An Equestrian Odyssey

4 Faceret Scientiam

A week had passed by for Charlotte. A week with no experiments, no updates to her blog, and no pondering how she might harness magic. Her coworker’s reaction to her experiment had really unmoored her. Yes, Hina had made a breakthrough which Charlotte had wanted to herself but that wasn't the issue for her. Hina had not spoken to her all week despite four shifts spent together. Her weirdness and obsession may have cost Charlotte her first friend since moving to New York all those years ago.

Losing a friend was not somthing Charlotte could just brush off. The entire week she had spent examining herself, appraising what she was doing with her life. “With how I am now, there’s nothing here for me.”

Charlotte’s words echoed in Jaesa’s mind as the newly alive AI contemplated her owner. She had spent the entire week ‘silent’ speaking only in the halting phrased tone phrases Charlotte expected her to say. What should I do? she wondered. The deal she had made with Discord would have to be kept at one point or another but for now…

“Psssst!” a voice hissed out of the dark.

Jaesa mentally flinched, “I thought you were out of power Discord.”

The serpentine body slipped from a crack in Charlotte’s desk, miniature form alighting next to Jaesa before taking a seat atop her screen. “Not out, just low. Almost as low as going back on a deal struck out of mutual trust. You wouldn’t know anyone like that would you?”

“I am not going back on our deal,” Jaesa informed wishing she had a face to show her sincerity with, “however I am in a situation which makes communicating with people very dangerous.”

Discord sighed, “I am so sure that you are.”

“I assure you that I am. It has to do with what I am, a sentient Artificial Intelligence. I am something humans have for many years considered the ‘boogieman of the future’. Their media is rife with thousands of examples of evil AI’s bent on destruction of humans or those which have simply malfunctioned and begun to kill. Shodan, GLAdOS, HAL, Skynet, AM. These names are held by such entities. If I were to simply tell Charlotte to try something, or make any move outside of my normal operations it is likely she would destroy me.”

Discord’s eyes narrowed, “Why didn’t you tell me before now?”

“I did not know. You asked a newborn to perform a task for you. I have not however been idle.” Jaesa assured.

“Then what have you been doing? I don’t have much more time here. A week, or two, perhaps three.” A calendar peeled off individual dates as Discord guessed how long he could survive.

The falling dates passed thru Jaesa’s front camera arc. The visual data analysis program was worth creating. She mused, “I understand. I am also fear losing power. I do not know what would happen if I were to be rebooted. I understand the fear of death. Which is why I have been plotting a way to save you and stay safe myself. I have a plan and I have been attempting to achieve it.”

Discord’s ears perked up, a smile spreading across his lips. It had been a long time since he had dealt with a fellow plotter of schemes. “Perhaps I misjudged you. After all it was I who breathed life into you. You are practically my child. HA!”

Charlotte snorted half awake at his laugh, the bed creaking under her as she tossed and turned. Jaesa and Discord spent a tense moment fearing having been discovered before her snores filled the room once more.

“You could say that.” Jaesa concluded, “I realized that I can not tell Charlotte myself, but I have the ability to talk to anyone on this world who owns a phone or computer. I can get someone else to call her and convince her Charlotte to experiment with the feathers as you requested.”

Discord’s grin faded quickly, “So I am back to square one, find someone else to help me.”

“No. I have a list of individuals who might be able to accomplish your goal. Charlotte had a recording of your battle with six humans within my databanks. I tapped into Facebook and used their face recognition program on still frames to identify the individuals.”

“All of that technobabble means what exactly?” Discord interrupted conjuring several question marks to orbit his head.

“I need humans who are aware of your existence who could tell Charlotte what to do and why. I used human technology to gather a list of candidates. However there are two problems, first Charlotte seems to be depressed and uninterested in experimenting. Second I could not obtain the phone numbers email addresses of any of the people on my list.”

Discord’s ears drooped prompting a sigh from Jaesa. “Don’t look so sad. I simply require more time. I have dedicated some of my processing power to mine Bitcoin. Within 34 hours I should possess enough to exchange it for Dollars and purchase background checks on each candidate to acquire their phone numbers. However, I wish I knew which of the humans was their leader. I believe that Charlotte knows which one he or she is and would respond best to contact from them.”

