//------------------------------//
// The Egg 
// Story: Trapped 
// by Gylden Glor 
//------------------------------//

	My muscles tense as Celestia replaces the egg on the pedestal.
"So?" I ask, leaning on the wall of the library basement. "What is it?"
She looks to me, and sighs. "I don't know. I'll have to bring it back to Canterlot..." With that, she effectively dissolves the pillar of coagulated blood, and deposits the egg in a bag that she straps to her back. "If you see anything else of this nature, please, tell me."
I nod, and hastily tell her about the deer that I saw in the forest. As I describe the marks on its back, and compare them to the ones I saw on Rainbow Dash, Celestia cringes.
"And you did not tell me because?"
"I didn't want to cause undue panic," I explain. "What could it mean?"
I see her jaw clench, and I see revelation spread through her eyes.
"I don't know," she sighs. "But it may mean something rather sinister...My hypothesis may cause panic, so I will not reveal it as of yet."
I raise an eyebrow. "Really? When did you start having suspicions of something sinister? Was it the dead deer, the being that feeds on pain, or the pillar of blood?"
She glares at me, and shakes her head. "All of it."
I nod, and she begins to climb the stairs. "I must depart. I am needed in Canterlot. I must study this egg more closely, and I cannot do so without my...tools, in my private study." I nod, and follow her up the stairs. Once in the center of the library, Rainbow Dash looks up to her. 
"So? What is it?" The cyan Pegasus asks softly, momentarily returning her attention to Scootaloo to comfort the shaken filly.
"I don't know. I must return to my study," Celestia responds. "Do not tell anypony about this. I do not want something that hasn't been confirmed leaking to the public. Until I have determined what it is, continue your life as usual. Do not let this interfere with your happy life in Ponyville, my dear Rainbow Dash. And, Peter?" I nod to Celestia, and she narrows her eyes. "Treat Rainbow Dash with the utmost respect."
With that, she explodes in a flash of light, and leaves our presence, leaving behind nothing but unfortunate sunspots upon our retinas.
"She sure was in a hurry," Rainbow Dash remarks.
"Yeah," I sigh as I sit next to Scootaloo. "Scoots, you okay, buddy?"
"All th-that b-blood," she mutters, shaking. "W-Was it all Sp-Spike's?"
Rainbow and I exchange a glance. We hadn't thought of that...
"I don't know," I admit. "But it won't hurt you, okay? It's gone now."
Scootaloo nods, but continues to shudder. I hold her, and so does Rainbow. We hold her between us, rubbing her back and squeezing her hooves.
"We're here," I say, softly. "We'll protect you..."
She nods, but continues to whimper. We rock her back and forth, silently comforting her in this world of madness. Eventually, she's fallen asleep, and is undoubtedly having a nightmare.
"What should we say if she wakes up screaming?" Rainbow asks, carrying the filly up the stairs as I follow close behind.
"We don't say anything. We hug her, and make sure she knows that she's safe."
Rainbow nods, and gravely lays Rainbow down on the bed before tucking the filly in. I tuck in the spots that she's missed, and stroke her mane gently before following Rainbow Dash back to our room.
"What do you think it is?" Rainbow asks me as we lay down.
I sigh. "I dunno. I mean, as far as I know, it looked a lot like Spike's egg..."
She nods, and I shrug. "But Celestia sure as hell seemed to know what it is..."
Rainbow Dash's relief is palpable. "Then that means she knows how to deal with it," she sighs. "Thank goodness...Well, I can sleep easy tonight."
I smile, and wrap an arm around her. "As can I..."
As the two of us fall into sleep, a hypothesis orbits my mind.
What if some kind of Grendel-thing will hatch from the egg? What if it's just a vessel for the propagation of species?
Eh, who knows. May as well leave it up to those who actually know what the FLOOPITY FLIP they're talking about, right?




I moan as there's a knock at the library door.
I had to get up at about midnight to help out Scootaloo, who had screamed and woken up from a nightmare. She saw Spike, bleeding everywhere and turning into an egg. So, I picked her up, and put her between Rainbow and myself, holding her close to myself until she fell asleep. She kept telling me she wasn't some kind of filly that needed to be held, but I told her that I needed to be held. So, she giggled, and snuggled into my side.
And now, as there's knock at the door, Rainbow and I are waking up.
Rainbow looks down, and sees me cuddling with Scootaloo.
"Aw," she says softly, ruffling her mane with a hoof. "I never thought I'd be happy to wake up with my boyfriend snuggling with another girl..."
