BiE 39: Breakthrough.


                                            =BiE 39=


                                            >"Have we tried maybe sapping Discords powers? Making him not a threat?" you ask.

                                            >Twilight rubs her head "No, that won't work. Chaos is a state of something, we might as well try and change matter into anti-matter."

                                            >You sigh and put your head on the table.

                                            >You had been at this for hours, every idea anyp0ny had had to stop Discord had fallen through in some way.

                                            >You try to trap him in a cage? He would turn the cage into marshmallows or something.

                                            >You try to send him to another dimension using the portal spell that would have sent you home? Turns out chaos magic disrupts portals and could open up a black hole.

                                            >You try to stop time and just raid the cultist camp? Turns out that would collapse all of reality.

                                            >"Perhaps it is time we went onto more extreme options..." the head magister said.

                                            >Everyone at the table looked to him. "Discord is a creature of matter, if we can destroy that matter, we can destroy him."

                                            >Destroy matter.

                                            >This guy wanted to circumvent a fundamental law of the universe?

                                            >Would that even work?

                                            >"Isn't Discord basically a god in his own right? From the reports, he's able to alter matter on a sub-atomic level, couldn't he just reconstitute himself?" you say.

                                            >The head magister thinks for a moment before frowning is slumping back in his chair.

                                            >Crap. Nothing was working.

                                            >Your thoughts are interrupted. "Anon, Twilight, may I have a word with you?"

                                            >The two of you wheel around and spot Princess Celestia in the doorway.


                                            >"What is it Princess?" Twilight asks as you approach her.

                                            >Celestia was still wearing her serious face."I came to see what progress had been made"

                                            >You sigh. "Not much Princess. It seems that every countermeasure we can come up with would either fail or cause more damage than Discord would."

                                            >"We must hurry." she says. "The cult could summon Discord at any time."

                                            >That didn't sound good.

                                            >"Has something happened?" asked Twilight.

                                            >Celestia sighs. "A report came in from the magi we had stationed in the Zebra temple of Whoazambique. A group of raiders attacked them and made off with a precious artifact...they were lead by an unknown creature that walked on two legs."

                                            >Damn...

                                            >"What's the damage?"

                                            >"No fatalities, thank the stars. Any fighting was a delaying action for the raiders to make off with the artifact, nothing worse than a few head injuries and a non-fatal stab wound were reported."

                                            >Non-fatal?

                                            >That made no sense.

                                            >Was he with them or not?

                                            >What was his play here?


                                            >"It seems that Mous has become a threat. One we cannot ignore." Celestia said.

                                            >Hold the phone. "Huh? How? Mous may be a nut with a bunch of other nuts, but he's still just one guy."

                                            >"One guy who successfully lead a raid against both ourselves and our allies and will no doubt lead more in an attempt to summon Equestrias most dangerous enemy." Celestia corrected. You shrunk back.

                                            >"It is with that knowledge that I must declare Mous an Enemy of the Crown. Every guard in every city and fort will be informed, and his capture will be a priority."

                                            >Shit. "And...what if he can't be captured?" you ask.

                                            >Celestias face flickers. "Then we must use more permanent methods."

                                            >That hit hard.

                                            >They were talking about killing your bro.

                                            >And the worst part was that they weren't wrong.

                                            >You may have admitted that this would be the right thing to do if it came to it, but you were still coming to terms with that decision.

                                            >Celestia must have caught wind of your little crisis. "I am sorry." she said.

                                            >You looked up to her. Gone was the face of the stern monarch, it was replaced by one of sadness and guilt. "I know how close you two were. The only thing I can truly say about Mous from our handful of interactions is that he was truly one of a kind." You think you see a smile tug at her lips when she says that.

                                            >The Princess wordlessly steps out of the Arcanium.

                                            >You let out a deep sigh. "C'mon, let's get back to work..."


                                            >A few hours after Celestias visit and you all were still no closer to stopping Discord.

                                            >Everyone's spirits were down, you were laying your head against the table trying to come up with something.

                                            >You stared at the table, it amazed you that even magic could make something so flat.

                                            >Flat.

                                            >That Flatland movie you watched.

                                            >First, Second, and Third dimension.

                                            >...Fourth dimension.

                                            >Could that work?

                                            >"Guys." everyp0ny stares at you.

                                            >Your heart starts pumping as you work this out. "I have an idea!"

                                            >You rush to the blackboard and draw a shape. "Okay, who knows what this is?"

                                            >Twilight is the only one to raise her hand.

                                            >Typical. "Okay, this is a tesseract. It's a fourth dimensional analogue to the cube. My plan is simple in scope, a bit difficult in execution. What I want to do, is create a fourth dimensional prison and put Discord in it. Once he's inside, we toss the prison back into 4-D space and let him rot."

                                            >The mages mouths grow to grins as your idea starts them on their own.

                                            >"We can use spacial magic to mold a cube into a tesseract!" one said

                                            >"We're going to need power, someone set up some arcane batteries for a test run!" shouted another.

                                            >"I'll start drawing out the proper glyphs and mana lines!" said one as he ran off.

                                            >Twilight trotted up to you and smiled."See? I told you it wasn't a fluke."


                                            >You made your way back to your tower room.

                                            >Everything was coming together for the tesseract prison, they were finishing the runes and running strength tests now.

                                            >It was earlier then the night before, so you were all set to complain to Rainbow about these damn stairs you had to climb.

                                            >Or would have been if you didn't spot her eating at the table alone. "Hey you, why the long face?"

                                            >She turns to look at you and smiles. "Oh, hey Anon. I was just...eating dinner."

                                            >"Alone? In our room? You know there's a dining room, right?" you take a seat next to her.

                                            >"Hehe...yeah, I know." she says. "It's just...well, were gonna go up against Discord soon, and I didn't exactly pull off a stellar performance the last time he showed up."

                                            >Twilight had told you what had happened, ditching her friends and running. You didn't have to be dating Rainbow to know that she'd take that rough. "So, I've been eating up here, ya know? Just...trying to not think about what happened last time." she looked on edge.

                                            >"Hey." you say. ""How bout we have dinner here together? Just you and me?"

                                            >Rainbow gets a big warm smile. "Yeah..." she says.

                                            >Dinner was nice and gave way to bed, which gave way to the two of you working off dinner, which gave way to actually trying to go to sleep.

                                            >You tossed and turned. This entire thing had a very 'last day alive' feel to it...

                                            >Last meal.

                                            >Last night together.

                                            >Tomorrow you would accompany the guard and try to put down Trixie's cult.

                                            >And the entire thing hinged on a theory that you came up with by staring at a table.

                                            >Could you do it?

                                            >You ran your hand through Rainbow's mane.

                                            >Yeah.

                                            >You had to.