Things were not going well for Twilight Sparkle.
She’d already known she faced a daunting task, one of the most difficult magical feats that anypony had ever attempted. But how could she say no to Cadance? She’d looked into her face and been able to taste her desperation, as real as the dirt under her hooves.
But the longer she invested into probing the boundary between worlds, the less she felt like she was making any progress. Yes, she had created a spell that could track Flurry past the boundary of worlds, into the place in some neighboring space where she had deposited herself. But expecting Twilight to be able to get there just because she knew the place was about the same as expecting a compass to teleport its holder to the North Pole.
Before Flurry’s disappearance, Twilight’s laboratory had been more of a novelty than anything else. She tinkered with casual magical experiments, probing at the boundaries of her world and inventing new spells. Ever since she’d become a princess, Twilight had less and less time to actually use the space. Building that room had been as much because the library had one as because she actually needed it.
Now half her castle felt like a library. Every day she received half a dozen new missives from the Princess of Love, speaking of how much larger their outpost had become. Acres of forest had already been felled, and a sizeable fortress was going up around the spot. Flurry’s Vigil would keep the location safe, as well as bringing in spellcasters from around the world to do their own, independent investigation.
Twilight probably should’ve felt insulted by that, but instead it only made her relieved. Maybe some other ponies will figure this thing out before I do. Then I won’t be the one Cadance remembers as the pony who couldn’t save her daughter.
Once they got Flurry back, all this would be in the past, and the baby would probably be kept in a magically insulated wing until she turned a hundred.
“The construction crew has finally arrived from Canterlot. Apparently this is going to take a few months to build. Hopefully it isn’t needed. But I realize how wrong it was to put all this pressure on you, Twilight. Only one pony has ever done what we need, and he had a lifetime to study before he built his miracles. You don’t have that kind of time.
“I still expect you to send daily reports of your progress to the growing research team I’m assembling here. They’ve already constructed a modified version of your device, using your design. They tell me it uses the connection to Flurry to confirm she’s still alive.
“I know I shouldn’t be worried. The elements would’ve claimed a helpless pony on their own by now—that she lives gives me hope that she’s been taken in by kind strangers. I intend to show them the true depth of the Crystal Empire’s gratitude when we travel to reclaim my daughter.”
And what wasn’t said, though Twilight could practically see it printed in bold letters—was the threat of terrible wrath waiting if something did happen to her daughter.
What if she dies before I finish? Should I even complete the spell? Cadance might take all of Equestria to war against another world that doesn’t even know we exist.
She could only hope she would never face that choice, for her sake and Flurry’s.
Growing up as the personal student of the princess had never spoiled her with wealth the way many suspected. Celestia gave her a room, but that was all. Some part of her never truly recognized just how wealthy the monarchy could be.
The Crystal Empire wasn’t just funding the construction of an outpost a hundred miles from the nearest pony village. She was funding all of Twilight’s research, sending anything she requested by the fastest shipping available.
Should she feel guilty about all the bits she was spending?
Where before Twilight had always been conservative, building new spells with care and plotting their matrices over weeks to be sure they’d be right, now every day brought a new package of gold and silver wire from the smith. Almost as often, she traded boxes of scrap gold and tarnished silver, twisted vaguely into spells that hadn’t proven their worth.
I can’t rush this. It doesn’t matter how urgent it is or how much time I want to invest. I’m not going to correctly bridge our worlds by accident. With an Alicorn’s power, her experiments were unlikely to fail gently if she got close—they would probably create spectacular disaster for one or both worlds, and she would be the one who declared war for Equestria.
I have to slow down.
Twilight crossed her lab, walking straight for the mirror portal against the far wall. It was face down right now, its workings exposed for her to copy. The walls around it were covered with sketches of the runes, expanded to their full interaction with a dozen hours of careful attention.
If it was just about making an exact copy, we would already be done. She stopped beside the mirror, leaning down to touch the silver with one hoof. She could feel the faint energies beyond, creating a bridge that opened only once in a great while.
That was Star Swirl’s solution to the problem of thaumic feedback, and too much contamination between worlds. Her design wouldn’t even have to worry about that problem, since they would use it only to cross once, then return.
How do I tell her that I’m not going to finish this in a month? For all Twilight knew, she wasn’t going to finish it this year. There were no experts to call in—Cadance was wasting her bits by hiring an assortment of Equestria’s mages who promised they could wave their hooves and do the impossible.
But she wasn’t going to tell her that. All these failures aren’t helping Flurry. I need to take my time, break down the theory, and figure out why this spell works, not just stare at it and pretend it makes sense.
Twilight sat down, selected a quill, and started to write.
