The Multiverse Theory
Chapter 0: Equestria
Without any rhyme or reason, you suddenly find youself trapped in a large room. You cannot recall what you were doing, where you were, or what you were feeling before this, but you do not care. To you this place felt...special, and familiar. Perhaps it was the worn and cracked cobblestone floor upon which you stand, or the tall, looming wood bookshelves that surrounded you, each filled to the brim with dusty tomes and ancient knick-knacks. Maybe it was the luminous red fire crackling in its brick hearth and casting flickering shadows on the walls, or the faded gothic-style furniture that looked like they belonged in an Edgar Allen Poe story. This room felt like it had a sort of mystical quality to it, like some ancient and powerful artifact was enshrined on an altar somewhere, or a peice of secret knowledge that held the meaning of life was hidden in one of those old books. You do not know why, but you felt that this room was where you belonged.
A figure directly behind you stirs. You had been oblivious to it before, being too entranced with the room before you to see what was behind you. You turnd to see that is an old, wrinkly stallion sitting on one of the gothic chairs. His mane and coat was greyed beyond knowing what the original color was. He had a beard that extended to the floor, even when he was elevated off of it. The only source of color came from his jade-green eyes that burned with a fiery passion unlike any of the elderly ponies that you had seen before.
The old stallion speaks, he possessed a voice that you had never heard before. It was gruff and scratchy, like he never bothered to clean out the dust and the cobwebs every once in a while.
"So, I have a visitor," the elder said evenly "I haven't had any good company in years!" He gave off a dry and throaty chuckle "I bet you've come here for me to tell you a story! That's what most of the others were here for. Well, I'd be happy to oblige, you can call me The Book Keeper." You do not recall coming here for a story, but you decide it wise to let the old Book Keeper continue speaking. "Let's see...hmmm...what story should I tell this time?" The Book Keeper scratched his white beard in puzzlement.
"Oooh, I know!" He declared cheerfully "Let me read you a book. A book that I was in, as a matter of fact. A book that I wrote myself, though it was not about me. I call it: The Multiverse Theory. Like the name? I sure do." He pulled a thick, leather-bound tome from under his chair. The lettering in the title seemed to glow and undulate with it's own golden light, The title was only three letters: T M T was wrote in a old-timey font.
"I haven't touched this thing in years..." the Book Keeper whispered, more to himself than to you. The old stallion looked at you, his piercing green eyes seemed into your very soul "This book is my life's work. Sharing it with someone is a choice I do not make lightly. This tale changes ponies. And it will change you. That being said, do you want me to read it? Because if I do... there is no going back."
You nod your head once.
"Then let us begin, shall we?" And with that, he opened the book with a dusty creak...
-TMT-
Our tale begins with a pony. A very special mare that I knew, she had a fire in her soul and a thirst for knowledge that all the books in Apocrypha could not quench. This took place long ago, before she was fully aware of her true Destiny.
Twilight Sparkle was nervous, so very dreadfully nervous. For around an hour she had been pacing back and forth in the middle of her oaken home, a shallow groove in the floor was begining to form in the straight line that she paced. Her mind was racing at a thousand miles per hour with questions that she could not answer. Though fledgling princess's uneasiness, as mildly irrational as it is, is not without reason. It isn't every day that she got a vauge and mysterious letter from her long time friend and mentor, Princess Celestia. But it was more often than she liked.
Twilight stopped her mechanical pacing to read the leter for the twenty-fifth time that day.
Dear Twilight Sparkle
Twilight, Princess Luna and I have been speaking with each other and we belive that it is time for you to advance even further into your studies in The Magic of Friendship, and further into your Destiny. Tommorow at noon a meeting will be held in Canterlot Castle, it is absolutely nessecary that you are in attendance. I will be sending a sky carriage tomorrow at sunrise, there will be room enough for the other Elements and Spike. I suggest that you take them all, they will be just as important as you are.
We need you.
~Your Mentor
Princess Celestia.
Yep. Exactly the same as the last twenty four times that she had read this peice of paper. Still the same enigmatic and stressing letter that Spike had belched out not too long ago, with his rude noises and green dragonfire. It was strange as well, the Princess didn't normaly write her works so short. The last few personal letters that Twilight had recived were two whole pages, and those were small talk compared to the weight that this new message had behind it.
Spike, who had been sitting on a bookshelf and was watching her pace this whole time, gave an aggrivated sigh "Twilight..." the young dragon began "You're blowing this completely out of proportion, you know. You're always doing that. It's like a regular thing with you. I'm sure she isn't calling on you to save the world or anthing like that."
The alicorn unconsiously flapped her new-ish wings a few times out of pure nerves "You do remember last time that Princess Celestia sent me an abnormaly vague letter, right?" She continued speaking before her assistant could answer "The Crystal Empire happened! And the last time we talked about 'My Destiny' these appeared!" Twilight made a show of flaring out her purple wings, it had taken a few months for her to get used to the existence of two more limbs on the previously unicorn-shaped body that she had come to know.
