Turning Points

by Slatewings

Act Three: Chapter Five - Test Fire

Act Three Chapter Five - Test Fire

“Alright, Peridot,” Lumine said with a grunt as he set the last crate of lab equipment on the cart. “I think that’s everything, all we have to do now is set it back up onsite tomorrow and we’re good to go.”

“Sounds good!” Peridot chirped as she checked the last item off her checklist. “Want me to finish up here?”

“Yeah if you don’t mind. There’s been a lot of heavy lifting today,” he touched his horn gingerly and winced.

“Headache?” Peridot asked.

“Yeah a little,” he admitted. “I can spend all day weaving enchantments or crafting spells but this strenuous work... not for me.”

“Oh quit your whining,” Peridot joked. She lit her horn and passed it by Lumine’s head. Immediately his eyes brightened.

“Wow,” he said, blinking. “Thanks, I forget that your expertise is in medical spells.”

Peridot waved a hoof, “Don’t mention it. I’ll send you a bill.”

Lumine smiled and stretched dramatically, “I had better get some rest. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Peridot nodded and extended a hoof to offer a farewell hug. “Just don’t try and kiss me again, ‘kay?” she said when he accepted.

“Honestly? You're still on about that? It’s been a week, already,” he said. “I said I was sorry. You know I’d never consider you in that manner. N.. not that I’m trying to suggest anything negative. I mean, you’re a wonderful pony, very smart, fun, caring… And not to say that you’re unattractive either. Though again, I’d like to remind you that I do not think of you in that way so I’ve never really given the matter any thought, though I suppose…” his rambling was interrupted by Peridot’s hoof tapping. “Okay, I may have allowed myself to become a touch over excited.”

“A touch?”

“Or two…”

Peridot squinted at him, “I think you owe me dinner again.”

“Aw… but you’re expensive…” he whined.

“Oh, get out of here before you say anything else weird.”

Lumine took his opportunity and made a hasty retreat back to his rooms. Peridot stood in the lab shaking her head.

“Something wrong with that stallion,” she said with a chuckle. Despite their constant back and forth, usually caused by Lumine saying something awkward then making it worse by frantically trying to fix it, they had grown quite close. In the past few months, he and the princess had become the dearest friends Peridot had ever had.

She set about straightening up the lab. Most of the experiments had already been cancelled and cleared away to make way for their big project so there wasn’t much to do. Their day had been spent going over calculations and checking every inch of the conduit wire that would conduct the Heart’s energy to the test sight.

That, and loading dozens of heavy rolls of the stuff onto carts for transportation. The focus, the large red crystal that would emit the conducted energy, had already been installed at the test site.

Peridot had just finished filing away the last of their notes when a sharp sound snagged her attention. She spun in place, nearly knocking over the scroll rack in the process. Peridot stared into the dimming candlelight as the echoes of her commotion faded.

“Hello?” she called out. “Lumine, is that you?”

Peridot lit her horn; it wasn’t overly dark in the lab but the added light banished the shadows in the corners. She slowly placed one hoof in front of the other, careful to avoid their clicking against the polished surface of the palace floor, as she made her way toward the intruding noise.

Steeling herself, Peridot spun round the corner to the small kitchen in the back of the lab, only to find herself facing not some villainous intruder, but a squeaking window shutter swaying gently in the night breeze.

“Oh wow Peridot,” she laughed. “What are you, three?”

She closed the window and latched the hook with her magic.

“You know… You really shouldn’t talk to yourself,” a female voice said.

“Ahh!” Peridot cried out, fully succeeding in knocking a few things over this time.

“Shh! Shh!” the dark cloaked figure held a hoof over her mouth. “Stop that or you’re going to call the guards!”

Peridot had no intention of stopping and continued sounding off wholeheartedly.

“Peridot, cut it out!!” the intruder snapped. Peridot drew back in surprise at the sound of her name but she did stop screaming.

“Look,” the intruder said, “It’s me.”

The figure stepped back a few places and drew back her hood. The pony was a grey maned earth pony mare with a matching coat. Most surprisingly, the intruder was no crystal pony.

