Spectrum

by Sledge115

Act I ~ Chapter Seven ~ Unto The Breach

Spectrum

The Team

TheIdiot

Hindsight is a cruel creature.

DoctorFluffy

Suffers from Butts Disease.

And also several seemingly crippling spinal injuries, including broken t1 through t10 spinus processes, two broken scapula, (especially the right one) and three broken ribs, one of which punctured a lung. Also, I was very itchy for some reason and I had a concussion. But that was months ago. I got better!

VoxAdam

“Volver”. It means “Return” in Spanish.

Sledge115

We all lift together.

RoyalPsycho

TB3

Kizuna Tallis

Fires Freely.

ProudToBe

Chapter Seven

Unto The Breach

* * * * *

“The past is over and done. We all stumble on our way to maturity. We all look for love in the wrong arms, happiness in the wrong places. But out of it, you've become real. You've got a heart of immense compassion for the brokenness of others. You are utterly incapable of hypocrisy, and I am deeply in love with you.”
— Don Quixote to Dulcinea, from Man of La Mancha, by Miguel de Cervantes

~ Ponyville, Equestria ~ Second Day of the Month of Rophon, Year 3 of the Era Harmoniae ~

“Betcha they’ve gone to space!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “That would be so cool!”

The thestral gliding on Dash’s left shot a glance, an eyebrow raised, towards his colleague.

On the right, Corporal Selene looked back at him. “That seems… far-fetched,” she said cautiously.

Then she was back to a staid professional demeanour, staring dead ahead in the way Royal Guards, both Solar and Lunar, were renowned for. Especially the pegasi.

Though sure of her superlative flying, Dash had to resist asking how pegasi of the Guard pulled off that trick – making their eyes flicker so fast that, without seeming, they took in everything above and below them. When it came to scanning an area, Dash had no doubt she was in their league.

But this subtlety... Seldom did Rainbow Dash envy subtlety, yet for this feat, she did.

“He’s an alien from another universe, where another us…” Dash stopped. “Well. That’s not… Anyway, I’m just so excited to hear more from him. I bet Lyra is, t–”

“Pardon me, Miss Dash,” interrupted Selene, “but if my view’s anything to go by, I spy a cloud-house coming up ahead. I guess this means we’re approaching the Ponyville town limits.”

Indeed, Dash had also noticed her house on the horizon. Her excitement at getting to regale her unexpected travelling companions with tales about the human, however, had temporarily eclipsed even the anticipation at getting her Daring Do book.

“Yep, that’s my place,” Dash said, forehooves stretching out a little more aerodynamically, as if home was a place to be grabbed.

“Then this is where we’ll soon part ways,” Selene told her, granting a look in her direction. “We… thank you for sharing your facts about the unknown creature.”

“Human,” Dash said automatically, brushing a strand of her mane. “Aw, it’s nothing, guys. Glad we crossed paths, I was starting to worry it’d be a lonely flight.” She had a thought. “So… where’d you come in from, anyway? D’you guys have a thestral nest nearby, or does Luna call up from Erebus when–”

The thestral stallion coughed, with unmistakable irritation. Her attention drawn to him, Dash realised she’d never bothered to learn his name.

“It’s not a nest. It’s called a roost,” he said testily, “and it’s a common conception, about Lunar Guards spending the lion’s share of their careers in Erebus. My family’s been in the Guard all their lives, with barely a hundred years of Erebus between the lot of us.”

“Okay, okay,” Dash said quickly. “Just checking. But, heck, why don’t we see you in town more often? Cos’ if there’s batponies living next door to Ponyville, what’s stopping anypony from popping over for a friendly hello? Nightmare Night got a lot more radical once you showed up with Luna.”

“Well…” the stallion began, in a gentler tone. “That depends on a few things, I suppose, like what hours you keep, or your stomach for heights. That, and who comes knocking. Not many people do.” His eyes glazed over, in reflection, not in ire. “How did she make it up the mountainside, anyhow…” he said, apparently to himself. “Carting all her belongings like that…”

“Who’re you talking about?” asked Dash.

Selene answered for him. “That zebra who lives in the Everfree Forest, she came by one afternoon a few years ago, first visitor we’d had in ages. Since few of us are daybirds, it took us a while to work out what she was after… The weird rhyming pattern she speaks in didn’t help matters. But eventually, we got her to understand that, if she was looking for a place where shops wouldn't be shut in the middle of the day, Ponyville was just a stone’s throw away.”

“A stone’s throw off a mountain, that is,” the stallion supplied helpfully.

A shudder of recognition ran through Dash. Mixed with a tingle of guilt at recalling her complicity in Ponyville’s prolonged alienation of a neighbour. The friendliest town in Equestria, was it? And if they could bungle it that badly, how hard would life be for outsiders in another, warlike Equestria...

“Um…” Dash stumbled over her words. “You sure Zecora didn’t fancy some night-time shopping? I mean, she’s got some weird habits…”

“Oh, you know her?” smiled the stallion. “Glad to hear it. But no, Miss, just because zebras are painted black-and-white, doesn’t mean they’re out on both day and night–”

“Wait, was that a rhyme?” Dash goggled at him. “Did you do that on purpose?”

Before he could speak, Selene got in first. “Don’t you go there,” she said, with a sidelong glance at her companion. “Some Guardstallions, they’ve got a thing for idolising mares they’ve only known a short time, ‘til the next one steals their fancy.”

“Hey, you gonna blame me?” The stallion blew wistfully. “Steep mountain like ours, it’s pretty impressive she didn’t slip and fall, what with wheeling a heavy load… a lady on a quest, she was.”

Dash found herself commiserating as Selene pulled a face.

“I doubt it,” Selene swiftly put in. “And that’s quite enough infatuation for today, Sergeant. Miss Dash, I believe we’ve arrived?”

So they had. Eyes half as sharp as Dash’s couldn’t miss the billowy white filling up her field of vision, interspersed by the rainbows pouring from the fountains of her cloud-garden. This being Summer, the Sun wasn’t yet at the low angle where the whole structure glowed pink and yellow – the colours of her two favourite people in the world, Dash thought fondly – but she still felt proud to own such a house, the sole model of its build in Ponyville.

What she was really looking for, however, the mailbox, lay below on the ground. And, to her delight, Dash spotted the tiny shape of the box’s semaphore flag, raised.

“Yes!” Dash whooped, performing an excited loop. She only stopped a second to say her goodbyes. “Great chatting to you, guys. Hey, you see the human at the hospital, let him know I came back. Or Lyra. Now, I’ve got a book to read.”

And she swooped down, landing next to the mailbox. Once the noise of her landing settled, she thought her ears caught a retreating snippet, from above, of Gibbous murmuring about crazy pegasi on the airways.

She didn’t care. Opening the mailbox gave her just what she wanted. Atop a small pile of letters, which Dash slid out without really checking, was the book. Daring Do & The Volcano of Destiny. On top was a note, courtesy of Twilight’s mother.

Dear Rainbow Dash,

Hope you enjoy! Always happy to help a friend of Twily’s.

~Twilight Velvet

Grinning, Dash reached for the book, as reverently as Twilight might have handled the Alicorn Amulet. Here she had something to take her away, if just a few hours, from tales of wars and parallel universes and broken friendships. Stories with only the slightest dash (‘Heh.’) of horror and romance, not packed to the brim. Just good old, uncomplicated action and adventure.

With a happy sigh, there was nothing left for Rainbow Dash to do but lower the flag.

* * * * *

The metal briefcase slammed open, revealing all the paraphernalia fit for a spy.

Acting on instinct, Redheart gave another glance around. Not that it’d help now, if anyone had spotted her – help the unwary peeper, that is. But there was no one. They’d have to be exceedingly intrusive to have entered her house, anyway.

Redheart felt a regretful twinge at the hypocrisy, but shook it off. This, after all, technically was her house. True, she hadn’t been home in a year, and this bedroom, with its collection of snowglobes on the shelves, was everything her bedroom hadn’t been since the Crystal War. But she had a right to be here.

Her glance led her to stare behind her, at the bed’s occupant.

Sure enough, her other self was still tucked under the covers, snoring, fast asleep, thanks to the sedative doing its work. Redheart did not dwell on her. Out of the many familiar yet unfamiliar faces she’d met today, her own doppelgänger was the most perturbing. No, the briefcase’s contents were what she needed to focus on.

The insignia of the Eighth Home Regiment greeted her, adorning her folded-up scarlet cloak, which covered the width of the case’s interior. Gingerly, Redheart pulled out the cloak, and lay it on the desk, to find what she was looking for.

The handle-end of the case, although deeper, wasn’t as replete with knick-knacks as the lid. All it contained was a keyboard, a scroll of parchment and a platen. Of course, those were only the most basic, visible components of a typewriter.

From a pocket in the lid compartment, Redheart took out a small, circular mirror, and slotted it neatly onto a tiny hook at the top of the compartment. It was angled downwards, with the scroll in its sights.

She began typing, the words printing on the scroll, letter-by-letter.

Solar Date & Time: Unknown.
Local Date & Time: 02.06.03EH, 19:00

Time Elapsed Since Arrival: +27hrs

Redheart paused then, thinking the next part over.

The numbers provided for the date and time of my present location may seem aberrant. In the name of Her Majesty Celestia, I swear this is not the case. I, Redheart, am of sound mind and body. Yet, by some strange fluke, I have found myself back in Equestria. Prior to contact with Earth. In Year 3 of the Era Harmoniae.

The past? Or a parallel reality?

Direct, precise, military. Everything it should be.

Arrived yesterday at circa 15:00...

And so Redheart outlined all she’d seen and done since landing in the Everfree Forest.

How, watching from the thickets, she’d spotted the battered Captain Alexander Reiner, come upon by the six Element Bearers. How, to her surprise, they had been accompanied by an alive Lyra Heartstrings, not as a captive, but as a friend. How she’d followed from afar as they took the human back to Ponyville, a simpler Ponyville, and thanks to a clever ruse by Miss Pie, snuck him into the hospital.

She wrote of bivouacking under the bridge for the night, pondering her next move. She wrote of how in the early hours of the morning, she’d slipped inside the house through the cellar window, prying off a rusty hinge she’d always meant to fix. Knowing her other self, she’d imbued the hairwash with sedative, and watched as the trick ran its course.

At seven that morning, twelve hours ago now, she’d entered the hospital ahead of shift.

Any move she intended against Alexander Reiner was hindered, however, when she found that not only was he watched over by Lyra Heartstrings, Celestia herself had come, and saw no enemy in him. Celestia, back when she was a Princess. And Luna had joined her, too, unbound and free as the night of her escape from the Moon.

It had been the longest voluntary shift Redheart had ever taken. All for the cause. Fortunate, then, that she’d had the foresight to take a good, long rest the previous night, even if it wasn’t in the best of beds.

But they were all gone. Celestia and Luna had returned to Canterlot, the Bearers dispersed. Redheart didn’t know everything the human had told them, yet there was no doubt he’d played himself up as the victim. Only the human remained, with Heartstrings. And two Guards she hoped would never suffer as she had suffered.

Redheart did not mention the date she’d suggested at Sugarcube Corner. Indeed, she made no mention of Sugarcube Corner, whatsoever.

Once she’d concluded, Redheart pressed a big, unmarked button. The letters she’d typed on the scroll shimmered a soft lavender colour, as did the mirror. And that was it. Done. Now all she could do was sit back, and wait.

Then, a new thought struck her. She tore the the scroll out of the platen. Turned it over, while her spare forehoof reached for a nearby quill in an inkwell.

Redheart began writing a different message on the parchment’s back. In all likelihood, if she failed, they would find the letter. That was fine. They were ponies. They were sure to understand her reasoning.

Should somepony from this other Equestria sees this, you must understand. I do this not out of hate, or fear, or anger, but for the good of Equestria. You may think you understand what the human brings. You do not.

There is a hunger in their hearts, which love and kindness alone cannot fill. A sickness that we ponies can stave off. If you ally with him, he will infect you with that sickness.

I am only trying to help. I am a nurse, after all.

* * * * *

Bonbon slid out the old briefcase from under the bed.

‘Trust Lyra to search everywhere but the most obvious spot…’

To be fair, it wasn’t like she’d given Lyra reason to believe there was anything to search for. Moving by rote, in a procedure well-remembered, Bonbon pressed on the horseshoe sigil of the case, popping it open instantly. Bonbon smiled as many long-unused goodies revealed themselves to her – a fake moustache and a pair of shades, a grappling-hook and an underwater watch, and much else besides. Yes, those were goodies for when she wasn’t making sweets. Although these days, sweets were her daily lot.

The question was, what in here could she use?

‘I suppose the tranquiliser isn’t to be neglected,’ Bonbon thought, picking up said item. ‘[i]Never go on a monster-hunt without one.’

Even so, she hesitated. Was this a monster-hunt? Putting down the tranquiliser, Bonbon crouched on the bed she shared with Lyra, both forehooves holding her chin while she contemplated the briefcase.

For some reason, she got the feeling this wasn’t the only dangerous box open today.

What did she know? Thanks to Rarity passing through to deliver her coat, Bonbon knew the human was in hospital, and Lyra with him. He didn’t seem hostile. Except there were no records of ‘humans’ in her book of creatures.

Which meant… ugh… looking through some of Lyra’s books.

‘I wouldn’t trade her for anypony. Anywhere she goes, I’d love to follow,’ Bonbon thought, ‘but…’

She had limits. And those limits were reading the books Lyra devoured like oats. An Argument For Humanity and Against Catseye by Laconic, and of course, the decidedly paranoid The Dream Valley Conspiracy: What They’ll Never Tell Us. Or Ponyland: Dispelling the Myths of Dream Valley by Lyra’s old Professor Shriek, who had perhaps the most severe case of footnote fever that Bon-Bon had ever seen.

Alternatively – she could get more hooves-on. And what could be more natural than dropping by to ask the nurse in charge how Lyra was doing, after spending all night at the hospital without a proper bed?

* * * * *

Again, the apparition who called herself ‘Galatea’ addressed Lyra and Alex, still with that musical accent of hers.

“Tell me, human. You do not recall the circumstances that brought you here, do you?”

Alex, his hands pressing into both sides of the bedframe, shuffled his legs, trying to stand. But Lyra saw he could not. Even as a soft blue tinge lit his tattoos, the burst of strength he had shown while trying to escape that morning was yet to return.

“No… no, I don't.” He looked at Lyra. “And…” he whispered. “Lyra. How did you find me? All this time we’ve been here, you never said.”

Lyra blinked, realising. “Goodness, you’re right. I… wait.” She turned her gaze back on the mystery alicorn, brow furrowing. “Why should I tell you anything? H-how do we know you even are who you say you are? I mean, I’d never even heard of any other alicorns, up until Cadance got her wings.”

Discreetly, she had to choke down a yawn. She really hadn’t slept enough, the night before.

“Oh, I am an alicorn, truly,” said the ghostly apparition, taking a step forward, noiselessly. “I simply chose to seclude myself from the world, leaving it in mine sisters’ care to act as beacons to your people, Lyra Heartstrings. Or rather, it was mine assigned purpose to observe in secret, and I heeded it. This was before the human came.”

