04 Acceptance

Seeing the girls’ jaws simultaneously hit the floor, Celestia couldn’t help but break into a fit of laughter. After a moment she had regained herself.

“Forgive me girls, I just never get tired of seeing that expression. Now, I have no doubt that all of you must have a multitude of questions. Why don’t we have a seat, and we can begin,” she said as she gestured towards the sofas.

The five girls had squeezed themselves into one, while Twilight and Celestia took the other. The moment the Central Officer took her seat, the door opened and in came two agents, dressed in red, who brought with them cookies and tea good enough for seven. They set them down on the table and made their leave.

Celestia turned her attention to the girls. Fluttershy had returned to the business of her thumbs. Rarity’s eyes scanned the room over and over, more out of admiration than suspicion. Pinkie Pie had taken a liking to the cookies. Applejack looked like she felt sorely out of place here. Rainbow, though, had not taken her eyes off of her since they entered. She looked to the young athlete and smiled. “Why don’t you tell me what’s on your mind dear?”

Rainbow was surprised, but pleased, that Celestia was the first to make a move. She wasn’t sure how much more of the silence she could take.

“Who are you? Really?” she said, eyes narrowed.

Celestia’s smile never once faltered as she said. “I am still that which I am, just a little more. The person you know to be Principal Celestia of Canterlot High is still here, but beyond that, I am also Central Officer Celestia, Grand Commander of the MLP, and the Navigator.”

“MLP? Commander? Navigator? Yeah, not really all that helpful.” said Rainbow, sarcasm more apparent on her face than her voice.

“Then tell me my dear, which would you like me to elaborate on first?”

Rainbow looked to her companions who urged her to go on, to Twilight who maintained a stoic expression all throughout, and finally to Celestia who looked to be willing to wait forever.

“What’s MLP?”

“I’m sure you’ve heard those silly stories about people with magic powers going around the world and engaging in acts that ranged from crimefighting to demonslaying, correct? As a matter of fact, several movies have already been made with those concepts.”

She received a few nods in response.

“They aren’t as silly as you’d think. MLP is an organization dedicated to protecting the general population from the dangerous aspects of magic. While at the same time slowly teaching humanity proper usage of their powers. You can literally find us everywhere, silently guarding, as Miss Fluttershy can attest. Her personal bodyguard was one of us afterall.”

“Hold up,” Rainbow said as she raised her hand. “That’s stretching it a bit far don’t you think? Wouldn’t somebody have noticed by now if you deal with things like that lion-dragon-whatever on a regular basis?”

Celestia in turn waved a hand, “One reason is because of the West Division, they handle obfuscation and ensure that nobody accidentally stumbles upon our activities, and those that do can walk away still… normal.”

Her smile then gained an impish quality. “The other reason is that people themselves deny our existence. They think that something like MLP simply cannot exist, that it defies all logic and possibility.”

It was Rarity who was now skeptical. “Wait a moment, so you’re telling us that people choose to believe that you don’t exist?”

“In a matter of speaking, yes.”

For them that did not make any sense at all. How could people actively ignore something as grand as this? Celestia, of course, could see the doubt written all over their faces.

“It seems difficult to understand, I know. But the only reason you find such a principle hard to grasp is because you are past it. Your mind was ready to take in the world beyond what you knew.”

She still got blank faces in return so she resolved to try and explain it differently. “When Twilight, the other Twilight that is, told you that she was a pony princess did you have a hard time grasping such a concept? No, you readily accepted it and endeavored to assist her get the crown back. That is a sure sign that you were ready to re-accept your abilities.”

“Uhm, excuse me,” began Fluttershy. “When you say ‘re-accept,’ doesn’t that mean that we’ve had these abilities all our lives?”

They were getting it.

“Indeed. Everybody is capable of things similar to what you performed and what you saw some of my agents perform. Each person, though, has unique twists to their abilities.”

“So why are they blocked in the first place?” said Rainbow.

“Well, that requires a bit of a history lesson. I’m sure you all know the story of Hearth’s Warming. The three tribes who each had a piece of the knowledge necessary to survive?”

