Interloper
Keeper followed the guards through dark corridors as the expeditionary team made their way into the belly of the ship. Despite a lack of functioning lighting in the area, this part was safer to traverse, as the ship’s tilt wasn’t as bad. Still, a primal fear took hold of him whenever he momentarily lost sight of the guards or heard the faint echoes of golems in the distance.
The lamps fitted on his withers were barely enough to illuminate his surrounding, and every unlit patch gnawed at his psyche as he fought a constant urge to use his own magic as an additional light source. His long experience with ancient artifacts, however, made him wary to use his horn in their presence, and he was currently inside one far larger than a Manehattan skyscraper.
The reason for the late-night expedition was shrouded in mystery. It had valid approval from the acting commander, Lady Rarity, but neither Keeper nor the guards were informed of the mission’s true intent, only that it was important enough that they’d risk going in after midnight. If his memory served, the target area had already been searched and nothing of worth found. Keeper’s presence was equally strange. Princess Twilight had always been adamant that he focus on his work as far away from the ship as possible.
“Where did they go?” one of the two guards asked. They were at an intersection and flashed their lights down the branching corridors.
Keeper studied the two stallions, whose names he’d already forgotten. They were likely brothers, given the identical white wings and coats, and the easiest way to identify them was the blue or red mane.
“What happened?” Keeper asked, catching up to them.
Both stallions jerked away in surprise. It was a common occurrence whenever Keeper addressed someone who wasn’t paying attention. It was an unfortunate side-effect with how his black robe blended in perfectly with the dark—a small sacrifice, or bonus, depending on who you asked.
“Keeper, sir,” the blue pegasus said, pointing a hoof down the side corridor. The path hadn’t yet been marked on any of their maps. “We were distracted by some noise, and when we turned, they were both missing.”
“Wait, what was that?” the red maned pegasus said in alarm.
It was if all the ambient sounds of the ship vanished at once, and the three ponies strained their ears to their fullest until a faint, rhythmic thumping could be heard on the level above them. It was heading in their direction and didn’t sound like any of the worker golems they’d encountered.
The blue-maned guard backed away to the corridor they’d come from. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
Keeper echoed the statement in his head. There had always been the possibility that they’d activated some kind of defense mechanism, or that the alien crew were all pony-eating abominations. Running away, however, was not an option. The dull, red floor of the alien ship was deceptive and treacherous to tread on, and one could lose control of one's hooves at a moment's notice if they weren't mindful of each movement.
The sound gradually came closer, then after a brief pause, Keeper heard a large metal object drop to the floor on the level above them, followed by something crawling its way through the ventilation at an unnatural speed.
“It’s in the walls!” the red guard said, while aiming with his lamp at the wall from where the noise emanated. The reflecting metal made it difficult to see it at first, and to their horror, there was a duct large enough to fit a pony at the very bottom.
Keeper steeled himself, approaching the duct until his own lamp allowed him see what lay hidden behind the bars. At first, there was nothing but darkness; his heart nearly stopped when the light reflected off a gray face with blue eyes and a wicked smile.
“Found ya!” it said and pushed through the duct with burst of speed, flinging dust all over the hallway.
The gray pony shape screeched to a halt in between Keeper and the guards, and before anyone could react, it shook like a dog caught out in the rain, spreading even more dust into their surrounding.
There was collective sigh as they identified the pony as Miss Pinkie Pie behind the layer of dust. Keeper wanted to chastise her for leaving the group, but he was never able to comprehend how high the mare ranked in state affairs. The information he’d gathered indicated she was anywhere from the lowest rung to the highest apex of the hierarchical ladder.
A door suddenly burst open behind them, and Keeper turned to find a grinning Rainbow Dash, who held a hoof against what had to be the control panel on the her side of the wall.
“Oh, heya,” Rainbow said, and removed the hoof. “I told you I would find a way to open it, Pinkie. ”
“My way was faster!” Pinkie countered.
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Yeah, way faster.”
“Where did the two of you go?” Keeper asked. The lighting was also off inside the newly opened room, yet he could see the dark outlines of furniture in the distance.
“To the reason why we're here, of course!” Pinkie said, bouncing into the room and leaving the three stallions gaping. If Keeper had done little more than treading carefully forward, he’d have fallen flat on his muzzle.
“Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash began with an eyebrow raised, “you’ll hurt yourself if you’re not careful!”
Pinkie Pie ignored her friend’s complaint and bounced into the dark room until there was no trace of her.
