"The Princess really wants us to test with her?" Sunburst asked, looking at the dossier and comparing it to the readings they were getting from the test chamber.

"She's next on her list of candidates," Doctor Sparkle said, calmly. "I can hardly be blamed for following orders. I'm sure Miss Marble Pie would be a valuable addition to our team."

"But look at these synchro readings," Sunburst said, pointing a hoof at a spinning geometric form being projected by a simple illusion spell. "There's no way she'll be able to manage the artificial leylines. They're completely out of phase."

"And when she fails and ends up in the hospital, I'll be able to send the Princess another report about my concerns regarding her selection," Sparkle said, firmly.

"You don't want her to succeed," Sunburst muttered.

"I would be happy if she did. I just don't expect it," Sparkle shrugged. "She's very... nice."

"And cute," Sunburst added without thinking, his cheeks burning as he realized what he'd said.

"Mm." Doctor Sparkle smiled faintly. "We'll take it easy on her, then. Once we have enough data to show it won't work, you can take her out to dinner to apologize for wasting her time."

"R-really?" Sunburst asked, surprised.

"Pick somewhere that isn't expensive and I'll bill it back to the crown," Doctor Sparkle said. "Begin the test starting at step 108 of the activation sequence."

"Miss Pie, are you ready?" Sunburst asked, switching on the intercom.

"Mmm..." Marble nodded.

"Beginning activation sequence," Sunburst said. "Starting thaumatic circulation. Leylines are starting to form."

"Very slowly," Doctor Sparkle said, though Sunburst wasn't sure if it was an instruction or an observation.

"Approaching the critical point for SS-10 leyline synchronization." Sunburst swallowed, watching the gauges rise. The two sets of leylines could only exist for so long independently before the circulating magic in the small area would make a jump, joining them together into one system.

The needles edged towards the green. The hanging geometric form grew, starting to form a single point.

Later, Sunburst wasn't sure what happened first. The gauges went wild, the alarms went off, and the single point suddenly inverted, the illusion collapsing into a fractal shape like spreading wings before failing entirely. All of them seemed to happen at once and his attention was on the mare in the test chamber.

Marble Pie screamed, clutching her head. Her mane stood on end as if a massive static charge was building, the strands swimming in the air and lengthening, a mist of blue magic forming around them like a nebula. Sparkles like tiny stars shimmered in the navy depths.

"Cut the thaumatic flow!" Doctor Sparkle ordered. She took a step back as Marble Pie looked up, the screaming turning from cries of fear to howls of rage. Her eyes had changed, turning teal, the pupils slits in her dragon-like gaze. She lunged at the window to the observation chamber, slamming a hoof into the reinforced glass.

Doctor Sparkle frowned as a long crack formed from the heavy blow. The window would have withstood siege weaponry without scratching, but the pony on the other side was much stronger than that.

"I can't control it!" Sunburst said, flinching as a second blow threw glass shards into the room. "There's still thirty seconds until the thaumatic battery is drained entirely!"

The frame started to bend as the window was pushed inwards by a third blow, streams of blue energy starting to seep through the cracks.

"Slow her down! Activate the fire suppression system!"

"But--" Sunburst started, before the keening from inside the room cut him off. The sound grew louder and louder as the glass was pulled away, the gas-like mane tearing away at the barrier, reaching towards Doctor Sparkle. Sunburst yelped as a tendril as thick as his leg swept over him, ducking to avoid it.

The red lever for the sprinklers lit up as he pulled it down with his magic, and the holding tanks above the test chamber rumbled as they dumped hundreds of gallons of treated water and chemicals into the room, the sprinklers turning the mix into thick foam.

"Fifteen seconds!" Sunburst yelled, as he scrambled back away from the danger. Marble Pie's struggles started to slow as she fought against the foam.

Doctor Sparkle winced as broken glass flew past her face, leaving a shallow cut in her cheek and a nick in her ear.

"Ten seconds!" Sunburst gasped. The window caved in entirely, Marble Pie crawling through the twisted frame towards Doctor Sparkle, her mane reaching towards the unicorn.

"Five!" Marble stepped forward, unsteady, the magical flow starting to sputter.

"Four!" Part of the mane grabbed at Twilight's throat, twisting around it like a noose. Doctor Sparkle just watched, stoic, not flinching in the face of danger.

