//------------------------------// // Reckoning // Story: Beyond the Veil // by Twi-Fi //------------------------------// Fluttershy was the last to join the group. “Twilight,” Rarity asked with concern. “What’s this about? Apple Bloom said it was urgent. Where’s Rainbow Dash? And Applejack?” “Right here,” Applejack answered, walking up behind Rarity. She was followed by her brother, who was pulling a cart loaded with wood. Once all of her friends were gathered, Twilight took a deep breath. “Okay, everypony, this is the situation: there is a tear in the very fabric of magic in this area..." she trailed off. "A-and it s-seems Rainbow Dash fell through it.” “Fallen—fallen through it?” Pinkie Pie squeaked. “Let’s go in and get her!” “No!” Twilight bit onto Pinkie's tail and pulled her back before she could get any closer. “We have no idea where it sent her, and it could literally send us anywhere. Fissures are very unpredictable.” “So what do we do?” Pinkie asked. “Apple Bloom is fetching Spike, who will bring me all of Starswirl’s books. No one knows more about magical fissures than Starswirl—having been the first pony to discover them. Until then, we will help Applejack and Big Mac build a fence around this area. It’s too dangerous to keep this area open. Anypony could accidently fall in.” “Um, how did she fall in?” asked Fluttershy. “I mean, since we can’t see it... it would be nice to know.” “Unfortunately, it can only be seen from certain angles. Apple Bloom said it sort of pulled her in when she got too close,” Twilight explained. "I will try and pin-point its exact location, but for safety reasons, no one is to go any closer than this circle." A purple ring formed in the air and lowered itself to the ground, moving dirt out of its way as it dug a few inches in, etching a wide safety perimeter. "We'll build the fence outside this line, Twi," Applejack said. Twilight nodded her acknowledgement, and then set her mind to finding the exact location. Twilight reached out with her magic, feeling her way to the spot devoid of magic. She felt a reverberation in her horn. A static buzzing vibrated in her skull as she plunged her spell into the void. Except there was something else there… Last time she had recoiled too soon. The spot wasn’t the random fissure she had thought. It had structure; it was stable; it had consciousness. Curious, Twilight dug deeper. Chaotic strings of un-channelled magic assaulted her. The vibrations became almost unbearable. Her vision blurred. Her head ached as if her horn were being split in half. But she could sense something lurking beyond the chaos. With all of her effort and will she pushed on. It was near sensory overload as she felt complex and organized patterns. She pushed toward it. And the chaotic magic collected and pushed back with unimaginable force. “Ahh!” In a flash of blinding purple-light, Twilight was thrown onto her back. Twilight’s ears perked to several gasps. Her friends huddled over her, watching with concern. “I’m alright,” Twilight panted. There was still a dull ache in her head, and a ringing in her ears made her feel slightly disoriented. “Alright? Twilight, you were thrown like a piece discarded fabric.” Rarity offered a hoof for Twilight to pull herself upright, which she accepted. “How could you possibly be alright?” Rarity asked. Now on her feet, Twilight felt the fuzz in her head clear. “I-I tried to find her… But this isn’t some ordinary tear. There’s something more in there.” “Something more? What is it then?” Rarity asked. Twilight racked her memory on how she felt so much resistance. I was literally thrown out. “From what I’ve read, magical fissures are empty voids into the aether. This fissure goes somewhere. I could feel magical complexities that can only come from sentient life-forms. It was big... impossibly big.” As Twilight spoke, she realized how crazy and impossible the implications were. “Twilight… are you saying there’s a whole world in there?” Rarity asked. Her eyes widened with sudden realization and fear. “Are you suggesting this isn’t a fissure, but a portal? An actual portal?” “I-I don’t know, Rarity.” Twilight shook her head. “I hope not. If somepony is messing with portal magic, then we’ve got a serious problem. That magic was banned nearly a thousand years ago after the Starswirl experiments…” Twilight and Rarity exchanged dark glances. “Starswirl experiments?” asked