“Think Copper’ll be mad?” Spike’s question garnered no reply. The entire group was gathered in the large chamber, staring at the fallen tube in silence. The Cutie Mark Crusaders huddled together by the door. They tried not to look at Rarity and Applejack, who stood fuming next to them.

“Awww, no more glowy thingy. I had plans for an afterparty in here,” Pinkie said mournfully. She scurried up against the now empty tube and shivered. “Wow, this thing is cold. Ooh, look how much I can fog up the glass.”

While Pinkie started drawing in the condensation, Twilight inspected the damage. Her eyes moved carefully over the scene, from the cap wedged into the wall to the felled tube to the broken base.

“So you girls were in here, minding your own business, and it fell over entirely on its own?” she said slowly, her mind still trying to make sense of it all.

Scootaloo perked up. “Yeah! I was getting ready to leave when I heard a loud crack and so I turned around and it was just tipping right over. I had to roll out of the way and everything.”

“What were you all trying to do in here, anyway?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Umm…” Apple Bloom stammered.

Applejack looked hard at her sister. “Apple Bloom, right now we need to know exactly what happened in here. I don’t wanna hear anythin’ other than the straight story, got it?”

“We were just trying to open it!” Sweetie Belle blurted out. Rarity opened her mouth to say something, but Sweetie Belle quickly hurried on. “We figured with all the tools that Dr. Star was trying to do it too, and we really wanted to help her out, and also thought that maybe getting into things like this might be our special talent so we tried it out and, well…”

“You know, when you say it out loud it doesn’t seem to make as much sense,” Scootaloo said absentmindedly.

“So, if I’m understandin’ things right, you girls took our speeches about not touching anythin’ an’ stayin’ out of trouble, an’ went an’ did the exact opposite,” Applejack said, looking over the three fillies. “An’ now you’ve caused a whole mess of trouble for somepony we haven’t even had a chance to meet yet.”

“But we didn’t do this!” Apple Bloom shouted out. “Right, Scootaloo?”

“Exactly!” Scootaloo said. “It’s like I said, it did this all on its own. I wasn’t even touching it when it happened.”

“We didn’t even make a dent trying to get into it,” Sweetie Belle muttered.

“Hey Fluttershy, you can come in here now! That green stuff is all gone,” Dash called out to the pony crouched out in the hallway.

“Oh, no thank you.” Fluttershy poked her head through the open doorway. “I’m fine out here. I, um, wouldn’t want to accidentally cause anything else to happen. There’s already too much of a mess in there.”

Pinkie rolled out of the tube and smiled at Fluttershy. “Ah, don’t worry about a thing. We can get this place spic and span in no time at all. Here, I’ll get this sorted out right now.”

Pinkie threw herself against the tube. She pushed it as hard as she could in an effort to roll towards the base and out of the way, but it wouldn’t budge. “Alright, hang on, just need to give it a good and proper Pinkie Push.”

Pinkie buckled down and doubled her efforts. Dash swooped in to assist her, but to no effect. “Wow, this thing is really heavy. Twilight, think you can take a crack at it?”

Twilight nodded. Her horn shimmered and a purple haze surrounded the tube. Straining, she attempted to levitate it towards the base. The tube shifted as Twilight dug her hooves into the ground, and slowly but surely it moved forward. A loud grinding sound resonated throughout the chamber as the tube dragged along the floor, cutting into the ancient stone. Eventually it stopped, settling into place a few feet from where it originally lay. Twilight breathed heavily while the haze vanished.

“Wow, that’s some serious glass,” Dash said, an impressed look on her face.

“Okay, that’s new to me,” Twilight said when her breathing rate returned to normal. As she leaned against the base, her back pushed into the iron plate grafted onto the front. It clicked inward and sent a sudden gust of ice-cold air rushing out of the wall vents. All the candles immediately snuffed out. The room was plunged into darkness, save for the light creeping in through the open doors. Up above, Dash somersaulted around, caught off balance by the airflow hitting her from every direction.

The three fillies screamed, and Fluttershy disappeared back into the hall. Suddenly a bright flash filled the room. In an instant the candles were relit. The flash receded into Twilight’s horn as the others regained their composure around her.

“Heh heh, uh, sorry about that,” she said, cheeks red. “I forgot that was there.”

Recovering from the twirl, Dash landed on top of the base. “Nice going there, Twilight. Real smooth.” she said, her head still spinning.

Twilight examined the plate. “Maybe it’s some kind of cooling mechanism, pumping in cold air from outside to keep the tube chilled.”

“This tube’s still super chilly. I’m not sure how much extra cold it needed,” Pinkie said, one hoof still fiddling around on the surface of the glass. “This is way past even ice cream storage levels.”

“Maybe it’s just something put in to scare ponies,” Spike said as he retrieved a still-spooked Fluttershy from the hallway.

“Whatever it’s for, they must’ve had somepony here fulltime to keep relighting the candles,” Dash said. She looked down and frowned. “Hey, what’s this thing here?”

“What’s what thing where, Rainbow Dash?” Spike asked.

“Right here, where the tube used to be,” Dash replied, still eyeing something the others couldn’t see. “There’s a weird symbol carved here.”

Twilight pushed the ladder back against the base and climbed up to take a look. She studied what Dash found: an engraving of a square cross, the bottom line curving left into a sharp hook. At the center of the cross was a small, hollow circle. It did not appear to be a hastily carved bit of graffiti, but rather something carefully etched right into the stonework.

“I don’t know what this is supposed to mean,” Twilight said. She turned to the others. “It’s some kind of cross with a hook. A religious symbol, perhaps. Or a fancy doodle of a fishing lure put in by the builder. I really have no idea.”

“Cross with a… I gotta see this!” Pinkie quickly scaled the ladder to crowd in next to Twilight at the top. She squealed with delight when she saw the symbol. “Ah-ha! I knew it I knew it I knew it!”

Grinning widely, she slid down the ladder and dashed straight out the door, barely slowing to hop over the half-hidden Fluttershy. The others listened to her hoofsteps fade down the hall and disappear into the rest of the temple.

“Is she gonna do that a lot on this trip?” Dash asked. Twilight could only shrug.

“I’m sure she’ll come back with some explanation soon enough,” Rarity said. “Now, if we could please return to the matter at hoof…”

“I keep telling you guys, it was an accident!” Scootaloo again pleaded. “I really don’t know how or why it happened; I just know I didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“I don’t think you did this,” Twilight said. The group stared at her. Hopeful expressions appeared on the fillies’ faces. Twilight glanced at the tube and continued. “I can hardly move that thing without a lot of effort, and even that barely got it anywhere. Plus, look at the heavy mortar buildup at the base. It would’ve taken a lot of time and work to get through all that with just the tools here.”

“Hmm… you may have a point there, Twilight,” Applejack said. “I remember when I had to get an old water tank off the farm. It was cemented in behind the barn an’ everything. Took me the better part of the day to get it loose, an’ that thing was smaller than this tube.”

“So you’re saying this thing really did just fall over on its own?” Rarity asked with raised eyebrows.

“I don’t know how or why it fell, I just don’t think these three are at all capable of causing this,” Twilight answered.

“Hey now, what’s that supposed to mean?” Apple Bloom asked indignantly. “Well maybe we did cause it to–”

“Hey, shut up!” Scootaloo hissed, lightly jabbing Apple Bloom in the arm. “They’re letting us off the hook.”

Scootaloo smiled sweetly. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle exchanged looks and joined in, appearing as innocent as they could manage.

“What happened to the liquid?” Spike spoke up. “The floor is completely dry.”

The others looked down, suddenly noticing the discrepancy.

“Hey yeah,” Dash said. “There was a ton of that stuff. What happened to it, Scootaloo?”

“I didn’t see that,” Scootaloo said. “I ducked and hid behind the base right when it started coming down. I didn’t come out until the others came in and found me.”

“Well it had to go somewhere,” Twilight said. She scratched her head. “I wonder if it evaporated when it made contact with the air…”

“You mean we could be breathing that stuff in right now?” Sweetie Belle asked, looking worried. “That doesn’t sound good at all.”

“I think we’d be able to tell if something like that was up in the air,” Twilight said reassuringly. “So Spike, you can stop holding your breath. I’ll have to read more of Copper’s notes now to try and figure out what might have happened to it. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation.”

“So, uh… can we go now?” Scootaloo fidgeted in place, eyeing the door.

“Twilight said it couldn’t have been us,” Sweetie Belle said. “So if we didn’t do anything, we shouldn’t be in trouble now, right?”

“Yeah!” Apple Bloom nodded her head. The three fillies looked hopefully at the older siblings.

“I suppose there’s no sense blaming you for this,” Rarity conceded. “At least when there’s no proof you did anything.”

“But you girls ain’t off scot-free yet,” Applejack reminded them. “You shouldn’t have been in here at all. I’m not sure how much more I can stress my ‘don’t touch anythin’ speech, but here we are again…”

“It won’t happen again, sis,” Apple Bloom pleaded. “Promise!”

