The Conversion Bureau
Rays of Starlight

In the magical land of Equestria, wild and powerful creatures still roamed the world. In spite of the turmoil, civilisation thrived, and all manner of beings made their home in the vast and vital land. Some lived in harmony, but it was a hard-won peace.

The world was once a plaything for Discord, the Spirit of Chaos, until he was confronted one day by Celestia and Luna. They were sisters, and alicorns both, gifted with extraordinary magical power. Even then, they could not withstand Discord's power alone. Knowing a fair fight was anything but, they fought him with the aid of six magical artefacts called the 'Elements of Harmony' and turned Discord to stone. Though other primal forces still fought and vied for power, the imprisonment of Discord brought about relative peace and gave the world a semblance of harmony.

Their peace was to be short-lived however, as the Rule of the Two Sisters was broken soon after. Through the machinations of King Sombra, a terrible jealousy was sewn in Luna's heart, driving her and Celestia apart. Eventually, Luna was consumed by the darkness that grew within her. Renaming herself 'Nightmare Moon', Luna declared herself the sole ruler of Equestria and tried to seize the throne, planning to bring forth eternal night. At the peak of her rebelling, she confronted Celestia in a magical duel that by all rights she would have won. However, in falling to darkness and contradicting Harmony, Luna had forsaken her right to wield the Elements, a right which passed solely to Celestia. Imbued with terrible strength, Celestia defeated Nightmare Moon and banished her in the moon for a millenium.

From those times of ancient myth, Celestia forged a new Age with the magic of Harmony and the teachings of Friendship. Celestia's rule had been long and fair, but she felt the burden of her actions grow only heavier through the centuries of her seemingly immortal life. A thousand years of peace was finally broken by the inevitable return of her old enemies. Without the Elements to aid her again, Celestia relied on Twilight Sparkle, her most faithful student, to rediscover the magic of Harmony. On the fateful eve of Nightmare Moon's return, Twilight Sparkle and five other mares became the new Bearers of the Elements and confronted Nightmare Moon.

This time, Nightmare Moon was not banished. Instead, Luna was freed from her darkness, and the two sisters were reunited at long last. That was not to be the only time the Elements were used however, as nary a year later Discord also escaped his stone prison and wrought havoc across the land. It was a hard-fought battle between the Elements and Discord, for the spirit of disharmony was a master of trickery and deception, but in the end the Elements sealed him in stone once more. His imprisonment brought order to Equestria once more, but his return was seen as an omen of titanic change looming on the horizon.

Only the Elements of Harmony and their rightful Bearers had the resolve and power to quell the rising chaos.

The Realm of Equestria, 1013 CE

Wandering the passages of the castle by moonlight, Luna searched for her sister, who had been strange and melancholy since the second imprisonment of Discord. In the crude stone passages of the original fortress that Canterlot once was, Luna found her sister in a room secluded deep within the fortress. Celestia had made her magic presence known to her sister, otherwise there was very little chance that she would have been found.

"Sister? What are you doing up here at this hour, and what in Equestria are you doing with that machine?" Luna asked, walking into the chamber. She still spoke in Old Equestrian, which Celestia still remembered well enough to process as more modern speech. The ancient walls were rough stone unlike the polished marble of Canterlot above, and in the centre of the room was a glowing podium. Upon it was a strange clockwork contraption, a jumbled heap of mechanical arms and floating spheres. It was dusty, but there were no signs of rust or wear on the mechanisms. The far side of the room had an ornately carved doorway with nothing but brick wall behind it, but written on the arch were inscriptions in a language Luna did not recognise.

"Our strength is slipping, Luna," said Celestia, not turning her head, "Our strength is slipping, and I cannot afford to rest again until I know our subjects are safe. The device you see before you is a 'Traveller's Key', a means to cross the boundary between realms. It was built in the ancient past with magical knowledge that has since been forgotten."

"I know what this machine is, but I am more concerned as to why you are using it. Do you seek to escape our world with this device?"

"No Luna," Celestia said with her head held high, "This age has quietened in the wake of the Elements of Harmony, but there are still many strange and evil things lurking in the darkness."

"You fear the Windigoes?" asked Luna, harking back to the dreadful time before even Equestria was united.

Celestia shook her head. "Nay sister, Equestria has only grown closer over the years, and the warmth in the hearts of our ponies is stronger than ever. I fear the beasts that will prey on that love."

Luna turned and looked at her sister with a puzzled expression. "The Changelings? They were but parasites the last I saw of them. Few and far between."

"We never knew we needed to be careful with our love, Luna. In the dark places of the world, they have grown in strength unchecked. A Queen has risen in their ranks and schemes as we speak. I was unaware of her until she grew careless one day and let her magical presence be known. She is strong Luna, and the only thing I could sense in her was hunger."

"What of the Elements? Surely such a fae creature as a changeling will be smote by their force."

"That may be so, but the Elements of Harmony still cannot aid us in mortal war. That is not in their nature."

