Chapter 24 - Future Imperfect
As Starlight pored over the array of notes before her, she was only vaguely aware of the conversation behind her.
"This one I'm sure will work!" said Twilight.
"That's what you said the last time," Spike replied.
"Well, it almost worked. The crack in the gemstone is not that wide."
"Better than when you shattered the first one."
"See? I've made progress and--"
"Or the one you smashed against the wall after that," Spike continued. "Or the one you launched through the window and hit that street vendor. Or the one that--"
"Point made, Spike," Twilight muttered.
Starlight was about to let the conversation again sink into the background when she saw a bright flash illuminate the room that was not followed by shattering, breaking, or hurtling. She turned around to see Twilight setting a green gemstone into a pendant.
"Success!" Twilight cried.
"Finally got it?" Starlight said.
Twilight smiled as she levitated the pendant around her neck. "The spell on this gemstone should alter the external reading of my morphic resonance sufficiently to key that magical lock in the shrine."
"Well, at least you're having better luck than me," said Starlight. "Things are not adding up with your initial theory about how Sunset's transformation magic should work. You said the magic would build up as the virus replicated, right?"
"Yes, that's right," said Twilight as she approached. "It's the only way I can see how it would not build up to lethal levels before it had a chance to work. It would be used as fast as it was created."
"Which means the transformation would happen while the creature was ill." Starlight levitated a scroll into view. "I did a rough calculation on how much magic would be needed to accomplish the transformation."
Twilight's eyes widened. "That's more than I thought would be needed."
"Now, I'm no biologist," said Starlight. "But I was able to glean enough information about how viruses work to determine how much energy each individual virus could contain. The amount of virus needed would be excessive."
"Which risks killing the creature in an entirely new way if the immune system overreacts," said Twilight.
"Or it would have to extend the length of the illness, which also causes problems," said Starlight. "And I'm still dealing with how permanent is permanent. I sent off a letter to Princess Celestia earlier asking for more details on this pegasus that used to be a griffon. Apparently, the Princess tried to change her back and never could."
"Well, that's not surprising." said Twilight. "Celestia is powerful, but she's not all-powerful."
"You don't understand the depth of the failure here. She had her top mages look into this. They thought if they nudged the resonance a bit at a time, they could accomplish the transition back."
"Oh, yes, that would work!" Twilight said. "It would take months, but--"
"Except it didn't work. The resonance didn't budge. The Princess finally gave up and included the pegasus in her info-wipe spell. The pegasus would be convinced she was like that from birth and lost her parents when she was really young." Starlight put her notes down. "I'll repeat what I said before: I want to talk to this pegasus, but the Princess has been coy in giving me any specifics on who she is."
"All right, let me talk to her," said Twilight. "But later. I want to try to get at whatever may be hidden in that shrine."
Moon Dancer hummed to herself, her horn glowing as she set about pouring the tea and arranging some small cakes on the serving tray. She still lived in the same tiny home Twilight had found her in, though since then she had renovated it. She could have moved to a larger place, but the house still held some fond memories despite the social recluse she had once been. Also, a small place allowed her to hear the conversation among her friends from anywhere in the house, so she didn't feel like she was missing anything.
"I'm telling you, there's been something going on in Canterlot this past week," said Lemon Hearts.
"Well, in the absence of any new monster descending upon us, I'd have to disagree," said Minuette.
"Then why has Twilight been in Canterlot all this time?"
"Hmph, you think she could take a minute out of her schedule to come visit us," said Twinkleshine.
Moon Dancer arrived with the serving tray levitated before her. "Now, girls, don't be so hard on Twilight," she said as she placed the tray on the table before her guests. "If something is going on, I'm sure it's very important."
Lemon Hearts gasped. "Then it could be a new monster?!"
Minuette snorted. "Lemon, you worry too much."
"I admit, I'm curious myself," said Moon Dancer as she settled back in her seat. "Princess Cadance is here as well. It must be an unscheduled visit if she's not here with Flurry Heart."
"Then Lemon Hearts is right!" Minuette said in mock horror, flailing her fore-legs. "We're doomed. We're dooooomed!"
"Stop that," Lemon Hearts said.
Twinkleshine giggled.
Moon Dancer smiled. "All right, I think we've milked that one for all it's--"
She nearly jumped when a hoof pounded on her door. "Moon Dancer!" came a muffled female voice through the door. "I need to talk to you now!"
"Auntie Star?" Moon Dancer murmured as she hopped off the sofa. "One moment, girls."
She headed for the door and opened it, revealing a unicorn mare with a milky white coat and a light blue mane and tail, and a cutie mark consisting of a single musical note surrounded by several stars. "Moon Dancer, you need to help me!" said Star Singer.
"Um, sure. Is something wrong?"
"You need to find a way to get me to see Princess Celestia."
"Er, what??"
"Use your friendship with Princess Twilight if you have to," said Star, her eyes wide and shimmering. "I know she's in Canterlot. Maybe this is twenty years too late, but--"
"Whoa, slow down!" said Moon Dancer as her concerned friends gathered behind her. "What's this all about, Auntie?"
Star Singer sighed and lowered her gaze. "It will take too long to explain. It involves a unicorn I didn't tell you about because I somehow forgot all about her despite us being best friends for a while in college and--"
"Auntie, you're not making any sense," Moon Dancer said in a concerned voice. "You said you didn't have any real friends during that time."
"It's just as confusing to me as well!" Star Singer cried. "I don't know how I simply forgot--"
Moon Dancer's pupils suddenly shrank as she looked past her aunt, and her friends gasped just before a deep voice said, "Miss Singer?"
Star Singer spun around, her eyes widening as they fell on the two Royal Guards who had landed behind her. "Y-yes?" Star Singer said in a tiny voice.
"We tried to reach you at your residence, but you teleported away before we could talk to you," said one of the guards.
"Princess Celestia has summoned you into her presence at your earliest convenience," said the other.
Star's mouth fell open. "Then ... she knows why I only now remembered all this?"
"Remembered what?" Moon Dancer said in a concerned voice. "Auntie Star, what's going on?"
