Starburst stirred the oatmeal that was heating on the stove as he waited for his ladies to wake up. The three of them lived comfortably in Catalyst's apartment in Canterlot. His brow furrowed in worry at the thought of Full Spectrum. She had been acting completely out of character for two weeks, but it had not been a necessarily bad thing. She was happier and more energetic, more friendly and she smiled much more than she used to. It was however different enough to be concerning. The scans Catalyst had done the day before had also been worrying him. The ebony mare's mind was considered to be one of the top five best founts of magical knowledge in the entire world and even she had no idea what had happened. Starburst continued stirring the oatmeal and failed to notice the two females entering the kitchen behind him.

Catalyst lit up her horn and noisily drug one of the kitchen chairs out from the little table. It made the most awful racket as it vibrated, sliding across the stone tiles on the floor. Starburst turned his head and smiled at the two females in his life. Catalyst was NOT a morning Pony and having her drag the chair across the stone floor of the kitchen was nothing new. Full Spectrum floating in the air while sitting cross-legged, however was new.

The young woman held her right hand in front of her mouth, fingers spread, and yawned hugely. Closing her mouth, she then reached under her nightgown and scratched herself. Blushing at the open display, Starburst quickly turned back to the stove and began whistling loudly, trying to stop thinking about what she had revealed.

Out of the blue, Full Spectrum spoke up, in a level of bluntness never before imagined by mortal minds, "The Natural Magic of the world used me as a sink to expend excess Latent Unrefined Thaumaturgic Energy."

Catalyst and Starburst both froze at hearing the words. As one, they slowly turned their heads toward her, also blinking in unison as the young woman continued, "It was all a blurry jumble at first. All I could remember were the sensations," she shuddered at the memory, "I didn't realize what I was... I guess 'perceiving' would be the right word? Yeah, I'll go with that. I remember it was talking to me," her face scrunched up, "Come to think of it, it wasn't really talking, as much as it was communicating with thoughts and feelings."

She waved her hands, "Now I'm getting off track. Anyway, it showed me things and I had to sort through and match the sights, sounds, touch sensations, smells, and tastes. It's still a mess up here," she said tapping on the side of her head, "But it all pretty much boils down to this, 'something stopped the Natural Magic from expending a bunch of excess energy it had stored up for a really important purpose. It became unstable and it... kind of understood that, so it chose me to expend some of that excess power. I don't know everything about what it can do, but one thing is clear as day," she smiled and spread her arms wide, "It's what brought us Humans here!"

She twiddled her fingers playfully, carelessly, "I'm not sure how, but back on Earth, Humans have trapped it somehow. The storm that brought us here was intentional, but it was almost as if the Natural Magic figuratively sneezed when it created it. That's why it had hail. It couldn't stop the storm, it put too much power into it. If it had tried to stop the storm, it would have done... well... very bad things to Earth. So," she shrugged, "It just let it run its course. It had worked when the Magic brought Discord here, so it was sure it would work again. Something happened though. I haven't been able to put all the pieces together, but it had something to do with some sort of... centaur I think? Yeah, it was a bright red and black centaur that tried to escape from... somewhere. It distracted the Natural magic enough that it put the centaur back where it belonged, but its... focus, I guess you could say, was broken for a fraction of a fraction of a second and the storm construct went a little... haywire."

She scratched her head, "Its intention was to bring only the Humans who had no hope, to a place where they could find it again. The storm didn't function correctly." She looked to the ceiling in thought, "Yeah, that's about all I have for now." She looked toward the stove, "Is that oatmeal?"

Starburst nodded his head silently. Full Spectrum grinned hugely, "Well then serve it up already, lover boy! I'm hungry."

* * *

General Mitsoku Hiriboshi stood with his arms crossed, looking at the chemists in front of him with an impatient expression, "Well?" He asked, "Do you know what this is or not?" He clarified, gesturing to the sample jars filled with the golden liquid he and everybody else in the facility had vomited the previous day.

The two Egyptian chemists shook their heads, "We have no idea at all. It is neither an acid or a base. It doesn't even have many properties of a normal liquid. We put it over a burner and the temperature doesn't rise. We put it in a freezer and it won't freeze, it won't even get cold. It has no nutritional value whatsoever. It has no salt content. Surprisingly enough it does mix well with other liquids. About the only thing we've been able to do is have it absorbed into objects. So far, we've given some small quantities to some of the lab rats, not a good idea by the way. We've also experimented on one of the of the office plants, which quadrupled in size in less than two hours."

