//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3: The Connection 
// Story: My Little Portal-Break: Portal-Broken 
// by shieldgenerator7 
//------------------------------//

	Back at the factory, Rainbow Dash and Twilight convinced the security guards that they needed to check the scene of the incident once more, despite it being a while since it had happened. Once in the right location, Twilight activated the portal stone and Shield walked through with Heartbreak.
“Why couldn’t you just portal in here in the first place?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“I could have, but I didn’t have sufficient coordinates and so was a tad bit off. And plus I don’t want to be randomly making portals everywhere. The fabric of space-time might rip. Anyway, where is this connection?”
“In there, if anywhere,” Rainbow Dash pointed to an empty cracked vat.
Shield climbed up the ladder to look into the vat. It had been emptied, but not repaired yet. It still needed repaired before it could be used again. But the fact that it was empty was very helpful to Shield. He floated down to the bottom of the vat with his shields and examined the space-time area.
“Anything?” Heartbreak looked nervous as she was uncertain whether or not the connection could be found.
“Definitely some kind of space-time distortion was here. It’s been closed, and perhaps even fixed.”
“What does that mean?”
“If it’s been fixed, then that’s the equivalent of blowing up a bridge.”
Heartbreak’s heart broke. “The one chance I get! The one chance I get! Gone!” She banged the side of the vat. The echo vibrated the vat’s hull and loosened some of the material. A little dust floated out of one of the cracks.
“Wait, I think I found something!” Shield probed the area. “It may have just been patched, which is pretty sloppy distortion work, but it still makes it hard to detect.”
“But I searched there when it was still fresh!” Twilight exclaimed. “How could you sense it now and I couldn’t then?”
“You searched it? What did you do?” Shield called out. “Come in here, Twi.”
Twilight teleported into the vat. “I just used a detection spell. Nothing major. It was still full at the time.”
“Aha! Maybe that was it?”
“What was what?” Twilight looked at Shield with a puzzled expression. Then it dawned on her. “Of course! The rainbows have a magical energy! They may have masked the magic trail left behind!”
“Yes, and wait… rainbows are magical?”
“Yes.”
“Ok, nevermind. Back on topic. You also need to consider that this magic is from an alternate universe, correct?”
“As far as we know, yes.”
“Then that limits the extent that you can detect it. For example, can you detect this?” Shield makes a portal between his hands.
Twilight’s horn glows for a second. Then she gasps. “No! It’s giving off no magical signature whatsoever!”
“That’s because it’s not magic,” Shield grins as he closes the portals. “You used the wrong kind of detection spell. Whatever made this portal is some kind of different magic or not magic at all.”
Twilight looks baffled with herself.
“You mean I could have been home all this time if only Twilight had used the right spell?! I can’t believe this!”
“It’s not that simple,” defended Shield. “Detecting it is one thing, opening it is another. Luckily, I specialize in portals…” Shield’s face contorts in frustration as he tries to open the portal. “There’s… just… one…thing… ah!” Shield backs away from it for a second to regain his composure. “keeping me from opening it!”
“What is it?”
“I’m not sure. It feels like some sort of knot, or something. It’s not space-time or anything to do with that. I’m not sure what it is….”
“My magic spell?” Twilight asked.
“I don’t know. Try it.”
Twilight’s horn glows up, but Shield interrupts her.
“Oh wait! The detection spell? Maybe, I don’t know. Maybe somehow it helped seal it, or maybe that’s how it got patched instead of fixed! Maybe your spell prevented it from closing all the way!”
“How would that have happened?”
“I don’t know, but if using your detection spell caused it to not seal properly, but also caused it to not open properly… then maybe…. Just maybe….” Shield rubbed his beard. “Could you perform an anti-spell?”
“Hmmm… you mean a reverse detection spell?”
“Yeah,” confirmed Shield, sticking his hands in his pockets.
“I’ve done a reverse spell on small things like coat-shining spells before, and other spells that change things, but never on a detection spell before. It’s never even crossed my mind that there could be a reverse detection spell…”
“Well, whatever you did may have had a side effect on the connection. Is there anything in the spell that might cause a side effect?”
