//------------------------------// // 7: The Dig // Story: Friendship: Beyond Equestria // by law abiding pony //------------------------------// Both Twilight Sparkle and her daughter Prism rode along in a jury rigged cargo container-turned-passenger-cabin being hefted along by a cargo lifter that was headed towards the site of Prism’s discovery of the alien carving. Prism watched the ground race by beneath her through a window. While it was late morning, the atmosphere still had a tinge of orange in the sunlight, giving the spotted mushroom forest below some much needed color. As her daughter drank in the landscape, Twilight was in the midst of remotely overseeing some additional orders to Praxia at Seed One. ~“Are you sure you’re up to this, Praxia? I know the colony isn’t on the same scale as Canterlot or Ponyville, but it is still a lot to handle.”~ Praxia had her best ‘go getter’ face on and nodded vigorously. ~“I’ve got everything under control. Between your tutelage and what I was bred for, the colony will be in good hooves until you get back.”~ Twilight scowled at her pupil’s image. Don’t think I didn’t hear that sour tone about your heritage. Not wanting to get into an argument about it over the phone, Twilight filed it away for later. ~“Very well, but don’t be afraid to ask my advisors for council, that’s what they’re there for.”~ ~“Yes, sensei, I fully understand,”~ Praxia replied with tired enthusiasm. ~“Good luck out there, and please stay safe.”~ ~“You too, Praxia.”~ With that, Twilight closed the call. With a sigh, Twilight silently surveyed the gathered archaeologists, a mere two strong plus a few assistants and a trio of ‘lumberjacks’. While the two senior scientists were tactful enough to look busy, the assistances jumped a little once Twilight caught them eavesdropping. Don’t worry, Twilight. Everything will be fine. It’s what you’ve been training her for. Opting to ignore the eavesdroppers, she focused on her daughter and the scenery outside. Unlike everyone else, Prism’s helmet did not cover her mouth, nor did her suit have oxygen tanks. Their absence only caused Twilight to frown.. I hope nothing actually happens to her from taking in this planet’s air for potentially weeks on end. Twilight used a bit of turbulence to slide over to join her daughter, bumping into her by both accident and an impromptu way of getting her attention. Prism was knocked out of her on-the-job mentality by the assumed goofiness. “What’s up, momma?” “I want you to make me a promise to keep your biomonitor on once I let you back out into the wild. You won’t ‘forget’ this time?” Twilight added with a knowing motherly tone. Prism huffed and leaned back against the window. “How can I with Sawbones yelling in my ear the moment I do. He doesn’t even give me an hour or so for privacy.” “Ah… I’ll talk to him about giving you that hour.” If that’s all it takes, then so be it. “Thanks, really.” Prism said no more when the view outside revealed the site. The thick canopy of mushroom caps had the same tell-tale jagged hole left behind by the pod retrieval chopper. Two hellcat combat drones were resting on the caps and on solar cell docking structures to keep their power up. The colony’s singular troop transport aircraft was performing slow orbits above it all. However the signs of recent battle were revealed in the shape of dozens of giant wasps, half that number in wrecked drones, and two rows of wounded soldiers that were waiting for the transport to make its descent. Did those wasp things return after the first time we cleaned them out? Standing around in a defensive perimeter were three squads of marines, all of which were setting up fixed emplacement weaponry for a prolonged occupation. “Spike really pulled out all the stops for this.” Twilight nodded at her daughter’s comment. “The dig might take a while, and I want to minimize losses should we run into anything else.” The cargo lifter made its way just above the hole in the mushrooms and started lowering the make-shift passenger cabin into the hole of the canopy. “Plus this location is actually quite good strategically.” That got a curious lifted eyebrow out of Prism. “For what?” Twilight developed a mischievous glint in her eye. “Well for one, this hilly region is fairly close to those lakes of xenomass you mapped out, including the one you tried to belly flop. I already ordered a small crew to start stockpiling the stuff here before it can be transported back to the colony.” “You and I must have vastly different definitions of trying,” Prism fumed with no real malice. Twilight giggled from behind a raised hoof. “Yes, well, the primary thing is that this region has a geologically minor hotspot right underneath us. We could easily develop a geothermal plant to keep our energy needs in the future secure. “...Who came up with the name ‘xenomass’ anyhow?" “Dr. Chem Spill coined the term almost without thinking the first time he looked at it. An apt name, given how gelatinous it is." "Still better than Prism's Bane," Prism grumbled under her breath. Prism saw where this line of thinking was going, but her response was halted by the container making landfall and the hatching opening. Waiting for them on the other side was Lieutenant Trench who snapped at attention when Twilight stepped outside. “Your highness, the area’s been secured, and the extraction teams for Prism’s Bane has reported no problems on their end. We also successfully avoided damaging the ruins.” With Prism fuming silently and distracting herself by getting acquainted with the odd flavor of the native atmosphere, Twilight quickly assumed command. “Excellent work, Lieutenant, did you take the time to do any cursory investigation on the ruins?” Twilight kept walking towards the wall with Trench and Prism following after her. The rest of the passengers busied themselves with removing and unpacking the equipment they brought. “Yes, your highness. While the wall is clearly the work of intelligent beings, I feel the ruins pose no threat to us. In its current state at least.” The walk over to the wall was a short one, and he barely finished speaking before he was close enough to wave his hoof at it. “As I’m sure you’ll be able to discern rather quickly.” “Very well. Join your colts and keep watch. There’s no telling if those bugs will return.” “As you order, princess.” With a snap about face, Trench departed, leaving mother and daughter to investigate. Prism only passively noticed the six drums of xenomass gathered together near a mushroom stock at the edge of the camp. Her focus however was on the ruins, and quickly discovered the majority of the purple silk had been burned away, leaving ash to be picked up by the weak breeze. The wall itself was just as she remembered it and she ran over to the stone carvings with Twilight right behind her. Using her hoof mounted robotic hands, Prism took out a duster and cleared away the soot and ash to reveal the same carving she had found almost a month ago. “There it is, plain as day!” Twilight moved in close to investigate, and allowed her helmet’s sensors to scan both the carving and the entire wall. “No doubt about it. We’ve got intelligent natives.” Twilight sighed heavily at the proof. “I can only imagine what the griffins and minotaurs are going to do if they run into them.” Prism’s train of thought might as well have been on a different planet. “And the nobel prize goes to Prism Flash, for the discovery of new sapients! Woo woo!” Twilight snorted in amusement and shook her head. “Let’s worry about how to find more of these people first. You’ll get proper recognition when you return to the colony. For now we need to unearth any sort of tools or alloys they might have forged in order for our scanners to zero in on any other settlements.” “Sounds like a plan.” Although Prism was not an archaeologist, she was not exactly untrained in the field. “Should we jump straight to using the ground scanner to see if there’s anything worth digging up?” “My thoughts exactly.” It was long into the day and the beginning of nightfall on the sixth day when scanning of the ground found something of interest. Progress had been hampered by the dense collection of mushrooms, so the group was delayed in their dig as the lumberjacks cleared away the offending giant fungi. But sure enough, the way was clear and the dirt removed, almost. The dig site had expanded to twenty meters beyond the wall itself, which eventually revealed it to be a stone work structure. Presently, Twilight’s crew had unearthed ten meters of it thanks to a combination of earth pony magic and ground radar safely directing their efforts. While the assistants continued to clear away the dirt, Twilight was studying unusual sensor readings from the center of the structure. ~“Prism, come over here, would you?”