I laugh softly, but I'm still too lazy to get the door. Maybe I should do some stretching, to wake myself up, and-
Y'know what, fuck it...
"Could you get the door?" I mumble.
"I got it last time!" Rainbow complains. "Remember? At one in the morning..."
I roll my eyes. "Fuck you, Rainbow..."
"Really? In front of Scootaloo?"
I blush, and shrink back. "Sorry..."
"But, whatever. I'll get it, seeing as how Scoots is all cuddled up to you. I don't wanna disturb her."
I nod, and smile in victory as Rainbow Dash leaves to get the door.
"Oh! Shining Armor! Hi! What brings you here?"
I perk up, intrigued.
"Celestia requests Peter's presence. She needs to look further into the egg, and she believes he can help her."
I get up, making sure that Scootaloo isn't disturbed. I slip on my shoes, and meet Shining Armor in the doorway.
"Shall we?" I say. He nods, and we exit after I give a good-bye kiss to Rainbow (much to her embarrassment.)
After a relatively eventless train ride, we arrive in Canterlot.
"We'd better hurry," he says, trotting on to the castle. I sprint after him, finding it difficult to keep up with a pony.
When we arrive at the castle, I'm panting, and Shining Armor is fine. The gate opens, and we walk through.
As we stroll through the castle, I happen to catch sight of Twilight, walking into the library.
"Hold up," I say. "I wanna check up on Twilight."
He nods. "I'll go with you."
We walk into the library, and I take a seat across from the lavender unicorn. She doesn't notice me, so I clear my throat.
She looks up, and smiles. "Oh, Peter! This is a pleasant surprise!" She cries. She comes around the table to hug me, and I reciprocate. She sees Shining Armor, and hugs him, as well.
"So, what brings you to Canterlot?" She asks me.
"Just here to, ah, do something," I tell her. "And I decided to stop by and see how you are. So? How are you?"
She smiles, and sits back down across from me. "I'm...I'm doing better," she says, sadly. "It's...It's difficult, but I'm recovering. It would be one hundred times worse if I were in Ponyville, because that's when I started truly treating him as a...a..." She chokes, and I reach across to grasp her hoof. She smiles, and wraps her surprisingly dexterous hoof around my wrist. We stay like that for a few moments, until she lets go, and I do, as well.
"You should probably get going," she says after taking a deep breath. "Don't wanna keep Celestia waiting, do you?"
I blink. I know it's a signal that she wants to be alone, but I must ask... "How'd you know I'm here to see Celestia?"
"Because you're the only human in Equestria," she responds. "And the head of the Royal Guard is escorting you. So, it's safe to assume that you're here to see her."
I nod with a small smile. "You truly are a genius. Well, I'll be off now."
She smiles with a small nod, and I silently leave the library. Shining Armor sighs as he leads me to Celestia.
"You know...I'm worried about her," he remarks as we near Celestia's private study.
"Who isn't? She just lost her son."
Shining Armor sighs. "I guess so...But she's strong. I don't doubt that she'll pull through this."
I smile, and pat him on the back, an action which requires me to awkwardly kneel down whilst walking. "She is. And with such a strong brother, she'll pull through fine!"
He smiles to me. "Thanks," he says, before opening the door to Celestia's chamber. "Now, head on in."
I nod, and walk in. The door closes behind me, and I notice one very, very strange thing.
Celestia is standing in the center of the room, swinging her hips to keep a white, glowing hula hoop centered around her midsection.
"Come...On...In..." She pants, her horn glowing as she fits a cone over it.
"Celestia?" I ask, confused and intrigued. "What're...What're you doing?"
She sighs, and expands her wings for a moment to keep her balance. "This...Hula hoop...I use it...The centripetal force...Allows me to...Focus my magic...Into one...Point of my body..."
I raise an eyebrow. "Uhhh-huh...What's the cone for?"
"It uses...Magical light...To allow one to...View the interior of...An object in the...Utmost detail...Which is why I...Need you...I can't necessarily...Examine it...While doing...This..."
I nod, take out my iPad, and prepare the camera. "I still can't get over this," I mutter as I examine the world through the camera.
"Get...Over what?"
"This world...It's like there are two dimensional objects on a three dimensional plane, but the objects can be viewed in three dimensions while still being two dimensional. It's rather disorienting, actually..." I shrug, and aim the camera at the image that is now appearing on the wall. "I'll take a picture of the interior. It will be a bit grainy, but I can do a lighting fix to properly finagle the glare from the image...Okay, just hold it like that, Celestia..."
