//------------------------------// // Playing with Spacetime // Story: Forward // by Fantasmagoria //------------------------------// “Ok, this might be harder than I thought.” The books and scrolls lying around them were more than testament to that.  Twilight had thought the collection seemed formidable when she was desperately searching for a way to prevent a disaster that wasn’t even going to happen, but it seemed now that having enough time to actually read through them only made the task more daunting.  A few hours was starting to seem like a very generous estimate. Unlike the last time Twilight had been here, they weren’t just tearing through shelves with near reckless abandon, but rather reading through all the materials they took from the shelves, trying to find any hints of what they were looking for.  This wasn’t a problem a single simple spell could solve; they were going to need a lot of information to work with. “I would agree that this seemed it would be a much simpler undertaking last night.” “I know this isn’t a library, but these aren’t even alphabetized, or categorized at all!.” Luna had to try hard not to giggle at the look of consternation on her friend’s face.  If there was one thing guaranteed to offend Twilight, it was a lack of organization, and the fact that she was finding such here in Canterlot, in the building where the history of their nation was stored had her red in the face.  Looking around the room again brought a more wistful expression to her face, though. “To be honest, I am not surprised.  This is somewhat characteristic of my sister...” She let that trail off as she saw the new expression on her Twilight’s face.  It was giving her the distinct feeling of tearing the walls down around the poor mare’s mind.  Obviously she was far more entrenched in her beliefs of Celestia as perfection incarnate than she would like to admit.  I had better qualify that before she has a stroke. “What I meant by that is, completely apart from the number of servants we have, my sister is even more of a “mare-of-the-ponies” than she may appear at times.  Working with our little ponies has always been her favorite part of our station, and she can tend to immerse herself in that to the detriment of other pursuits, such as organization.” “So you’re saying this place has been like this all along?  How the heck did you ever find anything?  I mean-uhm-” Twilight’s face was flushed again as she realized the implications of what she was saying, but the blood drained back from her face when she saw that Luna seemed not to have noticed, and was merely staring out the window. “I am afraid the current state of disarray in this room is more recent than that.” “What do you mean?” “This room was rebuilt and ‘restocked’ around one thousand years ago.” “You mean-” “I did not come to this room specifically, but it was heavily damaged in the fighting.  Were it not for the preservation spells on the contents of this room, most of these spells would have been destroyed.” Luna began to pace the short aisle they were in an she talked, tail and ears flicking in obvious agitation. “This building is as heavily guarded as it is because of the records of magic it contains.  The magic I used to make myself a match for my sister as Nightmare Moon came in large part from this very archive.  The other parts of it I cannot remember, which is for the best.” “I’m sorry-” “No!” she said sharply, halting her pacing and turning to Twilight.  “As irritating as the frequency of such may be, my sister is right yet again.  The best way to leave behind memories such as these is to keep pushing forward. “This room is like this because Celestia has not allowed anypony inside in centuries,” she said with an explosive sigh, “not even to dust, though the preservation spells help with that.  It is a testament to her absolute faith in you that she allows you unfettered access.  As obvious as it is that this room is in no condition to be searched in the manner we have been pursuing, I see no need to keep up the pretense.” With that, every scroll and book was airborne, and began circling the night princess as her eyes moved faster than Twilight thought possible.  After a few seconds of cringing at watch the already disorganized material speed through Luna’s vision and land on completely random shelves, she reached out with her own magic and diverted a smaller flow through her own vision, assisting the search while vowing to one day return and install a card catalogue. All at once the frenetic movement ceased, and several tomes fell to the floor, all the others dismissed to shelves at random.  What remained were four books in front of Luna, and two more neatly stacked in front of Twilight.  Without a word Luna passed one of her’s to Twilight, and they both opened all of them and started browsing.  The room was silent for almost half an hour as indexes were scanned, notes were made, and page numbers were memorized or written down for future reference. “Alright,” Twilight finally said, “I think I found part of what we’re looking for here.” She indicated a paragraph in Explorations of Temporal Phenomena and leaned to the side so Luna could look over her shoulder.  