"If the court may be brought to order," Speaker Stefan Burnett began, leaning over into his microphone, "I would like to begin the session. I would remind everyone of just a few things..."

Twilight rapidly scanned the room. So many humans. All staring at her. It was more than a little intimidating.

"First off all," Stefan continued, "I need to remind everybody that this hearing is currently classified, and that revealing this to anybody, including relatives, constitutes capital treason. This hearing is a special case, and will be conducted slightly differently than most. While all of you will get your chance to speak, if you do not act in a civil manner, I will have you removed from this hearing."

"In this hearing, we will first have the recently-assembled house committee on Inter-Universal Political Affairs ask a few very important questions, which must be answered as soon as possible for matters of national security. The floor will be closed to all other parties until this question has concluded."

Speaker Burnett leaned forward, the mic almost touching his dark face. "And I do mean closed. There will be absolutely zero questions until the initial questioning is finished."

He leaned back slightly. Twilight tried to relax, but it was impossible. Everything was resting on her. Everything.

"Now, as this is the first hearing of this type to be done in the history of Congress, our format shall be slightly different. We will postpone opening statements from our subject until after certain facts have been established, in order to better comprehend said statements. Now, if the subject could please state her name."

Burnett turned to Twilight.

"Uh-"

Twilight bumped the mic with her nose as she tried to speak into it, causing a very small pop. Somewhere, far in the back of the room, a representative from Seattle suppressed an intense giggling fit.

"Tw- Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Magic."

The Speaker's face was devoid of all emotion. "Princess of Magic?"

"Y- Yes, Princess of Magic. It is my duty to manage the research and development of new magical spells, and to regulate high-activity magical events. I am also chairman of the Freestanding Expansive Extra-Universal Drift for the Building of Amicable Communication project, based at the Equestrian Research and Experimentation Center."

The Speaker raised both eyebrows. "Long acronyms, Mrs. Sparkle."

"Yes."

Twilight really needed a drink of water, but after Acone and the Marshall's reaction to her first use of magic, she wouldn't dare pick the cup up in front of her.

"Now, you regulate magic. Is there any way we could possibly receive a demonstration?"

"Uh- Yes. Yes, of course."

Thanking her good fortune, Twilight picked up the glass and levitated it to her face.

This had roughly the same effect as removing the coolant, control rods, and entire containment facility from a nuclear reactor on the mood of the room.

Absolute pandemonium broke out. A few of the older congressmen actually fainted. The rest either screamed like small children, began loudly discussing with the members around them, or held their head in their hands, trying to deal with the situation. Now, normally, even Congress would have acted marginally more professional, but it's not every day one has their reality shattered. The Speaker, to his credit, didn't bat an eye. Instead, he stood up, taking the microphone off its stand, and faced his congress.

"Ah-hem."

For a few seconds, his chest rose and fell rapidly. Twilight began to get nervious. Was he having a heart attack?

"ORDER! ORDER IN THE COMMITTEE!"

Twilight almost fell out of her chair. Several of the congressmen in attendance actually did. Even thought Twilight wasn't used to human faces yet, she could tell the man was old. Not as old as Starswirl was at the height of his research, but still old. But that scream... That was like some horrible combination of an Ursa Major and a Minotaur.

Which, actually, would probably be a useful thing for a politician to have.

The room was instantly silent. Satisfied, Burnett turned back to Twilight.

"I apologize for the outburst, Miss- Princess Sparkle."

"Princess Twilight, actually," Twilight corrected, before quickly covering her mouth with a hoof. She spoke out of turn. Horsefeathers, what would he-

"Princess Twilight, right. My deepest apologies, it is common to use the last name for formal address in our country."

He smiled at her. A smile with a good helping of fear and worry behind it, to be sure, but a smile just the same. She had no idea how this man produced the noise she just heard.

"Now. Moving right along," the Speaker said, shuffling his notes around slightly on his desk, "what country, city-state, tribe, or other geo-political organization do you represent?"

"I am a delegate from the state of Equestria and the outlying empires."

"And on whose authority were you assigned your mission here?"

"My own, as a ruler of Equestria, with the full support of Celestia, bringer of the sun and Princess of the Day, and Luna, bringer of the moon and Princess of the Night. I am also sent with tidings from the Crystal Princess and Princess of Love, Cadence, and the rest of her empire."

