Somepony
I’ve hung out in a thousand caves in my long life, but this cave had to be the single least interesting of them all. Which was rather odd, the caves under canterlot were part of a mountain sized geode which happened to also be a nexus point of twelve laylines. I suppose if I had not lived in the caves for three and a half years I would find them interesting today. My adventurous spirit didn’t like being confined.
Though there was little choice but to live within the caves. The odds of any other safe haven existing outside these crystalline walls was extremely low. For now I was safe from the darkness outside, as were my comrades, the ponies who had managed to survive and like me, found a way to prevent the horrors of the last few years from happening.
Changing the past is extremely difficult. The slightest change can have far reaching consequences, and not all of time can be changed. The only way to change a timeline is indirectly. You can’t simply go back in time yourself and change things, the universe doesn't like that. All it lets you do in person is observe, unless you are very lucky and hit one of the rare narrow windows which occur in very select points of space and time.
Even Discord couldn’t simply alter the past, but his power was the one thing allowing us our one chance to replace this timeline with a better one. All five of us had a role to play in our little attempt. All of us had sacrificed more than any of us cared to mention to get our plan off the ground. If we succeeded, we never would have lost anything, if we failed, worse torments awaited.
I sat in the main cavern, on the south side of the prismatic, glowing, ever shifting magic circle in the cavern’s center. The calculum magicae instruxit aciem, more commonly known as the magic calculation array. Commonly being a relative term as practically nopony alive knew what the words even meant.
The array was the very heart of the world’s magic. Not its source, magic itself came from everything, the array was magic’s very soul. This ever shifting pattern of spells was what allowed the most powerful of mages to change the world, if they had the power. None of us had the power, and Discord had used the array once before, he could never do so directly again.
Individually the five of us could not access the array, but together, by virtue of our sacrifices we could serve as a conduit for Discord to influence the spell he had previously added to the array. We could use the framework for the game he had wished to play to try and save all Equis.
We had but a single attempt available. By manipulating the array to influence the world before the present day the five of us had cast a spell of our own. We could never use the array again the moment the conduit to the past we had opened reached the date a week and a half ago we had finally begun our quest.
“If Pheonix explodes, Celestia will be lost a half year sooner than our timeline. We have accelerated the chain of events!” One cried in distress.
Our names were a part of what we had sacrificed. We had only numbers now.
I nodded, “I warned you, the smallest of changes can have the greatest of consequences. In the new line, Phoenix acquired the metal she needed. She never did previously. While this threat was created by us, it is an indication we have changed things by bringing the appropriate champions to help.”
Discord smiled, “I do have my moments don’t I? But my old friend is right. We can’t allow Phoenix to explode, then there is the other problem… Since the Dogs losing the mine Genesis is now being relocated to the Crystal Empire, and the Remnants are preparing to fight off a second human invasion. They are now much more of a threat.”
Three sighed. “Three heroes and a few skilled ponies will not be enough. We need our champions to be able to divide into two teams.”
Five laughed and shook her head. “Of course more champions would be better, but our spell won’t allow Discord to travel to the past again, and his past self is being very unhelpful. How do we get more? We must find a way to guide them more efficiently than this silly game!”
“Oh that’s easy!” Two giggled. “Phee’s old captain’s ripping open other universes right now. We just use that gift to invite some more friends to help!”
“That could work.” I smiled thinly. “But I doubt we could fetch more humans, they lived too long ago. Frankly getting some to help was a mistake, we used too much mana.”
“Yepperoni!” Two exclaimed with a grin. “But they aren't the only non-magical species we know of! Anypony else remember the Crystal Mirror? Everyone in that universe kind of look like humans, or well, at least Twilight told me they do. Maybe they are just as brave and heroic and stuff. Oh! Since they aren't humans Miss Squishy won’t have a problem with them.”
Everypony thought quietly about Two’s suggestion. One nodded, “That world is parallel to our own and it’s time is relative to ours. We can afford to take two people from it without losing much energy or losing our ability to influence our champions.”
