CH 1: A Tale of Two Worlds
=== BABW: A New Beginning ===
=== Chapter 1: A Tale of Two Worlds ===
= [ March 18, 2080 – Nouvelle Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA ] =
There was only one word that could describe the weather in Southern Louisiana (which used to not be as far north as it was but that was increasing sea levels for you.) Actually, wait, there were two words that needed to be used to describe the weather: hot and humid. That is what all anyone felt in Nouvelle Baton Rouge once the calendar flipped from winter to spring. Those were two things that seemed to exist in name only at this point, in any case.
“Why? Why is it so goddamned hot all the time!” a relatively young African-American male outwardly groused as he looked over the balcony of his apartment. It was a common sight in most of the big cities, outside of the Domes. Due to the lack of worthwhile real-estate, many of the rich and the world’s national governments built gargantuan apartment complexes and tenements that offered more or less free room and board, at least in these post-Singularity days.
This bit of charity, while all well and good, had a far more practical purpose: a lot of homeless people in a rather confined space get very riot-y, especially in persistently bad weather.
“And now Madame Benson wants money to build an Ultradome. Because a stadium built to last ‘100 years’ wasn’t good enough the first or second time,” the young man continued to grouse in his usual sarcastic tone, as he looked at the report of NBR Saints owner Mary-Anne Benson trying to argue before the State Legislature and Board of Commerce for donations and public funding for yet another stadium, what would have been the 3rd built in the area in the last 40 years.
With a heavy sigh, he grabbed his hat and sunscreen as he headed out the door, post locking all his doors and windows.
!~!~!~!
“So what are you up to, Mister Blue?” the young man heard over his inner-ear-piece, one of the many of the augments the humans of the time had installed on their persons.
“If you must know, Midori-hime, just doing what I usually do in the late afternoon,” the young man responded as he stared over the side of the observation decks on the banks of the very large river.
“Just kinda staring at the Mississippi, right?”
“Yeah, I’m… I dunno. I’m just kinda drawn to it.”
“I can see.”
“It’s just sickening to me to see the condition the river’s in. The water looks like someone’s been dumping industrial waste in it.”
“You know Andre; it’s not healthy to retain that kind of stress and anger.”
“I know Kyoko, but I just can’t help but get riled up when I see the river like this. When I get a few dollars and go down to the coast, it’s a lot of the same. The water just looks, sick. Like the whole world is sick with a horrible virus.”
“Do you think we’re that virus?”
“No, not necessarily… but we certainly can operate a whole hell of a better than we are right now. By the way, have you heard of the super-storm that barreled into Rio last week?”
“They are saying at least five thousand dead. Countless injured and without power. Total mess in Brazil.”
“What are we going to do, Midori-hime?”
!~ [ Kyoto, Japan ] ~!
The Japanese woman sat there, in her own private little garden greenhouse, deep in the Domed communities surrounding Kyoto; the once again capital of Japan after Tokyo was rendered uninhabitable from multiple earthquakes and tsunamis. She sat there, in her knee length green skirt and blouse, looking up at the clear roof of the greenhouse garden, wondering about the question her friend a half a world away just asked her.
What are we going to do? This can’t go on, every year these flowers and plants grow a little worse, and the ground gets more and more ill. Eventually even these protected spaces will not be able to sustain agriculture.
She stood up from her seat, wiping a bit of sweat from her brow. She touched one of the nascent blooms, a white and pink striped iris. Though she could not hear words, it felt as if she could hear the Earth itself sobbing. Like a mother who was slowly wasting away; grief-stricken her child was dying and she could do nothing to stop it.
Is there something out there we could be doing, something we should be doing? What is it going to take to make the Earth truly green again? Have we crossed a point of no return?
She began to walk back toward the main residence; her parents were a bit of the globetrotting sort due to the nature of their line of work, so she mostly spent her time by herself, at least in person.
If it weren’t for those three, I would have spiraled into a pit of despair a long time ago. Just the fact that I know others that are as concerned as me makes me think that something will be worked out before it’s too late. The problem is… what is that something going to look like? What is going to be the thing to save us from the path we seem to find ourselves stuck in?
A few moments later, after the thoughts passed, she heard a beeping in her augment.
“Hey Kyoko, I hope I wasn’t interrupting anything between you and Andre. I know how your conversations tend to get,” a joking male voice said over the line.
“What I and Mister Blue talk about in private is none of your concern,” Kyoko responded with a false haughty tone.
“Oh come on you know I’m just messing with you. But it’s clear to me and Natasha that you and he have a bit of a thing.”
“And you, Ethan, should know most of all how difficult long-distance relationships are to maintain. We’re just friends, nothing more.”
Kyoko sighed as she relayed that last statement, a large part of her wanting to forge something deeper with the man who lived halfway around the world from her.
“Alright, you say that now, but I bet if you could find a way to stay in the States for a good long time, that’d change,” Ethan mused through the private communication line.
Kyoko thought for a few seconds, as she took a warm towel to wipe the sweat off her brow from her time in the greenhouse.
“We will see, I guess,” she said aloud, her voice more chipper than a few moments before.
!~ [ Boston, USA ] ~!
“And that’s another 80+ score, Agent Alkaev. You definitely seem to shoot with a purpose, Natasha.” the instructor said, as he looked over the target at all the head and body shots the field agent scored in the 10-round test.
“I have to, lots of very bad men and women out there just exasperate the suffering of those outside these Domes. So I have to do what I can to ensure our missions end with the highest chance of success.”
<Nadyezhda~ Where are you~ It’s time that you paid your debts to me!> Natasha shook her head as the terrifying thoughts of her childhood replayed in her mind intermittently, as she flipped on the safety and holstered her handgun.
“We need more agents like you, Agent Alkaev. Too many today are just in it for a paycheck and a chance to get out of the slums. You… you are driven. You are purposeful. If we had ten thousand of you I think we’d bust every Mafia cell in the post-industrial world,” the instructor imagined aloud, much to Natasha’s amusement.
She chuckled as she took the hair tie out of her hair, letting her blonde locks flow over her shoulders again.
“That is very kind of you to say. But don’t sell the other agents short. I’m sure given enough time and… experience… they will begin to see their purpose in this agency.”
The instructor shared her laugh with one of his own.
“To think, a century ago the prospect of a native-born Russian working so comfortably in the CIA would have been unthinkable by all but those in upper management. Hell, 50 years ago I probably would have laughed at you.”
“Things do change. We do evolve as a society, don’t we?” Natasha responded, before her words turned inward.
I need to find them… those bastards that killed my parents. I don’t care how long I have to wait; I will hunt them down to the very edge of the known Universe if I have to.
“Hey Natasha, are you busy? I know you usually have your shooting tests this time of the week,” she heard a familiar and welcome male voice over her more refined inner-earpiece.
“I just finished, Ethan. So what’s up?” Natasha responded; a lot more chipper herself at her beau making one of his many daily calls.
“Got off the line a little while ago with Kyoko, she was in the garden again with the sunrise. Wonder if she’s half plant herself?” Ethan joked, noting Kyoko’s rather strong affinity to the earth and plant-life.
“While I can laugh at that joke, you know exactly how our little Green Princess would react if you said that to her face, so to speak,” Natasha started as she admonished her boyfriend.
“Seriously, I do not know why she can’t open up more about it, especially to us. I know her parents have a reputation due to the kinds of projects they’re involved in, but surely they wouldn’t be that reckless or deviant?”
Ethan sighed loudly over the internal ‘phone’.
“Despite the moniker ‘Demon Doctor of Kyoto’, I highly doubt even he would do something like that. And I bet Andre would be the best man to draw her out of her shell regarding this little subject, but she won’t even let us tell him her exact identity.”
Natasha was already walking into a shower room, as she continued her conversation.
“So what do you think we should do for them? This tension isn’t good for anyone, let alone a potential couple. They could be so good for each other, despite the distance.”
“Who’s to say, really? The best I think we can do for them is to make sure we support them as much as we can, and give them a nudge when we think they’re stuck,” Ethan responded.
“Speaking of ‘giving a relationship another nudge’, this is your last week of active duty, isn’t it?” Natasha asked in a sultry tone, despite being silent to the outside world.
“Barring some kind of national emergency or declaration of war, yeah,” Ethan responded, quickly grasping what Natasha was hinting at.
“So when are you going to make your cute little way to Boston? It’s been awhile since we were in the same city.”
“As soon as they process me for my honorable discharge, again barring some kind of emergency.”
“Despite how tense things are, the world seems to be at a détente. Unless something were to literally explode, I highly doubt anything is going to throw off your schedule.”
“And that’s very good for us, isn’t it?”
“Very!”
!~ [ Los Angeles Air Force Base, USA ] ~!
“Airman First Class Hartford, your last official patrol is in roughly twenty-four hours, how do you feel about this?” Sally chirped, as Ethan looked up at the roof of his apartment-like barracks.
“Do you want me to be honest, Sally,” Ethan responded, as he wondered why the Armed Forces thought it was a good idea to have the equipment AI be able to interact with the operator outside of the actual operation.
“Honest answers will allow me to operate at peak efficiency,” the female-sounding AI voice responded with a dry monotone.
