//------------------------------// // Lethe Part One! - Descent Into The Underworld // Story: Twilight the Third // by MagnetBolt //------------------------------// A lot of ponies don't know the difference between jail and prison. Many aren't aware there's even a difference at all. Equestria, in general, doesn't have much of a criminal problem. Most Royal Guards and local police officers never see a crime more severe than petty theft or assault, and murder of any sort is so rare that it's less common a cause of death than lightning strike or shark attack (though with pegasi involved the statistics get muddled because lightning bolts get used as weapons). Jails are for minor crimes and short sentences, which tend to go together. They're run by local law enforcement, vary wildly in their conditions, and would never be able to hold a mare like Twilight Sparkle unless she wanted to spend the night there instead of paying for a hotel room. Prisons, on the other hoof, are for serious offenses. Ponies that will spend years behind bars. Ponies that have to be away from the herd. There are only three real prisons in Equestria. There was one in Canterlot, one in Stalliongrad, and one on a small island offshore of Manehattan. Ponies generally agreed that the Canterlot prison was nicer than the Manehattan. It was difficult to compare either to the Stalliongrad prison, which very few ponies left and none ever talked about. Episode 15 Lethe Part One! - Descent Into The Underworld Twilight looked up at a concrete ceiling. Her head was pounding. Part of that was from all the gin, and part of it was from the restraining ring around her horn. The combination of the two made it feel like a vice was slowly squeezing her temples and her skull was threatening to split down the middle at any moment. "I can't believe it, years of chasing you and you end up getting locked up for public intoxication," Shining Armor scoffed, from the barred door. Twilight rolled over on the thin, uncomfortable cot and sat up to look at him. "Hey, bro," she said, weakly. The sound of her own voice was painful. "I don't suppose I can get some aspirin?" "Usually I'd tell a criminal to deal with it, but since I'm in such a good mood," Shining Armor pulled a bottle from one of the pouches in his armor, and rolled it through the bars. "Here. All yours. Might as well have you looking bright and chipper for the train to Canterlot." "Thanks," Twilight said, with honest gratitude. She opened the bottle with her teeth and drank right from the faucet, downing a half dozen pills. It was a bad headache. "This is what always happens to criminals," Shining Armor said. "You get careless. The law doesn't. The Royal Guard's greatest weapon is discipline. Discipline and unwavering dedication. Two greatest weapons." "Shiny, it is way too early for a speech about morality," Twilight rolled her eyes. "It's ten in the morning." "Exactly! Morning!" Twilight huffed. "See, the best thing about a life of crime is that you generally don't have to get up before noon." "Well you're going to have a lot of early mornings in prison," Shining Armor said. "I think a year or two in solitary would do you some good. Maybe if you ask nicely I'll make sure the guards get you new books every day." "Oh yes, I hear that lots of ponies get their degrees in prison," Twilight said. "Very popular, since there's not much else to do." "You could learn a useful job, like..." Shining Armor hesitated. "Well, not accounting. Nothing in government either. Teaching?" "Oh, I'd just be a wonderful influence on foals," Twilight smiled. "Not teaching," Shining muttered. "If I was ever going to go straight, I'd go into research," Twilight said, sitting back down on the bed and juggling the pill bottle. "Something where I didn't have to keep regular hours." "At least then I could talk about you in public," Shining Armor sighed. Twilight slowed and stopped, catching the pill bottle and putting it aside. "Do you know how hard it is being in the Royal Guard when your sister is the most famous criminal in the civilized world?" "Mom's proud of me," Twilight said, quietly. "Of course she is. She'd be proud of you no matter what you did. That's what parents are supposed to do. She's just lucky the statute of limitations is up on half the stories she tells about when she was your age." He leaned against the door. Twilight hadn't seen him like this before. He seemed tired, inside and out. "Maybe you should take a vacation," Twilight said. "Why, are you worried I'll get hurt when you try and escape?" Shining Armor stood up, adjusting his uniform to make sure it was hanging perfectly straight. "I'm watching you, Twilight. You won't get out of it this time. And I don't need a vacation! Why are ponies always saying that?!" "She's in prison!" Rarity said, cheeks red. "You have to do something!" "Twilight told us to keep away from it this time." Gilda shrugged, polishing the disassembled parts of her crossbow. "I don't know what her plan is, but she thinks we'd be in the way." "Her plan? She wanted to go to prison?" Rarity frowned. "Not prison," Maud corrected, from where