Spike was looking at Twilight was a raised brow and a look of annoyance. The lavender alicorn was staring outside the window of the train they had taken to watch the landscape pass by, but Spike didn't understand the point.
"So why are we in a train instead of a personal carriage or you just teleporting or flying to Canterlot?" the little dragon asked.
"Because, Spike. I don't have a carriage yet, and I can't fly that far."
"Rainbow Dash can. Surely you can now since you know how to use your wings AND are a princess."
Twilight shook her head. "No, Spike. Rainbow has been doing that forever, so she has better stamina when it comes to flying. Me, on the other hoof, have only been doing it for about a year now."
Spike pondered the idea and shrugged. "Fair enough, but what about teleportation?"
"It takes a lot of magic and concentration to do it, and I'd probably collapse from exhaustion." She shrugged. "Besides, I want to have all my energy in order to study whatever this 'visitor' the princess talked about gave her."
Loud gasps and an increasing volume of voices attracted Twilight and Spike's attention. They got out of their cabin to reach the next car over where everypony was leaning on the right of the transport.
"What's going on everypony?" Twilight asked.
"O-oh! Princess Twilight!" one of the ponies exclaimed. "Come see!" The mare stepped back from the seat and got the others to do the same. "Look. There's something flying above Canterlot. Surely you know what it is or at least what to do about it."
Twilight rolled her eyes and smiled. "It's probably just a dragon or an airship. I'll be able to create something for them to belieeeeeeeeeeee..." Twilight's jaw dropped lower and lower when she saw the saucer in the sky. "What in Equestria IS that?!" she whispered loudly to herself.
"No idea!" The mare started bouncing in place nervously. "I'm worried about the ponies there, and the princesses!"
"Calm down. If it was a threat, I'm sure the princesses would have dealt with it by now."
The ponies nodded in agreement, but retained their worry on their faces. There was nothing more that Twilight could do for the time being. She took Spike back to their cabin and waited inside until the next stop.
"That must be what the princesses were talking about," Spike noted.
"Definitely. Now we just need to know if they know anything about that...thing in the sky."
Spike peered outside the window, his little claws hanging onto the edges. "It looks like it's as big as Canterlot from here, too."
Twilight laughed the idea off. "That's just due to the perception of it from this distance and angle. It's probably closer to us than it is to Canterlot."
Spike raised an eyebrow. "Isn't it the notion that the smaller something looks from a distance, the bigger it actually is? In this case," Spike pointed at the saucer with his thumb. "that thing is enormous."
Twilight's laughter receded to worry and a nervous tapping of her hoofs on the cushions of the seats. When they finally arrived at the Canterlot train station, Twilight -with Spike in tow- bolted straight out of the train and flew directly to the castle, bursting through the massive doors and into the throne room.
"Princess Celestia, what IS that thing?!" the lavender alicorn screamed.
Celestia braced at the sudden increase of volume. "Twilight, there's no need to yell."
"Then what is it? Is it a danger? Are you being held hostage?"
Princess Celestia held her smile. "Nothing of the sort," she explained. "But I also don't know what it is. I also wasn't expecting you to come here so early. I only sent out the invitation to know whether or not you were going to be here or not."
Spike crossed his arms. "She can't resist an invitation from you, your highness."
"No need for such formalities, Spike, and I'm glad to see you here as well."
"O-oh. Thank you, Princess."
Celestia passed a hoof through her mane. "Aaaaaaahhhhhh...that thing appeared just a day ago, and already it's driving everypony crazy, especially with what is within it structure."
Twilight tilted her head. "Within its structure?"
"There are strange beings from it that came to see us, saying he wanted to help us progress technologically and prevent use from reaching 'decay'. You who have read so many books, have you ever heard of this 'decay'?"
Twilight frowned and started to think. "I've read about many kinds of decay, and the definition, but without proper context, I have no way of understanding exactly what this character meant."
Celestia sighed and rubbed her face. "I suppose it was foalish of me to think there could have been an explanation somewhere, but...I have a little job for you."
The lavender alicorn's ears perked up. "Oh?!"
"Yes. I have a laboratory set up in the auditorum of my college for gifted unicorns. It was supposed to be set up two weeks from now, but my sister insisted on placing one for you." She chuckled. "I guess she knew your reaction better than I."
"And what do you want me to do?"
"The visitor gave me a vial of his blood, telling me to pass it onto you and the various other mages that I've invited."
"Why would he do that?" Twilight asked in a perplexed tone.
"Well, I'll tell you when you do the test with a regular pony's blood. I'll need you to test whether or not the dna is very similar or drastically different."
Twilight chuckled. "He does know that everypony has minor mutations that change their appearance and body functionality, right?"
"Yes, Twilight," Celestia sighed. "I believe he was looking for the dna that defines us as ponies."
"Oooooh. That's easy to find, then, but it will take me few days to find the nitrogen bases in both after deconstructing the nucleotide."