After looking it over quickly, she nodded, turned back to the center book of her own set, nodded again, and stood up. “Yes, that equation for time factoring in teleportation spells is helpful for the scrying, but we are still missing important information to properly factor for distance of the actual teleportation.” “This would be a lot easier if somepony had written some books on what we’re trying to do, and we didn’t have to extrapolate time spells with spells for teleportation over short distances,” the purple mare sighed. “It is curious you should mention that.  You do realize part of my surprise at your ‘monologue’ when I first came to your home was that I didn’t have to explain the full implications of this to you?  And you know what I mean by that, don’t you?” “Yes,” Twilight responded after a brief pause. “When did you learn?” “Four years ago.  She said it was alright for me to tell Spike, since he always helps me so much with my research, but she forbid me from telling anypony else-” “That we aren’t what our little ponies think we are, yes.  As my sister evidently explained to you, our titles are more symbolic than they are absolute.  We do not physically control the sun and moon, and the stars are completely beyond both of us.  We do however, maintain the balance of the world by keeping both bodies in check, ensuring they stay on their assigned paths and that the sun does not fluctuate harmfully.  Aside from that, this world orbits the sun, and the moon orbits this world.” “I still don’t understand, though.  Why the secrecy?” Luna stood up and began to pace once more.  This time rather than agitation, she gave off an air of anticipation.  Twilight was confused, but said nothing, waiting for her friend to start speaking again. “As much as it pains my sister and I,” she finally began, “while many things have changed over the centuries, our subject’s sense of security being largely dependent on their belief in our absolute power has not.  You must understand how worried we were for just that when Celestia was struck down by Chrysalis at your brother’s wedding.  We were afraid that single defeat would cause widespread panic, but your brother and his fiance displaying the power of their love as they did actually helped us as much as it did everypony else, as it was seen to explain how Chrysalis could best my sister.  While our links to our celestial bodies give us great power, my sister especially, we are just as prone to being taken by surprise as anypony else. “To come out and tell the world that our powers are far more limited than they believe would do more to harm the peace we now enjoy than it would to provide enlightenment.  We are confident that ponies will come who will find out the truth for themselves, and we will admit to it at that point, but we don’t wish to ‘pull the rug’ out from under all our subjects, as much as this lie grows tiresome. “I am not content to wait, however,” she said as she halted and turned to face Twilight.  “I believe that what you and I are planning to do will serve as a means to both show all the world the truth, and to show them that this truth does not bind them, but set them free.  Celestia was always reluctant to agree to this, but I believe the time is right, and she now shares my opinion on this matter.  This world may not be under our complete control, but what does that matter when there are millions of other worlds that can be reached, maybe even settled?  Twilight, if we can do this, we will take away the safety net, and replace it with all the stars in the sky, open and inviting.” She held out her hoof to her new friend, and held her gaze, locking eyes with her.  To her happy satisfaction, the purple mare barely hesitated before putting her own hoof against Luna’s, and nodding in determination. “I’m with you, Luna.” “Then let us go somewhere we can better appreciate our ‘surroundings’.” Twilight barely had time to raise an eyebrow before the now familiar feeling of being pulled along by the Princess’s teleportation suffused her, and she blinked to clear her eyes before looking around at their new location. The room was a perfect sphere, but her brief confusion as to why they weren’t standing on the bottom was dispelled as she realized the floor beneath here was flawless glass, and it resisted any attempt to smudge it.  The only light in this windowless sphere came from Luna’s horn, which illuminated her smile as Twilight finally looked to her. “Do you like it?  This is my observatory.  The entire inner surface is infused with magic to support scrying spells.  It allows me to do this, for instance.” They were several hundred feet above Ponyville with no noticeable transition.  As soon as her brain was done calculating the lack of wind and falling sensation, Twilight managed to get a handle on her panic and look around.  