=== BABW: A New Beginning ===
=== Chapter 4: Bombshells ===
[ May 05, 2080 - Near St. Louis, USA (yes, still…) ]
It was almost 2 PM, as the Isegawas, the three Newfoals, and Andre all sat in the recreational room of the, at least to Andre’s estimation, overbuilt clinic. Natasha and Ethan decided that the video link was not necessary, seeing as the speech was to be broadcast over every available medium, and instead settled for a private four-way connection through the neural implants they all had. Quiet Walker, Spiral Light, and Ash Drifter sat on some cushions in a spot out of view from the door. The Doctors Isegawa sat at the bar, though not deciding to pour themselves a drink just yet. Kyoko sat with Andre on a nice comfortable couch. Andre marveled at how this out of the way clinic-inn could be so well furnished, how the area around it so be clean and seemingly free of pollution, and how the plant that Quiet Walker was attending to seemed at least 20% bigger than it had any right to being.
"Ok shhh, Celestia-hime is about to give her speech," Kyoko said, the irony not lost on anyone there it was Kyoko that was trying to get everyone quiet.
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Every nation and peoples who managed to survive this long were represented at the General Assembly. The full house of dignitaries, having sat through several opening remarks and speeches, were rather anxious and wanted to know what this creature from another dimension had to say to them. Celestia, for her part, again looked all the serene and calm of someone who was in firm control of the situation; to which some extent, she was. The entire world was about to hang off her every word, and she knew it. This also made her nervous to some extent; because she had little to no knowledge of human nature and how they respond to certain cues, she had absolutely no idea of what reaction she would garner with the words to come. She had to be incredibly careful, lest she start a firestorm that could end everything before they could begin. There was no backing out now though; she and the rest of Equestria were going to see this out, however it played.
It was now 3 PM sharp, and right on time, Princess Celestia, Avatar of the Sun, Co-Ruler of the Realm Of Equestria, was about directly confront the Elite, and some extent, all of humanity. With a large breath, she strode to the podium, and began the speech that'd change two worlds; to what end, no one could know.
"Good Evening, Denizens of the Planet Earth. As you may know already, my name is Princess Celestia, Avatar of the Sun, and Co-Ruler of the Realm of Equestria. I come before you today to fulfill a promise I made during my initial statements more than one month ago. At that time, I stated that I would bring to you all news that would be of interest to all of humanity, regardless of race, class, or creed. However, I believe that I will need to preface my news with a bit of history, if you all will care to indulge me.”
Celestia inwardly prayed that having to divert somewhat from the pertinent news would not cause a loss of attention amongst those in the room or those listening on the Human’s many broadcast media.
“Our world once shared a link, a bridge if you will. Before this point, as far as myself and my sister could tell, our ancestors and yours lived in relative peace and harmony with each other. However, this peace was not permanent. A great cataclysm befell both worlds, and one of the events during this cataclysm was a shattering of the original Bridge between our worlds. The fallout of this cataclysm deeply scarred both worlds; and through this scarring, forced extremely divergent evolution in both our respective species and the societies we have built.
“Our species, on one hoof, more or less retained the ability to affect our environment though what you could call magic. Therefore, while the ancient Pony civilizations were devastated, they managed to recover and remain intact, at least as much as the circumstances would allow. The ancient humans, on the other hand, did not fare as well. As far as we can tell from your own archeology and your best theorizing, the ancient predecessor civilizations for this world more or less disintegrated entirely, and the world was plunged back into the deep maw of an unforgiving Ice Age. This dramatically altered human evolution, especially in the sociological sense. Humanity became more and more tribal and fractious; the desperate need to survive a cruel world taking precedence over anything else.
"Despite these cruel conditions, mankind eventually began to build a new civilization. Where tool making, technical prowess, and the ability to rally others to one's cause were what won the day. This world, as most any other world as far as any Pony or Human philosopher can fathom, did not have any type of greater morality. Instead it was, and to a large extent, still is, a world with one very simple rule: survival by any means necessary. As such, cultures that could not meet the rigors of the time eventually fell to the dustbin of history. Egypt, Macedonia, Rome, Byzantine, Mongolia, and Zulu: how many names have risen and fallen? Even to this day, many great nations now exist as merely vestigial homelands of once great Empires: Spain, France, England, Germany, Italy, China, Japan, and even the United States have seen their empires, whether in terms of territory or economic influence, degenerate back to their original borders. But both Nature and Power abhors a vacuum, and something new has rose fill this void.
