Aegis Flare pivoted in the air, just above the ground as he descended to the streets below. With a few final flaps of his wings, the captain of the royal guard landed against the deserted cross section of street where Visionary Dusk’s assailants attempted to ponynap another innocent life for whatever nefarious purposes they had.

Scanning his surroundings, Aegis Flare felt a knot of outrage well up in his chest. The few business stores that lined the street were left abandoned. Although knowing that the area had been cordoned off for his investigation, seeing a part of the city so veritably empty left the older stallion feeling like he had failed once again to protect those that he had sworn to defend against these adversaries, especially when he spotted quite a few areas where concrete shards and offensive spells left the spots pockmarked with destruction. He had to do better, starting with here.

The good captain’s silent oath had to be set aside for a moment though, as he waited and looked to the ledge of the building closest to him that faced the castle. From the same direction, he could hear a voice, one that held a mixture of sharp screams of panic and alarm, and constant insistences to ‘slow down’.

Aegis Flare sighed and watched as a shadowy figure leapt out into the open air above the streets from the top of the building he was viewing. The source of the voice was now revealed to be a terrified purple unicorn, clinging desperately to the back of Equestria’s only human conduit. Sam seemed unfazed by the noise as he happily flew through the air. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying himself, performing such harrowing acrobatics. However, the would be flight soon turned into a free fall toward the street in front of Aegis Flare. Twilight clung helplessly to Sam’s back and screamed again, thinking that they were about to end up as street pizza.

Sam, being far too in love with showing off at the moment, waited til the very last second before making his move. Thrusting his arms down and out, he shot off a set of wires from his fists straight into the ground below. The maneuver worked like a pair of stilts connected by his hands, allowing him to slow their descent by letting the wires retract back into his body and letting the length of wires shorten gradually until they were firmly, and safely, planted on the ground.

Clearing his throat, Sam spoke into his hand like it was microphone connected to a PA system, “Hello, passengers, this is your captain speaking, welcoming you to your destination! Please take care in disembarking the conduit, as contents may have shifted in transit. We hope you had a wonderful trip and hope to see you again. Thank you for traveling with the ‘Conduit Express’ and have a wonderful day~!”

Twilight carefully extracted herself from her deathgrip against the conduit’s back one hoof at a time. She was shaking uncontrollably after having her nerves pushed to their limits of what they could handle from the harrowing experience. As soon as all four hooves were planted firmly on the ground, she let out a deep sigh of relief and visibly slumped to the ground.

“What the hay, Sam?!” Twilight snorted, glaring fiercely at the wire conduit.

It would’ve been slightly more intimidating were it not for said unicorn’s legs being as wobbly as a bunch of wet noodles as she tried to stand back up.

The wire conduit smiled as innocently as possible while he spoke, “Mmmh-yes, Sparks~?”

“No, you do not get to play innocent with me, mister,” Twilight huffed in indignation and with a stomp of her still wobbly hoof.

“Why, whatever do you mean, Sparks?” Sam asked, still playing innocent.

Twilight was fuming at this point and began to rant, “What do I mean?! First, you leave me behind at the castle gates, while I had to catch up for the first three blocks! Then, to make up for it, you offer to ‘give me a lift’! Granted, I’ve always wondered just what traversing using such unique abilities like yours was like from your perspective, but that?! I felt like I was trying to ride an angry manticore!”

“Oh, come on. It wasn’t that bad,” Sam shrugged off the accusation, “Pinkie never complained about my driving when we went out for a stroll.”

“I almost slipped off, three times!” Twilight countered angrily, “I was holding on for my life!”

“Pfft, as if I’d let you fall.”

“You almost did!”

As much fun as it was for Aegis Flare to watch the feud go on, however little that was, he needed his ‘back-up’ to focus on the task at hoof.

“Enough!” the captain shouted over the quarreling, effectively silencing the spat.

Twilight was the first to apologize, donning a remorseful expression, head hung low and ears splayed down, “Sorry, captain.”

The captain’s gaze softened ever so slightly, “It’s not your fault, Miss Sparkle.” The captain’s steely gaze returned, and he directed it toward the one more deserving of his ire, “You, on the hoof, should know better than this, human.”

Sam looked surprised, as if the accusations thrown at him were unjust in some way. “Me? What did I do?”

The silent glare Sam received let him know that his feigned innocence would not be tolerated.

