A quill was enveloped in a purple field of energy and moved along a brown unfurled piece of parchment. Twilight Sparkle was writing her newest observations on the void. Her light lavender coat was a mess and her mane and tail had gone unbrushed for days. The violet and hot pink stripes weren’t the normal clean lines in her dark sapphire mane; they were sticking out at odd angles. She hadn’t slept in days, just sat there next to the void running through her computations again and again. Twilight closed her eyes and screamed “AAARGH!! Why won’t the numbers match up?” She opened her eyes again to run the numbers again; her violet eyes were bloodshot and strained to see the paper.
The problem was that neither Twilight nor Mystic Dawn, a professor in theoretical thaumaturgical science at the Royal Canterlot Academy of Magic, could even prove the void was there. Twilight had requested his assistance due to him being the preeminent scholar on thaumaturgy; or how magic worked and flowed. Everytime a spell was used on the void, the spell would just disappear, energy and all, completely ignoring the laws of conservation of magic. Sometimes the spell would just untangle as it approached the void and dispelled the energy used in the spell. Once a spell designed to check the void’s connection to the leyline and see where it was drawing its power from had just bounced off the void and ricocheted around the square room white room until it detonated against the door at the opposite end of the room. The room was designed to contain any and all magic, the problem with that spell was that somehow it had changed after contact with the void. She didn’t like thinking about the effects it had on both her and Mystic; thankfully it had worn off after a few hours but that kind of spell shouldn’t have even been possible. Twilight didn’t even want to think what she would have done if she had to go out into Ponyville as a stallion and Mystic hadn’t fared much better in becoming a mare. That had been a very awkward couple of hours. Being scientists they were curious, but at the same time embarrassed due to the other being in the same room and neither wanted to go out into the larger complex as they were, so they had just sat and waited. It was the last time they had randomly fired magic at the void. And that was only a few weeks ago, they had been at this for months.
Twilight heard the door open but decideds to ignore it, still trying to decipher the figures they had somehow managed to collect. After that incident they had decided to measure the magic in the leyline and see if the void was drawing power away from it, but she couldn’t get the numbers to match up properly. “AAARGH!” she screamed again, even louder as she scribbled out some numbers. She couldn’t take it anymore!
Twilight stood up, her eyes twitching erratically. I will figure this thing out! I won’t fail the princess! She thought. She approached the void, ignoring the feeling in the back of her mind telling her to run, she knew it was just whatever energy the void gave of. She stopped right in front of the void and lifted up a forehoof to touch the still white surface. As her hoof touches the surface of the void she felt a weird sensation travel up her leg. The feeling was icy cold and yet felt like a current of energy running up into her body. The researcher left her hoof there against the surface of the void, as she observed the ripples that spread out from her hoof to the edges of the void where they just disappeared. She felt her leg start to go numb, but her curiosity and need for answers was driving her now.
She felt a slight tug on her tail but it barely fazed her, to intent was she on the void to notice anything going on in the world around her. What would happen if I were to put my hoof through it? It feels like I can just push past the surface. She grinned at that thought. That would be the quickest way to discover what was on the other side, just step on through and all of my questions will be answered. She felt another harder pull on her tail and she couldn’t have cared less, whatever it was could come with her. Maybe I should invite Pinkie Pie and we can all throw a party. Her hoof was still touching the void, she could still see the ripples on its vertical surface, taunting her with its secrets.
“That’s it, time for some tough love.”
Twilight barely registered the voice coming from behind her, or the magical grip around her midsection a moment later. What she did notice however was the tug against her midsection, then the flying through the air until she smacked into the bookcase of reference materials they had brought in the previous week. Twilight fell to the floor slightly stunned and just looked around. Her eyes were fuzzy and as she scanned the room all she could see was white except for a patch of green and blue over by where she knew the void to be. She shook her head hoping it would help clear her vision.
“What in the name of Celestia do you think you were doing?!” Twilight heard the other pony tell her in a highly educated male voice. She realized he was going into his lecture mode. “I remember you doing stuff like that in school as a foal, but I thought you would have outgrown that with age.” He slowly started coming into focus and she could clearly see his teal coat and aquamarine mane and tail. Her vision was still too blurry to make out his cyan eyes with wrinkles around them that denoted his age or his cutie mark which was a silver pentagram in a circle symbolizing the logic and order of magic. “What you just did was stupid and dangerous.” Her head dropped a little knowing that he spoke the truth. “We still don’t know what it can do and while we just found out that it may be somewhat safe to touch, it could just as easily have vaporized you. Do you not remember what it did to the spells we fired at it? The same thing could have happened to you.” She visibly shrunk at this as her mind ran rampant with all the ways it could ruin her life.
“Please don’t tell Celestia.” The mare whispered. “I won’t do it again.”
He gave an exasperated sigh “I know. You forget I was the one who proctored your finals. I saw how bad you can get when you can’t find a solution. I should have realized you weren’t sleeping.”