she was meditating in the corner, surrounded by a semicircle of rocks. "Technically, it's a local jail. She's being transferred to Canterlot Prison on the 3:10 train." "Why, though?" Rarity asked, sitting down. Her panic had started to subside, and curiosity quickly replaced it. "Don't tell me she's feeling guilty about stealing a few bits." "Don't be stupid," Gilda snorted. "She got herself put in jail because there's something she wants in there. Or really, somepony." "And Twilight was willing to risk being locked up for him?" Rarity raised an eyebrow. "Maybe I should be jealous." Twilight fiddled with the restraining ring around her horn. It wasn't a standard police model. It was newer, fancier, and made her wonder just where Shining Armor had gotten it. Given how few firms produced decent horn restraints, it was even odds on it being military special issue or some kind of fetish shop. The lock felt good. It had that perfect fit and close tolerance that you'd want from a lock, not giving her enough leeway to work the ring over her horn. She was sure she could pick it, but doing it with just her hooves would be impossible. Shining Armor had been embarrassingly detailed with his search and had found the pick hidden in her mane. And the one in her tail. Not that she couldn't get it off if she really wanted - she could see at least three things just in the cell that she could use to work the mechanism, and she wasn't even desperate enough to try anything crazy yet. She stopped when she heard hoofsteps. Shining Armor looked in the cell and seemed almost surprised that she was still there. "Time to go." He held up hoofcuffs and leg irons. "Wow, you're really going to use all that on your own sister?" Twilight raised an eyebrow. "You must have one kinky relationship with your marefriend. Or coltfriend. I don't judge." "I don't trust you enough to walk there on your own, so you're going to be carried. Even Hoofdini couldn't get out of these." "This is ridiculous," Rarity fumed. "I should be making money, not waiting in a hotel room for Twilight to break herself out of jail." "No one is keeping you here," Maud noted. "Do you want something to eat?" She offered a container of rice and sauce to Rarity. "I still can't believe there was a Saddle Arabian place around the corner," Gilda said. "I guess this town really has taken off." "It's not authentic," Rarity mumbled. "There aren't apples in authentic Saddle Arabian curry." "So? It's still good, and it's got a decent kick to it," Gilda said. "I'll go down there and break her out myself," Rarity said, standing up. She got to the door before she stopped. "Aren't you going to stop me and tell me it's an awful idea?" "I thought you were smart enough to do that part yourself," Maud said, quietly. "Sometimes when Twilight is doing something stupid I feel like I can't help but make bad decisions too," Rarity admitted, slumping back down in the chair. After a few moments she took some of the curry. "...It's not that bad, I suppose." Twilight waited for the train to come in, humming to herself. She was surrounded by guards. She idly made plans on how to escape, if she'd wanted to escape. She couldn't take down four grown stallions in hoof-to-hoof combat while hoofcuffed, and her magic was restrained, so she'd have to get creative. Wait until the train was almost there, pretend to slip and fall onto the tracks, let the train roll over the loose loop of chain without getting crushed herself, then try and escape in the confusion. It would probably work. The dangerous part would be getting away without hurting anypony. The guards were only doing their jobs, after all. They'd been generally decent. The ones at the jail hadn't even spat in her breakfast, and they'd been polite when they spoke to her. Being arrested in Equestria was nice, much better than the time she'd gotten caught in Zebrica - for some reason they seemed upset she'd stolen three supposedly sacred rocks, and a cult had gotten involved, and the whole thing ended up being a mess. Shining Armor was watching her critically, with an expression that said he was just waiting for something to go wrong. "I think we're drawing a crowd," Twilight noted, without looking around. The platform was filling up, most of the ponies there just to look at her. "She might have accomplices in the crowd," Shining Armor whispered. "Keep your eyes open." "Or they might have stolen the train," Twilight noted. "Boarded it, replaced everypony on board, and they'll take me away to Mexiburro as soon as you look away." "...Inspect the train, too," Shining Armor ordered. Twilight laughed at that. "Really? Shiny, it's on rails. Do you think they're going to make it jump the tracks and ride along off-road until we get to the border?" "Maybe," Shining Armor said. "I can't take any chances." "Wow, you were a lot more fun when we were foals," Twilight sighed. "Did they suck all the fun out of you when you got promoted, or was there some invasive brain surgery during basic training?" "Is she a criminal?" Asked a nearby foal. They were at that age when it was basically impossible to tell if they were