"You also fear of our belligerent neighbours I suppose," said Luna, "Surely our numbers are not so few now? What happened to the Herd? Where are the warriors in Star Steel?"

"Times grew peaceful after the imprisonment of Nightmare Moon, Luna. Even the Royal Guards are a shadow of what they once were. Gryphon, zebra and dragon no longer pay the same respect to us, and the ambitious think we are weak."

"You cannot simply leave!”

Celestia's horn glowed as the spheres orbited above the pedestal before her. A rune shifted on the top of the stone table and the orbs rearranged themselves. The doorway shimmered and reality opened within its frame, showing stars neither of the sisters had seen before.

“I’m not abandoning you Luna,” Celestia said calmly, “I’m going to get help.”

“I'm sure the night sky of a foreign world will be an excellent ally.” Luna deadpanned, a hint of exasperation in her tone, “You will not find anything simply sifting through stars.”

“I… You’re right,” Celestia bowed her head, “The lore that explained the Key was lost aeons ago. I’m clueless about how to use this.”

Luna approached her sister elder sister and nuzzled her. Celestia relaxed slightly, reassured by her presence. The two of them gazed through the gate again, at far off stars and worlds.

After a time, Luna spoke again. “So you are certain this is the best course of action?” she asked, hoping to find a hint of an alternative.

“Yes,” Celestia concluded.

Luna strode up to the pedestal. She stared at the arcane device for a moment, and closed her eyes. Her horn glowed with energy as she rearranged the protruding clockwork arms, and the rest of the machine whirred about like an orrery. Celestia simply watched the portal as it shifted through a myriad of images, billions upon billions of galaxies blinked past as Luna followed some grand pattern.

“Luna, what are you...”

“Hush!”

The gate showed a single galaxy, an elegantly spiralling mass of stars. Recalling motions she had memorised so many years ago, Luna shifted the gears slightly and the gateway’s view showed a progressively smaller part of this cosmos. As unseen observers, their perspective travelled vast distances, until only a single star could be seen, and then finally a planet in orbit around it.

“Here are your saviours, sister,” said Luna, “The way to this world was carved in stone on the moon. Tell me, was a Traveller imprisoned there before I was?”

“No, but if there was then I was not responsible for that. You memorised carvings on the moon? I thought the Nightmare was in control.”

“She may have controlled our… my body, but I was still aware. While she was busy resenting you, I became bored enough to study the scenery.”

“Did she know the importance of the carvings?”

“I cannot say for certain,” Luna looked at the world she has revealed, “But now we have the chance you wanted, what was your plan beyond finding a world with those who could help us?”

“Will I be able to use this gate from the other side?”

“Yes, but it seems I will have to hold it open. It does not seem tiring, but I would prefer if you do not delay.”

“Thank you, Luna. I just want to see what chance it is you’ve given me.”

“If the engravings on the lunar surface were anything to go by, these are the beings you are looking for,” said Luna, “Good luck.”

With that, Celestia darted through.

Planet Earth, 2091 CE

The portal rippled for a moment as she passed through it, and out into the great void of space. The ebb and flow of magic suddenly faded, and she realised this was probably a realm without magic. She looked at the green and blue planet below, taking in as much detail as she could with somewhat weakened magical sight.

She descended to the planet in ethereal form. As she drew close, she could see a vast expanse of stone and metal structures under a blanket of clouds and haze. She marvelled at the odd machines these beings used and the technology they had. This was after all a world of creatures without magic, presumably reliant on machinery and tenacity to survive. This world lay in a universe without gods or the promise of eternity.

But then she finally saw one of the inhabitants up close. She felt a sense of dread like she had never felt before.

Humans.

Luna had been only an infant when he came from across the realms. The “Traveller” Luna had spoken of was never imprisoned on the moon. Painful memories resurfaced as she stared at the creature before her. She would leave now, and never return to this realm, lest some great tragedy come to pass as a result of her brief visit. She flew back toward the portal as fast as she could. A few people that day reported seeing an aurora in the sky far from the magnetic poles.

She shot out of the gate like a bolt of lightning, and managed to stop before she hit the Key. Luna jumped at her sudden appearance before Celestia hurriedly spoke. “Close the portal, Luna! Quickly!”

“It sounds like you had a bad experience sister, what happened?” Luna asked as she severed her connection to the Key. Celestia’s eyes widened in genuine fear as she noticed the portal remained open.

“Close the gate Luna!” panic crept into Celestia's voice, “We must not interfere with this realm!”

“I have released my control, it should have closed without my magic to fuel it,” said Luna, taken aback by the fear in her sister’s voice and the strange behaviour of the portal.

Celestia aimed her horn at the machine and cast a bolt of fiery energy at it. The explosion did nothing to the device. A small arm rose out of the mass of moving gears and held out a small paper note, singed on one corner by Celestia's spell. Smoke wafted lazily and filled the sisters' nostrils with an acrid smell.