“Yes ma’am, that’s pretty much kid stuff,” said Applejack, now equally intrigued.

“That knowledge actually extended to their individual abilities, but that’s not the important part. Soon after they made peace with each other, the knowledge began to flow freely and those that had mastery of all three tribes’ abilities began to emerge. They were called the Fully Realized and there were only a handful of them at the time. Unfortunately, there were also those who had more… malicious intentions for that power.

“The most famous and powerful of them all was Discord. Your history books depict him as a tyrant who ruled over the land until a rebellion of the people finally brought him down from power, and that is all true. But certain parts of the story were omitted, particularly that fact that he was also an archmage of Chaos.

“He bent reality to his will without care for anyone or anything. He was malicious and cruel and did unspeakable acts seemingly for fun. Eventually, three archmages, one from each tribe, and two of the Fully Realized managed to create something powerful enough to nullify his abilities. They were called the Elements of Harmony. You’ve all seen their power first hand, the rainbow blast that hit sunset was caused by those Elements.

“After a long and arduous battle the five of them made it face to face with Discord.” She gave off a half amused snort. “Even in defeat he was still arrogant. After the Elements were done with him, they had one final act to ensure that a mistake like him would never again repeat itself. It stripped away the abilities of humanity and distributed it into the environment.”

“Well, obviously it didn’t work otherwise you wouldn’t be here,” Rainbow said with quite a bit of sarcasm.

Twilight wore an expression of shock at the blatant disrespect she had displayed to her mentor. Celestia, without even looking, placed a hand on her thigh to calm her.

“That’s because the intention was never to lock them away forever. Humanity never respected the abilities they had, so we hoped that in time we could slowly teach them how to use it.”

“We?” Rarity interjected.

Celestia gave a tiny nod in affirmation. “Yes, we. I, together with my sister Luna and the three archmages, are the ones who faced Discord and ended him.”

The five girls once again had looks of utter shock. Pinkie even had bits of cookie still in her mouth. It took more than a moment, but Rainbow finally regained herself enough to say something.

“So, you must be like, a thousand years old… Wow, you are old.”

It was Twilight’s turn to be shocked as her mouth turned agape. Celestia on the other hand merely found her matter-of-fact method of stating it to be hilarious. She had a good hearty laugh before she reigned herself in.

“Yes my dear, I am that old,” she gave off a slight sigh. “And so, after the battle that was when the five of us formed the Compass. Its purpose was simple: to guide humanity to better use their powers and to not fall once again into the cycle of abuse we went through. We started out with the North, South, East, West, and Central sections. Luna took the South and I took the centre, hence the title, ‘Navigator.’

“The details aren’t important for now, but the three archmages eventually became tired and desired to rest. This left us with a conundrum as the way we originally planned it was for each of us to take the namesake part of Equestria. With only two of us left, we decided to bring everything under one banner. As fate would have it, that’s when some people began to reawaken their dormant powers, so as we promised we took them in and trained them on how to use and respect their abilities.

“Unfortunately, the more dangerous aspects began to manifest as well. Things like cockatrices, manticores, dragons, and the chimera you girls faced started to appear as well. That was when we took on the mantle of protector in addition to teacher. The process continues to this day. With more and more people awakening, the group grew till it started to resemble the organization you see now. More and more threats also started appearing, but we always had the resources to counter and snuff them easily.”

She looked to her silent, but awed, audience and smiled again. “I think we should have a short break for now. I know everything I’ve told you is a lot to take in, so I’ll let you dwell on your thoughts for now. For the moment, I can’t allow you to leave the facility, but please feel free to explore. You are practically one of us now after all. Twilight,” she looked to her student, “why don’t you be the one to show them around?”

Twilight, not wanting to disappoint her mentor, agreed even though deep down she really didn’t want to.

The six girls made their way out of the office.

“Sooooo…” Pinkie began, “you’re not the Twilight we stuck with yesterday, are you?”

Twilight’s eyes were downcast as Pinkie finally brought up the elephant, or in this case pony, in the room.

“I’m sorry. I’m not her.”

