A solitary light hung in the gloom of a spartan living room. It did not flicker, but had an erratic slow osculation as the silver unicorn creating it opened the tome to study. It had been three days since Alexia first arrived at The Ranch. Most of their belongings had been returned to them including Loki’s computer harness. Unfortunately the green mare was infuriated that the satellite uplink had been disassembled to keep her from creating an outside line.
The base commander had decided to leave Tune to her own devices for the time being and was instead having her closely observed for any displays of magic outside of telekinesis. So it was that he was going to get exactly what he wanted via the hidden cameras inside the living room.
Believing her display of power during the tests had not won her any elevated attention, Alexia recalled dinner with Conrad scant minutes earlier. He was munching on a plate of pan lasagna when he voiced a question he’d been meaning to ask. “You remember telling me about that page with the Dusk Guard?”
At the time, Tune was halfway done with a BLT sandwich using the foodstuffs that had been returned to them. “What about it?”
“What if there is a way to contact the princess now that you’re a complete pony.”
She swallowed her bite. “It asked for a real pony and an authentication cantrap to be cast on the reader to gain access. I need both.”
“This is a magic book we’re talking about.” He responded pointedly. “What if there was something on that page was invisible to you back then? You said you read that page before getting your cutie mark right?”
She hummed while chewing. “Could be. Nothing else so far cared if I was a real pony or not, but the page did ask for that qualification specifically. Its worth a look, maybe a person specific communication spell was on the page but hidden. I’ll look into it tonight.”
“Good. While you do that, I’ll try to get everyone’s name who’s interested in joining your project.”
“Sounds like a plan.” She picked off the last of the sandwich. “Have you seen Loki around?”
“The feds returned our stuff, but made sure to break her computer so she’s out trying to find someone who can fix it.”
She tried to dislodge a piece of lettuce from her teeth with her tongue. “Think she will?”
“That won't be the hard part.” He replied as he continued his own meal. “Problem will be getting the parts.”
“Loki’s resourceful, I’m sure she can handle it.”
Back in the present, with her companions our on their respective tasks, Alexia was alone in the house. She drew the blinds in the living room and pushed the coffee table out of the way so she could have the rather small floor space to herself. Then she pulled the two cushions off the couch and put them on the floor, one for her and the other for the tome.
After getting comfortable, Alexia flipped to the correct page. As before it seemed to shimmer and fade in and out of reality. She looked at the sole of her left hoof that still bore the pale outline of the key and placed it on the page.
The iridescent page solidified and the text became legible. Alexia quickly scanned the text and found no differences than when she first read it. A glance at the rest and back of the page revealed nothing there either. “Buggery. Nothing.” She was about to skip ahead to the current topic of study when her eye caught onto the two dime sized circles. The top, as before, glowed faint lavender.
Alexia was puzzled when she glanced at the bottom to find the lower circle was pulsing an azure hue. Two seconds after making eye contact with the second circle, lines shot out from both circles along the page to form a ring on the page with the two circles placed on top and bottom. Alexia’s eyes widened in amazement as a pattern started forming from within the ring. Dozens of pencil thin lines darted in seemingly random directions crisscrossing each other until a large lock was painted onto the page with the keyhole being the only part of the page remaining clear of the brown lines that now covered it.
It took Alexia a few moments to recover from her astonished paralysis. “I can’t believe it.” She looked at her left hoof again and then to the keyhole. “Was I really only missing a pony’s soul? But then when did I get Twilight’s encryption key?”
Her insatiable curiosity about magic drew her attention back to the tome. She pressed her left hoof onto the page and uttered the next work with unveiled anticipation. “Unlock.”
An almost imperceivable clicking noise came from the book. In a blinding wave of purple light, the book attempted to destroy all magical recording devices within a hundred foot radius. Unfortunately, that left the hidden mundane cameras very much intact. Alexia pulled her hoof away and gasped in stunned shock as all of the pages luminesced with a brilliant lavender light. She backed away into the chair as a transparent purple sphere appeared several inches above the book. It started out being smaller than a thimble and grew to the size of a basketball. Runes of sky blue, emerald green, amber yellow, ruby red, and amethyst danced over the sphere before peeling off to fill the air above the book. In their wake, the air itself was tinted lavender and harmlessly passed through Alexia, much to her surprise.
With a sudden snap, all the runes stopped and the spinning sphere halted its rotation. Tune was given two seconds to release the breath she had been holding when the sphere emitted a flat green line of light that was two feet long and it passed over the unicorn who was pressing herself against the sofa. The line passed over her, but stopped at her chest and turned a hostile crimson. The edge of the aura flashed as lines of silver encased Alexia within a prison.
She didn’t have any time to wonder what went wrong when an angry feminine voice roared out at the unicorn from the book, but did not leave the confines of the purple tinted prison. “How dare you try to use a false identity marker and steal a Dusk Guard’s tome!”
Alexia felt a cold stab of fear in her stomach when the holographic representation of Princess Twilight Sparkle burst out of the sphere with a glare that could burn a hole through a brick wall. “Did you honestly think I wouldn’t quintuple layer the detection wards to verify that I was the one who cast it?” There were actually twenty more, but the alicorn didn’t want to volunteer information.
“I didn’t know I had one.” Alexia sputtered out, trying to make her way to the edge of the field; yet she was trapped within the prison as if it was made of steel. “I just wanted to see-”
“Don’t lie to me!” Twilight stomped her hoof. “I don’t know how you did it, but there is a near perfect replica of my cantrap on you.”
