The next morning, I found myself sitting and staring out over the sea.
Outside of my little shady spot underneath a tree, the sun beat down on the island. Even in the shade, humidity and reflected heat still got to me, and sweat beaded on my forehead. I had come down to the cliff side of my merry little island to catch some breeze, but it seemed the storm a few days ago had left the wind currents all too calm.
My habitat, as sealed up and safe as it was, was beginning to act like a toaster. It was roasting hot during the sunny days, even though it was lovely and warm during the cold nights. I felt like I would just catch on fire if I stayed in there, and I heard some suspicious hissing from the... electrical storage cylinders that I had examined yesterday. I thought that perhaps high temperatures may have been... destabilizing some of the contents of it, so I moved it outside under the shade of some of the nearby trees.
I would go for a swim to cool off, but I don't think I ever wanted to go close to the water ever again.
2 kilometers to the northeast lay the exit end of the portal. I knew I could make a round trip of about 4 kilometers if the portal was actually a trap and led to no land. At least, not until my wings came all the way in. The feathers were all in, but were still young and fluffy. By tomorrow I could probably attempt the flight, but I would want to wait until the day after before I could glide and fly higher.
Until then, I guessed I would just focus on surviving. There were a fair few chores I needed to do and improvements I could make to my shelter.
For starters, cleaning up some of the paths around the island. They weren't clean to begin with, and the storm had knocked over quite a bit of plant refuse into my way. Maybe after that I could prepare more soil for planting of more crops, if I didn't start replanting I would find myself in a perilous food shortage. Another issue of nourishment also pressed into my mind: Water. Water Trees were nice and all, but I had already pretty much killed two Water Trees keeping myself hydrated over what was... almost a week since I arrived here. I needed to either start replanting like crazy or I needed to find an alternative water source.
All of the above options required me to have a cutting tool, at least to defend myself while I worked.
Back at my habitat, I pried another piece of appropriately-sized shattered glass from my walled up window. I applied some Water Tree glue straight onto the bottom of the blade, then fished around in my assembled metal scrap pile for an appropriate handle. It actually took a while to find a semi-usable one, as my pile was mostly reduced to waterlogged garbage and very little actual metal scrap. I could always resort to wood, sure, but I was sad that my convenient metal supply were beginning to run low.
Like a charm, the handle stuck to the blade, and I made a hole in the glass before looping a braided vine through it, stabilizing it.
Feeling more confident in myself with my new glass knife, I decided to try and pursue a more permanent water solution. A distiller to separate seawater from its salt, giving me water as long as I had a source of heat.
I licked my lips, going over to my shelter for the first component of the distillery. I would first need a basin to put seawater into, something metal that I could heat up and something that could funnel the steam into a catcher that would let the water condensate and flow off into an awaiting water bottle while leaving the salt back in the basin. One of the many vacuum crates I had would do perfectly, since they were watertight and made of metal.
After exiting my toaster of a shelter, I placed my basin in the center of my compound, right over the place where I, sometimes, lit my fires. I searched around for a while, gathering perfectly-shaped rocks. I placed the tall, flat-topped rocks underneath the basin, elevating it a good few meters of the ground. I would need to light a fire underneath it, after all.
I gathered a few sticks and thin stringy vines that I had found hanging from some barren trees, tying them all together in an X formation on either side of my basin. I backed away from my project, thinking. I needed something to affix to the stop of my sticks above the basin for the steam to eventually catch on.
I took a stroll around the island, looking for a leaf to make the match. Interdependent Vines leaves? To narrow and too short. Water Tree leaves? Big Tree leaves? Maybe, but just a bit too bushy for what I needed.
Finally, I came across an old friend. Water Tree, Water Tree, Water Tree, oh how much I loved my Water Trees...
Where it had provided for me with its water before, it now provided me with long enough leaves to complete my distillery. While I would have preferred them wider, they were the best choice out of the options extended to me. Solid, waterproof, long enough... I pulled off a nice, long one.
I shook my head, turning about and walking over to my shelter. I strapped one leaf down on top of the X braces, a meter or so above the mouth of the basin. I made sure the lower tip of it was slightly slanted towards the ground, where I would eventually put the water bottle to collect fresh water.
I made a small platform out of random debris and a flat rock. Just below the end tip of the catcher leaf, I placed an empty bottle of water (one that I had made sure had never been out to gather sap, as to not contaminate water supplies).
I took another empty crate down to the ocean, gathering a good amount of seawater inside it. I took it back to my distiller, pouring (almost) the entire crate into the basin, sparing some as to not overfill the basin.
I took a step back, checking my work. I took my knife to go and "prune" some usable firewood from the trees. I needed stuff that would burn gradually, since the distribution of heat through the basin would inevitably be painfully slow. I figured the water content of the living branches of the large trees would do well enough, so I chopped a few off with telekinesis and my knife.
I didn't need tinder as long as I had my heat spell, one of the many benefits of being an alicorn in a survival situation. While I had nothing against earth ponies and pegasi, I would rather be stranded only with my horn than with anything else. Fortunately for me, though, a broken timeline wasn't enough to take away my royalty.
A quick flash, and the branches ignited, sending jet black smoke into the air as the living branches burned. The smoke was a lot more foul than it would have been if I had used dead wood, but living firewood would burn gradually and boil the water more steadily, instead of burning immediately and requiring me to keep refueling every half an hour or so. It would also vaporize the water slowly, instead of just turning into steam. That way, the water would condense on the catcher leaf and trickle down into the awaiting water.
At least... that's what I hoped it would do.
A beam of sunlight caught my eye, blinding me. I looked up to see a patch of sun reflecting off of one of the rounded glass portholes on the second floor of my shelter. I could also see the distortion of heat on the surface of the (steel?) roof.
My stomach reminded me of the Crabby egg I had retrieved from the nest the afternoon before, and I got an idea.
