The pale night came quickly over the blinking lights of the city, numb and reeling from the bombing earlier that day at the bank. Word of mouth had gone around town quickly, and the news reporters were spending their time locked away in their printing rooms, overseeing the printing of the revolutionary news that was going to blaze through Manehatten like wildfire. Each of them also hoped that an actual wildfire wouldn't actually blaze through the city, but with the Night Terror now showing his face out in the open, it was definitely a possibility to keep in mind.
The fact of the matter was, the news was going to absolutely blow itself into the stratosphere. They were going to have a field day in the easiest headlines they'd had in a while.
But for Twilight Sparkle, the news wasn't on her mind. In the small dark office of Dr. Brainstem, next to piles of work and surrounded by her uneasy and frightened friends and Spike, the headlines were insignificant. What mattered to her was what Ironheart had in mind for the city. He had revealed himself. He was exposed. What was his plan? What was his intent for showing his face so out in the open like that? Wasn't he planning on staying secret?
But she was also reflecting on the events of what happened after the forced confession. Twilight hadn't had a lot of time to really think about it because her schedule was full of distracting things, and so she had all but forgotten what had been said at the bank explosion. Twilight was right there next to Ironheart and the injured griffon when the griffon had said it. He was taking orders from Count Privilege. The griffon had said he wanted forceful reimbursement for everything they'd lost. But reimbursement from what? The griffon had said Count Privilege's shipments were getting attacked. But shipments of what? The only thing that was worth shipping was--
Twilight almost fell out of her seat in Dr. Brainstem's office. The noise she made was not unnoticed by the others, and Rainbow flew over in a heartbeat.
Rainbow had been particularly protective of Twilight for the past few days. It could have been the event she and Twilight shared in the Ultraground, where the pressure was on for both of them to almost kill Amadeus. Rainbow was haunted by how close both she and Twilight had been to snapping and becoming like Ironheart, and haunted even more by her own inner thoughts and desires that so closely mirrored those of Ironheart, and haunted even more by the danger shown to Twilight and how even a princess of Equestria could come ever so close to the breaking point. There was now a continual look of exhaustion and... fear, and horror as a conflict of will continually raged within.
So it was a little desperately that Rainbow Dash held Twilight up in her seat and asked, "Twilight! Are you okay?!"
“Are you falling asleep again?” Spike asked her curiously, coming to her side.
Twilight, for her part, looked no better. But she shook her head. "Oh, yeah, Rainbow. I'm fine. But... I think we just about wrapped up the mystery of this entire case right now."
"Whatever do you mean?" Rarity asked in curiosity, coming closer.
“Were you able to find out what Bright Mind has planned for himself?” Dr. Brainstem asked, coming alongside her. It seemed intentional that he was referring to the Night Terror as Bright Mind and not Ironheart. Dr. Brainstem was requested by the police commissioner to stay behind in his office instead of investigating the crime scene at the bank because Dr. Brainstem was still wallowing in grief over the loss of Case File only a few days earlier.
"I've been thinking about what Ironheart forced out of that griffon earlier," Twilight said, rightening herself in her seat. “That it was Count Privilege they were taking orders from. He said that the count had lost a lot of revenue. Ironheart’s--Client 24’s trade partner was the one that was redistributing the weapons to the griffons and ponies all over the city--he had lost a lot of money, according to what we knew from Amadeus before he…”
“Before he died!” Applejack cried suddenly. “And the pony that lost the money was Count Privilege!” She banged her head on the wall and kept it there. “Ironheart’s been workin’ with Count Privilege,” she muttered. “Could ya imagine a more ridiculous notion?”
“But why’s he been working with him if they both hate each other’s guts?” Spike pointed out. “Why did Ironheart want to make him rich?”
“Ta betray ‘im later on,” Applejack answered Spike blandly. “Ah suppose if ya think ‘bout it, that’s the best way ta hurt yer enemy. Ta work with ‘im, ta build up his trust, ta lead ‘im along like a child inta yer trap. Ta build ‘im up only ta watch ‘im fall hard. Ta give ‘im what he wants, only ta take it all back an’ destroy it. That’s what Ironheart’s doin’, Twi. He’s leadin’ Count Privilege inta a trap he can’t git out of.”
“Should we warn him?” Fluttershy suggested demurely.
Rainbow Dash flew very suddenly over to her, an expression of shock on her face. “What?! Fluttershy, are you serious? He deserves what he’s getting at this point!”
“Rainbow!” Twilight said sharply to her. “Listen to what you’re saying! Listen to who you’re sounding like right now!”