Tune cowered at the edge of the field with her forelegs covering her head. “I swear, I didn’t know about it. I just wanted to see if there was some way I could contact you.”
Sparkle scowled at her. “Well you’ll get your wish. Both you and the stolen tome will be teleported to the Canterlot dungeon so we can get to the truth of the matter.”
“But I didn’t do anything wrong!” Tune pleaded.
“We’ll see about that.” Twilight countered. The randomly crossed lines of the prison bars reformed into an array so complex Tune was momentarily at awe of it until she realized what was about to happen. Her panic escalated while she continued to plead her innocence as the teleportation array brightened, heralding the imminent activation.
Alexia was near the breaking point as she watching it all happen with a crazed grin. “Well at least I get to leave The Ranch.”
Twilight’s smug look of satisfaction of catching a thief evaporated when the pattern fizzled and went dead. The aura faded drastically to the point of almost being nonexistent. Alexia and the tome were still right where they started. “What happened? What did you do?” Tune was dumbstruck as she gazed about the room for a few seconds in pure amazement that she was still on Earth. The hologram’s horn glowed for a moment before the princess’s eye shot open in complete shock. “That spell was supposed to use the atmospheric magic to bring you here, but there’s barely a trace of it there. That can’t be possible, everywhere has ambient magic! Where in Equestria are you?”
Tune snapped herself back to reality at Twilight’s declaration. “There isn’t any on my world.”
“Your world? What are you talking about?” Sparkle demanded.
Alexia found the strength to make her voice level again. “I’m not from Equestria. I’m on a planet called Earth, my homeworld.”
“Earth?” Twilight switched spells to trace the link between her and the tome. She gasped at the distance. “Sweet Celestia! You’re telling the truth." She paused to contemplate the implications. "You say Earth is your homeworld? But how did a pony get so far away from Equis?”
Alexia pawed the ground with a hoof. “I wasn’t always a pony.” She received a searching gaze from Twilight. Tune glanced about the room and saw a magazine on the coffee table. “Here, one sec.”
She bounded over to the table and flipped through the fitness magazine and found a picture of a man flexing his impressive physique. Not that I ever looked like a body builder, but this is close enough. In her magic, she brought the magazine’s picture toward Twilight. “This is a human. Its kinda sorta what I used to look like over a month ago.”
The princess studied the image and then back at Tune for a couple of times. “Astounding.” Much of Twilight’s hostile vanished as she studied the image. How did she get turned into a pony though? She glanced at the captions, which made her temporarily forget her question. “Wish I could read the language, it would absolutely fascinating to learn about a different world’s culture.”
Alexia was puzzled by Twilight’s statement and glanced at the text to make sure it was in English. “Wait. You can’t read this?”
The lavender alicorn couldn’t help but to scoff at the ridiculousness of the question. “Of course not. How could I read a language I have never seen before?”
Alexia put the magazine down. “Aside from the parts still conceal by the illusion magic, everything in the tome’s been in English.”
Twilight did a double take. “That impossible, I wrote it all in Equish because only ponies could or should use the contained knowledge. Any other species would find no use for it.”
“But you’re speaking English right now.” Tune was utterly confused.
Sparkle gave her a wary eye and shook her head. “No. We’re speaking to each other in Equish.”
“But then…” Tune ran over to the tome. The pages were still glowing brightly, but the text was still clearly legible as dark shapes behind the light.
Twilight threw at hoof at her in warning. “Don’t try to close the book when it’s like this or it’ll lash out at you in self-defense!”
“I’m not going to.” Alexia responded before trailing off in a stunned silence. Every page from beginning to the latest point she was at, was not anywhere near English and did not even use the Latin alphabet. No matter where she looked, everything was in a completely different language. However what surprised her most is that she understood it all as clearly as she did English. “How in blazes did that happen?” One of her ears ticked at she was flabbergasted that the words that had just come out of her mouth had been in Equish. No, it had to be English. I’m thinking in English right? I think I am. I’ll just say hello. Experimentally she spoke again. “Hello?” That time it had been in her original language. “Well that sounded right.” Her words fell back into Equish, but she was able to tell it was in Equish.
Twilight walked up to her and put a calming hoof on Alexia’s shoulder. “If you’ll let me take a look, I can find out what’s going on here.” The silver unicorn stood aside to let the alicorn have better access to the book. Twilight’s horn lit up as she scanned both Alexia and the tome for a specific enchantment. A knowing half frown half smirk slid across her face. “Just as I thought. The book has a comprehension charm with a brilliant secondary illusion effect woven into it. By realizing that it’s not in your native language, your perception is able to pierce the illusion.”
“You can tell all that just by scanning it? I’ve only been able to tell the tome had more enchantments on it then I could count.”
Twilight remained focused on the tome as she spoke. “Its what I do.” She grinned at what she saw. “I don’t mean to sound immodest, but I don’t think anyone else could have sniffed this out, the spellwork on that comprehension enchantment is a masterpiece.” Yet it feels strangely familiar.
She went on to explain her findings. “Because of how the illusion functions in conjunction with the comprehension part, it tricked your brain into using…English I think you called it, to recreate what you saw. At the same time, the secondary effect of the charm wrote Equish in your brain as you read.” Twilight’s intellectual curiosity was piqued. “Normally, a comprehension spell doesn’t last very long, an hour or so unless constantly maintained. Which begs the question…gah! I almost missed the tertiary effect completely.” She slapped herself on the muzzle. “It siphons mana from the reader every time you read and uses that to power the spell.”