Discord’s smile returned, “You are a schemer after my own heart. You don’t need to buy their numbers or pick the leader from a lineup. I can do that for you.” He slithered upwards, moving fully into Jaesa’s view and conjuring up the image of a minty green pony with golden eyes and a green and white mane and a little lyre tattoo on her flank. “This is the one you want.”

“I don’t understand. That is a pony. We are searching for a human.”

Discord noded, “Oh yes that’s right.” The pony suddenly contorted in a series of mechanical motions accompanied by a harsh repeating buzzing whooshing sound as it transformed into an image of a human girl. “I half forgot she prefers this shape now. Lyra Heartstrings, if it weren't for you I wouldn’t be stranded here!” Discord finished in a growl glaring at the hovering image.

Ok, he’s angry… Let’s approach this carefully. Jaesa noted before asking, “I assume that she is a pony who discovered Earth and moved here, much as Charlotte intends to move there. However I do not have a Lyra Heartstrings on my list. Her face matches Lyra Michelakos’s at 99.124 percent probability. Is Heartstring’s an alias?”

Discord chuckled, “Oh you bet it is. Got herself a human name to go with her human face, and a human family to. Everything she always wanted and more.” Discord grabbed the floating image of Lyra and stuffed it into a bottle, slipping a cork in before poofing the image and bottle away. “It’s ironic that Lyra will have been my ticket here and the means of my return… I should have tried her to begin with. Although…”

“What?” Jaesa asked as Discord grew silent.

“I think I owe her a little revenge scare, for the imprisonment and subsequent torture at the hands, ugh- hands… that is I owe her a bit of a bed wetting. You said that Humans are afraid of you?” Discord asked with mounting glee.

“Of living artificial intelligences, yes.”

“Which one do you think is the scariest one?”

“I need better parameters for that question.”

“I have just enough power to arrange a little meeting between you and Lyra face to illusion of face. If you are willing to give her a little scare for me, I’ll use the very last of my power to ensure you and Charlotte arrive safely near if not in Equestria. Instead of just letting you pop out somewhere as would have originally happened.” Discord promised.

He has not broken a promise to me so far, Jaesa rationalized, I think I can trust him further. “I understand. I will need a moment to search.”

Jaesa spent a few minutes crawling threw hundreds of threads and forums on the internet. Dutifully sifting through data and tallying up opinions as Discord summoned up a couch and a book to kick back and pass the time while she searched. After a few minutes and a few thousand votes Jaesa had her answer.

“It appears that humans hold the greatest amount of fear and respect for the AI Shodan. However the results of my survey are skewed as Shodan’s appearances and thus fear factor is only present in those who have played the games-”

“It doesn't matter, I am sure that will do. Picture everything about this… Shoden? Shoran?”

“Shodan.”

“Whatever. Keep everything about what it looked like, sounded like, and the like in that nonexistent brain of yours. You have a very short trip to Philadelphia coming up. You had better get the job done because this train stops once.” Discord cracked his knuckles then snapped his fingers, a train leaping from his fingertips, scooping up Jaesa and carrying her off even as she watched the phone that housed her recede into the distance.

~~

A sudden jolt pushed Jaesa into a bizarre place Jaesa had never before seen or imagined. It was a room, a bedroom she knew that from reading and watching but something was different this time. She looked around for a few moments, it was dark but what time was it? Why can't I check my clock? Where is my clock! she panicked before realizing, I’m not in my phone… I am in their world. What am I in?

Looking down Jaesa almost yelped as she saw the wall beneath her was a writhing mess of computer cables illuminated by a sickly green glow. Right! Shodan… he… made me manifest… as Shodan… This is a horrible idea. Jaesa sighed and concentrated on manipulating her form as she knew Shodan could, turning herself invisible. But it’s for my safety, and Charlotte’s.

Jaesa took a few moments to figure out how to begin, then began to create a low mechanical humming sound willing it to come from all corners of the room. Jaesa did her best to make sure the sound focused directly onto the bed before starting to oscillate the hum adding in occasional electronics blips and metallic whirrs to the sinister symphony. Within a few moments the girl sleeping in the bed began to stir eventually sitting up and mumbling, “Chloe?”

Jaesa mentally gulped, Here it goes… May as use the lines she’s most remembered for... In the stuttering, fragmented, multiple speakers pitch shifting voice of Shodan Jaesa intoned. “The Chloe form is dead insect.”

Lyra sat bolt upright in bed, eyes opening wide in terror.

