Chapter 61: EEG

“So remind me what Twilight hopes to achieve in her little experiment. I’m a little fuzzy on the details.” Admits Dusk, while silently cursing his bad memory.

“Well, um... she wants to test if we (pegasi) had some sort of... what are the best words for this... unique hidden magic.”

Something in Dusk’s brain clicks, as he starts to recall about his time in Zephyr’s hospital room  two days ago. This is when he still accused himself of causing Zephyr’s accident with the diamond dogs. “Ah yes. Didn’t she say that she would run tests on Rainbow’s ‘Sonic Rainboom’, your ‘Stare’ and my ‘Red-Eye’?” (Which is a much better name than ‘Rage Face’)

She nods, confirming his question. “Yeah... I think that is what she said to me. She seemed really excited about the experiment when she spoke to me about it.”

‘Heh, that is just like Twilight to get a thrill out of doing experiments, like the adorable little nerd she is... there really needs to be a better word to describe her personality...’

“Only she would enjoy these sort of things...” He says with a deadpan tone of voice. “I wonder how she’s going to test us though. I don’t know if she is going to do something simple, or something really... uh... messed up...”

Fluttershy waves a dismissive hoof at Dusk, “Oh no, she wouldn’t do anything like that. I’m sure of it...”

‘That’s reassuring.’

----------

-In Twilight’s Library-

“...And just so you two know, I’ll be getting your brains scanned.”

“WHAT?!” Many mental images flash through Dusk’s mind, and a lot of them involve scalpels in some way. He turns to Fluttershy, “I thought that you said nothing like this would happen.” He say exasperatedly.

“...me neither...”

Twilight then sees things from Dusk’s (and maybe Fluttershy’s) point of view. “Oh no, oh no no no, you don’t understand. Well be doing the tests with an electroencephalograph.” She could somehow pronounce the last word flawlessly.

“A... what?”

“An electroencephalograph: it is a machine that measure the voltage fluctuations that occur from the ionic currents of the pony brain. My machine measures the frequency of five different types of waves in our brains: Alpha, Beta, Theta, Delta, and Epsilon. Basically, the Alpha wave shows how relaxed-”

*SHATTER + CRASH* The sound could be heard across the whole house, interrupting Twilight, and startling the other two.

“What was that Twilight?” Asks Dusk with a worried tone.

“Um... I don’t know, but it came from upstairs.” She trots towards the staircase, signalling for Dusk and Fluttershy to follow. Dusk curiously follows, with Fluttershy trailing behind the two, as they all walk up the stairs.

When the three walk into Twilight’s room / study area, they are surprised to see multiple glass shards scattering the ground, and a relatively unscathed, but stressed cyan pegasus on the wooden floor. Dusk could see that Twilight’s right eye is twitching, and her mouth is agape. He also thought that he saw her eyes glow white for half a second.

When Rainbow Dash makes eye contact with the purple unicorn, she starts to feel uncomfortable. “Uh... Twi, I have a perfectly good reason for this, you see-”

“She crashed through the window.” Interrupts Spike, who is also in the room.

“What!” Rainbow points a fore-hoof at the small purple dragon, “He lies!”

Spike shakes his head in disapproval, before he begins to walk towards the stairs with a full bag of jewels in his claws. “This is what you get for replacing my gems with plastic replicas Rainbow Dash.” He throws an amethyst into the air, and eats it as it falls. “Karma, it sucks... have fun.” He walks down the stairs and leaves Rainbow to her fate.

“Wait Spike, could you come back here for a second?” Asks Twilight.

They all hear a sigh of annoyance, before he walks back up the stairs into her room. “Yeah Twilight?”

“Could you clean up the glass shards that a certain pegasus...” She gives Rainbow a death glare before continuing. “...has scattered around the room? If you do this, than I will not only give you a small bag of gems as a reward, but I will also see if I could organise for you to go and work with Rarity tomorrow.”

The young dragon perks up after hearing the ‘Rarity’ part, and says, “I’ll do it.” He starts to pick up the shards with his claws, while Twilight asks Rainbow something.

“How in Equestria did you smash through the window of my house?”

She has gotten quite sheepish at this point. “Well Twi... I was trying out a few new flying stunts, but as I was beginning one of my more complex tricks, there was an unexpected gust of wind, and I was caught in a stall. So I needed to do a nosedive so I could fly properly again, but I was a bit too close to the ground, and I may have accidentally crashed through your window.”

Something about this seems a bit iffy to Dusk, “Wait a sec, so you’re saying that you couldn’t have hovered in the air, instead of nosediving. That’s a pretty terrible mistake from the ‘Best Flier in Equestria’.

This hurts her ego, as she starts to speak with slight aggression, “Hey, I only nose-dived, because it’s like, 20% cooler than simply hovering.”

“Right...” He is still quite sceptical, but he didn’t feel like pursuing it any further.

Twilight chooses this as a prime time to remind the three pegasi why they are here in the first place. “So now since everypony is here, I’ll need you to follow me so I can start-”

“Hey wait a second.” Interrupts Rainbow, who is hovering in the air like she normally does. “What’s happening, why do we all have to follow you?”

She facehoofs, before speaking, “For the experiment, you know, the one I told you about two days ago.” She sounds a lot more frustrated than she did a few seconds ago.

The cyan mare ponders this for a second, putting her forehoof up to her chin, “Well... uh you sort of did, but you know what I’m like, you should have reminded me.”

“It’s not my responsibility for me to remind you about things like this. Also, I told you about the experiment three more times during that day.”

“Really?” The look of guilt spreads across her face. “Oh, I’m sorry Twi, I didn’t mean to forget about that, but I still arrived on time at least.”

“Yeah, I suppose that you’re right, apology accepted. Now let’s start this experiment.” He could see her eyes sparkle as she directs her three test subjects (victims?) down the staircase...

----------

Twilight has brought Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Dusk down to the basement of her library. Everypony in the group could safely say, that he didn’t expect anything like this. There are a vast number of machines of no discernible use, placed in various spots in the room, and since it is under the tree itself, some of the larger roots from above are wrapping around some the said machines. There are also numerous test tubes in the area, filled with different kinds of chemicals. Almost every single mixture is a different colour, and the even the consistency of the liquid differs.

The air in the room feels musty, and somewhat stale, since they are in an underground room, and there is almost no possible way to get fresh air into the room. (If you count out the door to the basement. The room itself, like the other two main rooms in her library, is huge. There is plenty of room for Twilight to do her experiments with and therefore, a lot of room for the unicorn to store her side projects, while she sets up the main experiment. He noted the blackboard, which contains a single algebraic formula... which fills the whole area of the board.

‘...no comment.’

He could see that Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash have engaged in their own conversation, and Twilight is near some sort of machine right in the middle of the room. She held a quill and parchment with her magic, and she is talking to herself.

“Is the EEG filled with paper?” She looks up at the giant, bulging roll of paper which stuck out of the main part of the machine. She ticks the check box, “Check. So are the calibrations in working order...?” She fiddles around with the various buttons on the machine. Dusk was bored at this point, and so he decides to look at some of the other experiments that she had put aside. He is truly that bored...

---------- (Four minutes later)

Twilight has finished all of the preparations for the test, and has called everypony over to her position near the machine. She added a few more items onto the machine: a small hollow domed object which looks like it need to be placed on a pony’s head, and a bigger machine with hoof clamps and a few knobs and valves. The smaller parts were attached to the main mechanism with red, blue and green wires.

Twilight has begun to speak of her goals for today, and what she is planning. “Okay girls, (and Dusk) Do you know what the point of this experiment is?” The three pegasi nod in unison, which allows Twilight to continue talking. “Good. I’m not the first pony to test for the magical properties in non-unicorns, and it has been confirmed that there is magic inside all three of the lesser pony species. (Alicorns are considered to be a higher class)”

This is news for the test subjects, as they all react to the new information. Dusk and Rainbow silently mouth the word ‘What’, while Fluttershy asks Twilight a question regarding the matter. “Why are we considered magical, when we can’t do any of the things that unicorns do?”

“That’s a good question Fluttershy. You see, unicorns have conscious control of our magic, since our race is capable of such things, but both of the other races also contain dormant magic; magic that naturally occurs when you do something tailored to your race. I’ll give you an example. First, I need all of you to stretch your wings.”

Two of the three pegasi stretch out their wings to it’s maximum length. Dusk couldn’t do this, because his left wing hasn’t recovered from it’s injury. After she takes a quick glance at the wings, she continues to explain. "Normally, with wings this small, it would be impossible for any of you to take flight, but because of the natural dormant magic that you are born with, it enhances your wings so you are able to fly with them. This theory was proved by Starswirl the Bearded, as he tested what would happen if you took the magic away."

