//------------------------------// // 26 - The Madman's Experiment // Story: Twilight Over Thanalan // by tom117z //------------------------------// For all of her bitter resentment toward the Garleans, Twilight had to admit they knew how to build impressive structures. Now that she was awake and cognizant enough to pay attention, the interior of the Praetorium was nothing short of awe-inspiring - though it also evoked a mirroring degree of fear. The interior was comprised of enormous corridors of blackened steel, lined with neon red and blue lights that snaked and slithered across the walls, floors, and ceilings. Entire squads of imperial soldiers marched this way and that in measured lockstep, eyes trained ahead. Magitek machines stomped or rolled by through some of the larger chambers as she passed, sending powerful vibrations through her hooves to settle in the core of her ribcage. The whole place was alive with clangs, the shriek of metal, the barking of orders, and the stomping of armoured feet. It also smelled of an absurd amount of oil. Despite the circumstances, Twilight’s curiosity, as ever, won out. “Wow… how did you make all of this?” she asked as her captors led her onto a lift at the end of the corridor. One of the officers glared down at her but said nothing. Twilight huffed and looked back up at him. She opened her mouth to say something but thought better of it a moment later. She shook her head with a grimace and looked down at the floor, her ears folding back. Her stomach lurched as the lift suddenly slid into motion, bearing her higher into the peaks of the facility. She wobbled uneasily on her hooves, cursing the shackles that still bound her, and watched as the massive chambers vanished behind the walls of the elevator shaft. When they came to a stop a short time later, the corridor to greet her was far smaller. Not nearly so cramped as the hallways of the prison, but far more sterile and utilitarian. The stink of oil was also far less prevalent here. As the officers led her off the lift, she found it in her to ask another question. She looked up at one of the other officers. “So… what does Nero do?” she asked. “I’ve heard the name before, but-” Crack! Twilight cried out in pain and fell to the floor as something struck her in the back of the head, hard. Stars exploded across her vision as her nose cracked against the cold floor. Her vision swam, her skull ached, and she became vaguely aware of an angered voice snapping at her from above. “You were not given permission to speak, animal!” Twilight picked her head up off the ground. She shot a glare back at the officer, taking note of his posture, stance, and the weapon at his side. She bit back the urge to snarl at him. Though a large part of her felt ashamed of it, an even louder voice determined that, if given the chance, she was going to kill him. She blinked and shut the intrusive voice down the moment the thought crossed her mind, though, and picked herself back up. “Try not to damage it,” the head officer droned. He sounded bored. “The Tribunus wanted it alive for a reason.” She, not it, thank you, Twilight thought to herself. They led her down another series of corridors, and finally through a sliding pair of doors flanked by two guards. The troops saluted as they passed through and into the spacious chamber beyond. What she saw both kindled her fascination further… and filled her with abject horror at the implications. It was a vast circular room, filled with magitek machinery and whatchamacallits that she’d love to dissect in a more positive working environment. Around the gaggle of gadgets and gizmos were a whole host of men and women in white lab coats with glowing blue goggles draped over eyes that scanned over her, probably quite literally, the moment she stepped into the room. The dull white noise of their discussion stopped. And it wasn’t just them. Standing amongst them all was a man with no small air of arrogance radiating from him. Whether it was his slicked blond hair or the perpetual smirk of superiority on his face, the red armoured garlean practically regarded her in the same way a child would salivate after one of Pinkie Pie’s freshly baked cakes. And she recognized him, one of the imperials she spied in the haze that was her arrival to this place… “Nero,” Twilight inwardly surmised, before her eyes glanced off to the shadows. Scarmiglione too. The ascian was just… standing there, draped in the shadowy corner of the room, his masked features emotionlessly staring on at the scene before him. But even his presence wasn’t what caught Twilight’s attention the most. No, that would be what the congregation was all gathered around. For in the centre of the room stood some manner of operating table. It was hooked