I retrieved the egg from inside my shelter, taking it outside. I climbed the landslide outside my shelter until I was on level with the roof of my main room. I floated the egg out over the most central part of the circular roof, not daring to set my hoof on the (no doubt) searing hot roof. I cracked the egg open, pouring it out onto the hot metal.
It immediately started to sizzle, and I grinned. Why light a fire when the sun will just do your work for you?
I briefly wondered whether or not the egg might be poisonous. I knew from my studies that even if the animal was poisonous their eggs were usually safe. In most cases, anyway.
I did have evidence to believe I was on another planet, however. That meant the fauna here were not studied by the Equestrian Department of Zoology. Exceptions could abound down here...
Then again, I was probably thinking more fearfully than logically. Crabbies weren't poisonous. Eggs had no reason to be poisonous. The only thing I was really at risk for was infection by anything the parent Crabbies might have had. That would be most easily fixed by frying the egg thoroughly.
Over Easy it was then...
I had difficulty flipping the egg, since most of it seemed to like to stick to the metal, but that was most likely a result of either my unpracticed cooking skills or the lack of cooking oil. Now that I thought of it, I could have probably used water... but it was too late now.
A few more minutes and a quick check of my distiller, and my egg was done. I sat down with my back against a tree with the egg in hoof. It was burnt pretty well. It was probably edible too, but it was most definitely burnt. Spike could have done it ten times better.
Oh Spike. Where were you?
The egg wasn't that bad. A bit charcoal-y and unpleasantly crunchy, but not too bad all in all. I could also use some salt. Definitely some salt was required here. Maybe some pepper too. However, I believed that less burn time was the true secret ingredient in this case.
Whatever. It filled my belly. In situations like these, any non-contaminated food was good food.
I checked up on my distiller. I grinned as I found that a small trickle of (I hoped) pure water had trickled down into the water bottle, which was now a fifth of the way filled. Every once in a while, a drop of water collected at the end of the leaf and grew heavier, before dripping down and landing inside my bottle. It was slow business, sure, but it was collecting.
I did notice that some of the steam was being blown to the side by the incoming wind from the sea. Problem. Today was an especially still day, which meant my distiller was utterly worthless if it the wind was anything more than a whisper.
I sighed. Perhaps my mediocre thatching skills were needed once again. At least I could be certain that even the worst thatches would keep wind off of distillers.
By the time all the water boiled, I had managed to clean up around my merry little island. I pushed trees that had fallen onto paths of onto the side (or as far as I could). I added more random fallen branches and debris to my pile (now becoming piles) of junk.
I also emptied some of the dirt and debris out of the inside of my main room. I had already used the larger boulders to wall up my broken window, so I just tossed mainly pebbles and box full of dirt outside. I briefly wondered if I would ever need to resort to using sharpened pebbles for hatchets and knives, just like in the good old Stone Age days...
How long would I be staying here?
I couldn't know. I would eventually need to build a firewood stack for signalling rescue, should it come (a beam of magic straight up into the air would be more effective, but a backup was always useful). However, the buildings on this island seemed to be fairly aged, and there didn't seem to be any signs of recent equine activity in the area. What if the builders of this place weren't coming back?
No. I couldn't think like that. The first step towards death in a survival situation was demotivation. I just had to keep my eyes on the goal. Open that portal or fly to the other side of it. If that task proved fruitless... my one task would be to keep myself alive, as comfortably as possible, until I could eventually signal rescue. In a place as remote as this, that could be months, or even years.
But that was fine. I was confident I could keep my sanity.
...Maybe.
I picked up the now filled bottle of distilled water. Holding it up to the sun (which was now going down in the sky), I observed no obvious particulates or impurities in the water. I took a sip. Warm. Disgustingly so. But it was pure water. No trace of seawater remained in it.
I downed the rest of the bottle, quenching the powerful thirst I had built up throughout the day of work. I put it back down underneath the end of the leaf, there still being some more water to be vaporized in the basin.
I placed more firewood on the fire, hopefully enough to last it until sunset, where I would put drier wood in and cook some potatoes for dinner.
I went to sleep that night with a full belly and a bottle full of distilled water, snoring softly on the hard floor.
I must admit now: I've always liked rainy days. Back in Canterlot, and I guess back in Ponyville as well, a rainy day was always the best excuse to stay inside and study. Clean. Or perhaps just to sleep in. As a filly in Canterlot, I was always encouraged, whether implicitly or explicitly, to get outside more. My mom and dad had no valid excuse to get me out and about when it was raining outside! I guess... I guess since then I'd just formed a friendly association with rain. I'd always just smile when I woke up to rain falling outside my window. It just made home feel so much cozier.
My little shelter was far from home, but it sure was cozy as I watched the storm rage outside. It seemed that when it rained, it poured and when the wind blew, it would be a tempest. I had taken a peek out, and the hill behind the shelter seemed to have prevented my ramshackle distiller from being blown away in the winds. I didn't dare to move it unless I wanted it to fall apart in my grasp, but the water bottle I had randomly left on the receiver had collected rainwater that had gathered on the top of the condenser leaf of the distiller and dripped down.
I was now sipping on the bottle as I just watched nature have its way with the rest of the island.
It wasn't as bad as the first storm. Then again, I may have just been thinking of the first one being worse since I was drenched the whole way through.
So, I just sat inside my safe, cozy little shelter as I waited for the storm to pass. My stomach grumbled, but I wasn't going to wither and die from one day without food. I preened up my wings. My feathers were coming back. I would have appreciated a few wing care products... but the most I could use was the natural waterproofing oils excreted by glands underneath my wings. It would protect feathers from becoming waterlogged, to a fault. Despite this, they still weren't meant to be dragged halfway across the ocean.
After a few hours, the storm only seemed to slowly intensify.
I tried a simple shield spell. My magic seemed to hold up well enough, so I took a walk outside. I had a feeling the storm was going to last a fair while, perhaps even days. I wanted to grab some food before the storm flushed the Crabbies out of their holes and I would need to lock myself inside my shelter.