“To be perfectly honest, then, I can’t wait to get my first stipend on my card and curl up in a warm bed with my girl in Boston,” Ethan responded as he looked at the faceless, game die shaped and sized device that was the interface and receiver for his recon plane’s AI.
“I see, please do not allow your forward-looking to a warm and loving relationship with your prospective mate to distract you from completing your final assignment,” the AI responded in its usual curt and clinical tone.
“To the point like always Sally; well, wouldn’t make sense for an AI to waste words, no would it?”
“That would be a waste of processing time, A1C Hartford.”
With that said, Ethan rolled back over, his medium-tan skin and somewhat long, jet-black hair bearing the partial Guatemalan heritage not borne by his name (aside from the middle name of ‘Marco’).
A strange three years it’s been. That first day when they realized that an
“Ethan Hartford” was legitimately a Hispanic. And now I’m one incident-less mission from a nice middle-class life with Natasha in Boston.
He rolled over again in the bed, not really sleepy but not in any mood to do anything else either as the sun began to set in the near-equinox sky.
At the same time, this might be the last time I can fly in a plane to myself. I have no idea how I’ll get licensed for piloting a small aircraft. Even if I did, where would I even get a small plane to fly? And where would I fly it? I thought three years of this would get it out of my system, but it just made me want it even more.
“So tomorrow is your last active day on the job, huh Mister Gold?” Andre asked over the ‘internal’ com line.
“Boy how did Kyoko’s nicknames for us stick like that?” Ethan mused in response.
“Because she’s a really persistent girl who has a way of working people into doing what she wants them to?”
“Boy isn’t that right,” Ethan chuckled, before he got back to the original question.
“Yeah, tomorrow is my last flight, just a normal low-altitude flight to check for drug and/or refugee boats.”
“Such is the nature of our world. Even when I think I have it bad in this government housing, at least I have something relatively air-conditioned. Southeast Asia is a permanent disaster zone,” Andre groaned.
“And let’s not talk about most of Africa or West Asia. If the world was a house, half of it would be on fire and the other half would be flooded,” Ethan posited while the two of them went on a bit at the state of the world from their two perspectives.
“And yet, despite all of this, we haven’t had anything close to an all-out ground war since 2055.”
“Yeah but we’re sitting on a powder-keg. Any little incident could light the fuse.”
“Makes me wonder a lot, Ethan.”
“Makes me wonder too, Andre.”
“Dinner is in an hour and twenty minutes, A1C Hartford. I would not want you to miss a scheduled meal and have to go scrounging late at night,” Sally chirped as the clock drew closer to 6 PM Pacific Time.
“Yeah, I hear ya.” Ethan said as he rolled out of his bed and found something online to occupy his time with.
~!--------------!~
Meanwhile, across the divide between time, space, and reality itself; in a world that is both like the one we left, and very much unlike it, vastly different machinations have begun. An action that would forever link the fate of two worlds together: be it for good, or for ill.
= [ Roughly 2:30 PM - March 18, ???? – Canterlot, Equestria ] =
Princess Celestia found herself trudging through yet another day of entertaining the aristocracy, dealing with the various requests for funding of various projects from the various city-states that the various denizens of this very varied nation of Equestria housed. If one looked at her hard enough, and managed to ask the right questions, they could pluck out the evident frustration in her. She wondered how many more decades she would have been able to take; that is, before the Elements of Harmony, both the artifacts and the Ponies that bore their power, rescued her dear sister Luna from her madness. Perhaps, if everything they could have researched about that mysterious other realm panned out, they could form some kind of constitutional monarchy to relieve her of some of the burden.
She checked the ledger to know when exactly to wake up Luna so that she could get herself ready to for the daily ceremony of the Setting Sun And Rising Moon. It was nearly Vernal Equinox, the time of the year where Day and Night time-wise were more or less equal. After calling forth an advisor to carefully write down the remaining requests of the day, she set off through the hallways; her regal mane flowing like a spectral sunrise, teal flowing into lavender, flowing into pink, and flowing back into teal again, like an endless living gradient. Of course she could have teleported directly into her sister's chamber, but being the wry and sentimental sort, she just liked walking through her expansive castle. And this Vernal Equinox however was very special, so special that, if events that were to unfold progressed properly, would forever go down in the history of both Equestria and whatever nations were on the other world she and Luna ‘found’ some months ago.
She inwardly prayed to the very cosmos itself. I hope nobody leaked what is about to happen, it would be extremely difficult to suppress the information otherwise. Not without making myself like some sort of paranoid tyrant, anyway.
Both sisters had to adhere to the schedule set well in advance, and remain very extremely cautious about their use of magic before now; because what they were about to attempt with the six Bearers of the Elements of Harmony completely flew in the face all the public study of Equestrian Magic for the last few millennia.
Meanwhile, already set up in Luna's chamber, there were seven figures standing around her Royal Bed. One, a bright-violet colored Unicorn: the concerned student of the previously mentioned Avatar of the Sun and, until the last few years, de-facto absolute ruler Equestria, a Pony of incredible raw magical power but seemingly of very fragile psyche. Two, a snow white Unicorn: self-described fashionista, generous but a very bright streak of vanity that some would find off-putting at first. Three, a pumpkin-colored Earth-Pony: strength well beyond her class, second in town only to her brother, and sense of pride about a big as he is. Four, a cotton-candy pink Earth-Pony: a mare with a 100-track mind, every track seemingly looping around each other yet somehow only rarely piling up. Five, a cotton-candy cyan Pegasus: rainbow-maned and fast as tropical storm's gale, and could be as stubborn as pumpkin-colored Earth Pony. Six, a pastel yellow Pegasus: meek around those of her kind, but a will forged out of solid titanium. The seventh was a violet and emerald fledgling dragon, not too many years ago hatched and looking around nervously as he was in the private chambers of one of the co-rulers of their world.
"Ok now when exactly were we supposed to wake her up, I mean you can't pull something this big first thing out of bed,” Rainbow Dash asked to nopony in particular, hoping that Twilight already knew the procedure.
"I can't believe both of them talked us into doing this. Something like this hasn't even been attempted in eons,” Rarity quipped, still incredulous to the whole idea but hey, if the Princesses put her up to it must be for a damn good reason.
"Wow I just hope there is gonna be a REALLY big spread after this, like a ‘Congratulations you’ve linked two realities together’ feast. I mean, if we're pulling magic that hasn't been done in how many eons then we are gonna be really tired so we are gonna need a looooooot of sweets to perk us right back up when we're done right?" said Pinkie Pie, trying to be as quiet as she could manage.
"I just hope what we are doing won't hurt anyone or anything, it would be really awful if the whole world just cracked or something." said Fluttershy, voice perfectly suited for talking while a demigod was slumbering next to her.
“Far be it for me to say what anypony could or should do in the field of Unicorn Magic... but making a bridge to another world? It just sounds…” Applejack started.
"Patently ridiculous? I thought the same thing, but the theory of the Princesses is sound. And, well, something about the Elements calms me whenever I think about it. Now let’s get on with our task," Twilight Sparkle said as she levitated a scroll out of her saddle bag, "... hrm, it seems here we have to have her awake by 2:45 PM, which is kinda early for her but this is a very unusual case," she concluded.
"Ok so who is gonna do the deed? I mean I don't want her going all Canterlot Voice on me, it's like a megaphone with built in wind machine,” Rainbow Dash asked somewhat sheepishly, feeling the Royal Canterlot Voice in action some years before.
All six of the Ponies looked back at the purple Dragon with built in fax machine.
"Oh no, ohhh no. You are not asking me to try and wake up the co-ruler and pony that could throw me halfway back to Ponyville half asleep,” Spike said, backing up towards the door, looking for some kind escape route.
Just then the chamber door flew open, not all the way to slam against the walls, but enough to launch Spike in a nice little arc directly onto the middle of the back of the now formerly sound asleep Night Princess.
"Should we try and bar the windows so we aren't having to follow a purple contrail halfway back to Ponyville?" Applejack asked with all earnestness.
Rarity and Twilight quickly grabbed cushions or anything via telekinesis that could keep Spike from being launched out of the room at near-escape velocity.
"JUST WHAT IN THE BLUE AND BLACK COSMOS IS GOING ON IN HERE AND WHO WOKE ME UP BEFORE MY APPOINTED TIME!", Luna yelled at about half-strength Royal Canterlot Voice. This was enough, though, to blow everypony's mane back and practically straight. Spike, for his troubles, was only launched as far the canopy of Luna's bed, his head easily piercing it.
"Still a bit sour when you are awakened even a bit early, I see. Glad to see some things are still the same," Celestia said, finally reaching the chamber of her sister.
Luna began to regain her calm and regal demeanor, "Hrmph, well if somepony could have kept their assistant in check then maybe we wouldn't have been roused 12 minutes early. We do not appreciate being a landing pad for a draconic projectile."
"Speaking of which, can I have some space to get myself down? I really would like to get out of his canopy without hitting you again,” Spike said, trying to be as polite as one can be sticking head first outside of their princess's bed canopy.
"We apologize for the rude remarks, we are a tad bit 'disoriented' and 'grumpy', as it were, when first being roused,” Luna remarked apologetically, while levitating Spike down out of her canopy and aside Twilight, still frozen in place, mane still at a 90 degree angle to her neck. In fact all 6 of the 'normal' ponies seemed stunned into total silence after being at Ground Zero for a Royal Canterlot Burst.