Dusk went slightly pale after hearing that. "He-he could just take away a pegasi's flying... just like that?"

"It's only temporary, he didn't remove the magic, he just temporarily stopped the magic from doing anything. It's a very difficult spell, and I haven't learnt it." Dusk looks at his fellow pegasi, and could see that Rainbow was showing signs of distress, and Fluttershy was biting her lower lip.

"So let us begin the experiment." Says Twilight, who has walked next to the unknown contraption in the centre of the room. “This machine measures the Alpha, Beta, Delta, Theta and Epsilon brain waves. The results that come from the machine will be used to measure a pony’s concentration, relaxation, stress, drowsiness, emotional state and most importantly, magic. It is a relatively simple test, since the pony getting tested on just needs to wear that on their head for five minutes.” She points a forehoof at the dome shaped object, which draws the attention of the pegasi to the ‘hat’. Rainbow shows her disapproval.

“Five minutes?! We need to wear that thing for five minutes?! Couldn’t you just reduce the time with your magic or something?” It is apparent that Rainbow doesn’t know much about a unicorn’s magic.

“Don’t complain, it used to take over thirty minutes before a conclusive result was achieved using one of these, and since you’re so eager to try it out, you’ll be going first.”

“What, no way Sparkle, you can’t make me.” She is hovering in the air, with her forelegs crossed across her chest.

“It’s a good way to compare your skills to both Fluttershy and Dusk, and I can levitate you and force to the testing area, unless you go there yourself.”

The cyan mare took a few moments to think about her answer, before she spoke. “Alright fine, could you set it up for me?” She didn’t sound like she wanted to do this.

“With pleasure.”

Twilight brings her over to the hoofclamps, and places her two forearms the steel holders. They snap shut, holding Rainbow Dash onto the machine. Twilight pulls a few knobs and a couple of buttons. The main machine starts up, so Twilight places the scanner onto Rainbow’s head, (with the strap of course) and waits for the test to finish.

---------- (One test later)

The machine that Twilight stood near starts to make a lot more noise, and the clamps release Rainbow from it’s grasp. “Okay, you can take the helmet of now. The machine has stopped the scan.”

“Oh, finally.” She quickly removes the helmet, and starts to hover again, “It’s just so restrictive in that thing.”

“Uh huh.” Twilight paid no attention to what her friend has just said, since she is preoccupied by the paper that the machine was printing out. The paper has five different groups of lines, and all of the lines seem to rise and fall at different intervals. He has absolutely no idea what any of these lines meant. He and Fluttershy were trying to get a closer look at the results as it prints.

When the machine stops printing, Twilight told Rainbow to go see her results, but she also told Dusk and Fluttershy to get out of earshot. So the couple converse while they wait for Twilight to finish.

Dusk asks Fluttershy a question that has been bugging him about this experiment. “You know how Twi is going to test out if the Rainboom, your Stare, and my Red-Eye?”

“Yes?”

“I can understand how she will test the Sonic Rainboom, but how will she test our abilities. You see, my Red-Eye usually appears if I am a horrible mood, and it’s a life or death situation, and your Stare only happens when... when...” He doesn’t actually know how she can trigger it and is at a loss for words.

“I... don’t really know when it happens either. I think it happens when somepony is in danger, of if Angel is being a bad bunny.”

“Oh, about that, I never thanked you properly for saving me in the Everfree Forest.”

“You did though Dusk, you told me about how much you appreciated how I saved you.”

“But I’m not satisfied with that, I feel that I should have said a lot more to you that day.” Back when he was first at the hospital, his apology was curt and rushed. He has never been one for sincerity, but he felt that he could have put a lot more effort into it, considering that she saved his life. “You went into the Everfree Forest, during the night, just to save my life. You risked your life with a manticore, just to save me. You could have flown away and leave me to my fate, but instead, you chose to save a complete stranger, not knowing who they are or what they are like.” The apology is expressing what he truly felt about that day.

“Not only did you save me from the manticore, but you also saved me from homelessness. I was just a random stallion you found in the Everfree, and you decided to take under your wing, so to speak. I... don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t so kind to me, and I’m grateful for everything you have shown me. Thank you for all that you have done for me Fluttershy, it means a lot to me.” He starts to feel slightly teary eyed, but he holds his resolve quite easily. His life truly has improved for the better, ever since she has been a part of his life. (If you count out the constant fighting he somehow gets into)

Fluttershy is thinking of the proper words to say to Dusk. She couldn’t just say that is was no problem to him, since he did his best to thank her properly, and it would be rude to be curt about her respond. The words she seeks were right on the tip of her tongue, but she doesn’t know what they are.

“That was really... nice. Thank you Dusk, you’ve made my life better as well, I never thought that I’d be in a relationship with somepony who cares about me so much. I feel happy when I’m around you, and I hope that nothing can ever separate us.”

His could only nod in response, but he has gotten his point across. No more needed to be said, since that would ruin the moment. The two stood there, with Dusk looking into her beautiful blue eyes, and Fluttershy looking into his matured topaz eyes. Nothing could break the bond between-

“I am not emotionally unstable Twilight, your machine is broken!”

...Almost nothing. Rainbow’s outburst at Twilight has gained the attention of both Dusk and Fluttershy, breaking the connection that they had set up. Rainbow was giving both the machine, and Twilight dirty looks. (Mainly the machine) Twilight looks extremely annoyed with her cyan friend, and tries to explain her theory behind this.

“Ugh, I told you already, the EEG is an accurate device, but I think-”

“It is wrong Twi, this thing is faulty.” She is still as stubborn as ever, as she tries to drive her point across.

“It’s not, and I have a perfectly logical solution for that. If you look at these results, compared to a standard pegasus mare, the theta waves are higher than the average, and the theta waves increase if you are drowsy or having an emotional experience of sorts. But during the testing, you may remember that you felt uncomfortable using the EEG, and this may have increased the frequency of the Theta brain waves.” Twilight is oblivious to the fact that Dusk and Fluttershy were now listening to their ‘conversation’.

“But besides from that, your other brain waves seem to make sense. Your Beta waves are higher than average, but mainly because you were more stressed when you were on the machine.” Rainbow Dash looks relieved with Twilight’s explanation of the matter. She lets the librarian continue with the results. “Your Alpha waves are about normal, since you seem to be relaxed at the moment, and your Delta waves are pretty standard as well, since you need to be asleep for this to increase in frequency. One thing I am astonished about are your Epsilon brain waves. I didn’t expect this, you have the highest magical properties that I have ever seen in a pegasi. In fact, based on these results, I’d say that you are one of the best fliers in Equestria.”

Rainbow’s jaw drops, and the three pegasi remain in a stunned silence. Twilight was the only one who wasn’t shocked by the news, (since she was the pony who discovered it) and was curiously eyeing the three. Fluttershy seems to be the least stunned, since her jaw isn’t dropped like it is for the other two. After the discovery sinks into Rainbow’s head, she starts to get a tad arrogant.

“Heh, was there ever any doubt. This proves it, I’m the best flier in all of Equestria. I can’t want to tell Pinkie about this.” She has a very smug grin on her muzzle.

“Getting a bit conceited there, don’t you think?” Dusk has always hated it when somepony gets over-confident in themselves. Blizzard used to be the same, back when he was still best mates with Dusk, back before he changed...

“And don’t forget, I said one of the best fliers, not the best. Also, I have never tested a Wonderbolt before, so I don’t know if you even come close to their flying abilities.” Twilight had felt the need to point that out, since she has an eye for detail.

“Eh, close enough.” She shrugs, and dismisses the two comments. “So let’s see how Dusk compares to me, I wanna see.”

“Hey wait a second Rainbow, this isn’t a competition, this is important scientific-”

“Challenge accepted.” Dusk says with a competitive grin.

Twilight facehoofs after Dusk’s acceptance, and mumbles to herself. “Oh sweet Celestia, these pegasi (besides Fluttershy) are idiots. Idiots I say...”

----------

Dusk has now been hooked up to the EEG, and was currently in the process of getting his head scanned. The cold metal of the hoofclamps, were surprisingly smug around his forearms. They still kept him in his place, but they felt loose, and didn’t chafe in the slightest. Wearing the headpiece on the other hoof, feels slightly embarrassing. It looks like somepony took a colander from the kitchen, and attached random coloured lights and buttons onto it. It is firmly held on Dusk’s head with a black elastic strap, and like the hoofclamps, it is unexpectedly comfortable. The main machine only emitted a quiet, dull hum as the tests wore on.

