Bridging Ages, Bridging Worlds

by BlueDWarrior

CH 26: Recalibration

=== BABW: A New Conflict ===

=== Chapter 26: Recalibration ===

[ September 02, 2081 – Shrine of the Terran Elements, Unknown Location, Earth (roughly) ]
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A gargantuan, from a normal human (or Pony) perspective, figure sighed, as she stood in front of a regal but ancient throne, a phantasmal globe floating over her upturned palms, as she observed the goings on of the surface world.

“Always was true of those who walked the Path of Power…” she mused aloud, as she watched scenes alternate from nascent urban farms being constructed with the assistance of Earth and Water magic, to guerilla groups loyal to the deposed major powers of Earth in intermittent battle with the Society for the Preservation of Humanity.

“I see you have kept your eyes peeled to the screen, so to speak, just as we have,” a white Alicorn stated with firm but gentle tone, as she and a pink and indigo Alicorn warped themselves onto the Main Shrine, where the Fountain of Mana continued to gush the raw mana down the gulleys and into the moat around the pyramid as aether.

“How could I not, all of these actions, both positive and negative, contribute to my growing revitalization, and ultimately, the revitalization of the old channels of mana that once fed the surface world,” the woman stated, as she raised her head to allow the Alicorns to get a good sight of her face.

“It truly is remarkable. You’ve gone from an old crone, to quite the attractive ‘older’ mother, if I may be so bold, Madame Gaea,” the indigo Alicorn stated, as the pink Alicorn was content to observe the Fountain of Mana.

I have never felt power so raw before, at least not consciously… Mayhaps I should have asked the Conduits of Terra to give me a personal demonstration during the day I was in Ponyville, but now that will have to wait for a later date… Cadance thought to herself, while the elder Alicorns talked to the Keeper of Terran Magic.

“I do not begrudge your choice of words, Princess Luna. I would rather someone tell me that I am not in the best of shape visually than lie and inflate my ego. I don’t gain anything from being vain, given the position I have taken,” Gaea replied, as she dissolved into multi-colored vapor, and reappeared on top of the Main Shrine with the three Alicorns, now a mere seven feet tall and viewing ‘globe’ still in hand.

“It is a strange moral conundrum I find myself in, have always found myself in really…” Gaea started, as she placed the globe on top of a stand made magically conjured crystal, the phantom globe turning into a physical crystal ball as she did.

The three Alicorns joined around the stand, as she viewed the scenes that Gaea played back earlier.

“I believe I can see what you mean, Madame Gaea…” Cadance replied, as the gears began to turn in her relatively young head.

“Every bit of power that they draw out means more power this world will produce to feed the demand. The more power that flows into the world, the more the atrophied channels of said mana will begin to regenerate. As they regenerate, so will the environment, and myself, in general…” Gaea continued as she trailed off.

“Though that alone cannot reclaim what was lost. That will, in all likelihood, take engineering on all of our part to restore the world to some semblance of ‘normal’ or ‘healthy’,” Celestia concluded on her own.

“On the other hoof, is it our place to say that what has been lost needs to be reclaimed? At what point do we start and stop with any reclamation or terra-reforming project? At the same time, we have barely scratched the surface of what Terran Magic can do on its own, and in conjunction with our own…” Luna started, before she trailed off, lost in thought.

“What’s wrong, Keeper of Equuan Moon?” Gaea asked, as she saw the look of concern on the indigo Alicorn’s face.

“Just something the Conduit of Water told me while he was still under the influence of that creature. He implied there was something that lurked in the abyssal depths that surround this world metaphysically. An entity that was capable of devouring all that is reality: be it magic, plain energy, matter, seemingly anything. What do you know of this, Madame Gaea?” Luna asked, as she looked with grave concern at the middle-aged-appearing figure of seven feet tall.

Gaea stood in thoughtful repose for a few moments, as she contemplated if and what she should tell the three Alicorns before her of the entity that has plagued Earth for the last many eons.

“It is the entity I worry about the most, right now. Much like your world was plagued by an immortal of pure Chaos in Discord, Earth was plagued by an immortal of the Void in the Great Devourer,” Gaea started as she paused to consider her next statements.

“So as Chaos and Harmony exist as poles along the axis of Will, I guess this Void and your magic of the Elements exist as poles of Power?” Cadence figured aloud in the silent interlude.

“That is one way to reason it. The Elements of Terran Power are both creative and destructive forces, but in the end the matter or energy it is manipulating still exists in one phase or form or another. This creature of the Void, Voidbeast if you will, is designed to devour all that it targets, completely and utterly. However…” Gaea started, before her mind became locked on another problem.

“What is the problem beyond what you have stated already, Madame Gaea?” Celestia asked with some concern.

“When I and the ancient inhabitants of Earth joined the battle against the Beast properly, there was something wrong. We could feel that something else stirred within that creature, when there should have been absolutely nothing except the Beast itself…” Gaea thought, as she was clearly wracking her brain trying to figure out still, to this day.

“What kind of something?” Luna asked of the Keeper of Terran Magic.