“Ok, ok already,” Sam finally surrendered, “Maybe I could have gone a little easier on the landing back there.”

Sam’s ‘attempt’ at an apology earned him a swift shove from the unicorn beside him, barely knocking him off balance for a moment. He suspected she had actually tried to hit him with a blow from her front hooves, but her shaky limbs threw her too much off balance. The full body shove was all she could muster.

Sam smirked and folded his arms over his chest as he countered verbally, “In my defense, it was her idea.”

Twilight growled angrily at the conduit, who was throwing the blame onto her, “I only asked if you could slow down! You’re the one who suggested that I ‘catch a ride with you’!”

“Maybe, but couldn’t you have just chained a bunch of short range teleports to keep up?” The wire conduit’s question made Twilight pause and snap her mouth shut, having now realized that Sam was right. “Heh, face it, Sparks~. You were just looking for an excuse to ride with me like Pinkie did.”

“Human!”

The authoritative shout seemed to do the trick in putting an end to the back and forth once again, and the good captain was not about to let it slip.

“I am giving you one chance to get your head on straight, before I have to throw your sorry flank back into the dungeon!” the captain threatened with a scrape of his hoof on the ground.

The threat was hollow, which both Sam and Aegis Flare knew, but Sam knew that there was more important things to do than rile up a neurotic, purple unicorn. He at least had the decency to wince at remembering that and the whole reason that they were out in the city in the first place. Mentally slapping himself a few times, Sam gathered his senses and became a little more serious for the situation at hand.

“Right. So, where were the three stooges last, Cappy?” Sam asked.

Aegis Flare appreciated the renewed focus and turned to direct the wire conduit and Twilight to the crime scene reported to him by his messenger. Down the road they went, following the trail of destruction to the alleyway between the second and third building on their right.

Twilight hadn’t realized before, mostly due to being more concerned with giving Sam a piece of her mind, but the street around her gave off an eerie vibe. The road was devoid of any pony life besides herself, the captain, and Sam. She could still hear the hustle and bustle of the other streets further away, but the cordoned off street felt unnatural and isolating.

Then, there was the damage to surrounding area to behold. Small divots and craters littered the street and buildings, with obvious signs of magic scorch markings being the culprit, though some had shards of concrete embedded in their centers to denote another origin. Windows from the shop fronts were shattered, and littered pieces of the glass panes were everywhere around them. The little unicorn could scarcely imagine what it took to cause such destruction, and all the innocent lives that must have been in danger while it all occurred.

The trio of investigators continued to follow the evidence of havoc until they came to the alleyway where the wreckage led. Twilight gasped upon her first glance into the backstreet. With a more confined space, the devastation was more prominent.

Larger scorch marks dotted the area, and even one part of the wall on the left building had completely collapsed, exposing the interior. Larger pieces of concrete looked to have erupted from the ground and left the simple back road looking nothing like it should have before. Then, there was the blood. She hadn’t noticed it at first, or perhaps didn’t want to notice that out in the streets were little spots of red here and there where the fight would have occured. In the alleyway, the streaks of blood were all too prominent and showed that those involved in the fight did not get off scot free.

Sam and Aegis Flare moved into the area to get closer looks, which snapped Twilight out of her thoughts. She stuck close to them, feeling too nervous to wander around on her own for fear of the assailants laying in hiding and waiting to spring out at them when they least expected it. Sam and the captain had thought the same thing, but figured that they wouldn’t be that stupid to stick around with the entire city guard out on the hunt for them. Though, Sam and the captain decided it would be best not to let their guard down just yet.

“Human,” Aegis Flare said, catching the wire conduit’s attention, “We’ll split up to cover more ground and search for clues, but remember: Your first priority is to keep Miss Sparkle safe.”

“You’ve got it, Cappy,” Sam nodded and began to scan the area around one of the concrete pillars.

Redirecting his focus on the purple unicorn, Aegis Flare addressed her in softer tone, “Miss Sparkle, stay close to the human and stay alert. If you two find anything, call for me. Understood?”

Twilight shook her head up and down to show her understanding. The captain remained rooted for a few moments before reluctantly turning away and trotting off to examine another area of the crime scene for anything of interest that they could use.

Twilight was still incredibly tense, but told herself that she had to do this. With a few more self-reassurances, Twilight gathered enough courage to start her own look around to be of use. She found that she was gravitating toward the wire conduit, who was turning over some of the larger concrete constructs to continue his search.

