Twilight narrowed her eyes as she examined a scroll containing the latest updates to the portal equations she had provided to the Canterlot mages. She levitated her mug to her lips and took a sip before declaring, "The thaumic variance coefficient is too high."
"We realize that, Princess," said one of the mages. "But we're hard-pressed to keep it within tolerances considering what you're attempting to do."
Twilight sighed. She already felt guilty for having Starlight take her place at the morning conference back on Earth, but once she was told that the schedule for completion of the magic mirror had threatened to slip, she had to step in herself. "What if we increase the power to the central matrix?"
When she received no immediate response, she looked up. She found the mage who had addressed her talking quietly but furiously to his cohorts. She just barely managed to suppress another sigh. She had hoped for a more open forum for ideas and discussion, but the Canterlot mages tended to be a stogy lot. Finally, the head mage addressed Twilight. "We can do that certainly, but that would put considerable strain on no fewer than three ley lines."
Twilight's eyes widened. "Can't you compensate with more magic sinks?"
"We could, but at the risk of reducing the safety margins."
"And what's the implication of that?"
"If we go above the threshold, we risk reaching a saturation point," said the mage. "We would see a condition where the new portal could be opened only at prescribed intervals of time, generally during the coincidence of certain cosmic events such as stellar or planetary body alignments."
Twilight frowned. The last thing she needed was a portal that would open only at some silly alignment of the moon with some arbitrary background stars. She shuffled the three dozen scrolls she held aloft in her magic until she came to the offending equations. "Fine," she declared as she applied a quill and levitated the altered document to the mage. "Here."
The mage took the scroll in his magic, and soon his eyes widened. "But ... but ..."
"Yes?" Twilight said in a testy voice before taking another sip from her mug.
The mage exchanged a nervous glance with his colleagues. "This would shift the problem from the safety margins to the thaumic power margins such that--"
"<Fuck the margins,> just do what I say," Twilight snapped. "Or what I wrote. You know what I mean."
The mage blinked. "Er ... I didn't get that first part."
Twilight blushed faintly. "Just a phrase in the other world's language. You, uh, don't want to know the translation. The point is, we can't be delicate right now. We need to take risks. We have to make it work. We can make it pretty later."
The mage nodded, but uncertainty remained in his eyes. "Princess, forgive me for asking, but are you quite all right?"
Twilight met his gaze with an unyielding one of her own. "Never better." She took another sip.
The mage's gaze flicked to the mug, and his nose wrinkled slightly. "It's just that concoction you're drinking--"
"It's coffee. What about it?"
"It's obviously not of Equestrian origin."
"It's called <espresso>," said Twilight. "Sorry, the word has no direct translation."
"My point is, Princess, since you're in Equestria, we could certainly procure for you a more palatable--"
"This has approximately one hundred and eighteen percent more caffeine than the best Equestrian blend!" Twilight declared. "That makes it vastly superior in my mind right now. Can we please get on with this and stop focusing on my choice of morning beverage?!"
Twilight should have realized that she was not going to get the sort of open forum discussion she had hoped for. Canterlot mages were indeed some of the most highly skilled unicorns in Equestria, but they were deeply steeped in old Canterlot tradition and protocol. Twilight held the title of Princess, therefore she was royalty, and they were expected to be deferential towards her and overly concerned for her health and well being.
Especially when it seemed she was asking them to do things with magic that had never been attempted before, at least by any sane mage.
"We're sorry, Princess," said the mage in a more contrite voice. "This is very taxing on all of us."
Twilight heard genuine emotion in that comment, and it softened her gaze somewhat. "I realize I'm pushing everypony hard, but no more than I'm pushing myself. We have only a day to get this done. We need the shortest possible--"
The door to the conference chamber glowed and burst open just before Starlight galloped inside. "Twilight, I need to talk to you!"
"Can it wait until after this conference?" Twilight asked.
She had her answer when Starlight circled the table and stepped right up to her. "We've got a problem."
"You were supposed to bring Sunset's cutie mark through the portal this morning."
"That's part of the problem. I can't."
Twilight frowned. "Don't tell me <Mr. Heller> didn't give you approval!"
"No, he got that cleared with his government," said Starlight. "When I mean I can't do it, I mean I physically can't do it."
Twilight lowered the documents. "What??"
"It won't come through the portal with me. When I finally left it behind and came through to ask the mages at this end what was up, they told me that something was disrupting the spatial warp manifold, whatever that is."
"I know what that means!" said one of the assembled mages. "It's what we surmised from the equations that the Princess supplied us, that powerful magic artifacts may interfere with the delicate magic flow of Sunset's original portal."
"But this new one should eliminate that problem," said another.
Starlight frowned. "That doesn't help us now."
"But a cutie mark is not an artifact!" declared the head mage. "Er ... or is it?"
"It's quite possible it's acting as something similar," said Starlight. "Cutie mark magic may not appear as spectacular as other forms, but it's pretty powerful in its own right. The fact that I can't completely sever the connection between cutie mark and pony may also have something to do with it."
"Then we wait until we have the magic mirror, and we send it through that," said Twilight in an exasperated voice.
"We may not have that long."
"I don't have time for another crisis!" Twilight yelled. She set aside her mug. "What's happened now?"
"That jittering effect on Sunset's cutie mark is getting worse," said Starlight. "The enchantment on the jar is breaking down."