She could see the bright colored dots of hundreds of ponies all moving around her hometown at once, all pursuing their daily lives without the slightest inkling that the Night Princess and their town librarian were watching them from above.  Focusing her eyes carefully, she could see that this room was exactly what Luna had said - an observatory- as the image could be seen to have no real depth. “The only disadvantage of this room is that the enhancing agent that holds the spells is lunar rock, which binds its ability to scry only to objects that can be seen from the current position of the moon.  It is still morning, so the moon has not yet moved behind the planet.  Now then...” Luna’s horn glowed brighter, far more brightly than even now to maintain this spell, and the room’s magic walls were dark once more, but lit brighter than ever as her eyes began to glow brightly white along with the midnight blue aura of her horn.  As Twilight watched, the walls suddenly flickered once, and then exploded with color.  Every color of the rainbow and many more besides flowed around the walls in a pattern so fast and confused she was going to get a headache trying to keep up.  Then as soon as it had started, the flow stopped, and the room was black once more. This time, though, the darkness was the ground beneath them, and the stars overhead.  Her eyes wide, she looked out at what she now realized was the surface of another planet.  There was very little to see, but as they watched the sky behind them began to glow.  The two turned to watch it rise, but it was not the soft yellow orb they were used to, and it was coming up far too quickly.  A small, but painfully bright blue star slowly crossed the horizon and began to climb, still far faster than their own sun.  As they looked beneath them, they saw sharp peaks of rock, dozens upon dozens of craters, and long, winding canyons.  There was no corona around the sun that now sailed above them, and no haze of any kind to show an atmosphere.  But the fact that this planet was so obviously devoid of life did nothing to dampen the elation of the two mares who now looked across it’s surface. Horn still brightly lit, Luna began to shift their perspective, bringing them closer, and giving them a far better look.  It was obvious to Twilight that Luna was scrying the wrong planet, whether by accident or intent, but it hardly mattered now.  She was far too busy committing everything she saw to memory, desperate to archive this so she could relive it later.  When she thought about the possibility of actually walking across the surface of this world or others, as close as she appeared to be now, she could barely stop herself from jumping around screaming like she did after getting her cutie mark. After a few more minutes of tracing a narrow canyon from above, Luna’s horn dimmed, and the room was dark once more until a door slid open to their rear.  The Night Princess stood and began to walk out, her head hanging a little lower an indication of how much this little excursion had taken out of her. “You look really worn out,” Twilight observed as she got up and quickly followed her.  “Weren't you channeling mana from that diamond?” “I was, but acting as a conduit for that much power is still quite exhausting.  Just because I am an alicorn does not mean I am immune to the dangers of magical ‘burnout’, and with the power I was just throttling, that can be very hard to manage.” Her purple friend gulped at the gruesome mental images the lessons Celestia had given her about the dangers of this came back to mind.  They were both silent as Luna led her through the castle, finally stopping at a set of doors she remembered were to Luna’s private chambers. “I am sorry to have to cut another of our meetings short, but I fear I will need a few hour’s rest to recover from that spell.  I will send you a letter as soon as I awake, and we can arrange our next meeting.” “That’s fine, Luna!  I’ve got some work to do back at the library in any case.  I’m sure Spike will be glad to have my help.” “I have no doubt.  Until next time, Twilight.” As the heavy doors shut behind her, Twilight paid hardly any attention to the castle, already knowing most of the corridors by heart, and having perfected the skill of deep thought while walking when she was still young. She had known this would be a major undertaking, but being part of the revelation to the entire world that the Royal Pony Sisters weren’t the masters of heaven and earth they were thought to be?  Her visions of greatness later in life had never even scratched at something this monumental.  With practiced ease, she put those thoughts aside for the time being, her focus back on calculations once more, trying to work out the missing components to allow them to do what nopony had done before.  The train ride back would certainly give her more than enough time. As she sat in her seat and waited for the train to depart, she found herself smiling again.  Spike’s jaw was going to be on the floor when he heard about what she’d done today.