Chapter 7: Final Solution
Sometimes, you just have to do it yourself.
When I laid it all out there, their responses were pretty much as expected.
“So let me get this straight,” Applejack said slowly. “You… uhh… the other Twilight, made a universe in her universe and we’re in that universe, is that right?”
“Yep.”
“And she kinda froze our universe or something to keep us in the past?”
I nodded.
“And suddenly it’s all up and running again?”
I nodded again.
“Why is she keeping it going, then?”
“Maybe she thought it would be fun?” Pinkie put in.
Rarity shook her head. “She doesn’t sound like it in the letter, if anything she seems—” she gave me a sidelong glance “—depressed?”
The letter was a bit of a downer that’s for sure. I took a deep breath. “She still needs a lot of explaining to do, some of this letter has some really questionable content.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow said. She looked up at the ceiling. “It’s just creepy thinking there’s somepony watching us right now.”
Fluttershy eyed the ceiling in the same way. “You don’t think…?”
I shook my head. “No, no, I mean if she wanted to, she conceivably could, but she wouldn’t be looking down, probably from the side or something.”
“The side?”
“Yeah, you know, like a play, so you can see all the actors.”
Fluttershy looked even less comforted by my explanation. She hunched her shoulders and glanced around even more, her tail tucking in between her legs in anxious timidity.
Pinkie glanced around. “Does she know about the, uhm… thing?” she trailed off.
I frowned at her. “What thing?”
“Nothing!” she said quickly. Too quickly. “So are we coming with ya, Twilight?”
Her abrupt change in topic left me suspicious, but after letting Pinkie sweat it out for a few seconds, I decided to just let it go. She moved back to rejoin the loose pack of my friends that were of varying degrees of uncertain about my spell casting. I mean, this was pretty advanced stuff, so that’s why it necessitated the use of the diagrams to help me visualise what I was going to do, but other than that, it was basically the same spell.
“Yes,” I replied. “That’s why I asked you all here personally, so that I could give you a chance to back out. It’s a risky spell and there’s some things that I’m not sure about.”
“For example?” Rarity asked.
“Uhh, things like ending up somewhere else than we expect. Like Griffonstone, or somewhere in the middle of the Badlands.” I took in their nervous glances. “Don’t worry! There’s a minute chance that will happen, what’s more likely—” I stopped myself.
“What’s more likely?” Rainbow pressed, her arms folded as her eyebrows lowered like heavy thunderclouds gathering on the horizon.
“We might dissolve into fine particles and scattered across space and time,” I admitted reluctantly. “That’s also quite unlikely, but not impossible!” I cleared my throat. “That’s why I wanted to give you girls a chance to make up your minds.” I looked down at my hooves. “This whole thing was mainly between me and myself, but I thought… I thought it’d be good to have some friends along. Besides, it could be dangerous out there, and I wanted ponies that I could trust, and all I could think of were my best of friends.”
At that, they all smiled.
“Aw shucks, Twilight. When you put it like that it doesn’t leave us much of a choice,” Applejack said with a hearty chuckle. “It’s alright, I can’t speak for all of us, but I’ll come with you.”
“Me too!” Pinkie said. “Sounds like fun!”
“I’m in,” said Rainbow. “I kind of want to see future you.”
“I’m not sure…” Fluttershy said quietly, “but I trust you, Twilight.”
They all turned to look at Rarity. “Just because I’m last, does not mean I’m the least willing, a lady waits her turn.” She turned to Twilight. “I would be happy to accompany you as well.”
“That settles it,” I said with no small amount of relief. “We’re all going.”
“What about me?” Spike piped up.
“Of course!” I exclaimed, beckoning him over. “I thought that went without saying.”
Spike grinned at me and joined the others as they approached the circle.
“Each one of these circles are for each one of you. I don’t know what kind of universe future-Me runs, but I intend to find out. I’ll have to send you one by one, with the book coming with us last. There’s a possibility that the link between here and there is too weak to hold us together, but I can guarantee that we’ll all land in Equestria.”
“Uhhh… Equestria?” Rainbow said. “That’s kinda a big net.”
I nodded uneasily. “Sorry, that’s the best I could do,” I confessed reluctantly. “This spell is very complicated and I’m not even sure if it works.”
“You haven’t tested it?” Rarity said in surprise. “My dear, how do you know if it will—”
“I only had two hours,” I said defensively. I lowered my voice as I realised how obtuse that had sounded. “I mean, I did try it on a few things, like some books and an orange, but without being on the other end, I wouldn’t know if it will work.”
