My consciousness returned and my eyes refocused on my surroundings, I was surprised that I was in what looked like another cage in in a basement and a low buzzing noise in my ears. The bars of the cage were brightly polished and even in the low light of the room, I could see some kind of rainbow colored smoke coming from them. I tried to stand up but not even my fingers would move and I could only lay there with a gnawing hunger in my stomach.
“…uly incredible, I have never in all my years seen a creature such as this, it’s entire body is composed of stone and crystal, right down to its internal organs” a nasally voice caught my attention as it was at best only a few feet away from me.
“This specimen seems to be able to contain magic within itself in a primal state, always in flux but still maintaining perfect control, I doubt even the Princesses could manage such a feat for very long.” I could hear in his voice that he was excited about this ‘specimen’ of his.
My attention was drawn away from the conversation when I heard a small squeak, when I looked over to where the noise came from; I came eye to eye with a small orange coated pony that had a horn and a pair of wings with a short cut blonde mane. She gave another squeak before quickly running off out of my sight.
“The thingy is awake!” her distinctively high-pitched female voice told me that she was a filly.
“Third Gear! What have I told you about using such slack-jawed language!?” the first voice that I heard shouted with frustration and I heard what sounded like a fist hitting something soft and a yelp.
“Sorry… Professor, the thi… specimen is awake” The filly apparently named Third Gear said with a shaky voice.
“Is it now? Then let it get a look at us” his voice had a certain smugness that made my stone skin crawl.
I hear the clopping of hooves on wood as the unicorn came into my line of sight. He was tall and gangly with a pale green coat, a forest green mane and tail, sickly yellow eyes and on his… flank was a tattoo of some kind that looked like two interlocking gears. He was also wearing a pair of rectangular glasses and what looked like a flannel turtle neck but didn’t have any pants on.
“Hello there Specimen, do you understand me?” there was a clipboard and pencil levitating in a sickly green aura that was matched by the aura on his horn.
Another set of memories from Copy and Duplicate came barreling into focus.
‘Unicorns are capable of all sorts of magical feats that originate from their horns; each unicorn has a unique aura to match their color, the simplest form of magic is telekinesis.’
“Hmm… Specimen does not seem to understand Equestrian” he was thinking out loud as he wrote down more notes.
“No… I… under… stand” each syllable was agonizingly painful as I struggled to speak.
“Oh… well that makes things easier” he quickly dragged his pencil across the clipboard to scratch out his previous note.
“Hun… gry… need… magic.”
“Ah yes, we thought that may be the case so we have something you might like” he had a sinister smile on his face as he waved a hoof to a pony of to the side.
I heard a door open and close and a few minutes later it re-opened and I heard the squeaking of wheels and a guttural roar of a creature that was all too familiar, a yeti. My heart felt like it dropped into my feet when I heard the two cages clang together and the squeak of the rusty hinges as the cage door opened and let the yeti in. I then saw a huge fur covered hand grab me by the neck and lift me into the air and hold me off the ground with both of its hands around my neck. I could feel it slowly clench its fists around my throat and I could feel the pressure as he tried to choke the life out of me. I was able to slowly drain some of the magic out of his body as feeling returned to my own while he roared at me, only inches from my face. I gave my own crystalline roar and snapped my hands around his forearms and started syphoning his magic away in earnest.
He noticed what I was doing and started swinging me around in an attempt to get break my grip on him, but I didn’t let go, he even tried slamming my back into the wall of the cage. I felt a few of the smaller crystals on my shoulders break off, but I still would not let go. Soon the yeti struggled to stay on his feet and his grip on my throat loosened and he fell to his knees, but I continued to feed on him. I watched as his body withered, his fur fell off in clumps; he let out pained whimpers as his body went limp. When I was finished, I let go of his arms and let him fall to the ground in a heap; much like the pony that I had drained, he was nothing but mummified skin and bones, and I let out a sigh at being back to my old self again with my crystals lit up with their blue glow.
“Amazing” Second Gear whispered out as I looked back to him, “I knew my theory was correct, but to see it in practice… it sends a chill up my spine” he shivered slightly, whether it was from the cold I couldn’t feel or his own senses, I couldn’t tell.
“Can you let me out of here? I won’t be a danger to any of you” I was getting rather sick of always being in a cage.
“Sorry, I cannot do that, there has never been any record of a creature like you and I simply must know everything about you” he let out a sinister snicker that terrified me.
“You can’t keep me in here” I deadpanned as I shifted my hand into a sword and swung it at the bars of my cell.
As soon as my sword connected with the bars, my body was wracked with pain as lightning arced through my body. My body shook violently and I howled in pain before collapsing on my back, smoke slowly wafting from a couple of scorch marks.
“Oh I think I can keep you here as long as I want” he let out a sickening cackle as he left through a door and a couple of other ponies followed him.
I rolled over to my hands and knees and slammed my fist down of the floor of the cell in anger. I took a few deep breaths to cool my rage but it boiled over again as I roared and body slammed the bars in an attempt to break it but I was just met with the excruciating pain as lightning arced through me again and I fell to my knees; I didn’t even notice the filly that was hiding in the shadows of the room until I heard her stutter.
