“Let me get this straight. We're going to cut off a bit of our magic, put it in this thing, and feed the Sirens? You do remember how close they came to killing us, yeah?”
“No, Rainbow.” Sunset turned from the television screen that showed the Sirens' image. The Rainbooms had seen it before, as had the Crystal Prep girls, but she figured it would focus their attention. “They didn't try to kill us, just beat us, and they failed at that.”
“But we're giving them what they want!” Rainbow Dash folded her arms, looking mutinous. “If we let them feed off our magic now, how do we know they won't get their powers back and try to take over again?”
Sunset put her magical book on the table, between a scattering of wires, lockets, and tools on one side, and the stacks of cupcakes on the other. It was as if she were hosting a mad scientist's twisted bake sale. “I thought the same thing, so I wrote to Equestria to ask advice.” She looked at the dozen other girls sitting around the music room. “Princess Twilight said the amulets were the only thing that really caused trouble, because they needed negative energy to power the Sirens' voices. If we give them a new way, one that takes pure, positive magic, then they can't force people to do their bidding.”
The Shadowbolts had sat quietly through a fuller explanation of the Battle of the Bands earlier. Now Sugarcoat raised her hand. “You only found out their situation because you received a video, not because they came to you to apologize and beg for help. If we're going to go through all this trouble, shouldn't we make sure that they want it?”
“Good question,” Sunset said, nodding. “But I'd rather try for a solution first and offer it to them once we know it's possible, rather than giving them false hope if we approach them now. I've got some people keeping an eye on them and we'll know if they try to leave town. Anyone else have anything to say?”
“You got people?” Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow. “When did that happen?”
She smirked. “It's amazing what happens when you close a few portals with a mere wave of your hand. Now, come on. Sour Sweet doesn't want us to waste her cupcakes and we've got work to do.”
As Pinkie Pie squealed and bounded towards the baked goods, everyone else took their time. Some gathered around Twilight's pile of tech to examine the new trappers, while others headed towards the whiteboard she had set up. One one side was line after line of equations. The other side had blueprints and diagrams for the new devices. On the middle line were all of Sunset's notes about Equestrian magic. She had kept them relatively simple, just so everyone could understand her thoughts. A solution wouldn't elude them just because she had tried to be overly smart.
Lemon Zest examined a hard-shelled compact, flexing it as it opened and closed. “If I were you,” she said, “I wouldn't repeat Twilight's mistake of making it open up. Hinges can break easily. I've dropped way too many headphones to figure that out.”
Applejack frowned. “If it ain't gonna open, how do they suck up the magic?”
“Her model was a closed system. I'd design something that sucks up the magic through vents or something.” Lemon snorted. “That's assuming you can even store it all. She almost blew us all up with, what, six of you?” She gazed at the whiteboard equations, then shrugged. “I dunno about the math, but lemme take a look at the case. Shop class was always fun." Picking up a couple of different types of casing, she wandered over to the blueprints and stood beside Rarity, immediately getting into a discussion with her.
With a sense of slight hope, Sunset sat back down and watched her friends mingle with Twilight's old classmates. She hoped some of them had a brainwave soon. The quicker they had a working model, the quicker they could run a trial.
Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were prodding at Indigo Zap, the two trying to discover just what it would take to make her pony up. From what Sunset had seen, the girl had a competitive streak as bad as Rainbow's, but it wasn't likely 'willing to rip your face off to win' was something that would bring out the magic inside her.
Sunny Flare was arguing with Sugarcoat over some of the math, while Twilight worked to arrange enough wiring to fit into a smaller case. Crystal Prep students might be anti-social, but they were scarily smart, which was why she needed them. Her own pony brain, even coupled with Twilight's frightening intellect, wouldn't be enough.
Sour Sweet had taken down the notes on magic and was reading them off to one side. Well, that made sense, given how she seemed to be the most-affected by Equestrian magic at the moment. Sunset hoped it helped her. Unbalanced magic users were a scary concept.
As afternoon turned into evening, they always seemed to be just on the edge of a breakthrough. The inner workings of the magic-traps performed well after a couple of false starts, siphoning off a slight bit of magic without draining anyone completely. But once the magic was inside the trap, they discovered a new problem: releasing the energy in a palatable form.
“Come ON, YOU STUPID ENERGY!”
“No, Pinkie,” Applejack sighed, leaning on her forearm. “Yellin' at it ain't going to make the magic be anythin' else but wisps of energy. And I think you've had enough of them cupcakes for a while.” She shoved the schematics over across the table to Twilight and Sunset. “Whaddya think's causing the problem?”