~ The mare in question popped her head up and away from another series of carvings and towards her mother who had a work table covered in metal and stone samples. ~“Okay.”~ Flying over, Prism started gushing uncontrollably. “Isn’t this fascinating!? Who ever left this place clearly intended it to last. The stone work down below is incredibly well preserved. I bet you my bottom bit that there was some form of preservative keeping the stone intact.” “That is interesting to be sure, but I think we found something easier for the satellites to lock onto.” Twilight made a sweeping motion with a wing from her helmet towards Prism, making the data reading transfer to her. Prism had to take a moment to mentally shift gears. However once she did, Prism’s jaw threatened to hit the ground. As was normal for this planet, the majority of the magic scan was deep red to indicate negiable to zero ambient magic. However, while faint, there were four steady, sharply defined diamond shaped blue points. “Are those mana crystals?” “That’s what it looks like.” Prism closed the readout and turned back to the stone building. “I don’t get it. If the natives are advanced enough to use magic crystals or batteries, then shouldn’t we have been able to detect them from orbit?” “You catch on quick as always,” Twilight replied without the smile Prism expected. “The signature wasn’t there when I started doing my own personal scans, so I’m thinking that the crystals are feeding on my spells.” “I’ll tell the others to be careful on extracting it then.” “No,” Twilight said hastily, stopping Prism in her tracks. “I’m going to put a mana nullifier on top of it. I want the rest of the structure unearthed first. The artifact might be dangerous and I want to see if any of the carvings shed any light on its function. For all we know, it could be a weapon.” Prism glanced back at the primitive structure and the crudeness of the artistry. “I get caution and all, but I think our suits have enough anti-magic defenses to shrug off anything these aliens could muster.” Twilight fixed a scowl most heinous upon her unsuspecting daughter. “The same aliens who got at least as far as the magic age living next to giant insects that can drop a hellcat drone in seconds? Outside of Trench’s colts, we’re not exactly wearing cutting edge military hardware here.” Prism’s face fell. Her explorer’s suit wasn’t exactly designed for heavy combat either. “Oh… um, good point. I’ll pass the word then.” Successfully cautioned, Prism flew over to the closest archaeologist, an earth stallion with a cranberry coat and forest green mane. His pegasus stallion colleague was hovering nearby with his eyes fixed on the walls. “Hey Doctors Dirt Dobber, Glass Silk, momma wants to quarantine the central artifact.” Dirt Dobber was in the middle of studying the massive carvings that spread from the original roof all the way to where they were now. “Yes, yes of course. I must say these aliens must have been strange group indeed. The art seems to be extremely literal, or they carved these reliefs to others who didn’t speak their language could still understand the tale. Simply extraordinary! Not even our ancestors would have bothered with such empathy.” Prism wasn’t so quick to come to that conclusion and gave the wall a more calculating gaze. “Or that’s just how their language evolved naturally.” “Also possible,” Dirt Dobber acquiesced with a brief dip in his enthusiasm. “So have you studied the narrative in these reliefs?” “It’s my find isn’t it? However, if we’re going for them being literal, then I think it’s something about the natives thinking their gods descended from the heavens, right?” Glass Silk dropped down to stand next to Prism. “No, no, that’s not it at all! The natives aren’t natives at all! These people claim they came from the stars in ships!” “...Uh huh,” Prism deadpanned. “You know, I’d actually believe they prophesied our arrival in a ship over them doing it. I mean, we’ve had plenty of crazy prophecies back home.” “Impossible,” Dobber declared as he pointed up towards one of the higher segments of the mural. “The beings coming out of the ships are like four armed minotaurs on two legs.” Glass Silk moved to the lowest excavated part of the wall where the same creatures were walking away from the ships, vehicles, and other assumed bits of technology and towards simple looking farming tools like wheelbarrows and spades. The stone itself was also different, where the higher technology had the darker hue of obsidian while the farm looked like it was carved from marble. “For whatever reason, religious most likely, these beings forsook higher technology for a simpler life.” “That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard,” Prism stated with profound snark. “That’s just gotta be some origin story they cooked up. I mean, why would they willingly go from having technology on par or even better than us, to reverting all the way back to early magic age?” Both archaeologists and some of the silently toiling away assistants looked up at her with questioning looks with Dirt Dobber lifting an eyebrow. “What makes you think this structure was of an equivalent magic age?” “Oops, I almost forgot. You know that artifact mom wants quarantined? Apparently it has a few mana crystals in it and it actively feeds on the mana of her scanning spells.” “Fascinating,” mused Glass Silk. “Astounding!” yelled Dirt Dobber as he all but shoved his face into Prism’s own. “This is perfect! The artifact might be something the natives kept as proof of their origins for future generations who might doubt the stories!” Glass Silk waggled his hoof at Dobber while Prism cringed at the flying spittle on Dobber’s helmet. “You might be onto something. If the complexity of the matrixes, of whatever this artifact is, is sufficiently advanced enough, then that could prove they were originally from space like the tale says.” “Whoa, whoa, chill out for a second guys.” Prism hovered nearby while waving her hooves at them. “I want my name in the history books as much as you two, but this bloody planet is dangerous enough as it is. Let’s play it safe like our princess wants.” The looming shadow of a pony from on top of the dig-pit drew all eyes up towards Twilight Sparkle. “As fascinating as all that is, I’m not risking anypony’s lives over this.” She gave Prism an appreciative nod before gazing down upon the archaeologists. “We’re here to ascertain the existence of any living sentients and how to find them elsewhere.” Prism primped a little at being backed up, regardless of the reason, yet while Glass Silk was cowed, Dirt Dobber was only emboldened further. “While I grant that there are no signs of anypony living here for a very, very long time, your highness. I strongly suggest we investigate this alleged artifact as soon as possible. If the story on this wall is accurate, then we might be trespassing