//------------------------------// // Electronik Supersonik // Story: The View Over Atlantis // by Zobeid //------------------------------// Abdel came the next day with a taxi to pick up Trixie and take her — and her steamer trunk — to the airport. On the way he explained the logistics of the journey. “Our flight will take us across the North Atlantic Ocean, to Manchester, England. From there I will escort you overland to our final destination.” Trixie nodded but said nothing, not caring to reveal her ignorance of those names and places. She quietly looked around the interior of the car, and out the window at the cityscape and traffic whizzing past, all a novel experience to her, but she struggled to appear unimpressed. She had a worldly reputation to maintain. After they were cleared through security and customs, they entered the concourse where Abdel quickly located two humans and one pony and began introductions. “Trixie, our traveling companions are Maikel Nabil… Ivan McGregor… and this lovely mare is Desert Rose. They will be traveling with us for at least part of our journey.” Then he gestured indicating Trixie. “My friends, this is Trixie Lulamoon, mage extraordinary.” As they exchanged pleasantries, Trixie sized up her traveling companions. Maikel was another swarthy man like Abdel, though taller and lankier, and more casually dressed. Ivan, by contrast, was pale complected with a bear-like physique and a face framed by unruly blond curls and a prominent matching beard, giving him a permanently jovial countenance. Desert Rose was an earth pony with a sandy tan coat and rosy-pink mane, and a thorny rose for her cutie mark. She must be a native Equestrian, Trixie realized. Although not entirely unknown, it was rare for newfoals to acquire a cutie mark. The group went through security and proceeded to the tarmac where a slender, almost impossibly sleek, jet aircraft waited. The jet was painted red and white, with a curious mark on the disproportionately large engine pods that straddled the aft portion of the fuselage. It seemed to be a very stylized representation of an eye, outlined in black, interposed in the middle of a golden sun. Trixie didn’t recognize the eye, but a strange symbol eclipsing a near-replica of Princess Celestia’s cutie mark was unsettling to her — it seemed vaguely blasphemous. Trixie’s attention, however, was quickly distracted from the plane’s markings when she spotted a large griffin standing guard by the jet. Noticing Trixie and Rose’s reactions, Abdel explained, “This is Black Talon, our security escort.” The griffin only nodded silently in acknowledgement. “Trixie was not aware of any griffins in the human world.” “Indeed,” said Abdel. “Our organization actively recruits them from Equestria. We find them particularly effective as guards. They are more aggressive and far more intimidating than ponies, and they are strong fliers, and their forepaws are relatively dextrous. Also, our society has a long tradition of employing griffins as sacred guardians.” “A long tradition?” Trixie echoed. “How is that possible if griffins are not native to this world?” “It is a mystery,” Abdel conceded. “Thousands of years ago our ancestors carved statues of griffins to guard their temples and tombs. How they came about the knowledge of such beings is a matter of speculation and debate. But of course, our world also has legends of dragon, pegasus and unicorn.” Then he motioned toward the plane’s boarding ladder. “Shall we embark?” Trixie’s steamer trunk was the largest and most awkward item of luggage to bring aboard, although her magical levitation enabled her to handle it without much difficulty and garnered admiring compliments from the humans. The jet’s narrow passenger cabin was luxuriously furnished, although Trixie felt a bit queasy when contemplating the number of cows that must have been sacrificed to upholster the leather seats. In the aft portion of the compartment was a small serving table with a couple of bench seats, each seat large enough for two humans — but Black Talon sprawled across one seat, and Maikel Nabil took the other. Forward past them was a cluster of four individual seats which the remaining passengers claimed. Although the seats were designed for humans, Trixie and Rose were able to make do by sitting on their haunches. Trixie had only flown twice before in her life: once in a balloon and once in a pegasus-drawn chariot. She did her best to conceal her excitement over this new experience. This was exactly the sort of thing she’d crossed the barrier to see and do. “How fast does this plane go?” she asked. Abdel scratched his head, then turned to Ivan. “Do you know?” “We could ask the pilot,” Ivan said, “but I believe the Aerion’s cruising speed is Mach 1.7.” “Trixie is not sure how much a Mach is.” Ivan asked, “How