Celestia!
I’m so glad that you’ve finally decided to use this marvellous travelling device, did Luna play her part by bringing you instructions for the Key? I’ll assume so, if you’ve found my note. A little convenient just to have inter-dimensional travel spelled out for you, don’t you think? Anyway, by the time you’ve done reading this, the next phase of this little prank of mine will activate. I'd say a storm of chaos is long overdue given how dreadfully boring your schedule is. As the old saying goes, "Chaos is the spice of life," right?

Toodles!

~Discord

The arms of the Key had shifted and rearranged themselves while Celestia read the note, and both the Royal Sisters were shocked when a beam of light was fired out of the Key, though the portal and directly at the planet. Neither Celestia nor Luna were knew much about this kind of magic, but it could not possibly end well for them.

Launching themselves after it, they overtook the beam of magic as it travelled down to the planet. Luna began to communicate with her sister through a telepathic spell. “What happened sister? The carvings made no mention of this occurring.”

“Discord has fooled us again, Luna. He left the carvings on the moon for you to find. I'll tell you the rest later.”

“To what end does this device act? What is this beam?”

“That planet though the gate is the home of Discord's people. As for the beam we should assume whatever it does it won’t be for our benefit.”

The sisters slammed hooves first into the ground as the beam drew ever nearer to the planet. They stood in the middle of grasslands just beyond the boundaries of a town.

“Will you help me raise a shield to stop it?”

“On three, let’s hope for our sake it works.”

The two alicorns hovered next to each other and created a bubble of magic on the surface of the planet, right where the beam would strike. Pooling their power to reinforce the their spell, a shimmering hemisphere of energy came into being just as the streak of energy approached.

The beam collided with the barrier with a crack, but the shield held firm. Then, inexplicably, the barrier they had created swelled and grew in size, growing quickly to become much taller than either of the alicorns.

“Luna, stop,” said Celestia, now more puzzled than ever at their situation.

“I already have,” Luna replied, surprised at how their spell had turned out.

The glowing magic energy had caused their barrier spell to grow, that much was clear. When the stream of magic stopped, the two looked back at where the portal had been to discover it had closed.

“This cannot be,” said Luna, “Are we trapped?”

“I don’t know, but the bubble is continuing to grow, Luna. If we are cut off from Equestria, then that is for the best. Nothing is worth allowing an entire planet’s worth of humans enter our realm. Could that beam have been more than just energy?”

“A spell cast with machinery, how ingenious,” marvelled Luna, "So you say Discord was from this realm of humans?"

"Yes Luna, Discord was once like them. When he arrived in Equestria in the Dawning Age he found that he could wield godlike power there."

"And you believe that this is a common trait among humans?"

"I'm not sure. The tenuous balance of our world relies on no single entity wielding absolute magical power. Perhaps humans are able to ignore this limit by being able to use magic in the first place. In any case, that kind of postulating is useless to us now."

The two looked at the glowing orb that had continued to expand despite lacking any apparent power source. It was Luna who first noticed that the surface did not reflect their surroundings.

“Sister, look!” she pointed with a foreleg at the shield, “The sphere shows our realm on its surface.”

“So it does,” said Celestia as she walked up to the bubble. She tentatively moved her hoof toward it, expecting it to be stopped by the spell, but found she could move through it without any trouble. The surface rippled slightly, but nothing ill seemed to come from touching it.

She stepped forward into the sphere and found that her front half was now protruding out of another shield of a similar kind in Equestria, but inverted. They stood at the edge of the world, but there was no longer void beyond it. She looked around, taking in the familiar grassy landscape, before she looked up. The vast, apparently infinite wall of the shield extended off seemingly into the ether, dimming as she followed the glowing surface further out.

The barrier stretched around the whole of Equestria, like a great circular wall.

Luna’s front half joined Celestia’s through the barrier, and looked around, slightly frazzled and put out. “I’ll never be able to think with portals, sister.”

“Even I’m confused by this kind of geometry Luna, you’re not alone there.”

“I always thought Discord was from our realm, but you say he come from this planet?”

“It seems that there’s another Traveller’s Key there, or a something that allowed him to cross the divide between realms. I’m afraid that I’m going to have to change the shield so that they cannot pass through it.”

“This doesn’t bode well sister.”

“I’m afraid not. However, each of them could be capable of wielding the same godlike power as Discord, I dread to think of the consequences of granting it to them all would be.” Celestia’s horn glowed as the barrier changed slightly, preventing any human from crossing through. Discord had spoken of his world before his madness. He called his home “Earth”.

Luna’s wandering gaze was cut short by a thought, and she turned to look at Celestia. “Now sister, this might sound paranoid, but…”

“What is it Luna?”

“I have a sneaking suspicion that a crowd is forming to stare at the royal backsides.”

Author's Note

This is my first fic on the site, I welcome any criticism you have. In fact, I'd rather you tear this to pieces so I know how to improve.