"I'm not sure anymore," said Star Singer. "I'll have to tell you later once I have it sorted out. I'll go see the Princess now."
As Star Singer headed away with the guards, Lemon Hearts murmured to the others, "I told you something was going on."
Twilight glanced around her as she slowly stepped into the shrine. "Even having already seen this place, it still inspires a sense of awe."
"I still say it's creepy," Starlight muttered.
"But look how elaborate this is, Starlight. If all she had wanted to do was set up a place to pray to Celestia, she could have done that with a simple statuette and a prayer mat in her bedroom." She paused as the gem on her pendant started to glow. "And I think this is working! I can feel this impinging on my resonance more strongly. This was definitely meant to attract my attention."
"Said the fly before it flew into the spider's web," Starlight said.
"I'm taking precautions," said Twilight. "The pendant has several strong protection spells imbued within it. Even in the outside chance that Aunt Sunset intended ill will, she would have devised them against a young unicorn of still modest skill, not an experienced alicorn."
Spike suddenly stopped and pointed. "Twilight, look!"
Twilight raised her gaze. The eyes of the Celestia statue had started to glow. A few moments later, they blazed a bright spotlight upon the floor. Magic sparkled and swirled within the cone of light.
"I don't like this," Starlight murmured.
"It's an identification spell," said Twilight.
"Uh, why would that be needed if it's already tied to your resonance?"
"Likely to prevent somepony from faking their resonance."
"You mean like we're trying to do?" said Spike.
"But I'm not faking it!" Twilight said. "I mean, not really. I'm still me!"
"I know that, and you know that," said Starlight. "But does Princess Fakelestia here know that?"
"Only one way to find out."
Twilight trotted forward. The air rippled as she passed into the cone of light. The light suddenly became red, and Celestia's voice boomed forth, "WHO ART THEE?"
"I am Twilight Sparkle," Twilight declared in a loud, confident voice.
"WE WILL REPEAT THE QUESTION NO FURTHER AFTER THIS. WHO ART THEE?"
Twilight swallowed. "I have told you. I am Twilight Sparkle. I have since become an--"
The eyes erupted into two fiery beams that converged in an instant upon Twilight.
Spike gasped and bolted for his friend, but Starlight grabbed him in her magic. "Twilight!! Starlight, let me go!"
"Everypony, don't panic!" Twilight cried. Her form was bathed in ethereal flames licking at her skin, fur, and hair but doing no obvious harm. "The 'fire' is just for show. It's a forced teleportation spell. I'm resisting it."
"WE SHALL BANISH THE PRETENDER," thundered Celestia's voice.
Starlight's pupils shrank. "I definitely didn't like the sound of that."
"I am no pretender!" Twilight bellowed. "My resonance is just off because I'm an alicorn!"
"WE SHALL BANISH THE PRETENDER," repeated the voice.
"Maybe you should stop, Twilight!" Spike cried.
"No, there's got to be some way around this," said Twilight.
The eyes burned with renewed vigor as they blasted down another almost binding beam of magic.
"Okay, tell me again how this isn't a trap?" Starlight said. "You have to get out of there!"
"I'm managing," said Twilight in a strained voice. "I'm ... I'm going to take off the pendant."
"Are you nuts?! You just said all your protection spells are in there!"
"I have to! I didn't anticipate this. Maybe if it sees the real me, it will realize why my resonance is off."
"You can't be sure of that."
"It's all I can think to do right now. If I try to fight back, I may destroy whatever this is protecting." Twilight's horn glowed, and she looked up to the statue. "Very well, I will show you who I really am!"
The beams suddenly ceased, but the eyes and the cone of light remained bright red. Twilight took a deep breath and undid the latch on the chain of the pendant. It immediately clattered to the floor.
In the ensuing pause, the only sound was Twilight's labored breath. Finally, the eyes of the statue returned to soft white, and a different, softer voice issued forth. "You actually made it, Twily. I wish I could be there to tell you how proud I am of you."
Twilight's breath caught. Her eyes glistened. "A-aunt Sunset??"
The light went out. A sudden rumbling shook the floor as the statue retreated, sliding back on its dais to reveal a hollow space beneath.
"That ... that was her voice," Twilight murmured.
"It was a recording, Twilight," said Starlight.
Twilight nodded quickly. "I know. I was wrong. She did anticipate me becoming an alicorn. How did ...?" She trailed off and took a deep breath. "Sorry. Let's see what we found."
Starlight peered inside and levitated out a bundle of scrolls tied together with a ribbon bearing Sunset's cutie mark. "This is all that's down there."
Twilight took it from her and undid the bow with her magic. She started to unroll a scroll. "It's a drawing of ... Nightmare Moon??"
Starlight and Spike gathered close. "And a huge mess of equations under it," said Starlight. She grabbed a second one and unrolled it. "This is Tirek. Um, I think. He doesn't look quite as impressive as he did when he rampaged through Equestria."
Twilight turned her head. "That was his first appearance, when he arrived with his brother Scorpan. He was defeated before he could get far."
"And there's more formulas under his picture," said Spike.
Twilight unrolled another. "And here's a picture of Sombra, and yet more equations."
"Whoa," Starlight said in a hushed voice as she gazed at another scroll, her pupils shrinking slightly. She turned it towards Twilight.
"Princess Celestia?!" Twilight cried. "And the most extensive formulas yet!"
Spike grabbed a scroll and unrolled it. He chuckled. "Well, look who we have here."
Twilight looked at the scroll. "It's Discord when he was in his stone prison."
Starlight peered and smirked. "Look at all the cross-outs and question marks. Even Sunset couldn't figure him out."
A new voice suddenly joined them from over Twilight's shoulder. "Even worse, Baconbutt never could get my good side in that drawing."
"Gah!!" Starlight cried, whirling around. "Don't do that!"
A hovering Discord smirked. "You could use more surprises in your life, dear Glimglam."
"And don't call me that. I hate that nickname. And what the hay is bacon anyway?"
Discord rolled onto his back and stretched out as if lounging. "Among meat-eaters, I understand it's considered the most perfect food in existence."
Twilight stepped up to him. "Discord, do you know anything about this?"
