//------------------------------// // 7. Magical Incident // Story: Imperatives // by Sharp Quill //------------------------------// The crystal-studded collar, there on a table. One of the crystals had been removed and was currently being X-rayed. Meg knew they would discover how spells were encoded in the crystalline matrix, and from there on to encoding new crystals with spells. All done without supervision by trained unicorns. What could go wrong? She already knew the answer. That collar had once adorned her Pinkie Pie doll, the one that started it all. She got that doll back once the magic leak had been closed—sans the collar. No one could explain what had happened to it, not that anyone had really cared; neither had Twilight returned the GPS tracker that the FBI had put on her car. So how did they get that collar from the Feds? A rhetorical question, naturally. She still had that priceless autographed doll, protected by a preservation spell. Her office computer had been placed onto an adjacent table. The cables had just been plugged in and they were turning it on. One of them waved her over, demanding, “Your password.” Their mood had really soured when Jackson and the others had failed to return. They still didn’t know what had happened, though they speculated plenty. Maybe she was supposed to tell them? She’d give it a little more time. But first the password. She couldn’t make it too easy. But “crack” she eventually would. What she had put onto that computer needed to get into their hands, for it had gotten into their hands. It was small consolation that everything they would do with this knowledge, they would do of their own free will. And hubris. If only they’d had the decency to do it in the middle of nowhere. In utter disbelief Twilight trotted to the portal. There was no way anypony would’ve used that portal control room to create this, and yet here it was. Stopping at the boundary, she peered about. Not much could be seen under Luna’s moon, not with Earth’s sun shining through the openings behind her. Samantha, mouth agape, stood beside her. “Is that what I think it is?” Twilight fumed. “Equestria? Yes.” Kyle stood behind her. “Any reason we can’t go through? I, uh, can’t help but notice that you haven’t.” Yearling joined the party. “We don’t know where that is. There might be dangerous creatures out there.” “Uh, what stops those creatures from coming here?” Mike asked. He was pointing the camera at the portal. Yearling—and Mike—had a point. At the very least she needed to verify there was no imminent danger. But she also needed to return to her castle, so she could send a message to Celestia and have this portal closed. “Should I go down and contact the security forces?” Reubens asked. They had to be informed—if that portal couldn’t be closed real fast. “Give me a minute to see what we’re up against.” Twilight stepped through, ready to cast defensive magic. She stepped onto grass and kept walking. As her eyes adjusted, she could see that the grass continued until it reached a forest. It seemed safe enough—indeed, the grass felt manicured—but she still didn’t have a clue where she was. The portal control room would tell her, of course, if only she was there. Twilight looked up at the night sky and spotted the unusually bright star. If there had been any doubt, that confirmed this was Equestria’s realm. Luna was still keeping it as close as possible, so that she, Steve, and Arcane Scroll along with some of his grad students could study it. I really ought to find out what they’ve discovered so far. But there were so many demands on her time. She turned around to go back and froze. In the dim moonlight she could see behind the portal a wall. A tall wall that extended far in both directions. There was a huge gate, a gate that when open was huge enough to pass a hydra. And the signage that spanned that gate in an arc… “DISCORD!” Most waiting on the other side of the portal exchanged confused looks, but Twilight only had eyes for the asymmetric being who emerged from behind the portal. “Glorious, isn’t it? Still a work-in-progress, naturally.” Twilight stomped towards the draconequus. “Do you have any idea how much trouble this portal is about to cause us?” “Trouble? Nonsense. I’m doing you a big favor! Help you kill two birds with one stone, as humans like to say. Go on your trip with ‘Andy’ and check out my theme park.” “I’ll just stay on this side of the portal,” Andy called out from the other side. “A wise choice,” Discord declared. “But the rest of you are welcome!” He waved at them. The camera was glued to him. “And what about everyone else?” Twilight demanded. “That cave is open to the public!” “They’re welcome too! Think of the boom to the Greek economy.” Paw to muzzle he