Twilight was momentarily stunned by the outburst from the Princess, and the immediate hostility. Luna had done nothing but stare at Axion with nothing less than raw, unabashed fury for several seconds, with Axion looking back with the proper amounts of fear and confusion. Twilight could practically smell the tension in the room, and she felt that if a pin were to drop it would cause an explosion. Luna's eyes were glowing a dark, vicious shade of blue, and her horn seemed not to glow, but begin to absorb the light around it, making it darker.
If I don't get this worked out NOW, I'm afraid of what might happen...
Twilight took a step closer to Luna, to comfort her, but the instant her hoof softly landed on the smooth stone floor, Luna snapped at her.
"Stay back! 'Tis is an old and dangerous foe! Please, Twilight, go to safety!"
"No, Luna! This isn't some evil creature! This is Axion, my friend and co-researcher! I've been working with her for months! If she were evil, I think I would have noticed!"
Luna raised her head and straightened to stand upright, and the glow from her eyes faded, however her horn did not change from it's darkened state.
"Art thou sure?"
Twilight flicked her ears at Luna's use of the Old Speech. She had not heard Luna use it in several years, since just after her first Nightmare Night.
"Yes, I'm positive. Axion, do you promise you're not evil?"
Axion took a step back and glanced at Twilight. She tried to smile reassuringly, but failed miserably.
"I p... I promise, Twilight."
"There. You see? She promised."
Luna's horn finally lost its eerie darkness, though Luna still looked at Axion with suspicion.
"Even Discord kept his promises... Though, if you are who I suspected you to be, promises would mean less than nothing to you....."
Luna took several steps toward Axion, who tried to continue backing away, but she ran into a table and could go no further. Luna walked directly up to Axion, and leaned down to look her squarely in the eyes from a mere few inches away. All three mares in the room stood completely still for a hoofful of heartbeats, then Luna finally turned away and walked back to Twilight, conjuring the Moon Stone back to her as she went.
"I accept your premise, Twilight. Axion, I formally apologize. I admit, your appearance was startling to me. Twilight never talked about what you looked like."
Axion breathed a sigh of relief, and placed a hoof on the table for support.
"It is perfectly fine, I accept your apology. Although, if I may ask, what, or who, do I look like?"
"An old foe."
Luna said no more, and neither did Twilight nor Axion ask more. Instead, Axion led them deeper into the laboratory, explaining a few of the more interesting tidbits around them, until they reached the duplication pedestals. Luna looked appreciatively at the various accoutrements, but said nothing.
"Well, here we are. This is what we shall use to duplicate the Moon Stone."
Luna examined the pedestals with a critical eye, then all the wires, then the gauges and readouts they were connected to, still silent.
"I am familiar with duplicating powerful magical stones and crystals, having done it several times myself, and I do not recognize any of this. All that should be needed are two Aldebrant's Pinnacles, and two or three wise and strong unicorns."
Axion practically leaped forward, obviously excited to finally be addressed by the Princess without suspicion or hostility.
"Ah, yes! We debated on using either Aldebrant's Pinnacle or maybe even Rikku's, but in the end we decided they were too inefficient, giving us replicated stones with too little power."
"But that is the nature of duplication, is it not? The copy is never as good as the original, it is simply scientific fact."
"Not anymore! What we have here are two copper and iron pedestals, imbued from the inside with many powerful spells, mostly for strength, but a few for magical aura enhancement. If you look here, on the top of the rim, there is a silver inlay of an old pinnacle I found awhile back in some old notes. It supposedly helps in duplication processes, much like we're doing-"
"A Faust Circle."
"Say again?"
"A Faust Circle. That's what that is called. I am impressed, I thought almost all knowledge of it had long since passed on. I have not seen one in many millennia. It certainly does more than assist in duplications. Much like Aldebrant's Pinnacle, it serves as a magical focus, guiding the magic, allowing whatever is inside it to receive more direct magical streams, rather than having the magic dissuade throughout the air around it. However, it is much more efficient than most other pinnacles."
"I see! That is fascinating! Perhaps you should come by more often, and lend us your magnificent mind and your magical knowledge."
"I will consider it. Now please, continue with the tour."
The next few minutes were fairly boring to Twilight, as the previous few had been. She simply stood quietly and allowed Axion to explain the various parts of their plan. The part about the Faust Circle had interested Twilight, but no other insights came from Luna, so Twilight just decided to ask her about other obscure magics another time. Finally, Axion wrapped up her small tour around the area, and turned to Luna.