Twilight’s eyes lit up a little. “Great! Then I can get back to my research.” She happily squealed and moved towards her parchment. As she got close to it, the parchment was wrapped in a teal field of energy and pulled away from her.
“No!” Mystic stated in a manner that brooked no argument. “We are equals in this matter and we both need a day off. You will get a shower and some sleep then go hang out with your friends. Neither of us have left for two weeks and it is starting to erode our mental faculties.”
Twilight wanted to argue with him but he made a good point. The only ponies allowed into this facility were the staff and that did not include her friends. She slowly nodded her head in ascent. She felt the fatigue start to settle in as she realized just how long she had been going she dragged her tired hooves over to the door and opened it out into a four way intersection. She knew that the path on the right lead to the commissary and that the path on the left lead to the dormitories. This place was designed to be secure and was built for more than was currently needed just in case they needed to move more ponies into the facility. The path Twilight currently wanted though was the one dead ahead and felt that if she was going to take a shower that she could do it in the comfort of her own home at the library.
Twilight continued walking towards the facility’s exit and heard the door close behind her , she looked to see Mystic Dawn enter the intersection and head toward his dormitory. He lived in Canterlot and didn’t feel like going all that way just for one or two days of rest. She let him go and opened the door to the outside world. She was temporarily blinded as her eyes try to adjust to the natural light. When her eyes cleared she looked around and saw the two guards standing by the door making sure no one got past that hasn’t been cleared. “I’m going home for a few days. Consider it R&R. If anyone asks for me please send them to the library.” She headed off in the direction of the library. The void could wait for a few more days she thought.
Twilight Sparkle was on her way back to the research center. She was enjoying walking through the fresh green grass and the crisp cool breeze that was blowing past. She was thankful to have grabbed that scarf before she headed out this morning and was grateful to have a friend on the weather team and that they had warned her this would be a chilly day. She’d had a nice two days of rest and was able to meet up with all of her friends. She wasn’t allowed to talk to her friends about her research; then again, she didn’t really have any results yet. The pony scientist did however have a plan on how to test the void’s connection to the leyline. What she would do is measure the energy in the leyline both before and after it passed the void. If the void was siphoning off energy from the leyline it wouldn’t be that hard to measure.
Twilight neared the large one-story building that housed the research facility. Typically, Equestrian buildings were designed with a little more panache, but this one had been built with speed and containment in mind. Whereas buildings like Carousel Boutique, which looked like a giant pink, purple, and blue tent with a carousel on top or Sugercube Corner which looked like a gingerbread house. The research facility was made of white stone and had a flat roof. It was completely square with every inch on the inside able to be used. It was also easily defended and had means of containing anything that the void caused. There was only one way in or out, the flat roof meant nothing could hide up there, and the four-way corridor made it easy to spot and attack anything that was inside.
Twilight nodded to the two guards as she neared the door and stood in front of it. One was an earth pony and the other a unicorn. She stood still while the unicorn scanned her making sure she wasn’t sneaking anything in and that she wasn’t using a guise or any other kind of disguise spell. She knew that if she failed, the earth pony guard would be there to attack her with its superior strength;, then again the unicorn guard would do the same to her with his magic. She also knew that if she were to try and run from either of them that there was a pegasi guard nearby ready to give chase. Those were just the ones she knew about and she knew that there had to be more in hiding just in case. Equestria still had plenty of enemies that would be more than willing to get whatever appendages they had on the void or any research on it.
Twilight felt a tingle as the guard finished scanning her. This was the part she always felt nervous for. Even though she knew who she was, she was always afraid the guard would deny her entry and she would come under attack. But this time, just like every other one, the guard just grunted and used his magic to open the lock on the door. As the door swung open Twilight happily trotted into the facility with pent up energy. She was like a foal on Hearth’s Warming and wanted nothing more than to just run her tests and hope to get results this time.
Knowing that she had arrived late this morning Twilight knew Mystic would be in the void room trying out some new test or measurement or even just doing research. But unless they were eating or sleeping they were always in that room. Although once or twice she had fallen asleep while reading a book and Mystic would occasionally bring his food in there if he thought he was onto something. She opened up the door to see the cyan professor just sitting on the floor about twenty feet in front of the void and a few feet to the side. All Mystic was doing was staring at the void.
Oh no, the purple mare thought he’s fallen into the same hypnosis as I did. She moves next to him in order to wake up him when he starts to speak.
“I’m not a zombie you silly filly.” He just slightly chuckles. “Look at the void, just look. We finally have results.” She could hear barely contained joy in his voice.
Twilight decided to look at the void. It looked just the same as it always did to her. Perhaps he stayed here during his break and he’s finally snapped. She can’t think of anything to explain his behavior unless the void is having an impact on his sanity. Then she saw something in the void. It’s rippling. The void rippled while nothing was touching it. She felt giddy as she thought of the possibilities. She decided to sit next to her old professor and watch to see what happened. Only then did she notice that he had left enough room for her to sit next to him and for them to both have the same view of the void.
After a moment Twilight couldn’t contain her curiosity any longer “Did this start happening yesterday while we were gone?”
