//------------------------------//
// 19. Taking an Alicorn 
// Story: Exploring Equestria 
// by A_guy_from_Earth 
//------------------------------//

   Team One stood around the camera of the main scanner in the ship’s laboratory. They were hesitating.

“Guys…” Max muttered after a gulp. “I’m chickening out.”
“You are not alone,” said Bluve.
“Is it really necessary?” asked Oma.
“They are the most mysterious ponies, after all,” Edez responded. “We… just have to do it.”
“I can understand this, but… Why her?”
“Go big or go home,” Affi said, shrugging.
“Oh…”
“Okay,” Edez stepped forward. “We can’t stand here and think to be or not to be till the end of the night. This is our job, our duty. Start the scanning.”
“Okay,” Max and Bluve nodded, looked at the white alicorn behind the transparent barrier once more and began the procedure.

As it happened before, eight hatchets on the floor opened and freed robotic tentacles, which immediately started their intricate dance around the taken. Holographic screens with first results appeared above the main control panel.

“We have some materials about her biology, aren’t we?” asked Karin.
“Yes, the results of research performed by local scientists some years ago,” Max answered. “But they have little information. We only know that their general organism structure is identical to ordinary ponies’ and that we should pay attention to their ETS if we want to find reasons of the anomalies.”
“You think that their longevity, power, sizes, are just consequences of development features of their ETS?”
“This is hard to believe in, but everything points to it.”
“How long it will take?” wondered Sheim.
“It shouldn’t be much longer than usual,” Zet’rar answered. “After all, particles everywhere are the same.”
“Yes, but we have to perform not only particle scan,” Affi said. “It’s necessary to carry out one more mind research.”
“Why?” Zet’rar, Kor and Karin wondered. “You had explored her mind already!”
“I made only general portrait. It’s not enough to solve the mysteries we are aiming at. I want to learn details, and first of all – about their origins.”
“Ehm… There will be problems with it,” Bluve uttered.
“What problems?”
“To scan her you need her to be unconscious, right? Well… Recently we have learned about one feature of ponies’ organisms, experimenting with samples of their tissues. Their ETS works as additional immune mechanism that helps to destroy viruses and foreign substances. This effect is quite strong among even earth ponies. Knowing that her ETS is much more complicated… All our drugs and virus-based treatments may be useless. And gene-rebuilding treatments may be lethal for her.”
“There are no other ways to put her into the no-thoughts condition?”
“Well, there is one,” Max said, looking at his colleagues. “But you will not like it.”
“What is it? Tell us!”
“Four kisses technique.”
“What?” others were confused, but Bluve’s face turned crimson red.
“That?” she exclaimed. “You… tkaledraahi!” [approximate translation “wicked pervert”]
“Eh?!” others got even more confused.
“What’s wrong with this thing?” Karin asked.
“Four kisses technique is a way to put a sentient in absolutely unconscious state by using special abilities of four races: dreketanian, anxaiman, yedeizan and verekan,” Max began to explain. “A dreketanian should shock the sentient with burst of energy, then an anxaiman should paralyze him with venom, then an yedeizan should suck out the air from sentient’s lungs, and in final a verekan must shock the sentient again by abrupt taking of some life energy. Everything should be performed as quickly as possible.”

Oma’s and Kor’s faces turned red too. Edez tilted his head and looked quite bemused.

Then, having realized one thing, officer slowly turned to Karin, and senior sociologist turned to Zet’rar. Technician and regular sociologist looked at their lovers, then looked at Max and asked:

“Is it really necessary?”
“Considering what Bluve had already mentioned, I see no other options,” he answered, shrugging.

Karin and Zet’rar turned to Oma and Kor, looked at them and shrugged too.

“Well, for example, Edez does not mind,” Max spelled.

First curator became the fourth crimson-faced sentient in the laboratory.

“Max!..” he was ready to growl. “If we were not here, I would fire you this instant and kicked you the heck out by throwing out the window… On the two hundredth floor in the best case for you.”
“I’m very grateful.”
“Well, it seems that we have no other choice…” Bluve uttered.
“Hey, what’s this?” Sheim suddenly exclaimed, pointing to the highlighted in orange message on one of the side screens.

It was a bad sign. “Orange messages” meant serious health problems like organ failures or incurable diseases.

“What?” others exclaimed when they saw it.
“What health problems such powerful creatures may have?” Oma wondered.
“No idea,” physiologists said.

They ran to the control panel and started to look through the data.

“No serious cell damage,” Bluve said, having made the first check.
“Then where’s the problem?” Sheim and Kor surprised.
“It’s her ETS…” Max spelled.
“What’s wrong with it?”
“Dunno… One moment…”

Senior biologist gave the command to create holographic projection of the alicorn’s ETS already scanned. Screens moved to the sides, and contours of the body of the taken began to take shape. Then ASI showed the ETS. And when it happened, researchers gasped.

It looked like whole alicorn’s body had been woven from the threads of energy transportation system. From the main channels thick as the largest bones until microscopic fibers thinner than even capillary. They enmeshed each organ, each muscle, each bone, each nerve – all parts of the body. It was real organism inside another one.

