Author's Notes:

Alright, so I would first like to start off with an apology for taking so long on this chapter and my inactivity in general. Things in life just kept piling up to the point where I just needed to take a step back and try to reorganize it all. I know I should have at least dropped an update on the status, but I basically just lost all motivation for just about everything during that period of time. Not too worry though, as I finally got it all situated and feel just about as good as new and ready to continue on with the story. Well, enough about all that depressing jazz; let's get to what you all came here for.

Thanks for all the proofreading, editing, and constant support to my good buddy Regreme. Plus, if you all feel up to it. I always appreciate a bit of feedback and criticism to help improve.

“Well, your friends were interesting,” Sam mentioned between bites of his cupcake.

Twilight rounded on him from her spot at one of her equipment laden tables in the lab. Her retort was cut short when she spotted the sweet confectionary in Sam’s fingers.

“Sam, put that down,” she snapped, “We’re in the middle of something! You’re going to throw off my readings.”

Sam smirked and shoved the rest of the cupcake into his mouth before Twilight could snatch it from his grasp with magic. Her eyes shined with annoyance while she watched him chew noisily right in front of her. She was at least glad that he had the decency to not get any of the frosting on the electrode leads attached to different parts of his body.

After their encounter with Twilight’s friends, she was able to convince them to wait for her and Sam in one of the lounges while they got back to their research.

“You’re such a foal,” Twilight said and turned back to her equipment on the table.

Sam enacted the only suitable response to a comment like that; by sticking out his tongue while the unicorn’s back was turned. Twilight could tell that Sam was doing something behind her back, but she decided to ignore it in favor of concentrating on the equipment and notes in front of her.

'It’s faint, but it looks like the signatures match,' Twilight thought as she read over the data, ‘That means that this displacement is definitely the unique energy that seems to exude not only from Sam, but any other object that is saturated with this signature. If that’s the case, then maybe I should work on a way to identify this energy and use it as the anchor rather than just try to match a resonance.'

Twilight’s quill would have caught fire with how fast she was writing were it not for a set of knocks coming from her lab’s doors.

“Yes?” She snapped, hating being interrupted when she was in the zone, “What is it?”

The lab doors opened to admit a pair of guards wheeling in a large tray cart with all manners of spooled metal on its surface.

The first guard saluted and spoke with a soft, musical voice, “I am sorry, Ms. Sparkle, but these are all the materials that you requested yesterday. It would have been ready sooner, but some of the materials were out of stock.”

Twilight blushed in embarrassment once she remembered that she did in fact ask for the materials that were being set off to the side by the other guard, “Oh, right. Thank you for bringing them as promptly as you could.”

The female guard nodded with a small smile, “You’re welcome, Ms. Sparkle.”

The two guards left without much more else to say and left the unicorn and the conduit to look over exactly what had been brought over. The cart contained multiple spools of various metals. Some of them, Sam could tell what they were just by looking at them, but others he would have to pick up and use to remember their names. Disregarding Twilight’s instructions, he ripped the electrodes away from his body to get a closer look. The unicorn didn’t seem to mind as she busied herself with inspecting each spool for its quality.

“So, Sparks. You wanna share with the rest of the class on what you got there?” Sam snarkily remarked.

Twilight’s ears twitched, and she bit her bottom lip before speaking. In a rather hushed tone, “Uh, well, I was kinda hoping I could get some more readings on your abilities with the use of different materials. You know, to see how the various substances interact with your powers and finding any further links between yours and my world’s ecology through proportional similarities.”

Sam raised an eyebrow at Twilight’s forced grin. He could already see the bead of sweat forming at the top of her brow. Although she would never flat out admit it, Sam could always tell that this mare was always hungry for knowledge. There was also the way she would look whenever she had a burning question at the back of her mind that would slowly eat away at her until she found the answers she was looking for. Sam’s and Twilight’s time in their research was thoroughly divided up that it left Twilight with so many questions that she wanted to ask about both Sam and his world at large. Though, she had also promised that she would make Sam’s means of getting back to his home her top priority.