theatrically whispered, “I hear they could use the help.” The others had worked up the courage to come through the portal; only Andy and the Secret Service agents remained on the other side. The camera was still on her and Discord. Mike was cleverly taking in the surroundings by pivoting around them. How do I deal with this? Why couldn’t he be more patient? She had to try reasoning with him, even as she knew from painful experience how that would turn out. “It’s nighttime,” she began. “It will always be night here when their sun is shining there. You can’t expect humans to fully appreciate in the dark what you’ve created here.” Discord stroked his goatee. “You may have a point.” Her hopes rose, against her better judgement. He snapped his talons. “I’ve got it! I’ll just raise the Sun!” He raised his claw high— “NO!” Discord sighed, dropping his claw. “Yes, you’re right. Celestia is rather possessive of that orb.” I have to do better. “Shouldn’t the portal be inside those walls? You were supposed to ensure that humans couldn’t go into Equestria proper.” “Oh, those walls? They’re just for show. What’s the point of an entrance if everypony bypasses it?” He pointed at Kyle, who had wandered to the edge of the forest. “The real security? See what happens when he tries leaving the grass.” Twilight lost no time in teleporting over to the director, startling him. Not wasting time on an explanation, she teleported him back to the portal. She returned to Discord. “We’ll talk about your security measures later.” He sighed, shaking his head. “I’m hurt. You act like there’s a monster out there, hiding amongst the trees, ready to eat stragglers.” Maybe she should trust him, even a little, by now? Permanently harming his “playthings” never was his style. “For your information,” he continued, “it’s just a fun little barrier. You don’t even feel anything. All it does is reverse your direction. The faster you run into it, the faster you’ll run away from it.” Twilight was starting to feel rather foolish. “And if you dig under it or somehow go over it?” “Figure out a way to get past it?” Twilight nodded. There wouldn’t be, of course; that is what she expected to hear, along with no small amount of pride.” “Well, in that case, the timberwolves will get you.” He looked away for a moment in thought. “Perhaps I should put up warning signs to that effect?” Now she felt foolish for feeling foolish. “Yes, I’d strongly recommend that.” This wasn’t getting her anywhere. The signage above the entrance mocked her: Discordland: The Discordiant Place in the Multiverse. She couldn’t even find the will to point out that “discordiant" was not a word; it somehow felt appropriate. Yearling had approached them, the only one with the nerve to do so. “Would I be correct in saying that you’d like as many humans to visit as possible?” “You always did have a good head for business on your withers,” Discord conceded. “Then this portal simply won’t do. It’s too small. You can’t even make it bigger, because it’s inside a small cave. And even if you could, the cave isn’t that easy to get to. And as Twilight mentioned, to spend all day here, they’d have to stay up all night there. You’ll never fill this place up with humans using this portal.” Discord sagged. “You’ve made your point. The portal will be gone in a few minutes.” He vanished. “You heard him!” Twilight shouted. “Back through the portal, now.” Resuming a normal voice, she said to Yearling, “I’m envious. I’ve only seen Fluttershy manage him that well.” The pegasus shrugged. “Don’t know what to say.” The two mares began walking to the portal. It still bugged Twilight. Yearling had used facts combined with solid logic—but so had she. Did Yearling use better facts and logic? But facts and logic were usually ineffective with Discord; he was too good at twisting arguments to his favor. But he didn’t even try with Yearling’s argument. Could he be treating me differently than how he treats others? Why? What would that mean? The others had returned to the cave by the time Twilight and Yearling reached the portal. No sooner had they passed through it than it closed, once again revealing the “throat” formation. Reubens and Fowler were still there. “Did you inform them?” Twilight asked. “No,” Reubens said. “We could hear your conversation with Discord, so we waited to see how it went.” “We could inform them anyway,” Fowler added. Twilight sighed. “No, it would only complicate matters for no benefit.” “That’s what we figured,” Ruebens said. “No benefit?” Andy asked. “I’m not so sure—oh, not to us.” He nodded at the throat of the cave. “I see what you mean,” Reubens said. “Informing the security forces of a portal may cause chaos.” “Yes,” Andy confirmed. “Fortunately for us his options for messing with this world are limited.” Is that what motivated this? He always had shown an interest in humans. But then why back down so readily? It just didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Would they ever understand what made Discord tick? Kyle approached her, jolting Twilight out of her thoughts. “Do you think it’d be possible for us to do a documentary on this ‘Discordland?’ You know, get a look behind the scenes, cover the grand opening, stuff like that.” “Maybe? I mean, I could ask him, but you do know what you’d be getting yourself into.” “Yeah,” Mike said. “Maybe you should sleep on it first.” Conflicting emotions played over Kyle’s face. “Maybe I should.” Moondancer leafed through the atlas. It didn’t take long for her to locate the desired page. “Here,” she said, her hoof touching the page. “Northeastern edge of the Everfree. No nearby towns or settlements.” Meg had looked up the other set of coordinates on her phone. “And the other end in Athens, somewhere in the Acropolis. A major tourist attraction. That portal will be noticed.” Of the mares present, only she had noticed that Equestria used the same latitude/longitude system used by humans. Because of course they did. “Humans in the Everfree.” Sunset sighed. “We need to inform the princesses. Like, right now.” “It would be nice to know how that portal got created,” Moondancer said. “The princesses will ask.” “But we don’t know, and we’re not going to.” Meg came to a decision. “I’ll do it. I’m meeting with Luna soon anyway.” She got out her phone. “Could one of you magically project an arrow on the map?” “I can,” Sunset said, and did so. Meg snapped a photo. “I guess I should get going.” After departing the Royal Library, she made her way through the palace, keeping an eye out for Celestia in case she crossed paths with her. But uncrossed their paths had remained when she finally arrived at the private tea room. The door was closed, of course, nor could she hear anything from inside the room, no matter how she adjusted her ears, as to be expected. She hesitated, for she was early. This is too important. Furthermore, it concerned the other occupant of the room. She knocked. The door glowed in the color of Luna’s magic and opened. Meg entered. “Sorry for being early, but something has happened that both of you need to know.” President Serrell raised an eyebrow. “Oh? This ought to be good.” “Another portal has been created. We can’t shut it down, get ‘permission denied’ when we try. It goes from the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, to the northeastern edge of the Everfree Forest. We need to send the Royal Guard there immediately to stop people from coming through and getting, well, killed.” Luna held up a hoof. “You may relax, Meg. The portal has been closed.” “You already knew about it?” she asked as she made her way to the table. “Twilight was there and she went through it. It leads to Discord’s new theme park. It is he who created the portal.” “Agents Reubens and Fowler were there too. They reported back to me, and I of course passed it on to Luna. Needless to say, my life would have gotten a lot more ‘interesting’ if that portal hadn’t been shut down.” “But none of us knew the precise location of this ‘park’ within Equestria. It is you who has uncovered that information.” Meg took a seat, still digesting what she just heard. “Discord can create a portal we don’t have the permission to close.” Luna cocked her head. “That does sound disquieting.” “And he knows how to operate the simulated computer console—no, that’s an assumption, maybe he can bypass the simulation—oh, I don’t even know what that means.” What, exactly, was the nature of the simulation? No one knew. All she knew was that she had not imagined any kind of system security, and if she had she would’ve given herself root access. “We may safely assume Discord’s understanding of that realm is far greater than ours.” “It certainly exceeds mine,” Meg grumbled. She got up. “I guess I should come back when I’m supposed to be here.” Serrell signaled her to sit down. “Since you’re here, let’s discuss your upcoming testimony.” Meg sat down again. “Well, Rarity has finished her work on my dress. She, uh, assures me that it will survive a leash on my neck. I don’t know what she did, it looks pretty much the same to me, but I have no reason to doubt her. It could be something magical.” “So long as it looks appropriate.” Luna looked up in recollection. “Meg wore it to the Grand Galloping Gala. It was exquisite. You will not be disappointed.” “The Gala, eh? Can’t wait to see it myself.” “Wait a sec.” Meg got out her phone. “I have a picture.” She navigated to the picture in question, then hoofed the phone over to the president. Serrell shook his