Destination: Equestria

by Zervziel

Chapter 8

The two-day ride to Appleloosa was an exercise in extreme boredom for one particular mare. When the two brothers Flim and Flam weren't performing impromptu musical shows, the Apple family that took up most of the cars yakked her ears off about apples surprisingly enough.

Mayberry had been shocked to figure out she was not heading to the town she had spotted from the tower but a town even further away. Thankfully she'd hidden her surprise well enough. It truly didn't matter to her after all. In fact it her mix up may have helped her out. If what the Apple family said was true, Appleloosa was much further away from the capital, Canterlot. Despite the fact the name of the capital made her want to bang her head against the window, the unicorn figured that something had gone her way for once.

Still the names of this place were driving her crazy. Appleloosa, Canterlot, Equestria, and from what the pony named Braeburn had said, the town she had been trying to get to was named Ponyville. Ponyville. Mayberry wasn't certain, but she was quite sure the old country that Fancypants had said was named Eurohipp* was a horse pun as well.

The mare was kind of wary of her companions at the moment, mainly due to her outburst earlier. At hearing Canterlot's name, she'd burst out laughing, telling the family to tell her about the Mare in the Water next. That'd had drawn some strange looks her way. After a long awkward silence had filled the car, a cantankerous grumble from the gray old stallion she'd heard Braeburn call Hard Cider about strange ponies from Manehattan. A short scream followed by a loud crashing noise had scared the entire car. When questioned about that, Mayberry had covered her overreaction by sheepishly saying she'd spotted a huge spider.

Hours later the train rumbled on. The setting sun disappeared behind the mountains on which the capital stood, gleaming in the dying light of day concluded the first day of travel. Mayberry sat in the car, watching the golden rays yield to the oncoming display of the twilight hours.

The train actually passed through her original destination of Ponyville, the name still causing her to wince. The train had stopped for a few minutes to unload a few passengers and some cargo. The cream-colored mare figured she could have jumped off at that point, but she figured she might as well go all the way. Heck if there were pony mages or guards on her tail, then Ponyville would likely be the first town searched. So Appleloosa was actually a better option.

Mayberry wondered what she would do once there. While she did have some gold from that buffoon of a cartographer (or at least she thought he was from the compass rose on his rear) the mare figured it would be a good idea to earn some as well. While she did want to get back home, Amber didn't believe that doing so would be at all simple and would likely take some work. In all likelihood she'd be in this world for a while. A job would be a good step in the right direction.

Casting her eyes towards the front of the train, Mayberry noticed the pony called Braeburn. After she had brained him accidentally with her horn shortly after the train had left, she'd apologized to the stallion. They had introduced themselves. The crotchety old uncle of Braeburn's, Hard Cider, had already excused himself and found his way back to his seat. After they'd introduced themselves, Braeburn and Mayberry had talked for a bit about themselves. Mayberry stuck to Fancypant's assumption of her being from the old country for her background. When asked for specifics, she told him that even in Eurohipp she'd been moved about quite a bit as a filly so even then she didn't know too much. It was a fairly weak reason, but the eclectic stallion seemed to buy it.

The conversation eventually turned to Mayberry's lack of a cutie mark. Mayberry noticed Breaburn's eyes looking at her flank and at first she was going to tell him 'eyes up front' when he mentioned it. Once again the wealth of information from Fancypants proved invaluable to her. Mayberry told Braeburn pretty much the same thing Fancypants had said about the restrictive roles of the old country and how they didn't allow for much self-discovery. The unicorn mare mentioned how someone had said she'd likely find her cutie mark while in Equestria.

After they talked for a while, Braeburn had gone back to his seat. Mayberry promptly struck up a conversation with the only other unicorns on the train, Flim and Flam. The two brothers told her their long story of how they started a little traveling business.

For the most part the brothers sold whatever little knick-knacks they could. At other times, the two would peddle the wares of a supplier and split the profits amongst themselves. It hadn't been until they had passed through Trottingham that they had first encountered ponies that were suffering from cider-withdrawal, the local farms unable to keep up with the massive thirst for cider the ponies had. Flim and Flam had ventured over to the beleaguered and overworked farm to learn more. There they learned the farm still persisted in using their ancient and outdated methods of creating cider.

