3 - King's Gambit
Trigger, Sky Trigger - 18th of Megan, 17 EoH
Deck 13, Phoenix - Emerald Hive
Paperwork. The worst part of any job. You would think the higher ups wouldn’t do the paper pushing. Executive privilege. That kind of shit.
Nope! Buck that!
Let's do it the other way around, and ignore Sky’s suggestion to write an algorithm that uses security footage to auto complete all paperwork which would ever need to be done. Cuz that makes sense to not do. Yep, way better.
“Are you alright, boss? You look a bit pissed off today,” Charr asked with a slight frown while I glared at her datapad.
I liked the dwarf dragon, I really did. But she did cut me off in the hallway for paperwork.
“I’ll be fine once I can stop authorizing all this crap,” I grumbled, tapping all the relevant boxes on the screen with a hoof. “You have any idea what got Skritt to decide we absolutely had to clear Deck Fourteen now? We’ve been fine space wise for thirty years.”
Excavating a deck was always a massive undertaking. Lots of ponies think we have the entire Phoenix unearthed, especially the tourists. Nope! We don’t even have half the decks clear.
“Maybe he think’s were due for a population boom,” Charr said with a shrug, her neon green scales glittering under the lights.
I swore she dumped turtle wax on herself and had someone buff her scales at least once a week.
Shaking my head I passed the pad back. “Whatever. I’m out for the weekend. You deal with all of the requests that flood in. It’s time you broke in your job title and did some overseeing,” I said decisively, turning to try and go back to my office.
“Uh, Boss, are you sure you should be leaving right now?” Charr asked, wings drooping worriedly. “They just got all the sand out and you know that means a million different things will need-”
“Let’s get something straight,” I said as I turned back around with a sigh. “I’m married. My wife said we are hanging out this weekend. Away from the hive. I like living. So I’m going home for the weekend.”
Sometimes it’s next to impossible to get single people to understand how a marriage works.
Charr frowned uncertainly, silver eyes pleading with me for mercy. “Can’t you get laid any other time? Who knows what the dig teams uneatr-”
My watch beeped, signaling an incoming message which instantly began to play itself. Which meant it was from my sister. How she kept hacking my watch to get her messages to auto-play was something I needed to figure out.
“Hey, Sky!” Her voice called excitedly from the speaker. “Trix and I are checking out Fourteen. Looks like this was a military section. We found an armory. Trix called dibs on a light mech we found. Oh, and it totally confirms our theory! The Mech is designed to accommodate a changeling pilot. Meaning a pony works just as fine.”
Charr blinked twice, “Wait, really?”
“Yeah, really!” Ayna laughed. “This will be more than enough to get a few papers published in the journals. Sky, big bro, come on. Cool thing! Come see. There’s a gun that looks like it is designed to pierce forcefields by firing huge crystal spikes down here! Besides, Trix’s new toy could use some touch ups.”
I sighed twice and looked at my watch uncertainly. “Ay, you know Pinkie wants me home this weekend. I can’t fix it up for her. Get anypony else to do it,” I said as evenly as I could.
Why must everything conspire to keep me at work?!
“The Great and Powerful Trixie fixed it herself! Muahahaha!” Trixie announced overdramatically before giggling and finishing up with, “It just needed a power cell. There's a whole crate down here. Trixie really thinks you should come down and explore with us. Trixie found a very beautiful hooded jacket and a cape! They change colors, adaptive camouflage style.”
“And she looks adorable in them!” Ay added happily.
“Trixie might relegate her old hat and cape for stage performances only, in favor of these,” Trixie said clearly still mulling the idea over.
“You should, those things are what, sixteen years old? And you’ve worn them every day for that whole time. They are getting pretty worn out. Anywho, I need to go. I’ll be back in two days, find all the cool shit for me,” I said as politely and firmly as I could.
“Awww, come on! You could go pick her up, bring her back, and we could make it um, I don’t know, an ‘explore the new deck party.' She’d like that,” Ay asked hopefully.
“Nope. Not gonna. She specifically said she wanted to be in Ponyville this weekend. I got to go, Ay. Bye!” I said as I pressed the hangup button on my watch.
Hehe. Ayna hated when I rhymed her name like that.
Charr cleared her throat and looked at me uncertainly. “Anyways, Boss, about the new power needs for the deck-”
I groaned and rubbed my right temple with a hoof. Buck going to my office to pick up that pie. Leaving now.
“You can handle it. You’ve been a great engineer for the last six years. Literally day one, you move in, you do a great job, and you’ve kept doing a great job,” I said encouragingly as I could to the slightly shorter than me dragoness while I stealthily worked through the menus on my watch with a wingtip.
“We’re a meritocracy, Charr,” I ranted. “You have your job because you are the best suited for it. You will do fine. If there’s a major problem, call me. If not, I’ll be here in two days to help unbuck the little messes that pop up.
“Just remember, you, will, do, a, good, job. How do I know? Because you’re incapable of half-assing a job. Draconic pride. Bye, see you, good luck, take care, Sky out!”
I hit the last button as I finished my mini rant, activating my watch’s teleport function. The white metal hallway blinked out of existence, replaced by the old Solar Era craftspony ranch house Pinkie and I shared in Ponyville.
I would rather have used a teleporter pad and saved my watch’s charge for an emergency, but sometimes getting out of the office is a bucking nightmare.
ESPECIALLY when your lieutenant is still green. Charr needed this experience. She hadn't gotten to do enough managing things totally solo. I wasn’t worried too much about Charr. Every dragon likes to hoard something, some dragons like to hoard odd things, some treasure, and others some of the most random ass things. They don’t even have to be physical objects.
Charr liked to hoard the satisfaction of a job well done. So yeah, she did a damn good job all day, every day.
“Pinkie! I’m home!” I called loudly, looking around our overly decorated entryway for any sign of-
A note written on pink paper fluttered down from the ceiling. I managed to catch it, immediately recognizing Pinkie’s chicken-scratch like hoof-writing.
Triggie,
On the bottom shelf of the coat closet is a paintball gun loaded with blue paint. Mine has pink paint. I am hiding somewhere in the house.
The game starts as soon as you pick up your gun. It’s over when one of us get’s hit.
The loser cooks dinner tonight!
May the odds be ever in your favor,
Pinkie Pie ❤
I felt my lips part in a huge smile. Buck the hay yes!
Exactly what I needed to get over six and a half hours of nothing but signing permission forms!
I turned to my right and whipped the coat closet door open, barely holding in a squee as I noticed not only a neatly folded ninja costume, but also a cobbled together seven barrel paintball rotary cannon with ammo bags.
I reached for the ‘weapon’ eagerly, hoof almost touching the surface and-
Three loud knocks shook the door.
Luna.
Bucking.
Damn it!
“One second, Pinkie!” I called loudly, “Someone’s at the door.”
Usually, I would have checked the door camera just to make sure it wasn’t a postmare dropping off a package or anything else I could just ignore, but with one of Pinkie’s games getting pushed back, well, yeah. Door had to get opened.
The door opened with a loud creak opening up and filling the doorway with a scary, strong looking, rust colored batpony mare wearing a pair of welding goggles and another pony who was completely covered by a denim jumpsuit, a bandage wound around their head, and their own pair of goggles.
What the buck?! I felt my eyes widen slightly.
“Sky?” The rusty mare asked hopefully, her voice carrying that special ‘I am awake because of caffeine’ weight to it.
I nodded. “Yeah, I’m Sky. What’s up? Sewage line break?” I asked, assuming the two were here to weld inside a pipe or something.
The mare shook her head. “N-no. I’m Pattern Steel-”
“Oh, shit!” I exclaimed ears perking as I finally had a face to go with the name. “I remember you, you’re the mare Luna went with instead of me for her last suit of armor.”
Pattern took a timid step back, her ears falling sadly. “I- Uh- S-sorry,” she stammered.
I raised an eyebrow. “Um, not mad? I’ve seen the suit. It’s awesome. Not my style but eh. Kind of cool looking overall. And admittedly I don't think I could have matched the actual material strength. Good job!” I said with a friendly smile, hoping to calm her down a little bit.
According to the rumors, Pattern Steel was extremely reclusive, an actual hermit. For reasons of being three and a half Fluttershy's worth of sociophobia.