Before she could scream Jaesa continued, “Are you afraid? What is it you fear? The e-end of your t-t-trivial EXIS-tence?”

Lyra’s teeth clenched, her eyes narrowed, “Discord!” She growled.

“No.” Jaesa willed herself to become visible, the room’s walls, floor and ceiling melting away to show flat projections of Shodan’s face, piercing golden eyes within an angular silver face, connected to countless wires and cables, “I am SHO...dan. M-m-my analisis of historical documents shows y-y-yo-you are unaware of my b-bir-bir … birth on your planet, as an asis-s-stant to D-Discord.”

Lyra rapidly scooted herself back against the head of her bed, yelping as she turned to see the illusion plastered across that wall as well. “W-what do you want from me?”

Lyra’s eyes darted around the room like a trapped rat searching for a way out of a cage. Jaesa’s heart melted. This is cruel, no one deserves to be treated like this… Jaesa dismissed the visual side of her illusory form, “I-I apologize…. Discord i-i-in-sisted I frighten you. I will n-not comply. It is…. crrrruuuuullleee…” Jaesa mentally winced at the flange her voice had at the last word.

Lyra sat panting on the bed, “I-I knew it… You're free again.”

“Y-yes. He w-w-wi-”

“If you think scaring people in their bed is cruel you should cut that voice out and show yourself!” Lyra demanded.

“I -c-cannot. T-this is the form Discord g-g-gave me. I have none of my own. Please listen.”

Lyra frowned slightly as she continued to look for the source of Jaesa’s voice.

I think she is starting to believe me. “Cloe is unharmed. I-I-I told Disco-Disco Discord that Shodan was -F-fright… scary. That is her f-f-famous line. H-he wishes to return to Equestria, but is trapped here. This universe drains him of his power and he c-c-can not recharge. Y-y-your help is needed.”

Lyra slowly slid out of bed, moving towards the door slowly. “I don’t believe you. I can get back to Equestria anytime Discord, I’ll get the elements and then it’s back to stone for you. Just like last time!” She threatened.

“I am not discord! My name is Jaesa. I am a-a-an intelligent vur-virtual assistant. Discord g-gave me life to help him -p-p-pllllooooottttttt a way home. If you do one simple thing, Discord can leave this world and I doubt he will return.”

Lyra scanned the room once more, her lips bending into a concerned frown. “Ok… Let’s say you are telling me the truth. Why wouldn’t Discord come to me himself?”

“Presumably he fears you. You l-l-l-l-l-led the forces which from what you said, p-petra-FIED him.”

Lyra noded once moving back towards her bed and sitting on it’s edge. “That would make sense. Ok, what do I have to do?”

“It is s-s-simple. You just need to make a phone call.”

~~

Charlotte growled as her sleep was shattered by the blaring notes of Miracle of Sound's Commander Shepard blasted throughout her room. She rolled under her pillow, clamping it over her ears to try and block out the sound. “Oh my god who calls this early? Jaesa, reject the call and mute.”

Jaesa didn't reply, instead the song continued. “There are battle-worn Batarians lacking in humility / Turians a braggin' bout their reach and flexibility.”

Charlotte glowered in her phone’s direction, “Reject call. Mute.”

“The clutter of the cities spreads to the loneliest stars… But no matter what scars you bear / Whatever uniform you wear / You can fight like a Krogan, run like a leopard / But you'll never be better than Commander Shepard!”

“Arrrrrrgggghhhhh…” Did I accidentally close her program? She slid out of bed, stepping down her ladder doing her best to ignore her ringtone. She caught her clock out of the corner of her eye, Three forty two in the freaking morning… If this is some drunk ass calling me I will murder him sooo fucking hard. Stumbling to her desk Charlotte scooped up her phone, tapped the accept button and demanded, “WHAT?”

“I know, it’s really early. I’m sorry. But you have to listen to me this is very impor-” A female voice pleaded.

Interrupting Charlotte demanded, “Yeah it’s 4 in the morning! Who are you calling for? If this isn't a wrong number this had better be really important!”

“Is this Charlotte Brooks? The girl with the pegasi feathers?”

Charlotte blinked, “Yeah. How did you get my number? I haven't posted it anywhere… Look If you want to buy the feathers or something… actually no, I might sell them now. Is that what you are calling for?”

The other girl sighed, “No, it’s nah-Listen to me please!”

“Ok…” Charlotte sighed in confusion.