‘Sisters…’ Lyra repeated. For the first time, Lyra was struck by how much the ghostly alicorn resembled the Princesses, exchanging crowns for a pair of goggles.

“Now, Captain Reiner. What is your last memory of Earth?”

“I was asking a question,” the human said. “Not for you. For Lyra. Lyra, how… where’d you find me?”

His words didn’t immediately sink in. Lyra was too busy staring at the strange alicorn. After meeting a human at last, and the terrible tale he’d told of their two worlds at war, a new alicorn felt almost like overkill. Yet she still had trouble believing Galatea was real. Maybe it was her ghostly state...

“Um?” Lyra wrenched her eyes away from the alicorn. “S-sorry, what was that? Oh... I found you… by a tree, Alex. By a tree. But… I think it was a special tree…” She coughed. “I… I think you should answer her question. I want to know too…”

He snorted. “What do you want me to say? After a while, the things I’ve seen, they all begin to blur together. I need answers more than I can give them.”

“I can answer most of your questions,” Galatea told him. “Though not all, I regret. But if I’m to answer them properly, I require you to pass on personal information.”

“Why?”

“Because I collect information,” Galatea said. “And I am not all-knowing. If I were, I’d have no need to ask anything of you. I know your name. I know of your species, and your world. And I know why you are here, having played mine part in bringing you over. What I cannot know, Alexander Reiner, is how much you know.”

But the next words spoken were not Alex’s.

“Was it your voice?”

Lyra felt both the human and the alicorn turn their gazes on her. It made her want to shrink. Instead, she stood her ground.

“Which voice?” Galatea asked, tilting her head.

“The Tree…” Lyra answered slowly, twisting a tuft of mane with her forehoof. “When I was in the cave, I swore I heard a voice coming from it...”

Befitting her ghostly form, Galatea’s eyes were pupil-less slits, glowing white like Luna’s had when she’d lost her temper on Nightmare Night. Unless, for all Lyra knew, this was the mysterious alicorn’s natural eye colour. Neither option struck her as comforting.

“Indeed?” said Galatea. “But it was not mine voice. That Tree is more akin to an associate of mine than a tool. For, although I precede it by many millennia, I have no direct power over the Tree of Harmony.”

Hearing the name, Lyra felt a subtle glow awaken in her stomach.

“So that’s what it’s called…” she whispered, awed. “It was… beautiful.”

“Lyra?” said Alex. “What’s she on about? What are you on about?”

He winced, and his hand shot to his chest, clutching the bandages. The exertion must have caused new pain in his necrotised flesh.

“Oh, Alex…” Lyra said, voice still a whisper, turning to him. “You didn’t get to see the Tree… When I saw you appear, all cut-up and dirtied and bruised like that, my first thought was to pull you to safety as fast as I could… we didn’t get very far. My teleportation wasn’t strong enough. But you should have seen it. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful… well, except maybe Bonbon, when her snout gets all covered in cake frosting…”

“That is sweet, Madame Heartstrings, but please,” Galatea said with stern urgency. “Events are in motion. We cannot delay further.”

The voice cut across Lyra’s off-tangent musings like a sharp knife.

“Do you mind...?” Lyra began, before she shook her head and shot back, “Wait, whoa, hold on a sec. If you are an alicorn, like, Celestia and Luna’s sister, then why didn’t the Princesses tell us you exist?”

“They didn’t know about mine existence either, until today,” Galatea replied, raising a wing. “But they can vouch for me.”

On cue, two more translucent figures swam into view, the air rippling into familiar shapes on either side of Galatea. To the right, from Lyra’s standpoint, stood Luna. On the left, Celestia.

“Your Highnesses?” said Lyra. “What’s going on?”

“What she says is true, Lyra,” the figure of Celestia answered firmly. “Currently, all three of our physical bodies stand in Canterlot, beneath Luna’s Orrery.”

“This is an experiment in astral projection,” supplied the figure of Luna. Her voice sounded tight, clipped somehow. “By the power of our horns, channeled in unity, we can project ourselves anywhere in the world. Allegedly...”

“Had Galatea arrived sooner, perhaps I’d have forgone opening the Concordia Maxima,” Celestia’s figure chuckled wryly. Then her eyes, glowing white, fell on Alex. “Nonetheless, I recommend you hear her out. Her arrival may prove very helpful for the plan I have in mind. I’d hoped to turn to Discord, but…” She sighed. “His last mission has left him depleted. We must await before he can fully tackle this enterprise.”

Alex shifted on the bedspread. “Discord?”

“Do you know him?”

“No, not really, but then, I thought he was dead, although Lyra–” the human said. “This Lyra here, I mean. That is,” his eyes darted towards Lyra, as he coughed brittlely, “well, you, I mean you… You said... I seem to remember someone, I think it was Cheerilee, once told me he was this old enemy of Princess Celestia’s… or rather, Queen Cel– no, I don’t–” He coughed again. “Fuck me, this shit is doing my head in.”

Luna’s eyes flashed. “He works for my sister now,” she explained, her tone betraying a healthy skepticism. “In exchange for Miss Posey’s friendship. And,” she smirked, “I doubt he’d be very happy to learn you tried choking her to death.”

The human half-smiled, uncomfortably.

“Yeah, that’s it,” Alex said, addressing Lyra. “When we were talking this morning, you said this, what was it you said, this mad ‘Spirit of Chaos’ broke free a year ago and got the place banged up. Just another way this Equestria, it’s nothing like the one that’s been causing all the shit back where I’m from.” He stroked his chin. “Hm… funny, that… bad as the Crystal War was, you’d think a mass mind-fuck from the Spawn of Cthulhu’d be even worse…”

“Oh, it was bad, alright,” Lyra growled. “And I don’t care how much Fluttershy might put a ‘me gusta’ face on it, he’s still a nasty piece of work who can barely be convinced to care for anyone but himself.” For the second time, Alex was staring. She couldn’t blame him. The harshness in her voice surprised even her. “Second only to Chrysalis, in my book. I’ll explain later,” she told Alex, shuddering. “It’s not a pretty story.”

“Don’t worry, kiddo,” Alex smiled crookedly. “Why the hell should I have the monopoly on ugly stories?”

The three translucent alicorns across the room shone a little brighter.

“And yet,” Galatea intoned, “we need you to tell one more story from your life, Alexander Reiner. That is, should you remember it. So, pray tell. Which is your last image of Earth, before you appeared here, in this uncorrupted Equestria?”

Now everyone’s attention was on Alex. One hand still clutching his chest, the other went to lightly touch his forehead, as he squinted, trying to focus on the past.

“There was…” He groaned, tightly, his lips thinning to show gritted teeth. “Goddammit, why is this so hard? Everything’s scrambled… it’s like I remember it all, I’m certain I remember right up until the moment I have to think about it!”

It was a struggle for him, Lyra saw. Her eyes drifted towards the darkest of the alicorns.

“Princess Luna?” she whispered. “Is there anything you could do to help with his memories?”

Luna sighed regretfully. “Would that I could, Madame Heartstrings. Yet, as any teacher of my craft would tell you, the mind is not a book, to be opened at will and read at leisure, nor are thoughts etched on a skull’s interior, for an invader to peruse…” One teal eye glinted. “And that’s just as well, given the foe Alexander Reiner tells us we’re dealing with.”

“But…” Lyra began, her gaze moving between Luna and the tense Alex. “What about this morning, when you took Twilight and the rest of us inside him? We saw his memories.”

“We saw a dream,” Luna corrected. “Or the shadow of a dream. I am the only dreamweaver in this world who can march across an oneiric valley that is invisible to all others, even to its beholder… which is to say, while the beholder is physically conscious. Yes, memory exists. But our minds are so quick to churn it up with self-interest and improvisation, it soon becomes flat as soil. What you call ‘dreams’ are like plants sprouting from the soil, at the bottom of the valley. And I tend to them, like a gardener tends to their flowers.”

“That’s lovely, Princess Luna,” Alex muttered, wiping his forehead, “‘cept it isn’t helping my head any.”

Yet, for the first time, Lyra’s focus wasn’t quite on him.

“Then…” she said slowly. “You’re saying… what we saw… might not have happened?”

“Only in the most literal sense, Lyra.” Luna’s answer was firm and immediate. “No dream is without a grain of truth, a seed of memory.”

The human made a raspy noise. “Oh, it’s real... It’s all too... real… it’s all coming back at once-!”

“Alex,” Lyra said gently. “Don’t hurt yourself.”

Instinctively, without really thinking about what she was doing, she reached out her forehoof to press it, delicately, against the hand upon his chest.

With that, she felt part of the tension go out of Alex’s body.

“Thanks, Lyra…” he said quietly. “I think… I think I’m starting to remember. There was… Amethyst. Amethyst Star…”

Lyra let out a little gasp. “Sparkler? The Doc’s daughter?”

“We call her Amethyst,” Alex said. “Said that old nickname of hers, she didn’t like hearing it, no more. Sounded too much like Twilight’s name, see? The only name out there which is more mud to humanity than Twilight’s is Celestia’s.”

“Oh, my goodness…” Lyra said slowly, removing her forehoof. “Did he… did Time Turner finally do it? I’ve popped by his lab so many times, you know. He’d been talking about travelling to the Moon and other planets and stuff, not through magic, but science. Science! I can’t believe I didn’t–”

“No. No, it’s not that,” said Alex. The human looked troubled. “Time Turner… he’s our foremost authority on those portals the Empire uses to travel from their universe to ours. And he said… said such devices were a huge leap beyond what Equestria should be able to do, only a few years ago. Going by what I’ve seen, I believe it. You don’t seem to have any of the things I took for granted. Like…” He thought for a moment. “Crystal-tech.”

“This Equestria has not expanded into such domains, indeed not,” Galatea said. “The creations and weaponry of the Tyrant Sombra lie locked within his vaults, forgotten by residents of his empire. Or perhaps chosen not to remember. Nonetheless, we are one step closer to finding our answers,” she declared, her pale lips curving into a slight smile.

“We are?”

“Yes,” Galatea replied, head turning to-and-fro to look Celestia and Luna in the eye. “I know how the Empire can create doors to your world, Alexander Reiner. And mine sister Celestia, going by her words, has already guessed. On this world, only a small smattering of beings have the gift to cross dimensions. I am one, limited though mine powers be to observation, and only by the will of the Aurora. Another, as you may have surmised, is Lord Discord. But in that world, the fallen Celestia, whom you call the Solar Tyrant, through the power of crystal, drained him of his powers, and harnessed that to tear open the fabric of reality.”

* * * * *

The swiftness of the reply came as a surprise to Redheart.

Scarcely half an hour had passed since she’d sent her letter, when another arrived. The buttons on the typewriter clicked of their own accord, as if pressed by a phantom, and the scroll unrolled. There was no mistaking the sunburst sigil at its head.

She peered at it. Evidently, the letter was written in haste. The Lady Archmage was well-known for her diligence and her dedication in composing a letter. The letter before Redheart was anything but tidy.

And the contents, as it turned out, only added to the growing weight on her mind.

Her mouth set, she stood up.

‘I’ll need to return to the hospital,’ Redheart thought, reflecting upon her new orders. ‘And that’ll make things difficult. Heartstrings has not once strayed far from Reiner. Unless… Of course. This shouldn’t require me to go anywhere near Reiner, or Heartstrings! All I need is for the xeno-surgeon, the dear Sutra, whom I...’

Even internally, Redheart had to pause on the word ‘I’.

‘Sutra’s done the job Nurse Redheart asked of her, I know it. I know she has. If there were any concerns about the human carrying disease, or a physiological incompatibility to our ecosystem, she’d have come to me. Not bad, given all she had to work with were the clothes off his back… And I should find just what I need there.’

“For the sake of Harmony, I must act,” Redheart whispered, standing straighter and closing up her briefcase. It shut with a mechanical ‘click’ as the inbuilt typewriter folded back into place. “The worst thing anyone can do is not answer the call to greater Harmony.”

She paused, taking stock of her still-slumbering doppelganger.

‘What might her dreams be?’ Redheart stopped to wonder. ‘Does she still dream of her service, or does she dream of the future? At this time in our lives, in my life, was I also planning a date at Suga– What am I doing? I’ve got a task to fulfil.’

Redheart looked away from herself.

* * * * *

“‘Tear open the fabric of reality’?” Lyra said, echoing Galatea’s words. “You mean like a hole leading from one world into another?”

Alex clutched the bedrest, gazing numbly at the three ghostly alicorns.

“That’s exactly how we met you,” Alex he said, grimacing in pain. “How we... met the other Equestrians,” he clarified. “It’d take too long time to explain, but there was this place in my world, they used to do these experiments… and one day, they succeeded. A ‘rift’, they called it, like this pink gash hanging in mid-air above the grass... Probes couldn’t enter it. Melted as soon as they touched it. But, a few days later, she came through…”

“She wanted you to think it was an accident,” Galatea interrupted. “This is why she chose CERN as her starting point, Alexander Reiner.”

The human’s mouth fell. “You’re kidding me.”

“I do not ‘kid’,” Galatea informed him. “She knew your race would be more amenable if they thought this First Contact devoid of malice. Had she deemed it necessary, she could have opened up a hole in a major city, placed it in the middle of the tundra, or perhaps created an island specifically for the portal. Though the geological repercussions of the latter would be... most destructive.”

“So I’ve been told… But… that’d mean… that she…”

“She was aware of humanity from the start. Yes.” Galatea paused. “I am all but certain the wars they experienced prior to First Contact were a way to ready her society for a fight. Yet while the Solar Tyrant knew Earth existed, she couldn’t possibly have had a clear picture of it beforehoof. All she’d have had to go upon were outlines. Snapshots. Shadows. You are a warrior of a modern human military, Captain Reiner. Think of it as... staring at glowing dots on a radar-screen.”

“I’m…” Alex said, slumping, “not sure I get it...” He stared at Lyra. She noticed a strange guilty look in his eyes. “After she declared war, we knew she must’ve used what she’d learned about Earth as scouting reports. Feedback from ambassadors and representatives like you, who didn’t know she’d attack us… at least, I assume they didn’t,” he added apologetically. “You did not.”

Something about his words stood out to Lyra. “You believe the attack came as a surprise to the Equestrians as well?”

“Not towards the end,” he clarified, stroking his eyebrow. “Tensions were too far gone by then. But… many of us, especially the Equestrians on our side, or the tourists and vacationers she left stranded on Earth?”

“Tourists?” Lyra asked.

“Not every pony in the PHL made the choice to join us willingly,” Alex explained. “Some had it made for them. A lot of ponies, like Heliotrope or Aegis or… Sutra Cross, to name a few, were stranded on Earth when the Barrier started expanding. Some of those same ponies thought she’d just... snapped. Either that or she’d eaten bad shrooms…”

“Sorry?”

“That something’d made her go crazy, somehow,” Alex said guardedly. “More and more rumours kept flying around, reaching a peak after the Reykjavik Video… That was when you got captured.”

Briefly, Lyra thought Alex was referring to her, until she saw him addressing Luna.

“Also the only time anyone from the PHL met you,” Alex stated, gauging the stone-faced Princess of the Night. “Far too short a meeting, if you ask me. Your dear sister saw to that. But,” he continued, his eyes now meeting Celestia’s, “I guess that’s why even after all this, I can talk to you, and almost forget I oughta be feeling as sick as if I were in a chat with Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and Idi Amin all rolled into one...” He sighed. “Eventually, though, time wore us down. Ask someone today, chances are, the only question they’ll have is, ‘how do we fucking kill the bitch’?”

