Fred Walsh's Adventures in Equestria

by Baguettedood

Chapter 21 - Wormhole Part 1

Chapter 21
“Wow, those cultists sure love to keep the pressure on. I have no idea how many of those guys there are, but they've failed repeatedly, and I'm fairly certain that we got the one who started it all. I wonder if they'll actually back off for once.

“It's a good thing that Celestia now knows about Nightmare Moon's return. Saves me the trouble of causing an existential crisis and there was no way I could possibly look forward to that. Still, she knows that it's going to take plenty of work. New bearers for the Elements, knowledge of the date of return and even getting Ponyville founded – Who chose that name anyway... Or rather, will choose?”

---

The day appeared far brigher than others in recent memory, though not in the literal sense. Everything just seemed happier, somehow. Those in her vicinity may have noticed the correlation with Princess Celestia's mood.

The alicorn, ever since she learned of her sister's eventual return, has been extremely cheerful. She arose noticeably more energetically than previous mornings since discovering that she could redeem herself for actions long past. It's possible that she's the happiest she's been in a long time.

Of course, preparing for Princess Luna's return would require much preparation, she knew. Picking out a suitable location to influence the return, for example. But for the time being, planning had to wait until some other things were completed.

Further interrogations of the cultists that attacked Celestia during her address yesterday, they discovered the most recently used base of the cultists, and a team was dispatched to investigate. As Bullhorn's sonic attacks have been effective against the harmonic amethysts, he lead the group of five ponies in case any more surprises lay in wait for them

Upon arrival at the house, the exterior seemed completely normal, nothing to really differentiate it from the others on the block. Inside, however, was a different story. Banners were hung on every wall. They depicted a silhouette of Potens Daemonium standing tall amidst a sea of crimson fabric.

Traces of magic lingered in the air, from a powerful spell cast some time ago. The more powerful the spell, the longer is stays. Unfortunately, it was impossible to determine the spell cast at this late of an arrival, even with the residual magic.

At the back of the main room, a static platform rose from the floor, obviously set up so those down below could observe the speeches of the messenger. In the centre of the room stood a wooden pedestal. A three-pronged metal claw protruded from the top of the pedistal to hold various gemstones atop it, but no such gem presided on it. Instead, there were fragments of what was a single ruby scattered on the floor nearby. They radiated a faint glow.

Bullhorn ordered the others, “We'll take these gems back with us, but be careful. These are likely what started this whole mess.” The team collected the ruby fragments, dismantled the banners and continued searching the place. Nothing else stood out, so they returned to Canterlot Castle.

---

Doctor Green was on call to examine the fragments of the ruby retrieved from the cultists' assembly point. In the lab, the gems were placed on one of the tables, separate from everything else such as the other gems or the knife. He began scanning the rubies with his horn, taking extreme caution. After all, they're the most likely culprits for what caused the entire cult in the first place. Every so often, he'd scribble something in his scientific journal.

Some time later, he gave his scientific report to Princess Celestia.

“What have you learned, doctor?” she asked

“The rubies are definitely harmonic, there's no doubt about that. What I find most peculiar, though, is that they each have different universal signatures.”

She was surprised. “What does this entail?”

“I believe that the Elements' interaction with the ruby gave it connections to other universes. It's likely that one of these leads to Potens Daemonium's home, and another may lead to Fred Walsh's origin point,” he explained.

“So it's a multiverse cluster?” she questioned curiously.

“Or something to that effect, yes. I believe that when the cultists attempted summoning the demon for the first time, they aimed at the wrong shard and retrieved our human friend instead.”

“Too bad we can't use it to send him home without the spell they used,” she mentioned. “It sounds as if the messenger-cult leader found the harmonic ruby, somehow contacted the demon through it, then sought to summon destruction to Equestria.”

---

With the ruby analysis completed, Princess Celestia returned to the throne room, hoping things would be comfortable and not deadly for once. She believed it was time to commend those involved for their help in the cult mayhem.

A crowd, mainly that of the palace guards and the staff, were gathered in the castle's throne room. Fred Walsh, Jenga Redheart and Lieutenant Bullhorn stood at the base of the stairs, while Celestia presided at the top, in front of the throne.

