It’s a bright sunny morning in Canterlot, the birds are singing, and the streets are abustle with ponies going to work. In a town square situated near a large fountain, the market ponies are plying their trade, nearby this square is a large building, that from the outside looked like a hospital, above the building is the name Weyland-Yutani. Inside the building are stark white corridors, clean beyond any normal cleanliness, levels of the kind you’d expect from hospitals or laboratories. The building is lit by rows of sconce-like lighting on the ceiling.
Twilight Sparkle sat in her office that she had been given to her by Princess Celestia, while she is in charge of Project: Renewed Light. It is a modest room nothing the size of the one her mother had at the university but still big enough. The bookcases that lined the walls, are made of stained oak, they contained many books filled with medical research, anatomical tomes, both new and old; creating a unique smell, papers that are also filling their shelves which contained countless notes on previous experiments. The walls are painted in a terracotta color, giving the room a certain warmth to it.
Twilight gazes at a photograph of Princess Celestia and herself, as the memory of how Project: Renewed Light first went from concept to reality.Twilight paced in Ponyville's Golden Oak library, as she anxiously awaited Princess Celestia to respond from her latest friendship report. Her magic quickly latched onto the royal scroll, as Spike belched it in a magical green haze, and materialized before them. Twilight hurriedly broke the ribbon seal, as she began to read the contents therein. 'My dear, most faithful student Twilight, I request that you make haste to meet me at the Royal Castle in Canterlot. Princess Celestia. P.S. Enclosed, you will find a ticket, and orders to show to the train conductor, so he will make haste to transport you to Canterlot.'
Twilight rushed to the train depot, as panic and anxiousness gripped her heart and mind, wondering what cataclysmic event had happened now, to prompt the Princess to write to her in such a manner. She pranced in place, her head rotating left, and right, as she impatiently awaited the next train to Canterlot. When the train didn't arrive quick enough for her, she went to the ticket window. "Excuse me? Do you know when the next train is to arrive?" The wizened earth pony glared over his spectacles at the impertinent young mare. "The train is expected to arrive in the next 15 minutes, barring any accidents or acts of nature. Just hold your horses. It's not gonna get here any faster, even with your impatience."
Twilight returned to the platform, and sighed in relief as the train eased to a stop at the station. Twilight approached the train conductor and showed him the requisitioning papers, which basically instructed that, at the behest of the crown, they were to transport Twilight to Canterlot posthaste. They waited for the passengers to disembark, and upon no other passengers disembarking, the conductor yelled, "Ponyville to Canterlot Express!" Twilight fidgeted the whole train ride there, as she imagined possible villains and Equestrian changing scenarios, Once off the train, she teleported to the castle gates, since the Princesses had placed strong anti-teleportation wards about the castle, so that an enemy couldn't just have unicorns teleport their warriors inside the castle wall.
Twilight galloped, with a contingency of six guards escorting her to where Princess Celestia was. Twilight, now in full panic mode, used her magic and slammed the doors open, as she hastened to answer her princess' summons.
"Princess Celestia! I have arrived!"
"Fret not, my faithful student, for this time, I have good news. Remember the Royal Council of Apothecaries and Medical Practitioners? They have proposed a project for transplanting unicorn horns from a deceased unicorn to a living one, and help unicorns who have had their horn damaged or broken, to be able to continue using their magic, with a successful horn transplant. So, I'm promoting you to C.O.O. of Project: Renewed Light. Congratulations!"
Not long afterwards, they were having their picture taken in front of the very building that Twilight now worked in, overseeing the implementation and execution of Project: Renewed Light.
Twilight however, is enthused as she works, as she is humming with a big smile on her face. That the Princess had given her command of an important research project, and the fact that Princess Celestia would trust her with Project Renewed Light; The consequences of which, could have a far ranging impact in the medical field and the world of Equestria. The realization of this, makes her happy. Twilight, retrieves a beige folder with the name Project:Renewed Light on the label from inside her desk, inside it, she read the Project’s mission brief. ”The goal of Project Renewed Light is to find a way to successfully transplant a horn, from a recently deceased unicorn cadaver to a unicorn that has broken their own, or suffered severe trauma. In so doing, we expect to prevent mana buildup, and reduce the grisly deaths of unicorns recently deprived of their horn, for whatever cause.A secondary goal of Project Renewed Light, is to, through the successful transplanting of a unicorn horn, to enable the transplant patient to be capable of exercising their arcane arts as to how they exercised it prior to the damage, or loss of their natural horn.”