Lyra still wasn’t used to his swearing. While the Galatea-figure seemed unaffected, she noticed even Luna was holding back a wince. And Celestia… A troubled air hung around Celestia, yet Lyra had a sneaking suspicion it wasn’t the profanity which got to her.

Desperate to change the subject, Lyra stepped in. “Could Discord’s Chaos Magic have corrupted her?”

“No,” Celestia said. “The magic of Discord would likely change her, but none of what I’ve heard sounds like it fits with corruption by Chaos Magic. It seems more in line with…” She paused. “Order. If anything, this is the exact opposite of what Discord’s magic seems likely to do.”

“Hmm,” Alex said. “I don’t know that much about your world. Is there… is there something like Discord; but committed to order instead?”

“I don’t believe there is,” Celestia said. “It’d make sense for Discord to have something as an extreme opposite, but I always believed it was Harmony…”

“Look, what exactly are you planning on, Princess Celestia?” Alex interrupted wearily. “This morning, before you left, you said something ‘bout the chinks in walls, or some such shit. But, no matter how I try looking at it, I can’t think of any way you’d be welcomed with open arms on Earth.”

“Hence I’m not planning to go to Earth myself,” Celestia said gently. “But I have a theory as to where this unholy Barrier draws its power from, and how we can stop it… and the unexpected arrival of my other long-lost sister might have accelerated my design.”

Galatea nodded. “This is where I can help you both.”

Next to the two older alicorns, Luna shook her head. If Lyra hadn’t known better, she’d have thought the Princess of the Night felt overshadowed and tired of it. She wondered if Celestia, usually so considerate, had been too glib in her talk of long-lost sisters. Even though that must have been one of the few coping mechanisms available to the famously imperturbable Sun Princess.

“Concentrate, Alexander Reiner,” Galatea said. “Memories of your departure’s circumstances were resurfacing. You mentioned the name Amethyst Star.”

“And you mentioned Discord,” Lyra said suddenly. She then felt like she’d spoken out of turn, because Galatea’s inquisitive gaze bore upon her. “Um, Your Highness.”

“You needn’t use titles. I am not one of your Princesses,” the mysterious alicorn said dryly. “But now you know more of the truth. Equus and Earth’s meeting was planned to happen.”

“But how do you know all of that?”

“Simple,” Galatea said. “With great focus, it is within mine power to share knowledge with alternate versions of myself. A propitious talent in our current situation, wouldn’t you say?” She may have looked pleased, yet a bleakness clouded her face. “Unfortunately… it is possible, nay, likely, that the knowledge mine alternate sought to impart is incomplete. I first grew aware of events following the sacking of Adlaborn. What she may have learnt after, however, is fragmentary.”

“So… is Discord dead?”

Lyra hoped she hadn’t sounded too interested in that question.

Galatea’s grim expression did not lessen. “It is very hard to kill a draconequus,” she said. “Yet I’d logically assume that anyone who could drain their power would find killing them a trifle. Crystal can work marvels, Lyra Heartstrings. Your foalsitter can attest to that.”

Alex, who’d been massaging his head, seemed about to say something, but Lyra didn’t wait on him.

“But, wait, wait,” said Lyra. “If somepony stole Discord’s power, wouldn’t that…” She swallowed. “Make them able to wield Chaos Magic?”

“Fortunately, not necessarily,” Galatea replied, a little more reassuringly, as best as she could. “And does it seem like the Tyrant can use Chaos Magic to you? If it were so, both the worlds would long be damned. Conversely…” The cloud returned. She glanced at both other alicorns. “This is a topic for another day, yet we’d do well to heed the Empire’s mastery of crystals. None could say what uncanny forces these might allow them to reproduce synthetically...”

“Crystals.” Alex had spoken. Lyra turned and saw he’d stopped massaging his head. “Crystals... wait a minute, crystals!” he said, loudly. “Those are Amethyst’s speciality.”

It was the second time Galatea had come close to smiling. “Good. It’s coming back to you.”

“Sort of.” The human held out his arm, upon which, faint as ever, the tattoos glowed blue. “It’s what you were saying about magic. I’ve got this finely-ground crystal powder etched into me, that’s what allows me to use it.”

“We’d sort of guessed that,” Lyra mentioned. “And I’m sure Twilight– or Rarity, perhaps– will have figured it out by now. They’re smart.”

She waited for him to say something, but he didn’t.

“Did Sparkler– sorry, Amethyst, did she mention anything about a crystal tree?”

“‘Fraid not,” Alex said slowly. “But… I remember something.”

He was staring, not at her, nor at the alicorn trinity, though his eyes faced those three. He was staring beyond them, towards a vision he would be seeing now even if the ethereal sisters were not translucent.

“What would we do…” the human sucked in a breath. “What would we do without Amethyst and her family? The Tyrant would control all the portals to Earth, and there’d be no escape for the poor souls trapped on her world… nowhere to run… Earth is a rotting, sinking ship, and it’s still better than drowning beneath the waves…”

This time, Lyra did more than press her hoof to his hand. She turned, and clutched it with both hooves. Only afterwards did it occur to her this was the most intimate she’d ever got with him.

“Alex!” she cried. “Alex, not again! Please don’t slip away!”

Awareness of the now returned into his eyes.

“I won’t,” Alex said gently, laying a hand upon her hooves. “Enough bad dreams for today. But I’ve got lots to sift through, Lyra... A shimmering portal, in a grey room full of strange machinery… An overcrowded hospital room, packed with refugees from Equus… Their faces, their faces full of sadness and exhaustion, but hope as well… and they’re so tired, but keep going…” Darkness crept into his features. “And then the faces are filled with horror, because the portal is sparking up… we can’t close it… Something’s coming after them. But…” He groaned, showing teeth. “Before that, Amethyst’s telling me… we can turn the hourglass.” The darkness grew contrasted by a light in his eyes. “Her words. Turn the hourglass. That’s what I remember.”

Silently, Lyra digested all she had heard.

“The hourglass?” she echoed at last. “Wouldn’t that be… time-travel? But… Twilight explained to me once that going back in time, it doesn’t solve problems…”

“The Doc said so as well,” Alex sighed. “Being able to see ahead in time, though… that’s helped out in a few tight spots. If only we could use it more often…”

Lyra wasn’t sure she’d heard him right. “Whu-? Seeing the future? Can humans do that?”

His head turned to her, with an expression unlike any he’d shown prior. She’d seen him sad and lost. She’d also seen him glad to just have her to talk with, likely because he saw her counterpart in her. Explaining things, though hard, seemed to lift a little of his burden.

She’d never seen him bear all those expressions mixed in with someone who has a dark joke to share.

“Humans can’t… neither can anyone I know, as a rule,” Alex said, sounding as if he was stalling. “But I… I didn’t tell you about Bonbon, did I? That was… that was after your time.”

A frisson passed through Lyra at her girlfriend’s name. She hadn’t dared ask, yet it was one answer she was about to get anyway…

Or not yet, for Galatea’s voice returned.

“Time is what it comes down to.”

And despite not being there, the grey alicorn took a step forward, ahead of her sisters. Luna appeared consumed by a mess of painful thoughts. Even Celestia seemed a little heavier on her hooves.

“You’ve began tracing back your steps, human,” Galatea said. “Now I can begin giving you answers. Retracing one’s steps is what this has all been about. Mine counterpart knew this… but couldn’t find exactly when. The certitude of the Tyrant’s corruption doesn’t suffice to identity what led to it. Not in its entirety.”

Alex started nodding vigorously. “That’s right! Amethyst… I didn’t get it at first, but she said… She needed…” Gingerly, he removed his hand from Lyra’s hooves, slowly tracing it up his hospital gown. “She needed something of mine. And… and Zecora was there too. With... Bonbon.”

Lyra felt her cheek go wet.

“Amethyst,” Alex repeated her name quickly, like it could scrub over the last name he’d spoken. “We were there, by the portal… so was Cadance, I think. She didn’t stay long. I think she’d been to check up on the refugees. But she seemed… out of it.” His hand stopped above his chest. “When Amethyst approached me and said we might have a key to victory… I thought, maybe it had to do with the power Luna said Cadance would unlock, the night she got captured…”

Galatea stood listening in silence.

“That wasn’t what Amethyst was after, either,” Alex said, feeling the collar of his gown. “No… she wanted… she needed something… of mine. To locate where it all started.”

His hand went under his collar. Lyra saw the outline of it, behind the gown’s fabric, fumbling around trying to find something. Alex glanced down. The fumbling intensified. Then it ground to a halt. When he drew out his hand, it was open, and empty.

She might have found it comical, except his whole bearing turned so… colourless, right then.

“Alexander Reiner,” Galatea intoned carefully. “Where is your locket?”

* * * * *

The words of the letter echoed through Redheart’s mind.

[color=#ccccc]Do not let Reiner leave.

In his possession is a heart-shaped locket. Retrieve it swiftly and securely.

Should you encounter difficulty in locating it, our sources indicate it is gem-lined. Search for a unit of Microcrystalline Quartz, Density 2.6-2.7, RI 1544-1553.

Success is of the utmost importance. While it may be too late to prevent this Equestria from helping him, securing this locket will be the first step in delaying them. Once the locket has been acquired, enact Re-Harmonise Protocol.

May Her Majesty watch over and protect you on your endeavour.

Regards,
~ Her Ladyship, Archmage Twilight

‘Of what importance could a locket possibly be?’ Redheart asked herself, even as she finished calibrating the gem-tracker. ‘Wouldn’t stopping this Equestria from betraying ponykind by coming to Earth’s aid be more important?’

Then she replaced the tracker in her saddlebags. The locals need didn’t need to spot it and ask her what it was.

‘No. There is no time to question. Ours is to part in crisis, never to question.’

And off she was, closing the door behind her. It was not her house, yet it filled her with a moment’s regret to think she may have shut the door on it forever.

‘We know our work, our task. All strings attached and tied together.’

She hastened her pace.

‘Icewind can wait.’

* * * * *

Corporal Icewind was many things a Royal Guard should, and shouldn’t be, Winter reflected.

In the best of times, he was a true, dependable friend. In other, less ideal times… Winter wondered why he put up with him. Now, of course, was one of those times. Simply put, while Winter was sitting quietly on the far end of the bench, with a parchment spooled out before him, Icewind was trotting back-and-forth across the locker room. The sound kept distracting Winter from his report. Usually he tolerated Icewind’s sentiments, especially concerning romantic escapades. But perhaps he shouldn’t have encouraged Icewind to go gallivanting off on this date of his. Not with a mare who was technically a co-worker. Discharged, yes, but once a Guard, always a Guard.

“Pretty rum, isn’t it, old chap,” Icewind commented cheerily. “Never’d I have thought, in a million years, that she’d snaffle up the offer so promptly.”

And being discharged must have treated the nurse well, for her to draw Icewind’s affections.

“Mmm,” Winter commented, idly. He didn’t look up. The day’s report wasn’t exactly writing itself. He tapped the desk in contemplation. “Lucky her.”

‘Eleven, no, twelve hours? Long shift. No wonder so many ponies think we’re statues.’

He bit his quill and continued to write, even as in front of him, Icewind pressed on. Winter was merely half-listening at this point, but nevertheless, his friend was providing ambience.

“She’s the lucky one? Well, I can only hope,” Icewind said modestly. “I mean, I don’t expect she’s thinking anythin’ lasting will come of it, with us living in different towns, for one. But being a Guard on the move’s gotta have its perks, if you leave the places you visit with something to remember ‘em by.” He paused. “Sometimes, Winter, I doubt you know your luck. You take it for granted, having someone back in Canterlot.”

‘Creature is–’ Winter’s train of thought was interrupted, and he glanced at Icewind. “What? What was that you said about Chamomile?”

His tone had gone defensive, he could hear it. But Chamomile Brew was always there for him, there in Canterlot. Admittedly, pitched against the inner monologue of the droning report he was writing, the thought of tea in Chamomile’s shop, just the two of them, won out and enticed him dearly.

Icewind smiled crookedly, finally ceasing his pacing around the room.

“Buddy, you make such a big deal of the Guard,” he said, pulling up the seat before the bench. He took his helmet off as he sat down, letting his silver-and-teal mane flow. “When not all of us get to be Captain Armor, their Guard service delivered as a package complete with a sweetheart. Think you’d be half as devoted to a Canterlot posting, if Chamomile weren’t part of it?”

Winter held back a snort, for deep down, he knew Icewind had a point. Nevertheless, he wasn’t about to let Icewind go easily.

“Perhaps not,” he admitted. He allowed himself a tiny smirk. “Although, where would you be, without either of us to keep an eye– eh, make that two pairs of eyes, on you? She’d be amused if she found out about that nurse.”

“Why would she?” Icewind asked, sounding genuinely surprised. “I don’t see how being in the Guard means you can’t allow yourself some downtime.”

Winter rolled his eyes. The ball was in his court.

“I was referring to your... way of, ahem, courting the nurse,” Winter said, in what he believed to be a smooth voice. “Of courting any of them. The way you just go in and rush these things. And you used to say I’m the awkward one, eh, Icewind?”

“Bah! Really?” Icewind said, brushing back his mane. “If you call seizing the moment ‘awkward’, nothing I can do to help you, friend.” He began picking at the clasp on his armour, but stopped, to stare at Winter with a twinkle in his eye. “For the record, I didn’t use to say you’re the awkward one. Far as I’m concerned, Winter Truce is the awkward one, same as he ever was,” Icewind said, resuming his unfastening of the clasp, “Look at us. You tiptoe around stating your affections for Chamomile. A mare you’ve known since foalhood, and you approach her like a débutant at his first ball.”

But Winter, not one to take his eye off another sort of ball, let the statement wash over him.

“No, Icewind,” he said, setting down his quill. “That’s called courtship, thank you very much.”

“My point exactly.”

Winter frowned at this, though it wasn’t so much out of anger as mild irritation. But he let himself relax. Or tried to. They were amongst themselves.

“Even so, Chamomile and I are...” He stumbled. “Alright, what we’ve got is slow-burning, but…” And then he said something before he’d thought it through. “Well, at least I don’t swing as easily as that Prince of Ponces we know, do I now?”

The remark actually seemed to take Icewind by surprise. Then he burst out laughing.

“Don’t kid yourself, you know what he’s like,” Winter said gruffly. “We’ve known it since the Academy... What a privilege.”

“Dear me…” Icewind said, once his laughter had abated. “You had to shoot for the most extreme counter-example… but talk ‘bout shooting yourself in the claw, cos’ you’ve missed one big thing.”

“What’s that?” Winter demanded, holding his forehead. Clearly, he wouldn’t be getting this report finished soon.

“Goodness, Winter.” Icewind chuckled, with a tap to his helmet. “You’re all about following the proper courtesies with Chamomile, her being a daughter of the gentry ‘n all, sometimes I wonder if you’ve so much as kissed. Now you speak of the Prince... Hah, like him being of noble breed means he’s even once acted proper with paramours. And those are the people he wasn’t trying to scare off.”