Fluttershy. “Terrible thing it was, darling,” Rarity answered. There was a momentary pause as the sound of Applejack and Mac started hammering the boards to the fence. “We had to learn about it—I think all unicorns have to at some point…” “But what happened?” “Basically,” Twilight said, “it was an attempt to create a transportation system. Starswirl discovered a way to cut through magic, space, and time, so ponies could instantly travel great distances. Except it all went horribly wrong. The portals destabilized the fabric of magic everywhere, and fissures started opening. Fissures were near impossible to see, and ponies fell into them and, more times than not, they were lost forever.” Rarity shuddered. “It was terrible. The portal in Canterlot collapsed and nearly destroyed half of the city. Starswirl directed the explosion through the portal. Thankfully it was still in the testing phase and the other portal opened in the middle of nowhere. After that, the project was scrapped, all of the research was buried, and the use of portal magic was banned.” “But what about that teleportation thing ya always do, Twi?” asked Applejack, peering over fence post. “Teleportation doesn’t cut through the magical aether. A unicorn, or any pony the unicorn teleports, simply exists as pure magic for a split second… long enough to move to another location and rematerialize. It only works short range. Starswirl’s portal system would’ve transported tons of ponies from Canterlot to Manehattan or visa versa in seconds.” “But a whole other world? Could such a thing exist?” Rarity asked quietly. “Starswirl suggested it… I think.” Twilight shook her head. “Look, we don’t exactly know what we’re dealing with yet. This is a subject of magic I’m not entirely familiar with, mainly because it’s banned beyond just knowing about it. I have some of Starswirl’s old journals, and his published works on theoretical magic. Hopefully Spike arrives soon…” Twilight exhaled. She needed to clear her head, focus on something else, anything else. Deciding helping her friends was the distraction she needed, she fetched a spare hammer from the wagon. “No you don’t, sugarcube,” Applejack commanded. “Rest up. We’re gonna need your magical talents to get Rainbow out of this.” “Yepers! We got this, Twilight!” Pinkie tossed a plank in the air. She spun around, smacking the board into place with her bushy tail. With a hammer in her forehoof, she drove the nail home in one swing. “See? Got this!” she sang. Twilight returned the hammer, and sat on her haunches, watching, feeling flustered and desperate. “Applejack!” Rarity whined. “This wood looks horrid.” The rest of their conversation was drowned out from Macintosh hammering another fencepost into the ground. Maybe they’re right. The constant magical attack made it exhausting to get in, and she was going to need in there again. Just the thought, though, of fighting the resistance made her head ache. She couldn't shake the frustration of being unable to leap into action with a plan. Time was precious, and the longer they waited, the less likely retrieving Rainbow Dash would be. Part of her was tempted by a sudden reckless urge to jump in and find her. Fortunately, the logical side of her brain still worked and held her back. If there were a way out, surely Rainbow Dash would've found it by now. There's a simpler solution; there just has to be. Thankfully, she didn’t have to mull much longer as a loud rattling noise rose from behind her. Twi-Twilight!” Spike shouted out. He and Apple Bloom were running at full speed. Twilight cringed as her books were unceremoniously thrown side to side in the bounding red wagon behind Spike. “I—we’re here,” he said between gasps, clutching his side. “Thank you, Spike.” Twilight began stacking her books neatly in the wagon, scanning the titles as she went. “No, no, no… maybe.” She sat the book into a separate stack. “No, no, maybe—Ooh! Magical Resonance and the Properties of Portals. Yes! And The Properties of Theoretical Magic, will be most helpful…” Twilight pushed several time-travel related books off to one side. Below them were what she was really looking for: the Starswirl journals that documented his work and findings. As far a Twilight knew, she had the only copies to ever exist. With a stack of tomes and old journals, Twilight was ready to dive in and get to work. Hold on, Rainbow, help is on the way.