To her surprise, Pinkie wrapped an arm around her shoulder and brought close enough that they were cheek to cheek.

“Well that’s great! That means that I get to befriend another Twilight!”

Not the reaction she had been expecting. It was Rarity now who came up and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“I have to agree with Pinkie, I’m sure it would be absolutely lovely to get to know you as well.”

Twilight’s face brightened as purple and red began to mix on her face. The other three girls likewise went to her and gave more ‘formal’ introductions to the local Twilight. Perhaps this wasn’t going to be as bad as she had envisioned.

The group had paused just in front of the fountain that dominated the central hall of Canterlot Control.

“So… where do you girls want to first?” Twilight asked.

Rarity had been preoccupied by designs on the ceiling when she said, “Well, I don’t know darling, what would you recommend?”

“Well, personally, I’d love to show you girls around the labs,” said Twilight, in a matter that was more befitting Fluttershy.

Rainbow nearly cringed at this. “Labs? Seriously?”

Twilight's head sank between her shoulders with her reaction.

“Now come on, Rainbow," said Applejack, "'sides they might have some cool gadgets there considerin'. So where are these labs o' yers?"

"It’s in the southern part of the facility, we can get there through that hallway," Twilight gestured to the hall to the right of the door to Celestia's office. As they made their way they engaged in lighter conversation.

“So, exactly how many of you guys are there?” said Rainbow asked Twilight as she noted more than one familiar face in the expansive building.

“Not as many as you’d think,” Twilight noted the way she looked at particular agents, “and the reason why they seem so familiar now is because you’re actually seeing them, so to speak.”

Rainbow gave her a blank look.

“It’s the jacket,” she pulled on the collar of said jacket, “it’s enchanted to alter the perception of Sleepers.”

“So, when you take it off, those who still don’t have their magic can see you? But you’re basically invisible to them when you’re wearing it?”

“Pretty much, yeah. That may also be why some people here are familiar. When you were Asleep, you already saw them in shops or across the street when they weren’t wearing it, so you’re able to remember those times and now you can associate them here since you see them even if they’re in uniform.”

“That sounds like a pretty good deal to me,” Applejack interjected, “Ya get to use all them fancy powers, and protect people while at the same time being able to go back to the life you were livin’ as if nothin’ happened.”

Twilight smiled at the way she put it. “Yeah, it is a pretty nice setup.”

“And you also get to look rather fabulous if I do say so myself.” Rarity said as she noticed more than one particularly interesting way some of the agents had donned their blazers.

It did not take too long till they rounded a corner and were introduced with a more secure hallway. The hallway was also more noticeably armored than the area they had come from. The walls here resembled the walls of a medieval castle in its prime, which also had tiny glowing symbols embedded into the very stone that formed it. Yet, despite the darker shade the place had, they still had no trouble seeing in it.

“Yeah, this place is built like this to contain the more volatile experiments that go on. This entire section of the facility is for the research of the Magitek Division. That’s actually the one I was originally a part of.”

“Oh! They’re the ones who make all the cool gadgets and wear purple, right?” said Pinkie.

“Why do you know that? Is this related you your psychicness?” asked Rainbow, surprised at her friend’s knowledge. Even Twilight was taken aback since, as far as she knew, nobody had yet to really brief them.

“Well Rainbow, darling, whilst you and Applejack were giving Stonefist the evil eye on our way here, Pinkie and me looked through the tablet that was above the seat. We weren’t able to read much, but we did get a basic understanding of the organization’s different divisions,” said Rarity.

Twilight was impressed by the initiative at knowledge gathering the two presented. Maybe they really would work well together as a team.

Pinkie decided to continue where she left off. “Anyway, the Reactionary Division, grey, handles the beasties that pop up, like that chimera thing, Medical, red, takes care of everybody else and takes care of any kind of magical diseases, and Obfuscation, blue, makes sure that nobody notices the stuff that the others do. So, did I get that all right, Twiley?”

Twilight found herself smiling once more as Pinkie called her by that nickname. “Yup, pretty much spot on. There’s more to it of course, but that is how the four divisions work.”