on what could very well be a sacred planet to a starfaring civilization.” If such a theory had been raised back in her youth, Twilight would have professionally laughed it off. Well, considering we’re the aliens now… Twilight held up a hoof for silence to allow some time to think. A battle between caution and the need for haste raged anew as she slowly paced away from the group. After a minute or two, she turned back. “I… see your point. I wasn’t planning on taking it back to the colony, so I suppose we can determine its purpose here. It could be possible, however unlikely, that the method these natives use magic might be being overlooked by our satellites. “But be careful in excavating it. I want no magic use around it until we can get it into isolation.” With a swipe of her hoof, she sent the data and location she had on the artifact to the team. “At Once, your majesty,” replied Dirt Dobber with an extreme case of enthusiasm. He promptly turned around to face Glass Silk and the awaiting assistants. “Well what are we waiting for? History waits for nopony!” With renewed enthusiasm, the collection of archaeologists jumped into motion, ignoring the rest of the walls for a later time to focus on the magic artifact buried just a few feet of dirt below. Prism flew up to join her mother. “Momma, are you sure this is a good idea? Those two might start licking the thing when we dig it up.” “Then I guess we won’t have to worry about cleaning it first,”Twilight snickered. “Ew, speak for yourself. And speaking of yourself,” Prism added with a touch of worry. “I hope you don’t plan to test the artifact yourself. You being our only princess aside, I don’t want anything happening to my future sibling.” “Hmm, well I thank you for our concern, but I’ve had seven daughters before you, I think I know my limits.” All Twilight got out of Prism was a harsh glare of stubborn concern. “It’s only been two weeks, Prism.” Prism’s unholy glare of wrath grew in power until it was not meant for mortal eyes. Twilight only survived because she wasn’t exactly a mortal anymore. “Well, I guess I should be happy you’re protective already. Fine, I’ll let one of the good doctors handle it.” “You sure you can let it go?” Prism pried with an evil eye. “I Pinkie Promise.” At that, Prism let the scowl fall away and nodded in acceptance. “You’re just like your father sometimes.” “Ha! Then I shall take that as the highest of compliments.” With an aerial twirl, Prism flew off in triumph to investigate more of the higher parts of the walls. Twilight merely shook her head in amusement and trotted off to the passenger container to set up some tents. Going out and about was a good idea. Between preparing for the Seed mission and keeping the colony afloat, I haven’t had a chance to really catch up on my reading. Back in Seed One’s headquarters, Praxia was doing a bit of reading of her own. Sadly, it was not the latest action/romance novel she desperately wanted to return to, but the next proposal in the stack for future urban planning. It was a close second though. Taking up temporary residence in Twilight’s new office, Praxia felt rather comfortable in ‘the big chair’. Still steaming next to her was a plate full of freeze dried vegetables, but more importantly to her, a fresh fish entree from the river below. The rather large blue tinted fish steak rolled around on Praxia’s tongue as she silently tested its flavor. While she did so, a nervous looking crystal pony with a chef’s hat on rocked on her hooves as she awaited a verdict. “It’s a little dry,” Praxia stated bluntly, making the chef wilt with drooping ears. “I apologize for that. But the scientists said everything not produced by the gardens has to be overcooked for safety.” Not to mention our severe spice rationing. “I know,” Praxia replied emotionlessly making the crystal mare clam up. What the chef couldn’t see was the sully mood Praxia was hiding. Great… I insulted her. Um, maybe I can fix it. “Well, as much as it may surprise you, Sensei has always had a love of fast food, I believe she'll love this.” So that's what I've been reduced to? A fast food plebeian cook? The mare fought back the need to slug Praxia across the snout. “Thank you for your endorsement, Regent.” Being the changeling she was, Praxia could feel the spike of loathing rolling off the chef. I’m on the the job, I have to be impartial. Resigning herself to fewer possible friends, Praxia remained outwardly emotionless. “If that is all,” Praxia dismissed as she continued to gnaw on the fish levitating in her magic. Once alone, Praxia yawned sleeply at the late hour, but otherwise ignored her body’s demand for sleep as she wallowed in self-pity. How does Sensei do it? How does she balance respect with impartiality, and still get ponies to love her?! After a few moments of sorrow, Praxia pulled her head back and opened a drawer to reveal a single chocolate bar. She eyed the sugary tormentor with an internal debate raging. Prism said she liked chocolate me. Is that what I have to do? Be more like chocolate me? A minor alert pinged on the holographic monitor, making Praxia jump slightly in surprise and slamming the drawer shut. A hasty check on the alert revealed itself to be the latest results of the breeding initiative. Whew, I thought someone might have seen me hunched over like that. Recollecting herself Praxia clicked the alert to read over the report from Sawbones. “Well there’s no surprise. Sensei’s plan in participating really paid off. Just over a thousand mares signed up. I only hope none of them regret the partners they chose.” Praxia let her head fall and smack the deck painfully. “How in the world am I going to get that many family homes up in less than a year!?” “Is that not why there are more personnel marked as civil planners other than you and the colonial princess?” the Voyager AI commented emotionlessly. “I know that, smartass,” Praxia groaned. She let her head roll to the side to take another bite of food and silently muched on it while the AI continued in its typical deadpan. “I am required to advise you that studies show brief intervals of ‘off time’ are required for successful leadership.” “Well unless you can give me a time dilated bubble to read a book, I can’t right now.” Praxia heaved her head back up so she could take a swig of lemonade. To think my mother had to go to such great lengths to eliminate lemon allergies in me. This stuff is heavenly. “Since free time has been once again stricken from the agenda, I must inform you of a petition that has arisen.” A perked up ear followed by Praxia looking up at the holographic disembodied head of Voyager. “What petition?” They couldn’t already be against me would it? I thought I was doing a good job. Voyager's head was joined by two sheets of paper, each with well over five hundred names. “It seems the colony heard about the Colonial Princess’ idea of a monument. Since she has yet to commision what form that monument would take, the colonists have proposed two designs.” “This ought to be good.” Praxia gestured at Voyager, prompting the AI to replace the petitions with two statues. The first was a recreation of Equis with the spacedock complete with Seed One inside. Sitting underneath was a pedestal bearing the names and cutie marks of the other princesses along with the names of every dock worker for Seed One. Praxia was intrigued that all three pieces were separated from each other. “I guess the artist took to the idea of hovering rocks rather quickly.” The other statue was of Prism Flash standing heroically on top of her rover, Joe. She was pointing forward while the rest of the Pathfinders and their respective rovers were in a cheveron behind her as if she were leading the way. Standing larger than life behind all of them was Princess Twilight with her starry mane flowing in an ethereal breeze. The pedestal for this one read ‘Pioneering into a better future.’ “You know,” Praxia fummed while blowing a lock of loose hair out of her eyes. “I should vote for the other one, if only to keep Prism’ ego from growing larger than a stadium. But sensei deserves a statue…” Praxia was about to shelve the petition to focus on more pressing issues when her personal display was rocked by an obnoxiously loud call. Suffering an oncoming headache, Praxia accepted the call which prompted a hologram of a friendly looking thestral stallion to appear in front of her desk. He took a moment to bow. “Greetings, Acting Regent Praxia. I am Painted Canvas, the artist who was commissioned for the heroism of our Pathfinders and princess.” “Ah, I see.” And the one for potentially skyrocketing Prism’s ego. “Well it’s night to meet you but-” Did I really just mix up a word? Praxia stopped a moment to let her brain reboot, but that gave time for a second call to come in, just as obnoxious as the last. Out of tired subconscious instinct, Praxia let the call go through, causing a unicorn mare to appear. “Acting Regent,” said with a bow of her own. “I’m-” “Barking up the wrong tree, Berry Cake,” Canvas declared as a matter of fact. Berry Cake acted as though insulted, but didn’t pay him any mind. “Your monument idea lacks foresight and vision. More of a tired trope if you ask me.” “My apologies, regent Praxia,” Berry said with no lost grace. “I just wanted to ensure both petitions reached you.” Berry continued on towards Canvas in a much more thinly veiled acidic tone before Praxia could speak. “It is tradition to honor the sacrifices of others. Not to mention simply being the courtious thing to do for those who sacrificed themselves to get us here.” Not to be bullied out of the conversation in her temporary office, Praxia clopped her hooves on the desk. “Look. I understand the importance of these monuments. They are both valid and I’m sure the princess will have no problem commissioning both. Those floating pink rocks aren’t exactly rare.” Both artists brightened at the prospect of getting their work accepted. “That’s truly wonderful news, Regent, I knew both you and the colonial princess were wise mares.” Painted Canvas schmoozed. “There is still the matter of location, of course,” Berry Cake said after giving her own brief thankful nod. “While my statue is simply the centerpiece, I plan on making a whole area dedicated to it. So I thought the central rover station lobby would be perfect.” Praxia was cut off by Canvas stepping forward and putting a hoof on the desk, only for it to pass right through. Canvas nearly lost his balance, but smoothly recovered from both the near-fall and the embarrassment. “You see what she drives me to? Now you see the other reason this vulture butted into our call, Regent Praxia!” Canvas interrupted with a glare at Berry, who matched it. “I came up with having my monument dedicated at the station lobby, and she is trying to pass it off as her idea!” “Don’t act like it wasn’t the obvious choice I was going to go for anyway,” Berry shot back heatedly. “It’s a scientific fact that, that hub is the most culturally strategic spot for such a memorial!” Why am I not surprised that even the artists Sensei brought with us think like scientists? “How long have you two been going at this?” Praxia had to ask, if only to get some more context. “I drew up a rough draft the very night our glorious princess announced her plan for a memorial statue,” Canvas declared with a flare of his hoof across his chest. “Princess Twilight is such a mare of vision that I know she’ll agree with me.” “And such a mare of vision would obviously see the need to honor those we left behind,” Berry countered sharply while harrumphing at her rival. “I admit to being asked to design the memorial just last week, but only because this guy,” she jabbed a hoof at Canvas, “was marginalizing the sacrifices of those we left behind.” “Alright that’s enough!” Praxia yelled while swiping her hoof to mute both ponies. “This is one thing I think the princess would rather handle herself. Until she returns I suggest both of you select an alternative location since one of you will obviously not get the lobby. Now if you have no other matter to bring to my attention, I must ask you to leave.” Canvas bowed graciously at Praxia. “You're busy, of course. Thank you for your time, Regent.” “Likewise,” Berry added with a touch more sincerity. Both ponies’ holograms vanished, allowing Praxia to lean back and try to rub her headache away. I need some aspirin big time. With the unknown nature of the buried artifact, the excavation became much more cautious. As a result, it took the better part of two weeks to finish excavating the rest of the ruins. It was in the wee hours of the fifth day, Twilight and all the others stood ready to properly investigate the unearthed artifact. The artifact itself remained on the strangely plain stone altar that it was apparently carved out of, save for the mana crystals. Careful to keep any of her magic from leaking out, Twilight stood close by to give a scrutinizing inspection. Prism stood alongside her, more taking notes from her mother’s observations than making any of her own. With the artifact being as large as a carriage, both Glass Silk and Dirt Dobber were able to inspect it up close as well, while the assistants remained out of the way. Lastly, several of Trench’s marines were eyeing the whole affair with fretful worry for their princess and her heir. Prism hummed at the latest findings while her eyes danced over the plethora of scripture written on the stone part of the artifact. “Don’t you think it’s kinda odd that there aren’t any pictures or even control buttons?” With Twilight going so far as to set her headset to nullifer mode, thus making it impossible to use magic, her hoof held scanner could only do so much. “I’m convinced the method of control lies within the crystals themselves. There’s definitely some connection lines running through the rock, and there’s also a large cavity in the center, but it doesn’t look like the stone has anything more than that.” “Your highness,” Glass Silk said to announce himself. “I’ve got the readings from the south two crystals for you. I’m no expert, so I hope you can make heads or tails of it.” Twilight took the data into her personal display, only to crease her brow. She withdrew from the building to find a chair nearby. After a few impatient moments, Prism departed the structure as well to join her mother, thus leaving the two archaeologists to continue probing the relic. “So is it low or high tech?” “It… It’s high, very high tech.” Twilight remained quiet for a bit longer, leaving Prism to rock on her hooves. “Can you see what the artifact does?” “I don’t even know where to begin.” Twilight fed the data to Prism’s visor. The readout expanded to being similar to a neural network with a few hundred channels and nodes scattered about in each of the four crystals. “Oh wow, it looks like a brain almost. But there’s a lot a’ small cracks. I wonder if it can even function anymore.” Twilight grinned at her daughter’s analogy. “You’ve always had a good eye for details,” she said with motherly pride, making Prism beam at the praise. “But the problem is that Equestrian crystals are made to house solidified arcane arrays. The idea of modeling a crystal’s function after a neural net is simply astonishing! It could take decades to figure out how it works, let alone what its purpose was.” “There is another option,” Dirt Dobber called out as he stepped closer. “Eavesdropping is rude ya know,” Prism snarked as she turned around to face him. Twilight let it slide for the moment, and fixed the earth stallion with an impassive face. “What do you propose?” “I’ve been talking it over with Glass Silk and we think that if this thing is hungry