//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: Heart of Loyalty // by PonyAmorous //------------------------------// Aaaand Done! Twilight stood proudly over the fruit of her labor, a hoof full of small, but precisely honed crystals. Since the moment she had returned to camp, Twilight had thrown herself into the project full force, barely remembering to dig out some food from the supplies to eat while she worked. She had continued to work through the rest of the day and late into the night. Though she had tried to get some sleep, she had only managed two hours at most before the nightmares returned and made further rest impossible. Unable to sleep, she had returned to work. Coffee was better than sleep anyway, and she had packed plenty. Twilight looked down at the pile of unassuming crystals on the table in front of her. To any other pony, they might be worth whatever respectable, but modest sum they might fetch at the market. To Twilight however, they were invaluable. *** Roughly 1.5 years ago *** "Twilight? Twilight where are you?" Fluttershy asked as she wandered the empty library. There was a new restaurant in town, and she was hoping she could interest Twilight in a dinner date some time in the next few days. "I'm down here Fluttershy!" Twilight called back from the basement. Fluttershy cautiously stepped down the stairs and peeked around the corner. "What are you doing down here Twilight?" "Just a project I've been working on with one of the general research grants from Celestia. Come take a look at this." Twilight excitedly waved her marefriend over. Fluttershy obediently made her way to the center of the room, where Twilight directed her attention to two large crystals, roughly the size of a grown stallion's head, placed in opposite corners of the room. Each was covered in several electrodes, connected by wires that ran into two separate, but identical machines. Each machine beeped steadily in unison and had a long mechanical arm that held a pen motionless over the long roll of paper that moved at a constant rate underneath it. "These are the thaumameters." Twilight motioned at the two machines. "Roughly put, they measure changes in magical energy. As you may or may not know, some types of crystalline structures display a piezoarcanic effect, in which magical energy is stored in the natural framework of the crystal lattice and can be released or otherwise manipulated in response to mechanical stress." "Umm...okay? Oh! Is that why powerful amulets and magical artifacts always seem to have big jewels in them?" "Precisely. Now, for the fun part. Stand over by that crystal and watch the thaumameter." Fluttershy obeyed as Twilight made her way across the room to the other crystal. "Here goes!" Twilight shouted as she lowered her horn and sent a small, controlled burst of magic into the crystal in front of her. The machine in front of Fluttershy sprung into action, the pen gripped in the mechanical arm jerking wildly across the page as it registered a sudden pulse of magic. Twilight tore a length of paper off from her machine and held it up for Fluttershy to see. After lining up the time stamps, there was no question. They were exactly the same. Fluttershy glanced between the two crystals. "But...how? How is that possible? They're not connected in any way." "I know!" Twilight bounced excitedly. "I was studying the possible relationship between the natural resonant frequency of a material and its effectiveness as a piezoarcanic medium, when I started thinking about tuning forks. How if you strike one and hold it near another identical fork, the vibrations travel through the air from the first fork and resonate with the second." Twilight dug out two tuning forks as a visual/auditory aid. Striking one against a nearby counter, a single pure pitch rang through the lab. She held it an inch away from the other for several seconds before gently pressing it against the counter to silence it. The pitch continued unabated from the second fork. "Okay. So far so good." Fluttershy responded. "Well then I started thinking, if physical vibrations can be transmitted from one object to another as pressure waves through air, what about magical vibrations through the background aether? If an object could be stimulated at the right frequency, another identical object should be able to pick up the aetheric ripples. And aether waves don't attenuate nearly as fast as sound waves, so they could travel much farther before damping out. Do you know what that means?!" "Umm...." "Instantaneous long distance communication! Well, not quite instantaneous. It's limited to the propagation speed of aetheric waves, but as that's usually comparable to the speed of light, the difference should be negligible in most situations. The point is, real time distance communication without telegraph cables! "But don't you and Princess Celestia already do that with Spike?" "Yes, but there's not exactly a lot of him to go around, and dragon mail is limited to written letters only, and only point to point. Since these kinds of piezoarcanic crystals are already used in speakers to turn magic impulses into sound, it would be relatively easy to make a system that facilitated voiced