"Well, I believe that is just about everything. Have you any other questions?"
"No, I do not. I am very impressed by what Twilight and yourself have accomplished down here, not to mention what you hope to accomplish in the future."
"Well, speaking of future accomplishments, are you prepared to try and make one of them the present?"
Axion smiled her most friendly smile, but Twilight could see the concern underneath it. All Luna had to do was decide something was amiss, or have some nagging worry about the Stone, and she could bring everything they had worked for to a grinding halt. Princess Luna looked down at her chest, to the Stone hanging there, and gazed at its midnight blue surface, lost in thought. Twilight was fairly sure Axion was holding her breath, because she was certainly holding her own. Finally, Luna's magical aura lifted the Stone on its necklace over her head, and placed it on the pedestal beside her.
"Yes, you have my permission to continue, However, I cannot allow the Stone out of my sight."
Axion was overjoyed, clapping her front hooves together and bounding over to the control panel.
"Oh, I expected nothing less! Now, Twilight, could you please bring the crystal out?"
Twilight nodded and went to a chest some ten feet away. Using her hooves, she opened the chest and gingerly picked up the red crystal within. She couldn't use her magic, as the chest had been enchanted to resist all magic tampering, to better protect its valuable contents. It was where they planned to keep their new stone once finished.
Twilight turned, and lifted the blood red gem with her telekinesis once it was free of the chest's protective spells. The gem was almost six inches long, with four equal sloped sides, shaped very similar to the diamonds on her friend Rarity's cutie mark, although this one was proportionally thicker in the middle. The center of the gem was about an inch and a half thick and four inches wide, and smoothly sloped from a flat surface to a sharp edge along the four sides. It was a magnificent specimen, almost free from any impurities. When Twilight had found it among the other crystals and gems she had been sorting through, she knew almost immediately it was the one. Light filtered through it so cleanly, one could almost imagine to see out the other side. Twilight gingerly set it on the podium opposite the Moon Stone and stepped back to beside Luna. As soon as Twilight was clear, Axion pushed a few buttons, and the podiums began to hum quietly. She faced Twilight and Luna, suddenly somber.
"In a moment, I will cast the first spell. Do you both know what to do? Twilight, I know you do. Princess Luna, do you remember the process?"
"Yes."
"Then let us begin."
Axion closed her eyes, and her magic flowed from the tip of her horn, coming to float between the two pedestals. At first, the cloud was simply a shapeless mass, but once it reached a certain size, it began to form delicate shapes, a vague circle with tendrils reaching out to first the Moon Stone, then the other. They both began to glow, and the hum increased in volume.
"Luna, Twilight, now!"
At Axion's command, Twilight and the Princess both reached out with their magic to the framework. Axion continued to shape the enchantment, while the other two gave it power. Keeping an eye on the gauges, Axion carefully directed miniscule bursts of power exactly to where it was needed with a precision unparalleled by any other means. The glow coming from the stones grew brighter, and the hum got so intense Twilight could feel it vibrating deep in her chest. She had to close her eyes to the glow, but the light seeped through her eyelids, nearly blinding her closed eyes. After several minutes of fueling the reaction, Twilight felt a pulse. It wasn't a pure magical pulse, and not a pulse in the hum, but to Twilight it somehow felt like it was a pulse in reality itself, rooted in nothing and everything. The pulse came again, then a third time, then a fourth slightly quicker. The pulsing continued, and began to speed up, as if it were a heartbeat going into cardiac arrest. Soon the beats were so close together, they felt as one drawn out force, and when Twilight thought it couldn't possibly get any stronger, it stopped, as did the light, and the hum.
Opening her eyes, Twilight looked to the pedestals, which were now radiating heat, and glowing red on the top. She could feel the heat on her face, even from several paces away. She took a few cautious steps towards the pedestal that held the new stone, trying to catch a glimpse of what they had created. The heat was such that is was impossible to get very close, but Twilight was able to see the ruby red crystal sitting within the glowing circle, seemingly unaltered.
"Did.. Did it work?"
Twilight looked at Axion, who shrugged, however Luna was able to assist.
"I do believe so. If it had failed, there most likely would have been some violent magical backlash."
"Oh."