Mayberry was still trying to wrap her mind around why ponies would love cider so dang much. Flim (or was it Flam?) told her of how the line for cider had extended for almost a kilometer. Here her mind suffered another one of its freeze ups. Not only did the ponies have a tremendous thirst for cider, but they were willing to wait about two to three hours at best for it?

"Ok, before we go any further, would it be considered weird if I told you I'm not a big fan of cider personally?" Mayberry couldn't help but ask. Following that statement the car went silent. The unicorn mare could practically feel the eyes of ponies from the front of the car boring into her like lasers.

"Not at all, miss!" The mustachioed brother spoke up this time. "In fact my brother and I usually don't drink it." Seeing her incredulous look, the other brother cut in.

"At most we taste it to make sure the quality is good. Outside of that we don't drink it. Why drink what you can sell?" That made good sense to her. She decided to ask them what they were going to Appleloosa for.

"We're wanderers by nature, but after our last and er….rather costly demonstration in Canterlot which ended in the destruction of our previous machine, we decided to take no chances and decided to partner up with these ponies." The brother with a mustache gestured towards the Apple family at the front of the train car. "We'll man the machine and they'll provide us with the best cider-making apples. Most of the money will go to the Apples for farm expenses, but with the demand for cider, it doesn't matter."

The train rolled on into the night, many passengers retiring to their respective sleeping cars, a certain unicorn mare quickly assuring her fellow passengers she wouldn't snore this time.

---

As Luna raised her moon higher into the sky, a rather strange anomaly appeared before Princess Celestia as she was about to get into bed. The white alicorn looked up from the scroll she had been reading before she felt the surge of magic. As she watched a thin dot of violet light appeared above the balcony outside.

Getting up, she crossed over to the restored door and pushed it open with a gentle tap from her magic. The tiny point of light drifted down to the balcony and as it touched, a miniature vortex of similar points of violet light exploded out of it with a flourish. Celestia raised her wing reflexively to protect her face, the magic in front of her something entirely new to her. She slowly and cautiously lowered her wing, ready to raise it at a moment's notice. The lights were still there slowly rotating in place.

"What is this? Some kind of joke?" Celestia had always been one for small playful pranks, but this seemed a bit much. After all who would waste so much magic on a mere prank? While remaining warely of the magic display in front of her, Celestia closed her eyes and concentrated.

Expanding her senses outward, the Princess could sense magic. This ability allowed her to pinpoint who was using magic, what spells were being cast, and where the caster was. It had been infinitely useful to her in the recent years for her. More than once she had found herself using this very spell to hunt down a certain unicorn as a filly. Overtime experience simply told her to just check the deepest parts of the library and almost every single time, the Princess had found that little filly, wrapped up in a blanket as snug as can be protected by a small fort of books with whatever she was reading right in front of her.

This time however, the spell didn't work as planned. It was unable to identify the spell being cast and the caster was nowhere to be seen. That last part disturbed the normally unflappable princess. Unicorns had a limited range in which their magic worked, the magically weak could only use spells within a few feet and struggled to lift an object up to 4 feet away. Even her student Twilight, a unicorn of immense potential was limited. The greatest feat she managed was lifting an Ursa Minor and depositing the beast 3 kilometers away in it's home.

"Maybe the spell isn't working properly," she mused to herself. Dropping some of the filters she had in place on the spell to prevent interference from outside sources, Celestia once again extended her magical senses. Unfortunately, this led her senses to encounter an overpowering source of magical energy emanating from the throne room. The result was similar to staring into the sun without protection.

Magical senses momentarily overwhelmed, the Princess of the Sun was forced to admit that enhancing her senses to such a degree and then looking in the general direction of her sister, whose role as goddess and princess of the night made her a fount of unlimited magic, may have been a foalish mistake.

Opening her eyes and locking them on the still swirling anomaly, the Solar Princess decided to simply study the matrix of this spellwork. Upon drawing closer however, the tiny points of light stopped swirling and started to shift. One by one the points of light found their place. Celestia likened the event to watching one of those 3D puzzles Twilight liked so much as a filly solving itself. Finally the last point in position, Celestia found herself face to face with a unicorn pony made up entirely of magical lights. Then it spoke.

"Dear Princess Celestia…"

Celestia started at the construct mentioning her by name. She didn't have much time to think on it before it spoke again.

