"Your highness, it is time to raise the sun," spoke a voice from the door. Celestia slowly opened her eyes as she returned from her slumber. The Princess rose and stretched with a massive yawn, many joints popping into their proper position.
"Thank you, Raven," she nodded to her secretary as she rose. Raven smiled, entering to place some documents on Celestia's desk. "Did Luna ever come up from the archives?"
"Not that I'm aware of," the mare sighed, "We cancelled night court, which caused some problems for the citizens. Day court is still closed as well, after all." Celestia did not respond with more than a slight grunt as she head to her balcony. Raven followed closely behind.
"Is everything alright, your highness? I overheard your conversation with the Bearers of Harmony, but I'm not sure I fully understand the situation." Celestia stared blankly into the early morning sky, grabbing hold of the sun and moon and let their motions follow through.
As the sun rose to its morning position, she turned to Raven. "All should be fine by this afternoon. I've just been a bit distracted by something I was asking of Princess Twilight and her friends; as well as seeing Sunset Shimmer again." When Raven looked unsure, Celestia smiled in reassurance. "I will be holding day court at two o'clock sharp, and I'll be sure to get to the unsettled documents."
Raven glanced once more at Celestia and sighed. "Alright, Princess. I'll see you at day court." Celestia waved gently as Raven exited, a deep exhale leaving her as the door shut. She turned to don her regalia for the first time in days.
'Am I rushing Twilight and her friends?' Celestia thought, 'Terra is a big place and very hard to understand if not properly prepared. Even if Twilight were to do well due to her experience on Earth, the other five will be out of sorts.' Her thoughts turned to the issues of her request as she began her journey to the archives. 'Spike surely can't go as he would likely not be able to talk. Plus, Twilight would look insane talking to him. Then again, that is how it ended up on Earth, I'm sure…'
Celestia entered Starswirl's chambers not too long after descending the stairs. Much to her surprise, the only pony she found was Luna.
"Luna," Celestia spoke, startling the moon deity, "Where are the others?"
"I had them retreat to the guest chambers. Nopony should go without their sleep, especially on an issue this big," Luna said, making sure to berate Celestia for her previous choices. "We studied until nearly two in the morn, when Miss Rarity passed out."
Celestia giggled, "I suppose that is only fair. What about yourself? Surly night court was too important to skip out for this."
"I thought about it," Luna hummed, "but I decided that this was entirely new and possibly dangerous territory that Princess Twilight and her friends would be entering. I couldn't just let them go through with what little knowledge they had."
Princess Celestia nodded, "Then thank you, Luna. I'm sure they'll all greatly appreciate the gesture."
Luna smiled, "Of course, dear sister. Now come sit with us. I dare not read another word without company. Besides, this way, we can brief the entourage together."
The solar goddess chuckled and sat next to her sister, "As you wish, Luna."
Something seems incredibly…off about Terra. I would say that time seems to pass slower to the bipedal body, but when I pay close attention there, it isn't so. Yet, whenever I return there from a break in Equestria, only a fraction of the time I had spent on Equus shows on Terra. This phenomenon in particular was the experiment of choice for one of my shorter visits. From my observations, I think I've come to a possible solution.
I've stated in the past that Terra has almost no reception to magic on account of electronegativity being their equivalent to such a force. I don't believe this has anything to do with their connection, but perhaps their coalition. In theory, Terra moves slower than Equus, both in rotation and in orbit, however, thankfully, how much slower - as far as I've calculated - is on an almost perfect scale to Equus, rounding together at something like the eighty-second decimal place. This data is so small that it means that should the two worlds have always had the same time-flow, they would still be in sync; even after the nearly 15 billion years since the universes were created. Hmm, considering that the year here is 1034 and their year is 1928 though, that would mean they also had a massive head start. By that math, I'd say that Terra's universe came into existence 180 billion years ago by our time. That also means that the two worlds will have passed their time of sync during the 2000's. My calculations say that the worlds will sync up in the 2070's, but I have to account for the time that I, or any other creature, enter the world, so I left it at that approximate value.
Pardon, I digress. The theory I've made is that when the magic of an Equestrian creature is present on Terra, the planet's electronegativity mixes with the magic which causes a fluctuation in the dark matter surrounding the planet. This dark matter is connected to the sub-dimensional plain, and searches for the creature's/s' home dimension to match their universal time-flow. In terms of how vast the implications of this theory are, we got incredibly lucky that the numbers came out so cleanly.
