Xul was waiting for Trine to show up. He had promised that he would tell Xul when a particular alien was sent for inspection. Xul wanted to make sure that she was on duty when it happened, so she could cover the guard's shifts - most would be grateful for the break.
As she waited, Xul sat down on her bed. The guard's sleeping quarters were usually better than the prisoner's. Each guard was given a loft bed to save space. The top was the bunk bed where each guard slept, and on the bottom was a tall dresser used for storage, which was mostly clothes, toiletries, and a few personal items. Next to the dresser was a small desk, but it was rarely used by the guards since most of them didn't need any paperwork. Right by the ladder to the bed was a stand for a uniform and a weapon or two, so the guards could quickly change in and out of it.
Xul, on the bed, was thinking about the alien that Trine was going to send. Trine had told her that the alien, a small purple horse-like thing, had been acting strange lately. Xul remembered seeing it once or twice while on duty, and its collar was still green, so she guessed that the strange actions reported by Trine were just its reaction to the formula.
"I did it." Xul looked down to see Trine standing there before he turned and walked to the male sleeping quarters.
. . .
Twilight was about halfway through her workday. It seemed that some of her old habits had returned to her because she had become much better at telling the time. Not the actual time, of course, there were no clocks here.
It had been about a day since Twilight had discovered the source of the mind-numbing potion. Since then, Twilight had worked to create a spell that could disable the collar. She was sure that her "old" self could create a spell in much less time, but her memories of magic were still hazy, so it took much longer for her to develop a usable spell. So far, Twilight knew that she could create a permanent green light if she diverted the dark magic that was being generated in the collar into the lightbulb. Dark magic often gave off a greenish hue, which allowed it to have a green Illuminate spell. Twilight also assumed that if she could remember how to cast some sort of a filter spell, then it would be possible to remove the potion that was inside of her, and she could remember things much faster. The only hard part of this was to break the collar.
The collar was currently only half-broken. At some point, the needle in it had snapped, and the potion was coming out of it at a much slower pace. Luckily, the needle didn't snap enough for the light to be triggered and turned off.
Twilight was in the mining area, where there were typically a few guards. Twilight began eyeing them as she worked while moving a boulder across the field, she noticed that one of them had switched shifts with a blue-skinned guard.
When the boulder was put away, Twilight walked back to get another one. This time, she chooses one of the largest ones there, a hexagon-shaped rock that was taller than she was unless she stood on her hind legs. She went behind the boulder, hoping that any of the guards who happened to be looking her way would think that she was going to try and push it from behind.
When she was safely out of their view, Twilight paused and took a deep breath, then smashed her neck on the boulder. It hurt, and Twilight thought that she might get a bruise, but it did the trick, and the collar broke. The light on it went orange, then back to green, and it flickered between those colors a few times before turning red. Luckily, it didn't make any noises or sound an alarm.
Before anyone could notice, Twilight cast her spells; she directed her energy at the light and used a modified telekinesis spell to change the direction of the dark magic, then she reached inside her, searching for any bit of the potion, and moved it out of her. Sadly, this required her to throw up.
Twilight spit out the substance with as little noise as she could make. Then she threw some dirt on it and began moving the large rock, hoping that she hadn't attracted the attention of any of the guards.
With her task completed, Twilight went back to doing her job. She eventually calmed down from the moment of adrenaline and started thinking.
What's the most important thing for me to remember? I should try to remember who I am, but remember magic will probably prove to be more useful.
Twilight chose the latter option.
Okay...So I know how to levitate things and create light, I think that I know how to teleport, but those three can't possibly be all the spells that I should know, right?
Twilight tried to think of other spells, but she was unable to think of any until she remembered something else. Somepony had told her that a good way for her to learn magic was to try it in categories, mainly offensive, defensive, and passive magic. Using that strategy, Twilight began to unravel the mysteries in her mind. She remembered blasts, transfiguration, and shields. Thinking of shields gave her a memory.
Someone I knew was great in shields... who was that?
Armor maybe? Yes, it was something to do with armor...Armor Shining? No, Shining Armor! By BBBFF!
As Twilight remembered more spells, she remembered more of her life.
Gem-finding; Rarity, Spike, and the Diamond Dogs. Dark magic spells; Celestia, Cadence, and the Crystal Empire. Time Travel; Starlight and Starswirl from the edited version, and Pinkie Pie, from the unedited version.
Many of these spells were ones that Twilight could only remember the name of, and she didn't know how to cast them. However, this was enough to make her remember. Pony after pony, and creature after create, one connection led to another until Twilight remembered almost everything about herself and her life.
