Researcher Twilight

by NATOstrike

First published 5th of September, 2012

Twilight delves into research considered taboo and off-limits by the Equstrian Diarchy.

Twilight Sparkle has been a student, personal protege, and friend of Princess Celestia for many years. However, when the Princess appoints her to be the new Grand Magus of the Equestrian Royal Court, everything changes. Celestia becomes reluctant and unwilling to teach Twilight anything more advanced than what is absolutely necessary to perform her new duties.

What is Celestia hiding? What is the Princess protecting?

Celestia's attempt to withhold knowledge from Twilight tragically backfires, pushing the student to learn everything she can of magic, the workings of the world, and the Princess's secrets. No matter the cost, no matter how forbidden these areas of study are, Twilight is determined to learn the truth.

Twilight is taking the first steps of a journey that once started, cannot be taken back.

---

Author's notes:
* This story was inspired by, but is not associated with kvernikovskiy's Tumblr blog "Ask Researcher Twilight".

*Now under management of the original author.

* Special thanks to our editing/prereading team:
Azu (Co-author)
MysteryAlabaster
Key Tapper
Alcatraz

... and all the others that happen to fall into my icky editing documents from time to time.

* Constructive criticism and ego stroking are both welcomed with open arms.

I: The Road to Canterlot (is Paved with Sorrow)

The morning rays of the sun poured through the upstairs window of the Ponyville library, casting a radiant yellow light across the figure of a pony wrapped awkwardly in her blankets. Twilight Sparkle groggily pushed her head out of the tangled mess of cloth and blinked in defiance of the sunlight.

Shaking off the last remnants of slumber from her mind, she slowly untangled herself from the makeshift net that was her bedclothes. She had been very careful to not wake her assistant up to that point, but looking up to the window as she was stretching a sudden feeling of panic began to well up inside of her mind. If the sun is that far up in the sky, then that means… oh no.

“I’m late! Spike, get up!”

The purple dragon’s eyes shot open at this exclamation and he quickly jumped out of his bed located against the wall opposite of Twilight’s. “Wha—huh? I’m up! I-I’m up…” Spike’s eyes glazed over, eyelids drooping, as he leaned back on his tail and fell asleep standing up.

“Spiiiiike,” Twilight whined, “come on, I’m serious! We’re probably an hour behind schedule by now.” She glanced at the clock on the wall and it was, indeed, almost exactly one hour past the time she should have been out of bed. She poked her assistant in the side with her hoof in a futile attempt to elicit a response.

Spike snored.

“Nnnnggghh,” Twilight growled as she lifted the purple dragon with telekinesis and made her way down the stairs with him in tow. She walked across the library floor and through the open doorway that led to the kitchen and unceremoniously dropped Spike onto a chair at the round dining table.

The short fall to the chair once again jolted Spike back to the waking world. He looked around trying to figure out how he managed to get to the kitchen, and then noticed Twilight frantically rushing to get something to eat. “Uh, Twilight?”

“Not right now, Spike, we need to hurry.”

“But Twilight—”

“What!?”

“It’s Sunday. I thought you were going to take a day off.”

“Spike, don’t be ridiculous, we have to…” Twilight’s voice trailed off as she stared out the window, trying to assess what day this actually was.

Spike stood up and walked to Twilight, placing his hands on her shoulders and looking down into her eyes. “It’s Sunday, Twilight. You need to relax, there’s plenty of time before you need to meet Rarity and Fluttershy at the spa.”

Twilight giggled. “You're right, Spike. I’m sorry; it’s just that taking a day off is such a rare occurrence. I guess I forgot.” She smiled sheepishly towards her assistant, hoping for forgiveness.

The dragon sighed, and then smirked as he turned away from the purple unicorn. “It’s okay, Twi. After all these years you still haven’t learned to relax.” He began making his way towards the cupboards to find some breakfast. “You should really go brush your hair; it’s reminding me of the ‘Tardy Incident.’”

The lavender unicorn ran a hoof through her dishevelled mane and laughed. “Yeah, I’ll go do that.” She had barely made it through the doorway into the main library when the sound of an extremely loud belch echoed through the room and a green flash reflected off the wall opposite her.

Twilight spun around to find her assistant clutching his stomach, looking as though he was on the verge of vomiting. At his feet lay a parchment scroll with a red ribbon neatly tied around it and the wax seal of the Equestrian Royalty emblazoned on the side. She rushed over and used her magic to pick up the scroll and open it. Her eyes rapidly scanned back and forth. Twilight’s smile dropped as a look of pure shock quickly took its place and the letter slowly fell to the floor like an autumn leaf.

Spike shifted nervously on the balls of his feet. “Well? What did it say?”

“The Princess… she wants me to come back to Canterlot,” Twilight said quietly.

“Cool! We get to go visit Canterlot! We can go visit your parents after we see Princess Celestia, too! Oh! And we can go to Joe's and eat doughnuts!" Spike closed his eyes and rubbed his belly as he thought about the delicious confections.

“No, Spike, you don’t understand. She wants me to go there to stay.”

Twilight wandered back to her room in a daze. After closing the door behind her, the remainder of her morning was spent sitting quietly on her bed reading and rereading the letter until it was time to go meet Rarity and Fluttershy at the spa.

My Most Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle,

I am writing to inform you of very exciting news. In the Equestrian Royal Court there is a position that has lain vacant for a very long time. I believe that you are uniquely qualified for this position and with several months of additional training would be more than apt at performing the duties necessary.

With that, I am pleased to offer you the position of Grand Magus of the Royal Equestrian Court of Canterlot and with it the title and privilege that said position would grant you.

Although I am anxious to receive your decision on this matter, I understand that this is a decision that should not be taken lightly, and as long as the position has been vacant there is no rush at this time. The position requires a dedication that most ponies lack and natural-born understanding of magic that even fewer possess.

Take as long as needed to think this over and feel free to ask anything of me regarding this offer. I will await your answer as long as need be.

Your Friend and Mentor,
Celestia

“Well, this is an unexpected surprise,” Rarity said as she set the letter on the message table in front of Fluttershy to examine. A starry look filled the white unicorn’s eyes as she sighed and looked longingly towards the ceiling. “Just think, one of my best friends, a ranking member of the Canterlot Court.”

“I haven’t said ‘yes’ yet, Rarity.”

“Oh, right, darling. But you are going to, right? Think of—Oh! Lotus, please do be careful not to file my hoof back too far, dear—Just think of the opportunities this would open up for you.”

“I don’t know yet, I only got the letter this morning. I need to think about it. It’s a lot of responsibility, you know.” Twilight paused for a moment while scratching her chin before starting again, “Actually, do you have any idea what the Court’s Grand Magus is supposed to do?”

“The Royal Grand Magus oversees the training, placement, and welfare of all the unicorn members of the Royal Guard, the Night Guard and the Equestrian Military. Furthermore, he or she is immediately appointed as the chairpony of the Bureau of Magical Research and Development of the Equestrian Civilian Government. In times of conflict, the Grand Magus is given the military rank of Major General and is handed over command of the First Division of the Royal Equestrian Magical Defense Force, being wholly accountable for the defense of Canterlot. Although that particular covenant of Equestrian law hasn’t been used since the civil war between Equestria and the New Lunar Republic. Also, the Grand Magus is usually considered to be the highest ranking advisor to the Princesses, being consulted in nearly all matters having to do with magic.”

Rarity and Twilight looked towards the massage table and the source of this wealth of information dumbfounded and slack-jawed.

“Eep!” Fluttershy retreated behind her long mane. “I-I mean… at least, I think that’s what it is,” she said barely above a whisper.

“No… that’s right, Fluttershy,” Twilight said slowly.

The yellow pegasus simply peeked out from her mane and smiled.

Twilight turned to Rarity. “See? It’s so much. I just… I don’t think I can do it."

“Don’t be silly, dear. You’re one of the most amazing and resourceful ponies I know, if anypony can do that job, it would be you. Why do you think the Princess asked you?”

Fluttershy spoke up once more, “You might be the only one that can fill the position, Twilight.”

“That’s right,” said Rarity. “Just listen to it: ‘Grand Magus’. It sounds terribly important; I doubt the Princess left the position open so long because there’s an overwhelming abundance of qualified applicants.”

Twilight sighed while mindlessly splashing bubbles around the hot tub. “I suppose you might be right. I still want to talk it over with the rest of the girls first, though.”

“Well, the letter did say that you could take all the time you needed to make a decision. There’s no rush, Twilight.” Rarity tilted her back against the chair and closed her eyes, ready to enjoy the rest of her hooficure.

The lavender unicorn stared out of the window of her library at the quickly darkening sky, completely lost in her thoughts. Eight years. It had been eight years since the fateful Summer Sun Celebration that brought the six ponies together under the maelstrom of Nightmare Moon. To Twilight the time had passed by like a blur.

She glanced down at Celestia’s letter lying on the table, she had been reluctantly thinking about the upcoming decision for three days now. What if I go and fail? What if I don’t go and the Princess is upset with me? I don’t want to leave my friends behind, but this could be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

A knock at the door brought Twilight out of her thoughts and back to reality. She watched Spike as he walked over to the heavy wooden door and pulled it open. “Hey Pinkie Pie, hi Applejack!” Spike said happily, motioning for the two ponies to enter the library.

“Hey guys,” Twilight stated half-heartedly.

“Hiya Twilight!” Pinkie Pie shouted and began bouncing across the floor of the library.

“Hey there sugarcube, why the long face?” Applejack asked, then realized the reason they were there was precisely the reason Twilight seemed so sad. “You’re not still worrying about that whole Gran’ Magey thing, are ya?”

Twilight only nodded in response.

Pinkie Pie bound over to Twilight and embraced her in a tight hug. “You know what I do when I’m worried about something?”

“Yes, Pinkie.” Twilight had taken part in this particular conversation numerous times over the years, and the answer never changed.

“You do?” The pink mare tilted her head to the side and looked at Twilight quizzically.

“Yes, Pinkie, you throw a party.”

Pinkie Pie gasped as though that was the very last thing she had expected to hear. “Twilight, that’s a great idea!” She then proceeded to bounce in a circle around Twilight chanting, “We’re going to throw a cheer-up Twilight party! We’re going to throw a cheer-up Twilight party! We’re going to throw a cheer-up Twilight party!”

“Pinkie…” Twilight’s left eye began to twitch as she watched her bubbly friend jump through the library.

“We’re going to throw a cheer-up Twilight party!”

“Pinkie,” Twilight said a bit louder this time.

“We’re going to throw a cheer-up Twilight party!”

Applejack stepped in. “Uh, Pinkie Pie. I think that’s probably enough fer now, sugar.”

“We’re going to throw a cheer-up Twilight party!”

Twilight could no longer maintain her composure. “Pinkie knock it off!” she yelled forcefully.

Pinkie stopped bouncing midair, hanging in between the floor and ceiling of the library for a few seconds before gravity took hold of her, pulling her back down to the hard wooden floor.

“I’m sorry Pinkie, but this is kind of serious. I asked you guys over here to discuss this… this decision I need to make and I need your help.” Twilight sighed heavily, shaking her head with a hoof held up to her face.

“Well, I dunno what the—” Pinkie was interrupted by a sharp knock at the door.

“Come in!” Twilight shouted at the door.

The door slowly swung open and Fluttershy walked in, closely followed by Rarity. Just as Rarity turned to shut the door, a polychromatic streak flew through the entrance.

“Did I make it? I’m not late am I?” Rainbow Dash asked, hovering near the ceiling..

“No, Rainbow, you’re not late. Everyone is right on time.” Twilight was smiling now, seeing all her best friends in one place always gave her a feeling of great joy.

Rainbow Dash landed softly on the floor and looked around the room. All her friends seemed apprehensive and uneasy about something. The tension could almost be felt buzzing in the air of the library. Something was amiss, as though everyone knew something she didn’t. “So is somepony gonna say something? What the hay is this all about, anyways?”

Twilight looked genuinely surprised. “You mean you haven’t heard? I thought all of Ponyville knew by now.” She quickly cast an accusatory glare to an obvlivious Rarity.

“Heard what? I haven’t seen any of you guys since last week and you know I’m not much one to gossip around town.”

Twilight pointed a hoof towards the large round wooden table in the middle of the library where the letter from Celestia was resting. Dash trotted over and began to read. Her eyes began to grow as she continued scanning the manuscript.

The colorful mare turned around with a huge smile on her face. “Oh my gosh! This is amazing Twilight! It’s what you’ve wanted for so long, you’ll get to work alongside the Princess at the castle! I can’t believe it, con–grat… ulations?” Rainbow Dash suddenly realized that her friend didn’t seem to be nearly as excited about this prospect as she was. “What’s the matter?”

“The matter is that I would have to move to Canterlot permanently and I’m not even sure if I can do the things the job requires. I don’t have experience directing or supervising ponies, let alone orchestrating the top-level magical research of the Equestrian government.”

Applejack quickly jumped into the conversation, “Ya sure as heck do ‘ave experience supervising. Why, you’ve been handlin’ the Winter Wrap-up for years now, and ever since y’all started, Ponyville has been on time every year.”

“I guess, but this is on a whole other scale.”

“Scale-schmale, I still don’t see what the problem is. This is like if I got accepted to the Wonderbolts and turned them down because I didn’t think I could cut it. Celestia chose you, because she knows you can do it,” Rainbow Dash said.

Twilight opened her mouth to argue her point further, but couldn’t find the words to dispute Rainbow’s rebuttal.

Pinkie sighed, exasperated. “That’s what I was trying to say when you got here!”

“Rainbow is right dear, this is something you’ve worked hard for for so long.” Rarity walked over to Twilight and placed a hoof over her back, slowly stroking it back and forth in a comforting manner.

“But I would have to live in Canterlot… I don’t want to leave all of you behind; I would miss you all so much.” Tears were beginning to form in the corners of Twilight’s eyes.

Pinkie Pie chose this point to chime in. “Of course you would, silly! And we would miss you too, but you can come back to visit and we can have a ‘Twilight Came to Visit’ party, and we can go visit you and then we can have a ‘We’re Visiting Twilight’ party… Oh! And we can all write letters, and use smoke signals or Morse code or e-mail or—”

Twilight was quick to cut-off the pink mare’s rambling. “E-what?” She then sniffled and wiped the tears from her eyes as a weak smile began to grace her lips.

“Huh? I don’t know what you’re talking about, Twilight,” Pinkie replied.

Rarity stepped in and spoke in a soft motherly tone, “I believe what Pinkie is trying to say, darling, is that just because there’s distance between us does not mean we stop being friends.” She looked over to Pinkie Pie and the pink pony nodded quickly to agree.

“You’ll always be my friend, Twilight,” Fluttershy said quietly, breaking the silence that had surrounded her since arriving. “No matter what.”

“Yeah, I mean Canterlot isn’t that far away. Heck, it only takes me a couple hours to fly there,” said Rainbow Dash with only a hint of her ego echoing through the words.

“I don’t know Twilight; I don’t think living in Canterlot again would be that bad.” The six ponies looked to the dragon that had just arrived from the stairwell.

Everyone present seemed to be in agreement, with the exception of Twilight Sparkle. She bit her lip and nervously shifted her weight back and forth between her legs. She was still very unsure of herself and if she was going to be truthful to herself, maybe even a little scared. It was a huge decision; even the Princess said that it was not to be taken lightly. Then a terrifying thought pushed itself to the forefront of her mind. “What if they get mad at me?”

“Who?” Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Spike asked in unison.

“Who? The unicorns of course!” Twilight couldn’t believe that she hadn’t thought of it before. “There are several dozen unicorn magi serving Celestia’s Court. Some of them have probably been there since before I was even born. Then, here I come appointed by the Princess herself, and step over who knows how many ponies that have been working their entire lives for a chance at that position. And who am I? What right do I have to be there? I’m just a librarian from Ponyville cutting in line in front of all of them!”

Although she didn’t mean to, Twilight was shouting by the end of her long winded explanation and Fluttershy was backing towards a wall in response to the outburst. The rest of her friends just stood there watching as the tears began to darken the fur in vertical lines across the purple unicorn’s cheeks. “I can’t do it, I’m just a librarian.”

Applejack began to laugh. Now everyone turned their attention to the orange farmpony.

Rainbow cocked her head to one side and spoke, “Uh, Applejack… you think that’s really… uhm, appropriate right now?”

“‘I’m just a librarian’… heh… Oh, Twilight, yer so much more than that and ya know it.” Applejack wiped a tear from her eye and continued, now speaking very deliberately with almost no hint of her usual accent, “You are also the bearer of the Element of Magic, savior of Equestria on more than one occasion, a very accomplished mage in your own right, learning most of it on your own, I might add, and you’re also one of the most caring, helpful, and loving ponies I have had the pleasure of ever meeting. Heck, even Celestia has said that you could easily be the most powerful unicorn to be born in the past hundred years.”

Fluttershy recovered from the shock of Twilight’s shouting and moved towards the weeping unicorn. “Applejack’s right you know.”

Twilight nodded slowly, wiping her nose with the back of her fetlock.

“You’re so much more than a librarian, and if those mean ol’ unicorns at the castle can’t look past their jealousy of you to see it, then they don’t deserve to be there anyway,” Fluttershy said in the soothingly pouty manner that only Fluttershy could achieve.

“And besides, if you don’t like it, it’s not like you have to stay there,” Pinkie Pie interjected.

The distraught unicorn shuddered at the thought of quitting anything after starting it. Trying and failing would be far better than quitting. “Thank you Fluttershy… and Applejack… and everyone. I think…” Twilight paused to sniff her nose and wipe her eyes. “I think I’m going to do it.” Her mood seemed to lighten and it looked as though a weight was literally lifted from her shoulders at this revelation.

Twilight smiled as her friends all simultaneously moved in for a group hug.

They moved away from each other and Twilight looked to her number one assistant. “Spike, take a letter.”

Three Days to Canterlot:

“Come on, Twilight, why are are we in such a hurry?”

“Because Spike, we only have three days left before we have to report to the Princess.”

“But she said in her letter ‘at your earliest convenience,’ I don’t think she meant one week. We could be taking our time and maybe even relax a bit before we go.”

Twilight was quickly packing what was left of her belongings that weren’t already sequestered in large cardboard boxes. “Well, I already told her that we would be there. So just help me pack, please. The movers will be here shortly and I want to have everything ready for them.”

“When‘s the new librarian going to be here?” Spike wondered out loud.

Twilight growled to herself as she shoved a small snow globe into the box she was currently loading. “Shoot, I forgot all about her! I’m supposed to meet her at Sugarcube Corner today.” She checked the time and tossed her clock into the box. “I was supposed to meet her forty minutes ago! All this moving to Canterlot business has me all flustered; I can’t even keep my to-do list straight.”

The frustrated unicorn started down the stairs calling behind her as she descended towards the front door of the library. “Spike, keep packing, the movers will be here in an hour.”

“Sure thing—” The slamming door shook the entire tree. “…Twilight.”

The unicorn started towards Sugarcube Corner in a full run. She made it all of a dozen steps when she stopped. “What am I doing?”

She closed her eyes, concentrating on a point near her destination where no ponies would be. Her eyes opened just in time to see her current surroundings quickly pull away from her and blink out of existence as the familiar sensation of her body being pulled in every direction at the same time enveloped her. Reality then fell in around her again and she stumbled, trying to find her hooves under her.

The aroma of baked goods greeted her as she walked out of the stand of trees behind Sugarcube Corner that she had teleported into. “Almost there,” she said to herself as she trotted around to the front of the bakery.

A moment later Twilight was finally approaching the bakery’s entrance nearly an hour late for the appointment. She was slightly nervous about meeting the new librarian. Twilight always had a way of making a mess of first impression and hoped that that wouldn’t be the case today. Well, here goes…

As she walked through the doorway her senses were immediately assaulted with the sickeningly sweet smell of the numerous colorful baked confections that the establishment was famous for. Twilight loved sweets on occasion, but the smell of the four industrial ovens in the back room churning out cookies, cupcakes and other confectionary delights was something that her stomach never really got the hang of.

The lavender unicorn’s violet eyes began to dart around the room, searching for her quarry.

At a table in the far corner sat the pony that she had come to see. Seated alone was a stunning young pegasus mare with a dark-blue coat and a long, sky blue mane which hung down straight as though it were draped over her head and neck rather than growing there. Twilight approached her from a somewhat awkward angle in order to see her cutie mark; a stack of three books with a quill laid across them. At least her special talent appears to match the job.

“Quillfeather?” The blue pegasus stood up at the sound of her name. “Hello, I’m Twilight Sparkle,” said the lavender pony, extending a hoof.

Quillfeather quickly reached out and touched hooves with Twilight. “Oh, Quill is fine. It’s very nice to finally meet you. I’ve heard so many amazing things about you.”

“I’m so sorry that I’m late, it’s just the whole moving thing has got me kind of frazzled at the moment. Should we order some food?”

“I actually just finished eating. I was starting to think that you weren’t going to show up, so I was about to head over to the library.”

“Oh, well that’s alright, we can go over there right now. Or maybe you would like me to show you around Ponyville a bit?” Twilight hadn’t eaten lunch yet, but didn’t think it would be fair to Quill to keep her waiting because she forgot the appointment.

Quill perked up at the suggestion. “That sounds great!” The pair walked out of the bakery and began to walk down the gravel path towards the town square.

The sun was just beginning to set when the red door hanging in the entrance of library swung open and two ponies walked through. “. . . and I’m not sure about Mr. Whooves, he comes in every week and he’s nice enough, but he has a very strange taste in literature.”

Quillfeather giggled. “I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.”

Twilight stopped walking just as they got inside the tree. “So here we are, your new home, I guess. I imagine that you’ll want to move in right away.”

Quillfeather wandered further into the library taking in her new surroundings. She looked down to the floor closely inspecting the intricate pattern of hundreds of years’ worth of growth rings. She then moved on to the large table in the middle of the room. In the center of it rose a large carved wooden bust that appeared to be fashioned from the same piece of wood as the table. She quickly ducked below the table to find that the base was indeed still attached to the tree’s stump. “It’s all a single piece. That’s amazing… I’ve never seen a building like this in my entire life.” Quill was obviously awestruck by the old tree that had been converted to serve as a library.

“It sure is amazing, and it’s been a wonderful home for me… soooo?”

“Huh? Oh, yes… moving in. That would be great if I could. I spent last night at a local hostel and the bed they gave me was less than comfortable.” She was still continuing to go over every detail, now moving over to the bookshelves that were masterfully carved directly into the walls.

“No problem,” Twilight said, smiling. She turned towards the stairs and suddenly yelled, “Spike! Come down and meet Ponyville’s new librarian!”

Spike appeared at the doorway leading to the basement. “Twilight, you still have a bunch of your sciencey research equipment downstairs. And the movers already took everything else… you were gone for an awfully long time you know.”

“I know Spike. I was showing Quillfeather around Ponyville and explaining her role as the town librarian.”

Spike eyed Twilight suspiciously, then walked over to the blue pegasus and held out a hand. “Hi there! I’m Spike.”

Quill held out her hoof for Spike to shake. “Hello Spike, my name is Quillfeather. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Now, what about your equipment in the basement, Twilight?” Spike asked.

“The Princess said that she would send a team that is experienced in moving delicate equipment, they won’t make it until after we’ve left though. So we'll just let them take care of it.”

“Suit yourself. Less work for me at least.” Spike stretched his arms as far above his head as he could and yawned. “I’m going to bed. It was nice to meet you Quillfeather.”

“Likewise. Goodnight, Spike.”

Twilight also said goodnight to her dragon assistant before turning to the other librarian in the room. “I think I’m going to hit the hay too. I’m drained. Your new room is at the top of the stairs and I’ll sleep on the extra bed downstairs. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Okay, thanks for everything Twilight. You know, I was bit worried about moving to Ponyville, but you’ve made it a lot easier than I had expected.”

“Hey, no problem. What are friends for?” Twilight smiled at the pegasus then turned towards the stairs to the basement. “Goodnight.”

One day to Canterlot:

“Come on, Spike! We’re going to be late for our own party!”

“I know, I know. Just hold on a minute,” Spike yelled from upstairs.

Soon enough, a purple dragon was stepping carefully down the stairs wearing the same suit that he had for the Grand Galloping Gala three years prior.

Twilight looked up at him as he was descending the stairs and chuckled.

Spike stopped midway down the stairs. “What?”

“Oh, nothing.” Twilight was making a poor attempt at holding back the laughter. “You… heh- You look very dapper. It’s uhm… it’s a little snug though, don’t you think.”

Spike looked down to his belly peeking out from under the shirt, and then blushingly looked back to Twilight. “Maybe a bit, but it’s all I have.”

“Come over here.”

Spike came down the remainder of the stairs and stopped in front of Twilight. The lavender unicorn looked him over closely then pointed her horn towards the dragon.

Spike was enveloped in a soft purple glow and his snug suit grew to a more appropriate size.

“Thanks Twilight!” Spike held his arms out and looked himself over, inspecting the suit.

Twilight smiled up at him. “Don’t mention it. When did you get so big, anyway?” Over the past eight years Spike had grown to stand two hands taller than Twilight and had lost most of the pudgy awkwardness that had been present when he was a baby.

“I dunno. Just kinda happened I guess.”

She was now looking through Spike, lost deep in her thoughts of the years passed. "Yeah, I guess."

“Well, I’m ready to go now. Shall we?”

“Yes, I believe we shall.”

Spike walked to the door and opened it, making a bowing gesture for Twilight to go ahead of him.

“Why thank you, good sir.” Twilight giggled at the young dragon’s show of chivalry.

It was an unusually warm night, even considering that it was summer. The wind lay dead calm as millions of stars shone like gems hanging in the clear indigo night sky. Twilight and Spike walked lazily towards Sugarcube Corner, enjoying the beauty of the night as they continued towards their destination.

They were still quite a distance from the bakery where the going-away party was to be held when they first heard it. A deep bass thud sounding off at a monotonous tempo with a pitch so low that it could be felt reverberating through their chests more than it could be heard.

“What’s that noise?” Spike asked as he looked to Twilight.

“I don’t know. It kind of sounds like…” Twilight turned her head in an attempt to hear the sounds better. “Like music?”

The path in front of them soon opened to the town square, where along with many other storefronts was Sugarcube Corner. The sound of the music continued to get louder and louder as they approached and other noises were soon discernible amongst the beats of the songs; the sounds of laughter and ponies trying to talk over the music and hooves stomping on the ground as ponies danced to the rhythmic sounds.

As the guest of honor and her assistant came around the corner of one of the buildings that lined the edge of the town square and turned towards Sugarcube Corner, Twilight stopped dead in her tracks. Her mouth hung agape as her mind frantically attempted to process what she was seeing.

It looked as though the going-away party had literally exploded from the front of the bakery that was hosting. In front of the building and to the left a small stage was set up, on it was Vinyl Scratch (who was likely going by her stage name tonight) with a small table in front of her holding three turntables, a mixing board and a crate full of records. Also on the stage, situated to either side of DJ Pon-3, were two stacks of very large speakers and on the ground next to the stage were four more stacks of speakers, two on each side. Hanging from the stage out to numerous poles that had been set up were strings of small colored lights flashing in time to the beats of the music.

On the opposite side of the bakery, across from the stage were several large tables. Each one arranged with a large assortment of food and drinks, and although it was far out of season, three large cider kegs from the Apple Family’s private stash even stood at the end of one of the tables. Twilight turned her attention up to the side of the building where a massive banner was hung.

“I don’t believe it,” Twilight said to herself out loud.

Twilight quickly tried to gauge how many ponies were actually there, she estimated that nearly the whole of Ponyville was in that one area right now and more ponies were still wandering in from all directions. It was stunning and it was everything Twilight could do to keep herself from crying at the sight of the entire community turning out to wish her well and say goodbye. She knew there was going to be a going-away party, but this… this was completely unexpected.

“Wow… this is something else!” Spike exclaimed as he started to run towards the party. “Come on Twilight, this is your party, after all!”

“Huh? Oh, right…” Twilight began to move slowly towards the massive event unfolding in front of her, speaking to herself once again, “You’ve really outdone yourself this time Pinkie Pie.”

As Twilight walked towards the crowd, the DJ on stage took notice and lifted her glasses revealing crimson eyes; she made eye contact with the lavender unicorn and winked while a mischievous smile grew across her face. With the near deafening high-pitch screech of the needle being pulled carelessly across the record used to direct the attention of the crowd, her voice boomed over the sound system, ”Ladies and gentlecolts, our guest of honor has arrived! Give it up for Twilight Sparkle!”

Everyone quickly turned to the direction the DJ’s hoof was pointing and obliged her instruction. A deafening roar of hoofstomps, cheering and whistling filled the air in an instant. Twilight was completely taken aback, totally unprepared for this onslaught of attention. Almost immediately a huge smile was beaming from the unicorn’s features.

Out of the exuberant crowd came five mares running towards the dumbstruck unicorn and suddenly she was deep within the embrace of her five best friends. As her compatriots pulled away, Twilight was openly crying, but looked as though this was the happiest day of her life.

Pinkie Pie came forward, putting her face mere inches from Twilight’s. She was closely inspecting the unicorn’s wet cheeks with a foalish curiosity as she brought up a hoof and wiped the moisture from one side of Twilight’s face. She looked at her hoof then looked back to her unicorn friend and whispered, “Twilight, this party’s for you. You’re not supposed to cry, you’re supposed to be super-duper happy.”

“Oh, I am super-duper happy, Pinkie!” Twilight sniffed and rubbed the tears off of the other side of her face. “In fact, this could be the happiest I’ve ever been. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so loved and wanted and cared for in my life. Thank you! Thank you so much!” Twilight leaned in and gave the pink mare a huge hug.

“Hey! Don’t thank me. I mean, just look at this place. Do you really think I could have done this all by myself? Everypony pitched in!”

Twilight backed away from Pinkie and looked to all her friends standing there. As the roaring noise from the crowd began to die down Twilight said, “Thanks girls, thank you so very very much.” She looked up to the stage where a brilliant white unicorn with a bright blue mane was motioning for her to come up. “I’ll be right back.”

As she made her way through the crowd all of the friendly faces parted away from each other, giving Twilight a clear path to follow to the stage. She was quickly thinking of what she could possibly say that would be appropriate for such an occasion. Time was up, she was now standing next to Vinyl Scratch and the DJ passed her the microphone.

Twilight looked over the crowd, she couldn’t think of a time that she had seen so many ponies assembled in the town square. “Um!” Twilight jumped a bit, startled by the sound of her amplified voice. She moved the microphone a bit further from her mouth and giggled as she started again. “Uh, thank you everypony for showing up tonight.” She paused still trying to find the right words. “This all very overwhelming.” She paused one more time as several ponies in the crowd chuckled at the obviousness of her statement.

Twilight took one more deep breath as she collected her thoughts. She smiled and began to speak, “My time in Ponyville has been the greatest time of my life. I’ve met many ponies who I consider life-long friends and I hope that they would consider me in the same light. Everypony has been so caring an-and…” The lavender unicorn was once again beginning to choke up at the thought of leaving Ponyville and her vision became blurred with tears. “…so caring and helpful d-during my eight years here… And I…” Twilight paused one more time to wipe the tears from her eyes. The only sound was the soft chirp of a cricket in the distance as the crowd stood, fixated on the lavender unicorn standing on the dais. ”And I j-just hope that I was able to repay even a fraction of th-th-that hospitality and f-friendship that I was shown. I-It makes me so very happy and honored to see all these friendly and familiar ponies here tonight just to wish me well and say goodbye…” The tears were now streaming down Twilight’s cheeks, discoloring and matting the fur down under the tiny waterfalls. “I-I… I love you all, and I will m-m-miss you all so very much.” Twilight attempted to regain her composure, wiping her tears once again with her hoof. She smiled broadly to the audience of her friends and neighbors and made one last statement. “Now enough of this sentimental stuff…” Her smile grew even larger as she looked to the small group of her closest friends. “…let’s PARTY!”

With that declaration, the entire crowd once again began cheering for Twilight Sparkle and Vinyl Scratch deftly moved her forehooves over the mixer controls restarting the music almost instantaneously. Once the current record was running again, Vinyl turned and gave Twilight a hug. Yelling over the music into Twilight’s ear she said, “Hey, I play gigs in Canterlot from time to time, we’ll have to get together!”

Twilight pulled away from the hug and nodded her approval of the suggestion.

The party was four and a half hours of well wishing ponies, dancing, eating and drinking. Twilight spent the majority of that time with her five best friends and Spike, but she did take leave of them several times throughout the night to say goodbye to some specific ponies that she felt more than deserved a more personal farewell.

Once the party had ended, all that remained were the six friends, a purple dragon, a white unicorn packing up sound equipment and a few ponies helping clean up.

“Well done Pinkie Pie, I believe your party was a resounding success,” Rarity remarked.

Rainbow peeked out from the top of a low lying cloud. “Are you kidding? It. Was. Awesome! Did you see how many ponies showed up? I’ve never seen anything like it!”

“No no no no nononono… I just organized it, everyone else did all the real work,” Pinkie explained.

All the girls laughed, knowing well that that was not the case. While she did have a lot of help, Pinkie Pie had worked exhaustingly for nearly a week to put this party together.

Twilight sighed deeply as she sat in the company of her friends. The party was amazing and she got to see all her friends and she even had a ridiculous amount of fun, but it didn’t make the feelings go away. It merely pushed them aside for awhile. Now though, now they were all returning. The feeling of abandoning her friends for her own selfish needs, the sorrow and pain of not having her best friends only a short walk away, the dread of the impending loneliness that living in the castle was sure to bring.

Fluttershy put a hoof around the lavender unicorn’s back. “What’s the matter Twilight? You’re crying again.”

Twilight reached a hoof to her face; she hadn’t realized she was producing more tears. She looked up just in time to see Rainbow Dash gliding down from her cloud to join the group looking just a worried as the rest of them.

“I don’t know… It’s just that this is such a big change in my life and I guess I’m kinda sad that I’m leaving. I mean, all my friends are here.” She paused for moment, taking time to look up to the starry sky. “Everything that I’ve known for the past eight years is in this place.”

“Well heck, sugarcube. Movin’ on to new and different things can be a kinda scary thing. Heh... I’m purdy sure I’d be scared stiff if I was in yer shoes,” stated Applejack.

“But just remember darling, we’re all still your friends and we always will be. If you need anything at all, you just send a letter and let us know,” Rarity added.

“Yeah! If you need something, you can bet I’ll be there for you lickity-split! You know… Element of Loyalty and all,” said Rainbow as she hovered a few feet of the ground.

“We can throw you another party if you’re feeling sad!” Pinkie energetically added, bouncing in place.

“And we all love you very much, Twilight… and we’ll come visit you,” Fluttershy added quietly.

The five mares moved in on Twilight for one last group hug for the night. They all stepped away from each other and said their goodnights before they went their separate ways for the night.

To Canterlot:

Considering how unusually warm it was the previous night, the cool morning air bit with a surprising sting. The fresh smell of the air present in the rest of Ponyville was tainted by the smell of burning coal as the locomotive engineers worked at stoking the fire that would eventually power the train up the mountainside to Canterlot.

A somber atmosphere surrounded the platform at the rail station. There were several small bunches of balloons floating up from the wood decking and some streamers hanging from the ticket office. A group of seven ponies and one baby dragon stood chatting. The five Elements of Harmony and even Quillfeather showed up to see Twilight and Spike off. The rest of the ponies of Ponyville apparently had decided that the party the previous night was enough of a goodbye.

The locomotive hissed then a very loud low pitch whistle howled, signaling that the engine was now ready for the journey. Other ponies that had been on the platform waiting for the train to Canterlot began to file into the cars.

“Well… I guess this is it,” Twilight stated flatly.

“We’ll miss you, Twilight. Be sure to write to us as soon as you’re settled in.” Rarity gave her good friend a hug and then moved aside to allow the procession to continue.

Pinkie Pie was next. Although she was still trying her hardest to be her usual bouncy self, Twilight could see the sadness in her blue eyes. “I’m going to throw you the bestest party when you come back to visit.” A single tear trickled down her cheek as she hugged Twilight.

Applejack then moved forward. “Hey Twi, it’s been fun. And we will see each other again,” she said with a quick wink and a hug.

Rainbow Dash landed on the platform right in front of Twilight. “I dunno about all this mushy stuff, but I’ll see ya around Twi!” Dash then gave Twilight a quick hug.

Fluttershy was standing a few feet away with her head down, face hidden behind her flowing pink mane. She slowly shuffled towards her soon to be gone friend and whimpered an incoherent sentence.

“I’m sorry Fluttershy, I didn’t hear that,” Twilight said softly.

“I don… … … g… way.”

“Fluttershy, I can’t hear you dear,” Twilight patiently said again.

Fluttershy quickly looked up and met Twilight’s eyes. “I don’t want you to go away!” She quickly threw her front legs around Twilight and began sobbing into the unicorn’s shoulder.

“Oh… it’s okay Fluttershy, I’ll come back to visit really soon.”

“You promise?” Fluttershy squeaked.

Twilight gently pushed the timid pegasus back so she could look her in the eyes. “Pinkie promise.”

Fluttershy smiled, then backed away as Quillfeather walked forward. “I know we just met and all, but I feel like we’ve already made a connection as friends. And I just want to wish you luck in everything that you do.”

“Thank you, Quill. I feel the same, and take care of my library, okay?” Twilight said chuckling a bit.

“Will do.”

Just then the whistle blew again, much longer this time as a brown earth pony stallion in a dark blue conductor’s uniform began walking up the platform. “All aboard!”

Twililght looked to her assistant. “We better go Spike.”

“Bye everypony!” Spike shouted happily.

“Bye Spike!” the group said in unison, eliciting a laugh from the dragon.

“We’ll miss you,” added Rarity, smiling to the dragon.

The friends then moved in for what would possibly be their last group hug.

“All aboard!” The train’s whistle sounded with two quick short bursts as the engine began hissing.

“Come on, they’re gonna leave without us if we don’t get on,” Twilight said to Spike.

The lavender unicorn and her dragon assistant jumped onto the nearest carriage and found a pair of seats next to each other seconds before the engine roared to life and began to slowly accelerate towards Canterlot. Twilight waved to her friends through the window as they waved back from the station platform. She watched them and Ponyville as they disappeared into the distance.

Once they were out of sight she sat back in her seat and turned her head to Spike. “You ready?”

“Yep! How about you?”

Twilight sighed. “Yeah… I think so.”

II: Onwards and Upwards

The scenery whipped by as Twilight watched impassively through the window. With the side of her face pressed against the glass, she listlessly tapped out a beat with her horn. Spike had fallen asleep almost as soon as the train left Ponyville, leaving Twilight with plenty of time to dwell on the lingering thoughts of the friends and life she had left behind.

It shouldn’t be this hard. It’s not like I’m going to be gone forever. I mean, the train ride between Canterlot and Ponyville only takes half a day.

Twilight was completely lost in her thoughts, staring at the blurred landscape passing by when a pony walked up to the seats her and Spike were occupying. “Tickets please.”

She continued to stare out the window while her assistant snored quietly. Lush green prairies of gently rolling hills were quickly giving way to the rocky ground and pine forests of the foothills of Canterlot Mountain.

The train’s conductor loudly cleared his throat. “Tickets please.”

The contemplative unicorn quickly turned to face the aisle. The same earth pony stallion from the platform in Ponyville stood there waiting.

“Oh, sorry.” Twilight smiled and levitated two small pieces of colored paper from the saddlebag lying on the seat across from her, passing them towards the conductor.

As she held them in front of him, using his mouth he quickly took the punch that was hanging from a chain around his neck and used it to put a small hole in each of the tickets. “Thank you,” he said in a very friendly manner, and then continued his journey towards the rear of the train.

The carriage jolted suddenly as the train began its trek up the mountain and the slack in the couplers between the cars was quickly taken up. Canterlot could be seen looming on the side of the mountain far above the rails that the locomotive was now struggling to navigate. The sun was at such an angle that the glass of nearly every visible window of the city and castle were sparkling in a brilliant show of colorful light. It was an inspiring sight that no matter how many times she had seen it, left Twilight awestruck on every occasion.

Several small groups of ponies were mulling about on the gleaming white stone pavers that made up Platform Three of Canterlot Central Station. Some of the ponies on the platform were quietly conversing, others checking the time every few minutes, and some were quietly sitting on benches, waiting patiently for the arrival of their trains.

A fast clicking noise was heard across the platform as the split-flap message board showing arrival times of the various inbound trains sprang to life. On the line for the train from Ponyville, the status changed from ‘on-time’ to ‘arrived.’ Most of the ponies waiting on the platform all moved around to find a good spot to wait for the ones they were there to meet.

Several minutes had passed when a locomotive pulling six passenger carriages slowly pulled into the station alongside Platform Three. The engine disappeared behind a cloak of white water vapor as the remaining steam pressure was exhausted to the outside air. Two engineers then jumped to the ground beginning their hurried task of greasing the locomotive and replenishing the boiler’s water supply for the next leg of their journey.

As the engineers began making their rounds, the doors on the carriages opened with the quiet hiss of pneumatic-powered cylinders. Ponies began filing out of the train cars; some of the ponies getting off went to meet with their friends and families that were waiting, although many ponies simply walked off the train and straight out of the station. The last to debark were Twilight Sparkle and Spike. Almost everypony was gone by the time they stepped onto the stone platform. Twilight’s eyebrows furrowed as she looked all around.

“What’s wrong?”

“Well…” Twilight looked towards the end of the train one more time before she turned to Spike with a frown. “I thought Princess Celestia would have sent someone to escort us to the castle.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much, Twi. You’re a big girl, and besides, you got your big tough dragon bodyguard here to make sure nothing happens along the way. It probably just slipped her mind.”

Twilight’s face became devoid of emotion as she listened to Spike’s rationalization. “Yeah I suppose. She is quite busy… Should we get going then? It’s quite a walk from here to get up to the castle.”

“Can we stop and eat? I’m starving.”

“We ate lunch on the train, Spike. Come on, it’s almost four miles from here and we only have two hours before our scheduled audience with the Princess. You can eat at the castle after we see her.”

“Okay okay, let’s get going then. It’s just that the ‘pony portions’ they served on the train aren’t quite enough for me.”

Twilight and Spike stepped out of the station and onto the cobblestone streets of Canterlot. Far above in the distance the massive figure of Canterlot Castle clung to the mountainside. Twilight looked up to the castle, and then looked to the dragon next to her. “We should’ve asked the Princess for a chariot.”

Spike laughed. “A little late for that. Come on, it’s not getting any closer.”

The two began their journey from Canterlot Central up the winding labyrinth of stone roadways to the castle. They made their way through the Lower District where much of the city’s industry was centered.

Spike coughed slightly. “I don’t remember it being so dirty.” He then inhaled through his nostrils before cringing. “Ugh, or smelly.”

His unicorn companion looked to the sky as she continued to walk. Through the haze of dark grey smoke, the sun was nothing more than a faded effigy of its usual glory. “It wasn’t. Just look at how many new factories there are. It’s been a long time since we’ve been to the Lower District.”

Soon the road led them between two factories. Twilight’s eyes darted all around, attempting to absorb the new look of this part of the city. Muffled rhythmic clanks and screeches could be heard through the wall of one of the titanic brick factories as they walked by on the street. Each one of the many factories here was manufacturing goods to be exported to the rest of Equestria and most of the world. “I don’t like this place. The buildings are so tall and close together; you can’t even see the sun from here.”

Spike had nothing to add to this statement and simply shrugged.

Eventually they came out of the manufacturing sector and moved into the residential area of the Lower District. Very old but well maintained apartment buildings overran the area, many of which were owned and subsidized by the Equestrian Government and rented at discounted prices to ponies with little to no means to support themselves. Many of the factory workers lived here with their families, rarely leaving the Canterlot Lower District.

Twilight and Spike continued walking up the steep road where a group of colts and fillies played in front of one of the large apartment buildings. The purple dragon quickly ducked as an errant baseball barely missed the top of his head. Three young ponies went running by after their ball, laughing the entire way.

Rounding a corner that put them onto the much wider main road leading to the Mid District, the two travelers spotted the Lower District Market. Lining the road on both sides were various ponies standing at vendor stalls selling fruits, vegetables and the occasional shiny trinket.

“Look Twilight, a market. Can I get some food now?” Spike pleaded.

“I told you, you can eat after we meet with the Princess.”

Spike stopped walking. “But Twi, I’m hungry.”

“Nope.” She continued trotting towards a nearby granite archway which led to a seemingly endless stone staircase tunneled into the cliff face at the end of the road which led to the next level of the city.

Spike stood looking longingly at a stall with a large sign above it:

“It would only take a minute,” Spike grumbled to himself when he noticed that Twilight was nearly to the stairs. “Hey! Wait for me!”

Twilight squinted her eyes as they exited the stairway. Coming to the crest of the stairs was akin to stepping into an entirely different world. The sun shone here much like it did in Ponyville, the pollution of the factories left behind in the Lower District and the bright blue sky easily visible. Twilight’s eyes had adjusted to the change of lighting when she looked up to the castle ahead. It wasn’t nearly as foreboding as it had looked from the Lower District. With the thick haze gone, the gleaming white marble clad walls and the gold gilded spires of Canterlot Castle glimmered with a magnificence unmatched anywhere in the world.

“Halfway there, Spike, and we’re actually making pretty good time.”

Unlike the Lower District where apartment buildings and factories crowded each other, competing for every inch of ground they could take, the houses and shops of the Mid were spaced at a more comfortable distance with trees and grass filling the gaps between the roads and buildings. The Mid District was very similar to Ponyville in many respects. Sure, a lot more ponies lived here, but everyone was quite friendly and happily going about their business. Ponies moved to and fro; making deliveries, purchasing items, or just out for an afternoon walk to enjoy the warm sun.

Twilight smiled, just being in the industrial sector of the city had her feeling rather uneasy. Now though, walking in the warm sun and in the company of surrogate friends that didn’t know her, her heart fluttered as a new rush of excitement overtook her mind. “I can’t believe I’m doing this, Spike.”

“Yes you can.”

“What?”

Spike stopped walking and Twilight followed his cue. He looked over to his friend. “I said, ‘Yes you can.’ Of course you can believe you’re doing this. This is what you wanted. Twilight, I don’t think you’ve ever wanted anything more than to come back to Canterlot and work with the Princess on a daily basis.”

Twilight twisted the side of her mouth, thinking about what Spike said. “Well, yeah. It’s just that I was so comfortable with life in Ponyville and all my friends are there. It seems strange that over the course of two weeks, I went from town librarian dabbling in my own research on magic and friendship to this—on my way to start my new life as a mage of Celestia’s Court and soon to be Grand Magus overseeing the highest level magical research in the world. It’s kind of overwhelming, you know?”

“I’ll say; it’s like that time you tried dating,” Spike said with mischievous grin.

“What?” Twilight blushed with a strong hue of red. “No, it’s nothing like that. Also, shut up Spike.”

The two friends laughed together and started walking through the upper area of the Mid District. Approaching the Upper District a dull grey stone parapet came into view, although currently unmanned, guard turrets positioned every two hundred feet towered another thirty feet above the massive wall. This acted as the second line of defense for Canterlot Castle, the first being its location high on the mountainside.

Making their way through the perpetually open swinging gates at the entrance to the Upper District, it became clear that this structure was built for the eventuality of a war. Above the two travelers three heavy steel drop gates were tucked into slots at the ceiling of the tunnel, positioned every twenty feet apart from one another with massive spikes clinging to the bottom bars. They hung in waiting for an invading army to attempt to step through the protective wall. Twilight looked up as they walked through the fortification; between each of the gates—two on either side of the pathway—were holes positioned in the ceiling just large enough to possibly fit a head through. “Those spikes are awful.”

“Yeah.” Spike looked up at the holes as well. “And just imagine what sort of terrible things they would drop through those holes once all the gates were shut.”

Twilight shuddered at the thought of ponies hurting one another. “Let’s just get out of here.” Her steps began coming a bit faster.

The new landscape that greeted them on the uphill side of the wall was very similar to what they had just left. The vast contrast between the Lower and Mid Districts was nonexistent between the Mid and Upper.

Exiting the wall, Spike looked side to side at two large unremarkable buildings that didn’t fit with the brightly colored homes, shops, and government offices of the Upper District. Each two stories and built with insipid grey stone. “What are those buildings?”

“They’re the barracks for the guardponies that staff the castle wall.”

The dragon continued to inspect the barracks as they walked. Every window in the building on the left was shuttered and a large chain with a padlock secured the main doors. The rightmost building was in similar condition, save for a few open windows on the main floor and the absence of the chain. “Pretty big barracks for the number of guards around here.”

“Spike, we haven’t taken part in a military confrontation since the Pazyryk Empire attempted to annex Equestria almost three hundred years ago. These building were probably overflowing with soldiers when the Gryphons besieged the castle for three months.”

“Huh… you read too much.”

“History is important, Spike. If we don’t learn from past mistakes, we are destined to live them again,” she said with the same tone a schoolteacher would use with a young student.

Several minutes passed without the interruption of conversation as they crossed the main square of the small town within the walls of Canterlot Castle. Once on the other side of the square they were a mere several hundred yards from the extremely busy main entrance to the castle.

“Here we are, and we even have time to spare,” Twilight said as though she was victorious in a game that no one else was playing.

“That means I could’ve eaten,” her assistant whimpered under his breath.

“What was that, Spike.”

“Nothing… let’s just get this over with so I can eat.”

They began making their way up the colossal white stone stairway to the main door. Being the center of all Equestrian government, the castle was always bustling with activity. Ponies were hurriedly going up and down the stairs; paying no attention to the four pegasi guards that flanked the huge open wooden doors, two on either side. Dressed in resplendent golden armor, the guards silently watched as the day passed.

Passing through the doors, they walked across the cavernous reception area to the desk positioned at the far side of the room from the door where a mauve colored unicorn mare with a light green mane busily shuffled papers around. Twilight had her mouth opened to speak when, without looking up, the receptionist asked the obvious question. “Can I help you?”

“Oh, uh, yes. My name is Twilight Sparkle and this is—”

The receptionist quickly looked up. “Twilight! My goodness it’s been a long time. How have you been?”

Twilight’s eyes grew wide as she realized who the receptionist was. “I’ve been… good, Star Dancer. How abou—“

Star Dancer interrupted for a second time. “And Spike, my goodness you’ve grown up!”

Spike grinned sheepishly, not remembering who this pony was.

“Yes, well I’m sorry, but maybe we could catch up later. We have an appointment with Princess Celestia that I can’t be late for.”

“Oh… yes, of course. The Princess will be expecting you.” The unicorn floated a clipboard in front of her face and examined it closely. “My schedule shows that you will be meeting her, Arcana, and Fireshade in the throne room, I assume you remember how to get there?”

“I sure do, thank you Star. I’m going to be staying in Canterlot, so maybe we can get together sometime.”

“I would like that. Bye Twilight.”

Spike and Twilight turned and walked to the grand staircase that connected the reception area to the third floor. They reached the top and began down a long hallway large enough that twenty ponies could comfortably stand side-by-side. Decorating the walls for the entire length were colorful tapestries depicting scenes from Equestrian history; the founding of the nation, the golden age of learning, and the rise and fall of Nightmare Moon, among many others.

“Who was that?” Spike asked in a soft voice.

“Just someone that I know from Celestia’s school. I’m actually surprised she remembered me; I wasn’t really one for having friends back then.”

“And who are Arcana and Fireshade?”

“That I don’t know. I assume we’ll find out shortly, though.”

At the end of the hall stood a very large gilded double door, with intricate carvings depicting the sun and moon, the Sister Princesses and the Elements of Harmony. On either side of the doors, a unicorn of the Royal Guard stood watch. As Twilight and Spike neared the end of their journey, the unicorn on the left shrouded the doors in a blue glow and they effortlessly swung into the room.

Immediately, the ex-librarian saw her mentor, Princess Celestia. Seated on her throne, the alicorn goddess of the sun looked as beautiful as she ever had. Her prismatically-hued mane and tail perpetually billowed to her side in an unfelt wind; her regal white coat and cutie mark of a stylized golden sun were things truly befitting of royalty. Across her chest lay a decorative gold cuirass with a large violet sapphire set in the center.

To the left of Celestia sat her sister, Princess Luna. The indigo alicorn was the polar opposite of her elder sister. Her dark-blue mane and tail waved in the same restless manner with points of glittering star-like light. A piece of chest armor similar to her sister’s hung around her neck, a lustrous piece of black metal with a white crescent moon emblazoned in the middle to match her cutie mark.

The moment the newly appointed court mage and her assistant were clear of the doors they glided shut, the sound of the latching mechanism echoed through the room. The sound alerted the occupants of the throne room to the presence of the pony they had been waiting for. Celestia looked up and smiled gracefully at her student, while a huge smile covered Luna’s face as she waved a hoof at Twilight.

Two ponies at the foot of the dais that the Princess’ thrones sat atop turned around to see the newcomers. An older unicorn stallion with a coat the color of ash and a stark white mane wearing the standard dark maroon robes of the Court Magi stood to the left of the throne dais. Twilight could have sworn he was glaring at her, but it was hard to tell at that distance.

Standing next to the stallion was a unicorn mare about Twilight’s age with a pale yellow coat similar to Fluttershy’s and a slightly disheveled bright orange mane. The yellow unicorn turned in a way that her cutie mark became visible; an orange ring of fire surrounding a coal black circle.

Although no one living now besides the Princesses had ever seen an eclipse, for Twilight, the cutie mark brought forth memories of the disturbing written accounts of the Nightmare Moon insurrection and the resulting civil war. According to the historical records, during the six year war, the New Lunar Republic would often use solar eclipses as a form of psychological warfare in an attempt to wear down the morale of their enemies.

Twilight stopped short of the group and bowed deeply towards the floor, with Spike mimicking her movements. Celestia stood with her sparkling colorful mane and tail billowing to her side, and began stepping down towards the bowing pair. “Twilight Sparkle and Spike, please stand”

The two bowing figures quickly stood up

“Now allow me to introduce you to Head Mage Arcana, your new mentor who will be instructing you on your duties as a Court Mage, and eventually Grand Magus.” Celestia nodded to the grey unicorn.

Arcana took a small step forward and lowered his head. “A pleasure, Mage Sparkle… Master Spike.”

The Princess of the Sun continued, “And this is Mage Fireshade, Arcana’s apprentice. She will be helping you readjust to life back at the castle.”

With wide eyes and a silly grin, the yellow unicorn stepped up directly in front of Twilight and held out a hoof. “It’s great to finally meet you, Miss Sparkle. I’ve heard so many amazing things abou—“

“A-hem.” Fireshade spun around to find the source of the interruption. Arcana was scowling while slowly shaking his head.

“Oh, uh.” She looked back to Twilight with a half-hearted smile as she moved back to her place beside her charge. “Sorry.”

Luna stood from her throne and began making her way to the floor. “Well, now that the pleasantries have been dealt with. How have you been, Twilight?” She walked past her sister and gave Twilight a hug.

“I’ve been very well, Princess Luna.”

The dark alicorn waved a hoof dismissively. “Pfft, Luna is fine, you know we’re better friends than all those formalities allow.”

“Yes, we are all among friends here, Twilight. Formalities are not necessary.” Celestia added.

Twilight released a deep sigh. “Thank you, speaking formally always made me nervous for some reason.”

“Me too!” Fireshade interjected.

Arcana glared at his apprentice. “Yes, well perhaps we can get on with this, then. I have important matters to attend to.”

“And I’m still hungry,” Spike stated.

Celestia laughed quietly. “I don’t believe it is necessary for you to stay, Spike. You remember how to find the kitchens, correct?

Spike nodded quickly.

“Then you should go and ask the cooks to make you something. We will be done shortly; then we will send somepony to fetch you.”

He was out the door at the side of the room before she could finish her sentence.

Twilight silently put a hoof to her face and shook her head as the Princess continued speaking. “Now then, as I mentioned before, Arcana will be teaching you all about your new duties as a mage of my Court. Perhaps you could give her a quick overview, Arcana?”

“Yes, milady.” Luna rolled her eyes at the Head Mage’s response. “As a mage of the Court you will be working primarily in our research facility behind the castle within Canterlot Mountain. You will assist the senior staff and perhaps be assigned a couple of projects of your own. More importantly, apart from working in the facility, you will be training directly under myself to prepare you for your duties as Grand Magus.

“I expect you in my office tomorrow morning at eight o’clock for the facility tour.”

The newest court mage smiled. “That won’t be necessary, I’ve been there many times.”

Arcana smirked, his voice turning to a low menacing tone while he looked at Twilight through narrowed eyes. “Not this part.” The Head Mage turned to the Princesses and bowed. “Now then, if I am no longer needed here, I will be on my way.”

“Yes, that will do. Thank you, Arcana.”

“Thank you, milady.” He raised his head and looked to Fireshade. “You’re assigned to Mage Sparkle for the rest of the evening.” He then turned and walked the full length of the throne room to the main door.

The second the door closed, Luna began giggling. “Blah, Arcana’s always so stuffy. I swear that pony needs to learn to relax.”

“Well, he’s not always that bad,” Fireshade said defending her master.

Twilight was staring at the floor. “I don’t think he likes me.”

“Don’t be silly, of course he does. It just takes him awhile to warm up to new ponies.”

“Regardless of his feelings towards you, he has his assignment and he is a very trustworthy servant of the Court,” Celestia said softly in an attempt to calm the lavender unicorn. “As for his vague comment about the labs, all I will say right now is that I believe you will be pleasantly surprised by what’s in store for the tour.”

Twilight’s right eye squinted down slightly as she tried to make sense of the secrecy of what this ‘tour’ actually was going to be. “Okay…”

“We should take our evening meal. Twilight, won’t you please join us?” Luna said, attempting to divert the conversation.

“I would love to, but I’m pretty tired from the trip. I think I would just like to go to my room now, if that’s okay.”

Luna’s gleeful demeanor immediately deflated. As she opened her mouth to object, her sister spoke to interrupt the attempt. “Of course that’s okay. Fireshade, please show Twilight to her new quarters.”

The pale yellow unicorn quickly stood at attention and made a fast salute. “Yes, ma’am!” She put her hoof back to the ground, and moved towards her new friend. “C’mon Twilight, let’s go—oops, is it okay if I call you Twilight?”

“Yes, that would be just fine.” Before turning to leave, she looked to the Princesses. “Perhaps we could have dinner together tomorrow evening?”

Luna’s eyes lit up at the suggestion. “Yes! That sounds excellent. We shall see thou tomorrow night.” As soon as she realized her slip in speech, the alicorn threw a hoof to her mouth and blushed crimson. It had taken several years of tutoring after her return from the thousand year exile as Nightmare Moon to become comfortable with the modern Equestrian language.

“Yes, I would enjoy that as well,” said the white alicorn while watching her sister and stifling a giggle. “Goodnight Twilight, if you need anything let one of the castle staff know and they will take care of it.”

“Thank you, Princesses. Goodnight.”

Twilight and Fireshade began walking the length of the red carpet that stretched from the thrones to the main entrance of the room. Twilight’s escort was already rambling about the stories she had heard about the Elements of Harmony by the time they had made it halfway to the door.

They made their way up to the fifth floor of the castle, the yellow unicorn continuing to tell Twilight all about Twilight’s life.

“You know, Fireshade… I already know about me, and obviously you do too. What about you? What’s your story? Where do you come from?”

“Oh, well I was born in Manehatten, but I’ve lived in Canterlot most of my life.”

The only sound in the hallway was the hoofsteps of the two unicorns slowly meandering towards the wing that housed the quarters of the Court officials. Twilight waited a moment before pressing for more information about her companion. “Soooo… You moved here with your parents?”

“Nope, I was sent here for school to develop my special talent.”

Silence again. It was becoming obvious that this unicorn was much more comfortable with talking about other ponies lives than her own. “So you went to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns too?”

“Uh… not exactly. I was sent to a—a special school…” Fireshade’s face began to blush as she mumbled the last two words at a barely audible volume. She quickly composed herself and her face perked up with a fake smile as she exclaimed, “For my special talent!”

This time Twilight didn’t wait to ask the next question. “Which is?”

The yellow unicorn stopped walking. “Pyromancy. You know, fire magic,” she said pointing back to her solar cutie mark.

“Why were you sent to a ‘special school’ for that? I didn’t even know there was a school that specialized in pyromancy alone, it’s such a rare talent,” Twilight said, completely oblivious to the gravity of the conversation she had been steering.

Fireshade tried hard to hold back the tears brought on by the memories of her youth. “There isn’t a pyromancy school.” A single tear rolled down her face. She took a very deep breath and continued. “My fire magic isn’t like most unicorns. They can start fires on a fuel source like a pile of wood or a candle wick; maybe direct the flames to a degree. My abilities…” The tears were now coming freely.

Twilight was horrified at what she had done to her new friend. She put a hoof across the crying ponies shoulders and decided that she had heard enough. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, it’s okay.”

“No, we’re going to be working together and I think you should probably hear it from me before you find out through some stupid exaggerated rumor.” She sniffled and wiped her eyes with her foreleg. Squirming out from under Twilight’s leg she turned to look the unicorn in the eye. “Like I said, all unicorns have a very limited ability to use pyromancy. My use of fire magic is far beyond that; I can create fire without anything to use as fuel and I can control the fire completely, I’m able to make it do whatever I want.”

Fireshade’s horn began to glow orange as a spark ignited between her and Twilight. Soon the spark turned into a flame, which in turn became a writhing ball of fire the size of a pony’s head. She closed her eyes to concentrate and several seconds later, the ball suddenly condensed down to the size of a marble, burning with white hot intensity. As Twilight observed this demonstration with her mouth hanging open in wonder, the heat emanating from the intensely glowing object became almost unbearable. Then, just as fast as the flames had come into existence, they again disappeared.

Darkness quickly took the place of the searing white light as Twilight’s pupils struggled to readjust to the dimly lit hallway. The latent heat of the fireball hung in the air as a bead of perspiration trickled down her forehead. “That. Was. Amazing! Why is that something to be ashamed of? I’ve never seen anything like that. Heck, I’ve never even heard of anything like that!”

“Because the school I was sent to isn’t really a school. It’s an institutional facility for ponies that are a danger to themselves and those around them. I-I lived there for ten years. Then I was sent here.”

The purple unicorn looked apprehensively at her companion. “How did you end up in a place like that? For that matter; places like that exist?”

“Yes they exist, and I ended up there because of what got me this—” She turned to look at her cutie mark, “—this thing. What I just showed you took me over a decade to master, when I was young I couldn’t control it.” The tears were forming tiny rivulets down her cheeks now. “It was an accident. I-I d-d-didn’t mean to hurt anypony, I didn’t know what I was doing. It... it was. An accident...”

Fireshade was breathing heavily, trying her best to not completely break down. “I was five, practicing my levitation. I was lifting rocks in my backyard. I don’t know what happened, they told me it was a tornado made of fire. I don’t remember any of it... I-I razed three houses to the ground in less than a minute. I seriously injured one pony and... four died.” She finished, merely breathing out the last few words.

Twilight couldn’t even think at this point, let alone speak. She understood why Fireshade would want to have this out in the open, rather than allow the rumors to run rampant. “I’m so sorry, Fireshade. I... I don’t even know what to say. I’m sorry I pushed you to talk about your past.”

The yellow unicorn wiped the last of the tears off her face and smiled, her earlier happy-go-lucky attitude quickly returning. Returning uncomfortably fast for Twilight. “It’s okay. You shouldn’t be sorry, and you certainly shouldn’t feel sorry for me. What happened happened, and there’s nothing to be done about it now. So, I got my cutie mark for killing and two days later two unicorns from Equestrian Social Services picked me up from the orphanage I was placed at and now I’m here.”

“Wait... Orphanage? What happened to your parents?”

“Oh, well, they died in the accident,” she stated in a cold matter-of-fact manner.

Twilight’s mouth fell open again. She was having a hard time deciding how to react to the wild mood swings that were presenting themselves in her new friend. “I see. Maybe we should get going to my room.” Attempting to defuse the situation seemed to be the best option.

“Sure thing!” Fireshade exclaimed and started trotting up the hall. “Come on!”

The lavender unicorn followed, keeping more distance between the two than before.

After several minutes of wandering the labyrinthine hallways of Canterlot Castle, they turned the last corner that led to Twilight’s new home. As they were walking along the final stretch of the stone floor, Fireshade sighed loudly. “Ah, shit.”

Trotting towards them from the opposite end of the hallway was Arcana. The three ponies met directly in front of the door to Twilight’s room.

“Well, here you are, Twilight.” Fireshade smiled to the purple unicorn.

“Fireshade, please excuse us. I need to have a word with Miss Sparkle.”

“Yes, sir. See ya later Twilight!” She then began moving back the way they had come, nearly at a run.

Arcana waited, glaring at the unicorn left standing in front of him. The moment Fireshade rounded the corner at the end of the hall, he moved so that his face was inches from Twilight’s.

“I trust the Princess's judgment with my life, and I understand that you are her personal student and extremely talented.” The old unicorn paused for a moment as though trying to find the right words. “I was ordered to train you and help you grow into your role as Grand Magus and I will follow those orders, but I. Do. Not. have to like it. I have been working in the service of our Princess since before you were born, child, and the second you screw up or step out of line in any way, I will be right there, ready to take your place.”

He took a step back, turned and began walking down the hall. “Goodnight, Twilight. Better get some sleep, big day tomorrow.”

Twilight stood watching him walk away, unsure of what just happened. She sighed, and opened the door to her room. Sitting at a table in the middle of the main room was a familiar purple dragon.

“Hey Twi! Look at this place, it’s like a house inside the castle!”

Twilight walked into the massive suite and backed up into the door until it latched. Letting her rear slide down the door until she was resting on her haunches, she looked at Spike with a tear rolling down her face. “I think I want to go home.”

III: Unto the Breach

Twilight slowly opened her eyes to the blaring sound of the alarm clock’s harsh rattling ring. The morning came all too quickly for the exhausted lavender unicorn. Thoughts of Arcana’s monologue the evening prior, dreams of herself not being able to handle her new job, and the pressure of making Celestia proud all contributed to creating a night of tossing and turning between bouts of restless sleep.

She walked out of her bedroom to be greeted by a wonderful smell. Twilight breathed deeply through her nose, taking in the aroma of cooking food. She shuffled through the main room, still trying to shake off the haze from her restless night. Walking through the doorway to a modest kitchenette, she found Spike, busily fashioning a home-style breakfast.

“Spike, what are you doing up so early?”

“Well, you said we were going to take a tour today, and after your little ‘discussion’ with Arcana, I thought it would be nice to have breakfast ready when you got up.”

“Thanks, Spike. That really means a lot to me.”

“We can’t have you going hungry on your official first day as a court mage. Now get out of here and go sit down. I got this covered.”

Twilight laughed quietly. “Okay, okay.” She backed out of the kitchen and found her place at the large round table in the main room.

After waiting several minutes, the purple dragon came walking out of the kitchen with a large tray. He carefully set the tray on the table near Twilight. As Spike began removing dishes and placing them on the table, the unicorn carefully eyed the contents of each dish. Piping hot oatmeal, a bowl of fresh fruit and a plate of hash browns. As soon as Twilight’s meal had been placed in front of her, Spike took hold of the last bowl on the tray and set it in front of a chair at the table as he sat down.

The dragon took a handful of gemstones out of his bowl and tossed them into his mouth. He attempted to speak through the crunching, “Sho watre oo arowt Awkana?”

“Ugh, Spike. Don’t talk with your mouth full. I swear, you still act like a baby sometimes.”

He quickly gulped down the colorful rocks and smiled. “Heh, sorry. So what are you gonna do about Arcana?”

“What can I do? I’ll just do as is expected of me, and try not to get any further on his bad side.”

“Why don’t you tell Celestia? She could do something about it, right?”

Twilight’s left eye narrowed slightly as she looked at the dragon incredulously. “You're kidding, right? You think what I told you about last night was bad? Just imagine if he found out that I tattled on him to the Princess.” She looked down at her oatmeal bowl. “They would probably never find the body.”

“Pfft, Arcana may be a jerk, but I doubt he’s a murderer.”

The unicorn shrugged as she continued to eat her breakfast.

“Oh, come on, Twilight. You’re going to be the Grand Magus; once that happens he won’t be able to touch you. Heck, you could just fire him at that point.”

She smiled at the thought of having the power to dismiss Arcana on a whim. “Yeah, I could… but I wouldn’t. I can’t just fire him from what he’s been doing for his entire life purely out of spite.”

“Boy, I sure would.” Spike chuckled a bit as he threw another handful of gems into his mouth.

“Well, that’s because you’re a spiteful little dragon.” Twilight smirked and looked over her bowl at the purple dragon, expecting to get a rise out of him.

“Yeah, I guess so.” He finished off the last of his breakfast and stood, taking his bowl to the kitchen.

She pursed her lips, pouting and disappointed that Spike hadn’t taken the bait. The unicorn finished off her breakfast and levitated the dishes back to the kitchen. “Let’s go, Spike, we don’t want to be late.”

Two unicorns and an alicorn waited in the large and luxuriously comfortable office of the Court Head Mage. Princess Celestia stared out the picture window overlooking the vast room that housed the main force of the Equestrian Bureau of Research and Development. One floor below the window, under the bright glow of the artificial lighting, dozens of ponies of all types were busily working on various projects in their pursuit to better the lives of the general population. The acrid smell of various chemicals floated through the air of the office, still detectable after passing through the massive filtration system in the lab. Every few minutes a discharge of magical energy from a far corner of the laboratory forced her to squint.

Arcana looked up to a clock on the wall as he lazily pushed a pencil around on his desk. “She’s going to be late.”

Without turning the white alicorn answered, “It’s not eight o’clock yet.”

Less than a minute before the hands of the clock ticked over to eight, the heavy oak door flew open. It hit the wall with enough force that one of the pictures hanging on the wall fell to the floor with the loud shatter of broken glass. All eyes in the room were immediately focused on the doorway as Twilight Sparkle stumbled in. She took several labored steps into the room, panting heavily and a bead of sweat rolling down her forehead. Several seconds ticked by and the clock began to chime when Spike came through the doorway.

“We... made it. I didn’t remember—” Twilight stopped speaking just long enough to take two deep breaths. “—the labs being so far away.”

“Yes, you certainly did make it, Twilight.” Celestia smiled as she shot a smug look at the unicorn behind the desk.

“Please try to be a bit more prompt in the future, Miss Sparkle,” said Arcana, while eyeing the broken picture frame on the floor.

“Oh! I’m so sorry. I’ll pay to have it fixed.” Twilight was blushing now. She quickly took the fragments of glass in a telekinetic field and moved it to the wastebasket next to the desk.

“Yes. Yes you will… Anyways, the two of you come over here please. We have some documents for you to sign.” The grey unicorn gestured to a small stack of papers in front of him.

Twilight moved towards the desk and began to look through the documents. “What are these?”

“You need to sign them before you are allowed access to the Section Five laboratory. Simply a formality,” Celestia said, smiling at her student.

“A necessity,” Arcana corrected. He began placing the papers in front of the two newest employees of the bureau, describing each as he set them down. “These are required for your new security clearances: A non-disclosure agreement, an agreement stating that you understand the penalties for sharing any top-secret information with anypony that does not have the proper clearance, and an affidavit confirming that to the best of your knowledge the background information we’ve gathered on you is correct and complete.”

Spike picked up a quill, ready to start signing the papers when he suddenly stopped. “Wait… what is the penalty for telling somepony about the stuff here?” Spike asked while nervously fidgeting with the quill in his claw.

“You would be tried for high treason against Equestria and, at the very least, spend the rest of your life imprisoned.”

The Princess decided to step in when she heard the Head Mage’s statement. “Arcana, you’re going to scare them off before they ever get started.” She turned to the two standing in front of the desk and continued, “While the penalties are indeed steep, I am quite confident that neither of you will ever have to worry about that.”

“Yeah, Spike, it’s like a Pinkie Promise,” Twilight said as she quickly scanned the papers and scratched her name at the bottom of each one.

The dragon hesitantly began signing the papers. Just as he finished, a voice sounded off from the corner of the office near the door. “Can we go now? This is boring.”

Fireshade was lounging on the couch near the door with her head back, staring at the ceiling. She lifted her head and, with pleading eyes, gestured toward the door with her nose.

“What have I told you about patience, Apprentice?” Arcana again glared at his assistant.

“Um…” The yellow unicorn furrowed her brow and looked towards the floor as she struggled to come up with the correct answer. Her eyes suddenly lit up as she smiled and answered, nodding to each word as she spoke. “A pony who is a master of patience is master of everything else.”

Standing up, the grey unicorn nodded sagely. “That’s correct, now if you would only think about that when you’re in situations that warrant patience. Now then, shall we begin the tour?”

That is when Twilight noticed Arcana did not have the cloak he wore the previous day. The Eye of Providence? What kind of special talent could that possibly represent? she questioned in her mind.

“If we could take just a moment, first, I have something for Twilight Sparkle.” Celestia’s horn glowed a brilliant white, and then the crackling sound of magical energy filled the room as a book appeared seemingly from nowhere, floating in front of the lavender unicorn. “Something to help you on your new journey.”

Twilight took the book in her own magical aura and flipped through the pages. “Thank you, Princess, but there’s nothing in it.”

The white alicorn chuckled softly. “It wouldn’t be much of a journal if it was already written. This book is for you to write your own personal thoughts and notes on the research you will be conducting here, the thoughts that may be better left out of the technical reports of that research.”

“That’s great! I hadn’t even thought of something like that. Thank you so much.” Twilight’s face was barely big enough to contain the smile. She rushed to her mentor and hugged her tightly.

“You are very welcome, Twilight. Shall I teleport it to your room and we can get started with the tour?”

“Yes, please. Thank you, again.”

Celestia’s horn once again glowed as the book snapped from existence to be instantaneously rematerialized in Twilight’s room. “Now, I believe we can begin the tour.”

The four ponies filed out of the room turning left to a stairwell, followed closely by Spike. While Twilight had spent quite a lot of time in the labs in the past, it was a whole new experience for her assistant.

As they exited the stairs onto the main floor of the facility, it was immediately obvious to him that this place was like no other in the entire castle, Equestria or maybe even the world. The walls were not adorned with the large windows present in the rest of the compound; instead large electric lights clung to the ceiling bathing the room in a harsh white light. He glanced casually around his surroundings, attempting to soak in the strange sights and sounds. The entire room was as big as the Ponyville town square, and divided into separate work areas by short portable walls, about as tall as Celestia. The floor felt strangely smooth under his feet and he looked down to find the entirety of it covered in an unfamiliar material; much like a still pond on a dark night, it was seamless, perfectly flat and glossy black.

Walking through the main lab, Spike wasn’t paying any attention to the rest of his group when he ran into something.

“Hey!” Fireshade spun around and looked Spike in the eye. “Watch it buddy, we’re not that good of friends yet.”

“Geez, Spike, pay attention,” Twilight said sternly to the dragon.

“Sorry, I was just looking at… I don’t know. What is all this?” Spike pointed to a bank of buzzing and whirring equipment, similar to the machines Twilight had kept in the basement of the library. He then turned to see ponies working with various glass flasks and vials filled with various colored liquids.

“Well, the machines there are mostly measurement devices for collecting data; magical energy fields, electrical energies, temperatures, and pressures among other things.” Twilight looked to Arcana. “That is correct, isn’t it?”

A ghost of a smile broke across the lips of the old mage. “Mostly, yes. Some of them are actually storage devices for energy, and those ponies over there are working on biochemical research, attempting to find ways to cure diseases and repair injuries that magic cannot heal.”

Twilight was intrigued. “Energy storage? You can store energy and use it later?”

“Yep, the models here are early prototypes of electrical energy storage devices and aren’t really used anymore. The newer ones and the magic energy models are in the other lab,” Fireshade said excitedly.

“Wait, magi—”

“I understand that you are both excited, but not everyone in this section has clearance for the things you are discussing,” Arcana interjected.

“Sorry.” The two young unicorns said in unison.

“How about we move on to Section 5, and we can discuss whatever you please,” Celestia suggested.

Arcana huffed and began leading the group through the maze of partitions and equipment towards the wall on the opposite side of the room from where they had started.

Spike was still taking up the rear, gawking at the sites around him. They passed an opening in the wall next to them and Spike peeked in. The work area was almost completely filled by a large metallic cylinder with a rainbow of colored wires hanging from it. Several ponies were quickly unplugging wires, then plugging others in their place. Suddenly a bright flash filled his vision and a noise like thunder erupted from behind him. He jumped, spinning around in mid air trying to find the source of the ruckus.

“What was that!?” Twilight exclaimed.

“An experiment to determine the effects of different types of magical discharges on living tissue samples,” Arcana explained. “The hope is that by better understanding the damage on a cellular level, we can better treat ponies involved in accidents with magic.”

“You experiment on live subjects?” Twilight’s eyes were wide with horror with the thought of this prospect.

“No! Well… yes, but not for destructive testing like this. Live testing is only done in the final stages of the research. The live testing trials for this research will be done in the field, at hospitals, where ponies are already injured and we will test the treatments we’ve developed here. There’s also plenty of non-destructive early stage research we do with ponies, such as psychological and behavioral studies.”

“Oh.” Twilight was still unsure about using live ponies as test subjects for any research, but decided it best to drop the matter for now.

They approached an average nondescript grey door set in the cloud-white wall of the lab. Fireshade wrapped the door in the amber glow of her magic, but it did not immediately open. She lowered her head and squinted at the door in concentration. Nearly ten seconds later the door finally moved, opening inward to another room. “Could we do something about the locking spell on the door? It’s too hard to open.”

“It’s supposed to be hard to open, Fireshade,” Celstia answered, smiling to the young unicorn. “If it was easy to open, anypony could simply walk into Section 5, and we can’t have that, can we?”

The yellow unicorn looked down to her front hooves. “No, ma’am,” she replied, slightly dejected.

Twilight Sparkle entered the small room with the rest of her group. As the last of them made their way through the door, it quickly snapped shut without a sound. The only thing besides the ponies and dragon in the room was a second door opposite of the one they had just walked through. They were nearly shoulder-to-shoulder in the small white box that was barely tall enough for Celestia’s horn to not drag the ceiling.

“I always thought this was just a supply closet,” Twilight mused.

“Nope!” Hopping with excitement, Fireshade continued, “It’s the ‘secret entrance’ to The Cave. But I guess the entrance isn’t really a secret, just the stuff inside.”

“The Cave?”

“You’ll see when we get there.”

After looking to make sure the door behind them had shut as it was supposed to, Arcana opened the next one. It easily swung towards him, making Twilight wonder if he was that much more powerful than his apprentice or if this door simply was not locked in the same manner as the first.

The grey mage stepped to the side. “After you, Mage Sparkle.”

