//------------------------------// // Magic and Revelations // Story: The Open Sea // by NahB //------------------------------// Twilight inspected the barrier around the princess. As far as she could tell, there was no external way to disable… whatever it was. The princess seemed to be in stasis. Not even her mane, normally floating indiscriminately, was moving at all. Twilight grunted in frustration, and hit the cube with a hoof. It gave off a light *ping*, but was unchanged other than that. “What could she be doing here?” Rarity asked, peering at Luna. “Why is she here? And how?” Twilight shook her head. “I have no clue. The… hay, I’ll just call it Stasis Cube, seems to have no way to be disabled.” “Should we disable it?” asked Redheart, concerned. “Perhaps she was hurt, and it’s keeping her alive.” Twilight’s horn glowed as she attempted to probe the inside of the cube. However hard she tried, she was unable to get any sort of feeling from the strange thing. The cube seemed to block every effort to penetrate it. “I don’t know,” Twilight responded to Redheart. “I just don’t know. I’m trying everything I can think of to get through.” Spike inspected the cube as well. “Well,” he started, “I could attempt to send something as a message to her. It’s been a long time, but…” Twilight considered it. “Okay,” she said. Twilight levitated an apple out of her saddlebags to the waiting Spike. Concentrating, he bathed the fruit in his special green fire. The apple exploded into mist and floated towards the princess. All four occupants of the room looked eagerly on to see if it would penetrate the cube. As the mist passed easily through its barrier, Twilight grinned. The apple was deposited right next to the princess, and began floating, unmoving. “That gives me an idea,” Twilight stated. She walked over towards the cube, and concentrated. Levitating another apple out, she cast a spell on it. She moved the apple over the cube, and detonated the spell. The apple disappeared into nothing, but the cube vibrated, little shockwaves going through it like it was water. She smiled. This time, grabbing another apple, she cast the spell on only the apple’s stem. This way, the spell would fire upward from the apple, instead of all around. “If you don’t mind me asking, dear, but what are you planning?” Twilight looked at Rarity, who had spoken. “Well, shortly before the princesses disappeared, Celestia had me research anti-magic for some reason.” “Anti-magic?” Twilight nodded. “Anti-magic is… well, the lack of magic. It cancels it out. Like Harmony and Chaos, magic and anti-magic are opposites, and cannot exist in the same place.” Rarity screwed up her face. “So… it cancels magic?” Twilight frowned. “Sort of. It doesn’t cancel magic on its own… it just… does the exact opposite of magic whenever it encounters magic.” “Darling, that sounds like cancelling magic to me. But you’re the knowledgeable one. I’ll leave this to you,” Rarity said, examining the walls. The walls of the room they were stuck in were filled with runes, pictures and strange lines. None of the four could make sense of them, but they were all hauntingly familiar for some reason. Redheart laid a hoof on Twilight’s back from behind. “You sure this is safe?” “Absolutely,” Twilight responded, nodding. “The spell… well, anti-spell will go off in the direction the stem of this apple is facing when I send the catalyst by it. That way, we can choose not to activate it in case it happens to be pointing at Luna.” “And, pray tell, what happens if it goes off and hits the princess?” Twilight suppressed a shudder. “Well, since unicorns, and, by extension, alicorns, are imbued with magic through out their whole body, there’s a strong chance that the princess could have a violent reaction to the anti-magic and be injured, or worse.” Redheart only frowned at Twilight a moment. Seeing that the lavender unicorn was committed to the idea, she gave a reassuring smile to Twilight and trotted over by Rarity to inspect the walls with her. Twilight levitated the apple over to Spike, who had been waiting the entire time. “Alright, Spike, Send this through, and try your best to aim this outward, toward the cube, and not towards the princess.” Spike gave Twilight a dirty look. “You know I can’t aim this, Twilight, and even if I could, it’s been such a long time since I've done it.” With that, the purple dragon breathed his green fire on it. The apple became mist, and floated through the cube