"Okay..." Spike admitted "The princess does have a history of doing stuff like that. But that's no reason to stress over it. We can handle anything Equestria thows at us!"
Twilight took a slow, deep breath to calm herself a little. The alicorn felt like she was about to snap like a twig under a boulder "You're right, Spike. We can handle anything, we're the Elements of Harmony for Celestia's sake!"
"Yeah!" Spike agreed enthusiastically "That's the spirit, Twi!"
-TMT-
Oh, how wrong she was...
The six Elements (and their dragon friend) arrived at Canterlot the next morning. Old, beautiful Canterlot. No matter how many times they've visited, the group couldn't help but be humbled by the city's sophisticated architecture, especially Rarity. The entire city had existed for just under one thousand years, which naturally made it the cultural hub of the entire country. Not to mention how it had been built into the side of a mountain, a feat of engineering genuis preformed by a group long-dead ponies.
But today, like last night, Twilight Sparkle was on edge. She had transmuted most of her angst into excitement for herself and for her friends. Princess Celestia has something big in mind, I just know it! Twilight thought to herself as she led her friends to the Castle, her number one assistant riding shotgun on her back. I could really go for another adventure right about now. It was, what? Four months since the Coronation? We're pretty overdue for something interesting to happen.
The seven arrived at Canterlot Castle a half hour early for the apparent Royal Meeting. A few of the armor-clad guards led them all to a waiting room just outside of the hall where the princesses hold court. One of the Royal Guards told the group that Princess Celestia would be available when yhe court convened and that they should stay put until then. The ponies all sat at one of the very comfortable seats placed at even intervals along the walls. The gaurds silently took their leave, and the group elected to sit quietly, each contemplating the situation in their heads.
.......
Unsurprisingly, it was a ceartin pink party enthusiast that broke the silence. "Hey! What does everypony think this meeting is going to be about?" Pinkie Pie had asked the question that burned in all their minds. What is going to happen? "I hope Twilight's Destiny involves food because I was so superexited to get here that I completely forgot to eat breakfast and I hope the Royal Meeting has snacks though I shoulda had a cupcake when I passed through Sugarcube Corner but then again eating sweets for breakfast is like totaly unhealthy and I could get cavities if I don't brush but then again I've all ready been to Colgate's for that seventeen times and-Ommph! Mmpphh!" Pinkie's rambling was cut short by way of hoof-gag, courtesy of Applejack who had been sitting closest to The Pink One.
"Sorry, Sugarcube." Applejack apologized, wiping the spitty hoof off on her coat "But ahm perty sure that everypony would pra-fer to stay on topic... So, what do y'all think we're here for? The princess sounded mighty mysterious in her letter."
"Not a clue." Rainbow Dash, who had been impatiently twitching in her seat the whole time, deadpanned. "Any theories, Twi?"
"I've got a few." Twilight answered "Most likely It's going to involve my status as an Alicorn Princess. Mabye Celestia wants to teach me more powerful magic, my magical abilities have increased threefold in the past months. Though, I don't see what spells have to do with my studies on friendship."
"Uh, mabye she wants you to make friends with ponies outside of Ponyville," Fluttershy suggested in her usual soft voice "the Magic of Friendship couldn't just be learned by a small group."
"Perhaps, or mabye she even wants you to learn friendship from other species, like griffins or minotaurs. They would probably have many different veiws on the world." Rarity added.
"Mabye she wants you to take on the duties of a princess like Cadence did. You're sure to meet a lot of ponies that way." Spike theorized.
"All very solid ideas," Twilight said "but I have this feeling that we're missing something. Something crucial...hmm. " Twilight was rubbing her chin, deep in thought
"I guess there's only one way to find out." Rainbow said, gesturing toward the large pair of double-doors that lead to the courtroom "Look alive, girls. Court's over." The two doors were encased in Princess Celestia's signature golden aura, they slowly opened with a small creek. When the doors were opened fully, the nobleponies that attened daily court bean filing out. Most of them stopped momentarily to quickly bow at Twilight before going their own ways, a thing that had aggravated her since day one of being a princess. Princess Twilight Sparkle was no different than Librarian Twilight Sparkle, so why should they treat her any different? Oh, how it confounded Twilight so.
The Courtroom before them was a usual sight for Spike and Twilight Sparkle, they had attended Court many times back in the days before Ponyville. Twilight had not missed it a bit, Court was a lengthy, booring event filled with pointless politics and long-winded bureaucrats.
Though, with the other five Elements, this was not the case. They were all very impressed at the room's high, white-washed ceeling and walls, complete with elegant gold trim. Bright afternoon light filtered in though the tall stained-glass windows just opposite of the doors. A rectangular mahogany meeting table was the centerpeice of the room, long enough to seat twelve ponies on both sides and wide enough to seat three. The table was empty of said ponies, save for both Princess Celestia and Luna sitting at the head with Princess Cadence and Shining Armor seated next to each other to the side.
