The Last Descendant

by Cup of Coffee

Chapter 13 - The Cause (Edited by JBL 02.08.2017)

Twilight and Spike walked into the meeting room of the sailing ship the members of the expedition had transferred to, the door clicking shut behind them. A long conference table was centered in the middle of the room, with ponies seated on chairs around it. Spotting the duo, they all stood up and bowed.

“Good morning, everypony. Please sit down,” Twilight said politely as she took her own seat at the head of the table. She still felt uncomfortable with ponies bowing to her, but had grown to accept that it would happen anyway.

Twilight looked at the ponies gathered around the table. She could not remember seeing so many distinguished scientists and experts gathered together in one place. Those assembled were silent, their attention focused on Twilight.

“I hope you all had a decent breakfast, because we have a lot of work ahead of us.” She nodded to a few ponies who stood to the side. At her signal, the assistants walked around the table, hoofing out manila folders to those gathered. “These folders contain the details of the expedition.” Twilight cleared her throat and took a calming breath, preparing for a lengthy explanation.

“A few days ago, Princess Luna returned from a diplomatic visit to Griffonia. In the area where we are now, they found the remains of a small vessel and one survivor. After treating the survivor in Canterlot, he gave a detailed account of what he witnessed. The phenomena is explained on the fourth page of the documents you have all been given.”

The ponies opened their folders and turned to the aforementioned page. Many of the experts seemed baffled by what they read. Some of them grinned ear to ear while others simply looked at the page and placed it back on the table.

“The details of the incident imply that this magical phenomenon might have been a portal spell caused by something unknown to us. We are here to discover what exactly is causing these portals to appear and, if possible, close them forever.”

A wave of murmurs and whispers erupted from around the table. Some of them seemed agitated, their voices the loudest of all. One pony, a unicorn stallion, held up his hoof like a foal in a classroom.

“Yes, you.” Twilight pointed a hoof at the stallion. He stood up and bowed politely to the princess before speaking.

“Your Highness, I am Doctor Cave of the Academy of Magic in Canterlot.” His voice was strong, his overall demeanour confident. His coat was light peach, with his mane and tail a light brown, almost blonde. His cutie mark was a lemon on fire, of all things. “It’s strange that we are to close this portal. Wouldn’t it be better if we were to research and investigate it? Surely, if this is a natural occurrence, there could be much to learn from it, most pertinently where it leads to.” Murmurs of agreement sounded from his colleagues.

“I understand the scientific interest, Doctor Cave.” Twilight sighed. She more than shared the doctor’s sentiment. After all, she had wanted nothing more than to research the portal and the strange world it led to. She had imagined herself as the first pony on an alien world, meeting the leaders of Earth, making new friends. However, lives were at stake, and even staying in this area posed a risk to them all.

“However, the decision to close the portals was not taken lightly. We have confirmed reports that several ponies accidentally entered the portal and tragically lost their lives. This was confirmed by the survivor.” The expedition crew all gasped upon hearing that. Although the truth, she had to bend it. The crew on Star Swirl’s ship had all died, and he had been the only survivor. It was only through Magnus that he had been able to relay what had happened to him. “We are also very close to the shipping lanes between Griffonia, Griffonstone, and Equestria. Anypony else dying in a portal accident is simply unacceptable!”

The whispers from the expedition had long since died down. Twilight’s eyes wandered over each pony in the room. The expressions of the ponies varied, but it seemed that the potential danger of the portal had gotten through to the sceptics.

“So,” Spike gave Twilight a stack of paper containing the names and specialties of the ponies assigned to their teams, “I’ll assign the tasks now. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna selected each and every one of you because of your work and specialty in fields such as teleportation, portal magic, ley lines, geology, and diving.” Twilight looked over the papers and found the first team. “Tracking and Identification team. Professor Flow?”

A middle-aged unicorn mare stood up. Her mane was tied into a tight bun and she wore half-moon spectacles. Twilight glanced at her documents, noting her cutie mark was a wand under a magnifying glass. “That would be me,” she announced primly. The professor reminded Twilight more of a stereotypical librarian than a professor, and she briefly wondered if she would have eventually turned out that way if her role as a librarian had continued.