do you measure speed in Equestria?” “Miles per hour,” said Trixie. “Ah. You’re still on the understandable system. Good show! Well… Assuming your mile is the same as ours, that would be somewhere in excess of a thousand miles per hour.” “Oh no,” said Trixie. “That surely can’t be right, that is much too fast.” Ivan shrugged and chuckled. “The Aerion is one of the fastest jets outside of the military. You’ll see.” Trixie soon saw. The jet’s takeoff and initial ascent evoked a feeling of smoothly controlled power the likes of which she’d never experienced before. Trixie was pushed back in her seat as the jet accelerated… and accelerated… and accelerated… “Sweet Celestia, it’s got to slack off sometime!” Trixie thought with growing anxiety. A mild tremble went through the streamlined plane as it cut through the sound barrier, then it continued accelerating up to supercruise speed and altitude. When the acceleration finally eased, Trixie released her clenched teeth, caught her breath, and looked out the window. She could see broken clouds far below, and sunlight glinting on the sea. With the jet now holding a steady speed and altitude, it barely felt like it was even moving, and the pair of huge engines somehow operated with no more than a dull whooshing noise audible inside the cabin. “Are you all right, miss pony?” Trixie blinked at the sound of Ivan’s voice before realizing the question wasn’t directed at her. His attention was focused on Desert Rose. She had drawn up her legs beneath her, squeezed her eyes shut, and her body was shivering. “I’ve heard of this,” Trixie offered. “Some earth ponies react badly to flying, especially if its their first time. err… Physical contact might help soothe her.” Ivan glanced at Trixie as if hoping she might elaborate, if not volunteer, but she only shrugged. Hesitantly, Ivan reached over and stroked Rose’s mane. She whimpered softly and pressed against his hand. “Go on,” Trixie urged him. “Hold her.” Ivan blinked, but got out of his seat and went to kneel by Desert Rose’s seat. He leaned over and put his beefy arms around the pony and hugged her. She rubbed her head and neck against him in return and began to calm. Ivan scratched behind her ear with his fingertips and noticed the rose-like scent of her mane. He wondered if it was a perfume or if pony manes naturally smelled like flowers. Gradually her breathing slowed and muscles became less tense until she was able to speak. “thuh—thank you” she uttered softly. “It’s my pleasure,” he said with sincerity. He hadn’t known that ponies could be so soft and warm. “Do you think you’ll be all right now?” he asked. “Don’t let go! I mean, um… just a minute longer, please?” “As long as you need.” Rose closed her big green eyes again, only briefly, then opened them and looked at Ivan and said, “You feel like the earth. It’s like you’ve got some of it in you.” “What do you mean?” Rose tried to explain. “I mean, when the plane left the ground, I couldn’t feel my connection with the earth anymore. I felt lost. But when you touch me, it’s like I can feel it again, just a little.” The big man smiled and stroked her mane gently and said, “Well, I guess that makes some sort of sense, being as how I’m a geomancer.” Desert Rose didn’t respond to that, but Trixie did. “Geomancer?” she echoed. “What a strange word!” Ivan explained, “Geomancy means, literally, earth magic. It’s a broad term, covers everything from divining markings on the ground to dowsing to feng shui. Do you have anything like that in Equestria?” “Unicorn magic can be used for dowsing, but the other things you mention are unfamiliar.” Trixie paused a moment to glance at Desert Rose. The earth pony’s discomfort seemed to have evaporated, replaced by enjoyment of Ivan’s petting. A hint of jealousy flickered through Trixie’s heart for an instant, before she dismissed the feeling as silly and unworthy of her. She continued speaking and added, “Earth ponies have their own abilities that are based in magic, but they don’t cast spells as such.” Then Trixie blinked as she realized something. “Wait!” she said, as she stared at Ivan. “How can you do any magic at all? Humans aren’t supposed to be able to do that.” Ivan glanced up from Rose and grinned mischievously, and said, “Oh? Who told you that?” Trixie gawped, her jaw slack for a moment as she struggled with the question. Then she said, “Everypony! Everypony told me that! It was one of the first things we learned about humans: they can’t do magic. There isn’t any magic in the human world, except what we ponies bring with us.” Ivan started to answer, but then raised a hand to forestall Trixie for a moment. He looked into Desert Rose’s eyes and asked, “How are you feeling, sweetie?” She smiled and nuzzled him, then spoke softly. “Much better now, thank you!” she said. “You’re most