//------------------------------// // Harmony // Story: The Infestation of Equiss Prime // by Jest //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle shivered intensely, clutching the loose blankets that surrounded her, whimpering pathetically. “S-s-so c-c-c-c-cold,” she muttered through chattering teeth. Her mother grimaced, placing a foreleg on the filly’s head, only to recoil. “She's burning up! What do we do?” “I don't know. Her fever hasn't cracked a hundred yet, this might just be a bad cold,” her father lamented. “I’ve never seen a cold this bad in my entire life!” the mare exclaimed, gesturing to the shaking filly who had cast aside all her blankets only to grab them a few seconds later. “We will keep an eye on her, if it gets any worse, we will bring her to the hospital. Alright?” The mare glanced down at her shaking child and slowly nodded. “Alright, but I will be checking on her constantly and if that temperature gets even a degree worse we are out of here, mister!” Night Light smiled and nuzzled his wife. “Of course, my dear. I have to get some work done but after that I’ll come back down to watch her.” Twilight Velvet planted a quick kiss on her husband’s cheek. “Alright.” The male smiled and planted a kiss on the mare’s cheek as well. “She’ll be fine, Twilight is a tough filly. This won't keep her down for long.” “I hope you are right, dear.” Night Light turned and departed, slipping the door shut behind him, leaving Velvet alone with her child and her worries. The filly squirmed under the blankets, clutching her stomach before suddenly belching loud enough to make her mother blink in shock. “You should have done that when your father was here, he would have been impressed.” The filly tried to laugh, only to wince and clutch her stomach again. “Owie.” “Where does it hurt?” The mare leaned down, lifting the filly’s hoof from her stomach and inspecting the normal, purple fur beneath. “My tummy is rumbly again,” the filly whined before gripping her stomach with her forehooves. “Alright, stay right there, I’m going to go grab the tummy-I mean stomach medicine.” The mare gently ran her hoof through the filly’s sweat stained hair before getting up and trotting towards the bathroom. Twilight Sparkle doubled over and whimpered, her magic sparking randomly and sending small jets of sparks into the air, leaving tiny scorch marks on her pillow. The filly pulled the blankets over body, which had once more grown incredibly cold in an instant. Inside the filly’s body the zerg parasite twisted and writhed, its form assaulted by unseen forces. Its expansion had been a simple task up until this point, growing larger and wrapping itself around the filly’s internal organs, preparing its host body for its eventual maturation into a true infested. That was until it tried to tap into several strange, fibrous strands that stretched through the filly’s body. The parasite didn't know what to do with the strange extensions and had tried to infest them, believing them to be another set of veins it simply hadn't found. The second it had tried though, the parasite’s very being, and that of its host were suddenly filled with intense agony, their nervous systems too tightly intertwined to distinguish who was truly in pain. Unknown to the zerg parasite, it had tried to tap into the filly’s Lambda system, which stored and moved mana throughout the young filly’s body and her magic did not appreciate intruders. Like all of the body’s systems, her mana network had its own defences, only this line of defence was not something the primitive zerg parasite knew how to undermine. Every attempt had left the parasite shocked and confused and in that confusion it had franticly cut off the source of this strange system, pinching off the point where it connected to the filly’s brain and retreating, hoping that would solve it. Yet even hours after it had cut off this strange system. it and its host still felt the after affects of its defence. The filly breathed heavily, the worst of the cold abating for a moment, only to not be replaced by a sudden hot flash. The filly uncurled slightly, warily looking down at her traitorous stomach. “I got the medicine, does it still hurt?” Twilight Velvet asked, walking into the filly’s room with a bottle and spoon held aloft in her magic. The filly shook her head. “It stopped.” She winced, feeling another pang of pain. “Nevermind.” The older mare shook her head and knelt close to the filly’s bed, medicine already filling the spoon. “Can you sit up for me?” The filly nodded, slowly rising into a sitting position before opening her mouth. “Good girl. Now, it won't taste very good, but don't spit it out, okay?” The filly nodded and the older mare placed the spoon in the filly’s mouth, who swallowed the medicine dutifully, only gagging once before swallowing and falling back to bed. “Thank you, mommy.” The mare smiled gently, running her hoof through the filly’s tangled mane. “Are you sure you are alright to go to the exam tomorrow? I’m sure we can talk to the judges and get you another day…” Twilight’s enormous eyes shot open suddenly. “No! You can't!” “You are in no state to undergo the rigorous testing procedures of Celestia’s school.” The mare shook her head. “You can hardly