conversations! You could even have multiple ponies talking to each other as long as they shared the same frequency!" Fluttershy stared forward, mouth slightly agape. "Wow Twilight, that certainly sounds impressive. From what I could understand at least, that sounds like it could be pretty important." "It could be HUGE! I mean, it's still in the very early stages of testing, and then it has to go through a bunch of review, and of course my grant rules state the crown gets first dibs on the trial run of any new technology. It could be a while before it reaches use by the general public, but STILL! It's so exciting!" *** Present Day *** Face covered in camouflage make up, and decidedly unstealthy purple coat and mane concealed beneath a similarly patterned set of clothes and hat, Twilight hid in her tree and waited. She waited, as she had continued to do for the past three hours, desperately trying not to nod off. She had certainly pulled worse all nighters before, and for projects she wasn't even a tenth as motivated for, but it helped if she was actually keeping busy and working on something. Staying awake while staring off at nothing was proving to be quite a bit more difficult. Through a gap in the surrounding foliage, she could just make out the small set of hills that brushed against the treeline of the Whitetail Woods. On the highest of those hills was a drab and uninteresting building, its architecture so thoroughly boring and uninspired as to make any casual observer completely forget they had seen it at all. If one were to take a leisurely stroll up said hills, they would be met with an equally uninteresting, though well maintained, barbed wire fence. However, if one were to enter the airspace within 200 yards of the exceedingly plain structure, one would be quickly met by several stern faced guards who would strongly encourage a different flight path so as not to disrupt the 'routine training exercises' below. If one were particularly observant, and Equestria slightly less peaceful and more demanding of guard action beyond the occasional encroachment of wild beasts, one might notice a sharp rise in response time and coordination within the rank and file over the past ten months. One might be told stories of wildly successful new training methods introduced by talented instructors with bold ideas about how to improve discipline and unit cohesion. The truth of course, lay within that unassuming building, and several others like it across Equestria. Twilight was one of the few ponies with the security clearance to know what was actually inside that building. Even then, she wasn't sure if it was because of her status as Celestia's pupil, the bearer of the Element of Magic, or simply because there was no practical way to keep her out of the loop during her required consultation for its construction. Inside the deceptively shabby exterior was a small fortress that housed the crystal network substation for the greater Ponyville area. At its heart was an enormous crystal, five ponies tall, that fulfilled two important duties. The first was to power and maintain the local network that allowed any guards within range to communicate with each other instantly via the small crystals embedded in each of their helmets. The second was facilitating communication with Canterlot Command and the other secure substations scattered across Equestria. Much as Twilight would have liked it, simply strolling in and rifling through high security communications for any mention of Dash was out of the question; hence, her grueling arboreal stakeout. She had waited patiently for her prey as the hours ticked by, hoping that her luck would start to see a small reversal. Just as she was half considering a frontal assault if something didn't happen within the next twenty minutes, she finally saw a target approaching. All day long, a pair of guards had been making their rounds of the perimeter. Twice they had passed close enough for Twilight to make a move, but always they had stuck to protocol and stayed together. A protocol her brother had introduced and tirelessly busted his flank over until it was ground into the head of every new recruit. That guards on patrol were to maintain a strict buddy system, especially when investigating any strange noises from nearby bushes, in which case one was to take point while the other maintained a tight grip on a flare to signal for backup. Also, to double check the identification of any 'new transfers' in armor that wasn't quite the right size. Fortunately for Twilight, the shift was long, their water pouches were spacious, and some temporary exceptions were commonly made regarding inevitable biological consequences. Twilight held her breath as she watched one of the guards break away and trot briskly past the treeline. She took note of the length of his stride, checking the small stopwatch on her left foreleg as he passed between two trees she had picked as reference points. She kept a tight grip on the small pouch she carried with her. This would have to be perfect. She waited patiently as he picked a tree and took care of his business. Once finished, he turned around and started back toward the tree line. She took aim, readying the signal