More than Forty Blinks

by Sereg


Materials and Methods

WHERE WERE WE!?RIGHT! WE HAD JUST SHATTERED SHINING ARMOR’S SHIELD! NOW WHAT WILL THEY TRY NEXT!? LET US SCAN TO SEE WHERE THEY ARE SO WE CAN FIND OUT! WE ARE JUST NARROWING OUR EYES FOR A BETTER VIEW!
 
Chapter Five: Materials and Methods
 
                  “The shield!” cried Star Swirl. She spun her head away from the shattering shield and back towards Cadance, eyes wide with horror.
                  
                  Cadance nodded rapidly before leaning forward, shutting her eyes and concentrating. A blue aura surrounded her horn, and a shield enveloped the city.
 
          Conformity frowned and bashed a hoof against the shield. She then waved it in emphasis as her single voice echoed throughout the city from her multitude of mouths, “WE WILL GET THROUGH YOUR SHIELD AS WELL, CADANCE!” She buzzed against the shields like an infestation of insects.
 
          Cadance narrowed her eyes. “Hop on!” she said to Star Swirl, opening her wings as her eyes searched for Shining from the Crystal Heart Room.
 
                  Star Swirl jumped onto the alicorn’s back and the world turned into a blur. She closed her eyes uneasily as Cadance flew towards her husband.  Once the alicorn’s hooves hit the ground, Star Swirl gratefully wobbled to the floor, thankful that the journey to the other side of the palace had been short.
 
                  Cadance lowered her head and a blue beam shone onto Shining Armor’s unconscious body.  His eyes flickered open and he drowsily shook his head before shakily getting to his hooves.

“I’m all right,” he reassured her. “The sudden increase in power just startled me. I can return to my duty.” A purple beam shot forth from his horn, surrounding the city in a protective bubble again.
 
                  Cadance shut down her own shield and frowned as she saw the white patches spreading once again. “Okay. But I’m taking over again before she spreads too far.” Her horn shone again and her  voice boomed from every corner of the crystal city, like a one pony team of  street callers, “EVERYPONY IS TO REPORT TO THE PALACE IN PREPARATION FOR OUR COUNTERATTACK!
 
(/)
 
Star Swirl stood before the Prince, Princesses and Bearers of the Elements of Harmony in a private board room. She stood next to a board  and had a piece of chalk gravitationally attached to her hoof, as the Pie family had taught her.

“Okay! Thank you all for attending this strategy meeting,” she said before lifting the chalk to the board with a nervous grin. At least  explaining things really would put her at ease. “This is the situation. Currently, Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor Sparkle ...” she turned slowly to Shining Armor. “Did you decide to drop your surname upon entrance into the royal family?”
 
                  “I haven’t used my surname in years.”
 
                  “Right. Okay. Princess Cadance, who, I suppose is actually Queen of the crystal ponies now-No, wait! Are you Queen of the crystal ponies?” She turned towards Cadance.
 
                  “Actually, some crystal ponies have decided to move into Equestria proper now,” said Cadance as she lifted her hoof, “so I’d have no authority over them  and according to international law, that means that I have no right to the title of Queen. I’m happy with that though. But let’s get back to stopping Conformity rather than discussing proper address.”

“Okay then,” said Star Swirl as she bit her lip. Her mane was curling a bit and one of her eyes twitched. She wished that she had a book on politics with her to prevent any future mistakes.“Okay. Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor have been switching shielding duty between the two of them, but they are still affected by Conformity and can’t hold their shields for long.

“Adding in the Crystal Heart, we have three types of shields available. A physical wall of magic that Prince Shining Armor can conjure, a barrier of love that Cadance can channel and a field of emotional energy that we can all project through the Crystal Heart.” She drew crude figures of a unicorn, an alicorn and a heart, each with a circle around them. “But these shields are connected to the minds of those who make them, so Conformity can send her mind influencing abilities through them.” She drew a sad face holding a hoof to its head.
 
