//------------------------------// // A Kernal of Knowledge. // Story: Equestrian Eeveelution. // by Symphonicdysonince //------------------------------// Twilight and Moon Dancer crowded the scanner, blocking off the screen from everyone else's view. Spike fed the reams of data back into the machine from Thunderlane's back. I wiggled my legs at Rainbow, signaling my desire to get out, but she didn't notice as she had joined everyone else in trying to see over the studious mares' shoulders. Fine! I grumbled, hooking my casts over the lip of the bowl. I'll see myself out! I hopped a few times before I finally got enough momentum. I gave a smug smirk as I started to tip out of the scanner. And promptly landed on my face. <> My muffled groan went unheard. It took me a bit of work, but I was able to wiggle my way back to my crutch. I puttered my way into the wardrobe, grabbing a snack from Zann's stash. My ears flicked back to the group, catching something about a distortion, a possible organ or four, and a possible retest. I sighed, cramming the last of the cupcake I stole into my mouth before making my way back to the scanner. With a bit more work, I was able to tilt my way back into the bowl. On an unrelated note, I can now confirm that face-planting metal does, indeed, hurt more than dirt. I managed to scramble back upright by the time they all looked over at me. "Rainbow, do you know if she has any abilities that don't require her to move?" Twilight asked my owner. The prismic mare eyed me. "I think she can do the one from last month's Running of the Leaves without moving." Her voice grew more confident with my subtle nod. "Okay!" Twilight magicked up a set of earmuffs for the Pack and the Crusader's summons. "Then, on my signal, she'll-" All noise was cut off once they were over my ears. I saw Twilight energetically mouthing something to the group, with the ponies and Eros nodding along. Moon Dancer turned away from the group, hiding her own manic grin as she turned the scanner on. "Oh, good. They're multiplying." My sound... I began to hum. The tines began to spin around me again, with only a quiet whine to remind me of the new form of torture I suffered through last time. "Yes! Give into the temptation for senseless references!" I mentally cackled while I waited for the scanner to do it's thing. "Ah, hahahaha" hahahawow, my thought's can get weird. I shook myself, regaining focus on the task at paw. Okay... What was the signal again? I saw Rainbow hover in front of me waving a hoof. Oh good, the signal! Wait, which move did they need me to do again? "Use your ability! The, uh, thing! Celestia damnit, what did you call it... Leo, use Agility!" Oh, right! Thanks Rainbow! I felt my energy loosen my muscles as pink motes began to dance in the corner of my vision. I held the move, only waiting until Rainbow made a slashing motion to drop it. Once again, Tunderlane and Spike fed the results back into the scanner, while everyone crowded the science duo trying to see the screens. I managed to pull the earmuffs off in time to see Angel run up with a newspaper clipping in his mouth. With a frustrated sigh, he hopped his way across my packmates' heads to land land on Fluttershy's back. He unfurled the clipping and smacked it onto the yellow mare's snout in one smooth motion. "Oh, my." Fluttershy hovered out of the group, pulling Angel off her back as she did so. "With all the excitement, I completely forgot about the seminar." She looked back at the rest of us, making eye contact with me. "But I think I can skip it." Angel stomped a foot. <> He faintly mumbled at her, trying to avoid being heard by the Pack. I saw a couple of canine ears twitch towards the rabbit, but I seemed to be the only one paying attention. "I think I'm needed more here." <> Angel angrily rolled the clipping up. He shot one final snark over his shoulder as he hopped away. <> Fluttershy floated over to me, carefully pulling me from the bowl and placing me on my crutch. "There you go. Better?" <> I scooted over to Rainbow. Said mare hovered over the rest of the group, trying to see over the studious mares. "C'mon, Twilight, let us see!" I watched the lavender mare stiffen. "Oh. Right. It'll take some time for us to get everything set back up in the library, but we can rig up a projector." She turned to face the group. "Do you girls mind if I teleport the Spectro-Thaumic Scanner back to the library?" A chorus of agreements answered her. "I'll teleport the printouts back." Moon Dancer offered. Both unicorns vanished in a crack of light. The rest of us began to meander back to the library, taking our time to give the mares enough time to set things up. They had managed to do so long before we got there though. We found them pouring over still images on the small screen in the basement. "<>" Rarity and Lulu singsonged together. <> Vince whispered to me. Twilight rolled the results back to the beginning while Moon Dancer turned the projector on. When everything came into focus, I could see the same image shown on the third screen when we first did this enlargened on the wall. Once again, a pervasive white glow covered my chest region, causing a small distortion in the area. But something was off. There were slightly brighter lines within the glow. "Hey, Twilight?" Moon Dancer got Twilight to look up from the paper. "Do you see those?" Twilight squinted at the image. "Interesting, we couldn't see those on the smaller monitor." "They almost seem to form a pattern." Rarity mused. Rainbow hovered over everyone to get closer to the wall. "Wait..." She flew off up the stairs. <> Cy began to ask, only to be cut off when Rainbow came rocketing back, a folder under wing. She flicked it open and leafed through the contents. She pulled one out and held it to Twilight. "Can you overlap this with what's up there?" It took a bit of work, but they were able to overlay what turned out to be an x-ray over the projection. We all looked at it, but Rarity and Rainbow were the only ones able to see something, but they looked like they couldn't quite figure it out. "What did you grab?" Pinkie stage whispered to my mare. Rainbow flicked her tail at me. "The x-rays showing her fractures from the forest." "Huh." Twilight murmured. She glanced at her scientific friend. "Do you see anything-? Moon Dancer?" The bespectacled mare was pointing a hoof at the image, drifting it back and forth. With a snap, she dropped the hoof, twisting her head to look at the rest of us. "The lines on the scanner match up with the fracture lines on the x-ray! I'm not sure what this means just yet, but I got a few theories!" She floated the x-ray back into the folder. "But we should explain what we do know for sure first. The image you see here is Leo's baseline." She turned to the sole stallion. "Thunderlane, could you advance the reel, please? Stop here, please." The image showed me just before I had used my move. Most of the glow had moved to my mouth, but there were four bright glowing teardrop shapes that had been hidden before. They were floating around my heart. Moon Dancer highlighted my mouth. "As this shows, most of the glow has moved to her jaw, and manifested as the orb that Leo launched earlier. But these!" She circled the shapes. "Are the interesting part. Keep an eye on these as we progress the reel." We watched as the ball slowly grew more intense before flying off screen. The glow in my chest had mostly faded, clearly showing the teardrops, one of which was looking slightly fainter. The glow rapidly returned, before the image vanished. "And that's the first ability we saw." Twilight nodded, magicking the next reel into position. "This is the next one. What did you call it Rainbow, Agility?" "Yup." "Well, the shapes will be harder to see, but do try to keep an eye on them." Once again, we watched the glow move, though it moved differently this time. First it moved to my head, then it spread throughout my body. The glow had taken a slightly pale purple tint, allowing us to just make out still white shapes. Strangely, two of them were fainter than the others. "Do you see the differences?" Twilight gained a slight manic grin. We all shook our heads. "So, we're not entirely sure, and we will need to take more scans to verify, but we think we know what those are." Moon Dancer cautioned. "But we think that those are kernals."