Chapter 43: August 8 (Part 2)
The map stops moving only once it’s focused on the brilliant disk of the galactic core. “Understand what you’re looking at is a carefully crafted illusion spell, made to represent all I have seen of the stars as I ruled over Equestria’s night.”
“This is the Galactic Central Point. There, twenty-five thousand light years distant, is the source of all magic.” She pauses for a moment, though clearly not for questions. You’re too stunned by the impressive fidelity of the illusion to ask any. “My sister is the greatest, wisest being I have ever known, and even she does not know the source of magic.”
“Regardless of the reason, regardless of the source, magic flows outward.” You see a sudden glow superimposed on the image, like a solar wind of pinkish flames traveling out in a torrent. Like all things, it is shaped by gravity, and is concentrated most in the arms. “It is not an intelligence, it does not respond differently to the same input. Magic is a force, a field that passes through space and matter alike without slowing.”
“Wherever magic goes, it is a force of creation and harmony.” The image focuses on a single distant corner of space, where you watch as the fundamental force your language calls magic swirls down into the primordial soup of a cold world and imparts the critical spark of life to a sack of lipids and organic compounds. A cell is born, and it begins to divide and spread. You don’t stay to watch it.
“Equestria itself is one such creation, as, we suspected, was all life on all worlds.” The image fades briefly, and you see a view of the room you’re standing in. That same pinkish field permeates it, passing through the walls and the books without slowing. Yet when it strikes a strange blue flower, the glow grows more intense. As it passes through Luna, it stops completely, making her whole body a brilliant fireball by comparison. You have to look away, and as you do, you see that it has done something similar to you (though nothing near as extreme). Your very hooves before you are bright red, enough to light up the whole room.
“As you can see, life is special. Life alone interacts with the thaumic field. That rare form of life, with soul as well as body, doesn’t just slow the thaumic field, but absorbs it.”
The image began to expand until the galaxy returned, then began to fade into the stellar background in the face of billions and billions of other galaxies. Eventually, though you had no words to describe it, you see the essence of the universe itself, a bubble of light as seen from very far away. It’s like some of the animations you’d seen at school or on the Internet, only much prettier.
“A little over a thousand years ago, a unicorn wizard greater than all before him invented a spell that could see beyond the physical spacetime of our universe.” You see another bubble pop into existence, nearly identical to the first. “And into yours. We suspect there may be others, yet the distance in the cosmic foam between us and these other realms is so vast that they are only pinpricks of light. Yet your home, for all its distance, was within reach.”
You lean closer to the vast image above you, wishing you had your previous height. Even a few inches closer would’ve been worth it, to get a better view of what’s happening. You watch Equestria's universe fade into the distance, and the one Luna described as your own grow larger and larger until you see your own galaxy, exactly like the Equestrian version save for a single change.
“The magic,” you stammer. “It’s gone.”
“These are the earliest images I ever saw through the doorway.”
Your eyes widen at the vibrant colors of your galaxy, captured more vividly than anything Hubble ever managed. “You can see all this?”
She smiles in response. “Princess of the Night, Lonely Day. It comes with the domain.” Her face grows more grim. “At the time, though your universe was close enough to observe, we imagined it lifeless. Devoid of magic, it could only host predictable, mechanical interactions. The soul and spirit couldn’t possibly function, or so we thought.”
“Perhaps you’ve learned the story of my banishment.” You nod, and she continues. “There are no images of the state of your universe, because I could not gather them. During the many years of my absence, the ponies of Equestria only knew that your world was in a state of drift, moving away from our universe in the cosmic foam. In time, it would be beyond the magical reach of even the most powerful unicorns.”
“Upon my return, investigating your world was at first only a matter of curiosity. I opened the doorway anew, as nopony had bothered in many years. Something had changed in my absence.”
Billions of tiny pink fireflies appear, and the glow of Luna’s horn zooms the image again and again, focusing in on a single, familiar planet. Earth. You can’t help but notice the glowing seems eerily similar to a photograph of Earth’s lights from space, concentrated most in the areas of human life. The ocean, by contrast, is almost entirely devoid of the illumination of magic. “This magic was unbelievably faint. Less than what a small village of Equestrian ponies might radiate, coming from the whole planet. It was possible it had existed before, but it had been so dispersed that I had failed to notice. I saw it now, however.
