Chapter 37: Butterfly Wings
Twilight Sparkle had been working tirelessly.
It wasn’t just that their last visit had been so fruitless, though that was certainly part of it. Seeing that alien world, one apparently accustomed to frequent visits—it meant they were close. In the uncountable billions of possible variations, they’d hit a world that other explorers had visited first. That made it a significant signpost, one that promised compatible conditions for life all around it. She spent days making every possible fine variation of its coordinates, checking each equation for balance several times.
Then the new batch of drones came, and she waited eagerly for news of what they had found. She resisted the urge to be personally involved as Princess Cadance never could. She trusted her scientists and technicians. If she couldn’t do that, Flurry was lost forever.
Twilight’s trust wasn’t in vain this time. The message came that another viable candidate had been detected, this time with a positive reading from the life on the other side. A single reading wasn’t enough to prove anything, of course. But this made the first time that a probe had even come back with anything she could test.
There was no chance of the message making it back to Cadance this time. She’d sworn everypony to silence, and after the last time she had no doubt her request would actually be honored.
Twilight didn’t take long to prepare—her spells had served her well last time, and she hadn’t even needed most of them. “You’re gonna go again this time?” Spike asked, as Twilight removed her jewelry from the oil-bath she used to keep the magic from interacting from the environment.
She shook the last few drops of mineral oil back into the tub, wiping it clear with a towel. “I’m not going for Flurry Heart directly,” she said. “I’m just… confirming our preliminary results.” She levitated the card with their test-results over towards Spike, so he could see all the green checkboxes. “Cadance has an army training at Flurry’s Vigil. I don’t think it’s best for her to handle this. It might be a false alarm. Even if it isn’t, we don’t want our first contact with this place to be hostile. We don’t know what powers wait there. They could make us all look weak and feeble. They might be able to kill us with ease, and we’ll be depending entirely on their goodwill and mercy.”
Spike’s eyebrows went up. “You honestly believe that, Twi? You’re an Alicorn. Your friends took down the god of chaos, and half a dozen different invasions and evil ponies. There can’t be anything in that world that’s really dangerous to you.”
Twilight shook her head, then secured the jewelry one piece at a time. It still felt a little oily against her coat, but that wouldn’t hurt anything. She was about to walk into another universe, after all. “It’s probably safe to assume these worlds are like ours,” she said, removing her saddlebags from a hook over the desk and checking their contents. Various testing supplies and survival gear were inside, enough that she could spend the night if she needed to. She didn’t particularly expect to do that, but she needed to be prepared.
We can’t get too excited yet. It could be a false positive. Those laboratory tests were designed for ponies who can barely tell a spell from an enchantment.
“You sure you don’t want me to come?” Spike asked. “I know you don’t want to get anypony else. By the time you did, word would get out, and somepony would probably know something Cadance could find out. But I could go with you. I’m strong, I know almost as much about this universe-stuff as you do at this point! Let me come!”
Twilight opened her mouth to refuse—and couldn’t bring herself to do it. Spike hadn’t lost anyone, he had no personal connection to Flurry. But in a way, that made him ideal. He wasn’t just objective, he was a dragon. Magic would affect them both differently. Maybe if they were lucky, it would make whoever they encountered think they’d come from separate worlds.
She could already see Spike’s expression brightening at her silence. He knew she was about to let him do it.
Before he could start celebrating, Twilight raised a wing. “If I bring you, you’re going to follow every instruction I give exactly,” she said. “It doesn’t matter how strange it seems, or how pointless. It doesn’t matter if you disagree. You stay close to me, and you follow directions.”
“I can do that!” Spike beamed. “I’ve basically been doing that since I hatched, Twi.” He lowered his voice. “Weeks of keeping records, and it’s finally Spike’s turn to go on an adventure.”
They hurried from the castle, using the servants’ passages so nopony would know Twilight had gone. The gate building was already buzzing with activity. That in itself wouldn’t set off too many red flags, even if Cadance had a pony watching with a telescope or something. But she wouldn’t do that, right? She trusts me.
Twilight passed through the decontamination spray, mouth tightly closed against the awful taste. It still burned as it went up her nose, but she fought it back. Spike hacked and coughed a few lungfuls of flame.