head in wonder. “I still can’t believe you can do that with hooves.” Meg shrugged. “I just… do. It helps not to think about it, quite honestly. Fingers are still better.” He shook his head again. “I’ll take your word for it.” He looked down at the phone. The dress was on a ponnequin in Rarity’s workshop. He let out a whistle. “That will set tongues wagging, no question about it.” “That’ll make Rarity very happy,” Meg said. “She wouldn’t be against taking on human clients someday, maybe even opening a shop in the ‘human realm,’ as she puts it.” Serrell let out a sigh. “If only that day could be sooner rather than later.” He gave the phone back to Meg. “Perhaps Discord has the right idea, with this theme park of his?” Luna offered. “It’s hard to say. The devil’s in the details. You’ve had a lot of time with him, haven’t you, Meg?” “Not as much as Twilight, and certainly not as much as Fluttershy.” “Enough to form an opinion about his motives?” Meg got up and walked over the panoramic windows, staring out at the sky. “It’s hard to say. I think he’s trying, but he doesn’t get the desired results, not often enough anyway. I mean, just consider this impromptu portal. His heart may have been in the right place, but the execution left a lot to be desired.” “Indeed.” Serrell got up himself, stretched, and joined Meg at the window. “Fortunately, Yearling was there to persuade him. Twilight wasn’t having much luck.” “Oh? Guess we should consider ourselves lucky she went along.” Luna joined them at the window. “It bought us some time, but it is clear we need to find a way to make this park work. Discord has his heart set on this.” “Well, for starters, we need a proper terminus for that portal,” Meg said. “One with plenty of parking.” “And in the Equestrian time zone,” Serrell added, “though I suppose anywhere in North America would be close enough.” “Another of those unexplained coincidences,” Meg muttered. “A mystery for another time,” Serrell remarked. “Sorry. I shouldn’t let it get to me like that.” Easier said than done, unfortunately. Over the croplands outside Ponyville, pegasi were assembling rain clouds. Serrell was studying them. “I wonder what it’d take to have weather management in our world.” He looked down at Meg beside him. “It is possible, right?” “I think so. I know standing on clouds work. Probably need a magic field that encompasses all the clouds, I’m guessing.” “Yeah, that could be a challenge.” He gazed some more at the weather pegasi at work. “Could we arrange for an experiment, to see if it could be done?” “I’ll pay Rainbow Dash a visit before dawn. I suspect she’ll be up to the challenge.” “Before dawn? Wouldn’t she be a—ah, right. You really do that? Visit dreams?” “She sure does,” Meg said. “Took care of a nasty nightmare of mine, too.” “That… must have been an interesting experience.” “It makes the dream lucid, and I can remember it as well as if I’d been awake, so yeah—and that was one strange dream. Tartarus, Celestia, The Tree of Harmony, Jackson and the other human prisoners, and even the Cutie Mark Crusaders.” Serrell shook his head. “Can’t imagine how those all could fit together.” “It seemed to make sense at the time.” “Speaking of which,” Luna said, “I’m glad that you finally figured out how you broke Tirek out of Tartarus. My sister is quite pleased with you.” “For making her deal with those prison officials? I was happy to get out of there before their attention could focus on me.” Luna cocked her head. “She said it was… tiring. But their concerns are also our concerns; it is not in our interest for others to do what you will do… have done.” “I’m staying out of this one,” Serrell said. “Don’t need to know how it was done, don’t want to know. I’m just glad all these time loops seem mostly an Equestrian problem.” Meg turned around and walked back to the table. “Just because you don’t know about a time loop doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. There was a time when none of us knew about any time loops anywhere; they still existed.” “Point taken.” He headed back to the table himself. “It’s hard to wrap my mind around.” “It’s no fun living it either.” Serrell retook his seat, the one of human design. “Any more thoughts or concerns about your upcoming testimony?” “Not really.” A thought came to her. “Did you know Lauren Faust sought me out?” Would that have any relevance to her testimony? Seemed unlikely… Lauren Faust?” Luna asked. “Who’s she?” “Alleged creator of your world,” Serrell replied first to the princess. “No, and I’m surprised quite frankly.” He leaned back in his chair. “She wanted to stay out of this mess, according to the reports. Couldn’t believe it was happening anyway. What did she want?” “I’d say those reports are out of date. She