“Um… thank you?” The unicorn made her way to the front of the group, and looked through the doorway. It didn’t look like a clandestine research operation. The doorway opened to a wide hallway with silver metallic walls sloping down like a ramp for what appeared to be an eternity. Far ahead in the distance she could see where the hall began a spiraling descent.

She took five steps into the hall and stopped near one of the strange columns that lined the walls on both sides. Candy-striped black and yellow tubes standing from floor to ceiling with words in red printed vertically in large letters:

“What are these?” she asked timidly.

Arcana stepped up next to her and stopped. “These are part of the ‘Worst Case Scenario Contingency’. The columns are filled with powerful chemical explosives. If an invading force is ever able to breach the castle this far, we have the ability to destroy Section 5 and everything in it, in its entirety, within a moment’s notice.”

“Is the work here really that important that you would destroy it all and everypony inside just to keep someone else from getting to it?” Spike asked.

The grey unicorn began walking again as the rest of the group followed. “Yes.”

Eventually, after several minutes of silently walking deeper into the heart of Canterlot Mountain another door came into view. It appeared to be rather small at this distance, but it was immediately obvious that this was just an illusion caused by the length of the hall. Two unicorn guards stood on either side of the door and an earth pony sat at a desk well in front of the egress; the massive square of steel at the end of the hall dwarfed them all.

As they neared it, the seal emblazoned on the door became distinguishable. A long alabaster unicorn horn flanked by pegasus wings filled a large sky blue circle. Three red lightning bolts resided in front of the right wing and an olive branch in front of the left. Within the circle beneath the stylized drawings was the motto of Equestria’s Ministry of Defense, “Pacem per Vires”. Surrounding the seal in large white block letters were the words: EQUESTRIA MINISTRY OF DEFENSE, DEPARTMENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Ministry of Defense? The purple unicorn made a mental note to ask the Princess about it later.

Spike whispered to Twilight as they approached the behemoth blast door, “That thing looks like it could handle months of constant cannon-fire.”

Twilight only nodded in response.

They were noticed by the earth pony before they made it to the desk. The portly green desk clerk quickly got up and walked around the desk, just in time to bow low to the ground as the tour group arrived. “Welcome to Section 5. A pleasure, as always, your Highness.”

Celestia smiled, “Thank you, Thunder Hoof. We would like to sign-in and access the labs, please.”

“Of course, Princess. Allow me.” He moved back to his place at the desk and picked up a pencil in his mouth while he flipped through a large red leather bound book to a mostly empty page. Thunder Hoof then began scrawling the names of the guests to the lab. “Would I be correct to assume this is Twilight Sparkle and Spike?”

“You would.”

He looked down to the page once more and added the last two names. “All set, your Highness. Just give me a moment to get the door open.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed slightly as she gave the earth pony a quizzical look, pondering how exactly this pony was going to open such a heavy door without magic. Her jaw fell as she witnessed what came next.

The doorkeeper of Section 5 pressed a button on the top of a small grey box located on his desk. “Checkpoint One, Gate Control.”

The box crackled to life with a voice that sounded like a pony. “Gate Control, go ahead.”

“Hey, I need the door opened, we have five requesting access: one Celestia, alicorn; one Arcana, unicorn; one Fireshade, unicorn; one Twilight Sparkle, unicorn; and one Spike, dragon.”

“Checkpoint One, please confirm; did you say dragon?”

“Yes, dragon. He has the proper security clearances.”

A moment passed while Spike looked nervously to his friends. Thunder Hoof noticed Spike fidgeting and spoke, “Hey, don’t worry, they’re just checking the paperwork.”

The box began to speak again, “Checkpoint One, please have our guests line up for visual confirmation.”

The green earth pony stood up and, with a hoof, directed the group to a yellow line that was drawn on the floor the entire width of the hall. “Well, here we go. If everypony could please stand on that line, side-by-side and facing the door.” As soon as they were all satisfactorily in place, he pointed to another box above the door, larger than the one on the desk. “Now if you would all look towards the camera, please.”

Twilight was very confused by what was happening now. She had seen cameras before, but the thing hanging from the wall above the steel door didn’t look anything like any camera she had ever come across. It was nothing more than a rectangular metallic box with a piece of glass on the end pointed towards them. Twilight also noticed a colorful mess of spaghetti-like wires connected to the back of the box as it buzzed to life and began panning across the line of ponies and dragon.

When the box was pointing directly at Spike, it stopped. The purple dragon was beginning to sweat with anxiousness and swallowed hard enough that it was audible to the ponies next to him.

The yellow unicorn next to him giggled at his obvious worried demeanor. “It’s okay, Spike. It was like this the first couple times I went through the door, too.”

The camera continued its path along the rest of the line. When it was done, it quickly returned to its original position looking straight up the hallway.

“Alright, it looks like they got what they need. You can all relax now.” The earth pony sat back down at his desk to wait.

Twilight looked around at the others. “Now what?”

“Now we wait,” Arcana answered without turning his head to the lavender unicorn.

She decided to sit for the time being, it had been a much longer walk to get here than she had expected. Just as her rear touched the smooth black floor, Celestia moved into view directly in front of her.

“So what do you think so far, my student?”

Twilight thought for a moment before answering. “I don’t… I mean, that is to say, I’m a little overwhelmed, I think. I already have so many questions; I don’t know where to start.”

“That’s understandable, but just remember you are not expected to know or need to know everything immediately. It is a lot to take in at once, but you will need to keep an open mind to the things in this place.”

The unicorn glanced over to the desk where Fireshade was idly chatting with the doorkeeper. “What’s that talking box thing on the desk?”

“It is a communication device. It allows ponies to speak to each other across distances.”

“Why is it here? Something like that would change the entire world.”

“I don’t believe tha—”

The princess was interrupted by the device on the desk. “Gate Control, Checkpoint One.”

Thunder Hoof pressed the button once again. “Checkpoint One.”

“Security check complete. Door opening sequence proceeding, please move clear and stand-by until the blast door is fully open.”

The two guards immediately walked forward until they were just behind the desk.

“All clear, whenever you’re ready, Gate Control.”

A high-pitch mechanical hum filled the chamber as the sound of the many bolts that locked the door to the wall clacked off in quick succession. A thunderous boom echoed through the hall and Twilight quickly jumped up to her hooves as the floor began to vibrate under her.

The door and its hinges began to push out of the wall with the same mechanical hum. Twilight watched it closely as it slowly crept towards her. She was expecting it to begin swinging into the hall, but the seconds ticked by and the door continued its trek, attempting to escape the wall.

The unicorn began counting off the distance to herself as the metal monstrosity continued. One foot… two feet… three… four feet. Just how thick is this thing?

Finally, a miniscule gap appeared between the door and the wall; the door stopped moving and for a moment silence filled the corridor. Another mechanical whir, quieter this time, sounded as the door effortlessly swung towards the waiting ponies and showed its true girth. A manticore would not have been able to reach across the door from front to back.

“It’s huge.” Spike said to himself under his breath as the door slowly came to a stop.

“Yay! Let’s go!” Fireshade ran for the doorway. Stopping short of the threshold, she stopped and turned around. “Come on!” She turned back and continued into the doorway.

Twilight and Spike looked at each other, unsure of the situation that the young mage had gotten them both into.

“Shall we, Twilight?” asked the white alicorn.

“Uh, yeah…”

Celestia began walking towards the door, followed by Twilight Sparkle, Arcana, and Spike.

As soon as she made it through the door, Twilight realized why Fireshade had referred to it as ‘The Cave’. The institutional, sterile white walls and ceiling were now replaced by cold dark grey stone that arched high above from one edge of the floor to the other. This part of Section 5 was obviously excavated in the mountain without any concern for giving it a finished look. She looked up to the ceiling where a dozen large bright yellow pipes ran parallel with the tunnel, hugging the peak of the ceiling above the hanging lights.

The tunnel through the mountain curved out of sight ahead, where an extremely bright source of artificial light could be seen filtering to the portion of the excavation they were currently walking through. Their hoofsteps echoed hollowly through the empty corridor as they approached the corner.

Rounding the bend, a small building hugged to the side of the tunnel came into view. Being built on short stilts to keep it off of the damp ground, the off-white shack sat much like an insect. The light from further up the tunnel reflected off of the many large windows like a kaleidoscope. Fireshade waved to the guards inside and one particularly attractive guard smiled and waved back. Twilight kept walking without looking at the guards, following her Princess and mentor closely.

“Watch your step, Twilight,” the Princess said, continuing to look forward. She climbed three steps up to a metal platform that now covered the entire floor. The elevated walkway soon opened into the largest single room that Twilight had ever seen. The sprawling expanse was large enough that three or four of the massive factories of the Lower District of Canterlot would have fit comfortably within its walls.

Ponies hurriedly walked through the lab. Some pushed carts of equipment and others were levitating clipboards stopping every so often to scratch a note about whatever experiment they happened to stop at to check on.

“Here we are,” Arcana declared. “Shall we go up to the offices? We can get a good view of most of the facility from there.”

The stairs clanged with every step the ponies and dragon made. Twilight could feel the vibration of the others’ steps echoing through the cold metal into her hooves. This coupled with the occasional creak and groan of the staircase struggling to remain attached to the unfinished stone wall made for a very harrowing experience for the lavender unicorn.

As she looked up the stairs, past the ponies in front of her, the ceiling was barely visible. Large lights hung just above the level of the offices, and far beyond, the bare rock of the room’s roof was shrouded in darkness.

Clinging to the wall high above the main floor of Section 5, the offices were precariously set atop several large steel buttresses that jutted from the wall at a steep angle. There was no door, merely an opening welcoming them to a narrow hall. Rough damp cold grey stone on one side and seven wooden doors occupied the other. With every step, the entirety of the small building hanging on the wall shook slightly.

“I don’t really feel comfortable with this place,” Twilight said softly.

Fireshade turned around to the unicorn behind her. “Don’t worry; this thing’s been up here for ages. I don’t think it’ll fall down.”

“That doesn’t help at all, Fire. Thanks, though.”

The group made its way to the last door and walked into the empty office. There were no lights on, but it wasn’t necessary to have them on. The entire back wall of the room was covered in glass, allowing the room to be bathed in the soft glow of the lighting outside.

Twilight moved in very short, deliberate steps, pushing heavily into each one to test the soundness of the structure beneath her. She approached the glass in front of her and only one word escaped her breath. “Wow.”

The size of the facility was impressive when looking from the main floor, but from above, the entirety of it could be taken in in a single glance. Twilight began closely examining the scene before her. Save for the size, the layout was very similar to the main lab far above them, completely open with portable dividers separating experiments and research projects.

After the initial shock of the immensity wore off, she began to notice exactly what was on the floor below them. There were not nearly as many ponies or experiments as she had initially expected; instead, occupying the majority of the lab was nothing but empty floor space.

“Welcome to your new Section 5 office, Twilight,” Celestia said as she approached the unicorn from behind.

“My office?” Twilight gasped.

“Of course, you can’t expect to lead a research team without an office near the facility that’s doing the research.”

“I don’t know if I can lead anything right now,” the unicorn said while she continued to stare at the open expanse of Section 5 ahead of her.

Arcana stepped next to her. “And we don’t expect you to… yet. You will have plenty of opportunity to become comfortable with your new role here before we set you loose on your own projects.”

“What kind of projects are going on here now?” She couldn’t pull her gaze away from researchers, machines and equipment below.

“Let’s start with the basics and we’ll get to that.” The grey unicorn moved away from the window and cleared his throat. “Section 5 is separated into eight divisions: Four scientific research divisions; magical energy, magic spells, chemistry and medical. Three engineering research divisions; electrical, mechanical, and bio-chemical. Those seven divisions feed their results into the eighth, weapons research.”

“Weapons?” This word was enough to finally pull Twilight’s attention from the lab. She turned around quickly with her face slackened and her brow furrowed—eyes darting about to the two unicorns and alicorn standing before her. “Why—what for?”

“To protect Equestria and her citizens from enemy threats,” Arcana explained.

“What enemies? We haven’t been in a conflict with another nation for 300 years!” Twilight exclaimed.

“As you may know, our relationship with the Kingdom of Gryphos is shaky at best, and as you may not know, the United Races of D’Larame are constantly looking for opportunities to expand their territory and have recently gone as far as to test our borders with them for weak points. Although we are not in an official state of war, we do indeed have enemies. And yes, weaponry and destructive offensive magic research are part of what we do here, however, it is not the only part. Much of the military technology is adaptable to help the general population.”

“Like the communication devices you hide from the general population?”

The Princess interjected, “The communication device gives us a great tactical advantage, and until the nations that pose a threat to us are able to develop the same technology, the best course of action is to keep it secret. We are not at war, but I decided long ago that the best way to avoid a full military conflict is to adopt the concept of ‘peace through superior strength’. It was decided that if we build our standing defenses powerful enough, no nation would dare attack. So far it has worked quite well.”

“But how can you keep it a secret, then? If you’re hoping the technology here will stop a war from starting, our enemies wouldn’t have any incentive if they don’t know what we’re capable of,” Twilight argued.

“We leak information!” Fireshade shouted.

Arcana fired off a terrifying look at the yellow unicorn as she lowered her head and shrunk back in an attempt to make herself appear as small as possible. “Yes…” He turned back to Twilight and continued, “There are known spies in Equestria, and we feed them just enough information that our enemies know of our capability, but not enough to be of any real help to them.”

“This is insane,” Spike pointed out. “Twilight, we should just go back to Ponyville and forget about all this.”

“No. Twilight, please give it a chance. There are truly amazing things happening here, and you have the rare opportunity to be part of it,” Celestia pleaded.

“What kind of things could outweigh the fact that I would be helping create things with the sole purpose of killing?” Twilight’s vision was beginning to become blurred with the tears welling up in her eyes.

“How about a magical energy generator? Or perhaps a spell that has the capability to move large amounts of mass over incredible distances? Maybe medical research that has the potential to save the lives of millions would be more your speed? Because that is exactly what the majority of the research here aims to do. We are here to help ponies, not kill them. However, you would be naive to think that we live in anything other than a dangerous world where not all have quite as noble intentions.” Silence filled the room with the end of Arcana’s statement.

The seconds ticked by quietly while Twilight processed what her new instructor had said. She drew in a large breath and slowly breathed out. “Millions?”

“Yes, millions of ponies for generations to come will benefit from the studies here.”

“Okay.” She sniffled and wiped the moisture from her eye. “We’ll stay. For now.”

Celestia smiled widely as a great relief washed over her entire being. “Excellent. Now I believe there is going to be a demonstration of a new technology soon. Is that correct, Arcana?”

“Yes, milady. They will be commencing with the first full power run of the magical energy generator prototype.”

“Twilight, would you like to go observe the test?” the alicorn asked in a motherly tone.

The lavender unicorn’s glossy eyes widened and a smile grew across her face. “I think I would. It sounds fascinating.”

Twilight walked next to Fireshade down a tunnel towards the room where the test was to be conducted. “So what does this thing do?”

“It does exactly what its name is, silly.” Fireshade responded.

“Of course it does, but to what end?”

“Remember the energy storage devices I told you about before?”

“Yes.”

“Right now we have to charge them manually with unicorn magic about once a week, sometimes more often. It takes two skilled mages almost three hours to fully charge one, and it is absolutely exhausting. If this generator works the way it’s supposed to we won’t have to do that anymore. We will be able to run our magic-based experiments on the artificially generated magic.”

“That’s amazing, how does it work?”

“I don’t know.”

Twilight looked over to the yellow unicorn. “What?”

“What? It’s not my project. Heck, it’s not even part of my division and I certainly don’t have time to read through every research document that’s produced in this place. I bet Arcana knows, he knows about everything that goes on here.”

“Oh, okay.” The lavender unicorn quickly ran ahead to where Arcana and the Princess were walking. “Um, excuse me. I was wondering how the generator works.”

Arcana smiled ever so slightly. The new mage’s inquisitive nature impressed him, but he didn’t want her to know that. “Oh? Well, the concept is very simple. A magically imbued gem is placed into a chamber where it is exposed to an extreme pressure. As the stone contracts under the pressure, it releases a great amount of energy. We capture that energy and channel it to the storage devices. The concept is simple, but the application is actually extremely complex.”

“So it’s not really generating magic, just moving it.”

“Of course. There are certain physical laws that we cannot break, conservation of energy being one of them. By channeling the planet’s natural leylines, it takes about thirty minutes for a single unicorn to enchant a gem with enough energy to charge ten of our storage devices, but we have to have a way to pull the energy out of the gem.” He stopped walking and pulled open the metal door with his magic.

“That’s amazing,” Twilight whispered to herself as she walked through the door. As soon as she was into the testing room, her senses were under assault from all directions. A shrill alarm was sounding. A large control panel with a multitude of buttons, switches, and flashing red lights rested below a window across from the doorway, where three ponies were loudly arguing about something. Twilight looked up to the walls to see a line of four glass panels, but instead of being clear like windows, these were displaying amazing amounts of data on a black background.

She quickly moved to the panels. “What are these!?”

“Those are the result of one of our recent electrical engineering endeavors. They are data monitors. I told you we don’t only make weapons here.”

She closely inspected the data monitors. One was displaying line after line of dates, times, and seemingly random numbers, the second had a variety of pictorial representations of gauges and sensor read-outs, and on the third, a group of large, red words, flashing against the jet black background:

The last one in the line of monitors showed a dark picture of a bright blue gemstone set on a metallic pedestal.

While the lavender unicorn stood, entranced by the monitors, Arcana walked to the scientists at the control panel. “What seems to be the problem here?”

“We checked the containment field three times. It’s online and holding at nominal power output.” The lab coat wearing unicorn pointed over to his coworker next to him. “Mr. Optimism here thinks we should bypass the lock-out and proceed with the test. I completely disagree.”

“Buck you, Fleet,” said ‘Mr. Optimism’ as he turned to Arcana. “Sir, we’ve operated the generator time and time again, and haven’t had a single problem. The containment is holding; like Fleet said, we’ve inspected it three times now and there is nothing wrong with it. The safety lock-out is a sensor error, but it could take a week to find the problem. I say we run, Fleet says we don’t and Kimono doesn’t want to take sides.”

“Dammit, Starshine, we were only running it up to 60% capacity. This is a full power test we’re talking about here. We have no idea how it’s is going to react when we reach 100% of the theoretical capacity.”

The grey unicorn stepped to the control panel and quickly glanced over the gauges and multiple data monitors, the flashing red lights highlighting the features of his old face. His gaze paused at a spot on the panel where there was nothing but a metal cover for accessing the inner workings of the controls. Quickly, he raised a hoof and brought it down on the panel with enough force to leave a small dent. The ponies in the room jumped at the sound of the resulting bang.

The alarm stopped sounding and the red lights on the panel immediately extinguished as green lights began to glow one-by-one across the controls. The data monitor that Twilight was watching changed from its previous ominous warning to show a new message in white letters:

Starshine laughed at this turn of events. “Told you it was just a loose wire, Fleet.”

“Whatever, let’s just get started.” Fleet began flipping switches on the control panel. With each switch another small green light lit.

Arcana turned around. “Twilight, I think you’re going to want to see this.”

“Oh. Yes, of course.” She turned away from the monitors and walked towards the window.

On the far side of the window was a large, bronze-colored, metallic sphere, split into two halves by a tall, riveted ridge. On the front, a window similar to the portal on a ship offered a view of a faint blue glow. Dozens of tubes and wires hung from the sphere, snaking their way into the wall below the window of the control room.

“Get the checklist, Kimono,” Starshine ordered his subordinate.

“Yes sir.” Kimono picked up a clipboard with her magic and began making her way down the list. “Start system self-diagnostic.”

Fleet pressed several buttons in quick succession. “Check.”

“Inspect containment sphere for cracks and structural stresses.”

“Already did that one. Twice.”

“Confirm automatic safety override functional.”

Starshine pressed a yellow button on the control panel and all the green lights went out simultaneously and the red lights began flashing once again as the alarm sounded. As soon as he let up on the button, all the lights went back to green and the alarm went silent. “Check”

“Confirm containment field power.”

Starshine glanced at a gauge on the panel. “Field on, power holding at 34%.”

“Clear containment area of all personnel.”

“Check,” Fleet chimed as one of the monitors began flashing.

Fleet pressed a button and checked the monitor. “Self-diagnostic complete, all systems check good.”

“The checklist is complete, sir.”

“Good, I think we’re ready, then,” Starshine responded.

“Go ahead, Starshine, this is your baby,” Fleet said as he stepped away from the controls.

The unicorn smiled at his partner, then turned to the panel, pressing the button that initiated the start of the generator device. A loud low-pitched rumbling hum filled the room immediately; quickly lowering in volume as it gained in frequency. Several seconds passed and the noise stabilized into a quiet high-pitched whine.

Kimono was staring at one of the monitors on the control panel and began speak. “Generator has achieved stable output, 20% and holding. Containment field remains at 34% and holding.”

“Good. Now let’s see what this thing can do.” Starshine slowly turned a knob.

“Generator output 35% and climbing. Field power 38% and climbing.”

The unicorn at the controls stopped turning the knob.

“Generator output 53% and climbing. Field power 43% and climbing.”

Each second that passed by felt like an eternity for the lavender unicorn. Only a couple of weeks earlier she had been a librarian living in Ponyville and now was witnessing cutting-edge technology, the likes of which the world had never seen. To actully be there to see it happen first-hoof was difficult for her to believe, to say the least.

“Generator output 63% and holding. Field power 55% and holding.”

“Alright, here’s where we left off with the last test. Here goes nothing,” said Starshine as he reached for the knob and began to turn it once again.

“Generator output 74% and climbing. Field power 72% and climbing—fast.”

“What do you mean, ‘fast’?” Fleet asked as he pushed his way to the monitors on the wall.

“Generator output 83% and climbing. Field power 91% and climbing.”

“Something’s wrong, Star.”

“Yeah yeah, I got it.” Star Shine flipped a switch and began turning the control knob the opposite direction.

The dim glow that had been emanating from the portal on the sphere was now extremely bright and flickering violently. Twilight looked up to the monitors where Fleet was standing. The piece of glass that was originally showing a perfectly formed bright blue gem now showed a picture of a gem with a crack in its surface that appeared to be ablaze with magical energy. Blue fire whipped through the containment vessel as it began to vibrate.

“Generator output 94% and climbing. Field power 103% and climbing.”

“What!? That’s not right.” The unicorn at the controls quickly glanced across the gauges and sensor readouts. “Shitshitshitshit—” Star Shine swore under his breath as he began flipping switches and mashing buttons.

The alarm began its pulsing buzz again as several of the red lights on the board began flashing.

“The containment field is destabilizing,” Kimono said calmly with a lack of any emotion. “Generator output 98% and climbing. Field power 113% and fluctuating rapidly. It appears we’ve reached the limit of the containment field.”

“I can’t shut it down, I’m gonna use the kill switch.” The unicorn at the controls pressed on a large red button in the middle of the panel.

“Generator output 112% and holding. Field power 98% and falling.”

“The emergency kill isn’t responding, I got every imaginable failure starting to pop up on the monitor over here!” Fleet yelled over his shoulder.

“Generator output 113% and holding. Field power 83% and falling. The containment field isn’t going to hold much longer.”

“Dammit… Alright, everypony out! Now!”

Entranced by the lightshow escaping from the sphere’s portal, Twilight was frozen to the spot she was standing. She was too frightened to move, even if it was to save herself.

Everyone had gotten out of the room when Spike noticed that she wasn’t with them. “Twilight!” He turned to the door and started to run.

At the same time, Celestia’s horn began to glow as she attempted to construct a barrier spell in front of the petrified unicorn. Just before the barrier coalesced her concentration was broken by a blinding white light.

“. . . plosion . . . gem . . . her head.”

“What . . . mean . . . in . . . head?”

“. . . that. It . . . of course . . . permanent damage there . . . all.”

Twilight could hear the voices. They sounded distant, like someone was yelling to her from across Sweet Apple Acres. She couldn’t see the ponies that were talking, though. She tried to touch her face in an attempt to find the source of her vision problems, but her legs would not respond to the commands.

“Permanent damage!? What kind of damage are you talking about?”

Rainbow Dash. Twilight would have recognized the voice of her brash friend anywhere.

“Now settle down, Rainbow. He just said there's a chance of permanent damage. I’m sure the doctors are doing everything they can for her.”

Applejack. Why are my friends here? And did she say doctors?

“Miss Dash, I’m sorry, but we just don’t know. The brain is a very delicate thing and our understanding of how it works is vague. At this point we just have to wait and see what happens.”

Who was that? A doctor, maybe?

“Well, I’m just frustrated. They said she got hurt two weeks ago and we just heard about it two days ago. Two weeks, Applejack, and they told us she hasn’t so much as flinched in that time. I-I’m scared for her.”

Twilight attempted to speak, but her mouth barely moved and the only noise to escape her lips was a quiet raspy growl.

The three other ponies in the room immediately looked to the bed where the sound came from. Beneath the blanket lay a small unicorn. Bulky bandages covered most of her head, making it look as though the top of it had been replaced by a large marshmallow with a lavender horn. The unicorn’s jaw was slowly moving up and down as she continued to try to talk.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash bolted to her bedside, while the doctor ran out to the hall. “Nurse! Send a message to the castle. Inform Princess Celestia that Twilight Sparkle may be waking up.”

Her mouth and throat were drier than the Appleloosan Desert, making it exceedingly difficult to create the necessary vibrations in her vocal cords to speak. All she could manage was to move her mouth and make barely audible grunts and groans.

“Is she tryin’ to say something?” Applejack whispered.

“I don’t know, it just sounds like growling,” Rainbow Dash replied.

Twilight decided now would be a good time to try her eyes again. Her mouth stopped moving as her eyelids fluttered slightly and the two mares beside her bed leaned in closer to her face.

“Is she going to wake up?” the orange mare breathed.

“I don’t know! Why do you keep asking me stuff like that?”

The doctor came back into the room. A nurse followed behind him with a tray holding a large plastic cup and straw balanced on her back. She set the tray down on the small table at the foot of the bed and pushed her way past the blue pegasus. The doctor approached the other side of the bed. “Excuse me, Miss Apple, I need to check on her.”

“Oh, sorry ‘bout that.” Applejack moved away from the bed to make room for the doctor.

He approached the bed and leaned in close to Twilight. He carefully lifted one of her fluttering eyelids with a hoof and quickly shined a bright light in and out of her eye. “Her pupils are responding again, that’s a good sign.”

He moved his mouth just a few inches from her ear and spoke in a very soft tone. “Twilight? Can you hear me?”

Yes! I can hear you! she screamed in her mind, but the only thing that came forth from her mouth was another guttural moan.

“I would call that a response. I think she’s waking up. Be patient, ladies, this may take a while.” He turned to the nurse. “Would you please help me get her sat up?”

The nurse and doctor lifted the head of the bed, so that Twilight was sitting up most of the way.

A loud pop and a white flash announced the arrival of Celestia in the hallway outside of Twilight’s hospital room. She looked less like a living goddess and more like a tired, disheveled shell of her usual self. Her normally flowing mane hung limp to her side and the bags under her eyes were accentuated by the hospital lighting. She walked into Twilight’s room and everyone stopped what they were doing to bow.

“Stop that. Please, continue whatever it is you were doing. Has she awoken yet?”

Princess! You can help me. Twilight again tried to speak, making another growl.

“Not quite. I believe she is trying to speak, as you can hear,” answered the doctor.

She decided that perhaps opening her eyes would be easier. Putting every ounce of concentration into the simple task she tried as hard as she could to raise her eyelids. They fluttered once again and this time slowly opened. She had her eyes about half open when she snapped them shut, the utilitarian lights of the hospital nearly blinding her.

The doctor noticed this and quickly moved to turn the lights down. “Sorry, Twilight. If you can hear me, please try to open your eyes again.”

She did as she was asked, this time with a little more ease. Her vision was blurry at first, but the scene in front of her quickly came into focus. Celestia was standing at the foot of her bed, two of her best friends from Ponyville were standing to the side of her, and a doctor and nurse on the other side. Celestia and the girls were tearing up and everyone was smiling like Twilight had done something wonderful.

I woke up. It’s really not that big of a deal. Wait, can I move my legs yet? Her right foreleg twitched as she concentrated on moving it. She was only able to bring it up across her stomach before it fell. She let out a disappointed sounding moan. Buck this, I’m thirsty.

Putting all her force of will into speaking now, she attempted to communicate her desire for something to drink. “Waa… aaah.” She huffed and narrowed her eyes towards the cup at the end of her bed. “Waaaah…”

“I think she’s thirsty,” Rainbow Dash stated flatly.

“Oh, right.” The doctor smiled sheepishly and brought the cup over to the bedridden unicorn with his magic and directed the straw into her mouth.

Twilight began to suck on the straw. The cool water that cascaded over her tongue was easily the most refreshing thing she had ever experienced. It cooled her throat and moistened everything to the point that she felt like she might be able to talk again.

“WhaaaatammIdoinnnhere.” A look of shock filled the lavender unicorns face when she heard her run-together and terribly slurred speech.

Celestia came to the side of her bed and gave her a hug, with tears streaming down her face. “Oh, thank goodness you’re awake, Twilight. I thought we were going to lose you.”

“Whaat haappennnd?” the lavender unicorn asked barely above a whisper.

“There was an accident, dear.”

She tried to think back. The last thing she could remember was going through the massive doorway that led to Section 5.

The Princess looked to the other ponies in the room. “Would you all excuse us for a moment, I need to speak with Twilight in private.”

Rainbow Dash perked up at this request. “What!? But we didn’t even get to talk to—”

Applejack stuck a hoof into the pegasus’s mouth and began to guide her out the door. “Come on, sugarcube, there’ll be plenty time later for that. Heh, sorry Princess.”

As soon as everyone was out and the door shut, the alicorn looked back towards the lame pony laying on the bed. “Twilight, there was an accident at the Section 5 lab. Do you remember it?”

Twilight shook her head.

“Do you remember Section 5?”

She nodded. Then a terrifying thought crossed her mind and her eyes grew wide with terror. “Shpiike?”

“Spike is fine. He got bruised up a bit, but you took the brunt of the explosion. He’s at the castle right now.”

Relieved, the unicorn just stared at Celestia with tired eyes, waiting for the rest of the story.

“Yes, well… the lab personnel were testing a new technology—a magical energy generator. It was the first time they had done a full power test with it. Something went terribly wrong and there was an explosion. You.” A tear rolled down her cheek. “You were standing nearly in front of it when it happened. I am so sorry, Twilight, I tried to put a barrier in front of you, but I wasn’t fast enough.”

“Why cann’t I taalk riight?”

“I’m sorry, Twilight. The gem that powered the generator shattered. A piece of it was propelled into your head, it broke through your skull just above your right eye.” She wiped the tears off her face and continued. “The surgeons in the Section 5 medical wing removed the shard, and you stayed there for twelve days before you were moved here to Canterlot General.”

“Whaat went wrawng?”

“They are still investigating the accident. They are unsure at this point. Much of the equipment was destroyed, so it’s difficult to piece together what happened exactly.”

Twilight tried to move her front leg again. This time it came easier, she willed it to her forehead and touched her hoof to a spot just above her right eye. She touched soft bandages long before her hoof made it to where she knew her head should be.

“Would you like me to bring your friends back in?”

Twilight shook her head. “Tired.”

Celestia chuckled. “You know, you’ve been sleeping for two weeks.”

The injured unicorn nodded. “Tired.”

“A little later, perhaps, and I will send for Spike as well.”

“I would liiike that. Where arrre the resht of my frieeends?”

“I believe Rarity is in Manehatten, Pinkie Pie had to stay in Ponyville but sent a letter saying that she would be here in a couple of days and Fluttershy is on her way as we speak.”

Twilight gave a weak smile.

“Get better, Twilight. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come back to us.” With that Celestia made her way to the door and exited the room.

Twilight laid in the bed, completely still and staring at the ceiling, thinking back to what happened two weeks ago. It seemed like there were things she needed to remember, but they just wouldn’t come forward. Maybe I can check the research notes on the generator project later.

She closed her eyes in order to try to get some rest.

Weapons.

Her eyes snapped open to the voice in her mind. But what about weapons?

You know it’s not about the weapons; there’s so much more than that. All of it hidden away from the world.

The secrets! They’re hiding things from me—no, from everypony.

She’s lying to you, Twilight. She’s lying and you know it. Now you just have to do something about it.

IV: 105-612718

Year 8 of the 2nd Diarchy, 47th day of the Southward Equinox
Personal Journal, entry 4

I’ve been out of the hospital for a month now, I’m starting to think my fur is never going to grow back over the small circular scar on my forehead. My speech has returned almost completely back to normal and I’ve regained full use of my magic and limbs.

The voice is still with me and continues to intensify, though I haven’t told anypony about it yet; I’m not sure that I should. I’ve decided that it is nothing more than my subconscious mind, but sometimes the things it says… I don’t know, they worry me. I’m afraid that anypony that I were to tell about it would just write me off as ‘crazy’, and that would effectively end my career as Grand Magus before it starts. Not to mention the possibility of being placed in a mental care facility.

I spend much of my time at the Section 5 lab these days; training under Arcana and reading through the technical reports of current and past research. I didn’t realize that the position of Grand Magus would require so much bureaucratic paperwork, in addition to having to know everything about everything that happens in the R&D departments.

Last week I discovered an entire section of the lab’s library dedicated to abandoned research projects, the documents there are fascinating, to say the least. It is obvious that not all courses of investigation would net the desired results, but some of the technical documents and research notes that I’ve found indicated promising results. However, the research was stopped with very vague or no explanation as to the reasoning for such a decision.

Two days from now will be my first day as a research team leader. I’m so nervous, but Fireshade was transferred to the Magical Energy Division to help me out and will be on the team, so that will help.

“Spike, bring me the final report on compound GL-7658a,” Twilight said, not even looking up from the tome she was currently investigating.

Her assistant walked up one of the many rows of metal bookshelves that the Section 5 research library housed. Raising a claw to the shelf at eye-level he pointed to the spine of one of the many books of various size and color and began dragging his finger across multiple volumes. He stopped at a rather small publication and pulled it down from off the shelf. Bringing forth the thin technical document, it skidded across the table as he dropped it. “It’s late, Twi, we should go get some sleep.”

“You go ahead; I have to keep studying.”

“Can’t you do it tomorrow or maybe the next day?”

“With all the things Arcana has me doing for training to be the Grand Magus? No... this is the only time I get to do any of my own studies; after all of my other duties are taken care of.”

“What are you even looking into this stuff for? I mean, seriously, psychoactive pharmaceuticals?”

He can’t know yet.

Shut up, I’m doing this to try to get rid of you.

“Because it’s my job to know Section 5 and the Bureau inside and out.” She closed the book that was currently in front of her and pushed it away, while simultaneously pulling the new volume towards her with her magic.

“Alright. Well, I’m going to go to bed. Goodnight, Twilight.”

“Uh-huh,” was the only response as she pulled the cover of the book open and began flipping through the pages as though she knew exactly where to find the passage she searched for.

Spike slowly made his way to the door, looking over his shoulder at the unicorn. She was alone in the library that dwarfed their previous residence. It was much larger than the Ponyville Library, but lacked the charm of the treehouse they once called home. Completely alone and she didn’t seem to mind one bit.

“See ya later,” he mumbled as he walked through the doorway.

Twilight skipped to the middle of the document and began reading about the clinical trials of compound GL-7658a. As she quickly scanned the pages of the dusty book that had probably never been taken off its shelf since it was originally placed there, she read that the initial testing of the drug showed promising results as an antipsychotic. However, once trials on ponies began, something had gone wrong.

“What is with this report?” she asked to the empty room. Black blocks covered much of the pages, hiding the text behind them. She began flipping through to the back of the book, each page having no more than a sentence or two exposed to view. Once she reached the back cover, the narrow ragged edges of multiple missing pages ran the length of the binding.

Strange...

Aren’t you curious? Why is all that information missing? We should find out. We need to recreate this compound and test it.

What!? No. It’s too dangerous; they stopped this project for a reason.

Twilight stood up and walked back to the part of the library that housed the documents detailing the abandoned projects. She chose a booklet at random and pulled it down off the shelf using her magic and began flipping through the pages. The unicorn didn’t read this one, however, just glanced at the pages in the soft violet glow looking for the telltale signs of someone tampering with the details within.

Huh… This report appeared to be completely intact from cover to cover. Quickly closing the book and turning the front towards herself, she inspected the cover: Real Time Voice Communication Using Techno-Magic Based Compression of Data

This title was not surprising to be found amongst the abandoned research reports. Over the past month of studying she had learned that techno-magic was used with success in machine control and field manipulation, but using it for data storage and transfer had been problematic. Solutions using electronics were engineered for these problems over time, and now the ideas presented in this particular report were almost laughable.

Another book on the shelf glowed as the one she had finished with dropped to the floor. Twilight brought it in front of her face and began flipping through it; again, as with the last, this report seemed to be complete. The lavender unicorn continued this ritual of pulling a book down, quickly scanning it, then letting it fall to her hooves over and over again. Every investigation netted the same result as the previous.

See? They didn’t hide all of them behind black ink and torn pages.

Twilight quietly growled at the voice in her mind as she attempted to push it down and continued her search. Report after report, there were close to twenty books of varying thicknesses on the floor in front of her; she wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but was intent on finding it. The next book was different; she knew it before she even saw the tome due to the extra effort it took to lift it off the shelf.

Compared to the others, this book was massive. The leather of the cover wrapped the volume in a style of binding that had not been in common use for centuries. The spine was mostly gone, rotted away from decades of neglect, exposing the backs of the signatures and the coarse threads holding them together. She moved the book to look at the front cover; on it was nothing more than a number, hoof-written in a stylized script: 105-612718

Twilight hesitated to open the book, apprehensive of what may be inside of the old text. She pulled the cover to the title page; on it was a recognizable, albeit illegible, font:

Ancient Equin? What is this thing? ‘Old’ didn’t even begin to accurately describe the age of this particular volume. The language it was written in long ago would place it at being, at the very least, about 1100 years old. However it could be, very likely, much older.

Twilight closed the mysterious book and took it with her back to the table. As she walked, her mind swam with questions as to what this book was, why it was here and not in a museum or library vault somewhere, or what sort of secrets it held within its pages. She wouldn’t be able to read it immediately, but she could translate the tome as she went.

The feeling of apprehensiveness had disappeared to be replaced by an electrifying feeling of excitement of the possibilities of her new discovery. Twilight delicately placed the ancient book on the table, careful to not damage it any more than it already had been from the years of inattention. Very slowly, she pulled the book open to a point near the middle, the age-dried pages crackling with the movement. She barely caught a glimpse of the diagram of a unicorn’s skull with arrows indicating various points, before it, and all of the words written on the page, disappeared with a dim white flash.

“What?” Twilight leaned in so that her nose was nearly touching the page. Nothing. There was no trace of any ink ever being placed on the ancient paper. The unicorn knew what she had seen and could sense the unfamiliar magic emanating from the book, presumably masking the print from view.

There’s a reason these ones are different. She’s lying to us. She’s hiding things.

“No!” Twilight jumped a bit at her own outburst. She lowered her volume to a whisper now. “I’ll... I’ll ask the Princess about it.”

No… Check the cover.

She carefully turned back to the front page. On the inside of the cover someone had written a Royal Canterlot Archive catalog number.

There are other avenues to pursue before we go to the Princess.

I wonder if we could even recreate it, Twilight thought, her concentration instantly redirected to the other book of mysteries on the table in front of her. She pushed the older book away and brought forward the book she had been studying before her distraction.

Quickly flipping the pages to a point near the front of the book looking for a certain piece of information, she came to the section on the synthesis of the compound. Twilight fully expected it to be covered with the same black boxes, but it wasn’t. The full instructions of creating the chemical were present, with the exception of several key chemical precursors in the list of supplies. Well, it doesn’t seem too complicated.

“But we don’t know what sort of side-effects there may be. I have to ask Arcana about it.”

He will lie to us to protect the Princess’ secrets.

“We’ll just have to figure out what to do about that when we get to that point.”

Fireshade gave Twilight an exploratory poke in the side. The sleeping unicorn didn’t respond in the slightest. “Hey, Twilight... it’s time to get up, sleepy head,” she sang in a soft tone.

“Come on, Twi, you’re going to miss your first project meeting as the team lead.”

A few moments passed by with no response from the obviously exhausted unicorn. A menacing grin flashed across Fireshade’s face shortly before her horn began to glow and she created a large ball of brightly glowing flames near the ceiling. She allowed it to collapse into oblivion, the air around it quickly filling the void left behind. A resounding boom reverberated through the room, shaking the walls and lifting dust all around the two unicorns.

Twilight Sparkle jumped to her hooves with a breathy gasp. “What was that!?”

Fireshade was now rolling on the floor, laughing at the scene that had just transpired. “D-did you pee on the—” She paused to finish chuckling and collect herself. “—on the chair?” The yellow mare snorted as she attempted to hold back the laughter.

“Ha ha, and no, I did not pee on the chair.” Twilight quickly glanced over to the seat to make sure she was indeed telling the truth. “You almost gave me a heart attack, what’s going on?”

Fireshade looked up from the floor at Twilight with a confused look. “Seriously, Team Leader?”

Twilight looked around her in horror, finally realizing that she had been using a book as a pillow and had fallen asleep in the Section 5 library the night before. “What time is it?”

“Don’t worry; we got a good twenty minutes before we have to be there. Spike told me if you weren’t already at the meeting or at your apartment, you would probably be here. So I came to get you.” Fireshade finally stood up and walked to the table that Twilight had been sleeping at. “What were you reading last night that was so important you couldn’t go to bed?”

Twilight ran to the table, wide eyed. “Oh, uh. Noth—”

“Effects of High-Level Magical Energy Exposure on Earth Pony Reproduction,” Fireshade read out loud from the cover of the report she was now holding in her magic. “Heh… A little light reading for bedtime, eh?”

“Uhm, yeah.” The confused unicorn looked all over the top of the table, not locating either of the two books she desperately wanted to find. She didn’t recall putting them away the previous night, but they certainly were not where she remembered leaving them.

“Whatever; let’s get going, don’t wanna be late,” Fireshade stated as she set the spiral-bound report back on the table.

“Yeah… late,” Twilight replied distractedly.

The two unicorns made the short journey from the Section 5 library to the small conference room where two unicorns, a pegasus and a dragon were waiting. The door swung open and they all looked up to see Fireshade and the new project Team Leader enter the room.

Spike walked up to Twilight and presented her with a folder containing the details of her team and their new research project. Having memorized all the details of the contents over the past few days, she set the folder on the table in front of her.

“Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and I guess I’m going to be leading this endeavor.” The lavender unicorn smiled at her new team, but two of them seemed preoccupied with things and the tan unicorn stallion was simply staring at her.

“So, I suppose we’ll get to it, then... We’ve been tasked with the miniaturization of the magic energy storage device. We’re going to take this behemoth.” She paused to point with a hoof to the oven-sized metal box sitting against the wall. Twilight then, with her magic, picked up another metallic box no bigger than a large dictionary. “And put it into a package this size.”

“Really?” asked the pegasus of the group.

“Yes, really, uhmm...” Twilight stared at the pegasus and let the statement hang in the air, trying to silently push her for her name. Although she knew their names, she didn’t know which name belonged to which pony.

“Sapphire,” the dark blue pegasus mare stated dryly.

“And you would be our energy transfer specialist, correct?”

“That’s the rumor.”

“Okaaay... So that leaves us with Fleet,” the mention of his name finally broke him out of his gaze and he looked down towards the surface of the table, “and Glimmer. The two engineers that were responsible for the original storages devices,” Twilight said as she nodded towards the two unicorns sitting next to each other. “Any ideas on where we should start?”

The dusty-tan colored unicorn stallion, Fleet, spoke up, “I think we should start with the storage cells first. The current charge and discharge system can be modified as we go until the cells are ready, and then we can work on fitting the energy transfer systems into the package around the cells.”

“Good,” Twilight said as she jotted a few notes on a piece of paper. “Any other opinions?”

This time Sapphire took her turn to inject her thoughts on the matter. “I don’t think it’s necessary to put all that stuff in such a small box. The discharge regulators, yes, but the charging systems could be external and removable from the storage system. It would save a lot of space in the case that this all has to fit in.”

Twilight began writing more notes as she spoke, “Excellent Sapphire, that is a great idea.”

The lavender unicorn was beginning to feel slightly out of her element. She was a scientist, not an engineer. Building new things was not something she felt came naturally to her; experimentation and observation had always been her forté.

“Well, if there isn’t anything else, I suppose we can move to our work area and get started with the storage cells. I have a few things to take care of, and then I’ll join you in a little while.”

The three ponies around the table stood up almost simultaneously and began to file out the door to find the newly partitioned work area in the main lab. Fleet was the last in the line and stopped where Twilight, Fireshade and Spike were standing.

“Uh, Mage Sparkle?”

“Twilight is fine, Fleet. What can I do for you?”

“Well, I uh...” The unicorn scratched the back of his head with a hoof, looking down to the floor. “I-I just wanted to let you know that I’m really sorry about what happened at the generator test. We apparently weren’t ready, and, well, you payed the price for our negligence.”

Twilight hadn’t realized that this was one of the stallions mentioned in the preliminary accident report. All of the names had been removed from the distributed copies and she couldn’t remember the accident herself. “You don’t need to apologize. From what I gathered in the report there was some sort of flaw in the gem caused by the enchantment process. It was a fluke.” She smiled at the obviously distressed unicorn. “Just a matter of ‘wrong place at the wrong time’ and that’s the fault of no pony but fate.”

“Maybe, but I am still sorry about what happened. Even if it wasn’t my fault.” As he made his way out the door, he glanced back, eyeing the scar on Twilight’s forehead.

Once Fleet had left, Twilight turned to Fireshade. “Could you go with them and keep the group on task?”

“Yep!” responded the yellow unicorn.

“And Spike, if you would please go as well, and help with whatever they need, that would be great. I have to speak with Arcana about a few things.”

“No problem, Twi.”

They left the conference room together; Spike and Fireshade walking across the lab to the work area and Twilight making her way along the stone wall towards the rickety stairs leading up to the offices. She walked carefully up the metal, still no more trusting of their construction than she had been the first time she visited Section 5. When she reached the crest of the steps, the unicorn made a left to the first door and knocked.

The hollow thud of her hoof wrapping against the door echoed in the hallway. No response. She knocked one more time, and again, nothing. Must be in his other office.

Twilight was not excited by the prospect of making the long journey back up to the main lab of the Bureau. She sighed heavily and walked back down the stairs and up the tunnel to the exit. Waving at the guards in the shack to signal her intent to leave, she continued on as the sound of the door ahead echoed through the cool, damp tunnel.

By the time she arrived at the door, it was nearly at the end of its arcing path. The unicorn only had to wait for a few seconds for the slab of metal to come to a stop before she proceeded through.

"Hey, Twilight, checking out?” asked Thunder Hoof.

“Yeah, I’ll be back though. Just gotta go see Arcana,” Twilight said, smiling to the earth pony.

“Sounds good.” He pulled open his log book and wrote down the time next to Twilight’s name.

Fifteen minutes of walking through the corridor with the only the sound of her hooves against the floor for company. Fifteen minutes alone with her thoughts. Thoughts of her friends back in Ponyville. Thoughts of the things that were to be expected of her being the Grand Magus. Thoughts of—

The books.

What about the books? I don’t even know where they went.

Of course you know. We put them there, after all.

Her cryptic subconscious voice went quiet again. Twilight walked in silence waiting for the answer, but none came. What did come, however, was a low rumbling noise from the pit of her stomach. “Oh my, I guess I haven’t had breakfast.”

As the unicorn exited the door into the main lab, she decided then that she would walk right past the stairs to Arcana’s office and continue to her apartment to get some food. It was, after all, a shorter walk at this point than returning to the cafeteria in Section 5.

Another ten minutes of meandering through the halls of the castle brought Twilight to her room. As she walked through the door, a strong sense of panic overtook her mind. The mage’s eyes darted around the room, in a failed attempt to figure out what was wrong. Nothing seemed immediately out of place. What is wrong with me?

She walked slowly into the room, overly cautious due to the sudden onslaught of paranoia and feeling of presentiment. Twilight started walking around her suite looking for anything out of place. She started at the kitchen, poking her head in through the doorway and giving it a quick look, before continuing her search. The lavender unicorn quickly trotted across the main room towards her bedroom and flung the door open with her magic.

She stopped dead. Mouth agape and eyes wide, Twilight very slowly took several steps into the room, assessing the scene before her. Before her, upon her bed, lay a pile of books. Books that most certainly should not have been there; in the middle of the collection rested the ancient lexicon from the night before. “Wha—I don’t understand.”

Of course you understand, you are the one who put them here.

“But they can’t be here.”

But they are...

“This is insane, we could be arrested for having these outside of Section 5! How did they get here anyways? I don’t remember bringing them here and there’s no way to teleport in or out of the lab.”

There’s ways around a barrier.

“Oh no... oh no no no... I’m going to be executed for treason if we don’t get them back to the lab without anyone noticing,” Twilight said to herself while trying to formulate a plan in her mind. “Wait, I only had two last night.”

She walked to the bed to investigate the books. She took the first in her magic and flipped it open; black blocks littered nearly every page. The next book on the bed glowed in a violet aura and began rapidly flittering through the pages as Twilight watched closely. Again, the text was censored from view by the heavy black ink. There’s more of them.

Twilight stopped for a moment. She closed her eyes and began breathing deeply, she needed to maintain a clear head if she was going to get through this. Her eyes opened slowly and the lavender unicorn picked up two of the books to read the covers. She then glanced down at the covers of several more on the bed. The subjects included everything from studies on biological toxins to the development of experimental artillery ammunition.

“I need to find Arcana... after we hide these things.”

Don’t forget the number.

The unicorn went to the bed and flipped open the cover of the largest book there. Reading the number over several times, she quickly memorized it and returned the tattered cover to its original position. “Now where are we going to put these?”

The dungeons.

They haven’t been used for over a century and nopony ever goes there. That’s a great place, but how are we going to get all of these there without anyone noticing, though?

Matter transference.

“I’ve never been there... I'd be teleporting blind, and we can’t risk shooting these books into a wall.”

But you have been there. Just try.

Twilight closed her eyes and her horn began to glow as she dug deep into her memories. A scene began to come together in her mind’s eye. A dark musty corridor of dark orange bricks. Two unicorns... very young unicorns, in their early teens maybe. A door of iron with a small rectangular opening at eye level.

Her eyes shot open as soon as she realized one of those unicorns from the past was her. Twilight concentrated hard on the setting of the long-forgotten memory. She wasn’t exactly sure where it was, but it was obviously the Canterlot dungeon. A soft lavender glow covered the books on her bed and her horn lit up brightly with magical energy. In a flash the books were gone, hopefully making it to their intended destination.

A grey unicorn sat at the large oak desk reading over funding and equipment request forms, quickly denying or approving each with only a moment of thought. Without looking up from his work, Arcana loudly said, “Come in.”

He continued to read request forms, writing a single word and then signing each before moving on to the next. He looked up at the door. “I said ‘come in’, Twilight.”

The heavy door slowly swung open and the soon-to-be Grand Magus entered the office and closed the door behind her. “How did you know it was me?”

Arcana smiled for the first time that Twilight had ever seen. “Has anypony ever told you that you have a very strong and rather unique magical aura about you?”

Twilight thought for a moment before answering. “Well, I guess Princess Celestia has mentioned something about that before... but that still doesn’t explain how you knew it was me.”

“It’s part of my special talent. I can sense magic energy, very faint energy, that most unicorns don’t even realize is there. I can differentiate between the magic that unicorns innately put off to the point that I can identify the pony by their aura.”

“That’s amazing... Is it something that I could learn to do?”

“Possibly, I’ve never met a unicorn before that could do it, but I believe if anypony could, it would be you. I also noticed you left the lab earlier, where were you heading?”

Her mind froze solid; did he know what she had done? “I-I... uh, missed breakfast, so I went to my quarters to get something to eat.” A pain in her stomach presented itself now that she remember that she had forgotten to do what she had originally intended on doing at her suite.

“Spent the night in the library, eh?”

“Yeah, I fell asleep studying. How did you know that?”

“I was once young and eager to learn, as well. I’ve spent my share of nights in libraries or hunched over a workbench in a lab. Anyways, you’re here for a reason...”

“Oh, yes. I was, uh, wondering... Well, it's just that I came across a couple of reports last night in the abandoned research section of the library.” Arcana slightly raised an eyebrow at this statement. “And, well they were... uhm, censored, I guess. A lot of the text was blocked out and there were missing pages.”

The Head Mage sighed deeply and took a moment to formulate a response for this query. The friendly smile disappeared and his voice lost its tone of comradery. “Twilight, much of the research that we conduct here ends in failure. Some of those failures are spectacular... to the point that we abandon the project altogether. And a hoofful of those failures are so dangerous, to the very core principles, that the decision is made that even the information that led us to those failures is a threat to the nation as a whole. Then, the information is destroyed with only enough left to remind us that we had traveled that path once before.”

He’s lying to us.

Stop it, I don’t need your help.

“That doesn’t make any sense though. The report I was reading last night had to do with pharmecuticals—an antipsychotic medication—I mean, there was nothing left of the report of any use. If you wanted to ensure that the same mistakes are not made again, then why would you hide the information? Somepony could try to attempt the same thing again, not knowing that it had already been done before.”

“That is not something that I can accurately speak about, not without knowing the exact circumstances of the experiment you’re referring to.”

He knows exactly what you’re speaking of.

“I said, ‘I don’t need your help!’” Twilight yelled. She froze for a moment, mouth open slightly and her eyes open as wide as they could be.

“Excuse me?” Arcana looked just as stunned as the mare across from him.

“Ohmygosh—I-I’m so sorry. I... I’ll just go now.” Before Arcana had a chance to respond, she turned around and opened the door with her magic as she ran out to the hall and went as quickly as she could away from the labs.

“I can’t believe you, Twilight. You need to get a handle on yourself.” The lavender unicorn was walking at a brisk pace across the square of the Upper District while mumbling to herself under her breath. “It’s just you. It’s your subconscious talking to you.”

It was the first time Twilight had left the castle since her trip home from the hospital. There really was never any reason to leave the castle, everything she needed was there. Now, though, there was an objective that could not be obtained within the castle. The Royal Canterlot Library lay on the opposite side of the district from the castle, and that was the only place she would find the information she was searching for.

Within minutes she arrived at the huge off-white marble building with several statues of some of the greatest scholars that Equestria has ever known set around the front stairs, including Starswirl and Clover the Clever. Large stone pillars lined the front of the building holding up the roof ahead of the front wall. Twilight walked up the stairs and through the front door. She looked around, it was exactly as she remembered. Row upon row of bookshelves, housing millions of books; easily the most extensive collection in Equestria, possibly the world. She made her way towards the back of the library to the reference desk.

An elderly yellow pegasus mare looked up from her work as Twilight approached the desk. “May I help you, darling?”

“Yes, I’m looking for a particular book.”

The librarian waited expectantly.

“Oh, right.” Twilight slightly smiled. “Well, I don’t have the title... uh, but I do have a catalog number.”

The mare on the other side of the desk retrieved a quill and a piece of scrap paper. “Go ahead.”

“0000146.34”

As soon as she had finished writing, the librarian looked up at Twilight. “Huh... an old one. I’ll be right back.” She turned around and slowly made her way to a doorway behind the desk.

Several minutes passed and the mare returned as promised. “We don’t have that particular volume here.”

“Oh?” said Twilight, feigning surprise. “Would you happen to know where one might find it?”

“Yes, but you won’t be able to get it.”

Twilight’s brow furrowed. “Why not?”

“Because our records show that book residing at the castle in Archive Vault Four. It’s a restricted access archive, no pony is allowed in.”

“Oh... Well, thanks anyways!” Twilight left the yellow mare at the reference desk and exited the library.

“Now I gotta go all the way back to the castle... should’ve just stayed there in the first place.”

The Royal Archive was located in a rarely visited wing of the castle that once housed the entirety of the Royal Library. It took some time for her to get to the archives, giving her plenty of time to think about what she had done, what she was doing and what the voice in her mind seemed to be doing to her.

She knew exactly where to find Vault Four. Six metal doors in one of the walls of the archive were being guarded by two unicorn stallions. As Twilight approached they moved to intercept her well before she was able to get to the vaults.

They’re not going to allow us into the vault.

“Can we help you?” asked the guard on the right.

“I need access to Vault Four.”

There’s only two. They wouldn’t last a minute against us.

No! What are you thinking, Twilight?

“Vault Four is restricted access, we can’t allow you to pass.”

Told you so.

“What do you mean, you can’t allow me to pass!?” Twilight was seething, her normally easy-going demeanor gone in an instant at the prospect of not obtaining the answers she so desperately needed.

“I mean just what I said, ma’am,” the white unicorn stallion of the Royal Guard replied.

Twilight growled. In a low, threatening voice she began, “Do you have any idea who I am? I’m—”

The guard cut her off before she could tell him exactly who she was. “Yes, we are aware of who you are, Court Mage Sparkle.” He glanced over to his partner before continuing. “However, we cannot allow you though this door.”

“Well, why in Tartarus not?” she asked forcefully.

The guard smirked before answering. “By order of her Royal Majesty, Princess Celestia of Equestria, this room is to remain sealed, unless the Princess herself opens it. Besides, we couldn’t open the door if we wanted to. It has a sealing spell on it so powerful that Princess Celestia even has a hard time opening it.”

“The information I need is in that room, and I’m going to get it. I’m going to see the Princess and she is going to let me in,” Twilight stated matter-of-factly. “I’ll be back.”

“Good luck,” said the guard as Twilight stomped towards the throne room.

V: GL-7658a

An earthpony noble stood before the throne of Celestia, was he a duke maybe? Perhaps a marquess. She truly had no interest in his rambling, or who he was, and had forgotten the name nearly as soon as he had spoken it.

He was quite busy with detailing the miniscule ‘problems’ facing the upper classes of his province, while the Princess stared at him, nodding every so often and pretending to be interested. The nobility, quite often, seemed to be concerned with nothing more than their own well-being, and they never ceased to amaze her with the obliviousness they held towards their own child-like behavior.

“But I need to speak to her now,” Twilight pleaded with one of the guards. They both stood outside the ornately decorated doors which belonged to the room where Celestia was currently holding Court.

“I’m sorry, Mage Sparkle, but she is with someone at the moment and I can’t just let you in without a scheduled audience.”

“But...” The mage tried to put the best pleading look on her face that she could muster, with big glistening eyes and a slightly quivering lower lip. “But it’s very important that I speak to her now.”

The grey unicorn sighed deeply. “Fine... wait here.” He opened the door to the throne room as quietly as possible and entered, closing the door behind him.

A smug smile crossed her lips as she waited for the guard’s return.

Celestia took notice of the unicorn of the Royal Solar Guard walking up the center of the room.

Oh, thank goodness, she thought to herself, as the noblepony continued complaining about every minor thing that he mistakenly thought deserved royal intervention.

The guard stopped short of the pony that was speaking. He lowered his head as a show of respect and humility for intruding on the Princess’s appointment. “Excuse me, Your Highness, I’m sorry for interrupting.”

The Princess smiled, thankful for a respite from the inane monologue of the noble. “Yes, what is it, Phalanx?”

“Mage Sparkle is requesting an immediate audience, milady. She, uh... she says it is urgent.”

“Oh?” Celestia’s eyes lit up at the prospect of being rid of the noble. “I am very sorry... my loyal subject, but your time has come to a close. Thank you for bringing these concerns to our attention.”

“But, Your Majesty, I have not finished. I still have ten minutes left of my allotted time with you,” the pony before her responded in disbelief.

The eyes of the Sun Goddess narrowed as she spoke down to her subject, “I am well aware of how much time you were given. However, I believe I have heard enough of what you have to say. The Royal Scribe has taken notes of your concerns and you have my word that they will be forwarded to the appropriate ponies to be looked into. Now, if you will excuse me, I must see my student now.”

“But—”

The guard behind him took a step closer.

“I could escort you out, if you are having trouble finding your way, milord,” Phalanx suggested in a not-so-courteous manner.

Two pegasus guards that had been standing at either side of the room began to move to back up their comrade, until the Princess waved them off and they returned to their positions.

The noblepony quickly turned to look at the grey colored guard. “I—but...” He then looked back to the Princess. “I... I suppose I will be going, then. Thank you for taking the time to hear me, my Princess.” He bowed low to the floor before turning and making his way back towards the main doors with Phalanx following close behind him.

The large gilded doors that Twilight had been waiting near finally moved, allowing a very disgruntled earthpony to exit the throne room. The noble stopped in front of the mage, and looked her up and down through the narrowed slits of his eyelids. With a puff of air expelled from between pursed lips, he raised his head up high and began to walk away, with his chin leading him towards the exit of the castle.

Twilight watched as he walked away, and then looked at the guard that had walked out behind him. “What was that all about?”

Phalanx smiled. “He’s just upset that his hour long complaint session was cut short a bit. Anyways, Princess Celestia will see you now.”

“Thank you.” She walked through the doorway and up the red carpet to the foot of the dais that Celestia’s throne sat upon. At her arrival, she bowed quickly and looked up to the alicorn. “Thank you for seeing me so promptly, Princess.”

“No, I should be the one thanking you, Twilight Sparkle. I was beginning to think that that pony would never stop complaining about such trivial matters. Now, what did you come to see me for that is so very urgent?”

“I have come to request access to Archive Vault Four.”

The serene smile disappeared from the alicorn’s face. Standing up, she looked to the scribe. “Leave us.” The small, green unicorn scrambled for one of the side entrances to the throne room, and Celestia then turned her gaze on the pegasi standing at their post halfway between her and the main door. “Guards, please step outside. No pony is to enter this room, until I say otherwise.”

Without a word, both guards left the room. As soon as the door shut, leaving the student and teacher alone, Celestia looked down to Twilight through narrowed eyes and spoke, “Why would you require access to that particular vault?”

“I believe there is information related to some of the research studies of Section 5 in that vault,” replied Twilight.

Celestia closed her eyes and sighed, her smile now returning. Upon opening her eyes again, she calmly spoke to her student, “No, I can assure you that there nothing of the sort in that vault. All of the information on Section 5 is kept in Section 5 until it is declassified.”

“What about the censored documents? Where are the uncensored copies kept? Arcana told me they were destroyed, but I just can’t believe that you would allow knowledge to be destroyed like that.”

“Arcana is correct,” the Princess answered curtly, as though there was nothing else to be said on the matter.

“You can’t be serious!” Twilight couldn’t comprehend what she was hearing from her mentor of so many years. She thought the Princess valued learning and knowledge above all else, and now to hear this from her mouth...

She’s lying to us.

She’s lying to me.

Now what?

“I... I just—” Twilight paused and looked to the floor to collect her thoughts.

Celestia took note of Twilight’s distress, and made her way down to her student. She stopped when she was positioned directly in front of the lavender unicorn. The alicorn slowly kneeled, bringing herself to eye-level with her student. “I know it is hard to understand, my student, but there are some things that should not and cannot be allowed to exist. These documents that you speak of hold some of the most dangerous and deadly information to ever be brought into this world of ours. If the information within them was ever placed into the hooves of somepony with ill intentions, the consequences could mean the end of everything we know.”

Twilight raised her head, looked into Celestia’s eyes, and whispered, “No.”

Recoiling slightly, she answered back with a question, “What? What do you mean ‘no’?”

With a voice still barely above a whisper, the unicorn replied, “I mean, no. This isn’t right. Why would you destroy the work of all those scientists and engineers; they pour their lives into this work and most of it never sees the light of day as it is. They barely even get a thank you for the things they do, and then, when they’re specifically tasked with creating something amazing, their creations are destroyed through no fault of their own. How many researchers has Section 5 lost because they were so discouraged by something like this?” Twilight, with tears beginning to well up in her eyes, stopped, indicating that she expected an answer to her query.

“More than I care to count... It is not because of them that we destroy their work. It is because the work was flawed to the point of being dangerous to the well-being of the world as a whole.”

Twilight was thoroughly unsatisfied with the answer that had been provided.

What about the book?

That’s not something to be brought up right now.

“I-I... I understand, Princess. But if the documents aren’t kept in the vault, what is?”

“It is an archive of ancient books, kept as a reference for my sister and I, if ever the need for it may arise. The books stored in that vault are dangerous, and the knowledge within them has been banned in Equestria for centuries.”

“I see... so you don’t trust me?” Twilight asked, as a single tear trickled down her cheek.

“No, of course not. I trust you fully. It is just that nopony is allowed access to those resources. You are very special to me, Twilight, and I would not want your purity tainted by the horrible things within that vault.” Celestia then embraced her student in a hug, rubbing her back softly. “I don’t know what I would do if I were to lose you to such an evil.”

Twilight sniffled a bit, and then pulled out of the hug, looking up to Celestia. “I understand. Thank you, Princess. I should really get back to the lab now; I left my team to their own devices this morning. They’re probably wondering where I got to.”

“Very well, Twilight. Be careful with those experiments.” Celestia smiled to the unicorn and quietly chuckled.

“I will. Goodbye.” Twilight turned and walked back towards the main door.

At least we now know what’s in the vault.

I know what’s in the vault. You only know what I know.

Of course... We can only know what we know, whether you remember or not.

Year 8 of the 2nd Diarchy, 73rd day of the Southward Equinox
Personal Journal, entry 5

I’ve been neglecting my journal recently, especially considering the recent events that have been happening.

My research/engineering team tested the first working prototype of the miniature magic energy storage cells several days ago. The results were more than promising; in a few short weeks we’ve been able to reduce the size of the cells by nearly 60%, while only reducing their capacity by 17%. They’re not small enough yet, but as fast as the progress has been, it shouldn’t take much longer.

The secrets of Archive Vault Four continue to elude me. There is something else there that Celestia doesn’t want me to have that she is not telling me about. I now understand how I was able to remove the books from Section 5, but the sealing spell on the vault is much more powerful. I’ve been probing it with magic detection spells every time I get a chance. It seems to be very similar in nature to the spell protecting the Elements of Harmony.

My studies of the spell protecting the vault have been less than successful at determining a way to defeat it covertly. It would be possible for me to dismantle the barrier completely, however, Celestia would sense the energy void and I would be caught almost immediately.

I have to find a way around it... I need help. Maybe I’ll approach Fireshade; she is my only friend here.

Amazingly, the books from Section 5 made it to the castle dungeon intact. With the nature of my current experiments, I’ve begun putting together a makeshift lab in the dungeon, near where the books materialized out of the teleport. Difficult is an understatement when speaking of gathering the equipment and resources necessary without being noticed, but with the exception of some of the larger pieces, I have everything I need.

About the books: Celestia and Arcana were right. The censored research documents are dangerous. With the exception of compound GL-7658a, every one of them appears to be research on weapons or things that could be easily adapted as such. I am beginning to think that perhaps, the research was never abandoned. It was likely moved to a facility under direct military control.

Also, I was able to translate the title page of 105-612718:

The title alone entices me. Volume 105! And there’s possibly more volumes than that. It’s more data on the Goddess Emperors of Equestria than I thought had ever existed. I would doubt that anypony alive now, besides the Princesses and myself, is even aware of the existence of such information. However, the book is protected by a type of magic that I am completely unfamiliar with. I believe the key to unlocking its secrets lies within the vault. Why is she so desperately hiding it? There’s more to this than what appears on the surface.

I was able to use my influence as the future Grand Magus to convince two of the biochemists at Section 5 to attempt the replication of GL-7658a. I gave them instructions that I had transcribed from the report, and I tried to determine the missing chemical precursors to the best of my ability. I am now in possession of several vials of a thick bluish liquid, but I’m quite scared to try it. It could save me from the voice in my head, or it could possibly kill me. I have to try, though; experimenting on a live test subject other than myself is out of the question at this point.

This journal entry is getting long. I’m rambling. Three weeks is a long time; I’ll try to make entries more often.

Twilight hummed happily to herself, as she readied an experiment in the clandestine lab that she had set up in the dungeon. The thought of finally being rid of the subconscious voice that had been plaguing her for two months now, excited her to no end.

Have you completely lost your mind?

Not yet. That’s exactly what I’m trying to avoid.

This isn’t the way to go about it... you’re going to hurt us. This compound is dangerous at best.

Twilight eyed the nearly full test tube of highly viscous blue liquid, still apprehensive of what it may or may not do to her. However, she was determined to try, regardless of the possible outcome. The voice was becoming too much for her, the thought of the ideas it presented coming from her own subconscious terrified her. The unicorn lifted the vial with her magic and brought it close to her face, closely inspecting it for what seemed to be the hundredth time.

I have to try.

No! We don’t know what it will do to us. It’s far too dangerous to try an untested drug on us. Are you willing to risk killing yourself, only to be rid of the ability to hear your subconscious? You know how few ponies have had this ability. This isn’t a curse, it’s a gift.

Yes. You have to go... The things you say, the things you suggest—I have to stop you.

You can’t stop your own thoughts without stopping yourself altogether. I am you, as much as you are me. We are one and the same... We. Are. Twilight Sparkle.

“You are NOT me!” yelled Twilight to the empty and long forgotten dungeon that now housed her private lab. She had the day off from her normal duties tomorrow, and if she didn’t attempt the experiment on herself now, it would be hard to say for sure when her next opportunity would arise. By that time, it could be too late for her. She continued to speak to herself in a whisper, “I am me... I know I am.”

And I am just as much you as you believe yourself to be...

With that, Twilight tilted her head back, and overturned the small glass container, pouring half of its contents into her mouth. She set the tube back into its wooden holder on the workbench. The elixir tasted vile, like rancid milk mixed with stomach bile. The lavender unicorn did everything in her power to not vomit immediately. With her abdominal muscles violently protesting against the liquid in her mouth, she tried her hardest to force the putrid blue filth down her throat.

Spit it out, please spit it out! You’re going to get us killed.

No! I don’t want you!

The outburst of concern from her subconscious voice was enough to steel her resolve. She swallowed hard, trying to put the potential consequences of her actions out of her mind.

Twilight closed her eyes tightly, waiting for the effects of the chemical she had just swallowed. Several minutes passed and nothing happened. She slowly opened one eye halfway, having expected something to happen right away. “Well, I guess it wasn’t poisonous, at... least?”

As the last word left her mouth, the brick walls of the dungeon began to spin slowly around her. Twilight instantly began to panic; this was not something that she could have prepared for if she had wanted to. She took three steps across the small brightly lit room, towards her medical supply cabinet, before tumbling to the cold floor. She was surprised at how comforting the cool stone felt on her cheek that was now pressed against the floor.

Without moving her head, the mare turned her eyes as far to the left as she could, and stared, with her eyes open as wide as possible, at one of the uncovered lightbulbs hanging by a wire from the ceiling. It appeared to be creeping closer to her, getting slightly larger with every passing second. Soon, the bulb filled her vision completely, before being suddenly snatched away and placed back at its original location, hanging from the brick-lined ceiling. Her eyelids began to feel heavy, and she decided it may be a good idea to go to sleep.

Get up.

Twilight’s eyes shot open again.

Get up now! We need to get to the supply cabinet.

She turned her head towards the lights above, her body following the movement and rolling her to the opposite side. Twilight smiled weakly as her left cheek touched the floor and was cooled in the same manner as the right had been. “I can’t get up. I don’t think the chemical was supposed to do this.”

Why don’t you listen... GET. UP. NOW.

Twilight’s vision swam with thousands of tiny multicolored spots as the room continued its journey circling around the spot in which she lie. Closing her eyes and taking deep, fast, labored breaths, she prepared herself for the nearly impossible journey to the medical supplies. What am I even going to do if I get there? I don’t know what’s happening to me.

Don’t worry about that now, we have to fix this.

With her eyes still closed, Twilight slowly stood up. By this time, her entire body was shaking forcefully and listing dangerously from side-to-side. She opened her eyes, and found that she was already directed towards her objective.

The cabinet didn’t look the same as she remembered it. Instead of the plain, white, stationary, rectangular cabinet that was supposed to be there, a strange abomination stood in its place. The color of the cabinet was smoothly cycling through various shades of grey. Light, then dark, and back to white, over and over, all while the supply cabinet shifted and writhed, not seeming to be able to stay in one place.

It took every ounce of will and effort for Twilight to take the first shaky step. The time encompassing that single movement felt like an eternity, but had only taken a matter of seconds. The floor felt as though it was moving underneath her, but when she looked down, it was just as solid as it had ever been.

Twilight lifted a back leg to take the next step in her quest for the medical supplies. As soon as her hoof left the floor, she began to tilt towards the missing hoofhold. Quickly extending the leg, her hoof once again made contact with the floor, landing in an awkward position far from her other hoof, but saving her from falling once again. She stopped for a moment to rest and collect her thoughts.

We don’t have time for this.

The sensation that this self-experiment caused was fascinating, albeit terrifying, for her. In addition to every sense being severely distorted in one way or another, she was in a state of hyper-awareness. The mage could see, hear, and feel every infinitesimal detail of her warped surroundings. The colors of the dungeon were bright and oversaturated, not to mention that most of them were the incorrect colors entirely. The sound of nonsensical static was nearly deafening in this place that was deathly silent but a few minutes ago. She could feel every hair on her body and every miniscule vibration in the floor. Then, there was the paranoia that began to creep in.

I can’t do it. I’m going to die. I’m going to die alone here and no one will find me for months.

You are not going to kill us. Walk. Walk now. Every second you waste is a second that we can’t use to try to fix this.

Right... Walk Twilight. The mare dragged her misplaced hoof across the floor, this time successfully moving it forward enough that she could move the next leg in the walking sequence.

Breathing was becoming increasingly difficult, which did nothing to calm her worries of dying in this desolate place. She was taking fast, short breaths, and was on the verge of hyperventilating. Her heart felt like it had slowed to the point that it was nearly stopped, thumping hard in her chest with a lethargic, irregular rhythm.

Twilight began walking as fast as she could without losing her balance completely and falling again. All it took was five more steps to place her directly in front of the cabinet. Now that she was closer, the storage locker stopped doing the strange things that it had been and acted like the normal supply cabinet that she remembered. What am I doing?

Open the cabinet, Twilight.

What’s going on? What’s in the cabinet?

Open it.

She reached out with a trembling hoof and missed the door completely. Not making contact with the cabinet where she thought she would caused her to lurch forward and go tumbling to the floor, crashing head-first into the corner of the supply cabinet on her way down. The floor still seemed to be the most welcoming place for her.

The room was no longer spinning, but felt like it was rocking like a bassinet. Comforting, slowly rocking back and forth. I’ll just sleep now... I wonder if I’ll wake up?

You're dying, Twilight. Get up, we don’t have time for you to sleep.

Dying?

A distant vague memory of drinking the experimental substance pushed its way forward in her mind, and every bit of the panic that had been there, returned with vengeance. Her eyes snapped open again and she noticed a warm wetness on her face, just below the point where her head had made contact with the supply cabinet.

I’m dying... Oh no. This isn’t right, I can’t die. I don’t want to die.

Tears began to well up in her eyes with the sudden realization of what she had done to herself.

If you don’t want to die, you have to listen. Open the cabinet.

Twilight quickly got back up on her hooves, only to fall over on her side again. She rolled so that she was laying upright; then pushed herself up to a sitting position with her front hooves. Her head was slowly bobbing around as she fought hard to maintain consciousness. Thinking to her last attempt at opening the door, she decided that using her magic might be a better idea. The unicorn’s horn began to glow and the door on the cabinet flew open with such force that it was nearly torn off its hinges.

“Oops.” Twilight giggled slightly at the apparent mistake, and inspected the shelves. Several large metal cases were housed inside of the cabinet.

The case on the top shelf has a small brown bottle with a blue stripe on it. Drink that.

The shelf appeared to be a mile away, and Twilight now wondered how she was going to get the box down off the shelf. She reached up to it and was able to touch it, even though it looked so very far. Her hoof caught the side of the case and she pulled it off the shelf. The metallic case crashed to the floor, but did not open. The terror-stricken unicorn fumbled with the latch for a moment before it finally gave way and the lid popped open.

She leaned in close to the first-aid box to look over the contents and quickly found the bottle. Picking the small bottle up with her magic, she broke the lid off and let it drop. Then, Twilight quickly consumed the contents. The disgustingly bitter taste of the yellowish liquid permeated every corner of her mouth.

Now what?

In the box on the third shelf down is a syringe labeled as ‘epinephrine’. You need to inject it into an artery or vein.

How am I going to do that? I can hardly move.

You’re going to do it, because you don’t want to die. Remember?

“I don’t want to die,” Twilight said aloud, speaking the words in an attempt to reaffirm the thought. As instructed, she pulled the case off the shelf, and opened it as fast as she could in her current inebriated state. There were easily a dozen pre-filled syringes, and several more empty ones accompanied by tiny vials of various medications. Using her magic to pull out the one that she was pretty sure said epinephrine on the label, she pulled the cap off and readied the syringe.

She floated the needle near her upper thigh and prepared to jab it into her leg.

Stop! You have to inject it intravenously or it won’t work.

Twilight huffed and lied down on the floor with her forelegs in front of her face, and brought the syringe in front of her. Slowly, she pushed the needle into her leg where she suspected it may hit the target, and then pulled back slightly on the plunger. Nothing.

Tears began to run down her face, mixing with the blood from the gash in her head. “I can’t do this... I have a hard enough time with this sort of thing when I’m not—not... not whatever I am now.”

Do it or we are dead.

Taking a deep breath, Twilight tried again. The needle cut effortlessly through the skin of her leg in nearly the same place as the last time. However, now, when she pulled back on the plunger, a cloud of crimson climbed its way into the barrel of the syringe. “Got it!” She quickly pushed the plunger down as far as it would go.

The effect was immediate; the unicorn’s eyes opened wide as her pupils shrunk down to tiny black dots. Her heart began racing, and she could suddenly breathe without putting a conscious effort into it. Twilight jumped to her hooves and noticed the room had stopped moving. She then proceeded to throw up on the floor and fall over.

I’m not still going to die, am I? was the last thought to pass through her mind before she blacked out.

VI: Vaulted Chaos

Fireshade was just about to sit down to her evening meal, when a knock at the door announced the arrival of a guest at her apartment. The mare groaned, and stood just above her chair, waiting, hoping that whoever it was would go away. The knock came again, louder this time.

“Yeah, I’m coming!” she shouted at the door as she began to walk across her living quarters.

She approached the door, swinging it open with the soft orange glow of her magic. Standing in the hall, nervously fidgeting with his tail in his hands, was Spike. “Hey Fireshade, you haven’t seen Twilight, have you?”

“Uh... not since last night when I left the labs,” she answered with a smile. Her smile faltered after a moment when she noticed the concerned look on the dragon’s face. “What’s wrong, Spike?”