"Renew it!"
"Don't you think I tried that?!" Starlight exclaimed. "I can't get the spell to stick. There's too much cutie mark magic flowing around it."
Twilight's pupils suddenly shrank. "But that would mean--!"
"That the transformed are starting to get cutie marks."
Twilight's heart sank. "What about <Sarah>?"
"She doesn't have one yet, but her daughter <Laura> does."
Twilight let out a shaky breath and shuddered.
"And about fifty others over the course of the day yesterday," said Starlight. "The good news is that very few of them are among ponies that our friends talked to." She paused before saying in a subdued voice, "You can blame Laura on me. I probably screwed up when I talked to her."
"I'm sure you did the best you could," said Twilight. "But I don't understand how you're not able to renew the enchantment."
Starlight frowned. "I'll tell you why: because Sunset did something to it."
"What?? But how could she? She's been unconscious this whole time!"
"I mean before she lowered her shield against me during the confrontation. You can't tell me she didn't have time to analyze my spell. She figured out really quickly that I was using an unusual spell against her. This must be the reason her cutie mark was so hard to remove. You said for yourself she may have fired off one last defensive spell. Well, we found it."
Twilight closed her eyes and covered them briefly with a fore-leg. "I don't have time to deal with this right now."
"I know, but you had a right to know what was going on," said Starlight.
"Have you informed the humans of your theory?"
"And give them an excuse to put a <gun> to her head?" Starlight said. "Absolutely not!"
Twilight swallowed hard. "We can't keep this from them, it's not right."
"You're the one who wants Sunset to live long enough to understand what she's done! And, frankly, after hearing some of the things they're considering for her, I want to see her live, too."
This was again just the sort of decision Twilight was expected to make as a Princess. She just never had to make these decisions under such duress. She could only imagine what it had been like for Celestia during the time of Sombra or Discord's first appearance.
"All right, let me talk to Celestia," said Twilight. "Maybe she and Triss can accelerate their plans concerning Sunset. Meanwhile, keep working on trying to shore up the enchantment on the jar." Twilight turned to the others. "Conference adjourned."
"What about telling the humans?" Starlight called out as Twilight started out of the chamber.
"Stall them," Twilight said before heading out.
Starlight studied the cracked gem that had been presented to her by one of the FBI agents who worked under Anthony, who himself was absent from the conference. She levitated the gem closer for a better look. "So you said this was the only gem out of the ones I gave you that did this?"
"Yes," said the agent. "All the others glowed green when they were tapped. This one simply threw sparks and cracked."
Starlight turned the gem over. "Hmm. Probably just a bad crystal."
"So you don't think there's any significance to it?"
Starlight lowered the gem to the table. "I'd love to tell you that you don't have to worry about it, but where Sunset is concerned, anything is possible. The fact that all the others glowed green is encouraging."
"Naturally, we won't know the real numbers for a few days," said Sandra. "But by then, either Twilight casts her counterspell, or, well ..."
She trailed off, as several somber and subdued looks around the room showed that everyone was already well aware of the implications of a failure this late in the game. Stating the dire predictions yet again would do no one's morale any good. The President already had to issue an executive order stating that leaving one's position among the emergency zone staff was tantamount to treason just to stop the hemorrhaging of talent.
Starlight could sense the tension, and thus she decided to change the subject. "Any progress in getting the power back on?"
"Our allies abroad are sending over electrical engineers," said one of the agents. "We were hoping to have them pass through the emergency zone so you could check them for the transformation spell and counterspell them if needed."
Starlight repressed a sigh. It was one more thing that she didn't have time for. "Fine, I can do that."
"Mr. Heller also wished to know if any progress is being made on determining what is happening with Sunset's cutie mark."
"The enchantment containing her cutie mark is holding for now, and we're working on figuring out what's up with the portal and why it's not letting us take it through. That's all I really know. Soon as I know more, I'll share it."
Starlight had no idea if that satisfied them or not. They often reacted in the same stoic way no matter what they heard. Then again, she had no idea how convincing she was. While technically she had not lied, she had certainly withheld a truth.
The agent noted something on his tablet PC. "The Emergency Action Notification message did seem to reduce new incidents of violence and rioting, so we're hoping that will hold. Is Twilight still on time to deliver the counterspell by tomorrow?"
"It's all she's working on right now," said Starlight.
"That really doesn't answer the question."
Starlight sighed. "Yes, she still hopes to be done by tomorrow. This has never been done before, and it's proving to be tricky. I could go into an explanation of the challenges here, but that would take hours."
"No need," said the agent as he made another note.
"Glad to hear it," Starlight muttered.
"Starlight, you wanted to be kept aware of the proliferation of new cutie marks," said Sandra. "There have been fourteen more this morning across the emergency zone, but only one in the settlement where your friends are speaking to the transformed."
"What about Josie? Has anyone talked to her?"
Sandra consulted her notes. "Both Applejack and Rarity attempted to speak with her before she retired for the day, but she's being very reluctant to listen. Apparently the fact that her transformation brought an end to her night terrors has had a profound emotional impact on her. If that wasn't enough, it allegedly allows her to help other ponies do the same."
"Not allegedly," said Starlight. "Night ponies can really do that. That's why disorders like night terrors are almost nonexistent among Equestrian ponies."
Sandra looked up from her folder. "I'm sorry to be blunt about this, but if we can't get through to her and the other night ponies, what your friends are doing may be a drop in the bucket."