"Dear Princess Celestia," it repeated in its weird androgynous voice. "Is this thing working properly? Oh pony feathers." The thing's head sank down as it talked. For a few seconds the magical construct froze in position. Suddenly it's head jerked back up. "Princess Celestia are you there? Please respond. It's Twilight."

"Twilight?" Celestia looked over the construct. With a small smile playing about her serene visage, the alicorn realized she should have at least recognized the familiar glow as she had seen that characteristic glow many times over the past three decades. "Twilight, my faithful student, it's been too long. What is this new spell?"

"Princess!? Good! The sending worked!" The purple construct started prancing in place with it's caster's self-evident glee.

"Twilight, I truly admire your talents at spell-weaving and this new spell of yours is quite an achievment. However as proud as I am of your accomplishment, I must retire for some sleep tonight." The Princess's caring yet stern voice brought the prancing lights back to order.

"I'm sorry, Princess. I got a little off-track. I figured with your unexpected letter last night that I'd wait until I made sure everything with this spell was safe and ready to test. What was it you wished to speak to me about?" All through out this the lights never ceased their prancing. Only now Celestia couldn't tell if it was excitement, agitation, or her beloved student's restlessness.

"A few days ago, Luna and I detected what seemed like a long range teleportation spell. Where it was directed is unknown."

Twilight's construct ceased it's prancing and assumed a position so striking similar to one Twilight herself used when she was taking in every single word someone was saying. The likeness was so similar, Celestia felt a small pang of regret it wasn't her violet protégé herself seated in front of her. Even such an amazing facsimile conjured by her brilliant student was a poor replacement for the one pony Celestia would call family outside of Luna.

"I'm sorry, Princess, but what do you mean by unknown?" Celestia noticed at this point that as the conversation progressed, Twilight's creation started taking on features closer to its creator than the stock pony form it had originally assumed. Celestia could only guess that the spell was being remotely modified by Twilight to become more personalized.

"What I said, I meant, Twilight." Celestia couldn't help but smile at the enigmatic statement. She could practically feel the questions no doubt burning inside of Twilight. Casting her eyes to the darkened sky with purple hues, Celestia relented and told Twilight the rest as she admired her sister's masterful work with the stars. "The reason why it is unknown is the location of the spell's focus wasn't in Equestria. Whoever cast that spell found a way to pierce through the Veil." Looking back at the construct, Celestia continued. "Though it is embarrassing to admit, even to ourselves, Luna and I have been unable to discern who cast the spell. We would ask for the aid of the Silver Pinnacle in this, however we are not sure if it was one or many of the group who cast such a spell."

The construct's approximation of eyes widened in understanding. "So you want me to help find out who cast the spell?"

Celestia bowed her head towards her astute student's creation. "Yes. While we encourage the Silver Pinnacle with experimentation, there needs to be some degree of caution. Luna has already expressed her concern for this recent experiment to me and while I find it fascinating myself, I understand her reasoning. Who knows what such an experiment will pull into this world?"

Twilight's light golem nodded its head. "I understand. I think I may know how they are powering such a powerful spell too."

"How so, my student?" Celestia wondered if such a source may also be what was powering Twilight's spell.

"Recently, as we were mapping the flows of magic, we noticed something quite odd. At regular intervals and in specific locations all over the planet, there are places were the flows of magic cross. Every single one of these locations corresponds with legends and tales of wild magic. The closest is in the Everfree forest!"

The Solar Princess couldn't help but smile. "That might explain why all those centuries ago, Luna was so insistent that our third palace be built there on the grounds of 'It feels right.'"

Looking over at the glowing stand-in for her student, Celestia decided to experiment with it. Walking up to it, she raised one of her alabaster hooves, having shed her royal vestments for the night. Waving her hoof a few inches from the construct's face, the curious alicorn watched for a reaction. Sure enough its head and eyes followed her hoof.

"I think that's the first time I've seen you without your shoes or that big crown thingy, Princess."

Plastering on a grin, Celestia attempted to hide her embarrassment at being caught by her student. Clearing her throat, Celestia asked the question that she'd wanted to ask the entire time. "What is this new spell, Twilight? I've never seen the likes of it before."