“Hey, Keeper,” Rainbow Dash continued. “Do your thing and help me get the lights on.”
Keeper shared a quick glance with the two guards, and all three came to a non-verbal agreement. If searching this area was their objective, then going inside a room was much safer than standing in an open corridor. They entered together, and Keeper only needed a quick glance at the panel to grasp what the symbols meant.
There were eight knobs and buttons on the square panel beneath the alien’s language. Like most alien interfaces, the different knobs and buttons were fitted so closely together that operating them by hoof was unnecessarily difficult.
“The top left one opens the door, then there's some sort of timer before it closes again,” Rainbow Dash said. “It’s how we got seperated to begin with.”
Keeper questioned why she fiddled with the controls in the first place, then pressed the button. The thick metal door closed almost instantly with little noise. At least it was comforting knowing that golems could no longer sneak up on them. Recognizing the symbol for increasing and decreasing the lights, he turned the knob until the room was lit enough that they could all turn off their lamps.
They were in some kind of wall-less room divided into four areas, and though the proportions and designs were slightly foreign to a pony, it was easy to deduce the function of each square: kitchen, living room, bedroom, and exercise area.
“Hey, check this out,” Rainbow said, having found an oversized orange ball with a hoof. In the exercise area there was a horizontal, circular metal hoop supporting a net, attached to a board with a red outline fitted high up on the wall.
“Five bits say you won’t make the shot,” Pinkie said, bouncing into view.
“Oh yeah?”
Keeper could only shake his head as a fierce competition began between the two mares. Their carefree game was a stark comparison to the two Royal Guards, who had both collapsed in the living room sofa and seemed to struggle against having a nervous breakdown.
“Hey, watch this,” Rainbow said as she reared up to buck one of the balls. The ball missed its mark by a fair margin, followed by a loud grunt as Rainbow Dash landed poorly on her hind leg.
“Rainbow! You okay?” Pinkie said.
“I’m fine, Pinkie,” she mumbled. “Stupid floor threw me off balance and ruined my kick, and I just got out of the infirmary!”
“Aww, don’t blame Ms. Shippy,” Pinkie said, and bucked one of the orange balls right into the hoop. “She’s just grumpy when you focus on your hooves too much.”
“She?” Rainbow asked while massaging her hind leg. “I thought all ships were named after a stallion for good luck.”
”Miss Pie,” Keeper said, interrupting the two. ”What do you mean by ’putting less focus on your hooves?’”
”Like this!” she said, and began jumping up and down on the polished maple floor.
It was hard to see the variance between each bounce, as the mare made her way to the kitchen area. It then dawned on him that she was actually manipulating her innate magic to an extraordinary degree. Whenever her hooves were about to touch the ship’s surface, her magic temporarily transferred away, in effect minimizing the often violent interaction between magic and alien material. It was an interesting discovery, though Keeper doubted that there were many with such a finely tuned control of their innate magic.
”Hey, look what I found!” Pinkie said with her head inside one of the drawers. It was an unopened bean can, judging by the picture on the front, which she dangled in their direction.
Keeper exchanged a glance with Rainbow Dash, who shrugged with her wings.
”You think it’s still edible?” Rainbow asked.
”I don’t know,” Pinkie replied, and hoofed it over to Keeper. ”What do you think?”
Keeper accepted it with a hint of skepticism. He could translate a few words of the alien language with a fair margin of error, though reading the table of contents was above his abilities.
Expiration date: 2136/01/01
The words and numbers were completely unintelligible to him. “If you’re going to sample alien food you should wait until we’re back at camp.”
“But I want to taste it now,” Pinkie whined. “How else am I supposed to plan a Welcome Aliens to Equestria Party?” She mumbled to herself some more, then continued to ransack the kitchen. “I need to figure out what they like, or this whole trip would have gone to waste!”
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at that. “Is that why we’re here?”
“Duh, why else would we be?” Pinkie replied.
“We were never told the reason, only that it was marked as highest priority,” Keeper said. “Are you certain Lady Rarity approved of this expedition?”
“Of course she did,” Pinkie answered, and stuck her head out from the container beneath the sink, long enough to hoof him a document from within her mane. “Read the letter, silly.”
Keeper held it beneath the lamps on his withers. “This is a grocery list.”
“Of course it is. Read further down.”
Keeper continued down the list, and when he reached the bottom, he noticed how the font became noticeably smaller. He had to strain his vision to see what was written right above Rarity’s signature. It took a moment to decipher, but the final words were indeed a request to gather important cultural and cuisine research from the spaceship, in the interest of public moral and Equestria’s bright future no less.