“Wh..who are…” Peridot stammered.

The mare smiled brightly beneath familiar purple eyes.

“Who…” Peridot started, “P.. Princess? Benny?!”

The mare smiled even brighter and fluttered her wings beneath her cloak, “Hi.”

“Hi? Hi?! You almost scared me to death! And why are you grey?”

The princess laughed, “Charcoal dust, does the trick, doesn’t it.”

“Ya, but why?” Peridot asked. “You’re a princess, why are you sneaking around like a spy in your own palace?”

“Well...Actually,” the disguised princess scuffed a hoof, “Dutiful is all tied up with the preparations from tomorrow’s field test, so I was hoping we might go out tonight.”

“Go out?” Peridot was surprised, although Benevolentia had become a fast friend, she couldn’t recall them ever ‘going out’, her status as the uncontested ruler of the Crystal Empire more or less precluded a casual outing.

“Ohh…” she said, as the reason for the false coloration dawned on her.

The Princess laughed, “Ya, oh. I figured everypony would just think I was a friend of yours visiting from Equestria. It’s half true anyway, seeing how I am your friend. Hopefully.” She added with a wink.

“Of course you’re my friend!” said Peridot as she playfully gave the princess a shove in the shoulder. She looked down at her hoof.

“Ya…” Benevolentia said, seeing the grey charcoal blotch sullying Peridot’s hoof, “that’s kind of an issue though.”

“Hm…” Peridot said, as she wiped the dust on her lab smock. “Oh! I have a just the thing to keep that from happening” She grabbed the princess’s hoof and rushed her out of the lab back to her rooms.

“So…” panted the princess as she struggled to keep up, “does this mean you want to come?”

“Hm.. let me think,” Peridot tapped her chin as she closed the door to her room behind her. “Should I go and have a fillies’ night out out with my best mare on her first night on the town in who knows how long or should I stay here and get ready for tomorrow and what might be the momentous achievement of my life?”

The princess stared expectantly.

“Of COURSE I’m going with you!” she wrapped the princess in a hug. “This is going to be so much fun! Oh oh, should we invite Lumine?”

The princess giggled, “You kidding? He’s so scared of my husband he’d probably run straight out to the test site and tell him what we’re up to.”

Peridot returned the giggle, “Yeah, probably. We’ll take him next time… maybe when the prince is out of town.” The princess nodded in agreement.

“Well!” Peridot exclaimed, clapping her hooves. “Let’s see if I have something to keep that charcoal dust from smudging off.”

“Um…” the princess said, pointing to Peridot. “Speaking of charcoal.”

Peridot looked at her coat, thoroughly smudged from her hugging the princess, the both of them descended into a full fledged giggle fit.

A few minutes later two grey on grey mares slipped out of the palace together and headed into the city where the local nightlife was just getting started.

---

“PERIDOT!!!”
knock...knock...knock…

“PERIDOT!!! Are you in there!?”

knock...knock...knock…

“IF YOU DON’T OPEN UP I PROMISE I’M GOING TO BUCK THIS DOOR DOWN!”

knock...knock...knock…

“THAT’S IT, HERE I COME.”

There was a loud but rather squishy sounding thud against the door.

“Okay… ow… new strategy.”

Peridot was dimly aware of the tinkling sound of a unicorn’s magic before somepony started shaking her awake.

“Peridot wake up! Wake up!”

“Huh..wha?” she answered. “Lumine? Is that you?”

He scoffed, “Of course its me! But who are you supposed to be and why do you have frosting in your hair?”

Peridot crawled from her bed to her mirror. Most of the coal dust still clung to her mane and coat, turning her from her normal aqua blue to solid grey, and there did seem to be a fair amount of bright pink frosting in her hair. She shook her head, trying to clear the cobwebs from her sleep deprived brain, but no answer came to her.

Last night had gotten a bit out of hand, Peridot struggled to remember but after the impromptu blockwide cotton candy fight the princess instigated and them both running from a very unhappy guard with a baby bonnet glued to his head things start to get fuzzy.

“It’s… complicated,” she said, finally answering Lumine’s question. “What time is it?”