Then they were on the other side, where her technicians already had the portal prepared to connect. The thaumic charge on the air lifted her mane, pressing against her horn. Lightning only moments from striking.
“You’re going to make a trip over so soon?” Static Variable said, watching her nervously. “You could send one of us on missions like this, Princess. You know the Love Princess has a squad of royal guards ready to go through that portal the instant you ask?”
“Bloomin’ lunatics,” said somepony else. “They’d probably jump in front of a train if they thought it would save Flurry Heart.”
So would her mom.
“I’m sure,” Twilight said, crossing through the shielded barrier into the observation room. “Let’s get this connected, Static. This doesn’t need to be a big deal.”
It wasn’t a big deal that they were cutting through the universal barrier into realms no pony hoof had ever touched. Except maybe Flurry’s, this time.
“You really think we might be done?” Static asked from beside her.
“I think we might be getting close,” Twilight admitted, patting her satchel with its many environmental spells and bits of equipment inside. She opened the flap with her magic, visually inspecting each piece. The Flurry tracking spell was at the center of them all, placed tightly against where the satchel met her side. Then she hesitated, recognizing the expressions on their faces. “You’re… not excited that we might be done?”
They looked to each other, and for a moment she wasn’t sure if any would be brave enough to object. Finally Static cleared his throat. “I wouldn’t go that far. Your success has been eagerly anticipated. Of course we’re all happy that the royal family might find its missing member. It was a tragedy losing Flurry Heart.”
Silence. Thaumic crystals arced again, ready to fire. Waiting for her. Yet Twilight hesitated another moment. She couldn’t have said why—maybe she just didn’t want to face what would happen if she got there and the spells didn’t verify they were finished.
Her delay worked, at least. Another pony finally stepped forward, lowering his head politely to her. “Princess, we’ve been exploring an entirely new realm of magic here. It will be an honor to have found our target, but… it seems a shame to give all this up? Once we’re done searching, once the little princess is back in the Empire, don’t you think… there might be something worth preserving about all this?”
Without the taxes of an entire city-state paying for all this, it won’t be easy. There are never enough bits in the scientific budget.
“Yes,” she said instead. “I’m sure there’s a great deal worth preserving. There are probably many new friends to make… new kinds of magic to understand, new worlds to explore. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, alright ponies? Don’t plan for our future when Flurry is found. Focus on getting her back with me, please. Once we’ve done that, I’ll support you as we restructure into something more sustainable.”
She made her way to the portal platform, climbing up the few steps over the barriers there. Spike followed at her side, attracting more than a few curious looks. But nopony told him to move—obviously Twilight could see what he was doing, so he must be permitted.
Starlight wasn’t here this time—Twilight couldn’t afford the delay in retrieving her. But that was fine, Static knew how to work the equipment well enough. “Ready, Princess. How long until we send a team after you?”
“Never, again,” she said matter-of-factly. “Anything too dangerous for an Alicorn is lethal to anypony you send. If I don’t report back in an hour, mark the world as critically dangerous and go back to searching elsewhere. Do not retrieve our bodies.”
Spike shuddered, one hand resting on her back. He hadn’t done that in years. “D-do you mean that, Twi? Could we die out there?”
“Yes. Still want to come?”
He didn’t move. She gave him another few seconds, before nodding to Static. “Alright, Static. See you with our results.”
Twilight stiffened, but she was more experienced with the transition process this time, and knew basically what to expect. Eventually the discomfort passed, and suddenly she was somewhere else.
For the second time, Twilight found herself recognizing the environment. Distant mountains rose, not bearing Canterlot’s outline, but standing in the same place. Dense foliage surrounded her, which might’ve easily looked like Ponyville if she could see the ground more clearly.
Spike wobbled and dropped to the ground, breathing heavily. She reached down to pat him on the back, and he started to puke. She pulled her wing back. “You’re still inside my environmental spells… are you okay, Spike? Is that just motion sickness?”
He looked up, belching out a mouthful of sickly green flames. “I, uh… think so. Do you have something to drink?”
She levitated a canteen down towards him, returning her eyes to the forest. She could feel no monstrous spells coming for them. She took a few steps, levitating out her lab equipment and setting to work.