As she stepped up beside Sam, the wire conduit looked up and offered his greetings, “Hey...You alright?”

“I-I’m fine,” Twilight simply replied, though sounding unconvincing, “...Um, find anything yet?”

Sam stood up and clapped his hands together to get the dust off, “Nadda, Sparks. Lots of debris and concrete everywhere.” Sam lit up with something on his mind. “Hey, you said on the way over here that you were gonna use some kind of tracking spell, right? Can you use this concrete as the focus?”

Twilight shook her head disappointedly, “No, the concrete gives off the same reaction to repel magic like everything that comes from your world, Sam. I’m sorry.”

“Hey, don’t sweat it. Just means we have to find something else to use as the focus to track them down,” Sam said, patting the depressed looking unicorn on the head a couple times.

Even though Sam said it was alright, it didn’t stop Twilight from feeling like she had failed yet again. The frustrations of her perceived failures weighed heavily on her mind and cast many doubts into her thoughts. The purple unicorn dwelled on these thoughts as her body went into auto pilot.

She had failed time and time again to discover a means of helping Sam return home. She had failed in protecting her friend, Pinkie Pie, from the assailants the night that she was almost abducted. Now, she was failing in her task to lead Sam and the guard to the assailants that have caused so much strife for her home and her friends.

“Twilight?”

Sam knelt down next to the purple unicorn as he saw her breaking down before him. He tried giving her a few scratches behind her ear, but Twilight pulled away almost immediately.

“Twilight, what’s wrong?” Sam asked with a worried expression.

Twilight could only give Sam a passing glance before she had to turn away again to speak, “I shouldn’t have come here.”

“What?” Sam could only respond in confusion.

“I shouldn’t have come here!” Twilight spat out with a bit more force than she intended, “...I know I said I could help lead you to the assailants, but I only said that so I could come along and help. I’ve just felt so useless everytime Visionary Dusk and his assailants have attacked, and I couldn’t do a thing to stop them.”

Twilight became increasingly more emotional as her triade continued, but Sam held off on interrupting til she finished.

“I couldn’t protect Pinkie the night she was almost abducted. The first attack on the castle, all I did was run and let you and the others fight the assailants without me. No matter what I’ve tried, I can’t find a stable solution to help you return home, and now? I can’t even help you find where Visionary’s assailants fled off to because the tracking spell is useless without the right focus that I can’t even help find. For Harmony’s sake, I’m supposed to be the Element of Magic, and I can’t even use a damned tracking spell!”

The purple unicorn tried to hold back her tears, but a few sobs wracked her body regardless and let the fresh tears fall down her face. In her mind, she was a complete failure, and unworthy to call herself a mage. Her self-loathing would have continued on for who knows how long were it not for a certain wire conduit tucking his arms under her forelegs and startling her. The swift action left her bewildered as to what was happening until Sam’s arms reached around her body and pulled her closer until they were entangled into the warm embrace of a hug.

“You’re not a failure,” Sam whispered over her shoulder and into her ear, “You had some setbacks, you screwed up, but you are not a failure.”

Twilight sniffled and tried to speak up, “But I-”

Sam pushed the little unicorn out to hold her at arm’s length to look her in the eye with a sympathetic expression, “No, no ‘buts’. Butts are for sitting with.”

The terrible joke got the little unicorn to groan, but at the same time, got her to forget her self-loathing for a moment.

Sam capitalized on this distraction to share his peace further, “Twilight, none of those things are your fault, and you should know that. You went to get help and draw more guards that ultimately pushed the assailants out of the castle during the first attack. You’ve been working so hard to help not just with getting me home, but teaching me everything about magic.

“I know I’d love to see my friends back in Memphis, but I’ve got faith that they’re doing just fine and just waiting for me to show back up, if just so we can all have a laugh about my time in ‘Rainbow Pony Land’. Finally, who cares if we can’t catch the ‘Brotherhood of Douchebags’ today? Yes, I’m calling them that now. They’ve already screwed up and led us back to one hideout. Plus, we’re already hot on their trail as it is, so it’s only a matter of time before I get the chance for some payback and shove a wire fist so far up each of their asses that they’ll be tasting it.”

The dramatic imagery at the end was something that Twilight could have done without, but the pep talk did help her in some regard. Twilight could see that her arguments were flawed, and that all that anger and frustration with herself was doing nothing to help with the task at hoof. If she wanted to prove that she could help, she had to put her mistakes behind her and focus on the ‘now’. Sam’s reassurances were just the wake up call she needed to see that, and now, she could put her full effort into helping tracking down the assailants and Visionary Dusk.