“That fragment of the Void that spoke through the Conduit of Water that day was more or less correct: the Voidbeast devours everything physical - normal and magical energy, matter, all of that. It shouldn’t devour the soul, though. And that is what I felt from that creature. There were a myriad of souls trapped within it, wailing in mad grief at being bound to a creature of pure annihilation,” Gaea stated with a grave tone, as the wailing still echoed in her head as much as the wailing of the living once she completed the Rite of Sealing.

“How terrifying. The soul can survive innumerable things, and Immortals of our level have trouble even damaging them, let alone destroying them. At the same time, they are just as brittle regarding internal pressures. So while an outside force may have trouble damaging them, they can fall apart if the possessor’s psyche falls apart,” Celestia thought aloud.

“Being trapped in a maelstrom that only exists to eat, never knowing if you will become its next victim would count as a stressor that would permanently damage, if not destroy, a soul – at least in my humble opinion,” Luna added, getting a nod from Cadance.

“Which is what I felt. These forsaken creatures and people had no solace of Eternal Rest once their physical bodies were destroyed by the Void. Only a torturous Limbo that ended, I would wager, in self-destruction at some point in the future. That is why I executed the Rite of Sealing - desperate to spare that fate to those who still clung to Earth as their home. I knew the creature fed on the Magic of a World threatening to go out of control more than anything else. Once there was no magic to feed on, eventually the creature lost interest and departed. But given how fast that Parasite found a host in Blue Vague, I can only surmise that the Beast has laid dormant nearby in sub-space; and is possibly waiting for the Fountain of Mana to go out of control again to fully trigger its revival, so it may resume consuming this world,” Gaea stated morosely, as she looked at the fountain that was still spouting in a calm and even manner.

“The conflict that threatens to break out into full blown war would probably aggravate this situation,” Celestia figured as she turned her attention back to the crystal globe sitting on the stand.

“As it stands right now, the draw of Mana that their magi-technological arms require is not enough to destabilize the flow of mana, as nascent as it is. However, if the other Sapients begin to reassert their claim to their ancestral homeland…” Gaea thought.

“It would be like the tale you told the Elements before, all of the Sapients of Earth were at war with each other, in one manner or another. And this is what triggered the appearance of the Voidbeast, if I could make that logical leap,” Luna replied.

“Humanity will not let go of the land they have claimed in the eons since the other Sapients left, but the other Sapients will not allow the opportunity to return to their ancestral homeland to slip by. It will be critical to see how current Humanity can deal with not only you all as Aliens from another dimension, but creatures of ancient myth made real returning to this realm,” Gaea surmised, as she placed a hand upon the crystal globe; her midnight blue dress glimmering with the ever increasing energy that was flowing from the Fountain of Mana out to the world at large, each glitter and sparkle a different color of the Terran Magic already ‘codified’.

“I doubt any of us can accurately predict that, but unless we have sound-minded people in positions of power on this side, then we will ultimately revisit the horror you spoke of from many a millennia previous,” Celestia intoned, as all three of the other figures nodded in quiet agreement.

=[ Meanwhile… in Pasedena, USA ]=

“So how goes the check over in Burbank?” Amanda asked, as she and her ‘lieutenants’ looked at a map that was jury rigged from some tablets that were graciously donated to the cause by Outsider civilians in the Los Angeles area.

“It seems like the SPH forces are content stay in Los Angeles proper. They are putting a lot of those thaumatic-armed tanks in Hollywood in the old sound stages, but other than that, nothing out of the ordinary,” Enrique mused, as he and a couple of other young men looked over the same map they all had constructed in the last few days.

“We need some kind of inside information on how those damn things work. We don’t have heavy enough arms to stop a full tank division if they field one. And they’ve shown already that they don’t particularly care for collateral damage from their actions,” Amanda thought aloud, as she tried to figure out what to do about the potential situation.

If I can crack this puzzle, Mayor-for-Life would just be the start… Sunset thought to herself, as she entertained the brief thought of a Sunset Boulevard with banners of her cutie mark lining the entire way.

“In better news though, the Chicago Resistance Alliance just sent us a message that they’ve knocked a SPH squadron back from Evergreen all the way to Palos. The SPH now has functional control of less than 30% of the Chicagoland Outsider area,” one of the communications volunteers reported.

“That’s good to hear. For all of this technology, they seem to have a really weak command structure. Any kind of resistance and they start wanting to fall back to the Domes proper…” Amanda thought as she paced around the room, the magic muffling the sound so much that passers-by on the outside thought it was unoccupied more times than not.

“I wish the New York Metro Loyalist Front had the same kind of success. I’m willing to put a lot of credits on the S.P.H. high command camping out somewhere in the Washington-to-Boston corridor,” Enrique thought aloud, as he brought up the map of the less successful ventures along the northern Atlantic seaboard.

“And a good chunk of the American population lives in or around that corridor. Even if we can rout the SPH forces in the rest of the country, that still leaves at least a third of it under their influence,” Amanda thought, as she was trying to figure out the problem aloud like everyone else.

“Either way Amanda, we need to focus on getting rid of them in the LA area. Then we can worry about who else we need to help,” Enrique figured, as he couldn’t come up with anything regarding the Northeast coast.

