25. Pinkie Promises
“Mind the poison joke,” Twilight said, skirting the patch of blue flowers.
Meg did likewise. “It’s not the poison joke that worries me the most.”
The alicorn rolled her eyes. “We’re not that deep in the Everfree.”
They walked past a tree that looked like it had a really bad toothache and was ready to take it out on somepony.
“Deep enough for me. Who could possibly observe us time travel here?”
They reached a small opening in the canopy. The morning sun did little to relieve the gloom. Twilight decided it was a good enough spot and stopped. “The whole point is to be observed. We are planning on attending your last session with the Smooze, but time traveling inside that party room fails for obvious reasons—”
Meg was warily looking around. “While the Everfree offers many opportunities to keep us from Sugarcube Corner. As if you couldn’t handle timberwolves.”
Twilight smiled. “That’s what makes it interesting, seeing what unlikely roadblocks the forest can present to us—not that I’m expecting anything really dangerous this close to Ponyville.” Her horn lit up. “But I’ll be ready.”
Twilight focused on the time travel spell. There would be no obvious paradox until they reached the party room, where past-Meg and Moondancer were working with Smooze on his voice synthesizer. Sure, they could run into somepony who knew she had left town and gone to Tartarus, but that was manageable—even so, there had been no reports of mysterious Twilight sightings, for what that was worth.
“Casting spell now.”
Nothing happened.
“Second attempt.”
Nothing happened.
Meg nervously looked up at the sky; if something did attack, that was the escape route. “Two down, one to go.”
It was probably futile—rarely had it succeeded on the second, and so far never on the third—but the protocol called for three attempts. Meg scanned the shadows as Twilight’s horn lit again.
“Third attempt.”
The sun shifted, pouring abundant afternoon light into the clearing.
Twilight beamed. “First time for—”
Meg’s jaw had dropped. Twilight followed her gaze. Staring back from the now sunlit ground were an equally stunned Lyra and a changeling. Green flames erupted and it took the form of Bon Bon, far too late to have escaped notice.
Lyra finally squeaked out a word. “How…?”
Twilight grabbed the faux Bon Bon—assuming there had ever been a real Bon Bon—and lifted the changeling off the ground, pinning its wings to its side. She quickly ran a changeling detection spell over Lyra; it came back negative. “I’m waiting for an explanation.”
The unicorn glanced at the changeling, face full of fear and concern. “Don’t hurt her. She’s not part of Chrysalis’ hive—I swear.”
There are changelings not part of her hive? So little was known about them. “Even if such changelings exist, what proof is there that she’s one of them?”
“I… I… don’t know what to say!” Lyra pointed at Meg. “What about her? If she isn’t a changeling, then there’s one impersonating her back at Sugarcube Corner!”
Twilight shot the pegasus a questioning look. Meg face-hoofed. “Lyra was there. Pinkie told her where to find me so she could ask me some questions about what sort of music to play.”
Lyra stared at Meg in disbelief. “That’s… not possible. I-I just left you at Sugarcube Corner!” Her stare moved to Twilight. “How did you find us?”
Twilight didn’t know what to say. She didn’t want to admit to time travel—not after that first time-travel fiasco when she had used Star Swirl’s spell to warn her past self to… it was best not to mention time travel.
“Quite the ‘roadblock,’ eh?” Meg asked rhetorically.
“Yeah,” Twilight admitted. “It sure is.”
They had to get past these two—but a changeling? She couldn’t ignore that! But what could she do? Her present self at this point in time had no knowledge of a changeling in Ponyville; that ignorance must be preserved.
But neither could Twilight let it deter them from barging in on Meg’s voice synthesizer session with the Smooze; they didn’t have time to spare on this. She had to leave for the Crystal Empire in little over an hour, that session with the Smooze wouldn’t last much longer, and she most certainly was not going to use time travel to give herself more time!
The changeling had reverted to its true form. “I’m no threat, I swear! I’ll… I’ll find some way to prove that, but I need time!” An idea came to it. “I Pinkie Promise!” It said the words and went through the motions.
A thoroughly rattled Lyra joined in. “Me too!” She also said the words and went through the motions.