We were baffled by what we saw; it seemed that in the absence of magic’s presence in your world, something had developed to produce it. Understand this runs counter to our knowledge of the behavior of magic; we have always known it to be an immutable force, neither created nor destroyed. Ponies do not create magic, they merely absorb magic already present and radiate it out again in changed forms. Even the mighty Discord, spirit of chaos, cannot create magic. Yet something on your planet did. For the first time, I invested the power to open a doorway onto your planet's surface.”
Thousands of images flash before your eyes, in nauseating succession. Sprawling cities of complexity that dwarf anything on Equestria. Huge neighborhoods, markets, and nature-defying architecture. The ISS in its orbit. Millions, millions of voices briefly beset your mind, and somehow you recognize them as radio transmissions in every human language. Re-runs of I Love Lucy and a scratchy voice saying "Hello! Test, 1, 2, 3, 4. Is it snowing where you are Mr. Thiessen?" The vastness of technological civilization compressed into an instant.
“You found us.”
“Indeed. Your presence rewrote everything we knew about magic. Apparently lacking it, your mechanical universe had created its own source of magic: You. Every time one of you invented something new, every time one of you expressed kindness or goodness or love, another tiny packet of thaumic energy was released. Over the incalculable future of eternity, your universe would be as saturated with it as ours.”
You want to say something about the humans you found, about the way they described magic as deadly radiation that reduced anyone to a drooling vegetable. You don't, and not because she told you not to interrupt her. Rather, you don't want her to know about the HPI. Not yet.
“Ponies here in Equestria debated whether or not we should make contact with you. After all, while nopony could ever travel to your world for fear of the resulting thaumic starvation, we saw no reason you could not travel here. The incredible creations you had made defied our understanding, and we hoped we might learn their secrets from you.”
“So we created a doorway, made contact, and invited a number of individuals to Equestria. They came.” For the first time, Luna averts her eyes from you, her ears drooping. “They died.Painfully. What was left behind…” You see her shiver, and somehow smell her disgust.
“As best we could discern, exposure to magic millions of times more concentrated than in your home universe had precisely the opposite effect we had imagined. Instead of absorbing the magic through what you call the soul, the spirits of your kind were ripped away. I watched helpless as their bodies were left empty, and their magic-producing souls were drawn off to the Galactic Core.”
“We expected this to be the end of traffic with your people, as we had learned that traffic in either direction was fatal. Our worlds were simply too different.”
You can’t keep the bitterness out of your voice. “Obviously it wasn’t. I’m here.” And not dead. You can’t help but shiver in horror all your own as you imagine what it might be like to be ripped right out of your body and be drawn kicking and screaming across the length of the galaxy. You’re immensely grateful you weren’t one of the ones the Equestrians contacted. Maybe visiting Equestria as a pony instead of a person wasn’t so bad after all.
“Correct. All ponies but myself and my apprentice withheld from using the portal spell, and we restricted ourselves to opening the door high above your planet. Mostly we watched to see how the ever-increasing magic your world produced would influence the development of other species. How long would it take to make your animals like ours, for instance? While my apprentice studied this question, I focused on your stars, trying to learn what force served in magic’s place to guide the formation of life.”
“I never learned the answer. I did, however, discover something horrifying.” The image changes again, panning away from your planet and zooming rapidly through space. Stars grow more and more concentrated as the image narrows on Galactic Center. You see as a sphere of absolute darkness… at first. As you watch, flashes of pink briefly emerge, only to sink back in again. Thin, almost invisible trickles of magic pour in. Somehow, in defiance to the speed of light, you recognize that energy as coming from your home, or other planets like it.
“Magic has been pouring into this object for millions, perhaps billions of years. What I failed to notice during my earlier observations is that all that magic has been exerting a transformative effect.” You see spectacular geysers of pink, like huge erupting solar storms, emerging from the formerly dark object, rather than sinking into it. They bend back quickly under the force of gravity, but with each moment they grow more massive. “We saw the first clues of where magic had come from in our world. It seemed this object was on the verge of becoming for your galaxy what existed already in ours. What was worse, it seemed only years away.”
“That doesn’t make sense! I don’t know astronomy that well, but I thought looking at far-away things was also looking back in time. So lots of magic is dangerous to humans… and there was going to be lots of magic here… weren’t you watching something really really old? And wouldn’t it be like, another 25,000 years or whatever until the magic got to earth?”
Luna shakes her head. “Magic is not like light, Day. It doesn’t truly travel through space as light does, and so is not restricted by it. Only objects that also exist outside of three-dimensional space, such as what you call black holes and the spirits of living things, can influence it. Any change in the magical center of your galaxy would be felt instantaneously throughout. I did not use telescopes and light to watch, but powerful magic of my own.”