“You better believe it won’t,” Applejack said. “From here on out, no leaving the livin’ area. Period.”

“Quite right. That also means staying within sight of one of us at all times,” Rarity added, shaking her head at the three responding groans. “I don’t want to hear it girls, not after all this. You three are to stay in the base with either myself or Applejack for the rest of the week. End of discussion. Come on now, let’s get back. Maybe we can still find something constructive and harmless for you to do.”

“I’ll go with you,” Fluttershy said. “They can help me preparing food to feed all those mice.”

“There are mice here?” Apple Bloom wondered aloud.

“That sounds like a splendid idea, Fluttershy,” Rarity said as she herded the group towards the door. “I don’t believe Pinkie’s party will be happening tonight anymore, but we can still get some other things accomplished before bed.”

Still sulking, but otherwise happy to be out of trouble, the fillies trooped towards the hall. Upon reaching the doorway, the three quickly ducked out of the way as Pinkie came zooming back into the room, a small collection of books shoved under one arm.

“Ah, Pinkie, there you are,” Rarity said without missing a beat. “I was just talking about you. I was hoping you’d have something else planned that these three could assist you with this evening.”

“Never mind that now, Rarity. This is it! This place is the Temple of Proch’No,” Pinkie shouted excitedly. “He mentioned before that he was inspired by a real place when he wrote that, but I didn’t think he meant someplace way out here–”

“Whoa there Pinkie, ease up for a spell. You’re leavin’ us in the dark here,” Applejack said.

“Yes, Pinkie,” Twilight said. “What are you talking about?”

“Here! Where we are right now. It’s a place from one of my Sugar Cane books.” Pinkie tossed a copy over to Twilight and continued to prance around the room, flipping through the pages of a different book. “But it’s not all just from that one. That base must be the one that was in the cellar of Mrs. Pickmare’s hotel, and I don’t recognize the tube. Of course, I haven’t read through them all yet, so maybe I just haven’t gotten to it yet. I wonder what else there is around here…”

She began circling the chamber, attentively inspecting every candlestick and dusty table. Twilight studied the cover of the book Pinkie gave her. It was a crowded collage of pulp imagery: a pony rowing a boat out onto a mist-covered lake, a collection of eyes and claws reaching out from above the title text, and a different pony reacting in horror to something just off the page. Somewhat out of place was the jagged red line that crisscrossed the entire cover for no discernible reason.

“In the Lake of Lunacy,” she said, reading out the title, “by Sugar Cane. Who is this guy anyway?”

“You haven’t heard of him?” Spike asked. “You should check the fiction section more often. He’s gotten really big this year. Ponies have been coming to get his stuff nonstop for the last few weeks.”

“I guess I’ve been distracted by the end of the season,” Twilight said. She flipped idly through a few pages, still watching Pinkie wander the room. “I’ve never been one for horror stories anyway. I didn’t think so many others were, either.”

“Are you kidding? Ponies can’t seem to get enough of these things,” Spike said, examining the book as well. “They’re drawing in a strange crowd, too. Even the mayor came in to get some a few days ago. She was actually kind of annoyed when I told her we were all out.”

“I guess the library has been a bit more crowded lately,” Twilight said, thinking back to recent days. “Of course, it always gets crowded at this time of year, what with ponies stocking up for the indoor months.”

“Lemme see that thing,” Applejack said. Twilight tossed her the book. “Ya know, this looks kinda familiar. I think I saw Big Mac readin’ one of these the other day.”

“Hey yeah, I remember that too,” Apple Bloom chimed in. “I asked him about it but he just ignored me. He looked like he was really into it.”

“Big Macintosh? Really?” Dash asked. “This is getting ridiculous. Now I bet you’ll tell me that Derpy reads them, too. ”

“Are you a fan, Rainbow Dash?” Rarity asked wryly.

“As if.” Dash rolled her eyes. “Horror stories are dull. They’re just ponies running around old houses until something jumps out at them or one of them goes crazy. I prefer books with more action and excitement and cool stuff. Dunno what Pinkie sees in them. I definitely don’t see how she could act so weird about them.”

“I think we’re all overacting here,” Twilight said. “This isn’t the first time Pinkie’s read a book, after all.”

“Yes, but there’s a difference between Pinkie reading the occasional book and Pinkie doing… whatever this is,” Rarity said.

As the others watched, Pinkie flipped over one of the end tables and felt around its underside.

“Five-legged table with a pool of wax in the shape of a star in one corner, which means there’s got to be– a-ha!” A triumphant smile broke out across her face as a small hidden drawer popped open under the table. She poked around inside and although she found nothing, her smile hardly faltered. “Yup yup yup, this is the hiding place of the basement key from The Breathing Stable. Don’t you see guys? It’s all here! Isn’t that super cool?”

The group stared blankly at Pinkie.

“Uh, it’s great that things here resemble stuff in your books, Pinkie,” Twilight said. “But don’t you think it’s probably just a coincidence? Not many ponies besides us really know this place exists. I highly doubt that some horror author found out about this place long enough ago to put it in his books.”

“No, this really is the place!” Pinkie responded cheerfully. “Everything’s exactly as it should be. And take a look at this!”

She pointed to a spot on the book cover. Twilight squinted: there, just below the long running red line, was a symbol identical to the one on the base.

“Huh. That’s, um…” Twilight stammered, searching for a rational explanation.

“That’s a marker!” Pinkie exclaimed. “They help show the way. There should be another one around here somewhere with the hook facing the other direction. I’ve just got to find it.”

The others still stared, unsure of what to make of all this.

“Don’t worry,” Pinkie said, undeterred. “I’ll make fans out of you guys yet. That’ll get you in the marker-finding spirit.”

“I’m sure you will, dear,” Rarity said. “Presently, however, we have other matters that concern us. Like what we’re going to do with all the party material we’ve got set up back in the base. I believe we can get these three to work taking all that down, and then we can see about dinner.”

Pinkie cocked her head. “Take the party down? Before it’s even started? Are you crazy? You can’t take down a party before you throw that party! Unless the theme of the party was taking down a party, and I can’t imagine how much fun that would be since clean-up is never the best part of a party–”

“Pinkie, in light of recent events, I hardly think that a party will be at all appropriate tonight,” Rarity replied, once more herding the fillies out into the hall.

“Unless you’ve brought a “Sorry We Ruined Your Science Project” banner, too,” Dash deadpanned.

Pinkie scratched her chin and thought for a moment. “Maybe. I think I might have one left over from that time we accidentally destroyed Twilight’s–”

“Pinkie, Rarity’s right,” Applejack said. “No party until we meet this girl an’ get everythin’ that’s happened here good an’ settled.”

With a dejected sigh, Pinkie finally conceded. Spike patted her on the back. “Don’t worry Pinkie, there’ll be time for parties later in the week. Copper will probably need some cheering up after all this.”

“Quite right,” Rarity said. “Now please everypony, can we get back? Poor Fluttershy has been waiting for us out in the hall for ages now, and I’ve taken about all I can from this tacky room.”

“Oh, I’m fine out here until you guys are finished.” Fluttershy’s voice drifted in. “The lights out here don’t seem to ever go out.”

The ponies all grouped together and headed out the door, conversation floating about.

“–gotta get back to your precious rats Fluttershy?”

“I told you, Rainbow, they’re mice.”

“Whatever.”

“–still would like to know how that thing toppled over–”

“–where the goop went. Stuff like that doesn’t just vanish into thin–”

“–so that just leaves They Live In The Fog and I’ll have gotten through all of them. At least until his next book, which I’m super excited about but he’s taking a real long time to finish it. Hopefully it’ll be out just after we get back so I can still be first in line to–”

“How’d you even get into these, Pinkie?”

“It was easy. I was out walking through town one day and saw somepony throwing a book party. Naturally I had to attend and then I saw one of them passing this around and so I asked ‘What’s that?’ and they were all like–”

“Hey Scootaloo, get up here! We don’t want you falling behind again.”

“–is cooking dinner tonight? I’m really hungry right–”

“Hey Twilight, you coming?”

Spike stood in the open doorway, the group continuing on without him. He looked at Twilight, who was staring intently at the dislodged cap of the tube. The underside revealed a complex series of tumblers and locks, all connected to a long apparatus at the cap’s center.

“That’s interesting,” she muttered softly to herself.

“What’d you say, Twilight?” Spike came over to look at the cap with her. “What do you see?”

“I’m not sure, Spike,” Twilight said. “Assuming these control whether the cap is locked or not, then… it sort of looks like this thing could only be opened from the inside.”

“Why would anypony build a lock that could only be opened from inside a sealed tube?” Spike asked, glancing back at the fallen container.

“I couldn’t even begin to guess right now,” Twilight said. She took one last look around before walking towards the door, Spike right behind her. “I’m going to have a long night of reading notes ahead of me at this rate. Now let’s hurry up and join the others. It’s getting late, and we’re going to need to start getting dinner ready.”