“Oh, are you gonna try and defend Count Privilege now?” Rainbow asked, turning to face her now. She was now edgy and irritable because of who Twilight had uncomfortably reminded her of. “You know, it’s his fault this all happened in the first place! He was the one that made it possible for those other ponies to harass Bright Mind. He was the one that kept his abuse a secret. He was the one that was siphoning other pony’s funds out of their pockets into his own. He was the pony that’s trying to become mayor of the city now. He’s the one that’s manipulating and blackmailing the criminal population to do his will. I don’t know about you, but I kinda want him to stop. I kinda want to see him be punished! Count Privilege is a danger to everyone in Equestria!”
“None of us have even seen him, Rainbow. Ironheart’s the main danger to everyone in Equestria right now.”
“Ironheart’s only a danger to the ponies that are a danger to Equestria,” Rainbow pointed out, coming closer to Twilight’s face. “Ironheart will remove Count Privilege and make Equestria a better place.”
“Think, Rainbow. Think for just a minute about what you’re saying. Is he a force of good if he decides to use such awful ways to show everypony his power?”
“If he’s gonna take anypony out, I’d rather have him take out the bad guys, Twilight!”
“But he doesn’t have to take out anyone if we just show him what the magic of friends--”
“Stop it, Twilight!” Rainbow suddenly cried, snapping at last. “The magic of friendship doesn’t matter in these kinds of situations! Friendship doesn’t matter to anypony as awful as Count Privilege, or Ironheart, or Amadeus! Friendship can’t solve every situation, Twilight! Friendship isn’t always the answer! Friendship is not as powerful as we think it is!”
Twilight was silent for just a moment. Looking at the ground, she whispered, “Repeat what you just said to yourself, Rainbow. Repeat it slowly.”
“Friendship is not... as powerful as…” Rainbow finally understood what she had been saying. She felt terrible all of a sudden. She lost her voice after that and looked away, trying desperately to not look at Twilight’s eyes. Her own ones had unshed tears in them. What was she thinking? How could she have allowed those thoughts to enter her own mind? She was an Element of Harmony.
“Rainbow…” she heard Twilight’s soft words above her head. “Rainbow, I can understand how you feel right now. I also want to see justice made. But... justice, not vengeance.” She took a deep breath. “I keep on thinking about that time when we were under pressure to kill Amadeus. How we both wanted to do it first, in order to preserve the other’s innocence.”
“But you matter more than I do to Equestria,” Rainbow said, slightly shocked she was allowing those words to exit out of her mouth.
“Because I’m a princess?” Twilight asked.
“Because you’re my friend,” Rainbow said forcefully. “And I didn’t want you to fall into the same pit Ironheart fell into.”
Rainbow Dash let her mind reflect then on what she had said. And she already knew what Twilight was going to say next.
“Was the power of friendship important then?” Twilight asked softly in follow-up. “And is it important now?”
Rainbow guiltily nodded. Her throat felt constricted and it hurt to swallow.
“You’re not wrong in what you’re thinking,” Twilight reassured her with an arm over her shoulder. “And you’re still the amazing, strong friend I’ve had since the beginning. We’ve all been damaged by this experience we’ve had in Manehatten. But we need to let that not change who we are inside. And you and I need to make sure that we don’t end up thinking as Ironheart does. We can see his thoughts, sympathize with them, but we can’t become like him. We just can’t. We have the magic of friendship with us. So we can do it. We can make it. Unless something catastrophic happens to our friendship that we can’t reverse.”
“Do you think it’s possible for that to happen?”
“At this point, Rainbow…” Now it was Twilight’s turn to avoid eye contact. “I really don’t know anymore.”
A little while later Dr. Brainstem had asked Twilight for help on his paperwork, and so while she helped him, Rarity and Pinkie Pie stood side by side, looking out of the window at the far end of Dr. Brainstem’s office. While Pinkie was thinking about cake as they stood in the perfect spot to reflect on things, Rarity was thinking about the last time a pony had stood where she was. Ironheart. She was then led to think about what he had prophesied when he had stood there, looking sadly out of the window over the city of Manehatten. What did he have in plan for its inhabitants?
“Oh, the lemon zest…”
The sound snapped Rarity out of her trance. “I’m sorry, darling. Did you say something?”
“I’m just thinking about cake, Rarity. Do you wanna think about cake?”
“No, Pinkie. Not right now.”
Pinkie Pie looked gloomily out of the window. “Oh, but Rarity... I’m scared.”
Rarity turned her head, interested. “Oh?”
“Yeah…” Her reflection in the glass panes looked back at her in concern. “About the cakes…”
Rarity arched an eyebrow.
“What if Ironheart tries to destroy all of the cakes in Manehatten?”
Rarity sighed inwardly. “Pinkie, he’s not going after the cakes.”
“But what if he had gotten hit in the face with a cake when he was still Bright Mind?” Pinkie asked gravely. “And that made him really not like cakes anymore? And now he wants to exact vengeance upon the rest of the cakes because cake hurt him before?”
