Uninvited guests in Harmony 16
Year 3205, 200 lightyears from the Unicorn Nebula
A lot had changed in the 2,000 years following the rise of the Elements of Harmony. Following the passing of her friends, Princess Twilight had moved on from her sorrow and moved to make the legacy of her friends something that could benefit ponykind. As time grew, so did her horizons and access to technology previously found in the human dimension.
The computer tablet that Sunset Shimmer had given her following their first victory against the Tartarus escapee Tangled Minds bore more fruit that originally expected. The schematics had given her access to creating electrical equipment such as the telephone and the television set, followed by the schematics for the first electrical power station and eventually holographic communication systems. Sunset's old tablet created many scientific opportunities for Equis.
One of those opportunities came in the form of the Harmony projects.
In the year 2908, the royals of Canterlot launched the first Harmony space station into orbit. The launch sparked a new wave of space travel. As time passed, more Harmony space stations and colonies were launched and sparked the Age of Space Travel. Nearby planets were colonized by equines and dragons and even the Griffin kingdoms were ready for the new age of travel.
But with the age of exploration, there was chaos.
Over the course of several decades, one alien race wiped out a dragon colony and severely damaged an equine one. For many ponies and dragons, the attack against the innocent would've called for war. What Canterlot released, however, was not a declaration of war. Princess Twilight publically announced the creation of Harmony 16: a next step in space travel. Harmony 16 would override the call to war and create an interplanetary highway system for explorers...and military.
That was 54 years ago.
200 lightyears from the Unicorn Nebula, a large asteroid dominated the belt it was in. The asteroid was the span of 20 football fields, and while many alien species feared it would hurtle toward them, one alien race called it home: the Equestrian.
On top of the asteroid sat a collection of 16 towers, each tower stood exactly at 2,082 feet. Arranged in a perfect circle, the towers all reaches toward the nearby star where it drew in its power.
On the highest floor of Station 16, a large room hosted a small crowd of ponies and griffons as they worked. Griffons, who had talons that resembled hands, ran most of the electrical work while the equines worked with the device in the middle of the floor. With a radius of 35 feet, a flat platform sat with no abrasions whatsoever.
One of the ponies, a pegasus stallion, stood by the controls next to a female griffon. "...and I told her that her coltfriend isn't allowed to be at the house until I'm there to meet him officially. What does she do instead? She tries hiding him underneath the table where the computer was," the stallion complained.
The griffon shook her head. "I understand that one. No offense, but my son fell for a mare on a business trip to Canterlot, and even when I told him interspecies relationships hardly ever work, he insisted on keeping the relationship. Children, huh?" she remarked.
The pegasus smiled. "It's like the gods made children so they can be rebellious. One of these days, when I'm back home, I hope she's ready for my interrogation of the guy," he said.
"Oh no, I understand the rebellious nature of the young ones, never interrogate the significant other. Your daughter will hate you if you do that," the griffon warned.
The stallion scoffed at her warning and turned his attention back to the center of the room. One of the griffons had reached for one of the control switches near the platform before it sparked. A unicorn came by and magically flipped the switch before bumping hooves-on-talon with the griffon.
The pegasus stallion turned to the power station behind him. "What do we have?"
"802 Mhz surging through the tower. We're almost at minimum capacity!" one of the ponies yelled back. "We can always switch to fission cells whenever we're ready!"
The stallion thought for a moment. Solar power? Check. Fission Cells active? Check. All 16 towers operational?
An alarm began blaring. Not check. "Stein, what's going on?" the pegasus demanded.
A griffon on the far side of the room looked up from a computer. "Tower 4 is experiencing trouble with their power couplings. Energy transfer has halted," the griffon, Stein said.
The griffon female cursed under her breath. "How is that possible? Those power couplings are brand new. They're supposed to run efficiently for half a millennium," she said.
Stein shrugged and returned to her computer. The alarms continued to blare, blinding some ponies as the sirens flashed. The head pegasus knew two things were absolute when he was brought on board: the fission cells were supposed to provide power to the station for 5 millennium, and each station's power couplings were impossible to break.
Energy surged throughout the room from the platform. Stein looked back up and gulped nervously. "S-sir, Tower 4 is down," he reported.
The pegasus's jaw dropped to the floor. "H-how is that possible?"
Stein said nothing and continue to monitor their own tower's energy output. So far, everything was running smoothly, and if Tower 1 did its job correctly, then Princess Twilight would surely hear about what was going on.
The pegasus shuddered. While known for her compassion early in her life, Princess Twilight had recently gone quiet in Equestria. She had not attended the last five Grand Galloping Galas, the unveiling of the Harmony Memorial dedicated to her friends and future bearers of the Elements and even Princess Celestia's last birthday party.