“Yeah, yeah. Dunno how much sleep I’ll be able to get in this place,” Spike said. He pulled the doors shut as they exited, trying to avoid looking inside one last time as he did. “I sure do hope Copper shows up soon and tells us what’s going on. This place gives me the creeps.”

“Me too, Spike. Me too.” Twilight suddenly shivered, feeling as though some unseen force passed through her. She brushed it off as best she could before Spike noticed, and kept her eyes focused straight ahead for their entire walk back.

As the evening drew on the base bustled with energy. Dinner preparations entered full swing, and the sound of clashing pots and pans echoed through the halls. Ponies trotted from room to room, each one finding some random task to busy themselves with. Amidst all the movement and activity, Scootaloo kept silent. She sat in the corner of the common room, observing everything around her and taking in every sound and voice.

She watched Applejack move the couches around to get a dinner table set up. She saw Fluttershy bring a pile of produce into the lab. She watched a frazzled Rarity brush past Apple Bloom in the hall and meet Pinkie in the kitchen to plea for some reduction of the noise level. She heard Rainbow Dash snoring in her room, Twilight banging around with the generator in the basement, Spike making a trip to the greenhouse for more carrots, and Sweetie Belle trying to find a spare pillow for her bed. An entire group occupied and distracted, the sound of their labors mingling with each other and the weather outside.

After a while, Scootaloo stood and began trotting throughout the base. She moved with a purpose, if not any clear destination. Walking from room to room, she kept to the walls, skirting away from anyone she encountered. The others never noticed her. She kept silent, and always left a room before its occupant realized she’d even been there at all. It wasn’t long before she’d completed a circuit of the base. Without delay she started to circle around again, and when that was completed she went around once more.

Finally, she slowed outside a door. Her face remained calm and neutral as she pushed it open and greeted the individual inside. The door swung shut on its own behind her.

Unintelligible chatter emitted from behind the door, followed by an abrupt silence. What could’ve been a muffled scream didn’t make it past the wooden frame, nor did the series of thumps that followed. After that, there was nothing to be heard at all. Just the usual noises of the base, already accepted as commonplace by the group despite the short duration of their current stay. Nopony paid much attention to them at this point.

Night fell with a distinct ferocity. As the sun sank below the horizon, the storm of the day morphed into a much stronger beast as the winds picked up to previously unseen levels. They raged against the base in a constant fury, and while the thick walls stood firm against the onslaught, every once in a while an especially strong gust swept in to shake them to their very foundations.

“Is it ever nice up here?” Applejack asked. She sat comfortably on one of the couches, a blanket wrapped snugly around her. “Haven’t seen a storm this tough in a dog’s age.”

“We don’t make ‘em like this down in Ponyville, that’s for sure,” Rainbow Dash said. She peered out the window on the door, trying to make out anything in the darkness. The light from inside didn’t penetrate far into the inky void of the night, however, leaving her disappointed.

Another massive gust suddenly slammed home. Dash jumped as the metal frame groaned and the door momentarily shifted inward. She awkwardly backed away from the wall and returned to the center of the room. “Yeah, I’m glad we don’t do these at home.”

“Feelin’ spooked there, Rainbow Dash?” Applejack asked, chuckling slightly.

“Please. I can handle any storm,” Dash said with confidence. “I’m thinking more about Ponyville here. I don’t think the town could survive one of these.”

Twilight frowned, listening to the wind shriek in for another pass. “I’m worried. Copper’s still out there somewhere. I was really hoping she would be back before sundown.”

“This definitely isn’t somethin’ good to be stuck out in,” Applejack said. “But didn’t Hawks say she had a place to stay at her research site?”

“Yeah Twilight.” Dash hopped onto the other couch and crammed a pillow underneath her. “If she’s been out here a year, she’s probably had weather like this before. She can take care of herself, right? ”

“Rainbow’s right, Twilight,” Applejack said. “This weather’s tough, but this girl sounds tougher. She’s probably havin’ herself one heck of a campout right now, that’s all.”

“Maybe. I honestly don’t know,” Twilight replied. She rested her head on the table and let out a weary sigh.

“You doin’ alright over there Twilight?” Applejack asked. “You look totally beat.”

“It’s just been a really long day today,” Twilight said, resting her eyes for a minute. “I wish she’d show up already. There’s so much I need to ask her right now. Also, shouldn’t this table be back against the wall by now?”

“Uh huh, I’ll do that first thing tomorrow morning,” Dash said, waving it off. “Don’t sweat it.”

The hall door opened, drawing the ponies’ attention. Fluttershy stood in the doorway. She tried not to look put off by the storm, but another powerful blast of wind caused her to twitch. “Oh, hello everypony. You’re all still awake?”

“Yeah, but not for much longer.” Applejack yawned. “I think I’m ‘bout ready to hit the hay.”

“You guys need to take more power naps. They keep you primed and ready for action at all times,” Dash said, grinning and stretching out on the couch.

“Have all the others gone to sleep?” Twilight asked.

Fluttershy nodded as she approached the table and pulled another chair out. “I believe so. Spike just went to bed, and Pinkie and the girls have been asleep for a while now.”

“Considering all the work they did cleanin’ up that mess in the kitchen, I’m not surprised.” Applejack yawned once more and rose from the couch. “All right y’all, I’m at my limit. Time for this pony to hunker down for the night. Try not to stay up too late now, ya’hear?”

The others bid Applejack goodnight as she lumbered down the hall and into her room. The audible flop of her collapsing onto her cot made Dash giggle.

“Sounds like somepony really needed that,” she said.

“What are you doing up, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked. “Storm keeping you awake?”

“Oh no, it’s not that,” Fluttershy said, her sentiment betrayed somewhat by another nervous glance out the window. “I’m just not very sleepy yet. I would go check on the mice, but they’re probably dozing right now. I don’t want to disturb them.”

“You’re really growing attached to those things, aren’t you Fluttershy?” Dash rolled over on the couch to lie on her stomach. “I’m surprised you can stand the smell in there.”

Fluttershy got up and moved to the vacant couch. “I just want to make sure they’re doing alright. This is no place for them. I mean, they seem healthy enough, but they’re really skittish. I still can’t figure out how to open their tanks, not with those big locks on them. At least I can still get their food to them.”

“Another thing I’m going to have to ask Copper about,” Twilight said. “She must be doing some sort of testing on them…”

Fluttershy’s face grew grave.

“Or they could be here as her pets,” Twilight said quickly. She smiled at Fluttershy. “You just said they looked healthy, after all. I still need to start going through her notes. I’m sure she wrote her plans for them down somewhere.”

“Don’t you think you could just wait until she gets back before you start doing that?” Dash asked. “You were the one giving us big speeches about not touching anything, after all.”

“I know, I know,” Twilight responded. “I don’t think she’ll mind me taking a look, at least.”

“Unless she’s frozen in a block of ice out there,” Dash mumbled, “in which case you probably should get to work on them.”

Twilight rolled her heard over and shot Dash a cold look.

Dash shrugged. “I’m just sayin’ is all.”

Twilight yawned and stood from her chair. She paused to stretch for a moment, limbering up and shaking her head awake. “I think I’ll get a jump on those notes now, actually. Will you two be up long?”

“I’ll be up for a bit,” Dash said. “Maybe this girl will end up stumbling through the door in the dead of night. That’d be something I’d want to see, even if I doubt we’ll see her before tomorrow.”

“I don’t mind waiting up,” Fluttershy said. Pulling one of the spare blankets over her, she lied back on the couch with an eye on the door. “I don’t think she’ll be showing up tonight either, but, uh, you know, just in case. But are you sure you want to start looking through those now, Twilight? You seem really sleepy. You should get some rest.”

“I just want to give them another quick skim, see if anything stands out,” Twilight said. “I know she’ll be here tomorrow and I can get all the information I need then, but… I just want to take a look. That’s all.”

Twilight stretched one more time and ambled through to the next room. Fluttershy watched her leave, not speaking up until Twilight shut the door. “Does she seem alright to you?”

Dash shrugged again. “Like being a little tired is going to keep Twilight from doing more studying. I don’t think it’s possible for anything to do that.”

“It’s not just that, though.” Fluttershy frowned. “Over the past few days she’s, well, seemed a little off. It’s gotten even worse ever since we left on this trip.”

“She’s just stressed out,” Dash said confidently. “She gets like this at the start of every winter, what with all the work she’s got to do. She’ll get over it. She always gets over it. I’m in the same boat as her since I’ve got all those clouds to organize together and look at me: cool as ice.”

“I suppose. Though what happened today isn’t going to make it any easier.”

“Yeah, that probably didn’t help… but she’ll get over that too.” Dash smirked. “And so will Copper… probably.”

The loudest howl of wind yet rattled the entire building. Fluttershy quietly shrieked, pulling her head under her blanket and shoving herself into the corner of the couch.

“Nothing to be afraid of out there, Fluttershy,” Dash said, doing the best to mask her own nervousness and keep her expression constant. “It’s just weather. I’ve been in storms way worse than this and come out on top.”

“Yes, but this is natural weather,” Fluttershy murmured. “It’s different. This is much, much scarier, with nopony to keep it in line.”

