Night seemed to fall quickly upon the land. While groups of refugees were comfortable with knowing that the lack of sunlight would diminish the titan threat for now, they were still far from happy leaving their homes and towns and quite possibly begin their experience for the end of the human race.

The land between the inner district and Wall Sina was very tranquil at night, in spite of the chaos happening outside. It provided a defusing of tension for a certain group of Scouting Legion soldiers crossing from Stohess to Hermiha.

Leading the party was Erwin, who was followed on both sides by Auruo and Petra. A cart followed them with Eren, Mikasa, and Armin on one side and Hanji, Levi, and Pastor Nick on the other. Another cart followed them, which had Spike, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Jean on one side with Rainbow Dash and Applejack in the other, a still unconscious Annie in between them.

“What…” wondered Armin. “What are we supposed to do now? Now that Wall Rose is breached, what can we do? Even if we get back to HQ, it will be far too late. And why did we bring one of those priests from that cult here?”

“That?” Hanji questioned, playfully patting Nick on the shoulder. “We and Nick are pals now, okay?”

Neither Eren, Armin, nor Mikasa was in the mood to react.

“He knew about the titans in the wall,” she explained, returning to her serious demeanor, “but he decided to keep this fact a secret from us. I don’t know why, but he’s adamant of keeping silent about it, even if meant his life. Apparently, he and his sect know about the titans too.”

Eren’s brow furrowed, enraged by this fact.

“Huh!?” he shouted, standing over Nick. “What the hell–”

Eren felt his leg cramp and he sat back down, being comforted by Mikasa and Armin.

“Relax,” Mikasa said. “You’re still tired from your last transformation.”

“I was going to ask some other cult members,” Hanji explained, “but Nick chose to come on his own. However, despite all that’s happened, he says he’s unsure if he wants to talk, so he wants to see how bad things really are.”

“Why?” Eren asked to Nick. “If you know something, please, just tell us. Your answer can help save humanity.”

As Nick kept silent, Hanji looked to Nick, observing him thoroughly.

“I was thinking about it,” Hanji said, “but Nick actually comes across as an upstanding person. That’s why I think that maybe… just maybe, that there’s a cause more important than the survival of the human race.”

As Twilight and the other ponies watched the scene from their cart, Fluttershy took a glance at Annie and saw her body stir, her eyes slowly coming open.

“Um, Twilight?” Fluttershy squeaked.

Twilight and Jean looked to Annie to see her waking up. Rainbow Dash and Applejack feeling tense as the controller of the Female Titan woke up in front of them. Annie began to adjust to her surroundings, looking to see that she was in the cart. Looking up, her eyes shot open as she found Twilight and Spike staring daggers at her.

Annie tried to push off the cart and jump over the edge, only to hear the rattling of chains and feeling stuck to her seat. Looking back down, she saw as her hands were placed behind her back, her hands bound together. Her legs were also chained together and hooked to the floor of the cart. Lastly, a brace was kept around her stomach, preventing any movement of any kind.

Annie then brought her hands together behind her back, looking for her ring. A clearing throat brought Annie’s attention to Twilight, who held a silver ring with her magic.

“Looking for this?” asked Twilight.

Annie still felt confident, sticking her tongue slightly out and biting. However she felt a painful tingle as she clamped down, ending her bite.

“About that,” asked Twilight, “as we were detaining you, I asked Celestia for some spells one would give a prisoner. That’s a special kind of shield spell that makes it so a pony can’t bite their tongue out so they can’t talk or give information. I suppose it works well for your case too. And I also performed the spell on your lips and cheeks too, so don’t bother.”

Annie could tell by Twilight’s face that she was serious. Becoming frightened, there was only one last thing she could do that she hoped Twilight didn’t think of. Her hands still touching each other, Annie dug her thumbnail into her palm, expecting to transform as she felt it pierce the skin. Twilight could tell what was happening, but squinted on Annie’s arms, wondering what would happen.

Annie was shocked to see that she wasn’t transforming. Even as she twisted her thumb and pressed it into her hand, she couldn’t transform. Twilight took a sigh of relief, happy to see that the so-called Jaeger Serum was a success. Annie, realizing that she was powerless, began to scream in anguish, knowing that there was nothing else she could do to escape. Rainbow Dash smacked her hard in the mouth, silencing her and letting her catch her breath.

