15. Echo
[Echo]
“What's going o—”
*BOOM!*
…
“Twilight! Talk to me!”
“Huh?”
“What did you just do? I've never seen you do that before.”
“Do what before?”
“Was that supposed to happen? With the boom and everything?”
“I have it all on tape if you want to see it.”
The high quality video clip continued playing for another sixty seconds until it ended shortly after Twilight gave her best explanation of what happened at the time. The clip cut off right as Twilight went to sleep seconds later.
Lucas glanced at everyone standing to watch—all except Kate, who stood by the fridge listening from a distance. All eyes were fixed on Twilight with stares that accused her of being guilty of some horrendous crime she didn't commit. The unicorn's own eyes were wide and pupils dilated to the point of looking like she had seen a ghost.
“Um...” she trailed off. Her nerves reciprocated within her, finding it hard to process what she had seen on the computer monitor—all to which having not the slightest idea of how such a device could display such sharp images of past events. Her rapid rate of blinking surpassed her heartbeat. “I don't—“
Twilight fell silent again, unable to form an intelligible sentence. She blushed from embarrassment and gulped nervously. Her gaze returned to the screen while her mind frantically searched for a restart. Her questions regarding the mechanics and purpose of the sleek device were nowhere near as substantial as the issue at hoof. Even more so than their misguided reveal to the humans. The seemingly malfunctioning spell that turned their world on its head was captured on film.
“Twilight?” Lucas began. “What exactly happened when you were casting your spell? You said you felt something strange. Strange how?”
For a few seconds, the unicorn said nothing. Then she slowly turned her head to look at each of them, one at a time, from left to right.
“I-it's hard to say,” her voice cracked. “Once I activated my horn, I not only feel Kate's mind, but Cadence's as well. It's strange because before I started searching for her consciousness, I detected significant fluctuations of energy hovering around both of them. They had to have been at the same level of sleep which is why I had a hard time distinguishing between the two. I was able to find Katherine's mind and monitor her brain activity, but I think I used too much magic. I panicked and lost control.”
“So this occurred while we were sleeping last night?” Cadence asked, stroking her chin with a hand. Every time the Princess used her human hands, Kate watched her every move to make sure she didn't do anything rash, like poke herself in the eye or cut her fingers off with a knife.
“Yes, but I don't recall anymore events later that night after that spell. I guess I fell asleep shortly after using that much magic.” Twilight shrugged.
“Which kind of spell did you cast?”
“It was an advanced cognition spell for... um... observing brainwaves of a subjects mind.” Twilight's hesitation was enough for Cadence to gasp.
“You know those spells are incredibly dangerous. Drawing that much power without compensating for the multiple variables of mana-space is a complex operation that takes time and practice to master. Are you sure you've used it before?”
“I have once.” Twilight paused to formulate her confessions. “Princess Celestia is the pony who taught me how to use the spell, but only for emergencies. She— uh... told me to never use it unless it is absolutely necessary.”
Cadence pondered for a moment. The short pause gave her the time think of what that meant. Her eyes lit up, horrified. She broke eye contact with the purple mare with her mouth slightly hung open. Twilight recognized her reaction right away. Information like this was too great to keep to herself.
“I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier.”
“What reasons did Celestia tell you that restricted the spell to emergencies only?”
“Well,” Twilight gulped. “The spell I used is not strictly speaking 'legal'.” This statement carried enough weight for Lucas' heart to skip a beat. Stanley nearly choked on his own spit. “But don't worry, I doubt Equestrian law applies here and for the sake of discussion, it WAS an emergency. I was asked to use it.”
The moment she uttered those last words, Kate snapped her head at Twilight from across the table, her loaded gaze eager to attack the culprit.
“Who?”
Twilight looked directly at Lucas. “He did.”
Kate darted her eyes at Lucas the moment those words left Twilight's lips. Instead of walking straight up to him, she stepped towards the opposite end of the table across from him and plopped down in an empty chair, all while maintaining locked eye contact with her every stride.
“Why would you do that?” She put her forelegs on top of the table and lay her head on a hoof. Lucas sat up straight to regain his confidence.
“I just wanted to know if you were alright. I mean, you looked like you were dead when Stanley brought you over.” He licked his lips and shrugged innocently. “She told me she could do it.”