Dusk struck up a conversation with the purple unicorn, “So, how are you going to figure out if this experiment is successful or not. I expect that you have figured out what will make the your theory work.”

“Of course I have. It is a relatively simple experiment, but there are some complications, since I need all of you to perform your unique special abilities. Rainbow will be easy to test on, but the ways that I could use to get you and Fluttershy to perform your powers are... intrusive to say the least. I’ll discuss it later.”

‘Hmm, I wonder, could she just simply let me cue my Red-Eye whenever I need it, or even let Shy have full control of her Stare?’ “But this doesn’t really answer the question. How will you prove your predictions?”

“Easy, I will get you all to do your abilities, and then use the EEG to test for any changes. If the Epsilon waves make a noticeable increase for all of you, than there might be a magical connection and I'll need to continue the experiment with other pegasi, to see if the results were a coincidence or not.” Dusk was thankful for the fact that she made the explanation somewhat easy to understand. “The only way this experiment can fail, is if any of the special abilities make no difference to the Epsilon chart. This will mean that there was no magic involved and therefore, that would mean that there would be no magical connection.”

He takes it in pretty easily. “Seems simple enough to me, but I’m willing to bet that today’s experiment will be a failure. At least one of our powers will be non-magical.”

“I am inclined to disagree with you. I don’t understand how it would be possible to do your feats of skill without some kind of magic involved. How would the Rainboom be possible without magic? How could the Stare frighten any living organism, no matter what the size? How does Red-Eye not only make your eyes glow, but also make you a stronger stallion?” The questions all went in her favor, and Dusk did not know how he could answer them. Instead, he went for another option.

“Ten bits says that this experiment will fail.” Challenges Dusk, who tries to hold his right forehoof for a hoofshake, before realizing that they were still clamped to the machine. Twilight contemplates if she wants to take the bet.

A moment later, she makes her decision. “You’re on.”

A few moments later, the machine stops humming and begins to make strange loud noises and Dusk's clamps go loose . Twilight immediately recognises what this sound is and she told Dusk to take the EEG/colander thing off of his head. Before she draws the attention of other friends, she asks him a quick question. "Do you want me to share the results with the rest of the group?"

He shrugs, "Sure, I'm in competition with Rainbow anyway."

"Okay... you've asked for it..." She knows that he will lose his little competition with her rainbow maned friend, but didn’t want to tell him. He shouldn’t have been so hasty...

----------

Twilight has called over the two pegasi mares, so they could both see Dusk’s results in the test. Fluttershy was curious as to what might be going on in her coltfriend’s head, and Rainbow was just there so she could bask in victory when he inevitably loses to her. Twilight has received all of the results that the EEG has printed out, and started to explain to everypony what they meant.

“Okay, I will start off with the frequency of the Epsilon waves, since I reckon that both Rainbow and Dusk are eager to see this first...”

“You’re going down Dusk.” Confidently says Rainbow.

“Oh really?” Retorts Dusk. He already knows that he is going to lose, but he still wants to keep the confident facade.

Twilight grabs the results, and lays them on the nearby table. “I am quite surprised, and impressed with these results Dusk. You have a high frequency of Epsilon waves than the average for a pegasi. You are quite a good flier.”

He did not expect this. “B-But how is that even possible? I’m a slower than most of the other pegasi that I know, and I’m not aware of anything I’m skilled at when it comes to flying.”

Rainbow steps in to explain why he might be so good with flight “Hey, wait a second Dusk. To be skilled at flying, you don’t need to be a fast flier. (even though it helps) You also need to be agile, be able to fly long distances, have good technique, and be able to perform tough aerial manoeuvres.”

“Hmm, I never considered it like that.”

“But despite this Dusk, you still have a lower skill level than Rainbow, considerably so.” Says Twilight, which elicits two different responses.

“OH YEAH!” Rainbow hoofpumps in the air

“Oh no...”

“I told you, I told you that I’d beat you, but you had to challenge me didn’t you. The winner is me.” (etc)

Dusk, who was willing to stop Rainbow’s onslaught, asks Twilight a question. “So what do the other results say?”

“Twilight looks back at his results page, and starts to explain what the patterns mean. “So your Beta waves are about the same as Rainbow’s levels, which perplexes me since the only ways that Beta waves increase in frequency include stress, alertness, arousal, and concentration. And by what I’ve seen, none of these things have happened to you.”

‘If only you knew Twilight. I wish that Rainbow didn’t ruin that moment between Shy and I.’

“So anyway, your Alpha and Delta waves are normal, but I am quite worried about your Theta waves. While it is lower than Rainbow’s botched results, it shouldn’t really be this high. The frequency of Theta waves only increase, if you are dreaming in your sleep, (which is impossible right now), if your general behavior is changing, or if you are having or had emotional experiences recently. I’m worried about you.” She spoke with much concern in her voice.

“You shouldn’t worry about it Twi, I just had a few personal issues that I’ve dealt with.” He didn’t want anypony to know about what happened with him or Cheerilee earlier this morning. It was a rather emotional experience for the two of them, and he promised her that he wouldn’t say anything about it.

“Dusk... are you sure that you are okay?” Asks Fluttershy, who sounds sad, but it also seems like she expected this, after all that he has been through while living in town. “You can tell me about it... but if you don’t want to, that’s fine...”

“I cannot tell any of you what happened. I promised to her that I would keep it a secret, and I won’t tell any of you what it is. It’s not that I don’t trust you girls or anything, I’d trust all of you with my life, (especially Fluttershy) but I cannot, and will not tell you what I’ve found out. It’s something you don’t simply forget about, and I wont be able to look at her in the same light, ever again.” He seems to have slight discoloured, as he now has a light greyish tinge on his dark blue coat. He looks dead serious about what he has just said, and so the three mares knew that it would be best, if they left it at that.

There was silence among the group, and none of them knew what they could say to improve the mood in the room. Twilight is the first to speak, “So, Fluttershy, do you want me to hook you up to the EEG, so we can finish up in here?”

“Um... okay then...”

----------

Twilight prepares the EEG for the last control test, since she needs to recalibrate the machine after every test. It doesn’t take her too much time, since she has gotten quite used to the workings of the machine. It takes less than a minute, before she asks Fluttershy to get into position.

The yellow-coated pegasus puts the machine’s headpiece on, and puts her hoof in the open clamps, like Twilight showed her to. The unicorn presses the big green button on the EEG, and the clamps snap shut, eliciting a startled “Eep!” out of shock. Dusk chuckles in amusement, because he nearly had the same sort of reaction when that happened to him. The machine emits a quiet hum once again, and the lights on the headpiece start flashing in a multi coloured spectrum, as they should.

Rainbow asks Dusk an important question involving his work, “So how do you think your wing is holding up? It getting harder and harder for me to deal with the weather, ever since Zephyr was crippled in that fight. There is only so much I can do on my own, so when will you be able to fly again?”

“Uh, I’ll be able to fly properly, in about a weeks time. But it could be longer than that, because when I was being chased by Rarity, I needed to take flight to get away.” He turns to his left wing, and grimaces at it. “It may cause problems later on though, because it felt like I was tearing my own wing off when I was flying. I’m sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Dismisses Rainbow,  “It’s not like I can’t handle or anything, but it just takes longer than usual, which interrupts with my schedules.”

“You don’t really seem to be the type of pony who plans things out, Rainbow.” He simply could not imagine her following some sort of plan with how her day went. She’s almost the polar opposite of the excessively organised Twilight Sparkle.

“Well I need my naps at precisely the right moments, or else my day gets worse, and with Zephyr gone, it’s hard to stick to these times.”

“Equestrian world problems.” Summarises Dusk. “I never thought that I would meet somepony, who organises times for napping.”

“Well, I need to rest after work, and after training as well, so that’s why I need to regularly nap every day, or I’ll just burn myself out.” She now seems a little bit less lazy in his eyes. He hadn’t considered the reasons why she tends to do this as frequently as she does. Part of him still knows that her laziness has a part in her habits though.

There is a brief silence in their casual talk, and the only sounds are the other conversation at the other side of the room, and the near silent hum of the EEG, which is still occupied by Fluttershy.

Dusk is trying to think of another subject he could talk to Rainbow about, but she beats him to it.

“So what is it like living with Shy? How have things been with her?”

“Um...” He hesitates with his answer, because the first thing that he remembers is what happened after he recovered from his hypothermia. That was one of his better memories, but not the type to share with the rest of his friends. (Zephyr on the other hoof...) He honestly answers her question.

