"I'm afraid we have not been properly introduced," the large white unisus said, addressing Panthera and Pardus. "I am Princess Celestia, and this is my sister, Princess Luna. We rule Equestria together. I don't believe I'm familiar with your kind," Trevar's two friends looked at each other and smiled before turning back to her. "Nopony has ever heard of creatures such as you."

"We have to wonder why that could be," Pardus said, as the two cats momentarily activating their cloaks before finally leaving it off. The demonstration was quite explicit: creatures capable of cloaking as they were able could easily have existed alongside them all this time.

"I am Pardus, and this is my sister, Panthera," Pardus said formally to the two rulers.

"But then, we've not seen others like ourselves for as long as we can remember, either," Panthera said.

"Although, we have to admit, we are recently arrived to this area," Pardus explained. "One never knows what one might find when coming to a new location. While we were exploring these ruins, we saw the humans come through the portal. It had been open for several days," he added, producing a holographic image of the warp coils, the lightning storm within the chamber and showing the moment when Trevar and Scott came through from Earth.

Celestia and Luna's eyes were wide with fright at seeing the representation, and Celestia gasped in shock at when the last remaining control crystal came out of its holder and fell only to shatter. But the scene revealed that all the other crystals that had evidently been a part of the control system and had also been damaged, whether caused by the incident of the warp tunnel or previously was unknown at this time.

"Without those crystals, there will be no means of ever using those warp coils again!" Celestia exclaimed. "They're irreplaceable!"

"We were coming through the portal to try and shut down the warp tunnel from this end," Trevar said, speaking up. "Scott's people tried to shut the system down from our side, but there was a tremendous power flow as a result of the link."

"So—uh—what caused all that lightning?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"The nearest as I can guess is that there was a large charge difference between our two worlds," Trevar explained. "Our sun sends out particles that slowly strips away the electrons in our planet's atmosphere. Eventually, the charge difference gets great enough to begin pulling the electrons from the ground. The net effect is slowly, over billions of years, our world has a huge electron deficit. No doubt the same must happen to your world, but at a different rate. But then, when the warp tunnel was established, my world began pulling electrons from here. Since both sets of warp coils were getting their power from here, it was impossible to shut down the tunnel at our end. It also was causing a powerful and very odd storm on our planet."

"Same here!" Rainbow Dash said. "And it really felt weird! It felt like the storm was actually in the ground instead of the air!"

"No doubt it was," Trevar replied.

"So shutting it down was the reason you brought a bomb through the portal?" Celestia asked.

"No. It was the reason she brought the bomb through the portal," Trevar quickly responded, snapping a glare at Scott. "Unfortunately, her team didn't really think it through on so many levels. They were in a panic mode, and they didn't have a very good understanding of warp physics.

"It was very fortunate for us all that I showed up when I did," Trevar said. "If that device had gone off the way they planned, both of our worlds would already have been destroyed!"

"What sort of bomb was it that could have so much power?" Luna demanded.

"A nuclear bomb," Trevar replied. When this didn't seem to register, he went on. "It used a plutonium mass to provide its energy." This still didn't appear to give them any understanding, so he added, "I don't know what you'd call it. Water is made up of two elements: two atoms of what we call hydrogen and one of oxygen. Hydrogen has one proton and normally no neutrons at the core of its atom, while oxygen has eight of each. The plutonium that was used in the bomb is an element with ninety-four protons." THAT REGISTERED!

"WHAT?!?" all three of the horny pegasi angrily exclaimed.

"It was actually a very weak weapon of its type, but what would have happen when it destroyed the warp coils at this end, the tunnel would have essentially amplified its blast capability to the point where this location would be ground zero for a crater punching well into your planet's mantle."

"Yes! I'm quite aware of what that would have done to our world!" Celestia hissed, obviously not pleased.

"But they weren't aware," Trevar said, pointing his thumb back at Scott. "And they had no idea that it would have destroyed our planet as well! It wasn't their intention to destroy either world. As I said, they were operating in a pure panic mode."

"So what hath becometh of the weapon?" Luna demanded.

"I threw it into your sun," Pardus replied speaking up.

"That was you?" Celestia exclaimed.

"I—uh—maybe—? Are we speaking of the same incident?" Pardus inquired, puzzled that the creatures could possibly have been aware of the situation to have that sort of reaction. But it was wise to never commit oneself until one was sure of the topic being discussed.

"I was about to raise the sun this morning when I detected an object plunge into the sun and explode," Celestia said.