Twilight brought a hoof up to her eyes and wiped away the tears on her face, “Th-thank you, Sam.”

“No problem, Sparks,” the wire conduit offered one more reassuring smile, “Now, who wants some more ears scratchies~?”

Further into the alleyway, Captain Aegis Flare brought his attention back to the pile of debris he was checking over. He had been listening to the conversation the whole time and was about to step in to send the purple unicorn back to the castle as needed. Though, it seemed that he underestimated the human conduit once again in handling the situation, even if it was in his own unique words.

Clearing out some of the smaller pieces of concrete from a pillar that had got knocked over, Aegis Flare peered into the dark crevices of the debris to search for clues. He was about to move on to the next promising looking part of the alleyway when a faint glimmer caught his attention.

Staring deeper into the crevice, the captain could barely make out something poking out of the dust settled at the bottom. It was hard to make out, and it looked like it was no part of the surrounding debris that covered it. He tried desperately to reach for the piece hidden away, but it the opening was too small. It sat too far out of reach. The fallen concrete above and around it was too heavy to lift on his own and proved just as much when he tried to push it. Conceding defeat, Aegis Flare was left with no choice but to turn to the only creature that stood a chance at removing the obstacle.

“Human!” Aegis Flare called out from around the concrete barricade separating the two.

“Yo?”

Sam was done counseling his friend, and she looked better for it. Now, he had to see what problems ol’ Cappy was dealing with. Hopefully, not another existential crisis. The wire conduit doubted that a hug and quick pep talk would help that stoic pegasus. He’d probably need an army of therapists, and then another army of therapists to see those therapists. In the meantime, it seemed that the good captain was instructing him to come with him. So, Sam and Twilight followed the captain around the concrete barricade to see what he’d found.

“What you got, Cappy?” Sam asked upon arriving to see the captain staring at a large, toppled pile of concrete.

“There’s something trapped under this rubble,” the captain replied evenly, “I need your help to retrieve it.”

Sam was somewhat disappointed with the lackluster response. He was on a bit of roll with cheering up these colorful equines, and it was about time that he and Cappy had an emotional powwow themselves. There would have been some laughs, some legit bro-to-bro bonding, and possibly even some hugging at the end.

Sam would dare anyone to say what they will about that last part, but these ponies were just so damn soft and huggable. It was good thing Pinkie had came along when she did to fulfill Sam’s quota of adorable-pony-hugging for the week, or else he’d have to ambush one of the castle staff again… In the totally platonic and not weird way.

In any case, Sam moved up to stand beside ol’ Cappy and peer into the gap that the grizzled captain was eyeing himself. He had to squint a bit, and even move to a different angle to catch the same glimmer that the captain had noticed the first time around while inspecting the debris.

“Yeah, I see it. Give me a sec,” Sam said, cracking his knuckles.

Sam brought his left hand up to the opening and summoned a duo of wires to poke from his fingertips and snake their way into the deep recesses of the debris pile. It took a moment of poking around with the wire appendages before they brushed up against the surface of the mysterious object lodged within. Sam directed the wires to dig into the dust and carefully wrap around the oblong object until he felt he had a good grip on it. The dust sifted off of the object as Sam carefully extracted it from its hiding spot and reeled it in.

“Aaaaand, got it,” Sam triumphantly cheered as he withdrew his hand from the crevice.

Twilight and the captain moved in closer to inspect the mysterious object that their human conduit retrieved. Sam tilted his head in confusion while turning over the object in his hand a few times, trying to discern exactly what he was looking at.

At first, he thought it was some kind of remote control for a tv, but as far as he knew, Equestria didn’t have television sets or anything of that technologically complicated. Then, there was the fact that the ‘remote’ had some kind of analogue numerical readout, and there were no buttons, but a couple dials.

“What is it?” Twilight asked, trying to get a better view of the device in Sam’s hand.

Sam tilted his hand down for the others to see, and they both eyed the device curiously. Aegis Flare could only furrow his brow harder, unable to identify the mysterious device at a glance. Twilight was far more intrigued and fervently worked her mind in trying to decipher exactly what she was looking at.