“Hey,” Levi called, “pipe down. You’re damaging my ears.”

Annie looked to Twilight like a trapped animal. Twilight was not prepared for this kind of a reaction, especially from a cold-blooded killer like Annie.

“You’re wondering why you can’t transform, aren’t you?”

“What have you done?” she yelled. “What’s happened to me?”

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Twilight said, her face as close to Annie’s as the latter’s restrains could hold her back. “You’re going to answer my questions honestly and truthfully. I’m in no mood for lying. Many of my friends are dead and wounded because of you and now humanity is being pushed further back due to the breach of Wall Rose. Do not… test me. Now, who are you working for.”

Annie nervously looked to Pastor Nick in the next cart up. With a solemn face, Nick slowly shook his head. Annie turned back to Twilight and didn’t say a word. Twilight and Annie continued to look at each other intently while Rainbow Dash looked at Annie’s arms. They were trembling.

“Look at this,” Rainbow Dash said. “The fearsome Female Titan is shaking like a leaf.”

“So you’re scared, huh?” Twilight asked Annie. “You very well should be. Your actions over the past few days could very well get you executed.”

“I’m going to die either way,” Annie quivered, her eyes glistening with frightened tears. “How’s talking to you going to help my case?”

Twilight could clearly see that Annie was truly frightened, and not just because she got caught. Twilight could sense that there was a reason to her anxiety that mattered even more to her than her life.

“Just forget about her,” Jean sighed, leaning back in his seat. “Once we get back to headquarters, we can torture her properly. But I guess she’s right about one thing: She’s going to die either way.”

After knowing what Annie did to Twilight and her friends, she certainly wouldn’t mind seeing her executed, but deep down, she not only knew that killing her wouldn’t just solve nothing, but it would be against everything she was ever taught. Even if she couldn’t avoid Annie’s sentence, she could at least try to get something out of her.

“Why are you being so resilient?” Twilight asked. “Don’t you care about what happens to your species?”

“Our species is doomed,” Annie stated. “With or without you and your friends’ help, humanity will crumble.”

“Annie…” Nick silently warned.

“You shut your mouth,” Levi said, pulling a smoke pistol from his jacket and pressing the end of the barrel into Nick’s ribs.

“What makes you so sure about that?” Twilight continued. “We’ve already developed an antidote that will wipe out titans more efficiently than any blade ever has.”

“You still don’t get it, do you?” Annie quietly responded, her voice full of genuine sadness.

The ponies, Spike, and Jean leaned in closer to hear Annie explain herself.

“What do you think you’ll be able to accomplish if you even manage to wipe out all of the titans? Just for things to go back to the way they used to be?”

“Annie…” sighed Twilight.

“Tell me, Twilight, how many wars have there been where you’re from? Better yet, when did the last war on your world take place?”

Twilight was genuinely caught off guard by this answer, sitting back in her seat as she tried to give Annie an answer.

“Hey, what’s this?” Rainbow Dash asked with a sneer. “Twilight’s doing the asking, bitch, now start answering.”

“Rainbow Dash,” hushed Twilight, “stay down. I’ve got this.”

Rainbow Dash slumped back down, but kept her eyes on Twilight, wondering what she planned to do with Annie and vice-versa.

“However,” Twilight said, “my friend is right. I have no obligation to answer to you. I can’t even imagine why you’d ask such a question. Why would wars on our world be relevant to you?”

Annie sat back in her seat, getting as comfortable as she could so she could answer Twilight’s question.

“It was apparent since you first arrived here that none of you were hardened for war like many of us. I can only imagine how you must have reacted to when you first saw a human get eaten.”

Annie darted her eyes about the cart, being able to see that every pony and Spike, by reflex, cringed at the memory. Nick was becoming worried about Annie giving up too much.

“Annie,” he pleaded, “don’t tel–”

“I said, ‘quiet,’ old man,” Levi threatened, pushing the gun further into Nick’s side.

“I see…” Annie speculated. “It must be nice where you come from; to be so far away from such violence that you can be so repulsed by the mere sight of it. I wonder what else is different over there. Do your kind try blasting the so called ‘freaks’ by cannon-fire, or do they coexist with one another peacefully? Do the highest-ranked soldiers and guards get to lie around all day, drinking and smoking, or do they live to protect and serve the citizens and the crown like they were trained to?”

