//------------------------------//
// Rigged 
// Story: Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot 
// by Equimorto 
//------------------------------//

"What are you doing?"
Twilight didn't look up from the graphs in front of her as she replied, "Working on a new spell."
"Oh." Starlight stepped further into the room. "What is it for?"
"A protective spell." Twilight wrote some notes down on a piece of parchment, then shifted around the papers on her table until she found the one she was looking for.
"Ah." Starlight was silent for a moment, leaning forward but not approaching Twilight further. "What kind of protective spell? Something else we should add on when we travel through scales?"
Twilight was about to answer, but closed her mouth for a moment and thought it over. "You know? If it ends up working, then sure, we should probably throw it in there as well. You never know what you might run into."
"Huh." Starlight nodded lightly, and finally took one more step towards the alicorn. "So, what's it for?"
Twilight focused on the contents of her table for a moment, scribbled down something else, then finally replied. "I'm trying to see if I can make something that'll make it possible to get closer to the Behemoth. Scales give the same readings so at least we have something to work with there."
"I see." Another step forward. "Why are you doing this? I mean, I know why, I want to get close to that thing and study it as much as you probably do. But why now?"
More paper snuffling. "Because I'm planning to go near it."
"How close are we talking about?" Starlight approached Twilight a bit more.
There was silence, for a moment, filled only with the sounds of the two mares' breath. "On top of it," Twilight said.
Starlight's newest step turned into a stumble midway through. "On top of it?" she asked, yelling. "Why? I'd think you're crazy if you so much as suggested trying to touch it and you're telling me you want to walk on it?"
"I'll tell you why once I've been there and back." Twilight still didn't look away from her notes and research.
"I don't even know if you will be back!" The rest of the distance between the two was quickly covered as Starlight reached Twilight's table in a hurry. "You can't be serious, Twilight."
"I am." The alicorn turned to Starlight. "And if I told you why, you'd want to come too at minimum, probably ask to be the one who goes instead of me."
"Then why don't you tell me?"
"Because I'm more likely to make it back than you are, if things go wrong, for one. Second, because I would rather you be here and safe, which is why I'm not letting you spy on my studies over this." She grabbed Starlight in her telekinesis and placed her further away from the table, then turned to look directly at her. "Third, because I'm selfish and I want to be the one to see what's there first between the two of us, and be the one who gets to do all the research there first, because years later my compulsive desire to be the best there is in certain fields still comes out and for once I'm letting it loose. And lastly, because you are not in the right mental conditions to do this right now."
"I'm fine!" Starlight said, trying to walk closer.
"No you're not. No one here is fine, not after the world got turned upside-down and we still have no idea what's going on, not when every time we discover something new things just get weirder." Twilight's tone became a bit softer. "No one is really fully fine, especially not here. We're all just fine enough, because we can still deal with what's thrown our way. Right now you're dealing with more than anyone else, after what you saw. And I know you can take it, and still make it through. But I don't know how much more you can take on top of it, and I have no plans to make that into an experiment." She looked at Starlight again. "I'll be okay. Please, just trust me for a while."