"Desire... what is desire truly? Desire, to my estimation, has many forms. The need to attain something that one does not currently possess, the need to leave a legacy that would outlive their current existence, and the drive to become something other than what you are at the current point in time. This is what drives Mankind, this is what drives Ponykind; in fact, I should be so bold to say it drives all sentient life forms, regardless of form. To lose desire is to lose the very spark of life itself. Yet, like with anything else, to let desire grow beyond a healthy level is to watch it mutate into something corrosive and destructive: Greed.
"To weave these concurrent threads of history and sociology brings us to our current state of affairs. Certain humans, in their greed for all manners of things, have decided the normal communities, and even the nations that have formed could not satisfy their hunger. So it has grown beyond the bounds of such things. These humans have become a power unto themselves, amassing so much in resources and capital that the world itself now appears to revolve around their axis instead of the axis of established governing bodies. Their gravity, in terms of political power, is so great that no other entity can escape its pull. This is very troubling to me. In this universe, as it is in countless others, when gravity becomes so great and so concentrated, it eventually becomes a black hole. It inexorably draws in everything, even light itself, into its maw and crushes it into oblivion.
"This is how I view the state of the sheer power these particular humans wield; gravity so great it is beginning to crush everything around it. One can see its effects already underway: the earth has grown fallow, the waters grow fetid, the winds poisoned, and the fires rage out of control. This is to say nothing of the very souls of many of those without the resources to live within the protective Domes. Their hearts and souls are also being crushed under this weight. Few outlets exist for them creatively; their labor, be it active or potential, goes unrewarded or unwanted. It is as if desire itself is being sucked out of them, sucked into that nascent black hole. What does that leave for most people? Already, you see the great masses become inactive politically and socially, retreating into virtual worlds or any other avenue. They wish to escape this pull of this gravity, to have some kind of avenue to where their flower of the soul might bloom again.
"This now brings us to the current day, and the core reason of why I am giving this speech. I saw the state of this world, and I could not ignore it. I saw the want in your people's eyes, and I could not ignore it. I could hear the yearning for a new beginning in your people's hearts, and I could not ignore it. So we began to devise plans, plans for rebuilding, plans for rejuvenation, of both the physical and the metaphysical. Yet, there were, complications. No matter how many simulations we ran, no matter much we massaged the data, it kept saying the same thing: a human emigrating to Equestria would be suicide. Your bodies, for reasons we have yet to determine, cannot function in an environment laden with raw magic, or as your scientists have termed it, thaumatic radiation. Cells rupture or burn out, organs fail; it would be as if the body was struck with the most powerful radiations your cosmos could produce. Not a preferable way to move to the Great Beyond, in our estimation.
"Therefore we began to revise our plans. We needed to develop some means to allow humans to survive these harsh radiological conditions. There was something within the human's physical makeup, that no other species shared, which caused these horrifying reactions to our natural enviroment. No matter what our or your researchers tried, we could not escape that fact. So eventually, the alternative was reached.”
Celestia then took a pause that seemed like an eternity to herself and anyone listening or reading her words.
"The solution we have arrived at... is the complete rewriting of the physical form of a human, in order to mirror our own form; or to put it more succinctly, Ponification.”
Celestia had once again managed to bring a planet of 9.5 billion humans and innumerable machines to a cold and dead silence; now making at least twice in the last six weeks. Not even a being as long-lived and experienced at giving public addresses could help but be unnerved by the reaction, or rather, the utter lack of reaction in her audience. Regaining her composure, she began to conclude her remarks.
"While this is not the proper venue to discuss Ponification in scientific terms, rest assured the process has been deemed safe in both the physical and metaphysical respect. All memories and cognitive ability are retained; all that changes is the physical form that you exit the process with. However, I, nor my Sister, intend these facts and this speech to be some sort of ultimatum. Nor do we not intend to forsake those who would refuse this opportunity. We know there are those that would not seek this option, even in the worst of circumstances, and they should not be left to a world spiraling out of control. This is simply meant to be another avenue, a way for those who see no path forward in this world to be able to continue forward on the great journey of Life. For my sister and I, we do not believe proper change can be effected in this world unless there were a viable alternative. To conclude, we also intend to remain in this world so long as we are welcome, and we will attempt to assist you all in any way that we can devise, going forward. We in Equestria believe that our two peoples together, hand in hoof as it were, can move forward and forge a New Age, together. Thank you for your time and consideration."