Twilight was slowly becoming moved by Annie’s speech. Strangely enough, even Rainbow Dash and Applejack were gravitating towards Annie; everything she said was the truth, after all. Armin and Mikasa could see the ponies feeling compelled by Annie’s words, becoming nervous for them.

“Guys,” called Armin, “she’s trying to trick you. Don’t–”

“No, Armin,” Twilight interrupted. “Annie’s right. Our kind does treat each other far better than humans do. The ponies, especially the Royal Guard, do their fair share of work for the community.”

“And all we wish to is to return humanity to that place,” Annie explained. “To weed out the useless and the weak so the virtuous and the strong can live the way humans are supposed to live.”

“So that’s your plan?” Twilight asked incredulously. “To wipe out the human race while saving only a select few for some… master race?”

“…You can say that.”

Nick gulped, knowing that talking further would get him shot. The other humans in the cart were just as surprised, but for different reasons.

“So that’s the reason?” Hanji breathed.

“Annie,” gasped Eren, surprised by the revelation, “so that’s why you killed all those people? Because they had to be killed?”

Annie didn’t answer, instead only bowing her head down.

“You bitch!” shouted Eren, standing up.

“Eren!” Mikasa warned, trying to pull him back to his seat.

“Why? They were good people! They were our friends and you murdered them like animals!”

Annie turned to Eren, looking at him sincerely.

“They very well may have been good people,” she said, “but if they were to know what we were doing, they would never agree to it. Even when you wanted to use your titan powers to help humanity, you barely escaped a death sentence two times. What chance would I or my other warriors have by telling them we were using our powers to save humanity by destroying it?”

“How does that make any sense? How can you be for saving humans by killing them?”

“Eren, those people at your trial, including that pastor in front of you… the ones that wanted to see you killed. The ones that wanted to see Mikasa killed merely because she defended herself as a child. Don’t you think the world would be a better place without them?”

Eren cringed, knowing that his feelings about them were less than savory and that he would indeed love to see those people taken away from the world.

“Or what about those Military Police? The ones that spend taxpayer money to gamble, get drunk, and abuse their privileges? Wouldn’t you like to see them go?”

Eren struggled to give Annie an answer, either lie to her and to himself, or tell her the truth and prove her right.

“But enough to kill them all?” asked Twilight, surprising Eren. “Yes, the things those people did were unfair and lacked proper judgment, but you can’t massacre an entire species because of a few people!”

“One bad apple spoils the bunch, I suppose,” Annie sighed, becoming tired of having to brawl with Twilight’s intellect.

“Let’s not forget, while the acts of those people you mentioned were awful, but don’t you think they’d act more rationally if the one thing that could kill them wasn’t breathing down their necks?”

“Are you suggesting that humans were peaceful creatures before the titans arrived?”

“I’m not suggesting anything. The commander of the Garrison told me the state of this world before the titans appeared.”

“And how all humans united against their new enemy, right? And how far has it gotten them? They continue to lie, cheat, steal, and attack one another. If Pixis was right about one thing, it’s that it won’t be the titans that kill off the humans; it will be themselves.”

Twilight took time for her next response. If she was going to warm up to Annie even more to get more information, as well as extinguish their unwinnable argument, she’d have to carefully speak the next time.

“My friends and I are doing our best,” she said.

“Your friends?” Annie scoffed. “Sure, your help has led to the recapture of Trost, my arrest, and even spared the lives of several soldiers, but how do you think you’ve improved humanity in any way?”

“You know, Annie,” Jean spoke up, “before the battle of Trost, I was set on joining the Military Police. I was going to live my life comfortably away from the titans and be free from them. It wasn’t until Fluttershy came in and put her trust and kindness into me that I knew that I couldn’t let the good in life be ruined by them.”

As if by instinct, Fluttershy caringly placed her hoof on Jean’s thigh.

“Conny and Sasha believed the same thing,” Jean continued. “You were even there when he said that he wouldn’t die if he was ordered to. And we all know how deathly afraid Sasha is of the titans. Now they’re both in the Scouting Legion, and all because of the friends they’ve made in these ponies.”

“Jean’s right,” Twilight said, happy to hear the point being made. “If cowards like Conny, Sasha, or Jean…”

“Hey!” shouted Jean.