move for Celestia’s sake.” The filly jumped into a standing position. “Nuh uh!” she announced proudly, only to topple forward, landing on her snout. “Oof,” she muttered into the pillow. Her mother shook her head. “That's good that you still have energy, but it's that stomach ache that worries me. Colds don't do that Twilight, this might be serious.” “But dad said if I got better I could go!” the filly cried indignantly. “Yes, well your father is a bit too much of an optimist.” “What if I really do get better?” the filly asked with wide, sparkling eyes. The mare sighed. “I suppose if you are all better by tomorrow morning, don't have a fever and don't have any more tummy rumbles, then you can go.” The mare held up a warning hoof. “But if you lie to me just to go to the exam, you are going to be in huge trouble missy, ya got that?” The filly grinned weakly and nodded. “Yes mommy.” “Good.” She sighed. “Now I’m going to make you some more toast, if you can hold that down I might let you have some stew before you go to bed.” The filly licked her lips. “Okie dokie!” The mare gave her one long parting glance before getting up and walking over to the door. “You just lay there and try not to move too much, mommy will read you a story when she gets back.” The filly nodded enthusiastically, and the mare reluctantly turned and left, the sound of her hooves disappearing down the hall. The filly turned down and glared at her traitorous belly. “You better not throw this up or we won't get any stew!” Her stomach gurgled a little in response, making the filly’s glare harshen even more. The judging room was filled with the soft glow of the morning light, illuminating a nervous filly in the center of the room, four judges sitting at the back, at the highest point of the lecture hall and two nervous parents looking on from the sidelines. The mother’s brow was creased with worry and she watched her filly shift nervously from hoof to hoof as she waited for the exam to start. “Are you sure she's alright, dear? She was still running a bit of a temperature,” Twilight Velvet lamented. Her husband sighed and rolled his eyes. “We went over this dear. The worst of her symptoms are gone, I even scried her room when she was alone and she didn't clutch her stomach anymore. Whatever she had is fading quickly, why I’d wager by this afternoon it will be gone completely.” “You’re right, of course I just…” Her husband draped a hoof over shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze. “It's alright, I was scared too, but she just wanted to play in her new tree house. I’m sure it was just a cold or something.” “I guess, but if it comes back we are taking her straight to the hospital.” The stallion chuckled. “Yes dear.” The two ponies turned back to the center of the room where their filly waited nervously, glancing from the judges to the door. Suddenly the double doors at the end of the room clattered open, revealing a cart filled with hay, on top of which a small purple orb sat nestled in the center. The light brown earth pony stallion pushing the cart nodded once to the filly before smirking and walking backwards out the room. The filly blinked, glancing around to the front of the cart where a simple diagram of a hatching egg was displayed. She blinked, glancing from the diagram to the egg and back again. An aged yellow unicorn mare with a poofy faded purple mane coughed into her hoof, drawing the attention of the filly. “Well, Miss Sparkle?” The filly glanced at the egg, and laughed nervously. As if that were the cue all four judges magically raised their clipboards and began furiously scribbling at their sheets. The sound of four identical pencils all scratching away made Twilight gulp, a bead of sweat dripping down her face. The same unicorn mare from before frowned. “Well, Miss Sparkle?” she repeated, nodding towards the egg. The judge at the end of the row coughed dryly, sparing a glance at the now nervous parents. The filly turned back to the egg and took a few hesitant steps back before lowering her horn and willing everything she had into the organ. Power seemed to surge at her call only to falter before it reached her horn, stymied by some unseen force holding her mana at bay. The filly grunted with exertion, tiny sparks beginning to shoot from her horn, only to make it a mere inches before disappearing. She looked up at the egg with wide hopeful eyes, expecting to see some sort of change, only to find nothing. The filly clamped her mouth shut once more, and strained every muscle she had, pointing her horn squarely at the centre of the egg. Again the power seemed to course through her, only to reach the base of her horn and sputter weakly, turning into another pathetic shower of sparks. One of the older stallions with a greying mane yawned loudly and the yellow mare from before glanced at her watch. “We don't have all day,” she pointed out dryly. The filly’s eyes grew wide and she looked back at the egg, her mind running a million miles a minute as she tried to figure out how exactly she was supposed to do to hatch this egg. In all her studies she had yet to find some manner of hatching spell, or even anything close. Not like it mattered, as for some reason her magic refused to obey her call, turning