Rarity’s sharp mind quickly saw an allegory in that. In a way, it was ridiculous, but it was just as Pinkie said: Ironheart’s policy was if it had hurt him before, he was going to destroy the rest of the group it had belonged to. But the thought of Ironheart waging a deadly, wrathful, one-pony war against all the cake in Equestria made her almost laugh out loud.
“And what if he doesn’t stop at just the cake? What if he tries to take out the strudels, too?” Pinkie gasped and shook Rarity by the shoulders. “Or the pies? Or the churros? Or donuts? Or baklava? Or flan? Or tres leches? Or even paczki?!”
Rarity leaned her head back. “It’s amazing to me how you can manage to think about these things at a time like this, Pinkie. What about the countless lives that’ve been lost in recent days?”
“Oh, I know about those, silly! I know that they’ve happened. But if I just don’t think about them, then I won’t go and turn super sad. I try to think of happier things than that! Like cake!”
“But sometimes you have to think about your problems, Pinkie. Pretending they don’t exist won’t make them disappear all of a sudden. Sometimes you have to think of your problems in order to find a way to solve them, and then you can think about better things once they’re gone.”
“But when you’re sad, isn’t it better to think about happy things than sad things?” Pinkie pointed out. “That’s what I do. If I think about happy things all the time and ignore bad influences, sad things won’t bother me anymore!”
“Don’t you think that’s a pretty irresponsible and silly way to live?” Rarity asked shrewdly.
Pinkie blinked for just a second, then turned away from Rarity. “What a pretty night,” she said to nopony in particular.
Rarity sniffed a little at being jilted by Pinkie. It was in amusement, however, not indignation. She shook her head and resumed her brooding. What had Ironheart said again? Dark times are coming. Night shall fall over Manehatten. The clouds shall be illuminated by the soft red light of flames. Buildings shall be flattened. The ground shall turn to ash.
“Oh, hey, uh, Rarity?” Pinkie asked.
“Hm?”
“If you really want to think depressing thoughts, you can read this.” She pulled something black and dilapidated out of her mane and offered it to Rarity. Rarity reared her head back again. It was Bright Mind’s journal.
“Um, Pinkie?” Rarity asked, taking the terrifying book in her magical aura. “Why do you have this?”
“I figured we’d need it, so I took it along with me when we left the apartment this morning,” she said nonchalantly. “Ironheart said something about how there was more in this book than the musings of a fallen soul, right? And he said it as he was standing right where you are right now, remember?”
Pinkie was right. Maybe there was something in there they could use in this situation. Rarity raised her voice. “Twilight, darling? Would you mind it if we all read a bit more out of Bright Mind’s journal?”
Twilight looked up from the work she was doing, and so did Dr. Brainstem. Dr. Brainstem had on his face a look of apprehension and fear. It was eventually Twilight that said, “Well, what do you think you’ll find in there?”
“I... don’t know, exactly,” Rarity said, using her magic to flip through the pages of the journal of dark and twisted thoughts. As she flipped past the bookmarked pages, she felt a jolt of electricity through her hooves as she remembered how she felt when Twilight was reading certain parts of it aloud. She felt dirty, and soiled, and awful. His own reflections were the sick, demented kinds of thoughts that she would ordinarily never have. She flipped to the pages where he had explained how he had turned into Ironheart, and felt her heart be blocked for just a second, then she hurriedly went past it. “But we don’t have a lot of other sources to go to about what Ironheart wants right now. This book is our key to solving the mysteries he has locked away in his iron heart.”
“It may even have his notes about his big game plan,” Spike pointed out, coming over to Rarity’s side. “If it does, we need to find it out.”
“Why would Ironheart even give us this book if he wants to not be thwarted?” Fluttershy asked, also gravitating towards Rarity and Twilight. “I thought that he wanted to keep his schemes hidden.”
“Or he’s tryin’ ta say a message,” Applejack suggested, also moving in. “Maybe he wants ta explain to us how he’s feelin’, and wants us ta understand his pain and his intentions. Maybe he thinks that’ll make it easier for ‘im ta deal with us.”
“Or maybe he wants to prove that even though he’s giving us his battle plan, we still can’t stop him?” Rainbow put in, off to the side and hovering. “He wants to prove that he has power, doesn’t he? He wants to make us feel like he felt. Like we were... helpless.”
“That’s definitely an option to keep in mind,” Twilight said with uncertainty. She looked over Rainbow’s head to look at Dr. Brainstem. “Doctor? Do you want to…”
The doctor swallowed something. “I really don’t want to, Twilight, but...but I must get to know him. This may be the only surviving relic of his previous life. If there’s anypony I need to try to examine right now, it’s him.”
Twilight set the open journal on the table, clearing a space for it to be placed like a relic in a museum. It was open to the pages after he had turned into Ironheart.