"That was you?" Pardus and Panthera both exclaimed.

"We saw the moon suddenly shift as the result of a powerful graviton beam," Panthera spoke up. "Did you do that, as well?"

"We control the moon," Luna explained. "Our sister controls the sun."

"Oh, I see," Panthera said, a little puzzled. "And your other sister is Twilight Sparkle, here, correct?"

"Huh?" the three unisi asked, evidently not sure how a breakdown in communications happened.

"Oh! Please pardon Us—pardon me!" Luna finally said, giggling. "I am a thousand years out of date with my language. I should have said, I control the moon, and my sister, Celestia, controls the sun. And while it would be our pleasure to have Princess Twilight as a sister, she is not. Although she is sister-in-law to our niece."

"Speaking of which, sister," Luna spoke up once more, "thou hast better finish adjusting thy sun."

"She was in a great haste this morning when we realized the Element of Loyalty was in danger," Luna explained to the visitors.

"I beg your pardon. Come again?" Pardus asked.

"That would be Rainbow Dash," Celestia clarified.

The tall white unisus then stood apart from the others and focused on staring at the sun. Then she closed her eyes and her horn began to glow.

'Holy fuck!' Panthera and Pardus both exclaimed. 'She really is the source of one of those powerful graviton beams! The gravitons are forming from some other particle that we—we're having trouble detecting them, but they're there!—And she's pulling in an enormous amount of those odd particle in from the environment and focusing it through her horn!'

'And no doubt this Luna must be the source of that other beam,' Pardus added.

'This is the so-called 'magic', they're talking about?' Trevar inquired.

'Quite likely,' Panthera agreed. 'Reviewing the readings I got when Twilight and Rarity were putting up their shields and tractor beams show those force beams had the same origin. I just hadn't paid attention to those initial particles at the time. But now that I know what to look for….'

"That should do it," Celestia said as she finished.

"I'm—going to need to step away for a bit," Pardus said as several large stones were suddenly ripped out of the ground and levitated in front of him. The winged panther launched up into the sky and both he and the rocks vanished before getting too far away.

"Whither goest he?" Luna demanded.

"My brother said he just needs to take some time to check his weight and play with those rocks for a little while," Panthera said. "He sometimes takes off like that when some puzzle catches his attention. Personally, I think he's been eating too much sugar. He'll be back shortly."

"Oh, you can never have too much sugar!" Pinkie Pie suddenly exclaimed.

"Yes you can!" Scott suddenly spoke up. "I'm diabetic! Too much sugar will kill me!"

The two leading unisi gasped in shock.

"What? Shit!" Trevar exclaimed. "You're going to need a source of insulin! What the hell were you thinking coming along with me?"

"As you said," Scott said after a few moments, "the effects of the warp field will be like radiation poisoning. I figured dying when I run out of insulin would be a more merciful way to go."

"I see," Trevar finally said.

"What do you mean, 'she's dying'?" Celestia demanded.

"The warp tunnel at our end was shaking space itself," Trevar explained. "There are particles that make up our protons and neutrons; we call them quarks. They got shaken up from the field. Both of us were affected, but I only got a few hours' worth exposure. I should be able to survive. But she—and her comrades—they had been there for four days. When our quarks eventually return to their ground state, she and her friends will all die. I estimated she's got a couple months or so, but with her diabetes involved, not much of anything!"

Celestia's horn glowed for a few moments and a similar colored aura surrounded both Trevar and Scott.

"That's very puzzling," Celestia muttered but continued to scan the humans. Her face appeared to turn a combination of sorrow and grimness when she finished. "Your estimate on Lieutenant Scott's core structure would appear to be correct. She does only have a couple months, at best, to live," Celestia said. "However, your evaluation for yourself would appear to be incorrect. You are also dying. I estimate you'll die after about three or four years. It may have once been possible to heal the both of you with our magic, but unfortunately, so much of our skills were lost over the millennia. Neither I nor my sister have the skills to fix you."

"Hmm," Trevar grunted. "Well, it'll be an interesting experiment, then," he muttered.

"It would seem to be a very odd coincidence, indeed," Celestia said. Then she cocked her head at him.

"To what 'experiment' were you speaking of, may I ask?" she demanded.

"Hmm? Oh, as to whether I will die or not," Trevar absently muttered. He was very interested in seeing if the Gateway would fix his quarks. He was planning on doing at least two changes as soon as he had the opportunity.