"Yeah, I know. Twilight has a backup plan. I think the phrase from your language that fits best is 'the nuclear option.'"
"Which would be?"
"Have Princess Luna talk some sense into them."
One of the agents gave her a concerned look. "But wasn't Twilight worried that would just give them another spiritual figure to rally around?"
"That would be if Princess Luna spoke to everyone," Starlight explained. "Twilight is hoping to limit the damage, so to speak. Yeah, there's still a risk that they'll project that image to other ponies, but right now we don't have a lot of options."
Sandra turned towards the agent. "I have to admit, I would have preferred that Mr. Heller be in attendance."
"He's very busy with a matter concerning national security."
Starlight raised an eyebrow slightly but said nothing. She felt like that term was starting to be used like a convenient catch-all to mean "I don't want to give you any details right now." She was again glad she didn't have to do this diplomacy stuff full time.
"Very well," said Sandra in a crisp voice. Starlight hoped that meant she shared the same sentiment.
The agent stood, as did his cohorts. "We can adjourn for now. Mr. Heller will catch up with you separately for the latest ETS numbers, Doctor Marlowe."
Sandra merely nodded as the agents headed out.
Starlight took the cracked gem in her magic and hopped out of her chair. "I need to analyze this more so the FBI agents don't decide to classify it as a potential munition or something."
Just as she turned away, Sandra said in a tentative voice, "There is something I wanted to talk to you about. Well, originally I wanted to broach this with Twilight, but--"
Starlight turned around. "I know, I'm not the easiest pony to get along with."
"I didn't quite mean it that way."
"But I did," said Starlight. "In any case, what is it?"
Sandra glanced at the door of the conference room. "I want you to understand that this is strictly off the record."
That was the last thing Starlight ever expected to hear from Sandra. "Uh, sure. What's up?"
Sandra pushed her folders aside as if to distance herself from any official capacity. "When these humans were transformed, many of whatever chronic ailments they had were effectively cured. This includes even birth defects and cancer. When Twilight finds a way to change them back, it doesn't make any sense to give them back their maladies."
"That's pretty much a no-brainer," said Starlight.
"The idea that it is possible to cure people of previously incurable or difficult to cure diseases with magic has staggering implications for medicine," Sandra said.
"I haven't heard any talk about that."
"And you won't, not anything official, not with how suspicious the government is about magic right now, but I'm not the only physician thinking about this." Sandra lowered her voice. "Maybe I wouldn't be broaching this subject at all if Josie's case didn't hit so close to home. I have a little brother who went through pure torture with night terrors, and he was later diagnosed as schizophrenic. It hurts to see how little modern medicine can do for him."
"I take it he's avoided ETS?" Starlight asked.
"Yes, but once he started hearing about how it cured people of ailments like this, he actually wanted to be infected."
Starlight's eyes widened.
"Maybe Mr. Heller doesn't want to think about how that could contribute to the number of new ETS cases, but I can't imagine that my brother is the only one of that mindset." Sandra pulled one of her folders towards her. "In fact, we may already have proof. While most of those without obvious symptoms are reacting with aversion towards the transformed, a small segment of the population is willingly living among them. The evidence is only anecdotal at this point, but it appears many of them have incurable or debilitating conditions."
Starlight doubted that Twilight had considered this angle. Where she was already struggling with matters of consent of the transformed, this would be just another burden.
Sandra ran a hand through her hair. "In a way, I can't blame them. There are conditions that could leave a human in so much chronic pain that being transformed into another species would seem a small price to pay for relief."
"Where are you going with this?" Starlight asked, though she could guess.
"I'm trying to do as Kevin and Anthony are doing and look at the long term view," said Sandra. "It's obvious now that we're definitely going to have a permanent pony society on this planet, and it's already common knowledge that a genetically engineered virus caused this. And it's also becoming common knowledge that it makes you the picture of health, albeit as a small, colorful equine."
"I get it," said Starlight. "You're afraid that people will want this transformation spell as a cure-all."
"Which will only create more antagonism between ponies and humans. But if we could offer something similar outside of transformation--"
"I see where this is going." Starlight sighed. "All I can tell you is that Twilight fully intends to open formal diplomatic relations with your world, and she's adamant about educating humanity about magic so they won't be frightened of it. Beyond that, I have no idea what other exchanges there would be."
Sandra smiled faintly. "I just wanted to let you know what we were thinking. Again, this is all off the record. Officially, we never spoke about this."
Starlight wondered just how humans managed to keep separated in their heads all the things that they weren't supposed to say from those they could. She supposed they had a lot more practice at it. "When I mention this to Twilight, I'll do it discreetly."
"Thank you," said Sandra. "That's all I ask."
Star Singer sat alone in a small conference room, having been unexpectedly led there by humans referred to as "Secret Service." She had trouble understanding exactly what was so "secret" about them if everyone else around her seemed to know all about them. They were supposed to be escorting her back to her quarters after another consultation with the physicians monitoring Sunset's condition.
The longer she waited, the more nervous she became. She had been exposed to this world for only a few days, and already she yearned to return to Equestria. She had already made repeated requests to be allowed to visit her home via the portal, but all she had been told was that her request would be "taken under advisement." She started to wonder if that was some local euphemism for simply ignoring a request.
