“Sparkle Industries is a cutting-edge corporation based in Canterlot, Equestria. Specializing in experimental technology, military hardware and magical research, this huge organization has bases all across the country, and is supposedly in charge of developing all the advanced technology that has transformed the Alliance into the most powerful nation in existence. However, its history has been plagued by allegations that it is in fact little more than multi-billion-bit laboratory that builds expensive toys for its founder and owner, the Fourth Alicorn Princess Twilight Sparkle, and that its benefit to Equestria as a whole is little more than a side-effect of serving the Princess. It would certainly be difficult for anyone to challenge her about it given her position of absolute authority in the Equestrian Monarchy, like it has been difficult for the Princess’ opponents to accuse her corporation of certain violations of ponies’ rights that are rumoured to have occurred within the walls of her mysterious facilities. While none of these violations have been fully confirmed to have occurred, there are an awful lot of them. One can only wonder...”

Sparkle Industries: an Analysis (book banned and all copies incinerated by Royal Authority)

Sparkle Industries Test Facility, 500 meters below Vanhoover, Equestria

Professor Acorn, a thin and fairly well-aged unicorn stallion, sat at the cramped little desk in his underground office, finishing a plan for a cybernetic foreleg he’d been working on in the past couple of weeks. He was wearing a simple shirt, a tie with a purple strawberry pattern and a standard white lab coat; his forelegs were resting on the flat surface, his horn glowed bright green as he telekinetically scribbled a pen back and forth and back and forth, and it had been a little while since he’d trimmed the fur hairs on his face back. Probably too long. Most of the ponies who worked at SI tended to look a little grizzled; it was just too easy to forget about looking after yourself when you were working for what was basically an evil corporation.

Well, maybe not exactly evil, but Acorn knew as well as any other employee that they weren’t exactly making medicines and hospital beds at Industries.

Then, the buzzer sounded on his desk. He glanced over at it. Odd, Acorn thought to himself. It’s eleven thirty at night. I should be the only one doing anything around here, other than the security guys, I guess.

He put the pen down, reached a hoof over, and pressed the buzzer.

“Professor Acorn,” he announced loudly at the mike on his desk.

“Professor!” an exhausted-sounding voice replied. It was Bread Basket, his personal assistant, a young Earth pony with a bad habit of dropping things. He should have gone home ten minutes ago, but for some reason he hadn’t. “It’s Bread. We have a situation!”

“What’s wrong, Big B,” Acorn replied.

“It’s the Princess!” Bread Basket exclaimed. “She’ll be here in ten minutes, for a surprise inspection of the Project 13! She just directly called me herself, and, uh…”

Bread Basket’s voice trailed off.

“She insisted?” the Professor asked.

“…yeah,” Bread confirmed. “It was…scary, Sir. She’s scary.”

“I know, Bread, I know,” the Professor said. “But, don’t worry, I’ll be right over to walk her through it myself. With a bit of luck, you won’t have to say a single word, but unfortunately as my assistant you will have you actually be there.”

“Thanks, Sir,” Bread said gratefully. How long will you be?”

“I’ll be at the entrance in five minutes,” Acorn replied, opening a drawer with his horn magic and telekinetically lifting out an old electric razor, which he flicked on and started to run up and down his chin. “And, Bread, if you get the chance, comb your mane, redo your tie and, also, if you have any psychic protection devices lying around, remember to put one on.”

“Will she…try to read my mind?” Bread asked nervously.

“No, not even Alicorns can just do that, and to be quite honest, she probably wouldn’t care about what’s going on in your head even if she could,” Acorn replied, putting down the razor for a moment. “But, she’s an Alicorn, remember? And she’s a young one, too. If we hooked her into the power grid she’d probably be able to light up Canterlot without breaking a sweat, and of course, I never said that, okay? Anyway, once, I saw Professor Humbug stand a little too close to her while she sneezed. Poor bastard; it was a mess.”

“The sneeze?” Bread asked.

“No, not that,” Acorn replied. “His head was. What was left of it, anyway. If Sparkle’s concentration breaks and she’s too badly distracted, all that magical power she’s keeping down has to go somewhere, right? And a raw surge of psychic energy really likes to go into a head.”

There was a silence.

“Um…thank you, Sir,” Bread finally stammered. “I’ll, uh, try to find something, or, uh, make myself a tin foil hat, or…”

“That might work,” Acorn pointed out, “But she’d probably notice that you look silly. And between you and me, son, we really don’t want that to happen.”

“Good point, Sir,” Bread finished. “See you in five.”