“Was Rarity wearing her reading glasses when she approved of this document?” he asked.
“Nope.”
“And how much paperwork had she signed before this one?”
“A whole bunch!”
Keeper sighed as the mystery was solved. To think they made it all this way to find a cookbook. He didn’t mind the fact that he’d been bamboozled to come here, as it was a rare opportunity to bring back a few unsanctioned artifacts for his research. He greedily eyed one present on the kitchen bench, a glass pot below a funnel, with a separate glass chamber on the side attached to a control panel. He had to rear up on his hind legs to fully reach up to the tall bench, when a vibration in the floor caught his attention.
“Hey, Pinkie,” Rainbow said. “How did you even know this place was here?”
The vibrations in the floor kept steadily increasing. Keeper pulled back his dark hood to better hear the distant rumblings of machines coming to life. The two guards on the sofa noticed it as well and were both frantically searching for the source of the noise.
“I read the reports of course,” Pinkie replied, seemingly unaware of what was happening around her. “One of the guards reported that they peeked inside and thought they saw a sofa, but the patrol was heading home so they didn’t have time to investigate.”
“What’s happening?” the red-maned guard asked, as the vibrations reached the point where it became difficult to stand upright.
There was an almost deafening roar from every direction, followed by a brief silence, then a sudden jerk as they were forcefully pressed against the floor. It lasted only a few second as gravity equalized.
The ship is moving.
Stumbling for the control panel on the door, he pressed the mechanism controlling the door.
It didn't work.
Keeper was about to say something when a terrible odor invaded his nostrils. He turned to find Ms. Pinkie Pie with a can opener in one hoof and an opened can in the other.
”Bleh,” she said. ”Space beans are disgusting.”
Luna awoke with a start and gasped for air. She jerked forward, followed by a surge of pain on her left cheek, then fell backwards again on the half-raised bed.
”How are you feeling?” Celestia asked from somewhere nearby.
Luna’s vision was too blurry to make out the shape sitting next to her, yet there was no mistaking the worried tone of her sister.
”Like I’ve spent the night flying through a blizzard,” she replied, and let out a long sigh. The throbbing faded as she lay still. ”What happened?”
Luna’s vision quickly returned, and she was faced with her sister’s neutral expression.
”We found you unconscious on the floor with the hallway in ruins.”
Luna wanted to laugh, but all that came out was a weak chuckle. Talking was going to be an annoying process. ”How fares the city?”
”The city is calm for now. I wanted to know what happened in the hallway before we decide on what to do next,” Celestia said, and placed a hoof on the sheets. ”It’s not been long since we found you unconscious. I believe the human placed you under some kind of sleeping spell that took time to circumvent.”
”I can’t entirely remember what happened,” Luna admitted. The emotional turmoil that led her to confront the alien had now been replaced with weariness. ”I used a spell and saw how the human treated you in the throne room and decided to intervene.”
Celestia waited patiently for her to continue.
”My plan was to teleport to a safe distance and lob objects at the human until it submitted.” Luna gave her a weak smile. ”I think it worked at first, then I woke with my head spinning. Where is the alien now?”
”Currently in the library under Twilight’s close watch,” Celestia said, and sighed audibly. ”It seems Helena decided to scare our dear ambassador so much he lost some of his facial feathers, then waltzed off to the library with Twilight in tow.”
Luna looked up at the ceiling and considered the problem. ”We can’t just allow the human to keep bullying us like this. The fear and chaos she spreads in her wake will cause nothing but harm to our ponies, even if she only does so indirectly.”
Celestia nodded. ”I know, but for now it’s safest if we allow Helena to roam freely until we can better learn her motives. Hopefully, ponies no longer hold any interest to her.”
”I apologize for taking action without consulting anyone,” Luna said.
Celestia only chuckled. “We rule as equals. There is nothing to forgive.”
Twilight watched the growing stack of books at the center table. The latest hour had been hectic to say the least, as she chased the rampaging human through the castle. They were alone in the library and things had finally calmed down, though guards were ready to barge inside at a moments notice. Twilight believed at first that the library setting was the perfect time to establish an understanding between their two species. She had been dead wrong.
”When are you going apologize to the gryphon ambassador and Princess Luna?” Twilight asked, while peering over the surface of the round table at the human with its back turned. ”What you did to them was really mean.”
The human continued to ignore her, and blazed through the pages of the book she held in her slim hand. Twilight was unconvinced about its claims to be able to memorize entire books in minutes.