"Woah, that was... woah…” Pinkie Pie barely managed to get out, her voice almost at Fluttershy's normal decibel level.
"I must say, that would come in handy when trying to address a crowd of several thousand at a time..,” Rarity remarked, as everyone's mane was more or less starting to poof back into place.
"That'd definitely clear every tree in Sweet Apple Acres. Only take a few minutes to do it too,” Applejack quipped, as she went to retrieve her had that had been blown flat against one of Luna’s indigo and blue walls.
"I've been in downbursts less strong than that, same ones that can blow a hole through most roofs if we don't aim 'em right,” Rainbow Dash also quipped trying to hide her absolute awe of the spectacle.
Fluttershy was mostly still and silent, wondering how anyone could generate that decibel level without ripping their vocal cords clean out.
"I must say, the Royal Canterlot Voice is something else,” Twilight Sparkle remarked while chuckling nervously, trying desperately to make light of the situation.
Spike was just happy he wasn't head first through fabric or being unceremoniously air-mailed back to the Ponyville Library.
~-- [3:15 PM] --~
After the eventful rousing of Luna, and making sure Fluttershy was still capable of speaking in complete sentences (both of which were successfully confirmed), all nine of them walked through the many, many hallways and catacombs of Canterlot Castle. All of six of the Bearers were taking mental notes as best they could, trying to figure out when would be the best time to get a full tour from top to bottom. Spike was just wondering if there was going to be a post-whatever dinner.
Luna then spoke up to everyone present, "As we have explained to you all before today, several months ago, we noticed a severe anomaly in the mana flow of this world. When we investigated further, we came into contact with an entire cosmos that is both like and unlike ours. We then realized that there are four specific days of that it would be the easiest to probe this world for information and observe things. These line up with our Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes, and our Summer and Winter Solstices."
Fluttershy, finally able to actually talk after a good half hour, asked "So, even though we've only found the planet a few months ago, why are rushing to try and make contact with it, wouldn't it be better to wait until we can formulate something more... sound?"
Luna answered with all honesty but trying to retain tact, "To be perfectly honest Bearer of Kindness, we do not know how much time we have until their kind reaches the Point of No Return. We cannot even be sure they haven't already passed it."
Rainbow Dash then spoke up, "Okay so let's get this straight. We just found a planet, which is in a whole other universe, but close enough to ours to reach, and we don't even know if the things we'd be trying to reach will be there to be reached?"
Celestia took that question, "Rainbow Dash, this may come as a shock to you and the rest of the Element Bearers... but the artifacts that have given you the power to fight Nightmare Moon and Discord are the very proof that this was at one point very much possible."
The Six Element Bearers and Dragon stopped dead in their tracks. None of them, not even Twilight Sparkle, the most studious pony any of them knew, had absolutely any clue that the Elements of Harmony had that magnitude of power.
Rarity being the clever girl she was, started to put two and two together. "Wait... you said before that all 8 of us were needed yes?"
Celestia affirmed her statement.
"Then this has something to do with the Elements themselves, do they not?" Rarity then continued the questioning, everyone having resumed walking before.
Luna affirmed her statement.
Rarity, trying to put the pieces together, began a long train of insight. "Oh my... I think I have the answer. What if the Six Elements were part of some greater entity."
Fluttershy, starting to catch onto this train of thought, continued. "Well, it seems like when we use them, they all get funneled into a great burst."
Rainbow Dash continued. "Ok I get ya, I know when we use them, I feel like we're are performing a thousand Sonic Rainbooms at once, at least!"
Applejack then picked up "Yeah, even though we're at the middle of the flash, Ah can still see the rainbow colors around the edges and..."
Pinkie Pie quipped up "Ohh Ohh it's like a REALLY REALLY Big and Pure Light, like the most purest pure light that you could ever get and…"
Twilight Sparkle finished the statement, "Princess Celestia? Princess Luna? I believe what we are trying to say is, that, well... we think that the Elements of Harmony were part of some ancient thing of incalculable power and force."
Luna, realizing that Twilight and her friends have stumbled onto the ancient secret through mere deduction, decided to start the true briefing on the plan a little early, or she would had Celestia not already teleported them to the chamber they were walking to.
"Sister, I thought we were not to use any Magic at all until the operation started..." Luna tersely said to her sister.
Celestia simply answered, "I'm fairly sure moving us 200 lengths down the hall won’t deplete my mana reserve terribly."
"Wait, why would use a teleport just to move us... what in the world?" Twilight said before being simply dumbstruck by the sight before her and the others.
They all stood before a truly massive door, a door with what looked like a very faded rainbow connecting two orbs together etched into and then and painted onto it.
"Fillies and Gentledragon, what you are about to see has not been seen by any mortal eye in nearly the entire history of Equestria as a nation." Celestia said as she motioned Luna other side of the door.
The two Winged-Unicorns began to charge their magic through a pair of locks on the sides of the door. Soon the entire door began to glow, and was slowly being pulled apart, gears on the inside making it like a giant split sliding door.
What the seven others saw inside truly inspired a sense of awe beyond description.
!~!~!~!
What the seven non-immortals of this group saw stretched even their minds as to what was acceptable in this land of highly concentrated magic. They saw a cliff-side and a waterfall with no obvious source of water. They saw lush and verdant fields stretch into infinity in one direction. They saw thick forests filled with every possible kind of tree stretch into another. In yet another direction they saw a clear and deep blue ocean, the pool formed by the waterfall emptying into it. Above them was the strangest sight however: a clear blue sky, not just blue-painted walls of a cave, but an actual sky. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy could feel this space had its own weather, and it was perfectly balanced. Pinkie Pie and Applejack could feel the ground beneath them was incredibly healthy and pure, like anything could grow here. Rarity and Twilight Sparkle could feel the mana flow in this space, and it was impossibly pure. In fact, those were the two words that perfectly described what was behind the doors as the Princesses closed behind the nine of them, "impossible" and "pure".
They continued walking through this space until they reached a monument. This monument was incredibly simple by Pony standards. There were six spaces in the middle of a raised platform, all around it were pools of water and various shrubbery. It was as this point that the two Royal Sisters bid their seven guests to sit and listen. There were two more hours until the operation was to begin and they all had to know what exactly it was they were attempting to do today. Celestia was the first to speak, "My Little Ponies and Dragon companion, the short discussion that we had here has led us to this point. So first of all, I would like you all to look around you at this small monument. What you see before you is our shrine in remembrance to what begat the Elements of Harmony."
Rainbow Dash was confused as to the verbiage being used, "Wait, what begat what now?"
Luna answered, "More simply put, this is what existed before, and begat the Elements of Harmony."
Celestia continued the explanation along those lines, "Indeed, Luna. The Elements of Harmony was passed down to us from a single being. Her power was immeasurable, and so was her grace. It is… truly a shame that we do not have her grace and wisdom to call upon going forward. She would especially be interested in what we were attempting to accomplish this evening."
Everyone else could see the wistful look in her eyes, as she appeared to be lost in thought somewhat.
After a few moments though, Celestia’s words made Twilight Sparkle perk up. She had seen some of the ancient records and how they spoke of a 'sister' world to theirs. A world with an entirely different set of magic, and the users of this magic were also wildly different. They looked like highly evolved bipedal apes, all shades of brown from light cream to dark chocolate. But then, the records of these creatures simply ceased, as if something had severed the link and the ancient Ponies just lost all contact with them. Eventually knowledge of these creatures faded from the minds of larger Ponykind entirely.
Twilight Sparkle sat there and trembled at the thought, she could not help but speaking, but what she was about to say could shake her five friends down to their cores, "Humans. The world you have been observing is the Human World that we, I can only assume, lost contact with eons ago, isn't it?"
"What, Humans? You know those are an old mare's tale! I mean honestly, they looked just glorified apes; a bit skinny yes, but primates still the same," Rarity yelped in absolute surprise. Neither she nor her friends, besides Twilight, could even imagine that creatures of legend could have been real in any fashion.
"Rarity, all of you, what Twilight has deduced is absolutely, 100% correct. However, in order to explain fully what her statement means and what this means for our operation today, I must start at the beginning," Celestia said, motioning all of the ponies and the dragon to prepare for a long story.
"Before I begin, I must warn you what I am about to say, if I were to say it in public, would most likely have every pony that ever heard it repeated believe me or Luna or both of us to have finally gone senile," Celestia began, quietly musing on how a being that didn't necessarily suffer brain degeneration could go senile, before quickly going back over her earlier point.
"As I stated, the Elements of Harmony were given to us by a being of great power and wisdom, the very will of our species given form. With both her and another force, Rainbow of Light, our world shared a special bridge: both literally in the Rainbow of Light, and figuratively, in the relationship this great entity and another from the realm of Humanity shared. As far as Luna or I can reason or research: that Rainbow existed as far back as any record could show. This connection worked both ways, as well; the Ancient Humans and Ancient Ponies were in constant contact with each other, sharing ideas and magic. Being industrious tool-makers, they created devices far beyond ours, even to this day, that utilized their brand of magic, and we showed them how to affect their environment to a degree far greater than what they managed on their own. However, like many Golden Ages, it was not meant to last. Some unforeseen cataclysm occurred in the space between our two worlds, and completely shattered the link. After that, we have no idea what happened to the Humans. That is, until we recently began to come back into phase with their world, and we could observe and, admittedly, pry into their information networks."