jamming spell for automatic release in case she missed. NOW! Twilight's sleeping spell struck true. Before her target had even finished falling forward, she was down on the ground, working to pull his helmet off. Once worked free of his head, she moved with speed and precision to remove the small crystal from inside the miniature array in the helmet interior that conducted the sound vibrations directly into the small bones of the jaw. From her small pouch, she pulled a tiny red gem, fusing it to the larger crystal before replacing it back into the helmet and pulling it back over his head. She checked her watch. Six seconds. All good so far. Remembering her rough calculations of his walking pace, she grabbed him and teleported forward several meters. Placing him back into an upright position, she hit him with a small memory spell. It was just a small jolt, as weak as she could manage, to wipe the last half-second before falling asleep. She set the black out to continue for one more second as she hit him full force with an innervation spell and teleported back to cover. Twilight held her breath. Hopefully the blackout spell ensured he wouldn't remember suddenly feeling tired, or the moment it took to wake up. It would be a clean jump in consciousness from taking one step to taking another, several seconds later along the same path, with only an odd feeling of a few seconds of lost time. Something easily dismissed as the occasional mental lapse or forgetful daydream. Much like deja' vu, slightly unsettling, but hardly uncommon. She watched as he blinked twice and looked around in confusion, glancing behind him before giving a shrug and continuing on his way. It wasn't until several seconds after he had passed out of sight that Twilight let out a sigh of relief. Reaching into her bag once again, she pulled out a small headset, which she quickly fitted over an ear. "-eaking hilarious you know that?" The slightly tinny voice of the guard rang in her ear. "How much longer do we have on this shift anyway?" The other guard's reply was muffled and inaudible. Twilight's planted crystal was only meant to tap the transmissions sent through the helmet crystal, and it was only incidental that it also picked up vibrations from the wearer's voice. She continued listening to half of the conversation. "That long? Uggh. I swear these perimeter shifts just keep dragging on. Nothing ever happens out here anyway." Right on cue, a second voice appeared, this one much clearer. "Attention units 21 and 24, we have some activity at the fence on the north side. It's likely just those squirrels again, but check it out, over." "Roger that. Heading there now. Over." The guard's voice replied with increased clarity, before returning to the quieter tinny sound as he stopped transmitting his response. "Of course it's the squirrels, it's always the damn squirrels. They're the only thing out here!" The rest was half formed mumblings. Now returned to her perch, Twilight could see the two guards making their way around the side of the hill. She carefully removed the headset from her ear and returned it to her bag. Step one complete. Though useful in its own right, bugging one guard's headset was not the ultimate objective of her risky stakeout. Riding in that tiny red gem was some rather complicated spell work. At some point, that guard's shift would end, and he would head back inside the building. Once he passed within range, that spell would activate and leap to the massive central relay crystal that acted as the nerve center for the entire regional network. Any message, whether it was a transmission from Canterlot or two guards talking on opposite sides of a room, ultimately relayed through that crystal on its way to its destination. Now with the addition of her spell, anything that passed through would be simultaneously rebroadcast on a special frequency. Even if somepony were scanning in the right range to find it, all they would find was a faint echo effect, likely some feedback distortion from a slightly misaligned instrument, or a warp in the geometry of the local aether. The technology was still fresh after all, and there were plenty of kinks left to discover. It would be the kind of mild curiosity that would normally be noted in a memo and forwarded to her for further study. Twilight pulled another small gem out of her bag, along with a chisel, and began to carve a small hole into the side of the tree. Once it was deep enough, she placed the gem inside and covered the hole back up with spare bits of bark. The spell on this gem was much simpler. A simple signal booster to receive, amplify, and rebroadcast the transmissions from the relay station deeper into the rest of the woods. The small attached power source would keep it running for several weeks before needing to be refreshed, and with a dozen more identical boosters scattered over a wide expanse of territory, she would be able to listen in no matter where she decided to move. Gathering her things, she prepared to make her way back. A few jumps later and she was back at her temporary base of operations, making the final adjustment to her equipment. Glad for the highly imaginative paranoia that had pushed her to include such