Right now, the last thing the pegasus wanted would be digging Twilight back up due to his failure. "Somepony get in contact with Tower 4 immediately! We cannot continue the operation without-"
A surge of electricity formed in the center of the platform. Energy collided, both from solar energy and the fission cells in the core of the asteroid. The energy met in the middle of the platform and began to form an opening.
The ponies and griffons in the room could only stare in awe. The intention of Harmony 16 was to create a shortcut across the galaxy so Equestria relief could reach the colonies. One of the ponies, a unicorn mare, felt her eyes go wide. "W-we did it!"
She began hopping up and down. "W-we opened a rift in Time! This is revolutionary! This is-"
The rift opened wide, too wide for the comfort of the ponies and griffons in the room. From within the ponymade rift, a big blue box emerged. The box crashed into a nearby wall and continued to move as it were flying. The ponies and griffons had to dive out of the way as the blue box continued to crash into their equipment.
The pegasus pony and female griffon were both in the way of the box. "Lapis, look out!" the griffon screamed.
The griffon tackled Lapis, the pegasus stallion, right as the box settled at their command console. Once the box had settled, the rift in the middle of the room sealed itself shut.
Everypony looked around to see millions of bits worth of technology in shambles. Aside from the broken tech and a few bruises and papercuts on the scientists in the room, everypony and griffon were alive.
Lapis wiggled his way out from his colleague's grip and straightened himself out. "T-thank you Belinda," he said.
The griffon, Belinda nodded and shared a smile. Together, they inched close to the blue box in the room. As Lapis drew close to the box, the wooden door flung open, scaring the stallion out of his fur as he flew into the air.
Everypony looked on as two ponies emerged from the box. One was a brown Earth pony stallion with a floral multicolored shirt and straw hat on his head. Around his neck was an old fashion film camera. The other pony was an orange Earth pony mare. She had a similar outfit on, instead she wore a different kind of hat. A hat a farmer would wear.
"Barcelona! The city was so great, it got a planet named after it! An incredible piece of history and even more incredible art!" the stallion bellowed for everypony to hear.
The mare instead looked around, noticing that the room they were in wasn't the beach resort the Doctor talked about before. "Uh, Doc..."
The Doctor immediately felt his straw hat fall off as he met the combined glares of Lapis the pony and Belinda the griffon. The Doctor sighed before turning to Applejack. "I must've taken a wrong turn somewhere between the 20th and 22nd century," he muttered.
Applejack rolled her eyes and cracked a grin. They were never going to get to their vacation now.
Aside from the sparks flashing in the room due to the damaged equipment, there was silence in the room. For a moment, the Doctor thought he heard his hearts beating rapidly. He chuckled nervously as he removed his hat and threw it into the TARDIS. "So sorry about the rough landing. See, I've been trying to reach Barcelona since I last regenerated and I can never seem to find the time, excuse the pun. I thought I had the coordinates right this time," he said as he raised his hoof up to his face.
Applejack rolled her eyes. "Howdy y'all. Mah name's Applejack, and this here is the Doctor," she said.
Lapis slowly approached the duo. He inched closer to the Doctor, who had now realized he didn't have his watch on. "I-Incredible. H-how did you managed to cross through the rift in Time to this exact moment? Your ship should've burned up the second it entered the Vortex," he asked the Doctor.
The Doctor smiled. "Benefits of being me. Right, so what year is it?"
Before anypony could answer, the Doctor rushed toward one of the griffons and sniffed his tail. Before the griffon could strangle him, the Doctor was gone and standing in the middle of the room. "3205? Interesting year, that one. I'm due for tea with Princess Flurry Heart in a few months." He rushed to a nearby pony and whispered "She cheats in chess, just so you know."
He returned to the center of the room and stomped on the metal ground. He bent down and licked it, earning a disgusted exclamation from his companion. "High density tungsten carbine crossed with iridium-sulfate with a hint of Negative Ore from the core of Sidestream, a planet long lost to a supernova 63 billion years ago? You're building an energy converter to...oh yes!"
Everypony jumped at his exclamation. "You're trying to harness Dark Energy in the universe to stabilize the affects of wormholes for interdimensional travel, aren't you? Incredible, however you need more space in order to perfectly stabilize the properties of the Ore so you must have more than one facility nearby," he asked Lapis.
The stallion only stared at him in wonder. "Y-you figured all that out by just licking our floor?"
"Yup." The Doctor popped his P as he trotted over to his companion.
"Doc? What's Negative Ore?" she asked.
"Negative Ore used to be found at the very beginning of the Universe actually. In a liquid form, Negative Ore creates an antimatter property with can disrupt anything it touches. Impossible to find and even more difficult to grind into powder for the base of the platform." The Doctor looked up. "Who's the chief scientific officer in your division miss..."
The griffon blushed. "B-Belinda," she responded.