“Good morning, Professor. You and your team from Fillydelphia are in charge of locating the flow of magic and discover any anomalies. We believe that there should be only one; nevertheless, keep your eyes open for anything out of the ordinary.” Twilight levitated a separate folder over to the professor. “Up on deck, you and your team will find carriages waiting. They will transport your team around so that you can cover more ground. It’s faster than using the airships.” The professor nodded sharply and sat down to peruse the folder she was given.

Setting her attention back onto her own documents, Twilight found the next team. “Ley Line team… Doctor Moonglade?”

***

It took an hour before the meeting and briefing was concluded. The teams had been assigned their tasks and introduced to each other. Thankfully, it had all went smoothly and nopony asked about the survivor or the ponies that had lost their lives. It would not have mattered since nopony knew their names, that knowledge long lost to the sands of time. Twilight was pleased that everything went as well as it had. She couldn’t talk about Magnus and what he was, or the knowledge she possessed about Star Swirl. Though Magnus’ existence was to be kept a secret, she was sure that would change sometime in the near future.

Twilight and Spike were on the deck of the sailing ship, The Sea Mare, a four-mast schooner of impressive size that served as the expedition’s headquarters on the ocean. From its deck, they observed five chariots taking off; each chariot with two unicorns on board. Their job was to circle around the expansive area of sea and attempt to locate any unusual or abnormally strong magical signatures. If they found one, a buoy would be dropped into the sea so that ships and airships could find it.

Twilight was joined by the expedition's second-in-command, Professor Arcane Nebula. He was an elderly unicorn with a dull silvery coat and grey, almost white, tail and mane, which was combed over.

“If I may, your Highness,” the professor began as he stared out at the open sea, adjusting his thick glasses with a hoof. “These portals do seem strange. They have gone unnoticed for so long; Equestria certainly hadn’t been aware of their existence. How is that possible?”

“I don’t know, Professor,” Twilight responded as she observed the chariots disappear in the distance. “Technically, we are not in Equestria. We are in international waters and almost right in the middle of a shipping lane. This just doesn’t make sense.” Twilight sighed, frustrated that more questions appeared while no answers revealed themselves.

Twilight and Professor Nebula exchanged theories and conversed as they waited. Occasionally, she attempted to hone in on any magic nearby, but all she could detect was the magic of the ponies on the ship and the natural magic existing in the world around her. If there was a magical anomaly somewhere nearby, it was not here.

Hours passed as the unicorn teams flew and crisscrossed the ocean. Every two hours they landed for the tired pegasi to get some much deserved rest as another pair began their shift. Each time a pair landed on deck of the ship, they were met with food, drink, and a bed to sleep in. A pegasus was born to fly, but hauling a chariot was tough business, and not all of the pegasus on board were in the best of shape.

Evening came, the sun about to set. Its warm glow on the horizon coloured the sky in a beautiful array of yellows, reds, and oranges as the night steadily approached, the first few stars already beginning their twinkling. The moon would soon rise, a sentinel in the night’s sky watching over all the world’s inhabitants. It was a beautiful sight.

All but one of the teams had landed, reporting negative findings. It didn’t take long before a small dot was spotted far in the distance and was quickly identified as the last team. The chariot, pegasi, and its two unicorn passengers approached the ship and made a less than stellar landing. It was obvious that two pegasi were exhausted as they slumped down onto the deck, panting hard. They were quickly unhitched and aided by their fellow expedition members. In contrast, the two unicorn members could be described as almost sprightly as they sprinted towards Twilight.

“Welcome back.” Judging by how excited they both looked, she knew that they had discovered something. “We began to worry; you’ve been out there for a long time.”

“Thank you, Princess, and we apologize for it, but we think we’ve found the anomaly!” the stallion exclaimed, almost jumping up and down out of sheer giddiness. His teammate, a mare, was equally excited.

“That’s great news!” Twilight smiled and cantered over to a table with a map of the eastern coastline of Equestria, the sea demarcated in a grid. “Can you show me where it was?”

