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.