“So…” Alexia pulled the magazine back over in her magic and found she could still read both English and Equish fluently. “That is so cool.” She said in Equish. “But then how am I able to speak it too?”
“Well you’re not doing that good of a job with it to be honest.” Twilight admitted. “At first I thought you just had a really poor accent, but now I understand its because you don’t know any of the pronunciation rules. As for how, its really not that difficult to speak if you can read the language.”
Alexia’s face lit up like a searchlight. “Could you teach me magic and how to speak Equish properly?!”
Twilight took a step back from the begging unicorn. “Don’t you want to go back to being human?”
Alexia vigorously shook her head. “No, never! I want to stay as I am.”
Twilight searched the silver unicorn’s face for the truth of the matter. Alexia’s sincerity was as plain as day. “I don’t know if I should be flattered or concerned.” The princess chose to go with the latter. “Do you have any idea how you ended up as a unicorn?”
“Umm.” If the Princess is real then, maybe that whole thing during the party wasn’t a dream after all. “I think the entity called Discord did it.”
Sparkle buried her face into a hoof and groaned loudly. “Why am I not surprised?” No doubt he was the one who gave her that book and cast the identification cantrap on her. “I’m going to have a long talk with him about interfering with the affairs of other worlds.”
“Wait, please don’t get him in trouble.” Tune pleaded as she tried to tug on Twilight’s hooves, but they passed right through the hologram. “He did it for a good reason.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “This ought to be good.” She sighed in supreme annoyance. “So what excuse did he use this time?”
Alexia tried to recall her meeting the spirit of chaos. “He never said what it was directly, only that some threat would render my world lifeless had he done nothing.”
Sparkle’s lips pressed into a grim line. “If that’s the case why didn’t he just fix the problem…?” She tilted her head and huffed in exasperation. “Because he’s Discord.”
Tune was insistent. “Please don’t get him in trouble for this. I’m really truly grateful for the gifts he gave me.”
“You mean you don’t mind being forcibly changed into a different species?”
Tune sat back and scratched her neck sheepishly. “Well sure it was a real mind blow at first, but I love being a unicorn.” Alexia’s eyes closed as her horn was encased in azure light. “It may be old hat for you, but for me. Weaving spells, using arrays, the sensation of mana flowing through my veins.” She spoke in reverent tones. “Being a pony was hardly part of my life goals, and even with all the trouble it brings, this is my true self now.”
Alexia encased herself in an aura of her magic. Not to achieve any real effect, other than to feel her power out. “I know I can use this to help my world survive this coming disaster.” She let go of the magic and the light around her vanished. “What Discord did may not have been the best approach sure, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
The princess couldn’t believe she was allowing it, but Alexia’s conviction had the desired effect. “It goes against my better judgment, but I’ll leave this be.” Alexia sighed in relief. “What I would like to know, is what do you want to do with the magic after you remove this threat?”
Alexia brought the magazine over to show the image of a group of people. “I don’t know how it is on your world. But on Earth, humans rule this world alone. Not because they conquered anyone to do that.” She noticed Twilight’s worried expression. “Its just that until us ponies started appearing, there was no other species capable of high intellect.”
The lavender alicorn was baffled. “Really? Only a single intelligent species on your entire planet? How lonely.” She added with a touch of sorrow.
“We never thought it was much of a problem, just how our world was. But now that me and more than twenty three hundred of us have become ponies, humans aren’t alone anymore.” She sat down next to Twilight and put the magazine on the floor so they could both see an advertisement of a family playing in a park. “The general population seems to like us well enough, but the government... not so much.”
“If a sentient species has been intellectually alone for the entirety of its development, then they would likely show signs of extreme xenophobia.” Sparkle deduced.
“I think that’s most of it. Plus they’re scared of our magic. Until we showed up, Earth had nothing like real magic.” Aside from Hollywood and some fancy toys, but that’s being technical. “So I want learn magic to help our people convince humanity to allow us to join them in society as equals.”
“An admirable goal.” Twilight said with a carefully controlled expression. The princess could tell the unicorn acted like a pony, but was strongly influenced by her native culture. She knew nothing about human mentality, aside from how Alexia presented herself. “But how are you going to do that?”
That was where Tune came up short. “I don’t know yet.” She stared off into space, gazing past the ceiling of her house. “My old plan is kind of bunked at this point. I just know I want both humans and ponies to be able to live together as equals.”
Alexia’s predicament reminded Twilight of the Hearth’s Warming Eve play she her friends took part of, and the story that went along with it. She looked back down at the picture. Humans look so different from ponies, and I bet their mentality mirrors that. Sure the three tribes had a great deal of animosity back then, but they were all still ponies. Here though, she wants to try unification despite that.
The princess studied Tune’s expression of reserved hope as she continued to dream of that day while staring at the ceiling. Being a former human she must know what she’s up against. As a bearer of Harmony, Twilight couldn’t resist the urge to spread Equestrian ideals when they were wanted. “I can help you, but I feel like we should start over and properly introduce ourselves.” Alexia turned back to the alicorn and got to her hooves. Twilight gave a slight nod and a warm smile. “I am Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria.”