“Well, things have been great between us, and she's made my life a lot better than it was three weeks ago. In the weeks that I have been here for, we've sort of built some kind of special connection with each other." 'Especially since that incident with that group of thugs. That stab wound of mine is going to leave quite a scar once it finishes healing.' He didn't like to remember that incident too much, it always makes him think about what they would have done to her, if he wasn't there.

He continues to talk, "Even though it has only been about two weeks so far, I believe this whole relationship is something special. It's just that feeling, if you know what I mean, it just feels right."

"I know what you mean, and I trust you." She points an accusing hoof at him, "But if you ever upset her, you're gonna get it. I've been her friend ever since Flight School, and if I ever find out that you do something to her...” She did not need to say any more, since he already knows what she meant.

“I would never do anything like that to her, and you know it.”

“Just checkin’.”

----------

Once the machine started to make those weird loud noises again, it drew Dusk and Rainbow Dash back to the machine. Fluttershy and Twilight were talking about something quietly, and out of the other two’s earshot, and so they couldn’t hear what they were saying. The yellow pegasus nods in response to one of Twilight’s questions and the unicorn begins to address the other two.

“Fluttershy is allowing me to share her results with you two, just to let you know.”

“Okay then.” Responds Dusk.

“Just wait for a few moments until the machine finishes printing.” She walks back to the printing side of the EEG, and waits for it to finish, with the other three expectantly waiting for the results. Twilight grabs the results with her levitational magics and brings them onto the table, where she kept Dusk's and Rainbow's rolled up readings.

She lays the newest results flat on the table and examines them, but her expression saddens a little bit, when she takes a look at one of the readings. She seems apprehensive to read out this result, but she has no choice in the matter, since they were all waiting for her to read out what the readings meant.

"I'm sorry Fluttershy, but these are the lowest Epsilon waves that I have ever seen in a pegasi. I am afraid that your capabilities with flight are quite low. I'm sorry about that."

Dusk could see his partner visibly deflate after hearing this. She looks down at the ground, and starts to speak, "That's... unfortunate to hear... At least it isn't too hard for me to take, since I already know that I'm a bad flier."

Rainbow felt the need to intervene her self hating "Hey wait a second Shy, you can't say that. Who was the pony who brought us over the 800 wingpower to bring the water from Ponyville to Cloudsdale?"

"Um, I guess I was, b-but it wasn't-"

"Who was the pony who caught up to me while I was corrupted by Discord, while dragging the rest of the girls in that hot air balloon?"

"...It was me." Some of her self doubt has been replaced with an air of confidence..

Dusk thinks of a perfect example to add on to this, "Who was the special mare who flew me back to the hospital, after saving my life from a manticore, despite not knowing who I was?"

The yellow coated pegasus finally brightens up, and the clouds of uncertainty that surrounded her have gone away now. “Thank you for telling me this, I... I guess that I didn’t realize what I can really do, even if I’m not as good a flier as the rest of you.”

Twilight felt the need to add her own tidbit into the discussion. “May I add, that you have a tendency to fly better when you seem to get a bit desperate, or when you need to. Why do you think that your wingpower doubled, when you helped the group summon the hurricane? You’re a much better flier than your results say, so don’t be discouraged.”

“Okay then, that’s good to hear.”

Twilight continues with her elaboration with the rest of the results. "Almost everything else on the chart seems to be about normal, which is good, but what I find astonishing, is that your Beta waves are at the same levels as Dusk's, which is quite strange to see. They can only increase if you are stressed, concentrating, aroused or if you are alert. How is this possible?

"I um... don't know..." There is a light blush on her face as she turns to Dusk for a few moments. Both of them knew the reason why these results were achieved.

The purple coated mare ponders how this could've been achieved in all three of the results. "Hmm, I may need to re-calibrate the EEG later, but we have now finished the control tests So for the next, and possibly last part of the test, I'll need all three of you to do your unique abilities (at separate times of course) and get back to the EEG as soon as possible."

Dusk saw a few flaws in the design of the experiment. "But how will you measure our levels of magic, if we're not doing it during the scanning? I doubt that RD could do a Rainboom while strapped onto the machine, no matter how skilled she is."

She dismisses any of his worries, "I've considered that. You see, when a unicorn performs some kind of magic, they leave behind traces of the magics, which intensifies the Epsilon waves that flow through the brain. Theoretically, this should be the same for both pegasi and earth ponies.”

“Theoretically?” Asks Dusk in a why didn’t you confirm this (?!) tone of voice. He didn’t like the fact that she had no reliable source to based this part of the experiment on.

“This is the first test of its kind Dusk, nopony has ever experimented this sort of thing before, so of course there will a couple of loose ends. I can’t fix that.”

He realizes that she’s right about everything she has just said. “You have a good point there Sparkle.” ‘Note to self, questioning Twilight’s methods is pointless.’ He stopped talking, so he could hear the rest of what Twilight had to say.

“So now to start off the next part of this experiment,” She turns to Rainbow, and she looks at her purple friend inquisitively, “I’ll need you to perform a Sonic Rainboom for me.”

The cyan mare’s face lights up, and her grin grows larger, and larger. “Oh sweet, you really want me to do that? I’ll be back in 10 seconds flat.” She starts to fly out of the basement, and out of the door until Twilight intervenes.

"Make sure that you do it in a safe area, away from the town. Do you remember how many windows were shattered that day?"

Rainbow Dash slowly flies back down the staircase, rubbing the back of her head with her right forehoof. "Yeah, I remember that Twi, that sucked to clean. I guess I'll be a bit longer than I thought." She flies out of the room now, and Twilight signals for him and his partner to follow.

"Dusk, you really need to see her do this, it's amazing."

----------

Twilight, Fluttershy and Dusk are all standing outside of the library waiting for Rainbow to do... whatever it is that she is supposed to do. The two mares are anticipating what is about to happen, since they already knew what is going to happen, but the stallion had no idea what to expect.

He tried to find out what was about to happen, but they both politely refused to tell him what will happen, saying that it'll ruin the experience. So instead of pressing on, he tried to find where she is in the sky. He hadn't even bothered trying to find her by using her coat colour, since the cyan colour of her coat blends in with the clear skies. So instead, he tried finding her uniquely coloured mane and tail.

He uses his keen eye to scan across the Equestrian skyline for her rainbow mane, and he thinks that he saw a small speck of assorted colours near the edge of town.  He looks around that area to try and confirm her location, but she seems to have disappeared.

He asks Fluttershy if she has seen  her friend somewhere around where he is signalling, and she instinctively apologizes. "Sorry Dusk, I haven't found her yet, but she will be starting it soon."

"And speaking of which, she's doing it now." Says Twilight, pointing her hoof in the direction where the pegasi was supposedly doing her trick.

Dusk squints as he tries to find anything out of the ordinary in the clear skies, and sure enough, he sees Rainbow Dash plummeting... no... accelerating to the ground at a very fast speed. He could almost see the white corona of wind surrounding her.

'Wait a second, I'm not imagining it, I can actually see the wind as it passes around her form. She is flying at impossible speeds.'

Dusk could only watch as she gains more and more speed, while falling rapidly towards the hard ground. He is silently praying to Celestia and Luna, that she wouldn't lose control, and smash into the ground. By the look on the two other mares faces, nothing bad seems to be happening to Rainbow Dash, and this relieves him a little bit.

Only a little bit though. 15 Seconds

The walls of wind that surround the Pegasus were still growing in length and they are starting to become a more solid white. She still had enough time to pull up safely, and do... whatever she is supposed to do.

8 Seconds

He is panicking now, she was now past the safe altitude for somepony flying so fast towards the ground. She may be able to pull up in time...

5 Seconds

"No! Pull up, pull up!" Dusk yells out to deaf ears

2 Seconds

KA-BOOM!

“...Oh holy Luna in Canterlot... that was THE BEST THING EVER!”

Dusk could only watch in awe, as the disk of rainbow coloured awesomeness, spreads across the skies of Equestria. (There is no better word to describe it) It is like a gigantic sonic boom, which flew through the air, and is coloured with all the colours of a rainbow. It is simply epic to watch. And to top it all off, there is a long rainbow trail which is somehow being made by the pegasus' impossible speeds. He is quite surprised by the fact, that she rebounded off the Rainboom itself, which is a lot better than the alternative.

"I knew that you'd like it." Twilight says to the awestruck stallion. She isn't as amazed with the trick as Dusk is, but she is still quite impressed with the trick itself.

Rainbow Dash is speeding back to Twilight's tree house, while still leaving behind a rainbow trail. Despite the considerable distance between the two, he could see the ecstatic grin on her muzzle; it is close to rivaling Pinkie's excessive level of smile.