Although Twilight was trying to keep up her emotionless face, she allowed a slightly smug smile to run across her face in victory. However, that only lasted a few moments, as the gravity of the situation settled upon her, the smile turned into a frown.
Now What? Where am I? What's happened to me? Is Equestria safe? Am I even in Equestria?
A million more questions ran through Twilight's mind, proving that Twilight was back to her normal, worrying self. Usually, many of Twilights' questions were irrelevant, so she would dismiss them for the time, but right now, all of them were important.
There are only two things that I know for sure: I've been ponynapped by creatures who probably aren't a big fan of me, and I need to escape.
. . .
Trine was right - the purple alien really was strange.
Xul had just gotten on duty and was waiting for the call to come through. She had to be there to see the creature get inspected, assuming that the rumors she had overheard were true. Luckily for Xul, she was about to find out.
"EQ-3 had been nominated for inspection, one of the guards who are stationed at the North end of Door C must bring it in."
EQ-3? We've really only had three equines here?
Xul was a bit confused about the number of equines at the mines, but she went along with her plan and told the other guard that she would take care of it. The guard agreed quickly, after all, it was occasionally dangerous to be in the room with aliens.
Xul walked up to the purple alien who was currently moving the chipped-off boulders to the other side of the quarry.
"EQ-3" she commanded. The alien froze and turned its head to look at Xul, and as it did, its eyes enlarged. Xul leaned back in surprise, she had seen creatures pupils dilate when exposed to the bright light of the inspection room, but this alien was strange. For one thing, there was no bright light, and for the other, its eyes grew, not just its pupils.
Xul was trained to recover quickly from shock though, so she directed her focus back onto the task at hand. Xul grabbed her light rope that was hanging from her belt, and the rope looped itself over the neck of the creature. As she did, EQ-3's eyes went back to normal, and Xul continued as planned.
Xul led the alien back out the entrance to the mine, and after going down a hallway past the guards' quarters, she walked up a few flights of stairs. Then, they reached the second story of the building, turned, and walked down another hallway, but this one was brightly lit.
When they entered the bright hallway, Xul looked back at the creature and saw that only it's pupils dilated, making its earlier reaction even stranger.
As they neared the inspection room, Xul pitied the creature. She never liked seeing them being...inspected, but it was a part of the job.
Too soon, they arrived at the door labeled "Inspection & Researched: authorized personnel only" Xul looked at the creature, making sure to duck her head low enough that the security cameras couldn't see her, and she tried to show that she was sorry for it, even though she knew that it couldn't understand her.
Xul paused, then opened the door and went inside the room.
"I have retrieved EQ-3," Xul said, as she stepped to the side of the door, and released her light rope from the alien's neck.
Good, stay there.
Xul turned to look at the scientists and researchers behind the large glass window. In total, there were four creatures behind it. Two of them were of Xul's species, with their blue skin, and the other two looked like Trine, with green skin. One of the ones of Trine's species was an operator, who would handle the machines and computers for the scientists Xul could tell this by the different uniform, while the rest of them were wearing pristine white clothes.
Now that she had delivered the alien, Xul's job was done, and all she had to do now was make sure nothing bad happened during the inspection. In all of the times she's witnessed this, only once had something actually happened, which was when they brought in a radioactive alien who didn't take well to the water tests...fun times.
"EQ-3, walk to the podium." One of the scientists commanded.
The alien walked up to the center of the room where there was a large circular white stand with several tools and machines surrounding it. Once it got there, the researcher spoke.
"We do not know much about this alien, it was taken up unexpectedly when one of our ships made an emergency landing on its planet while coming back from its mission. While there, the crew gathered several pictures, a few language samples, and one prisoner, EQ-3. They were ordered to gather more samples, but the planet was inside the UFF's territory, so it will be a few more months before we can go back.
As the researcher spoke, the wall opposite to the glass window turned into a projector screen. It showed the creature in its natural habitat, this was the part Xul hated the most, and she even envied the creatures like this, because their planets were at peace, for now.
On the projector, Xul saw what looked like an old-fashioned village, the picture was taken from far away, and Xul saw vines and trees in the foreground, then a bunch of houses and shops. They reminded her of Earth and made her feel a bit sad.
"We have noticed that much of the planet, which we have named, EQP, resembles that of Earth. However, the dominant species seems to be some kind of colorful horse, along with two creatures resembling ancient Earth mythology. Those creatures are the unicorns and pegasi, who share the same colors at the other creatures there.