“I agree. So, how many more volunteers have we gotten in the last few days?” Amanda thought, as she ran her hand through her slightly-orangeish red hair.

“Thirty. And twenty of them have a high magical sense, according to the scorecard you designed for us. I think if we can get enough Magi, we might be able to blunt their tech advantage,” Enrique figured as he looked through the written list on the notebook he had.

“Hrm, check the physical and tech aptitude of the other ten, we need every warm body we can get given how the SPH likes to operate,” Amanda said, as she waved Enrique and the others out of the room so she could think to herself.

After a few moments of paper and computer tablet shuffling, the entire room was cleared out – save the wired devices and one transformed Unicorn.

“If only that prissy little… OHH just thinking about her boils my blood,” Amanda grumbled, as her thoughts shifted to Twilight Sparkle.

“She has a little group of friends, and I’m building an army! I’ll own this city lock, stock, and barrel by the time I’m done, and what will Twilight have? Absolutely NOTHING that’s what,” the transformed Sunset Shimmer barked as she paced around the room, free to let her thoughts roam.

“And I’ll have her to thank, ‘Thanks for giving me the means, Twilight. For setting me on the path that will bring me to the glory I so richly deserve!’” the red-haired woman mused, as she laughed about the thought of lording her coming fiefdom over the head of the Unicorn that had the temerity to break all the records she set while in the School For Gifted Unicorns.

=[ And out in the Mojave, near the Los Angeles – San Diego – Tijuana corridor… ]=

“Oh what do with you, I wonder,” a six-foot tall, black and teal bipedal figure said, as she walked around a human male kneeling on the ground. His eyes swirling with the teal-green magic that marked all Changelings of the Envy Hive.

“You may do with me whatever you wish. I am but another arm of the Hive, and all that I am is in your possession,” the male stated with total lack of emotion, but no lack of conviction.

“Of course, my dear. Give you humans just a little bit of genuine affection, and you are like putty for us. You are so starved for purpose that you will give away everything you are to be part of something greater. And what could be greater than building my Hive of Envy into the greatest force in all of Changeling History?!” the feminine, bipedal figure said, the thin black coat that covered her entire body bristling the skin of the half-naked man who knelt in total fealty to her.

“There is nothing greater, My Queen. To serve you is the highest honor any can be given,” the male stated, as he bowed his head to the ground, to further show his fealty to his new Queen.

“Queen Chrysalis, do you enjoy your new form?” a tall female Changeling said, nearly as tall as the Queen in her true form, but without the accents on her body to show that she was of royal ‘blood’.

“Oh Kleptia, I enjoy it a lot. It certainly makes it easier to practice my human motions without having to sully my eyes with the plain-ness of human flesh. I have a new appreciation for how colorful those little Ponies are, having seen nothing but shades of brown here,” Chrysalis said, as she stretched her anthropomorphic form, mimicking the motions she remembered from an exercise video she saw recently.

“It is a shame we had to… sacrifice… so many of our initial captives to our local Gene Matrix[1]. But now we have enough Human genes where most of our officers can transform and hold the form for several hours. At this rate, even a common drone will be able to pass as human for an entire twenty-four hour period within two months,” Kleptia said, as she bowed briefly to her at-the-moment bipedal Queen.

“You know what they say of eggs and omelets, Kleptia. In any case, we should be looking at prospective sites for establishing satellites. I’m not content at sitting around in these desert caves; if I were I would have never come to this side of the Aurora. No, I want everyone to bow before the standard of the Hive of Envy!” Chrysalis said, as she laughed that evil laugh of hers.

“As you wish, my Queen. The Infiltrator Corps will begin settling into the major population centers of the world to find one suitable for our… ‘debut’, if you will,” Kleptia replied, as she departed from the chamber.

“Oh now as for you, my good little human-drone, your Queen has something very special in mind for you~” Chrysalis said, as she rubbed a charcoal black hand across the cheek of the still kneeling man.

=[ And over in Manhattan, USA… ]=

“My patience with these, stragglers, is about to completely give out…” Peter said as he drummed his fingers along the plexiglass cover to his computer-desk.

“I don’t blame you feeling this way, but we have to deal with them in a concise fashion. Just willy-nilly leveling neighborhoods will do nothing but aggravate the situation. And I frankly don’t want to have to deal with coordinating mass burials,” Claire responded, sensing the frustration that was boiling in the voice and mannerisms of the leader of the SPH.

“That is a strange coming from your mouth, Miss Claire. I figured that you’d want to just raze the slums and start over fresh,” Nathan replied, interested in what the lone female member of the leadership thought in full.

“Unless you can find a way to do it where absolutely everything on the outside was reduced to ash and wouldn’t touch a hair on anything inside of a Dome, then it is far too much trouble than its worth. And then you would have to hit every major populated area at the same time, otherwise it’d galvanize every other Outsider against us. We do not have the resources to take on the entirety of the Outsider population. That is if we aren’t fully committed to annihilating them,” Claire replied, as she stared daggers into the eyes of the youngest of the three chiefs of the SPH.