a colt or a filly at a glance. "Yes," Shining Armor said, shortly. He wasn't good with foals. For one thing, he couldn't put them in prison. "What did she do?" the foal asked. "I didn't do my homework," Twilight said, before Shining Armor could answer. "And I didn't wash my hooves before eating!" "You can go to jail for that?!" The foal gasped and bolted, running away to some maths homework which had abruptly become very, very important. Almost as important as washing his hooves. "You shouldn't have said that," Shining Armor mumbled. "Please. It would have taken all day if I'd tried to list everything I'd ever done." Twilight laughed. Shining Armor grunted, though she couldn't tell if it was in agreement or annoyance. Probably both. "Besides, homework is important. I wouldn't be nearly as good as I am if I didn't study my flank off." Twilight watched passively as the train pulled up to the station. The front car had been marked with reserved signs across all the doors. "You booked the whole first-class section for me?" Twilight asked, surprised. "I should get caught more often. Usually I have to ride coach!" "It was just too easy," Shining Armor said, pacing back and forth. Celestia watched him, more amused than anything else. For him, catching Twilight Sparkle and actually getting her all the way to prison without something untoward happening to let her go was the most important thing to happen in his entire career. That thought tempered Celestia's amusement with a note of melancholy. Nopony should have to lock up their own sister. "Perhaps she was merely ready to give up her life of crime," Celestia suggested. She didn't believe it for a moment, but somepony had to say it. "There has to be some kind of angle. Maybe she's trying to break into the prison storage? There are all sorts of things in there..." "Very few of which are of any value," Celestia noted. "Just personal belongings of ponies being held in prison. Anything dangerous is confiscated. You know that, Captain." "I got it!" Shining Armor gasped. "There must be a treasure map, or a secret code! I'll assign a division of my most trusted officers to go over everything in detail." "...That seems prudent," Celestia said, very carefully not sounding sarcastic at all. She rolled her eyes while his back was turned, and looked over at a pile of tax forms, wondering how long she had to let him talk before it would be socially acceptable to simply ask him to leave. "And I'll have the whole guard doubled," Shining Armor noted, talking to himself now. "Maybe activate some of the reserves..." "In perpetuity?" Celestia tilted her head. "Are you going to keep the guard doubled for however many years Twilight is housed in prison? Shining Armor, I'm afraid I couldn't allow that." "But, Princess..." Shining Armor looked afraid. "She's going to try and escape! I just know it!" "All prisoners try to escape," Celestia said. "It's part of the natural order of things. We'll keep a close eye on her until after her trial, but then things must be business as usual. There can be no favoritism for relatives, after all." Twilight had never seen Canterlot Prison in person before. From the outside, it was unassuming. If anything, it looked mostly like a bank. She wasn't sure how much of that was because of the historically-protected architecture of Canterlot (over the years the zoning laws had become more and more strict until even new buildings had to match the Old Unicornian style of the historical district). It hadn't been designed for really awful criminals, after all. Among the criminal underground there was a general feeling that Canterlot was little more than a resort for white-collar criminals. As Twilight was led through the receiving entrance, escorted by half a dozen armed guards, she could see why. "This place is nicer than my summer home in Veneighs!" Twilight looked around the marble floors and tall columns. "You've got a bloody fountain and enough potted plants to start an arboretum!" "Well of course, Miss Sparkle," said a placid voice. Twilight turned and saw a blue mare walking towards her, her cutie mark a dove flying across the sun with a hoof reaching towards it. "My name is Doctor Noel. It's a pleasure to meet you." "Sure," Twilight said, looking around and ignoring the outstretched hoof. "This isn't exactly what I was expecting." "Of course. Most ponies think that we'd have some sort of dungeon," Noel said, gesturing for the guards to follow her. They prodded Twilight along with them. "That would hardly do any good. We'd just end up with traumatized ponies who would years of therapy to undo the harm." Twilight half-listened. She could see a dozen ways to escape. They had to be bribing criminals to stay. Maybe it was cheaper to just give ponies three meals a day and a roof over their heads and pay them to stay put than to build a real prison and hire guards. "Princess Celestia has always said that it's better to make a new friend than to defeat an enemy," Noel continued. "And that's our goal here. It pains me to think of how much Equestria has lost because ponies of talent, like you, Twilight, have