“Dear Princess Cadance…
There's part off me that expects Twilight to accidentally make a window seeing their world, but not allowing her to walk through.
10102376
That would be neat
10102376
I remember there are chunks of crystal coming along with Flurry. Can't she use them as a guide?
10102390
If she knew that the crystal existed then probably, but for now we can only hope that she gets a lucky break.
She thought about telling Cadence that, then realized her sister-in-law would probably just teleport her to the North Pole. Or straight into an aurora.
She was more careful with the boundary probing after that time she turned herself into a purple cat for a few hours.
Good to see Cadence has some awareness of her impossible expectations. Not much, but some. We also have a timeframe on when to expect Equestrian intervention, barring a miracle.
Of course, this is Twilight Sparkle we're talking about. Miracles are never entirely out of the question.
Looool
Nope nope, I wouldn't want to be twilight here. Cadance will be unhappy.
this looks creative and decent. a nice change of pace from the other stuff on this site. I'll give it a look later when I have more time
10102553
Never read a Starscribe story before? They're almost always worth the read. Each chapter is generally bite sized enough to read on a lunch break or on the way to/from work so that you dont get lost. The stories themselves hold a particular magical intrigue, leaving you wanting to know more, and guessing openly at what will happen next.
This particular one is a more typical genderbending story.
Yep. Mamas tend to do that. Especially alicorn mamas.
The more impatient Cadance becomes, the more likely she'll force her group of researchers to speed through recklessly and the more likely disaster will strike. Twilight is right, it's better to do things right than fast.
That being said, there's no telling how long til the world discovers Flurry and starts asking questions. The sort of response the government will do on Flurry and Kyle maybe construed as a hostile action. Even if that doesn't happen Cadance probably wouldn't be too happy about the only alicorn in the planet serving as Flurry's surrogate mother. It reeks of possible trickery and Flurry can't exactly vouch for Kyle's predicament.
10102376
Unlikely. The part about making it a portal is already documented thanks to the EQG mirror, it's the sifting through infinite universes that's the problem.
Oh no, I just thought of a rather nasty complication... what if this takes so long that Flurry no longer considers Cadance her mom? Or "Flurry" her name? Not out of any misplaced misgivings or anything, just her youth being too much to retain those memories emotionally.
10102816
Now there are three words you don’t see together frequently.
I’ve had quite a few of Starscribe’s works on my Read It Later shelf. Curious to see what they hold at this point after reading your comment.
I think they're going to have some very specific ideas about how to spend that gratitude.
Not sure who I envy least here, Twilight or Cadence.
10103262
That's an interesting possibility, and one that I have to say I've been thinking about myself. Suppose the portal-building process takes, I don't know, ten years. Proportionately speaking, what sounds like it would matter more to your sense of self -- who you were for perhaps one year at the start, or who you were for the rest of your life?
That, mind, is assuming that all memories are retained with perfect clarity -- infantile amnesia is a thing, and if ponies are like humans they won't recall anything from before ages two to four. If this does take years -- and it may very well be that it won't, let's keep that in mind -- it's very doubtful that Flurry would possess any memories of Equestria at all.
10103262
I thought of the exact same thing a few chapters ago.
10102816
I don't usually read the author tag. I prefer to not let their reputation sell (or sink) the story for them.
Spoilers btw
Well then, Kyle better settle in for the long haul, cause shes got a ways to go.
Dear Princess Cadance this is going to be a hard letter to wright.
10102397
And then she'd be a hippogriff and it would be even harder to rescue Flurry!
Someone needs to stop Cadance from actually doing that. Does Celestia and Luna know what's going on?
This is basically me most days at the office.
10104035
Even so, the crystal empire seems to be semi-independent. Trying to stop her poses risks for internal conflict while letting her go poses the risk of her representing the whole species in a bad way. It is a very delicate matter that even monarchs like Celestia, Luna, and Twi would not be able to easily wave away. The best option would be to attempt to bide time while Cadence gathers her wits to not do something rash. If she came to a sound decision on her own it would remove the risk for internal conflict.
Just some thoughts on the political implications here.
Ah, I think Anon might know a way to do that, actually.
let hope there no time gap between universes like for example it take twilight 6 months to make portal but 6 years passes on human side etc
10113730
Or better yet, Twilight takes 6 years, but ends up going to a point in time before Flurry gets to Earth.
10102397
For a second, I thought you were referencing recent events.
10297409
Well, I was referring to an Espeon, so predicting the future with that comment is quite appropriate.
With the way Little Miss Reality Twister has been acting, I'm fairly sure that'd just make it more likely to happen again
Ah, whew. That's some relief, at least.
I think Kyle and his family might have a really hard time appreciating that gratitude
Oh, of course. She reverse engineered that thing.
Well that's a first.