//------------------------------// // The Fifteenth Day (Cross-Dimensional Learning) // Story: Ponid-21 // by Cadenzel Washington //------------------------------// I pulled my head up and took a look at my surroundings. I was in a reading room filled with books. The bookshelves stood so talk, I’d need a ladder just to reach them. I was seated in a plush reading chair that was just a bit too small for my human body, which didn't surprise me as it was probably built with ponies in mind. As I glanced around the room, I realized that I had been in this place before in my last dream. This was Twilight’s Library...and in a way, I felt like it was my library too. I glanced out the window. The sky was looking pretty much the same as last time; an infinite void of nothingness. Looking down to the “ground” however was another story, mainly because there actually was one now. The immediate surrounding area of the castle I was in was filled in with dirt roads and settlements within the immediate area. It only extended for a certain length as some buildings were cut off, dropping off into the void. After getting in my fill of this world’s ever changing surroundings, I decided to pull my attention back inside the room. Twilight wasn’t around, so decided to go out of the room and look around for the young alicorn princess myself. I lifted myself onto my feet and walked toward the entrance of the room. I pushed the ornate door and it pushed away revealing a long hallway with many more doors just like the one I had just opened. “Geez, Twilight’s house is massive. This feels more like a castle than a library.” I muttered to myself. There were so many rooms, I felt like I could end up touring this place all day. I decided to roll the dice and look around some of the rooms. I pushed open one of the identical doors and walked inside. As I walked in, my eye was drawn to the photos on the wall. Most of them featured Twilight Sparkle either alone or with her friends. One of them featured her with her five best friends. There was another that had a group of young creatures in front of what looked like a school. I was also able to spot a handful of photos that didn’t feature her at all. There was an older unicorn couple with the woman having almost the same mane style as Twilight. As I moved along, I came across a photo of another unicorn pony. It was a picture of Starlight Glimmer. I furrowed my brow when that piece of information passed through my brain. I immediately knew who this mare was despite the fact that I’d never seen her before or met a patient that looked like her. It wasn’t just her name coming to mind but also the many interactions I or rather Twilight had with her, from stopping her from terrorizing a village to befriending her and helping work towards a redemption, to her new position helping out students at the school as a guidance counselor. They were all vivid memories and they were all things I knew but that I had never personally experienced. Was this a result of having Twilight in my head? It was all very perplexing. My confusion only got stronger as I moved on to the last picture in the room. It featured Twilight once again, smiling her same wonderful smile. Next to her however was a large alicorn. It wasn’t Princess Celestia, Luna or Cadance. This was an entirely different alicorn from the princesses. She looked very graceful though that might just be the alicorn body type talking. I also noticed that despite having a size that’s comparable to Celestia or Luna, she lacked any sort of regalia. In fact, the only type of item she seemed to have with her was a very modest looking saddle bag that was packed to the brim with different items. The picture was from the front so it was impossible to see what her cutie mark looked like. I picked up the photo and looked at her intently, trying to see if I would come to a sudden mental revelation like I had with Starlight Glimmer’s name. But no matter how much I tried, my mind was drawing a blank as to the identity of this mare. I was about ready to give up when something came across my mind. I actually DID see this alicorn before but it wasn’t a result of tapping in to Twilight's memories. This alicorn had the exact same shape as the fossil I found a few days ago. I couldn’t tell at first since the fossil only had the rough shape of the Alicorn and none of the features like her mane or the color of her coat. But who was she? My thought train was derailed as I heard a young male voice call out to me. “Twilight!” the voice cried out “There’s somepony here to see you!” I blinked. Right, I did tell Spike to remind me when our new guest would be arriving. I put the picture back in its place and gathered up my saddlebags before trotting down to get to the front hall. I galloped at a decently fast pace so as not to keep the guest waiting. I turned the corner and flew down the stairs to meet up with- I opened my eyes. The Fifteenth Day I pulled myself upright and yawned, outstretching my wings in a big stretch. I pulled back and hopped down onto the floor. Normally, I would have gone over to look at myself in the mirror, but thanks to a quick observation I noticed that I was now a full fledged pony at least physically. There wasn’t a single physical trace of my humanity left. There were only two things that set me apart from the real Twilight; One was that my flanks did not have any sort of cutie mark. Maybe it wasn’t something I could just get right away through super science but rather it was something I would have to “earn” like she did. The other difference was that I still had heterochromia with one of my eyes retaining my ordinary brown