===========
To say the internet was set on fire would have been an understatement. To say that every pundit from New York to Hong Kong and everywhere in between had an opinion would have been an understatement. To say that Celestia and her cohorts didn't just basically accuse the ruling class of actively causing the very demise of an entire planet of 9 billion other people, and countless other living things, would have been an understatement. The impudence, sheer audacity, absolute temerity, the gigantic, brass balls on that woman, or mare (debate still raged on what generic noun to use for her), walking onto the biggest stage any politician could walk on and effectively dress down the whole of human society absolutely flabbergasted the Elite. It stunned them, it shocked them, it astonished them.
The vast masses of Outsiders on the other hand... well their reaction was anything but uniform. Some were just as shocked, shocked that some alien, some entity that they didn't even believe existed could pass judgment on Humanity in all of two months. Others frankly wondered what took them so long to see just how screwed up everything was and why the whole planet wasn't being razed to the ground out of fear of them getting into space. Still others just wanted off this rollercoaster any way they could.
While a certain quartet of friends didn’t have reactions necessarily so extreme, it’d be fair to say they had quite the reaction.
-----
“Huh… so that’s a thing now…” Andre said blankly, as he turned down the holographic television to a bare whisper.
“Yeah… I guess it is…” Kyoko added, equally confused as to what exactly everything the White Princess had just said actually meant.
“While I would admit her logic for having such a severe alternative is theoretically sound; it is difficult for me to accept that, well, it would be that… easy?” Natasha tried to reason before her own mind just started to boggle at all the myriad implications.
“If the world is so screwed up that we would need to leave, and the only way that we could leave, at least at the moment, would be to, I guess trade bodies… Yeah to say it’s hard to swallow doesn’t even begin to describe it,” Ethan added, trying to figure out what something such as a literal physical transformation would even need to exist as an option, let along this early in the potential relationship.
“And yet, there it is, straight from the horse’s mouth,” Dr. Hayato quipped, pouring himself half a shot of vodka.
“Seriously, dear… you had to go with that joke?” Dr. Jun responded quickly, the pain in her face at such an obvious joke evident in her face, at least what could be seen through her palm over it.
“Despite the terribly cliché wordplay, my dad has a point. Celestia wants to help, and she feels that the only way she can be credible in anything that needs to be changed is if people can just literally up and leave the planet entirely,” Kyoko reasoned, the initial shock starting to wear off a tad.
“I guess. But this is still a lot to take in. Just the idea of being ‘you’ in something else’s body is just… well it’s really hard to conceive,” Andre responded, as he walked over to far side wall, where a couple of plexi-glass panels gave a full view of the lobby in front of the recreational area.
He noticed how the three Ponies that watched with them sat in silence mostly, all three seeming to be in deep contemplation of something or other.
I wonder how they would receive immigrants that have come from a completely alien culture… I mean I have to imagine that Celestia talked with her government over on the other side of that Aurora… but how could each citizen react to aliens among them that looked like any native Pony?
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A couple of weeks had passed since Celestia's speech to the UN and the wider world. While people went on with whatever lives they were leading up to this point, a new thought was gnawing at the back of their minds. Is what that White Princess said was true, that the gravity of the Elite were threatening to smash everything to bits around them? Was Ponification the only way to escape this fate, or could some middle ground be found? The Ponies, for their part, avoided all media contact; preferring to allow humanity to begin digesting the information on their own, and content to judge any reaction from afar.
[ May 12, 2080 - Earth ]
A buzzer sounded over Andre’s and his friends four terminals, signaling the end to this latest session of Ring Strikers. A generated voice read off the results of the match. “Game 4 of 5 Over: Final Score: Blue 57 – Red 55. Match tied at two games apiece.”
Ethan slunk in his chair, rubbing his face in disbelief at the last-millisecond shot Andre made to win the match for Kyoko and him. “Seriously, did you know that rebound was going to bounce that way or was it just a blind heave?”