squandered themselves on antisocial pursuits." "Please. I think I've ended up doing more good than bad," Twilight scoffed. "My grandmother had a saying - 'never try and scam an honest pony'. They get hurt if you do, and it's easier to find a dishonest one anyway." "Interesting," Noel said, her ears perking up. "And how many times have you tricked your brother, Captain Shining Armor?" "It doesn't count if they're not a civilian. Besides, I've never stolen anything from him." "I think he'd argue that you've hurt him more than anypony you've ever stolen from," Noel said, her voice still placid. "By the time you leave here you'll be a pony he can be proud to call his sister." "Good luck with that," Twilight snorted. "We don't need luck," Noel said. "Technique is much more reliable. This will be your room." She stopped outside of a door. It didn't look like it could stop a determined foal, much less Twilight. "Unfortunately, you'll have to continue wearing the magical suppressor ring. Perhaps in a few months, if you show good behavior, we can discuss removing it." She looked inside. It was more like a cheap hotel room than anything else. Well-lit, clean, bright colors. No window, but it wouldn't have surprised her to find that a little glass was all that stood between her and freedom. "What, not sharing bunks with anyone?" "Having personal space can help with rehabilitation," Noel replied, ushering her inside. "If you make friends, we can evaluate allowing you to share a room, as long as it's a positive relationship." "Great," Twilight snorted. She wasn't going to point out the number of ways she'd be able to leave. No point in making things more difficult for herself later. "Since you're being admitted today, a meal will be delivered to your room later, along with your schedule for tomorrow. Please try to rest and settle in. Given your record, you will be with us for a long time." The door closed, and Twilight was left alone, trying to resist the impulse to simply walk out. She sat down on the bed and whistled to herself, with a tune she'd forgotten for the better part of a decade, and the first days she'd been on the run. Twilight had come to Phillydelphia largely because it was the end of the line, rather than because it was where she wanted to be. She'd escaped from Canterlot with a rare book, a few bits, and a fake name. It felt good. She felt alive and focused, making her own decisions with no one to answer to except her wits. Being on the run was freeing, in a way. No grades or reports or tests, just her own wits against the world. She also felt, as she looked at her small purse, that she wouldn't be able to afford more than a toast sandwich and a cup of water if she wanted to be able to get a hotel room. Twilight walked through the streets, looking for inspiration. To a clever filly, the world was full of ways to make money. She might have to - and this thought made her feel sick - earn money honestly. A regular job might well kill her, at least inside where it really counted. Retail just did that to ponies. It'd be good cover, though, and give her time to plan something larger. It didn't solve the problem of her growling stomach, though. That was when she heard the music. The sad, soft, deep sound of a cello. Twilight followed it into town square. A grey earth pony was playing in front of a cafe. Twilight wasn't sure what impressed her more - that she was able to play the difficult instrument without the aid of magic, or that she'd managed to make a few bits in the process. Her cello case was in front of her, gold coins gleaming from within. Twilight was almost tempted to nab a few. "You know, the rule is that if a busker is good enough to make you stop and listen, you owe them a bit," the mare said, without looking at Twilight, not stopping her playing. She had a Trottingham accent, just enough to make her sound sophisticated even though she was playing on the street. "Sorry, but you've already got more bits than I do," Twilight said. She waited and watched. As ponies walked past, some would take out a pouch of bits and toss one to the mare. They also, in the process, let Twilight know that they had money and where they kept it. Within a few minutes, Twilight had a second pouch of bits in her saddlebags. "That was a rubbish pull," the cello-playing mare noted, once they were alone again, the stream of passing ponies dwindling to nothing. Twilight felt her cheeks burn. "If you're going to be a bad thief, go somewhere else." "That was textbook perfect!" Twilight hissed, trying to keep her voice down. "Then you've been reading rubbish textbooks," the mare said. She finished the song she was playing and started packing up. "Were they written by guards who wanted pickpockets to get caught?" "I won't get caught," Twilight muttered. "I caught you," the mare pointed out. "Maybe I should turn you in." Twilight weighed the pouch. "I'll buy you dinner if you pretend you don't know where the money came from." "Ah," the mare smiled. "Smarter than you look, though that's not saying much. Come along, then. I expect you found enough to at least buy me something from