"Three!" Marble forced herself closer, the noose tightening.

"Two!" Marble's eyes flared. She opened her mouth, showing fangs, trying to say something.

"One!" The mane sputtered and died like the pilot light going out on a stove, the magic that had been letting it act like a limb fading.

"Zero!" Marble's eyes flickered back to normal and rolled back in her head as she collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Doctor Sparkle felt at her throat for a moment, her skin tender where, for a moment, she'd felt something like steel wires wrapped around her neck.

"Take her to the medical wing," Doctor Sparkle said, before descending into coughing, her voice weak. "She might be more useful than I thought."

Sunburst knelt next to the earth pony, making sure she was breathing. "What was she saying? It sounded like--"

"Irrelevant," Doctor Sparkle snapped. She stalked towards the door. "And get somepony to clean up this mess."

Alarms blared across the base, the harsh bell of a fire alarm and the ominous siren of a red alert. Ponies yelled and ran towards their duty stations, stumbling when the ground under them suddenly shuddered. With shared looks, the pace became more frantic, just on the edge of panic and stampede, instincts only held back by training.

Three earth ponies were at the head of the command room, standing at the lowest level with their eyes closed, hooves resting on bare rock and soil instead of the tile floor of the rest of the room.

"Abnormal heat readings in the primary mineshaft," the first reported.

"I can feel movement," the second said. "It's hard to tell with how many ponies are running around, but I think the target is moving through the third Malebolgia barrier."

Hexagonal steel pillars, covered in runes and glowing slightly in the low light, formed a barrier like prison bars across the angled path leading town to the permafrost below. Each was as thick as a hoof and almost unbreakable, the enchantments locking them into place in space, rendering the rods totally immovable by any normal means.

There was a pounding, growing louder, as something huge ran up the spiraling corridor, sparks raising as metal claws scraped on the stone floor, still marked from where the mine corridors had been widened for use as an impromptu prison.

The steel bars shuddered, more alarms going off as they were disturbed. talons raked against them for a moment, then a flash of light, the bars twisting as a blast of dark magic weakened the spells on them, the feedback creating enough heat to turn the metal red.

A half-dissected Linnorm, parts still cut open and pinned in place from the work of the dissection team, smashed through the softened metal, roaring as it charged up the corridor towards - freedom, targets, revenge - everything it wanted.

"Barrier number two has failed," the earth ponies reported.

"Why aren't we using scrying spells?" A dark unicorn asked, watching the command crew from the back of the room.

"The reports suggested active spells might cause the Linnorm to awaken, so we have to rely on dowsing." General Salad said. "I just can't believe it's going through our defenses like they're nothing..."

A voice from the back of the room spoke over the chaos. "This was always within the realm of possibility. A living subject was more valuable for information gathering, but it might be impossible to contain them by any normal means."

"Don't you have somewhere better to be, Mister... Kevin, was it?" The military pony frowned at the unusual name. "I don't need some EIS spook being sarcastic at me in the middle of an emergency!"

"Of course. I'll leave you to your fun," Kevin said, hefting his bag and walking out.

"Starlight, I'm sorry we don't have more support to give you," General Salad said, over the radio. It was a bulky model compared to the more modern crystal radios, requiring a small backpack and antenna that stretched an extra meter past the end of her flank. It did, however, have the benefit of being able to broadcast through dozens of meters of solid rock.

"Two Iron Pegasus units are good enough," she said. Starlight adjusted her night-vision goggles, looking down into the darkness.

"You need to stop it before it gets outside. This mine is within visual range of the town and the civilians are still being evacuated." General Salad sounded nervous.

"I know. Don't worry." Starlight caught movement in the shadows. "It's coming."

"Good luck," Salad replied, the channel filling with static and cutting off anything else he might have wanted to say. Starlight's vision went white as the light-amplification spell failed, one of the Iron Pegasus units flying back, the torso a ruin of molten metal.

The Linnorm slammed into her magical barrier before she'd even gotten the broken goggles off of her face, smirking at the monster. Fangs augmented by steel points tore at the shimmering shield, sliding across without finding purchase.

The monster's maw opened, and it fired a point-blank burst of dark magic, the purple beam hitting the shield and breaking up, motes of energy skittering across the surface like droplets of water on a hot pan, finding their way over the edges like ball lightning and burning holes in the rock around them.