Celestia then paused in order to levitate some water to drink from one of the many pools that formed around the Shrine of Harmony, and quickly resumed. "After that cataclysm, we only barely managed to stave off a massive ice age. This phase of our history resolved itself in a similar fashion to the fable of Hearth’s-Warming Eve. At that point, the ancient Equestrian tribes and nations reforged their will and their collective link to Magic; and began to reclaim their environment, with the assistance of the other sapient races, such as the Dragons and the Zebras."
Celestia and Luna took a short break from the story to allow the six bearers of Harmony to digest what they heard so far. Applejack was the first to ask a question in this regard, "Alright. So Ah can get that we're all holding something that's a piece of something way bigger, but how could a whole separate world exist, and nopony even know about it?"
Luna then answered this question, "There are an infinite number of cosmos, large and small, that exist along ours in their own spaces. Some are made of nothing but empty, still particles, effectively 'dead' and waiting recycling. Some are roiling pits of pure energy, no sense or reason to anything. Most however are working, functioning universes, although there is nothing to say they work in a way that we'd recognize. The world we were connected to was a part of one of these latter universes."
Twilight was already trying to simplify the story, "Ok, I think I got the gist of what you've just told us. One, the Elements of Harmony was given to us in some form or fashion by a being possibly greater than you two. Two, our world was connected to the Human World by a Rainbow of Light. Three, this connection was shattered when some kind of Cataclysm struck our world and possibly the Human World as well."
The two Princesses merely nodded, as the Element of Magic was mostly right in their assessment.
Pinkie Pie then began to suss out what exactly they were going to resolve the last point Twilight made. "Ok, so we have the Elements of Harmony and you all have your own raw power, are we gonna try and make a new Rainbow of Light or something?"
Celestia responded curtly. "No, with our current resources we can only create a reasonable facsimile, and it would only allow those that use Equestrian Magic to travel to and fro."
Rainbow Dash then asked a question she felt in the back of her head she shouldn't ask, but somehow did anyway, "Well, just how much power would it take to actually rebuild the Rainbow of Light?"
Luna answered, "To use the energy released from your Sonic Rainboom as a reference point, consider roughly 10^1000 of those events, all occurring within a space of one cubic standard horse-length, simultaneously. This phenomenon would then need to occur repeatedly over the span of one year, in order to roughly equal the amount of energy to form and sustain the Rainbow of Light for ten days, give or take three hours. Or to be more blunt, an amount that, if not restrained, would probably reduce this entire realm to ashes several hundreds of millions of times over."
Rainbow Dash did not know if the techno-babble or the sudden feeling of gross inadequacy made her feel worse.
Celestia and Luna then paused again. They explained the purpose of the meeting here, but now they had to explain the why. They were dreading this, because neither of them had any ability to forsee how their charges would react to this part of the story they had to tell, and they only had this evening to pull it off, lest they waited another three months to attempt it.
~-- [ 4:00 PM ] --~
Celestia was now standing on the raised platform of the monument proper, marveling at how well the inscribed magic circle held up all of these millennia of not being used. She then turned around to address the Bearers properly. "Now that we have established the 'What' of today's operation, we now need to establish the 'Why' of it. What is our purpose in constructing this bridge to the Human World? When we first began looking at the world, it was entirely alien to us. There was almost zero magic, there were gigantic areas of rampant and unrestrained urbanization and industrialization, and the wild flora and fauna was dead or dying. But what disturbed us most were the people. They seemed lost, lost not in terms of not knowing where they were, but lost in their hearts. As if everyone had been blindfolded and told to just wander aimlessly. We could not fathom how an entire population of so many billions, and yes, that is with a ‘B’ billions, could be so directionless. Then we saw them. There were these Domes made of some glass-like material, and the beings that lived in them were protected from the ravages of the outside world in their view. Their plants and animals were healthy as far as they could tell. They had plenty of fresh food to eat. Honestly the idea sickened us. We couldn't tell what kind of creature would establish this order of a few elite with all the resources, and a forsaken many with little to nothing for themselves."
"That is before we began reading their history. It shocked us even more. Rampant wars, genocides, slavery... we thought these were the signs of a species that had gone insane, beasts that we’d consider monsters, or even demons. That was, however, before we managed to get to the root of their civilization and how they developed. Once we did everything we had researched until that point made sense, and our anger turned into pity. While Pony Society was built around co-operation because we could actively manage our environment, they could not. At some point their magic simply ceased working, and we could not determine why because their own record keeping was virtually non-existent during this time. Nevertheless, they were left to a world that was cold, desolate, and cutthroat. Eventually humans had to become the same way; otherwise they would have gone extinct eons before today."
Everyone gasped, trying to contemplate a world where they had no control over anything and were left to the mercy of forces larger than themselves. Fluttershy figured it would have been like trying to live in the Everfree Forest, but now the Forest was a whole world.
"The hypercompetitive death game life became on Earth began to plague Mankind as a society. While Ponies are not immune to the psychological monsters of Greed, Envy, and Hatred, Mankind seemed especially brutalized by them. They were locked in a constant mental war; and yet, over the millennia, they had begun to progress and expand their territories. Not war, nor plague, nor natural disaster... nothing could ultimately stop their expansion; even if the expansion was not even and uniform. But eventually, they had run out of places to expand. So then they began to develop mentally. Their science had become their replacement for magic. They began to utilize the primal forces of their universe to their own ends. Perhaps if they were given more time and were in an environment that gave them a wider berth to try and fail and experiment, they would not be in the condition they are in now."
Applejack asked, "What do you mean 'be in an environment that'd allow them to experiment'? Couldn't they just do it on their own? It seems like whatever had happened all those years ago haven't stopped them."
Luna responded for her sister, feeling she needed a break anyway. "Bearer of Honesty, in our world, Ponies are more or less free to pursue their own talents so long as they do not directly interfere in the business or pursuits of others. Sometimes this causes conflict, sometimes it doesn't, but in general we are able to resolve these differences amicably. Humans however, due to the uneven nature of resources in their world and their general scarcity, generally do not resolve these differences amicably. And scarcity breeds conflict, and conflict eventually breeds war. These wars were fought repeatedly, but not simply with swords and other weaponry. There have been wars of religion, wars of ideology, even the soft conflicts of on culture trying to promote itself over another. Humans are extreme competitors, because they have to be to survive their world. And to that end, unfortunately, just because many can reign in this spirit and direct it toward beneficial, or at the least neutral pursuits, doesn’t mean the extreme know when to stop. Eventually, these extremes in the realm of industry began to ‘win’, ignoring the pleas of those who wanted to protect their environment and the natural world they lived in. Now, their world now finds itself in a massive lurch, the environment hardly able to support the multitudes that dot it in their massive cities. And apparently, those that profess themselves above the general population could not care less about what happened, and still is happening, to the rest."
The Princess of the Night continued, the frustration in her voice and heart becoming ever more obvious to the audience before her.
“Their spark, their spark of creativity, their spark of inventiveness had not been, nor is yet extinguished. However, what the larger population has been robbed of is their ability to exploit their own talents to benefit themselves and others. Those who can build find themselves having to compete with machines that require neither food nor shelter, simply fuel for their systems. Those who can perform or produce art find no takers or audience for their work. Those who at one point desperately tried to preserve what was left of their pristine and natural environment now despair and weep at how the world appeared to be growing brown like a tree shedding its leaves for winter. There are even those in the elite who try desperately to teach their brethren the error of their ways before they truly pass the point of no return. Yet their pleas largely fall on deaf ears. Both my sister and myself feel that we would be remiss, and abandoning the creed of Harmony, if we did not offer what assistance we could in helping this species rebuild their world into one that can truly thrive.”
After Celestia and Luna were done, they looked to the seven mortals arrayed before them. One, the butter-yellow Fluttershy, asked them the question they hoped, and prayed that none would ask until they were well into acclimating themselves with the nations of the Human World.
“Princess Celestia, Princess Luna. If their world is truly broken to the degree you say it is. Then some of them are going to want to come here. So what are we to do if some of them did want to move here?”
Time itself appeared to freeze the very moment Fluttershy ceased speaking. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna looked suddenly crestfallen, as they began the mental gymnastics of how exactly to explain that part of their still theoretical plans to the seven mortals before them. Eventually both resolved to just give the simple truth, and hope their audience understood.
Celestia drew in a large breath, and began to answer. "My Little Ponies, Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. What I am about to say does not leave this room, until the events, if they unfold, do unfold. I cannot stress enough how VITAL it is that none of what I am about to say is leaked to anyone, unless myself or my sister are the ones to tell them. Effectively, time has become their enemy. If it were earlier in human history, this solution would not even be broached in the way that I would suggest it. Humanity, if current trends hold, is most likely one or two major plagues or natural disasters away from breaking down entirely. Luna has already begun developing a countermeasure however, but I fear that what we would ask of them may be too much for even the most desperate of humans to agree to."