“And you trusted her?”
“Well yeah, I didn't exactly have the right medical tools on me and I don't know anything about treating injuries. I probably would've made things worse. I was worried about your health. I thought you had some internal trauma and needed immediate medical attention, but like I said, I'm useless. I don't have the skill or experience to check how bad your condition was, and neither does Stanley.” As Lucas finished his defense, Stanley nodded in agreement.
“I'm not the one you should be talking to,” the captain continued. “Twilight cast the spell, not me.” He gestured with his head in the purple mare's direction. The unicorn cleared her throat.
“I can explain—“
“Can you?” Kate cut her off, apparently revisiting similar feelings of agitation when Twilight confessed her faults not long after throwing Lucas with her magical grip. “I wanna know why you decided to—”
“I didn't decide to!” Twilight yelled, startling the group. “It just happened. I don't know how. I don't know why. But I can fix this.”
After a few moments to let the steam roll off her cheeks, Twilight closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. Cadence was speechless, whereas Stanley and Lucas where exchanging confused looks. The men were hoping the purple pony would learn not to stoop to their level of indignation. If only they knew how sensitive Twilight was to mistakes, they'd show more empathy.
“I'm sorry,” she pleaded. “I just need you to understand how terrible I feel for doing this to you. I want nothing more than to return you to your own body.” She brought a foreleg to her nose to muffle a sniffle. “If you would let me help, I will find a way. Please, I ask that you have faith in my ability to correct this mistake.”
The room went silent again. If it weren't for the short periods of intense shouting, periods of silence would lose their meaning, especially when they were a common symptoms of suspense and drama.
Kate looked around the room like she was the guilty one. She then felt the pressure bear down on her and began nodding.
“Okay, okay,” she waved her hooves. “I didn't mean to hurt your feelings.”
“That would be an understatement,” Lucas muttered.
“Hey,” Kate shot him a glare. “Don't think you're getting off easy just because you thought I was dead.”
“I didn't think you were dead, but I also didn't think you were sleeping either, like you were in a coma or something. What would you have me do, let you suffer?”
“But all I did was hit my head. You don't really think concussions kill people.” Just as she uttered those words, Kate began thinking about the connotative implication of her own statement.
She craned her head to the ceiling and grunted. Both her human companions found this somewhat amusing and cute... to an certain degree. They understood how freaky her situation was for having to swallow so many surprises in such a short amount of time, but like any rational human being, she managed to retain her sanity and get over the initial shock rather quickly. Some people would have gone absolutely crazy, if not severely traumatized. With the body of a mythical being, the inherent qualities of her equine features—wings and a horn and pink and everything, the whole package—brought a smile to their faces.
The conversation seemed to veer off into a different tangent, only to gravitate back when one of them caught the irrelevancy of their respective topics.
- - -
Halfway into the boring meeting that seemed to go on and on about magic and stuff, Rainbow slithered under the table unnoticed and quietly started snooping though Lucas backpack. She was so curious to find out what else was inside his bag besides the awesome futuristic looking machine he placed of the table. It had the shape of one of those snazzy gadgets from the Star Trot book series—her second favorite book series behind Daring Do—where such a device displayed vivid images from an impossibly small operating system for storing electrical data. It even shined from its silver surface.
Of course, Rainbow Dash would never admit her short bursts of nerd rubbing off on her when things like this happen, but when her high flying fantasies of adventure were brought ever closer to reality—from ancient temples to space aliens, those urges for explore further was made a top priority.
Rainbow examined Lucas' backpack, searching for any recognizable features. It was unlike any ordinary saddlebag in Equestria, certainly made for the curvature of these tall bipedal giants known as humans. Even the materials it was made were out of the ordinary, creaseless and meticulously crafted. Rarity would kill to get her hooves on the unique design.
She gripped the top handle with her teeth and pulled it away from the human's legs. She dragged along the floor. With the largest of the pockets already unzipped, she opened it further to find some more strange objects and a couple books.
One of which was a pair of sunglasses. A large grin cut her face in half when she picked them up with her hooves and put them on. She looked around from under the table, satisfied with her work of wearing human shades. At least humans and ponies have some things in common. They sure look radical.