06/15/1000: First victory for me in my life so far. I managed to break into my former laboratory and steal the prototypes of the guns I developed. That’s their own punishment for treating me like I was worthless. If I was worthless to you, then I suppose you don’t need my work. Allow me to just take it all and leave you with nothing. That’s only fair, isn’t it? Who’s going to argue it isn’t fair?
I managed to do it undetected. I just went into the lab and out with them, and nopony else saw me. Right now I’m writing this from a cave in Canterlot mountain. They search and they search, but they never find what they’re searching for. I see patrols fly out from Canterlot from the mouth of the cave. They fly to the east, to the west, to the north and south. And the farther away they fly, the more they fly away from what they’re searching for. That’s just natural, I suppose. The harder you search for something, the less likely you are to find it.
Being Ironheart... being in this new body, this body of power, as opposed to my previous body of flesh and blood... It’s like nothing I’ve ever felt before. The closest feeling I can compare it to is having an article of clothing taken off to expose the true self underneath, free to wiggle about and be exposed, as something for all to see. I feel stronger than I was before. I feel like I can do things no other pony is capable of doing, or even of dreaming about.
I’m planning on moving away from the mountain sometime soon. I can’t stay here forever. Celestia would find out sometime soon. And anyway, the spot I have in a cave on the side of Canterlot mountain is too small to continue the work I need to do.
“The work he needs ta do?” Applejack asked, breaking them all out of the spell reading the words immersed them in. “What does he mean? He already created Ironheart. What more does he need ta do?”
“Well, I think that while he was working on Ironheart, he unlocked secrets nopony else really knew about,” Fluttershy whispered. “Maybe he just wanted to continue along that path until he could say he had gone farther than anypony else.”
Twilight flipped through the entries until she got to the spot she wanted and started to read aloud again.
07/31/1000: Today I managed to sneak out of the cave and pick my way down the mountain. I traveled down and begun my trek northward. I’m trying my hardest to not be seen. If I reveal myself before I’m ready for it, I’m done for. I’m trying to head someplace where I can do my work uninterrupted.
Word I’ve picked up from newspapers has it that Count Privilege lost a lot of his investment in the weapons I’m now carrying on my back in a garbage bag. To that I say: well, FINALLY! I mean, I want to make him lose someday, right? Starting right here’s probably a good way to get that to happen someday. So every last coin he wasted on me is now gone? Oh, that’s so satisfying to hear.
“Should I be happy about that now?” Dr. Brainstem asked softly. “Before, I knew that the count was a prick, but losing a monstrous investment is still a sad thing to happen to anypony. But now, knowing the relationship Ironheart has with the count, I can’t help but feel like it was a good thing to have the count lose his money in that.”
Nopony answered, for they also didn’t know. After a while Twilight continued to read.
I’m planning to head for the Crystal Empire. Maybe there I can do my work underneath a mountain, or in the ranges. The cold won’t bother me. Infinisteel’s much more durable than steel, so it won’t turn brittle in the cold and the snow. I may have to walk because flying’s too conspicuous. Which is a shame, really. I want to test out these wings sometime soon.
“But he didn’t end up in the Crystal Empire, did he?” Rarity asked. “So what persuaded him to turn to Manehatten instead?”
“Let’s try to find where he said it,” Twilight said, flipping through the book. It took only three seconds of furious flipping until she said, “Ah-hah!” and slammed her hooves on the table. “Here it is.” She began to read aloud.
08/31/1000: It’s Nightmare Night. And for the first time, I’m the most terrifying thing out at night. I don’t even need a costume!
At the moment I’m camped outside a small town in the northern reaches, on the fringes of the Crystal Empire. But my course needs to be changed. I’m heading in the wrong direction.
I recently got a scrap of newspaper dropped off at the train station leading into the arctic north. It showed the unsavory headline telling the world that the count had headed off to Manehatten to improve his chances of being in a public office. And the picture had him sitting at his desk working on a paper that probably wasn’t important but he wanted to look impressive so he brought it in. And off to his side was a coffee and burek--probably to make it look like he had been there a long time and he needed a snack.
“What’s a burek?” Rainbow asked, squinting at the book. “Some kind of sandwich?”
“It’s more like a pie,” Pinkie provided. “But you’re close enough.”
“Trust it to Pinkie to know something like that,” Spike commented wryly off to the side.
It’s changed my plans. No more Crystal Empire. This time, I’ll finish my business with Count Privilege myself. I’m moving to Manehatten.
Twilight went to the next entry.
09/01/1000: Okay, slight issue I thought of that I didn’t think of before: Where will I stay? I’m pretty sure a living, breathing machine living in Manehatten will attract attention. I need someplace discreet, someplace where I’ll be uninterrupted in what I’ll be planning on doing. Oh, and someplace large. And impervious to sustained gradual damage.
