Chapter 1, Part 2

Two Days Later

It had been 48 hours since Twilight had arrived in Canterlot. Since then she had been engaged in the all consuming task of memorizing all of the minute details of Starswirl the Bearded’s spell that served as Equestria’s, no the world’s only hope of salvation. There was no room for error.

She had completed the task of carefully studying. Now came the task of carrying through with the spell. It called for the four most powerful alicorns in the land of Equestria to focus their magical powers on one point on the space time continuum. This would enable the opening of a wormhole which could be used to enable travel between this universe and another. Celestia, as the most powerful alicorn of the group, would be tasked with guiding the Equestrian continent through the wormhole until they arrived on the other planet.

The transferring of the entire Equestrian planet had been ruled out by Celestia. Using a spell that enabled her to observe other universes, she had discovered that their target planet was already the host of several living creatures. Swapping the location of their two planets would spare the Equestrian’s home planter, but would doom this other world, which was populated by both ponies and the mythical creatures known as humans (Twilight know little about them and had previously disregarded them as nothing more than an Old Mare’s Tale). The only humane option would be to take the relatively small pangean continent that Equestria sat on and drop it off in the middle of an uninhabited part of the planet.

Twilight, still unsure of whether or not trans-universe travel was even scientifically possible, asked Celestia why Equestria couldn’t simply be dropped off on another habitable planet inside of their own universe.

“Unfortunately, we are unable to do that Twilight. The spell only enables the movement from one spot in a universe to the same exact location in an identical universe. Fortunately, there are several such universes, as the number of universes in the multiverse appears to be nearly infinite.”

“How can that be?” inquired Twilight. “I’ve read a little bit on Chaos Theory, and according to it, even the slightest and seemingly meaningless change could result in unforeseen differences. If that is the case, then shouldn’t it be impossible for their an identical Universe, at least when it comes to planetary alignment.”

“Certainly Twilight. But when there are an infinite number of universes in existence it is inevitable that you will ultimately find another universe that is either similar to yours or even identical to it.”

“It’s like the Peaseblossom Hypothesis,” muttered Twilight to herself.

“What was that Twilight?” asked Celestia.

Struggling to bottle her delight at being able to teach her former instructor something, Twilight said, “I said it’s like the Peaseblossom Hypothesis, which postulates that if you put an infinite number of newborn foals in front of an infinite number of typewriters then one will inevitably find a way to write a Daring Do novel.”

“Excellent analogy Twilight,” said the Solar Princess, impressed by the knowledge of her former student.

“I just have one more question,” asked Twilight.

“What is it?” asked Celestia.

“How did you choose to go to this specific Universe's equivalent of our planet?”

“When I cast my spell that enabled me to look at other universes, this universe was the only one I could find that not only had a habitable planet in the exact same location in their parallel Universe as our planet, but where I could detect ponies living in large numbers on it.”

“Does that answer all of your questions?” asked Celestia, clearly eager to finally begin the spell. Though the asteroid was still several months away from striking Equestria, Celestia was eager to get the process of trans-universal travel over with. She was clearly nervous, despite her best attempts to project calm in front of her fellow royals.

Twilight gave a silent nod in affirmation.

Thus Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and Twilight formed themselves into a circle.

“Ready?” asked the noble Celestia.

“Wait!” shreked Twilight.

The other three ponies stared at her, clearly surprised by her outburst.

“Shouldn’t we inform the public about what is about to happen? Don’t they have a right to know what’s happening? We wouldn’t want to scare anyone by suddenly travelling through a wormhole without any forewarning!”

Celestia, growing impatient with Twilight’s delays, replied, “Twilight, I know you mean well, but there is no point in doing so. Informing the world would serve no purpose. No one except for us would be able to do anything productive with the information. Besides, it would merely result in mass hysteria in the general public.”

“But what if this is it?!” shouted Twilight, her eyes bugged with concern. “What if one of us messes up! I’d never have gotten to say goodbye to any of my friends!”

Twilight felt a surge of dread race through her body. The thought of her never being able to see the faces of Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Spike, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, or even her former enemy turned friend Starlight Glimmer filled her with sadness.

Celestia sought to allay Twilight’s concern, “Twilight, my dear. I understand your concern. However, if we do fail, which I am confident that we won’t, it would be better for your friends if they didn’t see their demise coming. Wouldn’t it be better for them to be able to enjoy their final moments free from the fearthat they are about to face a life and death situation that is beyond their control?”

“I suppose so,” replied Twilight dejectedly.

Looking across the circle to Cadence, her sister-in-law, Twilight felt a surge of emotion towards her former foalsitter. With tears beginning to form in her eyes, Twilight thanked her for “being the best wife I could have ever hoped that my brother could marry.” Now crying, she turned to Celestia, she began to thank her for all of the years of magic lessons and loving care that she had provided to her. However, Celestia cut her short.

“Twilight you have to get a hold of yourself. We are doomed to failure, if you cannot retain your composure. Only if you focus on the task ahead of you will we able to succeed.”

Twilight was taken aback by the sharpness of her idol’s tone. However, Twilight knew that she was right. She began to stammer out an apology when Luna suddenly embraced her.

Speaking in her deep, yet smooth tone, Luna said, “Twilight, in the time that I have known you I have seen you perform tasks and feats that not even I could dream of doing. Your magic is so powerful, that you were able to defeat me when you were a mere novice. You have no reason to fear. We will be with you throughout this entire spell. May the gods grace us with victory.”

Returning to her place, Twilight took a moment to send forth a prayer to the gods of the Equestrians and to compose herself. Turning to Celestia, she informed the Princess that she was finally ready to begin the spell.

Lighting their horns up, the four alicorns concentrated their magic energy on a single point in the middle of their circle. According to Starswirl the Bearded, this concentration of energy would enable them to poke a hole in the space time continuum. Normally, this would be most ill-advised, given that it was how black holes were created. However, Celestia would be tasked with utilizing magic to prevent any matter from being ripped apart during the journey through the worm hole to the parallel universe. This would be instrumental in determining the success or the lethal failure of this spell.

Suddenly the world went pitch black for the four Princesses. The only thing that they would see was the outlines of each others bodies Had they failed? They weren’t sure but continued to labour, performing magic that nopony had ever performed before.

Out of the void appeared a miniscule point of light, no larger than a dot at the end of a sentence. This light at the end of a proverbial (or perhaps literal) tunnel gave them hope as well as a sense of dread at what was in store for them. Gradually, the light approached them, until the white light refracted around them, exposing them to the most diverse set of colors they had ever seen.

Twilight felt as if she was weightless. However, she remained firmly in place, focusing on maintaining her energy input into the spell, ignoring the rapid fluctuations between hot and cold that she and the other three alicorn Princesses were feeling as they traveled through the Infinite.

After what felt like an eternity maintaining the spell, she felt an odd sense of inner peace flow through her. Casting the spell no longer felt like a burden nor a strain. She felt as though she could live in this place between worlds for ever.

Suddenly, Twilight felt an excruciating pain shoot through her entire body, unlike anything that she could have ever imagined. The blissful inner peace was replaced with an excruciating rush of terror and dread. The bright array of colours was replaced by the darkest void that she had ever seen in her life.

Then she lost consciousness.