The books were quite uninteresting at first glance. She took both paperback novels from the pocket and stared at the book covers for a moment.
The Outline of History
H.G. Wells
Eh, looks boring, She thought. That's a book for Twilight.
The Invisible Man
H.G. Wells
Rainbow's eyes light up for a second. The title struck her as both odd and menacing. Whoever this Wells guy is, he may had inadvertently given her a good idea for a future prank... not like she was looking for one.
She slid the books aside for a pair of normal binoculars. Nothing strange there.
The next item puzzled her the most. It appeared to be a flat, shiny box with a circle and a rectangle on the top. At least, she thought it was the top. It was smooth to the touch. Every angle she studied it from, not a single straight answer came to her.
“What is this thing?” she whispered so quietly, she could barely hear own voice.
There were holes on the sides and a picture of a white apple on the back with the word 'iPod' under it. She assumed that was its name. A strange one at that. The metal device certainly couldn't be food, much less an apple.
Rainbow set it aside for now. There were a few more items deeper inside that demanded attention and begged for her prying eyes, especially the cube with all the colors of the rainbow mixed up into squares.
- - -
“I felt something strange, but I was managed to enter her mind for a short period of time before everything when white. I can tell you that she is doing fine, but her brain activity is weak, like she isn't even dreaming.”
“That doesn't sound good.”
“I have done what I can. I'm sorry I can't do anything to help her get better. You'll have to wait till she wakes up to find out.”
Playing the video a second time to catch what Twilight had said seconds after preforming her spell, the brought the question back to how. Her brief description of the misty experience into Kate's mind hinted at the problem.
“Like she isn't even dreaming? Weak brain activity? What does that even mean?” Stanley asked.
“I'm not entirely sure, but I think it may have something to do with the amount of power I used for the spell,” Twilight theorized.
“Okay, what is this mana-space anyways?” Lucas quickly said, but a sudden idea popped in his head. “Wait wait, no don't tell me....” He sat up in his chair. He held out his arms in front of him, but paused when his right hand began to shake involuntarily. He curled it into a fist to control the trembling until it went away on its own and stared at his arm for a while. Time seemed to slow for him at that point. It's too soon, he panicked in his thoughts.
It wasn't until the pause went on longer than anticipated for Kate to notice something wasn't right.
“Hey Lucas?” she said as she cocked her head to the side. “You okay?”
The shaky captain looked up and shook his head. “Yeah yeah, I'm fine.” He cracked his knuckles to conceal the minor convulsions and brushed it off as an excuse of the cool room temperature giving him unwanted shivers. “It's just cold in here,” he lied.
Lucas dragged his index finger along the touchpad and opened up the internet browser icon on his desktop.
“I was just gonna say I'll just Google it.”
As soon as he fired up the Wi-Fi, Twilight and Kate both sensed a noticeable tingle beneath their foreheads like the base of their horns were being tugged on from the inside. It hit Kate harder Twilight. The feeling wasn't painful, no. It was a stimulating sensation that tickled the frontal lobes of their brains. If one could imagine taking a feather and physically tickling the brain, the sensation far surpassed that. It gave them a cold chill and fuzzy vision.
Kate stumbled off her chair, but managed to land on her hooves.
“Kate?”
Stanley's deep voice and capricious tone echoed in her ears. His serious concern for what was happening was overshadowed by humming noise that only she could hear, alternating in short bursts, each one weaker than the last. She pressed her hooves against her forehead like her horn was burning her the surface of her skull. After watching in horror for a few more seconds, she blinked rapidly.
“What was that?” she said.
“I don't know,” said Twilight. “I felt it, too.”
Stanley pondered the mystery for a moment. He was quick to notice a connection between the computer and their brief magic onslaught.
“Hey Lucas, open up a new browser will ya?” he requested.
The captain did just that without question. As a fresh window popped up on his screen and started to load, Twilight and Kate brought their hooves to their horns again and tightly squeezed their eyes shut. As the browser stopped loading, having completed its task of displaying the Google homepage, the ponies appeared disoriented, Kate especially.
“Okay, that's not good.”
“What is happening?” Cadence eagerly asked. She was holding Kate in her arms after collapsing from the second wave. “Is there some form of dark magic lurking around that you haven't told us about?”