"Panthera, may I have your permission to scan you?" the white alicorn asked.

"But of course," the shadowcat replied.

'Uh-oh!' Trevar sent. 'She's gonna know!'

'Possibly,' Panthera agreed.

"Very odd," Celestia muttered. "You also have been affected by the warp field. And it would appear by the same amount as Trevar. Presumably, your brother will have been affected to the same degree as well."

"However, I know the damage being done to matter was much less at this end," Trevar spoke up. "Could it be possible they were exposed for a longer time but from a weaker field and still show the same type of damage?"

"We did spend our entire time here watching this end of the passageway when we arrived until they came through and the tunnel shut. But it was going quite strong when we arrived," Panthera admitted.

"It is possible," Celestia admitted. "There's only one way to find out. I'll need to inspect the damage to the system."

"But with you shadowcats being composed of nothing but equustite, I cannot estimate the effects the warp field has had on you. The crystal nature of normal equustite actually strengthens when subjected to the stresses of this type of phenomena. I have absolutely no idea how your amorphic form will react when your core stabilizes," she finished.

"Then, as Trevar remarked, it shall be an interesting experiment," Panthera said, to which Celestia nodded.

"Now, what is this 'diabetes', you speak of?" she asked.

Trevar held out his hand, and Panthera projected a set of holographic images above it, letting everyone think it was Trevar actually doing it. One item was the Periodic Table, the other a 3D graphical representation of the insulin molecule.

"This is insulin," Trevar explained. As he listed off the elements, hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, zinc, et cetera, the atoms of the molecule as well as their representation on the Periodic Chart lit up. "Our bodies have an organ called the pancreas that produces this hormone to help our cells regulate the use of sugar in our metabolism. Unfortunately, Lieutenant Scott's pancreas doesn't produce the right amount of insulin to let her properly use the sugar. And without it, sugar becomes a poison for her. I'm assuming you're Type One?" he asked Scott. She nodded, stunned by how the man appeared to be creating the images.

"H-how did you know?" she stammered.

"By now, you should know I have my ways," he said smirking. Panthera had informed him.

"We knoweth of this affliction!" Luna exclaimed. "Oft, ponies developeth just such a defect. Or that their bodies cannot properly utilize this 'insulin' as thee calleth it."

"Indeed," Celestia agreed. "Fortunately, we do know how to cure those diseases."

"Y-y-you do?!?" Scott exclaimed.

"Impressive," Trevar said.

The white ruler stepped away to confer with her sister while Trevar went to speak with the purple unisus.

"I'm rather curious about something," he said. "Back on my world, we've got legends of pegasi and unicorns," he said, pointing to Fluttershy and Rarity in turn. "I'm not sure what the proper words are for them here."

"That would be the same as here," Twilight responded.

"I see," Trevar said, nodding. "And—uh—?" he asked, gesturing towards Applejack and Pinkie Pie.

"Earth ponies," she replied. Trevar nodded again.

"And yourselves? Winged unicorns or horny pegasi?" Trevar inquired. Twilight, as well as the planet's rulers reacted to stare at him, blinking in surprise.

"Alicorns," Celestia testily responded from overhearing them.

"Curious. I would've expected unisus. I've never heard of alicorn—wait—no, that's what a unicorn's horn was supposed to be made of," he said, idly glancing back at Lieutenant Scott, who was busy conversing with Pinkie Pie and Rarity.

"Princess Celestia, with your permission, we should be getting back," Twilight said. "We've been stranded out here for nearly five days with no food except what we were able to scrounge, and we still have all the books we collected to transport."

"Oh! You should have said something sooner about how dire your situation was, Twilight!" Celestia scolded her. "Of course, we'll make arrangements to get you back to Ponyville and transport the library to the new castle."

"Well, the time did allow us to get the entire library sorted out," Twilight said with pride.

"Uh—Princess Celestia?" the blue pegasus inquired. "Does this mean I'll have to walk all the way back?"

"Uh-hem!" Trevar growled at her with arms folded.

"We'll provide your transport, Rainbow Dash," Celestia said, smiling. She turned away to face north and sent some sort of signal with her horn.

"Didst thou very much receiveth all seven chambers sorted for transport? My! That is impressive!" Luna said.

"S-s-seven?!? We only knew about the two! Y-you mean there are five other rooms?" Twilight exclaimed dismayed.

"Oh, We doth apologize for not informing thee sooner," the dark alicorn said.

