//------------------------------// // Chapter 024: Parallels // Story: Starcraft: Queen and Country // by Wanderer D //------------------------------// Starcraft: Queen and Country By Wanderer D Chapter 024: Parallels Equestria Several Months Ago█ The School of Friendship had held the funeral for Sweetie Belle and Gallus after a month had passed without news or headway into their location. Investigations into the unicorn that had caused the incident to happen had revealed the ugly side of the long isolation of Equestria from most other nations, and the deep roots of unfounded hatred and resentment that had fed from the most insular of fanatics to even educators and politicians. The distractions in dealing with these homegrown terrorists had not slowed Twilight down on her own personal research, but despite months of experiments, she didn't have any proof of anything other than the fact that a bomb had gone off and taken with it three lives, two of which were very dear to her, her friends, and students. Trixie had taken Gallus' disappearance particularly hard. Having felt personally connected to the griffon from the moment she had defended him from Grandpa Gruff, to watching him outgrow his fears, she had been devastated. Starlight Glimmer and her had even attempted time travel, but the forces activated by the Quantum Sphere disrupted time and space so severely that they risked being caught in the energies involved and destroyed. Despite their protests, Twilight had to put her hoof down and forbid them from trying again… on their own. A series of experiments had ensued from that with all three brilliant mares trying to figure out how to cancel or channel those energies to their benefit. Eventually they had discovered that the Quantum Sphere had not only opened a simple teleportation, but with the added, mysterious result of the bomb, it had catapulted the energy output beyond the current reality. It had pierce time, space, dimension and conceptual thought. It was simply beyond the magical potential of their incredibly powerful group of friends and acquaintances to imitate or even approach. Sunset Shimmer and Science Twilight had been contacted to see if the technomagical approach of the human world and the magical knowledge of Equestria could pierce through this veil, but it had been fruitless. Without a starting point in their own dimension, there had been no way for them to even get past the point of theory. Between Discord, Luna and Celestia, she had figured something could eventually reveal itself, but even Discord was at a loss. His chaotic magic could only be focused to an extent, and if the three of them had been tossed across the universes opened too many possibilities for a magical solution from him. And he had tried to the point that Rarity had insisted he stop after Fluttershy had come crying to her, as he had run himself so haggard from the strain of attempts that he had almost faded out of their reality. Nocreature wanted to give up. Not Discord. Not her, not the princesses…and not the Crusaders. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo had sought out Zecora in the Everfree Forest. The shaman had used all of her might and knowledge, but the whispers of magic and the spirits she communed with had given her inconclusive results. Time had passed and the experiments had slowly died off. Mystical artifacts proved inefficient; spells limited. Imagination slowly dried away until all most of them could do was stare listlessly at the failed attempts from before. None of them had wanted to hold the funeral. But they had to, because months of desperate effort had passed already, and despite their loss, life moved on. Ocellus had steered Silverstream away from the lab with the help of Yona and Smolder to their home in the forest, where Sandbar had prepared some food. They had cut themselves for a few days, keeping the devastated hippogriff company, while also preventing her from descending into repetitive experiments. Rarity's parents had insisted that she stop too… after chasing down Daring Do and insisting to go adventuring to find random items of power to help her, she had almost been killed during such an adventure, with only the intervention of Daring and Rainbow Dash stopping her from dying in a very messy and painful way. The griffons had mourned in their own way the loss of Gallus. Grandpa Gruff hadn't been seen for weeks, with only Gabby being able to confirm the old bird was still alive, just terribly depressed, guilt-ridden and refusing company even more than usual. Once the funeral happened, the wind seemed to die under the sails of those desperate to find their friends, or at least whether they even lived still. A lot of creatures simply resigned themselves and moved on, however reluctantly. At least officially. Twilight still found her students huddled in the library from time to time, looking over texts and experiment results, and she even joined them occasionally.  