Now that the alicorn was acting friendly, Alexia couldn’t contain her excitement. This wasn’t just a meeting with one of the leaders of her people; but the mentor who had, by proxy, taught her everything she knew about the very magic she craved to master. The unicorn bowed low. “I’m Alexia Tune.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Miss Tune, you can just call me Twilight, or Twi. I’m currently not a ruler as of yet so I don’t require formality unless I’m on business.”
“Please, Alexia or Alex. I have enough people addressing me like that.” She didn’t want to burden Twilight with the specifics of the internment camp if she could help it.
“I can do that Alex.” Sparkle added kindly. “How about we set up a trade of sorts.”
Alexia cocked her head. “What do you have in mind?”
Twilight looked around the room before focusing on the magazine again. “I would be more than willing to teach you magic when I can peel myself away from my obligations, and in exchange I’d like to know more about your world.”
Tune hummed at the condition before grinning. “Twilight. I can do that better than you think.” Alexia’s phone had not been returned to her, and was sitting in a confiscation locker on base. That did nothing to stop her from summoning it. After she pressed the power switch she held the phone up to the holographic princess. I may want to learn everything I can about magic, but I know my roots; and they lie firmly in the heart of technology. “Twi, I’ll be the first to admit us earthlings had nothing even close to pony magic. But that is not to say we didn’t make our own style of magic.” The phone finished booting and Tune quickly unlocked it and started up the browser. “Behold!” She announced in a grandiose manner. “All of the world’s information at your fingertips…well, hooftips I guess.”
The phone’s homepage was set to a search engine. Twilight was more interested in the fact that the screen was moving without any trace of magic coming from it, save for the residue left by Alexia from constant use. “I wish I could use that Alex, but I think that device will only respond to English.”
The silver unicorn was not to be defeated so easily. “Not a problem, I can do it for you. What would you like to know first?”
“Well why don’t we start with the origin of your species, you old species I mean.”
“Well that depends on who you ask.” Alexia replied. “Do you want a religious answer, or the scientific answer?”
“I know nothing of your faiths, so I’ll stick with the scientific one.” Twilight responded.
“Right then.” Tune fiddled with the phone to bring up the relevant website. “Oh internet, what would I do without you?”
Two hours passed as Tune satisfied every question Twilight came up with. Alexia was actually glad Twilight couldn’t use the phone herself because she wanted to keep her new friend away from unsavory sections of the net. Topics ranged from history, chemistry, astrology, to Twilight’s most interested subject of all: space flight. The entire time was spent improving Alexia’s pronunciation of Equish as well as Twilight gaining an understanding of the earthling mare.
They were going over theoretical propulsion systems for spacecraft when the battery gave its ten percent warning. Tune groaned at it. “I better shut it off, I didn’t put a hearth charm on the power cord so I’d like to save the last of the juice for an emergency.”
The lavender alicorn was awestruck by the device. “To have all of a world’s knowledge right there in the sole of your hoof. I only wish I could summon that device here so I could read for twenty lifetimes.”
Alexia made sure the phone was off and tucked it under the sofa. “Even if you could, it wouldn’t work on your world. It needs to be able to talk to the satellites around my planet to access the internet.”
“Even so, such interconnectivity of information.” Twilight was as enamored by Earth’s technology as Alexia was with magic. It was a parallel the silver mare found most amusing. “That settles it, you’ve more than upheld your end of the bargain and I shall hold mine.” Her horn lit up briefly. “I fixed your identification charm so the book will recognize you. That will give you access to the guard archives. I trust you will honor the six virtues I told you about.”
The unicorn rattled them off quickly. “Loyalty, honesty, laughter, kindness, and generosity, but I don’t think you ever told me what the sixth was.”
Twilight nodded sagely. “That is because you must discover it for yourself. Consider it the first project of your tutelage. There is no deadline on it, as I don’t expect you to discover the sixth element very easily.”
I can’t believe it! THE Twilight Sparkle is giving me a personal assignment! Alexia was careful to keep her overblown enthusiasm under control, but she couldn’t hide the stupid grin on her face. “I won’t let you down Sensei.” She snapped off a friendly salute.
“Sensei?” Must be a word for teacher. Twilight repeated the word a couple of times. “I like how it rolls off the tongue.” She said with a polite titter. “Okay, Sensei it is.” He tone become somber. “Given your situation, we may not be able to talk like this with each other very often, so I’ve altered the page where you activate the Dusk Guard archives from. If the purple light is on in the top circle, then I can pull away from my current tasks to speak with you. Unless the news is dire I will not attempt to contact you.”
“Because that might happen at the wrong time.” Alexia finished.
“Correct. And as such, I have duties I must return to. I wish you the best of luck, and I hope to see you again soon.”
Alexia wanted to touch the translucent alicorn, but knew her hoof would pass through. “Goodbye Sensei.”
“Goodbye my faraway student, may you always hold the elements in your heart and share it with others.” Twilight’s image faded away and the lavender aura from the tome dispersed. The room grew dark again as the pages stopped glowing and the tome returned to normal save for holographic text floating above the tome.
The silver and azure mare walked over to read it. ”I wanted to thank you again for allowing me to see a glimpse of your world. I wish to see more of it in the future went we have time, and hopefully to one day see your dream realized. I trust you will use this dangerous magic with the principles of harmony in your heart. It with that trust in mind that I leave you with a gift that Celesta passed down to me and now I to you. This is a spell only an exceptional few are ever able to perform, but I sense you possess the unique potential to make use of it. May it serve you well in times to come.”
