//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: We're Living On A Pra- On SCIENCE! // Story: Lost in Darkness // by Insanecrusader //------------------------------// “So you left the stove on while you two were shopping… Just great…” grumbled the insurance agent as he surveyed John and Twilight. They had driven to the agency downtown with Johns car that miraculously survived the explosion, even though it was the nearest to the house. “Yep, I must’ve left it on by accident before me and my friend here left late that morning.” John replied hastily, Laughing nervously as he spoke. He just prayed to god they didn’t ask for an official investigation. So.... What can you do about all this sir?” Twilight pleaded. She was told to follow his lead, in keeping her mouth shut about any of the actual events that conspired. The heavy set man sighed. “Well, WE can only cover a quarter of the damage, for the rest of the cost… That’s out of our hands as it’s a manufacturing error. You’re gonna have to bring it up with them if you want better conditions, but I doubt, they’ll comply even if you were to get’em in court.” The agent scanned John head to toe. “... And you don’t look like the type to go to court, nor the one to afford the expenditures” He belittled him. John sighed and look at Twilight. “I guess it’s a good thing i have a spare camping tent in the trunk.” He said optimistically. “A tent? What’s that doing in there?” She probed. Not something anyone would bring with them on an everyday basis. “I go on lot of campouts… You never know when you may need one.” John smiled. “So this is where we’ll be sleeping?” Twilight asked as she dropped the green bag on the rubble covered floor. “In a tent in the middle of a ruined house?” She didn’t know whether to laugh at the silliness of the situation or disappointed that they lost the house. “For the time being… If what I have in mind goes to plan, we should have a house again in a few weeks” John gave her a big grin. Their was a gleam of determination in his eyes. “If you can regain more of your power, you could teach me and with both of us combined, we could make an even better house that before!” He exclaimed. Twilight giggled. “You want me to teach you? That puts my number of pupils up to 3.” She was of course referring to Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer. “Well yeah. You can’t do this on your own!there may be magic here now, but I doubt any one pony could make a house out of nothing let alone at only half power.” He persuaded her to look at his inclusion as helpful. “... Okay… but if something else goes boom, it wasn’t me, it was you.” She chuckled. For days on end Twilight and John set up countless experiments around the lot, trying to see if the magic was diffusing into the air… looking to receive any positive feedback from machines only Twilight could build let alone understand. The explosion had expunged a massive amount, but much of it, she said was still concentrated around a certain point. “So most likely, when you got thrown into this alternate dimension, you inadvertently, caused a small tear.” John deduced. “VERY small, infact.” Twilight corrected. “It seems that it's not anywhere big enough to cause any harm to the area, but small enough to allow a minute- but constant -flow of equestrian magic to seep into this world.” She concluded. John looked at Twilight surprised. “So little by little, America is becoming more magical?” he said jokingly. She just gave him a puzzled look. “A-Mer-I-Ca? What's an America? Sounds like Some kind of chocolate…” John laughed. “Nonononono. It's a country. Like Equestria is a kingdom.” he pointed out. Twilight giggled, “Oh… well then in that case, I guess you're right.” To Twilight, this man she had only met a few days ago was telling her so much about his world. To her it was a little off-putting, there was so much difference between then but at the same time, they both understood each other's science lingo. It was a pleasant experience for the usually alienated mare. “So what are you thinking we could do?” Asked John. “The way it seems, the magic is flowing into my world at a slow trickle.” Twilight all of the sudden felt something shift on her back. She quickly jolted her hands back to feel it out, but to her bewilderment nothing was there. So not only have I lost most of my magic, but now my wings too… She said to herself. “Uhhh… Twilight? Did you hear me?” John asked. She quickly snapped out of her thoughts. “Most of the magic that came from the initial blast is surrounding the house, our end goal is to diffuse enough of it into the air that will allow me AND you to use it to the full extent.” Twilight said with a calculating look on her face. John tried to speak up, as that only gave a general explanation. “And how do w-” He was interrupted by Twilight, who was now pacing the ground. “-We need something