“I haven't seen her since yesterday, and I ran into Fleet earlier today, and he said that she left before he did last night, and everypony that I talked to today hasn't seen her since yesterday, either..." The dragon paused from his frantic rambling to take a breath, then continued, "So apparently, nopony knows where she is.”

“Oh... Well, just calm down and hold on. Let me put my dinner away and I’ll come help you find her," she said in a cheery tone, hoping that it might help placate Spike slightly. "Come on in.”

She turned away from the door and Spike entered, closing the door behind him. The first thing to strike him about Fireshade’s home was the size. It was dwarfed by the multi-room apartment that he shared with Twilight. This place was little more than a kitchen, dining room, bedroom, and living room all crammed together in a single space.

Fireshade busily picked up a plate, off of the dining table, that looked as though the food on it hadn’t been touched since it was placed there.

Spike spoke up when he noticed, “Hey, I can go by myself. I’m sorry I interrupted your—”

“Nonsense. She’s my friend too, and I want to help. I bet she went back to the lab after Fleet left.”

“Yeah, maybe... but I checked there, and it’s supposed to be her day off.”

The yellow mare smiled. “Maybe so, but when does that ever stop Twilight from working? Anyways, you could have easily missed her, it's a big castle. While you were wandering around, she may have been coming or going, too.”

“Heh—I suppose you’re right.”

After finishing up with putting her dinner away for later, Fireshade turned and started walking towards the door. “Let’s go. We’ll check the lab again first.”

The smell was the first thing Twilight was aware of; it reeked of vomit and sweat. She opened her eyes to find herself lying in a nearly dried pool of her own regurgitated stomach contents. Her head was pounding as she slowly made her way back to her hooves.

The unicorn came to a standing position in front of the medical cabinet and began to examine her surroundings. A small puddle of blood intermingled with the vomit on the floor—she lifted a hoof to the source of her headache and felt the sting of a severe contusion on her forehead. The contents of the cabinet were strewn on the floor around her; bandages, two empty metal containers, various syringes, bottles and ointment tubes.

And one used syringe... Twilight leaned down to look closer at the empty plastic tube, the blood rushing to her head, making the pain almost unbearable. She rolled the syringe over with her front hoof and saw the label.

Epinephrine...

The memories of the events leading up to her unconscious state flooded into her mind. The way everything had been moving, the colors, the sounds, and the near-paralyzing fear of death. She quickly ran to the workbench and attempted to take her journal in her magic. Her horn glowed for a split second before a searing pain made its way from the front of her skull, all the way down the length of her spine. Twilight moved a few steps to the left, pulled the journal down by hoof, and grabbed a quill in her mouth.

Year 8 of the 2nd Diarchy, Day ?? of the Southward Equinox
Personal Journal, entry 6

I’m not sure what day this is. I don’t know how long I was unconscious. According to the clock, it’s about 7 o’clock in the evening, but that’s really not important right now. I need to get this on paper as fast as I can. The memories of last night's experience are already fading quickly.

My subconscious voice tried to stop me. My subconscious voice saved my life. Our life. It knew what would happen, but I didn’t listen. I was so intent on being rid of it, that I was willing to risk anything to make that happen. My inner voice told me that the ability to hear it is a blessing, not a curse. I’m now beginning to believe that to be true.

I haven’t heard it since I woke up, so maybe the chemical compound I subjected myself to actually worked. I hope now, that that is not the case. Although, I have only been awake for several minutes and can’t be sure. If it was successful at stopping the voice, it would most likely require continued, smaller and more carefully administered, doses to maintain the effect. If I discontinue giving myself the compound, I believe the voice will likely return.

I suppose I’ll just have to wait and see. After this experience, I kind of hope it does come back.

After administering the chemical orally, it took several minutes to take effect, but once it did, the hallucinations and disorientation I experienced came on very fast and very intense. My inner-voice is the only thing that saved me. Without the open line of communication between myself and my subconscious, I believe that I would have been, consciously, unaware of what was happening to me, and likely would have died here in the Canterlot Dungeon as a result of my carelessness.

Everything hurts. Every muscle aches, there is internal pain in my sides—likely minor damage done to my kidneys as they cleared the toxin from my body. My magic doesn’t seem to be functioning properly. The slightest magical exertion is extremely painful, and I certainly hope that my ability to use magic is not permanently affected.

I need to get back to my quarters to clean off. I smell awful and the fur on my left side, from my midsection to my face, is matted with vomit and blood. I don’t know how I’m going to get back without drawing any attention. I may have to wait until later when there will be fewer ponies wandering about the castle.

I’m truly lucky to have survived. I made a mistake. I went against my subconscious. No, I went against myself, and it nearly cost me my life. Perhaps it was right, I need to listen to it.

Considering what I’ve found about the rest of the censored journals, I now believe that research concerning GL-7658a was likely not discontinued. This drug may be more useful in a militaristic capacity, beyond what it was originally designed for. Further testing will be necessary, but not on myself. I will require a test subject.

Twilight set the quill down on the benchtop and looked to the clock: 7:21 pm. She would have to wait at least five hours before she tried to get back to her apartment, unless, by some miracle, her magic would become usable and she could teleport before then.

Maybe I could go sooner if I make three or four shorter jumps.

Observing the mess she had made of her small lab, she decided to work through the pain and start cleaning up while she waited. She was able to place several filled syringes back to their place in one of the white metal boxes before she succumbed to the stabbing pain in her side and gave up on tidying the space.

Twilight walked to a nearby cell where she kept her contraband books and had a small cot set up. She settled herself on the makeshift bed, placed her head on her forelegs, and closed her eyes to rest while she waited to leave.

“I just don’t get it... where could she have gotten to?” Fireshade asked rhetorically.

“We’ve looked everywhere that I can think of in the castle... Should we make a report to the Royal Guard?” asked Spike, his voice wavering with worry for his friend.

“Nah, it’s almost eleven, I bet she’s back by now. We’ll head back to your place and see if she showed up while we were gone. If she’s not there by the time we get there, we’ll go report her missing.”

Spike and Fireshade walked back to the castle suite; with the dragon leading at a brisk pace, anxious to locate Twilight. They approached the door leading into the residence of the Grand Magus-in-training. Spike threw the door open and entered, nearly at a full run.

“Twilight!?” the dragon called out.

There was no response. Fireshade slowly walked into the main room of the apartment, glancing around while Spike began running from room to room, searching the entire place for any signs that the lavender unicorn had been there during his absence.

Watching the floor in front of his feet, Spike came out of his own room last and sighed. “It doesn’t look like anypony’s been here since I left…” He looked at the unicorn, who had been waiting for him to finish his search. “I’m worried about her, Fire.”

“I’m sure she’s fine. Let’s go to the guard house and see if they know anything.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. I’m sure they’ll be able to find her,” the dragon replied, his voice saturated with uncertainty.

Just as Spike reached for the handle of the front door, a loud pop sounded off, accompanied by a flash of light. Him and Fireshade both spun around to see what had teleported into the room. Fireshade stopped and stared with her jaw hanging towards the floor.

“Twilight!” exclaimed Spike as he began to run towards the unicorn. He made it three steps before noticing what Fireshade had already seen. The dragon also stopped and stared, wide eyed, at what he saw before him.

Twilight stared back, unsure of what to do, her face covered with dried blood and a look of absolute shock. For nearly a minute, the trio stood looking, unblinking, at each other in silence.

Fireshade attempted to break the stalemate. “Twi, what the fu—”

The yellow unicorn quickly closed her eyes, as she was cut off by another pop and bright flash. When her eyes opened again, Twilight was gone and the sound of a door slamming shut echoed through the apartment.

“Where’d she go!?” Fireshade yelled out.

Spike continued to stare at the place where his friend had been standing only a moment ago. “She’s hurt… What happened?” he whispered to himself.

“Damn it. Come on, Spike, I think she’s in the bathroom.”

Fireshade approached the bathroom door, with Spike following closely behind. She reached up with a hoof to knock on the door, but stopped short. Something could be heard through the door: sobbing. Twilight was by herself, crying in the washroom.

“Twilight?” asked Fireshade in a soft tone.

“G-Go away,” Twilight’s voice said from the bathroom, muffled by the door.

“Hey, we’re just worried about you. What happened?”

“Nothing! Just go away.”

Spike stepped beside Fireshade and spoke at the door. “Twilight, you looked like you were hurt… Did—did somepony hurt you?”

“No… I-I hurt myself. You weren’t supposed to see me… please, just leave me alone.”

Fireshade can help us.

You’re back! Twilight smiled slightly as tears continued to trickle down her face.

You can’t be rid of your subconscious without ending yourself.

“I want to talk to Fireshade… alone,” the lavender unicorn said through the door.

“But Twilight, I want to know what’s going on!” Spike protested.

"Uh… mare stuff. I’m opening the door, and I want Fireshade to come in.”

Fireshade looked to Spike and motioned her head, signaling for him to back away from the door. The dragon held his hands out to his sides and shook his head, with a pleading look in his eyes. The unicorn glared at him and motioned again for him to go. This time he relented, throwing his hands up and walking away.

She turned back to the door. “Alright, Twilight, I’m ready.”

The door slowly opened, but Fireshade didn’t immediately see anypony as she walked through the entry. As soon as the yellow unicorn was clear of the door, it slammed loudly behind her, causing her to jump slightly. She turned around to see Twilight, leaned up against the door, in as just a horrifying condition as when Fireshade had seen her several minutes prior.

“Oh, Twilight… what happened to you?” the yellow mare breathed.

“I—uh… I had an accident. But it’s okay! I’m okay...” The disheveled unicorn glanced towards the floor. “I... I think I’m okay.” She looked back up to Fireshade and continued speaking, “I need to ask you something, though.”

“First, you tell me what happened. Then, you can ask me whatever you want.”

Twilight hesitated to answer. She knew that if Fireshade was going to help, the assistant head mage would need to know everything, but it was a huge risk to allow anypony knowledge of the things she had discovered. If her friend, that was entrusted with the information, were to go to Arcana with it, Twilight’s life would be over. Thoughts of executions and trials for high treason danced through her head before she made her decision.

“I’ve discovered things that could change Equestria forever, possibly the world. Princess Celestia is hiding knowledge that could possibly undermine the entire foundation of her rule. I found a book that I believe details the secrets of how the Royal Pony Sisters came about and how they are able to harness such vast power. If I’m right, they may be no more goddesses than you or I.”

Fireshade’s eyes grew wide as she listened. “Woah. Stop right there. You do realize what you just told me could get you killed if certain groups found out you’re talking like this. Have you lost your mind? This is heretical, not to mention no pony would ever believe you.”

“Hear me out. Have you ever wondered about the censored documents in the abandoned research section of the Section 5 library?”

“I guess, but Arcana told me that they’re dangerous and not to worry about it. So I don’t worry about it.”

“Of course they’re dangerous. Every one of them deals with weapons research, and I don’t think Section 5 is the only clandestine research operation in the Equestrian Government.”

Fireshade arched an eyebrow and now seemed much more interested in what Twilight had to say. “I… I guess I never really looked at them that closely. But that still doesn’t explain all this!” she said while waving a hoof up and down at Twilight.

“Oh, right. I tested a chemical compound from one of the censored research papers on myself.” Twilight looked to the side. “It, uh… It didn’t go quite as planned. I think the dosage was too high.”

The yellow unicorn began to slowly shake her head side-to-side, as she loudly voiced her concern, “You did what? Didn’t you just tell me that all that research has to do with weaponry? It could’ve been a neurotoxin or some sort of chemical weap—” Fireshade’s lecture was cut-off by a purple hoof pressed firmly against her mouth.

“Shhh—he might hear.” Twilight nodded towards the door, indicating that Spike should not be allowed to hear what they were saying. “It’s not like that, I read the document. Well, as much of it as I could. It was supposed to be an antipsychotic drug, but apparently it was better suited for some other use. I think they may be using it as an interrogation drug, or maybe as a way to control ponies.”

“Okay, but what about this thing about the Princesses? That’s pretty far-fetched...” Fireshade paused to glance around, like she was expecting someone to be listening. “Not to mention dangerous.”

“I know it’s dangerous, but you understand just as well as I do the disparate nature of what we do versus the technological capabilities of everything outside of this place. Celestia is impeding the progress of the entire world... i-it... it’s...” Twilight’s speech trailed off as she realized what she was saying. To go against the Princess in this manner was more than heretical or treasonous; it was personally betraying to her mentor. Betraying to a friendship that she has held longer than any other. Betraying to herself and her own firmly held beliefs.

It’s true. It’s all true.

Of course it’s true... that doesn’t make it easy, though.

Sometimes difficult decisions and personal sacrifices must be made to serve the greater good.

Serve the greater good... I’m doing this for everypony. Nopony else will do it, so I have to, or it will never change.

Now tell her what we think. She will help, she just needs a small push in the right direction.

“It’s almost tyrannical,” whispered the distraught unicorn.

Fireshade shifted uncomfortably on her hooves. “Well... if she is suppressing the general population for her own gain, I guess it would be. But why would she do that? The ponies love her. Besides, there’s a civilian government, too. The only time she directly involves herself with the governance of Equestria is when it’s absolutely necessary.”

“We don’t even know when the civilian government was established, or under what circumstances. For all we know, it’s nothing more than a puppet government there to placate the general population.” Twilight spoke forcefully now, trying to convince Fireshade that something was very wrong with the way things were.

She continued to attempt chiseling away at everything the pyromancer had been taught her entire life. “Think about how long her and Luna have been in power. A couple thousand years? Give or take a few centuries. How did they come to be in that position? They certainly don’t teach that in history class. For that matter, how did they come to be?”

“Probably the same way Princess Cadence came to be... that’s no big mystery,” Fireshade said flatly.

“No, an alicorn being born is no mystery, but Cadence isn’t the same as them. She can’t move celestial bodies, and as far as I can tell, she ages just like any other pony.”

Fireshade had no real answer for this, and replied with the base knowledge that had been bestowed upon her since she was a foal. “But... they’re goddesses,” she mumbled, looking down to the floor.

It’s working. Keep going, she will help us.

“Would a goddess keep you locked away because she’s afraid of you?” Twilight asked in a soothing voice.

Tears began to form in the corners of the yellow unicorn’s eyes while Twilight silently waited for a response. Several minutes passed, as Fireshade stared towards her hooves and cried without making a sound.

Suddenly, she looked up towards Twilight, and through heavy sobs began speaking very fast. “Th-they took me. They took me from everything I knew and they kept me away from everypony. They haven’t allowed me to leave the castle grounds since I was brought here, and they wouldn’t let me leave the school the entire time I was there...” Fireshade sniffed hard, and continued, slower and quieter now, “What kind of benevolent goddess does that to a pony?”

She’s ours now.

“Truthfully, after learning what you’ve been put through, I’m surprised that she didn’t decide to deal with me in the same manner,” Twilight said, trying to console the crying mare in front of her. “Maybe she already knew, all that time ago, that I was destined to be the Element of Magic... Regardless, she’s hiding things from everypony, Fireshade, and I think I’ve found the key to unlocking the secrets that she’s keeping.” The lavender mare took a step closer. “But I need your help to retrieve that key.”

“What can I do? I’m just good at burning things,” Fireshade said while tracing a circle on the floor with a hoof.

“We need to get into one of the archive vaults.”

“Well, you should be able to that easy enough, you are only one of the most powerful unicorns ever.”

“Vault Four.”

“Oh... that one.” Fireshade looked finally looked away from the floor, towards Twilight and furrowed her brow. “I-I don’t think I would be able to help with that. I mean, I might be able to pull the guards away for a minute, but I wouldn’t have a clue about how to break the barrier.”

“Breaking the barrier isn’t the problem... we need to get through without breaking it,” Twilight corrected.

“Yeah, definitely can’t help with that.”

“That’s okay, I still need your help with other... things.”

A moment passed while the two mares looked at each other in silence.

“I want to see it...” Fireshade whispered.

“See what?”

“The book you mentioned... and the place where you did this to yourself,” the yellow mare once again gestured a hoof up and down Twilight as she spoke.

“I’ll show you everything... tomorrow. It’s late, and I still need to get clea—”

A loud knocking at the door interrupted the conversation, and a voice could be heard calling from the other side. “Hey! What’s going on in there?”

Twilight turned her head toward the door and shouted, “Hold on, Spike. Fireshade is coming out now.” Turning back to Fireshade, the lavender unicorn spoke in a hushed tone, “Not a word to Spike. He can’t know about this, yet... Not until I can be sure of how he’ll react.”

Fireshade nodded in response, and walked around Twilight to open the door and leave the bathroom.

As soon as she was out of the room, Spike quickly advanced on her. “Well, what happened?”

“She just had a bit of an accident and cut her head. Everything's fine, though. She’s just going to get cleaned up and go to bed.”

“You two sure were in there a long time for everything being fine.”

Fireshade thought fast about what she could say to stop Spike’s line of questioning. “It’s—uh... it’s mare stuff. Just like she said before... you wouldn’t understand.”

“Well, where was she all this time, though?” the dragon demanded.

The unicorn slowly rolled her eyes. “Oh, you know... she was at the labs, she went to eat, she, uh... fell down some stairs?”

Spike squinted and looked at Fireshade with suspicion. “Uh-huh... Well, I’m going to sleep. Are you staying?”

“Yeah, I’ll probably stay until Twilight gets to bed.”

“Whatever... Goodnight.” Spike turned and walked towards his room.

Fireshade sat at the large table in the middle of the room to wait for Twilight to finish tidying herself. She began to tap out a beat with her hooves on the tabletop, and then crossed her forelegs and laid her head down. It was late, and searching the castle for her friend had been exhausting. Then, there was the mental exhaustion from being informed that many things that she once knew to be true, with no uncertainty, were nothing more than intricate lies.

It wasn’t long before Fireshade’s eyelids grew heavy and closed, sending her into a deep slumber.

The statues and topiaries of the Royal Gardens were bathed in dim, soft moonlight. The gardens were eerily quiet at this hour. Everything was still, with the exception of a lone pony-shaped figure moving quickly along one of the gravel paths towards a small group of statues.

As the pony approached the stone effigy of a particular grotesque creature, she heard a voice in her head as clear as though the creature speaking was standing next to her.

“Well well well... if it isn’t my favorite Element of Harmony, Twilight Sparkle... or is it Mage Sparkle, now? Wait, you haven’t been promoted to Grand Magus yet, have you? …Meh— whatever, it really makes no difference. To what do I owe this pleasure?”

“Cut it, Discord. This isn’t a social visit,” the unicorn retorted, using a very basic telepathy spell.

“Oh? Well, that is rather disappointing. You know, Celestia visits once in awhile, but I’m pretty sure she’s just checking up on me to make sure I’m not being naughty.”

“Well, she would have good reason to check up on you,” Twilight deadpanned.

“Not just me, though,” said Discord through a small chuckle. “What exactly are you doing out here in the dead of night, my dear, Miss Sparkle?”

“I-I need help,” the unicorn whispered through her mind.

“Help? The great Twilight Sparkle, hero of Equestria and the most powerful unicorn on the face of the planet, needs help? And from me, no less? Now, what in the world could you possibly need my help for?” he asked tauntingly.

“I need to know how you stole the Elements.”

His voice suddenly became very serious. “Oh? Well now, we are treading on dangerous ground, aren’t we?”

“Save me the patronization, I know what I’m doing,” Twilight stated equally as serious.

“Do you? What would you possibly want with the Elements of Harmony? They’re nothing more than worthless stones without all the wielders.”

"I don’t want them. I need access to an archive vault that uses the same type of barrier.”

“Oh, Vault Four... I should have known that! You always did have an insatiable thirst for knowledge.” Discord was now laughing at full force.

“So can you help me or not?”

The laughter stopped as fast as it had started. “Well, I suppose that depends on you. What do I get out of it? Other than the joy of knowing that I helped out one of my very favorite ponies.”

Twilight hesitated before answering.

Go on, we need his help.

“I’ll... I-I’ll free you,” she choked the words out.

“Oh, really? You don’t sound so sure of that.”

“Doesn’t matter, I need what’s in that safe, and you’re the only one that I know of that can get past that type of barrier.”

“Well, I’ll tell you right now, defeating that barrier is not something that I can teach you bu—”

“What do you mean you can’t teach me!? Stop messing with me, Discord!” Twilight yelled through the telepathic link.

“Now, settle down... This isn’t just knocking down a foal’s personal protective barrier. This barrier was built by Celestia herself. Now, if you would allow me to finish. I can’t teach you how, but I can open it for you, and you can pull out whatever you like with a teleportation spell.”

“But I won’t be able to see what I’m reaching for.”

“Well, yes... that is part of what makes it interesting for me! What would be the fun in letting you just grab whatever you want? And you’ll only have a few seconds to do it, so you had better act fast! Ready?” The statue began to put off a dim white glow. “Go!”

“Wait, wha—” the unicorn stammered out loud. As soon as Twilight realized what was happening, she quickly closed her eyes and concentrated on the inside of the vault as best she could. She was just about to attempt to start teleporting books out of the vault, when she was interrupted.

Stop. Don’t panic. You need to have some idea of what you’re teleporting before you do it.

Her horn glowed violet as she probed the vault with telekinesis. With the distance between her and the vault it was difficult to get a good feel for what was within. The vault felt like there was nothing but rows of books within, but which ones would be most useful? She made the decision to target what seemed to be a set of tomes towards the back of vault. The glow of her horn dissipated for a brief moment, and then shone brightly once again, as she discontinued the telekinesis spell and began casting the matter transference spell to retrieve the books. Within a split second a pile of nearly a dozen books flashed into existence between her and Discord’s stone prison. She began to cast another teleportation spell, but was interrupted before she could complete it. Three broken pieces of smoldering books appeared, and quickly dissolved into the air as a result of the incomplete transfer.

“What did you that for, Discord!? I could have gotten more if I had been ready.” If Twilight had been using her voice she would have been screaming loud enough to rival the Royal Canterlot Voice.

Discord’s laughter again echoed through Twilight’s mind. “Now, Twilight, you shouldn’t complain. I got you what you were after... mostly. Now, about your end of our arrangement.”

“How do I free you? Do I just break the stone encasing you?”

"Oh, no no no... nothing that simple. I’m not encased in stone; I am the stone.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Oh? In that case...” A nearby statue of two ponies dancing began to glow in a violet aura and lifted off of its pedestal.

“What are you doing, Twilight?” sang Discord.

“You can’t be trusted to not tell the Princess what happened here,” Twilight stated, as the statue began quickly accelerating towards the draconequus. “I’m ending this.”

Just before the flying statue made contact with Discord, it shattered into an innumerable amount of small pieces of stone. As the shards of the statue fell to the ground, the glimmering golden aura of a powerful barrier spell sparkled around the creature’s prison.

“Oh-ho-ho! My goodness, Mage Sparkle! I knew that you weren’t about to let me out, but attempting to kill me and actually murdering ponies to do it? All to protect your silly little secret. This is above and beyond any of my expectations... Bravo, Twilight Sparkle, brav-o.”

Twilight's brow furrowed and her eyes narrowed, as she thought about what was just said. “I didn’t murder anypony. What are you talking about?”

“Take a look around, kiddo. Out of all these ‘lawn ornaments’, do you really think that mine is the only prison?” he asked in a manner dripping with condescendence.

Twilight’s eyes opened wide and her jaw dropped open as she processed the information that had just been unceremoniously bestowed unto her.

No... no, that can’t be true.

Of course it’s not true.

I couldn’t have killed anypony... Right?

We did what needed to be done. We failed, but we had to try. Now we need to find another way to keep him quiet.

“And the only crime of the two that you just shattered to a million pieces? They were born to the previous royal family at the wrong time... the two that you just killed, were the successors to the throne—that is, until a certain pair of sisters decided they could do better.”

“You’re lying!” Twilight yelled out loud.

Discord gasped. “Oh, dear, Twilight, you had better watch that temper of yours... wouldn’t want to be found out here with all these books.”

The draconequus paused, carefully pondering how to word his next statement. He laughed again in the same sickening manner that he had when he escaped and was toying with Twilight and her friends seven years ago. “Now then, Miss Mage. What would I gain by lying to you about such things? Besides, if I recall correctly, I’m pretty sure that you are the one who lied to me just now in order to get what you wanted.”

Don’t listen to him. He’s just toying with us.

What if he’s not, though... what if we killed somepony. And what about the Princesses?

We have part of the vault collection, we’ll get what we need from the books. Don’t listen to him, he’s only trying to get in our head.

“I’m not the bad guy here, Twilight, there is so much more to your dear princess than meets the eye. You could always just ask her. I’m sure she would be more than forthcoming, considering her recent track record of being truthful and open with you... And don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. Why would I want to spoil a chance for some much needed chaos around this place? I’ll just watch this unfold from here.” Discord then erupted into laughter.

He allowed the guffaw to die down, then continued his drawn out monologue, “What a lovely thing power is; how it so easily corrupts others... wouldn't you agree, my dear?”

“I don’t want power. I want the truth.”

“Oh? But are you really sure it isn't you who is after power? I mean, such shady business, sneaking around behind Celestia's back like this.”

We got what we came for. It's time to go.

Twilight’s horn began to glow, and she and the pile of books snapped out of existence from the garden, reappearing instantaneously in the dungeon laboratory.

“I’ve got my eye on you, Twilight Sparkle. Don’t disappoint,” the voice of Discord echoed through her head, before the telepathic link was severed.

VII: Journal Entry 7

Year 8 of the 2nd Diarchy, 76th day of the Southward Equinox
Personal Journal, entry 7

I think I’ve slept a total of five hours since the encounter in the gardens two days ago. I’m tired, but there is so much to do. I can work through the exhaustion for a couple more days, I think.

I don’t know what I was thinking. I went to Discord for help to get into the vault. It seemed like a good idea at the time, because he’s the only one, that I know of, that has ever been able to work around the type of barrier protecting it. Now though, I’m not entirely sure. His willingness to help me, even after my attempt to destroy him, makes me very uneasy. He’s hoping that giving me access to the information I desire will cause enough chaos that he will be able to free himself; of that, I’m quite sure. It almost seemed like there was more to it than just that, though. I have to make sure that I am very careful with the way I use the books I’ve acquired, and make sure that no pony can gain access to them.

He claimed to know a lot more about the nature of the Equestrian Diarchy than what he would tell me. I don’t know yet if I really believe what he said about Celestia and Luna forcefully overthrowing the previous regime. I have always been under the assumption that it had been a peaceful transfer of power. Of course, what is taught to the general populace is that the Princesses have always been in power over Equestria. The more I delve into my research on the Princesses, the more discrepancies I discover between ‘common knowledge’ and the way things actually are.

I’m rambling again.

The fact of the matter, is that he helped me, and I was able to retrieve ten books from the vault, unnoticed, as far as I can tell. I nearly had three others, but they were destroyed when Discord closed the barrier. He tried to play it off as though he did it on purpose, but in his current form, I don’t think he had the power to keep it open any longer.

Arcana asked me this morning if I was feeling alright. I told him simply that I hadn’t been sleeping well lately, which isn’t really a lie. I haven’t been neglecting my other duties as a result of my new research, so I don’t think anypony is suspicious of me.

I’ve made time in the past couple days to go through the books that I collected from the vault. Time that I probably should have spent sleeping.

The titles of the ten books are as follows:

- Tactical Offensive Telepathy - This appears to be a guide on the use of telepathy in an invasive manner. The idea of which, I have only seen mentioned once in another text. That book was a guide for advanced magic studies, and the section that made mention of invasive telepathy was a listing of banned ‘dark’ magics.

- Theory and Application of Temporal Manipulation, Volumes 1 & 2 - This one intrigues me. There is much dispute within academia at this time on whether or not chronomancy is even possible. Yet, here is a set of tomes that appear to have not only details of many proven, working spells of that very branch of magic, but also the base-level calculations and theory of how it all works.

- Symbols, Runes, and Sigils - This ‘sigil magic’ is something that I’ve never heard of. Quickly glancing through the pages of this book, it appears to be instructions on the amplification of magic by using runic symbols arranged in very specific patterns.

- Illusion - At first I was confused as to why this title would be in the vault, but as I looked through it, the answer quickly became clear. Most unicorns know some basic illusory spells, such as image projection for entertaining or soft-step spells for quieting one’s hoofsteps. This book, though. This is something else, altogether. Invisibility spells that, with enough power, would have the ability to hide a large city from view and spells to duplicate oneself in order to confuse an enemy. In addition, some of the illusory magic in this book seems to be very closely related to the invasive telepathy, causing ponies to experience uncontrollable anger or paralyzing fear with a rather simple spell. I believe this book holds the key to viewing the texts that I have regarding the Princesses.

- Transmutation of Living Creatures - I didn’t look very closely at this one. Frankly, the ideas it holds are terrifying. The drawings and etchings within are the things of nightmares. Ponies, changed into... I don’t even know what.

- Life and Death: The Art of Necromancy - I’ve read historical accounts of ancient battles where the losing side would, as a desperate last resort, force their battle mages to raise the corpses of dead soldiers in order to continue fighting. I always shrugged it off as gross embellishment of oral histories passed down through generations. This book, however, suggests otherwise.

- Astral Projection: Trapping and Spiritual Possession - It doesn’t even seem that this should be possible, but here it is. I’m assuming that anything the Princesses would view as dangerous enough to warrant placing in the vault, is very likely to be reliable. To separate a spirit from its physical body, seems likely to be more dangerous to the caster than the potential target. So many things could go wrong, for instance, trapping the user’s spirit, instead of the target’s, within another plane of existence.
-Volumes 23 & 98 of Study 612718 - The pages of these are hidden, just like volume 105, but I feel that these are the most important of what I retrieved. But why 23 and 98? I would have expected consecutive volumes; not that I expected any more of these books on the study of the Royal Pony Sisters, at all.

Some of the books seem that they will be incredibly useful, particularly the two volumes on chronomancy and the text on illusory magic. Others appear that there is a good chance that I may never read them, such as the ones detailing transmutation and necromancy.

Fireshade knows everything, short of how I was able to obtain these books. I’m not sure what she would think about my going to Discord. It’s probably better to not tell her at this time.

I want to tell Spike. I really do. It hurts me to keep something this big from him, but he has a terrible tendency of letting things ‘slip’. He has a hard time keeping a secret, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but with what is happening, it would be very detrimental to what I’m attempting to accomplish for him to accidentally tell anypony.

I have now nearly finished the administrative and technical training under Arcana for my new position. Next week I start my military training at the Equestrian Military Academy. I am told that I only need to learn ‘permanent installation defensive tactics’. I don’t think it’s particularly important, since the last time the Grand Magus took control of a military unit was over a thousand years ago. Besides, if I were required to take command of the defense of Canterlot, my first orders would be to put somepony in charge that has better training and experience than me.

The only bad part of the tactical training will be that Fireshade won’t be there. She has her job to do back at Section 5. She’s helped me so much in getting acclimated to working in Section 5 and reacquainting me to life at the castle, and we’ve become very close over the past couple months. I’ll miss her company while I’m at the Academy for the next month or so. At least it’s near enough that I will be able to go home everyday after my classes.

It’s late now, and I’ve already spent the better part of two pages. I’m going to bed.

VIII: Suspicions and Lies

“So, would you care to explain what happened here?”

“You know... I’m not entirely sure what you are speaking of, my dear Princess.”

“You know exactly what I speak of, Discord,” Celestia demanded while motioning to the crumbled stone on the ground at the foot of the statue’s pedestal. “Now, what happened here?”

“Perhaps the wind knocked it over, Tia... I don’t rightly know,” the draconequus answered, uninterested, as a light breeze pushed its way through the Canterlot Royal Garden, rustling the leaves of the topiaries and trees.

“Enough games, Discord; who broke them!?”

“Fine, since you really must know, I was having a lovely conversation with somepony, when I may or may not have said something to offend, and would you believe that they tried to kill me? The nerve!”

“You are already contained, and pose no threat to anyone. Who and why did somepony try to kill you? Tell me now or I'll—”

“You’ll what!? Destroy me? Lock me away forever? Heh—the thought is laughable; even with your supposed limitless power you can’t destroy me, you and I both know this. Oh, and about our little friends in pieces down there...” Discord made a purposeful dramatic pause, before continuing in the sing-song manner of foalish taunting. “Somepony knows your seeecret!”

Celestia expression slowly sank into mild shock for a brief moment, before she narrowed her eyes and lowered her horn towards the statue. “You are treading on dangerous ground—”

“It’s funny you should say that, because that’s exactly what I told the pony that was here last night,” Discord interrupted in a smug tone.

“Told who!? Tell me!” Celestia demanded with a stomp of her forehoof.

Discord’s delighted laughter exploded through the Princess’s mind.

“Ah-ah-aaah... Now, why would I go and spoil the surprise by simply telling you? Besides, I have a feeling that you’ll find out on your own in the near future.”

A loud yawn filled Celestia's mind.

“Now then, if you would excuse me, you’ve disturbed me from a rather lovely nap that I would very much like to get back to... Goodbye, Tia.”

“Wait!” the alicorn cried out from her mind.

Celestia waited, staring coldly at the statue. As seconds stretched on into minutes, she became infuriated by the consummate silence that answered her call. The alicorn growled in anger with the thought of the draconequus knowing something of this magnitude that she did not. She turned, and stormed back to the castle, deep in thought about who would try to destroy Discord, and what he was hiding.

“So this is it?” Fireshade asked, sounding thoroughly unimpressed. “Well, at least it’s pretty big, even if it is severely under-equipped.”

“Well, my resources are rather limited,” Twilight replied flatly.

Fireshade slowly made her way further into the common room. Stopping in the center of the room, she turned around in-place, taking in everything. The bare light bulbs hanging from the ceiling, six large doors lined along one wall—judging by the iron plating and tiny barred windows, she assumed they were cells—the workbench covered in parchments of notes against the opposite wall. The workbench itself, literally, covered in notes.

“Twilight, what’s all this?” asked the yellow mare as she studied the scrawlings on the long table against the wall.

“Oh... I, uh, ran out of paper the other night,” Twilight answered, giggling uncomfortably.

“How much time have you been spending down here?”

“Well, since my accident... all of it. Except for when I’m at Section 5 or sleeping.”

Many of the writings and doodles seemed like any other research notes, detailing important findings in schools of magic that Fireshade had never heard of. One drawing, in particular, stood out to her. A large circle, with many unfamiliar symbols and what appeared to be letters of an unknown language within. “What about this?”

Twilight’s eyes lit up as she began to explain. “That is called a sigil array. This particular one makes it possible to teleport objects with almost no effort. It’s absolutely amazing... Would you like to try it?”

“I guess... How does it work?” Fireshade asked, looking suspiciously at the strange symbols making up the array.

“The runes on the array amplify the spellcasting. They take the spell you cast into the array and then use the latent magical energy radiated from the planet’s leylines to amplify the spell. Once it draws enough energy, it discharges the same spell you cast on it, only with much more power than you put into it. It’s similar to our energy storage devices in operation, but it uses magic principles instead of engineered technology and it only stores the charge for a split second.”

The pyromancer squinted slightly as she continued to inspect the drawing. “Huh... Okay, what do I do?”

“It’s very simple. You just begin your spellcasting like you normally would, but instead of casting on the object, you direct the spell to the array.” Twilight moved a large book onto the array, and then pointed to a drawing on the floor at the far side of the room. “This array is permanently attached to the one over there on the floor, so you don’t even have to concentrate on where you’re sending the book!”

Fireshade looked to the point across the room. “But what if I don’t want to send it there?”

“This one is called an ‘anchored teleport array’. It will only send objects to the receiving array, but there’s other sigil magic that can be utilized to send things anywhere you want. Although, they’re a little more... uh, difficult to handle.” The mage quickly glanced to one of the nearby iron-clad cell doors, and back to her friend with a sheepish grin.

Following the direction that Twilight had looked, Fireshade immediately understood what she had meant by ‘difficult’. Near the bottom of the door in question, jutted a mangled piece of metal, seemingly fused to the iron sheathing. Without a word, she grasped the door in her magic and slowly swung it open. On the inside of the door clung another, similar piece of metal. “What is that?”

“Uhm... it was a steel rod.”

Fireshade chuckled. “So... don’t want to use that to transport ponies, then?”

“Uh, no. Not yet,” Twilight answered while scratching behind her ear. “But that was the first time I tried to use it. Once I get some practice, I’m sure it will be completely safe... So, are you ready to give it a shot?”

“I dunno, I’m not very good at teleportation spells.”

“But that’s the great thing about sigil magic; you don’t have to be good at it. The array will do almost everything for you.”

“Okay.” Fireshade closed her eyes and concentrated on the book laying within the circle on the workbench. She then shifted her focus to the array itself. Before her horn had even begun to glow, there was a loud pop, causing her to flinch. She opened her eyes to see that the book was gone. Quickly turning around to face the opposite wall, she saw the book laying on the stone floor. “But I… But I didn’t even release my magic to the circle.”

Fireshade looked to the other unicorn, slack-jawed, to see a huge smile plastered across the face of her friend.

“I told you it was amazing,” Twilight stated.

“Amazing? More like impossible.”

The lavender mage was now hopping with excitement and speaking very fast. “That just shows how powerful sigil magic is! You didn’t even have to fully cast the spell. Just allowing your innate magical energies to surround the array by concentrating on it is more that enough power to send the book across the room. Imagine how far you could send something if you actually put a fully charged spell to the array!”

“And this came from one of the secret books you found?”

“Yep, and there’s a lot more where that came from.”

“Why would the princess keep this from ponies?” Fireshade asked, moving close to the array in order to inspect it once again. “This sort of thing could change everything. I mean, we could move more goods faster, all across Equestria. And if it’s this powerful, I bet it could be adapted for pegasi and earth ponies to use.”

“Because she’s scared it can be used against her. Apparently, it was once fairly common knowledge amongst mages and was used quite often. There are some very dangerous arrays described in the book, but almost any magic can be dangerous if not used properly.”

As Twilight explained, the yellow unicorn began wandering along the row of doors, peaking into each small window as she passed. Stopping to get a better look at what was inside the third door, and without looking to the other unicorn, Fireshade asked, “So, what about that chemical and the book about the princesses?”

“All of the books and the document on the compound are in there. The actual chemical is in the storage locker.”

Fireshade opened the door in front of her. “You still have some?”

“Yes, I had three vials. Now I have two full vials and one partial,” Twilight answered while the yellow mare perused the books on the makeshift shelf in the cell.

Taking a small binder in her magic, Fireshade turned and walked back out to the main room. “How much did you take?”

Twilight was becoming curious with her friend’s sudden interest in the chemical. “About half a vial.”

“No... I asked you how much. I need to know exactly.”

“I don’t know exactly.”

Fireshade let the binder drop onto the workbench as she turned to the lavender unicorn with a smirk. “Wait... So, you’re telling me that you tested an experimental drug on yourself, by yourself, and you don’t even know how much you used? What in the world did you do, Twilight, just pour the vial down your throat and say, ‘Yup, that should do it’?”

“Um... yeah, that’s basically how it went.” Looking back on it now and hearing it worded in that manner, Twilight believed that it very well could have been the stupidest thing that she had ever done.

Turning towards the workbench and taking a seat on a wooden stool, Fireshade flipped open the document she had retrieved from the shelf . “Wow, Twi. I thought the grand magus would have known better,” she said as she scanned the table of contents of the report.

Twilight looked down to her hooves in silence. I should have known better... I act like such a foal sometimes.

“GL-7658a... Must have been before I worked in the biochem division. You did know I was a chemist before you showed up, right?” The mare sitting at the table knowingly flipped the report to a particular page and paused for a moment to read through the words.

“No, I thought you worked in the weapons division.”

“Heh, like they would trust me with that stuff.” Fireshade looked up from the document with a slightly raised eyebrow. “Antipsychotic? Twilight, why were you testing an experimental psychiatric drug on yourself?”

“I-I-I uh... I...”

Go ahead, she trusts us.

“I may have been hearing a voice,” Twilight said very fast, running the words together.

“What do you mean, a voice?”

“It’s not what you think!” exclaimed the purple mare. “I started hearing it after the generator accident. It’s me... this voice that I’m hearing, it’s me. I thought I was going insane, but I believe it to be an internal vocalization of my subconscious.”

“Oh? How so?”

“It’s the only thing that saved my life when I tested the chemical on myself... I-I had panicked, I didn’t know what to do, I thought I was going to die.” Twilight sat down on the floor and paused for a moment. “My inner voice told me what to do to save myself; if I couldn’t have heard through to the only rational thoughts my mind was producing, I wouldn’t be here talking to you right now.

“Looking back on it now, I knew how to save myself, if I saw somepony going through the same thing I was, I would know exactly what to do, but I couldn’t do it for myself. Everything it says to me is things that I already know, it’s just stuff that has been buried for years, or in the case of my experiment, things that I can’t access when I need to.”

Fireshade looked back down to the report. “Huh, wish I could hear my rational sub-conscious thoughts... All I get is an overwhelming urge to hurt ponies from time to time.” She chuckled to herself at this thought.

A few moments passed in silence as the yellow unicorn continued to read and Twilight pondered the last statement.

“Anyways, what did you use for the missing reagent and precursor?”

“What? Why does that matter?” Twilight asked defensively.

She’s helping already.

“I’m trying to figure out what you did wrong. Whether there’s something inherently wrong with the drug, or if it was a simple overdose... or if you used the wrong chemicals to create the synthesis reaction.” Fireshade looked to her friend. “So?”

“I, uh... it was ethyl diazoacetate and piperidine.”

“Why?” Fireshade asked without bothering to look up from the book.

Twilight’s lips tightened and her eyes narrowed as she began to grow annoyed with the line of questioning. “Is it wrong?” she asked sharply.

“I don’t know yet.” The mare looked up from the book with wide eyes and a soft smile. “I’m just trying to help, Twilight, and the more information you can give me, the easier it will be for me to do that.”

Twilight sighed. “Fine... I chose the piperidine, because it was used in several similar pharmaceuticals, and the ethyl diazoacetate, because it seemed to be the easiest thing to use to facilitate the reaction.”

“See? That wasn’t so hard. Now, can I take this with me and work on it in m—”

“Absolutely not. Do you have any idea what would happen if you were to get caught with that outside of Section 5?” the lavender mage fired off almost immediately. “And they would want to know how you got it... and they probably wouldn’t stop until they found out.”

“Geez, settle down,” Fireshade said with a chuckle. “Believe me, I’m well aware of what would happen. I’ll just work on it here, if that’s alright with you.”

“That’s fine, but I have to go meet with Arcana. Spike told me this morning that he wanted to speak with me.” Twilight turned and began walking towards the main door to the cell block.

“Okay, I’ll be here for a while.” The yellow mare turned back to the book and continued, “This may take some time to work out, but I’ll get it. This may not be my special talent, but fire isn’t the only thing I’m good with.”

Several sharp knocks echoed through the office of Head Mage Arcana. He looked up from his mundane paperwork to grant access to his visitor, already well aware of who it was. “Come in, Mage Sparkle.”

The door slowly swung open, and the lavender unicorn walked into the office with an air of confidence. “You wanted to see me, sir?”

“Yes, Twilight... two days ago,” Arcana responded with a glare as hard as stone.

She quickly glanced to the side and back without moving her head away from her superior, the previously present confidence quickly dissipating. “Oh... I just got the message this morning.”

“Where have you been, Mage Sparkle? I’ve sent messengers three times now, and all three times, you were nowhere to be found.” The unicorn behind the desk looked her over. Her mane looked as though she hadn’t brushed it in days, and her eyes, with deep dark rings beneath them, appeared slightly bloodshot. “And to be quite frank, you look terrible. Have you been sleeping at all?”

“I’ve been studying... privately,” Twilight answered slowly, shifting on her hooves uncomfortably.

The head mage raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Studying what, exactly?”

Shitshitshitshit...

Calm down, just make an excuse. Think Twilight, we can come up with something.

She looked down to the base of the desk in front of her. “Well, sir... if you must know, I’ve been with Fireshade.”

“Studying?”

Twilight looked up and smiled. “I guess you could call it that.”

Arcana’s eyes grew wide as the older unicorn blushed slightly. “Oh... well, I—” He paused to cough before speaking again. “You’ve been easily keeping up with your assigned duties, but I don’t think you’ve been spending nearly enough time in the labs getting ready for your upcoming appointment to Grand Magus. You need to make sure you personal life isn’t getting in the way of your responsibilities.”

The smile faded from Twilight’s face and she answered simply, “Yes, sir, I’m sorry.”

“You do realize that ‘sorry’ will not be sufficient once you are Grand Magus? The level of responsibility required from you will be such that there had better be no situations where an apology would be necessary.”

“Look, I said—” She allowed a slow, drawn-out yawn to interrupt. “I said I’m sorry. I don’t know what else I can do... It won’t happen again?”

“Uh-huh...” started the grey unicorn as he tapped the top of his desk with a quill. “As it were, the development work your team has been doing is nearly complete, and you will be leaving us for a short time. How do you feel about going to the academy for the next month?”

Twilight walked over to the long bookshelf against the wall and began to peruse the tomes stored there. “Well, I have to say, that I’m not excited about it. I would much prefer to stay here where I can continue my studies in magic.” She turned around to face the other unicorn. “I mean, why do I even need to know this tactical stuff? How long has it been since a grand magus was required to take command of a military unit?”

The grey unicorn’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Well, if you were ever here for more than a few hours a day, I would maybe agree. Anyway, how do you expect to oversee the military training of our army’s unicorns without any military knowledge?”

“Delegation... It’s not as though I’m going to be personally training them. It has been my understanding that I’m going to be operating on an administrative level,” Twilight said as she waved a hoof about.

“Regardless, this training is required before you take your new position.”

“I know that.” She looked down to the floor and mumbled dejectedly, “This just seems like a waste of my time.”

“You don’t have to do the military training, if you don’t want to.”

Twilight quickly looked to Arcana with a smile and a brightness to her eyes that hadn’t been present for days.

Then, he continued his statement, “But if you choose to do that, don’t expect to be welcomed with an appointment to the position that you’ve been working so hard for. Am I making myself perfectly clear, Mage Sparkle?”

Her smile instantly vanished and the cold, glazed look to her eyes returned. “Yes, sir, perfectly.”

“Good. Now, before you leave, I have one more thing.”

“Yes, sir?”

Arcana set down the quill he had been idly fiddling with as his lips pursed and his eyes narrowed once more. “I know you’re up to something more than fooling around with my apprentice. I don’t know what it is yet, but I intend to find out, Mage Sparkle. I realize that it was some time ago, but don’t forget that private conversation we had the first evening you were here.”

Twilight allowed a smirk to cross her lips. “Believe me, sir, that conversation is not something that is easily forgotten.”

Opening the door with his magic, Arcana spoke again. “Now get out of my office. You need to go check on your research team, and I’m sure you have preparations to make before you start your classes after the weekend.”

Without a word, Twilight turned to the door and walked out of the office of the head mage. Just as she cleared the threshold, the door slammed shut behind her.

Now what? He knows what I’m doing. He’ll go to Celestia. He’s goi—

Stop. He knows nothing. It’s pure speculation and conjecture. We need to get to Fireshade and let her know what has happened.

I need to make sure Arcana doesn’t know that I’m leaving again so soon.

The mage turned towards the lab and made her way downstairs, through the main lab, and into the corridor that wound down to the depths of Section 5.

After finally getting through the blast-door and entering the underground clandestine lab, she made her way across the massive facility. As she walked through, she noticed more ponies than what would normally be comfortable making cursory glances her direction, avoiding eye contact, but still wanting to get a quick look at her.

I know Arcana said I look terrible, but is it really that bad?

She continued, unabated, through the lab to a large storage room at the furthest point from the main entrance. Twilight flipped on the lights as she entered the room and closed the door behind her.

The moment the door-latch clicked, a magenta glow bathed the room as she cast a dampening spell she learned from one of her banned books. Several seconds passed and the magical illumination dimmed, leaving only the harsh, white light of the electric bulbs clinging to the ceiling. Satisfied that her naturally radiating magic was sufficiently hidden, she opened the door and reentered the lab.

Walking quickly, but not so fast as to cause undue attention to herself, she made her way towards the exit of the lab. Twilight had gotten halfway to her goal when she heard a voice from behind her that caused her blood to run cold.

“Leaving so soon, Mage Sparkle?”

She turned around fast enough to cause her to stumble a bit when she stopped, facing the source of the inquiry. “Head Mage!” Twilight exclaimed. “Uh, no... I was just looking for Fleet to get a status update on the project.”

“Don’t you think he would likely be in the research area reserved for your project?” Arcana asked in a condescending manner while eyeing the lavender unicorn suspiciously.

“I... I already checked there, but he wasn’t around. Now I’m just kinda wandering around to see if I can find him,” Twilight responded with a sheepish grin. “Maybe he’s back now. I’ll—uh... I’ll go check.”

“Very well, if you need anything, I’ll be here in my office.” He stepped around Twilight and began walking towards the bank of offices attached to the wall above the entrance to the lab.

Damn it. I can’t just leave with him here. Fireshade is going to have to wait.

Twilight then made the decision to actually do what she said she would, and walked to her team’s research area.

Small parts and lengths of wires cluttered the top of the large, metal table in the middle of the sequestered research area. Seated at the table was Fleet, busily assembling parts and arranging them inside a small box. Sapphire stood at the workbench arranged against a portable wall, plugging wires into a similar device as what the tan unicorn was working on, connecting it to a much larger power supply.

“Hey guys, how’s it goin?” asked Twilight, announcing her arrival.

The blue pegasus finished plugging in a cable, and turned away from the bench. “Oh hey, look who decided to show up! You gonna stick around for more than a few minutes this time?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I am.”

Fleet looked up from his task and smiled. “Hiya Twilight! You’re just in time, I’m assembling the last of the working prototypes now, and Sapphire is charging the other three.”

“Excellent!” The lavender mare trotted over to the desk opposite from the workbench and found a technical document titled ‘Miniaturization of Magic Energy Storage’. Flipping through the pages she saw many, highly detailed diagrams, showing everything from the internal construction of the capacitors to the Section 5 logo engraved on the outside of the case.

I wonder if a unicorn could use these to increase their magic output...

Twilight sat down and began to read about the intricacies of the devices that were now in the final stages of development.

Hours had passed since Twilight left to see Arcana, but for Fireshade it may as well had been minutes. She sat, unmoved from the stool she was on when her friend left, happily studying the research document about GL-7658a, stopping every few minutes to jot down a note or make a quick calculation.

The sound of the door at the entrance slamming against the wall echoed through the room, as Twilight stormed in. “Fireshade, we have a huge problem.”

Without looking up from her notes, the yellow unicorn replied simply, “Oh?”

“Yes! Arcana knows we’re doing something. He said he doesn’t know what, though.”

There was no response from Fireshade as she flipped to the next page in the document.

“I had to tell him that we’re ‘together’,” Twilight said while motioning her hooves in a manner pantomiming quotation marks.

“Uh-huh...” A moment passed, then Fireshade finally looked up to the lavender unicorn, absolutely mortified. “What!? Like, together together?”

“Yes, together together! He kept asking me where I’ve been and why I look so tired... I didn’t know what else to say. So, I guess we’ll just have to play it off that way from now on.”

The mare sitting at the workbench looked up, as though deep in thought. “Well... that shouldn’t be too difficult.” Her eyes lit up as she made eye-contact with Twilight and smiled. “Oh! Does that mean we get to be all cuddly and lovey-dovey in public to keep appearances?”

The purple mage was not amused and scowled deeply at Fireshade. “Stop it. Do you think I wanted to tell him what I did? This is serious, Fire, who knows how long it will be before he figures out what is going on... and who knows what will happen then.”

“We’ll probably have to leave.”

Leave? I don’t want to leave.

We’re in too deep, already. If we are found out we will have to run away from here.

Twilight glanced to the floor. “Yeah... we need a contingency plan for getting out of here when we’re found.” She looked back to the pyromancer. “I’ll take care of it... What have you been doing all day?”

“Looking into this chemical you tried to kill yourself with.”

“And?” The lavender mare took a step closer to Fireshade.

“And it’s pretty amazing stuff. The base recipe can be altered in very minor ways to create vastly different results. The way it acts on a pony’s brain is like nothing I’ve seen before...” Fireshade turned to her notes and shuffled through the mess of papers while she continued to talk. “You used an incorrect reactant in the synthesis, the stuff you made is no antipsychotic.”

Twilight furrowed her brow and her head tilted slightly in confusion as she looked to her assistant. “What did I make, then?”

Pulling out one page from the pile of notes, Fireshade scanned it quickly, and then smiled to Twilight. “Best I can tell without any sort of testing is that you created an extremely powerful sedative. Wanna hear the neat part?”

“I gu—”

“Good. In extremely high doses, judging by the chemical structure, it’s likely that it would act as a wicked hallucinogenic. And from what you told me, at least that much is true... Wanna hear the really neat part, now?”

“Ok—”

“I’ve been doing synthesis calculations all day, using slightly different chemicals from the original base. GL-7658 can be turned into a number of really scary—or really useful—compounds. I think the ‘a’ designator was intended strictly for the antipsychotic. Who knows how many of these have been made. We can potentially create anything from an organic poison to a compound that could possibly lower the subject’s inhibitions to the point that they would do almost anything at a mere suggestion.”

Somepony that would do anything without question would be extremely useful.

“Hmm...” Twilight mused as she thought of applications for this sort of chemical.

“We’re going to need to test them... and we’re going to require more equipment.”

“Make a list of what you need, I can take care of the equipment. There’s a few things I need to procure for myself, anyhow.” Twilight picked up a piece of white chalk with her magic while simultaneously pulling the sigil magic book from the bookshelf and floating it to herself. “What can we test this stuff on, though...”

Fireshade jumped off the stool and made a run for the door to the rest of the dungeon. “I have an idea, I’ll be back.”

“Wait! Where are you going?” Twilight asked as she flipped open the book.

“I’m going to go find something that we can use for testing. I don’t know if I’ll get it tonight, but I’ll get it!” she exclaimed excitedly as she trotted out the door.

The lavender unicorn shrugged, and then examined one of the many diagrams in the book she held aloft. With the chalk, she started drawing a large circle on the floor. Twilight heard hoofsteps approaching and looked up to the doorway just in time to see her friend barge back into the room.

“I forgot the list for you!” Fireshade giggled. She rushed over to the workbench and quickly scrawled out a list of half-a-dozen items. When she was happy with the list, yellow mare threw down the quill she had used and ran out the door once again.

Twilight shook her head and continued drawing the complex sigil array.

Year 8 of the 2nd Diarchy, 80th day of the Southward Equinox
Personal Journal, entry 9

The official report on the power generator accident was released yesterday. The final consensus on the cause is that the gemstone powering the generator was physically flawed. They believe it had a microscopic crack running through it. The only reason they came to that conclusion is because there did not appear to be any issues with the equipment itself. There’s no evidence to support the findings other than they couldn’t find anything else wrong. I’m quite disappointed with this conclusion. Although, it does mean that the magic energy generator technology is safe. That could be useful in the near future.

I haven’t been to my underground lab since Fireshade left to retrieve whatever it is she wants to use for testing and I finished drawing out the array to retrieve equipment from Section 5. She still hasn’t come up with anything, but she told me yesterday not to worry about it. Apparently she thinks she can take care of it, so I’m going to let her. In actuality, I’m a little worried about what she’s up to.

Arcana has become exceedingly suspicious of me. I’m pretty sure he realized that I can mask my magic, as well, after our encounter in the Section 5 lab. Which is very unfortunate, because the only place I have ever come across a spell of that nature was in the book Illusion, that was retrieved from the vault. He hasn’t brought it up yet, but there’s no way he could not have noticed that my magic aura was gone or, at the very least, severely muted. Perhaps I could play it off as though I developed a version of the spell myself. Doubtful.

Arcana is on to me, and it’s only a matter of time before he figures out what is going on. I don’t know if he is aware of the level that Fireshade is involved—or if he believes her to be involved at all—but she and I are being as careful as we can. However, there’s only so much that we can do to keep him from getting too close.

Military training begins tomorrow.

A sharp pain shot through Twilight’s muzzle as she bolted upright in her seat and blinked her eyes repeatedly, unsure of what had just happened. The unicorn looked around and realized she was in a classroom with about forty other ponies, a dozen of which were either staring at her or snickering quietly into their hoof.

“Miss Sparkle?”

Twilight looked to the front of the room to see a light-blue, earth pony mare standing at the podium in front of chalkboards that filled the entire front wall. “Y-Yes, Colonel Chevalier?”

The earth pony smirked. “Perhaps you would like to answer the question?”

“The question, Ma’am?”

The colonel released a deep sigh. “You have been given word that an invading force is marching towards the fortress under your command. What is the first thing that should be done in order to ensure your defenses are ready?”

“Uhm...” Twilight scratched at her chin, pondering the question. It seemed fairly straightforward, so she answered with the first idea that came to her. “Send an infantry unit out and make a preemptive attack against the enemy.”

“No. There’s something else you should probably do before that.”

“Destroy the incoming infrastructure to slow the enemy.”

“Try again...”

“S-Set... uh, landmines?” The mage’s inflection sounded more and more unsure with every wrong answer.

A cadet across the classroom from Twilight groaned loudly, and then spoke up before she had a chance to make another incorrect attempt at answering. “Send out a pegasi scout patrol to assess the enemy forces, and secure all structural defenses such as drawbridges or gates.”

“Very good, cadet.” Chevalier looked back to the lavender unicorn. “Perhaps next time you can pay attention instead of napping, Miss Sparkle.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Twilight sighed dejectedly.

Looking over her shoulder to the clock, then back to the class, the colonel gave a broad smile. “Well, it looks like we are out of time for today. You are all dismissed and we will see everyone at 0500 for PT tomorrow.”

The room exploded with sound as everypony rose from their seat simultaneously. Twilight, however, continued sitting, brooding over how much she detested this training. Once the room was mostly cleared out she got up and made her way to the door. She headed straight for the building’s exit and began her long walk back to the castle.

It only took a little more than an hour for Twilight to get back to the castle. Once there, she headed straight to the dungeons, rather than her apartment. She still had much more reading and studying to do in order to learn all that should could from her borrowed books.

Specifically on the subjects of illusory magic and chronomancy. The study and research of these fields of magic had devoured all of her spare-time and then some. The mage was thoroughly convinced that they were likely the key to being able to read the texts about the princesses, but the specific spells needed to unlock the books were elusive, and still out of reach.

She walked into her makeshift lab and threw her training books to the side. Twilight noticed some papers strewn across the workbench, so she hastily took them in her magic and placed them in a single stack to go through later.

Entering the ‘library’, the lavender unicorn took the two tomes she required off the shelf with her magic and took them with her to the workbench. She flipped open the book titled ‘Illusion’ to the marked page where she had left off as she sat herself down on the stool and began to read.

Several minutes passed in silence when, suddenly, Twilight’s left ear twitched at a nearly imperceptible sound. She stopped reading and looked at the wall directly in front of her, waiting for the sound. A few seconds later it came again. It almost sounded like somepony sobbing quietly.

Twilight got up as quietly as she could, still listening for the sounds. The noise was coming from the back of the room somewhere. Walking slowly along the line of cell doors, the mage suddenly had a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach. She approached the last door and was almost scared to look inside.

Rearing up on her hind legs and placing her forelegs on either side of the window, she moved her face close to the steel bars. Upon a pile of straw in the corner of the tiny cell lay a familiar dark-blue, pegasus mare.

The pegasus looked up at the ironclad door and noticed the purple-colored eyes peering in. “T-Twilight?” she inquired weakly between sobs, before scrambling to her hooves.

The eyes of the lavender unicorn grew wide with shock at what she saw. She dropped back down to all fours, and took several shaky steps back from the cell door. A blue face, fur matted down with tears, appeared in the tiny window, and Twilight quickly moved herself to the same wall that the door resided, in an attempt to hide herself from view. She backed up to the wall and sat down on the floor, breathing heavily, unsure of what to do.

“Twilight? Is... Is that really you!? You have to help me! I met a unicorn in Canterlot, and she seemed so nice, and then I woke up here... I feel stra—”

The voice was cut-off as a magenta light flashed through the the room. Twilight had constructed a barrier around the cell to mute the sound from within.

IX: Correcting Errors I

The sound of hooves striking stone echoed through the hallway.

Have to find her...

This isn’t as disastrous as you’re making it out to be.

Twilight stopped in front of a door, raised a hoof, and pounded on the wooden slab as hard as she could. Moments later, the heavy door creaked open just enough to reveal an orange-colored eye peeking out. Before the owner of the eye had a chance to pull the door open the rest of the way, the lavender unicorn forcefully threw it open with her magic and stepped into the small apartment.

“Ow! Damn, Twilight, what’s your issue?” asked Fireshade, now sitting on the floor after being pushed out of the way by the swinging door.

“My issue!? My issue!?” She paused just long enough to slam the door shut with her magic. “My issue is the least of our worries! What, exactly, is your malfunction!?”

The yellow unicorn’s face twisted into a look of hurt and confusion. “I-I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’m talking about that ‘thing’ in my lab!” Twilight shouted.

“What? I thought you wanted a test subject! I brought you exactly what you asked for!” Fireshade yelled back, tears beginning to line the edges of her eyes.

Twilight took several deep, shaky breaths in an attempt to calm herself down, but with every breath she continued to grow more and more irate. “I don’t know what you heard, but I wanted something to test with... Damn it, Fireshade, not a pony! I did not say, ‘You know what would be great? Testing experimental drugs and magic on live ponies!’ I thought you would bring me some rabbits or maybe a dog!”

Tears now streaming down her face, the pyromancer responded. “Why would I do that!? What good is it to test on an animal that has nothing to do with the end result!? If we’re going to ultimately use this research on ponies, you had damn well be ready to experiment on ponies!”

The lavender mare opened her mouth to respond, only to stop short.

She’s right, you know. Those drugs are designed for ponies, the only way to obtain accurate results is to test them on ponies.

She’s right...

An awkward silence hung in the air, as several more seconds passed.

“You know, Section 5 uses ponies all the time for medical research,” Fireshade stated quietly, breaking the mounting tension.

“What are you talking about? Celestia and Arcana both assured me that they didn’t.”

Fireshade quietly laughed to herself. “And you’re going to believe them after all this? The princess said that because she knew it would be a dealbreaker for you. She needs you. She wouldn’t allow some small moral scruple to stop you from accepting your new duties.”

Twilight’s mind reeled with this revelation. Unable to bring herself to respond, she sighed deeply.

“Besides, it’s too late to put her back, but it’s okay, though! I-I found her in Canterlot, she was here to retrieve a package and do some sightseeing... she was by herself and doesn’t know anyone here. It’ll probably be weeks before anypony even notices her missing.”

Too late to put her back...

There’s no reason to put her back.

“Of course it’s too late to put her back, she knows me!” Twilight screamed.

“Wha-What do you mean she knows you?”

“I mean just that," Twilight replied, breathing slow and deep, allowing herself to become calm. "We probably could have let her go and been alright, but you had to go foalnap the only mare in Canterlot that was visiting from out of town and knows me personally,”

“I’m sorry, Twilight.” Fireshade finally stood up from the floor. “I didn’t know... I-I was just trying to help.”

“I would certainly hope you didn’t know... I mean, how could you have known that she’s from Ponyville?” Twilight asked mockingly, her voice steadily increasing in volume as the exasperating nature of the problem made itself apparent once again. “How could you have known that she happens to be a librarian there!? How could you have known that she was my bucking replacement when I left!?”

The lavender unicorn paused, waiting for an answer to the seemingly rhetorical questions as Fireshade looked on in shock.

“How, Fireshade!?” She stopped again for a moment, awaiting an answer that would never come. “Here, I’ll just give you the answer... You could. Have. Asked!” Twilight began pacing around the room as she continued. “All it would’ve taken was, ‘So, where are you from?’ the fact that she was from Ponyville would have probably thrown a red flag that this was not the mare to take!”

Stop... she is helping, regardless of how reckless a manner she went about it.

Of course she is, but she should have told me what she was doing first.

“I’m so sorry, Twilight... I-I thought I was helping,” Fireshade said, looking at the other unicorn through teary eyes.

She is helping. She did something that was necessary, something that you wouldn’t have been able to do yourself.

The lavender unicorn suddenly stopped her pacing mid-step.

But why did it have to be a pony? And not just any pony.

It had to be a pony. Who the pony is makes no difference to the end result. Quillfeather will serve our needs just as well as any other pony would.

Ponies, though! Living, breathing ponies, with families and lives, and dreams an—

Sometimes one must dirty their hooves in order to obtain the necessary results. You know that to be true, now we only have to admit to that being the truth, as terrible as it may seem.

There must be another way...

There is no other way; this is the reality of the situation. Face it, Twilight: She knows far too much to be released, and our experiments require a pony for accurate results.

“Twilight?”

I can find a way to fix this. We can find another pony to test on. This situation is still salvageable.

The situation may be containable, but it is by no means salvageable. We can only make the best of it. Now we need to apologize to Fireshade. She helped us and you allowed our anger to control your response.

“Are you okay, Twilight?”

Shuddering, the lavender mage shook her head a bit, her eyes blinking rapidly. “Huh?” Directly in front of her stood Firshade, much closer than she remembered. “Yeah, I’m fine... What exactly did you mean when you said ‘it’s too late to put her back?’”

The yellow unicorn looked towards her hooves through tear-clouded vision. “I-I-I don’t want to say...”

“I’m sorry,” Twilight said quietly. She lowered her head toward the floor and looked up slightly, trying to look into Fireshade’s eyes. “I shouldn’t have gotten so mad at you... now, tell me why you would think it was too late to release her.”

“I already started her on doses of the chemical compound that you made...” Fireshade murmured, gazing up from the floor to her friend. “I needed to calm her down, so I tried it. I was pretty sure it’s a sedative, and it turns out I was right. It works brilliantly in small doses. Next I’m going to try the ‘c’ version of the compound to test its effectiveness on causing the subject to be more susceptible to suggestion induced behavior.”

Twilight’s right eye twitched involuntarily and she began breathing rapidly again. “It’s okay... It’s okay, I can fix this,” she whispered to herself. With deep, slow, repetitive breaths, she regained her composure. “Don’t do anything to her until I say to. We have higher priorities than testing the GL compounds.”

“Like what?”

Twilight groaned loudly. “In case you’ve forgotten, Arcana is extremely suspicious of me, and we need to be ready to leave at a moments notice. Keeping a test subject isn’t going to make hiding what we’re doing any easier.”

“Okay, so we get things ready to go if we need to, and we just leave the experiment behind if we have to leave...” Fireshade paused, scratching the back of her neck. “Wouldn’t really matter what she told them at that point, I suppose.”

“No. First we need to clean up this mess you made and get rid of Quillfeather. Then we’ll worry about having things ready to go.”

The yellow mare’s jaw dropped open slightly. “Get rid of—”

“I’m not going to kill her...”

Twilight stepped forward and turned to stand next to Fireshade. The yellow unicorn felt the fur of her friend brush against her side as the lavender mage’s horn began to luminesce. With a blinding, white flash of light, the apartment suddenly became void and hushed.

At the same moment, a pulse of illumination shone through the dungeon laboratory. The lavender unicorn made her way towards the bookshelf in the third cell. Meanwhile, Fireshade stumbled several steps before falling to the floor.

The mage, laying prone upon the cold stone, groaned. “I really wish you would give me some warning when you’re gonna do something like that... I hate teleporting.”

Twilight walked out of the ‘library’ cell with a large, ancient tome, wrapped in a magenta glow, following steadily behind her. “You’re lucky that’s all I did to you,” she said without so much as looking towards her friend on the floor. Dropping the text on the workbench, she sat upon the stool and began to flip through the pages.

“H-hello?” a voice called out from the far end of the room.

The movement of the pages ceased. Twilight turned her head back, glaring at Fireshade.

The yellow mare quickly scrambled to her hooves. “Sorry... I thought she would’ve been out longer. I’ll get her another dose and—”

“No,” Twilight cut across, “I’ll take care of it.”

The shaky voice sounded once more. “Twilight, is that you? Who’s out there?”

The purple unicorn closed her eyes, her horn letting off a faint glow for a fleeting moment. Several seconds passed as Twilight remained perfectly still. When the unicorn was certain that the new barrier was doing its job of silencing the noise coming from the cell, she opened her eyes and returned to the task of flipping through the pages of the book.

Trotting over to stand next to her friend, Fireshade attempted to view what the book held within, but the pages were moving much too fast for her to comprehend. “So, uh... what exactly is this book?”

“Tactical Offensive Telepathy,” Twilight replied, lifting the cover towards Fireshade briefly before allowing it to drop and continuing her search.

Slowly repeating the title of the book to herself, Fireshade’s eyes lit up with a look of sudden clarity and understanding. “Heh, are you gonna scramble her brains?” the yellow mare asked while motioning her forehooves in circles around the sides of her head.

“What—no... I’m... I thought I saw a memory alteration spell in here the first time I went through it.”

“Memory alteration... is something like that even possible?” Fireshade asked while moving towards the cell housing the banned literature.

“If it’s in this book, I imagine it would be,” Twilight mumbled as her search continued.

While she searched for a particular book, the yellow mare called back, “Uh-huh...”

The mare studying the book on telepathy smiled. “Ah-ha, here it is.” Twilight paused on a page, quickly scanning the words. She then glanced at the next page, her smile slowly fading. Hastily, she began flipping through more pages, her forehead creasing as she frowned. “This is a lot more complex than I had hoped... it’s going to take weeks to make these calculations by hoof.”

A second tome slammed onto the workbench next to the book Twilight had been analyzing. The title read, Theory and Application of Temporal Manipulation: Vol. I. The lavender unicorn looked to her side where Fireshade was now standing, watching expectantly.

“What am I supposed to do with this?”

“Well... I thought...” The yellow unicorn paused. She blushed slightly, realizing that if the answer was so simple, Twilight would have pursued this solution first. “Uhm, I thought maybe we could just go back and stop me from taking her in the first place?”

Twilight laughed at the mare’s naivety. “We probably could... If I had a lifetime to study timetravel. The calculations involved with moving matter through a timeline are so mind bogglingly complex that I can’t make heads or tails of the majority of it, not to mention the nearly unachievable amount of energy it requires.”

“Oh,” replied Fireshade with a weary gloom laced in her voice.

“That’s one of the books I’ve been studying more thoroughly since they came to be in my possession. The best I can do so far is create a localized temporal manipulation field around small objects,” Twilight explained. “And while that may be useful in some situations, this is not one of them.”

“Manipulation field!? Can I see?”

“Another time... We need to retrieve some equipment so I can make the memory calculations faster,” the lavender mage said as she shoved her book into a saddlebag and rose from the stool.

Fireshade bounced slightly with excitement. “Does that mean you’re going to get the stuff I asked for too?”

“Yes... What I can find, at least,” Twilight sighed as she stepped to the middle of the sigil array that she had drawn on the floor three nights prior. The circle was large enough that it nearly touched the walls on both sides of the room. “I’m going to need your help. So stay here, and when the array begins to glow, focus all the magic you can to it.”

“Why do you need my help? Shouldn’t the sigil magic take care of everything?” the yellow mare asked innocently.

“I want to try to get everything with a single teleport, but the equipment is going to have a lot more mass than I think I can handle on my own. Plus, I’m going to be casting multiple high-level spells to bypass the Section 5 barrier undetected,” Twilight explained as she stepped out of the circle.

“The array might handle it just fine, but I would rather not add any more risk elements than are necessary. So, I need you to stay here and help pull the equipment through. All you have to do is concentrate as much magic as you can on the circle when it begins to glow... And whatever you do, make sure you’re not in the circle when the spell starts—I would rather not land a data manipulator or an energy capacitor inside of you. Once the teleport is complete, move the equipment out of the circle as fast as you can in case I have to send a second set.”

“Okay!” the yellow unicorn exclaimed happily, excited to be able to help Twilight.

“Be patient, it may take some time to draw the sending array and gather the necessary equipment.” With that, Twilight Sparkle threw the pair of bags from the workbench over her back and vanished in a flash of light.

As the world fell back into place around her, Twilight found herself in a familiar white hallway lined with vertical metallic tubes. She turned around to look as far up the length of the corkscrewing hall as she could, and then turned back, pointing herself downslope to begin the long walk into the depths of Canterlot Mountain.

The mage’s horn glowed briefly and the echoing clops of her hoofsteps against the hard floor instantly ceased. She continued further down the volute corridor, stopping several turns before arriving at—and well out of site of—the checkpoint and the massive, looming blast-door beyond.

Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly through her mouth in an attempt to calm down and clear her mind. Moving non-living objects through the Section 5 barrier was one thing, but she was prepared and fully expecting that moving herself through would be much more difficult.

Twilight opened her eyes and began running through her mental checklist to prepare for the teleport. If anything was incorrect she would run a serious risk of being caught, or worse, the energy of the transference spell could contact the barrier mid-cast and disperse her entire being back to whatever came before this life.

Check for ponies coming up or down the hall. Twilight shut her eyes once more, probing outwards with her magic. The only presence she could feel was that of the two guards and doorkeeper ahead.

Remove soft-step, she thought as she opened her eyes and a soft glow engulfed her body for a moment. The mare tapped a hoof softly on the floor, making certain that the effect had been dispelled.

Radiant Magic Dampening. Once again, an illumination surrounded her body as she cast the spell to attenuate her magical signature. Then, reaching into the solid rock with a detection spell, she found the barrier within and cast the same dampening spell on the area of the barrier she was about to open.

Open the barrier. Shutting her eyes down tight, Twilight began casting the next spell on her checklist. Her horn began to glow brightly as she focused more and more energy on a single, pinpoint-sized location on the barrier deep within the rock wall.

A minute passed, then two. At this point the mage was channeling every bit of magic that she could muster on the target. Twilight felt a bead of sweat trickle from her forehead to her muzzle and drip off of the end of her nose. After the fourth minute, and a small puddle forming beneath her head, the barrier finally gave way, and a hole the size of a quill-tip formed. Immediately falling to her knees as the breach formed, the mage continued casting the spell. Though now, her horn glowed dim, only expending enough energy to keep the hole open.

She opened her eyes and took a deep breath, sighing as she exhaled. Not big enough.

With a quiet grunt and a magenta glow, her magic reached out against the edges of the barrier’s puncture, pushing it open like the aperture of a camera. When the hole reached a size no larger than a foal, Twilight stopped casting.

Now to keep it open long enough. She slowly stood up on shaky legs and prepared to cast a spell she had only practiced a few times in her dungeon lab. The lavender unicorn concentrated hard on the very edge of the breach she had created, taking special note of its elliptical shape and the fact that it was already beginning to repair itself, slowly shrinking as every second ticked by.

Like a doughnut, she mused as she stared at the floor in front of her, making the needed calculations in her head to successfully cast the spell. Suddenly, she lifted her head and closed her eyes. A flash of light emanated from her horn, and she opened her eyes with a satisfied nod.

Probing the barrier with her magic she could sense that her entrance was now stabilized. Twilight slumped slightly as she realized something was not right. The temporal manipulation spell she had cast slowed the passage of time to a nearly imperceptible pace, just as it was designed to do. However, it formed itself into the shape of a sphere, encompassing the entirety of the breach. A shiver forced itself through her body as the thought of being trapped—mid-teleport—within the temporal anomaly drifted through her mind.

Damn it. That’s not a torus at all.

She stood quietly, glaring at the wall towards the location of her mistake, pondering how to manipulate the shape of the field without having to start over.

We can’t do that and you know it.

Once the field is established it cannot be changed, only dispelled.

So what do we do? Taking our time is not a luxury we can afford at this moment.

A magenta flash emanated from Twilight’s horn as the slow-time spell dissolved and the rip in the Section 5 barrier began to repair itself once again. She sighed dejectedly at her spell-casting failure, and then put her entire will into further pushing open her ingress.

Minutes passed, and the mage’s magic flared off of her horn like a torch. The amount of energy she channeled in order to push open a barrier of this caliber would have been enough to knock most unicorns unconscious. Twilight continued to force the edges of the hole back as far as she could until, inevitably, the spell-casting was broken as she fell to the floor, panting hard and her entire body damp with sweat.

The mare once again probed the barrier with her detection spell and groaned with disappointment. She was only able to open it to a diameter that of a normal doorway—a normal doorway that was slowly shrinking.

It will have to do. I don’t think I can open it any further...

A muffled pop sounded as the hallway became unoccupied.

Darkness surrounded the mage as her form coalesced near the back wall of a mostly forgotten storeroom of Section 5. She breathed deeply of the acrid smell of ozone lingering in the air before a soft white light at the end of a lavender horn coaxed the face of Twilight Sparkle from the dark void. The small ball of light detached from her appendage and ascended to the ceiling, leaving her, once again, in the shadowy depths. As the sphere of magical illumination contacted the top of the room, the intensity of the discharge increased tenfold, bathing the surplus storage area in a dim, white glow.

Twilight looked around the massive room. Steel shelving stood tall around the perimeter from floor to ceiling, and two more rows of the same type of units—though shorter—ran down the center of the length of the room, causing much of the storage area to be lost in the shadows. Save for the walkways between the shelves, any other open floor space had been reserved for bulky machines and other equipment that had been long taken out of service for one reason or another.

Trotting over to the nearest of the pieces of large equipment, the mage lifted a tag dangling from the side of it with her magic and quickly read the markings:

ITEM #: 42.5846c
DESC: DATA COLLECTOR, ELECTRICAL ENERGY, 32 BIT BINARY
OOS DATE: 6:2 34th NS
OOS DESC: OUTPUT CIRCUITRY DAMAGED BEYOND REPAIR, THIS UNIT FOR SALVAGE PARTS ONLY. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO OPERATE.
DISPOSAL DATE: 9:2 34th NS
NOTES: MAIN HEATSINK AND COOLING FAN REMOVED. 6:2 76TH NS
INPUT TRANSLATOR REMOVED. 7:2 24TH SS

“I don’t understand why they hang on to this garbage,” Twilight stated to the room while moving towards the front where the locked door of the entryway was located.

As she moved down the aisle between the shelves, the unicorn caught sight of one of the pieces of equipment she was hoping to obtain. This one was a huge, black box that stood nearly twice as tall as her. On the front, a large, cracked, glass panel data monitor was affixed along with many buttons for command entry. Twilight approached the box and perused the tag taped onto the front of it:

ITEM#: 37.1024
DESC: DATA MANIPULATOR, ELECTRICAL/MAGIC INTERFACE DEVICE
OOS DATE: 8:2 87th NS
OOS DESC: PROJECT ENDED, AWAITING REASSIGNMENT. OPERATIONAL, NOT FOR SALVAGE
DISPOSAL DATE: N/A
NOTES: DATA STORAGE HAS BEEN EMPTIED. MONITOR DAMAGED, THOUGH STILL OPERATIONAL.

