Between Magic and Science

Peaceful Pride, Rarity and Vinyl Scratch had all entered the secret room of his shop, and Rarity was still gawking over the ‘elegance’ and the ‘style’ that she said his armour had. While Vinyl thought it looked cool too, she was more amazed by his ability to make it all in the first place.

“You crafted this yourself?” Vinyl asked him. “It looks pretty cool.”

“Yeah,” he said, “Is it that good?”

“It’s more than good, it’s amazing!” Rarity declared, “This one here, it’s trimmed and perfectly shaped, not like that bulky armour they wear back home...”

“I need to fix the armour I prepared to fit your friends. I didn’t know how many suits I’d need, so I prepped all of them,” Pride said as walked over to one of the suits, which was hanging upon a rack of many more like it.

“I’m not sure how similar dresses are to armour, but I’ll certainly try to help in any way I can.”

Peaceful Pride nodded as he started up the heating bench with his synthetics. Rarity told him different measurements she had recalled from making dresses from her friends, as well as certain aesthetic details that they might appreciate. Pride sighed and did as she asked, and before long, he had five suits of shiny power armour, all of which were tailored to fit each of Rarity’s five friends.

For the next one, he looked Vinyl over.

“Huh? Oh, you’ll probably need to wrap some measuring tapes around me, right?” Vinyl recalled the way Rarity had gathered her dress measurements.

“No, nothing like that,” Pride explained, “I can gauge things like your shoulder width and waist diameter at a glance.”

Rarity seemed impressed, “You truly are one of your craft, aren’t you?”

“Well, yeah,” Pride blushed from the praise, “I try...”

“Well, you must tell me more about your work when we’re through here.”

He continued heating the armour under the flames until it turned red, and then molding it’s shape with a hammer. There were other, more modern ways of molding metal, but he had great precision with each strike. Soon, he had another suit ready, fit to Vinyl Scratch’s body. Now, for the upgrades.

“Come on... pick up, Pride...” Nexus held his cell phone to his ear, and awaited a response from his friend.

“Hello?” His voice came.

“Pride, we’ve got a change of plans.”

“What? I just got the armour ready, what do-”

“It’s nothing like that, but do you still have those experimental jetpack models that we had Trax Dash test out?”

“Yes, why?”

“I’ll need you to make an adjustment to the armour...”

The Equestrian girls were just as busy preparing for the battle as Nexus’s crew was, familiarizing themselves with different weapons, learning to fire them, and going over combat basics. In Powerjack’s training facility, they had all stood in the firing range. Twilight was a fast learner, but was hesitant to use her weapon. She had chosen a older weapon, a double-barreled, sawed-off shotgun.

“I’d prefer something with sufficient stopping power, at a closer distance,” she had told them, and Nova Burst had just grinned as he selected the weapon for her, and showed her how to use it. It disturbed her that he was excited, but such was the way things were.

Rainbow Dash had the most enthusiasm about firing a weapon than any of the others, using an automatic rifle that Whirlwind had chosen for her.

“Remember,” Whirlwind instructed, “fire in short, controlled bursts.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow pulled the trigger, and laced her target with holes.

“You’re using too many bullets, Rainbow, be careful.”

Pinkie Pie was very confused about what to use, so Whirlwind had just handed her a long range rifle.

“What’s this thing on the top of it?” She asked him, inspecting the cylindrical object, that seemed to have some sort of lense inside of it.

“That’s the scope. You’ll need it if you’re going to be supporting Alpha. You use it to get a better look at your target.”

“Okie dokie lokie!” She grinned, and looked into her scope, focusing on the body-shaped target set up at the end of the range. She pulled the trigger, and landed a shot in the target’s chest. “Yay! I did it!” She grinned, and Twilight shot her a worried look.

Fluttershy had been unable to fire a weapon, being too afraid of the noises it made, so she went over the human body, and different types of injuries with Powerjack. The two had grown very close in the past day, and he was suddenly very protective of her.

“The Raingear army sent us morphine,” Powerjack said, handing Fluttershy a glass vial, “It’s used to relieve pain, so you’ll be able to work without hurting your patient too much.”

“Okay...” Fluttershy had gotten herself up to speed with what kind of injuries they may be taking. Depending on what the changelings had for weapons, Fluttershy concluded they could possibly get broken bones, infected cuts, internal organ damage, and a large, much scarier version of a bee sting. She still went over bullet and blade wounds, as well as how to... amputate a limb. Fluttershy still didn’t understand how removing a part of the body could help, but Powerjack insisted that she know.

Her main tool that she used was her injector, a device that had a handle like a gun, but a needle protruding from it’s front. It was used to inject her patients with an anesthetic, which she connected a vial to top of the handle. In this case, she was using morphine, and Powerjack had made himself very clear when he told her only to give one person a single dose, indicated by the marking on the vial.

“Morphine is strong stuff, but too much can be lethal.”

“Okay...” Fluttershy kept that in mind. If she accidentally killed someone who needed her help, she didn’t know what she’d do.

Nexus was in his lab, and Burning Star stood behind him as he finished the final touches of the portal.

“Are you sure that you’ll be able to make it work?” She asked.

“Yeah, the portal should be fine. I corrected my past mistake.”

“Not that,” she rolled her eyes, “the small change you made to your plan.”

“Oh,” Nexus thought back to what he had told Pride, that they were going to be carrying the pulse bomb via Whirlwind’s jet. Of course, this meant they would be flying the jet through the portal and into Equestria, without knowing whether it would affect anything or not.

