Today in the library, Twilight was meticulously marking out an arcane circle with magic infused chalk. She glanced to her notes, then back at the circle taking up most of the space in the library before muttering incoherently to herself. After several hours of preparation on top of months of research, she was finally satisfied and ready for the initial testing.
“Alright, looks like the circle is complete with nothing out of place.” She said to herself as she levitated a quill and notebook in front of her, “Now we need to log the test.” She lit her horn and cast a spell on the book and quill.
“Ahem, testing. Testing.” She said. She looked at the book in satisfaction, the quill was quickly scrolling across the page, the words ’Testing. Testing.’ were written neatly at the top of the page.
“Excellent!” She exclaimed, followed by her speech being transcribed in the book. She rolled her eyes before continuing.
“Today I will begin testing on theoretical long distance teleportation of multiple goods and personal transport that uses little to no magic needed from the pony using the arcane circle, codename waypoint. By using various magical glyphs in a specific pattern drawn with a magically charged specially made chalk, I am hoping to create a self-powering waypoint that can be connected to other waypoints of the same make and design. For this test, Princess Celestia has offered to create the twin circle in the Crystal Caverns beneath Canterlot, where the effects would be observed and recorded by other ponies from the Board of Magic.”
A flash of light marked the arrival of a letter. Twilight read it over before speaking once again. “I have just received word that they are prepared to begin testing. The first object will be a single sheet of paper. This is to test for temporal stability in the making of the paper and ensure it stays in one piece on top of actually making it to the twin portal.”
She levitated the paper into the center of the circle, “For control purposes, a normal unicorn would not have enough mana to teleport the distance attempted, and the longest recorded teleport by the most powerful Unicorn, Starswirl the Bearded, was just over twenty miles. The spell required a buildup of magic over the course of three point two minutes. With this waypoint we are hoping for near instantaneous teleportation to a predetermined location approximately sixty miles away using less magic than would be needed to lift a quill. I will now feed some magic into the waypoint and begin the teleportation process.”
Twilight lit her horn and directed her magic into the circle. The moment her magic touched the circle there was a flash, and the sheet of paper was gone.
“So far the result is perfect, the moment my magic made contact the paper was instantly teleported. I am currently awaiting word from Canterlot as to the results on their end.” A moment later another letter flashed into existence. The writing in this letter was rather sloppy, the unicorn obviously excited.
“I have the results from Canterlot, initial test went perfectly. They should be sending it back to test the other direction-” she was interrupted by another flash of light. “Seems they were rather eager, the paper has now arrived here on my end. Preliminary scans show that no damage has occurred. Now beginning tests with more complicated forms of matter: paper with ink written on it!”
And so the next several hours passed, open ink wells on a chair so see if any would spill, several random assortments of items at once, and an accident involving her Owl assistant flying over the circle at the wrong time. The owl arrived in Canterlot safe and sound, albeit slightly confused as to have suddenly found itself in a cave.
This brought a dangerous idea to all the unicorns working on the project, should they send a pony though to learn firsthoof experience? They quickly decided that Twilight should do the honor, being as the entire project and calculations were thought up by her alone.
“For this next test, I will be teleporting myself through the waypoint. Based on all previous tests there should be no side effects with the exception of standard teleportation dizziness.” She carefully stepped into the center of the circle, being mindful to not damage the fragile lines of chalk on the floor.
She took a steadying breath, “Alright here we go!” she yelled as she powered the circle.
She experienced a familiar pulling and squeezing sensation that came with teleportation. Then just as quickly as it arrived, she felt the ground beneath her hooves. She cautiously opened her eyes, expecting to find some hideous deformity on her body, but there was none.
She grinned as she looked to the cheering ponies around the cave, the waypoint is a success! She was overcome with joy and reared up in celebration, the hair of her tail mixing with the chalk on the ground.
“Great job everypony! I know you’re all really excited about what we accomplished today, but I think it’s time to call it a day. I’m sure we all have a ton of paperwork to finish filling out.” She said to a round of chuckles, “You’ll receive my notes by tomorrow evening but for now,” She paused to let out a yawn, several other in attendance following suite, “Now I think I’m going to bed.”