"Ahh, right on time my little ponies." Celestia greeted from across the room with a warm and welcome smile on her alabaster face.
The group slowly trotted across the large room with Twilight leading and the others looking around the beautiful room with awe on their faces. They all stopped a few feet short of the three princesses and the gaurd captain and lowered their heads in a bow.
Shining Armor stood from his seat and walked across the gap to give his little sister a hug. "Twily! I haven't seen you in quite some time. We were wondering when you'd stop by here."
Twilight returned her brother's embrace merrily "It has been awhile, hasn't it? Oh, I'd hate for you to think I only see you and Cadence for the important stuff, like Royal Meetings."
Shining Armor broke the hug "Naah, we don't think that. Truth is, I should come down from the Crystal Empire more often."
Princess Luna loudly cleared her throat "If everypony is in attendance, I belive we should begin."
"Wait, this is everypony?" Rainbow Dash interjected, looking around the nigh empty room confusedly "I thought there would be more ponies here than just us."
"As did I." Rarity agreed. Though she wasn't at all unhappy at the idea of Prince Blueblood missing the meeting.
"Actually, we have one more guest." Celestia answered "He should be here momentarily, then we may begin."
"Um, Princess?" Twilight asked.
"Yes?" All three alicorn princesses answered at once. They all shared a look, then chuckled light-heartedly.
"To which princess are you refering to?" Luna inquired with humor in her voice.
"Princess Celestia," she giggled "But my question can be answered by anypony. I'm sure you all know the issue that is on everyponys mind: Why are we here? Princess, you letter was very enigmatic and it lead me to belive that something was wrong...is it?"
Celestia nodded sagely "I can understand your concern. And no, nothing had gone wrong in Equestria that requires the help of you and your friends. In fact, I'd say something went very right." She still had that warm smile on her face.
All six ponies and one dragon gave a collective sigh of relief "That's nice," Fluttshy said quietly "I don't know about everypony else but I didn't want to fight another supervillain again."
"Though we're going to wait until the last guest arrives until we tell you what is going on." Cadence added apologetically.
"No need to wait, for the profesor had arrived!" A new masculine voice echoed from the doorway from which the Elements first entered. Everypony turned to see who this new guest was. What they saw was an earth-brown, elderly, unicorn stallion with a short cut navy-blue mane and a matching beard. The stallion wore a faded white scientist's coat and a broad grin.
"Profesor Timestream!" Twilight shouted, racing across the room to greet her old colleague.
"Who the hay is 'Profesor Timestream?'" Dash whispered to Pinkie Pie.
Pinkie shrugged noncommittaly "Dunno." she whispered back.
Twilight stopped short of the old stallion and shook his hoof energetically "I haven't seen you in years!"
"Twilight Sparkle..." he regarded her coolly with green eyes, but still with that grin of his "My prized student. Ohh if only you'd have been in my classes before Her Majesty claimed you as her apprentice, I woulda snatched you up as my own protege in a second!"
Twilight blushed lightly "Oh stop it. You know the princess took me as a filly. I wouldn't have comprehended Temporal Physics at that age."
"I bet you would'a!" He retorted cheerily "Never have I seen a mare do Temporal Fleux Matrices as fast as you in all my days..."
"Temporah Fleux what?" Applejack asked nopony in particular "Wait Twilight, was this one a yer teachers back before ya came to Ponyville?"
"I sure was," Timestream said proudly as he walked toward the group. He extended a hoof to the nearest of the friends, which was Fluttershy "Name's Professor Timestream, head of Temporal Physics at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, at your service."
Fluttershy eeep'd and hid behind her large, pink mane, she did work up the courage take his hoof and give it a half-hearted shake. "My name's uh, Fluttershy..." she said at a nigh inaudible volume.
A very fitting name Timestream thought to himself. The old profesor gladly shook hooves and exchanged greetings with everypony in the room, save for the princesses, who needed no introduction. When everypony in the room was properly introduced Princess Celestia closed the large double-doors with an ominus creek...slam! shaking the whole room.
"Shall we begin now?" Princess Luna asked her sister.
"We shall," Celestia answered. The ponies fell silent as Celestia began her the meeting "Not all of us know why we have been summoned here on such short notice, and I apologize for obscuring the truth from you all. Luna, Cadence, and I felt that Equestria is not ready to hear the news of this new development quite yet."
"And just what is this development anyway?"Rainbow Dash asked loudly.
Celestia held up her hoof as a signal for silence "I will get to that part, but would you please indulge me for a few minutes, Rainbow Dash?" She said firmly.
Rainbow shrunk in her seat, looking sheepish "Sorry..."