"It will be a little while before the chariots arrive," Celestia commented. "And they'll bring you food as well!"

"Oh, thank you, Princess Celestia!" all the six smaller ponies exclaimed.

"In the meantime, I would like to inspect the damage done to the equipment," Celestia continued. "Twilight, would you please lead the way?"

"Of course, Princess Celestia," the purple alicorn happily replied.

Trevar, Scott and Panthera walked with the equines back to the dungeon where the warp coils stood and awaited the ruling unisi—rather—alicorns' pleasure. At the chamber, the two taller alicorns grumbled amongst themselves over the damage done, especially the shattered remains of the control crystals. And Trevar let Scott take the lead for explaining what was in the tool box they had brought with them.

Once they settled down, Trevar broke out one of the power bars that had been packed for him back at the secret Colorado base and began munching on it. Of course, that caught the attention of the smaller native creatures were quite curious about it, and Trevar offered another one to split up among the eight; however the two taller alicorns declined.

"Yuck!" the pony named Applejack exclaimed (but only after finishing her sample piece). "That's ahmost as bad as them Flim Flam brothers' apple fritters! Now ya want some gud apple fritters, ya'll jus' come ta mah farm, an' ah'll whipya'll up somthun' much better!"

"Well, to be honest, these things are not considered all that good back on our world, either," Trevar said with a shrug. "Processing them to last a long time leaves barely enough flavor to make them edible. Better quality and tasting stuff can't last so many years in storage, and in situations like we came prepared for, this stuff is still light weight enough to carry. It'll help keep you alive for several days, but you won't enjoy them much."

"Uh—can ah have sum more?" Applejack asked in very low voice, nervously looking about to see if her comrades were noticing.

"Sure," Trevar said, chuckling, pulling out several from his stash. "I forgot, you guys said you hadn't eaten for days." The other five smaller equines quickly clamored for their share, while the two taller ones still held back.

"They may not be all that tasty, but they are better than hail-beaten dandelions and grass!" the white unicorn with the dark purple mane & tail exclaimed.

"Mister Trevar," Scott whispered to him once the creatures had retreated with their food. "We don't have a means to restock ourselves, either! We don't know if we can eat their food!"

"Well, if they've got apples to cook down for fritters, then they're probably good enough for us to eat them," Trevar muttered back as he idly observed how the purple alicorn joined the other two to discuss their concerns while she ate the power bar, holding it in her telekinesis. "Chances are there's sure to be other foods we can eat. If these guys' diet are similar to that of horses' of Earth, then you'll find there's quite a bit that we can eat, too. Oats, or something like them, maybe? Wheat and rice are just fancy types of grass, after all. And believe it or not, dandelions are quite good, too. There's salads and wine you can make from them." And Trevar wasn't worried in the least anyhow. If worse came to worse, he would always have the Gateway to replenish his energy stores, leaving anything he had left over for her.

Trevar and Panthera passed the time by role-playing their covers as strangers and after a low discussion to ensure any eves-dropping ears wouldn't be able to question her familiarity with chess, they began to play a few rounds with Panthera providing a holographic projection of the ten-level variation they preferred to play. It did get the attention of a few of the creatures, the pink one, the white one, and Rainbow Dash. They offered a few amusing, if not bizarre comments (the majority of those coming from the pink one) about their play. And Panthera telepathically alerted Trevar how the purple one, Twilight, was being greatly distracted, trying to follow both their game from the distance while trying to keep her attention focused on the discussion involving her fellow alicorns over the ancient drive system.

After about four hours, the three alicorns walked up to them, but at least Celestia's interest was not on their game.

"Panthera, can you tell me how close you and your brother came to the device while it was malfunctioning?"

"Hmm," the shadowcat hummed as she looked back and forth between the door and the stack of rings. "Actually, I think we spent most of our time pretty close to where we're sitting," she finally said.

"Yes, that would be about right," Celestia muttered.

"It would certainly appear that you are correct, Trevar," Celestia said. "The field at this end of the tunnel was much less. There's a rapid fall off, and this location shows only slightly higher damage than Panthera is exhibiting. Somepony being here a day or so less than it was active could have about that amount of damage. Coincidentally, about the same amount as yourself."

"Makes sense," Trevar agreed.

"What's very odd is that both you and the shadowcats have equustite in your genetic instructions, while your fellow human has none!" Celestia said, dropping the boom.