Five minutes later

The entrance to the Vanhoover Test Facility was a small, simple elevator, big enough to hold eight to ten ponies, or maybe a couple of boxes. Bread and Acorn were standing side-by-side on all fours just outside, waiting in the big, rectangular entry hall, a grey. The room was a concrete thing with polished floors, a thin blue stripe on the walls and a couple dozen blue-coloured light strips hanging from the roof, lighting everything up. It was cold, and smelled vaguely of plastic, chemicals, and strangely enough, electricity.

“Remember to bow,” Acorn said softly as they listened to the humming sound of the approaching elevator. “The same time as me. Try not to say anything, or look at her, or trip on something, and if she does talk to you, don’t flatter her, just remember her titles and be incredibly polite.”

“Yes, Professor,” Bread said, gulping. He was a slender, bluish stallion with dark red hair, and his green eyes were always wide and worried. Acorn felt very sorry for the guy, another genius who’d been snapped up by Sparkle Industries and more or less forced to work on the Princess’ personal pet projects night and day.

That was the thing about Sparkle Industries. It was funded by citizen’s taxes, and quite a lot of them at that, but all it ever did was create stuff for Princess Twilight Sparkle, according to her strict and detailed requests. That was it; the huge labs, testing complexes and production factories did nothing else but satisfy her curiosity. Sometimes, Acorn wished that he could go out and use his genetic engineering skills to make things that would actually help ponies, like cures for diseases, or apple trees that would grow with only half as much water. He knew that others, like Bread, felt the same way. But, he was trapped underground, and if he complained at all, well, he wasn’t exactly sure what would happen to him but judging by a few familiar body parts in the organ library he didn’t want to give it a try and find out for himself.

There was a bumping sound behind the elevator doors. They were here. Acorn adjusted his lab coat with a hoof, took a breath, plastered a fake smile across his face and straightened his back. Bread followed his example. And then, at last, a red light turned to green, and the hydraulic elevator doors hissed open in a cloud of transparent vapour.

Standing in the elevator were the Fourth Alicorn, Princess Twilight Sparkle, a rather bored-looking General Dash of Cloudsdale, and two Mechasus bodyguards, whose dragon-like metal helmets were sweeping back and forth across the room, constantly scanning for danger.

Acorn didn’t think it made any sense to bring elite air superiority infantry down into the underground laboratory. Maybe the Princess needed them to make sure she didn’t trip up on a little bolt someone had dropped on the floor. Or maybe Royalty just liked to surround itself with big, badass-looking bodyguards; Acorn could definitely see the appeal.

Princess Twilight didn’t need much explaining; she was wearing a titanium tiara studded with multi-coloured diamonds, her mane and tail were utterly perfectly done up and she had a rather tense, worried expression on her face. General Dash was wearing her heavily customized Mechasus power suit, but like most powerful leaders in the military, hadn’t bothered to put on the helmet. That might explain why there was a large, pink, and very intimidating scar on her right cheek. The two Mechasi were a little sleeker than most of their kind, and their armour was quite a bit darker and shinier; the rainbow patterns on their legs and sides, however, left no room for doubt. They were members of the Seven Spectra, the General’s hoof-picked, elite bodyguards. Unfortunately for Equestria’s enemies, and for any ponies that wanted to disagree with Dash, you could not find more formidable fighting flyers anywhere. Like, at all.

“Your Majesty!” Acorn gushed, bowing low. Bread followed his example. “Welcome back to Sparkle Industries. I trust that you and your entourage arrive quite well?”

“I can’t believe I have to take this stupid elevator every time I come down here,” the Princess replied dryly, stepping out of the cramped, mobile platform indignantly. “I mean, I could teleport, but seriously, is it so bad around here that a Princess has to make her own way around? It’s thirty whole seconds of my life that I could spend doing something else, and something very important too, because I’m a Princess, and Princesses do important things because it’s what Princesses do! And besides, it is just so not-Alicorn to wait around. Professor Acorn, I Royally Demand that you invent a more stylish way for me to get down here.”

Oh dear, Acorn thought to himself. Another Royal Demand. Just what I need.

“You said it, Twi,” General Dash said as she and her Mechasi followed the Princess out, their suit actuators humming and squeaking as they moved. Looking tired, Dash rolled her armoured forelegs around in their powered metal sockets. “How about getting some kinda soda or coffee dispenser installed on the wall in there to pass some time? Just for a little extra cider cash for the janitors, y’know. Or just a bowl of jelly snakes on a stool, I’m easy either way.”