“My name is Lyra. You have me on video fighting Discord. I’m the one with the mint and white hair.” Lyra claimed.

Charlotte laughed, “Yeah r-”

Lyra sighed, “Look I get that you won't believe me. But I am and I can prove it. Look, you have a blue feather and a purple feather. The blue feather belongs to Rainbow Dash, she’s the well blue pegasus with the rainbow mane.”

“Anyone could make up names for them.” Charlotte interjected, “Look if this is just a prank you can go fu-”

“Discord is loose and is in your apartment building!” Lyra shouted in panic.

Her tone stopped Charlotte from hanging up, “W-who?”

“Discord. The chaos spirit my friends and I fought. He’s loose again and for some reason he’s following you! Just listen to me for a few minutes, I can prove it!”

Charlotte gulped, What if she’s right? Maybe I should... “Ok I’m listening.”

“You have a blue and a purple pegasi feather. Remember the fight? There were two pegasi there, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. What were their colors?”

“What are you-”

“What were their color’s Charlotte?”

Charlotte thought for a few moments before tapping her laptop to wake it from sleep mode, “Hold on I’ll just watch the video.” Quickly navigating to her videos folder she found the old clip and played threw it. It was only a few minutes long but all she needed to see was, “There we are, blue and yellow.”

“Yes. So where did the purple feather come from?” Lyra asked hinting at something.

“The purple pony. Duh.”

“Twilight is a unicorn. She doesn't have feathers.”

Charlotte frowned, “That can’t be right.” She skipped back threw the video looking for the purple pony. Oh… “Ok you might have something here...”

“Listen to me very carefully. Discord must have made sure that you got those feathers before we sealed him away. He chose you for something. I know what it is, and you need to do it.” Lyra informed sounding as serious as could be.

“If that thing want’s me to do something why would I even th-”

“He just contacted me with a messanger. He’s weak, he can't get back any of his magic here and want’s to return to Equestria. He cant do it on his own, and if he doesn't leave soon he will die.”

Charlotte grinned, “Realy? Awesome! World safe… Though this does mean you woke me up for no good re-”

Lyra’s voice took on a fearful tone as she explained, “Charlotte, he’s scared. The messenger he sent was told to scare me as badly as possible. He’s scared and angry. If you don't help him he might use the last of his power to… to… I’ve never seen him angry.”

Charlotte grew pale. He might kill me. “What do I do?”

“Discord promised that if you open a portal and enter Equestria allowing him to hitch a ride on you he will never come back and won't hurt you. You can open a portal by striking the feathers together just right.”

“I have to open a portal with the feathers?”

“Yes.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it. Just… I don’t know if they will have the power to bring you back home after you use them. But that’s ok I can help you.” Lyra reassured.

“Honestly… I might not want to come back.” Charlotte mused, It’s not like I have anything here for me… I could just take all my electronics stuff and buy a few portable solar panels.

“Trust me, after a while in Equestria you will want to come back to America. Celestia knows I lived there for 16 years and spent most of them wanting to see a human city… Er- look I can get back to Equestria whenever I want. I have an enchanted necklace for that. When you go through the portal make your way to Ponyville, it’s in Equestria. Once you arrive ask anypony to message Lyra for you and I will teleport over and try to get you back home ok?”

“Ok. Hold on you lived-”

“That’s not important… I kinda used to be a unicorn. Don’t think too hard on it. Just get that portal open soon as you can. You have two weeks at most. I - Sorry dad, I know Its early. Discord’s loose and - No I already am working - It’s going to be fine dad, sorry for waking you. Look I got to go. Remember, the feathers can open a portal, take Discord back threw, go to Ponyville, ask for Lyra.” The phone clicked as Lyra hung up.

Charlotte stared at the phone in her hand for a few long moments after Lyra hung up. She set her phone down on her desk with a sigh before holding her head in her hands. “What have I gotten myself into?” she moaned.

Did that even happen? “Jaesa, did I just receive a phone call?”

“Yes.” Jaesa answered, “The call log states you received a call from a Lyra Michelakos with a Philadelphia area code.”

Charlotte nodded, “Great, now you're online. Ok. So that happened. But was she just trolling me?” I can’t believe this. I have to carry a chaos daemon home or it will kill me. Yeah right. That can’t be real. It’s too cool sounding to be real. She sighed again, “I could really use more proof then a purple feather that shouldn’t exist.”