up to all of the machinery she had previously spied. At its head stood a particular pedestal hooked up to wires, crystals, and other such devices Twilight wasn’t familiar with. It, at present, stood entirely empty as if awaiting one final piece to a puzzle. And then there was the table’s occupant. Y’sanna was strapped down by her waist, wrists, and ankles, entirely trapped upon its surface. And yet there wasn’t so much fear in her grimace as sheer determination, though perhaps one mixed with minor trepidation. If anything, the crimson carbuncle lying next to the table seemed far more anxious about the whole affair, the creature curled into a ball and whining almost… pleadingly. Whatever this was, every alarm bell in Twilight’s head was screaming at her. This was bad. Very bad. “Ah, and so our guest of honour arrives!” Nero announced with childish glee. “I do apologize for being unable to formally introduce myself on our last encounter, but you made it so difficult to set a date! Alas, time seems to have found us, and you have no small part to play in the moment of my crowning triumph.” “What… what are you doing to Y’sanna…?” Twilight asked, eyes locked on the machinery strapped to the miqo’te in an attempt to understand their function. “Oh? Do tell me you’re not concerned for the lucky kitten? Not after the terrible way she treated you and your friends?” Nero asked in mock empathy. “All in due time, Your Royal Highness. And worry not, I have no intention of strapping you to any such devices… today. No no, your secrets shall be unlocked later, but for now, I am far more interested in the gift you brought with you…” If Nero’s smirk could widen, he managed it as he withdrew the Element of Magic, its once pristine surface ever so slightly marred from recent misuse… “This. Your Element of Magic…” Nero took several steps towards the defenceless mare, kneeling down before her and holding the element out teasingly close. “The power within… I have learned much through rigorous trial and error, I assure you. But I feel as though it is but a scratch on the surface, so I would save us all a lot of my very precious time and simply have you tell us all you know, little pony. It truly would be in your best interest to do so.” Twilight eyed Nero for a moment, then cast another glance at Scarmiglione. The Ascian was visibly paying more attention now, though his expression remained impossible to read. A lump formed in Twilight’s throat, one that stubbornly refused to be swallowed back down. She turned to Nero, staring longingly at her Element. It was right there! Literally, if her hooves were not bound, she could reach out and touch it! Not that she would be able to get very far if that happened, but still! Nero’s smile faltered into a frown of impatience. “Tick tock, pony. I haven’t got all day.” Twilight, reminded of Nero’s prior question, shook herself and affixed him with an angry glare. “I’m not going to tell you anything,” she said sternly. “And even if I wanted to, I couldn’t. I know what my Element does, but even I couldn’t begin to tell you how it does it. Not like any information I could give you would be worth a damn anyway. The Elements of Harmony are very picky about who wields them.” Nero quirked a brow. “Picky, you say? So this isn’t just some super powerful lump of aetherial crystal, then. There’s an intelligence in here,” he noted, looking at the Element with increased interest. “More than yours, that’s for sure,” Twilight thought, though she bit the words back before she said them out loud. So instead she merely clenched her jaw and blew out a snort of air. Nero hummed, turning the crystal over in his hand. “Well. That would explain why it is so stubbornly resistant to my probing. Oh, well.” Twilight blinked as Nero rose back to his full height and turned to make his way back to the operating table. She leaned after him, confused. “Wait, is that it?” she asked. Nero glanced at Scarmiglione. The Ascian nodded. Nero turned back to Twilight and shrugged. “I don’t see any lies here, and if what you say is true, then continuing to interrogate you would be a waste of my time. I have more important things to do than beat a dead horse.” Twilight’s brow furrowed. “Beat… what?” she asked. “I’m not dead and I’m not a horse! I’m a pony!” “You will be soon and I don’t care,” Nero dismissed her casually before returning his attention to the operating table. Some scientist… The crimson carbuncle snarled at Nero as he walked past the table, its tails lifting in a display of aggression. Nero cast it a glance but did not slow. He flashed Twilight one more look as he came to a stop beside one of the many machines in the room and opened a slot in its side. “That said, there is something I’d like you to witness,” he