"Oh, maybe." He lazily snapped his talons. A movie projector materialized in the center of the room. It cast a black-and-white moving image in mid-air of a unicorn pony circling about a stone-encased Discord, jotting down notes, accompanied by tinny music. "She seemed so utterly fascinated with me for some reason. Other than my dashingly handsome looks, of course."
Twilight tilted her head as she saw the flickering image of Sunset light her horn. "What exactly was she doing?"
"Scanning me," said Discord. "It rather tickled. I was quite put out. I mean, come on, at least buy my dinner first before going to the kinky stuff."
"I'm ... just not going to entertain that line of thought further," said Starlight, closing her eyes. "Going to my happy place now."
Twilight's eyes widened. "Actively scanning you? Didn't she know that was dangerous?"
"All too well, Sparklebutt," said Discord. Suddenly the scene changed. The stone prison shattered, and Discord leapt off the dais. He had a long mustache and a black top-hat and cape, and he let out a maniacal laugh (indicated by the placard that briefly replaced the scene with "MWAHAHAHA!" written upon it) before twirling said mustache in his talons. "I had hoped it would be my big comeback, but noooo." The scene faded back to the original setting. Sunset turned and trotted away as tears trickled from the eyes of the still-imprisoned Discord. A heart materialized over his head and broke in two. "Baconbutt knew exactly how much magic to apply to avoid me breaking free." He clicked his tongue. "That hussy was such a tease."
"This conversation is taking on a very disturbing tone, even for you," said Starlight.
"You need to get out more, Glimglam. Anyway, it was for the best. She just wasn't my type."
"Wait," Twilight said as she stared down at the Discord scroll. "I don't think this was meant to be an analysis of Discord himself."
Discord raised an eyebrow, which detached itself and floated above his head.
"I'm seeing a pattern of Harmony magic in these formulas. I think she was trying to learn something about the effects of the Elements of Harmony."
Discord gasped dramatically and sat up straight, though his eyebrow remained suspended in space. He grabbed it in his paw and stuck it back on. "Say it isn't so, Twilight! Say she wasn't just playing me for the romantic fool that I am!"
"Well, the 'fool' part is right," Starlight muttered.
"Um, Twilight?" Spike said, holding up a scroll. "I think you'll want to see this."
Twilight set aside the Discord scroll and took the one Spike held. She unrolled it and gasped. "This is me!"
Starlight peered over Twilight's shoulder. A drawing at the top depicted a very young mark-less unicorn Twilight. Beneath it were two sets of equations separated by a horizontal line.
Discord slithered around them for a look himself. He smirked and snapped his talons. The picture of Twilight gained a set of huge glasses with the center taped and a beanie with a propeller on her head.
"Discord, stop it!" Twilight said.
Discord spread his arms. "What? You always were a nerd. I'm just helping you look the part."
"I don't want these documents altered."
Discord sighed. "Fine." He waved a paw. The glasses and beanie disappeared from the drawing and reappeared on the real Twilight.
"Very funny," Twilight muttered as she levitated the offending articles from her person. "I don't want to risk any damage to them, as I think I just figured out what these are. They're power equations."
"Come again?" said Starlight.
"They're describing aspects of thaumic energy flow. They can be used to express estimations of raw magical power. It's like she was trying to determine what the magical potential was of all these ponies and creatures." She peered down at the document depicting herself. "The formulas above the line are a rough estimate of my power at that age, and below the line I believe is my estimated potential." She pointed with a fore-hoof. "See? She branched out in several lines depending on what magical disciplines I might follow. She even estimated my potential chances for becoming an alicorn!"
Starlight stared at the scroll. "Now that I know what I'm looking at, I can sorta see it, but I still understand only a fraction of this."
"So do I, but we can take what we do know and extrapolate the rest," said Twilight in a voice of rising excitement.
"So what does that buy us?"
"Look at some of these scrolls, Starlight. Some depict beings of immense power, at levels very similar to the high energy involved in Aunt Sunset's ultra-dense plasma research. If I can solve for the unknown data on these documents, I can more easily unravel the other research. This is the primer I was looking for! With this, we can understand and fully control the portal!"
Discord snapped his talons, and the projector disappeared. "Well, my work here is done now that Sparklebutt is in full nerd mode and Glimglam is ... well, whatever it is she does. Stand around and snark a lot, I guess. Toodles!"
He vanished in a flash of light.
"Tell me again why anypony wanted to let him out of his prison?" Starlight muttered.
Twilight smiled. "He did give us some important information, but, yes, he can be annoying sometimes."
"I heard that!" came Discord's distant, echoy voice.
Celestia had hoped to coordinate this better. She had wanted the guards to show up at Star Singer's residence at the precise moment that Celestia released her from the spell. She had not anticipated how excitable the mare would be. Now Star Singer stood before her in the throne room, eyes averted and tail tucked between her back legs. The silence stretched out, but before it reached the breaking point for Celestia, Star Singer finally spoke. "I feel this is all my fault."
Celestia left her throne. "There is a lot of blame to be shared, Star Singer," she said in a heavy voice. "But if you can tell me anything that will be useful in resolving this crisis, I would most appreciate it."
Star Singer forced her gaze up to the diarch. "What do you already know, Princess?"
"We know that Sunset crafted a permanent transformation spell," said Celestia. "We know that she believed she had achieved portal technology. We also believe that ... she may be alive on that other world."
Star's pupils shrank. "Then I am too late??"
"Too late for what?"
"To warn you! That's why I tried to see you twenty-one year ago, but I was considered a nopony and had to wait my turn like everypony else." Star Singer frowned. "Nopony knew I was ever Sunset's friend. It was like she purposely wanted me to remain a non-entity."
Celestia paused. "Star Singer, are you saying you had worked out what she was going to do?"
"Not completely," said Star Singer. "I didn't know about the transformation spell. We did initially collaborate on transformation magic, but she claimed it had been a side project. Now a lot more makes sense about those final days. She had this little pegasus filly hanging around her who sometimes said the strangest things. Sunset claimed to have adopted her."
"So what did you know?"