“It’s a good idea,” I agreed, “but we can not ever send them back. If we succeed we wont remember taking them from their home, and if we fail… we should prepare these ones for their quest as best we can. It would be best to shield them from the transformation heir species experiences when entering our world as well. We can spare the energy.”
“I agree.” Five admitted reluctantly. “We should have used their kind to begin with. If we fail, I am laying the blame squarely on your insistence that Humans make the best heros Three.”
“To be fair,” One said with a chuckle, “all of her books with human characters were just that much more interesting.”
“Then we are agreed on what to do… But after this we won't be able to bring anyone or anything else into the past. We also can’t directly reveal ourselves or we will collapse the conduite… I’m sorry about using our one shot back to give Taylor the rulebook, but they needed it.” Discord said as he flew into the center of the array.
“We’ve already forgiven you for that Discord.” One reminded. “It did after all allow us to start directly communicating with them. Everypony, focus your magic. Discord, perhaps you should give whomever we get as much of a briefing as you can manage without disrupting the spell.”
I closed my eyes and focused my energy. One by one my senses went dark. I stopped being myself, I became one fifth of the array itself. For a moment I was aware of things nopony could or would ever dream of. For a moment I was magic itself.
The sound of a talon snap jerked me back into my body.
“It’s done.” Discord said sounding more tired than the other times he used our jury rigged spell. “Two more champions due to arrive… soon. We can only give them messages from now on. The spell was weaker than we thought.”
“Will it destabilize?” Five asked fearfully.
“No. Not if we continue to fill the role of DMs and allow the game to play out as it will. Our plot meddling can go no further than observing the state of the world and hoping our champions ask the right questions.” Discord sighed. “I… I will need some time to rest.”
One nodded. “That’s all we need. Rest as long as you need to. Two, keep an ear out for our champions. This is their game now.”
Conduit. Oddly enough, the original would be correct if it was in French.
Also, new champions? Exciting!
5960262 For some reason, my copy of Gdocs likes to use french spellings. I have learned to get it to stop spelling research recherche but sometimes, on some words, it dose that. Since I can't spell at all, if it's not underlined in red, I don't notice.
5960246 Will do! I would love to hear why you like my story sometime!
More players have entered the arena, or will soon. I'm looking forward to it.
Why all the misanthropy, the nerd three are pretty cool . . . though I'm mildly curious what kind of nerd knowledge the two entrants from Alter Equestria will bring.
5960328 Your hint is: "Sis, there's a moon gate in the kitchen!"
As for the misanthropy... I'm a human every single day. They bore me. I like writing about non-humans
5960304 That's an odd "feature" of GDocs. Actually, what is really weird was that on IRC a little while ago and this was brought up:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erotic_target_location_error
Going back through ch 3, it dawned on me that Tess fits that well.
5960343 Yeah that dose. I didn't know where was a word for that. Tess honestly is aroused by the idea of being anything but herself, which once she is conscious and a master of her shifting powers is going to be irritating to her friends because she is also the: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EthicalSlut
5960342
I mean, everyone hates on the humans for having been human. Pretty racist, especially since they aren't or won't be that human anymore, and might not have any trace of human DNA in the future.
Can't they like or dislike them on their own merits, especially if they get transformed? I for one have nothing against transformation, just hated of humanity just cause.
I mean, not even the Arc qualified as human. And the Terrain Empire was a bad version of humanity. What happened to good versions? Were they also wiped out? By that logic since some ponies have been shown to go bad sometimes, so should they . . . Same with bad changelings and so on.
5960385 I see! With Phee, she was very hurt by people she deeply trusted and was programed to actually care about. That is a hate which can be (and will be) healed.
With ponies, remember they have had 0 interactions with humans other than the Arc. While we don't see them as human, the ponies do because the Arc used that label. Also I am building up the background for a moral of "humanity is not exclusively humans". In other words there id a disconnect between humanity (aka benevolence, compassion, philanthropy, humaneness, kindness, consideration, understanding, sympathy, tolerance; etc) and humans the species.