Twilight was stumped. The irony was that she needed time too, time enough to catch up with the present. At least she could tell herself that even if they were lying, their plans had been disrupted now that she knew about the changeling’s presence.
“I don’t see Pinkie Pie,” Meg quietly observed.
Twilight sighed and gently deposited the changeling on the ground. “The sooner I get that proof, the better.” Though not before tomorrow. There was no need to say that; besides how odd that would have sounded, it was a fact that they hadn’t, so they wouldn’t.
Lyra and the changeling hastily departed.
“That was unexpected,” Meg said.
Twilight started walking back to Ponyville. “You’re telling me. What were the odds?”
Meg pondered that. “You know, I think it was me looking in their direction that let the spell succeed.”
If Meg hadn’t been looking in their direction… by the time those two had been noticed, there wouldn’t have been an undisguised changeling. “You’re saying that a stable time loop depended on us learning about the changeling.”
“Beats me. I still don’t see how knowing there’s a changeling in Lyra’s life—whatever that’s about—helps us reach that party room.”
As they continued on their way back to Ponyville, the dark recesses of the forest surrounded them once more.
“Me neither.” They went around that patch of poison joke. “I guess I’ll have to pay Bon Bon a visit, to see if she’s been replaced or not.”
Meg flinched. “I hope that’s not the case.”
It would have to wait until they returned to the present. Again, what could they do in the past if she had been replaced by that changeling?
The sound of snapping branches stopped them. Only something big could do that, and as a general rule big things in the Everfree were not friendly.
The two ponies warily scanned their surroundings. More snapping sounds approached—from multiple directions. Twilight prepared several defensive spells.
Lime green eyes glowed around them, edging closer.
“Timberwolves,” Twilight muttered.
“Our next roadblock,” Meg said.
“Not for long.” She knew just the spell to use.
Two leaped at them, and promptly disintegrated into their component parts, falling to the ground. All the glowing eyes around them were gone.
“I… didn’t do that.”
“No, I did. No need to thank me. After all, it’s what friends do for each other.”
A draconequus drifted down from the canopy.
“Our next roadblock?” Meg asked.
Discord frowned. “Well, at least it’s original. Never been called that before.”
“Why are you here?” Twilight asked.
“Other than saving you from those nasty timberwolves?”
“I could’ve handle them just fine.”
With a broom he swept the pile of branches and logs away. “Yes, yes. I suppose you could.” He vanished and reappeared in front of them. “If you must know, I sensed the presence of another alicorn. How could I resist?”
“You resisted all those other times I traveled to the past.”
“Ah, but this time you did it in the Everfree!”
“What difference does that make?”
Discord looked genuinely surprised by the question. “It makes all the difference!”
Twilight was getting a bit annoyed by this—and the time it was eating up. “Why?”
He raised his arms in joy. “Because I say so!”
Twilight resumed walking, shaking her head. “Come on, Meg.”
A wall of stone blocked their way. “No paradoxes today, I’m afraid.”
“How do you even know that?” Meg asked.
Eaves flashed into existence on top of the stone wall. Discord pushed them off, letting them crash to the ground. He got blank looks. “Habitual eavesdropper, or have you forgotten?”
“Why do you even care?” Twilight asked. “What of the chaos if we succeeded?”
Discord pouted. “That’s just it. You won’t succeed, so there won’t be any chaos. So I’m thinking, why not be the cause of your lack of success? It’s been so long since we matched wits. That sounds way more fun, and you can’t hold it against me because you know you can’t succeed anyway. I’m guaranteed to win!”
Meg shook her head. “That’s why you missed our session today? So that you can ‘have fun’ here?”
The draconequus froze. “What do you mean I missed it? Sure, I admit I’ll be late…”
“You didn’t show up at all.”
All the color drained out his face. “You’re telling me my future—my immutable future?!”
Which gave Twilight an idea. “Want to hear about what you do tomorrow?”
Discord instantly vanished. The stone wall vanished a second later.
“Think he’ll try to show up at that session anyway?”
Twilight sighed. “He’s free to do so. I wonder what would prevent it?”
The mere thought made her shudder.