“Which is true. This entire operation is ostensibly to preserve humanity from the threat posed by the aliens. I know there are still stragglers here on Earth, somewhere, and we will root all of them out and kill them,” Nathan said, with a devious glint in his eye.

“At some point we will have to deal with the Outsider population in one way or another. We cannot simply issue edicts from the Domes and expect them to care in perpetuity. We have to show we are the lone power of Earth now, and in a way that will go unchallenged from generation to generation,” Claire replied, as she thought not to engage Mr. Egret any further.

“Which brings us around to what we’ve observed of the puppets we’ve retained the services of, for the time being anyway. I have some ideas for a few edicts to pass,” Peter said, as he brought up several documents in the private feed of the three chiefs.

[ September 04, 2081 – Safe Haven ]
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“Papa! Mr. Elric! Come see!” Rosa said, as she ran up to the two middle-aged men, with a wide smile, her naturally frizzy twin-tailed hair bouncing as she ran through the halls near the Magic Practice area.

“And what do you have to show us today, Rosa!” Michael said, as he ruffled the top of his daughter’s head.

“I wanna show you what one of the Gryphons taught me!” Rosa said, as she ran back toward the practice area, waving at the two men to follow her.

“This I have to see, Mr. Aguillar,” Vice President Oberweiss chuckled, as he and the First Husband followed the almost eleven year old into the hall and into a room.

“Mr. Aldaric, it was? It seems that you and Rosa wanted to show us something?” Michael asked of a dark-brown lion-and-eagle morph Gryphon sitting in the back of the room, while Rosa was standing in front of what looked like a tiny bunker.

“Right. Well the President’s, and by extension your, daughter seems to have a natural affinity for the bow. Rosa, would you mind giving your father and the Vice President a demonstration?” Aldaric asked.

Rosa nodded, as she picked up the large, at least for her 4’7” and 75 lb. frame, compound bow and an arrow. She took a deep breath, and drew the projectile back, and let fly to the target that sat roughly 27 yards in front of her.

In a couple of seconds, the arrow made a resounding thunk in the padded target, sitting squarely in the 9 point ring, and mere millimeters from the bulls-eye.

“Ahh! There goes my streak of six bulls-eyes in a row… I was going for a lucky seven too…” Rosa said dejectedly.

Elric and Michael looked on incredulously for a moment, before they noticed that a target off to the side of the one Rosa had just shot at had six holes in it, all of them either on or within the 10-point bulls-eye ring.

“That’s… great. I honestly didn’t know she had a knack for the bow,” Michael said, as he was about to walk up and congratulate his daughter anyway, before an outstretched talon barred his progression.

“Not quite done with the demonstration yet. Grünschnabel[2], would you mind showing our audience the other half of your training?” Aldaric asked of the yellow and white dressed, quarter-Hispanic girl standing with the large bow in front of him.

“Oh right, that!” Rosa replied, as she ran out into the target zone and changed it to what looked like an oblong box made of foam.

“So what is it the other part of what you wanted to show us, Rosa?” Michael asked, as he looked on at his eager-faced daughter.

“Just watch~” she replied in a sing-songy voice. And so the two older men watched the young girl with the large bow, along with her newfound archery instructor.

Rosa took a couple of breaths to concentrate, as she felt the surge of power in her right arm. She took out an arrow and traced along it with her finger, causing the runes on her right arm to fade, as the arrow started to glow red. She took up her bow the same way she did previously, though Oberweiss noticed that Rosa was reacting, ever so subtly, as if the arrow was much hotter than it was the last time. She let fly just as she did previously, as the arrow whizzed through the air audibly, crackling like low-grade fireworks through the air. Michael and Elric recognized, from their tutorship by the various Magi that lived and passed through Safe Haven in the last few weeks, that mana-imbued items would leave a trail through the air in some cases.

And as soon as she let it go, the arrow struck its target, and a smirking Rosa nodded knowingly.

“I am not sure what we’re looking at, Mr. Aldaric,” Elric asked of the Gryphon to his far right.

“Just give it a couple of moments,” Aldaric explained curtly.

And as soon as he said to wait, the arrow promptly exploded in a flash of red and orange sparks, blowing the foam ‘box’ apart into several pieces and tiny, smoky particulates from the disintegrated arrow and burnt foam.

“I always said your daughter was a firecracker…” Elric said, stunned by the display.

“Right…” Michael replied, wondering what might be lurking under the gregarious smile of his lone daughter.

=[ Over in Storm’s private room…]=

“Did you really have to tie me up though?” Golden Storm asked, as he squirmed while belly to his bed, as he laid out on a heating pad that covered his entire bed of his marefriend’s design. The squirming wasn’t from the heating pad though; it was from the water-soaked towels that covered a good part of his body.

“Oh stop whining. You need this about as bad as anypony. I swear you are running that cute body of yours into the ground trying to keep up with Miss Predannost[3],” said marefriend in Red Blaze chided, as she squeezed the hot towels in a rhythmic fashion, trying to massage the latent tension out of the musculature of her coltfriend.