Of course, there has yet to be a successful result to the experiments, and many of the volunteers had died violently in each attempt. Since Twilight's promotion to C.O.O. of Project Renewed Light, they are about to perform the first operation, as Twilight goes about getting settled in, into the C.O.O.'s office. She had removed all the books and papers from the shelves using her magic rotating the books, as well as the papers around her, so she could see the information she would need to be as effective as she can be, as Project:Renewed Light’s C.O.O.. Twilight starts to alphabetize by subject, and then, within subject group. She places the books, papers in the order of author’s last name, resisting the urge to add dewey decimal labels to the spines, as this would take too long and much longer than the first experiment she had ordered, as a test, to find out what happens when a new horn is attached. Her beeper goes off, a simple tool powered by magic, causing Twilight to sigh, as she exits her office, she doesn't like being interrupted mid-way through her organising.
Walking toward the observation room, a room of pure white, featuring a white leather sofa, a one way window, an intercom device, and a table; which was usually used to hold charts, or coffee. Twilight peers through the window, as she presses the intercom. “What’s going on?!” Twilight demands. A young doctor in scrubs, approaches the window and replies through the intercom. “I’m sorry Miss Sparkle, but the patient has died, and we need you to sign off on the cremation order.” Twilight steps back, slumping on the sofa behind her, and her face no longer containing the smile she had previously had. Now it is replaced by a sad and disheartened expression.
An older doctor in the operating room, whistles at the young doctor “Daisy, come here!” The young doctor replies, while approaching the older doctor. “Each time you call me a mares name, I die a little inside.” Prompting the older doctor to respond “Look, Octavia, Trixie, Fleur Dis Lee— We got a job to do, and it isn’t getting finished anytime soon.” Twilight has experienced this first loss and it has taken its toll. She wondered is it really worth the cost of the single life, taken so far? “Even a single life is too much a loss, I hope we can make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Twilight wonders where all these volunteers comes from. What she knows, is that the two red-coated Earth ponies, who, by the looks of it were twins, has handled the acquiring of the volunteers. These two, seemed to; to Twilight at least, seemed thuggish and suspicious. These were the kinds of thoughts she has initially, as she sees them for the first time. Twilight mentally kicks herself, when such thoughts creeps in, I pre-judged somepony once before, and had been totally wrong. I won't do that again. But since that first day, they are bringing in many volunteers. Which has made Twilight grow suspicious. Just recently they had brought in a new volunteer, whose file Twilight currently has in hoof and proceeded to scan through the dossiers about the most recent volunteer. "Let's see; Name: Rose Storm. Race: Unicorn. Description: Rose Storm coat hue is a vibrant pink hue, while her mane is of a saturated blue hue, as is her tail. Family: None. Relatives: No next of kin. Poor filly." Twilight lamented as she continued to flip through the filly’s file.
Since the last failure, they had developed some changes to the procedure, after analysing the data that they had collected. With this new technique, they would try something, akin to the way they had dealt with burn victims. “Horns are made of bone which are naturally attached to the skull, which is connected to a specifically hardened mound area of the skull which absorbs hard impacts caused during charges, or other impacts which may occur due to various circumstances. Inside the bone is a gland to control external mana and a collection of nerves fill the horn, these nerves are extremely sensitive to magic and during heightened sexual activity sensitive to touch.
Thus any new horn that is replaced, needs to be place directly on the hardened mound area, flatly, and the nerves need to be connected carefully. The body will not accept horns from different blood groups than the receiving patient. So, any of the old horn that’s left is filed down so the new horn is more stable and straight once it is attached to the patient's skull. This horn is present on all unicorns, is essential to unicorn physiology, otherwise magic buildup will cause a unicorn to explode.