“So now what?” Meg asked.
If even Discord was powerless to change the immutable past—or future… “Let’s mark this experiment as a failure.”
Meg walked about the newly completed lab, taking it in from the human perspective for the first time. The tracks spanning the former mine’s floor had been removed and replaced with bland, neutrally grayish carpet, designed for durability rather than elegance. More granite had been removed from the few low-hanging sections of the ceiling, so that humans would not have to stoop.
Ergonomic chairs had been brought over from the Department of Energy office. Cushions for ponies to sit upon and sturdy wood tables had been provided by Equestria. Computers had been brought over and a local area network had been installed. Over there was the wi-fi access point her husband had enchanted, tying it to the office network.
Bookcases were carved into the cavern walls, mostly empty for now. Other shelves were full of lab equipment, of both human and pony origin, waiting to be used.
Off to the side was a door sealing off a side tunnel, inside of which was now kept all the nuclear waste that had been formerly stored onsite at a nuclear power plant, made relatively safe by the magical field of this realm. Another door, sized for ponies, sealed the tunnel that lead to the outside; there would be no uninvited guests here. Nonetheless, there was ventilation, as evidenced by gentle air movement. Where it came from or to where it went wasn’t obvious.
Perhaps it was magic. The bright light certainly was, provided by numerous crystals lining the ceiling. Magic connected the electrical wiring to the Canterlot electrical grid; ponies did not use wires to transmit electricity over large distances. Magic also had something to do with the functioning of the restrooms, which she had not inquire into. She wouldn’t understand it anyway.
Princess Celestia patiently waited until Meg completed her inspection. Sunset Shimmer waited by the alicorn’s side.
Finally, Meg turned to the ponies. “Looks good. We can bring my colleagues here once you’ve departed.” To Celestia, she said, “And thanks for turning me human. I really need a way to block the transformation when I’m brought over to this realm.”
“I’d be happy to discuss that with Discord,” the princess replied. “And as Twilight is not available, before I depart I think I shall welcome your colleagues to Equestria.”
Can’t wait to see their reaction. Meg got out her phone. “I’ll let them know Sunset’s coming to pick them up.” She tapped out a message and sent it.
Sunset trotted over to the safe, which could only be unlocked via a spell, and got a plaid pill from within. There were more than enough to last until Twilight got back.
Questions were going to be asked about that safe, and Meg wasn’t sure how to answer them. Probably something about magics that they shouldn’t be messing around with. And wasn’t that true enough? Regardless, that was a problem for future Meg.
Sunset Shimmer vanished. Meg took a seat to wait for her return.
The Zephyr drifted down the remaining few feet to the ground. Cadance and Shining Armor stood a safe distance away, next to a royal carriage. Twilight did not wait for the airship to touch ground. She teleported directly to them and gave her BBBFF a hug.
“It’s been too long, Twily.”
“I know.” She released him. “But this isn’t a social call, I’m afraid.”
“It never is,” he sighed.
Cadance stepped forward and laid a hoof on Twilight’s withers. “What’s the world-ending crisis this time?” she asked, only half mockingly. “Has Lord Tirek conquered the human realm and declared war on us?”
“You know he hasn’t left Tartarus yet,” Twilight grumbled.
Cadance giggled.
“Come on, sis, you know better than that. Why don’t we skip to the part where you explain everything.”
The airship had completed its landing, and its gangway had deployed. “Let’s go inside,” Twilight said. “This shouldn’t be discussed out in the open.”
Cadance and Shining Armor looked at each other, then followed Twilight back to the ship. “Does Celestia even use this ship anymore?” her brother asked. “Maybe she should just give it to you.”
“Yes, she still uses it, and I can’t exactly afford to maintain and operate it.”
“You should ask for a bigger budget,” Cadance helpfully suggested.
Maybe I should. Celestia would likely approve it. She just didn’t have need of more money—though, as Spike liked to point out, she ought to have some Royal Guards of her own. But on the other hoof, nopony bothered her with requests for funding. Regardless, she had to admit she was only delaying the inevitable.
They went inside the Zephyr. Twilight closed the door behind them.
“So what’s this about?” Shining asked as he took a seat.