Storm grunted in mild pain as he felt the towels tighten around his legs and chest in a regular fashion. “I don’t know why, babe. I know who Rainbow Dash is, what she’s accomplished, especially since she really can’t ever shut up about it. The problem is…”

“A part of you doesn’t like to accept it if you can’t see it for yourself,” Blaze concluded, as she worked on his back in particular now.

“Yeah. That and another part of me thought her skill was because she was the Element of Loyalty or something. But then, after all of these races and all of this not winning, I had to admit that it’s all her. The Element of Loyalty is something she came into because of who she is, just as much as she developed her talent for speed-flight. And… I just don’t like feeling like there is someone out there better than me at the thing I want to do,” Storm sighed, as Blaze continued to work on his back and his midsection.

Blaze noticed the wind chime along his ceiling dingle, as he was channeling a bit of Wind Magic in his increasingly relaxed state, but thought little of it. “So you’re mad that Rainbow Dash is a better flier than you. I mean, you haven’t even been a Pegasus for a year, and she’s born as one and has been flying one way or another for at least twenty.”

“I know what you’re saying, and I get it. Logically I should be happy I can even keep up with her. But I still have this voice saying ‘you can do better than that’,” Storm said as he laid his chin on the heated pad the both of them were laying or sitting on.

I know how you feel, Storm. Rarity can work an entire workshop, feels like, with her magic; and I’m still having trouble controlling three of those crystal-drones she made. We just have to keep working at it… Blaze through to herself as she went back to Storm’s upper legs.

“I think we all have those times when we feel like the Bearers are so far ahead of us in this race that they’re lapping us. But that should give us motivation to keep bettering ourselves. Whether that means developing our Equestrian or Terran Magic, and I think it means developing both,” Blaze replied aloud.

Golden Storm let out another relaxed sigh, as he felt some more of the stress dissipate from his body. “It’s not going to do us any good driving ourselves up a wall about this. At the same time, I guess we all need our motivations.”

“Wonder what Vague and Hana think about all of this,” Blaze thought aloud, as she worked along the ‘chest’ and neck of her beau with the hot towel.

=[ In the main commissary… ]=

Midori Hana, Blue Vague, Pinkie Pie, and Capt. Julio all were sitting in the main commissary, as the three of them were watching Midori Hana positively plow through a plateful of strawberry shortcake cups.

“I have absolutely no idea how you all can eat so much sugar, and not all be crippled with diabetes and everything else related to it,” Capt. Julio wondered aloud as he watched the green Earth Pony down the flat-bowl-like cakes one after another.

“She keeps eating like that and she’s gonna end up Pinkie’s size,” Vague mused as he mentally tracked how Hana’s weight and even her overall build was starting to match the baker and part-time forgepony.

“Hrmph,” Hana started, as she finished off another of the cakes. “I thought you wouldn’t mind me with hips like those.” The sultry look she flashed was unmistakable to the two males at the table.

“Oh I’d very much enjoy it,” Vague said, as he responded in kind.

“I didn’t know you thought so much of my figure, Vaguey. If I did, I would have done something more special with your last pineapple-upside-down cake,” Pinkie added, matching the two lovers stride-for-stride tone wise.

“Well this has gotten very weird all of a sudden,” Julio interrupted, not exactly disturbed by the scene in and of itself, but still mindful that it was not exactly private either.

The tension hung in the air for a few moments after Safe Haven’s and the H.E.A.s military confidant spoke, before Pinkie started giggling her normal joking giggle.

“Oh man, you two are too much,” Pinkie sad as she tried to stifle her laughter enough to speak. “And I thought that Storm and Blaze could heat a room up.”

“Well… me and Vague don’t try to… but sometimes it just happens like that,” Hana said, as she blushed as red as the strawberries and the thick strawberry-based syrup that covered the shortcakes.

“I dunno, sometimes it’s fun to not be so guarded. I feel like I try to hard sometimes to force everything I do to look and be even keeled. Sometimes I can’t help but rock the boat,” Vauge responded as he leaned on his marefriend a bit.

“Just so long as you know where you are when you’re doing it, I don’t mind so long as you don’t also tip that boat over. In any case, we have some dignitaries we’re set to receive in a couple of hours,” Julio added, as the tension in the air had more or less dissipated by time he spoke.

“You’re right! I almost let the time slip right by me~” Pinkie said as she threw on an apron and dashed into the food prep area.

“First off, where did she get that apron from that fast? And second of all, what is she doing going back there into the kitchen?” Hana asked, confused by Pinkie sudden mad dash.

“One, it’s Pinkie Pie, and we’re better off not having that question answered. Two, probably to get something ready for the Equuan leaders due to show up after-while,” Vague responded.

“Wonder what she’s gonna put together this time. I saw some of the photos the other Ponies had of the stuff she baked. Pony or not, I know some Domers who’d would pay six-figures easy just to say they had someone bake a cake like that by hand, or by hoof as it were,” Julio remarked, thinking about the amount of careful attention Pinkie had to pay while baking to create works like she did.

“While I would argue that point, I honestly can’t. They’ve patently shown they will throw creds over anything, even down a literal rat-hole, just to say that they could. The best and the brightest of humanity, they say,” Vague said while shaking his head the whole while.