Pinkie did a little celebratory jump. “Woohoo!”

The group turned another corner and entered another hallway, but this one had several doors on either side, as well as a larger door at the end. As Pinkie had mentioned, most everybody here was wearing a purple blazer identical to Twilight’s, but there was also the occasional blue, red, or grey. They entered the first door on the left.

Through the door, they found themselves on a catwalk that overlooked several smaller rooms, and unlike the hall they exited, the walls here were plated with metals. Even the floor was made from sheeting that you would find in heavy duty factories. Overall it looked alot like the sets in those sci-fi movies. If there was one word to describe it all, it was chrome. Within these rooms they saw blues and purples fiddling with things from the wide fingered gloves, to the blazers that they all seemed to be wearing.

“This is the Cloak Lab. Here, the Obfuscation and Magitek divisions work together to develop new ways to make sure that our outfits are as helpful as possible.”

Rarity in particular had noticed a face that she was definitely familiar with. She squinted slightly to get a better look. The blue-grey skin, the hair in a bun, and the slightly closed eye confirmed her suspicion. “Is that… is that Professor Inkwell?”

The professor, upon hearing her name, looked up and smiled at the girls who stared at her with wide eyes. She proceeded towards the stairs that led upwards.

“Oh, that’s right,” Twilight said as realization hit her, “she teaches at CHS, no wonder you all know who she is.”

It did not take long for Inkwell to join the girls. She raised her arms in greeting and scooped them into a group hug. “Hello girls, it’s so nice to see you joining us here on the other side.”

“Whoa, I did not expect to see you here. I always thought you were a boring old chemistry teacher.” Rainbow then looked sheepish as she realized what she had just said. “Uh, no offence.”

Inkwell merely gave a very good natured laugh in response. “Oh, none taken at all. If that really is all you thought I am, then that means I’m doing my job very well,” she said as she gestured to her blue outfit.

“Oh! So you’re one of those obfuscation agents.” said Rainbow.

“Not just any agent,” interrupted Twilight, “she’s the Canterlot Obfuscation Officer. Which means that she’s in charge of the entire Canterlot branch of that division.”

“Now Twilight, there’s no need for that,” said Inkwell. “Why don’t you girls have a look around? I think there are a few things here that may just interest you.”

They followed the Officer down towards a large window on the first room. On the otherside of the wall one of the blue ones was wearing a pair of wide fingered gloves that were hooked onto his blazer. The glass was soundproof as no words were heard even though the two had been talking for a while now. At the signal of the purple one, the blue one closed his eyes and concentrated. In an instant he had vanished.

“Invisibility?” asked Rainbow. “Wait a sec, isn’t that kind of pointless since regular people don’t see you anyway?”

Inkwell smiled. “Yes it does seem that way, but the specialized suit they are developing isn’t meant to fool Sleepers, it’s meant to help fight off Manifestations, similar to the one you girls faced today.

“You see that suit doesn’t just alter sight, but also smell and sound. It is true invisibility at its finest. But…” she said as a frown began to form on her face.

As if on cue, purple’s eyes shot out in panic as she charged the spot that blue occupied. Blue was still there, as purple had clearly hit something. She ripped apart the connections between the jacket and the gloves using her hand in the same way one would use a knife. With it separated, she grabbed it and threw it at the far wall, on contact it disintegrated into naught but ash. The room once again had two occupants, both of whom were clearly spooked.

“There’s still quite a few kinks to work out. Anyway, I think I’ll just show you one more thing you might find interesting” she said as she led them towards the fourth room.

“This may be right up your alley Miss Rarity,” she said as she gestured towards the window.

Inside there had been four different colored blazers, styled differently from the ones they’d seen, laid out on a table. One would be forgiven for thinking that these were identical, but for one with the eye of a designer, Rarity could clearly make out the different geometries these outfits focused on. The other side of the room had two purples, one blue, and one red all going over the apparent plans of the blazers.

“These fine agents have developed a theory in regards to the inherent power of shapes,” Inkwell began. “I haven’t gotten a good look at their papers yet, but from what I’ve seen they theorize that certain geometric arrangements can enhance certain aspects of one’s abilities.

