//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6 
// Story: Lunar Shattering 
// by Broken-Quill 
//------------------------------//

As Princess Luna stepped through the doors, the immediate change in atmosphere was noticeable. A faint odour, reminiscent of burning metal and alcohol, was felt in the air. The room beyond the entrance was white and vast, much larger than any she had anticipated behind in her opinion modest door, yet thick doors. It was circular in shape with the ceiling narrowing down among the walls making the room an inside of a large cone. It stretched high upwards, with a ceiling height that would challenge her tower in Canterlot. Alongside the walls stretched out were long tubes that were coloured in different colours, confusing Luna on their purpose, those tubes made their way to the highest point in the room and directly to the middle. 

Directly ahead, In the centre of the room stood a striking structure that immediately drew Luna's attention. From above, a long, metallic silver pole extended downward, encircled by spiralling rings of polished orange-red metal. These rings decreased in size as they approached the center of the room, creating the visual effect of a metallic vine unwinding. Below, a similar structure rose to meet the other in the middle. This pole, too, was sheathed in metallic silver, but its rings were crafted from a matte, dark material that contrasted sharply with the white walls.

But what really captured Luna’s attention wasn’t the size of the structure or the noticeably large number of Royal Guards positioned around the room with their eyes wandering around all the maintainer ponies in white lab coats, instead it was the crystal in between the two coiled structures. The mere presence of the crystal gave Luna a small headache that she experienced not so long ago. Hovering between the two large spheres, attached with thin tubes at the end of each metallic pole there was the element … element of magic.

The atmosphere in the room shifted subtly, from previously chatty to silent within a second, the element of harmony bearers fixed their eyes with the element of magic. Each one paused momentarily to take in the strange scene before them.

Pinkie Pie’s eyes wide with wonder, she began tilting her head back, further and further, trying to trace the intricate spirals of the metallic structure all the way to where they met at the ceiling. As her head tilted back to an almost impossible angle, her balance wavered under the strain of her exaggerated pose and with a comical fall she landed on her back mimicking a turtle.

If before twilight was raging with energy , now confusion was written on her muzzle. "What is the purpose of this arrangement?" she inquired above a whisper, while inspecting the crystal and the spiralling structures with her eyes narrowed and head tilted.  

Hovering now a bit lower, closer to the group  ,Rainbow Dash directed her question to the two stalions in front of the group, "Hey Sparkwire, Coil, why are there so many guards in here? What’s with the heavy security? Are we expecting trouble or something?"

Edison Sparkwire, exchanged a quick glance with Tesla Coil before responding. His voice echoed slightly in the vast, conical chamber. "Well Miss Rainbow Dash, you have one keen eye! Yes, the security is indeed tighter than usual, but fear not it's purely precautionary for the ceremony and this beautiful artifact” he gestured grandly towards the shimmering element of magic suspended between the spirals. With a loud pop a blackboard appeared between the two stallions with a diagram of the structure before them presented on the board. Picking up a piece of chalk with his magic Sparkwire continued, “So as you know with your battle with ‘Nightmare moon’ you six managed to reconnect the elements of harmony back into our magical ecosystem, specifically a particular one that is very important for this project, ‘the element of magic’”. 

At the mention of her previous self, Princess Luna stiffened slightly, her wings twitching involuntarily, being only noticed by Tesla Coil who gave a small unapproving glance at his colleague.  

Stepping forward, Tesla Coil took the attention on himself, adding his part “This element, as you've experienced, holds significant power. Not just Equestria's magical balance, but the entire world. What we accomplished here," he motioned towards the complex arrangement around the crystal, "is to harness and amplify the magical power of harmony across equestrian and focus them into many inert crystals we managed to store over the centuries”

"So, you're using the Element of Magic as a... focal point to charge existing magical crystals?” Twilight asked “A catalyst for a larger magical infrastructure? How does it work?”

“Yes, as you can see on the diagram” , with a small Nod Tesla Coil motioned to the blackboard “Those structures are my invention, the Tesla Coils…” Edison Sparkwire chuckled, casting a sly glance at Tesla Coil. "And he calls me a show off!" he exclaimed, throwing his hooves up dramatically, while hit Tesla on his muzzle with the piece of chalk. Tesla Coil's mustache twitched visibly in Suprise, . "Quite the comedian, aren't we, Sparkwire?" he retorted with a lack of enthusiasm, "Let's try to keep the theatrics to a minimum and focus on the science, shall we?” Clearing his throat with a cough he pointed with his wing to the blackboard. "As mentioned, magic permeates everything around us. While we haven't fully delineated its boundaries, we understand that it has almost unlimited reserves. The coils you see here are designed to concentrate the magical energy we extract from beneath and above this facility, channelled through an intricate work of conduits, not to go into details, the main objective is to collect all the possible magic and charge it directly at the element of harmony. The coils serve as safe conduits. You can view them as large unicorn horns, with the surrounding world acting as the body of a unicorn, if that simplifies the concept for you. Once the magic reaches the Element of Harmony and we charge it, we connect it to wires that distribute the energy to various rooms around us. In these rooms, we store and charge clear magic crystals.”

Twilight's brow furrowed , "Is there an alternative method or element that could potentially replace the Element of Magic in this setup? Or is the Element of Magic absolutely essential for the functionality of this system?"

"Currently, the Element of Magic is crucial for our system due to its unique magical properties, we are planning on using other Elements of Harmony in a similar way, but first we have to finalise some plans.  We are also actively developing an alternative to remove Elements of Harmoney completely from the equation but it’s a high jump for us now”

As he was speaking, a security pony discreetly approached Edison Sparkwire. Leaning in close to the group while maintaining eye contact with Edison, "Sir, the ceremony is set to begin shortly. We need to gather VIPs and proceed to the main event space..."