Winter hoped his resigned sigh would go unnoticed by his friend, though to his disappointment, it didn’t. He’d be lucky if this report was finished by midnight – or if the thestrals didn’t end up finishing it for them.

“Fair enough,” Winter muttered. “So as good form goes, amongst former barrack-mates, I’m waves away from either you or Prince Marshmallow. I’d call it ‘ahead’, if I may be frank. How do I rank amongst the Battalion for professional duty, then?” he asked, tapping the half-done report. “Like you said, not everyone has it made, like the Captain did. Some of us have got to work our way up.”

“Hey, Winter.” Icewind sat down, on the floor by the bench, the joviality in his tone now smoothed over by something else. “This is Equestria. You don’t need to be a Prince to marry a Princess.”

“No, but it helps,” Winter said bluntly. Recognising the look of earnest concern on Icewind, however, he forced a jocular smile. “Mind, would you help me switch places, if the title ever grew available?”

Icewind wasn’t fooled by the weak attempt at humour. “As if,” he snorted. “You’d never do it that way. It wouldn’t be good form. Even if you’re never gonna make me believe your boundless loyalty to Equestria was all you had at stake, joining the Guard.”

“Not at all,” Winter said lightly as he dipped the quill in its inkwell, intent on pressing a joke that wasn’t hitting home. “But you underestimate me. I am most ruthless in my ambitions, Sergeant Icewind. Becoming Warden of the North someday isn’t too small a prize, if it serves the good of Equestria.”

“Funny how ponies who say they do things for Equestria’s sake tend to be painted with a bad brush,” Icewind muttered, folding his forehooves. “And you’d sooner pass off as a social-climber than admit you’re also a hopeless romantic? You’re one of a kind, you are.”

Annoyed, Winter folded up the parchment. “It takes either a romantic spirit or stolid loyalty, to know what the Equestrian Royalty can be like and still pledge to protect them.”

“Oh, come off it.”

“I’m dead serious,” Winter said, facing his fellow pegasus. “Defend the idea, Icewind, not the person. We’re not in the Guard to be the protectors of an idle, self-satisfied buffoon, but the Princes and Princesses of Equestria, and the ideals they uphold.”

“Sure, old chap,” Icewind said, hoof reaching for the clasp on his barding. “All this means is that, without the ‘Prince’ title in front of the name, you wouldn’t have a second thought ‘bout copping old Astron, if you got the order.”

“If he were proven guilty of treason,” Winter stated evenly. “Then... Yes. Without hesitation.”

“You added that first bit in to make it easier to stomach, didn’t you?”

“Did not!” Winter said indignantly. “Besides, if he keeps on like this, it may just happen. To this day, I still fail to see how jumping ship, literally–” He cut himself off, frowned, then carried on. “Well... perhaps I got my expressions mixed up there. What’s the opposite of jumping ship…? Jumping a ship, taking off? Point is, the Princess has an astounding level of tolerance. I won’t ever forget the sight of Starspear sailing out of Vanhoover Harbour, with Captain Dendrite doing nothing to stop it… taking off with the rest of the deserters, the cur.”

During this, Icewind had finishing unfastening his barding, which he now leant against the bench while he started on removing his brass horseshoes.

“Not deserters. A couple high-born service-dodgers and some friends,” Icewind corrected. “Just goes to show. Money and titles don’t make you a finer person, they just help you get out of trouble. Exit stage left, buddy.” For emphasis, he made a mid-air cloppity-clop motion with a newly-bared forehoof. “Is this really the crowd you want to join? Given you don’t have many few kind words for–”

“You’re talking oddly smack about the buccaneers,” Winter interrupted, remarking, “seeing as I’d have thought you had half a mind to follow them.”

Icewind shrugged. “They’re not my crowd, Winter.” His mirth seemed back on the rise. “Take that as you will. Though Captain Denny might be as good a drinking partner as any, my career wouldn’t be worth the uniform I wagered it on if I took part in such a stunt. Why would I, when I’ve got your shining personality to see me through the Academy?”

“The Academy?” At this, Winter suddenly saw a funny side of the issue he could actually exploit. “Really, has anything changed since school?” He prodded the folded-up parchment. “I’m here doing your homework while you’re off chasing girls.”

He felt gratified to watch the grey on Icewind’s cheeks turn a slight pink.

“Got me there,” Icewind muttered, raising himself. As he did so, he took the opportunity to kick off his remaining horseshoes, though carefully. “But you’re just the same as ever, too,” he added, using his head to push the lot of his gear into an open locker. “Even back when it was age-appropriate, you never did want to play pirates with the other kids.”

Winter smirked. “Oh, I don’t know that,” he said silkily, starting to unroll the parchment again. “If Princess Celestia decides she’s had it next time Blueblood wants to play pirates, I know which part I want to play.”

“Scary,” Icewind muttered. “‘Ere.” Giving last piece of his barding a shove, he managed to slam the locker’s door on it. “‘Ou’ll ta’e good care of ‘ese for me, won’t ‘ou?” he said, voice somewhat muffled as he turned the key with his teeth. That done, an upward flick brought the key, on its lanyard, to curve over his head and loop around his neck. It gave a soft, fading jangle as it twirled to a stop. “If you don’t mind the extra guard duty, that is.”

Just then, Winter was almost startled stuff by a burst of noise from the door, causing him to let go of the parchment, and it rolled back in on itself. Icewind’s baffled look met his own, then both glanced towards the doorway. There stood a dazed unicorn, the green mare he remembered had been chasing after the human at the hospital entrance, this very morning.

Wasn’t she a friend of the Princess’s personal student? Certainly not one of the five he knew from the throne room’s stained-glass windows...

“Uh, hi!” the frazzled mare greeted. “Sorry, in a hurry, bye!”

Before Winter could open his mouth, she’d fled off again, in a mint-green blur.

* * * * *

When Lyra did find the correct room, behind a green door marked ‘Storage - Foreign Bodies, Category 1 - Non-Hazardous’, any hope said inscription had promised her easy access proved a lie, as it opened not onto the room itself, but an antechamber. Yet Lyra didn’t pause to think as she rushed towards the inner door, and promptly knocked herself down when she impacted it.

“Goodness gracious, Miss Heartstrings! What game are you playing at?”

Her vision was just clearing when the voice’s owner helped her to her hooves. A nurse. White-and-blue-haired, cyan-coated; rapidly coming out of her daze, Lyra recognised the xeno-surgeon, Sutra Cross. Who mostly sounded worried about her, but there was a touch of annoyance in there too.

“Nurse Cross!” Lyra gasped, forgetting to even thank her. “You must help me get inside that room!”

“Huh?” Cross blinked twice. “Slow down there, Miss Heartstrings. You’re all tense. Why don’t you just take a seat,” she gestured to a desk with an open newspaper and a half-finished donut lying on it, “and tell me what’s the matter?”

“No time for that!” Lyra panted. “Sorry,” she said at Cross’s stricken expression. “But I really, really need to find something. And if it isn’t there, it’s gonna be a disaster!”

“Okay,” said Cross. She did not press Lyra any further. Instead, she went back to the desk to pull a key-ring from the drawer. “Here, we’re gonna do this now. But promise me one thing, ‘kay? Try not to touch too many things. They mightn’t be dangerous, but they’re very delicate.”

“Sure, yeah,” Lyra hastily nodded, shifting from hoof to hoof as Cross unlocked the door.

“What is it you’re looking for?” Cross asked, pushing the door open.

“The human… his stuff.” Lyra managed to wait for Cross to enter the storage room first, but once the nurse was in, Lyra scrambled past her. “When you… when you took off his… his clothing, to put him in his, his hospital gown–”

“And a most delicate operation that was.” Cross seemingly couldn’t help the interruption, giving a little beam of professional pride. “But one well-wrangled. Tell that to the board’s smug faces, next time they talk of cutting off the xeno-biology department’s funding. ”

“Yeah, look,” Lyra panted, pawing at the wall of lockers. “Among, among his things, did you… did you happen to see a locket?”

Cross had stopped before a specific locker, checking the smaller keys on the key-ring. But then she turned to face Lyra; before Cross had spoken, Lyra already felt her heart sink.

“A… locket? No, I don’t think so,” Cross said, apology all over her tone. She turned a key in the lock. “What kind of locket?”

Trying to ignore the ringing noise in her head, Lyra rummaged her memories for Alex’s description. “It’s… it’s small, just big enough to fit in your hand– um, your hoof, it’s heart-shaped, and it’s covered in red satin.”

Cross shook her head, stepping away from the locker. “Sorry. I must say I’d have noticed, because it’s nothing like anything the human was wearing. See this?” Her aura lit the locker’s inside orange as she picked something up, a pair of engraved rectangles on a chain. “Those are dog-tags, like the Royal Guard wears. I…” She licked her lips. “Between the burns on our human’s body, the camouflage outfit, then this… they all point to our guest being a warrior. I… I didn’t want to tell you. I thought you might not like it.”

“He told me himself. It’s alright,” Lyra said, sticking her head in the locker.

“Hey! What are you doing now!?”

“I’ve got to find that thing!” Lyra said loudly, pulling out all the storage locker’s contents. Forest-coloured vest and trousers, plating, boots, the whole of it tumbled at her hooves. But no heart-shaped locket.

“You’re not going to find it here! We keep very careful records of these things.”

“Open… I don’t know,” Lyra desperately waved her forehooves, “open up the other lockers!”

If Cross had been about to argue, she reconsidered it. “This is not standard. Yet I’ll do it. But I’ll do it as fast as possible, because I believe you’re wasting your time here.” Her aura selected each of the smaller keys, picking them off the key-ring and bringing them to hover, individually, in front of each locker in the cramped room. “Now.” The keys turned as one. “I’m doing you a favour, Miss Heartstrings. It’s more than my job’s worth if word gets back to management.”

Lyra took her by surprise by hugging her. “Thank you, Nurse Cross.”

But Sutra Cross’s prediction proved well-founded. One storage locker after another got magically flung wide open, it's contents emptied and near-immediately restuffed, Lyra having barely closed it before moving to the next one. This continued, across each and every locker, with the same invariable result.

“Where is it?” Lyra asked herself, with mounting irritation. “It has to be somewhere!”

She thought back to everywhere she’d been in the past tumultuous couple of days.

“Sweet Celestia, don’t tell me we dropped it in the Everfree Forest,” Lyra whispered in dawning horror. “No, no… No, it can’t have! We were so careful in carrying him!”

Next to her, Cross had been going over each of the lockers she’d searched, to make sure nothing was too out of place.

“Maybe it… fell off before you came back for him,” Cross suggested somberly. “Perhaps even before you found him. Remembering what you said, he didn’t touch down gently.”

“I… almost hope that’s what it is,” Lyra said, thinking of the Tree of Harmony. She closed the last locker. The reality of the situation settled in. “But… how would it drop in the first place? This seems… almost…”

‘Contrived’ was the first word that came to mind.

“I’d almost think it doesn’t want to be found,” Lyra said, laughing and sounding a bit more nervous than she would’ve liked.

The nurse gave her a very serious look. “If you think you need it so badly and it doesn’t want to be found, perhaps you shouldn’t find it,” she said gravely. “For your own well-being. When artefacts have minds of their own, good or evil, there’s one thing they never are. Safe.”

Lyra considered that. Briefly, a little voice reminded her of how one Lyra Heartstrings, according to Alex, had tried helping him before, and paid the ultimate price.

“It’s not dark magic,” Lyra said obstinately, striding towards the door. “Whatever it is, I know it’s not evil. He needs it to fight evil with.”

“Where are you going?”

“To the Everfree, of course! I need to give Alex his locket back before it’s too late!”

A sharp pain made Lyra yelp as it ran up her tail. Looking around, she realised Cross had seized it in her orange aura, and didn’t intend to release.

“Oh, no, you’re not,” Cross hissed. It had taken a while, yet her patience seemed to have run its course. “Now listen, Lyra. I can see this is very important to you. But you’re not, you hear me, you’re not going into that Forest alone when it’s getting dark! Ever since Miss Sparkle and her friends started doing on a regular basis, ponies have got it in their heads that the place isn’t so dangerous. When it is!”

“Please, let me go!”

After a few heartbeats, Cross nodded and did so, but her horn stayed lit. “Take it from me, I’m a nurse. And I’ve still got a job to do tonight, so I can’t stop you forever. But if you must go into the Everfree Forest, you bring some backup.”

“Backup? Backup from where?” Privately, Lyra wasn’t sure it’d be a good idea to get too many ponies involved yet.

“The Forest Rangers, for instance,” Cross said, moving past her. She sat down at the desk. “And if you can think of somepony to help you track the locket, they better come with.”

* * * * *

Being left to sit alone in a waiting room was not the best way to make Bonbon forget how aggravating her partner could be. She didn’t feel mad, per se. Feeling mad would imply this sort of thing hadn’t happened before, that hundreds of her life’s limited hours hadn’t been spent in wait for Lyra to return from some animal-watching session or midnight lecture.

The brown-coated, blond-maned Ranger on desk duty came up to her. Finally. It had only taken him half-an-hour, or thereabouts. Which wasn’t that long, true, but it felt longer than it had to be. It seemed a waste, when she’d chosen to first check the Rangers’ office because it was closest to home.

Especially when the place’s furnishing was this uninspired. Though Bonbon was no Rarity, she was convinced there were more interesting ways to adorn a room than plain wood paneling and rakes with four teeth the size of her hoof.

“Miss Sugarbean?” he said. “Chief Tome will see you now.”

Bonbon nodded and stood up to follow. Feeling the spy-briefcase safely tucked inside her saddlebags, briefly, she permitted herself a wry grin at how her bags sported the lyre, Lyra’s cutie mark. Like her partner was her main reason for going anyplace these days.

Before entering the office, she got a peek into an open doorway next to it. Yep, there they were, the pets of Twilight Sparkle and her friends. If the owl, the rabbit, the cat, the turtle and the baby alligator were here, it was incontrovertible proof that their owners were out of town. The Apple family dog, of course, would have been left at Sweet Apple Acres.

“Hello, Bonbon,” Minus greeted her warmly, doffing the campaign hat she wore everywhere, even inside her office. (‘Worse than Applejack, honestly.’) “Sorry to have kept ya waiting... but ya did get here earlier than when ya normally close shop, right? It must be important. How can I help ya?”

“Well...”

Bonbon took a seat. This wasn’t a good start. She’d hoped to make this seem a casual chat. But if Minus had noticed the discrepancy in her schedule, the Chief Ranger would have guessed it wasn’t. Bonbon wondered if she was losing her touch.

She decided not to stall. “It’s like this, you see. Lyra was out on a walk in the Forest yesterday–”

“Ah,” Minus nodded, resting her forehooves on the desk, with an air of knowing what to expect.

“–and I know she came back, cos’ a friend told me, but I haven’t seen her since. I’ve got reason to believe she brought a… strange creature with her. Do you know anything about that?”

Minus raised an eyebrow. “Yer asking me? Doesn’t Lyra tell you anything? I’d have thought Lyra would confide in you way before she confided in government employees.” She stroked her chin. “Funny, really, how she thinks the world of Princess Celestia, but won’t trust ponies who do all the work in her name.”

