Chapters View Online
Project: Equestria Dimensions
Chapter one: Tied together by random. Part two: Fast-changing threats.
Since the beginning of Twilight’s reign, the lands of Equestria began to flourish thanks to friendship and magic. Twilight, who was the mighty magician, led her kingdom to a bright future until something changed and progress suddenly stopped. No one noticed it except some ponies who gave their oath to defend Equestria and stop everything that threatens it even if it will cost the lives of many creatures.
“Let’s put that Frown upside down!”
“POV Cold Light”
*Dimension M2*
I woke up in early morning with disgusting taste in my mouth and asked myself.
“Is morning so bad all the times?”
But I didn’t had enough time to think about it.
Sadly, it even was hard to get out of bed..
“One-Two-Three... Agh my back!” I screamed with pain.
After the Dragon Incident, my back was hurting, and I had problems with getting up all the time, I was considering to take a short vacation to rainbow falls..
But sadly, I had very, as I thought, important job.
I temporary was working undercover as librarian in School of Friendship..
It was my first day on that job and because of it I lost, but I saw pony who was looking like teacher and decided to ask for direction.
“Hello, I am a new Librarian. Can you point me the way to the library?“
“Sure, the library must be somewhere there, by the way, my name is Kiter,“ he answered to me with pleasure..
“Thanks! Let’s talk later,.“ I answered to him.
He looked and acted like a good guy, I decided that he wasn’t changeling.
I walked in the direction he pointed and found the library.
“Ohh, it's you again! Ki...Kiter, right?“ I greeted him when came in.
Kiter entered the library with 2 cups of coffee.
He gave me one and muttered something, but I didn't understand it.
“Do you wanna, maybe... maybe you wanna go out for a break with me?“ he repeated but louder.
He looked very blushed, but I understood that it was very hard for him.
“Yeah, sure, why not? I don't know where the canteen anyway. By the way, friends call me Cold.?“
I decided that I should check him to make sure that he wasn’t a changeling.
“What do you teach?”
He was going in front of me but when I asked him he leveled up with me and told me things about his work.
“I'm Honesty teacher, teach the honest, like how to say the truth, importance of truth and for some reason how to grow apples and superiority of the apples~“
He wanted to ask me something, but suddenly I heard strange and weird voice from a closed class.
“I think the queen will be happy to hear about our success.“
At first I was thinking “Is that voice belonged to changeling?” But it wasn’t sounding like any voice of changeling I heard. “What if he was just talking about queen of griffons or dragons or even hippogryphs?” With those thoughts I decided to open that door.
“Hey, go without me, I'll catch up with you later, I need to go to the ladies room,” I asked Kiter.
Sadly, he gave me the answer that I didn't expect.
"There is such the nearest room in the canteen. But I think I understood, you don't wanna go with me? If so, you could just say so."
I didn't mean it, he is quite a good guy, well as far as I could see, because of it I decided to ask him for help.
“No, no, I just… ok, can you please help me? Stand on the lookout, if anyone comes near warn me, I'll explain everything later, but now I don't have time. Got it?“
He nodded.
Luckily for me I took lessons on horn lock-picking earlier from pony who is the best in telekinesis.
“Now place those bugs in the shape of a square. And... there! Greetings, my queen, I have good news, we are ahead of our plans, Ponyville almost fully under our control,“ a strange voice said.
When I opened the door I saw old changelings: black bugs with infinity thirst for love.
Then the scariest voice I ever heard burst out in the room, it was the queen of old changelings, the same, old, Queen Chrysalis.
“We're almost done in Canterlot too, commander. Finally, we got everything that can ruin our plan! My revenge on this foolish, stupid Starlight Glimmer will finally happen! Oh, and of course we will have enough power to rule all Equestria and feed everyone of our kind. Wait for the next meeting, I have somethings to do and remember: don't touch Starlight, she is mine!“
“Oh crap,” I said when I heard it.
I had to get out of there, at first I wanted to call the agency, but then I realized, she said “~Everything that can ruin our plan~” That could’ve mean that they had already corrupted agency too.
Kiter must have heard me and saw that I lost in my thought, because he walked to me and asked.
“Is everything alright?”
When he asked me that question I calmed down and told him everything that I could.
“So, listen, things are very bad... and... and we need to run right now. I explain everything when we will be safe. And in case if anything will happen with me, remember: Don't trust anyone!“
He looked worried, but he nodded and followed after me.
We run as fast as we could, but after some time, he said the most meaningful words that anyone could say at that moment.
“Wait, why are we running? I don’t think that they saw you, don’t they?“
After a bit of thinking I answered
“Ahhhm... I think I should say that I am not the smartest pony.“
“Not the smartest pony” Flashed through my head and train of thought rushed out of my mouth.
“Hmm, If i thought in this way I, I am not the smartest pony, not the fastest pony, I even failed the magic test in the academy... Why I imagined myself as a cool super agent, why someone from the agency would send me to such missions!? How I even completed some of the tasks? Was it pure luck? I don't remember most of it...“
I think Kiter heard my thoughts because he tried to calm me down.
“I don't know what are you talking about, but if you still here, still alive, you must be ready for your job. I don't think you are a lucky pony, because piano almost fell on you twice, while we were running, you aren't good at running or jumping, but, if you still alive, you must be ready for everything, have you thought about it like that?“
He was right, I never thought about that before, “If I still have my job - I am ready for it!”
I stopped and hugged him, but seconds later I realized what I was doing.
“Uhh sorry for this, but thank you, unlike me, you are smart pony.“ I apologized.
He blushed. “You not thaaat dumb... and you look kinda beautiful“.
After his words II blushed, but it was very cute from his side.
“Ok, we should go before it became more awkward, and I think now we are safe, so listen~ “ I said.
He shook his head.
“I am agent ColdLight, I work at S.M.I.L.E. agency, which stands for Secret Monster Intelligence League of Equestria. In short, we are the main shield of Equestria, ‘While Frown is down Smile is around!’ Right now, I think there are changelings, old changelings, and they are coordinately taking out everything that could fuck their plan up, even my agency. And now, I might be the only one who can stop them. And please don't ask me about Frown, I don't even know what it is.“
“So basically we are doomed, and only you can save everyone? If I understood your mumbling right, then I am with you,“ he said it and stomped his hoof of the ground.
I stopped because I was shocked. “No! You didn't ready for it, you didn't complete the agency course... So didn't I, but why would you do this? We met only today!“ I confusedly screamed.
After minute silence he hardly answered. “I... I just don't know... I care about the world’s sake and... I think I just like you… You're not like others...“
I blushed and blushed hard, I think I even turned from cyan to red. Nobody ever liked me.
“Ok, I am flattered... You can help me, I guess?“ I hardly said.
He blushed too.
“Ok then... What will we do now then?“ he asked when we were approaching my house.
I yawned. “Well now we should rest, it's already too late, you can sleep on my couch, tomorrow we should examine the Smile agency.“
“Wakey-Wakey, for world's sakey. Seriously, get up already! We should save the world!“ sang Kiter and woke me up.
I yawned. “Isn't it too early... Even my alarm clock didn't' ring yet... What time is it?“
He looked at the clock and said. “It's time to save the world!... But really it's 5 AM.“
I yawned again. Why he up so early I really wanted to sleep, but I don't wanna show myself lazy.
“Ohh ok, but isn't it too early, I mean everybody is still sleeping.“
He answered pretty rudely.
“That what I talking about Many who is sleeping, the agency will be almost empty! I suppose. It's perfect for us to find some changelings! There, I made food from what I found in your fridge. But, seriously, you should eat healthier food. “
“Ohh, thanks you, I never saw something that looked so delicious, you shouldn’t have...but thanks,” I thanked him.
He looked very excited and asked. “So do you have a plan or something? I mean we just can't enter like everything is normal?“
I didn’t had a good plan, but I had an idea.
“Well, why we can't? I mean you can, as long as no one wants to check who you are. What about me, I think I need disguise because I should be on duty, and I kinda famous.“
He face-hoofed.
“It's 4 am, I think there will be almost nobody.“ He reminded me.
Hmm, he was right, so I answered him embarrassedly. “You know what... I think, you right, there will be only some guards and few agents…usually, at night, it's almost empty.“
He answered a bit irritatedly. “Really... hmm do you have any way to get in then?“
At that moment I knew that horn lock-picking finally paid off, not like I paid much for it, but it was hard to find a teacher.