Andre, for his part, just shrugged over the video chat, Kyoko having never ceased giggling since the game gave back the results. “In all honestly, I had a hunch. But it was more just a blind toss. I mean the angle kinda implied it’d bounce that way but I had no way to be sure, so I just took a gamble. I really did not want to go to overtime…”
“And you must really not want to pay for new outfits for our Avatars do you?” Natasha asked with some manner of incredulity.
“No, no I really don’t,” Andre responded bluntly.
“So blunt, Ao-chan,” Kyoko finally managed to say clearly, having quelled her laughing fit.
“Well… I don’t. Also I can’t help but feel a little… embarrassed when you call me that…” Andre responded tepidly, his dark skin masking the amount of blushing he was doing at that current moment.
“So have you all thought anymore about what Princess Celestia had to say at the UN those two or so weeks ago?” Ethan asked, as the final game preparation continued on.
“I dunno, I think I need to hear and see what exactly this ‘Ponification’ process is what the results are before I can say for sure. But right now… well… there are just too many questions for me,” Andre said as he tweaked the shoes his avatar wore, attempting to solidify his in-game balance than increasing his outright speed.
“I’m in the same boat. I’ve been hearing some bad chatter over the ‘Net in all respects. There are those who hate the fact that Celestia did dress down the so-called elites of the world; and there are others who think this is the prelude to some kind of invasion, and that they are testing to see how many people they can get to ‘surrender’ before marching with troops,” Natasha groaned; while she couldn’t detect any real malice from Celestia, she couldn’t discount the fact she might have been one of those psychopaths that beat the tell-tale signs of lying and duplicity out of themselves.
“With a hundred plus years of alien-invasion science fiction, I can’t blame people for being paranoid. At the same time, she does appear genuine in her intentions,” Ethan added, as he clicked himself ready to start.
“Seems like a situation where we really won’t know until Princess Celestia and the others do more on this side of the Aurora, I guess,” Kyoko concluded, as she clicked herself ready.
“Well Andre, let’s see how much luck you and Midori have left, eh?” Ethan said, as the countdown timer began.
“Brother, I got that feeling that my skill is gonna carry this match. But a little luck couldn’t hurt, as well…” Andre responded, brimming with renewed confidence.
“Game 5 of 5 Beginning in… 3, 2, 1!” the generated voice announced, before dropping the four of them back into the final game of their match.
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While the four of them wiled their time away with games; there were others meeting over a private network, for decidedly less benign reasons.
"Ugh that stupid bitch is making a fool out of us, we cannot stand for this!"
"Yeah which one though, the President or that White Winged Horse that decided now was a good time to pay us a visit"
"Both of them, really. I mean honestly, don't they know how much trouble we went through to get to where we are"
"And that stupid horse had the unmitigated gall to tell us WE were ruining the Earth. Maybe if those rats outside the dome stopped breeding all the time we wouldn't be in this situation"
"Now now, some of those rats have proven quite useful to us, I mean we still have the legislature in our hip pocket."
"Yeah all we gotta do is keep stalling everything, those idiots that even bothered to vote in the last election won't even give a shit coming up, and then our guy will skate in."
"We got bigger fish to fry, though; I heard one of the Domes near Oklahoma City is starting to run low on water."
"Can't they just restrict water to their slums, I mean it's not like anyone cares about them"
"Yeah but they will care when the rioting starts, better to wait for winter and start slowly cutting them off then"
===== ===== =====
[ May 17, 2080 - Equestria ]
It was another day in Equestria. Luna was sound asleep during the day for the first time in weeks. The Element Bearers had time to get back to their daily lives in Ponyville as best they could given the circumstances. Celestia had given them a few weeks leave, knowing that their mortal minds and hearts needed time to rest and really couldn't go full tilt 24/7 with the plotting and scheming like herself or Luna could. Speaking of which, Celestia had already begun drawing up plans for the new facilities on Earth, as well as drafting early versions of volunteer and eventually paid staff recruitment letters, for both Humans and Ponies. Officially, they would be known as called the "Human Conversion Bureau And Pony Rehabilitation Clinics", although to call these places mere clinics didn't do them justice.