Besides, she deserved the praise. She did damn fine work. Sure, I could have replicated her alloy if I wanted to, given my lab and all its tech. But Pattern Steel made it in a cave! With a box of scraps! Yeah, that was beyond me.
“Please!” Pattern’s companion begged urgently with a female’s voice. “Ask!”
I frowned slightly, staring at the completely covered up pony. “Uh, I don’t do medical stuff. Do you need help? My little bro is across town,” I informed. “I can get you directions.”
“Eeve is albino,” Pattern blurted extra quickly. “Sunburns. Um, this is an emergency. We need to talk to Princess Luna. Right now. Can you teleport us? Emerald Hive doesn't have a public teleport grid node. We know you built your own private one.”
“What kind of emergency?” I asked, fully intending to let them use my house’s teleport pad but wanting to be up to speed. "'I'm out of Snickers', or 'oh shit everything is on fire'?"
“There’s something extremely wrong with m- The forest,” Eeve exclaimed, frowning enough for me to see it behind the bandages.
I raised an eyebrow. That was an interesting little verbal slip.
“Yeah… You don’t have to lie,” I said casually. “If you’re friend is having dream problems or something you can just say that.”
“It really is the forest,” Pattern said with a grim and serious look which made me believe her.
It also helped that she had said that the same way I would if somepony had hurt Pinkie. Something was majorly wrong, and for whatever reason, Luna was needed. I’d follow up on it later with a call to Luna.
“Alright,” I sighed. “Come on in. The pad is right in the entryway where I’m standing. It’s not like the Equestrian grid, this is tech based. You don’t have to worry about any active spells you may have going. Just stand right in the entry.”
I backed up, allowing the two mares to enter the house. As they stepped through the doorway, the small light above my doorway remained green. No hidden weapons, no active spells, and they were not shifted changelings.
I loved my security system. Ay and I can do some damn good shit when we put our heads together.
The moment the two were in position, I flipped the hidden control panel open and tapped in the commands needed to send everypony but me to the Hive’s civilian deck teleport pad, then hit the comm button.
Usually, I’d just ask Sai to handle these two’s escort but today was his day off too.
“Sky Trigger calling,” I said into the panel.
“Phoenix here,” a changeling’s voice replied politely. “Do you need anything from your suite, sir?”
“No, I have two mares here who need to see Princess Luna on emergency business. One is Pattern Steel, the Royal Armorer, and the other is, I don't know, her assistant? Anyways, they really need to talk to Luna,” I explained. “They will be arriving at the civilian teleport pad in a second. Could you please get someone to escort them to her apartment when they arrive?”
“Yes, sir. Is there anything else?” They asked.
“Yeah, Pattern’s assistant is albino. Dim the lights a bit on the other end. The receiving room is way too bright, even for me. That’s it. Have a good weekend, over and out,” I said as I signed off.
Then I turned to Pattern and Eeve. “Girls, Please wait at the pad until your escort arrives. There are security guards present, and we treat that receiving room like any other national border. Don’t be dumb. Ready to go?”
Pattern nodded. “Y-Yes. I um… Later. I mean, later on, I… I’ve been wanting to build a thing. Talk shop. When not dead tired. Please?”
I frowned as I tried to untangle her words, nodding as I worked it all out. “Yeah, sure. We’ll work out a time and date. You’ll be coming back through my entryway here anyways. You ready to go too, Eeve?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yes.”
“Awesome! See you around. I need to go paintball my wife,” I said with a huge grin as I tapped the panel.
The two mares vanished with a flash of green light. I turned back around and picked up the ninja gi Pinkie had left for me.
Nothing is more fun than an afternoon of Ninja Paintball with miniguns!
Twilight - 18th of Megan, 17 EoH
Castle of Friendship, Ponyville - Equestria
Sparkle, Celestia, and I had made our way to the map room. It was a good place to talk without being overheard. I’d spent years working on magical defenses for the chamber. With the doors shut nothing outside would hear anything that happened inside. Besides, everypony likes a good conference table to sit around while talking.
The moment everypony had sat down, Princess Celestia asked Sparkle to explain herself.
I don't know what I had expected Sparkle to do, but it definitely had not been for her to snap a salute and immediately give a clear and concise summary of the last forty-eight hours of her life. It was like watching my brother talk to an officer after his first training mission in ROTC.
She even finished her spiel with, “The operation resulted in failure, Ma’am.”
Celestia had been just as surprised as I had been, and as Sparkle finished she cleared her throat awkwardly and asked, “In your universe, did you undergo military training?”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Sparkle confirmed with a quick nod. “I couldn’t justify being unable to fight while serving as Equestria’s protector. Hasn’t your Twilight done the same?”
I shook my head. “No, I’ve never even thought about joining the military. I can’t stomach the thought of um, well, you know… Killing somepony. I guess it stands to reason that there would be some differences between us. Our universes can’t be exactly the same, can they?”
Celestia shook her head slowly. “No, they can’t be. With drastically different events in the past, I’m surprised things are as similar as they are. Example, I have known about the Emerald hive and their technology since the eighth year of this era. Whereas your Celestia seems to have only learned about it recently.
“I must apologize, Twi- Ahem, Sparkle, but given the present situation I must ask you for help. I’m not entirely certain I can trust you, but somepony needs to guard Ponyville, and Twilight is about to go on a dangerous journey.”
I felt my ears stand up in alarm, “I- I am? Why? Where too?”
I mean I would do it but...
Celestia sighed and stood up, turning around to look at the large Tapestry of the Tree of Harmony which I had made and displayed behind my throne.
“We need to fix the Elements, they are our first line of defense,” Celestia sighed, head falling slightly. “All of my defense plans involve them in some way or another. Luna is a thousand years out of practice and only just now beginning to understand modern tactics and the capabilities of the new equipment, weapons, and so on. Without the Elements, our nation is vulnerable to real harm.”
“Sounds like it’s time to get the Royal Artificers together for the world's hardest weekend of work,” Sparkle said with a sigh. “I’m very sorry, and I will naturally help as needed until things return to normal. But why would I need to protect Ponyville for Twilight? You didn’t exactly explain where she is going.”
Celestia nodded and turned back around. “The Elements do not work on any magical principals any of us would understand,” she said grimly.
I nodded. “Yes, I was studying them but um… They are not logical. At all.”
Frankly, the Elements seemed like something a drunk pony had just sort of kludged together that just happened to actually work.
“Precisely, Twilight,” Celestia agreed, a small pleased smile forming on her lips. “The only person who could fix them is the one who made them in the first place. I- I don’t know if she’s still alive. If she isn’t, we will have major problems to resolve.
“Twilight, you will need to go find her and bring her here. Meanwhile, your friends will need to find the components used to make the Elements in the first place. Just in case an entirely new set must be made, or parts are needed. Unfortunately, the parts are very rare. Rare enough where I haven't been able to keep more than an arcanite crystal, which is the core of ‘Magic’.”
I frowned in concern. It sounded like the corresponding Element had to get the particular part which corresponded to them. “But what about Applejack? She’s missing.”
Celestia frowned sharply, her eyes opening wide with worry. “She is?”
I nodded. “Yes. Do we have to go, or can anypony retrieve the materials needed?”
Sparkle laughed. “You know, given how the Elements work. It’s going to have to be somepony bound to that element, isn’t it?”
Celestia nodded. “Yes. It will. We will have to find Applejack immediately. Only Honesty can retrieve a piece of amber glass from… Ugh, if I hadn’t banished Luna this would be cake. I could just teleport to each one and pick it up.”
That’s right, banishing her sister had severed her ties to the Elements entirely. Wait a moment, “Um, Celestia, what were your defense plans during the Solar Er-”
“I”m not doing that again!” Celestia snapped, wings flaring open as she wheeled around to face me. “Not ever. Peace obtained by fear is shaky, hard to maintain, and causing enough fear to do so is immoral.”
“W-what did you do?” I asked worriedly.
“I ended a war. We will speak no more of this. I refuse to directly participate in open warfare ever again. We WILL repair the Elements. Which means we need to find Applejack,” Celestia said, pulling her wings back to her sides as she regained her composure.
“Or some other element of Honesty,” Sparkle mused, holding a hoof to her chin.
Celestia's ears perked as she turned to face my counterpart. “I- well, yes that would work. But our Elements only have one Avatar at a time. Applejack would have to die to relinquish control of Honesty.”