This was too bad, yet not unexpected. And Bonbon felt reassured when she hid her disappointment as effectively as any reaction to being mentioned in the same phrase as government employees. She hadn’t quite lost her touch after all.

“You know what Lyra’s like.” Bonbon sighed. “Why do I put up with that mare?”

“Because you love her?” offered Minus.

The simplicity of this caught Bonbon off guard. “I guess,” she admitted, fiddling her saddlebags. “But I marvel at it, sometimes. She can get so… impulsive, sometimes.”

Minus gave another small nod. “That, I get. And mad props to ya, Bonnie… I wouldn’t be the same without my guy.”

“Oh… yes, your husband.” While Bonbon had been surprised a few times by the Chief Ranger’s perceptiveness, at least manoeuvering the conversation in this direction had been a cakewalk. “How was he, coming home from outdoor weight-lifting last night? Sure he didn’t notice anything going on?”

“Depends.” Minus tapped her chin. “At what time was this, ya say?”

Mentally, Bonbon called up when Rarity had come in yesterday, and subtracted a few hours. “Five PM, I think. Maybe four. I haven't much to go on.”

“Well, fancy that,” Minus commented, reaching to open one of her drawers. “That’s around the time Miss Pie and the Mayor made their grand announcement of Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor coming to Ponyville for their honeymoon. Didya hear?”

“Yes, though I wasn’t there to see it,” Bonbon said. Of course, she knew no such honeymoon was planned in Ponyville. But now, she suspected this was more than Pinkie’s general nuttiness. “Why, did Bulk Biceps think something was up with that?”

“Not he. He don’t care much for royalty,” Minus shrugged. “Besides, same as you, this was during his work hours. My lad Feather, though…” Having finished rummaging around the drawer, she pulled out what she’d been after. A crisp photograph. “He takes all the pictures, y’know,” she said, turning it over to show Bonbon. “And ya know his sixth sense for winning snapshots… so, when he hears ‘bout this honeymoon business, he suspects it’s a front and looks the other way. Here’s what he got out of it.”

Bonbon inspected the picture. It featured seven– correction, six mares. One of them was Lyra. Bonbon understood that, on instinct, she’d counted Pinkie as amongst the group, though she wasn’t. And between them, they were carrying–

No doubt of it. This was no creature listed in Bonbon’s secret book. Processing the sight, however, she could garner it didn’t look completely alien. While the strange clothing made it hard to distinguish, her first thought was of a Minotaur with less bulk and a simian’s face, only prettier.

Well, ‘pretty’ was a relative term. Not helped by how the human seemed to have endured a lot of abuse.

“My,” Bonbon whispered, taking the picture. “That’s something. Where does your son get these from?”

“Never underestimate the power of the cutie mark, Miss Sugarbean.”

Bonbon glanced at her. “Your son’s mark is, well, a feather.”

“Okay, truth is, beats me,” Minus said, leaning back. “But trust me, if I knew… there are days I’m sorely tempted to stamp it out of the little snoop. It’s any parent’s worst nightmare, well, perhaps not their worst, but still very darn bad, havin’ a kid who don’t know where their nose isn’t wanted.”

The image this blunt talk raised made Bonbon blush, she herself no stranger to partners and passions.

“Huh,” she said. “Remind me never to have children… Excuse me, but… can I keep this?”

“Sure thing,” Minus smiled. “It’s no use to me. And Lyra’ll probably love it.” She leaned forward. “That, by the by, is what I got sorted out with Featherweight after that school-newspaper business. Making him promise that, in future, he’d show me any pictures he took. I keep the ones that might get too intrusive.”

Bonbon pocketed the picture in her bags. “Isn’t that awfully trusting?”

“Yes,” agreed the Ranger. “But it’s how ya work things out with your loved ones. They’re tiring and irritating and annoying, and they got faults they’ll never fully fix. Yet if they love ya, they’ll meet you halfway and at least try tonin’ it down.” She turned up her forehooves. “Hey, mayhap I’m not showing my lad enough discipline, ya think. If I wanted, I could just rip up his precious photos. But... that just seems, I dunno, too cruel. It’s my side of the bargain. ‘Don’t destroy ‘em’.”

“And I’m glad you didn’t destroy this one,” Bonbon said, getting up. “But in my book, parents have no call bargaining with their kids.”

“Not when their kids have done something truly wrong,” Minus said, also getting up. “Then, yes. No haggling, only marching orders. Still… ya may be surprised by what our kids, just by breathing, can do to keep us in line. I hope this’ll help. May I show ya the door?”

As she shook hooves with the Chief Ranger, Bonbon reflected that, while the amateur photographer may be squandering his talents now, it might be worth her keeping an eye on him; possessing a knack for furtive photography could get him far in the agency, one day.

* * * * *

The white walls of the hospital loomed over Redheart as, from the cover of the foliage, she thrust out her gem-tracker as far as she dared towards the building. Yet this device, one of the great successes of the Solar Empire, was failing her. The performance rate of a dozen unicorn specialists’ work, the envy of many a beachcomber on Earth, and thus a useful trinket to gain humanity’s trust risk-free – none of these was worth a bean when, try as she might, even after turning the dials up to the Archmage’s stats, no little green light-bulb shone in the remote’s top-left corner.

Redheart was biting her lip as she pulled back the tracker, almost not caring about the rustle she caused in the leaves. She knew she hadn’t forgotten Ponyville Hospital’s layout in all these years. Seen from here in the woods, Alexander Reiner’s second-storey bedroom would be fifth on the right, at the back of the building.

And even though she tapped the tracker’s dials, the obvious answer was entering her mind. She was looking in the wrong place. The locket must never have reached the hospital. Either it had got lost in town, or likelier, the Everfree. Which would mean heading all the way to the other end of town, and braving the Forest. A tracker this small wouldn’t detect the correct gem from afar.

At one time, Redheart might have thought the Everfree Forest a most daunting mission area. Now, it felt like just another setback. Besides, after a whole day spent in this bizarre Ponyville from outside time, losing herself in nostalgia seemed a greater risk than getting lost in the Forest...

‘But how will I destroy the locket, once I’ve finally got it?’ the question arose in her. ‘Never mind. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. I’ve got to get that thing first.’

Making her way back, Redheart took care to loop around the hospital, hidden by the hedgerows which encircled the building. Though she wasn’t wearing her cap, the chances were just too great someone might spot her and call her over for a chat, like Sutra had that very morning.

Right as she was circling back onto the main road, her reasoning was proven correct. Just when she‘d been about to step out from behind the hedge, the sound of hoofsteps prompted her to shrink back into the shadows, and not a moment too soon.

The young pegasus she’d impulsively invited on a date trotted by, not seeing her. Even so, Redheart stayed crouched for a good few seconds, without breathing, before she dared suck in a gasp and stood, peering after his retreating figure. There was a spring in his step and a lightness to his gaze not to be found, it dawned on her, in any Guard where she came from.

In fact, when was the last time she’d seen a Guard out of uniform, in any capacity? Unconsciously, her forehoof went to her head, unconsciously stroking her mane. She hadn’t undone her bun, yet otherwise, here she was, a simple village nurse off-duty, with nothing other than her mark to identity her as a nurse. Had Icewind and she met at the cake shop, they might have been any two ponies out for the evening.

‘How sweet,’ said a voice in her head, treacherously, and she knew it was her own voice. ‘And just what were you planning you’d do, you and a stallion, both free of garment? If you’d taken him home, and taken him upstairs… How would you explain there’s another you in your bed? Would you just tell him it was a plan for a threesome?’

Redheart felt an urge to slap herself. But whether it was for almost forgoing her mission, or to stamp out the unwelcome voice within her, she couldn’t have said.

* * * * *

“Goddammit,” Alex whispered. Even now, he fumbled at his chest, as if hoping to conjure the locket.

Meanwhile, by the window, the ghostly Galatea observed him gravely. She stood alone. Whatever it was Celestia had told Luna, in hushed tones, that they needed to ‘convene’ about in private, the two sisters had been gone almost as long as Lyra. Which could be anything between three and thirty minutes, but like always, for him, time had slowed to a crawl in such moments.

And who knew what other fateful scenes had unfurled in that time.

“This is indeed…” she said, perhaps trying to fill the silence, “an unfortunate turn of events.”

“For me especially.” Alex had growled those words. He didn’t mean to, but he had. “That trinket… that locket… It’s an old family heirloom. I…” His shoulders were sagging. Angrily, he righted them again. “Call me sentimental, but this war’s cost so much. It can’t take that piece of me too.”

He hadn’t lain back down. He was still sitting, on the edge of the bed, like he was prepared to spring from it at any instant, despite the fact he shouldn't. Cold sweat stained his gown and bedsheets.

“But why?” he demanded suddenly, fixing his gaze straight on Galatea. “What’s it to you, this locket? Or to Amethyst, and Zecora? What was their deal? Maybe they told me and I’ve forgotten. My brain still feels like a load of mush, when I try to remember what happened, at the portal-station. But…”

“What is it, Alexander Reiner?”

“Stop using my full name,” he hissed. “Who the hell does that? What I was thinking, though… why this? How could anything of mine help the war effort now, when we’ve been living for five years with the Barrier coming closer, without damaging it once?”

“I cannot say for a fact,” Galatea replied promptly. “Was there… anything special, that you noticed, about the locket?”

“What’d be special about it?” Alex snorted. “It was just a locket. Except it was my locket. That’s what made it special. Oh, and when I was little, Mom showed me the inside was lined with… what she call it... citrine. A very dear gem, she said. Not expensive. But hard to find in nature… and this one was natural. Very good for the mood. Said it was like holding a bit of the Sun. Or… ‘the fire that God has put there’. Is how she used to put it.” He felt himself go quiet. “And... Lord help me, but that… it helped on the battlefield, somehow.”

Galatea nodded. “And Miss Amethyst Star is your specialist on gems and their properties,” she said. “On Equus, the spiritual attributes of crystals and gems are very real, Captain Reiner. So too are they on your Earth… a force newly awakened by the coming of magic to your world. It could be that she, and her zebra friend, wanted the citrine gem for–”

“No!”

Though he yelled, Alex’s voice was slurred, like an unnatural effort were taking it out of him. In fact, the force of his yell caused him to double over, and he had to clutch his stomach with both arms.

“No, no. This… this doesn’t add up.” He peered up at Galatea, glowering. “There’s something you’re not telling us, isn’t there?”

“The number of things I’m not telling you far outweighs what I am,” Galatea said neutrally. “But isn’t that, mathematically speaking, the case for all conversations?”

“No time to be a smartass,” Alex snapped. “We’re letting vital information slip away here, lady. You said the Tyrant knew about humans before we’d even met her… that’s some Grade-A intel. It changes everything! And I want to know… How.” He let the words hover, to signal he hadn’t finished yet. “How,” he repeated. “You know too many things, Galatea,” he said softly, hissing her name. “It’s not just the way you know about humans. I never told Lyra… this Lyra, or her friends, or the Princesses, that I’m a Captain. So don’t tell me you got it off Celestia. Why am I so important to you? Why bring me here?”

She hesitated. He saw it. For a fraction of a second, Galatea hesitated. He’d only just met her and he could tell she never hesitated.

“You are a leader,” Galatea answered. “A human, and officer of the paramilitary branch to the greatest organisation dedicated to opposing the Tyrant on Earth. And you are not the only one missing facts… Captain Reiner, but I’ve synced enough of mine counterpart’s knowledge to know how valuable you are. You were Ambassador Heartstrings’ friend, and this makes you a natural target to the Tyrant, who has so turned her back on friendship, the very friend of her enemy is also her enemy.”

“Bullshit.”

This time, Alex meant the word.

“Me, a leader?” He gave one of his harsh, barking laughs. “Some leader. A glorified errand-boy, more like, who got by thanks to friends in high places. You know what I’ve learned from war?” He uncrossed his arms. “Don’t be a hero. Really, don’t. Unless you're John McCain, God rest his soul. But I’m not, am I?” He laughed again, bitterly. “You save a schoolteacher and a bunch of kids from a church in Paris during the Purple Mist, you go from an embassy guard to a medal-bearer overnight. Men like Gardner tout you as a war hero. Before they make you their whore.” He sighed a heavy sigh. “And the teacher goes on to lead the PHL, because she’s one thing you’re not. Smart.”

Throughout all this, Galatea listened to him motionlessly. Like this was just more information for her to collect and catalogue.

Alex felt his heat rise. He wanted her to react. He’d already made her react once.

“It isn’t me that’s important to you, is it?” he said, devoid of tone. “It’s the locket. You asked me where my locket was before I’d even said it’s gone. You knew Amethyst wanted me to hand her the locket because, it’s my fucking guess how, you, or that other you, contacted her.”

A look of conflict showed up on Galatea’s normally inscrutable face.

“A good supposition, though not entirely correct,” she said at last. “But now tell me one thing. You did not recognise me when I appeared in this room. Do you have any memory, any memory at all, of us having met before?”

Her chosen wording did not pass him by. Alex frowned, a hand to his lips. “N… no. I don’t. You… you weren’t there.”

And he was startled to realise it was true. He’d never seen Galatea, in any world, until today.

“Except that,” she said, “after a fashion, I was.”

“What? What does that mean?”

“Not bodily,” Galatea clarified. “But think about it. Who else was in that room, apart from you?”

“Why must you be so damn–” Alex began frustratedly, but then waved it off. “No, no, it’s alright. Guess it just comes with your job description… that, and Alex Reiner needs to show he’s got a brain on his shoulders, not just some chump who gets ahead by shooting at things… Okay…” He raised four fingers, counting them off. “There was Cadance. She left early. She had refugees to take under her wing. There was Amethyst. Obviously. Then Zecora. And she was there, not just because she and Amethyst often work together, but also because she was looking after…”

The name died in his throat.

“You felt pained to say it in front of Miss Heartstrings,” Galatea said, almost gently. “But her former wife was there too.”

“Nothing ‘former’ about it, actually,” Alex muttered. “Still loves Lyra as much as ever, does Bonbon. If you must be so damn precise about terms, be precise now. Call her Lyra’s wife.”

Galatea gave a dip of her head. “Mine apologies, sir. Sometimes…” Her voice grew tight. “Sometimes the finer details slip me by. Could you recount what Miss Sugarbean told you?”

Alex shook his head. “No,” he said firmly. “Lyra might come back any minute. And I can't do this to her, not yet. She doesn’t need the distress of learning her lover’s an insane wreck… like I don’t need the extra hassle. Plus… there’s still things I’m struggling to recall.”

“I understand,” the alicorn said, “Yet Heartstrings’ wife is more than an insane wreck, isn’t that so? Her tragic brush with the sands of time has left her seeing not just the present, but into the future, and past… And opened up her mind to access for those who know the door.”

And then a big piece of the jigsaw fell into place for Alex.

“Oh, God,” he gasped. “Now I remember! Her eyes had gone white… and she was speaking in someone else’s voice– Wait. I hear galloping outside. I think it’s Lyra.”

Not two seconds later, the little green unicorn burst into the room, a panting, huffing mess. Behind her, one of the Guards at the door silently closed it. If he was surprised by either Alex or the ghostly alicorn, he hid it well.

