//------------------------------// // 13: Progression // Story: The Games We are Forced to Play // by Kablam Pony //------------------------------// Twilight “...Aaaand done!” Twilight put down her quill and read over her new report for Princess Celestia. She was happy to report that Connor was doing quite well now without any signs of regressing into depression again. Twilight had been taking a more active roll in talking with Connor to make sure that he was doing well, both physically and mentally. However most of her questioning had been during his time with Rainbow Dash, so he was usually preoccupied and unable to answer most of her questions. But out what she could gather, between his grunts of exertion and sweaty puffing, Connor had been improving. After reading over the report, Twilight sat back to take a breather and stretch out some muscles. A bell tower rang off in the distance and Twilight paused to listen to the rings. She counted the rings and realized that it was sounding off three o'clock in the afternoon on Thursday. She looked at a clock that hung on a wall nearby to confirm the time and the clock matched the bell tower. Twilight couldn't believe how fast time had traveled through out the day with her studying, calculating figures for the portal, and writing letters or reports. Spike came out of the kitchen again holding another tray of food. Twilight was going to have to tell Spike to relax on preparing so much food for her. “Snack time!” he called out from underneath the tray, “Great! You just finished writing your 14th letter; now you can eat and keep yourself in good health.” “Spike, you really didn't need to do this for me. I am plenty capable of making food for myself.” It was getting a little embarrassing knowing that Spike was cooking meals and snacks for her like Twilight's mother had when she was young. “But the Princess said-” Twilight interrupted Spike, “The Princess said that I need to eat better. Not 'you need to worry yourself with making every meal for me just to make sure that I eat properly'.” She scolded Spike before coming back with a smile, “But thank you anyways.” She levitated the tray over to a table and gave him a small hug. “So which letter are you writing now?” Spike pulled a bowl of pasta with broccoli and carrots smothered in tomato sauce off the tray and dug a spoon into it. “Well right now this letter is a report to the Princess about Connor's current recovery. I’ve detailed my findings and the discussions I’ve had with him so far and everything seems to be pointing in the direction of improvement and hopefully returning to normal levels of well being.” Twilight levitated the second bowl of pasta to her and spooned a mouth full in to eat. Despite her previous scolding, Twilight still enjoyed Spike's cooking; when Spike put his mind to something, he definitely put everything into it. “Hmm, what about your portal? How's that working out?” Spike stuffed another spoon full in his mouth. “Well, Princess Celestia said that she brought in some outside pony scientists from around Equestria to help speed up the repair process. I could make a trip to Canterlot and see how repairs are going. Let me check my schedule...” she levitated a calendar over to her face while she ate another spoon full of pasta, “I do have some free time right now and my next scheduled letter isn't due until midnight tonight. That gives me about nine hours to fly to Canterlot, check on the portal, and fly back.” “You could also deliver your letter to the Princess in person while you are there too! And I wouldn't mind another trip to Canterlot.” Spike filled his mouth with more food. “Would you like to come with me to Canterlot, Spike?” Twilight gave Spike a knowing look. “Yeah! Hang on, let me finish my bowl,” he shoveled the rest of the food into his mouth before swallowing it all. He set his bowl down on the tray and turned back to Twilight who was just now finishing her own bowl, “Okay, I’m ready to go! Wait a minute, are we flying there?” Twilight looked at him, “Yes?” “Hang on...” Spike walked off to a supply closet in the kitchen to grab something. When he came back, Twilight saw him holding a small, brown paper bag. “What is that for?” she asked. “In case I get sick from your flying,” he said dryly, “Come on, lets go. I would rather not put this off any longer than I need to.” Twilight made a repulsive face and recoiled in disgust as he walked by. She knew her flying was not the greatest, but did it really make others want to lose their lunch? She prayed that Spike would have a strong enough stomach today for the flight to Canterlot that she wouldn't have to worry about it. ~~~ To Twilight's relief, the bag that Spike had brought had gone unused on her flight to the capital city and the castle. Twilight took careful precautions to make sure she didn’t have a sick dragon on her back such as making gentle turns and using the air currents to help keep twilight aloft. Her landing at the castle was a little better too; well, the landing turbulence was reduced to at least tolerable levels for her passenger's sake. She still had