There were no strange birds this time. While she processed the piece of fern she’d chosen, Spike rolled onto his back, settling the canteen down beside him.
Twilight levitated her test tube up to the light, watching as the enchantment on it faded away. The plants would turn brown like they had so many times before. It would be close, but bringing the sample back to Equestria had obviously tainted it.
The tube glowed, becoming bright pink. Flurry’s pink.
Twilight’s heart raced, and she settled the tube in beside her test-kit, levitating out the next bit of her test. She took a few more moments, filling other empty vials with soil, little rocks, and clippings from a few more plants. She wouldn’t be testing them now, but they might be able to tell her all kinds of useful things about this world once she got them back.
Twilight wouldn’t want to waste the magic in the tracking spell—each one of these required something Flurry had owned, and the connection to each grew weaker with time. The filly had been so young that she had contact with precious little in Equestria. By now, she has more of an impact on her new world than her old one.
Twilight held the spell flat in the air in front of her, pouring her own magical energy in and finally casting the spell.
Across a universal barrier, a tracking spell like this would barely wobble. Those faint vibrations could be tracked, as she demonstrated, but only with weeks of work and the best unicorns in Equestria.
The disk spun like a compass needle, pointing almost directly north. Assuming the sun moved the same way in this new world as Equestria’s, anyway.
I can’t get overexcited. Twilight twisted the object back around, fighting against its natural pull. She let go, and it swiveled directly north again.
Something rumbled overhead, barely visible through the trees. Twilight crouched low, spreading her wings protectively over where Spike now sat. A rigid metal structure, passing in a straight line and roaring distantly in its flight. This world’s version of dragons, maybe?
“It won’t harm you,” said a voice, sly and gentle. “It’s thirty thousand feet up. The true dangers are all much closer than that.”
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Good news, it seems we've found the right planet.
Bad news... well, we may have come across a hostile.
Well that's an ominous conclusion.
Good on her. If she tried to do all of this herself, we'd find out if she really is immortal.
Of course, by Twilight's standards, that means a pony who merely has their master's in arcanology.
He's not wrong.
One of Twilight's earlier priorities once she takes the crown, I'm sure.
Ah, the tantalizing promises of the multiverse. Granted, there are horrors out there to match the wonders, but it's still worth going out and seeing them for one's self... provided one doesn't turn the entire country into magic foxes or something.
Oh, if only you knew...
YES! They have finally arrived! Although... The new voice doesn't sound very... Nice.
Please, please, don't tell me Twi ran into Evil!-Granddad.
i was waiting for that moment :D
Okay should I get a minigun to protect Twilight?
This far, it’s clear that alicorns are much more powerful then the average human mage. I’d be doubtful that this person can even scratch Twilight.
10344834
Deception and surprise might still be a problem though.
I really pity anyone that tries to keep Twilight down... Or worse, keep Flurry from Cadence
how can this not bear fruit, you managed what majority of other twilight's fail to do.
Which is have a working spell that can bridge dimensions, those other twilight's usually fail which ends up bringing some poor creature to equestria with no way back home. You can even visit these other worlds and come back without anything going wrong.
Of course once you work out the kinks, get flurry heart back, and make it so she can visit her other mommy then your set for life.
10344917
The latter is much more dangerous. Twilight is rational at this point. Princess of Food? Not so much at the moment.
Not necesarily, but a sneaky sniper should be enough.
Well, who showed up this quickly? For some reason, I am thinking it's Discord? Showing up now would be his modus operandi.
Connor cadance to the rescue. I will do anything to accomplish my mission.
Do we finally get to meet Monday? Unlike everyone else commenting I don't think this person is actually a threat to them at this moment.
I really hope that one of her gadgets is a 'emergency return' button. Preferably one that pulls them back instantly and replaces them with the full contents of the local sewage treatment plant.
Looks like Twilight's made really good progress. Hopefully, there isn't an infinite number of Earths.
Cadance, It's a rescue mission, not a hostage situation.
Alicorns are powerful but are definitely not gods. There are plenty of things in Equestria alone that'll give and have given alicorns pause. Don't underestimate things or people.