The duo followed Twilight to the map, studied it, and compared it to the map they had been given of their designated search area.

“I think it was… here? No, here it is.” The mare pointed to a square on the sea. “We got a strange reading on grid numbers G12 and H12.” She clopped her hooves together out of sheer excitement. “It felt so strange, like the air was… vibrating or something.”

“And you made sure to drop off the buoy?”

“Yep!” the mare answered in a chipper tone. “We made several passes over the area, and all magical activity we detected was much stronger around G12 and H12. The buoy was dropped dead centre and the light turned on. We’ll have no problem finding it.”

Twilight exhaled in relief. “Well done, now we’ll make progress.” She then turned towards the captain. “Captain Fair Wind, we have our destination.”

The aging earth pony stepped forward. Dressed in a worn navy blue jacket, and a similar coloured captain’s hat, a bubble pipe hung from the corner of his mouth. He squinted at her, a perpetual frown carved onto his face. “Aye, that we do, yer Highness.”

It didn’t take long before The Sea Mare was underway, accompanied by the airships. The location where the anomaly was detected was quite a distance to their current position, and the sun had long since set and the moon shone upon the calm, glittering seas by the time they arrived.

As the ships came closer, every unicorn began to feel a strange sensation, almost a tingling vibration in the air. It felt like magic, though the sheer amount was almost overwhelming. It was raw, untamed, explosive… and potentially dangerous.

It was nearly midnight by the time the ships neared the buoy floating in the sea, its magical light easily visible in the dark waters. Many ponies stood by the railing of the ship, staring at the lonely light drifting in the inky background.

“It’s amazing…” Twilight whispered to herself. She could detect the magical anomaly pulsing from the depths of the sea. To her, who was familiar with Princess Celestia and had felt her magic many times during her tutelage, she could draw a comparison. While Celestia’s magic felt warm, comforting, protective and, most of all, powerful, this strange sensation was almost alien. It was unstable, raw and unguided. Though someone inexperienced in such matters would label it as chaotic, it was anything but.

New and unstudied, it could be harmless as all raw magic was, but there was the possibility that it could affect the ships, just as the portal had done with Star Swirl’s. With that in mind, she made her decision. “Everypony, may I have your attention? We’ll leave the buoy here for now and begin our investigation in the morning. I think it’s best if we move the ships away from this area just to be sure. Understood?” The crew saluted and rushed into action. Pegasi flew over to the other ships to relay her orders, and soon after, the ships began turning away.

“Phew.” Twilight exhaled. She was unaccustomed to commanding ponies, but she was pleased that everything had gone well so far. “That wasn’t so bad, right, Spike?” Looking to her side, Spike was nowhere in sight. “Spike?” She spotted her number one assistant standing near the railing, staring into the sea silently.

“Spike, is something wrong?” She trotted over to the baby dragon. He still didn’t reply. “Are you okay?” Twilight asked, feeling worried over his strange behaviour. Wrapping a hoof over his shoulders, Spike almost jumped away.

“AH! Oh, Twilight, you scared me.”

“What’s wrong? Are you feeling well?” Spike merely shifted from staring at her to the dark sea.

“I… This feels weird, Twilight.” Spike twiddled his claws as he looked down to the deck. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this. This entire area, the sea.... It feels wrong.”

Sitting down in front of Spike, Twilight wrapped her forelegs around his neck, nuzzling his cheek. “It’s okay, Spike. We’ll be careful, all of us. As long as we do that, nothing bad will happen. Tonight we’ll move the ships away, and when it’s daylight, we’ll all keep a lookout for anything bad happening.”

“O-Okay,” Spike replied, sounding relieved. “It’s just… It feels weird. Even I can feel how wrong this magic is.”

“I know Spike, I know.” Twilight patted his back.

Breaking their embrace, Twilight stood up and levitated Spike onto her back. “Let’s fly up to the ship and find something to eat, then we can go to bed. It’s been a long day, after all.” Spike nodded eagerly and wrapped his arms around her neck. With a flap of her wings, Twilight was airborne, setting a course for Celestia’s airship in the skies above.

***

“Depth?”