While the two studied the device from every angle they could, Sam pondered about the device’s use. It didn’t look like it had any explosive materials attached to it or any other obvious signs of being a bomb. Eventually, Sam’s curiosity won out, and the wire conduit reached down with his free hand to fiddle with the dials.

The captain saw this, but before he could warn the conduit about the possible dangers, Sam had already turned the first dial and was rewarded with a ‘click’. Immediately, the device went off and started making weird clicking noises. Both the captain and Twilight backed away in fright, unsure of what was happening. Though, seeing as the device didn’t explode in Sam’s face, it was a safe bet that it wasn’t, in fact, a bomb.

The captain snorted angrily, and stomped up to yell in Sam’s face, “What were you thinking, human?! For all we knew, that thing was some kind of explosive!”

“Ah, sorry,” Sam suddenly realizing how irresponsible his impulsive action was, “At least it wasn’t?”

The half-baked apology only earned him another scathing glare. However, seeing as the perceived danger had passed, Twilight was now even more curious of the device that was now giving off weird noises. She returned to Sam’s side while the two were arguing and examined the device once more.

The device was giving off a weird series of clicking noises while the needle on the analogue readout would flicker from one side to the other. She noticed that the readout gave off more erratic movements every time the bottom of the device was pointed toward Sam in particular. Her mind was hard at work again to understand the meaning of this phenomenon, until something in her mind clicked.

“Sam,” Twilight interrupted the verbal reprimand he was receiving by tugging on his shirt, “Can I see that device for a moment?”

“Huh? Oh, sure,” Sam replied, casually tossing the device over to the unicorn.

Twilight hastily caught the carelessly tossed device in her magic. The panic of almost letting the precious device fall subsided, and the little unicorn let out a deep sigh of relief. Now that she had it, Twilight began to turn it over carefully to examine it from all angles. All the while, the device would click at varying intensities when was turned in specific directions. Judging by the device becoming more responsive depending on this variable, Twilight’s working theory on its purpose was becoming more clear.

While Sam and Aegis Flare continued their back and forth, Twilight levitated the device to point directly at the wire conduit. Just as she suspected, the needle on the readout swung wildly to the other side and began clicking at a more intense frequency. She waved the device a few times away before returning it to face Sam and was rewarded with the same result. The purple unicorn was enraptured with her findings and soon found herself too busy with her tests to notice anything else around her. Finding the noise distracting, Sam looked down to his side to see his unicorn friend swinging the device about him with a look of pure concentration.

“Uh, Sparks? Ya mind telling me what you’re up to?”

Startled out of her thoughts by her friend’s question, Twilight backed away bashfully and pulled the device away with her, “Hehe, sorry… but I think I figured out what this device is for.”

Surprise was the evident response she got, and it was Sam that spoke up first to ask the obvious question, “Well, don’t keep us in the dark. What’s it do?”

Taking the initiative, Twilight cleared her throat to begin her explanation, “Well, judging by this device’s reactions. I believe it’s supposed to be some kind of specialized tracker for detecting conduits.”

This new information certainly raised a lot of questions for Sam and the captain. Luckily, Twilight continued her explanation that brought about the answers they sought.

“You see, the readout on the front of the device gives off a heightened reaction every time its directed at Sam. See?” Twilight validated her point by waving the device over Sam a few more times. Said device did as she said and responded to being passed over the wire conduit, somewhat reminding him of a geiger counter in its reactions. “I’m not exactly sure how this thing works, but with a bit of time, I’m sure I can figure out its inner workings. Perhaps even tweak it to give a more specialized result or-”

“Miss Sparkle!” the captain suddenly interrupted the unicorn with a growl.

“Eep!” the purple unicorn jumped, then realized her error and smiled bashfully in apology, “Oh, r-right. Not the time for that.”

Curiosity stole Sam’s thoughts as he now regarded this ‘conduit tracker’ with a more critical eye, “Hey, Sparks? You mind if I see that for a bit? Cool, thanks!”

Before the purple unicorn could properly respond, Sam reached out and snatched the device back out of her magical grasp. Again, before she had time to react, the wire conduit was pacing around the surprised unicorn, waving the device all over her body. Aside from the mildly embarrassing display, the device gave off very little to no reaction while being waved about the unicorn entirely.

“Sam, stop that!” the self-conscious unicorn groaned, pushing the snickering conduit away.

“Hmm… I wonder,” Sam muttered under his breath, deviously turning his attention toward a certain cross looking captain.

“Human…” the good captain warned dangerously, knowing what the wire conduit was thinking.