work to do on her flying technique. Twilight took a few minutes to let Spike settle down after the flight before they entered through the main purple doors of the castle. Her expectation of help from the Princess made her imagine ponies running everywhere in the castle moving documents and research papers between themselves as they tried to help rebuild the transdimensional bridge between the two worlds. However, the main hall was deserted except for the usual guards. Twilight and Spike glanced at each other, apparently expecting the same outcome. Through an unspoken conversation, the two decided to head for the tower housing Twilight's broken portal and see if anything was happening there. They traversed the familiar path to the one tower that held everything that caused this whole mess. As they got closer to their destination, Twilight and Spike passed more and more ponies that weren't part of the castle staff. A few construction ponies stood off to the side having a break and eating while a unicorn scrutinized some papers that he was levitating in front of his nose. As they approached the room, Twilight picked up a disturbance from behind her laboratory door as they neared it. She could hear ponies talking, yelling at each other, papers shuffling, and a few bangs of a hammer on something. Her curiosity peaked, Twilight used her magic to push the door open and see the commotion inside. Her eyes fell upon organized chaos in the room. Unicorns in white lab coats were huddled around tables loaded with papers and diagrams. A few pegasi were hovering overhead shouting orders at other pegasi and earth ponies to take measurements or to move equipment around to make more room. Other scientists were crowding around some of the components that Twilight had made by hoof, trying to figure out how they worked and how to reverse engineer them. In the middle of this storm stood Princess Celestia standing tall over the proceedings and overseeing the project. “Princess!” Twilight called out to Celestia. She turned around to look at her pupil, “Twilight! It's good to see you again!” Twilight ran up to give a small bow before exchanging a small hug with the ruler of Equestria. When the two separated from the embrace, Twilight looked around more thoroughly at the work force surrounding them. “Is this all the ponies you talked about bringing to help?” “Yes, it is. However, things have been slow to start on repairing the portal.” The Princess gave a hard look at the back of some scientists who were too lost in their work to feel Celestia's glare on the backs of their heads. “What do you mean, Princess? I thought everypony would be excited to help out with such a major discovery and experiment,” Twilight looked up at the Princess with confused eyes. “Twilight, what you have been working on has been extremely theoretical and hypothetical. Most of the ponies that I asked to come thought the whole thing was a hoax and didn't show up at all. Everypony here has been spending the last week trying to understand and believe that what you have accomplished was possible and do-able in the first place,” she cast her eyes around the room inviting Twilight to look around at all the scientists trying to comprehend her formulas and calculations. “Most are still unwilling to believe that you have actually created a portal to another world, but I have been able to convince them to at least look over your findings and see for themselves. It has been a long and tiring process of keeping these brilliant minds to stay and help on the project. Some still think that this whole thing is a waste of time and energy and think their time would be better spent on more realistic research. However, they have all been sworn to secrecy about this so if they decide to share what they have learn or saw here, there will be consequences.” Twilight was a little put off by the threat of punishment by Celestia, but she could understand why. If the public found out that she had discovered how to travel to different dimensions, there would turmoil and unrest throughout Equestria. Everypony would be worried about possible other-dimensional invaders coming to their cities and harming their homes or families. However, it still upset her a little bit that so many ponies would dismiss her work as bogus or a joke that the Princess was fabricating. But the scientist inside of Twilight would have done the exact same thing if she heard that somepony else had developed a portal to a different dimension. She would have disregarded it as false but her thirst for knowledge would have driven her to see the portal for herself. Why couldn't other ponies have that same drive to discover if things were possible like she did? The irritated thoughts blew around her head becoming a small storm of grouchiness. “Tell me, Twilight. How is Connor?” “Huh?” Princess Celestia's voice pulled Twilight out of her storm before it could turn into a hurricane. “Oh, Connor is actually doing well right now. In fact, Spike and I decided to deliver the report to you in person since we wanted to see how repairs were going. Hey Spike, do