Something else was unusual, Alex thought, about the Guard he’d just seen. Then it hit him. This must be the evening shift – the Guard was a thestral. A small detail, and yet, one which reassured him this Equestia was like the one Lyra used to speak of.

But the Lyra in front of him wasn’t reassuring. While Galatea kept observing dispassionately, Alex felt his temporary relief ebb away. Something was wrong.

“Alex,” Lyra wheezed, clutching the bedrest with a hoof and her chest with the other. “I’m… I’m sorry. Couldn’t… couldn’t find it. We… we must have lost it in the Forest.”

“That is not good,” said Galatea, leaving Alex no time. “But we can estimate where it might have gone. Based on your account, it may have fallen off during your botched teleportation of Captain Reiner.”

This comment ensured any ire Alex may have felt at Lyra was instantly redirected. “Wow,” he said. “Thank you, Mrs. Tact? Why not slap the poor mare in the face, while you’re at it? It isn’t her fault she was more worried about getting me out safe!”

“Pardon me, Captain Reiner. But the fact remains,” said Galatea. “The Everfree Forest is unpredictable. We must act fast before that locket is out of our reach.”

Lyra tried saying something. “You’re…” She took a deep breath, tried again. “You’re… an alicorn. Couldn’t you… you or the Princesses just... beam over and find it… find it there?”

What happened next surprised Alex. Galatea’s face fell.

“I’m truly regretful, Miss Heartstrings,” she said, and sounded it. “But alicorns though we are, even I and mine sisters have finite reserves of power. I used up great amounts of magic in the past month to travel all the way from the North to Canterlot, whereas Celestia and Luna…”

“... Were off visiting the Kirin last week,” Lyra finished wearily. “Yeah, I know, I know. Cadance mentioned it in her letters. You alicorns are no help at all, you know that? Shouldn’t you have, I don’t know, some kind of emergency teleportation button?”

“Come to think…” Galatea said, tapping her chin. She stopped, an ear twitching as if someone invisible were whispering to her. “Ah. Celestia’s just reminded me there is such a medallion. But it’d require acquiring from the unicorn elder who possesses it.”

“I don’t think I can wait for that,” Lyra said. “I’ve got a bad feeling something’s about to happen.”

“Agreed,” said Galatea. “Yet you are unlikely to succeed in finding the locket without the proper spells.”

“I wasn’t about to go on my own,” Lyra harrumphed, although Alex noticed she didn’t quite look at Galatea in the eyes. “I just… need somepony to trust… Alex, what’s your locket made of?”

Feeling a sense of dejà vu, Alex replied, “It’s not much. Just red satin and some filigree, I guess. Oh, and it’s got a citrine lining.”

“Citrine… that’s a gem, right?” Lyra sighed. “If only Rarity hadn’t left for Canterlot… We could really use her gem-finding spell about now…”

“But…” Alex snapped his fingers. “But that’s it, Lyra! Aren’t we in Ponyville, from before the war? Then Rarity’s not the only gem-finding pony in town.”

She looked up at him, eyes lighting up with understanding.

Moments later, after Lyra had gone to find Amethyst Star, known as Sparkler to some, Alex and Galatea were once again left to themselves, this time in contemplative silence. Eventually, Alex coughed, to draw Galatea’s attention.

“Well?” he said. “Shouldn’t you be off finding a way for the cavalry to swoop in at the last minute?”

“It was out of your sight, but while you and Miss Heartstrings were talking, Luna departed to retrieve the magical badge of transportation. Our own conversation was unfinished, Captain Reiner. Yet I believe you had retrieved an important memory.”

“Why, yes,” Alex chuckled faintly. “And I’d love to see how you’ll explain it to Lyra, that the other-you spoke to me using her lover as a mouthpiece.”

* * * * *

“What’ll it be this evening, dear?” asked Mrs. Cake.

As ever, Bonbon marveled at the hours Sugarcube Corner kept. She considered herself to be a hard-working mare, and took pride in it. For all that, in practice, this meant she pulled twice her weight for herself and her layabout girlfriend. But the Corner’s owners took work ethic to a special level even for earthponies, running the place like a bakery, a cake shop, a diner and an evening café in one package. And all this while raising a pair of rambunctious infant foals.

The thought reminded her of her chat with Minus. Her own parents had said that, to a parent, a child was like a whole world. Sometimes, Bonbon doubted Lyra could have taken the strains of raising a child any more than if she’d been responsible for an entire world. These moments made her question their future...

“Actually,” Bonbon lay her hooves on the counter. “I was hoping to… hoping to talk to Pinkie.”

“Ah.” Mrs. Cake’s smile faded a little. “I’m sorry, Bonbon, I’m afraid you won’t find her here. Didn’t you hear, she and her friends left for Canterlot this morning. One of their crazy adventures, I’ll be bound.”

Bonbon had suspected as much, but it didn’t hurt to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth.

“Or maybe,” she suggested casually, “it has something to do with Pinkie’s announcement yesterday, that the Royal Couple were coming to Ponyville for their honeymoon? Wouldn’t that’d be a boon for both our businesses, eh, Mrs. Cake? Even though I know you’ll run me over, once Pinkie starts making actual moons out of honey, mark my words.”

Her fellow maker of delicacies laughed good-naturedly. “Don’t you worry, you know Equestria, there’s never a short market for sweets.”

“I’m surprised, though,” Bonbon commented. “It’s not like with the rest of Twilight’s gang, who are each their own employers… well, except Rainbow Dash. She never does any work. But Pinkie must really do lots of quality overtime, given how often in a week she drops everything to follow her fancies.”

“Hey,” Mrs. Cake smiled, tapping the cash register. “There’s no salary fit for a part-time hero. But say, what did you want to talk to her about?”

“Oh, just the honeymoon,” Bonbon lied easily. “It’s not that important... I mean, it’s a shame I missed meeting her, but nothing I can’t catch up on. I only hope the honeymoon won’t be a magnet for trouble like the wedding was.”

“Bad show, this Changeling business,” Mrs. Cake shuddered. “Still, it all turned out happily, didn’t it? Pinkie called it the party of the century.”

“Yeah...” Bonbon prepared her next words carefully. “Does she tell you much about her adventures?”

“Of course she does,” Mrs. Cake nodded. “But you know, it’s Pinkie. You’re hard-pressed to tell where fact ends and fantasy begins. And, no, she rarely warns me when she’s about to go off on a new one. Carrot and I have just learned to work around it.”

“Oh…” This was a disappointment to Bonbon. A good trail, she felt, had gone cold. “Thanks anyway. Guess I’ll just have to wait, then. Mind teaching me how?”

It was meant as a joke, but something about it made Mrs. Cake look sad.

“Ah, Bonbon,” she sighed. “I fear you’re not the only one who’s been left waiting tonight.”

Bonbon had been about to turn away. She stayed. “What do you mean, Mrs. Cake?”

“It’s the very strangest thing,” Mrs. Cake explained, coming in from around the counter. “This young pegasus fellow came in earlier. Sat down at that table,” she gestured towards a table by the window. “He looked very happy, at first. But then the minutes ticked down, and he started looking a little lost. Eventually, I went over to ask if he was expecting anypony.”

“And was he?” Bonbon asked, fighting to remain interested. She was a villager. Villagers liked to gossip. In her line of work, all gossip could be useful.

“He was,” said Mrs. Cake. “And that’s the weirdest thing of all. His date had already come by, but she’d left in a right hurry, without even finishing her sandwich.”

“Who was… his date?”

Mrs. Cake’s answer shot a jolt of electricity through Bonbon’s nervous system.

“Redheart. Makes sense, I guess. She was in the Guard. And this fellow, he’s the type of stallion that do well in the Guard, you could tell just by looking at him. What still doesn’t make sense is Redheart leaving behind both a perfectly nice-looking guy and a half-eaten marmalade sandwich.”

* * * * *

After the hours they had spent playing, the growing number of crumbs and little pieces of muffin which lay strewn around the table threatened to overwhelm the board itself, but neither Dinky nor her friends were about to let that spoil their game.

“A shadow is coming,” Dinky intoned, in the spookiest voice she could muster. “A shadow which thirsts for blood... Growing on the wall behind you, swallowing you in darkness... It is almost here.”

“What is it?” whispered Ruby.

Featherweight gulped. “What if it’s the terrible Grogar? Oh, ohh, we’re so doomed if it's Grogar!”

“It’s not Grogar,” Pipsqueak said crossly. “It’s not–”

“An army of skeletons charges into the chamber!” Dinky cried out grandly.

With a spark of her horn, she slammed the corresponding figurine onto the table. Using her horn still hurt more than a little, if she was honest, but it was well worth it to give the other kids a spectacle. And if she couldn’t use magic to lord it over another unicorn, a pegasus and an earthpony, all a bit older than she, it wasn’t worth having at age eight.

“Skeletons,” Featherweight repeated, a hoof covering his buckteeth.

Pipsqueak nudged him. “Told you.”

Everyone at the coffee table began to laugh, until Dinky suddenly looked around, exuding anxiety.

“Wait a minute...” she said slowly. “Did you hear that? That noise? It comes closer… Boom... boom... Boom!” She slammed her hooves on the table, startling all the other foals. “It doesn’t come from the skeletons, no… It’s… it comes from something else… the terrible Grogar!”

And with that, she slammed the figurine of the horrible ram-demon before their eyes.

“We’re doomed...” Featherweight said weakly.

“Pip,” called Dinky, “your move!”

“Whu-!?” Pipsqueak exclaimed. “I don’t know!”

“Fireball! Use fireball!” shouted Ruby.

“I’d have to roll a thirteen, or higher!” he cried. “I’d sooner cast a protective spell!”

“Don't wimp out now,” Ruby ordered him. “Use a fireball!”

“No,” Featherweight stammered, “cast a protective spell!”

“Grogar tires of your foalish bickering!” Dinky announced imperiously. “It stomps towards you. Boom!”

“C’mon, Pip,” Ruby said loudly, her carnation coat turning red. “Fireball the beast!”

“Another stomp, boom!”

Featherweight looked on helplessly. “Cast a protective spell.”

“He roars in anger!”

All at once, Pipsqueak made his choice. His eyes narrowed, which, given the brown patch over one of his eyes, had the effect of making him look determined indeed.

“Fireball!” he yelled, standing high to throw the die. But in his hurry, it flew too far and fell off the table. “Oh, horseapples! Where’d it go? Where is it!?”

“Is it a thirteen?” asked Featherweight.

“How would I know that?” Pipsqueak snapped, stooping to search under the table. “I can’t find it, you idiot!”

With her friends’ emotions running high in the heat of the game, Dinky saw her carefully-planned Ogres & Oubliettes campaign flying apart if she didn’t step in, snap. She’d wanted to give Pip a chance at glory. It wouldn't do for it to get totally spoiled by an argument.

Summoning her energy, another, discrete spark of her horn led the minute-arrows on all the dining-room clocks to move from twelve to three.

Her mother, who always kept an eye out, even from the next room over, with her other eye focused on cooking dinner, noticed the change in time immediately, of course. Out of surprise, both her eyes momentarily aligned, but when they met Dinky’s imploring gaze, she understood right away.

“Alright there, guys,” said Derpy, wiping her hooves on her apron as she came out of the kitchen. The two boys ceased bickering at the sound of her voice. “Sorry to barge in, but time’s nearly up.”

“We’re in the middle of a campaign, Momma!” Dinky said, affecting indignation.

“You mean the end?” asked her mother, pointing at the nearest clock. “Fifteen after.”

“But that’ll ruin the flow!” Pipsqueak protested.

“Call it a cliffhanger,” Dinky’s mother said pleasantly. “You can come back tomorrow for how it turns out.”

“Momma, the campaign took two weeks to plan,” Dinky tried to explain, keeping up the pretense. “How could I know it was gonna take ten hours?”

“Well, you could’ve asked your Dad.” Her mother’s uneven gaze swept over the assembly. “Now c’mon, kids, get yourselves ready. Ruby, I promised your mother she could come fetch you at eight-thirty. Feather, Pip, you know the drill.”

All three groaned, yet they stood, knowing it was pointless to object. Of course, Dinky’s mother didn’t like to see any kid disappointed, so she sought to soften the blow.

“Here,” she said, having quickly flown back into the kitchen, returning with three blueberry muffins in paper bags. “For breakfast tomorrow. Just promise me you’ll save ‘em, eh?” She stared at the empty boxes of hayburgers lying by the coffee table. “It’s not good for your appetite otherwise... Should’ve made you a proper lunch, instead of letting you stuff your faces.”

“It’s okay, Miss D,” Featherweight said, taking his muffin-bag gratefully. “But how are we gonna continue playing tomorrow if we can’t find the die?”

Dinky suppressed her own groan as she saw Pipsqueak, who’d forgotten his loss, face glowing at the prospect of a fresh muffin, go back to being annoyed.

“It’d be so much easier to find,” he grumbled, “if some ponies weren’t bigger eaters than you’d think, being all pencil-thin and whatnot. Look at the boxy mess down there, no wonder you can’t find anything!”

“And some ponies have got awful big mouths for being short!” Featherweight retorted.

Ruby and Dinky shared a look. ‘Boys,’ they agreed silently. Neither had figured how Feather could live with remarks about his teeth, yet was so touchy about being thin. Perhaps it just came from having a father who was the total opposite, tall and burly.

But all further argy-bargy was cut shot by the appearance of a twenty-sided die, aloft in a purple aura right between the foals.

“You were looking for something?” said Sparkler.

Gasping, Ruby, who was closest to Sparkler, took the precious item from her. She used her hoof, Dinky noted with satisfaction.

“How’d you find it, Sparkler?” Ruby asked, awed.

“Trade secret,” Sparkler smiled, while Derpy gave her a grateful look. “You wouldn't tell me all there’s to know about grape-pressing, would you?”

Ruby shrugged, passing the die to Dinky. “Mommy’s said I’ve got a few more years to wait before I learn ‘bout all that.”

“Hey, Sparkler,” Featherweight said, staring up at her, with a hayburger box in hoof. “Your Mom gave us muffins to take home. But there’s a burger left if you want it,” he grinned. “Hay and daisy.”

Sparkler glanced down at him. “Thank you… um, Featherweight,” she said, exchanging another look with Derpy, “but I’m sure the muffins are on the house.” There was a knock on the door. “Ah! If I’m not mistaken, that must be your Mom, Ruby. I’ll get it.”

While she went to the door, Featherweight lowered the box, dejected. Dinky saw her mother was covering her mouth, trying not to laugh.

“There’s something wrong with your sister,” Featherweight muttered Dinky’s way, breaking a slice off the hayburger and leaving the box out for the others. “She’s got a stick up her butt.”

Pipsqueak took his own slice of hayburger. “Yeah,” he said, staring at his best friend cunningly. “Or maybe she knows about you getting caught with your camera in the older girls’ locker room.”

“That’s not true!” Featherweight cried, turning crimson. Dinky and Ruby, for their part, made a show of turning their noses up primly. Boys’ problems belonged to boys.

Then Sparkler’s voice carried over from the front door.

“Oh. Evening, Lyra. Excuse me.” She turned to call back to the kids. “False alarm, Ruby, it’s not your Mom!”

Indeed, when they looked, Dinky saw it was Miss Heartstrings at the door. But she was surprised to see Miss Heartstrings didn’t look her usual cheery self. Her pretty mane, though never the tidiest, was completely frazzled, like she’d run a long way.