coloration and the other taking on Twilight’s more fantastical purple shade. Two weeks ago, I probably would have been terrified at these changes and panicking like crazy. But my fears have been pushed aside thanks to Twilight reassuring that I’d still be me when this was all said and done. It also "helped" that I was more worried about more pressing matters, namely the “change in management” that was going to be taking place. I had finally gotten used to the way Franklin was running things and who Franklin was, but now he had been replaced by someone who was a lot less caring and a lot more aggressive. I knew that we needed to get to the bottom of things and make sure that Hayden didn’t try to do anything funny with my friends. My mental motivation speech was interrupted by a loud knocking on my door. This knock was clearly different from the knocks on my door that I received previously. While the knocks I received before might have been loud, they were only ever meant to get my attention. This knock was not only loud to the ears but also hard and aggressive, the reverberations made it clear that whoever was knocking had a lot of arm strength. The abrasive knock was quickly followed up by a gruff sounding call. “Is Penn in there? Please open the door.” The voice spoke. It wasn’t quite a yell but it was definitely a much louder tone of voice than normal. “C-coming!” I squeaked out quickly, still shaken by the sudden knock. I moved over and opened the door. Before me stood a tall, imposing man decked out in what was clearly a military uniform. The name badge on his coat read “KESSEL” and he had several shoulder patches including an American Flag and another with the words “Colorado National Guard” written on it. “Are you Penn?” The armed man said in a stern emotionless tone. “Yeah, that’s me.” I replied, trying to sound confident so as not to show any weakness. “I’ve been assigned to look after you today in regards to both the Governor general orders and Mr. Hayden’s personal request. My name is Kessel.” He said with an even voice. “Mr. Hayden has also let me know that he wants to see you at 11AM today. You’re expected to show up in the Basement Level Research Lab. He apparently has a need for you there.” “I see.” I replied. “Uhm...can I ask a question?” “Go ahead.” He responded flatly. “Am I...in trouble?” I responded with a bit of hesitation. Kessel was silent for a moment. He was trying to hide his emotions but it seemed like he was slightly taken aback by the question. He quickly cleared his throat. “No, I can safely say that you are not in trouble. That was not the tone of my conversation with Mr. Hayden. If anything, it seemed to be that he felt you were very important to the project he’s working on.” “Ah, I see...and you’re not...freaked out by my appearance?” I asked, curious about his reaction. “I was previously briefed about your situation and what you would look like beforehand so the brunt of my shock and confusion has already passed.” He explained. “That being said...it is still a bit strange to be conversing like this.” I nodded. This was a worry of mine when I heard that the guard would be called into the facility and that we’d be looked down upon or even abused by these armed guardsmen. Kessel seems like an alright if somewhat stoic person. However, he’s also taking orders from Hayden and that could be very problematic down the line. “Well, I was planning on taking a shower and getting some breakfast first. I’m assuming you let me do that before seeing Hayden?” I asked. “Of course.” Kessel replied. I nodded to him as I went together to do my morning tasks. \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ I made my way down to the lower levels, my large intimidating shadow in tow. Kessel hadn’t been as intrusive as I had expected, all things considered. He gave me plenty of space when I was eating with my friends deciding to eat at a separate table. When I needed to take a shower, he was simply outside the bathroom, reading through a book he had on his person. Still, the fact that he was an ever present figure was...unsettling for me. Maybe I could convince Hayden to get him to ease up on me. The speculation in my mind would have to wait as I approached an unfamiliar door. Kessel swiped a key card on the reader and the door slid open, revealing a room I had been in before. The same alicorn fossil stood in the center of the room on full display with several lights shining on it. The big difference today was that there were a lot more people milling about this time. I could spot Julius and Tyrell among the scientists seemingly being put to work on examining these items. I surmised that Franklin had them all on stand-by duty in order to focus all the efforts on the patients. However, Hayden’s priorities seem to be very different. Speaking of Hayden, I could see him in the center of it all, barking orders at the different scientists to get them to look into the different items that they had at their disposal. His overall temperament was slightly aggravated, seemingly from being both annoyed at the seemingly lack of progress made on the objects and with them being more focused on fixing up the patients rather than leaving a discovery like this just collecting dust. Of course, all of this was simply speculation on my part. I gulped at the whole situation. I didn’t want to get involved, but given that I was asked to come down here by the head man himself, I had the sinking feeling I couldn’t exactly refuse. Kessel motioned for us to move into the center of the room and I nodded trotting my way inside. “Mr. Hayden, I have Mr. Penn here for you.” He spoke bluntly. Hayden