“You know what! They told me that horn lock-peeking lessons were a waste of time! But see now, it's really helpful!“
“Ok, it is helpful, I don't know why someone said to you that it is useless...“ he said.
“So, that is it? We're ready, I suppose“ he asked me.
I took out my notebook. “So, the bag. Check. Plan. Kinda check. Saddlebags. Check. Trusty friend. Check?“ he coughed. “Ok-Ok. Check! You happy now?“ I corrected.
He shook his head as a sign of disagreeing and said. “I meant, why did you check bags twice!“ Hmm, what? Oh of course.
“No, it's isn't a mistake. I have a special magician bags.“ I said, then I cast the spell.
*Poof*
He jumped away and screamed.
“What the hay is going on“
My first thought were “Maybe he never saw a spell of Fantom Bound?
I tried to explain. “Oh don't worry, it's just one of unic...“
He interrupted me with his scream.
“I knew what it is, sort of, but as I know that Fantom whatdoyoucallit can’t carry giant, metal, scary-looking hat. And all of this blinding glowing!“
At first I didn’t understand what he was talking about and I thought that he was crazy, but he pointed at my head.
“What is wrong? The same blue-salad colored mane. The same ears. The same hor... horn?
“WHAT IS IT ON MY HORN! IS IT WANTS TO EAT IT?!“ I loudly screamed.
I was so terrified that I fell on my croup.
He looked from different sides and said, “I think I can take it off. *hmph* *pop*. What is it...hmm you better look at this“
I thought it was some kind of face eater but when saw it, I understood it wasn’t alive.
I looked it around and said.“Well, it looks like some kind of technology... I presume? WAIT WHAT THE HAY... It IS WRITTEN HERE ‘If find without the owner, please return to…’ WHAT THE HAY?!...“
“What... what happened... Where am I?!”
Suddenly I heard a voice.
“Wakey-Wakey...Wake up! Hey! wake up already! Okay, you leave me no choice!“ What, Am I asleep?
*SPLASH*
“HEY! What the hay are you doing!?“ I screamed at Kiter who just have poured water at me.
I was all wet and angry at him.
“I saw you fainted... And I thought it will help... and it did! I think you should check this thing. It might be interesting... Just keep yourself in hooves,“ “Oh, ok, I am ready! Give it to me... “ I levitated this thing to me and looked it around. “Hmm, there it is! ‘Return to Cold S.’ Wait, what?“
I had so many questions. But one of my first thoughts was that it was Changelings!
“What do you think?“ I asked with interest and hope for answer.
He looked thoughtfully, and it took him some time to think, but I hoped that he will understand something that I couldn’t.
“First of all: It was created by Cold S. whoever it is...“
I interrupted him. “Cold S. is like… like my true name, everyone calls me Cold or ColdLight because I like it, but almost no one knows my real name, Cold Spark“
“Okay, as you said it wasn't created by you, but here it says it was... I'm confused... But okay, at least we know that somehow it does interact with your magic, so it got something to do with you. I don't think it might be changelings, because they don't know about us and I don't think that they can do such spells.“
We both went silent.
After a minute he added. “Hey, you know what? I think I know someone, who can Enlightenment the situation, and I think we should go now because it's seems more important than changelings, but if it isn’t she might help us with the Changelings problem.“
I had somewhere near a hundred questions, but Kiter said to me that I should keep them until we meet *her*. Kiter looked very uncomfortable while he was talking about *her*.
“So... how long we still have to go?“ I felt uncomfortable because we were running for 20 minutes, I didn't want to look rude, but I wasn’t the fun of running.
Luckily for me, he facilitated my sufferings. “Well, we are here... But you better get ready, you might recognize her.“
*squeak*
He opened the door and showed me to come after him. It was an old but comfy house. When I entered the house, very pleasant smell hit my nose and very nice decor appeared before my eyes.
Suddenly I heard old mares voice. “Hello? Who is it?“.
Kiter looked worried and he was shaking. “H-Hello! We are looking for The G-Great and P-Powerful...“.Old mare gasped.
“Ha-hah... It's been a while since the last time that someone called me like that... Are you fans or what?“
I didn’t understand what he meant by ‘The great and powerful’ and what she meant when she said ‘fans’? I thought it was someone he knows.
Kiter, who was still shaking, answered to her, “I-I am, b-but she isn't, actually we-we-we wa...“ I could’ve swear that he is going to explode so I decided to cut in.
“Firstly, hello, I am Cold, this is Kiter and we were looking for someone who can help us with a little magical problem.“
She turned on the light. I could see her now: She was an old blue unicorn with cutie mark of perfect crescent and a magical wand.
She looked at us and friendly answered. “Nice to meet you Kiter and Cold, come in and... Is your friend alright?“ She looked at me right before Kiter started to fall, luckily I managed to catch him with my magic before he struck the staircase.
“Kiter!? KITER! I think... he fainted... Can I bring him in? He needs rest or something“
She nodded and said. “Lay him on the sofa and wait here. By the way, my name is Trixie.“ She smiled and left the room.
I laid Kiter on the comfy looking sofa and sit nearby. Kiter was smiling and his leg was twitching, but he still was unconscious.
I looked around and noticed that we were in a big living room, there were two chairs, sofa, on which I was sitting, a big carpet with the image of six alicorns, and a lot of pictures with the same old mare, who looked younger, and another pink unicorn with purple-aquamarine mane, they looked happy together.
“Wait, what!? Six alicorns!?” I whispered from surprise. I knew only three alicorns: Princess Twilight - ruler of Equestria, Flurry Heart - Ruler of Crystal Empire, and Her mother - Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. “I should ask Miss Trixie about it later.”
Trixie enter the room, there was the same unicorn from pictures, but older.
Pink unicorn spoke to me with a happy voice. “Hello, my dear! I am StarLight, is everything alright with you friend? Something like this had happened to him before?“ She came closer to him and put levitated first aid kit on the couch.
I answered her, but I had strange thoughts about her. “Hello! My name is ColdLight, nice to meet you. Sorry to say, but I don't know, we met only today. Are you gonna help him?“
She smiled at me and did unknown to me spell. Kiter immediately woke up.
"Wha-what happened? I had the best d...ddd...dream!?" he said when he saw Trixie and I thought that he will faint again.
Luckily, StarLight drew attention on herself, “Hello, I am StarLight. Don't worry, you won't faint again. So, Trixie told me that you need magical help.“
Kiter looked confused and he expressed his disturbance. “But we asked Trixie for help. Aren't you The Great and Powerful assistant? We need The Great and Powerful magician!“ Old mares both burst into laughter.
“Sorry lad, but I'm not a great magician in the way that you thought, I only can do some spells, but I can do a lot of different tricks! I'm sorry if you believe that I was a great magician,“ said Trixie.
As I understand, she was some kind of conjurer, who gets rabbit from the hat.
Kiter looked sad, but he answered. “Nah, it's alright. I'm not a child anymore...“
The awkward pause was broken by my words. “So! StarLight right? We have a very strange story, firstly we found out about the Changelings invasion, then this strange device appeared on my horn. It wouldn't be that bad, but there is written that that device created by me, but I even don’t know what is it!“
StarLight levitated device closer to her, she twisted it, her horn lightened few times, and then she said. “Hmm, interesting! It looks like some kind of magical amplifier. I don't know where it came from, but I might know what...“ She stopped talking after her horn lightened up. “This is very strange... I... I even don't know what to think...“ said Starlight with what puzzled me.
“Strange what? What is it? What it's supposed to do?“ I asked hoping for more details and explanation.
“It's the main problem! I don't know! It wasn't supposed to be here! It's just doesn't belong to this world,“ Starlight said. She confused me even more. But I understood that it was something weird and wrong. Maybe even something impossible!
“So... What we suppose to do then!?“ I asked again, hoping for answers. But no one said anything.
I wanted to say that we should go then, but Kiter proposed an strange idea. “Hey, you are the powerful unicorn, aren't you? Maybe you can use some spell that can help us find the place where it came from, not where it was created, but how it got to her.“
“Hmm, I guess I can do it. But there is a problem, it will take us with it,“ said Starlight. I think she saw our confusion and explained. “That means it will teleport us near that place.“
“Are you sure we should do it? I mean, there might be changelings everywhere.“ I complained.