The now heavy rain bounced harmlessly off my shield, but the ground beneath my hooves was turning muddy fast. A few hanging fruits here and there, perhaps one stone melon for safekeeping. I downed the rest of the water from my bottle and quickly filled it back up from a nearby Water Tree (which had, unfortunately, had recently died from my overuse of it).
I arrived back at my shelter with muddy hooves, but a blessedly dry mane. I retreated farther into my shelter and blocked up the doorway into my main room.
Not long afterwards, I could hear the tell-tale skitter of Crabbies outside my shelter.
It was still raining.
The worst of it had passed during the night. It had rained so hard that some of it had made it inside my shelter... somehow. I experienced a slight flood that, while the fact that I had no holes in my roof had made the flood much less serious, it still forced me to retreat to the top of my little desk.
Crabbies were stuffed inside the small compartment outside my main room again, and I even had to push my rock back into place a few times as they endeavored to push their way in. I did not obtain much sleep that night.
Now, it was still thundering on the roof, but at least it had let up enough that some of the Crabbies had left and gone back to their nest. Some of the flood had drained out through the bilge pump in the corner, and while it wasn't dry enough for me to sit on the floor comfortably, the water was still gone.
The rain ramped up and down throughout the day. I wouldn't be able to fly in this weather (at least, not with confidence) and I wasn't getting anything productive done other than counting the scratch marks on the ceiling. In fact, it was driving me up the wall with inactivity.
I took some time to map out my plans for flight as soon as the storm cleared. I came across a... fairly troubling scenario.
Pegasi, unlike most birds, did not tend to have a natural sense of direction. Alicorns are no different. I could use things like compass directions and wind currents... but I wasn't in my home country. The ocean was unsurprisingly uniform, and my gut twisted at the idea of running out of energy and falling into the ocean. I mean, I could always ascend altitude and rest on a cloud, but I would eventually just run out of food and water. Or perhaps I would just fly into open skies, not a cloud in sight.
I knew from scanning the teleportation enchantments on the Arch that I would be heading approximately two kilometers northeast. Chances were I could just fly straight and spot the island by sight. However, I still wasn't confident about leaving anything to chance.
I looked around my shelter for anything. Gold would be the best material for what I wanted to do.. or maybe diamond. A simple tracing spell. A "ping" spell and it would respond to me, giving me the right heading for home. I had had one on the Golden Oaks Library (just in case I needed to ace an emergency teleportation), and I... had one on my castle back in Equestria.
I looked around my pile of recovered artifacts. Perhaps I could find some valuable metal inside them? I don't think I would be able to repair them in the near future, despite their potential uses.
I popped open one of the broken tablets. Perhaps they used some valuable metals in the construction of their technology.
On the many blocks making up the... synapses of the inside of the tablet had copper imprinted into them in a sequence of complicated networks. Copper wouldn't make the cut, and I wasn't quite sure where else I would be able to find silver or gold in any of the other, similarly crafted technologies.
The glowing Key sounded like a fairly good idea... up until the point where I actually picked it up and was reminded of the tablet's complexity. I realized it would be a horrible idea to enchant a navigation spell onto it. Never mind what information could be lost by enchanting over pre-existing spells, who knew what kind of reflex the tablet would have? Probably an explosive one, about the size of this island and then some.
I shook my head. I loved to prepare and plan, but sometimes resources just didn't work for the most straightforward option. After all, it was only two kilometers. Perhaps if I was feeling really paranoid, I could build a fire to make a smoke trail. If my destination turned out to be true, I would probably still be able to see the smoke.
I settled down again, trying my best to wait out the storm.
Finally, I began to hear the rain taper off outside. It shorten from a pounding rhythm to an annoying needling to, finally, a weak drizzle. It kept on drizzling as sun began to shine from the splits in the clouds, before the rain stopped altogether. The Crabbies stopped skittering, moving back to wherever their nests were, and the birds began singing once again.
I cautiously removed the safety blocker from my doorway, and climbed out the front bulkhead... and right into a puddle of mud. There was a "glop" sound as my forehoof sunk deep into the muddied, silty soil, sealed tight. I wrestled with the mud, before I ended up needing use a mixture of flight and telekinesis to pull my leg out of the muck. That was dangerous. If I hadn't been able to fly out of that situation, I would have probably gotten nicely stuck in there until I fairly certain death.
Must be a natural sinkhole for quicksand down there...
I lightly stepped around the quicksand, making sure only to step on the hard, gravelly dirt around it. A great many things around the island were drenched, and puddles were apparent around the paths and in between the trees. The sea was less than calm, but no waves were threatening enough to give me pause. Winds were choppy, but I wasn't a foal. I was strong enough to fly in these conditions.
I checked my wings. Everything good in the feather department, everything in order, no signs of anything that could impede flight. I took a deep breath. It was morning, I had all day to find and explore the exit location of the Archway. Barring anything absolutely tragic, I would be back before sundown.
I took one of the metal vacuum crates, punched a few holes in it magically, then laced a few vines through it. After a bit of adjustment, I had something akin to a backpack. I took anything I thought could be relatively useful, such as a bottle of distilled water, some more of the vine lashings should I need rope, my new glass knife, the General Access Key, and one of the broken white-metal tablets (who knew? Maybe some more white-metal technology lay beyond the portal?).
I lifted off a few times, hovering, just to ensure the weight of the makeshift backpack wouldn't be too heavy. Sure, it was hefty, and maybe it would tire me out if I was taking a couple ten-kilometer journeys, but I wouldn't be crashing into the ocean any time soon.
I took a quick trip back down to the Archway, making another quick interrogatory scan, just to ensure the directions towards the portal's exit had not changed. They had not. Two kilometers east by northeast. I came back up from the caves and used the sun for compass directions.
I briefly wondered if this planet rotated the same way as back home. Perhaps I was really heading south instead of east. Food for thought. Not that it mattered, though, the sun still provided directions consistently enough for me.
I got some high ground on top of my shelter's roof. I spread my wings wide, giving them a few experimental flaps. All clear for flight. With a running jump, I was up in the air, flying up above the island. In a split second, the island below me turned into ocean.