welcome,” he replied, then he got to his feet, stiffly, and flopped back into his own cabin seat. He rubbed his leg. “Oy! My foot went to sleep. It’ll take a minute to get the feeling back.” Then he turned to Trixie and said, “So you were told there’s no magic here, that we can’t do magic. This you were told by scientists, by people who don’t believe in magic. Bit of a biased opinion, don’t you think?” She responded, with growing irritation, “Opinion? Trixie doesn’t see how this can be a matter of opinion. Either you have magic or you don’t. You cast a spell and it does something — or it doesn’t, and you’re sent back to magic kindergarten.” “Well, it’s never been that clear-cut for us, has it? For thousands of years we’ve had shamans, prophets, witches, magicians and seers. Practitioners of the occult arts. You know what occult means? Hidden. Magic on our world is hidden, that’s all.” Trixie’s head felt like it was spinning as she considered the implications of Ivan’s words. Was that really possible? Could something so huge, so fundamental about the nature of the world, simply be hidden for thousands of years? It sounded crazy. Desert Rose spoke up and said, “Earth pony magic is sort of like that. It’s subtle. For a long time unicorns wouldn’t admit we have any magic at all. Some still don’t.” Ivan looked to Trixie for her response to that, but she only nibbled her lip thoughtfully, as though metaphorically chewing over the idea. Then Ivan shrugged and looked to the earth pony again and asked, “So, Rose, if I may ask, how did you end up on a plane to England?” “I’m riding all the way to Egypt,” she said. “They have a huge oasis there called the Fayum, and they want to clean it up and grow lots of food there. So I’m gonna help them figure it out.” Ivan grinned again — an expression that came easily to him — and said, “A Desert Rose to make the desert bloom, eh?” Rose laughed! “Oh yeah! Maybe my name is what got me the job, I dunno? But I’ll do my best. What about you?” “Ah well, that’s complicated to explain, and I’m afraid it’s a bit secretive. I hope you’ll forgive me for being vague on the subject. But in broad terms, my specialty is ancient monuments. I was just in the states doing some research, exchanging notes with some colleagues you know, but England is home for me. So, I’ll be going back to work on restoring some of those ancient sites.” Trixie perked up and asked, “Restoring ancient monuments? Doesn’t that seem a bit, um, frivolous, when your world is being transformed into Equestria. For that matter, you are going to be converted, I assume?” Ivan shrugged off the question. “It’s not a foregone conclusion. The barrier is still a long way from England, so I’ll just wait and see what happens with that.” Rose gave him a concerned look. Trixie was thoughtful, choosing her words with care. She said, “We’ve been told that it’s inevitable, that there’s no way to prevent the barrier from consuming the whole planet. All humans will have to be converted to ponies to survive.” Ivan’s smile didn’t falter. “You were told we didn’t have any magic too. But there’s still time. We’ll see what happens.” Trixie didn’t press the issue, and they lapsed into occasional small talk as the time passed. After a while Abdel took out his phone and began poking at it, as humans so often tended to do. Ivan retrieved from his bags a larger computer, one of the folding types with a keyboard, and began to work with it. Trixie was unable to suppress her curiosity — although human technology had produced many wonders, computers were among the most mysterious and fascinating to ponies. She watched him for a few minutes, then asked, “Could you show me that device?” He motioned to her and said, “Come on over here! You’re welcome to look over my shoulder, and I’ll show you how it works.” She did so, propping up her front hooves on the armrest of his seat and peering at the computer’s display. “So, as you can see here, I have a diagram of a stone circle. This is the one at Castlerigg, in fact. I can bring up different views of it. Here’s the current condition of the site, with all the surviving stones that have been found. And here’s a reconstruction of the site’s original configuration, as nearly as we can determine it, including the associated earthworks and wooden structures.” Trixie nodded and said, “I see.” The details of the machine’s operation escaped her, but she got the gist of what he was doing. “It seems almost like a magical notebook, although the complexity of the spells for something of that sort would be frightful.” Ivan nodded and then pressed another key, which caused the diagram to be replaced with a more lifelike image, rendered with color and a three-dimensional perspective. “And here’s a projection of what the site should look like after restoration,” he explained. Trixie