“Well, you know, I don't think that a little group of pony can save whole Equestria, so we have same chances,“ said Kiter. I saw that Starlight and Trixie were whispering with each other.
“I think that your friend is right. We can't save Equestria from changelings, but there is a lot of special groups who can save it, but this-“ Starlight pointed at the device. “-this might be more important. I know only one thing like this, the armor of Nightmare Moon, it came from nowhere. And now this thing, who knows, maybe it's coming of the great evil.“ I hoped that she didn't consider me as a possible villain. But after this Trixie picked up the bags.
“I don't know about you, but I am ready,“ said Trixie.
I was surprised by their speed and that they were ready for action. I wasn't ready for something like that at all. I wanted to disagree, but Kiter outstripped me. “Yes, we ready!“
I wanted to complain, to say that I don't want to, but when I opened my mouth it was too late, we already were in the sky.
Quite literally in the sky! Very very high, and we were falling.
I saw that Starlight and Trixie ‘Froze’ on place. At first, Kiter was flying near them, but then Trixie pointed at me. Kiter flew to me very fast with strange light surrounding him.
He caught me right in time. We landed and looked around while waiting for Starlight and Trixie. There was a golden fence behind us, then I noticed ponies that were running towards us, they had spears and golden armor.
Finally, I realized that we were near the Canterlot castle and those ponies were guardians. We were trespassing the castle's border.
“Guys. I guess we have a problem...“ I said when Starlight and Trixie almost landed. I pointed at the direction of the guards. Trixie looked worried, but Starlight opposite, she was calm.
“Nothing to worry about. Twilight is our friend. Everything is gonna be alright,“ said Starlight.
I was hoping so, because I didn't want to have any more trouble.
“SHE IS GONNA SENT YOU TARTARUS! SHE... I AM GONNA DO IT BY MYSELF!“ Starlight was screaming while guardians transported us to the dungeon under the castle.
“Hahaha, yeah, of course, she will. Now, shut up and sit here until the ‘princess’ will be ready to ‘judge’ you,“ said guardians, while they were leaving.
“ ‘Everything is gonna be alright’ ,“ I quoted, “Maybe you forgot about what I said about changelings!? Or you thought that I lied?“ Starlight looked very angry, but yet, she was sad.
“Ahm... Sorry, she didn't mean to, I suppose you were hoping that we were wrong about changelings. You just wanted to meet an old friend, don't you?“ Kiter apologized for me.
Her anger extinguished and she looked even sadder than before.
“Sorry” I mumbled
“To say the truth,“ Got in Trixie. “I wanted to see her too, it was too long.“ She hugged Starlight.
“Ok! If we want to get out of here we have to do something! There is no time for revelations,“ said Starlight. “Maybe anyone has a plan or something that could help us?“ She looked very thoughtful.
“Can you just teleport us out of this cell?“ asked Kiter, expressing my mind.
“Sadly no, long time ago, this castle was protected by the magic blocking spell, I don't know about all magic, but we can't do normal magic, I don’t think we can do magic at all, last time I interacted with that kind of magic, I couldn’t anything,“ said Starlight.
Everybody went quiet for a few minutes until the laugh of the coming guards broke silence.
“Hahahahaha. It is so pleasing to watch him suffering. Sooner or later he will break and then we will get what she wants, whatever she want,“ said first guardian.
“But what she wants from him? I mean, everything that he says sounds like gibberish,“ asked second.
First shrugged. “Don’t know, don’t care. I just like watch him suffer.”
They throw somepony to the neighbor cell. We couldn't see him, but when they were carrying him, I saw that he was beaten up.
“Ahh, if only I took my prison-escape trick set with me. There were lockpicks inside,“ said Trixie.
It would be nice if she packed it, sadly that no one were wearing tiaras or brooches or something else... Then it dawned on me.
I concentrated on the spell of fantom-bound, trying to summon my little bag. It was a lot harder than it was before and it was hurting a lot. But when I was on the limit of my powers, I finally did it. I fell on the floor.
Everyone were shocked, they saw how fell on the floor exhausted and all in sweat. But then, I pushed bag to Trixie. “There should be lockpicks inside.“
“That is good, but there is a second problem,“ said Trixie. “I also need something long and hard, like a knife of screwdriver.“
“Oh for Celestia's sake!“ I swore. “I don't know, try using your horn!“ When I said that she went silent.
After she came back to earth, she took lock pick out of my bag, came closer to cell door and put her horn into the lock. After some time we heard click. Cell door opened with a lingering creak.
I stood up and followed out of the cell. Luckily for us, our items were nearby.
I walked up to the cell of the stranger and said. “Hey guys, I guess we should take him with us. He is our buddy in misfortune after all.“ Enemy’s enemy is our friend.
“I am okay with it,“ said Starlight. “ As long as I don't have to carry him.“
It reminded me that we can't use magic normally, so someone has to carry him. “I can carry him,“ proposed Kiter.
“Well, we can carry him together, we will be more quickly,“ I said. He nodded.
Trixie opened his cell and we laid him on our backs.
All of us followed Starlight. She was a more powerful unicorn than me, and she could use some weak spells that allowed us to avoid almost all of the guardians. Almost…
Unfortunately one of the guardians spotted us and we began to run. Luckily for us, we were faster, but they had an advantage over us, they knew the castle's structure and there were a lot of them. At first, we were lucky to avoid any dead ends. But it could not go on for long. And finally, we were stumped.
They closed all the escape routes. And there she was. Twilight Sparkle, but not for long. Princess and all guards opened their true identity. Changelings.
Chrysalis walked closer to us. “You discovered our little secret. Ohh, and who's here. Starlight Glimmer... I guess you are my biggest threat now and I'm not that stupid to not kill you instantly, but I let you say your last words.“
“HOW!?“ scream Starlight. “ How can you change your form in range of spell!?“
“Ohh, please. That magic was created from the remains of my throne, what did you expect?“ answered Chrysalis. “Now, Die! Oh sorry, not sorry.“
Her horn lightened in the green light, all changelings burst into a laugh.
I fell on the floor because of the pain in my head. I couldn't think anything, I even couldn't move. I felt something wet in my ears and eyes. I couldn't feel anything. Sounds in my head were getting louder and louder.
I almost fainted, but sounds stopped, I heard a strangely familiar voice in my head. “Calm down. Everything is going to be alright. Just remember this.“ It said some kind of combination of gibberish that I couldn't understand, but I remembered it was written in my mind.
I stood up, what confused changelings. And then I repeated that combination in my head. My horn lit up and a little spark jumped from my horn and landed on the floor near our “team”. Then this little spark started growing into some kind of portal. My friends fell into it and I followed them, powerless and tired.
I heard Chrysalis scream. “HOW IT IS EVEN POSSIBLE!?“
*Somewhere unknown*
*Someone unknown*
“Maam, we detected strange activity similar to what you were sicking for.“
“Hah, finally, it's time to visit an old friend.”
Project: Equestria Dimensions
Chapter two. Unknown surrounding.
"All our life written by random. It's beginning, ending and everything beetween. So, do we even control ourselves, our desteny or our choices, is it really written by random, or it written by us?"
Pain, one of the primary feeling of our body. Many would say that it's useless, but yet, it helps us to understand what is wrong with our body and fix that issue or it helps us understand what is bad or what is good.
*POV Cold Space *
“Ugh, my head… Landing surely was rough, at least all my limbs was with me,” I hoped.
I got up on my legs, it was hard because they were hurting very bad like the rest of my body.
I looked around and saw Kiter who was trying to stood up, but he couldn’t his leg was broken. At first I wanted to run to him, but then I saw Twilight who was still laying. I suggested that she might be hurt very bad or even dead.
“Hey, Hey, are you okay!? Wake up!” I was screaming at her with scare and was shaking her.
Luckily, she coughed.
“Huh, I guess I’m okay, I am tougher than I seem. You should help your friend,” I helped her to get up and we both walked to Kiter.
“So, what are you think had happened?” I asked them while we were helping Kiter to get up.
“My leg got broken,” he said immediately. Then he saw my face and said. “Okay, okay, I’ll try to stop with my jokes.”
“I don’t know surely, but it looked like some kind of portal, but I would like to research it closer if I will ever find it!” said Twilight.
“It was neither blue nor orange, so I don’t know about portal, but it looks like we in different place,” suggested Kiter while was limping around.
