Contact Unknown

Attention reader: This chapter uses interactive imagery in some parts indicated by the blue links. By clicking on these, you will be directed to a Google Maps page where it is recommended that you have the Google Earth plug-in installed. If you don’t, the satellite mode will work as well.

“What?! But how is this possible!” Twilight exclaimed. The purple unicorn was running all of the possibilities through her head. She had considered the idea that her universe wasn’t the only one but in her reasoning, she deduced that one universe would collapse as soon as any other was discovered.

The Mane 6, Spike and Shining Armor were all awestruck as they could only follow the princesses further into the study, the door behind them shutting and the magical field returning. Each pony was looking for answers and the princesses were the only ones that could provide the knowledge they sought.

“My faithful student, allow me to explain. All of your questions will be answered in time.” Princess Celestia answered with the diplomatic tact she had perfected over the last millennia of ruling an empire. The sun princess looked to her sister and they exchanged a quick glance that reassured her that they were ready to hear of the plans that Celestia had for them.

As the ponies continued to walk deeper into the study, they could feel the magical eminence grow stronger and stronger. As they rounded the corner into the deepest recesses of the study where no one, not even Twilight had been permitted to enter, a pulsing was heard that could only be described as something of great magical power.

Before their eyes, a small sphere could be seen that looked to be pure darkness. Outside of this, 2 beams of light rotated at a rapid rate and as the beam passed over them, it emanated a pulsing sound. The sphere was encased in a field of magic that showed the characteristic yellow glow of Princess Celestia. There was no doubt that the sphere was the source of this magical aura but what surprised Twilight most of all was that even when encased in the magic of Celestia, she couldn’t contain the pure power of the sphere.

Those who were sensitive to magic in the group became lightheaded in the presence of such overwhelming magical white noise and their horns acted like giant receivers for the interference. Seeing the strain that Twilight, Rarity, and Shining Armor had in the presence of the sphere, Princess Luna also encased the sphere in her magic to hold back the stream of interference that was emanating toward the young ponies. This relieved the pain that the ponies were experiencing just enough for the group to begin shouting questions at the two princesses.

“What exactly is that thing?!” Shining Armor exclaims in a rather worried fashion.

“And what is that most dreadful noise?” Rarity questions.

“I don’t feel safe around that thing. It just gives me a case of the heebie jeebies…” AJ added.

The ponies would have continued voicing their concerns until Princess Celestia spoke up, “My friends, I know this is all a very new experience for you all but let me explain. I will tell you everything from the beginning if you will only give me a chance.” The group was still on edge from the sphere that had no worldly business being here but at the same time, they felt bad for not giving the Princess a chance to tell what had happened and for jumping to conclusions.

“Now let me explain from the beginning. I was doing some research into a spell that Star Swirl (I’m unsure, should his name be one word? Or is this correct as two words?) the Bearded was working on in the last days of his life. He believed that in our world, we had worked hard but with the magic and trust of each other, we had achieved a relative state of harmony within our universe. Despite attacks by villains like Discord as well as other creatures of evil you ponies are far too young to know of, our people lived in a relative state of peace and tranquility. We had few wars and even when they did occur, we often had few deaths, only injuries from the nature of combat. Star Swirl proposed that somehow when our universe was forming we had to have vented most of the discord somewhere else as if it was a form of energy like light or heat.”

“Now,” Celestia continued, “imagine for a second that you are at the beginning of our universe when there was nothing. Even in our great powers, we don’t know of the Creator who made it all.” As the Princess continued, her sister began to lower the lights and use her magic to project imagery of what Princess Celestia was talking about in front of their subjects. “Suddenly, everything we know was thrust from darkness in a clash of every power known to pony kind. We can only speculate, but this violent blast of everything we have known was too powerful for the fabric of our universe to hold. In an attempt to balance out the fighting of nature, such as harmony and discord or light and darkness, the universe literally ripped.” At this, Princess Luna’s projection showed the violent forces of nature clashing and tearing a black abyss in their fight to become dominant when both are equally as powerful.

“Somehow,” Princess Luna spoke up, ”the elements of love and harmony managed to prevail in our side of the universe as they thrust the elements of discord and hate deep into the abyss which closed to forever separate both of our existences. Only trace amounts of these detestable foundations managed to stay but we are mostly filled with peace and our side of the universe is at peace for the most part. As a result, the other side exists in a state of turmoil as many of the forces vie for power. Though some forces of love and harmony managed to be pulled into the abyss, there is far more chaos and discord.”