That's not right, Xul thought, There's no way that horses of all creatures became the dominant race, they don't even have hands. I wonder if they are smart.
"These creatures seem to be highly intelligent for alien lifeforms and are about as smart as humans, but they develop at a different pace.
Interesting. Xul thought.
"They crew reports seeing one of the creatures that resembles a pegasus, standing on a cloud. The other, a unicorn, has been seen performing telekinesis. We believe that these creatures have created technology that we cannot figure out how to make, so we are going to use this 'unicorn.'" He paused and extended his long hand towards the creature. "To study their telekinetic abilities."
The researcher signaled something to the operator, who began to type on one of the computers. A few seconds later, Xul heard the machine quietly turn on. She knew that most of them were to collect data and see how the creatures brought up behaved, but some of them were used to perform experiments on the creatures.
"Our first test," the operator began, "is to observe how the creatures act naturally." He turned and asked one of the scientists to speak to it for him, which they did.
"EQ-3, repeat memory. Xul knew that now the creature was experiencing a memory it had, courtesy of the formula inside it.
For a few seconds, nothing happened, and the alien just stared into space, then it turned its head around as if studying its surroundings. It looked around for about 30 seconds, then it started walking around the room, mostly heading towards the edges of the room, while still looking around. It had gone to the wall with the exit on it, then moved to the wall with the glass window. Finally, it walked off into the center of the room, and it started stamping its front hoof. It did this several times before it started stamping booth hooves, and was making lots of noise.
"End memory" one of the blue scientists said, and the alien stopped stomping and once again stood at attention.
"It appears that we will not be able to gather much data from its memories, so we will move on to studying the telekinesis reported by its captors." The worker said, talking to the scientists.
"Walk back to the podium." One said, and the alien did as it was told. When it got there, the other guard walked out and put it's helmet out in front of the alien.
"EQ-3, use your telekinetic abilities to transfer the item back to its owner.
The creature stepped down from the podium and walked toward the helmet. When it was about a foot away, its horn began to glow. A dark purple aura surrounded the horn and the helmet, lifting it up. The creature stared intensely at the helmet as it traveled back to the guard, and was set down on his head. Xul looked over at the scientists, to seem them smiling like a kid with candy.
Here we go then... Xul thought, wishing that the alien didn't show off its abilities.
"It appears that the crew was telling the truth."
Everyone stood up and began talking to each other, they were probably debating on what to do next. Xul saw three of them (not including the operator) taking a vote, it was a unanimous decision, and Xul guessed that she knew what they voted for.
"Science we will soon be in possession of countless of the creatures, we will use this one as a prototype. It appears that the telekinetic abilities have forme in the horn of this creature, meaning that their technology is implanted in it. We want to examine this piece of technology further, so we are going to perform an operation to remove its horn."
Xul heard another machine turn on, and she wished that she could look away, several times she had seen things like this happen, and it was necessary for her to observe it. If anything goes wrong, or even if the operation succeeds, she will need to report it back to her boss.
Out of the mess of machines, a fast-spinning blade emerges, along with several clamps to hold down the creature. Even the mind-numbing formula couldn't suppress all of the pain.
The blade closed in, but before it could get within a foot of the alien, it jumped off of the podium!
"Sretsnom uoy...uoy htiw gnorw si taht?!" the alien yelled at the scientists and researchers. The other guard, who had better reflex time than Xul, sprinted up to confront the alien, and he pulled out his gun. Xul was only putting her hand on hers, and she was trying to appear too shocked to shoot.
"Oh my gosh it's sentient!" a scientist yelled
"Someone shoot it!" said the operator, in a panicked voice.
"What if it attacks?" Asked another.
Chaos erupted in the inspection room, and the screams were apparently loud enough to attract the attention of two guards who had been coming down the hall at that time because they both burst into the room, with guns drawn.
Seeing the open door, the alien made a break for it, but Xul, on instinct, slammed it shut, and the other guards closed in around the alien. They formed a semi-circle around it, and one of the guards pulled out their light rope, and the others joined in. One of the ropes went around the creature's front hoof, and the other hooked around its neck.
Now, the creature looked very afraid as it struggled to break free from its bonds. Xul joined the circle, shooting her light rope out, but she only managed to half-loop it around its body. The creature had begun screaming, but then its expression changed and its eyes lit up. Then, it closed its eyes, and a purple light shot out of its horn, engulfed the creature, and it was gone, leaving only the collar behind.