“Hmm, ok. I guess that portal teleported us to... Everfree Forest!?” Twilight screamed in fright when she looked around.
“And why we should be scared? It’s not very dangerous place as I remember,” I said with confusion.
“Well, it was in my time, but even now it’s dangerous because it’s Timberwolves breeding season! Forest is full of them!” explained Twilight.
“Are… are you sure? I can’t hear anything,” I said with a scare in my voice.
Suddenly a weird howl sounded near us.
“Hey, look there!” said Kiter and pointed to some kind of tower.
We all started walking fast towards that Tower.
Twilight was walking ahead of us, while we were slowly hobbling.
“Hey, there is something wrong”-Twilight pointed at the castle-“there is only one castle at the Everfree Forest and it’s isn’t it.”
“But then where are we?” I asked.
Twilight shrugged.
Now we all walked nearby. I didn’t know why, but Twilight was looking too good for someone her age. Kiter on the other side was looking bad. His leg wasn’t looking good and I think it weren’t supposed to bend like this.
Finally we were near castle. It was big and made of stone. Someone on the wall saw us and screamed to someone else. The giant wooden gate began to open and guardians came out of them.
“How did you survived there!? Sorry, there is no time for that, come with us,” said one of them who looked like a leader.
They led us in It was bigger inside.. It wasn’t a castle, it was a town! It was just surrounded by giant walls.
“What is this place?” I asked guardian with confusion.
“Welcome to the Sall, the only safe place in this world. Sooner or later everyone who live in the forest come here like you. We should led you to town hall,” said the guardian.
This town looked… nice. But there was too few place and too much citizens, most of them were unicorns.
I looked back to my friends. Kiter was alright and was following us, but Twilight seem wrong. I approached her and wanted to ask what was wrong, but when I was near her she fell on the ground.
“Hey!? HEY!? Twilight!? ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?” I screamed in her face while was shaking her.
She didn’t answered, but I caught weird looks from citizens of town.
“Did she said Twilight!?” citizens were whispering.
“Do you have some kind of hospital here?! She need help!” I screamed at guardians with fear.
“Yeah, but how did you…” guardian wanted to say something but was interrupted by bright light.
I turned around and saw Twilight who was covered in sphere of light and who was levitating up. Shortly after, sphere exploded with even brighter light. After I blinked I saw that there wasn’t an old mare but there was an pretty purple alicorn.
“What the fuck was that!?” sweared Kiter.
“Don’t move! You’ll be arrested right now! Witchcraft is forbidden and punished horribly in Sall!” screamed the guardian.
After that guardians formed strange figure and started moving in our direction.
“If you want to live run after me RIGHT NOW!” said little unicorn in a mantle who just jumped out from crowd
Without any thinking I supported Kiter and we all run to her. Luckily for us guardians were slow and we broke away from them. She led us to a side street and then walked right through the wall. I was shocked. I looked to my friend and saw that they were shocked too.
“FOLLOW ME!” she looked out from the wall and then hid in it again.
Casting aside all doubts I sped up and run in the wall. Instead of hitting the wall I ran through it and… fell in the hole after it. As I saw after landing my friends and mysterious saver used a ladder.
“Follow me!” she said again and then pushed a button.
“HEY! Maybe you’ll explain anything!? Who are you and where are we!?” I asked her.
“Oh, pardon my manners, but can you wait a bit longer? I have to show you to someone,” she answered with excitement.
“Twilight, are you alright?” I asked her with a lot of confusion.
I still couldn’t understand what have happened back there. And still I wasn’t sure was it Twilight or not.
“I… I guess so-” she disappeared and reappeared in a different place. “- I am better than alright! My magic have returned!-” she flapped her wings and flew on place. “- I am young again! I’m not an old mare anymore!”
Then she created a mustache on Kiter’s face. She was happy like a little foal, no, she was happier than a little foal.
“Thanks you, thanks you, thanks you!” she came up to us and thanked us both.
“Thanks for what?” Kiter asked her with confusion.
“Well, I guess that portal opened thanks to you!” she answered, “Oh, sorry, I’m a princess after all, I should match it.” Then she smiled and we followed our mysterious saver.
We came out of tunnel. Ahead of us were small underground town, even smaller than town above, but there also were fewer citizens.
“It’s place where I’m live. It isn’t so comfy as Sall, but we have fewer rules and at least we doing something for this world,” said our mysterious savior.
Unlike Sall, everyone who we met greeted us. This town felt more comfortable.
Twilight was in front of us, Kiter and I were behind.
“Hi! I thought you would be interesting in who I have found,” said our savior.
A dark figure stood up and came out of shadow… It was Spike! That dragon who sent a letter to us! But he looked different. He had a cape and a strange staff.
He looked at us and then looked at our savior.
“IT’S SHE… IT’S REALLY SHE!” said spike and hugged our saviour and her mantle fell off.
Only now I could see her… she looked exactly like me! The same cyan-colored body and blue-salad mane! “She is like a mirror,” I thought. I saw that she looked at me and her expression was exactly like mine.
I walked closer to her, she walked closer to me. We both moved closer.
“What the fuck is going on!” we both said in the same time.
“I am… no, you...” we both said again.
I was freaked out. I looked back as she did. My friends as Spike were surprised.
“Okay… That is very strange… Why don’t you go first,” said Spike and pointed at me.
“Ahh, I’m Cold Space, ESAT scientist. I… we have no idea where are we and we don’t know how did we get here…” I said with confusion.
“I am Cold Night, defenders of this town, fighter for freedom and truth and best friend of Spike. Nice to meet you Cold Space. And now… can anybody explain me what the fuck is going on here!? Firstly there are strange earthquakes, then our main group got lost, and now there appeared Twilight by herself with copy of me!” she said.
“It is really strange. The second most weird thing in my life” I thought. I didn’t know what can explain this. “Coincidence? Clone? Magic? Some kind of metamorphosis creature?” were my thoughts. That was stupid, but nothing could explain this, at least nothing I knew.
“I don’t know what is going on, but, maybe we should put off this stuff about you too, and maybe we can talk together about everything else? We don’t know where are we, and I could use some information,” said Twilight.
“Oh, yes, sorry me, you must be tired. We can talk tomorrow, now Cold… Cold Night will show you place where you can stay. And Night, show Twilight where is our library,” he said with smile.
“HAVE YOU JUST SAID LIBRARY?!” happily screamed Twilight.
“Yes, now, Follow me!” Night said again, but a bit irritatedly.
“Ahh… sorry to bother you, but do you have anyone who can help me and my broken leg?” asked Kiter.
“Ohh, sorry, can someone find Joy?-” after this words one of the guardians went out of the building,”- stay here until Joy can look at your leg,
Night led us across the town and showed us “our” room, they wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. There were only beds, but they looked comfy.
Then she waved her hoof and showed Twilight to follow, I decided to follow them and spend some time in a library.
That library could compare to Golden Oak Library in amount of books. But sadly, there was a little space.
I saw Twilight who immediately ran and grabbed a lot of books in her telekinetic field. But when I wanted to join her, I felt taps on my back.
“Hey, come with me,” said Night.
We left the library and we went behind the building.
“Now listen very carefully! I don’t know who are you or what are you doing here, but I feel like I can trust you, so listen up: be very careful! There is something strange is happening and you aren’t save, I’ll help you get back to HQ tomorrow, but now try not to stay alone!” she whispered to my ear and run away after.
I was very shocked and surprised. She gave me a lot of unusual information to process, but I understood that think that she wasn’t from here either. Instead of fortune telling I decided to join Twilight and ask her for a little service.
When I entered library I saw Twilight reading four books at once! All 4 books were levitating in telekinesis field. The she saw me.
“Hey, you’re finally back! You’ve got to look at that!” she levitated a book to me and it just fall on the floor. “Oh, sorry, I forgot.”
“Nah, that’s okay. But to be honest, I was thinking… Maybe you can teach me magic? It’s like my dream and I was hoping if~”
“You want me to teach you magic!?” screamed Twilight.
“Oh, sorry, I knew it was a bad~”
“I’ll do it with big pleasure! You know, I was teaching magic many ponies before and I'll be happy to do this again!” happily said Twilight.
“Really!? Thank you! So... how do we get started?” I asked her happily and confused.
She turned around and approached the bookshelf and took few books. She cleared space on the one and only table, and opened one of the books.