Acorn bowed again.

“As you wish, your Majesty,” he agreed. “I’ll see that the budget for your personal teleportation project is doubled within the week, and with luck, we’ll have it working by the time of your next illustrious visit. And General, I will see what can be done about that bowl of jelly snakes.”

“I want it tripled by tomorrow morning,” Twilight corrected him with a warm, cheerful smile. “Just say it’s me asking, and I don’t think that any pony will say no. Anyway, how are things, Professor Acorn? How are you? How’s your back? And how’s the Project?”

“I’m well thanks, my back is all right and Project 13 is progressing well, your Eminence,” Acorn replied gracefully. “The specimen has matured very well, initial tests are complete and we’re just beginning the main procedure….”

“Hold on,” Twilight suddenly said, the smile melting from her face as she stared intensely into Bread Basket’s wide, startled eyes. Acorn’s ears pricked in alarm, and he saw the blood drain instantly from his terrified assistant’s face.

“I don’t remember this one,” the Princess said menacingly. “You, Earth pony! What are you doing here? How long have you been here? Are you a Communist Traitor?”

General dash sighed and rolled her pinkish-red eyes, but of course, the Princess didn’t pay her right-hand soldier any attention, and continued to stare madly at the young scientist. Bread opened his mouth to speak, but could only manage a faint, gaspy wheeze. Acorn immediately intervened, for the sake of his young employee’s hide.

“That is my assistant, Bread Basket, your Highness,” he explained in a rush. “He got you a cup of coffee the last time you were here, remember?”

“I REMEMBER NO SUCH THING!” Twilight squealed, twisting around to General Dash. “Rainbow! Royal Demand. Tell me if the young one looks like a Communist Traitor to you!”

“He looks like he’s about to piss is lab coat, Twi,” Dash responded dryly. “But no, he doesn’t look like a ‘Communist Traitor’. In fact, I don’t think he’s going to be able to trot in a straight line after you’re through with him. Cut the poor kid some slack, will ya?”

“Really? Well, if you say so, Rainbow,” Princess Twilight sighed, turning back to Bread Basket and smiling at him, all trace of her psychotic aggression from a few seconds before gone. “Well I guess you’re not a Communist Traitor after all, my dear! Go on being a good Sparkle Industries employee, will you? There’s a good boy!”

Bread Basket stood there and nodded blankly, probably too overwhelmed by fear and confusion to even think properly. General Dash caught Acorn’s eye, and mouthed a few words at him: sorry, Doc. Rainbow then raised a hoof to her ear, made a little circular gesture, crossed her eyes and poked out a tongue. The Professor smiled slightly.

“So,” Twilight said, turning back to Acorn. “Is the Project ahead of schedule Professor? I want you to tell me that it is. It’d be the first nice thing that’s happened to me today. Urgh.”  

Acorn didn’t pause. Lying would be pointless, and incredibly stupid.

“No, your Majesty,” he replied. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you that we are, in fact, we’re slightly behind schedule. We’ve been delayed by unforseen…”

“Oh. Is she resisting?” the Princess continued, her voice suddenly cold.

“She…it, rather, has proven slightly more resistant to the psychic erasure process than we’d first thought,” he explained gingerly. “Exactly how resistant, we don’t know for sure yet.”

Twilight nodded slowly, with a blank face.

“I see. Well, that’s a real shame, Professor! I was really, really hoping that you’d have some good news to brighten up my day, but hey, I guess you can’t rely on anypony anymore these days. Take me to Project 13, Professor. Directly. I want to see her for myself.”

Acorn and Bread exchanged nervous glances.

“Is there a problem, Professor?” the Princess repeated. “I came here to inspect the Project, you know, so I intend to inspect the Project, and not drink coffee and chat with inept peasant scientists.”

Acorn took a breath.

“Of course, Princess,” he said glumly. “The Project is right this way.”

Acorn led the little group of six, including him, down a few very long cold concrete corridors, up some stairs, down a couple others, through some bulkheads and past a lot of labs. Everywhere there were pale, blue lights, that automatically switched on as they trotted near them. The entire facility was almost completely deserted; the only ponies that hadn’t gone home were a couple of security guys in the camera room. Now that the Princess was here, there wasn’t much of a chance that they would show their faces; every pony in the Alliance, except the absolutely stupidest ones, knew to keep out of Twilight’s way if they could.

General Dash studied the bare, stone-like walls as they progressed.