“Forgive me Princess, but how do we know exactly what the other side looks like? I mean with all this chaos you say is over there, couldn’t it just be crazy like Discord on steroids or something?” Rainbow Dash inquired, not understanding how the other universe could even manage to survive after the experiences they had with their own chaos in Ponyville.

“That is a good question,” Princess Celestia picked up where her sister left off, “and I have an answer that might surprise you.” With this, Princess Celestia walked over to the workbench in her study and unveiled a picture frame with only glass in the center. After removing the sheet covering it, the Princess levitated the frame over in front of the group and directly next to the sphere, which was still pulsating but at a reduced volume thanks to Luna’s magic.

“This, my little ponies is a magical window into the other universe,” Princess Celestia explained, “and by flowing and directing the energy from this rift between the universes, we can see into the other universe and analyze what exists at any given point within the other side.”

“Excuse me Princess…,” Fluttershy squeaked out, “I don’t believe you explained how this rift appeared here.”

“Very observant of you Fluttershy,” Princess Celestia states, “as I was working on the spell by Star Swirl, I was trying to only create a viewing portal to the other side as I will demonstrate soon enough. When I cast the spell, a page was missing that described the need for this window and I accidentally cast the spell in the middle of the room. As soon as I did, I was overwhelmed with the blast of energy that was created as both of our universes tried to return to fighting between harmony and discord. I quickly recovered and encased the portal in magic to prevent it from expanding and engulfing our entire world. As you can see, the trace amounts of harmony still trapped in the magic are keeping the discord contained but the battle still rages on and even my magic can barely contain it.”

“Now sister, I do believe we should show them what they are waiting for.” Luna stated. The two princesses began to envelop the window in their magic as well and brought it closer and closer to the portal. As the outside of the frame touched the edge of the portal, a bright light exploded out of the window and blinded all of those who looked on. Twilight was awestruck at the sheer power that was created. It was probably more than one million magic bolts she had used to attack the changelings. Soon the image adjusted and in the window, blackness could be seen with a few specs of light that looked like the stars of the night sky.

“Wow, this looks amazing!” Twilight exclaimed, “Have you found any parallel planets like the one we live on?”

“Well I have only looked into this window for a few moments before the magic almost broke my barrier I had encased it in and I had to remove the window again.” Celestia said this with a hint of sadness. When something opposed her that she couldn’t overcome, she became even more distraught than Twilight, only she was better at hiding her emotions. “That is why I called you six. I realized that with your powers Twilight, we might be able to stabilize the window and get a good look at the other universe so we can figure out how to close this portal, or at least contain it so it doesn’t scare everyone in Equestria.

Twilight was excited that her Princess thought so highly of her and she approached the window slowly. She was still concerned about the power that the portal had but her exploratory instincts got the better of her. Twilight peered into the window and saw the small specks of light in the darkness of space and then an idea popped into her head, “Princess, you said a small amount of harmony escaped into the other universe when they formed correct?”

“That is correct Twilight.” Princess Celestia answered.

“Well if we use the Elements of Harmony and concentrate the beam on the portal, we might be able to stabilize the field by finding a concentration of the harmony to lock onto.” Twilight explained, knowing this idea was as good as any when it came to a chance at studying what hadn’t been studied before.

“That… that might just work!” Princess Luna exclaimed loudly in excitement, thinking about how the Elements were so powerful, they were the best chance at stabilizing the rift.

“Good idea Twilie. I knew you would learn something useful when you spent some time with your friends!” Her big brother congratulated Twilight at the good idea.

“OK everyone, let’s try it. Princess, when we are ready to use the elements, I need you to open the field around the portal just for one second so we can hit it with the magic and not be impeded.”

“Twilight, I hope you know what you are doing.” Princess Celestia believed in her student but always feared for the fate of her kingdom and the ponies within.