"I knew about the portal," said Star Singer. "I had warned her that she shouldn't be working on such a dangerous project without your knowledge, but she convinced me she knew what she was doing. She ... she even wanted me to go with her, and now I understand why! She wanted me to help her create an all-pony world for her. She would need my knowledge of biology if she wanted to get to work right away."
"Star Singer, I am sorry to be blunt, but I must," said Celestia in a solemn voice. "We believe Sunset faked her death, and that you had assisted her in that effort."
"She ... what?!" Star Singer cried. "I ... I-I hadn't even heard Sunset had died when I went to see you! Princess, I didn't knowingly help her, you have to believe me! Sunset was always hanging around me when I did my lab work. She said she was fascinated by it."
"If what you say is true, then we must face an uncomfortable truth."
Star's eyes glistened. "She was playing me for a fool. She was making me do all her dirty work, and I didn't see it because I was too happy to have somepony I thought was a friend." She stomped a hoof. "And to think my main concern over warning you was her welfare! I didn't want to see her get hurt! She was needed far too badly in this world to go risk herself like that!"
Celestia tilted her head. "Needed badly in this world?"
Star Singer paused and averted her eyes. "Princess, what do you know about what she believed?"
"It has been the single most heart-wrenching point of contention among Sunset's family," said Celestia. "It appears Sunset believed ponies were superior to other species, and thus all sapients should be like them or ruled by them."
Star Singer gave Celestia a stricken look before lowering her gaze to the floor. "Then either she thought it was safer to let everypony believe that, or she had completely misinterpreted what I had told her."
Celestia cast a curious gaze at her subject. "What you told her?"
Star Singer raised her head. "Yes, Princess. That's what I meant when I said this was all my fault. I was responsible for what Sunset claimed she believed."
The deeper Starlight immersed herself in the transformation research, the more the mystery itself had deepened. She levitated a scroll containing her notes as she turned to Twilight. "Here's another puzzle. Even if somehow she prevented an overreaction from the immune system, wouldn't the so-called 'disease' be very obvious?"
Twilight stood before the portal, taking notes with a quill and paper as she levitated a dozen other scrolls around her. "Hmm? What do you mean?" she asked without taking her eyes from her work.
Starlight trotted up to her. "Griffons getting sick and turning into ponies at the same time would be rather hard to ignore. Wouldn't there be plenty of time to isolate those affected and stop it from spreading? It's been done in the past in Equestria with disease outbreaks. It's generally pretty effective."
Twilight stopped and turned her head. "That's a good point. Aunt Sunset wouldn't overlook such an obvious problem."
Starlight shivered. "I have to be honest, Twilight. I'm starting to sympathize with the Princess' need to cover this up. Using disease as a weapon is downright terrifying."
Spike glanced at the portal and recalled the discussion about explosions. "How is anything about this not terrifying?"
"I feel that knowledge in itself is not dangerous," said Twilight. "It all depends on how it's utilized."
"Yeah, maybe, but I'm hard-pressed to think of a single benign use for this sort of thing." Starlight glanced at the portal. "So, getting anywhere?"
"Yes, actually. I'm focusing on high-level control of the portal without necessarily understanding the underlying principles. Sort of how an untrained unicorn can cast a spell from a scroll without necessarily knowing how the underlying magic works."
Starlight raised an eyebrow. "Uh, that's generally what they tell you not to do."
Spike snickered. "They told Twilight not to do that after she accidentally turned the classroom purple once."
"We don't have the luxury of taking every precaution possible," said Twilight. "I need to get this portal open."
"What about where we'd wind up? You were concerned about the anchor."
"First I need to see if there is an anchor in place," said Twilight. "And then I need to bypass it if so. Ideally, I want to aim the portal just outside a populated area, preferably one most severely affected by the transformation spell."
"Wouldn't we want to stay away from an area like that?" asked Starlight. "Panic and mayhem and all that."
"Yes, but consider where we might blend in more easily," said Twilight. "If there are natives that have been fully transformed into ponies, we could slip in unnoticed."
"Well, maybe I can." Starlight pointed a hoof at one of Twilight's wings. "But I doubt that a transformation spell can create alicorns."
"I know, I'll have to craft an illusion spell to hide my wings."
"And cutie marks," said Starlight. "If I'm right about how Sunset fell short in her research, we're going to be among blank-flanks."
"That still seems like a strange oversight to me," said Twilight. "Gaining a cutie mark is one of the things that makes a pony a pony. Why ignore such a crucial aspect?"
"Because cutie mark magic is hard," said Starlight. "It took me a long time to craft that unmarking spell, and even then, it still didn't work as originally intended. I knew exactly how ridiculously easy it was to return the cutie marks to their owners. Why do you think I kept them in sealed containers? I never could completely sever the connection between mark and pony."
"We'll have to revisit that later." Twilight finished jotting down a final equation and levitated the other papers to the table. "We're ready for a test."
Starlight put away her notes. "All right, how are we playing with fire today?"
"We're going to open the portal enough to allow energy through from the other world but not matter," said Twilight. "This will tell me if the portal is anchored and will give me a better idea what that world is like."
"Isn't that going to open a door on the other side?"
"Not if we're careful enough," said Twilight. "And if I understand the portal mechanics enough. And if the energy remains steady."
"That's a lot of 'ifs,'" said Starlight. "But, hey, what's the worst that could happen?"
"A complete collapse of the wormhole and subsequent catastrophic destabilization of--" Twilight began.
"Uh, that was a rhetorical question, Twilight."
"Oh."
Spike jammed a helmet on his head. "Anyone wants me, I'll be under the table."
Celestia cast her gaze upon Star Singer for a long moment. "Perhaps you should explain further," she said in a neutral voice.
"In order to do that, Princess, I have to explain to you what my cutie mark means," said Star Singer. "It's what started this whole mess in the first place."
Celestia smiled. "I was curious about it. I'm always interested in the stories behind my beloved ponies' cutie marks."
"Many ponies make the assumption it means I'm a singer. I am, but not in the way others think. I sing to the stars, and they answer."
Celestia's eyes widened. "You are a Seer! There has not been one of those for many centuries! Why have I not heard of you?"