gave a quick nod. “Ah, yes yes. Thank you so much. for bringing him to me today.” He schmoozed. Kessel simply nodded. “Will that be all for now, sir?” Hayden gave a dismissive hand wave. “Yes, I think that’ll be fine. You’re dismissed for the day. Do what you want.” Kessel nodded once more and walked off. I turned to see him walk away and then slowly turned my head to look at Hayden who had a phoney smile on his face. “Penn! So good of you to join us today. Are you feeling well?” He asked, feigning interest in my personal problems. “I’m fine. You said you wanted me for something? What is it?” I asked bluntly. “Ah, straight to the point, are we?” Hayden gave a knowing smile. “Well, Mr. Penn. I’m in a bit of a pickle. You see, we have all of these artifacts here and they’re closely linked to the condition you and your fellow patients are suffering from. Now, I’ve had my scientists here work extra hard to find the problems and attempt to work out some solutions that could lead us to some answers. However, as smart and as talented as they are, they simply have not been able to give me the answers I need.” As I was listening to Hayden drone on, I caught a glance at Julius and Tyrell out of the corner of my eye. They seemed to give Hayden the stink eye behind his back when he brought up the bit about the scientists. Hayden then continued on. “However the current information that I've been able to gather has been somewhat disappointing. So, I thought that I might be able to get more answers with your help.” Hayden turned around to look at the fossil. “There’s so much we can learn about this but it’s just barely outside our grasp.” He turned back around to face me. “So will you offer your help to us, Penn?” He asked. His tone and demeanor made it pretty clear that saying “no” was not really an option. “Well, with such a stirring argument, how could I refuse?” I exclaim, with a thin veil of sarcasm. “However, I have to ask, how exactly would I be able to help?” I ask, genuinely curious. “I’m glad you asked.” Hayden replied. “I’ve been made aware that certain objects can react differently when exposed to your radiating energies, or what some of the scientists have childishly decided to call ‘magic’. If you remember your little incident, you pushed a bit of your energy into one of the crystals we found and it reacted in kind. We’re hoping to find out if more items we’ve come across will react in a similar fashion.” “Ah, I see. That makes sense I suppose. Alright, let’s go ahead and get started!” I say with some degree of genuine enthusiasm. \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ My enthusiasm was all but drained. We had gone through the gamut of objects and items that were there and one by one we seemed to be constantly hitting dead ends. I was getting very stressed out over all this. It also didn't help that Hayden’s controlling nature and dogged insistence to try absolutely everything was conflicting with the scientists who were insisting that they did do everything and were getting as much as they could out of it. This back and forth would go on for a long while before Hayden eventually relented and we moved on to the next object where the whole process would start over again. Repeat for hours and you've got a recipe for disaster. Tyrell sighed as he went down his checklist. “Alright, we should move onto this next item...though I don’t know exactly how much we’ll get out of this one.” “We cannot leave any stone unturned and that attitude of yours is not helping!” Hayden spat back. “Well, let’s look at what we’ve got. Ah, okay. The next item is the journal.” Tyrell stated. “Hmph, okay then Penn. Use your levitation on it.” Hayden ordered. “Levitate it? Would it be more useful to try and read it?” I asked, which immediately led to Hayden giving an audible scoff. “Oh, we’ve tried it and it’s completely stumped the linguists we have on hand. The contents of the book itself could be some schlocky novel about aliens for all we know.” Hayden dismissed my concerns. “Well, can I at least give it a try?” I asked. “Hmmm, sure fine, just don’t take up too much time with this exercise” Hayden relented. I nodded as I took in the book with my levitation. It was an absolutely massive tome, filled to the brim with pages. I opened up the book and glanced inside. The markings were all very strange and didn’t look like any sort of character that currently exists on Earth. I furrowed my brow as I looked at it. “These markings are all very bizarre.” I commented. Hayden nodded. “Yes, as I said before, it’s all quite difficult to look at. Now, since we’ve indulged in your little side venture, could we please get back to the real reason we’re here?” I tried to open my mouth to give a retort but I was interrupted with an oncoming brief migraine. I shook my head and it dissipated as soon as it came on. “Alright, I’ll-” I began to speak as I went to close the book, but then I froze. I quickly opened the book to look at the characters again. Nothing about them had changed at all and yet...all of a sudden I had absolute clarity in what these symbols meant. It felt like I was near-sighted and suddenly put on a pair of glasses to help me see. “Day 504 - R43” I began. “I’ve decided to have an extra large breakfast today since I know I’ll be hiking a lot given the large mountains I have before me. I could always fly sure, but then I would miss out on seeing all the wonderful nature before me.” “Wait...were you able to read what’s on that page?” Hayden said, his angry demeanor softening in the face of this major revelation. “I...I can understand it clearly as if it were written in English. I can read