to do exactly that, diffuse the magic.” She turned to face John, but refused to look him in the eyes while concentrating. She was in her zone now. “You wouldn’t happen to have anything that diffuses substances into the air would you?” She inquired. John didn’t even have to think to come up with the answer. “Yeah, we have something like that but they’re small and need… well a source to diffuse from.” He interjected. Twilight was already coming up with the details. “So the magic already in the air can’t be used with it.” She looked around the house and came upon the spot where the tear was. They had marked where it was and she could see energy ripples escaping it. Just then, Twilights eyes came aglow as she grasped an idea. “But we could pull in more from the rift and then diffuse that! Pump and diffuse!” She turned around and quickly grasped John’s shoulders, a look of excitement in her magenta eyes. “I AM…” She threw her hands up triumphantly. “A GENIUS!!” Twilight bursted. John just looked at her with wide eyes and a smile, both happy and a little surprised at her sudden outburst of glee. “That’s great Twilight, but how…” John only stopped because he knew his friend wasn’t listening yet. “Twilight…” he said once. She ignored him, in her own bliss. Twilight, listen.” he called her yet again, still to no no avail. “Twilight!” John almost barked. He had to grab her hand to get her attention. She stopped congratulating herself long enough to notice someone had grabbed hold of her hand. She looked to see it was John. “Uhhh… Why are you holding my hand?” she asked. John couldn’t afford to meet eyes with the girl as he now was holding himself back from blushing. Not because he was holding hands with his favorite pony, oh no. It was because such an action was awkward. What was i supposed to do? Yell at her? Yeah, that’s not really gonna make things go any faster… John thought to himself. He let go of her and recomposed himself so he could look at Twilight. “Because you weren’t listening.” He sighed. Twilight, on the other hand couldn’t keep her blush hidden. “Oh… hehe… sorry. I guess my friends personalities rubbed off on me a little.” She laughed a little. “I was being a little to pink just then, I guess.” She smiled sheepishly. John smiled back but he couldn’t lose track of what he needed to say. “What i needed to tell you is that even with a pump and a few diffusers, the rift needs to be bigger before anything can fit.” Twilight thought for a moment. “We need a device that can cut matter, the rift is made of magic which, if my estimates are right, can be a substitute for a type of tangible matter.” She looked at her friend in hopes that his mind didn’t just melt from her techno-babble. “You understand all that right? No confusion?” she asked somewhat desperately. John nodded his head and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, loud and clear Ms. Spock, and as a matter of fact such a device also exists but there’s only one of them that i know of…” Twilight gave a sigh of relief. “One is better than none though.” John shook his head in disagreement. “But it’s inside my old college… And locked tight. Only one person at a time can use it and only from inside a sealed containment lab.” Twilight had been told about John’s education, including this college. It was big, unlike Celestias School for Gifted Unicorns. “So we just go up to the dean and ask for it” She gestured. John just sighed as he has to yet again bring reality to the magical being. “Its not that simple, its high-tech, one of a kind and irreplaceable.It would take months on end to make another one.” He dropped his head low. “The dean would much quicker set herself on fire then give the device to anyone, and what would even be my excuse?” Twilight went back to thinking. She was not one to just give up if it meant not learning about things. So there’s only one. It’s probably tightly secured in the college. We only need to use it once, but having it around for the random occasion will always be a plus, so we’ll need blueprints so i can replicate it. Nobody should be around at night… Twilight paused for a moment. She realized what she was implying to herself. Am I really about to do this? Of all people? I guess there’s no way around it though… Twilight looked up and with a determined look in her eye she pointed skyward. “We’re gonna steal that device!” Meanwhile, in Equestria… “Con’sarnit!” yelled Applejack. All five of Twilight’s best friends were gathered around the cutie map, desperately searching for anything they had had brought back from the castle ruins that could help them get their friend back. They had been at this for days, with AJ leading the search. They had looked all over the old ruin for anything but for one reason or another, they couldn’t find anything substantial. “Maybe we should just tell the princesses already!” demanded