“…can risk their lives by joining the Scouting Legion, just think of who else we might have changed for the better by being here.”

Annie rolled her eyes, feeling like the same point was being hammered into her again and again.

“If there’s anyone else,” Annie said, “show them to me, because everywhere I go, I see death, misery, and despair. And that cure of yours isn’t going to solve anything. If you do manage to wipe the titans out with that, everything will go back the way it used to.”

“You don’t know that. Nothing ever goes completely according to the plan. How do you think we were able to merely cure you of your titan abilities as opposed to killing you right there?”

Annie, for the first time, perked her head up, interested to hear Twilight’s answer. Hanji was also surprised to see Twilight get that much out of her.

“You mean…” Annie muttered, “the antidote was an accident?”

“It wasn’t necessarily an accident,” Twilight answered. “It was just nature taking its course…”
________________________________________________________________________________________

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Eren screamed through the wooden peg he was biting.

As Rainbow Dash hugged him down to his seat, Eren’s right elbow and wrist was bolted to the table as Twilight dissected through the muscle inside Eren’s arm with a decently-sized pair of tweezers and a scalpel. Hanji sat in front of Eren, giving him various motivational praises to fight through the pain. The flayed skin was parted to the side and layers of muscle were draped over different parts of Eren’s arm as Twilight dug deeper.

Eren grunted and panted like a terrified dog as his arm burned in pain. As Twilight got nearer to the bone, the broad edge of her scalpel brushed against a white strand that ran along his arm, forcing Eren to scream in agony once again, nearly letting go of the peg.

“That must be the nerve!” Hanji exclaimed.

“Right,” confirmed Twilight. “Now, Eren, this part is going to be the worst. You’re going to feel a tremendous pain in your arm, and then you should feel almost nothing from the bottom of your forearm and hand… that is until your arm heals and you grow another nerve.”

The sheer amount of talk about feeling “tremendous pain” was putting Eren on edge.

“It’s okay, Eren,” Rainbow Dash supported. “We’ll do it on the count of three, okay?”

Eren gave frantic nods, wanting to be done with it as soon as possible.

“Alright,” Twilight stated, putting the blade of the scalpel underneath the end of the nerve closest to Eren’s shoulder. “On the count of three. Ready?”

Eren nodded.

“One…” Rainbow Dash counted.

Twilight immediately flicked the scalpel up, snipping the nerved from Eren’s arm. Eren grunted in a shrill falsetto, his biting of the wood barely even making up for the pain he felt. Rainbow Dash felt horrified and betrayed as Twilight cut the other end of the nerve, giving her the single white strand of Eren’s nerve.

“Twilight!” shouted Rainbow Dash. “You said on three!”

“You never go on three. The more you expect pain, the more painful it is.”

Rainbow Dash took a frustrated sigh as Hanji unscrewed the bolts holding Eren’s arm down. Once his arm was freed, Eren pulled the arm off the table and let it hang to his side. Eren wanted to close his hand into a fist, but his cut up muscles refused for him to do so. Eren let out a couple of sobs, having despised the experience.

“It’s okay, dude,” Rainbow Dash whispered, patting Eren’s other shoulder. “It’s over now.”

“Yes,” Hanji said, cutting the nerve and placing them in between glass slides, “we’re very sorry about that Eren, but hopefully your arm should heal up again in no time. Just try not to concentrate on doing anything. We don’t want another incident, right?”

“Uh…” stammered Eren, still alert from the pain in his arm, “no, ma’am!”

“Great. Rainbow Dash. Take Eren back to the cellar until his arm heals and keep him company.”

“Can do.”

“Thank you. I’ll see you both in the morning then.”

“Okay then. Goodnight, Hanji!”

Eren and Rainbow Dash exited the room, leaving Twilight and Hanji alone to work. As Hanji prepared the last of the slides, Twilight pulled a large, state-of-the-art microscope from under the table.

“Whoa!” Hanji exclaimed. “Where did you get that?”

“It’s my own from home. I knew it would come in handy. It’s got magical adjustment knobs, so it can detect even the smallest of most cells.”

“Let’s waste no time then,” Hanji said, acquiring the first of the slides.