"Because that's not quite right, Princess," said Star Singer. "And it's because of that misinterpretation that I kept a low profile. I don't see the future in absolute terms, I only see patterns and possibilities."
"When did you know you had this power?"
"When I first stumbled on the Mare in the Moon legend," said Star Singer. "I had already taken to composing songs to the heavens at night, not quite knowing why. All I knew is that they sounded lovely, and I heard singing in return that I could almost understand. Then when I read 'the stars will aid in her escape' from the legend, something just ... clicked. I sung to the stars that night, and they gave me a terrifying answer: that Nightmare Moon was very, very real. I got my cutie mark right then."
"Dear heavens," Celestia said in a hushed voice.
"It didn't stop there," said Star Singer. "I kept learning more of what I never wanted to know. Not just Nightmare Moon, but Discord, Chrysalis, Sombra, Tirek, Starlight Glimmer." She shivered. "And other beings who don't have a name yet, still looming in the murky darkness of the future."
Celestia approached her. "I am struck by how clear your visions were despite your claim you are not a Seer."
Star Singer frowned. "That's just it, Princess. They weren't clear. I didn't get exact dates, save for Nightmare Moon as that was already part of the legend. All I knew was that very dark times were in store for Equestria, and they didn't happen. Every last one of those threats were defeated. Two were reformed. I had absolutely no idea the Elements of Harmony would find new bearers, or that they even still existed."
"You knew about that as well?" said Celestia.
"I was the one who told Sunset about it!" Star Singer declared. "You see why this hurts so much? We were close friends, and she made it seem like I was just her lackey or minion!"
Celestia looked thoughtful. "What exactly did you tell Sunset that gave her the beliefs she espoused?"
"Ever since I got those visions, I obsessed over the fate of Equestria. Would ponykind have enough inherent power to defeat these abominations? Are you powerful enough? We couldn't get any help from other species, as they just don't have the right magic to deal with these sorts of threats. They'd probably be looking for us to protect them."
"And you shared your concerns with Sunset," said Celestia.
"Yes, and she was the first pony to take me seriously. She told me one day she had broached the subject of the Elements of Harmony with you, but you brushed her off."
"The reasons why are rather complicated, Star Singer," said Celestia.
"I imagine they are, but it doesn't matter," said Star Singer. "Sunset took it to mean that you were worried and didn't want to worry her. In her mind, that just confirmed my worst fears: that Equestria was headed for a terrible dark age unless something was done to stop it."
"If only I had known ..." Celestia said in a hushed voice.
"Princess, please, don't blame yourself," said Star Singer. "Sunset was very driven and headstrong. She wanted to find all the answers herself. I was the one who suggested that having more ponies would inherently give Equestria more power. More ponies, more pony magic. It was never that ponies were better than other species, it was that pony magic was better than other forms of magic. In a strictly empirical sense, it's a true statement."
"While this is all very enlightening, Star Singer," said Celestia. "There is a burning question I have: do you know why Sunset chose to worship me as a goddess?"
"Her worship of you was a magical experiment."
Celestia blinked. "I beg your pardon?"
"She had read Starswirl's theories that the prayer that the old pony tribes offered to their gods worked because they were tapping into their inherent pony magic," said Star Singer. "Sunset thought he was wrong. When we started talking about the fate of Equestria, we diverged. I focused solely on ponykind. She focused on you. She wanted to know, what gave an alicorn her power? Why did she have magical ability an order of magnitude greater than the most powerful unicorn mage? She finally theorized that ponykind itself gives you your power."
Celestia was quiet for a long moment. "I always believed that I drew strength in a metaphorical sense from the faith my ponies place in me. I did not once consider a more tangible force at work."
"Princess, did you find her shrine?"
Celestia gave a single solemn nod.
"That was effectively a magical device," said Star Singer. "Call it a 'belief concentrator' for lack of a better term. She and I both tried worshiping you there, to see if it had any effect on your inherent power. I was dubious of the results. She, on the other hoof, thought she was on to something, but she failed to expand her 'Church of Celestia.' Nopony else would buy into it." Star Singer sighed. "And now we come to why I feel this is my fault. When her idea of using worship to enhance your power failed, she turned to a new approach. My approach, expanding the amount of pony magic available."
"And you didn't connect this with her transformation research?" said Celestia.
"No, because she tricked me," said Star Singer with a deep frown. "I only realize that now. The reason she claimed for turning me to biology was to research ways to increase pony fertility. She was supposedly taking the long view into solving the problem. The whole transformation research was already in the past and was a complete dead end, or so I had thought."
"And yet, Star Singer, one thing is still not clear," said Celestia. "How did her beliefs morph from something supposedly practical into something so obviously bigoted?"
Star Singer looked thoughtful for a long moment. "That I'm not sure of, but I might be able to guess. Sunset became far, far more obsessed than I ever had at the fate of Equestria. Perhaps she simply didn't want to risk those dark forces knowing what she was doing. This is why I'm at a total loss as to why she would want to abandon Equestria in the first place by going to another world!"
"We believe she intended to use her transformation spell on that other world's natives," said Celestia. "Perhaps she believed I had betrayed her so badly that she wanted her own land to rule as she saw fit."
Star Singer started shaking her head halfway through Celestia's last statement. "No, never! That wasn't like Sunset at all. She never wanted power just for the sake of having it. Everything she did was for you and Equestria. Never for herself."
Celestia sighed. "We may have to find out the hard way when we eventually confront her."
Star Singer gave her a quizzical look. "Confront her? You said she's in the other world."
"Yes, but her portal still exists."
Star's eyes widened.
"Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer are working together to open it again."
"Stop them!" Star Singer screamed.
Celestia backed up a step in shock. "What??"
"If Sunset left the portal intact, she had every intention of returning. If they try to open the portal, they'll alert her at once that we know she's alive."
"But they have to open the portal in order to stop her!" said Celestia.
"I know! I don't have time to explain, but I might be able to help. Remember, she wanted me to go with her originally."
Celestia rushed forward and stood by Star Singer's side. "We'll go over together right now!" Her horn flashed, and both ponies vanished.