She lands a few moments later slightly out of breath, but she still has the euphoric grin from before. Dusk starts to express his opinion of the trick

"Rainbow, that was bloody amazing. How is that even possible?" A giant, multi coloured, sonic boom, caused by flying at fast speeds, seems scientifically impossible in his books.

Her response is a simple shrug, “Dunno, magic maybe?”

“Well lets find out.” Twilight starts to bring the group back to the library to continue the experiment.

---------- (One EEG test later)

The clamps around Rainbow's forehooves release, allowing it's wearer to be free of the machine. She wasn't as stressed with the restrictive feeling of the EEG and so this wouldn't interfere with the results of the test. Twilight is waiting near the main part of the electroencephalograph, so she grabs the results, when the machine finishes printing. For some strange reason, the EEG, seems to be making a lot more noise than it should be, and it seems that Twilight has noticed this as well, since she is staring at the machine with the look of confusion.

The machine then goes down to a very low hum, as it prints out the results of the test. Twilight’s jaw drops as she scans the lines that are getting printed out, on the paper. She mutters a few words to herself.

“But- but... this is impossible.” She says in disbelief. When the paper finally finishes printing, she rips it off, and lays it down onto the table where all the other rolled up results lay.

Before she is given the chance to speak, Dusk first speaks out about the erratic line at the bottom of the paper. “What going on here? Why does the bottom line just go from the top to bottom and back to the top so quickly?”

“That’s what I was about to explain. This line, shows the Epsilon waves which were scanned during the test, and I have never seen anything like this. You actually maxed out the machine for the first two minutes that you were scanned for, before slowly dropping back to the recordable range... but this is nearly impossible. There are very few spells that I can do which can max out the machine, and they are quite advanced. How is this possible?”

The ‘impossible’ pegasus flashes Twilight with an arrogant smirk, “Well, I am the best flier in Equestria.”

Normally, Dusk would berate Rainbow Dash for being overly arrogant, and cocky, but there was a more worrying thought in his mind. “Is it dangerous for these Epsilon brain waves to be this violent?”

Twilight shakes her head twice, “The Epsilon waves are harmless to a pony’s brain, only being more of a magical indicator rather than anything else.”

‘Well, that’s the second time I’ve been concerned for RD’s health in about 10 minutes. I really gotta stop worrying so much.’

“But nevertheless, I never even imagined a pegasi getting such high results in this sort of test. But anyway, I need to continue now.” She quickly skims through the paper, “The Beta, Theta and Delta waes look about normal, and the Alpha waves are only a little but more frequent than usual. The rest of the experiment can now continue, since my theory is still intact."  she pauses, looking at both Fluttershy and Dusk with a worried expression, before she starts to quietly speak to  her rainbow named friend. "For the next part of the test, I would prefer it if you could leave the library, since the next part of the test may get a bit hard for both of them." Luckily for her, the nearby couple did not hear a word of what she just said.

She nods in acceptance, "You got it Twi, I think is about time for me to make a surprise visit to the Sugarcube Corner anyway." She starts to fly up the staircase while giving a simple wave to the ponies who remained in the basement. "See ya later."

The remaining three wave her good-bye, before  Twilight starts to explain the specifics of the next part of the experiment.

"Okay, so normally, I would ask you to do your unique abilities that you possess, but as you may know, they tend to 'activate' in a fight or flight situation. So normally, this would prevent me from continuing the test, but I have recently figured out a spell that may help with the activation of these abilities.”

“Wait, so can you just... give me Red-Eye with a little bit of magic?” Asks Dusk.

“Not exactly. This advanced spell of mine can tap into a pony’s memories, if the pony in question allows it. It also makes the owner of the memory relive that specific moment in their life again, and it's like they are experiencing it for the first time."

This shocks both of the pegasi in the  room. Dusk is especially surprised by this, since he didn't know that Twilight had such magic prowess. Fluttershy speaks up about something she was worried about. "D-Does it hurt...?" She asks  shyly.

"It's harmless enough, just as long as you don't give me access to the wrong memories, since the emotions you inhibit in the memory will be transferred to the real world."

"Oh... that's um... good... I guess..." She doesn't seem entirely happy with the answer.

Dusk, on the other hoof... "Wow, that's actually pretty impressive."

“But very advanced as well, and very few unicorns have the ability to learn something like this.” She then goes back to the topic of the experiment. “So I reckon I’ll first use this on Fluttershy, since it will be a little bit easier to do for her, than it will be for Dusk.”

Not wanting to have a say in the matter Fluttershy quietly agrees to the plan, “Um... sure... that’s fine...” She looks nervous about the idea of Twilight entering her mind. She just seems a little bit more fragile than usual.

Twilight notices this, “Are you sure you want me to do this Fluttershy, I wont do it if it makes you feel too uncomfortable.”

“...I just don’t want you to go through all of my memories.”

“You can prevent me from accessing as many memories as you want. I'm just looking for the memory of when you stood up to that dragon on top of that mountain, about two years ago. If I only played a small portion of the memory, and stopped it at the right time, than I would be able to get you to do the Stare. So are you fine with that?”

The yellow pegasus remains quiet for a few seconds, before she gives her answer. “Yes T-Twilight... please be careful in there...”

She clops her forehooves together is satisfaction. “Excellent, now all that you need to do, is to keep your eyes shut while I cast the spell. You can open them as soon as I tell you to, alright.”

The shy mare nods, and closes her eyes for Twilight’s spell. The unicorn begins to charge up her horn, for a few seconds, before cringing in concentration as she tries to harness enough magic for the spell. The purple aura around her horn becomes a more solid colour for every second that she charges it up for. Then suddenly, the charging abruptly stops, but the solid purple aura doesn't disappear from her horn, still pulsating around the appendage. Twilight then places her horn on Fluttershy’s forehead, and the magic that was built up on her horn, flows into her friend’s mind. Fluttershy shivers for a few seconds,  from a cold chill that has spread across  her whole body. Twilight has removed her horn from on top of the pegasus’ head, and starts to speak.

“You can open your eyes now.”

“Um... okay then.” She opens her light blue eyes, and starts to scan the area around her. It is as if she is only seeing this area for the first time, and is carefully examining every detail of the room. She seems to be looking for something that isn’t even there. “This feels so... uhm... foreign. Is it supposed to feel so weird?”

Twilight looks unfazed by this question, since she thinks that she knows what her friend is talking about. “Does it feel like you are seeing things inside your own mind, despite still being able to see everything around you?” It sounds like she has experienced this sort of thing before, since she seems pretty sure of her presumption.

“Umm... yes, that is exactly what it feels like. Is that a bad thing?” She timidly asks.

“No that's a good thing, it has worked perfectly. That means that it is safe to get you to access these memories.”

“That’s good to hear... do you know which memory you’re looking for?” She doesn't want her friend to know about her other memories, especially the rather more... private memories, like the rather saucy one from yesterday.

“The dragon memory if I’m correct. Just give me a few seconds, and I’ll be able to find it.” The tip of Twilight’s horn starts to emit a dim light, and there is no trace of effort on her face, since it seems like a rather simple spell.

Dusk is eager to satisfy his curiosity about this spell. “So Fluttershy, what does the spell even feel like with it being inside your head?”

“It’s hard to explain... I can still see everything around me, but it also feels like I can see a giant darkened room inside my head and Twilight is walking through it. Every time she passes through one of the doors in my mind, I can feel which memory it belongs to." She seems somewhat unsatisfied with her explanation, since it didn't really explain what it truly felt like.

"Can't really say I was expecting something like that happening. But I will admit, it did look pretty awesome when Twilight transferred her magical energy to you. (In a somewhat dark and twisted way.)"

"Well thank you Dusk, I aim to please." Says Twilight, whom is still casting her continuous spell. "And speaking of which, I think that this may be the memory that I seek."

She could see the memory of the encounter play inside her head and so she confirms Twilight's assumption. "Yes, this is it."

"Well then, are you ready?"

"Y-Yes, I'm ready."

---------- (Two Years Ago) Quick Note: This is from the Dragonshy episode.

Perspective: Fluttershy

“...It’s time to stop wasting time. I’m going in.” Rainbow says impatiently, before rushing into the dragon’s lair. Twilight yells out “No!” in desparation, to try and stop the pegasus, but she was to late.

Rainbow charges at the dragon, and shouts “Get out!”, while giving it a bucking kick on the tip of it’s nose. The rest of her friends gasp in horror, as they await the beast’s reaction. It recoils it’s head back before he lightly sneezes in surprise, blowing a small puff of smoke onto the pegasi which sends her back a few metres, before going slightly derp eyed.