”Are you even listening to me?” For the first time since being a foal, Twilight felt like using books as projectile weapons. The human seemed entirely incapable of holding a conversation that lasted longer than a few sentences.
”I am,” Helena said, and closed the book in her right hand. It was a small detail, the way the human barely ever used its left arm. The arm itself appeared undamaged despite the torn sleeve, but having it limp at her side couldn’t possibly be its natural state.
”Well, are you going to apologize to them?” Twilight pressed.
”I don’t have time,” Helena said, nonchalantly. ”It’s in your best interest if I don’t linger here.”
”You’re right about that,” Twilight mumbled, then cleared her throat. She was about ask Helena another question about her species, a topic the human kept deflecting, until she saw which book the human threw on the pile. It was Starswirl's Compendium of Magic, which Twilight had read more than a dozen times.
”What did you think of Starswirl’s theory of how magic shapes the universe?” she asked, hoping the off-topic question would be enough to pique the human’s interest. It would also serve to test some of its claims.
Helena seemed not to register the question at first, instead searching the next row containing the history of strange creatures. Twilight was about to try something else when the human finally responded.
”The stallion was brilliant enough that I believed he might be the one I am searching for,” Helena said, while taking out another book with her right hand. It was Legendary Creatures by Clover the Clever. ”But his theories were fundamentally flawed. I dismissed him as a potential suspect when it became evident he didn’t known the truth about the origins of magic.”
Twilight maintained a deadpan stare at the human, wondering if she actually had any idea what she was talking about. Even foals learned at an early age that magic was the center point of every living being.
”And what is the so called truth?” Twilight asked.
”That magic is just a fool’s tool,” Helena said, seemingly unaware of the impact her words had on Twilight. ”I can’t comprehend why it was implemented. Its inherent instability allows for dangerous manipulation by anyone with the necessary means.”
Twilight counted three deep breaths and allowed the insults to her world view to wash over her. ”Unstable how?”
But the human had already dropped the subject. Twilight was forced to take a different approach.
“What are those strange ripples around you?” Twilight continued, and picked up a pen with her mouth. She hadn’t practiced her manual penmanship in years, and the sight seemed to amuse the human. It was at least enough to catch her interest.
“You mean this?” Helena said, and the ripples that radiated like heat waves began to diminish in intensity. “My body is protecting me against foreign interference, such as what you call ‘magic’.”
The phenomenon surrounding Helena suddenly shrunk until it was barely visible to the naked eye, and Twilight wondered if the human did so for her benefit. She certainly appeared less threatening without it. Twilight was about to ask, when the human suddenly continued.
”This ’Tartarus’ sounds interesting,” Helena said, and added the book to the pile. The library was usually closed at night and the librarian would be less than pleased to find everything out of order. Twilight would have returned the books herself, if she didn’t need to conserve her remaining strength. ”It might be the place I’ve been searching for.”
If Twilight had been drinking water at the time, she’d have sprayed it all over the table.
”Oh no, no, no,” Twilight began, jumping off the stool and trotting up to the human, who stopped her search to looked down at Twilight. ”If you break the seals into Tartarus, who knows what horrors might escape? Do you even realize how many would suffer if that happens?”
Helena didn’t even seem to consider Twilight’s words, as she instantly turned away and continued searching through the bookshelf.
”Well?” Twilight asked, as her patience dealing with the human wore thin.
”The one I am searching for wouldn’t allow themselves to be captured.”
Twilight let out a sigh. ”Why are you even in such a hurry?”
”I have revealed my presence to a hostile foe. Time is of the essence. ”
“What foe? There has never been another human here in recorded history.”
Helena eyes darted between the books, and again she seemed to be laughing on the inside. “I know they are hiding from me.”
”Just like you knew that Celestia was a human?” Twilight countered, cheekily.
The comment only seemed to further amuse the human, who for once returned the book to its proper place on the shelf. Twilight’s hope that the human was opening up to her was short lived, as her expression and tone became deadly serious.
“I believe my opponent won’t hesitate in destroying this entire city just to get rid of me.” Helena turned and bent forward until their eyes were level. “Tell me then, if I should still waste time on courtesies and apologies?”
Twilight didn’t back down and met the human’s gaze with a stare of her own. “Maybe if you explained yourself when we first met, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
The human frowned and returned to her full height. Twilight believed she might have overplayed her hoof, and wondered if she might have accidentally triggered some kind of alien space-honor-duel between the two. She really needed to stop reading Spike’s sci-fi comics in secret.