you have that report with you?” “Yeah!” Spike ran back to Twilight side with the scroll in hand after looking at some of the papers that were scattered on a table, “Here you go.” Twilight levitated the scroll out of Spike's claws and passed it to the Princess to read. Celestia unfurled it before her and scanned the contents inside. A smile slowly spread across her lips as Celestia read further down the letter. After reading the entire report she rolled the paper back up and passed it back to Twilight. “That is wonderful news, Twilight! I am glad to hear that he has made such progress since he arrived here! Well done, Twilight; keep up the good work!” Twilight beamed, “Thank you, Princess! Right now he is working on how to fly and he has been improving tremendously with his mood. I haven't seen him since earlier today, but I think Connor is with Rainbow Dash.” “And how is he responding to Rainbow's rather headstrong personality?” the Princess raised her eyebrows in mild surprise. “Uhm, I usually see them yelling at each other,” Twilight lowered her eyes, “But I think they are getting along. They haven't gotten into any fights yet,” she quickly added. “Mmm,” she acknowledged with deeper understanding than what Twilight could comprehend, “Alright then, was there anything else you would like to know, Twilight? Or were you simply delivering your report to me?” the Princess asked politely. “Well, I was wondering how repairs were going. What have we already done to begin repairing the portal?” Twilight looked at her destroyed and dismantled experiment still standing on top of its platform. “As of right now, we have removed all of the parts that could not be used or could be fixed. I believe we have a list of all the items that have been considered unsalvageable,” Celestia turned to the Pegasus hovering overhead still relaying orders to those on the ground, “Excuse me, foreman. But do you know where the list of destroyed parts is?” “Of course, your highness,” he said in his gruff voice, “I believe it is over there on the table next to that purple dragon.” “Thank you.” The stern pony nodded and returned to shouting commands to his peers. Twilight walked over to the table specified by the Pegasus and looked over the contents scattered across the surface. There were unfilled order forms, scratch paper with formulas all over them, and mug stains but Twilight found what she was looking for. A detailed list of everything that was considered destroyed or unsalvageable and could not be reused. It was several pages long so it took Twilight a bit of time to scan over it. However the further down she scanned the list, the more concerned she became. A few things were easy to replace or make, but some of the components were more difficult to find or took a long time to manufacture. A couple of items that were on the list were things Twilight had to make because she couldn't find a supplier that made equipment to her specific needs. What really weighed her down was the final part at the bottom of the list. A quantum particle distributor with a time/space synchronizer modification. It had taken Twilight months to find all the materials and tools to begin construction. It took even longer to make the distributor, synchronizer, and the other-world anchor to work together properly without causing a reality breaking catastrophe. Thankfully the dimensional anchor object had come out unscathed, but this was something that could take months to make again. She set the list down to look up at the Princess who was standing to her right with a concerned look, “Is everything alright Twilight?” twilight shook her head before relaying the bad news, “Well, a lot of things on the list will be easy to find and order replacements. Some of the more complex items will take some time to find companies who still make them or still make their parts, but it isn't anything too serious. But the last component on the list will be the biggest challenge. It took me months to find everything to craft the distributor and its synchronizer modification and almost longer to figure out how to make everything work together in harmony.” “Maybe so, but you didn’t have my backing on the experiment to help speed things along. I may be able to expedite the materials to be shipped here faster.” Twilight shook her head again, “I'm afraid that will only make process a little bit faster. The materials needed to make them are extremely delicate and volatile. We can get them here faster, yes, but it will still take a great deal of time and patience to craft the distributor.” Celestia nodded thoughtfully in light of this new information, but Twilight spoke up quickly to not discourage her, “But I am sure I can recreate it again now that we have my notes to help along.” “Indeed, but perhaps you should take more time focusing on our guest instead of worrying about the portal. Let me handle the rebuilding of the portal while you keep Connor contempt with living here. If he is more at ease with staying in our world, he will be more willing to stay a little bit longer if repairs take longer than expected to