Thus, Sam would suddenly find himself bombarded with random series of questions at some points of the day by the eccentric unicorn. When asked where the curiosity was coming from, Twilight’s replies would be along the lines of that these were the only points in her schedule that she had time for herself. However, to Sam’s disbelief, she would use that time to do, what else, study. Yet, Twilight would still make a habit of carefully arranging her questions or her own tests in a way that would try to sound the least offensive to the conduit. Sam appreciated the consideration, but he thought that they had moved past the whole glass floor part of their relationship.

“Sparks,” Sam smirked, “Are you trying to confuse me with big words so you can see what I can do with my powers, again?”

Twilight flinched as she was caught in her lie. She looked down at her hooves with a guilty look on her face and her ears splayed back. There was no point in hiding it, now that Sam was onto her.

“I’m sorry, Sam. I just really wanted to see what type of effects different materials would have for you. So far, I’ve seen you use mostly steel, iron, or a similar ferrous metal as your ‘source’, but-”

Sam had to stop the poor looking pony before she could get any further. Knowing her, she would have spent the next hour or so apologizing.

“Hey, Sparks!” the sudden shout caught the unicorn off guard long enough for Sam to cut in, “I’m not mad at you. Listen, I get you’re curious and all, but you don’t have to disguise it as just another test or something. Just ask.”

The distressed unicorn looked back up at the conduit with moisture in her eyes. If it wasn’t for Sam’s words, she would have broken down into tears of regret. Thankfully, Sam’s warm, confident smile pulled her away from such notions, and she quickly wiped her eyes with a hoof and calmed down.

“Thanks, Sam.”

Sam shrugged and crossed his arms, “No problem, Sparks. Just so long as there’s no more needles, then we’re good.”

Twilight chuckled, “What, the grand king of badass is still chicken when it comes to a few pointy bits?”

Twilight’s eyes widened as she couldn’t stop herself from spouting the witty remark. She didn’t even know why she had said it in the first place. Maybe it was a result of getting to know Sam’s crude sense of humor too well, and she just wanted to further relax the situation. In any case, it was too late to take it back as she watched Sam’s smile disappear, and his brow raised in surprise.

“Oh my gosh, Sam! I didn’t mean that! It just slipped!”

“Damn, Sparks,” Sam said flatly before getting a goofy grin on his face, “And here I thought I wasn’t teaching you something important. Congrats on passing smack talk one-oh-one!”

Twilight was still pretty shocked by Sam’s reaction, but after a moment or two, she was able to shake her head and tried to look mad through her smile at the snickering conduit.

“So,” Sam clapped his hands together to get them back on track, “What exactly did you have in mind for this little test of yours?”

Twilight took a slow and steady breath before speaking, “I wasn’t lying when I said that I wanted to see how different materials interact with your abilities, but I was just too busy trying to come up with a way to relate it to the TD gate project. If you could, would you allow me to record your reactions to the different materials I have here?”

Sam smiled, “Say no more. I’ve actually been running low on material anyway, so this will be a good chance for me to recharge.”

Twilight tilted her head in confusion as Sam picked up the first spool of wire and examined it.

“Wait, what happened to the stipend that Princess Luna gave to you from the other day?” Twilight asked.

Sam looked at the unicorn and then off into the distance.

Captain Aegis Flare stoically marched down the halls of Canterlot Castle. The rhythmic clanging and thumping of his armor against his hide were his only means of staying awake. After the long day that he’s had, no matter how much he wanted to keep going, he was almost dead on his hooves. Yet, there were still a few more reports that have yet to be filed back in his office. Which is where his current destination lied. So, he soldiered on until it was time to shuck off his armor for the night.

Passing a few of his subordinates along the way, he nodded to their salutes and continued on his auto-pilot to reach his office. Once there, he retrieved his key from his saddle bags and unlocked the door. He stepped inside and kicked the door shut behind him. Now, being as tired and unaware of his surroundings as he was, one could understand that he would not immediately recognize the condition of his environment in this moment. Which is why when he closed his eyes to inhale deeply, which soon turned into a drawn out yawn, he completely missed the strand of wire that tripped him up for a moment until he regained his balance. The sudden loss of equilibrium, snapped the good captain into heightened alertness. This ultimately drew his attention to the state of office as it was, and not how he had left it that morning.