"This is going to be fun. The old nag never lets me cut loose!" Starlight's horn flared, and the Linnorm was flung back into the supports keeping the roof over their heads, well, over their heads. The wooden braces cracked, almost immediately starting to buckle where they were damaged.

The monster rolled back to its feet, crossbow bolts from the remaining Iron Pegasus slamming into its shoulders, half bouncing off of armored plates of bone and scale and the other half driving deep into exposed flesh. The Linnorm didn't seem to notice them.

"Just as tough as the reports suggested," Starlight said, quietly. A second beam of dark magic lanced at her, her shield starting to flicker with the strain.

The Linnorm rumbled with annoyance and twisted its head, the beam cutting up into the rock above. Starlight teleported herself to the side as the rocks fell, dropping her shield in the process and wincing as her horn surged with pain, like it was being squeezed in a vice. A check with her hoof confirmed her fears. Black crystals were forming along it like salt crystallizing out of brine.

"I'm going to have to end this quickly before I'm completely cut off," Starlight said. A drip of water landed on her face and she looked up to see a patch of open sky and stormclouds.

"It shot right through to the outside!" She swore. "That was twenty-two meters of solid rock!"

The Linnorm followed her gaze, looking up at the brewing storm, and jumped for the hole. Starlight blasted it back towards the damaged support beams, the Linnorm' skull bouncing harshly off of the rock. It turned empty eye sockets to look at her, growling.

Before it could attack again, Starlight fired a bolt at the support beams around them, shattering the wood. The entire section of the mine started to cave in, rocks falling around them.

A shadow fell over her, and she looked up at the second Iron Pegasus unit, shielding her with its massive steel body. It grabbed her with both front hooves and threw her, Starlight flailing in the air until she landed, rolling, her eyes closed as he waited for the end.

The rocks fell with a final slam of stone against stone, the sound petering off until it was just a trickle of pebbles and sand coming to rest. Starlight opened her eyes. The Iron Pegasus had thrown her clear.

"Thanks," she said, quietly, looking at where it had fallen.

The machine made a low chiming sound of acknowledgment before going silent. Above them, in the red-hot edged skylight the linnorm had carved out, the storm broke. The rain fell on her, and the black crystals around her horn started to flake away.

Starlight smiled. "Well, that was fun!"

A dark form buzzed away from the collapsed mine, carrying a heavy duffel bag.

Cadance walked out of Day Court, hanging her head now that she was out of the public eye. In front of her subjects she had to keep up a brave face and keep the peace, but alone, she was free to surrender to her own sorrow. With Celestia leading from the front more often than not, Cadance was left to maintain appearances in Canterlot, which she would have called a thankless job if not for all the ponies thanking her for the work she was doing.

She was so busy staring at her hooves and walking without thinking about where she was going that she didn't notice the mare watching her until she spoke up.

"Cadance," said a voice that the Princess hadn't heard in more than a decade. She turned in alarm to look.

Sunset Shimmer was taller and leaner than she had been, the last time she'd seen her. She'd also aged surprisingly well. For a mare that should be pushing thirty, she looked like she was still a teenager.

There was an odd expression in her eyes that worried Cadance because she couldn't quite place it. She was used to seeing two expressions on Sunset's face and since this wasn't smug or angry it was totally unfamiliar. She hopped down from the open windowsill that she was standing in, like she'd flown in, or, more likely since she didn't have wings, teleported to.

The last time Cadance had seen her, Sunset had told her in no uncertain terms that they were enemies.

"I heard about what happened with Shining Armor," Sunset said. She frowned. "I'm sorry for your loss."

Cadance wasn't sure what was more shocking - that Sunset had reappeared, or that she apparently had some sympathy buried under all the crusted-on layers of spite and sarcasm.

"I-- You're back?" Cadance asked, not sure what to say. It was hard to get words out when some primal part of her wanted to turn heel and run.

"Celestia already knows," Sunset said, guessing Cadance's next question. "Don't worry. I'm not coming back as her student, or staying in the castle."

"Why are you here, then? What happened to you?" Cadance watched her move. Sunset got closer cautiously, stopping a few paces away when royal guards moved to try and cut her off.

"I just came to offer my condolences. We weren't ever friends, but..." She shrugged. "Eh. I know Sparkle's brother was special to you. She doesn't talk about it much but I think she's pretty messed up about it too."

