Chapter 1: Oops
"And with the addition of these manamagnetohydraulics we can finally harness enough power to charge the portal."
Ral Zarek nodded at his colleague and urged him to continue.
"When we finally charge the portal I can synchronize it with your wavelength, and through it the wavelength of the multiverse. The Izzet League will be the first guild in millennia to actively start projects on other planes with more than just one gifted agent. Think of the research we can do, the energy we can harness!"
Xaral Razek's eyes went wide, a manic grin appearing on his face.
"The discoveries we'll make, the prodigies we can recruit. With this portal, progress will once again be unstoppable!"
The manic laughter soon followed, and Ral Zarek couldn't help but shake his head and smile at his colleague. Being a Planeswalker, a mage that can cross the planar boundaries, made him able to do exactly that. He was already doing those things on behalf of Niv Mizzet, their guildmaster.
But his friend's words were true, if this portal worked the Izzet could move far more freely across the planes than Ral Zarek could do himself. Ral knew Planeswalkers are exceedingly rare, only one in millions is ever born with the 'spark' that allows them to survive the Blind Eterneties and visit other worlds. Normal people would be obliterated the exact moment they arrived, if they were able to even get that far, that is. Xaral's portal would circumvent that problem altogether, and the possibilities were indeed endless, if the machine worked.
"So, do you have the beacon with you, right?"
Ral nodded and plugged the device into the mana condenser that was slung arcross his back. The small device clicked and whirred, and mana sparks started dancing across its surface. Ral stuck his thumb up at Xaral, who was already behind the controls of his portal.
"Okay Ral, I will recalculate your frequency the moment you Planeswalk away from here, and use that to lock in on your destination. As soon as I have established a connection I will fire up the portal and let its frequency resonate with yours. The resulting chronotemporal feedback should establish a connection between the portal and your destination, while simultaneously ripping holes in both planar boundaries and forming a tunnel between those holes. Then we should send some goblins through to verify its chronotemporal integrity, and make sure nothing explodes unnecessarily. We can weaponize the portal later, after we have finished testing it."
Ral didn't respond, for he needed his concentration. Planeswalking is never easy, even when you have made the trip countless times, there was still so much that needed attention or everything would go wrong. He took a deep breath and calculated the exact frequency he needed to separate the veil and cross over to the Blind Eternities, then he calculated the exact amount of mana and effort that would be needed to tear down the veil and cross it. Such difficult formulae usually covered mountainsides if written on paper. It took Ral exactly zero point thirty six seconds to do both calculate the parameters and expend the necessary resources, and he was literally gone in a flash.
~
"Twilight, are you sure this is a good idea?"
Twilight Sparkle, personal student of Celestia and one of the most powerful unicorns in Equestria, looked at her friends and nodded.
"Of course it is! I have taken every possible outcome in account. There is only a zero point zero-two-six percent chance of something unexpected happening and interfering with the spell. Don't worry, I have this under control."
The other mares shared a worried glance. The last time their friend was so obsessed with a new spell she literally turned Ponyville upside down. It wasn't that they didn't trust her personally, but they certainly didn't trust another half-finished spell Twilight had finally 'completed'.
The purple unicorn did not share her friends' worries. Their efforts to dissuade her only made her more determined to do it correctly on the first try. Besides, this spell was only designed to open a window that revealed other realities. It didn't displace any energy, nor would it be able to resonate with the theorized temporal aether. This spell couldn't backfire in any way at all!
Twilight closed her eyes and re-calculated everything for the fourth time. Satisfied that her calculations were indeed correct she focused her mind and gathered her magic. Her horn began glowing with a purple aura, and soon the entire library was lit up by the brilliance of a spell going off.
~
Xaral noticed that one of the beacon receivers started flashing and hurried over to it. He quickly plugged his own mana rig into the controls and read the incoming frequency.
"But of course. This changes everything!"
Xaral's mind went into overdrive and he started gathering red and blue mana, slowly feeding it to the machine. When he had pumped enough mana into the receiver to vaporize a siege wurm he stopped. The device was now crackling with red and blue lightning, the flashes reflecting against the polished brass of the portal.