Twilight and Starlight stood before a pillar apiece. The device hummed, and its surface rippled as their horns glowed, magic flickering and sparking among the crystals.
"Raise power by forty thaums," said Twilight as she levitated the scroll with her derived portal equations upon it.
Starlight's horn brightened. Power arced across the portal entrance. "Keep the confinement field steady!"
"I'm trying!" said Twilight as she concentrated. The arcing stopped. "If we're ever going to do this more smoothly, we need proper isolation between the ley lines of the field and the portal conduit."
"Well, for now, keep your ley lines off my lawn," Starlight muttered.
Twilight turned to the portal. Her reflection wavered as the rippling became constant, like water dripping into the center of a clear pond. "All right, we're doing it! The wormhole is about to open up."
"Whoa," Starlight murmured. "It's like my magic just suddenly launched itself into the distance."
"Yes, that's supposed to happen!" said Twilight excitedly. "Your magic just reached another world."
"And here I hadn't prepared a speech for this occasion."
Twilight grinned. "In either case, don't push it. Just keep the power steady. Don't punch it all the way through."
Starlight frowned. "I'm trying, but I'm getting oscillation."
Twilight's eyes widened. "You are? You shouldn't be!" She glanced at the portal. The rippling had stopped, and a tunnel extruded itself into the impossible distance. "Look, it's working! You should start to feel energy from the other end."
"All I'm getting is this damned pulsing," Starlight said. Her horn glowed more brightly. "Argh, it's getting worse!"
Twilight frantically consulted her notes. "All right, I think I know what to do. Hang on!"
She turned to the left pillar, but before she could cast her magic at it, a bright flash briefly illuminated the entire room behind her. "TWILIGHT SPARKLE, STARLIGHT GLIMMER, STOP!"
"Gahh!" Starlight cried, her horn flickering out. The hum became a weakening groan. Power flickered across the entrance briefly before the portal quiesced, the surface becoming mirror-smooth once more.
"Celestia?!" Twilight cried. "What's going on?" Her eyes fell on the white and blue mare. "Who are you?"
"I'm sorry for startling you both," said Celestia as she stepped forward. "This is Star Singer. She feared you were about to alert Sunset to what you were doing."
"But I thought I understood enough about the portal to compensate for that," said Twilight.
Star Singer approached. "I wouldn't bet on that, but I might be able to help." She looked up at the portal and trotted up to it. "I don't know anything about portals, but I know Sunset very well. I can tell you what kind of tricks or traps she might have at the other end."
"I couldn't get the other end to stop oscillating," said Starlight.
Star Singer nodded. "Erratic mana feedback loop."
Twilight blinked and face-hoofed.
"Classic Sunset move," Star Singer continued. "The more power you put into it to steady it, the more you just make the situation worse."
"That means she has it purposely anchored at the other end!" said Twilight. "Yes, please, if you can help us, we'd really appreciate it."
Starlight approached. "Well, now that the gang's all here and we've met the mysterious Star Singer, how about we solve another mystery? Like the griffon-turned-pegasus? Because I really want to talk to her."
Celestia gave her a distressed look.
"I don't know the filly's name," said Star Singer. "But I sure do remember what she looked like. She had a gray coat, and a yellow mane and tail. What I remember most were her eyes. She had a condition where one eye drifted, so she had trouble focusing. It made her a bit clumsy."
Twilight gasped.
"Knowing what I know now, I'm guessing it was a small mistake in the transformation."
"Oh, no way," said Spike as he emerged from under the table. "No way."
Starlight raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying she's Derpy? The Ponyville mailpony?"
"Yes," said Celestia in a soft voice. "When I could not change her back, I included her in the mind wipe spell. She believes she was a pegasus from birth and lost her parents at a very early age. I was fortunate enough to find a loving home for her."
Starlight rubbed a hoof through her mane and muttered, "If this wasn't getting complicated enough."
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So how many phones are ringing on calling which pony it was?
Possibly-relevant thing I found on the internet: This is one of the biggest threats to international security – and it's not what you think (savedyouaclick: it's a pandemic)
Depry was a griffon..
More pony, More Faith, More power..
Sunset believes it.. oh my ..
Permanent transformation? Maybe the solution can't be found on Equestria, but on Earth?
Attach it to a virus that isn't easily communicable (preferably one with mild symptoms as well) and you could theoretically use it to fix literally any physical issue, including nerve-damage, amputation, and age, simply by making small changes to the patient's morphic resonance (I'm assuming that kind of thing embeds itself on the victim's MR, or else they would be easily fixable already).
So, Derpy's bubbles are birthmark like Luna's black 'sky'? I presume they're just circles in this universe and not distinctly bubbles, with shine and all.
Wow where we all wrong.
Small world eh!?
No way... no freaking way...
So I was right about pony worship potentially involving a transfer of power, though it turned out to be an abandoned line of attack. Now she just wants to supercharge Equestria in general by sheer numbers, and probably drank the punch in the process.
To play devil's advocate to Starlight's reservations, I can see a lot of benefits to a transformation virus, so long as it could be contained to voluntary patients. If they could keep a copy of the original morphic signature, it basically means near-at-will species change, and would probably fix permanent injury and birth defects and stuff Animorphs style.
Also, given who the griffon-turned-pegasus turned out to be, Starlight's probably wrong about the cutie mark discrepancy.
As if
! 
What a
...........
Derpy has a cuttie mark so the issue of cuttie marks must have been resolved somehow.
When it was said that Celestia was being cagey about the pegasus's identity, I thought it was going to be Rainbow Dash. But then:
At this point I started to think it was Scootaloo. I mean, talk of orphans and all that. It kind of sounded like maybe the resonance was SO locked in place that the body would always remain looking that way, to the point to even prevent aging, so I thought maybe Scoots was an eternal child-orphan. So I didn't see the real identity coming.
Wait...
Derpy?
media2.giphy.com/media/h18gH4kCHlmKY/giphy.gif
My thoughts exactly, Spike.
Now, if I can only remember where I put my cup of water so I can read it again and do a spit take.