the already limited power she had into little more than a trickle. She sprinted to the other side of the egg, trying a strange pose she had seen in an ancient history book. Again her magic didn't come and again her desperation increased. Running back over to the other side she struck another wild pose, this one she had seen in a Daring Do book, hoping it would help her magic. When the egg didn't react she ran back over, straining her horn once more and hoping the different angle would somehow help. Nothing. She leapt up onto the cart, wrapping her hooves about the egg and peering intently at the top, trying to pour magic back into her horn and getting rewarded by yet another small shower of sparks. Nothing She leapt back down and stood on her back hooves, pointing her forehooves at the egg as her muscles strained. She pulled back her forehooves and tried again, only to slump in defeat when nothing happened. In hindsight, she really hadn't expected the power of Celestia to compel the egg to hatch, but she didn't have any other leads. She sprinted back around the other side of the egg and squinted her eyes, pushing everything she had into mustering every ounce of power she could bring to bear. Muscles coiled and strained and the filly’s cheeks puffed out as her face grew red. She gritted her teeth and leaned forward, putting everything she had into this blast of pure magic. Nothing. With a resounding flop she fell to the floor, hooves splayed in all directions and her breathing coming in short raspy bursts. On the sidelines her parents shared a worried look, her mother gulping nervously and glancing up at the judges who were furiously writing away at their clipboards. The filly slowly picked herself off the floor and plunked into a sitting position. She glanced one last time at the judges and sighed, a tear beginning to form at the edge of her eye. “I’m sorry I wasted your time.” Out of nowhere a massive explosion rocked the entire school, making the filly cringe and instinctively light her horn, her body readying its flight or flight response. Her magic doubled unexpectedly, growing from the small sputter to a raging river of power, her horn glowing brightly. As the rumbling continued her horn’s light grew and grew until the filly realized what was happening. She quickly put her head down and aimed her horn squarely at the egg, releasing the massive build up of energy that had managed to slip past whatever had been holding her back. The beam connected with the egg with an explosion of light, leaving behind the shattered remnants of the egg’s shell. Within the crumpled bits of shell, a floating dragon the size of a foal uncurled and extended its forearms, yawning and smacking its lips. It floated there in mid air, blinking owlishly at the filly in childlike wonder. The filly only had a second to witness the dragon’s adorableness before her magic surged once more, making her cry out in panic. Her body levitated off the ground, held aloft by the filly’s own errant magic, her horn growing brighter by the second. With a tremendous flash of light, the energy exploded outward, rippling over the room and its inhabitants. The power lingered over the forms of the judges, picking them up and surrounding them in the filly’s dull purple magic. The sphere holding them bulged and twisted before a tendril of magic extended from the blob and reached toward the filly’s parents. The magic gripped them, lifting them into the air like the judges, only to falter when the two ponies spontaneously turned into a pair of potted plants. With the magic having nowhere else to go, it leapt across the room, hitting the baby dragon like a lightning bolt and causing his body to glow brightly. The baby’s body twisted for a second before suddenly exploding with growth, its tiny limbs and hoof sized head were gone in an instant, replaced by a two story tall quadruped dragon whose upper body had burst through the roof. The dragon blinked, a tiny smile on its lips as it looked around from its new vantage point, catching the eye of a certain passing alicorn. Inside, the filly writhed in unrestrained panic, blinding white light filling her eyes and spilling out into the world. Great surges of raw magic arced throughout the room, shooting out of the windows and slipping through the cracks of the wooden roof and up into the sky. Time seemed to slow and the filly’s mind was suddenly invaded by the sound of a voice whispering something the filly could barely hear. It was a strange, chittering, almost insect-like voice that sounded like it was coming from somewhere on the other side of Canter Mountain. The voice spoke in a language the filly couldn't understand, but after a moment it began chittering excitedly, its voice raising a few octaves. The filly felt a tug at the back of her mind, only for it to immediately falter. The voice grew confused, asking what sounded like questions. Then the voice was gone, vanishing just as suddenly as it had appeared. Twilight Sparkle could feel her magic pouring through her in amounts she had never felt before, and despite her best efforts to stop the veritable flood of power, nothing seemed to work. She grunted, twisting her limbs in a vain effort to get the magic to stop. Suddenly, amidst