It was then, when the dragon finally snaps back into attention, that it saw the assailant. He gives her a death glare as he starts to snarl loudly, and bares his wickedly sharp teeth in rage. She backs away as the head of the dragon gets closer to her. “Eh heh, sorry.” Apologizes the somewhat pitiful looking Rainbow Dash.

The dragon doesn’t listen to her apology, and roars at her with such force that she bowls through all of her friends, temporally stunning them all. All except for Fluttershy, who was hiding behind a large stone outcropping near the edge of the mountain. She wanted to fly away from the mountain, but she saw how long the drop was and so her wings locked up, preventing her to fly. So instead, she stood in a fetal position, with her head near the ground, and her forelegs over the top of her head, like she was bracing for something. She was paralyzed in fear, and she couldn’t really do anything to help her friends, who were all in mortal danger.

She could feel the ground violently shake when the dragon smashes his clawed fist onto the rocky surface in anger. She could hear the hoofsteps of her five friends, as they all scattered to try and get away from the towering dragon. Sadly, all five of the ponies were unsuccessful after the dragon hits them all with a bellowing gust of smoke.

Fluttershy felt the rock shake when her five friends all collide onto the outcropping. She cringes when she imagines the pain of what all of her friends must be feeling. She wasn't aware of the massive crack that is forming on her rocky hiding spot until it was too late.

The rock breaks off its foundation and falls to the side, revealing the location of the yellow Pegasus to not only her friends, but the dragon as well. She looks up at the dragon, who is giving her an angry look, and then down at her friends, who were  all lying on the ground in intense pain. Her expression is a mix between shock, sadness and fear. She look up at the dragon again, and then back at the girls, when she felt something snap in her head. She starts to feel an intense anger against the dragon, as she slowly reverts from the shy pony that everypony expected her to be, into a very different individual.

“How dare you...”

---------- (Present Time)

Perspective: Dusk

“How dare you!”

Twilight has ended the memory of that incident at that point, and the results were as she expected, but there were a few hitches in her plan. Firstly, she was using the Stare on Dusk and secondly, she seems to think that she is still facing the dragon.

Dusk has cowered a little bit under the power of the Stare, and this was a new foreign experience for him. He never thought that he would ever be as scared of his marefriend than he is right now.

She starts to walk up to Dusk in a threatening manner. "Now listen here mister. Just because you happen to be my coltfriend, it doesn't mean you get to be a big bully." Dusk tries to scoot away in fear, but she has gotten uncomfortably to him, and is Staring him down, rendering him useless to do anything. He could see a raging inferno inside her rage filled eyes. The stallion was getting closer and closer to having a small mental breakdown, since not only is his shy partner yelling at him, but she is truly frightening him.

“Now Dusk, I swear, if you dare hurt my-” She stops yelling mid sentence, and she puts her hoof onto her forehead. Her posture becomes a lot less hostile as she come to grips to what she has just done. She looks at her frightened coltfriend, and dies a little bit inside when she sees how scared he was of her. The irises of his topaz coloured eyes have shrunken, and she could she that he is slowly moving away from her. (He is only a little bit less scared than he was in that little incident with Rarity)

“Oh no... Dusk, I-I’m so sorry. I d-didn’t mean to lose control like that. I-I-I just  thought that you did something b-bad to all of my friends. I'm really sorry..."

“*sad sigh* There is no need to apologize Fluttershy, it wasn’t your fault. I should have expected the Stare to happen, and prepared accordingly, but instead I took the brunt of it.” He couldn’t blame Fluttershy for acting the way she did. She had no control over what she would do, and she targeted Dusk over Twilight purely based on chance. “But if I have one thing to say to you, never exploit that Stare of yours, it takes intimidation to a whole new level.”

“Trust me... I wont, I have no control over it anyway. Do you- Do you want a hug?”

“That... will be good.”

They both move in and give each other a gentle hug, which helps the two make up. Fluttershy could still sense some signs of sadness from the stallion, since his ears were still flat, and his usual snug hold is somewhat lacking, but she knew that he needed this. Both of them hear an “Aawww” from Twilight Sparkle. The two release their hold, and both felt a little bit more perked up than they were before.

"Thank you Shy. I needed that."

"That's okay Dusk, it's the least of what I could do."

"So shall we start the test?" He asks Twilight, who is patiently waiting for the two to finish.

She nods once, "Of course, but first I'll need to do something quickly before I start." Twilight then does a quick flash with her horn, and waits for the results of said spell. Then suddenly, a purple aura which was inside Fluttershy's head is pulled out, and goes back into the unicorn's horn. It looked a Twilight shivers a little bit, as her magic spreads across her body.

"Oh wow, I will never get sick of that feeling." Mutters Twilight to nopony in particular, before explaining what she did to the other two, “I just needed to remove all of my magic that I put inside her body since not only would it mess with the test results, but also because it is  my magical energy, and I don't like leaving my energies inside another ponies body."

"I'm amazed that you can even do something like that. Must be nice." Says Dusk.

"It's a good feeling knowing that I'm this proficient with. I think that it is about time to continue with the experiment, wouldn't you agree Fluttershy?"

"Oh yes, of course."

---------- (Halfway through Fluttershy's EEG scan)

Dusk waits for the testing of his marefriend to finish so he could finally do his part of the experiment. She is still attached to the metal clamps of the machine, and is wearing the ridiculous looking head piece/scanner/colander with lights. Twilight walks away from the machine and asks Dusk if he could follow her for a few moments. He does so, and begins to follow the unicorn

Once they were out of Fluttershy’s earshot, she asks him a simple question, “Do you want Fluttershy to leave when I do your part of the experiment?”

He gives her the look of both curiosity, and confusion. “What? Why would you want me to do that?”

She tells him of the risks that may occur with the experiment. “You saw what happened to Fluttershy when I stopped the memory, she lashed out at you in a very threatening manner. It may be even worse with your Red-Eye, since you say that it is only caused by an immense amount of rage.” She is only doing this for the safety of her two friends.

“Twilight, you don’t need to worry about Fluttershy, since I have the perfect memory in mind for this test. You see, when we were fighting against those diamond dogs, one of those bastards happened to grab onto Shy.” His face darkens and he goes silent, as he recalls that moment in his life. It was horrible, knowing that he was only a few seconds away from losing the mare he dearly loved. “It was then that I got my Red-Eye, but it felt different, it felt... tranquil. I want you to stop the memory straight after I hit the diamond dog which was holding Shy. I may get a bit emotional when it happens, but it is still the best time for you to stop the memory. You need to trust me on this.”

Twilight is pondering the possible alternatives in her head, but she couldn’t think of any better solutions that she could use, and Dusk’s plan did sound good... “Are you completely 100% sure that Fluttershy will be safe?” She asks with a tone of authority.

“Yes I am Twilight.” He responds confidently.

“Good.” She begins to walk back towards the main part of the EEG, when it starts to emit familiar loud noises. The clamps snap back open,  releasing Fluttershy from it’s hold, and the machine starts to slowly print out the results for its latest test.

Fluttershy removes herself from the machine and walks up to Dusk, before asking him a curious question. “What were you talking to Twilight about while I was connected to the machine?”

“She asked me if I wanted you to leave the library when she is doing my part of the experiment. She was worried that I would react in the same way that you did when you got back into reality, and I understand her concern. I told her that it was nothing to worry about though.”

She starts to bite her bottom lip in nervousness, “A-Are you sure that is a good idea? I-I trust you, b-but I sort of Stared at you... and you just looked so scared and I...” She trails off, speaking more and more quietly to a point where he couldn’t hear her anymore.

He waits until she finishes, before telling her of his reasons. “Shy, you know that I would have considered the safety of both Twilight and yourself before making my decision. You’ll be fine, I promise.” He holds a forehoof up to his chest, in a sign of oath.

“Thank you, Dusk.”

“There’s no need to thank me Shy,” He lightly kisses her on the lips, “You are my marefriend, and we should be entitled to each other’s trust.” He turns away from her, and starts to walk back towards the machine, partly because it has finished printing, but mainly to hide his slight blush.

----------

Twilight lays down the results on the table, like she has done for the past four sets, and starts to explain what Fluttershy’s readings say. “Well, I’ll start off with the most important part of these results. And from what I can gather from this, my theory is still correct. The Epsilon waves are a bit more frequent than they were beforehand, and this means that the Stare has magical properties. This small amount of magic is what probably causes any pony or creature to falter under it’s influence.” Dusk nervously chuckles for a few seconds before letting her continue. “It also appears that you have quite a high level of concentration while you are doing the Stare, but other than that, there seems to be no other traits to the Stare."

