Twilight awoke to the sound of hushed but angry voices.
“I’m sorry sir, but Princess Luna was very clear. Nopony is to disturb Twilight Sparkle until she is awake and well. She has been through a difficult ordeal lately,” The first said, his masculine voice somehow protective, defensive and consoling all at once.
“I don’t care what your orders are! I need to see her now,” said a second voice she was only all-too-familiar with.
“Shiny?” she groggily wondered aloud, sitting up in bed and blearily rubbing her eyes.
The named white stallion pushed past the bat-winged lunar guard blocking the doorway, and rushed to Twilight’s bedside, embracing his little sister. “Twily!” he exclaimed, perhaps a little too loudly if Twilight’s cringing and clutching her head was any indication. “Sorry,” he said a bit sheepishly as she glared at him.
Twilight couldn’t stay mad for long, and soon her frown turned into a grin and she returned her brother’s hug. “What are you doing here?” she inquired, breaking the embrace.
“I just heard about what happened earlier,” he said, becoming a bit more serious, but no less concerned. Placing his hoof underneath her chin, he lifted her face to make her look him in the eyes. “Are you alright?” he asked in a no nonsense tone.
Twilight looked her brother in the dead in the eyes, matching his firm and concerned gaze with a rather meek one of her own as she desperately tried to lie to him. She so badly wanted to say that everything was good, that nothing was wrong and that she was alright. That she wasn’t still incredibly scared and confused on the inside, despite her calm outward demeanor. But she couldn’t. She never was able to lie to him. With a sigh and quivering eyes, she said, “No, Shining, I’m not alright.”
He hugged her again, drawing her into a deep embrace. His grip was tight, slightly constricting her ribs in a way that was almost painful, but instead mostly just felt comforting. The brief moment of physical contact wasn’t much, but it spoke volumes in a way that words couldn’t. It was strong, comforting, and protective. She could almost feel the love and desire to help behind the gesture. She smiled. “I’m not alright, big brother. But I’ll be okay.”
Shining Armor chuckled, the deep rumbling of his chest tickling his sister’s shoulders as they embraced. “That’s my little Twily,” he said, pulling back and ruffling her mane, earning an irritated but happy and nostalgic smile, “always so big and brave.”
“Thanks BBBFF,” she spoke, trying to hide her tiny blush while she pulled the blankets to the side. Getting out of bed she stretched, sighing in relief and satisfaction as she felt several of her joints pop. “So what did you hear, anyways?” She inquired.
“You mean besides you screaming loud enough to be heard clear across the castle?” Shining Armor answered, quirking an eyebrow.
Instead of the embarrassed blush he expected, his sister’s face grew a dour frown. “Please,” she implored, her voice mostly even, but a small tremor betraying her previous fear, “don’t talk about that.”
“I’m sorry,” Shining apologized, “I didn’t mean to make you upset.”
“It’s alright,” Twilight said with a sigh, “I just… I don’t really know what to think about it.” She became somewhat silent and brooding, absent-mindedly rubbing her foreleg against the one that had been burned. At least it seemed to have healed already since yesterday.
Her brother placed his hoof on her own, stopping her idle scratching. She turned to look him in the eyes, and his gaze was firm but as comforting and compassionate as ever. Twilight smiled, happy to know that he cared.
“Ahem,” spoke another voice, startling them both. They had both forgotten that they weren’t alone. “The Princess should be here shortly,” The bat-winged stallion informed them.
“Oh! Yes. Right,” Twilight responded, a little embarrassed at having forgotten Drahcir’s presence. Shining Armor just responded with his typical stoic fashion, still not quite happy with the earlier behavior of trying to keep him from his sister, even if it had been the princess’s orders. Twilight giggled slightly at her brother, somewhat amused at the fact that he was still tended to be kind of cold at first towards anyone but family and friends. At least he eased up when he heard his sister laughing.
He turned to his sister then, and asked her, “Is there anything else you’d like to talk about?” His tone was tense, but the care behind it was clear.