Rainbowdash, who had been egging the farm hand to do so since day one. “It’s been almost a week!” “And tell’er what? That the five of us allowed her ta’ just go up and disappear?” Applejack snorted defiantly. “I had a bad feeling about that spell, but I decided to let her be her for once and do a little experimentin’... fat lota’ good came from that mess.” Rarity came to comfort the earth pony. “Dear, it’s not your fault, things simply happen and no one could’ve known the spell would go ary” She consoled. Applejack drooped her head down and sighed. “But we could’ve done somethin’ to save her, shucks, we could’ve jumped in that vortex to stay with her. I feel that it’s my responsibility to set things right… I don’t want the Princesses any more stressed than they already are.” Fluttershy walked toward the distressed apple farmer, speaking softly. “But maybe this is more than we can handle on our own. The princesses know more about these spells then any of us.” She said timidly. Now it was Spike’s turn to help. “Remember the time when you tried working the whole harvest by yourself? You were sleep deprived for days until twilight and the rest of us joined in.” He looked up at Applejack. “I don’t think this is how Twilight would want you.” He reconciled with her. “So it’s five to one then.” Rarity exclaimed. “We are going to canterlot to get help and that’s that.” She began to trot towards the exit. “Come on everypony, tickets are on me!” She shouted. Applejack rolled her eyes. “Ya’ sure you got enough bits for that? Twilight's usually the one ta' handle that mess." As the other four filed out, Rarity looked back on the earth pony, who was the last to be out the door. “Oh darling, spike is still a youth, it’s not as expensive as you think and besides…” She grinned fiendishly. “... I have my ways…” Back on earth… “ARE YOU NUTS!?” Shouted John. “You want to sneak into my college, break into the tech facility and steal the device?!” At this point, he was astonished at the level twilight was willing to go for this. She sighed. “It’s not like we have any other option, John.” She gave a devious smile. “Besides, we’re going to bring it back before anyone notices it’s gone! “And what if it breaks?” John interjected. “That’s why we’re also gonna steal the blueprints… So we can make another one in case.” She smiled. John continued to stare at her, eyes wide with a look of pure shock. “please for the love of God tell me we’re doing this at night.” he said wearily. “I've got the general plan already sorted out…” she grabbed some paper and pencil to demonstrate. “we’ll walk in during school hours, you’ll talk to the people there as if it's just a conjugal alumni visit.” John interrupted her. “why? What will you be doing?” he asked. Twilight grinned. “Why, looking at their library of course!” she squeed. “Then what's the whole point of being there during the day!?” Twilight put a finger over Johns mouth to shush him. “we need to be inside the building the entire time. It'll make things simpler for us” She explained calmly. “You know where the lab is then?” John snarked. He knew she had only been shown the campus ONCE and all she saw was the outside. Twilight twitched and gave him blank look. “It’s in… the fifth hallway…” She muttered. “In the… Mitchel building…” She slowly kept lowering her voice in embarrassment. John rolled his eyes and took out his car keys. He unlocked it and started to walk to it. “What are you doing?” Asked Twilight, who was oogling the keys in his hand. No matter how many times she had been in that vehicle, the technology behind it always amazed her. “Just grabbing something you didn’t think of” John smirked. He grabbed something off of the backseat and came back to twilight with it. “Yet another mind-blowing device from the human race, courtesy of Microsoft corp., The laptop computer.” He sat next to Twilight and opened it on his lap. “That’s a COMPUTER?!” Twilight Shouted. “You’ve seen one before?” John raised an eyebrow. He watched MLP often but can’t recall twilight ever using a computer. Still not gonna spill the magical beans? Are you really gonna hide that from her? Argued the voice in his head. Oh, so i should just walk up to her and tell her she’s a cartoon? The creation of a woman's childhood dreams? That she’s FAKE? I want to help her, not make her question her existence. John snapped back. Besides she is real. Real as the sky is blue. What more proof do i need other than her standing right infront of me? John countered his consciousness. He opened up his laptop to his home page, google. “Behold peasant, THE BIGGEST LIBRARY IN THE UNIVERSE!” Boomed John playfully. Twilight jabbed him with her elbow. “Yeah, i’ll believe it when i see some proof” She teased. “So this is what i need to infiltrate the college?” John shook his head. “Not quite… it’s more about what I have stored in here… A Map of the Whole