What I am trying to say with my work is "the attributes of homo sapiens we pride ourselves on will endure no matter how terrible we apes become because there will always be a few who hold to the spirit of humanity, even if they are not homo sapiens". I just need to set up a lot of "hairless apes kinda suck" so that moral lesson has impact.
As for the good versions... well, you'll see.
5960385 Circumstances happened. Lemme pitch a theory: If Phoenix had a copy of the "historical documents" of Star Trek, why would the "bad" Terran Empire (or it's predecessors) create it in the first place? If anything, they'd create an entire series based on the mirror universe. But as we've seen by the actions of the Emerald Hive, they didn't. So at some point circumstances happened that caused the Terran Empire to go bad.
I don't believe that human-hate is just because here. The ponies have a legitimate reason because of the Arc. Phoenix has a legitimate reason because of what her crew (and especially Captain) tried to do to her. It doesn't mean that either can't learn to stop hating.
5960447
The shows predated the Empire, and I'm sort of getting the impression from Phoenix that entertainment sort of... flatlined for awhile. If it hadn't, you'd have expected more Star Trek to be made (consider the implications otherwise!)
Or perhaps it WAS made, celebrating the mirror universe. All we know is that Phoenix really likes early 21st century stuff and beforehand. She might be holding back on everything produced afterwards because she sees it as tainted.
Hmmm... A great hodgepodge of wonderful entertainment! ( Sips tea and munches on cake. ) And even more wonderful... so much reference material must have been included in this stories writing! Let me see... Half life ( specifically the train ride. ), Halo, Startrek, And even a valid ( Story wise. ) Explanation for Q! Even, dare i say, some interesting sexy things as well. :P
5960455 That's a good point. But it does show that humans were good in that universe up to a point. At which time they decided that bad was better than good (because good is dumb).
I do like the thought that perhaps a mirror universe version of the show was created in the future as a kind of propaganda piece. If I were Phoenix, I'd be redacting that entire series.
their
old Captain is
can't wait to see about these new characters
You know on second thought I'm curious why Ad'ika didn't catch onto Taylor and Kaily making fun of their politicians, especially saying they are corrupt among other things. That doesn't sound like a Star Fleet attitude . . .
5960447 You're absolutely right! That's also one of the morals of the story. You can't make a point of all X are not Y without showing the racism, and you cant properly talk about racism without showing how stereotypes form. PC folks hate or refuse to admit this but stereotypes exist for a reason. At some point large numbers of group X were/were believed to be as described. So for the story's moral I have to show the why Z thinks X are all like Y, then break that conception.
5960455
That's another point for you Canary! You have 2. That is exactly why Phee loves 21st century stuff. It's from before the last 500 years of the Empire happened.
5960476 I'm glad you're enjoying everything! I'll keep it up.
5960479 The universe this story takes place in is exactly the same as out own up until 2016. Trek exists because we made it ourselves. Also as mentioned in the author's note I added, the story's universe isn't a Post Humans Trek Mirror Universe, it's an offshoot of that universe where things became quite similar to it, but had their differences. It was basically a Starship Troopers meets Mirror Universe sort of thing.
5960494 So someone HAS seen that besides me.
5961021 Yodling to Metal... Eon... go get some sleep ok? Also yes, Pinkie got it from the forth wall shop.
5961188 Mostly because sun god pony was right there. Celebrity effect. It will click soon enough. Yay for arguments mid crisis!
5960534
This is actually acceptable in speech, as many people talk like this. Remember, the rules of grammar can be bent when writing dialogue or character narration.
5961506 Thank you. I was wondering what was wrong with that bit.
5961506 I'll accept that, but it just seems so weird written out.
5961532 It checks out with how I wrote the character in the past. I need to remain consistent.
5961532 To be honest, I hate when people write in only grammatically correct dialogue. Sure, for some characters, like Twilight, it fits, but usually it's just bland and out of character. Do you think Rainbow Dash or Applejack speak with proper grammar? Few people actually do, which is why writing like that kills stories' immersion.