The pony sitting next to her calmly responded “It’s only been going on for about five minutes. It was quiet all day yesterday.”
Twilight’s head quickly turned around to question the stallion sitting next to her. “Wait, didn’t you leave yesterday?” after a few seconds of thought another question popped into her head. “And shouldn’t we be getting reading or samples or analyzing this somehow instead of just sitting here?”
Mystic just chuckled slightly before answering her. “I had nowhere else to go and I didn’t want to go through that scanning process again just for a few hours of fresh air. So I just stayed here and looked in on it every hour or so.” His face got a little more serious before he continued. “And I did try to take measurements of it but the void is too unstable at the moment. The machines I used around it just overloaded and any magic I tried to use around it would just unravel with the energy from it dissipating.” He sighed; he missed simple problems where he could actually test his hypothesis instead of just running around trying to think of a test that would actually get some results. “So I am just sitting and passively scanning the room waiting for something to happen. What else can I feasibly do?”
Twilight had no response for that. Mystic had made some very good points. Just in case she took the precaution of charging up her magic and was ready to release it against the panic button on the wall in case anything were to go wrong. She was desperately afraid that whatever demon that somepony had tried to summon wasn’t going to come through it, or that it might cause another magical explosion.
As they were both watching the void a shape started to poke its way out of the center of the ripples. For a moment Twilight’s heart caught in her throat. This was the moment they would figure out what the void was and if it posed a threat. About two feet up from the bottom of the void, a metal claw started poking through. It only had the two, what look like pincers to Twilight, as it slowly emerged from the void. As it came out even more, she could see that they are attached to the middle of a metal circle that was coming through the void. The claw rotated in the circle. Twilight made sure her magic was still charged and prepped a second spell to fire just after the first. If this thing did anything threatening she planned on hitting the alarm then hitting it with her strongest telekinetic blast. But, if that did nothing she would use whatever power she would gather quickly and teleport herself and Mystic out of the building. Then she remembered that the building was warded against teleportation; part of the safety features to keep intruders out. Just as she was thinking how else they could escape the claw receded back into the void from whence it came.
Twilight and Mystic just looked at each other in disbelief. “What the hay was that?” Mystic asked in utter disbelief. “And why did it go back in?”
Twilight lets her spell dissipate when she noticed that the void had stopped rippling. “I’m not sure if it was a creature or a machine.” She started to slowly walk toward the void. When the void started to ripple again she jumped backwards to where Mystic was now standing. The claw slowly began to emerge from the void again. Apparently, whatever its original goal was it had accomplished it and was returning.
As they stared at the emerging claw they noticed a second ripple start to form below it; like two drops of water falling on a still lake, the ripple pushed and merged with each other. Out of the lower of the two ripples she spotted a rubber strap on either side of the square ‘body’ with rectangular protrusions perpendicular to the strap, but parallel to each other and on the strap. As it continued to emerge she saw that it was all one structure and that the arm that the claw was attached to just kept getting longer. When it was about halfway out it seemed to just float above the ground, half in and half out of the void.
She moved to the side and saw that the strap was connected to wheels and that the front was slanted like the front part of a trapezoid. While wondering what the purpose of that was the thing dropped on the strap and just trundled forward until the back end emerged from the void and dropped to the floor. When it got about five feet out from the void it just stopped and Twilight took a good look at what the thing was.
It had two sets of wheels covered by a rubber strap with other smaller wheels keeping the strap tight against the main wheels. The strap formed a trapezoidal figure with the longer base on the top. Its main body connected to the wheels and was a rectangular shape held several inches above the ground. The arm was in the front and centered on the top of the body. The arm had two joints: the first was a few inches above the body and connected to the part of the limb which was a foot long tube that connected to another joint. This last joint connected to a shorter metal tube that was capped off with the claw. To the left of the arm it had another metal protrusion from its body that looked like a tuning fork holding a black metal rectangle. The rest of the top of the body was smooth and it had a cord running back into the void from the back end of it. The thing had some sort of writing on the side in a language she had never seen before; at least she hoped it was a language.
She realized it was a machine because no living creature she had ever seen was made of metal. Besides she couldn’t feel any sort of magic coming from it or anything that could even be remotely considered life. But if it was a machine where was the creature that was supposed to be controlling it? Besides that, there was nothing on Equestria like this. She slowly moved around to the side of the ‘thing’. As she moved around it she noticed that the tuning fork and rectangle thing kept moving and following her. She realized that must be its eyes. And that it could follow her no matter what direction she went.
As she moved back towards the front of the ‘thing’ she heard a sound issue forth from somewhere. It started with a burst of pure noise that hurt her ears for a second and she started to gather up her magic again. After a second passes a harsh and crackling sound came from what she could only assume was the ‘thing’s’ mouth. She couldn’t see anything moving but she heard a voice emanating from somewhere in the room that she had never heard before. The voice sounded distant and dead and nothing like the voice of a living creature. What stunned Twilight most though was what it said. It spoke in oddly accented and somewhat broken but still intelligible Equestrian. “In peace come we.”