wanted to see proof with her own eyes. Wanted to know why Twilight seemed to be avoiding her. Long story short, Twilight agreed to meet her and gave her a quick visit to Canterlot.” Serrell contemplated that, tapping his fingers together. “Did she happen to offer insight into how her cartoon matched reality?” “Nope, she’s as clueless as the rest of us. Said she wasn’t a god, which was why she refused to believe it in the first place.” He rubbed his eyes. “Doesn’t sound like it changes anything. Will there be future contact between Lauren and Twilight?” “Probably. It looks like I’d be the intermediary.” “Let me know if anything develops.” Several thousand years old, and the Parthenon was looking every day of it. Twilight could not help but wonder how the Castle of the Two Sisters managed to remain in such relatively good shape. Possibly because it suffered merely benign neglect? Samantha had provided running commentary of its history as they approached it—mostly for the camera, but Twilight had paid attention, noting how one civilization’s architectural triumph got successively repurposed by later civilizations who cared little for the motivations that drove the original creation, and had anyway long since lost the ability to maintain and repair. “Along the top,” Samantha continued, “on all sides, ran exquisite statues and friezes. Many did not survive to the present day, and most of those that did had been removed and shipped to museums in other countries. The few that remained suffered damage from modern air pollution, and to save them had to be taken down; those are in the museum nearby. “As you can see from the scaffolding and the crane, restoration is in progress. Started over a quarter century ago, the work will not be finished anytime soon. The classical Athenians took only nine years to build it, mining over a hundred thousand tons of Pentelic marble from a quarry ten miles away. Decorations took another six years. All without the aid of modern technology, such as that crane. “The sculptures honored the Greek gods, Athena most of all; other mythological beings were also depicted.” The professor turned to Andy. “Including centaurs, as it happens.” That caught Twilight’s attention. The portal had been nearby, after all. Andy was intrigued as well. “As is well known by now, I never returned after becoming one myself, nor am I aware of any other centaur who had gone through the portal or had ever encountered a human.” He smiled. “Of course, the portal had closed after me. If humans and centaurs had ever mixed, it must have been before my time.” “Have you heard of Pirithous, king of the Lapiths?” He searched his memories. “Can’t say that I have.” “He was friends with Theseus, the founder and king of Athens?” He shook his head. “He was unknown in the Athens I had visited.” “He’s not known to have actually existed,” she conceded. “But then, neither were you and yet here you are.” Andy shrugged. “Don’t know what to say.” “Perhaps he was born after your alleged murder? He was said to have built a palace on this hill, but you have said there was nothing here.” “Perhaps,” he conceded. “How were these centaurs depicted? I assume there’s a connection to this Pirithous.” “Yes,” she confirmed. “According to the myth, he was getting married and the centaurs were invited to the wedding. They weren’t used to wine, so they got drunk and tried to abduct the bride and other Lapithan woman. Battle ensued and Theseus, a guest at the wedding, came to Pirithous’s aid. The centaurs were defeated and expelled.” Andy guffawed. “Centaurs can no more get drunk than horses. Both rapidly break down alcohol. It was one of the pleasures denied to me, and believe me I tried.” Humans really have that much trouble with alcohol? Twilight had never been in the presence of a drunk human. If Andy had gotten drunk after his return, he had done it in private. Samantha directed a query at Twilight. “And ponies?” The camera targeted the pony. “It takes dedication, and it doesn’t last long.” “Huh. Well… sometimes a myth is just a myth.” The Secret Service agents had been staying back, content to take in the sights, but Twilight noticed that Reubens was talking on his phone. Fowler was close by, apparently interested in the conversation. Neither looked particularly happy. The phone call ended. All business, Agent Reubens strode towards her. That conversation evidently concerned herself, and she doubted it was good news. The others had taken notice. Kyle was not pleased. “We’re trying to shoot a documentary here.” Reubens ignored him, stopping in front of Twilight. “The president is asking for your assistance, Your Highness. There is what we assume to be of magical origin an ongoing incident in the small Californian town of Tracy.”