5961751 I never thought about it like that. Which is kinda odd, because I've read stories by authors who refuse to type out Applejack's accent or make Zecora rhyme. That has killed stories for me in the past.
5961794 I know, right! Of course, it's also annoying when people go too far with AJ's accent, putting it on every word. I tend to stick with the simpler 'Ah', 'mah', 'gonna', 'y'all', etc. Truth is, her accent isn't really all that thick, just very noticeable. I have cousins you likely wouldn't be able to understand with how thick their accent is.
5961716 Phee's memory is also damaged.
5963617 I suppose since your in the story far enough to not abandon it because of this I can tell ya... I got my friends together and came up with the story's characters based on their personalities. It's not really me inserting people I know into the story, I've changed up a good amount of stuff, I really just used their personal values and viewpoints and idioms of speak. The class levels and builds however, I had them whip up using Pathfinder's rules, and since I've outlined the story in full I've had them fight all the battles with their character's and took notes (well, most, next week should finish that up).
Why? Because I thought it would be awesomely meta to make a story where the characters have powers based on D20 games, to have actually resolved combat in the story via real D20 games. Other then the basis for the character's personalities and how combat goes, there is no further connection to reality.
5963617
5961951
But that still doesn't account for something pretty damn major, or maybe it's minor and it only seems major to me, but wouldn't her prefix be I.S.S, rather than U.S.S if she was from the Terran Empire, or is that some kind of first generation Emerald trickery as well, eh? And would there not still be physical evidence everywhere in her hull, such as Terran Empire flags and emblems everywhere, eh?
5963617
5963891 The USS is Emerald Trickery. As for the Empire/Federation... Have a minor spoiler.
The Terran Empire is the ruling body of the zone of space controlled by Terrans (homo sapiens). If you are human, you are an Imperial Citizen, with all the rights and privileges that entails. The Terran Federation is the collection of non-human persons living within the empire (this includes AGIs). If you are not Terran, you are a Federation citizen with all the requirements and rights that entails. In more blunt terms, the Terran Federation is the second class citizen colonial governments, settlements, and individuals within the Terran Empire. Why dignify your servants and slaves by calling them what you call each other?
5964259 Still to come.
5966178 *sighs* young people these days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1DpYBYfID4
5966306 Let me know how you like the rest of it!
5966377 So far, only you have seen that one :P
5966729 Keep going, the strange hit's critical mass and results in pure win.
Neat.
Two really feels like Pinkie, which makes me wonder if these five nameless ponies are the mane six minus Twilight.
On the subject of the plan, it's a really good idea to use these free portals to bring in some additional help. I wonder who some good candidates would be. SciTwi or her older brother on account of their likely familiarity with D&D or O&O or whatever might exist on that side of the mirror? Sunset since she's already familiar with Equestria and probably would feel some inherent loyalty towards helping her homeland? Flash for the hilarity in how Twilight would react?
5967747 Two is infact Pinkie. But the others are not the M6. Part of why the timeline needs to be rewritten is to prevent the M6 from all being killed. Yes Even Pinkie. She's only there after the fact because she made the reaper smile once and well, friends help each other out. (Yes, Pinkie has respawn because she gives the reaper cookies.)
5963655 That's not a turn off, that feels like an interesting way of handling things.
5967865 Yeah, the stuff in the chapter about Three and her books with humans was making me a bit uncertain since that doesn't fit any of the mane six as we know them from the show. We've had a timeskip from the show so that might not have been an issue, but with the knowledge that it isn't them at all I'm guessing AK Yearling for Three, or maybe Lyra on the assumption that you might be playing with the fanon of her having a human obsession. The longshot guess would be Twilight's mother since non-show canon has her as an author.
5968666 You're pretty close! Oh and FYI if you want to see my take on Lyra, read my story The Bridesmaids. It's the same AU.
6014328 No, they're another kind of thing.
New Gods. Still young and weak. Pity they're dying, but that's usually how the cupcake burns.
I got my money on the table that the mysterious 1 to 5 on the main six minus twilight