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// Chapter 55: Rescue Team 
// Story: Child of Mine 
// by Starscribe 
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Twilight had never seen military engineers at work before. It was incredible what they could achieve without the resources and time to build something conventionally, and with the pressure of an angry Alicorn breathing down their backs.

There was very little for Twilight herself to do, by contrast. She prepared her laboratory crew, going through every possible pre-check they could make before they landed, then had a long conversation with her friends about which would want to come into a potentially dangerous situation.

All of them were willing, of course. But given a twelve-pony limit and Cadance’s desire to bring actual soldiers, she made sure to give them an easy out. In the end, she was unsurprised that Rainbow Dash and Applejack couldn't be talked out of helping, while Rarity was eager for a rest after working tirelessly on replacement clothing. Twilight didn't even need to ask Fluttershy whether or not she would want to take a trip that might end with violence, and Pinkie...

Pinkie seemed eager for an excuse not to come. As soon as Twilight gave her one—suggesting she should plan Flurry's "welcome back to Equestria" party, she seized it and wouldn't let go.

Twilight did have a few of her own modifications to make to her transformation spell, adjusting for what they'd learned the last time. This version of "humans" had far more limited pigments than the ones she had previously visited, apparently restricted to different shades of tan and brown. Rather than judge how dull a world must look when every creature was the same few colors, Twilight just made the adjustments as quickly as possible. 

Whatever Cadance had in mind, it seemed prudent to send a few creatures across looking like the natives. That should make it easier to begin negotiation, rather than looking like more potential targets.

That done, Twilight joined the engineers on the surface, watching and occasionally offering her magical ability for their work.

Cadance hadn't been exaggerating when she said they would be taking the fastest possible option. They began by scouring the peak with magic hot enough to melt sand into gray fulgurite, and shred the trees that grew there to ash, except one.

The engineers reinforced this foundation, broadening the floor of a portal facility that was a dome about thirty meters around the trunk of a single, massive pine. This they stripped bare, using it as the structural center of the facility.

By nightfall, they were pouring quick setting concrete to broaden the foundation and flatten the workspace. When Twilight came down in the morning, walls of tough canvas had been transfigured to crystal, clear enough to let light illuminate the interior, but stiff enough to resist the wind.

Her crew soon followed, though the wind had begun to blow so fiercely that the rowboats required guide-pegasi to make it to the ground. One by one their machines arrived, packing around the relatively confined laboratory.

"We're on the clock here,” she said, as the last box of cargo arrived around noon. "Flurry Heart was already moved once to reach here. If we don't cross and retrieve her soon, she could be moved again. Or worse, harmed. Cadance will be expecting to travel across this time tomorrow. If there is any interruption, any delay that might make that impossible—contact me at once. I'll intervene personally to see that we are ready on-schedule."

"Is moving like this even a good idea?" somepony asked from the back. One of the lab assistants—none of her supervisors was brave enough to question her like that. Twilight waved the pony to the front of the group. He was a young unicorn, lanky and thin with a pair of oversized glasses.

"It's the best plan anypony could come up with," she said, holding up the tracking spell for them all to see. "Flurry Heart is still alive. In another world, she's only a hundred meters from where we stand."

"If she moves again..." The pony no longer sounded so brave. He backied away from Twilight’s attention. "Maybe we should leave the portal in one place and follow her? Send only pegasi and Alicorns, and they could go faster than an airship."

Twilight shrugged. "We may have to resort to that, if they try to move her again. But we don't know the world on the other side. We don't know what magic its creatures’ control, or how dangerous they are. Spending as little time on that side is our safest move, at least for now."

The stallion only nodded, and didn't question further. Twilight didn't discipline him for it. There was no point stifling new ideas, even if she'd already considered and rejected them herself. Her crew needed to feel free to speak up.

Twilight tried to rest, preparing a few spells she thought she would need and meditating in her quarters above the Radiant Hope. But with the tracking spell pulling her so close, she couldn't stay for long. She took Pinkie to the ground, scouting the cliff for entrances to a natural cave.

After searching until nightfall, Pinkie finally stopped her, shaking her head dismissively. "Most caves grow because there are veins of soft rock running through something tougher," she explained. "Like fondant wrapped around a cake, then someone spills punch on it, and the insides turn all gooey. Here the gooey bits would be limestone, but... that's not what this is." She smacked her rock-hammer into the cliffside, lifting up a chunk in her hoof. "This is granite, Twi. Looks like it might be solid the whole way through."

"So... somepony mined on the other side?" Twilight suggested. "Deep underground might be a good place to hide from magical search, if you can't make any better defenses."