“Uh nope, it's called technology.” Stanley expressed subtle amusement form her ridiculous question with a snicker. When he saw that Lucas frowned at his remark, he immediately forced a fake cough to clear the airwaves. He plastered a more serious complexion and looked at Twilight with his arms in a Thinker position.
“So, I have a question,” Stanley began. “Are ponies sensitive to EM?”
“EM?”
“Electromagnetic waves.”
“Oh,” Twilight still looked confused, but then it hit her like a brick to the face. “OH! You mean to say if unicorns are able to detect changes within the electromagnetic spectrum?”
“Uh, yeah let's go with that,” he said, rolling his eyes.
“It depends of the frequency. There are certain ranges that interferes with our magic, the least significant of which is that of visible light. Which frequency are you referring to?”
“Radio.”
With a slightly puzzled face, Twilight blinked like she was struck by a revelation. Only it wasn't another resurgence of memory, but a crinkle of the nose that suggested a face a scientist would make when something extraordinary was discovered. She then let out the tight breath trapped in her lungs.
“How can that be!?” Twilight chimed. She was close to shouting out her merriment right on the spot. “Radio waves are a rare occurrence in Equestria. Unicorns magic emits both visible and ultraviolet, but I've never felt radio before. I never knew it can have that kind effect on us.”
Lucas pointed a finger in the air. “Well, one, this isn't Equestria, two, magic doesn't exist here, and three, you're telling me you guys haven't invented radios yet?” Lucas ended with three fingers rubbing his temples. A smile partnered with the last statement.
“You can detect these waves, cool, but does it hurt?” said Stanley.
“Not in the same way as physical pain.” Twilight rubbed her forehead again. “It comes as a mild to severe headache, depending on the frequency. There isn't much research done into determining which frequencies are more significant that others, it doesn't follow any sort of pattern.”
“So... it's random?” said Stanley. Twilight nodded. “That's unfortunate.”
“I wish I could say more about it, but until I understand more on how your strange machine works and how it disrupts our magic, I don't have an definite answer.”
Kate temporarily recovered her balance with a little the help from her human counterpart. An awkward silence lingered. It was assumed that they each were coming up with viable ideas on explaining the phenomenon, but it was quite obvious to Stanley. He felt guilty for testing such a theory while having to indirectly harm Kate and Twilight in the process.
“You really don't have radios where you come from, do you?” Stanley said.
“I can't say we do” Cadence replied. “Most mechanical devices in our world are operated by magic. It does take a lot of effort on our part to recharge certain instruments, so we haven't been able to successfully create devices that are efficient enough the for average pony.”
“That's probably why you were looking at the computer like a kid stares at people, like it's the most amazing thing ever,” Lucas added.
“Is that what this device is?” Twilight pointed at the laptop. “I've been meaning to ask you its true functions and purpose.”
“You're looking at the wrong guy.” Lucas sat up straight and held up his arms. “Even I don't know how computers work. I just know how to use them.”
“You said you were going to Google 'mana-space'? What does that mean?”
“It's a search browser. I can search anything about anything and it will give me millions of pages of results.”
“You mean like a library?” Twilight was practically flooding with glee through the smile on her face. She was strong enough to hold in her excitement.
“It's a whole lot bigger than a library. More like a collection of everything man has dared to ask and share with the world. So in a sense, it's thousands of libraries.”
By the time his response ended, Twilight was drooling from the corner of her lips, speechless. She stared deep into his eyes like he had hypnotized her and under his command. Though, that wasn't too far off from what was going on in Twilight's head. The gears shifted so fast in her mind that it overheated, leaving the rest of her body unresponsive.
“Hello Earth to Twilight?” Stanley said. He turned back to Lucas. “I think you broke her.”
“I didn't do anything,” his cousin denied. Lucas went ahead and snapped his fingers in front of the unicorn's face.
“Did you say thousands?” she said softly.
“I did,” he replied. “I guess that was more than a surprise to you than I thought.”
“Very much so.”
There was so much Twilight wanted to ask, but based on the overlying issue, she managed to fight the overwhelming urge to attack them with questions. A quick demonstration of the computer's capabilities would be nice. The thought that the strange machine produced and/or received radio waves was key factor in her victorious battle of suppressing her inner Twilight. It would be very unwise to endanger herself and Kate through callous negligence.