Celestia nodded her head "Recently, Professor Timestream and I have perfected a project that I have held secret for over a thousand years. It is a spell that Luna has discovered a few years before the Nigtmare Moon incident." Twilight eyes became as big as tea saucers at the utterance of 'spell'.
"Ooooh, spell?" Twilight asked excitedly.
Celestia let a playful smirk find it's way onto her face "I do know how you enjoy new spells and hidden knowledge, my student."
"I just hope it was as good as the last one you sent her! That one was fun!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, eliciting a chuckle from everypony present.
Professor Timestream' s signature grin returned "Oh trust me, Miss Pie, it will be much more fun than talent-switching. I can guarantee you that!" he chuckled "We've been working on it since I was attending Celestia's School. It's a doozy."
"Wherever did Princess Luna find shuch a...'doozy'?" Rarity asked.
"I did not find the spell itself per-se," the Night Princess answered "I found a magical artifact deep within Canterlot Mountain during the construction of the City. It was a crystalline orb, placed upon a grand pedestal in the middle of the Crystal Caverns. We retrieved the orb and whisked it away to the the castle which is now in ruins in the Everfree Forest. I had my best magical scientists study it, they derrived that the orb was not made from the same mineral as the cavern it was discovered in. In fact, it was not made from any kind of crystal in Equestria. They concluded that it was not of this world, that it was placed her by an alien entity."
"Woah." Applejack said, appreciating the possible implications of the orb, the others agreed with her sentiment.
"Indeed," Celestia said solemnly "This artifact predated even Discord, going back to the very creation of Ponykind itself. So what we did what we thought to be the most scientific thing that we could do: we activated it. It proved the orb to be harmless, it's only function was to give the user..." Celestia's face hardened "visions. "
"Visions?" Shining Armor asked.
"Aye, visions of other worlds." Said Luna "It revealed us places of peace and harmony, much like Equestria. Other places were not so peaceful..." Luna shuddered as dark thoughts passed through her mind "They were worlds of darkness and decay, some of the planets were lifeless wastelands, others were not populated by ponies, but vile beasts that only that fed only upon hatred and despair."
"Wow..." Twilight said slowly, she could only imagine the horrors of a world without any ponies to care for it. "What did you do?"
Celestia's somber look lightened a little "We continued studying it. Though some of the worlds were horrible places to see, all of them were ripe with scientific discoveries. Did you know that our world is the only one of the dozens we've viewed that is populated by ponies? Most of them had species similar to ponies that were just as intelligent, but had vastly different forms. I belive your friend, Lyra, studies them. This species is known as Homo Sapien or Human for short."
"Humans..." Twilight whispered "but what does any of this have to do with us?"
Cadence, who had been mostly quiet, answered "We want to send some of you to those places to study them further."
"Aww Tartarus no!" Rainbow shouted, slamming her hooves on the table "Are you crazy? We don't want to go to places with nothing but monsters all for some lame egghead science stuff!" She turned to regard her friends "Right, guys?" A few in the room mumered their agreement.
"But how would we even get to those places?" Rarity asked, choosing to ignore Rainbow Dash "They may not even exist."
"If everypony would let us finish," Luna said irritability "we will tell you." The ponies became quiet once again "It is true, we had our doubts of the existence of these worlds. But one of our head researchers, Quantum Leap, reminded us one of her more farfetched theories."
"Oooh, it's The Multiverse Theory, isn't it!?" Twilight said proudly, eager to share her knowledge of scientific theories with the rest of her friends.
"Correct." Timestream said evenly "of coarse Her Majesty's star student would know of the exploits of my great great great great great (and so on) grandmother."
"What the hay's a Multiverse?" Applejack asked.
"A collection of parallel universes, basically everything in existence," Timestream stated matter-of-factly "Would you care to share it with all of us who are unfamilar, Twilight?"
"With pleasure, " Twilight declared, clearing her throat "As theorized by Profesor Quantum Leap, there are four different possibilities for a Multiverse, ranging from levels one to four. They may be difficult to understand at first, so just bear with me, I'll try the toned-down version," Twilight paused to gather her thoughts "The first level of the theory states that the Multiverse exists on the same plane, that there are other universes outside our own, theoreticaly, if we travel far enough, we will eventualy reach another, marginally different Equis, complete with carbon copies of ourselves. Level two suggest that because of the speed of the expansion of the universe, several smaller pocket universes are created. Both time and space is grossly distorted to the point where it's a sort of wonderland in these pockets. A level three Multiverse is the one where all the possible universes exist within the same time and space as our own. Every choice we do or do not make branches off into a new Universe. What the princesses have in mind is a level four Multiverse, it is where that are an infinite number of universes where physics can be fundamentaly different, no matter how mathematicaly impossible it is. The universes are all created within our minds, if we can dream it, it exists somewhere. For example: it is possible that there is a universe where Daring Doo, the fictional character, is a real mare with real emotions and desires. If the level four theory is true then..."