“If their world and environment break down before we are able to affect change to it, then yes, the next logical solution would be to begin evacuating humanity here. While we believe it would be an extremely strenuous task and very taxing, it could be done, but only on the strictest of guidelines. However, we have run into severe complications.”
“What kind of complications?” Twilight Sparkle responded, as she looked up at the two diarchs of Equestria.
Celestia took another large breath and responded.
“The identity of any sentient being is largely informed by the body through which they perceive the world. However, that very body has proven to be a literally deadly problem for Humankind, should they even so much as set foot in Equestria proper. The raw magic that is embedded in the very world of Equus itself is like lethal radiation to them. Even at normal background levels, it would likely kill a healthy adult male of their species within 72 hours. I am fairly sure that having only three days left to live is nowhere near a viable solution to leaving a world that may be becoming incompatible with them.”
Luna then took over the explanation, as the magic from the Elements and their two beings began to activate the Shrine of Harmony.
“But as We said, there is a solution, but it may be one that only the most desperate would avail themselves of. Yet, I would not remove a potential escape route should it come to that. Allow me to condense the theory of this solution to its most basic form, since we are short of time: we would offer those who willingly and knowingly understand the consequences, the ability to emigrate to our plane of reality, at the cost of altering their physical form from that of their birth, to that similar to you. In other words, we would be transforming them from Human to Pony.”
The seven mortals sat dumbfounded at the very notion. How could anyone agree to such terms? Yet, at the same time, if they had the ability to allow any of them to move on to literal greener pastures, who were they to deny them. Who were they to say that a human who wanted to couldn’t move on if they truly wanted to, just because they themselves were stuck in a moral quandary?
As the Magical Array began to glow hot with the gold and azure magic of the two Alicorns, the six bearers of the Elements of Harmony suddenly felt something grab at their minds: their imaginations filled with visions of the other world they were now forging a connection to. The sister Princesses stood dumbfounded themselves, as it appeared all six of the Bearers of Harmony had suddenly gone completely blank, yet they could not cease the spell-weaving to attend to them. They could only pray to the Cosmos that whatever had just happened would not permanently damage them or anyone (or anything for that matter) else.
===========!!===========
This is my last chance, my final gambit. I can feel that ancient Will trying to re-forge the bridge shattered so long ago. Please, please let this be true…
===========!!===========
Pinkie Pie found herself sitting in a ransack hut, she could hear children crying somewhere behind her. They passed through the astral image of Pinkie, just simply an apparition that was there to observe and not interact. She walked through the wall to where she found the room of the crying children. They were sobbing over a bed; a female figure was covered up in the tattered bed-sheets. Pinkie eventually reasoned, correctly, it was the children’s now deceased mother. The woman had recently passed away due to some water-borne disease; years of bad diet and random illnesses had weakened her body enough for Death to finally claim her. They held the picture of their departed mother, trying their best to hold on to what few good memories they had in this period of intense grief. The eldest sister was missing, feared kidnapped by human traffickers. Their father was dead, killed in action in some war before most of them could pronounce his name.
This... it's so sad... I…
She was then shuffled to another scene. She saw the children that lived in the supposedly advanced countries. They sat and stared at the holographic computer terminals, clicking to and fro on whatever. Nothing ever grabbed their interest, and they couldn't go outside and play either; the air was so choked with particulates the last week and most of them had respiratory illnesses. The few games that caught their attention for more than a day were so monetized, that only the kids of people in the Domes would ever win at anything. There was hardly any organized schooling anymore, the government and the Dome-dwelling citizens largely stopped caring. Everything else had become bland and dull. The food was bland, the media was bland; practically everything was bland and uninspired. It was day after day of soul crushing monotony, and it was like these children's souls were being ground into a fine powder.
So... so much despair, even I didn't have it this bad growing up...
The she saw the children of the Domed cities. They were hardly any better, though they supposedly had everything a child could want. Their parents had lots of money to buy all manners toys and games for them, and they opportunity to play or do whatever activity they wanted, and had the ability to dine on fresh food that didn't taste like industrial gruel. Yet, even these children knew something was terribly wrong. There was no soul behind anything, none of them felt like they wanted to do these things. They were under constant pressure to be good at everything because the Dome people were superior, and most were forced to waste their time on activities they hated. Many had rooms full of toys and dolls that they never asked for, apparently they parents just loved playing the game of "I can buy my kids more than you can buy yours". A lot of the children felt so empty inside the Domes, little birds living in gilded cages, never to spread their wings to fly where they wanted.
Even the rich kids have it bad... what is anyone supposed to do in a world like this...
Pinkie was having a hard time accepting the state of the Earth; it seemed so devoid of joy, so devoid of laughter. Then she realized what was happening, it truly was becoming devoid of joy and laughter. All the pain and suffering of the poor, all the apathy of the middle, even the children of the well to do were finding it hard to care about anything. These humans were desperately trying to find something to bring joy into their lives, but everything felt empty, it felt soulless. It was so much to bear, these people she didn't even know just going through life not knowing or not being able to sustain laughter, joy; the thought that even if life did you wrong, there were still things worth appreciating. She began to weep openly, as the necklace of her Element of Laughter appeared and began to flicker. She then heard a voice, a voice similar to but not quite her own.
"Element of Laughter, the children of this world have been stripped of their joy, robbed of their ability to laugh."
Pinkie asked, not knowing where to look to direct her words. "It doesn’t seem possible. How can an entire race not know laughter, not know joy?"
The voice replied. "They do know these things, but they feel as if they are drowning. They are surrounded by death and despair. They cannot fulfill their talents. They remain stuck in one place for so long, they lose the capacity to care for anything else. These people are slowly being dragged into a black hole of Despair and Apathy."
Pinkie stood up, her astral body glowing cyan blue like her Element of Laughter. She had seen enough, enough despair, enough apathy, enough of a people seemed like soulless zombies. She knew what she had to do now, she had to go there; she had to go to this world that seemed gray and bleak and give color to it. "I won't let this continue. These people have done nothing to deserve this. AND I WONT LET IT CONTINUE! DO YOU HEAR ME?! I WILL NOT LET THIS WORLD DIE IN DESPAIR. I WILL NOT LET IT DROWN IN APATHY!"
=~ --- ~ --- ~=
Applejack found herself standing next to a MegaTrain station, where a family was waiting there for the next train. She walked up to them, knowing she was but an invisible ghost to them, but she still had to see what this and so many other families were waiting for. She then saw the sign, "Grand Prize Drawing for the Dome Lottery." It dawned on her then: this was some kind of lottery drawing to get into the domes. She heard the clamor of the families, they heard that they would leave immediately and be given a sizeable stipend if they won. Others talked about what they had to sell in order to get enough credits for a ticket. Applejack felt queasy at the sight, her enhanced sense of honesty going off like a warning klaxon in her head.
Somethin’ ain’t right about this. Everything feels like a big scam waitin’ to happen...
She saw the men in the nice suits roll out a podium with a large electronic display. The suited men assured the crowd that the software that would produce the random numbers was entirely legitimate. Applejack however could see in their eyes and feel in their voice that they were lying. The suited men pressed a button and the numbers began to flash in the display panels.
"13. 45. 59. 83. 28. 31.", one of the suited men said. He took out a pad to cross-reference the winning number against all of those with a ticket. Of course, there weren't any matches; they made damn sure of that.
The other suited man smirked out of the crowds view briefly. "Oh I'm sorry, no one won today. But don't worry you all, we will be back in 2 weeks’ time with a new drawing. Just tell your friends to come by next time, who knows, one of you all might be the lucky ones."
What lucky ones?! You cheated all these people out of whatever it was they had to give up just ta play this rigged game. Applejack said in her inaudible, ethereal voice. She was becoming visibly angry now.
The scene then transitioned to a nice corporate office inside a Domed city somewhere. There was a man reading expense reports. Something was gnawing at him in the back of his head. The official reports were not lining up with the amount of capital and resources the company supposedly had. Someone was doing something off the books, and it was his job to figure out what it was, he has a responsibility to his shareholders. The a few weeks later, he found out who had been skimming the funds. It was the CEO and half the Board of Directors. What the hell was he supposed to do now? He was now stuck in a situation to where if he did his duty to his shareholders, the boss could just fire him. He would have hell trying to get a new job, all of the CEOs it seemed like were stealing from their companies; they wouldn't take on a rat like him. It was eating at him, he had a family, he had daughters, he couldn't go out there, not with the way things are now. He then began to cry, he didn't know what to do. Has his whole tenure at this company just been a lie, was everything he worked for just one big lie? What kind of man would he be if he had to lie every day of his life just to keep up his lifestyle for the sake of his kids?
How could they do this to him, he did nothing but be honest. He was trying to play everything by the book. What is the point in following the rules if someone is gonna break them without penalty?
