//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Worlds Intersect *Re-Write* // Story: Out of the Old, Into the New // by SentientHydra //------------------------------// 'New Dawn' Command Bridge, Captain's Suite Elevator. Susan was both nervous and jubilant on the way to the suite. If her enigmatic Captain read the turmoil roiling beneath the CMO's face, he said and indicated nothing while they stood in the short ride up to the Bridge, letting the short ride pass by in silence. Then the door opened and the grizzled old man stepped away into the suite beyond, where The ancient desk was covered by table-cloth, loaded down with canapés, finger-food and a few generously poured glasses of (Non-Alcoholic) wine. but when she stepped from the elevator with a smile on her face Susan's view was suddenly obscured, and she gasped for air as thick, pillow-like arms swept her up into a rib-crushing bear hug. “Suzy! I haven't seen you in weeks.” Her large-framed captor sternly admonished the other Officer with a mock frown before letting a red faced Susan down to the floor, smirking just a little as 'Suzy' drew in a gulp of sweet oxygen and wheezed before answering. “Sorry about that Andy, I've been busy” Susan apologised quietly, rubbing the back of her head and scuffing a shoe on the carpet, her embarrassed blush not helped by the Captain standing just behind Andrea, laughing silently while he loaded up a small plate of snacks. Conroy was visibly not amused with the half-hearted apology, but she lost the frown after an eye-roll more and smiled broadly, stepping back to let her friend into the room proper. “Don't make me laugh Susan, you ain't that busy, you're just scared to leave your team alone for five minutes, "A pointed glance was made at the very prominent Comms on her collar, "or let that damn paperwork alone for an hour.” Another was thrown at Some 'damn paperwork', tightly folded in a breast pocket. The Medical officer defended herself vehemently, “The paperwork's important Andy, and I need to supervise my team to make sure there's no mistakes. That reactor incident really caught us by surprise” Susan stepped with her friend, swiping a synth-cheese roll and nibbling silently The big bodied chef just shook her head a little sadly, but perked up when she spotted the time, and heard the music begin 25 minutes to go... A universe away After helping Twilight resuscitate Spike from his shock induced faint, Pinkie Pie put together a party in record time, nopony questioned why or even how there was a fully loaded party cannon under the sink, you couldn't get a straight answer from Pinkie when she was busy firing streamers around to decorate the library, calling Rainbow Dash in to gather up all the others and ordering in 'emergency party snack supplies' from Sugarcube corner. In under fifteen minutes, all of the mane 6 had been gathered in varying states of morning drowsiness to attend the sudden party. From her seat on a the thick rug Fluttershy, who had been wide awake with her animals, quirked her head and asked, “So.. What is the occasion Twilight? Not that I mind of course, but Rainbow didn't explain much on the way” Twilight sat back onto a chair and smiled a little proudly, “Oh nothing much really, I just got accepted into the Royal Astronomy Society" she looked ready to explode again with glee, "after I discovered a wormhole” An appreciative round of applause went around the room, each of the girls accepting a glass of punch from Spike and raising them in a small toast, led by Rainbow Dash, “To the egghead, watching giant worms in space.” A -slightly confused- cheer began, but was undermined by an explosive fit of giggling from Twilight. The eggheaded mare wilted a little under her friend's confused looks, rallying quickly and turning to Rainbow Dash, “I'm really sorry girls, but giant worms in space?” She covered her mouth to hold a 'snerk' back, "What?" The cyan speedster made an 'o' face of understanding quickly went to explain her train of thought, “Well I was just thinking, astronomy is just nerd-talk for 'staring at stars and stuff' right?” Twilight grudgingly assented while Rainbow spoke on, eyes on the ceiling, hoof waving in vague gestures, “and to get a wormhole, you need a worm..” With his librarian sister busy facehoofing, Spike raised a claw, holding his giggles back, just barely, “but what about giant? Worms are tiny." Rainbow nodded, but countered smugly “ordinary worms are, but the higher up you go, the smaller things look right? And space is the highest up you can go, even I can't go up that far. So if you wanted to see something in space from the ground,even with a telescope, it'd need to be huge.” She ended it with a hint of smugness in her tone, confident that she had, for once, outsmarted her librarian friend. All the other girls nodded between themselves -the line of logic did make sense- but Twilight sighed with a smile and stood, nodding at the hovering pegasus to concede the point. “I can kinda see where you're coming from Rainbow, but you're off, just a bit. The Wormhole is big. Big enough to swallow our entire planet, without touching the sides" There was a certain glazed look to