Twilight remained standing. “You remember the incident with the Mirror a year ago?”
“How could we forget?”
“I’m planning on going back in time and observe how that magic leak got started. Somepony bound it to a doll in the human realm, and I intend to find out who and why.”
Her brother blinked. “Okay… didn’t you swear off time travel after that—”
“It wasn’t an easy decision,” she stated, “but I’ve also learned from that experience on what not to do.”
“So why tell us?” Cadance asked. “That mirror is in your castle now.”
It was Twilight’s turn to blink. The answer ought to have been obvious. “Not when that leak got started. I’ll have to go back to before my fight with Sunset Shimmer, go through the mirror, and from there to hyperspace.”
“Of course.”
Twilight couldn’t help but feel that her former foal sitter was holding something back. “You posted guards on it, right? After I went through it to retrieve my Element?”
“Yes, I did.”
“I need to get past them without you finding out. The past cannot be changed.”
“No, I suppose it cannot.”
The pieces were starting to click together. “You did find out. And you never told me.”
Shining’s jaw dropped. “Wait, what?”
Cadance sighed. “You were quite insistent on that point.”
Twilight wanted to face-hoof. Of course I was—would be. “Is there anything you can tell me?”
“You made me Pinkie Promise not to tell you anything.”
Now she did face-hoof. “And that leaves me with no choice but to do that,” she groaned.
Sunset Shimmer returned to the lab, accompanied by Jake, Meg’s manager, and her eight fellow employees. Meg remained seated, wishing she could conjure up a bag of popcorn like Discord or Pinkie Pie. Anytime now…
They were all facing the wrong way; the newly arrived humans, still somewhat disoriented, stepped forwards toward the shelves of lab equipment, looking everywhere but behind themselves, where Meg waited patiently. Sunset glanced backwards at Meg and gave her a silent wink.
She didn’t tell them. Meg stole a glance at Celestia and got another wink in return. Now I really wish I had popcorn. When had those two arranged this little prank?
“P-princess Celestia?”
The others twisted around until they spotted her too. Priceless were the looks on their faces.
“Welcome to Equestria,” the princess said. “With the opening of this facility, a seed has been planted, a seed formed from the blending our magic and your technology. I cannot wait to see the fruit it shall one day bear.”
Jake stepped forward and gave a brief and uncertain bow. “We are honored by your presence.”
Celestia gave slight nod in return. “I shall leave you to your work.” Lighting up her horn, she teleported away.
Everyone was gawking at where the alicorn had been. “I’m here too,” Meg said, waving her hand.
All heads turn to her. “When did you get here?” Diana asked.
Meg stood up. “A while ago. So what do you think of the place?”
Jake looked around, spotting the side tunnels. “It looks like a former mine, quite honestly. Not exactly what I was expecting.”
“That’s exactly what it is,” Meg said. “We’re inside the mountain on which Canterlot was built.” She pointed to a locked door. “Behind that door is all the nuclear waste from Diablo Canyon. Even without its radioactivity, it’s still nasty stuff, chemically speaking. The princesses felt isolation was best.”
“Uh,” Martin started to ask, “are there restrooms here?”
Sunset trotted to one of the side tunnels. “You’ll find them just down this corridor.”
“And they have running water, in case you’re wondering. Just be sure to use one with a picture of a human on the door.” Meg was willing to bet that every one of them, at the first opportunity, would take a look inside the ones with a pony on the door.
“And which tunnel leads to the outside, or Canterlot, or whatever?”
“That door over there,” Sunset said, pointing. “It’s normally locked to keep out uninvited guests, not that many would find this place.” She unlocked and opened the diminutive door, revealing unlit tunnel. “I do not recommend exploring these tunnels. It’s easy to get lost. Most are not tall enough anyway for a human, and we are a long way from the mine entrance.” She re-closed and re-locked the door.
The previous times Meg had passed through those tunnels, on the way to this pony-made cavern, she had always been accompanied by at least one unicorn using a lighting spell. This one time, Celestia had teleported her from the castle above, after first having made her human again. She could find her way out if she had to, using one of the lighting crystals, but doing so as a human would not be pleasant—nor was the entrance to the mine located in either the Canterlot business district or the palace gardens.