They were designed to be mostly self-sufficient, Celestia did not want to leave supply lines up to the fickle human governments, and having to teleport in supplies constantly would be a hassle. At the behest of her sister, she provided for classrooms for both Pony and Human of all ages, to be able to give crash courses in Equestrian History, Culture, and the abilities of the 3 races in general. There were also to be the Earth Pony Greenhouses, landing areas for various air transports should clients need emergency care to or from the facilities, underground storage facilities, so many things.
I'm glad I found texts for drawing architectural plans according to Earth standards. Their information networks are so extremely useful. I'll have to be sure to keep an eye out for any Information or Computer Science-types that come through these doors, we could definitely use something like this Equestria... Celestia thought to herself.
She then thought, ... Though some of the user generated content concerns me. Luna and myself are be able to handle it, cannot live millennia without seeing some things, but can the Bearers handle it?
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Over in Ponyville, Pinkie Pie was walking towards Twilight Sparkle's house-tree, giggling something fierce and trying her best not fall over laughing. She knocked at the door, and seeing it was open, went into the library proper. Though, to most it was more a book repository than anything, since few Ponies if any actually stayed there to study. She scarcely managed to make it to the room Twilight was in before falling over laughing, a confused Twilight left to wonder aloud just what in Tatarus the curly-maned mare found so hilarious.
"Pinkie Pie, I do believe I've told you not to come into my study making a ruckus like that; not that you ever listen when I say that...," Twilight said, exacerbation in her tone as this had clearly happened many times before.
Pinkie Pie was laughing so hard she could hardly breathe, but managed to restrain herself long enough to speak anyway. "But… oh man... everywhere, ahahaha, it got everywhere... and in everything..."
"Care to indulge me on what you've found this time on the human's info network this time?", Twilight asked, figuring it was something she found while scanning the human networks since nothing in Ponyville had blown up recently. It then immediately dawned on her how strange this town and her life were; where something not exploding would be news to her.
"Oh, it was just this television program I found in their archives. Oh man, these humans are hilarious, I hope they are even half this funny when they become Ponies," Pinkie said, only now managing to get a hold of herself.
"I'm fairly certain humans wouldn't lose their sense of humor in the Conversion process."
Pinkie thought for a few seconds, before finding the notion of a loss of humor through Conversion to indeed be stupid. “Yeah you're right, I'm pretty sure they can still be this funny despite how bad it is over there."
"You really think that Pinkie."
"Well, the way I figure it... you gotta find a way to laugh and smile even in the worst of times."
Twilight Sparkle thought about what Pinkie said just then. Laughing even in the worst of times, yeah that's definitely something Pinkie would say.
It seemed like ever since forming the New Light Bridge, she had begun honing her comedic timing far more sharply; although to some, her humor was still random, to the refined eye, she seemed to be able to find something appropriate to the situation, regardless of the situation. She also had begun to make a real name for herself as a party planner throughout all of Equestria, probably taking some cues from the humans she started interacting with.
"Anyway Pinkie, how did you even find those 'programs'? I mean it's not like we ever had time during our Earth visits to learn where to look for things on their information networks," Twilight then asked, wonder how anyone could find anything in that morass of junk.
Pinkie looked at Twilight with strange look, one that silently said 'Wait you didn't already know the answer to this question?' "Oh I just asked around and they showed me."
"Uh, wait, you're able to SEND information to their networks?" Twilight asked, downright shocked that the information flow wasn't one way with their links as had (wrongly) assumed.
"Duuuh, yeah silly. I mean one day I was like 'Hey how am I supposed to find anything in this place?' and then someone showed me a place where to ask a question or throw out some words and BOOM it was like I was linked to whatever that thingy said was relevant," Pinkie replied, obviously not familiar with any of the humans internet terminology.
Like an Ask-And-Receive Spell... even without formal Magic, humanity can still end up making something similar… Twilight thought to herself. I just want to know that if they are capable of all of this, then why have things broken down over there to the point they have?
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Rarity was in Carousel Boutique designing her first human dress. She had learned much of human fashion eschewed gaudy jewels on the clothes themselves, in favor of patterns and colors; plus the with state the world was in, wearing anything bejeweled outside of the Domes was like painting a big red bulls-eye on yourself.
I do hope the President's daughter likes this dress I made, she seems like the type who'd appreciate something pretty; though her son couldn't seem to care less for aesthetics, probably more Rainbow Dash's type anyway… she thought to herself as she stitched together some silk fringes along the sleeves.
