Chapter 50: And Said Our Goodbyes
Summer found she didn’t much care to see if Corey was right in his guess about Kate. She flew across the room to where Sharp had landed, bending down beside him to inspect his injuries. “Hey, are you okay? Sharp?”
There was blood, though not as much as his own knife had produced on the body of the unfortunate soldier. Yet Kate’s own claws had clearly done far more damage than the gun, somehow.
Finally she managed to roll Sharp over and get a good look at his face. Kate had gone for his neck, but her claws had slipped, gouging deep into his shoulders and missing the artery. Along with something else.
As she moved him, the translation necklace came away in two pieces, thin metal chain stretched and broken like it was nothing. “Buck me…” Sharp muttered in Ponish, one of his legs twitching. “That was… hurt.”
Shit. “Can you walk?” Summer asked, taking her words nice and slowly. But at least she had the tourist level of language now. A basic question like that was no problem. “We need to… Doorway… before bad gets here.”
Sharp seemed confused by the question, though with the pain he must be in, she couldn’t blame him.
“I think I hear a helicopter,” Corey said from across the room. “I don’t want to rush you or anything… but if we’re gonna go…”
“We might need to carry him,” Summer snapped. “Sharp should be fine if we can treat him, he’s not seriously hurt. But I don’t know if he’ll be able to—”
Sharp rose to his hooves at that moment, startling her back to stumble away and give him a little space.
He limped, favoring one of his forelegs over the other. Blood oozed from an open wound on his left leg.
“Here, hold still.” Summer knew there wasn’t much time—they should probably already be running. But a wound like that and the roaring storm outside wouldn’t mix. She reached down, tearing into Corey’s jacket with one of her claws.
He swore, staring at her in confusion. “The hell is that for?”
“It won’t fit in a few minutes anyway,” she argued, bounding over to Sharp and binding the wound as best she could. That meant she was now standing uncomfortably close to the dead—there was more than one reason to get out of here as quickly as they could.
Emerald was beside her, muttering something to Sharp she couldn’t understand. She gathered up the fallen shards of necklace, tucking them away in a pouch stolen from a fallen soldier. Yeah, I hope we can fix that too. Summer didn’t think they had good odds, but now wasn’t the time to try either way.
“Go,” Sharp said. He took a few cautious steps towards the doorway, climbing gingerly over the dead. His expression twisted with pain that seemed entirely separate from his wounds. You don’t like doing that. I didn’t even know ponies could.
Of course it was completely absurd to think that only the humans who traveled to Equestria brought evil there. The ponies had survived their enemies over the years by fighting just like anyone else.
Where before only the faint fingers of cold reached into the control room, once outside Summer could feel its terrible grip wrap around her with unyielding determination. Without any protection at all, it was a terrible master, squeezing the life from her limbs and making her wings seem to shrink against her sides.
Emerald did a bit better, though even the little pegasus was shivering. Thank goodness Corey had his full winter gear, or else he might not have made it to the tower.
He was right about the helicopter, though the sound didn’t get too close. Probably the Doorway. If it’s sucking things up off the ground, it must be even harder to fly through.
The ground all around the tower was completely scoured of snow by now, and a trail of steam rose constantly from the conduits as thick as they were. Summer didn’t need the warning signs to know she should keep her distance and wait for one of the bridges over the conduit.
Flashlight beams cut across the snow behind them, along with distant figures. But the observatory was at the top of the hill, and she didn’t think very highly of their chances of hitting them in a blizzard. She didn’t hear a single gunshot.
Beside the tower, she might as well be standing in full daylight, albeit the light of a green sun instead of yellow. If she looked straight up—and only straight up—she thought she could make out the vague outline of the stone promontory, and the Equestrian side of the Doorway, surrounded by a few little evergreen trees. There might be ponies on that side, but she couldn’t make any out.
But she didn’t stay at the bottom to look—even hesitating for a second was long enough for Corey to reach over and nudge her forward. “Come on! We don’t have much time before those bastards catch up!”
Summer followed, stumbling up the steps one at a time. But if Sharp could make it, then she could certainly make it.
Somehow, he was up at front, fighting on despite the layer of frost condensing on his coat, despite the terrible winds whipping at his mane.