“But it looks like they won’t be testing anytime soon,” she said as the agents on the other side began arguing amongst themselves. “Twilight, why don’t you show them to the other labs for the moment. I really don’t think there is anything more to present here for now.”

Following her advice, Twilight led them out and back into the hall. This time they entered the only door to the right.

The inside of this lab, or rather factory, made Applejack’s jaw drop. One part of the room appeared to be working on a vehicle of some kind, another looked to be focusing their efforts on one of the gloves the agents tended to wear, another still was working on an exoskeleton of some sort.

“This is the Canterlot Engineering Bay. This is where they manufacture and design the gadgets that everybody uses.”

Twilight, of course, recognized the face Applejack had been pulling. After all, she did the same thing whenever Celestia had presented her with one of the more ancient tomes from the olden days of the Compass.

“So, I take it you’re into this kind of stuff, Applejack?”

Pulled out of her reverie, she said, “Huh? Oh… Uh, yeah I do a bit o’ tinkerin’ here and there once in a while. ‘Specially since we left the farm, the Apple’s bottlin’ plant really gives ya the opportunity to take an interest in such things.”

“Oooo, what’s that?” The things Pinkie had been referring to were six motorcycles with particularly interesting designs.

“Those belong to the members of Project Harmony. They’re designed for fast response, optimal protection, and are tailor made, or will be be tailor made, to perfectly attune with the skillset of their respective riders.” said Twilight.

“Will be?” asked Applejack. “You designed them without knowing who’ll ride them?”

“The bikes themselves were already prepared, but the identities of all but one of the riders was only confirmed recently.”

The other girls had also taken notice of the bikes now. Rainbow looked quizzically to Twilight. “Why so recently?”

Twilight was surprised at this. Had they really not figured it out yet? Then again, they also did just learn about magic a few hours ago.

“Rainbow, the members of Project Harmony are you girls,” Twilight said. “And me.”

The five girls looked back to her, each with their own brand of shock.

Central Officer Celestia had been talking to a screen hanging just in front of her desk. On that screen was a, relatively, young lady with light pink skin and multi-hued hair of pink, purple, and yellow. She had an expression of worry as she reported to the Central Officer.

“Medical agents from all over have been encountering similar illnesses. For the moment we can contain it, but we have yet to truly find a way to eradicate it. Whatever this thing is, it seems to alter itself to not just match a victim’s biological code, but their magical code as well. Of particular note is that cases have nearly tripled this day alone. I fear it may have something to do with the incident last night.”

Celestia considered this. “I understand your concern North Officer, but the incident of last night may have also given us the best possible solution. The other bearers have been found.”

Her conversation partner’s eyes perked up. “You really think they’ll be able to stabilize everything again?”

“That has always been their purpose,” she said as a slight beep came from the side of her desk. “But I’m afraid we’re going to have to cut this talk short for now. They’re at my door and I’m quite certain that they’ll be having any number of questions for me. As always, keep up the good work and see if you can manage to isolate the cause.”

The North Officer nodded in understanding. “Of course, Central, and thank you auntie.”

Celestia wore that smile fo hers once more, “My pleasure Cadence, dear.”

The screen dissipated as the door opened and let in six girls, five of which had particularly determined faces. Celestia got up from her seat and went around the desk.

“Well, I can see from your expressions that you have learned quite a bit more about us.” She gestured to the sofas. “Why don’t we have a seat and continue our little Q&A session.”

They abided and took their places, with the five newcomers once again on the same sofa. Rainbow decided not to wait for anything and went straight to the point.

“What the heck is Project Harmony and why does Twilight say that we’re all part of it?”

“Remember the Elements of Harmony, and how they defeated Discord?”

Rainbow nodded.

“Well, Luna and I lost our connection to them due to… unfortunate circumstances. For the past eight centuries the Elements have laid dormant within our vaults, but thanks to some reliable sources we learned they would become significant again very soon. So we’ve kept our eyes open for anyone who may exhibit traits that the bearers would possess.