“It's not all good information by the way, most of it is junk and meaningless. I'm not going to explain it because it's there's too much to say about. Despite that, the internet has some good stuff on it that will keep you up for days, not to say I've done it before. What I mean is, I'm bound to find somewhere on the web if I'm looking for it. Speaking of which...”
Lucas leaned in to type in the word 'mana-space' when Stanley quickly stopped him by grabbing his hands.
“No don't!” he warned. “That's what causing them these headaches. If you do anything that will transmit a strong signal, that's what happens.”
“Oh yeah. Right.” Lucas agreed to close the internet browser and shut off the internal Wi-Fi connection to the laptop. The router was back in the lobby, but it did no harm from that distance if it remained dormant. “I can search it later. So what do we do now? We still don't know how were get Kate back to her own body. I'm no expert, but I don't think we can be much help, because... ya know...” Lucas shrugged and twirled his hands in sync. “No magic.”
“Actually, I've been thinking of—“
…
Twilight was unable to finish her sentence when a familiar—yet strong—jolt of pain surge through her horn as the previous two. The hair all over her face and neck stood on end and she stumbled backwards in her chair as if her brain ceased sending commands to the rest of her body and limbs.
The same happened to Kate.
This time, Lucas was aware of the dangers and was prepared to catch her. He jumped from his chair just in time to save her from violently slamming face first into the hard ceramic tiles of the kitchen floor. She fell limp in his arms. He held her head up to reduce further injury.
As for Kate, she was lucky to have Cadence already by her side to avoid another incident of collapsing to the ground in a crumpled heap. The Princess protected Kate and her own body from repeating the past.
All the two ponies could hear was the incoherent noise of high-pitched humming and the drowning echo of voices nearby. The pain would not stop.
“Where is it coming from!?” Stanley shouted, frantically searching for the source, quickly rummaging the variety of appliances on the counter tops beside him.
For every second that the waves seethed through Twilight's skull, Lucas lent a hand for her the struggling unicorn to squeeze while enduring the waves hitting her brain. It took long enough for Lucas to realize that the kitchen was missing an important member. The rainbow pegasus. She hadn't said a single word since the discussion about the fishing boat.
The only action required was to pivot his head left, and as he did so, he found the source.
“HEY!” he yelled.
Rainbow Dash jumped in the air in complete surprise and hit the table above her, knocking a plate to the floor and the sunglasses off her face.
“Ouch.”
When she landed back on the ground after being pinned to the underside of the table, she froze in a defensive stance, only to direct her recently acquired attention to Lucas.
“Oh, hehe,” she smiled sheepishly. “My bad.”
“What the hell are you doing?” His gaze then met the ransacked bag riddled with various items scattered on the floor. His eyes have never been wider. “WHAT DID YOU DO!?”
“I- I just thought—“ Rainbow stuttered with true fright. Her heart was pounding from being caught red handed—or red hoofed in this case.
“What did you do?” Stanley cut her off, joining all the commotion. Repeating the question a second time was influenced by concern than for intimidation. He wanted to shout, but his heart wouldn't let him.
“W-what's going on?” Rainbow asked, unintentionally avoiding the question and finally coming to terms with her surroundings. She was distracted by the horrific sight of Twilight pressing her hooves tightly against her forehead. She appeared to be in serious mental pain.
“What's happening to her?”
Lucas shot her a sharp glare. “What is WRONG with you? Weren't you listening to anything we were saying?” He noticed the volume of his voice higher than he intended and paused to calm down. “Now, tell us what you did?”
“Uh, I was playing with this yellow thingamajig... with all these cool buttons and—“
“Stanley! The beacon!” Lucas immediately roared. His cousin got the message and frantically sifted through the pile of his cousin's belongings under the table. When he found the yellow, satellite-phone-like device, he picked it up and violently threw it at the wall, breaking it to pieces.
Lucas slapped himself on the forehead and huffed. “Wow. Was that really unnecessary?”
“Sorry, but it was the quickest way to kill the signal.” Stanley smiled like the idiot he is. “I'll buy you a new one.”
