Brass Burner, against all aspects of his personality, hesitated. He swallowed thickly. “Sir, I—”
“We’ve gone over this already, Mister Burner. Do as you’re told.”
He had no choice but to comply.
Burner’s yellow hoof tightened around the red padding of the metal lever, sweat licking at the fur of his hoof. Waiting no longer, the guardspony slammed the switch back. He ignored his boss’ comments about the delicate mechanism and focused on the room beyond the obsidian glass. With the process initiated, now all he could was watch.
The platform within the shielded chamber shook violently as the magic in the area began to conglomerate. Runes that had been etched in pale check glowed brilliantly, a sign that the safety measures were active. Slowly, tendrils of magic began to visibly weave together into a strange form. The ponies all around him were extremely excited by the sight, but Burner, having seen the simulated equations for himself, stood stock still.
In an eye blink, everything went wrong.
Unable to properly control the magic being filtered into the artifical spell, the runes lining the floor exploded. Chunks of searing silver tile shot off in all directions as energy instantaneouly became heat. Without proper control, magic was rapidly poured into the purple wireframe without restraint. All the ponies were in a state of full-blown panic, their fate dependent upon the strength of the wall between them and the spell.
As his vision turned white, Brass Burner gave one last silent prayer.
Blinded and deafened by the spell’s finale, the ponies all tumbled to the floor.
Brass Burner stood after a time, his vision and hearing undamped. He tried to focus on the aftermath through blurry goggles and the now soot-covered safety glass, but had no success. Stumbling to the chamber’s entrance, he pulled a pouch off the wall and opened the hatch to the room.
The crackling of flames assaulted his ears. The smell of burning rubber and the scent of something similar to ethanol filled his sense of smell. The hideous black smoke made his eyes water. Whatever it was that had just been summed into the chamber, it needed to be extinguished, and fast. Gritting his teeth, Brass Burner pushed through [painful headache and levitated a batch of fire-foam balls from the bag.
After pushing past the acrid smoke, Burner found himself before a metal carcass. He hastily began tossing the fire-foam pellets to precise points on the firey husk. The fire quickly fizzled out as foam sprayed over the red hot metal. With his job done, Burner dropped everything, including himself. He slowed his breathing to accommodate for the hostile mixture that permeated in the air, its threat to his lungs enhanced by proximity. Thankfully, the ventilation in the room was able to clear up the smog just enough to allow the unicorn to inspect the results of the experimental project.
The anomaly had slammed into one of the walls as a result of its momentum prior to teleportation. Black skid marks were drawn across what remained of the floor. Four metal spokes encased in rubber sat smoking at the bottom of the object. Green metal carved out the now mangled frame of the object, and Burner wasn’t sure what exactly the material was.
Despite the explosive results, the evidence was undeniable; the ponies at the facility had successfully summoned alien technology from another world.
As Brass Burner stood again, he noticed that the alien device had glass windows. After wiping away the ash blanket covering the resilient material, the unicorn found the object had an interior.