Seeing the General's face, the chemist quickly explained, "Don't worry, sir. The rats died rather unimpressively after they ate the infused food pellets. We're going to be cutting them open to discover the cause of death, later today."

The General held up his right hand, "Back up. You said the office plant quadrupled in size in just a few hours?" He leaned forward onto the desk, "Acquire some seeds and test it on those then test any fruit which those plants bear..."

A voice over the facility intercom crackled to life, "Code Black. General Hiriboshi, please report to the closest control room. General Hiriboshi, report to the closest control room, please."

The General turned and bolted for the door as the facility unexpectedly shook. Mitsoku Hiriboshi braced himself against the wall for stability, but he kept running. Despite being in his early fifties, he kept himself in excellent physical condition unmatched by most younger men. In less than a minute, he reached one of the branch control rooms. Swiping his access card over the badge reader, he entered the room. It was a scene of chaos. There were more than a hundred branch control rooms, each one was constantly monitored by eighty-two people at all times. And that was not even counting the armed military security personnel stationed at every door. The control room operators were busy yelling out readings and fluctuations to one another. One voice rang out above the rest. The voice belonged to an older woman scientist from Cambodia, "Reading another building fluctuation in air currents! Increase gravatic destabilization frequency!"

Another scientist watched his monitor and yelled out just loud enough for the General to hear, "The eye of the storm is shifting again." He spoke with a Russian accent, "If I did not know any better, I would say it is trying to escape!"

Somebody in the room called out, "Gravatic generators secured for reverberations! Initiating coil stabilization lock-down! Increase the energy input to the gravatic generator! This thing is NOT getting lose again!"

The General's face contorted in anger as the facility shuddered again. The second earthquake was stronger than the first. An idea hit him, "What was the state of destabilization when the fluctuations began?" He asked nobody in particular.

The Cambodian woman turned her head toward him, "Thirty-one point two-three percent, General."

The General nodded, "And what happened when you increased the frequency?"

"The storm hit us again..." the woman said.

The General interrupted her, "Did it garner a stronger reaction when you increased the power?"

The woman turned back to her monitor and began performing calculations, her fingers flying over the keyboard. The facility shook again, even stronger than the previous quake. A French scientist suddenly yelled out, "Reading micro-fractures in coil reactor chamber number four! We can't take many more hits like that!"

The Cambodian woman suddenly turned around, "The reverberations increased in power equivalent to the amount of energy we increased in the field!" She turned to the other scientists, "Decrease energy output back to standard, then decrease by a further thirty-one point two-three percent!"

The Russian man quickly spoke up, "If we decrease the energy to the destabilization matrix the Event may have enough power to break free! We cannot let it out again!"

The General shot him a hard scowl, "Decrease energy output! Do it! NOW!"

The techs decreased the energy output back to standard and everybody waited to see what would happen. The next quake hit the facility, but its strength was greatly diminished. The General nodded, "Match energy output to equal destabilization percentages. Keep reducing the energy output in accordance with the destabilization of The Event." He said with a satisfied smile. His people were safe. He breathed a sigh of relief. He turned to leave when a loud series of gasps echoed around the room. The General's head turned toward the monitoring techs. Every one of them were staring through the window behind him. The window which looked out over The Event. He quickly spun around and froze in place, shocked beyond words at what he saw.

Beyond the window the Event still raged, but at greatly reduced ferocity. The rain was less intense and the wind was nowhere near as strong. The hail was smaller and through the rain and hail and wind, the people in the control room could see a half-circle of light coming from the center of the storm. Being night where they were, the scene shone all the more brightly within the storm. It was brightly illuminated by the light from within and calm trees could be seen inside of it.

General Hiriboshi was awestruck. His feet moved of their own accord as his shaking hands gripped the safety railing. He could not believe what he was seeing. Bright light spilled forth from the dome/gate thing, 'Is it a... portal?' He wondered, 'There's light coming from the other side, but it's night here... is it a portal to the other side of the WORLD?' If it was, the possible applications were nearly limitless, 'We could provide instantaneous aid to earthquake victims, we could move soldiers in to stop violent uprisings and civil wars, we could transport food from one side of the world to the other, we could eliminate world hunger in a month, we could send in rescue operations to stop Human trafficking, we could send transplant organs from one place to another instantly...' an exceedingly rare tear of pride and joy slid from his left eye, 'There's... there's no limit to the possibilities.' His right hand came up slowly and touched the safety glass which protected him and everybody else in the control room from the fury of the Event. He stroked the glass, caressing it tenderly. His mouth slowly slipped open and he felt his eyes welling up, 'This is it... THIS IS IT! This is the next step in our journey!'