Star frowned. She felt like she had done all she could to help keep Sunset under control. The sedative was not going to get any better, and she had better things to do than to be reminded of that horrible unmarking spell. She wanted at least some time where she didn't have to share the same universe as Starlight Glimmer.
Finally, the door opened, and a human male entered whom Star had met only in passing. Fortunately, he didn't rely on her memory. "I am Anthony Heller," he said as he sat down. "I'm in charge of the criminal and government side of this operation."
"Yes, I've heard of you," said Star Singer. "Twilight mentioned you."
"I'll get right to the point," said Anthony. "We're facing a possible threat that Sunset will be reunited with her cutie mark--"
Star's eyes widened.
"--and what I need to know from you is this: will this allow her to break free from her induced unconscious state?"
Star was too stunned to reply at first. "Wait a minute. Are you saying that what Starlight did is reversible?"
"You do not know this?"
Star frowned. "Until I saw it for myself, I had no idea such a spell even existed!"
Anthony considered. "Then you have no knowledge of its limitations?"
"I don't know anything about it. How much plainer do I need to make that?"
Anthony laced his fingers together and leaned forward in his seat. "My understanding is that while Starlight can separate the cutie mark from its owner, she is unable to completely sever the bond."
Star had to admit to feeling a bit of satisfaction upon hearing this. Ripping away a cutie mark felt almost worse than dying. She had read of the accounts of Twilight and her friends when they were captives of Starlight, and it had sickened her.
"Thus the cutie mark needs to be actively contained, and we're facing a situation where the efficacy of that containment is in question," Anthony explained. "Which is why I wish to talk to you."
"What can I possibly do?" Star said, "I don't know anything about how cutie mark magic works except the basics that all ponies know. I wouldn't know how to stop her cutie mark from being returned to her."
"I realize this. I instead want to call upon your biological knowledge in hopes of coming up with a contingency plan."
Star Singer gave him a wary look. "What kind of plan?"
"We are at a very delicate phase in the operation to stop ETS," Anthony explained. "Any sort of disruption could doom it to failure. We cannot allow Sunset to awaken with her full power restored."
"I've done the best I can to create a sedative that combines your chemicals with magic to keep her under."
"But will it withstand her regaining her full powers?"
Star hesitated. "I don't know. Maybe."
"And therein lies the problem," said Anthony. "We can't afford a 'maybe' at this point."
Star's heart pounded. "What are you talking about?"
Anthony hesitated for a long moment, his face troubled. His fingers laced more tightly together. "I want to preface this by saying that I don't like what I'm about to suggest. As I told Twilight when we first planned Operation Red Dusk, I don't like these sort of last resort plans."
Star swallowed hard.
"But if Sunset regains her full powers, we have no means to stop her if she's allowed to awaken."
"I can't make the sedative any stronger without killing her!" Star declared.
"I know, but can something be made that will kill her quickly enough before she can stop it?"
Star's stomach twisted. "Why are you asking me this? You have weapons that can kill someone in an instant. Just ... j-just point one of those at her and pull the damn trigger! That's what you were trying to do to her anyway when you first planned everything with Twilight."
Star felt sick that she was even contemplating means to end Sunset's life. While she agreed that Sunset had been wrong, she found it difficult to go against her culturally-ingrained notions of non-violence, not to mention they were talking about a pony who was once her friend.
"We're considering the worst case scenario, where she regains consciousness instantly and is able to shield against our weapons."
"She could pull her IV out at the same time," Star said.
"We realize that. What we're asking for is: can something be devised that has a delayed reaction? Something we can feed her now and lies dormant until she awakens, and only then does it act on her?"
Star paled.
"Ideally, something that can be reversed or purged later if containment is--"
"Stop skirting around it!" Star yelled. "You're asking me to figure out a means to poison her!"
"Yes."
Star was too stunned to speak.
"We realize what we're asking of you."
"I don't think you do!" Star Singer exclaimed. "Maybe Equestria is not the utopia that Sunset planned to create on Earth, but we don't go around devising new and inventive ways to kill one another!"
"Miss Singer--"
"And what makes you think I can even do something like that?"
"We are growing increasingly aware of the capabilities of magic," said Anthony. "One of the Secret Service agents providing security for the experimental pony settlement overheard a conversation between Starlight and one of the transformed that suggested time travel is possible with magic but is not done for ethical considerations."
Star simply stared.
"So naturally we are led to speculate if something far less complex like I had suggested can be done."
Star had no idea if such a thing was within her capabilities simply because she had never come close to ever speculating that her knowledge could be put to such ends. Yet now as she forced her thoughts down that unsavory path, she could see possibilities leaping out at her with cruel clarity. "And what if I could do this and simply refuse?" Star said in a quavering voice. "What are you going to do to me? Threaten me? Imprison me? Kill me?!"
"No," Anthony said simply.
Star opened her mouth, but no words would come to her.
"Nothing will happen to you. No harm will come to you. If you wish to no longer assist us, you will be allowed to return to Equestria." Anthony leaned back in his seat. "I am truly sorry if you have the impression that we would use extreme measures to pressure you into compliance. Perhaps humanity is not up to your world's level of cooperation and friendship in that we're still capable of thinking of the worst we can possibly do to one another, but that doesn't mean we have to follow through."
"And yet if I did comply, you'd gladly let me do it," Star said in a neutral voice.