to Princess Luna. When it reappeared, the apple was floating, stem pointed straight at the wall of the cube and awy from the princess. “Yes!” Twilight exclaimed, rearing up in excitement. Now that the spell was in the right plac, Twilight got out her last apple. She cast another bit of anti-magic on it, the catalyst for the spell, and prepared to send it to Spike. “Dear, what I don’t get, is how you’re casting this anti-magic.” Twilight started, turning around to see Rarity looking at her. “The way I see it, we Unicorns are magic. That should mean that we’re unable to perform anti-magic.” Twilight nodded. “Normally, this is true. But with a special method, I can manipulate it. See, there’s a fundamental rule of the universe that must always be followed – every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Every bit of magic we perform creates the exact same amount of anti-magic. But, since for some reason our world is filled with a huge amount of magic and a negligible amount of anti-magic, that anti bit fizzes out before it’s noticed.” Rarity nodded, motioning for Twilight to continue. Twilight held the apple up for Rarity to see. “What I did with this apple is that I spelled the skin of the apple with the magic version of the catalyst of the spell I placed in the Stasis cube. However, I spelled it so that the energy from the magic is pushing at the skin… from the inside. That meant that the anti-magic formed was pushed into the core of the apple, away from the regular magic. The core of the apple is imbued with the anti-magic, and the skin is charged with regular magic, keeping the anti inside.” “That’s… awful convoluted, Twilight. Even for you.” Twilight chuckled. “That’s the part where you say ‘no offense.’ But I know what you mean. It took me forever to even grasp the concept, and even longer to explain it to Princess Celestia, who simply didn’t have time to investigate it. Basically, imagine the apple as that cube there. The shell is the magic, and the anti-magic is floating around inside, not touching the edges, like Princess Luna. When it’s in proximity of the anti-magic burst, I’ll send in a catalyst to undo the binding of the anti-magic catalyst so the anti-magic burst can activate safely. It’s extremely important to do things like this the long way. It’s much safer. I don’t want to risk Princess Luna getting a huge touch of anti-magic just as she’s free of that thing.” Rarity nodded, but still looked slightly confused. “I’ll leave you to it, then.” Twilight turned around and gave the apple to Spike. Like before, the apple was transported inside. It appeared next to the other two, trapped in some strange stasis. “Now,” Twilight muttered to herself, “For the final part.” Twilight took a fruit out of her dwindling supply – a banana, she noted. She cast the spell on it so the anti-magic catalyst would be released when it was transported inside the cube. “Twilight,” she heard Rarity say. Suppressing a groan, she turned to the white mare. She smiled, encouraging the unicorn to speak her mind. “How did Spike transport the first apple in, then? Wouldn’t his magic have touched the anti-magic and disabled both?” Twilight smiled. “A good question. Actually, Spike’s teleporting ability with his fire isn’t magic – it’s Chaos.” Rarity gasped. “Chaos? Like what Discord did?” Twilight nodded. “Dragon magic isn’t magic – it’s Chaos ability. They have it on a much smaller scale than Discord, but they have it nonetheless. Their fire, their ability to fly on their insufficient wings, and their immunity to heat altogether – it’s all natural Chaos. So, because Spike’s transportation ability is Chaos, it’s unaffected by anti-magic.” Rarity nodded. “Makes sense. Okay.” Twilight levitated the banana over to Spike, who stared at it. “You okay, buddy?” He shook his head, apparently breaking out of a daze or something. “Yeah, I’m fine. Multiple times of this really tires me out.” Twilight smiled, understanding. “You’ll get a nice rest as soon as we’re done here. You deserve it.” Spike nodded and bathed the banana in his special fire. The fruit reappeared inside the cube, and for a moment, seemed content to sit inside and do nothing. A moment later, however, the banana exploded into a little puff of ash. At this, the apple next to it had its skin simply vaporize. The insides of the said apple turned black as night, and then seemed to implode. The remnants of it floated quickly over to the first apple Twilight had sent