Lumine rolled his eyes and threw back the curtains. “That’s what time it is!” he yelled as the bright sunlight streamed in.

“Oh my gosh!!!” Peridot yelled, jumping straight up. “The test...”

“Delayed for equipment calibration,” Lumine interrupted. “Look, I don’t know what happened and I’m not sure I want to. Just get ready, and get to the test site as soon as possible,” he said before storming out and closing the door none too gently.

Peridot drew a bath and immediately set to scrubbing the coloring off her coat without waiting for the water to finish filling. Unfortunately the ‘crystal coat’ body shine that Peridot and the princess had used had to glue the coal dust to their coate definitely lived up to its advertised promise not to rub off, although it did have the added benefit of creating another layer to the Princess’s disguise. Back in Equestria, Crystal Empire fashion was a quickly rising trend and the so not a single pony had guessed that the two of them had been anything other than a couple of equestrian tourists trying to match the local look.

After a few minutes Peridot got out and declared victory. She quickly toweled off and opted for a full lab coat like the one Lumine usually wore, rather than her normal smock, to hide the remaining grey blotches. A quick pass of a brush through her mane and she ran out her door to hop a carriage to the where todays test would be conducted.

She found Lumine trying to reassure a small crowd of ponies from a podium beside the test focus..

“...and it greatly pleases, not only me but Princess Benevolentia as well, that you support this project enough to come all the way out here to watch this test first hoof. If you’ll only just…” He paused as he saw Peridot had arrived. “Ahh, it appears my assistant has finished her adjustments! Were you able to solve that problems with that thing in that place, Peridot?” he said with an awkward lilt to his voice.

“What?” Peridot answered, confused. “Oh yeah, the thing in the place! Yep all taken care of!”

“Well then! Let the test begin!” Lumine said with a flourish. “If you would all be so kind as to return to your seats, my assistant, Peridot, will now explain how the test will work.”

“Its about time. what happened,” Lumine whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

“Sorry,I was out with Benny last night,” Peridot answered in kind. “Things got a little out of hand.”

“Well…” he responded with a chuckle, “that explains what’s wrong with her.” he nodded to where an exhausted looking Princess Benevolentia sat beside her husband. “Wait…. out? Like out out?”

Peridot nodded.

“And why was I not invited?”

“Sorry Lumine, fillies’ night out,” she answered. “Next time, I promise.

He looked like he wanted to say something else but a cough from the crowd brought his attention back to the here and now.

Peridot approached the podium, “Thank you for coming and we appreciate your patience.

“Our test here today is quite simple. Right now, a few dozen volunteers stand ready back at the palace. When we give the signal they will all do their best to power the Crystal Heart. Though not nearly as great an effect as the whole city gathering of the Crystal Fair the surge of Harmony these ponies generate will infuse the heart and cause it to radiate.

“When it does, a special collector will bask in that energy and conduct it through a conduit of special material all the way from the center of the city to here, where it will infuse this large gemstone and cause it to radiate the energy of the heart.” She paused, allowing the murmurs of speculation to die down. “Now, from what I’ve learned during my short stay here in the empire, I know that you crystal ponies are specially attuned to the heart and are so accustomed to living under its glow that you probably feel uncomfortable right now outside of it.

“Well, let’s see if there is something we can do about then.”

Lumine stepped beside her, “Guard, if you’d please.”

The guard pony stepped forward and produced a small firework which he set in the ground before lighting the fuse, sending it whistling toward the sky. Miles away, Peridot knew, the volunteers would see the sparkling light shoot skyward and begin charging the Heart.

For a moment, nothing happened, and she began to wonder if perhaps the volunteers had given up on waiting for her and had gone home. Then, in the distance she saw a line of light rushing toward them as the power of the heart was channelled through the conduit material.

Lumine grabbed her foreleg in excitement. “Look, look, look!” he said as he practically bounced up and down for joy.

The light rushed passed them and into the base of the red crystal that was the focus. The gem glowed with bright blue lines of arcane power before being consumed by the Heart’s power and flashing bright. A wave of light, not unlike that during the Crystal Fair, emanated from the focus, transforming the surrounding grass and bushes into the familiar angular forms of the Empire. Gasps of shock and amazement rippled through the gathered ponies.