"We could go anywhere and do anything. The possibilties are infinite." Celestia finished "Theoreticaly." She added.
"That's the toned-down version?" Applejack asked irritability, rubbing her temples with her hooves "All this stuff makes mah head hurt."
"Well, we all got the jist of it," Rarity said "Though, some of it has gone over my head completely."
"So we can go to a world where Daring Doo is REAL?!" Rainbow asked, excitedly bouncing up and down in her seat "Forget what I said earlier, sign me up!"
"No, you may not," Luna said flatly.
"Wha? But whhhyyy?" Rainbow Dash whined.
"I sorry, Rainbow," Celestia apologized "but we simply cannot risk you traveling to an alternate Equestria. The problem is that you may meet yourself in an alternate universe."
"What's so bad about having two of me?" Dash said proudly "Can the universe not handle twice the awesomeness?"
Luna snickered "Essentially, yes. If you were to meet your trans-dimensional self, there is the possibility that the universe will implode on itself and cease to exist. We have taken the precautions so that you are pulled from the world if that were to occur, but it would be am extremely hard burden to bear knowing that you caused the destruction of an entire universe."
"Sooooo, no Daring Doo then?" Dash asked slowly.
"No."
"Lame." Rainbow huffed.
"But wait!" Pinkie said loudly "What about when Twilight met herself when she traveled through time? The world didn't explode then!"
"Implode," Timestream corrected her "And that is a very good question, Pinkie. You see, Twilight only traveled through time, not time and space. That means she stayed in this universe, which does not cause dimensional implosion."
"Ok, I understand that," Fluttershy said.
"Good." Celestia said "Now that everypony knows the risks and rewards of what we are proposing...do you all accept? Will you travel the Multiverse, learning new things and meeting new people, all in the name of science?"
"I most certainly accept your offer." Twilight answered eagerly "But what about you girls?" Twilight turned to regard her best friends.
"I'm in!" Spike said.
"Sounds like fun! I'm in!" Pinkie chirped.
"As am I," Rarity agreed "Just as long as we don't go some place too dirty."
"I'll do it." Fluttershy whispered.
"Ah, ain't sure about this... but if y'all are goin', I'll follow," Applejack reluctantly accepted.
"What AJ said!" Dash agreed.
Celestia took a deep breath and let it out slowly "Then follow me, we begin immediately," The alabaster princess stood from her seat, her sister doing the same. Luna opened the large double-door and Celestia led the group of ponies out of the room and into the hallway...
-TMT-
And so it began, these eleven ponies took the first steps of what would become their greatest journey. Oh, if only they knew how it would change them...
Celestia led her little ponies through the back hallways of Cantelot Castle. The passages were rough around the edges and dimly lit. There was only enough room in the halls for two ponies to walk abreast, making most of them feel slightly uncomfortable. Celestia and Luna were the only two ponies that knew the entire layout of their ancient castle, the place was too huge for a non-immortal to know by heart, though some of the more mischevious nobleponies knew them well enough to escape a dinner party with a young mare following behind. Even then, not all of the rooms and passages were open to the common pony, some were top-secret and only the highest ranking of the gaurds could enter. There were also rooms that were rumored to only be accessible to the Princesses themselves, some more imaginitave ponies even speculated that the pirincesses held dark secrets in those alleged room
They would be right.
"Princess..." Rarity half-whined half-complained "Why must we take these dark, dirty hallways? I belive the normal halls of the castle would more than suffice."
"Because our destination is not accesible by the normal hallways," Princess Celestia answered in her motherly voice "It is a place that we would prefer to keep away from the prying eyes of the nobles."
Luna snorted "I remember the time before Nightmare Moon when the nobles and the media weren't trying to hunt our secrets down like a pack of starved wolves. Those were aslo the days where I could get away with using the Royal Canterlot Voice if they tried."
Celestia gigled "That tactic may have been brutal, but it was also verry effective."
Luna nodded "There would be an uproar if one of them discovered The Vault. My, the press would print stories about it for decades..."
"The Vault?" Twilight Sparkle questioned "You mean the ones where the Elements were held? But that was public knowledge."
"Shall we tell her?" Luna asked her sister, speaking as if Twilight had not just asked a question.
"I suppose there is no point keeping them in the dark about this," Celestia stopped, thus halting the train of ponies following her. She turned around to regard the others "What I am about to speak of must not reach the public eye until we have decided that it is wise to do so. Understand?" Everypony nodded solemnly "Good. We are not headed to the spell chamber just yet. We first need to make a stop at what we have come to call The Adamantuim Vault. This Vault is a place where we keep our more... dangerous items. Though the orb we spoke of was the first proof of Equestria being visited by non-equine entities, it was not the last, nor the most dangerous. Over the centuries, we have recovered over thirty more artifacts of considerable power, some alien, some created on our own world, but all capable of great good or evil."