Dash forced a chuckle out. “Weather is weather is weather. Like I said, I’ve been in worse ones than this, all of them pony made. I remember one time way back, just after I’d left flight school. They wanted to test a new kind of lightning storm just north of Cloudsdale, so naturally they wanted me to give it a whirl. They had me grab some of the biggest clouds I could find…”

Twilight’s leg kicked violently. She bolted awake with a sharp gasp, her face flying up from the stack of papers it had been resting on. The sudden rush of movement proved too much for the rickety stool, and before she even knew what was happening, Twilight was on the ground. A sharp stab of pain shot through her leg and she suppressed the urge to cry out.

She briefly writhed on the floor, her mind a jumble of pain signals and confusion. She clamped her eyes shut and willed her body to stop twitching, her breath to slow down, and her mind to relax. Several deep breaths later, she gradually began to regain her composure. Wincing at the lingering ache in her leg, she sat back up and steadied herself against the desk.

Putting her arms on the table, she shut her eyes again and concentrated in an attempt to remember the dream. Her mind’s eye filled with images of smoke and fire, of a silhouetted pony staring right at her and smiling.

So familiar, she thought to herself. How do I know him? Actually, how do I know it’s a him at all?

She breathed easy, letting her body return to a relaxed state. The pain in her leg faded away and before long she was able to stand normally. A further familiar sensation lingered as she thought about her dream, one that went beyond recognizing the smiling figure.

That dream... is that the same one I’ve had before? The same nightmare two nights in a row… that’s got to mean something. But what?

“You’re too stressed, Twilight,” she said out loud. “That’s all it is. You can’t take so much stock in a bad dream, so calm down. You probably just had too much of Pinkie’s carrot cake. Acting irrational about this isn’t going to help anything.”

But try as she might, she couldn’t convince herself. While the specificities of the dreams always faded away shortly after she woke up, that powerful sense of how real it had all felt stayed behind. She glanced down at her hooves and realized she was still trembling.

This isn’t normal, she thought clearly. This has never happened to me before. There must be an explanation. Am I getting sick? I feel fine now, nothing strange anywhere. What could it be?

She sighed. Whatever it was, she couldn’t do anything about it at the moment. Just one more thing to get to when I’m back in Ponyville.

A loose paper slipped onto the floor. Twilight grabbed it and returned it to a large heap on the table. Similar piles of notes were spread out all around, one of which Twilight was using as an impromptu pillow. She had collected several piles together and made an attempt at organization, though Copper’s scratchy and loose writing style made for slow going.

At the top of the pile was a large graph that had caught Twilight’s eye before she nodded off. The data charted on it was difficult to decipher, with lots of crossed out and half-erased sentences. Still, going by the dates, it seemed to be concerning a series of tests conducted quite recently; the last one put a trial down two days before the group had arrived. What the tests were and what they were performed with Twilight had no idea, but as every other note she encountered seemed to refer back to the graph she figured that it must be something important.

So much about infection rate and containment. What was Copper studying up here?

She yawned, a feeling of extreme fatigue hitting her. She looked around for the alarm clock, rustling it out from under another fallen stack: 12:31 AM.

I think it’s time I got some real sleep in a real bed. I’ve got way too many questions right now and am too tired to think straight. I can tackle everything here in the morning.

A small lantern rested on the table, its flame still burning softly. Twilight levitated it to her and headed for the door. Opening it as quietly as she could, she slipped back into the common room. Thin beams of light spread out from her lantern, causing a series of long shadows to play along the floor and walls. Twilight squinted into the darkness to make out the sleeping form of Fluttershy on the couch. The sound of a snore placed Dash on the other couch, having finally given in to the temptations of sleep. Outside the storm continued to rage, albeit without any more significant, base-shaking gusts.

Twilight slowly walked towards the hallway and her room, pausing only to adjust the blanket that had fallen off of Fluttershy. The door creaked loudly as she opened it. Quickly looking back, she saw Dash roll over but otherwise remain sedated. Twilight exhaled in relief and walked towards her room.

“Hi Twilight.”

Twilight recoiled at the sudden greeting, losing her focus on the lantern in the process. The purple haze flickered and it slipped through the air, falling nearly to the ground before Twilight snatched it up again. She looked wildly around for the speaker. Just ahead, a figure stepped out from the shadows.

“Oh! Scootaloo, you scared me,” Twilight whispered.

“Oops. My bad,” Scootaloo said, lowering her voice as well.

“What are you doing up at this hour?” Twilight studied the filly carefully. She looked nervous, continuously glancing around the darkened hall. “It’s way too late for you to be awake.”

“I needed to…” Scootaloo trailed off. Looking past Twilight and through the open door, she could see the sleeping face of Rainbow Dash on the couch. She paused for a moment, biting her lip in concentration. “I need to show you something.”

“What it is?” Twilight asked.

“Something that… well, you’ve just got to see it. Trust me.”

“Scootaloo, I’ve had a very long day.” Twilight yawned again. “Whatever it is, I’m sure it can wait until tomorrow.”

“It’s really important,” Scootaloo urged. She moved closer to Twilight. “It’s just down here, it’ll only take a second. Come on, I’ll show you.”

Twilight considered it as the filly approached. She started to say something when the door next to her creaked open, cutting her off. Both ponies turned to see Spike wander through, rubbing his eyes and looking very tired.

“What’s going on out here?” he asked, barely awake. “Twilight? What are you doing?”

“Sorry, Spike. We didn’t mean to wake you,” Twilight said apologetically. “I was just coming to bed when Scootaloo stopped me.”

Spike looked at Scootaloo, whose eyes traveled between him and Twilight.

“What’s up, Scootaloo?” he asked quietly.

Scootaloo began to back up out of the light. “Uh, never mind, don’t worry about it. Sorry to bug you Twilight.”

“Are you sure, Scootaloo?” Twilight asked. “You said it was really important. I could probably spare a few minutes to come take a look.”

“No, really, it’s okay,” Scootaloo said. She started to retreat back to her room. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Within seconds she was gone, the door to her room quickly opened and shut.

“What was that all about?” Spike asked. He steadied himself against the doorframe, still rubbing his eyes.

“I have no idea,” Twilight answered. She looked into the darkness, carefully watching for any sort of movement. Satisfied there was nothing else coming, she smiled at Spike and started motioning him back through the door. “Come on, Spike. Let’s get you back to bed.”

Spike mumbled something and returned inside. He barely waited for Twilight to follow him in before leaping back into his cot, asleep by the time his head hit the pillow. Twilight gently shut the door and made for her cot, then stopped. She returned to the door and, with some hesitation, clicked the lock into place. She frowned, then shook her head and extinguished the lantern.

“A little more to the left. No, your other left. That’s it. Now bring it forward.” Spike motioned with his claws as he slowly backed into the common room. The supply crate followed him, wood scraping along the stone floor and tight passage walls. With a crunch, the box promptly stopped moving halfway through.

“Hey guys, keep going! Guys?” Spike pulled at the box to no avail. It seemed wedged in tight. “Uh, actually, hang on. I think it’s stuck.”

“What’d ya mean stuck? Again?” Applejack called out from the other side. “There should be plenty of room this time, I measured it myself.”

“It was just at a weird angle last time,” Rainbow Dash said. “I can get this thing through there, hang on one sec.”

“Wait a minute now, Rainbow Dash, we can figure out another way to–”

A loud crash interrupted Applejack and the box leapt forward. Spike ducked out of the way, barely avoiding getting squashed as the crate sailed through the hole in the wall. It slid along the tiled floor, stopping only once it reached the couch at the center of the room.

Dash walked through the passageway, rubbing her shoulder and grinning proudly. “Told ya I could do it.”

“A little warning for me to move out of the way next time would be great,” Spike said, brushing himself off as he got up from the floor.

“Rainbow Dash, what part of ‘Handle with extreme care’ don’t you understand?” Applejack asked hotly as she came in behind her.

Dash thought for a moment. “I think the ‘Handle’ part. That word’s always seemed weird to me.”

“What’s going on out here?” Twilight ran out of the hallway, a tense look on her face. She slid to a stop once she saw the crate.

“Hi Twilight!” Spike said. “Sorry to wake you. We decided to move Copper’s supply crate over here. Didn’t want to leave it all the way by the front doors, after all.”

Twilight relaxed at the explanation. Stepping forward, she noticed sunlight streaming through the window. “What time is it?” she asked.

Pinkie hopped through the kitchen door.

“It’s morning! Somepony’s up last but still bright and early,” she said cheerfully. She tossed Twilight a small plate. “You missed breakfast, so I saved you some eggs. Eat up!”

“Yeah, I wanted you to sleep in today, Twilight, but I guess that didn’t work out,” Spike said. “You looked like you could use the sleep, too.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, Spike. Thank you for the effort, I still had a good sleep.” Twilight looked at the mush on the plate. “Pinkie, where’d you get eggs from up here?”