Every piece of furniture and even a few knick knacks were haphazardly suspended off the ground by metal wires. A few of them were even stuck to the upper corners of the walls like they were flies caught in spiderwebs. Aegis Flare’s eye twitched, and he could feel his blood pressure rising to dangerous heights. More metal strands crisscrossed the room like a maze and just added to the chaos of it all. Though, what really got Aegis Flare to start grinding his teeth in frustration was the message that was stuck through one of the wires and hung directly infront of his face for him to read.

Hope you don’t mind, but I thought I’d do a little remodelling to your boring office space, Cappy. No need for thanks, but I always appreciate one anyways.

Love,

Your favorite Conduit

“...huuummMMMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!”

Sam blinked and shook his head a few times to clear his thoughts before answering Twilight.

“Nothing important,” Sam said with a little internal chuckle to himself.

Twilight eyed the conduit suspiciously, but she knew trying to pry the truth out of him would be like pulling teeth out of her own mouth. Certainly not a headache she wanted to deal with today.

“Fine, let’s at least get started with this then,” Twilight sighed

Her demeanor quickly shifted back to happy intrigue as she grabbed a fresh piece of parchment and a quill. Sam nodded as he set the first spool of now identified aluminum wire in favor of some of the stranger colored wire at the back. He reached over the first row of metallic wires and cables for one he couldn’t quite identify by sight. As he reached for the double braided one that first caught his eye, his hand brushed past another spool that caused him to flinch back from some unknown sensation that came off of it. Sam grasped his hand and hissed not quite out in pain, but more of surprise from the mysterious sensation.

Twilight gasped at the reaction, “Sam, are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Sam said automatically while he stared at his hand that quivered slightly, “That was weird though.”

Sam looked over the cart and zeroed in on the offending wire that startled him. It was hard to tell at first, but now that he focused on it, this particular spool of single strand wire was far more different than the others. Besides the faint glow it gave off, even in the sunlight, the quiet of the room allowed him to be able to hear the slight hum that seemed to be coming from it more clearly. Sam had at first mistook the sound for one of the machines in Twilight’s lab that she had scattered and running around the room. The wire itself almost looked like polished copper, but with a silvery tint when he looked at it from an angle.

While still staring at the odd spool of wire, Sam tilted his head to the side to address his unicorn friend, “Hey, Sparks, what kind of wire is this?”

Twilight curiously looked to find the the wire that Sam had pointed out. It seemed that the conduit was keeping his hands as far away from the cart as he could, but the unicorn was able to pick out exactly which one Sam was pointing at. It only took the purple unicorn a moment to recall this particular wire’s name and properties. In fact, it was something that has gained a lot of publicity in the last couple of years.

“This is actually a hefty amount of unattuned thaumium,” Twilight said as she levitated the spool from off of the cart.

Sam stared blankly at the unicorn, “...what?”

While Twilight stretched out a few feet of the wire off the spool to examine for herself, she talked to the conduit from the side, “‘Unattuned Thaumium’. I’m actually surprised they were able to give so much to work with at once. Good quality, too.”

“Hold up,” Sam shook his head, “I meant to say; what’s that stuff made of?”

“Oh, it’s actually magic infused zargun alloy,” Twilight stated nonchalantly.

“What?” Sam asked again, even more confused.

Twilight perked up that the conduit’s continued bewilderment and turned to fully address him, “Sorry. I should have explained that. Zargun, or Zirconium falls under the ‘transitional metals’ classification. When it’s put through a refining process, you can produce unattuned thaumium, which is one of the few known types metals that, like gems, that can absorb and channel magical energies. It’s actually one the latest developments in the scientific communities, because of its practical applications in powering household appliances.”

Sam knew a Twilight lecture when he saw one. So, he only paid her half of his attention to the chattering unicorn while he inspected the still floating spool of ‘unattuned thaumium’. It was curious. He never once touched it, but the closer he got to the metal, the more it felt like it was pulling him toward it. At times, it even felt like electricity jumped from the metal and onto the conduit’s outstretched fingertips. While this was going on, Sam caught tidbits of Twilight’s lecture that interested him.

Apparently, before thaumium production, what little industrial machinery like the ones inside Twilight’s lab ran off the power of gems that were ‘saturated with latent magical energies’. Though this was horribly inefficient, as the gems were like batteries and once the energy was used up, the gem would be nothing more than a paperweight at best.