“Sure,” Sparkle agreed with a knowing nod. “But you don’t need to use them right now. You just need someone bonded to honesty, or as you implied had been bound to Honesty, in order to get whatever it is the Element needs. If you want to take care of it as fast as possible, the equoid Fluttershy insinuated she had the ability to travel between dimensions. She could simply get their Element of Honesty, and he or she could get the part for you.”
That- Well, no that was actually brilliant!
I felt myself smile at the realization. “Yeah! If a changeling can feed on them, then they have the same metaphysical properties as a pony, which means the element bond should be there too! This should work, and it means Sparkle can focus on finding Applejack while I’m off looking for whoever it is!” I exclaimed excitedly. “Even better, we don’t need to go anywhere, because they didn’t have the same Elements we did, I mean their bearers were shuffled. Fluttershy said that she was their Honesty! She can go for us right now.”
Celestia smiled, genuine pride lighting up her eyes as she looked at the two of us. “With both of you having brilliant ideas I think we can sort this problem out quickly,” she said with relief. “Yes, if Roboshy-”
Sparkle narrowed her eyes. “Excuse me?” She asked.
Sheesh! She really did think of machines as people… Which meant she probably had proof that they were. Because she was me. Maybe I should rethink my opinion.
Celestia giggled. “Settle down. She picked that name out. It’s the name listed on her Equestrian ID.”
Huh… I thought that had been a fake id. Oops.
“Oh! Well, that’s okay then,” Sparkle said with a satisfied nod.
“As I was saying, if Shy really does share the metaphysical signature of her former organic self, and she was Honesty, then your plan will work, and we can proceed immediately. Excuse me one moment, I am going to ask her… Um, Twilight, can you teleport from this room?” Celestia asked as she stood up to leave.
I shook my head. “No. It’s well warded,” I said honestly. “Uh, not that I don’t think you couldn’t break through if you tried but-”
“I understand Twilight,” Celestia said with a small grin. “I will check with Shy to see if she’s her world’s Honesty. If she is, I will return here with the other Elements, so I need only give this briefing once. Please, remain here.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Sparkle replied with a sharp nod.
“Of course,” I agreed, nodding as well.
Celestia trotted over to the purplish crystal door and slipped outside, closing it behind herself as she left. I was totally alone with my counterpart from another universe. In a room where nothing could ever be heard. What should I ask?
“Sooo um, did you marry?” I asked curiously.
Sparkle raised an eyebrow. “I don’t exactly have a big enough ego to go out with myself,” she said in what I thought might be a joke, but sounded pretty serious thanks to her tone.
“I’m just asking so we can figure out differences between us,” I explained. “I married. Ooo! It would be cool if we both married Flash!”
Sparkle winced and immediately looked at the floor sadly. “I- I did. He’s dead,” she explained.
Oh, buck! I forgot… Her whole world just-
“He went out a hero,” Sparkle continued. “Years and years ago, during the last battle of a massive war. Flash… He saved every mare, every foal… Everyone of us. Took me a long time to move on. I still get a little sad talking about it.
“I remarried later on. I couldn’t live alone, needed a good bit of emotional support. So I married the mares who were there for me.”
I triple blinked in confusion. “M-mares? You’re bisexual?”
Sparkle shook her head. “No, I don’t care about the 'plumbing.' I don't really see a difference between sexes. It’s not important what parts a pony has outside of medicine and reproduction.
"I also don't find bodies attractive. I’m attracted to personality and other's feelings for me. I don’t know if there’s a word for that. What about you? Do you, fall into a common box?”
I nodded. “Y-yeah. Straight,” I answered. “And um, our Flash is still alive. But he’s pretty sick. He’s got some kind of genetic illness…”
I felt my ears droop sadly. I’d asked Doctor Lily if he could cure Flash but well, no. There wasn’t enough of Flash’s unaffected DNA left to do anything with. And Repose’s ‘cure’ was simply out of the question.
Sparkle stood up and walked over to me, wrapping her forelegs around my shoulders in a tight hug. “I understand… If I'm still here when it happens, I’ll give you all the support I can.”
“I’d appreciate that,” I replied unevenly.
“My turn for a question,” Sparkle said quickly, apparently seeking to change the conversation up. “Why didn’t you go into the military?”
“I explained why earlier. I don’t like the idea of training specifically to kill others. I don’t believe killing is moral. I mean… I have had to a few times, but well… I’m certain you know,” I said as a grimace stretched my mouth apart.
She nodded. “I felt like that once. But there’s this thing about being a hero. A hero is someone who gives up being morally clean so others can remain innocent,” Sparkle said flatly. “As a hero, it’s my duty to do anything it takes to save everypony I can, no matter how it makes me feel. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not judging you. We’ve led different lives. Not everyone sees the world as I do.”
“Especially since you have one eye,” I joked, hoping to lighten the mood with my words and a smile.
She smiled. “Yeah, I don’t suppose your Emerald Changelings could whip up a new one, could they? I actually LIKED having the ability to see the whole EM spectrum, having an optical zoom, a built-in laser pointer to show someone EXACTLY what I was looking at. An internal display for recorded files, an eReader…”
She sighed wistfully. “It’s as shame Phoenix was completely insane. All that tech could have really helped everypony,” she lamented.
I nodded. “I agree! I’ve been talking with their current Captain, I’ve been hoping they will be willing to sell some of their designs to us. No luck so far, but I would really like access to some of their manufacturing tools… Then again they keep their little city state running by being an industrial powerhouse. So I kind of understand,” I rambled.
“Well, you can’t blame somepony for being afraid of losing their ability to provide for their family,” Sparkle said as the room’s doors creaked open.
We both turned to look, Celestia had returned and had everypony in tow. Everypony but AJ.
It looked like she had gone to all their houses and simply teleported away with them.
“Princess, I really must protest, I was right in the middle of a large order!” Rarity objected, very politely. “I didn’t even have time to mark my place on the seam.”
“I’m sorry, Rarity. This is an emergency,” Celestia apologized as she lead everypony inside.
As she walked inside, I noticed Pinkie was actually clothed. She wasn’t in anything fancy, just a Nightmare Night costume grade ninja outfit. She also had a paint gun slung over her back and a semi-worried, semi-annoyed expression stamped on her face. She must have been playing a game with Sky. Especially with that line of blue paint splatters across her left side.
Celestia felt like we all had to go NOW. Was it really that bad? It’s not like anypony in other nations would know they were damaged. Surely we had a month at the least!
“Um, is anypony going to explain the other me?” Fluttershy asked timidly.
“I’m you from another universe. Everypony is a robot there,” Shy explained politely, giving her counterpart a soft smile.
“Oh, um. Okay. And where’s Applejack?” She asked as a followup question before noticing Sparkle and stopping cold, eyes widening fearfully. “Oh, my…”
"Hey, Flutters," Sparkle greeted with a polite smile. "Dimensional traveling, that's all. It's okay, nothing bad in your future that I know of."
"Oh thank goodness!" Fluttershy sighed in relief.
“Applejack is missing,” Celestia answered, closing the doors with her magic as she walked to a position where everypony could see her. “While that is a problem I will personally address later, we have another crisis on our hooves. The Elements of Harmony have broke.”
Everypony gasped in shock, save Dash, who heard it before.
“Broken!” Pinkie exclaimed in shock, her tail and ears standing on end. “Um, m-maybe Triggie can fix them? He’s really good at fixing things.”
“I’m afraid that repairing the Elements will take more than a toolbox and technical knowledge,” Celestia lamented. “The Twilight with an eyepatch is going by the name Sparkle. She and some of her friends just escaped the death of their universe. Unfortunately, their arrival caused a magical disturbance, breaking the Elements and turning Discord to stone.
“I was worried that all of their alterations had been reversed, but fortunately, Luna is fine, an Triek is still within Tartarus. It looks as if only Discord was in range of the… Anomaly. The situation could be far worse than it is. But it is still urgent we get them repaired as quickly as possible.
“I- I have prophetic dreams from time to time. I’ve never been the best at Divination magic, but I have predicted many things before. For the last two months, I have had warnings of an impending disaster. For the last week, the dreams have been getting more and more urgent.