the panic and terror that filled her, a hoof touched her shoulder. It was gentle, but stern, commanding the filly’s attention. The filly blinked, not noticing that with every blink the light changed from a pure white to a strange, sickly yellow. The blinding light that surrounded her faded as the filly truly saw the towering shape of a white alicorn looming over her. The alicorn herself felt strangely unnerved by the orange light still emanating from the filly’s eyes, but wrote it off as a simple magical accident from the filly’s recent flare. She nodded, giving the filly a small, confident smile. The filly couldn't help but smile back, the aura surrounding her slowly fading until all at once it disappeared entirely. As the magic vanished, the judges suddenly fell to the ground, her parents becoming ponies once more. Her father stared at his hooves in shock while her mother shook herself vigorously, trying to shake some unseen thing off her back. Finally, the giant baby dragon flashed with a surge of magenta light before returning once more to its tiny, adorable form. It blinked, looking around the wreckage of the cart that had carried its egg before pulling its tiny spade-like tail up and into its mouth, sucking softly at the scale-y appendage. The filly winced under the gaze of the princess, looking up at the damage she had accidentally wrought on the roof, avoiding the gaze of the alicorn whom was still staring at her with what looked like a mixture of pride and confusion. Celestia shrugged off the persistent presence of the orange light still pouring from the filly’s eyes, merely thankful it was little more than a soft glow now. The light’s existence was hardly the strangest thing to happen to a pony who underwent a flare of that magnitude after all. “Twilight Sparkle-” “I’m so sorry, I didn't mean to put a hole in the roof, I’ll fix it! I promise!” The alicorn chuckled, shaking her head. “You have a very special gift. I don't think I’ve ever come across a unicorn with your raw ability.” The filly’s jaw hung open. “Whuh?” The alicorn tittered at the adorably shocked expression on the filly’s face. “But you need to learn to tame these abilities through focused study.” “Whuh?” the filly muttered. The alicorn pressed a hoof to her chest. “Twilight Sparkle, I would like to make you my own personal protege,” she gestured her hoof outards, toward the the school, “here at my School for Gifted Unicorns like you.” “Whuh!” the filly exclaimed, her jaw somehow hanging open even more. “Well?” the alicorn asked. The filly blinked, turning back to her confused and slightly concerned parents. Upon meeting their filly’s strange gaze they instantly lit up, her father nodding her head enthusiastically while her mother danced on her back hooves, pumping a hoof into the air. Both parents doing their best to stow the fear that lingered in their hearts when they looked into their filly’s eyes. The filly spun back around, all her coiled energy suddenly exploding out of her hooves and launching her into the air. “YEESS!” she squealed, jumping into the air with all her might. “Two things first, Twilight,” the alicorn added. The filly’s large eyes grew even bigger. “More?” She gasped. The alicorn shook her head and pointed towards the filly’s flank that was now adorned by a six pointed orange star with five other yellow stars surrounding it and small white points poking out behind the main star. The filly gasped, twisting around to get a better view at her flank. “My cutie mark!” Twilight Sparkle leapt into the air. “YES YES YES YES YES!” the filly repeated as she continued to bounce around the alicorn. After the second round around the princess, Celestia shook her head and laughed. “There is one last thing, Twilight.” The filly stopped, dread suddenly filling her huge, featureless orange eyes. “What else?” The alicorn pointed to her eyes. “I think you may have had a slight misspell during your little flare.” “Whuh?” she muttered before turning towards the nearby window and blinking owlishly. Her mother coughed awkwardly. “What exactly does that mean, Your Majesty?” The alicorn shrugged. “Probably just a miscast having to do with the color orange, which would explain why her cutie mark clashes so oddly with her coat. Nothing to worry about. I’ll just have her checked up. Just in case, sometimes odd things happen during flares.” The filly’s father gulped and glanced over to his daughter, who was staring in childlike wonder at her glowing orange eyes. “Nothing serious, I hope?” “I’ll be honest. There's a chance, which is why I want to get her checked out. But while she was hopping about, I cast a quick scan and found that she isn't in any pain.” She smiled confidently at the parents. “I’ve seen this a dozen of times. It might be nothing, or it might be small like she didn't like the white light and wanted it gone, only to accidentally turn it this odd yellowy orange color.” The parents sighed in relief, watching as their filly stopped making faces at her reflection and turned back around. “Does this mean I can shoot laser beams out of my eyes?” Celestia blinked, caught off guard by the innocent question. “Not likely, but well see.” She winked at the filly who squealed in delight, and hopped around, making