Hanji delicately handed Twilight the slides like she would present a carrot to a horse. Twilight took the slides and placed them on the stage and held them down with the clips. Turning on the illuminator beneath the stage, Twilight could now get a perfect look at the nerve.

As Twilight adjusted the slide around, Hanji dipped and shot up every so often and walked around to the other side, desperately wanting to try Twilight’s toy. Once Twilight acquired a decent handle on her sample, she adjusted the fine and coarse adjustments to get the right image that she needed.

“What do you see so far?” asked Hanji.

“I’m not sure yet,” Twilight said, “but since the trigger for Eren’s titan transformation is in his nervous system, we need to check here. Right now, I’m merely looking for any major differences between an earth pony’s nerve fibers and a human’s, seeing as I can’t get another human to give me a nerve of their own.”

“I suppose,” Hanji responded, gently leaning her rump against the table.

Twilight observed and Hanji dawdled in silence for a few moments. Hanji yawned, wondering how far Eren’s arm had healed by then. Hanji then heard a creaking of Twilight’s stool from the back. She turned to see Twilight leaned slightly back and aghast, having clearly discovered something.

“Hanji,” Twilight said, unaware that she was paying attention, “you’re going to want to see this.”

Hanji nearly pushed Twilight off of her seat to lean over and peer into the lens. Hanji could see the various parts of the nerve and the blood cells still left from the dissection. However, there was one cell that Hanji saw as strange. It appeared to be a cluster of different cells in different colors, like red, white, and a dark-orange.

“What are these?” Hanji asked. “I’ve never seen cells quite like this before.”

“I’m not sure myself,” Twilight said, “but this looks to be our best lead. Let’s get to work.”

Hanji moved herself from Twilight’s chair and motioned for the pony to sit back down.

“Thank you,” Twilight said. “Now, let’s see what these cells are made of.”

Twilight begun turning the adjustments once again, magnifying the cells even further. Twilight was already flustering herself with her finds, leaving Hanji to wonder just what she was looking at.

“Twilight?” she asked. “What’s happening?”

“I’m not sure how this is possible,” Twilight explained, “but I’m looking at all the various pieces of this cell, but the thing is it’s not just a cell… it looks to be a collection of them.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“The different parts of this cluster are all made up of cells that exist in most mammals. Just look.”

Twilight scooted back for Hanji to look through the lens so she could know what Twilight was talking about. Hanji wasn’t sure what to see from this, but she was immensely intrigued by it, having never seen bodily cells this close before.

“Red blood cells,” listed Twilight, “calcium from bones, amino acids for muscle. This is just a hypothesis so far, but I believe these cells are what create Eren’s titan body.”

“What makes you think that?” asked Hanji, still deep in her own study.

“None of Eren’s blood samples contained any of these cells, but here we find these in Eren’s nerve fibers. If Eren’s transformation is triggered through his nervous system, these must be what creates his body in such little time.”

“Very good, Twilight. However, I don’t think we can really inflict pain on a dissected nerve.”

“You’re right. We’ll just have to stimulate it.”

“Huh? How are we going to do that?”

Twilight produced a small spark from her horn and gave Hanji a smiling wink.
________________________________________________________________________________________

As night crept in, Hanji continued to observe the nerve through the microscope as Twilight levitated a metal wire that was wrapped around her horn towards the nerve on the microscope’s stand. With a careful prod, the wire zapped the nerve.

Through the lens, Hanji watched with breathless excitement as each of the bits of the cell compounds shot out in seemingly all directions. After a few seconds, the compounds reconvened back into their original forms.

“What do you see?” asked Twilight.

“The T-cells are bouncing in all directions,” Hanji recounted, “but they reform afterwards. I think the cells are trying to find other tissues to connect to.”

“And because my magic is stimulating the nerve, I’m also giving myself a ‘purpose’ to allow the T-cells to react.”

“I see. Do you mind if I ask what this ‘purpose’ of yours is?”

Twilight took a bit to answer, unsure if she was ready to betray her feelings, but Twilight knew she could trust Hanji with her life.

“My friends and family back home,” Twilight said with a slight frown. “I’ve got many friends in Ponyville, my mom and dad in Canterlot, and I have my brother and sister-in-law in the Crystal Empire.”

“The Crystal Empire?” Hanji asked. “I don’t remember seeing that in that book you lent me.”