enough to have passively fed on your mana, Then it’s far too dangerous to take back to the colony since our atmosphere is saturated with mana. At least not without knowing what it does with that mana.” “My thoughts exactly,” Twilight commented with a nod. She briefly noticed Glass Silk was still over that the artifact, but no doubt had his suit listen in on them. “As it stands though, we don’t have the facilities to completely isolate an artifact of this size.” Dirt Dobber briefly glanced at the artifact before returning his gaze towards Twilight. “Right, but we can’t just leave it here. The find is too important. So why don’t I be the one to feed it magic and see what it does?” “That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard,” Prism challenged, gaining a scornful look from Dobber. “Why, can’t we leave it here?” she asked them both. “For all we know it could be a nuke.” Twilight hummed aloud. “It doesn’t appear to be a weapon, but then again, these are alien minds we’re dealing with. Decorating military hardware with pictograms might be standard procedure for them.” Dirt Dobber couldn’t help but scoff at the notion. “Inside a chapel covered with a narrative mural? An alien mind couldn’t possibly be as foreign as you give them credit, your highness.” Twilight’s only reply was a disapproving frown and a scowl from Prism, making him backpedal a bit. “W-what I mean is, I understand your caution, but it is surely unwarranted.” Dirt Dobber brought up a hologram of his own depicting not only the lower sections of the mural, but his annotations to it as well. “According to the lower levels of the mural’s narrative, I’m convinced we have it all backwards reading from up to down. Instead of aliens coming here for a simpler life, it must have been those aliens coming here to uplift a near-sentient species!” “While interesting, if true, it doesn’t change the danger, doctor,” Twilight warned with a short wave of her hoof. “Ignoring the direction the narrative is taking, the artifact is either A: a tool used to alter genetics, or hopefully B: it’s been rendered non-functional over time.” Prism looked over the ruins. I guess it would be pretty stupid to put a weapon like a nuke in a chapel. Ignorant of Prism’s musings, Dirt Dobber continued to press Twilight. “I strongly believe the device couldn't do such a thing, given that the artifact wouldn’t know how to de-evolve a pony.” Twilight gave him a sour look at his dubious logic. “Doctor, I’m starting to believe you’ve been drinking.” Prism cackled at the comment while Dirt Dobber tried to reign in his tone to be more respectful. “Please, Your Highness, you know of my work back on Equis, how my hunches were always right even when I didn’t have the evidence yet to back it up.” Glass Silk huffed at him. “Please, your best gift is luck and you know it.” “And we need all the luck we can get,” Twilight countered smoothly. “I must admit, Doctor, I had only read your dissertations on the digs you conducted. I suppose seeing you work in person is a little… different than I expected.” “All the best minds have eccentricities, am I right?” Dirt Dobber replied with a winning smile. Prism rolled her eyes and looked to her mother who couldn’t help but chuckle behind a raised wing. “Fair enough, doctor.” “Excellent. Now, the way I see it princess, we have limited options here. We can either destroy the artifact, a travesty to be sure. Our other options are that we could bury it back up, or activate it. “Seeing how I doubt we could ever decipher the aliens’ spellwork without seeing it in action, I strongly suggest we activate it. If for nothing else than the very real possibility that there are more artifacts out there.” Twilight fell silent as she brooded over the possibilities. He’s not wrong, but I still think he’s getting too eager. “...Alright, doctor,” Twilight said after an internal debate. “We’ll activate it at a safe distance, but we’re doing it my way.” Prism picked up on that tone and soured at the implication. “That wouldn’t happen to be explosive insurance would it?” Twilight gave her a look somewhere between sass and forlorn sadness. “If your father taught me one thing, it’s that there are few problems can’t be solved with the proper application of explosives. Even if it means the destruction of a find such as this.” Before long, Trench had surrounded the artifact with C-7 explosive clay and remote detonators. Twilight watched video feed from the hellcat drones while she and everyone were a mile to the south. Between the tall mushroom caps and the depth of the dug out pit where the artifact rested, getting the drones into a good position was no easy feat given their’ size. A much smaller drone, barely the size of an adult pony, hovered near the artifact with a crystal brimming with mana in its claw. Dirt Dobber watched on behind the group in miffed frustration. “I don’t see how we can leave such a historic event in the hooves of a robot.” “We can always replace a robot, doc,” Prism answered for her mother. Twilight pushed the drone in close. “Okay, everypony, here we go.” Pushing the pony made crystal forward, the small drone flew over to the artifact and waited for it to drain the magic. The group waited in pensive anticipation for something to happen, only to be disappointed. The artifact did nothing. Twilight tried waving the mana gem in front of the artifact, only to be ignored. “Okay. So that at least tell us it can’t actively drain mana from other crystals. Let’s try this.” Prepared as always, Twilight activated the drone’s mana scanner, and coating the artifact in mana in the process. As she hoped, the artifact started greedily absorbing the mana from the scan, but did little else. After several minutes of trying to prompt some kind of reaction, between intensifying the scan to lightly banging a claw on the surface of the artifact, Twilight was getting perturbed. “I swear, if this thing is just some big fancy battery, I’m going to be sorely disappointed.” Prism shrugged nonplused. “Hey, if these guys decorate their military kit with murals, who’s to say we didn’t stumble on some cult’s perverse obsession with a battery?” Twilight rolled her head to give Prism the most deadpan look she was capable of. “Wouldn’t that be quite the headline.” She spread her hooves out, imaging the news scrawl on the old Pony News Network channel. ‘Ponies travel lightyears only to find an alien cult’s battery’.” Polite chuckles rang out among the group with Glass Silk having a mild epiphany. “Princess. What if the artifact only reacts to the presence of a living person? After all, that’s what we saw in the murals.” “Perhaps,” Twilight said as she quickly replaced her mirth with critical thinking. “Dirt Dobber!” she called out, prompting the stallion to practically materialize in front of her with a trail of dust blowing behind him. “Looks like we might have to try your plan after all.” “I know I’m right, your highness, just wait and see!” ~“Well? We’re waiting,”~ Prism teased over the radio as Dirt Dobber stood before the artifact. The archaeologist was hesitant to approach such a high concentration of explosive putty with remote detonators sticking out here and there. ~“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. How do I know that Trench fellow isn’t some trigger happy explosive junky?”~ ~“Don’t worry, doctor,”~ Twilight replied quickly, if only to keep Trench’s expletives from picking up on the radio. ~“I slaved the detonators to the recall spell I placed on you. They can’t detonate until you’re back here safe and sound.”~ “No offense, but I don’t trust explosives. Especially on a dig site.”~ ~“You can still back out of this, doctor, but those are my terms.”~ Twilight’s tone turned conspiratorial. ~“Of course, we can just bury the artifact and come back later when we can build the proper facilities.”