And with that she lit her horn once again. However, one of the unicorns noticed the rune that was smudged by her tail a moment too late. “Twilight wait-!” and with a flash she was gone.
“Damnit!” he yelled, he rushed into the circle to identify which rune was broken.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” asked his worried colleague.
“No, no no no… It’s the rune controlling the pathway, if she’s still alive she could be anywhere within reach of this waypoint.”
“Oh, well she can’t have gone too far then.”
“Weren’t you paying attention? We have no idea what the maximum range is with just the minimal magic needed to activate it! She could be further than Luna’s stars by now!”
The mage was dumbstruck for a moment, unable to counter the argument.
“Now if you’ll excuse me,” he said, “I have to inform the princesses of what just happened here. Do not touch the circle until we analyze just where it may have sent her.”
Far across the multiverse
Twilight’s hooves struck the ground hard, like she was thrown to the ground, as she tumbled through the grass. When she finally came to a stop she just laid still catching her breath, mentally going over a checklist to get a feel of any injuries or deformities. Finding none, she grunted her way to her hooves and stretched herself out, her back and neck popping in several places.
“Now, where am I?” She asked as she looked around. After a moment she began to panic, nothing was right. Trees didn’t look like that, grass and dirt didn’t look like that, and what is that, a cow?! Everything around her was made of perfectly cubed blocks of the exact same size, the only exception would be the cow and herself, but the cow looked nothing like the cows around Ponyville. This one was about the size of her, and if the eyes absentmindedly pointing in opposite directions was anything to go by, was dumb as a box of rocks.
However, there was one Ponyville resident with the same disability, and she was anything but dumb. Clumsy, yes, but not dumb. She approached the cow and cleared her throat, “Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle, what’s your name?”
The cow continued to wander in a circle, its eyes unfocused and rolling around in its head as it mooed occasionally.
“Well I guess that answers that question.” She said. She started off at a trot to see if she could find anything else of interest that may explain her predicament, noting the odd world around her. More square trees, several blocks of dirt here, and absence of dirt there.
Finally after a few minutes of travel she saw something that brought a smile to her face, a small farming village! She rushed towards it; maybe she’ll find some help after all! As she neared, she saw that the buildings were also made out of blocks, these of different types of stone and wood. All throughout the village were patches of farmland growing different foods; there was wheat, carrots, and potatoes.
The citizens, however, were the strangest creatures she had ever seen. They walked upright on just two legs, their upper legs, arms, were folded in front of their chest. Their faces were flat, lacking a muzzle and their squared jaws made them more closely resemble the type of world they lived in. Their eyes, unlike those of the cow, bore a semblance of intelligence.
As she approached, a few turned toward her and muttered to themselves, but otherwise did nothing. “Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle. Is it alright if I ask you some questions?”
The villager in front of her, the only one wearing a white coat, looked at her. “Hum.”
She took that as a yes. “Alright! Well, I’m not from here, so could you tell me a little about this place?”
“Hurm.” He, it sounded like a he anyway, grunted, his unblinking eyes gazing in her direction but not looking at her.
“Um, okay. So why is everything made out of cubes? I’ve never heard of anything like this.”
“Herm.” He grunted.
She was about to ask him some more questions but he suddenly looked up at the sky. Twilight looked as well and noticed that night was quickly approaching. When she looked back in front of her she noticed that the villager was gone. Looking around she saw several others walking into one of the larger buildings. She was about to follow when she heard something behind her, like a low moan.
She turned and saw what looked like one of the villagers, but its clothes were blue and its skin was green, almost like it was rotting. It saw her and walked closer into the light of the village’s torches. Twilight’s scream pierced the night, the villager’s skin WAS rotting away, and the shambling pace of it meant just one thing, zombie.
She spun around and ran, unfortunately she didn’t get very far, her path was blocked by an angry, tall, fat green thing with four stubby legs holding up its shaft of a body. As she stared in confused horror it began to hiss and puff up. Not knowing what to do she ran, but suddenly the green thing exploded in a massive fireball.
The force of the explosion knocked several blocks of the ground into the air, the blocks shrinking in size as they became dislodged. The zombie was obliterated in the blast, bits and pieces littered the area while there was nothing left of the green thing.