“Lieutenant Bullhorn,” she addressed a light brown unicorn stallion with dark brown hair.

'Oh, so that's his appearance without armour... Wait, didn't I pass him while first going to the science lab?'

“For your bravery and assistance in defeating Potens Daemonium and its associated cult, I award you a promotion from a Lieutenant, to the rank of Captain. Congratulations, Captain Bullhorn.”

The recently-promoted unicorn saluted the Princess with his hoof before returning to the other three.

As he passed Fred, the human joked, “But now you have to wear a specific hat.” Before the unicorn could respond, small tremors began to shake the room.

'So much for a peaceful day,' she mentally sighed.

“It's been a while, but I'm damn sure I've felt this before,” Fred vocalised his thought process. The rumbling grew louder and felt as if it was coming from the middle of the throne room. “Stercore, incoming wormhole!”

The moment he finished that sentence, a loud crack broke out, yet softer in volume than the last wormhole. The portal, too, appeared in a different colour than blue. Instead, it glowed a yellow-white. To add to this, there didn't seem to be any gravitational pull, such as the one that posibly collapsed Fred's house.

“Well, that's different,” the human noted as the guards placed themselves defensively around the anomaly. 'Also, is that crack softer or am I just getting used to these?'

Along with the theme changes, the wormhole's event horizon was vertical – pointed at the walls instead of the floor. It expanded to a size slightly larger than Fred, but nothing came through. On a hunch, he used the Scavenger Watch to look for radio signals from the on-board equipment – Notably, the Wi-Fi adapter, AM/FM receiver and also his inbuilt walkie-talkie, which he now realised he hadn't coded support for yet. 'How did I manage to not notice a critical communication flaw? Well, I'm paying for it now. What else is here? Maybe I can try something else.' He received weak radio signals on the AM/FM receiver and, amazingly, an open Wi-Fi network called BC-N-Sci-Guest. Still acting on impulse, he connected.

Fred waited a moment to be assigned an IP address, then began broadcasting packets throughout the network in hopes of opening communications with the other side, while keeping open a diagnostic tool of his own to track incoming packets. It was a long shot, but he didn't have any other communication method.

He broadcast “FREDWALSH” in the packet. He thought, if the wormhole did lead to home, that his departure may have been the catalyst for the research. 'That seems slightly egomeniacal, but I'm unaware of any other spontaneous wormholes at this time.'

It took a few moments, but Fred amazed himself when he actually got a response. Examining the packet, the text read “ON OTHER SIDE?”

“Huh.” He nodded, then used the watch to send a reply: “YES”.

Then, Fred received a link to an internet site he recognised; a web-based voice chat system. He opened it with the browser. As he loaded the page, Princess Celestia took notice.

“I think I'm establishing communications to the other side,” he pre-emptively replied. “Ah, here we go.”

“Is this for real? I thought that guy was dead,” a male voice spoke out. It sounded Canadian.

“I hope so, I haven't seen that address connect before,” a female voice replied to the first.

“Can you lot just explain why there's a yellow wormhole right in front of me?” Fred interrupted.

“I'll give you the rundown,” the former voice began. “A wormhole somehow opened, and collapsed your home a long time ago. We're trying to replicate the anomaly a bit safer.”

“Yeah, I did worry when this much debris came along for the ride,” he transmitted through the watch.

The female voice spoke next: “Just come though and we'll explain everything. You'll also be the first thing to travel inside our wormhole.”

“Okay, give me a moment.” He disconnected, then looked toward Celestia and the others. “I'm going home... Cool.”

“So on the other side is your universe?” Jenga asked.

“They've certainly been busy. Wormhole physics was just theoretical when I departed, and only ever seen in fiction.”

“Right then, guess it's time for some goodbyes: Princess Celestia, thanks for being hospitable and not immediately killing me when we first met. You'll find your sister again, just be ready.”

“Jenga, thanks for no bad touches,” referencing their encounter the first morning while en route to the science lab.

“Bullhorn, excellent work on your promotion and good luck for the future.”

Fred Walsh began to walk towards the patient wormhole. Before entering, he turned around and pressed some buttons on the Scavenger Watch to open the video recorder. “I don't really want to waste more time and raise their power bills any higher, but one last thing:”