The procedure is started by: first, before the surgery begins the area is prepped with alcohol for cleaning and reducing the chance of infection, the patient is then administered anesthetic gas, which puts the patient to sleep. The next step involves cutting into the spot where the horn is, and then lightly cauterized the surrounding tissue to reduce blood loss, and filing down the remaining horn careful not to damage the exposed nerves. The next step is to place the horn inside the opening, and then joining the horn’s blood vessels and the gland to the nerves. afterwards the horn is then magically attached to the surrounding flesh to the volunteer’s skull with magic. This is usually around where they failed, the magic that had built up causing the volunteer to explode, because the surgeon’s magic accelerated the de-horned unicorn's mana absorption. After the procedure is completed the horn and head is wrapped in a cast. and the final step of stimulating the surrounding tissues to heal at a rapid pace begins.” Of course, this stage was never reached, and many times the nurses had to clean the room, all night, and through to the next day.
Eager to please Princess Celestia, Twilight, using her telekinesis magic, removes several sheets of parchment, a sealed ink well, and several quills. She proceeds to create a report so that Princess Celestia would stay informed of what medical and arcane advances have been made, with regards to Project Renewed Light. Dear Princess Celestia... As she is scribing the report, she presses a hoof upon a button, which summons the Chief Surgical Technician. Her attention is primarily upon filling out the report, so she pays no mind, when Chief Surgical Technician Persephone arrives not long after, into her office. Twilight hoofed a blank manilla folder over to Persephone, not looking up from the report. "Chief Surgical Technician Persephone, have the operation room prepped, and ready for surgery. We're going to alter our approach, and the procedure is enclosed in the folder. Please ensure that the rest of the surgical team receives a copy and has thoroughly reviewed the contents, prior to the operation." She fervently hopes for success this time, since each failure was taxing upon her gastrointestinal system.
After, what has seemed to be hours, there is a knock on her door, which has brought her out of her deep introspection. Twilight opens the door. One of the surgeons, a gray coated unicorn mare approached.
"Miss Twilight Sparkle." She said, cautiously.
"Yes Persephone." Twilight replies, sitting forward, and looking at the mare. She normally didn't see Persephone without her green scrubs: a bouffant mane cap, and tail wraps that covers her tail and mane during surgery. Her mane, and tail are both, long, and straight. The tips curling away from her back, it was white as could be, and her bangs are cut straight, so she can see better without the interference of her mane.
Persephone leaned closer, eyes shifting left and right to ensure that only Twilight would hear what she has to say. "Miss Twilight Sparkle. The most recent operation has been a success." Twilight's eyes dilates as her muzzle hangs open, astonished and shocked to hear news of having succeeded with the most recent operation attempt. "Are you sure?!" Twilight excitedly enquires. With a slight pause, Persephone just nods.
Twilight, bolts out of the door to her office, nearly knocking Persephone over, but because this has happened before, Persephone remembers to dodge out of Twilight’s way.
Twilight, skidding as she runs on the tile floor, unable to keep her hooves from slipping and sliding, as she careens around corners, crashing into other doctors, and the lab staff, as she reaches the door for the O.R. She tried braking, but slid past the door into a janitor's cart, who promptly glared at her. Twilight could have sworn she heard, “koyaanisqatsi” droningly sang over an organ being played. Shaking her head, she gets up and wobbles to the door of the O.R. “I hate this floor!” Twilight huffs.
Twilight, resumes her dash towards the operating theater. When she finally gets to the observation room, next to the theatre, there is nothing in the room, except for a lot of blood, and two of the nurses who are on the staff, cleaning the room. Shortly behind her, comes Persephone. Turning back to look at her, Twilight looks confused. "Where is the patient?" She asks tentatively.
Persephone replies, slightly out of breath "She’s…. sent to…. ICU, Miss Twilight, for rest and ….."
" Yes, that is for the best." Twilight responds, as she looks down at the floor.Twilight looks up, after a few moments, and inquires, "how long will the cleaning take?"
Persephone's eyes becomes unfocused, as she internally ponders the average cleaning times. She redirects her attention back to Twilight. "An hour, or so, Miss Twilight Sparkle. It should be ready for inspection by then."