“Is that why you left, as it were?” Julio asked, as he was taking the interim period before he had to get ready to receive the leaders and dignitaries to pick the brains of any of the ten Bearers or Conduits he could.

“Not entirely. I would have been perfectly content, especially with what is going on now, to remain human if the stupidity of the Domers were my only concern. But there was something else at work that was drawing me in this direction. Something that’s honestly hard for me to put into words even now…” Vague started, as he looked up at the ceiling, the cobalt-blue and white of his styled mane dancing about the fringes of his vision as the air conditioning had kicked in again.

“Then we can leave it at that, far be it for me to play armchair psych with ya. But if you want another voice to talk to, just give me a call,” Juilo replied, as he left the commissary to get ready for the public meeting in less than two hour’s time.

=[ A couple of hours later (roughly), in the Main Auditorium ]=

“And so our new allies come marching two by two… should I hurrah?” one of the human volunteers asked, as the various groupings of Dragons, Gryphons, and Zebras bearing their national standards[4] on poles as they walked or marched toward a very large stage and podium that was erected toward the east end of the east-by-west ovoid arena-like space.

“I would have loved to play basketball in a place like this, the acoustics sound amazing. Then again that’s not exactly possible for me now… at least not in the usual way… I guess,” Blue Vague thought aloud, as he stood at semi-formal attention with the other ten Conduits and Bearers, near the other dignitaries for the Kingdom of Equestria.

“I dunno, I think we might be able to swing something if some of my research on the side bears fruit,” Twilight said with a wink and a nod.

“Intriguing, you’ll have to tell me more later…” Vague responded with a chuckle.

“Surely will,” Twilight concluded with a smile as the two of them heard Celestia calling for attention.

“Ladies and Gentlemen of all species gathered here. I would like to welcome you all to the first day in what I sincerely will hope to be a multi-generational partnership between the four nations arranged before you from Equus and the human nations of Earth. Before I allow for the leaders of the nations of Equus introduce themselves to you all whom might not be familiar, I would like to make a brief statement,” the white Alicorn started, as all attending gave her their attention in full.

"A little more than a year ago, the Human-Equestrian Alliance launched the Conversion Initiative, which was one facet of our overall partnership to rebuild the metaphorical bridge between Equus and Earth. In my estimation then, and now, I feel that we would have no leverage in order to affect change amongst the population and the condition of the world, nor would we have an answer to a worldwide cataclysm, if we did not have a means by which to move people off world. As it would turn out, the human body, as of this date, remains incompatible with the raw magic and energy that flows through Equus, so Conversion is the only viable method of moving a human to Equus should they choose if their own volition, or have their proverbial hands forced by forces out of their control.

“However, in all respects, I have made a grave error. This error was underestimating the depth to which those who profess to be the true powers of this world would take offense to all of this; as my actions, wether I intended them to be or not, have been interpreted as a blatant challenge to their current and continued stewardship of this planet. In retrospect, I should have better prepared myself and my allies for this fact. Regardless of race or species, those who have a position of power will work to protect that position, and if possible, advance it. It is simply a fact of life that I over these long centuries, have come to accept. However, despite the actions and protestations of the so-called Elite of this world, I will not ignore the plight of so many of its inhabitants."

"Therefore, I believe it would be in our best interest in order to enlist the help of the other three great Nations of Equus, as we have decided to name the greater world Equestria inhabits. The Gryphon Fedeartion, Unified Zebra Republic, and the Dragon Nomad Central Council have all agreed to assist us in the re-launching the effort to harmonize our two worlds into ones where anyone, regardless of species of location born, will be able to grow and thrive. As part of this effort, I have relinquished the exclusivity of Conversion, which will now include the Gryphon, Dragon, and Zebra species; in short order, we will begin to work on modifications and new models of the Black Horse Boxes to accommodate this agreement. At the same time, we have also begun an effort to modernize the equipment and tactics of our four militaries in order to better confront the militias and armies under the sway of the Black Shield. Hopefully, before long, we will reach parity militarily, which will allow us to protect what we intend to build up here economically and socially."

All attendees more or less agree with the sentiments expressed by the more well known of the Equestrian Princesses, applauding in approval. Princess Celestia and Luna then signed the formal treaty that officially established the H.E.A. as an agency the Equestrian Crown had the capacity to deal with, and simultaneously establish an economic and military alliance between themselves and the Gryphons, Dragons, and Zebras.

"Now, I will allow for each of the leaders to give brief statement," and with that, Celestia strode away from the lectern, and Wraithwind approached. The relatively short Dragon snapped a claw, and a box materialized for him to stand on, bringing his mouth to the same height as Celestia’s.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is simply Wraithwind, and I am the leader of the Dragon Nomad Central Council. For millenia, we dragons have existed as independent souls, recording information and fulfilling our heart's desire as we wished with as little interference as possible. However, due to the rapid metaphorical shrinking of our world, we feel it was now time to begin to open our society and culture to others. With that, I have formally agreed to allow the Ponies and Humans to recruit Humans to join our ranks as Dragons. In exchange, we will offer what material and personnel we can in the rebuilding efforts here on Earth. I believe both our species and others can benefit from increased openness by the Dragon species, and I am willing to extend claw and wing in order to help improve my nation and those we have now allied with. Thank you." Wraithwind then walked over to the table and placed a claw print and signed the treaty formally.