I shifted my hooves apprehensively. “It’s not an exact science, and the book is quite old. Twilight has left notes and written extracts, that’s helped. So it’s like reading work I’ve already done, it’s made it easier. What I’ve found out though, is that the spell isn’t picky where it leaves you. There aren’t any safeguards, and I don’t have time to figure it out.”
“Why’re you in such a rush?” Applejack said. “Shouldn’t you take the time to figure all them things out?”
I shook my head in response. “No, no, Twilight, the other me, has somehow been able to keep this microverse in a frozen state. We wouldn’t know about it of course, but at any moment we could be frozen. By the time we are restarted, well, who knows when that will be in the host universe?”
Applejack’s eyebrows drew together. “That seems like a stretch…”
“But it could be right,” Rarity said. “This other Twilight told us in the letter. This could happen.”
“Can we like stop talking and go now?” Rainbow huffed. “I don’t get what you girls are talking about. I want to go already.”
I turned around to look at Rainbow in surprise. “I can understand why you wouldn’t want to go, but now you do?”
Rainbow grinned and thrust her arms out. “Are you kidding me? A whole new group of ponies that haven’t seen my tricks? They’re really missing out.”
I blinked at her. “What?”
“I mean think about it, Twilight, if I perform here, ponies will see me from time to time, it loses the ‘wow’ factor. Gotta keep them keen by performing to new crowds, Twi’.”
“Uhuh.” I didn’t get it.
“Eh, you’ll get it when you’ve been performing as long as I have, it’s always good to have fans. New ones especially.”
I nodded, but didn’t think I’d ever get used to fame, no matter how ‘famous’ I got. Besides, being a princess isn’t the same as being famous, is it?
“Anyway—” Rainbow danced on her hooves “—let’s go.”
“Alright,” I finally agreed. I glanced around, trying to gauge each pony’s reaction. Fluttershy was nervous, Applejack was concerned, Rarity was calm, Pinkie was excited and Rainbow looked antsy, but determined. Oh bother, I almost forgot. “Wait,” I said suddenly. “Inside the kitchen is a saddlebag for each of you, just pick one up, it should have the basics you need. I packed some extras in case they come in handy.”
“You did all of this in two hours?” Rarity said, rearing her head in shock.
“Trust Twilight to be organised.” Rainbow chuckled as she retrieved her own saddlebag. She hefted it, looking like she had trouble with the weight. “Oof, gees Twilight, what’d you put in here, books?”
I pouted. “Hey, I’m not that crazy about books. I packed the essentials. Map, compass, star charts, food, water, survival guides, paper, quills, ink—”
“Woah, woah, woah!” Rainbow said, rifling through the bag. She started pulling out the vital supplies I had packed. “When will I need a survival guide or star charts? It’s still Equestria, this will just drag me down when I’m flying.”
“Well conceivably you could—”
“—Get lost?” Rainbow finished for me. She rolled her eyes. “No way, from up high you can always make your way back.”
That was exactly what I thought, but I didn’t want to admit it. “All the same…” I trailed off as Rainbow pursed her lips. I waved my hooves before she could argue. “Okay, okay, you can take what you want.” The others took it as an invitation to dismantle their own packs as I rolled my eyes and muttered things about being prepared. It always pays to be prepared.
“It is almost like you’ve had weeks to do all this,” Rarity commented wryly.
“It’s quite thorough,” Fluttershy added, holding out a whistle. She peered at it. “But what’s some of these for, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“For maybe calling out to each other?” I posited. “Actually, it came more in handy in Winter Wrap Up when we needed to do some coordination of large groups. Okay, some things might not be a hundred percent necessary but they could be useful!
“Yeah, Twilight, I don’t think we need a whistle, unless we end up in the middle of a hoofball game,” Applejack put in with a laugh. “But your heart was in the right place. Right, everypony?”
“Indeed,” Rarity said.
“Yeah, what she said,” Rainbow said.
“It’s quite nice of you,” Fluttershy added.
“Where do I put my cakes?” Pinkie Pie muttered.
I shrugged, my cheeks flushing with the compliment. “Thanks.” When they finished making the alterations and took their places back at the circle, I swept around again. “I guess we should get going…” I waited once more for any objections. When none were forthcoming, I shoved aside a trickle of apprehension and I closed my eyes. Despite my assurances, the spell was immensely complex, and disturbances could result in the worst possible outcome. We could end up somewhere different, wink out of existence, any number of things that—
I stopped myself before I got out of hoof. Time to begin the spell.