Twilight walks back towards her office. She needs to prepare for the inspection that she so often did, and perhaps glean some data from the failures. Twilight hops, elated at the success of the operation, a big grin plastered on her face, before it vanished, and her ears droops. She looks back over her shoulders at the operation room. I want to visit her, and make sure she's okay, and that she's recovering well from her operation. It must be very taxing on her body, to have undergone that operation. I really should let her get her rest, and recover from her operation. I would probably do more harm than good, if I were to visit her now, and hinder her from getting the rest that she needs.
By the time she has finished thinking to herself, she has come to her office door. As always, it is a sterile white, and has a frosted window, that would normally show nothing, but black silhouettes of ponies on the other side, the kind that you would see in those detective movies. Adorned on the door in black lettering, was the name “C.O.O. Twilight Sparkle: Project Renewed Light,” in big bold letters clear enough to read. Twilight pausing and thinking to herself “A silly name for a project like this.” She smiles and brushes her hoof across the lettering of the project name. Twilight opens the door, and steps through, closing it behind her.
An hour has passed, since Twilight has sprinted out her office to the operating theatre, and it was about time to inspect the aftermath. A quill, and clipboard hovers by her side, by the magic of her horn, she walks around the O.R. “On the check list? Throw up, no pony flesh left anywhere, blood cleaned, machine data recovery and check the O.R. table is clean. Ok, now to get started!” Twilight looks around the O.R. as she walks, checking things off. “Blood cleaned from the floor, and walls… check!” “No pony flesh left anywhere...check!” She walks over to the table and checks the machines. Twilight has to make sure that she could reproduce the results of today, to prove it isn't just a fluke. “Machine data recovered… Check!” She has almost finished her task, when she moves to the operating table, and moves the bed covers to check underneath and ensure that it was clean. Twilight lets out a gasp, “Those cleaning mares, every time they miss something! Do I need to lecture them on cleaning the O.R. again!?” She makes a note to discipline the nurses responsible for cleaning the room.
Twilight turns and is heading towards the door of the O.R., when she rushes back to the O.R. table, panic and worry in her eyes, as she knocks the covers on the O.R. table, off completely. Twilight sees pink feathers, all over it. Twilight stumbles backwards, Her eyelids twitching as she looks around the room for further proof, “This isn’t happening, What had happened?” [“I don’t know.”] “Why are there feathers here?” [“ I just said that I don’t know!”] “Unicorns don't have wings!” [“duh, of course not.”] Quickly a large grin forms across, Twilight's face “Ok this didn’t happen, the feathers were never there! That it’s just an illusion.” “Miss Twilight, who are you talking to?” Twilight turns around to see Persephone, “Nopony Persephone.” [“Ask her!”] “No! She won't know!” [“You never know!”] “Ugh, fine!” Persephone backs away a bit. “Do you know why a feather is here?” Twilight inquires. Persephone shook her head. “We told you, She wouldn’t know.” [“Was worth a try.”] Persephone spoke up “Um, perhaps one of the orderlies is a pegasus?” Twilight runs as fast as her four legs could take her, back to her office, skidding, and sliding as she went, cursing the slippery tiles, as she struggles to keep upright. Much like when she was trying to help during Winter Wrap Up for the first time, and by the time she managed to reach her office she was on her back. She had given up trying to stay upright and just let the motion continue until she came to a stop outside her office. She needed to double-check, maybe even triple check. To verify that the new volunteer was indeed the one who had left the feathers, and not one of the nurses.
Twilight opens her door, and begins rifling through all the files to get to Rose Storm’s folder. After a while of sifting through all her files, Twilight has found the file about Rose Storm on her desk, as she lets out a sigh. Twilight falls back into her chair, with the file in front of her, as she looks through every record. After a while, Twilight notices that there is a label with "unicorn" written on it, over where race would have been written. She had previously passed it off as correcting a mistake. Twilight gulped, as she slowly pulls off the label with her telekinesis magic. "I can't believe it!" She cries, her mouth agape "I just gave a Pegasus a horn, no wonder it had worked, what will I do! Princess Celestia will send me to the moon!" She exclaimed "This has to be a mistake!" She cried aloud, to herself, wishing it wasn't true.