I banked right a little, before pulling up into a hover, making sure I had my bearings. After a few course adjustments, I leaned forward and pushed myself into a glide, flying out over the choppy seas.
A few gusts of wind rattled me a little, but not enough to make me lose my course. A decreased my altitude a bit, hoping to get underneath the wind currents, but not enough to get caught by something stupid, like an oversized rogue wave. I looked down into the water beneath me.
I felt my heart rate begin to speed as my mind conjured up images of that sea monster once more. It was not long before I realized that, if that ghostly snake decided to leap out at me, I would be just within the altitude it could leap up to! I quickly ascended to a safe distance from the water, trying to ignore all the tricks of the mind as I swore I saw the glimmer of ghostly bodies in the water below. Perhaps the choppy wind wasn't so bad after all.
It was not long before I saw what I assumed could only be my destination peak over the horizon.
It was a mountain. A mountain island. More precisely, an underwater mountain that had breached the surface and created an island.
A beach of sugar white sand lined the westerly side of the island, circling around to the other side of the mountain. To my delight, I spied several Water Trees growing on the island. Otherwise, however, there did not seem to be any signs of other remarkable flora.
I began descending slowly in preparation for landing, aiming for the soft, sandy parts of the beach. However, when I banked left to line up, I saw something around the edge of the mountain peak. It was the tip of something fairly tall, and colored in a way that immediately reminded me of the Archway's metal alloys. I narrowed my eyes, keeping my eyes on the barely visible object, coming in for a landing.
I kept walking around the beach, circling the mountain to get a better view of it. What I saw amazed me.
The building started on the beach, and extended out a fair ways into the water. Heavy over-engineering was present on the boxy, black-metal walls of a rectangular base, before shooting up into a tall tower, which in and of itself was almost reaching the peak of the mountain. As I drew closer, a heavy growl of a type of magic simply foreign to me could be sensed coming from deep within the building.
"Hello?" I called out, "Is anypony still here?"
Nothing. I could not see any signs of hoofprints or other recent activity around either, and the building also had the marks of aging, yet none of the rust. I sighed, my hopes that the building might still be inhabited were looking dim.
I noticed what looked a lot like a General Key, but this one instead lying in pieces on the path towards the building. It lay in about five pieces, and had stopped glowing. However, the hum of the magical enchantments within was still apparent. I picked it up and placed it in my "backpack". I briefly wondered what kind of force it must have taken to smash the artifact into so many pieces. I doubted I could do it even at full power.
While there weren't any windows leading into the building, there was a fairly obvious front door. Not a traditional door, mind you, just a magic shield placed within a door frame. I experimentally poked it, and the shield held steady. Extremely so. I doubted that Canterlot's Invasion Shield was that strong.
Right above the shield was an elaborate sign. I noted an emblem that looked... oddly familiar. The central piece of the emblem was an almost exact copy of Celestia's cutie mark. The mark was surrounded by unfamiliar imagery, however. Strange stars and constellations, unreadable lettering, and several military items such as swords and shields were littered around the emblem. Right below it was written in Canterlot Equestrian "Her Majesty's Royal Marines".
Above it seemed to be the name of the facility in general, and it confirmed a niggling theory that I had on the purpose of the building. It read "Primary Surface-to-Air Quarantine Enforcement Platform".
I noticed a definite link in power between the shield to a nearby terminal. I frowned, another automated function. Who knew? Maybe all of their buildings were naturally abandoned, only run by their automation and kept maintained by their preservation spells.
As I approached the terminal, I startled a little as the a panel covering automatically unlocked and flew open in front of me. Under the panel was a slot, helpfully denoted by a copy of the lettering used on my General Access Key. I eyed the slot suspiciously. Hmm... well, I guess peg A goes into slot B.
I gingerly placed the Key I had found back on my home island and slotted it into the panel. I backed off as the panel slid shut again, seemingly sealing my Key in there. Not before long, the sudden mechanical whine of the shield powering down was heard as that same mare's voice came from the terminal.
"Access Granted." it simply said.
The interior of the building was simplistic and utilitarian. Not quite dull, more bare and imposing. Deep, ornate carvings were printed into the wall paneling, and everything carried an air of imperial authority. No furniture was in sight, and the builders of this place seemed to prefer ramps and wide arches over stairs and doorways.
No dust collected on the floor, and the air was clean, fresh, and cool. I figured that preservation spells were plentiful around this structure, maybe some traditional mechanized ventilation as well. I thought I could hear some kind of humming inside the walls, perhaps that was the ventilation?
I began to become nervous as I went through a few corridors, uninterrupted and without finding anything of note. After a few minutes of idle wander, I turned a corner and found something that was, at the very least, something to examine.
It was another machine, a small boxy little thing sitting in the center of a walkway. A holographic projector gave a sort of display above the console, which currently displayed a big "PUBLIC ACCESS TERMINAL". So, it was a computer of some sort, perhaps it could serve me with information.
The display brightened slightly as I approached, and I noticed the projection actually turn to face down at me as I came closer. I gulped, reaching out cautiously to try and... interact with the image. To my suprise, the image was solid, and it gave a "beep" sound when I touched it.
What came next, I must admit took me completely off my hooves.
The machine reached out to me, confidently grabbing a hold of my horn and interfacing directly with my magic. I could feel a twinge in my horn as my heart raced, and shut my eyes as I half-expected to go up in an epic explosion. However, when I noticed no hostile actions taken by the machine for a few minutes, I slowly began to open my eyes.
The display on the console had changed to a bright orange "LOGIN" icon, and a smaller symbol saying "OK" flashed periodically beneath it. I panicked a bit as I realized that I no longer could move my hooves to reach up to the image, instead the machine had seemingly stolen all my focus away to its own intent. I quickly tried to pull my magic back, hoping it would maybe break my connection with the machine.