complete,” she gave Twilight a confident smile to tame any fears that might be brewing. “Alright then, Princess.” Twilight nodded happily knowing that the repair project was in good hooves. “Now tell me, how has Ponyville been? Anything new happening in the future?” the Princess changed subjects to maintain the good mood that twilight now had. “Well,” Twilight began, “We do have an important pony passing through Ponyville in a few weeks. The letters we've been receiving tell us that he is a very successful entrepreneur in the sports industry...” ~~~ Two days after her visit to the castle, Twilight had scheduled another meeting with Connor to see how he was preforming in Equestria. It was Saturday afternoon, so that left Twilight searching around Ponyville looking for either Connor or Rainbow Dash. She had a good idea of where to look for them. Knowing Rainbow Dash, they were probably at one of the open fields surrounding Ponyville practicing. After a few minutes of searching, Twilight spotted Rainbow just outside the town's borders staring up at something. It was perplexing because Rainbow Dash was never on the ground staring up. In fact, it was more common seeing Rainbow off the ground and staring down. She joined her friend's side, “Hey Rainbow! How are you today?” “Hey Twilight,” Dash kept staring up at the sky when she answered, “What's up?” “I was curious why you are staring up at the sky. What's so interesting?” Twilight joined Rainbow in staring up at the sky. Rainbow held up a hoof in pause, “Wait for it...” Just then, a jeans blue Pegasus came flying by and preformed a loop-de-loop before continuing on. Rainbow smirked at Twilight as her mouth hung slight agape. Several emotions played across Twilight's face including shock, surprise, joy, and finally glee. She squealed and bounced around like a foal getting the one gift she had always wanted for her birthday. “See? Told you I could get him flying in no time flat,” Rainbow Dash brushed some imaginary dust off her shoulders. Twilight stopped bouncing around long enough to let loose a stream of excited questions, “How well is he flying? Is he having any problems? How long did it take him to get airborne?” “Calm down, Twilight!” Rainbow took off to get away from the hounding alicorn, “He hasn't been flying that long. Yesterday, we spent the entire time working on take offs and landings. It's only today did we start working on basic maneuvers. He's actually not bad at flying. His take off and landing still need work but once he his in the air, he flies pretty straight.” She landed and gave Twilight a knowing nudge, “Which is better than what you can do, Twilight. Actually, he's really quick at maneuvering around. He's not as fast as me, of course, but still not bad.” Twilight rolled her eyes at Dash's comment before asking her next question, “So how good is Connor? Can I have a demonstration?” “Hmmm,” Rainbow put a hoof to her chin in thought before a light bulb went off and she came back with a devilish grin, “Yeeaahh, I think we can do a little demonstration.” She turned back to Connor flying overhead and shouted, “Hey Connor! Come down here for a sec!” The jeans blue Pegasus looked down to listen before banking around to his left and come in for a landing. Twilight was both impressed and embarrassed at the same time because his landing was already better than her's and she had been flying longer. He touched down on the ground before speaking up, “What's up, Dash? Hey Twilight,” he gave a little head nod in Twilight's direction before returning his hard gaze to Rainbow Dash. “Twilight here, wants a little demonstration on how well you're doing. And I’ve come up with an amazing idea to do that and make it training at the same time. So I’ve got a little challenge for you.” “What kind of 'challenge'?” Connor asked with a half skeptical, half sarcastic smirk on his face. “Ooh, nothing too hard. It'll just be a simple game of tag, that's all,” she strode forward in an overly casual way looking anywhere but at him. Twilight watched Rainbow Dash stride forward as Connor narrowed his eyes and stared back with his usual hard expression. If Twilight knew her friend, Rainbow Dash actually had something planned; which was a rare occasion with Rainbow Dash. She held her breath, awaiting Connor's response to the proposal. “Alright then.” Rainbow had moved up along side Connor, facing the other direction. “Great! On your marks, get set..... 321GO!TAGYOU'REIT!!” Dash blasted off into the sky, leaving a trail of rainbow colors behind for Connor to follow after. Connor and Twilight sighed together; of course Rainbow Dash would give herself a head start. But Connor turned around anyways to face the open sky. He opened his wings gave them a shake in preparation of taking off after Rainbow. “Well, this should be fun,” he said before taking off. Twilight stood there watching as he climbed higher and higher in the air, both excited and nervous to see what kind of skills Connor possessed and how this game of tag would fare. Twilight could foresee the next few minutes of her life were going to be exciting ones.