“Come to think of it, there is one thing,” Twilight thought. “Ok, so if I do the reverse of the side effect part of the spell, I should be able to reverse the spell’s effect on the connection and it should open. Correct?”
“Yes,” Shield said. “But wait… if it was trying to close when you cast it, it might still be trying to close completely now. So when you undo the spell, I might have only a small time window to open it.”
“Ooh, sounds tense,” Twilight commented. “Ok, are you ready?”
“Yes…” Shield stammered. “Uh, not quite. My heart rate is accelerating; I’m getting nervous. If don’t do this right, this connection could be lost forever. And then…”
“And then…”
“And then I don’t get to go home?” Heartbreak squealed.
Shield bit his lip. He held out a hand to Twilight. “Ok, let me calm myself down. Catching a breath…” Shield breathed in and out deeply to slow his heart rate down. Taking a final breath, he gave the word, “Ok, I’m ready.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure. Go ahead and perform the anti-spell.”
Twilight’s horn glowed, as she prepared to perform the anti-detection spell. Shield’s heart raced again as she did so, despite Shield’s calming techniques. 
“It’s ok, self. It’s ok, self,” he whispered to himself as he prepared to all at once detect, grasp, and reopen the connection. 
“It’s done now.” Twilight looked at Shield.
Shield’s mind raced in split-second time as he saw in “slow motion” the connection unknot and become viable again. He detected a very faint distortion pattern, one that would be difficult to grasp, especially as it grew fainter split second by split second. Shield’s heart grew faster with every split second that the connection faded away. Shield grasped onto the faint distortion and threw energy into it to make it open again. It stuttered, and ceased to fade away. However, the pull to close completely was strong, as if some force were constantly trying to fix up this space-time distortion. Shield pulled with more power as he tried to get the distortion back up to the levels that allowed him to open the portal. Whatever place that was on the other side was very distant, even in terms of alternate universes. Little by little Shield could feel the distortion slowly but surely come back into being. “Space-time distortions don’t close this fast naturally. There’s gotta be someone or something on the other side who desperately wants it closed.” 
“Shield, please! Please, Shield, please!” Heartbreak desperately called out to Shield to put all his might into reopening the connection. She started flailing about and kicking the vat. The vibrations echoed throughout the vat, and vibrated Shield and Twilight. Shield winced as he felt the connection weaken through it.
“Heartbreak! Stop that! You’re making him lose the connection with all that vibration!” Twilight shouted.
“Vibration! Vibration!” Shield got distracted by Twilight’s word. His mind wandered off onto something somehow more interesting at the moment than opening a space-time distortion. As he thought about vibrations and their frequency and amplitude, his grasp on the connection weakened and it slowly slipped towards nothingness. “Vibration… vibration…” Shield whispered. “Frequency!” Shield’s focused face would have given an excited look if he wasn’t in so much strain from his current task. “Frequency!”
“Frequency?” repeated Twilight.
“Frequency?” retorted Rainbow Dash.
“Frequency!” Shield couldn’t explain right now, but he knew one thing he could do to give himself an advantage. He modulated the frequency of his electro-magnetic hold on the dying connection to see if a certain frequency would speed the reopening. Much to his happiness, it did. The connection started opening back up at twice the speed it had before, but it still required a lot of effort to make it do so. “It doesn’t matter if it requires all this effort,” Shield said aloud, strained. “Once I get it open, it’ll stabilize itself.” The connection slowly took to the level that allowed Shield to open its portal. 
“I see it! I see it!” gasped Heartbreak as she wiped away tears of doubt with her hoof.
A little tiny circle of the alternate universe appeared, just big enough to get a fly through. Shield tried to open it more, but found that opening it was a lot more challenging than stabilizing the distortion. The portal still had an unnatural desire to close forever.
“Man, whatever is through that portal really doesn’t want to let us through!” Shield winced as he drew more power to open the portal. “I’m playing portal tug-o-war with something on the other side!”
“Can’t you open it further? I can’t fit through there!”
“I’m… trying… AAAH!” Shield cries out in strain as he puts more force into his attempt. The portal opens a little more, enough to fit a pony’s head through. He tries to modulate his electro-magnetic frequency again, with little success. “Heartbreak! Get in here soon! I’m not sure how much longer I can hold it open!”