Somehow, it felt like Sunset was being genuine. There really was a first time for everything. "Thank you," Cadance said, a smile blooming and her worry starting to fade.

"If you need to talk..." Sunset stopped herself, and laughed a little. "I'd probably be an awful shoulder to cry on, actually. But it's what you're supposed to say, isn't it?" She shook her head and turned back to the window, putting a hoof on the edge.

"I suppose it is," Cadance said. "But it's nice to know that other ponies are there for you, even if there's not really anything they can do to help."

"Do you remember what Celestia and I fought about, towards the end?" Sunset asked.

"She wanted you to make friends," Cadance said.

"Yeah. I was never good at that. I don't think she's very good at it, either. Celestia's good at being obeyed, and being a figurehead." Sunset frowned. "All I ever made were... enemies. Not even rivals. Well... maybe I've got one of those now." She shook her head. "I don't know. I came back to Equestria and the only ponies I know are you and Celestia. Maybe there are some maids or something that remember me, but I never even got their names."

"You've changed," Cadance said.

"More than you know." She smirked and looked back at Cadance. "It's funny. I guess old enemies are the same as old friends when you're the only ones who understand each other."

"We were never really enemies."

"You're right," Sunset admitted. "You were just..." She shrugged. "A symbol of everything going wrong with my life. I wanted to see you to, well... I guess I needed to know if I was still jealous. It's hard to keep hating you now that you've lost that perfect princess sheen."

Cadance hesitated, then smiled warmly, walking towards her. "It's never too late to start fixing things, you know. I don't have anything planned for the rest of the day, and a friend of mine recently reminded me I need to take more breaks."

Sunset raised her eyebrows, turning away from the window.

"Over a hundred ponies," Celestia said, flatly, looking at the casualty reports that had been sent to her. "This would never have happened if I was there."

"With all due respect ma'am," Raven, her personal assistant and, in this time of troubles, aide-de-camp, started. "You can't be everywhere. Defending Trottingham saved a lot of innocent lives. You made the right choice being there instead of being present for the dissection test at the facility."

"It doesn't excuse the incompetence," Celestia sighed and put the reports aside before she did something unseemly like setting them on fire from sheer frustration. "And we lost that entire facility."

"The Linnorm was stopped, though," Raven pointed out. "If we hadn't had somepony like Starlight Glimmer on-site..."

"And if luck wasn't on our side, the casualty reports would be an order of magnitude worse," Princess Celestia said. "We can't rely on that. Is there any word on what made the creature wake up? When we found it in the lake it had frozen completely solid."

"None yet, ma'am," Raven said. "The scientific and support staff were taking samples at the time and--" she shivered. "They were unable to evacuate. The ponies who would know why it woke up were the first victims of the event. I have a proposal from the Engineering Corps to do some prospective drilling to sink a new mineshaft to link up with the lower levels of the facility. The Lieutenant-General seems to think we could do it with only two dozen ponies and a few weeks, three months at worst."

"We don't have time to pull them off of the front," Celestia sighed. "Have the mine sealed permanently, and keep a small staff on-site until we're sure the Linnorm is entirely dead."

"Do you want me to send a report to Doctor Twilight Sparkle?"

"Hm?" Celestia looked up, surprised at the request.

"Forgive me if I misunderstood, your highness. I assumed that since she's the leading expert on Linnorm biology, inasmuch as there are experts, you might want her to be informed."

"I don't think there's any need," Celestia said. Her expression was dark as she looked at the photographs of the area, and the EIS report that had accompanied it. "I suspect she already knows more than we do."

Moondancer's pen (she couldn't stand quills, with the way they kept breaking, and had used pencils until she finally found a fountain pen that met her approval) scratched across the paper as she condensed the reports from the hospital staff into a usable summary for Doctor Sparkle.

Black hooves settled on her shoulders, and she felt a warm nuzzle from behind.

"I should have known that I'd find you working even at this hour," Kevin said. "It's a tragedy. Wouldn't you rather take a break and share a bottle of wine or two with somepony special?"

"That does sound nice," Moondancer admitted. "It's too bad you're not my type." She stopped writing but didn't make a motion to push Kevin away.

"I could be," Kevin pointed out.

"I've got my heart set on another," Moondancer said. "And I don't think she'd be happy to know that you're trying to bed her number one assistant."