He smiled tearfully and slapped the glass, 'I was right! We're on the right path! This is fate. It HAS to be!' He slowly turned his head, looking at the array of people in the room, 'The greatest minds of all of Humanity are all here in this facility, all working together for a single purpose. We put aside our hatred and greed and look at what we accomplished! We pooled our resources together for the good of all of us and look at what we've done!' His stern, stoic face broke into a broad grin, 'We've done it! We did it! Our next step is out there just waiting for us to reach out and grasp it!' He turned and looked back out into the storm, 'If we built an artificial environment around it, could we colonize other planets?' His knees felt weak at the thought, 'So many resources, so much knowledge!' He shot a look back at the scientists in the room, 'I have to make sure that NOBODY else knows about this. Every government in the world would start warring over what we have.' He straightened his shirt and held his head high, wiping his joyful tears at his revelation, 'I have over one hundred thousand of the best soldiers from all over the world, here in this facility, at my beck and call. We have the best weapons, vehicles, and scientific equipment from every nation all pooled together. We could do almost anything.' His resolve firmed in his mind, 'It cannot be anything but fate that this has been given to us. We HAVE to keep this safe. The rest of the world is greedy and selfish, we have to keep the rest of Humanity safe from its own nature. We have been given this task. We have been chosen to act as the vanguard of Humanity as we transition to a whole new age.' He clenched his fist, 'This is an opportunity like no other we've ever had. We cannot afford to risk it in any way. We must be firm, harsh even. We HAVE to keep the governments and conglomerates away from this. We will never be given another chance like this and we will NOT squander it on petty greed and jealousy.'

So confirmed, he purposefully strode toward the intercom desk in the control room. He took a seat behind it and clicked on the intercom, "Attention, this is General Hiriboshi. All project leaders proceed to Briefing Room number five for a mandatory meeting. This mandatory meeting will begin in one hour." He released the intercom button and rose from the desk. He had to plan out his next move and more importantly, somehow talk all the project leaders to agree with the plan and keep their people in line.

He headed to his office to retrieve his pistol belt, 'I hope I will not need it, but this HAS to stay silent. No matter the cost.'

* * *

An hour later General Hiriboshi stood at the head of the long table while all the project managers sat in chairs surrounding it. The General had four of his most loyal soldiers also in the room for safety measures. He leaned onto the desk with his hands and swept his eyes around the room, meeting the eyes of every person sitting at the table.

The faces looking back at him showed earnest curiosity, 'It would break my heart to have to imprison or kill any of these people. They are good people, the best. They deserve better than that, but we cannot risk this chance.'

The General cleared his throat and pushed himself off the table, "Ladies and gentlemen," he spoke in English, as it had been the mandatory language for the project members to learn, "Today we have stumbled upon what may very well be the greatest opportunity mankind has ever been given." He began to slowly walk around the perimeter of the room, "The Event has reached a point where the destabilization process has seemingly breached a threshold of some kind. Instead of needing more energy to destabilize it further, The Event is needing less and less energy. I asked the monitors and techs to calculate out the necessary time for The Event to destabilize completely. Their answer was just over a year."

The room erupted in wild cheering. The General nodded graciously and continued, "Please do not cheer for me. It was the work of the dedicated scientists, monitors, and techs here at this facility who have accomplished this task. It is them you should be congratulating, not I." He clasped his hands together in front of himself, "We here, represent the pinnacle of humanity at present. We have accomplished great things working together." He swept his hands around the room, "I look around and I see Israelis working alongside Arabs, I see a German man sharing a workbench with a French woman. We have come together and done the impossible. In an hour of dire need, we have banded together and gone above and beyond what we, ourselves thought we could." He paused at the head of the table and flipped a switch embedded into the oak.

The view screen lit up with a live feed image of the illuminated portal and the green foliage beyond, "And we have seen, what I believe to be the most dire event in all of history." He gestured to the screen, "What we seem to have here is a portal. It is night here, but beyond that portal is daylight. It may be night here, but on the other side of the world, it is close to noon." He gestured to the portal, "This is the key to our future... and the reason for this meeting."