"Yes, we would," said Anthony. "Without hesitation. The survival of our species could depend on it."
Star swallowed hard as she realized just how much of a hold Sunset's ideas still had on her. She was about ready to agree with Sunset that this species needed help to elevate them further from their barbarous past, that perhaps Star had been wrong to side with Twilight.
She squeezed her eyes shut and pressed a hoof to her fore-head, wishing she had never met Sunset in the first place. This felt like the ultimate betrayal; Sunset had made Star question her own thoughts, as if she were somehow brainwashed the same way that the humans considered the transformed to be.
Star took a deep breath and lowered her hoof. No, she had done this to herself. Perhaps Sunset could be blamed for taking advantage of a vulnerable mare, but then again, perhaps she had thought she had found a kindred spirit.
She had; that was what made this all the more painful. On a deeper level, Star still pined for Sunset's approach towards solving the basic problem of ponykind's long term survival.
"I can't do this," Star said in a shaky voice as she lowered her head.
Anthony nodded once. "I understand."
Star wanted to protest that he didn't understand, not in the least. It had nothing to do with her moral convictions. In the end, she couldn't trust herself to commit to the ultimate means to stop Sunset. Up until this point, it had all been up to others; her role was one merely of support. This would mean stopping Sunset directly and irrevocably.
Anthony stood. "Thank you for your candor, Miss Singer. I'll inform my superiors of your decision."
Star didn't even look up as he headed out of the room.
Starlight considered teleporting back to the lab, but she did not have the enormous energy reserves of her alicorn friend Twilight. A ride by human transport took only five minutes, and it gave her more time to study the cracked gem.
And the more she studied it, the more wary she became.
What she had assumed to be a flaw in the crystal lattice was indeed present, but now it no longer appeared to be the direct cause of the gem's failure. Her theory had been that the initial surge of magic when the humans activated the spell had fractured the gem, but now it appeared that the spell had actually executed. The flaw would have caused the spell to resonate at the wrong frequency, like an incorrectly tuned radio transmitter. What should have happened was the gem flashing red to indicate a failure to attain the status of the transformation spells around it.
When she arrived at the lab, the soldiers guarding the jar parted and returned to the periphery of the room. Starlight immediately stepped up to it and frowned as she studied it with her magical senses, the gem still held aloft.
"Any change in status, ma'am?" asked the commander of the lab's security detail.
Sunset's cutie mark danced about inside the jar, its strikes against the sides deceptively quiet. Starlight could see the ripples they made in the magic of the enchantment upon the glass. She tried again to cast a spell to shore it up, but it again had little effect. At the rate that the enchantment was deteriorating, it would be at least another day before it would be a serious threat. While maintaining containment on Sunset's cutie mark was her top priority, she felt things were under control enough to allow her to research what happened to the gem.
"Not at the moment," Starlight finally replied as she turned away from the jar.
Starlight brought the gem to a workbench and placed it upon a small pedestal of enchanted marble. Twilight had instructed her on how to use this device, which was supposed to examine the thaumic matrix of the artifact placed upon it. The gem was soon bathed in purple light, and runes glowed in the air above it.
Starlight frowned. It hadn't been the outgoing magic that had caused the gem to fracture, but the incoming magic from the transformation spells. The detector spell worked a bit like the humans' radar, in that it sent out a crafted thaumic pulse and listened for the "echo" that returned. Except in this case what happened would be the equivalent of a returning radar echo shorting out the radar itself.
She turned away from the gem and towards her notes on Sunset's transformation spell. Despite all the work that she and Twilight had put into unraveling it, their research was incomplete. They knew enough about how the transformation was initiated and how it progressed, as well as how the basic mechanics of modifying the morphic resonance worked. Only some of what was considered more mundane spell infrastructure was believed left to discover. A complete analysis would have taken a few additional days; they had time to learn in detail only enough to know how to stop it.
They had hoped to find notes on Sunset's research along with her other possessions, but either she kept those at a separate location or kept everything in her head as the ultimate defense against someone else learning how her spell worked.
She turned to the page that detailed how the sensing rune worked, which had been the target of the original thaumic pulse. She traced the connections from that rune to the others which initiated the transformation, a part she had been sure had been completely researched. There were connections to incompletely researched sections of the spell, but those were again just normal spell support and infrastructure.
Starlight raised an eyebrow. She turned back to the cracked gem and examined it again, and both eyebrows rose. Each section of the transformation spell governing the change itself started with an initiator rune. The crack in the gem had changed the frequency of its pulse to be aligned more with the initiator rather than the sensing rune, but not exactly. It still wasn't enough of an alignment to account for the feedback.
Starlight returned to the transformation spell. Other connections branched from the initiator runes to parts unknown. That had not concerned them. Like many human-designed engines, spells required the equivalent of an "ignition". For example, a levitation spell had a tactile rune to sense the object to move, a binding rune to grasp it, a spatial rune to move it, and an "ignition" rune that tied into the part of the unicorn's brain responsible for three-dimensional processing.
The feedback could have been caused by hitting an ignition rune, but they were generally buried too deeply in the spell matrix to be as easily accessible. To see one at a more shallow level would be shoddy spell work, and Sunset was far to skilled to make such a basic mistake. So the pulse from the gems may have come through the initiators, traveled back through the spell matrix, and hit something else that bounced back with such force as to fracture the gem. But what could be strong enough to cause that?
