"Twilight, can't you just calm down for a moment? You've been pacing like this since yesterday!"
"I can't calm down, Spike! Someone broke in the throne room, which we still have no leads; we didn't get the chance to warn the last two versions of ourselves about my crazy counterpart roaming in the multiverse; and said last one wasn't even an alicorn yet we were given their address by the Archivist to go there; and to top it all off, they attacked us without hearing us out!"
Day court was over and the two were going back and forth within Twilight's chambers. The events from yesterday clearly vexed the alicorn as she was no step closer into knowing what her potentially evil counterpart might be doing, let alone have a means to travel without a third party help.
A knock on the door interrupted the ranting, "Um, Twilight... may I come in? Unless you don't want to be disturbed."
Twilight's expression shifted immediately sheepish, "Oh Fluttershy, please don't mind that earlier. Come in."
The yellow mare slowly entered looking somewhat nervous, "Sorry to disturb you Twilight, but I heard from Rainbow Dash that you were troubled from yesterday. So I thought maybe I'd come and see you."
Twilight gave her friend a smile, "Thank you Fluttershy.. I really appreciate it. I'm feeling better now, if not a little frustrated." Then an idea came to the alicorn, "Fluttershy, how would you like to join us for today's excursion?"
"Are sure you don't want to join us Spike?"
"Yes Twilight, I'll be fine. Besides, I have plans with Rarity later today anyway. You two just take care, okay?"
"We will Spike," the Princess of Friendship assured her faithful assistant before turning to the pegasus, "Are you ready, Fluttershy?"
"Oh yeah, sure. I'm ready," Fluttershy wiped all uncertainty from her face and gave Twilight a reassuring smile.
Twilight set the dials on the seal. Let's see, next on the list is World Equis 183. She input the numbers and activated the seal. The familiar flash of light enveloped the two as they vanished from the room they once were in. As their eyes adjusted from the sudden flash they began to notice the environment around them. It looked as though it were some sort of workshop or laboratory. Medical instruments were scattered across the tables in the room, diagrams of pony anatomy were pinned on charts to the walls. What was most ominous however was a single bed stretcher on a lift leading up to the roof with a figure underneath the sheets.
"Twilight, where are we?" Fluttershy's eyes dilated as her voice quivered with fear, "I thought there would be meadows and a tree. Why are we in a room that looks like a horror house for Nightmare Night?"
"Fluttershy, calm down," Twilight tried to assure her whilst also telling herself that, "I think it has to do with the new settings that was mentioned in my letter form my mysterious benefactor. Maybe our guest is..."
"IMBACILES! All of them! They just don't see..."
A loud slam as the doors flung open reveal a purple unicorn stallion entering the room. He was clothed with a black tailcoat over a puffed shirt and white tie. His indignation was diffused at the sight of the two mares before him. As he observed them, his expression went from furious, to suspicious, to wide eyed surprise.
"An Alicorn? No, not just an alicorn. An alicorn that resemble one such as I, and another I've seen before. And you," he turned to Fluttershy, almost like that of a predator causing her to squeal softly in fright, "you resemble that nursemaid that tends to my little brother. Fascinating."
"Could you please back off for a minute? You're scaring her," Twilight held out a forehoof, gesturing him to keep his distance, "and to some extent, me as well."
Snapping out of his curiosity, he composed himself and readied his introduction, "Oh, of course. Where are my manners? I am Victor Starstein. I would say, "Welcome to my lab," but we both know it isn't truly so, is it?"
"Quite right, actually," Twilight replied with her encyclopedic explanation, "This room is actually a pocket universe provided to me for my means of seeing other versions of myself across alternate realities."
"And let me guess, you are me from another reality?" he continued where Twilight left off, "I would have been more surprised, if you were the first I've met."
"You've met another Twilight before?" Fluttershy meekly asked.
"Is that your name?" Victor asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Why yes, I am Princess Twilight Sparkle; Princess of Friendship, Celestia and Luna's Successor as ruler of Equestria," Twilight gave her usual greetings.
There was a brief pause before Victor let out a maniacal laugh, "So, the powers that be saw fit to send forth a Goddess to bear witness to my achievement? I feel honoured."
Twilight shuddered at the implication, "I am no Goddess, Mr Starstein. And what exactly are you hoping to achieve?"
Starstein approached the stretcher by the lift with a grin, "Why m'lady, a leap to Ponykind's evolution, of course."
Without another word, he lifted the sheet exposing the figure within: A lifeless corpse of a pony, sown and stitched together with different parts of other creatures.
The mares gasped at the sight of the cadaver; Fluttershy especially was weeping at the sight of a familiar face, "D-D-Discord?"
Twilight was furious as she flared out her wings and ignited her horn, "What is the meaning of this? Explain yourself, Starstein!"
A rumble of thunder was heard from the distance.
"It's simple, your majesty; this creature is a product of my hoofwork," the stallion ignored Twilight's intimidation as he continued, "Taken and stitched together from the finest limbs and organs of the deceased. To be reanimated by the spark of life from the sky."
