Crossroads of The Looking Glass

by Lauralite

1 We Gotta Get Out of This Place

The speakers thrummed out the steady beat of The Animals as she guided the vehicle through the first of what she already knew was going to be a long line of stations and checkpoints.

Much of it was for show, the usual security theater that she'd gotten used to while flying to see family across the country, though it was much larger and more elaborate than even the most arduous of TSA checks she'd ever had to deal with. The fact she was packing along with a mid-sized truck with a packed trailer and bed of materials likely wasn't making her life any less difficult of course.

Even with a full manifest and declarations of every noteworthy item in her possession, Alex had already grown weary of the bluster and snippy attitudes of the officers and guards, and their apparent glee in delaying the process of her progression through the lines. There was constant heckling and questioning over every point on each list, trying to find a discrepancy they could try to nail her with. They would find none, she'd gone over her lists and meticulously checked every item herself, twice. What she couldn't bring with her directly, she'd already sent ahead through more than a week prior, where they were being held by her employer.

The next station check went by more smoothly, as did the next, and the one after that, until finally, she was at the final checkpoint before she'd be handed off to the Transit Commission for final processing and ingress.

It was at about this point that she started seeing the mixed teams of humans and ponies, moving at a brusque pace to and fro around the main pad just past the final security post. If she squinted, she thought she could just make out a griffon or minotaur here and there in the crowd.

She'd gotten herself quite familiar with the different races she'd encountered, and she'd met a few that had been visiting as tourists around New Orleans in the lead up to her crossing, and prior to that even seen a few milling about at the Strawberry Festival of her hometown. They were often an eclectic sort, at least by human standards. Often curious about the advanced state of technology compared to their homelands, and in the same breath stunned by how often humans just let nature happen on its own.

She shook herself from her thoughts, already feeling the slight buzz in her teeth and fingertips from the ambient thaumic field around the area, much higher than the Earth's normal background¹. It wasn't an unpleasant sensation really, in-fact, it was quite energizing! All the same she'd need to keep track of it or she might Hit the Gradient² faster than she was prepared for. Hell, she wasn't looking forward to the base acclimation period she'd have to go through on the other side, and even afterward, she'd need to keep some manner of Sink⁴ on her person while her body continued to adjust. It was quite possible that she'd never fully acclimatize and she'd need a Sink with her for the rest of her time on the other side, there just wasn't enough research available about how humans reacted to long term high-intensity ambient exposures. Perhaps she'd eventually be a case study, who could know? She had no real intentions of coming back through unless she absolutely needed to either way.

As the group ahead of her was waved through the last checkpoint, she drove the truck forward slowly, and put it into neutral so the last set of security checks could be done, she largely tuned out the questions of the guard, giving the answers she'd now since gotten down rote, focusing mainly on the playback of her truck's speakers, until a question outside the norm of the previous checkpoints startled her into paying attention.

"Uh…could you repeat that?" she asked, looking at the guard, having enough presence of mind to appear sheepish at having missed it.

"I asked, if this'll be your first time through a Gate Glass? You're packing a lot of stuff... most that come through are only really carrying the basics for a couple weeks."

"Heh, um... yeah, first time. Not really planning on coming back any time soon," she managed a half-smile.

"Your declared itinerary kinda says as much... you've got a full worker's ticket. Don't see those that often, at least not at our complex," the guard returned the smile, showing more interest than any of the previous had thus far beyond trying to make life any worse, "Who'd you sign on with? One of the embassies?"

"No, a small distance freight company... uh, Cerise Crossroads I think it was?"

The response made the guard pale slightly, then he looked her over once more, checking his tablet, before responding, "o-oh... That's.. a mighty small company, do a lot of odd work from what I hear. Seen a few of their packages come through the Glass on our side," he mumbled, looking around as if to see if the others had heard their conversation, they continued checking the gear in the bed and trailer, oblivious.

"Look," he said more quietly, holding up the tablet with a place for Alex to sign the final transit waiver, "You sure you did your research on this? You even met your boss directly?" The man seemed deeply perturbed, but shook his head, holding the tablet out for her.

"Met one of my co-workers a few weeks ago to sign the employment papers, one of those bat ponies, uh, sarosian, yeah that's it. but no, can't say I've met her specifically," she took the tablet and signed the appropriate fields, then let him scan her travel tag, "From what I've read Cerise Crossroads is well respected that side of the Glass, aren't they?"

The guard shook his head and took the tablet back, "They do their job well, from what I understand but... you hear things, working complexes like this."

"What things?" Alex asked, getting somewhat testy at how evasive he seemed to be.

"Just that..." he looked up, one of his fellow guards walking back toward the front, "look, just be careful, alright?" then shook his head, looking to his co-worker and nodded, "everything seems to be in order, I hope you have a safe trip."

"I'll be trying to."