At that moment, Twilight stopped squirming and shifted in Lucas' arms like she was just waking up from a nightmare. The mare rolled over and shuffled to her hooves, wobbling vicariously before falling again. Trying a second time, she finally found her balance and shook herself off. Her vision was blurry, taking in only blotches of colors and moving figures. A mosquito ring disoriented her hearing and her horn pulsated with pain.
“Ugh...” she groaned. “Where am I?”
“Thwhilhghht?” called a muffled voice. “Twilight?” When it spoke again, it was more distinct. Even her eye sight was returning to normal.
“Hmm?” She felt something grab her by the shoulders and steady her posture.
“Are you hurt?” said the voice Kate. It wasn't until she looked up, straight into the hazel eyes of the female human and saw her face scrunched with heavy concern. It took her long enough to remember the real voice behind that mask.
“I'm fine.” Twilight smiled. “Although, I am a bit dizzy. Where did that come from?”
“It appears Rainbow Dash activated some sort of device that I assume was causing the transmission of radio waves.” Cadence helped groom the unicorn's tousled mane like it had gone through tremendous static shock of a thunder cloud.
Twilight coughed and searched for her light-blue friend. Upon finding the rainbow mare, she frowned. For once in her long friendship with Rainbow Dash, she felt betrayed.
The blue pegasus was standing underneath the table, doing her best to reflect her innocence through her motionless stance. She stared wide-eyed at Stanley, who was kneeling down and stared back, extremely disappointed.
“Why would you do such a thing, Rainbow?” Twilight asked.
Rainbow shot her head left. “I didn't mean— I didn't know— I was just—” She quickly rambled, soon realizing how pointless it was to justify her careless actions. “I'm sorry.” She looked down, her composure begging for resolve.
Fortunately, she knew Twilight better than anyone. The studious purple unicorn mare of Ponyville was not easily angered unlike herself, holding on to her highly praised integrity that even Princess Celestia commended, making her the most respected pony in Ponyville, if not all of Equestria.
“I know you didn't mean it,” Twilight said. “I can see you were curious about the human's saddlebag, I would have done the same. I assume you weren't listening to our conversation on our recent discovery. I don't blame you. For that, I'm not angry. Just don't do it again.”
Both mares smiled at each other, having come to an understanding. Lucas had watched her speak with interest, exchanging worried looks between the two of them. He expected for yelling or retaliation to take place. He was dead wrong. Perhaps his expectations were based on his own relationship with Stanley and how each of them handled certain situations, which weren't usually friendly. If he was Twilight, he would not have explained his reasons for not being furious and would have jumped straight to enraged shouting.
The way these magical ponies calmly communicate with each other was beyond him. He could use a lesson or two on self-control, but from the moment that thought entered his mind, his right hand began shaking again. He put his arm behind his back to hide his jittery fingers.
Lucas bit his lips and slowly stood up, bending his spine backwards. When the shaking stopped, he clenched his wrist and winced at the new aching pain that twisted his muscles. His ring finger twitched while he tried massaging the carpal bones in his wrist joints. He did so subtly so no one would notice, including his cousin.
To distract himself from his hands, he sighed.
“Why were you looking in my bag anyway?” he asked Rainbow “Were you looking for something?”
“Uh, no.” She got out from under the table and stepped aside. “I saw your computer thingy and I thought you might have more futuristic gadgets with you. You have some cool stuff. Like that yellow box thing that Stanley broke. I liked the glowing buttons on it.”
“You mean the distress beacon?” Lucas laughed. “Uhhh yeeeah, if you don't already know, that's what caused Twilight and Kate to collapse. Their bodies are sensitive to radio waves, and beacons transmit radio waves. I—“ He suddenly paused. “Wait, why did you activate it?”
Rainbow shrugged. “What does that mean?”
“Did you press red button?” He elaborated. He didn't like the fact that she was able to operate his beacon without his knowledge. Judging by the mess she created out of his stuff, Rainbow emptied the entire bag of its contents, but to his relief, there was nothing dangerous to hurt herself with.
“I— I think so, I don't know. I pressed them all.”
Lucas craned his neck backward to look up. He drew a breath the obnoxiously exited his mouth. Judging by how long his 406MHz distress beacon was active for, it was more than enough time for the signal to reach the New Zealand Coastguard. If he knew anything about rescue operations conducted by the coastguard, it was that they didn't play around. They were dedicated people, always on duty, valued the lives of others more than themselves, and don't take kindly to jokes.