said, “But… They’re just stones, standing on end. What kind of monument is this? What’s the purpose?” “You don’t have stone circles in Equestria?” Trixie pondered for a moment, glancing at the image on the screen. “Is it sort of like a fairy ring?” She was grasping at straws, but it was the only thing she could think of. “Hmm, that’s an interesting comparison. It’s tempting to imagine that the ancient people who invented stone circles might have modeled them after fairy rings. But that’s only a guess. If there’s any such connection, it’s lost far back in the mists of prehistory.” Trixie peered at the computer’s screen again and mused, “But fairy rings are magical. Is this some sort of magical engine?” Ivan frowned for a moment, pondering his response. Then he glanced at her and smiled mischievously, and teased, “Oh come now! You know there’s no magic in this world.” She uttered a soft, inward growl and said, “Trixie may need to research this phenomenon further.” After that Ivan remained friendly, but he turned evasive, as though concerned that he might have already revealed too much. Changing the subject, he asked, “What about your work, Miss Lulamoon? I have to admit some surprise that it’s even possible for a unicorn to be successful at stage magic. Can’t all unicorns cast spells?” Trixie thought for a moment, then answered,“Let me put it this way: I was surprised to learn that there are human jugglers, given that all humans have such dextrous hands.” Ivan chuckled. “I guess I can see that comparison. So, your magical talents are more highly developed.” “But of course! All unicorn ponies have a little magic. Even newfoals learn to cast simple lights and levitation. However…” She paused for a moment to choose her words, and then explained, “I can cast a much wider range of spells than the typical unicorn. For most of them magic is not a subject to study and master. They learn a spell or two that is useful in their profession, and they’re done with it. Magic itself is my profession.” Ivan stroked his beard and said, “I think I can see why Abdel wanted you. We might learn a lot from comparing notes.” Trixie huffed. “A proper magician does not casually reveal her secrets.” That prompted only another good-natured chuckle from Ivan. Trixie went back to looking out the window for a while, but soon was bored by the expanse of clouds and sea below. Even at the Aerion’s cruising speed, crossing the ocean took a while. Eventually the dull sound of the engines changed subtly and all on board could feel the plane begin to slow and very gradually descend. The humans began to put away their various electronic devices. “What’s happening?” asked Desert Rose. Ivan answered saying, “We’re approaching the English coastline. The plane has to go subsonic for the flight over land to keep from hammering the whole countryside with sonic booms. You might want to buckle up; we’ll start lining up for the landing approach soon. Let me know if you start to feel uncomfortable, right?” Rose nodded and answered, “I think I’ll be okay as long as we’re getting closer to the ground.” Both Rose and Trixie secured themselves as best they could in the seats and harnesses not designed for their forms — Rose with help from Ivan, and Trixie relying on her magic. Then they peered out their windows, but still could see naught but a gray cloud deck below. Ivan observed, “Looks like everything is socked in with clouds, dunnit? Pity that. The countryside is beautiful in the sunlight.” Trixie nodded but kept her thoughts to herself. Even at subsonic speed it didn’t take long for the Aereon to cross into the body of the British isle and begin banking around, descending to approach the airport. Despite her earlier assurances, Rose tensed up and braced herself with her hooves. The computer-guided landing was smooth, but Rose still uttered a little “yeek” when the wheels touched down, then sighed with relief while her ears drooped with embarrassment. “I’m glad that’s over,” she muttered. Trixie’s horn glowed as she magically unbuckled herself, and she said to Rose, “I thought you were traveling onward to some place called Egypt.” Rose winced. “Oh that’s right! I almost forgot, I have to do this all over again.” Abdel said, “I am sure there will be time for you to stretch your legs and refresh yourself while the plane is being refueled, and I believe there may be a couple of other passengers who will join you. However, Ivan and Trixie and myself must bid you farewell.” Looking to Desert Rose, Ivan added, “Until we meet again — as I think it is likely that we shall!” She smiled back at him. “I hope so. I’d like that.” Trixie quirked an eyebrow, surprised at how the two had hit it off. Then she turned her attention to the immediate concern of disembarking from the aircraft and retrieving her steamer trunk.