2.
Spike was more or less dragged out of Ponyville, and even though he recognized the everfree forest, he was nevertheless surprised when they reached their destination.
"The castle of the two princesses? What did you find here?"
"The equipment I need. You know that book that hit my head? It was the book of my dreams! The one with all the answers! You probably wondered what I've been doing this whole time? I've been organising THIS!"
Twilight opened a door, and hit a light switch. The room was full of electrical equipment, manometers, chains, pipes and cables that went from the ceiling to the floor. And in the middle of the room, a platform, which through a combination of chains and wheels, were connected with the roof. Apparently, it was constructed with the ability to elevate from the floor up to the roof through a hole.And on the same platform, a gigantic operating table. And something, covered with a green sheet, was lying upon it.
"What is...this?"
"THIS is the place where my love shall live again! Cause that's where I was WRONG! I thought that magic was the solution."
"Then...what is the solution?"
Twilight stared boldly with empty eyes out in the open for a while, then she turned and kept her eyes focused on Spike when she answered.
"SCIENCE!"
"Eh...science?"
"Are you aware that Darwin preserved a piece of vermicelli in a glass case until, by some extraordinary means, it actually began to move with voluntary motion? Do you know that the heart beats because of the electrical impulses from the sinoatrial node? Have you ever heard about the central nervous system, that it moves with small, electrical impulses? Do you have ANY IDEA what SCIENCE have done to improve the lives of ponies over the years?"
"Twilight..."
"SCIENCE is the answer! Science has given my life new meaning... Science will give me back my Rainbow!"
Spike just stood and stared at Twilight. She trotted over to the table and started to stroke the thing that was covered in sheets.
"Here she is! My love, my bride... I will bring her together, I will merge the pieces back to one, and I will give her the life bringing kiss of a 30 million voltage thunderstorm! And then...She will come back...to me..."
Spike just couldn't believe his ears or eyes. He felt disgusted with the bare thought of her actions, but he couldn't really bring himself to fully understand what she just said to him.
THIS is what she's been doing the weeks I thought she recovered? And...if the thing lying on the table is...WAS Rainbow Dash...then...Oh Celestia, what is it that she has done?
"Twilight... you dug her up?"
"Yes! It took a while... and the decomposing had already started. But the spare parts are easy to find. And the brain and her heart are intact. She only needed a new leg, a piece of liver..."
"Twilight...listen to yourself! This is...this is crazy! It's impossible!"
"No it's not! It has been done before..."
She presented Spike with a book.
"How I did it... by Victor Frankenpony?"
"A true genius, Spike! A pony, for which nothing was impossible, or unbendable against SCIENCE! For whom the mere limits of our existence was only small obstacles. For whom death...was just a part of the equation that simple could be ruled out! He created a creature from dead matter...And he gave it LIFE!!"
Spike couldn't do anything more than stare. Something had snapped in Twilights brain, and apparently broken a few threads in her heart as well.
"I have done everything by his instructions... and with your help...my masterpiece will soon be complete."
Twilight walked over to the table and stroke the corpse with a loving touch with her hoof.
"My love...will come back...and I will at last...be happy."
Twilight looked with her eyes full of love on the body on the table. Spike stared at her, and he knew there was only one thing to do. To make an end for all this.
"Twilight, this is just...stupid. I'm going to tell our friends and then...."
Spike tried to move, but he was stopped by Twilights magic.
"What are you trying to do, you worthless little piece of spit? Are you going to betray me? Do you DARE to cross my plans? Do you have the insolence to smash MY DREAMS?"
"Twilight, this isn't a dream, it is...madness."
"YOU STAY HERE!"
A chain magically appeared and spun itself around Spikes neck. The next he knew, he was stuck, and a whip appeared in twilights hooves.
"Perhaps I need to teach you who is the mistress here...I'm gonna need a lot of help. And who'd be better than my faithful first assistant? He just need to get his priorities right..."