“We know that Conformity is affected by the Elements of Harmony. However, her original body is out of range.” She drew a foalish picture of an alicorn, the symbols of Harmony and an arrow between them with a large X through the arrow. “The Crystal Heart has much better range and also provides some protection from Conformity but is less effective.” She drew a crude picture of the Crystal Empire with a circle around it. “Its shielding properties extend out beyond the city. We need the shield of the Crystal Heart to take up some of the burden. However, its connection to the emotions of the  inhabitants of the Crystal Empire makes it particularly vulnerable to Conformity, so we need a Crystal Fair to renew its powers. Especially as the Crystal Heart becomes more important in later parts of the plan.
 
                  “The Crystal Heart can spread emotions over the entire Equestrian continent. This is the kind of range we need, but the Crystal Heart may be less effective with non-emotional magic.
 
              “Due to its nature as a prism-like object, light and rainbows are boosted by the power of the Crystal Heart, if less so than emotions. Thankfully, the Elements of Harmony act like light and rainbows in many ways.” She drew the symbols of  the Elements of Harmony, an arrow to a heart and a  set of beams radiating out. “Also, the dependence of the Elements of Harmony on the targeting intelligence of their bearers means that we should be able to squeeze more range out of the Crystal Heart than an ordinary rainbow would achieve, as the spell would actively seek out the bodies of Conformity, as the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony would specify.” She drew an arrow from the heart to an alicorn.

“That said, this is not enough for us to rely on merely those principles. Therefore, we need to channel the Crystal Heart amplified Rainbow of Harmony through a giant, convex lens to amplify its power.” She drew a large convex lens above the city.
 
                  Cadance raised a hoof. “We don’t have a giant, convex lens.”

 “And a convex lens would amplify power, but it would diminish range!” Twilight objected.

                  “That’s why we have to make one, and why, above the lens, there will be a giant, convex mirror!” said Star Swirl as she drew a curve above the lens.

“And I suppose that we’ll be making the mirror as well?” asked Cadance as she tilted her head and raised an eyebrow.
 
                  “Correct!”
 
                  “Is it jus’ me or is this plan a mite overly-complicated?” Applejack asked, crossing her forelegs and looking dubious with her frown and raised eyebrow.
 
                  “It is as complicated as it needs to be, Applejack App... Bearer Applejack,” said Star Swirl as she lowered her head and closed her eyes. “And more complicated than I’ve illustrated so far.”
 
                  “How are we going to make the lens and mirror?” asked Twilight as she raised a hoof and leaned forward.
 
                  “Well, rainbows can be manipulated with water. And are subject to pegasus weather manipulation.”

“So, we need to make the lens and mirror out of water vapour!” cried Twilight. “Of course!”
 
                  “Indeed. So we’re dividing up into teams. The pegasi will sculpt the lens and mirror from clouds under the leadership of Rainbow Dash, Bearer of the Element of Loyalty and guidance of Twilight Sparkle, Bearer of the Element of Magic to make sure that they are exactly right.”

        “I’ll be sure to use my knowledge of optics to  make sure they are correctly made!” Twilight said with a nod.

        “Just don’t get full egghead when you’re telling me what to do,” said Rainbow as she flicked her head and blew a strand of mane out of  her face. “I don’t tell you that you’re too slow at being a librarian!”
 
          Star Swirl scowled at Rainbow’s comment but turned back towards the crowd and continued. “And the rest of us will host the Crystal Fair under the leadership of Pinkamena Diane Pie, Bearer of the Element of Laughter to charge up the Crystal Heart.”

 
                  “Okie dokie Loki!” said Pinkie as she hopped in place. “I’ve done a Crystal Fair before! So now I’ll make it even more funneriffic than last time!”
 
                  “I’m sure that I can make some decorations while the others are busy,” said Rarity as she batted her own mane.
 
                  “Guess Ah’ll be helping set up the stalls then,” said Applejack.
 
                  “We need to try and boost the Crystal Heart and fire the Elements of Harmony at the same time in order to maximise their efficiency.” She drew an arrow from a set of Harmony symbols and another from a party hat, each to a heart, with a clock above the heart and a larger arrow emanating from the heart.
 
          “There may be a problem with this plan,” said Celestia. “For it to work, the lens and mirror would need to be placed outside the shield, as your diagrams indicate, correct?”

                  “That’s correct.”

                  “If so, surely we need a way to get the lens and mirror in position without risking anypony being assimilated by Conformity, but I do not see it. How will we do so without that risk?”
 