“Oh.” You wouldn’t have believed any of this three months ago, before the world fell apart. Now, after becoming a tiny pony, after seeing your world deserted and magic performed before your very eyes, you’re a little less skeptical.
“I judged a maximum of four years before this transformation would be accomplished, and whatever magical process taking place within your galaxy would be complete. While many insisted we had no place to interfere, Celestia and I refused to be idle witnesses to your genocide. It seemed a double cruelty to us, that the universe that had used your species to complete its transformation would reward you with extinction. There might have been millions, or even billions of other worlds with life in your galaxy. We didn't have the power to help them. We could, however, still reach your world.”
“So you… did something?”
She nods. “We had never in Equestria observed a species so creative and resourceful as yours. We expected that, if we made your kind aware of the fate that awaited them, they would discover their own solution. We could not travel there, but we no longer needed to. Equestrian radio technology had advanced rapidly in the years since the doorway opened, largely as a result of the observations we made of you and the machines your ill-fated travelers had brought.”
Her horn glows again, and another of the small objects float from the side of the room to the ground in front of you. This one is an older laptop, its components in various stages of disassembly. You see now that many of the objects on the table are human in origin; clothing, books, boots. You find this realization one of the most depressing things about what you’ve learned today. “We made contact. Once your people had verified the extra-terrestrial nature of our message, they asked for numerous demonstrations of magic, which we provided through the doorway. More humans died. In the end, they told us they had no way of saving their planet. There simply wasn’t enough time left, not enough energy. You were doomed. They cut communication with us, and requested we not contact your planet again. We complied with this request.”
“We did not, however, give up. Though we were disappointed your species could not discover their own solution, we still refused to allow such an injustice to occur. Celestia gathered Equestria’s greatest minds and its most talented allies, and together we created a spell.”
“The spell that made us ponies?” you suggest. “So magic wouldn’t kill us?” You’re not exactly sure kill is the right word, since until now you’d never even believed the soul was a thing. You can’t think of a better one.
She nods. “Yes; though not just ponies. The balance of my planet’s magic is maintained by the interactions of many species. Since we knew of no other harmony, we were forced to recreate that same structure in your world.” She smiles slightly. “The real brilliance was not the transformation itself. We had learned much about your world during our brief contact with your government. We knew your society would never survive the transition. In the chaos of the spell your civilization would likely tear itself apart. Your planet was so heavily populated your folk could not survive without advanced technology. Simply transforming you would have been to condemn the majority to starvation and death.”
Only your painful curiosity is enough to restrain your anger now. Indignation and fury come surging to the surface, but you bite them back. Luna is nearly done. You must hear the rest, and you might never learn it if you let rage master you now.
“The spell would transform every human on your planet based on the closest match between your souls and the bodies of our world, forgiving a certain repopulation bias. It would then use the quality of the match to distribute your vast numbers across time. Those the spell could match perfectly would remain behind to rebuild your society. As time progressed, the less ideal matches would reappear. Over the course of about ten thousand years, all your missing people would return, to a rebuilt civilization better able to see to their needs. By that time, the burden of all your numbers could be carried by restored technology, supplemented with the magic you would then have mastered. Their return would be staggered across time, coming in greater and greater numbers the further ahead you looked.”
“Thousands of Equestrians all worked together on the spell, knowing our time was short. Perhaps you noticed, but your people have a measure of celebrity here in Equestria.”
You had. Every city you visited treated you like a movie star, lavishing you with gifts to take back to “Equestria’s friends on Earth.”
Luna continues. “We knew our time was limited; your world was drifting further apart from our own, and once it crossed a threshold that may be days away we would not be able to send the spell across.”
“The spell required vast power, power that did not exist in your universe. When we completed it, I placed it above your planet, and left the door open so that the magical energy crossing from Equestria might sustain it until the transformation in your galaxy’s core was completed.”
“We were hopeful: the spell bent time as only Discord’s magic truly can. It would take place almost instantly, too swiftly for your souls to be drawn away. Our hope was not in vain, and the spell worked. It stabilized your technology so your world would not burn. It changed you to forms able to survive in the new levels of magic that would soon arrive. It sent the majority away to a future that would be able to feed and provide for their psychological needs. And that, Lonely Day, is how you have come to stand here.”
Luna falls silent then, and at last, you are able to give voice to the indignation and rage that has built during your conversation. Billions of the vanished have no voice but yours. You will be quiet no longer.