Twilight fared better, the blast just knocking her off her hooves to tumble across the ground. She quickly shook off her dizziness and cautiously examined the blast zone. The damage was massive, a huge chunk of the land was reduced to rubble, but looking at the debris there was something wrong. There wasn’t enough of it to fill in the hole.
She picked up one of the small bits of cobblestone in her hoof, it weighed almost nothing. She made to set it back beside her, but instead there was a small ‘pop!’ sound as it instantly grew in size and aligned itself with the other stone cubes.
She was beginning to ponder the mechanics behind such an event when she heard a ‘twang’ sound from behind her, followed by an arrow imbedding itself in the stone block she just placed. She yelped in surprise and spun around, behind her was another biped creature, except this one was an animated skeleton with an overly large head.
She turned and ran; aiming toward the large building housing all the villagers, she was sure they would help her. She ran up to the door, but there was no door knob to open it.
“Help me! Monsters are coming and I need your help!” She yelled, knocking on the door so hard that it began to crack.
“Hurm. Hm. Hurh.” Was all the villagers said as they stood by, idly doing nothing.
“Oh Celestia, let me in!!” She screamed as she pounded harder on the door, the cracks reappearing once again. Suddenly she heard a chitter-like, almost clicking sound. She froze in horror before slowly turning around to face the sound. It was an enormous black spider with long hairy legs ending in a claw, its eight blood red eyes glaring at her as it clacked its venom-leaking mandibles together eagerly.
Fear finally overtook her; she turned her back on the door and bucked with all her might. The door held, several cracks once again strewn across its surface before fading to nothing once more. She spun back around and began pounding on it frantically, finally noticing the door’s cracks returning. This time she didn’t stop, and when the cracks covered the entire surface there was a ‘pop!’ and the door shrank in size and clattered to the floor.
She ran inside to the back of the room, the villagers seemingly ignoring the fact that a panicking unicorn just busted down their door. The giant spider was clawing frantically inside, unable to squeeze into the opening it gave up and wandered away. The villagers also seemed equally unconcerned as a zombie shambled its way inside and began biting and clawing at one of the villagers, the villager only grunted as the zombie bit and clawed through his clothing.
Soon the villager fell to the ground, dead. The zombie shuffled over to its next victim, a trail of fresh blood leaking from its mouth as bits of cloth and flesh clung to its hands. Twilight watched in horror as the blood spilled from the first villager, and she came to a realization. She was going to die. Remembering what happened with the door she spun around and began pounding against the wooden wall, hoping the effects would be the same. She felt a sense of relief as the cracks began to show across the wooden surface, before popping out of its place and shrinking into a small block.
She glanced back, the zombie was on its third victim and, to her horror, the first villager was now a zombie as well and it made its way to the final villager. She was soon to be out numbered as she quickly turned back to the wall, a single square opening proved to be too difficult to fit through so she frantically began beating the block above the hole. She could hear three zombies now shambling their way towards her as she sped up her attempt to escape.
She nearly cried out in joy as the final block popped out of her way, and she ran out into the open. But as she did, she heard a slight hisss emitting from around the corner. She looked back, standing not a body length away was another of those green, four-legged monsters, and it was rapidly increasing in size for another explosive blast. She tried to run or use her magic as a shield, but she was too slow. The monster exploded with fury, destroying half the building and blasting her into the air.
She hit the ground hard; her vision was unfocused as she coughed up a bit of blood. Her ribs hurt the worst, three having been broken from the explosion and her limbs and head sore from the fall, her ears were ringing and she felt a wetness oozing from them. She looked around to see the sun, also a square, rise over the horizon. She wanted to laugh at that, a square sun? But pain kept her still.
The sound of shuffling behind her brought her attention back to the zombies. The blast killed two of them, but another dead villager rose to its feet. They shambled after her into the light. But the moment the sunlight touched their skin they burst into flames. Within a mere moment they were reduced to ash. She looked around the plains, noting several more monsters bursting into flames as the sun rose.
“Oh, well that’s good to know.” She said before quickly collapsing into unconsciousness.
A shadow soon fell over her body, another biped looking over her with interest.