~ Shoring himself up, Dirt Dobber shook his head. ~“This was my idea, your highness,”~ he gave the explosives a worried look, ~“even if it was modified a little. Now that it has some mana, there’s no telling what it might do if we leave it be. So I’d just like to say, if I die, I die for science and Seed One.”~ ~“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,”~ Twilight replied genuinely. She mentally refreshed the summoning spell held in check by her headset, and dought the artifact draining the spell all the while. ~“You may proceed when ready.”~ Since genetics didn’t grace him with a horn, Dirt Dobber had to rear up and press his hooves against one of the crystals and thought about tending the old garden he had back on Equis. It was low at first, his magic seeped into the crystals at an almost lethargic rate. Yet it wasn’t long before the seep escalated into a yanking pull taking the wind out of him in the process. ~“Doctor! Your mana levels just plummeted then jumped back a little, are you alright?”~ The voice that came back sounded like an old man after running a marathon. He blinked slowly as an itch took root in the back of his brain. ~“Whoff, that didn’t feel good.”~ Twilight tensed on the figurative button to simultaneously summon Dirt Dobber to her and set off the charges. ~“I - ah - I think I’m okay. Just a little winded.”~ No sooner had he said that, that the crystals on the artifact lit up even brighter than before with the hundreds of channels within them giving off soft yet flickering blue light. ~“I think that did the trick, your highness, the artifact is doing something.”~ Twilight, along with everyone else, was practically glued to the camera and sensor feeds. ~“We see it, doctor. Just be ready for that recall if I see anything going south.”~ As mother and daughter watched closely, they noticed quite quickly that there was no massive build up of power or secret compartment activating. The empty cavity within the artifact was lined with mana, but otherwise remained unremarkable. All in all, it would have looked akin to watching a washing machine activate were the mana channels not completely alien. “Well if this is a mana weapon, it’s the weakest I’ve ever seen,” Prism mused aloud. Glass Silk let go of the breath he’d been holding. ~“Looks like I owe somepony a beer.”~ Dirt Dobber was heaving heavy breaths as his body tried to recover from the mana being ripped away from him. Holy Celestia! If Glass Silk had been in my place that thing would have killed him outright. ~“Not that swill at the VR club, Silk. A shot of your special stock.”~ Glass Silk chuckled. ~“Deal.”~ Twilight’s order to return to the site was stopped when the artifact projected an ethereal green hologram of one of the aliens on the wall. The being originally stood three meters tall before quickly being resized to be eye level with the startled earth stallion. The holographic creature’s two legs dangled in the air as if the program was aware it didn’t need to stand on solid ground. It’s arms and hands were clasped together, making it difficult to determine the shape of them. It wore a thread bear brown cloak with patches so common it looked like a changeling’s leg. The face was flat and smooth with ears that speared out of the side of its head like knives and a completely absent nose. There were small eyes in the proper places by pony standards, save for a third eye in the middle of a hairy forehead. The creature looked directly at an exuberant Dirt Dobber. Without speaking, it stretched two thin three fingered hands out with an empty bowl materializing in one hand, and a section of landscape in the other. Dirt Dobber shakily stood up and bowed carefully towards the figure. While it sounded like Dirt Dobber spoke, it was actually Twilight Sparkle's words that left his helmet. “Greetings, I represent the colonists of Equestria. My name is-” Twilight hesitated when the figure used its two free hands to cover its mouth. Prism cocked an eyebrow at it. “You think that’s the universal way of telling you to shut up?” “Possibly,” Twilight conceded with a brief frown at her daughter. “I guess we’ll let it ‘talk’ then.” The alien hologram expanded the landscape to reveal an area that had a moderately artificial looking lake. The lights in the artifact dimmed a little as the landscape took a more realistic look, complete with proper coloring. The itching in the back of Dirt Dobber’s mind made him twitch a bit, and risked stepping closer to get a better look. Meanwhile, Twilight had the drones zoom in on the faux-landscape. There, a little doppelganger of Dirt Dobber walked into view with the bowl carried on his back. He went over to the green lake and collected some. Once the full bowl was on his back, the landscape shifted dramatically to what could only be the ruins in their prime. The structure was resplendent in vibrant colors from the murals depicting more stories. “This is perfect. We need to act fast to record all of it!” “Already on it.” Trench was quick to order the drones to move into a more complete circle formation and zoom in on the stories that now covered the small two story chapel. Dirt Dobber’s doppleganger cantered over to the artifact with the bowl in tow. A slot opened on the front of the artifact to which he poured the contents into it. The hologram disappeared completely after that, with the crystals remaining so dim they were almost completely dark. Dirt Dobber clicked his tongue. ~“Huh… Can’t say I expected that.”~ ~“Excellent work, Doctor. Take a breather until we return.”~ ~“I - I think I might do that, Princess. Thank you.”~ The itching returned, making Dirt Dobber’s gaze drift over to the barrels of xenomass. With the artifact seemingly passive, Twilight tried to rub her chin in contemplation, only for her suited hoof to rub uselessly against her helmet. “Fascinating. Though I wonder why the hologram never tried to speak.” “Taboo maybe?” Glass Silk suggested. “Did anypony else get the suspicion that green stuff was xenomass?” Prism asked more to her mother than anyone else. Trench recalled the huge lakes of the stuff on the flight over to the ruins. “You mean the same stuff that nearly killed you?” “Did you really have to bring that up?” Prism grumbled under her breath while shooting daggers at the lieutenant. “That would fall in line with our theory.” Twilight deactivated her summoning spell and climbed into a low hover. “Seems the good doctor was both right and lucky. Let’s go collect our alien interpretive dancer and take it back to the colony.” “In an isolated cargo container I hope,” Prism strongly suggested as she too took to the air. “Nearly getting turned into a blob of tumors on my first mission was bad enough. I’d rather not have my, eh, our first archeological expedition have some other way of causing harm.” “There’s always the explosive option,” Trench offered before the the royal and implied royal mares could speed off. “How long is it going to take before some brillant researcher decides to give that thing xenomass and it activates, doing who knows what?” Twilight gently landed next to the worried unicorn officer and projected her best regal-motherly tone. “Which is why it will be under sterile, careful, and decidedly more controlled environment both in storage, and once we get a lab up and running.” She leaned in closer so only Trench and Prism could hear her. “And I’m not letting Dirt Dobber on any more of these high risk assignments.” Trench hesitantly nodded appreciatively while Prism mouthed ‘thank Celestia for that’. Satisfied, Twilight addressed the rest of them. “Alright everypony, I want the artifact isolated and our equipment packed up. We’re leaving before those wasps decide to come around for the third time.” The gathered ponies barked their acknowledgement of the orders. The pegasi took to the air to follow their