Alexia had to blink away a joyous tear. Tune didn’t care what the gift was exactly, only that it was a personal one given to her by the pony who she saw as a friend, mentor, and the ideal to strive to be. “I’ll make you proud sensei, I swear it.”
Clearing her eyes, she scanned the magical hologram and saw the obvious advance “button” and tapped it with a short burst of mana. The letter dissolved and was replaced by a multiple paragraphs that surrounded her along with three large diagrams clarifying the spell’s structure. Directly in front of her was the name of the spell: Blink.
On the far side of The Ranch, the base commander rested his chin on the palm of his hand as he watched the video feed of Subject Uniform reading the spell Twilight gifted her with. His carefully crafted stoic mask belied nothing of what lied beneath. Roberts had joined in about the time Twilight realized Tune had been innocent of theft.
Both men were in a large room filled with screens along three walls. Those were mostly uneventful and were monitored by a simplistic AI that watched for strange events to record and flag for review. Hanging from the forward area of the ceiling was a much larger screen displaying Alexia’s holographic lesson plan for all fifteen people to see.
The room was silent save for the silent mutterings of the unicorn reading the text to herself in Equish. The air in the observation room was electric with what they had just witnessed. The military had their suspicions about the undiscovered possibilities of magic, but Twilight’s arrival trumped everything they had expected. The commander stood up to address the room. “I need every millisecond scrutinized for any addition information and I want the top linguists on payroll and translating that audio.” The room descended into organized chaos as the commander tapped a few buttons on a console before wordlessly beckoning Roberts to join him in his office.
The commander’s officer was spartan and to the point. It had a desk, two flags on poles behind it of both the US and Air Force. The only adornment was an unsolved rubix cube next to the desk name plate that read: Colonel Bowler.
The Colonel sat down at his chair and brought up the whole clip on his computer as he spoke to Roberts who remained standing. “Tell me your thoughts on what we just witnessed Doctor.”
Roberts adjusted his spectacles to buy time to conceal his excitement. “To put it bluntly sir, I’m not quite sure. Your hunch about Uniform was certainly on the money, but without knowing what they were saying; I can only guess.”
Bowler spun the screen around to start the clip at the moment the wards detected Tune’s false identification marker. “I find this part, along with the mystery pony’s appearance most telling. Given the presence of both wings and a horn, I’d say that was one of the pony’s leaders, if not the only one. And judging the body language and tone of voice, I'd say she had no idea there were ponies on Earth until now.”
Roberts concurred. “The leader was extremely hostile at first. If it was some form of AI of the book itself, I doubt it would have been so belligerent. What with Uniform possessing the book since she started changing, if she obtained it like the others had. But I must ask. Why did you not scramble Uniform’s phone signal? You had the tech waiting for you to give the order to do so.”
“It was a calculated risk.” Bowler replied curtly. “Once I realized who that hologram represented, I needed to know what sort of information they wanted.” He tapped a few keys to bring up Alexia’s Google searches.
“I was expecting Uniform to give general information on our military technology, economic power, and key government locations; anything an invader would want to know that is openly available on the net. If this winged unicorn wanted secret information she wouldn’t bother trying through a commercial satellite phone.” The requested list finally pops up on screen. “Instead they searched for ancient history, the basic sciences, and an episode of Star Trek.”
“Sounds to me you think they don’t really care about Earth.”
Bowler clasped his hands as he stared at the two ponies; one physical, the other translucent. “I want to bring subject Uniform in for questioning. Find out from her who that was and what she wants.”
“With all due respect Colonel, you don’t honestly believe Uniform will tell us the truth do you?”
“Of course she will.” Bowler rebuked. “Wilder’s reports on Uniform have been very informative on what kind of leverage would produce the best response. She’ll come to me asking for a favor soon enough and that will be the perfect time to get what we want from her.”
“With all due respect Colonel. Why waste time? Subject Papa would serve as perfect leverage.”
“Doctor, your expertise lies within the lab. Keep your suggestions outside of that to yourself.” Bowler growled. “Besides, there are far more effective forms of manipulation that will not result in as much backlash from the subject. Even more so when we hold our end of the bargain.”
“I will respect your decision of course Colonel, but Uniform likes to uphold herself on a moral high horse, what could you use besides intimidation to bend her to your will?”
Fool. “Don’t you get it Doctor? She’ll spoon feed us the means to control her.” Bowler flipped the screen back around to type in orders. “For now though, I want to watch her for a few days; let her think the meeting went unnoticed. If this mystery pony changes her behavior in any discernibly negative way, I’ll have her brought in early for interrogation. For now though, we wait.”
Alexia learned the Blink spell with a passion she had not felt for anything else save Conrad. The fact that it was Twilight’s personal gift was enough to spur her to master it, but upon discovering what the spell truly was turned her into a mare possessed by the absolute need to have it.
Both Loki and Conrad returned home later that night at separate times. The green mare was cackling madly at a small pouch she had around her neck. Momma’s going to fix her baby right up. No jarheads are going to keep me offline. She headed to the kitchenette next to the living area and saw Alexia completely absorbed by the shimmering text. As she got closer, Loki’s better hearing picked up on Tune’s quiet mutterings as she read the glowing text.
“Hey Alex, what the latest?” She received no response, prompting Loki to snicker. “You’re lost to the world aren’t you?”
“Uh huh.” Tune absently answered back.
The earth pony grabbed some salad and wandered off. You’d think she was looking at some damn good porn.