Though that did nothing to deter Sam and his devious snickering. Quick as flash, Sam was all over the captain and swiping the device over his body faster than the captain could drive him away, all the while teasing the poor captain with taunts and light pats on his armored head whenever he got a chance.

Twilight watched in mild amusement, but there was something else about the experience that left her astonished. Every time that Sam was able to wave the device over the captain’s body, it gave off a series of wild clicks, and she could just make out the display with the needle moving erratically just the same. It was more subdued than the reaction she got when she used it on Sam, but there was no denying that the device was reacting to the captain’s presence. It seemed that device wasn’t just for detecting conduits that had their abilities activated, like their human counterpart.

“Stop foaling around, or I’ll have you before the princesses to reduce your stipulations, again!”

Sam immediately backed off, but not before muttering under his breath, “Party pooper.”

The exhilarated, little unicorn jumped at her chance to cut in, “Sam! That device, did you see what it did?”

“Of course, Sparks,” the wire conduit smirked, knowing exactly what she was getting excited about, “That’s why I wanted to test it against a ‘control’ group. Figured we ought to make sure this thing did what we thought it did. Turns out, we just got more answers than we’d hoped for. Oh, yeah, and Cappy? Congrats on joining the conduit club, buddy! Well, ‘potential’ conduit club at least.”

Sam wished he had a camera at that moment. He would have loved to frame that mixture of shock and wonder he witnessed in the captain’s expression. He would have even mailed a copy to Pinkie Pie, so they could have a laugh the next time they hung out. Though, as quickly as it came, the stoic captain shook his head and redonned his game face.

“Regardless, I don’t see how this can help us,” Aegis Flare resumed his gruff attitude.

“Actually,” Twilight said while she retrieved the device from Sam once more, “This may be exactly what we’ve been looking for. Though, I’ll need a few moments though to study this.”

Twilight’s horn began to glimmer brighter as she closed her eyes and focused on what she needed to do. More and more magic poured from the unicorn’s horn as she probed the device for what she was looking for. Sam and Aegis Flare waited expectantly as the seconds turned into minutes. Twilight’s face contorted in concentration, ranging expressions from astonishment to comprehension. Suddenly, the glow around her horn diminished, along with the expanded aura around the device.

Coming out from her trance, Twilight blinked blearily until she spoke with determination, “I know how we can track the assailants!”

Before either of her companions could get her to elaborate, she cantered off with the device in tow. Her demeanor was etched in focus as she cast the device about the area and over various objects, like she was looking for something. Sam and the captain followed along in silence, curious as to what the purple unicorn was brewing.

They didn’t have to wait long, as she finally stopped at a pile of concrete rubble, seemingly not unlike the rest strewn about. Using her hoof, she sifted through what Sam determined to have been the remains of a half destroyed ‘Rook’ cocoon. Twilight periodically picked up a piece of the cocoon, waved the device over it before discarding it once again. This process continued a few more times until her eyes lit up, as she seemed to have found what she was looking for.

“Okay,” the purple unicorn smiled excitedly, “Sam, can you hold onto this concrete for a sec, please?”

Sam shrugged and took the shard out of the unicorn’s hoof. Twilight, meanwhile, began to fiddle with the device again.

Without taking her eyes off the device, she began to explain her plan to the curious duo, “I’m sad to admit it, but Visionary Dusk was really thorough when he designed this device, which I’m now certain is some kind of ‘conduit tracker’. I was able to scan through it and deciphered all the interwoven spells he put into it. It’s actually quite ingenious. Overlaying a series of complex locator and detection spells, while at the same time not letting them interfere with one another on top of a condensed, and strangely unique, variation of Magus Voidwalker’s vitality distinction spell.”

“Damn, Sparks! All that from a quick scan?” Sam whistled his amazement.

Twilight blushed bashfully from the praise, “It was more of a full thaumic examination and breakdown, and I almost missed a few axis strands to fully understand the binding properties.” Twilight’s modesty was cut short as she finally got the backplate from the tracker off and began to shift bits and pieces around inside. “In any case, do you see this? This is all the basic groundwork that the Royal Research teams had been looking into applying as well, for the same concept. It’s just Visionary Dusk actually figured out how to interweave the spells without them interfering with each other or backfiring. I just need to adjust the detection array, and then realign the binding properties to regard a specified sample rather than a broadened gauge.”