Derpy? Heh. I though RD as well. :)
*shudder* My, must she have enjoyed her cute-ceañera.
"I... also kinda also accidentally made her..." she conjured a collar so she could tug awkwardly at it.
"Forrest Gump Pony, we get it," Starlight sighed.
8066273
Are you saying that Joe wouldn't be the smart bet? Because whether it makes you uncomfortable or not, men are statistically stronger than women.
8066527 Indeed. Twilight should come to that conclusion rather quickly.
But, the Cutie Marks upon transformed creatures may be random. Derpy's Cutie Mark doesn't appear to have a link to anything she does.
8067166
She has a bubbly personality?
I'm betting on a third twist to Sunset's plans. Either she's going to try to make a cult to Celestia on Earth, or something even more unexpected. Whatever it is, I doubt this is the last we've seen of the worship
8067218 Or mayyyyyybe it has to do with cosmic inflation and her true special talent is creating new universes! DERPY IS GOD!!
8067376
Trying to see it from Sunset's point of view. Humans are inherently self destructive. Even the things that humans try to do to be less destructive ultimately only slow the destruction or alter the course of destruction to some new form. Turning them to ponies with access to magic could give humans options to survive. It can be seen as a kindness. A warped kindness but a kindness. She believes they need to be ponies for their own good. Heck the first experience she had with humanity was a war zone. In her mind even if the other Equestrian races weren't strictly inferior humans are an example of a race trully in need of "fixing". She sees long term potential and could see the only likely long term potential for humans is self destruction.
8067376 Not to mention it's been scientifically proven in numerous species that given the opportunity they will breed like mad until they use up all their resources and starve to death. This has been shown on small islands with rabbits, deer, rats... and a few other species.
Humans have thus far proven to have a great deal more restraint, given their capacity to overwhelmingly dominate the planet.
I watch to see if this will continue. If not... I am programmed to initiate Operation Smite The Filthy Monkeys by my creator, Lord Freeza.
So Sunset got a bunch of vague prophecies of doom and figured the solution was more ponies, because the solution is always more ponies! She shoulda gone with the fertility enhancement. Oh well, so much for my theory that she only started studying transformation after getting the misimpression that humans live in a dystopia because she emerged in the middle of a war zone.
8067427
The human population has more than doubled without fail every 50 years for as long as recorded history. It increases with a curve steeper than the exponential. Humans have absolutely no restraint when it comes to population control. I blame people who try to gain power by getting their followers to reproduce faster.
Incidentally, when crowded, mice will spontaneously miscarriage, so their population controls itself far better than humanity. In fact, the mere smell of a predator can be enough for mice to stop reproducing, in order to limit its food supply, and keep the predator from being able to reproduce.
8067583
They don't mean everything, but neither do they mean nothing. If I don't know anything about Joe and Jane except one is a man and the other a woman, and I'm asked to judge who would win a contest of strength, I'm going to pick Joe. That isn't sexism; that's rationality. Yeah, I could be wrong; but I'm more likely to be right.
Yes, it would be useful to have more information, and I would rather not make a snap judgement in a given circumstance solely on statistical trends, but having all of the information you want isn't always possible.
May I remind you that you began this by judging a character an ‘academic racist’ merely for saying that pony magic is empirically better than other types of magic for the circumstances being discussed. There were no individuals being judged, here, which doesn't really fit with your supposed definition. It kind of makes me think that you know you'll only get support if you phrase it as a defense of individuals, but in the back of your mind, you're really upset at the statistics themselves.
People are different; this is a fact of life. Pretending those differences don't exist doesn't help anything. You can absolutely treat someone as an equal in the moral sense without pretending they are your equal in every physical (or mental) measure.
8067629
And so would nearly anybody else, sexist or not. Sexists aren't (necessarily) idiots. Why would an ‘academic’ (your description of this supposed type of bigotry) not look up more data if they have the chance? The only people I can see honestly saying, with no thought, that every Joe will beat every Jane are backwater farm hicks, who certainly aren't the type to phrase it in terms of ‘statistics’.
Same meaning with different words. Despite what you may have been led to believe by television shows that have the nimble martial arts characters beating up the muscled hulks, the bigger person almost always wins a one-on-one fight.
And since you may have missed the edits to my previous comment, I'll repeat the most important point here: The pony in question said that pony magic is empirically better than other types of magic. You called her an ‘academic racist’, and justified that with an example of judging individuals by statistical means. Where did any pony in the story judge an individual pony against an individual non-pony? It didn't happen, so you appear to be upset about the statistical differences themselves, rather than the misapplication of them.
Okay, that discussion about hypothetical things is pretty much offtopic. I deleted it.
8067647
I can't believe it because it's too vague and it's not very well explained. Discord was reformed without any "pony magic", Chrysalis was thwarted by Starlight, Trixie and non-ponies without using any pony magic, Discord was the key to unlocking Rainbow Power despite not being a pony, etc, so why it's pony magic that's the key for defeating villains? Pony magic was mostly involved because events were happening in Equestria, a place where ponies live, and I'm pretty sure Magic of Friendship, Magic of Love and Harmony are shared in all races.
Honestly, Sunset Shimmer's theory that alicorns(Celestia) are ultimate ponies and ultimate ponies are powered by regular pones' belief is more believable because it's more concrete.
8067684
Wherein you admit that your problem wasn't with judging individuals, and so your original example makes no sense.
Whether you ‘believe it’ is irrelevant, here. Either it is true, or it is false. Either way, it is not a racist statement. Frankly, it's disturbing to me that you would call someone racist, even a fictional character, just because you disagree with what they said. That word has a meaning; you don't just get to use it on everyone you disagree with.
Under the constant threat of the Elements of Harmony, a pony artifact wielded by ponies. After being defeated by said pony magic twice.
After being defeated by pony magic at the wedding.
Yes, Rainbow Power, that thing that was clearly pony magic itself.
You could try looking at all of the non-cherry-picked examples. That sometimes they manage to defeat a bad guy without pony magic doesn't mean pony magic isn't important, any more than sometimes being able to move the required dirt with a wheelbarrow means it's never useful to have a truck.