Twilight pondered the date the equipment was put out of service. “I wonder if this piece was involved in the explosion,” she mused. With a small huff, she took several steps back and attempted to pick up the computer with a telekinesis spell. The box shuddered slightly within the magenta aura.

Opening the barrier took more out of me than I thought.

What would normally be a very simple task for her had become exceedingly difficult. She tried one more time with similar results. The heavy, steel box scraped across the floor a couple of feet and came to a stop. Twilight was once again panting with the exertion.

A smile crept across the mage’s face as she began to cast a different spell. As soon as the aura dissipated from around the machine, it began to float, not quite an inch off the ground. Twilight moved around to the rear of the box and placed her forehooves on the side. The moment she put her weight on the box, it quickly moved away from her, careening down the aisle towards one of the many shelving units. There was nothing to do but watch it float away from her on its collision course.

The device struck the shelves with a loud crash, knocking several smaller items to the floor and causing Twilight to wince. After colliding with the shelves, the data manipulator continued on a path across the aisle, once again crashing into another set of shelves before slowly coming to rest in the middle of the walkway.

The unicorn ran up to the machine and quickly looked it over for any obvious damage. She slowly made her way around it, and other than a few deep gouges in the metal case, it seemed to still be in usable condition.

Twilight approached the side of the box opposite of the direction she was proceeding and gave it a very light push with one hoof. The machine slowly moved in the direction she had intended, with a speed that she could easily walk with. She continued towards the front of the storage room, giving the box a gentle nudge every now and then to keep it moving on-track.

Coming towards the front of the room, Twilight took the black box in a telekinesis spell in order to bring it to a stop. It came to rest in front of a bank of file cabinets and a small, wooden desk as the levitation spell was removed and the machine dropped to the floor with a dull thud.

A piece of white chalk floated out from one of the bags strapped to the mage’s side and subsequently began drawing a circle on the floor between the door and shelves. Twilight moved to the edge of the circle and made deliberately short steps, counting each as she walked to the other side. Now sure that it was similar in size to the array in her lab, she began drawing the necessary runes and teleportation sigil.

Standing within the white circle, Twilight began writing ancient letters around its circumference. After making her way completely around the emerging array—leaving a multitude of strange symbols in her wake—she lifted a piece of paper out of her saddlebag with her mouth and set the note on the floor. The unicorn looked to the runes drawn on the paper; then to the white symbols she had just finished drawing. She nodded to herself, satisfied with her progress, and continued scrawling out the remaining required geometric patterns and symbols of the sigil inside of the circle.

Twilight trotted to the utilitarian, off-white file cabinets, her hoofsteps echoing dully against the high ceiling. Pulling open the left, upper-most drawer, she cringed as the metal runners sounded with a screech in the previously silent room. The mare paused for a moment, turning to the room to inspect her surroundings, almost expecting a guard to be magically summoned by the drawer’s outburst.

Greeted by nothing more than a slient, shadow-filled room, she went back to rummaging in the drawer until she found a black binder labeled ‘CROSS-REFERENCE TABLES, EQUIPMENT TYPE/ITEM #/LOCATION’. Twilight picked up the binder in her magic and carried it with her towards the canyon between the tall shelves. Whistling an unnamed tune to herself, she began the task of collecting the items on her list.

The pile of miscellaneous scientific research equipment steadily grew over the next half-hour. Finally, the last piece was placed into the teleportation array and Twilight pulled her list out to check everything one last time, making sure she got everything she and Fireshade needed.

A few items were missing, but for now, they would have to make do with what Twilight could retrieve. She was not about to start stealing pieces from the main lab. By taking the equipment from the surplus supplies, there would at least be a significant time cushion before anyone noticed the theft.

Twilight returned the cross-reference guide to its place in the file cabinet and began to turn back to the array. Though, as she turned, a glittering reflection of light on the shelf along the wall caught her eye. The mage slowly walked across to the source of the glint that she was sure she had seen. As she approached the shelf, three familiar lunch-box sized metallic cases came into view within the dull illumination of the magelight spell attached to the ceiling.

These are definitely coming with me.

The three boxes levitated across the room to the sigil array and landed gently atop of one of the large energy storage machines. The chalk circle was filled from side to side, with smaller items covering the larger equipment. Twilight was ready to move her bounty to the dungeon laboratory.

She slowly walked around the array, making sure that everything was resting within the circle. The lavender mage kicked a large coil of magic-transference cable back into the array as she made her way around.

Twilight’s horn began to glow as she probed the section 5 barrier one last time to check her escape route. Her eyes widened and jaw dropped as she came to a startling realization.

“Oh no... no no no!”

A brilliant purple light enveloped the storage room for a very short moment before Twilight fell to ground with a yelp. With her magic reserves still mostly exhausted from the act of breaking the barrier initially, she was completely unable to open the hole any further.

“Shit!”

Her egress had shrunken to the point that a baseball would not have been able to squeeze through, and the barrier continued repairing itself at an alarming rate. The mage had only a few, scant seconds to make the teleport, destroy the drawing on the floor and get herself out.

I’m not going to make it, she screamed to herself in her mind. She closed her eyes and put every remaining bit power she could into the bone-white, chalk drawing of the arcane magic-amplifier. The outline on the floor began to dimly glow; then the radiance intensified, creating an iridescent, white halo around the gathered equipment.

“Come on... it’s taking too long, I’m not goi—” Her voice was cut short by a deafening, low-pitched howl as the glowing halo erupted—from floor to ceiling—into a writhing column of burning white light, brilliant enough to rival that of Celestia’s sun.

Stumbling back several steps, she fell to her bottom in a sitting position. Twilight’s spellcasting ceased as the sigil magic took control of the spell. The column continued twisting and rising from the smooth floor, only to be seemingly swallowed into the ceiling above. The mage covered her eyes with a foreleg in an attempt to protect her precious eyesight as she attempted to probe the barrier once more.

Her hoof dropped from her eyes and a solemn frown—accentuated by the glimmering light—crossed her features. The barrier was closed; meaning that the spell would fail and all the equipment would return to her momentarily. A look of abject horror covered her face as she realized what else the closed barrier indicated: She was now trapped within Section 5.

As quickly as the cacophony had started, it came to a very sudden end. Darkness, punctuated by the dim glow of her magelight returned, and the only sound remaining was that of the ringing in her ears.

Her pupils slowly adjusted to the darkness, bringing the array into view. Twilight blinked her eyes hard several times, not believing what she saw. A low-lying blanket of smoky fog hovered above the circle, and above that, nothing. Every piece of equipment was gone.

“No... that’s not right,” Twilight quietly whimpered to herself, her lower lip quivering ever so slightly. “It all should have come back...”

The unicorn fell back to sit on her haunches, looking about her newfound prison. “...and now I’m stuck here.”

X: Correcting Errors II

Fireshade sat on a stool, resting her head on the workbench and idly rolling a pencil back and forth between her hooves. It felt as though days had gone by as she waited in excited anticipation for something—anything—to happen.

A shadow appeared on the wall in front of her, sharply outlining her horn and mussed mane. The mare quickly sat up and spun around to see the bone-white chalk outline of the sigil array giving off an ominous ivory glow.

She hopped down from the stool and smiled. “Here we go!”

A yellow glow enveloped Fireshade’s horn as she began to focus her magic on the circle. The moment she released her full power to it, the array exploded with a blinding white light and a howl similar to that of a tornado. The mage’s eyes snapped shut and she turned her head away, while continuing to put more energy to the arcane runes of the array.

The deafening noise wailed through the dungeon laboratory. Fireshade turned her head back towards the array and looked at the light through the slits of her tightly squinted eyelids. She had never in all her life seen anything like it. A column of white energy lifting from the floor, turbulently spiraling upwards to the ceiling and glittering within with every color imaginable. She could only think of a single word to describe the phenomenon: Beautiful.

As she watched, the sound stopped and the column of light halted its chaotic movement. The light stood motionless, sparkling with color for several seconds before dissolving away, revealing a veritable mountain of stolen goods.

Fireshade stood, staring at the newly acquired equipment with a dumbfounded smile plastered across her face.

“Wow... Cool,” she uttered quietly before beginning her task of moving the items out of the circle.

“No no no... NO!” Twilight exclaimed while pulling herself up from the floor. “It should have all come back.” Her eyes lit up as she gasped loudly. “I have to find a way out of here.”

She turned her head and pulled a book from the saddlebag on her left side, carelessly tossing it to the floor. The mage kneeled down and quickly flipped through the pages of the heavy tome; attempting to find the answers to what just had just transpired. She stopped knowingly at an entry describing teleport arrays.

She began to read out-loud to herself. “If the sigil-teleportation spell is interrupted or unable to complete for any reason, the item or items being teleported will return to the sending array. This is contrary to every variant of unicorn teleportation spells, wherein if the spell is interrupted, the items being teleported are subjected to significant damage, and on occasion, complete obliteration.”

Looking up from the book, Twilight pondered the passage as she gazed at the still slightly glowing array before her. “So why didn’t it come back?” she whispered.

It’s possible that this doesn’t work on the same principle as unicorn teleportation.

Not the same principle... What other principle could it work on?

“If it didn’t go through the hole in the barrier, that would mean... it passed through the barrier!?” Twilight’s eyes grew wide with shock as the sudden realization washed over her.

Jumping up from the floor, she began pacing around the now-dark chalk outline. “But how? How is that even possible? How could it just go through a barrier like that? There’s no mention of that in the book...”

Twilight continued walking around the circle, thinking about how such a thing could possibly work, along with the implications such power held. Was the breach still open slightly when the matter-stream passed through? That must be it... but what if it’s not? I need to try this again.

She stopped her pacing abruptly and looked over to the desk next to the file cabinets. Hastily trotting to it, Twilight pulled open a drawer and began to vehemently hoof through the contents, not entirely sure what she was looking for. When she didn’t locate the item she was trying to find, the mage sighed and lifted her head to look at the top of the desk. There she saw it: a plain desk lamp.

That will do.

It was a simple affair with a brass base and an emerald-green glass shade around the bulb. Twilight picked it up within a magenta aura and carried it to her outlawed magical drawing, gently placing the object in the center of the circle. She then pulled her chalk from her bag and quickly scrawled out a new—much smaller—receiving array.

Twilight shook with anticipation at the thought of her impromptu experiment possibly working. As soon as the small arcane circle was finished, the mage walked to the outside of the original, larger teleportation sigil. She began slowly walking the perimeter, watching the runes closely as they passed. The archaic symbol she was looking for appeared in front of her, and she quickly scuffed it out with several fast swipes of a forehoof. Her chalk floated down to the floor and drew a new symbol over the greyish smear of chalk dust, perfectly matching the rune on the new sigil array.

The white stick floated back into her bag, and then Twilight focused her attention on the smaller circle. With a momentary glow of her horn, an opaque pink sphere surrounded the array. This small barrier would not be nearly as strong as the one surrounding her and the laboratories, but it would be enough to prove her hypothesis.

She looked decisively to a small box on a nearby shelf and readied a teleportation spell. With a brief, white flash, the box disappeared as the pink barrier flickered and slowly vibrated like a ball of gelatin. The box hadn’t made it to its destination; the barrier was working.

Twilight then used a simple magic detection spell to trace the path of the teleportation spell. As expected, a path of latent energy emerged in her mind’s eye originating at the shelf previously occupied by the box and making a straight line that abruptly ended at the edge of the barrier.

Okay...

Turning towards the desk lamp sitting peacefully in the center of the large, chalk circle, she allowed her magic to flow to the array. The chalk that had been scraped onto the floor became bright, glowing with the energy. Then with a quiet, anticlimactic pop, the lamp vanished and the circle became dark once again.

Twilight immediately turned her head to the receiving sigil circle. Though not surprised by the result, she was intrigued by how such a thing could be possible. Within the pink barrier sat a lamp, no worse for wear than when she had removed it from the desk that it had called home for who knows how many years.

A soft purple glow emanated from the mage’s horn as she cast her magic detection spell once more. The path of the now nonexistent box remained, though much dimmer. However, where she expected to see the path that the brass lamp had traveled, there was nothing.

“Nothing?” Twilight questioned as her brow furrowed and a frown crossed her lips. “How can there be nothing? That can’t be right... can it?”

Her eyes darted to the location where the lamp had begun its journey. In the center of the circle, an intensely bright, prismatic sphere of magical energy stood. It was unlike anything the mage had ever seen using this particular spell. Normally the signature reflected the color of the caster’s magic, but this glittering ball of rainbow colors of the sigil magic was particularly unexpected. She quickly spun to the lamp’s new location and a similar sphere of energy shrouded the appliance. Twilight stopped the detection spell and the lamp returned to her view as the sphere of light faded.

“It was there... now it’s there,” Twilight said pointing to each location as she spoke.

Dispelling her barrier, she trotted to the smaller circle and tapped on the lamp gently. “It couldn’t have made it through undamaged. There’s no way.”

The lamp lifted slowly into the air, carefully cradled in Twilight’s magic. Her left eye narrowed as the light stopped ascending.

“No travel path...” she quietly mused. “You had to travel somewhere, though.”

Twilight closely scrutinized the lighting appliance as it slowly rotated inches before her face. It was perfect in every way. She could not find anything out of place about the lamp. Her right eye twitched slightly as she pondered how such a thing could be possible. Every part of what she had seen and was now looking at went against everything she had ever studied about teleportation magics.

It did travel somewhere.

The sound of shattering glass extinguished the silence of the storage room as the metallic base of the lamp rolled across the floor, coming to rest against Twilight’s hoof. “Somewhere... but... no.”

She quickly cast a spell, bringing the two fast-fading, glowing orbs back into view. “It was there, then it was here. It traveled somewhere to get to this point... but it didn’t travel through here.”

The mage now paced swiftly from one teleport array to the other, attempting to comprehend the mind-bending thoughts invading her head. If sigil teleportation actually worked in the manner she was thinking, it would make nearly all the things she once thought impossible possible.

“It didn't go through the barrier at all... it had to have gone... around? It left this physical space and came back.” It was surreal for Twilight to hear those words uttered from her own mouth. Even more disturbing for her was the weighty seriousness her tone carried. Only minutes ago, such a thought would have been laughable, but now it seemed as though anything could be possible. Even tearing through the ethereal fabrics of this reality and moving—at the very least, energy—to another adjoining plane of existence and back.

Twilight had gotten her newfound equipment back to the dungeon lab. She miraculously found an exit out of Section 5, and with her goals for this expedition completed, she now decided that she had overstayed her welcome in this place.

The unicorn turned her head to the saddlebag on her right and pulled out a scrub brush with her mouth, tossing it into the middle of the smaller circle. With thoughts flowing through her head of the implications that the power of sigil-magic held, she went about the task of pushing the stiff brush, back and forth, across the chalk outline with a forehoof. Once the brush finished its job of erasing the circle and arcane runes, Twilight gingerly placed it back in its place in the grey canvas bag.

A sudden feeling of anxious foreboding washed over the mage. She nervously looked around the room where light and dark fought for dominance. With the glow of her magelight spell beginning to wear down, darkness began to succeed in stamping out the illumination. Something was amiss, but she couldn’t quite place a hoof on it.

Twilight shook off the strangely disheartening sensation and walked to the ancient book she had left on the floor. The pages fell open to the index with a dry crinkle. A moment passed, and the unicorn pulled a bundle of paper from left to right, landing precisely on the page she intended.

Two large, purple eyes scanned across the page several times before stopping. She stared intently at a pair of runes inscribed near the end of the passage. The bone-white chalk revealed itself from the bag again, shrouded in the magenta aura of Twilight’s telekinesis as she continued the study the symbols of destruction.

After carefully copying the two symbols to the interior of the remaining array, she added one more symbol beneath them in order to attach the destructive power directly to the chalk circle on the floor. The book closed and floated through the air, landing in the mage’s left saddlebag. Twilight changed the connection rune she had previously replaced for her impromptu experiment back to its previous form and placed her stick of chalk into her bag. She was now ready.

A nervous flutter lurched through Twilight’s stomach as she stepped into the circle. The thought of possibly being thrown outside of her physical reality only now coming to the front of her mind. Where exactly would she go? What would be there? Could a pony even survive the process? Or would it be just like any other teleportation spell?

“Maybe I should just wait.”

We would be waiting here for more than a day before you can open that barrier again.

“I know that... I just... The book never mentioned anything about moving ponies by sigil magic...” Twilight’s voice trailed off as she continued to ponder all the things that could possibly go wrong.

We need to go. Now.

A quiet, rhythmic tapping sounded from outside the door, consistantly increasing in volume. The clacking stopped, seemingly just outside of the room currently occupied by Twilight. Her eyes grew wide and her jaw dropped slightly.

“Yeah... time to go.”

She hurriedly dispelled the magelight at the ceiling, immersing the room into inky darkness, and began casting her magic to the chalk circle surrounding her. The last thing Twilight heard as the array lit up was the jingle of keys. The world around her tore away in a piercing white light as she was thrown into the miasma between worlds, and the magical symbols and shapes burned away, leaving no trace of their existence.

Trying to make herself useful while waiting patiently for either the next supply transport or Twilight to arrive, Fireshade moved equipment around, attempting to find an arrangement that would make the best use of the limited space.

Her quiet humming was suddenly interrupted by screaming. The agonizing cries of Twilight Sparkle spooked the yellow mare, causing her to jump into the air and spin around towards the teleportation array. There, she saw the lavender mage laying on the floor, wet and shivering, her eyes opened so wide it appear they may be trying to escape from their sockets.

Fireshade rushed to her friend’s side. She began to look over the mage, not noticing anything out of the ordinary. “Twilight! What happened?”

More hysterical shrieks were the only reply she received.

She wrapped her forelegs around Twilight’s neck and attempted to calm the distraught mare. “Shhhhh, it’s okay Twi. I’m here and you’re alright... You’re in your lab, safe and sound.”

The screams ebbed, being replaced by hard, shaky breathing. Twilight pulled back from the embrace, blinked several times and looked into Fireshade’s eyes before bursting forth into irrepressible crying.

“Twilight, you’re okay... you’ll be fine,” the yellow mare said, attempting to console the unconsolable. “Now what happened?”

“I-I-I... I don’t know. I was in Section 5 and then—a-a-and then I was somewhere... and n-n-now I’m here. The sigil array... it’s not like teleporting. It’s s-some—something else. Something... frighteningly beautiful.” Twilight laid her head on her forelegs and continued to sob quietly on the floor.

Year 8 of the 2nd Diarchy, 82nd day of the Southward Equinox
Personal Journal, entry 10

I was forced to teleport myself using sigil magic very early this morning. It has been approximately seven hours since I was teleported, and only now have I collected my thoughts and calmed myself to the point that I can write this.

I believe that I have discovered the reason for the banning of the book ‘Symbols, Runes, and Sigils’. If I am to believe what I saw within the sigil teleport, these sigil arrays are beyond dangerous; if constructed properly, they could very well be used to destroy the entire world. I’m not completely certain, but it seems that they draw their power from someplace else—the same place that the array sent me to. Another plane of existence. The ethereal nether between the Firmaments.

The Five Firmaments are nothing more than a creationist fairytale ponies tell their foals. Aren’t they? After what I saw and heard while teleporting, I am not so sure anymore. It felt as though I were everywhere and nowhere all at once. I know that sounds crazy, but it is the best way I can describe it.

I could see the whole of Equestria. I could see our entire planet. I could see the galaxy and our universe. But there was more... so much more. More beyond the boundary of our own limited existence. From the void, I could see all of them. All of them. The Firmaments. The fairytales that were once, now seemingly rightly so, thought to be the truth of existence.

I know the teleport happened near-instantaneously in our physical reality, but inside, it felt like days, maybe weeks... years? I’m not sure, time doesn’t seem to have any meaning in that place... it was all so disorientating. I was free to explore the void, and although I could look at them, I could not cross through to those places of legend that were laid out before me.

I don't know how long I was there; it seemed like I spent a lifetime wandering the endless expanse. With those voices. Begging for redemption. Telling me to leave and never return. Telling me to stay and never leave. Constant whispers in my ear. Never ceasing. I can still hear them echoing in my memory, calling out to me.

As disconcerting as it seems, while I was there, the experience was poignant and calming. It was not until I returned to this reality that the overwhelming gravity of the situation took hold in my mind.

This will require further investigation.

Year 8 of the 2nd Diarchy, 3rd day of the Southern Solstice
Personal Journal, entry 11

I received a letter from Rainbow Dash yesterday. She seems to be doing very well and she decided to join the Royal Equestrian Army. Rainbow has never struck me as the military type, but she seems to think that this will be the best way for her to achieve her dream of joining the Wonderbolts.

I am happy for her. I really am, but I can’t help to think that she would have been better off staying with the weather patrol in Ponyville. Oh well, Rainbow Dash will do what Rainbow Dash will do, and no pony can stand in her way once she gets an idea in her head.

And as Rainbow Dash enters, I exit. My military training will be concluded at the end of next week. Also, this marks the end of my overall training to be put into the position of Grand Magus.

Now then, on to more important matters:

The setup of the equipment was completed just over a week ago. As soon as the machines were ready, I conducted the necessary memory scans and brain mapping on the subject (under heavy sedation) to begin the memory alteration calculations. The two data manipulators I retrieved ran constantly for 6 days before I recieved the solution. This level of magic-augmenting mathematics would have taken months to calculate by hoof, but these wonderful machines had an answer within a week.

The data manipulators finished their task last night, and I believe I am ready to make an attempt to augment her memories. In the hours since the calculations were completed I have gone through it multiple times, going as far as triple-checking the machines whose sole purpose is to create that data quickly, efficiently, and error-free.

I am ready to attempt the memory augmentation spell. So long as the book’s instructions are accurate and the data from the manipulators is correct, this should go quite smoothly.

Once we are done resolving this issue with Quillfeather, I will continue my research in unlocking the volumes detailing the studies of the Royal Pony Sisters. Although, after my very intimate experience with the inner-workings of sigil magic, I have a very strong suspicion of part of what I may find in those books.

“Are you ready, Twilight?” asked an almost-giddy Fireshade.

Twilight looked up from a small mountain of note papers and data printouts. “Almost. You can, uh... go ahead and put her under now.”

Mumbling several unintelligible words, she glanced over to the offensive telepathy book, making sure she was pronouncing the necessary incantation properly. Using words with magic was something Twilight was mostly unaccustomed to, as most unicorn magic did not require the additional boost of the archaic language.

The creak of the metal doors of the medical supply cabinet opening resonated against the cold, hard stone walls of the laboratory, causing the lavender unicorn to turn around on her stool. She watched as Fireshade lifted a syringe and small vial filled with a sickly, yellowish fluid.

“Fire,” Twilight called out, just above a whisper.

The mare looked towards the source of the word and smiled. “Yeah, Twilight?”

Glancing towards the floor, Twilight sighed. Her eyes slowly moved back up to Fireshade. “Fill the syringe and give it to me... I’ll take care of this.”

“Are you sure?”

Twilight turned back to her book. “Yes, I’m sure. I need to talk to Quillfeather before we do this.”

That is a bad idea, Twilight.

Why is that a bad idea? I need to let her know what happened and why she’s here... and that I’m sorry.

It’s always a bad idea to get overly attached to a test subject before performing an experiment.

She’s not a test subject! She is not an experiment! She’s Qui—

The fact that she has a name makes no difference. If this will ever possibly work, these notions of friendship cannot continue. Especially when it comes to our experiments.

A syringe gently settled onto the workbench next to Twilight’s hoof. Her focus moved to the glass tube, now nearly full of the mostly clear chemical that was held in the vial. With a deep, resigned sigh, she lifted the instrument in her magic and held it before her.

“Here goes nothing...” Twilight stood and walked slowly to the cell housing Quillfeather. “Fireshade, bring the key.” A magenta aura enveloped the iron-clad door, dispelling the low-level barrier placed around the small room.

Fireshade trotted over with a large, brass key floating ahead of her. She stopped short of the cell entrance, looking to Twilight with sympathetic eyes. “Are you sure about this?” she asked once more.

The mage looked back to Fireshade and allowed a sickly chuckle to cross her lips. “No... Now open the door.”

The key levitated into the cylindrical tumbler of the lock and slowly turned. As the large bolt retracted into the door, a muffled click signalled that it had come to the end of its path and the door swung open, revealing the back and wings of a sleeping blue pegasus.

Twilight stepped apprehensively into the small, dimly lit cell. She turned and smiled weakly to Fireshade as she pushed the door closed and set the syringe on the floor nearby. The iron-clad oak slab rattled with a resounding boom as it settled into the doorframe.

Mumbling softly, Quillfeather rolled over and lifted her head to face the door, curious at what the commotion may be. She made eye contact with Twilight; then rested her head back to the pile of straw that acted as a bed. “How long has it been, Twilight?”

The mage swallowed hard past the lump forming in her throat. She couldn’t take her eyes off of the form of the pegasus that lay before her. What was once a beautiful, cascading, dark-blue mane, now lay in a tangled, matted, greasy mess atop her head and down the back of her neck. Her eyes had become dull and lifeless. Even her voice was cold and emotionless.

“Well? How long have you kept me here?”

The words would not release themselves from Twilight’s mouth as she stood motionless, staring at the pegasus before her. She hadn’t taken the time before now to talk to her captive; not because the opportunity didn’t present itself, but because she could not bring herself to confront the reality of the situation face-to-face. The unicorn’s head drooped as she looked to the geometric shapes of the stones inlaid into the floor, still not truly prepared for this conversation.

“Nine days,” the words breathed across lavender lips with a ghostly whisper. Twilight cleared her throat and began speaking in her usual tone and volume. “I’m so sorry, Quillfeather. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I-It was a mistake.”

The pegasus watched Twilight with an unblinking, icy-cold, hateful gaze. “A mistake? Heh... and here I am paying for your mistake.” Quillfeather turned her head away from the mage. “The apology is nice, but it has no substance, Twilight.”

“I truly am sorry, but I can understand if you don’t believe me.” The unicorn took a deep, shaky breath before continuing. “I’m going to let you go today.”

The pegasus rose to her hooves as fast as her lethargic body could handle. She turned, facing Twilight with a glimmer of hope now showing in her dark-blue eyes. That glimmer was quickly extinguished when Quillfeather noted the dead-serious expression carved into lavender mage’s features.

Twilight’s mouth opened to speak, but fell short as she grimaced and struggled between her own morality and the necessity of the task at hand. A moment passed and she was ready to continue. “But... I cannot allow you to leave with your memories of what has transpired here. You know who I am, you’ve seen my assistant, and I cannot risk exposing ourselves or our research before I’m ready.” The unicorn blinked hard and bit on her lip slightly, still trying to find a justification for her actions. “I have one chance to change the world, but if I am found out before I’m ready I will lose that chance forever.”

The sound of rustling hay wafted up from Quillfeather’s hooves as she took several steps back, lowering her front slightly into a decidedly defensive stance. “I won’t let you or that other freak hurt me anymore, Twilight!” the pegasus barked while her eyes began to fill with tears.

This is not working. We need to take action.

“Look,” Twilight said, her voice taking on a very stern tone, “you are leaving here today, and one way or the other, you are leaving here without the ability to tell anypony about who or what is here.” She paused, taking a step forward while thinking of the words to use to persuade the frightened pegasus while not being outright threatening. “Either you can allow me to perform the memory alteration spell that I’ve been preparing for the past week... or—or I can allow Fireshade to do with you as she pleases.”

Way to be non-threatening, Twilight, the mage chastised herself.

Quillfeather’s eyes narrowed as a tear ran down the side of her face. “What do you mean, ‘as she pleases’?”

Doing everything within her power to remain cool and composed, Twilight spoke while trying not to choke on her words. “Just that. She has a multitude of biochemical experiments that she has been enthusiastically trying to persuade me to perform on you... I don’t want to, but you leave me little choice in the matter if you don’t submit to the memory augmentation.”

The pegasus’ face slackened and she lifted her head. “What happened to you, Twilight? You’re not the pony I met back in Ponyville... There’s som—”

Twilight’s patience broke, she quickly closed the gap between herself and Quillfeather and began shouting, mere inches from the blue mare’s face. “This isn’t about me! It’s not about you or Fireshade... or-or anypony else! This is about the future of Equestria! I’m going to do something about the centuries of lies, and there isn’t anything you or any other pony can do to stop me!”

“Have you lost your mind? Do you even hear what you're saying? ‘Lies’ and ‘the future of Equestria’; it seems to me that the princesses are doing just fine handling the future of Equestria.”

Stepping back and turning towards the door, Twilight fumed with anger silently for several seconds. She then turned back to face her captive once again, chuckling to herself. The mage began to speak softly. “I wouldn’t expect you to believe me... or even to understand if you did. You don’t know the things I know; you haven’t seen the things that I have seen. I’m not sure yet of the extent of the truth, but I have learned enough of it to know that exposing that truth will change everything for the better.”

Twilight sat down on the stone floor and awaited a response. Satisfied with the silence punctuated by an errant sniffle from the quietly sobbing pegasus before her, she continued. “Now then, Quill, you have a choice to make: willingly allow me to perform the memory spell and you forget about all of this and go home. Or don’t... and allow yourself to be subjected to the experiments Fireshade has so diligently set up for you.”

The mage paused and looked upwards, pondering something for a moment. “I would prefer to not have to anesthetize you... it would make the procedure much more dangerous for both of us.”

“W-Will it hurt?” Quillfeather asked in a whisper.

“Uhm... I don’t think it will, but I can’t promise you that. Regardless, if it does hurt, you won’t remember it, so pain is inconsequential in this case.”

“What do I have to do?”

“Just sit still, it should happen very fast. And when you wake up, you will be in Canterlot, in a public area, very near a place where you will be able to find help quickly. I’ll give you back your saddlebags and leave you with five-hundred bits to find your way back to Ponyville with.”

“Okay...” the pegasus whimpered.

Twilight cocked her head to the side. “You're sure?”

Sighing heavily, Quillfeather looked to her dismal surroundings and snickered with a disheartened laugh of defeat. “Considering the other option you’re giving me... yes, I’m sure.”

The unicorn stood up and walked to her captive, embracing her in a tight hug and whispered into her ear. “I know you’re not going to remember this, but I am truly sorry. It was a horrible mistake... this was never supposed to happen.”

With that Twilight leaned back to look Quillfeather in the eyes. She slowly tilted her head forward until her horn made contact with the pegasus’ forehead. “Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

Twilight closed eyes as her horn glowed with its normal magenta aura, which slowly shrouded both of their heads. She could vaguely sense Quillfeather’s memories as she began to recite an incantation in a long-dead language. “Ryðá líkami, flytja krellr brott goðahús, ríki eða hugr ykkarr eiga.”

As the final syllable crossed her lips, the color of blood swept from Quillfeather to Twilight, washing the room in a crimson splendor. For a brief moment, the purple mage ceased to be Twilight Sparkle; she could now see every memory of the other mare. Everything from birth up through the present. She could feel the memories and emotions that made Quillfeather everything she was. The dreams and aspirations, the experiences and knowledge; all of it. For that split-second in time, Twilight was Quillfeather.

The spell completed and stopped of its own accord. The mage opened her eyes, only to see the face of death. The dark-blue eyes in front of her were glossed over, having lost any glimmer of life that they had once held. For a few seconds Twilight gazed into those eyes, wondering if this was merely a side-effect of the highly invasive nature of the spell.

Quillfeather’s left ear twitched slightly, followed by a horrifying guttural moan as the pegasus slumped down and fell forward into the unicorn’s chest. She then rolled to the side and crashed unceremoniously to the floor, her back half landing on the relatively soft pile of hay and her head bouncing off of the granite slabs that made up the floor.

This isn’t right... Something’s wrong. Something is very very wrong.

Twilight turned her head towards the door and yelled, “Fireshade, bring me the telepathy book!” She kneeled down next to the pegasus to inspect her pulse and breathing.

The door unlatched and swung open, revealing the yellow unicorn. “What di—”

“Telepathy book! NOW!” she screamed again without looking away from the task at hoof.

Breathing very fast and her vision beginning to blur behind the tears forming in her eyes, Twilight held a hoof to a pressure-point on Quillfeather’s neck. “Breathing is good... Pulse is weak, but steady.”

The tome touched down gently next to the unicorn on the floor as Fireshade moved further into the cell.

Twilight looked up to her. “Something went wrong, bring me the data sheets and my notes on this spell.”

“Which ones?” Fireshade asked innocently.

The lavender mage growled loudly. “All of them!” she yelled at the top of her lungs.

The assistant backed out of the room quickly and quietly, while Twilight looked back to Quillfeather’s face. Her eyelids hung open and her tongue lolled out of her open mouth, creating a small puddle of saliva which darkened the stone underneath her muzzle.

“What happened... What went wrong? I checked the calculations four times before I cast the spell. Everything was correct... everything,” she whispered to herself.

Containable, not salvageable.

That’s not helping.

Fireshade returned with a pile of notes and machine-made printouts, setting them neatly on the floor next to the book. “What happened?”

“I don’t know yet,” Twilight said between deep, raspy breaths. “I can still access her memories in my mind, but it’s like she’s just not there anymore... I’m going to try to read her memories.”

A very dim glow surrounded Twilight’s horn for a moment. “Oh no.” Her face slackened and her eyes opened wide in shock. “No no... no,” she breathed as tears began streaming down her face, leaving dark-purple trails in their wake.

One eyelid squinted down on Fireshade’s face. “No what?”

“They’re gone! They’re all gone.” Twilight looked up to her assistant. “Her mind is completely empty... there’s nothing. No memories, no thought, no feeling... nothing.”

“Was the calculation incorrect? I mean, one small error towards the beginning would have cascaded throughout the following equations,” Fireshade said, offering the only explanation she could think of.

“Maybe...” Twilight turned to the book and turned the pages to the passages describing the offending spell. “I can fix this... I can fix this.”

No we can’t... you know we can’t.

“I have to try! I can’t let her die like this!”

Fireshade took several slow steps back. Now standing in the doorway, she said, “I didn’t say not to try.”

Twilight ignored her completely, continuing to read the book and rummaging through her notes. “I did everything right... there has to be a way to reverse the spell.” She flipped several pages forward in the banned tome and scanned the page. “This should do it. I can just put her memories back.”

She scooted back over to Quillfeather and released a new spell. The pegasus’ body glowed faintly while Twilight focused all her concentration on placing her newly acquired memories and knowledge back to the librarian. With rivulets cascading down her face, she continued casting. “It’s not working...”

Twilight broke the telepathy spell and sighed as she once again turned to the book and glanced at the passage before her. “I think I know what I did wrong... I’m going to try again.”

Her horn lit up as she cast the spell again. Fireshade stood idly by, watching and waiting for something to happen.

The yellow mare watched for what seemed like an eternity as her charge frantically attempted again and again to repair her mistake. Finally, she tired of observing the desperate act and slowly walked to Twilight and kneeled next to her. Gently placing a foreleg around her shoulders, Fireshade spoke. “Stop, Twilight, it’s not working... I-I don’t think you can bring her back.”

The realization washed over the lavender mage like an ice-cold waterfall, and she stopped casting the spell. Twilight pushed the leg off her shoulder and moved herself to lie next to what was now nothing more than a empty shell. She placed her head on Quillfeather’s neck and closed her eyes, silently weeping. “Go away, Fire...”

Twilight slowly opened her eyes to be greeted by a very concerned looking yellow unicorn sharply poking her in the side with a hoof. The sleepy mare groaned loudly. “Fireshade, I thought I told you to go away,” she huffed with a disgusted tone.

“You did... just over four hours ago, Twilight. Come on, we need to do something about this.” Fireshade pointed a hoof towards the blue pegasus that hadn’t changed position in the slightest in that time.

Lifting her head from Quillfeather’s side, Twilight looked to Fireshade incredulously. “You mean Quillfeather?”

That is not Quillfeather. She is gone. That is a breathing corpse; Quillfeather’s being—her soul—is gone. Accept it. The pony you knew is gone.

“Whatever you want to call that thing,” Fireshade grumbled under her breath.

Gone... that’s not Quillfeather. It’s just a body.

We cannot allow these emotional attachments to develop with every test subject, or this will be a recurring problem.

“Emotional attachment?” the lavender mare whispered to herself as she climbed up to her hooves.

Fireshade tilted her head to one side and swiveled an ear towards her friend. “What?”

We are going to need a new test subject.

Yeah... there’s a lot more things we can do now that we have some proper equipment.

“Twilight?”

“Get rid of it,” Twilight said in an emotionless, monotone voice as she looked down upon the now-empty shell of a pony.

Fireshade’s eyes widened. “What? Just like that? How am I—”

The lavender mare cut across her assistant’s objection. “I don’t care. Just... just get rid of it.”

Tears began to cloud Twilight’s vision as she turned and slowly walked towards the door with her head hung low. She stopped suddenly as she crossed the threshold of the exit and turned her head back towards Fireshade.

“And bring me two more.”

XI: Disposal and Acquisition

Year 8 of the 2nd Diarchy, 4th day of the Southern Solstice
Personal Journal, entry 12

Yesterday’s memory augmentation attempt was a complete and total disaster. The test subject was lost. Although she survived physically, any and all trace of what made this particular pony who or what she once was has been completely stripped from her mind. It is as though her consciousness was simply removed.

This could possibly be called a partial success, in that the spell that was designed to remove memories did, indeed, do just that. However, the spell being tested took far too much.

For some reason I still seem to have access to the memories of the subject within my own mind. It is rather disconcerting for me to be able to close my eyes and have a memory of flight school rise to the surface of my thoughts. Although, they are not as clear now as they were yesterday just after the experiment was performed, and they seem to be fading quickly at this point. An interesting side-effect of the spell, to say the least.

I have been rechecking everything, but I am unable to find the root cause of the ‘accident’ as of yet. The calculations appear to be correct so far, although there are still many data sheets to go through. It is going to take several days at least to finish a thorough review.

My greatest concern at this point is that something may have been inherently wrong with the spell as described in the book. If this is the case, nothing that is written in that text can be trusted. This will be elaborated on in the next experiment set.

Another possibility is that the incantation may have been either completely incorrect, or I may have mispronounced it. The language has not been in regular use for more than 1,500 years, so the chances of a significant mispronunciation are very likely.

I ordered Fireshade to dispose of the subject. At this time, a breathing vegetable is of no use as a test subject. I also gave Fireshade instruction to bring two more ponies. I am probably taking an unnecessary risk in giving her another chance, but I believe that she can sufficiently complete these tasks.

As soon as the new test subjects are secured, we will begin testing the effects of Fireshade’s GL-c on the susceptibility of the subject to suggestion induced behavior. Concurrently, the second subject will be tested for the same effects while using magic based behavior modification as outlined in the book ‘Tactical Offensive Telepathy’.

While this experiment is being conducted, I will continue my research in unlocking the volumes of study 612718. Although they are important in understanding what exactly is going on in Section 5, I can’t allow these side projects to divert my attention from the true goal here. I will expose the truth, no matter what.

I’m interested to see what Fireshade brings back. Hopefully she uses a little more tact in her selection this time.

One day prior:

“And bring me two more,” Twilight said with an emotionless expression and a vacant look in her eyes. She then turned and left the cell.

Fireshade stood silently, dumbfounded by the quick change of heart of the lavender mage. A door slammed shut in the distance, signalling that Twilight had left the lab. The pyromancer, now left alone with her assigned task, looked down to the blue pegasus on the floor.

“Well… looks like it’s just you and me.” She moved towards the limp body and kicked at it with a forehoof. “Now what in Tartarus am I supposed to do with this thing?”

Moving around to the front of the pegasus, she sat down on the grey stone floor. She leaned her head down to look into the lifeless eyes of the shallowly breathing mare in front of her. “You know, this would be a lot easier if you would’ve just died,” she said while jabbing at the pegasus’ face with her hoof. “I can’t leave you anywhere that somepony might find you. Maybe we could just stick you in one of the other cellblocks deeper in the dungeons.”

The mage lifted her head and scratched at her chin for a moment as she pondered this possibility. “No, that won’t do… you’d probably just start stinking up the place. I don’t think Twi would be too happy about that.”

Lifting herself off the floor, Fireshade began slowly pacing around Quillfeather. “Hmm hm hmmm… damn it, why do I have to mess with this.” A fast-moving, yellow hoof made contact with the chest of the prone pegasus with a sickening thud. “Stupid… not… quite dead… thing!”

The body on the floor responded with a soft groan.

Fireshade quickly leaned in close to the face of the pegasus and squinted into its dull eyes. “Oh really? Is there a part of you still in there somewhere?”

The blue face continued staring at nothing through half-lidded eyes.

The mage huffed loudly. “I wonder if we can do that again,” she stated as she placed a hoof softly on Quillfeather’s neck and began to push.

She pushed harder and harder into the soft tissue of the mare’s throat. Fireshade was leaning nearly her full weight into the hoof when the pegasus twitched violently, coming loose from the mage’s deathly grasp.

Fireshade stumbled slightly as a small smile crept across her face. “Huh… that’s neat. Still programmed for self-preservation.”

A frown quickly took the place of her smile while the mage continued thinking about how best to dispose of the mare in front of her. Maybe I could just throw her in a river… No that would leave too much chance of her being found.

She sat down again with her back to the door, facing the pegasus. The sound of rhythmic tapping filled the room as Fireshade began drumming on the floor with her front hooves. The mage gasped and the monotone rapping suddenly stopped.

“Oh, now there’s a good idea.” She quickly turned her head towards the door and leaned far to the right to get a view of the clock on the wall above the workbench. “Still an hour before the sun goes down… Oh well, guess I’ll study up on this telepathy stuff while we wait.”

The book that Twilight had left on the floor levitated above Fireshade’s head as she exited the cell and made her way to the workbench across from the doorway.

“You should see the stuff in that book, Quill!” Fireshade exclaimed to the brain-dead pegasus on the floor as she entered the cell.

The mage moved close to Quillfeather and looked her over with a scrutinizing eye. “Still breathing, eh? That’s unfortunate,” she said while poking at the blue mass in front of her.

“Anyways, did you know I can knock a pony unconscious with magic?” Fireshade asked the body. “Oh right… of course you didn’t. Don’t really know much of anything at this point, do you?” The yellow mare laughed quietly at her own joke.

She then lifted the pegasus with a telekinesis spell and a small grunt. “Jeez, Quillfeather, I thought pegasi were supposed to be light… How the heck could you even fly?”

Stepping out of the cell into the large common room with the blue pegasus in tow, Fireshade continued talking. “So yeah, I can knock somepony out easy as flipping a switch… apparently it’s possible to completely take control of a pony too, but the telepathy book is unclear about it… I think Twi has another book about that.”

Quillfeather responded by bumping her rear-end limply into the cell door and quickly spinning around, bouncing her head hard against the corner of the doorframe. This unintentional assault elicited a sharp, high-pitch squeak from the floating invalid.

“Oops.” Fireshade giggled and turned around as she released her cargo from the telekinesis. Quillfeather dropped to the floor with a muffled thud and a breathy groan. The unicorn leaned down to inspect the damage done to pegasus’ head. A profusely bleeding contusion ran from the outside corner of the mostly-dead pony’s eye up to the edge of her ear.

“Pfft… Why not? It’s not like I don’t have all the time in the world to deal with you,” Fireshade stated sarcastically, rolling her eyes. She then trotted to the supply cabinet on the far side of the room and removed a white metal box wrapped in a pale-orange aura with a large red cross emblazoned across the lid. “Can’t very well let you leave a trail all the way out of here, though.”

Just as the mare turned to take the case back to Quillfeather, she stopped and smiled as her eyes narrowed. “Actually… I don’t think we’ll need the bandages.” Placing the first-aid kit back in its place within the cabinet, Fireshade walked back over to the pegasus. She leaned down to Quillfeather and whispered gently into her ear, “Hey, if you’re still in there somewhere, this is going to hurt… a lot.”

The air between the two ponies became scorchingly hot with the pyromancer’s magic as she slightly backed away from the pegasus. Fireshade’s horn lit up with an orange aura as a tiny white flame slowly made its way along the large cut, cauterizing the wound and billowing grey smoke as it moved. The blue mare’s left legs began to flail wildly, as though she were trying to escape the pain of the tiny torch, causing the mage to lift an eyebrow. The flame reached the end of the contusion near the base of Quillfeather’s ear and continued on through the ear and up to the tip, bisecting the tissue with surgical precision.

“I think Twilight may have missed something when she was looking in your mind… I bet there’s more of you in there than she thought.” The mage breathed deeply through her nose and scrunched her face up disgustedly. “Ugh… that smells awful.”

Moving in close to inspect her work, she sighed. “That last little bit was special for you for making me deal with this in the first place.” Fireshade once again picked up Quillfeather in her magic and started towards the exit.

The unicorn stopped before making it halfway to the door, dropping Quillfeather to the floor. “You know what? I’m not going to waste this opportunity by just disposing of you.” Fireshade turned around to face the pegasus and kicked her in the gut. “Let’s try out that ‘knockout’ spell.”

Fireshade looked up towards the ceiling, scratching at her chin. “Probably be kinda difficult to tell if it worked or not considering your condition… Oh well!” The mage’s horn illuminated as she cast her newly learned spell.

A loud screech echoed through the lab as Quillfeather cried out, her entire body convulsing violently.

Fireshade quickly cut the spell short and took a step back. “Wow! That was completely unexpected… I think I might have done something wrong. Hold on Quill, lemme check the book.”

Walking to the book laid out on the workbench, the mage continued to talk to the librarian laying prone on the floor. “You know, I’ve been in this castle for a very long time. In fact, when I took you was the first time I’ve gone farther than the gardens since I got here, and I had to sneak out and back in. I’m not supposed to leave without an escort…” Fireshade’s voice trailed off as she pulled the spellbook open. She continued speaking, muttering softly. “…and no matter how many times I ask, they never give me one.”

Fireshade began reading the open book silently for a few moments. She turned to the next page and started to talk at the pegasus again. “I like you, Quill; you’re a good listener… You don’t talk out of turn, you don’t call me things. I’ve been called all sorts of stuff; freak, monster, sociopath… murderer. I’m not a murderer though, it was an accident. They took me, Quill, can you believe that?”

Another page in the book turned as the unicorn continued simultaneously reading and talking. “My parents died, and the government took me because they’re scared of my magic. Those assholes made me wear a dampener on my horn until I was given my job in the lab, except for when I was allowed to practice controlling my magic…” Fireshade sighed deeply, and then whispered under her breath, “And I couldn’t do anything about it.”

The yellow mare turned to face Quillfeather. “I think I got it this time, Quill.”

The last time Fireshade had felt exhilaration like this was the first time she was with a colt, and the only time she had felt truly in control of anything was right now, in this moment. She moved forward towards the blue mare. “You know, Quillfeather, I’ve never been in control of my own life. There’s always been somepony there to tell me what to do and where to be… and how to be, but now, for once, I’m in control; Twilight gave that to me. I have the power to do what I want, when I want. I have the power to bring your pathetic life to a quick end…” The unicorn paused for moment as a slight smirk crossed her lips. “Or a slow and agonizing end.”

Fireshade let her magic loose on the pegasus, wrapping the blue mare in a dim-orange glow. “All I want to do right now is show Twilight that she can depend on me. She’s going to be the grand magus, and as long as I’m useful to her, she’ll give me the freedom that I really want. You know why she’ll do that, Quill? Because she’s my friend, and that’s what friends do for each other… At least I think that’s what friends do. I never really had friends before.” Wispy, white smoke began to rise off of Quillfeather’s coat and mane as the magic continued to quickly heat her.

“Twilight believes in me… she wouldn’t have asked me to do this for her if she didn’t. She’s my friend; not ponies like you that are just scared of me and call me horrible things behind my back! Am I mad or upset about that?” Suddenly, a shrill, mindless scream of pain echoed through the dungeon cell-block as Fireshade continued talking, oblivious to the pain being inflicted on the pegasus. “…Not really. Everypony’s entitled to their opinion, even if it’s wrong in every way. What’s so scary about me anywa—” The monologue stopped abruptly when the smell of burning fur entered the mage’s nose. She shook herself from an icy, trance-like glare to notice patches of Quillfeather’s fur and mane beginning to curl over from the heat.

“Oh! Oops…” Fireshade ended the spell she was casting and started brushing off the pegasus’ fur with a hoof. “I was supposed to be trying to knock you out, wasn’t I? Guess I got a little carried away.” The unicorn giggled while continuing to sweep the singed hair off of Quillfeather.

Fireshade stopped the superfluous act and turned to look at the clock. “Whatever, I guess I can try it out on the next samples. It’s time for us to go.” The mage picked up the damaged pegasus in her telekinesis once more and began trotting towards the exit.

After moving through the doorway, she didn’t turn left to the exit into the castle, but right, heading towards a narrow, unlit stairway leading towards one of many, long-disused dungeon exits to the outside world.

It felt as though her forelegs were going to rip out of their sockets. “Hnnnnng!” Fireshade’s front hooves were wrapped around the handle of a slightly-rusted steel door that—when compared to its surroundings—had been obviously installed recently.

With a rear hoof pressed firmly against the dirty, grey brick wall to the right of the entryway, the mare pulled hard against the handle as she pushed into the wall with all her might. She paused from her third futile attempt to pull the door open to catch her breath for a moment, while Quillfeather looked on from the floor behind the unicorn through lifeless, dark-silver pupils.

Dropping down to all four hooves, Fireshade looked incredulously to the plate-steel construct before her. She scratched at the back of her neck absent-mindedly, ruminating over what could be causing the door to be held fast within its frame.

“The hinges seem okay, I took off the lock-bar, I opened the latch… What is going on?” Just then, her gaze alighted on the seam between the door and frame, opposite of the hinges. Instead of the narrow gap that should have been there, a small raised bead of metal ran from the bottom of the door to the upper corner, effectively sealing the entry.

Fireshade sighed dejectedly. “Of course they would have welded it shut. Why can’t anything be easy today?”

She took a few steps, backing away from the door as she assessed the material. It had been years since Fireshade last practiced this particular spell, something that she thought would never serve her any practical purpose. Directing her focus to the top of the welded seam, she began casting.

Several seconds passed with no effect as the mage watched closely. Slowly, the rusted steel began to glow, cycling through varying colors of heat. A dull-red, then orange, and into a bright-yellow. Just before the welded seam turned white, she tightened her focus to a pinpoint directly centered on the seam and a shower of bright-orange sparks began to spew from the door, harmlessly bouncing off of the walls, floor, and Fireshade’s body. The door continued to submit to the abuse as the pyromancer shifted the focus of the spell slowly down the edge of the solid steel slab.

It only took a few moments for her to effortlessly slice the door away from its firmly secured state. As Fireshade stopped casting, the door lurched towards her ever-so-slightly. “That was easy enough,” she said through a beaming smile as she reached for the door handle.

A high-pitched yelp echoed through the derelict corridor. “Ow, damn it!” Fireshade screamed in pain while jerking her hoof away from the door. “That thing is hot!”

She looked to her fetlock with disdain, a stripe of white, burned skin in place of where her fur once was. “Huh, as many times as I’ve burned myself, you’d think I’d know better.” The hinges groaned as Fireshade grasped the door in a telekinetic aura and pulled it open, exposing the blue-hued night of the world outside.

A limp blue pegasus flew from the doorway and crashed to the ground, skidding to a halt in the middle of a narrow path clinging to the mountainside, overgrown with knee-high grass and weeds. Fireshade stepped out of the dungeon, stopping momentarily to allow her eyes to adjust to the dimly moonlit surroundings.

The corridors of the artificial caverns stood deep beneath the city of Canterlot and were arranged in a manner that made it near-impossible to keep oneself oriented to the outside world. The mage turned to the cliff-face that housed the steel door and looked up, hoping to glean some information as to where the exit had placed her in relation to the city above. The moon gave her surroundings an eerie, bluish-silver glow, and just beyond the horizon of the mountainside in the distance she could make out the topmost portion of the brightly lit, gilded, spired crowns of two of the castle's tallest citadels.

"Those dungeons just go on and on and on, don't they, Quill?" Fireshade asked, turning back to the now bruised, battered and singed pegasus. "We're quite a ways out, but I think we should go up around the bend a little further."

She trotted by Quillfeather, enveloping the pegasus in telekinetic magic as she passed. Now dragging the pegasus behind her through the tall grass and across the disused path of small, sharp broken stone, Fireshade started to chat with her not-so-talkative captive. "I'm not very good at teleportation, you know. I mean, I can teleport myself just fine, but moving other stuff is hard for me. So I thought this would be great practice. It's practical. I can practice teleporting and get rid of you at the same time!"

The pair came around the corner and Fireshade came to a stop, Quillfeather sliding slowly to a halt next to her. A short distance ahead, the path widened and split into a Y. The left path hugged the mountain, continuing at the same elevation; the rightmost path doubled back on itself shortly past the split and descended quickly towards the valley below. The mage walked to the edge of her current path and looked down the hill at the lower road. It only continued for several hundred yards before becoming impassable, presumably having been destroyed as a tactical decision made long ago.

Fireshade trotted to the area where the path broadened. "I guess this is good. There's plenty of room to work here," she said, turning around in place and taking in her surroundings. To one side, a steep granite cliff rose high into the night sky; on the other side, a not-quite-so-steep incline sloped downward to the valley far below. A soft glow outlined the mountainside in the direction they had traveled from, showing the only remaining visage of Canterlot in the distance.

"Alright, focus on what and where…" Fireshade cinched her eyes down tight, simultaneously concentrating on the blue pegasus and a spot on the ground directly in front of her. A soft glow lit the area around the mage as she opened her eyes and looked up to the rock wall, watching the shadows dance amongst the dim, orange light.

Suddenly a white light flashed to her left and an indistinct pop sounded. The illumination of Fireshade's magic stopped and she looked to the ground in front of her. "Well, now where did that stupid pega—Oof!"

The unicorn, now laying in a crumpled mass in the middle of the path, craned her neck around to find what had knocked her off of her hooves. She came face-to-face with the cold gaze of Quillfeather. A moment passed while Fireshade thought about her problems with teleportation. She lifted the dead weight of the pegasus off of herself and threw the body towards the cliff face using her telekinesis.

“See what I mean? I just get distracted too easily…” Her voice trailed off as she noticed a bright-orange flower nearby. She plucked the flower with her magic and gently levitated it to her, placing it gently in her mane, behind her ear. “I just need to try harder.”

“Let’s try again!” Fireshade exclaimed excitedly just before letting her magic flow to the pegasus.

Quillfeather disappeared from her position and reappeared in the path—and on the ground—a short distance towards where they had started. “That’s better; let’s keep going!” A flurry of flashes began to light the immediate area in quick succession, and Quillfeather moved to a different location on the mountainside road with each subsequent cast of Fireshade’s magic.

A white light strobed from the direction of the downhill slope behind the mage. She jumped a very short distance off the ground, spinning in place to see nothing but open air for several miles across to the next mountain peak. Fireshade heard an impact and the sound of something tumbling heavily down the sharply sloping hillside below. She ran to the edge of the road and looked over the side of the precipice. “Oops.”

On the road below, she saw Quillfeather, lying motionless, the wing and back leg of her left side bent at awkward, unnatural angles and obviously broken. “Alright, enough screwing around, Quillfeather, get back up here.” In a flash, the blue pegasus once again appeared next to Fireshade.

The unicorn looked down at the bruised and bleeding husk of what was once Quillfeather. “Well, Quill, this is the part where you and I go our separate ways,” Fireshade stated as she turned towards the cliff-face on the other side of the path. “I would say ‘I’m sorry,’ but I’m not, so what’s the point?”

The unicorn’s eyes honed in on a spot in the granite wall. Focusing intently on the piece of stone, she began to cast her final spell on the blue pegasus. Fireshade closed her eyes, still imagining the wall and the interior of the mountain beyond. The tell-tale light of a teleportation spell burst from the pegasus as she instantly dematerialized.

“All done. Now I can get to… work…” Her words trailed off to the sound of a fast successive thumping in front of her. Already suspecting what she would find, Fireshade slowly opened her eyes to the mountainside before her. A deep sigh forced its way across the mage’s lips. “Damn it, didn’t go far enough.”

The short walk to the bare rock cliff seemed excruciatingly slow as Fireshade closely watched the leg reflexively tapping the wall. The forward portion of the pegasus protruded from the granite like a gargoyle at the top of a Manehatten high-rise. Quillfeather’s head hung limply from her exposed shoulder, and to the left of the now barely twitching leg, a blue hoof jutted from the solid granite.

A yellow hoof gently cradled the pegasus’ chin, lifting her head up to look into the eyes of her executioner. “Always giving me trouble, eh Quill? Anything that was left in that pretty head of yours is definitely gone now.” Fireshade chuckled as she withdrew her hoof, allowing the lifeless head to slump back down to its gravity-laden position.

“Hmm…” Fireshade moved close to inspect the interface between the solid granite and the pony’s body, noting the seamless fusion between the two objects. “Neat-o.”

Guess I’ll have to teleport her out and try again, the mage thought as she positioned herself to stand directly in front of Quillfeather.

Fireshade’s horn glowed as she reached out with her magic and took notice of how the pegasus’ body was not just embedded within the stone, but was thoroughly intertwined at a molecular level. The unicorn’s brow furrowed and a frown washed over her face. “Well, that makes it a bit more difficult. I bet Twilight wouldn’t have any problem with this.”

A dim, orange light glowed across the face of the pegasus and the rough granite surface around her. Firseshade closed her eyes in intense concentration, preparing the spell that would untangle Quillfeather from the rock.

You got this, Fireshade. No problem.

The sound she heard was not that of a normal teleport. The ‘pop’ was there, but another sound presented itself along with the mundane report. The sickening sound of ripping flesh and crackling bone reached the mage’s ears at nearly the same time she felt a heavy, warm spray across her face and chest.

Her orange eyes shot open, assessing the scene laid before her. The portion of Quillfeather that had been hanging out of the cliff was now gone, replaced by a dark-crimson circle about the size of a pony’s barrel. The circle looked like rock, but it had been stained the color of blood and slowly wept trickles of sanguine fluid down the slope to the ground.

“Oh, shit…” Fireshade reached up and pulled a hoof through her messy mane. Slowly bringing the hoof before her face, her eyes widened as her foreleg came into view. The back of her fetlock was smeared with thick, red stripes, and small white flecks of bone were caught in her fur.

A shrill, high-pitched scream echoed across the valley below. Fireshade began spinning in circles and trotting quickly in place. “Eww! It’s in my mane! Gross gross gross gross!”

Panicked and unsure of what to do next, the yellow mare made a move to run back to the dungeon, but stopped short and turned around, taking several fast steps in the opposite direction. Now beginning to hyperventilate, she paced back and forth, nearly at a gallop, for a moment until she tripped over something soft in the middle of the path. Fireshade looked back to find the object that sent her flailing to the ground.

“You,” she growled while giving a fiery glare towards Quillfeather’s empty eyes. “This is your fault!”

Fireshade jumped to her hooves and turned to face the offending pegasus. “We’re going to take care of this the way I should have in the first pl—Oh sweet Celestia!”

Wincing as she quickly spun away from the scene, the mage forced herself to choke back the bile rising in her throat. She was intimately familiar with death, but not like this. Any ponies that died during testing in the lab always went relatively quietly and blood-free. Being so near such a gruesome end of a pony raised the instinctive reflex to retch from the deepest recesses of her mind.

Once her rebellious stomach was again under control, Fireshade—breathing deeply—turned her focus back to the task at hand. She surveyed what was left of the pony in front of her. A head, neck, partial chest, and left foreleg were all that remained of the pegasus librarian; the mage was unable to undo the physical entanglement of the rest of Quillfeather’s body, which remained within the granite wall.

Fireshade lifted the body in a telekinetic field and placed it on the ground near the bleeding portion of the cliff-face. “Would’ve been done by now if I had just stuck with what I’m good at,” the mage grumbled to herself as she stepped back as far as she could, her horn illuminating brightly, swiftly charging with energy.

Her vision now rippled with waving distortions caused by the heat of the powerful spell she was currently readying. A drop of sweat trickled down the side of the mage’s face, quickly evaporating in the sweltering torridity. The tall grass around Fireshade’s target went limp and shriveled as it began to smolder, sending a thick, white smoke into the air around her. The tall grass around the unicorn began to rustle and bend in an artificial wind as she drew more and more fuel from the atmosphere and placed it in a gaseous ball above the pegasus. She compressed the ball into a column of volatile gas, then slowly lowered it.

A howling jet of flame exploded to life, easily rivaling the hottest blast furnaces in the foundries of Phillydelphia. The rocket-like stream of fire shooting seemingly from nothing expelled a near-blinding, bright-yellow flame into the ground and against the granite cliff. Several minutes passed, and finally having consumed all of the fuel Fireshade was able to gather, the massive torch abruptly extinguished itself.

Fireshade took a slow, tentative step forward, unable to see anything but a glowing red semicircle on the granite embankment and a large half-circle of burning embers in the grass along the edge of the charred area. She sat down in the middle of the mountainside trail and waited a few minutes for her pupils to catch up with the sudden absence of light.

As her sight returned to her, the full effect of her spell became evident. Quillfeather was gone and the area where her remains once were now took on the appearance of black-colored glass. The granite wall, which had been incessantly weeping a crimson liquid, donned a similar appearance, except with once-flowing ripples on its surface where the rock had sagged under the assault of the intense heat.

Standing up, Fireshade smirked and gave an approving nod. “Quick, easy, and highly effective. Now to go clean up and head to town!”

The mage trotted back to derelict entrance to the dungeon up the road. She passed through the doorway and closed the slab of steel behind her with a rattling metallic clunk. From outside, a red glow could be seen slowly trekking up the edge of the door as Fireshade resealed the entry.

A nearly full, waxing moon hung high overhead, giving off enough illumination that Fireshade could easily move through the Royal Gardens without any other light source. She wore a simple tan cloak over her back and saddlebag with the thought that if she was going into the city, she should at least cover her cutie mark.

Fireshade gazed at the massive topiaries and beautiful flower beds bathed in the dim moonlight as she trotted past on her way through the garden. She paid much closer attention to what was around her rather than in front of her, until the sound of clattering metal ahead caught her attention and she looked in the direction she was currently traveling. Two unicorns of the Royal Guard were walking the opposite direction on the same path that the mage was traveling.

Having already been spotted, Fireshade continued her journey towards the guard ponies, smiling the entire way.

“Halt!” shouted the white unicorn on the left, still quite some distance away.

The yellow unicorn’s smile faltered as she complied with the order. She flicked her head sharply to flip the bangs of her still-wet mane out of her eyes. As the guards closed in on her, the smile returned. “Hey guys.”

“Fireshade? What are you doing out here so late?” the dark-grey stallion on the right asked.

“So late?” Fireshade sidled around next to the stallion and put her forelegs around his neck. “Come on, Glaive, it’s only... what? Like eleven o’clock?”

“Midnight,” the other guard responded gruffly.

Fireshade leaned out to look around Glaive’s head and stuck her tongue out at his partner. “Pfft... whatev, it’s still not that late.”

“Regardless of your subjective definition of ‘late’, we still need to know what you’re doing out here.”

“Gah...” Fireshade unwrapped her hooves from Glaive’s neck. “Your friend’s no fun.”

“Bulwark,” the white guard stated.

“Whatever. If you must know, I’m going to go for a walk through the labyrinth.”

“In the middle of the night?” Glaive inquired.

“Well, yeah. Why not?” A mischievous grin crept across Fireshade’s face and she traced a hoof down Glaive’s armored chest as she continued in a sultry tone. “You could always ditch this colt and come with me... We could go have some real fun.”

Glaive blushed faintly, taking a step back. “You know I can’t do that.”

Fireshade sighed hard and looked to the grey unicorn with a pouty lower lip. “Fine... he can come with too.”

“What!? No, that’s not what I meant, Fire.”

Bulwark quickly jumped into the conversation. “That’s enough! Move along, Miss Fireshade, you’re going to have to go frolic through the maze by yourself tonight. Now get outta here.”

“Hmph... suit yourselves, then. See ya around!” She ran between the two guards, resuming her trek towards the labyrinth.

Glaive and Bulwark turned in unison, watching the pyromancer run off into the distance.

Without turning away from the sight of Fireshade running away, Bulwark spoke. “Wow, she’s strange... Labyrinth in the middle of the night, and what was all that about you going... with...” His words mired to stop as his jaw hung slack. The guard slowly turned his head to look at the side of Glaive’s face. “Di—Did you?”

Without flinching, Glaive answered apathetically, “Yes.”

“Well, no reason to let fear and common sense stand in your way,” the other guard chuckled. “You have heard the rumors about that filly, right?”

“Not until after,” the grey unicorn replied simply.

Bulwark turned to continue along the set patrol route. “Huh, to tell ya the truth, she scares the shit outta me.”

“Me too.”

It only took a few minutes for Fireshade to find her way to the outer wall of the maze farthest from the castle. The shrubbery at this point in the maze abutted against the stone parapet that surrounded the castle grounds, making it an easy spot for Fireshade to teleport to the outside world.

With a flash, the lush, green topiary that was in front of her dissolved, only to be replaced by a stone wall built of precisely cut granite blocks. Fireshade turned around, looking directly over the Mid District, with the factories and looming pollution of the Lower district far below. She pulled the hood of the cloak over her head and began the journey to her destination: the Mid District commercial sector.

Fireshade reasoned that this would be a perfect place to find some suitable test subjects. She had heard stories of this area from her coworkers; it was the heart of the night-life in Canterlot, so there would be plenty of ponies to choose from. Not to mention, many of them would be drunk, making them easy targets.

It took Fireshade twenty minutes to make a trek that would normally be a five minute jaunt from her position just outside the rampart of the original, centuries-old fortress-city of Canterlot. She skirted around the edge of the district, sticking to the shadows of the surprisingly clean alleyways behind the outlying buildings and doing her best to not be seen.

The attenuated rhythmic thump of music could be heard through the wall of the building she currently stood behind. The mage looked up to the rectangular windows near the roof; they were dancing with light, quickly changing color in time with the undulations of the bassline. The thought of the ponies inside the nightclub entered her mind. Dancing, laughing, and carrying on without a care in their own daftly limited view of the world.

“Pfft... Idiots.”

Fireshade shook off the thought and walked slowly to the corner of the structure, stopping short to lean forward and peek down the alley towards the road in front of the building. Small groups of ponies could be seen passing back and forth on the well-lit street. First a stallion and mare passed by, leaning against one another. Then a group of four mares walked by, stopping for just a moment to laugh with their intoxicated friend who had just stumbled over her own hooves. Then another group of ponies wandered past, and another, and another. It quickly became obvious to the mage that this area was much too busy to serve her needs.

Ducking her head back behind the corner of the nightclub, she sat down on the cool cobblestones of the back-alley. Since her original plan seemed to be inherently flawed, she continued to sit for a moment, pondering her next move.

A grin appeared across her lips as she stood. “Guess I just gotta go somewhere less busy,” she said softly to herself and began her journey to the Lower District.

Fireshade wandered aimlessly through the mostly-deserted industrial sector of the Lower District. Stopping in the middle of an intersection, surrounded by massive, groaning and smoking factories, she looked both ways up the crossroad, trying to determine which direction would suit her better. The unicorn arbitrarily chose left and continued her journey.

The roads here were not lit nearly as well as the pathways through the Mid, leaving many areas shrouded in shadowy darkness. Now she just needed to find some ponies.

She stopped and pulled her hood down to scratch at the back of her neck as she looked at a glowing blue and red sign in the distance, just beyond the end of the factory to her right, yet still too far away to read. Fireshade began moving at a canter towards the sign.

As she moved closer the brightly lit letters became readable: Crimson Hoof Tavern

Well, there’s gotta be ponies there.

A movement from the space between the factory and the bar caught Fireshade’s eye, and she jumped to the side, pressing her body against the red brick construct. An earth pony stepped out of the alley slowly and nervously glanced back and forth several times before trotting off in the opposite direction of the mage. Fireshade watched as the pony disappeared into the darkness.

That’s odd, she thought to herself as she moved away from the huge building and began walking towards the bar once again. She slowed her forward movement as she passed the end of the factory and slightly moved her head to the right, in order to catch a discrete glimpse of what was in that alley.

A large smile broke out across her face. The indistinct, shadowy outlines of two ponies stood in the pathway between the buildings. She thought it wise to stop and think about how to best approach the situation; so she continued by without slowing down further and entered the already open door of the Crimson Hoof Tavern.

It wasn’t overly crowded, but it wasn’t deserted by any means. The room was uncomfortably warm and an overwhelming smell pierced Fireshade’s senses. It reeked of sweat, grease, and coal smoke; the smell of hard-working factory employees. Several ponies played cards at a table in one corner, a few were seated at the bar, and a dozen more ponies—scattered throughout the room—idly chatted with each other while sipping their various drinks.

No one seemed to take notice of her until she sat down on a stool and the tan unicorn behind the bar walked over to her with a slight limp to his gait. “Not too often we get such a pretty filly in here; what can I get for ya?”

Fireshade unwillingly blushed at the compliment and smiled. “Cider, please!” she chirped in a girlish, high-pitch squeak.

“Sure thing, it’ll be two bits, darlin’.”

A few silver coins levitated from Fireshade’s saddlebag to the top of the bar as the bartender hoofed over the mug of hard cider. She took the cup in her hoof and brought it to her lips, only to be interrupted by a caressing touch across her cutie mark. Looking down, the mage found a maroon-haired hoof rubbing her upper thigh. She could smell the whiskey on his breath well before he spoke.

“Hey, sweetheart, you wanna g—waaah!”

An orange glow wrapped the pegasus stallion’s hoof, which in turn was wrapped around his back, bent awkwardly backwards up over his shoulders.

Fireshade turned her head to look him in the eye. “No. I don’t… and if you ever touch me with that again, I will not only remove it from my body, but yours as well.”

“Okay! Okay! P-Please, lemme go, that really hurts! I’m sorry!” shouted the offending pegasus desperately, causing the other patrons of the tavern to turn and look at the source of the commotion.

The aura dissipated from the pegasus as he nearly fell over and clutched his shoulder, limping away. The other ponies—some chuckling at the scene—returned to what they were doing, and Fireshade turned back to the bar. She grabbed her drink and guzzled it down in one go. The mage slammed the mug onto the counter, stood up, and then made her way to the door, smirking menacingly to the pegasus she had accosted not a minute prior.

“Thanks for stopping in!” a voice called out from behind her as she passed through the exit.

Immediately as Fireshade left the small tavern, she turned left, and then left again, entering the narrow alley. The claustrophobic backstreet between the buildings was completely shrouded in darkness, the looming brick construct next to her completely blocking out any signs that a moon even existed in this place.

After taking several steps, Fireshade paused to lift her hood up over her head. She squinted into the nearly pitch-black scene ahead of her, trying to find the figures she had seen earlier, before continuing down the roughly paved alley. It only took a moment at a slow trot before somepony stepped out from behind a dumpster and directly into her path. As Fireshade approached, the first thing she noticed was the absence of wings or a horn.

“Howdy there, you uh... lookin’ fer somethin’?” asked the voice of a mare with a definite drawling accent.

Fireshade glanced up the pathway beyond the pony in front of her and noticed the movement of another pony a short distance up the way. “Well actually, I am,” she answered with a crooked smile.

The two stood, watching each other for a moment, until the earth pony tired of the stand-off and spoke. “Well? I ain’t got all night, so let’s make this quick... We got dust, aurora, reaper, and dragon’s breath. What did you want?”

Looking up the alley one more time, she thought she saw the thin outline of a horn on the other pony. Fireshade turned her attention back to the pony directly in front of her and slightly tilted her head to the side.

“Yeah, he’s got yer stuff, I’ll take yer money. Now what in Tartarus do ya want?”

“All of it.” Fireshade smiled.

“Wha—” The earth pony didn’t even have a chance to finish her first word when the telekinetic blast hit her mercilessly in the chest, sending her flailing into a nearby brick wall. She bounced off the masonry building and landed hard on the cobblestones below with a groan.

Fireshade spotted the telltale glow of a charging spell several dozen paces ahead of her. The mage quickly cast her own spell, erecting a barrier in front of herself just as a blue bolt of magic collided with the shimmering wall of energy.

Allowing the barrier to fall and taking off at a gallop, she ran as fast as she could towards the stallion. The large unicorn responded by taking several stumbling steps back, away from Fireshade. Just as she came within striking distance of the intended victim, the yellow mare disappeared in a white flash.

The stallion spun around, expecting an attack from his rear. The attack never came. He turned slowly in-place, wondering where the cloaked assailant had teleported to. The unicorn just finished his first full circle when his vision filled with an orange hue; then promptly faded to black as he lost consciousness.

“Oh wow, it worked! That is so cool!” called a voice from above. Fireshade stood on the roof of the Crimson Hoof Tavern, looking down at the two ponies she’d pummeled into submission. “That was kinda boring, though. They’re obviously not trained to fight.”

In a flash, Fireshade returned to the alley. She lifted the limp, unconscious earth pony in a telekinetic field and moved her further into the dark alley, setting her near her partner. A black, cylindrical piece of metal with a hinge on one side floated out of her bag. It opened lengthwise like a clam and promptly clamped around the unicorn’s horn, rendering his ability to channel magic nearly non-existent.

This is perfect. A couple of drug dealers... only ponies that will notice them missing are their doper customers.

The mage floated a piece of chalk out of her bag and began scrawling two circular geometric patterns on the ground.

Sure glad Twi showed me how to use these things... Had a hard enough time getting one pony to the dungeon, would’ve been impossible to bring two back without this magic.

As soon as the arrays emerged, she placed each pony in their respective circle. Fireshade let her magic flow to the arcane runes and sigils, causing two concurrent, bright blazes of burning white energy to briefly illuminate the dark alleyway like it was the middle of the day.

The moment the two ponies were gone and assumed safe in their new homes in the Canterlot dungeon, Fireshade hurriedly swept away the chalk outlines with her hooves. Once she was satisfied that the arrays were destroyed, she pulled the cloak’s hood off of her head and started trotting down the alley—away from the tavern—making her way back to Canterlot Castle.

XII: Twilight Vision

A strange, distorted world lay before her. A deathly-still pond and a leafless, dead tree with jagged, oddly spiraling branches. Beyond that, more trees. A forest of these lifeless, black monoliths acting as monuments to an empty soul. Shining glimmers visible through the gaps in the trees. The farther ones glowing brighter than the nearer.

The colors are wrong.

A bone-white sky and earth. Everything shaded in black and various hues of purple.

Twilight stepped towards the pond with an overwhelming sense of foreboding rising in the back of her mind.

Have I been here before?

She slowly approached the edge of the glassy body of water and leaned forward to look into the mirror-like finish of the tiny lake.

A terrifying construct peered back at her from the surface of the pond. Disconcerting, yet calming and expected. Glowing magenta eyes sunk into a disfigured, white unicorn’s head stared lifelessly into Twilight’s eyes. The monstrosity’s horn spiraled far out of its head—much farther than a normal unicorn’s horn—with alternating stripes of black and white, while a mass of stringy, black hair fell limp around its face and neck.

The unicorn in the pond lifted a spindly, almost mechanical looking foreleg—no, an arm—and waved it lethargically across its face. As it passed Twilight’s field of vision, she could see the arm between her and the water, along with the reflected arm beyond.

She held the white arm in front of her, closely inspecting it. Twilight’s gaze then followed the length of the appendage towards her torso. She looked intently down at herself to find she was standing upright, supported by multiple black, mechanical, spider-like legs attached below her hips.

She stood motionless beneath the burning-white, sunless sky, pondering her appearance for a moment, before leaning over the still pond once again.

It all seems so familiar...

Using her strange legs to propel her forward, Twilight stepped into the water. The liquid effortlessly yielding to her movement, creating small ripples across the once-smooth surface.

If I stay in the shallows...

She slowly and deliberately took several more steps, moving further away from the shore, entering slightly deeper water.

As long as I’m careful...

The water wrapped the strange legs and her lower torso in a freezing blanket of fire. Cold, but hot at the same time.

...not to slip.

Another step. She came to the precipice of a deep, cylindrical void beneath the crystal-clear water. Within the depths she could again see the same shining glimmers that were evident in the forest. An overwhelming urge to run away from this place came over her—something about this lake terrified her, but she continued to gaze lovingly into the cavernous abyss.

I wonder...

...what it all means.

With a loud splash, Twilight’s distorted head and body fell beneath the surface of the pond as her left legs lost their hold.

I wonder...

As her pseudo-mechanical body fell slowly down the abyssal, underwater corridor, she closed her eyes blissfully and allowed gravity to take her further into the seemingly endless depths.

...if this is what I am meant to do?

...or merely something I must do.

Twilight shot upright, waking with a gasp on top of the blankets on her bed, her coat matted down with a cold sweat.

These dreams are getting to be unnerving.

An intense, stinging pain shot through her right thigh, causing her to slowly lower her head in order to find the source of the discomfort. To her horror, everything around her hindquarters shone with the crimson color of fresh blood. Her focus moved to her right hoof, where—held tightly in the crook of her fetlock joint—a scalpel taunted her, stained with her own life-giving liquid. Twilight yelped and jumped up to her hooves as she threw the razor-sharp blade across her bedroom.

Still standing on the bed, she turned her head to assess the damage. Two deeply gouged cuts, oriented diagonally in opposite directions, created a dripping, bloody ‘X’ across the cutie mark. Twilight reached back and gently touched her damaged cutie mark, looking closely at the blood-matted fur and slowly oozing lacerations.

Twilight shakily stepped down from the bed and opened her bedroom door just enough to fit her head through. “Spike? Are you here?”

She waited in silence for a moment before the raspy voice of the adolescent dragon called back. “Yeah, Twi! Hold on just a sec!”

There was a shuffle of feet across the stone-tiled floor, and very suddenly, Spike appeared directly in front of Twilight. He gave her a brief appraising glance, noticing her fast, short breaths along with growing moisture around the edge of her eyes. The dragon’s eyes narrowed and his face scrunched up into a mixed look of concern and confusion. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just need the first-aid box,” Twilight said apprehensively.

“What happened?” Spike took a step closer and leaned to try to get a better look into the mare’s bedroom.

Twilight’s eyes shifted nervously. “I, uh—I cut myself accidentally.”

He didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, until the middle of her bed edged into view from behind the door. It looked as though someone had been stabbed to death, the blood now drying to a large, dark-brown smear. “Accidently!? It looks like somepony was murdered in there! Are you sure you’re okay?”

Sighing dejectedly, she shifted her focus to the floor in front of her. “Yes, I’m fine… Please, just get me the first-aid box.”

“Get out here and sit down,” Spike ordered while pointing towards the table in the center of the main room. “I’ll go get the medical stuff.”