“You know, this place could really use a couple pictures on the walls or something like that,” Dash observed. “I mean, it feels like some kinda morgue. What do you think, Twi? Reckon you could put something about redecorating the labs into the next Industries budget? And maybe even some kind of heater, it’s getting nippy in here.”

“This place,” Twilight breathed. “Is perfect, Rainbow. No pictures, no heater. A place of cutting-edge technological development should not feel even the slightest bit warm and fuzzy!”

The General sighed. “Whatever tingles your little horn, Princess.”

“Yes,” the Princess agreed. Acorn quickly glanced at her face; Sparkle was looking a little on the jumpy side tonight, even compared to how jumpy she was normally. That was a very bad sign; the Princess was not the same pony who’d been handed a throne ten years ago and told to rule a whole quarter of Equestria at a time. Once a chirpy and bright little Unicorn, as a part of her private corporation almost since the very beginning Acorn had witnessed Twilight transform into a paranoid and sometimes violent ruler whose strange habits were constantly surrounded by total secrecy. No pony in the world really knew what went on in the Fourth Alicorn’s head, but anyone with half a brain knew that she was far from sane.

And with all that corrupted Princess power constantly surging through her veins, she was the last pony in existence that you wanted to have an argument with.

They reached a thick, metal double door, with a small keypad on the side.

“Here we are, your Highness,” Acorn announced. “Give me a moment, and I’ll show you inside.”

“Kindly step on it, Professor,” Twilight said irritably. “I very, very much want to see how much this absolutely vital project has been screwed up while I’ve been away.”

“Yes, Highness,” Acorn said briskly, trotting up to the door and sticking his right foreleg over the 9-button keypad. Keypads were much easier to use with an auto-arm, but, with enough practice it was just possible to make by with a bare hoof. He keyed in a 16 number code, and breathed into a tiny hole above the panel.

“Identifying… Breath… Composition,” a computerized pony voice said slowly. “Project… 13… Managing… Director… Professor… Acorn… Identity… Confirmed. Admission… Permitted…”

“The main computer’s a little slow these days, Highness,” Acorn explained with a nervous smile, trotting back from the door to make way for the Princess. “We think there’s an issue with the CPU core, and the technicians are hard at repairing it.”

The Princess ignored him, staring intensely at the two doors. There was a loud alarm, and two strobe lights, one blue and one red, started to flash on either side of the entrance. They both hissed, coughing clouds of thick, white disinfectant steam from the corners, and slowly scraped open with a high-pitched metal squeaking noise. Behind them was pitch darkness, and a strange, blue glow.

General Dash itched one of her ears uncomfortably.

“Sounds like you should send these guys some oil too, Twi,” Dash said gingerly. “I think those hinges could use a little tender loving care.”

Twilight ignored all of them, walking briskly into the dark Project 13 laboratory. Dash shrugged, motioned for her Mechasi to follow her, and went in after the Princess, leaving Acorn and Bread outside in the passage. Acorn shot Bread a look of exhaustion, and the young intern just shook his head at his boss.

Never again, Bread mouthed. Please.

Acorn raised a hoof to his mouth, signing his assistant to be quiet, and then trotted into the darkened lab. It was a large, circular room, shaped like a drum, and the air was quite warm and humid. There was a strange blue light in the centre, one that flickered and danced, kinda like one of those pretty atmospheric phenomena that you could see from the Frozen North, the Northern Lights, or whatever. There was also a flowing, bubbling noise, like there was some kind of thick, warm water churning away somewhere close by.

“I can’t see, Professor,” Twilight said angrily. “Why can’t I see?”

“The…specimen is very sensitive to light, Princess,” Acorn explained, slowly making his way over to the switch on the wall. “We try to minimize exposure as much as we can. We’ve also tried getting some night vision goggles for the scientists who work here, but, that’s yet to happen.”

“The light, Professor!” Twilight snapped, stomping a hoof. “NOW!”

“Yes your Majesty,” the Professor said in a hurry, stumbling over to the wall, feeling around for the switch and flicking it on. One by one, a series of dim, red lights came on, followed by a couple of slightly brighter white ones. The lights revealed multiple rows of computer screens and strange machines arranged around the walls, several wheeled tables covered in medical equipment lying around the room.

And in the centre, was Project 13, otherwise known as TS02, encased in a huge, ball-shaped glass tank of warm, sterile water. Inside the tank were several submerged robotic arms, fitted with cameras, hypodermic syringes, sensors and other nasty-looking devices; also in there, with her eyes closed, a plastic oxygen mask on her face and the short, purple and pink strands of her short, shaggy mane and tail fanning out in the water and slowly whipping to and fro, was an almost perfect Unicorn clone of Princess Twilight Sparkle.