Twilight nuzzled him. “No, not really. There’s nothing that needs to be said that hasn’t already,” she responded, pressing herself against his broad shoulder. The thick muscle structure, attained from constant training and drills as the captain of the royal guard, were easily felt through his coat. It only served to make Twilight feel even more comforted, like her brother could live up to his name-sake and protect her from anything and everything. For a moment, she felt a wave of nostalgia, harkening back to the days when she was just a filly and had a bad dream. She would crawl into her brother’s room in the dead of night, dragging her smarty-pants doll with her and explaining with teary eyes. Without fail, each and every time Shining would welcome her into his bed for the night with open hooves, stoking her mane and assuring her everything was alright until she fell asleep to the sound of his voice and strong, powerful heartbeat. Wordlessly understanding the sentiment, he held her.
She unconsciously pressed her ear against his chest, searching for the source of her foal-hood lullaby. She found it without much difficulty, its deep bass soon covering every other sound. Thu-thump. She smiled. Such a comforting sound… Thu-thump. She leaned further into his barrel chest, the rhythmic sound lulling her into a half-awake state. Thu-thump. She closed her eyes, allowing herself to drift off. Thu-thump. The rhythm was beginning to entrance her, she lost all real thought and just the image of the strong, powerful organ pumping its charge throughout her brother’s body filled her head. Thu-thump. Twilight opened her mouth slightly, breathing into her brother’s coat and inhaling his scent. The ever-present tang of sweat mingled with the nostalgic haze of musk Twilight was still familiar with from her youth. He smelt so… delicious… Thu-thump. Without thinking, she opened her mouth further, reaching up towards his neck and licking her lips. Thu-thump. She could smell it there, just beneath the skin. She leaned ever further, her hitched breathe ruffling the fine hairs over his throbbing jugular--
She snapped to her senses, blinking rapidly as he unexpectedly pulled away, and kissed her on the forehead, just below her horn. “I’m sorry Twily, but I have to go now. I’m still on duty after all,” he explained, offering her a reassuring smile. Shaking her head to clear her suddenly and strangely clouded mind, she never the less nodded understandingly and nuzzled him once again as he rose to leave.
“While We find thy commitment to duty to be commendable, We believe that thou should stay,” said an archaic voice from the doorway, surprising both of the unicorn siblings. Twilight jumped nearly a foot into the air before whirling around to face the intruder, her heart hammering. Shining in contrast instantly snapped to an attentive salute, the result of years of training and drills. The Lunar Alicorn just chuckled amusedly at their reactions before waving a dismissive hoof and putting the guard captain at ease. The elder sibling visibly relaxed, but still held himself stiffly, the constant drills about propriety around either of the princesses refusing to be stifled. Luna then turned to Twilight and asked, “How art thou feeling, Twilight? Thou seemed rather… upset… when last we spoke.”
The named unicorn blanched, scratching at the carpet absentmindedly with her previously injured hoof. “I… I’ll be fine, Princess,” she answered with a sigh, “I just really, really need some answers.”
“That is understandable,” Luna responded, nodding, “fortunately, answers are exactly what We have come to give.” At this, Twilight immediately perked up, staring inquisitively at the lunar diarch with a rather endearing expression, waiting expectantly for her to go on.
“Shining Armor,” Luna inquired, turning to face the elder of the two unicorns as he snapped to attention under her gaze, “dost thou know of Vault 214?”
“Of course, Princess,” he responded immediately, “something of scientific interest was recovered the other night and deemed top-secret. It is currently being stored in Vault 214 and only the chief of the Science Division and his assistants are allowed access. Four of my best stallions are currently guarding the entrance to the Vault itself.”
Luna nodded, satisfied with his response. “Good. Then We shan’t need to explain the situation to thee.” She turned to leave the room, calling back to the two unicorn siblings. “Come along, both of thee. Shining Armor, due to thy position as captain of the Royal Guard and thy relation to Twilight Sparkle thou hast a right to this knowledge as well.”
Luna started down the hall with Shining right beside her, forcing Twilight to canter slightly in an effort to keep up with them both on their longer legs. “Drahcir,” Luna called out lightly without so much as turning her head.
The bat-winged stallion was at her side in an instant, startling Twilight with the suddenness of his appearance. She hadn’t even seen him nearby. “Yes, my liege?” he inquired to Luna, bending his head low and easily keeping pace with her.