"Ah, the tragedy of it all," Kevin sighed, pulling away and leaning on the wall, the black pony looking entirely too at ease. "I suppose I'll never be able to steal you away from Twilight."

"You know she prefers Doctor Sparkle," Moondancer corrected, fighting back a giggle.

"That's because she doesn't like getting too close to ponies," Kevin said. "I do wish you luck, though. Perhaps I can give you a few tips?" He leaned closer. "I've heard from a very reliable source that she loves butterscotch."

Moondancer laughed like it was a joke and very carefully filed that away for later, when she could look up some recipes. "Why are you really here, Kevin?"

"I can't just come down to the lab and spend some time with a few of my favorite ponies?" Kevin smiled broadly.

"I'd be tempted to believe you just so I could avoid worrying about it, but past experience has shown that you've always got an agenda." Moondancer adjusted her glasses. "Or have you slipped your mistress' chain?"

"Oh, no. You know how it is with royalty," Kevin said. "I have a little more leeway than most of her agents, but there are responsibilities that come with that trust."

"What kind of responsibilities?" Moondancer asked.

"I'd like to meet the ponies you've chosen," Kevin said. "Just a social call, really. Call it an informal evaluation after recent events. Don't worry! Doctor Sparkle would approve."

Sunset looked at the tea Cadance had made. It wasn't like the type Celestia favored, which tended to the floral and herbal with little that could actually be called tea.

"Powdered tea?" Sunset asked again, looking at the green stuff cautiously.

"I know it sounds a little strange," Cadance admitted.

"Don't tell me the war's so bad Celestia can't even get her favorite supplies in," Sunset quipped. She tried the tea. It had a strange, vegetal flavor, not really bitter but definitely with a taste of fresh leaves.

"I think there's enough tea in Canterlot castle alone to supply all of Equestria for a decade," Cadance said. "There's tea that's so old it puts wine to shame."

"You know, you handle things pretty well around here," Sunset said, changing the subject. "Did Sunbutt teach you to raise the sun yet?"

Cadance shook her head. "There hasn't been a need."

"I guess she wants you to take it slow. You've got forever to learn, after all." Sunset swirled the cup around, watching as bits of tea stuck to the cup like algae.

"Sunset, can I ask you..." Cadance trailed off for a moment. "What happened? Between you and Celestia? She wouldn't ever tell me."

"We fought," Sunset shrugged. "She fired me. I left."

"Left for where?" Cadance pressed. "The badlands? Griffonstone?"

"Much further away than that. You couldn't find it on a map. It..." Sunset tapped a hoof on the floor. "It was difficult. I had to start from scratch. I managed to survive without magic, in a place where all the rules are different..." She shook her head.

"Without magic?"

"Very far away," Sunset said, quietly.

"And you came back?"

"I'd have come back earlier but it took a while to figure passage out. Things don't... line up perfectly. Thirty moons here, a rotation around the sun there..." She shrugged.

"Around the sun?" Cadance blinked. That didn't make any sense at all.

"Don't ask."

Lightning Dust punched a training dummy, trying to take out some of her restless stress. She needed to move and do something, but she was being told to stand still. The dummy took the first hit well, but the second and third broke the frame inside it, and the fourth hit, a kick as Lightning Dust spun and bucked with lightning wreathing her hooves, set it on fire.

Fire alarms went off, and sprinklers drenched the small gym. Lightning Dust breathed heavily, the unexpected shower helping to cool her temper.

"That was a little much for an opponent that can't fight back," said a voice she didn't recognize. She looked up to see a black unicorn watching her with a wry grin of amusement. His horn lit up with green light, and the sprinklers turned off, the bell silencing, as he reset the alarm.

"Who the buck are you?" Lightning Dust asked, tossing her head to get her soaked bangs out of her eyes.

"I'm one of Doctor Sparkle's associates. Call me Kevin." He offered a hoof to shake.

"Kevin? That's a strange name." Lightning Dust shook his hoof and tried to get a look at his cutie mark. An emerald tracing of an eye within a triangle didn't offer any assistance with any meaning behind the odd name.

"It is," Kevin agreed. "But you know, I got some really good advice once from my mother - always be a little bit foreign, no matter where you are."

"That's some strange advice, too."

"Good advice, though. Doctor Sparkle's reports had a lot to say about you, but I'm much more impressed in person than I am with the numbers." Kevin circled her. "Raw statistics on muscle growth don't quite tell the tale. I'd love a chance to examine you in detail."