The clone was slightly fatter than the Princess, on account of having spent her entire ‘life’ floating in a tank without any exercise or muscle movement at all other than the occasional twitch, and was totally unconscious, never having had a single moment of waking life in her two-year existence. There were hundreds and hundreds of tiny metal wires attached to her spine, which snaked up into bundles that disappeared into the top of the ball tank, as well as a single larger one that attached to the back of her head by some kind of suction cup. So that the clone wouldn’t starve to death, an artificial umbilical cord was buried into her stomach, and tattooed onto the fur of her neck were several red letters and numbers: TS02.

The clone had been grown for a single purpose: Princess Twilight Sparkle was the youngest and most inexperienced of the Alicorns, but her magical power was incredible. Her spirit was up to it, but her mind and body weren’t, and there was a quiet rumour in Sparkle Industries that the Princess would need another, younger, and generally stronger body if she wanted to live a life of several thousand years, like the other Alicorns. The fact that she’d had TS02 created confirmed that, but unfortunately, preparing the clone’s brain for the soul of Princess Sparkle was proving to be considerably more difficult than it was supposed to be.

Acorn didn’t like to think about it, but sometimes, it seemed as though the clone was fighting against them. It was not reassuring to think that it didn’t want to die.

Princess Sparkle trotted right up to the tank, staring up at the floating clone like it had just shouted some kind of insult at her face. Dash looked at it uneasily.

“Fukkin’ thing creeps me the fuck out,” the General grumbled. “Can we burn it or something, if it doesn't work?”

“What’s the delay, Professor?” Twilight asked, not taking her eyes off the clone.

“Well, Princess, the only reason we can think up is that we miscalculated how long it would take to prepare the specimen’s brain for a soul switch,” he explained. “There’s no trace of any consciousness in its brain, so that can’t be interfering with our procedures.”

“Is that so, Professor?” Princess Twilight said. “And what about you? What do you have to say for yourself, hmmm?”

There was a very awkward silence. It seemed, as far as Acorn could see, that the Princess had just directed a question at the unconscious clone. The Professor and Bread exchanged confused glances, and General Dash screwed up her face.

“Um, Twi?” she asked. “You okay?”

“I’m fine! Can’t you see I’m talking here!” Twilight snapped back at Rainbow, then continued to talk to the glass tank with her clone inside it. “Yes, I’m talking to you! How dare you speak back to me like that, you miserable little wart! I’m a Princess! You can’t talk to Princesses as though they were not Princesses. It’s not what you do.”

There was another short silence. Acorn looked up at the clone; it was just floating there, unmoving, like it always did. He had no idea what to do.

“I am NOT a crazy head!” Twilight suddenly screamed, angrily stomping her hooves against the polished floor. “You have NO IDEA how hard my stupid job is! If it wasn’t for me Equestria would be overrun by millions and millions of Communist Traitors, and other despicable types that nopony wants around! THESE PONIES NEED ME.”

There was another silence.

“How dare you,” Twilight whispered angrily. “HOW DARE YOU! The only reason you EXIST is because I told these stupid scientists to stick some of my DNA in a tank of warm water and grow it into a piece of me-shaped meat! If they weren’t so stupid and dumb, you wouldn’t even be able to talk like this! If they hadn’t made all those mistakes, you WOULDN’T EVEN BE ABLE TO THINK! You are a mistake. A mistake that I wish I could squash like an ant! But you’re lucky, oh, you’re so lucky that I need that juicy little magically tolerant body of yours, oh yes. You are lucky. Otherwise I would drop you in a vat of acid and laugh as the skin and muscle melted off your bones.”

More silence. General Dash pawed the ground uncomfortably; the Mechasi didn’t react at all.

“NO, IT ISN’T YOUR BODY!” Princess Twilight howled, head-butting the glass tank in anger. Professor Acorn jumped in shock, but luckily, the Alicorn’s sharp horn didn’t break it. “IT’S MY BODY, YOU HEAR? I TOLD THEM HOW TO MAKE IT! I PAID FOR IT! IT’S MINE! MY BODY, NOT YOURS! MY BODY! MY BODY! MY BODY! MY…!”

General Dash dashed forwards.

“Twilight!” she gasped. “I mean, uh, Princess! What the hell are you doing? I haven’t seen you this crazy since Game of Alicorns was cancelled after the shitty seventh season.”