“I found a box of powdered eggs in the pantry. It’s funny, it looked like Copper never even touched them,” Pinkie said as she hopped around the box, not noticing the gagging motion Spike made to Twilight. “What’s in the box guys? Can we open it? Unless it’s a surprise present, in which case I should wait until my birthday. Or is it a surprise non-birthday present? Ooh, I can’t wait!”

“It ain’t ours to open, Pinkie,” Applejack said. “This here belongs to Copper, an’ we can wait for her to get back to open it.”

“She’s still not back?” Twilight walked to the window to look outside. The storm had receded, at least temporarily; a wall of dark clouds lined the horizon, waiting for another chance to move in. Sunlight filtered through the sky’s solid layer of overcast. Replacing the windstorm of the previous evening was a calm shower of snow, one whose flakes were in no great hurry to reach the ground.

“Well, an’ I say this still not knowin’ what she’s up to out there,” Applejack said, joining Twilight at the window, “I reckon’ she hunkered down at her camp for the night to wait out the storm. Now that it’s nice out, she’ll probably start headin’ back. Dunno how long that’ll take her. Isn’t there supposed to be a map somewhere around here?”

“She’ll show up when she shows up, Twilight,” Dash said, smiling. “Relax. Now, come on and get ready.”

“Ready for what?” Twilight asked as she watched Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie pull their coats on.

“To go play, silly!” Pinkie said, shoving a wooly hat over her head. “The weather’s finally nice and clear, so we can go enjoy the powder. After all, what’s the start of another winter without playing in the snow?”

Behind her, the kitchen door swung open again. Fluttershy, Rarity, and the fillies walked out. The three young girls appeared particularly glum.

“Aww, come on Rarity,” Sweetie Belle said, looking wide-eyed at her sister. “Can’t we just go out and play for a little bit? You can watch us, we won’t go far.”

“I’m sorry girls, but it’s simply too cold for you outside,” Rarity said.

“But it’s so boring in here!” Scootaloo whined. “There are only so many times you can watch tomatoes grow.”

“You girls should have thought of that before you stowed away without any winter clothing,” Rarity replied with the tiniest of smirks. “Beach gear will not protect you from the elements.”

“Plus, last I checked, you three were still bein’ punished” Applejack said as she wrapped a scarf around her neck. “You comin’ Rarity? You’ve certainly got more than enough winter gear to cover yourself.”

“No, thank you. I believe I’ll stay indoors for the time being.” Rarity walked with the fillies over towards the hall. “Come along now, girls. I only unpacked three of my bags yesterday. It’s time to get through the rest and prepare my scarves for the rest of the week. We’re going to need to get creative with storage, what with no dressers, although I’m sure we can make something work. It’ll be fun!”

The fillies groaned as they followed Rarity, heads slumped down in submission.

“How about you then, Fluttershy?” Pinkie asked. “Wanna go kick it up in the snow?”

“I guess a little time outside couldn’t hurt,” Fluttershy said, smiling at the friendly sight outside. “Let me go get my coat.”

“That just leaves you, Twilight,” Dash said. She grinned. “Ready to get a snowball war started? As Ponyville’s reigning champ, I’m always up for a new challenger to test my skills on.”

“Reigning champ? As if!” Pinkie laughed. She pulled the door open, bringing a solid wall of cold air into the room. Everypony immediately shivered. Pinkie laughed again. “No time to lose now, girls. Out we go!”

“I think I’ll stay in today,” Twilight said through gritted teeth. “I didn’t get far on the notes last night. Now’s the time for me to make some real headway while I wait for Copper to get back.”

“Suit yourself, Twi,” Spike said. He made for the door only to be stopped by Twilight hovering his thick jacket in front of him.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” she said with a smile. Spike rolled his eyes and shoved himself into the jacket. Once it was all the way on he quickly hurried outside, disappearing into the first snowdrift he came across. Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Dash immediately followed him, each sprightly diving into the snow.

“Don’t push yourself on those notes now, Twilight,” Applejack said in the doorway. “We’ll let you know as soon as we see Copper approachin’ on the horizon.”

“Thanks,” Twilight said. She shivered again. “Now please, shut the door. You’re letting snow in.”

Applejack chuckled and slammed the door shut. Twilight watched them through the window as snowballs began flying through the air. Dash scooped up a particularly large pile and flew up, ready to drop it on the first target she came across. Meanwhile, Pinkie scored a direct hit on Spike’s head. He rolled down a small hill, laughing the whole way. Fluttershy appeared to be doing her best to just dodge every shot that came close to her way.

The sounds of laughter leaked through the glass, causing Twilight to smile. She turned and headed through to the laboratory. A strong, pungent odor met her at the door, causing her to stagger.

Whoa, where is that coming from? It definitely wasn’t that strong yesterday.

After taking a moment to collect herself, she walked inside. All right, time to get things organized in here. Hopefully Copper won’t mind too much. Maybe I can figure out where that smell is coming from too. She’d probably like it if that went away.

An old clock hung on the wall just over the kitchen door. Its old gears still ran as smoothly as the day they were made, and the hour hand rolled over with perfect precision. A small bell rang, striking the hour with four small dings.

Applejack paced back and forth. “Four ‘o’clock… anythin’ yet?”

Spike stood on a chair by the window and peered outside. The snowfall had increased to a moderate flurry, limiting his visibility. The dark clouds still held their position in the distance, not yet ready to move back in. He strained to see something, anything, in the polar landscape.

He sighed and shook his head. “Nothing. Only thing out there is a whole lotta snow.”

“She should be back by now,” Fluttershy said nervously. “She wouldn’t spend more than one day out there. She couldn’t… right?”

“I don’t know, an’ I don’t much care for waitin’ around to find out,” Applejack said. She quit her pacing and faced the rest of the group. “Some of us should go an’ look for her.”

“What, go trekking out there?” Rarity asked in disbelief. “Where would we even start?”

“Hawks said there was a map ‘round here somewhere. I suspect that’s as good a place as any.” Applejack walked over to the bookcase. Propped up against the shelves were several large rolled-up posters. Knocking them down to the floor, she unrolled each one and quickly scanned through them. “Lessee here… looks like we’ve got a weather chart, some science thing, an old Wonderbolts poster–”

“Dibs on that one,” Dash said, snatching it away for a closer inspection.

“–another science thing, and… bingo. This looks like what we need.” Applejack pulled the large map out from under the other posters and slid it over to the center of the room. The group clustered around it to look, save for Spike, who opted to sit back on the sofa. The three fillies occupied themselves with a game of tag, dashing between rooms and generally ignoring the others.

“Is going out there to find her really the best idea?” Spike asked. “We still don’t know if there’s a problem at all. Or if she’ll just show up right after we leave.”

“Not all of us are gonna go, Spike,” Applejack said. “I think me an’ Rainbow Dash can manage this. The rest of you can hang back to meet her if she does show.”

“Yeah, Spike. We’ll find her, no doubt.” Dash started tracing around the map with her hoof. “So if we’re this big black splotch in the middle, then where’s this site of hers… wow, she’s got a lot of places marked on here. Where’d the note say she was again?”

“Bell Camp, I think. Where’d that note get to, anyhow?” Applejack asked nopony in particular. Her eyes narrowing, she leaned in for a closer view. “This would be easier if I could read these labels. Copper’s got some serious chickenscratch goin’ here.”

“Here, let me take a look,” Spike said, hopping off the couch. “I’ve worked out enough of Twilight’s notes over the years to be able to get through anypony’s writing style.”

While Spike, Dash, and Applejack conferred over the map, Fluttershy and Rarity broke away to check out the window.

“I don’t know how many times I can keep looking out there,” Rarity said. “I do wish this girl would show. I don’t like the idea of those two going out to find her, not with that hideous wall of clouds waiting for them.”

“At least they don’t seem to be coming any closer,” Fluttershy said. She quivered. “But then, maybe they’re coming in from the other direction and we just can’t see them. Or maybe once they start moving they move in really fast. Or maybe they don’t need to move at all and can start over there and still hit us over here. Or maybe all of that could happen at once.”

Rarity patted the quivering pegasus on the back. “There, there, Fluttershy. You really can’t keep letting this weather get to you. I don’t want anypony out there any more than you do, and so long as we’re in here, we’re okay.”

“I guess.” Fluttershy turned away from the window. “Hey, where’s Twilight? Shouldn’t she have a say in this?”

“I haven’t seen her since this morning,” Rarity said. “I think she’s been reading those notes all day. Girls, quit running around so much, you’re going to hurt yourselves. Girls!”

Watching Rarity follow the fillies down the hall, Fluttershy made for the kitchen door. Retrieving a small basket full of lettuce in her mouth, she walked back across to the lab entrance. The conversation over the map began to escalate as Applejack and Dash started arguing over the correct route to take.

Fluttershy paused in the doorway. The lab was transformed; the great piles of paper had been tidied up into several stacks, all neatly organized across several central desks. Much of the scrap clutter was pushed off to a far corner, and even it looked like it had been carefully cataloged before abandonment. The microscopes and empty glasses were scrunched together, and a large chart had been tacked up onto the center of the wall. The blankets had been completely removed from both sets of tanks, and now both the vegetables and the mice could be easily viewed from any angle. The only things in the room that appeared to be totally unaltered were the persistent odor and the small refrigerator containing the liquid samples.