"It must be hard keeping all that a secret." Fluttershy mused.
"Indded it is," Luna agreed "but one does not become immortal if one does not know how to keep a secret, be it you own or somepony else's."
Fluttershy nodded wordlessly and they all continued through the old passaged to this mysterious Adamantium Vault. The Elements had no idea what to expect next, this had been one eventful day. Even Shining Armor, the Captain in charge of this Castle's security, had never heard of this Vault outside of speculative rumors, He was quite baffled by the Princesses' revalations.
If the stuff in this Vault is so dangerous, then why isn't anypony gaurding it? He thought to himself.
-TMT-
The old stallion cackled madly Heh heh, I'll tell ya why!
"Wow, thats a...big...door." Shining Armor said dumbly.
Twilight laughed good-naturedly "Shining, you never were one for big words." She teased.
The tour of the dank backways of Canterlot Castle had ended abrupty when they came upon a room about a quarter of the size of the Courtroom from before. It wasn't as brightly decorated, if at all. It was just as dark and foreboading as the halls that they had been trotting through for the past twenty minutes. It was empty, save for a circular door ten feet in diamater. The door was metal, but not any kind metal that some of them had seen. Not the of the greyish-silver color of steel, or the darker grey of iron. No, this metal was an olive green, it was not simply painted green, but green was it's natural color.
"Adamantium," Twilight said in wonder "The rarest metal in all of Equis. It is found only in the desserts of Saddle Arabia, and in very small veins weighing only one to nine-hundred pounds each. It is considered the most durable material in the world, second only to diamonds." Twilight had recited an entry directly from The Encyclopedia Equestria 159th Addition.
"Never heard of it," Rainbow Dash deadpanned "So is this like a big deal or something?"
"A very big deal," Luna said evenly "It took the horses in Saddle Arabia fifty years to mine enough adamant ore for the Vault, and the walls are only plated with the stuff. I can't imagine how long it would take to mine enough for a whole vault. There may not even be enough in the world for that purpose."
"Farget what's inside!" Applejack said "That metal must be real expensive, ponies'll try and steal the Vault itself!" This got her a chuckle from everyone in the room.
"So I guess this is why there are no gaurds..." Shining Armor mused aloud.
"Indeed," Luna said. She rapped her hoof on the metal door serveral times, producing a metallic Clang! with each strike"This Vault will last for eons, maybe longer if nopony knows about it."
"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Dash said, eager to see what was behind the ominus door.
"I agree with Rainbow Dash," Celestia said with a nod of her head "Let's get this done." Luna returned the gesture and cooly walked over to the far right of the giant vault, Celestia took a place opposite of her sister. Together, the two princesses inserted their long horns into small holes in the wall. Their horns glowed, causing several grooves along the door to erupt with pure magical energy, driving away the murky darkness with both gold and blue light. The light shifted to a pure white when the two sisters' magical auras collided, several runes appeared along the front of the door, they were ancient symbols that Twilight had only seen in the oldest of the books in Canterlot's archives. There was one thing that she was sure of, this door was locked with some heavy-duty enchantments.
The glow abruptly ended, causing the group to think that the spell had malfunctioned. The room was permeated with a watchful silence, ten seconds had passed with no movement from the door.
Pinkie opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by Celestia, who had removed her horn from the slot "Waaaait for it..." She said with a small smirk.
Sure enough, a loud bang shook the whole wing of the Castle like a small earthquake had hit. The huge metal door moved slowly, sinking into the floor at with a deafening sound of metal grinding on metal. The ponies all sank to the ground, covering their ears from the offending noise.
Even the Lone Wanderer would be impressed by this Vault's door.
Beyond the threshold the ponies could only see another deep, dark hallway. Just wonderful, more dirty tunnels Rairty thought to herself. Though these new tunnels were mercifully wider and taller that the last, but they were pitch black.
All present unicorns and alicorns reflexively sparked their horns with a simple light spell. Celestia once again lead her little ponies through the corridor. The light spells revealed several unassuming adamantium doors, all marked with an identification code and a title.
Celestia began idly naming a few of the items printed on the doors as she searches for the correct room "Let's see... 2A: The Necronomicon, no... 3D: The Pick of Destiny, no... 3F: The Elder Scroll, still not it...4E: Precursor Orb, nope...5B: Ah-ha! Here it is." She inserted her horn into another slot in the wall, there was no ominus crash or shrieking metal this time, the door simply opened.
The group entered into the room, Twilight was last to enter. She stopped to read the sign...
5B
The Totus-Ostendens
"Totus-Ostendens..." she read aloud "The All-Showing."
"A fitting name for it, wouldn't you agree? " Timestream popped his head out from from inside the room.
Twilight nodded dumbly "Yeah, it is."
