Later that night, Twilight, Spike, and Pinkie Pie sat on the couch, watching TV, eating popcorn, and laughing up a storm. They really needed a break after such a long string of terrifying, energy-draining events. The thought of doing anything more taxing than simply vegging on the sofa was hell on Equestria to them. Luckily, Pinkie Pie supplied a great dose of laughter as usual, by being her own Mystery Science Theater 3000 throughout the entirety of their television session.
"Who would buy money?" she quipped at the Equestrian Shopping Network, which was showing off special gold and silver designed bits. "You already have money, and then you give them money to give you less money?"
Twilight giggled at Pinkie's ignorance, but decided not to correct her.
It was nearing 1 AM, and the ponies (and dragon) began to head off to bed. But, Twilight had ulterior motives. As soon as Pinkie and Spike lay sound asleep in their respective beds, Twilight snuck down to the lab, examining her equipment.
"Now, where was the... aha!" She had found what she was looking for — her mana scanner. A revolutionary piece of technology designed by Twilight Sparkle herself, with a patent still being processed up in Canterlot. In her mind, two conflicting ideas still battled for dominance. Those being that A, only unicorns possessed mana in the first place, and that it would make no sense for an Earth pony to have any in his or her body, and B, Pinkie Pie sure was exhibiting signs of having some anyway. She had to know for sure. She wheeled the large machine to the bottom of the steps, and began attempting to drag it up. She hoisted the machine by some handles she had installed on the top, but the heavy machine wouldn't budge.
"Wait a minute, I have wings!" she exclaimed to herself. She hadn't quite gotten used to that yet. She flew up to the top of the machine, grabbed the handles, and began to fly up the stairs, the machine restricted her movement a hundred fold. She accidentally let go of the handles and launched herself up the stairs. A loud bang sounded from the impact.
"Oh, by Celestia's..."
She flew back down the stairs to save wear on her now bruised backside. She tried once more to lift the machine, with no avail.
"Wait a minute, I have magic!" she exclaimed yet again. Maybe cider at 1 AM wasn't her smartest move. She struggled, but managed to levitate the steel, fridge-sized scanner up the stairs to the main floor, and then up again another flight to the landing in front of the guest room.
"All right, now to just hook this up to Pinkie," she said under her breath. Pinkie Pie was a very deep sleeper, but Spike had trained himself to be more alert at night. Or so he claimed. Twilight turned on the machine. With a crackle, and then a droning hum, the screen showed a blank image, and nulled readouts. The various tubes and wires that were to be hooked up to the pink pony were stored in the back, and one by one, Twilight began attaching the peripherals to various locations on her body. Minutes later, the task was finished.
After a good look at her handiwork, Twilight went up to the machine. With bated breath, she pressed the activation button. Dials rotated, lights flashed, electricity passed from diode to diode, and after a few moments, the readout was nearly ready to be processed...
The screen abruptly flashed and staticed. It turned a stark, vivid blue, with white error codes and log information painting the display.
"Bucking stupid operating system!" Twilight shouted a little too loudly. Pinkie awoke with a start. "Oh oats!" she shouted again at noticing that she was no longer asleep. She ripped the wires of of Pinkie, and burst out the door, dragging the machine behind her. As she took a sharp turn towards the stairs, she tripped, entangling herself in the cords of the scanner and tumbled down the two flights of stairs, the steel monster chasing her within inches of her already battered form. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, with ninja-like reflexes, she formed a magical barrier between her and the oncoming injury. Pinkie ran out of her room and shouted down the stairs.
"Are you okay?!"
"Peachy."