//------------------------------// // Through the MIRoR Looking Glass // Story: Dead Space: Valor in Laughter // by Kishin //------------------------------// A/N: If this seems too long, or distracting from the main plot, bear with me. I've got to start off the "pony" element for this story. It basically explains how Pinkie got into this mess. So I hope you guys understand! So many stars. There are SOOOOO many! You can't even see them as clear as they are at night. Princess Luna is nice and all, but....wow. I can't even count how many there are! There's one, two, three, kumquat, twenty-seven- "Pinkie!" I wonder if I could touch one of them? Maybe if I can, I'll get to throw a party on one! "Pinkie!" I'll be the first mare to throw a party on a sun! Ooooooh, I wonder if I'll get to bring my friends? "Pinkie, get away from there!" A mint-green blur knocked Pinkie Pie out of her trance and dragged her away from the wide platform. "Oh hey Lyra! What are you doing here?" Pinkie innocently asked. "Pinkie, you know FULL well, why we're here! Because of THAT!" The unicorn pointed at the leviathan platform supporting an arching gate (which was giving an eerie image of an empty night filled with stars, and even stranger, a lone planetary sphere.) with an urgent hoof. "It's dangerously unstable on that platform right now! At ANY moment, the event horizon in the MIRoR could collapse and leave behind a vacuum that could implode half of Equestria. Even one little touch currently applied without the any sort of magical shielding could make the whole laboratory go, well, to put things in your terms, KABLOOOEY!" Lyra nervously added, "Pinkie? You want to go KABLOOEY?" "Well....if-" "PINKIE PIE!!!" "Ok, ok fine. I won't go near it anymore. Cross my heart and hope to-" Lyra blocked Pinkie's usual recited spiel with a forceful hoof. "Pinkie," Lyra sighed and began to push Pinkie away from the massive contraption, towards the security bulkhead which Pinkie had somehow compromised. "Just do your job. You're suppose to be on the lookout for anything wierd with your Pinkie Senses, remember?" "B-b-but, the view in that wierd portal thingamajig is SO amazing! Is that REALLY how the other side of the universe is? Are there REALLY aliens over there?" Lyra's anger subsided for a moment as she pulled Pinkie's tail through the safety bulkhead and towards the way to Observation Center. She said, "I know, Pinkie. Imagine what we'll find out there! The Princesses are going to be pleased at the discovery of non-magical intelligent beings that have far exceeded our own. They even made giant ships that can travel into outer space and fly faster than light! It's incredible that they've even colonized other worlds! "How can you travel faster than light? And is it REALLY how outer space looks like? And if there is outer space, is there an inside space, too? And if-" Pinkie's mouth was obstructed by Lyra's hoof again. Lyra's annoyance returned. Why didn't we just hire that Freemane stallion instead? Sure, Pinkie is one of the Elemants of Harmony, but nothing says "we have a better Laboratory than you do" than a fresh-off-the-block intern with a nice, shiny degree from Manehattan Institute of Technology. Oh well. Too late to regret funding investment now. Lyra, once in front of the door of the observation center filled with eager scientists awaiting a debriefing from their formerly considered delusional scientific colleague (Hah! Eat it! Humans DO exist!), whispered with a voice laced with both excitement for progress, and fearful consideration of what Pinkie might do to hinder aforementioned progress, "Pinkie, remember your promise! Please, don't do anything silly during my speech." The pink earth mare snapped into attention and gave a salute, "You can count on me!" But as soon as Lyra entered the doorway, Pinkie Pie collapsed on the floor with laughter. It's a physical impossibility for Pinkie Pie to stay serious for more than a split second, even if her life depended on it.... 0700 hours Canterlot Time The whispering and mumbles among the small crowd settled down once Lyra stumbled in the dark, as all the windows were closed off from outside light by shutters and the lights were switched off inside the room, to an improvised podium with a microphone next to a projector on a stand. "Hello? Can everypony here me? Excellent, let us begin." She activated the projector with her magic and continued with her speech. A light penetrated the darkened room, and soon flashed a single image onto the screen next to Lyra of a outline of a bipedial creature. "Let's start off with our basic history. Ever since the dawn of time, Princess Celestia and Luna have fended off chaotic Discord and maintained a form of order in our world. They are able to harness the sheer power of the sun, moon, and stars, yet they could never seem to extend their powers beyond our planet. As you've all learned in the most basic of education, the one-of-a-kind leylines that course through this planet's atmosphere and tectonic plates are essential to how we've evolved and developed magic and how the Royal Sister have come to have such power. Beyond, however, the Sisters were not able to extend their influence, thus leaving the rest of the universe under the care of Discord." Lyra paused for a breath and continued, "Thousands of years later, after Nightmare Moon and Discord's second capture, the Princesses decided to give us a very generous research grant in order to open up lines of communication to the "outside". I'm sure all of you agree that it is not our way to ignore the suffering of an entire universe, while we live in bliss. So, with the MIRoR (Mass Intelligence Resonance for Receptiveness) Project, we've been able to collect information with basic, yet forcefully prolonged, analysis spells that rebound back to MIRoR. And what MIRoR found was astounding. A sentient species." She clicked the next image, an image of a planet. "In the alien's most common langauge, something pronounced "English", which has a syntax disturbingly similar to Equestrian, this planet is called 'Earth'." Few chuckles echoed in the room. "Yes. Not