Applejack was ready to kick down the walls of the building. The whole world seemed built on deceit, lies, and obfuscation. This world had become weak, like a tree with rotting roots and any strong storm would blow the whole thing over. She stomped and thrashed about, her astral projection not being able to do any real damage but she needed to vent somehow. Her anger slowly turned to an intense sadness the more she carried on like this. She began to cry for the children, whose innocence and trust would be slowly decimated as they grew up. The Ponies prided themselves on their honesty and forthrightness. Even if they did not always hold to those ideals, at least they tried dammit. This world, however, had given up trying to be honest, and now it had devolved into just get whatever you can; even if you had to lie, cheat, or steal to do it. Her Element of Honesty began to flicker, and she heard a voice like her own beginning to speak to her.
"Element of Honesty, the people of this world are losing their ability to trust. They have begun to see no reason in being honest with each other."
Applejack looked up, but saw no one. She then answered the voice, not knowing where to direct her attention. "How could a whole planet lose its trust, its honesty? It don't seem possible."
The voice replied, "Day after day their friends lie to them. Year after Year their parents and loved ones lie to them. Decade after decade those that broker power lie to them. The people have been beaten down; they no longer trust authority, they no longer trust anything. In many cases, they can't even trust themselves. A world with no trust, with no honesty cannot stand. Nations will go to war as no one can be trusted as an ally. Eventually this world will crumble as the notion of organized society becomes largely pointless with no trust or honesty between the participants. This world is being dragged down a black hole of Lies and Deception."
Applejack stood upright. She had seen enough, enough lies, enough deceit, and enough obfuscation. These people needed to be reminded that honesty is a virtue worth having. There were those who could be honest enough and garner enough trust to lead them; that there were those with enough trust to bear their entire souls to them in companionship. This world did not need to collapse in on itself because of the weight of its own deception. "Then I'm going there. I'm going to that world to save it. YOU HEAR ME EARTH. AH'LL SAVE YOU FROM THE LIES, THE DECEPTION! AH SWEAR BY ALL MY KIN THAT AH WILL SAVE YOU ALL!"
=~ --- ~ --- ~=
Fluttershy landed on Earth, but it looked like Earth 200 years ago. She looked at the deep rich forests, so full of life and vigor. Then the clear-cutting started, and the mining, and the urban development. She watched the forest be eaten by maw of asphalt and metal. The animals that were native were pushed further and further in, or had to risk living amongst the humans. A few did survive, some even thrived, but many of the humans saw them as pests. Then the humans needed more space, and began encroaching into the territory they shouldn't have. They began moving animals, some intentionally, some accidentally, and what were once just merely perceived to be pests that could be controlled turned into infestations that in went entirely out of control. Entire ecosystems became dangerously unbalanced; diseases one group of humans could resist instead found fresh 'prey' in other populations. In a short 200 years it seemed like the world itself was spinning out of control. Whole species were gone, carcasses littered the landscape, beasts dying of the poisons Man didn't think to, or simply couldn't clean up. The great forests and plains looked like bombed out wastelands now, only a few trees were hardy enough to even grow past 20 ft. anymore. Many of humans warned of this fate, industrialization truly gone amok, and balance had to be restored lest they join the numbers of the dead and dying. They were ignored however, and it seemed the slow death march towards oblivion was going to go on apace.
How could they be so cruel? Don't they see what they are doing to their own world?
Fluttershy then saw many varying scenes. She saw the people protesting and rioting, looking for work of any kind, or some kind of increase in support. The governments however did not heed their pleas. Some even went as far as to send drone guards to 'remove' the protestors. The broken bodies made her physically ill, but what disturbed her more were the broken minds she saw. She saw the children who had nothing but gruel and fabricated meals to eat, hardly any decent clothes given the terrible conditions they had to live in. She saw the teenagers, with no hope, taking their frustrations out on other teens; lots of idle hands becoming tools of the Devil as it were. She saw the broken and battered adults, some lamenting that this era it was hard to actually die of exposure or what have you. Many of them felt like ghosts in a Purgatory, never really alive, but not dead either; so many people now wandering around hopeless and lost, simply existing and not really living.
Even the people lucky enough to live in the remaining world powers couldn't escape this feeling. So many lived in the truly gigantic public housing complexes, few could afford their own plots of land, even though it was dirt cheap outside the Domes. The soldiers coming back home were left to suffer in silence, the government mostly ignoring their supposed duty to take care of those that survived the exotic diseases and high-caliber weaponry. The veterans that weren't broken shells of people were instead terribly violent, almost as if they were raging and thrashing against the world itself. They would beat up the homeless and the indigent, anyone the seemed lower on the totem pole. They were mad at the system; they were doing anything to get the system to pay attention to them, to listen to their plight. However, the most they got for their trouble was an arrest and imprisonment if they attacked anyone near the Domes.
I see now... this is even worse... it was only a few people; a few people did this to the rest of them and their world.
Fluttershy was then in the room of a young lady living inside the Domes. The young lady watched images similar to what Fluttershy saw already on her holographic television. She was devastated by the images, and then saw a number to call in to a charity. Charities still operated in this time, but they were so overburdened; but those who worked for them felt a need at least try and ease the pain their fellow man felt. She felt the same way, however her parents certainly did not. No sooner than she tried to dial the number on her wrist-phone her father attacked her. He wrenched her hand back, hyper-extending the ligaments in her wrist; and for good measure, swift-kicked her in the back of the knees so that she'd collapse to the ground. Fluttershy was horrified a parent would do this to their own child, a child that only wanted to help her fellows in whatever little way she could. She did not miss the symbolism though; the will to help was being subsumed by the rank selfishness of a few. The young lady cried openly, as did Fluttershy. Her injuries, given the state of medicine for those in the Domes, were minor and easily fixed. What couldn't be fixed was the thought there were people out there going hungry, people out there with improper clothing or shelter. The few straggling mega-fauna species in the wild were on the verge of extinction. The whole world was breaking apart, and no one seemed to care, it was like kindness had been sucked out of this world, replaced by coldness and cruelty.
Why, why is this world so cruel? Why do the people who can help refuse to do so? Why do they prevent those who want to use their power to help do so?
Fluttershy was quietly weeping. She couldn't take it; she couldn't take how cruel this world had become. It was so bleak and gray, everything just seemed... wrong. It shouldn't be this way, she saw the still flickering lights of kindness in the hearts of these people. So why was this world in such terrible condition? Why did it seem like the whole thing was ready to disintegrate at a moment's notice? She then heard a voice like her own, as if her own subconscious was about to answer her questions.
"Element of Kindness, this world is losing touch with the concept of kindness. Civility is degenerating as they lose kinship with each other."
Fluttershy looked around for someone to answer, but she couldn't find anyone. So she just spoke, hoping whoever was speaking before would hear her. "How can a whole world just forget kindness?"
The voice responded. "The ancient world was cruel to mankind. The weather, the predators, it seemed as if everything was set out to destroy them. So they became cruel in kind. They beat back the environment itself, believing if they could establish dominion over it, they would never be subject to that cruelty again. They also tried to establish dominion over each other. The cruelty of war begat suffering, and the suffering fostered notions of revenge. This mutual revenge eventually begat hatred: of the other tribe, the other nation, the other ethnicity. Even when people began to try and reason these hatreds away, not enough did, so these hatreds were never truly overcome. As the powerful of this world began to close off more and more routes of progress due to their own selfishness, people were left to wallow in the cruelty of a world gone mad and a leadership grown distant. This world is now being dragged down into the black hole of Cruelty and Hatred."
These words began to steel Fluttershy's nerves. How could she weep when there was a job to do? There were people to be saved from the ever spiraling cruelty and hatred. There was a whole world out there begging for help, something to come along and rescue it from a so-called leadership that would sooner see it self-destruct than give up their position. "They don't deserve this. None of them do. NONE OF THEM DESERVE TO SUFFER LIKE THIS. I WON'T LET THEM. I WON'T LET THEM SUFFER THIS LACK OF KINDNESS ANY LONGER!"
=~ --- ~ --- ~=
Rainbow Dash landed in the middle of a city. She walked around, a bit mesmerized how she could already be walking on the ground in the other world, until she realized she was a ghost at the same time. After freaking out for a few moments at the faulty notion she was already dead somehow, she saw a human couple. They seemed a perfectly content couple, the relative lack of resources not being of real concern to them, or so it seemed. She followed the couple for what seemed like a couple of months through their relationship, the male continually expressing how, regardless of their condition, he'd always love her. This struck Rainbow Dash as quite odd.
If you are always going to be loyal, why do you need to tell her all the time?
She then saw why he repeatedly professed his loyalty out loud. The female was sitting alone one night, she kept trying to call the male, but he never responded to the messages or private calls. It was scaring her; she had inkling about what might have been going on, and she desperately wanted it to just be some mild paranoia. However, she had to get out and confirm for herself what was going on. She eventually tracked the male down, and what she found utterly shocked her. He was already trying to woo another female out in public. Apparently, this new female had few more credits on her, probably wasn't laid off until later in the cycle of the Singularity. Needless to say, she felt incredibly betrayed. He had professed his love, his desire to be together, through thick and thin to her; and yet he was already trying to run out on her for another bitch with a few more credits to her name. She bolted towards the where the two were sitting, and the confrontation was quite ugly. The male was desperate to escape as both females argued virulently, and eventually got into a physical fight. Police, thankfully human this time, were called in to disperse the fight. Rainbow Dash stood by and watched; her jaw agape at this blatant display of betrayal.
How could he... she hardly had any more money than the first girl... and he ran out just like that?