"Well don't just gawk!" He said "Come see for yourself."
Twilight crossed into the room, the others were standing in a semicircle around a plain pedestal. Atop this pedestal rested an icy blue and white sphere, about the size of a basketball and smooth as glass. The room was scarcely lit, but the orb seemed to shine and glisten with it's own inner light source, like Luna's moon on a cloudless night.
Slowly, ever so slowly, Twilight approached the orb with a wide-eyed expression. This crystal sphere was so radiant, so beautiful, Twilight could not help but to stare deeply into its cold blue depths, feeling as if it will divulge the very secrets of the Multiverse. I want to see, she thought Celestia said that it can't hurt me , I could just maybe take a peek. It's so nice, I could learn loads of new things and-
Twilight was just about to activate the orb when she was distracted by Celestia placing a hoof onto her shoulder, she whirled around to meet her mentor's gaze "What!?" She screamed, her voice filled the room, making everypony stop and stare as if Twilight had gone mad.
Celestia eyed her student with a warm, motherly look. Twilight hung her head, eyes locked on the pale green floor "Sorry, I just... it was so...Inviting," A shiver made it's way down her spine What happened?
"No, Twilight. I'm sorry," Celestia said apologetically "One of us should have warned you of the of the Totus' ah, addictive properties. It can ensnare the mind if not prepared properly, forcing you to see those endless universes one after another. "
"The Totus' call has nearly driven many a mortal pony mad with it's siren song," Luna added "Thankfully, we are not mortal, making us immune to its spell. But I do not recommend anypony looking at it directly."
Everypony took Luna's advice and averted their eyes from the alien artifact "Maybe we should just grab the orb and leave, this place gives me the creeps," Shining Armor suggested.
"Scared, Shining?" Cadence teased, nudging his side playfully "Is my big, strong solider afraid of a deep, dark vault?"
Twilight giggled, lightening up the mood tremendously "Maybe he'll start with that 'liquid pride' again."
"Alright, I get it, I get it," Shining Armor grumbled "but I don't think it's very funny."
Celestia gave a good-natured roll of her eyes "If you two are done harassing my gaurd captain, I belive we should continue on to the Spell Chamber."
They all agreed, and as everypony left the room, Luna produced a plain cloth bag and telekinetically placed the Totus Ostendens inside.
XVXVXVX
And so, they made their way through the service tunnels once again, onward to Science.
After another long trek through the cramped tunnels, the group was standing on the outside of the Spell Chamber.
The Elements had expected another giant vault for the Chamber, they were surprised to see that the entrance was a unassuming wooden door. There was nothing special about it, the door looked as if it led to a broom closet instead of the princesses' super-secret thousand-year-old project. Camouflage at its finest.
This door required no intricate magical ritual to be opened. In fact, it wasn't even locked. Celestia merely waver her horn at the knob and led her little ponies inside.
The Spell Chamber inside was not as depressing as the Adamantium Vault, nor was it as stunning as the Courtroom. It was built for practicality, with a smooth stone floor and grey brick wall. Lining the walls were all manner of research and development stations, from alchemy labs, to miniature enchanting altars, to carpentry and masonry benches.
In the center of the Chamber was a golden ring, about six feet in diameter. The ring was suspended in midair by four sapphire levitation talismans fastened to each of the ring's compass points. Both Rarity Twilight could easily feel the magical pulses emanating from this ring in waves.
"Behold," Luna said solemnly "the culmination of all of ponykind's temporal and spacial knowledge. It took over one thousand years and a dozen of our greatest arcane scientists to perfect. We call it The Ostium."
"Wow," everypony said in stero, all beholding the Ostuim in wonderment.
"Stunning..." Rarity whispered.
"I know isn't it?" Timestream agreed.
"Uh, scuze me," Rainbow Dash interjected "but what's the deal? It's just a big floaty ring."
"To you, that's what it seems like," explained Twilight "But because you aren't a unicorn (or alicorn) you can't sense the magical fields that emanate from arcane objects or magical beings. Actually, I've never felt pulses this strong come from something this small. I can easily belive it took a millennium for all those scientists to enchant something like this."
"And I got the honor of putting the finishing touches in it!" The professor added proudly.
"Oooh, it's so shiny!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed "How does it work?"
Luna, Celestia, and Timestream shared a look with one another, and chuckled "Do you have three continuous days and a PhD in Theoretical Arcane Physics?" Princess Luna asked humorously.
"Nope!" Pinkie chirped.
"Then it would go completely over your head, Pinkie." Luna said wryly.
She seem satisfied with the answer "Okie-dokey-lokey!"
"Hey, I have those things," Twilight said "but can you give everypony the condensed version?"