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Rainbow Dash had managed to learn to use her Element as a projector on the cloud wall of her house, a mundane usage of an artifact of such power but whatever works, she thought. She had fallen in love with Earth's sports and action movies, even though she found most of the recent films produced trite and hardly noteworthy.
How did they even think replacing a real live actor with some kind of... fake one... would even make sense? No wonder it felt like this world had forgotten Loyalty, the people running things seem more loyal to their money than anything else... she thought to herself while watching a 'classic' action flick.
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Applejack was busy getting caught up on lost work, bucking apples out of some of the early fruiting trees. She and Apple Bloom were busy taking care of things while Big Macintosh was catching up on his rest, legs sore from having to do the work of two until a few days ago, hough for him it was more like the work of one and a half.
"Hey Applejack, it seems like ya got stronger; you're buckin down a lot more apples than ya used to."
"Well, Apple Bloom, Ah didn't get any time for strength trainin’. It's more like Ah'm findin a better sweet spot for hittin’ the tree, and pacin’ myself to not burn out too fast."
"Wha, when did ya get so smart?"
"Are ya sayin Ah wasn't before?"
Applejack grabbed Apple Bloom to give her a noogie, thankful to get caught up with some lost time. She didn't know how much time she was gonna have at Sweet Apple Acres in the near future.
While walking back to the barn to begin sorting the fruit, she thought some idle thoughts about Rainbow Dash’s newfound ‘abilities’. I'm gonna need to get Rainbow to show me that trick of hers. Their football season is gonna start in a few months and I want to be able to watch it without looking like a dang fool. And I wish some of the people they get to talk about sports and news didn't lie like it was part of their job. I think their media need a triple dose of Honesty, Apple Clan style.
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Fluttershy was at her cottage, still reviewing some of the old nature and cultural documentaries she found while travelling the networks herself. Although initially shocked at just how cutthroat Earth's environment had made all the species there, especially humans, she then began to come to a realization.
Even though the whole planet is like the Everfree Forest, they still show each other kindness. Even though some of their own kind sees this kindness as a weakness, they still show it. How strong of soul these people have to be to still believe kindness works, living a world so especially cruel.
=====================
[ Earth, May 19, 2080, 9:00 AM EST ]
Manhattan, historically one of the great melting pots of the world, a crossroads of culture and business. One of the great tourist destinations of the world. However that was the time before the Domes. After the Domes, it had become a restricted playground for the idle rich; a place where people who thought they were superior to the common man would regularly engage in contests to see who was worth more, who was more important, who had more connections. A place of great culture and history was being hollowed out by a bunch of nitwits with way too much cash to burn, and it made a particular man absolutely sick to his stomach.
This man was Richard Edwards, a sort of aberration amongst the Dome dwellers; he still cared about those left behind as it were. He was a man of great means, even by Dome standards, yet he had managed to escape the self-reinforcing game of 'Anything you can buy I can buy better' that so many of his neighbors engaged in. A video-phone call from a friend in a very high place was about to allow him to leverage his considerable means for a cause he felt actually needed his resources.
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He was sitting in his office, still musing over the thoughts after Celestia's speech at the UN almost four weeks ago now. The video-phone rang, and Richard picked it up, quite surprised to see the number that popped up as the source of the call.
"Hello, Richard Edwards of Edwards Robotic and Nanotech Fabrications. We build it bigger, better, and cheaper than anyone out there..."
"Hah, it's been what 25 years since you worked the customer service line, and you still answer the phone the same way," a female voice said on the other end.
"Well to what do I owe the pleasure of this phone call, I thought you would be too busy trying to beat back the dogs barking at a certain pair of horses,", Richard said to the female on the other end.
"First of all, Ponies, Richard. Anyway, it must have pained them so to hear the truth laid bare before the entire world. Their allied legislators have been trying to get me to declare them openly hostile to the United States government or some such.", President Aguillar said, revealing her face for this quite personal of calls.
Richard blanched at the reminder of how arrogant most of his neighbors were. "They really think they own the government now, such arrogance. No wonder my father raised me outside of this wretched hive."