it.” I stated. The room was silent as everyone there stood there processing the information. Then all at once, everyone started talking, the energy in the room revitalized into a frenzy at such a revelation. Suddenly, I was bombarded with many different questions. The quick barrage was soon quelled as Hayden raised his voice to drown out the others. “Everyone, we need to figure out what is contained within first. I suggest we all write down whatever is read aloud to us and we can review these notes later. Does that sound good?” Hayden asked. The group all gave general agreement to the idea and then they all turned to me. “Alright, Penn. We’ll have you start from the beginning of the book.” “Right, of course.” I replied, closing the book and looking at the cover. The cover itself didn’t have any sort of words on it but it had a beautiful design emblazoned on the cover with what looked like a streak of light bursting through an open gateway. I briefly mused what that could have meant before opening the book proper in order to read the contents of the book itself. The first page answered a big question; who did this belong to. “The journal belongs to Lady Aion.” I read aloud. “That’s...an unusual name.” “Hmm, definitely not like any modern human name.” Hayden commented. “Keep reading, Penn.” I nodded and continued on. “Day 4 - R1. I’ve decided to keep a log of my travels. I do apologize for not documenting the previous few days of my travels but I was so caught up with the world I’ve been exploring that I didn’t think to document it until now. I do apologize to anyone in the future who might be reading this.” I raised my eyebrow a bit. This book seemed to be written as some kind of a diary or journal by the way it’s written. However, the text in this first entry seems to imply that this person wanted people to read it. I shook my head and continued on. “I would like to outline the purpose of my journey for both my own sake and for future generations should they happen to find my thoughts written upon this paper. Throughout my life, I desired knowledge. I was fascinated by the world around me and what it could offer. Every day was a new adventure to me. And for the first couple of centuries, life was pleasant in this regard.” Hayden seemed to raise his hands up at that last sentence. “I’m sorry, did I mishear your last sentence because I could have sworn you said ‘Centuries’ back there.” “I didn’t stutter. That’s what’s written down here.” I replied. For once, Hayden was silent, unable to give a venom filled comeback and was simply processing what had been told to him. He simply turned back to me and said, “Continue reading, Penn.” I nodded and looked back at the journal. “However, after a while, things started to repeat and become familiar. I realized that in my quest for knowledge, I failed to realize that I might end up running out of things to learn in my world. New facts and ideas became rarer and harder to come by. Soon, I was going years without any sort of new stimuli to foster my creative urges. I was in a depressive slump.” I briefly stopped to notice that the area around this sentence had deteriorated a bit from what looks like a small bit of moisture hitting that specific part of the page. I quickly moved on to the next page. “However, I soon came upon an idea. I learned a spell to allow me to traverse to other worlds and if there was nothing left to learn from my home, I could instead travel to a different world and seek out more knowledge. Now I’m here in a world completely foreign to me, filled with different creatures, different lands and different people. I will continue to document what I find and keep a record of what I’ve learned. Until next time, Lady Aion.” “Hmm, so we know this winged unicorn could travel between worlds with her…’magic’ and that’s how she ended up here, at least if her word is to be trusted.” Hayden surmised, stroking his chin. “Let’s continue on, shall we?” I agreed and continued to read. I went through entry after entry reading all about Aion’s travels in which she found. She seemed to always have a curiosity about her no matter where she travelled, whether it was going to an idyllic, peaceful  world or a planet ravaged and barren. She met different characters and people along the way and she added it to her experiences and noted it in the journal. Eventually, Hayden asked me to just keep skimming through the entries for anything of note. After doing that for a while it seemed like there was going to be nothing of note until I reached one of the later entries. “Day 3501 - R955.” The entry began. “I’ve encountered another world filled with ponies such as myself. It seems to be a nice and peaceful world which is a nice change of pace from the last few dozen worlds. I will say that this world is already exceeding my expectations since unlike most of the other dimensions I’ve encountered, I was not the one to initiate contact but rather the locals contacted me. I was approached by a hyperactive pink pony with a bubbly mane.”  