said knowingly. The lump in Twilight’s throat returned. She shifted uneasily on her hooves, her restrained wings twitching uselessly against her sides. “A-and that would be…?” she questioned. Nero slotted the Element into the compartment in the machine she had spotted earlier. All at once, the whole chamber came to life, humming with energy. Twilight’s eyes widened as Y’sanna went stiff on the table with a slight gasp. “Wait? What are you doing?!” Twilight demanded, moving to take a step forward. A scrape of metal and the edge of a sword pressing against her throat made her stop. She glanced fearfully up at the officer next to her, keenly aware of just how sharp the blade of his sword was. “It’s called progress, pony,” Nero told her, making his way toward one of the many terminals around the edge of the chamber. “Now shut up and witness history in the making.” His armoured red hand clamped down onto a lever on the console, the man glancing back at Twilight with an almost maddened glint in his eye. Short of lightning cracking in the background, he was the very visage of the many insane scientists that could be found in literature around the library. And as all insane scientists are wont to do, he pulled the lever. And Y’sanna screamed. All of the machinery Y’sanna had been hooked into came to life at once. Magitek sparked and some even seemed ready to burst into flames. The Element of Magic erupted with a flurry of prismatic energy that all seemed to be being dragged towards Y’sanna and forced into her body. The crimson carbuncle at the base of the operating table jumped in fright and began to frantically run back and forth around the table, yipping pathetically in terror at its master’s agonized wails. And all that was only the first second of the process. Twilight’s head erupted as if a drill had been taken to her horn. She could feel it in her very being. Her element was protesting, fighting, and it was losing. Being damaged in a fundamental way, violated. It was in pain. The Tree of Harmony, despite the vast distance of the void between them, was screaming as loud or even louder than Y’sanna herself. Even the air around them seemed to rend apart, sparks spitting like small lightning bolts as the magics of two worlds, as incompatible as they are meant to be, were forced to conjoin and be one. And it hurt. Everything hurt. And Y’sanna continued to scream. As this construct of impossibility was being infused into the miqo’te’s body, she struggled in vain on an instinctual, primal level to rip herself from her bindings. Her eyes were wide open, dilated in terror. Cracks all the colours of the rainbow were starting to appear in her skin, streaking down her body and threatening to tear her apart, mind, body, and soul. It was going to kill her! “Please… stop!” Twilight begged even as the nexus of two opposing magical forces threatened to split her skill. “She’ll die!” “A possible result. But not unexpected,” Nero retorted, eyes not breaking from his experiment. “There’s always another to take her place. Such is the nature of science.” “This isn’t science! It’s wrong!” Twilight shouted back. “You’ll kill her AND destroy the element! You’ll lose them both!” “I haven’t yet.” “Please!” “Oh yes, let me cease the discovery of the era because a pretty little pony told me to,” he remarked even as his subordinate continued to writhe and scream. “I don’t think so. I will not lose to Garland or anyone else. I will not.” For several more agonizing moments the process continued, more prismatic cracks snaking their way from the very top of Y’sanna’s head to the tips of her toes. Even the other scientists in the room started to glance at one another nervously, a few taking steps back and turning to Nero with questioning gazes. He returned none of them, his eyes greedily focused on the element and his test subject as the experiment rapidly approached its conclusion. The element began to shudder, Twilight’s headache exploding so much that it sent the mare to the ground, her hoof clutching the base of her horn. She could barely watch the horrific scene through her wincing eyes. She could feel the strain, the exhaustion, the very nature of this world fighting what Nero was trying to do and it was driving the element to the brink. At any moment she was expecting it to crack, for the end to come… And then it stopped. The sparking energies in the air quickly dissipated as the machines around the room died down into silence. What had moments ago been a cacophony of noise and activity suddenly became deathly silent, the only remaining thing being the slow breathing of those within and the continuing, desperate whimpers of the crimson carbuncle pacing around the table. The cracks along Y’sanna’s body began to fade away, the