To my immediate relief, the machine seemed to automatically release me, and my senses came rushing back to me. The display changed briefly to an "ACTION CANCELLED" screen, before it reversed to its original state. I furrowed my brow, reconsidering.
I got up, reaching out to touch the display again, and I steeled myself as the process begun again and my magic was seized.
Instead of backing out of the machines grip like a little filly, I reached out with my magic and felt around. Several triggers were immediately apparent, and I suddenly realized the function of this computer. Simply, there were no buttons or levers to activate this machine, it was controlled by directly interfacing with its user's magic. Fascinating.
I realized that one of the triggers was related to the flashing "OK" symbol on the login screen, so I pressed it with my magic.
The machine seemed to process my input for a moment, before the display changed once again. I would have jumped, if I had control over my limbs, as I heard that same mare's voice talk to me again.
"Welcome back, Director Twilight Sparkle. It has been approximately one thousand years since your last login date. Would you like to update your profile status?" It said, but I noticed a certain hint of warmness to her voice now.
And, wait what!? Director? I have had a fair few titles in my time, from Princess to Head Librarian to Destroyer of Worlds... but I've never been a director of anything! Was this computer mistaking me for somepony else...? Somepony else who had the same name as me?
I mean, it was quite... possible, that... well... maybe. Then again, maybe not. Well, actually, no... no yes! That made sense, but did it? It couldn't be, it must really just have me confused for somepony else.
Right?
It was a big maybe, but... perhaps this universe I had been dumped into also had a Twilight Sparkle? A Twilight Sparkle that was also a Director of something? Then again, did it say it had been one thousand years since "Twilight Sparkle" logged in? I would have assumed that if the time spell was going to place me somewhere with a version of myself, it would at least place me in a contemporary time period. I also thought I was on a different planet! How would another version of myself end up all the way out here in this forsaken planet?
I mentally shook my head. What had I gotten myself into?
I looked back up at the display, and it currently showed what looked like a... document.
A picture of... me... lay in the top right corner of the current display. Albeit, it was a slightly more pudgy version of me, and although I could only see "my" face in the picture, I could tell by the length of "my" horn that "I" was still a unicorn. I also noticed a pair of, well, distinguished spectacles resting over my eyes, as well as a slight streak of grey cutting across the fringe of my mane.
Beside the picture was the title of the document: "DIRECTOR TWILIGHT SPARKLE - GENERAL INFORMATION". Paragraphs of text were laid out beneath it.
First Name: Twilight
Last Name: Sparkle
Family/Affiliations: Night Light, father, Twilight Velvet, mother, Shining Armor, brother. Coalition City Zone AA-0001c "CANTERLOT".
Planet/Zone of Birth: Coalition City Zone AA-01 "CANTERLOT", Planet Equus.
UNIVERSALID: 18293053-PNX21-C285
LOCALID: AL-OP
Current Coalition Assignment: Medicinal Research, Coalition Research Zone MP-4546b.
Last Recorded Location: Coalition Research Zone BP-4546b, Quarantine Enforcement Platform
Local Details:
Rank/Position: Director of Operations, Head of Biomagical Research.
Current Status: !INFECTED!
System Access Level: Unlimited.
[ERROR -106. UNABLE TO PRINT FURTHER DETAILS DUE TO NETWORK LOSS, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR NETWORK ADMINISTRATOR]
Well, if that wasn't a veritable avalanche of information.
I reread the document a few times, trying to make sense of the terminology and the details. What was this Coalition? My current status was "Infected"? With what? Universal IDs? Local IDs? Well, those were the unanswered questions, at least, but they did provide some pieces for me to solve the puzzle with.
This alter-Twilight Sparkle was obviously just that, this timeline's version of me. Somehow, I ended up in this... place... due to Starlight interrupting the Rainboom, as the director of some kind of medical research project. Obviously, due to the writing on my General Access Key, to research a cure to whatever virus it was. Wait, was that what this thing was saying I was infected with? Or maybe it was just saying that alter-me was infected with it?
I didn't feel sick...
Well, I was quite happy about the profile information stating that my security access level was, and I quote, "Unlimited". Perhaps I could gain more headway around these machines now, I mean, they would be made to listen to someone with unlimited access, right? I hoped so.
I exited the document, touching a magical trigger named "Exit to Menu". In the "Menu", a large flashing red icon told me that, apparently, the computer did not have "Network Access", whatever that was, and couldn't give me a its full range of functions. I assumed this was why several options on the screen, such as "Intranet", "Remote Communications", "Update Map", and "Network Browser" were grayed out. The options that were left were things such as "Exit Terminal", "Local Voicelogs", "Access Local Functions", and "Access Local Files".
I moved my magic, and selected the Local Voicelogs first, moving from the top to the bottom.
Three options presented themselves: TWILIGHT SPARKLE-001, TWILIGHT SPARKLE-002, and TWILIGHT SPARKLE-010. Curious, I selected the first entry on the list.
Suddenly, I heard a conversation replayed for me, I most definitely recognized one of the voices as my own, and... I believed I also heard Rainbow Dash's voice as well!
"Director!" I heard Rainbow say.
"What is it, Commander?" I heard myself say.
"I would... like to question the legitimacy of the submersible cruisers you had shipped to us." I hummed, it was Rainbow's voice for sure, but it didn't sound like she was talking to me. Or, well, an alter-me. She sounded instead like she was just talking to a superior, not a friend.
"What's wrong with them?" I heard alter-me say in an uninterested voice.
"Frankly, Director, they're not much better than scrap," Rainbow huffed, "They leak, they rust, those weapon systems just seem to endlessly jam. I don't like the chances of my ponies going down there with something that flimsy!"
I heard shuffling, and I envisioned alter-me turning to Rainbow, "Commander, I'm afraid you'll just have to deal with what you got. More and more planets are going under Quarantine Protocol, and our supplies are getting fewer and farther between."
"Sure, sure. But where'd you even get these models from? A primitive could build this piece of crap!"
"They're old Griffon models, and they work just fine."