"Really?" Trevar asked, feigning surprise. "But I know I'm not composed entirely of it, as Panthera here is, if what your Miss Twilight Sparkle said is correct. It must be showing up as some sort of trace amount."

"That is true," Celestia said, evidently expecting more from him.

Trevar looked at the board a few moments and held his hand out, and his knight took Panthera's bishop without him touching it.

"I wonder if perhaps that—equustite, as you call it—in my genes explains why I can do that," Trevar said. Then he shrugged, not bothering to look up at them. "Or maybe not."

Panther, however, relayed to Trevar the sight of the three of the alicorns looking at him with wide-eyed expressions.

At that moment, Celestia evidently received a signal that the transportation had arrived and she called them together and started for the exit.

'I am getting some really weird readings from this system!' Pardus called down when the group started making their way back to the outside.

'What's up?' Trevar inquired, as he and Panthera continued their latest game along the way.

'First of all, this planet isn't much bigger than the planet Mars, but if it's core is iron, then the upper level of it must be just under the crust!' the male panther reported. 'Overall density has got to be about nine point seventy-nine grams per ceecee!

'Second, I'd have to say that someone is fucking lying. Either physics or math, and I'm putting my money on it being physics!'

'Sounds serious,' Trevar commented. 'Any danger of this region of space breaking down?'

'No way to tell just yet,' Pardus responded. 'Even given the weirdness of this planet's size and density, I should be seeing a ninety-one and a half minute orbital period at an altitude of a thousand kilometers as well as a six meter per second squared gravity on my accelerometer. Instead, my accelerometer is indicating only two point two four seven meters per second squared, and it took two hours, twenty-nine point sixty-three minutes to orbit the planet. Where I am getting a ninety minute orbital period, and it took me a while to find THAT point, is just shy of three eighty klicks—seriously, skimming the atmosphere at that! And with a gravity level of only five point thirty-seven meters per second squared instead to the eight point oh-three it should be!'

'Any malfunctions that you can detect?' Trevar asked, quietly sharing a glance with Panthera as they walked.

'I was suspecting my accelerometer up until I caught these fucking rocks in their orbits right to the second of my calculations based on the gravity readings I got from it! V-squared still apparently equals A times R, after all—even if the gravity measurement doesn't make any fucking sense!' Pardus angrily spat.

'But it gets worse,' Pardus continued. 'I should be seeing the moon move! It should have already crossed its own diameter twice in the four and a half hours I've been up here. Normal gravitation would have it moving at four twenty meters per second. I'm reading it's actually only moving at four CENTIMETERS per second! It's moving so slowly it doesn't even register in my consciousness at this distance! It'll take that thing a thousand years to go about this planet instead of the seventeen point twenty-four days it should be doing!

'Oh, did I forget to mention? This fucking planet has a sidereal rotation of about a YEAR!' Pardus added. 'I've even got one of my little thousand kilogram rocks sitting in geosynch orbit at an altitude of twenty-one, two eighty-seven miles as proof! It'll sit over your head forever instead of drifting away to orbit for the thirty-one hours it should be doing.'

'What the hell could be causing all that?' Trevar wondered.

'No idea!' Pardus replied. 'I'm almost suspecting the Universal Gravitational Constant isn't in this system! It sure isn't a normal fall-off of the acceleration curve versus altitude. The data I'm getting from the accelerometer and the orbital period and velocities aren't fitting any reasonable alterations that may be going on with the Grav-constant. I'll know more when I check out this planet's moon.'

'Be careful,' Trevar sent, feeling dry mouthed.

Just then, they reached the outside and several chariots, each being pulled by a team of pegasi, awaited them.

Several of the newly arrived pegasi, as well as a couple unicorns, all of them stallions, Trevar noted, were in the process of loading a dozen chariots with stacks of books, while three other chariots stood empty with piles of breads, fruits and vegetables sat on squares of picnic cloths next to them. Immediately, the starving ponies pounced upon the food, while the guards and the planet's rulers stood aside.

The ponies were very polite, and their meals were consumed in about fifteen minutes at most, but very neatly, despite their desperate and evident hunger. When they finished, they were obviously feeling much better. Then the alicorns led the way onto the chariots, followed by the other five mares and Trevar and Scott. The unicorn stallions both rode on the third chariot with as many books as could fit alongside them.

"Horses riding in chariots? Now that's something you don't see every day," Scott whispered as they stepped up to board.

"Don't count on it," Trevar said, chuckling. "On this planet, maybe we will!"