“Thirty fathoms, Captain!”

“Good work! Don’t slow down, mateys!” the captain shouted over the deck. He walked over to the map table where Twilight, Spike, Professor Nebula, and all the team leaders had assembled to discuss today's agenda.

“Princess Sparkle, the depth here is thirty fathoms.”

“Thank you, Captain Fair Wind.” Twilight nodded before she turned back to the table. “You heard the captain; do we have diving equipment for that depth?” She was specifically addressing the diving leader, a young pegasus stallion.

“Yes, our gear can take us to at least seventy fathoms. Thirty will be no problem at all,” he replied confidently. Twilight found it a bit strange that a pegasus had diving as a specialty, seeing that most pegasi were naturally inclined to the skies.

“Great.” Twilight leaned over the map, studying it and all information that had been gathered. Scrolls, documents, and maps containing information on this part of the sea were splayed out for all to see. The mystery of where Magnus had been picked up and where the anomaly was located had been solved. A current flowed from the north to the south, and she reckoned that he and the wreckage had been traveling with the current until he was found by Luna. Magnus had been lucky, as if not for Luna and her crew, he would have ended up drifting further out to sea.

“Now, the first objective for today is for the divers to investigate the bottom of the sea and determine if there’s anything unusual down there. We’ll need rock and silt samples. I would also like one unicorn to accompany them and perform a thaumic reading using the instruments we brought. We should also attempt to find out more about what conditions the local marine life are experiencing and if it might be affected by the anomaly.”

“I understand, Your Highness. I can coordinate with the other teams and find somepony with previous diving experience. If they have none, we can give them a quick course and stay with them underwater,” the pegasus stallion replied.

“Good. Brief your team on what to look for. Please, be careful.” The stallion gave a short bow before trotting over to his team members.

“As for now, there is nothing we can do before the diving team brings up the first samples. I suggest the remaining teams prepare their equipment and themselves as we might have to wait for some time.” The team leaders nodded and Twilight dismissed them.

It did not take long for the diving team to get their suits on. Goggles, oxygen tanks, muzzle pieces, flippers and lead belts had been attached to them, along with a sturdy length of rope so they could be reeled in in case something happened. A few ponies with previous underwater experience had also been found and currently underwent a crash course on safety procedures.

The divers were a mix of earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns, nearly all of them possessing cutie marks that involved either diving or water. Standing ready with their gear on, the dive leader gave them a warning before they were allowed into the water. They all moved towards the railing and one by one jumped into the sea, their rebreathers hissing as the airflow met water, diving to the bottom in search of the anomaly.

***

Twilight sat at her desk within her chambers on the airship, jotting down notes for her report to Princess Celestia. Although the report was to be sent at the end of the day, anything deemed important by Twilight was carefully noted to be sent by Spike.

Still, not much had happened yet. The divers had surfaced once and reported the existence of strong currents and poor visibility. It severely hindered their progress as they were unable to see more than a few hooves in front of them. The current also threatened to bring them off course, but extra lead weights had helped them stay in place.

The geology team was having a field day with all the sediments and soil samples brought up from the ocean floor, along with some geologically interesting rocks and even a few broken parts of fossils. However the greatest discovery belonged to the biology team. They also had divers in the water that reported seeing strange types of fish and seaweed never previously encountered. Twilight theorized that the fish and aquatic plants could have been pulled into the portal along with Magnus. Thus, they were the first new species discovered during the expedition. Not a bad haul, to say the least.

Another interesting fact was that some of the species were highly aggressive. One diver had to make an emergency ascent when a particularly nasty type of fish latched onto his flank and refused to let go, even when it was out of the water. The diver ended up in sickbay with a few stitches and wounded pride.

This unusual behaviour by the local wildlife did not go unnoticed by Twilight. She knew of a few other places where wildlife was highly aggressive, one of which was the Everfree Forest. Hydras, manticores, cockatrices, and timberwolves were just some of the creatures Twilight had encountered in the forest, and she knew that more dangerous beasts existed deeper in the forest.

