//------------------------------//
// Test III: Incident 00-1162 
// Story: Research Project: Sparkle 
// by Axquirix 
//------------------------------//

	06:00, 24th February, 2016
The doors to Containment Chamber A3 slid open, and Dr Richards walked in. He had, in hand, the same satchel of equipment that he’d used yesterday – all cleaned and sterilised since then, of course. He walked to the two fellow scientists sat at the monitoring station, quickly ran through security protocols with them, and walked over to cell 3A’s door.
Neither of the two soldiers on guard duty looked at him, remaining professionally stoic. He noted, not for the first time, how serious the security around this cell was. Ordinarily, there would be only one member of security personnel at the door, dressed in their characteristic fatigues and carrying a ballistic rifle (although Dr Vahlen had made a point that all such personnel be equipped with, and prioritise use of, Arc Throwers for re-containment).
This cell, though? Two actual soldiers, one lieutenant and one captain, by their insignia, both dressed in Titan armour, both wielding the overbuilt, overcharged Arc Rifles that Vahlen had made specifically for this chamber. And just outside the chamber, another two soldiers, this time with plasma rifles. It was, Richards noted, a little intimidating.
Most of the research team weren’t much involved with this particular cell, though – it was still merely one research task among many, following the failure of the alien invasion. Richards himself was new to its running, enlisted more for his expertise prior to joining the secretive organisation – doctors and professors of quantum and theoretical sciences were the norm in Vahlen’s labs, so they didn’t have a huge number of veterinary experts.
Richards walked, unafraid, towards the purple alien as it watched him approach. It looked at him as he span his pen in his hand and checked off the first point on his clipboard, merely observing. He smiled as he spoke the first little, disarming phrase he’d invented yesterday.
“Good morning, Sparkles,” he said, setting down the satchel, opening it, and drawing out a stethoscope, “just doing a quick check-up.”

***

Twilight Sparkle was not entirely sure why the pseudo-humans had started doing this. She’d been here for… a long time, at least, and they were now monitoring her vital signs daily, noon and night. Why? Why only start now when they’d had her captive for (what she believed was) at least three days? Were they suddenly more worried about her or something?
She mentally shrugged as she felt the cold metal disk press against her breast, then be repositioned to her upper barrel. Questions for later. Her own studies should continue for now, and thankfully, the man they had doing this was an excellent subject.
Not needing the clairaudience spell helped, of course.

***

09:00, 24th February, 2016
Twilight was hesitant, to say the least. About an hour and a half after the medical examination had ended, a pair of scientists had wheeled a boxy machine on a trolley into the chamber outside her tank. In the following hour, more equipment, more scientists, and a few of the heavily-carapaced creatures with the long tails had walked in, each taking position and setting up their equipment outside her cell.
And then, of course, she had walked in.
Twilight still didn’t have a name for the brown-haired woman with the green stripe down each sleeve of her coat, but her mere presence promised one thing; another test.
Twilight took a deep breath in, held it for a second, and then slowly let it out. She did not, however, do the pushing-away movement with her hoof – this would not be put off or delayed, it could only be confronted with a focused, calm, opportunistic mind.
The creatures were ready. They stood motionless, watching. One of the ones sat at a steel bench began speaking, likely counting.
Twilight had to really try not to grin as she cast her clairaudience spell.

***

“-One. Lowering psionic impedance,” the technician at the console called out.
“Psionic Signal Analyser engaged,” a scientist replied.
Dr Vahlen did not smile as she took note of all of this. They were here for a simple reason – to find out what X-014-1 had been trying to do the day before last. Already the same series of psionic waves had been detected, which was good – this whole test would have been pointless with an uncooperative subject.
“We have a new reading!” the scientist called out again, “A second signal, matching the third recorded wavelength, lagging roughly one-sixteenth of a phase behind.”
“Damping field down to eighty-five percent… eighty-four…” the technician continued reading off of his display.
“Be ready to maintain impedance when I say so,” Dr Vahlen instructed. She did not, precisely, know what she was looking for. X-014-1 was going to try something, she was sure, and the only logical thing to do was to discover what it had been attempting by analysing what it attempted now.