Princess Twilight glanced around at General Dash, breathing heavily, and looking extremely stressed out. Her eyes were wide, shining…and, as far as Acorn could see, totally mad.

“General,” Twilight finally said, calming down slightly. “We are leaving.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Dash replied, standing to attention and calmly saluting the Princess. There was still quite a bit of confusion in her eyes, though.

Then, very slowly, Princess Twilight turned around to Acorn and Bread, who’d snuck around to stand next to his boss for comfort.

“Professor,” she gasped slowly, staring at him with an expression that was halfway between embarrassed and insane. Her voice was many things, but most of all, it was scary.

“Yes, Highness,” Acorn replied instantly.

“Wipe its brain,” she said coldly, gesturing at the clone in the tank. “Do whatever you need to do, understand? I want that thing’s mind to crack open and drain like a split coconut within three days from now. Double the psy-energy exposure, run the extraction night and day, I do not care, as long as the Project is completed, you understand?”

It was not the time to say no. Acorn bowed low. Bread, thank goodness, did too.

“Of course, your Majesty,” he gushed.

Twilight nodded.

“Good,” she said. “Don’t fail me, Acorn. I wouldn’t want to have to remind your hypothetical successor what happened to the lazy traitor who came before him.”

There was another silence. Acorn gulped.

“Yes,” he said simply. “Your Majesty.”

Twilight turned away, and stormed out of the lab. General Dash glanced at acorn, mouthed the words sorry, man, stuck her tongue out, crossed her eyes and made a little circular motion around her ear with a foreleg. The universal gesture for That Princess is Fucking Nuts.  

Acorn gave her a tiny smile, and Dash, and her two Mechasi, rushed out after the Princess, since it was their job or whatever to follow her around everywhere. Bread, and Acorn, were left alone in there with the silent, floating Twilight clone. As Bread trotted up to him, Acorn stood there in silence for a couple of seconds, looking up at the tank.

“It’s unconscious,” he breathed. “I can’t think, it can’t talk.”

“Professor?” Bread asked quietly.

Acorn glanced at his assistant, and shrugged helplessly.

“I don’t know, son. That was the most bizarre and terrifying thing I’ve ever seen in my life. That Princess…ah, I don’t know. She’s…different, now, to who, or what she used to be.”

“Was she talking to the clone, Professor?” Bread asked, confused.

Acorn shrugged again.

“I don’t know, son. She could have been, or, we just witnessed a Princess lose her mind. In a lot of ways, Alicorns are far too powerful to understand, anyway.”

“Sir, I have something to tell you,” Bread admitted.

Acorn looked the young pony in the eye.

“What, Bread?” he asked. “What is it?”

Bread glanced at his hooves, took a breath, and looked up at Acorn.

“It’s some times, Sir, when I’m alone in here in the lab. I hear things, Sir. Voices…these strange voices in my head. I never told anyone, because, I was scared, and I thought they were just background noises, but now… No, not voices, that’s wrong, I just hear one voice.”

“One voice?” Acorn repeated, glancing up at the clone, then back to Bread. “You aren’t joking, son? This is true?”

Bread closed his eyes, shaking his head.

“I couldn’t lie to you, Sir,” he said, crying softly. “Not after…all that.”

Acorn nodded. He believed him.

He put a hoof on his assistant’s shoulder.

“Tell me about this voice, son,” he continued. “Does it say anything?”

Bread nodded.

“Yes, Sir, it’s a soft, female voice. But it’s faint, and soft, so soft I can’t make out the words that it’s saying. But, it’s talking to me, in my head; I know that it does, sometimes. Do you…do you think it’s the clone, Sir? Trying to…communicate with me?”

Acorn looked up at the motionless clone again, floating in her heated tank and stuck full of metal wires and tubes. There was no way of finding out whether or not the clone had some kind of psychic ability, but with the bizarre behaviour of the Princess and Bread’s strange story, Acorn didn’t really have much doubt that something seriously weird was going on.

“I don’t know, son,” he said. “Maybe it is.”

“What do we do now, Sir?” Bread asked.

“What the Princess told us to, my boy,” Acorn sighed. “Exactly what she told us to do. Believe me, to do anything else right now, whatever we do or do not understand, would be a very bad idea. No, it would be worse than that… It would be suicide.”

Bread gulped.

“What if, you know, the clone tries to stop us?” he continued. “With some kind of strange, mystical, psychic ability that was passed down to her from the Princess?

“In that case, Bread,” Acorn suggested, “I propose you make me a tin foil hat, too.”