Starlight looked around the lab and sighed. The one thing she needed to examine to figure this out was the one thing she didn't have: Sunset's original device. The humans had classified it as an extreme biohazard despite all assurances that it was now quiescent, and thus had been placed at a separate facility.
She approached the commander. "I need you to get a message to Mr. Heller at once."
Starlight found herself again in a conference room. She was beginning to hate these places, as it meant more talking and less action. She always thought Twilight had an insane focus on organization, but when it came to meetings, the humans rivaled even her.
"Yes, I could certainly authorize you to examine the device," said Anthony. He turned in his chair. "Doctor Marlowe? Can you please explain the issue?"
Starlight frowned. "What issue? My request is fairly straightforward. I'm not even going to remove it from whatever containment you have it in."
"The problem is one of decontamination when you're done," said Sandra. "That could take several hours."
Starlight stared. "Decontamination? From what?"
"From whatever new virus that device decides to send out," said Anthony.
Starlight face-hoofed. "What difference does that make? It's not the virus that's the problem, it's the transformation spell tied to it. There's only one transformation spell in the thaumic matrix of that artifact. Twilight verified that herself, and you trusted her analysis. At least I thought you had."
"We do trust that," said Sandra. "But we can't take the chance that it might send out a new virus that has other unintended consequences."
"Why would it do that in the first place?"
Anthony folded his hands. "Starlight, are you familiar with terms such as 'fail safe' or 'fail deadly?'"
Starlight sighed. "No, but I'm sure you're going to tell me."
"They refer to ways that our weapon systems work. 'Fail safe' is generally used for situations in which we want uncertainty to ensure that the weapon does not go off. 'Fail deadly' is for situations where we absolutely want it to go off."
"Let me guess," Starlight said sourly. "It's usually applied when talking about nuclear weapons."
"Be that as it may, it's an important military strategy, and we have to assume that Sunset might be thinking in those terms. If somehow the device senses that its original attack is failing, it may have a fail deadly protocol."
Starlight took a deep breath. She had to be more like Twilight and try to accommodate them somehow. "Okay, fine, let's go with that. Why would it take hours to decontaminate me?"
"Mostly because our techniques don't rely on magic," said Sandra. "And the fact that you have fur and much more hair than a human would."
"With Twilight indisposed so she can focus on delivering the counterspell, we don't want you unavailable for that length of time," said Anthony. "What about examining a patient who has the spell?"
"I may need to poke and prod at the spell a bit," said Starlight. "I don't want to do that on a live person."
"Starlight, couldn't you just let the technicians manipulate the device for you with the robotic arms?" Sandra asked.
Starlight blinked. "Er, what?"
"The personnel assigned to it can use mechanical arms to grasp and manipulate the object and bring it close to the window for detailed measurements and observation. You'd be as close as a foot or so from it."
Starlight's eyes widened, and she threw up her fore-hooves. "Why the hell didn't you say so in the first place?! I thought you had done something like placed it behind multiple layers of lead where I couldn't see it."
"That would be for radioactive sources," said Anthony.
"And Twilight did say that magic passes easily through our materials," said Sandra.
"Yes, but Twilight has the ginormous knowledge of how things work on this planet that I don't," Starlight declared. "Okay, fine, let's go."
The facility where the artifact was being kept was not quite what she expected. When they had told her that mechanical arms would be used, she had expected to see the equivalent of disembodied human arms complete with elbow, hand, four fingers, and a thumb. Instead, the manipulator was more streamlined and obviously mechanic, with only two padded "fingers" that opened and closed, but the humans operating them had very fine control over them. She was impressed.
This also saved her from having to levitate the object herself. She could instead concentrate all her magic on the device itself.
She had been asked to first verify that Twilight's analysis had been correct, that no other active spells resided in the device. There had been some anti-tampering spells when Twilight first discovered it, but they had been stripped away. The device did not have its own power source. Instead, it had a gemstone at its center suitable for a unicorn to link her magic into it with a simple spell, thus Sunset had obviously intended to power the device herself, probably during one of her visits to Fred Turner disguised as the little girl.
That, Starlight surmised, had been the "fail safe" part; the device simply would not activate on its own. It had also allowed Sunset to take it through the portal in the first place.
Starlight peered past the device and spotted a wide, low, covered vat in the background. She jabbed a hoof towards it. "What's that?"
"Hydrofluoric acid," said the technician manipulating the arm.
"Uhh, which is?"
"A highly corrosive substance. If we determine that there is a danger of the device compromising its biological isolation, we have orders to drop it in there in an attempt to destroy it."
"It's a precaution only," said Anthony who stood behind Starlight along with Sandra.
Starlight refrained from saying that she doubted it would work against magical metals and crystals.
"I should note that this also includes anything happening as a result of your investigations," said Sandra. "A whole team of technicians are monitoring the environment in and around the isolation chamber."
Starlight nodded and turned her attention to the device. "Well, all right, here goes."
Her horn glowed, and the device glowed softly as well. She closed her eyes to concentrate better as she extended her magical senses into the device. She was not as good at examining a thaumic matrix directly like this. Starlight was still someone who tended to approach magic by feel rather than equations.
As she had feared, she was out of her element here. She didn't have the skill to sense the delicate connections between the runes. She could sense the structure at a higher level, but she was unable to delve any deeper into that. She had to take a more brute force approach.