She sighed and slid the window back up as she was given the clear to maneuver past the point, and further onto the pad. Weaving slowly through the throngs of people, ponies, and other manners of being. She took her time, years driving into, and out of the Quarter paying off as she managed to successfully avoid running anyone over, though there were a couple of close calls from inattentive individuals...

The fact that human stupidity wasn't just a human trait comforted her. It seemed life wouldn't be too different as to be unrecognizable at least.

She pulled the truck through the first arch, the transition point from the main pad into the Gate Complex itself and was now in the domain of the GGTC⁴. Dozens of uniformed humans and ponies both worked the various transit zones, working diligently to process a steady stream of materials and individuals through the half dozen Gate Glasses spread across the building. In truth, this was just one of eight Gate Glass Complexes in the Crescent City; she'd seen each from the outside, but it was still quite something to behold, especially now that she was getting to properly see her first one up close.

She pulled to a stop at a designated spot, to wait her turn, and let the GGTC agents do final checks before crossing. Holding up her travel tag, she rolled the window back down, and was met face to muzzle with a stoic-faced pegasus mare, and a well groomed gentleman, both in the eye-wateringly bright lime and silver uniforms⁵ of the Commission. They rattled off a series of general questions about what she was bringing with her, reiterated the details and importance of her coming acclimation period in a specialist medical facility in upper Canterlot, then was waved forward to the staging area of the Canterlot linked glass. On the whole, much more bearable than most of Security Check had been, at least.

She put the truck back into gear, and guided it forward once more, focused on the quicksilver surface of the Glass ahead… for the first time, she felt trepidation, this was it, wasn’t it? The strange reflective pool offered no answers, and the shift of her speakers to a melancholic tune by Blackmore’s Night not giving much more.

The Gate monitors, a pair of unicorn stallions on either side checked a display, looked up, nodded, and gave her an affirming wave for her to make the crossing.

Alexandra took a breath, and pushed down on the accelerator, headed toward her new life.

The front of the truck pushed into the rippling surface, gliding through, and soon, she too passed the meniscus. The transit wasn’t exactly instant, despite the ways it had been described, and the shock of displacement, and the strange neural feedback felt oddly like being sucked through a vortex of thick taffy, a strange vision of madness to behold tricking her synapses… flashes of sight that were not… and then she was through, and soon enough, the rest.

Author's Note:

1. Earth, after centuries of atrophy of magical knowledge and use has a generally low ambient thaumic baseline, where as Equus has a very high ambient thaumic baseline. Fonts of Magic still exist across Earth, but the even the strongest easily accessed Fonts pale in comparison to their Equus counterparts.

2. Hitting the Gradient is a common english colloquialism for Thaumic Gradient Syndrome, Which is an acquired thaumic imbalance caused by overexposure to, or improper decompression from, a specific baseline of ambient or font magic, referred to as Saturate or Desaturate depending on which direction on the gradient. Some equivalent colloquialisms on Equus include Mana Burn, Thaum Shock, and Magic Exhaustion.

3. A Thaum Sink or Focus is a specific type of device or material that absorbs ambient magic almost like a sponge. Most of these are mass produced passive items that can be worn as a type of jewelry or accessory, but have a distinct limit to how much can be absorbed over a period. Most such items have a specific Yield Grading to denote how much ambient magic can be absorbed over a particular interval that is prominently displayed in the usage manuals that are, usually, mandated by law. Even so, its not unheard of for catastrophic failure, or defects to occur... or illicitly manufactured sinks and focuses to make it to market. Nominally speaking, the higher the Yield Grading, the better the quality of the Sink or Focus, and of course, the greater the cost.

4. The Gate Glass Transit Commission is a Jointly funded international organization propped up by the United Nations on Earth, and the Council of Independent Nations on Equus as a centralized transport authority and security filter on the Earth and Equus sides of any given Gate Glass portal complex. The GGTC was established after a series of less than favorable incidents of translations between sides that ended in unfortunate outcomes and a number extreme cases of Saturate and Desaturate Thaumic Gradient Syndrome, and now largely regulates how often beings are allowed to pass in either direction and imposing limits on specific material transfers. If someone wanted to be troublesome with moving something through the Gates, usually its caught well before someone even makes it to security check, not unlike with the TSA. It should be noted that, generally, Security Check is separate, and run by local transit authorities, and not the GGTC.

5. An individual with significant sway, early in the GGTC's formation made the executive decision to make the official uniform code require Neon Lime in abundance, with silver accenting. Because the agents needed to be readily visible. From Low orbit, inside a windowless building.

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So, This has been the thing I've been slowcooking and working on. Is it amazing? Probably not, but I'm happy with where this opening chapter currently sits.

I have a lot of notes for the background to work with and set up, and hope that people enjoy this little run through Equestria with my colorful(or not so colorful) cast of characters and ideas,

Would like to thank my proofreaders and editors, Mahazkei, and Thad for their help thus far in getting this reasonably presentable.

Additional editing passes thanks go to Saccharine Affliction

A brief clarification on timeline, the events of this opening are approximately a year before Nightmare Moon's return.