"Oh wow, wait, are you hitting on me?" Lightning Dust laughed.

"That depends, is it working?" Kevin raised an eyebrow, still smirking. "You wouldn't believe how hard it is getting a date with a cute mare these days. Work is always getting in the way. Perhaps I could treat you to dinner?"

"You're a brave little guy," Lightning Dust snorted.

"How about we bet on it?" Kevin asked. "There's a dry mat on the other side of the gym. First one on the ground loses?"

“Sorry, you’re not my type,” Dust shrugged, grabbing a towel and frowning when she found it was just as soaked as she was from the sprinklers. “Besides, I’m pretty sure I’d put you in the ground, not just on it.” She smirked. “I’m pretty strong, you know.”

“Ah well, can’t blame a stallion for trying.” He smiled and held up a bottle of juice. “Could I at least buy you a drink?”

Marble woke up slowly, her head pounding. She'd been having a horrible dream, the kind of nightmare where you couldn't even remember it in the morning, just the feeling of terror it left behind.

She opened her eyes with trepidation. That moment of uncertainty, half-dreaming and half-awake, unable to tell the night terror from reality, paralyzed her with indecision. There was that foalish desire to stay hidden, that staying still and pretending to be asleep would make the monsters go away.

“I can tell you’re awake,” somepony said.

Marble’s eyes snapped open. She was looking at an off-white ceiling, one she didn’t recognize. Her chest felt heavy. She looked for the source of the voice and found a purple mare sitting on a chair next to the window, reading using the light.

“You’re a lot of trouble,” the mare said. She turned the pages by hoof even though she was a unicorn. She looked up. “How much do you remember about what happened?”

“Mmm…” Marble looked down.

“Not very talkative,” the mare said, after a few silent seconds. “Fine. I’ll tell you what happened. You had a magic surge. A big one. Destroyed a lot of equipment and you almost killed me.”

Marble’s eyes went wide.

“Do you want the good news or bad news?” The unicorn asked. Marble froze, and after a few moments the unicorn continued without her input. “Bad news first, then. Your magical pathways were damaged. More accurately, you had new leylines forced into your body and then blown out with an overcharge of magical force. It’s actually quite interesting. It won’t interfere with your earth pony magic at all, but with no natural way to heal them, and the ambient magic leakage…” The unicorn paused and looked at her.

Marble was shivering and shaking with fear.

“Mm. It’s a bit advanced. Even most doctors wouldn’t understand what was wrong with you. Thaumobiology is a tricky subject. But you could say… it would be like having an open wound that wouldn’t heal. You’d eventually bleed out or succumb to infection without intervention.”

Marble gasped, pulling the covers over her head.

“There’s good news, though,” the unicorn continued. “Because of the nature of the accident I was able to treat it. You’ll be right as rain in…” she stopped, and Marble could almost hear her thinking. “...Mm. I don’t have a large enough sample size to be sure. A unicorn would take a few weeks to recover, but you’ve got an earth pony’s more naturally resilient magic, and then the thaumatic component of your biology is far greater than normal… a week at most.”

“I’m… okay?” Marble asked, quietly, whispering and lowering the scratchy hospital blanket.

“Better than okay,” the unicorn assured her. “But there are a few things you need to know. Like staying off a broken leg until it heals, you understand. Are you calm enough to pay attention?”

Marble nodded.

“Good. First, you’ll note bandages around your barrel. We had to perform surgery to help you. If you feel tightness in your chest, that’s from the Engine Heart we installed. It’s like an artificial wellspring. Having it in you is putting magic into your new unicorn leylines, and that’s the only way they’ll heal.”

Marble touched her chest, and aside from the bandages there was also something made out of dark metal, like a collar.

“That is a control yoke,” the unicorn noted. “It’s going to prevent any future magical surges. In theory.” She shrugged. “I had to hack it together. It’s actually a rejected part of the armored suit I was making, and creates a huge amount of resistance…” She sighed. “The point is, it’s like a cast for a broken bone, but for your magic. Don’t take it off.”

Marble nodded. “I-I’ll get hurt again if I do, won’t I?”

“Mm.” The unicorn made a noncommittal noise. “You’re also being transferred to my research facility. I’m going to make the best of a bad situation. Keep tabs on your recovery and run tests at the same time. Nothing stressful.”