“Blimey…” researchers uttered.
“No wonder those scientists got lost,” Max spelled. “Her ETS is whole new world!”
“ETS is her primal transportation system,” Bluve said. To recover, she looked at the screens with data and began to read.
“What do you mean by that?” Karin wondered.
“For ordinary ponies circulatory and nervous systems are the primal ones since they play the most important role in their physiology. ETS is additional supporting mechanism, in fact. But for her… It seems to be the main maintaining means.”
“In case of ordinary pony, ETS just stimulates physiological processes,” Max said, looking at the screens. “In her case ETS is as important for energy supply as respiration and nutrition. She… seems to absorb energy from environment, convert it and then use it for own needs.”
“Wow…”
“It’s amazing, but… where’s the problem?” Affi asked.
“One moment!” Max raised a claw and looked through more data. “Hal ini tidak bisa!!!”
“What is it?” others shuddered.

Max slowly turned to his colleagues. His face was a mask of shock.

“Her ETS is on the limit of stability,” he said.
“Eh?” even Bluve was surprised.
“The degree of development of ETS in her organism is absolute natural maximum. If it grow large even on one thousandth part, energy fluxes will unbalance and then whole system will self-destruct. All the energy contained in her organism will be released instantly and… It will be an explosion of two hundred megaton power at least.”
“What?”
“Yes… Alicorns pay for their power by becoming, in fact, live bombs. And the trigger is minor. You just have to stimulate the ETS growth.”
“You mean…” Bluve began to guess. “Genetically they are the most vulnerable creatures in this world?”

Max gave a nod.

“And, considering that locals develop quickly, and genetics is one of the most rapidly progressing sciences… Maybe, less in a century someone will find this weakness of princesses. And no spells will be able to save them.”
“Oh my…”
“It’s horrible!” Oma exclaimed.
“We have to do something!” Edez worried. “Is it possible?”
“Well, yeah,” Max nodded after some thinking. “We can create gene and subgene blocking mechanism that prevents the growth. We need samples, and it’ll take about eighty days. But… Edez, are we even allowed to act so?”
“Yeah, as sentients we have to do it, but will it be a violation of the rules?” added Bluve.
“As far as I remember, we can save locals in critical situations,” Affi answered. “But with one condition: we must leave no traces of our actions.”
“Oh, phew!” biologists breather with relief.
“Then we shall do it,” Max said.

He gave the scanning device the command to take samples of hair, skin, muscle and blood when the main procedure will be finished. For now, it was the last what they could do, so they took a pause and began to wait.

After some time, when they got more information, they passed to the looking for the reasons of another alicorn’s anomaly: their longevity. Studying the DNA chains and comparing it with DNA of other pony races, physiologists found that princesses are able to live for centuries because their organisms have very effective mechanism of decomposition and removal of old and damaged cells and replacing them with healthy good ones. It was even more effective because of abundant energy supply from ETS. They even managed to estimate princess’ life expectancy. The number was impressive even for the oldest civilizations: 21700 years.

An hour later, the total scanning was finished. Recording manipulators hided in their hatchets, and four sampling manipulators appeared. They rose above the alicorn, leaned to her and then four needle-like devices shot forward and pierced in the body. Quick non-pharmacological anesthesia, and in a couple of seconds samples were taken. Pieces of flesh were packed in special containers, and then sampling manipulators hided under the floor too.

Now it was possible to do the last part of the research: mind scan. But before this it was necessary to prepare the patient.

Max and Zet’rar opened the chamber of the main scanner. Edez, Bluve, Oma and Kor gulped, looked at each other and then slowly approached the pedestal where white alicorn was lying. First curator carefully leaned over the taken and kissed the sleeping beauty, sending an energy pulse to her. Because of shock princess woke up. Hers and Edez’s eyes met and… Before she realized anything, Bluve replaced Edez and gave white alicorn her paralyzing kiss. Immediately after her Oma did her part, left almost no air in princess’ lungs by modified yedeizan passion kiss. White alicorn was on the verge of fainting after this, but it was not enough. When Oma finished, Kor replaced her and gave the princess the verekan death kiss. A two-day period of white alicorn’s life was taken in a moment, paralyzed ETS couldn’t handle it and failed for several seconds. Princess fainted.

Immediately after this Max checked the brain activity of the taken. All the reading showed that she was unconscious for sure. The preparation was successful.

The barriers protecting the memories and the hidden thoughts were removed. They could act.

Affi approached the white alicorn, closed her eyes and focused. Appendages raised up from her mane, forming some kind of a crown on her head, and began to tremble. She immersed herself into princess’ mind, and soon she got to the aim.