princess while their ground bound brethren climbed into the cargo lifter. With Twilight in the lead, Prism flew at her side in the short one mile flight back to the ruins. “Prism dear, I have a new mission for you and the rest of the Pathfinders.” Knowing excitement coursed through Prism as she predicted where this was going. “Oh?” “My scans picked up several trace alloys in the artifact, mostly in the connectors in between the crystals. It’s something our satellite can pick up, so I’m going to need all of you to be on the watch for more of these artifacts. We need to grab as many as we can before the griffins and minotaurs show up.” “Sounds fine to me,” Prism grumbled at the mention of the minotaurs. “But hey, if this artifact used xenomass to alter the natives in any way, then maybe it can teach us how to use the stuff properly.” Twilight eyed her daughter with concern. “To what end?” “Duh, to allow all of us to breathe the native atmosphere of course.” Prism headed off the coming argument with a wave of her hoof. “I know, I know, you wanna take it slow. But even if we do nothing else but the breathing bit, it would really free us up a lot if we could.” “Am I really going to need to repeat myself?” Twilight countered with an evil eye. “You’re just going to have to wait until we can use the xenomass safely, artifact or not.” Prism let the discussion lie for now, and only nodded in agreement. Just play it slow, girl. A comment here, an observation there, and I’ll convince her to free us all from oxygen tanks before too long. The flight was not a long one. Mother and daughter soared above the dense canopy with the cargo lifter trailing further behind. The pair followed Dirt Dobber’s transponder back towards the camp. However, upon their arrival, both mares were stunned by what they saw. With a leaking xenomass barrel next to him, Dirt Dobber was using a pilfered soup bowl to pour xenomass into a receptacle that was open at the base of the artifact. Twilight was stunned by it long enough for him to discard the bowl and stand before the artifact expectantly. ~“Dirt Dobber, what are you doing!?”~ The stallion just about jumped out of his skin, and twisted his gaze between his furious princess, the leaking xenomass, and the artifact. “I - ah - I'm not sure… actually.” Prism jabbed her distracted mother and pointed at the artifact. “Mom, what's it doing?” Pulling her gaze from the petrified archeologist, the soft blue glow of the artifact's gems sharply turned bright forest green. Power built up so quickly Dirt Dobber could barely process the need to run away before four beams of green light shot up from each crystal in a pyramid formation and merging into a ball of energy. However age and neglect caused two of the crystals to crack and shatter. The sphere of energy growing on top of the artifact flickered and became erratic, spitting both mana and burning xenomass in all directions. “Dirt, get outta there!” Prism yelled. Twilight started flying backwards to put some distance between her and the artifact while also beginning to recast the summon spell to pull the archaeologist away before detonating the C-7. Dirt Dobber was forced to try and flee via the steep ramp leading to the top of the dig, yet the sputtering deformed ball of energy shot out at him before he could even get halfway up. A second and third stream shot up and curved over the lip of the dig to try and strike Twilight and Prism. Prism freaked at the oncoming stream of magic and instinctively ducked behind Twilight who raised a lavender energy shield. The beam struck pitifully against her barrier, and fizzled out upon contact. Any success Twilight might have felt was cut short by Dirt Dobber yelling in savage pain over the radio. “Damn it!” Twilight growled at the delay in casting her summon and finished the spell within seconds, pulling Dirt Dobber through the aether to land at her hooves. Fearing the artifact might strike at the oncoming cargolifter, Twilight kept her shield up. ~“Claw Two, do not approach the dig, I repeat, do not approach the dig!”~ ~“We saw what happened from the drones,”~ Trench replied back in that military calm Twilight needed right now. ~“Should we det-”~ Trench was cut off when the artifact’s remaining crystals sizzled and crackled before the whole stone section was burst into two halves as the cooking xenomass burned through the long neglected components. Without the carefully controlled interior of the artifact, the xenomass quickly blackened and burned into a lump of charcoal. ~“Actually, your highness, I’m pretty sure it just burned itself out.”~ Trench swept the camera feed over to Twilight who grit her teeth at the situation. Ultimately though, her attention shifted to Dirt Dobber who was groaning in half lucid agony. ~“I’ll deal with that later. Right now we need to get Dobber to medical pronto!”~ If I try to put him in stasis without knowing what that thing actually did to him, it might kill him. Twilight started to carefully scan Dirt Dobber with her magic, but she barely got into it when he coughed up blood, splattering it on the inside of his helmet. Prism recoiled a bit, with Dirt Dobber falling still right after. The nail on the coffin was the flat-lined vital signs warning popping up on Twilight’s display. ~“He’s gone into cardiac arrest!”~ Twilight called out. No other choice now. Casting caution to the wind, Twilight wrapped Dirt Dobber into a stasis field. ~“I need to get him to medical immediately!”~ ~“Aye, your highness. On approach now.”~ As if to mock her, the roiling magic of the artifact seemed to defy her stasis spell, teased to and fro within Dirt Dobber’s body, visible as clear as day to Twilight’s senses. Oddly enough, it was the very same function of the environment suit designed to keep the wearer's mana inside also kept the energy from bleeding away, not the spell. Prism was rubbing her foreleg in extreme discomfort at thought of him dying. The fact that she was the one who found the site ran over and over in her mind. “He’s going to make it right?” “I can’t say for sure.” Twilight debated whether or not she should even allow him near the colony with such magic remaining active despite her stasis. I don’t know if I can even teleport with him without it reacting to that. Despite the delay in noticing it, Twilight’s maternal instincts picked up on the guilt in Prism’s voice. “Before you go thinking this is your fault, Prism, You may have found this place, but it was Dirt Dobber’s and my decision to try activate it.” Prism was still a little stunned by the whole thing, and only shook out of it at feeling the downwash of the approaching cargolifter. “How is it not my fault!?” she roared over the rotor blades. “If I hadn’t-” “Then more ponies might have gotten hurt later, and we wouldn’t know of the presence of sapient natives!” Twilight interjected sharply, bringing Prism up short. “You and I are going to talk this over later once things settle down.” Prism went numb and fell on her rump in a daze. Twilight was forced to wait for the cargolifter to land before carrying Dirt Dobber and dragging her daughter onto the aircraft. From there, they abandoned the dig site for later, and flew off with all due haste. Many hours later, Twilight Sparkle sat quietly in her office catching up on all the details left in Praxia’s notes. The late evening sun cast the last light of the day through the small porthole windows. Praxia had long since been dismissed from her temporary post after Twilight asked for some privacy with Prism. Even with Praxia being absent, work was not so kind and jumped on Twilight the moment she sat down. The passing hours went by without protest from Prism who stood listlessly by the door while occasionally flopping onto the floor. Twilight had just gotten to the issue with the memorial petitions when Sawbones called her. Putting