“That’s assuming that you can even open it up,” she crossed her arms, as Nexus flipped a switch. His implants glowed, and a thunderbolt had shot out of his arm and into the generator. With a whir, the portal powered on, creating a spatial tear in front of them.

Nexus smiled at Burning Star, who only smirked in response.

The Princess of the Sun was surprised to see an odd ripple in the universe appear right in front of her throne. Sure, she felt ripples in the universe all the time, but seeing one right before her very eyes was a rare occurrence.

What surprised her even more was the purple alicorn princess that emerged from this tear, and the unfamiliar tan earth pony who followed her.

“Twilight Sparkle, is that you?” Celestia rose to her throne to approach her protege.

“Yes, Princess Celestia, I’ve returned here bearing urgent news.”

She explained the situation with the Changelings, and how their power in Equestria would grow if they were to conquer Iron Core.

Celestia was shocked, for the first time in ages something this big had slipped past her. Changelings were planning to take over another world, and she hadn’t known anything about it. She didn't let this shock show, however.

“You seem like you have a plan, Twilight,” she said.

The tan earth pony who had entered behind her was trying to adjust to his surroundings. Nexus’s clothes were gone, and he had transformed into a pony, with tan coat and a dirty blonde mane and tail. There was a sword on his flank, identical to the one he had on his arm as a human.

“Nexus,” Twilight turned to the tan stallion, “Could you explain the situation to Princess Celestia here?”

“Hmm? Oh, right. Umm, your majesty,” Nexus gave the standard royalty greeting, “Both your universe and mine are in danger. An evil spirit known as Nightmare has been sighted opening portals into my world, allowing changelings to come through. There have only been a few confirmed in the several militaries, but we fear they may be planning an invasion.”

“Nightmare...” Celestia repeated. She knew about other universes, each one had a mirror dimension, in which, in some cases, entire histories would be counter parted with one another. She could only assume that this Nightmare was the counterpart of Nightmare Moon.

“Yes, he possessed an individual named Orbital Order for a short time.”

“How did you get here?” The white alicorn had approached the tear, it’s swirling purple vortex captivating her attention. “This doesn’t seem like magic...”

“Nexus built a device that allows for travel through other universes.”

“Oh? He must have used something other than magic, I assume,” Celestia figured that his world was probably not as centered around magic as hers.

“We’re a technology based civilization. Magic in our world is beyond our control,” Nexus explained.

“That’s not the point, though,” Twilight said, “Nexus has a strategy that will defeat the changelings.”

“Go on,” she nodded in his direction.

“Yes, there is a weapon our world, it creates a sonic pulse. Based on what I know about the changelings, they’re an insectoid species. If we strike the hive with this sonic pulse, it should destroy the changeling hive mind without any collateral damage.”

“What if it’s not successful?” Celestia asked.

“Then there is a fail-safe, an explosive charge with enough force to level a city.”

Celestia stared at him, surprised at the amount of power he had just described. For not having magic, the inhabitants of his word were powerful.

“I cannot allow that to be detonated in my world. It would cause too much panic.”

“With all due respect, Princess, I’m only going to use it if all else fails. I have my world to look after, too. And that means that I’m going to do what’s necessary.”

Celestia sighed. She never liked war, but it was as real as the sun she moved through the sky. “I will aid you. What do you need?”

Twilight stepped up, “We need somepony with enough magical power to hold a rift to his world open for an extended period of time. Also, some way to provide any layout of the area would be nice...”

“I can do both of those. Now, Nexus,” she turned to the tan pony, who was looking at the stained-glass windows that held the prophecies of different events.

“Yes, your majesty?”

“I’ll need you to take this.” She produced a crystal, one that had a pink glow to it.

“What is it?”

“It is a method of storing information via magic. It contains connections to lookout posts all over Equestria. I’m not sure how well it will work when you’re in your world, but it is yours while you’re here. Ask Twilight to help you with it.”

“Thank you,” he said, taking the crystal in a hoof. He had no idea how he could hold something without fingers, but he didn’t question it.

“As for you, Twilight, I think I know who would be able to do that. Come with me.”

The three walked through the hallways of Canterlot Palace. Nexus was surprised at how different the architecture was in this world.

“As you may have learned, Twilight, there are a multitude of different universes. Each one is different, but they all relate to each other somehow. Some do more than others, like the one that Nexus is from,” Celestia dismissed a few guards that stood in front of a large set of double doors. “I’m led to believe that his world is very similar to ours.”

“Yes, that’s correct,” Nexus said, “There is an odd similarity between the events of our two universes.”

“Let me ask you something,” they had stopped in front of the doors now, “Is there a counterpart to the Elements of Harmony in your world?”

“Yes, there is. My friends and I used them to stop Nightmare and free Orbital Order, who had corrupted his mind.”

“Your friends?” Celestia gave Twilight a knowing look, and Twilight nodded to confirm her suspicions.

“Yes, there are eight Elements of Heroism; Courage, Honor, Justice, Ability, Support, Strength, Trust, and Generosity. Each of my eight best friends is the physical embodiment of one.”

“You mentioned that you used them, how did you do that, exactly?” Celestia thought there may be a ninth element, but Nexus clarified.

“In order for the Element’s power to be fully manipulated, they need someone to control them, a Conduit. I’m the Conduit of the Elements of Heroism.”

Celestia nodded. “At least your world is safe.”

“Princess, why have you brought us to the Royal Library?” Twilight asked, recognizing where they were.

“The someone we’re looking for resides in here,” she said, opening one of the giant doors.

Beyond the door, there was a strange creature, a draconequus, sitting at a table, deeply absorbed in a book.