“Hello, Sparkler,” said Miss Heartstrings. She glanced around and noticed their mother. “Hi, Derpy. Look, I– sorry, there’s not much time to explain. I need to borrow Sparkler.”

Dinky heard her sister make a surprised sound, before saying they were just about to have dinner. Her mother, taking her eyes off her and her friends, went to the door too, to ask what was up.

But Miss Heartstrings seemed to mean what she’d said, and she barely explained anything.

“I’ll go over it on the way,” she told Sparkler, sounding agitated. “I just really, really need your gem-tracking spell right now. Rarity’s not here.”

“Lyra,” began Sparkler, “you’re asking me to go with you into the Everfree, when it’ll be dark in an hour–”

“And that’s why we can’t wait, or it’ll just make things harder! C’mon!”

Dinky took a step back. Miss Heartstrings had shouted. Miss Heartstrings never shouted. Worse, she’d seized Sparkler by the forehoof when she shouted.

Her mother would have told her off if she’d done that her sister. In fact, she looked ready to tell off Miss Heartstrings. But she must’ve heard something urgent in Miss Heartstrings’ voice, because she didn’t.

All Derpy said was, “We’ve never had reason to doubt you, Lyra. Amethyst, I think you’d better go see what it is.”

Sparkler looked at their mother helplessly. “Al… alright.” Then she looked towards Dinky. “I’ll try getting home in time for dinner. If I don’t, save me some olives. The black ones.”

Dinky didn’t mind that. She liked green olives a lot better. Behind her, her friends were sharing what was left of the hayburger. Although they didn’t look like they were listening, she knew they hadn’t missed a word.

Then Sparkler and Lyra were gone, and her mother was closing the door, sighing. Dinky even thought that she looked a bit sad. She thought she heard her mother whisper something about ‘Doc warned us’, but she didn’t catch it all, because not two seconds later, there was another knock.

Her mother, surprised, opened it again.

“Oh, there you are, Berry. Please, come in. Ruby, it’s your Mom!”

While Ruby started saying goodbye to Pip and Feather, Dinky listened to the mothers at the door. Her mother was telling Miss Punch how the the kids had a fun time. She was trying to smile, but Dinky knew she wasn’t feeling it.

“Glad Ruby had a good time,” Miss Punch said, waiting patiently for Ruby to be done. “But I just saw what I think might’ve been your other daughter, runing after Lyra. She was having trouble keeping up, Lyra looked in a hurry.”

“Well, you know,” Derpy chirped. “As my husband likes to say, ponies think time is money, money is power, and power means pizza, but he prefers skipping right to the pizza. Whatever that means.”

“Sure,” Miss Punch said uncertainly. “But if Lyra ain’t careful, she’s gonna get badly hurt someday.”

* * * * *

“This is crazy,” Sparkler was saying as, a few minutes into this mad gallop away from home, the Forest loomed ever closer. “Crazy even for you, Lyra. You haven’t suggested anything this crazy since you planned to go hunting Nightmare Moon yourself.”

“Well, it worked out for Twilight, didn’t it?” Lyra panted, reminding Sparkler of her friend’s poor exercising regimen.

“Twilight is, well, Twilight!” Sparkler said loudly. “And there was destiny, or Princess Celestia’s planning or whatever, involved! You’re just charging headfirst into, into… I don’t know what!”

Fortunately, at this hour, few ponies were out to hear her. Even so, Sparkler thought she spotted one or two silhouettes pop up at the windows, backlit by the comfy yellow light inside. She skid to a halt.

Lyra, noticing, was forced to halt and turn as well. “C’mon! We’ve got to find this thing!”

“I need more than that, Lyra,” Sparkler said seriously. “Now are you gonna tell me what’s going on, or am I supposed to follow you blindly?”

She saw Lyra bite her lip. Given how deep the bite looked, it was a wonder she didn’t draw blood. Then Lyra swallowed, and nodded.

“Okay,” she said. “But I’ve got to make this quick.”

It took her about five minutes, all told. When Lyra was done, she simply stopped, waiting.

“Wow…” Sparkler eventually said, staring at the cobblestones. “This is… a lot.”

“But you believe me, don’t you?”

Sparkler refocused her stare on her. And chuckled softly.

“Lyra,” she said. “Look at my Mom and Dad. Humans and evil parallel universes and secret alicorns are the tip of the iceberg. I’d believe in anything.”

“So you will help me find the locket?” Lyra said hopefully.

“I’ll try to,” Sparkler said, her horn coming alight. “No promises. Because it’s still sunset, we’re still wandering into that forest at this hour, and we’re still looking for something we’ve never seen before. But I never thought there was no locket. I just wanted to know why it’s a big deal.”

“I’m not sure either,” Lyra admitted. “But, um, about what you said earlier… Destiny and all that? I dunno if it’s the same... I don’t really believe in destiny, except for cutie marks. Maybe it’s just being in the right place at the right place… Point I’m trying to make is, this locket… I think it’s as important as those Elements Twilight found.”

Sparkler nodded, trotting past Lyra to lead the way, by the light of her horn.

What she didn’t say, for she wondered if now it was Lyra who’d believe her, was that she had good reason to harken stories of unknown alicorns and eldritch creatures, lost worlds and magical trinkets.

* * * * *

Redheart traipsed through the Everfree Forest. She didn’t follow the forest path. She kept only the slighest watch for predators. If they came for her, she’d be ready for them. Foliage and thorns were nuisances to cut a straight line through. Whenever a tree or stump intruded upon that line, it was a mere setback for her to circle around them, before she continued onward, with unyielding intent.

Retrieved from the storage of her saddlebags, the red cloak that marked her as a Royal Guard was all the protection she needed.

The one time she veered from her chosen path was when she came across a patch of low-lying blue flowers. She was familiar with the strange poison-joke, a creation of Lord Discord’s if she’d ever seen it, which took traits precious to those who rubbed against it and turned them inside-out. Her cloak, specialised as it was, would surely have provided adequate protection, but this was a risk where caution was well worth exercising.

It was getting dark. But the glow of her gem-tracker still provided light enough, and the training she’d received, both during her initial run with the Guard, and later, under the tutelage of newly-integrated zebras, gave her everything she needed to let other senses than sight guide her. There, a smell of moss on the wind, the soft but persistent sound of running water; such tells were her compass, letting her navigate where she was in relation to the forest river, to the village, to the castle.

And the further she traipsed, the green bulb on the tracker blinked, more and more often. Once it ceased to blink and stayed permanently lit, Redheart would know her quarry wasn’t far. She would have the locket. Yet, the more she thought about where the dial was leading her, the more it seemed she recognised it, somehow. Except it wasn’t anywhere near the castle, or the chasm. If anything, she was heading away from those places.

Wouldn’t the locket have fallen close by the Castle of the Two Sisters, where she’d first appeared on this strange Equestria? Why, if only she hadn’t wasted time having to knot and lasso one of the ropes which made up the broken bridge, she might have got to Reiner and Heartstrings on the other side, before the arrival of Element Bearers had cast doubt, momentarily, in her heart. Sometimes, a single beat made all the difference…

The green light blinked, once, then blinked no more. It was steady. Redheart looked up. What she saw, again, gave her pause.

Someone had got to the locket first.

Author's Note:

Spectrum 2.1 - Autumn 2021

VoxAdam:

• This chapter features no noteworthy modifications.

Spectrum 2.0 - September 28th 2018

TheIdiot: Complications are complicated. Something happens, events occur, and it all gets difficult again. If you’ve read Chapter 8 before, then you’ve noticed that it’s been carved in two – why amounts to an effort to try and fix the length and pacing. If you’ve approached this part for the first time, welcome to this midpoint; I certainly hope you get some enjoyment out of what has been submitted at least more than once. In the following half, you’ll see everything else.

This took forever and a week, didn’t it? Drama occurred from group politics, real life, and other lovely complications that delayed Chapter 8 many times over. It is unfortunate that by the time Chapter 8 got a completed draft it happened during a week where I had to face a midterm, an exam, and writing a rough draft all in rapid succession set only a day apart each. Honestly, sounds like a tacky episode of some dunce drama show. Probably not Glee, seeing how there wasn’t any licensed song covers sung.

Point of matters is that, yes, this was a labor of production that grew more difficult as real life continued to push down. I am fortunate that Sledge and Vox were able to step up despite these various issues.

Also, while this may bring up bad memories to our veteran readers, I assure you I have no intention of making this a recurring practice. This was a “break glass” type of deal and glass is not fun to sweep up, so I’d rather not do it again unless I have to.

Until next time fair reader(s),

Carpe diem.

VoxAdam: Sure thing, the time-gap until the next chapter ought to be shorter by default. Seven-and-a-half months is the longest delay we’ve ever had in-between chapters on a Spectrum main story. :-)

This was a uniquely challenging chapter to even sketch an outline for. I wouldn’t call it an exaggeration to say it must have gone through five different concepts, before settling on what you see today.

Over four years ago, I was hesitant to join Team Spectrum, not even as what DoctorFluffy affectionately called a ‘Sixth Ranger’, knowing I wasn’t the greatest at time-management. My time-management’s improved since; my rhythm hasn’t sped up all that much. Mind you, in that same chat, TheIdiot said he felt he’d only done so much for the Spectrumverse… There are things which change so completely over time, looking back on it is like gazing through a mirror into opposite-world.

Thank you once more, TB3, for inviting me to proofread Last Train From Oblivion. What happened after had its ups and had its downs, but your gesture made all the difference.

Back when Redskin posted his bridge-burning journal in May 2017, I came under fire for allegedly slowing the pace on the production schedule, mainly for advocating there be some conscious planning, instead of throwing everything and the kitchen sink at the story. This time around, I suppose we’re seeing the other side of that coin; the various factors such as wanting Bonbon to have an active role, maintaining the centrality of Lyra as our protagonist, Icewind being given a reason for his heel-turn, etc., constituted a huge number of plot points to bring together coherently.

And to be honest, we had written Redheart preparing to do something without knowing for sure what it was; the alternate path she could have taken can be read in Jed’s Cut, which was already planned months ago, and has recently been published independently.

The locket had been introduced as a Chekov’s Gun several chapters ago. The idea to use it as Chapter Eight’s narrative lynchpin came to us as a “Eureka” moment.

Ultimately, if you feel this chapter has an overabundance of building up to action, only to cut away just before it really gets going, in favour of talky scenes? Yeah, it’s a symptom of when much of the writing is given over to me. You may call me Gareth Edwards. Just please don’t call me Rian Johnson. Even if this is an eighth installment.

Comments

[Sledge115]

9196162

Ask and you shall receive

[CrystalMaster76]

I hope the locket quest dosen't drag on for too long, the original story had that problem in Spades. Simply put, this story is too loaded with content to allow for individual plot quests like this to go on without becoming tedious, plot points need satisfying resolution in a timely manner.
Sparkler has that spell that lets her track it and its range is huge, as soon as she recovers she should be on a sky chariot being flown over the river before quickly tracking it back to Icewind.
On that note, Icewind should not be a long term character, this story has too many characters for minor antagonits like him to have staying power, like the locket, he should be dealt with next chapter or the chapter after that.
Overall good chapter, but not worth the wait and the ending left a lot to be desired.
Oh and Vox, i would never call you Rian Johnson, you are not even close to being as good as he is.

[DDDDDDDDD23]

So now they have an idiot royal guard who was dupped by the evil redheart.

[Mr cold ghost]

Thank you for the update! It was sorely needed. This week has been a depressing slog for me what with family/money problems and national politics not helping. I hope everything goes well for you guys. As always stay safe and stay happy.

[Sledge115]

9198420
Thanks for the feedback, and hope you're doing well enough in return!

[Doctor Fluffy]

9198294
Funnily enough, the pacing problems were why we added Redheart in. I wanted the story distinct, and I wanted a noticeable, immediate threat.

Oh and Vox, i would never call you Rian Johnson, you are not even close to being as good as he is.

Come on, there's no need for that.
9198420
We're glad you liked it!

[CrystalMaster76]

9198774
An immeadiate threat is fine, great even. but smaller players can easily outstay their welcome in a story this jam packed, see also; Icewind.
"You may call me Gareth Edwards. Just please don’t call me Rian Johnson. Even if this is an eighth installment."- He threw the first punch.

[VoxAdam]

9198792

An immeadiate threat is fine, great even.

So... have you an objection to Redheart, sensing her role as the Starter Villain is close to being played out, passing the torch (and locket) to Icewind? If that storytelling choice comes off as subversive, I can't even claim I intended it to be...

[Astorius]

Seemed a bit fast how a royal guard betrayed his princesses for some random mare telling him something he liked.
He couldn't even comprehend that she was lying......... *sigh*

[Sledge115]

9199059
Call it selective truth

[CrystalMaster76]

9198904
We had our immeadiate threat, it was Redheart and she was great for what she was, but now we’ve got Icewind, a character with a way weaker motivation and a premise that essentially boils down to a Mcguffin Hunt.
I mentioned before that the original story had a huge problem with dragging its feet and not moving forward, I really don’t want to see the fresh start suffer the same fate.
The locket hunt took up a huge chunk of this triple length chapter, and Icewind as antagonist has enough material for maybe two normal length ones. Now that Celestia has called that meeting of hers, we have all we need to create tension going forward, especially with the promise of eventually going to Earth, the need for a minor antagonist to create tension while the scenery is being set has passed.

[keroko]

Ehhh, Icewind falling for Redheart's tale so easily is a bit hard to swallow. He knows she is, if not a changeling, at the very least an infiltrator. That means you don't do what the infiltrator advices you to do and don't blindly trust what they tell you. Especially not when one of the friggin' Element Bearers was involved with retrieving the artifact.

[VoxAdam]

9199284

It's a McGuffin, alright, but we'd been finding it a lot harder to tie together all the different plot elements introduced in this chapter until we got our McGuffin; perhaps the protagonists' lamenting at the end that finding it will take months, insofar as they think they know where to find it, should have been more of a tip-off to how they'll need to proceed with the big international meeting despite this loss.

I mentioned before that the original story had a huge problem with dragging its feet and not moving forward, I really don’t want to see the fresh start suffer the same fate.

Indeed, yet one area where the fresh start tries to learn from the original story is by setting up future plotlines a lot further in advance.

[VoxAdam]

9199291

Especially not when one of the friggin' Element Bearers was involved with retrieving the artifact.

He didn't see that, anymore than he personally saw her try to kill Lyra. Things might have turned out very differently if only there were a little more he'd seen.

[keroko]

9199313
He was debriefed and informed of the situation. He knows that this Redheart tried to kill ponies and that the mission to retrieve the locket was given by the Princesses themselves. Yet he still chooses to believe the one pony that already showed she's a massive hypocrite with her 'they're dangerous!' shpiel by attempting to murder civilians, over his own rulers.

I- no, I'm sorry, but I can't take a character like that seriously. He just has a massive "I am the Token Idiot who does the stupid thing that gives the villains an edge" sign over his head. The locket being lost in the fight and found by someone who has no idea what it is would be a bit more believable a way to keep it out of the heroes' hands.