The three mares gazed at the pedestals, still glowing, waiting on them to cool down enough to approach. When the red glow finally faded, Axion was the first to reach the crystal, and inspected it. Twilight came up behind her, trying to look over the scientist's shoulder. While the red crystal seemed unaffected, Twilight was able to see a faint pulsing deep within it.
"It's beautiful."
Twilight gently reached around Axion and touched the surface of the jewel. Finding it cool to the touch, she picked it up gently, and peered into it's depths. The pulsing was regular and smooth, like a resting heartbeat. Twilight looked to Axion, who smiled, then to Luna, who had taken several steps forward and was looking with academic curiosity. Twilight realized that Luna was already wearing the Moon Stone around her neck.
"Luna, how is the Moon Stone?"
"Unaffected, as expected. It is a very durable artifact."
Smiling at Luna, Twilight looked back to Axion.
"Well, we've done it. A suitable replacement for the Moon Stone for our experiment."
"I know! Is this not exciting? And we are so nearly prepared for the experiment itself! All we have to do is reset the instruments on the concentrator itself, and then run one last calibration, and we can move on to the truly exciting parts! Twilight, will you start with the gyrostabilizer? It was running high last time I checked."
"Right away!"
Twilight turned and placed the now powerful crystal back into it's tamper-proof case, then walked over to Luna.
"Well, we're about to begin the most intensive and crucial part in this whole scheme. You are welcome to stay and watch, if you wish, however you'll probably get a little bored."
"No, my dear, I'm afraid I actually have some business to attend to tonight. I will depart, but you must send me a letter telling me what you discover. I am absolutely riveted by this! To think, two mares are about to do something that even the great Starswirl admitted beyond his knowledge, and she's my lover at that! I am truly lucky."
Twilight blushed, the rosy red burning on her violet cheeks.
"But not near as lucky as I am to have you."
Twilight kissed Luna lightly, and as she did she heard a cough behind her. She turned and sheepishly looked at Axion, who was tapping her hoop impatiently, though her smile informed Twilight she didn't truly mind. Luna smiled, and kissed Twilight lightly again.
"I must go now. best of luck, and please be careful."
"I will."
Twilight watched with only a little remorse as Luna left, but turned back to Axion with an excited smile.
"Time to start!"
Twilight went to the giant funnel shaped device that dominated the rear of the large room, and climbed a small step ladder next to it. Axion went over to a long table festooned with dials and gauges, and looked at Twilight, waiting on her to begin. Twilight grasped her first target, a small gyrostabilizer, and carefully removing it, moved the small needle underneath back into it's position. Sometimes the needle would gravitate further to one side than it should, and being as it was to measure vibrations and movements in the focusing lens within the concentrator, that was something that needed to be accurate. Too much power input would make the lens vibrate and diffuse the beam, but too little and the experiment would not work. There was a very fine line to be tread, but Twilight felt that Axion had covered all the bases with various safety cut offs and proper instrumentation to gauge them.
"Ready?"
"Mark."
Placing the gyrostabilizer back in it's hole very carefully, Twilight looked to Axion, who was measuring the feedback on a dial.
"Good?"
"In the green. Next!"
Moving to the next device, a voltage gauge, Twilight and Axion carefully reset the readings to optimum. They continued to do the same process with each device, moving down the machine on one side, then up the other, then down the top and up the bottom. After what seemed to be the entire night spend manipulating tiny buttons, wires, needles, and switches, Twilight finally pushed the last instrument back into it's place, and immediately sat down and sighed.
"Two hundred and fourteen measuring instruments. I hope they're all reading correct?"
"They seem as if they are. Good job, and congratulations! Now, take a ten minute break, then bring me the crystal."
Twilight did as requested, taking a few minutes to sit down and drink a cup of fresh spring water. She could not truly enjoy it though, as what they were about to do had made her very anxious to begin.
We're about to do the impossible. If, no, WHEN we succeed, this will change everything. Entire books will have to be rewritten, or simply ignored. And with the new stone, with it's exponential power, we will be able to do things previously impossible. We might even be able to put a pony on the moon! Well, a regular pony, not a Princess.
Twilight looked at the clock, and realized her ten minutes were near enough to done. She left the cup on the counter and went to the chest, removing the crystal, and went over to the machine. Axion stood waiting, gazing at the machine. She turned as Twilight approached.
"Are you ready?"
"As ready as I can be to defy every magical law I've been taught."
"That's the spirit! Now, place the crystal in the cage, and I'll start powering up."
