//------------------------------// // Episode- 2 -Blink // Story: One-Eyed Reaper // by Skettch //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle was still attempting to study the now rather frazzled creature in her lab. It had nodded in agreement, and albeit a few attempts to escape, was well mannered. It had only done so when the needles had started approaching, and its not like she was going to do anything with the saw she couldn't fix later. It hadn't let her use either one though, and she was rather disappointed when the Princesses arrived. She was staring at the saw in a sad silence and when Luna arrived, she instinctively grimaced, knowing exactly what the young unicorn had attempted simply from stories. Luna quietly made a note to have someone inspect Twilight's lab as a safety precaution. "Twilight?" the lunar princess called out from the doorway. She was quickly greeted by a rather loud explosion and a miffed lavender pony. "Hello, Princess Luna," Twilight said, looking back to the no longer strapped down creature. It looked a bit angry, but nothing portrayed the idea of it attacking them. Twilight glared at for a moment and the creature huffed and walked past both of them. It disappeared into the kitchen, looking a slight confused at the presence of a kitchen in a library, and they heard the sound of it digging about. Twilight mused it was probably for food of some sort and began talking eagerly, "I'm so glad you came!" The science-crazy unicorn practically dragged Luna down the stairs into her lab. After a few minutes, during which Luna looked around and personally classified Twilight as a mad scientist, she yelped in glee. Twilight now held a rather large stack of papers in her hand, which she quickly hoofed to Luna. The lunar princess blinked at the evident organization. Alphabetical and even then by rate of importance for the specific note. "Twilight," she muttered, "how badly have you treated this creature?" she could hear various grunting and groaning noises coming from the floor above, evident the creature was doing something. As unnerving as it was, she kept her attention on Twilight. The lavender pony seemed to have been pondering her question. "Not badly at all, it always stopped me when it felt... uncomfortable," the unicorn frowned, and looked rather frustrated, "I couldn't complete my analysis," she blinked forlornly at the half finished diagram, a few tools laying around that made Luna wince at the concept. She flashed her horn, making the tools disappear and giving a relieved sigh. Twilight was now practically dragging Luna, who had been distracted by her task. "It doesn't show any abilities in magic, in fact, it doesn't have any magic itself!" she motioned to the creature that was eating a sandwich with one hand and making notes on a floating map. It seemed to be noting specific places nearby. "No magic? But, how is it..." Luna muttered quietly, looking at the notes in her magic's grasp. They said nothing about how the creature managed its current actions, and the lavender unicorn was positively giddy. "This would redefine life!" Twilight squealed, "It'd put me in the books with Starswirl!" Luna frowned, looking at the tests. Despite what Twilight was going on about, she recognized the way some of the magic was interacting with the creature. She and Celestia had found old texts from before Discord's reign, impossibly far back. However, the deaths of these creatures was recorded by themselves, and they had gone extinct millennia ago. The ruins still existed, but nothing truly substantial beyond that. She nodded at Twilight, "Indeed, you should bring it to Canterlot so these studies can continue," Luna hinted. She also had other ideas, there was a certain set of ruins beneath the city, deep in the caves, where what seemed to be a large library and possibly even city was. It was very deep underground, and pictures hinted at why, but they couldn't discover what had both caused these creatures to go into a frenzy and die off, or why the ruins were located in such places. The creature in front of her peered at her with one eye and then started towards the door. Twilight almost made to stop it, but the lunar princess shook her head. It walked out the door, before leaping upwards and continuing what Twilight had seen before, teleportation. Luna was in awe, and she took off following it through the air as Twilight followed on the ground. The creature seemed to be headed towards a small wagon-house, rolling towards town. With a loud thud, it landed on the ground, and a pony wearing a large hat adorned in stars leaned her head out, glaring towards the noise. "Who dares disturb the Great and Powerful Trixie?" The light blue mare demanded. The creature stared at her, looking as if it were analyzing her. She grinned, "A new act for Trixie's show! Trixie could easily use you in the show!" The wagon stopped and she climbed out, "Trixie hasn't seen anything like you before, you'll be new!" Luna watched the mare walk up and poke the creature, a 'Human' if those archaeologists were right, and its eye flashed yellow, and the creature dropped to the ground as the mare looked around before dropping as well. The creature got up and started walking away as the mare pulled herself off the ground, "What did you do to me?" she demanded, suddenly clasping her hoof over her mouth, "What... why am I talking like this?" she looked evidently confused, "Why am I wearing this stuff? Am I some sort of showpony?" The creature left the very confused mare and started back towards town. Luna frowned, what it had done was something odd, possessing the body of another creature, however temporarily, was typically deemed impossible. Free will would out, as Starswirl had noted. After leaving the creature with Twilight, she teleported back to Canterlot, in particular, the throne room. The current noble glared at her as she pushed him out with her hoof as hard as she could before shutting the doors. "Sister, we may be seeing some... odd, events. Important ones, " she said, trying to process how to state it, "Nothing malevolent, but rather, possibly it could be beneficial." The solar diarch looked at her sister with hints of amusement, "Why is that?" "A human has returned."