variety in her stock of emergency supplies, Twilight attached a final reel of audiotape. Two crude, but functioning recording devices sat connected to a large gem with a tall antenna sticking off the top. Each message relayed along her system was marked with a small binary pulse to denote the source as either chatter on the local network, or communication with other stations. The gem here read those markers and sorted each to its appropriate recording device. The guard chatter would be worth keeping an ear on in case they got too close and she needed to pack up and move, or if she absolutely had to risk going into town for some reason, but it was transmissions between facilities she was most interested in. If there was news of Dash to be had, that was where she would find it. Twilight started some coffee, fetched a notepad and quill, and flicked on the machines as she sat down for a long stretch of listening. I'll find you Dash, just you wait. *** Rainbow Dash groaned and mumbled as she slowly emerged from the fog of sleep. She turned and felt...a pillow? Yes, that was definitely a pillow. And she could feel a mattress below her. It was more of a basic cot, certainly nothing luxurious, but a far cry from the grass of the Everfree Forest. A brief thought floated through her groggy mind that her suddenly losing consciousness and waking up somewhere completely different was starting to form a most unwelcome pattern. She cracked open her eyes and looked around the room. The best word to describe it would be 'sterile'. It looked much like a doctor's office, though without any of the usual posters that littered the walls for bored patients to read while waiting, usually about the importance of proper hoof washing. One of the bare walls was almost completely taken up by a large mirror. There was no trace of natural sunlight, with everything illuminated by overhead fluorescent lights. Furthermore, the air currents across her feathers felt artificial. She was far from the open air, probably underground. A steady beeping came from a small machine in the corner of the room. She noticed a small pair of wires leading from it up to an electrode taped to her right foreleg. Looking around the rest of the room, she saw a scale, what looked like an x-ray machine, and several cabinets filled with other doctor-y junk. She also saw a desk, at which stood a chestnut brown unicorn stallion in a lab coat. "Ah! You're awake. That's good." He said as he approached with stethoscope raised. Rainbow Dash had no time to respond with even the simplest 'huh?' before he was upon her, checking pulse, blood pressure, temperature, reflexes, and every part of her head he could shine a light into. "Wheh aaeh I?" She attempted to question around a tongue depressor. "Somewhere safe. Don't worry. Now extend your left wing and move it in small circles forward and back." "But how did I get here? Last thing I remember I was in the forest and-" "Good. Right wing now." "Why am I here? Who are you? And where's Twilight?" The doctor continued to ignore her questions as he picked up a small light, shining it into her eyes. "Okay, now keep your head still and follow my hoof with your eyes." With an irritated swipe of her hoof, she knocked the floating pen light away, sending it rolling across the floor. "Listen, unless you want that light illuminating places I'm sure it wasn't designed for, somepony had better start answering my questions! Now, where's Twilight?" If the doctor was the least bit intimidated, it didn't show. He calmly picked up the pen light in his magic and set it gently on the nearby tray, pulling a notepad out of his pocket and scribbling something secretive. "Well?!" Rainbow Dash asked again. "I'm afraid I don't know. Ms. Sparkle's current whereabouts remain unknown. We were actually hoping you might know something about that." "Oh. Well, obviously I don't know where she is either, so if you'll excuse me, I'll just be going now." Rainbow Dash hopped off the bed and turned to the door, only to have the stallion block her path. "Sorry, but I'm afraid you can't leave just yet." "Why?" The hair on the back of her neck stood up. For the first time, she got a good look at the door. There was no handle on the inside. Instead of hinges, it appeared to slide sideways into the wall. It looked thick and sturdy, and she could imagine the hiss of pneumatic locks as it slid open and shut. "Am I some kinda prisoner or something?" The doctor gave a vigorous shake of his head. "No no. Not a prisoner, a patient. You're still quite ill and need treatment." Rainbow Dash raised a questioning eyebrow. "Really? I'm not hurt, and I haven't had so much as a sniffle lately. I feel just fine. Well, aside from the fact that it feels like I haven't eaten in days, but that may be because I probably haven't." "Oh yes, that reminds me. I'm supposed to give you this now that you are awake." He slid a tall stack of papers out of the way to reveal a tray, piled high with apples, peaches, carrots, celery, bread, butter, and a tall pitcher of water. "We'll pick this back up in ten minutes" she said before diving towards the food, shoving an entire slice of bread in her mouth. She ignored the small paper cup sitting