The Speaker gave a very quiet, exasperated groan. "Princess of Love, you said?"

"That is correct."

"Alright." The Speaker took a very long drink of water. "Alright. Okay. Now. I have been informed that you were not sent here out of pure curiosity, but are in fact attempting to execute a specific task."

"That is correct."

"Okay. I'll let you get to that in a minute. Now, just a few more questions. How did you travel to our universe?"

"I used several magical artifacts, called the 'Elements of Harmony,' in order to break through the universal barriers."

The senator leaned forward again, his eyes intense as dragon's fire.

"Is this breakage permanent? Can others get through?"

"No." Twilight responded. "In order to make any kind of portal that could exist without a powerful mage -- such as myself -- continually keeping it open. Well, with our current technology."

The senator nodded. "Okay. You may give your opening presentation."

Twilight took a deep breath.

"Uh- I had slides. Is there a screen-"

Before she could finish her sentence, the lights in room dimmed. Behind the Speaker's desk, a screen flickered to life.

Twilight took a moment to admire how clear the picture was, then continued. She'd practiced this a few hundred times over.

"I am here on behalf of the nation of Equestria. Our kind ruler, Princess Celestia-"

Twilight paused, then turned to the speaker.

"How do I change slides?"

"There's a remote on your desk. Just press the button."

Twilight nodded, then lightly tapped the button with magic. An image of Celestia, her smile as radiant as ever, appeared on the screen.

"Okay. As I was saying, I am here on behalf of Princess Celestia, in order to establish a relationship between our world and yours."

The screen displayed an image of the EREC laboratory.

"I came here as a result of intense research, which I, as the Princess of Magic, headed myself."

The slide jumped to a blank screen.

"We're all very hopeful that our nations can learn and grow from each other. However, besides an offer of friendship, I do have a very time-sensitive mission."

The screen went dark.

"You see, our nation is in mortal danger, and possibly yours as well. Why, you ask?"

A small murmur went through the crowd.

Twilight took a deep breath and pressed the button in front of her. Instantly, the screen was filled with Chrysalis' sneering face.

"This is Queen Chrysalis. She is the mortal enemy of Equestria, and a truly evil creature."

The representative from Denver arched an eyebrow. Many of his colleagues did the same.

"She is the ruler of the race of Changelings."

A very blurry photograph appeared on the screen, taken by a reporter during the Canterlot invasion.

"These creatures can shapeshift into any form they desire, and posss magical powers. And they're after one thing..."

Another slide, this time showing a large red heart. If the room wasn't darkened, Twilight would have been able to see almost all the heads in the room tilt slightly in unison.

"Love. These creatures feed on love. It is their sustenance, and the source of their power. They have their own inter-universal travel program, which is quickly advancing."

She pressed the button again, revealing another blank screen.

"Please. The nation of Equestria may not be able to stand to their invasion, and, if we fall, the love in our nation will empower them greatly. They may be able to invade your universe, or countless others. We beg you. Help us fend them off. We will give you several economic considerations in return."

Twilight nodded.

"Thank you."

The lights slowly rose back to full brightness, as the room was filled with quiet chatter. A military aid request from another universe. To an extent, it wasn't even really a surprise. There's no way an inter-universal traveler would pop into Congress on pleasure. It wasn't really the best spot for a vacation, after all.

"Well."

The Speaker cleared his throat.

"That was certainly interesting. Tell me, how do you propose we help you?"

Twilight tried to remain calm.

"I was hoping that we could get a portion of your armed forces to teleport, with me, back to Equestria, in order to provide reinforcements. Chrysalis is bound to attack very soon. When she does, we can launch a counter-attack, and destroy any capabilities she might have of universe-jumping."

"Awfully large request..." the Speaker muttered, stroking his chin. "You also said something about establishing a permanent relationship. Do you propose to bridge our worlds?"

"Sadly, that is impossible with current technology," Twilight responded. "In order to do that, you'd need to accelerate some very small particles to speeds very near the speed of magic, which, obviously, isn't feasible. Even worse, you'd need some kind of fusion reaction to produce enough energy to establish a permanent portal, and those kinds of nuclear reactions are barely even theoretical. Maybe in a few hundred years we could, but certainly not today."

"Uh- Speed of magic?" The Speaker asked, one eyebrow slightly arched.