[VoxAdam]

9199437

He was debriefed and informed of the situation. He knows that this Redheart tried to kill ponies and that the mission to retrieve the locket was given by the Princesses themselves.

Was he? Bonbon herself wasn't aware of any of that when she erroneously told him they might have a Changeling on the loose. As for Icewind just being an idiot, well, given who the Team lists as his hypothetical voice actor, between his Northern roots and love of redheads, it's become a running in-joke to comment on how he knows nothing.

[keroko]

9199442
I am going to assume that when debriefing him they didn't leave him in the dark about Redheart's actions. If not, then that's a different kind, but no worse, plot yanking to have this guy do a stupid thing. And mind-bogling idiocy hampering the heroes is rather frustrating to read.

[VoxAdam]

9199449

That'd be something for an upcoming chapter; lengthy as this one was, too much happened too fast from the characters' perspective for all of them to have a full or rational perspective by the end.

[keroko]

9199459
That excuse doesn't really fly at the end of the chapter though, where he is specifically debriefed after a decent amount of time to get a bigger picture. Not the full picture perhaps, but it really should be enough for him not to see alternate Redheart as some sort of heroic saviour.

[VoxAdam]

9199476

As Sledge said, Redheart gave him what, in the end, amounts to a lot of selective truth. And sadly, the past couple of years have shown us many instances of people believing stories with less than half as much truth to them.

[Starlight Nova]

If the main OCs in this story were voiced, what would they sound like?

[Sledge115]

9199603

I'm glad you asked that, because we do have a cast list lying somewhere; here are some of them - most of the humans are live-action, and some of the ponies are cast with someone else in mind;

Philip Winchester as Alexander Reiner
Emily Bett Rickards as Lyra Heartstrings
Sharlto Copley as Viktor Kraber
Ingvild Deila as Ana Björkman
Tom Hiddleston as Thomas Harwood
Kit Harington as Icewind
Joseph Mazello as Winter Truce
Daveigh Chase as Kahoku Sanderson
Chris Pratt as Thunderwing
Winston Duke as Lorne Hebert
Aubrey Plaza as Pineapple Nectar
Jennifer Hale as Minus Tome
Ashleigh Ball as Rainbow Dash/Applejack/Fiddlesticks/Nurse Redheart
Genevieve O’Reilly as Galatea
Ciaran Hinds as Sint Erklass
And Lauren Faust as Faust

That's just most of the ones shown so far - and there's more to come

[Yutah123]

AN UPDATE! Oh Celestia yes, this story has been on my mind lately, in fact it was on my mind just yesterday. I'm so happy.

I can't wait until the chapter where good!Equestria comes to Earth's aid. I eagerly anticipate everyone's reactions, human and pony. Hope that this is updated regularly.

---

Luna sighed regretfully. “Would that I could, Madame Heartstrings. Yet, as any teacher of my craft would tell you, the mind is not a book, to be opened at will and read at leisure, nor are thoughts etched on a skull’s interior, for an invader to peruse…” One teal eye glinted. “And that’s just as well, given the foe Alexander Reiner tells us we’re dealing with.”

"Only Muggles talk of “mind-reading”. The mind is not a book, to be opened at will and examined at leisure. Thoughts are not etched on the inside of skulls, to be perused by any invader. The mind is a complex and many-layered thing, Potter – or at least, most minds are."
— Severus Snape, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Extra extra bonus browny points for a full-blown Harry Potter quote. I just loved it as soon as I saw it.

“I recognize this,” he frowned. “Zamarebian nerve-pinch technique. Heard of it, never learned it myself. But I thought only zebras used it… what, have we got a rogue zebra, a second zebra, here in the Forest?”

Star Trek too, eh?

‘ It sounds like a beautiful world, ’ he thought. ‘ And… we’re letting this outsider in. Instead of striving towards this… this other Redheart’s Equestria.

Mark my words, Icewind, you'll regret this. You haven't even heard the full story. In war, atrocities are committed by both sides; the problem is whether or not those atrocities are considered normal.

Trust your prrincesses, Icewind. They trust the human over Imperial!Redheart.

[Doctor Fluffy]

9199841
Well, thank you for your kind words! I think I needed that.

[Yutah123]

9200021
Eep! *pretends to faints*

Anyway, you're quite welcome. I quite like the premise of this story: while you might see the doubles of a character pitted against each other, whole worlds aren't something you see every day, let alone written well.

Once again, I hope you can update soon. Best of luck to you.

[Astorius]

9200369
Since rehabilitation matters a lot in Equestria a prison sentence could also include therapy and education to help build something for the prisoners future.

Rather then sitting in a dark hole contemplating your past.

[keroko]

9199490
Sure, but how many of those stories also have those people betray their oaths almost immediately after hearing such a story?

[VoxAdam]

9200736

That was an aspect I already found interesting with the Icewind from the old Spectrum; how to reconcile one's oath of loyalty when the enemy is, near-literally, your own country? In the reboot, this character's ultimate shift in loyalties is bound to be a slow, indecisive burn.

If the sceptical questions about Icewind's motivations have reassured me of one thing, it's that we managed to be subtle in hanging the spectre of Marcus Renee over Alex Reiner in this chapter when he describes himself as a war criminal, would have severely hurt Redheart without Celestia's intervention (which he insulted her for) and doesn't really deny Redheart's accusations.

[BradtheBrony]

9198294
Really? I find Vox to be better than Rian. At least Vox realizes what does and does not work for the story, nor tries to hide behind his ego by insulting the fans for when bad story elements are pointed out to him.

[CrystalMaster76]

9201159
If you have nothing new to add to The Last Jedi debate, I’m not interested in having it. TLJ is my 2nd favorite SW film after RotS and is probably the third best after the original and ESB, I’ve seen it many times now and I’ve yet to meet someone with a reason I shouldn’t like it that wasn’t a. nitpicking or b. confusing not what they wanted with bad.

[BradtheBrony]

9201188
Never said you couldn’t enjoy it. By all mean, if you loved it, more power to ya.

For my opinion, I just don’t like it for numerous incomprehensible story elements. Such as why Vice Admiral Holdo couldn’t just tell Poe she had a plan to evacuate the ship to Crait WHILE she remained on board to pilot both to serve as a distraction and to take out the pursuing enemies to allow the evacuees a safe chanc to flee, thus avoiding an unnecessary mutiny because the individuals under her now have a clear idea on what she plans to do instead of “I don’t have to explain anything, now blindly follow my orders” sort of deal (which seems more like the kind of thing the Empire/First Order would do. I would’ve accepted a “I didn’t tell the whole plan because there is a traitor on board” explanation yet that wasn’t the case.

Or what purpose was the whole Canto Bight subplot for, because the only thing I took away from it was “slavery is bad”, which it is and something Phantom Menace was saying. Just felt like it was put in to artificially extend the movie’s times. (Also, why is it that Finn and Rose can save the space horses from their casino racing, but not a single slave child?)

Also Yoda having the ability to use Force Lightening from the great beyond? Why didn’t he use this on that uppity little upstart names Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren, or even Luke use it since he can make a Force powered hologram of himself from another point in the galaxy?

And finally, the one time in the movie where “subverting expectations” could’ve worked would’ve been letting Finn sacrifice himself (which would’ve been a subversion on par with Empire’s “I am your father” moment), but instead he is saved at the last moment by Rose who then gives some strange speech about love.

Rose Tico was also a poorly fleshed out and written character, and I can’t help but feel that Disney tried to do with the character what Fox’s Independence Day Resurgence did: Put an Asian actor/actress in a prominent role just to get that Chinese market. Oh well, I have faith that Kelly Marie Tran will get a far better role to make use of her talents; worked for Zazie Beetz (who went from what could’ve been an acting career killing role starring in Geostorm to a year later starring as the awesome Domino in Deadpool 2).

Plus there was that weird thing with Luke/Not-Luke Skywalker. I can understand him being grumpy and worn down after being betrayed by Kylo, but that’s AFTER... he was acting that way BEFORE when we saw him in that flashback about to murder a young Ben in his sleep. Seriously, the guy who was willing to see the good in his Dark Side embracing father (a literal child mass murder) but unable to see even the tiniest thing to redeem in his nephew who hadn’t yet gone to the dark side? That’s just weird.

I don’t hate Rain (his attitude in regards to criticism I do not like), I do feel he was the wrong person for this movie. Like Texts From Superheroes talked about in one of their vids, I feel he would’ve been better to write and direct the final chapter of this new trilogy. Heck, he admitted he isn’t the best when writing up a movie on short notice (and he was given a very short amount of time to make this movie), so having him moved from 8 to 9 would’ve given him more time to write a better script. If I can find the vid I am referring to, I’ll edit it in later.

Those are my opinions on why I didn’t like TLJ (and lots of people agree with me), but again I never once said you (and lots of others) couldn’t enjoy it.

[CrystalMaster76]

9201342
The film clearly shows why she didn’t tell Poe, he would’ve called the plan cowardly and try a much more reckless and dangerous plan, something Holdo. Plus it serves Poe’s fantastic arc of learning not to be the order disobeying hotshot that we so often get in movies.
The horses can fend for themselves, kids can’t. Canto Bight is there to give Finn a greater scope of the war and provide him a reason to shift from man who wants to run away to man who wants to fight.
That was real lighting not force lighting, force lighting is a dark side only thing. Yoda was directing something already there.
You’ve said nothing concrete about Rose, I found her well written and utilized as a partner for Finn.
The film never says any of that about Luke. Luke spells out that he sensed the darkness in Ben and had a moment of fear and made a mistake he regretted a moment later, you know? Luke’s biggest establishes vice, reckless emotional choices. Luke in that flashback was over 20 years older then he was in RotJ, a lot can happen in 20 years, Luke also spells out that he spent some of that time buying into his own hype.
I would like to leave this talk here, I’m just so tired of TLJ talks and we’re probaly at an impass, thanks for keeping it respectful and have a nice night.

[angel3591]

Awesome. Just awesome. This chapter had me for the most part on the edge of my seat! I love the sprinkling of references to current/recent seasons and the movie. This chapter had a grim and saddening message tone well as frustration how Icewind as well as not-Redheart believe that the crimes and horrors committed on the innocent is justified (although Icewind has not even the slightest hint what WAR is).

Really cool and unsettling to see the "voices" of the drivers of the horrific conflict, especially at the end of the letter:

Her Ladyship, Archmage Twilight

Oooohhhhh, its the other one. I wonder when we get to face her and the others.

Can't wait for the next chapters!

[Sledge115]

9201600

Poor communication kills - as I've said, selective truth can change the whole picture, and without spoiling anything this isn't the last we've seen of Icewind

Thanks for the feedback!

[Motorbutt]

im so glad that you guys are still working on this story. For a really long time I thought it was dead but im glad it is not, please dont give up on this stroy

[Bahamut Omega]

As he was sipping his coffee, Icewind thought about it, feeling the locket beneath his armor, pressing against his barrel.

Truth be told, his impulses went against almost every piece of his training as a Guard. However, this was compared to the fact that ignoring Redheart’s story went against all of them.

‘It sounds like a beautiful world,’ he thought. ‘And… we’re letting this outsider in. Instead of striving towards this… this other Redheart’s Equestria.

Do we just… pass up this beautiful dream? Just like that? He’s violent. He’s unstable. He’ll drag us into war.

… And I helped bring in the one mare that’d stop us from following him.’

“No, Ma’am,” he said at last. “Nothing.”

Every war has its traitors...

[keroko]

9200901
A slow, indecisive burn sounds very interesting, but the problem I have with Icewind is more that right now he's already betrayed his oaths just hours after meeting alternate-Redheart once. And he doesn't even seem to care that alternate-Redheart drugged Redheart into the hospital (one of the things he definitely does know and has seen). That's not a slow, indecisive burn, that's a flashfire.

[VoxAdam]

9204246

I think an aspect which is being rather overlooked about Icewind's meeting with TCB!Redheart in front of the Death Tree is that, when he initially learnt she supposedly was a Changeling, he was more than ready to bear down hard on her. If the transition in his mindset doesn't come across as convincing to you, well, I can't rule out that it may still have needed fine-tuning in its delivery.

Icewind found out that he himself had been taken advantage of by TCB!Redheart's duplicity once he saw the Prime!Redheart. But I think it could be argued what gave him pause when he apprehended TCB!Redheart is that she showed contrition, actually telling him she was sorry for tricking him and harming ponies; the latter for the sake of her mission, the former because she had a moment's sentimental weakness and wanted to just enjoy a normal, relaxing moment.

Drugging Prime!Redheart was a bad thing she did, yet it avoided unnecessary collateral and isn't beyond the methods an anti-hero might use for extreme measures. Icewind likely would have drawn the line at TCB!Redheart effectuating a full "kill and replace" on her counterpart, though.

[keroko]

9204286
I should emphasize, I don't really have a problem with Icewind considering TCB!Redheart's words, I'm having more problems with how he immediately took them to heart and commenced lying to a pony whom he swore an oath to serve and sabotaged a mission given by them by hiding the locket. It's him having and hiding the locket that tips it from 'he's feeling the first stings of doubt' to 'he's already gone and betrayed the diarchy.' If the locket wasn't in his possession, the chapter makes far more sense.

[The Portal Passer]

I love how everything is going, please do continue

[Kobalt]

Ohhh if there's one thing I hate above all others it's a traitor. Icewind's loyalty was to Luna, and he utterly violated it by hiding that locket from her. Hell, he may well be serving up what's left of humanity and the good Equestria to the Solar Tyrant on a silver platter.

It's really to bad Celestia hasn't realized how much of a corrupting influence this evil Nurse Redheart can be on her little ponies.

[Starcat5]

9199442

...between his Northern roots and love of redheads, it's become a running in-joke to comment on how he knows nothing.

That had best not be a bash against Minnesota...

[Sledge115]

9215549

Look at who we imagined as Icewind's voice actor down here ;)

[VoxAdam]

9215549
9215614

Goodness, I know I don't always express a popular opinion, but I'd been wondering why, at the time of writing, this comment of all my comments was the one to receive the largest dislike-to-like ratio on this chapter.

Is that pop-culture reference already outdated, then? But you can be sure of one thing, there's no way an intentional jab at Minnesota would make its way into Spectrum; and why would it, given the soft spot shown in this 'verse towards people of Scandinavian trappings.

[Starcat5]

9215694 9215614
I think the problem here was two fold. One, the reference itself was too vague, and as such comes across as "The South will rise again" bs. Two, I have never seen Game of Thrones. I abandoned Cable years ago, and never got around to checking for it on streaming services.

[Sledge115]

9216531

Yeah, it's more of an in-joke rather than anything made explicit so, I see where you're going from this. I can assure you glorifying that little smudge in history is anything but our intent.

[DDDDDDDDD23]

9199841
Shut up the redheart idiot.
She is so controlled that she can not even hit rainbowdash when she is attaking her.

[Crimson Eclipse]

Amazing entry as always! I hope Starlight as well as other new characters that have been introduced into the show the past few years makes an appearance.

[keroko]

By the by, is the Cheerilee romance still in this story? Cheerilee was easily my favourite character in the old Spectrum, and her heart getting swept away by a human was a big part of her character that I enjoyed.

[Jed R]

9316509
I don’t think so. I mean, I don’t know anymore, but I think we expunged that part.