“It happened so long ago that I’m starting to forget,” telepathist began to speak, reading the memories. “I can’t even remember the year when it happened… 3147 or 3146 years ago… I don’t know… A lot of things is blurred for me now. But some things I still remember perfectly, like it was yesterday. I still remember the house where we lived when we were kids… That lonely hut in the woods… Stone oven in the center, three simple beds, two wooden tables, chests where we kept all our things… Oh, today a pony would never use such a house even as a shed, but we lived there for many years… And we were happy! I still remember how mother and father took us for a picnic in the woods for the first time. We made fire, roasted chestnuts, admired the stars… Mother and father told us stories and fairy tales… I remember how fire danced and how it illuminated us. Mother and father looked like fairy creatures, even more than usual… Descendants of different races, they were strange for everyone… That’s why they settled in the depth of the forest… But for us they were the most beautiful and amazing! Father’s leathery wings, scaly legs, striped back… Mother’s thin legs, branched antlers and soft feathers on her neck… Others were afraid of them, but… It didn’t matter. They loved us, cared about us, protected us… They were one of a kind, the best parents in the whole world… Oh, how happy they were when it turned out that we aren’t so much different from ordinary ponies! They were so hoping that we can have normal life!.. How happy they were… And how wrong they turned out to be… They grew old, and we almost didn’t change. Seventy years they cared about us, until their lives ended, and we still were blank-flank fillies… Seventy years we were happy, and then everything was gone, vanished… We were grief-stricken, despaired, we didn’t know what to do… We wanted to run far away where no one will be able to find us… But we still were fillies. We were weak. We still needed protection, so we had no other choice. Thus, we moved to the capital, Greenmount… You remember, what happened later, Luna? King and Queen accepted us and made Star Swirl our teacher… We grew stronger… and bigger, became the defenders of Greenmount… Star Swirl taught us until his very old age, then he performed Phoenix Spell and managed to live for almost two thousand years… How citizens of Equestria made us the rulers of the country in gratitude for everything what we had done… Mother and father wished us good and bright future, normal life… Oh, how happy they would be if they could see what we have achieved!.. It’s beyond all their dreams!.. Beyond all our dreams when we were little…”

Researchers were amazed. What they had just head was incredible. Fantastic story, which one could hardly believe in, but it gave the keys to many mysteries. Simply amazing. Team One just stood still and looked at their telepathists.

Suddenly she paused, but then suddenly opened her eyes and made strangled cry.

“What happened?” researchers worried.
“I’ve just saw the true reason of their conflict with Discord…” Affi muttered.
“And what is it?” Edez asked.
“Yes, Discord tried to usurp the power in Equestria and bring eternal chaos, and Celestia and Luna opposed him, but the reason was more than just that,” telepathist slowly turned to her colleagues. “Discord is their second cousin.”
“What?” the last Affi’s words were unbelievable.
“It was also a conflict of relatives. Celestia and Luna met him during their first years as Greenmount guards. They became friends and were on good terms for a long time. Discord even helped them sometimes. But when Celestia and Luna became princesses… Discord got offended because what he had done was not considered. And, thus, rioted. During his riot he went too far, and princesses, who wanted to agree with him first, had no other choice but use the Elements of Harmony. That’s the true story.”
“No… way!” Karin and Shiem spelled. Other remained silent with their jaws hung open.
“Exactly,” Affi gave a weak nod.

After some more time researchers managed to recover.

“Ehm… Returning to their origin question…” Max muttered. “What you said means…”
“Yes,” Affi nodded. “Their parents were hybrids, and they were born in the place with incredibly high energy concentration level. They are mutants.”
“A…” Bluve raised a claw.
“The same is with Discord,” telepathist guessed what biologist wanted to ask.
“Real X-ponies,” Zet’rar muttered.
“Yeah,” Oma agreed.
“Well, in that case, let’s pass to the main,” said Edez.
“What?” researchers surprised.
“How the heck they control celestial bodies here Observers from the orbital base have reported about great number of anomalies already.”
“Oh, this,” Affi said. “That’s because they control the rotation of this planet primarily.”
“What?”
“Yes, that’s the thing. Luna has some power over the movement of the Moon in its orbit and its rotation. She’s able to create meteor rains and fake stars with small asteroids on geosynchronous orbit. Celestia has some power over the Sun’s rotation and activity. but that’s all what they can do with other celestial bodies. They contorl day and night length here by regulating the rotation of the planet.”
“Oh… Okay… We got it. Well… have you finished the procedures?” Edez asked the biologists.
“Yes,” Max answered. “Now we only have to wait until the ASI finish the processing of the scan data.”
“Okay. Well, we got what we needed. Let’s bring her back.”
“One moment!” Bluve exclaimed. “Before this, allow to take some more samples.”
“Why?”
“Well, Max, you tell them.”
“Uhg… Fine,” senior physiologist sighed. “We thought about it before, and… Please, understand us. Samples taken from alicorns can help create new longevity treatment.”
“Incredibly effective treatment,” Bluve added. “Now, when we saw the first results of the scan… Probably, we can increase life expectancy twice! Or even threefold!”

Other researchers surprised. They looked at the biologists, then at each other. Then curators gave each other a nod and said:

“Fine. Do it.”

Max and Bluve nodded and repeated the sampling procedure. When it was done, they injected princess special drug that brought her from unconscious state to deep sleep. Now she was all right, so Zet’rar teleported her back to Canterlot.

Soon princess appeared in her bed, dreaming about her foalhood. And researchers buckled down to work. The night will be very long…