Fluttershy and Daring were about halfway through their pizza and armed with a small cake from Sugar Cube Corner; where they had narrowly avoided having an instant party via Pinkie. Daring had found herself almost ravenous once she started eating, which was quite a change from earlier when two pieces of hay bacon were almost too much. Fluttershy herself had only had a slice so far. While it didn't lend itself to the same sort of romantic food element as spaghetti, it was decidedly more enjoyable. Daring had herself another slice as she smiled at Fluttershy, who smiled approvingly. The animals were fed, Angel had been appeased with a slice of pizza, and Discord was off for 'Game Night' at Canterlot castle. Fluttershy had refused to explain further with a knowing smile.
As she polished off the slice with gusto; and a little extra oregano; she realized Fluttershy was staring at her with a smile. "What?"
Fluttershy calmly leaned over, and licked at the sauce stain on the corner of Daring's mouth, turning the slight contact into a gentle brush of lips against lips. She sat back with a blush and a smile. "Had a little there."
Daring blushed, and smiled in return. "Well thank you kindly." She leaned forward hesitantly, then giggled, earning a headtilt from Fluttershy. "You took charge, and now I'm doubting myself." Fluttershy blinked and giggled as well. The two mares gently leaned forwards, halving the distance between each other. Their lips sought one another out, enjoying the flavor of one another and the aroma of roasted vegetables, cheese, and tomato still surrounding them.
"Fluttershy, are you annnnd-" Twilight trailed off as she had walked in through the front door, coming to a stop. "Well, I didn't really need to see that."
Fluttershy blushed. Daring simply tilted her pith helmet at Twilight. "Be with you in a moment." She resumed the kiss with a smile, and Fluttershy happily melted into it, her wings pomfing up. The pair split a moment later, Daring waving Twilight over. "Pizza?" The two pegasi were sporting happy smiles.
Twilight shook her head to clear it. "No, no, this is kind of imp- Roasted Veggie?"
Daring nodded, gesturing to the spice jar. "And extra oregano."
"Well..." She floated a slice over to herself, taking a seat by the pizza, and adding a generous helping of oregano. She took a big bite, with an appreciative mumble. "Mm, mmph, think I skipped lunch again."
"So what's going on?" Daring watched the alicorn devouring her slice of pizza, and starting into a second one.
"Oh! Umm mmph. Sorry." Twilight devoured the rest of her second slice in one massive gulp. "I think I've started to piece together what the problem with the artifact is. The teleporting isn't really 'teleporting'. There's an energy siphon attached to the overall spellweave of the core enchantments. While the whole object is useless unless you have the appropriate composite unlock, which as this point I presume is a personal signature of some kind, it's currently in some kind of secondary mode, where it collects energy. Unfortunately the energy is generalized enough that it seems to be pulling it from everything around it, air, sunlight, moonlight, it's indiscriminate!" Twilight blinked, realizing the two pegasi's eyes had partially glazed over. She sighed, clapping her hooves together to bring them back into the conversation.
Fluttershy blinked a few times, shuffling nervously. "So... why did we need to know this now, Twilight?"
"I'm afraid I need to steal Daring for a while, Fluttershy. I need to run some tests, and maybe see if something unusual happens during the teleportation period. I'd really prefer to have Dash or Applejack along as well, but getting this done quickly means you two can.. err.. go back to what you were doing." Twilight blushed as she gestured in a vaguely general motion at the two pegasi, who blushed in return.
"Alright, well, I have no problem with this. If it'll keep ponies safe, no reason to delay, right?" Daring smiled, standing up and stretching. "I'll be back soon, alright." She nudged her forehead against Fluttershy's, before leaning her lower head forward for a parting kiss. "No worrying allowed."
Fluttershy sighed, and kissed back. "Stay safe."
Twilight blushed as she lead the way out, peering at Daring curiously as she pulled up beside the princess. "...So Fluttershy likes mares?"
Daring rolled her eyes. "Shouldn't this be something you ask her?"
"Well, I figured you'd be able to answer." She gestured back at Fluttershy's cottage. "You did seem pretty comfortable back there."
Daring blushed a bit. "I think we just... fill a hole in each other."
Twilight made a scrunchy face. "Eww. Tee Em I."
"Not like that." Daring facehooved with a deeper blush.
~*~
Daring sat as still as she could. She wasn't sure why she had a metal colander on her head. Nor why Twilight had insisted she remove the compass from her neck, because of 'feedback'. Or the diodes covering at least half of her surface space. Twilight had asked for a blood sample at the start of everything, but Daring was pretty sure she was going on an hour of just sitting here while this gigantic machine in the basement of the library kept printing out paper. Why did Twilight even have a gigantic analysis machine in the basement anyway?
Alicorns. Daring rolled her eyes, closing them again, and regulating her breathing. She was calm, she was focused, she was ready to pounce the moment her captors showed their faces and started making demands.
She was also just about bored out of her skull.
The purple alicorn made a slight noise as she drifted from her test station to the printed outputs, then back again. Daring opened an eye to track her movement for the moment, before closing it again. Twilight was simply too professional to let herself get distracted in the middle of a problem. Which was incredibly frustrating when you wanted some kind of small talk. The ticking of the machinery was almost white-noise but too mechanical for Daring's taste.
She sighed, before Twilight shot into the air in surprise. "Ah ha!"