                  Star Swirl opened and closed her mouth and then slowly raised a hoof. “About that ... We ... um ... won’t.”


“What do you mean ‘we won’t’?” asked Luna as she frowned, tilted her head and raised an eyebrow.
 
                  “There is no way that we can ensure that nopony gets assimilated during the placement of the clouds,” Star Swirl clarified. “We can merely take some precautions to reduce its likelihood and reduce the damage should Conformity attempt to assimilate somepony when they are unprotected by the shield. In fact, the risks we will take in  order to give this mission the highest chance of success will increase the likelihood of Conformity attempting to assimilate somepony during the operation significantly.” She sighed and drooped her shoulders before looking over the shocked crowd with a grimace.  “That’s why I need to discuss extra safety measures with you.”
 
(/)
 
Pinkie Pie rushed from store to store, helping assemble the stalls and begin the fun activities as Rarity hung up decorations. It was a lot more difficult when she couldn’t summon her party cannon. Still, the crystal ponies were cheering and unlike last time, they were actively helping set up the fair.
 
                  “Just remember,” Star Swirl reminded them, “that we want to charge the Crystal Heart but avoid activating it until the last second in order to maximise effectiveness the way that it was used against King Sombra.”
 
(/)
 
                  Rainbow Dash’s wing carved another layer of cloud off of the lenticular formation which obscured the Crystal Palace as she skimmed around the edge in a tight, curling loop. She then flew back down to Twilight who was levitating a  geometry chart, glancing between it and the cloud  with a furrowed  brow.
 
                  “How about now?” she asked.
 
                  “The opacity still needs work,” replied Twilight as she peered through a telescope, before returning to her notes of which she was scribbling on three separate pages as a sextant floated in the background.
 
          Rainbow’s eyelids lowered and her ears drooped. “In Equestrian.”

“It needs to be clearer.”
 
                  “Okay. I can do that.” She turned and began to speed off.
 
                  “Also, the refractive index isn’t right yet.”
 
          Rainbow paused. “Again. Equestrian.”
 
                  “Make it ... bulgier.”
 
                  “Right.” Rainbow Dash turned her head away from Twilight and called out, “Princess! Could we have some more cloud, please!”

On top of the tallest tower, Luna turned to her sister. “I’ll do this one. They may need you later.” She flapped her wings and another bank of clouds formed in the air.
 
                  Rainbow Dash turned back to Twilight. “Will that be enough to start on the mirror?”
 
                  “Yes, but not enough to finish it,”
 
                  “How big does this mirror need to be?” asked Rainbow Dash with a raised eyebrow.
 
                  “Bigger than the city.”
 
                  “Then how are we going to fit it in the shield!?”
 
                  “We can’t,” said Twilight as she lowered her head. “It will have to be finished outside the shield.”

Outside!?” asked Rainbow, glancing back at the clouds and then lifting her head to look up through the shield. “Looks like I’ll have to finish it myself. What do I do once I’ve finished it?”
 
                  “You’ll need to place the lens and the mirror at the correct positions.”
 
                  Rainbow shrugged in midair. “Shouldn’t be too hard. I just have to carry them up as I fly to the correct heights. How high do I have to place them.”
 
                  “High,” replied Twilight. “You’ll have to get the mirror all the way to the Tropopause.”
 
                  “That high!?” said Rainbow as she reared back. “This plan is sounding crazy even to me!”
 
“That’s because it is crazy,” said Star Swirl as she walked up to them. “You show fine judgement in declaring it so. But we are desperate and the craziness of the plan is all that’s giving us a chance. That said, Conformity may be more reluctant to attack Bearers of the Elements of Harmony based on her goals.”

She winced and bit her lip. “Still that reluctance will drop as she becomes more powerful and she may ignore that if she sees what we are doing as threatening. We need to be very fast.  Luckily, you are good at that aren’t you, Bearer Rainbow Dash?”
 
                  “Sure am!” Rainbow lifted her head, closed her eyes and rested a hoof over her torso.
 
                  “I may, however, be able to improve your odds a little with a slight adjustment to the plan.”
 