“He!” Peridot laughed. “We did it!”

“Hay, yeah we did it,” Lumine said, throwing a hoof over Peridot’s shoulders. “Was there ever any doubt?”

“Not from me!” Peridot chirped happily.

“Nor I,” rang a deep baritone voice.

Peridot and Lumine turned to see that Prince Dutiful and Princess Benevolentia had joined them.

The prince approached the podium and thanked everypony again for coming out this far and that he and the princess hoped to see them soon for the next test.

“Speaking of the next test, when can we expect your preparations to be complete?” the prince asked Lumine.

“Actually, my lord,” Lumine said, “The next test of this scale we require won’t be until the whole network has been constructed.”

“What ‘network’ do you mean?” The prince asked.

“Well, you see. The collector we build for the test is fine for the purpose of the test but it is nowhere powerful enough to push Heart energy all the way out to the proposed settlements.”

The prince sighed, considering the costs, “What do you need, Lumine?”

“At least twelve more foci, arranged in a geometric pattern through the city to maximize their potential, to focus the collection spell. Much, much more conduit material, on the order of twenty or thirty times to run between each of the foci and to the collector itself,” Lumine considered, “Oh, and the collector itself will likely take up most of the ground space beneath the palace spire and will require many fold the materials required to construct the one we used today.”

The prince grumbled, “I sincerely hope you succeed, Lumine. When can you begin work?”

“Why as soon as I have the materials,” he answered.

“Then I suggest you get started now,” the Prince said. “I’ve given you carte blanche on the project and the nobility is beginning to feel the pinch. Much of what you have requested is expensive and rare and only comes at great price.”

“Exactly why we need this project, my lord,” said Lumine. “The more settlements we have mining and exploring, the more materials we will have access too.”

The prince nodded, “That is assuming you are able to succeed. Not that I doubt your abilities, of course.” He bowed politely and was gone.

“Hey good job today, you two!” said the princess, stepping forward to give Peridot and Lumine each a hug. “This is a big day for the us and Empire. If you two can pull this off it will change everything.”

“Thank you, Benevolentia,” Lumine said happily. “Oh hey, what is this I hear about you and Peridot going out last night and forgetting to invite me?”

The princess looked around nervously, “That… depends on what you heard. If it’s anything incriminating I swear I’ll deny it.”

Lumine pouted a bit.

“Oh fine, I’m sorry.” The princess playfully pat his head, “Next time you can be our mascot.”

“Wait, what?”

Peridot and Benevolentia laughed.

The princess grew excited, “Actually, do you think you too will be available tomorrow? There’s a sort of semiformal function at the petting zoo and I’d love to have some company.”

Peridot nodded immediately, “Yeah sure. I’d love too.”

Lumine produces a schedule planner from somewhere and was checking it over, “Tomorrow...yeeah, looks good.”

“Great!” Benevolentia clapped her hooves. “You have no idea how boring these things can get without some company.”

“Oh wait, it’s going to be boring you say,” Lumine said, pulling back out his planner. “On second thought tomorrow is pretty packed I doubt if I’ll be able to make it.”

“Oh you’re coming,” Peridot threw a foreleg over his neck and pretended to be dragging him. The three friends laughed.

“Well guys, duty calls; I need to get back to the palace. I’ll see you tomorrow then,” said Benevolentia. “That’s a good look for you, Peridot,” she added

Peridot looked at herself and saw that, just as at the Fair, her coat and mane had been transformed and she now looked, every inch, a crystal pony. She squealed with delight as she examined herself.

“We should go do something tonight before it wears off!” she suggested.

Benevolentia laughed, “I dunno, I’m still trying to recover from last night.”

The princess bade her friends farewell and left to rejoin her husband, leaving Lumine and Peridot alone.

“So... Peridot,” Lumine said, turning to his friend. “What exactly happened last night?”

A few heads turned in surprise as Peridot burst out in laughter.

Comments

[Slatewings]

3726938 Oh thanks, I hate typos. What chapter was it in?