Sunset grabbed a Geiger counter from a shelf with her magic, then she trotted over to the other locked door. The human-sized door opened with her magic. Light spilled into the side tunnel, illuminating countless nuclear fuel assemblies stacked up against the sides of the tunnel, extending into the darkness.
The unicorn pointed within. “There are all the fuel assemblies, as you can see, with no shielding of any kind.” She turned on the Geiger counter and floated it over to the nearest assembly. After many seconds, it gave a single, belated click.
“I still wouldn’t handle that stuff without gloves,” Meg said. “Or just let a unicorn do telekinesis. You don’t want any rubbing off on you. Once you’re back home, it’ll be radioactive again.”
Sunset closed the door, once more hiding the spent fuel from view.
“That’s good advice,” Jake said, addressing his underlings. “I want you all to follow it.”
He took a breath. “The purpose of this lab, in the short term, is to explore options for dealing with nuclear waste. I can now tell you that there’s already a smaller lab like this at our facilities, for some time now, that the ponies have been using. The key difference between that one and this one, is that here magic is unconstrained by the restrictions imposed by our own universe.”
He turned to Sunset. “I don’t suppose there’s something you can show us that’s impossible in our world?”
“Well…” The unicorn thought it over. “The problem is, you’d have to take my word for it. For example, I could boil a pot of water, but how could I prove the energy came from nowhere? Indeed, if I were to use that same spell in your realm, it’d still work; the energy would come from a magic generator. But in this realm, the energy is created from nothing; it’s not conserved.”
If Discord were here, Meg thought, I doubt he’d have any problem coming up with something blatantly impossible in our universe. She was half-surprised he hadn’t showed up. Party-crashing when humans showed up in Equestria was kind of his thing. Or was that “too predictable,” as he would put it?
“Couldn’t hurt to ask,” Jake said, brushing it off. “Longer term, we’ll want to explore magic itself, to understand how a spell adapts to the conditions of the universe it finds itself, like that boiling a pot of water spell. Another long term goal is to discover the potential synergies between Equestrian magic and our technology.”
Potential synergies? Meg wondered how much longer the bureaucratese would continue. It was almost enough to make her wish Discord would show up. It’d certainly liven things up.
The morning sun shone on Canterlot Palace. On the same balcony as before, shaded from the sun by the tower it adorned, Steve was practicing the revised spell, the one that would let him focus on a single star. That it was day and not night was not odd; the spell did not care if the star could be seen.
“There. I don’t think it’s moved all that much closer.”
Luna checked her stopwatch. “Not quite an hour. It was just over an hour before, correct?”
“Yeah.”
What was odd was that Luna was coaching him instead of Sunset Shimmer. But Luna herself had come up with the modifications to the spell, and Sunset was otherwise occupied in a converted mine below them.
“That’s unsurprising,” said the Princess of the Night. “I spent many hours last night pulling it towards us, but the distance it must travel is vast. It will take about two weeks for it to come as close as it will come—and then only if I keep pulling on it every night.”
Steve maintained his focus on the spell. Though it “stuck” to the star, not zooming past it like the realm-measuring spell, he wasn’t really sensing anything more. It was just too distant. “Considering it’s a half-light-hour away, I suppose that’s to be expected. So what stops it from coming any closer, once it’s ‘too close?’”
“I do not know. I am hoping you will be able to determine that.”
He hoped so too, along with determining other things. “It must take weeks to re-arrange the stars into new constellations.”
“Indeed it does—which is why I wish more ponies would appreciate the result.”
“I think it’s safe to say that human tourists will appreciate it. Our stars never move—well, that’s not actually true. They do move, but so slowly that many thousands of years would be needed to see even a minor difference. Even then, no one controls it, could control it.”
Luna looked up at the starless blue sky. “Yes, I’ve read Twilight’s report on your realm’s cosmology. It is… different.”
Steve continued casting the spell, focusing on what little feedback he was receiving. No matter how long he observed it today, he knew it wouldn’t become any clearer.