He began walking around the room again as all eyes were glued to the view screen, "Once The Event is completely destabilized, our scientists can begin analyzing this... hole in space... this... portal. With the technology we wield here, there is no doubt, we will be able to move the portal around the world."

The room went deal silent as the General continued pacing and speaking, "And what would our governments do with this tool?" He asked holding out his hands.

A young Turkish man raised his hand, "They would help their people."

The other project leaders all began yelling at him angrily. The General shushed them all and kept walking, "You are all scientists. You KNOW how Human nature works. People would use portal technology for their own gain. They would wage wars, the likes of which would make World War I, World War II, and all other wars in Human history, look like small skirmishes. The death toll would be catastrophic. The devastation would go beyond mere words. We are talking about the end of Human civilization as we know it. An Extinction Level Event of our own making and wielded by our own hand."

He slumped down in the chair at the end of the table, resting his chin in his hands, "I am a man of war." He said simply, "I have dedicated myself to understanding the movements and motivations of war," he gestured to the screen behind him, "And THIS will spark the most terrible war we have ever seen! I am not counting casualties in the hundreds of thousands, millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions... I am talking about casualties in the billions." His voice was almost a whisper.

The room was silent as the scientists and project leaders allowed the statement to settle. Despite how much they hated it, the General had a perfectly valid point. There were no limits to the lengths governing bodies and power-hungry entities would expend to have such a tool at their disposal.

General Hiriboshi pursed his lips and the project leaders began arguing quietly. It was not loud, intense debate, it was quiet words shared with colleagues who respected one another. It was the oneness of mind the General was hoping to see. These gathered minds could easily see the direction and mentality of the world. It was time for the General to risk it all. He fervently hoped, prayed that he would be right.

General Hiriboshi slammed his right hand against the flat top of the table, "Ladies and gentlemen, please," he said calmly, "I...I fear there is only one solution." He reached under the table and withdrew a metal briefcase, "Before this facility was completed, the engineers who designed it understood that there was the possibility of it falling into the wrong hands. The card in this briefcase is one of two that hold codes... to overload the reactors... to destroy this facility."

The room grew even more silent, "I do not see any other choice. Once The Event is completely destabilized and is gone, the only thing holding the portal together will be the energy generated in this colossal building." He placed the briefcase back under the table, "We were given an objective here: save Humanity. From where I stand, it seems that after The Event is done with, we will have to save Humanity from itself. We cannot afford to risk the rest of the world abusing the portal. We all know too much about it. Every one of us knows enough to be dangerous if the news gets out. We came into this knowing that it might cost us our lives... well it looks like we were right."

The General hung his head, "As you all know, I had your families brought here so you could be with them. So that there would be no chance for some outside entity to take them and use them to get to you, or manipulate... I am so sorry for that. Nobody in this facility can leave, none of us can get word out about what we discovered." He hung his head, "My own family is here too: my wife and my daughter." He brought up his head and took a deep, loud breath, "I will pay the price alongside each of you. What are our lives compared to the rest of Humanity?" He lowered his voice and thickened it with emotion, "The math is only too easy, even for me. As of right now, nobody can leave this facility. I will issue the order immediately after our meeting." In truth, he had already issued the order.

He said no more. His gambit had been played. All he could do was wait and let his words sink in. The scientists would see it was true. One of them would eventually have the same idea he already did. One of them would stand out and voice their thoughts. They were to be the vanguard of Humanity, the people to take the first steps toward the future. None of the rest of the world knew even a hundredth of what they knew. Nobody was wise enough to do what had to be done. The scientists would figure it out easily enough. Each would come to the same conclusion in their own mind, but eventually one would be willing to speak their mind.

General Hiribosbi knew it could not be him. The scientists would balk at a military leader, fearing he would still carry loyalty to his country of origin. No, it had to be one of the scientists. Once they all agreed, the General would act the part of their servant, all while pulling every string in the background, guiding them forward to the betterment of mankind. The scientist who spoke up, would be his puppet. The voice spurring the others to agree with the plans. He would have to be careful though. The scientists were not fools. He would have to tread carefully, but his end game would be worth everything, 'Humanity will be bettered for our sacrifice. They will hate us in the short term, but history will recognize us as the revolutionaries we are. They will know us by our deeds. They will look back and see that what we did, we did for the good of Humanity.'

Author's Notes:

Let me know if you spot any typos.