“I… I…” I quickly snapped my head to face her which she flinched back from.
“What do you want?” I said with a great deal of anger in my voice.
“I… I’m sorry for my… father, he… isn’t the… nicest of ponies” She said while looking at the ground.
“Whatever, you didn’t answer my question, what do you want?” I huffed as I sat cross-legged in the center of the cell.
“I… um… what… what’s your name?” the question dumbfounded me for a second.
‘Why does a pony care about my name? Isn’t she with that creepy scientist? She called him father.’
She was looking up at me with a smile that looked like she didn’t have a care in the world. I noticed that she had a fresh bruise on her face and a black eye that was probably a few days old. I was about to say my name but no words came out, I searched my mind for my name but I soon realized that I had forgotten my own name. I was about to start panicking when another name seemed to burst into the front of my brain, the name that I wrote on the tombstone.
“My name is… Diamant.”
“I’m Third Gear” she had that happy smile on her face, which for some reason, cooled the anger in my heart.
“Well then Third Gear, maybe you could answer a few questions for me.” She nodded her head, “Ok first, where am I?”
“We’re at Research Station Alpha, on the border of the Jagged Peaks in the Icelands.” At the mention of Jagged Peaks, another splitting headache came as another memory became clear in my head.
‘The Jagged Peaks are the southernmost mountain range that separates The Icelands from the Southern Sands desert, one week distance from Equestria as the pegasus flies and is one of the least explored areas in the world given its inhospitable climate.’
“What exactly are you all researching here?”
“My father was contracted to discover and write down all the plants and animals here.”
“Ok so why does he feel the need to keep me locked?”
“Well… um… that’s because… he tends to ‘experiment’ on new things he discovers. Mr. Red Shot says he’s a… mad scientist but he isn’t really angry, he’s just mean.” The mention of experiments greatly unsettled me.
“Who is Red Shot?”
“Oh, he’s the leader of the mercs that protect this station. He’s really cool too; he even let me play with his bow.”
“Third Gear! Get out here and make dinner!” I heard Second Gear shout from the door.
Third flinched for a second before looking back to me, “I… I have to go.” She spat out quickly as she ran through the door, leaving me alone again.
I started lose track of time after being in the cell for so long, it could have been days or even weeks, I wasn’t sure as almost everyone of that monster Second Gear’s experiments would make me pass out. Sometimes he would blast me with lightning, other times it would be fire or ice, but each one was incredibly painful and he would never say what he learned from doing it. I constantly tried to escape the cell but was only met with the pain of whatever spell was holding me, I even tried to absorb the magic in it but it just felt like drinking hydrochloric acid and being eaten from the inside out. One of the particularly more painful ones was when it felt like he tried to pull my body apart, piece by piece, fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, my body didn’t break apart. He would always bring another creature of some kind for me to feed on, making sure that I wouldn’t die, sometimes it was a yeti, other times it was a wolf, but most of the time it was foxes, bobcats and other small to medium sized animals. There was a few times where I thought about not eating, somehow hoping that I would die and escape this hell that I found myself in, but my resolve didn’t stand up to my hunger very long.
The only thing that kept me going was Third Gear, she would always come and visit me when she could and we would just talk. It was… nice to have someone… I mean somepony to talk to after being alone for so long. I assumed that it was what it was like to have a friend, I still counted Copy and Duplicate as my friends but I never got to know them before… yea. She was enthralled by my stories about the human world, asking a million questions about all sorts of things such as how the sun and moon rose and set when there wasn’t a princess to control them or even down to how a world can survive without magic. She would also explain as much as she could about her world, but there wasn’t nearly as much information as she was only twelve years old. I learned that she was what was called a ‘pegacorn’, a pony that looked similar to alicorns (the most powerful form of pony kind) but had severely limited magic and could barely perform even simple magic. She did tell me that the machine that attacked me was called the ‘Protector Tower’ that Second and a group of other scientists made. I asked about her father and she seemed to be emotionally distant from him, which made sense as the limited interaction that I saw between the two gave me the impression that he was physically abusive and treated her almost like a slave which was evident by the constant appearance of fresh bruises as the old ones faded.
After a couple more days (I always had to ask Third what day it was every time I saw her) she came to see me.
“Hey Dia, are you feeling ok today” I groaned at the nickname that she made up for me.
“Yea… I’m ok… he didn’t do that much to me today, how long was I out for?” I asked as I rubbed my head.
“Not long, only a few hours”, she sat down on her flank right in front of my cell, “can you explain ‘airplanes’ again? How can something so big fly without magic?”
I gave a playful huff at her huge eyes brimming with wonder, “well you see; it’s all a matter of aerodynamics…”
I was suddenly interrupted by a huge explosion and rumble as the entire room shook and knocked some of the beakers and test tubes off the tables and shelves.
“What was that?” I said while looking at the walls of the room.