“But, I- I only agreed to this because there was a reward and my family--” She shivered. “I need to... Mmm...”

“They’ll be given whatever money they need,” the unicorn shrugged. “I’ll see to it. You don’t want to go back until you’re healed and no longer a danger to them.”

Marble opened her mouth to disagree, but the flashes of memory she had, the power pouring through her, the hate, the rage, lashing out and destroying things…

She nodded.

“Good,” the unicorn said. “My name is Doctor Sparkle. I’m sure we’ll be…” she frowned, as if tasting something sour. “...colleagues.”

“So the recruitment went well?” Kevin asked.

Doctor Sparkle grunted as the elevator descended. It was a long way down, the trip taking almost ten minutes to descend into the rock of the Canterhorn.

“Well enough,” she eventually admitted. “She’s not enthusiastic. I don’t know if she’ll fight.”

“And you still made her a part of this little… operation?” Kevin raised an eyebrow, leaning casually against the steel wall.

“After that magical surge…” Twilight gave a lopsided grin like a predator, turning to Kevin. “You should have seen it. Her compatibility must be off the charts, even if she’s so timid she can barely speak a word without half an hour to prepare herself!”

“I did read the report,” Kevin said. “Are you sure you want her involved? I mean it’s one thing for there to be mood swings - we knew that was going to happen. But full-on possession?”

“Look at it another way,” Sparkle offered. “If it really is possession, she’ll need less training, and I don’t have to worry about her loyalties to Celestia.”

Kevin laughed. “You do have a way of turning lemons into lemonade.”

The elevator stopped with a lurch. The doors opened to a corridor only a few paces long, ending in a security door covered in runes and bands of cold iron and stronger materials, enough that it could survive even an alicorn-level attempt to blast through it.

From either side.

Hopefully.

Doctor Sparkle stepped up to the door. Two waves of magic washed through the room, the first a powerful effect meant to dispel active spells and disguises, the second a scrying spell following so closely on the first spell’s heels that no one would be able to recast spells. In theory.

She was dimly aware of a burst of green light behind her and to her left, but ignored it. The door slid open, bands of metal sliding in different directions like a puzzle-knot unraveling itself.

Within, a cavern stretched in every direction farther than the light from the open door carried. The only lights within it were spotlights, focused on the single item secured within the vault.

“I don’t see any damage to the containment,” Kevin noted, stepping towards the room’s focus.

“Double check it,” Sparkle ordered. “Do a full magical sweep. We can’t afford to have her get loose. We expected psychic contamination and possible possession, but we need to make sure it isn’t reflected here.”

Kevin circled the item, running a hoof along the lumpy, organic shape, the outer surface somewhere between wax and steel in texture.

“It’s possible there are weaknesses that aren’t going to show up,” Kevin said, stepping away. “But I don’t think she’s going anywhere.”

“Mm. Arrange for another layer,” Sparkle said. “I don’t trust it. She can be patient. The best defense against a smart opponent is to change the game faster than they can move.”

She looked through the transparent side of the cocoon at the inhabitant, still sleeping thanks to the sedatives and magical dampeners flowing through the green fluid around her.

“She spent a thousand years on the moon,” Sparkle muttered. “I doubt she’ll be happy about being locked up again already.”

ENGINE HEART A-00

Main casing composition: Forged high-strength copper alloy, similar properties to standard alchemy alloys used to avoid magical cross-contamination.

Base core: Corundum, natural, no visible flaws.

Test result: Casing breached during initial start-up. Residuum in debris indicates connection to aetherial plane prior to equipment failure.

ENGINE HEART A-01

Main casing composition: Reinforced copper casing with additional steel bands.

Base core: Corundum, natural, no visible flaws.

Test result: Casing degrades quickly. Equipment shut down before failure. Inner layer of casing is being subjected to extreme thaumatic stress. Despite its use in alchemy, the copper alloy is still reactive at non-trivial thaumatic pressure.

ENGINE HEART A-02

Main casing composition: Reinforced copper casing. Innermost layer replaced with Lunar Titanium. (Thank you to our friends at the Tabitha base - TS)

Base core: Same gem as test A-01.

Test result: Lunar Titanium acting as thaumatic distortion blanket. Peak output unsteady, issues related to gem quality. Acceptable as a bench model. Test successful.