Celestia walked onto the balcony and glowed with approval at what she saw. “I see you’ve found your own faithful student.”
Steve decided to keep his mouth shut. He was pretty sure that had been said in jest.
“Jealous that I have found one before you could find a replacement for Twilight?”
Definitely staying out of this. He kept his focus on the spell.
“Oh, dear,” Celestia said. “We may be giving our guest some incorrect notions. Pay no attention to our banter, Steve. I just returned from the converted mine, by the way; I welcomed Meg’s co-workers to Equestria.” She grinned mischievously. “Without advanced notice.”
He shook his head. “I’d love to have seen their faces.” He’d have to ask Meg about that.
That enigmatic smile. “Let’s just say I have no regrets.”
This time, Andrew had booked the private room in the back. Meg made her way through the microbrewery and the after-work crowds, hearing the name Tirek more than once. She reached the closed door. She hesitated. She forced herself to open the door and go inside.
Everyone else was already there, to her total lack of surprise. Her eyes lingered on the pitchers of beer; she might need a glass or two or three before this was over.
Andrew spotted her. “Ah, Meg! Just the person we wanted to see!”
She reluctantly closed the door and took a seat and waited for the inevitable question.
The question came: “Has our invitation been conveyed to Tirek?”
All eyes were upon her. “Rarity was willing to convey the invitation for me. She designed and made his regal attire you saw on TV, by the way.”
“And refused to be paid a single bit for it, am I right?” someone asked. Knowing laughter was the response.
“I can assure you she was paid handsomely by the crown,” Meg coldly informed them, “and she refused not a single bit.” Her eyes swept the table. “She still holds a grudge against Tirek—you know, for the events that actually happened in the season four finale.”
Andrew was undeterred. “And there’s more than one side to that story, as he’d made perfectly clear—but that isn’t our problem.” He looked Meg in the eye. “What was his answer?”
Meg was so glad they were in a private room. “No promises, but our invitation fits his desire to be in the public eye.”
“Perfect!”
“Assuming humanity takes him back, and assuming the powers-that-be don’t consider his appearance at our convention to be too dangerous. Don’t forget the Mane Six are off-limits this year.”
He waved it off. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Quite frankly, the publicity from booking him would be worth it, even if he wasn’t allowed to show up.”
Should I try to book Chrysalis as well? she sarcastically thought. Think of the publicity of that!
“Would the ponies release him if we did take him back?” Penny asked. “I dunno, but towards the end, Twilight looked like she could’ve strangled him. Or was that all in the editing?”
Meg finally poured herself a glass. “I saw the same video you did.” With Twilight. What aired was close enough to what happened. “I have no reason to believe they won’t follow through on their promises.”
“You weren’t there?”
She set the glass down before answering. “My understanding is that nopony accompanied Twilight and the selected journalists to Tartarus, apart from some Royal Guards.”
Meg was fairly certain she could’ve been there if she’d wanted. If she’d wanted to be on camera as a pony. If she’d wanted to be on camera with Tirek.
Another question came from the table. “What’s the deal with that airship? How come Twilight wouldn’t let anyone inside?”
That refusal had spawned its own conspiracy theories, naturally. “The Zephyr doesn’t even belong to Twilight. It’s Celestia’s. And there aren’t any hidden secrets inside waiting to be exposed.”
“So you’ve been inside?”
Meg took another gulp of beer, even as she knew she couldn’t afford to drink too much. “Yes, I’ve been inside. It’s very nice. Now can we change the subject?”
Her eyes briefly met Elaine’s. She, too, had once been inside that airship, after visiting her brother in Tartarus. She did not volunteer that information.
“Fair enough,” Andrew said. “Could you provide an update on the other potential pony bookings?”
Meg finished off her glass. “First, there’s A. K. Yearling. That depends primarily on how her book publishing negotiations go. Lyra Heartstrings is interested in putting on a performance. She sees it as free publicity, basically. Finally, and this is new, there’s Trixie the Great and Powerful. Twilight’s pushing that one; thinks it’ll do her good.”
“Seriously?” Penny said. “Trixie? Is that a good idea?”
Meg looked at the closest pitcher of beer, but abstained. “And no one has a problem with Tirek?”