***

Officer Bradford stood in the Control Room with his arms folded, waiting patiently. He was not, strictly speaking, happy about today’s planned experiment. But, Dr Vahlen was head of research and development, not him, and thus it had gone ahead. He had, however managed to set up a reasonable security response in case anything happened, and Dr Shen’s team had managed to scratch-build a device that he had requested.
The hologlobe sat motionless in the air, waiting. If Sparkles was trying to get a distress call out to other aliens, the least XCOM could do was be ready to greet them…

***

Twilight had to try very, very hard not to smile even a little bit now. Whatever was blocking her magic – something the pseudo-humans had devised and could control, she believed, debunking her earlier theory of a toxin of some sort – was getting weaker and weaker. She did, of course, assume that this was part of the test. She understood that she wasn’t doing what they wanted her to; judging by the continued staring of the brown-haired woman, but Twilight hardly cared.
She had her sense expanded to all of them, now. She could feel what they felt, every last one of them. The mild state of apprehension outside was easily overcome by the sheer curiosity of the ones in coats. Especially, of course, the brown-haired one; Twilight knew just how she was feeling, and the sheer hope that something major was about to happen, something revolutionary and astounding, something that cemented her theories and conclusions as solid fact, was overwhelming.
It was kind of funny, Twilight had to admit – here was a woman whom Twilight herself could have become just like, if her life hadn’t been drastically changed the Summer Sun Celebration before last. Twilight knew how big of a disappointment it would be for her, if she were to just stand here and keep reading emotions the same way she had already done. And besides, they were giving her ample room to work with, and organising the emotive responses of twenty-something sentient beings was well beyond even Twilight’s abilities.
Once again, Twilight found herself going to her old fall-back – something she’d read in a book once. Specifically, the Ludicrously Large Linguistics Lexicon.

***

“We have a new signal!” the scientist overseeing the psionic detector shouted out, “six- no, eight separate wavelengths, all converging every seventeenth phase!”
Dr Vahlen nodded at the technician operating the damping field, before stepping up beside the other scientist and looking at the device’s display. “Incredible,” she spoke, as the rest of the research team crowded around her, “the sheer mental discipline of the creature to maintain an array of signals such as this alone would be astounding. To continue it alongside twenty-six other waves, no matter how simple each of them are…” XCOM’s Head of Research found herself utterly lost for words for a moment, before turning to her subordinates. “We can decode this signal later. For now, I need to know two things – where is it broadcasting this to, and are we receiving a reply of any sort?”
“Uh,” one of the research team spoke up, “I’m not sure how to say this, ma’am, but it isn’t.”
Dr Vahlen raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t…?” she verbally prodded.
The scientist shrugged. “Isn’t broadcasting, ma’am. No psionic energy is entering or leaving this chamber.”
The doctor was silent for a moment, before turning to a third scientist, “How are the creature’s vital signs?”
“Picture of health, Ma’am,” he replied concisely.
“Well then,” she said with a sense of finality, “I believe that we can conclude from this that specimens of X-014 are biologically unstable in some regard, and make use of a complex array of psionic powers to maintain their physical form.” She checked her data slate before continuing, “Given the lack of permanent physical degradation witnessed in the subject so far, I believe it is reasonable to lower the resistance of the psionic dampener to fifty-eight percent on a weekly basis. Everyone, continue to monitor the specimen until that signal ends, and make a note of how long it took. It is important that our allowing it to self-repair does not also allow it to attempt an unimpeded escape.”
The assembled scientists voiced their agreement, and Dr Vahlen swiftly left the room, her stride confident and unfaltering. The door closed shut behind her.
“I’ve gotta say,” one of the scientists began, “I could watch that ass all day.”
“Dr Vahlen wears a full-length coat, Leonard,” another scientist replied, still monitoring his station, “You can’t even see ‘that ass.’”
“I can dream.” Leonard retorted defensively, before glancing around. “So, Wesley, how’s the wife and kids?”
The technician shrugged, and the research team began to chat idly until something exciting happened.
Which was exactly what Twilight Sparkle wanted.