After handing out each Element to its respective bearer, Twilight instructed Shining Armor and Spike to get back behind one of the bookcases in case anything went wrong. The Elements gathered together as they began to charge. “Ready? 3…2…1…GO!” As Twilight screamed this, the magical field surrounding the portal was opened by Luna and Celestia. The blast of energy fought with the Elements of Harmony for space and power but with a final push by Twilight, the beam hit home directly at the portal. Suddenly the window emanated each of the colors of the rainbow that the Elements emitted and the view blurred as the picture shifted at such a high rate, the stars in the background blurred together. As the window began to slow down, it concentrated on one small planet. This planet was rocky in some parts, but blue in others. It had one moon, like the pony home world of Terra but it appeared to have many different landmasses on it. The image slowly orbited the rotating planet as even the princesses looked on in awe at the discovery.

They had discovered Earth.

“This is amazing!” Exclaimed Twilight, “Look at all of the green life! They have to have other creatures down there with all of those plants.”

“Wow!” Spike replied, “It is truly incredible!”

“Yeah… but how the heck we are supposed to see anything from this far out?” Rainbow Dash pointed out amazed but she wanted to see more.

“I think I have an idea.” Princess Celestia said. Now that the portal had stabilized, there was no need to keep a magical field around it to contain the magic. The window was still suspended in the air by the portal’s magical field as the ponies looked on. Suddenly, Celestia took the window and moved it closer to the portal. As she did this, the image too responded by zooming closer and closer to the surface of the planet.

This sudden change brought the ponies gathering around the window almost as if a family was gathering around a picture album trying to see the images before them. The Princess managed to zoom in on a small set of islands near the South of one of the land masses. As she looked closely, she could see the green grass, the sandy beaches and even the blue waters that made up the oceans. It was a beautiful sight to behold. As she moved the window around, she saw a small cluster of what looked like square houses, and some roads made of a peculiar material that ran off into the distance.

As all of the ponies gathered closer and closer to see the new world before them, thoughts began to race through the head of Twilight Sparkle. She wondered where the chaos was; why was this land so peaceful; would the inhabitants be evil because of all the nefarious powers at work? She pondered these thoughts as the Princess continued to explore the new world as if it were a toy.

Soon Princess Luna spoke up “Sister, I would like to explore this new land if you don’t mind.” Celestia consented and Luna slowly guided out the window and the image zoomed back out to show a slowly rotating planet. As she did this, a series of bright lights began to emanate from the surface and she was curious what could be producing such a glow. She zoomed in on the brightest spot and to her amazement; she witnessed an entire city, the size of which she had never seen before, spring up right before her eyes. She saw movement as she zoomed in closer and could see little creatures walking around. These bipeds were all wearing garments, which she was confused by, and each was traveling to and fro amongst these stone monoliths. There appeared to be encapsulated chariots moving around in the middle of the roads with little creatures inside. The Princess had many questions that still needed to be answered but right now; she could only look on with awe.

Soon Twilight spoke up; the tension within her rising as her questions ate away at her self-control, “Princess, if it isn’t too much trouble, may I try and analyze the lives of these creatures?” Princess Luna let Twilight take the helm of the window as she stepped back to think about the many wonders she had seen in only a few seconds. Twilight thought about studying the city creatures for awhile longer but too many conversations were going on right now and there were far too many of them for her to accurately look at the lives of individual creatures. She decided to pan out and look for a single light that would show where only a few of the creatures lived to see their lives.

Twilight zoomed out with the window and let the picture rotate around the planet a few times before she spotted a suitably small dot in an area that looked pretty desolate. As she zoomed in, she could see what looked like rock and sand, all covered with a layer of snow in what was probably the winter time in this place. Twilight zoomed in even closer and could view what looked like a few more roads that all converged on a small city-like structure. There were many of the creatures walking around this place but not nearly as many as the city that Luna stumbled upon. At a closer inspection, Twilight could see small metal vehicles that had long points extending out of them. What she saw next almost blew her mind. She saw one of these vehicles move down a wide road and take flight, like a pegasus but without moving its wings. Twilight wondered if they had discovered magic as well and if they had, this certainly was powerful as making such a large object levitate for such a long time would be quite tiring.

Twilight decided to focus closer on some of these creatures that were walking around the complex and she zoomed in closer on one of the buildings when she heard some sounds. At first she thought it was just the creatures grunting or something but then she realized they were speaking. Not only this but they were speaking English, and she understood them!