As soon as the dragon wandered off to retrieve the supplies, Twilight swung the door fully open and walked out into the room. Each limping step left several crimson droplets on the floor and sent a wave of searing pain through her right leg. She sat down just as Spike returned with the large case of emergency medical supplies.

The box dropped to the floor next to Twilight with a rattling thud as Spike kneeled down and looked over the wound on the unicorn’s leg. “This is bad, Twi… How in the world did you cut yourself like this accidentally?”

“I think I was sleepwalking,” whispered the unicorn, staring at the tabletop while a single tear rolled down her cheek. “I woke up and it was just there.”

Spike opened the medical case and removed a bottle along with a small sponge. “Maybe we should talk to Princess Luna about it,” he suggested while dowsing the sponge with the orangish-red liquid from the bottle.

Twilight’s head jerked around to face the dragon. “No!” She slapped a hoof over her mouth at the realization of her loud outburst. “I-I mean, I’m fine… it was just a dream. Nothing more.”

“This is going to sting a bit.”

A scream echoed through the suite just as Spike touched the antiseptic-soaked sponge to one of the broad incisions. It felt like her thigh had been set ablaze, the burning sensation coursed through her and throbbed at the site of her injury. “Oh goddess, Spike! That really hurts!” Twilight shouted, tears now flowing freely from her eyes.

Spike continued cleaning the wounds for his friend, unfazed by her objections. “You know, Twi, I’m worried about you…”

“Why would you be worried? I told you, I’m alright,” she replied, wincing with a quiet hiss each time the sponge touched her.

“I know what you told me, but look at this mess… Dreams don’t do this.” Spike sighed, adding more antiseptic solution to the sponge before mopping it through the cut again. “And you’ve been… distant, I guess. I’ve hardly seen you lately, and when I do, it’s just enough time for you to give me research assignments or for me to tell you about what’s going on in Section 5.”

“I know, Spike. It’s just that with all my training, research, and other duties, I haven’t had much time for anything.” Twilight crossed her forelegs on the table and cradled her head atop them, looking across the room at a wall while Spike pulled a small bag from the box and placed the sponge in it.

“That’s just it though, Twilight. You don’t have time for anything. You need to relax and kick-back some,” Spike said as he continued searching the medical kit. “You need to take some time for you… All done cleaning it up, it’s all you now.”

“Good start to a great day,” Twilight grumbled apathetically as she turned her head to look at the cuts on her upper leg. The fur around the lacerations had taken an orange tint from the antiseptic, and now that the cuts were scrubbed out, she bled much faster. “I hate these spells, there’s so much that could go wrong when dealing with a pony’s cells.”

A soft violet glow shrouded her cutie mark as the deep cuts slowly began to knit themselves back together, filling the chasms between her flesh. Twenty minutes of silence passed with Twilight using medical magic on herself while Spike watched closely. As the final section of the cuts closed themselves, the aura dissipated, leaving behind two very obvious, large, raised scars.

Twilight ran a hoof over the scars, feeling the rough and jagged lines where her fur would likely never grow again. Turning her head to visually inspect the permanent damage, she sighed deeply. “I suppose that will have to do… Spike, would you please get my court mage cloak for me?”

“Sure thing, Twilight.” The dragon walked to the closet near the front door.

Standing from the chair, Twilight stretched her right hind leg, wincing slightly at the tightness of the scar tissue. “I’ll be right back out, Spike.” The mage limped to her room and shut the door.

The unicorn felt obligated to keep to her scheduled routine as close as possible, even with the revelation of the gaping wounds on her upper leg. If she skipped breakfast she should only be a few minutes behind. Twilight telekinetically grasped her journal from the drawer of a small nightstand next to bed and opened it to the first empty page as the small book landed on top of her desk.

Year 8 of the 2nd Diarchy, 4th day of the Southern Solstice
Personal Journal, entry 13

Ever since my journey through the sigil teleportation twelve days ago, I’ve been having outlandishly strange dreams. At first I thought nothing of it; dreams are nothing more than the visual and audio manifestations of idle thoughts. Last night, however, I seem to have injured myself in a sleep-walking incident during one of these dreams. I guess now is as good a time as any to start wearing my official court mage uniform—even if it is only to cover my the scars on my cutie mark.

It’s odd, because it’s not the cuts that I’m worried about; it’s the dreams themselves. I’ve never had dreams that were so vivid or gave me such a sense of deep foreboding.

It’s always the same dream. Nothing seems right, but it doesn’t seem completely out of place. The white, sunless sky and the white earth feel completely normal in that place. The lake, however—

I don’t know. There’s probably nothing to it; like I said, dreams are simply the machinations of a mind that needs an outlet. Even so, I can’t help but think that these particular dreams are trying to tell me something—warn me, perhaps. But to what end, I’m unsure.

I will be spending most of today in the Section 5 lab, checking up on a couple of relatively unimportant projects that I’ve been overseeing. I also need to ‘liberate’ documentation concerning a few pieces of tech that I secured from the surplus vault. They’re currently inoperative, but I’m confident that I can repair at least one of them with the parts from the other two. I hope that they do not become necessary to use, but they will certainly tip the scale in my favor if a diplomatic solution cannot be obtained when I finally confront Celestia. If only Quillfeather had been a unicorn, I could have used her as a template to engineer an interface between the devices and the biological magic conduits of a pony. At least then, her death would not have been complete waste.

In three day’s time, the ceremony marking my ascension to the position of Royal Equestrian Grand Magus will happen. After I’m officially given my new post, my research will become much easier. Arcana will have no say in my coming and going from the labs as I please, and in the current chain-of-command, I will answer directly to no pony other than the princesses.

All of my friends from Ponyville will be here; Celestia even secured a pass for Rainbow Dash to leave basic training for the duration of the ceremony and party afterwards. I’m hoping to have the protective magic of the three volumes of study 612718 dispelled, so I can show them the truth of Equestria’s ruling class and they can help me in confronting the princesses. With the full power of the Elements on our side, even Celestia wouldn’t dare stand against the will of the ponies of Equestria.

I hope.

Author's Notes:

For those of you not familiar with the Ask Researcher Twilight blog:
This is not magic
Twilight Vision 1
Twilight Vision 2
Twilight Vision 3

XIII: Accusation and Experimentation

Celestia’s eyes narrowed as she looked down from her elaborately gilded throne with an icy-cold gaze. “You do realize that what you are saying is essentially an accusation of high treason?”

With his head bowed, attention firmly focused on the plush red carpet beneath him partially due to respect but mostly out of fear, Arcana answered very simply with a slightly wavering voice. “Yes, Your Highness.”

“And...” The princess stopped momentarily to release a deep sigh. “…not only is it an accusation of one of the most severely punishable crimes in Equestria, but an accusation leveled against my most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Who happens to be taking her place as the Grand Magus in less than three days.” Celestia stood and began walking slowly down the steps from the dais.

“Yes, Your Highness,” the unicorn stated again, nervously fidgeting in-place. Arcana felt as though he might be banished at any time for this indiscretion.

The princess approached the head mage and stood tall, several feet before him. “Please, raise your head and look at me, Arcana.”

Now sweating with anxiety and fear, Arcana complied with the demand veiled as a request and looked to his princess. The face that met his sight was terrifying. Her features were no less calm or motherly than they ever were, but her eyes held the burning rage of a thousand suns. “Milady, I-I-I apologize for my—”

Celestia raised a gold-clad hoof, indicating that all she required from the head mage was his silence. “You come to me with wild accusations of conspiracy and illegal experimentation levied against my protegé but you have absolutely no evidence except for some coincidentally missing equipment from a storage facility and assertions that Twilight has been acting strange? You know that I hold your opinion and counsel with the utmost regard, but what, exactly, are you trying to accomplish here, Arcana?”

The grey unicorn opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off once again by Celestia’s waving hoof. She turned away from Arcana and made her way to a massive, floor-to-ceiling window at the side of the room with lush, red velvet curtains tied back to either side. The alicorn scanned the northerly scenery. A wide, flourishing valley stretched as far as the horizon with huge open fields, gently rolling hills and isolated stands of trees scattered throughout. Cloudsdale lazily floated above the valley; at this distance all that could be made out was a massive cloudbank with several ribbons of prismatic color carelessly hanging below. Celestia stood for several minutes, gazing out the window, quietly contemplating the ingenuity of pegasus architecture.

“But what about the energy dampening magic, Your Majesty? And all of the times that she is nowhere to be found?” Arcana loudly interjected into the silence.

Snapped out of her respite, Celestia quickly spun away from the window. She could feel the heat of her magic building around her body as her anger increased with every word that Arcana spoke. “That. Is. Enough! Although the dampening magic is not in common use or taught anymore, it is far from being a banned magic. It is a very simplistic illusory spell, and even if Twilight didn’t stumble across it in her studies, she does have the aptitude to design such a spell on her own. And I don’t blame her at all for using it. If somepony was trying to keep as close tabs on me as you are with her, I would likely have done the same thing.”

“But—”

"But nothing, Arcana.” Celestia took several deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself as she walked back to the mage and looked down at him. “Did you ever think to check where Fireshade might be during those times that Twilight came up missing?"

Arcana’s head drooped once again. “I hadn’t thought it relevant, milady.”

The princess pursed her lips and furrowed her brow. “Of course you didn’t. You, yourself, have told me about Twilight’s recent infatuation with your apprentice,” Celestia said with a near-imperceptible grin. “If something like that doesn’t illicit strange behavior in my normally shut-in student, I don’t know what would… Would you like to hear my theory of what is going on here?”

“I would be honored, Your Highness,” he answered, bowing his head lower.

“You may not be after you actually hear it,” Celestia chuckled. “I have, standing before me, the single highest-ranking mage in the service of Equestria. This stallion has been a faithful servant of the court for more than thirty years, but now, a much younger unicorn—with much less experience—has been chosen for a task that this veteran mage has coveted for a very long time. He thinks that he is being unfairly passed over; he believes that he should be chosen to be my grand magus. He is jealous of the younger unicorn… and jealousy is not very becoming on you, Arcana.”

Arcana's head swiftly jerked upward, eyes wide and mouth agape in absolute shock. “Your Majesty, I-I’ve never!”

“It’s alright, Arcana. I understand that this is a frustrating turn of events for you, but there is a reason the position of grand magus has been vacant for over a century. No pony has had the natural aptitude for magic that I require of a grand magus since the passing of Astral Tempest nearly two hundred years ago. Twilight Sparkle is likely the most powerful unicorn to be born in the past millenium, possibly even surpassing Starswirl, and I have the utmost confidence that she will fill her role as grand magus most satisfactorily.”

“Yes, Princess, I am sure she will.”

Turning away from the mage, Celestia started climbing the steps towards her throne. “Now then, Arcana, unless there is anything else you would like to discuss, I must field an audience with my finance minister shortly.”

“No, milady. I will just be on my way, then.” Arcana turned away from the princess and began trotting down the length of the throne-room.

“Oh, Arcana,” Celestia called out before the unicorn was halfway to the exit.

He stopped and turned around to face the princess.

Although Celestia spoke to him in the most pleasant tone she could muster through her seething anger, the words still carried a heavy air of threatening authority. “If you ever want to accuse somepony of this sort of thing again, you had better bring some very convincing proof with you. I will absolutely not tolerate this witch-hunt of yours.”

“Yes, milady.” Arcana bowed deeply towards the floor before continuing his journey to anywhere away from the princess.

The grey unicorn passed through the ornate doors of the throne room. As the guards closed the doors behind him, he exhaled with a huff and began towards his lavish office at the main laboratory facility.

“Proof... If the princess wants proof, I’ll get her proof,” he whispered under his breath as he quickly trotted down the cavernous hallway.

Twilight felt the heavy, low-frequency vibration in the floor through her hooves as the massive steel blast door of Section 5 came to a thunderous, shuddering stop while she signed out at the security checkpoint.

“See ya tomorrow, Twilight?” the gatekeeper asked with a smile.

“Nope, I have lots of things to do before the ceremony on Thursday.”

Thunder Hoof stood from his usual post. “Oh, of course. Well, I suppose we’ll see you next week, Madam Grand Magus,” he responded with a smirk, looking up to Twilight from a low bow.

“Pfft.” The mage turned around and began making her way up the helical hallway. “Knock it off, Thunder, a silly title isn’t going to change anything.”

After trotting up several spirals, a soft lavender glow enveloped her midsection. As the light dissipated, a pair of saddlebags appeared in its place. “Security here really isn’t as tight as it should be,” Twilight said quietly, smiling to herself as she made her way towards the clandestine dungeon laboratory.

Thirty minutes of walking through the labyrinthine castle and she neared her destination. Twilight moved silently through a narrow brick corridor, the only light provided by the magelight spell hanging at the end of her horn. In the distance, another light washed across the dark hallway from her lab.

She dispelled the light on her horn as she approached the doorway. Twilight made the right turn into the short hall attaching the lab and main corridor; she made it three steps into the cellblock before an unseen force threw her hard into the stone floor, taking the breath away from her. Gasping, she attempted to stand, finding it quite impossible to lift her head from the floor, let alone get her legs to work properly. The mage glanced to the floor in front of her face, noting two lines, glowing softly with a dim blue light. She decided to try to dispell whatever magic was holding her to the ground, only being able to prepare a spell for a second before an intense, burning pain shot through her head and she quickly gave up.

Twilight growled. “Fireshade!”

A smiling, yellow face peeked out from the nearest cell. “Heya, Twilight! What’s going on?”

If she could have turned her head to face Fireshade, Twilight would have given her a glare to rival that of a cockatrice. “Fire, why am I stuck to the floor?”

“Neat, isn’t it? I was studying the sigil book… It’s an entrapment sigil!” The yellow mage walked out of the cell and made her way towards Twilight’s crumpled form.

“Yeah, I kinda figured.” Fireshade came into Twilight’s field of vision and sat down, smiling at the prone mage.

Fireshade leaned in slightly. “Well, what do you think? I thought we could use some defenses around here, just in case.”

“I think you had better let me up; I’ve got work to do,” Twilight deadpanned.

Her eyes lit up in genuine surprise. “Oh, right! Lemme get that.” Fireshade’s horn lit up and the blue glow of the sigil died out, leaving behind a white chalk outline.

Twilight slowly stood up and shook her head. “Thank you for taking the initiative, but I really wish you would tell me about these sort of things before actually doing them. What if you weren’t here?”

“Uhm… I guess you would’ve been stuck there until I got back,” Fireshade replied quietly.

“Right. Just be a little more careful next time, okay?”

“I was careful, though. I didn’t use the matter phasing sigil.”

“Well, at least you know better than to mess with magic you don’t understand. Go ahead and reset your trap; now that I know where it is, I can avoid it next time.” Twilight began walking towards her workbench while Fireshade recharged the sigil. The white circle and runes glowed blue momentarily before disappearing completely.

“Uh, what’s with the cloak?”

Turning her head to look at Fireshade, Twilight answered, “Let’s not get into that discussion right now.”

“Oh, okay. Whatev,” the yellow mage stated, slightly taken aback.

The saddlebags levitated off of Twilight’s back and landed gently on the workbench. She reached inside and pulled out a small binder. “So, Fireshade, have you made progress on the task I gave you yesterday?” she asked as she began to read the pages in the folder.

“Heck yeah! Quill’s been taken care of and I already secured the new test subjects.”

Twilight turned away from the bench with an eyebrow raised and began walking towards the two locked cells at the end of the room. “Oh? Where did you get them from?”

“From the lower district industrial sector,” Fireshade stated proudly. “They were selling drugs. I thought they would be perfect, because it wouldn’t be a big deal if someone noticed a couple of dealers went missing.”

The lavender mage approached the first iron-clad door and peeked in the small, barred window. Against the wall opposite of the door sat a dark red unicorn stallion. Twilight smiled. “Hey! What’s your name?” she asked the unicorn.

Fireshade is right, he is perfect.

He looked up to the door with a scowl. “I ain’t saying shit until I have a lawyer here.”

“Typical.” Twilight chuckled softly. “I don’t think you quite understand your situation here. Do you even know where you are?”

“Well, yeah. I’m in a jail. I need to send a message to let someone know I’m here.”

“No, you’re not in a jail, and the rules here are not the same as a jail. There will be no messages to anyone. Now stand up and show me your cutie mark.”

“Buck you.”

A lavender glow enveloped the uncooperative unicorn, lifting him and spinning him around so Twilight could get a look at his flank. A picture of a silver five-pointed star with a golden, arcing tail emblazoned his upper thigh. The glow surrounding the stallion disappeared and he fell unceremoniously to the floor with a thud. “Good enough.”

The nameless stallion jumped to his hooves. “What do you mean ‘good enough’? What is this place?”

Twilight simply turned away from the window and continued to the next cell. Looking through the opening on this door, she saw an emerald-green earth pony mare with a short-cropped silver mane laying on the floor, her cutie mark exposed. The unicorn’s eye twitched slightly at the sight. A stylized pair of apples—one with a bite taken out of it—adorned the mare’s flank.

“Uh-oh,” the mage breathed.

It’s okay, these ponies are bottom-feeders of society. Just stay calm, and disconnect yourself from who this pony is.

The mare in the cell rolled over towards the sound and stood up. “Yer damn right, ‘uh-oh’. Apparently you do have some idea of who I am,” she said, walking towards the door and looking Twilight square in the eye.

Disconnect.

“I can see that you’re a member of the Apple Family, but as far as who you are specifically, I don’t know… nor do I care.”

The green mare stopped moving forward when her nose was an inch from the barred window. “Yer gonna care. I’m Apple Slice, and you’re right; I am a member of the Family. And when I miss my drop, they’re gonna come for me.”

This isn’t good.

No pony will notice them missing, and even if they do, it won’t matter.

What if they send someone to find her?

It will be impossible for them to find her here. Her affiliations are inconsequential. She will be considered part of the cost of doing business and replaced as though she never existed. This is not something to worry ourself about. Remember; disconnect.

“I think you give yourself too much credit, Apple Slice. You’re a small-fry; some street dealer in the Lower. I’m sure the Apples go through the likes of you pretty regularly. No one is coming for you, and even if they did, no pony would even know where to begin looking.” Twilight turned from the iron-clad door and began walking back to her workbench.

“Wait! If you let me out now, we’ll jus’ ferget this ever happened. You can even keep Comet!”

“So quick to sell out your friends?” Twilight asked without turning.

“Friend? He’s a patsy; it’s his job to take the fall!”

“Like I told Comet, this is not a jail. There’s no fall to take here.” Twilight sat on the stool at the workbench and released a spell, containing Apple Slice’s voice within the cell.

Using telekinesis, Twilight dragged three silver boxes to herself from the far end of the workbench. Continuing to flip through the pages of the binder she removed from Section 5, she spoke. “Fireshade, could you please give the unicorn his first dose of the GL compound you made, and then help me with these?”

“Yep! No problem.” Fireshade walked to the supply cabinet and removed a half-full vial of bluish fluid and a small syringe in a telekinetic field. She whistled happily to herself, filling the cylinder of the instrument with the contents of the vial as she walked to the door of the cell housing Comet.

The yellow mage looked into the cell through the window of the door with a grin. “Are you ready, test subject?”

Comet looked up to the steel bars. “Test subject? What are you going to do to me?”

“I’m going to take this gunk,” Fireshade paused as the syringe levitated through the bars, “and put it inside you. Then we’re going to see if it does what I think it will do.”

The captive jumped to his hooves and backed away from the door until he ran into the back wall. “You can’t do that! This is insane, you can’t just take ponies and experiment on them!”

“Actually, we can,” Fireshade said in a low, serious tone.

The syringe floating near the door turned—needle pointing directly at the frightened unicorn—and flew across the cell. In the blink of an eye, the needle had embedded itself into Comet’s shoulder and dispensed its payload into the muscle therein. Fireshade pulled the needle out of his flesh and returned it to herself, turning towards Twilight and tossing it into a waste container near the workbench.

A piercing scream emanated from the cell. “It burns! It feels like my leg is on fire!”

Fireshade spun around to the door once again and looked through the barred window. The unicorn inside was no longer standing, but writhing on the floor of the cell, clutching his front-left leg with his right hoof.

“Aren’t you going to do something!? It hurts so bad!” Comet now had tears rolling down one cheek.

The yellow head in the window cocked to the side slightly. “Huh… Yeah, I’m going to make note of this reaction. Don’t worry, it probably won’t kill you. Maybe I can adjust the pH so it’s not so uncomfortable next time.” She smiled to the red unicorn before turning her focus back to Twilight.

Fireshade walked across the room to stand next to her friend. “So, what are we doing now?”

“You are going to fix one of these things. Hopefully you can get two of them working, but one will do if we don’t have the parts,” Twilight said as she pushed the binder full of technical information towards Fireshade. “And I’m going to work on dispelling the protective magic on the books documenting the study of the princesses.”

Hours passed late into the night with the only sound punctuating the silence a small rattle or clank of metal as Fireshade disassembled and reassembled the boxes before her multiple times. Twilight sat at the opposite end of the workbench with three ancient books and several newer tomes. Flashes of magic brightly illuminated her side of the room periodically as she attempted to view the writings of the three tomes.

“Done with the first one!” Fireshade shouted across the room. “I think… just gotta see if it’ll charge up.”

Twilight looked up from her task. “Excellent, hook it up to the storage device and start the energy transfer.” The mage sounded off with a pouty huff. “At least someone is making progress here. These books are protected by some sort of magic that I’ve never come across before. The energy matrices they’re built from are just… bizarre.”

Take them with you.

Near the entrance of the spacious lab, a cable clicked into place in the side of Fireshade’s metallic box, the other end connected to a large machine designed to store magic energy. The yellow mage turned and began trotting across the room towards Twilight. “What do you mean ‘bizarre’?”

“I dunno. I guess the best way I could describe it is chaotic. There doesn’t seem to be any real rhyme or reason to any of it. The spells protecting the books seem to be very random in nature. What’s more, is that everytime I try to detect the magic in the books, it seems to be changing.”

Fireshade approached the other mage and peeked over her shoulder at the numerous books and pages of hoof-written notes. “It would make sense that it would be extremely difficult to dispell, then. If the protection spells are changing, by the time you have a counterspell figured out, it wouldn’t work with the mutated barrier.”

“Exactly. If I can’t figure this out, we’re not going to get anywhere with Celestia. If we don’t have the proof, she’ll simply deny anything that is brought forward.”

Take them with you.

Take them where?

Think about it; you know where.

Twilight leaned back and looked up to the ceiling, pondering the cryptic musings of her subconscious. Where could I take them that would help to see them?

After several minutes of thinking in silence, the lavender mage’s eyes lit up with a revelation. She stood up, taking one of the volumes she was attempting to view in a telekinetic aura and moving it into her saddlebag on the workbench. “Fireshade, draw out two anchored teleport arrays. Put the sending right next to the receiving.”

“Uh… okay.” Fireshade pulled a piece of chalk from the shelf above the workbench and began drawing the two circles in the middle of the floor.

Twilight placed her saddlebags across her back and buckled the strap around her. She returned to the group of books on the wooden workbench and pulled one close to her. Pulling open the cover of the book Illusion, she flipped through the pages and stopped at a passage, reading it over quickly.

“I don’t have time to memorize this.” The book glowed with a magenta aura, closed, and floated into the saddlebag opposite of where the tome detailing the study of the princesses resided.

Twilight turned to her assistant. “Almost ready?”

The last few runes were being drawn into the second array. “Almost…” Fireshade quickly scrawled out the final arcane rune. “Done.”

“Great.” Twilight walked to the arrays, inspecting them closely to make sure they had been drawn correctly.

“What are you doing, Twilight?” asked Fireshade.

“I’m going to read this book, hopefully,” Twilight responded as she stepped into the circle of the sending array. “Oh! I almost forgot.”

A small stack of blank paper and a pencil levitated from the workbench and gently landed in her saddlebag. “Okay, all set. I’ll see you in a moment.”

An aura of magical energy surrounded Twilight’s horn as she powered the sigil array. In a bright, white flash she was gone. Within a fraction of a second, a second flash of light permeated the dungeon laboratory and Twilight was standing several feet from where she started.

The purple mage stood staring blankly, straight ahead, her eyes glowing bright magenta. “Wow.”

“Geez, Twilight! What’s with your eyes?” Fireshade asked.

Twilight shook her head, breaking her psyche loose from the stresses of sigil travel as her eyes slowly returned to their normal, violet color. “What about my eyes?”

“They’re—uh, they were glowing.”

“Probably just a side-effect of the teleportation; we don’t have time to worry about that right now. This is big, Fire. This is really, really big. Celestia and Luna are no more gods than you or I, and they are definitely not immortal.”

“What do you mean?”

The flap of one of her bags opened and Twilight levitated the ancient book in front of her. “I hope this worked.” The book opened to a page near the middle.

Fireshade moved to a position near Twilight to look at the contents of the text; her head cocked to the side in curiousity. “It’s blank,” she stated flatly.

Twilight sighed deeply as she set the book with the others on the workbench. “Damn it… At least I have my notes.” From the other saddlebag, the stack of paper that she had taken with her floated out and dropped onto the workbench.

Moving to the stack of paper, Fireshade began hoofing through them. Every page had been covered—front and back—with words and diagrams. “Twilight, there must be twenty pages here. How long were you in that thing?”

“I don’t know. It feels like days when you’re in the teleport, but that doesn’t matter. The point is that I can read the book while I’m in there, but I still can’t break the protection spells. Apparently, the spells just don’t work in the void.”

“That’s great! Now we have the proof that we—”

“No! No we don’t,” Twilight cut across loudly. “We have a stack of notes that I wrote, and believe me, this stuff sounds like the rantings of a madpony. We’re no better off now, than we were before, except now I have a little better understanding of how the princesses harness so much power. We won’t have any real proof until I can break the stupid spells on the books.”

Fireshade scratched at her chin. “Well, I suppose we’ll just have to keep trying.”

“Yeah, keep trying.” Twilight levitated the next ancient text in the series to her saddlebag, along with a fresh stack of paper. “I’m going back.”

Squinting suspiciously, Fireshade craned her neck back slightly. “Are you sure this is safe, Twilight?”

“Of course it’s safe. I just wasn’t ready for it that first time I went through. This last teleport was fine, and I’m sure it will get easier the more I do it,” Twilight explained as she stepped into the teleport array once again. “When we’re done here, I need you to go to the research library and get me anything you can find on unicorn physiology. Specifically any research on the biological energy conduits for channelling magic.”

“Okay, Twi. I’ll get them first thing when the Canterlot Library opens in the morning.”

Twilight looked to Fireshade. “I’ll be right back,” she said with a smile just before disappearing within a white flash of light.

XIV: Proof

Year 8 of the 2nd Diarchy, 6th day of the Southern Solstice
Personal Journal, entry 14

Last night’s research was very productive. I am exhausted from the sigil teleportations, but I was able to obtain information that I would not have been able to get any other way. I am going to rest for a few days before teleporting again; five ‘jumps’ in short succession may have been overexerting.

This has become so far removed from what I had expected. I’m not sure if any of my previous knowledge of the princesses is even close to correct.

Volume 105 turned out to be the final book of the study, and as such is a generalized overview of the entire research project; this is probably the most valuable of the three volumes that I obtained.

I knew Celestia was hiding something, but the true nature of the princesses is beyond anything I could have imagined. According to study 612718, Celestia and Luna were born to a pair of unicorns approximately 1,900 years ago. Before they were born, alicorns were completely unheard of. As a result, they were taken captive by whoever the ruling family or government was at that time; I’m not even sure that this area was called Equestria at that point in history. The princesses are, in fact, twins; which is something I had not suspected. Any public information indicates that Celestia is the older sibling. I believe that Luna’s thousand year banishment accounts for their difference in size and emotional maturity.

At the time that this research was conducted, there would have been limited knowledge of genetics and no knowledge of DNA manipulation or mutation. I suspect that the princesses are the product of a freak genetic mutation, since genetic engineering at that time would have been impossible; in fact, genetic engineering to that degree is still impossible. A tissue sample would be required to confirm that suspicion; something that will be most difficult to obtain covertly.

Volume 23 is mostly physiological data detailing how they gather and channel so much power, and their ability to heal and regenerate themselves.

The majority of the explanation of their immense magical power is beyond my understanding. The research indicates that they have an innate connection directly to the source of energy that feeds the leylines of the world that all ponies draw from; whether passively in the case of earth ponies and pegasi, or actively in the case of unicorns. I’m not sure what this energy source is; the books only referred to it as the beyond. I have a strong suspicion that the energy source is closely linked with void between the firmaments that I have traveled through during sigil teleportation, or possibly one of the firmaments themselves.

Unicorns have naturally occurring conduits throughout their bodies, acting as collectors for latent energy emanating from the leylines, and then channelling the energy through the horn. The princesses do not possess these conduits throughout their bodies, but a large bundle of these ‘collectors’ located at the base of the skull. Apparently having these conduits concentrated to one area as such amplifies the ability to draw magic to the point that they will bypass the latent energies and reach out to the source of the energy. As I said, the mechanics of how it works is beyond my understanding at this point.

This research was conducted when the princesses were relatively young (around 100 years of age), well before they usurped power over Equestria. Apparently, the full potential of their power had not been realized at that time. The researchers knew that they had a natural affinity for magic that was unmatched, and they also knew that Celestia and Luna aged very slowly. It was nearly fifteen years into the study before the cause of this was discovered.

This ability to channel such massive amounts of magic is the source of their slow aging and pseudo-immortality. Celestia and Luna both have the ability to channel enough energy passively that the majority of the cells in their bodies are able to repair themselves without any conscious effort on the part of the princesses.

Volume 98 deals primarily with the princesses’ amazing telekinetic ability.

Now, this is one of the more interesting things. Everypony knows that Celestia and Luna control the sun and moon, but before they did, how were they moved? Is it as the Hearth Warming stories say and it took teams of unicorn mages to control the heavenly objects? Or perhaps it was at one time a natural phenomenon? Did the sun and moon even orbit the planet? Celestia overriding the natural order may be one of the reasons she and her sister were able to seize power so easily.

I say easily, but I don’t know for sure. The Royal Pony Sisters may have likely had a full-scale war on their hooves when they made their move. The only ones that know for sure are Celestia, Luna, and possibly Discord. It was a very long time ago, and I have come to realize that no accurate historical documents from the time exist. Texts on the founding of Equestria are obviously revisionist histories commissioned or possibly written by the princesses themselves.

I haven’t been able to go through all of my notes yet, nor have I read the entirety of the three volumes of the study on the princesses. If the information I’ve obtained so far is any indication, there are at least three things that hold true: they are not gods, they are not immortal, and they are not the rulers of Equestria by divine right.

I am still unsure of how to break the spells protecting the books of study 612718. This is most unfortunate, as my friends will begin arriving today, and I won’t have the books to convince any of them to help me confront Celestia. I will continue working on it, however. They will be needed if I am to bring this information forward to anypony that can help me; be it my friends, the civilian government (if they have any true executive power over the princesses), or th—

Twilight looked up from her journal when she heard the knocking from the main room of her apartment. The low, eastern sun poured through her bedroom window, perfectly outlining the door in a golden light. With a yawn, Twilight rose from her desk, absentmindedly teleporting the journal to a safe place.

Leaving the relative comfort of her quarters, she walked across the main room of the suite. The door glowed with a magenta aura and slowly swung open, revealing two ponies. Twilight’s face went slack.

“Applejack? Rarity? Wha—”

“Mornin’ sugarcube! How ya been?” Applejack cut in with a smile.

Twilight looked back and forth between her two friends. “Uh, good. I wasn’t expecting you until later this evening.”

“Yes, well, Applejack and I decided to take the overnight express,” Rarity informed Twilight. “We couldn’t wait to see you!”

The mage stood motionless, staring wide-eyed at the two mares in front of her. Applejack’s smile faltered and Rarity tilted her head slightly, narrowing her eyes in an appraising gaze. “Are you okay?”

Twilight shook herself from her dazed state. “Y-yeah… I’m just surprised to see you here.”

Another awkward moment passed as the three friends watched each other.

Applejack quietly cleared her throat and leaned to look around Twilight into the apartment. “Uh, I hate to be pushy, Twi, but…”

“Oh!” The mare smiled sheepishly. “I’m sorry; please, come in.” Twilight stepped to the side and pulled the door open fully. “I’ve just got so much to do before the ceremony tomorrow, and there’s not a lot of—”

Rarity waved a hoof at Twilight as she walked into the apartment. “No no no. You don’t need to apologize. I know how you are about keeping to your schedule; so we thought we would just drop in for a quick ‘hello’ and be on our way. The vendors and shops of the Upper District have so much to offer.” She turned around to face Twilight, who had just shut the door. “Applejack and I arrived early and unannounced. If anything, it is we that should apologize to you.”

Twilight spun away from the wooden slab. As she turned towards the room, a panicked realization pushed forward in her mind. There was no cloak over her back, and she had just turned to expose her right side to her friends. Maybe neither of them noticed. She continued rotating her body until her left was facing them.

“Heh—No need, I’m glad you made it early. Although, I do have a lot of work to do before the ceremony tomorrow,” Twilight said, her nervous state bleeding through in the words.

Whistling low in approval of the luxurious suite, Applejack began wandering around the large room, inspecting the colorful pictures and ornate tapestries adorning the walls. “Pretty fancy digs you got yourself here, Twi.”

“Yeah, I guess being Grand Magus has its perks.” Twilight scanned the room for her cloak with no luck. “So… uh, how are the girls?”

Rarity lit up in jubilation. “Oh! You wouldn’t have heard yet. Sweetie Belle has been accepted to the Canterlot Academy of Music. She starts next semester… I’m so proud of her; I mean, with all the crazy schemes those girls were always coming up with it’s a wonder any of them survived long enough to get their cutie marks.”

Walking over to the pair from across the room, Applejack spoke as she approached. “Apple Bloom decided that she’s gonna start a machining shop in Ponyville. Should be a good business; the family is gonna invest in it so she can buy her shop and equipment. Right now anypony needing parts for busted equipment and such has to have them shipped from Canterlot or Manehatten.”

“That’s great, I’m really happy for them,” Twilight said with a smile. “What about Scootaloo?”

“Scootaloo has been housesitting for Rainbow Dash and still working with the Ponyville weather patrol. She’s doing quite well for herself… Now then, what about you, Twilight? How have you been?” Rarity asked, attempting to mask the concern in her voice.

“Fine… Great! I-I’ve been… great. All my training has been keeping me very busy, and now I’m more involved with the administrative side of things and… uh, research.”

“What sort of research?” Applejack chimed in.

“Oh, you know, magic… stuff,” Twilight responded slowly. “Actually, I can’t really talk about the work I do.”

“Surely, you can talk about it with your best friends.”

“No, Rarity, I really can’t. Almost all of what I do deals with top-secret government projects, and I am explicitly prohibited from talking about them to anypony that’s not directly involved in the projects.”

“Oh, I see. That sounds absolutely intriguing. Now then, just one last thing before we get out of your mane.” Rarity took two steps towards the mage with her eyes wide and her brow knit with worry. “Twilight… be a darling and turn around for me, I thought I saw something when we first got here.”

So much for not noticing.

Applejack looked to Rarity, confused by the odd request.

Twilight’s purple eyes darted around the room as she tried to come up with a reason to not comply with her friend’s request. When she decided no acceptable excuse existed, her head sunk slightly as she slowly turned to show her right side to her friends. Both mares attempted to stifle their gasps as Twilight’s cutie mark came into view.

Rarity recovered from the shock first and moved towards the mage. “My goodness, Twilight…what in the world happened to your beautiful cutie mark?” she asked softly as she gently placed a hoof over one of the large, ragged scars.

“Nothing. It was just a small accident at the lab. It’s really not as bad as it looks,” Twilight said with a forced smile.

“Nothin’? Land’s sake, Twi, it looks like someone tried to cut your leg off!” Applejack retorted, leaning in to get a closer look.

Twilight took a step back, moving her tail to cover her cutie mark. “I said it’s not a big deal. It was an accident caused by myself, and it healed up just fine. I’m fine.”

“Well, alright, if you say you’re fine. It just looks plum painful.”

“Very well, enough of this nasty business,” Rarity declared. Then leaning in towards Twilight as though they may be overheard, she spoke again in a low conspiratorial tone. “You know, I heard an interesting rumor about you, Twilight... Is there something you want to tell us about?”

The mages pupils constricted to pinpricks as her eyes opened wide in shock. “I-I-I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

Rarity smiled coyly. “I think you do,” the unicorn said with a wink.

Relax, she is speaking of Fireshade. She thinks we have a marefriend.

“You mean Fireshade?” Twilight asked innocently.

What had begun as a small smile, now beamed across Rarity’s face. “Oh, so that’s her name? And when will we get to meet this special somepony of yours Twilight?”

“Where did you even hear about her?”

Applejack made a step forward. “Uh, we stopped in an’ saw the princess before we came here. She’s the one who told us how to get to your apartment… and she may have mentioned a few other things.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, this cover story was beginning to get out of hand. “Great, now Celestia is telling everypony about my love life.”

Opening her mouth to speak again, Rarity was stopped short by a loud, fast rapping at the door. The three ponies looked at the door. A forehoof raised up to meet Twilight’s forehead. And that’s going to be Fireshade.

The door flung open without invitation. In the hallway outside the suite stood Fireshade. “Hey Twilight, you were late; so I thought I should come find...” The pyromancer’s words trailed off as she walked into the apartment and took notice of the other two mares. “...you. Uh, friends of yours?”

“Yes. Fireshade, this is Rarity and Applejack,” Twilight said, motioning to her two friends.

Fireshade looked at the two suspiciously, barely concealing a scowl. “Nice to meet you. Twilight speaks quite highly of her old friends.”

Applejack and Rarity both craned their necks back simultaneously, aghast with the outward hostility of the yellow unicorn.

“Well, uh... it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, as well,” Rarity managed to say with her usual grace.

Applejack stood motionless, slack-jawed and wide-eyed.

With an uncomfortable giggle Twilight moved towards Fireshade. “Heh, uh... If you two would excuse us for a moment,” she said as she pushed the yellow mare back out the door into the hallway.

The door shut behind them and Twilight looked her in the eye, speaking in a hushed tone. “What is wrong with you?”

“I dunno... I just don’t like them,” Fireshade stated simply through pursed lips.

Twilight growled in frustration. “You don’t have to like them, but you don’t have to be mean to them either.”

“But you’re my friend now, Twilight. They want to take you from me.”

A sigh crossed Twilight’s lips, and she placed her forehooves on Fireshade’s shoulders. “That’s not going to happen. Besides, I can have more than one friend... so can you, for that matter, okay?”

Fireshade looked down to the floor. “Okay.”

“Now then, I’m going to be very busy the next couple of days, so I need you to do a couple things for me.”

The yellow mare’s face lit up as she lifted her head to look at Twilight. “Whatever you want, Twilight.”

“Alright, you got the books I asked for, right?”

Fireshade quickly nodded in response.

“Good, I need you to start working on a solution for the mechanical to biological energy transfer. The sooner we can get it working, the better.”

“No problem!”

“Okay. Second, you need to continue administering the GL compound to subject two so we can begin the behavioral experiment next week.”

“Already been doing that.”

“Excellent. I’ll see you at the ceremony tomorrow then?”

“Yep!” Fireshade exclaimed excitedly.

“Okay.” Twilight turned back to the door. “Good luck with the engineering, Fireshade. I hope to see some good progress when I get a chance to get back to the lab.”

“Thanks! See ya later, Twilight.” Fireshade galloped down the hallway, presumably heading directly to the dungeons as Twilight re-entered her apartment.

Rarity and Applejack had opted to take seats at the large table in the middle of the room while they waited for Twilight. They both looked to the unicorn as she came in.

“I’m sorry about that; she gets kinda possessive,” Twilight said with an embarrassed blush evident on her cheeks.

“It’s quite alright, Twilight. It was just rather surprising, is all,” Rarity said, waving a hoof.

Applejack looked to the white unicorn with a brow lifted. “Quite alright? Somethin’ seemed pretty off about that mare.”

Rarity gasped. “Applejack! Do show some manners. We don’t even know Fireshade, you shouldn’t says things like that about ponies.”

“No,” Twilight said before Applejack had a chance to retort. “It’s okay. Fireshade is... a little, uh... different. She tries, but she just doesn’t get along well with others.”

“I’ll say,” Applejack stated simply.

“So, you two were going to go to the market this morning?” Twilight asked, attempting to redirect the conversation.

Rarity smiled. “Yes, do some shopping, get lunch, and then go to the train station to meet Fluttershy and Pinkie when they arrive.”

“I think I may join you.”

Applejack looked to Twilight. “I thought you said you had a lot of stuff to do?”

“I did, but my schedule just opened up a bit,” Twilight said with a smirk. “One of the nice things about being in charge is that you can delegate tasks to others.”

“Well, alright then! Let’s get goin’!” Applejack exclaimed with a big smile as she stood from her chair.

Rarity also got up from the table. “Yes, let’s.”

The three friends left the apartment and headed directly to the Upper District’s commercial sector.

After signing the last of the small stack of forms required to transfer the majority of the authority and management responsibilities of the two research laboratories to the new grand magus, Arcana looked down to the small stack of bureaucratic paperwork. As he stared blankly at the forms, his thoughts drifted to Twilight Sparkle. Maybe the princess was right. Perhaps it is just jealousy, and I am seeking something that is not there to stop Twilight from taking her position, he quietly pondered.

Several sharp knocks sounded through his office, snapping his mind back from its wandering. Arcana pushed the small stack of papers to the corner of his desk to be sent to Princess Celestia for final approval and looked towards the door.

The unicorn released a prolonged sigh before acknowledging the disturbance. “Come in!” he said loudly with a growling voice.

The door opened, exposing a white pegasus stallion adorned with the ornate golden armor of an officer of the Royal Guard. The soldier walked across the office with a determined purpose in his step. Stopping directly in front of Arcana’s desk, he spoke with the authoritative voice of a military commander. “Sir, the weekly patrol of the castle’s outer perimeter found something this morning that you should probably see.”

Arcana raised an eyebrow slightly with interest. “Oh? And what might that be, Lieutenant?”

The officer shifted nervously. “Uhm, I think it would be better if you came with me rather than have me try to explain it, sir.”

“You do realize I have plenty of my own work to do without trying to do the job of the Royal Guard as well?” Arcana growled while hoofing through the next stack of papers on his desk.

“Yes, sir. However, I wouldn’t be here if we believed that we could handle the situation without your expertise.”

The grey unicorn looked up to the officer again. “You’re going to need to give me more than that, Stark.”

With a sigh, the pegasus spoke. “I haven’t seen it myself yet, sir, but the unicorns I sent to investigate after the initial report say that it looked like an area of the mountainside had been melted.”

“Melted?” Arcana asked in disbelief, rising from his seat and making his way around the desk.

“Yes, sir. Also, there appears to be a large amount of residual energy, but they are unable to determine a source.”

“What else?” asked the grey unicorn, levitating his cloak over his back.

Glancing nervously around the room for a brief moment, Stark answered slowly. “Uh, nothing else, sir... Other than they asked for you by name.”

Arcana moved around the officer and began walking towards the door. “Very well, let’s go.”

Stark quickly turned to follow Arcana out the door. “It takes some time to get to that area, sir. Are you sure you don’t want to wait? It isn’t going anywhere.”

“We need to go now, Lieutenant. The residual energy you spoke of is diminishing with every passing minute.”

Stark passed the unicorn in the hall and began to lead him. “Yes, sir. This way.”

The route around the mountain was extremely circuitous and seemed to continue on forever. A full hour passed in silence as Arcana and Stark made their way down the path from the castle grounds towards the scene of the investigation.

Arcana stopped and looked back at the overgrown road curving behind the mountainside in the distance. Much of the grass had been trampled down by the recent traffic, creating a narrow path through the middle of the trail. He looked up the steep, bare-rock slope towards the summit of Canterlot Mountain.

Stark halted his hike when he noticed the absence of the hoofsteps behind him. He turned to see the head mage ten yards behind him.

Turning to look at Stark, Arcana spoke. “Was the grass trampled before your ponies came?”

“No sir. The regular patrol consists of only two guardsponies. They did no damage to the foliage. The investigation teams are fifteen strong; they’re probably the ones that created the path through the grass.”

Arcana sighed deeply, closing his eyes and slowly shaking his head. “Idiots,” he whispered under his breath.

“Sir?”

“We’re going to have to repair this damage when we leave,” the mage said as he opened his eyes and began walking towards Stark. “How much farther?”

Stark turned around and began walking once again. “We’re nearly there. It’s just around the next bend up ahead.”

The tingle of the magic emanating from the glass scab on the mountain could be felt by Arcana well before it came into view. As he rounded the corner, he witnessed a half-dozen ponies busily investigating the mountainside disturbance. The burned area created a nearly perfect circle, half on the cliff and the other half pouring out into the road. Two unicorns in labsuits—only their eyes exposed—chiseled samples of black glass from the cliff face into small, glass jars. The other four scoured the ground and through the grass around the burned area, searching for evidence of what might have caused such a strange phenomenon.

Arcana stopped walking when he approached the edge of the burnt circle and began looking closely at his surroundings. The amount of heat that would have been necessary to create such a scene was immense. He took another step into the outer area of the circle, the charred grass crumbling to dusty ash as he moved. Lifting his hoof, he saw the perfect outline it left behind in the blackened dirt. The grey unicorn looked around at the ground to find many similar hoofprints all around. Damn it.

“What else has your team found?” Arcana asked without looking away from the black scar before him.

“I don’t know yet, sir. I haven’t received any information since the first report they sent requesting your assistance.” Stark turned towards the unicorns sifting through the grass. “Sergeant, I need a report!”

A green unicorn lifted her head away from her diligent search and looked to the source of the shouting. Standing up, she shook the dust and loose blades of grass off of her coat before trotting to her superior. The sergeant gave a quick, half-hearted salute as she approached.

“We haven’t found much, sir. There’s a small circle within the melted area of the cliff face that appears to be a slightly different composition than the surrounding rock. Also, we’ve found blood in the path just beyond the burned area...” She pointed towards a grouping of several small red flags attached to heavy wires sticking out of the ground. “Lots of it.”

“Take samples of all of it,” Arcana ordered, leaving the two at the edge of the circle as he walked to the middle of the strange phenomenon. Moving closer to the center, the charred, blackened dirt gave way to shimmering, wavy glass that had been melted from the rock and soil that had originally been there. The residual magic of several very powerful spells hung in the air like static electricity. Reaching the center of the circle near the cliff wall, Arcana closed his eyes and breathed deeply. As he began drawing the residual energy from around him, his horn began to glow a deep, sapphire blue.

Most of the investigators on the scene had stopped what they were doing to watch the head mage cast his spell, wondering what, exactly, he was doing. The glow of Arcana’s horn grew brighter and brighter; until suddenly it disappeared, only to be replaced by a soft-orange, radiating light.

The old mage’s eyes shot open as he ended the spell. Fireshade.

Quickly turning around to face Stark, Arcana walked towards the guard as he spoke forcefully. “Lieutenant, how many ponies know of this?”

“Besides us? Uhm… seventeen.”

Arcana began barking orders as though he were a military commander himself. “Any of them that do not have a minimum D-2 clearance must be sequestered until this investigation is complete and they have been properly debriefed. Round them up and have them escorted to the Section 3 barracks immediately. They are to speak to no one and no one is to speak to them.”

Stark’s body straightened up to stand at full attention. Swinging his right hoof up to near his eye in a salute, the guard responded, “Yes, sir! Is there anything else?”

“Yes, all written reports of this incident and any evidence or samples that have been collected are to be delivered to me; I want them from your hoof to mine. Once you are done with that task, Section 5 will be taking over this investigation, and you will forget everything that has happened here. Now go, quickly. We can’t afford for any information on this to be leaked.”

“Yes, sir!” the guardspony shouted before shooting into the sky towards Canterlot.

XV: Presenting Twilight Sparkle, Grand Magus of the Equestrian Royal Court

The massive, round table was stacked with more food than the entire group would ever have been able to eat. Pinkie Pie ate one doughnut after the next, gorging herself with the sickeningly-sweet fried dough, as though there would never be a chance to get more in the future. Rarity daintily levitated a fork back and forth from her mouth to a bowl full of fruit. Applejack was eating an apple fritter, and Fluttershy had a small bowl of hot oatmeal placed in front of her.

Twilight Sparkle, wearing her dark-maroon court mage cloak to hide her disfigured cutie mark, stared blankly at the princesses. Pondering the secrets they must be hiding, she completely ignored the food on the plate in front of her along with anything going on around her.

“Well, Twilight?” Applejack asked loudly, causing the unicorn to jump slightly.

Spinning her head towards the earth pony, Twilight looked to her friend sitting in the next chair. “Well, what?”

Applejack chuckled slightly. “I asked if you’re excited—today is the big day, after all.”

“More nervous than excited, I think.”

“That’s completely understandable, Twilight,” said Princess Celestia with a smile. “It is a very burdensome responsibility you will take.”

Luna looked to her sister incredulously, her mouth hanging slightly agape. “Sister, do not speak in such a manner, you will make her even more nervous.” She then turned back towards Twilight and smiled. “I’m sure you’ll do marvelously, Twilight.”

“Thank you, Princess. That’s very kind of you to say.”

Waving a hoof, Luna huffed. “Not at all, it’s the truth,” she replied and returned to a conversation with her sister.

A shaker of salt shrouded in a light-blue aura floated by Twilight’s face, making its way towards Arcana. “So, Miss Sparkle, what have you and Fireshade been up to recently?” he asked without looking at her as he gingerly sprinkled the contents of the shaker out onto a plate of eggs and hashbrowns.

The salt shaker gently found its place on the table with a soft, hollow knock, and Arcana looked up to the mage across the table from him with a devious grin. “I haven’t seen any status reports or updates from you two in a couple of weeks now.”

“I—uh, that is we… uhm.” She glanced around the table before lunging a large muffin into her mouth in an attempt to give her more time to think of a response.

Just tell him.

Luna stopped talking suddenly and looked towards Twilight curiously with one eye slightly squinted.

I can’t just tell him! I’m experimenting on ponies; I’ve stolen from the lab. I can’t just tell him about what Fireshade and I have been doing. The best outcome of that would be banishment!

Not that. Tell him about the device.

Turning her head slightly, Luna craned her neck forward, as though she were listening intently for a sound that was just barely imperceptible.

Twilight swallowed hard, forcing the piece of half-chewed blueberry muffin down her throat. “Fireshade and I have been working on a way to take stored magical energy and reintroduce it into the mana-conduits of a unicorn in order to increase the level of magic said unicorn is able to channel.”

“Now, that is very interesting. Have you done any… live testing yet?” Arcana questioned with a smirk.

He knows!

Of course he knows. He’s probably suspected it for weeks, but he hasn’t made a move yet, so he doesn’t know enough to go to anyone with it.

As her pupils constricted in response to the anxiety and fear, Twilight answered quickly without missing a beat this time. “No,” she stated matter-of-factly. “We’re still in the design phase, which is why we haven’t submitted any reports yet.”

Quietly nudging Celestia to get her attention, Luna motioned towards the exit with pleading eyes. The white alicorn nodded slightly to her sister, indicating that she understood.

Arcana swallowed a bite of hashbrowns and smiled. “Well, in any case, I would like to see the data that you have available at some point in the near future.”

“Of course, Head Mage, I would be more than happy to share the current research notes.”

An uncomfortable silence fell over the room at the conclusion of this obviously tense exchange. A moment had passed when Celestia stood from her seat, quickly followed by Luna.

“Luna and I must take our leave to check on the preparations for this afternoon’s events, and Twilight, I would suggest that you begin getting ready, as well.”

“Yes, Princess,” Twilight said enthusiastically with a smile.

The two princesses made their way out of the room through a side-door normally used by the castle staff. Arcana stood, glaring at the lavender mage for a moment, before turning and walking out of the dining hall without a word.

The five friends remained, talking about their respective plans for the day and idly gossipping of the goings-on around Ponyville. Several minutes passed, and finally, Twilight rose from her seat. “I really need to go get ready. I’ll see you all at the ceremony, right?”

“Of course, darling, we wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Rarity replied in her usual, debonair, manner.

Pinkie jumped up. “Well, I can’t wait for the party afterward!” she exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear.

“Well, it’ll hopefully be more exciting than the Grand Galloping Gala usually is,” Twilight said with a smile. “I’ll see you guys later.”

“Bye Twilight!” her four friends burst out in unison.

The metal latch engaged the doorframe with an echoing click. The sister princesses began walking quickly next to each other up the long, narrow, dimly lit corridor.

“What is bothering you, Luna?” asked Celestia, continuing to look forward up the hallway.

“You didn’t notice it, Sister?”

The white alicorn halted suddenly, causing Luna to continue ahead several steps before realizing the other had stopped. Celestia tilted her head slightly, puzzled by what ‘it’ could be. “Notice what exactly?”

The princess of night turned around to face Celestia. “I… I’m not really sure what it was. I think there may be something wrong with Twilight Sparkle. When she was speaking to Arcana, I felt… I felt something.”

A slight smile alighted on Celestia’s lips. “Would you care to be more specific?”

“I could feel something that seemed to be coming from Twilight. It was very weak… barely discernible. In fact, I’m not completely sure it was actually there at all. It seemed like some sort of magic that I have never come across before,” Luna stated, her words veiled thickly with concern and fear for the young unicorn.

Celestia’s smile immediately ceased and her brow furrowed. “Do you have any thoughts of what it may have been?”

“No. I would say it is possibly the very early stages of the development of a nightmare state, but I don’t know, that’s nothing more than wild conjecture.” Luna paused and glanced to the floor. “My memories from that part of my life are disjointed, at best… I’m just worried for her.”

A sigh forced itself from Celestia’s lungs. “This is indeed troubling, Sister.”

“I want to try the dream-walking spell with her to determine what it was—if there was actually anything there,” Luna stated determinedly.

“No, absolutely not!” declared Celestia sternly.

Luna was taken aback by the outburst, stunned into silence momentarily. “But Sister, I—”

The princess cut across her sister’s words, not giving a chance for argument. “I said ‘no’. You, of anypony, are well aware of the inordinate danger involved with using that spell on anypony that is potentially in…” Celestia paused briefly, lowering her voice to a near-whisper, as though someone may be listening to their conversation. “…in that state of mind.”

Luna rolled her eyes and growled loudly. “Damn it, Celly! You still treat me like a foal. Of course I know the potential danger involved, but if Twilight is becoming possessed by a nightmare, this is the only way we can know for sure early enough to intervene!”

Anger was quickly welling up within Celestia. She closed her eyes, clenched her jaw and took several deep breaths in order to attempt to control her outrage at her sister’s insubordination. She slowly opened her eyes and relaxed the muscles in her face. The princess then took on a soft, motherly tone when she opened her mouth to speak. “I am sorry that you feel that I treat you as one would treat a child. It is not my intention, but I have already lost you once for a millennium and I do not intend to allow that to happen again. It was my fault that it happened, and I now feel a need to protect you.”

“You know what, Celly? I am well equipped to take care of myself, and I have been practicing the dream-walking spell over the years since my return to the point that I have mastered it. I am able to barricade my mind against anything that would use the spell to take advantage of me,” Luna said fast enough to blur all the words together into a single stream of sound before turning around and beginning to walk down the corridor away from her sister.

Luna had made it halfway to the end of the hallway before Celestia called out to her. “Luna, wait!”

“One other thing, Sister: I do not. Need. Your. Protection!” she shouted without slowing down or turning towards Celestia.

Time seemed to have slowed to a snail’s pace. The last four hours may as well have been a week. Only half an hour remained until the soon-to-be grand magus needed to make her way to the auditorium where the ceremony was to be held. She had been ready for two hours now, wandering aimlessly about her suite and pacing across the main room. A loud, echoing knock sounded from behind the door to Twilight Sparkle’s apartment causing her to stop dead in her tracks and turn towards the noise.

“About time,” Twilight huffed as she moved to open the door, the flowing maroon cloak draped across her back trailing behind her.

She swung the door open to reveal a guard escorting a tan, unicorn steward standing with an elaborately decorated box suspended in the air by his magic. The wooden case gleamed in the low lighting of the hall, the beautifully dark stained and lacquered lacewood was brilliantly offset by the shimmering, solid gold latching hardware and corner protectors. On the front, just below a decorative keyhole, Twilight Sparkle’s cutie mark was masterfully hoof-carved.

The butler cleared his throat before slightly bowing his head and speaking. “The Element of Magic, Milady.”

“Thank you,” Twilight said with a smile as she took the container in her own magenta aura.

As soon as the exchange was completed, the butler and guard turned away and began trotting up the hallway.

Twilight closed the door and took the box containing the tiara to the table in the middle of her suite’s main room and carefully set it down. Undoing the latch and slowly opening the box with her hooves, she squinted slightly as the soft-violet glow of the element gem illuminated her features.

The mage lifted the tiara out of its container with her magic, admiring the golden ornament as she spun it slowly several times to inspect it from all angles. It was perfect. Even after having seen battle on several occasions over the years, the tiara was completely unmarred and absolutely breathtaking. Twilight lowered the Element of Magic onto her head and turned to look at herself in the mirror hanging on the wall.

Once again, knocking sounded through the room.

“Come in!” Twilight shouted as she turned towards the door, slightly annoyed by the new interruption.

The door flung open, hitting the wall with a clamorous crash. A streak of pink bounded through the air, landing in the middle of Twilight’s table.

“Hiya, Twilight!” shouted the shrill voice of Pinkie Pie.

Twilight shuddered slightly. “Hi, Pinkie,” she responded with a weak smile. “Do you mind getting down from there?”

“Pinkie Pie, ain’t no reason to be in such a big hurry. You coulda waited for the rest of us, ya know,” Applejack said as she walked through the doorway.

Three other ponies filed into the room after Applejack, and all but one of them were dressed in their very best gowns for the event. The one without a dress wore the formal, midnight-blue uniform of the Royal Equestrian Army.

“Hey, Twilight. Long time, no see,” Rainbow Dash said, smiling widely towards her friend.

“Rainbow Dash! How are you?” Twilight asked, genuinely happy to see her.

Rainbow Dash hesitated slightly before answering. “I’m good. All done with basic training.” She reached up and pulled a hoof through the prismatic hair on the back of her neck before continuing. “They sent me for additional training for aerial recon. So, I’ve got about another month of that before I’m sent to my first assignment.”

“Reconnaissance sounds pretty exciting,” Twilight said with a smile. “It seems like something that you’ll probably really enjoy doing.”

“Yeah... We’ll see.”

“It sounds dangerous,” Fluttershy said quietly.

Rainbow Dash chuckled slightly. “I doubt that. It’s mostly border patrols. We’ve been at peace for centuries, I doubt anything’s gonna happen in the next few years that I’m in the military.”

Rarity stepped forward to Twilight. “Well, we should be going. The ceremony is starting soon, and we don’t want to hold you up. We just thought that we should stop by and wish you luck.”

With a loud huff, Dash started speaking. “Pfft, Twilight doesn’t need luck. She’s the greatest unicorn mage to ever walk the face of the planet!”

The blue mare walked in closer to Twilight and put her forelegs around the mage. “Congratulations, Twilight. I’m really proud of you,” she whispered into her friend’s ear.

The unicorn smiled and returned the hug, closing her eyes. “Thank you, Rainbow Dash. That really means a lot to me… I’m proud of you, too.”

Suddenly, Twilight felt several more hooves on her back. She opened her eyes and looked around at her friends all embraced together in a group hug. The lavender unicorn smiled even wider now, enjoying the warmth of the friendship between them.

The group broke away from each other and stepped back a small distance.

Applejack stepped forward, holding out a hoof. “Congrats, Twilight, I know how much this day means to you. You done good, girl.”

“Thanks, Applejack.” Twilight lifted her right foreleg and bumped her hoof against the hoof of the mare in front of her.

“Oh!”

Everyone turned towards Pinkie, who looked quite surprised and slightly confused.

“Oh, what, Pinkie?” asked Rarity.

“I dunno… I had a twitch, but it went away,” the pink pony responded. She began to scratch her chin and look up towards the ceiling, as though she was deep in thought. Her sight fell back to the group in front of her and she smiled. “Probably nothing!”

Pinkie Sense…

Something like that would be incredibly useful.

“What d’ya mean, ‘probably nothing’? Your twitches are always something!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie shrugged. “It was just a little hoof-tingle… Maybe it means we’re going to be late if we don’t go now!” The pink mare began bouncing towards the door enthusiastically as she looked back over her shoulder. “See ya later, Twilight! Come on, everypony! Let’s go!”

The remaining five ponies watched as Pinkie hopped through the doorway and turned down the hall. They continued staring at the empty doorway for several seconds.

Applejack was the first to recover from the absurdity of Pinkie Pie. “Always in such a hurry… we’ll see ya later, Twi.”

“See ya at the party, Twilight!” Dash called out over her shoulder as she walked through the door with the remaining three Elements of Harmony following close behind her.

“Bye girls, I’ll see you later,” Twilight replied just before the door closed behind Fluttershy.

We must reinvestigate ‘Pinkie Sense’.

“Twilight?”

How do I do that? I’ve already tried to and couldn’t find anything substantive… There’s nothing to investigate.

You don’t believe that. There is something there; it is merely a matter of finding it and exploiting it. Just imagine the possibilities once we understand how it works.

“Twilight?”

I wonder if it has something to do with the leylines… Pinkie may be able to tap into them somehow.

The mage shook her head in response to a quick, light jab to her ribcage. Standing out of view of the attendees of the ceremony, behind heavy, red, velour curtains hanging limply at the rear of the stage, Twilight looked up to see Princess Celestia smiling at her, although beneath that smile something else hid. Twilight couldn’t quite put her hoof on it, but she had known the princess long enough to know when something was not quite right. She looked into Celestia’s eyes for a moment. Concern? Uncertainty? Fear, maybe?

That was it: Fear. That is what made it so difficult to place. Twilight had never seen the princess fearful about anything before, but it was definitely there now.

“Yes, Princess?” she responded with a smile of her own.

“Are you… Are you alright?” Celestia asked.

Twilight giggled slightly. “Yes, I’m fine. I just kind of spaced out for a moment… I guess this is a little more nerve-racking than I had expected.”

“I would imagine so,” Celestia said with a chuckle. “It’s time; are you ready?”

“I… Uhm… Yeah, I think so,” the mage answered as her smile quickly faded away.

“Good. I will go out ahead of you. Luna, Arcana, General Falx, Spike and several other court mages are already onstage waiting.”

Twilight’s eyes lit up. “Spike’s here?”

“Of course Spike is here. It a very important day for you; therefore, it is also important to him… Now then, you remember what to do?”

“Wait for you to announce me, then I come out and stand to your side.”

“Right. And don’t forget, when I ask if you are willing to accept your position as grand magus you only need to say ‘yes’ and recite your oath; you don’t have to make a speech if you don’t want to,” the princess stated as she turned to walk between the curtains in order to greet the waiting ponies.

“Yes, Princess,” Twilight said, her smile beginning to return. “Is Fireshade here?”

Celestia stopped and looked back over her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Twilight. I have not seen her, but I’m sure she will show up.”

The princess began walking again, continuing her trek to the stage platform. As she disappeared from Twilight’s view, the mage could hear the a cacophony of hooves stomping and ponies cheering. She swallowed hard, wondering how many ponies it took to make such a noise. A second, more pressing issue pushed forward in her mind as Celestia began speaking to the crowd of ponies in the cavernous auditorium.

Where is she? What is Fireshade doing?

“The post of Grand Magus of the Equestrian Royal Court has lain vacant for more than one-hundred years. Not because it is an unimportant post, but because there was no pony capable of the requirements necessary of the position,” Celestia said, her voice magically amplified and booming from in front of the curtains.

Don’t worry about that right now. We will check on her later.

“The pony who has been chosen for this task has been my personal student and protégée for many years. She has personally dedicated her life to the service of the nation of Equestria since a young age.”

But what if she’s hurt? She was supposed to be here.

She is fine, busily working on the tasks that she has been assigned. She won’t stop until they are completed, and you know that.

“The bearer of the Element of Magic, Twilight Sparkle.”

Of course I know that, but I don’t know that she’s fine.

Perhaps not, but there is nothing to be done right now. Celestia has called for us, it is time.

Twilight snapped out of her daze, shaking her head slightly. The sound of murmuring ponies could be heard from the audience ahead of the stage. She slowly moved in front of the first curtain, still pondering why Fireshade would have missed the ceremony.

One more curtain to pass around. Twilight’s heart was pounding in her chest so hard that she could hear the beats echoing in her head. Her chest was tightening with anxiety as she imagined what waited for her beyond the final piece of thick upholstery separating her from accepting her place as Grand Magus.

The massive room came into view as she crossed around the edge of the curtain. Hundreds of ponies were crowded in to the point that many were standing at the sides of the room and in the aisles. Seated throughout the front half appeared to be the entirety of the Equestrian nobility, along with many dignitaries from foreign lands, and in the front row, her five friends.

So many ponies. She was not ready for such a large crowd, and it nearly turned her anxiety into a state of pure panic. Twilight clenched her jaw and continued up the stage to her place between Celestia and Arcana. The old mage’s eyes glared at Twilight as he affronted her with a sly smirk. She took a deep breath and nodded towards him, smiling kindly.

As Twilight came to a stop, Celestia turned towards the crowd of ponies once again. “Twilight Sparkle came to my school at the age of five, where during her entrance exam…”

As the princess continued, Arcana leaned his mouth towards Twilight and whispered to her. “Nervous?”

“Of course I am,” she whispered back, continuing to look forward at the crowd.

Arcana let out a slight chuckle. “I understand. Not knowing where your subordinate is or what she’s doing during such an important event can be terribly exasperating.”

Twilight did not respond to his antagonizing remarks.

The sound of cheers and stomping hooves roared through the hall in response to part of Celestia’s speech. Twilight hadn’t been paying attention; something about Twilight’s part in Luna’s return. As the noise died down, the princess continued once again.

“So, what sort of experiments is she doing for you?” asked Arcana’s voice in Twilight’s ear.

A few seconds passed with no response before he quietly spoke again. “Secret experiments? Perhaps something that you wouldn’t want anypony finding out about? Maybe something… illegal?”

This got Twilight’s attention. She quickly turned her head towards Arcana, wide-eyed and pupils constricted. “What are you talking about?”

“I think you know exactly what I’m talking about, Magus.” With that he nodded towards the princess with a smile and whispered one last time. “You’re on.”

Twilight turned her head to look the direction of Arcana’s view to see the princess looking down at her with a serene smile. The unicorn turned to face Celestia directly.

“Twilight Sparkle, are you ready and willing to accept your position as Grand Magus of Equestria?” asked Celestia through her voice-amplifying magic.

Twilight let out a deep breath and nodded to the princess. “Yes, I am, Princess.”

“Then, if you would please recite the oath for all to hear.”

The mage’s horn glowed dimly as she cast her own voice-amplification spell. “I, Twilight Sparkle, appointed Grand Magus in service of Equestria, do solemnly swear, that I will bear true allegiance to the sovereign nation of Equestria, and that I will serve her honestly and faithfully against all enemies or oppressors whatsoever, and observe and obey the orders of the Diarchy of Equestria, Princesses Celestia and Luna, unquestioningly and to the best of my ability.”

“Now please turn towards the audience, Twilight,” Celestia said quietly.

Twilight complied and turned, facing the hundreds of ponies. She smiled widely as she surveyed the crowded room.

Celestia’s voice suddenly sounded forcefully over the crowd. “Ladies and gentleponies, I am proud to present to you, Twilight Sparkle, Grand Magus of the Equestrian Royal Court!”

The hall exploded into a cacophony of sound as every pony in the room cheered and stomped. Towards the back, some ponies were throwing streamers and confetti in celebration, earning them unamused glares from several nobles sitting in the rows ahead of them.

Her face lit up with a huge smile, Twilight waved timidly to the crowd. She leaned towards Celestia as she continued looking forward and asked, “May we go now?”

Celestia looked to her protegée, smiled, and allowed a small chuckle to escape her lips. “Yes, Twilight. I believe we are done here.”

A deep sigh of relief released itself from Twilight’s nostrils before she and the entourage of ponies turned and retreated backstage. As she stepped down the short set of stairs, making her way to the exit, a growling voice spoke out from behind.

“We have an hour until the reception. Anything you need to check up on?”

As Twilight’s hooves touched the landing at the bottom of the steps, she stopped and turned her head back to look at Arcana with a furrowed brow and pursed lips. He still wore that same knowing smirk that he had during the ceremony. “In fact, I’m going to my apartment to relax for a moment before the party and the undoubtedly monotonous task of personally greeting every single pony that shows up.”

Before Arcana could speak another word, she quickly made her way through the exit and began trotting through the empty, echoing hallway towards her room.

The dark-stained wooden door slammed shut. Twilight quickly turned the lock with a loud click. Pacing around the room, beginning to hyperventilate, she mumbled to herself. “He knows… He knows, he knows, he knows…”

He knows little to nothing. He is fishing for information that he will never receive.

With a jolt, Twilight stopped pacing. “I need to warn Fireshade!”

She looked to the small clock hanging on the wall. “Plenty of time.” With that, a bright light flashed through the room.

Twilight began walking as soon as the dungeon fell into place around her. “Fireshade!?”

She stopped to listen for a response that never came. Moving to the doorway, careful to avoid Fireshade’s sigil, she peeked her head out, looked up and down the hallway, and returned to the laboratory with a huff. Looking from the short corridor that led from the door, she noticed a small pile of notes on the workbench, along with various tools, scraps of wires and metal, and two silver boxes with a Section 5 logo emblazoned on the side of each.

“Huh, looks like she may have gotten a second one working.”

Twilight walked past the magic batteries to the notes on the bench and set her tiara down gently. She began scanning the first page in silence. After a moment, she leafed through the pages and pulled out a page that appeared to be a rough-draft report and began skimming through the words until something near the middle of the page caught her eye.

“Subject Four of Project 2a was inadvertently terminated during the experiment, due to a malfunction in the energy transfer buffering system,” Twilight muttered to herself, still staring at—but no longer reading—the notes before her. “Subject Four? This was just written a couple of hours ago… and what about two and three?”

She slowly pivoted her head up towards the clock above the workbench. “I really don’t have time to deal with this.”

Turning away from the notes, Twilight walked across the room to the row of cell doors, three open and three closed. She placed her front hooves on the first door and looked through the tiny window to find Apple Slice sitting at the back of the small room, curled up with her knees to her chest and slowly rocking while staring blankly at the wall opposite herself.

Twilight continued to watch the green mare for a moment longer, noticing that her mouth was moving constantly as though she was saying something to herself over and over again. Try as she might, the mage was quite unable to discern what exactly Apple Slice was saying.

“Huh…” Twilight shrugged and moved to the next cell. Her eyes went wide as the interior of the room came into view. She dropped her hooves back down to the cold, stone floor and wrapped the door in a telekinetic field, swinging it open. The old hinges groaned under the weight of the iron-clad slab of oak, and Twilight’s jaw almost touched the floor as she took two steps into the tiny room.

She found herself at a complete loss of words as she observed the gruesome scene before her. Blood—or at least what she assumed to be blood—covered the back corner of the room and dissipated out into a fine spray with a large coagulated puddle on the floor beneath. It looked as though someone had thrown a balloon full of maroon paint into the corner.

With her heart pounding loudly in her chest, she quickly backed out of the room, turned, and ran to the stack of notes on the workbench. Twilight frantically picked up the draft report she had been looking at, and began to read it far more thoroughly.

Yr 8, 7th SS
Mechanobiological energy interface device (2-a), Test 17-4-d

1. Overview

Test 17 was originally intended for Subject 3. However, Subject 3 was rendered unconscious at the termination of test 16 (see report 2-a.16-3-e), and remained unresponsive at the time test 17 was ready after reconfiguring of the interface output circuit. Due to the time constraints placed this project, it was decided to perform test 17 on subject 4, rather than wait for Subject 3 to become ready for further experimentation.

This is the 4th test on Subject 4. Previos tests on this subject have shown and prior subjects have shown discharge output is still far too high for proper operation of the interface device. For test 3-f, an additional capasetance buffer and 3 resistance strands have been added to the buffer circuit (fig. 1) in order to decrease output and reroute more of the transferred energy back to the storage device.

Subject 4 of Project 2a was inadvertently terminated during the experiment, due to a malfunction in the energy transfer buffering system. Details of the system failure can be found in Section 3 of this report. If I could get some decent equipm

2. Experiment 2-a, Test 17-4-d

11:32am - Completed assembly of the modified interface device (rev. 8)

11:47am - Assembled interface device and storage device, now ready for testing

12:16pm - Completed bench tests. Storage supply energy at 684.3 thaum, interface maximum output in active state holding steady at 3.32 thaum/second

12:30pm - lunchtime!

1:23pm - Subject 3 has been prepared as outlined in Test 2-b of Project 2a and the experiment is ready to begin, I hope the trigger mechansm works this time

1:29pm - Began the test with Subject 3 levitating and holding a 1 kg box, 1 meter above the floor. Subject’s magic output holding at 0.34 th/s

1:31pm - Activated energy transfer system, storage device discharge output at 20.4 th/s, interface output at 0.63 th/s. The buffering system appears to be working properly.

1:32pm - Subject’s magic output increased to 0.88 th/s. 9.3% loss between the subject and the interface; consistent with earlier testing. Contact points are beginning to heat, and the subject is experiencing some mild discomfort.

1:35pm - Interface output suddenly increased to 13.9 th/s. Subject was unable to control the influx of energy and crushed the testing box. Subject is experiencing extreme pain and its eyes, ears and nose are beginning to bleed profusely.

1:37pm - Subject has collapsed. Upon inspection, it appears that a hole (approximately 9 cm diamter) has been burned through the back of the skull, centrally located on the lambdoid suture.

3:48pm - Interface device was dismantled and inspected. Failure of the #4 resistance strand caused cascading failures throughout the energy step-down transformer. Best explaination for the failure is over-heating of the interface device. More efficient heatsinks or liquid cooling may alleviate this problem.

3:53pm - Subject 3 will be disposed of in the same manner as the previously terminated subjects.

Twilight sighed deeply. “What a mess. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be,” she whispered to herself.

And how is it supposed to be?

Oh, I don’t know… we could start by not blowing up pony’s heads!

This is not an issue, if it gains the knowledge we require prior to our needing it. This must be done in order to achieve our goals.

I know that. It’s just that I don’t want to hurt anypony.

This is not a game we are playing. The future and well-being of an entire nation rests with us. Sacrifices must be made in order to secure that future and well-being. If we are not ready when we confront Celestia, you will be executed immediately.

Twilight swallowed hard at hearing that final statement from her subconscious. They are test subjects. The sacrifices of these few will unlock a wealth of great things for all of Equestria.

“Fourth test on this subject? Someone’s been busy.” A small smile crossed the lips of the mage as she looked up to the clock. Almost forty minutes had elapsed since the ceremony. “Of course it’s overheating when there’s a nine percent energy loss through the contacts. Extra cooling only treats the symptom of the underlying problem, though…”

She turned away from the bench and trotted towards the last locked door. Twilight peeked through the window expecting to see a red, unicorn stallion. Instead, a new unicorn stood in the room in place of Comet, facing away from the doorway. A small, light-pink colored mare, her mane shaven almost down to the skin.

It will take too long to read through all the notes.

I believe it would would be safe to assume that Subject Two has also been terminated.

The mage on the outside of the door squinted, trying to get a better look at the back of the mare’s neck before speaking softly through the window. “Hey, come over here, please.”

The pink unicorn turned her head slowly, made eye contact with Twilight, and sighed. She then moved her head back to look at the wall in the back of the cell.

Clenching her jaw, Twilight growled slightly. “I said, come here!” she yelled into the window.

Nothing.

Twilight sighed deeply. “Fine… Just stand there, then.”

The captive’s head began to glow in a violet aura, and she yelped loudly as she was dragged across the room to the door. A scraping noise and the sound of hooves rapping against iron could be heard against the door from outside as Twilight lifted the unicorn by her head until her lower neck and shoulders were visible through the barred window. A half-dozen, small, puncture wounds surrounded by charred, circular burn marks lined her neck, three on each side of the spine, starting at the unicorn’s shoulder blades and going halfway up her neck.

Twilight released her telekinetic hold, and the pink pony fell to the floor with a sharp thud, coughing loudly due to the trauma of having her full weight held up by her head.

“What are those marks from?” Twilight questioned aggressively.

“I-I-I don’t know,” the unicorn stammered. “The other one did it… Sh-she strapped some sort of box to me and told me to use my magic.”

“And then what?”

“A-And then it burned me… she did it th-th-three times,” she choked out between the sobs that were beginning.

Twilight glared down at her. “I don’t care about that, what happened to your magic?”

“I don’t…” The unicorn stopped speaking momentarily to allow a bout of heaving sobs pass. “I-I-I don’t remember… It hurt so bad. I think I passed out.”

“Useless,” Twilight muttered to herself as she walked back to the workbench and sat down.

Lavender hooves drummed on the wooden planks of the workbench. Thinking quietly to herself for a moment, Twilight glanced across the notes that she, herself, had inscribed onto the bench several months prior. “Higher transfer efficiency should fix it. Silly Fireshade, trying to use dermal contacts, this will require something more… invasive.”

A quill and blank piece of paper levitated to the mage. She quickly jotted several notes on the parchment about her thoughts on the experiment and left it near the pile of papers where Fireshade would hopefully find it.

Twilight then gingerly placed her tiara back on her head and stepped down from her stool. “We’re not done here, yet… I’ll be back,” she stated loud enough for both of the confined ponies to hear.

“Wait! What’s happening here? Where’s my daddy? He was here with me,” a soft voice called out from one of the cells.

Twilight turned to see a unicorn’s pink face peeking through the barred window of a cell door, tears flowing freely down her cheeks.

“Your daddy? I’m not sure where your daddy is. What I can tell you for certain is that you are extremely lucky that you were unconscious when my assistant was ready for the next round of testing,” the mage stated dryly as she turned away from the mare. “Judging by the mess, it could have gone much better. I’m sure Fireshade is out disposing of the remains right now.”

The pink mare began breathing very quickly and fell to the floor, crying loudly.

Taking a few steps toward the door, Twilight spoke in the most comforting tone she could muster. “Now, now. Don’t worry; I’m sure once Fireshade makes the necessary adjustments, you will have a very minimal chance of having your head explode like the last one.”

Twilight glanced over her shoulder to the clock. “Now then, I must go. I’ll be back to check on you later.”

Apple Slice flinched violently, and cowered in fear as the white light from Twilight’s teleportation spell flashed through the window of her cell.

Twilight appeared in the blink of an eye just outside a side-door entrance to the ballroom where the party in her honor was to be held. She quickly straightened out the cloak over her back and pulled a hoof through her mane. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. She forced her best smile and entered the huge room.