woman’s eyes shut even as her chest shakily rose and fell with shallow breaths. She appeared still, barely alive even, the element above her returning into relieved dormancy. Nero’s maddened glee turned into a frown, the garlean staring down at his subject expectantly and with the smallest amount of concern. Certainly not for Y’sanna herself, but for the outcome before him… Twilight let herself breathe, her eyes slowly reopening and staring at the scene before her. Maybe, just maybe, it had failed… Nothing had happened, the laws of physics and magic in two worlds had prevailed and stopped this… perversion of nature. Y’sanna would return to normal and both Nero and Scarmiglione would be back to square one. But then Y’sanna opened her eyes again. And they were glowing with a familiar hue of lavender magic. Oh, no… Nero’s face lit up once more with that vile grin. “Aaah, results. Untie her, let her up, come on, we don’t have all day!” There was a lull of inactive silence before the command registered with Nero’s subordinates. They quickly scrambled to do as he bid, and in short order, Y’sanna’s bonds were undone. She sat up on the edge of the bed, a hand to her chest and her breath slowing. Nero approached her, though Twilight did not miss that he was keeping himself well out of arm’s length. The crimson carbuncle leapt up into Y’sanna’s lap, pressing its face into her hand with a quiet whimper. She looked down at her creation, and Twilight was surprised to see a smile that actually looked caring on the bloodthirsty miqo’te’s face. Nero leaned forward slightly. “And? How do you feel?” Y’sanna looked at him, her expression darkening. She looked down at her hand, her eyes narrowing. There was a hissing sound like water hitting a pan in the fire. Then a flare of magic erupted around her palm, shimmering and humming in the same manner that Twilight’s magic did.  That same aura suddenly appeared around the neck of a nearby imperial, constricting. Twilight blinked in shock and barely had time to open her mouth to protest the action before a sickening crack filled the chamber. The man dropped to the floor without even a chance to gasp, eyes wide. Nero took a step back, his hand drifting toward a firearm holstered at his side. “Y’sanna…?” Y’sanna took a deep breath, petted her carbuncle, and flashed Nero a fang-filled smirk. “Better now.” “Did you have to kill one of my workers?” Nero questioned, crossing his arms. “Who cares?” Y’sanna intoned, still petting her creation. “You have plenty more of them. I needed to see if your experiment worked… and I very much needed to take out my anger on something after the pain you put me through. The waste disposal boy seemed a suitable scapegoat.” There was a pause. Nero slowly nodded, then shrugged. “A fair point,” he conceded before clapping his hands. “Right, someone get the corpse out of here. Give the cat a physical, make sure she’s fit in body as well as mind, and then send her down to the training rooms. We need to see what all she can do, now.” Finally, Twilight decided she couldn’t stay silent anymore. She took a step forward. “This magic wasn’t meant to be used like this! You can’t- hurk!” As it had the poor man from before, an aura of telekinesis wrapped around Twilight’s throat and squeezed. The floor fell away from her, her legs kicking as Y’sanna’s eyes glowed. The miqo’te bared her fangs. “Were you asked for your opinion, horse?!” “Please try not to damage a valuable prisoner,” Nero said in a condescendingly soothing manner. He placed a hand on Y’sanna’s outstretched wrist. “As stubborn as she is, she may still be of use. More than a waste disposal boy, at any rate.” Y’sanna snarled before dropping her hand, and Twilight crumpled to the floor, coughing and gasping for air. That grip had been tight. As she caught her breath, she looked up at the room. Her eyes landed on Scarmiglione, still lingering in the shadows, face unreadable. Twilight’s skull burned with rising indignation and fury. This violation stemmed from his intrusion into her world. Nero clapped his hands again. “Right! I do believe that will be all. Y’sanna, examination then training room. Guards? See the pony to her cell,” he commanded before turning on his heel and marching without another word for the exit. Twilight felt herself being hoisted back to her hooves and guided for her own exit. As she walked, she kept her eyes squarely on the ascian. “Damn you,” she seethed under her breath, her tail flicking. “Damn you all.” Scarmiglione’s head twitched to look her way, and despite no one else managing it, she knew he had heard her. His lips contorted into a thoughtful frown. He was raising a hand to rub at his chin before the metal doors slammed shut, and Twilight lost all sight of him.