This revelation was something that completely blew Twilight’s mind for she calculated the odds and the chance that another dimension would speak the same language as them were over one-million-billion-to-one showing the drastically low chance that anything of the sort could ever occur. Twilight was about to believe this was all a dream when she realized that both of their universes were originally one that split into two so it was more likely that some similarities would occur. Finally, Twilight just accepted that she didn’t understand enough about the other side and how their universe worked so she decided to leave this mystery for the future and just focus further on her studies.

As she listened in, she could distinctly hear what the different creatures were saying at the time: “…as you know, the roads surrounding the area are wired with more IEDs than a Taliban convention so we are going in by helicopter. Alpha and Bravo squads will approach his house from the East and South respectively and Charlie squad will provide supporting fire from the North to draw their fire. Delta squad will provide overwatch in the black hawks. Any…” the voice trailed off as the different ponies crowded around the monitor began to shuffle around. It was obvious that none of them understood the context of the statement but after the person speaking finished, the men exited the building and walked back into the cold, except they had packs on and carried metal tubes. This intrigued Shining Armor the most. He was curious why all of these creatures were wearing the same garments and form the sound of things, they were this species equivalent of the Royal Guard.

“I wonder who they are protecting,” Shining Armor thought aloud, “and those black tubes don’t look like effective spears.

Twilight followed two of the creatures as they entered a different kind of vehicle. It looked nothing like any of the others as it had a giant fan on the top and the inside was where the creatures sat, almost like the enclosed chariots that they had seen in the city. Soon the fan began to rotate and the contraption took to the sky like the other flying vehicles but they flew directly up rather than forwards. Twilight wondered if the fan at the top was helping to keep the vehicle in the air and she zoomed in closer to the inside of one to listen in to the conversation.

“Man, did you hear the news?” A masculine sounding creature said whom Twilight labeled #1.

“No, what is up man?” Replied another voice, this one much gruffer and probably older as well, whom Twilight labeled #2.

“My wife just had her baby last week.” Stated #1.

“No shit! Jeez, do you think you get back in time to see it.”

The course language made each of the onlookers cringe. Ponies almost never swore like this unless they were in severe pain or suffering from severe loss. They kept listening though.

“First off, the ‘it’ is a girl and second, my tour is up in one week so when my little girl wakes up soon, her daddy will be there for her.”

This conversation started to draw things together. These must be the males of their species, thought Twilight, and they must be guards or something like that because they are serving on tours like our guard does on the frontier. Rarity and Fluttershy began to smile at the idea that this ‘man’ as he was called going home to see his little baby.

“Good for you,” Replied #2, a little sullen in his response, “unfortunately, I will only see my wife in the afterlife.

“Aw, hell man, I forgot all about that.”

“No, I am happy for you... I just miss her sometimes you know? She is the whole reason I joined the Army. When those fuckers flew that plane into the Trade Centers, she was caught in the flames.” Man #2 said this as a tear began to well up in his eye but he brushed it off as if it was nothing and stared out the side of the vehicle.

Shining Armor began to draw connections to what had happened, and explained this to the group, “It sounds like somepony attacked one of their centers and because of that, this man’s wife died in the attack.” Shining Armor began to reflect how he would act if his wife would have died in the changeling attack; how he would be a completely different person. Even the demeanor of the princesses changed as they heard the tale of how this man suffered and lost his mate because of the attacks because of someone evil.

“Well at least we are going to get one of the kingpins toda…” man #1 was cut off by the sounds coming from a black box on his top garments as it began to shout out, “This is Ulysses 1-3, we have a missile lock!”

A look of concern spread across the different ponies in front of the window. They didn’t know what was going on but the sound of whatever called out of that box sounded urgent. The men in the vehicle looked out the side and saw another vehicle swerving and maneuvering all over the sky like a drunken pegasus. Suddenly a white streak from the ground came up and exploded right next to the vehicle. The ponies didn’t see what happened to the creatures inside but the vehicle burst into flames as it began to spiral downwards to the ground.

“Oh shit man! We need to get down there and rescue those men!” Man #1 stated.

“Ok, listen up! We have a Blackhawk down. I say again: Blackhawk down. Change of plans ladies. We are going to land on the ridge near their position and try to take that crash site before the Taliban get to it first.” The black box on their garments squawked out as the vehicles shifted their path and began to hover in the air above a ridge. Ropes were dropped out of the side and men began to hold on and slide down to the ground.