It wasn’t to say that the Everfree Forest was unique in that regard. The forests of Equestria were renowned for their peacefulness, the Everfree being its only truly hazardous forest. However, many other ancient forests around the known parts of the world contained their fair share of dangerous predators. The Griffon Kingdom, Zebrica, The Granite Mountains— they all had at least one dangerous forest or an area of untamed land within them.

Perhaps all of these locations were linked in some way? Though unsure, she still made mention of it in her report. She was already on her fourth page when somepony knocked on the door. She called for whoever it was to enter, and one of the guards stepped inside the room.

“Your Highness, one of the members of the Ley Line team has requested an audience. He says he has something interesting to show you.”

“Please let him in,” Twilight replied and stood up from her cushion, stretching her wings and legs to get the circulation flowing after sitting down for so long.

The guard nodded and exited the room. Shortly after, a young, slender unicorn stallion walked in on shaky hooves. He had a dull yellow coat and deep magenta mane and tail with a few blue highlights in them. On his back, he wore a saddlebag with several rolled pieces of paper sticking out of it. After entering the room, the door closed and he bowed deeply in front of Twilight.

“...Eh, hi, Y-Your Highness. I-I am Pattern, j-j-junior assistant on t-the Ley Line team.”

Twilight merely smiled, seeing a bit of herself in the young stallion. She had also been terribly nervous when she spoke with Princess Celestia during her first private audience as a young filly. “It’s nice to meet you. You can just call me Twilight,” she said gently, trying to imitate Princess Celestia. “And you don’t have to bow if you don’t want to.”

Carefully, the young stallion stood up with a shy smile. Pattern was young—perhaps sixteen or seventeen years old—and this made Twilight wonder how he had managed to get on the team. The youthful stallion was a junior assistant, so he was obviously talented in some way.

“I hear you have something to show me.” Twilight motioned to the young stallion to take a seat at the table. Hesitating a bit, the youngster walked over to the table, removed one of the scrolls from his saddlebag, and unrolled it. It revealed a map of the sea that divided Equestria to the west and the griffon’s territory to the east.

“Y-Yes, Princess. I—eh, I came across this map earlier and thought it could be helpful.” Pattern levitated a pair of glasses from his bags and set them on his muzzle. “See here? This is a map over Equestria, Griffonia, and Griffonstone. And these,” he pointed out several blue circles on the map, “are ley line strong points. The ones we know of, at least.”

Taking a closer look at the map, Twilight saw the ley lines were indeed marked, running along the locations of the Everfree Forest, Canterlot, Hollow Shades, the Crystal Empire, and a couple more. Of course, she had learned about them during her fourth year under Princess Celestia’s tutelage. Ley line strong points, she remembered, were places where the natural magic of the world coalesced into a single point. Usually such places had something unusual to them, like large amounts of gems within the ground, natural magic fountains, and other phenomena. The mirror pond in the Everfree Forest was one such place.

“T-These are the ones we know of in Griffonia and Griffonstone,” Pattern pointed them out, still quite nervous, “and I t-think I may have a theory.”

Pattern brought up another set of maps and placed them above and underneath the first map. One showed the northernmost islands in the Northern Sea. The second map showed the Southern Sea to the east of the Badlands. These two maps also had blue circles on them. He positioned the maps so that they fitted perfectly to become one large map.

“I-I was thinking of ley lines earlier and I marked them all on these maps. Then I looked at these other two maps and…” Pattern adjusted his glasses, sweating so much that they had almost slid off his muzzle.

“Pattern.” At Twilight’s voice, the stallion snapped to attention. “Take a deep breath…” Twilight inhaled deeply and lifted her hoof to her chest, “…and exhale.” She stretched out her hoof. “Inhale… and exhale.”

Raising an eyebrow in confusion, Pattern did as Twilight instructed. Inhaling deeply and exhaling slowly, the nervous stallion seemed to calm down slightly.

“Does that feel better?”

Pattern smiled. “Yes, it does. Wow, is this alicorn magic?”

“No, just a calming breathing exercise.” Twilight chuckled and looked back to the maps.