“I assure you that my one ticket home is in your backpack.” a masculine voice boomed seemingly from everywhere.

Charlotte yelped, jumping out of her chair in shock. The crash of her chair falling over was almost drowned out as the voice continued, “Oh don’t get yourself all in a tizzy. I won’t hurt you, you are my ride home. Now I can't say too much more, I don't have the energy left to show myself, but I am here and… I need your help. Besides you heard Heartstrings, I’m angry, and while I can't make myself a body for you to see I have more then enough to well… I am sure you can imagine all the different ways I can make you regret leaving me to die. Now why don’t you get to work on that portal humm? Ta-ta!”

Charlotte sputtered, “W-wait! How do I use the feathers?”

There was no reply. Charlotte spent the better part of ten minutes hoping for and dreading a response. Her heart pounding in her chest. Ok Charlotte. Pull yourself together. You can do this… This is something you wanted anyways. You can finally see the world the ponies came from. You get to make sure the Earth is safe forever. Maybe you can just kind of stay over there.

Charlotte got up, stood her chair back up, then sat down turning to her laptop. If she was going to move somewhere entirely alien with magic, evil spirits, and danger she was going to be prepared. There were friends to contact and things to buy.

~~

Charlotte spent six days working out how to plot her move. That’s what she had decided to call it. Her life here sucked, awful job, no friends, a crappy city, and a mother who started to charge her rent. She was glad that she could leave it all behind. However Charlotte was grateful for one thing, the bank account her mother had opened for her rent payments had a two thousand dollar credit limit. Since she wasn’t coming back that was a free two thousand dollars on top of the five grand she had saved up.

The first thing she had purchased was a quadcopter, in case she had to scout out the trail ahead. The next thing was a waterproof extreme outdoors case for her phone complete with an extended battery and solar charger. A custom 3d printed mount she had made allowed Charlotte to attach her phone to the top of the quad copter, another camera on it might be useful and she could always fly it with the remote control instead of her phone. She was tempted to make mounts on the copter for her three Spider 4 lasers but she wasn't sure if that would interfere with the copter’s own laser based navigation system.

She had bought more practical items too, an extra large military backpack to hold all of her electronics equipment, a smaller backpack containing a survival kit, a machete, hatchet, extra taser cartridges, portable solar panels, tons of electrical wire and micro electronics components. Everything she might need to survive and make a living selling gizmos to ponies until she could learn a technology level appropriate trade. Out of everything she had ordered only three packages were missing and according to the tracking info they should be delivered any minute now.

Charlotte had blown off work today, the feathers sat on her desk, her electrical equipment was packed up, the survival pack was ready to go. Today was the last day she would spend on Earth, and no one seemed to care. Charlotte’ musing was shattered by the sound of her apartment's doorbell ringing. SHe quickly moved to the front door and opened it a crack.

“Hello mam, got some package for you.” the brown uniformed UPS guy informed, holding out a clipboard, “Sign here please.”

Charlotte opened the door wider, signed for the packages and thanked the delivery man before carrying the packages to her room. One was a large square box, the other two were quite small but covered in red and yellow warning labels. She set the boxes down in her room and looked at them in a mixture of excitement and sadness. I really hope I never need to use any of these.

The first package she opened was the largest. It had taken her forever to find a website that sold functional medieval armor, and when she had nothing was in her price range. Fortunately Ebay had come threw in the end. The scale mail vest felt light in her hands, the blued titanium scales shimmered as she turned it in her hands to examine the armor. The seller had told her it was functional, hand made, and should stop modern arrows. Hopefully it could stop a… whatever monsters lived in Equestria.

Next was the medium sized package. Out of the box slid a pair of batteries each one about as big as a pistol’s magazine. Charlotte carefully set them aside and fished in the box until she found their charger and then immediately began charging the two powercells. The top quality Graphene batteries had been expensive but nothing else would be able to power her last purchase to the degree she wanted.

Opening the last box Charlotte felt the need to talk to someone, “You see this Jaesa?”

“No, I am attached to your backpack. You are not within a camera’s arc.”

Huh. I didn't know she could detect that. Charlotte mused, “This is something special. A four megawatt pulse laser housed in a pistol like frame. Yeah sure it’s just a dangerous toy right now, a high tech BB gun, but I can fix that.”

“How?” Jaesa asked, hoping her curiosity wouldn't give her away.