“Magic and energy are the same thing, just expressed differently, The Sirens' gems absorbed magic and empowered them by turning it into energy,” Sunset said, frowning. She flipped the papers around and stared at them upside-down, hoping that would trigger an idea. “I hoped to duplicate the process by making magic tangible.” Her hands described a circle. “You know, take the magic and surround it in a shell that they could eat." She shrank slightly under a couple of incredulous stares. "I might have been snacking at the time."
“Nice,” Lemon Zest said, cackling. “Give it that tasty candy coating, yeah?”
“Like a magical gumball machine,” Sour Sweet volunteered. She hadn't said much through the whole process, obviously doing her best to temper her sarcastic side. “Magic goes in, energy gumball comes out. That's one option. But that'd take up too much room!
Rarity nodded. “True. We are trying to make these somewhat compact.”
“Oh, the miniaturization process won't be a problem. Once we work out the parts, we can always take it to the 3-D printing lab back at Crystal Prep and reduce the scale.” Sugarcoat picked up their current model that was nesting in half a plastic egg. “So, with that in mind, what are the steps we need to get from raw magic to processed energy pellet?”
“And how do we make it tasty?” Pinkie Pie chimed in. “If you're going to feed this to them, it's gotta have some flavour!” She zipped out of the room and was back seconds later with a miniature chemistry kit, a cheese grater, and a bag of groceries. “Leave that part to me!”
As the Shadowbolts stared at her and the other Rainbooms shrugged it off as 'Pinkie Pie antics', Sunset chuckled. “Okay, while Pinkie Pie does extracts and Sunny Flare and Twilight redesign the blueprints so they can be adapted for 3-D printing, let's try and solve this last problem, everyone.”
Slowly but surely, they pushed forward together. Replacing ancient spells with technology at this level would have been impossible before Sunset had stolen the Element of Magic. Now, with their environment empowered by Equestria, she was sure that a solution meant the Sirens could have access to enough magic to last them the rest of their mortal lives.
Hours passed, and finally, of all people, it was Applejack who had the breakthrough.
She had sat and watched Fluttershy have some of her magic drawn out by the testing model. The magic was sucked in swiftly, then it swirled through a long length of tubing towards the small chamber that would dispense it as a shining orb of energy.
Applejack frowned and motioned the others over. “It's takin' an awful long time to get through. When we pour cider, we just turn the tap on and off. Any way y'all can just go right from gathering the energy to popping it right out?”
Twilight scoffed. “Applejack, please. There's no way to just go from one to the other without some sort of filter, let alone skip four or five steps in the process.” Then her eyes went wide as she stared off into the distance. “Buuuuut,” she breathed. “If we switch the augury processor for an etheric nexus . . .” She lunged past Applejack and yanked the tubing out, releasing the magic into the air in a puff of smoky vapour. “New idea! We're no longer using alchemical cables. Indigo, get me that cabalistic torus. I've got a hunch!”
Coughing, Fluttershy waved a hand to dispel the residue of Kindness that curled past her. “Oh, um, good? Does that mean I'll have to do this again?”
Rainbow pulled her away. “Take a break, Flutters. I'll fill in for the next test.”
Sunny Flare saw what Twilight had in mind and quickly turned to scribble new calculations on the board. “That could work! Also, if we add the proper spin in the torus as it solidifies the energy, then it has less chance of deforming through the dispensing process.”
With everyone re-motivated, work progressed on the prototype, and it was just after midnight when Rainbow Dash ponied up and hovered a couple of feet off the ground. She slowly flapped her wings, waiting for Sunset to edge the new device into range so it would sense her magic. "This is gonna work, yeah?"
"Let's find out," Sunset murmured. As the trap detected Equestrian magic, a small ring of lights glowed. Tendrils of energy slid off of Dash's aura and drifted across to disappear into the vents inside of the ring. It only took an instant as the device hummed to itself, then it gave a quiet chirp and the blinking lights went from a pale violet to a deep blue.
Rainbow Dash lost a little altitude, but waved a hand as the tip of her toe touched the floor. “I'm still cool! Not feeling worn out or anything! That's good, right?”
“Yes, it's good.” Sunset looked around at everyone. “Let's see if this ends up working." She reached down and gave the tiny dial in the middle of the lights a careful twist. There was almost no noise, but the ring of lights gave a soft flicker and a glowing blue orb the size of her thumb rolled out to land in her palm. Holding it up to the light, she smiled. “There it is, one hundred percent Essence of Loyalty!”
There were a few tired cheers, but nearly everyone slumped down in their chairs and sighed with relief. They had made it.
Sunset made a decision. "Okay. Enough for tonight. Go home, get some rest, and take the weekend for yourselves." Or, if they were anything like her, they would be right back here tomorrow to finish the job.
She just had to make a phone call to ensure the Sirens weren't about to skip out on them. Not when they were so close.
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