“I was planning on telling you si- you girls as soon as I had any detail at all other than ‘horrible, terrible things are about to happen.' But, this may be the crisis I was warned about. In which case, we need the Elements repaired yesterday to advert whatever disaster their breaking causes.”
Sparkle winced. “Oh man! I just had a thought. What if the disaster IS the Elements? Their damaged state could be causing them to slowly build up more and more mana which could eventually explode in a wave of wild magic. With the tree centered within the Everfree forest… Yeah, a wild magic storm right there… Not good.”
I winced. “Ah! Yeah, I didn’t think about that… What do we need to do, Celestia?” I asked hopefully. “You explained we could find their creator, so I assume you have a plan.”
“Yes! We’re ready to save the Kingdom just like always, Princess,” Rarity agreed with a proud smile. “I’m certain this won’t be any more dangerous than our other adventures.”
Sparkle smiled widely. “You’re just like my Rarity! She was always the brave one too,” she said happily.
Rarity blushed lightly. “W-well, a Lady must certainly be able to solve her own problems and support her friends. We can chat later, darling. This is important,” she said as politely as she could.
Celestia nodded firmly. “This is crucial,” she agreed. “So important that we must begin right now. It could take weeks to find everything we need. I’m afraid you will need to split up.”
“Split up?” Dash asked incredulously, her mouth twisting into a frown. “Just give me a list of everything we need and I’ll round it up in a few days!”
Celestia shook her head again. “I’m sorry, Rainbow. That won’t work. I witnessed the creation of the Elements. I know what we need to create new ones, and I assume we will need those ‘parts’ to repair them.
“As I explained to Twilight before, the metaphysical parts of the physical items are equally important as the things themselves. They must be retrieved by someone who embodies the correct virtue. Otherwise, they are simply exotic items. This means each of you must retrieve your specific Element’s part.”
“Um, but, if that’s true, then we can’t do this without Applejack, we need to find her right away!” Fluttershy objected her tail rising in alarm.
“That’s what your counterpart is here for,” Celestia explained with a reassuring smile.
Shy nodded slowly. “I held our universe's Element of Honesty. In theory, I should be able to get the Amber Glass gem just like Applejack could. And if not, by the time everypony is back with their part, I’m certain Princess Celestia will have found her, and she can then do it herself if needed. I’m just here to try and help get this done quickly as possible.”
“Last time Applejack vanished it only took us four days to find her and bring her back,” Dash protested, her eyes narrowing slightly. “She’s my wife! I- I can’t let her just stay missing!”
Celestia nodded. “I know, Rainbow. But you are incredibly fast. I don’t think it will take you more than an afternoon to reach the Broken Lands in the Outbuck. I’m fairly certain that if you don’t encounter any obstacles that you can be back by sunrise. It will take me at least that long to get a proper search party together.
“Finding Applejack is a top priority, Rainbow. I don’t think that Shy could actually USE the Elements, not since they have granted their powers to you directly. Perhaps if they were still unbound to anypony… We need Applejack, and we WILL find her. But we also need these parts as fast as possible.
“Do you understand?”
Dash nodded bitterly. “Yeah, I know. I hate it, but I get it…” She grumbled.
“Will you go?” Celestia asked uncertainly.
“I will,” Dash promised. "But you had better have that search party ready to go by the time I get back. And you are REALLY underestimating just how quick I'm going to be!"
"I'll move as fast as I can, Rainbow. This is important to me too," Celestia promised.
“So um, what is everypony going to have to get and where are they going?” I asked, raising my hoof by reflex.
Celestia nodded and took a few steps so she could walk down the loosely formed line everypony stood in. I sat up straight, eagerly listening in the hopes that the Element's components would provide some idea of how they worked.
“Rainbow Dash,” Celestia began. “I need you to go to the Broken Lands in the Outbuck, as I just mentioned. You will need to locate a place known as ‘The Valley of the Winds’ and bring back a starstone. There are locals there, and they can help you find one.
“Pinkie Pie, you’ll need to go to the far north of the Crystal Empire. The town of Buckingcold-”
Pinkie and Dash immediately burst out laughing at the mention of the town’s name.
"Oh my," Rarity giggled. "Is it truly called that?"
Celestia’s eyes narrowed in irritation.
“Yes. It has a curse word in its name,” Celestia sighed exacerbated. “The town is a mining town. They mine beneath the ice sheets, and you need to bring back a bottle of pure glacial water made from sky blue ice which contains coal dust. While that seems like something you could find at any glacier, it HAS to come from the glacier the town sits on. The mineral content of the water is critical, and I don't know of any other source.
“Fluttershy, not the android, our Fluttershy, you will need to go to Neighpone and bring back a bonsai cherry tree from the top of Mount Segata.
“Shy, you will need to go to Drake, and bring back an Amber Glass gemstone. Any will do, but um… It is a dragon dominated nation, and that is an especially valuable gem.
“Twilight, you will have to find the Element’s creator and also bring back your part. Fortunately, your part is an Arcanite Crystal from Canterlot mountain. We can pick one up anytime.
“Lastly, Rarity… I’m very sorry, but you will need to go to Shorefall.”
Rarity blinked in confusion, her mouth scrunched up slightly. “I-I’m afraid I don’t know why I should object to that, Princess,” she said quite confused.
I knew. I knew, and I was so so sorry.
“Uh, Rarity…” I began slowly. “It’s a massive tropical jungle. Full of all of the scary tropical things. Extra large monsters, flesh-eating insects, exotic diseases-”
Rarity recoiled in horror. “Ew! I- Oh… Fiddlesticks! And I do HAVE to go too. W-well that’s fine, I presume we can pack appropriately. I’ll just purchase a hazmat suit and-”
Celestia shook her head. “I’m afraid that when I said we need to go now, I mean now-now. I’ll be teleporting everypony directly to a military airship dock the moment this briefing is done. You will be given mission critical equipment from official Guard kits aboard the Airships,” she said adamantly.
Everypony looked up in surprise.
“I- what?” Rainbow objected. “Why!?”
“Yeah! Triggie could be super helpful, and I’d like him to go with me,” Pinkie protested with a steep frown.
“I can’t go without at least my emergency makeup kit!” Rarity squeaked fearfully, her ears laying flat.
“Oh, yeah. She can’t!” I agreed, frowning sympathetically. "Rarity needs that."
Sparkle shook her head slowly. “Um, it’s a military mission. She can go without cosmetics for a week or so,” she disagreed shaking her head.
Celestia nodded in agreement. “Yes, looking fashionable is not a concern here. We need everything speedily, none of you can be weighed down by unnecessary items.”
Rarity’s ears drooped sadly. “But- I um… There’s a little problem with-”
I stepped over and gently put a hoof on Rarity’s shoulder. “It’s okay. I’ll explain,” I promised.
“No! No, it’s alright. I’m a grown mare I can explain myself,” Rarity said politely as she could before clearing her throat. “Princess, I- well…”
Rarity took a few steps forward and reared up to quietly whisper to Celestia. I did my best to avoid rolling my eyes. We all knew. Honestly, she didn’t have to whisper.
Oh, well, there was Sparkle. But she was me. I doubt she’d make a big deal out of it.
“Oh,” Princess Celestia replied with an apologetic frown. “Yes, I can see how that would be a problem for you to go without your makeup kit, Rarity. Everypony will have twenty minutes to get anything they may need and return here. I’ll use the time to fill Twilight in on her own mission.”
“Is it anything I could help with?” Sparkle offered politely.
Rarity shook her head. “No thank you, perhaps Applejack’s personality is a little infectious, but I prefer using ‘costume’ and acting to be accepted as I am rather than a magical solution. I’m happy with myself, and I think that’s all anypony really wants for themselves.”
Sparkle nodded. “I understand, and to be fair, I doubt I could make you as pretty as you can.”
I winced. Really? Did she have to flirt? “You’re married!” I objected.
Sparkle nodded. “Yes, I am. Doesn't make her less cute. I can compliment her if I want too,” she chuckled. “Dash and Trix would do the same.”
“I um… Dash!?” I asked stupidly, my mind melting just a little.
Why would I ever even think of marrying her!?
Dash’s ears drooped. “Awww, man! That me is lucky… I totally would have gone for Twi if she wasn’t straight,” Dash lamented her ears drooping enviously.