Hayburger Princess." Twilight looked at the schedule as she was gently escorted to breakfast. Apparently she only rated one guard since she hadn't tried to escape during the middle of the night, not that she could after a meal with oat sausages, gravy, and mashed potatoes. The prison cooks weren't bad. Not on the level of an actual restaurant, but certainly better than the average cafeteria. She was considerably more disappointed by breakfast. Fresh fruit and some kind of mix of oats and nuts that was popular only with people who were rich enough to afford to eat poorly. It had the sort of roasted grain clusters that would cut up the inside of your mouth enough to really wake you up and a ton of fiber to make your doctor (and plumber) happy. Twilight looked around the room and smiled as her eyes settled on a grey mare with a black mane. She casually trotted over and sat down across from her, enjoying the look of surprise she got. "What's a pretty mare like you doing in a dump like this?" Twilight asked, winking. Twilight hadn't eaten at Hayburger Princess when she was in Canterlot. The food was all grease and salt and probably so far from being fresh ingredients that they couldn't set up a farmer's market within a hundred yards. And despite all that, it was delicious. "You've got something on your..." the mare hesitated, tilting her head. "Everywhere." "That was amazing!" Twilight gasped. she grabbed a bundle of napkins and cleaned her face off. "How was that so good?" "There's a story behind it," the grey mare said. "When the first Hayburger Princess opened, they were dedicated to using the best, freshest ingredients. They made their burgers on a wood-fired grill and it was just like the kind of burger your parents might make in the summer, all year round, any time you wanted. "They lost money, of course," she continued. "The margins were low, and fresh ingredients mean that more gets thrown out. Everything was good, but it was only the kind of good anypony could do if they went to the market and got a few things. "That's the kind of limit you can hit with honesty. It only goes so far - you can only have so many fresh, perfect tomatoes. So many bakery-made buns. And because it's honest, anypony can replicate it. It failed, and my grandfather bought the rights, and a new idea. "You don't need to use perfect, fresh ingredients. You can use salt and fat and grease and chemicals that belong in an alchemy lab instead of a kitchen and you end up with something that is totally fake in every way, but tastes better than the finest ingredients." "A fake that's more authentic than the real thing," Twilight mumbled. "It's not like the ponies who eat here don't know," the mare noted. "They're well aware of what they're eating, at least in general. It would take a team of experts with very expensive lab equipment to get to the specifics." "It almost seems like cheating," Twilight said. "Well, a con artist learns to make glass sparkle even more than a diamond," the mare said. She had a pouch of bits in her hoof. Twilight's pouch. Or at least the one she'd stolen. "Hey!" Twilight blushed. "How did you-" "I grabbed it while you were distracted cleaning your face," the mare said. "Never get distracted when you know you're sitting with a thief." "Well if you're going to take all of those, there had better be a lot more lessons than that," Twilight grumbled. "Not going to try and take it back from me?" "Not while you're expecting it," Twilight said. "Good. You're not as dumb as you look," the mare said. She reached out a hoof to shake. "Octavia Philharmonica." "Twilight, what in Tartarus are you doing in a place like this?" Octavia hissed, trying very hard not to make a scene. "Oh, you know how it is. One thing leads to another," Twilight said. "Like hearing that an old friend is in jail and getting yourself put in irons just so you can say hello." "That's stupid," Octavia snorted. "Not as stupid as getting caught unintentionally. You, getting caught picking pockets? What happened? When I heard you got caught I gave it a couple of weeks to give you a chance to escape on your own, and now I'm thinking you've barely even tried." "Maybe I'm getting sloppy in my old age," Octavia mumbled. "...You're doing this for some stupid reason, aren't you?" Twilight asked. It wasn't really a question. She knew all about stupid reasons. She was in jail because she had a stupid reason. "I... let myself get caught," Octavia said. "It was better than the alternative." "What's that supposed to mean?" "It means that when you're in love, you take the fall for your marefriend," Octavia said, sharply. "Oh," Twilight said, understanding dawning like Celestia's sun. "You fell in love. You! I didn't think I'd see the day that the most cynical pony in the world started to care about somepony." "She's special," Octavia whispered, looking down at her food. "I wouldn't expect you to understand." "You'd be surprised. Now let's get you out of here so you two can bang and I can get back to doing something important and illegal." "It's impossible to escape," Octavia muttered. "Nothing's impossible. We just need