"Moving on, I believe that Celestia's speech before the world has thrown things into such chaos legislatively, they can't even marshal the votes for a simple resolution of general disapproval," President Aguillar then said. In fact most of the world legislatures had been thoroughly paralyzed by indecision, allowing most of the leaders, especially the reformists, to officially state that they by and large would not interfere with the plans of the Equestrians. The EU Council President and the Japanese Prime Minister managed to go further and say they would welcome further dialogue with the Equestrians, hoping to prove that they would be a benevolent force.
Richard was glad to hear that most the legislature could do in this state was express vague disapproval. "It's good to hear that those idiots in Congress are going to at least stay out of the way for now. But our dear Ponies are going to need access to resources on this side of the Aurora, are they not?"
Melinda was glad to hear he was already thinking along her train of thought. "Yes Richard, as you know, since the Domes were constructed and the Singularity occured, land on the outskirts of our cities and out in the wilderness has become dirt cheap. Our dear Elite see no reason to buy any land not already sealed and supposedly protected."
"Hrm, so you would have me buy up large tracts of land on the outskirts for our mutual allies, yes?" Richard then asked.
"Indeed, I am also sending you, via secure data link, the rough draft of the facilities they want to build on said land," President Aguillar responded.
"Outposts?" Richard asked.
"Not necessarily, just read what they are," the President responded.
Richard read over the plans, and they were stunningly detailed. He was being asked to furnish land and equipment for what would be a, a first blush, a moderately-sized self-contained community facility. There would be classrooms, dormitories, laboratories, doctors offices, a group cafeteria, areas for a garden, even recreational rooms. But what impressed him more was the scale, or rather the lack of it in terms of absolute size. The land requirements were almost nothing relative to the extensiveness of the building's purpose. Whoever designed this wanted maximum amenities in a minimal amount of space, it's the very antithesis of the waste these idiots in the Dome design in their homes... he thought, marveling at the elegant simplicity of the plans.
"I would assume our Royal Guests drew these plans up. Hardly anyone living in the Domes would have this extensive knowledge of architecture while also having this sense of aesthetics," Richard remarked, the wheels turning in his head.
"Indeed, they did draw those plans up. Also, as I explained to them, in my position I cannot guarantee anything the government would do aside from extending police protection to them. So this effort needs to be funded from your realm, as it were. Therefore, they would like to meet you in person in order to discuss matters more in depth," President Aguillar said.
"How does this time tomorrow sound?" Richard then asked.
"Tomorrow sounds lovely, indeed," a pair of regal-sounding female voices replied.
Well played Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, well played indeed. Richard thought to himself.
President Aguillar then ended the video call. Richard then leaned back in chair, and buzzed down to his secretary. Again, an oddity considering he wanted to employ human assistants instead of AIs. "Candice, please cancel any appointments I have tomorrow, I have a pair of V.I.P.s coming through and I would like not to be interrupted."
"Yes sir, Mr. Edwards", Candice replied.
Hrm, a pair of Very Important Ponies indeed... he thought to himself.
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The next day, rumors and stories were flying on the 'Net about how everyone seemed to have these strange dreams. Those near the date line reported them first by and large; but, as night began to lift across the world the rumors only compounded. The dreams varied, but there was always something in common. They were speaking to an altered version themselves, smaller in stature yet seemingly more serene of mind. Everyone who could stay asleep long enough had these dreams, however four in particular had more vivid dreams, to say the least.
"Ok you know those rumors that everyone been having these weird dreams?" Andre started to ask.
"Yeah man, I think that particular rumor is legit," Ethan chimed in.
"You had one too? Wow I thought I was kinda losin' it myself," Kyoko added
"It seems that makes four of us. Still trying to figure out what the heck is going on," Natasha said, while nodding sagely and deep in thought.
"You think some hackers are having a little too much fun with the neural nets?", Ethan asked of his beau.
"No, I haven't received any security notices or reports of greater than usual incidences of neural tampering. Whatever this event was, was causing actual dreams to change." Natasha answered.
"So, feel like some impromptu story time? I guess if we all went over what happened maybe something would sort itself out," Andre asked of everyone. Everyone else agreed.
Andre went first, "Alright, now the details are kinda sketchy but mine went like this: First I was standing in this cave, and I was looking at this giant blue something, an uncut gem maybe. And then I fell through the floor and was completely submerged in water. I struggled and struggled and struggled, thinking I was gonna drown right. But here is the weird thing, when I stopped struggling, it was like I could breathe anyway; like the water was just plain air. Then I heard this voice ask 'Do you have the will to achieve Power?'."