I stopped. That description...that sounded a lot like what Meghan looks like...what...Pinkie Pie looks like. I continued on. “She was very excitable and she was insistent that I be introduced to her closest friends. I was soon taken around the town which I later learned was called Ponyville. She started introducing me to the townsfolk who were very kind and thoughtful as I was dragged around by my sudden new friend.” I took in a deep breath as I read, unable to draw my attention away from the words on the page. “Eventually, I was taken to a large castle where these fabled friends were waiting. Pinkie Pie marched over to five other ponies and a young dragon and started introducing them to me. Her friends were Applejack, the honest farmhand, Rarity, a generous dress maker, Rainbow Dash, a loyal speedster, Fluttershy, the kind animal caretaker, Spike, the number one dragon assistant...and finally…” I trailed off at the end of the sentence. I re-read the last statement to make sure I wasn’t getting anything incorrect or that I wasn’t just hallucinating or that I wasn’t just tired from reading all the other entries. However, no matter how many times I scanned the passage, the writing refused to change. It was immutable, unchangeable and completely fixed. I took a deep breath and finally read the last words in the sentence. “...and finally, Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship.” I uttered. “I’ll be learning more about these ponies and what their world is like in the coming days. Until next time, Lady Aion.” “Curious,” Hayden began. “Why did you take such an interest in that passage in particular?” I froze. That’s right, he wouldn’t know about the Twilight in my dreams or any of that. I really don’t want to tip my hoof and tell him about all that. I’ll need to come up with an excuse.” “Well, I took an interest since...it’s one of the later sections that have multiple entries. It seems to be important to this Lady Aion so I felt the need to speak it aloud.” I replied. It was technically true. It appeared to be the largest section by far in the book but that wasn’t the reason I was so interested. “Hmm,” Hayden narrowed his eyes. “And why did you take so long to finish that last sentence?” Crap, I did take a long time to finish that. “Well, I was having a hard time wrapping my head around a Princess of Friendship. I mean, what kind of title is that?! It sounds so silly! Ahaha!” I laughed, attempting to deflect the questioning with a bit of humor. Hayden took a long hard look at me...but eventually he shrugged. “Well, that’s true. It is quite the bizarre title to be sure. Anyway, let us skip to the end and see if we can learn anything else.” I nodded and flipped to the last section. The entire book had been labeled with a numbering system that had the letter R or at least the character in this language that represented the letter R followed by a number. I suspected that was short for something like “Reality” or “Region” but whenever it ticked up, Aion was talking about a completely different world. I flipped to the last one and started reading. “Day 4041 - R988. I have come upon another world again, this one seems to lack any sort of large civilizations this time around so I have the feeling this will be another quiet world that I’ll be exploring.” I began to read but it seemed to follow the same kind of story that I was already familiar with. I started to flip through and things seemed normal right up until she said she would be leaving this world. The next entry was...very different. “Day 4101 - R988. the world has no ambient magic. i am stuck here.” I finished reading. The entry was so short compared to all the others. “If she couldn’t leave and this fossil is her...was she stuck on our planet and she eventually became a fossil?” The entire room was silent as my revelation permeated the air. Everyone’s silence told me all I needed to know. “I guess I’ll go ahead and skip to the final entry.” I said to no one in particular. “Day 4322 - R988. I have come to terms with my fate. I realize that even though I’ll most likely never return home or be able to fulfill my ultimate quest for knowledge, I am content with knowing that I had a full life. This world may be devoid of any sort of ambient magic, but I still have my own magic that I can use to great effect. I will use my own body as a seed for which magic may be able to bloom. I want this world to experience the wonders of magic someday, whether it be years, decades, centuries or even millennia from now. This is my gift to the future generation who end up inheriting this world. I only ask that you use it in kindness and not hate, be generous with it and not greedy, be honest about what I am and do not hide the truth. I hope that my legacy can bring happiness and laughter to those in the future. Please entrust this to someone who will be loyal to my wishes. If you do that, I can assure you that you’ll experience the wonder of magic. Thank you for taking the time to read this, Lady Aion.” “So,” Hayden crossed his arms. “She ended up on our planet, couldn’t get back home and then decided to…’seal’ herself away so that future generations might be able to use her magic? Hmm.” “So, I’m guessing the vaccine used something from the magic inside herself and it ended up changing some of us.” I speculated out loud. “Well!” Hayden clasped his hands together and smiled. “That’s a load of information that will be useful to us. Good job, Penn. I think we’ll be able to take things here for today.” “Wha? But there’s still so much I want to know!” I stammered. “Well, once our team finds out, you’ll definitely be the first to know.” Hayden said dismissively. “Now if you’ll excuse us, we’ll need to get to work. I’ll be sure to call you if we need you to read more of that journal. You know the way out and if you don’t, I’m sure Mr. Kessel would be glad to show you himself.” I stood there in shock for a brief moment, trying not to show fear in the face of Hayden’s idle threat. Unfortunately for me, there really wasn’t much else I could do for now so I simply walked away from the scene. It was getting pretty late as we had been going on all day finding out about the journal but now I had some answers. Tomorrow, I’d be sharing this information with my friends.