Heartbreak immediately clambered down the side of the vat, with Twilight’s help for a soft landing. She rushed over to the portal and stuck her head in. She put her hooves through, but, couldn’t get her body to go. “A little wider! I can’t fit!”
“Alright…” Shield shut his eyes and focused all his energy on opening the portal wider. Frequency modulation, amplitude modulation, anything he could think of. Not much of anything was helping. “If only I had… just one… more person… opening… this thing…” As much as Shield tried, the constant force to shut the portal was draining his energy to keep it open. “I’m not sure how much longer I can keep it open!” he said in one big gulp of air. The portal closed an inch, locking Heartbreak’s head into the other side of the portal. 
Heartbreak futilely attempted to get back out, but found her head stuck. She panicked. “Help! I’m stuck! I don’t want to die!” She imagined the portal would chop her in half if it closed with her in it. A proper space-time beheading, almost.
“Twi…light…” gasped Shield. He was straining as hard as he could, and was visibly growing weaker. His limbs were trembling and sweat was pouring down his face.
“What can I do? I don’t know anything about portals!”
“Twi…” Shield groaned. He was visibly losing ground in portal diameter. It started hugging Heartbreak’s neck.
Twilight quickly gathered her thoughts and everything she’s experience about things like this. Teleporting, portals, aliens, alternate worlds… mind picking. She had learned to mind pick. Yes! That’s what she could do! Mind pick! 
“Ok, Shield, this might tingle a bit, but hold steady, I’m not going to hurt you.” Twilight cast her spell on Shield, accessing all his memories.
“Whoa!” Shield flinched, and lost enough portal ground to make it uncomfortably pinch Heartbreak’s neck.
“Oh please oh please oh please I don’t want to die a female earth pony!” “My heart might not be the only thing broken today… Oh why did I have to ask for this? I could have enjoyed restarting a new life with Twilight and her friends. I could have had a new life in Ponyville! But instead, I’m here, about to die, and my corpse will end up in two alternate universes. Swell, just swell. Is this what you wanted Fae Queen? Hmm? Is this what you wanted? Well, I hope you’re happy.” She spat on the ground where her head stuck out through the portal.
“Hang on!” Twilight urged as she sifted through all of Shield’s memories. “Portal portal portal portal portal… Aha! Portal!” Twilight processed as quickly as she could what Shield knew about portals. She then on the spot attempted to create a new spell that allowed portal creation. She tested in mid-air above her head, and seeing that it didn’t work, she tried again.
“Twilight!” Shield coughed. “I… can’t…”
“Hold on, Shield!” Twilight urged. She revised the portal spell and tried it again. Nothing, but this time, she felt a tingle of electro-magnetic energy.
“Hold… on…” Shield choked, running dry as he tapped into his reserve energy. The portal closed a hair-length’s. Shield was barely holding on.
“Almost there…” Twilight again revised her spell and tried opening another portal. No success, but she tried again, thinking she may have just implemented it wrong.
“Much… longer…” Shield wheezed. “Twilight…”
“Hold on, just one more…” Twilight tried again, and ZAP! A tiny portal was created in front of Twilight. The electro-magnetic energy she conjured to make it tickled her horn in a funny-strange way. “Alright, here it goes!” 
Twilight multiplied her new spell a hundred fold and zaps the portal with as much portal-opening electro-magnetic energy as she can muster. The portal stops closing, but holds steady.
“What? But that’s a powerful spell! How is not opening?”
“You think I’d know?” whispered Shield, in sheer pain. “It’s a strong force pulling it back!”
Twilight then realized the raw power Shield was capable of, and appreciated the effort he was putting into it. That inspired her to put her best horn forward. She multiplied her spell a thousand fold, the electromagnetic feedback starting to numb her horn. “If my horn goes numb, what happens? Do I lose magic ability for a while? No, no, focus. Focus.” The portal starts to open a tad bit, but only crawling. “Great, at this rate, my horn will be numb before she can get her head out.”
She multiplies her magical power ten thousand fold. The feedback is starting to hurt in her horn, and her head is starting to go numb. She feels little electric tingles in her feet where she’s grounded to the vat floor. The portal is opening more visibly. Heartbreak finally gains some wiggle room, and can almost take her head back out. 