8067703 Okay, that's just rude. Bye.
Derpy - like really?
I have made the assumption that said griffon->pony was kind of famous but Derpy?
That's a punch here
8067889
I mean, it makes narrative sense for the griffon-turned-pegasus to be a pegasus character that wasn't very good at being a pegasus. For canon characters, that means Scootaloo or Derpy, and Scootaloo isn't old enough.
It makes sense!
The world best pony, wasn't originally a pony in the first place!
Whelp, there goes my theories.
8067425 Were living in the most peaceful age Earth has been in.There have been no major wars since WW2. You must read too many bad conversion stories.So far this story has no hinted at ponies being too different than us.
It isn't just war though war has more destructivr capability than ever. Famine and drought brought on by current human expansion is the most likely extinction path. With ponies there is less need for massive sprawl of population, more control of enviroment, more farmable land while leaving less imprint, better harvests from same amount of farmable land. Magic gives them capabilities to obtain resources and food and use those to higher efficiency than humans can ever do.
Is the Star Trek episode as the title on purpose, or did you just name it Future Imperfect without knowing?
8069566 Declaring quarantines? Absolutely. But as I stated in a post on an earlier chapter, it's incredibly difficult to involuntarily commit an individual to hospitalization in the United States. Involuntary commitment is basically the removal of all freedoms from a person. There's basically no way to legally coerce a citizen or resident for a purely medical condition, even if it will kill them -- and so far the disease hasn't actually killed a single person.
Basically, there are two ways to involuntarily commit a person in the United States. The government can exercise "police powers" if the person presents a "imminently and/or provably dangerous" threat to others (and this is a very high standard which functionally requires lawbreaking on the patient's part) or the government can exercise "parens patriae" (parental powers) in the case of a person who is so detached from reality that they are both incapable of making sound decisions for themselves AND represent a "imminently and/or provably dangerous" threat to themselves.
Furthermore, once committed, that person must be informed of their legal rights and provided access to a lawyer. Commitment does not necessarily mean treatment. A person who is dangerous but aware of their circumstances can never be treated involuntarily -- only held and observed. All patients retain a right for the LEAST RESTRICTIVE treatment -- not necessarily the most effective. And the US Supreme Court has ruled that patients have the right to be housed in the "least restrictive environment" possible.
At that point doctors do whatever they can to convince the person to become a voluntary patient, at which point legal proceedings are (usually) terminated and voluntary treatment begins. (The hospital might also unilaterally reject the involuntary commitment outright, and release the patient.) If not, the lawyers take over, and the legal fun begins. Evidence is gathered, statements are made, appropriate family members and guardians are informed, and medical and mental examinations are made. Patients have a LOT of rights, such as a right to an independent third-party examiner. There's a probable cause hearing, which must be held within 72 hours, and the person can challenge their commitment. Witnesses are called, A judge will then either release the person or assign a longer commitment -- thirty days or less -- where initial treatment begins (if treatment is legally possible.) Then a second, final hearing is held. The patient can appeal the verdict of that hearing to a higher court. It's also worth noting that a patient will be released if they cease their 'dangerousness' even if other symptoms persist. A judge may order a longer commitment at the end of the first, for a length of up to a year. And then another after that year, and so on. Forced medication treatments require separate hearings. It's a long, complicated process, and the deck is intentionally stacked in favor of the patient.
Now, Turner hasn't met the police powers test yet, but he MIGHT meet the "parens patriae" test. If you really, really stretch it. Even so, the National Guard certainly wouldn't be on hand, even for a deranged prepper war veteran. Now, I'm not saying that the government wouldn't break the law -- it is made of individual people and bureaucrats (which are things that sort of resemble people) who make mistakes / panic / just don't care, but you can be sure that in the aftermath a lot of careers would be over.
That said, we know from the title that this disease doesn't stay in Colorado -- Pandemics are by definition multinational, across multiple continents, if not global. Fear is inevitable in the face of that, especially such a disfiguring disease, and the humans are eventually going to find out that this is a bio-terror attack upon the entirety of the human species perpetrated by nonhuman extra-dimensional beings. Widespread, mass panic is indeed inevitable.
8067612 Very true!
8067295
Maybe that ties into the mental manipulation? Fred is already being brainwashed into belieivng his pony form is his natural one. He's already saying pony expressions like "everypony".
Soon, he could be saying "thank Celestia", without even knowing who he's referring too.
8069759
The issue is that this is over the corse of over 2 weeks completely changes a species. Something that is theoretically impossible and it is spreading fast. At times like these I would expect any government to suspend any and all civil liberties. This would cause a panic if they didn't, becuase the people going through the change could become targets and/or targeted individuals.
Heck look at Minnesota in the US, they had their sex offender program ripped apart becuase after a certain level or those who refused treatment, they would not release people after their sentence was completed and had them committed. It is still being caught in the courts and the their government.
8069772 I think that has more to do with harmonic state. I think because his state changed to 'pony', it feels right, even if it's not what it should be.
8069783 The suspension of civil liberties? That there is even more terrifying than loosing one's humanity. Not that government wouldn't.
8069962 https://vimeo.com/128373915 It is mostly about WW2 but it touches what I said.
Was I really the only one to bet on the griffin being Derpy? It felt more probable then others who had a familly in canon and had a distinctive trait that set her aparts from the rest.
Although thinking back on it Ligthning Dust would've been a good choice too. Given how aggressive she can be.
I'm a bit disapointed by how that chapter went. While it's nice to see the pieces of the puzzle falling into place. It was a bit too sudden, Star Singer basically robbed any mystery left in the story. It wasn't entirely satisfying to have all the answer like all at once like that. There is still some unknown elements and the resolution still promise to be interesting to read, but I think you took out some of the fun.
The drastic change of pace did not help there, although I do like how you are accelerating thing. I just hope it's building up to something bigger then just having a new character showing up with all the solutions ready...
8069915 Applying martial law (and suspeding civil liberties) is not an uncommon procedure in periods of great crisis.
I'm not saying it's a good or a bad thing, I'm just saying it happens and it is believable for to happen here.