Conrad came in shortly after midnight carrying a list of names under his wing and a growling stomach. He too saw the distracted mare, but knew how to get her attention. He put the list aside and scrounged up the last of the burgers from the returned food and started cooking it on the stove. “Amazing how controllable these primary feathers are. Only half as good as fingers though but can’t complain since they let me fly.”
He was moving the paddies on a plate when a silver mare following her nose came over and nuzzled him. “Is it so late already we need a midnight snack?”
“That it is.” He set aside her plate which flew up in her kinesis. “So were you able to find anything?”
The silver mare munched happily into her burger. “Oh the things I have to tell you.”
A week went by with no contact with the outside world, save for the televisions in the mess hall and commons area that were fixed on the news stations. Loki had more difficulty fixing her broken uplink than she thought she would, but was up and running in three days only to find her signal was jammed one minute after starting. The resulting emotional firebomb was felt camp wide.
Conrad spent most of his time watching Alexia’s back as discretely as he could and helping her when possible. He was convinced the military want something more out of the detainees than making sure the public was safe from the alleged mind numbing charisma ponies possessed.
Alexia spent her study time equally between mastering Blink and Twilight’s tried and true concussive blast. The latter was by far easier than the former, but she was able to blink with moderate effort by week’s end. She used the rest of her time trying to organize a work force of ponies in an effort to get them motivated enough to start a construction project she had in mind. On the following Monday she planned to ask the base commander for authorization to do just that.
That very Monday, Alexia was rudely broken out of sleep by roiling nausea from the pit of her stomach. Instead of trying to untangle herself from Conrad and the covers, she blinked to the bathroom. That only made it worse and she scrambled to the toilet and heaved what little was left of her dinner.
Her rushed blink roused Conrad to wakefulness and followed the sound of her groggy moans. “You alright?”
“I will be.” Alexia spat as much of the stomach acid as she could in the toilet before flushing. “Must have been that tri bean burrito.” She still felt bad, but it was improving. She grabbed the mouthwash in her magic as she always saved brushing her teeth until after breakfast, something she wasn’t about to let an upset stomach keep her away from. “I’m fine now though.”
“If you die of food poisoning I’ll write ‘I told you so’ on your tombstone.”
She both groaned and laughed at his morbid joke. “And I’ll come back to haunt you.” She didn’t want to let the topic drag on any more and the event did have the effect of slicing through her normal morning drowsiness enough for her to function. “Let’s get some food before I head over to Vanders’ house to speak with the Colonel.” She levitated her toothbrush, paste, and a small carry satchel to hold them in.
Shortly after said meal, the couple was walking towards the southern edge of the pony section of the air base. It was there that ponies who had originally been in the military or some other government agency linked to national security were kept. Mostly to act as a more trusted go between for the civilian ponies and humans.
Both mare and stallion knew they couldn’t just walk straight up to the Colonel, so they went to the best go between they could think of. First Sergeant Vanders had expressed interest in joining Alexia’s construction crew, and as such she had been given his address. With Conrad staying on the walkway in front of Vander’s house, Tune knocked on the door. A pink mare with a white mane answered and recognized the silver unicorn quickly. “Oh, Alex. What brings you over here?”
Tune gave the earth pony a friendly smile. “Hey Chrissie. I wanted to see if Vanders’ could arrange a meeting between me and the Colonel so we can get the farm underway.”
“Sure, come on in. Jack’s been really pumped about this project yours, and I have to say its contagious. I’m sick of having nothing to do but eat and exercise.” Conrad followed the mares inside and found the interior was identical to their own house, save for a handful of knickknacks. First Sergeant Vanders was reading over several papers for the personnel allocations for Alexia’s project. The unicorn had no experience in logistics, but it was something the red stallion had plenty of in his career.
At hearing Alexia’s voice, the pegasus came out of his room with some of the paper being held in a wing. “Ah Tune, glad you came by. I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of sending your proposal down the pipeline. Hopefully we’ll hear back in a few days if the commander cares enough to look.”
Tune was not so much angry was she was surprised. “Why did you send it without me asking first?”
Vanders knew it was a risky move, more so for the friendly relationship he had with her than anything else. “The way you were talking yesterday I knew you were going to ask me to do that sooner or later. I don’t know if you’re aware of it, but it can take a while for requests like this to filter on up.”
Alexia considered the excuse. “You do know how the military works better than I.” Plus if he’s showing initiative, then he must really want this to happen. “Thanks Vanders. Any idea when we’ll hear back on it?”
“Depends of if he-“ A loud ringing came from Vanders’ room, prompting him to hold his other wing up in a gesture to wait. “I better take that.” He left everyone else to grab his phone and was slightly unnerved by who it was. He picked the phone up in his free wing. “Sir. First Sergeant Vanders.”
Colonel Bowler’s tone was clipped and to the point. “I have reviewed your proposal and I find it of interest. Bring Miss Tune to my office immediately.”
“Yes Sir, I’ll have her there in thirty.” The Colonel hung up, leaving Vanders worried. Why would he respond to this so quickly? He had no other option but to follow orders, yet that did not mean he couldn’t warn Alexia about the strangeness of it. If she doesn’t pick up on that anyway.
Vanders found Chrissie and the guests gossiping about silly rumors that had been flying around camp. “Tune, that was the CO. He wants to see you right away.”
“That was fast.” She said cautiously.
"Yes, it was.” Conrad had a really bad feeling about it.