Xaral moved over to the controls and adjusted the outgoing frequency to meet the incoming frequency transmitted from another plane. When the frequencies finally aligned a slight hum could be felt in the air, as if the air itself was charged with energy. Xaral moved over to the portal and put his hand on a red lever.
"Okay Xaral, now or never. A new age for the Izzet is about to begin."
He pulled the lever.
Nothing happened.
Confused, Xaral set the lever back into its original position, then slammed it down again.
Nothing.
"Grah! Why isn't it working!"
He went back to the controls and grabbed a cable from under the console, then rammed it into his personal mana rig and waited. Scowling, he concluded he still did not have enough energy to power the portal. He took a crystal from his pocked and willed some blue mana into it.
"Overseer Xar, send some workers over to the basement and divert more power to the portal room. We need more power."
The crystal was silent for a moment, then a slightly squeaky voice replied.
"They're on their way now boss, and the power will be diverted as soon as the cables are installed."
The goblins arrived soon after, and overseer Xar walked up to Xaral.
"How much power do you need boss?"
"More."
The stocky goblin nodded and turned to his crew.
"All right, get those cables plugged there, there and there. You, you and you get the extra generators working."
He turned back to Xaral.
"Don't worry boss, we'll pump in enough energy to level a block if needed."
Xaral smiled, that much power would indeed be more than enough. He went back to the controls and started recalibrating to adjust for the massive increase in energy the portal was about to recieve.
Suddenly the receiver started smoking, then exploded in a small shower of sparks. Xaral hurried to the panel it had been plugged in and assessed the damage.
"Blast! How is this possible? The receiver runs on a separate power grid, it shouldn't be in any danger of overloading. Unless,"
Xaral quickly grabbed one of the now loose cables and got it into his mana rig. After a quick survey he concluded that some outside force had overloaded the device. He turned around, his face serious.
"Everybody out! The device has become extremely unstable. I need all irreplaceable personnel to get out of here. Anyone that wishes to stay has to accept the chance of getting vaporized. Am I clear?"
Nearly half of the goblins had already ran after the first sentence, but Xar and a handful of veteran engineers and electromancers stayed behind.
"Boss, what about you?"
Xaral gave his subordinate a manic grin, before turning back to the controls.
"I will see this experiment through, this date is too valuable to be given up so easily. Besides, there's no way we can outrun the explosion if the portal overloads completely. You said it yourself, we can level a city block with this amount of power. Are the shields still online? I'd like to keep the possible blast contained to the building, if possible."
Xar nodded, then turned to his loyal subordinates.
"Okay, get those shields erected. I will oversee the final stages of the experiment along with boss Razek. Progress and determination!"
He gave his subordinates a salute before turning to Xaral. The mage in question was busy keeping the frequency of the machine under control.
"Any way I can help you, boss?"
Xaral looked up from his work and nodded grimly.
"Keep the power running, we might still pull this off."
Xar turned around immediately and ran to the generator room. Xaral went back to his task while mana-charged sparks danced around him. He quickly found the frequency that was last recorded and reestablished the resonance. He then moved to pull the lever when a massive surge of energy literally exploded from the portal, singing the floor in some places and evaporating equipment or goblin maintenance workers at others.
Xaral saw he needed to move very quickly, or the whole building would go up in a most spectacular fashion, and he with it. But there was one thing more important than completing the experiment and surviving it, and that was recording it. Xaral quickly grabbed another speechstone and made contact with the Firemind.
"Oh great Niv-Mizzet, I send you the live recordings of my labor in case I might not be around to record its conclusion. For the sake of progress, I gladly give my life if the great Niv-Mizzet wishes it."
The speechstone glowed a fiery red, and Xaral could feel the attention of the great dragon on him.
"Very well, let us see the fruits of your labor."
Xaral plugged the speechstone into his mana rig and focused on the task at hand. Sparks were flying everywhere now, and sometimes a great arc of lightning would evaporate something around the machine. Xaral gritted his teeth and ran towards the machine, using his gauntleted right hand to act as a lightning rod. When he reached the lever his mana rig was close to overloading as well because of all the lightning it had absorbed. Xaral grabbed the lever and slammed it down.