The door swung open effortlessly when she pushed into it. The lights were dim, and the music droned sleepily in a soft and melodic tone. The castle’s serving staff outnumbered the guests three to one, but judging by the near-constant stream of guests arriving, that would soon change.

Twilight scanned the room methodically, searching for her mentor. Her eyes squinted down slightly, and the muscles in her jaw instinctually tensed the second she spotted Celestia, standing there with an unknowing smile, idly chatting with a few of the guests. By her side, Arcana stood with the small circle of nobles surrounding the princess.

“Congratulations, Grand Magus,” said a familiar voice from beside the mage.

She didn’t even have to turn her head to know who spoke. Without averting her gaze from Celestia, Twilight answered back. “Thank you, Princess, but the title is not necessary. I would much prefer that you call me by my name.”

Luna chuckled quietly into her hoof. “You first, Magus,” she said with a smile.

“Heh… okay, Luna.”

A full minute of awkward silence passed as the pair stood at the side of the room. No one seemed to notice them there as the party guests went about eating hors d'oeuvres, drinking wine, and making small talk.

“Have you been okay, Twilight?” Luna asked suddenly.

Twilight turned to face Luna, smiling widely. “Of course. Why do you ask?”

“You have seemed distant…” Luna paused and glanced towards the floor. “Even disconnected, as of late.”

Letting out a small giggle, Twilight looked into Luna’s eyes. “I’m fine, Luna. There’s nothing to worry about; things have just been rather stressful on me since I returned to Canterlot.”

“Very well, I just wanted to be sure.”

They returned to silence and Twilight looked back to Celestia.

“You know, she would probably like to talk to you,” Luna said, breaking the quiet.

Twilight turned to Luna. “Huh?”

The princess nodded towards her sister. “You left the ceremony so quickly that she didn’t get a chance to congratulate you.”

“Oh, right, of course… I’ll see you a little later, Luna.”

The clacking of her hooves against the brilliant, white marble floor was the only sound Twilight could hear, as she walked deliberately slow towards Celestia. The last thing she wanted at this point was another run-in with Arcana. Unfortunately, Luna saw to it that the she would have to be in his presence at least once more this evening.

The princess and head mage stood facing away from Twilight, and directly across from them were two unicorns. She stopped just behind and between Celestia and Arcana, clearing her throat to gain their attention.

They turned their heads simultaneously. The princess smiled, Arcana did not.

“Here she is, now,” Celestia said as she stepped aside to allow Twilight to join the group.

The unicorns before her bowed down to Twilight. “Congratulations, Magus,” said the stallion on the left before rising to his normal stature. The petite, auburn mare next to him shadowed his movements closely.

“Thank you, Mister…” Twilight responded, lowering her head slightly while maintaining eye contact and letting the title linger.

“Oh! How rude of me,” the noble replied with a nervous smile. “I am Governor Starchaser, of the Velmere Province.” He gestured towards the mare next to him before continuing. “And my wife, Garnet.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Governor,” Twilight said with a smile.

Starchaser opened his mouth to speak again, but was quickly cut off by Celestia. “If you would please excuse Twilight and I, there are many guests arriving that we must greet.”

“Of course, Your Majesty.” Starchaser and Garnet bowed down once more as Celestia began to turn away.

Arcana simply nodded and spoke two words. “Princess… Magus.”

Celestia was already several steps away when Twilight realized she had already left. She giggled uncomfortably, and then quickly caught up to her mentor.

“Why did you accept my offer?” Celestia asked, still looking forward as they made their way towards the receiving area near the front doors.

Twilight looked to her quizzically and hesitated for a moment. “I… I guess I don’t really understand the question.”

“What I mean is, you were so happy in Ponyville. You were with your friends, you had your library, you had what many would consider an enviable life, Twilight.”

Thinking back to the day that she received the letter requesting her service as grand magus, Twilight found it difficult to remember why she had accepted the offer. Thoughts of a lying, tyrannical dictator masquerading as a god trampled anything else that came to mind. Why was she there? Would she have been better off to decline and stay in Ponyville, not becoming involved with any of this?

No. If we had not become involved, nothing would ever change. You know the reasons for your coming here initially.

“I wanted to work by your side, Princess. It’s what I’ve always wanted. I would have been a fool to not accept your generous offer.” Twilight’s stomach twisted as the words slid across her lips. It had been what she always wanted, but now, the mere thought of that scenario made her feel sick.

Celestia smiled as her and Twilight stopped on the reception line near the entry to greet ponies as they arrived.

By the time the stream of arriving guests slowed to the point that Twilight and Celestia could leave their post less than an hour had passed, but for Twilight, it may as well have been an eternity. Thoughts of the failed experiment and red-painted cell walls, plans built up and discarded several times over while she attempted to formulate a solution to her problems in her mind, and Fireshade was still absent from the ornately decorated ballroom.

In a daze, Twilight wandered through the party, smiling blankly and making automated small-talk with many of the ponies in attendance. She chatted with her friends and spoke with Spike, but wouldn't be able to recall what had been said. She had to find Fireshade, and thoughts of her assistant clouded everything else from her mind.

It is time to go.

Author's Notes:

I know it's been a while. Thank you all for being so patient and understanding with me. The words of encouragement that I received through PMs and blog comments has been and always is greatly appreciated.

XVI: Torpid Progress

A flash lit the wall in front of Fireshade as she meticulously soldered together the components of the device on the bench in front of her. She lightly blew a puff of air towards her work, diverting the acrid smoke away from her face. Without so much as glancing away from her delicate task, the yellow mare spoke with a lethargic, monotone utterance, “Hi, Twilight.”

“You missed the ceremony,” Twilight unhappily deadpanned as she stepped forward to look over the shoulder of her assistant.

“D-did I?”

Twilight watched for a moment as Fireshade carefully melted a short length of wire to the circuit board with a glob of solder using her magic to connect the tiny pieces of circuitry.

“Yes, you did,” Twilight said flatly.

Several seconds passed before an empty response crossed Fireshade’s lips. “Huh...”

Now fuming, Twilight stepped back and snapped at the mage before her. “That’s it? All you have to say is ‘huh’? What were you thinking to just not be there?”

Fireshade shrugged, still not turning from her work. “I was busy. I’m still bus—woah!”

The stool upon which she sat turned completely around as it screeched across the stone floor until two viciously glowing, magenta eyes filled her vision. The yellow mare tried to look away, but the intensity of Twilight’s gaze made sure that Fireshade was unable to break eye contact.

“You have no idea of the ramifications of your absence!” Twilight yelled, stomping a hoof at the end for emphasis. “You’ve put us both in danger!”

“H-how is that? It’s not out of the ordinary for me to not show up some”—Fireshade paused mid-sentence to yawn loudly—“w-where that I’m supposed to be.”

“Arcana was very interested in where you were and what you might be doing. He even went so far as to suggest that I may have you working on illegal experiments!”

A quiet chuckle passed Fireshade’s lips. “W-w-well, that’s pretty much what I’m doing.” She slightly rolled her eyes. “What you have me doing,” she corrected. “You and I both know that we can’t keep this up forever.”

“Obviously. But the more time we have, the better.” Twilight blinked her eyes, and they dimmed to their normal lavender hue while at the same time they narrowed at the mare before her. She carefully studied the more-unkempt-than-usual mane and dark circles under Fireshade’s eyes. “You look awful. When’s the last time you slept?”

Fireshade glanced around the room before answering. “Uh, I-I’m not sure. Two days... maybe th-three?”

She’s useless to us like this.

“Go home, Fire,” Twilight commanded.

Fireshade’s eyes suddenly gained a sheen of lucidity. “What!? But I’m al-almost ready for the next test!”

Twilight slowly shook her head. “You haven’t slept in three days. You can’t possibly believe that you’re in any state of mind to be conducting live experimentation.”

“B-b-b-but I’m fine!” objected the exhausted mare.

“You can’t even speak properly. How do you expect me to believe that you’re fine?” Twilight stepped around her assistant and inspected the inner-workings of the transfer device. “Are the storage devices fully charged?”

Fireshade turned around. “Yes,” she answered dejectedly.

Twilight turned to look back at Fireshade. “Good. Finish putting this together, and then go sleep. I’ll check your work and take care of the testing.”

Hopping down from the stool, the yellow mare levitated the piece of furniture back to its original position near the workbench. As she reclaimed her place on the seat, she asked, “This is still going to take a couple hours. What are you going to do until then?”

“I’m going to study,” replied Twilight with a smile. She then walked to the bookshelf storing her collection of forbidden knowledge and pulled down a tome titled Theory and Application of Temporal Manipulation: Volume 2.

The clock’s hour hand had just passed two when Twilight pushed aside the research notes that Fireshade had made detailing the latest iteration of the energy transfer device. She lifted the small box off of the bench and held it before her face in a telekinetic field. The back of the metal box glinted dully in the drab lighting of her dungeon laboratory. Slowly turning it to show the underside, the mage inspected the six blunt protrusions that extended from the smooth surface.

Twilight glanced to her right at the pile of notes, wondering if the solution really was that simple. “The numbers work...” she muttered to herself.

As the purple glow around the box dissipated, it landed gently on the workbench. One of the two fully-charged magical batteries then slid from her left and stopped next to the transfer device. “...but if theory always worked in practice, there would be no need for testing and experimentation.”

The purple mare stood up and stretched her front legs out. Fireshade’s newest testing block levitated from across the room and alighted on the floor next to the door of the cell housing her current test subject. Twilight turned and slowly walked towards the same cell while continuing to speak to herself. “It works on paper. It always works on paper.”

Hooves struck iron, and the resulting clang echoed throughout the room and hallway as she propped herself up to look into the cell. A small-framed unicorn mare lay on her side in the back corner of the cramped room. “I understand the mechanics of how it works.”

Inserting the key and turning it in the lock with telekinesis, Twilight placed all four hooves back on the floor and pushed the door open. “I can see it in my mind. I don’t need to make the calculations.”

“Wake up, Subject Three,” Twilight commanded sternly as she walked towards the maneless mare lying in the cell.

She stopped just short of bumping into the test subject and looked down at the motionless pony. Staring for more than a moment, Twilight finally closed her eyes and released a deep sigh.

What in the world am I doing? She opened her eyes to the sleeping mare once again.

We are doing what is necessary.

But why is this necessary?

You know exactly why. We are very powerful, but still no match for Celestia. If we cannot increase our power and teach ourself at least some of the offensive spells that we’ve obtained, learning the truth through a direct confrontation will be a death sentence. We do this for the good of Equestria

A tear rolled down Twilight’s cheek. It is necessary.

She lifted a front hoof and slowly nudged the pink mare in an attempt to rouse her. “Number Three, it’s time to wake up.”

I hope it’s not already dead, she thought to herself. “That would be less than convenient,” she whispered out loud as she prodded the prone mare once again.

Twilight’s test subject groaned and errantly swatted behind her back, attempting to shoo away the disruption.

“Come on. It’s time,” Twilight said with a deliberate intensity while beginning to press a bit harder into the mare’s ribcage.

“Daisy,” came the reply as the mare lifted her head.

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “What?”

“My name. It’s Daisy.” With that, a dull pink glow enveloped the captive’s horn.

The shimmering horn registered quickly in Twilight’s mind, but she barely had enough time to think before an unseen force slammed into her.

The telekinetic blast sent Twilight sailing to the far wall, shaking loose a cloud of dust from the mortar between the bricks on impact. As she slid down to the floor, Twilight gasped, trying in vain to reintroduce air into her lungs. She landed hard on her haunches and coughed, glaring with abject rage at the pink mare running past her.

“You can’t leave!” Twilight screamed in the direction of the frightened pony as she pulled herself back up to her hooves. She quickly turned around and dashed out of the cell, just in time to see Daisy slam against the doorway in a frantic attempt to get through to the endless labyrinth of corridors beneath Canterlot Castle.

The pink mare fumbled futilely with the sealed door’s latch as Twilight casually walked up behind her.

A threatening grin etched its way across Twilight’s face. “I told you that you can’t leave. We have things to do.”

Heavily panting, Daisy spun around to face her captor. “J-j-just let me go. P-please.”

“You know I can’t allow that, Number Three,” Twilight responded, simply. “At least, not in your current condition. I cannot afford letting anypony know about what’s happening here.”

Daisy quickly realized the gravity of the situation. She would not survive this encounter if she didn’t force her way out of the dungeon laboratory. In that moment, the mare’s eyes darted around the room, trying to find something, anything, to use as a weapon or a means of escape. The massive data manipulator occupying the corner of the room fell into her view.

She looked Twilight square in the eyes and saw the pink reflection of her magic. The mage’s eyes suddenly opened wide with surprise as a shrill, metallic screech sounded from behind her.

Twilight turned her head to source of the noise and witnessed the data manipulator slowly inching across the stone floor. She turned back to Daisy, unimpressed and quietly laughed. “I’m not sure what you think you’re trying to do. You wouldn’t believe how difficult it was just to move that thing down here.”

A magenta aura surrounded Daisy as she lifted from the ground.

“That’s enough. We have work to do,” Twilight said, turning towards the devices lying on the workbench while she held the pink mare.

Maintaining the telekinesis spell, she picked up the small, spiked box and turned back to her test subject just in time to see a blinding, pink flash.

Daisy fell to the floor, surrounded in a translucent, pink bubble. She quickly regained her footing and rushed towards the lavender mare as fast as her hooves would carry her.

A second, magenta bubble appeared around the mage before Daisy had closed half of the distance between them. Digging her hooves into the floor to brace for the impact of the two shields, Twilight put all of her focus into the barrier.

However, to the mage’s horrified surprise, the impact did not come as it should have. Instead, the pink bubble slipped through the magenta barrier, enveloping Twilight with the mare.

Daisy lifted a hoof high above her head and came down with all the force she could muster.

The mage’s head started to move to dodge, but it was far too late. The impact of the pink hoof against the side of her face was enough to break her concentration and what was left of her impotent barrier fell immediately. Twilight’s vision swam with stars as she tumbled, slamming hard on the stone floor.

Get up! We need to restrain her!

Twilight opened her eyes and spit a concoction of blood and saliva onto the floor. She turned her head just in time to witness a second pink hoof fill her vision. The limb connected hard with its target, colliding with the mare’s head, just below her horn.

Standing over Twilight, Daisy pulled her hoof back once again to punch the bleeding, purple face one more time.

Twilight’s horn was glowing ineffectively, attempting to hold back her attacker's hooves with telekinesis. She looked up to the pink mare above her, still enveloped in a pink barrier.

This isn’t a physical barrier.

The pink mare mare let loose a primal scream as her hoof came down again with murderous intent.

She shouldn’t have been able to do that!

She shouldn’t have been able to do that...

She’s stopping my magic!

She’s stopping our magic...

The realization came to Twilight a split-second too late. An explosion of pain shot through the side of her head, and the edges of her vision dimmed to blackness momentarily.

It’s a repulsion spell. She’s cancelling out our magic with her own.

Panic overwhelmed the mage as she realized her magic was useless against this opponent. Twilight began thrashing about as hard as she could, flailing her forehooves wildly in an attempt to repel her attacker.

Calm down. It will not help to panic. We have to fight her physically.

What do I do? I don’t know what to do!

Fight her. Stop her.

A random, lavender hoof made contact with the side of Daisy’s muzzle, stunning her momentarily.

Now push her away.

Twilight pulled her rear legs to her chest, and with all her strength, she pushed as hard she could, smashing her hooves devastatingly hard into Daisy’s chest with a sickening crack.

The rose colored mare fell back to her haunches. Wheezing, Daisy leaned back and threw a forehoof to the floor to steady herself as the pink bubble disappeared. She coughed harshly as her opponent stood up, spraying a fine mist of blood on Twilight and the floor.

She’s lost her focus. Now restrain her.

Twilight’s horn burst with an intense, flame-like energy as the pink mare lifted high and fast into the air, crashing against the ceiling with enough force to cause one of the hanging lights to swing listlessly on its cord.

That’s enough! Restrain her!

Twilight flicked her head to the left and simultaneously stopped the spell, flinging Daisy across the room. The test subject tumbled through the air, slamming head first into the wall above the workbench and leaving a splattered painting of crimson fluid on the brick as she fell down the wall. She came to rest on the bench, causing stacks of research notes to erupt from the surface like a paper volcano around the pink mare.

We need to stop!

Letting out a guttural scream, Twilight once again picked up the now unconscious unicorn with her magic and slammed her to the floor.

Twilight Sparkle, we need to stop!

Closing the gap between the two, Twilight stopped short and reared up.

We’re going to kill her!

Two lavender hooves came down mercilessly, and a sickening crunch resounded through the room as Twilight landed on the throat of her target. Silence filled the room, broken only by the mage’s heavy breaths.

What have you done, Twilight Sparkle?

“She-she tried to kill me! She was going to kill me!” Twilight yelled as rivulets of tears began to pour down her cheeks.

She was disabled. We could have simply restrained her.

“No. She wouldn’t have stopped. She would have killed me,” the mage breathed.

Twilight began pacing around the lab, observing the carnage left behind.

We needed her.

“No! There’s more... We can-”—the mage glanced to the lifeless body on the floor— “we can get more.”

We don’t have much time. Arcana is on to us.

“Fireshade can take care of it,” Twilight said, attempting to convince herself that the situation was under control. “Fire’s good at this sort of thing.”

We need to find her.

“Y-yeah, find her.” Twilight nodded weakly to herself several times. “I’ll just... go get Fireshade. She’ll fix this. Like last time.”

The lavender unicorn made several shaky steps towards the exit before stopping and turning back to look at the gruesome scene behind her one last time.

She smiled slightly. Yeah, everything’s fine. Everything’s going to be just fine.

Twilight unlocked the exit and swung the door open. She stepped through the doorway, brushing against the wall to avoid the trap in the middle of the floor. Reaching the main corridor, Twilight sighed and began the long walk to locate her assistant.

XVII: Dreamscape

Fireshade’s eyes shot open to a room dimly lit by moonlight pouring in through an open window. Blearily glancing around her cramped apartment, Fireshade listened closely for the disturbance that had woken her.

It only took a moment for the sound of knocking to echo through the mare’s ears and mind once again. She let loose a low-toned growl as she rolled over, burying her face into the soft feather pillow beneath her head. Incoherent grumbling, muffled by the pillow, resonated from Fireshade’s lips as she drifted back to her dreams.

The knocking came again, louder and more urgent this time. Fireshade moaned defeatedly to the empty room and rolled off the side of her bed, dragging a heavy, linen blanket along with her. Yawning, she shook herself loose from the tangle of cloth and made her way to the door.

Fireshade pulled the door open and looked through her half-lidded eyes to the pony interrupting her sleep. “What?” she sleepily groaned, barely registering who was standing before her.

“Fire, I need your help,” Twilight said, staring through Fireshade. The lavender mare’s face was void of emotion and her voice droned with a lethargic, monotone quality.

“Pfft, you told me to sleep, silly,” the yellow mare sleepily responded. She rubbed her eyes with a forehoof and yawned, looking back to Twilight as her hoof returned to the floor. Fireshade’s bright-orange eyes suddenly opened very wide as her mouth fell open.

The mare standing before Fireshade was all but unrecognizable. The entire left side of her face had swelled to the point that her violet eye was lost in the puffy, swollen flesh. Dried, flaking trails of blood outlined her nostrils and she slouched, as though it were painful to stand erect.

“What in the world, Twilight?” Fireshade leaned out the door and looked up and down the abandoned hallway in front of her apartment. “Get in here! Did anypony see you like this?”

Twilight stumbled through the door and immediately made her way, with a slight limp, directly to the restroom. “I...” Twilight began, trying to recall anything or anyone that might have been following her. “I don’t think so. I tried to be careful on my way here.”

The main door to the cramped apartment clicked shut and Fireshade threw the bolt to lock it. She turned around and followed Twilight across the room. “On your way? You didn't walk, did you?”

The lavender mare began to inspect herself in the reflection of the mirror. Slowly prodding at her bulging left cheek, she cringed and responded, “Y-Yes.”

“Geez, Twilight! All the way from the dungeons in that condition? Why didn’t you just teleport up?”

Rushing water sounded from the wash basin and Twilight turned, glaring at her assistant with one good eye. “I was preoccupied,” she curtly answered before returning to wiping the dried blood off of her tender face.

“What in Tartarus happened to you?”

Without looking away from her task in the mirror, the mare answered while dabbing her muzzle with a damp cloth. “Uhm... There was a bit of an incident.”

The yellow unicorn’s eyes narrowed, looking to the reflection of her friend in the mirror. “What kind of incident?” she cautiously—and curiously—asked with a raised eyebrow, not entirely sure if she wanted to hear the answer.

“There was a... problem with the test subject,” Twilight responded disinterestedly as she set down the washcloth. “You’ll see it when you get there.”

“What do you mean, ‘when I get there’?” Fireshade asked, slowly tilting her head.

“Please, Fireshade. Just do this for me.” Twilight used a hoof to pull open her swollen left eyelid to inspect her eye. The white of the eye had turned completely blood-red. “Crap, that’s going to take a while to heal.”

Fireshade gave up trying to get answers and expelled a deep, calming breath through her nostrils. “Fine. I’ll take care of it.”

Turning from the mirror to look directly at Fireshade with a small, wincing smile, Twilight responded, “Thank you. I’m, uh... I’m going to go take a quick nap, I think.”

“You seriously look like you were put through the wringer, Twi. Maybe you should stay here. You can use my bed, and I’ll take care of the lab.”

“Yeah, that... that’s probably a good idea.” Twilight wandered towards the bed while Fireshade watched.

Fireshade turned and made her way out the door and into the hallway. Once the door shut behind her, she sighed and whispered under her breath, “Damn it.”

Luna looked to the near-black stained, mahogany, grandfather clock resting beside a wall of her private chambers. The seconds seemed to tick by excruciatingly slow as the Princess of Night continued to debate with herself.

“Three o’clock... Surely Twilight would be asleep by now,” she said to herself while walking around the room, skirting the walls and stopping near her bed.

“Damn it, Celly, of course it’s dangerous, but what would you have me do?”

Continuing her circuit around the room, Luna thought out loud. “It is Twilight Sparkle... and I know there’s something wrong. We cannot sit idly by and allow whatever is happening to her to continue.”

The princess stopped suddenly, looking up to the massive stained glass effigy of the moon and a starry sky which resided in the wall over the head of her bed. “...but what if there is nothing the matter? It would be a terrible breach of her privacy for me to root through her dreams and come back with nothing to show for it.”

She sighed heavily. “Ridding a filly of a terrifying nightmare is one thing. That much is easy. Relatively safe.” Luna tapped a hoof against the floor several times, and then started meandering through the room once again. “Entering the dreamscape of a fully grown mare, the most powerful unicorn to ever walk this plane, the Grand Magus no less, and with a possibly infected psyche... Well, that’s a whole other thing, altogether.”

Several minutes passed, the hollow, monotonous echo of the ticking clock marking each passing second. “And what if Celly is right? If it is a Nightmare, I may not be prepared to handle it on my own.” A cold shiver passed through her body. “I certainly didn’t handle it well last time.”

Luna sat down on the large midnight-blue and purple rug before her bed. “I have to do this. If this is a Nightmare, it must be expelled as soon as possible.”

Tilting her head down and looking to her front hooves, Luna spoke once more, steeling her resolve. “I must do this, and I must do this now.”

She closed her eyes as her horn became surrounded in a dark-colored aura. Leveling her head, she opened her eyes, revealing white glowing energy from them.

A midnight-blue hoof touched the parched, white ground. Luna looked around at her surroundings, noting the bizarre manner in which the light seemed to bend around the barren, black trees, casting pastel purple shadows on the bone-hued ground. It appeared to be some sort of forest, but the vegetation was like none she had ever seen, be it in real life or the dreamworld. The limbs of the deathly trees hung twisted and curving unnaturally from trunks so dark and smooth, they appeared to carved from single, gigantic pieces of obsidian. “This is not right.”

I know you’re out there…

The calm, raspy voice called out from nothing, speaking directly into the princess’ mind. Luna’s heart skipped a beat, and she looked back to the direction the voice seemed to come from.

“Twilight?” she asked to the emptiness, turning her head to face forward. “Twilight, is that you?”

I can feel you, now...

Now, with a racing pulse, Luna scanned the landscape through the oddly curving branches. She slowly stepped forward through the smooth, black trunks. Her hooves striking the ground made no sound. She stopped after only moving several meters.

I know that you’re afraid...

“I am not afraid, Twilight.” Looking up to the white sky, Luna noted that there was no sign of a sun or moon. “I am very worried for you. You have been acting strangely as of late.”

She began walking again. After plodding forward for several minutes, the trees began to thin. She stopped moving again when her eyes suddenly detected movement in the distance beyond the nightmarish forest. Luna’s head tilted to the left slightly as she leaned, trying to view whatever had moved.

She saw it. Something standing near a pool of water. It was still too far away to see clearly what it was. Luna decided to move closer.

You’re afraid of me...

Coming out of the trees on the opposite side of the pond from the apparition she had seen previously, Luna could now get a clear view of the thing. It was mostly white, with areas of black and purple accentuating its lithe torso and arms. It portrayed features of a pony, however it stood upright on four spindly mechanical looking legs, reminiscent of a spider, with its head tilted down, staring into the depths of the crystal clear water. Stringy, limp, black hair obscured the magenta glow of its eyes.

You’re afraid of change...

“Who are you? I demand to know with whom I speak!” Luna shouted.

The terrifying construct across the pool shot a fearsome look upon Luna with lifeless magenta orbs in place of eyes. The rapid motion with which it turned its head would have made any foal trip over themselves, clambering to escape its glare.

Do you not recognize me, Princess?

Her eyes narrowed at the creature before her. “I most certainly do not. This is Twilight Sparkle’s dreamscape. Where is she?”

The thing moved in a blur, advancing on the princess so fast that her brain had barely begun processing the motion when the towering figure appeared directly before her. It stood a head taller than Luna and had a black and white horn longer than any she had ever seen. The magenta glow of its eyes bore into Luna’s very soul as she shifted uncomfortably on her hooves.

I’m right here, Princess.

Luna clenched her jaw tightly. “You are not Twilight Sparkle,” she growled through her teeth. Probing the dreamscape with her magic, she frantically searched for evidence of another entity besides Twilight’s presence, but to no avail. This isn’t right. This can not be Twilight.

The demonic visage spoke into Luna’s mind without moving its mouth, I assure you, I most certainly am your beloved Twilight Sparkle. You really have no idea, do you, Princess?

“No idea of what? I demand you to tell me what is going on here!” Luna shouted, stamping a hoof.

I know your secrets.

Luna’s mouth dropped open slightly for a moment before she recovered from the shock of the thing’s words. She swallowed hard in the distorted face of the pony-creature before her. “I-I have no secrets. I do not know of what you speak.”

There is no need to lie, Princess. I know everything. I know many secrets of you and your sister. Some that even you are not aware of.

“You know nothing of the secrets of the Canterlotian Court,” she stated, never blinking or averting her eyes from the thing standing before her.

I know about ‘them’.

Luna breathed in sharply and opened her mouth to respond, but held short. ‘Them’ could have meant any number of things. There was no need for her to jump to conclusions from such little information.

Also, the secrets your sister keeps from you.

“Enough!” Luna shouted forcefully, the Royal Canterlot Voice echoing in the distance for several seconds afterwards. “I demand to know what you have done with Grand Magus Sparkle immediately, demon!”

Luna began to take several steps back, away from the abomination as it slowly tilted its head nearly ninety degrees. The burning magenta orbs in its eye sockets never moved from Luna for even a moment.

I am Twilight.

Luna slowly shook her head. “No. I refuse to believe that. This is no dream of Twilight Sparkle’s making.”

Perhaps you do not know me as well as you thought.

A dark glow emanated from Luna’s horn as she began to weave a powerful spell. “I know what you are. I know Twilight, and soon I will speak with her directly, monster.”

The pony-like thing standing before Luna made no attempt to dodge or counteract the spell, instead opting to stand stock-still.

Straightening its head, the abomination spoke into Luna’s mind one last time before the princess unleashed her fury. Or perhaps you are just as blind to the truth as the rest of Equestria.

Just as the final word rang through her consciousness, a dark, midnight-blue bolt of energy discharged from Luna’s horn, aimed directly at the thing’s chest. The spell made contact on the desired mark, exploding outward and around the intended target. An intense, white light radiated blindingly from the impact, causing her to wince out of surprise and clench her eyes tightly shut.

Several seconds passed before the glow subsided from behind Luna’s eyelids. She slowly opened her eyes in order to survey the effect of the spell she had cast. The fuzzy, indigo hair covering Luna’s body hid the fact that her face had paled completely at the sight. Her skin grew cold as she looked upon the scene and slowly mouthed a single, soundless word. “No...”

Before her, the Twilight-thing stood, just as placid and unmoving as it had been prior to the attack. It lethargically swiveled its head towards the ground, apathetically inspecting the black parabola scorched into the white earth around itself. Slowly lifting its head, it stopped, once again staring at Luna with its terrible magenta eyes.

No matter how powerful you make it, an exorcism spell will do nothing, the voice of the apparition said with indifference. As I have told you already, Princess, there is nothing to exorcise. I am not a demon, nor am I a monster. I am Grand Magus Twilight Sparkle.

Luna’s heart pounded in her chest like a sledge hammer, the sound of her own pulse echoing in her ears. She barely maintained what little composure that remained as tears began to line the bottoms of her eyes. Meanwhile, Twilight’s avatar remained deathly still, its face portraying not even the slightest hint of emotion.

“Twilight, w-what is this?” Luna asked sedately.

This? The voice paused, as though pondering what would be an appropriate answer. This is the product of millennia of poor decisions and misguided judgement.

The thing turned away from Luna and, on slender mechanical legs, began slowly walking towards the water.

“Wait! We are not done here. I need answers, Twilight,” Luna pleaded.

You are incorrect, Princess. You are done here. I am done here. You have invaded my dreams; you have invaded my privacy. Consider yourself lucky that I allow you to leave this place unscathed for such a breach of trust. This is not friendship.

Luna had no response. She simply stood, watching as the apparition gently stepped into the small pond. As it moved towards the middle of the pond, it slowly became further and further submerged.

“Twilight, please! I only want to help you!”

Just before its head fell out of sight beneath the motionless surface, it spoke one last time.

This is not magic.

Twilight bolted upright in in the middle of the floor of Fireshade’s apartment. The image of Luna’s attack burned permanently into her memory. “She attacked me,” she stated with disdain to the empty apartment. “I can’t believe Princess Luna attacked me... Why would she do that?”

Quickly standing up, she felt a familiar searing pain, high on her right leg. She looked down to the floor to see a small kitchen knife and a blood-soaked rug.

“She called me a monster.”

Twilight looked away from the mess on the floor to the image of herself in a mirror hanging on the wall across the room. “I’m not a monster, am I?”

Stepping towards the mirror, looking at her still swollen face, Twilight reflected on the events of the dreamscape. “Why did the princess look so afraid?”

She’s afraid of us because we know.

“We have to get ready to leave,” Twilight whispered. She sighed deeply and continued, “It’s too soon.”

The white glow dimmed from Luna’s eyes. She briefly looked around the room, reacquainting herself with the surroundings of the physical plane of existence. After regaining her bearings, she jumped to her hooves and immediately teleported away.

She found herself standing in a corridor before a large door. Luna took three panicked steps towards the door and forcefully rapped her hoof against it.

“Twilight!?”

Several seconds passed with no response. Luna reached for the door handle and rattled it with no success of opening the door. She pounded on the door again.

“Twilight, please! I only wish to speak with you!” she yelled at the slab of wood.

Luna prodded at the locking mechanism of the door with her magic. Just before she was able to break the anti-magic imbuement and pick the lock, the latch clicked and the door opened slowly.

“Oh hey, Princess,” Spike said, looking as though he was mostly still asleep. “Kinda late for a visit.”

“We must speak with Twilight immediately. Please, fetch her,” Luna commanded, allowing her anachronistic manner of speaking slip through.

The young dragon scratched at his head for a moment. “I don’t think she’s here, but I’ll check.”

He turned, leaving the door open, and continued speaking on his way to Twilight’s bedroom. “I’ve barely seen her over the past couple months. She’s awfully busy... Heck, she usually doesn't even sleep here.”

Luna stepped through the open door and followed Spike at a short distance. He approached the entrance to the room and knocked quickly as he opened the door to peek in with Luna looking over his shoulder. A cluttered nightstand and an empty, unmade bed were the only things in the room.

“I guess she’s not—” The telltale strobe of light from a teleportation spell interrupted Spike. He turned around to the empty apartment. “Well, you’re obviously in a hurry. It was nice chatting, Princess,” the dragon stated in a manner thick with sarcasm.

Apple Slice could hear the whistling approaching from quite some distance. She hugged her legs tight and rocked herself, staring emotionlessly at a point on the stone floor as the lively tune slowly grew louder.

The cheerful whistling came to an abrupt stop, and Apple Slice heard a voice from the other side of the cell door.

“Oh, shit...” Fireshade slowly drawled.

The unicorn stood in the doorway to the laboratory, surveying the scene before her. Her eyes first caught sight of the pink mare laying amongst various pieces of paper, her head cradled by a pool of blood. Moving closer to the dead pony, she leaned down to inspect the abhorrent damage that had been done to the unicorn.

“Heh... You shoulda seen the other guy,” Fireshade stated in a mocking tone and laughing a bit at her own humor. Raising her head, she noticed the mess of papers scattered about the workbench. Her gaze continued upward, past the bench, until she saw the smattering of maroon blood soaked into the bricks near the clock.

“Damn, Twilight, couldn’t make it a clean kill, eh?”

Picking the papers off of the floor in her telekinesis, Fireshade began to whistle her unnamed tune again. She took great care to separate the bloodsoaked pages from the clean as she re-stacked them neatly on the workbench.

The last of the pages landed gracefully on the bench, and Fireshade looked to the corpse lying in the middle of the floor. “I suppose I should do something about you before I clean up anything else,” she said to the lifeless pony.

Just then, she heard a quiet shuffling noise from across the room. Turning towards the single remaining occupied cell, she smiled and walked briskly to the door. Her yellow forehooves contacted the door as she peered inside.

“Oh, hey there Apple Chunk. Did I wake you up?” Fireshade asked cheerfully.

Apple Slice’s hooves dragged across the stone as she slowly made her way towards the door with her head hanging low near the floor. “Mmmmmm-aa...”

The pyromancer’s head cocked to the side slightly. “What?”

“Mmmmmoorrrr,” her mouth barely moved as the green mare attempted to speak.

Fireshade giggled in response. “Silly filly, you can’t have more right now. You’re severely addicted to that stuff, and Twilight says that we have to see if you’ll be able to survive without it now.”

Backing away from the door and turning her attention back to the task at hand, Fireshade lifted the pink unicorn using telekinesis. She spoke loudly to Apple Slice while the dead test subject levitated in the air nearby. “We’ll see what I can do for you when I get back, Apple Wedge. With the recent developments here, we may need you alive a bit longer.”

The yellow unicorn trotted gaily towards the exit, with the recently deceased test subject in tow. “I swear, it’s like I’ve become Twilight’s dead-pony janitor and personal pony snatcher,” she said to herself as she entered the corridor and turned towards the disused exit to the outside world.

XVIII: Exodus I

After hours of waiting, the sky over the eastern horizon finally began to lighten. This marked the end of the fourth non-consecutive night Arcana spent hunkered down in the tall grass near the scorched mountainside. He felt that this would be his best chance of catching her in the act of wrongdoing. If he knew Fireshade even half as well as he thought he did, then she would return. She had always been a creature of habit, almost to the point of obsession on many occasions. Arcana knew quite well that it would be nearly impossible for her to stay away from this place, even if this time it may be for less nefarious reasons.

“I should have been coming here every night,” he growled, followed by a deep sigh. “Probably missed her on one of the nights I wasn't here.”

The grass began to wave in a passing breeze, kicking up the overwhelming smell of the wildflowers and tickling the face of the old mage. He nonetheless remained stone still, keeping his vigilant watch for the yellow unicorn.

Then, it happened. After countless hours of waiting with no results, his heart jumped in his chest and an uneasy vibration was felt in his horn. He could sense her aura long before he was able to see her. Several minutes passed with Arcana’s sight fixed on the glassy cliff face before he saw the orange glow from beyond the curve in the road.

Finally, Arcana spotted the pony he had spent so much time waiting for. She trotted down the path at a leisurely pace and carried something with her. It looked large, but the old mage couldn’t quite make it out through the haze of the magical aura holding it.

“Is she... whistling?” he whispered to himself, slowly shaking his head and letting out a slight chuckle. Putting the absurdity of his apprentice aside, he readied himself to make his presence known.

Fireshade approached the center of the charred expanse and abruptly cut the flow of magic holding her burdensome load, dropping the body to the ground with an unceremonious thud. Lifting his eyes above the grass to get a better view, Arcana’s eyes widened as he realized what Fireshade’s cargo was. He had expected illegal studies in banned magic and the destruction of evidence that would corroborate that, but disposing of bodies was far beyond anything he had been expecting. He quickly dropped down to keep himself concealed from the mage before him.

“What have you gotten yourself involved with, my apprentice?” he whispered under his breath.

She stopped whistling, but continued the tune with a hum as she went about her business, not knowing she was being observed. The old mage continued to watch in shock—fighting the urge to pounce on her then and there—as Fireshade pushed the body closer towards the wall of glassy, black rock.

Arcana waited for the definitive proof that he would need to put an end to whatever Fireshade and Twilight were doing.

Fireshade suddenly went silent, looking at the body of the nameless, pink mare before her. She sighed, then took a deep breath, and looked up to the dark-grey sky as it grew lighter and bluer with every passing minute. Turning away from the lifeless body, Fireshade walked beyond the edge of the burnt circle. The pyromancer stopped and turned around once she stood at what she thought was a safe distance for the spell she prepared to cast.

Summoning her magic, the pyromancer’s horn glowed orange as the air around her began to distort and warp from the rapidly rising temperature. After a few moments, the heated gases formed a small flaming sphere in front of her. However, her spell was cut short by a voice she wasn't expecting—the last voice she could possibly want to hear at that moment.

“So this is what you’ve been up to in your absence,” Arcana spoke, revealing himself from his grassy hiding place. “I’m disappointed in you, Apprentice.”

Fireshade’s eyes widened as a cold chill swept down her back. She immediately spun to face the senior mage. “What are you doing here?” she accused, narrowing her startled eyes into a hard glare.

Arcana scoffed. “I could ask you the very same question, although...” The senior mage glanced to the lifeless corpse behind Fireshade. “...I think we both know what you were about to do.”

To Arcana’s surprise, the pyromancer simply let out a chuckle and smiled. “Well, I guess there’s no sense in trying to hide it, now is there?” she said with indifference, glancing back to the body in question. “The question now is what happens next, right?”

The senior mage furrowed his brow. “With this solid piece of evidence, I plan to go to Celestia once again. She will see reason when faced with the truth. Twilight Sparkle will be prosecuted and stripped of her title and rank at best.” The mage paused for a moment in thought. “However... it’s not too late for you just yet, Apprentice.”

Fireshade eyed the old magic skeptically. “Just what are you getting at?”

“While I now have everything I need, an actual testimony would prove far more useful,” he stated matter-of-factly. “As your charge, I am responsible for you and your actions, so in the event that you were... manipulated by the grand magus, I could see to it that your involvement was overlooked.” Arcana pointed a hoof to the body behind the mare. “It’s not too late. You can still walk away from this, Fireshade.”

The pyromancer’s posture eased in light of this new information. “...Really? You could do that for me?”

Arcana let out a smug chuckle. “You know very well what I am capable of, Fireshade. One doesn’t achieve my position without gaining a few perks along the way.” His expression hardened once more. “Assist me in bringing Twilight Sparkle to justice, and I’ll personally see to it that you are acquitted of your involvement in her crimes.”

Fireshade paused for a moment, taking his offer into consideration before letting out a heavy sigh and smiling. “When you put it that way... I guess I really don’t have a choice, do I?” she said, lifting the pony behind her in her magic and approaching the senior mage.

Arcana’s stance eased with a smile. “Wise choice, Apprentice,” he complimented the mare, walking over to meet her. “I knew you were smarter than—”

“I’m simply going to have to kill you.” Fireshade spoke indifferently, her smile widening as she hurled the mare’s body at the stallion.

“Eh!?” Arcana craned his neck back in shock before diving to the ground to avoid the corpse as it sailed overhead. “What the buck are—”

The senior mage had barely enough time to react to the sudden inferno thrust upon him. Desperately focusing his magic into an emergency barrier, Arcana strained his eyes at the intense light emitted by the assaulting fire. While the shield held fast against the pyromancer’s flames, a new threat quickly developed inside the barrier itself. His protective magic did little to stop the rapidly rising temperatures of the air around him, causing the mage to break out into a heavy sweat.

“Pyromancer... bitch!” Arcana snarled, putting intense focus into his barrier.

Overloading his protective spell, the shield exploded outward into a rippling pulse of blue energy. Taking advantage of this brief respite, Arcana tumbled away from his position before galloping out of the surrounding smoke and ash. After a short coughing, the head mage turned back to where he had once been standing. A perfect circle of untouched soil was surrounded by blackened earth for several meters in every direction.

Fireshade’s spell had been no simple offensive attack. Arcana sensed raw killing intent behind the power of her magic. Scanning the surrounding area, his eyes fell on an orange figure walking out from behind the blanket of smoke. A small smirk fell across the mage’s lips as he noted the pyromancer appeared to be rather winded from her attack.

“All that power and absolutely no endurance. What a pity,” he said with an amused chuckle.

Fireshade kept her eyes focused on Arcana as she attempted to catch her breath. She had gone all out in her initial attack, in hopes that catching the senior mage off-guard would be enough to finish the battle before it ever began. It seemed she had been too careless.

“You’re looking a little tired, Apprentice. Is working as the grand magus’s lacky really that draining?” Arcana asked dryly. “Perhaps you’d like to reconsider my offer?”

“Buck you!” Fireshade shouted back between breaths, raising a hoof menacingly. “I’d never sell out Twilight. Especially not to the likes of you, Arcana.”

Arcana scoffed amusedly. “You and I both know that mare’s future is as good as finished. Why do you cling so tightly to her, even now?” The old mage raised a curious eyebrow. “Wait... Don’t tell me that ridiculous excuse Twilight gave me is actually true?”

Fireshade craned her neck, taken aback by the senior mage’s insinuation.“No! Well... maybe?” The mare rapidly shook her head. “I don’t know! I’m still not used to this whole ‘friendship’ thing. It’s a complicated feeling, okay?”

Frowning in disapproval, Arcana shook his head. “She is just using you, Apprentice.”

“That’s not true!” the pyromancer quickly retorted. “Twilight is my friend! She cares about me! She’s granted me more freedom than anypony else has in my life!”

“And just why do you think that is, Fireshade?” Arcana asked quizzically. “What has Mage Sparkle had you do with this freedom you’ve been granted, hmm? Steal equipment? Dispose of bodies?”

Arcana’s arrogance was quickly grinding on the pyromancer’s last nerve. “You wouldn’t understand the first thing about friendship!” Fireshade declared, pointing a hoof accusingly at the head mage. “You’re just a crotchety old stallion who’s been too busy kissing Celestia’s royal flank in hopes of a position that you’d never get!”

Arcana frowned at the pyromancer’s foalish taunts. “That is where you are sorely mistaken, Apprentice. I was young once, too, you know. I can say with certainty that no friend would ever ask somepony they cared about to do such heinous acts such as... this,” he declared with disgust, gesturing to the scene before him.

Fireshade rapidly shook her head. “That’s not true! Twilight is... Twilight’s different!”

Arcana furrowed his brow in disapproval. “Perhaps you cannot see it yourself, but it is plain as day to anypony looking from the outside in.” The mage pointed a hoof directly at the pyromancer. “You are nothing more than a convenient tool for that mare.”

“Shut up...” Fireshade whispered under her breath, trembling in utter rage.

“Did you really think you were so special, Fireshade?” Arcana asked in a condescending tone. “Twilight Sparkle saw that you already held her in high regard before you had even met her. You were perfect for her. She knew that you’d do anything to not disappoint her. Isn’t that right, Fireshade?”

The arcanist’s question was met with a sudden flurry of fiery projectiles. This time, however, Arcana was prepared for such an attack and reacted swiftly to the oncoming threat. Raising a narrow field of blue energy, the senior mage focused his magic to deflect the attacks, knocking them to either side of him with relative ease. The parried projectiles erupted into intense light and flames upon impacting the surrounding earth and stone.

By now, the pyromancer was exhausted. Improper eating and an intense lack of sleep had seriously dampened Fireshade’s fighting ability. Sweat poured down the mare’s face with every heavy breath she took, and her offensive stance wavered from her most recent attack. Despite this, Fireshade still stood defiantly before the head mage, refusing to back down as she readied another spell.

Arcana scoffed at the mare’s irrational stubbornness. “Very well. Since you refuse to see reason, I’m afraid I’ll have to take you in by force.”

Closing his eyes, the arcanist’s horn glowed, brilliant blue bands of ethereal energy forming in the air around the old mage. Fireshade’s eyes widened as Arcana’s actions clicked in her head. Immediately cancelling her spell, the pyromancer spun in place and darted for the dungeon entrance.

Arcana narrowed his eyes at the fleeing mare. “You will not evade me, Apprentice.”

After a few more moments of focused channeling, the magical energies surrounding the stallion coalesced into his horn with a vacuum-like effect. Releasing the charged energies, Arcana fired off a condensed bead of intense light that followed after the retreating pyromancer. Gaining speed the further it traveled, the tiny projectile followed the mare with persistence, changing directions as she attempted to evade it.

“Shitshitshitshit!” Fireshade’s breathing grew erratic as she glanced over her shoulder at the oncoming flare of arcane energy. The dungeon entrance wasn’t within her teleportation distance yet, nor did the surrounding mountain path provide any cover she could hide behind. Even if she teleported as far as she could, the homing projectile would still reach her in just a few short seconds.

No choice, I guess.

Skidding to a halt, the pyromancer gritted her teeth as she poured the entirety of her focus into a last-ditch barrier. The small flare of arcane magic crashed into the mare’s spell with an overbearing concussive force, exploding upon impact. The defense’s wall cracked, white fissures spreading across its surface, before it finally shattered.

Fireshade’s eyes rolled into the back of her head, a high-pitched wail screeching throughout her skull. The shock wave generated by the blast quickly overtook her, flinging the pyromancer’s body into the air and violently bouncing her a great distance across the ground.

The mare eventually skidded to a halt, slowing until she was a few hoof-lengths from the cave’s entrance. Her senses were blurred, and her limbs were sore. Fireshade whimpered, managing to force her way back to a standing position. She staggered, nearly losing her balance multiple times, before she finally stumbled into the cave’s entrance.

Arcana scoffed. “Damn it. I shouldn’t have gone easy on her.”

Passing through the lab's threshold, Fireshade paused to catch her breath. Arcana had been right on her tail mere moments ago. Did he notice the trap? Could he even see them?

She knew that the head mage could sense even the slightest traces of residual magic, so if anypony could see them, it would be him.

The mare soon got her answer.

A pillar of light erupted from directly inside doorway to the hidden lab, followed by a loud scream of pain. Fireshade looked on in absolute shock as a ring of runes materialized into existence around the arcanist’s prone figure. A large smile soon replaced her surprise.

“No way!” Fireshade beamed, unable to contain an ounce of her excitement as she shakily walked to the entrance. She glanced down to her captive's cutie mark with a smug grin. “Eye of Providence, indeed. Didn't see that one coming, though, did you?”

Arcana glanced about his prison of binding light. “What manner of trickery is this?” he barked, trying to force his way from his bonds.“Release me at once!”

Fireshade held out a hoof. “Wait wait wait... you mean, you don’t know what this is? And you couldn’t sense it?” The confused look on the arcanist’s face only excited her further. “Wow! Mark that as just one more reason this stuff was banned.”

“...Banned?” Arcana asked skeptically, before casting the pyromancer a heavy glare. “Just what have you two been up to down here?”

Fireshade donned a mask of indifference and shrugged. “Oh, you know... this and that,” she answered vaguely, rubbing her chest with a forehoof before examining it disinterestedly.

“I demand you release me this instant!” he ordered, gritting his teeth. “Then you are going to tell me everything you and the grand magus have been up to!”

The arcanist’s hollow demand elicited a burst of laughter from the pyromancer. “I don’t think you are in a position to demand anything, bud,” she said, walking up to the head mage and flicking his muzzle with a hoof. “If my experiments with this baby have taught me anything, it’s that you won’t be going anywhere until I let you.” A dark smile lit up the mare’s features. “If I let you.”

The pyromancer’s sinister expression sent a chill down the stallion’s back. He tried desperately to summon his magic and free himself from this prison, but to no avail. “What in Equestria is this magic!?” he asked, utterly baffled at his inability to free himself from it.

The pyromancer chuckled. “Trust me, I’d love to tell you allll about it, but I don’t think Twilight would be very happy with me.”

“Is this how far you have fallen? Reduced to a puppet for the grand magus’s ends?” Arcana asked. “Just how long until you think she decides you are no longer useful to her? Then what? Hmm?”

“You shut up!” Fireshade snarled, pointing a hoof down at the stallion. “That’s not going to happen!”

Arcana let out a fit of laughter. “Oh, don’t kid yourself. You know it’s true,” he said with a smirk. “You are just a liability to her. A liability she would just as soon dispose of as any other pony she already has.”

Fireshade could barely hold back her rage. Even in this hopeless situation, the arcanist still maintained his arrogance. Thankfully, she had just the thing to remedy his smug attitude, and remind him of who was in control of this situation.

“You know what?” Trotting over to the supply cabinet across the lab, the pyromancer levitated a single purple vial from a collection of blue liquids, as well as an empty syringe. “Since you’re so bucking curious about what we’ve been up to, why don’t I show you?”

The arcanist’s smirk faltered at the sight of the needle, and vanished at the mare’s sinister face as she filled it with the unfamiliar substance. “What is that?” he asked, a hint of panic in his voice.

“This little guy? Oh, just a small side project I’ve been working on in my free time. I like to call it GL-7658z, or simply ‘the nightmare goo’,” she answered matter-of-factly, waving the stallion’s concern away before returning to him. “Don’t worry. It won’t kill you...” She let out an ominous chuckle. “Though, you’ll probably wish it did.”

Before the stallion could comment, the mare stuck the needle into his neck, injecting the experimental contents. The foreign substance burned like an intense fire as it entered the arcanist’s blood stream, causing him to cry out in pain.

“Now, you be sure to remember everything you see and experience. I’ll be expecting a full report on it later,” she stated, levitating a magic inhibitor she prepared for a unicorn earlier from the lab’s workbench, and attached it to Arcana’s horn. “For now, I’m going to catch some shut eye as well, though it’ll probably be a lot more enjoyable than yours.”

Casting a restraining spell on the stallion’s writhing figure, she removed his bindings and levitated him to a nearby holding cell, haphazardly tossing him in before closing the door and securing it’s latch with magical holdings. She turned to leave but paused; with the adrenaline having now faded from her system, Fireshade realized just how exhausted she really was, and the long trek back to her apartment sounded worse than walking on hot coals.

“Buck it.” Deciding that walk back to her place was too much work, Fireshade trotted to the next unoccupied cell, where she unceremoniously collapsed on the pile of hay within.

Later that evening, the silent dungeon laboratory lit up with a flash of purple light as the grand magus materialized into existence. After a much needed rest, Twilight felt anxious about the incident in the lab, and hoped greatly that Fireshade had completed her task.

Now that she had calmed down, Twilight noticed just how big of a mess she had made during the scuffle. Thankfully, it seemed that Fireshade had cleaned up a little, particularly with the removal of the test subject’s lifeless remains. However, the lab still remained a bloody mess.

“I can’t believe I actually did all this...” Twilight mused, glancing about the large pools of blood and splatter. The mage was more than a little perturbed that she was capable of such violence. The idea that she had just taken another’s life with her own hooves still weighed heavily on her mind.

Killing may be necessary if we cannot avoid detection. It’s something you have accept if we want to survive long enough to make a difference.

I know. It’s just... it’s difficult to come to terms with.

Twilight reflected on the thought for a moment before shaking it from her mind. She had far more important things to worry about at the moment than moral strife.

We are out of time; we need the mechanobiological energy interface device operational as soon as possible.

Trotting to the workbench, she examined the items on the table, immediately noting the many blood stained papers set aside from a pile of clean sheets. “I’ll have to make fresh copies later.” Beside the papers, she found the two small boxes she needed. Her eyes widened upon further examination of the devices. “No! No, no, no!”

Levitating one of the boxes, she examined the obvious damage it had sustained; badly dented and mildly misshapen, it was clearly beyond usable condition in it’s current state.

“Dammit!” she shouted, slamming a hoof on the desk and gritting her teeth in frustration.

It must have been damaged during the struggle.

“We don’t have time to fix this right now!” Twilight paused, thinking for a few moments before glancing back to the cell blocks.

One interface device and no suitable test subjects left...

We wouldn’t be in this predicament if we hadn’t killed subject three. We have to get another as soon as possible.

There’s no time. There has to be better option. Something faster, more immediate...

Twilight’s eyes widened as she scrambled through Fireshade’s notes. “There might just be...”

You cannot seriously be considering that?

I am.

Have you already forgotten what happened to us the last time we tested an unfinished experiment on ourself? We almost died!

This time is different. We are more informed, and better prepared.

Retrieving a particular sheet of notes, she rescanned its contents. “The dermal contacts simply can’t handle the amount of energy being transferred. Additionally, one of Fireshade’s theories is that the subjects simply didn’t have the mental or magical capacity to support the interface device,” she said to herself, levitating the box in question and closely examining it. “I’m probably the most powerful unicorn currently alive. If anyone could could handle the strain, it would be me.”

We don’t know that for sure!

I have to try. Everything looks as good as it can get on paper, and there’s nopony else powerful enough to support Fireshade’s... theory...

The grand magus paused as she realized that she might not be the only pony capable of supporting the device’s output.

Fireshade probably could, too...

Taking the possibilities in mind, Twilight weighed her options. If she insisted passionately enough, Fireshade would likely be up for trying it. “But if something were to go wrong, and Fireshade were to...” The mage trailed off , feeling a chill creep down her spine as her stomach sank.

No, absolutely not! Fireside is...

Fireshade is an asset to us. We cannot risk letting something bad happen to her.

Yeah... yeah, you’re right. I’m right. We can’t use Fireshade for something like this.

Twilight sat the device back onto the desk. “It has to be me.”

Very well. However, if we are going to do this, we are going to do this right. Now listen carefully...

The grand magus nodded, making her way to the supply cabinet and retrieving the tools and medications necessary for the impromptu operation. The mage levitated a scalpel in her magic, examining it apprehensively. Being alone, she’d have to perform the surgery without the aid of anesthetics, relying only on simple painkillers to dull the sensation.

“I really wish Fire were here for this...”

Waking with a long stretch and a small groan, Fireshade opened her eyes weakly. Every fiber of her being cried out for her to go back to sleep, to give in and get more rest. Against the protests of her body, she peeled herself to her hooves.

Scratching her side and wetting her dry mouth, she took a moment to absorb her surroundings. “Oh yeah, I was too tired to go back after...” Fireshade’s eyes widened as she recalled the events of earlier. “Oh shit!”

Stumbling out of the cell, she rounded to the adjacent door and quickly peered inside. Sure enough, there lay the still-unconscious form of Arcana. The mare slapped a hoof over her face and goaned. “I was really hoping all of that was just a dream...”

“Fireshade!”

The mare jumped at the excited voice, spinning around to find the grand magus across the lab, wearing a smile that beamed with absolute excitement. However, upon further inspection of the mare, Fireshade realized something was very off about her appearance. A large section of Twilight’s mane had been shaved off, and trails of fresh blood streamed down the sides of her neck and face. At the origin of this blood, two cables plugged into ports in the back of her neck, just beneath the base of her skull. Snaking their way down her neck and back, the opposite ends connected to Fireshade’s interface device and one of the Section 5 batteries strapped to her side.

“What in the great depths of Tartarus happened to you!?” Fireshade exclaimed, rushing up to the magus, closely inspecting the area around the still-fresh incisions. “Oh my god! Are you okay, Twilight?”

Twilight quickly shook her head. “Never mind that—it works, Fireshade!” she exclaimed, grabbing the pyromancer’s shoulders with both her forehooves. “The mechanobiological energy interface device! It works!”

Fireshade paused. “Wait... it does?”

“Yes!” the mage repeated, retrieving a sheet of paper from the nearby desk and levitating it before the pyromancer. “It appears your theory on the average unicorn lacking the magical aptitude to handle the strain of the device was correct. Here.” She grabbed Fireshade’s hoof, bringing it to the metal box affixed to her body. “Do you feel that?”

The pyromancer’s jaw slackened in disbelief. “It’s... cool to the touch...”

“Exactly! No heating issues whatsoever! Watch this!”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Fireshade cut in while raising a forehoof, gaining the excited magus’s attention. “Look, I know you're excited—heck, I’m excited about this, too—but...” The mare trailed off with a glance to the cells behind her, before starting up once more. “We sort of have a problem on our hooves...”

The excitement instantly vanished from Twilight’s face at the seriousness of the pyromancer’s tone. “What happened? Did somepony see you?”

“Actually, yes. Somepony did.” Fireshade gestured for the now-paling grand magus to follow. “I managed to restrain him and bring him back with me, but...” She stopped, pointing to the newly-occupied cell. “I think you should see for yourself.”

An uneasy feeling swam in Twilight’s gut as she hopped up to peer through the cell window. Upon witnessing the identity of the prisoner, she lost her balance, falling back to her haunches. “What is he doing here?” she hissed, pointing a hoof directly at the cell door.

“I just said so,” Fireshade pointed out dully. “He caught me trying to dispose of Subject Three. I think he may have been waiting for me.”

“He was waiting for you?” Twilight cupped her head in her hooves, an expression of utter horror adorning her features. “This is bad! This is really bad!” Twilight immediately turned back to Fireshade. “Was there anypony else with him? Could anypony else have seen you?”

Fireshade shook her head. “Nah, he was all alone. If anypony else was hiding nearby, well... they may be a little on the ‘well done’ or ‘extra crispy’ side right about now.”

“Wait, you fought him?” Twilight asked, craning her neck back in disbelief.

“Well... I wouldn’t necessarily call it a fight. It was more like me trying to kill him before he could do anything, then running my flank off when it didn’t work.” She closed her eyes, crossing her forelegs with an unhappy grunt. “As much as I hate to admit it, there is no way I could take that guy in a fair fight. Not Arcana.”

“If that’s the case... then how did he get in there?” Twilight gestured back to the cell.

Fireshade let out a smug laugh, striking a confident pose. “Remember that entrapment sigil I sprung on you a while back? Well, it turns out not even Arcana can detect the stuff. He walked right into it!” Fireshade raised a forehoof with a wink. “But thats not all! He didn’t even know what it was!”

It’s probably safe to bet that if even Arcana doesn’t know about it, then nopony other than the princesses do.

It could be entirely possible that nopony alive other than the princesses know about vault four’s contents.

We should press him to find out what he knows, if he knows.

“I’m going to wake him up,” Twilight declared, preparing the necessary restraining spells before glancing back to the pyromancer. “He is still alive, right?”

“Oh, he’s alive. He might not be too happy when he wakes up, though,” she chuckled to herself.

Twilight raised an eyebrow before returning her attention to the cell, opening it and making her way inside, Fireshade close in tow. “Wake up,” the mage demanded, eliciting no response from the unconscious unicorn. After several seconds of no response, Twilight called out again, shaking the stallion with her magic.

“No, no, no! You’re doing it all wrong,” Fireshade declared, enveloping the arcanist with her magic. “Like this!” With a flick of her concentration, the pyromancer flung the unconscious stallion into the cell wall.

Crashing into the thick stone with a meaty thud, the arcanist let out a groan. Upon waking, he suddenly let out a horrified scream, cupping his head and stammering incoherently. Twilight craned her neck back in surprise before looking to the pyromancer for an explanation. “Just what exactly did you give him?”

“I took the opportunity to try out a special sedative I’ve been working on. Remember that junk you tried to kill yourself with? Well, I figured if I modified it slightly, I could produce a hallucinogenic drug that induces nightmares—perhaps even night terrors.” She looked to the panicked form of the arcanist with a smile. “By the looks of it, GL-7658z seems to work great!”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “GL-7658...z?”

“Yeah! Z!” Fireshade beamed. “Because it puts you to sleep! Get it? Z’s?”

Twilight deadpanned as the pyromancer erupted into laughter at her own humor. “Was it really necessary to make something like that?”

Composing herself, Fireshade shrugged. “Eh, probably not—but it sure would make for a great threat if somepony doesn’t do as they are told!”

She might be onto something with this. A drug that creates an experience so horrifying that a pony would do almost anything to not experience again... Something like that could prove useful.

The grand magus stared off in thought for a moment before nodding. “I see. Good job.”

The mage’s compliment elicited a crazed smile from the pyromancer. As she opened her mouth to respond, however, a fit of coughs from across the cell grabbed the pair’s attention.

“I think he’s finally coming to,” Fireshade commented, approaching the arcanist. “Hey, so how was your nap? I wanna know all the details.”

Arcana slowly staggered to his hooves. “B-buck... you....” he cursed at the mare weakly.

The pyromancer frowned. “Well, that’s no good... looks like I’ll just have to try it again.”

The senior mage’s eyes widened in utter horror. “N-no! No!” he practically screamed, scrambling to the back of the cell. “Anything but that... that... abomination!”

It would seem Fireshade’s little drug is already proving itself useful.

Fireshade gave a satisfied smile. “Okay, good enough... for now, anyways.”

Arcana shot the mares a glare of daggers. “I knew you two were up to something, but this!” he spat, composing himself. “Capturing ponies and using them for twisted experiments? Sickening!”

Twilight returned the arcanist’s glare. “I know that there’s pony testing performed in Sector Five as well, Arcana.”

The stallion scoffed. “Yes, but only after extensive lab preparation and data collection, and certainly not against their will!” He pointed a hoof at Twilight Sparkle accusingly. “What you two are doing here is absolutely diabolical!”

“Don’t try to feed me that crap, Arcana!” Twilight barked back. “I know all too well the secrets of Sector Five and what it is capable of!” She thrusted a hoof, pointing at Fireshade. “The modification of the GL-7658a compound Fireshade gave you speaks volumes in itself! I can only imagine what is redacted from those research pages, but I have a fairly good idea.”

“So that’s what that vile substance was,” Arcana said, leaning against the cell wall and crossing his forelegs. “The GL-7658a was restricted and abandoned for that very reason. It’s too dangerous.”

“But it’s not just dangerous!” she cried out in response. “The positive possibilities of this compound are tremendous! Think of all the lives it could save if engineered for cures and treatment!”

“They are not worth the risk of it falling into the wrong hooves,” Arcana stated bluntly, casting a quick glare to Fireshade. “We take into account the outcomes should something go wrong, or if an enemy obtained information on research experiments before we decide to abandon them. The GL-7658a proved far more disastrous than beneficial.”

“Enemies, enemies, enemies, always about the enemies!” Twilight said, rolling her eyes. “If you ask me, Equestria is clearly capable defending itself if more than half of the Sector Five research were to get out to other nations. The benefit of the common pony from much of the technology we use in the labs would be phenomenal for the progress and prosperity of our nations ease of lifestyle and economic growth.”

Arcana shook his head. “Oh, to be so young and naive...” he said sympathetically. “I once thought that way too, you know.”

“Then clearly you made a mistake somewhere along the way,” Twilight stated heavily, furrowing her brow. “The prosperity of our nation’s ponies should come first.”

“Ha! The safety of our nation comes first and foremost.”

“But we are safe! So long as we are safe, we should seek to balance that safety with progress.”

The mare’s declaration sent Arcana into a fit of boisterous laughter. “Really, what was Celestia thinking when she appointed you as grand magus?”

Twilight grit her teeth in rage.

Don’t let him get to you, he’s just trying to get under our skin. Calm down and stir the conversation in our favor—we have leverage over him.

Leverage?

The books.

Twilight straightened her posture with a smug smile. “You really have no idea what Equestria is capable of, do you, Arcana?”

The arcanist smirked. “Far more than you could ever imagine.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Twilight said with a smirk of her own. “Have you already forgotten what we used to trap you here in the first place?”

Arcana’s smug expression vanished. “Just what was that magic?”

“Just one of the many, many uses of sigil magic,” she said matter-of-factly.

The senior magic raised a curious eyebrow. “Sigil magic?”

He’s curious. He really doesn’t know what it is.

“Unfortunately, I cannot risk telling you anymore than that. I’m sure you of all ponies can understand, right? Just know that that little secret is just one of the many that Equestria has up her sleeves.”

Arcana let out a small chuckle. “Touché.” He pointed a hoof at Twilight’s head. “I take it your little accessory is another of these secrets?”

Twilight smiled. “I was wondering when you were going to comment on this,” she said, pointing to her newly-attached implant. “Unfortunately, no. This is my own creation, and no, I cannot tell you about it, either.”

The stallion pushed himself off the wall. “No matter. I’m sure I’ll learn more once I examine that device of yours, after I turn you over to Princess Celestia. I’ll be sure to ask about this ‘sigil magic’ while I’m at it.”

Just where does he get all this confidence from?

He’s just bluffing. Don’t let him get under your skin.

Fireshade, who had listened silently for some time now, laughed. “Yeah, okay, buddy.” She gestured with a hoof all around her. “You seem to forget where you are. The cards are certainly not in your favor.”

Arcana responded to the mare’s taunt with a smirk. “Don’t be so sure of that.”

The pyromancer rapped her hoof against the nearby cell wall in visible irritation. “Okay, he’s really starting to piss me off.”

Twilight shook her head. “Don’t let him get to you, Fire,” she said, calmly tapping the ground with a hoof. “No magic can enter or leave this cell—and with that inhibitor, I very much doubt he could do anything, even if he wanted to.”

Arcana let out a sigh, looking up to the tip of his horn. “Yes, this device is quite an inconvenience, but it’s no matter. The end result will be the same.”

Fireshade clapped her hooves together as an idea came to her. “You know, this would be the perfect opportunity to test GL-7658b.” She turned to Twilight. “We’ve observed that a subject under its influence can proceed with a given task while enduring extreme pain, but it might be a good idea to see just how far it can make somepony go.”

She’s right. The GL-7658b requires further testing at a higher pain threshold to see if the subject remains susceptible to the effects.

Twilight nodded in agreement. “Alright, good idea.”

Fireshade quickly left the cell and returned a few seconds later, levitating a syringe filled with blue liquid and a hacksaw. “You see, I got to thinking—as everypony knows, the body’s nervous system dulls when exposed to extreme pain. However...” She tapped her horn a few times. “A unicorn’s horn is almost entirely made up of nerve endings, easily making it the most sensitive part of all the three tribes’ bodies.”

Arcana glanced to the ominous saw with wide eyes. “You wouldn’t dare!”

“Actually, yeah, I would... but we wouldn’t learn anything from that, now would we?” she stated matter-of-factly, dropping the tool in front of Arcana. “So you’re going to do it.”

Twilight held out a hoof, interrupting the other mare. “Hold on. Let’s not do anything too drastic just yet.”

...Is it really okay for us to do experiments on Arcana?

Right now, he is no different than any other test subject. It matters not what we do with him, as we cannot let him leave here alive. Besides, we hate him anyway.

I don’t necessarily hate him...

He has been there every step of the way, trying to undermine and stop our progress. He even went so far as to threaten us when we first arrived here. You cannot lie to yourself, Twilight Sparkle. We hate Head Mage Arcana and do not care what Fireshade does to him.

Twilight closed her eyes, furrowing her brow in contemplation. Finally, she removed her foreleg from Fireshade’s chest. “Nevermind, do it.”

Fireshade’s expression lit up. “Really? You sure?” she asked.

Without a word, the grand magus gave a silent nod of confirmation before trotting out of the cell.

“Okay then!” Fireshade exclaimed, her eager smile immediately returning.

Arcana frowned. “Don’t forget what I mentioned earlier, Apprentice,” he warned before the pyromancer could continue. “This is your last chance. There is no turning back from here. Can you really say, with absolute certainty, that you will be safe in Twilight Sparkle’s care?”

Fireshade fidgeted in place. “Yeah, about that...” The mare’s expression hardened with a look of complete seriousness. “I’m going to have to pass. I don’t believe that Twilight would ever do anything to hurt me. She’s been my best friend ever since she first came here. You, on the other hoof...”

With a flick of her orange magic, the syringe crossed the room in an instant, stabbing into Arcana’s neck and injecting its contents.

“You’ve treated me like an idiot and a foal the whole time I’ve been here!” she cried out, tears quickly beginning to well in her eyes. “I never wanted to be your apprentice, I just wanted out of that facility!” Fireshade rubbed her eyes before casting the arcanist a cold glare. “I hate you... I hate you so much. You have no idea how badly I’ve wanted to hurt you whenever you looked down on me, or treated me like I was stupid. Perhaps if you’d treated me better, I might have actually taken you up on your offer, but right now? I can’t wait for that drug to kick in, so I can finally watch you suffer the same pain I’ve had to endure.”

Having heard Fireshade yell, Twilight quickly returned to the cell door. “Are you alright, Fireshade?”she asked, her eyes widening upon seeing the mare’s face.

“I’m fine, Twilight. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever been better!” she reassured the magus, walking past her with a spring in her step as she left the cell.

Twilight’s gaze followed the mare as she crossed the room behind her and took a seat at the desk. Her attention returned to the cell upon hearing a faint chuckle from within. Arcana stood, shaking violently in place and barely able to stand—yet his chuckling somehow erupted into roaring laughter, and he soon fell over onto his side from the uncontrollable spasms. Twilight cast the head mage a final glare, before slamming the cell door shut and locking it with her magic.

It would still be a few minutes before Arcana would be ready for suggestions, although she wasn’t about to listen to his arrogance for another moment. Turning away from the cell, she went to go check up on Fireshade.

“You sure you’re alright?” she asked, her voice full of concern. “You don’t look so good.”

Fireshade nodded, looking to Twilight with a smile that greatly contradicted her tear-stained face. “Yeah, I’m fine. Great, actually!”

Twilight frowned. “What did Arcana say to get you so upset, anyway?”

Fireshade paused, her cheerful expression failing. “...Twilight? Just what am I to you?”

The grand magus craned her neck back, a small blush blooming on her cheeks at the sudden, unexpected question. “W-what?”

“No, not like that... I think?” The pyromancer rapidly shook her head. “What I mean is, what do you think about me? I’m your friend, right?”

She’s seeking reassurance. Arcana must have said something to make her doubt us.

I can’t afford to have Fireshade doubting me—especially not at a time like this.

Tell her what she wants to hear.

Twilight took a deep breath before answering. “Of course you’re my friend, Fireshade. Why in Equestria would you think otherwise?” she asked, walking up to the mare and giving her a brief, reassuring hug. “In fact, I think it’s safe to say you’re my best friend, after everything we’ve been through.” Twilight beamed the mare a gentle smile. “You’ve been nothing but extremely helpful and loyal to me, even when I’ve asked absurd things of you, and for that I am very grateful. I wouldn’t have made it this far without you, Fire.”

Twilight’s gesture had been more than enough to cast away any remaining doubts that Arcana’s words may have implanted in the pyromancer. Fireshade truly had a real friend—a best friend; something she had always wanted—and now she struggled to hold back her tears, which threatened to burst forth again.

“Thank you, Twilight.” Fireshade said, rubbing her muzzle with a small sniffle “Thank you so much...”

She won’t doubt us anymore. Just look at her; she’s ours.

“It’s time, Fire,” Twilight stated, turning back to the cell. “Let’s show Arcana what we’ve really been up to down here.”

“Finally!” The pyromancer cheerfully hopped off her seat, quickly following after the mage.

A loud yawn, along with the subtle clanks of heavy armor, echoed through the early morning hallways of the castle as General Falx made for his daily appointment. The silver-armored stallion’s aged complexion and commanding presence drew the immediate attention of the stationed guards he passed, earning a crisp salute from each he encountered.

“This is so ridiculous,” Falx grumbled tiredly under his breath. “Just why does he need me of all ponies for this anyways? And why so damn buckin’ early?”

Far be it for the general to deny a request from an old friend, but for the past several mornings, the stallion had gone tediously far out of his way to attend a brief meeting of ‘the utmost importance’ with Head Mage Arcana. These so-called meetings would merely consist of the mage thanking the general for coming, and then briskly waving him off with a “That will be all,” and giving no further explanation. It was quickly grinding on the stallion’s last nerve. His time was far too valuable to be wasted on a casual meet-and-greet every morning so far away from his post.

“I oughta give him a piece of my mind,” he protested, as he reached the arcanist’s office. Rapping a hoof on the door, the stallion waited for Arcana’s prompt to enter—but to his irritation, no answer came.

Knocking once again, he called out for the mage. “Arcana? You in there, ya old fart?”

Several seconds of silence passed again, before Falx let out an exasperated groan. The only other instructions he had been given were to enter should he receive no answer. Following the protocol, the general reached for the door, finding it unsurprisingly open and letting himself in. The office was dark with clear signs of nopony being present. Nonetheless, the stallion entered, taking a look around the room.

“Well... this was a huge waste of time,” he huffed, turning to leave. However, before the armored pony could make his exit, a brilliant flash lit up the room behind him. Turning to investigate, the general found a large manilla envelope levitating over the arcanist’s desk in a soft blue glow.

Falx stared at the packet in confusion for a few moments, before the hidden meaning behind these brief daily meetings with Arcana suddenly dawned on him. “For the love of Celestia, why did I have to be his ‘Plan B’?”

With a long sigh, he continued to eye the package apprehensively. “What have you gotten yourself into, Arcana?”

Author's Notes:

You may notice that the story is no longer posted under NATOstrike, but myself. This is because complications to NATO's health have rendered him unable to write for the foreseeable future. Therefor I have taken up the torch and continue to write the story with the use of his outline, notes, and guidance.

This is the first chapter I have written for the story in it's entirety. I hope it's up to all of your expectations.

IXX: Exodus II

Falx trotted quickly along an overgrown gravel path, closely followed by a subordinate unicorn. A sudden sense of trepidation washed over the the old stallion like a cold wave as they approached the site that had been described in Arcana’s notes. The smell of ozone and smoke hung in the air above the charred grass and glassy rock surfaces. The soldier knew a battlefield when he saw one.

“Lieutenant!” Falx barked as he came to a stop near the center of the disturbed landscape.

“S-sir?”

“How long since the last activity here?” the general asked as he began to wander around the scene, looking over as many details as he could take in.

The aqua-blue unicorn’s eyes closed and his horn began to glow softly in the late-morning sunlight. A moment later, the spell faded, and the lieutenant’s eyes opened. “About six hours, sir. Eight at the most.”

Falx looked up from a small area of unburned grass in the middle of the massive scorch mark. “Shouldn’t push your luck like that, Arcana,” he mumbled to himself, turning his head in the direction the blast had been aimed.

Through the strands of grass that had been shielded from the fiery attack, the old stallion spotted a pastel pink hue that stood out from the surroundings of green, brown, and black. He cantered in that direction until he was standing mere inches from the source of the bright color.

“Lieutenant, come here; I found a body!” Falx’s voice bellowed up the path.

Seconds later, the blue unicorn came to a stop next to the general, slightly winded. “A third combatant?”

Without looking up, the old stallion thought back to the dossier on the situation provided by Arcana. “No… Look at her, she’s cut up, beaten, and covered in blood, but there’s nothing on the ground around the body. Someone brought her here in this condition.”

Falx lifted his head to its full, intimidating height and looked to the lieutenant with an iron gaze. “You wait here; an investigation team will join you shortly.”

“Now then... Send me back to the castle,” Falx ordered as he took several steps back from the lieutenant.

“Sir? T-that’s quite a distance; are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Can you do it?”

“Well... Yes, sir. It’s just—”

“I’m well aware of the risks of long-distance teleportation, Lieutenant.”

With a defeated sigh, the lieutenant responded. “Very well, sir. I’m going to try to put you outside the castle, in an open area.”

“Do what you need to do, Lieutenant. Just get me there,” Falx answered back with a hint of annoyance tainting his words.

A dark-blue aura enveloped General Falx, and the teleportation spell took hold, pulling him through the fabric of reality. Even before he fully materialized, he realized there was no ground beneath his hooves. Just as the world finished falling into place around him, the old stallion felt the sudden effect of gravity pulling him to the ground below.

Falx landed hard on his side at the farthest end of the castle gardens. The general quickly reacquainted himself with his surroundings as he pulled himself back onto his hooves. “Close enough, I suppose,” he grumbled and set off at a sprint towards the nearest entrance to the castle.

Celestia looked incredulously towards her sister seated upon the throne to her right. “I am certain I told you that dream-walking into Twilight’s subconscious was absolutely forbidden.”

A huff of air escaped through Luna’s nostrils as she continued to glare daggers towards the pristine, white alicorn beside her. “Yes, I believe you may have. I also believe that I told you I was going to do it anyway.”

“Perhaps, but I do not recall your words being quite so delicate, Sister,” Celestia calmly replied with a smirk. “Now then, since you’re so adamant about blatantly going against my wishes, was it the beginning of a nightmare as you had believed?”

Luna’s posture deflated and her head hung as she mumbled her answer. “No.”

“So, Twilight is fine, then. This is wonderful news.” Celestia squinted an eye towards her sister. “Why do you sound so melancholy about it?”

The dark alicorn slowly lifted her head to look directly at her sister, but paused. Luna’s lip quivered and tears began to pool along the lower edges of her eyes.

Slightly turning her head and raising an eyebrow, Celestia spoke slowly, “What is it Luna? If there’s no nightmare, Twilight should be fine.”

“No. She is far from fine. There is something there. I’m sure of it! The monster hides itself well and claims to be Twilight Sparkle, but that... that thing I saw in the dreamworld was so far removed from the Twilight that I know. It didn’t even speak like Twilight... or look like a pony, for that matter.” Luna's voice drifted off into silence as though she were still trying to comprehend what she had seen.

“What was it, then?”

Luna shook her head. “I do not know. I attempted to exorcise it, but even my most powerful magic was ineffective. The thing felt angry... vengeful, even. There was no other emotion to be felt.”

“But what was it?” Celestia stood and turned to face Luna directly. “This is disturbing news, Luna, but we must know what is wrong with Twilight before we are able to do anything about it.”

“We could...” Luna started, then averted her eyes to the floor, unwilling to continue her thought.

Her sister stood before her, waiting patiently for a scant moment before prodding. “We could what, Luna?”