“Make certain that we are not followed,” was the simple response.
“At once,” he said with a salute, before speeding up and turning into the shadows around a stone column just ahead. When they passed the column, Twilight couldn’t help but feel a small sense of unease. There were no windows or hallways nearby, and the shadow was only a foot and a half wide at best. Despite this, within the small space of shadow, the lunar stallion had disappeared completely.
“Um… Princess?” She said, edging further away from the walls, “where are we going exactly?”
Without breaking pace, Luna turned her head to look her in the eyes. “Thou claimed that thee desired answers, correct?” she asked softly. Twilight nodded. “Well, it would be difficult indeed to simplify the complex nature of thy predicament with words alone, and while we will do our best to anyways, we have doubts that thou wouldst believe us anyways. So instead, We are going to show thee.”
*~-/^\-~*
Twilight was lost in thought. Her legs ran on auto-pilot, continuing to move even without her conscious direction. Her head was cast downwards, her expression silent and contemplative. For a long while she had been quiet, carefully considering the long-winded and rather… far-fetched… explanation of the other night’s events and her earlier injury. Twilight was anything if not skeptical of what had been said whilst they walked. At last, she looked up to Luna and met her anxious gaze with her own. “You were right,” she said to the princess.
“Right?” Luna inquired. “About what, exactly?” she asked, tilting her head to the side slightly.
“You were right,” the unicorn repeated, a rather un-amused frown on her face, “I don’t believe you.”
Luna sighed. “We anticipated that thou might have such a reaction,” she responded, stopping before a massive circular stone door, painted with the symbol of the equestrian flag and guarded on either side by two golden armored stallions, “that is why we have come to this place.” Turning to the guards, she nodded once. They responded in kind, before turning in place and banging on the door with their spears in a long and complex pattern. The noise of large steel mechanisms shifting around could be heard, as well as the sound of stone sliding against stone as the massive round door receded several inches before rolling to the side, into the wall.
Luna wasted no time in crossing the threshold, Twilight and Shining close behind. With a dim blue flash of her horn, the massive door rolled shut once again, sliding into place with a loud boom and resounding click of locks sliding home. The room they now found themselves in was a bit larger then it looked from the outside, but with the amount of ponies and equipment it was currently housing it still felt rather cramped.
There were all sorts of Magi-Technological instruments scattered about, all of them whirring or beeping or glowing or otherwise giving some sort of indication that they were taking some sort of measurement or computing some sort of result. Several of them had a studious and scholarly looking pony tending to them, writing down prudent readings as they came, though quite a few of the ponies had turned to look at the new arrivals when the door opened. In the center of the room was a metallic dais, on top of which was a misshapen mound of flesh, cloaked in a glowing golden-orange field of strange particles and coated in all sorts of needles and wires and tubes leading to several of the more medical looking machines scattered about the room.
Upon sighting the princess, a single unicorn stallion of a light-brown coloration and contrastingly stark white mane broke away from his fellows and approached them. “Princess!” he exclaimed excitedly, adjusting the large spectacles that had slid down his muzzle back into place with a hoof. “I’m so glad you could finally make it,” he said, taking her hoof and shaking it perhaps a little too eagerly. Turning and pointing a hoof to indicate Twilight, he asked, “Tell me, is she the one who did this?” His excited smile never faltered, and he began to strongly remind Twilight of a giddy schoolcolt.
“Indeed she is Dr. Medic,” Luna responded, nodding.
The doctor scowled at Luna slightly, “I’ve told you before, I don’t like it when you call me that, my name is Dr. Prototype, not Dr. Medic. Honestly, I have no idea where that nickname even comes from. I’ve never even worked in a hospital before! Ever since that speed freak and the big guy started calling me that nopony will stop.” Shaking his head exasperatedly, he then turned to Twilight, a huge grin on his face. “But I really can’t stay mad, at least not now that you’re here! Oh this is just excellent! You simply must tell me all about it!” he gushed, rushing over to Twilight in a manner completely devoid of any respect for her personal space.