The audience clapped politely, remarking on how remarkably aged Wraithwind sounded, yet not sounding weak at the same time.

At that point, King Guile then approached the lectern, lowering the microphone to match his 5’10" (while standing) frame. "Thank you for the words, Wraithwind. My name is King Guile of the House of Leo, King of the Gryphon Federation. We Gryphons are a species of great pride and honor, and we have recognized the great cultures of humanity and their pride in themselves and humanity at large. While we do not believe ourselves to be superior to Humanity, we do believe we can help reestablish that sense of pride of self, regardless of the form they ultimately take. Like the Dragons before me and the Zebras after, I pledge as many resources in both personnel and expertise as we can manage in order to ensure that this greater project is a more successful one."

The audience again clapped politely, noting the gregarious nature of King Guile and his seeming eagerness to engage the wider Earth.

As King Guile left the lectern to formally claw-print and sign the paperwork, Prime Minister Al'Kadar strode to the lectern, and stood atop a platform in order to appear at the same height, roughly, as the previous speakers. "Good Evening all. My name is Prime Minister Al'Kadar of the Tribal Congress of Zebras, the ruling body for the Unified Zebra Republic. Our species and the Ponies share common ancestry going back many eons; and, although we have diverged in culture and magic philsophy since those times, we share general common cause with the Ponies. When we were informed and learned of Earth, we were initially skeptical of offering our help, to be perfectly blunt. However, consultation regarding Earth and with the human representatives, and our own curiosity with the spiritual nature of humanity and the Earth itself, eventually lead to the Congress to approve the treaty. We pledge to not only aid in the spiritual development of those who agree to join our Zebra Herd, but to aid in the spiritual development of all species and peoples who decide to join in common cause with us. We believe, to a stallion and mare, that true understanding comes from both knowing what is seen, and what lies unseen. We hope, through our words and coming actions, to impart our collective knowledge to humanity, both those that convert and those that remain. Thank you."

The audience clapped politely yet again, noting how serene Al'Kadar sounded, and figured it was most likely a trait shared by all Zebra leaders.

Prime Minister Al'Kadar hopped off the platform and nudged it away for Richard Edwards, who was set to speak while Al'Kadar signed and hoof-printed the documents. "Good evening, my name is Richard Edwards, President of the newly rechristened Human-Equus Alliance. Humanity has a strong history, a proud history. We have worked throughout our entire existence to improve our understanding of the world, and then to use that knowledge to improve our own lives. We have grown and advanced from a primitive, ape-like creatures to being able to build these great wonders of the world. However, while we have improved our tools and our methodologies to life, we have not been able to quell our darker nature. Green, Wrath, Envy, many of the negative aspects of human, and now I believe all sapient thoughts, have taken deep root in the leadership of those world. And all of that has subsequently caused our great civilization to be rotting from the inside-out, and this rot and disease slowly poisons the world where we live, both literally and metaphorically. I once believed that humanity on its own could simply rectify our own problems if given enough time, but I'm afraid that time is rapidly running out. The Society for the Preservation of Humanity, simply known to us as the SPH, I believe cares very little for greater humanity. As it stands, I greatly fear that they have begun the final death-spiral for this world."

"Even with this great, wonderous, and literal magic that has been bestowed upon our native planet, what do these erstwhile leaders of mankind do with it. They execute a coup the first chance they have. Their public efforts have gone into constructing a war machine that they believe will be so untouchable that the rest of humanity will acquiesce without a fight. But as we have seen through the news reports, the general public has resisted in whatever capacity they can. Though I appreciate the effort and sentiment, I fear that this conflict would only escalate into outright war, and given the powers that exist in the world, that war could be the Armageddon that so many of our religions spoke toward. Perhaps it is the hope that the leadership of the SPH survives this final cataclysm in order to rebuild from the ashes, perhaps not, but we cannot allow humanity to simply disintegrate. We, no matter if we convert into a new form that is offered, or choose to remain as we are, or some other option that may exist in the future, should do everything within all of our collective power to help build a world where success and failure are due to merit, or lack thereof, and not the capriciousness of those who happen to be on top of the pyramid at any given time."

All in attendance clapped after the short speech, especially Vice President Oberweiss in the audience.

If he ever wanted to go into politics formally, he could be a terrific candidate, he thought to himself, as he watched the man in the white suit read over the copy of treaty printed in fairly standard English, silently nodding as every clause that was negotiated was still there in full and in black-and-white.

-------

“Say, Princess Celestia~” Wraithwind called in a chipper tone, as he and his main adjutant Livewire approached the Princesses and the combined Elements off to the side of the auditorium.

“Yes, Wraithwind?” Celestia responded in a more or less neutral tone.

“Oh come now, no need to be so formal with me now, the recording camera is off so I think we can be bit more, familiar with each other,” Wraithwind replied, wriggling his eyebrows as he did.