“That’s right. The Crystal Empire had previously disappeared when its previous ruler, a tyrant by the name of Sombra, cursed it before he was dethroned.”

“Incredible!”

“Yeah,” Twilight reluctantly admitted, “it is. It’s just, I don’t know if when we go on our first mission in two weeks, I’ll be alive to see them again.”

Hanji took her eyes of the lens to see that Twilight’s head was bowed and her eyes began to water. Hating to see her colleague so down in the dumps, Hanji knelt down to her level and placed her hands on both shoulders.

“Listen,” Hanji said, “Celestia knows how hard you and your been working to try and help us. I don’t know if your friends and family there know that, but if they did, I’m sure they’d be very proud of you.”

Twilight wiped her eyes with her hooves and gave Hanji a still tearful smile.

“Thank you, Hanji,” she sighed.

“Come on,” Hanji encouraged, standing up while moving her hand to the back of Twilight’s neck while removing the wire with the other. “It’s getting late. We should be going to bed.”

“But what about our studies?”

“We still have tomorrow. Besides, I wonder if you still have time to send Celestia a letter before she goes to sleep as well.”

“Yeah… I suppose you’re right.”

With a charge of her horn, a gust of wind appeared in the room and blew out the torches. With the room cloaked in darkness, Hanji and Twilight left the room, closing the door behind them.
________________________________________________________________________________________

At breakfast in the mess hall, Twilight walked to a table where her other friends were eating. On the tray she held, there was a bowl of hot oatmeal and another one of Applejack’s apples from the yard outside. As Twilight sat down with and engaged in chit-chat with Rainbow Dash and Spike, Eren sat up from his table where Mikasa and Armin were and walked towards Twilight and her friends.

“Eren!” Mikasa quietly called.

Eren ignored Mikasa as he approached Twilight.

“Hey, Eren!” Rainbow Dash called. “How’s your arm?”

“It’s fine now,” he answered, “thanks for asking.”

“But what happened to your arm?” Rarity inquired.

“Hanji and I had to cut it up to get a certain body part from him to experiment on,” Twilight responded

“Oh, how ghastly! I do hope you two have made progress.”

“Well,” Eren interrupted, “about the experiments, are we doing anymore? At least… any that involves cutting my arm up anymore?”

Twilight turned to look Eren dead in the eyes, wanting to be honest and frank about it with him.

“To be perfectly honest…” Twilight answered.
________________________________________________________________________________________

Rainbow Dash hugged Eren once again as Eren’s arm was bolted down and his pinkie was extended out. Hanji had a small fragment from a blade placed upon Eren’s pinkie while she took aim with a wooden hammer. Eren’s teeth were once again clenching tight to the wooden peg. With a forceful thrust, Hanji brought the hammer upon the blade, chopping Eren’s pinkie off his hand.

“GHHHHH!” Eren grunted as more tears escaped his eyes.

Twilight was ready with a towel as she wrapped Eren’s bleeding hand with it. Rainbow escorted Eren to the side of the room as Hanji cleaned the blood from the lobbed pinkie.

“Now, Eren,” requested Hanji, “would you like to see if this next experiment works? I mean, you gave your pinkie to do so.”

Eren looked at Hanji with hallowed eyes. If what they were working on needed this extensive use of him, Eren wasn’t going to pass it up. He nodded and stood against the wall to watch with Rainbow Dash.

“Excellent.” Hanji stated, slipping the nerve into the finger with tweezers. “If this does indeed work, we’re all going to need to stand back. Twilight?”

“Right!” she exclaimed, wrapping an extended wire on her horn.

Hanji delicately laid the finger on the table. She then grabbed Twilight’s microscope and scooted to the back of the wall with Twilight.

“Twilight,” Hanji said, “whenever you’re ready.”

Twilight mildly charged her horn, the aura also covering the wire. As Twilight stretched the end of the wire towards the nerve in the pinkie, Eren and Rainbow Dash pressed back towards the wall and turned away. Hanji looked determinably at the pinkie awaiting the experiment’s success. Twilight’s wire was dangling just mere centimeters from the nerve. With a final gulp Twilight brought the wire upon the nerve.

The pinkie immediately began to glow yellow, exciting Hanji beyond measure. Suddenly, a burst of steam erupted inside the room, shrouding everything inside with hot moisture.