ray gun noises as she squinted at random things throughout the room. “Come now, Twilight, we should go test to see if those flashlights on your face are able to shoot lasers,” the alicorn said while barely holding back a giggle. The filly stopped squinting at the blackboard and trying to will lasers from her eyes. “But what about my mom and dad?” “Oh, it will only take a minute. They can wait for you right here if they would like?” Celestia offered. The pair exchanged a look before nodding. “Of course, Your Majesty,” Night Light offered. Twilight Velvet smiled at her filly. “Now, you make sure to do everything Princess Celestia tells you, okay? And no shooting lasers without her permission.” “Daww.” The filly kicked the ground. “Oookay,” she lamented. The alicorn chuckled and turned to the door. “Come now, Twilight. It's not far from here.” The filly giggled and ran after the alicorn. “Do you really think I have laser vision?” The alicorn tried to hold back a laugh as the pair walked down the hall, her response and the rest of the conversation obscured by the sound of their hoofsteps echoing into the distance. The alicorn and filly had not returned to the parents in the few minutes Celestia had first said, in fact they had not returned for so long that the princess had been forced to tell the parents to return home and await word. That was two days ago. Celestia stood silently before the one way mirror, watching the filly on the other side of the window read one of the many books that grew in piles around her on her hospital bed. This area of Canterlot general hadn't seen use in decades, having last housed a pair of ponies that they believed had come down with cutie pox. Only to discover that they were simply using an illusion spell to scare the populace in an attempt to sell them the ‘cure’, which turned out to be a horseradish colored pink. Since then, the observational containment rooms had been left unused, gathering dust in the nearly forgotten dangerous epidemiology wing. Celestia made a note of changing the name of the wing, it sounded far too intimidating for a simple set of rooms designed to contain and study ponies in isolation. The filly flipped a page, having not bothered to open the blinds on her window more than an inch or two, due to the glowing yellow light emitting from her eyes that enabled her to read in near darkness. She continued to read, only to yawn suddenly, her mouth opening wide and revealing a small set of canines hidden amidst the flat molars that ponies were supposed to have. The filly smacked her lips and went back to reading, eagerly delving into the complex magical formula book that Celestia had given her as ‘homework’. The alicorn glanced to her right, where x-rays of the filly’s barrel, which showed a spiralling growth of foreign matter coiled tightly around the filly’s spinal column and extending into most parts of her body and even brain. The alicorn’s jaw clenched and she slowly shook her head, going back to watching the filly as she continued to read. This strange parasite was truly insidious, binding itself to not only most of the filly’s internal organs, but also her spine, brain stem and frontal cortex. Removal was outright impossible and worse still, it seemed to have changed more than just the filly’s orange glowing eyes and new, sharper teeth. The unicorn foal now had several new organs, an expanded stomach and several other minor anomalies that Celestia and her doctors had been unable to determine the purpose of. Stranger still was the fact that despite watching and monitoring the parasite for several days, it had shown no changes. The filly’s parents had mentioned that she had been sick the day before, meaning the parasite might only have had twenty four hours to grow. In that time, it had apparently winded its way throughout the filly’s entire body and yet, since then, it had not showed any changes whatsoever. Had it reached maturity that quickly? What was the purpose of remaining dormant? Was it a parasite at all or some new strange infection or disease? Was this filly just some sort of mutant? Celestia rolled her eyes at her own line of questions. Mutating randomly during a flare wasn't unheard of, but it was always random, with the worst such event being a mare growing an extra leg out the side of her barrel. Even still, the limb had not been complete, being mere fat, skin and bone without any sort of muscle or nerves. This was on an entirely different level. Celestia could not even begin to figure out what exactly happened to this filly, as the changes were so extensive and numerous that it would take years to truly figure out. Worse yet, the parasite didn't seem entirely dormant and the single, early attempt made to extract a sample had ended poorly. As if the filly was remembering the same thing, she reached out and scratched her bandaged stomach, tugging at the gauze that bound most of her midsection. The alicorn shook her head and went back through the mental list of things she knew about parasites. First, they would infest their prey, then usually reproduce or change their host in order to attract their next host. Celestia remembered studying the strange parasite that made snail’s eye stalks grow to ludicrous sizes and forced