“I have no idea what he’s going on about, and I’m not sure if I want to know,” Spike huffed, as he didn’t particularly care for Wraithwind when he got into these moods.

“I don’t think any of you except for the Councilmembers would know. Wouldn’t they sifu?” Celestia responded, with a bit more of a familiar tone Wraithwind.

“Sifu? Wait… you were taught by Wraithwind? In what?” Hana asked of the Princess of the Sun.

“What didn’t you teach me, Wraithwind…” Celestia thought as she started hoofing through her incredibly extensive memory.

“Let’s see, Draconic Invocation, at least twelve different Dragon-innovated forms of unarmed martial arts, you’ve practically memorized the Draconic dictionary and perfected its grammar, incredibly proficient at our history both Pre and Post Reign of Insanity. Yeah, I’ve pretty much taught you a full blown university curriculum in total,” Wraithwind surmised, as he was in a similar thinking pose as his former student.

“And… there was one other thing I taught you to make all of that possible.”

The anticipatory grin on Wraithwind’s face was unmistakable, especially to the males the conversation group.

Celestia let out a heavy sigh as she knew she didn’t have a way out of this without reneging on an agreement the two of them made in the months previous. “Alright, can I have a Length of two of space around me?”

Everyone gave the Day Princess the berth she requested, and she began to concentrate on her magic. Everyone could feel the mana starting to well up in her body, as her horn began to glow in her golden yellow aura. Twilight paid especially close attention, as her brain started to piece together the thing that Wraithwind was hinting at with so many of his words.

If I can figure out the Princess does it, then that could make my research go a lot faster…

Her entire body began to glow bright golden yellow, as it shifted shape from an over six foot tall quadruped shape of an Alicorn that was her standard, to a slightly taller bipedal shape. Her build close to Livewire, as she stood 5’10” roughly, but everyone could tell the protrusions coming out of her back would increase her volume. As the golden glow began to cool, everyone was stunned by what they saw, especially the male Dragons that made of Wraithwind’s entourage, like Legionik and Silentclaw, and especially Spike.

“Ahhh… you’re… ah…” Spike tried to stammer, before he completely lost the capacity for the coherent speech.

“Absolutely stunning,” Wraithwind completed for the stunned Dragon.

The figure wrapped in the golden light was now fully revealed, and the transformed Celestia retained every ounce of her regal nature, though now it was translated into a bipedal Draconic form. She kept white as her dominant color, though the nature of her scales made the white appear as pearl instead of snow like the hair of her natural coat. Her spines and the webbing of her wings appeared pink in most angles of light, but as the Ponies, including her sister and niece, walked around her, they noticed how the angle of light would change the color in an ever shifting gradient between the ‘base’ pink, aquamarine, and seafoam green; mimicking the persistent color shifting of her natural and constantly mana-charged mane. Her hands, feet, and the tip of her tail were had a golden color to them, a special effect for the occasion Wraithwind was sure, the arcs at the edges of the golden area reminding the Earth-borne Ponies of pictures of solar prominences.

“I haven’t had to or been asked to use this form in public in, I think the last one-hundred and fifty years. Well before anyone in my court currently, except for Luna, were even born,” the draconic Celestia thought aloud, everyone noting how natural her motions looked in her now unnatural form.

“I should have figured you would have vastly improved the depths of your knowledge, Sister. A transformation of that quality and precision is not a small task, even for someone with our depth of power,” Luna remarked, smirking all the while.

“When I first started learning under Wraithwind’s tutelage, my form was far more mundane. He simply insisted that I took a Dragon’s form to truly learn Dragon Magic and martial arts. Though I will admit, the Invocation is much more effective with this body than my normal one,” Celestia responded.

“It only took you a decade or so to figure that much out, but I blame that on the fact that I could only have you for a month at a time. I mean you were and still are running a country with commonwealths,” Wraithwind responded, doing his level best to stop from gawking at the tall, lovely pearl white Dragoness before him; especially since he might not get that sight live again for years into the future.

“True, but we must play the hand we are dealt. I would not trade my Kingdom for anything, though it is nice to have another’s perspective, even if only for a relative short period at any given time,” Celestia said, which got all the Natives nodding, and the four Converts thinking.

Would it really be wrong to learn a transformation like that, after already having my species swapped for real? Vague thought, as Celestia entertained more questions from the rest of the Council.

***** ===== *****

[1] Gene Matrix – One of the most critical possessions of a Changeling Hive, as it retains all of the genetic information gathered from assimilated captives; in order to make the transformed states of that Hive’s Changelings more robust and resistant to failure when exposed to anti-Changeling measures or general magical interference.

[2] Grünschnabel – German word that literally translates to ‘green beak’, used to refer to a ‘greenhorn’ or a novice

[3] Preadannost – One of the Russian words that can be translated as ‘loyalty’. Blaze is starting to develop a habit of referring to all of the Elements of Harmony by their Element in Russian, as if they were code names.

[4] as periodic reminder, the word ‘standard’ in this instance refers to a flag, or specifically in this context, a vertical banner that is similar or identical to their flag that is used for ceremonial purposes