Thaumium changed that and everything else, as its relatively low cost of production and abundance jumpstarted a new wave of industrial advancement that Equestria had never seen before. The revolutionary metal could not only hold magical energies, but once properly tuned, could also be used to transfer those energies from one place to another. Honestly, the more Twilight talked about it, the more this stuff sounded like how humans used electricity. Twilight even mentioned how some of the larger cities in Equestria were experimenting with something similar to a power grid for the general public to use. Which would explain why Sam saw stuff that looked like power lines running through the city of Canterlot while he was out on his excursions. Where and how they harnessed these ‘magical energies’, Sam got lost in Twilight’s explanation. How was he supposed to know what ‘binding etheric channels’ or ‘regulating flux anomalies’ meant? In the end, it was all very interesting, but Sam suddenly realized the one thing that was truly bugging him about this ‘thaumium’ since the beginning of the lecture...

“Hey, Sparks,” Sam called out.

One thing that always irked the purple unicorn was being interrupted in the middle of her lectures. An upside to that was that she would always make the most adorable scrunchy face that Sam couldn’t help but snicker at. Though right now, he had other stuff on his mind.

“This ‘Thaumium’, I think it might be like ‘Rayacite’.”

“Ray-a-what?” Twilight asked with a confused tilt of her head.

Sam smirked as it was finally his turn to give the studious unicorn a lecture, “‘Rayacite’, aka an irradiated piece of earth fused with ray field energy. Basically, the purest form of all conduit power. Hell, there’s some even more badass version of that stuff called ‘Blast Cores’. Get your hands on one of those, and you could give a serious boost of power to a conduit or even some new kickass ability… You know, this spool of thaumium kinda reminds me of those, but it feels like something different too.”

Sam carefully plucked the spool of wire from Twilight’s magic. Arcs of invisible energy danced across his arms from the touch. His eyes lit up at the thought of gaining some new power from this ‘thaumium’ if it was anything like a blast core. Though, trying to absorb it proved useless, as the material refused to budge at Sam’s beckoning.

“Blast core, ray field energy, rayacite,” Twilight recited while writing everything down that she heard, “Wait, Sam. Are you sure you should be messing with it so carelessly?”

Sam was in the process of trying to chew from a strand of the metal in an attempt to get a reaction out of it, but like all his other attempts, it failed.

“Relax, Sparks. Looks like I can’t just absorb this stuff… unless,” Sam gained a devious look on his face.

Twilight looked at the conduit nervously, “Unless what?”

“Well, back in Memphis. Me and my friends got our hands on a couple of blast cores that we stole from the D.U.P. Took us a bit of time, but we found out that the only way to crack those things open was to give them a good jolt of electricity,” Sam explained, “I bet if we do the same thing with this stuff, it’ll be just like with Lu and Natie. You should have seen it too. They got some really awesome tricks out of those things once they absorbed them. Say, what do you think I would get from this? Oh, maybe it’ll be like a ‘wire missile’ or finally a way for me to fully ‘material shift’.”

Twilight just stared in awe at Sam’s continued building excitement.

“So, what are we waiting for?” Sam exclaimed, “Let’s crack this puppy open!”

“Wait a minute!” Twilight interjected, “As interesting as this sounds. Don’t we want to run some tests beforehoof or find out whether-”

“Sparks, you’re killing me here. You and I both know we’re way too curious to see what would happen if I absorb this. Think about it. I get some cool new powers, and you get to be the very first pony to witness that power in action,” Sam smirked as he thought of something to sweeten the deal, “I’ll even let you take as many notes as you want about it.”

Twilight bit her lip as she thought about it. Her growing curiosity and insatiable appetite for new knowledge slowly winning out. When she looked up at Sam’s smiling face, she found that his enthusiasm was wearing off on her. In the end, she let out a deep breath she had been holding as she thought.

“Ok,” Twilight said, “but let me grab my extra quills.”

It only took around fifteen minutes for Twilight to gather and set up all the equipment she needed as Sam specified the process as best he could. Yet, it took infinitely longer to reach the final checks of their little project. The only reason it took so long was for the fact that Twilight kept insisting that she run all the precautionary tests before they start.