Apple Bloom and Scootaloo would sometimes come by with some research paper for her to validate, and Rarity, Fluttershy and Discord would travel to undisclosed locations for 'camping' trips that, upon their return, would drag with them an aura of displacement… as if they had been somewhere outside of the reality they were all familiar with. It had been an accident that she had been able to sense that at all, having been engrossed in another experiment of her own, and that is what had given her the idea. "Magical-aural dimensional resonance." Applejack passed her a tissue. "I didn't sneeze!" Twilight growled. "Ah thought you did," the farmer countered, "Ah don't know what that was, but it didn't sound like the Equestrian Ah learned growing up." "My dear Applejack, that leaves entire dictionaries worth of material to work with," Discord said, earning an elbow to the ribs from Rarity, while Fluttershy struggled between holding back a giggle and frowning disapprovingly. The trio had become much closer since the accident, having been working together to find any trace of Sweetie, Gallus, and Quantum. "In any case," Twilight said after clearing her throat to get their attention back, "I think the theory is sound and ties with the suggestions I've gotten from Sunset Shimmer and her friends." She used her magic to materialize a diagram she had been working on earlier. "Waaaait…" Rainbow Dash gasped, staring at it. "Is that the outline of the hoofball tactics tha—"  "It's not," Twilight interrupted. "It's a visual representation of my theory. As you all know, when I asked Sunset and the others to investigate a technological means of finding our students, they were stumped by the lack of a starting point of some kind where they could dimensionally map a potential trajectory across theoretically proven levels of reality." "Oh yeah, I remember that!" Trixie said. Then she shook her head sadly, stage-whispering to Starlight: "Poor Twilight, she's really lost it." Starlight however shook her head, focusing on the diagram. "So… you've figured out a way to provide them with that?" "Yes!" Twilight said, grinning. "It all came together when Discord, Rarity and Fluttershy returned from their last trip. I have been experimenting with dimensional wavelengths and realized that while we cannot pinpoint things from here… we can use our Equestrian wavelengths while dimensionally displaced to have a starting point to perform a search once we leave our universe. Wherever we go, we can use a tracing spell alongside some of Sunset's technology to start a proper search!" "Right." Rainbow Dash cleared her throat. "What does that mean?" "Basically we need to detect our specific type of energy from outside this universe," Starlight explained to the others. "We've been on the right track but had the wrong starting point. We start from outside with our, um, energy signature. So when we do that, we should get three results at least… one for this dimension, one for the dimension we use to perform the experiment, and finally…" "One from where Sweetie and Gallus are!" Pinkie said excitedly. "Yes!" Twilight said, grinning. Present Day, Equestria█ "She's back!" It took a moment for Twilight to get her bearings and recognize the voices around her. Discord was giving suggestions, but apparently staying out of the way. Rarity was closest, fussing over her. Trixie, Sunset, Sci-Twi, Starlight and Starswirl were arguing closer to where the magical technology machines were located. She couldn't see…. everything was hazy-white, and she panicked for a second, but then she remembered had expected that and knew her vision would return to normal in a few moments. A bit further away she could hear the nervous voices of the crusaders, Spike, and her students. Full house today at the lab. "Twilight." At the sound of Celestia's calm voice, everyone else quieted down. "Twilight, how do you feel?" Twilight gulped, took a deep, slow breath and let it out gently. "I feel… I feel okay." She used her magic slowly, checking herself, checking the flow of energy, checking for variations that would show if anything had changed, but found none… just a slight trace of the Void, as Sweetie had called it, but again, that was to be expected. In fact, it was wanted. She carefully cast a spell that activated the machine where Sunset and the others were, and the several measuring instruments in it recorded the all the relevant wavelengths—three-dimensional and four-dimensional, thaumic and radioactive—that she would need to reach that place again. And she would. But she needed to rest… and to talk to the others. She gulped, thinking back on her conversation there. On the dangers Sweetie had made her aware of, how unprepared they were for… any of it, if it ever came to their part of the universe. Slowly her eyes cleared and she was able to make out the worried faces of the others as the whole group slowly approached. "They're alive," Twilight said. "Gallus and Sweetie… they're alive." The cheer was almost