"Fine? Yeah, sure, if we were going on a sunday afternoon cruise, they would work fine. But have you seen some of the Leviathans out there? We were sent here to contain them, not for them to toss around our ships like ragdolls!"
I heard alter-me sigh, and the recording went silent for a few seconds, "I'm sorry, Commander, but this is all we can do. Either find a solution, or find a solution. Quite frankly, all of the Coalition depends upon us final research sectors to find a cure to the Kharaa," alter-me took a deep breath, "Maybe talk to... what was her name again? Ah, yes, CTO Pie, maybe she can find a fix for your submersibles."
The recording ceased, and I was put back to the list of voicelogs. I could at least empathize with Rainbow, I had seen those Leviathans first hoof (at least, I think that was what she was talking about). Also, alter-me had mentioned a "CTO Pie", was Pinkie in this place? What were the chances that the rest of my friends were here as well?
I decided to leave all those questions be for now, and I selected the next log on the list.
Alter-me sighed, "You're wasting my time."
I was pleasantly surprised to hear Rarity's voice, "Ma'am, we've had nothing but... minor resistance up in the polar regions. I'm telling you, our only options left on this planet are right here."
"No, Doctor Belle, our best chances were up in the poles. We only have a few weeks left before we need to move camp anyway. I'll admit that this planet's ecology is unusually diverse, but if we tear apart every planet we come across, everypony will be dead before we can find anything of value."
"Yes, Director, but prove to me one thing, have you ever come across a planet with this much biodiversity?"
"Yes I have, but Earth was more about diversity in subspecies. This planet just decided to have plenty of smaller species."
"Exactly. While I do not doubt your... expertise in biomagic, I am your head of Genetics. I know there has to be at least one species on this planet with resistance to the Kharaa!"
"We've already given exposure to 70% of the planet's population, and while you are right about me not being a geneticist, I do know how to operate a calculator. On the principles of evolution and genetic inheritance, there's little to no chance that, if 70% of the population is vulnerable, that we'll miraculously find something with complete immunity," I heard alter-me sigh wearily, "We've already wasted enough time on this planet, Doctor, the transport arrives next week. Please have your crew ready to leave by then, or perhaps we'll leave you behind."
I heard Rarity give a haughty huff, "Well then. If you'll excuse me, Director, I believe I will take a swim."
"A swim? In these waters?" a hint of surprise had leaked into alter-me's voice.
"Yes, I do think it will be more fruitful than talking to you."
The recording cut, and I wordlessly selected the last recording.
I heard a loud, moaning siren in the background, and the hurried hoofsteps of, who I assumed was, alter-me.
"Warning - Planetary Quarantine Protocols initiated. Quarantine Enforcement Platform online. Infected individuals may not leave the planet." the very same mare's voice as I myself had heard echoed through the halls in the recording.
A heard a magical whirr and the sound of a energy shield powering down, before alter-me's voice rang out, "Spitfire!"
The pounding of hooves ceased, "D-director! Don't get near me!" I heard the voice of Spitfire, who I had only knew in my timeline as the captain of the Wonderbolts.
"Captain... y-your infected..." Alter-me whispered. Infected with what?
A series of coughs broke out through the recording, which I could only assume came from the "Infected" Spitfire, "Yeah.
Wh-where have you been, huh? Commander Dash said she tried to contact you..."
"I've been in Containment, the Doctor found something... then I heard that the Quarantine Enforcement Platform was powering up..." a pause, "What happened? We had our Kharaa samples secured in Research!"
"Yeah. I dunno what happened. I was coming back from patrol, and the Commander tapped on our window..." Spitfire broke into another fit of coughs.
"Hey, pony up. We have to switch this thing off, the polar regions haven't been infected yet, they need to be evacuated."
"We... we can't, I'm sorry. I-I must have not been think-thinking clearly. You're contaminated now," another fit of coughing, "we can't switch it off..."
In the background, I heard a profanity leak from the mouth of alter-me.
The recording snapped off suddenly, and I gulped. It sounded... serious. An epidemic? A thousand years ago? Aside from that one Crabby I had seen earlier, everything around me looked fairly healthy. Was that why this whole place was abandoned? Just a ghost building, running on maintenance spells after losing its masters?
Could a disease like that survive for one thousand years? Perhaps it was best to leave all those questions be for now.
Since there were no more logs available to me, I backed out of the log menus. Back on the main screen, I tried "Access Local Functions" options. The menu that followed had an excessive amount of grayed-out options, that simply said "UNAVAILABLE" instead of actually telling me what they once did. The ones that were left were "Environmental Lighting", "Intercom", and "Dock Tablet".
The first two actions did what I expected, they switched the lights on and off and turned on an intercom, I did a quick broadcast message through the entire building, asking if there was anypony still around. After a few hopeful minutes went by, I subconsciously pouted and turned the intercom back off. I had a feeling that the facility was abandoned, but one could still hope.
Finally, I tried "Dock Tablet", after a moment, the terminal replied with: "User's Tablet Already Inserted, Eject?"
I gave a magical "Yes".
There was a mechanical click as something out of my view appeared... in a strangely slow manner. I blinked, quickly navigating my way to the "Exit Terminal" button.
The world rematerialized around me, and I found myself gasping. The object I had seen earlier suddenly clattered to the floor, a purple glow catching my eye. I bit my lip, picking it up with my telekinesis. I jumped a little as the tablet suddenly turned green in my magic, and I felt that slight pinch in my horn again as the tablet grew brighter green.
I dropped the tablet, raising my eyebrow as I stared at it cautiously. It ceased glowing green, and instead resumed that same purple glow that I knew from the General Access Key. It even held that same symbol from the purple tablet.
I picked it up again experimentally, getting an idea. I pushed into it like I did with the terminal. Like I had expected, the tablet interacted with my magic. The tablet seemed to forgo the "login" formality, and it instead cut straight into a menu quite similar to that of the terminal's.