a plan." "It looks like she's already made a friend," Doctor Noel noted, as she watched Twilight from her office. The entire building was on display, scrying spells projecting images of the complex onto the walls around her. "Captain Armor filed another request for additional security to be placed on her," her assistant noted. Noel nodded. "I expected as much. It's unnecessary. No pony has ever escaped, and no pony ever will. The enchantments see to that." Noel smiled. "I think it should be interesting to see her attempt it." "Apparently I have therapy scheduled after this," Twilight noted. "What's up with that? I don't need therapy." Octavia shivered. "When they say therapy they mean..." She stopped and swallowed. "You'll see. It's impossible to describe if you haven't experienced it." "You make that sound real ominous." "Twilight," Octavia said, meeting her eyes. "Don't underestimate this place. It's not some nice little happy hotel where they ask you nicely to stop stealing. They built this place to break ponies down into nothing and then put something else behind their eyes! Look at her." Octavia nodded to another table. A pegasus mare there was looking at her food curiously, like she'd never seen it before. "A month ago she was embezzling hundreds of thousands from an investment firm. She was a bitter, angry mare who spat at the guards and tried to escape through her window." Twilight watched the pegasus poke at a banana and try to eat it whole, like an apple, until an orderly came over to help her peel it. "She had an intense... therapy session after that," Octavia said. "Now she's like a foal. It took her three days just to remember her name. Look at her cutie mark." Twilight sat up to see what Octavia was talking about. It took a moment for what she was seeing to sink in. The mare's flank was totally blank, like a filly who hadn't found her talent yet. Twilight shivered, not liking those implications. When she looked around the room she could see a lot of half-vanished cutie marks, fading away like old mane dye. "You seem to be holding yourself together, though." "For now," Octavia whispered. "It's not easy. Not when they can get inside you and... do things." A bell rang, interrupting Twilight before she could ask what kind of things Octavia meant. A hoof on her shoulder and a look at the guard who'd grabbed her made her feel like she was going to find out soon enough. "We're going to be taking things easy with our first session, Twilight," Doctor Noel said. "Great but, uh, I don't think this is really traditional therapy," Twilight said. She'd been encouraged (very strongly, by very forceful orderlies) to sit in what looked like a dentist's chair. The moment she'd done so, some kind of spell had kicked in and she hadn't been able to get back up. All she could do was look up at the mirror on the ceiling. "It's something new we've been working on for a few years. Not quite ready to show the Princess, but once we've used it to rehabilitate you, I think she'll be very pleased." Twilight could just see Noel doing something with a bank of crystals and buttons. "What's all this do?" Twilight tried to make her hooves wiggle, or at least turn her head. Nothing was working. "Your file does say that you're quite intelligent. Perhaps you'll appreciate it." Noel touched something, and the light in the room changed. "The chair itself has a minor paralyzation spell. It's much safer than restraints." "I figured that out. What worries me is that restraints are needed." "The second effect," Noel said. "Is a simple enchantment that tells me if you're being truthful or lying. For example, tell me what you had for breakfast." "Cereal. I don't know what it's called. The stuff from Prance that's all hard grains. It really needed yogurt or something." "And you even answered with the truth. Very encouraging." Noel smiled. "Some of our guests try to lie about even the smallest things just to feel like they have control. It's not conductive to the healing environment we try to encourage." "Why lie about breakfast? It's not like you don't know what's on the menu anyway." "I agree. You know, I'm glad you're a polite, sensible mare. Once we scrub away all those impulses to steal, perhaps we'll become friends." Noel stepped next to the chair, looking up to meet Twilight's fixed gaze. "And of course the real heart of the therapy is that. The Aurora Mirror. It lets me open up your mind like a book." "Mind reading is illegal." "Nothing is illegal if the Princess does it," Noel said. "Haven't you ever heard that phrase? And I'm working for the Princess. We just need a few real success stories before I can bring this to her for final approval." "I'm pretty sure we don't need this," Twilight said. "How about we just talk about my relationship with my parents, or something? Maybe in a different room that's not full of dark magic." "Don't be silly. It wouldn't be nearly as effective." Noel stepped away, back to the controls. "The best thing about this method is that, just like a book, we can make a few edits. Please stay calm. There may be a sensation of cold, heat, or extreme pain."