deafening. Immediately voices rose again, discussing plans on how to reach out to them again. Making the system more efficient. Go pick them up…. "No!" Twilight blurted out before she controlled herself. "Twilight?" Rarity asked, surprised. "What do you mean no?" She braced herself. "There's… a lot to talk about. We can't go there, not yet. I need to talk to Sweetie again before we even consider the idea, and even if it's possible it might not be for the best." "Twilight," Princess Celestia spoke up. "What are you not telling us?" Twilight's thoughts were a jumble. She needed to think and organize them. "Quartz is dead." The room became quiet. "Gallus and Sweetie are stuck on opposite sides of a war that we can barely begin to imagine. Sweetie is…" She hesitated. "What's wrong with Sweetie?" Rarity asked, her voice low. "Tell me, Twilight." "Sweetie is no longer a pony… not exactly." "Did she turn into a h—" "No." Twilight interrupted Sunset. "There are humans there, called Terrans," she clarified, ignoring her student's confused looks. "Gallus is part of the crew of one of the Terran faction's rebellion's leader. Sweetie is now a… she called them Zerg." "Twilight—" "Enough." Celestia turned to face the others. "I understand we all want to know what happened to our friends. But we need to give Twilight some space and a moment to collect herself." "I'm sorry, Rarity," Twilight said. "Give me a few minutes. I have to go write down everything Sweetie told me. But… for what it's worth, despite her changes… she's okay, she's fine. She has friends and an army behind her to support her. I believe she's as safe as anycreature can be right now where they are." In fact, if she were attacked, it would be more likely that her enemies would be the ones in danger. She thought, keeping that to herself as Fluttershy and Discord helped Rarity over to the Crusaders to talk a little. "Twilight?" Silverstream ventured. "Gallus is fine too, he's a bit more mature now, that's all," she said with a gentle smile at her students, who looked very relieved indeed. Once she was on her hooves, she looked at everycreature in the room and rolled her shoulders with a sigh. "There's too much to tell, and it was all told to me by Sweetie, so bear in mind we're hearing one side of the story here. Let me get things organized and we'll talk." She looked at Rarity, who didn't seem to happy about having to wait, but after a moment, her friend sighed and her shoulders slumped.  Rarity gave her a tired smile. "At least I know she's alive and well." 2504, Koprulu Sector, Agria's Moon█ "I don't know if she's going to make it." Gallus and Lasarra glanced up at Nerath from their game of chess, which Gallus barely remembered how to play, but knew enough to teach the scientist the basics and soon was losing consistently against the observant—and much less impulsive—Protoss. "That is not a very encouraging thing to say," Gallus admitted, secretly thankful for the reprieve from a series of consecutive, embarrassing losses. "Weren't you very certain she would be fine just a few minutes ago?" That was one thing he had learned about Nerath: if things didn't work out immediately as she expected, she assumed failure. "Why hasn't she awakened?" the Nezarim said, pacing around the lab and gazing worriedly at Sweetie, who was now floating placidly in a tank full of liquids that, according to the Protoss, would heal whatever wounds were left. "Already the scans indicate the neural connections are working perfectly! The zerg genetics have healed so thoroughly there's not even scar tissue! Her system has accepted our adaptations! She should be up and murdering us right now!" "And that statement worries me more than your urgency at her recovery," Lasarra quipped. At first, the pair had been worried, but soon had grown to understand that Nerath, for all her skill, had little patience for medical recovery. Her work was usually done with machines and with Protoss that were at least compatible with her technology. The unknown factor of how the Zerg Queen would recover, if she would really be able to use her improvements, and the weight of just how much hinged on this working at all was making her even more stressed. "I don't like not knowing even less than you do," Gallus reminded her. "I care a lot for Sweetie Belle. But you've gone from calling absolute failure to success to failure again that I'm starting to think you should be sedated." Suddenly an alarm rang out in the lab, and both scientists were on their consoles in a second. "Her thought patterns are spiking!" Nerath cried out with joy. "She's waking up! We've done it!" Gallus would have joined her excitement, but he had been observing Sweetie as she came to. And the look of abject horror, then anger that crossed her face sobered him up very quickly. The next thing he knew, the container exploded into pieces, and Sweetie was flying at him, snarling with anger, and scythes at the ready to dismember him. End Chapter