The top of the observatory tower was completely swallowed by the aurora, dissolving any boundary between Earth and the world beyond.
And when I step through, I might never come back. Before returning, she would’ve been excited to come back and see her family. But this time… they’d be leaving bodies. I hope that agent is better with my letter than that fake politician.
“Hey Corey… last chance to turn around,” she called. “You sure about the wings?”
He laughed, patting one of his pockets. “I shot that alien, Theo. I think it’s a little late to try and cooperate with them now.”
She shrugged. “Guess you’ve got a point.” Now we see if the Doorway can only produce mares.
The further up the tower she climbed, the more her claws seemed to lift from the metal scaffold. Emerald squealed, spreading her wings and beating violently downward.
Sharp bounded a few steps forward high enough that he too began to lift. He yanked on Emerald’s foreleg, dragging her up into the air along with him. Somehow he had enough control to spin around through the air, catching her eyes. Summer couldn’t hear what he was saying, though the intention was obvious. ‘Come with me. We won’t get another chance.’
There was nothing she could do now. Even if the Americans rooted out whatever organization Kate represented, even if they retook the Observatory and invited them back—how could she know? How could she trust that she wasn’t walking right back into a trap?
Sorry, family. I hope you get my letter. She spread her wings, kicking up into the air. The breeze caught her, and she didn’t have to fly. She was moving up, soaring up into the Aurora.
My necklace is gone. I won’t be able to speak the language this time, and I won’t be able to leave.
For the third time in her life, the sky took her. And this time she wouldn’t be coming back.
There would be no peaceful waking in the snow as the last time, gradually discovering the horrors of a body that wasn’t her own. One moment she was soaring up into the air, drawn by strange gravity that wasn’t quite directly reversed—then she was falling.
It wasn’t nearly as fast as she expected, as though her body somehow remembered the direction gravity had pointed only moments before and was trying to cling to it.
Then she landed, claws and hooves settling gently onto the snow.
The full light of day glared down around her, enough that she was briefly blinded by it. Her senses came back in spurts, like someone gradually adjusting the tuner on an old television.
Her friends were fallen around her, scattered along the snow-covered surface of the Doorway. There was Sharp right beside her, leaving a few red stains in the snow from his wounds. But not much, and the thin red ice seemed to be helping stop the bleeding.
Are all earth ponies badasses, or just him?
Then she remembered the way he’d fought those soldiers. That wasn’t confused desperation, like Corey. His knuckles had gone white, and he’d been lucky to hit what he was aiming at.
Emerald was there, near the edge of the cliff. But of all the creatures she wasn’t worried about with heights, she was certainly one of them. But what she saw, that’s going to be harder to forget.
The aurora was far fainter here, a dull flicker of green in the sky overhead. If it wasn’t for the roar of wind and snow pouring down on them in the otherwise cloudless sky, Summer might not have known where it was at all.
Does it have something to do with day and night? Why did it suck us up so intensely the first time?
“Summer.” Sharp nudged her with a hoof, pointing down the slope.
It was a veritable graveyard of military-style equipment crates. Entire snowmobiles lay broken in the snow, leaking gas. From the look of it, there were at least fifty identical-looking plastic crates, each one with huge QR codes and little American flags stamped into the plastic.
They really were preparing an expedition. How much of what they told me was a lie?
But Sharp pointed again, more urgently. “If we… go… inside. Shut… off. We… be followed.”
Will that work? This thing wasn’t on last time. More importantly, where were all the ponies?
Feather’s camp was still here, or… mostly here. The tents were covered with snow, and a few had been completely crushed by plastic crates. A dozen ponies, just gone.
For the best. You want to fight them all off with just Corey’s handgun?
He was another issue—but maybe one that could wait a little while longer. She could make out his fallen clothes, no longer large enough to contain the creature inside. Emerald was already on her hooves, but maybe Corey would take a little while. Maybe it’s the transformation that’s disorientating, not the trip itself. That would explain why I wasn’t knocked out either of these times.
She would let the future deal with that problem. In the meantime, she had a portal to shut down.