Eventually, when all was said and done, a good portion of the lab’s spare equipment had been shoved to the far side of the room to clear enough space for the setup that Sam and Twilight had built. The spool of thaumium sat atop of a wooden pedestal. A couple of basic conductive wires were attached to the exposed metal and led back to a generator that Twilight brought out and explained was powered by magic; crude, but it would get the job done in theory. It seemed kind of roundabout in Sam’s mind of how they were going to generate the necessary charge to pop the thaumium. Though, he didn’t spend too much time on it, as he was more focused on psyching himself up for the big moment.

“Alright, Sparks. Just like I said, just give it a good jolt, and it should crack open like a fourth of July firework,” Sam said.

Twilight looked far too worried in comparison to Sam’s nonchalantness for what they were about to do.

“Are you sure this is the only way for this to work?” Twilight asked nervously.

Sam rolled his eyes at having to wait even longer, “Come on. I’ve taken bigger jolts from Natie on a daily basis. I can take it.”

Twilight shuffled her hooves as she grabbed her already large stack of notes from one of the tables, “I should at least double check the calibration on the apparatus first.”

Sam groaned, “Sparks, you’ve already double checked it. Hell, even quadruple checked it! I think you’re just stalling. I’ve already done this before. Well, not me personally, but I’ve seen what needs to happen and what to expect. Besides, I trust you and your setup here, and I can guarantee nothing is going to go wrong.”

A sheepish smile graced the unicorn’s lips. One last nod and a reassuring smile from the conduit was all she needed to stoke her confidence.

Twilight took a deep breath and let it out slowly, “Ok, I’m ready.”

“Sweet, so am I,” Sam beamed excitedly.

The two of them took their respective positions. Twilight flipped a few dials at the console of her generator. The generator itself whirred to life and gave off a dim hum not unlike the thaumium across from it. Sam stepped over to the thaumium and flexed his hands open and closed a few times. Although, being the eager one earlier, he found a moment of hesitation in his mind. He clapped his hands together to snap himself out of it before setting his hands on the spool of wire. The same feeling of wavy energy returned with his touch. Maybe it was the anticipation of it all, but he could already feel the new power he was about to inherit between his fingertips just waiting to be unleashed.

Sam looked over to his unicorn friend and gave her a nod. Twilight gulped and rechecked her notes one last time before reaching over to the main switch on the generator and beginning the countdown.

“Applying current in five... Four... Three... Two... One...”

Sam braced, and the switch was thrown. Arcs of electricity ran across the surface of the Thaumium from the leads and then up Sam arms. Sam’s entire body tensed, and at first, it seemed like nothing was going on... until it happened. The thaumium glowed brighter than Twilight had ever seen a sample glow before and shook violently before seeming to shatter into a fine mist. The air was filled with the ambient energy and made the unicorn’s fur stand on end. The hum from early on grew to a fevered pitch and made Twilight’s ears ring. The thaumium’s essence swirled in the air until it flew directly at Sam’s body, like flecks of metal drawn to a magnet. Twilight watched in awe of the luminous display before the scene turned grim. As the last of the thaumium was absorbed into Sam’s body, the conduit gasped. Wire shot out and around his body sporadically, as if they were writhing in pain. Sam’s body began to convulse and shudder while his face was stuck in an expression of shock and agony.

“Sam!”

The cry was lost on the conduit as his mind blanked. After about ten seconds of the horrible scene, all the wire that shot out of his body retracted, and Sam collapsed to the ground with a resounding ‘thwack’. The whole room was dead silent after the event. Not even the sound of her own pounding heart could be heard by the studious unicorn. Having been paralyzed by fear up until then, Twilight shook her head to clear her mind as best she could and finally sprung into action.

“Sam! Oh my gosh! What do I do, what do I do?!” Twilight raced back and forth as she tried to summon up all the knowledge she could remember from her studies on medicine, “Pulse! I have to check for a pulse!”

The unicorn raced up to the side of the downed conduit. Once she turned him over carefully from his side to his back, she firmly planted her ear to the his chest and listened. With a short sigh of relief, she found his heartbeat still going strong along with the sound of light breathing. That didn’t mean she could relax just yet. She needed to get him to a professional, in case the worst was yet to come.

Twilight sprinted for the lab’s entrance to seek out the guards she had sent away on another errand, “Guards! Help me!”