"Yes," Twilight replied, "The speed of magic. It's a universal constant in our world. The fastest anything may move. Magic, magnetism, even light can't move at speeds greater than it."

"Oh."

The Speaker uncapped his water bottle and took a long drink. The whole mood in the room seemed to be tensioned by her words. Twilight was puzzled. Maybe she had broken some kind of unknown social code?

"Uh, Doctor Harrison," the Senator said, addressing a man at a table across from Twilight, "I know I said that you would speak after the economic specialist, but you might want to handle this one."

"Yes. Quite. Uh, hang on-"

Harrison himself took a long drink, pushing his very short hair even farther backwards on his head with a hand.

"Uh, Miss- Princess Sparkle," he said, just a little too close to his microphone, "I'm a theoretical physicist at Princeton University. I had a few questioned related to, uh, how you got here, which I was going to ask later on, but then..."

The man shook his head slightly, as if trying to clear it. Twilight saw many of her scientists do the same thing back at her home. "Excuse me. I was going to ask them later on in this hearing, but your comments seemed a natural segue. We're, uh, very interested in this topic. You just mentioned particles near the speed of magic -- which, if I am not mistaken, we would refer to as 'the speed of light' on this planet. So, if I may ask, what sort of particles would one need to accelerate, and how many of them?"

"Oh, probably just a few protons or neutrons would work," Twilight said, thinking back to the research papers she had. "The important thing is to make them collide. That should release a type of magical signature that would be very beneficial in Inter-Universal Travel."

"And, uh- You said that we would need a fusion reaction, as well. Does that mean fusion as in, uh, the collision of two atomic nuclei in order to form a new nucleus?"

"Yes. Of course, it's absolutely ridiculous to even consider that as a possibility," Twilight said, the ghost of a laugh in her voice. "Celestia herself is the producer of the only current fusion reaction, and obviously we can't use the sun for this purpose. While channeling the magical signature I mentioned earlier into such a reaction would create a permanent, safe portal, it would also destroy all the material that's actively involved or magically bound to the reaction. Doing this to the sun would, obviously, be out of the question, and creating a fusion reaction-"

Twilight laughed.

"Well, I assume that you guys have looked into it, even without magic. The only way to create the heat necessary to make a fusion reaction would be a fission reaction, and there's nowhere near enough fissile material for that. Of course, once the reaction is actually observed, it's trivial to extract the magical signature and copy it. From there you could easily build artifacts that can perform and extract the magical energy of such a reaction at room-temperatures."

The man looked like he had just been hit by a truck.

"N-N-No further questions."

He sat back down, staring at his desk as if in shock. The person next to him (who was in clothing reminiscent of her brother's dress uniform -- probably in some branch of the armed forces) leaned over and whispered something in his ear. Harrison could only nod in return.

The man slowly leaned back in his chair. He muttered something, obviously not intending for Twilight to hear it. She was still barely able to make it out, however.

"Holy fucking shit."

Profanity... Had she done something wrong?

She gazed out on the crowd. Most of them looked confused, but a wave of realization quickly swept pass them. Twilight could make out several people running a hand through thinning hair or beginning to rapidly fidget with a pen, as if in a panic.

She turned to the Speaker. He, too, looked like somebody had just punched him. Utter shock.

She quickly leaned over to her mic. She had made some kind of faux pas, insulted their culture in some unforgivable way. Maybe she had blasphemed.

"I-- If I said anything out of line, I apologize profusely," she stuttered, trying to keep down the panic, "I- I didn't mean to insult any-"

"Mrs. Sparkle."

The Speaker's voice was dry, but Twilight could tell that he was trying very hard to sound calm, collected, and kind.

"You have done absolutely nothing wrong. We just... That has, uh, been rather large news to drop on us. I don't believe that we can properly explain why."

"Larger than the... request for aid?"

"Ah," the Speaker muttered, "Yes. Possibly. I-- I think we all need some time to look over this. I'm calling a ten minute recess."

His gavel slammed down on the table.

Author's Note

You had no idea how much I wanted to titledrop during this chapter. I have to save it, though.

I'm really sorry for "FEEDBAC", by the way. I couldn't resist.
Neither could I resist the Speaker being who he is. If you get the reference, you get a solid 10/10 from me.

Recommended listening: "Burning Down the House" by Talking Heads.