Summer didn’t bother climbing down as she had the first time—this side had taken on so much snow from Earth that it would probably take ages to clamber through. Instead she bounded forward, spreading her wings wide and gliding down the other side.
Here in Equestria the winter sun was feeble, but it was still a sun. Practically a bonfire compared to the horrible night she’d just left.
She glanced to one side, eyes widening as she saw she wasn’t alone. Emerald landed beside her, spreading her forelegs wide. Summer didn’t need a translation necklace to know when a pony wanted a hug.
Despite her smile, the poor filly started shaking as soon as she got her hooves around her.
Of course she is. She saw people die. She was nearly killed herself, again. This life isn’t meant for her. But it was almost over. So long as an army didn’t come through the sky after them… or a bomb. And we got the data out. Thanks for the help, Agent Barton. I hope you’re in Argentina or something by now.
Summer let go, though she couldn’t be that quiet. The wind still roared, and the Doorway itself rattled as though it were in the middle of a constant earthquake. Had it been like this for days, or only switched back on as soon as the experiment was repeated on the other side? “Sorry, Emerald. You’ll be safe soon. Almost over.”
For better or worse, we can’t put this back in the bottle now. You were probably right about one thing, Kate. Maybe we should’ve just left things alone.
Summer turned, lowering her head as she ducked under the massive ramp. A dozen new chunks of fallen stone littered the floor, and the whole mechanism vibrated and shook constantly. They still didn’t even really understand this thing. Had the ancient hippogriffs really built it?
Unexploded powder was still scattered everywhere, in heavy barrels and connected with thick fuse. Whatever had driven Feather to flee, they hadn’t stopped to destroy the bridge. Maybe Kate’s orders? Summer no longer cared.
Her pearl was still there, settled into the slot in the controls. Summer dodged to one side, avoiding a chunk of falling ice. She secured her claws around the wheel, then twisted it all the way back around.
A resonant mechanical click sounded, followed by the grinding of ancient gears. The earthquake trailed down to a distant roar, then finally faded.
Summer stood in the dark, with only a single shaft of light to illuminate the alien controls around her. She was a bird—forever. She had tried to go home and failed. Maybe her final message was lost too. She might never find that out either.
But they weren’t all assholes, were they? Corey saved Sharp’s life. Agent Barton was so upset with what was happening he risked his future to help us too. Maybe they’ll figure things out over there.
She finally let go of the wheel, advancing a few more steps before she snatched her pearl from the mechanism. A thin layer of film had formed on the outside, flaking away at her touch. Was I burning this to keep the doorway open? It did feel smaller than the last time, though by such a small amount she couldn’t be sure.
Summer’s claw tightened around the pearl, and she stumbled out the way she’d come.
Emerald was waiting for her on the other side of the doorway, surrounded with the faint glow of arctic sun. “Turned it off?” she asked. “No… shaking.”
“Off,” Summer agreed, reaching over to pat her on the shoulder with a wing. It was all the energy she had left at this point. She was feeling just about as wrung out as the child herself.
The wind had stopped roaring, but all signs of the portal weren’t gone. A faint glow hovered over the doorway, like… like a phone ringing off the hook. And we’re not going to answer now.
Summer flew back to the upper deck, and this time Emerald wasn’t following her. She couldn’t blame the filly for wanting a little time to herself.
As she landed, she found Sharp helping another creature to shaky feet—the one she’d known would be there.
Corey shared a few things in common with the way she looked, though far less than she might’ve expected. He was taller than Sharp by at least a head, with broad shoulders. Even folded his wings looked massive, with trailing feathers down the sides that Summer’s own lacked. But I’ve seen them before. Some of the birds back at Mount Aris had them. And I don’t.
Somehow, inexplicably, Corey was still male.
How?
An older version of her—the one that still called himself Theo—would’ve raged with envy at a cruel fate, which left others as themselves but transformed such a basic part of her identity.
Summer wondered if she should be horrified that she didn’t feel disturbed.
The moment passed quickly. She’d already tried to go home and get her body back, and it hadn’t worked. She didn’t have to feel guilty about being a bird anymore. “Sharp,” she said, resting a claw on his shoulder. “We should see… if the Horizon is there. First aid.” She pointed at his shoulder, his legs. “You need it.”