I guess the best advancements are made in times of crisis, when everyone is suddenly generous with their wallets. If not for the space race, how long would it have taken to get to the moon?
10344852
Indeed. Not all knives stab from the front.
10344917
Might ironically be Kyle, Flurry's not-mommy. Twilight might explain things well enough, but Cadance?
She's a few steps away from a "shoot first, ask questions later" mentality. No doubt a regiment of pony guards appearing out of nowhere will scare the heck out of Kyle and Cadance in her current state might automatically assume the false alicorn as a malevolent being.
10344834
magic maybe but human technology could take her by surprise, especially technology that designed to counteract magic
Ohhhh boy!
Ggaahhh that ending!
10345194
Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong?
well this is good i am betting Twilight has found the right place,, and OH crap some one has found her.
Success! Now to see what, or who they've found.
...Or who's found them...
Oh that wasn't ominous. Maybe Twi should've brought a guard with her. I hope things turn out ok.
Please be a good guy making a sarcastic remark, please be Monday.
10345061
Earth clearly also has spell diagrams that block magic in such a way to make Flurry and Kyle take notice, both of whom are alicorns. Even if the Earth magic is weak compared to Equestrian magic in many ways, it's foolish to dismiss it outright.
Getting closer to finding Flurry
Monday, not a very mundane to enter in, eh?
I’m also gonna guess this will be a case of mistaken identity.
Was wondering where she'd end up. Seems the crystalline structure was removed coarsely.
Grandad definitely had someone monitoring the place where the magic dimension-hopping baby godhorse supposedly appeared. Of course he would. Why wouldn't he?
10344830
I'm sure she would appreciate it after all the "AAH! YOU JUST KILLED SOMEPONY!"
Oh, Spike, Spike Spike. If only you knew what horrors are out there. The likes of which could destroy your mind if you so much as heard their name, or took a glance upon their countenance. The horrors that could erase you utterly from existence within a Planck Time.
An antagonist wouldn't have a gentle voice. It's probably someone who means Twilight no harm, but is simply warning her of the potential danger.
A dragon is probably a pretty good resource for a dangerous trip.
Hey, looks like they might be on Earth.
Ominous.
10352492
Science requires sacrifices
10352471
Oh crud, I got it backwards.
oh fug
Well! Look at that, Twilight made it, only to run snack dab into an initiate.
I bet someone figured that a pursuer would come through eventually.
Just caught up, was pretty apprehensive about it because of the premise, but it was really engaging and hard to put down.
One issue I had was that Twilight's sections were often repetitive and a little difficult to get into. Cadance bordered on the 'hysterical mom' trope, which as a woman kind of makes me uncomfortable. What I think would have been much more poignant is if she decided then and there to learn Unicorn Magic on the level Twilight has, so as to never feel this helpless again, rather than turn into Cadance the Lion Queen of Cintra.
It'd be pretty amusing seeing Twilight try to work with an unhappy pegasus-icorn in the background complaining about how boring and counter-intuitive unicorn magic can be. Plus, it could have juxtaposed Mirage's own experiences by having Twilight keep Cadance busy by giving her more or less the same materials she was getting from Monday. They already mirror each other in the one way, it would have been cute to see them mirroring each other in others, and unintentionally.
I'm also not entirely sure why the Power of Love is done so dirty and treated as useless in this story. In most stories, this is exactly the sort of situation where Love can be a guiding light, but it only ever seems to be Cadance's downfall so far. Another thing to consider is Cadance's sympathetic connection to Flurry Heart, as her mother there would have been some chimerism, she's a part of Flurry, and Flurry is a part of her. That should be a pretty significant sympathetic connection, even without the power of love.
Well, this isn't ominous at all.
Laughs in B52
Bruh, if that's grandpa or one of his goons I'm legit gonna call... Uh... Whoever you call for rule breaking villains,n
Even better, you could take said god of chaos along with you! He might be up for a trip like that
Yea, I was about to say
I think he really likes either the pay, or the prospect of exploring countless dimensions
Flury Heart, accidental patron saint of interdimensional travellers!
Umm. Can't she just set a timed recall spell again?
Dun dun dunnnnn!
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