In my mind’s eye the spell was tracing its way through the chalk lines I had drawn. The spell sunk into the lines, cementing its structure to the abstract representations on the floor. I took a deep breath, timing my natural breathing rate to the spell, a sedately counterpart to my wildly beating heart.
Breath in, breath out. In and out.
My heart slowed down, forced by my concentrated breaths and meditative state to ease up.
Glowing lines rose out of the circles slowly to rapidly intertwine with my hooves. I felt an electric tingle and at the same time I heard gasps from my friends. I ignored them, squeezing my eyes tighter with the effort of propagating the spell. This was the critical point, I had to time it right…
Then all was still. All was silent. In an immeasurably large instant or a small eternity, I synchronised with the universe. It felt like I was a part of everything, euphoric, understanding it all finding the totality of everything staggering, bounded and yet limitless.
Then my senses returned, and with it came the rush of sound, light and touch in a roaring, confusing mass.
“Twilight? Twilight!”
I shook my head, everything suddenly snapping back into focus.
“Ah bw’ah?”
“Twilight?” It was Applejack.
“How long was I out?” I murmured, blinking away the grainy edges of my befuddlement.
“Less than ten seconds,” Applejack replied in concern. “You were breathing really hard and then suddenly you stopped. Fair gave us all a heart attack.”
“Yes, darling, that was certainly something I wasn’t expecting,” Rarity said, miffed.
The others nodded silently, even Pinkie, who stared at me silently in worry.
“Sorry girls, I just saw… something beautiful.”
“Beautiful?” Rarity asked curiously.
“Uhh… what?” Applejack said.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” I admitted. “It was like I suddenly had a moment of clarity and suddenly, I knew the ‘why’ and ‘how’, then suddenly, it was gone.”
“That’s… mighty strange.” Applejack took shifted her hat uncomfortably. “Are you sure you’re okay, Twilight?”
“I’m fine…” The rest of my sentence drifted away as I took in my surroundings. “Dear Celestia…”
“She finally noticed,” Rainbow said with a laugh. But I wasn’t paying attention, I didn’t even glance in her direction.
I wasn’t seeing the library anymore, but a different reality.
Darkness surrounded all of us, but we were inside a cage of silvery light. Around us, shimmering pulses of light strobed at irregular intervals, bathing the void with bright pinpricks of luminosity.
“I must say, this is quite an elegant way to travel, I thought…”
“That we’d kinda just get sucked in and out?” Rainbow offered.
“Maybe, like, two portals would open up and we would just step through?” Pinkie put in.
“Uhm, I was thinking like a kind of shift and we would be there,” Fluttershy added.
“Hay, I thought we’d just kind of go to sleep and wake up on the other side,” Applejack said.
“No, no,” I said absently, “time and space doesn’t work that way. I have to bend it around us to extreme lengths and also traverse the outer rim of dimensions and wrap ourselves back around to be the right size. It’s basically like a space contraction, shift and expansion all in one.”
They all blinked at me.
“Uhhh…”
“Yeah Twi’, what are you talking about?”
“I’m confused.”
I heaved a sigh. “In simpler terms, what’s around us is a pretty light display based upon the expenditure of magic as we cross dimensions.”
Rarity’s eyes widened. “I’m no expert, but where are you getting all that energy?”
I shifted my hooves. “I actually don’t know. The book doesn’t go into detail about where the energy comes from, but from the looks of things, the power requirements are low, despite its complexity. It’s as baffling to me as it is to you.” I glanced at the book that was softly glowing in the centre. “Anyway, you can all move around, just don’t touch the book and we should be fine. Maybe you should get some rest, I don’t know how long this transfer is going to take.”
Rarity lay down on the glowing mesh of the floor, and we all followed suit.
I finally let myself relax, checking my saddlebags for all my tools and provisions. Mine was full, unlike the others, and had a few personal things, including some of the gifts that Twilight had left behind. The chocolates, which I shared with my friends. Some presents to our respective friends. Rarity got a bedazzling brooch, Applejack got a few seeds which she got really excited about when the letter explained they were ‘Golden Apple’ seeds, Pinkie got a small satchel that apparently fits in anything, she said something about her old one wearing out, Fluttershy got various packets of herbs that got her excited, even though I didn’t recognise them, and Rainbow got a long red ribbon that made her all flustered for some reason. She cheered up when she got a retro-looking Wonderbolt pin.
As I sat there, seeing all my friends chatting excitedly about their presents and what they received, I suddenly had a thought. I didn’t know if our journey was going to end in success or disaster, but for once, in a long time, I was looking forward to what the future might bring.