(/)
 
Conformity snarled as she slammed her hooves repeatedly against the shield. She was making progress, but whenever her splotches started to approach one another, the Prince and Princess would swap out. Although they were having to switch more often in their increasing exhaustion,  it was not fast enough to give the impression of power and might she had been attempting to portray.

Being the alicorn of Venus gave Cadance a lot more resistance to her influences than Conformity had hoped and now she was healing her husband between sessions. And the ponies below her seemed to be organising their little Crystal Fair. If they added the Crystal Heart’s shield to their defences, the process of wearing them down would take even longer. This was taking far more time than she had expected it to and was a painful reminder that she was not ready to face the kind of power that Discord would have at his disposal. Conformity’s bodies shook at that  thought and her scowl deepened. The situation would have to change. She needed more. And she needed a way of disrupting the festival below her. She narrowed her eyes. Perhaps another source from Ponyville would help? No. Too small, despite the psychological advantages against the Bearers. But there was a better source just beyond Ponyville.  She smirked. She would take advantage of that.
 
(/)

Rarity painted the stalls in bright colours as Pinkie rushed around, hanging up all the decorations that the unicorn had made earlier.

                  The crystal ponies brightened, both literally and figuratively as she passed.

 
                  “Come on, everypony!” she cheered. “Let’s jam! We’re going to show that big meany-pants that we know how to have fun!”

                  The ponies cheered, throwing their hooves into the air.

 
                  Rarity couldn’t help but smile. This sort of thing was Pinkie’s talent, after all, and was much easier with the crystal ponies helping out and not magically depressed.
 
(/)
 
                  One of Conformity’s bodies landed at the border of the Everfree Forest. She began to slowly walk along the path, foliage straightening and whitening as she passed.
 
(/)
 
                  “Hey!” cried Pinkie, suddenly dropping her basket of flags. She stared at her left foreleg with a frown. “My knee is pinchy!”

Rarity’s ears perked up at that. She turned away from her work, much as it pained her to leave such a masterpiece unfinished. “Your knee is pinchy?” she asked. “Isn’t that Pinkie Sense for-“
 
                  A massive flash of light filled the sky followed by a roar.
 
                  Fluttershy slowly looked up from the patch of cloud she was working on as her eyes widened. She backed away carefully until a back hoof nearly slipped off the cloud. Her jaw opened in a silent scream and she gradually raised a hoof and pointed at what one of Conformity’s bodies was now riding before she finally found her voice. “Dragon!”

Twilight recognised the dragon. Despite the fact that he was no longer green, she remembered his shape from the time she rescued Spike from him. He also had an alicorn standing on his head and were there such things as pony experts on dragon biology, they would be able to tell that he was now female. To Twilight’s eyes, that meant that the dragon had grown.
 
                  The roar had already brought the ponies’ attention and distracted them as they shivered at the presence of an enormous predator.
 

Surrender!” the dragon roared. “You are only making this harder on yourselves! Resistance is futile! Acceptance is glorious! We grow ever stronger! Our troops are legion! Our resources, the entire planet! You think you have a chance because you have been temporarily been holding us at bay!? We have only begun to recruit!” The dragon breathed a jet of flame at the shield.
 
                  Cadance winced as the flames licked against the bubble she had projected around the city.
 
                  “You cannot last long against a dragon! And there are so many more available! Surrender before I bring more! Or add the other denizens of the Everfree!” the dragon roared.
 
                  “All right! That’s it!” said Rainbow with a scowl. “Time’s up! We have to finish this now! Twilight! Have you got your saddlebags!?”
 
                  Twilight levitated her bags onto her back. “Got them!” she confirmed.
 
                  “Let’s go!” Rainbow flew behind Twilight and lifted the unicorn onto her back before heading back for the skies.

                  Twilight held on tightly as she recalled what Star Swirl had said about this part of the plan.


(/)
 
                  Rainbow Dash, Bearer of the Element of Loyalty is the fastest pegasus in Equestria,” Star Swirl explained, drawing a picture of a Pegasus with go fast lines streaming behind it. “And it would be very bad if any of the Princesses were to be assimilated. So she should be the one to get the clouds in place as quickly as possible.”
 
                  “Would it not also be very bad for a Bearer of Harmony to be assimilated?” asked Celestia with a raised eyebrow.
 