"Um... Twilight, why is it important for us to know  about the traits of our abilities?" Asks Dusk.

"It isn't, I just thought that you two might be curious to know about this sort of thing. I know I am." Explains Twilight.

"Okay then, I'm just checking. So shall we finally finish this experiment?"

----------

Twilight has begun to charge up her spell again, but Dusk couldn't watch her charge it up, because he was told to shut his eyes until  the spell has been completed. One thing that Twilight has neglected to tell him, is when she will actually cast the spell. So he waits for some kind of physical or internal reaction that will tell him that the spell has been cast.

A few moments later, he felt Twilight’s horn make contact with his forehead, then suddenly,he felt a chilling aura force itself right inside his mind. It was so cold that it forced a shiver out of him. But as quickly as the cold appeared, it simply disappears a second later. He is thankful that the process didn’t hurt, like he expected it to.

“You can open your eyes Dusk.”

He does what she says and opens his eyes. As soon as he does so, he finally realizes why it was so hard for Fluttershy to explain this experience. It is startling to say the least. It was like he is seeing things in two very different perspectives, since his eyes are focused on the surroundings in the underground room, but his mind is imagining something extraordinary.

Inside his mind is a pitch black room, which despite its dark colour, is somehow illuminated with a black light, making everything visible inside. The whole room seems to very slowly waver, adding to the mystery of the unknown room which is in his mind. There are also numerous doors on the walls of the room, and he could see a bright white light shining through through the edges of the door. Every single door has a different amount of key holes on them. But other than the strange illuminated darkness, and the doors with the key holes, there seemed to be nothing else in the dark and somewhat bland room.

But upon closer inspection, there actually is somepony inside the room. Twilight is standing near the edge of the room, near where Dusk's mind seems to have placed him. He expected her to be similar to a black silhouette and be nearly impossible to see, but she is actually quite visible in the darkness of the room. It looks like she is illuminated in sunlight, despite the fact that the only ‘light source’ seems to be the mysterious dark light, and the white light which shines its way through the edges of the doors.

After he finishes looking around his mind, he goes back into reality (?) and begins to speaks to Fluttershy. “Oh wow, you were right Shy, this does feel weird. Honestly, I’m starting to question which Twilight is the real Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight looks slightly irritated at the stallion, “Ugh, I think you should know which one is the real me. You’re not an idiot.” Dusk didn’t listen to what she had to say, since he was distracted by the fact that both Twilights’ were talking at the same time. He is easily distracted sometimes.

Twilight sighs annoyingly, before casting a spell, which causes a hideously bright flash to appear in the room in Dusk’s head, attempting to blind his second perspective. The results are almost instantaneous, with Dusk yelling out in a started fashion, before glaring daggers at the unicorn. Fluttershy couldn’t help but to quietly laugh at the display.

Twilight now begins to explain things for Dusk, “Now, the way this works, is that you can allow me to access certain memories of your choosing. Just think of the memory you want me to enter, and I should be able to access them from there.”

“It’s that easy?”

“It is, you’ll be able to see the results for yourself if you do it now.” She waits for him to do so.

He thinks back to the time where he needed to rescue Fluttershy from that diamond dog, and sure enough, something happens in the room in his mind. One of the doors begins to shine much more brightly than the other doors, clearly illuminating the memory to Twilight. She begins to trot towards the correct door, all the while casting a continuous speck of light with her horn.

‘Maybe this is the spell that Twilight was casting before while she moved around in Fluttershy’s memories.’

She approaches the door, and asks Dusk a question. “Is this the memory?” After she asks this, a small glimpse of the memory within plays within Dusk’s mind; it was when he was charging at the would-be ponynapper.

“Yes this is it, so what am I supposed to do now?” He is actually hoping for something difficult, so it didn’t feel like Twilight is holding his hoof the entire time.

He is disappointed with the response. “Imagine you are opening the door with your mind, and it should open by itself."

"You really like to keep things simple, don't you Twilight." Dusk says in an exasperated tone.

"It is better this way."

With their brief conversation finished, Dusk starts to imagine himself opening the door and surely enough, the door begins to unlock. The  three key holes start to fade away, before eventually disappearing. Twilight takes this as her queue to open the door an step inside. As she steps inside, the whole room starts to disappear in a large abyss of white, as she begins the memory sequence...

-------- (Two Days Ago) Quick Note: This is written differently from the chapter that this comes from.

“Fluttershy, you need to FLY!” Desperately yells out Dusk to the grounded pegasus. He could see that she was immensely scared of what was going on around her, and her wings were locked up preventing her from flying. Dusk could only watch in horror as a diamond dog digs out of the ground, and grabs her legs, as he starts to dig back underground again.

It was then, when Dusk’s eyes begin to glow red, and time begins to slow around him. He could see that everypony else in the area was too distracted, and too far from her to even come close to saving her, and so he began to charge at the canine who has grabbed Fluttershy.

The diamond dog panics as he watches Dusk get closer and closer to him, and steps up the digging. The injured stallion has become more enraged than he has ever felt before, and his grip on the weapon he holds increases. Fluttershy had hardly put up any resistance against her assailant, and she looks so pitiful in it’s grasp.

Dusk is only a few metres away from the diamond dog, who was about to dig back underground while holding Fluttershy in it’s paws. But as it looks up, it saw the weapon in it’s mid-swing...

“Never again.”

*KEEERRRAACK*

He watches as the grip around Fluttershy loosens and gives her a relived smile as she looks into his glowing red eyes...

---------- (Present Time)

Everything goes white once again in Dusk’s mind, and he is back in Twilight’s library. But this feels quite strange in Dusk’s perspective. It seems like he had just rescued Fluttershy from that diamond dog, and then just teleports back into some room in Twilight’s home. He still has his Red-Eye, but it softens as soon as he sees that Fluttershy is not only in the same room as he is, but she is also safe.

“A-are you okay?” Asks Fluttershy nervously..

He had no immediate answer to her question. He just approaches her and gives her a tight hug, “Yes... at least I think so...”

She is confused about the way that Dusk was acting. Twilight could see that Fluttershy wanted answers, and so she whispers them into her ear. “Dusk relived the moment when he saved you from the diamond dog who grabbed you.” Fluttershy silently acknowledges her friend, and starts to gently rub his back with one of her forehooves, so she could comfort him.

He begins to cry on her shoulder, holding Fluttershy a little bit more tightly. “I-I was so close to losing you Fluttershy... so-so damn close...” He wipes off a few of his newly formed tears. “I-I d-don’t know what I’d do if I-I lost you too...” Images of Cloudie play through his mind, which made him feel even more upset. He begins to moan in emotive pain, letting out years of suffering that he has held back in his life. His tears start falling down Fluttershy’s coat, as he continues to bawl.

“Shh shh shh Dusk, it will be alright, just let it all out.” Soothes Fluttershy, while stroking the back of his mane. He cries for not only Fluttershy, but for all of his other ponies that he has affected; Zephyr, Cheerilee, Cloud Charger...

----------

It took him a few minutes, but with the help of both Fluttershy and Twilight, he was able to calm down. He still let out the occasional tear, since he was still upset about everything that happened before, but he is in control of most of his emotions now. He didn't like digging up his old memories, since he knew that a lot of the older ones were quite an unpleasant experience for him. He had not wanted anypony in Ponyville to ever see him like this, he had hoped that he would be able to leave his horrible past behind him. Fate could be so cruel sometimes.

He still somehow kept his Red-Eye, despite all of this. He was no longer enraged or angry at anything and he had no clue why it hasn’t gone away yet. He looked for some answers from Twilight, but she couldn’t give him anymore than an educated guess. He is glad that Fluttershy was able to help Dusk through this breakdown of his, he probably would’ve gotten even worse if it wasn’t for her nurturing. He knows that he probably would have blamed himself for this whole mess, even if he had little to do with it in the first place. She is still staying by his side, as he exits his depressive state.

“Thanks for helping me through that phase of mine Fluttershy. *sniff*” He affectionately nuzzles her, eliciting a blush from her. Despite the fact that they have advanced so far in the relationship, it was still easy for the two to bring a blush to each other, mainly since they have only been together for about two weeks. It’s felt like much more than that though, especially for Dusk.

He rubs the back of his mane, and sheepishly smiles, as he continues, “Oh, and sorry for getting so many tear stains on your back.” He flicks off a tear which started to fall down his cheek. “Um... my bad.”