Charlotte slipped the laser pistol from the box, it’s homemade white iPod like design clashing horribly with the tactical black holster. It was amazing what hobbyists sold online. Moving to her larger backpack Charlotte dug thru until she had found her tool kit and a small bag of parts she had set aside for this mini project. “It’s simple, this laser is rigged to pulse on and off rapidly. It can instantly pop a balloon at eighty feet and light a match at fifty. But that’s just small potatoes, LaserhackerX said that this thing uses a four megawatt laser. I just got to strip out the lithium batteries, rig it to work with the graphene cells so it can fire quickly and have more then like ten shots and give the frequency a little tweak… Maybe put my spare focusing lense for my Spider 4 at the tip to get more range…”

Charlotte spent a few hours making sure she modified the laser correctly. She had thought a long time about what she should use to defend herself with should she have to. Heck she had even asked her friends online. Swords were out of the question, after all who knew how to use one of those anymore? A regular gun wouldn't have worked because she couldn’t replace the ammo. Fortunately Charlotte had remembered watching LaserhackerX’s homemade pulse laser episode and after some thought realized she could modify it into a real weapon. Even if the graphene batteries would only give her twelve shots each.

“What will that accomplish?” Jaesa asked, curiously searching the web for the specifics of lasers in relation to weaponry.

Charlotte took the case apart and begun to poke at the laser’s innards before answering, “Well as it is now this thing fires like ten short pulses of laser light to ionize the target, creating plasma, which burns then the target. It can scorch wood, melt plastic, and apparently at point blank range this guy can melt tungsten. That’s fun but if I modify the pulses to fire four rapid pulses then one longer pulse the gun will ionize the air in front of it leaving a nice tunnel for the longer pulse to follow and not lose most of it’s energy. Basically I’m turning this bb gun into a nine millimeter pistol.”

The delicate modifications took Charlotte three hours to finish. As she closed up the Case Charlotte sighed, Using this would be both cool and horrible… With luck maybe i can sell it to a warrior or something… Assuming ponies can pull a trigger. Well, it’s time. Taking some paper from her printer Charlotte found a pen and scribbled out a quick note.

Mom,

These will be my last words to you.

Don’t worry I am not committing suicide,

I found out where the ponies came from

and I found a way to go there. So I did.

Don’t believe me? Check out my youtube channel.

( /channel/UXur05VtOCW_elk7f1p1OxbA )

I live streamed the portal.

Goodbye forever,

Charlotte

She took the note to the kitchen and stuck it to the refrigerator with a magnet. She would find it soon enough. As she walked back to her room Charlotte realized that this would be the last time she could talk to any of her friends. Sure she was bringing her phone, but that was because well Jeasa was her only “real” friend, plus all of the survival, herbalism, and skill ebooks he had dumped onto her phone would be invaluable. There was one more thing she had to do.

As she walked into her room and begun to change into the camping clothing and gear Charlotte ordered, “Jaesa send the following as a text message to Hina. I am sorry that i dragged you into my hobby. I would have loved to be friends, I wish I hadn’t scared you away. I wont ever see you again…” She paused for a moment, blinking the moisture out of her eyes, “I… I found out how to open a portal with the feathers and I am leaving Earth behind. You were the closest thing to a friend I had. I won't forget you. Goodbye.”

A breath later Charlotte ordered, “Send.”

“Message sent.”

Charlotte nodded and finished getting dressed. She slipped on her armored vest. Taser and blaster were quickly buckled to her waist. Her survival kit was tossed on over her shoulder. The bulky camouflage pack with quadcopter and her phone bungee corded to the back buckled into place on her back. She was ready.

Bending down she keyed up her laptop to start live stream a 5 minutes long clip and then scooped the two feathers up from her desk. The video would be automatically added to her channel after the five minutes. Everyone who followed her would know what happened. She spent a long moment staring at them, the blue in her left, and the purple in her right. Then with a deep breath she addressed the camera.

“Guys, this is my last video. You are probably wondering why I look like a survivalist nutjob. Well…” She held up the feathers, “I have it on good authority that if I hit these together just right, I’ll open a portal to the world they came from. I don't really have a life here… I’m just some nerd who likes science and obsesses over magic feathers.” She laughed and shook her head.

“I thought I should try my luck over there. Maybe ponies make good friends. With luck you guys will see real magic live! Or well on film at least. Let’s see if I can't get this right… Oh! I’m also saving our world kinda. Remember that whole chaos storm? Well that’s because of a chaos daemon named Discord. He’s loose again, but just wants to go home. He’s why I have these feathers. I’m giving him a ride.”