She could see her brother beginning to bristle defensively at the obvious signs of her discomfort, and she gently pushed the over-excited scientist away before things got ugly. “Uh, what exactly did I do?” she asked with genuine curiosity, holding him away at hoof’s length.
The stallion visibly deflated. “Oh,” he said, shoulders sagging, “you don’t know? That’s… disappointing.” His chipper demeanor was gone instantly, and he turned around and began walking back to a group of instruments across the room before Luna stopped him by placing a hoof on his withers.
“Doctor, We believe some of the events of the night previous may have altered her memory. In addition, she has been through a traumatic ordeal, and may be suppressing something,” she explained, doing her best to appease the suddenly sulking pony. “Mayhap if thou were to show her what it is thou art doing here it might help her remember?” she offered, trying to coax him back into a jovial mood.
“Of course!” he exclaimed, his mood turning completely around so fast Twilight was surprised he didn’t get emotional whiplash. “Please, come over here,” he commanded eagerly, excited to show them all what he was working on as he pushed and prodded the group towards the dais in the center of the room.
As they approached, Twilight for the first time got a good look at the twisted black mess of warped flesh that lay on dais. The glowing field of strange particles wasn’t something she was familiar with, but if she were to warrant a guess it seemed to be an altered form of an Ori-Stasis Accelerated Healing Field devised from Bright Mind’s theory of N-th Dimensional Proto-Thaumatic Decay. Twilight furrowed her brow, unsatisfied with her initial assessment. That couldn’t be right, Ori-Stasis Accelerated Healing Fields were still only theoretical, and Bright Mind’s theorem papers still hadn’t been officially recognized by The Royal Equestrian Board of Magical and Scientific Advancement and had been published in only a sparse few reputable scientific journals. When Twilight voiced her thoughts and confusion over the nature of the glowing field, Dr. Prototype recoiled in shock so strongly that it almost looked as if he had been struck across the face, before his entire expression lit up like Hearth’s Warming Eve in excitement and he almost began to bounce in place.
“That’s right, you’re Princess Celestia’s personal protégé, aren’t you?” he asked rhetorically, an impossibly large grin. “If anypony can understand the concept behind my little Extra Tempra-Spatial Anchor Stasis Field here, it would be you,” he said proudly, tapping the dais near where the magic and metal met. “You see, when we first got this specimen here,” he began, indicating the mass of twisted flesh beneath the magic and wires, “everything seemed fine. Everything about it was completely normal, at least in terms of physiological and thaumatical make-up anyways, save for faint traces of lingering foreign enchantments. And then after about an hour or so after recovery, the whole thing just up and suddenly started to decay extra-dimensionally in real-time! Honestly, none of us know what to make of it, but if we didn’t act fast then there wasn’t going to be anything left to study. So naturally, I put to work a theory I’ve been working on in my personal time. Needless to say, it worked like a charm!” The stallion grinned widely, puffing his chest out with pride and thumping it with a hoof.
Twilight lifted a hoof to her chin, a thoughtful expression on her face contrasting the blank look shared by both Luna and Shining on either side of her. “An Extra Tempra-Spatial Anchor Stasis Field? What exactly could you need something like that for?” she inquired.
“Well, originally I had developed the idea to make way-points in a mock-up of an Equestria-wide teleportation network idea I’ve been playing with for a few years, but once I realized that the specimen was decaying in a manner strikingly similar to an Adamantite-17 isotope I surmised that it wasn’t actually decaying naturally, but actually in N-th dimensional proto-thaumatic manner! Once I knew that it was a simple matter to adjust a few variables from the base design and bam, situation resolved,” the doctor explained long-windedly. Twilight simply nodded every now and again, while Luna and Shining looked at each other, sharing similar perplexed expressions.
“But the whole thing’s based off an Ori-Stasis Accelerated Healing Field, isn’t it? What exactly gave the idea for this? How did you manage to modify it in such a drastic manner? And for that matter how did you even get the whole thing past the theoretical stage?” Twilight continued to grill him, true to her studious nature and trying to get as much information as possible.