“You’re talking like them,” Corey said. If anything, his voice was deeper than she remembered, though less confident. She remembered being in his position, confused and barely able to stand. But you don’t have to face it alone, wondering if you’re going insane. “Making me nervous. Please tell me you can still speak English.”
“Good as ever,” she answered, emphasizing her accent as much as she could. “Better than Ponish, actually. I only had a few months to practice.”
“I thought you Europeans all knew like six languages—”
But Summer was ignoring him then. Sharp nodded, sagging a little on his hooves. Even earth pony magic had its limits.”
Corey was the only one with any energy left as they made it down the Doorway. After seeing him hypothermic before, Summer could see the signs setting in all over again. If the Horizon wasn’t there…
“Looks like Bravo Site made it through the doors ahead of us,” he said, tapping on one of the sideways plastic crates as they passed. “You think there are any MREs in these?”
Summer was helping Sharp, and she kept her concentration on her steps. At least the earth pony was letting her help. “You realize you’re going to look like that forever, right? You’re taking this… better than I expected.”
Corey shrugged one shoulder. “Give me a few days for the existential dread to set in. Honestly, I’m probably still running on the adrenaline. And, you know, being fucking naked and everything. These people just let it all hang out all the time?”
“Not quite,” she responded. “They wear clothes. You should see Canterlot, there’s some great fashion there. I’d like to go back myself…”
“And we’re going to walk there?”
She slowed, glaring at him. “No. We’re walking to our airship. Right now all we can do is pray it’s still there waiting for us. That bird you shot, Kate—she had a private army waiting for us last time. But we tied down the ship really well before. It should’ve done fine with a week in the cold.” If no one took it.
Summer wasn’t sure she had the energy left to survive one more shock of that size. If they got to the clearing and the Horizon wasn’t there, she might just curl up in the snow and freeze.
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Dammit, I wished it wasn't so, but humans are assholes it seems.
Well, most of them.
This been really awesome so far! Love how it coming together! Wonder what Corey exactly look like.
Why did they still go through the doorway after taking care of Kate? And whatever happened to getting that message to the leaders of earth?
10076511
Because Kate was waiting on people to come to help her, that was who was coming in the helicopter. They had already sent the message last chapter, not to any leaders but presumably to journalists.
Wait, Kate is still on Earth, right?
A problem I have with this fanfic is that I like the character interactions (eg: Emerald watching Disney movies), but I can’t really pin down their personalities.
10076511
It didn't really matter at the time really, they were being chased by those rent an army guys and they just killed their, maybe, boss. No waiting around in that situation, they'd be dead if they tried to stay no matter who or what would happen once the information was out or any government responded to the situation.
Comparisons ahead, be warned.
Once again, a trip into Eques is one way, by design or accumulating circumstances, as it ever so often is in tales like this. It doesn’t surprise me, and once again FF stands more or less alone with its surviving cast coming out alright with the only permanent and major change being the entire population being wiser than they were before this happened, aware of the invisible world that’s been under their noses the whole time.
It kind of reminds me of TD Powell. Get Me Out of Equestria. Barring the fact he remains human and doesn’t change his name at any point, he also ends up accidentally pulled into Eques without a way to even inform his family and peers he’s alright, goes to painstaking lengths to find a way home, fails, succeeds on accident long enough for his family and neighbors to know how he vanished, and is forced by circumstances to go back, this time staying for good. He does end up with some changeling abilities, but his base form remains unaltered beyond naturally developing tonal differences. Tanning and buffed up muscles.
Apparently there can be and are male converts, but it’s arbitrary as usual, seemingly random. Fortunately, Corey didn’t go into this blind, so he had some idea what he was getting into rather than being unexpectedly dimension hopped. And while his decision was highly influenced by circumstance, he still got to choose between being arrested and likely executed and following Sharp and crew. They didn’t grab him by the wrist and drag him along on reflex or throw his large body on their backs and carry him out with his legs dragging.
