching. “So much has been lost, and there’s so few of us that another disaster could spell the end of everything…”
Twilight looked to her. “...How are you holding up?”
“Exhausted, haven’t been allowing myself to think because of the work, that sort of thing.” She smiled. “But we’re standing, and we’re going to keep standing. We’ll face any obstacles or disasters in the future with a smile on our faces and determination in our hearts.”
“I like your spirit!” Discord laughed. “We’ll show them all what it means to be us!”
“For all we know, this world needs harmony,” Twilight said, looking out her window at the brilliant night sky. “We may have a greater purpose than simple survival. With the Tree gone, we are the Tree. We will take up its mantle and spread Harmony far and wide, in remembrance of what it has done for us.”
“The students of the School are already talking about making a memorial when they get out,” Sunset said, smirking. “We’re definitely ready to carry on its legacy.”
Discord groaned. “Ugh, fine, spread harmony and cheer. But I will also be spreading delightful chaos.”
Twilight smiled at him. “It is part of what we are. Crazy, crazy friends who will stick with each other until the end.”
“You mean past the end,” Sunset pointed out.
Twilight let out a small chuckle. “Yeah… yeah, I guess so!”