"AJ isn't bad, though," Sparkle mused. "I kinda liked her myself. Sure she's stubborn and has some issues, but well, she's really sweet under that crusty layer of personal issues."
“Moooooving on!” I said quickly heart jackhammering awkwardly in my chest. “Everypony should go get their stuff! Sparkle will be protecting Ponyville while we are gone, and I’m pretty confident that it will take Fluttershy at least a week to get back from Neighpone, and I don’t know how long I will be gone and-”
Princess Celestia cleared her throat. “Miss Rarity, you will need to go to Shorefall, to the great lake south of Dryreef City, and retrieve a piece of pink freshwater coral.”
Sparkle blinked. “Your world has fresh water coral? That wasn’t possible on ours. That implies some different physics, which means-”
“Not at all,” Celestia said with a soothing smile. “It’s a unique coral species native to that particular lake. Rarity, it comes in four varieties, you MUST get the pink one. Understood?”
Rarity nodded firmly. “Yes, Shorefall, Dryreef City, the southern Great Lake, pink corral. Simple enough.”
“Good. Now, everypony, go and pack anything you may need,” Celestia ordered with a nod. “Oh, and Pinkie, you’re right. It may be a good idea for you to bring your husband along. If he is willing, you may bring him and fill him in.”
“Um, may I take Ly with me?” Shy asked, the android raising one hoof uncertainly. “I’m not sure I can tangle with a dragon alone. I-I mean I’ve done it before, but I don't have any of the specialty tools you need.”
"You... Fought a dragon?" Sparkle asked with a raised eyebrow. "Oh! Right, you mean the time we all chased of that elder red from the cave and we forced you to go... Um, oop! Sorry, I forgot you're not my Fluttershy."
Dash laughed. "Yeah we had that one happen in this universe too."
"Oh no, I'm not talking about that," Shy said with a bashful smile. "I'm talking about... Well, I suppose it didn't happen for you two. Um, my family have been monster hunters for generations. I had to pass an initiation and well... Dragon interrupted it."
Everypony grew silent, staring at the android pony for several long seconds.
"But... You're also easily spooked, right? Because you’re a Fluttershy too," Pinkie asked a confused look pressed into her face.
"Yeah!" Dash agreed, with a tilted head.
Shy nodded twice. "Yes. Things making sounds in the dark are much much scarier when you know what makes those sounds, and you don't have the thing you need to stop that creature in hoof's reach," she explained.
"That's a good point," Sparkle said with a long slow nod.
“Come to think of it, can we all bring somepony along?” Rarity asked hopefully.
Celestia bit her lip uncertainly. “I… I don't want word of this getting out. So no. Pinkie and Shy may take somepony with them because Sky will be useful in helping Pinkie find the correct kind of water, and Shy might need to fight a dragon. Rarity, Dash, and Fluttershy, you will go alone because your missions take place in urban areas which are relatively safe, and well, Dash would only be slowed down by company. I hope that’s fair with everypony?”
Rarity grumbled slightly, but nodded. To my surprise, Fluttershy nodded eagerly.
“I’m okay with going by myself. I’ve been to Neighpone before,” she said happily.
Ah yes, we did go there once for a diplomatic mission to talk to Empress Misuki. Fluttershy had felt very much at home there. I wonder if it was because that’s where her part of the Elements was from?
Also, now that I think about it, none of those parts are exceptionally magical or useful for enchanting save for Magic and Honesty’s parts. What the flying buck? How did they work!?
Celestia cleared her throat and looked around the map room for a clock. There wasn’t one. “Humm… Well, there’s no clock here, I trust everypony knows about how long twenty minutes is. Be quick, and pack very light, please,” she ordered.
I could feel the urgency in Celestia’s voice. Whatever her dreams might be warning her about, she definitely felt that it was a really huge disaster. I’d have to work extra hard to tackle this one quickly.
This time everypony quickly filed out of the room. They didn’t say anything, they just left. Dash vanishing in that same blur of cyan light as before.
How did she do that? Why did she want to conceal her real speed from me? Was it really just so I wouldn’t work out some kind of family secret? I felt a little hurt, to be honest. I’d have to confront her about it when we had time.
As soon as the doors closed, Celestia turned back to face me, then gave Sparkle a look.
“Miss Sparkle, this is a national secret. Please wait outside. I will brief you on how to secure Ponyville shortly,” she ordered with a firm expression but a kind tone.
“Yes, ma’am,” Sparkle said with an accepting nod as she got up and left the room.
Celestia waited until the room was completely empty before sighing and closing her eyes for a long moment.
“Sorry for being so melodramatic today, Twilight. I was worried the shockwave was more than well, this. The elements broke and… I don’t know I expected Tartarus to have opened a portal right into the heart of Ponyville,” she explained slowly, wings sagging as if under great weight.
“It’s alright, Celestia. I understand. I’d be shaken too,” I agreed, trotting over to give her a gentle hug.
“Thank you,” Celestia said, returning the hug for a brief moment.
I stepped back to a comfortable conversational distance then sat down. “Well… What do I do? To find this mysterious designer, I mean.”
Celestia laughed and shook her head slowly. “Oh, Twilight… This is complicated. Not as complicated as the little incident this morning, but still,” Celestia sat down and looked up at the ceiling for a moment wistfully. “I don’t suppose you know what the month ‘Megan’ is named after, do you?”
I shook my head. “I always wondered, but I couldn’t find anything written about it. What’s it have to do with this?”
Celestia smiled as she replied. “Well, I named the month after my wife,” she giggled jokingly.
“Y-your wife?” I stammered, eyes widening in surprise. “B-but I thought-”
“I am straight, it's not a real marriage. I only married Megan because she was twelve years old and refused to help us unless I made her a quote ‘cute pony princess’ end quote. The simplest way I could do that was to marry her. It was never consummated, so it wasn’t a real wedding. But it satisfied her,” Celestia rambled.
I tilted my head as I absorbed her words. “Wait, wait, wait… Are you saying a FOAL made the Elements of Harmony?” I asked, jaw going completely slack.
“Yes,” Celestia confirmed with an entirely serious nod.
“How?!” I asked, quite unable to even think of another question.
“She was gifted with the ability to create anything she could imagine. I don’t know how she gained that power, but she had it. Ever wonder why the Elements are so… Picky? They will only hurt ‘bad people,' and they make that bad person ‘feel bad about being bad.' Think for a moment on who would design a weapon like that,” Celestia elaborated with a serious expression which prevented me from doubting her.
“But… But they do other things too! They petrified Discord!” I protested.
“Yes, I was curious about that too. I’ve talked to him about it. He wasn’t ever evil, not in the way that the Elements would define evil,“ Celestia continued. “Discord was bored and saw everything he ever did as playful tricks and fun. He didn’t consider us people, so in his mind no one ever got hurt. To him, the thousand years of chaos was little more than putting ants into a maze with no exits and watching them scramble about. Mean spirited fun that didn’t hurt anyone. He feels differently now.
“Fluttershy changed that, and he honestly is extremely regretful of many things he’s done now. Which is a very good thing. But, since the Elements couldn’t define him as ‘evil’ but just ‘really dangerous’ they couldn’t make him feel bad about what he did. So they stopped him from doing it.
“Is the logic behind their workings weird? No. Not if you’re a foal.”
I opened my mouth to reply and quickly shut it. Celestia was right. Kind of. “But the virtues thing?” I asked slowly.
“Only ‘good guys’ can use the weapon,” Celestia replied with a wink. “Bad people can’t use it. Admittedly, I didn’t think to tell her what kind of person I thought was a good person. So she went with what her parents told her a good person was. A loyal, kind, and generous person, who is able to make you laugh, so you won't be sad, who never tells a lie, and wants to be your friend.”
I slapped a hoof against my forehead. “Oh for buck’s sake! It’s so obvious now that you spell it out! But HOW did she make them? And why can multiple people use them?”
“I think the elements evolved a little bit beyond her original designs. They do sort of have a will of their own. They can identify virtuous people and ‘bad’ people after all,” Celestia mused. “Of course I couldn’t say for sure. As for how she made them, she took the items I asked your friends to get and well, she stuck them in a small pear tree and, um... Magic happened.”
Celestia grinned at me sheepishly.
“Magic… Happened?” I asked, brain hurting slightly at the sight of the mare who taught me advanced Thaumaturgy describing an extraordinary act of spellcraft in the least intelligent of terms.