It wouldn't take them long to arrive at their doorstep.
“Perfect, you've screwed us all.” Lucas grunted and pinched the bridge of his nose. “This is the best day ever.” He ended with a laugh filled with the ever so glorious charm known as sarcasm.
In reality, things just went from bad to worse. He went to pick up the pieces of his distress beacon riddled on the kitchen floor to take his mind off the potential problems the Guard could create if they came to their rescue, only to find much more than the three of them in need of assistance. It posed a threat to the ponies since people are highly cautious of the unknown.
“Well that's a good thing, right?” Kate said walking over to him, ruffling her wings that brushed up against her sides. “I mean, we could use some help with fixing my boat. It ain't going to stay on the beach forever.”
“Not with you looking like that.” Stanley gestured a hand at her, having to remind her of her current form. “You can't stay like that forever either. What would happen if they came crashing through the door and saw you like that, huh? They'd think it's a prank and hate us forever, and probably haul us off to prison. Or in a worst case scenario, they believe you're real and take you away for experimenting... or whatever it is the government does to aliens.” He made small hand movements, mimicking a mad scientist holding up a beating heart. “I won't let that happen.”
Kate took a good look at her hooves again. “Oh... yeah.”
“Oh yeah is right! So why don't we move on?” He looked at Twilight and Cadence. “You ready to try the same mind spell as before to return them back to normal?” It took some effort to conceal the panic in his voice. From his uneasy breathing and rising tension in every muscles in his body, it was apparent that Stanley was frightened of the inevitable arrival of a rescue team. Him and Lucas shared similar levels of alarm that only they were aware of. They weren't exactly in need of help in the way the beacon intended to provide, but there was no way to stop what was already set in motion.
“I guess I can give it a shot.” Twilight replied hesitantly, wondering what was scaring the two humans so much. “I have been conserving my magic for a while, but I still need more time until I am at full capacity.”
“Well we'd better hurry. We don't have that much time.”
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You know, it's almost scary how this music
fits this story, in all parts. And I mean all of them. From the flight to the island, to the night fight, to Twilight's study scenes.
The last phrase has a pretty big chunk missing.
Oh, Rainbow. Do not touch!
2997021
I don't know how that happened, I guess it got lost in the editing process. It was just one word.
Hmm... now that you mention it, I was intending to begin that sentence with something, but I don't remember what.
That music creeps me out a little.
Well, damn, that is going to make it difficult for Equestrian technology to advance along that particular path. Also, radio bursts emitted by stars would likely make space travel uncomfortable for unicorns and alicorns.
It also would mean that if the ponies are brought to more populated areas, even with the best of intentions, things would likely end very badly.
Long-term relations with our world would also be problematic. And attempts at communication by humans if/when we get the necessary space or dimensional travel technology might very well be seen as an attack.
Lightning produces radio waves naturally, so radio waves can't be all that rare in equestria.
pretty good, but since radio and microwave (Wi-Fi is microwave, not radio) have less energy than infrared and visible light, it would seem that they should be less bothered by it? Would unicorns be bothered by infrared or ultraviolet light? If they are they shouldn't be, because we receive infrared and ultraviolet light from the sun. X-Rays and gamma rays?
Rainbow is a dumbass. I don't care if Rain-tards scream at me, I don't care.
She is stupid. Stupid stupid stupid!
2998111
I would think it's both micro and radio, I guess it depends on the technology. The role of EM is reversed between Equestria and Earth. Infrared and UV, however, doesn't change a whole lot. As for shorter wave lengths, they are more protected by their own natural ability to generate magical fields to surround their bodies, where as they are deadly to us humans.
I don't know if that makes much sense, but this story is not 100% reality. This is ponies and magic we are talking about.
2997544
It's more of a large concentration of radio waves rather than random bursts from a distance.
2997192
Exactly why they're far from large cities throughout the story.
Your point about space travel is interesting. I find human colonization in outer space to be a hard concept to get a full understanding of, even in fiction, seeing how we are not at that stage yet. I suppose it would be similar to historical events of colonizing far off lands, only to end badly for the indigenous people living in the area.
uh... you mean necessary?