The Doctor smiled. "Belinda? I used to know a griffon called Belinda a while ago. Tell me, were you born in the higher kingdom of Stallionsgrad?" he asked.
Belinda nodded. "I-I was. Best city for multiple species to live in harmony, I'd think," she said.
The Doctor said nothing more and approached Belinda. "C'mere real quick," he beckoned.
The griffon took cautious steps toward the Doctor, who pulled her and Applejack to a window overlooking the other towers. "For you to properly use the Negative Ore and the Dark Energy, you'd need fission cells to power the towers, correct?" he asked Belinda.
"That is correct, but how'd..."
"So tell me something: there's 16 towers, including this one all running on fission cells, correct?" he asked.
She nodded. "Yes, but..."
He pointed toward one of the towers. "Why isn't that one working then?" That question was for both Belinda and Applejack. "Any guesses Applejack?"
She shrugged. "Fergot to plug 'em in?" she guessed.
One of the ponies stepped forward. "All towers were functioning perfectly until a few moments ago, sir," he called out.
A griffon stood up. "We're checking on Tower 4 now, but..."
The Doctor sighed. "Fission cells are supposed to be the most effective energy cells in the universe. They can outburn entire generations, and if you have enough, an entire star. That tower isn't transmitting because their fission cells are no longer working. They've been drained," he deduced.
"Wait a minute," Lapis said. "You said fission cells can outburn generations, but you're also saying that they've been drained. How's that possible?"
"I agree," one of the griffons said. "It's impossible. We would've had somepony or somegriffon come over or transmit a message relating to the cells if anything happened. The platforms are running on the fission cells while the towers are being powered..."
"That tower is dead, and everypony inside is a sitting duck," the Doctor said. "Equestria has it's military mobilized, yes?"
Lapis nodded. "Pray it's enough for this," the Doctor muttered.
Hidden deep within Tower 4, 10-foot tall fission cells were fastened into the power core. The Royals of Canterlot believed that this new type of energy could rival that of the unicorn's Magic Core. Fission energy was the big step in Princess Twilight's campaign toward a more effective future for Equis. While there were complications (and more craters on the Moon due to testing), the latest model was designed to last hundreds, even thousands of years on a single charge.
For the two ponies patrolling in the power core, that theory was incorrect.
The two ponies, one unicorn and one pegasus, were used to running maintenance throughout the tower, never expected to be assigned to restoring the fission cells in the base of the tower. With flashlights in the unicorn's magical grasp, the two continued their inspection of their charge.
The pegasus let out a yawn that rivaled the roar of a manticore. "Can we hurry this up? I was in the middle of my well deserved break?" she complained.
The unicorn fought the urge to yawn. He too was on break when the power went out. "In a minute. We probably installed the cells wrong and they got loose. Whatever the case, it'll be quick and painless," he said. "So shut up and look for anything weird."
The pegasus rolled her eyes. "That cargo shipment the other day was weird. Who delivers a ship with nothing but a stone pegasus statue? I mean, we need art to make this place feel like home, but that's a poor excuse of art if I've ever seen it," she said.
The unicorn had to agree. They had requested power couplings from the planet nearby and instead received an empty ship with the statue inside of it. The mysterious gift immediately flew into storage and was never seen again. It freaked everypony out.
As the unicorn swept the area around him with the light, the pegasus resorted to taking her own flashlight and moving in her own direction. They would've both made their way back up to report to their captain had the lights not started flickering.
The unicorn cursed under his breath. The lights had brand new batteries installed so they'd last for months without a single fault. He shook the flashlight, trying to get it to cooperate. When he settled the flashlight, what he saw nearly made his heart stop beating. Standing right in front of him was the pegasus statue.
Everything about the statue was wrong. For one thing, when it arrived, it was on all fours with one hoof raised and its wings covering its eyes. Now, it was on its hind legs with its mouth wide open, exposing a set of razor sharp teeth. Its eyes suggested only one thing: murder.
The unicorn made the mistake of blinking. For a second, not even a full second, the statue had left the moment the unicorn lost sight of it. Sweat began to pour down his neck as his heart started to race. The flashlight continued to flicker as he quickly scanned the area he was in. It was too quiet now. His partner had not said a word in over a minute.
The unicorn's search for the statue became more erratic. With a free hoof, he reached for his radio. "Blackout to Crown 3, we have an intruder. Lock down the main facility, over."
Static was all he received. "Blackout to Crown 3, do you copy? We have an intruder!"
Again, nothing. The unicorn waited for a reply. His heart continued to race as the flashlight continued to flicker. Where was the pegasus statue?
He got his answer when he turned behind him to meet the stone cold eyes of the pegasus. The light shut off, and with a short thud and the sound of bones cracking, Blackout was down.
