Twilight froze. She was just tying Leo to her Sampler, as she called it. She quickly stepped in front of it, making an attempt to hide it by turning it around. "Oh, hi, Starlight! What's up?" She asked, nervously smiling.
"The jig!" Starlight glared at Twilight.
"Excuse me?" Twilight was genuinely confused now.
"The jig is up! Now let Leo go!" Starlight demanded.
"Who?"
"Leo!"
"Leo?"
"Yes, Leo!" Starlight shouted. Twilight was trying to throw Starlight off her trail by acting as innocent as possible, but Starlight could see through her. "The human! I can see him! You're not as tall as you think, you know!" Starlight pointed a hoof at Leo, who was quietly watching the scene unfold.
"Human??" Twilight asked.
"Ugh! You went to the human world. You even came to my house to study him! Then you brought him here! Axel told me!" Starlight reminded Twilight as the dark dragon rested on top of the Sampler.
"Well, can you wait a bit? Like an hour or two? I need to run some tests on Leo. Sure I have been a human, but I didn't have the chance to study them as well as I'd like to." Twilight pulled a lever on the wall next to the Sampler. "In the human world, they have limited magic. They only have a bit, which leaks out from here." She explained.
Starlight was still furious. "What are you doing?!" She screamed.
"This will just give me a sample. You see why I call this the Sampler, huh?" Twilight made sure the wires and tanks were secure as the machine started to hum. Axel took off, landing in Starlight's hair.
"What do you mean sample?!" Starlight stomped her hoof on the ground.
"I mean it will put some energy into his body, then take the little that he has as my sample." Twilight proceeded to jump start the machine with her magic.
"What energy?!" Starlight watched as zaps of electricity encased Leo. It didn't seem to hurt him much, though. "Stop!" Starlight ordered, using her own magic to shut down the Sampler, her horn absorbing the energy.
Axel immediately flew off of Starlight's head. Her horn was giving off a few flickers of energy. She had switched off the Sampler before it had been able to take Leo's energy. She was afraid that something absolutely terrible would happen if it had.
Starlight took a deep breath, trying to ignore jolts of electricity her horn was sending her. She blasted the latches on the Sampler, some sparks of the electricity visible in her magic. "Come on, Leo." She ordered.
"Amazing, absorbing energy with your horn, which grants you the power of controlling such!" Twilight jotted down the notes.
"We're leaving." Starlight led Leo out of the room, Axel following close behind.
"But I wasn't done studying you yet!"
"Too bad. We're going home."
"Fine." Twilight tore off a piece of paper and levitated it into Leo's hand. Starlight was obviously unaware of this. Twilight waved as she closed the door behind them with her magic.
"Wow." Said Pinkie, who was silently standing with the rest of her friends, watching everything from the other side of the room.
"Okay. We're going to the Crystal Empire, girls!" Twilight announced.
"What? But we need tickets and junk!" Rainbow Dash reminded her.
"Bam!" Twilight opened a drawer, revealing seven tickets.
"How'd you get those, Twi?" Applejack asked.
"Early planning!" Twilight replied proudly.
"But why are we going to the Crystal Empire?" Rarity stepped forward.
"You'll see." Twilight stashed the tickets away. "Be at the train station at midnight."
"But the train station is closed by then." Fluttershy said.
"Or so you think. The last train departs at midnight, that's when the station officially closes." Twilight shooed her friends out of her lab. "See you there!" She opened the door and pushed her friends out. "Remember, midnight! And exactly midnight!" She shut the door with her magic.
"She seems awfully excited." Applejack observed.
"No kidding." Rainbow Dash agreed.
"She probably wants to spend more time with us." Fluttershy thought aloud.
"Or maybe she's hiding something!" Pinkie suggested.
"Don't be silly, Pinkie! We're her friends, she would never hide something from us! She probably wants more quality time with us, like Fluttershy said." Rarity trotted to the door. "I need to go work on some dresses. See you all at... Midnight." Rarity groaned. With all the work she had piling up, the last thing she needed was her rest to be cancelled. But she would go anyways, a vacation in the Crystal Empire was just what the doctor ordered. She opened the door, exiting the building.
"I have some animals to tend to." Fluttershy was a bit worried. Who would take care of her dear little critters while she was gone? She didn't even know how long they planned to be gone. She hurried out the door behind Rarity.
"I got some chores to do on the apple farm." Applejack raced through the door.
"Aerial stunts to practice, see ya. Dash, out!" Rainbow Dash took off with no further explanation.
Pinkie bounced out. She just had to bake a few cupcakes for the Cakes to sell while she was gone.
Lyra looked around briefly. She ignited her horn, then disappeared.
Twilight was getting jumpy. She had planned the whole thing since the previous day, when she had met Leo. "My plan is full-proof!" She said as she went over her notes, which she had written the plan on. "Starlight won't notice a thing, or at least until she realizes he's gone." She felt slightly guilty. "It's for science. I'll probably leave her a note anyways." She reassured herself.
Twilight opened the door and closed it behind her as she walked out. She trotted upstairs, hearing Spike's snoring halfway up. Spike had gone to nap as soon as he got into the library. It was only sunset, but Twilight was ready to call it a day as well. She needed to get some sleep before midnight, so she figured she might as well go to bed early. She set her alarm clock to 11:45 PM. She wanted to arrive early since she was very punctual and didn't want to be even a nano-second late.
"Goodnight, Spike." Twilight whispered to nopony in particular. "Goodnight, Ponyville..." She yawned, falling asleep the second her head hit the pillow.
Starlight flung the front door open. "Why did you let her do that?!" She shouted.
"Do what?" Leo asked.
"Tie you to that Sampler of hers!"
Leo shrugged. "Guess I don't know."
"You could have died! I was worried sick about you!"
"Sorry."
"Just... Don't do that again. You're like a brother to me and I don't want to lose you."
"Though you act like a mom..."
"What was that?!" Starlight snapped.
"Nothing! I'm going to my room." Leo ran into his room, shutting the door behind him.
Leo switched on the light, looking at the paper in his hands. Meet me at the train station at midnight - Twilight Sparkle.