Time seemed to stand still for a moment, then a slow but steady pressure seemed to build up in the room. The portal's edges began glowing, and the barrier runes across its surface shorted out at once. Raw power then coursed through the entire machine, and Xaral knew that he'd lost any hope of surviving. Laughing maniacally he grabbed a cable from his overloading mana rig and jammed it into another outlet. Xaral then stepped back a bit and raised his gauntlet high, the guild's signet burning with energy, and screamed the invocation inscribed on the portal's surface.
A tremendous amount of energy exploded from everywhere and coalesced around Xaral's raised gauntlet. A terrible screeching noise could be heard just before everything went white.
~
Twilight's eyes widened as she realized something had gone wrong. The spell's frequency had changed suddenly, and she could feel a terrible amount of energy building up somewhere in the aether. She quickly came to the conclusion that the spell was not reacting as it should, and it would have explosive results from the feel of it. She knew there was no time to get her friends out, so she did the next best thing. She teleported herself to the edge of the Everfree Forest and hoped for the best.
The room's other occupants were startled by the sudden disappearance of their friend.
"Whoa, where'd Twilight go?"
"No idea sugarcube, but I reckon it's not good news."
Fluttershy squeaked.
"Oh no, what if there's something wrong?"
Rarity moved over to comfort her friend.
"Don't worry darling, I'm sure that Twilight can handle this problem. She probably forgot something trivial and overreacted. You know how she can be."
The others nodded, but none of them seemed very convinced. They had seen the look on Twilight's face, and it didn't bode well. Before anyone could voice their concern the entire village was illuminated by a very bright flash, followed by a boom that shattered every window in Ponyville. It took some time before everyone had recovered from shock, except for Fluttershy. Rarity trotted over to her friend and carefully woke her up. Rainbow Dash grunted and rubbed her eyes.
"Everypony okay? What was that just now?"
"I don't know. Ooh, maybe Twilight has discovered some new kind of fireworks? Or maybe she just reaaaaly wanted to do something loud and bright. Or maybe-"
Rainbow Dash interrupted the party pony by sticking a hoof in her mouth.
"Now's not the time, Pinkie. Twilight could be hurt!"
The pink pony's eyes widened, and her hair seemed to deflate a little.
"Dash is right, we need tah hurry up and find out where Twilight is."
Applejack took the lead and soon she and her friends were running through Ponyville. Ponies were put on the street, either cleaning up the mess or trying to look for the cause. The mares paid them no heed as they hurried towards the edge of the Everfree Forest, the only place their friend could have unleashed such a spell without hurting anyone else.
When they arrived they were met by the sight of a massive crater. I the middle of the crater they could see Twilight keeping some kind of shield up.
"Twilight! Are you okay?"
Twilight opened her eyes and turned around. She saw her friends running towards her and felt relieved. Whatever happened with her spell she hadn't hurt anypony, although the resulting explosion had produced a rather large crater. Her train of thought was interrupted by Pinkie tackling her to the ground.
"Agh, Pinkie. What are you doing?"
"I was sooooo worried. First you disappeared like 'poof'. Then everything got white and bright like the light in the fridge, and then there was this loud booom and we were like 'gasp!' and Fluttershy was like 'eep' and -"
"Easy there Pinkie. Give Twi some room."
Pinkie nodded and released Twilight. Only then they heard a groan behind them. They whirled around and saw a red unicorn lying behind them. In their concern for Twilight they had missed him completely!
"Oh dear, what happened to him?"
"It seems he was caught up in the blast. Quick, we must get him to the hospital immediately."
Twilight nodded and gathered energy. Then she, her friends and the unknown red unicorn vanished in a purple flash.
~
Xar stumbled back into the testing room, coughing and waving the smoke away. When he had stabilized the generators he had hurried back, only to see his employer vanish along with all the violent energies that were blasting the room apart the second before. Now he noticed that every piece of equipment was mangled, and there was no sign of his employer anywhere. Not even scorch marks on the floor.
"Well, that was anticlimactic."