“Oh it wasn’t that difficult,” he responded, scoffing. “Once I solved the problem of crippling Thaumatic storage back-lash, it was pretty easy to reverse the charge and polarity of the 5th-layer sub-magnetic enchantment to expel excess thermal energy in a safe manner that at the same time wouldn’t compromise the 8th-layer superlative hyper-field compression. From there it was a simple matter to—“
Dr. Prototype was cut off rather abruptly and perhaps a little bit rudely, but a very exasperated Shining Armor. “Stop!” he exclaimed, rubbing one of his temples with a hoof in an attempt to mitigate an oncoming headache. “Just… just stop. As much as I’d love to sit here and listen to you two talk about your Special Extra Spatial Stasa-whatists, can we please just get back to the matter at hoof? What is that thing there anyways?”
“Ah, yes, of course. Sorry about that, it’s just that I don’t get to talk to anypony who can understand all of this stuff very often and I can get a little carried away,” Dr. Prototype apologized, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head with a hoof. “Anyways, this” he said, gesturing with a hoof towards the blackened remains, “is our specimen. Because of the proto-thaumatical decay I mentioned it is now in this mummified like state.”
“Is that what it is?” Shining blurted out. “I thought it was just burnt.”
“That’s actually not far off,” Dr. Prototype continued without missing a beat. “Just like how a fire breaks down and converts the chemical and atomic structure of its kindling down to its basic structure, proto-thaumatic decay has forced the specimen to go through an incredibly similar process. All of the basic elements comprising the mass of the specimen have been altered and converted primarily in several dozen elements that we’ve never even theorized about, let alone openly discover, especially in such a stable isotope. And the elements that we do recognize are all incredibly unusual, we only barely know about them, and there is absolutely no known way for them to occur naturally. For example, after running several tests we’ve discovered that the entire skeletal structure is now comprised of pure Iridium!” The scientist had become more and more animated as he spoke, until by the time he finished he was practically bouncing in place with excitement.
In contrast to the doctor’s excitement, Shining Armor simply stood there, confusedly scratching his head with a hoof and wearing an utterly perplexed expression. “Um….. what?”
Twilight Sparkle just face-hoofed, a light blush of embarrassment on her cheeks from her brother’s blatant display of ignorance about even basic molecular super-science. “Basically it is burnt, just instead of a fire turning it into ash, it became something all modern science says is physically impossible,” she simplified for her brother.
“Oh,” he said, blinking several times and suddenly understanding. “But if a fire didn’t do it then what did?”
“That’s just it!” Dr. Prototype exclaimed, beaming. “I have no idea!”
There was a collective face-hoof from all three of the gathered ponies.
“No no no,” he said quickly, realizing how that had sounded. “What I mean is that none of us know. It’s a completely new and unheard of phenomenon.”
“Do you know what caused it in the first place?” Twilight asked.
“No, but if what Princess Luna told me is true then I might have a few ideas. Nothing conclusive yet though,” he told her, turning to face the specimen in question as he spoke. Twilight followed his gaze, and for the first time actually took the chance to get a good look at the mass of flesh beneath the glowing field and bundle of wires.
Despite being blackened and shriveled in what could have easily been mistaken as a classic case of mummification, it was still surprisingly large. For the most part it had the basic equine shape shared by most of the world’s known inhabitants, despite being almost twice as large as anypony she knew, but that stopped at the neck. Instead of the head and throat of a normal looking pony it almost looked like the upper half of a minotaur, sans the horns, had been seamlessly merged with the pony body. She noticed a couple of details about it as well, judging by the severe damage to the right eye-socket and lack of corresponding eyelid it seemed that its eye had been violently gouged out. Her assumption was backed up by the fact the its entire throat seemed to have been torn off completely, leaving only the all-too-visible blackened spinal column to keep the head attached.
“This thing came from beneath the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, right? What is it, anyways?” Twilight asked, not taking her eyes off of the remains.
“It did, but I’m not sure what it is. I was actually hoping that you might know what it is,” Dr. Prototype answered, also not taking his eyes off of the object in question.
“Fair enough,” she said, nodding. “But what happened to it?” she inquired further, indicating its neck with her hoof.
“Thee art what happened to it, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said solemnly, speaking up for the first time since introducing the unicorn scientist.