Twilight sat on a stool at the desk with the most papers, her back to the door as she flipped through a small red notebook. Fluttershy gently put her basket down and approached her, trying her best to ignore the room’s smell as she did. Getting closer, she could hear Twilight mumbling something, though she spoke too fast for Fluttershy to pick out the specifics.

“Um, Twilight?” she asked. “Are you busy?”

Twilight almost fell off her stool. “Fluttershy! What are you doing here? Why are you in here?” she exclaimed as she whirled around, her body tense and beads of sweat rolling down her forehead.

Fluttershy drew back at the outburst, bumping into one of the desks. “Oh! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you. I was, um, I wanted to see how you were and, um, tell you that, well, some of the others are, uh…”

Fluttershy stammered under Twilight’s hard gaze.

“I’m sorry, Fluttershy,” Twilight said, making an effort to relax her body. “You startled me is all. What can I help you with?”

“Well, Applejack and Rainbow Dash are thinking of going out to try and find Copper. You know, because she still hasn’t arrived.”

“I see. That’s a… do they plan to leave soon?” Twilight began tapping her hoof on the table, her mind racing.

“I think so,” Fluttershy said, going back to her basket. “They’re looking at the map now. I don’t know if they’ve figure out where to go yet, though.”

“Okay, thanks for letting me know. I’ll need to talk to them before they– wait!” Twilight leapt over the table and grabbed Fluttershy, pulling her away from the mice tanks. The basket jerked out of her mouth and fell to the floor, spilling produce everywhere.

“What’s wrong?” Fluttershy cried out. Twilight kept pulling her until they were back on the other side of the room.

“Stay away from the mice.” Twilight looked Fluttershy straight in the eyes as she spoke, pressing up and pinning her against a desk. “I mean it, Fluttershy. Don’t go near them.”

Fluttershy began to shrink down. “But, I-I just wanted to feed them, I c-can’t even–”

“No. You stay away, Fluttershy.” Twilight practically shook her. “Do you understand me? I don’t want you near them. You’ve just… you’ve just got to trust me on this right now.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll stay away, I promise.” Fluttershy wriggled out from under Twilight and quickly scurried out of the room. At the door she nearly ran straight into Rainbow Dash; she muttered a hurried apology and continued out.

“What was that all about?” Dash asked, scratching her head. “Did you say something to her, Twilight?”

Twilight sighed. “I may have been a little overbearing with her. I only want her to keep away from the mice.”

“Why?” Dash asked, looking at the mice. They were all spaced evenly in their individual tanks, not looking particularly conspicuous. “What’s wrong with them?”

“Going off of what I’ve been reading, Copper was testing the liquid on them,” Twilight said. “And the results could be contagious.”

Despite being on the far side of the room, Dash drew away from the tanks. “What, we can get sick from being close to them now? Should I be worried? It’s nothing that affects wings, right?”

“I’m not sure yet. As for now, better safe than sorry, and that means keeping your distance. Especially for Fluttershy. You know how she gets with animals like that,” Twilight said. She gestured to the vegetable containers that Dash was backing towards. “Copper was testing on those tomatoes as well, but she doesn’t seem as worried about them.”

Dash hovered through the air, landing next to Twilight. “Why was she doing all this? What did she find out?”

“That part I’m working on figuring out,” Twilight said. “Her notes are a little vague. Here, listen to this: ‘Mouse 4B exposed to a 10cc sample. Reaction occurred instantaneously. The sample itself behaved as previously described, with full transformation occurring in approximately five minutes and twelve seconds. It’s getting faster. Visual appearance of the imitation also matched the others, with no discrepancies. Further details are in Index 3 of the ledger.’ She’s got over a dozen entries like this, all with different sample sizes and reaction times.”

“Transformation? Imitation? What the hay is this girl talking about?” Dash’s questions came rapidly as she looked back at the mice.

“I think I’ve got it,” Twilight said. She looked back and forth between the notes and the chart on the wall. “Or at least, I’ve got part of it. I found this page on the floor. It looks like it’s been ripped out of something else, so it’s not all there. ‘It could have imitated a million life forms anywhere in Equestria. It could change into any one of them at any time. But somehow it ends up here. It needs to be alone and in close proximity to a life form in order to be absorbed. The chameleon strikes in the dark.’”

“This still isn’t making much sense. You ever consider the possibility that this girl is just rambling?”

“As best I can tell, it’s all about the liquid.” Twilight’s eyes flickered to the closed refrigerator on a nearby desk. “That stuff isn’t just any old, well, liquid. It’s apparently some kind of actual organism. One that has a very distinct reaction when placed to next to another organism. So Copper would put a mouse into that test container –the empty one, under the table there- and she adds in a measured amount of that liquid. It… does something to the mouse. Changes it. Changes itself with it. In what way I’m still not entirely sure. She keeps referring to the transformations and reaction times, but also says that the details are kept in a specific ledger.”

“And what does that ledger have to say about this?”

“You sure you’re interested in this?” Twilight looked at Dash skeptically. “This sort of thing doesn’t normally grab you.”

“Yeah, I know, it’s all just a bunch of science-y stuff, but, you know, since you’ve been in here so long and I’m stuck out here too… what the hay, you might as well tell me.”

“Uh-huh. Well, I wish I could, but I can’t find it.” Twilight shrugged. “I’ve spent all day going through every note in here and it’s nowhere to be found. I’m pretty sure that ripped page came out of it. I guess she wanted to keep the main part of her research in one spot for safekeeping. I’ll keep looking around, but I can say for certain that this liquid and its effects are dangerous. Half these notes are on safety and handling procedures, disposal methods, and containment protocols. For that reason, I don’t want anypony going near the mice or the liquid. Or the tube, for that matter.”

“She say what could have happened to all that liquid from the tube?” Dash slowly began to edge towards the mice, peering at them to try and make out any kind of irregularity. Some simply stared back while others disregarded her entirely.

“She does mention a few times how it seems to evaporate upon sustained contact with open air, but she only mentions it in passing. I haven’t found anything on a dedicated study on the subject. And those are just tiny samples she talks about, and they’re in with some really erratic looking notes…” Twilight trailed off. Her hoof began to tap again and her brow wrinkled. She started flipping through the papers again in another attempt to catch anything she might’ve missed.

Dash gave her an awkward look before heading towards the door in the rear of the room. “So, anyway… you keep having fun with all that. I’m just here to grab some of that snow gear. Applejack and I are going to go out to Copper’s site, see if we can find her. We don’t like her being gone this long.”

“Yes, Fluttershy told me,” Twilight said, putting her papers down. “I actually need to talk to you about that. I don’t think it’s a good idea to–”

“Oh man!” Dash covered her nose and mouth, trying not to breathe too deeply. “Twilight, something’s gotta be done about this stench. I tried to ignore it when I came in but it just gets worse over here. It absolutely reeks.”

“Oh, yeah. I think I stopped noticing it for a while, I’ve been in here so long.” Twilight got up and walked over to the door. “It definitely gets stronger over here. It sort of smells like something’s been burnt…”

“Must be in there.” Dash leaned in against the door, withdrawing after she took another breath. “Yep, it’s definitely in there. Think we should take a look?”

“I don’t see the harm in that,” Twilight said. She leaned against the door, trying to push it open. It shifted in a few inches before jamming against something heavy. A fresh wave of the smell flowed out as soon as the door cracked open. Twilight did her best not to gag. “It’s stuck against something.”

“Is any door in this place easy to open?” Dash sighed and took a few steps back. “All right, move out of the way Twilight. I got this.”

“I don’t think that will be necessary this time, Rainbow,” Twilight said. Her horn glowed as a wall of purple appeared over the door. Twilight pushed her head down and the door pressed inward. After a few seconds of effort it slowly scraped open, causing several large objects to clatter to the floor. A dark room greeted the two ponies, one filled with the smell of flame and decay.

“Not there… not there… ugh, not there either.” Rarity shut her bag and tossed it in with the others. “I know I packed it. I could’ve sworn I had it earlier today. Where could it be?”

Rarity stepped over the luggage pile and out into the hall. She briskly walked back to the common room, where much of the group was still gathered. “Applejack? Have you seen my wool scarf?”

Applejack looked up from the map. “Huh? What makes you think I’d know where somethin’ like that is?”

“I thought I might’ve taken it out this morning to lend to you,” Rarity said. The patter of hooves approached behind her and she quickly sidestepped a running Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. “Girls! What did I say about the running?”

“Sorry Rarity!” Sweetie Belle called out. “We just wanted to check something in the kitchen real quick.”

“I don’t remember you having any scarves out today, Rarity,” Spike said, pushing the map out of the way to avoid the incoming fillies.

“Yeah, Rarity,” Applejack said. “Only scarf I had this mornin’ was my own. What do you need one now for anyhow? You’re not going out with us.”