Vanders sympathized, but there was nothing else they could do. “We don’t want to keep him waiting.”
“Okay.” Tune pulled Conrad aside to whisper after noticing he was none too happy about it. “I’ll be fine, he’s probably jumping at the chance to have us do something constructive.”
“I know you’re not that naive.” He whispered back.
“Well its either that or something destructive, and given his career path… Look, just promise me you won’t try anything. If I get detained or something keeps me from coming back, I’ll write a message in the front page of the tome.”
That satisfied him and pulled her in for a wary nuzzle. “Be safe, or at least as safe as possible.” The sweetness of her scent was subtly stronger than when he first noticed it, making him feel more protective, but it only served to make things worse for him.
“I will.” She walked over to the waiting red stallion. “Shall we?”
Vanders only nodded before guiding her out the door. They walked through the last few rows of houses, passing many ponies along the way. The NCO couldn’t understand the silver mare walking beside him. In the short time she’d been there, she had energized over half the camp. Every pony there felt drawn to her in a slight but noticeable way towards her generally friendly and determined demeanor. Vanders thought it was sexual attraction at first, assuming it was his stallion brain reacting to her mare’s body. After a few days he realized that wasn’t the reason at all. He admitted the physical attraction was there, which worried him about how acclimated he had become to see his views of attraction shifting. However he realized that sentiment was based more in that he saw Alexia was more of a leader than as a potential mate.
I’ve spent the last week getting close to her as per orders, but I can’t help but feel… He offhandedly noticed that he had fallen in step slight behind her, almost as if it was her place to be at the front. Is it possible ponies are matriarchal by default? There are an awful lot more mares than stallions. Vanders looked back on his time in The Ranch before Tune’s arrival. I don’t recall ever feeling that way to any other mare, or stallion, or human for that matter. So why Tune? This was one matter he did not share with his superiors as he felt it was a betrayal he couldn’t stomach. It was that feeling in particular that troubled him.
“Tune, may I ask you something?” He said in a friendly manner to get the distracted mare's attention.
“Sure Sergeant, and I keep telling you, you can call me Alexia or Alex.” She returned candidly.
“Old habits die hard.” He added with a curt laugh. “Do you think magic can influence how other people think? Directly I mean.” He phrased it to keep from insinuating anything.
Her first reaction was to deny any knowledge of magic outside of what was already generally known, but she found she couldn’t do that. Its what Conrad would do, but Sensei says honesty is paramount to our kind. I won’t disregard Twilight like that. That resolve didn’t make it any easier to say. “I do…think so I mean.” She looked at the ground in shame. “Because magic is an extension of willpower, sometimes when I get angry too quickly and yell at someone to do what I want, I reactively use magic to make them comply.”
It fell in line with the one time he witnessed such an event when a mare who was particularly hostile towards the idea of staying as a pony came to blows with Tune. Loki intercepted the violent mare before she could buck Alexia’s chest. Vanders was about to intervene when Alexia beat him to it. As Tune described in her confession, Vanders noticed her horn glowing when she yelled at the brawlers to stand down. I can respect her openness, not that many people noticed the effect she had on the fighters. So she could easily play ignorant if she wanted to. Vanders followed Alexia soon after the incident to witness her apologize to both Loki and the violent mare about the compulsion spell. Surprisingly, Loki was not bothered by it at all. The other mare was still angry about the whole thing, but agreed to keep it quiet.
Vanders found he could keep it a secret as well, as it was not something he saw Tune ever try to abuse. “Tell me though.”
The mare temporarily forgot her shame at the lack of accusation in his voice. “Do you think that works passively? As in without your horn glowing?”
“Unicorns can only cast magic actively, either through intent or reflex. And in both cases I’d know if it was happening, and so would everyone around me because my horn would be glowing.”
“Really? No passive magic at all?”
“Nothing that isn’t shared between all three tribes.” She confirmed. “And nothing that comes close to mind magic. Well… if you discount the supposed charismatic aura we all share.”
“How do you know so much about it?”
She was about to give an honest answer when the administration building loomed over them and one of the human soldiers started walking over to them. “I’ll tell you when I get back.” Vanders nodded and wordlessly left Alexia to her fate.
Bowler was reading two linked reports when his call box piped up. “Subject Uniform has entered the building Colonel.”
“Thank you Meriwether, send her in when she arrives.” He clicked the box before returning to his work. He put a hand under the desk to reassuringly tap the shotgun secured under the desk and pointed at the chair with only a thin layer of balsa wood between them. He wanted to take no chances with the power he knew she had. It wasn’t his only precaution, but he wanted to be able to handler her himself instead of letting this turn into a possible hostage situation. If all goes to plan it won’t be necessary.
He brought up the relevant files on his computer in time to hear a knock on the door. “Enter.” He said in a raised voice that carried no emotion.
The door slid open and a nervous voice spoke up. “You wanted to see me sir?”
“Have a seat Miss Tune.” He said evenly, hinting at no malicious intent. The hard wood chair was designed for humans, but she wasn’t going to complain to the man she wanted to ask a favor of, so she tried to get as comfortable as possible. He continued reading his reports for an additional minute before finally regarding her. “Word has it, you want to start a construction project.”
She nodded, trying to hide her nervousness. “Yes sir.”
Bowler produced the written proposal from a drawer. “Material supplies to till half the empty land to grow various crops and a second one to build an athletics center.”
“To make up for the land lost to the farm.” She offered.