“Firstly read this,” said Twilight.
Book was open on telekinesis spell page, the easiest spell known to ponies. The spell created that long ago that no one know who created it. Despite it was the easiest spell, I always was surprised by it, the power that allowed you resist gravity and manipulate things on a great distance, it’s fascinating.
“So, now what you want to do is concentrate on a object, imagine it in your head and imagine how it fly in any direction you want,” she said and put a stone on table.
I tried to do as Twilight said and stone lit up with white glowing. I felt its weight on my body. I was so surprised by it, I knew how it worked, but never could do something like it. .
I stained myself and stone flew up. It was shaking. I strained a little bit more and stone struck in the wall in high speed.
“It was good! Not perfect, but the first step is always the hardest, isn’t it?” Twilight praised me.
“Yeah, it wasn’t easy, but I felt so damn good. What else you can teach me?” I asked Twilight with hope for more.
“I think it should be enough for today, but now, you should practice! Practice, practice and a bit of reading!,” said Twilight and put 3 big books on the table.
“Hmm, ok, it was… good, but next time be careful and don’t throw them without aiming,” said Twilight while she was putting fallen bookshelf back on its place.
I helped her with putting books on places with telekinesis, it was hard, but I was doing it myself.
Twilight approached table and put some books in front of her.
“You can stay and read with me,” suggested Twilight.
“I’d like to!-” I said while was taking books from shelf,”-hmm, I guess we broke bookshelf.”
I tried to put broken piece on its place, it fell again and when I tried to pick it up again I saw that there was a book in hollow space inside of the bookshelf. “SOMEONE HID THE BOOK INSIDE OF THE BOOKSHELF?!” I thought.
“Hey, I think you~”
“Shhh, I am reading!” Twilight shut me up.
“But~” I tried to get her attention but she shut me up again.
“This pony sure love reading” I thought.
I took that odd book and a few other books and left Twilight alone in the library. I went to our little room to see if Kiter is okay and to read some books, but on my way I saw something strange light that flew out from one wall into another. Again, I just decided that it was because of my lack of sleep.
When I entered our room I saw Kiter lying on the bed and looking something in his holo-hoof. His leg was bandaged and it has medical splint.
“Oh, finally some company, I am so bored. There is no signal, and everytime I ask anypony about it they can’t understand me. Maybe we’re in the past?” asked me Kiter with some kind of exhaustion.
“Unlikely, as I know time travel that far it’s scientifically impossible,” I answered, but suddenly a thought came into my head, “But… I think, that could do something with magic, I think should ask Twilight about it.”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot about magic-“ he smiled, “- but anyways, what do we do now?”
“Well, I consider reading books, perfect way to spend the time and a way to learn about this place,” I suggested and levitated some books to Kiter.
He looked shocked. Firstly he looked at the books, then at me. After it he looked at the titles of the books. He took one at laid it in front of him.
“Hey! I thought you knew that I don’t like love stories!” he sweared.
“Seriously?” I said with irritated face.
“What? Yeah, you learned magic and what? I knew you’re very talented, so It was the matter of time before you’ll do it. But really, do you have anything else to read?” said Kiter.
“Oh, ok, thank for faith in me. Yeah, there should be something about old flying vehicles and a comics about someone called ‘Silver’ etc,” answered I with a smirk, because I knew it would be dilemma about what to read to him.
“Comics you say? Very strange,” said Kiter and immediately began reading it.
I wanted follow his example and read a book about ‘Great Gusty’, but strange filling changed my decision and I took Black Book that I found inside of bookshelf. It had strange but nice cover, there was no title. I opened it and there was text written in unknown to me language, it was similar to zebrian, but somehow different. I decided to look through the book and found out that that book fully written in that language. There were some pictures, but I couldn't understand what they contained. Finally I opened the last page, there was text written in Equestrian: “You are not the only one, but you are the lucky one. Find me if you can.”
I decided to put off this weird book and later return it to the library. But suddenly I felt that room become warmer. I decided that it was nothing and took the book about ‘Gusty’ and started to enjoy it.
It was story book about ‘Gusty the great’ full story in 14 tomes.
After a while of reading I felt so tired that I couldn’t continue and I decided to sleep.
Before sleeping I looked at the Kiter. He was still reading that Comic book and looked like he was captured by it’s story.
*Elsewhere*
“Na-na-na, na-na-na...Hmm, where the hell am I?” I tried to walk forward but I couldn’t move my hooves.
I thought it was conscious dream that I never had before and tried to imagine something, but nothing happened.
“Hello?! Who are you!? Where am I?” said voice that I could hear from everywhere, like it was in my head.
“Umm hello? I… I am Co… I am Space, who are you… where are you?” I answered to this voice.
“Hello I suppose? What are you doing here…” it said but then it added, ”Here, in my dream?”
“Your dream? I thought it was my dream!?” I said with mistrust.
“I...I don’t know, are you even real? Maybe you are projection of my consciousness that tries to calm me down? It was a eventful day, I still don’t know was it all real,” it complained.
“Don’t you say. It was unusual day. Huh, I still don't know your name, how was it?” I asked again, but I didn’t get the answer.
I stood on one place for 5 minutes, but it felt like eternity. There were only mist around me. But suddenly mist was scattered by strange black symbols. I walked at their direction but I heard strange voice. It was different.
“Hey! Come on! We have to get out!” she said.
And I woke up.
*Back *
“Wha? Who?” I asked while I was opening my stuck eyes.
“Shhh, it’s me! Let’s go and be quiet,” said Night after waking me up.
I forgot about everything and followed her, she led me through sleeping city and we left it. I completely woke up and remembered my friends. I stopped.
“Hey! What about my friends?!” exclaimed I.
She wasn’t looked happy and instantly shut my mouth with her hoof.
“Shhh! If anyone will woke up we will be doomed! Your friends will be ok,” she whispered.
I nodded and followed her. Finally she stopped and exhaled.
“Now, we are safe. I think I have to explain you what is going on, but, if you stand by my side, here, it will be easier,” she said in full voice.
I followed her instructions silently. She raised her hoof closer to her face and cast unknown to me spell. Some kind of bracelet similar to mine appeared on her hoof.
“Kit, pull me out!” she said in her bracelet.
We waited for a minute. I wanted to ask what is going on but something strange happened and we got sucked into different place. It wasn’t forest anymore, but it was some kind of laboratory with a lot of fancy devices that I never heard of.
“Why are you back!? And who the fuck is this?” said strange pony.
“You know why I’m here, but she, you really should look at her closer,” she said and then she stepped aside so he could see me.
He looked at me for a minute or more constantly making ‘hmm’ sounds.
“How did you clone yourself!?” he asked in surprise.
“Hey, I’m not a clone!” I outraged.
“Yeah, yeah of course, so, really, how!?” he asked again.
I was so angry at him that I almost punched him, but Night stopped me.
“No, she really isn’t! Well, at least I didn’t do it, she and her friends just came to city and that’s all.”
“So, you say, it’s not unique, I need to run some test with you DNAs, and you can show her city to spend some time. But really, Night, you should really drop this thing and help that world,” he said and approached us.
He took a shred of my hair and a sample of my skin which hurt me a lot. Then he did the same to Night.
I turned red from anger, but Night led me out of the room before I could do anything.
“I hate this guy,” I said with anger.
“You shouldn’t, he is a good guy, but too direct. So anyway, let me show our city and talk about what is going on and why are you here,” she said with happiness and run to the nearest door.
I followed her inside. It was balcony that granted us a bit of a view of the city, but that was enough, what I saw shocked me. The city were dying, quite literally. Ponies seemed hopeless and lifeless, I even saw some corpses that were just lying on the streets, the sound of shooting were hearing from all over the town and I saw fires that were only flaring up. But most shocking of all was the sky, it’s was pitch black, there was nothing, not a single star and only light this world had was artificial.
I looked at Night and she looked horrified as I did. She kept looking in the town, but I couldn’t stand it. Later she walked away too and we headed on the roof. She looked even more terrified than before.
“I...I was here before, but it wasn’t that bad, I swear. But it just became so worse than before” -she said and become sobbing,-”I, I… I just can’t believe that the main city of friendship and the last bastion of this world could fall that low.”