them to climb to the highest point available. All in an attempt to attract a bird from which the parasite could finish its life cycle. Yet ponies were almost outside the food chain, they subsisted entirely on plants, nothing preyed on them and almost all known parasites had died off or been weeded out over the centuries. There was simply nothing left that hunted ponies, there existed only a very rare few predators that were even alive to this day that had tasted pony flesh and most of those were ancient dragons who preyed upon the modern pony’s distant ancestor. Perhaps this was some ancient parasite meant to be eventually consumed by a dragon? The alicorn had never heard of such a thing, but right now she was open to any possibility, no matter how improbable. Unless this was its goal. She sighed and shook her head. She had no idea where to start, or how. Silently the alicorn watched as the filly read, her mind whirling with ideas, but nothing substantial. A knock on the door shocked the alicorn from her thoughts. “Come in,” she commanded. A small, thin unicorn doctor with a silver coat and grey mane slipped inside and smiled at the alicorn. “You are looking well this evening, Your Majesty.” Celestia smiled faintly. “And you are as kind as ever, Silver Scalpel.” The doctor rolled her eyes. “Please, just call me Silver.” “As you say then, Silver. Any more news on our patient?” The doctor shifted nervously, her near permanent smile falling from her face. “No… unfortunately.” “And the tests?” “All negative.” Celestia furrowed her brow. “Then the parasite is not transmittable.” “It does not seem like it, Your Majesty.” “Strange…” “Quite.” The doctor coughed into her hoof. “If I may be so bold to ask you a personal question.” Celestia turned to the smaller mare. “Of course.” “Are you still going to take her on as your student?” The doctor scratched her neck. “It's all she ever talks about.” “Afflicted though she may be, Twilight seems to be entirely herself and that doesn't seem like its going to change any time soon.” The doctor sighed. “Oh, thank goodness.” “I will just need to find her a permanent physician, one who can devote their time to studying this… parasite, and determining more of its origins and true nature.” She turned to the doctor suddenly, an intense look in the alicorn’s eyes. “Do you know somepony who might fit the bill?” The mare pressed her hoof into the tiled floor, turning it awkwardly and avoiding the alicorn’s gaze. “Well… I was thinking of going back for my second masters and this would make for an interesting case study of entirely unheard of afflictions.” The alicorn raised her eyebrow. “That doesn't sound secret.” “I mean I wouldn't be able to get my second master’s until you eventually decide to declassify this…” she added, a slight hopeful expression spreading across her face. “When we cure her, you will have your published study, and if even half of our guesses are true, likely another master’s degree to hang on your wall.” The doctor let out a muffled squeal of delight. “You won't regret this, Your Majesty!” “I will send you more information on this unique position in the coming days. Also, do you happen to know a good psychologist by chance?” Silver blinked. “Why would you need a psychologist?” “Whatever this parasite is, it has infiltrated her frontal lobe. Though no changes have been discovered, that may not always be the case. Having somepony familiar with Twilight Sparkle’s personality and habits would be able to detect any sudden changes. This pony would be able to monitor the more cerebral changes the parasite may have.” Silver nodded thoughtfully. “I know this kinda sounds like nepotism, but my marefriend just completed her study at the Royal Manehattan Institute of Psychology.” Celestia chuckled, looking down at the blushing mare who withered under the look. “I will check out her credentials. This will be a long posting, if my instincts are right, this may mean signing up for a decade or more of monitoring and secrecy. Are you sure that's something you two could commit to?” Silver Scalpel nodded. “You can count on us, Your Majesty!” “You don't have the job yet, but I will look at both you and your marefriend’s…” “Oh uh, Velvet Touch.” “...Velvet Touch’s resume and determine if you are right for this unique position.” “Will I have to share lab space, or?” “If selected, you will have an entire lab to yourself as well as assistants and whatever else you require, but more about that later.” The two fell into comfortable silence, with Silver Scalpel grinning like a mad mare, her mind awhirl with possibilities, while Celestia stared grimly at the filly behind the glass. She had put down her book and turned to the window, staring mournfully out over Canterlot, her thoughts surely going out to the family she had not seen in several days. “You may go, Silver. I will be in contact with you soon about the position, one way or another.” The doctor bowed low. “Thank you for this opportunity, Your Majesty.” The alicorn merely nodded. After waiting a few seconds, Celestia turned to the door that led to the filly’s room and after casting a few protection charms on her person, turned the handle and stepped into the room beyond, ready to give the filly the good news.