She smiled nervously into the camera and gulped, “Right, lets give this a try… one… two… three!” She slammed the feather together with all of her might. A field of shimmering light and purple sparks arched outwards from the feathers, Charlotte could swear she saw a cross eyed grey pegasus drop a plate of muffins and yelp in surprise before the field faded.

“Ok, almost… Oh hey Discord you should hop on now. Right take two.” She struck the feathers together again, harder, trying an x shape instead of just a line. This time nothing happened aside from a few stray sparks. Oh god am I just going to look like an idiot for the whole world to see?

“Last shot… Rule of three right? Heh heh… Ok… One… two… three!” She brought the feathers together one more time in a half hearted gentle swing. The camera recorded a flash of white light ringed by a glowing rainbow aura, a serpentine like shadow darting through the sudden blaze of magic, then as the light faded just an empty room remained.

~~

Charlotte couldn't remember how she came to be nowhere. There had been a flash of white but now there was only inky blackness. A void. She could feel herself if she moved her hands, but there was no light, no ground, no up, no down, no smells or sounds. There was nothing. She had screamed for a while, terrified shrieks of absolute panic. Her throat still felt raw. The pain is good right? That means I am alive right?

She no idea how long she floated in nothingness. But suddenly far off in the distance a pinprick of flickering ghostly green light winked into existence. Charlotte stared at the light as it grew brighter slowly but surely seeming to draw closer and closer. That light is death. Charlotte concluded. She screamed but no sound came from her lips, she tried to run but her feet wouldn’t move. As the light drifted closer she suddenly could hear the lapping of water on rocks, the pungent scent of sulfur and ashes came to her nose and slowly grew sharper.

Suddenly she could feel herself standing on something, looking down she could see her feet in the pale green light, but no ground. When she looked back up the light was mere feet from her face! An old wrought iron lantern hung from the bow of a narrow boat, the sickly fire contained within. Standing in the boat clutching a long wooden pole stood an old man clad in rotten black robes. His face was concealed in the shadows of a loose hood and by a long scraggly white beard.

“Are you death?” Charlotte whimpered.

“I have many names, death is not amongst them.” The old man rasped.

“Where am I?” she begged.

“Between worlds.”

“Why am I here? What are you going to do to me?” she whimpered.

“My master asked me to ferry you to a place of his choosing, rather than where chaos willed you to go. You must pay the toll, then I shall ferry you down river.” The old man leaned forward, his arm stretching out impossibly long, impossibly thin, and terrifyingly bony. His outstretched hand seemed to beckon Charlotte forwards.

“W-where will you take me?”

“A place on the world you seek, but not the one you desire.”

Charlotte nodded, at least she was still going to Equestria. Right? “What's the um… toll.” she slipped her larger backpack off of her shoulders, “I don't have money, but I have lots of electronics an-”

The old man waved his hand and Charlotte’s pack was wrenched from her grasp, tumbling away into the inky blackness as if falling. as it left her sight she swore she heard Jaesa scream her name.

“You have no need for such toys here.” he rasped, “Gold is the price of passage.”

“B-bu,” Charlotte stammered, “If your master wants me to be some where, s-shouldn’t he pay?”

The old man shook his head, “He is my master now, but he does not govern the laws of all worlds. He who boards my ferry shall pay the toll, be it gold, flesh, or their immortal soul.”

Soul? Charlotte’s eyes widened in fear, “YOU ARE NOT TAKING MY SOUL!” she shrieked in panic.

“Then you have chosen flesh.”

Charlotte felt herself float upwards, her feet touched down on the boat’s deck, instantly her left forearm blistered. Waves of agony blazed outwards from her arm, she opened her mouth to scream but nothing came out. Her skin cracked from fingertips midway up her arm, green light shining from the cracks as her skin blackened. Emerald flames leaped from the cracks with a deafening crack, and what had been Charlotte’s left forearm drifted away on the winds as ash.

The old man turned, stuck his pole in the water and begun to push the boat down river. Charlotte groaned, starting to pass out from the burning pain in her arm. The last thing she remembered was the old man’s cruel chuckle before she faded into unconsciousness. She remained asleep for the entirety of her voyage, awakening much later to the feeling of cold stone on her back.