“Cover me as I ARGH!!!!!” man one screamed as suddenly blood erupted from his neck. The poor man fell inside the vehicle as a pool of red liquid formed around the gasping creature. Every pony except the princesses and Shining Armor began to sob hysterical tears. Even though they had known this man for mere minutes, to hear that a baby would have to live without its father was enough to make any pony cry. Shining armor restrained himself but he knew the feeling all too well from the losses his men were dealt at the hands of Chrysalis’ army.

“NOOOO!” Cried man #2 as he rushed to his friend’s side, the ‘Blackhawk’ still hovering over the ridge. The man grabbed his friend and reassured him, “You will make it buddy! Don’t you fucking quit on me!” As if by a sick twist of reality, the man died in his arms as soon as he said this. Each of the ponies were grabbing on to each other, worried about what would come of the other man as more impacts were heard. Small metal shards hit the Blackhawk as the man grabbed the rope and began to drop down to the ridge.

As his lower appendages touched the ground, he lifted the black tube and it spat the metal shards at the enemy. Suddenly, the man saw a small ball roll up over the edge of the ridge and his eyes went wide, “GRENADE!!!” The man shouted as he dove on top of the ball while shoving his comrades aside. A poof was heard and the man didn’t get up. He sat there as a smile crossed his face where Twilight swore she saw him mouth, “I’ll be there soon honey.”

Twilight turned to her teacher and the leader of her land, tears staining her coat as she cried out, “Please! There has to be something that we can do to help them!!! Don’t let them all die!” Twilight’s pleas shocked Celestia as she hadn’t even considered the option of going to the other side in any form other than to observe through the window.

Twilight looked as if she were about to burst when the Princess of the sun turned to her sister and said “Luna, we need to help them.”

“I agree” Luna said urgently.

“Ok, then hold on!” As Celestia spoke, a bright light was emitted from her horn, the light turned into a bubble that grew bigger and bigger until it finally popped. When the ball burst, the energy was swept throughout the room and it exited into the kingdom as a whole from the top of the castle.

The ponies in the room blinked and looked around to see no change. “What did you do?” Twilight sobbed, “We are still here and they are still in harm’s way!” Twilight would continue but Celestia with urgency cut her off.

“Twilight, listen to me. I cast one of Star Swirl the Bearded’s secret time spells. It stopped time anywhere outside of this room. I was afraid I would have to cast something like this if an invasion occurred so I cast a spell making this room and any in it at the time of casting immune. Now I called you here only because I felt that I would need your help to look through to the other side but if we are going to help, the other side will be very different. I can’t guarantee that you will be the same pony when you come back. Luna, you and Spike stay here. He will transmit and receive messages for us. Shining Armor, I need you to come with me as we are going into new territory, I may need all the help I can get. The rest of you, grab your Elements and bags and prepare to go.”

On the other side of the portal, it was obvious that time didn’t slow down in the slightest. The battle was still raging on and Twilight spotted one of the men whose helicopter crashed. He was wounded and it looked like he wouldn’t make it if someone didn’t come to help him. Celestia repositioned the window to give a good sight of this man and open area to teleport into. “Ok everyone. When I expand this portal into a bridge, I need all of you to stay close to me and we should arrive wherever the window is looking. Ready?” All of the ponies nodded their heads. “Good. Let us hurry my little ponies.”

At this, the sphere was engulfed in Celesta’s magic and it opened into a hole the size of a door. Celestia began to canter into the void and was closely followed by the other ponies, to varying degrees of confidence, leaving Luna and Spike to look on in fear and anticipation.

After charging into the darkness, Twilight felt like water was flowing into the area she was in. She couldn’t gallop away to escape it as her feet were stuck to the floor. She couldn’t help but breathe in the fluid as it completely enveloped every part of her body. She thought this was the end until an explosion occurred and she was with her friends in the cold landscape they had seen in the window. The Princess was already taking action as she took one of the evildoers who was attacking the man lying beside the crashed Blackhawk and threw him against a rock. She picked up the man who was lying there and he was levitated in front of Celestia, whom must look very intimidating from his perspective.

The two of them shared a look for a second before the man tried to raise his weapon as he exclaimed, “What in the flying fuck are you?!”