the memorials aside, Twilight put on a mask of practiced sympathy while keeping herself otherwise as neutral as possible. Sawbones’ hologram popped up a moment later, and Twilight was not surprised to see his apologetic expression. “Judging by your face, I’d say Dirt Dobber didn’t fare well.” Prism shot to attention at the mention of his name, yet neither her nor Praxia could hear Sawbones reply. “I’m afraid not, your highness. Given the description you gave of the event and by the patient’s state upon arrival, I’m under the impression that whatever damage time and neglect did to the artifact, it ruined whatever precision it might have had. Many of the patient’s organs were partially reworked with some tearing away from the original, while most of that rework looks disastrously misshapen. Aside from cloning him a new body, there was nothing I could do, save prolong his life a few hours.” “I feared as much,” Twilight replied somberly. “Did you find out anything else?” Sawbones sent his preliminary report, allowing to manifest beside his avatar. “The mana I extracted seemed to be dependent on the patient. It faded away as soon as I extracted it from him. The nurses were glad for that one. The only other thing of interest were several traces of Clover Radiant Mana in the patient’s brain.” Twilight arched a surprised eyebrow. “Clover radiation? So it did exert some level of mind control after all.” “I would say mental suggestion rather than outright control, Princess,” Sawbones tactfully countered. “CRM isn’t very effective in high level sapients such as ourselves.” “It was effective enough,” Twilight remarked, leaving Sawbones to shrug helplessly. She allowed a ghost of a smile cross her muzzle. “This could have been much worse. Thank you, doctor.” “There is one more thing, your highness,” Sawbones added worriedly. “I found evidence that the patient suffered scarring on his cerebrum brought on by what appears to be a weak allergy to the cryo drugs. This would have led to minor psychosis.” Twilight hung her her head in a hoof. “Freezerburn? I thought we screened everypony for that.” “To be fair, colonial princess, it was difficult to catch that back on Equis. I’m already writing up a medical order for all personnel to report for more in-depth medical examinations to see if anypony else might be suffering from the condition.” “You have my full support on that, doctor.” “Thank you. You’ll have the full report by week’s end.” Sawbones bowed deeply before vanishing. With Sawbones gone, Twilight saw Prism had run up to listen in on a one-sided conversation. Before Prism could sink into depression, Twilight took on a more even expression. “I know what you’re thinking, young lady. Today was bad, but I say we ultimately dodged a bullet.” “Y-you mind running that by me one more time?” Prism began to freak. “He’s dead because of me!” Twilight simply stared at her. Prism… You are nothing like Night Wind. Why do you keep thinking you’ll fall down the same path she did? “Prism, dear, whether on the battlefield or on the throne, I have lost many friends and subjects. It’s better to lose one life now, rather than who knows how many if artifacts like that were found by somepony who wouldn’t report it to command.” “Well how about losing no lives, huh?” Prism glared. She started hovering, if only to keep from stomping on the floor. “We could have done something to save him!” “We tried, and failed,” Twilight explained with a stern tone. “Getting so wrapped up in trying to be absolutely perfect and infallible is what created Night Wind in the first place.” Prism wilted, her ears falling flat at the mention of her elder sister. “Dirt Dobber’s sacrifice will help us better tackle the next artifact we run into.” Prism’s need to have some merit come out of Dobber’s death was only partially satisfied by that. She flew up to stand on her mother’s desk, caught somewhere between anger, and knowing Twilight was trying to get her angry. Both mares knowing full well Prism wasn’t as stubborn when she was angry. Well I’m putting my hoof down this time, damn it! “So, what? We just move on? Have a funeral and that’s it? Back to business?” “We were still at war, Prism.” Twilight fought to keep an edge of her own anger in check, knowing what her daughter was really talking about. “The world outside Equestria wasn’t going to let us have time to grieve for your father.” She leaned forward and put as much regal and motherly steel in her gaze and words as she could. “We have to be able to move forward, and learn to not shoulder blame which is not ours to bear.” Twilight stared Prism down until the pegasus wilted under the glare and backed off the desk. Twilight leaned back in her chair and took on a more pleasant tone. “Celestia knows I wouldn’t have made it past a hundred without learning to do so.” At that, Twilight waited for Prism to contemplate her words. She went so far as to busy herself with reading the memorial proposals to let Prism have a few moments. Prism eventually collected her thoughts and eyed her mother carefully. “I don’t have your hundreds of years to learn how to feng shui my way to a quick inner peace after being -” Prism caught Twilight’s rising rebuke, “ - at least partially responsible for a good pony’s death.” Twilight’s challenge died down, prompting Prism to continue. “But I - I mean - I just need to vent, okay?! Can I at least get that much without a lecture?!” Prism stormed off in a huff and made for the door. She was about to kick it open when Twilight spoke in a calm that grated on Prism’s tense nerves. “Alright. If you don’t think a lecture will help then, how about meditation?” Prism was brought up short, her hoof drifted away from the door button as she gave her mother a questioning gaze mixed with suspicion. “That’s a first. You’ve never invited me to join one of your morning meditations. Even after dad died.” Twilight closed the petition to focus solely on her daughter. “Because you weren’t ready to learn.” Prism huffed and made to leave again. “I don’t see how-” “One million, four hundred seventy two thousand, eight hundred and ninety nine,” Twilight said with iron that surprised Prism a little. “That’s how many ponies that have died either directly or indirectly from carrying out my orders or were under my command. Wars included,” she added as an afterthought. “And today brings that up to nine hundred. “Do you honestly think I could continue sleeping well at night after almost five hundred years of that on my chest?” “I - ah - What exactly do you want me to say to that?” Prism flailed her forelegs out in exasperation. Twilight got up and started walking over to her daughter. “Well, I was hoping you would say ‘teach me’.” Prism hesitated, partially wondering if this was some weird test. “You offer this now of all times?” “Now is the perfect time.” Twilight gave a thin motherly smile and bent down to be eye level with Prism and gave her a tight hug. “I’m proud of you for having such empathy. But such feelings can lead you down a path of bitterness if you suffer multiple losses.” Prism’s anger started to slip back into guilt, and she squeezed Twilight close. “Let me show you how to avoid such a fate.” Prism took solace in her mother’s warmth, sniffling as her emotions threatened to boil over. “Why can’t you teach this to everypony?” Prism asked she pulled her head back. Twilight replied with a thin smile while stroking her daughter’s mane with a wing elbow. “It is an admittedly impossible technique for the vast majority of ponies to perform, no matter how much they try. Celestia tried to share it for hundreds of years with no success.” “So what makes you think I can do it?” Twilight’s eyes flicked towards Prism’s alicorn wings, which were by now a permanent fixture upon the young mare’s back. “Let’s just say I believe you have a genetic predisposition.”