How could she make such a mistake? Considering how meticulous she was. How did she miss it?! "That's right someone must have used magic to hide it, there's no way I made a mistake" Twilight laughs nervously to herself, her pupils shrank down to mere pinpricks, as she glances nervously about the room, as though looking for spying eyes and ears. Her left eye exhibited a tic, every so often, as her mane becomes frizzy and disheveled, as fear and panic began to take hold upon Twilight.
Twilight packs up her things, so she could leave, and runs, towards the ICU to check on the poor Pegasus, whose life she has now ruined.
******
Getting through the doors of the ICU is easy, as it is not guarded, or locked. This is curious, as she made sure it is always kept secure. Twilight quickly makes her way to the only occupied bed in the ICU, with the pink Pegasus filly in it, who is sleeping. Twilight Sparkle, then began looking at the chart at the base of the filly's bed. Her name was Rose Storm, she quickly wrote on the chart, deceased. Twilight, then focuses on her horn and casts a wide area memory manipulation spell, similar to the one she used during the Discord take over, to restore her friends memories, but with a few tweaks. She then picks the filly up, carrying her with her magic. This is easy, compared to the Ursa Minor that she had lifted before. Twilight left the building as fast as she could. She has to get this filly to safety. She runs through the corridors and finally out the doors, and into the street, as Canterlot's ivory buildings came into view. The sunlight dazed her, as she has not been in direct sunlight for a long time. She hurries to the train depot, fervently hoping that nopony would stop her from her flight. Oh, how could this happen? I let Princess Celestia down! What do I do? What can I do? Do I tell my friends? No, no, the project was performed under strictest secrecy. But I have to come up with something! Applejack knows when we lie to her! I should have been more careful! I should have verified each subject's race! What would you do, BBBFF?
After a while, she finally gets to the station, and buys a ticket to Ponyville, she needn't get one for Storm, since she is a filly, and foals travel for free, as long as they are supervised.
Finally on the train, Twilight takes a seat, and slowly lowers the filly into her forelegs, even with her talent. Keeping a filly aloft was draining, and the journey would take hours. The train will get her back to Ponyville fast enough. She has hoped that this is a nightmare, that she is going to wake up in her warm bed, in the Golden Oak Library. What is a Pegasus doing volunteering for this procedure, and why so young?! That is, if she, and all those other ponies had volunteered. Suddenly a look of realization appeared upon her face, with her eyes wide, as she whispered, her voice quivering with unsuppressed horror. "They didn't volunteer for this project! They were foalnapped!"
"Oh Twilight, you're too trusting!" She berates herself. As the train went over the hills, towards its destination. Back at the lab, the staff is just discovering that the missing patient and Twilight Sparkle are gone.
******
A stallion with a blue coat and black mane, is pacing up and down the ICU, his eyes flashed in anger, and fury, his frown perpetual, as he paces back, and forth like an infantry drill sergeant, as he verbally lashes out at the unicorn surgeon cowed before him. "Deceased! You're telling me that the girl is dead?! After all my careful planning?!" The stallion rages at Persephone.
"Do you dim wits know, how hard it is to get that filly out of Cloudsdale?! At least tell me it was a success for a while, that my hard work wasn't in vain!" The irritated stallion stood there looking at the mare who is now quivering with fear.
"It was a success, we know what works, and we can try again." Persephone squeaks.
The stallion raises an eyebrow, bringing a hoof to his chin, thoughtfully.
"I will get my boys to start collecting more Pegasi waifs, don't disappoint me again!" He demands, pointing his right hoof at her. "If you do, you'll be the next one on the operating table!"
The stallion leaves the lab. Persephone relaxes, now that he was gone, causing her legs to give way. Her body slumps to the floor and she begins sobbing, her body shivering, as she fears just how close a brush with death she has had. She takes great shuddering gasps of air, as she waits for the fear and adrenaline to leave, and for her heartbeat to resume a normal rhythm. After all, she is terrified, as she didn't want to be the next one on the operating table.
******
The train's conductor comes down past the compartment Twilight is in, announcing, "Next stop! Ponyville Station!" Rousing, a sleeping Twilight, who had fallen asleep, with the filly in her hooves.
Twilight opens her eyes slowly looking around, with the filly still asleep, Twilight quickly gathers her things, and as soon as the train gets into the station, she disembarks and hurries towards her tree house library.