And now I understand where we were, it was Ponyville, Equestrian science and technology center, town looked different from the roof, but it was easily recognizable from there. I fell on my knees. It was almost my hometown, the town that I grew in, the town I loved. I knew it wasn’t my Ponyville, but it didn’t helped. Tears formed on my eyes.
“Hey, hey! Sorry for making you cry, but I didn’t expected that, but if it will make you feel good, there is a chance to save them,” she tried to reassure me.
“I can’t believe that Ponyville can be so horrible,” my words shocked
She stopped for a minute trying to understand what that meant. I understood that it was unexpected, we are like clones, and we even from the same city! But I decided to calm her and bring some clarity into my words.
“Well, I think that I came from different Ponyville.. I don’t know how it works.... Listen, it’s not the correct time, you said there is a chance to save them, what is it!?”
“Oh, yeah, main things first! Okay, you saw here everything. We still don’t know why, but every single star died instantly and now planets are dying too, luckily we had something left after war and we were able to create our ‘New Sun’ It have enough fuel to work for decades, but it wasn’t the main problem-” she explained and pointed high above,”- everything started to dying far away from us in billions of light years, you can say it very far away and it was happening long time ago, but NO! To find out what happened with stars, we created special, observatory. It took us few month, but we found out that everything were dying from one side with fast acceleration.”
She looked at me and saw my frozen confused face and then tried to explain how they did that, but I interrupted her with relieving for her words.
“No, I understand something of this, but I never imagined that magic could do that, to be honest, I learned telekinesis only today. Please continue.”
“Oh, well ok. Everyone went desperate, but hope lighted again! We were experimenting with an idea to create force field that would save us, sadly it didn’t worked, but something different have happened. After giant explosion that killed few ponies we found this device-” she pointed at her bracelet-” in the epicenter of the explosion”.
I felt myself bad after hearing about death of ponies, but I decided to hide my surprise as I didn’t wanted to interrupt her story.
“We did few test with it but found nothing. At one of the test, one volunteer tried to use it. It exploded and few ponies including me got into shock-wave. And it transported us to a place unknown to me. Sadly, I don’t remember anything after this. but I somehow managed to get back. I still don’t know why it happened. Time passed and we created bigger version of this bracelet and transported first half of the science center to a safer place, you saw it, we still don’t know why it place was different from the place I got transported to. Only then we discovered that only unicorns can be transported and somehow everyone who get transported loses almost of they memories except me. Well, except you too as we know it now.”
“Wait… So you just hoped that I wouldn’t lose my memories!?”
“Well, I assumed that you came from here, so yes, I did, but now I see that you aren’t from here, sorry,” she excused herself
Lucky for her guy from lab called Night with excitement in his voice. He said that we should return to the lab and met us with excitement look.
“Listen Night, maybe you were right, maybe there is a chance, I did some test with your and some other samples found interesting thing, my samples got changed. DNA slightly rewritten. But your samples didn’t changed at all, I don’t know what does it mean, but it could be dangerous to everyone who used that device. I need some more time and I need samples of those other ponies, but theoretically DNA changes are very dangerous and I hope that I can find a way to fix it, but you still need to find a way to transport pegasi and earth ponies.”
“So, everything is going to be fine?” I asked them.
“Well, I hope it will, but now, we should return to your friends. Kit, send me a message if you will find the breakthrough. And I’ll try to find out how the hell this thing is working,” Night assured me.
We got back to the same place we left from and headed into town.
As we were almost at the ‘secret’ entrance to the town I saw a giant worm jumped from the underground and hit the gate with its body. Small amount of wood slivers got scattered around and guards run out through formed wall in the gate.
I wanted to go and help them but Night stopped me.
“Stop! It’s no use! We can’t defeat it. It’s Tatzlwurm… At least I think it is. They can’t defeat so can’t do we!”
I followed her into the city.
“So, listen now! I am going to warn everyone, they will start evacuation, you, go to your friends and take samples in those test tubes. Tell them to join everyone else and go to place where we were teleported, understood!?” strictly ordered Night like some kind of PE teacher and gave me test tubes that Kit gave her earlier.
I shook my head and run to our room. And before entering it, I again saw strange floating light. I decided that it wasn’t because my lack of sleep at all and that I should ask someone about it later.
I gently took they samples and then woke them up, lucky, when I came, they were sleeping. After a bit of explaining about evacuation I left our room and then the town.
Night were already waiting for me there.
“Ok, everyone gonna stay at one of our research-expeditionary points until this wurm there,” she explained.
She pushed some buttons on her bracelet and we got sucked into it again. As she later explained she can use it by herself if she has ‘connection’ with that place, but last time Kit turned it off.
As expected we got transported… but it wasn’t the place I expected.
“Where are we? Did you wanted to show me something else?” I asked her surprised by that place.
“N-no… It shouldn’t teleport to other places, it’s was teleporting only to~”
Unknown pink-purple unicorn appeared in front of us and interrupted Night.
“You’re under arrest because of the crimes against the multiverse, crossing your own timeline and many other crimes! You will spend the rest of eternity in the prison of StarUnity”.
View Online
Project: Equestria Dimensions
Chapter one. Tied together by random. Part one: World of technology.
Since the beginning of Twilight Sparkle's reign, Equestria begins to flourish. The old magic bases changed to new ways of science and technology. The magic began to fade gradually, but most of the ponies did not notice. Decades later almost everypony forgot how to do magic. Even Twilight, who wasn't seen for a long time, lost it.
“Equestria Science and technology center“, the place where "magic" happens.
*POV Cold Space*
That should work! One of my latest hypotheses. I hope it'll work, either way, I don't know what I should do next, maybe I'll just give up? No! No, Cold! You won't give up! I won’t give up!
“Who the hell are you and what the fuck are you doing!?” said unknown voice.
*Somewhere else*
“Well... what are you waiting for? I wanna see... By the way, what am I wanna see?“ asked Kiter, with excitement in his voice.
Kiter always was so impatient, I am even interested in how he waited so long without asking about it? But Kiter is a really good friend of mine, our story goes way far back when we only met at school, but it’s another story.
“Huh, if you are really interested in it-" I got my notes from under the table“-You can read all about it from here, but basically, it's the fan that collects special particles from the air and accumulates them around the horn.“
“Are you sure that it will help use magic? I mean, Isn’t it was supposed to happen last 3 times, or you just wanted to burn my mane?“ asked me Kiter with doubts in his voice.
“Yeah, yeah, I understand, but now, I have prepared everything to be safe, there is a table, under where we gonna hide, here is your safety helmet-“ . I gave him colander “-so, I don't know about you, but I am wanna try it, I spent working on it for three months! By the way, I called it Magical Particle Collector, simply MPC, do you like it?“
I always loved simplicity, but sometimes I can do something harder than it should be. I called it like that only because I liked it, not because it is its real name, but because it sounds cool.
“Well, I dunno, but let's try this thing already, I'm bored, and all that stuff like I believe in you! “ joked Kiter, while was playing with a pen in his hooves.
“Let the ball rolling!“ I said after turning the device on.
I opened an old magical book, from Canterlot library and found one of the easiest spell ever created - Telekinesis.
“Here it goes!“ I tried to cast the spell by the book.
MPC began glowing and vibrating, I felt that it began hard to breathe and the air became hot.
“Hey? Cold? Are you alright?“ said Kiter, after what I heard sounds of metal hitting the wall.
“Open up your eyes already! Almost nothing happened, except your device had disappeared,“ said Kiter with what he shocked me even more.
IT WHAT?! Oh no, it was bad, very bad! I spent a month on calculation and construction, but it contained very rare materials. It took me a lot of time to get access to them, and now, everything has gone, as my carrier if I couldn't find it!
Kiter saw the worry on my face and already was searching around the office. I joined him. Luckily for us, our office was small, well good only for this situation, usually there can't fit more than 3 ponies.
“AHA!“ screamed Kiter from the other side of the office. “I knew I’ll finally find it!“
I was so happy, I thought that I would lose my job, but when I got out from under the table I saw nothing except Kiter eating a sandwich.
“So, where is it?“ I asked.
Kiter lifted his sandwich in the air. It looked old, the bread was dry, the salad was sluggish and dehydrated. Finally, I understood that Kiter found an old sandwich, while I thought that he found MPC.
“Are you kidding me? It's not the right time to eat, how you even could eat it?“
“Cold! We searched around our office 3 times already, I don't think that your device in here. At least we should get a break, I'm hungry, and I think you are too,“ said Kiter.