“I just like to keep a proper inventory of my apparel, thank you very much,” Rarity replied testily. “It’s a large red scarf and I know I had it when I started this trip.”

“Does it have big yellow circles on both ends?” Scootaloo asked, popping up from the other side of the couch. “Cuz’ I think I used that as a pillow on the train.”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “Serves me right for trying to keep it with me on the ride up. I should’ve noticed sooner.”

“I’m sorry. I just grabbed it off the floor.” Scootaloo quickly hopped up and over the cushions to dodge an incoming Apple Bloom.

“Never mind, never mind.” Rarity turned back towards the hall. “Is it in your room?”

“Um…” Scootaloo tapped her chin in concentration. “I think I left it back in that big box we came in. I didn’t take it out when we got here.”

“So it’s all the way back at the front entrance? Lovely.” Rarity rolled her eyes once more and made for the passage to the temple.

“I can get that for you Rarity!” Spike shouted, hurrying past her. “I’ll be back here in a jiffy.”

“Thank you very much, Spike,” Rarity said, smiling at him. “That’s very generous of you.”

“Spike, while you’re over there, can you grab that note from Copper?” Applejack asked. “I can’t remember the name of where she said she’s at, an’ there’s too many listed here to search them all.”

“Could you also get my blue blanket as well?” Fluttershy asked. “If it’s not too much trouble, I mean.”

“No problemo!” Spike waved and hurried down the passageway.

“Are you certain you two want to go out there?” Rarity walked past Applejack to the window. “Judging by those clouds, it won’t be nice out for long.”

“It’s worth a shot,” Applejack replied. “Besides, those clouds haven’t moved an inch all day. I get the feelin’ we’ll be able to find her place an’ come back before anythin’ heavy moves in. Although we’re gonna have to start movin’ soon, before it gets too late.”

A loud crash from the other room drew everypony’s attention. They quickly hurried through the door into the kitchen to discover a large flame shooting out of the stove. Pinkie lay in a heap on the other side of the room, crumpled under several pots.

“Pinkie Pie!” Applejack and Fluttershy rushed over to help her up while Rarity shut off the stove. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Pinkie said, looking a little woozy. “Guess I set the stove too high.”

“You really need to be more careful with these things, dear,” Rarity said. Her horn glowed and the pots flew back up onto a high shelf. “This isn’t your kitchen, after all. I think the best steps towards making a good impression on somepony include not making their stove explode.”

“Can do!” Pinkie smiled brightly, hopping up and shaking the dust off. “I think I’ve about got this stove figured out. It looks like it’s hooked up to this big furnace downstairs. It’s one doozy of a heater, but I can tame it. Nothing’s going to stand between Pinkie Pie and a perfectly cooked batch of muffins.”

“This place has a downstairs?” Apple Bloom asked, wandering in with Sweetie Belle. “Can we go see–”

“No. You lot stay out from down there, it’s dangerous,” Applejack said firmly, heading past her disappointed sister and back out to the common room. “Now where’d Rainbow Dash get to?”

It took Twilight and Rainbow Dash several minutes to become adjusted to the smell of the room. Twilight raised the lantern to get a better view. It was a small space, no bigger than their bunkrooms. Several tall bookshelves lined a wall, opposite from another set of desks. These were much cleaner than the ones out in the lab, with only a few notebooks and microscopes on them.

Once they were able to withstand the noxious aroma they ventured inside. They stopped a few steps in. Their eyes were drawn to a partially-collapsed cot in the center of the room. A large mass lay on top of it, resting at a slant. It was almost uniformly blackened, cooked to a crisp by a fire that had consumed the back wall of the room. A broken lamp and overturned can of kerosene lying nearby seemed to be the culprits.

“Well, I think we found where the smell is coming from,” Dash said, one hoof covering her face.

“What is that? It looks like… some kind of meat.” Twilight slowly moved forward to take a closer look. It was a twisted figure, a formless blob of burned flesh that conformed to no set pattern in appearance. Cracks spread along its surface while multiple appendages sprouted out of it at seemingly random intervals.

“Wonder why this whole place didn’t burn up,” Dash said, kicking the lamp aside. “Guess Copper should be thankful for these metal walls. Not as good as clouds or anything, but hey, whatever keeps the roof where it should be.”

Twilight ignored Dash as she drew up to the top of the cot. One of the bookshelves had been caught in the blaze and collapsed, covering part of the blob. Hooking the lantern onto an exposed nail on the wall, Twilight carefully pushed the charred wood onto the floor. A metallic glint appeared.

Twilight leaned in. A pair of oval-rimmed glasses was fused to the blob. Twilight coughed, her breath blowing off a small pile of ash and revealing an unmistakable sight: an eye, staring right at Twilight.

Twilight gasped and recoiled, pushing herself against the unburned bookshelf with enough force to knock several books down. She didn’t even notice them as she stared back at the hideous image illuminated before her. A face, one that was a cross between melted and deformed. An expression of terror could be made out, albeit one with cartoonish proportions. The mouth was stretched out into a long, wavy arc, with sharp teeth of varying sizes jutting out at irregular angles. A bone pierced out through one of the cheeks, the end broken into a sharp point. Next to this was a small patch of unburned skin, on which sat several small freckles. The eye behind the glasses seemed normal, while the other was half its size and pushed up on the forehead. It stared off into space next to a bent unicorn horn.

“It’s… it’s…” she tried to speak but couldn’t finish the sentence. Her mouth dried out and her hooves started shaking.

“What is it?” Dash walked around to see. It took several seconds for her to register what she was looking at. Her eyes grew as wide as saucers. She made a gagging noise and quickly turned to one corner of the room, vomiting into a pile of broken scraps.

“Copper.” Twilight finally managed to say. “It’s Copper.”

“There’s no way,” she said, wiping her mouth off. “There’s just no way. Look at that thing, it’s three times the size of a pony. She can’t be… I mean, it’s… that’s…”

Dash glanced back at the face. Her cheeks bulged and she bent back over, a second stream of bile coming out of her mouth. Twilight stood up and walked across the room, her legs trembling the whole way. She leaned against the desk, taking deep breaths and doing her best not to look back.

A small black ledger sat at the center of the desk between two tall lanterns. Twilight switched both on. The extra light made the blob glisten, making apparent a thick layer of mucus dripping off the flesh. Dash saw that one of the appendages pointing towards her was in fact a hoof, one drawn out to an unnatural length. She managed to avoid throwing up this time. She sat back against the wall, looking vacant and completely speechless.

Almost reflexively, Twilight started flipping through the ledger. Her eyes glossed over the words, not particularly focusing on anything. A thousand different thoughts clattered through her head. She finally stopped on a page that had a large bookmark and began to read aloud. ‘Once placed near a viable organism, the substance swiftly overtakes it. It moves with a will of its own, absorbing right into the other organism. The transformation only takes a few minutes, give or take depending on the proportions of what is being taken over. The result is absolutely identical to the original organism. It creates imitations, something that looks like what it should but is still, ultimately, the substance. This new creature can in turn take over others. This was harder to observe, as it seemed reluctant to change in the presence of witnesses. The process is grotesque in nature–’”

“Twilight, stop,” Dash said. She took several deep breaths before continuing. “I don’t want to hear it. I really, really don’t.”

Her legs trembling just as bad as Twilight’s, Dash slowly stood up. Averting her eyes from the gory display on the cot, she began to stumble out the door. Twilight quickly ran to get in front of her and block her way.

“Rainbow,” she asked flatly, “where are you going?”

“Where am I– Twilight, we need to get out of here,” Dash said, shaking her head. “All of us. Out of this base, out of this place. We need to get back to the train station, back to Hawks, back to help. We need to do it right now.”

“Yes, I know we do,” Twilight said. She backed out of the room, floating the ledger over to her. “Okay, listen to me. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to go back out and gather everypony together. I’ll write a letter to have Spike send to the Princess. Then I’ll teleport us out of here. I can’t get us all the way, but we should be able to hike the rest of the way. You can fly ahead from there to get help to come to us.”

“How far do you think you can get us?”

“I think about halfway… maybe. Less if we decide to take the carriage with us.”

“Halfway? That’s all?” Dash shook her head. “Come on Twilight, you can take us farther than that! All of us can’t trudge through that weather very far, you know that.”

“It gets harder the more I’ve got to take with me!” Twilight hissed. “There’s ten of us plus winter gear. I’ll be lucky if I don’t pass out when we get there.”

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry,” Dash calmed down. She quickly walked out of the room with Twilight, shutting the door behind. “Has the princess answered any of the letters you’ve sent so far?”

“She’ll respond. I’ll send one every minute if I need to,” Twilight said firmly. “But Rainbow, we need to stay calm. Don’t say anything just yet when we get out there. I don’t want to cause a big panic that’ll get us nowhere fast.”

Dash stared at her, then nodded slowly. “Okay, yeah, that makes sense. What should I tell them?”

“Make something up. We can say that there might be something infectious in the lab, I don’t know.”