"Then allow me to take you there myself."
"Oh, you don't need to do that," Twilight chuckled. "I know how to get to the college."
Celestia waved a hoof. "Tut tut! I'll be taking you there. It's the least I could do for my favorite student."
Twilight gave in and followed her teacher into the sky and higher up the mountain where a large assortment of thin, white spires were. The rest of the facility had been built into the safety of the mighty stone monument. A very long, very large staircase led up to the facility, one that students were reluctant to take for obvious reasons. The face of the building was clean and pure white, although half of the entrance was being given a paint of dark blue to represent Luna. Just above the large wooden doors was tinted glass depicting Celestia looking down upon her ponies and wrapping them in the embrace of her wings. The spires were decorated with golden rings to make them stand out, and their cone tips let loose various gentle trails of colorful magic, akin to an artificial aurora borealis.
"Wow. They've been redecorating it. I don't recall the college ever looking this fancy," Twilight said.
"They have been redecorating since last you came here, although I still think it lacks something to make it stand out."
Twilight looked at Celestia with a contemptuous gaze. "It's a giant set of white pillars with colors coming out of it and is set apart from the rest of Canterlot in the side of a mountain."
"Be that as it may, it lacks something for a true identity. This just comes off as a fancy costume." She scratched her chin and shook her head. "That's not important right now anyways. First we need to reach the laboratory in the auditorium."
Twilight prepared herself psychologically for the influx of ponies to come rushing towards them when they landed, but they never did.
The mare looked around for any signs of life and was worried when she found none. "Where is everypony?" she asked.
"Hiding in their homes, most likely." Celestia was worried, and she looked at the saucer, pondering the intents of its owner. "That...abomination has everypony scared witless, and many have been hiding in their homes. I haven't even managed to get them out myself despite warning them that it isn't a threat."
"You say that, but there's an adult dragon attacking it," Spike pointed out.
A large red dragon was currently flying angrily around the craft, letting loose torrents of flame along its surface and occasionally landing on it to try and destroy the hull with its claws.
"What's he trying to do?" Spike wondered. "If he's trying to destroy it, it'll take more than that, no?"
Celestia tilted her head. "The construct isn't even taking damage. It looks like the flames are bouncing off of something, but I'm not sure what. Plus, that dragon doesn't live in the mountains here. It lives in those further away."
A loud humming irritated the ponies' ears but made the adult dragon stop attacking and observe the actions of its prey. The saucer's ring border glowed a faint orange then ceased, leaving way for a large circle to form on the side and stare the reptile down. A deafening scream accompanied a spiraling beam of orange light engulfing the dragon in its entirety and going further on into the distance, just narrowly missing the top of the mountain of the college. The beam gradually dissipated, and the glowing circle it had come from was disappearing behind shifting hull plates, leaving the mares and dragon speechless.
They entered the college, attempting to make sense of the sheer destructive power shown to them. A massive statue of a featureless unicorn welcomed all the students. The walls flanking the entrance hall were covered in displays holding awards and special mentions. There were quite a few of the displays. The statue was in the middle of an enormous hollow column, with stairs following the shape of the walls. The first few steps lead to several doors leading to classrooms or other parts of the building. The next steps were enchanted to float above ground and started just behind the statue. They lead much higher to the second floor, then third, then fourth, and so on. Each time they would stop at a platform then resume, and would entwine with the statue as it rose ever higher.
"I...What was that?" Twilight whimpered. "Neither I nor Tirek had that kind of power..."
"And that came from a machine..." Celestia stammered. "I...Ih...If we had tried to attack him..."
The realization hit the white alicorn hard, and she started to sweat profusely, her pupils shrunk and body trembling.
"P-princess?" Twilight called out.
The white alicorn was psychologically torturing herself over the scenario that could have played out.
"Princess Celestia!" Spike shouted.
"Huh?"
"What's wrong?"
"Spike..." Celestia forced herself to walk. "I just saw an adult dragon disintegrated by something I do not comprehend. Something that could do what magic cannot in its current form..."
"Well, Twilight and I have seen--"
"Spike!" Twilight interjected. "That's not the same thing!" she trailed off.
"And what makes this so different?" Spike put his claws on his hips. "We've seen plenty of things that could have destroyed Equestria multiple times, and we defeated them! Just because this one is holding the princesses hostage doesn't mean we can't help them!"
"He's not holding us hostage," Celestia corrected. "He's just imposed himself to improve our technology and magic."
Twilight and Spike looked at the princess in disbelief. "What?" Twilight said.
"You mean..." Spike started.
Celestia nodded. "He refused to harm us. It's what I was saying earlier: He only wanted to help us." She took several deep breaths to calm herself. "I just wasn't expecting this...He refused to display any kind of technological or magical power...and then that."
"Well, if you had doubts, now you know..." Spike smiled sheepishly and twiddled with his claws.
"Let's go to the auditorum. I don't want to talk about this anymore for the time being," Celestia said.