Speaking of these numbers, it comes out to approximately 8.3*10^-85, which in laypony's terms is almost exactly 12 times slower than Equus' universal time-flow in a natural situation. Given that both Equus and Terra's primary species follow a clock divisible by 12, we got incredibly lucky.
My test to obtain this data was rather simple. After a routine visit of two months (see App. C), I came home for five days exactly. By note, I came back to Equus at nine o'clock sharp on Tuesday, August 24th, 1928 according to the human - notedly, American - calendar. Whence my five day retreat had passed, I returned to Terra. Upon gaining my bearings, I rushed to the nearest news stand to find that the date had not changed and not but ten hours had passed, it now being seven in the evening.
"That's intriguing," Luna said as she paused her reading.
"Hold on, Luna," Celestia paused her. The lunar goddess cut off her reading and waited for Celestia to continue. "Appendix C," she repeated, "says something about the 'routine visit' of two months. Starswirl was never one for tradition, especially of foreign origin, so this must be something important."
Luna nodded, agreeing mentally. She took note of where the table of contents were and flipped to the corresponding page for 'Appendix C.'
Oh boy, would Celestia be mad at me if she knew about this mirror's greatest limitation. It's a basic one, and I'd best keep it short so she doesn't come in and start reading over my shoulder.
The mirror, as I have stated previously, leads to the world I have deemed 'Terra.' Terra is a very weak planet when it comes to magic - having no magic at all, really. As such, the mirror portal being activated requires a lot of its innate magic. It can use some of Terra's electronegativity - which might be something for me to look into later - to recharge its magic, but it's a very slow process. The mirror is designed to be charged with magic on both sides, but having one end using electronegativity drastically botches that system. As such, as I found out after a very frightening first trip, it takes the mirror about two months to fully recharge off of the electromagnetic energy. Thankfully, however, because of this there are some special guidelines that are innate to Terra.
For starters, Terran creatures cannot, under any current circumstances, travel to Equus. I have not begun to think of a way to do such a thing - though I honestly have no interest in such a thing - so I shall leave it for some scholar far beyond my time whence Celestia has provided my works to the public.
Secondly, there is no specific return 'mirror' for going back to Equus. I have absolutely no understanding of this instance, but it does make returning home incredibly easy considering that Terra is a big place. I could easily return through a full-body mirror as easy as I could stick my hand through a small handheld mirror. It's like the statue outside of Canterlot University on Earth, but on a much wider scale.
Thirdly, as a counterpart to the second, there is no specific exit 'mirror.' I can say that there is a recurring theme on my exits, but I cannot find any pattern outside of it. Every single time I have exited the mirror, I have been within the country borders of 'The United States of America,' which sounds like a lovely name really. However, I've never returned to the same province twice, not in my limited number of trips. There are fifty of those states within the nation, but it seems to be random which one I end up in.
Celestia raised a hoof to her muzzle in an attempt to gather her thoughts. Luna looked to her sister in worry. "Sister, I know this must be upsetting - to know that Starswirl hid something from you-"
The solar goddess dismissed the idea, "It's no worry, Luna. It is honestly only fair that he did as I would have been upset about it. As well, I did hide a secret about the mirrors from him as well."
"Ah yes, Sombra's world," Luna mused, "Regardless, his studies did prove useful, did they not?"
"If for nothing less than scientific research, then yes, they were quite useful." Celestia looked to the mirror, a shimmer crossing over its surface. "But it has been nearly a thousand years since Starswirl died in that world. If his research is correct, then that means about eighty years have passed on Terra."
"And if he is wrong?" Luna asked as she stood, "What if an Equestrian creature lingering there, alive or not, causes the time-flow to equalize?"
Celestia thought for a moment, sweat forming on her brow. "Then they would be well into the 30th century by now." She shuddered, "One could only imagine how advanced they have become in that circumstance." She quickly dismissed the thought however, "I'm sure that it's fine though. Starswirl was likely to have test such a thing."
Celestia stood and Luna shared a glance with her. "Nevertheless," Luna began, "it would be best for us to get some breakfast. Today is a big day, even if it isn't for us."