the most ingenious of names, but at least they gave it one (unlike us). This is the most populated of all the other planets they inhabit. And yes, they HAVE colonized other planets." The projector clicked onto the next image of a gigantic construct in orbit around a different planet. Unlike 'Earth' the celestial object had a misty, sunset orange surface and multiple consecutive rings bound around the planet. The construct contained massive skyscrapers and ports extending from the urban monstrosity, and was surrounded by smaller machines leaving behind a blazing trail of pure white. "This isn't science fiction, people. According to reports, this 'city' is named Titan Station, one of the earliest artificially-constructed satellites around planetary orbit meant for their species' inhabitance. Those objects around it are ships. Not your average sailboats, but a kilometer long, 10 billion ton metal vessels that are capable of traveling in a speed faster than light, which is probably the reason why these creatures have been able to colonize worlds light-years away from their planet of origin." Lyra gave a satisfactory grin of what was to come. "And the name of these aliens? Humans. Yes, they ARE real. I'm not going to go off on a tirade how I was right all these years, that's not what I'm here to do. MIRoR was not only designed for information gathering, but also teleportation." She gestured to a figure in the dark that waved back, and said, "That is Doctor Hooves. He has the most current experience with the teleportation scientific field, and has given his expertise to help build MIRoR. And he gladly volunteered to lead the first team into MIRoR's arch. He'll explain to you all everything there is to MIRoR, from its power source to how its going to locate our target teleportation zone. But in the meantime, our guests are waiting on the other side." 0815 hours Canterlot Time "Are you sure about this?" Lyra questioned on the intercom. She was watching in anticipation of the scene below. Dr. Whooves responded, "Of course I am. I'm a doctor, you know. The mere fact that I'm down here...." "Fine. No turning back now," Lyra admitted. "Beginning the sequence. It's show time." The light's dimmed as the MIRoR began its start-up procedure. The lab's magical/electrical mainframe was having trouble keeping up with the power demand. And soon, Lyra saw the familiar image of the star-embedded space in the MIRoR arch. The target vessel for teleportation was predicted to be available in a few moments. Doctor Whooves, across from the portal arch, said, "Alright. As soon as one of their ships is readying for a light-speed jump, MIRoR tugs in some of the energy signature of the ship and BAM! We get teleported towards the signature as the magical ebb and flow rebounds across space and time. After we arrive and decideto take our leave, we'll power an exit portal with their fusion-powered engines onboard. Easy enough to understand so-" Lyra couldn't hear the rest of the Doctor's speech, as a hyperactive voice rang out next to her and echoed in the room, "TWITCHY TWITCH!" Lyra began to look around for the source of the noise, but expecting the randomness of Pinkie Pie, she stopped herself....until Pinkie popped into view on the MIRoR platform. It looked like she was trying to stop Doctor Whooves from entering the arch. Lyra screamed thorough the intercom as she watched, "Pinkie Pie! Get out of there!" "But I got a doozy this time, I swear! I think that whatever is outside that thingamajig, is something really wierd!" During Pinkie Pie's response, the image of an endless night sky inside the arch of MIRoR started to distort and quiver. The agitated portrait of alien stars from an unfamiliar portion of the universe inside the arch seemed to blur and swirl slowly into the center, leaving pure trails of light circling around the once pristine blackness of space. The event horizon contained within MIRoR's arch began to shrink as the intensity of the light in the portal visibly became brighter in cohesion. Doctor Whooves urged the pink pony in front of him, "Miss Pie, I strongly suggest that you move away from MIRoR's range of effect. You are in direct exposure of it's magical pull." Pinkie Pie reassured, "Don't worry. The author won't let anything bad happen to me, or else his readers will start to post really mean comments about him. And they'll send him pictures through the mail of his dog after they baked it in an oven, and impaled effegies of him on fire. And maybe even some racial slurs!" "Wha-" "But it's totally fine! See?" Pinkie pointed a playful hoof at the pinprick of light now formed within the MIRoR. Doctor Whooves struggled to get her away from the arch, but she dodged his every move. He warned, "Pinkie, this isn't a game. MIRoR is currently in its final preparational stages. If you don't move, you'll end up teleported to whatever you're trying to warn us about." "I did what now? I don't remember saying anything bad was gonna happen." "Wait, what? You said you got a doozy!" "When did that happen?" "You... GRRRR. Just get away before-" The Doctor was too late. Behind Pinkie Pie, the pinprick of light in MIRoR had exponentially exploded. The resulting waves mushroomed and engulfed everything in range, including Pinkie Pie. Doctor Whooves, thanks to Pinkie Pie's early warning, was a safe enough distance away from the tempest of light and billowing ripples of magic. As abruptly as it occurred, the engulfing blast absorbed any object it found in contact with back into MIRoR's portal, teleporting them to who knows where. The event only lasted for a split-second, and considering the massive outward eruption from the portal arch, it was a bit anticlimatic. Not only was the event theatrically disappointing, but the power mainframe for the lab blew out from the sudden surge of magical energy, leaving the MIRoR itself, all computers, sensors, and lights in the underground levels of the laboratory non-functional and as useless as paper weights, and Pinkie Pie was nowhere to be seen. The Doctor cried out, "Lyra! Get Princess Celestia! We might a problem in our hooves."