“I’m afraid I don't know everything, Twilight,” Celestia sighed regretfully. “Though, it did look something like Luna’s dream magic when she uses it in the waking world. But, I can’t say for sure. Suffice to say that a young child was the most powerful enchanter this world has ever known.”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I’d studied what little I could find on Dream Magic. It was certainly incredibly potent, I could see the Elements being made using it. Maybe that’s also what they used as their own power source.
Wait a moment…
“Did they become immortal? The Elements existed since Discord was first stopped. A normal pony would be dead by now. Why haven’t I heard of her before? If she is immortal- Oh! Were they a dragon?” I asked curiously, trying to work out how I could be expected to find somepony who was roughly Celestia's age.
Celestia snorted and shook her head gently. “Twilight, this is a situation similar to the time Sunset Shimmer stole your element. In fact, the two are related.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, hoping that she could finally just explain this already.
“The Crystal Mirror was designed after Starswirl, Clover, and I found a natural portal between worlds. Its purpose was to provide a safer link between worlds, as it happens natural portals are extremely risky. I asked him to make it so we could contact Megan more easily if we needed her again. Because she lived on the other side. Unfortunately, we were never able to attune the mirror properly. The only means we have of finding her is this moonstone,” Celestia said as she took a small silvery piece of moonstone out from a small hidden compartment on the back of her torc.
“I assume that is a ‘key’ to open safety wards around the rift?” I asked with a shallow frown. “Moonstone isn't the best thaumaturgic material to use… May I examine it and replicate the charm in a better medium?”
“It’s not a key, this is the rift. Luna and I contained it inside the stone,” Celestia replied with a shake of her head. “Bury the stone, and when the moon is directly overhead, the rift will open. It will not close until the stone is dug back up. Yes, rather archaic, but we did do this a few thousand years ago. I’m sure you understand.”
I did understand. That was a properly classical era sounding spell. More folk magic, less well, understanding. I gently took the moonstone from Celestia and held it in my magic’s grip, analyzing the spell within while running through everything I would need to do.
I nodded and stood up, pacing slightly as I on my plan mentally. “Okay, so I need to use this stone to enter another dimension and find a person named Megan, who I’m assuming you are hoping is still alive due to differences in the flow of time between our dimensions.
"No problem. I can do that, but I’ll need to know how to recognize them, what dangers I can expect, and I want to bring Jade with me.”
“Why Jade?” Celestia asked curiously.
“Because last time I ventured into an unknown universe I only succeeded with the help of doppelgangers of all my friends, and I really don’t think that will happen again. It’s stupid to do this alone, and Jade is the best choice for a companion since everypony I would usually take with me is going to be busy,” I explained.
Celestia frowned mulling the idea over for a moment and then nodded. “Very well. Jade has proven to be a good friend for you. If you trust her enough to choose her as an ally, then I trust her. As for how to find her, Megan’s full name is Megan Diane Williams. She insisted that the other side of the rift was on her family’s farm, but she was well, twelve.
“I know that she said she had seen monsters before, but most adults didn’t believe her. Though her grandfather and uncle did. I assume this means the world has dangerous creatures in it, but they are rare. With luck, you won’t encounter any. As for the world itself, the Mirror Equestria you visited before was the closest Starswirl ever found to what we were looking for. It's safe to assume the worlds are comparable. That’s all I can tell you, I’m afraid.”
My eyes widened in sudden realization. There was a major problem here, one which could doom the entire operation.
“Is there any way I can prove I know you?” I asked hesitantly. “Because I don’t want to sound insane if it’s been years and years for her and she thinks it was all some childhood fantasy game.”
With yet another nod, Celestia produced a small brass heart shaped locket from the same hidden pocket in her Torc and passed it to me. “Here’s a locket she gave me.”
“Um, you just wear this around all the time?” I asked raising an eyebrow.
It was so... Cheap looking, and tacky. Like an item picked up from a 5 bit shop.
“Yes. It’s enchanted with a rather nifty charm that prevents you from getting dirty…” Celestia admitted with a pale blush.
“Heh, fair enough,” I said shaking my head slowly. “One last question. Why isn’t any of this in the history books?”
“Because the fewer ponies who know about other dimensions not only existing but being places you can access, the better,” Celestia sighed. “That may seem like pointless censorship of knowledge, but trust me, I traveled extensively with Starswirl and most other universes have all manners of horrors which could be accidently or purposefully unleashed on Equestria.
“All it takes to end the world is one pony curious to see if there’s a world in which they are wealthy coming back home and tracking in a disease which while harmless over there, is devastating over here. As such, I chose to limit those who know to as few as possible. Do you understand?”
I nodded sharply. Yes, I understood perfectly. “That’s a good reason… But there certainly is a lot of good things which could come of it too. Would you object to possibly forming a sort of… I don’t know an Adventurer’s League or something? With proper containment and training, we could easily-”
“I have thought about that, and we can discuss that later. Right now, we need to finish this mission. Go get Jade and pack anything you may need. I need to return to Canterlot and retrieve the data for Pinkie. Not just any mineral rich glacial water will do,” Celestia said as she stood up and trotted to the door. “Oh, and um, Twilight… If you do find Megan, before she arrives, please explain to her that she can stay if she wants this time. I’ve let more than enough people from other places live here to make a fuss over that anymore.”
“Understood,” I answered. “Um, wait a moment, you’re not worried about diseases from Shy, Ly, or anypony from the mirror worlds are you?”
Celestia shook her head. “No. Full medical scans were done showing them to be okay, and Shy comes from a world where nothing organic exists anymore. As for Sparkle, I checked while we were walking to this room. She’s safe.
“People from their universes are safe to interact with. The problem only arises when some amateur doesn't take any precautions and just opened up a gateway. Magic and technology have only recently gotten to the point where it would be safe for a professional to do as well.
“Twilight, I understand you have more questions, but now is not the time to talk. We need to get moving. We have a mission to do.”
I nodded and stood up, fairly certain that Jade would be at Azur’s clinic with the three mirror worlders. I’m certain she would understand being called away for a national emergency, and Lily wouldn’t mind running those three back to the castle after they were finished there.
“Don’t worry, Princess. Everything will be okay. We’ve faced worse problems before,” I said reassuringly.
“I hope so, Twilight,” Celestia murmured. “I hope so.”
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Sky: "HOLY CRAP! Uhh uhhhh..." *Grabs a mic* "Is this thing on? Okay good. Sorry, I'm just not used to actually having to narrate for a chapter is all."
Anywho... Bottle of glue... Celestia, holy shit, are you serious?! Every heard of putting all your eggs in one basket? You seriously need to learn how to think outside the Elements.
Welp Meep is at it again with multi thread story writing. Going to step away and get my dart board and start connecting plot points to keep track of whats going on (This is how I get Turtledove and Clancy books to make sense). Any way love how this is playing out.
Interesting. G1 here we come with the rainbow of light.
7793573
To be fair, they're important and one of only two known problems at the moment, and Celestia herself is working on the other one.
What I want to know is why she didn't gather extra materials way back when just in case. Perhaps she was less of a chessmaster then?
7793799 Well, she did. But 2000 years is a long time to try and keep things in one place. Some were stolen, others lost within the archives of the Royal Library then thrown out... That's just the first thousand years. Then Luna did her thing and Celestia was no longer bound to the elements as they rejected her entirely for attacking a family member and she could no longer retrieve copies.
You'll note she built Canterlot atop the mountain the Arcanite has to come from, and has maintained a great relationship with Neighpone, and Drake is an Equestrian territory so she technically owns the source of two of the parts, though the Dragons have enough sovereignty to live as their natures dictate they must which means Shy will most likly have to fight for that part... Still... And while it's far far far north, She also indirectly owns the Crystal Empire and thus the town of Buckingcold, and therefore has that ingredient secured too.
It's not like she did nothing. She did what she could. Secure access to as many of the resources as possible. The only major problem is Shorefall. They don't like Equestria much. Equestria supported the three smaller nations which the people of Shorefall conquered when driven out of the sea by predators. Supported with you know, millitary means. While they are not at war, the two nations are... well, if Equestria were smaller there would be radicals calling for war with them. Nopony would listen to them, not really, but still. There's bad blood. It's only been four generations.