campus.” He clicked on an icon bringing up a set of images. They were all maps, each detailing a different portion of John’s university. Below them were a assortment of other images, some John knew he couldn’t let Twilight see so he quickly subverted them and magnified the 5 he needed. It didn’t matter though she got of glimpse of them anyway. “Hey, what were those other ones?” “Nothing important, i’ll show you them later.” John quickly responded, nearly dropping a sweat. “If you say so, which map are we looking at?” She moved on. John pointed to the second one. “This is the Rob Decator Physics Building.” John pointed out. “It just so happens to be a small facility, which is both great… and terrible…” Twilight cocked her head in confusion. “Why both? Explain” She persisted. John gave her a stone wall stare. Apparently this girl hasn’t been to a-. John stopped mid thought. oh wait, she went to a private… college i guess? Celestias School for gifted unicorns… what kinda school is it? Bah! nevermind, getting off topic. He looked back at twilight who was still waiting on him to answer. “Sooooo…. Are you gonna tell me?” She asked. “Oh, it’s great because it’ll be quick getting out… well not counting every other obstacle outside an in.” John said, half begrudgingly. Wasn’t exactly going to be easy or quick, but compared to the other buildings, it would be saving a lot of time getting out. “And bad because?...” Twilight began. “Bad because if we get spotted by anyone while inside…” He hoped she could add that together. Come on Twilight, it’s not rocket science! He gestured her to finish the sentence. “...Because... There will be less places to hide or escape!” She widened her eyes. “Oh my! But who would be their to spot us?” She followed up. John listed the potential threats. “Janitors, the occasional nocturnal freshman, drunk freshmen and... “ He brought up a picture of a hallway inside and pointed at a small black box in the far wall. “Those things…” he hissed, like that black box was the absolute death of the world. “What exactly are those things?” She mimicked. “Security cameras…” John answered, sounding as serious as solid snake. “Basically, they’re the guards” He simplified. “Ah… i see..” Twilight muttered as she scratched her head. Well this sounding more risky than i first thought… and it was already dangerous to begin with! Twilight thought to herself. But it’s all we got, and i think John can get us through it… She trailed off. “ Okay so here’s the plan, since twilight.exe seems to have experienced a error 404.” He grabbed a sheet of paper and pulled twilight over to the car trunk. He began to draw things out on the paper on his vehicle, using it as a table. “We’ll be waiting inside the building until 8:00 at night, that’s when the last late night class ends. From that point onward, if we get caught, then we’re gonna have to face the dean.” John shivered at the idea of having to tell his former dean he broke into the university. “Hopefully, when that time arrives we’ll already be close to the lab, there’s an unmonitored broom closet in the hall before it we can hide in" He drew a line from the closet to the lab door, then drew a small keypad on the adjacent wall to the door. “The lab is locked by a special code that normally only students are given.. But i was a student and wrote down the code so if i was given permission on a visit i could access it.” Twilight listened carefully. So far, their plan seemed simple: hide and swipe, there just had to be a catch though… “Any cameras on the doorway?” asked Twilight. John smiled at her question, as if he knew she knew she was right. “Yes, there’s one directly across from it, but we can remove the storage tape inside it to render the time we were in there undetected!” John grinned as he said it. “We’ll put it back in before we leave, all we need for that is a screwdri—” Twilight stopped him mid sentence as she realized something…. “How are we gonna get it back before dawn?!” she yelped. John snapped his fingers and pointed at her. “Thats where you come in mah dear... “ he gave her a cocky smile. “Once we complete the process of opening the rift and all what not. You can teleport it back to the lab from my house.” He told her. “I already have a water pump in my shed behind what used to be my house.” John mentioned. “So steal the device, open the rift and pump out the magic, and return it using the magic we will then possess! It’s brilliant!” Twilight beamed with determination and excitement. John only had one more question for her. “ do you still think we can pull this off? I mean… this is your idea after all…” He asked timidly. Twilight looked at him and then looked at the maps. Looking at them filled her with determination. “It’s a team effort and if someone like you, who would go so far to help somone they only met a week ago…” She looked back at him. “Let’s do it!”