“There are six elements in all, Laughter, Honesty, Generosity, Loyalty, Kindness, and Magic. Agents, though, who seemed to be paragons of those virtues could not bond with the respective element. The only viable candidate we had ever found was Twilight who exhibited extraordinary proficiency and power and was able to get a response from Magic.”

She looked intently at the girls for this next part. “Last night, however, something happened to the other Elements. The moment you stood up with the other Twilight and faced Sunset Shimmer, all six of them began to emanate with power we had not seen in a long time and more importantly, five of those Elements were exclusively feeding their powers into you girls. Applejack was linked to Honesty, Pinkie Pie to Laughter, Rainbow Dash to Loyalty, Rarity to Generosity, and Fluttershy to Kindness. This was undeniable proof that you girls were to be the five remaining members of Project Harmony.”

Not too long after Celestia had explained a little more about Project Harmony did the girls decide to take another break. It was 2 o’clock and Twilight realized none of them had anything to eat yet and so decided to bring them to the dining hall. It was in the western section of the facility and as with all the other places kept up the palatial theme. Several windows were located opposite each other and no two displayed the same scene. In one you could find a beautiful view of the bottom of the ocean, perfectly lit and illuminated at that. In another you would see snowcapped peaks as blizzards raged on. You could find the organized chaos of a busy financial district in one more. Altogether the windows gave one a bizarre feeling of dissonant serenity. Each window was also accompanied by beautiful satin curtains. On the far wall one would also find a large table decorated with, as Twilight had put, ‘literally any kind of food you could think of.’

By the girls’ experience, you really could find any food you could think of, and so they filled up their plates and found themselves an empty table. The tables here were not long and rectangular made of acrylic and metal like you would see in any ordinary cafeteria, instead they were rounded, had a set number of chairs, and were covered by a pristinely white table cloth with silverware, tissues, and what not, simply waiting for whoever would take the table.  Basically the kind of table you would more expect at a fancy dinner party.

Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie had jumped right into her meal of candies, sweets, treats, and various vegetables. Fluttershy found herself digging through her pasta with her fork as she thought about everything they had just learned, not just about themselves, but about the whole world around them. Rainbow, taking a cue from Pinkie, decided to gorge herself on her rather carnivorous platter. Applejack and Rarity on the other hand decided to begin a dialogue with Twilight.

“Twilight, I have to ask, what exactly is expected of us now that we’ve been introduced to this whole other world?”

“Well, to put it simply Rarity, we just want you to live in it. We don’t expect you to dedicate 24/7 of your lives to MLP, but we do want you to learn more about who and what you are. If you want, you can join one of the divisions, but as I said, you can choose to do that part-time rather than full-time.”

She made sure to address the group for the next part, “I want to make it very clear that what you choose to do from this point forward is YOUR choice. We will not force you to do anything you don’t want to. Actually there are a number of people who are Awake and chose to live very different lives from the agents in this room. Take Senator Blueblood or Fancypants for example.”

“Waif, jey haf prwers choo?” asked Rainbow who had been in the middle of chewing on a particularly juicy steak.

Twilight nodded, “Yes. Blueblood helps keep us in the loop on the government’s movements, whilst Fancypants can help influence things in the private sector. It’s really useful since MLP doesn’t exactly have control of every single person in the world.”

A gulp sounded as Rainbow finally managed to swallow. “Well, if that’s the case I’m in. I saw what those Reactionary guys did to the chimera and I wanna learn how to do that. Not the getting-mauled of course. Besides, if I was properly trained, that thing wouldn’t have stood a chance.”

One, Twilight noted.

“I’m in! Sounds like it’ll be fun!”

Two

“Well, I would like to learn more about how I could talk to my little animal friends so I suppose I could join too. But I don’t think I’d like to go against anything else like this morning anymore.”

Three

“I suppose I’ll go along as well. You did say that we don’t have to be completely dedicated, and I’d really like to see what I can do with this telekinesis.”

Four

“... Well, Ah think Ah’ll join in too. ‘Sides, I’d love to get my hands on some of those little toys ya got in the engineerin’ bay.”

Five