                  “Yes,” Star Swirl admitted as she lowered her head and fidgeted with her hoof. “But Conformity is less likely to try that. It’s still possible though, which is why this must be done fast and with as many extra precautions as possible.”
 
                  “Ha! I can do fast!” Rainbow said with a grin. “This’ll be easy! I’ll be in and out in no time!
 
                  “I’m sure you will,” said Star Swirl with a hesitant smile. “But let’s make this as risk free as possible. I’d like you to take Twilight Sparkle, Bearer of the Element of Magic with you.”

“Why?” asked Rainbow. “I can do it myself! Are you trying to say that I need help!?”
 
                  “I know you can. The first reason is that she knows exactly where to place the clouds and can do so easily with her telekinesis...”
 
(/)
 
                  Twilight concentrated, grabbing the enormous clouds with her aura as they flew straight up at supersonic speed.
 
                  Shining Armor dismissed his barrier, leaving Cadance to concentrate more heavily on her own.
 
(/)
 
“We’ll need the barrier fully permeable to our own forces for the final part of the operation, but we can’t have large holes in the shield, so the protection will have to fall exclusively to Cadance,” Star Swirl explained.
                          
                  “And if the effort is too much for her?” asked Shining Armor as he narrowed his eyes.
 
                  “Then we have big problems and will have to deal with them appropriately.”
 
(/)
 
                  Luna and Celestia lifted off from the tower as Rainbow and Twilight approached the wall of blue. They flapped their wings, forming and lifting a mass of cloud through the shield as the ponies passed through it.
 
(/)
 
“Princess Luna and Princess Celestia will provide the final material for the mirror and cover to make it more difficult for Conformity to track what Rainbow Dash, Bearer of the Element of Loyalty and Twilight Sparkle, Bearer of the Element of Magic are doing,” said Star Swirl. She had drawn a picture of a unicorn on a pegasus’s back and surrounded it with a fluffy cloud.
 
(/)
 
                  Twilight struggled to hold on as Rainbow whirled around like the most aggressive merry-go-round to ever declare young foals as its hated enemy.
 
                  Rainbow flicked the last stray tuft of cloud away from the mirror. “How’s that!?” she asked as she turned her smug grin towards her passenger.
 
                  “It’s perfect, just let me—“
 
                  Rainbow lifted straight up again, forcing Twilight to scramble to grab hold of their cargo with her telekinesis as a rainbow trail followed behind them.
 
                  Conformity frowned as she turned her faces towards them. “WHAT ARE THEY UP TO!?” She winced as a sonic rainboom filled the sky.

Twilight let go of the lens, hoping that her precision was not too hampered by the extreme speed.
 
                  At that moment, Cadance collapsed and the shield vanished.

“Rainbow! The shield failed!” Twilight yelled into her friend’s ear.
 
                  Rainbow scowled. “I didn’t want us to have to do this!”
 
(/)
 
                  “And how will we ‘appropriately deal with’ these ‘big problems’?” asked Shining with a scowl.
 
                  Star Swirl opened her mouth, closed it, lowered her head and then lifted it again,  displaying a furrowed brow. “In that situation, riskiness no longer matters because we’d be about to lose. We have to throw in everything.” She turned slowly to Princess Celestia, wincing as she did so. “Princess Celestia, there was a prophecy that Nightmare Moon would be released from the moon after a thousand years. After witnessing them in action and knowing some context, my guess is that this is because you arranged it so. Am I correct?”

                  Celestia frowned as she nodded. “Yes. Bearers do have that capability. Where are you going with this?”
 
                  “So, the Bearers of Harmony are able to break a seal they’ve made from a distance as far away as the moon.”
 
                  Princess Celestia’s eyes widened. “Are you seriously suggesting...?”
 
(/)
 
                  Twilight pulled the Elements of Loyalty and Magic out of her saddlebags and placed them on her head and around Rainbow’s neck respectively as she made a final adjustment to the mirror’s position.
 
                  Far below, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rarity donned their own Elements and the six friends concentrated as their Elements glowed before forming a chain of light which fired a rainbow southwards.
 
                  All of Conformity’s eyes widened. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, YOU CRAZY FOALS!?
(/)
 
                  Back in Canterlot, a statue began to crack and the air was filled with a shout. “-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-!”