I interacted with the "Voicelogs" option again, wondering if the tablet held anything different. Apparently not. Just the same three logs. I exited. The only thing different about the tablet seemed to be that the option for "Access Local Functions" was replaced with an option called "Access Spell Matrix".
I went into that option with excitement, wondering what kind of wondrous spells the tablet might be able to conjure up. More disappointment and misery met me as all I found was a bank of greyed out options. Literally the only option available was a "Light Spell".
I turned it on out of curiosity, and lo and behold, the tablet created light.
My mind went back to the first time I examined a General Access Key. I remember finding a blank part in the huge expanse of the diamond matrices. Was the same true in this tablet? Was a great amount of the tablet's full power gone?
I shrugged, and exited the tablet. I checked the terminal one more time, accessing the local files. All there was was an expansive list of "Corrupted Files", I exited the terminal again.
I placed my new tablet (which glowed green when I picked it up, so that made it special?), and placed it in my makeshift backpack, before striking out further into the abandoned building. My expedition was once again quickly distracted as I spied something on a pedestal in the corner of the next room I walked into.
It was... it was a green cube. But oh-ho was it really more than that. As I walked towards it, I suddenly realized that this... object... was the source of power I had sensed when I first entered the building.
I gulped as I eyed it. This thing had enough restraining spells cast on it to rival Discord's imprisonment in stone, which held back enough energy inside it to blow my head off and leave a crater large enough to level the island. I dared not touch it, should my magic accidentally unravel the incredibly complex binding enchantments cast on the cube.
I decided to ignore the incredibly, horrifically powerful cube of unrelenting power for now.
After passing several more rooms filled with more death-cubes of immense power and death, I came to a strange... empty shaft.
I raised an eyebrow, walking forward to take a peek over the edge. The only thing that greeted me was a dead drop down at least ten floors. I leaned forward a little bit, only to scream in terror as an intangible force pulled me off of stable ground and dangled me over the drop.
Suddenly, I plunged downwards, pushed by that same force, I squeezed my eyes shut, half-expecting to have my bones shattered against the floor of the drop. Instead, the force suddenly let up gently, before stopping me in place right over the floor. It pulled me to a side, before setting me down gently on an adjoining hallway connecting to the bottom of the shaft.
After a moment of collection, I took a deep breath and settled down. Well, I guessed that was this universe's version of an elevator.
Another energy shield blocked my forward progress, and another terminal with a slot for a General Access Key. I took out my new tablet, it again glowing green as it floated in my telekinesis. I hesitated to use it to unlock the shield, yet... I didn't see another way around it. I also now knew how to interact with other tablets I would probably find... considering it seemed to be fairly easy to find around these buildings.
I would probably find a way to bust the thing open if it just ate my key again.
The tablet began glowing purple again as it left my telekinesis. I held my breath as I expected the console to simply close up around my precious new Key again like it had the first time. Instead, the panels remained open, and, not before long, the shield powered down.
"Access Granted," the mare's voice said once more, and the tablet was ejected from its slot back into my magic, it beginning to glow green again.
Pleased, I walked through the opened forcefield.
The room was a large, expansive space, the ceiling towering above me. A giant rectangular pool of water took up most of the floorspace in the room. I peered through the surface of the water, and I noticed that an underwater entrance lay at the far end of the room, making the room a giant pressure chamber. Was it a water dock for submersible ship?
Alter-Rainbow Dash had mentioned submersible cruisers... was this where they docked? Regardless, it seemed that the pool opened up straight into the ocean. Hehe... no thank you.
I gave the water a wide berth.
Another open arching doorway continued on further into the facility, and I pressed forward.
The adjoining room was another tall one. It lead straight up through a series of ramps to another walkway all the way at the top, while another doorway lead away and into another room. I decided to investigate the adjoining room before going up the ramps to whatever lay at the top.
I stepped through a bending hallway and into... another Archway.
It was exactly like the one I had found back on the other island, except contained in a room instead of a large cave. It also had the same panelling in front of it, which I assumed hid the same input port as the one back on my island. Again, it did not seem to be willing to open up and give to me.
Not wanting to go through the headache of analysing the new Arch as I did with the last one, I quickly left the room.
Going back into the tall ramp room, I noticed something that I had not the first time I had walked in. It looked like a display case, caged in by a glass-like material colored the same peaceful green as... quite a lot of the building. Inside, was a strange device that reminded me of the long, damaged white-metal tool I had found back by my habitat. However, this one seemed to be colored yellow, had a thinner frame, longer, and less bulky. Written at the base of the case was the words "T-2300 Plasma Rifle".
I felt that twinge in my horn as I walked closer to the display case. I raised an eyebrow, before lowering my horn and "pushing" into the display case.
The case only gave me one message: "Authorization Level 4 Required To Access This Display Case". They had said my access level was unlimited, right? I interacted once again with the display case, pushing further. To my delight, the display case relented. It messaged me again: "Access Granted," it said warmly. Suddenly, I was kicked out of the interface.
There was a quick, satisfying click as the display case windows opened, granting me access to the "Plasma Rifle" stored inside. Humming, I levitated it out of its case.
Then I made the mistake of toying around with it.
A scream echoed through the empty building as, suddenly, I apparently pulled a trigger with my magic. With an ear-splitting "BAM!", a green beam shot out of the end of the rifle, propelling me upwards ever so slightly, and hitting me in the face. I hissed as I felt a small trickle of blood come out from a cut in my cheek, a rifle butt-shaped bruise forming there. I took a look at where the beam had hit the floor in front of me, and gulped as I saw a gaping black hole in the flooring. I knew for a fact that metal was incredibly tough, so I was quite amazed when I found something that was able to destroy it.
I checked the gun one more time, much more carefully this time. I saw the trigger that I had pulled, affixed underneath a metal guard piece, connected to the gun proper. I also saw a series of small switches above the trigger. They were marked, one said "Safety", which was currently switched to "Off", and another one was labelled "Eject Magazine", which was not a lever, but instead a button. I turned the safety switch to "On", and it made a small click.