He dropped the paper and leaned forward on his desk. “Tell me why I should bother with this?” He demanded bluntly.
She fought to keep a straight face. “Well, the farm would cut down on upkeep, and would give us something to do with ourselves. The athletics center could host games to keep morale up.”
“That’s all well and good for you. But why should I care? Your morale and the source of your food is not my concern. I only have to keep you here.” He had other duties, but he wasn’t going to share them.
“I thought we were only here to be studied and kept away from the public for reasons of safety, not that we’re criminals in a prison.” She countered diplomatically. “We have done nothing wrong, so why can’t we be allowed to do something productive?”
“You want to be productive?” He inquired with a subtle sneer.
“Absolutely!”
“If you want something from me, you’re going to have to return the favor.”
“Huh? Like what?”
He turned his computer screen around to show Alexia an image of her and a transparent purple alicorn conversing in Tune’s house. “You can start by telling me who that is.”
Tune’s blood ran cold. “You put cameras in my house?!”
He scoffed. “Are you really so surprised? Now tell me who that is.”
The silver mare glowered at the man for a solid minute before answering. “Her name is Princess Twilight Sparkle. And if you’re going to ask me if she did this to us or if she plans to invade, I can answer both with one word: no. She can’t physically come here anyway.”
“Why have you made three communiques with her over the course of the past week?”
Alexia had actually met with her four times, but she wasn’t in the mood to volunteer that information. “She’s a scholar. Her interest is strictly academic.”
“Then why is she giving you reading material?”
She was getting pissed at the inane questions. “I know in that small mind of yours Colonel, that you could see a threat to the nation in a blind preschooler in a wheelchair; but not everyone out there is bent on conquest. Some people just want to coexist peacefully.”
“Says a race that has a built in mind control aura.” He countered. “How do you know this princess isn’t controlling you to think she isn’t a threat?” He said, trying to plant a seed of doubt.
“We’re immune to this supposed aura Colonel, seeing as there's twenty three hundred of us over there in close proximity with one another and none of us have a compulsion to pet each other all day debunks that.”
“You really think one of the pony leaders wouldn’t have a way to circumvent that immunity to someone who’s barely been a unicorn for over a month?”
That only made her more defensive. “Even if she did Twilight, as a person, is incapable of that. Besides, she can’t do any magic herself on our world, the distance is too great even if her aura could affect me.” She didn’t want to mention it was through the tome out of fear that he might try to destroy it.
The officer was incapable of believing in Twilight’s benevolence, and suspected Alexia was being played. “So she would like you to believe. However, putting the alien’s agenda aside, I want to know what all of that reading material she’s been giving you is for.”
Tune didn’t like it, but the truth was the only thing that was going to keep her from being executed as a traitor. “So I can learn advanced magic.”
“And what exactly do you plan to do with that magic?”
She threw a hoof in the air out of exasperation. “If you have cameras all up in my house, then you already know what.”
He nodded the point to her. “Social integration. Such a…benign objective.” He tapped a few keys to bring up images of her using magic in the house. “Teleportation, concussive blasts, and outright invisibility. Now tell me, because I would love to hear it-“ He said with a menacing tone. “-what do you expect me to believe when confronted with this? You’re a criminal’s wet dream.”
Tune was still outraged about the invasion of privacy to care about being diplomatic. “I’m the only pony who can blink. The spell is too difficult for just any unicorn to pull it off, and you can detect the invisibility with echolocation.”
That caught him off guard, but he made no sign of it. “You’re being rather forthcoming… Why?”
“Because I’m serious about social integration. My kind can be of great benefit to mankind, you just need to give us a chance.”
He leaned back in his chair, rubbing his chin in contemplation. “If that’s the case, why bother with spells you know I would have an issue with?”
“Because I know what the military wants.” She stated with supreme disgust. “You want a weapon, I want what’s best for my people.”
He liked not having to explain himself, not that he would have anyway. “I’m glad you can see the big picture. Alright Miss Tune, you want your farm and rec center? You’ll have to earn it.” Bowler clicked the call box and a government agent in a black suit walked in. “Agent Enright. She’s all yours, do try to bring her back in one piece, apparently she’s one of a kind.”
Enright stared impassively at the surprised pony at how quickly her situation was changing. “That will depend entirely on her.”
She turned to Bowler, accusation painted over her face. “You planned this?”
“I didn’t have to try very hard, Miss Tune. You’re hardly subtle.”
“This is something we can rectify.” Enright commented.
“By the way Agent.” Bowler called before the man could lead Alexia away. “I’m sure you’re already aware of the herd instinct these ponies possess, take her two friends as well. You’ll have better results if they accompany her.”
“That is acceptable, have them moved to the helipad.” The colonel gestured to the affirmative.
Cursing in Equish, Alexia got off the chair to follow Enright. She brooded the entire walk through administration and out to the helipad. The base commander was a shrewd man, and already had Loki and Conrad detained and present at the helipad long before he presented the idea to Enright. It was a nondescript helicopter, save for its completely black paint. Flights in and out of the air base from aircraft just like that one were almost daily.
They were half way to the pad when she spoke for the first time. “Am I ever going to come back here?” She hadn’t heard of ponies disappearing, but she didn’t know what to expect.
“There’s no need to permanently relocate you, your current accommodations are sufficient. Follow orders and you will be allowed to return.”
“Can you at least tell me what I’ll be doing?”
He glanced down at her as the noise of the helicopter started to make conversation difficult. “A rescue operation.”