“Besides, Canterlot is protected by a shield maintained by an entire squad of unicorns.”
The human responded by resuming shuffling through the pages and seemed to have lost all interest in the conversation. However, Twilight believed the dialogue was a sign of progress—lasting nearly twice as long as any prior attempts.
“Your shield will matter little,” Helena continued, suddenly, “I’ve made arrangements to assure your city’s safety.”
Twilight wasn’t sure she like the sound of that. “How? You’ve been doing nothing but reading since we got here!”
Helena lifted the arm with the torn sleeve and pointed a finger out the window. There was still an hour left until sunrise, and Twilight had to open the window and stretch out her neck to see what the human was referring to.
It was difficult to see beyond the mostly transparent shield. The only oddity she found was blinking lights over the mountains to the west, and Twilight thought for a moment that Cloudsdale had relocated without her knowledge. Then it dawned on her what the object cruising along the horizon was.
“Oh, horseapples,” she swore.
Rarity woke with a start and blindly searched for the source of the shouting ponies, before she remembered she was still wearing her sleep mask.
”Lady Rarity,” a guard said while barging through the tent flaps, ”the ship! It's coming to life!”
Rarity tore away her blinds. ”What!?”
”It just happened,” the guard continued. ”We think it’s trying to leave!”
”Whaaaat!” Rarity’s mind raced. What would Twilight do? Oh, that’s right! ”Evacuate the camp!”
”Yes, Lady Rarity,” the stallion replied, saluting. ”Should we bring our supplies with us?”
Rarity scrambled out of bed as quickly as she could. ”Leave everything! Make certain everyone in the infirmary has enough help to make it safely to the other side of the lake.”
The camp was situated right below the ship, and its departure might be enough to make the entire mountainside collapse. Their makeshift palisade wouldn’t nearly be enough to stop an avalanche.
The stallion ran out of the tent, and soon Rarity heard the cries of alarm as guards and servants alike were dragged out of their beds. It didn’t take long, however, before the roar of the ship's engines drowned out all other background noise.
Rarity knew time was of the essence. At least there weren't any search parties inside the ship, and if they made it to the hill on the other side of the lake they’d surely be out of harm’s way. She hastily magiced over her bare necessities—a set of cosmetics, tissues, hoof sanitizer, and breath mints—into her traveling bags, placed them on her back and strode out into the center of the camp.
Outside, she was met with disorganised ponies with unkempt manes rushing for the exit. A wagon had already been loaded with those too injured to walk, and six harnessed guards hurriedly galloped out of the main gate with the wagon in tow. In the background, the back-end of the ship flared to life with red and white lights, and for a brief moment, Rarity believed that its engines would activate and try to push the ship right through the mountain.
She didn’t have time to see what was about to happen, as Fluttershy, Applejack, Spike, and Starlight Glimmer trotted up to her.
”What the hay is going on?” Applejack asked.
”No time,” Rarity said, and pointed at the lake. ”Fluttershy, take Spike and fly over the lake to safety. The rest of us will have to get there by hoof.”
Fluttershy looked around. ”Where are Pinkie and Rainbow?”
Rarity motioned them to move toward the gate as they talked. ”I haven't seen them, but they know where the evacuation site is and can take of themselves.”
The evacuation went smoothly once the injured were taken care of, and an airborne pegasus kept her updated as they joined the line of ponies stampeding in close proximity along the lake. The amount of fleeing ponies, in combination with the rains from yesterday, proved to be utterly disastrous. No matter how hard Rarity tried to avoid it, mud and muck was splattered all over her mane and coat.
When they reached the safety of the forested hill, another pegasus informed her that the camp was completely evacuated.
Everything seemed to be in order, and the ship remained stationary. She was about to organize a makeshift gathering among the tall trees, when a another pegasus landed next to her.
”Lady Rarity.” She loved it when they called her that. ”We made a headcount of everyone and found five missing.”
”What! Who?”
”The papers show that a mission was sent inside the ship two hours past midnight and never reported back. We believe they are still inside.”
Rarity began to nervously trot back and forth. ”But I never sanctioned any such mission!”
The pegasus shrugged. ”The lieutenant said it had your approval signature, and the pony leading the expedition claimed that it was of the highest priority.”
Rarity didn't need to ask who was responsible. She remembered how a certain Pinkamena Diane Pie had hounded her to sign a supply request just before bedtime. Twilight had warned her to always tread carefully when the party pony wanted something, and she’d managed to mess it up anyway. No doubt Pinkie Pie brought along Rainbow Dash. Those two together were always trouble.