“So hot!” Eren yelled.

As the steam began to dissipate, Hanji wiped her glasses as best as she could. Twilight opened the door, letting much more of the vapor out and clearing the air even faster. Hanji, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight were all shocked to see that in the place of the pinkie, a titan-sized hand and a portion of its wrist lying on the now broken table. It was merely comprised of muscle and had bone exposed upon it.

“It worked!” Hanji exclaimed, jumping into the air. “The T-cells really did cause the transformation.”

“Huh?” questioned Eren. “T-cells?”

“Eren,” Twilight explained, “cells are what make up the entirety of our bodies. However, there are cells, which we have called ‘titan cells,’ or T-cells for short, inside your nervous system that are made up of various cells in a human body that when triggered with pain, they turn into your titan form.”

Eren cocked his head, unsure of what to make of Twilight’s lecture.

“Uh, Twilight?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Could you please translate that to Equestrian?”

“Okay,” groaned Twilight, “there are little tiny things in your body that cause you to turn into a titan, alright?”

Eren looked over to see that the arm was decomposing and fast.

“Huh?” he wondered. “Why is it deteriorating so quickly?”

“Because it doesn’t have a host to stabilize it,” Twilight answered. “From this, I can assume that the T-cells are extremely volatile and much weaker than human cells, which can explain why they evaporate when the titan is killed or in your case, doesn’t have a host to maintain it, much like when you pulled your arm out of the titan during the spoon incident.”

“Will this mean that…” Hanji begun, but continued to look at the arm and wait for the answer.

Once the arm fully decomposed, the only thing left on the floor was the same pinkie with the nerve lying about a foot away from the appendage. Twilight brought out her microscope again and walked it back to the nerve. As she tried picking the nerve up, she found the finger dangling from the pinkie. As she tried to pull it out of the finger, Twilight gasped to see the nerve melded back into the nerve ending inside the finger.

“These things will never cease to impress me,” Twilight spoke under hear breath.

Twilight plucked the nerve from Eren’s pinkie and gathered two glass slides from the side of the room, placing the nerve right in between. She quickly slipped the slides underneath the clips on the stage and took a look. As Twilight twisted the adjustments, she looked to find anything different. The others were unable to see or know what Twilight was looking at, so they leaned in, awaiting an answer. Finally, Twilight turned around, looking at Hanji.

“The T-cells are gone,” Twilight stated.

“What?” Hanji exclaimed, running to the microscope and sliding on her knees towards it, hunching back over with her eye on the lens.

“I suppose when the T-cells have a human body to connect to, they make substitutes for human body parts, which is what creates the muscle, bone, and skin of the titan. These T-cells must also be what regenerates your human body when you get injured, Eren.”

Eren gasped, feeling as if much more of his abilities were making sense.

“And it’s clear that T-cells are very volatile, which is why your titan body can form so quickly and decompose once you exit it.”

“But why aren’t there any more ‘T-cells’ or whatever in the arm?” asked Rainbow Dash. “What does that even mean?”

“It means that the T-cells must come from the central nervous system and don’t return to the body after the host leaves. This might make a cure much more difficult, though, as it means it will need to be applied into the part of your body that actually makes it function.”

“A cure? You mean for my abilities?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. “What’s this cure going to do to Eren? It’s not gonna’ kill him, is it?”

“We weren’t going to do anything to Eren,” assured Hanji, getting back up to face the nervous pegasus. “And yes, when we do make this antidote, we’re going to do our best to develop one that will efficiently destroy T-cells while leaving the rest of your body intact. This way, if at any time you wish to remove these powers, we can do so without killing you in the process.”

“Will that require any more of my help?” asked Eren squeamishly.

“Aside from a small blood sample now and then,” Twilight replied, “we shouldn’t need you any longer. We have plenty of your nerve with T-cells on it to do our tests. But right now, we need to develop an antidote; one that’s strong enough to destroy the T-cells, but weak enough to not kill a human.”

“Are we done?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Yes, Rainbow. You can send Eren back to bed.

Rainbow Dash pulled the door open with her teeth and rubbed Eren’s leg with her tail to get his attention.

“Come on, dude,” she said. “Let’s go.”

Eren followed Rainbow Dash down the hall to his bedroom, leaving Hanji and Twilight in the room to clean up the broken table.