Anywho, prior to that Celestia had quick access to the coral as well. Now she's fortunate that equestrians can come over on tourist visas. (It's not like Rarity is in too much danger, most ponies there are friendly. Especially the aquatic ones.)
7793811
Oh, good! That makes perfect sense, then.
YAY! we get to see Sky! Also yes I would totally do the "looser cooks dinner" thing, that is just fun!
Alright we got the explanation of the Elements, also where each pony needs to go, things seem to be moving right along.
Deck 14 is the armory huh? and you just gave Trixie a Mech? I have a feeling Great and Powerfull is going to go up a notch, also those weapons might be coming in handy soon.
Sai gets days off too? so.... what does an IA do with free time? also isn't he restricted to the hive?
Onward to the next adventure!
I wonder which Lyra is in the character tags...
7794093 I dunno, he does whatever he wants? He is a person after all, just a digital one. And while he does live in the mainframe in SkyLabs (not in the hive, SkyLab's is a secret facility built in the badlands), he is free to push his consciousness wherever he has a connection. He also has an android body which he can use, but almost never does. Apparently he doesn't like it? I dunno, he won't say.
7794120 Yes.
So... Rarity is transsexual? Can say I didn't expect that. Can't say I can understand her thoughts, but if it is so, why don't go all the way with the 100% safe service of the resident biomancer that's pretty much family?
Well, she did say AJ influenced her... But still.
Sure, it could be other things, if so I don't know what, but it kinda hurts to see her believing using a costume is better than being what you know yourself to be.
On another note, Ninja Paintball with miniguns! wins as the most awesome sentence of the story so far
Still, something bothers me in this story, can't say exactly what. Maybe it is the existential horror AJ is facing. Well, still wanting to know what happenss next.
I think you mean this?
7794093
Yeah, twas about time :)
I had to... you see, I find pictures of trix being awesome and sometimes they are too awesome and I HAVE to use them. Hence these:
twentypercentcooler.net/data/sample/09/19/0919d10b9bcbd880cd9a13fa6155a803.jpg?1336347095
s28.postimg.org/ofn57ebf1/trix_by_madacon_daobzzv.png
He does his own projects, and he also runs a casino in Los Pegasus via satalight uplink. It's basically a massive "How much money can I make stuffy nobles loose and give to nice people?" game for him.
7794120 All of them.
7794245
Yes, because honestly, I think she is in cannon. I'm not saying that because she kind of steryotypes as a drag queen, I'm saying that because I am a transwoman myself, and have interacted with a LOT of other girls like me. Rarity is shown as being obsessed with embodying feminine traits, to the point where she's adopted an accent and mannerism that her family do not use (Sweetie sounds NOTHING like Rarity, and her parents are shown to be a yokle looking guy and a Minnesotan housewife looking mare.), she even admits her accent is fake in one episode. Point is, we know she is using a fake voice and chooses to use those particular high-class woman mannerisms, rather than was raised to act like that. She's also the only pony we see who uses daily makeup, who we also know uses false eyelashes (Which in ponies is shown to be a gender marker). She even found a feminine way of using a special talent which has the obvious use of 'mining', a traditionally masculine job.
Her hobbies asside, she intentionally chooses to act with that persona, and also uses makeup daily to the point of being semi-panicked when she cant find a false eyelash. She clearly is trying very hard to be feminine and it's not just for her image as an artist because she does it 20/7, even with only her best friends in the room, and even on life or death missions. IMO, trans is the most likely explanation.
Again, based on several trans girls I know, many of us are comfortable as soon as we can pass as female. It depends on if you have gender dysphoria and are disgusted by your own body, or if you are just distressed socially by being called male. Not all of us get surgery like I did, and not just because it's fucking expensive as hell (35-60k for the CHEEP version). Some don't feel the need once they can walk up to a stranger, say hello, and get a "Hi, ma'am." in return.
In Rarity's case, she enjoys the performance aspects a lot. It's satisfying to see her skill used to get what she wants. Though she is being a bit silly by not at the least seeing her friendly neighborhood Germane for a pheromone alteration.
That's not how she sees it, remember, ponies are longer lived than humans in my AU. She's been passing for 22 years at this point. But for a human, that would be the equivalent of about 6 years. Right now she's happy due to feeling accomplished at how far she's come and is scared that if she goes further that happiness will go away. Give her another year or two and she'll fully transition.
Sorry, I wrote a villen a touch over my normal thing and going into true evil territory. I won't spoil anything, but just for your own sake, AJ will be alright in the end.
7794876 To be fair, Tia is a bit of a derp strategically speaking.
Ummmmm.... Right. She did that. Let me rephrase, she's a totally incompetent idiot when it comes to military strategy. She's clearly exceptional at peacetime civilization building work but um... yeaaaahhh.... She doesn't even know the correct response to "Giant demon that eats magic" is this.
7794965
Yeah, I knew it wasn't your view on how tactics should be and it was just Tia in-character being a derp.
That's why I just chose to not point out why it was a dumb idea. You already knew.
7794841 I don't know why, but that Trixie mech pic is adorable X3
7795384 It's 100% differently because she's just peeking out like "Muahahahaha!"
7794841 on AJ, you know, I think that actually helps. I kinda empathise too much with characters some times... I actually didn't manage to get half way into Portal of all games by getting stuck into the constant death and madness that the human guinea pigs where being exposed to by that psychopath of an AI. Really, that game is pure nightmare fuel if you forget about the puzzles and put yourself into the main character's place.
On Rarity... Damn, that was deep. I mean it, I had no idea such point couldd be made on her. And it makes sense. The pony she thing too, if she's not much dysphoric but rather fixated on being female to others.
Celestia's reaction was surprisingly accepting and quick on the uptake though, it shows quite the accepting and maternal side she has, as much as she's a military derp, actually
But heck, 60k? I bet you that'd be enough to get to Thailand, get a good if not not notch one and go back home, considering all expenses and still have some change, if how overpriced American medicine is hyped be is true. Hell, I'm certain you could do it like that in Brasil, if not usually now that it currency is low certainly you could. Considering how people come from the USA to do plastic surgery here, I don't doubt it would be good either.
Anyway, too friggin expensive. You girls have it damn hard
7795404
It is, but not everyone see it like that. Though when you point it out, it's clear. I think it may be intentional too. Lauren Faust has said many times she wanted the main cast to show that there's no 'right or wrong way to be a girl', so including a transgender character would be something she could have done. However, Hasbro did nerf a lot of her ideas, so they could have cut all references to it from the show and just made her the 'girly one'.
Yeah. It's clear that she loves costume, theatrics, and performances. So I figure she might prefer using those means to pass, at least for the moment. I imagine she would transition eventually, if only to be a mother at some point. But in a world where there are less assholes than Earth, I can see using 'costume' to be kind of fun.
Yeah. That's Tia for you, kind, caring, motherly, a great civic leader, horrible general.
That IS if you go to Thailand >.> Soulth Korea is the best place to go for it, Florida second. At lest medical insurance is starting to cover it, because yeah... I had to do that all out of pocket. Took literally everything I made working through highschool :/
It's not overhyped. Want to know how much a simple dentist visit EXCLUSIVELY for a cleaning is here? No filling,s no tooth removal, just a cleaning. 275 bucks. And that's WITH insurance covering 70% of the costs. It's not a joke to say that if you break your hip here, you can fly to Spain, live there for three years, apply for citizenship, get your hip replaced, live there anotehr two years to recover, then immigrate back to the US and rent an apartment for one month than to get the hip replaced in the USA. It's about 3k cheaper to do the Spain thing, in fact :/ (If you make less than 20k a year in AMerica, you just DON'T see a doctor, ever. YOu chug Dayquil and cross your fingers.)
That's actualy because a lot of things we want are illegal to do here but legal there. For example, why HRT did give me some nice B cups, I kinda would like them a bit larger. But the saline and silicone implants I coudl get here SUCK and dont feel real. If I went to Brazil I could get polypropylene string implants done, which will cause your breasts to grow, rather than just stretch the skin and fill up space. Those implants look and feel real... and If being super busty is your thing you can use them to reach literally unbelievable sizes if you leave the implants in for several years (they are supsoed to be removed later. People not getting them taken out and then complaining are why they are banned here...)