The princess of the moon hesitated, hoping for a reprieve to which she wouldn’t have to suggest the obvious course of action. Taking the grand magus into custody no more than two days after her appointment would not do well for the images of Twilight, Celestia, or herself.

“We. Could. What?” Celestia repeated forcefully.

Luna sighed deeply and looked up to her sister. “We could have Twili—”

Her words were cut off by the main doors of the throne room slamming against the wall as they were thrown open, and both princesses looked to the source of the disruption.

“Oh, thank goodness,” Luna muttered under her breath.

A pair of stallions, standing guard at the throne room entrance, crisply saluted the approaching silver-armored general. Noting his hasty gait and stone-cold expression, the guards shared a nervous glance between themselves. Holding out a hoof each, the guards reluctantly stopped his advance.

“The princess is currently in council, and is not to be—”

“I am well aware. However, my business far exceeds the petty bitchin’ of a minor lord,” Falx interjected, pushing through the pair and reaching out for the door.

“S-sir! Y-you can’t just go in there!” one of the stallions called out hesitantly, grabbing the older stallion’s shoulder.

Falx looked to the hoof on his shoulder, and then to the guard it belonged to disinterestedly. “Yes. I can.”

“But, Sir! I-i-it’s not wha—”

Throwing the offending appendage off, General Falx threw open the large doors and entered the throne room. The pair of guards, confused as to how they should respond to this sudden development, decided to simply watch as the imposing earth pony walked away from them.

The aging soldier took two steps into the room before coming to a halt. Eyes open wide and a look of utter horror on his face as he felt the blood rushing to his face, General Falx struggled to maintain his composure in light of his obvious breach of protocol. He took a deep breath and cleared his throat. “P-Princesses, excuse me. I was not expecting you both to be here at this time of day... I-I was—”

“It is quite alright, General Falx,” Luna interrupted with a strong air of relief . “Please, come forward.”

Celestia eyed her sister knowingly as she took her seat once again.

The general’s highly polished, silver armor rattled as he made his way before the dais. He bowed quickly as a matter of formality before addressing the deities seated before him. “Pardon my rude interruption, Princesses, but I have dire news concerning Head Mage Arcana and Grand Magus Twilight Sparkle.” Falx removed Arcana’s envelope from his armor and held it out to Celestia.

Eyeing the package he extended out to her, she hesitated for a moment before taking it in her magic. “What is this?” she asked curiously. “And what’s this business regarding Grand Magus Twilight Sparkle that could not wait?”

“As you know I’m not one to mince words, so I’ll put things bluntly. It would appear the grand magus has gone rogue, delving into illegal research as well as committing a number of other crimes.” He pointed to the envelope in her magic. “Arcana left this for me to deliver to you, in the event that something should happen to him. I think it’s best you look over its contents before we continue this conversation.”

Celestia shook her head in denial. “No. No that can’t be right. Something’s—”

“Please review the contents, Princess,” Falx interjected. “You requested Arcana present evidence should he bring this matter to your attention again. Seeing as he is currently missing, I am doing so for him.”

The princess was at a loss for words in this unexpected situation. She knew the jealously Arcana harbored towards Twilight Sparkle was motive to explain his actions. However, it was another matter entirely seeing the same issue presented by the stallion that stood before her. It had been more than a millennium since the princess felt the weight of foreboding sink this heavily into her soul. Part of her was terrified to open the package she held—terrified of the possibility that the crimes her former student was being accused of might actually be true.

Despite her fears and reluctance, Celestia took her time in opening the envelope and reading the evidence within. A lengthy period of time passed before the princess closed her eyes tight, shaking her head and handing the papers to her sister. Luna eagerly began reading the reports of Head Mage Arcana.

“This is all just circumstantial,” Celestia protested. “This could all be explained by—”

“There was a body, Celestia,” Falx interrupted, taking a seat and folding his forelegs. “I personally investigated the location indicated in his report. What I found was a fresh battlefield, as well as the remains of a young mare. I sent a team to recover the body and continue collecting evidence of exactly what happened there.”

Celestia opened her mouth to argue, but couldn’t form words in light of the information given. Before she could collect herself, the general continued.

“The area had been burned by immensely powerful fire magic. Magic far greater than any single mage could produce, yet each spell was clearly shown to only have one source of origin.” Falx frowned. “There is only one known unicorn capable of pyromantic display of this magnitude.”

“Fireshade...” the princess whispered under her breath, staring to the floor in front of her.

Luna spoke up, setting the stack of papers to the side. “This is much worse than we had anticipated, Sister. Things are already far out of hoof.”

Flax recoiled slightly. “Anticipated? You already knew something was going on?”

“Not exactly, General,” Luna responded. She glanced towards Celestia, hoping that she would take over, but the look of abject shock covering her face told her otherwise. “We had suspected something was amiss with the grand magus, but did not realize to what extent. In fact, we were just about to discuss bringing her in to ask her about it directly.”

Celestia remained silent and still, contemplating what could possibly have gone so wrong.

“Here’s what I think happened,” the gray stallion began. “During his stake out last night, Arcana caught Fireshade in the act of disposing—”

“Stop! Just... stop,” Celestia cried out, almost begging.

Falx narrowed his eyes into a stern gaze. “Open your eyes, Celestia,” he persisted boldly. “The possibility of Arcana’s accusations are very real—too real, even you can see that, and your biased negligence in refusing to investigate the matter in an appropriately swift manner could very well have cost him his life, not to mention that poor mare that I discovered.”

Disheartened, Celestia could only weakly nod at the heavy truth of the general’s words.

“This cannot be ignored any longer. Grand Magus Twilight Sparkle has much to answer for.”

“Bring her directly to me,” Celestia stated quietly, looking up from the floor and directly to Falx. “I want to be the first to speak with her.”

“And if she resists?”

Celestia closed her eyes and let out a slow sigh.

Devoid of any emotion, Luna chose this time to speak up. “Use whatever means are necessary to apprehend her and ensure the safety of your soldiers, but do not harm her. If you are unable to satisfactorily keep within either of these restraints, contact Celestia or myself and we will capture Twilight Sparkle ourselves.”

Falx stood stock still, looking to the princess expectantly.

“Oh yes... Arrest Fireshade, and bring her to us for questioning, as well.”

The stallion needed no more. With a final brisk nod, Falx turned and swiftly made his exit.

A guttural scream resounded off the stone walls of the dungeon labyrinth as the suggestion placed in Arcana’s mind took effect. Unaware of where he was or what he was doing, he proceeded to saw vigorously at his horn with the hacksaw held in hoof.

“Look at him go!” Fireshade beamed in absolute excitement. “It’s like the pain doesn’t even matter to him at all!”

Twilight, however, didn’t share the same enthusiasm as the pyromancer. Instead, cringing at the thought of how much it must hurt to have your horn sawed off. Despite the discomfort caused by watching the display, she now knew for certain that subjugation caused by GL-7685b would not falter even under the most extreme of pain.

“Almost there, buddy! You can do it!” Fireshade laughed, cheering on Arcana as he continued to saw. “Just a little bit more!”

Even under the influence of the drug, it became too much for him to take as he fell backwards, blacking out from the pain.

Fireshade clicked her tongue in obvious disappointment. “Well he almost made it...” Walking up to Arcana’s unconscious figure, she unceremoniously tapped his horn with a forehoof, snapping it off from the remainder of the base. “Well, at least we know this stuff works no matter what happens to the pony.”

Staring blankly at the gruesome scene before her, Twilight slowly nodded in agreement. “Y-yeah, I’ll go make note of it.” She walked out of the cell and into the lab. “More importantly, we need to get ready to leave. With Arcana missing it’s only a matter of time before they start looking for him, and for us.”

Fireshade trotted out after her. “Yeah, you do have a point. I sort of left a bit of a mess back on the mountain, which probably doesn’t help much.”

“I’m going to my room to collect some things before we go,” Twilight declared, turning back to face her companion as she began disconnecting the interface device from her head to place it on the bench and recharge the battery. “I suggest you do the same. We’ll meet back here shortly.”

Fireshade nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

8th year of the Second Diarchy, Day 8, Southern Solstice

Personal Journal, entry 15

I’ve decided it’s time. We need to leave.

With the disappearance of Head Mage Arcana, it’s become far too dangerous to stay in Canterlot any longer. It is only a matter of time before the Royal Guard begins looking for him, and this will undoubtedly lead to a search of the entirety of the castle—and dungeon—for him.

We will be relocating to the Remote Everfree Location, or REL as I’ve come to call it, as of the completion of this entry. It is an extreme distance, but with practice, I have significantly advanced my abilities to use untethered arrays. I believe the equipment, Fireshade, and myself will make it without any problems.

Despite the impending evacuation, today has been quite fruitful in other endeavors. Most notably in the progress of the mechanobiological energy interface device. It turns out Fireshade’s theory was correct. In addition to the severe inefficiency of the dermal contacts, previous test subjects simply didn’t have the mental or magical capacity to handle the interface device. I took a gamble on this and thankfully It proved true.

I’d like to not think about what may have happened if it hadn't.

In addition, I need to make note that the dermal contacts should be looked at. It would appear that they are currently bottlenecking the transfer of energy from device to host, causing severe overheating and burns. In order for the technology to be accessible to ponies that do not desire to go through such intrusive procedures as I did, it is imperative for the dermal transfer mechanism of this device to work. I am afraid that although I have the device working through myself, any further research into improving accessibility to others will have to wait.

More good news: GL-7658b may have reached, dare I say, perfection. The test on Arcana proved true that a pony will push past even enough pain to blackout to uphold the implanted suggestion. This will prove invaluable should we need an individual to take action against their will.

Speaking of will. I am greatly concerned on the progress of GL-7658c. It has proven to be highly addictive in contrast to the other formulas, so much that I worry if the subject can even survive without it. Furthermore, I am unsure if the subjugation will work after a prolonged lapse in treatments. I can only hope that it does, in which case Apple Slice could very well prove to be our greatest success, and asset to date. So in hopes for the best, I plan to leave her behind. Only time will tell if this is successful.

Studies of long-term health and psychological effects of the various GL compounds will be suspended until such a time that we can continue research in a non-clandestine environment.

—If such a time comes.

Fastening the straps on the saddlebag full of valuables, Twilight took one last look about her room to be sure she didn’t forget anything important. A small part of her was sad in having to leave. This room had been her home since she first came to Canterlot almost a year ago.

“Well... I guess that’s everything.” She sighed. “I kinda wish Spike were here, though. I’d like to say goodbye.”

While this is unfortunate, we do not have time to wait nor look for him.

I’m going to leave a note for him.

You seem to forget that we are working under a very tight time restraint.

Crossing the room to her desk, Twilight levitated a pen and paper and began scribing her final farewell to her dragon companion. However before she could put her thoughts to paper, the door to the room suddenly crashed open, startling the mare. Turning to the entry, Twilight found a visibly-winded Spike slamming the door behind him and hastily turning the lock. The young Dragon took a deep breath, locking the door before adjusting the loosened blue sash of the white robe he wore.

“Spike!” Twilight called out him excitedly.

The dragon immediately turned to her, letting out a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness you’re here. The whole castle up in arms looking for... you.” Spike paused for a moment, examining Twilight’s face. “What the hell happened to you?”

“Please, Spike, not right now,” Twilight replied curtly before craning her neck back. “Wait, what!? Looking for me?”

Spike nodded. “Yeah. I asked a bunch of the guards, but they wouldn’t give me any details.”

Twilight’s complexion paled at what the dragon’s words entailed.

They already know.

“I thought we had more time,” she murmured.

Spike walked up to her, giving the unicorn a look of concern. “Twilight... just what is going on?”

We need to leave.

Twilight rapidly shook her head. “I don’t have time to explain right now, but... I’m going to have to say goodbye. It’s not safe for me to be here any longer.”

We don’t have time for this. We need to leave, now.

Spike let out an exasperated sigh. “You and Fireshade have been—”

“Oh no...” A sinking feeling welled up in Twilight's stomach as her eyes widened at a sudden realization. “I have to warn Fireshade!”

As Twilight began to prepare a teleportation spell, the walls, ceiling and floor of the room suddenly began to illuminate in a soft glow. Disregarding the changes of the room, Twilight released her magic, only to find she hadn’t moved from the location where she prior stood. Furrowing her brow, she tried the same spell, once again, with more force behind it, only to receive the same result.

We’re in a barrier, teleportation isn’t going to work. We need to punch a hole through it first.

Leaning down and touching her horn to the floor, her complexion only paled further as she probed the barrier. The intricately weaved magical wall was the most complex she had seen since breaking into Section 5. “This is bad! This is really bad!” she said, glancing about the glowing walls of the room.

“What’s going on, Twilight?” Spike asked, trying to open the door several times and failing. “I can’t open the door.”

“It’s a barrier spell, Spike... A very powerful one,” she replied, biting her lip. “It was set to go off the moment I tried to leave this room.”

I don’t know if I can get through this, even if I had the device with me.

We can, it will just take some time. Now get started, we don’t have any time to waste.

A sudden thunderous slam against the room's door followed by frantic yelling caught the pair’s attention.

Spike furrowed his brow before looking to Twilight. “That door isn’t going to hold them for long.”

“I know, I know!” Twilight immediately began to channel her focus on a single point in the barrier. “This isn’t exactly easy.“

“Why not use one of your arrays?” Spike suggested as he ran for the door, bracing against it for the next impending impact. “They can get around barriers, right?”

Twilight’s blood ran cold at his words. “H-How... How do you know about that?”

Spike shrugged. “I was curious about what you’ve been up to these past months, so when you came home late the other night I pretended to be asleep when you hid your journal,” Spike admitted before raising a claw. “Nice hiding spot by the way. Nopony would have ever thought to look there.”

Twilight stumbled to find the right words to say.

It doesn’t matter that he knows right now. He is right, however. A sigil array would be our best option.

“Well? What are you waiting for? Get started!” Spike shouted, bouncing off the door slightly as the door rocked on its hinges once more.

Twilight’s eyes softened. “Why are you helping me, Spike? You’ve read what I’ve been doing, right?”

Spike shook his head. “Look, I have a lot of questions, but those can wait. Right now, we gotta get out of here.”

Twilight nodded as she began to frantically search the room’s desks, tables and cabinets. “I can’t find any chalk!”

“So use something else!” Spike called out, gritting his teeth as he braced against another crash to the door. “You can do that, can't you?”

Twilight nodded. “Y-yeah, I think so.”

Think. Think. Think... What else can I use... Ink!

Running across the room, she rummaged through her desk’s contents once more, managing to collect two half-empty vials of ink. The she bit at her lip as she analyzed the limited contents within.

That’s not going to be nearly enough for a full array. We need something else.

The entirety of the array has to be drawn from the same substance, or it won’t work.

Tossing the ink to the side, Twilight glanced about the room for ideas before cursing under her breath for not keeping her room better stocked with supplies. “We don’t have anything else! At least not enough of any one thing anyway!”

We have no choice then, we have to use ourself.

Use ourself?

Blood. It’s the only substance we have in abundance that’s readily available.

I can’t use blood for something like this!

Why not? What other choices do we have?

Twilight cringed. She was right. There really were no other options at this point. She’d have to trust in herself once again. Frantically trying to think of what she needed to make this idea work, Twilight pranced in place momentarily.

A knife... and something to collect the blood in.

Right.

She hurriedly ran to the kitchen, and pulled open a drawer so fast in her panic that it flew out of it’s place in the cabinet, scattering the contents across the floor. She looked over the mess of scattered utensils, trying to find what she knew to be the sharpest knife she owned. The mage spotted the thin filleting knife amongst the clutter and lifted it in her magic as she turned and pulled open a cabinet.

Spike continued leaning heavily into the heavy wooden door, the pounding still coming at a regular interval. It would only be a matter of time before the guards shattered the thing and came charging into the apartment.

The stress of the situation caused her to sweat, creating a stinging sensation in the back of her neck where her new technology had been implanted. Twilight reached a hoof into the cabinet and produced a small mixing bowl, just the right size to collect the ‘ink’.

Just as Twilight finished collecting the objects needed, a crash echoed from room’s door, followed by a loud splintering sound. She cursed under her breath, running to the bathroom at the far end of the apartment.

We have to begin right away. Open an incision on our foreleg and let the blood collect in the bowl.

Twilight bit her lip, eyeing the knife nervously as she lifted it with her magic. The blade was sharp, but hardly to the level of the preferred surgical instrument. She grit her teeth as she pressed into her left foreleg, letting out a loud hiss of pain as the blade bore into her flesh.

Deeper. That’s not going to produce enough blood fast enough.

Twilight released a pained whine before cutting deeper into the wound and letting out a cry of pain at the burning sensation that quickly followed. Adrenaline began to surge as the warm, viscous liquid seeped out of the mare’s leg. She quickly positioned herself, allowing the blood to flow freely into the bright metal bowl. As soon as she felt that the bowl was sufficiently filled, Twilight pulled down a towel with her magic and wrapped it tightly around her injured limb.

Now focus. Remember the runes and draw them clearly. We don’t know for certain if using blood as a catalyst will effect the spell, so we cannot afford to make any mistakes.

Twilight nodded to herself, levitating a toothbrush from the bathroom vanity and dipping it into the pooling red liquid in the mixing bowl, before beginning her task.

A final crash echoed through the room. Spike stumbled away from the entrance as the remains of the shattered door came crashing down into the room. Two earth ponies and three unicorns, all heavily armored, flooded into the room, lining themselves across the doorway as he positioned himself between the crowd and the bathroom.

A single, aged, silver-armored stallion stepped through the door and moved through the line of guards, stopping several yards before Spike. His voice barked in a commanding tone. “Grand Magus Twilight Sparkle, I hereby place you under arrest for illegal research activities, murder, and conspiracy to commit treason against the crowns,” he stated. “I, General Falx, am to bring you before Celestia immediately.”

Spike let out a condescending laugh. “Yeah right, buddy. Twilight isn’t going anywhere with you.”

Falx huffed. “I see you are behind this conspiracy as well, Sir Spike?”

The dragon shrugged. “I am now,” he answered disinterestedly. “Twilight is my big sister, after all. I trust and support her choices, no matter how questionable they might seem.” He glanced back to the lavender unicorn with a smile. “Because that’s what family does. They stick together.”

Twilight briefly glanced up from her writing as felt her chest tighten and eyes begin to water. “Oh, Spike...”

Falx raised a curious eyebrow. “Even if those choices equate to treason?”

Spike moved to position himself between Twilight and the guards. “I know Twilight. She wouldn’t do something this big without a very good reason. I trust her judgement.”

Falx let out a disappointed huff. “Very well, then. I suppose I have no choice.” He glanced back to the regiment of guards behind him and motioned his head towards Spike. “Seize them, by order of the Royal Equestrian Court.”

The guards responded to the order with silence, exchanging nervous glances between each other and the dragon standing before them. After some time, a single stallion spoke up. “B-but, sir... h-he’s a dragon.”

“And?” the general answered annoyedly, dismissing the soldier’s concern.

“We’ve come prepared to combat a mage, not a dragon, sir,” another answered crisply.

Falx chuckled. “Well, maybe if you colts ask really nicely, the kind dragon will just step aside so that you may battle the mage you came prepared for instead.”

Spike let out a boisterous laugh. “As if.”

“There’s your answer!” Falx shouted, shooting the guards a stern glare. “You are Canterlot’s elite! You’re not going to let one measly dragon come between you and your goal are you? Now, no more excuses!” He turned, unsheathing his sword and levelling it towards Spike.

The guards glanced between one another before nodding, turning to face their opponent and slowly advancing with newfound resolves. Spike smirked at the stallions approaching as he rolled his shoulders, allowing his robe to fall to the floor, revealing biceps almost as thick as the stallions’ heads. Twilight glanced up to the dragon as he popped his neck, her eyes widening.

Taking a clearly-practiced defensive stance, Spike chuckled. “I’ve been waiting for months for an opportunity to really go all out... Sparring only goes so far.”

“Spike!” Twilight called out in worry as the guards drew closer to the dragon.

“I’ll be fine. Just concentrate on finishing the array,” he calmly declared, reaching back and closing the bathroom door behind him.

Moments later, the sounds of combat erupted from the main room, causing the magus to bite to her lip in concern.

We don’t have time to worry about Spike right now. The sooner we finish the array, the sooner we can help him. Now hurry.

Twilight nodded hesitantly to herself before going back to the painstaking process of scribing the runes of the array. Her foreleg stung and felt chill, however she would just have to endure until she could stitch the wound closed back in the lab. Seconds felt like hours as Twilight tried her best to focus on her task and ignore the sounds coming from the other room. She wanted nothing more than to leave the bathroom and assist her little brother. However, it would accomplish nothing if it lead to her to being caught after all she has already been through.

I’ve come too far to be caught now.

Telling that to herself, Twilight intricately etched the final rune into place before scrambling to her hooves. “Spike! I’m finished!” she called out, throwing open the bathroom door with her magic.

She let out an involuntary gasp at what the open door gave witness to. Her once clean, organized room was now a ransacked, bloody scene of absolute chaos. Stallions lay strewn about the floor, unconscious or otherwise, with dented armor and visible wounds littering their bodies. Spatters of blood covered much of the still glowing floor and lower walls of the room.

Across from her, Spike stood defiantly, engaging in combat with the one earth pony guard still standing and General Falx. Covered in cuts and bloody bruises, Spike sneered at the two soldiers and let a loud growl echo from his throat.

“Spike!” Twilight shrieked at the top of her lungs, catching the dragon’s attention.

Falx grit his teeth into a predatory grin at the opening the magus presented in his opponent. Advancing on the dragon with an almost unnatural speed, Falx dashed forward with a wide sweep of his curved blade, connecting cleanly with the dragon’s side.

Spike roared out in pain and arrant rage, taking in a deep breath and exhaling a green inferno onto the aged stallion before him. The remaining guard cried out and jumped back from the magical flames, barely escaping the blaze with his mane and fur on the right side of his head heavily singed.

As the flames died out, Falx stood undeterred in a defensive stance. His sword shined with glowing green runes down the length of the blade for a brief moment, highlighting the general’s crazed smile before the light in the etchings faded. Spike grit his teeth, jumping back before being forced to take a knee from the pain in his side.

Giving his foe no time to recover, the general pushed the advantage over the dragon, advancing once more and jumping into the air to deliver a fatal blow. Twilight’s eyes went wide in sheer horror, a bright magenta glow enveloping her irises. In one swift act, Twilight levitated a sofa from across the room, batting the general out of the air with tremendous force and shattering the piece of furniture in the process.

Falx crashed into the wall on the far side of the room with a hard groan and a clatter of his sword before falling to the floor and slowly rising to his hooves.

He chuckled to himself, wiping a smear of blood from his muzzle. “It’s going to take a helluva’ lot more than a couch to stop me, Magus.”

Turning her attention to her dragon friend, Twilight teleported Spike to her. The weight of the young dragon on her back was overbearing, but the unicorn’s adrenaline-fueled strength allowed her to press on. Returning the bathroom, she immediately closed and locked the door behind her before slowly making for her makeshift sigil array.

Reaching the center of the ring, she turned around to position herself, only to find Falx’s blade cut clean through the thin bathroom door, severing it clear in half. Kicking in the remainder of the obstacle, he proceeded to charge the short distance to the mare.

Falx swung down for a disabling strike. Just as the blow met it’s target, the ring’s radius cascaded into a pillar of blinding light. The overwhelming intensity forced the general to halt his follow-through and shield his eyes from the luminance.

As the light cleared and Falx regained his senses, he found himself now inexplicably alone in the bathroom. Only a black smoldering ring remained where the grand magus stood just moments ago. Along with her sudden disappearance, he noted the top half of his blade had mysteriously vanished as well, the clean cut at the end glowing red hot.

Baffled, the aged stallion critically examined the remainder of his sword and the markings on the floor. “This... can’t be possible...” he murmured to himself before spinning to face the room full of groaning and injured guards slowly pulling themselves up from the floor. “See to the wounded and summon Celestia here at once!” Turning back to the ring, he narrowed his eyes at the remains burnt into the floor. “She has some explaining to do...”

Looking down both directions of the hallway to ensure nopony was watching, Fireshade swiftly exited the dungeon, closing the door behind her. With a cheerful whistle, she set out towards her room. However within minutes she took notice of numerous guards dashing about the corridors of the castle, one group in particular almost bowling her over in their haste.

“Hey! Where’s the damn fire!?” Fireshade yelled back to the stallions before they disappeared around a corner. With an annoyed huff, she resumed her trot home. “Stupid guards and their stupid drills. You’d think that there’d really be an actual emergency with how serious they take their exercises.”

With a shrug, she pushed the thought aside for now. Several minutes later, she turned another corner into the hallway her room resided in. However upon spotting her door, she found three guards standing outside of it talking amongst themselves.

“What’s up?” she called out to the trio, looking to each of them as she approached.

Upon noticing the mare, they quickly glanced between each other before one nodded. “J-just, uhm... taking a break while w-waiting for our next drill to begin,” the same stallion answered nervously.

Fireshade frowned. “Well, could you move? You’re kind of in my way, ya know,” she informed them, gesturing her head to her door.

Another stallion cleared his throat as the group moved aside. “Of course. Sorry about that.”

Fireshade beamed them a tired smile before making her way inside. As soon as the door rattled shut, the guards huddled close together.

“What are we going to do? The mages still aren’t back yet,” the first whispered, glancing to the door. “Should we stop her if she tries to leave?”

The third rapidly shook his head. “Are you insane?” he hissed, grabbing the former’s chestplate. “You’ve both heard the stories, right? That mare’s terrifying! We don’t stand a snowball's chance in Tartarus against her without magic support. She’ll burn us to a crisp!”

The first scratched his chin. “Well, we can’t just let her leave. Falx would kill us himself if he found out we just let her get away.”

The trio paused for a moment before the second spoke up. “So we delay her as much as we can until—” Before he could finish, the door beside them opened, Fireshade stepping out.

Before she could take another step, the three circled around her, the first stallion holding out a hoof. “Sorry, but we’re going to have to ask you to stay inside for a bit.”

Fireshade raised an eyebrow. “How come?”

“An invasion combat drill is about to begin, it’s not safe for civilians to be walking the hallways for the next hour or so,” the third answered, nodding. “It’s a safety precaution.”

The pyromancer flashed the three a smug smile. “Well, then it’s a good thing I am technically military, huh?” She cleared her throat, waving a hoof dismissively. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m kinda in a hurry.”

The third guard bit his lip, matching the mare's side step to pass. “I’m going to have to insist you stay inside. Only those participating in the drill are to be within the hallways.”

Fireshade paused for a moment before a sudden realization clicked in her mind, and her smile quickly faded. “I’m going to have to insist that you three move aside,” she growled, punctuating her demand with an orange glow illuminating from her horn. “Right. Now.”

One guard began trembling and slowly stepping back. The others glanced towards their comrade between them before following his lead. The trio had nearly reached the wall across the hallway before one began yelling. “The Pyromancer is escaping! We need backup now!”

A dark smile lit across Fireshade’s features as she summoned three small orbs of orange flame in front of her. “Nopony’s coming to save you...”

Just as the pyromancer prepared to unleash her attack, numerous shouts directed her attention up the hallway. A large contingent of guards accompanied by a number of mages were rapidly approaching.

Fireshade’s eyes widened as she allowed the fireballs to dissipate. She turned and nearly lost her footing as she took off galloping down the hallway, away from the reinforcements.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!“ she cursed under her breath, glancing back at the slowly gaining mob of ponies behind her as she rounded a corner. “Twilight’s going to kill me!”

Author's Notes:

Fuck yeah. Getting back on track in a big way. Thank you to everyone for sticking it out through the shittiness. Hopefully, we can get this psychosis rolling hard again!

Special shout-outs for this chapter go out to:
Azu, god of story making and author of almost all of this chapter.
Mystery Alabaster... thank you for changing your profile pic back.
Key Tapper... Fun hater, and killer of jokes.
Last, but not least: Alcatraz... I'm so sorry that I'm turning Luna into a crybaby bitch in this story. We'll be sure to fix that later down the road.

XX: Exodus III

Galloping through the castle’s lower hallways, Fireshade maintained distance from her pursuers as she made a break for the dungeon. However, the further she ran, the more her initial rush of adrenaline began to wane. Before long, the nagging aches of her sleep-deprived body began to sharply punctuate each step on the hard floor.

With the entrance of the dungeon drawing near and the Royal Guard hot on her hooves, Fireshade knew she had to think of something fast, or risk the lab being discovered—or worse, being caught.

She groaned in irritation. “Screw this. I am way too tired for all this running crap.” The echoing clop of her hooves slowly came to a stop. Turning to the approaching crowd, she smiled. “So, uh... I’m tired of running. How about we talk this over like adults instead, yeah?” The mob of ponies stopped several yards away from her, with the guards taking defensive stances and mages' horns beginning to glow. “Soo... is that a no?”

A single guard stepped forward, Fireshade recognizing the silvered regalia of an Equestrian military officer. “By order of the Royal Equestrian Court, I hereby place you under arrest for—”

“Yeah yeah, I know the drill,” Fireshade interjected, cutting the stallion off while waving a hoof dismissively. “Kidnapping, murder, illegal research, treason, plotting against the crowns, and all that other fun stuff, right?”

The mare’s blatant disrespect for authority caused the officer to frown. “So you think this is funny, do you?”

Fireshade glanced about the robed unicorns amongst the group before chuckling. “Actually... yes I do.” Her smile turned into a large grin. “You do realize who I am, right?”

The stallion folded his forelegs with a huff. “Of course, Fireshade. But enough of this pointless stalling.” Looking back to the ponies behind him, he pointed a hoof directly at the mare. “Apprehend her at once!”

Fireshade pursed her lips, glancing between the guards and mages advancing on her before raising a hoof. “Uh, you guys do realize you’re all about to die, right?”

The pyromancer’s cold words—spoken so nonchalantly and with absolute certainty—stopped the stallions in their tracks, some taking an involuntary step back while others glanced nervously amongst one another. However, the sound of the officer clearing his throat from behind gave them newfound resolve, causing the group to continue their advance on the pyromancer.

The mare’s face contorted into a large, drawn-out yawn. “Well, whatever. Don’t say I didn’t warn you when they sweep up what’s left of your corpses in dust pans.”

Fireshade’s horn emitted a strong orange glow as a sizable orb of fire appeared before her. She began walking slowly back in order to keep her distance from the impending inferno, and with a nod of her horn, the fireball began to grow larger. The mages reacted instantly, concentrating their magical efforts into a large blue barrier that stretched across the hallway. Wall to wall, ceiling to floor.

As the spherical inferno continued to expand to nearly fill the hall, Fireshade couldn’t help but roll her eyes with a smirk at the mages efforts. “You guys clearly aren’t familiar with fire magic.”

Fireshade strained, furrowing her brow tightly. The glow of her horn intensified as the gigantic fireball shrunk to the size of her hoof in a split-second, shifting the color of the ethereal hellfire from a fiery orange to a blinding, radiant blue. The intense light prompted everypony but the pyromancer shield their eyes. Almost instantaneously, the the air around the small star rapidly distorted into waves, before completely blurring from the sheer intensity of the heat it generated.

With a gentle push of telekinesis, Fireshade started the concentrated flame on a slow journey towards its target. Long before it reached the barrier, the mages began to sweat profusely, the air temperature on their side rising rapidly.

The tiny ball of light abruptly came to a halt as it bumped softly into the blue barrier. Several flares of white energy lashed out from the orb, licking blackened scorch marks upon the stone walls around it. A number of the guards cried out, taking several steps back, some tripping over themselves and falling onto their haunches. The mages, however, grit their teeth as they braced themselves, desperately trying to hold the barrier.

The pyromancer put more energy into the spell, allowing the fireball to rapidly increase in size. As it reached the size of a large wagon, she once again collapsed it into itself, intensifying the blaze ten-fold.

The officer in the back furrowed his brow. “What in Tartarus are you colts doing? Repel the damn thing!”

“We can’t!” one of the mages strained, wiping away the sweat pouring into his eyes.

Another rapidly shook his head. “It’s too hot! I can’t take it anymore!” he called out, the magic from his horn fading as he turned to retreat.

Before he could hope to escape, however, the barrier sectioning off the hallway disintegrated, punctuated by a cacophony of anguished cries. The mages that had been nearest to the barrier vanished in an instant, vaporized by the heat wave that surged past where the barrier once stood.

“Gotcha,” Fireshade muttered to herself with a grin. Releasing her hold of the tiny star, she let loose a furious burst of telekinetic energy, flinging the fireball down the hallway as fast as she could push it.

The officer of the group’s eyes widened. “Fall back!” he called out, immediately retreating for the end of the hallway, the remaining guards following suit.

As the star quickly gained ground on her fleeing pursuers, Fireshade couldn’t help but hop in place from sheer excitement. “Run! Run! Or you’ll be well done!” she cheered, laughing out maniacally as she put more force into propelling the nova.

Cries rang out from the guards as the orb’s speed dramatically increased. Moments later, screams began to rapidly hush one by one, before an eerie silence engulfed the hallway. As the orb reached the end of the corridor, Fireshade halted its advance, its form rapidly dissipating. When the fireball finally vanished, the pyromancer surveyed the empty space before her. Starting several yards ahead of her, the entirety of the hallway had transformed into a glowing-red gauntlet of near-molten stone.

Fireshade’s eyes softened as she tilted her head with a sigh.. “What a senseless waste... We could have really used the new test subjects.” Shrugging, she turned away. “Oh well. Plenty more where they came from.” Taking a few steps forward, the pyromancer noticed a distinct metallic taste in her mouth. Bringing a hoof to her mouth, she was met with a warm, wet sensation. She looked down to see crimson-red staining the yellow fur of her foreleg. “Huh...” Fireshade wiped her foreleg across her face, blood smearing as she rubbed her snout. “That’s probably not a good sign. I guess I better lay off the magic for a while...”

Disregarding her still-bleeding nostrils, she continued her trek back to the lab, resuming her cheerful whistle from before the guards’ interruption.

“Spike completely incapacitated four military trained soldiers in defense of Twilight Sparkle...” Celestia paused for a moment and turned to face General Falx. “And what exactly was she doing during this time?”

The bruised earth pony thought for a moment before answering. “We are not entirely sure of that, Princess. She had barricaded herself in the bathroom during most of the altercation, and we believe that she was devising a way of circumventing our barrier.”

“Uh-huh...” Celestia replied as she slowly wandered around the main room of the apartment, taking in as much detail as she could. “I highly doubt that she was devising anything, General. Twilight already knew how to get through. You don’t seriously believe she could have gotten through your barrier without preparation?”

I’ve made a terrible mistake, she thought. What did I do for it to come to this, Twilight?

The princess raised her head from inspecting the kitchen utensils and drawer scattered across the kitchen floor. “You say she was in the bathroom?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Falx answered quickly as Celestia began to move towards that location. “She had shouted ‘I’m finished’ when she opened the door. I don’t know what exactly she had finished, but I’m sure it had something to do with the markings on the floor left behind after they had teleported.”

Crossing the threshold of the doorway to the bathroom, Celestia quickly noticed the polished steel bowl and spilled blood on the floor below it. She moved to inspect it closer, but instead caught a faint grey outline on the floor from the corner of her eye. She stopped moving and turned her head toward it as Falx appeared in the doorway behind her.

“It was darker when it appeared. Like it had been burned into the floor, but it’s been fading ever since,” the stallion offered, scratching at his greying black mane with a hoof. “The manner in which they escaped seems impossible. I don’t care how powerful Twilight Sparkle is, there is no way she could have broken our barrier that quickly, or been able to take half of my blade with her, for that matter.”

Celestia stood stone-still and deathly quiet, fixated completely on the array etched into the floor.

Walking around to Celestia’s side, Falx looked down to the floor, and then up to Celestia. “Princess?”

“This can’t be,” she whispered to herself under her breath. “It’s impossible.” How did she learn this? Where?

“Princess, what is that thing? How did Twilight escape?” Falx implored.

Shaking herself out of her stupor, Celestia looked to her general. “That is none of your concern at the moment.” She turned and walked quickly from the bathroom. “Your only concern right now is to cordon this area, and apprehend Twilight Sparkle, Spike, and Fireshade by any means necessary. They must be taken alive, however.” The alicorn stopped in the middle of the room and turned to face the stallion. “Additionally, the soldiers that were here with you are to be sequestered until a debriefing from myself, and the castle is to be placed on lockdown.”

Falx shouted angrily from the doorway, “How am I to capture them when I don’t know what this magic is that they’re using? What do we do to counteract it? You’re sending me and my soldiers out blind!”

“General!” Celestia barked. “I am not required to explain myself to anypony. Twilight is still in the castle, this specific instance of this type of magic would not get her much further, but if she is given the time to, she could potentially teleport herself halfway across the world.” The princess’s eyes narrowed, glaring at Falx. “As far as counteracting it. You don’t. You can’t. Now, follow my instructions as ordered.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Falx replied flatly.

“I will find you in two hours to check your progress.” Celestia’s horn glowed white for a brief moment before she disappeared from the room.

A pair of guards sleepily stood watch over a line of massive, heavy steel doors. The particular one they stood sentinel over differed from the rest. In the center of the row, a jet-black door stood out from the polished grey metal of the others, glimmering occasionally as a piece of dust bounced into the barrier protecting it.

One guard blinked hard, a long yawn escaping his lips. Just as his mouth shut, a bright flare momentarily assaulted his eyes. The light disappeared and Celestia stood in its place.

She began moving towards the fourth door—and the guards—paying them no mind.

“Princess!” the first exclaimed, both bowing their heads in deference. “What may we d—”

“Move,” Celestia responded with cold hostility.

The guards stumbled a bit and hastily skittered out of the way. “Y-yes, Princess. S-s-sorry.”

Celestia continued approaching the door until her face was nearly touching it. A soft, white glow emanated from her horn, and she tilted her head forward. Just as the tip of her horn touched the barrier, emerald ripples shimmered across the surface as the magical wall collapsed.

Stepping back, she then turned a large lever and pulled the door open telekinetically. The musty smell of ancient tomes hit her like a wave from the dark vault. “Lights,” she commanded, without looking away from the room before her.

Without a word, a guard ran to a switch panel on the wall near the first door, while the other stood motionless, watching the princess. With a flick, the interior of Vault 4 illuminated brightly.

The princess walked across the threshold, pulling the heavy, black door shut behind her.

Bookshelves stood in rows and lined the interior walls of the large vault. Packed tightly with texts covering a multitude of dangerous and banned subjects, the shelving created a maze of knowledge. Reaching deep within the depths of her extensive memory, Celestia paused for several moments before making her way for the bookcase housing the tome in mind. As the princess trotted down the rows of books, a nagging sensation began to tug at the back of her mind.

It has to be there. Nopony could have possibly breached this vault without my knowing. But then... how could Twilight Sparkle gain knowledge of such magic?

“Unless...” the princess murmured, slowing to a stop as she stared off into nowhere briefly.

Impossible. Every other copy was destroyed. I couldn’t have missed one. ...could I?

Rapidly shaking the thoughts from her head, Celestia furrowed her brow and quickened her pace. Turning down the row housing the book in question, the mare felt her blood run cold as an involuntary gasp escaped her. A sinking feeling welled up in her gut as she found not only one book missing, but a large section of texts around it appearing to seemingly have vanished as well.

“No, no, no! That’s not possible!” Hastily approaching the gap in the bookshelf, she traced a forehoof across the smooth surface of the exposed wood. “How? How could these be missing!”

A sudden realization of horror struck the princess’s mind with the intensity of lightening to a rod, sending a foreboding chill down her spine.

...What else is missing...

Turning away from the shelf, Celestia galloped back the way she came, turning down a narrow passage between shelves and following it until she reached a lone desk on the far end of the vault. Lowering her head, she touched the tip of her horn to the desk as a warm white glow emanated from it. Moments later, a colossal tome appeared atop the desk.

Wasting no time, Celestia opened the massive archive index. Rapidly flipping through pages, she stopped upon the particular bookshelf in question. Biting her lip as she examined its housed contents, the princess’s sinking feeling only progressively intensified in magnitude with each title read. Necromancy, chronomancy, invasive telepathy, amongst others; some of the most dangerous magics ever created by ponykind.

Suddenly, a fleeting thought crossed Celestia’s mind. She looked up from the reference, and slowly turned. “No... It's improbable enough that she would have been able to retrieve these,” she said to the empty room as she began to once again make her way towards the back of the vault.

She quickly stepped between the rows of shelves, approaching a particular shelf set into the wall furthest from the vault entrance. Celestia glanced across the numerous ancient tomes housed there. Her jaw fell open after examining the shelf for a moment. Three obvious gaps in the rows of books presented themselves, leaving only 102 of the 105 volume set resting safely within the vault.

Staring at the collection for nearly a minute, Celestia stood quietly, contemplating how or why Twilight would have possibly targeted these particular volumes of the study conducted on Luna and herself. She looked down to the end of the lowest shelf, noting the position of the hole left by one of the missing books. A very heavy weight formed in the pit of her stomach. The revelation nearly caused the alicorn to lose her balance, her legs weakening as she continued to stare blankly at the open space on the shelf. “Volume 105... anything but that one.”

She spun away from the wall of books and walked towards the vault door, slowing gaining momentum as she moved. By the time she reached the exit she was nearly in a full, panicked run. Breathing heavily, she opened the steel slab and ran out of the doorway, looking around the room and slamming the heavy door closed with a white glow of telekinesis.

Making eye contact with one of the guards, she spoke at him in a loud, commanding tone, “You! Send a message to Commander Rook with the Defense Ministry, and inform him there has been a breach.” She turned to the other guard, still wearing a mask of shock across her face. “Stay at your post; nopony is to enter this facility until the military police arrive.”

Celestia closed her eyes and a light strobed through the vault room as she teleported away.

A white glow emanated from a carefully drawn sigil array in the corner of the clandestine lab as two figures, stacked one upon the other, materialized. The light faded and the metallic clang of General Falx’s broken sword echoed through the room. Twilight Sparkle promptly fell to the floor under the weight of her dragon compatriot. She wiggled out from underneath Spike, rolling him off of her back and onto the floor.

“Ow, damn it!” Twilight exclaimed as she reached to her shoulder. “That bastard hit me with the back of his damn sword!” She rolled across the floor, writhing in pain.

Spike groaned, rolling his head back and forth, still holding onto the deep cut in his side. “What in the world was that?” he asked, reeling from his first experience with the banned magic.

“Sigil teleportation. You’ll get used to it after a few trips,” Twilight groaned as she rubbed her shoulder with a hoof.

“I think I would’ve rather stayed and tried my luck with Falx,” Spike slurred, sitting up on the hard stone floor.

“He would have killed you, and you know it,” Twilight responded, slowly crawling her way back onto her hooves as pain shot through her back.

Silence hung in the room for a moment before the dragon responded. “Yeah, maybe...” A puff of smoke shot from his nostrils as Spike dry-heaved. He swallowed hard in an attempt to keep from vomiting. “Is it normal to feel like I’m hung over?”

As Twilight walked across the room and began rummaging through her cabinet of medical supplies, she called back to the dragon, “Yeah, it should pass pretty quickly.”

Spike began looking over his new surroundings. Dim lighting accentuated the lines of recessed mortar between the bricks lining all of the walls, and several large devices, similar to the data manipulators and energy storage machines in the main labs, stood in a row connected by thick cables. A row of six heavy, metal-clad wooden doors lined half of one wall across from a large workbench scattered with papers, tools, and various other experimental equipment. It was obviously one of the cell blocks of the Canterlot dungeon that had been repurposed to act as a laboratory.

Twilight returned to Spike with several clean rags and a bottle. “Let’s get that cut cleaned up. Sit up on the workbench, so I can see better.”

The dragon complied, limping to the workbench and finding a clear place to sit down. “So, this is where you’ve been,” Spike observed.

“Yep. Move your hand... This is going to hurt,” Twilight said as she removed the cap from the bottle and moved to pour it over the wound.

Spike hissed in pain as the liquid ran across the gash, washing away some of the blood. Twilight then wiped at it hard with a towel. “Ow! Easy, Twilight.”

The unicorn chuckled. “Don’t be such a baby,” she said, setting down the towel and bottle. She then placed her forehooves on either side of the cut and pulled slightly. “It’s pretty deep, but it’s a clean slice. You’re lucky Falx keeps his blade sharp, or this would be a lot harder to fix.”

A soft magenta glow surrounded Spike’s wound as it slowly began to stitch itself closed. “This should only take a couple minutes... Hopefully Fireshade is having better luck than we did,” Twilight mused. “She should be back any minute.”

“So, Twilight...” Spike began slowly, as though he was still trying to figure out the best way to broach the subject. He paused and looked down to the unicorn mending his wound. “What is this all about? What in the world is going on here? Why is everypony after us?”

“We have to leave the city, Spike,” she replied without diverting her attention from the task at hand.

“Seriously, Twilight, I need an explanation. I... I think I deserve an explanation,” he almost begged, flinching slightly as magically induced healing process continued.

“Okay, Spike...” Twilight continued the regeneration spell and looked the dragon in the eyes. “Just don’t forget that you asked for this.”

Spike pursed his lips momentarily before deciding for certain that he was ready for Twilight to disclose the information. “Alright, let’s hear it.”

Only give him what is absolutely necessary.

Twilight inhaled deeply through her nose and held the breath as she thought about how much to give him and how to spin it to her advantage. She slowly released the air from her lungs and began. “The princesses are lying.”

Spike tilted his head slightly with a squint. “And?”

“Actually, I’m not sure how informed even Luna is, but Celestia is withholding tons of information. Research data that could change the world. Research data that could end their rule of Equestria if it came to light. Fireshade and I have been experimenting with some of Section 5’s abandoned research, but that’s not even important at the moment,” Twilight said with urgency and anxiousness carrying heavily in her voice.

“End the rule of the Equestrian Diarchy?” Spike replied incredulously. “You’re kidding... This can’t be real.”

“Look, Spike, I know what I know. I don’t have proof of the princesses’ coup, but I do have proof that they are not at all what they pass themselves off as,” she said as she looked back to her work.

Shaking his head, Spike tried his best to process the information. “No. There’s no way... A coup? And what do you mean ‘pass themselves off as’?”

Twilight’s spell ended, leaving the dragon with a large, fresh scar across the left side of his body, just under his ribs. As the glow dissipated, she looked up to Spike’s face again. “The Royal Pony Sisters are not gods, they are not immortal, and they are not the rightful rulers of Equestria.”

The unicorn turned and walked to one of the open-doored cells, pulling a dozen books out with telekinesis and moving them towards the exit. “Celestia knows that the information I have would spell the end of their ill-gotten power, and it seems that she may be willing to do whatever it takes to stop that information from being brought to light.” Just as she stopped speaking, Twilight dropped the books in the middle of the floor between the row of cells and the exit. She spun around towards Spike and glared at him through narrowed eyes. “I have proof, Spike, but I can’t show you right now. You just have to trust me; time is not on our side at the moment. Now, start helping move my equipment into this sigil array.”

Spike looked at the pile of books, now noticing the huge array that they had landed in. Meanwhile, Twilight slowly walked the perimeter, staring at the strange symbols drawn around the circumference. She stopped—apparently finding what she was looking for—and levitated a piece of chalk to herself from the workbench. “Come on, Spike, we don’t have time to sit around. Bring everything from the bench and put it in the circle.” She paused and looked up. “Except the metal box at the end and the vial rack on the shelf... I’m going to need those.”

Still suffering the slight lingering aftereffects of the teleportation and the initial shock of what he had just learned of the princesses, Spike slid down from his perch, landing on shaky legs. “Uhm... Yeah, okay,” he replied as he began gathering papers in a stack.

Twilight began scuffing out several runes with a hoof just as a winded and visibly shaken Fireshade came crashing through the entrance to the lab. She stopped just inside the doorway, panting as she looked wildly around the room. “Twilight!” she yelled, making eye contact with the unicorn. “We have a huge problem!”

“Yeah, I know. The Royal Guard is searching for us; I already had a run-in with Falx,” she said without looking up from her work. “It’s only going to be a matter of a few hours before they find us here.”

Fireshade continued huffing, blood still slowly dripping from her nostrils. “No—I-I mean, yes... Yes, but it’s worse than that!”

Beginning to scrawl new runes in place of the ones that had been erased, Twilight paid no attention to the pyromancer. Meanwhile, Spike stood, staring with a clawful of papers at the bloodied figure that had entered the lab. “Uh... Twilight?”

Twilight dropped the chalk, and quickly raised her head. “What!?” she exclaimed as she turned and got a full view of Fireshade. She stopped moving and stared at the unicorn. The lower half of her face was completely covered in blood and crimson streaks lined her chest. “Oh my gosh, Fireshade! A-are... Are you alright? What the heck happened to you!?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I had a bit of a run-in, too. I rended almost a dozen ponies to ash to get away, and I may have overexerted myself in the process.” She moved to the pile of books and began looking at the spines of each one. “Thank goodness you haven’t sent these yet; I need the sigil book.”

She’s going to kill herself. She’s no use to us dead.

“May have overexerted? You look like your face exploded! Fireshade, you need to rest or you're going to give yourself a brain hemorrhage.” Twilight stopped for a moment, finally registering the rest of the yellow pony’s words. “Ash? What happened, Fire?” Twilight asked sternly.

She is obviously willing to do anything to protect us. This is not a time to be worried about those who would try to stop us.

A dozen soldiers! This is beyond unacceptable! Twilight screamed into her mind.

Fireshade pulled the book out of the pile with telekinesis, toppling the rest, and went to the workbench. “I tried to run, but they wouldn’t let me go. I almost made it to the entrance to the dungeons, but they caught up to me. So, I killed them. All of them,” she stated as she strapped into a saddlebag from the bench.

“Damn it, Fireshade! You can’t just go around killing ever—”

“Look, Twilight, if I hadn’t done what I did, they would be knocking that door off the hinges as we speak!” Fireshade yelled back, placing the tome of sigil magic in her bag. “As it is, I bought us some time, but we certainly don’t have a few hours... maybe a half-hour at best before they’re here. The damage I did to the corridor is going to make it pretty obvious where I was heading when they find it.”

“This is bad... this is really, really bad,” Twilight muttered to herself.

“That’s not all, the military is involved now, too. It’s not just the Royal Guard. The officer commanding the ponies that tried to catch me was definitely wearing a military uniform.” Fireshade grabbed several pieces of chalk, throwing them in her bag as she headed for the door.

“Should have taken my offer, Fireshade,” called out a voice from behind the mares.

Twilight and Fireshade froze, turning to one of the locked cell doors. In the small, barred window Arcana’s hornless face glared at them with a faint smirk. “It’s only a matter of time before you both are executed.”

“Arcana’s here!?” Spike yelped, looking to the cell. “What in the world is going on?”

Fireshade bolted across the room, putting her nose mere inches away from Arcana’s. “You shut the hell up. The only one here with a death-sentence is you, old stallion.”

“It was unavoidable, Spike,” Twilight answered the dragon. “Just keep packing.”

Arcana responded to Fireshade with a chuckle. “As soon as the princesses arrive, you will have no choice but to submit.”

“I. Said. Shut. Up!” yelled the pyromancer, pushing him brutally hard with a blast of telekinetic energy. The stallion flew to the back wall of the cell with a sickening crack as the back of his head made contact with the bricks. He crumpled to the floor, motionless except for his chest moving shallowly with each breath.

Fireshade stepped away from the door, holding a hoof to the side of her head. “Ow, that probably wasn’t the best idea...”

Spike looked on, horrified. “What did you do!?”

“Meh... He’ll be fine,” Fireshade said indifferently. “We’ll leave, he’ll be found. All is good.” She then turned and headed for the exit to the rest of the dungeon.

“Both of you stop screwing around and help me!” Twilight shouted, looking to Fireshade with clear anxiety-driven panic present in her tone. “Wait! Where are you going? I need help moving the equipment!”

Fireshade stopped, turning to the other mare with a look of clear concern. “We won’t have time to move the equipment, Twilight! They’ll be storming the dungeon at any minute!” The mare paused briefly, glancing to the door to the dungeon behind her. “So I’m going to slow them down for you. Buy you two time to finish.”

Twilight rapidly shook her head. “You can’t go back out there! What if you get caught? Or killed!? I need you here with me if something goes wrong, Fireshade!

A soft smile spread across her blood-soaked lips. “It’ll be fine, Twilight. I’ll be right back, I promise.” Before the other mare could further protest, she ran out the door, the metal entrance slamming shut behind her.

Twilight let out a frustrated groan. “We need to hurry, Spike,” she stated, scanning the room and pointing a hoof. “Grab some of those boxes under the workbench and start packing things. If Fireshade’s right, then we really are out of time.” She once again picked up the chalk and began carefully finishing the augmentations to the teleport array.

Spike pulled out an empty box and started sweeping items blindly off the bench with his arm. He barely cleared a quarter of the gigantic desk when the box became full. As he placed it in the array next to the books, Twilight finished drawing the new runes and began dragging the massive data manipulator across the floor, leaving a trail of gouges in the stone.

The large machine settled into position, and Twilight used her magic to bring the small metallic box that Spike left on the bench to herself, wrapping the attached harness around her midsection. Leaving the the box hanging from her left side and four cords dangling loosely, she began buckling the straps tightly around her.

Spike began filling the next box as he watched Twilight from the corner of his eye. She approached the huge energy storage device still occupying its original location and picked up two small magical energy batteries. Disconnecting the silver metal boxes from the larger storage battery, she slid them into strap holsters on the harness, opposite of the other box.

Halting his progress, Spike watched the unicorn methodically choose two wires and plug them into one of the batteries strapped to her side. “Twilight, what are you doing?”

“I’m getting ready to teleport this stuff to our new lab. It’s a very long distance, so I need a... boost,” she calmly replied, closely inspecting the plugs at the end of the remaining two loose wires. “Keep packing.”

“A boost?” the dragon asked inquisitively.

Twilight determined that the plugs on the end of the wires were acceptable, and nodded. “Yeah, a boost.” She then moved the plugs in a magenta glow towards the back of her neck, plugging them into ports just beneath the base of her skull.

The dragon’s eyes opened wide with horror. “Twilight, what are you doing!?”

“I told you, I need a boost of magical energy,” she answered disinterestedly. “This is the only way to do that. I’ll explain more about it later. There’s no time now.” She stepped away from the teleportation array as she flipped a small switch on the box hanging on her left side. “You may want to cover your eyes, Spike.”

“Wha—” Spike’s voice was cut off by a deafening cacophony. A brilliant light flooded the room, momentarily blinding the dragon.

Moments later, the noise ended and the light dissipated. Spike rubbed at his eyes, trying to readjust to the normal, gloomy lighting of the makeshift lab. He looked to Twilight as she switched off her energy transfer device, still awestruck by her newly implanted technology.

Twilight looked over her shoulder to the dragon. “Come on, Spike! We don’t have time to be standing around.”

“Uh... Y-yeah,” Spike stuttered, continuing to slide items off the workbench into the second box.

Twilight picked a vial and syringe from the bench with her magic and made her way to the cell containing Apple Slice. Opening the door, she walked inside while drawing the blue liquid into the syringe.

“Subject Two, can you hear me?” Twilight asked.

Several seconds passed with no response. “Hey, Apple Slice! Wake up!”

The pile of blankets in the corner of the cell stirred, and the head of a green mare poked out from underneath. “Mmmm... What do ya want?” she inquired.

Putting on her best smile, Twilight moved closer to the mare. “It’s time for you to go. Just one more treatment, and you can put this all behind you.”

“Go? Go where?” asked Apple Slice inquisitively.

“Home, hopefully... Eventually.” Twilight tossed the empty vial to the floor as she prepared to inject the test subject with her last dose of the compound. “There’s just a couple of things I need from you.”

Apple Slice turned her head, ready for the experimental injection. “What things?”

“When they ask where you have been, you don’t know,” Twilight answered, closely examining the responsiveness of the mare’s eyes before positioning the injector. “And when you see me again, you will do everything that I ask of you, no matter what.”

The earth pony smiled. “I can do that, easy,” she said lethargically.

“Good, very good.” Twilight pressed the needle into the base of Apple Slice’s neck, pressing the plunger down slowly. “Now repeat it back to me.”

“I-I don’t know where I’ve been,” she said as her pupils grew. “And I’ll do anything you ask.”

The needle pulled out and Apple Slice turned to Twilight. “I can go home now?”

Twilight smiled. “Yes. As soon as someone finds you.”

With a magenta glow of Twilight’s horn and a quick flash of light, Apple Slice was gone. Hopefully dropped safely on the outskirts of the city.

In a corridor just outside of the entrance to the Canterlot dungeon stood more than twenty, armored unicorns and earth ponies, checking and rechecking their weapons and armor. Nervous excitement hung in the air as they quietly whispered about the rumors of the rogue mage they had been sent to apprehend.

Two floors below them, Fireshade was placing the finishing touches on a small sigil array on the wall of a wide hallway. “Barrier, barrier, barrier,” she sang to herself as she dropped to the floor on her belly and looked to the book next to her.

She flipped through the pages of the tome, looking for a particular design. “Hmmm, I know I saw it in here somewhere...”

“There it is!” She giggled to herself like a child filling in the pictures of a coloring book. The unicorn looked blankly towards the ceiling. “I wonder if ten’s gonna be enough?” she asked. Shrugging, she went back to her drawings. “Whatever, it’ll slow them down, I’m sure.”

She finished her work and placed the book into her saddlebag. Standing up, she wiped at her muzzle with a forehoof, causing flakes of dried blood to drift to the floor. “Well... here we go,” she stated, beginning the trek out of the dungeons.

Fireshade could hear the voice of a pony well before she approached the exit. He spoke forcefully, but she couldn’t quite make out the words. Starting up the steps, she could now clearly see the iron gate at the top that demarcated the boundary between the subterranean expanse and the rest of the castle.

Continuing up the dark stairwell, she moved deliberately slow and as quietly as she could in order to get a peek of what was going on outside the gate. As the massive corridor beyond came into focus, Fireshade froze, spotting at least a dozen armored military ponies. Assuming there were probably more outside of her field of view, she waited and listened closely to the pony speaking.

“...and they are both considered extremely dangerous and are to be approached with caution. If we are unable to apprehend the fugitives, we have been ordered to fall back and send for the princesses. However, we will not fail! Are you foals ready?”

To Fireshade, the echoing response sounded like an entire regiment yelling in the affirmative. The gate became shrouded in a green glow as her eyes widened. As the gate swung open, slamming into the wall, she turned to make a retreat back to the lab. Missing the step, she tumbled sideways down the stone staircase, landing in a groaning pile at the bottom. She opened her eyes just in time to witness a small ball of light fly overhead, stick to the wall, and brightly illuminate the once-dark hallway. “Oh, crap...”

“There’s one right there!” announced the first mage entering the stairwell. His horn lit up as he sent a volley of destructive arcane magic her way.

Fireshade flailed her legs, pushing herself out of the way just as the bright-blue bolts of magic slammed into the wall at the bottom of the stairs. “Damn it!” she screamed, returning to a standing position.

She could hear the rattle of armor as the stallions ran down the stairs. The pyromancer’s horn began to glow orange, preparing to unleash a blowtorch-like hellfire on the first soldiers to round the corner, but she thought better of it, looking down to her bloodied foreleg. The glow dissipated as she stepped back and turned, galloping for the nearest sigil trap.

Turning a corner, she deftly weaved past the waiting array to the far end of the hallway before turning back to watch the results. “I sure hope this works like I think it will,” she mused, listening closely as the sound of the guards approaching drew nearer.

A trio of stallions stormed around the corner, readying their weapons upon spotting the pyromancer. However, upon taking a few steps forward, two of the guards stepped hoof directly into Fireshade’s waiting array. A blinding light lit up the hallway briefly. Immediately upon it’s clearing, cries of horror and agony echoed down the hallway.

Fireshade’s features beamed in absolute excitement at the results. The first of the two stallions who had triggered the trap now found himself lodged into the stone floor, his rear legs melded with the rock up to his hips; while the second met a similar fate, with his forelegs sunk into the floor nearly to his neck. The remaining guards turned the corner, unaware of their comrades condition, and barreled over the top of them, tripping and falling into a pile.

Fireshade laughed hysterically at the heap of stallions as they parted, trying to pull their comrades free. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you” She called out to them while trying her best to compose herself and stifle her laughter.. “They’re part of the floor now.” She pursed her lips. “I’m not sure how or if it can be reversed, but eh, I’m sure a surgeon might be able to cut them out or something.”

The remaining stallions looked to her, bewildered. “Y-you, you monster!” one called out from the back of the group.

The pyromancer shrugged indifferently. “Well, I would say not to follow me, that there are plenty more and far more gruesome traps ahead, but I want to see how well they work.” She shot the stallion a sinister smirk. “So by all means, please do follow me.”

Turning the corner at her end of the hallway, she raced for the next set of arrays, taking position a safe distance down the hallway. “Now these babies... oh yes, this ought to be good.” Despite the mare’s anticipation, several long moments of silence passed causing her to click her tongue in clear disappointment. “Did they seriously already give up? After just one?”

Several minutes passed as the pyromancer waited for her next wave of victims. Before too long, her ears perked up as the sounds of hoofsteps could be heard again. A group of mages this time turned the corner, their helmet obscured faces glancing all about the hallway as their horns glowed with an array of different colors. Fireshade couldn’t help but smile at their efforts. If Arcana couldn’t see them, there is no way you clowns will.

“Just a little bit closer...” Fireshade called out to the mages, earning a collection of glares from them. “The hallway is not—”

Before the mare could finish, the four ponies across from her unleashed a swarm of magical projectiles. Despite the rapidly approaching missiles, Fireshade held her ground until the last possible moment, closing her eyes and turning her head away. However, the moment of impact never came, as the assaulting magics exploded harmlessly a few hoof lengths away. She tentatively opened one eye. Upon realizing she had not been hit by the attack, a smile grew across her face, and she stood defiantly, taunting the mages before her. As the air cleared, a brilliant orange wall of light stood between the mare and the magics.

“Awesome! This one works too!” Stepping forward, she brought her foreleg to the barrier before passing through it and back. “Yep, just like the book said. It only stops magic.” She waved a hoof to the soldiers in the hall. “Hey! You guys want to try that again? This time with a bit more oomf behind it. I want to see how much this thing can handle.”

“How dare you mock the battlemages of the ERA!” responded one of the mages.

Fireshade chuckled at the noticeable annoyance of her opponent. “Oooooo, Equestrian Royal Army battlemages... Why dontcha come say it to my face, big guy?” she asked with a wink.

A mage at the front of the group grit his teeth before running forward.

Unknown to the stallion, he passed over another waiting array as he ran at the unicorn ahead of him. Unfortunately, to Fireshade’s dismay, nothing happened. “Aw... that one’s a dud, I guess.” She pursed her lips in disappointment. “I really wanted that one to wo—”

Before the mare could finish, the array’s runes appeared, glowing a bright orange, and then violently releasing an unseen explosion. The sheer force of the blast sent the approaching stallion sailing at remarkable speed, passing through the orange barrier and narrowly missing Fireshade herself. The mage’s flight was abruptly halted with a meaty splat on the wall behind the mare. Turning back to assess the damage, Fireshade’s eyes widened at the broken and disfigured pony as it slowly slid down the wall it had struck.

“Whoa...” Shaking the awe from her mind, she turned back to the remaining mages, craning her neck back having only found their previous location replaced with a grisly scene. A massive spray of blood created a halo around the interior walls, along with several piles of unrecognizable flesh and shredded metal armor scattered throughout the hallway. “Uh... yeah. I think I see why this stuff was banned now.” She paused briefly, scratched her chin as she stared off into nowhere for a moment. “Then again. I don’t think whoever designed this levitation array anticipated somepony trying to weaponize it...”

After a few moments Fireshade giggled, turning down the hall and making her way the the next set of arrays. Opening a door to the left at the end of the hallway, she took a moment before entering to examine the remains of the splattered mage beside her with a cringe.

“I’d sure hate to be the poor guy who has to clean this up...”

Celestia appeared in the darkened room with a muffled pop. She waited a moment for her eyes to adjust to the lack of light, and then, with her magic, tore open the heavy curtains covering four enormous picture windows. Sunlight spilled into the room, exiling the artificial night.

“Luna!”

A muffled groan could be heard from the luxurious bed in the middle of the room as the thick blankets stirred.

“Luna! Wake up!” Celestia shouted, taking several steps towards the bed. “This is an emergency!”

A hoof appeared from under the comforter at the corner of the bed. Luna pulled the covers from herself slowly, exposing her head near the foot of the bed. “Surely, this is something you can handle, Sister,” she yawned disinterestedly.

“Luna, I need you, now!” Celestia screamed, stamping her forehoof into the floor. “Twilight Sparkle is using sigil magic and there are books missing from the vault.”

Luna’s eyes shot wide as a jolt ripped through her body at her sister’s words. “Which books?” The princess bolted upright in her bed, her heart now pounding furiously. “What is missing, Sister?”

“Eleven very dangerous offensive spellbooks, but those don’t matter right now,” Celestia said very quickly. She paused for a moment before continuing in a raspy whisper. “Three of them are gone, as well.”

The princess stared blankly at Celestia, trying to process the gravity of their shared situation. Shaking her head slightly, Luna looked to the ornate grandfather clock standing along the wall of her room. “It... It’s only been a few hours since we spoke with Falx.”

“Yes, well much has happened in this time,” Celestia stated as Luna stepped down from the bed. “Falx engaged Twilight and Spike less than an hour ago, and Fireshade is, as of yet, still to be found.”

“Engaged, you say?" Luna asked, raising an eyebrow before crossing the room, towards a ponnequin holding her royal regalia and continuing past it to another.

“Yes. Quite furiously, if I am to believe the general’s account and the condition of her apartment,” Celestia answered, eyeing her sister's actions curiously. “Twilight used a runic sigil array to escape through a high-grade security barrier... What are you doing?”

“How long has she had access to the books?” Luna asked calmly as she began unstrapping pieces of glossy-black armor from the stand with her magic.

Celestia continued watching her sister, dumbfounded, until the rattle of the first pieces of magically-imbued steel plates falling into place across Luna’s shoulders shook her from her trance. “Maybe a week, possibly several months. There’s really no way to tell for sure... Why are you putting that on?”

Luna took a deep breath and turned to face Celestia. “Because, if what you say is true and Twilight has had access to these war-magics long enough to study them, she would pose a very real threat to either one of us.”

Celestia craned her neck back, eyeing her sister skeptically. “You’re not suggesting that Twi—”

“I am not suggesting anything, Sister. I am merely taking appropriate precautions, and I would suggest you do the same,” Luna interrupted. “Something is very wrong with Twilight Sparkle, and as much I loath to admit it, judging by her recent behavior, it would not be entirely surprising that attempting to take her into custody would cause an uncharacteristically violent reaction from her.”

Luna turned back to her task, continuing to place pieces of armor over herself while Celestia mulled over her sister’s statement.

“You and I both know that Twilight would never attack us!” shouted Celestia as Luna placidly strapped a curved piece of black metal across the front of an upper foreleg.

The Princess of Night lifted her cuirass off of the stand, focusing on the lunar crest emblazoned across the chest with disdainful regard. “Celly... Do you recall the last time I donned this armor?”

Celestia expression fell as she lowered her head. Unsavory memories from days long past washed through her mind like a raging tide. “I... try not to remember those times, honestly.” She let out a low sigh. “It’s been over a millennia since either you or I wore our battle armors, though the memories are as clear as though it were only yesterday.”

Luna’s eyes softened at her sister’s obviously painful recollection. “Then you must also recall what caused it... Who caused it.” Luna felt her chest tighten painfully as she tried hard to not choke on her words. “The callous destruction, the unnecessary death, the senseless anger...” She rubbed her snout with a small sniffle as she turned the piece of armor; placing it across her chest and clasping the steel to the piece hung over her shoulders. “Seven years of unspeakable horror. A war that eclipsed anything Equestria had ever seen, or will likely ever see again.”

Shaking her head slowly, Celestia stepped towards her sister. “The war was not your fault. That thing wasn’t you, Luna! You wouldn’t let—”

“You’re wrong!” Luna interjected vehemently, tears welling up in her eyes. She quickly turned to face Celestia, her mouth twisted into an angry sneer. “I didn’t even try to stop it! I knew what I was doing. I knew what I was to become—but I did not care—my hatred and jealousy wouldn’t allow it! I harbored the feelings that allowed my Nightmare to take over and thrive! It was all because of me that it happened!”

Celestia opened her mouth to speak, but paused as her sister’s tears slowly broke into pained sobs. Crossing the room, the elder sister caught the younger in a warm embrace. Luna nuzzled into her sister’s chest, returning the hug and tightening her grip around her. “I’m so sorry...”

Celestia closed her eyes and shook her head. “Luna... Sister, you know you were not in control then. I know you, and that was certainly not you commanding armies against Equestria. There is no need to be sorry, as I know you would never do that willingly.” Celestia said in as much of a sympathetic tone as she could muster.

Luna paused, nodding several times before pulling away from the embrace. Rubbing her muzzle with a sniffle, she glanced off to the side briefly. “Then, you understand why I am once again wearing this uniform...”

Celestia lowered her head dejectedly. “I do... I don’t want to, but I do.” The white alicorn silently pondered for a moment before looking back up to her sister. “Still, there is no reason to believe that Twilight Sparkle would wish to attack either one of us.”

Luna pursed her lips, her gaze at her sister hardening. “You are correct, Sister. Twilight Sparkle would never wish to harm either of us, but Twilight Sparkle would also never attack a general of the Equestrian Royal Army. Nor would Twilight Sparkle go out of her way to learn banned magics after being explicitly forbidden from doing so. My Twilight Sparkle would never lift a hoof to harm anypony, except to protect others.” Luna exhaled deeply before pulling the last piece of armor from the stand with her magic. The helm floated to her and found its place, snuggly wrapping her head. “As much as I hate to say it, I do not believe who, or what, we are dealing with is Twilight Sparkle at this point, and I plan on approaching this situation as such.” She looked to the other mare. “I would highly suggest that you do the same.”

The two alicorns stared silently at each other for several long moments. Finally, Celestia sighed deeply and nodded. “Yes... Yes, you are correct. I-I should go and ready my equipment.”

Luna nodded in approval, turning to her sister. “We cannot afford to take any unnecessary risks because of what we hope won’t be true. We need to be prepared for the worst case scenario, just in case.”

Just as Celestia was about to turn to leave, a scroll popped into existence in front of her and dropped to the floor between the princesses. They both angled their heads down, looking to the paper, waiting for the other to pick it up. Luna’s impatience made sure that she would take the duty of reading it first.

Luna lifted the scroll in her magic, simultaneously removing the wax seal and string holding it closed. Her eyes widened and complexion paled as she silently read through the message. “Oh no...” she whispered under her breath.

“What is it, Luna?” Celestia implored. She reached a hoof out to take the note, but thought better of it at the last moment.

Luna looked up from the letter to her sister. “It’s from General Falx. They have positively identified Fireshade, and he believes Twilight to be in the same location, as well... However there has been casualties.”

“How many?” Celestia asked without emotion. The memories of Luna’s Nightmare and the bloody war that followed already beginning to reforge her harden psyche to the possibility of coping with the same pain once again.

“Five confirmed, nine missing and assumed dead. Falx has ordered a withdrawal to a safer location at the entrance to the dungeons and is rallying more soldiers to—hey!”

Celestia quickly snatched the letter from her sister’s magic and began reading. “Fourteen dead...? This is completely unacceptable.” Her eyes continued scanning the document until she gasped in alarm and looked to her sister.

“I was still reading that,” Luna deadpanned.

“Falx believes that the nine were vaporized during a confrontation with Fireshade. During their second encounter, she led Falx’s advance group into some sort of latent magical traps...” Celestia trailed off as she continued reading. “This is very bad, Luna. One survivor reported seeing strange symbols arranged in a circular pattern just as the traps were set off.”

“Fireshade is using the sigil arrays, as well...” Luna speculated. “They never even made it to Twilight. If Falx’s stallions can’t handle that child, they have absolutely no hope of even beginning to challenge Twilight Sparkle.”

Celestia merely shook her head. “We need to move quickly. If they are using arrays as weapons, our soldiers will not be able to get anywhere near Twilight.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, attempting to clear her mind. Thinking for a very short moment, she opened her eyes and spoke, “Go to the dungeon, find Twilight and await my arrival before you attempt to speak to her.”

Luna bowed her head reverently. “Yes, Sister.”

With that, a flash of light strobed, and Celestia now stood alone in her sister’s bedchamber. With the other having departed, the older alicorn finally let the tears she had been holding back stream down her face as she brought a hoof to her now quivering muzzle. “Why did it have to end up like this, Twilight...”

Fireshade sat quietly in a lower corridor of the dungeon, listening intently and waiting for any sign that the next wave of soldiers might be on the way. Guess they gave up, she thought. I wonder what they’re waiting for. With a shrug, she once again pulled a piece of chalk from her bag and began drawing replacements for the spent arrays as she slowly made her way to the lab.

At the same time, five mages stood in a line facing the dungeon entrance, ready to attempt to stop anything from potentially exiting. The flash of light from behind didn’t even cause them to flinch as Luna appeared next to Falx. The earth pony glanced slightly to his right, regarding the heavily armored princess for a moment. “Princess,” he stated curtly, slightly bowing his head.

Luna looked ahead to the brightly lit doorway beyond the mages. “What is the situation, General?”

Falx took a deep breath before answering. “If I’m to be quite frank, it’s a train wreck, Milady. The advance squad entered prior to my arrival, and immediately made contact with Fireshade. Half of them were wiped out; two are stuck in the damn floor, and are not expected to survive... I have four squads stationed outside at the rear exit, and four more on their way here as we speak.” He took a step to the side and turned to face Luna. “What is this magic they’re using? What was described to me here is exactly what Twilight used to escape from me at her apartment.”

“It is sigil magic. Very similar to the runes etched on your sword, but designed in such a manner that many multiple runes can be linked together to create a myriad of results. It has been banned for nearly a thousand years, and—as your soldiers have found out first-hoof—it is exceedingly dangerous. Consider your order to capture Fireshade alive rescinded. I would prefer to be able to speak with her, but she is leaving us little choice in the matter,” she said without averting her gaze from the doorway.

With a huff, Falx nodded. “We were unable to make much headway inside. I suspect that the dungeon in it’s entirety may be booby-trapped with this sigil magic.”

“That is likely the case, General. You are to hold this position until otherwise instructed by Celestia or myself. My sister will be joining you shortly,” Luna ordered as she began to walk towards the entryway. She stopped just behind the line of mages. “Gentlecolts, if you would please make way.”

The line split before her, shuffling to each side to grant her access to the iron gate. Luna breathed deeply, closing her eyes and readying a spell that she had not used for many centuries. A dark-blue aura enveloped her horn as she concentrated on pulling the physical manifestation of her more violent tendencies from the intangible ether in which it had been stored for so very long. Soon, a swirling disc of midnight-blue light surrounded by a bright white halo formed just above her left shoulder.

She could hear the murmurs of the ponies around her, speculating as to just what they were witnessing. This should make an interesting tale to tell their grandfoals someday, she thought as she allowed the tiniest of smiles to grace her lips.

From the portal that manifested, something began to slowly appear. A sharply pointed piece of steel advanced gradually out of the swirling miasma. The bladed weapon quickly took shape as it reentered the physical realm. A cross guard consisting of four, shorter razor-sharp edges in a star-like pattern across the center of the main blade emerged. As the end of the massive sword cleared the opening in space, she grasped the middle of the blades with her magic, and the portal to the other realm quickly closed. The surrounding stallions stared in awe at the levitating mass of metal beside the princess. Lacking any obvious position to grasp, it was clear that this multi-bladed weapon was not intended to be physically wielded, but magically.

The murmurs of the soldiers turned to gasps and excited whispers.

“It’s the Eclipse!” one whispered excitedly to the pony next to him.

The other stood, mouth agape. “It can’t be... that weapon is only a legend,” he whispered back. “Besides, the Eclipse is said to be made of six individual blades.”

Glancing back to the stallions whispering behind her, the princess smirked. With the will of her magic, the six edges simultaneously detached from one another, fanning out as each blade twirled independently several times before reassembling and locking back into their original star-shaped pattern. Luna strained slightly as she pushed more magic into the blade, reimbuing the long-dormant enchantments. The weapon began to emit an aura of darkness, seemingly absorbing the light around it.

Luna looked to the pair of mages to her right. “You two, what are your names?” she asked.

“Corporal Stark, ma’am,” answered the closer, heavily armored light-blue unicorn, .

The other grey unicorn hesitated, slightly. “Uhm... P-Private First Class Pike, m-ma’am.”

“Very good. You shall escort me,” she stated, stepping forward as she deftly levitated the weapon over to her other shoulder’s side and back before rotating it in a pinwheel motion briefly and attaching it to a mount on the back of her armor. “We shall see about these magical traps ahead.”

Entering the dungeon, Luna advanced down the staircase, the pair of selected mages hesitating briefly before quickly following after. As the group reached the bottom of the stairs, Luna could distinctly hear the pained groans of one of Fireshade’s victims. They continued walking towards the sound until two ponies came into view. Luna sighed, instantly recognizing the work of a powerful matter phasing spell, and steeling herself for the carnage that she knew was yet to come.

The farther of the pair heard the hoofsteps approaching, and turned his head side-to-side, attempting to see who was coming.

“H-help me! It hurts so much. Help me, please!” he shouted. “My legs are stuck, and Stronghold’s dead...”

As Luna passed the first casualty, she looked to the figure with grim regard, his now-still face and lifeless eyes contorted in absolute terror. She passed the second, and turned to face him, kneeling down to be closer to his level as her escorts looked on.

“Princess! You can get me out of here! Please, help... It hurts,” the pony said quickly, tears staining his face. “We have to hurry, before she returns!”

The princess closed her eyes. “I am so sorry, my little pony,” she stated morosely, opening her eyes once again. “There is nothing I can do to save you. Only offer you a swift release from your pain.”

“P-please, Princess, I-I have to go home! I want to go home. You must have the power to get me out!” he pleaded to Luna.

Luna slowly shook her head. “No magic in the world can undo this level physical entanglement.”

His eyes grew wide as he began thrashing against his imprisonment. “No! I have to go home! I have to see my children... m-my wife!” Slowly, his outlash diminished. Breathing heavily, with tears flooding his eyes, he looked to Luna. “Please... Please, Princess, I beg you. I can’t die like this.”

The princesses horn emitted a soft glow before the same magical light enveloped the stallion’s head. “I’m so very sorry that this happened to you...” she spoke softly as the magic took hold, the stallion’s eyes slowly closing as his head gently lowered to the stone floor.