A quick couple of flashes from Twilight’s horn onto the tracker’s invisible spell structure were the last tweaks on the amalgamation of tech and magic inside the device she apparently needed to make, as she sighed contently over her work being done. She looked to Sam and levitated the tracker up for him to take.

“Ok, Sam. All I need you to do is align that shard of concrete above the first detection array inside the tracker. My magic can’t really affect that piece, and my hooves are too cumbrous to manipulate the shard into place. Don’t worry though, you’ll see it. Surprisingly, it’s the one that’s made out of thaumium wire, directly in the center,” Twilight directed the wire conduit from the side.

It wasn’t hard to find. As Twilight said, the array was made of those same pale golden strands that he has become increasingly familiar with. Taking a moment to study it, the wire conduit was proud to say that he was able to interpret the elaborate arrangement of the spell pattern and its meaning, if just barely... then came the clincher.

Although Twilight had managed to rearrange the various components and pieces, it still left the spot she had picked out for the shard, or ‘focus’, precarious and prone to falling out of alignment. She must have known this, but Sam figured that she thought she could just handle the whole thing delicately enough with her magic to avoid that. He was going to point this out, when suddenly, his own idea took hold.

Quickly studying the array once more, the wire conduit isolated the perfect anchoring points along the buffering chain on the pattern that he could work with. He called forth a pair of his own thaumium wire to bind the concrete shard in his hand. Next, he settled the shard into the tracker like Twilight said, just above the array. Finally, he carefully threaded the thaumium strands around his chosen anchor points, so the whole thing bound together without tripping or backfiring.

With the shard in place, the array, as well as the rest of the components, lit up with a warm glow in what Sam could only describe looking like some techno-rave circuit board. He handed the tracker back to the unicorn, looking a bit more proud of himself, all while Twilight examined his work.

“Amazing, Sam,” Twilight praised, “I never would have thought to use more thaumium wire to anchor the ‘focus’ into place like this.”

Sam smirked and pretended to buff his nails against his shirt in a smug fashion, “Yeah, well. One of us had to… You know, at the rate I’m learning magic, maybe Sunny will be looking into a ‘new’ protege.”

The light tease earned him an indignant and jealousy fueled forehoof kick to his side. He laughed at the expected reaction and Twilight soon joined in, knowing her coveted position was still secure… for now.

“Ahem!”

And just like that, the reality of their situation reasserted itself as an impatient captain waited to be brought back into the loop.

“Sorry, Captain Aegis Flare,” Twilight bowed her head in guilt before offering up the tracker apologetically, “With mine and Sam’s modifications, we can use this tracker to locate the assailants now. We’re ready to go whenever you are.”

“Thank you, Miss Sparkle. You are dismissed now.”

“W-what?” Twilight suddenly looked up in confusion.

The captain took the tracker into his possession, and leveled the unicorn with a serious look, “You said that we can use this tracker to hunt down Visionary Dusk and his assailants. Therefore, your work here is done. I thank you for your help, but I must ask that you return to the castle now, for your own safety.”

Twilight was instantly floored by this revelation. Indeed, she had done what she had set out to do and gave the captain exactly what he needed. Though as much as she could see the logic in the points he raised, she felt like she wasn’t done yet. It wasn’t fair that her friends had to put themselves in harm’s way while she got kicked to the sidelines.

“Whoa, hold up, Cappy,” Sam cut in, “As much as I agree with you that Sparks would be better off leaving the rest of this up to us, I’ve got just one question for you. Do you know how that tracker you’re holding works?”

The captain opened his mouth to answer, only to shut it once more when he realized that he, in fact, didn’t. His eyes darted about for a moment in contemplation, before settling back on the device in his hoof and giving it a scornful glower.

“Then, you will operate it, human,” Aegis Flare hoofed the device over with a huff.

“Sorry, can’t,” Sam said and tossed it right back.

“What?! Why?” Aegis Flare scowled at the defiant conduit.

Sam merely shrugged and gave the captain a bored response, “Cause, I may get how it works on a technical level, but some of Twilight’s mods are still a little over my head. I don’t know how they alternated the tracker’s overall function entirely.”

The captain ruffled his wings in agitation before taking a calming breath and turning to address Twilight, “Miss Sparkle, can you show me how to operate this device so we can hunt down Visionary Dusk’s location?”

“Uh...,” Twilight knew she could explain how to do just that with ease, but in that moment, a flash of movement caught her notice from behind the captain.