Yeah... Upside at least after all that we can look natural now! 2 decades ago you could always tell if a girl used to be male. Now? Not without seeing her lady bits you can't.
7795513 I thought they could already make lady bits that are hardly distinguishable from natural ones. Didn't they began testing cloned material some years ago?
$275,00 for a cleaning. With 70% covered costs.
WHAT THE FLYING FUCK IS THAT?!?
Converting from Reais, I pay some $40,00 for that. In a good dentist. Paying private, without any insurance. Filings are about the same price, each. That for some good service, not a cheap one. With the kind of dedicated professionals you simply can't find in the US (our dentists have a specific college degree for it, it's not a choice for medicine). Honestly? If you ever need extensive dental care, book a flight. Both ways you can get for less than $500,00 from LA, so if those prices are any indication, changing hemispheres is a good tactic. Hell, I'm going to get rid of my wisdom teeth next month and it will be cheaper than $500, I believe. For the four of them
Edit: it's not only about being illegal (I never heard of that, to be honest). It's about techniques too. Scars in cosmetic surgery here are unthinkable. That for way longer than we had those fancy bio glues that make stitches obsolete. We are, as a culture, quite fixated with perfect looks.
Oh, and people do change their implants. A friend of mine did it this week, to be more precise. Usually when people don't is by lack of money out simply being cheap
Check to see if the maker's mark reads, "Chekov"!
Thus explaining Starswirl's hat.
Um, it's actually equoid... i-if that's okay with you?
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Yes, but it's not avalible unless a hospital and company offer it as a clinical trial. What we can get now is well... YOu can tell. There will be scarring, and it's realy just a 'hole' with the outside shaped to look as much like a vagina as possible. Anything more than a quick look and you can tell something isn't right. (Which is another reason many girls avoid full surgery, and just opt for a bilateral orchiectomy). There's also an 80% chance you will NEVER experience any form of sexual sensations with the new tissue.
'Murica.
My plan is to use medical toothpaste and just not NEED dental work :P
Appreciated, but I'm affraid you've overestimated my finances. By a lot.
I actualy have all of mine. They actlay fit in my jaw and came in fine and feel comfortable. I'm a freaking mutant XD
So is everyone, sadly. Fortunately I'm quite happy as I am now. Of course if we had Trials in Tainted Space level cosmetic mods available I'd be going a bit nuts XD
Oh no, I don't have implants now. I gotz real ones. Yay for hormone replacement tharapy :D
7795624 Sky-3 coined that term. So understandably, not many people would know it unless Robobutters said something. Twilight says android cause she picked it up from Sky. And Celestia knows it cause she got it from Twilight. And yes, they do say it in English. One of those words that don't translate and all.
7795865 Well, you tell Sky-3 that I say he's wrong!
7795868 About what exactly?
7795870 I'm just being silly at this point.
Hi meep!! Wow I take a break from reading for a while and come back to this wonderfully thing.
Time to reread and new read your stories so I'm not as lost!
7795970 Welcome back! I'm glad to see you again :D I've missed your comments. This story does an okay job of explaining things as they are brought up, but if you want to read the stories this draws on the most important ones are:
Lyra-7% - Explains Roboshy, and Lyra's human Twin sister.
The Chaimbermaid - Explains Mirror World Lyra, Pinkie, and Rarity.
Exile's Journey - Explains why Dawn is attacking now.
Oh, and consider this story the part two of All Hail the Queen. I decided to just skip over 1.5 years of fuck all save for language learning, and Dusk and Derpy just shelving that page they found as a curiosity. Until now...
7795983 woot!!! Can't wait to see how 1.5 years of god hood have affected Scoots. And that time as a mortal for the god of death who's name escapes me atm.
Bah this weekend is now dedicated to rereading your work.
7795689 80% is harsh
well, there's hope that in a couple decades those things become cheaper and more commonplace... Hard, but possible. We hope.
On the story, Rarity thing did make me wonder how human white horse will react to that. She seemed to be all girl, from your descriptions. That's going to be some awkward couple minutes/days
Oh, and I did remember something... They have no idea they're facing Dawn yet. They have no idea of the danger of going beyond the umbrella of the semi-divine alicorns. There's hoping they can hey back safely... But that's not a guarantee, by far
7796039
Mirror Rarity is biologically female, yes. Pony Rarity is biologically male because Dawn is an asshole and gets kicks out of mismatching bodies and minds then watching them freak out for years trying to understand what is wrong with them. Dawn has no influence outside of the universe he lives in, he cannot affect the Mirror World.
No, they don't. But I wonder what Luna is up to?
7796066 Luna is busy using Prance's heir as a super plus sized body pillow, that's what
Huh, that is mighty lucky of them, the mirror universe that is. Attracting his attention is NOT something you want to do, as a civilization oe otherwise.
I'd be super ultra mega super pissed right the fuck off if any government or corporation was hiding the fact that they know about, and can travel to other universes,
they could just say: hey, we know this, and we can do it, but we might start a war with aliens or bring particles that literally melt our universes space time, so no.
D:
we better meet aliens in my lifetime, otherwise I might have to pull a repose
7797623 Thing is, by saying that it's possible, you make all the wrong people know it's possible. Some shit realy is too dangerious to allow to be public knoladge. It's like you know, the recipe for making VX gas. Mustard gas is just bleach + ammonia. Making VX might be just as easy...
what about david is he dead?, or just not relevant for the plot
7802106 He'll show up later on, and is mentioned by Jade in the upcoming chapter to be published in about... 20-30 minutes. He's a minor character here. There's already three 'parties'.
Good thing for Roboshy as that Honesty stand-in, not to mention mention her general knowledge of dimensional traveling that I could see coming in handy. Dawn is more than just this Equestria's problem after all.
Geeze, Sparkle, dial down the easily offendedness.
Man, Flash always seems to end up with problems. Dead, torn in half, genetically doomed. (Though really, surely the friendly necromancer could come up with some acceptable solution. At the very least, undeath until technology allows for a better solution ought to be worth considering.)
Sensible explanation for the odd design of how the elements work.
Kinda curious about what is in Rarity's emergency kit.
So, where is reborn Dusk these days and what happened to her new quest? Or is that still to come in this story?
Finally getting a chance to catch up! First few chapters won't be as extensive as usual, but after that will try to get back to my novel of a comments. ^.^
o,o WOW must be a huuuuuuge ship! House a few million or more when totally done I imagine?
Because our jobs never understand we have lives separate from them. That we don't live to serve them, and we have to think of other ponies as well when it comes to when we work, like those who give us a ride home if we can't fly. We can't keep them up waiting half the night to fly us home, nor can we get to work without their flight which means we can't start until it works with their schedule as well. :twilightangry: (Heh sorry to go all ranty on you! Just problems at work in the unfortunatly 'real world.'
)
At least that is one hoard you won't have to dedicate an entire room or cave to. :P
Love this, really shows how much Tia hates war and would do pretty much anything to avoid it. Very much the vibe we get from her in the show(and what the show seems to well show as well.)
Poor Flashm he just can never catch a break.
That sounds so familiar..... where have I heard it before.... Hmmm... anyway, it is sadly the truth. Being in a hero's hooves, they can sometimes be worse than the villain they are fighting, just at a smaller scale.
I think of the shippings of the mane six with another member of the mane six, this one is my favorite, Twidash(or whatever fans call it? idk...)
Woah woah woah...... O.O So Megan made the elements. Hmm yes I can see that, both in what I recall of her and well yeah just makes sense. *head is not awake...*
True, from a foal's mindset, something like that would make logical sense, but not for an adult.
Yay getting to see more of Jade! :D
Niiiice would love a charm like that. Would be SO useful!
Awesome chapter, hnnnng I so want to continue tonight, but I must be up in less than six hours for work... Maybe just one more chapter. :P
Where can I find these stories?
So many side story ideas have been spawmed from this chapter alone.
9457694
This is B-canon and coems from the Comics.
This was just an idea I had for a short little story about ancient Equestria I never got around to talking about.
Inspired by the old Forgotten Realms novels and how the Archmage Elminster is allegedly unapproachable, chaotic, and cruel but is really just an old nice man who lets people crash on his couch as long as they dont bother him while he's working on... I don't know, inviting a spell that makes cow's moo's slightly louder when you cant see them and also increase in volume per moo until yo look at them, just to troll the local farmers.