My belly grumbled.
“No, it isn't the right time, I don't want to lose my job and the work of my life!“ after my words, Kiter went silent.
We both sat and Kiter still was eating his sandwich. “Ok, I guess you're right, Morning is wiser than evening,“I admitted.
We began clearing our office when suddenly, unexpected happened. In the center of the office, something flashed with the green, bright light. Until green light faded, I prayed and hoped that it will be MPC, but it was a piece of paper, it was a scroll or a letter to be exact. I picked it up and inspected it. It had a print of royal coat of arms.
“W-What is it?“ he asked in a whisper, with the tone of fear in his voice, “W-What is w-written inside?“
“Ok, just give me a second-“ I unwrapped the letter “-agh... I... I can't understand it, maybe it is written in a different language?“
“Let me see!“ excitedly asked Kiter, while he pulled it out of my hooves. “Oh, of course, it's just bad hoofwritting, I had such myself. I think there written something like this:
‘I don't know who are you, but its message was sent to you, because you were nearby to one of two splashes of magic, If you reading this, please, arrive to royal Canterlot castle immediately! Signed ‘S’ “
“What the hell is going on!?“ I thought out loud.
“Oh, it might be even worse than losing a job. Old Canterlot palace? As I heard, that place is abandoned. And who the hell is ‘S’ ” thoughts flashed in my head.
I looked at Kiter and by expression of his face, I understood that he had a lot of questions too.
“Ok, I guess we both don't know anything, but if it sent from Canterlot, especially the castle, it is important,“ suggested I, “And we should keep our questions till we be there, but right now it too late and we should go home and tomorrow, at 9 AM we will meet at the Old Library, ok?“
He nodded his head and we both left our office.
*Wrrr-Wrrr-Wrrr* *Wrrr-Wrrr-Wrrr*
“Ah, morning already?“ I thought when I heard my alarm clock,“ I didn't get even a bit of sleep. Well, anyway I should get ready, it's almost 9.“
“I think I should take my lucky bracelet with me, I guess a bit of luck won't hurt anyone. I hope I am ready, luck, check. Notepad, check. Pen, check. Glasses, check. Oh, I think I should comb my mane and tail, we going to Canterlot after all. Maybe I should take some of my researches? Yeah, it's probably a good idea,“ I thought when I was getting ready.
I approached Old Library... And Kiter was already there.
“Hello, are you ready?“ I asked him.
He nodded his head.
“So... What do you think about it? Who is ‘S’, or even what awaits us there?” I asked him.
He looked thoughtful.
“Hmm... I tried not to think about it, I just hope that it will be better than bags under your eyes,“ joked Kiter. “Did you really spend all night thinking about it?“
Was it so bad? Unlike him, at least I know what to expect.
“Ohh, ok jokester, I'll go and buy some coffee, do you want some?“ I asked Kiter. He nodded his head.
“While you away, I'll call LD, we need some cover after all.“
Oh, of course, one of the most important that I forgot, call our boss and warn him. I'm lucky that I have such a good friend like Kiter.
“Ok, I hope you know what to tell. I'll be back in 5 minutes.“ I Said, while entering the shopping center.
I always was interested, why did they build it across the road from the library?
Ah, StarBits, coffee shop that bucks you in the face with their prices, luckily for us, it was open.
“Here you go-“ I said while I was giving a coffee cup to Kiter, “-You owe me 6 bits, you know? Anyways, how did your talk go?“
My career as a scientist was depending on how well he lied and how boss took his lie..
“Well, *SLURP* almost everything is went alright *SLURP* “ said Kiter, while drinking coffee.
I couldn't say that it was bad, but I was scared by *Almost everything*. Usually he loves to downpay stuff.
“What does it mean!?“ Annoyingly I asked him.
“Well,*SLURP* everything was perfect, but *SLURP*,“ calmly said Kiter.
Oh dammit, I hate ‘buts’ moments. Almost every time, when some says ‘but’ after ‘everything is good’ is usually means that everything is not good.
“But *SLURP*, now, officially, you have ponypox, and I'm kinda your nurse slash helper. And...“
“How could he!? Why?! Well, at least nothing bad happened. But why couldn't he say the opposite, that he was ill?’ I thought. I couldn’t understand Is he was joking or was it true.
“And now, I guess, she thinks that we are in love. *SLURP* Yeah, emotions on your face are priceless, by the way, it was revenge for D-Glider, I still *SLURP* remember!“ finished his story Kiter.
After our last talk, we were quiet. But sitting with him on Ponyville's friendship express made me feel good. This trip wasn’t long, but it was a perfect time to think and talk with Kiter about everything. I was still angry, but he didn't do anything that bad. The main problem was that if she or someone else would visit my house and this lie will be broken, but usually nopony visits me.
“So... peace?“ apologized Kiter that shocked me.
“Peace,“ I Agreed. “So, we have some time right now, what do you think about the whole situation. Who and what awaits us in there?“
“Hmm, I really don't know. It's a very unusual situation, I mean, not every day you see magic. I think we are only one...“ suggested Kiter. “Well, we and someone else, who saw it for the last few years,“
“Yes, you're right, but we can imagine, at least we can assume who, why and how,“I offered. “By all having facts I suggested that it might be some kind of old society, that watching the world's magic and after a long time we were the first ones who did something magical and now, they want to know what, how and why?“
“So, you definitely didn't sleep tonight?“ he assumed.
“Nope! But it was a good assumption!“ I complimented him.
“Oh, Cold, get some sleep while you have time! You may need to work with your brain, but you'll be tired!“ he advised.
“Get some sleep? I am alright!” I wanted to scream at him.
“I AM ALRIGHT!“ I screamed. Or maybe I'm not alright? “What was that?!“
“Hmm?“ he asked.
“There was some kind of weird flashing flew through *YAWN* carriage,“ I said. “Or maybe I should get some sleep after all?“
“Wake up, wake up, stand and shake-up! ... WAKE UP!“ sang Kiter, “Wake up! We're here!“
“5 more minutes please,“ I asked.
“No more minutes, we should go!“ he said. We could wait 5 more minutes, why is he screaming. “We arrived half an hour ago! Train can’t wait any longer!“
“Yeah. Yeah. 5 more minutes...“ I answered. “Wait, what!? Why didn't you woke me up earlier! Let's go!“
I run out of the carriage, Kiter followed me with a dissatisfied sigh.
“Sooo... where does this castle is situated?“ I asked him. Luckily for me, Kiter had his holo-hoof on his... hoof. It was a device in form of a bracelet that can project GUI in front of the wearer, but that increases energy costs, so usually, he uses it in screen projection mode i.e projects a little screen above device itself.
He didn’t created it by himself, but he made some upgrades to it, with my help of course.
“Follow me,“ he said and run forward.
I followed him.
We were in the center of the capital. The most beautiful city in Equestria, well of those that I saw. Big buildings and skyscrapers rising in the sky, a lot of restaurants, shops and boutiques just standing next to each other, the bluest sky float above the city, a lot of ponies walking around... Too many ponies... Wayyy too many ponies...
“Great, now I'm lost,” I said quietly.
“KITEEEEERRR!!!“ I screamed, “WHERE ARE YOU!?“
“Stop right now, or I'll fine you!“ came and threatened me guard.
“Sorry sir, but I lost my friend, I don't know where he is.“ I justified myself.
But after, something tapped my mane from the above. I jumped away scared. I hit someone while I was falling and fell on my croup. While I was dusting off my mane, I saw that it was Kiter who have tapped me.
“Hey! I almost came to the right place, and you weren't there, I thought that you were following me,“ aggressively said Kiter.
He flew to me above a crowd.
“Ok follow me, I'll guide you,“ he repeated but with anger.
I followed him again. I was angry at him too, but it wasn't his fault, well wasn’t entirely his fault.
We finally walked out of the crowd. I saw an old castle that was situated aside from town. It was in very bad condition, and it was different from other buildings. The castle looked like it was abandoned, like no one cared for it for a lot of years.
“Is it the right castle?“ I asked Kiter.
“I suppose, at least Map says so,“ answered Kiter.
It was strange, maybe owners just don't care about it.
I saw two ponies in golden armor and with spears in front of the gates. I think that they were guardians. This castle had guardians, which meant it wasn’t abandoned, but it meant that we need to talk to them.