next to the tray in favor of taking a long, drawn out pull from the pitcher. She hadn't realized just how dehydrated recent events had left her. After ten minutes, she was feeling much better. With blood sugar levels returning to normal, and the dehydration headache easing away, she slowly felt less and less like strangling the pony next to her with his own stethoscope. "So, what was this about me being sick? Cause I just went in for a physical like a month ago, and they were practically ready to stick my picture in the dictionary next to the word 'healthy'." "Yes, we pulled your medical files from the Wonderbolt Academy" he replied as he continued to scribble notes to himself. "There's nothing physically wrong with you. In fact, you're in peak physical condition." "What? But you said-" "Physically you're fine. It's your mental health that needs addressing." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Seriously? If somepony says borderline narcissistic personality disorder one more time-" Again, the doctor shook his head. "No, this is much more unique and recently acquired, and most significantly, magical in origin." "What?" "We believe you are currently under the influence of a mind altering spell." Rainbow Dash simply stood, blinking in confusion as she tried to make sense of the stallion's words. Mind altering spell? Somepony had been magicking around in her head? That was ridiculous. She didn't feel any different from normal. "What?...B-But I...how...?" She struggled to get her thoughts organized enough to ask a coherent question. "What is this supposed spell supposedly doing to me then?" "You now seem to display an intense infatuation centered around a single pony. In this case, Twilight Sparkle. Rainbow Dash gave a loud laugh. "Well I should hope so, what with her being my marefriend and everything." Her shoulders started to sag in relief. "You really had me worried there for a second. You see, just like a mare and a stallion, sometimes a mare and another mare can-" "Yes, I'm quite aware of the facts of life thank you. The important point here is that in this case, those feelings aren't real. They're artificial, fake. Rainbow Dash bristled. Fake?! He was saying her feelings for Twilight were fake?! It was only through some miracle of self-control that she hadn't already taken a swing at him. She spoke through gritted teeth. "I suggest you pick your words VERY carefully Doc, cause at the moment, it SOUNDS like you're telling me that I don't love Twilight." The stallion gave a shrug. "It's a very convincing simulation, but it's all a result of magic. None of it is real. All these feelings you think you have-" "I THINK I KNOW WHAT MY OWN DAMN FEELINGS ARE!" Rainbow Dash shouted as a flame of rage burned brightly in the center of her mind. "Now, I think I've been more than patient listening to you spout your crackpot theories and insult me and Twilight. If you're quite done calling my love for my marefriend a mental illness, and I assure you, you are, I'm going to be leaving now." The doctor continued to block her path "I'm afraid you still can't leave. Not until treatment is complete." He continued to stand his ground, though a faint hint of anxiety was now visible in the corner of his eyes. Rainbow Dash seethed, but her anger suddenly stalled as a question seized her mind. "Wait, treatment?" He nodded. "It is our responsibility to undo the effects of the enchantment and return you to your old self." "My 'old self' meaning 'not in love with Twilight'." She twirled a hoof around the wires leading to the small beeping machine, still connected to the electrode on her foreleg. "That would be the desired outcome, yes." "I see. Then if I may offer this counterpoint?" With a twist and a pull at the wires wrapped around her hoof, she yanked the small beeping machine free from its spot in the corner, swinging it around in an arc that caught the surprised stallion in the side of the head and sent him sprawling. She continued the swing, completing a full rotation before flinging the machine like a shot put at the large mirror. She followed close behind the solid metal box as it tore through the glass surface of the one way mirror, and into the attached observation room, sending the four ponies present ducking for cover. Dash smirked as she saw what she had been hoping to find. Instead of the impenetrable looking door of the previous room, the exit at the back of the observation room was a simple office door. Not bothering to slow down to see if it was even locked, she kicked it open, splintering part of the frame as she raced into the hallway, accompanied by the sound of alarms. With next to no maneuverability in the narrow hallways, and no idea where she was going, it wasn't long until she was surrounded by security. She had no intention of making their job easy, kicking, spitting, and biting at anything she could reach as she was swamped by bodies. She had just finished giving a rather vicious headbutt when she felt a pinch in her side. Her limbs began to lose strength as the corners of her vision started to darken. Just before she lost consciousness, a single thought passed through her mind. Here we go again. Wonder where I'll wake up this time?