“Well, that’s… different? I mean, she’ll still have magic, right? If Tirek shows up, won’t he be a magic-less human? How dangerous can that be?”
Others nodded in agreement.
“Besides,” Penny continued, “his grudge is against Celestia and the ponies, not against us. We’ll be doing him a big favor.”
“He’s still a bad dude,” Tyler, the head of Events and Programming, countered. “His values are from a different era, and we have no idea if he was telling us the truth.”
Andrew held up his hands. “I think we can all agree to disagree. But it’s safe to say that, no matter how evil he truly is, it’s in his interests to be on his best behavior at our convention. And, if nothing else, he proved in that press conference he was capable of doing that.”
No one spoke up.
If someone had brought up the question of how many centuries in Tartarus was enough punishment, they would have more or less summed up the pro and con arguments that were taking place in the restaurant outside and on the cable news channels. It was still too soon for the first polls.
Addressing Meg, Andrew asked, “Have you met Trixie? Would she go all Alicorn Amulet on us?”
Meg decided to ignore the “Alicorn Amulet” part. “I’ve met her, yes. She’s not the most pleasant pony to be around, I’ll grant that, but she does have a strong work ethic—she doesn’t live an easy life, so she needs one. I agree with Twilight that putting on a show for a human audience could do her a lot of good.”
“Sounds good to me. Anything else?”
Meg sighed. “Any progress on auctioning off a day with Discord? He’s complained about being ‘left out of the loop.’”
It was Andrew’s turn to sigh. “You don’t know how glad I am he can’t come here to complain in person.” He popped a fried cheeseball into his mouth. “The lawyers are getting cold feet on that contract they’d come up with.”
Twilight ended the enclosure spell. The room became visible once more, revealing a reserved Cadance, an appraising Shining Armor, and a bored Discord. “Any more tips?” she asked her brother.
“Nope, you’ve nailed it,” he said. “But who really knows what it’ll have to shield you against during your trip through time.”
“Vacuum and extreme cold, according to Steve.” Twilight smiled at her former foal-sitter. “But we already know it’ll be successful.”
“I’m not breaking my Pinkie Promise,” Cadance said, sighing. “And just because you could extract that promise from me doesn’t mean there were no ill effects from the trip—not that I’m saying whether there were or were not any ill effects—and it certainly doesn’t mean you return to the present in one piece!”
All good points, she had to admit.
Discord looked up from a game of solitaire he’d been playing. “Never fear, Discord is here! I have no intention of becoming ‘lost in time’ because of an enclosure spell gone bad. You really should just let me handle the whole thing.” He already held responsibility for maintaining air quality during the journey.
“You can’t expect me to do nothing,” Twilight said. “Besides, the enclosure spell will give me data on the surrounding environment. I can’t pass that up.” She walked over and stared at where the mirror once stood when she had first passed through it, as if looking at it through the mists of time. “Having said that, I’m glad I won’t be a single point of failure.”
Cadance joined her. “It’s time, isn’t it?”
Twilight fetched a plaid pill from a saddlebag. “It’s time,” she repeated.
Before she could take it, Cadance spoke. “We’ve never seen their realm. Would it be okay if we accompanied you? I know we’ll be coming right back, but I’d like to see it, even if only for a minute.”
“Uh…” She couldn’t imagine Meg and Steve would mind, but there was a problem… “I only have the one pill with me, and I only have one other back in the ship, so…” She bore a sheepish smile. “If you’re willing to cross over without any magic? I mean, you’ll still be inside my magic bubble…”
Discord played a card, causing the one it landed beside to run away screaming. “You could just ask, you know.”
Oh, right. It’s been so long since Discord had created that always full dispenser of plaid pills, now safely back at her castle. “I’m asking?”
Another card was played. All the cards on the floor got up, did a little dance in which they randomly swapped places, and collapsed back onto the floor. Without looking up, he snapped his talons. Two additional plaid pills joined the one Twilight held in her magic.
“Thanks, Discord.”
The draconequus mumbled, “You’re welcome,” and returned to his game. Twilight wondered what the rules were, then admonished herself for assuming that there were rules.