"Oh! It's a new type of sending. Kinda like Spike's ability to send letters only this spell allows for entire conversations to be held instantly from extreme distances!"

Celestia frowned with concern, hoping her reproachful look could be seen by Twilight. "An amazing spell, but something like this and at the distances you mentioned, the drain on your magic must be tiring at best. I don't want you to hurt yourself in your zeal."

"I thank you for your concern, Princess. However, I planned for that. Remember those magical nexuses I mentioned? I've tied a small amount of a small nexus that I've based my secret lab around to power the spell. Eeeeee! I've always wanted a secret lab!"

Twilight's Sending was now bouncing about the princess in a very familiar fashion, drawing a nostalgic smile from the Princess. Even if she had graduated to the most celebrated and secretive of the ranks of her mages, Celestia still saw glimpses of the little filly she had taken under her tutelage so long ago. Still smiling she still had one question she wanted to ask. "Twilight, where exactly is your new secret lab? And is it really secret if the Silver Pinnacle mapped out all the nexuses. Especially if they happen at regular intervals."

Twilight ceased her bouncing at the question, her simulacrum so far away doing the same. "Well technically the large ones happen at regular intervals. Some medium to smaller nexuses form in a wide radius around the large one. Kind of like how a maelstrom will sometimes cause little eddies or even whirlpools to form as water flows around rocks and other obstacles. The one I based my secret lab around and over is a medium sized one near the edge of the large nexus on the Barrier Mountains on the far coast of the Zebra homeland."

Celestia did a mental calculation of her student's relative location. Relative to Canterlot Palace, it would be past the mountains that marked the border of most of Equestria. Past there was a rather barren land, with only a few brave ponies daring to form settlements there. Some had even made peace with the local buffalo there. Past that land was a range of fairly small mountains. Aside from a few dragons and the rare chimera, not much lived in them. Beyond them were the zebra homelands, some parts of which were verdant and green while other parts were vast grasslands. Even further out, almost half the world away was the monstrous and forbidding mountains that Twilight now called home.

Celestia felt a momentary small stab of sadness that her student was so far removed from her, before realizing with a start her ever so clever Twilight had just invented a new and innovative way to still spend some time with her. Suddenly she found herself stifling a yawn. While she didn't need sleep as other ponies needed it, the Solar Princess was not one to pass up an opportunity for it as it left her feeling fresher in the morning.

Seeing her mentor's need for sleep, Twilight wished her a good night and apologized for forgetting the time difference. Before she released her spell, the violet unicorn promised to keep an eye open and an ear to the ground in regards to the mysterious teleportation spell. After doing so, Twilight paced around her lab admiring her work.

The room was circular in shape with living spaces built into the places she had hollowed out of the rocks with her magic. The living spaces consisted of platforms and caverns, which were linked by sturdy wood bridges reinforced with metal. Interspaced were several workplaces. While there were torches placed in sconces in the larger caverns, for the most part it was unneeded. Most of the lab was bathed in bright violet hues.

Dominating the center of the lab, forcing everything to be built around it was a dizzying drop. Twilight thought it looked as if some great force had bored a hole into the crust of the world. However instead of fading into darkness, a brilliant light seethed and surged below. The aura emanating from the nexus lit the lab up better than a thousand torches.

Twilight often found herself looking down at the almost mesmerizing display whenever she was deep in thought. When she had originally found this place, the light below had been a chaotic mix of greens, blues, purples, yellows and reds. However the moment she had used her horn to magically probe the nexus, Twilight found that the nexus quickly shifted it's colors to match her characteristic magical glow.

Once again staring into the nexus, Twilight murmured, "What is the council up to now?"

*Eurohippus is an ancestor of modern horses and was remarkably small for an equine. So yes, Eurohipp is yet another punny name.

Comments

[Laine]

All hail Sithis!
Leader of the Brotherhood!
Writer of Fan-fics!
Hail!

[Fernin]

Well, I must say I laughed about Twilight's enthusiasm for secret labs.

[Zervziel]

258229 She has always seemed to be the kind that would enjoy having one.

[ShadowWing09]

Aww, this was such a sweet chapter, I always loved the mother / daughter relationship Celestia and Twilight seem to share

Eeeeee! I've always wanted a secret lab!

Well, that's a whole new level of adorkable, even for our dear Twilight