“What does he mean?” Pinkie asked. “Sustained gradual damage? Is he working with dangerous stuff, or what?”
“Well, he’s working with guns,” Rarity pointed out. “ What if one of them was discharged?”
“But that’s not gradual,” Twilight said. “I think Pinkie’s right. He’s got to be working with dangerous chemicals and other objects like that. Remember how we saw all those substances in his lab?” She then turned her attention back to the book of marvels.
But so far as I can tell, there’s not a place like that anywhere in Manehatten. It’s all close buildings and small apartments and stuff like that. Except for--
Of course! The underground! Below the Maneway and the train systems! I can work there in peace and be undisturbed in my work!
Now, of course, the only problem is to construct the buildings and structures I need in the Underground and find some uranium for me to experiment on and work with. It can be hard to find anything large enough for my use.
“Uranium?” Dr. Brainstem looked confused.
“What’s the matter?” Rainbow asked, looking at the doctor. “Don’t you know why he needs this?”
“How should I know?” He spread his arms. “I got my degree in physical anatomy, not chemistry.”
“Well, let’s try to figure it out,” Twilight told him. “What does Ironheart want with Uranium?”
“It’s a relatively useless substance,” Dr. Brainstem said to her, adjusting his glasses. “Well, to our current knowledge, at least. We in Canterlot never examined it all that properly before, but we know that it’s a poor electrical conductor and it’s not all that hard. Uranium oxide was also used in pottery many thousands of years ago.”
“What else do we know so far about uranium?” Rainbow asked.
“It’s radioactive,” Twilight said to them all. “And that makes it really confusing as to why Ironheart would expose himself to such a dangerous substance. It may or may not affect Infinisteel, but why would Ironheart take the risk?”
“What does radioactive mean?” Pinkie asked.
“You remember how we talked about atoms before, Pinkie?” Twilight asked, ignoring the look of surprise Dr. Brainstem levied at them all at the mention of the talk about atoms. “This goes back to what we talked about. Atoms make up every part of our lives, but they don’t last forever. Since atoms are essentially pure energy, once they deteriorate, they give off some of that energy. Most of that energy is harmless to us, but some of it is incredibly dangerous. That energy they give off is called radiation, and the atoms that give off that harmful energy are therefore called radioactive.”
“How do you know this?” Dr. Brainstem asked.
“Oh, I just try to study everything I can get my hooves on,” Twilight said nonchalantly. “And when I say everything, I mean everything.”
Dr. Brainstem had a worried look on his face. “That’s almost exactly like how Bright Mind was,” he whispered. “Twilight, I want you to be careful to not become like him in your attempt to find knowledge.”
“Oh, don’t worry, doctor. I won’t.” But on the inside Twilight was uneasy. She couldn’t possibly become like Bright Mind. Right?
“So why does Ironheart want Uranium?” came Applejack’s voice. “And how does he get it, anyway?”
For a moment Twilight was confused. How did Ironheart gain the Uranium he needed for whatever he was planning?
And like a lightning bolt out of the sky, it hit her.
“It’s what Count Privilege is getting him,” she said in a hushed, shocked whisper.
Fluttershy leaned her head back. “Um, Twilight? You’re being a bit, um...quiet.”
“Almost as quiet as you?” Spike asked Fluttershy curiously. Fluttershy blushed and didn’t answer her.
Twilight turned around. “Amadeus told us that Client 24--Ironheart--was receiving a special kind of element from his trade partner. And we know now that it was Count Privilege.” She looked Rarity straight in the face. “What if the element he was getting for Ironheart was uranium?”
Rarity’s mouth fell straight open. “B-but... isn’t Count Privilege smarter than that?”
“Nopony ever accused him of being a genius,” Dr. Brainstem added darkly.
“Compared to him, Ironheart was certainly one!” Rarity said back. “He was a genius, an absolute genius!” She then suddenly frowned. “I mean, like, he was a, ah, genius, but he was a mad genius at that. He was like a scientist in one of those science fiction books I’ve read on occasion.”
“When did ya find the time to read science fiction books?” Applejack asked curiously.
“Oh, there have been lazy Sundays where I had nothing else to take my mind off of things, Applejack. I do simply love a good form of escapism!”
“I agree with Rarity,” Dr. Brainstem added. “He made everything bad in his life turn around for him and work in his favor! The more the criminal population got involved with him, the more they ensured their own destruction!”
“He was smart, I’ll give him that,” Twilight conceded. “But he didn’t focus on the right things or use his power for good. He could have been a phenomenal asset if he had decided to stay on the right path.”