Twilight floated a plaid pill to princess and prince. “Don’t swallow until I do; it’s important. Just think of going where I’m going.”
They nodded. Twilight waited until they were ready, then swallowed her pill.
The three of them appeared in Meg’s home office. The human in question looked up from her computer. “Steve, Twilight’s here!” She got up and—
Twilight quickly used her magic to hold her in place. Before Meg could ask why, she said, “You were about to run into Shining Armor.”
“He’s here? Why’s he invisible?”
“Yeah, why am I invisible?”
“Because you don’t know how to turn the invisibility off. You too, Cadance. Here, let me…” Their bubbles already overlapped; Twilight cast the spell to make them visible.
Steve appeared in the doorway. “More than just Twilight, it appears.”
Meg stepped around Shining Armor to retrieve her saddlebags. “They arrived invisible. Let’s get going.”
Cadance had been looking about the room, full of curiosity, and her eyes landed on the Pinkie Pie doll. “That’s it, isn’t it?”
“Yep,” Meg said. “That’s what started it all. It’s time to get answers.”
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Anyone else waiting to find out something silly like it was Twilight that made the doll voodoo to establish the stable time loop?
Well...... Somepony has some explaining to do.
9186764
It probably was.
Honestly, I wonder if they'd be having the same issues if they used someone else's spell. Starswirl was notorious for his over-engineered safety measures. That's part of what made his works so difficult to cast, the feature-creep the old coot insisted on bolting into his arrays in the name of safety.
Though to be fair, it did work. If you could manage to set it off you'd never need fear a mis-fire from a Starswirl spell. very reliable.
The circle is almost complete, time to get some answers.
Oh hey, it's Andrew. Nope, still feel like strangling him for throwing Meg under the bus for publicity. I'd love for his favourite pony to tell him in no uncertain terms how little they appreciate that kind of stunt in Equestria.
And lookie here, a friendly changeling? My, my, the multiple Megs have just found another explanation for existing.
9186764
yup and the eventual "I freaking hate time travel"
9186899
PLEAASSE, i really dislike him too and hope he gets whats coming to him.
This is a bit of a wild guess, but I bet Discord knows that time isn't immutable, and is just messing with Twilight and Meg.
9187106
or there are laws even he wont break unless its necessary because trying to fix time when your something that have to guess at it for all eternity to fix anything isn't fun.
I've already said it but that Andrew guy is giving us bronies a bad name. I hope in the end the ponies understand that not all of us are like that.
....Wait, could it merely be they caused a closed bridge loop to make all this happen to begin with?
Started Destinies a couple weeks ago. I had no idea there was an ongoing sequel! I really enjoyed it and started this one and just caught up. Now I have another story to follow!
It looks like the biggest question the original and this story is about to get answered! I started at a good time!
Biggest questions to me so far:
1. Pinkie pie doll wormhole attachment. Who did it and why?
2. Common archaeological history and mythologies. Why the overlap? So many questions related to this. I want to think Megs universe must have been combined with Equestrian universe in some fashion. That would imply it once had magic. It almost seems both universes were part of a separate one at some point. Maybe show knowledge is a type of residual effect of a past connection. Perhaps the equestrian universe was the original and Megs is actually the new one. It would seem more consistent with what discord said in hyperspace. And would explain the remains of humans in equestria, and only myths in human universe.
3. Is common ground Meg in the past? Maybe perhaps there was another pony with the name common ground and same cutie mark that Twilight seen a picture of or met in the past that made her call Meg that subconsciously as a cover story? Or is it really Meg in time?
4. The captured Meg. Who was it and if it's Meg, what crazy circumstances could lead to that event becoming necessary?
5. Tirek made no mention of other humans and probably put smooze up to erasing the traces. Trek knows way more than he is letting on. It couldn't hardly be as he told the press. So what does he know? Perhaps our universe is very recent. Like 50 years to explain the language sharing and our past is a massive illusion. So many questions and possibilities!
6. How do the equestrian stars play into it all? Interesting stuff.
I'm assuming magic only supresses ionizing radiation, hence why Wi-Fi networks and the wireless microphones were working, correct?