“I’m not sure, it couldn’t have been father, he usually does his untested experiments outside.” She was looking around as well when another explosion that was much closer that caused my cell to rattle a little bit.
Third started heading towards the door, “No! Don’t go outside!” she flinched at my sudden outburst, “whatever is causing this is definitely not friendly, stay in here where it-” I was cut off by the room exploding in a shower of fire and wood.
I found myself on the ground with the wreaked remains of the room; I shook my head to get rid of the ringing in my ears. I looked around and saw that the entire room had been reduced to splinters and even the bars of my cell had been warped and blackened by the explosion. I looked down at the ground and saw a small orange ball lying under some splintered wood.
“Third! Are you ok?” no response.
‘Dammit, I’ve got to help her!’
I looked at the bars of my cell again, they were warped and bent in mismatched ways that showed me that they were exposed to a great deal of magic very quickly, I could only hope that the spell put on them had been dispelled by the blast as I slowly inched a single finger towards the bar and touched it. I flinched, fully expecting to be wracked with pain again but nothing happened, I placed my palm on the bars and again, nothing happened. I quickly grabbed the bars with both hands and started prying them apart, I grunted with effort before the bars finally yielded and shattered into pieces, I ran over to Third and looked her over. She was covered in small to moderate cuts that were bleeding, her horn had a serious crack running through it and her the feathers on her wings were burned and missing in places along with a nasty cut right above her right eye and she wasn’t moving; I gently placed my hand on her side to feel for a heartbeat and had to focus so that I didn’t subconsciously drain her magic. I could indeed feel her heartbeat, I let out a sigh before gently picking her up and carrying her thorough the doorway that had been blasted to pieces.
I walked down the small hallway quickly and after passing through a small doorway, I was standing on the floor of what must have been a house as there were pieces of wood everywhere as well as what could have been a fridge that was dented and banged up. I soon spotted what must have been a bed at one point, I quickly walked over and grabbed all of the sheets that were still somewhat serviceable and wrapped up Third in the blankets and sheets so that she would stay warm and hopefully the sheets could stop some of the bleeding. She groaned and slowly cracked one eye and looked at me with tear filled eyes.
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe.” I whispered to her before her eyes shut again and her head went limp.
I gentle put her down and covered her with what remained of the bed so that she would be hidden and would be protected from the snow and wind. I stood up to my full height before a red light from behind me illuminated the area and caught my attention. I quickly spun around expecting that stupid machine to shoot another fireball at me but instead of me I watched as the fireball blasted off in a different direction.
‘So that must have been whoever attacked the station’ I looked down where Third was hidden before another series of explosions echoed all around me, ‘I have to make sure it is safe before I take her anywhere.’
I quickly ran towards the machine, passing other houses that had been destroyed as well as a couple other ponies lying on the ground, all the while, more magical missiles smashed into buildings and promptly detonated with tremendous force, a couple of the closer blasts sent me through some of the buildings, shook up, but no worse for wear as I scrambled back to my feet and continued to the machine. As I approached the tower I watched as it fired another blast in the same direction, I followed the blast as it flew past the destroyed houses and hit its target and detonated. I could see from the light from the fires it emitted that there were a large group of ponies marching towards the town.
The soldiers didn’t look anything like what I thought they would look like, none of them had any form of uniformity with their armor, and even the ‘formation’ they were in was more of an unorganized blob moving forward. The different races weren’t even organized into the same general area, from what I saw there was only earth ponies and unicorns. I turned my head skyward and tried to see if there was some pegasi flying around but the oppressive dark of the night sky along with the clouds blocked my sight.
For a second, I thought about charging them head on, hoping that I could take them down before they had a chance to react to what I was, but a dozen beacons of light from the army brought that particular line of thought to a screeching halt. I watched as the flashes of light became beams as they flew through the air and smashed into the tower, blowing it up. I dove to the side when a particularly large piece nearly fell on me. I looked back at the destroyed machine and saw a strange rainbow colored haze coming from it.
‘If that thing was able to shoot out huge blasts of magic like that, maybe there is a core that could act like a bomb or something. Taking on that many unicorns doesn’t sound all that appealing.’
I quickly climbed the destroyed machine and saw what was making the strange smoke; it was an object about the size of a basketball with a swirling mass of energy inside of it that looked like a spiral galaxy as well as letting out a low hum. I reach out and tentatively poke it with a finger, a jolt of energy runs up my hand causing me to retract my hand. I look down at my finger and saw that it was glowing bright red like a road flare before it slowly faded back to its original color.
‘Maybe it’s not a bomb; maybe I can use it as a supercharger.’
I turned my head and looked back at the approaching army, they were closer and there were a lot of unicorns there along with earth ponies. I looked back down to the core thing and took a deep breath before grabbing it with both hands.
A/N: Hello everyone, sorry it has taken me so long to update the story but I'm sure everyone has heard the generic excuse of real life stuff getting in the way so I will now be using it as well. Hopefully it will not be get in the way as much so the chapters should start updating faster.