"What?" Daring blinked.
"I was looking at the problem wrong. It's an incomplete creation, with a semi-binding curse attuned to a functional core. It's reactive with you, as I thought it might be because you were a primary factor in it's reactivation."
"...So something I did makes it respond more to me. Okay. So, what exactly...?"
"Going along the primary magi-spacial controls it looks like the complementary resonance factors-"
Daring knew this was going to be a long explanation, and tried to follow as best she could. But when the pie charts, energy diagrams, and hoof puppets came out, she knew it was a lost cause.
"-simple, isn't it?" Twilight beamed. Daring stared blankly.
"Not especially no. Got a clearer version?"
Twilight blinked, frowned, and rolled her eyes. "It was a trap, only you seem to have reactivated it. But it's been modified to trap energy, and I think you have as well! Have you been feeling less balanced with it removed from your proximity? More thirsty? Hungry?"
"Well.. yes, on the hungry part."
"That fits with the data progression. You seem to be soaking up energy in the same fashion as the artifact itself. Only as a living pony you'd need to fill more energy losses as well. But from your blood sample and energy charts, that's incomplete too!"
"I'm incomplete?"
"Yes! I don't know if it's the specific spatio-temporal energy identifier or what, but you've been soaking up 'our' reality. In fact, I'd really like to check a tissue sample along with the blood. Oh! And I'm going to need to follow along as you use the artifact, and track the energy outputs. I'd almost wager that when the artifact is activated, the cooldown period before it can be reactivated is actually affected by the amount of energy in its proximity."
"That.. sounds like something to test later. Do you need me for anything else right now?"
Twilight blinked, thinking. "Uh, just the tissue sample, why..?"
"You just told me I'm sucking energy out of things and that I'm not quite 'here'. I'd really really like to just go hug Fluttershy and cry for a bit."
Twilight blinked, looking at Daring's serious expression. "You... don't seem very broken up."
"Honestly I'm not sure if I'm mad at you for telling me, or worried that I might be hurting Fluttershy with the energy siphon. And that incomplete fact.. what am I even supposed to say to that?" Daring bit her lower lip, growling at Twilight. "Well?! What can I say?!" She was fighting back tears, but the wetness around the edges of her eyes showed it wasn't working well.
Twilight blinked, her ears drooping as she realized she probably could've been a bit more diplomatic with the information dump."I.. no, the energy is indiscriminate. You feed on energy from everything. And if you're eating, you might be converting your own energy right now." She paused, trying to think of how to address the second point, as she started removing diodes. "As for being incomplete.... I'd need to run more samples. I'm sorry. With only one test, the best I can say is that I have a suspicion, and that's not scientific." Daring grunted as she got off the chair, removing the brain scanning colander, and walking over to where Twilight had taken the blood sample before. Twilight took a deep breath and let it out. "But my suspicion is that you're using the energy to become more complete. The artifact doesn't do that. It's a battery. I'm not sure what it's powering, but there it is. I think... I think you're fine. I was just... this is all so fascinating. I'm sorry." Twilight looked away with a dejected sigh. Daring rolled her eyes, blinking back tears.
"Come on Twilight. Let's get this tissue sample taken. We can test your other theory later." Daring paused, looking at the alicorn with a thin smile. "And... thank you for the vote of confidence." She sighed. "If you do find out I'm hurting Fluttershy... stop me, okay?"
Twilight offered an askew smile in return, getting the anesthetic prepared. "Sure."
~*~
Daring rubbed at the sore spot on her flank for the fifth time since she got back to Fluttershy's. She hadn't felt the need to cry anymore, but she had gotten a hug and a kiss from the shy mare anyway. The pair were sitting outside, and looking up at the starry sky, armed with glasses of punch and some small cookies. The tissue sample spot stung, and left Daring feeling a bit grumpy. Fluttershy had changed out of her dress, and Daring had returned to her original jacket. For now, Fluttershy seemed to be scanning the sky, looking for something.
Daring wasn't sure what she was looking for. But the night sky was beautiful, and the gentle dark glow of the world around them really wasn't taking away from Fluttershy's expression. When she wasn't fighting against her shyness the mare had an exuberance that was impossible to deny.
Her flank twinged in pain again, earning a frown from Daring and a grumble.
"Oh! They're starting!" Fluttershy gestured to the night sky, where some of the stars had started to move around. They were forming... lines? A grid of some kind?
A puzzled Daring watched as a set of stars formed into a grid floating high above Equestria. As she finally resolved the size of the eight by eight grid, she spotted a massive flaming candy cane colored comet on collision course with one of the grid points. It vanished into the grid, only to be replaced by an X of stars, as a large 'Miss' message appeared overhead. It took her a moment to realize what was going on.
"Battleship?"
"Mm hmm." Fluttershy giggled a bit. "Discord doesn't get a lot of chances to just really use his powers much. So Celestia and Luna get him involved in their game nights. It's incredible to watch, but it's always done later at night, so it doesn't disrupt most pony's star watching."
Daring thought about it for a moment, before laughing out loud. "I hope he didn't take that Jumanji game along."
Fluttershy blinked, and giggled. "I think the Royal Sisters would be able to handle it."
The duo stared into the night sky, content. Daring reached out to take Fluttershy's hoof in her own. They enjoyed the simple contact and beautiful sky above.