“He set out on the path he thought was right, Twilight,” Rainbow said to her. “That’s what matters to how we’re supposed to perceive him.” But when Twilight gave her a saddened look, reminding her of all the things they had talked about before regarding Ironheart, she fell silent and pawed at the ground.
“Can we go ahead and read the rest of the journal now?” Dr. Brainstem asked politely after a while. “I’m curious to hear the rest of his story.”
Twilight shook her head to clear it and pulled a brass chain on a nearby light to illuminate the rapidly darkening night outside the window, making the entire room unnaturally dark and sinister. The light shone like a beacon in the office, but it was the only source of light in the room, and in the corners of the room the darkness seemed to coalesce and condense darkness into a solid form, an unnatural solid form that changed shape depending on who looked at it. It made anypony who took a glance at it shiver and draw closer to the lone light like a moth to a fire.
09/21/1000: After about three weeks, I’ve managed to sneak into the city through the sewers, settle myself in a small workplace in the Ultraground (What it’s called down here--I don’t know), gather materials to work with, and deposited the guns in the workspace. Now what I need to do is expand my influence inside the city and put myself as the secret manipulator of everything the city does. I manage to read all of the newspapers that come my way and by doing so I now know Count Privilege is campaigning to become a member of the city senate. Good luck with him for now, I suppose, but not when I’m through with him.
What I need is a way to make him bow to me, for him to recognize the fact that I can control him but without him realizing who I am really. For me to
The next part was uneasily written and damaged by water stains and age and smudged ink, making it unable for Twilight to read it, so she decided to skip that section and move on to the next part.
But I need to acquire at least a little bit of Uranium first for the long-term plans I need for the project I’m going to undertake. I call it the Manehatten project because, you know, it’s a project...and I’m doing it in Manehatten. I dunno, I’m not good on names. It will involve everything we as a species have ever learned about atoms and subatomic particles and radiation and all the relationships involved therein.
“Ah don’t like it,” Applejack stated slowly. “He’s plannin’ sumthin’ bad, and Ah don’t like it, Twi! Ah don’t know what he’s got in mind but Ah don’t like it one bit!”
“I feel uneasy about it too,” Twilight said as well. She avoided looking into the corners of the room where the darkness solidified and focused instead on Applejack’s face, illuminated by the lamp but throwing parts of her face into shadow. “I don’t know what kind of power you can get out of something as small as an atom, but whatever it is, Ironheart seems intent on using it.”
The next entry Twilight chose to read out of was yellow under the light Dr. Brainstem was using on his desk. The light seemed to be drained from the rest of the room for some reason, and it seemed to be because of the terrible book that now lay in front of her.
07/09/1001: My goodness, I haven’t written in a while. I’ve been busy.
Over the last few months I managed to construct and operate a whole bunch of new developments like underground heavy machinery and devices most others can only dream of creating. I used scrap metal and old machines that you find down in the underground, and to tell the truth, I actually envy Bright Mind right now, if only for the sole purpose that he could use magic. It’s not as if the material isn’t the type you want, you can’t cast a spell on it to make it into what you want. If the material wasn’t right, I would cast a spell on it to turn it into the element I would want, like with Infinisteel back when I inhabited Bright Mind’s feeble body. This particular piece of scrap metal isn’t reinforced steel or titanium alloy? Cast a spell while you know the elemental structure of the atom you want and bam! There’s your plate of metal you want, while it was just brass a moment or two ago. Except I can’t do that. I use these pieces of scrap and brass and copper and the occasional steel to construct the structures I need, meters and meters deep under my own little solitary lair under Manehatten’s sewers. And it’s makeshift, and it’s not as good as I’d like it to be. I might need more time for it to be accomplished.
The other problem I need to solve is how I need to actually acquire the uranium in the first place. I can’t just waltz out into the middle of the streets and purchase it from the local pawn shop, can I?
Twilight went to the next section of text. Ironheart was apparently not very regular with his journal entries the longer he remained as Ironheart. But that was understandable for Twilight. She reasoned that he simply wasn’t focusing on his innermost thoughts anymore and was trying hard to put the past behind him.
09/22/1003: I spent so much of my time down here. Goodness. I’ve been spending almost every waking hour working on the project and on my guns. I spent the last five or six months assembling and creating not only new materials for guns, but also machines to assemble them for me.
I can’t remember the last time I decided to go out in the open. And the few times I did, I spent it in a dark cloak near a dark alley in my pony form. I’ve taken to liking the bipedal form I can transform into. It’s stronger and more monstrous to look upon if I decide to ever show my face to the world again. But for now, if I am to spend any time aboveground, I must spend it concealed and in a form too reminiscent of a species I’m shamed to have once been a part of.