Finally it opens enough so Heartbreak can free herself, and so she does. She comes out crying, scared to death that she almost died in a portal. Rainbow Dash flies in and hugs her.
“Guys, Heartbreak’s out. You can release the portal now,” says Rainbow Dash.
Heartbreak breaks from Rainbow Dash’s embrace to cry out, “No! Don’t! I still want to go back! Even…” She chokes on a tear. “Even if…” She still is having trouble getting it out. “Even if it ki…” She chokes on a tear. “…ills me. I want to go back!”
Tears start forming in Twilight’s eyes, and she can’t tell whether it’s from the shock of the moment or the electro-magnetic feedback. She closes her eyes, and concentrates. One hundred thousand times, one million times, ten million times…. Twilight’s pain increases exponentially, and soon she is surging with electro-magnetic feedback all throughout her aching body.
Heartbreak sees how much effort both she and Shield are putting into opening the portal, and breaks down in tears of joy that she would have such friends who would go to such lengths for her. At the same time, it angered her that she would need such special treatment. The two sides of her raged on as the tears streamed through her eyes. Rainbow Dash tried to comfort her, but it only made it worse, knowing that the toughest tomboyish-est pony was doing something completely out of her element. Loyally staying by her side even near the end… wait, isn’t that what loyalty is? What Rainbow Dash is known for?
The portal gradually opened wider and wider as Twilight poured her tears and pain and sorrow into opening it. Soon the portal was wide enough for two ponies to enter side by side.
“It should stabilize by now!” Shield claimed. “The fact that it isn’t says there’s something there that doesn’t want it open!”
“You’ve said that already!” Rainbow Dash replied.
“I know!” grunted Shield. “What if it tries to send her back once she’s through?”
“What if?” repeated Heartbreak, still crying. Her mind clouded with images of the nine people that did this to her trying to push her back out, even though they supposedly would have no memory of her.
“So?” asked Rainbow Dash, yelling above the noise of Twilight’s lightning.
“We need someone to go with her, to make sure everything’s ok!”
“I’ll go!” Rainbow Dash bravely declared.
“No, you’d be powerless,” claimed Shield. “If they’re powerful enough to stop this portal from opening, who knows how powerful they are. I can’t let you go through, Rainbow Dash. You have a life here. You have a duty.”
“My duty is to my friends! No matter how heart broken!”
“What about your other friends? Would you abandon them for the sake of this one pony?”
“Don’t do it Rainbow Dash. Stay here. I’ll be alright.” Heartbreak could barely speak from all her tears.
“I’m not leaving you, Heartbreak.”
“Sorry, Rainbow Dash,” grunted Shield, slowly losing energy. “I’m going. I’ll protect her.”
“But I can’t just leave her in her time of need!”
“It’s not your place Rainbow Dash. It’s mine. I’m the space-time traveler, I’m the one that should go. Not you.”
“But—”
“Nothing, Rainbow Dash. That’s final.”
“What about you? Won’t you get stuck there?”
“I’ll be fine!”
The portal had grown to the size of the inside of the vat. Shield approached the entrance, and motioned towards Rainbow Dash to give him Heartbreak. Rainbow Dash looked him in the eye for a second, and then looked back at the crying Heartbreak. She determined what she would do. 
“No!” Rainbow Dash bolted for the portal, but before she could enter, Shield stopped her with an electro-magnetic wall. Rainbow Dash crashed to the vat floor, unconscious. Shield then grabbed the immobilized weeping Heartbreak from her and stepped into the portal.
“Sorry, Rainbow Dash. Farewell, Twilight,” Shield made a final salute before stepping through into the room in the alternate universe.
“So long, Shield.” Satisfied that they made it through, Twilight let go and collapsed on the floor. The portal immediately closed and vanished.
On the other side, Shield made an electro-magnetic cover over Heartbreak. “It’s time to go to sleep, Heartbreak.” He said as he wrapped the cover around the crying pony, who scrambled and struggled to get out of it. “Now it’s time for me…” Shield collapsed over the cover he made and went to sleep.