the eyes of everyone as they tried to comprehend something of that scale, until at last Fluttershy broke the tension with a quavering “Oh my” Twilight nodded “'Oh my' indeed... Luckily for us this particular wormhole formed far away, outside the orbit of Mares and just inside the asteroid belt”Twilight explained, making her way to the centre of the room for some more punch. "But 'Worm? No, 'Wormhole' is just a term used to describe it. There are no Worms of any kind involved." Rarity nodded as if in understanding, but then asked tentatively “Lovely as that is darling, if this 'wormhole' was not made by a worm. What exactly is it formed by?” From the look on her face, Rarity might just have made Twilight's day for the second time. With a click of her hooves and a flare of her horn a chalkboard was suddenly summoned, a piece of chalk already held in a telekinetic grip by the grinning unicorn “well it's a relatively simple concept, so I think the short explanation should suffice.” Rarity was already regretting her query by the nervous smile on her face, that did very little to shield her from a few glares directed at her by the rest of the room, who settled themselves in for what was sure to be a 'fun and interesting' lecture. Spike in particular stood up and left the room, face-palming and muttering “I thought I burned that chalkboard...” darkly on his way out. 15 minutes... It was smiles all round in the captain's suite, Belle Pamela had long since arrived, set up some music equipment and put some archaic dance tunes on, even in her twilight years -she was the oldest member of the crew, at well over 100- the Chief of Recreation was still a bubbling pot of joyous energy, her cybernetic implants keeping her jigging and jamming with the best of them. Susan had joined the dance nervously at first, but soon loosened up when the silver and neon-green haired old woman smiled that infectious smile, glowing lines of cyber-tattoos shifting and flickering under slightly wrinkled, tan skin. The captain mockingly glowered at his oldest friend when she tried to get him to dance “And you were always an out of control party animal, I've still got aches from our last shore leave together." Pamela snorted "The one where you stayed on the ship the whole time? Or the time you confiscated my drink?" The banter and playful insults went back and forth between the two for a while, each telling an increasingly red-faced Susan embarrassing anecdotes and lewd stories about the other. The laughter from Andy and the by-now quite loud match of wits between the Captain and the Chief died away when the elevator dinged open. There were few people in the world or outside it who could make Captain Morgan flinch; high among those stood the person unfolding out of the elevator, Chief of Security Barry 'Big Dog' Henry, an already heavily built 6' 8” frame was boosted by muscle augments, gene treatments and bone reinforcement to a titanic 8' 11”, cybernetic eyes glowing green in their deep sockets. The CSO stepped, silent as a cat, to the side of the elevator door and motioned for the other passenger to step inside the room, watching with an unreadable expression as Chief Engineer Li walked calmly past, then falling in behind. “It's nice to get away from work, if only for a while” Li commented to The captain before taking a chair, the voice sounding unnatural and vaguely robotic through his speakers - If you listened to the rumours aboard the ship, Li had not removed his opaquely visored spacesuit once during the whole one and a half year trip, and there was a betting pool among the crew as to whether he was human at all. Morgan just nodded, trying to hide a wince when Henry engulfed his digits in a bone-crushing handshake, the giant smiling gently. Salvation came from an unlikely angel after all too many agonizing moments, Henry being distracted from his handshake by a punch to his side and a chirping tone “Big Dog! It's been way too long." Susan had came across the room in record time, abandoning her half-nibbled roll. "Security so hectic you can only talk on comms?" Barry Dropped the captain's hand and stood up tall, smiling back toothily -His lengthened, reinforced canines on prominent display- "You're one to talk Dove. I can't get in to your office past the great wall of paper you're building" He chuckled, a meaty hand sliding round and planting on Susan's back. As the giant and the dove strolled off to their own little chat, Li glanced at the captain and spoke in hushed tones, “I still do not understand how those two can be friends...” The suit helmet tilted to watch them, "CMO McConnell is nervous when she sees her own shadow, whereas I am sure the CSO does not know the meaning of the word 'Fear'." Morgan smiled, chuckling, “Well it's simple enough if you keep in mind, Who installed all those implants?” Li Quirked his head to watch the captain, helmet lighting up as his inbuilt computer activated "Medical records indicate that all active implantation was carried out by.." He paused, then flicked the computer off "Oh.. I see" The Captain smiled “Yep. Susan's one of the best surgeons in the fleet. One of the very few people Barry trusts to poke