...
It wasn't a day’s work, but mixing extreme violence with electrical chocks, Twilight managed to break down Spike. Two days, and he was all "yes mistress". He had been most helpful. And now...Two days after schedule, it was time to cook...
There had been a Thunderstorm scheduled for today, and it was a real beauty. At around 7.30 pm its epicentre would be straight over the castle. So 7.33 pm was the time. They had been preparing the whole day. The electrical devices had been meticulously aligned and the body of Rainbow had been wrapped in bandage. Why that was necessary, Spike didn't understand, and Twilight couldn't really explain it either... it just said so in the book. Just for safety, the body was strained to the table with leather straps.
Just for safety.
In the end, Twilight put on a white robe, and so, everything could begin.
Twilight placed herself on platform the operating table stood on. She and Spike removed the sprints that held it to the floor. Spike pulled a lever, the low buzzing of an electrical motor was heard, and the platform started to move upwards, towards the hole in the ceiling. Right into the centre of the thunderstorm. Twilight felt almost like she was being named a princess. This moment demanded a speech!
"You know, spike! From that first day when stinking bits of slime first crawled from the sea and shouted to the stars, "I am pony.", our greatest dread has always been the knowledge of our mortality. But after tonight,death will no longer be the final limit of our meek harmless existence! Tonight, we shall hurl the gauntlet of SCIENCE into the very face of death itself. Tonight, we shall take aour rightful place, as the true emperor of nature! We shall rule the world! The earth will tremble at our feet! Nature itself will bow for us!"
The idea of the resurrection was this. Two lightning conductors was placed on the roof. They were connected with the equipment on the floor, and by pulling a series of levers, the correct, and calculated, amount of electrical power where supposed to stream through the creature, giving every part of the body the spark that would re-animate it. Three strikes would be enough.
Well...at least that was the plan.
The first strike went as planned, it struck the left conductor, moved down through the equipment, and when Twilight screamed "PULL THE MAIN LEVER" the exact amount of current float through the creature exactly like planned. Twilight could see some twitches in the body, but no movement that equated as life.
Unfortunately, Twilight hadn't thought about the fact that an electrical current will always take the shortest way from minus to plus. The second time the lightning hit the conductor alright, a gigantic spark jumped over directly to the table, making all the manometers to jump over the read mark and strike bottom at the same time. Twilight was almost thrown over the edge of the platform, but she was by miracle, left unharmed from the electricity. She could see how the skeleton of the creature glow in the dark and the whole platform was shaking. "GET US DOWN!" she shouted. And Spike obeyed. The whole laboratory smelled like someone had made one ton of sausage. Twilights legs quivered when she walked of the platform.
"Twilight...how are you?"
"I failed... I failed... there is no way that could have worked. I burned her, Spike. I burned her to death."
"Twi...she WAS already...never mind."
"How could I be so...what was I thinking...HOW..."
Twilight was heading for a corner of the room, where a pile of hay already was prepared. Spike, however, couldn't take his eyes from the...thing that lie on the table. And then... His eyes couldn't get bigger than they already was.
"Twilight...I think you may want to look at this..."
"Don't bother, Spike, it's...It's...WHAT!"
Twilight turned around. The creature was moving its front hooves! And the wings was spread out! Twilight quickly grabbed a stethoscope, and ran for the table. She listened...Yes! There was a heartbeat!
"She's alive...SHE'S ALIVE! SPIKE! I DID IT! SHE'S ALIVE!"
"Oh, sweet Celestia..."
"OH SWEET CELESTIA, NOW I KNOW HOW IT MUST FEEL TO BE CELESTIA! SHE'S ALIVE!"
Twilight went on, forcefully removing the bandage from the body. The creature was moving, but it had yet to open its eyes. And when it did, the first thing it saw was Twilight leaning over it.
"Hello beautiful!" she said.
The creature opened its mouth...and screamed.