Rainbow Dash was then transported to a darkened corporate office in the Domes. She saw a man sitting in the office, and he was being faced with a decision: sell his company to a corporate raider for a quick cash-in, or stick through and pray he could defeat the hostile takeover attempt. He wretched over this decision, he tried to call his friend, his long-time business partner. But there was no answer. He sent him e-mail, text messages, neural private messages, anything to get in contact with him, to get his advice, anything on how he should proceed. Nothing. Then a message from the corporate raider.. his best friend, the man he started the company with, the man he went to bat for, the man who he was going to ask to be his best man at his weeding. He had already sold out, there were now just enough shares for the corporate raiders to take over his entire company, his entire life's work was about to go up in smoke in a few days’ time. How could he tell his fiancée, how could he tell his stepdaughter, he was supposed to be the provider. Why, he was always loyal to him, he always did was in the best interest of the company. He cried, he cried as he ordered all his stocks sold, he had given in, the raiders had won.
What the hell is wrong with this world? How could someone sell out their friends like that... not even give a reason, just 'boom done' just like that?!
Rainbow Dash was quivering. She had blown right past anger into, something similar to sadness. In fact, she really could explain why she was quivering. This whole world seemed warped, like some kind of force was warping people into an unnatural mentality. She could tell humans were perfectly capable of love, of loyalty, of all the things the Ponies were capable of. Then why, why the hell was this world so screwed up? Why does everything seem to goddamn wrong? Her Element of Loyalty began to flicker and shine as she heard her own voice begin to respond to her questioning.
"Element of Loyalty, this world is beginning to ignore the concept of loyalty. The idea of true love and camaraderie has begun to fade as trust disintegrates."
This notion seemed utterly alien to Rainbow Dash. "How, what... a whole world's worth of people just losing loyalty and camaraderie? Nothing about that makes sense, nothing at all!"
The voice then responded to her strained questions, "Those that brokered power forever promised the population deliverance from the world's ill. All they would need to do was put their trust in said brokers. But the deliverance never came. Their condition grew worse and worse. Eventually the people of this world reached a tipping point where they could no longer trust the powerful to show any loyalty to anything except themselves. The people of this world now see loyalty as a weakness to be exploited, betrayal becoming so common as to be expected. A world in this state would surely collapse as no one can trust the other. This world is being dragged down into a black hole of Betrayal and Mistrust."
Rainbow Dash still could not conceive of a world devoid of loyalty, but now the thoughts began to coalesce in her head. It wasn't that loyalty was dead, but dormant. Those with power abused it so badly that people have tried to convince themselves to not believe in it anymore; attempting themselves the pain of the eventual betrayal. This would not stand in her view, no people deserved to live in a world where they had to lie to themselves like that just to get by. "I can't believe this. No... I won't believe this. LOYALTY IS NOT WEAKNESS. IT'S STRENGTH, ITS STRENGTH TO TRUST AND RELY ON OTHERS AND HAVE THEM RELY ON YOU. AND I'LL SHOW EVERYONE THAT!"
=~ --- ~ --- ~=
Rarity found herself in some war-torn desert country, at a humanitarian relief camp. There were electronically locked boxes full of pre-packaged meals for distribution to the starving population. The soldiers wore inhuman looking protective gear, to keep the plague-bearing insects and the sick away from them, lest they end up in some nano-chamber suffering the effects of some random mutated virus or bacteria. The scene obviously disturbed the fashionista on several levels.
So much armor these humans have to wear... just to distribute food? Are things really this awful here?
She soon saw why the soldiers wore so much protection. Malcontents, not content with the pace of distribution, threw several Molotov cocktails into the tent where the meals were being distributed. The tent quickly caught fire and several innocent bystanders were either bleeding from the shattered glass or were being scorched from the intense heat of the flames. The soldiers quickly escaped the scene, their armor protecting them from the glass and flames easily. However it could not protect them from witnessing what happened next. A lean, almost emaciated man then tried to escape the scene with an entire locked box of meals, easily a few months’ worth of food. He tried to pick up the box, but he hardly got anywhere with it; his frame and muscles couldn't support the weight of the box. He then tried to push it along the somewhat sandy, dry ground; his mind trapped in tunnel-vision at the thought of having this much food to himself. He didn't notice that several healthier looking men had noticed his attempted escape and were quickly closing in on him, a giant throng of people chasing not far behind the smaller group.
*THUD* A thrown rock hit the first man square in the back of the head. He'd probably not make it past this night alive. The soldiers in the helicopter hovering not too far from the scene debated whether or not to just remotely open the box and let the crowd figure out how to distribute the food. It was a Morton's Fork: they could open the box and watch the crowd pile in trying to get at the meals, or leave the box locked and watch them fruitlessly try and open it. They decided to open the box. What they and Rarity saw shocked them to their core. The starving people piled onto and eventually into the crate like feral dogs. One of the soldiers took off his helmet to throw up, none of them wanted to have to witness a scene like that. Rarity would have done the same if an astral projection were capable of it.
This is beyond dreadful. What could have caused such conditions to even begin to lead to this?
She then saw a young girl; it's one of her first times out of the Dome, her father having to conduct some 'business' in the slums. A another young girl asks her about her toy, it's a rare toy outside the dome, but inside it's as common as anything, the rich girl gives away the toy to the poor girl without a second thought. She has plenty more, what's one toy gone? A couple of hours later, the father asks his daughter where the toy she had earlier was. She tells him that she gave it away to one of the poor kids outside. The father does not take kindly to this revelation, and begins viciously beating her. He yells obscenities, about how much that toy cost, and why did she give it to some fucking girl in the slums who couldn't even appreciate its value. He, a few moments later though, manages to restrain himself some, feeling he has proven his point, and not wanting to explain too many injuries should she need any treatment.
He leaves his daughter alone in her room; a monument to her supposed good fortune, but now it felt like a monument to his own opulence. The young rich girl, a girl who has everything daddy could ever buy her, now suddenly felt alone. A mountain of things, all of which now become gruesome reminders of her father; a father that'd viciously beat his own daughter over something as trivial as giving away a toy. The daughter cries, cries in her room alone. What was the point of showing anyone generosity if this is all it got her? Were these toys even symbols of her father's generosity, or more like reminders to others that he has enough money to buy the feelings of those around him. She felt extremely empty now, not feeling like some that man's daughter. Instead she felt like a symbol herself, a symbol of his wealth and power.
This is ... this is too much... it's unforgivable. How could anyone treat their own children in such a horrid manner?
Rarity was about to go into hysterics, as per the usual. This time however, it seemed warranted. She'd just seen the worst of human greed and envy. She wanted to just quit right there and have nothing further to do with such barbaric creatures. But eventually her rage calmed, she had seen people trying to be generous and giving, but the world seemed to be slapping these people back in the face. How could things have gotten this bad? Why was everything seemingly spiraling down? The Element of Generosity around her neck was shining now, her own voice beginning to answer her questions.
"Element of Generosity, this world is supplanting the idea of generosity with selfishness. Their own myopia makes them envious of others, even where few differences exist."
Rarity responded to the voice, not knowing where it was coming from but frankly in her state not caring either. "Why though? Why can't they see generosity as a benefit to themselves, not just to others?"
The voice then answered her query. "Some of this world sees no benefit to generosity as a virtue. They feel entitled to whatever they could get their hands on, and warped society to fulfill their own selfish desires. They sell the people on the idea of selfishness as a virtue, that all could be successful if they disregarded the needs of others. People became envious when their work did not get them the same rewards as others. This envy begat more selfishness when those people refused to give to others in order to enrich themselves. This begat even more envy as no matter how hard they tried to climb up the ladder, there was always someone a rung higher. They wanted more and more, so much more that they'd destroy the lives of others they couldn't see in their pursuit of more. Their desire for material wealth became gluttony, a pervasive need to consume. This world is being dragged down into a black hole of Greed and Envy."
Rarity sat for a short while. She had to process everything she saw; the inherent conflict between one person's desire to be generous, and another's desire to hoard or consume everything for themselves. It pained her to have to think about this, didn't people have enough, wasn't there enough to go around. Then she began to realize the problem, the problem was that in some cases, there wasn't enough to go around because a few people decided to take just because they could. She remembered the history of man, how the many developments that could have provided for all were derailed so that they could benefit a few. How resources were being in some sense hogged to satiate the hunger of a few. That hunger called Greed, that all-consuming need for more, and more, and more. She stood up, her resolve rekindled. She couldn't sit idly by while the greed of a select few drove the greater many into ever deeper pits of despair. "This situation simply cannot persist. If I have anything to say about it, it won't persist! I WILL SHOW THIS WORLD HOW GENEROSITY CAN BENEFIT ALL!"
=~ --- ~ --- ~=
Twilight Sparkle landed in what looked like some kind of production studio. It was entirely unmanned, which confused her. She looked up at the monitors and began to see various video feeds of different times. One decade she sees a world filled with smokestacks. The next decade she sees various men tell other men of the problem these smokestacks could cause. The next decade she sees the prototype wind farms, the giant solar arrays, even biodiesel conversion plants. Even though this is foreign to her, she understood to some degree what it meant. A world that can safely transition from the old fuels to new, a world that can grow cleaner and more healthy.