I figured it out, finally. How to progress on the Manehatten project. A few months ago I learned that there was an extremely strong black market in Manehatten, with hundreds of ponies eager to purchase things they otherwise normally couldn’t get. I’ve also been reverse-engineering the guns I made. And in that process, I was able to modify the guns, and improve their initial quality. In doing so, I was able to create many, many different types of the initial weapon. I made guns with a longer range than the original ones that you have to hold with two hands or hooves. I made launchers that can shoot small explosive missiles at enemies. I made guns that can shoot bullets like water from a hose if you hold down the trigger. I made horrible, terrible weapons that made it easier than ever to take the life of another.
And I intend on selling them on the black market.
“See, this is the part that’s confusing to me,” Dr. Brainstem said, readjusting his glasses. “If he cares about innocent life, why would he sell such volatile weapons to criminals?”
“I think if we read later on we’ll find out,” Twilight said, returning to the book.
Oh, but Bright Mind! You can’t do that! Why do you want to put civilians in harm’s way? I thought you were supposed to be bright!
Twilight blinked. “That came on a lot quicker than I thought,” she muttered, before returning to the book.
And I am bright. This is the way to prove that all life is a terrible thing.
I hate the equine race, but so far I have no compelling evidence to back it up. So if I give them the opportunity to prove that they can’t be trusted with my weapons, then I have reason to come after them and hurt them, because they proved--to me and to the rest of the world--that they can’t be trusted. They use their power to abuse their privileges and hurt those that don’t deserve it. Guns are a litmus test. They're just a tool. Left by themselves, they will not kill anypony. If I give somepony a gun and say, “Do whatever you want with this,” and he uses it to commit crimes, then I have a reason to take away his life because he abused the privilege of life.
So I can sell them the earliest weapons I was able to make. Not only will this prove to the world that they are scum, I can also create income to support my progress on the Manehatten project. But eventually, I can be satisfied with my money income and need to acquire uranium.
But the other pony filth don’t have much of it either! It’s rare, and it’s hard to find. Unless you have the resources.
But I just had a stroke of an idea. Anything can be found if you have the resources for it. So once I realized that, I thought, “Who do I know that has money, but doesn’t know how to use it?”
And it hit me. Count Privilege. At the moment he’s in charge of the Manehatten city council and head of the Committee of Internal Affairs. I could persuade him
Sorry I cut off there. I formed a plan for myself after I wrote that bit, so I had to cut off rather abruptly. What I plan to do is come to him when he’s alone and talk to him in a disguise. I’ll say I can promise him weapons beyond his wildest dreams, weapons made by a pony he hated all those years ago. I’ll tell him that I was the one that caused the accident that killed Bright Mind, and that I wanted him dead, and that I stole his weapons and plan to give them all to the Count. But at a price. He needs to deliver to me pieces of the element uranium. He won’t suspect the purpose I’m using it for. How could he, when I’m the only one that knows the catastrophic power that could be unleashed because I studied and expounded theories when I was transmuting Infinisteel and found out the power of atoms?
I can make others do what I want for a change, rather than doing everything for others. Bend to my will now, you miserable undergrowth. Look up your heads and acquiesce to real power--the power of a threat. It’s a subtle threat, but it’s the only kind of power that really matters. All power is based on a threat, really. But it’s only if you carry out that threat that really matters if ponies want to PAY ATTENTION TO YOU! Because you need to get the message across that you are NOT TO BE TAMPERED WITH! AND THAT IF THEY DEFY YOU, YOU CAN GIVE THEM WHAT THEY DESERVE!
Oh crap, what did I just write down there? I think it felt good to do that. You know, like, write in capital letters? I like it when that happens. You feel like you’re so emotive when you do that, you know?
“He’s mad,” Rarity whispered softly as Twilight read it aloud. “He snapped a long time ago.”
Anyway, I need to write down all of the science I need and I discovered when I was creating Infinisteel. Creating a new metal on the molecular level unlocked a brand new myriad of possibilities I didn’t know before, or maybe anypony else knew before.
For example, I discovered that it’s common, already discovered knowledge that radioactivity can be produced if you bombard uranium with neutrons, but also that a single neutron is fired at an atom like a bullet from a gun, it makes the atom blow to pieces. And those pieces of the atom can fly into other atoms and molecules and blow them apart as well, and cause a chain reaction. The nucleus of the atom can be split by neutrons! Nuclear fission is possible after all!
“Hey!” Pinkie gasped all of a sudden. “This is what Ironheart meant when he said there was more in the journal than the musings of a fallen soul!”
“Is this right?” Twilight asked Dr. Brainstem curiously, looking up from the book.
Dr. Brainstem scratched his chin. “I’m...not certain, Twilight. But if there’s anypony that was certain of what he was doing, it was Bright Mind. So if he says this is true, I’m willing to believe it.” They then both turned back to the awful journal.