Timestream shrugged "I can try," he walked to the floating device and pointed a hoof at it "The ring is not only the basis for a normal stationary portal spell, it is a symbol for a timeline. Most ponies belive time is a straight line, when it is actualy not. You've all heard the expression 'Until the end of time', and it is true. Time eventually ends one way or another, but it does not just stop. When time ends, it goes back to the very begining and will repeat that universe's events for eternity. The idea of time travel is to bisect that ring from point to another, That is what I call The Loop Theory," Timestream drew an invisible line from the east side of the ring to west side "With this little puppy alone, we could easily travel anywhere in time with the hornpower of a single unicorn."
Timestream noticed a small glint in Twilight's eyes. She clearly like what she was hearing "But that only covers time, we still need a way to travel through space, to break the dimensional barrier. This is why we have the Totus Ostendens, it represents space," Luna removed the orb from its bag and placed it in the center of the Ostium where it stayed, suspended by the levitation talismans.
"Alone, the Totus cannot do anything more than show you these alternate worlds," Timestream continued "But with the Ostium, and many years of R & D, it will allow you to break space and time simultaneously, and travel to another universe of your choosing...kind of."
"Uh Profesor Timestream, what do you mean by 'kind of'?" Fluttershy questioned.
"Well it will send you to a place and time you specify, but you cannot choose the set of circumstances within that universe. For example: you say that you want to go to another Equestria. You may end up in the same one as you live in with only minor variations, or you could end up in a universe where you never defeated Discord, and he was left to rule the world."
"That's really... heavy." Dash said quietly, her usual spunk left drained by all of these profound revelations.
"Wait," Applejack said suddenly "If y'all can't hit that 'verse with a hundered' percent accuracy then how you gonna' get us back here?"
"Easy," Celestia answered confidently "upon entering the Ostium, a tether spell is cast upon you. If you are in mortal peril or you wish to return, we can use the spell to pull you back to us like a fish on a hook."
"Alright, that's mighty good to know y'all are ready to pull us out any time we need it." Applejack said with relief.
Luna loudly cleared her throat, drawing everypony's attention to her "If we are all ready, I belive it is time to chose who should go first."
"I thought we were all going, right?" Spike asked.
"Sorry, Spike," Timestream apologized "but there's only enough juice in this baby to carry three entities at a time, so there may be a chance that you don't get to go."
"We also need a constant in this experiment," Celestia added "one pony to experience every universe that the group visits, the other two will be randomly selected."
"We belive the natural choice would be you, Twilight Sparkle, " Luna said "With your innate leadership abilities and inquisitive personality, you will be the head of the exploration team. Is that acceptable to you?"
"Absolutely! " Twilight accepted with glee.
Celestia floated a royal gaurd helmet to the center of the ponies "In here, I have the names of everyone in the room, whoever is chosen shall be a part of the team. Simple, is it not?" Everypony nodded "Good."
Celestia rattled the helmet around, tossing the peices of paper like it was salad. She placed her hoof inside the helmet and retrieved a small slip of paper "Fluttershy!" She announced.
Fluttershy smiled wanly "Yay."
Celestia drew another paper, a small smile found its way onto her face "Oh look, sister. This one is yours."
"Ha-hah!" Luna shouted, placing a hoof on her chest "Excellent! I shall do my best as a mare of science!"
Timestream gestured to the floor below the Ostium. Carved underneath the machine was an equalateral triangle with three runic glyphs at each point "Stand here if you'd please. And try to keep all hooves, wings, and other extremities inside the symbols at all times. I hope enjoy your trip and thank you for using Air-Ostium."
The three chosen ones did as instructed and stood stock still onto the triangle. "Would you like to do the honors, Professor?" Celestia regarded Timestream.
"With pleasure!" Timestream stood to face the orb, still floating in the ring's center. His horn lit up green and a bolt of pure energy of the same color shot out and struck the Totus dead-center. The orb began to glow brighter, but just marginally. It pulsed, slowly and rhythmically like a heart. The light got brighter with each pulse until it was difficult to look at without searing ones retinas.
At the height of brightness, the ring part of the machine began twirling around as if on an invisible axis. It picked up speed, though it was faster than the speed at which the orb gained brightness. Soon, the ring was running at full velocity. By now it looked like a blurry spheres with a yellow-blue light encompassing it. The Ostium moved with a deafening WOOSH-WOOSH-WOOSH-WOOSH! ! !
Timestream had to scream at the top of his lungs to be hears "Okay, everthing looks good, the Ostium is reacting well!" He turned to Twilight "Any parting words to commemorate the occasion, Twi?!"
"You mean now!?" She screamed.
"Yes, now!"
She thought for a moment, though then whirring of the machine made it difficult to do so "Uhmmm, For Science?!"
Timestream grinned broadly "That's the spirit!" He flicked a metal switch on the grey wall and a pedestal rose on the floor. Atop this pillar was a big, red button inside a glass case. He flipped open the case and slammed a hoof on the button as hard as he could "ADIOS, MI AMIGA!"
Flash! The three disappeared.