“Maybe we could get some information from them?” I said to Kiter and then approached guardians.
“Hello, are you guardians of this castle?“ I Asked them.
“Go away! Castle closed for tourists!“ said The first one.
“But yes, we are guarding Twilight Sparkle's Castle, maybe you wanna talk? We are kinda bored,“ said the second one.
After his words, the first guardian struck him.
“But you better go away,“ added The second.
“So, it is Twilight's castle? I never saw her. Nobody saw her for years, as I know,” I pondered.
“Well, we aren't tourists, someone called us here,“ said Kiter.
They burst into laughter.
“But we would be happy to talk, it' always interesting to talk to someone new,“ added Kiter.
They kept laughing about a minute.
“Sorry, sorry. It just that thing. Only one pony visits this place weekly, maybe you have something like the invitation? It's hard to believe that you've got it,“they apologized.
I showed them the letter. They looked very surprised.
“Ok, Ok. You've got a letter with a royal coat, now I believe you,“ said The first.
“So, why are you here?“ asked the second. “I mean, for us it's very unexpected, as we said, almost no one visits this place.“
“Well... we don't know. It's a strange story, but we are not sure,“I said. “But I hope that it will help me with the object of my study.“
“Ohh, what are you studying? Are you are scientists?“ asked the second.
“Yeah, we are scientists. I'm researching magic, he... he is researching... technologies for better flying I suppose?“ I answered with a bit of confusion about Kiter in my voice. “But really, what are you researching, I don't remember anything since D-Glider.“
“Well-“ he laughed. “-now it is secret, I don't want you to ruin any of my projects... and no, it's not that dangerous as the last time. If you waited a bit of time, and a few more experiments, I would fix it.“
“Ok, I think you should go, if someone really called you here, you should hurry up,“ Said the first one.
The second agreed unwillingly.
They opened fence gate and we went to the castle. It looked like there was a beautiful garden around the castle, but now it was dead, all animals that lived here ran away. I felt bad for the garden, its view made me sad, I always loved plants and animals, but there was nothing I can do. Kiter looked confident, he went straight to the castle.
We opened castle gates. The view inside was worse than outside, inside was a big mess: old furniture was either broken or was stand for garbage. Here was dark and kinda creepy.
Kiter turned on the flashlight on his H-Hoof. I followed him. I saw a lot of different statues that were showing different scenes. We have passed next door. There was a colorful, but muted light. It was coming from a colorful stained glass.
Someone opened next door and came in. He saw us his voice loudly burst out.
“WHO ARE YOU!? ARE YOU THE ONES WHO WAS INVITED? CAN YOU SHOW ME IT!? SHOW ME IT OR I'LL BURN YOU!“ threatened us mysterious creature.
At first, I couldn't tell who was it, but then he exhaled with the same green fire that appeared with the letter.. It was a dragon and he was the one, who sent the letter.
I got my letter from the bags and showed it to him. He took it and brought it to his face. After a few seconds of viewing, he raised his face and smiled.
“So, welcome to our home. I'm so happy to see you!“ said Dragon. “Come after me and tell me nothing, firstly Twi must see you. Now follow me. By the way, my name is Spike.“
Hmm, Spike... Dragon... I thought that name Spike for a dragon, like Hoof for a pony, but I was more interested in how he sent this letter. Maybe it was magic? I hoped so.
He led us to some kind of a throne room. There was more stained glass and it was more interesting, it illustrated 6 creatures, they had both: wings and horns. I never heard of such creatures, I thought that maybe they were gods. I saw that Kiter was looking around too.
“Who are they?“ asked Kiter.
“Well, wait and you will be able to ask one of them,“ said Spike. “And here we are. Meet princess Twilight Sparkle, the ruler of Equestria, princess of friendship, etc. etc.“
“Wait for a second, princess by her self!?“ surprisingly screeched I am. “I... I never saw her, it is so much honor, your majesty.“
“Don't need so much honor, my child,“ said an old voice. “But who are you?“
“They are the ones you sought,“ said Spike.
After his words, an old Unicorn came out.
“ARE YOU SURE!?“ she excitedly asked.
Spike nodded. Her horn lighted up. The lights above us lighted up. I saw that she wasn't a unicorn, but she was one of 6 creatures on stained glass, but older.
“Oh, I am so happy! I waited long enough. But say me, my children, what you saw or what you did? Why did magical splash happen near you?“ she asked Kiter.
I was more interested in what is she than that she is a princess.
“All questions to my friend, well, when she wakes up. But I have two questions, what are you and why no one saw you in the last decades?“ asked Kiter.
“Well, I am an Alicorn, creature of three kinds of ponies: unicorns, pegasus and earth ponies. Alicorns are very powerful and don’t get old. As for your second question, I can say only this: I really not needed in the new world.“
“Wait, aren't your words disagreed with you? Sorry to say this Maam, but you are old,“ said Kiter.
“Oh, he really just said THIS to PRINCESS? I interested in this too, but couldn't he say this less rude?” I thought.
“And why you think that the world does not need you?“ asked Kiter.
“Yeah, yeah, I don't know why, but that rule has stopped working a lot of time ago, and now I'm old mare alicorn, who barely can do magic and can't fly at all, trying to find the solution to the problem,“ said old mare.
Even it was hard, I understood that it was hurtful to say this, to accept her's uselessness. But still, like Kiter I couldn't believe in her uselessness. After all, she was the ruler of Equestria.
“As for your next question, I can't give you a straight answer,“ she answered.
I saw that Kiter wanted to ask her something else and probably continue asking her more and more. So I poke first
“Unlucky for you, we can't give a straight answer to you too,“ I said. “About this splash of magic, I think it was my fault, I'm researching magic, and created a little device that probably created that splash.“
While I was saying that, she looked more and more excited, and when I stopped, she asked.
“Ooooh! It so nice to meet a fellow scientist, but say this to me, my child, what did your device do?“
“Well, hypothetically it supposed to accelerate the speed of magical particles and collect them around the horn of wearer, but practically it just disappeared and gave me a temporary retina burn,“ I answered with sadness in my voice.“ I hoped that it appeared here, but now I see it didn't.
“Cheer up! I maybe have some good news for you,“ said Twilight, with what made me hopeful. “It's not what you expected, but your device, I think, somehow activated my old beacon that I created to catch any unusual signals, and it detected one! This thing never worked, but yesterday it just... just activated, activated for a few seconds! I was so happy, but I couldn't do anything at all after it shut down. So, after a bit of thinking, I added two and two, activation of beacon and detected magical splash, and got an idea that you might help me!“ Princess cheered me up
“Ok, lead us to the beacon, we'll see what we can do.“ I said, but then Twilight showed me to the center of the room.
Is that was beacon? By the word "BEACON" I imagined something else. But I looked closer to it.
“I never saw such a technology!-“ Kiter opened a maintenance panel. “-It looks amazing! Hey, Cold, while I working here, you can check that interface.“
I followed his advice. Inside I saw a command line. After a bit of testing, I managed to open a file that contained information from a strange signal, I didn't think that it was the message Twilight have meant. "Hey, CRS, I've got it, meet me in that tree, they won't expect it, they will fa..." I didn't have enough time to read it all when it shut down.
“Hey, what did you do!?“ I Shouted at Kiter
“I-It wasn't me! I didn't touch anything!“ said Kiter.
“Maybe it's power shortage?“ said approached the princess. “It happens sometimes he...“
“G-Guys!?“ Spike interrupted her.
“Not now, Spike,“ said the princess.
“Probably,“ I said. “Kiter, go check it, please.“
“Guys, please!“ screamed Spike.
“Later, Spike, we're busy!“ princess screamed back.
“Hmm, the power supply is ok, but the beacon doesn't have energy! How much energy does this thing use!?“ asked Kiter.
“It almost doesn't use ener..“ said the princess.
“GUYS JUST PLEA...“ screamed Spike.
“SPIKE, PLEASE LET US FI...“ Twilight screamed back.
“JUST LOOK THERE!!!“ screamed Spike.
He pointed behind the princess. There was a tiny shining hole, but it was growing fast! It almost consumed Twilight when I and Kiter grabbed her for her hooves. We almost pulled her out, but the hole grew bigger and consumed us too.
I felt that something touched my hoof, but it was too late. We were falling somewhere unknown.