I considered my options. I definitely wanted this no-doubt valuable tool with me. After all, who knew when I might need to fight something really big? However, I did not exactly know how to operate it... safely. Although it seemed to me to be something like a crossbow, which wouldn't be more than point it at something I wanted to get hurt and pull the trigger, I also didn't want it to go off while it was in my bag and cause my untimely death.
I hummed, I didn't even think it would fit in my backpack as it was.
I opted to just place it gently by the display case I got it from by now. Perhaps I could find out something about it later on, I didn't believe it would go anywhere on its own anyway.
About two flights of ramps went by before I found yet another object for my attention.
Firstly, another purple tablet rested on top of a pedestal. I gently took it off, and felt slightly disappointed as this one neither seemed to want to accept my pushes into it nor did it glow green when I picked it up. It went into my pack regardless. Secondly, I noticed that the pedestal had a sign on it naming the device's function. It said: "Magi-Tech Repair Station."
I raised my eyebrow, repair station? For tablets?
My eyes brightening, I got an idea. I quickly placed my green-glowing tablet on the station, and just as I suspected, the device clamped in around it. There was a hiss and a hum, and the tablet seemed to brighten for a second. A split second later, the tablet ejected right into my waiting telekinesis.
I quickly pushed into the tablet, going straight through the main menu into the "Access Spell Matrix" section. Just as I suspected, a new option was presented to be available to me. It was labelled "Atomic Re-Organization Overlay". I attempted to interact with it, but all it said was "No valid/legal targets".
Slightly disappointed, but excited nonetheless, I bagged my tablet once more.
Finally reaching the top without further incident, approaching yet another forcefield. Fairly confident, I placed my green-glowing tablet on the security console. Once more, the mare's voice simply informed me of my granted access, before giving me my Key back.
The forcefield powered down, and I suddenly realized how close I was to the building's core of power. I saw it at the far end of the room, a large, encased, green core made out of what I thought I saw was a giant cube similar to the ones before of death and destruction and unimaginable power.
Right in front of it seemed to be a large and seemingly important red button. I raised an eyebrow, and approached the core and its button cautiously. I felt my hair bristle as I came close to the powerful emissions of the core, and I sincerely hoped it did not emit anything seriously harmful to me. Considering I didn't feel sick and I wasn't burning up into a skeleton, I figured I was fairly safe.
The Button was labelled, "Manual Quarantine Protocol Shutdown", it proclaimed. My eyes narrowed as I looked at it, Quarantine Protocol Shutdown? Considering its name and the fact that it was colored red, I seriously hesitated pushing random buttons.
Yeah, maybe not a good idea to turn off a quarantine protocol and maybe infect myself and everything in this place with whatever this facility was built to contain.
I walked away nice and slowly, looking around for another terminal, or perhaps a place to place my tablet...
...When the world suddenly lit up red as a piercing alarm rang through the building.
"WARNING - Unidentified space vessel closing at high speed on a low-orbit approach. Quarantine procedures in place, automated firing sequences authorized. Transmitting warning message..."
My eyes widened as I felt the intense emission from the core worsen, feeling strangely hot as the ambient light brightened. I suddenly felt the need to...
RUN!
I had still made sure to take the Plasma Rifle along with me as I ran back through the facility for the only exit I knew of: the front door.
The elevator whirred as it levitated me up to the higher level, and I winced as the mare's voice came back in over the intercom and the alarms seemed to speed up, "Error - Unable to broadcast warning message to incoming vessel: Network Error -106, Unable To Connect to Communications Network. Proceeding with beam activation procedures."
I finally saw the bright lights of day outside as I charged out of the front entrance, stumbling out into the sand. I turned around to look at the facility, the red lights still flashing.
...What I had thought was the building's fortified main tower had... tilted, and I saw a large port covering the end of the... cannon. It was a humongous gun. Something larger than even the Equestrian navy's largest monitors, and it was aiming for some... target that I could not see.
It was actually aiming far above the place where my home island was, straight up into the air a good few degrees.
"Unidentified Space Vessel is continuing its approach. Automated firing sequences authorized. Starting firing sequences."
I could hear a crescendoing roar coming from the gun behind me, and I subconciously ducked as the gun... fired.
It was a brilliant blaze of green, pure, focused energy, and the sound made my ears start to ring. The beam passed far overhead, disobeying gravity, and I thought I could see an explosion in the distance as I assumed the beam hit its target.
"Target hit with glancing force. Damage dealt: Significant. Unidentified Craft Crippled, projected to crash into the planet with extreme force. Projected survivors: 0. Damage sufficient. Returning to neutral state."
There was a loud groan as the cannon turned around, returning to its tower-like state I had seen it in the first time, and the red lights finally switched back off.
Then, the sky turned into a meteor storm.
I turned around to see a gigantic, burning fireball coming down dangerously close to straight towards me. It was at least as large as a mountain, and I could see some of the "mountain" around the blazing fury of the fireball. It was... not a mountain... and it wasn't an asteroid. I couldn't exactly tell what it was, but it was obviously whatever the Quarantine Enforcement Platform had targeted.
Chunks of the object tore off from the fiery fury, some going down in the ocean far off to the north and south, while others splashed down into the ocean not too far from me. I was frozen in trance, watching the fireball grow closer and closer, unable to take my eyes off the sight.
Closer and closer it grew, until I could actually see the individual tongues of flames of the fireball. Then...
BOOM.
The fireball smashed into the ocean, sending water into the air. The ground under my hooves shook as the fireball plowed through ocean, and more chunks of fire flew off it, landing in the water. I gaped as I just... stared at it.
It couldn't have been less than a mile long, and it was alight almost the whole way down it. A sudden, unfathomable edition to the expansive ocean around me. Though, what came next only topped off what had so far been a day of insanity and discovery.
A humongous tidal wave that rippled outwards from the crashed object, a tsunami of water coming. Straight. For. Me.
I heard a loud moaning alarm from the building around me as the tidal wave blocked out the sun.
"Warning - Tsunami detected."