A sudden quaking and loud mechanical roar brought her back to the situation at hoof. The ship, with its front halfway buried inside the mountain, began to lift itself backwards. Despite being tilted forward at an odd angle, it was somehow able to dislodge itself. Every guard, servant, and medic on the hill stopped what they were doing to watch as the ship drifted upwards.
The process was precise, and surprisingly, the mountain side remained mostly intact as only a few large rocks came tumbling down the slope. It was hard to make out details in the dark, but as more of the front of the ship came into view, it became evident that its damage had been far worse than they originally suspected. Its front frame had likely been silvery and slender but was now scorched and riddled with gaping holes, almost as if someone had split a long abandoned skyscraper in half with its lights still on in each apartment. Rarity wasn’t the only pony in the crowd that expected it to fall out of the sky at a moment's notice.
The ship eventually freed itself completely and remained stationary in the air with the aid of several round, blue, glowing discs on the underside. Rarity was fearful at first that the ship would leave for outer space with her friends still it on, but luckily it never resumed its ascent and instead veered westward. Its back engines began a slow burn and accelerated forwards, seemingly taking extra precautions to prevent debris from falling onto the camp below.
The way the pilot steered the ship away from ponies made Rarity believe, for a brief but terrifying moment, that Pinkie Pie had somehow found the ship's control room. The gathered ponies began to chatter among themselves as the ship cleared the mountain tops and sailed out of view. It dawned on her then that the ship was on a direct course for Canterlot.
”Spike!” she yelled, and searched the crowd for the young dragon. She found him perched on Fluttershy’s back, using her added height to see above the crowd. It was clear that he was completely starstruck by the sight of the moving spaceship. ”Spike! I need to send a letter.”
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A lot of people seem to be not liking Helena for some reason. Personally i find her much MUCH more enjoyable than most of the 'I need not explain myself to you child' characters. What she is doing and why seems quite relatable and align quite well with someone ageless using technologies beyond mortal minds who arrives to a planet where the cute natives still consider using, unironically, pointy sticks of wood and metal as a weapon.
I mean what would YOU do if you arrived to planet of kittens and they were using fluffy pillows try to beat you into submission? It would be polite to play nice with them but it would also take time, and you have bigger problems in the horizon.
I'm suddenly reminded of another totally unlikable uber-powerful OC from a fancomic called 'The Night the Magic Died.' It was revealed that the stars were fake there as well, and for some reason the entire universe except for Equestria was dead.
Helena makes me think of her. I don't think Nehmet (if I'm remembering her right) was ever very apologetic for her awful actions 'for the greater good' either.
I am very interested in joining your Discord chat (Especially considering his influence in this fic.... Hue hur hue...).
8875162
You're very much welcome! The link in the author's note should work, though I've noticed that the timer seems to run out despite the fact that I keep putting it on timeless.
8875105
Uhm... The author seems to be describing "magic" as a manipulable exotic particle field, utilizing known principles in an unusual (and somewhat dangerous) way that - like any exotic system - is taking some time to analyze. This has many problems with My Little Pony canon, but that will be true of any attempt to fit cartoon-logic magic into a "realistic" universe.
The biochemical response times are not actually that relevant; they simply establish how rapidly information is passed through the brain - and thus how much acceleration is necessary to warp subjective time to such an extent.
Beyond that, I cannot quite figure out what you are trying to say. Could you perhaps clarify a bit?
8872321
Except for one thing: there's no indicator of anything going wrong, except for ms OP running roughshod over everything and everyone
8878079
The creator of the land can strike at any second, he should know that Ms. OP has arrives but he does not make himself known. This cannot be sign of anything positive and if he is to become agressive he has the home adventage.
Naturally you will be on the absolute defense and QUICKLY try to understand who has done all this and why so you will not be taken by surprise. I would not be ready to call it too much against her that she is being a douce in this kind of situation, it is similar when Police/Soldier does not stop with all the niceties when they are on deadly grounds with a mission. The attack could come at any time, be in any form and be struck by anyone.
Even if we as audiance think this might be leisure walk through land of Magical Ponies then it might not be so for her, or even as true as we would like to think.
8878474
Yup, that's pretty much what I'm going for. But at the same time, I can't blame anyone for being annoyed at Helena. It tends to gnaw at your patience when you watch someone else struggle with an issue, that to you may seem obvious.