03/05/1004: My goodness, I need to keep up. It's been a bit of a hassle these past few months. I managed to talk to Count Privilege under the guise of "Client 24" (the number 24 isn't coincidental--it's the name of the project we were working on. I'll let him figure it out, though--he's stupid!) and made a deal that he can buy guns from me. It worked out even better than I thought, actually. The Count told me that if he redistributes them to the criminal population for a price, he gets reimbursed by the money they pay him. And that allows them to be tested with the weapons, and allows me an excuse to go out and kill them off once they prove that they aren't responsible for what they've been gifted.
Anyway, according to my research, only a few kilograms of uranium are needed to create a weapon of severe devastation by having the atoms split in a chain reaction that can erupt in catastrophic damage. All I must do now is create the essential machinery and parts to help me split the atom. It could take years before I finish, before the Manehatten project is finally complete. And when it is, all the world shall bow in my shadow and know that I am the pony that has the only power that really matters.
“A weapon of severe devastation?” Pinkie asked innocently. “Like having the sky be illuminated by the soft red light of flames? Like having buildings be flattened? Like having the ground turned to ash?” She suddenly gasped and leaped three feet in the air. “Twilight! Ironheart was talking about the Manehatten project!”
Twilight understood at once. It was even more serious than she had thought. Assuming Ironheart was telling the truth, he had constructed a weapon that could level a city. Twilight and her friends were almost certainly doomed to fail.
She let her eyes drift down towards the haunting book, the book that was so compelling to read out of yet hurt to even look at, leaving the girls feeling so sick, so disgusted by the twisted, dark thoughts inside. Twilight felt worse than she had felt before at any other point in her life. The sheer idea of it was almost incomprehensible, but she managed it, and the prospect of it made her shudder.
Because Twilight was scared. Scared not only of Ironheart, but also of all the devastation that would be caused, all the lives that would be lost, all the individual stories that would be ended by a single click of a button and a single eruption of flame and a single, concussive sound that would roar in the ears of whoever heard it, then suddenly cut off as you were caught up in its wake.
“The Manehatten project…” she whispered. It was a terrible, terrible thing to think about. It hurt her throat to even say it.
Then after only a few seconds she snapped her head up and said with a newfound determination, “Spike, take a note.”
Spike jolted his head backward. It was rare nowadays for Twilight to take notes anymore, as her friendship lessons had gotten to the point where she no longer had to give reports to Princess Celestia. So Spike was more often than not accustomed to not taking down notes at a moment’s notice But nevertheless, he took a piece of parchment and a quill off of the crowded tabletop in the doctor’s office and stood ready at attention.
“Dear Princess Celestia,” Twilight began, pacing up and down the small office, every eye now on her. “The situation in Manehatten has gotten out of control. The Night Terror has killed dozens--maybe even hundreds by now, and he intends on killing more. After investigation, we’ve discovered that…” She paused, trying to decide in her head not only how to phrase her next sentence, but if she should even say it at all. What should they say about Bright Mind in the letter? Then her stance became firm again. “...that the Night Terror is a pony called Ironheart, who swore to obliterate everypony that would terrorize the innocent. We... believe... that Ironheart’s methods are getting out of hoof. I don’t know what course of action we should pursue now, but…” She paused. That part, at least, was true.
Twilight didn’t know what to do. On the one hoof, she didn’t want to have Ironheart’s power spiral out of control and make him detonate the Manehatten project prematurely, so they needed to stop Ironheart before that happened. But on the other hoof, she also felt deep and profound sympathy for him. Such a pony, a pony that had been wounded and scarred by the uncaring world he had been thrust into, a pony that had been molded into a monster by the circumstances he had been in, alone and afraid and hurt. A pony that had been alienated and abandoned by nearly everyone. A pony that wanted only to make sure the world never hurt him again by hurting the world back. Twilight’s soul ached for him.
“But?” Spike prompted.
Twilight suddenly remembered she had been speaking before, and she racked her brains for the response she was about to give. When she found it, she continued. “But I hope you can receive this letter and decide the proper course of action. Ironheart has been building a superweapon that could destroy the city of Manehatten. I don’t mean to pressure you, but... we need help. I don’t know if we can defeat Ironheart on our own. Please respond as soon as you can. Your faithful student... Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
Spike put down the final spot of ink on the paper, rolled it up, and was about to send it with a blow before he stopped and looked at Twilight. “I dunno, Twilight... I get the feeling this is gonna be a bad idea.”
“How can it be a bad idea?” Twilight asked. “We’re asking for help. The worst that can happen is she says no.”
Spike looked at the letter for only an instant more. The room was still.
Then he finally blew a resigned sigh, and the letter disintegrated into flame and flew in a green spiral through the glass window overlooking the silhouetted ghostly spires of Manehatten. They all collectively watched it disappear. And it felt like imagination more than anything else, but the room already seemed a lot colder than they remembered.