The wire conduit was beckoning desperately for Twilight’s attention in the background. In a series of quick movements, Sam winked to her conspicuously and motioned in a way that got her to realize what he wanted her to do. He wanted her to lie.

The captain turned to find out what Twilight was looking at, only to find a certain wire conduit foolishly playing with nothing but a chunk of concrete and waving innocently. That split second distraction was all the unicorn needed, and she thanked the conduit silently as she prepared her speech.

With the captain’s attention back on her, she breathed calmly and spoke, “I’m sorry, captain. I may have reattuned the detection spells, but it would take a lot more time for me to adjust all of exo-thaumatic excluders. Their job is to basically negate any ambient magical energies from interfering with the tracker’s readout, since I’ve set the first detection array to include a specific signature. I’d either have to adjust the excluders, like I said, which I don’t know exactly how long that would take, or I’d have to be on hoof to re-scan the tracker’s spell infrastructure periodically, to make sure it isn’t reading false inputs.”

None of this was true. The little, purple unicorn had lied through her teeth, and Sam couldn’t be more proud. It would have taken all of five seconds to let the captain know that he just needed to not mess with the calibration dials on the tracker. Hell, Twilight could have just put a few pieces of tape over the things and not even a foal could mess it up. Yet, even with Twilight’s terrible poker face, something Sam would have to work with her on, the captain’s blank stares gave them the obvious impression that he was fooled.

“Miss Sparkle, are you certain there is no other way for you to get this in working order faster?” the captain finally asked in desperation.

With a confident, conspiratory smile reassuring her from the back by her conduit friend, Twilight shook her head silently.

The captain let out an aggravated growl, showing just how frustrated he was for the unfortunate turn of events. It was bad enough that he allowed Twilight to come this far. Now, it was made worse that she would have to accompany himself and the human conduit straight to Visionary Dusk’s location, putting her further into unnessaccary danger. Looking over to said conduit, the captain had come to trust the human’s word and his promise to protect Twilight. However, it would only take one slip up, one lapse in attention, and the unicorn’s life would be in jeopardy.

Ol’ Cappy looked to be weighing his options carefully, but the frown on his face only deepened the more one of them seemed the most beneficial. One last reluctant sigh escaped him as his shoulders slumped.

“Miss Sparkle,” the captain solemnly said, “We’ll need you to come with us for a little while longer.”

Twilight’s eyes lit up with excitement as she gleefully clapped her hooves together. Sam stepped up beside her and joined in with his own congratulations.

“Human! This means I need you to be one-hundred percent focused on your duty,” Captain Aegis Flare glared dangerously toward the conduit.

Sam suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to snicker as he whispered, “Heh, he said ‘duty’.”

“Human!”

“Hey, no worries. I’m serious now,” Sam said, holding his hands up in front of him defensively.

The captain gave him a quick scowl, before addressing the unicorn, “Ok, Miss Sparkle. You’ll direct us to where we need to go, but the human will remain at your side while I am at the front. Are we clear?”

Twilight nodded her head vigorously.

“Good. Human, you know your post.”

“Way ahead of you, Cappy,” Sam slid up beside Twilight to the point that they were touching.

Twilight stood still for a moment until she noticed that all eyes were on her, and she realized what they were all waiting for, “Oh, right!”

With a simple flick of one of the dials on the tracker, it lit up with a pale golden light inside Twilight’s own lavender aura. The readout needle stayed close to the low side of the spectrum until she tilted the whole device to point in a different direction. As it was turned, the needle steadily moved to a higher reading, and the whole device gave a rhythmic pinging noise unlike before that also got faster the more it was faced in an eastern direction. The group looked from the device and down the other side of the alleyway that it was directing. It certainly seemed that the assailants moved down that way, if the pillars of concrete and multitude of craters were any indication.

“Alright,” the captain moved back up to in front of the group to lead the way, “Stay close, but stay behind me.”

With that, he began to cautiously move down the alleyway with the conduit and unicorn in tow….

...Though not before Sam leaned down to Twilight to whisper in her ear, “Make this count, Sparks. And don’t forget our deal.”

Twilight hesitantly nodded and took a steadying breath before moving along with the others. Off to where the tracker would lead them, and hopefully, where they could finally put an end to Visionary Dusk’s schemes.

Author's Notes:

One more chapter, and only a few more to go.

Thanks, Regreme for all your editing skillz. You are the best.