The stallion almost looked disappointed for a moment, but perked up in the blink of an eye. “Well, the ley lines. I was just looking at these maps and the strong points for almost two hours before I discovered something.” He picked up a quill, dipped it in ink, and drew a single line across the first map starting in Equestria and ending in Griffonia. Curiously, the ink line was straight as an arrow and went through several strong points. Pattern then drew a similar line, starting at a strongpoint on the Northern Islands and ended it on the Southern Islands. This line also went through known strong points from north to south.

Twilight examined the map carefully. She analysed the ink lines from east to west and north to south. It was easy to see; the ley lines were connected, as if a great river that magic followed. Magic was prone to follow gem deposits, like electricity followed the path of least resistance. If an area was rich with gems, then a ley line could be near. However, in this case she focused on where the two ink lines crossed—exactly where they were.

Then it dawned on Twilight. She knew what it was! She had read the stories; even Princess Celestia had told her of them!

“Ley line disharmony… magical friction…” she mumbled as the pieces finally pieced together. “Pattern! You’re a genius!” Twilight yelled and hugged the stallion. He immediately fainted; the last thing the poor stallion would have expected was being embraced by a princess.

Author's Note:

What? Did you think that Twilight would find what caused the portals to appear? I thought I would give that honor to a random character. Can't have Twilight hug the spotlight all the time, you know

Zero amount of Magnus in this chapter, thought I would focus on Twilight a little bit. This chapter was originally a part of the previous one, but as mentioned before I've decided to split up each chapter in two to cut down on the amount of words. Each chapter has been around 9k -15k words and that is a lot to read.

On a side note: Pony names are hard to come up with. Professor Cave is Cave Johnson from Portal 2. Originally I wrote this part sometime last year when I was watching a playthrough of Portal 2. Cave Johnson as a pony somehow stuck with me and his cutie mark was kinda funny.

Naming a pony is hard, especially for me as I'm terrible with names. Whenever I come up with a new pony I try to visualize what said pony looks like and if it's a male or female and what is their coat color, mane color, tail style and mane style. What is that pony's profession? What is s/he good at? Then the cutie mark appears in my mind. Professor Arcane Nebula's appearance I've based on my boss. He 's hilarious to watch when the wind comes from the side No offence to people with comb overs (Shave it all off and save up a manly beard instead! Or mustache )

Comments

[Cup of Coffee]

6462139 Correct. The picture is pretty close to what Magnus look like. His pony parts are pony hind legs from just below his knees, fur from elbows to wrists, slightly larger hands and thicker fingers, pointy ears and a horn.

[Eon333MS]

Sorry I didn't comment right away. Interesting chapter, just wondering are we getting close to the end (Not trying to say that I want the story to end so soon) just the ending of the chapter kinda made me feel like the climax is drawing near. Pattern and Twilight's interaction was cute. I can't wait to see more.

[Cup of Coffee]

6466040 We're getting close to the end of the first story arc, but there are still several chapters to go before the first arc is over. Sometime last year I wrote a rough draft of the end and wasn't quite happy with it, seeing as it really doesn't fit the story so far. It was dark and foreboding with a lot of nonsense interaction with various ponies. All in all, it was a mishmash of talk that made little sense. Lately I've thought of alternate ways to end the first arc, and came up with an idea that I can't remember seeing in a HiE fic before. I won't spoil anything, but I think you will all like it.

[Eon333MS]

6467033 Alright I look forward to it.

[PinkiePieFox]

“Ley line Disharmony… magical friction…” This give me chills lol!

[Fireeaters]

I'm rereading
Hey do you remember how I was arguing that you could've let the protagonist go home if you draged one of the lines through the portal and kickstarted earth's magic? It was probably at least a year ago. Now that I'm rereading, I'm not sure if you went back and plugged the plot hole, or I missed the 'being spat out in the wrong time' part. I found it strange that the guy was in the room while Twilight was being told that she needed to close the portal forever, and he didn't react at all.

[Fireeaters]

I remember being pretty nettled about it, lol.

[Mortefleur]

Inb4 there is a third Leyline intersecting them to form a triangle.

[Vision]

Dat portal 2 reference gave me a chuckle.