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Hmm, different memory crystal?
That... was actually a pretty cool backstory.
Onward...
Wow that was something else!
Disappointed? I'm literally having goosebumps from how awesome this is!
Okay, let me see if I understood what just happened.
A bunch of magic (radiation) was about to annihilate all life on earth.
Luna worked hard to figure out a way to avoid certain death for all humans. When every other idea failed, she decided to turn everyone into ponies and since pony bodies can handle magic (radiation), everyone would survive.
However, because the transformation would cause problems, Luna decided to combine the transformation with a time spell that would only allow people to come back to earth as ponies when they were "ready."
The kind of pony they were transformed into AND when they come back depends on the condition of their soul at the time of ponification.
Is that about right?
The funny thing about this is that it pretty much means HPI basically doomed themselves by trying to save themselves.
Nice... really nice.
Now, whatever you do Day, DON'T go off your temper and scream at the leader that saved your entire specie-
Oh fuck.
Well, in one respect she fucked him over, in another she saved him/her, I think she doesn't understand that her mother and sister, family and friends have disappeared and won't return until there are 'ready', I think it's time to see the next chapter, and the trainwreck that follows.
Also, good way to get around the journal weaknesses, gives tense moments like this what it deserves.
Animated crystal image, neat.
Dear lord, this may be the most world-building possibilities dense single paragraph I've ever read.
Wait, I take that back, the next few paragraphs rate pretty highly too. Holy crap, Starscribe,
Hmn. I'm guessing Equestria is simply much closer in than Earth, and has a correspondingly higher rate of adaption and resistance? *Reads further* Okay, completely different universe then, and one without magic at all.
Woah x2.
Ahh, so the root of the problem really had nothing to do with Equestria at all, Earth's galaxy simply reached magical singularity at a really inopportune time, which means this was a catastrophe on a significantly larger scale than just humankind.
It'll be interesting seeing how Alex reacts. I'm not sure I could argue that Equestria didn't do the best it could to same as much of humanity as possible in the only way they were able to figure out. The time displacement means that, in theory, everyone missing will eventually make it back, even if it takes a very long time. Surely that's better than being sucked into a magical black hole, right?
ANSWERS!!!! YES!!!!!
6164168 right? a vary well done answer to what happened and how.
Excellent worldbuilding backstory. In less magi-babble than mine, it greatly resembles my worldbuilding for a WIP fic of mine.
I'm almost tempted to volunteer my story for your universe. Unfortunately, your verse is strictly a verse of "Life After People", which is not what my fic 's Earth is about.
...
Hmm... I'm about to be brilliant. I have to think on this for awhile.
I am confused
So... Basically... Are all the people that disappeared going to return eventually?
I've always thought that space was an asshole.
Ugh, second-person perspective sucks so much! At least I can keep reading this story since it was Celestia and Luna who attempted to save humanity from destruction instead of causing the Thaumatic Radiation which is so lethal.
6177637 Basically. I have no idea why Lonely Day is so angry?
Satisfying explanation for everything, I like. I'll try not to overanalyze it.
Other than the implication that animals don't have the same souls as humans but still satisfying really. It kind of works better to make the story work.
OH AND I REALLY LIKE THE GIF! I've never seen anything like it on this site!!
6243034
I imagine the iratation comes from the disorientation and panic various individuals will feel when they arrive. Families split apart, by time and species.
Wellll... my theory wasn't too far off.But in the end it was wrong. Quite a logical reasoning behind why all that happened happened.
I have not been able to follow her explanation very well, but I gotta say, if Day is about to go off on her, it's with reason. That's a shitty solution.
9171378
It has been said that, "in the face of extinction, every alternative is preferable".
So basically magic is dark particles? Interesting.
Sooo... magic is emotion?
9695197
Partially, but animals can feel emotions too.
I believe it's thoughts. The ability to introspect, to rationalize, to make decisions and create concepts out of nothing.
9933200
You're right but have you considered, human think on a complete different level than most animals(that have a personality). Like level 1 to 10 compared with level 100 and an exponential magic output. Luna described that entire city's are mere glimpse, compared to a single pony as a campfire.
Oh no, how dare they do all they could to prevent your extermination that they had nothing to do with.
Daaaaaaamn. That's some pretty complicated stuff, but fortunately I understood it. Kind of a combination of a shitty solution but also the 'best' one as far as they could gather. Screws up a lot of family and community units, though.
Welp, time to see what LD (I find it amusing those are also my initials) has to
sayyell.