She crafted a pulse similar to what had originally been imbued upon the gems and directed it at the spell. She received the response she expected, which told her that the sensing rune was disabled. Apparently the thaumic pulse had affected the original copy of the spell as well.
She then crafted a second pulse, this time at the frequency emitted by the faulty gem. She flinched when her horn resonated with a similar pulse shot back at her, amplified by several times. That had been a response from only one spell, and the gem would have been bombarded by thousands. It never had a chance.
Her audience must have seen her flinch, as Sandra asked, "Did you find something?"
"Give me a minute," said Starlight.
Starlight repeated the experiment and got the same result. She tried to trace back the flow of energy and raised an eyebrow. A critical part of the spell was the timing mechanism which controlled the rate of the transformation. It tied into the sensing rune, which explained how later transformations went faster as the pool of available magic increased. The amplified pulse was coming from that part of the spell.
Starlight opened her eyes as the glow of her horn faded. "There's some sort of odd feedback loop in the spell. I'm not sure what it means yet."
"Is it something we need to worry about?" Anthony asked.
"Again, I don't know. All I know is that magic of a particular resonance is triggering it."
"What about what Twilight is planning?" Sandra asked. "Could it--?"
"No," Starlight said firmly. "Totally different magic. It could be nothing, but I need to head back to the lab to do some more research."
"Should we destroy the artifact as a precaution?" the technician asked.
"That won't do any good. This just contains the original copy of the spell plus the magic to create the modified virus, and the latter is already spent. This device is not useful even to Sunset anymore."
"I would just as soon you return to the lab," said Anthony. "While you were focused on the device, I received a call. The unusual motion of Sunset's cutie mark has grown noticeably worse."
Starlight's eyes widened. "It has? Why didn't you tell me?!"
"You had assured us that there was no immediate danger."
Starlight's heart raced. "Yeah, well, let me go back and make sure that's still the case."
"We have your car ready."
"I'll make my own way this time," said Starlight. Her horn flashed, and in an instant, she was back in the lab to the surprised looks of the soldiers. "It's just me! Don't freak out!" Starlight cried when she saw more than one weapon rise towards her.
"Apologies, ma'am, but we hadn't expected you to teleport in," said the commander. He nodded towards the jar. "But perhaps it was best you did."
Starlight turned towards the pedestal. Sunset's cutie mark danced about so violently that had it any true physical substance, it would have already knocked the jar to the floor. Obviously the soldiers had thought this a possibility, as they had since installed heavy straps around the jar securing it more firmly to the pedestal.
Starlight's horn glowed, and the jar lit up in her magical senses. The cutie mark had battered the enchantment holding it until it looked like the thaumic equivalent of Swiss cheese, and more holes were opening as she stared.
"Shit," Starlight muttered. "Shit shit SHIT!"
Her horn blazed, and she strained as she poured her magic into the glass of the jar. She clenched her teeth as she watched the holes slowly start to close, only to grunt in frustration when they widened again.
Panting lightly from the effort, Starlight shut off her magic. "It's another damn feedback loop. It's just using my magic to ..." She gasped. "That's it! That's what I hit in Sunset's transformation spell. She has a spell accelerator loop in it. With the right trigger, it will hugely speed up the rate of transformation to--"
Her thought was drowned out by the shout of the commander and the scrambling of his men. Starlight could only watch as Sunset's cutie mark burst out of its confinement and flew towards a wall. Starlight flattened first her ears and then herself to the floor when gunfire exploded around her as soldiers took shots at the cutie mark just before it vanished through the concrete.
"Commander, I swear, I shot right at that fucker and the bullets went right through!" a soldier cried.
"I could've told you that wouldn't work!" Starlight shouted as she stood.
"Belay all that!" the commander barked as he raised his phone. "This is the lab. The sun is up. Repeat: the sun is up."
Anthony relied mostly on instinct when he felt time was critical. A complete analysis of the situation when seconds mattered was often not feasible. He took Starlight's abrupt departure to mean that something was about to go wrong, and he was already on the phone even before pandemonium had broken out at the lab.
"Get the soldiers inside Sunset's room," he said into his cell phone.
"Yessir," said the army commander at the other end of the line. "Is there an emergency?"
"There may be, I don't know yet. I just don't want us caught with our pants down."
"I'll need authorization to make the change in procedure permanent, sir."
"I'll get that damn authorization," said Anthony. "In the meantime, do as I say."
"Yessir."
Anthony lowered the phone and ran a hand through his hair as he let out a long sigh.
"Do you have any idea what's going on?" Sandra asked in an anxious voice.
"I just have this bad feeling that I haven't been told something crucial. Starlight's been hiding something ever since she came back from consulting with Twilight."
"Both Twilight and Starlight have been up front with us about everything so far," said Sandra. "I don't see any reason to doubt them now."
"I realize that, Doctor Marlowe, but Twilight is effectively a diplomat, and all diplomats have their secrets. I have to assume she has hers, and Starlight is taking her marching orders from Twilight."
Sandra frowned. "With all due respect, Mr. Heller, I doubt they'd stoop to petty political maneuvering."
"I never said they would," said Anthony. "They come from a decidedly non-violent society. Twilight is very careful not to come out and admit it, but Starlight and Star Singer are far more vocal about it: they don't want to see physical harm come to Sunset Shimmer despite all that she's done. It has nothing to do with not wanting to see her come to justice, but it's plainly obvious they're not capable of doing what needs to be done if worst comes to worst."