Twilight went to the small end of the large funnel, to the small harness that sat there. It resembled nothing less than a small bird cage to Twilight, about eight inches tall and six inches around at the base. Twilight was proud it was her idea. The crystal would likely jump and move around as a result of having incredible forces shoved into it, and the cage was the simplest and likely best solution. Opening the door, Twilight set the crystal in the center, and locked it shut. She stared at the crystal for a few moments, enraptured by the slight pulsing within it, then turned and went to Axion at the control board.
"Loaded and locked!"
"Good! Powering the last of the instruments up now. Twilight, come help me with this. Stand over there, near the lens readouts."
"Okay."
"Lens angle?"
"Good."
"Voltage?"
"In the green."
"Water coolant pressure?"
"Good."
Axion looked at a few more dials, and asked Twilight a few more questions, all of which were answered positively. Finally, it seemed they were actually ready to do what they had been waiting for all along.
"Well, it seems like everything is optimum. Twilight, if you please?"
Twilight followed Axion out from behind the control panel, and over to the large end of the funnel, which was dominated by a large ruby carved into the shape of a lens, exactly sixteen feet in diameter. They had initially desired a glass lens, but the time it would have taken to make would have made them wait far longer than they had wanted. Luckily, one of the few Diamond Dogs that was friendly to ponykind had happened to have a giant ruby that was large enough. All they had to do was find somepony to cut and polish it, which was easy compared to making a giant glass lens. The cost had been astronomical, but Axion seemed to have bottomless funds. Twilight had been curious about her surplus of bits, but she decided that Axion would have told her if it mattered.
Staring at the lens, Twilight admired her and Axion's contorted reflecting in the convex surface. She could barely see through it, into the mouth of the funnel behind, but ever so barely. She looked at Axion, who spoke to her without looking, gazing into the lens as well.
"Well, this is it, Twilight. Are you ready?"
"Yes."
"Okay. Then on three, two, one, NOW!"
Axion sent a beam of magic straight from her horn into the direct center of the ruby lens, and Twilight did the same at nearly the same moment. The blue beam intersected with the purple one as they collided with the surface, and sparks of every color in the visible spectrum dancing out as the beams went through, and into the funnel, hopefully being combined and siphoned into the crystal waiting at the end. The machine hummed loudly, not the heavy bass thrum of the stone duplication, but a high pitched scream of gears turning, water steaming, and huge amounts of power being channeled into a small space. The floor shook, and dust rained down upon the two mares as they kept sending magic into the machine. They didn't relent nor get distracted as the dusk covered them, or when some of the other equipment in the lab began to fall, or when the machine itself began to shake. From behind the machine, a bright red glow emanated, coming from the cage that held the crystal. Seeing this, Axion shouted to Twilight, barely audible over the commotion.
"Alright! Cut in three, two, one, now!"
Both unicorns turned their heads to the side, snapping the ribbon of magic that had linked together and to the machine. Instantly, the shrieking and the shaking that had come from the machine stopped. The lab was nearly silent, except for a faint hissing where some acid had spilled onto a wooden table. Axion took a few steps forward, and stopped, hanging her head. Twilight didn't see any of this, as she had closed her eyes and laid on the cool stone floor. Both mares were exhausted, not as much as when Twilight got her wings, but almost. After a moment, Twilight got to her feet, and Axion did as well. They both slowly walked around the back of the machine, to the cage and the waiting crystal. As they got closer, Twilight could feel a detectable drop in the temperature. As they got closer and closer, the temperature kept dropping, and soon their breath was misting and there was frost on the machine walls. The cage itself was draped in ice, with a red glow coming from within. Breaking some of the ice, Twilight opened the small door and reached in.
"Ah!"
"Twilight! Be careful!"
"I am, it's just cold."
Slowly bringing her hoof out of the cage, Twilight looked down and saw what they had created. The crystal looked much the same as before, however the pulsing within it had gone, and instead it was glowing with a deep, steady, light. Twilight could feel the power in it, like a static charge running up her leg.
"I thought it was beautiful before... Now it's...."
"Yeah....."
Both mare stared at it for several moments, enraptured by their creation.
"Twilight?"
"Yeah?"
"Something this magnificent needs a name."
"Yeah..."
They lapsed back into silence for more time, both thinking for a name. Suddenly, a word jumped into Twilight's head. It was a word she had heard once in a song, and given the meaning of the song, it seemed appropriate for the stone.
"Axion. I think I have one."
"Yes?"
"The Amaranth."