in, and wrapped around its stem. That apple suddenly flashed white, and a beam of dark energy shot out from the stem. It struck the side of the cube, and it let out a piercing ring. All four of the occupants in the room put hooves(or hands, in Spike’s case) to their ears, trying to block the terrible noise. It went on for several moments, and then stopped as the stream of darkness from the apple ceased. Tentatively, Twilight stepped forward to check the cube. To her dismay, nothing appeared changed, except for the remnants of three fruits inside. “Come ON! Why…” She trailed off as she watched Spike approach it, staring at on spot. Twilight followed the dragon’s gaze, and her eyes widened as she saw what he was looking at. A crack. “Woohoo!” Twilight yelled, prancing around. A crack! She’d – “Ope, better get to it before it repairs itself or something.” Unsure, Twilight stared at the crack. She tossed her mane. “Whatever.” She turned around and bucked the crack as hard as she possibly could. What greeted her was a glorious sound. She turned around to see the crack growing larger and larger. “Uh, might want to step back, everypony.” Rarity, Redheart, Twilight and Spike fell back behind a couple pillars as the cube continued to crack more. Finally, when the entire thing was spiderwebbed with the thin lines, it broke into countless pieces with an earsplitting ring. Wincing, Twilight moved forward, her companions close behind her. Princess Luna and the other objects that had been inside of the cube had fallen to the ground. “Princess,” Twilight called. No answer. She trotted forward, and put her hoof on the princess and pushed. “Princess Luna?” Under Twilight’s prodding, the alicorn groaned. “Princess!” Twilight was almost shouting now. Twilight’s companions crowded close, watching as the princess slowly came awake. They all watched excitedly as an eye fluttered open, and looked around. “What… what is going on?” “Princess!” Unable to help herself, Twilight threw herself on the alicorn, giving her a squeezing hug. “Twilight Sparkle? What are you doing here?” Realizing that she was hugging the princess instead of conversing, Twilight stood awkwardly as she and the others gave the alicorn room to stand. “I was going to ask you the same thing, Princess.” Luna looked around, taking in her surroundings. She looked at the single unblemished apple by her, and raised an eyebrow. “Tell me, how did you find me?” Twilight looked away. “We honestly didn’t expect to, Princess. We’re… we’re actually running away from something.” Luna was about to ask Twilight what she could possibly be running from, but saw the pained expression on the mare’s face. Instead, she tried another topic. “How did you destroy the stasis chamber? My sister insisted that no magic could possibly be strong enough to destroy it.” Twilight grinned at that. “Well, we really didn’t use much magic.” “We?” Rarity asked, giving Twilight a look. “Dear, it was all you. I believe we talked about the modesty thing.” Twilight gave Rarity a smile. “Well, what I did was I used magic and Spike’s transportation Chaos to smuggle some anti-magic into the cube, and shattered it from the inside.” Luna considered this, staring at Twilight. “Anti-magic? That is what Celestia had you study before… that is the last thing she had you study, correct?” Twilight nodded. “Yes. I’m not sure why. I-“ Twilight was cut off by a loud banging at the other side of the room. “The ERN must be trying to get in. I’ll see what I can do,” Rarity said, and sped off towards the circular rock that blocked their exit. “ERN?” the princess asked. Twilight looked uncomfortable. “Equestrian Royal Navy.” Luna raised an eyebrow. “Since when does Equestria have an active Navy? Our coast barely stretches three or four miles.” Twilight opened her mouth, and closed it, unsure how to respond. How to explain that everything the princess knew was gone? That a whole different world was out there? “Princess… I’m not sure how to explain this well, but after you and Celestia disappeared, we tracked rising sea levels. About a year after you were gone, a great flood came and demolished everything. Everything was gone. All we had left were a few dozen areas that were high enough in elevation to become islands.” “What you are saying cannot possibly be true.” “Why is that, Princess?” Luna shook her head, an extremely worried look in her eyes. “Because. The reason I was in that stasis area was to prevent that said event.”