him with needles and fiddle around with his insides." He nodded to the pair, where Susan had her portable scanner running over the Security Chief's arm, "she get confidence out of it I guess. When Susan's got Barry aroun-" Conversation all around the room died away when a buzzing tone rang from speakers around the room, just before a voice echoed through; “All hands be prepared, 5 minutes until arrival. Repeat, 5 minutes until Arrival." The Window-screen of the captain's suite sprang into life, a countdown lighting up. A universe away... “...and that's how wormholes are made... Any questions?” Twilight turned round with chalk still held in her magical grip, the black board behind her covered by mathematical equations, charts, diagrams and a few snippets of text. The assembled audience were jolted out of varying stages of bored paralysis (aside from Fluttershy, who had been listening politely the whole time) when the chalk slammed into the chalkboard. “None of you were listening!?” Twilight barked exasperatedly “Do I have to go through it all again?” A roomful of shamefaced mares all spoke nearly at once. Spike would likely join in, but had long since abandoned the room, in favour of his private gem stash. “N-no Darling..” “Course not sugarcube...” “No more egghead stuff, Please...” “What're we talking about again?..” “I was listening...” Twilight sighed, shaking her head, “Fine” then turned, teleporting the board and chalk away with a flare of her horn. Pinkie Let Twilight mope for precisely Three seconds, then started a food-fight. 60 seconds... A universe away, the room was hushed in expectant silence. Bell and Morgan had taken to some armchairs, Andy and Li were seated by the buffet table, Susan was comfortably curled up in her Big Dog's lap, content to sit there and watch the show unfold. Outside the panoramic windows, the golden bubble was in uproar, ripples and fluctuations dancing with growing intensity across the surface while the Supernova engines powered slowly down, letting physics win the battle. The collapse of an exotic matter bubble was a spectacular thing. To stop all the occupants being liquefied/vaporised when the vessel went from a significant fraction of light-speed to a dead stop, momentum from the manoeuvre was transferred into the bubble, Still going at full speed but trapped in the thick magnetic fields from the engines, all of exotic matter is forced to the front and compressed into a space about the size of a pea; The compression holding for mere nanoseconds before the magnetic field broke. In the span of only seconds, a hundred kilometer plume of million-degree plasma flares out from the ship's front, the light from it so bright it threatened to burn retinas, before the glass automatically darkened; The temperature held for only a few seconds, then faded and cooled into ice, revealing the wormhole in all its majesty. Even the Captain let himself get carried away in the rising cheers from below. They were the cream of humanities crop, but for at least a while, they had done their work and it was time to celebrate. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Party was in full swing at the library, a few residents of the surrounding area joining the fun. Then Twilight's eye's lit up along with her horn, and the music cut out. over the milling confusion she asked "Does anyone want to see my wormhole?!" A white cloth appeared in the air in a burst of magic, along with a her glossy black telescope. The assembled revelers all glanced between themselves, before a general murmur of assent went up, the ponies all gathering to look curiously at the screen. Twilight turned to the telescope, glass of punch still floating in her field while she adjusted the device "I've been working on a modified illusion spell for quite a while. It should project an image of the 'Sparkle Space-time Anomaly' onto the screen." A corona of magic appeared around her horn, a double layer growing over it as the Telescope flickered into life. The seeking eyes of the telescope's spell played out on the screen, showing a black expanse covered by dots of light, with the occasional flare of a comet's tail, or the floating shadow of an asteroid floating by. A red-brown world passed by, the haze of the wispiest of atmosphere, clinging grimly to its surface, before onwards the eyes flew, showing but more blackness, more stars. The starfield swept by until a swirl of colour began to grow in the bleak void. a splash of new light on the canvas of black; a whirlpool of vast, cosmic proportions erupting into view. The stars around it bent impossibly at the whirlpool's periphery, a rainbow of colour showed the edge the hole in the stars; though if you looked past the glow you could see the gentle twinkle of other dots. … For minutes the ponies simply stood, drinking the beauty of this window to another universe, took in the impossible colours dancing around the ring, the awed silence was broken by Pinkie “That's so pretty... But what's that?” The Puffy Pink Pony leaned in close, tapping a hoof on the centre of the swirling hole. Twilight pushed her gently to the side to let the light shine unimpeded and asked “What's what?” “That