“They’ll ask about Copper.”

“I know, I know. I’ll think of something.”

With grim determination, the two ponies walked out of the lab and back into the common room. Applejack looked up from the coat she was dealing with and smiled.

“There you two are. I’ve been waitin’ for ya,” she said. “Rainbow, you about ready to leave? We can’t get going too late, after all. Sun’s gonna set in a few hours.”

Dash opened her mouth but nothing came out. She gaped noiselessly in the air, lowering her head to avoid looking at anypony.

“Uh, you okay there, Rainbow Dash?” Applejack asked. “You’re lookin’ pretty pale.”

“Spike? Spike, where are you?” Twilight called out. She heard steps approaching from the hall and turned to see Rarity step out.

“Hello Twilight. Glad to see you’ve finally gotten out of that dingy laboratory,” she said airily. “As for Spike, he went to get something of mine from the main entrance. He’s taking a while doing it, though. I was actually just about to leave to go get him.”

“Uh, yeah, all right,” Twilight said. “Please go do that.”

Rarity gave Twilight a strange look, but continued on through to the temple, quickly disappearing down the passageway.

“Applejack, could you please get the others in here?” Twilight asked, sitting down on the couch. “Right now?”

Applejack started to ask something, but Twilight’s expression made her keep silent. She simply nodded and quickly went into the kitchen. Dash sat down on the opposite couch, staring off into space.

A few moments later, Pinkie skipped through the door, followed closely by Fluttershy, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Applejack.

“Hiya Twilight,” Pinkie said. “Finally taking a break from that smelly lab?”

“Everypony, please listen to me.” Twilight stood up, speaking as confidently as she could to the gathered group. “We all need to gather our things together and get ready to leave. There’s been a small problem, and we’re going to have to return to the train station.”

The reaction was immediate. A sense of shock and confusion was in the air and everypony began to talk over themselves to question Twilight.

Applejack spoke the loudest. “Leave now? What for? What kinda small problem are you talkin’ about?”

“Yeah, what’s up Twilight?” Pinkie asked. “We came all the way out here, we can’t just up and vamoose all out of the blue. I just put muffins in the oven.”

“What about Copper?” Fluttershy asked. Dash twitched involuntarily at the mention of the name. “We still need to–”

“Never mind Copper,” Twilight said, brushing past the issue as fast as she could. “There’s something dangerous in the lab that could spread to the rest of the base. I don’t think it’s a problem at the moment, but I don’t want to take a chance with it, not when it’s just us out here. We need to go back and better figure things out.”

“Twilight, you’ve got to tell us why,” Applejack said. She moved in with a reassuring look on her face. “We’ll listen to you. We just need a good reason for what you want us to do.”

“You’ve got to trust me right now. It’s… it’s complicated,” Twilight said. She suddenly looked around at the ponies assembled in front of her. “Hang on. Is everypony here?”

The others glanced around.

“Well, Rarity and Spike are still–” Pinkie started to say.

“Hey, where’s Scootaloo?” Apple Bloom asked, cutting in. “She was here a second ago.”

“She must have wandered off again,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Wandered off again? Hasn’t she been with you two all day?” Applejack asked. “You girls know you’re supposed to stay around me or Rarity.”

“We know, we tried to tell her that,” Apple Bloom said. “But a few times today she just sorta walked off. She didn’t tell us what she was doing or anything.”

Twilight’s mind raced. She spoke slowly, a strong air of worry in her voice. “How many times today have she run off?”

Rarity’s scream pierced through the air. Immediately, everypony’s head turned towards the passage to the temple, the conversation silenced by the abrupt noise. They all froze in place, unsure of how to react.

A second scream quickly followed the first, this one snapping the group out of their little stupor. Twilight took off down the passage, the rest of the group close behind her. Down through the twisting stone halls of the temple they went, following the lit torches and gas lines while running as fast as their hooves would carry them. Before long they were back in the front hall. A third scream penetrated the closed doors that separated them from the entrance foyer.

Applejack moved the quickest and slammed into the doors, throwing them open with a loud crash. Her momentum carried her in a slide along the floor, sending her crashing right into Rarity. The two crumpled to the floor, knocking over a nearby drum of lamp oil in the process.

“Rarity! What in blue blazes is goin’ on in…here…” Applejack voice grew faint, her eyes widening. The thunder of hooves ceased as the rest of the group passed through the doorway, each of them stopped and silenced by the sight ahead.

Scootaloo sat on the floor near the front doors. Her front legs were split open, broken apart into a collection of writhing tentacles and exposed organs. The skin had peeled away from her face and midsection to reveal goo-covered muscles and several patches of grey bone. A long, red tube of flesh extended out of her torso. It coiled along the ground, occasionally jostled by her jerking rear legs. A series of thinner tentacles stretched out from underneath her, including a new one that broke through the skin as they all watched.

Spike was face down on the floor near her hooves. The tube extended into the base of his skull, pumping something in at a high rate of speed. The smaller tentacles were completely wrapped around him. They pierced through him from foot to shoulder, containing him entirely like a tree covered in vines. Blood seeped out of these wounds, trickling down his scales to form a large pool on the stone. He was perfectly limp; the only movement in his body coming from the motion of the tube.

“Spike!” Twilight blurted out.

Scootaloo’s skinned head looked up. A contorted expression of annoyance formed as she noticed her new audience for the first time. Her eyes rolled over to become black spheres. Her jaw opened and a long, deep howl emerged from the back of her throat. A rumbling growl crossed with a high-pitched squeal, it created an ear-splitting combination far too loud for such a small body.

The group’s reactions were mixed. Applejack scrambled up, pushing the catatonic Rarity along with her. Pinkie and Fluttershy screamed. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle huddled behind the group, gripping each other tightly and crying hysterically. Dash helped Applejack pull Rarity back, her entire body shaking.

Twilight just stared, her mouth agape.

A series of sickening cracks sounded out. Thin, sharp legs pushed their way through Scootaloo’s chest, skittering around as soon as they hit the floor. The thin tentacles tightened and pulled in to draw Spike up to her body. His face rolled over as he was dragged along the floor, revealing a snapped jaw and a pair of dull, lifeless eyes. Scootaloo tried to push away from the group with her new legs, but it proved to be an awkward task. The pointed legs scratched along the floor, trying desperately to take her away. Her path was soon blocked by the large, empty trunk that stood directly between her and the door.

An object sped past Twilight. In the frantic and confused state of the group, somepony had kicked the oil drum down the hall. Rolling straight ahead, it bumped into a squirming Scootaloo. She screamed again, her howl bouncing around the chamber and drowning out the cries of the group. With a loud snap, a section of her neck split open. A slender, tissue-coated claw emerged, pulling skin and tissue from an unknown source while dripping a viscous white substance. The claw quickly rose into the air. It wobbled slightly on its slender stalk before slamming down onto the drum. It immediately split in two. A large wave of oil splashed all over Scootaloo and surrounding floor. She howled a third time as her muscles began to quiver and change, her body form shifting into some entirely new shape.

“Twilight!” Dash screamed, tears streaming down her cheek. “Do something!”

Twilight remained rooted to her spot, rigid with fear.

Dash looked frantically around. One of the torches from the wall had become dislodged and lay on the floor, a weak flame still burning.

“Everypony back up, now!” She dove down and snatched it up, gripping it tightly in her jaws. She pulled her head back to throw when suddenly a purple wall popped up in front of her.

“No!” Twilight screamed, breaking free of her trance. “Spike’s still in there, you can’t!”

“Twilight, he’s gone! Just look!” Applejack pointed at the grisly scene. Spike’s body was partially absorbed into Scootaloo now. What was once a dragon and a filly had fused into a pulsating mass, one that was sprouting more pointed limbs and claws with each passing second.

Twilight’s jaw fluttered, lost for words. Applejack pushed her out of the way, sending her back down the hall with the others. Her horn winked and the wall was gone. Dash whipped her head around and tossed the flame. Scootaloo helplessly watched it arc through the air and fall towards her.

It landed dead center, immediately igniting the oil. A blast of heat exploded outwards, tossing Dash backwards into Applejack and cracking the trunk in two. Engulfed in fire, Scootaloo wailed loudly while her many limbs flailed through the air in a vivid display. Excess drops of flaming oil splashed behind her, spreading the blaze to both the remainder of the trunk and the front doors. Smoke shot upwards, filling the air and coating the walls in a thick layer of soot. With a final screeching yowl, Scootaloo stopped twitching. Her misshapen body, fried and melted by the intense heat, collapsed into a completely unrecognizable shape.

The doors groaned and creaked as the fire quickly made its way through the ancient wood. They buckled inward further and further until finally the weakened barrier could take no more. The doors collapsed inward, a rush of snow and freezing air swooping in from outside. In fell a pile of snow, landing on the scorched remains and extinguishing the flames.

The smoke billowed around the hall before being replaced by regular air, although the burning smell still lingered. It wasn’t long before the elements covered what little remained of the scorched remains. The wind shrieked loudly, a harbinger of the coming storm.