The mages accompanying Luna stood stoically, watching in absolute silence as their comrade expelled a final breath from his lips. Stark removed his helmet, bowing his head respectfully to his lost comrade while Pike continued to look on in shock from the event that unfolded. The princess stood up and looked to them with a face of immeasurable rage and terrifying anger. “Come. This ends now.”

Following the waning glow of the magelight spells the previous group had cast, Luna began walking further into the dungeons beneath Canterlot, the two mages quickly finishing paying respects to their fallen compatriots before following after her. The musty smell of the disused dungeon was overwhelming until the trio rounded the next corner.

A staggering, sweet, metallic odor assaulted their senses as they entered the next brick-lined corridor. Luna immediately recognized the smell of death hanging thick in the air. Soon, the limited power of the lighting spells dwindled, casting the already dimly lit surroundings into near darkness. Slowing her pace, she continued down the shadowy corridor, not wanting to use a light of her own for fear of alerting her quarry to her presence. Several minutes passed, quietly stepping one hoof at a time until one of her armored forehooves brushed against something with a heavy metallic clang. She stopped—Stark and Pike stopping with her—and looked down, squinting in the darkness.

The tip of her horn illuminated in a soft glow, revealing a short, wide streak of blood terminating at a helmet below her. “Light,” she ordered dryly.

Her two companions immediately obliged, each firing two magelight spells into the ceiling above and ahead of them. The hallway instantly became awash in white light, exposing the silver helmet and the severed head of a unicorn within lying in a small pool of blood. Luna looked up from the mess only to observe what appeared to be the site of a complete massacre. Crimson painted the middle part of the hallway, fanning out from a central point. Hearing a noise behind her, she quickly turned her head just in time to witness Pike turned away from the blood and unidentifiable chunks of ponies, vomiting on the floor.

She waited patiently for him to finish retching. He spit a mouthful of bile onto the floor and raised his head, wiping his mouth and turning towards Luna.

Knowing that these soldiers had never yet been exposed to the true atrocities of battle, the princess decided to be far more lenient than she had been with ponies under her command in the past. “Are you ready to continue?” she asked calmly.

“Y-yes, Princess,” the Pike replied, bowing his head to her. “Sorry, Princess.”

“Very good. You and Stark check the cells,” she ordered, motioning to the half-dozen doorways lining the hall. The mages immediately went to their assignment, opening each door and glancing inside before moving on.

Turning back to the spray of blood, Luna’s attention centered on the apparent source of the glossy red fluid painting the interior of the hallway. She walked towards it, noting the two doors nearest the epicenter had been completely torn from their hinges. Moving swiftly, she stepped over pieces of muscle, bone, and the occasional, twisted shred of silvery metal. Approaching the cleanest area in the middle of the mess of blood, she was able to clearly see the cause of the slaughter around her.

Astounding... she thought to herself as she examined the now-dormant drawing on the floor.

A large circle, scrawled in chalk, with intricate runes lining the inside of the mark. Within the large circle, two more circles overlapped each other. Two triangles configured into six-pointed stars patterns filled each of the smaller circles, with a single, wildly-complex rune filling the center of each star.

A pair of levitation arrays did all of this? No... no that can’t be right. Upon closer inspection of the complex sigil formation, the princess’s eyes widened. This isn’t just two arrays bound together, it’s two arrays bound with opposing polarities...

“Princess?”

...and the sheer number of force-runes added to the binding alone is staggering. It would have went off like a bomb...

She continued studying the runes, trying to determine exactly what all Fireshade had done to weaponize such a utilitarian array. A loud cough from behind suddenly jolted her out of her fixation. She looked to the escorts before her, Pike nervously glancing around while Stark stood like a statue, watching her.

“Excuse my interruption, Princess, but we’re finished. There’s nothing of note in any of the cells, the last doorway on the left is a staircase... Perhaps we should get moving?” suggested Stark before noticing to the array before the princess. “Unless you’ve yet to finish your examination. In which case, take your time, Ma’am.”

Turning back to the array, she regarded it for a moment, still thoroughly impressed by the ingenuity of the augmentation before turning back to the stallion and shaking her head.. “No. You are correct, Corporal. We should proceed. There will be plenty of time for this later.”

Fireshade is more talented than I’ve given her credit. Although, this may be more credit to the tutelage of Twilight. Such amazing potential thrown away on both accounts.

The soldiers waited for Luna to pass before falling in behind her, matching her pace. Nearing the end of the hallway, the princess suddenly stopped. She lifted a forehoof and reached forward slowly, her metalclad hoof meeting with a sudden force and began to sparkle with a dim orange glow. “...Interesting,” she mused as she glanced to the wall at the small array powering the ethereal wall.

Magic quickly pulsed through her horn, and an orange glimmer passed across the hallway in front of them as the barrier disintegrated. She then began walking and turned left down the stars, descending further into the bowels of Canterlot Mountain.

The small group exited the stairwell into the next corridor. Luna took several steps forward before stopping suddenly, cocking her head slightly to the side and listening for something that her escorts had not yet noticed.

Fireshade sat happily in the middle of a dark corridor with her eyes closed. Her horn glowed with the faintest halo of barely discernable magic, using the least amount of energy possible to probe into the expansive dungeon. Suddenly, a crazed grin expanded across her bloodstained muzzle, her eyes shooting open. “Here they come again.”

She stood and began running towards the signatures of magic perceived in her mind. Several turns and long corridors later, she slowed, approaching the last corner to the hallway—at the bottom of the stairs, one level below the blood-soaked massacre—where she knew her enemy would be.

Backed up to the side of the corner, Fireshade scooted as close to the edge as she could without being seen. Her ear twitched as she heard indecipherable murmurs from the end of the passage. Damn it, they’re not moving... They need to be closer.

Just as that thought cleared her mind, light flooded the brick wall across from her as the hall around the corner lit up. I guess they’re just being cautious...

Standing dead-still for nearly a minute, Fireshade decided that waiting wasn’t working. She took a deep breath and spun herself around the corner, in an attempt to draw her enemy nearer. What she saw as she exposed herself from the relative safety of her cover caused her jaw to drop and her heart to jump into her throat. As she stood in total shock of the scene before her, Princess Luna locked eyes with the pyromancer; the sight of the alicorn regaled in her full battle-armor nearly causing Fireshade to lose control of her bladder.

A blue aura surrounded Luna’s horn as she cast several spells simultaneously. Eclipse unlatched from its place on her back as every hidden sigil array scattered across the floor lit up in a orange glow, before quickly transitioning to a deep blue and darkening in rapid succession; easily rendered powerless by her magic.

“You can hide nothing from me, child,” Luna stated coldly, taking an offensive stance.

The sizable sword came apart into its component pieces and Luna flung all six blades towards Fireshade without so much as blinking. The unicorn yelped as the sword fragments careened towards her. Without thinking, she curled herself onto the floor and poured every bit of her magical ability into constructing a shallowly sloping barrier in front of herself. The shards of the weapon reached Fireshade just as the barrier coalesced, causing it to flicker wildly as the blades ricocheted off ineffectually. She coughed a spray of blood, with a sharp, stabbing pain shooting through her head.

Fireshade looked down the hall towards her pursuers to see Eclipse, now in its singular form, flying back towards Luna as two bolts of arcane energy flew towards herself. Her vision blurred in response to the pain in her head as she pushed more and more power into the barrier. I’m dead, either way, she thought as blood began to once again drip from her nostrils. Better make them work for it.

Tightly closing her eyes, the pyromancer gave one last push to the barrier just as the mages’ attack made contact. The magical wall exploded outward, swallowing the arcane energy and rapidly speeding towards Luna, Stark, and Pike.

Luna lowered and turned her head away from the shockwave as it passed, leaving her unfazed, but knocking the two less-experienced mages to the floor. They promptly scrambled back to a standing position and ran forward to position themselves between the princess and... an empty hallway.

Nostrils flaring, Luna exhaled with a huff and a creased forehead. “Thou wilt not evade me, Fireshade!” she bellowed into the dungeon, knowing the pyromancer could not have gone far. “Thine traps are nothing to Us! We created sigil magic, it is a trivial matter for Us to dispel it! Nothing you can do will cause Us to falter.” She paused, listening for any response. “You and Twilight Sparkle shall both answer for this!”

Twilight Sparkle jumped from the teleport array as the door to the lab flew open, crashing into the wall. Turning just as it slammed closed, she saw Fireshade with her back to the door, trembling and flailing a hoof towards the handle, attempting to throw the latch to lock the door. “Luna—” Fireshade began before abruptly cutting off into a winded wheeze. “Luna’s here!”

“What!?” Twilight blurted, craning her head back as her eyes grew wide. “Where?”

“This isn’t good, Twilight,” Spike commented, while placing a box full of papers precariously on top of the pile of equipment and parts within the circle.

“No shit, Spike; how about you just keep moving stuff? We’ve got a couple minutes, tops.” Fireshade took a deep breath, rubbing her temples and groaning. “She tried to kill me. She attacked the second she saw me, she didn’t even say anything until after I was running for my life. I really don’t think they’re interested in capturing us anymore...” The pyromancer grit her teeth as a spike pain of shot through her head. “Gah, my head hurts so bad.”

“No... Luna didn’t try to kill you. You wouldn’t be here, if that were the case. Now, as far as you trying to kill yourself, that’s a whole other thing,” Twilight replied, noting the fresh blood running from her friend’s nose, and a new trickle forming from her left ear.

“She threw a sword at me! Pretty sure that counts as ‘trying’; and if I hadn’t used my magic, I’d be dead anyhow. She caught me in a no-win situation!” As Fireshade’s breathing calmed, she looked around the lab. “What the hell is this, Twilight? It’s been twenty minutes... Why isn’t everything gone yet? We need to get outta here!”

We still need a sample.

This really isn’t a good time for that.

No, it’s a perfect time. Luna will bring it to us. All we have to do is watch for an opportunity to collect it.

You expect us to confront the princess!?

Not confront. Collect. We do not need to stay here any longer once the sample is acquired.

Twilight paused briefly before hesitantly nodding to herself. “O-only two more teleports, Fireshade. The array was damaged when we loaded the big equipment. I’m still fixing it,” Twilight explained, turning back to the array with her chalk floating nearby. “Put your saddlebag in for the next transport. We need to get that book out of here now, or risk losing it to the princesses.”

“We? We!? I don’t even know where we’re going or how to work that untethered death-machine!” Fireshade ran to the array, throwing her bag in. “There, send it now! She’s probably right outside the bucking door by now!”

“Would you calm down!” Twilight screamed without looking away from the runes taking shape. “I’ll handle the array. Just let me concentrate long enough to fix it.”

Fireshade began hyperventilating with a twitch of her eye. “How am I supposed to calm down!? There’s a murderous alicorn on her way here right now!”

Twilight tossed her piece of chalk away, standing and moving away from the array. “There, I’m done.” She turned to her dragon assistant. “Come on, Spike. Time to go.”

Spike stepped forward. “But... But what about you?”

We must wait for Luna.

I know... We’ll get it.

“We’ll be there soon. There’s still some stuff to send after you, and I have to take care of something before we can leave,” Twilight told the dragon. “Please, Spike, just get into the circle, so I know you’ll be safe.”

“Alright,” he replied defeatedly, walking across the room and stepping into the array with the equipment and other various items.

Walking over to the array, Twilight stopped just outside the circle across from Spike. “If we’re not there within the hour, I want you to take these three books and start heading south,” she said, passing the dragon a piece of paper with a hastily written list. “The D’Larame government should gladly grant you asylum in exchange for those.”

Spike looked to the list, and then to Twilight with confusion. “But you said you would be there soon.”

Twilight stepped back, flipping the power switch of her energy device with a soft smile to her lifelong friend. “Bye Spike, I love you.”

“Twilight, wai—” Spike’s voice was cut off as the array activated, sending him and Twilight’s supplies to the new lab location.

The light from the teleportation subsided, and Twilight turned around, looking to Fireshade. “What’s left?”

Fireshade surveyed the lab for a moment. “Not much... Some chem equipment and supplies, the med cabinet, a few components for whatever it was you were going to build.” She glanced towards the cells and glared. “Arcana.”

“Let the princesses deal with him, we’re finished with our experiments concerning that subject,” Twilight said, reaching under the workbench and pulling out a tool that appeared to have been pulled out of a nightmare. “Move the rest of the stuff into the circle.”

“Uh... no magic,” Fireshade said mockingly, waving her hooves about her head.

“Fine, I’ll get it,” Twilight huffed. She gathered everything using her magic and within ten seconds, the last pieces were landing within the teleportation array.

Glancing to the to the device in the other mare’s hoof, Fireshade raised an eyebrow. “And what in the world is that thing anyway?”

“It’s a device for collecting a large tissue sample as quickly as possible,” Twilight replied proudly, holding the tool out for Fireshade to see. A curved, serrated blade extended nearly a foot out from a sample container. “Stick it in, pull it out. Quick and efficient!”

“Looks like a torture device,” Fireshade said cynically. Her eyes lit up. “Wait... Is that why we’re still here? Please tell me you’re not going to try to do what I think.”

The tool settled onto the empty workbench with a thump. “I need a tissue sample from an alicorn. Specifically Luna or Celestia... Both would be preferable, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

“Bucking princessing hook...” Fireshade mumbled, rolling her eyes. “Have you completely lost your mind?” Fireshade paused momentarily, furrowing her brow. “Or have I completely lost my mind that I’m the one having to tell you that you’ve completely lost your mind?”

Twilight rolled her eyes with an annoyed frown. “No. This is an absolute necessity, Fireshade,” she stated calmly, trying to push away the doubt in herself. “I need you to try to distract Luna while I get the sample. The procedure will hopefully stun her long enough for us to escape.”

“Just for the record, Twilight, this is nuts. How do you expect to even get close enough to use that thing?”

“While you’ve been running around with that sigil book the past week, I’ve been studying other things,” she claimed with a smile. Twilight then turned to the last of her equipment and powered the array, switching off her energy device as soon as the teleportation began.

Just as the blinding light of the teleportation died down, two more smaller flashes of light illuminated the lab from near the exit.

A white light flared next to Luna as she walked. As soon as it dissipated, Celestia was walking next to her, wearing golden armor that matched her sister’s in nearly every way.

“We’re nearly there,” Luna stated without averting her gaze from the hallway or the dimly lit doorway ahead. “Pike, Stark. Return to your formation and relay a new order to General Falx. He is to hold for fifteen minutes, then proceed to this location with his full force.”

“Yes, Princess,” the two soldiers responded in unison, before teleporting away.

The sisters continued, their armor-shoed hooves clanging against the stone floor. “Is there anything I should know before we go in?” Celestia asked.

“Yes. Fireshade is surprisingly adept with sigil magic. However, when we made contact, she seemed severely weakened. I believe she has overexerted herself.”

“So, she is no longer a threat?”

“We said no such thing. She is still quite powerful, but to her own detriment. She likely will not survive the magic exertion required to mount another effective defense,” Luna replied, stopping short of the doorway and turning to face her sister. “It may be most effective to eliminate her first, should it come down to it.”

“And what of Twilight Sparkle?” Celestia asked, shifting uncomfortably under her heavy armor.

Luna sighed. “We are still unsure of the status of Twilight. She is here; We can sense her. Perhaps she will be more open to a negotiation of surrender, but that is yet to be seen.”

Taking a deep breath, Celestia attempted to clear her thoughts. This is not Twilight Sparkle, she told herself as she readied her mind for whatever may come. She glanced to Luna standing beside her. “Are you ready?”

“Verily,” Luna answered, staring at the door.

Celestia’s horn illuminated, and both sisters were instantaneously teleported to the other side of the door. As the haze of the teleportation spell cleared, the sisters were greeted by two unicorns, standing in defensive stances and horns glowing. Luna responded by drawing her weapon and lunging it forward towards Fireshade.

“Everypony, stop!” Celestia pleaded as Eclipse halted immediately, floating between the two pairs. “We only want to talk.”

The pyromancer glanced nervously at Eclipse. “That’s a strange way of talking,” she declared, motioning towards the huge blade levitating in the middle of the room.

The room fell completely silent from there on. No one moved as Fireshade and Twilight stared down the two alicorns across the room. All ponies present waited for someone to make the first move. Watching for any tell that may indicate an incoming attack, Fireshade quickly grew tired of the impromptu standoff.

“Sooo...?” Fireshade prompted, glancing between the others in hope to gain some sort of response. “Somepony going to say something, or are we just going to stand here staring eachother down all day?”

They do not wish to talk. They wish to capture or kill us.

That’s not happening.

Twilight raised her head, glancing briefly to the mare beside her before turning her attention to the alicorns, the aura dimming from her horn. “Unless you two are willing to answer questions, there’s nothing to talk about.”

Celestia took a step forward with a look of confusion. “Is that what this is all about? Questions? If you wanted answers, you needed only to ask.”

Twilight forced a laugh. “I seem to remember trying that a number of times before. As you can clearly see, that method didn’t work out so well.” The mare narrowed her eyes directly towards Celestia. “Why did you lie to me!?”

“I would never lie to you... I was only trying to protect you, Twilight,” Celestia answered in a motherly tone, taking another step forward. “I never meant to offend or upset you.”

She’s still lying.

Shaking her head slowly with a frown, Twilight held her gaze with Celestia. “Withholding the truth is still lying. Besides, you weren’t protecting me, you were protecting yourself,” she said with finality. The unicorn looked to Luna. “And what about you? What do you know of study 612718?”

Just get the sample now, and we can leave.

I can’t... Celestia will react in a fraction of a second, I need more time than that.

We can make it. Don’t hesitate.

Luna recoiled slightly, stumbling with how to answer. “I... We do not see how that is relevant. It is a subject that deserves no interest.”

Twilight raised a hoof towards Luna and looked back to Celestia with a quizzical grin. “See!? This is exactly what I mean! I ask the questions, and what do I get? Evasion and misdirection...” She glanced down to the floor, shaking her head again. “However I already know what it is... I don’t require answers from you anymore,” she stated quietly.

Celestia took yet another step forward. “Twilight, plea—”

Twilight stopped a hoof, cutting the princess off. “No! Damn it, you just don’t get it, do you?” she screamed, her voice echoing off of the brick walls. “I already know. I know what the study is; I know what the conclusion was. I know what you are. Your entire rule has been a ruse from the start! You’ve been lying to everypony!”

Celestia slowly raised a hoof. “Twilight, just surrender to us, please. We can still work through this... I can offer you immunity for your crimes.”

She’s lying. We’re clearly in no position to make a deal. She knows this. We know this.

“What about your crimes!?” she shouted, ignoring the voice in her mind.

“My sister and I have committed no crimes,” stated the princess confidently.

Twilight snorted, trying to hold back laughter. “Really? How about usurping power from the rightful rulers of Equestria? What about lying about being immortal? Or what about being gods?”

Celestia stamped a hoof to the floor. “There would be no Equestria without us!” she yelled back. “You speak of events with no context! Yes, we overthrew governments—Fourteen of them to be exact! We unified the ponies. We did it for the good of all; we created Equestria, and without us, there would be—will be—no Equestria!”

Twilight felt a body lean into her side, looking out of the corner of her eye, she saw a yellow coat.

“Uh... They’re stalling, Twi,” Fireshade whispered into Twilight’s ear. “A lot of ponies are on their way...”

She’s right. They are stalling...

Twilight paused, using a low-level sensory spell, she probed the outlying reaches of the dungeon. Ten, twenty-five, forty, sixty... She cut the spell, having seen enough. “Here you are, lying again! You’re both just buying time for your reinforcements to get here!”

We have no time for this. We have to do it now.

She was done trying to talk; the grand magus made the irrevocable decision to act. Twilight’s horn glowed bright magenta as her body was enveloped in a magical glow. Celestia watched her form turn into a scratchy blur, like a bad signal from a television.

From Twilight’s perspective, everything except herself slowed to a near standstill. Sound stopped; all she could hear was the thump of her own heartbeat. The mage bolted for the workbench, picking up her sample extraction tool with a hoof. Not being able to use her magic outside of the temporal distortion she built around herself, she ran at Celestia as fast as she could. She glanced to Fireshade, noticing the telltale burst of light of a spell just beginning to form at the tip of her horn. Meanwhile, Celestia seemed to still be confused by what was happening.

Just as she arrived at Celestia’s side, Twilight noted Eclipse beginning to move ever so slowly towards Fireshade. Celestia had just began to react, flinching to the side as Twilight brought the point of the hook up to a scaled split in the golden armor. The blade found its mark and pushed through the joint between plates easily while Celestia’s horn lit up with a bright, white light.

Twilight pulled back as soon as the blade bottomed out, droplets of blood flying past within the temporal bubble and slowing to a crawl as they exited the other side. The unicorn watched the princesses face slowly change from shock to absolute horror over the course of several seconds. Celestia then disappeared, her teleportation spell being a split-second too late. She reappeared several feet behind Twilight, pouring blood from her left side.

Running past the princess back to the position she had started from, Twilight watched as Fireshade teleported across the room just before Eclipse ran full speed into the floor where the pyromancer had just been, pieces of broken stone slowly floating into the air as the sword hit it’s mark. Fireshade looked to Twilight, her eyes slowly widening over the course of several seconds.

Watching the sword as it slowly came apart into its separate pieces, Twilight attached her tool to the harness wrapped around her middle and readied herself to remove the time dilation spell. In an instant, reality caught up with the mare, numerous sounds coming in a flash. Twilight had not even been given a moment to collect her bearings before she fell under attack. A telekinetic shove pushed her to the ground, closely followed by two of the shorter blades of Eclipse. Knowing a follow-up would come behind the relatively weak push, she immediately teleported, narrowly avoiding the razor sharp shards of steel, and bringing herself to Fireshade’s location several feet behind.

The distance between the pair of unicorns and alicorns widened greatly as Eclipse circled back, the six blades forming a tight halo orbiting its wielder. An intense silence filled the room as the four combatants stood stock still in defensive stances, each side waiting for the other to make their move.

We have the advantage. Celestia is injured and Luna can’t maneuver her weapon properly in such close confines.

“Twilight... You are toying with magic that you don’t understand,” Celestia panted, grimacing to the searing pain of her deep wound beginning to heal itself.

“I know enough to get what I needed,” Twilight retorted with a smirk. “I think the flash-step spell worked flawlessly.”

Shifting her weight off her injured side, Celestia tried to calmly talk to Twilight. “Chronomancy is dangerous, Twilight. The slightest miscalculation could prove catastrophic for yourself, possibly the whole of our reality... Please, Twilight, you have nowhere to go. Give this up.”

Twilight silently watched the alicorns, waiting for their next attack. After several seconds, Celestia’s stance began to waver as she clenched her eyes shut, a new wave of pain pulsing through her body shaking her off balance briefly. Spotting the moment of vulnerability, Twilight’s eyes emitted a bright-purple glow as she reacted instantly. The unicorn reached up to flick the switch on her energy device, while simultaneously readying a spell to exploit the opening in the alicorn’s defense.

Luna also noticed her sister waver, and willed her blades to barricade against the inevitable attack against Celestia. Eclipse flew in front of the white alicorn, creating a criss-crossed shield of darkly glowing steel just as Twilight unleashed a furious blast of arcane energy flowing from the tip of her horn directly towards her target. The room became awash with purple light as the radiant beam met its objective.

Staggering back, Luna could do nothing but watch as the beam burned violently into her own armor chestpiece. The six blades shielding her sister clattered to the floor while Luna redirected all of her energy into an attempt to repel the assault. She pushed as much power as possible into a telekinetic blast directed blindly towards the two unicorns ahead of her. The energy beam swiftly dissipated as an invisible wall careened across the room, ultimately throwing Twilight and Fireshade to the floor and pushing them towards the back of the room.

Twilight was on her hooves in a flash while Fireshade struggled to return to a standing position. The pyromancer looked to Luna, a thin haze now hanging in the air from the primal force used by Twilight.

“Wow...” Fireshade whispered to herself. The armor across Luna’s chest had been heated to the point that it still glowed a dim orange. The fur across the front of her neck was all but burned off and continued to smolder as Luna gathered the pieces of Eclipse and reformed them into a single blade.

Celestia and Luna began slowly walking forward, closing the gap between themselves and the unicorns. An aura encompassed the horn of the elder sister as a bubble of white magic surrounded Twilight and Fireshade.

“You will not escape. We can not allow you to leave this place under your own volition,” Celestia stated as her and Luna continued their advance. “You will either come with us, or we will take you.”

Fireshade looked all around herself at the glowing barrier trapping her and Twilight. “Twilight, we really need to go now... If your gonna do more of that glowy-eyed shit, now would be a good time,” she said quietly out of the corner of her mouth to the unicorn next to her.

Ignoring Fireshade, Twilight took a small step forward, nearly touching her nose to the glimmering barrier. The magenta glow in her eyes was still as bright as when the phenomenon had started. “You still truly believe you can stop me, Celestia?” she asked in a voice thick with malice. “You, yourself, taught me to wield the power of magic... You didn’t believe that I could surpass you, did you?” She tilted her head forward slowly until the tip of her horn contacted the barrier. The discharge of electric-like energy across the surface of the magical wall caused the princesses to halt. “I am faster than you. I am smarter than you...”

A crazed grin spread across Twilight’s face as her horn lit up impossibly bright. “And I. Am. Stronger!” she yelled with finality as the barrier in front of her shattered. Twilight’s eyes dimmed back to their regular purple coloration, her right ear trickling a small trail of blood down the side of her head. She quickly shook off the dreamlike feeling and teleported her and Fireshade to the opposite side of the lab.

Fireshade looked to her shifted surroundings and saw that she had landed inside the teleporting array, her and Twilight now both between the princesses and the exit. “Can we please go now!?” she pleaded.

Before Twilight could even think, Celestia was on her, colliding with the small unicorn with her full armored heft. Twilight landed next to the doorway to the dungeon, gasping for the breath that had been so unceremoniously knocked from her.

Luna followed suit, running at the pyromancer as fast as she could carry herself. Fireshade back-trotted to the best of her ability, inevitably taking the brunt of Luna’s armored shoulder to the chest and sliding across the floor, out of the array and into the corner of the room.

Looking to Celestia, Twilight saw her horn aglow, obviously readying another offense. Without hesitation, the unicorn erected a barrier between herself and her attacker. A shaft of plasmic energy shot towards Twilight from the alicorn’s horn, slamming into the barrier with an enormous amount of force behind it. Sweat trickled across Twilight’s brow as she strained to keep the barrier in place, hoping that she could outlast the relentless attack.

Meanwhile, Fireshade’s head reeled, stunned from the devastating physical attack. She opened her eyes to see The Princess of Night slowly walking towards her with Eclipse hovering over her shoulder.

Fireshade attempted to teleport to no avail. The extraneous circumstances of the last day had left her defenseless and without use of any higher level magic. I’m dead... I’m so dead, the unicorn thought to herself, desperately looking around the room for anything within reach that she could use to defend herself against Eclipse. The princess came within five feet of the fearful unicorn, raising her blade for a finishing strike. Luna thrust downward with Eclipse, and Fireshade’s horn flashed momentarily.

The teleportation array roared to life, a column of light erupting in the middle of the lab. The commotion caused Celestia to cease her attack just as Twilight’s nose became bloodied from the exertion of holding her barrier against the onslaught.

Celestia and Twilight both paused momentarily, looking to the light of the sigil array as it waned. The light disappeared and a deafening silence shrouded the room. On the far side of the array, Luna fell to the floor hard, Eclipse falling with her and breaking into its six component pieces as it collided with the stone. As their eyes readjusted to the dim lighting of the lab, it became clear that something catastrophic had just happened.

Fireshade paled noticeably, sitting on her backside and pushed into the corner as far as her limbs could possibly drive her. Her eyes focused on Luna’s face and a mouth opening and closing repeatedly, attempting to draw a breath that would never come. The front legs of the dark-blue alicorn scraped at the floor, slowing to a sporadic twitch as the life slowly drained from the princess’s eyes.

Celestia’s legs quivered as she opted to take a sitting position on the floor. Staring to her sister as her eyes welled with tears, she sat in silence with a slackened jaw. A pool of blood quickly spilled over the stone floor from the gaping wound where Luna’s back half would have been. Her body from just behind her shoulders had been cleanly cut away from her, teleported to an unknown destination.

Focus, Twilight. We must escape while Celestia is distracted.

But... b-but Luna.

It’s far too late to worry about her well being. We are still alive, and the only way we will remain that way is to leave. Now.

“R-right...” Twilight managed to mumble out loud. She quickly teleported herself and Fireshade into the center of the circle. Watching Celestia sit like a statue, she focused her thoughts on their new home and fired one last burst of energy into the array before the pair vanished in a pillar of light.

XXI(a): Residuum of Light

Her lungs burned as she forced herself to breathe. The shock ebbed, being slowly replaced by a searing pain across the whole of her being as she continued staring to the eerily calm face of her sister.

A sound from far off, tapping against a steel door. Her ear twitched slightly at the otherworldly noise. She noticed a warm dampness across her cheeks as she attempted to reconnect her mind to her surroundings. Her attempt was noble, but futile, her mind insisting on replaying the battle over and over.

An explosion from somewhere behind her. Celestia turned her head towards the sound, looking away from what remained of her sister for the first time. The door stood for a moment before slowly tipping forward, landing in the room with a dull, echoing thud. A smoky haze hung in the room, punctuated by the acrid smell of burnt metal.

Six heavily armored ponies rushed into the room, the blurred visage moving slowly across her sight as though she were in a living dream. It struck her as odd how these heavy-troopers—the elite of the Equestrian military—more resembled machines than living, breathing ponies. As many times as she had seen these uniforms in the past, Celestia had never given any thought to the lunacy of normal ponies wearing 300 pounds of armor magically imbued to have the weight and movement of a second skin.

She had already forgotten why they were there—why she was there. Celestia turned back to face forward and was greeted with the grim reminder of the situation. The tears stopped immediately as the motherly bond between mentor and apprentice shattered under a deluge of voracious rage and lament. Hundreds of joyful memories of her faithful student evaporated from her recollection, being overshadowed by a heavy cloud of hateful anger. Celestia’s body heated quickly as the powerful emotions overwhelmed her, the tears clinging to her face beginning to evaporate. Taking a deep breath, she did everything within her power to reign in her magic.

Twilight...

She barely noticed the shouts or the sound of the seventh pony entering as her mind weathered a storm of intense, divergent emotions. She could barely hear the voices behind her. The sound was distant and distorted, like listening to a conversation from below the surface of a pool.

A pounding sound, more voices. Celestia remained still, staring to her sister’s face.

What did she do to deserve this?

She heard the heavy, metallic hoofsteps of the soldiers moving away, leaving the room.

So many battles, so much experience... only to be taken in such a trite manner.

Someone touched a hoof to her shoulder, startling her out of the trance of her sister’s demise. She looked to her right to see the weathered, tan face of General Falx standing near her. His mouth moved as though he were speaking, but she couldn’t make out the words. She returned her gaze to Luna.

A single tactical error... A foalish oversight...

XXI: Residuum of Light

Falx glared at the steel door, looking past the machine-like superheavy trooper in front of him.

“The locking mechanism is extremely complex, and the magic protecting it doubly so,” said the unicorn, her voice metallic and muffled through the full-cover helmet she wore. “The mages say it will take them at least an hour to open it, sir.”

Falx’s ear twitched as he heard muted yelling from beyond the lab entrance. “That’s not good enough... Move aside and hold with the rest of the entry team.” Grumbling obscenities under his breath, the general turned away from the soldier’s dark, lifeless eyeslit directed at him. “Bring the engineers to the the front!” he bellowed down the corridor past the soldiers lining both sides.

Seconds later, two unarmored earth ponies and a unicorn lumbered to the front of the formation, each carrying large saddlebags of equipment. “Sir!” the leader of the group shouted, throwing a quick salute as they came to a stop before Falx.

“Open it,” Falx demanded, nodding to the foreboding, steel door.

“With pleasure, sir,” the lead engineer replied with a smile. He walked towards the door, closely inspecting the hinges and latch handle as he dropped his bags to the floor. Without diverting his attention from the door, he reached into one of the bags and pulled out a small device with several buttons and a bundle of wires.

The engineer glanced over his shoulder to his cohorts. “Give me three, four-by-seven shapes, a... uhm...” He reached a hoof up the door handle, judging the size. “A ten-by-ten cutter, and four dets, zero delay.”

Just as the other two engineers began dropping the requested supplies for their superior, the noise of multiple magical discharges and more yelling sounded from the other side of the door.

“Hurry it up, Sergeant,” Falx stated calmly, shifting uncomfortably where he stood.

The stallion picked up the first small box in his hoof and placed it carefully over a hinge. “Going as fast as I can, sir,” he responded as he delicately pushed a small metallic tube with two wires into a hole in the side of the steel box he had just placed over the door’s latching mechanism.

Deciding that pressing the stallion to rush the sensitive operation would be more detrimental than helpful, Falx turned and walked to the six-pony entry team waiting nearby. “Is your team ready, Corporal?” he asked the heavily armored mare, looking to the dark slit in her helmet where her eyes would be.

The corporal fidgeted a bit, the hundreds of pounds of imbued armor groaning as it moved with her. “Ready as we’ll ever be, Sir... This is our first live-fire mission, so everyone’s a little on edge.”

The old stallion nodded. “That’s understandable. Just remember your training and stay aware of your surrou—”

A roaring howl echoed through the corridor from the nearby room, startling Falx. “Sergeant! Are you almost ready?” he yelled as he turned around to the engineer.

“Wiring in the detonators now, sir! Just one more minute!” the earth pony shouted back, as his hooves moved in a flurry, twisting together a multitude of colored wires.

Several seconds later, another wailing blast assaulted Falx’s eardrums.

Falx scowled, looking over the pony’s shoulder. “I don’t think we have a minu—”

“Done!” The engineer quickly grabbed the small control box, and moved a short distance down the hallway trailing a pair of wires as Falx followed. He looked up the hall. “Entry team ready!?”

The corporal nodded in the affirmative, anxiously biting her lip beneath her helmet.

The stallion looked over his shoulder to his subordinate. “Quick Fix, give me a barrier,” he ordered, pressing the first button on his small controller, powering up the unit.

Nodding, the unicorn’s horn glowed purple as a translucent, glimmering wall appeared in front of the door.

With a small smile, the sergeant pressed the safety release button, holding it down. He made one more quick glance up and down the corridor, making sure everyone was clear as he flipped up the cover over the last button on the machine. “Fire in the hole!” he yelled, slamming his hoof down on the button.

A muffled explosion resounded through the dungeon, the floor vibrating as the door lit up in a shower of sparks. Quick Fix dropped his barrier as the heavily armored, six-pony team ran through the smoke to the doorway.

The lead soldier slammed her shoulder into the steel door without slowing down, creating a sharp, echoing clang throughout the corridor. She stopped momentarily as the door slowly tipped into the laboratory beyond. The slab of metal hit the floor with a dull thud, throwing dust into the air as the corporal’s team cautiously entered the room.

Falx didn’t notice that he was holding his breath as he waited. He listened closely, but only heard the sound of the heavy-troopers moving through the room. They got away, he thought to himself.

“All clear!” a metallic voice shouted from the room.

Falx quickly trotted to the door. “Hold,” he ordered a group of three battle mages as he passed by them.

As he crossed the threshold, he was greeted by the site of the six armored ponies milling about in the middle of the room. Looking to his left, Celestia sat, turned away from him, and cast upon the floor beyond, lie Luna.

Falx’s heart sank; he suddenly felt the final remnants of hope for a satisfactory conclusion drain away, leaving a sickening hole in his gut. However, regardless of the grim scene, he still had a job to do.

Moving to the group of soldiers, he addressed their leader. “Corporal, I know it was touched on in the briefing, but I must reemphasize this: everything that has happened here is classified top secret. No pony is to be given any information about what has happened here or what you and your team has seen here...” Falx looked back towards Celestia before continuing. “Pass on the order to the remainder of the squad commanders that their teams are dismissed. Your team, however, is to leave this room and guard the door; no pony is allowed entry at this time without my express order.”

The armored pony saluted. “Yes, sir!” She put her hoof back down, but didn’t move.

Falx eyed her. “Is there something else?”

“There’s another survivor in the second cell, sir,” she said. “He appears to be unconscious... Shall we open the door?”

“No. I’ll take care of it,” Falx grumbled. “Send a runner to retrieve the princess’ personal doctor.”

“Yes, Sir.” Without another word, the six heavily armored ponies left the room, taking up a station just outside the doorway.

Falx immediately went to Celestia’s side, trying to avoid looking at what remained of Luna’s lifeless body or the generous pool of blood surrounding it. He reached out to his princess, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “Princess...” he said quietly.

Celestia moved her head to look at the stallion standing beside her through blurred, teary eyes.

The general was slightly taken aback. In all of his years of service to Equestria, he had never seen the princess cry for any reason. “Princess, are you injured? If you are able, we should try to get you away from here. I have summoned your personal physician and cordoned this facility,” Falx rambled.

Celestia continued to stare through him as though he were not there.

“Please, Princess, speak to me. I need to know if —” He suddenly stopped speaking when Celestia sighed, moving her gaze back to Luna.

With a deep sigh and a slight shake of the head, he reached up, placing a hoof on either side of her head, and forced her to look directly at him.

“Princess... Are. You. Injured?” he asked, speaking slowly and as clearly as he could. “I am duty-bound to know if you have been harmed, and to react accordingly.”

Celestia’s eyes wandered, trying to avoid the worried gaze of the stallion, before settling on looking towards the ground. “N-no... My injury is inconsequential. I’ll be fine,” she answered meekly.

He dropped his hooves back to the floor, glancing to the obvious scrape in the side of Celestia’s armor, highlighted by quickly drying blood. Falx paused briefly before nodding. “I see.” Turning his attention to the room itself, he surveyed the extent of the damage to the interior before resting his gaze on the remains of the other princess once again. “Seeing the results of the... the events that unfolded here, I’m to take it that the Grand Magus and Fireshade have escaped?”

Celestia hesitantly nodded. “Y-yes. My sister and I... we...”

Lifting a hoof, Falx shook his head. “That’s enough, Your Highness. I’ll get the full report on the matter another time.” Continuing his examination of the battlefield, he made his way to the cells across the room. “In the meantime, what would you have me do?”

For a moment, the princess quietly contemplated what Twilight’s next move would be. Slowly getting up from the cold stone floor, she voiced her orders while continuing to glare at the horrific scene. “Close all border crossings and prepare the armies for battle-readiness. We will meet with your army commanders and the 38th scout regiment commander in two hours...” She paused, choking down the lump in her throat. “And gather a team to find the rest of my sister. Take her remains to the Section 5 quarantine lab... Quietly.”

Glancing in the closest cell, Falx nodded in response before continuing to the next. “Of course. I’ll make arrangements right aw—” Craning his neck back, the stallion abruptly cut himself off, a faint grin crept up his muzzle. “Well I’ll be damned... Arcana!” Falx pounded a hoof on the cell door loudly. “Get up you old bat! I see you breathing in there!”

Celestia’s ears perked up at Falx calling out the other stallion’s name. “...Arcana? He’s alive?”

“For the most part... I think he’s coming to,” he declared before pounding the cell door again. “Get your lazy flank up this instant.”

A series of coughs followed by a groan escaped the imprisoned stallion. “Would you stop with the infernal banging?” He moaned, slowly picking himself up off the floor before rubbing his temple gingerly. “My head is killing me, for a number of reasons.”

Narrowing his eyes, Falx leaned closer to the cell window upon seeing the head mage's face. “Good goddess, Arcana. What in the hell happened to you? And where’s your damn horn?”

Turning away briefly, Arcana reached down, retrieving the object in question from the floor and holding it out toward the other stallion. “My former apprentice was so kind to leave it here for me as a souvenir...” he replied, his tone dripping with condescension as he glanced to the lock. “Would you kindly remove me from this damnable cage? I have much to report on the doing of our former Grand Magus and her accomplice.”

Falx nodded, taking a step back. “You may want to step aside.”

Wasting no time, Arcana took to a cell wall as Falx spun and reared forward, delivering a thunderous buck to the cell door. The metal bent and audibly groaned under the power of the trained stallion’s blow, before falling off its hinges and into the cell’s back wall from a second assault.

Arcana smirked. “You’re losing your edge, General. 20 years ago that door wouldn’t have withstood a single buck.”

Moving to exit the cell, Arcana stopped in place as Falx held up a hoof, shaking his head. The head mage raised an eyebrow before Falx leaned in close, whispering in his ear. “What you are about to witness will no doubt be shocking, so I’ll deliver it to you straight first.” Falx began before glancing back to the room behind him briefly. “It would appear Princess Luna has fallen in battle during the confrontation with Twilight Sparkle.”

Arcana craned his neck back, eyes wide in absolute shock. "How is that even possible!? The—"

Arcana was cut off by a sharp elbow from Falx, followed by the general raising his hoof to his mouth. "Quieter, you old bat."

Taking a step back, the head mage leaned in close to whisper back. “How did it happen? How could the princess be defeated!?”

Falx shrugged. “I’ve yet to receive a full report, but going off of what little I have learned from Princess Luna and my previous experience with sigil magic, I do believe she was severed in half from what I am to guess is a teleportation array in the next room. The precision of the clean-cut wound on Luna’s remains resemble that of my severed blade from earlier today.”

Without any response, Arcana steeled himself for the scene he was about to witness. Stepping through the doorway of the cell, he rounded the corner to the main room of the impromptu lab and stopped cold. Celestia turned her head to him with a sorrowful smile, relieved that he was still alive and relatively uninjured.

She raised from where she had been seated on the cold, stone floor and took several steps towards the pair of ponies. “Arcana, I am... relieved that you are still with us,” she stated cooly. “I was afraid you had succumbed to Twilight Sparkle.”

A ghost of a smile crossed the unicorn’s lips. “Not for a lack of effort on the magus’s part, Your Highness,” he said, bowing his head slightly.

Celestia’s eyes narrowed angrily as she spoke sharply. “She is not the magus, and she shall not be addressed in such a manner. Twilight Sparkle is an enemy of Equestria, and she will be treated as such.”

“As you wish, my princess,” Arcana stated, bowing low.

A cough sounded from behind Arcana. He turned to see Falx, serious as ever. “As much as I would like to stand around a chat about things, there is much to be done.” Falx shifted uncomfortably, looking to the princess. “With your blessing, of course, milady.”

Celestia slightly nodded her head to him. “Of course.”

“Very good.” Falx paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts. “Princess, your doctor is on the way here as we speak. It would be prudent for you to make your way to the dungeon exit and meet with him there. I will send a patrol with you.”

“That won’t be necessary, General. I know my way”

Falx took a tentative step towards Celestia and firmly spoke. “I insist, Princess. You will be escorted, and I will not take ‘no’ for an answer.”

She huffed, nostrils flaring slightly. “Very well, I shall accept your escort,” she said as she turned and made her way to the door.

“Good.” He turned to the unicorn next to him. “Arcana, you’re with me. There is much to be done in a very short time... The least of which is getting you to the infirmary to be patched up.”

XXII: Delayed Repurcussions

One of the doors of the overly large conference room swung open silently. The first pony to notice someone entering immediately cut off her current conversation and quickly stood with a rigid salute. The rest of the officers on both sides of the table hastily followed suit, ending the murmur of suppositional conversation and allowing the room to fall deathly quiet.

Celestia casually wandered into the room and made her way silently around the long table to one of the two chairs at the head and slowly sat without a sound. The officers continued to stand stock-still, each holding a hoof above their right eye. This stretched on for tens of seconds as the tension in the room mounted. These officers were the absolute best that the Equestrian military had to offer, and they knew that something big had happened to warrant gathering them all in one place with so little notice.

Finally, General Falx came through the doorway, stopping just short of entering the room fully. He glanced around his surroundings, taking in the sight of the various generals and corps commanders gathered around the table still dutifully holding their perfect full-attention stances and salutes. Squinting slightly at the bright light of the early afternoon pouring in through the wall of westerly facing windows across from the doorway, he made his way to the seat directly to the right of Celestia.

“At ease,” he stated gruffly as he took his seat. A muted shuffle of ponies sitting down and sliding their chairs back into place echoed softly through the conference room. Complete silence once again permeated the space.

The princess wore a mask of indifference, doing her best to cover her emotions before the military leaders of her armies. Meanwhile, all eyes were on the general, who—in stark contrast to the princess—had nothing but anger drawn across his tired features.

Falx leaned forward and placed his elbows on the table with his hooves in front of his mouth. He sat in this position for a few moments, staring at the center of the huge table, before sighing and taking a large breath.

“By now, I’m sure all of you have been made aware of an... incident that transpired in the lower areas of the castle two hours ago.” He paused shortly in case any of his subordinates had questions. This also gave him time to collect his thoughts. “Before we begin, I must make it abundantly clear that the missions we are going to be planning concerning this incident are classified and information concerning them will be on a need-to-know.”

Pausing once again to give the others a chance to respond, he dropped his hooves to the table and carried on. “Now then, Captain Silver Shine, what is the status of the border closure?”

A small unicorn stallion stood about halfway down the table and looked to Falx. “Sir, all official border crossings have been locked-down as of approximately thirty minutes ago, and the patrols have been increased by eighty percent. All available hooves are on the ground, so to speak.” Silver Shine paused for a moment and shifted uncomfortably before continuing. “It is still possible, albeit unlikely, that someone could make it through some of the more remote areas of the border. If I could get a regimental detachment to bolster my forces, we could have much better coverage.”

Falx nodded slowly. “Understood. If that’s the best we’ve got right now, it’ll have to do. At this time, we have no reason to believe that our target is planning on leaving Equestria just yet, so carry on with your standing orders.”

“Sir,” replied the stallion quickly as he sat down.

“General Onyx Star. General Thunder Charge,” Falx stated, continuing down his mental list of topics.

The black mare and orange stallion in question swiftly stood. “Sir!”

“Deployment status, Onyx?”

“Sir, the First Army of the Equestrian Royal Military reports operational readiness status at seventy-eight percent and will be reporting full battle readiness within the next twelve hours, Sir,” replied the army commander so quickly that it was difficult to discern where one word ended and the next began. “Commander Wintersong asked that I relay her apologies for not being here, Sir. She felt that it would be more useful for her to stay and manage the mustering of the Third Army’s forces, and asked that I speak for her in her place.”

“Very well, what is the status of the Third?”

“As a reserve force, they are still gathering their troops, Sir. Current expectation is to have the full force available within a week’s time, Sir.”

The tan earth pony at the head of the table sighed deeply. “Not fast enough. With any luck, this will be over well before the week is out.” Falx began tapping a hoof on the table as he glanced up to the ceiling. “We’ll make do with the currently available forces. Commander Azure Moon.”

“Sir?” came the reply as a violet pegasus stood.

“Relay an order to Commander Wintersong when you leave here.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Continuing to look at the ceiling in thought, he stopped tapping, and then looked to the pegasus. “Her new orders are to cancel the Third’s call to arms and return to Canterlot to resume her regular duties immediately. Officers attached to the Third Army are dismissed at this time.”

With that, Azure Moon and two other uniformed ponies filed out of the room.

“Anything else for me, Sir?” asked Onyx Star.

“Not yet... Thank you, Onyx. That is all.”

The mare quickly returned to her chair and smiled to the stallion still standing next to her. If he had noticed, he didn’t show it.

“And your situation, General?” Falx asked, tilting his head briefly towards Thunder Charge.

“The Second Army is currently reporting operational readiness at approximately ninety percent and will attain full battle-readiness within the next four hours, Sir.”

“Very good, Thunder Charge, that is all.”

“Show off,” Onyx whispered under her breath with a huff.

“Thank you, Sir,” replied the commanding general as he took his seat with a quick smirk towards Onyx.

“Commander Nightbreeze, what is the status of the 38th?”

Nightbreeze stood, ruffling her blue feathers slightly. “The 38th Recon Group has one battalion at full operational readiness and two battalions on standby that can be deployed within two hours of an order to activate, Sir.”

“Good. That is all, Commander.” Nightbreeze sat as Falx rose from his chair slowly, looking to the military officers ahead of him. “Alright, now that that’s out of the way. We have a very delicate situation on our hooves, ladies and gentlecolts. As I said, this information is of a very sensitive nature and will be on a need-to-know.

“The Royal Guard and several Royal Army squads attempted to apprehend two rogue mages this morning. It did not go well. There have been scores of casualties already; so when I say that these two individuals are extremely dangerous, I want you to take that warning extremely seriously. They are not to be approached without backup of at least a full company. These two are very powerful and between the two of them were able to best a squad of battle mages, two light infantry fire crews, both princesses, and myself. This situation is not to be taken lightly.”

Falx paused for a brief moment before continuing. “Onyx, Thundercharge, and corps commanders; you are to split your forces and position the divisions for optimal coverage for fast response anywhere in Equestria. Once they are in place, they are to be placed on priority one alert status. They must be ready to mobilize at a moment’s notice, and be damned sure the Mage Corps understands that they will be the frontline on these maneuvers. They’ll be our best defense against the rogues.

“Nightbreeze, place a recon crew with each division and activate your standby battalions. I want every available recon team looking for these ponies. We’ve already contacted local authorities, so villages and cities already have eyes on them. Stick to the more rural and remote areas. We expect them to stay clear of urban areas out of fear of being recognized.”

“Any questions so far?” Falx asked.

No one moved to say anything.

“Good.” Falx began walking slowly around the table. “The unicorns in question are Twilight Sparkle and Fireshade. I’m sure you are all familiar with them, so I’ll spare you those details.

“Fireshade specializes in fire magics; which makes it incredibly difficult to approach her unless she allows you to. If she does allow a pony that is attempting to capture her within fifteen meters of herself, that pony is very likely going to be dead in short manner. In fact, we have verification of her using this luring technique, so be ready for it.

“Twilight Sparkle specializes in general arcane magics and can create barriers that can counter almost any attack. Her skills and power as a mage outclass most unicorns I've ever seen by orders of magnitude. Safety in numbers, everyone. It will likely take ten of our best battle mages to come even close to presenting a challenge for Twilight Sparkle.

“Captain Silver, make sure your patrols know to specifically watch for these two subjects. If any pony attempts to cross the border outside of a checkpoint, only detain them long enough to ascertain identity and let them go. Twilight Sparkle and Fireshade are our priority here. If one of your patrols do locate the targets, they are to immediately make their way to the nearest divisional detachment to report the location. Any questions, Captain?”

“No, Sir,” replied the unicorn.

“Good, in that case you are dismissed. Good luck, Captain.”

“Thank you, Sir,” Silver Shine said as he moved towards the door.

A yellow hoof rose slowly. “Yes, Commander?” said Falx, recognizing one of the corps leaders.

“Uhm, I’m sorry Sir, but isn’t Twilight Sparkle the grand magus? Why would she abandon that and do whatever it is she’s doing? And what exactly is she doing?”

“Was the grand magus, and need-to-know,” Falx stated firmly. “Now then. They have stolen books that contain knowledge of banned magic, making their offensive and defensive capabilities mostly unknown. So I will reiterate: Do. Not. Approach. Them. The element of surprise and overwhelming numbers will be key in their capture. The shorter amount time they have to prepare for us, the better off we will all be.”

“What kind of banned magic, Sir?” sounded a voice from the table.

Not answering immediately, Falx thought through his answer and how much to give them. “Truthfully, Commander, we’re not completely sure. There is confirmation of a technique called sigil magic, wherein combinations of runes are used to create powerful spell-like effects. These, in particular, have been devastatingly effective as booby-traps and there is very little we can do to counteract them besides attempting to avoid them. Also, we have confirmed their use of temporal manipulation and possible—but thus far unconfirmed—combat oriented telepathy, but there could be any number of things, so expect to be surprised by what spells are in their current repertoire. Anything else, before I move on?”

The room remained silent.

“When a recon team makes contact, they are to leave one member to observe while the other returns to relay the location. Once they are located, all divisions are to hold until Princess Celestia or myself relay new orders. Until then...”

Falx looked to his left. “Is there anything you would like to add, Milady?”

“Yes, thank you, General.” Celestia slowly stood and surveyed the group before her. “I must request that there is at least an attempt to capture Twilight Sparkle alive. I have many questions—as I am sure Luna does as well—for her that I would very much like answered. That being said, I understand the difficulty of fulfilling such a request and that is why I will personally make the first contact with her wh—”

“Princess, I must protest,” Falx exclaimed, turning his body to face the princess.

Celestia smiled gently to her general. “I know you must. It is your job, afterall, to make sure that Equestria is kept safe, and that also entails keeping me safe. However, I must be the one to confront Twilight, because I am likely the only one that would have any chance to contain her without killing her. As I said, I want her apprehended, not executed.”

Falx sighed with defeat. “Very well, Milady. I will be sending Fireteam One of the Mage Corps with you, though.”

“I would expect no less, General,” Celestia replied, still wearing the motherly smile.

Turning back to the officers at the table, Falx cleared his throat. “Alright then, does everyone understand the current orders?”

No response was heard from the group in front of him.

“Excellent. You are all dismissed, and good hunting.”

XXIII: Hole Sweet Hole

“I wonder if it’s been an hour yet...”

Spike paced nervously in his new surroundings. He hadn’t thought that anyplace could be more uninviting than the Canterlot dungeons, but found himself to be incorrect shortly after arriving in this new location.

“I should wait a bit longer...”

The dragon continued pacing, swatting an errant spiderweb from time to time and waiting—hoping—for something to happen.

“They probably got caught... Fireshade said Luna was on her way...”

Making another circuit of the huge, dimly lit room that he found himself in after the teleportation, Spike wondered how long it would take him to get to D’Larame on foot.

“I don’t even know where I am...”

Growing evermore frustrated with the situation at hand, Spike growled to himself.

“Why would they send a second load of supplies, but not themselves?”

Then he heard it. Starting as a whisper of a whistle, like a light breeze blowing through a small tube, the sound quickly gained intensity, and suddenly the entire room was awash in bright, white light. The sound and light quickly ebbed, leaving behind two unicorns in its place.

Twilight stumbled, but remained standing. Meanwhile, Fireshade’s sitting form slowly toppled to the side with an audible thud.

“You made it!” Spike exclaimed happily, running to greet his friend.

Twilight turned to the dragon, slack-jawed and eyes wide. Tears began falling from her face as she began to shake uncontrollably. Spike quickly slowed his pace and approached slowly, his gaze went from Twilight to Fireshade and back.

“Twilight, what happened? Is Fireshade okay?” he asked with mounting concern, glancing to the pony on the floor.

Twilight continued to shake and cry. “I—I don’t know i-i-if she’s okay...” She paused to let out a particularly loud sob. “We... Oh no... No no no no... This can’t be happening.” She turned her eyes towards the floor and whimpered.

Spike placed himself directly in front of the bawling unicorn. “Twilight?”

She looked up to him. “Sh-sh-she’s dead Spike...”

“What?” Spike looked to Fireshade. “She seems hurt pretty bad, but I can tell she’s breathing from here. It’s okay, Twilight, you can fix her up!”

The mage continued looking at her friend and slowly shook her head while tears continued to stream down her face.

“Of course you can, Twi! You’re one of the most powerful unicorns in the world, if anyone can hel—”

“No, Spike! I can’t help her!” Twilight exploded with rage. “Luna’s dead and it’s my fault!”

We did what had to be done. If Fireshade hadn’t done it, we would be the ones dead right now.

“Maybe that would have been better!”

Spike had no response to the outburst, and chose to stand quietly while Twilight continued to quietly cry. “Luna’s dead?” he whispered to himself. After a few moments, he decided to check on Fireshade. He took the few steps to the other unicorn and kneeled beside here.

“Uh, Twilight... I think she really needs some help. She’s breathing all weird and gurgly and there’s a lot of blood from her nose and ears.”

Fireshade needs our help now. There is no point in distressing over a dead tyrant.

Twilight was at Fireshade’s side in an instant, quietly looking the unicorn over. “Oh, Fireshade... This is bad.” She looked to Spike, tears already beginning to dry. “I need you to move her.”

“What? Where?” Spike questioned. “And why don’t you just float her wherever?”

“To one of the bunk rooms, and because I don’t want to end up like her. This is magic overexertion and...” Twilight shook her head slightly. “You know what? Just move her Spike, we don’t have time for the explanations. The rooms are down that hall on the left, just put her in the first one.”

Spike shrugged and picked up the bloodied mare as gently as he could.

Twilight ran to the two piles of lab equipment and supplies, looking for the medical cabinet. “And make sure to lay her on her side!” she yelled as Spike and Fireshade made their way down the hallway.

8th year of the Second Diarchy, Day 11, Southern Solstice
Personal Journal, entry 16

I can truthfully say that our departure from Canterlot could not have possibly gone any worse. What an absolute, unmitigated disaster. Short of Celestia dropping dead, we’ll likely never be able to go home again, and as much as it pains me, I should probably start thinking about political asylum or possibly even outright defection to another nation.

I still can’t believe that we were able to kill one of the princesses. The memory is surreal, like a dream-state. I’m having an incredibly difficult time parsing the reality of the situation in my mind.

I’ve explained our situation more thoroughly to Spike. It took hours to convince him that Luna is truly dead. However, he doesn’t seem one hundred percent convinced that what we are doing is the right thing, even though he won’t voice that opinion. I know that what we’re doing is the wrong thing for the right reasons, but I can’t see an alternative. He would do anything for me, right or wrong, and I will take advantage of that if I have to.

I think I’m mostly over the shock of the situation, but I feel completely responsible for the outcome, even if I wasn’t the one that directly powered the magic that killed Luna. The voice says that we had to, and as much as I hate to admit it, it’s correct. If Luna hadn’t died we wouldn’t have a enough of a distraction from Celestia to have come out on top.

I say ‘on top’ like we actually won something. We were extremely lucky to have left that place with our lives intact. Or, at least, mostly intact in Fireshade’s case. She definitely caused herself some serious damage, but I don’t have the proper equipment set up yet to determine to what extent. I’m hoping that she wakes up soon and doesn’t show any signs of permanent damage from the magical overexertion she pushed herself to. I need her help if we are going to get anything done.

It’s been two days since we arrived in this place. The old capital of Equestria. Well, a bit outside of the old capital, but that doesn’t really matter. I’ve got the important pieces of our equipment set up. Spike helped with the lighting, and the large battery bank is now powering an enchanted spell-matrix creating an illusory spell that will mostly mask the above-ground portion of this building. I think that due to its distance from the rest of the ruins of the capital, hiding it completely was prudent. If a patrol noticed a building like this, they would likely be inclined to search it.

Even if we aren’t located, our ability to continue our original path is severely impeded. Truth be told, I’m not entirely sure what to do with the information I gather from Celestia’s tissue sample in the following weeks. If I was still the Magus, I would have some pull with some very important ponies, but now... We were found out far too soon.

The evacuation of the old capital must have happened very quickly. Whoever left this place, left a lot of things behind. It seems that it was likely once some sort of medical facility or perhaps another research laboratory. There is a lot of archaic equipment and some of it even seems to be in workable or repairable condition! Just have to figure out what exactly they are.

Here’s to being on the run from the most powerful nation in the world.
—T.S.

Amber eyes slowly opened, blinking slowly. Fireshade yawned and rolled over on the hard bed, looking toward the dim light filtering through the doorway. “What the hell, where am I?”

Fireshade sniffed the air as she stood up from the bed, eliciting a disgusted scowl. The place was dingy and smelled old, like it had stood abandoned for a very long time. Several vertebrae popped as she stretched her lithe body like a cat and carefully walked to the only exit from the room. “Guh... feels like I’ve been in bed for days.”

A yellow head and messy orange mane appear in the hallway, turning one way, then the other. To the left, the hallway continued for a short distance, and then turned a corner into darkness. To the right, it went for a slightly shorter distance before opening to what appeared to be another room. “Definitely not in Canterlot anymore,” she whispered to herself.

“Heh—” she paused at what she thought were the sounds someone speaking and a metallic clank. An ear perked and swiveled towards the quiet muttering to her right. “H-Hello?” she cautiously and quietly asked as she began making her way towards the voices.

She left the hallway, entering the room from which the sounds were coming from. The area turned out to be much larger than what her view from the hallway alluded to. Noting the severely worn walls with no windows and an occasional tree root jutting into the room, she assumed they were once again underground. On the far side of the room stood Spike with a clawful of tools standing behind Twilight, who was kneeling while working on the large analyzing machine they had liberated from Canterlot.

Neither had noticed her yet, so she walked up behind Spike as quietly as she could.

“Hi Spike!” Fireshade yelled exuberantly.

Spike jumped into the air with a yelp as the tools he had been holding clattered to the ground. As Twilight hurriedly skittered to a standing position, the dragon spun to face the offending unicorn he glared. “Geez, Fireshade, you ‘bout gave me a heart attack!”

Fireshade acknowledged him with a huge smile.

Twilight unceremoniously pushed Spike out of the way. “You’re awake! Oh my gosh, how do you feel?” she asked, leaning forward into Fireshade’s face.

Fireshade craned her head back slightly. “Groggy, I guess,” she replied, scratching at the back of her head. “How long was I out for, and where in the world are we?”

“You’ve been unconscious for almost three days now.” Twilight relaxed to a more comfortable distance. “Besides groggy, how are you feeling?

“Wow... no wonder I’m so hungry,” said Fireshade, looking down to her belly. She looked back to Twilight with a small grin. “Seriously, though, I’m feeling pretty good. I guess some extra sleep will do that.”

“Oh, thank goodness.” Twilight leaned in and gave Fireshade a quick hug. “I had thought you gave yourself a brain hemorrhage with the level of overexertion you went through, but we don’t have the proper tools to diagnose such a thing.”

“What?” Fireshade deadpanned. “How did that happen?” She looked around at the windowless room once again. “And how did we get here?”

“Fireshade, w-what’s the last thing you remember happening?” Twilight asked very seriously with a growing look of concern on her face.

The pyromancer tilted her head in thought. “Uhhhhm... I was being chased by some soldiers...” Her face lit up with recognition. “And I vaporized them! And then... I... uh, started toward the dungeons? Maybe? I—uh, I think... that’s it.”

“You don’t remember fighting the princesses?”

“Ha! Fight the princess-es? Like, at the same time? Have you lost your shit, Twilight? They would have killed us both just for having the gall to to even attempt!” Fireshade chuckled. “Holy shit, Twilight... That’s some... funny...” She finally noticed that Twilight’s dead serious look hadn’t gone away. “...shit?”

“And that’s pretty much what happened.” Twilight stated matter-of-factly. “Or, at least from my perspective... I’m not really sure what happened when Luna was chasing you through the dungeons.”

Fireshade was having a very difficult time processing what she had just been told. Several seconds passed before she was able to even shut her mouth. “Luna’s dead?”

Twilight quickly averted her gaze to the floor. “Uh, yeah...”

“You do realize what this means, Twilight?” Fireshade asked, as her features visibly paled and her breaths became quicker and shorter.

“Yes, I—”

“We’re dead, Twilight!” Fireshade screamed. “If we had gotten away clean, they might have let us go, but regicide!? Oh man... Twilight!”

She’s panicking.

“Celestia is going to come for us no matter where we go!”

I think that’s obvious.

“Or how long it takes! Even if we can stay ahead of her—”

You need to calm her.

“—she’ll just run us to death, like—like some filthy animal!”

Of course, I do.

“Fireshade stop!” Twilight shouted, placing her front hooves on the other’s shoulders. Fireshade ceased her tirade and looked silently to the floor next to her. “Fireshade, please. Look at me.”

Fireshade turned her head to look directly at Twilight with a glimmer of understanding shining through from the manic outburst.

“We’ll figure this out,” Twilight spoke softly and slowly. “Right now we are safe, and we have time to make a new plan. This place is well hidden and it will take a long time for Celestia to find us here. We need to stay calm, or we will make mistakes. Okay?”

Taking a deep breath, Fireshade nodded slowly and Twilight pulled her hooves away from the mare.

“Okay. Now then, as for where we are... It’s an abandoned medical facility, I think. Just outside the old capital! Isn’t it great!” she excitedly said, punctuating her statement with a smile.

“Yeah, great...” Fireshade swiveled her head about, taking in the details of the room. “It’s a hole, Twilight.”

“It is not! It’s a research lab!”

“In a hole...”

“It is kinda in a hole, Twi,” Spike reinforced.

Twilight sighed with defeat. “Well, yeah. I guess you could say that.”

“Yes, I could... because it is. Twilight, our new lab is in even worse condition than the last hole.” Fireshade gestured to a nearby wall. “There’s roots growing through the walls, Twilight!”

“I mean... Yes. Yes there is, but Spike can help cut them out, and we can clean the place up, maybe some fresh paint. It’ll be good as new in no time!”

Fireshade eyed Twilight suspiciously. “Twilight, exactly how long are we planning on being here?”

“Until we can figure out a safe way out of Equestria.”

Until Celestia arrives and we can kill her, as well.

We got lucky with Luna.

The only way Celestia will stop, is if she is dead.

That would have been the natural conclusion, anyhow. She would never abdicate willingly.

That is correct.

But how? She’ll never fall for the same—

“Helllooooh!”

Twilight shook her head, just now noticing the yellow unicorn in front of her, waving a hoof across her field of vision.

“Oh!” Twilight giggled a bit. “Must have spaced off there for a moment.”

“Yeeeah...” Fireshade squinted at the obviously distracted unicorn. “Are you okay?”

“Me? Heh... Yep, just fine!” Another nervous giggle escaped her lips. “So, how about I show you the above ground part of our temporary home?”

Twilight made halfway to the stairwell before she noticed no one was following. She turned with a forced smile. “Come on, you two! I think some fresh air will do us all some good.”

Spike and Fireshade looked at each other and shrugged. Then the three proceeded to the surface.

XXIV: The Friendly Skies

A quill scratched across the paper as Commander Nightbreeze continued with the seemingly endless task of writing up reports summarizing each of her squadron’s reconnaissance sorties. Several knocks echoed through her office and without missing a beat, she answered, “Enter.”

The door swung open, allowing two pegasi to walk into the office. Nightbreeze glanced up to see who had entered and dropped the quill from her mouth onto the desk. “Lieutenant Sharp Eye; Sergeant Silent Sky,” she greeted them cooly with a slight grin.

They both stood at attention and saluted. “Ma’am!”

“At ease, you two...” The commander regarded them with a small smirk. “You know I don’t like all the pomp when we’re in such a casual setting.”

Both immediately dropped the salutes. “Sorry, Ma’am,” Sharp Eye replied.

“So what’s the damage?” Nightbreeze asked, leaning back in her chair nonchalantly.

Silent Sky stepped forward. “Unfortunately, nothing, Ma’am. Our last patrol grid was completely empty. We didn’t see any ponies, let alone the targets.”

“Well, that’s how it goes, I guess.” She looked at Silent Sky, squinting slightly. “Huh... Ya know, we could stick a horn on you and pop off your wings and I bet you would pass as Sparkle. Then we could all just go home,” she said with a chiding chuckle. “Oh, and dye a streak into your mane. You’re damn near a dead-ringer for that mare, you know?”

“Believe me, Ma’am, the resemblance is not lost on me,” the sergeant replied with a smile.

“Anyhoo... I suppose you two are looking for your next grid,” the commander stated, as she passed a small piece of paper with her wingtip.

Sharp Eye retrieved it with a yellow wing and tucked it under the wing to look at after they had left. “Thank you, Ma’am.”

“Heh... I wouldn’t thank me quite yet. Y'all are heading into the deep Everfree. Uhhhh...” She glanced at a list resting on her desk. “Everfree East, grid eight. Lucky for you, the weather is supposed to be clear and calm for the next few days. Check back in six hours for your next orders. Dismissed.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” both scouts intoned in unison with a quick salute before turning and leaving the office.

The door shut behind them, and the flight partners meandered down the hall to the exit of the building. Once outside, Silent Sky closed her eyes and looked up to the sun with a smile and deep breath.

“We should get something to eat before we go, Sharp.”

He looked over to his wingpony soaking in the sunlight. “You think we got time?”

“Of course we do!” Opening her eyes, Sky turned her head toward the stallion. “Forty-five minutes there, forty-five minutes back, and 4 hours for the recon flight. As long as you move your tail, that’ll give us like... uhm, like, an hour leftover or something.”

“Thirty minutes, smarty,” Sharp Eye replied with a muffled laugh.

“Gah...” Sky rolled her eyes dramatically. “Whatever, just a quick snack, and we’ll get outta here.”

“Well?”

“It’s uh, rustic... I mean, it’s outside. That counts for something, right?”

“Stop pretending to be nice, Spike. This is almost as bad as the hole, Twilight, and I only say almost because there’s at least sunlight out here.” Fireshade turned herself about, taking in the two and a half stone walls with no roof, and trees. Lots and lots of trees.

Twilight plopped to her haunches and crossed her hooves. “Well, I think the forest is pretty,” she pouted. Her eyes suddenly lit up. “I know, let’s go up to the turret! We’ll be able to see for miles over the trees,” she suggested, pointing to the corner of the ruins.

Eyeing the tower, Fireshade questioned the sanity of doing such a thing. “Shouldn’t we be trying to figure out a way out of here?”

“We’ll get to that,” Twilight said over her shoulder as she headed towards the stairs to the tower, Spike following close behind. “The last few days have been very taxing, and I need to take a break.”

She suddenly stopped and looked back to Fireshade. “Not everyone got to take a three-day nap,” she said with a nod of finality, turning to continue the trek.

“Yeah, okay okay... If anything, I’ll be able to get a better idea of where the heck we are.” With that, Fireshade slowly began trudging after Twilight and Spike.

“Holy smokes, Twilight!” Fireshade cried between heaving breaths, hooves clopping heavily on the steep stone stairway. “How many stairs can they put in such a short tower!?”

“Almost there, Fire!” Twilight called back behind her as she crested the top step to a small lookout platform where Spike was already waiting. “Phew... She’s right, Spike. It does seem like too many stairs for this size of a tower.”

Spike shrugged, without looking away from the scenery. “I didn’t have any problem.”

Fireshade huffed her way to the top, the platform groaning under the weight of the three. “Are... you... sure... this...” Panting towards the floor, she stopped speaking for a moment to catch her breath. “Twilight, are you sure this thing is safe? It doesn’t sound safe.”

“It’s fine, you baby. Stop messing around and look!” Twilight pointed out over the side of the turret.

Finally having found her lungs again, Firehade lifted her head and gazed out over the forest. “Wow...” There were treetops for miles, punctuated intermittently with small meadows and ponds. To the east of their position laid a large body of water, and far, far to the west, sweeping plains at the base of a huge chain of mountains.

“It’s amazing,” Fireshade whispered. She squinted towards the mountains for a brief moment. “Is that Canterlot over there?”

Twilight moved next to the yellow unicorn and reared up to place her forehooves on the short stone wall in order to get a better view. “Yeah, I think so. I know we’re about seventy kilometers away, so that seems about right.”

“It’s so close,” Fireshade mused to herself. “You think we’ll be able to hold out here for long before they find us?”

“Sure. Equestria’s a big place, and they probably think we tried to hide a lot farther away.” Twilight dropped her hooves back to the floor and nudged the unicorn next to her with a flank. “Heck, we’ve probably got two or three months before we need to move again, and by that time we won’t even be in Equestria anymore.”

Celestia must be ended before we go anywhere.

“Heh... yeah,” Fireshade said with a grin.

The three stood, watching the day slowly pass as the scent of pine trees and the sound of chirping birds was carried on the cool breeze. A bird fluttering towards one of the remaining walls caught the eye of Fireshade. The light rippled around the bird as it flew through the enchantment hiding the fugitives, and by the time it saw the wall, it was far too late. The bird impacted with a puff of feathers and tumbled to the ground.

Fireshade jolted slightly as the bird hit and she watched it fall with a growing smile. “Ha! Hey, did either of you see that?”

“See what?” Twilight asked, turning toward the disturbance.

“The bird down there just ran into the wall like it didn’t know it was there!” Fireshade leaned out dangerously to try to get a better look. Her tail was enveloped by a purple aura, tugging her back to the platform.

“At least we know the spell is working properly.”

“Hey Twilight, check out these weird birds,” Spike called out, pointing towards the southern horizon. “They’ve just been flying back and forth since we got up here. They’re really high, too!”

Twilight’s happy demeanor was immediately lost. She quickly spun around to look in the direction the dragon’s finger was pointing. She could easily see the two dark spots that Spike was pointing out and watched them closely. “How far away were they when we first got here, Spike?”

The dragon shrugged. “I dunno... maybe twice as far as they are now. Why?”

“Fireshade, come here,” Twilight ordered without looking back to the mare. “We might have a problem.”

“Huh?” Fireshade pulled herself back up from trying to see the dead bird at the base of the wall and moved toward Twilight and Spike.

Twilight pointed a hoof. “Look.”

The two large birds turned ninety degrees, heading straight at the group. After several long seconds, they made another right turn, moving across from left to right, back the way they came, except even closer now.

“Spike, your eyesight is awful. Those are definitely not birds,” Fireshade stated nervously.

Twilight slowly shook her head. “They’re flying a search pattern. Those are pegasi, and they’re looking for something.”

All three tracked the two pegasi with their eyes for a couple of minutes, not looking away. “What should we do, Twi?” asked the pyromancer.

“Nothing, hopefully. Judging by the pattern and their speed, they’ll be on top of us in about an hour.” She looked to Fireshade before continuing. “Our disguise will work or it won’t. Either way, we’ll find out once they get here.”

And if it doesn’t work?

We capture them if we can and kill them if we can’t.

More will come.

Obviously, but if they do find us and are allowed to leave, more will come faster.

“How’s your magic, Fire?”

“Good, I think.” She paused, scrunching her face, and then winked out of existence with a bright flash.

“Yep! I’m good!” shouted a voice from below.

Twilight looked over the edge of the turret to the middle of the wrecked building to see Fireshade waving happily. The purple mage looked to Spike with a grin and said, “See ya down there!” With a flash and a pop, Twilight was instantly standing next to Fireshade.

“Hey, no fair! Why do I gotta take the stairs?”

Looking around at the broken stone blocks and various detritus strewn about the floor of the ruins, Twilight began devising a plan. She walked the short distance to Fireshade and began to talk. “So, they probably won’t even notice us, but we should probably be out here when they get closer so we can watch them.”

“What happens if they find us?”

“Well, we don’t have any test subjects at the moment, and a couple of experiments I would like to do.”

“We’re going to try to capture them, Twi? I dunno... Shouldn’t we be trying to get out of here? I say we kill them. We don’t have time to mess around with experiments right now.”

We can use them as leverage if they’re captured alive.

“Look, we need information. I have no idea what’s going on, and we need to find out what Celestia is doing... And we can use them as leverage against Celestia if we capture them alive.” Twilight looked up to the sky once again. “Besides, that’s only if they notice us.”

She moved her gaze to Fireshade and smiled. “Come on, we’re going to need some equipment.”

Silent Sky made a lazily slow loop before gaining speed and catching up with her partner. “Sharp, this is so boring!”

“Frontline recon usually is. Long, drawn-out lengths of boredom and nothing, and if you’re lucky, it stays that way,” Sharp Eye replied while scanning the forest below. “Now, quit screwing around and help me look.”

The stallion’s vision momentarily filled with purple feathers as Silent Sky made one more quick roll, batting his muzzle with a wingtip as she righted herself with a giggle.

“Really, Sky? Is this how it’s gonna be for the entire patrol?”

She looked back to stick out her tongue through a cheesy grin before angling her head downward to continue the search. She began methodically scanning back and forth. The Everfree Forest stretched for miles in every direction, only broken periodically by the random glittering pond or small, open meadow.

Trees... check. Trees... check. Small cliff face... check. Meadow... check. More trees... check. Pond... check. Several minutes passed before Silent Sky once again started to lose the battle against her incessant boredom. She let loose a massive sigh and slowed down, letting her path meander back and forth until she flew alongside her wingpony.

“Hey, Sharp!”

The yellow pegasus grunted in response, not looking away from his careful search.

“You think we’re actually gonna find anything out here?”

Sharp Eye continued staring toward the ground, ignoring the question and its obvious answer. The odds of finding anything of note in a forest as dense as the Everfree were a statistical impossibility. Giving up on it—or slacking, in his partner’s case—was, unfortunately, not an option. The targets had to be somewhere. They obviously didn’t just disappear.

“Sharp! I said, you think we’re ac—”

“Yeah, probably,” Sharp Eye quickly cut her off, slowing to a near stall and banking into a shallow turn as he bled off altitude.

“What—” Sky glanced over to realize that her wingpony had disappeared. Looking behind, she spotted Sharp Eye quickly descending in a wide circle. “Hey! Where ya goin'?” She adjusted the pitch of her wings and pushed off, rapidly intercepting her wayward partner.

Leveling off, Sharp Eye began circling watching the ground intently. Sky scoured the landscape beneath them with her eyes, seeing much of the same that they had been seeing since they arrived. After the third round, she spoke up. “Sharp, what are you doing? The search path goes another half mile before we’re supposed to turn.”

“Look,” Sharp Eye responded without looking away from whatever it was that had caught his interest so keenly.

“Gah! Look at what? There’s nothing down there, Sharp!” She continued straining to see what he was looking at. Was it something below the trees she was missing? Is there a cave down there somewhere?

Sharp Eye pointed with a hoof. “Look closer, Sky. I thought I taught you better than this.”

Following his instruction, she looked to where he pointed, and there it was. An empty meadow. Another deep sigh sounded from the young scout’s mouth. “Congratulations, Sharp. You’ve found grass...”

A small smirk formed across Sharp Eye’s mouth. “Wait. Just keep watching. I’m sure you’ll see it in a moment.”

They continued circling above the large, open meadow, and just as the sun crossed their backs, she saw it. The air over the meadow shimmered slightly and the ground distorted a bit, like the wavy haze over pavement on a hot day. The phenomenon was only visible for a split second, but it was definitely there.

“I saw it!” Sky exclaimed with a smile. The smile quickly faltered, however. “W-what is it?”

Sharp Eye shrugged. “Dunno, but I don’t think it’s natural.”

“Should we get a closer look?” she asked quickly, not taking her eyes off the meadow.

Giving a light push with his wings to come about for another pass, Sharp Eye replied, “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. This could very well be what we’ve been looking for, and our orders were pretty clear that we are to hold, observe, and report.” He watched the glint again as they passed.

Finally taking his gaze off the meadow, he looked to Silent Sky and began giving her instructions. While he started to talk, she squinted to the ground, watching a very faint orange glow below them.

“Take down the coordinates, get back to base as fast as you can, and report to Nightbreeze. I’ll stay here and loiter at high altitude and watch for an—”

“Look out!” Silent Sky screamed as she accelerated toward him.

His head jerked towards the ground and his eyes grew wide at seeing a fiery streak blazing a path towards the two scouts. Sky slammed into Sharp’s side just as the rod of flame reached them.