little gold-ish light in the middle” Pinkie's face lit up "It's getting bigger! Maybe it's a balloon!!!" The librarian didn't answer, she was barely listening at all. “...I don't know, but that wasn't there yesterday...” She dashed to the telescope and plugged her eye to the eyepiece, hooves working quickly to zoom in as close as was possible to the quickly growing golden orb. “Spike! Letter!” Spike -who had only just returned, to sneak a glass of punch- was almost knocked over by a roll of parchment, ink & quill. The dot in the blackness grew at a rapid pace, but not for long. After a single moment, it shrank to almost nothing. Then exploded in a flare of almost pure white light For the ponies watching the screen the flash was bright enough, each letting out a little exclamation as the tiny golden bubble in the centre of the wormhole suddenly flared. Twilight was not so lucky, staring down the barrel of the telescope, the light was focused, intensified and amplified until it was fired straight into her retina. The unicorn Screeched in pain pain and jolted her head back, hooves clutching at her eye. The whole party sprang into action in a second, a crowd of concerned friends swarming the librarian in an instant, until she had to push them gently away and raise her voice over the concerned babble “It's fine, I'm fine! My eye's just a little bur-.” Before the words were fully out of her mouth Rainbow Dash's hooves warrped around her, and the athlete's body tensed to launch. “Oh no you don't, you're going to the doctor right now. I am not getting stuck reading nerd books in hospital cause I let you go blind” Before any protest could leave Twilight's lips, the pegasus had already pistoned her powerful wings down, and Twilights breath was stolen away by the G forces of take-off. The door was shattered off it's hinges by their exit. Spike looked to the screen, where the plume of blinding light had faded to black, leaving a tiny silver speck in its place. “I'd better let Princess Luna know, she asked us to look out for things like this” he mumbled, scratching on the scroll with his quill. In Canterlot Luna was happy for today, all her trivial duties were over with and the night court was shut, time for supper and some well earned sleep. Stepping into the well used dining room she smiled at Celestia, who returned the gesture in between mouthfuls of oats. As she slipped her haunches down onto a seating pillow Luna asked “I take thine rest was well sister? I worked to keep the night peaceful” her mouth hardened into a thin frown for a second “despite the.. blemish, that sits upon it.” she sounded disgruntled to speak of it, a tone that did not slip by unnoticed by her older sister, who merely smiled “It was restful Luna, I slept very well.” The meal passed in silence for a moment, but then both alicorns turned their heads to watch a wisp of sparkling smoke curl in through a window, Celestia flared her horn ready to catch the message that was surely addressed to her, but her eyebrow raised slightly as the cloud floated quietly over towards Luna, the scroll appeared with a pop and fell towards the bowl of milk, apples and oats only to be caught at the very last second. “Another scroll from Twilight? I knew you and my student would get along” Celestia spoke gently, happy for her reclusive little sister. The white furred diarch's happy expression abated somewhat when Luna's letter opener came low and fast through the corridors, giving one guard's tail a buzz-cut, shearing through the scroll's seal and embedding itself in a stone wall, not more than an inch from a guard's ear. Luna shrugged off Celestia's disapproving glare, unrolling the letter and reading it aloud. “Dear Princess Luna, I am not writing this letter for Twilight, it's just me Spike. Me and the girls were all having a party for Twilight, because we had just heard about her getting into the Astronomy Society. Something really weird happened with that wormhole while we were looking at it during the party, there was this really bright light, and now there's a silver thing on the other side, it looks really weird and none of the girls know what it is. Apart from Pinkie, who keeps saying something about aliens, but that's just Pinkie being Pinkie. Yours Faithfully Spike the Dragon P.S. Twilight hurt her eye pretty bad, she was looking at the light when it got bright. You should probably let Celestia know.” She finished slowly, a smile growing slightly on her face. Her hoof raised itself slightly before being brought down heavily with a gigantic “HAH!” Before anyone could comment her horn flared and the Night Princess teleported away. The Day Princess stood slowly, her benign smile still on her face as she walked slowly out of the room, giving orders while she walked “Have a few guards head to the Observatory please, my sister is up to mischief no doubt. She glanced over the fallen scroll once more, then sparked her horn to life, opening a window "Please send my apologies to the petitioners, I'm afraid I have a hospital visit to attend and Day Court will be delayed." She spoke as always with a benign neutrality, though you might imagine a tremble at the very end.