Pinkie shrugged. "Could be. Lots of neat things could be hiding deep underground. But maybe they just wanted somewhere hard to get in. Granite is tough. It would take ages to dig through here, even if you brought all my sisters."

"I've been planning for that," Twilight said. "Thanks, Pinkie. It's too bad we couldn't find a way in, but... at least we tried." It just meant more work for them once they crossed.

And just like that, the team was assembling in the lab. Her initial estimate of how many creatures could cross at once had made a single fatal error: she hadn't thought about how much smaller the aliens were compared to ponies. With her, Rainbow, and Applejack taking up barely any space of the departure platform, she could easily imagine a small army packing inside if they could all stand shoulder to shoulder.

Princess Cadance hadn't filled up the whole number, in any case, but packed onto the platform with six crystal guards—two earth ponies, two unicorns. None of them had paid any attention to stealth, but dressed in the full military uniform of the Empire: silvery chain over a glassy-looking breastplate and helm. Of course, despite its resemblance to crystal, their armor was far tougher—tough enough to take direct strikes from blades or crossbows if the need arose.

Here's hoping it doesn't. We don't even know what the aliens use to fight over there. Probably the native weapons were weak and small, just like the aliens themselves. Why carry tools for fighting ponies when you never had to?

"Our plan is simple," Cadance called, as soon as everyone had lined up. "Twilight and her friends will go in one hour ahead of us. They will learn what they can, and hopefully lead a successful negotiation for my daughter's release. They will have one hour to accomplish this. If they fail, I will accompany a squad of elites to the other side, and we will retrieve Flurry by force."

She stopped just in front of Twilight, towering over her now. Celestia help those little aliens if they have to fight crystal guards. It would be like fighting breezies. Maybe not that dramatic. The aliens could travel to remote wastelands and survive up here without difficulty. Presumably they were tough in other ways, even if they were smaller and weaker physically.

"Twilight, you know what demands I would accept, and which I could not. You know the depths of our treasury, if it comes to that. Your brother and I agree that paying a ransom is the preferable option. An exchange means the aliens will want Flurry to be safe as much as we do. We've worked too hard to fail now."

"I understand," Twilight said. She adjusted the heavy pack on her shoulders, rattling its contents. "I've brought all the gems and gold we had aboard. Hopefully that will be enough to make this painless. If not, we'll be waiting at the transport site to bring you back across."

She had the necklace under several layers of alien clothes—but had set no recall time, and had no intention of using it. If they failed and the worst happened, the emergency necklace would make for an ideal way to return with the princess, even if they couldn't use it while in a place they knew was underground on the Equestrian side.

"Communication will be impossible once they cross," Cadance continued. "So we won't know what's waiting for us when we follow them." Then she turned, crossing to the top of the platform where Twilight waited. "I'm trusting to your greater experience with other worlds. "I'm not wrong, am I? I can trust you?"

"You can trust me," Twilight repeated. "Whatever's standing between us and getting Flurry back, we'll get through it. Who knows... maybe this whole thing is a misunderstanding, and they're actually eager to see Flurry reunited with her family?"

Cadance rolled her eyes. "I hope you're right." She stepped off the platform, joining her soldiers at the edge. "If something does happen, I've mobilized an entire battalion. We'll bring them pony by pony if we have to. One way or another, we'll get Flurry back. Please let it be your way."

Rainbow and Applejack shared a look. Like Twilight, neither of them were armed or armored. Their role, hopefully, would be to help her negotiate. Instead of their usual vivid shades, all three of them were now brown and tan. Hardly seemed to matter, compared to the threat roiling outside.

"Open the portal," Twilight called to the closest technician. "Pull back whatever is waiting on the other side in one hour."

She nodded, horn glowing as she worked the controls. There was a flash, then the wave of disorientation as Twilight was brought across to the other side.

Twilight had crossed between worlds enough times now that she recovered almost instantly, staggering to her shoes. She heard voices, shouting? At first the world was blurry, but soon it all came into focus.

In this world just like Equestria, there was a short expanse of platform before leading into the top of a cliff—but here, a tunnel was carved, with a heavy metal door directly in front of them as thick as a bank vault.

That wasn't the worst part. It wasn't alone, but instead of a huge shelter there was a tiny guard post beside the door, barely large enough for a single person. An adult human had clambered out, and now aimed something thin and metal at the three of them. His grip shook, and his eyes were wide with terror.

Twilight had seen that look on the faces of nonmagical creatures when they first saw ponies—though the number who lived in such isolation was small indeed. It certainly included furless aliens, though.

"Stay right where you are, or I shoot!" he yelled, gesturing furiously with the weapon. "All three of you, stay right there. Don't move, and nobody gets hurt."