Ethan then followed, "Mine was kinda similar, except the gem I saw was kinda yellow, maybe gold... anyway when I reached out to touch it, suddenly I was launched into the air. I dunno how high because there was no frame of reference, then I started falling. I was panicking, praying to whatever deity name I could remember, but I just kept plummeting through the air. The turn in my dream was I yelled about having something to land on that wouldn't kill me, and then suddenly I *ploof* hit this cloud, like I had just let myself topple over into my bed instead of having fell however many thousands of feet. And I heard a voice ask that same question."
"Woah, that was nuts," Kyoko started before going into her account, "Ok so there I was, this really really pretty green crystal formation like you two right. And then suddenly the whole floor turned into sand, quicksand I guess. So I start sinking, to my knees, then my waist, and up to my neck. I was soooo scared I thought I was gonna die. But it seemed like when I thought that suddenly something grabbed me by the waist and arms and pulled me up and out. And then I was sitting on a big giant leaf like I was only 2 inches tall, and then I heard the same question."
"Mine was probably the scariest thought", Natasha started, her face chastened like she had seen a ghost suddenly, "Now I saw the same gem I guess, except in my dream it was red. The most brilliant red I could ever imagine. But then it started getting hot, in fact everything was getting hot. And then I started seeing sparks, flares, and before I knew it the hole whatever I was standing in was up in flames. I couldn't see any smoke but what I felt was the most intense heat and light I think my brain could process. The flames crowded in around me, and I thought I was going to be reduced to ashes. But I wasn't, the flames danced all around me, but my clothes, my skin, nothing was being affected by the heat or the light even though by all rights, I should had been vaporized. Then I heard the same question."
"Hrm four Gems, four near death experiences, four People being asked the same question. It's almost as if something is trying to string all of us together with these dreams," Andre began to ponder out loud.
"If we hadn't seen everything we had seen over the last two or so months, I'd think we'd had all gone plum loco", Ethan perked up.
"Maybe we still are going crazy, but then again it seems the whole world is going crazy, probably why they came over here to begin with," Natasha added.
"So many questions and no one to answer them, a conundrum indeed," Kyoko started thinking.
Yeah, lots and lots of questions, too bad you can't talk to somepony I know. Oh wait did I say that out loud, whoops forget I was ever here. Yep, nothing but a disembodied voice over the 'Net and definitely not somepony from another world accidentally wandering through your computer network. Heh heh heh… oh Celestia I am so sorry! Kyoko suddenly heard in her head, wondering who that was and why would they use the phrase 'somepony'?
"Woah, what was that?" Kyoko asked, having just realized that someone should NOT be able to talk straight into her head with her approving it first.
"What was what?" Andre asked.
"That, like, someone was just in my head talking. But it wasn't through a neural network link, it was just some voice in my head talking..." Kyoko asked, wondering if she was starting to have a schizophrenic break.
Ethan asked matter-of-factly, trying to impart some calm to Kyoko given the circumstances. "Ok did it sound like you or was it someone else?"
"It sounded definitely like someone else, like one of those psychics that could just wander around and talk to people in their head or something.", Kyoko replied, starting to calm down a tad.
"You think it was one of the Princesses? Rumor is that they could talk to someone through a direct telepathic link,” Natasha asked.
"No, we heard both of them speak to media before, Celestia a lot more than Luna though. But no, it didn't sound like either of them as far as I could remember," Kyoko answered.
Andre had that sudden moment of dread again, all of the last few days of his life, with everything being good. It gave him the sickening feeling that his world was about to get rocked, and something fierce.
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Meanwhile, at the same exact time in Equestria, Twilight Sparkle had to suddenly cancel an information trawling session. She was pacing around, clearly in bit of panic after accidentally making psychic contact with a human.
"Oh no, I hope I didn't break something, or someone. How could I think I wouldn't be able to could actually make contact with someone at the same time they were using the Internet? Dumb, dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb..." She went on out loud, berating herself for being careless.
Spike was just left to silently pray that Twilight would eventually learn to not beat herself down every time she made a minor mistake.