“Summer” did this in her futile attempts to get back to her home and family and recover her old body. This clearly just ended up landing someone else in this same situation, minus identity altering. Listening to Kate may have been the best move for the sake of Earthlings, not as much for Equestrians. There’s still so much mystery to this. I guess unanswered questions like that keeps readers coming back for more in contrast to stories like FF where the appeal is being delivered the goods we know we are in for, and the questions are asked and answered during action sequences which makes it less about mystery solving and more about priority. Doesn’t have the same “Hook” to keep us in as this tale, but some of us simply like it just because. There’s reason to stay on this, but it’s a plain curiosity and desire to not leave things hanging.
I trust Corey even less now. Was he the Equestrian version of Kate?
This story sometimes feels like a very frustrating game of snakes and ladders.
Summer's personal arc was essentially finished a while ago. And if she no longer seems to care about the issue, and she doesn't, then I can't either. And the gate looks to have been closed, quite literally, on everything that seems to have been placed to replace her arc.
And by the power of contrivance - we are apparently back to a situation where all the bigger issues raised by the gateway, the not!illuminati, and formal first contact between the two worlds, no longer seem to matter in any real way. Who needs
laddersplot progression when you havesnakescharacter drama...According to the not so secret schedule, the story is due to wrap up within the month, so I wonder if we get any resolution before then. It feels like there are still huge unanswered questions that could only be properly addressed by a sequel. I'm really hoping that a few US soldiers somehow came through with all that equipment, or they open that message they were given in Seaquestria, or they at least aspire to take some of that kit back to Equestria as evidence and tell a Princess about all this.
I am really loving this book more with every chapter added! Keep up the good work!
I'm sad this did not turn into a peaceful first contact, we will never find out who Kate actually worked for, and I guess screw that to Novo wanting peaceful contact with humans
Summer got better at flying fast. I don't think she has done much more than glide before this.
And we have some still active organization that has the power to dissuade the US government from further digging into a portal across worlds.
Here's to hoping for all loose threads to come together in a well deserved manner.
Also; maybe we need a sequel, with somebody else picking things up on the Earth side of things?
10076608
Judjing by the place they sent it, it sounded more like they dumped it on a university server, with a little; News from research station; read me! Tag.
10076448
"it's not that there is a majority of assholes out there, they're just strategical distributed to ensure you meet one every day"
10077797
Sounded more like some sort of wikileaks type thing. Secure digital dead drop to some memorized ip address...
In the words of a wise old antique store owner, magic must defeat magic.
I can't help but think of a typical 3D Zelda, with Link setting down outside of a dungeon after beating the boss.
All in all, that certainly could have gone worse, though a number of questions on Earth's side of things may go unanswered. Hopefully we get one last look over there.
In the meantime... You know, there is a massive corporation that just lost its head hippogriff. I'm not saying a corporate takeover of Feather would be easy, but it might just work, especially since the entire R&D department is bleeding into the Arctic snow.
I think Kate still can open Doorway on Earth side.
Because she had tried to scare the people by terrible disease.
If close the Doorway on Equestria side can block Earth side, Kate didn't have to send bomb.
Dang.
Earth ponies just keep going, and going...
Summer may find that stamina valuable later on.There's no way to know anymore doing this unofficially, time for the larger entities like the government in Canterlot to get involved.
Interesting.
That would make a lot of sense.
The details being dumped on the internet might help the good guys quite a bit. No hiding as per Kate's original agenda.
Hah! Guess that probably tells us something about what Theo hasn't been telling even herself internally.
INB4 by the greatest of coincidences Corey has a feral hippogriff fursona and is secretly delighted by this outcome.
10087730
Sooo much yes! especially the 2nd and last part. XD
Leave it to the Austrian to suggest hiding in Argentina when shit goes south :^)
10079750
The connection was made from Earthside, so yes. The problem is that we never used magic as crutch, and instead of developing what little we understood from it, we throw it away in favour of religious bullcrap that leads into our electro-tech developements. They cannot open an anchor back from Earth because far as we know, we staked, burned, and selectively bred our magical organs out of us.
It will be hard, and not worth the effort. If Kate realy wanted to "secure Equestria from humans", she might do so from Earthside anyways. Of course, that is not the case, Kate has a hidden agenda. At least now she will be hanging in a museum.