"And you are?" Sandra asked.
"Yes," Anthony declared. "That doesn't mean I like it or--"
His phone rang. He lifted it to his face, and before he could speak, a voice said, "The sun is up."
Anthony's stomach became a cold pit that twisted upon itself, but he didn't hesitate in his duty. "Acknowledged. Terminate Sunset Shimmer."
As Twilight had noted on several occasions, humans could be paragons of efficiency, but it worked only so far against magic. By the time the termination order had come in, the soldiers ordered into Sunset's hospital room had only just entered formation, and the civilian physicians had not yet been cleared from the room.
"GET DOWN GET DOWN GET DOWN!" the commander shouted, and the startled physicians took a few crucial seconds to break out of their shock and drop to the floor.
During those seconds, Sunset's cutie mark burst through the wall and one of the soldiers. It caused him no harm, but raised another moment of unexpected alarm. Not all weapons had come to bear when the mark affixed itself to Sunset's haunches in a burst of light that disrupted the soldiers' aim.
The first volley was like thunder in the confines of the room. A bullet grazed Sunset's barrel, another tore through a fore-leg, and the third ripped a charred hole in the bedsheets only a inch from her heart.
The next volleys were aimed true. Bright sparks flew where they met magic.
Sunset's eyes flew open, and the shield abruptly expanded, slamming the soldiers against the walls. One was knocked out cold, another dazed, but the third recovered, and his weapon rattled away to more flashes of light.
Sunset jumped off the bed, only to have her left fore-leg almost collapse. Grimacing in pain, she lifted it off the floor, blood still streaming from the wound, and more blood trickled from her side. She narrowed her eyes and ground her teeth, and the soldier yelped when the gun he was holding suddenly became a prickly cactus.
As she shaped her shield to push the remaining soldiers towards the door and out of the room as well as keep the physicians pinned to the floor, she levitated some bandages and wrapped them tight around her fore-leg, then cast a disinfection spell. By the time a much larger contingent of soldiers thundered towards the room, her horn flashed, and she vanished.
"You should all be getting the hell out of here!" Starlight yelled at the commander. "It's only going to take seconds for Sunset to be reunited with her cutie mark. This is the place she'll most likely come."
"That's exactly why we intend to stay here, ma'am," the commander said, he and the other soldiers already on alert with their weapons ready. "We're assigned to protect this lab and—"
"It doesn't need your protection! There's nothing here that's so valuable we can't replace. Even all this research on the transformation spell are copies. The originals are in Equestria."
"There's the portal, ma'am."
Starlight frowned. "She's not going to be stupid enough to damage it, and Twilight has already altered it so only she and I can control it. It will lock Sunset right out."
"Ma'am, a termination order has been issued for Sunset Shimmer."
Starlight's mouth dropped open, and her pupils shrank.
"So if they don't do the job at the hospital, then it's up to us to finish it."
For a moment, Starlight was speechless. She had known that the humans would likely resort to that sort of end were Sunset tried and convicted, but to do it now?
"I don't ... how can ... a-all right, never mind," Starlight finally sputtered. "Someone needs to get a message to my other friends who came through the portal. Let them know that Sunset Shimmer may have—"
A flash of light briefly turned the walls of the basement white.
"--escaped." Starlight blinked. Her horn blazed. "Fuck."
The expletive had barely made it to her lips when the soldiers opened up with the thunder of weapons fire. A split-second later, a brilliant beam of magic erupted from Starlight's horn. All converged on Sunset Shimmer, causing her shield to flash and flicker. She narrowed her eyes, and the bright glow of her horn flashed. A wave of magical energy radiated out from her shield, and Starlight gasped, halting her attack barely in time to defend against it.
The soldiers had no such defense, their weapons falling from their hands as they slumped to the floor in a deep sleep.
Starlight swallowed hard. At once she knew she was out of her league. She had no alicorn friend to drain Sunset's prodigious energy. She shored up her shield, spun around, and galloped hard towards the portal.
Sunset's next spell burned through the shield, and Starlight froze in mid-step. She fought against the freeze spell to no avail. All her muscles could do were strain against the powerful magic that held her as rigid as a statue save for the rapid rise and fall of her chest.
"You're not going anywhere, you little bitch," Sunset said.
Starlight's heart hammered. "I wouldn't think if it," she said in a quavering voice when she discovered she could still move her mouth.
Sunset came around to face her, hobbling slightly as she kept her injured leg aloft. "Twilight was very clever to make sure I never knew about you, or your little unmarking spell. Don't think you're going to get away with that again anytime soon."
"If you think you can just pick up where you left off, you're – mmph!"
Starlight's words were halted when the freeze spell was extended to her mouth and jaw.
"I'm not stupid," said Sunset. "But I can already sense how far the transformation has gone. Maybe I won't get everything I wanted, but I can sure as hell get a good chunk of it. And I know exactly how I can accomplish that."
Starlight knew as well. The transformation spell had a fail deadly after all, even if "deadly" had a different interpretation here.
Sunset stepped closer. "Despite analyzing your unmarking spell, I don't have a defense against it yet, only contingencies. So you're coming on a little trip with me so I don't have to be looking over my shoulder all the time."
Sunset's horn flashed, and the two vanished from the lab in a pop of imploding air.