The mares couldn't believe their ears. "Necromancy!" Twilight shrieked, "You would dare to cast Necromancy?"
"Nay, your majesty," Starstein rebutted in protest as he pulled the sheets back over his subject, "Necromancy is a fool's practice to use magic to bring life to the dead. I am a Physician, I plan to cure the disease called Death by the powers of nature itself! With what I will achieve, no longer shall Ponykind fear death! The alicorn assured me so by providing me the means to ignite the spark of life."
"This is wrong!" Fluttershy cried out in tears, "This is a wrong to everything natural! Life and Death must not be tampered with! THIS IS MADNESS!!"
"Madness?" Fluttershy stood behind Starstein and saw his ears twitched, "Madness?" Her ears fell flat when she heard the venom from his voice as he whispered that word.
Without another word, he flipped over a tray of medical instruments behind him as he turned to glare at the yellow pegasus with fury in his eyes.
🎶"Madness! Folly! INSANITY!"
He approached closer to her, as he jabbed a hoof to her forehead.
"Little minds have belittle my dream!"
He turned away from her and stared at Twilight only to return to his subject.
"But I- Could I- Might it be?
THE GREATEST TRIUMPH PONIES' EVER SEEN!!"
He opened a wardrobe and donned a lab coat and tinted goggles as he continued his song.
"Within the flesh of a force resides.
If it could only be controlled!
If sleeping sparks could somehow be revived?
Think of the awe-inspiring power we would hold!
I want the world to see,
where brave research and experiments have led.
Electricity's the Key!"
He approached a desk and lifted a picture of a mare with his magic. The two mares noticed the image resembled Twilight Velvet, Twilight's mother. Sympathy tugged their hearts as he continued his lamentation.
"To reanimate the dead
I could spare the world, the anguish
of love ones taken in their prime."
He placed the the frame down as he smiled manically at the mares as they winced from his change of tone.
"The Glory of a brave new world
WILL SOMEDAY SOON BE MINE!!
Immortal soul
Our inner being
Does it endure or does it perish with the flesh?
In my hooves, I'll hold the answer!!
And the power OF LIFE AND DEATH!!"
A bolt of lightning struck as it thunders close by, startling Twilight and Fluttershy.
"Mecca of Science, Give me the means!!
To walk where none have trod!!
I'll discover the secret between,
The Alchemists and God!!"
Twilight grabbed Starstein by the shoulders and looked at him in the eye pleadingly, "Please, you must not go through with this! What you seek to create, the consequences! You will unleash an unnatural horror that even you will not be able to stop! Please, I beg of you, stop while you still can! If you go through with this, you will live with a regret you cannot escape from with the rest of your life!"
"There is no stopping this, your majesty!" he shrugged himself off from her grip, "Once I succeed in breathing life into this new creation, I shall one day be able to restore life to those claimed by Death!" He looks into a clock on the wall, "12:40 AM. The storm is nearing its zenith. THE MOMENT HAS COME!"
Starstein ignited his horn and as activated the electrical coils and devices within the lab.
"Celestia dared to steal the sun from the gods
to lift all kind from sorrow!
And just as that myth, my mission is this:
To write a new tomorrow!
My endless days of study and toil are finally near fruition!
The world will be forever changed by history's physician!"
With a flash from his horn, he elevated the lift to the roof as he swung at one of the chains with his declaration. Twilight and Fluttershy flew up to follow him to onto the roof.
"Life Everlasting Reanimation!
A flawless new design!
The finest Creature in all creation!"
As he reached the roof, he grabbed cables connected to the lightning conductors and plugged them to his subject.
"BODY, BONE AND MIND!!"
A crack of lightning stretched across the sky to be followed by a roaring thunder, causing the two mares to wince and fold their ears. All the while, Starstein stood there; almost triumphant in his work.
"The storm will peak and the heavens part
To fire my preparation.
The needed shock...!"
A bolt of lightning struck a coil, causing the subject's body to twitch for a moment.
"...To start his heart!
Giving birth to my creation!"
Just then, a blast of lightning engulfed the roof, blinding everyone and throwing them off the roof. Fluttershy screamed as she fell whilst Twilight grabbed her and teleported back inside the lab. Starstein somehow did the same except he fell on to the floor slightly shaken from the blast. His eyes widen after a moment of composing himself and ignited his horn to bring his creation down from the roof. When the stretcher reached the floor, he took his stethoscope to listen for a heartbeat. And then he heard it; a faint beat, and then he saw a paw slowly rise from a side from the stretcher. Seeing this, Starstein's expression went from maniacal to euphoric.
"Darkness is done!
A new day has come!
The dawn of a new revelation!
Here in this place! Here in this time!
The birth of pony's salvaaaaaation!!!!"
And with his declaration he cackled a manic laughter as he scream two words:
"IT'S ALIVE!"
The two could only watch in horror at what they have just witnessed. Tear rolled down Fluttershy's cheeks as Twilight shielded her gaze from the sight with a wing. "I'm sorry, Fluttershy. There is nothing we can do anymore. He will not listen to reason."
Without another word, Twilight took out the seal and clicked to return them home.