If this is the history of the world, then why does everything look so bleak...
Then the next decade, Betrayal as the politicians sold out to the old industries for a quick buck. Despair as the public fears the worst is yet to come, weather gone mad, companies with nothing to keep them in check. The Greed of those with always wanting more, as the companies began removing human workers in favor of mechanical puppets; puppets that'd never need to eat or compensated in any fashion. Whole sections of the world carved to shreds in the pursuit of more resources for finished products the wealthy wanted or desired. She watched the silent Cruelty of idly watching as species and cultures alike were swallowed by the maw of Death. Deceit as the media and the people themselves tried to comfort themselves with the notion that this was how the world was supposed to work, those with power did what they wanted until something stopped them, and in this case, it seemed that nothing could stop them.
What she saw next would break the hearts of billions into tiny little pieces. The elites created new tools, the nanomachine and the advanced AI; and promised to better everyone's lives and lead to a Resurrection. The nanomachine would produce any material people would need, even going so far as to produce the food that could feed them and cleanse the water for them to drink. The AI Drones would relieve the burden of the slave-level working class, allowing them to fully pursue their intellectual pursuits or find their true desired vocation. This Resurrection however was a false promise. The AI Drones did their jobs well, seemingly too well. Humans were no longer employable at all except in the most sensitive of positions, and of course for warfare. The nanomachines did their jobs as well, but the elites were selfish. They only provided the bare minimum to those not of their level, the bland facsimiles of regular produce and meat products did nothing except fill the stomach.
Those in the war-torn or generally poor regions were mostly left to fend for themselves on a rapidly inhospitable Earth. The rampant pollution and weather changes was making larger and larger stretches of land completely uninhabitable by man, pushing them further and further to the edge. Wars broke out and plagues swept the poor nations. The lives of those lucky enough to live in the advanced nations did not suffer physically to this degree, instead they suffered psychologically. The loss of any kind of livelihood made many people apathetic and uncaring. Life had become a droning monotony, the same exact thing day in and day out to the point the only escape was on the Internet. Many humans began to escape to this digital fantasyland, a place where they might live out some modicum of interesting lives if they were unlucky enough to find work in the aforementioned sensitive positions. She can see the broken faces, the souls cracking to pieces: the loss of Fraternity, the loss of togetherness, the loss of Friendship and Fellowship of Man. It disturbed Twilight to her core; she could not understand why, if man had these tools, they'd still allow this level of suffering.
Why do the powerful allow these conditions? Is this some kind of game to them? Like if they win the most contests they get some kind of prize?
Even those in the Domes, the supposed safe haven are not spared. Another business has been eaten up by raiders, its workers made redundant. Two thirteen year old boys, who only two years ago promised they'd be friends forever, will now be torn apart, their fledgling friendship forever broken. Those who lived in the Domes preached superiority over the Outsiders, people not good enough to live amongst them. The networks of the Domes were isolated; they believed they could shield themselves from the Outsides both physically and mentally. To them, all Outsiders were dead men and women walking, waiting to be swallowed up by a world gone mad. They, however, would be spared. They would inherit everything. They would win the Game of Life. The two boys, in fact hardly any of the younger Dome dwellers share this sentiment; they reach out to each other before the eviction, try and tell each other it will be okay. But the boy still inside the Dome knows that nothing will be okay anymore. The adults assure the remaining boy that he shouldn't care about the now Outsider, he was probably never deserving anyway. This does not console him though, his heart shattered. He retreats into a corner of his mind. Now totally isolated from everyone, fearing losing anyone else to a Dome Eviction, he now feels cursed. Another amongst the numbers feeling they are just waiting for someone to drop the final hammer that'd end everything.
How... even their own children? How could they have such blatant disregard for their fellow men? How could they ignore such suffering? How could they treat them as if they are already dead and buried? None of it makes any sense, none of it... NONE OF IT AT ALL!
Everything Twilight Sparkle watched in that ethereal control room was complete and total anathema to her. She was incensed, she was furious, she was sad, she was depressed; she felt about every negative emotion one sapient being could feel in regards to the plight of others. None of it made any sense to her: humans had the power, but those that could best wield it instead wielded it for their own selfish ends. They thought it would be better if the masses all died, then they could have all the land to themselves. They were the superior people, the Elite, those who were destined to be the new Mankind. But she knew better, she saw how bad the Earth's condition had deteriorated into. The Princesses knew better, they could see the self-destructive nature, if left unchecked, would eventually result in everyone's death and destruction, Dome or no Dome. The tiara that represented her Element of Magic flickered and then shone. She could hear the voice inside of her beginning to answer her questions.
"Element of Magic, these people have been stripped of their Magic, and the power they created in its place is now being turned against them by a group. A group who want to feed their Greed so badly, they'd destroy everyone around them. Those who hoard this power ignore Friendship, they ignore Fraternity, and they ignore anything that would connect them to those they have left behind."
Twilight was crying now, it hurt too much. It hurt her to know that a people this brilliant were being left to suffer like this. An entire people should not be condemned like this. "How could those who have the power to fix things ignore so many suffering? Are they that callous, that evil?"
The voice inside of her responded, "Those who have isolated themselves gave in to the same negativity that plagues all sapient species: the selfishness, the vanity, the greed, the envy, the jealousy, the hatred, the cruelty, the deceit. All are capable of it, but few truly fall deep into it. However these are negatives that are powerful enough to distort everything around them. This world is being consumed by the dark nature of Man; the black hole of Isolation is slowly consuming the souls of the population. If left unchecked, all life remaining on it will be consumed by the twin black hole of Oblivion."
Twilight dried her tears. She saw so much pain, so much suffering. But despite that, what she saw was a population, while not blameless, did not deserve this much. Humanity did not deserve to slowly die off because a few people couldn't keep their greed in check. Because a few people wanted to shut themselves off from everyone but still think they had a right to take everything not nailed down. Nothing and no one deserved that fate, and if she could do anything to prevent that from happening, she would. They deserved a second chance; a chance to make things right, to their planet, and to themselves. "No people deserve this; they don't deserve to die because a few people couldn't do right by others. I will save that world, no... WE ALL WILL SAVE THAT WORLD! WE WILL SAVE THAT WORLD FROM ITS ISOLATION! WE WILL RESCUE THAT WORLD FROM OBLIVION! WE WILL REFORGE OUR FRIENDSHIP WITH THAT WORLD! WE WILL SHOW EVERYONE THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP, BECAUSE FRIENDSHIP... IS... MAGIC!!"
=~ --- ~ --- ~=
Celestia and Luna could feel the titanic levels of magic emanating from the six Bearers of Harmony. They marveled at the 6 gigantic pillars of light emanating from where they stood, each one representing their particular element of Harmony. They also marveled at the steeled resolve etched into the faces of all six of the Bearers of Harmony, whatever had happened in the last few moments had solidly pushed them in the direction of rebuilding the bridge to the two worlds, and then letting the chips fall where they may afterwards. The two Royals then looked at each other, knowing that they would have to add their own power in order to solidify the link the six Bearers were forming with the other world.
Celestia began to speak, he voiced laced with concern as her body began to glow in her golden magical aura. "Do you think they will accept our help Luna? I mean we would be nothing more than talking multi-color horses to them."
Luna responded, a bit mirthfully, her body coated in her azure aura. "Who knows, I think a lot of the public have been worn down by their lives they'd accept help from anyone or anything at this point."
"I know, but we always must be mindful that we are an entirely alien culture to them, even if our forms aren't necessarily."
"True, we will have to take things very slowly to start with; if we come on too fast we'll probably scare them off, or worse."
"It's almost as if we are dating or something."
"Well, if we are successful, we will be effectively marrying two distinct societies into one hopefully stable whole."
"Yes, but we almost must be mindful of the limited time we'd have to work our magic. Their planet and their people might not hold on long enough to take the slow route. However, we cannot press in too assertive a manner, or the backlash may be too much for us to bear."
"Celly, are you afraid that no matter how well we present ourselves, they will reject us?"
"Lulu, honestly, I am. This is something neither of us can predict. I want it to be different. I want to just tell them we can come in and fix their world and set things right without having to be this drastic. But I'm both afraid that the time does not exist to make that claim honestly, but at the same time they reject our offer anyway. Be it for pride or some other reason."
"We will just have to see. I know it will be better for us to try and fail than to just let things fester as it is."
"Indeed. And that's why you are co-ruler with me. I would not do this without you, Luna."
"Thank you very much. You have no idea what that means to me."
The two Alicorns began to channel their own titanic mana reserves and every bit of free magic they could get a hold of. Twin beams of magic, each in the colors of their flowing gradient-like manes merged with the 6 beams coming from the Elements of Harmony. They all fused into a beam of the most pure white one could imagine. The sub-space they were in responded in kind, as a large dark colored hole opened up in the sky above. The White and Rainbow-fringed beam flowed through the Void between realities itself. And soon found its mark. The deed had been done, the New Light Bridge had been established, and soon the other world would know this fact.
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That world is frightening. And to think that, if we don't do something, it might actually become a reality.
I get the message but couldn't you do the visions of the main 6 in one go? It just feels kinda repetitive.