“Dusk, you know that I don’t care about that sort of thing. I’m just glad to see that you are alright now.” Her tone of voice almost sounded motherly.

“Couldn’t have done it without your help Fluttershy, but lets change the subject now. Twilight, could you start my testing while my Red-Eye is still active, the fate of ten bits rests on these test results.” Dusk felt a lot more happier than usually, since he is experiencing a ‘high’ after having to live with an emotional time in his life.

“Okay Dusk, I’ll set it up for you. So do you think that you are fine now?” She still seems concerned for him. It’s not everyday that you see somepony break down like he did.

“Yes, I’m good Twilight. I’ll be fine.”

Twilight then remembers something she nearly forgot to do. "I'll need to remove any traces of my magic from your body before we continue." She seems a little bit less energetic than usual, but he could understand why she was like this. She casts her spell, which causes a flash to appear on the tip of her horn. Dusk could then fell something move inside he head, before completely disappearing altogether. The mysterious room inside his head has completely disappeared, the small chill that had spread through his body is now gone, and he could see the solid purple aura transfer back into Twilight’s horn.

The next thing he saw not only made his jaw drop, but it also left his quite speechless for more than a few moments. Fluttershy is also quite surprised by this, but not as shell shocked as Dusk is. Twilight has no idea what was going on with the two, and so naturally, she asks them. “Um... Fluttershy? Dusk? Why are you looking at me so funny, what’s wrong?”

Dusk was the first of the two to ‘speak’. “Twi... how? But you- but I thought... what?!” He couldn’t form the words he needed to speak properly.

Fluttershy could form the words though. “Um... Twilight, you have Dusk’s Red-Eye.”

The unicorn didn’t believe Fluttershy, dismissing what she thought was a bad joke. “Oh come on, how can I have Dusk’s Red-Eye, you can still see on his eyes right now. So-”

“Twilight, you have my Red-Eye, trust me on this.” He was able to form the words together, and tell her about her new trait.

“...Oh dear, this must be why the magical energy felt so weird... I think that my magic may have mixed with your ability, and given it to me as well, meaning that we are both sharing the same Red-Eye. If you could give me a few minutes, I’ll try to isolate the anomaly, and transfer back into your mind. You never know, I may be able to improve it in some way.” She made it sound like she has experienced this sort of thing before.

“Well this would be a good time to start the test then, don’t you think?”

“Yes it is.”

----------

The dull hum of the EEG is the only noise which reverberates through the room as Dusk gets his head scanned by the machine. Other than that, it is dead quiet, since Twilight was trying to get rid of her Red-Eye, and nopony seemed eager to talk, since the stallion’s breakdown is still in their minds. Dusk is trying to think of a good conversation starter so he could try to lighten the mood in the room, but his mind came up with nothing. He was hoping that Fluttershy would start talking about something that was on her mind, but to his disappointment, she is having the same trouble that he is. His Red-Eye finally disappears during the middle of the testing, but it seems that Twilight still has glowing red eyes. They don’t suit her,

Dusk thinks about the Red-Eye, and it’s value now. In his opinion, it seems to have lost some of it’s wow factor, since he has already used it three times in two weeks, and now somepony else has it as well. He feels slightly uncomfortable with the fact that Twilight has unintentionally taken some of his power, but he knows that it couldn’t be helped.

He then thinks about what has happen to him in Ponyville while he has been here. He has had quite a few close calls with death while he has been here, and the longer he stays, the more that seems to happen in the town. He thinks back to every big incident that has involved him in some way: The Everfree injury, when he need to fight off those six stallions, the fight against the diamond dogs, and when Rarity went crazy. He notes that he has seen more violence in to weeks, than most ponies will ever experience in their lifetimes. He quickly contemplates leaving the town, since it seemed too unsafe for him to stay here. All these events have been to close to one another to be a coincidence. But when he thinks about it further, he realizes something.

All of these incidents (besides the last one) were not of his control. He just played a big part in these event after they already started. Making contact with the manticore was rather unlucky of him, but that is all it was, luck. Also, that incident with Fluttershy and those stallions who... wanted to... (He had never really gotten over seeing that) was another coincidental encounter in his life. And finally, the big fight against the diamond dogs wasn’t planned either. They just showed up completely out of the blue, demanding for Rarity. He was told that it had something to do with another confrontation with them two years ago.

So all of the problems that have involved him have all just been a coincidence, and he took the brunt of the problems. Some may call him a victim of circumstance, but personally, he thinks a better name for himself is ‘Equestria’s Little Punching Bag’.

His train of thought breaks as the clamps release his forearms and the EEG begins to make loud noises once again. He removes the head piece, and puts is back down onto the machine. Twilight waits for the results to finish printing so she could see if she would be able to continue this research of hers.

Dusk, who is also quite eager to see the results asks Twilight something. “Twi, do you mind if you could skip all of the other readings, and just focus on my magical properties. I don’t really need to know about that sort of thing anyway.”

Twilight grabs the printed results with her mouth, and moves them onto the table with all of the other rolled up results on them. “Okay Dusk, I can do that.” She then starts to look at the results, and her face turns into the look of disappointment. “According to this, there is absolutely nothing magical about your Red-Eye. It is completely non-magical, which would explain why I can’t find the anomaly in my magic. I guess that the experiment is a failure... and I now owe Dusk 10 bits.”

He doesn’t care about the bet anymore, “Hooray, yay and all, but what do you mean when you say that you can’t find the anomaly?”

“It is hiding somewhere in the middle of the magical energy that I retrieved from you before the test. I could find it eventually, but it would be like finding a needle in a haystack. But I have an idea on how I can both rid it from my magic, and give it back to you at the same time.”

He looks a little bit wary of what she may do. “Interesting...”

She explains the details of what she plans on doing. “It will be similar to the last spell I used on you, but instead, I’ll be moving my magic into your body to try and find your Red-Eye. I’ll stop giving you my magic as soon as I see some kind of physical reaction from you, and that is why I’ll need you to keep your eyes open. As soon as your eyes go red, I’ll stop the spell, but I wont be able to get my energies back or else I would have to do this spell again. So basically, the longer I cast the spell for, the better you’ll be at flying but I’ll be more weak with my magic as a substitute.”

Dusk’s eyes go wide in surprise. “W-Wh-W-What?! But I don’t want to take your magical abilities away from you, even if it is a fraction of your power.”

“You don’t need to worry about it, I have an excessive amount of power anyway, and it would be the equivalent of ripping out a few pages out of a thousand page book, and they would be only the blank pages as well. I also want to get rid of this Red-Eye as soon as possible. It feels so... foreign.” She doesn’t seem to look comfortable using Dusk’s unique power.

“Alright, I understand. So when will we start?” Asks Dusk

“Right now if you want to.”

He thinks about his answer for a few seconds. “Okay Twilight, what do I do?”

“Keep your eyes open while I continue casting the spell. It’s the only way to tell if the Red-Eye is finally back into your system.”

He nods in response, and waits for the unicorn to begin her spell. Unlike her last spell, she doesn’t place her horn on his forehead, and starts to cast it from a small distance. A small and wavy beam of translucent purple energy slowly exits her horn, and enters Dusk’s head, which gives him a very slight cooling feeling. The longer the spell wore on for, the stronger he began to feel. Twilight watches him with concentrated eyes, looking for any signs of his iris changing colour, but there was no change after the first minute.

See was only using the magical energy that she retrieved from Dusk after just before he was put in the EEG, so she knows that he would only get a small part of her magic at the most. Then she sees it, she sees his eyes quickly flash red before gong back to it’s normal topaz colour. She stops the spell, and tells him that “The Red-Eye is back to where it belongs now.”

He appreciatively smiles. “Thanks Twilight. I think that I might go now, as long as Fluttershy wants to leave as well.”

The yellow pegasus shakes her head, “Sorry Dusk, but you can go ahead of me, since I’ll be helping Twilight pack up her machine.”

The unicorn objects, “You don’t need to stay here to help me Fluttershy, I’ll be fine on my own.”

“Don’t worry about me Twilight, you look like you’ll need help packing the machine away. I’ll be fine.”

“Alright then Fluttershy, if you insist...”

Dusk chuckle to himself, before he start to walk up the staircase the the main room of the library. He turns back to the two mares and simply says, “Goodbye girls.” As he exits.

Author’s Note: I tried to make the ‘brain scan’ thing as realistic as possible in the MLP world. A few of the methods or results may be incorrect or intentionally modified. (Such as length of time, epsilon waves etc) Also, the design of the EEG come from the episode ‘Feeling Pinkie Keen’. Next Chapter: Chapter 62: Pinprick Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 53 Minutes