“Me?” Twilight repeated, surprised and confused by the princess’s sudden answer.
“Indeed,” The princess confirmed, nodding. “Whilst We did not witness the entire ordeal ourselves, We did however happen upon thee in the after-math,” she elaborated, pointing a hoof at the remains. “We saw that thou hast torn out the throat of yon beast with thy own hoof, and were gorging thyself on its life-blood as if it were the sweetest of nectar.”
Twilight blanched, backing away from the blackened flesh, fighting not to become violently ill at the thought. “That’s disgusting! Not to mention impossible!”
“None the less, it is true,” Luna maintained, her expression patiently neutral.
“But… but how?” she asked. “That just can’t be right. How could I even do such a thing? I don’t have claws or fangs or any way to even do that. Why can’t I remember then? It’s just impossible,” she reasoned, her tone still unconvinced and disgusted.
“We are not entirely certain of the nature of thy curse, but if We had any doubts the event thou experienced in the light of the sun has dispelled them. Thou hast most definitely been Afflicted, whether thou likes it or not,” Luna retorted, her face serious and grim.
“That can’t be right. It just can’t,” Twilight repeated, turning to look back at the specimen on the metal dais. Suddenly, she was feeling much less comfortable in its presence. “Can we go now? I think I’ve seen enough,” she said, wishing rather badly to leave.
Luna sighed deeply. “Very well. We shall go then,” she responded. Complying, she encased a metallic mechanism on the room’s only door with the light blue aura of her magic as they walked towards it, not even bother to say goodbye to Dr. Prototype who was once again enthralled in his work. With a resounding click it activated, and the massive stone door once more rolled to the side, permitting passage. Twilight, Luna, and Shining all left through the open doorway, the door closing behind them as they left.
They began walking back down the hallway in the direction in which they had originally come in silence, or at least most of them did. The two mares made it a good fifty feet before they realized that Shining Armor had stopped outside the stone door to the vault. “Shining?” Twilight inquired, turning back. “Are you coming?”
“No, I don’t think I will,” he responded, not bothering to look at her, opting instead to blearily rub his eyes with a hoof. “It’s getting pretty late. I can tell you’re mostly doing all right, and doubt the Princess has anything else she needs of me,” he explained, turning to both of them in turn to get confirmation of what he was saying. When they gave it he continued, “All of this… ‘excitement’… has made me pretty tired.” He smirked. “And besides, all that techno mumbo-jumbo gave me a head-ache. I think I’ll just take an aspirin and turn in for the night, okay?”
Twilight nodded in understanding, walking back to her brother and giving him a gentle nuzzle. “Alright. Good night then.”
Shining smiled and kissed her on the forehead, earning a similar smile from her as well. “Good night,” he said softly, before turning around and heading down the hallway in the opposite direction as Twilight and the princess.
Twilight joined the princess and they both began to once more walk down the halls side by side, a thick silence between them. After many uncomfortably silent minutes and two flights of stairs, Twilight spoke up. “So are you really trying to say I’m some kind of monster or something now?”
Luna looked like she had bitten into a lemon, and was silent for a moment longer, planning her words carefully. “Though We wouldst not quite use such words, and as much as it pains Us to say it, yes. Whilst We rushed to thy aid in the castle last night We could feel the disturbance in Equestria’s magic, and knew that thou had failed to completely stop the ponies of The Will of the Eclipse as thou had obviously meant to. We believe that because of their efforts, thou hast been changed,” she explained, speaking with a calculated and deliberate slowness.
Twilight just sighed. “As much, and at the same time as little, sense as that makes, I still don’t quite believe you. I mean, there’s just no such thing as monsters.”
“We are afraid that it may not matter,” Luna said in a surprisingly solemn tone. “Thou may not believe in monsters,
but they most certainly believe in thee.”
*~-/^\-~*
Somewhere far away, beneath depths of rotting stone and lost away from sight, a small fissure in the very fabric of reality slowly shifted and grew, enlarging to almost the size of a small stone plucked from the bed of a river.
Something from far beyond its reaches took notice, and for the first time in many millennia its horrid, eldritch laughter echoed through Equestrian air.