"As if...I'm doing anything...Else," she pants, struggling to keep the hula hoop, and her body, in constant motion. Unfortunately, sarcasm is difficult to convey through panting, so I simply nod.
"Alright...Got it. I'll take a few more, just as reference points..." I snap about five more pictures, and then look over at Celestia, who is beginning to sweat. I smile mischievously.
"Just keep going like that for a few minutes, I need to get some pictures at different angles..."
"Okay..."
With that, I put the iPad on mute, and change to video recording. I then get a video of Celestia using the hula hoop, walking around her to get it from different views. I stumble as I walk behind her due to table behind me, and the camera stays focused on her flank for an unfortunately long time. Once I've gotten about a minute of footage, I close the iPad, and smile to myself.
"Alright, that's good," I say. "That's it, right?"
She sighs in relief as she stops moving her hips, and the hula hoop ceases to glow as it slows down. She removes the cone from her horn, and flops down onto a chair with another sigh.
"That was the longest I've done that," she pants as she fetches a bottle of water with her horn. She greedily swallows all of the liquid, and rubs her hind legs with a hoof. "That's going to burn in the morning..."
I smile as I sit across from her, and begin to study the images I took. "I'm not going to lie, from the time I started getting 'different angles' onwards, I was recording you using the hula hoop."
She looks up at me, incredulous. "You what!?"
I snicker. "I decided you could use the exercise."
Celestia grinds her teeth, and I clench onto my chair. "Uh, sorry, Celestia. Look, I won't show it to anypony, okay? Just please, don't banish me or anything..."
And then, she begins to laugh. "Oh, it's quite alright. My sister and I are always pranking each other. It's fine if a friend pranks me." She gives me an evil grin. "But expect me to repay the courtesy."
I gulp, and she closes her eyes as she relaxes. Returning to the images of the x-rays, I zoom in, and find that the quality of my picture is quite good. In fact, I can see every detail of the image: the tiny cracks on the interior of the egg, the small air bubbles converging at the top, (which denotes liquid,) and something strange: the veins on the exterior are mirrored on the interior. I walk over to the egg, and compare the exterior and interior for a few minutes, and finally decide that I'm right. As I study the interior more, I notice that they are actually converging at the bottom, and coming up to join a small mass. Carefully rolling the egg, I place it on its side, and see that the exterior veins do the same: they converge into a tiny dot on the bottom.
"Celestia? Have you noticed the point where the veins converge?"
"Yes," she responds. "What about it?"
"Well, the veins are all mirrored on the interior," I tell her. "Or perhaps they're just thick enough to span the entire thing...But whatever it is, they converge at the bottom, and then come up into the interior to form a small mass...Almost like it's a fetus, and the veins are the umbilical cord..."
She walks over, now relaxed after her workout, and frowns at the image on my iPad and what she can directly observe on the egg. "How strange...Perhaps we should drill a hole in the top?"
I shake my head. "We don't know what the interior is, or how it would react to exposure to oxygen. It could burst out as soon as we do so, for all we know..."
She nods, and I put the egg back on its bottom.
"Perhaps we should just insert a syringe into it?" Celestia suggests. I sigh, and rest a hand on the egg, feeling the veins on the exterior, noting how they raise from the rest of the egg, and how they make me feel...I don't even know what.
"Peter? Are you okay?"
I nod, absent-mindedly, and remove my hand from the egg, and the veins. As I do, that strange feeling recedes, like the tide ebbing away...
I sigh, and crick my neck. "I don't know what's in this egg, and I don't know what we should do with it. My best bet would be to keep it under constant observation in an airtight chamber. And have preparations ready; protocols for in case it hatches, or in case it becomes violent in any way. Make preparations for any kind of acid, fire, biohazard, liquid...Anything."
She nods, and I tap the exterior. "When can you have the containment ready by?"
"By the end of the day" she responds. I look to her in surprise, and she smiles at me. "We have magic, Peter. All we need to do is get a pile of resources, and as long as we have enough materials, we can make whatever we want."
I nod in appreciation. Alright, sweet. So, should I stay and help with it, or-"
"No. Go back to Ponyville. When the containment chamber is complete, and we have the egg under observation, I'll tell you. And then, you can come by and make sure everything is up to par."
I nod, and, after shaking her hoof, I start on my way back to Ponyville.